I did a little of them mathematics today, and I reckon that if I go all out with two jobs, I can have my credit card debt paid off just before July 4th, which is also about the halfway mark for the year. After that, it's personal/student loans and saving up for early retirement ;)
Related to this, I wonder if anyone knows a good way to cheer up someone who's just had surgery to correct a deviated septum?
January 3, 2008
Silver Lining, vol. 1
I expressed concern after my first day at this job.
The clouds:
You see, I am not the only "temporary" hire - there is another! And while he was placed with the most senior editor (someone thought I said "Monsignor Editor" - this will someday be what I call myself), I was placed with the second in command. Monsignor has taken Competition under his wing, showing him all the ropes, pulleys, trap doors, etc.
My mentor, on the other hand, told me he was pretty busy, on a deadline, and didn't really have anything for me to do, so maybe I should just go see what even-lower-on-the-food-chain wants. Okay! That guy didn't really have anything for me to do either, so I ended up helping a couple not-related-to-editing-at-all employees move, sort, and reorganize hundreds of tapes. Basically, I was learning how to count to 2000 while the other new guy was learning how to, y'know, edit?
The silver lining:
I know where all the tapes are, I'm on a friendly basis with the people who make day-to-day stuff work around there, and I am familiar to, and with, most everyone. Whereas I've only seen Competition sitting in the same room watching the Monsignor edit, and I've heard him call someone the wrong name. So I figure that if the time comes when one of us has to go, the same principle will apply as on a farm - once you name the little piggy and get used to its particular oink and they way it helps you organize tapes even though that's not its job, you just couldn't possibly turn it into bacon! In short: I'm Some Pig, he's one of those other animals in that book.
Disclaimer:
Competition is actually a really cool guy, I genuinely wish him the best and doubt that we won't both be hired in the end. He also happens to unintentionally be the Spitting Image of Ron Livingston's character in Office Space, right down to his voice and completely relaxed persona, and how could you not love that?
The clouds:
You see, I am not the only "temporary" hire - there is another! And while he was placed with the most senior editor (someone thought I said "Monsignor Editor" - this will someday be what I call myself), I was placed with the second in command. Monsignor has taken Competition under his wing, showing him all the ropes, pulleys, trap doors, etc.
My mentor, on the other hand, told me he was pretty busy, on a deadline, and didn't really have anything for me to do, so maybe I should just go see what even-lower-on-the-food-chain wants. Okay! That guy didn't really have anything for me to do either, so I ended up helping a couple not-related-to-editing-at-all employees move, sort, and reorganize hundreds of tapes. Basically, I was learning how to count to 2000 while the other new guy was learning how to, y'know, edit?
The silver lining:
I know where all the tapes are, I'm on a friendly basis with the people who make day-to-day stuff work around there, and I am familiar to, and with, most everyone. Whereas I've only seen Competition sitting in the same room watching the Monsignor edit, and I've heard him call someone the wrong name. So I figure that if the time comes when one of us has to go, the same principle will apply as on a farm - once you name the little piggy and get used to its particular oink and they way it helps you organize tapes even though that's not its job, you just couldn't possibly turn it into bacon! In short: I'm Some Pig, he's one of those other animals in that book.
Disclaimer:
Competition is actually a really cool guy, I genuinely wish him the best and doubt that we won't both be hired in the end. He also happens to unintentionally be the Spitting Image of Ron Livingston's character in Office Space, right down to his voice and completely relaxed persona, and how could you not love that?
No cause for alarm
Problem 1: Received mixed information about the alarm system and was first to arrive in the morning.
[It turns out that the difference between a four-digit alarm code (wrong) and five (right) is characterized by a piercing and altogether convincing alarm, followed by realistic visions of a heavily armed security force arriving and opening fire on me and my suspicious paper bag, filled with what forensic experts would later find to be muffins (both corn and chocolate chip).]
Solution: Figured it out before strike team arrived, apologized (semi-)profusely to amused production manager. Problem 1 overcome!
Problem 2: Left passport somewhere in the office two days ago, having brought it for payroll paperwork.
