Friday, July 22, 2005 at 2:26 p.m. | 3 comments
They claim there is a silver lining in almost any situation, but in my case my perk of the day makes me quite unhappy.

I was hoping, praying, and even going to bribe the people at Kaboose (with an object other than the one I DID offer them) for the chance to leave the hell that is First Media and come into the light of a new job that was everything I could have wanted. It was close to home, well paying, and the work was in a subject I adored.

Like most things in my life the past year, it was not to be.

I'm not really surprised. It had been more than two weeks since the interview and I hadn't heard a thing. I wrote to my HR contact, who I really hit it off with, and got a response back from a stranger cooly informing me that the job I wanted had been taken by someone else.

Partly, I blame my dreams. You see, last night I dreamt I got one of the positions they were offering, despite the lack of communication beforehand. I felt so sure today that it was mine. I had a lot of energy, finished my work early, and was prepared to have a good night.

I suppose I still could, but it depends on what Catherine is in the mood for.

My silver lining, as mentioned previously, is that I'm supposed to get promoted here today. It should be more money along with the extra responsibilities I've already been enjoying (not) for the past three weeks, but it's still First Media and it's still a lot of hassle given the attitudes of some of my co-workers.

I'll keep applying. I'll keep trying to get out of here. I still plan to apply to teacher's college this year and find, somehow, the thing it is that is going to make me happy.

Because right now, I'm surely not.

EDIT!

Great news! Instead of getting promoted, I'm likely getting fired at the end of my contract period (August 30) so they can move my whole job to India!

Wow!

(please adjust the above to include a sarcastic tone)
Posted by Parallel
Wednesday, July 13, 2005 at 10:48 p.m. | 0 comments

Nathan Fillion's Captain Malcolm Reynolds... by Astonishing X-Men artist John Cassaday. Posted by Picasa
Posted by Parallel
Just because the majority of you have to wait until September doesn't mean you can't get some Serentiy lovin' sooner.

Dark Horse has released the first issue of a planned three-issue prequel to the film. Each issue has a number of variant covers, but the true gold is that it's a Whedon-penned issue filled with a garden of 'verse delights.

It's worth picking up, or if you're poor, borrowing mine.

My apologies to Jer for inadvertently minorly spoiling him earlier. I was too enthusiastic. My bad.
Posted by Parallel
Tuesday, July 12, 2005 at 9:19 a.m. | 0 comments
Done Haiku style. Apparently, these are actual error messages that can come up on Japanese computers. Not living there, I can't verify the truth of that statement, but either way it seems kind of funny.

The Web site you seek cannot be located, but countless more exist.
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Chaos reigns within. Reflect, repent, and reboot. Order shall return.
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Program aborting: Close all that you have worked on. You ask far too much.
------------------------------------------------
Windows NT crashed. I am the Blue Screen of Death. No one hears your screams.
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Yesterday it worked. Today it is not working. Windows is like that.
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Your file was so big. It might be very useful. But now it is gone.
-------------------------------------------
Stay the patient course. Of little worth is your ire. The network is down.
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A crash reduces your expensive computer to a simple stone.
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Three things are certain: Death, taxes and lost data. Guess which has
occurred.
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You step in the stream, but the water has moved on. This page is not here.
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Out of memory. We wish to hold the whole sky, but we never will.
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Having been erased, The document you're seeking must now be retyped.
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Serious error. All shortcuts have disappeared. Screen. Mind. Both are blank.


Chaos and disorder are currently reigning at work, and the outcome is uncertain. Either I'm going to become Mr. Universe and in control of things, or I'll be at home watching Oprah by the end of the week.

I just want to get that Kaboose job. I still haven't heard anything and I'm starting to panic that my life may be controlled byt the evil entities here at this place.

CYA never had a truer meaning.
Posted by Parallel
Thursday, July 07, 2005 at 8:08 p.m. | 0 comments
Lots of 7's in the date today, so let's take a look at a few...

7 Deadly Sins: Pride, envy, wrath, sloth, avarice, gluttony, lust

7 Seas: Red, Adriatic, Black, Caspian, Mediterranean, Persian Gulf, Indian Ocean

7 Virtues: faith, hope, charity, fortitude, prudence, justice, temperance

7 Metals of Alchemy: gold, silver, lead, quicksilver, copper, iron, tin

7 Dwarfs: Dopey, Sneezy, Bashful, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Doc

7 Ritz Cracker holes: Six in a hexagon shape and one in the center.
Posted by Parallel
Wednesday, July 06, 2005 at 11:44 a.m. | 0 comments
You know you're in trouble when the computer tech here is highly illiterate. This is an email he sent to Nathan, the computer programmer from our web team:

 "It did worked before I look at me send emails and saw a long time send this info to you."

Classy.

As for Kaboose, the interview went for a little more than an hour and I have a warm, fuzzy feeling. I hesitate to give it a thumbs-up for fear of a jinx, but at least it's a step in the right direction towards freedom from this place.

I hate personal ads. Laying them out sucks. Everyone I tell laughs at me.

I don't blame them.
Posted by Parallel
Tuesday, July 05, 2005 at 11:29 a.m. | 0 comments
Jeff Gaulin's journalism website is both a blessing and a curse. It's great because it's an awesome resource for journalists to find new jobs, start careers, and see what kinds of companies are out there.

It's also evil because it's a bit of tease.

I must admit that the majority of my journalism related jobs have come from postings on Jeff Gaulin, but it is by no means at all a guarantee. Experience, skill, and ability are not valuable currency in my field so much as networking.

Still, every now and then you manage to slip through the cracks. Last Thursday before Catherine and I headed out on a wonderfully romantic weekend to Niagara Falls (she slaughtered me at mini-golf), I sent out 7 resumes in the hopes of finding something better than this awful job I have now.

One of them was Kaboose.com, an internet portal designed for kids ages 4-15. It has a massive amount of content, and my role there would be to write new articles every day to post on the site. It's a lot to do, but according to the woman I had a forty-minute phone interview with last night, I can throw a stone and write about what it hits.

That's some nice flexibility.

Kaboose is growing and already gets about 6.5 million hits a month with no advertising. It's one of the top ten internet destinations for kids. All of this ads up to me wanting to be a part of that, if only because it pays 17k more a year than this place.

And why am I so eager to leave? Well, they've given me my ex-coworkers workload and often talk openly about moving my entire job to their India office and having me "oversee" what's left. Very much not my job description, and very much not what I want to do with my life.

The interview proper is today at 3:30, so I arrived here early to meet my deadlines for the day. I've almost got all of my work for the day done (it's 11:34am) and I plan to leave at 2.

In short, I'm tired, I'm excited, I'm nervous, and I'm getting the hell out of here no matter what. If it isn't Kaboose, it's something else VERY soon.

I prefer to leave on my own terms.
Posted by Parallel
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