New Book and Other Random Thoughts

I just finished Tale of Two Cities. I know there are some people that don't like it; I thought most of the book was fine and the last 3-4 chapters were incredible. I have to admit that it has been a long time since a book almost made me cry.

Going into it, I didn't know much about it other than the title and the very first line: "It was the best of times. It was the worst of times." I was impressed how all the seemingly random chapters pulled together near the end. Even more impressive was when I read that Charles Dickens wrote and published a chapter a week in the periodical he was the editor of. Simply amazing. I don't want to give too much of it away, but the two cities are London and Paris in the years/months/days before and during the bloody French Revolution.

Now I'm on to The Arabian Nights - or more specifically, an abbreviated edition of it (since the whole thing is several volumes long). It's still the original Richard Burton translation, though. First impressions: No paragraphs! Arrg! Just one gigantic wall of text with no convenient place to take a break. Not only that, but it didn't take me long to understand why there have been objections to it over the years. It can be a bit...umm...risque in some scenes. It's definately not a book for kids...even if there are kid cartoons based on many of the stories. It caught me a bit off guard.

On a completely separate topic, I haven't posted as much here as I might have because of Facebook. It's terribly easy just to toss up a one sentence update on little minor events (or not so minor sometimes) that there doesn't seem to be as much need for a long-winded post. (Or maybe there is...since I'm doing one right now.) On the other hand, maybe it will let me focus my writing a little more. Who knows?

Weightlifting/swimming is going great! I'm loving being able to push myself physically. My muscles don't get sore anymore, but I do get tired. I'm pretty sure it's helping me sleep better as well.

Last little item...okay, it's a big one. Early last week I was approached by my boss's boss. Due to a large decrease in revenue from our team, we are going to lose several people. Jobs aren't being cut, they are just being moved elsewhere. Long story short, I was asked if I would be interested in a Facilities Manager type position, as the person currently doing that type of work is the Executive Secretary and she no longer has the time availablity to do it. I said yes, and was officially offered the position yesterday. So, even though I had a recent promotion, I'm moving out of my current role into a completely different field.

I'm excitied but also have a bit of that "deer in the headlights" feeling. The transition doesn't happen until next week, so it has been massively chaotic around here as we scramble to reorganize the team. I'm finally out of customer service! Currently, the position is only for the building here in town, but it will grow to include all the other offices across the country. It's a big opportunity for me and one that I feel honored to have been thought of as being capable for the role. There are still a lot of details to work out; although the responsibilities aren't new, the actual position is. And I'm the first one to hold it!

We be Wee People; who be you?

Growing up as a short kid, I got picked on a lot. It's something you learn to live with. As a youth, I still got good humored teasing about being short. (The non-good humor teasing took a completely different tack.) As a middle-aged man (I have a hard time seeing myself as "middle-aged," but there it is...) there is still the occasional look-at-me-aren't-I-funny-messing-with-Steve moments. Generally, I just roll my eyes and move along with life.

So, I come into work today and find a big plastic pot of gold (not the chocolate kind either, bah!) on my desk. Stuck in the pot is a big sign reading "World's Greatest Leprechaun!" with my picture in the middle. (It doesn't help that my ears are slightly pointy.) Everyone found it extremely funny and waited to see how I would react. I put the pot (sign and all) on the cubical divider so everyone passing by could see and sat down to start my day at work. I think it was a bit anti-climatic for some. Ah well...I fully embrace my quirks.

Now for some background (this is a story I told in a team meeting several weeks ago): I ride the bus every day to and from work. Every once in awhile you meet some...interesting...people. So one morning I was at the bus stop when a fellow walks up obviously intoxicated. He starts asking me random questions and I respond politely. Generally I ignore people like that, but this guy was inoffensive and was actually somewhat entertaining. Finally, the bus pulls up and this fellow starts digging through his pockets and says, "Now I gotta come up with a dollar to get on the bus."

I happened to have a dollar coin in my pocket and, feeling unusally maganimous, I flip it over to him and say, "Here you go!" He catches it, looks at it, back at me, and breaks into a big ol' smile. He then says, "You're my best friend ever! You must be a leprechaun - you gave me gold!" As we got on the bus, he proceeded to tell everyone there that I was a leprechaun. It was an interesting bus ride.

Flowchart Humor

I find humor in some weird places at times. Case in point: Flowchart humor. Anytime someone puts in the effort to make a flowchart that is funny, I appreciate it. I like flowcharts in general anyway. I'm just strange that way I guess.

