If you start posting shit like this to Facebook, you’re either going to get a “Hide” or an unfriending pretty darn quickly.

In addition to sending out more resumes today I was able to score both a one-time freelance assignment (with previous employer G) and a part-time gig working evenings and weekends at Evolve’s Urban Arts Project (click on the nav bar on the left for info). The freelance gig will be helping them out with one specific project but it should be at least 20 hours of work so that will bring an temporary influx of cash, at least until I have to pay taxes on it next year, but I’ll worry about that then. The part-time job for UAP will be manning their gallery during evening hours Monday, Wednesday and Friday and a small Saturday shift as well. It should total about 15 hours a week so that will help with paying bills, just to get even a little bit of steady income coming in. In case you don’t know or didn’t read below, but unemployment benefits have terminated after a year so every bit of cash right now is crucial.

Today I’m sending a resume to Apple because, you know, why not? There are three retails stores (all on the Metro lines) in the area plus a store scheduled to open in Georgetown at some point. So maybe within one of those four stores they’ll have an opening and think I’m technically savvy enough to work there. This might be part-time or full-time depending on what they need.

Another place I’m applying today is for a Print Production Buyer. There’s not much design or actual production work according to the job posting; they do all direct mail so it would be a pretty dry job. But the beauty is that the office is twelve blocks away and I could walk to it in 20–25 minutes or just ride the bike down there? On inclement weather days I could also take the D6 right down the bus line. How nice would that be?

It’s supposed to be 70 degrees outside today and, according to Facebook and Twitter feeds, people are pretty excited about it.

I could care less; I’m not going outside.

I guess if I had a job and had to be couped up inside all day then maybe I’d be excited about some warmer weather. But it brings no sunshine into my world even though I could go and sit outside all day if I wanted to. The thing is, I don’t want to.

Instead, I’m scouring job posting sites and finding wonderful gems like this one:

Title: Graphic layout
Description: Seeking a person for with graphic layout experience to assist a non profit organization. If you have worked on a magazine that would be a plus. This is a contract position and I need someone who can start immediately. Very pleasant work environment and nice people to work for.

Yes, that’s the entire ad placement. Obviously this is either a shitty job or the person posting it has no idea what they’re talking about. Maybe it’s a little bit of both. And this is about as good as I can find. And since unemployment benefits ran out over a month ago, something has to be done to get some money flowing in, even if it’s some shitty job that someone without nearly twenty years of experience can do.

Have you ever met someone, someone who said  ”I know you, you’re ____ ______” and you started dating seeing each other more often and the best date you’ve ever had in your life was his idea to come over to your house & order pizza & play MYST and you thought the was the absolute most romantic thing ever and then all of a sudden you’re not talking and you send packages to him that are returned with the USPS-issued stamp of UNCLAIMED all over it and you try to pretend everything is okay and then you travel to his new city to see his art show and even though you know it’s over you come home feeling like an idiot and crying the entire flight and then you call him on his birthday the next year and unload everything you’ve been feeling and five years later you’re vacationing in the new town he lives in and you agree to meet him and you dress like a total idiot because you’re so nervous and meet him at a pub and pretend like everything’s okay, which it is, but you still find yourself looking at his Twitter feed ten years after that last trip and understanding how obvious it was that someone like him could never end up with someone like you because you’re the one doing a late night google search and that you are, without a doubt, the last thing on his mind, and you also realize that people like him will never, ever, end up with people like you because (according to the exhaustive search) he’s ended up with someone that has drive, interests and a steady career and who is someone that is stable and has no destructive habits and is open and honest and accepts his partner’s faults and admits his own while at the same time allows his partners interests to flourish and all the while you, in the existence you’ve created for yourself is on a slow steady track of decline and it seems that regardless how hard you try you’re never going to be as fruitful as you were two, five or ten years ago and you wonder what your future will be like as this person you occasionally think of buys a house, obtains more pets and sharpens more skills, and all your future is going to consisting of is a 30% paycut in a tedious job that you’ll hate from day one and be forced to stay in for the next twenty years because who is going to hire a middle-aged man skilled in a dying profession and what is there to look forward in that?

I have.

Thanks for the comments in the previous post, guys. Much appreciated.

That interview last week didn’t go so well. I planned on being there about 1/2 hour early, taking an earlier bus than was scheduled to get me there on time. Of course, the bus was late, there was traffic, and so I didn’t get there until about five minutes before I need to go inside and check in. Therefore I didn’t have time to clear my head and I was still stressed out from the traffic situation. Plus my top shirt button was a little too tight, making me more uncomfortable.

I interviewed with three people and that kind of threw me as well. Not that they were attacking me 3-on-1 but I wasn’t anticipating trying to impress/hold three attention spans. Some of my answers were a little abrupt or uneasy sounding, with odd pauses at the end to say “Ok, next question!”

The interview lasted about an hour. At the end one of the interviewees also referred to me as “David” but then righted himself both times so that doesn’t sound like a good omen. They said they would be interviewing for the rest of the week and then make a decision. They have some projects coming up quickly that they want to get the person filling this position to start working on so it sounds like things on a fast track. I emailed them at the end of the week with the requisite “thank yous” and “is there anything else I can show yous” so I’m waiting to hear back from that.

Today: silence.

I had an interview a few weeks ago with a studio in Falls Church, H8ST8. This commute would be equally hellish as the one I had with G, but at least it would have been a paying job. I could have caught up (rather, re-started) in my reading on the bus & train & train & bus 1.5 hour commute. Alas, I found out this afternoon that I didn’t get the job. Oh well. Tis a shame, because the company’s initials are C+C and I was going to call them the Music Factory. A in “I am now heading out for my daily stint at the Music Factory.” Hopefully you will be old enough to understand that inside joke.

Tomorrow I have an interview with another company, this one thankfully downtown. It’s the company where my brother works, but it’s a huge global corporate company. So I’ll have to wear a tie at least to the interview. I don’t think there will be any jeans/shorts wearing at this job, unforch. The position is in their Architectural/Design Services division being a Technical Editor/Writer Coordinator. The job description is a little odd, some writing & editing included with traditional graphic design services. They wanted to have me come in for an interview after reviewing my resume though, so there must be something in there that they think will be a good fit. Wish me luck!