Finding "diamonds in the rough" is also a procrastination tool of mine! I have read before on one of the helping minnows blogs that it is important to post 1 quality blog per day and write 20 comments on other's blogs per day as well!

20 comments is extremely difficult when you factor in finding 20 unique authors, reading each post, writing a thoughtful and quality comment, and what if you reach the end of the blog posting and start to read the comments and discover that someone has already wrote exactly what you had planned to comment!...

Anyhow I went back and read the story of how you were laid off (I was too more than 10 years ago and it still burns me to think of it). You have discovered your silver lining, my friend! Think of all of the positives in life and what the future holds doing something you LOVE.