In any case, last year sometime I made a flowchart outlining my job. Yes, I did share it with my boss...and somehow I managed to get promoted anyway. Go figure.

You'll need to click on it to be able to read it. Warning: You may not think this is funny unless you have had my job, but trust me - it's really is funny. A little too close to the truth at times, but funny nonetheless.

Just in Time for Halloween

The Leadership Challenge is a great book. I forgot how much I enjoy reading it and figuring out ways to make myself better. But now it's time to move on to the next book: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Tales by Washington Irving. I've read Rip Van Winkle several times before, but not Sleepy Hollow (I've seen the cartoon though...). Nor have I read, or even heard of, any of the other stories in the book.

So far, I'm loving the way he describes things. Lots of imagery. Good use of the English language and all that.

On a side note, I had my second Account Rep meeting today and I'm proud to announce that no one said they felt "puked on." Hey, it's an improvement.

Did You See Which Way My Team Went? I'm Their Leader

I finished The Three Musketeers yesterday. Very, very different from what I thought it was going to be like. Still, an interesting read...even if I REALLY don't understand French culture during that time period.

Next up, a non-fiction book: The Leadership Challenge. This is one that I read back when I was an assistant manager at Hastings. I enjoyed it enough to keep the book around and decided that now that I am in a leadership position again, I should read through it again. As a general rule, I dislike management how-to books. I find them trite and somewhat insulting as a reader and as an employee. This one, however, has a number of redeeming qualities and ranks up there with Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

Speaking of leadership, I ran my first Account Representative meeting today at work. We actually haven't had one for nearly half a year, so there was a lot of information to cover. Now for a bit of background: In the past, those meetings have generally been nothing more than complaint fests. They were long, drawn-out, irritating, and generally pointless. Today, however, I had 20 things that needed to be covered and only 60 minutes to do it in. That averages to about 3 minutes per topic. I started the meeting exactly on time - before everyone showed up (including my co-lead).

That made some people angry.

I told everyone that we wouldn't be discussing "what if" scenarios and if they had something they wanted to say, they need to get to the point quickly without any long stories.

That made some people angry.

The first question asked started with "But what if..." They didn't get any further because I interrupted them and repeated that we didn't have the time to go over every possible "what if".

That made one person really angry.

I apologized in advance for the fact that a lot of the information in the meeting was only going to be going one way (me to them), but that future meetings would be much more of a two-way dialogue.

The first part made some people angry.

I proceeded to work through the topics. After each one, I paused and asked for any comments. When the comments threatened to drag on forever or when people started re-hashing points that have already been made, I stopped the discussion, asked them to email me any remaining questions and I would answer them then, and moved on to the next topic.

That made some people angry.

While going over some topics, I noticed several people furiously scribbling notes about the changes and/or things that I asked them to be aware of.

That made me happy.

I conveyed all the information that I needed to with five minutes to spare. I thanked everyone for their patience and reiterated that future meetings (scheduled every two weeks) would have more give and take and they would have more opportunity to voice their opinions. I then adjourned the meeting.

That made several people give me sour faces and one to proclaim: "I felt like I've been puked on for the past hour."

After everyone left, my co-lead and I sat in the room in silence for a few minutes. He then turned to me and said, "Welcome to my world."

Poverty Line, I Bid Thee Adeiu!

Although I haven't mentioned it much (or at all, really), this past month I have been wandering my way through an interview process for a promotion here at work. It finally came down from on high yesterday that the Powers That Be have lost all common sense and have given me the position!

There are a bunch of changes on the horizon, but let me just share a few numbers:

Previous - 30,160
"The Line" - 33,270
Current - 37,440

I'm not going to give too much commentary on the above numbers. Yeah, the bottom one might still seem a bit low to some people, but I have no complaints. I am now able to take care of my family without government assistance. And that is a big thing for me.

In other news, I have a bunch of pictures from Cub Scout Day Camp and our vacation to the Zoo and Aquarium that I keep intending to post. Hopefully soon...

Day 6: Update Your Resume

(Catching up from the weekend - yeah, I'm backdating these...)

I know my resume needs some spiffing up. But I just didn't have/take the time to work on it this weekend. It's a project for another day. In the meantime, here is my pseudo-resume on linkedin.com: http://www.linkedin.com/in/sbwilson

When It Rains...

