Hello again everyone,
It's been almost forever since I've posted, though there's definitely something stuck in my craw tonight. While I've been following net neutrality at a distance lately, there's something far more insidious... and that's the Motion Picture Association of America, the Recording Industry Association of America, and Microsoft banding together to make laws for the United States.
You see, there's a problem they're having. They can't get anyone to buy their overpriced crap. Unfortunately, the Internet is a good place to share the fact that what they've got is crap, and while there are people who do share their crap online (gasp, even in the U.S.!) they still wouldn't be caught dead wanting to buy it.
Instead of facing facts and realizing that these people wouldn't buy their crap at any price other than free, they THINK that these people are just a market to be tapped and that once piracy is "stamped out", they will have increased sales.
The only problem? They're now using the U.S. Government to try to enforce ALL piracy (including overseas piracy) AND they're telling all of the Internet companies that M$, RIAA, and MPAA are not paying for this new and fascinating service. They're throwing it all on the communications companies (and to some extent, credit card providers by blocking sales) to police this. And the best part is that the U.S. Government is rolling so far backwards for this as to make any CLAIM enforceable rather than forcing these idiots to actually come before a court to defend themselves.
I call this bad news because ultimately what we do on this website is operate in the grey area of copyright, ostensibly to fight against crap. Of course, there are arguments that what my cowriter and I do is to make fun of stories written by people who are practicing, or who may have a good topic but not-so-great execution, and I agree. However, in order to make the jokes we do, we draw similarities to many aspects of life, including movies published by companies represented by the MPAA, or music published by companies represented by the RIAA, or... well, Microsoft. We do this to also poke fun at deserving representatives of bad music or movies (among other things). We are not making a thin dime off of any of this, but I really do not know what might happen if the webmaster currently running nabiki.com would ever receive one of these claim letters. Point being, I do fear for the future of both the online marketplace of ideas as well as the ability of this site (or many others) to continue, especially if copyrights become SO IMPORTANT that they can triumph over both free speech and the rights to a trial of your peers.
To be truthful, I do fear somewhat for the larger world of fanfiction too. I have no clue if sites like FFnet or Mediaminer would also be shut down, because there are a lot of copyrighted characters all over the place there, and those websites are run partially by advertisements (if I remember correctly). This is a serious issue, and there is a lot of money being poured in by our esteemed "corporate citizens" in order to ensure passage. (It's really amazing that our corporate citizens seem to have far more rights than, say, real citizens.)
Feel free to write your congressman and senator, the Protect IP Act is Senate Bill S968 and the Stop Online Piracy Act is HR3261. It's pretty sad in that this bill was voted down in 2010 as the "Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeiting Act", but BIG money talks and buys our lawmakers.
Whether or not they get it through this time, they'll keep trying. The very second they do, I will be happy to participate in ANY boycott that is organized, be it movie sharing/swapping with friends or the library, and my already barely existent buying of both music and Microsoft products will come to a very quick end.
Fight the power!
---Zoogz
Showing posts with label BigConglomCoInc.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BigConglomCoInc.. Show all posts
06 August 2010
Yes!!
I received an offer letter today. I'm not sure that I could have received a better offer letter even if I stayed in the market another six months. As it is, I am very impressed with the company and the culture, especially compared to BigConglomCoInc's dysfunction.
Of course, this will bring about its own set of new problems, challenges, and pitfalls. This position's most major upside is that I will not have the crushing money issues that I've dealt with... pretty much my entire post-graduated adult life. This is the place that I can stay for a few years and finally rid myself of the debt of being unemployed for all of six months way back in 2003.
I'm not sure if I'd covered this topic before, but due to this time of being unemployed my family lived on credit cards rather than an income. One of the many credit cards we've had through that time has a high balance on it, though it's only between 5k - 10k. Now that federal law tells credit card companies to publish the amount of time it takes to pay off a credit card, we have been informed by this ONE company (we deal with about three or four total, multiple cards) that if we pay the minimum, we will have repaid our debt five times over with the interest charges and it will take us until age 60 to do so. This is *multiple* decades, for those of you who think I'm already archaic. And this is the story with more than a couple other credit cards that we've had to deploy in order to make up the difference between poverty and semi-poverty.
Well, I can do without that kind of crap, and I will finally have the path with which I can take in order to do without that kind of crap. There are challenges, but the ability to move from my area of the country with highly depressed wages, getting away from BigConglomCoInc's idiocy and backwards business methods, AND getting more money... is a win-win-win in my book.
So... you'll still probably get status updates from me about the transition, but you don't have to endure too many more whiny posts from me. To bring this post back to some semblance of being on-topic, I am five episodes away from completing My HiME and I have been pretty happy with the plot and developments leading to the final battle. I must admit that the show has taken a turn or three that I did not see coming, and I love when shows do that. I'd far rather be kept on my feet than fed clichés, even if the plot twists could have been handled better. Queued up following this is Mai Otome. Hopefully, I will remain as excited to go through to the sequel as I am to finish the first series.
Of course, this will bring about its own set of new problems, challenges, and pitfalls. This position's most major upside is that I will not have the crushing money issues that I've dealt with... pretty much my entire post-graduated adult life. This is the place that I can stay for a few years and finally rid myself of the debt of being unemployed for all of six months way back in 2003.
I'm not sure if I'd covered this topic before, but due to this time of being unemployed my family lived on credit cards rather than an income. One of the many credit cards we've had through that time has a high balance on it, though it's only between 5k - 10k. Now that federal law tells credit card companies to publish the amount of time it takes to pay off a credit card, we have been informed by this ONE company (we deal with about three or four total, multiple cards) that if we pay the minimum, we will have repaid our debt five times over with the interest charges and it will take us until age 60 to do so. This is *multiple* decades, for those of you who think I'm already archaic. And this is the story with more than a couple other credit cards that we've had to deploy in order to make up the difference between poverty and semi-poverty.
Well, I can do without that kind of crap, and I will finally have the path with which I can take in order to do without that kind of crap. There are challenges, but the ability to move from my area of the country with highly depressed wages, getting away from BigConglomCoInc's idiocy and backwards business methods, AND getting more money... is a win-win-win in my book.
So... you'll still probably get status updates from me about the transition, but you don't have to endure too many more whiny posts from me. To bring this post back to some semblance of being on-topic, I am five episodes away from completing My HiME and I have been pretty happy with the plot and developments leading to the final battle. I must admit that the show has taken a turn or three that I did not see coming, and I love when shows do that. I'd far rather be kept on my feet than fed clichés, even if the plot twists could have been handled better. Queued up following this is Mai Otome. Hopefully, I will remain as excited to go through to the sequel as I am to finish the first series.
29 July 2010
So, it's almost Friday and I'm still at home.
I'm not sure anyone's ever been happy about a cancelled flight before, but I think that my cancelled flight and my missed interview on Friday could have been one of the best things that could have happened. I will explain.
Originally, I had a schedule of flying to Wisconsin on Thursday, attending an interview on Friday, flying back Friday, staying at home Saturday, flying to Wisconsin on Sunday, interviewing on Monday, and flying back on Monday. Whew, that's a ton. But, tonight's flight was cancelled. Not delayed, cancelled.
At first, I was bummed out. Missed interviews are never a good thing. On the other hand, I started to really analyze the situation. Firstly, it is absolutely not my fault that I can't get to Wisconsin, it's absolutely Delta's fault and I certainly hope that the possible employer won't hold it against me. Next, I will be in Wisconsin for the other interview on Monday, and only an hour away or so. So, I can make an offer to the first interview and tell them that I'll make my own way to Wisconsin as long as they can arrange a single flight back. That shows the employer that I'm not only flexible, but able to help them out when things go bad.
Better yet, I get Friday as an off-day to have fun with my family. This was not in the cards before, but now it is. There was a bit of a question about whether or not I'd even be going on Monday, but everything was set up almost at the last minute today.
The only fly in the ointment is that the first employer needs to be able to make time for me Monday afternoon. There could still be ways that this plan may not work, but it seems that there is a lot of upside possibilities with what happened tonight.
So, to sum up... I may be getting a free day tomorrow, maybe impressing a possible employer with my ability to work with them and make plans on the fly, and still attending the other interview too. If only all cancelled flights could lead to so many positives. More news in a couple days.
Originally, I had a schedule of flying to Wisconsin on Thursday, attending an interview on Friday, flying back Friday, staying at home Saturday, flying to Wisconsin on Sunday, interviewing on Monday, and flying back on Monday. Whew, that's a ton. But, tonight's flight was cancelled. Not delayed, cancelled.
At first, I was bummed out. Missed interviews are never a good thing. On the other hand, I started to really analyze the situation. Firstly, it is absolutely not my fault that I can't get to Wisconsin, it's absolutely Delta's fault and I certainly hope that the possible employer won't hold it against me. Next, I will be in Wisconsin for the other interview on Monday, and only an hour away or so. So, I can make an offer to the first interview and tell them that I'll make my own way to Wisconsin as long as they can arrange a single flight back. That shows the employer that I'm not only flexible, but able to help them out when things go bad.
Better yet, I get Friday as an off-day to have fun with my family. This was not in the cards before, but now it is. There was a bit of a question about whether or not I'd even be going on Monday, but everything was set up almost at the last minute today.
The only fly in the ointment is that the first employer needs to be able to make time for me Monday afternoon. There could still be ways that this plan may not work, but it seems that there is a lot of upside possibilities with what happened tonight.
So, to sum up... I may be getting a free day tomorrow, maybe impressing a possible employer with my ability to work with them and make plans on the fly, and still attending the other interview too. If only all cancelled flights could lead to so many positives. More news in a couple days.
28 July 2010
The waiting game
I almost wrote this blog post two days ago. It will likely be word-for-word as what I had planned back then, too. It's due to the fact that there's absolutely no updates throughout the beginning of this week. All *four* of the companies I am waiting on have pretty much kept me cooling my heels. One of them was justified, which is the interview I will be conducting at the end of this week. However, I feel as if I should have received information back on the other three. I'll repost the scoreboard to keep confusion at bay:
First place: Company with third interview, no change from mid-last week due to the fact that the next meeting is planned.
