So, as the scriptures say, 'I noised it abroad' that we were moving. I was impressed to do so, but we were also very excited. I went to Facebook and contacted all of my FB world, telling them. I was originally just announcing it as an FYI to everyone so they knew we couldn't be reached, but it turned out to be something more.
Within 15 minutes of my Facebook post, one of my friends got back to me, asking if I had a job lined up or if I was looking for one. I told him I was looking and no, I didn't have one lined up. He told me about his company and said they were hiring.
Remember, that I've been hunting for an internship for the past 3 years. I had just finished up my online portfolio class this last semester. I had just finished my physical portfolio class this last while. While we were apartment hunting I was able to go to 2 different portfolio conventions in SLC. Both good and bad came from those experiences. But either way, I had some portfolio/interview experience under my belt.
I asked my friend if there was enough stuff at his job to qualify for an internship. He assured me there way. So I asked him what to do.
Another 15 minutes later I had an interview lined up for the next week. Like my previous, long-distance interview attempt, it was an all day thing. It was stressful enough, and I fought to make everything work. Donna, our son, and myself stayed over the night before (again) at her folk's house so that helped. Regardless, I tried to give myself plenty of time because I always get lost at new places. Found it, had the interview, and my friend and I went out to eat afterwards.
It was a great experience, but I had learned that just because I thought it was a great interview it doesn't mean that a good time was held by all. As we learned about in my Organizational Psychology class, both me and the interviewing company had to make a 'good fit' - we both had to be a match for each other, not just in skills and experience, but also in personality. After all, who wants to work with someone they are going to butt heads with all the time. No one wants to hire a jerk, a yes-man, or a whiny patsy (if that's not what they like or want). Personalities have to match.
Okay, I'm babbling just to stretch out my own drama, needlessly. My friend told me later that his boss, the guy who interviewed me, said he was going to hire me the same day that he interviewed me. But my friend said he refused to tell me that so that I would be surprised.
We all were.
This company offered all benefits, including salary and benefits. We were esthetic. As it turned out, I ended up moving into our new apartment a full week and a half earlier than our actual move date so that I could go to my new job. That was a hard week; no family, just work and school for company. The first few days I didn't have any hot water. I had to boil enough water for an hour and a half so that could have 3 inches of water to bathe in.
As for my internship, here is what I've been able to apply so far:
Page Layout, Copywriting/Editting, Photoshop/Illustrator, Animation, Typographical Heirarchy, and Photography. I haven't gotten it all figured out yet, but I'm getting there.
And our ward is simply fantastic. That's the story of our move.
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Semester 14A
Wow... I know I've said this before, but I'm constantly blown away by it. The last I blogged my wife and I were pretty discouraged by the poor attitudes of the inhabitants in my hometown, wanting to get back to SLC, and still jobless.
How Heavenly Father and the Lord have blessed us.
Right now, I am sitting here, typing, in our own, new little place. I have a salaried position with a new job/company, and we love the neighborhood.
It started when Donna and I began the ugly process of trying to find a place to move to up here. Typically, the Lord makes it known to us where to go or what to do. Not this time. Our search took between 2 to 3 weeks, only on the weekends. I'd come up for school, packed with enough stuff to supply us for the weekend. All three of us would stay at my wife's parent's house, which really got on a lot of nerves after 3 days. During that time, we'd rush around and try to look at apartments with the time we had. My parents offered the same amount of money for us to find a place.
During our search we found a lot of places that were disgustingly bad, some truly terrifying, some cosy-but not quite there, and a handful of scams.
The scam story is fun. My wife's neighbor is a realtor and he helped us out in the process. We heard about this house and went to check it out. We were only interested in renting and there was a sign out front, saying it was for rent. It was great so we tried to contact the guy. He had broken english, claimed he was a doctor who was out of the states with a new job and had taken his whole family, and wanted someone he could trust to take care of the house. He claimed he wasn't there to take us through the house, either. We called him and his cell phone was so bad we couldn't understand him at all so we tried to correspond by email.
In the end, we told our realtor-neighbor about it and after investigating the post he told us with a smile, 'yeah, this is a scam.' Sure enough, when this guy responded back to our email he was as sweet as honey but he was still asking for money before we could move in.
The surprise of the story is this: in our searching we found 3 situations total that all smelled of the same, rotten scam. The individual in question was out of the states, couldn't be there to show us the house, some drastic, life-changing event had happened in their life, and were desperately looking for someone good and nice to take care of their place.
No thank you.
In the end, the best decision for us was a little tri-plex. One of the big sellers for us was the fact that the neighbor lady next door has 2 boys our son's age. They have all been fabulous neighbors and our son loves to play with his new friends any time of the day.
After we made our decision, the thoughts that came in my and my wife's head from Heavenly Father said, "There, that wasn't so bad, now was it? You can make the right decision without me." Sheepishly, I must agree. Of all the places we looked at there really was just one place right for us. I guess it's important for us to make some decisions on our own.
How Heavenly Father and the Lord have blessed us.
Right now, I am sitting here, typing, in our own, new little place. I have a salaried position with a new job/company, and we love the neighborhood.
It started when Donna and I began the ugly process of trying to find a place to move to up here. Typically, the Lord makes it known to us where to go or what to do. Not this time. Our search took between 2 to 3 weeks, only on the weekends. I'd come up for school, packed with enough stuff to supply us for the weekend. All three of us would stay at my wife's parent's house, which really got on a lot of nerves after 3 days. During that time, we'd rush around and try to look at apartments with the time we had. My parents offered the same amount of money for us to find a place.
During our search we found a lot of places that were disgustingly bad, some truly terrifying, some cosy-but not quite there, and a handful of scams.
The scam story is fun. My wife's neighbor is a realtor and he helped us out in the process. We heard about this house and went to check it out. We were only interested in renting and there was a sign out front, saying it was for rent. It was great so we tried to contact the guy. He had broken english, claimed he was a doctor who was out of the states with a new job and had taken his whole family, and wanted someone he could trust to take care of the house. He claimed he wasn't there to take us through the house, either. We called him and his cell phone was so bad we couldn't understand him at all so we tried to correspond by email.
In the end, we told our realtor-neighbor about it and after investigating the post he told us with a smile, 'yeah, this is a scam.' Sure enough, when this guy responded back to our email he was as sweet as honey but he was still asking for money before we could move in.
The surprise of the story is this: in our searching we found 3 situations total that all smelled of the same, rotten scam. The individual in question was out of the states, couldn't be there to show us the house, some drastic, life-changing event had happened in their life, and were desperately looking for someone good and nice to take care of their place.
No thank you.
