I often find that I have to trick myself into doing the things that (I think) I want to do.
The oldest in the book is putting my alarm clock (/phone) as far away from my bed as possible. In this particular room, this means I can still usually reach it from the bed, but the process usually annoys me into a more wakeful state.
Lately it seems that my theoretical/idealistic side has struck a deal with my practical side, because I now put the phone in a spot that seems far away at night, but is well within reach every morning.
My latest self-deceit, however, has been an unmitigated disaster! At one misguided point in my recent past, I thought to myself, "I need to do this stuff, but I don't feel like it right now. I'll put it on my bed, because surely I won't actually sleep on top of the CDs I should import and the letters I'd like to respond to." (Several obvious flaws with this plan, I know, but the procrastinator's mind is forgiving.)
And anyway, I was at least half right - rather than sleep on top of my tangible To-Do list, I pushed everything to the side and slept on the remaining bedscape.
Now, I'd say about 60% of my bed is covered with stuff I somehow thought I'd feel more like doing when twice as tired...? Truth is, when it comes time to crash, anything that doesn't look like it'll spill and/or attract unwanted guests seems like an acceptable bedfellow.
I'm off to address this issue and reclaim my living space, wish me luck (even though by the time you read this I'll be finished).
January 30, 2008
January 26, 2008
Week's End
I have dramatically reduced my shifts at my theater job! To something like zero. I'd like to retain the right to return for a shift or two a month, if only to visit with all the people who work there.
I suppose the logical follow-up to this tidbit would be to address the why, so I'll just list the Pros and Cons rather than attempt a prose-based explanation. This has mostly to do with the fact that I can't tune out the living room TV that's on right now (and has every right to be, don't get me wrong).
Pros!
•Easiest work ever: count stuff, sell it, fold some shirts
•Amazing full view of Times Square, the beating heart of consumerism in America, among other things.
•Daily exposure to thousands of people from all over the world.
•Interaction with actors, singers, dancers, who are trying to "make it," some who have made it, and some who never have and never will - I'm a sucker for being around people who are nothing like me. Plus, of course, the rare black sheep, like me, who aren't entirely sure how they got there.
Cons¡
•Most unfulfilling work ever: Not just that, but the opposite of fulfilling. I suppose I don't mean this job specifically, but any job where you are acutely aware that you are doing nothing positive.
•Full view of Times Square, where it's often difficult to distinguish day from night and the enormous flashing advertisements tend to force themselves through the floor-to-ceiling windows and suffocate anyone who lingers too long.
•Daily exposure to thousands of people from all over the world - I think anyone who's worked retail will more readily understand how this could be a problem...
•Interaction with people who not only live off the psychological exploitation of other people, but delight in it...I mean, wtf??
•Oh yeah, shitty pay - after each month of full-time work, I earned only just enough to pay for rent, bills, and some food. And that's with the cheapest rent I've ever paid.
•Terrible hours. Many actors work these jobs because it leaves their days free for auditions, but for me it just meant working either 6 nights a week with 2 consecutive 11-hour days, or 5 nights a week with 3 11-hour days. And while thousands of things are happening all the time in this city, most of these things take place in the evening hours or on weekends, which is exactly when I can't attend them.
The End Result:
The gnawing feeling that a huge chunk of my life was being spent doing something with which I'm not ideologically aligned, and for so little money that I wonder how the people who pocket the profits live with themselves.
I think I quit this job mentally a long time ago, and have basically just been going to hang out with the people I only see there. But, people are everywhere, no? And now I'll have a lot more time to spend with them =)
I suppose the logical follow-up to this tidbit would be to address the why, so I'll just list the Pros and Cons rather than attempt a prose-based explanation. This has mostly to do with the fact that I can't tune out the living room TV that's on right now (and has every right to be, don't get me wrong).
Pros!
•Easiest work ever: count stuff, sell it, fold some shirts
•Amazing full view of Times Square, the beating heart of consumerism in America, among other things.
•Daily exposure to thousands of people from all over the world.
•Interaction with actors, singers, dancers, who are trying to "make it," some who have made it, and some who never have and never will - I'm a sucker for being around people who are nothing like me. Plus, of course, the rare black sheep, like me, who aren't entirely sure how they got there.
Cons¡
•Most unfulfilling work ever: Not just that, but the opposite of fulfilling. I suppose I don't mean this job specifically, but any job where you are acutely aware that you are doing nothing positive.
