heard	Mr. Bungle			Disco Volante
			Suzanne Vega			Suzanne Vega
			The Clash			London Calling
			Metallica			And Justice for All
			Fates Warning			No Exit

 

Quattlebaum's may the cubicle be with you (9-19)   I barely get to check my email anymore. The PC at my new job is very nice, but there is no internet connection. Although the company allows internet access, you have to formally request it, and I am finding trouble finding a tactful way of saying "during my training there are large spaces of inactivity between meetings and learning sessions, and I feel my worth to the company would be greatly increased if I could spend that time sending personal emails, updating my fantasy football information, and looking at the hot chicas galleries over at Violet's Electralux. Indeed, this place seems to be actually serious about it's internet security policies, firewall restrictions, and firing anyone who doesn't play along. Everywhere else that I have worked it was more of a suggestion than a rule that the internet should not be used for personal entertainment. In the longview -- it's a good gig, it's great pay, and even if I I feel a driving desire to at least see if there have been any hits to the journal lately, it's not worth getting fired over. But It's odd just how much my internet connection has meant to me - how much my ability to spam my friends, keep in touch, read up on things, and surf the web for sound clips from my favorite Chevy Chase film ("Modern Problems") kept me going day to day. Lets face the facts, over the course of my last two or three jobs, I managed to find a way to relentlessly surf the web and still do good work. Obviously there were a couple times when I was goofing off on the company's dime (let's see -- there was that day Jacob and I wasted a whole day playing that shockwave snowball fight game, there was the time I spent several hours looking for a current picture of Diva Zappa, there was the day I spent looking at pictures of all the guitars Steve Vai owns, and reading scripts from old He-Man cartoons...) well, maybe it was more than just a couple of times... But sometimes I think that needs to happen. Jobs, even in their most noble forms are still sometimes just a place you have to be for a certian number of hours a day in order to pay rent. Even in the busiest occupations, there are times when you find yourself sitting there with nothing pressing to do, and a need to kill time. And in a way I think we actually need that sometimes. It helps us to accept our working burden, to know that once in a while we can squeeze in a little fun. I'm not trying to look a gift horse in the mouth. I am not wasting this opportunity at keeping this good gig with its better pay and killer benefits,   but   I've linked 56 paperclips together, end to end. I have explored all of the variations available to me for the screen saver on my system, and have decided that -- at least for the time being -- I have found that the Windows 98 screen saver with medium sized blocks rebuilding a picture of my desktop piece by piece is the most entertaining. I have arranged all of the training books that I have been given in order on my desk from tallest to shortest. I have sent exactly four emails to myself to insure that my interoffice email system works. I've unlinked 56 end to end connected paperclips   I have also read and annotated important passages in the training manuals that I have been given, and I have been trying to get ahead on the projects I have been given but told to "wait until next week" to start. But until I am fully trained on everything I can only do so much. There are very rigid procedures around here about how to do things and who to tell and what gets updated and what doesn't -- and I don't feel comfortable guessing how to fill out these forms. So I wait until the next training session, and then a little more of it makes sense. I think after the way the last job ended so abruptly that I am eager to prove myself and not fudge things up here --- but since I know I can work faster than this, I am getting edgy. Kinda anxious to get going. and I know that in a week or two I am just going to regret the hell out of saying that, because I am already starting to see stacks of work labeled "give to Dan" around the office. It's just a weird 'work purgatory' type of thing happening, and it's hard to feel like this is a blessing when I am dying to prove myself and they are only spooning it to me a little bit at a time. In the end, I will surely appreciate it, but right now it's a little frustrating.   Either that, or the seven cups of coffee I have already had today are getting to me.