Well well well....

This is going to be an interesting weekend while I rack my brain, analyze and think through every single possibility, and speculate upon the future of many things that will in all likelyhood will not come to pass.

I've been an offered a job.

It's an admin job, which means basically I'll be doing data-entry for most of the time. I don't have much of a problem with that, and while it isn't design, I'll be working with in a web design department. But heres the catch...

I'm not sure I want the job.

The thing is the following: it's basically a 6-month "temp" job where they hire you to work that amount of time, and if they like your work, they hire you back for another 6-months. This supposedly happens continually until, I don't know, you either become president of the company or you quit, or something. The thing is--they didn't really tell me any of this in the interview, nor did they indicate any of this in the ad they originally posted a few weeks back (although maybe they did tell that to me, I would have remembered something that important!). Plus there are no benefits, (medical/dental/ or whatever) and no possibility of getting any benefits with experience either. Basically they just work you 6 months at a time, at the end of which they either decide to keep you, or fire you. I was really thinking it would be a bit more regular than that--I mean, I'm looking to stay with a company for at least a couple years (of course if they'll have me) and get some experience, not do a job for 6 months at a time and hope every 6 months that they'll have me back.

I told them that I would have a decision on whether or not to take the job by Monday, which gives me the chance to meet with the guys who are giving me the interview for a design job that morning, and get some kind of indication as to what offer they could present to me. I get the feeling that its a superior job though.

I'll have to wait and see, but I dont have much time. They told me if they dont hear back by Tuesday they will offer it to someone else.

More on this later...

Is a bird in the hand worth two in the bush?

So I get a call this afternoon. It was about another job interview (not related at all to the one I interviewed for last week). Initially, I did something potentially stupid; I told the guy I was waiting on a possible job offer, and that I would call him back in a day or two. But I talked it over briefly with my mom, who all but told me I was crazy for saying that, and that I should have at least accepted the interview. Fortunately of cours I got the guy's name and phone number and called him back about 5 minutes later, and scheduled the interview for next Monday.

Okay, so here's the predicament. This is totally predicated me possibly getting the job that I interviewed for last week, which was an admin assistant-type job. Now I've been looking mostly for jobs in graphic design, and I've not been able to get one. The admin job is, at the least, in the web-design department, so its not as though I'd be doing anything too far off from what I know; but of course it is a compromise of sorts.

However, the interview I'm going to have is a job that would have me doing straight graphic design, which is ideally what I want to do. Of course not having had the interview yet I don't know much about the hours, benefits, or pay, or what the company is like. But you should be able to see the situation unfolding--would it be better to take a job thats not exactly what I want, but a sure-thing job-wise, or hold out on only the possibility of getting a job I do want. I don't know, I've always thought, as the cliche goes, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. But it is a rather important decision, isn't it? Of course this is all predicated on me actually getting the admin job, which may not even happen, and this entire "decision" would then be a moot point.

An interesting week, perhaps...

Here's a not so random photo, taken just over two years ago. The location is the mouth of the Russian River, in Northern California.

Ah, to live in interesting times...? Maybe, maybe not. I had that job interview a week ago, and Friday they told me they were "moving me ahead in the interview process", which I think...or at least hope...is code for " you are one of the final candidates for the job". However, they wanted a couple more references, so I scrambled around a bit to ask a few more people I know if that was okay with them, and passed those along. But I do know at this point, I'm closer to an actual job than I have been in a while.

Friday night I was up until 2:30 am screwing around with my old PC. See, it has Norton AV, but the subscription ran out, and I didn't really feel like renewing it. I scrambled around and found a free program, but lo and behold, the thing really fucked up my computer. It would only boot up in safe mode. Fortunately for me, a friend of mine directed me to another free program, and a fairly good one at that, named AntiVir Guard. It seems to work fairly well now.

Saturday was a bit interesting. I had agreed to work at another city facility on Saturday night (one I'd never been to before), and it went fairly well, actually. The event going on that night was a High School Jr. Prom--and the school was my former school, Concord High! I saw only one person I actually recognized, one of the "security" dudes who works there. I asked about a few instructors, but most of them had left. Although, one dude from my senior math class, as well as a few PE classes is now a baseball coach there, heh.

