Sam Hurley and the Cardboard Desk of the Daleks
Nanowrimo is coming. I anticipate it with excitement and a smile.
I had the privilege of working 35 hours last week - new record for me at this job. I believe my longest week at my last job was over 50 hours, but anyway. The non-managers are part-time, so 35 hours is special. What the bosses are saying is this: "You work good, you can have more hours. You work bad, you get fewer hours." DG only has X hours per week of payroll that can be spent. Out of 5 people not are not the chief boss (salary), I got 25% of the hours last week - more than even the Assistant Manager. But that was a bit of a fluke. My point in saying all this is to say that my boss likes me, and all of my managers seem to find my competent and trustworthy, and a harder worker than the other people at my rank in the company. If all goes well, I may receive a minor promotion which means a higher likelihood of more hours, and slightly more money. If I got 50 cents more per hour, and 30 hours per week, I'd break even under my current budget and fiscal projections. By the way, my budget spreadsheet is a beauty. Simple to use, powerful in numbers and stats which can be used to make informed real-world decisions that will result in increased efficiency. Anyway, work's going well.
Apartment setup grows closer to completion. I have more dishes now, thanks to freecycle. I think my design for a cardboard desk will last at least a few months. The one major thing I'd like to have before the fam comes to visit is seating. The floor is the entirety of the seating. There's also a mattress ad a toilet, but those things are less conducive to conversation with aging parents.
I've been using reverse attrition to fill my pantry and refrigerator with things that I will actually use and eat. Needs are fairly well covered at the apartment. I would like to have the luxury of internet access installed before I move in. The hitch is a phone line, which is needed for dsl. There is no dial-tone, and the dsl box can't connect to the internet. I expect that it will be functional before next weekend. Possibly before Tuesday, but perhaps not. There are some things that I need to check, but it's possible that a phone repair man may need to stop by and check on some the hardware in the apartment. I may also give the landlord a ring and find out if there's anything I ought to know. He's been very good at telling me minor things that are good to know, and showing me how some of the inner workings of the build work, so I guess that there is nothing he's leaving out.
GCC (VA church) was good for me because it encouraged the growth of many virtues, especially humility and fidelity. My stay in Virginia was generaly a time of growth for me, but I wonder if I haven't backslid a little since I've been here. Maybe backslide is the wrong verb. Perhaps it's not about getting somewhere, but being something, and I've been less of it lately.
I am grateful for my job. Besides the money part, it gives me something to do. Spare time is destructive. The more time I fill with constructive things, the better. Working is constructive, charts are constructive. Spore and Oblivion are not constructive, but they are not destructive, either. These are all acceptable activities.
An additional benefit is the social outlet. It gets me out and talking with people. Even though very few interactions with customers involve real connection, my coworkers and I do get along well. I think that it is healthy to have multiple social outlets that are separate from each other. between the Usual Lot, my coworkers, and my internetable people, I think I'm covered well. I rarely feel lonely, but I don't feel overcrowded with people. The balance is pretty good. I suspect that an effective equilibrium can be approximated adequately after all the people are where they are going to be, between all of us that are moving, and those of us that are on a trip.
Star Pilot Sam Hurley stared at the myriad of buttons, lights, and the very TOS style nav console. That is, it involved things which were almost but not entirely unlike modern computers, and the sheer peculiarity of a non-organic control scheme drew his attention
"I was not trained on the E-207 hardware, sir."
A younger man stood behind him, clothed in a snappier outfit. He grinned. "You think this is bad? Imagine flying a ship like this with analogs!" He left.
"Great." Dry voice.
Hurley flew the ship by intuition, but his navigational sensors were the sort which printed onto paper. There was no paper on board.
"What kind of gonzo five-buck op is this, anyway?" He swore.
The starship's progress and destiny: unknown.
I think sometimes when I am comfortable with certain families, I treat them somewhat as if they were my own family. I make myself comfortable around them, familiar and so on. Sometimes when I think about it, I wonder if I "take" more then I "give" in these situations. There are three families in particular that I'm thinking of, but I think that two more also apply. After some thought, I conclude that I do not believe I have been unreasonably self-centered, but there were, are, and will be opportunities to be more of a servant and less of a guest. I think, for some social situations, this can be taken too far. But I think that it is more socially lame to not go far enough.
Jonathan: agree? Allison Krauss > Kid Rock
Sarah: ...who is Allison Krauss?
Sarah: I am inclined to agree though
Sarah: because Kid Rock suxxor
Michael Mason: you're opinion on unibrows?