In the end, the best decision for us was a little tri-plex. One of the big sellers for us was the fact that the neighbor lady next door has 2 boys our son's age. They have all been fabulous neighbors and our son loves to play with his new friends any time of the day.
After we made our decision, the thoughts that came in my and my wife's head from Heavenly Father said, "There, that wasn't so bad, now was it? You can make the right decision without me." Sheepishly, I must agree. Of all the places we looked at there really was just one place right for us. I guess it's important for us to make some decisions on our own.
Monday, April 1, 2013
Semester 13A
Another semester down. My family and I are still residing in Spanish Fork. When the rug was pulled out from underneath us my parents found a cute little house for us and have been paying for it since. I'm still not working, despite my attempts to apply to every internship and Graphic Design opportunity to come along (that didn't interfere with my homework). This is the second semester we've been there. With any luck, it'll be the last.
Donna is a big city girl. After the 8 years of living in Salt Lake City, I've realized that I'm a big city guy. There isn't any descrimination, judging, or condemning. People in SLC are too concerned about themselves to worry about the guy next door or the person across the street. Also, there is no sense in trying to judge the weirdo across the street because there are a dozen or so even worse, or differently, just a block away. So, while my differences may be blown out of proportion in SF, they are greatly diminished in SLC. People don't care and I love that.
In SF I've also learned, sadly, that there is a HUGE feeling of 'competition.' I first came to that realization when people in our ward were reacting so strongly, and pridefully I might add, to the local high school's current state championship win. They even went as far as to quickly begin to highlight past wins/victories, and competitions. Which is an indication of their very long memories (and short ability to forgive, as it were).
Unfortunately, this spirit of 'competition' filters down into other aspects of the people's lives. IE: how many kids a family has, what kind of car they drive, what kind of job they have. It's the whole concept of 'keeping up with the Jones',' which I absolutely hate. While people are judging themselves with the 'who' we are now, they fail to take into account the 'who' we used to be. I am adamantly against the whole 'competition' concept to begin with but if we must play the stupid game, these people fail to see that we actually ARE winning, compared to where we came from. They fail to see that we actually ARE winning.
In the end, my wife and our boy is the best thing happening in my life right now.
Because they love me, they try to help us to increase our situation. They offer all kinds of potential opportunities to 'help us win;' improve our situation. However, without truly knowing what our needs, goals, wants, or desires are they begin to throw all kinds of advice at us like missiles intended to paralyze. I've been told to apply as a gas station attendant, a warehouse-shelf stocker, and a painter that maxed at $8 an hour. All of these potential opportunities, which they fail to see, would: 1. not only impede our intended progress, but also 2. tie us down to SF and trap us there indefinately.
I am (gratefully) in my last year of school. Thank heavens, literally. In order for me to graduate I require a Graphic Design internship. This I would be unable to do if I am spending 8 hours a day in such a job. I would also not be able to get my homework done.
Each of these suggestions would also do more harm that good. I have horrible back and neck problems and am in constant pain on a regular basis. We are currently relying on food stamps. An $8 an hour job would do nothing to pay the bills but it would be enough to qualify to loose our food stamps. Both sets of parents would still have to help us out financially.
Also, I am not going to school for 4 years to try and create a better life for us just so that I can take two steps backwards. We are trying to move 'forward,' not backwards.
With this in mind, we are under the impression that those Spanish Fork individuals are trying to thwart our progress. Whether or not this is true we don't know. But the logic behind their suggestions only comes to one conclusion in our minds.
Their philosophy is 'get any job now and apply for a better job tomorrow.' They give these suggestions without thinking of our time restraints. They don't understand exactly how much homework my school requires. So, I have a choice with a full time job: come home and do homework or search for jobs. I can't do both.
So the conclusion that we come to is that with these suggestions the good folks of Spanish Fork are setting us up for failure. Why? So that in the spirit of 'competition' they continue to win. They would still be better. They can still offer poor advice. They can still keep us down.
I hope I am wrong. I hope that in their ignorance, they are stabbing blindly in the dark for any opportunity, hoping it will help. However, my thinking is if they want to help, why don't they ask what our needs, goals, and desires are? Assuming takes less energy, I suppose.
Sadly, this is an example of their suggested help. In fact, it's the straw that broke the camel's back. It's situations like this one where my wife and I looked at each other and said, "We're done." We then knew it was time to move back to SLC.
One of the good folks of SF recommended a friend who worked for the state, who had a program available that worked with Art Institute students in the past. This government program has been known to pay for school, find jobs for them, and even pay for their houses. Excited, my wife and I gave them a call only to find that the program in question was Vocational Rehabilitation. They deal with handicapped and disabled individuals.
My wife and I were livid. Did these persons of question truly believe me to be disabled? Did they think me to have no more successful potential than a handicapped individual? Our trust in their belief in me plummeted through the floor and I did everything in my power to keep my wife from going ballistic.
We knew we had to confront the issue, but the next day was Easter and we didn't want to ruin the holiday's festivities. We decided to not bring it up, let things play, and see how it played out. During the time of our lunch it came up in conversation. I simply said that I didn't qualify because I wasn't disabled. The reply we got indicated that they didn't expect that to happen. I asked if they knew what their friend did for a living and they said, 'yes.'
So the hope lies in their ignorance. It's still a better frame of mind than their deliberate intention to hold us down.
Here's the other straw that broke the camel's back. With the completion of this past semester, and my Portfolio Preparation class, I immediately attacked the job market by applying to 11 new jobs. I also responded to 2 past places I applied to that responded back. I didn't get to respond to them because of Finals so it was good to respond back to them.
Within 15 minutes of turning off the computer one of these locations called, asking for an interview. I set up a time 2 days later and they said they'd send an email with instructions.
The next night I checked for the email with no results. I even checked my spam folder-nothing. I checked other email accounts, just to make sure I didn't give them the wrong address. Still nothing.
So, I went to try to find this place myself. All I had to go off of was the one word I recalled over the phone, "Medical." From this I found the only email address I'd sent out with the word "medical" in it. I returned to the job board, trying to find the original job posting but it had been removed.
So I did a search to find they were in Salt Lake City. In time I finally found the location. I got the directions, printed them out, and prepared to go to the interview.
The next day I checked my email addresses again. Still no email. From there I drove an hour and a half into SLC. The directions said it would take 45 minutes but I got lost, following the directions incorrectly. Gratefully, I left with plenty of time. I finally stopped to ask for directions and from there was able to find the place.
I was only 7 minutes late when I found the place. It had high security so I couldn't even enter the building. They had an intercom system which was not working so I had a full conversation with the lady by yelling at each other through the glass. To make a long story short, the lady said the man in charge was busy and wanted to reschedule. I told her I didn't have any contact information since I never got an email. She popped the door open for half a second so that she could launch a business card at me.
