Boys and girls, today's lesson is:

Don't piss off The Man.

When The Man gets pissed off, The Man does mean things.

Yesterday I got a very angry-looking letter from the Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles. Upon opening the letter, I discovered that I have had an appointment scheduled with a driving improvement counselor on October 3rd. If I miss the appointment, my license will be suspended. If I reschedule the appointment, my license will be suspended. If the counselor doesn't like the way I smell, my license will be suspended.

All of this because I received two speeding tickets: one for doing 84mph in a 55 zone (at 2am, with no other cars in sight, save for the police officer who was hiding behind some bushes), and another for doing 38 in a 25. Despite the fact that, aside from those two tickets, I have a perfect driving record, the DMV apparently thinks I am a menace to society and deserve to be removed from the roadways.

This infuriates me for two reasons:

  1. I am a better driver than everyone I know.
  2. Nearly everyone I know drives like a retard.

Sigh.

prev Friday September 22, 2000 next

(running New Zealand Standard Time, GMT +12, so i get my days before the rest of you slackers…)

Today I will start my big adventure by catching the train from Hamilton to Wellington to hook up with my brother at some insane hour of the morning.

It's really, actually, still the twenty first, but I dislike adding to gigantical daylog nodes, so I'm just going to write here, instead. Take that, universe.

Well, I guess anyone who pays attention may have noticed my lack of noding.. this is partially due to work and more so to the fact that I've just been spewing less text as of late. Oh well..

I've been working, insulating, getting money to go to Boston and just getting money in general. It's kind of tiring.. sort of funny. Today.. oh, today, noteworthy things (or somewhat noteworthy):
  • we had a leak in the main machine, and it sprayed much like a fountain, all over the place. yay for toxic chemicals spraying crazily!
  • the hose got a whole bunch of leaks in it near the end of the day. it got all over the floor. we had to sop it up with fibre glass insulation batts. yay!
  • lots of other things i'm too tired to mention.
This daylog had potential. It could have been funny, witty, hilarious even! Unfortunately, I'm far too lame to write something like that right now.. and, so.. I'll just add one little bit before I wander off..

This morning on the way to work, we were off the main highway, down a back road and as we rounded a bend, luckily, quite slowly, we noticed that there were three deer on the road in front of us. They were startled but didn't run very fast, it was odd.. I love deer and it was amazing to see them like that, first thing in the morning and.. I think that they were the reason I managed to retain sanity today amidst all the craziness.
interviews end, that part of the shit is all over.. i go downstairs to registration to get the sticker that lets me ride the bus for free. my name's not on the list. they send me to student accounts when i tell them i didn't write a check, but used a scholarship to pay this quarter's tuition. the woman at student accounts brings up a screen that i more or less ignore. she says i owe money, and as my mind is thinking wait, huh? she's continuing.

you've been disenrolled.

i'm exhausted, i'm brain dead, i'm hungry and almost out of cigarettes. i came downstairs expecting easy bounty and good things. and classes start on monday and i don't have one. in short, i am unprepared to deal with the situation abruptly presented to me. i repeat her words. she shows me a screen, and there is my little scholarship neatly distributed across three quarters. my scholarship is enough to pay two quarters of tuition. i tell her i need her to move the money. the paperwork for my loan got lost in a chain of forwarding addresses over the summer while i moved around. i can write a check, but rent is due in less than a week. i need the money in my account for this quarter. she apologizes over and over and i feel like i'm back in a role play, interviewing some kid who never learned much about customer service. but it's not really a customer service situation. nevertheless, i try to make it one:

'please, you have to understand.. i need the scholarship now. i was not told that it would be distributed like this. this is not my fault. i need you to fix it.'

and i feel like i'm in a bad dream, playing the problem user, except i really am the problem user and i don't mean to be but i'm close to tears because it's not fair. i know it's my responsibility to check, to make sure things are copacetic and all systems are go and i'm in the class and i have the books and know where to go on the first day. but please, please.. i've been upstairs in a classroom for the last four days. i haven't checked email, i haven't washed my hair, i haven't deposited my paycheck or done the dishes.

