As you’re reading this, I’m turning in my two-week notice at my law office job. Well, maybe not at the exact time you’re reading this, but it’s happening today, that should be good enough.
Why am I leaving my job, you might be asking. Commendable question, really. Long story short, I’m unhappy with where I am right now, both personally and professionally. I need more out of life then the 8-5 job, followed by going home and either napping or surfing the internet. I occasionally break out my guitar, but sometimes I don’t feel good enough to do that (!!!).
I need a better work environment, and it’d be great to get better pay, too—a college degree should mean something (like, I have some loans I want to pay back, so you should pay me more, kthxbye). Unfortunately, the work environment in my small town isn’t that great—no real advances available. Something I’ve realized the hard way—I need my friends. More than I realized. I have one hell of a support network, and I can’t have them long-distance anymore.
I’ve thought about this move for a while, but I let my family situation get in the way. I’ve written about this before (link to come). I moved home to save money, reconnect with friends who lived here, and spend time with my family. I’ve been able save an okay amount, but most of the friends who were here aren’t here anymore. Bummer.
And, as much as I love my family, I’ve already learned how to make it on my own. Moving away doesn’t mean I’ll never come back—I’m only a three-hour drive away. But, while I’m young, and while I have this weird spirit about me that says I really can do anything, I need to figure out what that anything is. To do that, I have to be on my own, not in some situation that makes me part-adult, part-high-schooler.
So, I’m looking for a job in Lexington, working out a place to stay, and am hoping for the best. Where there’s a will, there’s a way, right?
Also, I’m sorry I didn’t do 20Sb Vlog Day. I’m thinking I may post one soon, provided I can figure out how to work my new camera’s video function, and successfully upload to “The Youtubes.”
Despite some minor setbacks, this Valentine’s Day weekend went well.
A running topic at The Corner Booth has been: when will Mike get his computer shit fixed, yo? The saga continues…
I make my way into Lexington around 8 PM Friday evening. I made it to my friend’s apartment, and dropped off my monitor, my old tower, and the parts for the new box. I’m lucky to have tech-savvy friends who aren’t afraid of fucking up incredibly small computer equipment; doing the assembly myself would have caused me to pee my pants. Anyhoo, they wanted to do the physical build on Friday night, and we would all meet together on Saturday morning to install the software while watching the UK game (UK beat the piss out of Arkansas, by the way).
With my parts in their care, I went out for an enjoyable evening with my future roommates Erin and Josef. We went out for dinner, then headed to Pazzo’s (only the best pizza pub ever) for some drinks. Afterward, we headed to a mutual friend’s place for a firepit gathering. I’ll admit, I’m a bit of a pyromaniac, so finding things that would get the fire to a steady roar was my task for the two hours or so we were there. Very fun. Add in a Smash Bros. and Mario Kart nightcap, and it’s a solid night.
Saturday, I get to my friend’s place and find out that the motherboard—you remember, the one that I had to wait for because it was on back order—was shot. They had tested all the other parts, including the power supply, but couldn’t get the thing to come on. After a few minutes on the phone with customer service, I had a return shipping label in my inbox, and a new motherboard on the way. Looks like I’ll have to wait until next week to have my geek-out post. My apologies to those of you who were waiting on pins and needles. Of course, pins and needles aren’t exactly comfy things, so maybe you shouldn’t have been waiting on them in the first place.
Saturday evening went well, despite the fact that it was Valentine’s day and I’m recently single. I had some dinner and Jeopardy fun with Joe and Erin, then it was off to the bowling alley with Hohjamin…except that the bowling alley had about 3 lanes open, and there was a mile-long line to put your name on a waiting list. No thanks, we said, and headed to a bar with the best selection in Lexington (over 200, total). Hohjamin may have convinced me to start looking for a job early, and move out to Lex Vegas ahead of my current schedule—damn him and his MBA brains. We’ll see how it goes.
And that’s about it. I head back home today, spend a week at work, and then come back, hoping that the mobo is indeed the issue, and that the one being sent to me now is in working order. Oh, and I got a new (to me) camera! It’s awesome! I’ll have to post practice shots sometime this week.
Now, if I can only convince myself that Taco Bell is not a good breakfast…
Was told on Monday that time was up on a case on Tuesday. I’d been trying to get records for said case for three weeks, and the office which was to supply the records was being shitty about it. Long story short: the miscommunication of my superiors and the non-compliance of another office worker caused me 1.5 days of stress and anger.
Had a client come in to start a file with our office. Usually, this takes me 30-45 minutes. My boss decided to come in and talk with the client. Took me 90 minutes. And it was not fun.
The day after the high-pressure records situation, my computer decided to shut down. And not come back up. The whole day. Turns out, the tech guy who came over installed the wrong damn network card. Hardware issue. Easy as hell to solve, and he pushed the card in anyway. What a dick.
