So I spend about two and a half hours on the phone with tech support today. When I logged into Lotus Notes for the first time, I saw that my name was going to appear in ALL CAPS in all From: headers, and decided that looked unprofessional. So I went to the User ID properties and changed it. Which promptly corrupted my Lotus ID file, meaning that though I could log in, I couldn't actually do anything. Two hours later I could, and half an hour later it was decided that the error messages I was getting, though disturbing and annoying, wouldn't actually impede me from working that day. So my tech support guy left me to it, promising to work on the problem from his end, where it almost certainly was. Turns out he was right, and I should be okay tomorrow.
The upshot of all this is that because I wasn't actually doing anything most of the time, I did a good amount of surfing. I found a really cool site through Andrew Sullivan, that being Dissent Magazine. They've got a little piece called "A Friendly Drink In a Time Of War", by Paul Berman. It discusses fascism, and the contemporary left's complete inability to detect and oppose it. They've also got a rather chilling analysis of the activities of the Republican Party over the past decade or so. It's a bit paranoid, but still interesting.
Yeah, so I started working at Merastar Insurance Company on Monday. It's pretty great. I'm being trained to be a customer service counselor, answering existing insureds phone calls. The training consists of Lotus Notes, Merastar's policy software (don't think it's originally proprietary, but the hacks they've done on it seem to be), and learning a lot about insurance. I learned so much on Monday that I called my auto insurance agent to make sure I'm adequately covered. I'll probably learn about homeowner's insurance today or tomorrow, as well as getting an in depth course on Notes. If Merastar hires me on permenantly, which they might, they'd pay for me to become a licensed insurance agent, which would be a nice thing to put on a resume.
In a few minutes, Andy will be picking me up for work. Why, you ask? Because though I now own a car, that car has neither insurance nor registration, so I'm letting it sit for a bit. But two things before I leave. First, I note that starting today, I shall probably have abundant material for my blog. I am going to work at a call center, and America is nowhere as dumb as it is on the phone. Second, I read the following essay this morning. The author argues a quote by Gore Vidal as his thesis: "Our only political party has two right wings, one called Republican, the other Democratic." After reading the essay, I was lead to the conclusion that what he's really discovered is that neither the Democrats nor the Republicans are actually certifiably insane, as he apparently is. The only policies it seems he would be happy with are total disarmament, no foreign policy at all except for radical protectivism, and maxing out the budget on social programs. Yeah, that sounds like a good idea to me too.
I have a car. Yesterday, all the necessary paperwork came through to give me access to the money I've got saved up. Today, Michael drove me to Nashville, where I bought a '99 Suburu Impreza. I am, once again, mobile. Now to get over to State Farm to insure the thing...
I also have a job. Friday, I got a call from Josiah at Coptix saying that I didn't get the job. That really sucked. But later that afternoon, I got a call from OfficeTeam offering me an assignment at a call center over in East Gate. I start at 8:00AM, Monday morning, with the pay I need to make this stay-in-Chattanooga thing work. It's a 3-6 month assignment, but since there's a 5 week training period, I'm not thinking that they're looking for a high turnover rate here.
Things are rapidly looking up.
Salon has a nice piece entitled "PCs Killed the Mix-Tape Star", about how the advent of mp3s, CD-Rs, and the iPod has changed the way people make mixes.
Mixes are something I make. I usually make them for specific moods or specific people, sometimes a combination of both. They generally mean something for me. Granted, mixes don't take me nearly as long to make as they did for Rob Fleming, but still, that doesn't mean they aren't significant. I put time and effort into the mixes I make. I am also prone to hitting random play on my entire 10k track collection and discovering things I've never heard before, but that doesn't preclude me to putting together a special mix for someone I care about.
I'm feeling a bit better these days, but only because I'm getting used to my life, not because things have improved any. I still don't technically have a job, though I think that will probably change pretty quickly once the guys at Coptix figure out where to stick a desk for me. I don't have a car either, and that situation isn't going to change for at least a few days, as I wait on paperwork to arrive in the mail that will allow me to spend my money. So I have basically nothing to do and no way of getting around.
This kind of sucks. Firstly, feelings of malaise are pretty hard to fend off when there really isn't anything for you to do. I have no real responsibilities. You'd think that would be liberating, but it isn't. All it does is demonstrate the fact that no one needs you. Which makes you feel pretty superfluous. Secondly, leaving college is pretty tough. This is the first time I've lived out of the dorms since late August 2000 (excluding summers, which tended to suck). I've grown used to there being people around all the time, and not having to go far to see them. Now I'm by myself most of the time, my roommate having a full-time job, and since I don't have a car I don't have any way of going to see anyone.
More than that, I just changed social contexts. In college, I was a senior, top of the heap. I had a group of friends, and people who needed me, or at the very least looked up to and occasionally relied on me. All of that is gone, and I have to start over. It's true that I am among friends down here, but they've spent months to years building a life for themselves and each other, and I'm not really a part of that, not yet anyways. I'm pretty unnecessary right now.
Things are slowly coming together for me, but it's tough while I wait.
"... of an Air Supply Greatest Hits Compilation In Which the Concept of Love Is Expressed By the Words Partially Hydrogenated Corn Syrup." Right. Here it is. I love McSweeney's.
It's been a while since I've looked at it, but I think that now would be a good time to link to Kibo's excellent Orange Cone Documentary. It really is quite brilliant. I was reminded of it by a link from Fark yesterday to a similar project about stick figure warning signs that is equally delightful.