sorry, sorry, nothing she can do. i have to go to registration, it's not the college's policy, it's the scholarship's terms. and at registration, the class is full. my spot went to someone on the waiting list. i have to find the faculty. sorry, sorry..

i was proud, though, because after everything i was well beyond my breaking point and i felt hopeless and stupid and small, but i didn't cry. i took care of what i could, went on to my boss', got my friend a job.. came home and wondered what the hell is going on and what to do about it.


also, the computer center got all screwed up, though it seems to be fixed now. and the new exchange server is still making our lives hell. plus i finally checked work email, and the faculty are all whining about the police here carrying guns. the cops are good folks. they don't seem to have any sort of power issues that would make it dangerous for them to be armed. one went to the trouble of coming to my dorm room to find out if a bottle of pop left on my car was mine and if i wanted it.
but it turns out that i am magically back in c&c (my class) and owe 0 dollars. huh? idiots.
As I write this I sit adrift on a raft somewhere in the middle of the Pacific. It's been almost a month since my last day log entry, but this is the first time I've been able to scrape together coherent thought and be free to write it down. I thought I had conquered my hairy nemesis when I crushed his little bones under the might of my crippled 4 stroke Mosa, alas it merely stunned him.

So this morning I woke, dropped my guts, bathed, packed and caught the tube.

Work will be another slow one today... waiting for Sony, end of a project. We've started designing our next game and have until the end of the year to build a technical demo, so we can woo a publisher, get it signed and go for broke on the full product, but for now we're in the gentle, early days. This is a good time because nobody is working very hard and that means plenty of Counter Strike.

I got in an hour early again today. I am going to have to cut down on that because I am doing five hours overtime a week for no reason and I don't get paid by the hour. However, I am cashing in on the error today by heading off early. I'll be going down to Euston at five to get a train to Brum. There I will meet up with Jambon Gris (Grey Ham, Graham) and spend a weekend drinking beer from little teeny bottles and watching TV, cutting CDs, raytracing, eating Baltis and generally trying to revive the old uni days if only for a couple of nights.

It should be fun for there are some conversations you can only have when drunk and in the company of old friends. We might even go to see Scary Movie.

I have just decided to come back to this node at various times throughout the day and add to it. Anything above here was written at the start and anything below later on.

Been here nearly two hours and have not stopped singing the theme tune to Juliet Bravo for more than 30 seconds. This is no longer a Good Thing.

12:20

Hmm hmm hmm.

I printed my whole bump map documentation.

I've been writing a demo hack to see how bump mapping is actually done. The documentation, which I intend to publish later, will be detailed.

Why? Well, it's a fascinating effect, and I have never done complicated stuff like that. Plus, I suck at the math, I thought this would be interesting. Vector calculations and all that. Optimization. And I'm using OpenGL to display the results (just for bitmap display, nothing fancy, sorry =)

The document I printed:

  • 1 cover page (two minute StarOffice work)
  • 17 pages of documentation, written with LyX, typeset in LaTeX2e.
  • 18 pages of source code (two half-A4s per page; prettyprinted with a2ps)

Today, I'm going to Kuhmo again. Hmphf. That's why I printed it - I need to make silly pen markings on the code and documentation while I'm away. =)

12:59

"All right, who in the name of Hades is downvoting daylogs? Come out and face me, or flee like the coward you are!" Seriously though, I don't mind if anyone downvotes my ordinary nodes if they're bad, but daylogs should not be downvoted without a grave, often technical reason. Please /msg me if there's any big "problem" with them, rather than downvoting... I mean, are you trying to say my life sucks or something? =)

Oh, and I'll henceforth list the nodes I've updated below.

13:59

Packing. And my stomach growls...

Idea of the Day: Should make a small elisp hack to invoke DayMetaNoder from Emacs... M-x daymetanode-current-buffer? =)

And thanks to whoever brought this writeup back to 0 rep. It's much nicer to go away if I know the Bad Thing That Kept Bugging was fixed. =)


Other day logs o' mine...