Second place: Company with first interview, they called last week and had stated that they would set up a face-to-face with me the following week but have not provided an itinerary or a confirmation as of yet.
Third place: Company with second interview, it's now been eight business days--a full week and a half--since my last contact with them.
Fourth place: Company with first interview given in the second half of last week, was told that I would be contacted at the beginning of this week.
Last place: You know these people, I've talked about them more than enough.
(For those scoring at home, the new second place is due to the conversations I'd had with the company last week, where they had told me that they were really looking for someone with advancement potential because they want to give them the opportunity to advance. Between that and the huge lag in time between interviews, old second place became the new third place)
Of course, I've been given even more ammunition through this week as to why last place remains in last place, which just makes information regarding any of the above that much more sought after. I've been clicking on my mailbox once every five or so minutes throughout the first three days this week. As a matter of fact, I'm late to my next click.....
....still nothing. Waiting stinks. It's really a bummer when you realize that while the very place that you work at and earn money at is a major consideration for you but HR has so many other issues to deal with.
This post will be SO dated in about two weeks.
Postscript: The other issue that's currently worrying me is that they've put bus funding up for a vote here in town. There's been a couple of stories posted in the newspapers and on the news which actually have been misleading and completely not helpful. Of course, I am biased in a very specific direction on this issue. If this vote does not pass, I will have an extremely hard time trying to figure out how I will go back and forth to work on a daily basis, especially since I have come to depend on the bus and I definitely do not have the money to purchase a vehicle, keep it gassed, and provide for upkeep.
I am scared that the vote will go badly as well, because Detroit itself is not involved in the voting, just the suburbs around Detroit. The biggest travesty is that the vote is only to *continue* funding the buses, not to raise taxes. I don't know why such a system would have a time limit, especially since you have to have a major outlay in order to start a system and if the system is abolished, there's no more buses and you have to figure out how to get rid of them. If the system is then reestablished, you have to buy vehicles all over again! Uggh, I know what has happened through the last few years when I depend on people to make correct decisions the first time, BigConglomCo has taught me that people are selfish jerks that don't listen. I hope to heck that this is yet another time that BigConglomCo is wrong, but I really am apprehensive.
So, therefore, on to the first-place job and hopefully some sort of prosperity that I can actually go forward with!
First place: Company with third interview, no change from mid-last week due to the fact that the next meeting is planned.
Second place: Company with first interview, they called last week and had stated that they would set up a face-to-face with me the following week but have not provided an itinerary or a confirmation as of yet.
Third place: Company with second interview, it's now been eight business days--a full week and a half--since my last contact with them.
Fourth place: Company with first interview given in the second half of last week, was told that I would be contacted at the beginning of this week.
Last place: You know these people, I've talked about them more than enough.
(For those scoring at home, the new second place is due to the conversations I'd had with the company last week, where they had told me that they were really looking for someone with advancement potential because they want to give them the opportunity to advance. Between that and the huge lag in time between interviews, old second place became the new third place)
Of course, I've been given even more ammunition through this week as to why last place remains in last place, which just makes information regarding any of the above that much more sought after. I've been clicking on my mailbox once every five or so minutes throughout the first three days this week. As a matter of fact, I'm late to my next click.....
....still nothing. Waiting stinks. It's really a bummer when you realize that while the very place that you work at and earn money at is a major consideration for you but HR has so many other issues to deal with.
This post will be SO dated in about two weeks.
Postscript: The other issue that's currently worrying me is that they've put bus funding up for a vote here in town. There's been a couple of stories posted in the newspapers and on the news which actually have been misleading and completely not helpful. Of course, I am biased in a very specific direction on this issue. If this vote does not pass, I will have an extremely hard time trying to figure out how I will go back and forth to work on a daily basis, especially since I have come to depend on the bus and I definitely do not have the money to purchase a vehicle, keep it gassed, and provide for upkeep.
I am scared that the vote will go badly as well, because Detroit itself is not involved in the voting, just the suburbs around Detroit. The biggest travesty is that the vote is only to *continue* funding the buses, not to raise taxes. I don't know why such a system would have a time limit, especially since you have to have a major outlay in order to start a system and if the system is abolished, there's no more buses and you have to figure out how to get rid of them. If the system is then reestablished, you have to buy vehicles all over again! Uggh, I know what has happened through the last few years when I depend on people to make correct decisions the first time, BigConglomCo has taught me that people are selfish jerks that don't listen. I hope to heck that this is yet another time that BigConglomCo is wrong, but I really am apprehensive.
So, therefore, on to the first-place job and hopefully some sort of prosperity that I can actually go forward with!
23 July 2010
Interviewing continued:
I must admit, I'm actually somewhat amazed. I received another call yesterday afternoon for an introductory interview, which makes the fourth company that I've received some kind of contact with through the past three weeks. I honestly can't name another time in my life when I had even two active interview requests at the same time, much less four. Of course, not all of them will pan out... I can't do two jobs at the same time. I'm not even sure *one* of them will pan out. However, I must admit to being excited because at this point I'm not even sure where I'll end up in even three months.
As I think about the situation, I'm not unhappy about that. I'm actually kind of geeked... currently, there is some uncertainty in my life, but it doesn't revolve around whether or not I'll be able to pay the bills. It is actually about where I can hopefully find a better place to be able to pay my bills, and a new place to explore and enjoy.
I know that if things go south and the opportunities dry up, I will look back on this post wistfully. Especially since the worst position I've got on my docket is still better than the one I've got. However, I still have a semester here if nothing positive happens in any of these job interviews.
I think that going ACen really gave me a kick in the pants. Part of it was the convention. When I'm around all that art, it really just jolts the brain into gear, it makes you look around and think. The other half was just the ability to take a bit of time away from my job to reexamine exactly what it currently means to me. I believe I mentioned this already in a previous post, I drove home Sunday absolutely depressed due to the fact that I knew I'd have to go to work on Monday. I was essentially alone with that thought through 200 miles and four hours. At the same time, I was driving a vehicle that had so many things wrong with it, we couldn't get it repaired with our current funds. Additionally, I was hoping against hope that the tailpipe wouldn't fall from where I wedged it up into the auto body to avoid it dragging on the pavement. It amazed me to think that I had to specifically save and scrimp just for the $100 of gas and food when other people are able to drop that kind of money on nothing more than a whim. Especially people who I know are less capable than myself when it comes to work.
All of that really put my current work situation into stark focus. While I would absolutely like to finish my Econ degree first, I just cannot work through another four years of short funds and a pitiful work experience. Yeah, this may sound like petulant whining to some people, especially those without options, but I've certainly put my own time in to grow my career and I think that I've worked for too little for too long.
If any of you guys out there had a hand in trying to get me interviews, my thanks in advance. I know that both you readers and I will be grateful when all this process is over.
As I think about the situation, I'm not unhappy about that. I'm actually kind of geeked... currently, there is some uncertainty in my life, but it doesn't revolve around whether or not I'll be able to pay the bills. It is actually about where I can hopefully find a better place to be able to pay my bills, and a new place to explore and enjoy.
I know that if things go south and the opportunities dry up, I will look back on this post wistfully. Especially since the worst position I've got on my docket is still better than the one I've got. However, I still have a semester here if nothing positive happens in any of these job interviews.
I think that going ACen really gave me a kick in the pants. Part of it was the convention. When I'm around all that art, it really just jolts the brain into gear, it makes you look around and think. The other half was just the ability to take a bit of time away from my job to reexamine exactly what it currently means to me. I believe I mentioned this already in a previous post, I drove home Sunday absolutely depressed due to the fact that I knew I'd have to go to work on Monday. I was essentially alone with that thought through 200 miles and four hours. At the same time, I was driving a vehicle that had so many things wrong with it, we couldn't get it repaired with our current funds. Additionally, I was hoping against hope that the tailpipe wouldn't fall from where I wedged it up into the auto body to avoid it dragging on the pavement. It amazed me to think that I had to specifically save and scrimp just for the $100 of gas and food when other people are able to drop that kind of money on nothing more than a whim. Especially people who I know are less capable than myself when it comes to work.
All of that really put my current work situation into stark focus. While I would absolutely like to finish my Econ degree first, I just cannot work through another four years of short funds and a pitiful work experience. Yeah, this may sound like petulant whining to some people, especially those without options, but I've certainly put my own time in to grow my career and I think that I've worked for too little for too long.
If any of you guys out there had a hand in trying to get me interviews, my thanks in advance. I know that both you readers and I will be grateful when all this process is over.
20 July 2010
More waiting...
There's another set of Rifftrax that I received a short time ago that need reviewing, and plenty more episodes of My HiME that need watching in order for me to review. Just like the last post, this title has a double meaning too... I'm waiting on answers, and you're likely waiting on reviews. There seems to be a very good opportunity for me coming up, I will be travelling next week in order to speak face-to-face as a third interview. Additionally, while the other position hasn't answered through the previous two days, I obtained another phone call. I think I may need a scoreboard in order to explain all of this out:
1st place: Job with third interview, face-to-face next week.
2nd place: Job with two interviews, awaiting word if a third interview is requested, have been cooling my heels through two business days (and a weekend, which makes it seem like forever).
3rd place: Job with first interview coming up in the next couple days.
Last place: BigConglomCoInc. and all the crap they put me through. (They're always in last place, even when they're the only one.)
Thankfully, of the three, the job in first place is the one that I would choose if given a choice. Of course though, I'm waiting just like you guys are. I swear I've been doing some stuff, like riffing on the newest MSTing Megane 6.7 and I have been writing as well as watching a few episodes of My HiME, I happen to be through episode 8. I don't have any other strong opinions about it, though the cast of magical girls seems to grow greater by the show. Nothing but an observation... I don't mind a large cast to some extent.
I will be dragging the laptop along with me next week, when the interview happens, I'll be sure to stick something on the blog when I get a chance. I think my toes would cramp if I kept them crossed for the next several days.