By the time I finished my additional business in SLC (my wife's dad and I went to get new tires for the car) it was rush hour. So I hung around at her parent's house for an hour and a half before leaving for home.
My whole day was ruined. I made the whole trip for nothing. They never even bothered to call, let alone send an email like they said they would, to let me know I had to reschedule. My thought was, if they are going to do that to a potential employee how do they treat their customers? I knew from then I didn't want to work for them anyways.
As I explained this to my mom, I mentioned that if I did still live in SLC then it wouldn't be a problem: it's only 15 minutes (give or take) from one side of the valley to the other. But as it stands, I felt like a fish our of water. I'm struggling to get a Graphic Design internship and job but all the best companies and opportunites are in Salt Lake City.
From there, my mom agreed it was time for us to return back to the place we both call home.
Donna is a big city girl. After the 8 years of living in Salt Lake City, I've realized that I'm a big city guy. There isn't any descrimination, judging, or condemning. People in SLC are too concerned about themselves to worry about the guy next door or the person across the street. Also, there is no sense in trying to judge the weirdo across the street because there are a dozen or so even worse, or differently, just a block away. So, while my differences may be blown out of proportion in SF, they are greatly diminished in SLC. People don't care and I love that.
In SF I've also learned, sadly, that there is a HUGE feeling of 'competition.' I first came to that realization when people in our ward were reacting so strongly, and pridefully I might add, to the local high school's current state championship win. They even went as far as to quickly begin to highlight past wins/victories, and competitions. Which is an indication of their very long memories (and short ability to forgive, as it were).
Unfortunately, this spirit of 'competition' filters down into other aspects of the people's lives. IE: how many kids a family has, what kind of car they drive, what kind of job they have. It's the whole concept of 'keeping up with the Jones',' which I absolutely hate. While people are judging themselves with the 'who' we are now, they fail to take into account the 'who' we used to be. I am adamantly against the whole 'competition' concept to begin with but if we must play the stupid game, these people fail to see that we actually ARE winning, compared to where we came from. They fail to see that we actually ARE winning.
In the end, my wife and our boy is the best thing happening in my life right now.
Because they love me, they try to help us to increase our situation. They offer all kinds of potential opportunities to 'help us win;' improve our situation. However, without truly knowing what our needs, goals, wants, or desires are they begin to throw all kinds of advice at us like missiles intended to paralyze. I've been told to apply as a gas station attendant, a warehouse-shelf stocker, and a painter that maxed at $8 an hour. All of these potential opportunities, which they fail to see, would: 1. not only impede our intended progress, but also 2. tie us down to SF and trap us there indefinately.
I am (gratefully) in my last year of school. Thank heavens, literally. In order for me to graduate I require a Graphic Design internship. This I would be unable to do if I am spending 8 hours a day in such a job. I would also not be able to get my homework done.
Each of these suggestions would also do more harm that good. I have horrible back and neck problems and am in constant pain on a regular basis. We are currently relying on food stamps. An $8 an hour job would do nothing to pay the bills but it would be enough to qualify to loose our food stamps. Both sets of parents would still have to help us out financially.
Also, I am not going to school for 4 years to try and create a better life for us just so that I can take two steps backwards. We are trying to move 'forward,' not backwards.
With this in mind, we are under the impression that those Spanish Fork individuals are trying to thwart our progress. Whether or not this is true we don't know. But the logic behind their suggestions only comes to one conclusion in our minds.
Their philosophy is 'get any job now and apply for a better job tomorrow.' They give these suggestions without thinking of our time restraints. They don't understand exactly how much homework my school requires. So, I have a choice with a full time job: come home and do homework or search for jobs. I can't do both.
So the conclusion that we come to is that with these suggestions the good folks of Spanish Fork are setting us up for failure. Why? So that in the spirit of 'competition' they continue to win. They would still be better. They can still offer poor advice. They can still keep us down.
I hope I am wrong. I hope that in their ignorance, they are stabbing blindly in the dark for any opportunity, hoping it will help. However, my thinking is if they want to help, why don't they ask what our needs, goals, and desires are? Assuming takes less energy, I suppose.
Sadly, this is an example of their suggested help. In fact, it's the straw that broke the camel's back. It's situations like this one where my wife and I looked at each other and said, "We're done." We then knew it was time to move back to SLC.
One of the good folks of SF recommended a friend who worked for the state, who had a program available that worked with Art Institute students in the past. This government program has been known to pay for school, find jobs for them, and even pay for their houses. Excited, my wife and I gave them a call only to find that the program in question was Vocational Rehabilitation. They deal with handicapped and disabled individuals.
My wife and I were livid. Did these persons of question truly believe me to be disabled? Did they think me to have no more successful potential than a handicapped individual? Our trust in their belief in me plummeted through the floor and I did everything in my power to keep my wife from going ballistic.
We knew we had to confront the issue, but the next day was Easter and we didn't want to ruin the holiday's festivities. We decided to not bring it up, let things play, and see how it played out. During the time of our lunch it came up in conversation. I simply said that I didn't qualify because I wasn't disabled. The reply we got indicated that they didn't expect that to happen. I asked if they knew what their friend did for a living and they said, 'yes.'
So the hope lies in their ignorance. It's still a better frame of mind than their deliberate intention to hold us down.
Here's the other straw that broke the camel's back. With the completion of this past semester, and my Portfolio Preparation class, I immediately attacked the job market by applying to 11 new jobs. I also responded to 2 past places I applied to that responded back. I didn't get to respond to them because of Finals so it was good to respond back to them.
Within 15 minutes of turning off the computer one of these locations called, asking for an interview. I set up a time 2 days later and they said they'd send an email with instructions.
The next night I checked for the email with no results. I even checked my spam folder-nothing. I checked other email accounts, just to make sure I didn't give them the wrong address. Still nothing.
So, I went to try to find this place myself. All I had to go off of was the one word I recalled over the phone, "Medical." From this I found the only email address I'd sent out with the word "medical" in it. I returned to the job board, trying to find the original job posting but it had been removed.
So I did a search to find they were in Salt Lake City. In time I finally found the location. I got the directions, printed them out, and prepared to go to the interview.
The next day I checked my email addresses again. Still no email. From there I drove an hour and a half into SLC. The directions said it would take 45 minutes but I got lost, following the directions incorrectly. Gratefully, I left with plenty of time. I finally stopped to ask for directions and from there was able to find the place.
