Well, yesterday was my first day at the new job. At this point I’m cautiously optimistic that it will work out, though I have yet to really get a handle on my coworkers or responsibilities.

In particular, I spent some time after work writing down my first impressions of my coworkers, and I was somewhat surprised by my analysis; one or two of them remain ciphers to me, but one coworker in particular (the one who first interviewed me for this gig) is somewhat intimidating: she’s not mean to me per se, but I find the difference between us in terms of socio-economic trappings/appearance to be unnerving. This person lives in an arguably rich part of the GTA, drives very fast in a  BMW (which had a spotless interior, by the way), and has had multiple cosmetic surgeries - and she’s still under 30. I don’t want to give the impression that she’s intolerably high maintenance - but in general, being near people with such a lifestyle makes me feel shabby and mundanely suburban.

I was really tired when I came home last night - I had probably the soundest, least interrupted sleep last night that I’ve experienced in a few months. There’s more to tell later, but I have to get going soon to catch the commuter train.

Well, after a two-week period that was unexpectedly full of interviews, I can now claim success! I have found a new job!

I got the job offer last night - I only saw the job -offer email about an hour after they sent it - and accepted right off the bat. As soon as I heard, I called Mom, Rob, Sister and all of the people I used as references…I had originally made an appointment for another job interview with a different company on Monday, and I had to call them back as well and cancel it.

Predictably, while Mom was happy with the news, she had to find something wrong: why did I cancel that Monday interview? I could have walked away with a better job! However, in the second interview I had with my new employer (before I got the job, of course), they asked if I would be willing to start on Monday. For all intents and purposes, I said yes, although I qualified my response by stating that before I started, I would have to make different arrangements with the Broadview Centre to continue my computer certification. Considering the job offer letter I recieved requested that I start work on Monday the 28th, I figured that it was best not to go back on my word and say something to the effect of “Oh hey, I’ve got another job interview coming up, can I go to that first before I commit to you?” I figured an approach like that would lead me straight back to No Job City.

Anyways, the job and employer itself: my employer will be an online marketing firm whose largest client (at this location at least) is an online transaction service similar to PayPal. I won’t be doing any tech support stuff - to be honest, I’m still not really sure how the business works and exactly what my employer does to ensure the PayPal-esque company’s smooth flow of operations - but I will be handling the front desk, taking and rerouting calls, talking to customers, and overseeing general office management. In some ways it’s grunt work (letters, ordering supplies, etc), but in some ways it’s grunt work that I have no experience with (eg: making travel arrangements) and need to learn.

The good news is that considering it’s entry level, they’re offering what I feel is a very nice package: competitive starting salary, and two weeks paid vacation. The first 3 months will be on a probationary period, after which I will be evaluated, and if considered successful, be made a permanent employee. Of course, there’s all the rigarmarole to sort out once I start - forms to sign, background checks to undergo, etc. They’ll be checking my references (which is why I called all of them as soon as I heard), my credit history, and my criminal record (which I don’t have - I expect that the police records will come out clean as a whistle).

What’s also really nice is that the commute will be quite reasonable. I live very close to a train station (about 5 minutes away) and thus taking the regional commuter train will be very easy, as the employer itself is located only about 10 minutes away from the station that serves as the hub of the commuter system. The only drawback (and it’s somewhat major) are the working hours: because the company’s head office is in LA, the working hours for the Toronto office have been shifted accordingly, so that instead of it being 9-5, it’s 10-7 (with a 1-hour break for lunch). I suspect that there won’t be much for me to do when I come home in the evenings.

Anyways. It’s a job! I’ve got student loans to pay off and stuff I need money to buy! The fact that I’ve “made it” (sort of) with a job that’s got a nice salary, excellent downtown location and such is a cause for cheer. The weekend shall be devoted to de-scruffifying myself, cleaning my room, and getting myself more polished for Monday. Wish me luck!

