Personal

6/17/05 Update: My lord…Microsoft canned me for a photo, but this post slipped right by Xerox? I got really lucky. In retrospect, a really stupid thing to post publicly.

In other news…well, my job is starting to get on my nerves a bit, unfortunately. The job itself isn’t really all that bad — while copying isn’t what I want to do forever, I know what I’m doing, and I like the actual place I’m working — I just feel like I’m caught in the middle of a power struggle, and it’s not the greatest place to be.

I think Xerox may have made a bit of a mistake by hiring for this position from a temp agency. Basically, as the XBS Account Representative, I’m supposed to be the resident Xerox person here. However, from my point of view, I feel much more like an Andersen employee than I do a Xerox employee — I work at, for, and with Andersen at all times, and Xerox is little more to me than another level of beaurocracy that as yet, has done little more than interfere with how I get paid, where and how quickly my supplies come from, and such. I even like the people I deal with at Andersen more than most of the Xerox people I’ve dealt with — admittedly, though, I do have much more contact with the Andersen people, so that’s likely to give me some amount of bias to start with. So in the end, I almost feel like a double agent from a bad spy movie — technically, my loyalties are supposed to be with Xerox, but they end up being much more with Andersen.

Aside from crossing my fingers on the Carnival Cruise Lines position, I’m not actively looking for another job anywhere just yet, though. When I first got tagged for this spot, I was asked to make a one year commitmentment to the position, and even though there is nothing signed and I’m still a temp worker, I don’t like backing out on something like that. However, the situation here is somewhat frustrating, and I can’t say as I’d complain if something worthwhile (such as Carnival Cruise Lines, or maybe a decent job somewhere in the tech sector) fell into my lap. Just this morning, I had to tell Shelley (my Xerox supervisor) that I’d watch what I said around the office here, as Lee (my Andersen supervisor) had slightly mis-interpreted something I said and gotten the impression that I was actively looking for another position somewhere. Since Lee had asked Xerox for someone willing to make a commitment, she wasn’t too excited about that, and asked Shelley about it — who then got miffed that she was hearing news like this from her client rather than her employee. I suppose I can understand where both Shelley and Lee are coming from — I just don’t like being in the middle of it.

This is kind of why I think Xerox shouldn’t have hired me for this spot straight out of a temp agency. If they’d brought in someone from Xerox instead, then not only would that person know more about the Xerox policies, procedures, and corporate atmosphere, then they’d probably see themselves much more as a Xerox employee than I do.

Ah, well, I suppose it’ll all get resolved one way or another eventually. At this point, I’m just keeping my fingers (and toes) crossed for the cruise lines. Since they said they’ll be hiring in the October/November range, I figure if I haven’t heard from them by Nov. 1^st I should be okay with giving a call or e-mail to see what the situation is, and whether or not I have a chance. Hopefully it comes through…but if not…well, I’ll figure something out.

Well, okay, so it’s not really that exciting — just a blood drive. But I thought it was amusing when I noticed them in the 3^rd floor conference room. Downsides to having a tattoo barely a year old — from what I understand, I can’t give blood for another year. I’m sure they’ll be fine, though, they had willing volunteers in the chairs already.

You know, it’s kind of bizarre to see a prediction come true. About the time I was leaving TimeFrame, Rick and Tim and I all were pretty sure that the way the business was heading, it would be closing down in about six months. Well, out of the blue, I found this e-mail in my mailbox on Friday:

A note to all TimeFrame Customers:

At this time all digital intake services have been shut down. If you currently have a print job in progress it will be completed on or before Oct. 31, 2001.

As of November 1^st, TimeFrame will no longer be offering volume copying and duplicating services in black and white and color. That means that the services that would normally be produced on the Xerox DocuTech or the DocuColor will no longer be available at TimeFrame.

Large format printing, laminating, and mounting services will continue to be offered under the business name “Big Time Graphics”.

We regret any inconvenience this may cause.

We expect erratic scheduling, at best, as we near the final days of these services.

Please address all inquires regarding archived data to Robert Thomas at (907) 562-3822.

While we were all pretty sure it was coming, it’s still a bit shocking to get the news that it’s actually happening. It definitely looks like I got out at the right time, though.

I swear, if I ever completely lose it, flip out, and go postal, I’m going to end up doing it with a staple gun, because of the sheer number of jobs I’ve run for lawyers, accountants, government employees, and various other people who seem to compensate for whatever percieved deficiencies may exist in their life with a pathological drive to staple everything as many times as possible, whether or not it’s actually necessary.