I was only 7 minutes late when I found the place. It had high security so I couldn't even enter the building. They had an intercom system which was not working so I had a full conversation with the lady by yelling at each other through the glass. To make a long story short, the lady said the man in charge was busy and wanted to reschedule. I told her I didn't have any contact information since I never got an email. She popped the door open for half a second so that she could launch a business card at me.
By the time I finished my additional business in SLC (my wife's dad and I went to get new tires for the car) it was rush hour. So I hung around at her parent's house for an hour and a half before leaving for home.
My whole day was ruined. I made the whole trip for nothing. They never even bothered to call, let alone send an email like they said they would, to let me know I had to reschedule. My thought was, if they are going to do that to a potential employee how do they treat their customers? I knew from then I didn't want to work for them anyways.
As I explained this to my mom, I mentioned that if I did still live in SLC then it wouldn't be a problem: it's only 15 minutes (give or take) from one side of the valley to the other. But as it stands, I felt like a fish our of water. I'm struggling to get a Graphic Design internship and job but all the best companies and opportunites are in Salt Lake City.
From there, my mom agreed it was time for us to return back to the place we both call home.
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Semester 12
Well, it's been just about a year from my last post. That's how busy the 3 classes a semester has kept me.
It turned out that I was only able to work a year and a half at my temporary position, due to their internal company policy. Because it was a call center, but they were kind enough to have me only do data entry, no open positions were available for me to become employed there. I can't complain, however, since they did allow me to get in a good year and a half of school.
Prior to my departure from that company I had a dream that I had died. It was very heartbreaking, and oddly (plus terrifyingly), real. When the last day at that company came all of those feelings came back in sickening detail. Leaving that job, although it was intended to just be temporary, really did feel like dying. I had a lot of good friends that I had made there. I loved the low-stress and no-demands atmosphere. I did my work every day to the best of my ability without anyone micro-managing me all the time and I loved it. In many ways it felt like home.
The other odd shock was the work load began to diminish before my official time was up. They began to send me home early just because there was not enough work for me to do. As it turned out, they decided to have my last day be almost 2 months earlier than expected. The good news was it allowed me to put my focus on my school's finals right when I needed it. The bad news was that it really hurt us financially.
That was just the least of our concerns, though.
When I went home to give Donna the bad news that I would be leaving work 2 months earlier she had even worse news. We had been living in a small, 3 bedroom apartment on top of her dad's workshop for the past 7 years. Because the apartment was very run-down her dad only charged a minimal amount. Even though our ceiling collapsed on us due to years of dripping rain, constantly broke down in various aspects, and allowed the heat to escape in droves it was still our home. Well, not anymore.
Because the building required constant repair dad was unable to pay the property tax for 3 years. Without his knowledge, it went up for auction. In the same day we learned that I no longer had a job we also discovered that also didn't have a home.
Miraculously enough, I felt strangely calm. In time, my wife and her family did, too.
Dad's building and our home were purchased by a group of people who made all kinds of promises, none of which were upheld. In the end, they gave us a time frame in which to leave. To make a long story short, my parents provided the miracle we needed. As we were hunting for an apartment my mom suddenly called with the news that she found us a house in my old home tome to rent for the same price of an apartment in Salt Lake. It is a very cute little place with a basement and upstairs. We had quite the adventure moving down here. Dad started hauling his big load, only to find the trailer unhitch from the truck as he was getting onto the freeway. Gratefully, no one was hurt, although both her parents and my wife's aunt could've been killed.
In the end, it took several smaller trips to get everything moved.
Until our situation changes for the better my family is living on the generosity of others. My parents are paying for the monthly rent on our house and allowing us to eat Sunday dinner at their house every other week.
The building my wife's dad was working out of was such a money-pit he gained a huge amount of money from the finalized sale of his building to the buyer's group. His lawyer, a customer of my wife's dad, made sure that he was (and is still) not taken advantage of. Now that he no longer has to deal with the tremendous responsibility of trying to upkeep a 50+ year old building he has money in his pocket. As such, my wife's family is kind enough to pay our bills. They also supplied us with funds for this year's Christmas. Aside of that, we are living on food stamps.
Despite our desperate situation, we are quite well provided for, for which I am eternally grateful.
The drive to school is my one complaint. It previously took me 15 minutes to get to school. Now it takes me 45 minutes and I have to get up at 5:45 AM. I have to get up that early in order to beat rush hour. I've actually been getting to school at hour early, which I spend by catching back up on sleep. When I first started out I was getting up 6:00, only to get stuck right in rush hour. It was very stressful and I'd get to school right before class started. I found it amazing that with an extra 15 minutes I could get an hour's worth of sleep.
The stress of it all has had an impact on me physically, as well. Every Tuesday night I've had a very difficult time in falling asleep. I've tried warm milk, mental exercises, and finally had to rely on taking a quarter of melatonin.
I still have all of my classes on Wednesday. I've been doing that for the past 3 semesters, I believe, going on 4 went school starts again in January. I just finished a semester and looking forward to spending a long, 3 week Christmas break before the stress starts all over again. In that time I'm aching to get some more project done and posting my school work online.
As I've also been working to get my game created I finally sold my first one to a nephew who is a big fan. We played his version this last weekend at my parent's and he is pleased to have won his very first game on his own copy, as well. He's been playing for years.
I just finished my Digital Prepress, Concepts in Motion Design (Animation), and Organizational Psychology classes. I learned a lot.
In Digital Prepress we used a handy website to make books: blurb.com We made them with InDesign and had to go over all of the aspects used in printing; RGB vs. CMYK, line quality, text color, flesh tones, and moires. I was not allowed to create a rulebook for my game so I did the next best thing: a visual tour. I received the final book copy in the mail and opened it today. It really did make a difference to see the printed copy vs. on screen. It was cool to see all my hard work in a physical version, as well.
My instructor for the class told me that after this class I was not allowed to work on anything for my game as a class assignment. She said I needed to have stuff for my portfolio that was not my game. I told her I agreed. I have my next portfolio class already lined up for next semester.
In my Animation class I was the only Graphic Designer student among the 30 or so Photographer and Animation students. We learned how to use Photoshop and Illustrator to do simple animations used in web graphics, such as banners and ads. On our first assignment I spent 9 hours doing a simple animation. I learned all too quickly that animation is a time constricting project!
We we started to use AfterEffects I thought I was going to loose it. I didn't get it, I was having trouble all over the place, and I was going to go bonkers. Gratefully, the instructor was kind enough to give me some serious one-on-one coaching that helped me to pass the assignment. From there I had to come back to school on Saturday to work on assignments since I didn't have AfterEffects at home.