At the beginning of the week, I had envisioned Friday as a nice, stable day (fitness assessment + weekend = woot!). Here’s what actually happened:

1. Thursday night: Our guild tries raiding Magtheridon for the first time (and I was also promoted to the rank just below Officer! Now I can use guild money to fund my equipment repairs! Woot!). It becomes a total wipefest. Midway during the raid, I notice that my nose is getting plugged up and my throat is becoming a tad bit touchy where my hard and soft palates meet. From experience, I know this means that a cold is imminent.
2. Monday morning, part 1: I wake up with my cold, and feel sluggish. I resolve not to go to the BC today, and tell mom this. She’s okay with it. I go back to bed for a bit.
3. Monday morning, part 2: I get up again, go downstairs, and figure that now I’m home, I have plenty of time to farm in WoW, and just relax. I had a nice long morning of mote extracting, mineral node farming, and levelling up fishing planned. Maybe a heroic or two in the evening. I go into the kitchen, and boil myself a concoction of lemon, ginger and honey for my throat. I take my concoction downstairs.
4. Monday morning, part 3: I accidentally spill my concoction on the keyboard of my laptop, conveniently on the top right-hand corner where the keys sit directly above some important computer chips. My laptop goes haywire, won’t turn on properly, and is essentially buggered. After trying to remove the keyboard and sopping up the spilt tea, I concede defeat, call Dell and get a tech support agent who wants me to do what I just did (remove the keyboard, in the process dislodging two keys - and those keys are a bitch to reinsert). I cuss the Dell representative out, and agree to send it back to the manufacturer to get it fixed there. Note: I have not made any backups of my important files.
5. Monday morning, part 4: Maybe an hour after that, I get an unexpected call from a nonprofit agency involved in the media. Would I like to come in for an interview for an administrative assistant position? Considering that this call is completely unexpected (I didn’t apply for it; I figured someone at YouthBoost must have done so on my behalf), I try to bluff my way through sounding like I know what I’m talking about. I have an interview arranged for one day a week later, then frantically call the people at Youth Boost for more information.
6. Monday afternoon, part 1: Maybe an hour or two after that, I get another call from a different company. Again, would I like to come in for an interview? For a position that involves being the personal assistant of the CEO of a media company situated in the financial district? Um, sure, okay. Again, I call YouthBoost for more context. At this point, mama has come home and it is time for me to head off to my fitness assessment, to which she drives me.
7. Monday afternoon, part 2: I have the assessment. Considering my sickness today, all that happened today was a discussion of my fitness goals (increase stamina, reduce fatigue, lose weight), how to improve my eating habits, and measuring through calipers what my fat levels were like. No exercise or cardio work took place because this would make me even more fatigued, and because having a cold already elevates your heart rate. After the assessment and booking of another appointment for the exercising tests, I sit in the sauna, leave the centre and rent some movies.
8. Monday afternoon, part 3: I come home to an unexpected, but somehow unsurprising piece of news from mom: a THIRD company called for me while I was out and asked for me to contact them regarding an interview for another administrative position. After calling YouthBoost again, I find out that this time, it’s a real estate agency. Calling the agency, I find out that the position is to replace someone on maternity leave and to work with other assistants in handling a 25-line phone system and doing customer service work. More bluffing, more sounding like I know what I’m talking about, and I land a third interview, this time on the upcoming Tuesday.

After this, the cold kind of took over, and I just napped, hung around, and watched movies. 3:10 to Yuma was much more violent than I remembered, and it took me a while to get to the part of the movie that I liked most - the part in Contention from the hotel-room onwards - but I think in the end it was worth it. In the end, despite the unexpectedness and frustration of all of Friday, I think staying home was worth it.

Perhaps it’s due to the increased initiative one acquires upon age (hah!), or perhaps it’s due to the life skills stuff I’ve been learning at the Broadview Centre (how to plan goals, figure out your values, become a better person overall, etc.) but I have a feeling that this year I’ll be able to stick to my New Year’s Resolutions much more successfully in previous years.

It helps that this year I’ve defined them a lot more, and have already taken steps to make them longer-lasting. So without further ado, here are my resolutions for 2008, and what I’ve done to make them stick.