Because the two supervisors in the office focus on…well, we’ll say they don’t focus on what should be focused on, all of the preceding events are being viewed as my fault, even though I’ve put in my best effort despite having little notice (and, I don’t mess with the insides of work computers).
Even though I fixed everything (regardless of whose fault it was) I really thought I was going to lose my job. It was nuts. I heard myself say, “But what would I do without it? Where would I go?” I’ve never thought that about any job. Ever. Suddenly, I had a thought:
Fuck you, economy.
I will not, at the age of 23, be chained down by any job. I’m young, which means I’m mobile, agile, and worthwhile (yeah, I just did that). I’m not quitting, but until I’m grey-headed or bald (it’s up in the air right now) I will never view my self-worth through the lens of a shitty job.
Thanks, reality check—you did your job last night.
In other, less crazy news, I’m headed to Lexington after work today. I have a birthday drink to buy, a computer to build, a haircut to get, and some drinks to down. I’ll try to post with a wrap up on Monday or Tuesday (probably Tuesday, as I’ll have a shit-ton of photos if I do this right).
Any plans for the weekend, kids?
P.S. Alec Baldwin made my life last night on 30 Rock.
Yeah, that’s how tired I am—not only am I writing a Segments post, but the only thing I could think of for a subtitle was “Security Deposit Edition.” Oh well, it fits the format, you get to read something, and I get to write.
As you might have guessed, I just wrote the check for the security deposit on my new place. I’m very excited about getting back to Lexington (there should be more on this in later posts) and pumped about living with my friends Erin and Josef. I’m glad that I moved back here to spend time with my family, save money, and reconnect with friends, but truthfully, I feel like a goldfish that grew up in a lake, and is being forced into a bowl. Overall, getting back to Lex Vegas will be a positive.
***********
Yesterday was the 25th anniversary of my parents’ wedding. I’m very excited and pleased by this. They’ve had ups and downs, and I certainly don’t believe they communicate the way I would, but they know and love each other. It takes all kinds, and I’m glad that my parents are my parents.
***********
I had the Blizzard of the Month from DQ—Choco Cherry Love. Oh. My. God. Go get one. Now. Or a pint of Cherry Garcia from Ben & Jerry’s. Ugh. This last bit of rambling makes me thankful I’m cutting out sweets for a a couple weeks. I’m a cotton-headed ninny muggins.
***********
I’m excited about the 20SB meetup…
and you should be too.
***********
I’m taking a trip to Lexington this weekend. When I come back, I will have some or all of the following:
A new (to me) camera
A (mostly) new computer
A quenched beer thirst (any recommendations?)
Pictures of the weekend that was
Two newly strung guitars
Also, it’s Wednesday, or as we office/cube-types like to refer to it, “we’re at the top of the hill, let’s just coast the rest of the week” day. Monday and Tuesday of this week were absolutely killer, which begs the question: How do you get through the week? What keeps you going? Hope to get an answer from you!
This weekend was pretty good. The best one I’ve had in a while, I’ll say.
On Friday, I finally thought to set my phone clock to match the time clock at work. I had been a few minutes slow, which had caused me to be way too close to being late. I hate being late. When you’re late, you’re saying that your time is more important than the other person’s. That’s not me. Now, I know exactly when I need to clock in and out, without all the stupid guesswork I’d been doing.
Another milestone happened on Friday—I finally gave up my vendetta with Hardee’s. I’ll have to explain the story in full detail at a later time, but here’s the gist: five years ago, I walk into Hardee’s and order my food. I see a worker cuss at and bitch out a customer, only to turn right around and give me my food with a smile on her face. Not cool. More details to come.
Saturday was awesome, as per my usual. I like my Saturdays. I don’t have to do anything for anyone else, I can just enjoy driving around. I always hit up the guitar store and talk with my friends there (and, obviously, drool on all the gear). I usually eat out for lunch, and pick up things on my “to get” list. I feel productive, and I get to work on my own time. The best thing ever. I need to start using some part of Saturday to get ahead on my blogging; ideally, I’d like to have two weeks’ worth of posts in the bag, so I could set them to auto-post whenever I knew I wouldn’t have time to write. That would be lovely.
As a bonus, Sunday ended up being a mini-Saturday. I thought I was going to have to help Dad replace a radiator in one of our vehicles (and that HAD to get done, or tomorrow morning would have been a clusterfuck) but my uncle was able to help him instead, so I escaped out to town again. Rented a couple of movies—Amadeus, one of my faves, and at the request of the very nice girl behind the counter, a Tarantino film called True Romance. I’ve not heard of it, hopefully it will be enjoyable. Video Girl said that if I didn’t like it, she would never recommend a movie to me again. I think that, even if I don’t like it, I’ll lie and say I did. I need entertainment, folks.