Sunday I did basically nothing, and it was glorious. I parked myself halfway between the computer and the TV and watched some auto racing. Shocking, isn't it! Actually it was a bittersweet day in the racing world, as Indy Racing League rookie Paul Dana died in a crash during practice yesterday morning. The IRL race later that was fantastic though, and the winner, Dan Weldon, inched out a victory by the length of the nose of his car. And even better, my favorite (now former) driver, Rusty Wallace (he retired this past fall), was doing the commentary, and he was really fun to listen to.

Then, I switched over to the NASCAR race for the short (1/2 mile around) track at Bristol. A guy named Kurt Busch, who took over Rusty's old ride this spring after his retirement, ended up winning the race by using a "bump and run" on the car in front of him with 4 laps to go. A classic NASCAR move. Busch heavily credited Wallace after the victory, and even nicknamed the car "Rusty". I beamed with delight!

Today I was slated to have jury duty, but guess what....I don't have to go! My "group" was one that ended up not being picked. I have to say I'm pretty happy about that--not that I want to stiff my civic duties or anything, but, it is frankly a pain in the ass, especially with the poor parking situation in the county seat (its pretty much *all* metered street parking down there, though you do at least get to park for free with juror pass).

This could be an interesting week though. Any day now, I could be hearing about that job. I'm cautiously hopeful about possibly getting that job, especially since I got that call saying I was "ahead in the interview process". Though the last time someone used that phrase with me, it was with the pryamid schemers; though I'm 100% sure this isn't a pryamid scheme. If I don't get it, well obviously I'll continue to look for a job and stay at the part time job I'm at now. I would kind of like to get out of town though, maybe up to my grandmas. I get the new schedule for the p/t job so I should know at least roughly by the end of this week at least what my schedule for April will be. Also, April will mark the one-year anniversery of this very blog! Perhaps I'll do something special...

Lastly I wanted to comment on this. Please to be clicking that link. What exactly did Bush and company think he was getting away with there? Just when I think the current administration couldn't baffle my more, they go and do just that. Anyone who has gone past elementry school, or enjoys kitschy 70s informational cartoons, knows that you need the approval of both the senate and the house for a bill to become a law. I guess this is some kind of "Jedi Mind Trick" on the behalf of the president.

Car Talk

Its kind of a boring day today. I took a walk this morning with my mom, which was alright, and I have to work later tonight, which actually isn't too bad either. But I left out something important in my last post that I did on Sunday worth mentioning, and thats give my van a much needed tuneup. Heres a photo of it (with some digital maniuplation to hide the license plate number...) . If you dont know, or just simply can't tell, the vehicle is a 1991 Ford Aerostar, Eddie Bauer XLT edition. There are a lot of nice things about this van--for example, it has a ton of room, has decent enough power, and is really comfortable inside. But its a 15 year old car, and so its getting on in years. You can already see in that photo places where the clear-coat has started to wear away. The interior is actually fairly decent, but the drivers-side seat had to be replaced with a junkyard model that doesnt even match anymore. And of course, being such a large vehicle, its gas mileage is nearly abominable at times (though with it's large tank, on the highway it has a long overall range). Why do I drive this? Well it was a hand-me-down from my parents, and since I don't have a full time job or anything, its what I'm more or less stuck with for the time being.

The biggest downside to this thing is trying to work on it. As you can see from the design, it has an angled, triangle-shaped front end, and this leaves almost no room in the engine bay for work. And honestly, I'm not really all that great of a mechanic, and I have my stepdad help me on most things. It had needed a tuneup for a long time, but since things are so hard to get it, I had put it off until finally this week it actually fouled a sparkplug, so it had to be worked on (though it still did run, it really ran like crap). But the work did get done--plugs, a distributor cap and rotor, and an oil+filter change. Of course it still has its follies--the heater sometimes works, and sometimes doesnt, and the cooling system overall is really touchy, and overheats quite easily. The vents inside the cab only blow out the heater and defroster vents, so using the AC at this point is out of the question. But overall the thing runs fairly well now.

Hopefully I can get a job soon, and get another car, and pass that thing along to someone else...

The first day of spring.....?

Yep, it sure is. So what happens? Daytime temps today in the upper 40s, rain like you wouldn't believe this morning, and yeah even snow up on Mt. Diablo *again*! I don't remember this consistant a stream of snow up on that mountain for a long time--theres been snow up there on most days for the better part of a month now! Unbelieveable...

