October is about to begin...

First of all, my strong job prospect...seems to be on hold right now. They said they'd let me know this week, and not a word. And yes, I realize I do need to follow up, but when everything looked like it was happening so quickly, and all of a sudden no action at all, I know something is up. Oh well, there are worse things than not getting a new job, however I won't be terribly happy.

At the very least, I'll get a vacation in a week.

And I'm going to a concert tonight. Heaven and Hell (basically Black Sabbath with Ronnie James Dio instead of Ozzy singing), with Alice Cooper, and Queensryche. I don't take many opportunities to rawk out, but this will be one of them. Maybe I'll get good and tipsy too, though it depends how much money I want to spend. Because of the way this month has fallen, I won't get paid until tomorrow. My job on pays twice a month, but usually I don't go more than two weekends between pay periods. It's been 3 now. Not that I'm hurting for money, but I do have a few large expenses coming up, mainly the trip next week, and then finding some way to get the heater fixed in my Jetta. I have a feeling that is going to be very pricey. Again, a new computer will have to wait, probably until the new year now (hopefully I'll get a few hundred bucks for christmas/birthday like I usually do...).

And lastly, the old T-bird is gone. Thats kind of a drag too, because I absolutely *loved* that car, but it went downhill very fast. I won't make any grand statements like "I'll never buy a car like that again!" because I know cars by now, and the can just as easily fall apart in a matter of months, as they can keep on running reasonably well for years on end. The old Blazer that my family has for example, I mean that thing is a total beater, and it starts up every time, even if its been sitting for weeks on end without being touched. I found a little model kit of a '92 T-bird that I'm putting together right now...I'm trying to color match my old car, but its not going well, because I have no ability to hold a brush straight enough to make the fine lines on the molding. But I can still salvage it.

Camping will kick ass. This coming week will not...

A new promise

This week could mark a turning point, finally, after more than a year at this print shop, I may finally be moving on.

I had an interview for a job as a production assistant at a publishing firm located in my town. The pay is exactly the same as what I'm getting now at the print shop, and the benefits are the same as well, so its basically a lateral move. But, I will be much closer to actually dealing with the design and production aspects of printing, rather than, well dealing with the unwashed mouth breathing morons of the general public. I think at this point, its more important for me to get out of the situation I'm in now, and into a more professional, well functioning environment. I don't know how long I'll stay at this new job...hell I don't even know if I'll get it yet! But its obvious I'm sure to any of you who know me or who have been reading this blog over the past year that clearly, that job at the print shop is all wrong.

What happened was earlier last week, I got a call to schedule an interview, tenitively for this past Friday. However, I had Jury Duty on Thursday, and didn't know if that would interfere. I turned out the Jury Duty was a blessing in disguise, because they let us out early in the day. I called my contact at the company to see if they wanted to reschedule for that afternoon, and they agreed!

I think I hit it off pretty well in the interview. I showed them a few portfolio pieces, which they enjoyed. They also told me that their only other candidate for this job hadn't even called them back at that point. I hope that my eagerness and quickness to seize the opportunity to interview with them will give me a much higher standing than anyone else. Plus, one thing that made me highly optimistic was that they told me "I like your experience". This has so far been my weakest point, and I know I've been turned down for several other jobs because of my lack of experience. The thinking originally for taking the job at the print shop was to build at least some experience with the print world in general, with hopes that down the road I could get a better job. It looks like that may be paying off. Although, I won't be making any more money, at least at this new job, I'd have the chance to make something more of myself. Where I'm at now, I can't advance any further than my current position, and they don't seem too eager to give me a raise either (I don't think anyone there has had a raise recently in fact...). Its a telling fact that I actually looked forward to Jury Duty this past week, because after all I knew if anything it would be a chance to just blank out for a few hours...which I did.