1st place: Job with third interview, face-to-face next week.
2nd place: Job with two interviews, awaiting word if a third interview is requested, have been cooling my heels through two business days (and a weekend, which makes it seem like forever).
3rd place: Job with first interview coming up in the next couple days.
Last place: BigConglomCoInc. and all the crap they put me through. (They're always in last place, even when they're the only one.)
Thankfully, of the three, the job in first place is the one that I would choose if given a choice. Of course though, I'm waiting just like you guys are. I swear I've been doing some stuff, like riffing on the newest MSTing Megane 6.7 and I have been writing as well as watching a few episodes of My HiME, I happen to be through episode 8. I don't have any other strong opinions about it, though the cast of magical girls seems to grow greater by the show. Nothing but an observation... I don't mind a large cast to some extent.
I will be dragging the laptop along with me next week, when the interview happens, I'll be sure to stick something on the blog when I get a chance. I think my toes would cramp if I kept them crossed for the next several days.
28 June 2010
The downside to art:
Within the next few days, one of my coworkers will be leaving BigConglomCoInc. for the greener pastures of the east coast. He's been a friend of mine through the last two years, and he's a conversation starter. He's always got an opinion, and every once in a while I can really catch him off-guard with a good riff. It's great, he's the type that takes the two seconds to try to catch up with me, and once he does you can see the realization.
It's doubly disappointing for me, because I'd been looking for new employment (as all you folks know) for the previous three years. I wanted to be the one leaving, because it's far easier in that position... there's something to look forward to. In essence, he's leaving the island and the rest of us are trying to find our own boat off. Of course, the knife in the guts is that he managed to find a luxury cruiser, he'll be making almost double my salary at the new position.
For my wife, she's dealing with her own separation, and it's also not one of her making. One of her good friends, a mother with two children who introduced her to some kids' groups and the one she could call if she was feeling down, is also moving away. Her friend's husband was let go from his job, and he had to scramble to find another one. They'll be leaving for Arizona this very morning (28 June 2010). They left a few reminders though, they had three cats and did not want to transport them immediately... so the cats are all living temporarily with us.
This brings me to the point of my post, the downside of the art that I've been immersing myself in. The best art, in my opinion, is art that is able to make you feel. Sometimes you're able to celebrate, to feel better, to enjoy... but art is also good if it is able to make you feel sad, sorry, nostalgic, or any other emotions. Unfortunately, the "down" emotions are magnified in my circumstance due to all the things going on.
I know that if I were to feel nothing over this that I may as well be half-dead. I'm not wishing to feel badly about my friend and his amazing good fortune, and I really don't... except that I don't want him to leave. I don't want my series to end, because I really enjoy the characters or plot... but everything has an ending and nothing lasts forever. I suppose that in finding analogues from anime plots to what's going on with me, I should both be heartened that I'm not the only one going through this as well as to see that there is an ending, even if my life isn't a tidy twenty-four episodes counting finale.
As you may note, this has left me more than a bit maudlin, though at this point I'm throwing everything I've got into the search. I put through twelve applications between Thursday and Friday last week, and I look forward to another week of at least twenty to thirty applications. According to my lucky friend, he'd been searching from February and finally found something starting mid-July. (Of course, I remember that the interviews for his July job started in April.... ) I hope that I am able to locate something quicker, especially with the classes that I would rather not start than to go halfway through and have to cancel.
On the other hand, life is worth living and I'm building my own path. The difficult part is finding out whether or not it's a sedate little trip or a roller coaster. Emotions may be high, emotions may be low... but between life and art, I know it will be an amazing trip regardless.
It's doubly disappointing for me, because I'd been looking for new employment (as all you folks know) for the previous three years. I wanted to be the one leaving, because it's far easier in that position... there's something to look forward to. In essence, he's leaving the island and the rest of us are trying to find our own boat off. Of course, the knife in the guts is that he managed to find a luxury cruiser, he'll be making almost double my salary at the new position.
For my wife, she's dealing with her own separation, and it's also not one of her making. One of her good friends, a mother with two children who introduced her to some kids' groups and the one she could call if she was feeling down, is also moving away. Her friend's husband was let go from his job, and he had to scramble to find another one. They'll be leaving for Arizona this very morning (28 June 2010). They left a few reminders though, they had three cats and did not want to transport them immediately... so the cats are all living temporarily with us.
This brings me to the point of my post, the downside of the art that I've been immersing myself in. The best art, in my opinion, is art that is able to make you feel. Sometimes you're able to celebrate, to feel better, to enjoy... but art is also good if it is able to make you feel sad, sorry, nostalgic, or any other emotions. Unfortunately, the "down" emotions are magnified in my circumstance due to all the things going on.
I know that if I were to feel nothing over this that I may as well be half-dead. I'm not wishing to feel badly about my friend and his amazing good fortune, and I really don't... except that I don't want him to leave. I don't want my series to end, because I really enjoy the characters or plot... but everything has an ending and nothing lasts forever. I suppose that in finding analogues from anime plots to what's going on with me, I should both be heartened that I'm not the only one going through this as well as to see that there is an ending, even if my life isn't a tidy twenty-four episodes counting finale.
As you may note, this has left me more than a bit maudlin, though at this point I'm throwing everything I've got into the search. I put through twelve applications between Thursday and Friday last week, and I look forward to another week of at least twenty to thirty applications. According to my lucky friend, he'd been searching from February and finally found something starting mid-July. (Of course, I remember that the interviews for his July job started in April.... ) I hope that I am able to locate something quicker, especially with the classes that I would rather not start than to go halfway through and have to cancel.
On the other hand, life is worth living and I'm building my own path. The difficult part is finding out whether or not it's a sedate little trip or a roller coaster. Emotions may be high, emotions may be low... but between life and art, I know it will be an amazing trip regardless.
21 June 2010
Update on life and Fate/Stay Night
Hey again folks,
So far, I'm at episode seventeen of Fate/Stay Night. This show is as plot-driven as Azumanga is character-driven. (Okay, warning, possible spoilers ahead here too)
It's a good thing that Fate/Stay Night is more plot, because I'm not crazy about the main protagonist. From what I was reading online, the source for Fate/Stay Night was a hentai videogame, which was first cut back into a videogame, which was then adapted to the screen.
A dispassionate viewer can tell these things, because as I have continued the series it's become more of a harem-building as it goes along. So far, the harem count is at five. There's still eight episodes left for that number to go up too. I mention this because this is one of the few subtypes of anime plot that to me is just unbelievable. There's really no analog to this plot in Western drama or shows, yet it pops up every once in a while in anime. It must just be a cultural or wish-fulfillment thing that makes this subgenre tick.
It's a shame, because the rest of the series has been pretty decent with the overall story. Even if the main protagonist is a doofus, the plot they've built around him has been interesting and there are some nicely-animated fight sequences.
I'm too late to stop watching, as I've covered two-thirds of the show and I am curious how they will resolve the plot. I'm almost to the point of fast-forwarding some of the scenes though, and have only held off because I figure they may attempt to advance the plot while I'm least expecting it.
I think I spoiled myself finding both The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and Azumanga Daioh as the first two series to jump back into anime with. Both were fascinating and while they each had a couple of slow or dull spots, I remain very impressed with the product as a whole even a few weeks later.
If both shows were a 10 (forced to choose, I'd pick Azumanga by only a hair), this one is treading a 6. The odd part is that it started at a 6, getting into the plot nudged it into a 7, but the main protag took it back to a 6, the harem stuff started knocking it down further, but the fight sequence in Ep. 14 was terrific and gave it a notch back. There's a LOT of ground for this one to make up, and unless the ending is stellar (or completely terrible) I don't think the 6 will be changing.
The worst part is that it could've been a solid 8, something that'd be worth revisiting every once in a while and would be worth looking up fanfiction for. The plot of the show, the overarching story driving the plot (even the super-magical MacGuffin) could lead to many interesting stories, but not with these characters. Hopefully, the remaining third redeems it somewhat, but this may be my final review depending on how it ends.
Work, as if they couldn't have tried harder, has become worse. It is now tied to the fact that all of us peons have had our status change, from salaried to hourly workers. Now, the almighty clock becomes our enemy, as if we hadn't had enough enemies to choose from to begin with. Of course, it's only the lowest-level of workers that this is happening to, our management is so not hourly because they'd be like given eleventy billion hours of overtime weekly because of all the awesome work they do.
The worst part is that they've "assured" us that our salary and none of the other perks (vacation time, insurance, etc.) will change in the future. This gives me zero confidence, because they've already changed a major fundamental piece of my compensation and I won't be the least bit surprised to hear, six months from now, "We've got to change you all to put you in line with other hourly workers." I've played the hourly game exactly once, as a contractor a long time ago. I'd never wanted to deal with it again. Every single job since then that I've taken has been salaried.
Now, without any choice, I'm back to the tyranny of the clock. Making peanuts. Watching others get big bucks due to work relationships rather than due to effort and/or ability. And now, the sledgehammer is close enough to all our heads to be plainly visible instead of lost in the fog (or hidden behind management's back). At least this final swing is slow enough that hopefully moving out of the way (i.e. finding another job) is possible, though this absolutely puts my educational plans in a complete bind.
Thankfully, lately, we've been able to resolve more than a few issues. This weekend, it was the below family issues... they're finally mending, and it's something that we don't have to spend time feeling bad or worrying about. Now, it's just this. I hope that the same magical fix-it tape that's fixed the other problems below is not out of tape yet.
So far, I'm at episode seventeen of Fate/Stay Night. This show is as plot-driven as Azumanga is character-driven. (Okay, warning, possible spoilers ahead here too)
It's a good thing that Fate/Stay Night is more plot, because I'm not crazy about the main protagonist. From what I was reading online, the source for Fate/Stay Night was a hentai videogame, which was first cut back into a videogame, which was then adapted to the screen.
