Boyle Animation

Day two of training for my new job. I was frustrated at how slow everything was going and how much explanation everyone else seemed to need. I was able to complete all the sample assignments quickly and without errors. So, after lunch, we had to re-do one of the assignments as a quiz. And, of course, I ended up getting two wrong. One was because something (possibly) hadn’t been shown to me – still, my bad; the other was because I was rushing and being careless. There’s a lesson in here somewhere. We’ll be tested again tomorrow – the test that decides if we move on to the production floor. You bet I learned my lesson and I’ll double-check everything!

Today was the first day of the new job. Just training this week. Then, next week I start part-time. That’s so somebody can check my work. Once they’ve determined I can do the job without mistakes, then I can start full-time.

It’s a pretty low paying job and, considering how often there are openings, I’m guessing that the turnover might be kind of high. It’s not just the wage that makes this a poor person job though. The whole structure and attitude is vastly different from the jobs higher up the ladder. The hours are non-negotiable, including lunch. I think even breaks are scheduled. The dress code is very, very specific. It felt like half of today’s training was about the dress code. We haven’t gotten key cards yet, so we need to be let in to the training room and let into the break room. We may need to be let in to the bathrooms too. I’m not sure. There’s Guest WIFI in the break room, but we don’t get access to it. If we get back from break or lunch early, we have to sit off to the side until they let us back into the training room.

None of these things are a big deal but, combined, they send such a negative message. And considering that more than 80% of the people in my group were African American, I think this is one more thing that adds to the racial divide in this country as well as the economic divide. I haven’t had a chance to give it much thought, but I wanted to put something here all the same.

If you’re reading this, it’s probably well past 2017 and you’ve gone back into the archives of this page to see how far I’ve come. That, or [some explanation involving technology of the future that I couldn’t possibly understand]. My point is, nobody is reading this so there is no pressure on me to have a great writing voice or even to be entertaining.

Eventually, I want this blog to have a point and to have a voice. I don’t know what either of those are yet and, waiting to start until I discover them has not gotten me anywhere. I’m going to start with the mess I have and see what I end up focusing on.

I start a job tomorrow. It’s not a job I’m terribly excited about, but it is something to slow my financial hemorrhaging and give me some breathing room to focus on my medium to long term goals. As far as I can tell, the work is filing documents and the pay is just above minimum wage. The start time is really early, but I should be home early enough to get some real work done.

We (WS and I) adopted cats a few days ago. They’re called Henry and Joseph and they’re finally starting to feel at home. We found them through a posting on NextDoor.com from a woman in the neighborhood who had to give them up because of her son’s asthma(?).

We’ve wanted cats for a while now. After 19 years with WS, Pandora had to be put down last October. We both really miss the companionship. We were out at The Long Room and WS blurted out, “Let’s get those cats!” or something along those lines. It was very similar to when we were out at Nighthawk and he said, “We should get married!” As he has since pointed out, we make our best decisions when a little tipsy.

We’ve been married for a little over five weeks as of this post. It still hasn’t sunk in. Probably because nothing has really changed. I decided quite some time ago that WS and I were forever. Getting married was just a thing we did because we wanted to… make a public declaration, I guess? I don’t know. It’s pretty cool. I haven’t done the paperwork for my name change yet. That will probably make things feel pretty different.

I’m still pursuing the data visualization. In theory. I haven’t done much about it. That’s one of the reasons I’m writing here now. I’m hoping that the desire for content will motivate me. That said, I don’t want the writing itself to become a time sink. So, maybe I’ll stop here. Save something for tomorrow.

Nothing to quite tempt fate like a post that says I’m back on track. I actually missed posting on Thursday because I was so hard at work on a Mochimochi Land project. There was some unclear communication about how polished of a storyboard we were sending to the client, and it led to lots of iteration. That, and some After Effects errors that I still haven’t tracked down. (I was able to come up with a work-around.) I should have written about it Friday morning. Instead, I goofed off in the morning and then had to finish Mochimochi stuff in the afternoon.
I still don’t know about the job, by tthe way. They’re interviewing other candidates, so I guess it depends on whether or not they can find someone sufficiently competent and more devoted. I should know by the end of this week. If I get it, I realize that I’ll have to put a lot of things on hold for a few years. I can work on database and graph stuff in my spare time, because that’s relevant to work. I can probably do a little sketching on my lunch breaks too, but I don’t see myself having time for any larger projects. Is it worth it? Time will tell.
I’m drafting this post on a site called 750words.com. It’s a place designed for regular, stream of consciousness writing. I’ve used it in the past, but I’ve fallen out of the habit. I’m hoping that it will improve the content of my posts. So far, they’ve just been play-by-play of my day. Not the most exciting content. I’m new to this, though. And, fortunately, I have no readers. (If you’re reading this now, it’s probably not July 2016 anymore.)
I’ve heard “You don’t write because you have something to say. You write to find out what you have to say.” If this is true, look forward to more interesting posts as I figure out what I have to say.