Noded today by y.t.: Documentation
Updated: The Clans Big Daddy?

back | days | front

Bleh

Wake up at 4:40am. Talk to her. Get hurt by her refusal to accept my praise. Can't get across the fact that I have rearranged my life around her. Too tired. Stumble into work. Snap at my friends. Drink too much coffee. Worry about my appraisal. Get interrupted by my stupid fucking project leader. Read complaints about vote dumping. Try to do this fucking win2k setup. Drink more coffee. Get blanked by the bitchy hr people. Realise I have to move heavy equipment on 2 hours broken sleep.

Fuck you all, I can have a bad day too.


15:15 BST

Well, I got ripped to shreds during my appraisal. My current project leader told me line manager that he was happey with my results, but not my methods. He said those magic management words of responsibility and communication making sure that there was no doubt that he considered me deficient in both. What makes this rather nasty is that my line manager thinks I am a poor communicator who does not take personal responsibility for his work. (roughly translated, this means I'm not a good corporate bunny). So I got ripped apart. Well, at least I didn't have to look at this stupid win2k server for an hour and a half.

-24
0200 NVG flight suddenly turns into 0230 and then 0300. Christ almighty, you'd think that these people could write a flight sked and then stick to the thing. I cut my guys out and stay with one other person to pick up the recovery and shutdown at what turns back into 0230. For the four hours I'm waiting at work I spend most of my time up to my neck in incorrectly routed 1553A data bus harnesses behind an equipment rack. Gatecrasher's World Sound System Latitude disc provides a perfect soundtrack to wire to, apparently.

-18
At home, Skip Raider's 'Just Another Day' off the Fatboy Slim/Paul Oakenfold Essential Mix set goes round and round over top Barber's Adagio in D. Banging hands against increasingly worn keys produces an essay about a riot I saw in Korea two years ago. I keep this up and I'm going to have to go and buy yet another part. Spend half an hour trying to figure out a title, eventually pick more pilot type verbage, node it under Unrecoverable Flight Regime and then fall into bed.

-12
Wake up to the sound of water. Keep having problems with my head repeating: 'Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink.' Get out of bed and try mumbling to get rid of the apparent malfunction in the mental sampling apparatus, which just makes things weirder. Wander around my apartment for a little while in a pair of surf shorts and eventually go through the following fun train of thought:
-It is day time.
Normal human beings are awake right now.
-I am not a normal human being.
Go back to sleep, Yurei.
-Don' wanna. Water noises.
Oh yeah, that's right. Good on ya boy, sick 'em.
Figure out that the water is coming from a spigot on the outside of the building that Spawn Child in the apartment next door has apparently activated with an unsupervised pair of pliers. I locate my own pliers, torque to N ft. pounds, and curse loudly in the general direction of Spawn Child. As usual he runs. I go back to sleep.

-6
Must write more code. Must smoke cigarette. Must review gargantuan technical manual delivered via dump truck. Must not node any more. Must write more code. Must smoke cigarette. (Refrain x6 hours.)

0
Sleep, Yurei, sleep.
-Okay.
THUD
-Ow.

14:40

Ok, I've made up my mind.
No matter how much I have to cut on the unnecessary spending the following year, I am going to visit Tokyo. Like I stated in yesterday's day log, the intelligent choice would be to postpone the trip and live like somebody with a decent income for 13 months.
Well, screw intelligence.
I'm going to pass on impulsively throwing money away and go with the unforgettable experience instead. I only need to save up some 2500-3000FIM per month anyway, and that leaves just enough cash for all the necessities plus a bit more. So, why not?

After finishing this WU I have to prepare for moving to the next room. The company is really low on space, and I am being located into the old dining room. Well, at least I'll be close to the refridgerator.


16:47

Here I am, in the kitchen. It doesn't even seem that bad. At least I'm a bit further away from my boss, making him unable to breathe down my neck 100% of the time. For time being, I'm also the only person in this room, so there's even a small feel of privacy. Or not, thanks to the people walking through here to get food & coffee.
But anyway, I'm not entirely unhappy about the new spot. No sunlight is bad, no sunlight directed at my monitor is good.
I've got over an hour until going to meet my friend from Tampere at the bus station. Maybe I'll spend the time doing something useful.. like noding.