I’m back at work today, but I’m not feeling too down. If I can keep my nose to the grindstone and work hard, this week should go by fast. And then? Road trip to Lexington to build my new computer! I’ll be sure to take pictures and do a full write-up when I get back.
Oh, and thanks for the comments/emails about my last post, which talked about my views on religion. I hope I made it clear that, though it doesn’t work for me, I don’t consider that to be too much of a factor when befriending someone.
How was everyone else’s weekend? Comments on any of the above?
NOTE: The author wishes to make a few things clear—
That he has wanted to talk about this subject for a while, but hadn’t figured out exactly how to do it until just now;
That this is his blog, and he should feel comfortable in his own environment;
That he is not bitter, nor does he hate the world. He’s actually quite a happy person, and mostly satisfied with life.
That he would never push his beliefs on you, and would hope that you’d return the favor;
That, taking the previous statement into account, he is open-minded, and would disagree with you without demonizing you in the process (about both religion and tofu).
In my experience, religion is a lot like tofu. What, you don’t get it? Fine, backstory (as if I could go without it).
The first time I had tofu, I was not a fan. It had a weird smell, a weird texture, and a weird taste. I was trying to give it a chance, and ate my entire serving. Not a good plan, the taste stayed with me until I downed a bottle of Dr. Pepper. I left that meal with a not-so-good opinion of tofu.
A few days later, a friend was talking about tofu, and I mentioned that I’d had it and wasn’t it’s biggest fan. My friend’s instant reply was interesting:
“Well, you probably haven’t had good tofu.”
“You know what, maybe that last person didn’t cook the tofu in a way I would like it…perhaps I should give tofu another shot.” And off I went, down the adventurous trail of tofu tasting. This cook used different methods, different flavorings, different everything…and I still didn’t like it. It was not good…a different kind of not good, but still not good. It was at this point that I was beginning to think I really didn’t like tofu, no matter how it was cooked.
Sure enough, a few weeks later, another tofu-loving friend asked me to try their tofu—you know, because I probably hadn’t had good tofu. Different twists, different method of delivery…and it still didn’t please or satisfy me.
This story sums up my experiences with religion fairly well. There have been a couple of times in my life when I thought that a belief in a higher power was desired—or perhaps, essential—to fully enjoy my time here. But, I can’t blindly believe anything. To steal a line from this past election season: you can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig. You can spice up and present tofu any way you want, but under all the seasoning and garnish, you’ve got a brick of something artificial that easily crumbles when put under the slightest bit of pressure.
I can have faith in mankind—for all the things we’ve fucked up, we’ve also done some good. I cannot, however, have faith in something like God. I can be open-minded, and accept that God is real if you show me proof, but I won’t believe in something that won’t show itself. Nature is about the closest thing I could have any sort of “faith” in, but you can see it and make scientific observations about it. All religions state that they are the one truth, but I’m not buying. I need facts. We say that seeing is believing, but when it comes to religion/God/higher beings, we seem to shirk away from this.
That isn’t to say that I would make fun of or poke fun at anyone who believes in such a thing. If it makes you feel better, fine. I won’t argue against the idea that, for many, believing in a supreme power is very comforting. Doesn’t make it the truth—and the truth is more important to me.
When I left work, it was barely snowing—little flurries blowing hither and yon. A short trip to Wal-Mart later, and I’m going 30 mph on the main roads, and much slower on the road to my house. Like the crazies they are, the rest of my family decided to travel out to play Bingo (do they ever cancel that, or is there a coalition of old ladies who happens to be well-connected to the mob?) so I’m stuck here alone for the next four or so hours. Not that bad, really. It’ll give me a chanc e to get some things done…like blog!
***********
My TV plan is working. Generally, I feel better. Sure, the breakup affected my mood, but you pull out a few (read: all) episodes of Family Guy, and it’s hard not to laugh a few times. Unless your name is Maxie, and you don’t like Family Guy because you watch America’s Best Dance Crew and have no soul. I digress.
In addition to Family Guy, I’ve been watching House, South Park, and The Office. I tried out Weeds, but couldn’t get into it. I heard it grows into itself, maybe I’m just not patient. Nah, I’m awesome. Probably the show. Due to my Blockbuster addiction returning, I have a disc of 30 Rock right now. Times up perfectly with the snowy weather. I’ll let you know what I think.
***********
For those of you who have been following, my Futurebox saga continues. I mentioned in the last Segments post that the RAM I bought to spice up my computer didn’t fit the slots in the motherboard. This is partly Dell.com’s fault for misreading my service tag, but partly my fault for not noticing the misread.
