Overview
QOTD: "You can be standing right in front of the truth and not necessarily see it, and people only get it when they're ready to get it."
Important to do a recap, I suppose.
Hours at Keesler were cut back somewhat over a year ago, cutting me to 35/wk. I was fortunate to not be among those that also took a cut in pay rate. In March of this year we were told our insurance rates would be increasing. This would be the third increase within six months. Our monthly insurance premiums are paid with our prevailing wage benefit, something to the tune of $3.81/hr worked. The new increases (more than my rent in total) would exceed those earnings, costing me $150/mo out of my paycheck. I'm not sure what kind of life they think I've been living, but I didn't have that to lose. For a nice bit of clarity, you might note again that prevailing wage is paid on hours worked; so if I took any paid vacation time, I wouldn't earning those wages, so I'd have to pay more out of pocket at the end of the pay period. Yes, I'd have to pay for my paid time off. So I quit.
As of May 30, 2014, I no longer am employed by K-MAR Industries nor do I work at Keesler AFB. My friend Brian has graciously offered his and his wife's hospitality as I search for more work, so I have relocated to Albuquerque, NM for an indefinite period. I attempted to secure work at Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula, but got outperformed by a candidate from the USMC combat camera. I had an exceptionally promising chance at my former project manager's job at MSU with the Office of Agriculture (massive thanks to Alicia for her assistance in that) but that didn't pan out because apparently they were looking for someone terrible. No, seriously, the photog they hired is awful. Just as well to not be headed back to MS, I suppose.
There was a posting for a senior photog position at the Air Force Academy (of all places), which I was eminently qualified for, but the job sounded dreadful and very much like all the work I hated doing for Kemberly except even moreso. Alert rotations would've accelerated from once every five weeks to once every other week. Thought about applying just to see the Academy and take a trip to Colorado Springs, but ultimately decided I really didn't want to do the work and couldn't bring myself to apply. So at the moment I'm job hunting in the Albuquerque area seeing what I can scrounge up.
I've been trying to start doing personal photography again. This attempt along with reading posting after posting for photog jobs that made me ill even just reading have made me think maybe I don't want to take another photo job just now. Going back through LJ, I was very excited about my job at Keesler when I started. I'd be nice to be excited about photo things again. I suspect that may take some time. I do think working for KMI totally burned me out. It's going to be a long rebuild. I've been shooting some of the slide film that I got from Herb, but it's extremely expensive to have developed and money isn't in surplus at the moment. I'm somewhat concerned E-6 developing will end before I've shot it and slide film rather needs to be processed promptly. It figures that I now have all the time I want to shoot this stuff but absolutely no money for the follow-through. It's less frustrating than I would've imagined but it is vexing.
In all honesty, I don't feel I've utilized my time very effectively thus far, having been out here a few weeks now. I've also not been especially responsible with my money. I've spent more money on food than I would've liked (though my hosts have been insanely gracious) and I bought a stupid amount of stuff during the Steam Summer Sale this year. Brian says that I should relax a little but I don't know how to really do that in this situation. I feel guilty if I sit around and play games all day. More than that, I don't feel well. The weather here is utterly spectacular and I haven't gotten outside as much as I'd like. The resources here are tremendously superior to anything I've ever had at my disposal, with a Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, REI, and clothing options in the mall that while they aren't jaw-dropping are very respectable. H&M is on the way. Sadly, all these things require significant financial resources to exploit. I guess we'll see how things go. There's a part time position at Best Buy I might pick up just to have something to give me some money without consuming my schedule as I try to orient myself to this place. Will probably spend tomorrow doing more job searching and possibly researching stuff in the ABQ area. When I went out to shoot wall murals the other day I didn't get quite what I was expecting, but it was a good outing. Need to find more reasons to get out of the house.
The farmer's market here has a vendor that makes gluten-free buckwheat crêpes every Saturday. It's been a fun experience trying the different options available each week. The first week was so good it's been impossible to not continue trying them each week.
