A Place Where Your Imagination Makes Up The Rules
Well here we are: August 15th and S.F. Summer 2005 is just about in the books. Fortunately, those books are now readily available online so that, at any time, I can read about how stressed out I was and wonder why I didn't just fucking enjoy it. My brother and Tessa come in later tonight, we are off to camp at Tahoe on Wednesday, and I leave CA for various other adventures early next week.
That's not to say that Summer 2005 isn't leaving without a fight. Just to keep things frantic until the last moment, I applied for another job a few days ago. Now it's not that I am on some focused job hunt [although you might think otherwise by the fraudulent $2000 charge that careerbuilder.com applied to my credit card last week, which is more than a little strange in light of the fact that I have never even logged on to that particular site], but these days I am always kind of looking for a job. And this is the type of job that seems to fit well enough to make you feel bad about not at least applying to.
In my case, the good fit is a full-time development position at Tech Museum in San Jose. Well... it's a simultaneously good and devastating fit. The fit is good because I seem to match the job requirements well and it would be a great opportunity to begin a career in the museum/alternative education field. On the other hand, the fit is devastating because I seem to match the job requirements well and it would be a great opportunity to begin a career in the museum/alternative education field. Field? Career? What the fuck? Didn't my post-Berkeley dreams just months ago revolve around the idea of piecing together a schedule that gave me enough free time to develop other interests?
This wasn't so much an issue when I first replied to the ad a week ago because Bay Area craigslist job postings usually net 100 responses a day. I figured I'd fulfill a responsibility to myself by mailing a cover letter & resume and then smoking a bowl. I wasn't really expecting a response. Amazingly, I landed an interview and now it's a fucked up situation because, in the waning moments of Summer 2005, I've been thrown into disarray.
...In a good way, I guess.
The interview was this afternoon. As usual, I woke up after nine and stumbled my way through the morning. And also as usual, I was inexplicably surprised when noon rolled around. It probably signaled poor prospects for a potential job in San Jose that I didn't even feel like going down there for my interview, but I forced myself to dress up a little, tuck my shirt in, and get it over with.
The trip down to Silicon Valley from San Francisco is like a bad dream road trip through the heartland of corporate America. Enormous LCD billboards dot the increasingly arid landscape in between the endless islands of office buildings and industrial parks. Downtown San Jose feels completely inorganic, existing as not so much a city than as the a large suburban shopping plaza reimagined to resemble a city. Thoroughly pleasant and soulless.
That theme seemed to diffuse through "The Tech" also, which is located right in the middle of town. It's the gadget-toting, flashy capitalist answer to the Exploratorium's old world Marxism. I got there early to check things out before the interview. It seemed like a pretty cool place for kids and it was interesting for me--contrasts with the Exploratorium were immediate. The two institutions just operate under totally different philosophies. The Exploratorium is steadfast in its enforced quaintness, maintaining its identity as the trusty, beat-up old standby that never goes out of style. And probably every science museum in the country owes something
to them. The Tech is a technology museum that seems as interested in the latest upgrade as the Exploratorium is interested in looking like a garage project.
At the Exploratorium's bodyheat video camera, you can jump around a bit in front of the display or maybe temporarily tattoo a moon into your skin with some cold metal. Enterprising kids will borrow some ice from the nearby vacuum chamber and see what they can do with it. Of course, at The Tech, you swipe your microchip-embedded ID card and the full color bodyheat camera will save your picture on the internet. Seriously.
I got to ride a Segway too.
So I could have continued this pretentious, high-level conversation with myself all day, but I had an interview to go to. I walked through the sludgy South Bay heat that we never see in SF to The Tech's business office where it was the typical interview scene: check in, wait in your chair, feel nervous for a bit, finally talk to someone, hope you somehow make a good impression. I was surprised how nervous I felt. I mean, what the fuck: I'm qualified--if not overqualified--for this job, I've had a million interviews in the last 12 months, and in principle I don't even give a shit about this job and I'm still nervous? This never ends! They say that the thing to do in situations like that is envision things going smoothly and remind yourself that you are qualified, but you know what? That's all bullshit and it doesn't work.