A dispassionate viewer can tell these things, because as I have continued the series it's become more of a harem-building as it goes along. So far, the harem count is at five. There's still eight episodes left for that number to go up too. I mention this because this is one of the few subtypes of anime plot that to me is just unbelievable. There's really no analog to this plot in Western drama or shows, yet it pops up every once in a while in anime. It must just be a cultural or wish-fulfillment thing that makes this subgenre tick.
It's a shame, because the rest of the series has been pretty decent with the overall story. Even if the main protagonist is a doofus, the plot they've built around him has been interesting and there are some nicely-animated fight sequences.
I'm too late to stop watching, as I've covered two-thirds of the show and I am curious how they will resolve the plot. I'm almost to the point of fast-forwarding some of the scenes though, and have only held off because I figure they may attempt to advance the plot while I'm least expecting it.
I think I spoiled myself finding both The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and Azumanga Daioh as the first two series to jump back into anime with. Both were fascinating and while they each had a couple of slow or dull spots, I remain very impressed with the product as a whole even a few weeks later.
If both shows were a 10 (forced to choose, I'd pick Azumanga by only a hair), this one is treading a 6. The odd part is that it started at a 6, getting into the plot nudged it into a 7, but the main protag took it back to a 6, the harem stuff started knocking it down further, but the fight sequence in Ep. 14 was terrific and gave it a notch back. There's a LOT of ground for this one to make up, and unless the ending is stellar (or completely terrible) I don't think the 6 will be changing.
The worst part is that it could've been a solid 8, something that'd be worth revisiting every once in a while and would be worth looking up fanfiction for. The plot of the show, the overarching story driving the plot (even the super-magical MacGuffin) could lead to many interesting stories, but not with these characters. Hopefully, the remaining third redeems it somewhat, but this may be my final review depending on how it ends.
Work, as if they couldn't have tried harder, has become worse. It is now tied to the fact that all of us peons have had our status change, from salaried to hourly workers. Now, the almighty clock becomes our enemy, as if we hadn't had enough enemies to choose from to begin with. Of course, it's only the lowest-level of workers that this is happening to, our management is so not hourly because they'd be like given eleventy billion hours of overtime weekly because of all the awesome work they do.
The worst part is that they've "assured" us that our salary and none of the other perks (vacation time, insurance, etc.) will change in the future. This gives me zero confidence, because they've already changed a major fundamental piece of my compensation and I won't be the least bit surprised to hear, six months from now, "We've got to change you all to put you in line with other hourly workers." I've played the hourly game exactly once, as a contractor a long time ago. I'd never wanted to deal with it again. Every single job since then that I've taken has been salaried.
Now, without any choice, I'm back to the tyranny of the clock. Making peanuts. Watching others get big bucks due to work relationships rather than due to effort and/or ability. And now, the sledgehammer is close enough to all our heads to be plainly visible instead of lost in the fog (or hidden behind management's back). At least this final swing is slow enough that hopefully moving out of the way (i.e. finding another job) is possible, though this absolutely puts my educational plans in a complete bind.
Thankfully, lately, we've been able to resolve more than a few issues. This weekend, it was the below family issues... they're finally mending, and it's something that we don't have to spend time feeling bad or worrying about. Now, it's just this. I hope that the same magical fix-it tape that's fixed the other problems below is not out of tape yet.
01 June 2010
Very slight update:
It'll be quick, I promise. I am an avowed proponent of free commenting. I love comments, though to be truthful there aren't too many here. However, I've been getting spam comments on a very frequent basis lately, and I'm getting a bit annoyed at the fact that it takes a while to take them down.
I'm absolutely not taking away anonymous comment settings. However, I am putting up one of those evil little "enter the letters" boxes, because I need to cut down on the robo-spam. I hate them myself, but I truly dislike seeing someone put the verbal equivalent of throw-up on this struggling little blog.
If there are any readers out there who disagree with this action, please be sure to put it in comments. (Ha!) Actually, you can also email me through the address at the website, though you may have difficulty being heard through the spam that thousands of robo-mailers have already deposited there.
Very little status updates to provide, other than I'm almost through the second play-through of Dragon Age, postponing watching more Azumanga Daioh because I've been in a funk for a while. I located a copy of Fate/Stay Night, though I am not sure if I will be checking it out soon.
Work is the same... it's either I don't put myself out and get what little satisfaction I can from my job, or I attempt to actually do work thinking I may get rewarded for it and usually get smacked down for presuming such an audacious thing. So, the job search continues as does registration for year 2 of 4 for master's degree. I could really use a win right about now, I've kind of forgotten what they feel like (and this is pretty much 85% of the current funk.)
If there are any series that any of the readers can recommend to get out of a funk, I'd be glad to know. Drop a line, I'm curious to know what I should attempt to review next.
I'm absolutely not taking away anonymous comment settings. However, I am putting up one of those evil little "enter the letters" boxes, because I need to cut down on the robo-spam. I hate them myself, but I truly dislike seeing someone put the verbal equivalent of throw-up on this struggling little blog.
If there are any readers out there who disagree with this action, please be sure to put it in comments. (Ha!) Actually, you can also email me through the address at the website, though you may have difficulty being heard through the spam that thousands of robo-mailers have already deposited there.
Very little status updates to provide, other than I'm almost through the second play-through of Dragon Age, postponing watching more Azumanga Daioh because I've been in a funk for a while. I located a copy of Fate/Stay Night, though I am not sure if I will be checking it out soon.
Work is the same... it's either I don't put myself out and get what little satisfaction I can from my job, or I attempt to actually do work thinking I may get rewarded for it and usually get smacked down for presuming such an audacious thing. So, the job search continues as does registration for year 2 of 4 for master's degree. I could really use a win right about now, I've kind of forgotten what they feel like (and this is pretty much 85% of the current funk.)
If there are any series that any of the readers can recommend to get out of a funk, I'd be glad to know. Drop a line, I'm curious to know what I should attempt to review next.
18 May 2010
The last of the fallout from ACen:
Couple last ACen notes that warranted a full blog post (My goal is to push the Rifftrax reviews below the fold before mid-June...)
1. At least according to the almighty Internet, Anime Central's attendance in 2009 was over 15,000 paid attendees (17,500 total). I imagine that you could possibly add another 2,000 to 3,000 attendees for this year, 2010. I mention this because also according to the never-lying Internet, ACen's attendance in 2000 was slightly more than 2,000 people, including yours truly, and 3,200 in 2001, including both myself and Megane 6.7.
To be honest, when I left in 2000 and in 2001, the highlights of the weekend were pretty much getting together with all the other hard-core fans and the goofy people who devote time to writing stories that will never earn a penny in revenue. That lasted for a few hours on a Friday night. Other than a few minutes in the dealer room, there wasn't a whole lot else that really caught my interest.
While some people may decry the size of the convention and say that it was better in the old days, I'm SO not that person. The more the merrier, and it was a terrific weekend. I enjoyed myself far more than ten years ago and I think it's mainly due to the fact that MAPS can put on a better convention with more attendees.
As I believe I mentioned previously, I will be attending Youmacon in Detroit now that I know that there's a decent following there too. I think I became gun-shy about conventions due to the cost and the fact that there were so few people at the ones that I attended in the past... (two ACens and three JAFAX, JAFAX being a free convention in Grand Rapids but exceedingly lightly attended.) The larger scale makes the convention definitely worth going to. Hopefully Youmacon will be comparably good to ACen.
2. On Friday, I and my friends had just arrived to the hotel at about noon. I had already spoken with my family and told them that the car survived another three-hundred mile trip. (There's always a question...) I had a bit of a back-and-forth for the next ten minutes, but then left to get to the convention. While walking to the convention, my cellphone beeps again... and I thought it was more conversation with my significant other. No, it actually turns out to be a temp service asking me if I'd be interested in a job opportunity. To cut the story short, I'm scheduled for a job interview on Thursday, 20 May. I must admit, I'm glad that I checked the phone, even though I spoke to the temp service underneath I-190 with a convention raging around me. I hope that it was a good omen.
Megane and I will be embarking on the next MSTing shortly. (For that matter, we hope that you enjoyed / will enjoy the latest MSTing.) The good news is that there is already some work into it, but the bad news is that it is a bit longer than the typical MSTings we do. I *hope* that we can get it out before the end of the year, that'd be pretty sweet. I've got a summer without classes at least, though there's always the wildcard of when (not "if" anymore, I think) I end up at a new job. Anyway, thanks again for your support and indulgence seeing as how this has turned into some weird kind of blog/commentary/diary hybrid for me. I promise, more anime and movie reviews as well as more MSTings, and possibly some original comedic writings, I just have to get through this rough patch I'm going through.
1. At least according to the almighty Internet, Anime Central's attendance in 2009 was over 15,000 paid attendees (17,500 total). I imagine that you could possibly add another 2,000 to 3,000 attendees for this year, 2010. I mention this because also according to the never-lying Internet, ACen's attendance in 2000 was slightly more than 2,000 people, including yours truly, and 3,200 in 2001, including both myself and Megane 6.7.
To be honest, when I left in 2000 and in 2001, the highlights of the weekend were pretty much getting together with all the other hard-core fans and the goofy people who devote time to writing stories that will never earn a penny in revenue. That lasted for a few hours on a Friday night. Other than a few minutes in the dealer room, there wasn't a whole lot else that really caught my interest.
While some people may decry the size of the convention and say that it was better in the old days, I'm SO not that person. The more the merrier, and it was a terrific weekend. I enjoyed myself far more than ten years ago and I think it's mainly due to the fact that MAPS can put on a better convention with more attendees.
As I believe I mentioned previously, I will be attending Youmacon in Detroit now that I know that there's a decent following there too. I think I became gun-shy about conventions due to the cost and the fact that there were so few people at the ones that I attended in the past... (two ACens and three JAFAX, JAFAX being a free convention in Grand Rapids but exceedingly lightly attended.) The larger scale makes the convention definitely worth going to. Hopefully Youmacon will be comparably good to ACen.
