Category: Personal

Uhngh

I just got some very disturbing news a few minutes ago. I’m not ready to talk about it yet, but I wanted to let you all know that I may not be back here for a while.

I’m not sure how long “a while” is, but I will be back. This is something I will need to talk about.

For those that know my other forms of contact, please give me a few days before you try to call to find out what’s going on. I doubt you’d find me very coherent even if you did contact me sooner.

I’ll be back, but for now I need some time. I’m sorry this is so cryptic, I don’t think I could manage any more…

-Hool

(before you start to worry too much, Jenny and I are okay, we just got some very bad news today.)

And now for something complety different.

An old boss/friend of mine contacted me yesterday about a possible job. It’s not web design, but it does sound intreaguing. It looks like it’ll be part time, but I’ll be able to telecommute. I’ll find out more about it next week.

There’s also an EB Games that just opened down the street from here. It probably wouldn’t pay enough by itself, but depending on what the position mentioned above is like, I may decide to apply for a job there too for the hell of it. (Just so I do actually get out of doors on a regular basis.)

I’m starting to feel like I need a change of pace, and being furloughed was a blessing in disguise. (Of course it would be nice if the company I used to work for would actually pay me what I’m owed. Now that I think about it, it’d also be nice if I got a check from EDD soon, too.)

Okay time to stop rambling. I’m off to make a shopping list.

Pointless Entry

Just a post mostly for posting sake. I don’t want to get out of the habit of blogging stuff here.

Let’s see: I think I’ve finally got my crap striaght with regards to my unemployment claim. (Someone was using my SSN to commit fraud against the system.) I might have to re-file my “did you look for a job” form from last week – I’ll know for sure in a couple of days.

I’m at that frustrating point in my portfolio web site where the design is done and I just need to plug in the content. I’m about 50% done with that. I guess I’m just used to most of the content being handed to me by someone else. I’d do a little bit of copy editing and image processing and then cut-n-paste the content into the shell I’d built for a particualr site. Writing the descriptions of the projects I’m including in the portfolio (goals, design hiighlights, etc.) is what’s got me jammed up. I suck. I was supposed to have this done last week.

Jeny and I went out for sushi with chutta last night. We’re having him over (well, down – he lives upstairs) for matzo-ball soup and lamb. It’s a really simple recipie I’ve been wanting to try out for a while. I hope it turns out.

Next weekend is the big camping/rafting trip. 15 people, 2 boats, class II and III rapids. It should be a blast. I’m hoping to do this again next year, but on a different part of the American river. One with class III and IV rapids.

Okay – ‘nough rambling for now, time to get back to writing copy for my portfolio.

Update:
I forgot one thing – I spent an hour or so yesterday walking around in the park over by lake merrit in oakland. I had my new-to-me camera and telephoto lens (purchased from my stepfather – payments delayed until I’m working again) and was taking pictures (mostly of the birds that were about) in color and black and white. I’m not expecting many good shots to come out. It was just a chance for me to get used to the camera.

It’s a Nikon N65 and I need to find some documentation on it, as there are a bunch of features on it I don’t know how to use – but I will learn.

Edited on Jun 10th 2003, 20:16 by Hooloovoo

Dust Is Not My Friend

My wife and I did a marathon cleaning session today, (with some help from her sister.) Over the last few months, the computer/craft room had become a major disaster area. Since I’m currently jobless, and Jenny had today off, we decided it would be a good day to do something about it. We also invited her sister down to help us out a bit. (We bribed Becky with food, a couple of driving lessons, and a ride to Plough tonight.)

We spent about 8 hours cleaning, with breaks here and there as my allergies kicked in, or we needed lunch, or were just feeling overwhelmed. Had I been thinking, I might have taken before and after pictures, because I can hardly beleive this is the same room. We’re not quite finished yet, there are still a couple of boxes we need to go through, not counting the 7 boxes of stuff I brought home from work, (most of which will probably end up back in a cubicle when I land a new position.) Still, this room is a thousand times better than it was yesterday.