So there I was, sitting at my desk, trying to ignore my coworkers (fairly successfully I might add), when my boss appears out of thin air ("Poof!") and says she wants to talk to me. Okay. I'm mentally trying to track how many clients I might have insulted in the past 24 hours (none...so it was a relatively quick count). It turns out that our team is reorganizing and I'm being put in a new position called "Account Manager". I'm not sure if that sounds any better than "Utility Coordinator"...but it is at least more dull and people will stop asking me what utilities I'm coordinating (With what? My clothes? My eyes? What?).

I'm actually one of the lucky few whose job isn't actually changing. And even better than that, I'm getting a substantial raise for doing the exact same stuff. Go figure. Hey, I might actually be above the poverty line! No...wait...1...2...3...4...5 kids. Nope. Still below. Ah well.

The down side of that is this: I still don't enjoy my job that much. This makes it even harder to leave for the proverbial greener pastures (which I'm beginning to doubt if it is really green or just sitting on top of the septic tank of life). Still, it's not a terrible job, just dull. But I'm getting paid more to be dull. Or at least getting paid more to do dull stuff. I don't think I'm actually dull. Heck, I'm the life of the party! At least I am when I have my own personal parties and I'm the only one invited.

So...um...yeah....money. I've heard of this "money" stuff before. I may have even seen it once or twice. Now that I'll have a little extra, I have to figure out what to do with it. Maybe there is a simple solution...



(SIMPLICITY: The simplest solutions are often the cleverest. They are also usually wrong.)

School Daze

Well, the kids' school had its open house yesterday and today. Not much to report. Although, I have to admit that while in the throws of an apparent fit of insanity, Leslie and I signed up for the PTA. Still not sure what exactly happened there. One moment I'm sitting at a cafeteria table looking forward to a free rootbeer float, and the next minute I'm on the other side of the room signing my name on a sheet of paper. WHAT HAVE I DONE?!?

Ah well...tomorrow is a New Day.

Speaking of which...in yet another bout of insanity (seem to be having quite a few of those lately), I turned in a resume for a newly opened position at work. Not sure I'm really up for another rejection, but my loverly wife and a few co-workers convinced me to give it a shot. Once again, we'll just have to wait and see.

Whose Turn is it?

…because it apparently isn’t mine at the moment. My turn may have already passed, and with 6.6+ billion people in the world, it might take some time to come back around to me.

I didn’t get the apprenticeship.

I’m not sure what to do at this point. I really do not like the whole customer service field I’ve found myself in the past few years, but (even with a college degree) I don’t seem to qualify for any other kind of work. It has become truly aggravating.

At least I currently have a job…even if it isn’t the greatest in the world, it could be a LOT worse.

College vs. Apprenticeships

Tomorrow I have an interview for an apprentice electrical mechanic canidate pool. I wasn't getting my hopes up too much since it IS just for a canidate pool. However, I came across this article today: WA Labor Leaders Find Few Takers for Good Jobs

Wow, does that article describe my situation or what? I am very curious to see how tomorrow turns out...

Updates on that Other Stuff

So, besides this Ultimate Gamer Test, what else has been happening? Last Saturday I got some tickets for the local minor league baseball game through work (along with free food and drink coupons) and took the kids to go watch. For what it was and for how old they are, the kids did a fantastic job. Isaiah got chosen to go out on the field and announce the first batter. He was THRILLED! He got a free T-shirt and one of the game balls to take home. I think he wants to be a professional ball player now.

Everyone else enjoyed the game as well. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it...not in a rabid fan sort of way either. There were two home runs and quite a few really good defensive catches. All in all, it was a great weekend.

However, after the game, Isaiah went down to spend a few days with Leslie's parents and younger brothers. He got to go hang out with his uncles and I'm sure they had a great time. I can't say for sure because on Wednesday, Leslie took the other kids to the family reunion/camping trip and will come back this Saturday. That means I won't see my girls for three days and my boy for a whole week. Let me tell ya...I hate coming home to an empty house. You'd think it'd be relaxing. I don't like it.

Why didn't I go to the reunion? Work. And GenCon. I don't have enough vacation time to attend both and I certainly can't afford to take unpaid leave. I'm sad to miss out on the camping - and even more sad that I'll miss most of next week with my family as well. At least I'll have four days of mad-crazy gaming to make up for it...

In other news, I've thrown my hat into the ring for an electrical apprenticeship. Because the parent-company of my work is the local utility, I am able to see all the internal-only job postings, and one of them is for a candidate pool for electrical mechanic apprentices. I've taken and passed all the required tests and submitted my application packet (complete with test scores, military training certificates - in electronics nonetheless - and I even found a letter of recommendation from my training squadron commander about my average military tech school grades...98%!). If I do get accepted, it will nearly double my annual salary...and that's just the start. Apparently electricians who work for a utility company (as opposed to construction) make an unbelievable (to me anyway) amount of money. If I don't get it, no worries...but with the luck I have been having lately, I think my chances are higher than average. The posting doesn't close until the end of this month, so I'll just have to wait and see.

