The first interview went badly because I walked out once I realized they wanted me to pay them cash upfront for career counseling.

But the second one (at Eddie's Attic) went well. It is pretty much exactly what I want: 2 nights a week, lots of time to read (she actually suggested bringing a book!), cash payment at the end of the night, and generally fun music times.

At the end of the interview she gave me some coupons for free beers and said the owner of the place would call to arrange my second interview.

And now:


These are a few photos from my "I Will Overexpose the Shit Out of This Shit" series.

Basically I spent yesterday afternoon going for a walk with Ana, showing off one of my favorite hidden sections of Piedmont Park. We discussed lies (I was for, Ana was against) and bicycles. Every few minutes Ana would stop talking, and I would realize she had dropped back to take a photograph of me photographing something.

And then I would flex my muscles.

Bam!

( More photographs... )

And now, I will go devour a can of creamed soup.

I guess things took a short term turn for the better today:

Got a call from a lab at Georgia State saying I'd been accepted for an alcohol research test on Thursday.  Totally awesome deal - They feed me booze until I reach a pretty damn high blood alcohol level (the interviewer said it was the equivalent of three to four drinks), I take tests for about an hour and a half, and then I sit is a comfy room with videogames and movies for a few hours waiting for my BAC to get down to sober.  Pay is $100 and I should be there for 6 to 8 hours.  Awesome!

Then about an hour later I got a call from a film that was hiring extras.  I will be on set for 12 hours tomorrow and maybe Wednesday.  They feed me, and the pay is $12 per hour.  I figure I will be very bored and get a lot of reading done.

Then, for no reason at all, my grandmother emailed, saying that she'd found $2600 that my grandfather had meant to give me a few years ago, and would I like it now?  I said yes.

And then nothing for a while, except some promising job openings (one for a gallery associate, which would be cool, and somewhat up my alley).  But then the mail came!  And there were two checks in it!  One of them was $19 back-pay for that dishwashing job I had in my freshman year at Oglethorpe.  The other was $45 for an article I'd written for Pine, received without having to send more than two "please give me my money"-type emails!

So things are looking up.  I am trying to figure out what to do with the surprise $2600.  This might be a good time to try investing a few hundred bucks.  Or, take those few hundred bucks and go running for warm New Orleans, which is another type of investment.  And then there's finally moving out... I guess I could do that now, while the market's awesome for renters.

Oh, and pants!  It's been years since I had non-secondhand pants.  Are pants an Investment In My Future?

Hey Atlanta people:

I'm looking for a new job, and I'm not particularly picky about what it is. Do any of you know of:

1) people hiring,
2) people looking for replacements for a job they're leaving,
or
3) new companies/companies expanding into Atlanta?

I've got resumes and writing samples and letters of recommendations I can send you, but I'm basically good at:

Writing, especially about music or art.
Editing, especially editing for the web and work aimed at a more casual audience. (though I'm also down with Chicago and AP)
Photography, especially architectural, portrait, and concert
Computers - I can do everything short of programming or site design. 

I'd like to stress that I don't have to work within those confines - I'm always really excited to learn new skills (and industries).

So, yeah - if you've got any leads in those directions, please let me know!

So excited!

Three Great Things:

1) just came back from my favorite first date in weeks.

2) bike modification plans which involve both hacksaws and fiddly gear messing around.

3) new job on Tuesday.


Two Not-So-Great Things:

1) Eyeballs have been hurting all night. (dialogue from date, her: "are you asian?" me: "no, I just, squint a lot." We were both grinning, so this exchange was not weird.)

2) $16 to last me until my first paycheck.

I was at the coffeeshop early, waiting to meet up with an editor I'd been working with.

Then I realized that I didn't know what she looked like. Or her name.

I got over it, but still - I've known this person for months!

-

Saturday, my place, 10pm. Rockband + booze. If any of y'all have an extra ps3 geetar, bring it on over.

-

Also, does anyone here know how to use Raiser's Edge? I'm interviewing for a job on Tuesday, and they want me to be proficient in the program. So... help?

-

I've eaten four bananas today. My previous record was three bananas in one day.

I spent two (long) hours interviewing this guy on Monday. Over the course of Monday evening, he called me five times to clarify his position, sometimes agreeing to be quoted and named as a source, sometimes asking me to remove him from the article entirely. These calls all came as I was working on my first draft of the article, which was due the next day. On Tuesday morning, he called my father at work, without mentioning having talked with me the day before, or why he was calling an architect whose specialty was residential when he should have been talking with an environmental engineer.  The call was bat-shit enough that my dad mentioned it to me that evening.

It's all very strange. I don't think the guy's stalking me - I'm just not sure he understands how creepy his enthusiasm seems to someone who's got a few million other things on his mind.

Also, I ran into my creative writing teacher this afternoon. We don't like each other*. We talked about our future plans, she implied I'd be living with my parents long past my thirtieth birthday, and then I listed the writing work I'd done over the past semester. Then I spent the most enjoyable three seconds of that day watching her face change expressions.

*  After reading a few of my pieces, the professor urged me to switch from writing prose to poetry.  I told her I didn't think poetry was a valid artform.  She is a poet.

I've got a lot of free time on my hands.