1. Exercise more and lose weight: I’ve signed up for a Yoga class at the local community center, which is also equipped with a weight room. I’ve bought a 3-month pass for the weight room (at a cheaper price since I’m opting to use it during non-prime-time hours), and to make sure I get the most benefit out of it, I’ve signed up for a personal assessment with one of the trainers there to see how fit I am and to help me determine my weight-loss/fitness goals and make an exercise plan. The assessment is tomorrow afternoon. My goal at this point is to work out at the weight room twice a week.
2. Better dental hygiene: I know this seems both too pedestrian and bordering on “too much information,” but I’m really bad about brushing and flossing my teeth. Lately my gums have been getting really sore where they hit my molars in the back, and the pain is distracting. Basically, I want it to go away.
3. Find a place to volunteer: I think volunteering is a great thing, but lately I haven’t put my money where my mouth is (Considering #2 above, that’s probably a good idea! Do you have any idea how absolutely filthy currency is?). So now, I’m looking for places to volunteer with, and so far I’ve found something really promising: the Daily Bread Food Bank needs volunteers to conduct its annual survey of food bank users. And the best part is that even though the DBFB facility is all the way on the other side of town, they need volunteers to canvas all the food banks in the city, so there’s no long commute involved. Plus, my past Census experience (ugh) should be somewhat handy. I’m attending an information session about this a little less than two weeks from now.
4. Finish my computer training, get IC3 and MOS-certified, and hopefully learn how to use MS Access: Well, this is what I’m commuting to do every morning.
5. Get a full-time job: Enough said. I’ve been out of a job for almost 3 months now, and I’ve got student loans to pay off. Luckily I’ve got money saved up in the bank and mom’s not charging me any rent.
6. Go out more with friends: I have to admit it – I’m a shut in. Playing WoW a lot doesn’t help that, so I’m trying to break the habit by initiating contact and get-togethers with my friends more. So far, I’m planning to go bowling with some of them next weekend.

This list is somewhat lengthy, but I also realize that there are a lot of ways I could improve myself. I’m trying to take steps to work on me, and for the first time in years I’ve got free time to do it, away from the necessities of school and work. Here’s hoping to my success!

Alright, so my half-hearted attempt to write in here fizzled out badly last year. In the intervening eight months, some stuff has happened, though it was entirely unexpected at some points.

1. I finished my Athabasca courses at the veeeerry last minute. I managed to have the Athabasca transcript sent off just in time so that in the end…..

2. I managed to finish my degree at Trent. The convocation was at the end of May, but because of item #1, I didn’t get my diploma in the mail until July-ish.

3. Only two days after my convocation ceremony, I landed a job through some contacts at a non-profit agency that dealt with housing issues. At the start I was hired on to organize the organization’s Annual General Meeting (which was to occur in less than four weeks, natch), but from July onwards, I was essentially an administrative assistant. However, my job status was (to me) always in question: my position was renewed on a month-to-month basis by my supervisor.

4. Eventually, I became tired of the tenuous nature of thinking about my job as a month-to-month thing, and combined with my insecurity over my persona in the office’s politics (the young’un what can’t keep her mouth shut too well) and left in the middle of October.

5. I went on a trip to Ottawa with my mother at the end of September. On the surface, it was just to have some fun and see the sights of the nation’s capital, but underneath it was also a way to scout out the city’s millieu in the event I ended up working there. My impressions - pedestrian friendly, wonderful farmer’s market, lots of culture, confusing mishmash of transit systems - were mostly positive.

6. I attended a life skills and job search workshop named YouthBoost for three weeks. Through them, I came in contact with a pilot job and computer skills training workshop known as….

7. The Broadview Centre. TBC is what I’m currently doing. For the next three months, every weekday morning I (and my mom, who is also looking for work) will sojourn to the downtown core, sit in front of a computer, study the heretofore-unknown intricacies of Microsoft Office Suite programs, and learn the ins and outs of dealing with office politics.

8. Oh, and by the way, yes, I do still play World of Warcraft. My level 70 Kara-raiding hunter with 375 Goblin Engineering says “hi” as she speeds on her epic rofflecopter through Nagrand.

While I have absolultely no idea how faithfully I’ll update this blog now that I’ve finished school, I’m pretty sure it’ll be more frequently than it has been since September. Of course, it’s pretty easy to improve upon the pace of posting once every 3-4 months.

So where have I been, and what have I done? University is finished. The WoW obsession continues (Lvl 70 hunter! Woot!), and life with Rob still goes. He’s finished his degree  and is very close to finishing his diploma to become an Educational Assistant. He’s got a placement lined up for May and June with a local elementary school, and then he’ll be done - and much more employable than I, I might add.

Goals for this summer include getting started on the search for a full-time job (hopefully in an office environment), learning how to ride a bike, and getting my G2 license. Does anyone know a good place in Toronto to buy a cheap, sturdy, second-hand bike?

I have to admit that while I’ve taken some hiatuses (hiati?) from blogging in my time, 3+ months was unexpected and, quite frankly, pushing it. I’m still getting over the mind-bogglement of the updated WP interface. So, what is there to account for my absence?