Grrrrrrrr.

And ack pffft, too.

…just posting a quick note in the few minutes I have before I’m off work today.

I’m still around — this has been an extremely busy week, and I wasn’t able to find time to update the site. Funny thing about running the copyroom at a financial firm — October 15^th is the deadline for the six-month extention from April 15^th. Made things pretty crazy around here — but on the upside, I got a hefty paycheck! Working a 50.25 hour week will do that, I guess.

Other interesting events: got my PFD, and spent some of it on a TV and DVD player, so I can now watch movies again. Picked up a couple DVD’s, but not too many — while I fully intend to keep working on my collection, I won’t be adding to it at quite the rate I was for a while. Renting will become the byword for a while, more than buying.

That’s the basics — I’ll try and babble a bit more in-depth sometime soon.

First off, a quick recap since the last time I posted. Not too long after I got home from Aurafice, where I made my last post, I got a call from Nate inviting me out that evening. So, after killing time around the house for the rest of the afternoon, I got ready to head out, and met up with Nate at the Vogue. We hung out there with Graves (one of the regulars at both the Vogue and the Mercury that Nate and I have met) and Francesca (a quite nice — and quite attractive — Japanese/French girl that we met through Graves). The four of us talked and danced until around 11:30 or so, when Francesca left, and Nate, Graves and I headed over to the Mercury. A good hour or so there, and then I decided it was time for me to head home and crash. Nate had a party to head off to, so he walked me back to my apartment (such a nice boy…) then headed off, and I crashed out.

Sunday I spent entirely at home, either reading or mixing. Ever since I’ve come down here, when I’ve been mixing I’ve had a fairly annoying background hum, and wasn’t able to figure out where it was coming from or how to get rid of it. Sunday I went over my setup and finally figured out how to take the hum out, and spent much of the day re-recording some of the mixes I’ve made since I’ve been down here, since the original versions all had that background noise. Two of the mixes — Difficult Listening Hour 4 and Where Time Becomes A Loop — ended up slightly different than the first time I recorded them, but that’s normal.

Now, for the changes I’d hinted about a couple days ago. First off, the more minor of the two is that after considering it for a few days, I finally figured I’d give it a shot this morning, and for the first time in about 8 years or so, I’m clean shaven. I’m not at all sure how long this is going to last — I’ve already been told that I look about 18 — but I’d gotten curious enough to try.

The more major of the two — I’m working on quitting smoking. I started last week, and made it through the majority of the week with just a couple cigarettes. I did kind of lose the battle this weekend (it’s quite easy to slip up when out at a bar with friends), but now it’s a new week, and I’m giving it another shot. I haven’t quit smoking — as evidenced by this weekend — and I don’t like saying that I’m trying to quit smoking, as the word trying carries an implicit implication of failure — but I am working on quitting. It’s at least worth a shot. Wish me luck!

Here we are, back to Monday morning again. Woohoo…or something like that. Hrm.

The weekend was okay. Friday night I met up with Alex and Nate again, as this was Alex’s last weekend here in the Seattle area before he gets out of the Navy and heads back to Alaska to go to UAA. We hit the Vogue and the Mercury, then Nate went home, and Alex and I crashed out at the Shoebox.

Most of Saturday was just Alex and I bumming around Capitol Hill — neither of us really had any plans, so it was pretty laid back. Towards the evening we met up with Casey at the Bauhaus coffeeshop/bookstore and sat and talked for a while. Casey and Alex went off to meet up with Dez down at the Alibi room, but I was feeling pretty beat, so I just wandered home and went to bed.

Sunday I spent mostly in bed — apparently I’ve picked up a minor bug of some sort. Not enough to make me feel really bad, but I certainly don’t feel really good, either. Had another conversation with Loren in the evening, and eventually crashed out again.

Not all that amazingly entertaining of a weekend, I guess…I’d been planning on getting out and doing a bit more, but just ended up not quite feeling up to it. I’m still feeling a little under the weather now, but am hoping it blows over fairly soon. On the bright side, I did get word from Loren that my bribe…er…tax refund showed up at the Pit, and he’ll be mailing it down to me, so I should have that sometime this week. Pretty cool, I guess. Anyway, that’s enough freeform babble for now….