I was fine once the interview started. We were in a tiny room with a shaded window around a round table and three cheap chairs. The lady seemed nice and she talked a lot. Then another lady entered the room and she talked a lot. Then I talked a lot. Then it was over. Impossible to get a read on how it went. At one point, one of them asked me what I thought of when I heard the words "design" and "innovation." What I really thought was "how does this stupid fucking question in any way help you determine if I will be successful managing programs for your institution?" I think what I actually said was "um...iPods?" Ah, my old standby answer. People love iPods!
So yeah...just when I think that I am starting to figure things out, a wrench gets thrown in the system and nothing seems certain. And it's fucking stupid too, cause chances are good that (a) I won't even get the job, or (b) I get the job but won't accept it and it will ultimately be this tiny blip on the ol' radar screen of life that I can save with my microchip-embedded ID tag and later download from the internet.
And shit: my brother's flight is delayed and he's not arriving till 1 AM.
And double shit: there are "isolated thunderstorms" predicted in Tahoe this week. Who the hell knows how they predict something like isolated thunderstorms anyways? This is all bullshit.
In other job-related news: I got to the bottom of my mysterious missing paycheck from Sonoma College. It's worse than I thought:
That's right, they actually mailed it without a stamp.
When I first learned about this, I thought it was pretty funny. Great blogging material--you can't make this shit up. The more I thought about it, though, the more it started to piss me off. Excuse me, but what the fuck? I am expected to prepare and implement four hour lessons each week, wake up at 6 AM every single Saturday morning, and deal with all these frantic emails from students, but Sonoma College can't even accomplish their one single obligation in our contract? Because they forgot a stamp? And with no apology?
What the FUCK?
OK, so in reality, only a certain amount of outrage is probably justified. This is the same class that I taught completely hung over 2 weeks ago. But what if I were counting on that cash to pay my rent? My landlord wouldn't accept the damn rent on the 15th. AT least not without a fee. Well OK, my landlord probably would, but that's just because he's got nothing together. A typical landlord wouldn't. Right?
It really pisses me off how institutions are constantly so irresponsible. And I pay for it. Attending the University of California was a daily exercise in navigating bureaucracy and you know what? I'm still wading through their shit. They haven't even mailed me my diploma. It's been nine months since I finished school!
But you know, fuck this victimization act. That is some played out shit. I'm not the victim. I am the winner. Cause everyone else is a fucking moron and I am going to keep my cool. That's me: Mr.Cool. Shit just rolls off me. Like an iPod on roller skates. Now that's innovation.
That's not to say that Summer 2005 isn't leaving without a fight. Just to keep things frantic until the last moment, I applied for another job a few days ago. Now it's not that I am on some focused job hunt [although you might think otherwise by the fraudulent $2000 charge that careerbuilder.com applied to my credit card last week, which is more than a little strange in light of the fact that I have never even logged on to that particular site], but these days I am always kind of looking for a job. And this is the type of job that seems to fit well enough to make you feel bad about not at least applying to.
In my case, the good fit is a full-time development position at Tech Museum in San Jose. Well... it's a simultaneously good and devastating fit. The fit is good because I seem to match the job requirements well and it would be a great opportunity to begin a career in the museum/alternative education field. On the other hand, the fit is devastating because I seem to match the job requirements well and it would be a great opportunity to begin a career in the museum/alternative education field. Field? Career? What the fuck? Didn't my post-Berkeley dreams just months ago revolve around the idea of piecing together a schedule that gave me enough free time to develop other interests?
This wasn't so much an issue when I first replied to the ad a week ago because Bay Area craigslist job postings usually net 100 responses a day. I figured I'd fulfill a responsibility to myself by mailing a cover letter & resume and then smoking a bowl. I wasn't really expecting a response. Amazingly, I landed an interview and now it's a fucked up situation because, in the waning moments of Summer 2005, I've been thrown into disarray.
...In a good way, I guess.
The interview was this afternoon. As usual, I woke up after nine and stumbled my way through the morning. And also as usual, I was inexplicably surprised when noon rolled around. It probably signaled poor prospects for a potential job in San Jose that I didn't even feel like going down there for my interview, but I forced myself to dress up a little, tuck my shirt in, and get it over with.
The trip down to Silicon Valley from San Francisco is like a bad dream road trip through the heartland of corporate America. Enormous LCD billboards dot the increasingly arid landscape in between the endless islands of office buildings and industrial parks. Downtown San Jose feels completely inorganic, existing as not so much a city than as the a large suburban shopping plaza reimagined to resemble a city. Thoroughly pleasant and soulless.
