Category: Work

Sucky Day

What an absolutely, totally sucky day. And I rarely use the term “sucky”, because it sounds, well, sort of dumb. But today, jeez. Drama at my part-time job (none of which really affects me, but drama all the same), misunderstandings via email, and I cannot stop eating.

This is not just nervous snacking; all of a sudden I’m just perpetually starved. I eat breakfast and then, two hours later, I’m ready for a full lunch. Nervous snacking only makes it worse; I try to grab an snack and it just leaves my little tummy frustrated that it didn’t get its fifth full meal of the day. I think it’s a tapeworm. Probably from the corned beef.

Things I like today:

Things I hate today:

  • Smoking
  • Street-cleaning night
  • Allergies

Nighty night, or, if you prefer, good morning…

Stupid Radio Edit

And it’s a teenage sadness everyone has got to face. An in-between age madness that you know you can’t erase. Till she’s sittin’ on your face…

Sorry. I heard that song on Channel 104.9 (KABL was running a baseball game) the other day as I was crossing the Bay Bridge. I was strangely comforted to realize that American popular culture and morality has now advanced to the point where radio stations can now play the unedited versions of songs by The Knack from over 20 years ago.

“Till she puts you in your place” indeed…

There is, alas, no other real excitement in my life this week. We hit the Kripsy Kreme again Thursday night. I’m plugging away on the much anticipated (yeah, right…) fourth edition of Did You Bring Bottles. Submissions still solicited. I’m also working on things I’ll actualy get paid for, but that’s boring…

I’m thinking about a little road trip to LA in a few weeks. strangely enough, I’ve spent a grand total of about ten days there in my whole eight years in California. And I’ve never visited alone. There’s also never been an official Planet SOMA Road Trip to LA. So I think it’s time for a goo four or five days in the Southland. Details to follow. Should be fun now that I’ve cast aside my belief that San Francisco is the center of the known universe.

No Phone

It was so quiet and calm here.

I hate using the phone, but I hate even more not being able to use it when I need to. For the past two days, I had no phone, no internet connection, no nothing. My front doorbell was probably the most effective way to contact me. Thanks Pacific Bell for being there when I needed you, TWO DAYS AFTER YOU FUCKED UP MY PHONE.

I’m sure my next door neighbor, who also had no phone for two days, was equally grateful. Some day soon, I’d like to think that Pacific Bell will realize it’s no longer a monopoly and start acting accordingly.

To those of you who might suggest I get a cell phone as a reserve against these little emergencies, I must reply that it seems a pretty big expenditure since I’d be too embarrassed ever to use it anywhere other than home anyway. Strolling through the Finincial District today, I realized (remembered?) that it’s damned near impossible not to look foolish walking down the street talking on the phone.

Things I’m a little embarrassed to admit enjoying today:

  • Wolfgang Puck’s Creamy Country Chicken Soup
  • The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

Things I’m not at all embarrassed to hate today:

  • Pacific Bell
  • The “layers” feature in Dreamweaver
  • Sleep deprivation

No Webby Award

Another year without a nomination for a Webby Award. I’ll try to live with my disappointment. At least I’ve been interviewed by the same website as one of the nominees. And he doesn’t even have pictures of cool old supermarkets on his site…

All the same, it’s time for my occasional rant about web design developments I hate. This is mainly because, once again, I don’t really have anything much to say tonight…

Guaranteed to make me run away from your site in a hurry:

  • Any sound file which doesn’t give me the option of whether or not to hear it, especially stupid MIDI files which sound like a little old lady sitting at the organ store in some 1975 shopping mall.
  • Numerous multiple Javascript windows which launch all over the place for no other apparent reason than to prove “it’s possible”. There are good reasons for multiple windows only about 15% of the time they’re used, I’ll estimate.
  • Use of full-size graphics, re-sized in HTML as “click here” thumbnails. What is the point of thumbnails if you have to download the full-size image anyway? You might as well just skip the thumbnail page and o for a slide show instead.
  • Sites designed on Winblows machines using microscopic text which is only legible on other Winblows machines with their big, clunky screen fonts. Particular annoyance: badly-written stylesheets which don’t respond when you try to make the type bigger.
  • Sites which tell me which screen resolution (browser, etc.) to use.
  • Specific frame or ASP sites which make it all but impossible to bookmark any individual page or piece of information.
  • Sites which you can’t navigate without the use of marginally-functional plug-ins, Javascript, or Java applets. Flash too. These technologies are great, but anyone who would make a site totally dependent upon them is way too willing to write off a lot of potential visitors.

Maybe in the next day or two, I’ll do my own awards for good design. And maybe a few for bad design as well. It won’t happen tomorrow, though, because I’ll be earning the rent doing some good design of my own…

Good Frame of Mind

It’s been an insanely busy week (this is a recording…), but I find myself in a really positive frame of mind right now. It’s an unusual condition, and I’m sure it won’t last very long, so I’m figuring on enjoying it while I can.

Things just seem to be going well lately. I’m working a lot, but I’m not doing anything I hate (see exception below), and I even like all the people I’m working for. I have a zippy new computer, I’ve been maintaining generally good moods, and the house is even relatively clean.