Anything else? Oh yeah, I've been asked to write a blog about gaming with kids to post on this Gleemax site once it gets up and running in the next week or so. I won't be reproducing my posts for that here, but I'll make sure to put up a link so you all can read my less-than-expert advice and thoughts on playing games with kids between the ages of 5 and 11. I've got the first two posts already written, but you'll just have to wait like everyone else. So nyeah...

Bad Haiku of a Utility Coordinator

A look into my job using a badly mauled form of ancient poetry. Don't expect to understand a lot of this...

Business. Gah...Business!
Why can't you understand me?
REPRESENTATIVE!

My name is Steve and-
Yes, I work for Advantage...
Fine. Fax me the form.

Verifying bills.
My, what a large stack that is!
Nothing matches. Crap.

Again I'm on hold.
Is this what they call music?
Wait. Did they hang up?

What? No meters there?
I don't deal with meter sets.
No, I'm not joking.

Please close this account.
No wait. We need it open.
Wait. I'll have to call back.

Desktop fax is cool!
But it can't fill out my forms.
Desktop fax sucks bad!

My drivers license?
Social security card?
You are quite insane.

Open request form
Is not filled out correctly.
I need an address.

Specialist knows not,
Analyst knows not either,
What Team Everest does.

It's a team meeting?
Look at the happy faces!
Oh, it's the lunch room...

Call volume is high
Longer than normal wait time.
No. This IS normal.

Push "three" for business.
Why'd I get residential?
Please fix your menus.

Waiting for a fax...
Where's my Access record?
It's like a party.

It's very crowded.
Don't push the printer button
When I'm faxing.

Bienvenidos!
Uh oh, what do I push now?
Umm...lo siento?

Workplace Violence

I made a mistake. I returned to work with no pictures of the baby. BIG mistake. But I apparently made an even BIGGER mistake. Several of the ladies there didn't even know we were expecting. Good grief. You'd think I had insulted their womanly heritage since the beginning of time.

I'm still living in the Stone Age and don't have a digital camera. So pictures are on the way...it will just take a little while. Hopefully I can survive until then.

"B" is for Busy - That's Good Enough for Me

Well, I just spent the last hour trying to remember the password to my blog. Infuriating. I also spent a good chunk of time catching up on all the other blogs I read. I just haven't taken the time lately.

I won't bore anyone with the details - I just felt like I should post something to say to the world that I am still alive.

I actually called my dad the other day. Shocker, I know. Don't get me wrong, I love the guy, but as my family can emphatically attest to, I don't call anyone.

I am also officially official at work now. 25 Jan marked my switch over from temporary employee to full hire status. So now I actually get benefits and whatnot. Yeah me!

So...ummm....tah dah!

Setting the Record Straight

I meant to post this on Friday since it relates to my work place on Fridays. If discussions of men's dress style (not fashion, mind you...STYLE) bore you, you might want to consider skipping this.

Okay, "business casual" means a man doesn't have to wear a suit. There should still be some semblance of professional bearing in dressing - after all, it is called "business casual" and not just "casual." This is why I wear button-up shirts and ties to work. I am in the distinct minority, however. While most of the other men do wear khakis or some kind of slacks, polo shirts and t-shirts are WAY too common, in my opinion. But I can overlook most of that. After all, I suppose it ranks fairly high in employee satisfaction that guys are allowed to show the world they can't dress themselves, so be it. (For the record, the women tend to dress far more appropriately for a business casual environment.)

Then comes "Jeans Friday." Every Friday, employees are allowed to wear blue jeans - and when the proverbial crap hits the fan. People turn into absolute slobs. Men "forget" to shave. Hooded sweatshirts. Baseball caps worn INSIDE all day (don't even get me started on caps worn backwards or (heaven forbid) sideways). T-shirts with logos or sayings on them that really shouldn't belong in a place of business. All of this includes men and women.

Now, I don't think I am a vain person when it comes how I dress. I don't have a large or excessive wardrobe. The clothes I do have are not even high quality. I just believe that a person should dress professionally when engaged in a professional livelihood. Because I haven't owned any jeans without holes in the knees or butt, I have been wearing slacks on Fridays, but no tie. I mentioned in an earlier post that I had bought some new jeans, so I wore them this last Friday. Holy Over-reaction Batman! You would have thought the end of the world had happened from the reaction of some of my co-workers. Steve is wearing jeans and no tie?!?