2. On Friday, I and my friends had just arrived to the hotel at about noon. I had already spoken with my family and told them that the car survived another three-hundred mile trip. (There's always a question...) I had a bit of a back-and-forth for the next ten minutes, but then left to get to the convention. While walking to the convention, my cellphone beeps again... and I thought it was more conversation with my significant other. No, it actually turns out to be a temp service asking me if I'd be interested in a job opportunity. To cut the story short, I'm scheduled for a job interview on Thursday, 20 May. I must admit, I'm glad that I checked the phone, even though I spoke to the temp service underneath I-190 with a convention raging around me. I hope that it was a good omen.
Megane and I will be embarking on the next MSTing shortly. (For that matter, we hope that you enjoyed / will enjoy the latest MSTing.) The good news is that there is already some work into it, but the bad news is that it is a bit longer than the typical MSTings we do. I *hope* that we can get it out before the end of the year, that'd be pretty sweet. I've got a summer without classes at least, though there's always the wildcard of when (not "if" anymore, I think) I end up at a new job. Anyway, thanks again for your support and indulgence seeing as how this has turned into some weird kind of blog/commentary/diary hybrid for me. I promise, more anime and movie reviews as well as more MSTings, and possibly some original comedic writings, I just have to get through this rough patch I'm going through.
17 May 2010
ACen Wrap-up and going forward
I'm back from Chicago, which means that it's blog posting time. First, some blog cleaning though. I see my intrepid cowriter, among all of the other Rifftrax reviews, has completely ignored my cast gauntlet regarding the "New Moon" Rifftrax. I watched it once again on the way to Chicago, and it was just as good as I remembered. Of course, both times I watched the "New Moon" Rifftrax, it was with other people. As Megane probably knows from seeing the Cinematic Titanic live shows, there's just something about having someone around to build the laughter a bit greater. I would maintain that watching the "New Moon" Rifftrax would be still good watching solo as well though, it was pretty good and while there was a bit of middle-movie lull, the beginning and the end was pretty good.
Chicago was terrific. ACen is far larger than I remembered from 2000/2001, the other two times that I attended. Both of those times, the convention was within one facility. The dealer room was essentially a hotel meeting room and the main programming was the larger hotel meeting room. Now, it has spread to four buildings, including a convention center.
I took my brother-in-law as well as one of his friends. Both are graduating high school in the next couple weeks. Having them along made the whole thing a blast. While there were a few things that I wouldn't have minded checking out solo (some of the panels looked interesting, but I only attended the fanfic panel on Friday) we still had fun. For all the other con-goers who showed up, we were the ones that sat near the convention center entrance and just watched all the con-goers pass by. We enjoyed the costumes, the jokey t-shirts, even the weird snippets of conversation that probably meant something in context but were weird to hear individually. If we weren't there, we poked through the dealer's room a few times too as the convention went along. The two of them dropped at least $80 between them, I'm poor though (and paid for the hotel) so I just bought one con shirt.
The other place we were though was the anime music video room. I'm really partial to AMVs for a couple reasons. One, I love music and enjoy listening to new music. Two, it's in a small way an introduction to series that you may not have seen before. Three, I absolutely enjoy the comedy AMVs because I love laughing. Four, I'm able to turn the "critique" part of my brain off easier than when I'm watching movies and as a result, I'm able to enjoy AMVs easier. And five, if an AMV pops up that you're not crazy about, just wait about four minutes and there'll be another one going. We spent most of Saturday in the AMV room, between watching the AMV contest submissions, Iron Editor, the awards ceremony, and an interesting panel about how artists are trying to truly animate rather than just edit. Quite like Anime Central itself, anime music videos have come a long way in ten years, and it's startling to compare each of the pairs through time.
Of course, there is always a wild-card involved in a weekend like this, and I ended up with three. My car's tailpipe rotted through somewhere between Michigan and Chicago, so I had to figure out a way to put it up and back out of the way since the bracket was still connecting it to the body. Not a big deal, though I really need a new vehicle. I also managed to roll my ankle on Friday night. It absolutely sucked, because it was not a "mild sprain" in any sense of the word. I could put weight on it, but I really stretched that ligament good because if I even attempted to move it side-to-side it would scream at me. I set up the hotel so that it was an L-stop away from the action; getting to and from the convention from the hotel, not to mention all the walking involved in a convention, and I was absolutely in pain through the end of Saturday. (It's still not fully healed on Monday morning.)
The last wild-card needs its own paragraph. The convention was primarily centered around Rosemont's convention center. Late Saturday afternoon, around 5 to 6PM or so, chartered buses started arriving with... high-schoolers attending their proms. It seems that in the middle of the ACen madness, the convention center booked TWO highschool senior proms. Some of the high-schoolers were absolutely non-plussed with the weirdo freaks walking about. I personally was laughing so hard from the situation that I was losing it, and snapping a few pictures of kids just looking distastefully at the conventioneers. One of the costumers was the Joker in full face-paint, who would go back and forth through the crowds of kids. According to a few others I saw online, this isn't the first time that ACen has been held along with a prom (or a wedding, or a reunion, etc.) but it seems that the kids really didn't expect this either. I hope that their night was fully memorable.
This is already an epic blogpost, and probably somewhat boring for most people, so I'm going all-in for more complaining. Sunday was pretty crappy, because not only do I have to drive home but I'm reminded of how I have to end up at work the next day. After being around a blizzard of creativity and laughing for at least 75% of Saturday and Friday, I come back to my ordinary, boring, crappy, work. The same place that is glad to take any of my extra effort but is highly reluctant to give anything back. The same place that doesn't even pay me enough to repair my crappy car, much less find a decent one. The same place that I can get just enough money to find a hotel three miles away from the convention rather than staying at one of the five hotels in a three-block radius because I can't afford the extra cost.
I used to be able to take vacations that I would be happy to return home and get back to ordinary life, because you've gotten your fill of not having anything to do. Every single time I've had more than three days off from work in the last three years now, I'm utterly depressed the day before returning to work because I know I have to return to work. I hate the fact that my life has become 1/7 Saturday and 6/7 dread, with the very rare oasis of a four-day vacation to a convention.
So... back to the job ads to see if there's anything new or different that I can do which will allow me to grasp at least some of my life back. Especially since I want to find a way to go back again next year.
In other con news, I will very likely be attending Youmacon in Detroit. I had never attended before, but I asked my significant other to come with me and have the children's babysitter (Grandma) all set up. It's late October, which is about five and a half months... two a year for the time being seems fine, depending on where I will end up when I do finally find that new job.
Chicago was terrific. ACen is far larger than I remembered from 2000/2001, the other two times that I attended. Both of those times, the convention was within one facility. The dealer room was essentially a hotel meeting room and the main programming was the larger hotel meeting room. Now, it has spread to four buildings, including a convention center.
I took my brother-in-law as well as one of his friends. Both are graduating high school in the next couple weeks. Having them along made the whole thing a blast. While there were a few things that I wouldn't have minded checking out solo (some of the panels looked interesting, but I only attended the fanfic panel on Friday) we still had fun. For all the other con-goers who showed up, we were the ones that sat near the convention center entrance and just watched all the con-goers pass by. We enjoyed the costumes, the jokey t-shirts, even the weird snippets of conversation that probably meant something in context but were weird to hear individually. If we weren't there, we poked through the dealer's room a few times too as the convention went along. The two of them dropped at least $80 between them, I'm poor though (and paid for the hotel) so I just bought one con shirt.
The other place we were though was the anime music video room. I'm really partial to AMVs for a couple reasons. One, I love music and enjoy listening to new music. Two, it's in a small way an introduction to series that you may not have seen before. Three, I absolutely enjoy the comedy AMVs because I love laughing. Four, I'm able to turn the "critique" part of my brain off easier than when I'm watching movies and as a result, I'm able to enjoy AMVs easier. And five, if an AMV pops up that you're not crazy about, just wait about four minutes and there'll be another one going. We spent most of Saturday in the AMV room, between watching the AMV contest submissions, Iron Editor, the awards ceremony, and an interesting panel about how artists are trying to truly animate rather than just edit. Quite like Anime Central itself, anime music videos have come a long way in ten years, and it's startling to compare each of the pairs through time.
Of course, there is always a wild-card involved in a weekend like this, and I ended up with three. My car's tailpipe rotted through somewhere between Michigan and Chicago, so I had to figure out a way to put it up and back out of the way since the bracket was still connecting it to the body. Not a big deal, though I really need a new vehicle. I also managed to roll my ankle on Friday night. It absolutely sucked, because it was not a "mild sprain" in any sense of the word. I could put weight on it, but I really stretched that ligament good because if I even attempted to move it side-to-side it would scream at me. I set up the hotel so that it was an L-stop away from the action; getting to and from the convention from the hotel, not to mention all the walking involved in a convention, and I was absolutely in pain through the end of Saturday. (It's still not fully healed on Monday morning.)
The last wild-card needs its own paragraph. The convention was primarily centered around Rosemont's convention center. Late Saturday afternoon, around 5 to 6PM or so, chartered buses started arriving with... high-schoolers attending their proms. It seems that in the middle of the ACen madness, the convention center booked TWO highschool senior proms. Some of the high-schoolers were absolutely non-plussed with the weirdo freaks walking about. I personally was laughing so hard from the situation that I was losing it, and snapping a few pictures of kids just looking distastefully at the conventioneers. One of the costumers was the Joker in full face-paint, who would go back and forth through the crowds of kids. According to a few others I saw online, this isn't the first time that ACen has been held along with a prom (or a wedding, or a reunion, etc.) but it seems that the kids really didn't expect this either. I hope that their night was fully memorable.
This is already an epic blogpost, and probably somewhat boring for most people, so I'm going all-in for more complaining. Sunday was pretty crappy, because not only do I have to drive home but I'm reminded of how I have to end up at work the next day. After being around a blizzard of creativity and laughing for at least 75% of Saturday and Friday, I come back to my ordinary, boring, crappy, work. The same place that is glad to take any of my extra effort but is highly reluctant to give anything back. The same place that doesn't even pay me enough to repair my crappy car, much less find a decent one. The same place that I can get just enough money to find a hotel three miles away from the convention rather than staying at one of the five hotels in a three-block radius because I can't afford the extra cost.