Btw, I'm drinking beer. I never drink beer. Except when I'm really thirsty and offered it for free. At least it's Lapin Kulta, which is the only drinkable beer I've ever tasted.


To be continued...

Today's Writeups
Yamaha CS-20M | Yamaha GX-1

Nodekeeping
Yamaha

2 days removed from work.

I feel liberated, as anyone would, but I'm saddened by the loss. It's not until after I'm gone, until I realize how much I miss the place.

I knew it would be temporary. I didn't know that they considered me the best intern they ever had. It wasn't until the last day, the day of my review, until I found this out. For the hours that I spent downloading Simpsons episodes, and the hours I spent browsing E2 (screw MSNBC. I can get all the daily news from E2), I would have thought they would have classified me under the extremely lazy, incompetent category.

This was not the case. I was expecting a very negative send-off, and as such, waiting to get out. But I was more well liked than I perceived.

I think I just might go back.


The roommate arrives this weekend. So far, things have gone well with him. No suprise there, considering we've made about 1 phone contact, and 2 IM contacts in the past 3 months. Las Vegas is reporting on 6:1 odds that I'll be about ready to pull his eyeballs from their sockets by next Wednesday.

Good bet. I'd take it.

I woke up at quarter after six this morning as usual, only to realize I had fallen asleep in my clothes and still wearing my contacts. Books were piled around my bed, a notebook on my lap that had somehow managed to stay there all night, and a pencil was poking my elbow. And none of my homework was done. I hate it when that happens.

I stayed home from school to get stuff worked on. Watched Cyrano de Bergerac en Français sans les sous-titres. It was a good enough movie, and I understood most of it (only because I've read the book -- the old-style French was nearly unintelligible to my American ears). The movie lasted over two hours; I kept wishing it would end, but then when the end came, I wished it had been longer. Don't ask. I should be writing a report summarizing the lecture on famous pioneer French women writers I attended yesterday, but I've had all the French I can take for one morning.

I've been having one of those "What the hell am I doing" kinda feelings for the past couple days. I sleep, eat, work, go to school, sleep some more. And I always look forward to the end of any current activity in order to start the next, from which I tire of quickly and wish to be done with that as well. I count down the last few minutes of class, only to go to another one. The last hour of work goes by so slowly, and all I want to do is be somewhere else. Where? At home doing my homework? Because that's where I'll be going. I can't wait for the weekend to arrive, and then I can't wait for it to be gone. Am I just impatient, or something else? Sigh.

Yes! Comp Sci class is cancelled
Leaving me an hour and a half to tell all you people about my day.
I went to the study abroad fair this morning and encountered an extremely helpful woman from Butler University (compare with my not helpful dean from my own university. See September 21, 2000 for the details on that little ditty, as it were). She suggested to me a university in London that I hadn't even noticed before and told me that they had a very good COSI dept. and were somewhat less popular than the others in London, thereby virtually assuring me of acceptance. Being the self-concious person I am, how could I possibly pass up acceptance, and so I can finally finish my application to study abroad (which is a damn good thing since its due on October 1, 2000).
Last night was one of the least productive nights that I've had in a while. Yesterday we finally recieved from Etoys.com our order of two more Nerf dart guns and about fourty darts to finally complete our set for the whole house (four in total) and consequently enbarked on a virtual Battle of Bunker Hill ranging over both floors of the house and involving no real end, only temporary truces during which I went back to my room to attempt to write a paper on how peace is a "good thing". I lead a strange life. Our next door neighbors (with whom we share a common wall) even came over to find out what all the yelling was about.
The only true casualty of this extended battle was my wall which I put a hole in with the small of my back while trying to push up from the defensive crouch I was holding against it. I discovered that wall is only like 1/4 inch thick. This is what those of us in the industry call "a bad thing", for those of you who don't know.
In a curious episode of parrallelism with kaytay I woke up yesterday with my contacts still in, all my clothes still on, the lights burning brightly and my pockets full of crappy plastic shot glasses. Im not sure what my students must have made of their lead instructor wearing sunglasses in class and eating aspirin like they were m&m's but I was past caring.