It really is incredible food. $6 isn't cheap, but it's worth it.
Important to do a recap, I suppose.
Hours at Keesler were cut back somewhat over a year ago, cutting me to 35/wk. I was fortunate to not be among those that also took a cut in pay rate. In March of this year we were told our insurance rates would be increasing. This would be the third increase within six months. Our monthly insurance premiums are paid with our prevailing wage benefit, something to the tune of $3.81/hr worked. The new increases (more than my rent in total) would exceed those earnings, costing me $150/mo out of my paycheck. I'm not sure what kind of life they think I've been living, but I didn't have that to lose. For a nice bit of clarity, you might note again that prevailing wage is paid on hours worked; so if I took any paid vacation time, I wouldn't earning those wages, so I'd have to pay more out of pocket at the end of the pay period. Yes, I'd have to pay for my paid time off. So I quit.
As of May 30, 2014, I no longer am employed by K-MAR Industries nor do I work at Keesler AFB. My friend Brian has graciously offered his and his wife's hospitality as I search for more work, so I have relocated to Albuquerque, NM for an indefinite period. I attempted to secure work at Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula, but got outperformed by a candidate from the USMC combat camera. I had an exceptionally promising chance at my former project manager's job at MSU with the Office of Agriculture (massive thanks to Alicia for her assistance in that) but that didn't pan out because apparently they were looking for someone terrible. No, seriously, the photog they hired is awful. Just as well to not be headed back to MS, I suppose.
There was a posting for a senior photog position at the Air Force Academy (of all places), which I was eminently qualified for, but the job sounded dreadful and very much like all the work I hated doing for Kemberly except even moreso. Alert rotations would've accelerated from once every five weeks to once every other week. Thought about applying just to see the Academy and take a trip to Colorado Springs, but ultimately decided I really didn't want to do the work and couldn't bring myself to apply. So at the moment I'm job hunting in the Albuquerque area seeing what I can scrounge up.
I've been trying to start doing personal photography again. This attempt along with reading posting after posting for photog jobs that made me ill even just reading have made me think maybe I don't want to take another photo job just now. Going back through LJ, I was very excited about my job at Keesler when I started. I'd be nice to be excited about photo things again. I suspect that may take some time. I do think working for KMI totally burned me out. It's going to be a long rebuild. I've been shooting some of the slide film that I got from Herb, but it's extremely expensive to have developed and money isn't in surplus at the moment. I'm somewhat concerned E-6 developing will end before I've shot it and slide film rather needs to be processed promptly. It figures that I now have all the time I want to shoot this stuff but absolutely no money for the follow-through. It's less frustrating than I would've imagined but it is vexing.
In all honesty, I don't feel I've utilized my time very effectively thus far, having been out here a few weeks now. I've also not been especially responsible with my money. I've spent more money on food than I would've liked (though my hosts have been insanely gracious) and I bought a stupid amount of stuff during the Steam Summer Sale this year. Brian says that I should relax a little but I don't know how to really do that in this situation. I feel guilty if I sit around and play games all day. More than that, I don't feel well. The weather here is utterly spectacular and I haven't gotten outside as much as I'd like. The resources here are tremendously superior to anything I've ever had at my disposal, with a Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, REI, and clothing options in the mall that while they aren't jaw-dropping are very respectable. H&M is on the way. Sadly, all these things require significant financial resources to exploit. I guess we'll see how things go. There's a part time position at Best Buy I might pick up just to have something to give me some money without consuming my schedule as I try to orient myself to this place. Will probably spend tomorrow doing more job searching and possibly researching stuff in the ABQ area. When I went out to shoot wall murals the other day I didn't get quite what I was expecting, but it was a good outing. Need to find more reasons to get out of the house.
The farmer's market here has a vendor that makes gluten-free buckwheat crêpes every Saturday. It's been a fun experience trying the different options available each week. The first week was so good it's been impossible to not continue trying them each week.
It really is incredible food. $6 isn't cheap, but it's worth it.