For the final I downloaded the trial version. It took me the whole of the 3 weeks to complete. It was nothing but suffering and stress. I had to start over several times and at one point I'd accidentally deleted all of my important elements. We were doing a Kinetic Type animation and I'd deleted the words!
On the last day I hunted down the school's tech guru 3 times to try and get it to work, to no avail. The necessary Quicktime upgrade was not available for the school's CS6 and we could not get it to play the video segments I had included. I was finally impressed to save it in a CS5 version, open the program, and render it from there. After that it took close to 30 minutes to download it onto Vimeo and have it be available for presenting.
When the instructor came into the class he could see everyone hunched over their machines, still working like I was. Because of everyone's busy scrambling to get the final assignment done he was kind enough to decide to not have the final test. I had been trying to study between fixing rendering errors so I was grateful.
Only 5 kids had their animations ready to show at the beginning of class. When he showed them, we could see why. One kid complained that he'd spent 5 hours on his and didn't want to mess it up so he didn't do anything else. One girl did a fantastic job, but limited hers to only 90 seconds, which was the minimal time requirement for the assignment. None of theirs had pictures, graphic elements, or additional video segments, which the assignment required. The others were equally disappointing, with the exception of one. It was a full song and had some great elements in it. However, as I said, no video or graphic elements.
Once the students showed their finals they were allowed to leave. I was able to show mine next, 30 minutes after the last animation was played. By then, the completely full classroom only had a small handful of working students left in it. The instructor was telling some of them that he still required previous assignments from them, as well as the final. So, many of the students showed up for class, watched the animations that were shown at the beginning of class, and left. It just blew me away.
Upon seeing my animation, the instructor had plenty of good things to say. He showed me which parts he liked the best (particularly the winding road) and I caught him toe-tapping to the music. He also thanked me for taking the time and effort to complete the assignment. He immediately then asked if I'd like to see my final grade. I rushed up and looked over his shoulder to be greeted with an "A+." It made me feel really good, knowing that I was the only Graphic Design student among so many Animation students and since I'd had such a hard, hard time with it.
As I was looking at my grade I inadvertently caught sight of the grades for several of the students listed under my own name. Without even trying to count I took in at least 4 'D's.' Again, I was shocked. I could only hope they were for students that had yet to turn in their final and were still working hard to do so.
In my Organizational Psychology class I learned what I felt to be some of the most important information, exactly when I needed it.
First, I panicked a little in the middle of last semester when it came time to register for classes again because I couldn't find my 3 classes all on the same day. Alan Murdock, the Academic Adviser who had been helping me for so long, already had the solution in hand. For my 3rd class he was able offer me the choice of an independent study class. With the independent study the class requirements could be negotiated between me and the instructor. So I chose Organizational Psychology since I was taking Cognitive Psychology at the time and liked the instructor. She agreed so we met for only 30 minutes in the library after Animation class.
She was very relaxed and chill, which made the difficult concepts of psychology better to enjoy. Her requirements included reading 2 extensive chapters a week (30 pages each) and answering 2 of 5 provided questions on the chapters. This required me to keep track of what the questions were and what they were on. I also had a final paper, midterm, and final test. Both tests were open book at took about 4 hours apiece to take.
Organizational Psychology is the study of psychology within groups, specifically jobs in businesses. I felt it was the best class I could've taken while unemployed. It taught how people should act and why while employed in a business so that they can advance. It taught the reasons and benefits of working freelance. It also taught me the pros and cons of a business that does or does not follow moralistic values. It also verified my emotions and feelings regarding some of the treatment, or mistreatment, from my past jobs. That helped me to feel very good.
All in all, it provided some serious instructions on what to do when out looking for work and even more importantly, what to do when you finally get in one.
For this last semester, I've been trying to have my classes be on Wednesday so that I would be able to take advantage of the Life Drawing lab. As it turned out, the lab was to be held on Tuesdays, so that would not be an option. Instead, like I said, I went straight to the library to meet with my Organizational Psychology instructor.
I finished the big Life Drawing picture I'd been working on at the end of the last semester, one of the reasons for taking the lab. I posted it on my Life Drawing class site and even sent a copy to the model at her request. I now needed a new project and decided to focus on my own characters. After discussing it with my wife I was starting to feel that I'd learned just about all I could from the class and lab. I was ready to focus on my 3 class instead and do my action figure drawing projects from home - without a live model.
The good news about starting school again is this will be my last year! Alan Murdock helped land me another independent study for the next semester so that all of my classes could be on Wednesday again. He also outlined all the rest of the classes for the next year that I would need to graduate. As I mentioned before, 3 of those semesters will include portfolio classes.
He also told me that now is the time to start looking for an internship. When my assignment was to end at my last, big temp job I had already been thinking about it. I've been applying to as many internships as I could up to this point without any worthwhile results. Now, the school's Academic Adviser is telling me, 'now is the time.' So, I'll keep looking and applying. Here's hoping something can turn up soon, since an internship is required to graduate.
So we've been living the past 3 months or so in my old home town. Our little house it very comfortable, with the exception that it has no insulation and holds heat as well (if not worse) than our previous little apartment. The garage was constructed with old, military ammunition boxes. There are a few places in the wall where pieces are missing and you can see the old boxes.
We love the room of the basement which allows us to have a make-shift gym, music nook, and playroom. During our time here, we are unable to visit sensai and my beloved karate classes. So, instead, I've been focusing on workouts/training/therapy to try and overcome some of the major areas of pain that have been holding me back from progressing for so long. I've had some great results so far but I can tell I still have a long way to go.
I was able to organize a fantastic study/office/project room upstairs and my wife has her own small room for sewing (she has a small sewing service she does). Our son's room is adequate for his needs and we love the bigger kitchen space. I, personally, love having a tub in the bathroom. I also love being able to work and keep our car in the garage. I love having a fenced yard, cement driveway, fruit trees, and storage areas.
I add all of this because my mom says she keeps needing to hear that we like our place. Part of this is because she needs to know that their hard-earned money is being appreciated. Another reason is because we all miss living in Salt Lake.
Being back in my old home town has put a lot of stress on my nerves. I've already run into a handful of people from my past, a few I'd have rather not have met the first time around. I've spent the last several years working myself to be who I am now. The last thing I need and/or want are any reminders of who I no longer want to be. Being at home is just that: home. Stepping outside, however, is just... hard.
One good thing about being back here is my wife. For years I've been telling her stories about my upbringing and the overall mentality of this place. She's been a good listener but reluctant to believe all of my words. Until now. Unfortunately, she now is having first-hand opportunities at seeing what I've been talking about.