Even at Church today, where men 99.9% of the time wear suits, I was wearing one of my nicest shirts with French cuffs (long topic made short: the cuffs have no buttons and require cufflinks), with a pair of my dad's old cufflinks (which I'm sure he doesn't know I have...Hey Dad, I have your cufflinks!). Some folk thought it was "really cool" (read: "really strange") that I had cufflinks AND a pocket square (folded up handkerchief) in the breast pocket of my suit coat. These comments were from the younger fellows. I don't suppose the older gentlemen even noticed, and if they did, they probably just smiled and fiddled with their own cufflinks.

Do I think I am better than someone else because I dress better different? Good Heavens, no! There are many more capable and competent men out there in the world. I am just lamenting a culture shift that is moving away from what I would enjoy. As an anthropologist, I have been taught not to place any greater or lesser values on different cultures or cultural practices. However, in reality, it is much harder to shake my own pre-concieved notions of what is "right" - especially since I am a participant in that culture and not an outside observer.

To finish up in my defense: I do not own $300 or $400 shoes (which is generally a sign that a man takes his dressing WAY too seriously). My black and brown shoes cost me, respectively, $0 (military issue dress shoes from Basic Training) and $25. I'm not obsessive about this stuff...just aware.

Dude..."Mr. Wilson" Is My Father

So there I was walking down the hallway at work, when some guy that almost looks familiar (he didn't LOOK familiar, but had a face like he ought to) smiles at me and says, "Hi, Mr. Wilson." Since we were walking opposite directions at a pretty good clip, I didn't have time to do a double take or even realize that NOBODY at work should recognize me as "Mr. Wilson." For the life of me, I can't imagine who would possibly refer to me as Mr. Wilson - or where I would even know someone who would refer to me as such.

Strange things are afoot at the Circle K...

So anyhow, I'm now kickin' back listening to Enya, watching the christmas tree lights, sipping egg nog, and enjoying a quiet house (kids are in bed). I'm actually feeling pretty relaxed. I played for a little bit with my new miniatures (a boy and his toy soldiers...I know...), successfully debugged a program called OpenRPG that I've been trying to get working on my macintosh for some time now, got a reimbursement check for some scouting supplies I had bought, and had a relatively mellow time with the Webelos tonight.

Work is going well, except for usually being finished with my work for the day a few hours too early. It makes the last part of the day really drag - especially when my cubical faces a large windowed conference room where the managers have their daily meetings and where the company hosts prospective clients. And people wonder why I wear a tie...

However, I finally have a set of my own clients that I work regularly with. They include Lowe's Home Improvement, Hard Rock Cafe, Red Wing Shoes, Metromedia Restaurants (Steak & Ale, Bennigan's, etc.), Weatherford International (oil drilling company), and Interstate (Starplex) Theatres. Yup, I'm the guy who sets up/terminates all the utility accounts nationwide for these big boys. Exciting stuff, I know. I spend my day talking to big and little people at big and little utility companies (like the City of Lower Frog Jump, Tennessee) across the continent. I find it amazing how territorial some of these people can get when you don't do things EXACTLY the way they want - and that usually comes from the smaller places (City of..., County of..., etc.). No, I am NOT going to send you a copy of MY driver's license and MY social security number to set up electric/gas/water service for a new 120,000+ square foot Lowe's Home Center! A $35,000 deposit?!? Come on...you have GOT to be kidding me. I have a federal tax id number and a letter of authorization - that is all you're getting from me besides my name and phone number.

Sounds like there should be something in the Geneva Convention about that...

Okay, Okay...Stop Calling Me

Here's the deal: Now that I'm spending 8 hours a day at work, I can't say I'm terribly thrilled to rush home and write about work in my blog. Don't get me wrong, my new job is good, but I've got so many other things going on that I haven't felt like sitting down and typing.

When I get home around 4:00, I usually have things to plan for - I'm the new Webelos (Cub Scouts) leader that I have to plan for so the boys don't run wild every Wednesday. Saturdays, I've learned that I have to use most of that day gathering supplies for scouts as well as preparing a sunday school lesson for a large group of 13-14 year olds. Add that to trying to find time to spend some time with each of my kids individually as well as spending time with my wife.

Dang. I guess I'm all growed up now.

