1.11.02 - mini-update

You know you're serious about finding a new job when...

1.9.02

I think I’m going to officially register for a grant from the American Medical Association to do a study on what I’m calling “PBS Syndrome”. No, it has nothing to do with Masterpiece Theater or Sesame Street, its what I like to call “Post-Bourbon Street Syndrome”. The symptoms include: nausea, boredom, extreme depression that your real life sucks, daiquiri withdrawal, and noflashingtery. This has been the worst damn week I’ve had in a long time, simply because I had so much fun the weekend before. Weird how that kinda thing works, doesn’t it? But then again, I’ve never been one who goes on vacation and comes back refreshed and ready to work again. No, when I go on vacation, it makes me realize how much I hate working and how much more I enjoy living for a living. Anyway, I’m hoping to have the paperwork done for my grant request by the end of the week and will be looking for volunteers to go down to New Orleans about every other week and then come home and describe the results. Let me know if you’re interested. It’s for science, dammit!

As if my week couldn’t get bad enough, I just found out today that we will NOT be getting cable modems in our apartment complex. Going to stab myself in the eye with a ballpoint pen! Apparently it was a mistake that the stupid telemarketer called our place because our apartment isn’t able to handle cable modems, as the wiring is too old. Just kill me now. Seriously.

I went to a comedy club tonight for free. You might remember the guy, name’s Emo Phillips. If that doesn’t spark your memory, I don’t know what else would, so I’ll just leave it at that. He was hilarious; much darker than I’d ever seen him on TV. And, hey, it was free so I really can’t complain.

Big, boring last weekend for me. I intentionally tried not to do anything too extravagant, but ended up doing nothing extravagant instead. I basically did nothing of interest until Sunday when I was at the office for about thirteen hours working on various in- progress projects. I wrote mostly, getting fifteen pages done on a story set in the Wild West…but with a twist. It will be debuting soon on theboundry.com.

Speaking of The Boundry, the site is officially live now. Granted, if you’ve been here for a while now you’ve already read the one and only story displayed thus far, WANTED, but I’ll be updating it every Friday with either one of my stories or one from my friend, Steve. So if you’re looking for a story to pass the time once a week, head on over to theboundry.com and check it out. Minor warning, though, the new story I’m posting this week, Remnants of Linda, is most definitely not for those of you easily offended; probably not for those of you who are rarely offended, either. If you do decide to read it, please keep in mind it is merely a piece of fiction, people. Fic-tion. Why do I get the feeling I’m going to be getting a worried phone call from my Dad about this one?

I start my new class tomorrow – Creative Writing. My first class dedicated solely to writing fiction. I can’t wait. I’ll have to let you know how it goes.

And now that it’s after the first of the year, I’m hitting the employment market again with a vengeance. Gotta get the hell out of this worthless job I’m in now. Things just keep getting worse and worse around here and I keep sinking lower and lower into a pit of despair with every morning I wake up and put on my maroon shirt with the City’s logo stitched into it. God, I hate this job.

However, I have had a few prospects over the last week - one at an IT firm and another with the company that makes the industry standard software for GIS. Although I haven’t heard anything back from either of them (granted it was only yesterday and today that I’ve gotten my resume to them), I have my fingers crossed. At this point I’m willing to take any job as long as it pays me at least what I’m making now and will help me along my career path. I’d even take a job that paid less and get a part-time job if I had to. You have NO idea how much I hate my current employment.

One last thing – if you’re out looking for a movie this weekend, go see The Royal Tenenbaums, preferably at a matinee show. I don’t recommend the matinee because its only a so-so film, quite the contrary I loved it, but its not exactly a big mainstream audience kinda film and I’d hate for you to pay $7 each and then hate it. It’s a quirky, darkly funny tale from the writers/director of “Rushmore” and “Bottle Rockets”. Its been getting some pretty rave reviews from the critics, but again, this isn’t the kind of movie that everyone is going to love. You have to be of a certain mindset to enjoy this film. Not saying that mindset is any better or worse than the mainstream, but you get the picture. For me, it fits like a glove. Its been almost a week since I’ve seen it and I’m still laughing about some of the scenes and the lines. Maybe you’ll like it, maybe you won’t. Dunno. Go find out. But don’t hate me if you didn’t like it.

Well, I suppose that about does it for the week. Looking forward to the weekend where a friend of mine and I have decided that it seems to be a perfect weekend to not be sober (yes, his week has sucked, too). So, hopefully I won’t remember squat from this week and I’ll be able to look upon next week as a brand new episode in the adventure that is life. Why do I feel like I’m on a very special episode of The Facts of Life? Is this the one where Blair realizes she’s a bitch and has a change of heart? Or the one when Jo finally comes out of the closet? I forget.

Space Monkey X