WoW, mainly, to be honest. I’ve done lots of rerolls, but now I’ve created so many low-level characters that starting new ones seems boring. I’ve switched my main from the Tauren Druid to a Tauren Hunter at lvl 37. However, my continuing obsession with WoW has produced some academic fruit, as in my fall-term class on technology and bodies, I was able to churn out a 4,500-word paper on the game’s conception of embodiment and what the game implies about normative bodies and the Other, linking it to past iterations of the fantasy genre and to older online communities. But yeah, the game has been addictive, and it’s seriously led to academic consequences - to put it lightly.

The most important of these? I’ve pretty much given up on successfully completing the Food Emphasis at this point. Such completion depended on successfully finishing my Athabasca courses (which I’m still on because I’ve bought extensions), as well as doing that community project with the midwives. The bane of both of those has been my dependence on class structure - when faced with actually carving out my own time for study and research without any pre-built schedule, those plans have deflated like the Hindenburg. After not submitting an RPA for almost 3 months, I got an ultimatum, met with supervisors, and figured it was the best plan overall to drop the course and the project and take another class-based half course for the winter term instead of trying to salvage the project and face an uphill battle of making the research work when my past failure showed that this simply isn’t the best way for me to learn.

I hope that doesn’t make me sound like a quitter. I just figured that considering the way I neglected the project, it was best for all involved for me to cut my losses. It is my fault, I know that - but deciding this and thus not completing the Food Emphasis is liberating, in some ways.

More news: a few days after my birthday, I got my hair cut really short, almost pixie-style. In the intervening months it has gotten progressively shaggier. I shall upload a photo soon. When I return to Peterborough I’ll probably get it cut again, since the stylist did such a good job last time and she was super-cheap to boot ($10 haircuts FTW!). My roots are also showing and that needs to be corrected too.

Other updates:

1. Ernesto moved out about 3 weeks ago to return home. Less than a week later, Recordmaker and Marinus found another student to rent out the extra basement bedroom, who promptly moved in and then the exact same day packed up and left for Christmas holidays. Very wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am-ish. I think I’ll refer to her here as Kee.
2. I saw “Children of Men” and “Pan’s Labyrinth” with AJ and Rob on Saturday. Both were completely, mind-blowingly good, intelligent, immersive, and uncompromising. I’m having a hard time saying which one is better, but I’m guessing that CoM has a better chance of getting the Best Picture Oscar nod because it’s technically not a foreign film. Are all Mexican film directors as good as these two? If anyone is reading this and happens to have either movie playing in a nearby theatre, shut down the computer and buy a ticket now. Like Faye in Questionable Content, my recommendations are not to be trifled with.
3. I met up with Claudette and NCS near the end of October to say hi and have lunch. Claudette was very nice, and even bandied about the suggestion of hiring me on after graduation on a part-time basis. While I don’t want to depend on her good will, the possibility of this happening is very comforting. NCS even sent me an email Christmas card wishing me happy holidays; some family members have said that that’s a definite indication of them keeping an eye on me for the future if nothing else.

What else is there to mention? A whole slew of things, I suppose. A few minutes after midnight, Rob called me from Peterborough to wish me a Happy New Year, and after exchanging such opening pleasantries I just shouted “I am the walrus!” at him several times, placing emphasis on a different word each time. Because the Beatles are cool and if anyone is willing to call himself The Eggman with a straight face, they’ve got my vote. Rob took it all in stride, to his credit.

As for the New Year, I don’t have any resolutions. There are so many I could make (eg: limiting my time on WoW, trying hard to find a job after I graduate, keeping my room clean, eating better/losing weight, etc.) but I’m pretty sure they’d get broken. I would like to get back into the swing of updating this thing though, since the New Year requires some leaf to be turned and this is convenient enough.

You would think that with a blog called “September Fool,” I would make all sorts of posts in September, regarding my folly or lack of it, or just things of interest to other September Fools in general. The over-examination of everything still goes on (Will I find happiness? Will I find a good job after I graduate? Why does the WoW Draka server have to be closed for updates on my birthday? etc.) but I am happy to report that the sense of disconnect, while still there, is lessening. Sera invited me over to her house, where I used to live (or rather it was Claire, one of the housemates) on Saturday for a Peterborough Pride dinner, and there was lots of delicious food and strawberries and plums and pears with whipped cream for desert, and that was quite nice. It was so good to be among a group of people my age in a setting off-campus, just doing nice social, “you’re-here-I’m-here-let’s-be-cool-together” things, you know?

Maybe I’ll come up with something more insightful later on today. In the meantime, here are some obligatory birthday songs!