•Full view of Times Square, where it's often difficult to distinguish day from night and the enormous flashing advertisements tend to force themselves through the floor-to-ceiling windows and suffocate anyone who lingers too long.
•Daily exposure to thousands of people from all over the world - I think anyone who's worked retail will more readily understand how this could be a problem...
•Interaction with people who not only live off the psychological exploitation of other people, but delight in it...I mean, wtf??
•Oh yeah, shitty pay - after each month of full-time work, I earned only just enough to pay for rent, bills, and some food. And that's with the cheapest rent I've ever paid.
•Terrible hours. Many actors work these jobs because it leaves their days free for auditions, but for me it just meant working either 6 nights a week with 2 consecutive 11-hour days, or 5 nights a week with 3 11-hour days. And while thousands of things are happening all the time in this city, most of these things take place in the evening hours or on weekends, which is exactly when I can't attend them.
The End Result:
The gnawing feeling that a huge chunk of my life was being spent doing something with which I'm not ideologically aligned, and for so little money that I wonder how the people who pocket the profits live with themselves.
I think I quit this job mentally a long time ago, and have basically just been going to hang out with the people I only see there. But, people are everywhere, no? And now I'll have a lot more time to spend with them =)
January 23, 2008
Nemesis
Competition and I, as I previously predicted, were both hired, so we can officially be cool. And anyway, it turns out I have a much bigger enemy in the office - none other than my old nemesis - rampant static electricity!
Yes, the same fiend that hounded me in the dry-aired casinos of Vegas and makes the couch unsafe every winter has now found me at the workplace! I am shocked literally dozens of times an hour. Even a quarter turn in my chair produces enough electricity to zap me the next time I touch a doorknob, door (they're metal), door jamb, computer, tape deck, light switch, lamp, person....even the mouse sometimes gets me! The shocks range from Rice-Krispies-level snaps, crackles, and pops to 1.21-gigawatt arcs of of pure electric power that could send a DeLorean back in time.
I only hope that repeated electrical shock has no adverse effects on the human body...
Yes, the same fiend that hounded me in the dry-aired casinos of Vegas and makes the couch unsafe every winter has now found me at the workplace! I am shocked literally dozens of times an hour. Even a quarter turn in my chair produces enough electricity to zap me the next time I touch a doorknob, door (they're metal), door jamb, computer, tape deck, light switch, lamp, person....even the mouse sometimes gets me! The shocks range from Rice-Krispies-level snaps, crackles, and pops to 1.21-gigawatt arcs of of pure electric power that could send a DeLorean back in time.
I only hope that repeated electrical shock has no adverse effects on the human body...
Newz
I'm officially hired - junior editor!
I'm hoping to move up in the ranks sooner than later, and not just because "junior" sounds really terrible, but because I want to know everything there is to know.
My progress has been slow so far, mostly because they all still have such low expectations when it comes to my work. Mostly I get condescending (and figurative) pats on the head when I do something right. I've also been interrupted several times by someone telling me what to do or what I don't know, when if they'd let me finish the sentence I was 75% through, they'd have realized there was no need to interrupt me. But I guess it's more about them feeling like they have a purpose and mad smarts 'n skillz than about being efficient and friendly. Le sigh.
Fortunately, I only let this stuff get under my skin long enough to post about it here, and meanwhile I'm quietly changing the system for the better. I plan to become so efficient that I'll have free time to dabble in the other dark arts of production: writing, shooting, and more advanced post-production stuff.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By the way, if you want to see what a day in the life looks like (sorta), email me and I'll send you the keyword you need to find a "behind the scenes at the office" video on YouTube. One of the writers made it on his own in an attempt at...viral marketing, I guess?
I'm in it a couple times, but of course it was filmed at the end of my first two weeks of sleepless nights, not to mention during the most boring of my duties. [These and other qualifications also available via email.]
If you look closely, you can make out a lot of the things I've already talked about: the soundproofing material on the walls; my Competition looking on as I play Police Trainer; the tape library I helped organize on my first day; even the table of Emmys that intimidated me the first time I walked in.
I'm hoping to move up in the ranks sooner than later, and not just because "junior" sounds really terrible, but because I want to know everything there is to know.