I was talking to a friend yesterday morning, and I said that I was almost wanted to say screw it and buy a new tower. To which my techonologically knowledgeable friend replied: “You know, that’s not a bad idea.” A few minutes of searching later, and I was in love with a barebones kit from TigerDirect.com (don’t worry, techies and nerds, I’ll post full specs and maybe pics when I get it up and running). I was hoping that it would ship early, but the motherboard is on back order. Normally, I hate hearing that term, but a very nice customer service rep guaranteed that they would be getting a shipment of 2,000 of those motherboards in this week, and that my order would ship early next week. As I’m making a trip out of town next weekend to get some help with assembly, it would be nice for the stuff to get here before then. More later.
***********
I didn’t know it was going to happen, but it did. I finally have the craving for my next tattoo. When I wrote a post about the design, I knew I wanted it, but I didn’t have to have it under my skin right then. Now, I do. I’m trying to fucking save money, Brain—lay off the cravings! For pictures of the design plus the two tattoos I have already, click here!
***********
Wish me luck with the snowy weather. Luck = it snowing so much I can’t go to work tomorrow. Kthxbye.
NOTE: I just lost this post. Why the hell did WordPress log me out?
Don’t know what happened, but I managed to delegate responsibility…to my direct supervisor. GTD FTW!
Actually, I’m well aware of what happened. I was feeling overloaded, and not because I’m unorganized. I was given way more work than I could do in forty hours a week. Writing all the briefs in my department, plus the normal mundane paperwork. Not a great thing, especially when you find out on Wendesday that you have one due Thursday and two due Friday. Luckily, I was able to get an attorney to write one of the briefs (it was their case, so I didn’t feel bad) and the other case settled, rendering moot the submission of a brief.
What did I learn from that experience? That, if I thought I was being given an unfair workload, I could talk to the higher-ups and work out a solution. At least, that’s what I thought would happen, until I realized the true issue—I wasn’t understanding my job duties clearly. So, I went to The Boss (not the same guy who did a crotch slide into the camera during the Super Bowl halftime show) for clarification. Turns out, I’m not supposed be doing all the briefs after all. Which is awesome. If I had been assigned all the briefs, I would have had to ask to have a lightened paperwork load.
All this may sound like I’m bitching about work, but I’m not. Just relaying a tale of how one determined, hairy cube-type decided to take a stand and say, “Hey, tell me what the fuck I’m supposed to be doing!”
How about you? We all feel overloaded with work at some point. What did you do to handle the situation? Did you ask for clarification of your job duties? Did you decide that you needed to be better organized (and if so, how did you organize yourself)? Did you crawl under your desk and wait for 5 PM to roll around? Sharing is caring, leave comment love.
First things first, I hope you all enjoyed Magoo’s guest post yesterday. He’s not enjoyed the cold weather we’ve been having lately (I think he’s a bit of a wimp in snow, but whatever) so it was hard to get him to write for me. Thankfully, he caved and helped a guy out. I’ve gotten quite a few emails complimenting him on his unique writing style. I let him know about it while we were on our way home from work today. He seemed pleased, and willing to write more in the future. We’ll see what happens.
***********
I got my Barack Obama inauguration poster in the mail today. After some quick framing and hanging action, I must say it’s pretty awesome. This election had me wondering what the atmosphere was around presidents who’ve come along at similar times—when the better part of the country thinks we’re headed in the wrong direction, and we need need need to elect someone great. I also thought a lot about the similarities between this election and the campaign of 1972 (for more on that great year in politics, read Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail ‘72). There was a lot of this tension this past year, and I think it was less about Republican/Democrat or liberal/conservative, and more about “we’re in a pickle here, and our side thinks that we have a real solution to get us back on track.” Honestly, I’m glad the thing’s over.
***********
The RAM I bought? The RAM I mistakenly shipped to my old address? The RAM I had to go to Lexington just to pick up? Yeah, it doesn’t fit. I didn’t pay enough attention when looking up my computer on Dell’s website to realize that it misread my service tag, and told me I had an Optiplex, when I really have a Dimension. FAIL. Not sure what I’ll do with the stuff. Probably gonna have to buy new sticks. Oh well, at least my new DVD burner works! And new hard drive installation coming soon! Woo hoo!
***********
This weekend is shaping up to be relatively mundane. Well, actually, Brandon is coming into town this weekend for his birthday, so we’ll probably get together and play some music. Which is cool.
***********
I have some of the best friends. In the blogosphere and IRL. I thank all of you. You know how to cheer up a hairy guy.
Just because you read it here doesn't mean it's true. Doesn't mean it's false, either. Multiple opinions on various subjects can show up here, as well as meandering chatter about absolutely nothing. Feel welcome.