So I had my interview today. I think it went okay. Because of the rain, the drive there, though it only took about 40 minutes, was...harrowing. It was really just coming down in buckets, and even with the wipers on high, it was difficult to see. But I knew the route fairly well, so it wasn't too much of a challenge. I'll probably know in a week or not whether or not I get the job, but it does look like a fairly good place to work, although it seems like my job might involve quite a lot of data entry, which I could envision getting fairly tedious. For a "test", I had to input some data into their spreadsheet program (easy!), work with their DOS (yeah thats right, DOS, aside from a game or two like my old copy of Sim City, I haven't used DOS in years and years...) data entry program, and provide a paragraph's worth of a writing sample. The DOS thing actually gave me the most fits, because I had to actually *gasp* use the keyboard, instead of the mouse. I'm far too spoiled by lovely, easy to use GUIs, and I forgot what actual computing was like, or at least used to be like, at least in some respect. Then again, I've always found inputing code and commands into a command prompt line to be a bit, uh, frustrating, heh. Long live the GUI!

If the job is offered to me though, I think I'll take it. It's fairly easy to get to, as it's right off the freeway in Emeryville, though it's just a mile or two west of the Bay Bridge, so I imagine during commute times the traffic there is a mess. I'd have to see if I can work out some kind of public transport solution possibly. But the drive is only 35-40 minutes from my house under optimal conditions. Today was a really shitty drive, and it still only took about 40 minutes. Also, it looks like a fairly casual office (the person who interviewed me was wearing jeans and a huge snow parka), and I always appreciate that.

I've got some stuff coming up though. I need to finish my taxes (I still need to do state, probably online or something), and I've got Jury Duty a week from today. At least for me, all the county buildings have wireless internet now, so I'll be able to tote along my laptop and have something to pass the time with. I'll probably get kicked right off the jury just like last time, heh. And lastly, I might have some oppertunities for more hours at my part-time job, as another facility in the city is down some personell, and they want me to fill in. I got a call asking me to fill in this Saturday, but it was while I was away this morning, so I'm still waiting to hear back from the message I left on their machine.

I'm also at the 1-year anniversery of my completion of college studies. Good god, what a year it's been. Hopefully something job-wise will come along soon--maybe it will be the job I interviewed for today. Maybe not. But I'm still going to keep trying.

Yet another interview...

Okay starting off, its not graphic design, though it is related to web design, which I'm not terribly strong in honestly (layout is fine, but I suck at coding, and its horribly boring to me as well). Its actually for an administrative position in the web design department of this company. I imagine they were interested in me because of my design background (after all who better to communicate with designers than...another designer). Again, as I usually do, I wont reveal the name of the company, but they are a company that deals with broadband technology here in the East Bay. I had to really jog my memory to remember exactly who these guys were--its been over a month since I sent a resume to them.

We'll see where this goes...

Saturday Drive

I wanted to go out exploring a bit today, and my mom decided to tag along. Due to the cool tempertures and low snowfall in the Bay Area yesterday, I started this drive out as an "in search of snow..." type trip, and although I didn't really find any close up and personal snow, I did find some interesting things along the way...
This was the northern side of Mount Diablo (also known as North Peak) about mid morning. The entire mountain was shrouded in clouds all morning, so there wasn't much of an oppertunity to get a good view of exactly how much snow had fallen.
Heres a zoomed out photo. As you can see, things are still quite cloudy and misty, but you can get a good idea of just how much snow had fallen.

I decided to drive down a backroad in this area named Marsh Creek Road. I really had few intentions of where I would end up, but I did stop off at a park that I had always wanted to go to, a lovely place called Round Valley Regional Park. Thats where I saw this critter.I'm not actually that close to this ground squirrel, but thanks to my camera's zoom, it looks like I am! These dudes are all over the field, running around and feeding. Fortunately myself and my mom were literally the only person around, so they weren't afraid to make thesmelves known. I also decided to snap the following photo...

Ohh its an edgy photo of barbed wire! Actually I was just testing the close range zoom/macro on my camera. Seems to have come out alright. Later down the highway was another place I'd never been, Los Vaqueros regional park. This is the home of a newer resevior built a decade or so back. Thats where I then caught another critter (albeit slightly blurry, thanks to the fact I had to take it through my car's windshield...)