Another reason I bring this up is for this the situation of my wife's grandpa. He is not doing well and is not expected to be with us for too much longer. He owns his own home, which is in my wife's parent's name. When the time happens that he is no longer with us it has already been arranged that we will be allowed to move in. His home is smaller than the one we are renting. It is also missing the usable basement, a fence, a fruit trees, and an upstairs. But it won't cost 2 arms and a leg to be in and it will be back in Salt Lake. With that possibility comes the option of being closer to school and (*knock on wood*) and karate/internship/job.
It turned out that I was only able to work a year and a half at my temporary position, due to their internal company policy. Because it was a call center, but they were kind enough to have me only do data entry, no open positions were available for me to become employed there. I can't complain, however, since they did allow me to get in a good year and a half of school.
Prior to my departure from that company I had a dream that I had died. It was very heartbreaking, and oddly (plus terrifyingly), real. When the last day at that company came all of those feelings came back in sickening detail. Leaving that job, although it was intended to just be temporary, really did feel like dying. I had a lot of good friends that I had made there. I loved the low-stress and no-demands atmosphere. I did my work every day to the best of my ability without anyone micro-managing me all the time and I loved it. In many ways it felt like home.
The other odd shock was the work load began to diminish before my official time was up. They began to send me home early just because there was not enough work for me to do. As it turned out, they decided to have my last day be almost 2 months earlier than expected. The good news was it allowed me to put my focus on my school's finals right when I needed it. The bad news was that it really hurt us financially.
That was just the least of our concerns, though.
When I went home to give Donna the bad news that I would be leaving work 2 months earlier she had even worse news. We had been living in a small, 3 bedroom apartment on top of her dad's workshop for the past 7 years. Because the apartment was very run-down her dad only charged a minimal amount. Even though our ceiling collapsed on us due to years of dripping rain, constantly broke down in various aspects, and allowed the heat to escape in droves it was still our home. Well, not anymore.
Because the building required constant repair dad was unable to pay the property tax for 3 years. Without his knowledge, it went up for auction. In the same day we learned that I no longer had a job we also discovered that also didn't have a home.
Miraculously enough, I felt strangely calm. In time, my wife and her family did, too.
Dad's building and our home were purchased by a group of people who made all kinds of promises, none of which were upheld. In the end, they gave us a time frame in which to leave. To make a long story short, my parents provided the miracle we needed. As we were hunting for an apartment my mom suddenly called with the news that she found us a house in my old home tome to rent for the same price of an apartment in Salt Lake. It is a very cute little place with a basement and upstairs. We had quite the adventure moving down here. Dad started hauling his big load, only to find the trailer unhitch from the truck as he was getting onto the freeway. Gratefully, no one was hurt, although both her parents and my wife's aunt could've been killed.
In the end, it took several smaller trips to get everything moved.
Until our situation changes for the better my family is living on the generosity of others. My parents are paying for the monthly rent on our house and allowing us to eat Sunday dinner at their house every other week.
The building my wife's dad was working out of was such a money-pit he gained a huge amount of money from the finalized sale of his building to the buyer's group. His lawyer, a customer of my wife's dad, made sure that he was (and is still) not taken advantage of. Now that he no longer has to deal with the tremendous responsibility of trying to upkeep a 50+ year old building he has money in his pocket. As such, my wife's family is kind enough to pay our bills. They also supplied us with funds for this year's Christmas. Aside of that, we are living on food stamps.
Despite our desperate situation, we are quite well provided for, for which I am eternally grateful.
The drive to school is my one complaint. It previously took me 15 minutes to get to school. Now it takes me 45 minutes and I have to get up at 5:45 AM. I have to get up that early in order to beat rush hour. I've actually been getting to school at hour early, which I spend by catching back up on sleep. When I first started out I was getting up 6:00, only to get stuck right in rush hour. It was very stressful and I'd get to school right before class started. I found it amazing that with an extra 15 minutes I could get an hour's worth of sleep.
The stress of it all has had an impact on me physically, as well. Every Tuesday night I've had a very difficult time in falling asleep. I've tried warm milk, mental exercises, and finally had to rely on taking a quarter of melatonin.
I still have all of my classes on Wednesday. I've been doing that for the past 3 semesters, I believe, going on 4 went school starts again in January. I just finished a semester and looking forward to spending a long, 3 week Christmas break before the stress starts all over again. In that time I'm aching to get some more project done and posting my school work online.
As I've also been working to get my game created I finally sold my first one to a nephew who is a big fan. We played his version this last weekend at my parent's and he is pleased to have won his very first game on his own copy, as well. He's been playing for years.
I just finished my Digital Prepress, Concepts in Motion Design (Animation), and Organizational Psychology classes. I learned a lot.
In Digital Prepress we used a handy website to make books: blurb.com We made them with InDesign and had to go over all of the aspects used in printing; RGB vs. CMYK, line quality, text color, flesh tones, and moires. I was not allowed to create a rulebook for my game so I did the next best thing: a visual tour. I received the final book copy in the mail and opened it today. It really did make a difference to see the printed copy vs. on screen. It was cool to see all my hard work in a physical version, as well.
My instructor for the class told me that after this class I was not allowed to work on anything for my game as a class assignment. She said I needed to have stuff for my portfolio that was not my game. I told her I agreed. I have my next portfolio class already lined up for next semester.
In my Animation class I was the only Graphic Designer student among the 30 or so Photographer and Animation students. We learned how to use Photoshop and Illustrator to do simple animations used in web graphics, such as banners and ads. On our first assignment I spent 9 hours doing a simple animation. I learned all too quickly that animation is a time constricting project!
We we started to use AfterEffects I thought I was going to loose it. I didn't get it, I was having trouble all over the place, and I was going to go bonkers. Gratefully, the instructor was kind enough to give me some serious one-on-one coaching that helped me to pass the assignment. From there I had to come back to school on Saturday to work on assignments since I didn't have AfterEffects at home.
For the final I downloaded the trial version. It took me the whole of the 3 weeks to complete. It was nothing but suffering and stress. I had to start over several times and at one point I'd accidentally deleted all of my important elements. We were doing a Kinetic Type animation and I'd deleted the words!
On the last day I hunted down the school's tech guru 3 times to try and get it to work, to no avail. The necessary Quicktime upgrade was not available for the school's CS6 and we could not get it to play the video segments I had included. I was finally impressed to save it in a CS5 version, open the program, and render it from there. After that it took close to 30 minutes to download it onto Vimeo and have it be available for presenting.
When the instructor came into the class he could see everyone hunched over their machines, still working like I was. Because of everyone's busy scrambling to get the final assignment done he was kind enough to decide to not have the final test. I had been trying to study between fixing rendering errors so I was grateful.