There’s one weak link, my crutch, if you will. It’s the evil, hateful, soul-sucking on-site part-time job I still force myself to face 20-25 hours a week. I almost walked out last week. I foresee getting even closer this week. I just don’t care anymore.

It’s not so much that I hate any one single aspect of the job, although I do hate the fact that it’s much less flexible than it was when I was recruited into it a couple of years back. It’s more that I resent being there (and HAVING to be there at specific day and time), particularly now that I’m doing a lot more freelance work. I feel like I’m wasting my time when I could be spending it much more productively (at 2-3 times the hourly rate, thanks).

I particularly hate that I’ve become somewhat “indispensable”, more through lack of staff and training than through any particular greatness on my part. This, of course, makes my “flexible” part time job even less so.

So why don’t I just quit and spare myself the agony of this one glaring negative in an otherwise positive period? Largely because I’m scared to, I guess. It’s a sea of steady income in the feast or famine freelance world. And I’ve been working for this company off and on for over ten years, although I’ve spent the past two and a half in a wholly administrative capacity. And, if nothing else, it gets me out of the house once in a while.

I know. I need to give it up. I will very soon. Encouragement and long-term freelance projects actively solicited.

Things I love this week:

  • They Might Be Giants
  • Stouffers on sale, selected varieties, 4 for $5 at FoodsCo.
  • Mark, for doing me TWO big favors recently.
  • The book I’m reading on the history of Winn-Dixie.
  • Ma Pinkie’s Barbecue and Soul Food in San Mateo

Here’s the Story

Damn, do I feel old…

It was thirty years ago this week that the Brady Bunch made its primetime debut on ABC. And I remember watching it that first year. I almost never missed it. The few times I did usually involved a trip to the brand new mall in Burlington. I was usually grumpy the whole time.

The number one song in America on this important date in American history was “Sugar Sugar” by the Archies. It was a bubblegum universe, to be sure. No Vietnam, civil rights issues, or junkies in sight.

At one point, by the time I was 11 or 12 (a year or two after the Bradys had moved into syndication heaven), I remember catching upto four episodes a day. Must have been a special slice of heaven for my mom and dad.

Unrelated…

  • I had a job interview last week. Imagine my delight at not being asked one single question which started with something like “you are trapped on a desert island with two rubber bands and a piece of gum…”
  • Why did I pick the hottest day in two months to hover over the stove making gumbo?
  • Am I some sort of freak? My voice never cracked when it was changing.
  • Yes, that last rhetorical question was inspired by the Brady Bunch marathon I’m watching.

Happy Monday.

Hurricanes

Call me sick, but some part of me really wants to be on the east coast with Hurricane Floyd tonight. Maybe not right at the beach, but at least close enough to feel some actual storm action.

California wouldn’t know a storm if one came up and bit all 40 million of us on the ass simultaneously. I heard thunder and saw lightning last week for only the second time in seven years here. And even then there was no rain to speak of. Even El Niño was a disappointment. The weather is so wimpy here. Of course, that’s a good thing on those days when it’s 95 everywhere else in the country but only 66 here, I guess.

Things I love this week:

  • Today’s constant cool, gray fog.
  • Midnight Cowboy.
  • Roseanne (the sit-com, not the talk show).

Things I hate this week:

  • My part-time job.
  • My part-time job.
  • My part-time job.

30 August 1999

No. I don’t, actually…

But I do confess that I have now tried canned collards and much to my surprise found them to be passably good. I’m a little embarrassed to admit this.

I’m even more embarrassed to admit that this is the most exciting thing I could write about, despite a five day absence from my little blue, yellow, and white corner of the world. Let’s just say it’s been a low-key week.

I actually got a lot done. On Thursday, I helped give birth to a brand new bouncing baby website. That’s always fun, especially when they bring beer.

I’ve also been working on a little project of my own, which is nowhere near completion, but you can give it a sneak peek if you like. Be forewarned that it’s in progress and may not work too well. If you check it out and have anything to contribute, please give me a yell.

Other than that, I’ve been doing absolutely nothing of much interest and finding it pretty damned pleasant, thank you. I promise to be more interesting soon, and (once again) to try and catch up on the email this week.

18 June 1999

Fine. Just fine.

1 April 1999: My April Fool’s page (which is no longer here because the search engines took it a wee bit too seriously), results in close to 100 happy, smiling email responses within 24 hours.

17 June 1999: In an interview on another site, I strip butt-ass nekkid for the whole friggin’ world to see, and almost no one has a thing to say about it.

If I were a more sensitive soul, I might be hurt by this (lack of) reaction, but I’ll just look on it as a cue to stick with the sarcastic writing and abandon that modeling career I’ve been fantasizing about for so long.

Dick now stuffed securely back into jeans. Where were we?

Hectic, nasty week. That is to say, I guess, that business is good. But a little sleep added to the mix might have been nice too. Credit the fine folks at PG&E with last night’s insomnia. They worked directly (and noisily) right outside my front window until well after midnight. Doing what? I’m not exactly sure.

And a hectic weekend coming up, with work, the possibility of meeting an email acquaintance for the first time, and one J’Tao in town. Not to mention that Simpsons marathon. There’s also the likelihood of accompanying Sarah on a quest for Vinnie Barbarino in San Mateo, which is a whole other story…

Right now I’m going to bed. Do not wake me for ten hours.