03.29.09

P-Town.

Posted in Telling Stories at 9:25 AM by Myles

I have encountered several “high maintenance” people over the years. I have commiserated with others about such people. It is a loosing prospect to try to please those who are “high maintenance”.

Sometimes, though, they can be reasonable… for who they are. For Example: You sell something. You are asked, out of the way, to ship “promptly”. You ship within 55 minutes of receipt of payment, something you coin “Same Hour Shipping” as you do it. You hope this defines “prompt”. Thankfully, you receive positive feedback… wherein shipping was described as “timely”.

Be Seeing You.

03.27.09

“Who Is #1?”

Posted in Memo, Now Here This at 8:31 AM by Myles

“You… Are #6…”

Yesterday, I had my 6th interview since beginning my active job search 6 months ago [having been unemployed for 10 months]. The running joke is that in this Depression, I’ve had more interviews [in person or otherwise] than I had 5 years ago.

This morning, about 21 hours after the interview, I receive a phone call from the company’s recruiter who initially contacted me. He informed me that there had been 11 candidates for the position. He informed me that three candidates were selected. He informed me that I was one of the three and that the process of generating an offer was beginning.

You cannot believe how amazing this is. Let me mention a few factors:

  • This company is the leading company in its field, and its field is the field I started in out of University.
  • I was considering this interview as the “Be All, End All” for California — double digit unemployment, you know.
  • The back of my brain had been entertaining the thought that working for this company would be a Holy Grail of what I needed; hard work, good work, a leg up, a “redo” for “if I had known then”, the learning experience I need but may complain about from time to time, &c.
  • I’ve been unemployed for 10 months, and therefore am near the bottom of all the money I had saved up the past 5 years and was desperate for something “official” to do [the infamous "employment gap" in those resumes of ours].

Cheers.

Be Seeing You.

03.20.09

Productively Busy.

Posted in Penny Circular at 5:50 PM by Myles

Lots Of Stuff Going On Recently:

  • Registered for two learning courses. Have started one.
  • Have a 6th interview scheduled for next week; it requires forms I filled out five years ago. Horray for backups.
  • Received help on updating resume, even though it has 5-6 interviews to it. Final re-work needed.
  • Figured what angle to approach making a particular website. Still figuring a third.
  • Have 3.5 re-work projects to do, soon.
  • Must contact someone on long-term edu plans to re-adjust his brain.
  • ‘Watchmen’ was awesome. Was that really 2.75h long?

At the moment, nothing like a B Remake SciFi movie staring Lance Henricksen playing a character who says, “Whow” a lot on a Friday night.

Be Seeing You.

03.17.09

St. Patrick’s Day.

Posted in Penny Circular at 4:57 PM by Myles

If I hear one more ‘Dropkick Murphy’ song… [shakes fist].

Best of both worlds today: engineering employment prospects supplimented other plans for the evening.

Be Seeing You.

03.11.09

No Sleep.

Posted in Penny Circular at 5:08 AM by Myles

I’m not sure if it’s the time change [this time of year always buggers me] or the continued bubbling up of bad memories, but I just can’t sleep past 1-3am again.

Right now, I’m at the level of being entertained by NPR morning traffic reports. Cows, wild horses, bowls, guardrails. Cows.

Be Seeing You.

03.10.09

Micro$oft…. Good?

Posted in Penny Circular at 4:02 PM by Myles

I have personally encountered an example of a Mirco$oft program doing me a benefit.

Let Me Explain. Recently, I thought I would give Netflix another chance [3rd, 4th, I've lost count] regarding its ‘Streaming Video’ option. Before, I would try to stream a Netflix movie and it would Fail, Capital ‘F’. No dice. No movie.

The other day, I decided to try again. I was prompted to install a Micro$oft program [SlipStream], which I did. Then, magically, video started streaming. Successfully streaming. I couldn’t believe it. I still can’t, though I am learning.

In my trials and tribulations of streaming video online, I have found that news networks stream just fine whilst their more openly entertainment-slanted networks are a crap shoot. Some hate Windows, others hate Linux.

So. Yeah.

Be Seeing You.

03.08.09

Sharing [or] The Power Of Leather.

Posted in Telling Stories at 12:03 PM by Myles

Yesterday, a nice neighbor I occasionally encountered was moving out. He knocked on my door and asked if I had any power tools; I said, “No, but I do have a LeatherMan. Will this work?” He said he’d try it out and would bring it back either way; sooner if it turned out he really did need power tools.

Over the afternoon and evening, I see him, his [presumed] wife and friends move everything out, including the mattress and excluding the kitchen sink. Do note that I surmised that they had enough help on their own and my helping may have been “too many cooks”, therefore not the help they were looking for. Truck and car drive off, no LeatherMan in my hand. I start window-shopping for a new LeatherMan.

This morning, the only occupent of their apartment was the maintenance guy. I considered going to the apartment office to play “Was I A Sucker?”.

However: On the front curb of the apartment complex, a pedestrian tells me that “They’re trying to talk to you” and points to a car that had just pulled up before I could reply “Do you see dead people?”. Inside the car is the couple who borrowed my LeatherMan, handing it back to me. It turned out to be very helpful; they didn’t need power tools after all. They had just knocked on my door and got no answer [I was between sending off my girlfriend and going to the apartment office]. All on our own, without prior arrangement, we had met up on the front curb.

They’re happy, I’m happy, all is back in its place and the day is beautiful in its own right.

Remember Kids: Sharing Means Caring. Ghuh-Huh Huh Huh!

Be Seeing You.