That theme seemed to diffuse through "The Tech" also, which is located right in the middle of town. It's the gadget-toting, flashy capitalist answer to the Exploratorium's old world Marxism. I got there early to check things out before the interview. It seemed like a pretty cool place for kids and it was interesting for me--contrasts with the Exploratorium were immediate. The two institutions just operate under totally different philosophies. The Exploratorium is steadfast in its enforced quaintness, maintaining its identity as the trusty, beat-up old standby that never goes out of style. And probably every science museum in the country owes something
to them. The Tech is a technology museum that seems as interested in the latest upgrade as the Exploratorium is interested in looking like a garage project.At the Exploratorium's bodyheat video camera, you can jump around a bit in front of the display or maybe temporarily tattoo a moon into your skin with some cold metal. Enterprising kids will borrow some ice from the nearby vacuum chamber and see what they can do with it. Of course, at The Tech, you swipe your microchip-embedded ID card and the full color bodyheat camera will save your picture on the internet. Seriously.
I got to ride a Segway too.
So I could have continued this pretentious, high-level conversation with myself all day, but I had an interview to go to. I walked through the sludgy South Bay heat that we never see in SF to The Tech's business office where it was the typical interview scene: check in, wait in your chair, feel nervous for a bit, finally talk to someone, hope you somehow make a good impression. I was surprised how nervous I felt. I mean, what the fuck: I'm qualified--if not overqualified--for this job, I've had a million interviews in the last 12 months, and in principle I don't even give a shit about this job and I'm still nervous? This never ends! They say that the thing to do in situations like that is envision things going smoothly and remind yourself that you are qualified, but you know what? That's all bullshit and it doesn't work.
I was fine once the interview started. We were in a tiny room with a shaded window around a round table and three cheap chairs. The lady seemed nice and she talked a lot. Then another lady entered the room and she talked a lot. Then I talked a lot. Then it was over. Impossible to get a read on how it went. At one point, one of them asked me what I thought of when I heard the words "design" and "innovation." What I really thought was "how does this stupid fucking question in any way help you determine if I will be successful managing programs for your institution?" I think what I actually said was "um...iPods?" Ah, my old standby answer. People love iPods!
So yeah...just when I think that I am starting to figure things out, a wrench gets thrown in the system and nothing seems certain. And it's fucking stupid too, cause chances are good that (a) I won't even get the job, or (b) I get the job but won't accept it and it will ultimately be this tiny blip on the ol' radar screen of life that I can save with my microchip-embedded ID tag and later download from the internet.
And shit: my brother's flight is delayed and he's not arriving till 1 AM.
And double shit: there are "isolated thunderstorms" predicted in Tahoe this week. Who the hell knows how they predict something like isolated thunderstorms anyways? This is all bullshit.
In other job-related news: I got to the bottom of my mysterious missing paycheck from Sonoma College. It's worse than I thought:
That's right, they actually mailed it without a stamp.
When I first learned about this, I thought it was pretty funny. Great blogging material--you can't make this shit up. The more I thought about it, though, the more it started to piss me off. Excuse me, but what the fuck? I am expected to prepare and implement four hour lessons each week, wake up at 6 AM every single Saturday morning, and deal with all these frantic emails from students, but Sonoma College can't even accomplish their one single obligation in our contract? Because they forgot a stamp? And with no apology?
What the FUCK?
OK, so in reality, only a certain amount of outrage is probably justified. This is the same class that I taught completely hung over 2 weeks ago. But what if I were counting on that cash to pay my rent? My landlord wouldn't accept the damn rent on the 15th. AT least not without a fee. Well OK, my landlord probably would, but that's just because he's got nothing together. A typical landlord wouldn't. Right?
It really pisses me off how institutions are constantly so irresponsible. And I pay for it. Attending the University of California was a daily exercise in navigating bureaucracy and you know what? I'm still wading through their shit. They haven't even mailed me my diploma. It's been nine months since I finished school!
But you know, fuck this victimization act. That is some played out shit. I'm not the victim. I am the winner. Cause everyone else is a fucking moron and I am going to keep my cool. That's me: Mr.Cool. Shit just rolls off me. Like an iPod on roller skates. Now that's innovation.
posted by Jon at 6:54 PM
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