<blockquote>

Birthday - The Beatles

You say it's your birthday
It's my birthday too--yeah
They say it's your birthday
We're gonna have a good time
I'm glad it's your birthday
Happy birthday to you. 

Yes we're going to a party party
Yes we're going to a party party
Yes we're going to a party party. 

I would like you to dance--Birthday
Take a cha-cha-cha-chance-Birthday
I would like you to dance--Birthday
Dance!!!! 

You say it's your birthday
Well it's my birthday too--yeah
You say it's your birthday
We're gonna have a good time
I'm glad it's your birthday
Happy birthday to you.

The Happy Happy Birthday Song - The Arrogant Worms

Once a year we celebrate
 With stupid hats and plastic plates
 The fact that you were able to make
 Another trip around the sun

And the whole clan gathers round
 And gifts and laughter do abound
 And we let out a joyful sound
 And sing that stupid song

Happy birthday!
 Now you're one year older!
 Happy birthday!
 Your life still isn't over!
 Happy birthday!
 You did not accomplish much
 But you didn't die this year
 I guess that's good enough

So let's drink to your fading health
 And hope you don't remind yourself
 The chance of finding fame and wealth
 Decrease with every year

Does it feel like you're doing laps
 And eating food and taking naps
 And hoping that someday perhaps
 Your life will hold some cheer

Happy birthday!
 What have you done that matters?
 Happy birthday!
 You're starting to get fatter
 Happy birthday!
 It's downhill from now on
 Try not to remind yourself
 Your best years are all gone

If cryogenics were all free
 Then you could live like walt disney
 And live for all eternity
 Inside a block of ice

But instead your time is set
 This is the only life you get
 And though it hasn't ended yet
 Sometimes you wish it might

Happy birthday!
 You wish you had more money
 Happy birthday!
 Your life's so sad it's funny
 Happy birthday!
 How much more can you take?
 But your friends are hungry
 So just cut the stupid cake

Happy birthday!
 Happy birthday!
 Happy birthday, dear...

</blockquote>

I’m still feeling the sense of disconnection to the new school year that I elaborated upon in the last post. However, I think I can pinpoint it more accurately now: this year, I feel I’ve got too much on my plate. Not only am I taking a full-time course load, but I still have to finish writing essays for the two extant summer courses from Athabasca, and I’m still in a tizzy over my post-graduation job prospects. Even more, my current course load includes doing a research project with a local community organization.

 This project sounds pretty cool, by the way. To fulfill the requirements of the various programs I am undertaking at Trent, I needed to find a community project which would allow me to focus both on a) women’s issues, and b) food access/security issues. Considering the Trent Centre for Community-Based Education is still adapting to moving to a new building, as well as finding projects for over three-hundred students, I was told that it might be best to try contacting various organizations asking if they need a student myself. So I did.

The result: yesterday I got a call from a local midwives centre regarding an inquiry I made last week. They do indeed seem interested in having me! In particular, they’d like me to do content creation (making pamphlets) and also to build an information/resource centre regarding prenatal health and nutrition - especially in terms of how to ensure access to healthy, good-karma food like locally sourced and organic stuff. While there’s still a lot in the works, I’m excited.

In general, I’m in a much better mood lately. Until that call yesterday, I wasn’t sure what to do regarding my courses, because I knew that if I didn’t find a community project, I’d have to shift everything around on my schedule to make sure I fullfilled all my program requirements. But now things seem a lot easier. Transit time to campus is still a bitch, but I’ll live.

To cut straight to the point: this post (aside from this paragraph) is not going to be about 9/11. I think it was a shitty thing to happen, but all the commentary that I could make regarding the scope of the tragedy, the subsequent failures of US foreign policy, and Bush in general either already has been or could be stated in a much better manner than I am capable of. So yeah, today = boo hoo, but I’m just enough on the wrong side of ignorance to know whatever profundities I spew forth will be shallow and ill-informed.

Anyways, two major things:

1. Today was the first day of classes, I have started to buy books, and hooray and such. The sense of disconnection/disengagement that I’ve been feeling lately, in conjunction with said classes, leaves me feeling (metaphorically) as if I had been filled up with helium and left to drift/hover over the countryside. I can see everything, but it seems just out of reach. Maybe I have to give things some more time.
2. After making my own character on Rob’s WoW account, I have decided to buy my own copy. So, if you happen to see a Tauren Druid named Tenar, or a Gnomish Mage named Inkypoo (’coz Gnomes are tiny) on the Draka realm, come by and say hi!