I used to be able to take vacations that I would be happy to return home and get back to ordinary life, because you've gotten your fill of not having anything to do. Every single time I've had more than three days off from work in the last three years now, I'm utterly depressed the day before returning to work because I know I have to return to work. I hate the fact that my life has become 1/7 Saturday and 6/7 dread, with the very rare oasis of a four-day vacation to a convention.
So... back to the job ads to see if there's anything new or different that I can do which will allow me to grasp at least some of my life back. Especially since I want to find a way to go back again next year.
In other con news, I will very likely be attending Youmacon in Detroit. I had never attended before, but I asked my significant other to come with me and have the children's babysitter (Grandma) all set up. It's late October, which is about five and a half months... two a year for the time being seems fine, depending on where I will end up when I do finally find that new job.
06 May 2010
Real Life / School and website maintenance
For a week now, ever since the final exam on the 29th of April, I resisted checking my final grade for my macroeconomics class. I truly felt that my efforts in the class absolutely did not pay off in terms of grades. While I understood the majority of the material that I was being presented, I was graded on whether or not I was able to take exceptions to the material and explain/understand them.
I took the test Thursday thinking that I had ground to make up due to past grades and thinking that all the past grades would probably damn me to a failure (for a $2000 class). I needed to perform almost perfectly. The test I was given was nothing more than Groundhog day--testing on material that was beyond the material covered. At this point, we were into realms of "what happens with X when Y, Z, alpha, and Superfly are changed?"
My mindset was, "I don't need to rehash all of the reasons that I've been semi-depressed for the past four months, and relive all the problems of this class." I'm not a strong person in any sense of the word. I did seventeen-hour days, twice a week for four months to take the class. At least for me, they sapped my energy. Granted, it wasn't all the fault of the class. It was compounded by the fact that work, which takes up eight of the seventeen hours, was and still is highly unsatisfactory.
Since grades have been posted for two days, I steeled my nerve and decided to check online. I received a C+ for the course, to my surprise. It is tied for the lowest grade I had ever received in a college course. On the other hand, I didn't remember any high-school calculus over twelve years later and I definitely didn't know much of macroeconomics, so I consider this somewhat of a victory. I think that the grade can be attributed as much to participation and effort as to scores on assignments. Of course, it could also be partly due to the rather bad class evaluation that I submitted too. Whichever reason, I don't care.
I'm glad to close the book on this stressful period. This was my hardest university course ever, which makes plenty of sense as it is in the graduate level. I had a far easier time with Chinese and Japanese than I did with macroeconomics.
Thankfully, this means that my university education continues, and with hopefully far less difficulty. I am more confident that I can continue and pass the remaining courses I need to pass. It may mean that I have to take tests and possibly write a thesis in order to earn a Master's degree, but I think I will be up to the task. I did entertain thoughts of withdrawing, and almost did in February. However, it worked out in the end and I am extremely glad for it.
Yeah, this is nothing but a self-congratulary post while I'm still sitting on the non-publishing of the most recent Megane 6.7 MSTing (which by the way is pretty funny if I may express my opinion). On the other hand, ten years of writing MSTings has been a good hobby, while my Master's degree will hopefully allow me to choose my employment and my compensation for the remainder of my life. I love you guys, and I definitely want to keep writing MSTings for you, but unfortunately this stuff comes before. The positive is that if I get to the point that I don't have to keep struggling to make ends meet, hobbies will definitely be allocated more time, including this writing habit I picked up more than ten years ago.
I've rambled long enough. New MSTing will be posted by this weekend, hope everyone enjoys it, and thanks for the support!
I took the test Thursday thinking that I had ground to make up due to past grades and thinking that all the past grades would probably damn me to a failure (for a $2000 class). I needed to perform almost perfectly. The test I was given was nothing more than Groundhog day--testing on material that was beyond the material covered. At this point, we were into realms of "what happens with X when Y, Z, alpha, and Superfly are changed?"
My mindset was, "I don't need to rehash all of the reasons that I've been semi-depressed for the past four months, and relive all the problems of this class." I'm not a strong person in any sense of the word. I did seventeen-hour days, twice a week for four months to take the class. At least for me, they sapped my energy. Granted, it wasn't all the fault of the class. It was compounded by the fact that work, which takes up eight of the seventeen hours, was and still is highly unsatisfactory.
Since grades have been posted for two days, I steeled my nerve and decided to check online. I received a C+ for the course, to my surprise. It is tied for the lowest grade I had ever received in a college course. On the other hand, I didn't remember any high-school calculus over twelve years later and I definitely didn't know much of macroeconomics, so I consider this somewhat of a victory. I think that the grade can be attributed as much to participation and effort as to scores on assignments. Of course, it could also be partly due to the rather bad class evaluation that I submitted too. Whichever reason, I don't care.
I'm glad to close the book on this stressful period. This was my hardest university course ever, which makes plenty of sense as it is in the graduate level. I had a far easier time with Chinese and Japanese than I did with macroeconomics.
Thankfully, this means that my university education continues, and with hopefully far less difficulty. I am more confident that I can continue and pass the remaining courses I need to pass. It may mean that I have to take tests and possibly write a thesis in order to earn a Master's degree, but I think I will be up to the task. I did entertain thoughts of withdrawing, and almost did in February. However, it worked out in the end and I am extremely glad for it.
Yeah, this is nothing but a self-congratulary post while I'm still sitting on the non-publishing of the most recent Megane 6.7 MSTing (which by the way is pretty funny if I may express my opinion). On the other hand, ten years of writing MSTings has been a good hobby, while my Master's degree will hopefully allow me to choose my employment and my compensation for the remainder of my life. I love you guys, and I definitely want to keep writing MSTings for you, but unfortunately this stuff comes before. The positive is that if I get to the point that I don't have to keep struggling to make ends meet, hobbies will definitely be allocated more time, including this writing habit I picked up more than ten years ago.
I've rambled long enough. New MSTing will be posted by this weekend, hope everyone enjoys it, and thanks for the support!
31 January 2008
Corporate Control versus Job Satisfaction.
Today's post examines the overriding need that people have to control and dominate others, just because they can. Of course, this is going to be a pretty minimal issue to most people in the world, but the whole reason I am bringing it up is because it should be a non-issue. Yet, this issue is not, and is one more way that society in America stinks.
I work for nine hours a day (not receiving an "official" lunch period, nor breaktimes) and am salaried. While I do not have a wide swing of hours and usually do not stay late, my schedule and traffic demands that I have to leave at 6:30 and usually do not return until about 18:30, which means I am devoting half of every weekday to either getting to work or working.
To expedite my time at work, I have a small appliance which I use regularly to warm food. This apparatus gets warm, but has safety features which include automatic shutoff and the fact that it does not get above 120 degrees Celsius (not even warm enough to burn paper). I can warm my food while at the same time working, and once the food is warmed I can eat and keep working.
Until today. Today is the day that I find out that I cannot keep appliances at my desk. My manager was so gleeful about this issue, that he sent a message essentially singling me out and included extremely snide statements. I am an adult, and do not need snide statements. I do not need to be singled out. And most of all, it would be nice to think that my company trusts me enough to do what I think is right.
And most of all, it seems almost senseless. Why? Why do you even care what consenting adults are doing in their cubicles? There was no reason in the email, of course. I would not be surprised in the least if management is doing this just because they can. This same manager has shown unacceptance of my preferred arrangement before, which leads me to believe that he is the one who not only reported it to others but has attempted to show that I shouldn't be allowed to do it.
Part of the reason that I bring food to prepare at my cubicle is because I'm not well-off; typically, I can make a lunch for myself for roughly $0.15 per day, especially if I get to keep my appliance. My pay scale, and the payments that others demand from me daily (credit cards and their cheating ways?) pretty much mandate that I either go hungry or find a way to eat super-cheap.
Now, I have to waste time at home, when I spend about three hours awake (not even counting out time preparing for work) compared to the fact that I could be doing the same thing at work.
Not to mention, this is a company that does not even care about the big stuff. We have two tools that we use on a rather consistent basis, both computer network tools. One is an online tracking program in Internet Explorer, and another is a terminal service which connects to many diverse databases. Both work intermittently at best. If there was an issue here at this company, it would be that these programs are costing far more time than worrying about small appliances ever would.
The difference? It costs money. No mention of the fact of how much time is wasted (times the amount that these people get paid), but fixing real problems around here, which is what these guys are paid for, costs more money. Besides, that way you can argue that the workers don't actually do a lot of work and therefore aren't entitled to a raise which even comes close to the cost of inflation -- BigConGlomCoInc. made $3,000,000,000 of profit in 2007, but my raise, a whopping 1.3 percent, didn't even break into the first freaking comma of that rather huge number.
This is petulant whining. You're exactly right. This situation is also symptomatic of what is happening in corporate America, where new ideas are bad, adults are treated as children, and rights are taken away from workers just because management wants to flex their muscles, and workers are pretty much told, "You'd better get on your hands and knees and thank us you have a job."
I sincerely wish that people would just grow up sometimes. This is silly, asinine, and stupid. I freely admit it, and apologize for even taking your time too. My biggest issue here is that there is absolutely no give-and-take, there's just take. I'm really tired of it, especially at BigConGlomCoInc. As written on this blog before, I'm still searching for a job. While things have at least started turning a bit better for me recently, even if I am looking for jobs in the most-repressed place in the United States, I still haven't found the magic combination to get me the hell out.
I know for a fact that this current job will not even be long-term anymore. I am still having the internal debate with myself... do I air the dirty laundry when I leave, or do I try to stay on good terms? Issues like this test my patience to the extreme -- not because they are major issues, but because this is yet another box on the back of the mule. I've never left a job on bad terms before and don't want to start now. On top of that, in other circumstances I would probably be good friends with my manager. But since I'm being treated like this, repeatedly, I really feel that he should know the exact effect all these things has.
