People actually pay me money to do something besides 'go away'.

Jan 24, 2007

For the music this week: two songs from Azam Ali's album Portals of Grace. Back when I bought this CD and first listened to it, I wasn't as thrilled as I'd expected to be; but (correctly) guessing that I was in the mood for faster-paced music, I predicted that I'd eventually find that I did like it, after all. (Thanks goodness I was right.) The first one, Sackpipslat, is a medival, upbeat, instrumental tune (similar to Dead Can Dance's Saltarello). The second, Aj Ondas, sounds very much like some of the music used in the series Battlestar Galactica. (I wonder if Bear McCreary is an Azam Ali fan...heck, I wonder if Ali hasn't done some uncredited vocal work on that series' soundtrack! I wouldn't be at all surprised.) So there you go: this week's songs. Enjoy!

EDIT: since it's a new week, these tracks have been removed from public access.

In honor of my birthday, AND one friend getting a job, AND another friend's spouse getting a job, AND me blazing scorchingly fast through the DMV this morning (apparently, people don't go to the DMV mid-week), I would like to share some virtual birthday cake with you guys. It's a piece of Better than Sex cake, on my brand-new, just-arrived dishes. Mangia!

Thursday Thirteen 77::13: Previous Jobs I've Held

This week's been a little frantic, since I'm 1) revamping a friend's online gallery / sales site following a database corruption; 2) running about getting everything in order to renew my driver's license; 3) growling at UPS (who shall henceforth be known as Teabagging Dimwits Unlimited) for not delivering when their note says they'll deliver; 4) configuring billing software; 5) celebrating with a friend who got a job she's been trying to land for the better part of a year; and 5) prepping for filing my taxes...I'm just a wee bit scattered. Instead of more gripage about Le Job — which, no, they still haven't gotten things organized — I'll list off some of the jobs I've held since I started working and paying taxes.

I have received money for the following jobs:

1. a ticket-taker / exit guard at an amusement park. It was more appealing than a job at a fast-food restaurant, but it had its lows. You knew you had problems when you found yourself singing along with the calliope music (from the ginormous double decker carosel, just inside the park's main gates.) On the other hand, when it was "discount-with-a-Coke-can" month, everyone in the unit got as many Cokes as they wanted. People apparently didn't realize that you could bring empty Coke cans and still get the discount on admission. People would plunk down whole sixpacks. We'd collect them in garbage barrels filled with ice; and when it was break and lunch time (and end of shift), everyone would stop by and grab a can or two.
2. a security guard at the same amusement park. It was something besides "front gate attendant". I worked in the office for most of the season, but in September I worked three concerts. September in California was warm. The concerts had afternoon and evening showtimes, and guests (especially the kiddies) would get heatstroke.
3. a security guard at an outdoor concert venue. The job title was "concert staff", because this was a Bill Graham company and the attitude was "don't be a heavy, help people stay safe". Still...we were security. We manned the front gates, we patted everyone down (and wasn't that just delightsome when the Dead were in town and diehard fans had been marinatingwaiting in line since 8am for a 5pm concert?), we checked in bags, we steered drunks into the holding area, we broke up fights. Working backstage was interesting, in that I got to meet some of the performers; and boring, in that instead of six to eight hours of interacting with the public, it was six to eight hours of standing around trying not to go insane or fall asleep.
4. a business-issues writer for a web hosting magazine.
5. a registration drone at various and sundry professional conventions. When the tech market pendulum swung the other way, people did a number of things: cashed out their stock options and spent a year or two "finding themselves", sat around and lived off savings and unemployment, left the area, or did whatever job(s) came their way. Guess which I did?
6. a production manager at a senior center (setting up and directing piecework jobs). Ah, the university years. I found this posting on a job board at school. It was a fairly upbeat atmosphere, when you consider that people who used to run newspapers, manage companies, teach, repair electronics, and take care of sick people were now being paid pennies per completed piece. Everyone was in fairly good spirits, though, so it wasn't as depressing as it could have been. And I got "adopted" by several of the couples, including two couples from Taiwan. They helped me work on my Mandarin, and didn't laugh too much at my attempts. (I had to sound worse than their infant grandkids.)
7. a receptionist/clerical/administrative person. More "gotta-pay-the-rent" jobs in the years following the tech recession. I had started the hosting business in 2002, but the client base wasn't large enough that I could pay all my bills - so I paid extra for managed services, kept an eye on the emails from the temp jobs, and managed to pay rent as well as keep busy.
8. a web site production person (read: HTML monkey). I did this at several jobs, actually. Coding HTML is a bit theraputic - and coding HTML and organizing the content? Zen, bubbeleh, zen.
9. a procedures author. Starting with my first job out of college, I documented my job processes. For that first job, it was part of the ISO-9000 requirements. This was good practice, though: if I had to organize my thoughts well enough to document what I was doing, I could also figure out how to do whatever-it-was more efficiently and accurately. This impressed bosses, and kept me free of panic-binds, since things wouldn't pile up unmanageably.
10. a software trainer. I just got paid to be a geek, basically. Organizing my thoughts well enough to document my jobs paid off here, too: I had some good ideas how to teach people a thing so that they'd remember it and get real benefit from the knowledge (and use it often, thus ensuring that they'd remember it. Neat trick, huh?)
11. a software QA tester/engineer. My first job in the tech field was running test scripts on Quattro Pro 4.0 when the software was being transitioned from a 16-bit codebase (Windows 3.x) to a 32-bit codebase (Windows 95). Not glamorous, and at times tedious as all heck; but it paid MUCH better than clerical jobs.
12. a "front-end" database developer. I did this at my first job out of college, and the first temp job after being RIF'ed from that first job. I didn't get at the guts of the program, or write code or scripts. I just essentially took a look at what information the companies had, asked what they wanted to be able to do with the information, and set up databases that would let them get their pretty charts and graphs (as long as they kept feeding in new data.) This was back in the mid 90s, when databases like FoxPro and Paradox were the hot new things. People knew they could do great things with these tools, but they weren't entirely sure how. Enter folks like me.
13. ...and, finally, a web host. I have two part-time employees who help with customer support, but I still handle the bulk of the work. This combines my skills as a software trainer (writing tutorials, answering customer questions), a software administrator (install and configure the CMS, helpdesk, and billing software), and a writer (writing the site content, writing the support documents). And I don't have to stand behind a counter or wear a certain corporate uniform. I just help people get their sites online, gently teach them some geek-fu, answer emails, and play with code. I love it :D

