Still alive after all...

Well, I haven't been posting much the last few weeks. There's kind of a reason for that, even aside from the whole "once you break the habit it's harder to get it started again" thing.

It started when my folks complained that they didn't see any notes about me applying for jobs in my LJ. At which point, I began to have trouble getting enthusiastic about writing the thing, since my folks would be watching it with steely eyes looking for signs of further malfeasance. And I really didn't have all that much that seemed write-worthy, anyway.

Anyway, that's changed a bit...aside from actually finding the time to apply for a few jobs over the last couple of weeks, I had some encouraging news yesterday from my brother Aaron. Apparently a friend of his is in the hiring department of a local webhosting service, and he's expressed some interest in seeing my resume—and, after seeing my resume, is apparently interested in interviewing me. And, if hired, I would get to be trained in graphic design. Keen.

I'll try to write a few more things tomorrow or soon...including a bit about the Sharpie-Edited T-Shirt. But that's all for now.

Crazy 'bout a Sharpie-Dressed Man

So, a couple weeks back, not long after we'd gotten the news we were going to be laid off, there was this big pep rally type thing, mainly for the sales side who gets to stay on, and everybody—including we poor customer service peons—got these T-shirts with a picture of a surfer riding a wave and the motto "Takin' it Vertical! Supercharged in 2Q!" (That's the thing about working here...you'll never run out of T-shirts.)

Anyway, so we, who are being laid off, are given these cheerful T-shirts about how kewl this quarter is going to be. (A week or so earlier, I got my "one year anniversary" lapel pin, along with a form-letter note about how they looked forward to celebrating future anniversaries with me. Everything takes on a tinge of irony when you're being laid off.) It occurred to me that the slogan on the shirt was fundamentally incorrect...but this was simple enough to remedy with the aid of a Sharpie marker. I simply drew a line through "SUPER" and wrote in underneath it "DIS," and suddenly the shirt was accurate again. (I suppose I could also have crossed out "VERTICAL" and written in "TO THE UNEMPLOYMENT LINE," but there really wasn't enough space for that.)

I then wore the shirt to work, and everyone in my bay thought it was hilarious, and my cow-orkers all said that they should do that to their own shirts. My supervisor said it was the funniest thing he'd seen all week, and immediately had to call his wife to tell her about it. Even the manager got a good chuckle out of it, though he felt obligated to point out that we were actually getting discharged at the end of the 2Q, not during it.

Anyway, at the moment I'm sitting in Ziggie's South with the tail end of breakfast next to my laptop, typing away on this entry and getting ready to go in to work. Not much more to say at this point, so I guess I won't say much more.

Coffee & Internet & Music & Stuff

I'm sitting at the Mudhouse, a downtown coffeehouse-type location which is one of the nicer places in town that offers wireless Internet availability. Had to get one of the counter folks to reset their router before it would let me on the 'net, but I got on okay.

I've been sitting here listening to music for much of the evening, finishing up the book on animé I recently got from Palm Digital Media. Interesting book, in a bit of a lit-critic way. Lit-crit is one of those things you have to take with a big old grain of salt, as it's one of the few places where you can get away with stating your wildest opinions as if they were utter fact. "This means such-and-such, and that means the other thing." Even if it's totally open to interpretation.

Dunno what I'll do this weekend. Clean my room a little, wander to the Linux installfest...I'd been thinking of taking my Linux box down there to reinstall Linux on it, but at the moment I'm feeling like that's too much trouble to go to. It works decently enough at the moment...that'll do me for now.