Solution A: Panic, sure that a look-alike is gallivanting in Latin America, committing terrible atrocities and leaving photocopies of my passport as evidence at each crime scene.
Solution B: Open photocopier, retrieve passport, feel affection for coworkers who either a) don't make photocopies or b) carefully replaced my passport each time they did.
[It turns out that the difference between a four-digit alarm code (wrong) and five (right) is characterized by a piercing and altogether convincing alarm, followed by realistic visions of a heavily armed security force arriving and opening fire on me and my suspicious paper bag, filled with what forensic experts would later find to be muffins (both corn and chocolate chip).]
Solution: Figured it out before strike team arrived, apologized (semi-)profusely to amused production manager. Problem 1 overcome!
Problem 2: Left passport somewhere in the office two days ago, having brought it for payroll paperwork.
Solution A: Panic, sure that a look-alike is gallivanting in Latin America, committing terrible atrocities and leaving photocopies of my passport as evidence at each crime scene.
Solution B: Open photocopier, retrieve passport, feel affection for coworkers who either a) don't make photocopies or b) carefully replaced my passport each time they did.
January 1, 2008
A junior again?
Tomorrow I start my first* day as an authentic, entered-in-the-payroll-system, key-holding, alarm-code-knowing, junior editor**.
*fourth actual day at the office
**Position permanence TBD.
I'll be working on who-knows-what in a dark cave of a room from 8-4.
There's one lamp, no windows, and a really nice computer with a decent chair in front of it.
The walls are patchworked with that paradoxical sound-absorbing foam; squishy and harmless yet threateningly pointed (like a pundit? no? ok). Despite that, I'll keep the door almost closed so as not to disturb anyone with the repetition one often hears from an editing station as different cuts/graphics/effects are tried and tried again. This, along with my terrible posture, should quickly turn me into some kind of a freakish pasty hermit.
I'm happy to have this job, and to be starting it with the New Year, so in the future I can easily calculate how long I've been there. I'm still not saving any lives, but I am definitely more interested in the work and paid more appropriately.
As a bonus, I heard about it from the professor of that class I took, which validates the investment only if I work beyond the initial trial month, which will pay for less than 2/3 of the course cost.
Now I should look to upgrade my previous job so that I'm not working 80 hours for 60 hours' pay.
I have also shamelessly stolen a debt-o-meter and added it to the right of this page so you can all play along at home as I hack away at my debt. Half of it was accrued by living jobless for 9 months in NYC and taking several trips, the other half by getting certified as a film editor and taking the LSAT + a prep course.
*fourth actual day at the office
**Position permanence TBD.
I'll be working on who-knows-what in a dark cave of a room from 8-4.
There's one lamp, no windows, and a really nice computer with a decent chair in front of it.
The walls are patchworked with that paradoxical sound-absorbing foam; squishy and harmless yet threateningly pointed (like a pundit? no? ok). Despite that, I'll keep the door almost closed so as not to disturb anyone with the repetition one often hears from an editing station as different cuts/graphics/effects are tried and tried again. This, along with my terrible posture, should quickly turn me into some kind of a freakish pasty hermit.
I'm happy to have this job, and to be starting it with the New Year, so in the future I can easily calculate how long I've been there. I'm still not saving any lives, but I am definitely more interested in the work and paid more appropriately.
As a bonus, I heard about it from the professor of that class I took, which validates the investment only if I work beyond the initial trial month, which will pay for less than 2/3 of the course cost.
Now I should look to upgrade my previous job so that I'm not working 80 hours for 60 hours' pay.
I have also shamelessly stolen a debt-o-meter and added it to the right of this page so you can all play along at home as I hack away at my debt. Half of it was accrued by living jobless for 9 months in NYC and taking several trips, the other half by getting certified as a film editor and taking the LSAT + a prep course.
Normally I'm not one for the New Year concept.
Aside from the fact that it's fun to count down from 10, and that Auld Lang Syne is a great song to sing in a group since nobody really knows all the words, there's never been anything altogether special about it. I'm sure I'm not alone in the feeling that 11:59pm December 31st is a whole lot like 12:01am January 1st.