My progress has been slow so far, mostly because they all still have such low expectations when it comes to my work. Mostly I get condescending (and figurative) pats on the head when I do something right. I've also been interrupted several times by someone telling me what to do or what I don't know, when if they'd let me finish the sentence I was 75% through, they'd have realized there was no need to interrupt me. But I guess it's more about them feeling like they have a purpose and mad smarts 'n skillz than about being efficient and friendly. Le sigh.
Fortunately, I only let this stuff get under my skin long enough to post about it here, and meanwhile I'm quietly changing the system for the better. I plan to become so efficient that I'll have free time to dabble in the other dark arts of production: writing, shooting, and more advanced post-production stuff.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By the way, if you want to see what a day in the life looks like (sorta), email me and I'll send you the keyword you need to find a "behind the scenes at the office" video on YouTube. One of the writers made it on his own in an attempt at...viral marketing, I guess?
I'm in it a couple times, but of course it was filmed at the end of my first two weeks of sleepless nights, not to mention during the most boring of my duties. [These and other qualifications also available via email.]
If you look closely, you can make out a lot of the things I've already talked about: the soundproofing material on the walls; my Competition looking on as I play Police Trainer; the tape library I helped organize on my first day; even the table of Emmys that intimidated me the first time I walked in.
January 17, 2008
To the commenters
Thanks Chu!
AND TO whoever cryptically offered to employ me as her personal banker:
You have played only yourself for a fool! For I, like Midas, Buffet, and Orman before me, can turn any man's ordinary holdings into a vast glittering for-tune (pronounced for-choon) with the slightest touch! Despite your derision, I will still accept the position on one condition - during meetings I get to wear very cool, officious spectacles and shuffle papers importantly.
What's with all the geeky phrasing tonight? I dunno.
AND TO whoever cryptically offered to employ me as her personal banker:
You have played only yourself for a fool! For I, like Midas, Buffet, and Orman before me, can turn any man's ordinary holdings into a vast glittering for-tune (pronounced for-choon) with the slightest touch! Despite your derision, I will still accept the position on one condition - during meetings I get to wear very cool, officious spectacles and shuffle papers importantly.
What's with all the geeky phrasing tonight? I dunno.
Our hero dashes into the stall, locks the door, and removes his button-down brown shirt to reveal! his cheesy merchandise logo T-shirt. A minute more and the transformation from
ordinary office worker to extraordinarily underpaid and jaded merchandise seller is complete.
What villains will be conquered this eve?
Perhaps the ornery mother of two who yells at her kids before buying them the things she's yelling at them about wanting to buy?
Or the family of seven who insist on trying on every possible size of shirt before settling on the one first recommended to them?
Or maybe, tonight, the arch nemesis of all good-hearted people will appear to wreak havoc: the merchandise manager who actually enjoys, in her own words, "tak[ing] advantage of every man, woman, and child that walks in [the theatre]."
Whatever the case may be, he is prepared; he possesses a stout heart, nimble wit, and also some headphones to block out a majority of the sales meeting and any other annoyances.
ordinary office worker to extraordinarily underpaid and jaded merchandise seller is complete.
What villains will be conquered this eve?
Perhaps the ornery mother of two who yells at her kids before buying them the things she's yelling at them about wanting to buy?
Or the family of seven who insist on trying on every possible size of shirt before settling on the one first recommended to them?
Or maybe, tonight, the arch nemesis of all good-hearted people will appear to wreak havoc: the merchandise manager who actually enjoys, in her own words, "tak[ing] advantage of every man, woman, and child that walks in [the theatre]."
Whatever the case may be, he is prepared; he possesses a stout heart, nimble wit, and also some headphones to block out a majority of the sales meeting and any other annoyances.
January 15, 2008
Good news first!
I saved almost everything from the past few 80-hr weeks and paid off a big chunk of mah debt!
Bad news is that I forgot about the new $3 "maintenance" charge for my savings account, which means the balance is now -$3, and will probably soon be much more. I'll call, but not being a girl will hurt my chances at getting the sure-to-come Hefty-brand fee removed.
The net result is good news, though =)
Bad news is that I forgot about the new $3 "maintenance" charge for my savings account, which means the balance is now -$3, and will probably soon be much more. I'll call, but not being a girl will hurt my chances at getting the sure-to-come Hefty-brand fee removed.
The net result is good news, though =)
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