De-jobbed: Some closure

Dear readers, I do believe that you may deserve some closure in the matter of my unemployment and underemployment.

That matter has been resolved. Beginning Thursday, I will edit copy for a website based in California. That said, I will work from home. What an interesting development this is!

I’ve worked some from home before. At that Wyoming paper, I took video home to edit from time to time. There wasn’t a reason besides wanting to be at home. I was still working, but I hadn’t slacks on. Or jeans if it was Friday. Sweatpanted bliss.

Then, when I returned to Chicago, I still did work for them through the ol’ VPN from the comfort of my couch. By simply glancing away from the screen I was able to look into the maw of Soldier Field or out across Lake Michigan.

That was part-time, though. This is full-time, and I worry about not seeing co-workers or other lifeforms for days at a time. Yes, I’ve kept some hours at Borders. I will get out of the apartment. I still worry about being a partial shut-in. I have a right.

Ha! Here I am worrying about working from home. First World problems, right?

Anyhow, my plan is to get a couple of things going and always have some works in motion. That way, if I drop one for some reason, I’ll have at least one more. That may have been a lot of people’s plans recently, but mine will work. Because it’s mine.

Recent reads: Hellboy and Temeraire

Hellboy picture from http://new.assets.thequietus.com.

After a while of reading geeky books, I often feel the need to read something for my educated mind lest it become squishy and falls off. Out. Down?

This is the tale of how I got to that point (currently reading Persian Fire by Tom Holland – about the Persian Wars and how the divide between East and West began).

Where three roads meet

Traffic c/o http://www.alertpedia.com

There’s a place near home where three roads meet.

I cross it every day, most often in the morning, on my way to absolutely anywhere. Need some paper towels? Through the intersection. Pancakes? Intersection. Off to the Loop on the Blue Line? I got an intersection for you to go through from my place.

A whole lot of people travel through this place where the three roads meet. If it weren’t for the many, many traffic lights, there’d never be a moment for this chicken to cross first one street, then another just to get to the other side.

This morning, if I had had the guts and gumption to seize the moment, I may have been able to cross without one of those lights.

At 6:30 in the a.m., your Average Joe isn’t quite awake yet. Joe maybe scarfed down a bagel on the way out the door, but he hasn’t had his second cup of java yet. He’s foggy in the head and slow at foot and hand, but Joe, Jane, and even Steve still drive fast and faster on their way to wherever and over there.

That’s why it was weird at that intersection when the lights turned green and nothing happened.

The Editor’s Process

Image from http://blog.patrickrothfuss.com/

Since we returned from the New Smyrna and a wonderful week at the beach, I haven’t found the time to put it all into words. When I do, you’ll learn how I fretted over life before finally falling into “vacation mode,” burned to cinders on my first day out and escaped cockroach manor.

There will also be photos. I like taking photos.

Meanwhile, entertain yourself with this highly insightful look into the author’s process! Pat Rothfuss, resident Wisconsinite and author of the amazing fantasy epic The Name of the Wind, wrote up this blog posting about how he works. There’s really a lot to it.

Also, he keeps odd hours. Enjoy!

Wrong Answer: Waiting for E-mails

Answers flooded into my pocket all day. Is this the problem with too much connectivity?

Answers arrive at my doorstep, appear in my pocket and deposit themselves at my desk in quantity every day at all hours. Never am I so keenly aware of the tone or vibrate of their arrivals as when I await one in particular and all of the others show up first.
Never was I so keenly aware – like I said, of the tones and vibrates – as on Thursday.

I want you, A.V. Club. I want you bad.

Like Tina Fey says, I want to go to there.

Dear The A.V. Club,

When I saw your string of tweets on none other than Twitter, I knew that I’d find some gems. There’re always gems. It’s your job.
Ne’r did I expect this little spot of sunshine, though.

Hey, wanna work for @The_AV_Club? We have an entry-level copyeditor opening in Chicago. [link]

What is that, you say? Jobs for the masses? Count me in. I was in it like 90s me in those spectacular parachute pants. Hammer, my parents blame you for that phase. Please, contact them about Photoshopping some family pictures.

You see, I lost my job three weeks back, a job I had taken just to pay the bills after moving with my wife from Wyoming to Chicago. Six months in, I’m on my rear, out the door, and up the creek (not with my wife, just the crappy job).
This is, of course, an opportunity to get back to what I love, back on the career path I had started. Here I write in amongst the boxes of our new apartment hoping that you’ll look at the link included in my cover letter.
Maybe you’ll even remember my name. It’s not a difficult name to remember: Daniel Craig. Just so you know, that was my name way before the James Bond actor was ever famous.

De-jobbed: Rejection

Rejection hurts, and it takes more than one shower to remove.

As far as I can tell in my limited time spent looking for a new job, there are three kinds of rejection.

Keep in mind, these are job-related rejections. There are an infinite number of ways you can be rejected in life, and I can only assume that there again as many in death.

“EEG and Me” or “Wires on my head”

This is an EEG cap, but it's not what I wore. This is actually kind of cool looking compared to mine. Maybe I'll post my own later. Maybe.

Saturday morning the neuro tech arrived at my apartment. I had showered already because I wouldn’t be able to shower again for two days. In my mind, I imagined wearing a beany with a couple of wires sticking out. No biggie. It might even be cyberpunk stylish.

The tech hooked up her equipment while I watched Mythbusters on the TV across the room.

“So I’ll be able to go about my daily life?”

She said, yes, they encourage patients to try not to change their routine just because of a 48-hour EEG test.

“Ok, good, cause Megan and I were planning on going up to Gurnee today to look around the area she’ll be reporting on. We may stop by Six Flags, too.”

She didn’t think that was a good idea. That’s not your daily routine, right? She asked.

“Actually, we have season passes, so we try to go a lot.”

The Pill’s in the Mail

Pills for my head. I needs 'em.

My visit with the neuro’s muddled as usual. By the time I get to him, I’ve been stretching my prescription for several days. Why they can’t give me a refill over the phone, I have no idea, but now I know better to plan for the office’s ineptitudes.

What? They found nothing on the EEG that I wore all weekend? Shocking. They haven’t in ten years, so I wouldn’t expect anything to be found all of a sudden now. The pills work, though. Just gimme more pills, I guess.

Great.

Over to Walgreens.

The woman in front of me has a problem. Her cream is more expensive than she remembers it being. $230 for cream? That must be some special cream. The pharmaceutical assistant questions some anonymous head on the phone.

De-Jobbed: Going for the Tech Blog Gold

I want to go to there.

You may be interested to know, dear blog readers, what I have been doing with my time. That’s why you’re here, is it not?

Being ejected from my previous job gave me the opportunity to go for a job I actually care about. On Monday I was in a panic applying for every job I came across. Tuesday, I focused on social media and video-related postings. Today, I really got down to it. Today I applied for jobs I actually want.

First, there was CBS, NBC, Fox, etc. I’m getting to NPR soon, though they let go of a ton of people recently. Not a safe bet.

Then came the idea, why not cold call the places I actually really want to work at?