Jenny is on her way up to Starry Plough with Becky. (Her third driving session this weekend.) Actually, Jenny’s probably on her way back by now. We’d thought about going to Plough tonight as, (I’ve never been – I should probably rectify that at some point.) but we’re both pretty wiped out.

On the job search front: The call I was expecting today hasn’t happened yet, but I’m not too worried about it. I’ll probably give the recruiter a call tomorrow afternoon if I haven’t heard anything from him. And as soon as I’m done writing this, I’m off to the online job search sites to see if there are any new listings I can post my resume to.

Just to see if he’s reading: Gossip, can you add a “Home” or “Life” category? (or both?)

Quick weekend update.

I’m in the process of taking screenshots of websites I’ve worked on for my portfolio. I don’t know how long I’ll be able to just point to URLs and say I did “X” on “Y” site for many of them.

Now the question is, do I build my portfolio online, as a CD-ROM, as a printed piece, or as some combination of the three?

Honestly, I really don’t feel like working on it this weekend, but I need to be able to give examples of my work to prospective future employeers.

In other news, I had a quick initial interview with a company Thursday evening. I’m expecting a phone call from them Monday. I think things went well, as I was asked to keep next Thursday open for a possible follow-up interview. I’ve also sent my resume to a few other places in the area, and I’ve posted it to a couple online job sites.

A couple people have suggested that I take a few days off (a week or two) as a little vacation before I start stressing out over a job search. Good advice, and I have done that in the past – but it’s a little hard to do so when you not only did not get a severance package, but you also did not receive a final paycheck. (Whether I even get that is up to a judge now, I guess.)

In other, other news, someone’s been using my SSN to commit unemployment insurance fraud, which I found out when I filed my claim Thursday afternoon.

I guess I better get back to my screen shots. It’s kind of hard to keep typing with a cat draped across one’s fore-arms.

-Hool ( with an arm full of kitten)

Lurker

hasn’t felt much like posting lately, but he is still lurking about and commenting here and there. He’s probably not going to be posting much for the next couple of weeks as he steps up his search for a new job.

T -60 Days and counting

I wasn’t going to post about this for a couple of weeks, but…

Is anybody interested in hiring a web developer with 4 years experience in the video game industry? There’s probably going to be a blue-haired-freaky one available to start in early July, (or possibly sooner.)

Sucky way to end the week, but at least I got some warning.

Continuing Education

I’ve been toying with the idea of taking some classes at the local JC recently. Mostly just for the hell of it as opposed to working towards a degree.

Okay, “for the hell of it” isn’t quite right. Perhaps “because I want to learn something new” is more accurate.

Anyway, we got a Summer/Fall course catalog from Chabot College in the mail last week. I think I’m going to take one of the evening photography courses starting in August. I may try to take a comp-sci class as well, but I didn’t see anything that interested me that I know I can fit in around my work schedule. Perhaps I should discuss that with my employer…

I’m not going to be a full-time student, but I will be learning something new, and that is a good thing. 🙂

typing weirdness

I’m becomming more and more convinced that my typing skills (such that they are) are deteriorating rapidy.

I commonly make juxtaposition errors, like “teh”, taht”, “fro” and so forth, as well as mis-CApitalizing the second letter of a word many times (most commonly an “A” or an “E”)

Today I noticed a new one: Over the last few days when typing the phrase “to the” I’ve gone back to re-read a line (or run spell check) and noticed (or had the spell checker notice) that I actually typed “the the”.

Just now I was about to send an email to one of the VPs of my company when I saw that I had typed not “to the”, (or even “the the”,) but “to to”

maybe I should go sign up for a typing course or somethign.

(There’s another one of those juxtaposition errors…)

Edit: Some typos were intentional – others were not, and have been removed.

Edited on Apr 18th 2003, 23:40 by Hooloovoo