Oct 08 2003

so, the burden brothers show didn’t happen last friday. it’s going to be the 24th instead. alas. Kill Bill comes out this friday, though, so that should rock balls.

yesterday, i had a phone interview with a company in the dallas area. it was really short, so i have to worry that i didn’t do well. unlike the other jobs that i’ve interviewed for, it actually seems like somewhere i might actually want to work. they said they’d be in touch within the next two weeks, one way or the other. if it’s good, they’ll set up an on-site interview. if it’s bad, they’ll give me the shit about “we enjoyed talking to you, but you don’t fit our criteria at this time. good luck!”

the major shipping company that i interviewed with and was supposed to do an on-site interview with this week hasn’t bothered to call me. i can’t remember the name of the guy who interviewed me, and i forgot to get his business card, so i can’t call or e-mail him. alas.

yesterday, my research advisors and i met with some people at the place where i’m doing my research…finally, after working on this shit for almost a year, i’m ready to actually do something, i think, rather than just look up articles and such.

man, school licks balls. how are you?

Oct 02 2003

[Now Listening to: “Weird Al” Yankovic - UHF (05:09)]

so, this week has been pretty much dedicated to looking for jobs. yay. that would be fine if i didn’t have a test tomorrow that i haven’t studied for yet.

anyway, tuesday, i had an interview with a major defense contractor. the guy seemed really nice, and it went pretty well, but i’m not sure i’d really want to work there, because of the whole defense contractor thing.

yesterday, there was a job fair at school. exciting, as they always are. yeah, right. lame and boring, seeing the same people that are there every semester, giving them a resume again, waiting to never hear back from most of them. actually, i did have an interview with a major shipping company yesterday and they want me to come to the dallas area sometime next week for an on-site interview at their “shipping hub.” that’s cool, but i know they don’t pay as well as some other companies might. of course, any money at all is > $0, which is what i’ll be making if i don’t find a job. hrm. also, apparently i have to drive to dallas for the interview; i was under the impression that most companies fly people to the site of the interview, but hey, what do i know?
[Now Listening to: Mike Fuller - The List (05:00)]

i spent most of this morning looking at the university’s career center website. it’s better than it used to be, but most jobs won’t let you apply through it; they link to hotjobs or careerbuilder. i applied for 6 or so jobs that way, most of them with companies i’ve never heard of. at the career fair, i talked to some of the recruiter-people (who are former classmates of mine), and they said they’d recommend me, but i have to apply through the career center website. the fucking thing won’t let me, though. it says that my “degree type” and my “student status” are not correct for their job postings; yeah, i don’t have “Bachelor of Science” listed as my degree type (it’s listed under “previous education”). i’m a graduate student, so my student status isn’t “fifth year/senior.” hrm. that just ain’t cool. it’s not my fault i’m a grad student. well, i guess it kind of is. anyway…there’s no reason it shouldn’t let me apply; i’m just more qualified than their minimum requirements. hmm. and there’s no contact information (e-mail, phone number, or otherwise) for the career center listed on the website, so i can’t complain to them without dropping by there. my 2nd class is canceled tomorrow, though, so i’ll probably do that. “uhh, yeah, your website sucks and it won’t let me apply for jobs that i’m qualified for.”
[Now Listening to: Burden Brothers - Your Fault (02:18)]

(aww yeah, that reminds me that the burden brothers are coming to town tomorrow; they’re playing at bleachers, an ultra-shitty venue for a show. liz and i’ll probably go, though. those guys rock balls. yes, there’s a ktxt show tomorrow at a different venue; i’d actually like to see the thriftstore cowboys play, but i can’t pass up an opportunity to see the burden bros.)

looking for jobs sucks. it’s a good thing i don’t have a job (aside from the T.A. thing), or i wouldn’t have time for all of this.

