Yesterday, I deposited my first paycheck with four digits.

Admittedly, it was only just barely over the 1K mark (although it was a full kilobyte's worth), but it wasn't a full month's salary, as I've only been working for a few weeks. Still, it was pretty exciting, getting the receipt for my bank account and seeing the balance jump up to where it hasn't been for months.

Having this job is kind of weird. Let's start out with the obvious: I work for the government. I work for the government. Admittedly, it's the state government, which is kind of a lower-case-g government compared to the Federal Government, but still, I feel like I should be issued a gun, or neuralizer, or at least a badge (technically, I do have a badge, but it's the plastic security kind, not the metal awesome kind). At the very least, it just feels right to drive into work wearing my sunglasses. And then there I am in my cubicle, a government agent employee, working on my character sheets for D&D at lunch.

Also, I work in a cubicle now. As weird as that sounds, that's always kinda been my dream. Maybe I just read too much Dilbert as a young child, but having your own cubicle (which I finally got on Friday, when my last stage of training ended) has always been some kind of symbol (although certainly not the only one) of a Real Job. One that may not get respect, but one that may deserve it nonetheless. And that works for me.

Also, again, I have a government job. That's pretty real. And it's nice to know, on an empirical level, that the government is made of real people. I've met some of them, they're nice. I'm one of them. Of course, this also means that the government is made of people who play D&D and are nearly furries. So that's weird.

...Uh, where was I? That's a thought-derailer if I've ever seen one.

Anyway, my job is pretty cool. Having a lot of people there who know my mom is... weird, but seems to be working for me. I've already had the head of my entire department (I think.. still not sure about the hierarchies) personally recommend a professional writing position to me, just because she knows from my mom what I studied in college. It's still only another temp job, but it's about half again as much money as I'm making now. And I'm actually feeling pretty good about my current job. It's not as stressful as it was when I started, and I really do like doing what little I can to help these people. Not to mention that it really makes me appreciate my job. Really, really appreciate what it means to be employed these days.

My life's not too bad. Not perfect, but things are looking up. I think I can make it in this "real world."

Edit: Boom de yada, boom de yada, boom de yada, BOOM DE YADA

Well, I made it. Got through training, and then spent a day taking calls from real people who wanted unemployment. Darn near killed me, since there are apparently a lot of things that I didn't learn in training, but I made it! Even if there are a couple people who got transferred to the wrong number because the unexplained handout they gave me with the transfer numbers was not very clear.

*ahem* Okay, that was probably my fault actually.

Anyway, I am now more or less an expert in the field of Texas unemployment law! So.. yanno, if anyone is currently unemployed, and has worked in Texas in at least two of the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters (or, in accordance with Texas Labor Code 201.21 section 1 has recieved over $1000 in compensation for general domestic work from an otherwise non-employing entity in Texas over the course of a calendar quarter in the current or preceding calendar year), I can tell you just about anything about what you need to do. It's been burned into my brain.

Unless you're on extended benefits. I don't know jack squat about that, even if half of everyone calling in wants 'em. Although I'm trying to learn it very fast, I don't think it's quite fast enough. Still, I don't think I did anything catastrophically wrong.

Still, from my first day talking to real people, I have some tips.

• If you were laid off after your boss found out about the results of a drug test, you weren't laid off. You were fired. You were so very fired.
  
• Don't give information you haven't been asked for yet, and don't ask for information I gave you a few minutes ago. Making me do things out of order is bad, and I could very well make all the work I've done on your claim so far vanish into the ether if I'm not careful. This is bad. Besides, you'll be getting everything I tell you in the mail anyway.
  
• Don't try to apply for unemployment when you don't know anything about your last employer, much less any of your last three employers. We only need the last one, and we really usually just need a name, but seriously?!
  
• Don't try to apply for unemployment and take orders at the drive-thru at the same time. Not only is it a really bad idea in general, but you don't qualify if you're still working full time anyway.

It's a learning process. And I'm certainly learning - although I seem to be teaching a bit too. Being... well, me... I seem to be one of the more computer savvy ones in the group. And so, because I needed the help, I wrote a little script using a little tool native to the software we're using to make the script we're supposed to say pop up in little convenient bubbles at the appropriate times. There's a lot of things that we're required to say, and it's a long shot that I'm going to memorized the beginning and ending spiel in less than a month.

But anyway, this automated script started turning heads in my training class. And then the trainer took an interest. And yesterday, my trainer's supervisor (I think - the hierarchy is a little fuzzy to me, but definitely one of the more higher-ups) stopped by to take a look at it, and said she thought it looked pretty good, but that there'd have to be a little more looking into it before it could be approved for everyone else to use.

