"Well that was easy...Perfect!"
The running game I have going is for you to try and guess the obscure pop-culture reference of the above title, which I will reveal in the next entry. The title of the last entry ("`It was the best of times, it was the blurste of times?!` You stupid monkey!") is another reference to The Simpsons. In one episode Homer becomes the head of the union at the nuclear power plant. In the course of negotiations Mr. Burns gives Homer a tour of his mansion which includes that infamous thousand monkeys typing at a thousand type writers to produce the world's greatest novel. That's a famous reference to something, I have no idea what. Well anyway Mr. Burns picks up a piece paper one of the monkeys was working on starts reading and yells "you stupid monkey!" upon seeing the typo making the monkey freak out in classic Simpson manner. I always liked that quote, not sure why.
I finally improved my blog a little. You'll note the Times New Roman font and the vertical spacing between lines of text. I hope this makes it a little easier to read.
If this is to be a normal blog I think I should whine and complain about the normal everyday activities of my life, meaningless though they may be. First I would like to describe where I am working. I am really into computers however I have yet to actually use these skills in a practical matter professionally. So I used my local college to get an unpaid internship at this little hole-in-the-wall computer shop in the downtown portion of the city in which I live. I'm not going to give out the name of the shop or the city in which I live as it's not that important. So here I am as an unpaid intern at this little shop. I haven't actually had that many jobs and what few I have had were in this little community college "out reach center" so it wasn't exactly an accurate depiction of the world at large.
Well I still don't how well I did at the interview for the internship but not that bad I guess since I did get it after all. I get to build computers, repair, troubleshoot, install new hard ware and software, install the operating system for the umpteenth millionth time (wuhoo!). I've been working there for a whole 3 and a half months now and that still isn't all that boring to me. Even exciting stuff like building a computer from the ground up should be boring to your average person after a while I would guess. After what was probably a month I finally got a chance to go out into the field and do some real work.
For some reason I was always real hesitant to really request anything like that or say anything outright or whatever. Also it took me a while to kind of change my mindset from where it was. Up until I got this job my recent experiences of being around lots of other computer people at once involved me showing people how to do things but in less of an instructor-like role as a cooperative mode. A lot times I would quickly take over the mouse and keyboard to show the person how to something, as in an A+ class or showing one of my family members how to do something. I had to train myself to turn off that instinct. I also had to grow accustomed to my new immediate supervisor not being at all like my last co-worker who was apparently way to permissive of my talking back and lip and feeling free to openly argue and question. This was also very difficult to over-come. But I think I finally have grown accustomed to this. For example my supervisor will have one way of performing a task, tell me to do the task that way and even though I know a superior way of doing it I will do it his way without arguing or suggesting or whatever.
This place really isn't that bad of a place to working though. I mean even though I'm an unpaid intern the company actually provides all the employees and other interns with lunch every day. Every time I mention this no one seems to be able to believe this. On person even contemplated giving up his job to work there for the free lunch. I'm assuming this was in jest. And all the people are really nice there too. Sometimes my supervisor seems grumpy or perhaps just quite stressed I'm not sure but still very nice.
Last week on Friday it was a really slow day. I got to the shop around 10:30 or so and did a little tiny bit of work but not a whole lot as there really wasn't anything to do. Sometimes on days like those I just leave as there's not much point in staying. I mean if I'm just going to sit there and use the Internet why don't I just do that at home? I was just about to start contemplating leaving when the owner of the shop comes up and says "Ready to go?" to which I say "sure". Of course I don't actually know where we're going but if we're packing up all the tools and Cat5 cable I'm assuming it's some useful work onsite! So another intern and I pile in this pickup truck and we're off. I think I heard him mention some sort of residency but I'm not sure and still have no idea where we were going.
At this point I feel the need to stop briefly and be overly analytical. Was it really right of me to get into this pick up with this owner without the slightest idea where we were going? Shouldn't I have stopped before getting into the truck and asked directly and quickly "where where we going"? I mean it's not like this owner has ever exhibited any traits to imply any untrustworthiness on his part in the whole short time I've been around him but this still would have been a good thing to do before blindly getting into a truck with someone like this. Either that or I'm paranoid.
So we go a few blocks down to this residency. Apparently this owner has a side business involving the renovation of old houses downtown and re-selling them at a profit. He was taking the two interns to this house to install the Cat5 cabling for the phone and network jacks in the house. I'm not even sure this was official company business or if he was just using us as free labor to finish work on this house of his. But I was getting more experience in the networking field and lying cabling so what am I going to do complain? Nah. He did pay for lunch after all. So I worked on this house for 2 or 3 hours. I doubt I would have found much of anything better to do had I gone home instead. Still his mentioning or asking about such an activity would have been nice.
Nothing like that had ever happened before. I remember the other places I got to go out into the field to work. I laid some cable in several buildings, when to this one place to try and troubleshoot a problem with a computer. And another few places to try and install network cabling through the ceiling and walls then setup the Cat5 jacks. The buildings I had to work with are from the 1930s and '40s so the insides of the walls are extremely old as are the basements and attics. I started to realize just how out of shape I was trying to do all that climbing and back-and-forth for hours on end. That sounds really sad doesn't it? It's a good transition though.
I just started jogging somewhat regularly about 7 or 8 weeks ago. I was running about 3 1/2 miles anywhere from twice to 4 times a week until this week. The weather wasn't cooperative and when it was I wasn't really in the mood. I have seen a dramatic improvement in my stamina and lung capacity thanks to all that jogging. I was feeling much more healthy and sleeping better too. I'm still not even close to being in what I would call good shape but at least I am improving in a few areas if nothing else.
Alright I guess this is all for today's entry. And I'm still hoping my entries are somehow improving.