It was probably a bad idea, but in this state I finally made my decision about what to do with my career. Actually I kinda made it cumulatively over the past few days, but today I bit the bullet and acted upon it. I sent a mail to OOPL accepting their offer ( for anyone who has been following the dramatic saga of these daylogs, they are the smaller company offering less money but hopefully more interesting work ). I was then a little stumped - I didnt actually have any idea how to go about resigning from Andersen. In the end I sent an email to my partner explaining my decision and asking what to do next.

He wrote back almost immediately saying I have to write a formal letter to the HR department but asking for the opportunity to meet me so that he can 'help me to be sure I am making the right decision'. Translation: Try to convince me to stay. I think this is fair enough, and It would probably be good for me to have a talk with him, So I set it up for the first Monday after I get back to Australia. I doubt that he will get me to reconsider though. Apart from anything else I feel like a change.

Later that night I am seized by a sudden panic attack. What the hell am I doing? What if resigning is nothing but a huge mistake? Am I throwing away my only chance to travel? Will I regret this??? sigh I dont like being responsible for my own life.

Kungs US Daylogs prev next
Got out of bed
    Thought of her

Had breakfast
    Thought of her

Went to work
    Thought of her

Worked a bit
    Thought of her

Visited Everything2
    Thought of her

Worked some more
    Thought of her

Had lunch
    Thought of her
Visited Everything2 again

    Thought of her
Worked even more
    Thought of her

Went home
    Thought of her

Had dinner
    Thought of her

Chatten on IRC
    Thought of her

Visited Everything2 once again
    Thought of her

Took a shower
    Thought of her

Chatted with her
    Thought of her

Went to bed
    Thought of her

As if mesmerized, i took a green and white bowl out of the cabinet, and walked
out the door, across the sunlit grass, my back to the house
where scattered across the floors of two rooms upstairs
there are unpacked fragments awaiting my decision:
on, to the west? or, off with their heads?
Is this artifact of my life important enough to come with me?

Someone has notified the sun of the first day of fall. Its rays
fall on my skin only, warm and cordial, but not really friendly.
They're making plans, changes in their routine are already evident.
But they're pleasant enough, and the grass is still green.

The names of these berries vary regionally, and i'm not even sure
if i call them by the correct one. Not that it matters. They're large,
i can hold only three or four of them in my hand,
heavy, glossy, black
and delicate,
just four without breaking druplets. I crouch and reach under hanging brambles
to gather from drooping clusters that shine darkly.

Can you tell me what happened to the blossom,
blackberry blossom, when the summertime came?

This is my mother's favorite berry. Today is her birthday. Today is the equinox.
Today is yet another day of leaving, which is more or less strange than the last.
I should be asked later what i am thinking now, how i'm feeling, now, because
the answers that come from those questions on the phone:
sad, nervous, busy, happy, eager, brave
all seem like little lies. It looks to me like my only thought
is the thin skin of massive blackberries, the thin skin of the
tiny brown frog that appeared out of the grass, their relative size.
Would you say, i said to me, that this berry is ten times the size
of that frog? (that would be awfully cramped, but possible, i replied) Or
(a sudden imagination that almost makes me laugh)
how many little frogs would cover the surface of this berry, tessellated Escher-like
and hanging with sticky toes to that precarious globe?
Would the berry collapse under that weight?

The frog disappeared again.

I'm suddenly seized again with the number of things that want doing
and by the tender sweetness of my mother, in the kitchen, probably watching,
who does not know that i know about the party she's planned tonight.

The pile of berries in the bowl looks like a cross between obsidian, amethyst,
black caviar, and bituminous coal. Tastes like summer. Leaves marks.

Blackberry blossom, the last time i saw one,
was down in the bramble where i rambled in the spring.