Day 158 has passed in the current search-for-a-new-job. I pray on a daily basis that things get better. I don't feel like being around when we have to pay for our own water too.
tl;dr: Corporate America sucks, controls people for the fun of it, and it's because they are run by people who feel the need and the absolute right to control your very lives instead of actually being useful. Coincidentally, put-upon people get tired of it and rant about it on lightly-read blogs.
Eff you, Corporate America.
I work for nine hours a day (not receiving an "official" lunch period, nor breaktimes) and am salaried. While I do not have a wide swing of hours and usually do not stay late, my schedule and traffic demands that I have to leave at 6:30 and usually do not return until about 18:30, which means I am devoting half of every weekday to either getting to work or working.
To expedite my time at work, I have a small appliance which I use regularly to warm food. This apparatus gets warm, but has safety features which include automatic shutoff and the fact that it does not get above 120 degrees Celsius (not even warm enough to burn paper). I can warm my food while at the same time working, and once the food is warmed I can eat and keep working.
Until today. Today is the day that I find out that I cannot keep appliances at my desk. My manager was so gleeful about this issue, that he sent a message essentially singling me out and included extremely snide statements. I am an adult, and do not need snide statements. I do not need to be singled out. And most of all, it would be nice to think that my company trusts me enough to do what I think is right.
And most of all, it seems almost senseless. Why? Why do you even care what consenting adults are doing in their cubicles? There was no reason in the email, of course. I would not be surprised in the least if management is doing this just because they can. This same manager has shown unacceptance of my preferred arrangement before, which leads me to believe that he is the one who not only reported it to others but has attempted to show that I shouldn't be allowed to do it.
Part of the reason that I bring food to prepare at my cubicle is because I'm not well-off; typically, I can make a lunch for myself for roughly $0.15 per day, especially if I get to keep my appliance. My pay scale, and the payments that others demand from me daily (credit cards and their cheating ways?) pretty much mandate that I either go hungry or find a way to eat super-cheap.
Now, I have to waste time at home, when I spend about three hours awake (not even counting out time preparing for work) compared to the fact that I could be doing the same thing at work.
Not to mention, this is a company that does not even care about the big stuff. We have two tools that we use on a rather consistent basis, both computer network tools. One is an online tracking program in Internet Explorer, and another is a terminal service which connects to many diverse databases. Both work intermittently at best. If there was an issue here at this company, it would be that these programs are costing far more time than worrying about small appliances ever would.
The difference? It costs money. No mention of the fact of how much time is wasted (times the amount that these people get paid), but fixing real problems around here, which is what these guys are paid for, costs more money. Besides, that way you can argue that the workers don't actually do a lot of work and therefore aren't entitled to a raise which even comes close to the cost of inflation -- BigConGlomCoInc. made $3,000,000,000 of profit in 2007, but my raise, a whopping 1.3 percent, didn't even break into the first freaking comma of that rather huge number.
This is petulant whining. You're exactly right. This situation is also symptomatic of what is happening in corporate America, where new ideas are bad, adults are treated as children, and rights are taken away from workers just because management wants to flex their muscles, and workers are pretty much told, "You'd better get on your hands and knees and thank us you have a job."
I sincerely wish that people would just grow up sometimes. This is silly, asinine, and stupid. I freely admit it, and apologize for even taking your time too. My biggest issue here is that there is absolutely no give-and-take, there's just take. I'm really tired of it, especially at BigConGlomCoInc. As written on this blog before, I'm still searching for a job. While things have at least started turning a bit better for me recently, even if I am looking for jobs in the most-repressed place in the United States, I still haven't found the magic combination to get me the hell out.
I know for a fact that this current job will not even be long-term anymore. I am still having the internal debate with myself... do I air the dirty laundry when I leave, or do I try to stay on good terms? Issues like this test my patience to the extreme -- not because they are major issues, but because this is yet another box on the back of the mule. I've never left a job on bad terms before and don't want to start now. On top of that, in other circumstances I would probably be good friends with my manager. But since I'm being treated like this, repeatedly, I really feel that he should know the exact effect all these things has.
Day 158 has passed in the current search-for-a-new-job. I pray on a daily basis that things get better. I don't feel like being around when we have to pay for our own water too.
tl;dr: Corporate America sucks, controls people for the fun of it, and it's because they are run by people who feel the need and the absolute right to control your very lives instead of actually being useful. Coincidentally, put-upon people get tired of it and rant about it on lightly-read blogs.
Eff you, Corporate America.
04 April 2007
Looking for the life of Reilly... receiving the life of Schitt.
Oh, the blog... I haven't forgotten about it, but when it rains it pours.
On Wednesday last, which was the 28th, I ended up in a car accident on a rather busy road. The car accident was a result of a bunch of different converging factors, which included a county truck changing streetlights at 2:30PM on a busy road and stopping up a lane, people not caring to allow other people to move over, and other people who don't pay attention to the fact that there are STOPPED VEHICLES on the road. I ended up getting hit in the rear tailgate of my minivan by a truck, which happened to have a snowplow setup (sans snowplow) on the front of his vehicle. Needless to say, he received no damage to his own vehicle except for the glass that my window threw at it as it shattered into tens of thousands of pieces.
Body work is bad, but then worse happened; the momentum from the rear-ending was enough to make me hit the guy in front of me. Who happened to have a trailer hitch on the back of his truck. My radiator was punctured by his trailer hitch, which rendered the vehicle undriveable to boot (other than to get it off the road, which I quickly did). I watched my radiator fluid dump all over the pavement as both drivers probably chuckled silently and then drove off without a care in the world.
Oh, and did I mention that the only reason I ended up in this accident was because this was my last meeting off-site for work before reassignment?
Since the van was my only vehicle, I'm currently borrowing my mother's car for the time being until I get up the motivation and singles required to take the bus (which I figure will be a better option anyway, it will give me far less stress at least). The only good news is that it seems the repairs from the accident itself won't be much more than $550, thankfully, because also according to my insurance despite the fact that every last bit of the damage done to my car was due to OTHER PEOPLE, since the fine state of Michigan is a no-fault state the best I can possibly get is $500 since I don't carry full insurance on a freaking 1994 minivan. Which also will probably mean that I will have to cover the repairs myself and wait for reimbursement as well.
And going on with the story, the next day I was off of work and I ended up at the doctor's office. Twice. The first time was to check my health out due to the accident. The only pain I really had was a bit to the center of my back. They took X-rays and determined that it was due to an underlying condition. Then, I thought to myself that I would try to rebuild the computer my children use. When trying to get a hard drive out of a disk bay, I managed to slice my thumb all the way to the tendon (and break the hard drive in the process). I went to the doctor's office again, and was told that because it was such a deep cut that they would not stitch it there. They insisted that I needed to see a hand specialist to make sure the tendon was not nicked. So therefore, I would have to travel to the hospital emergency room. That prospect did not make me feel good, as I had to drive in rush-hour traffic (at about 3:30PM) to this hospital. I signed in with difficulty, and settled in to wait.
And wait.
And wait.
And wait more.
When I arrived, I was told that it would be between one and two hours to be seen. After two and a half hours, I was no closer to being seen period. A (slightly) helpful security guard called to a different hospital, which had far fewer people waiting in line. At about 6:30, I jumped back in the car to go to emergency room #2. After another hour and a half, I finally was seen. Mind you, I had an open gaping wound in my hand this whole time. I didn't even care about *getting* a bed, I just wanted someone to stitch the darned thing up. Which they finally did, at 9PM that evening.
Postscript: I never saw the "hand specialist", and to boot I had to pay five times the cost that I would have had to pay at the doctor's office (and I may even have to pay more due to the fact that I went to a different hospital; they took my insurance, but because it was not the hospital I was *assigned* to, I wouldn't be surprised if more charges lurk in the mist.)
So therefore, the only good thing that happened through this whole week was the fact that I ended up getting both Thursday and Friday off. Small consolation.
I'm back to work, and now doing the reassignment. Originally, I was told that this reassignment was for training purposes. So be it. But now I find out that I'm in a "lather, rinse, repeat" kind of position, which by the way took me possibly two weeks to learn. Which completely and utterly irks me to the core. I cannot count the number of times that I have had to bite my lip, bite my tongue, and stop my hand from miming my exact mindset at this point. Especially since I managed to keep some of my old duties at the same time that I am getting new ones placed on me. As before, I suppose that this is the best motivation for me to save some money and hit the college trail again, but in the meantime I will be right back to submitting resumes... six months after I just started. (At least I get to be super-picky about where I end up, I suppose.)
This year really started with a whole lot of promise, but these last two weeks have been extremely difficult to get through. I must admit, I'm still afraid for my hands, and possibly any nearby walls. I also hope that things will turn around soon, and realize that all I have is that same hope; especially since there's been such little proof for that recently.
So, as many people imagine, many writing projects have been stalled for the previous two weeks. Sincerest apologies to everyone; Megane has told me in the past that some of his best writing was as a direct result to negative stimuli, and that's great. All I know is that if I attempt to MST right now, your monitor would probably be dripping with blood from my dull axe taken to a few fanfics, which tends not to be fun for all involved.
I will at least leave you with a happy note, and thank everyone through the years who has supported us at A MSTing For All Seasons; our counter has just passed 150,000 hits, and that's pretty cool in my book. I hope we've entertained you, our readers, and that we will continue to entertain you for a long time to come. Even with our recent snail-like publishing pace. Thanks again!
On Wednesday last, which was the 28th, I ended up in a car accident on a rather busy road. The car accident was a result of a bunch of different converging factors, which included a county truck changing streetlights at 2:30PM on a busy road and stopping up a lane, people not caring to allow other people to move over, and other people who don't pay attention to the fact that there are STOPPED VEHICLES on the road. I ended up getting hit in the rear tailgate of my minivan by a truck, which happened to have a snowplow setup (sans snowplow) on the front of his vehicle. Needless to say, he received no damage to his own vehicle except for the glass that my window threw at it as it shattered into tens of thousands of pieces.