Besides, I could really use some humor right now.
Andrew Sullivan has linked to the following ad which won a contest to depict Dubya in 30 seconds. It's one of the most rhetorically astute yet solidly rational things I've seen in some time.
I finally got my fileserver running again. We now have music. Lots of music. Life is getting better as we go, it seems.
I think I've decided to just junk the car and take the few hundred the mechanic will be able to give me for it. It's been over a week, and the car isn't really all that close to being done. I've got my eye on this really great Nissan Maxima at a dealership towards Atlanta that I'm trying to snag a ride to go buy on Saturday.
Yay.
Well, I've still got no long-term job, and my car is still in the shop, but I'm somehow feeling a little better today. I'm not going to try to find out why, in case it goes away.
I really want to get back into online reading and blogging on a more significant basis, but I just don't have the time right now.
Well, kind of anyway. I'm finally starting to settle in down here in St. Elmo. I get up at about 6AM every day to be at work on time by 8:00 in Hixson. That means I head to bed by 11:00 at the latest, normally by 10:00. Still, the lack of a car means I'm bumming rides from Mesh (blessed be he) most of the time, which sucks for both of us: I can't go anywhere, and Mesh has to get up at the butt-crack of dawn. Fortunately, I get my car back tonight.
Other than that, I'm getting back into some kind of normal schedule. I got a new router to replace the one broken on its trip to Dayton, OH, so my computer is finally back up and working almost normally. I still have to connect my file-server, so I've been music-less for almost a month (*sob*).
Though my life is slowly taking on some regularity, it's still pretty tough. I'm still pretty nonplussed about some of my more significant relationships, and these past two weeks haven't really helped much. I'm in a position where I really need people, and the people I would like most to turn to are, well, kind of inaccessible right now. It's just the way it goes.
Transitioning to post-collegiate life is also a bit of a stretch. Even though I'm living with one of my best friends, it's pretty lonely. He's already well-connected with the thriving downtown group, and has been for as long as I've known him. I barely know some of these people, so I'm kind of an outsider. Even if I weren't, the time constraints placed on my by both work, lack of a car, and getting my life together mean that I'm a lot busier than I've ever been. I like it a lot, and really don't want to go back to school, but it's an adjustment. Unlike in college, where when 9:00PM rolled around it was time to get the evening's activities started, today I start to think about going to bed.
I'm still hurting for employment. My temp posting at Memorial North Park will almost certainly be completed by Friday or before, and I've got nothing lined up after that. I asked my supervisor at North Park to put in a call to their HR department, recommending me as a decent human being, but we'll see how that goes. I also have an interview at Coptix, a computer firm just down the street where a lot of really great guys work. I'm a bit apprehensive about that, as I don't know if my computer skills are adequate to the task, but it would really be great if I could land that position.
As it is now quarter past seven, I need to go pack my lunch and go to work. Right.
There are times in which doing everything right isn't enough. Yesterday, I experienced one of those things. The people who need to know what I'm talking about already do.
Goodnight everyone.
It's been what, a week since I posted? What a week it's been. I am completely drained.
So last Sunday I'm driving Emily home from Sumter, SC. We mangae to fit all of her stuff in the back of my van and make it to Chattanooga with no problems. We start driving up Lookout Mountain, and the transmission goes out on my car. Fortunately, a man from my church pulled off ahead of us and came to see that we were alright. We weren't so he went home, changed, and came back with his pickup, into which we transfered all of Emily stuff. He took us to her house, and we unloaded everything.
The next day, I started work. I borrowed Emily's car so I would be able to make it, and off I went. It's a temp job. It's pretty lousy. I'm shifting and purging radiological records at Memorial North Park in Hixon, about half an hour from my apartment. The assignment was billed as taking six weeks. At the rate we've been going, we should be done within two. I borrowed Emily's car for two days, then had to return it so she could get to school. My car is currently being repaired (for $1.5k), so I'm still without a ride. On Wednesday I bummed from Ben Horner and Mesh. Yesterday I borrowed a car from one of my elders. Today I bummed again, and with any luck, I'll be able to borrow the car from my elder until my car is fixed.
So, I'll probably be out of a job starting next week some time. OfficeTeam, my temp agency, doesn't have anything for me after that at the moment. Kelly Services, who staffs both Cigna and Blue Cross/Blue Shield, has no positions open at all. I've applied anyway, just in case. I've also applied for jobs at Erlanger and Memorial hospitals, but nothing doing there, at least nothing I've heard about. The banks aren't even accepting applications. The job postings I can find require experience and/or certification in things I don't have. I'm currently browsing the classified ads. Some friends are looking into various options for me, and right now they're probably my best shot.
So, in short, I have no job, no car, and I'm emotionally exhausted from both the stress of those things and various relational issues I won't go into here.
I guess that's all I've got right now.
Yeah, I've been without connectivity for a while. While I've frequently had a computer without access to broadband, this is the first time I've had access to broadband without a (functioning) computer. The person referenced in my last post assures me that my box is in the mail (though I'm not getting my hopes up too soon), but I've been offline since leaving the LAN party last weekend.
I spent most of the week settling into the apartment with Mesh. I'm pretty much moved in, with the expection of my computer setup, for obvious reasons. My first assignment with my temp agency starts 8:00 AM on Monday.
At the moment, I am in Sumter, SC, to bring Emily back to school on Sunday. This is why I can post. I will probably not be online again until Monday night at the earliest, at least not online with any persistent presence.
See you all in a bit.