Only 5 kids had their animations ready to show at the beginning of class. When he showed them, we could see why. One kid complained that he'd spent 5 hours on his and didn't want to mess it up so he didn't do anything else. One girl did a fantastic job, but limited hers to only 90 seconds, which was the minimal time requirement for the assignment. None of theirs had pictures, graphic elements, or additional video segments, which the assignment required. The others were equally disappointing, with the exception of one. It was a full song and had some great elements in it. However, as I said, no video or graphic elements.
Once the students showed their finals they were allowed to leave. I was able to show mine next, 30 minutes after the last animation was played. By then, the completely full classroom only had a small handful of working students left in it. The instructor was telling some of them that he still required previous assignments from them, as well as the final. So, many of the students showed up for class, watched the animations that were shown at the beginning of class, and left. It just blew me away.
Upon seeing my animation, the instructor had plenty of good things to say. He showed me which parts he liked the best (particularly the winding road) and I caught him toe-tapping to the music. He also thanked me for taking the time and effort to complete the assignment. He immediately then asked if I'd like to see my final grade. I rushed up and looked over his shoulder to be greeted with an "A+." It made me feel really good, knowing that I was the only Graphic Design student among so many Animation students and since I'd had such a hard, hard time with it.
As I was looking at my grade I inadvertently caught sight of the grades for several of the students listed under my own name. Without even trying to count I took in at least 4 'D's.' Again, I was shocked. I could only hope they were for students that had yet to turn in their final and were still working hard to do so.
In my Organizational Psychology class I learned what I felt to be some of the most important information, exactly when I needed it.
First, I panicked a little in the middle of last semester when it came time to register for classes again because I couldn't find my 3 classes all on the same day. Alan Murdock, the Academic Adviser who had been helping me for so long, already had the solution in hand. For my 3rd class he was able offer me the choice of an independent study class. With the independent study the class requirements could be negotiated between me and the instructor. So I chose Organizational Psychology since I was taking Cognitive Psychology at the time and liked the instructor. She agreed so we met for only 30 minutes in the library after Animation class.
She was very relaxed and chill, which made the difficult concepts of psychology better to enjoy. Her requirements included reading 2 extensive chapters a week (30 pages each) and answering 2 of 5 provided questions on the chapters. This required me to keep track of what the questions were and what they were on. I also had a final paper, midterm, and final test. Both tests were open book at took about 4 hours apiece to take.
Organizational Psychology is the study of psychology within groups, specifically jobs in businesses. I felt it was the best class I could've taken while unemployed. It taught how people should act and why while employed in a business so that they can advance. It taught the reasons and benefits of working freelance. It also taught me the pros and cons of a business that does or does not follow moralistic values. It also verified my emotions and feelings regarding some of the treatment, or mistreatment, from my past jobs. That helped me to feel very good.
All in all, it provided some serious instructions on what to do when out looking for work and even more importantly, what to do when you finally get in one.
For this last semester, I've been trying to have my classes be on Wednesday so that I would be able to take advantage of the Life Drawing lab. As it turned out, the lab was to be held on Tuesdays, so that would not be an option. Instead, like I said, I went straight to the library to meet with my Organizational Psychology instructor.
I finished the big Life Drawing picture I'd been working on at the end of the last semester, one of the reasons for taking the lab. I posted it on my Life Drawing class site and even sent a copy to the model at her request. I now needed a new project and decided to focus on my own characters. After discussing it with my wife I was starting to feel that I'd learned just about all I could from the class and lab. I was ready to focus on my 3 class instead and do my action figure drawing projects from home - without a live model.
The good news about starting school again is this will be my last year! Alan Murdock helped land me another independent study for the next semester so that all of my classes could be on Wednesday again. He also outlined all the rest of the classes for the next year that I would need to graduate. As I mentioned before, 3 of those semesters will include portfolio classes.
He also told me that now is the time to start looking for an internship. When my assignment was to end at my last, big temp job I had already been thinking about it. I've been applying to as many internships as I could up to this point without any worthwhile results. Now, the school's Academic Adviser is telling me, 'now is the time.' So, I'll keep looking and applying. Here's hoping something can turn up soon, since an internship is required to graduate.
So we've been living the past 3 months or so in my old home town. Our little house it very comfortable, with the exception that it has no insulation and holds heat as well (if not worse) than our previous little apartment. The garage was constructed with old, military ammunition boxes. There are a few places in the wall where pieces are missing and you can see the old boxes.
We love the room of the basement which allows us to have a make-shift gym, music nook, and playroom. During our time here, we are unable to visit sensai and my beloved karate classes. So, instead, I've been focusing on workouts/training/therapy to try and overcome some of the major areas of pain that have been holding me back from progressing for so long. I've had some great results so far but I can tell I still have a long way to go.
I was able to organize a fantastic study/office/project room upstairs and my wife has her own small room for sewing (she has a small sewing service she does). Our son's room is adequate for his needs and we love the bigger kitchen space. I, personally, love having a tub in the bathroom. I also love being able to work and keep our car in the garage. I love having a fenced yard, cement driveway, fruit trees, and storage areas.
I add all of this because my mom says she keeps needing to hear that we like our place. Part of this is because she needs to know that their hard-earned money is being appreciated. Another reason is because we all miss living in Salt Lake.
Being back in my old home town has put a lot of stress on my nerves. I've already run into a handful of people from my past, a few I'd have rather not have met the first time around. I've spent the last several years working myself to be who I am now. The last thing I need and/or want are any reminders of who I no longer want to be. Being at home is just that: home. Stepping outside, however, is just... hard.
One good thing about being back here is my wife. For years I've been telling her stories about my upbringing and the overall mentality of this place. She's been a good listener but reluctant to believe all of my words. Until now. Unfortunately, she now is having first-hand opportunities at seeing what I've been talking about.
Another reason I bring this up is for this the situation of my wife's grandpa. He is not doing well and is not expected to be with us for too much longer. He owns his own home, which is in my wife's parent's name. When the time happens that he is no longer with us it has already been arranged that we will be allowed to move in. His home is smaller than the one we are renting. It is also missing the usable basement, a fence, a fruit trees, and an upstairs. But it won't cost 2 arms and a leg to be in and it will be back in Salt Lake. With that possibility comes the option of being closer to school and (*knock on wood*) and karate/internship/job.
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Semester 8 & 9.10
The miracle came with the preparation I didn't know I already had. It turned out the Life Drawing lab had been mentally preparing me the whole time for being able to take that third class.
