tetradecimal

I have been documenting function outputs for six hours straight.

/wrist

( Random stuff about life )

Holy shit, this band is awful.

Also:


I do kinda want to do this movie. Arrrgh, but it's so much work.

I slept 11 hours last night, woke up this morning, and said, "Bullshit, I just went to sleep."

40 hour workweeks were meant for people with more energy than me.

My supposedly straightforward "make the changes on this paper copy to the electronic copy" hour-long task has become a raging time sinkhole involving testing, writing new material, and revisiting every single file I've already edited to make sure the right changes have been added to provide information that includes the new program mode I know nothing about.

Words cannot describe my rage.

I think I've gotten meaner as a person since starting out in the workplace in 2007. Or at least more snappish and irritable. I guess it's kind of a natural consequence of pretending to be someone else for extended periods of time and then stacking a bunch of pressures on top, little things that add up to ARGH over time.

Quarter-life crisis GO GO GO

Also, uh, starting work at new place on Tuesday. Terrified. And: Bottle manufacturers, please stop making bottle caps that are narrower than 1cm. It KILLS MY HANDS when I try to open the damn things. And if you combine that with FILL THE BOTTLE FILL IT TO THE TIPPY TOP and make the container bendy, the contents of the bottle will FLY EVERYWHERE when I do manage to get it open. Stop that.

Awesome, I haven't woken up from a nightmare since college.

Unless that one where I was pulling dendrites out of my face counted as a nightmare, but I don't remember being particularly emotionally invested in that one.

ETA!!!!

Hi Dweeb,

I just left you a voicemail about this as well. Your background check has cleared so you are all set to start with us on Tuesday, September 8. I will be in touch as your start date approaches and will send out your new hire paperwork toward the end of this week. Please let me know if you have any questions.


I'm just kidding. They didn't call me dweeb. AT LAST, my wretched cell phone is finally the bearer of GOOD news. Alas, I guess that means tomorrow I gotta give notice.

( Work, Fire Alarms, and Exercise )

( So, job interview summary: )
I am BEAT. Also, Tetrisfriends!

ETA: OH GOD I JUST HEARD THIS ON THE RADIO. I thought those pillows were gags from what I heard about them on 4chan. But I like how the host is like, "Isn't it weeeeird? Aren't they pedo? Isn't Japan craaazy?" and Katayama's like, "Well... kinda, but kinda not."

I can't wait till pedobear shows up on NPR. OH PLZ.

Also: I got an in-person interview! I AM NERVOUS MORE NOW. AUGH.

So yesterday, hungry after my phone interview, I trundled off to the mall to buy a copy of We ♥ Katamari and get some lunch. I ended up third in line at the food court teriyaki place and opened up my copy of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea while I waited for my food, because apparently I need to be entertained 24/7 :D.

And then, all of a sudden, the woman right in front of me, a rather tall, somewhat waifish 30-something with giant eyes (she seemed to have a lot of mascara on, because I remember her eyelashes being weirdly distinct -- why does everyone think that caking stuff on your eyes is the way to go, anyway? Isn't that uncomfortable?) speaks up. "Which is my food?" she asks loudly.

( Oh noes! )

...is this some sort of new and even more insane job trend? All my major jobs have required a phone screening, see, and for the first two, it was just that: a screening. Questions to make sure you weren't an ax murderer and had some basic knowledge about the position. But for my last job, AN ASSISTANT JOB ANYONE WITH A BRAIN COULD DO, they slung me out on a George Foreman grill and roasted me. Stuff like how much money I wanted, exactly when I'd be available, my strengths, weaknesses, why I left my last job... everything you'd expect in an actual interview was mashed into the screen.

And same goes for today. I talked to an HR guy, who started off saying he was just gonna ask me some basic HR questions. I assumed this would be the "are you a U.S. citizen" part, and it was, until it wasn't and he was beaning me with fastballs at like 923749287342 miles per hour. This went on for 30 minutes or so, and then I talked to the hiring manager for about an hour.

Here was where I was actually expecting the sporking, but she was basically... like me. She seemed like a nice, laid-back person who was interested in talking about her job and only asked me a handful of questions.

Maybe I just ask for interview punishment. My first programming internship interview? THREE HOURS LONG, at least. And now I am hungry and noodly and I've got the post-adrenaline rush nerves. I will read Jules Verne now.

I am nervous already. OH GOD :D;;;

At least any interviews have gotta be better than programming interviews, right? Right?

Personal Job Search Progression
WHY WON'T PEOPLE CALL -> OH GOD SOMEONE CALLED -> I'VE GOT AN INTERVIEW, BUT I HATE INTERVIEWS -> OH GOD NOT ANOTHER INTERVIEW -> WELL THAT WENT OK -> OH GOD I'M HIRED -> NOOOO IT'S THE FIRST DAY PLEASE DON'T HURT ME.

P.S. Lately, there's been a kerfluffle in Fandom Wank about Torchwood. I do not watch Torchwood, but allow me to offer my secret unpopular opinion:

RTD is a dick. I don't care if he's got "the right" as a writer to write whatever he wants. If he's just getting his jollies stirring shit up and killing characters just because, he's a dick, and no amount of "that's how TV works, so stfu stop whining your concerns are silly and it's just TV" will change his dickitude.

Torchwood fans are also being dumb. I understand being upset because your favorite character died, but if it's part of a series of behaviors in which the writer regularly jerks his fans around, JUMP SHIP and if you must, write AU fanfiction. Unless you get off on RAGE like me :D

Also, to make me super-duper unpopular: J. K. Rowling is not that great, making Dumbledore gay was not that praiseworthy, and the later books in the series largely sucked balls. BWAHAHAHA. *twirls*

( Long post is long )

I am so supremely talented at mouse-drawing, I swear.

Also, I wonder if Fox will esplode once they figure out what someone did at the 55 second mark.

Words cannot describe how much I hate being given poorly defined tasks. If it takes me ten times as long to DECIPHER WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE than it does to actually, y'know, DO IT,

On a side note, I have really awkward conversations with older coworkers. It's like there's some sort of folksy banter I'm supposed to know how to participate in, but I don't know the magic words.

Coworker: *does a really slow wave*
Me: Hi.
Coworker: *continues slow wave*
Me: *waits until he is done. This is awkward.*
Coworker: How was your weekend?
Me: Pretty good.
Coworker: Did you watch the fireworks?
Me: Um, on TV. (A lie. I didn't watch ANY fireworks, but I want to avoid any more awkwardness here)
Coworker: On TV? That's like some old person! (PLAN FAILED ABORT ABORT ABORT)
Me: Ahaha. (Witty retort required, but none comes to mind. What do you say to that?)
Coworker: Ever come down here to watch them?
Me: Down here? Are there some special fireworks here?
Coworker: Okay, I see how it is.
Me: Uh... okay. (What?)
Coworker: You have a nice day now.
Me: Uh, yeah. You, too.
Coworker: See you later.
Me: Okay :(

I mean, pretty much the only folksy thing I know is "working hard, or hardly working?" and even that strikes me as kind of vapid. Plus, it does not make sense in 99% of conversation. And now I'm left to wonder... ARE there some kind of special fireworks that get set up here? And sometimes I'll respond and they'll just stand there, waiting. For what? Am I supposed to say something more? Did I not talk loud enough? Or did I start too soon after they finished talking and they didn't hear what I said?

WHAT IS GOING ON?