The jobs I've liked best have been the ones where I get a task or list of tasks, I go off by myself and accomplish those tasks, and I hand the tasks off to the next person or group (or back to the person who gave them to me). I think that's why I gravitate toward tech jobs: it's heavy tool use, it can be automated in clever ways if you know how to use the tools, and if you communicate effectively, there isn't a whole lot of face-to-face interaction with other people. I seem to have a lot of problems when communication is solely verbal, so I love email. (O fortunate me, who entered the workforce only a few years before email became -=the=- way to exchange information.)

Links to other T13 posts

1. Did you ever get the feeling... with questions about blogging etiquette and tools
2. Fond of Snape with favorite movie characters
3. West of Mars with a round-up of background info about her fictional band
4. It's a Raggedy Life with amusingly worded notices (this, folks, is why it's always good to have a proofreader)
5. A Flyover Blog with tips for writing...or painting...or creating just about anything, really
6. Colloquium
7. Crazy Working Mom with things you learn when raising a son
8. Finding Your Path who just published his book, and is asking for reviews
9. It's all about me! with sick-day activities. Feel better soon!!
10. Blog That Mommy with 1980s horror films
11. The Meme Section with some highlights from the past week
12. Whiskey Talking with random highlights from his week
13. WackyMommy, Inc. with reasons you should not go on American Idol
14. Writer's Cramps with questions to determine if you're a cat owner, or owned by your cats

Note: I plan to visit more tomorrow. But I want to eat my dinner, finish listening to the Lisa Gerrard CD that arrived today (happy birthday to me!! - it's very interesting, melodic and moving, I'm liking it thus far) and wind down for the evening. I'll visit more blogs tomorrow! There are about five I've already got in my 'visit-this' queue...)

Related entry: Cleanup on Aisle…uhm…
Keywords: | work | Thursday | memes |
Posted by Laughing Muse • 675 views • Share this link • Newer • Older