i spent a few hours yesterday at the radio station transferring liners and things from the old computer to the new one. very exciting. the radio station meeting last night was okay, but it went on too long and they turn off the air conditioners in the buildings at 5pm, so it was most unpleasant in there by the time the meeting ended at 8:30. the guest speaker seemed really cool, but she didn’t really say anything that the exec-folx don’t say at every meeting.
[Now Listening to: Johnny Cash - In My Life (02:58)]

Jul 03 2003

liz and i have a new boss at work. well, he’s been there for about a month, i guess, but he’s only been in charge for a few weeks (he trained for a few weeks before that). anyway, until this week, i hadn’t really worked with him too much. my job, though technically in his department, is usually away from the department proper. this week, though, i’ve helped out with other stuff and had to be around him more. i already knew he stank, but i’ve had to smell him far too much this week. liz isn’t too fond of him, and over the last few days, i’ve experienced firsthand exactly why.

for instance, today, he said to me, “so tomorrow is july 4th.”
“yup,” i said, not wanting to talk to him.
“you know, though, that america really declared its independence from england on july 3rd.”
“really?” i said, not at all interested.
“yeah,” he said, “but they decided to celebrate on july 4th because bastille day is july 3rd.”
“uhh, bastille day is july 14th,” i said. (and it is.)
“yeah, bastille day is july 3rd,” he said, completely ignoring me, “but the americans wanted to celebrate on a different day than the french.”

i didn’t want to argue with him, but july 14th is bastille day. anyone who’s had more than, say, one semester of french class knows that. and the bastille was stormed in 1789, thirteen years after america’s declaration of independence (i’d thought i remembered the year as 1789, and i looked it up and was correct). thus, he wasn’t merely remembering facts incorrectly (as i’d first assumed, wanting to give him the benefit of the doubt), he was completely full of shit.

this reminded me of the fact that in college, i minored in french. a while back, thanks to the anti-french propaganda (which seems to have died down a bit), liz and i joked about how i should change my résumé to say that i minored in freedom, rather than french. that would make a fun bit of conversation with interviewers. “yeah, france is bad, and french words get replaced with ‘freedom,’ so i minored in freedom. yeah. so, like, give me a job.”

———

we went to see Terminator 3 the other day. ‘twas good; i’ll write more of a review later. yes.

Jun 14 2003

lameass store meeting this morning at 8am. the company doesn’t seem to understand that it would get a better turnout of around college-aged people (which comprise the majority of employees at most of its stores) if store meetings weren’t at 8am on saturdays. ugh. UGH. it wasn’t so bad for me today, i was up in plenty of time. there have been times, though, when it’s been quite a struggle. it’s likely the same for other people, which explains the historically low turnout.

our dumbass store manager made us play this stupid game “about teamwork” or something. i think it was really just about passing stupid cheap-ass toys back and forth for no real reason. did i mention that he’s a dumbass? anyway, i ended up with this water-football thing (which i didn’t keep; i gave it to joe), and the label said “SPLAT CATCH,” which makes no sense, but sounds funny. hence, the title of this entry.

———

so, i just rolled a bunch of change. liz and i had something in the neighborhood of 25 dollars in assorted change, not including quarters (as those go into a different bag for laundry and such). whee!

———

liz just showed me a magazine article from a fairly current issue of Us magazine, which says that mick jagger’s son and keith richards’s daughter are dating. that’s cool for them, i suppose, since they’ve no doubt grown up together and known each other for years and years and such, but it’s probably weird for their fathers.

May 26 2003

i have nothing of any import to write about, but it’s my day off, so i’m going to write about all of the things i should be doing but probably won’t do.

1. i should go to work because i’ll likely have to hurry to finish all of my reports by the end of the week if i don’t work on them today.

2. i should work on my thesis because i have to defend it in early november if i want to graduate in december. this includes the data analysis that needs to be done and the extended literature review that i need to be working on.

3. i should clean the bathroom (i’m actually going to do this one).

i guess that’s about it. sleeping in is nice. AWW YEAH.

AWW YEAH.