Things Random
I'd like to think that if I were of a different faith, or perhaps no faith, I would still be somewhat appalled at the anti-Catholic commentary that has been popping up all over my usual Interwub hangouts. No way to know, of course. But I think I can at least find sturdy ground in feeling grouchy at people who were recently decrying anti-Muslim commentary but now delight in retweeting crude jokes about the Pope.
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Better than a poke in the eye:
for the first time in pretty much ever, a last minute application for a temporary position flowered into a real, actual gig. No back and forth, no callbacks, no "I'll keep you posted" no dragged out interview, no requests for samples after the interview, no "the client pushed the decision back to next week." Just "you're perfect; go to this address tomorrow morning."
Thank you inimitable Universe that may or may not be ruled by a divine force or forces but that I suspect is because...well... because I just do. And therefore thank you divine force or forces which I address as God because that just works best for me.
I was doing other things, up to my eyeballs in other plans. And naturally that's the only way that work can come find me. (Or maybe that one star I wished on finally came through!)
Anyway, it's only for a few days which is its own relief because the gig is in Beverly Hills and that is a shit fucking drive, let me tell you.
Also, my sleep schedule had pretty much reverted back to 6am-12pm(ish). So trying to sleep properly for this job has so far been an exercise in farce as I've averaged 3 hours of sleep over the past three nights. Between the sheer exhaustion, hours in the office where I don't dare wander off task, a commute that has taken as long as three hours and never less than one and a half, I haven't gotten much else done.
Today I had to be up early not for the job but for a yard sale. Got up with the sun to get everything prepared and it was still utter chaos as I made up most of what I was doing on the spot. I hate having to do that. HATE IT. But I had minimal prep work done by Wednesday night and then along came the gig. Well the yard sale went off well enough. Would have preferred to sell more, of course. But the money made was decent - happily augmented by finally selling the couch. I could be annoyed that the money is already spent (in my head) by the above job, but I prefer to be relieved that I don't have to borrow more money from my mom in order to buy gas and lunch.
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They've had me working on a Mac at the gig. I'm not used to Macs. I can dick around on them when there's nothing on the line but I quickly get frustrated at having to learn new rules of navigation and management when I'm trying to be professional. To wit: the "end" should send my cursor to the end of a line of text and the "home" key should send the cursor to the beginning. Always. Every time. And if I hold down the shift key at the same time all of the characters crossed in that move should become highlighted. I don't give a fuck what other spiffy moves Macs have. This is basic and bloody essential for anyone working with copy. It drives me *nuts* how much I have to depend on the mouse. Outside of borrowed computers (e.g. the library) I haven't used a mouse in almost a decade! Admittedly, this is because at my last job I requested and got a trackball that I used religiously and over the last three years I've been on laptops and thus used touchpads.
At least other hotkeys work more or less as expected. I wouldn't have thought having to highlight using a mouse would piss me off so much. (I know it's possible to map hotkeys and such, but keep in mind it's not my computer.)
That said, I should probably learn Adobe, including Dreamweaver, at some point.
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So busy/crazy/tired that I haven't gotten 'round to the usual entertainments. Still have all my comix from the last two days including XKCD and Girl Genius and even warren_ellis's Freakangels. I'm behind by at least one Guild episode, though possibly two and a couple of extras, but that's likely because I often let them slide so the content can aggregate and I have more than five minutes of fun. The Hulu queue is starting to grow again. I've bookmarked a couple of Fresh Air interviews and a World in Words podcast. I haven't watched the last three Rachel Maddow shows yet... *sigh* tired just thinking of it all.
I know there's other stuff I mean to get to but I'm somewhat bewildered by the pile. Normally by now I'd at least have a list of things to do that I would ignore. I've had a ton of thoughts of stuff for LJ entries but babbling is easier than organizing my thoughts. I mean this entry touches on the thoughts, but in a pedestrian fashion, rather than some thoughtful stuff I'll want to read again in a year or two. I've been thinking about the essential divide in mental framework between the religious and areligious when I finally caught a glimpse of why St Thomas More had atheists excluded from Utopia. Or rather, I finally grokked what he was driving at. (As with a lot of things in this topic, I don't concieve of it as good or bad but this or that.)
I've been thinking about the concept of property. I think it's a flimsy concept but I often up chasing my tail when I try to talk about it. Maybe because it's not more flimsy than, say, human rights. But I am more solid in my grasp of human rights and justice than property. Which is weird, I guess, but there it is. And i've been thinking of justice more, particularly in the framework of human rights and peace. Though there is a strong bent toward service and worker's rights, and that is because I've been reading Loaves and Fishes and I'm trying to figure out how to write about it without copying the whole frickin book. Tangentially, I get a little bit frustrated when I'm told my liberal views are hard-Left compared to the median American views. That may be, but compared to Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, I'm as milquetoast moderate as they come. I admire them tremendously but I don't know if I could ever speak of such radical ideas with the confidence and certainty they had. I really have no idea how the broader Catholic position was in America during the Great Depression (it was still *very* much the religion of immigrants so there was almost no room for it in mainstream America) but they called themselves Catholic radicals. So far Day hasn't gotten into it but I think she and Maurin and their cohort only avoided semantic association with Communists because of the violent oppression of Catholicism (and the Eastern Orthodox churches) in countries and regions where Communism took root. ...anyway, I could go on and on and one day I will.
I think off and on about writing about Beverly Hills. I don't know if I will. I hate driving in it. Everyone assumes - everyone, every time - that I dislike the elitism of the wealthy class, and when I'm speaking with anyone of color there's also a suspicion of the rich white people. It's hard to separate the sense that the people physically moving about in Beverly Hills have a feeling of entitlement from the ostentatious wealth of the area. Since the latter seems to beget the first there may be no point. But I hate running on assumptions once I've identified them. It's just that when the topic comes up I rarely make to the point where I can explain the material experiences I've had. I HATE driving in Beverly Hills. People aren't exactly bad drivers there, but I regularly encountered repeated examples of the most self-centered habits drivers (and pedestrians) can exhibit. You have to wait for *them*. They'll hang out in a lane for no reason, no blinkers, nothing and then impatiently wave you around when you honk. They'll signal for a turn or lane change at the absolute last fucking second. They'll cross the street in a daze because they're on the phone with someone. Rich or poor, that's just a shitty way to move about in public.
I don't know if the regular pedestrians are sizing me up or what. I don't care. I almost never notice other people until I have to interact with them. And the people i've interacted with have been kind and patient. Next to the building I work in there's big old fashioned-ish pharmacy with a diner inside. I had lunch there on Thursday and on the front door was a handwritten paper noting the place would close early on Friday and stay closed through Saturday for Yom Kippur. The waitstaff were very pleasant and quick on their feet. The head waitress knew just about everybody by name, remembered the usuals of a few customers and inquired after the child of at least one patron. I had a delicious tuna melt and read L&F while the conversations washed over me. Every now and then life is just poetic.