Tardiness

I'm bad at updating these things. That's obvious, right?

Now that my life will soon settle into the pattern of the working stiff, I will try to be more diligent about doing this. Yup, I got a job. YAY me!

All for now. Maybe more later.

Heroes

I just read my friend Tom's post, was going to reply, and decided to do it here. Over this past few weeks, I have seen many heroes in action. No capes or tights, no flying like a speeding bullet, but heroes nonetheless. People with nothing to gain opening up their houses to friends, coworkers, family, and anyone else without power or shelter after the winter storms. People from states away coming to fix power lines to help a neighbour who will never know their name. That's the kind of thing that restores someone's faith in people.

We all behave ourselves when someone is watching. We don't do anything to socially damaging or heinous when eyes are on us (except maybe for effect, which is another story entirely). But our acts of valor in the spotlight are not what makes heroes. It's the unsung songs, the untold stories of kindness and compassion. We remembered that after 9/11. I think we have begun to forget it again. No, not begun, almost succeeded. Inundated as we are by celebrity scandals, drug scandals, sex scandals, political scandals, economic... well, you get the idea, the story becomes more about the nefarious, the careless, and the just plain stupid. The man who helps a kid find their dog, the woman who stops and gives someone directions, the child who talks with someone so they know they're not alone... small acts make immeasurable waves.

In another vein, I was listening to the radio while driving to Louisville, and they were having a radiothon for Kosair Children's Hospital. People were giving to a cause that may never touch them, for people who would never know them, and they were giving with generosity, even during these tight financial times. Those people are heroes. Not the athletes, the TV stars, the singers and everyone else we look up to. We need to learn not to look up to find heroes, but to look around, and be heroes.

Interview...?

I'm tired, but that good kind of tired that happens after you realize that things are out of yoru hands, and you worked hard to ensure that alll you could do, had been done.

I went up to Ashland for the interview Tuesday night. The weather was bad; it was snowing sideways, and at one point, I skated across the road and ended up doing a 720° spin. It was a bit terrifying in that adrenaline-pumping ohmygodwereallgonnadie kind of way. Anyway, I arrive safely, collapse in my room, and watch tv.

The next morning I am awakened at about 0530 by a truck backing up nearby, and quite possibly into, the motel directly under my room. I go back to sleep only to get a call at 0800 that my interview isn't happening. One of the interviewers can't amke the drive in due to the weather. But I luck out, they're willing to give me a tour of the lab. I get to meet the people, including most of those with whom I will be interviewing, and from Scouts to science to sci-fi, I click with just about everyone there. Video games are a major topic of conversation as well. I can't shake the feeling of somehow coming home.

I enjoyed the visit, I'm going to enjoy the interview next Thursday, and I think I am a very competitive candidate for this position. Keep your fingers crossed, say a little prayer if you're of that persuasion, and hope that this works out. Something tells me, though, that I'm now where I'm supposed to be. Kinda creepy when it works out like that, really... ok, going to bed now before my eyes start bleeding.

Wicked

It's a new day, a new month,a nd things are mellting before we get hit again. Woot. I'm going to see Wicked today. Should be a lot of fun. Have my interview Wednesday. Here's to hoping I get the job.

Confusion

So I have this job interview coming up, and I'm a bit apprehensive. The last two jobs I had in lab work made me suicidal and constantly irritated, respectively, and I don't really want to fail at it a third time. I think that this is different enough that I can succeed, and I also think that it would be good for me. It's close enough to home that I can get there if need be, but I'm not living at home. I mean, I love the parentals n all, but we definitely have some differences of opinion on the way I should live my life. I'm even willing to admit, privately to the Internet, that they're probably more right than I would care to give them credit. I probably, if I had the distance to see, would think that they were doing an amazing job of putting up with me. But I don't have that distance.

I tried to become someone else. I moved to Madison, WI, partially in an attempt to not be known as my father's son. One of the banes and boons of living in a small town is you are alwyas known by your relations. the "kinta" paradigm. Because he's kinta her, and she was kinta him until their third cousin's second husband's ex-wife got divorced. But maybe that was the wrong approach. Maybe I would have been better off not running, and standing my ground instead. It would be a new approach for me, that's for sure. Either way, I am where I am, and I have to pick up the pieces, and give a damn fine interview.

Test

This is more of a test, really. Had this been a real post, something potentially worthwile would have been said.

Again, this is just a test.