I've got a good job again! Starting Real Soon, I'll be responsible for supporting the Theater Management System, a product of Kodak: Digital Cinema. Even better, I'll be using my Linux expertise. I'm beside myself with joy! After seven long years, I'm returning to Information Technology work and fiscal independence. And though I don't expect this job to involve software development, that day can't be far behind. At the very least I'll be a well-paid geek again!

When I finally woke up this morning, with a mild throat infection, I found a page for features Now Playing at Rochester's Little theater. Since I'd already read all the synopsizes last night, I read this history of that local attraction, but has some details I wasn't aware of, such as that the name derived from a "little cinema movement" to favor more sophisticated films than the shallow commercial trash of the day, which was 1929. October 17, 1929, in fact, a few weeks before the stock market crash and the day when the Little presented "Cyrano de Bergerac". Gee, Cyrano de Bergerac, I've heard of him, but let's visit Wikipedia to make sure! So maybe he didn't really have a big nose, but he did fight a lot with his sword. He was also articulate, a poet and science fiction writer, but he wasn't actually a Gascon. A what? Oh, somebody from Gascony, a French countryside, with foie gras and brandy. Tres bon! But what do we have here? Viking invasions? Clearly, any more surfing would be a disappointment, after reading about

Viking Invasions!

I can't really explain why it's taken me so long to develop discipline (assuming I indeed have). I wonder if I got as far as I did with school and career because of something resembling talent, because it'd be hard to attribute my successes to persistent and dedicated effort. I couldn't say that I didn't understand how many minor applications in the same direction can yield profound results, because the world is filled with examples by great artists and scientists. Perhaps I'm just a slow student of life.

But setting that aside, I'm ready to get myself a job, because I have a Plan. This time it's going to work, I'm going to get paid, and a new and beautiful world will dawn. Still, excuse me if you've heard this before:

The Plan

• Relax
  
• Warm up my skills
  
• Practice my responses
  
• Discover job leads
  
• Check-in with my people
  
• Write to prospects
  
• Schedule interviews
  
• Get a job
  
• Have fun
  
• Organize my shit
  
• Publish my findings
  

See, I'm just putting it all down. Each of these are my necessary conditions to getting a Real Job. Now's the time to set aside my shame and grief. If I'm going to have the programming software engineer coding geek job I deserve, I must do certain things:

Relaxation

Each day should begin with due respect for the mind mysterious. I like to practice breathing meditation followed by T'ai Chi.

Skills

A programmer's gotta have the right skills, and using the skills is the best way to keep them and acquire them. This also builds my confidence, and can be fun too. (But some books from Microsoft are quite dull, bleh.)

Interview responses

When I was younger I assumed I could simply go talk. Perhaps I was less anxious, too, but no matter. Most interviewers will ask me some common questions, questions I can anticipate. Writing responses beforehand presents me an opportunity to take control of these daunting encounters.

Market research

Usually you've got to look for the jobs before you get one. Even when I don't need to, knowing something about their business is a great way to get a company to pay attention to me.

Networking

Though I wouldn't want to be an inconsiderate twit about it, I could discover a great job opportunity from anybody I know. So if you know of an opening for a computer programmer, could you pretty please pass it on? Thanks!

Cover letters

I always write my own cover letters, and I can really struggle to get them right. Unlike bored individuals surfing LiveJournal, the person hiring for the job I want may not have limitless patience and compassion. So the conditions for reading cover letters compel brevity and a particular structure, but choosing the best material or how to express it can be quite challenging.

Interviews

Course, once I've entered the interview I can only hope my preparation's good enough. Paying attention is always the key: listening well to the other person, showing appropriate manners to strangers, and showing my engagement to the conversation. People want to know that I'm there and interested in their concerns, and if all the other stars have aligned then I have a pretty good chance.

Having fun

Playing Kingdom of Loathing may not directly get me a job. But while I'm writing a list of everything I'm doing so I end up with a job at the end without admitting that I'm going to be holding my PlayStation controller at some point, then I simply wouldn't be being honest with myself.

Organization

Like my self-discipline, this is another work in progress. This could be the subject of a whole other post, though I can say I'm entertaining some new ideas. Achieving better organization would help me avoid grievious errors and bolster my self-confidence.

Going online

I should fit the model of a good programmer in other respects too. In my mind, that would include raising my flag on the 'Net. I hope that people will find me through my postings here, and see a little better who I am. 'Publishing my findings' may even help other readers, or inspire them to contribute something useful I haven't tried.

This could've been worse. I scraped a bumper this morning, parking at the computer lab. It looks like only minor damage, but any accident is an embarrassment and a hassle. But of how many thousands of parkings I've made in my lifetime, why should I have to scrape two cars in two years in the same lot? At least it wasn't the landlord's wife this time, only the office manager of the other charity in our building. Of course there were no injuries (I would've been going at, what, < 1 mph?), but we are switching our car insurance today. I hope that doesn't complicate things.

I'm almost satisfied with the presentation here now. Black on white, with a little color (green!), without the wads of stale ornamentation I've observed on so many blogs. Then cool Verdana, with some extra line-spacing to let my type breathe. Aahhh...

Still, I wish I could set my own title. Though I'd learned to set the title on the browser's titlebar, I couldn't discover how to change the heading within the page, and I won't take one without the other. Unfortunately, it appears that cannot be set without a paid account. With the S1 style system, the LASTN_PAGE variable providing the title property cannot be overriden, and I couldn't discover a S2 layout which provided a customizable title. But perhaps I'm overlooking something?

I go into the computer lab again today. Yesterday morning I taught my regular student Cal some more algebra, and I taught basic computer skills to another vet in the afternoon. Now it's time to see what the new day brings.

I care about my writing. I choose words deliberately, and avoid needless expression. But knowing what would genuinely interest readers is often difficult, particularly in this context. What's interesting about my day, my interests, or my problems?

Perhaps that question is an appropriate focus for my blog. LJ provides for comments, so contribute feedback, please. A hundred, a thousand, a hundred thousand ask for this: the typical human drive for contact. What is so interesting about my question? The answer seems to lie in the context.

I care about computers. I've known how to program for two decades now, and I've used the Internet for 16 years. The genial abstractions of computer science fascinate me; I'd like to return to college eventually to do graduate work. At present I teach at a computer lab & diagnosis PC's for local vets.

I care about games; both electronic and non. I watch anime, read manga, and appreciate other elements of Japanese culture such as soba noodles and Zen Buddhism. (My old alias, MacGuges, is reference to a favorite manga.)

I worry about the war and my country. I grew up here in America & can remember the warm feelings of pride I'd have on Flag Day. Yeah, I was born into the place founded on rational humanitarian principles! It saddens me what vengeance & duplicity has been done for "9/11", and I continue to donate to the Red Cross.

I enjoy conversation & fair argument; it's valuable to me to keep up my rhetorical chops. I value doubt over faith. Beliefs will happen, but confusion precedes discovery. We ought to make the most of such opportunities.

Hail Eris!