The lyrics are Mishelle Shocked.
Today is my birthday! I am 16 years old today. I am now of legal driving age. I am .. sweet sixteen. And today has been just great (for me at least) In fact, I was the most superficial person on Earth today, no doubt about it, and I couldn't feel better.

Also my dad's girlfriend's father had his fingers severed this morning, but I guess that doesn't really pertain to me much at all since I don't know him really. I don't really enjoy having people associate bad things like dislocation of the fingers with my birth.

Now the big task is.. cleaning my bedroom. Sigh.

This amuses me no end. My incredibly lame addition to stupid art jokes has been c!ed and has double the rep of my neat-o factual Roman Legionnaires in China (which I now realize would be an excellent name for a rock band). Heehee. I don't get angry about this kind of thing though! Humor is good, even when it's stupid art geek humor.

Ouroboros not only did the node for MY Surprisingly Cute Geeks of E2, he got on the Page of Cool! funny. I haven't added anything to it yet.

I found this cool food court in the festering hole of Yuppiedom known as Rincon Center. This food court has Yank Sing (famous dim sum place), as well as Korean, Thai, Italian, pizza, chili, Mexican, Middle Eastern, Indian, and lots more. And a cool-looking stationery store. Oh, and the "rain column," a very cool fountain-ish thing, and a live pianist (those dead ones have no reach). Wish I had a real lunch hour so I could enjoy any of the above. :/ I hate my job.
Must stay focused...do not allow their mocking encourage your rage...

I honestly hate the scum who ride on the bus with me. Kids from Central Middle School and Riverdale High both find it really amusing to mess with me. They play with my The Red Star hat, pull on my long hippie-ish hair, and yank the string that my ankh hangs on. Well today I snapped. Someone yanked at my ankh necklace and I turned around in fury, screaming "DAMNIT KNOCK IT OFF!!"

The rest of the bus ride was spent with those around me teasing me (in hushed tones, they must of thought I couldn't here them) about my displat of rage and my use of only one swear word.

When I got off, my friend Emily (you know her by now, don't you? :P ), my neighbor (and my sister's friend) Mellissa, and my sister both asked if I was ok. I told them I was alright, that I was under control again.

I am fine now, honest, but I swear these kids will treat you like shit if you don't listen to Kid Rock or like the WWF. To any kdis out there listening to this, don't be like the assholes on that bus: be tollerant of people who look and sound different than you...you may be suprised to find that you have something in common (stranger things have happened.)

Another forgettable Daylog
Be forewarned.

This is not a good day for Evergreen students. (see prole's wu above)
This is the last day of SWATing (Students with Access to Technology. Yes, it's a stupid acronym.)

I'm tired. I'm exhausted. I've had nothing but stupid penny anty shit to deal with all day. ALL of my co-workers have bailed on me. Not a single shred of back up. I've had to deal with 12 people so far. I got on at noon. It's now 3. At four, I'm going home. Fuck it.

I wonder if there's some alcohol on this campus I could get my hands on......

Back from Rome

Roman taxi drivers are insane. In fact any driver in Rome is insane. If there are 3 lanes clearly marked, Romans will queue in 5 lanes. They jump red lights, they use their horn almost orgasmically.

It's strange, when I go on business trips I hardly ever see the city I am in. I usually spend the nights working. This time I sat on the balcony of my room drawing up a white paper on ADO for SQL Server administrators. I realise that whilst cities generally don't change much, the facade of streets aside, the trees do.

And the Italian phone system's ring tone is the same as the UK engaged tone. No internet access for 3 days. 117 emails to go through, excluding my listserv subscriptions. Joy.

...Hey...Ho...

9:20 AM EST -- I'm a weak man

Damme! Even after I TOLD myself not to go to Burger King for breakfast over and over again yesterday, I went ahead and did it again! Bugger me! Ah, well. At least I have the physics homework done that's due today. That's relieving. Now, the only class I'm officially confused in is math modelling. I'll work on that.

3:00 PM EST -- They ain't meowing

For a short period of time, all cat-related activities in the house were brought to a grinding halt when the food ran out. After peaceful negotiations with the members of the feline race within the premesis, cat food was purchased and activities resumed.