As I am now halfway through this semester, I can tell how taking the 3 classes has worked out so far. First, all of my classes are on the same day, Wednesday. So, I only travel to school once and that helps cut down on gas bills. Also, the semester before I was missing some hours to get to school. As a result, I was not getting full time hours even though I was working extra hours to make up for the loss of time. So, having all classes on the same day has given me the opportunity to get all of my hours in (10 hour days) and make more money than the semester before.
Another big miracle has been the homework load. That was my biggest concern regarding taking a third class, since my time consisted of being at work, being at school, or doing homework. I didn't have any free time, at all. As previously said, I was taking time off from work, karate class, and church to finish my homework.
This semester I'm taking 2 general classes that are taught by the same instructor. He is so laid back he really works with us to help us get our work done, including time in class to work on assignments.
Also, I've been working hard this semester to jump on assignments early.
Usually, my presentations are so big I'd been going all out to include as much as I could. While they ended up fantastic, it did take a lot of time to get ready. At the end of last semester's Marketing Design class I felt like Peter Jackson, working on the assignment right up to when I was to present it.
So, trying to avoid that, I've been working to pace myself and also start as early as possible. We just past midterm and so far, so good.
Not only have I been able to spend time with my family but I've managed to take Quinny almost to every karate class this semester, which he enjoys thoroughly. It's our daddy-son time together and gives my wife a chance to breathe each week.
Here's hoping we can keep it up.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Semester 8 & 9.9
At the middle of the previous semester I was feeling the impression that I needed to go back to the Life Drawing lab. I'd been feeling it for a while but was unable to for the last 2 semesters. Finally, the opportunity opened up.
I had my doubts but I still felt that it was important.
Because of my current school schedule I was able to leave my temp work assignment on Wednesdays early to go to school. However, I had night classes on Wednesday so I was able to take advantage of the Life Drawing lab, which I'd been trying to get back to for the past 2 semesters. I'd been missing the simple pleasures of just drawing - no computers or digital graphics. Plus, I'd kept up my figure drawing and had developed plenty of questions that only an instructor and real life experience could answer. I learned from these experiences that, like any talent, it is something that does need to be kept up or the talent cannot progress. And my projects have lots of figures that need help being created.
There were plenty of new models that came in each week; not a lot of familiar faces that I could recognize from my Life Drawing class over 2 years earlier. Some were fantastic and some were not. Either way, I learned something from each.
My goal was to build up my practice to the point where I felt I could break out the good paper and creat a completely finished piece that I could be proud of. That was last semester; we just hit midterm and I've officially now upgraded to the good paper.
When midterm hit during this semester I was in Group Production Team Layout class and the instructor told us that he'd give us extra credit if we enrolled for the next semester on that day. He was part of the Graphics Department so it meant less paperwork for him.
So I went in to see the Dean on a 15 minute break, hoping simply to get the extra credit. What I got, instead, was a whole lot more.
Mr. Dean Murdock (no relation, although we'd been in close association in the past. He has a great open-door policy) threw a curve-ball surprise at me. The school (across the nation, not just the local branch) had a big policy to only allow so many part time students. According to their experience the longer a student remained in school, the more likely they will drop out without graduating. In order for them to retain their reputation of being some of the best they needed to keep the number of their graduating students high. As a result, they needed their students to be graduating as soon as possible.
So, the dean was requiring me to increase my number of classes per semester by 1. Otherwise, he and the board of people-in-charge could not approve of my school schedule fot the upcoming semester.
I was floored. I had already been spending every teeming waking moment that was not associated with work to either being in class, getting to class, or doing homework. My family was already being more neglected than I would have prefered and the guilt for that was pretty much a constant companion. In this last semester alone I took off 3 days from work just to work on homework and I missed a lot of church. Often times I would only go to sacrament meeting. Once, close to Finals, I didn't go at all. Not to mention the multiple martial arts classes I skipped for homework instead, too.
How on earth could he expect me to take one more class?
Semester 8 & 9.8
We had a Christmas miracle, as well, when my day job assignment was willing and/or able to keep me on through that semester, as well. I was very worried, as they had previously said that our assignment would be ending. I was very much relieved to find out that they were able to keep me on through to the end of Christmas.
It has been a semester-by-semester thing. That has caused some certain amounts of stress, for sure.
During that time they announced, that for the first time ever, they were allowing temps to officially apply for permanent positions. I asked if they had a place for me, since all I am doing is catagorized as simple data entry. The positions the others have are customer service phone positions. I still have not regained the full use of my voice and it still taxes me to talk for too long face to face. On the phone a full conversation is painful and almost impossible for any length of time.
Unfortunately, they said they did not have any full time positions for someone just doing the data entry I was doing.
Again, the miracle of working here was extended through this last semester, and then again through this one. However, they did let us know that their company policy does not allow temps to work here any longer than a year and a half. So, at the end of this semester this assignment will end.
I've been very gratful for the chance to be there. It's a wonderful atmosphere, with great, professional people, with a very easy, no-stress work load. I will miss being here.
After talking it out with my wife, we've come to an agreement. For my degree I need to have an internship in order to graduate. Since we thought I'd be unemployed at the end of last semester we started talking about how we'd make things work. We based a lot of our decisions off of our situation 2 Decembers ago, where I didn't work at all for the whole semester. We came to the comclusion that with some help and taking advantages of programs available to us that we could make it. So, with this semester and assignment closing I'm applying for internship positions now. Our hope is that perhaps it can turn into something better and permanent later on.
That's our hope, anyway.
It has been a semester-by-semester thing. That has caused some certain amounts of stress, for sure.
During that time they announced, that for the first time ever, they were allowing temps to officially apply for permanent positions. I asked if they had a place for me, since all I am doing is catagorized as simple data entry. The positions the others have are customer service phone positions. I still have not regained the full use of my voice and it still taxes me to talk for too long face to face. On the phone a full conversation is painful and almost impossible for any length of time.
Unfortunately, they said they did not have any full time positions for someone just doing the data entry I was doing.
Again, the miracle of working here was extended through this last semester, and then again through this one. However, they did let us know that their company policy does not allow temps to work here any longer than a year and a half. So, at the end of this semester this assignment will end.
I've been very gratful for the chance to be there. It's a wonderful atmosphere, with great, professional people, with a very easy, no-stress work load. I will miss being here.
After talking it out with my wife, we've come to an agreement. For my degree I need to have an internship in order to graduate. Since we thought I'd be unemployed at the end of last semester we started talking about how we'd make things work. We based a lot of our decisions off of our situation 2 Decembers ago, where I didn't work at all for the whole semester. We came to the comclusion that with some help and taking advantages of programs available to us that we could make it. So, with this semester and assignment closing I'm applying for internship positions now. Our hope is that perhaps it can turn into something better and permanent later on.
That's our hope, anyway.
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