That said, I did a lot of cleaning today, some reflection, and I've even made resolutions for the first time ever. Much of my life up to this point has been essentially walking away from shitty things in the past, only to look over my shoulder at them and run smack into some new shitty things.
So here's to looking where you're going, even if you don't know where the hell that is! Happy New Year =)
Aside from the fact that it's fun to count down from 10, and that Auld Lang Syne is a great song to sing in a group since nobody really knows all the words, there's never been anything altogether special about it. I'm sure I'm not alone in the feeling that 11:59pm December 31st is a whole lot like 12:01am January 1st.
That said, I did a lot of cleaning today, some reflection, and I've even made resolutions for the first time ever. Much of my life up to this point has been essentially walking away from shitty things in the past, only to look over my shoulder at them and run smack into some new shitty things.
So here's to looking where you're going, even if you don't know where the hell that is! Happy New Year =)
November 17, 2007
It is Finished
Nothing says The End like a nice plate of pasta!
Editing class is over, and....I'm not sure. I think I'll only be satisfied if I get a job within the next few weeks and am specifically told "We hired you over the other candidates - and despite your distinctly unprofessional appearance - primarily because you have a certificate from NYU."
I did author a pretty snazzy DVD of the crap I edited, though I think its menus may have turned out better than any of the samples linked within them. I might circulate a copy or two to prove that I took this course (or at least that I went to a lot of trouble to make it seem like I did).
Now, with Broadway still on strike and no class to wake up early for, it's time to relax and look for an editing job and maybe a Spanish class, and maybe even start writing a book. [Now accepting book deals from only the most reputable publishers.]
Editing class is over, and....I'm not sure. I think I'll only be satisfied if I get a job within the next few weeks and am specifically told "We hired you over the other candidates - and despite your distinctly unprofessional appearance - primarily because you have a certificate from NYU."
I did author a pretty snazzy DVD of the crap I edited, though I think its menus may have turned out better than any of the samples linked within them. I might circulate a copy or two to prove that I took this course (or at least that I went to a lot of trouble to make it seem like I did).
Now, with Broadway still on strike and no class to wake up early for, it's time to relax and look for an editing job and maybe a Spanish class, and maybe even start writing a book. [Now accepting book deals from only the most reputable publishers.]
November 7, 2007
Weeks 1 and 2 of class went a little bit slow, but Week 3 started with Final Cut Pro, the program I'd actually like to use to edit. The hours are starting to take their toll...even though I elected to take this class, I'm forced to continue working in the meantime (who isn't?), and the 80 hrs a week I usually spend sleeping are now spent - gasp - out in the world =(
I was gradually pulled out of sleep yesterday morning (after missing my alarm) by a foreign stinging sensation on my arm. I finally opened my eyes and discovered a 2-inch long burn across the middle of my forearm, manifesting itself as a huge yellow blister. It took me a little while to wake up fully and to figure out that I'd fallen asleep with my laptop on top of me...
I can accept that the thing gets incredibly hot, even hot enough to burn someone, but to sleep through the melting of one's own flesh? Had no idea that was possible. Makes me wonder if I should get a dog or monkey assistant [assistant that is a monkey, not assistant to a monkey] to prevent such things from happening in the future. That or I could go to sleep the second I get home every night, but that would seem a terrible injustice. Not just to me, but to you, my loyal readers. So know that I risk life and limb to bring you this limited and questionably worthwhile information every couple weeks.
I was gradually pulled out of sleep yesterday morning (after missing my alarm) by a foreign stinging sensation on my arm. I finally opened my eyes and discovered a 2-inch long burn across the middle of my forearm, manifesting itself as a huge yellow blister. It took me a little while to wake up fully and to figure out that I'd fallen asleep with my laptop on top of me...
I can accept that the thing gets incredibly hot, even hot enough to burn someone, but to sleep through the melting of one's own flesh? Had no idea that was possible. Makes me wonder if I should get a dog or monkey assistant [assistant that is a monkey, not assistant to a monkey] to prevent such things from happening in the future. That or I could go to sleep the second I get home every night, but that would seem a terrible injustice. Not just to me, but to you, my loyal readers. So know that I risk life and limb to bring you this limited and questionably worthwhile information every couple weeks.
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