6:15-ish PM EST -- AUDIT!

Guess what... Well, sensei already knows, he dealt with it -- More node auditing for me! Only three more nukes today, but now I'm also working on rewriting nodes which deserve some rewriting... such as 13-year-olds who think 100 lines is a lot of code, or so...

It rained yesterday for the first time all summer. Grey clouds were hanging in the air this morning, and while they've moved around and changed shape, they're still looming out there this afternoon.

Today has been an excruciatingly long day -- where you both can't believe how long a minute takes, and wonder how the minutes have gone by so quickly and you still have so much to do ... No worries, though. It will still be there on Monday, it always is.

Our company was acquired a few weeks ago, and the deal closed today. It has been very sad, watching so many people check out mentally, and others leave physically. One of our Senior VPs left today. Damn. Who's next ...

I should keep a box under my desk to put all of my stuff in: 1. stuffed cow, 2. two plastic aliens, 3. giant ball bearing, 4. money monkey, 5. motorcycle made of scrap car and bike parts, 6. plants, 7. wrist guards (that I only need because I've worked so many freakin' hours at this desk here) and 8. any other crap lying around that rightfully belongs to me ...

It's 5:05.

In the last year and a half, this place was a hive of energy from 8 a.m. to 8 or 9 p.m. at least. I am the only one left on this half of the building. It feels so lonely in here, I guess the grey clouds outside aren't helping.

Time to go home and call someone cheerful.
I'm starting to recognize the idea that I can face burnout from having two jobs in the Brooklyn College campus.

In the Brooklyn College Excelsior newspaper office, I'm the senior editor responsible for writing up a few of my own articles and to pray for new computer equipment to come in to the office. I have to be a father figure to writers and editors who know nothing about layout using Adobe PageMaker for the Macintosh. The rest of the editors don't do layout, so all of the work is done by the editor-in-chief. Most of the people in there have the tendency to make a shitload of a mess in the office, making their own work harder because they left their disks under some big mess of snacks, old newspapers, and so on.

I also work at the The Library Cafe in Brooklyn College. My duties in this place is to make sure the end users don't lose their work from Microsoft Word. I'm also the guy who installs things like new printer drivers in all of the 60-odd computers. I'm running around left and right, getting everything done in the Library Café. This job is a toughie, but it gives me money ($5.15 per hour).

These two jobs cut into my schedule considerably. In September 21, 2000 I stayed in campus from 9:00 AM in the morning until midnight. I never had the chance to see my mother's face when I get home. All I did is just walk up to the bedroom, and throw myself to bed! This Sunday, I have to choose between working for the understaffed Library Café, or reporting the Shubert Alley Flea Market and Grand Auction for the paper.

Am I going to die from this kind of work? Maybe. Am I going to lose a lot of the hobbies and whatnot doing all of this work? Yes.

(Noded as soon as I got back from a four-day trip from Tampa to New York to be the best man in a wedding.)

When I woke up in my hosts' guest bedroom, I found that Jake the cat disapproved of where I'd put my glasses and my watch, and had helpfully batted them into more interesting places. He's a real sweetheart and now I'm pretty sure I'd like to get a cat when I get a condo.

We picked up our tuxedos and had lunch at Bruno's, a 50's-themed restaurant. We came back and listened to his very impressive collection of a capella CDs while Jake did his thing.

The rehearsal was a great chance to gawk at the interfaith sanctuary of the College of St. Rose. Its lobby is an indoor garden, with ferns and tropical greenery surrounding a small decorative pool. Just beyond the pool are floor-to-ceiling windows looking into the sanctuary from the congregation's right. The rehearsal was also a great chance to chat up the bridemaids.

After the rehearsal came the rehearsal dinner, which turned out to be next door to a Faculty-Staff Luau. It sounded like they were having a lot more fun than us. Professors letting their hair down are bound to be more entertaining than a gaggle of Michiganders catching up on the gossip about a family I don't know.

In our hotel room, Adam and I got started talking about religions and God and the Bible. It was just like old times -- spinning out philosophies just for the hell of it.

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