Anyway, work is ticking right along. My official title is "Utility Coordinator." I just finished a long training class yesterday. And since my desk doesn't get set up until tomorrow, I've been in a limbo-like existence. Added to that, my manager is on jury duty, so I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to be doing. Of course, everyone else in the unit is more than happy to have me help them with their work....um....yeah....

On the upside, on week two of working, the company did an adjustment to their pay-scale and I ended up getting a $2 an hour raise. I'm actually making an "almost out of poverty" wage! Actually, it isn't that bad, but with 4+ kids I'm still considered poor enough to qualify for all kinds of government assistance programs...not that I need them now - it's called LIVING WITHIN YOUR MEANS, PEOPLE!

(Insert appropriate rant about people thinking govt. assistance is a right not a privilege here)

As for the recent elections...the way everything has been handled (and the associated opposing reactions) is, to me, a prime example of why we need a third political party in this country. Yeah, yeah, there is the Libertarians or the Green Party, or any number of "little guys" but nothing that can compete yet. I probably more closely agree with the Libertarians...with a few exception of where they carry a few issues to illogical extremes. Anyhow, unless the current Democrat/Republican parties can figure out what they actually stand for (besides the sole goal of being (re)elected and being "in control"), I'm not sure where I stand. Folks on both sides can be so ignorant/close-minded/misguided/whatever, that I'm a bit disillusioned all the way around. It has become more about what is good for "the party" rather than what is good for the country.

So a big raspberry to 'em all! :P

"I am the Greatest!"

Just came across this old Kenny Rogers song titled, "The Greatest":

Little boy
In a baseball hat
Stands in the field
With his ball and bat

Says, "I am the greatest
Player of them all!"
Puts his bat on his shoulder
And he tosses up his ball

And the ball goes up and the ball comes down
He swings his bat all the way around
The world's so still you can hear the sound
The baseball falls
To the ground

Now the little boy
Doesn't say a word
Picks up his ball
He is undeterred

Says, "I am the greatest
There has ever been!"
And he grits his teeth
And he tries it again

And the ball goes up and the ball comes down
He swings his bat all the way around
The world's so still you can hear the sound
The baseball falls
To the ground

He makes no excuses
He shows no fear
He just closes his eyes
And listens to the cheers

Little boy
He adjusts his hat
Picks up his ball
Stares at his bat

Says, "I am the greatest!
The game is on the line!"
And he gives his all
One last time

And the ball goes up and the moon's so bright
Swings his bat with all his might
And the world's as still, as still can be
And the baseball falls...
...And that's strike three

Now it's suppertime
And his momma calls
Little boy starts home
With his bat and ball

Says, "I am the greatest!
That is a fact.
But even I didn't know
I could pitch like that."

Says, "I am the greatest!
That is understood.
But even I didn't know
I could pitch that good."

After hearing that, I decided to post the lyric in opposition to the song listed two posts ago. It's amazing the roller-coaster ride I've been on lately. Now I don't think I have quite the attitude of the little boy, but the song really struck me because...

I HAVE A JOB!!!!!

Yes, that is right. I am now back in the realm of the gainfully employed. Okay, I actually don't start work until Wednesday, but still...WhaaaHoooo! Humanix came through and lined up an interview for me with a huge nationwide company that has its headquarters here in town - Advantage IQ. What will I be doing? I will be one of the folks responsible for the opening and closing of accounts. What does that mean? I'm not going to describe what the company does...you can go to the website and find out if you're that interested. These folk work with big name corporations like McDonalds, Home Depot, Jack-in-the-Box, Staples, Starbucks, etc. I wasn't too sure about the job when I first heard about it, but after the interview I can honestly say that I am excited to see how things work.

I will certainly keep things updated on what I'm doing (within privacy guidelines, of course) as I learn more about it myself. Overall, it will be nice to get a paycheck again.

Speaking of the Bobs...

This past week, rough as it has been as far as job interviews, reminds me of another Bobs song. Here it is in its entirety:

Like a parrot in a picture window,
I can see where I'd like to be.
But repeated blows to my feathered little head
Have taught me not to fly straight.

Kinda depressing, huh? It has been that kind of week. I'm starting to lose my self-confidence in being able to convince others that I can do something...anything. It's not that I don't think I can do the job, just my ability to communicate to others that I can do that job. It is entirely frustrating - especially when an interview starts with the question: "So, why haven't you been working for the past few months?" As if there is something wrong with me. Arrrgg! SCREW YOU!

I though about deleting that last bit, but I'm not going to. I'm that frustrated. Somedays I just know Leslie is glad I'm not a cussing man...