Yay! I worked on Blood Diamonds tonight! Nothing really to show. I did some cleanup of a (virtual) camera that I’d set up inefficiently before. More importantly, I went through the most recent draft of the video and listed out all the things that still need to be done and put them in OmniFocus, so I can keep track.
Now would be a good time to start the first task, but I’m so tired. Today has been a full day. I started with Boot Camp at 7:45. From there, I bought some necessary groceries at Gene’s Sausage Shop (it’s a slightly different experience when you get there right as the store is opening) and then went home for a shower and breakfast. I did a little email and apartment cleanup before a 1:50 appointment and then Mochimochi Land shooting. I took a little break after that when I found out WS was around the corner, having coffee. But then I did a second grocery run before coming home. Yeah, I’m pretty tired.
I’m going to prep some hard boiled eggs (so I can start tomorrow with a short run) and then I think I’m going to call it a night. Tomorrow will be Mochi in the morning and back to Blood Diamonds in the afternoon.
No word on the job yet. I’m realizing that, If I get this job, polishing my reel won’t be quite the immediate priority it is now. I’ll have to rethink what I’m going to focus my free time on for the next few years. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I haven’t gotten the offer yet.

Today was my job interview. I think it went very well. I was honest with them about the fact that my long term plans aren’t their long term plans and I reassured myself that it was a place I could be happy working for a few years.

Now I wait. It’s possible that they’re going to pass me over in favor of someone who wants to make a career there, or it’s possible that they’ll appreciate that three to five years is as much as you can reasonably expect from anyone.

I didn’t make any progress on the reel. The interview, while not at all stressful, was draining. By the time I got home, I didn’t have the brain power for Blood Diamonds. I did a bunch of administrative and clean up work on my computer and I’ll make a fresh start tomorrow.

I keep thinking about tomorrow’s job interview. I think that’s why today’s attempt at a run was not particularly successful. And why I don’t have any Blood Diamonds progress to share.
I’m of so many minds about tomorrow. On the simplest level, it’s a job interview and those are always a little scary. I’ve already talked to the interviewer though, and the process seems to be going really well. There are two other candidates though, so nothing is a lock. But I’m pretty confident of my chances.
Getting this job would solve a lot of financial problems. And the work sounds like it’s right in my wheelhouse. Which is why it feels so crazy to realize I might turn the job down. There are one or two red flags and, if I can’t reconcile myself to them, this might not be the right job for me, despite all the many positives.
Time will tell. I’ll know more tomorrow. I’ve spent a lot of mental energy on this today and I’m ready to get a good night’s sleep.

I didn’t get *anything* done on Blood Diamonds today, but I got so much other stuff done in the process that I don’t feel that bad about it. Especially after I spent the morning locked out of my apartment.
I got the day off to a great start with a workout in the park. I was feeling very proud of myself until I realized I didn’t have my keys. I’d dropped them somewhere in the grass and hadn’t remembered to pick them back up. I spent 45 minutes combing the places I’d been before I finally gave up. By the time I got back home, I’d put in four miles of walking. Not what I’d planned, but a pretty good silver lining.
One of my friends was able to lend me a jacket for Monday’s interview, which means I can return the one I bought yesterday and stop quietly resenting its beige-ness. I got several weeks worth of mess cleaned off my desk – and really cleared up too, no piles of things to deal with later. And I worked around an Adobe Media Encoder issue that was messing up progress on Sesame.
Since I’m going to revise my schedule Monday, after I have a better idea how this job interview goes, I’m going to spend tomorrow (apart from a scheduled yarn-based event) working on Blood Diamonds. It’s (literally) the least I could do.

I got a little bit more done last night, but not much. I think I was too wired from finding out about the job interview. *Something* kept me up until 2:00 anyway.
My late night led to a late start and I spent the whole day running around. Nordstrom Rack for a boring blazer, a bunch of other shops in failed attempts to find something less boring, home long enough to drop of my bag and pick up my laptop, then to Mochi. Very productive meeting on the Sesame Workshop project. Back home for a nap and dinner and off to the Esquina opening party. That was a bit much after my long day (and with no booze), so WS and I ducked out for a bit.
Now it’s the end of the night and I haven’t even opened Blood Diamonds. I did, however, get an email from another company. I’m going to go deal with that now and maybe I can fit some Blood Diamonds in tomorrow between Sesame and laundry.