Jonathan: Sexy
Michael Mason: YES!!!
I had the privilege of working 35 hours last week - new record for me at this job. I believe my longest week at my last job was over 50 hours, but anyway. The non-managers are part-time, so 35 hours is special. What the bosses are saying is this: "You work good, you can have more hours. You work bad, you get fewer hours." DG only has X hours per week of payroll that can be spent. Out of 5 people not are not the chief boss (salary), I got 25% of the hours last week - more than even the Assistant Manager. But that was a bit of a fluke. My point in saying all this is to say that my boss likes me, and all of my managers seem to find my competent and trustworthy, and a harder worker than the other people at my rank in the company. If all goes well, I may receive a minor promotion which means a higher likelihood of more hours, and slightly more money. If I got 50 cents more per hour, and 30 hours per week, I'd break even under my current budget and fiscal projections. By the way, my budget spreadsheet is a beauty. Simple to use, powerful in numbers and stats which can be used to make informed real-world decisions that will result in increased efficiency. Anyway, work's going well.
Apartment setup grows closer to completion. I have more dishes now, thanks to freecycle. I think my design for a cardboard desk will last at least a few months. The one major thing I'd like to have before the fam comes to visit is seating. The floor is the entirety of the seating. There's also a mattress ad a toilet, but those things are less conducive to conversation with aging parents.
I've been using reverse attrition to fill my pantry and refrigerator with things that I will actually use and eat. Needs are fairly well covered at the apartment. I would like to have the luxury of internet access installed before I move in. The hitch is a phone line, which is needed for dsl. There is no dial-tone, and the dsl box can't connect to the internet. I expect that it will be functional before next weekend. Possibly before Tuesday, but perhaps not. There are some things that I need to check, but it's possible that a phone repair man may need to stop by and check on some the hardware in the apartment. I may also give the landlord a ring and find out if there's anything I ought to know. He's been very good at telling me minor things that are good to know, and showing me how some of the inner workings of the build work, so I guess that there is nothing he's leaving out.
GCC (VA church) was good for me because it encouraged the growth of many virtues, especially humility and fidelity. My stay in Virginia was generaly a time of growth for me, but I wonder if I haven't backslid a little since I've been here. Maybe backslide is the wrong verb. Perhaps it's not about getting somewhere, but being something, and I've been less of it lately.
I am grateful for my job. Besides the money part, it gives me something to do. Spare time is destructive. The more time I fill with constructive things, the better. Working is constructive, charts are constructive. Spore and Oblivion are not constructive, but they are not destructive, either. These are all acceptable activities.
An additional benefit is the social outlet. It gets me out and talking with people. Even though very few interactions with customers involve real connection, my coworkers and I do get along well. I think that it is healthy to have multiple social outlets that are separate from each other. between the Usual Lot, my coworkers, and my internetable people, I think I'm covered well. I rarely feel lonely, but I don't feel overcrowded with people. The balance is pretty good. I suspect that an effective equilibrium can be approximated adequately after all the people are where they are going to be, between all of us that are moving, and those of us that are on a trip.
Star Pilot Sam Hurley stared at the myriad of buttons, lights, and the very TOS style nav console. That is, it involved things which were almost but not entirely unlike modern computers, and the sheer peculiarity of a non-organic control scheme drew his attention
"I was not trained on the E-207 hardware, sir."
A younger man stood behind him, clothed in a snappier outfit. He grinned. "You think this is bad? Imagine flying a ship like this with analogs!" He left.
"Great." Dry voice.
Hurley flew the ship by intuition, but his navigational sensors were the sort which printed onto paper. There was no paper on board.
"What kind of gonzo five-buck op is this, anyway?" He swore.
The starship's progress and destiny: unknown.
I think sometimes when I am comfortable with certain families, I treat them somewhat as if they were my own family. I make myself comfortable around them, familiar and so on. Sometimes when I think about it, I wonder if I "take" more then I "give" in these situations. There are three families in particular that I'm thinking of, but I think that two more also apply. After some thought, I conclude that I do not believe I have been unreasonably self-centered, but there were, are, and will be opportunities to be more of a servant and less of a guest. I think, for some social situations, this can be taken too far. But I think that it is more socially lame to not go far enough.
Jonathan: agree? Allison Krauss > Kid Rock
Sarah: ...who is Allison Krauss?
Sarah: I am inclined to agree though
Sarah: because Kid Rock suxxor
Michael Mason: you're opinion on unibrows?
Jonathan: Sexy
Michael Mason: YES!!!