So.. that's interesting.

Anyway, I'm glad for the weekend. It's stressful taking these calls when I'm still not sure what to do a lot of the time, and it's nice to have a break after a first day like that. Especially a holiday like this. I expect I'll get a little more confident at it after a while, but for now, well.. at least I've got a pretty decent employer. First check on Monday, a day off every month (although I won't be able to use the days I've saved up for a while), decent sick leave, nice insurance benefits, lots of different positions to maybe get moved to if I want, and lots of nice people. And that last one's important.

Anyway. Happy Halloween everyone!

I've been roleplaying all week.

Training at work has been going smoothly. We've progressed to the point where we're taking simulated phone calls, and going through the procedures for various hypothetical scenarios. The first time, as I really should have predicted, I freaked out, forgot everything I knew, and stumbled my way though it. Subsequent times were much easier though, and while I'm pretty sure I'll have some kind of relapse when I start taking real calls, at least I know I can go through the process.

Fortunately, I've got something of an advantage over the other people there: the whole system, besides the script of things to say, is run by the computer. And I'm good with computers, even kludgy outdated DOS-based systems like this one. Plus, the whole process runs like a computer program, even if it is a little strange at times. Maybe even because of that too.

More fun RP happened yesterday, at my old haunt PMM, where the infamous Hope had her annual Halloween bash. Can't remember if I've actually attended one before, but I sure made sure to this year! To start with, I attended five or six different times, if you count pets and alternate personalities separately. You'd think NPCing an entire world as a DM would help prepare me for that, but when there's a few dozen other people to interact with and keep track of, plus a few different conversations to keep track of at a time, it's not easy. It went long into the night, and my brain still hurts from it all. But it's a good pain.

Also, I even went so far as to use my new tablet to draw a certain themed costume group, finished at the last minute (or, really, maybe a couple hours into the RP as I frantically tried to juggle managing already-entered characters, drawing, and a vacuum cleaner that I had to try and disassemble for some reason). It's not.. actually good, in my mind, but I think it's better than most of what I've done up to now. arilla helped me a lot with a few issues I was having, and I finally learned how to not make legs look quite as stupid. Still a lot of issues with it, but... dang if that isn't just the cutest and happiest little Nibbles there.

Gonna be practicing drawing more in the future, I think. It.. it feels good, and I want the practice. My comic's still in my head, and with SiM over, most of my random creative thinking is dedicated to figuring things out about it. One of these days, it's gonna happen. Not in the near future, though; I'm still figuring out how to manage my more limited free time with this full-time job I've got, and about one reasonably-finished picture per week is probably about the most I can manage. And I've got a lot of figuring out how to draw before I'll feel confident enough to try drawing people I have never seen outside my own head before. At least, if I want to try for a picture of any kind of quality.

Still. Fun times. :D

One More Thing: No, I'm not going to say who they are. If the robot and the scarf don't tip you off, you're just not going to get it. ...Kyari is Romana II, though. I guess that's a little more obscure, what with the dozens of other companions. A LITTLE.

Job training continues.
( Because it's too long now. )
[Edit: Wow... email submission does wonky stuff to formatting. Noted and LJ-cut.]

Yesterday (was it really yesterday? Man, today was a long day) I finally got the call I've been waiting for. The interview was good, I had the job, and could I start tomorrow? Well, there was some frantic faxing of paperwork first, but I got that done in time, and was ready to start today. Which I did.

That is, I started doing even more paperwork today, which is pretty hard on four or five hours of sleep. And I'll be working for the state, so it's a LOT of paperwork. Next comes training. A lot of training, too, it'll be a couple weeks before they even let me take a call.

But still. It's a job. A real (albeit temporary) job, that comes with a monthly salary and health benefits and full dental and I'll get my own cubicle and everything. Not that having a cubicle is the pinnacle of achievement or anything, but it's a big step in the right direction, I think.

Isn't it?

So tired. Sleep now.

The job search has been uneventful, as usual. Up until this week, when I got sick and suddenly everything started happening at once. Three different things coming out of the woodwork at once.

( tl;dr: oh god what just happened I am so confused right now I am not used to these kinds of choices )

SURE IS GETTING EXCITING IN HERE, RITE GUYZ? @_X

*ahem*

On a completely different note, I noticed that there's a kind of common thread through all these opportunities that matches up with something I was talking to someone about recently. They're all about communication, and successfully conveying information and concepts. I could probably do a whole other post about that later, but that concept there is kinda a big deal to me, and in my eyes, the basis of civilization as a whole. So at least I'd be doing something I believe in whichever thing I go for, on a fundamental level at least. That matters.