Regardless of the job situation, I'm going camping in two weeks up near Fort Bragg (not North Carolina...I'm talking about the coastal California logging/fishing town). It should be fantastic. I'm going with my family, but I'll have my own seperate site on the other side of the campgrounds. But I realized that since my parents do the RV thing now, we don't have anything in the way of cookware. I picked up a little simple mess kit plus a burner/lantern kit that attaches to small propane tank. Oh, and I also got an ice chest. Yeah, I went out and spent more money on crap I probably don't really need, but oh well. I don't know, today kind of felt like a wasted day. The past couple weekends have, in fact. It doesn't help that I've been fighting a cold all week, and getting the energy to do anything has been hard at times. But its 2 am and I'm awake watching real estate shows on cable. Oh well.

I'll see what happens this week...

An attempt at a blog post

Okay, the actual blog interface is pretty hairy right now, at least on my regular (read: old as fuck) computer. I guess I could fire up the laptop if I needed more speed. I don’t know, that thing was kind of an impulse buy in the first place. I don’t regret getting it, but I could have made a wiser buy, especially considering that 6 months later, better and faster machines were available for a lesser price.

Okay, a recap of what I’ve done lately: the work weeks still suck and the weekends are still cool. The last Sunday in August, I went to the Indy Car race at Sears Point. Those machines are INCREDIBLE. I don’t follow open wheel racing as much, but as far as I was concerned, they gave a far better race day experience than the stock car boys did. There was a far smaller crowd, but everything was more accessible. I got a pass to go into the garage area, for example. I saw the teams working on the cars. I even saw them pass within inches as they towed them into the pit area, preparing them for morning practice. Its one thing to watch these things on TV, where you are a million miles away, really just detached from reality. Its another to see it in person. To get the perspective of sight, proportion, sound, and even smell.

The following weekend, I went up to see my grandma in Clear Lake with my older brother and niece. That was pretty fun! We went to the local county fair, as well as the local Saturday Night racetrack. My niece can be a handful though. I can’t wait until she’s a few years older and transforms from whiny little brat to actual reasonable person. I’ve never liked little kids honestly. But whatever, it was still fun. My car performed just about flawlessly. Did I mention the heater core went out several weeks’ back? I’ve got to figure how I’m going to get that fixed still. But no real skin off my back right now, because I was able to bypass it and keep the cooling system…uhh…cool. It was over 100 during the entire weekend, and even with running the a/c full blast, and traversing hills at speed, the engine did not heat up beyond normal operating temperature once. I even got pulled over on the drive up! How lame is that. I didn’t get a ticket, but the cop claimed I was “speeding”, even though I was well within the 5mph buffer. Lame. Oh well.

This weekend I’m helping out in Walnut Creek (my old job) for the last of their “Movies Under the Stars”. There are two movies this weekend, one Friday, one Saturday. Last night’s was as easy as it gets. There was enough staff to where I basically didn’t have to do anything except pick up trash at the end of the night and drive it to the dumpster. Tonight will be a bit more difficult though; it’s a full event, with a big setup (and likewise, a big takedown). But its still miles easier than my full time job.

Oh, and how’s that going? Well, no worse at least. Fortunately, for the sanity of the shop, the owner and his wife will be off for the next week and a half on vacation. My poor production manager though, I really feel sorry for her. She bears the brunt of all the idioscyncrisies and crap that the owner has. She feels like that he genuinely doesn’t like her, not because of the job she’s doing (which is great, IMO), but because she doesn’t kiss his ass at every opportunity and wants to actually have a life. I don’t know what the guy expects of her, and neither does she.

At least I get a vacation in October. Camping along the North Coast. I’ll be in heaven…

September...

For the second straight year, I went up to Clear Lake for Labor Day weekend, although I only stayed until Sunday. It was pretty fun! I went with my brother and my niece. We checked out the county fair, as well as the local Saturday Night races. I even won $60 at the casino. I also got pulled over by some dumbass cop on the way up, but I didn't get a ticket, fortunately.

This is going to be a short post. I hate blogger lately...they've added some extra...uhh...shit that bogs down my computer tremendously. Lets see, what did I do today...got my car washed, got a hair cut (gasp!!), bought a game and a CD with the money I won, and saw a movie, "Balls of Fury" (which sucked.).

More later, when my computer isn't such a bastard...