Later in the day, after driving around some more, and after treating my mom to lunch, we came back the way we came on Marsh Creek to find the skies were (mostly) clear, and there was a much more spectacular view of the snow on our local mountain.
Thats about as good of a photo as one can get without actually having to hike into the back country;). Its also one of the few photos I have now of Mount Diablo covered in snow with a blue sky background! This much snow will probably last another day or two, then once again be gone. We've been treated quite a bit here in Concord as of late, because snowfall on Mt. Diablo is usually a once-a-year occurance, yet to a string of cool, unstable storms, its happened at least 3 seperate times in the past month. I have seen snowfall up there several times in one rainy season, but I can't remember a time when there was this much snow in such a short time period.

Goddammit.

Well, I just got a call, and I was turned down for the job I interviewed for last week. Oh well, time for a new gameplan I guess.

A Tuesday afternoon in March...

Yep, more snow up on Mt. Diablo. This picture was taken on Friday though, and technically its not Mt. Diablo, but the slightly shorter mountain next to it named North Peak. Unfortunately the main mountain was totally shrouded in clouds.

My redone glasses are ready, to pickup, but I don't really feel like driving down to the mall area again today, especially when I was just down near there earlier today. The reason--I went to Rasputins on the Pleasant Hill/Concord border to pick up David Gilmour's new disc "On an Island". My initial thoughts are that its a fairly lovely, yet very mellow album, with a few strong guitar solos. The packaging is fantastic--instead of the standard jewel case, its made as a small keepsake illustrated hardbound book. Very ingenious.

Its kind of a melloncholy week for me. Of course it will be at least another week or more before I can expect to hear about the job, and I'm starting to grip pretty hard about it. I would really like this job, and I'm tempted to really bug them about it too, but I don't want to sound like I'm bugging them too much, heh. I'm an ass as far as calling back and following up though; in fact I am in general with life, I've always had an attitude of "if ______ wants to talk to me, they can pick up the phone"--this applies to friends, family, work, etc... Maybe this is why I've had so few really close friends over the years. Or maybe not, who knows. All I know is that if I get this job, my life will change in exciting and profound ways. If not....I don't know what I'll do, heh.

The campaign to unseat Arnold has already begun, and California state treasurer Phil Angelidas (spelling..?) has already begun his campaign. Thats enough to make me almost completely distrust him. Too bad we won't have an election like the recall campaign, where almost anyone with a couple 1000 bucks could run if they wanted to (and they did, too!). Peter Camejo may be my choice again if he chooses to run, but I don't know. Maybe I should hook up with a local campaign office....?

Things are fairly different without my brother here. I really feel like a 3rd wheel too. Another strong reason to get this job--so I can get the hell out of here.

Interview update

I can't be long because I have to get ready for my p/t job in a couple minutes....but the interview went fairly well today. I'll withhold the name of the company publicly but if you really want to know, drop me a line and I'll tell you;)

I was anticipating some traffic, and the time it took to get some gas, so I left way early...and ended up getting there way early. It didn't take nearly as long to drive there as I thought it might ( only about 5 minutes longer than it used to take to get to college).

Overall I think the interview went fairly well. I decided instead of going for straight design, to go for the production assisstant position I had originally asked about, simply becuase I would gain more experience in dealing with different situations as well actual contact with clients, as well as some actual design thrown in there. I figure what I needed to know the most was how exactly how the design industry operated, and what are the standards and practices out there now, rather than my actual art/creative skills, which I can always do on my own time and with freelance projects.

My biggest stumbling blocks were the following:
Dress. Everyone there was in jeans, and I was wearing slacks with a shirt and tie. I know among some art circles it does actually hurt to be "overdressed" if you can believe that; then again I hear most people dont take you seriously unless you do have buisness attire. Unless you know the culture of the company (difficult to know unless you've actually been there), its a Catch-22.
I also had to do a software test involving Quark XPress. Now I know the program, I know how it works and what it does, though I'm certainly not a pro with it, and it has been a while since I've used it. Because I'm used to another program more (Adobe's InDesign), I had some real problems remembering just where everything was in Quark...much more than I had anticipated. I remember my teacher upon its first introduction saying "quark has its quirks", and I had forgotten exactly how true that was! Gah...

Other than that, I think it went fairly well. The place looks like an excellent place to work, with a good body of well designed work and a great office atmosphere. I really hope I get this job, heh. If I do my life will be turned around, huzzah!