Body work is bad, but then worse happened; the momentum from the rear-ending was enough to make me hit the guy in front of me. Who happened to have a trailer hitch on the back of his truck. My radiator was punctured by his trailer hitch, which rendered the vehicle undriveable to boot (other than to get it off the road, which I quickly did). I watched my radiator fluid dump all over the pavement as both drivers probably chuckled silently and then drove off without a care in the world.
Oh, and did I mention that the only reason I ended up in this accident was because this was my last meeting off-site for work before reassignment?
Since the van was my only vehicle, I'm currently borrowing my mother's car for the time being until I get up the motivation and singles required to take the bus (which I figure will be a better option anyway, it will give me far less stress at least). The only good news is that it seems the repairs from the accident itself won't be much more than $550, thankfully, because also according to my insurance despite the fact that every last bit of the damage done to my car was due to OTHER PEOPLE, since the fine state of Michigan is a no-fault state the best I can possibly get is $500 since I don't carry full insurance on a freaking 1994 minivan. Which also will probably mean that I will have to cover the repairs myself and wait for reimbursement as well.
And going on with the story, the next day I was off of work and I ended up at the doctor's office. Twice. The first time was to check my health out due to the accident. The only pain I really had was a bit to the center of my back. They took X-rays and determined that it was due to an underlying condition. Then, I thought to myself that I would try to rebuild the computer my children use. When trying to get a hard drive out of a disk bay, I managed to slice my thumb all the way to the tendon (and break the hard drive in the process). I went to the doctor's office again, and was told that because it was such a deep cut that they would not stitch it there. They insisted that I needed to see a hand specialist to make sure the tendon was not nicked. So therefore, I would have to travel to the hospital emergency room. That prospect did not make me feel good, as I had to drive in rush-hour traffic (at about 3:30PM) to this hospital. I signed in with difficulty, and settled in to wait.
And wait.
And wait.
And wait more.
When I arrived, I was told that it would be between one and two hours to be seen. After two and a half hours, I was no closer to being seen period. A (slightly) helpful security guard called to a different hospital, which had far fewer people waiting in line. At about 6:30, I jumped back in the car to go to emergency room #2. After another hour and a half, I finally was seen. Mind you, I had an open gaping wound in my hand this whole time. I didn't even care about *getting* a bed, I just wanted someone to stitch the darned thing up. Which they finally did, at 9PM that evening.
Postscript: I never saw the "hand specialist", and to boot I had to pay five times the cost that I would have had to pay at the doctor's office (and I may even have to pay more due to the fact that I went to a different hospital; they took my insurance, but because it was not the hospital I was *assigned* to, I wouldn't be surprised if more charges lurk in the mist.)
So therefore, the only good thing that happened through this whole week was the fact that I ended up getting both Thursday and Friday off. Small consolation.
I'm back to work, and now doing the reassignment. Originally, I was told that this reassignment was for training purposes. So be it. But now I find out that I'm in a "lather, rinse, repeat" kind of position, which by the way took me possibly two weeks to learn. Which completely and utterly irks me to the core. I cannot count the number of times that I have had to bite my lip, bite my tongue, and stop my hand from miming my exact mindset at this point. Especially since I managed to keep some of my old duties at the same time that I am getting new ones placed on me. As before, I suppose that this is the best motivation for me to save some money and hit the college trail again, but in the meantime I will be right back to submitting resumes... six months after I just started. (At least I get to be super-picky about where I end up, I suppose.)
This year really started with a whole lot of promise, but these last two weeks have been extremely difficult to get through. I must admit, I'm still afraid for my hands, and possibly any nearby walls. I also hope that things will turn around soon, and realize that all I have is that same hope; especially since there's been such little proof for that recently.
So, as many people imagine, many writing projects have been stalled for the previous two weeks. Sincerest apologies to everyone; Megane has told me in the past that some of his best writing was as a direct result to negative stimuli, and that's great. All I know is that if I attempt to MST right now, your monitor would probably be dripping with blood from my dull axe taken to a few fanfics, which tends not to be fun for all involved.
I will at least leave you with a happy note, and thank everyone through the years who has supported us at A MSTing For All Seasons; our counter has just passed 150,000 hits, and that's pretty cool in my book. I hope we've entertained you, our readers, and that we will continue to entertain you for a long time to come. Even with our recent snail-like publishing pace. Thanks again!
19 March 2007
"Goldenboy" and the Art of Building a Career:
Good day to all out there in Bloggerland.
It's taken me three days to sufficiently calm down and rationalize in my head some of the events that had happened to me on 16 March (Friday), but I think I'm about ready to report them. But first, a segue!
Way back in the mid-90s, (I believe) ADV published a title called "Golden Boy". To sum up the story quickly, it was about a guy who was armed with a bicycle, a notebook, and a backpack... and instead of settling down at all, he went from place to place pretty much doing what he could. His backstory included him going to Toudai University and dropping out right before he was to complete a law degree.
Throughout the series, the main character took a multitude of positions: computer programmer, swimming instructor, political campaign worker, chef, and two others I can't think of. And he also ran across a girl at every job, but he ended up leaving on his bicycle before anything could happen. The title featured comedy and more than a bit of ecchi as well. I enjoyed the show back when I saw it in the mid-90s as my college's anime library had all six episodes. (Only six episodes, which is a bummer.)
In true Bill Cosby style, I tell you that story to tell you this one.
I have been graduated from university ever since 2002. For every February afterward with only one exception, I have worked at a different job ever since. IT support for one, sales support another, then two years of export, and this year import. And this leads to Goldenboy... much like him, I can't find the one thing that will help me to settle down and enjoy, have fun with what I'm doing... yet everywhere I go, I'm always learning.
And on Friday, I learned that once you're in a big corporation, you're the one bending over as they lube. How educational.
When I started at BigConglomCoInc. last October, I was doing import work; in essence, I was collecting information so that shipments could be cleared by Customs. Three months after I started, I was reassigned. At the time, I was told that it would be a position that would have more responsibility and that I would be given some time in order to grow into the position. And on top of this, I was given this position because the other person they offered it to declined.
Which brings us to Friday. On that fateful afternoon, I found out that I would be swapping jobs with someone else. Incidentally, it was with the someone else that declined this position the first time. I really do not know why this was done... after all, I was already in the position. It was three months after the fact. And I was finally achieving some level of a comfort zone with it.
The only highlight of the transaction was the fact that as near as I can tell, because my salary was never advanced when my responsibilities were raised, this new position will be closer to my current level of renumeration. But that's not exactly a happy thought, as I really did want them to raise my salary rather than to have this happen.
About the only other positive about this episode is that it may be what I need to inspire me. I have already hit the U.S. Federal job announcement board, and will be filing another FAFSA in order to see if I can go get my master's degree (or another bachelor's, depending on possible avenues). It is times like this that I'm re-reminded of that Goldenboy show, which usually ended with the main character pedaling away from that episode of his life. While my episodes last far longer than half-an-hour, it is events like this that confirm that my episodes will just keep going on rather than ending. And I can clearly remember leaving the last four towns that we used to live in, with a moving van and a hope that this departure will be the last one for a long time.
With this being said... does anyone want to buy a house?
It's taken me three days to sufficiently calm down and rationalize in my head some of the events that had happened to me on 16 March (Friday), but I think I'm about ready to report them. But first, a segue!
Way back in the mid-90s, (I believe) ADV published a title called "Golden Boy". To sum up the story quickly, it was about a guy who was armed with a bicycle, a notebook, and a backpack... and instead of settling down at all, he went from place to place pretty much doing what he could. His backstory included him going to Toudai University and dropping out right before he was to complete a law degree.
Throughout the series, the main character took a multitude of positions: computer programmer, swimming instructor, political campaign worker, chef, and two others I can't think of. And he also ran across a girl at every job, but he ended up leaving on his bicycle before anything could happen. The title featured comedy and more than a bit of ecchi as well. I enjoyed the show back when I saw it in the mid-90s as my college's anime library had all six episodes. (Only six episodes, which is a bummer.)
In true Bill Cosby style, I tell you that story to tell you this one.
I have been graduated from university ever since 2002. For every February afterward with only one exception, I have worked at a different job ever since. IT support for one, sales support another, then two years of export, and this year import. And this leads to Goldenboy... much like him, I can't find the one thing that will help me to settle down and enjoy, have fun with what I'm doing... yet everywhere I go, I'm always learning.
And on Friday, I learned that once you're in a big corporation, you're the one bending over as they lube. How educational.
When I started at BigConglomCoInc. last October, I was doing import work; in essence, I was collecting information so that shipments could be cleared by Customs. Three months after I started, I was reassigned. At the time, I was told that it would be a position that would have more responsibility and that I would be given some time in order to grow into the position. And on top of this, I was given this position because the other person they offered it to declined.
Which brings us to Friday. On that fateful afternoon, I found out that I would be swapping jobs with someone else. Incidentally, it was with the someone else that declined this position the first time. I really do not know why this was done... after all, I was already in the position. It was three months after the fact. And I was finally achieving some level of a comfort zone with it.
The only highlight of the transaction was the fact that as near as I can tell, because my salary was never advanced when my responsibilities were raised, this new position will be closer to my current level of renumeration. But that's not exactly a happy thought, as I really did want them to raise my salary rather than to have this happen.
About the only other positive about this episode is that it may be what I need to inspire me. I have already hit the U.S. Federal job announcement board, and will be filing another FAFSA in order to see if I can go get my master's degree (or another bachelor's, depending on possible avenues). It is times like this that I'm re-reminded of that Goldenboy show, which usually ended with the main character pedaling away from that episode of his life. While my episodes last far longer than half-an-hour, it is events like this that confirm that my episodes will just keep going on rather than ending. And I can clearly remember leaving the last four towns that we used to live in, with a moving van and a hope that this departure will be the last one for a long time.
With this being said... does anyone want to buy a house?
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