This week started out great. I've been practicing driving recently - I still know how just fine, it turns out, but I needed some figuring to work out how to get around -, so I drove down to the bank to deposit my first paycheck from my new job as a substitute.

My first paycheck ever, really, since I always had direct deposit before. Felt so good about it, I went and treated myself to lunch at one of my favorite restaurants. It was good. I mean, I actually felt like a decent, productive member of society.

And then, the next day, I got called in to work again, because one of the teachers was sick. Great! Things were looking up! But then, despite my constant use of hand sanitizer and vitamin C drops, I fell sick the next day. Then again, I've been feeling weird for a while, maybe that just finally pushed me over the edge into sickness.

But still! For a shining few days, I felt like a real, bonafide adult, even with the caffeine molecule keychain and listening to my silly music in the car. That's the kind of adult I'd rather be anyway. It's a good feeling. I could get used to it, especially with the bringing-in-money part.

I'm still looking for and looking forward to a full-time job. But in the meantime, I think I'm doing okay.

Life's pretty good, all things considered.

'Tis truly a fine day, with fine company, fair weather, and truly a fair bounty of fortune. 'Twas a fine birthday I had not one week ago, with a cake of tremendous chocolate and not one ounce of strength to hold itself together. A fine feast it was, for what little time it lasted, and was a fine ending to a day full o' celebratin'.

And there was a good haul of loot to go with it, indeed. Two movies in particular, one of a Horrible Doctor and one of the Hog Father, were a sight of glory, and there be a book yet to be read, tho I know despite its name of "Stardust," it be a fine tale of pirates, an' perhaps some other things.

But 'twas only yesterday that the final present was to be found, and 'twas worth the wait as well. A tablet, for the makin' of the finest arts. As large as me computer isself, but a thin as a gnat's eyelash. It makes truly a fine addition to me cabin desk, and I've already begun the trainin' for its use.

Okay, I think I'm running out of talking-like-a-pirate juice. Done now!

Overheard the above line said by some lady while shopping the other day, and it really stuck with me, because it just so perfectly encapsulates to major tenents of my life.

I take everything seriously.
I take nothing seriously.

Sometimes I slip a little closer to of these or the other, but I try to keep it balanced. Everything in life has significance. Everything is important, in some way. But importance is a human construct, usually just attributed by consensus. Things are important because we say they're important, not the other way around.

People seem to think it's horrible that some people treat life like a joke, but really, I think that's what it is. Life is quite often ridiculous, and people should laugh at it more. It's that or cry, and I much prefer the former.

I'm going in in about an hour to get a sonogram of my liver, because apparently it's giving off high levels of some enzyme that there's usually a lot of when the liver is dying. I'm treating this seriously, of course, making all the necessary appointments (I've lost track if this is my third or fourth), and even taking notes of the exact numbers for my Google Health account (is there anything they don't do?). But I'm not going to worry about it. If there's some horrible thing wrong with me, well, I'll deal with it, but I will take every opportunity to make jokes about it. 'cause if I don't, who will?

This tablet is built into my computer. It has been there since the first day I got this laptop, and the last one had it too.

Problem: It is very small, and I have no stylus. Also, most people call it a touchpad.

List of things that work on my touchpad:

• My finger
• A damp piece of sponge
• The negative end of a AA or AAA battery
• A small magnet (one end only - not sure which end, none of mine are labeled)
• Flat metal (the aluminum foil from a gum wrapper, a key lying down)

List of things that do not work on my touchpad:

• Paperclips
• Pens
• Pencils
• Pointy metal (paperclip, pen spring, anything from my swiss army knife, etc)
• The positive end of a AA or AAA battery
• Anything metal touching the negative end of AA or AAA battery<
• Anything metal touching the "working" end of a small magnet

I'm leery of making a stylus out of a magnet, even if the danger is supposedly grossly overstated. The battery is nice, but a little

SCIENCE.

Notes: Although the sponge works when I'm not touching it directly, it doesn't seem to work in the pen unless it's connected to me by metal. Go figure! And MORE SCIENCE


Results: SUCCESS! Somewhat. Mostly.

It spazzes out if I move too fast, and I have to press it down pretty hard (with a sponge, not really worried about damaging it or anything), and clicking is tricky, but it works! Going to experiment with sponge moisture a bit to try and not have to press down so hard.

Edit: GRAAAAAAAH. It keeps omitting half my movements. I try to draw a circle, it turns into some kind of crazy spiral going off the top of the screen. Impossible to draw with this setup without wanting to kill something. Darn, thought I was onto something there. But hey! Had fun trying.