May we all live in interesting times.
Aside from the bizarre one-second silent anonymous phone call I got - same thing happened last week, wonder is this spam? - life has been very odd lately. And looks like it will only get odder.
Where to begin? OK, let's try here: You may or may not know that I have 2.5 jobs. The main one, a training/consulting company, where I get to stand up and spout on for hours on end about all sorts of technical rubbish. The second one, where I spend my "spare" time helping students of a Software Systems Development course through the gruelling final or penultimate year of their degree, correcting their monthly papers when they submit them. The third, where I climb onto a stage (climb is a figurative term considering most of the stages are co-existent with the dance floor in many venues...) and swing my guitar and vocal cords around for all to see. Well finally it's all gotten on top of me. I'm dropping the 0.5 job.
Long story - started last August when a friend's vocal teacher's student found herself in need of a guitarist at short notice, and I had let it be known that I was available - a mercenary for hire for a busy gigging band. These were a busy gigging band, and I had lots of experience with playing typical pub rubbish, so I met them, played for a couple of hours at a "rehearsal", and did the first few gigs successfully, but quietly. We've been playing about 2 gigs a week since then, all around Leinster (the Eastern province) and occasionally further. As time went on, I got louder, ended up taking over sound engineering (becoming the desk jockey), and ended up singing several of our songs. But: the lead singer has a sever case of LSD ("Lead Singer Disease"), and so cannot abide people of strong character, even less so people who can take the stage as confidently as she can. I've been doing this for many years, certainly over ten, whereas she's been gigging for only two. I'm a little less idealistic than she, and a little more familiar with the realities of pub gigging. Add this mixture together, and you find a major personality clash.
So I quit. And she cried. I quoted "too much hassle" and "I can't do this anymore". Partially the personality thing, partially the fact that my "spare" time is rapidly decreasing, if non-existant. I play my last gig with them the 2nd of June, just over a month from now.
Spare time has become a rare commodity. In addition to my main job, a 9-5 Mon-Fri with an hour commute on either side, I need to take care of personal stuff like eat, sleep, etc., correct papers once a month (which took me all of 3½ weeks of "spare" time this month), be available to students by email and occasionally phone, keep up with the course materials so I understand where they're at in the course, and by extension what they're talking about, and prepare tutorials. Tutorials happen about once a month, or twice every three months. They are the sole opportunity for my students to meet with me face to face, and a major opportunity for them to meet each other (some strike up their own self-help groups that are independent of the University). I have such a tutorial tomorrow, and as always, it's a tricky balance trying to figure out what will be of use to the students, bearing in mind that some of them will be exactly on-schedule with that materials, some will still be struggling with older stuff, and some will already have finished the unit and be hungry for more detail. Time gets swallowed.
So that's that bit out of the way. I had a meeting with my manager the other day, but the results of that are probably not publishable. You know where I am if you're interested...
Lemme see - got an urge for titanium during the month, so bought a custom ring (plain wedding band) from Dan Statman in Cincinatti, Ohio. It's like the one in the pic, only twice as wide (10mm instead of 5mm). Also bought a Palm Vx, because I broke the screen on my Visor, and they wanted to give me a new one instead of just replace the screen ("give" is a figurative term seeing as they charge about €140 euro for the privilege). Having said that, I've found another place that sells the screens since then, hrmph. I like the Palm though, and have started looking at ways to program it in Java. Yay.
Digifone are using a predictive dialler. I thought that was illegal in Ireland. A predictive dialler is a machine that links an outbound call centre to the people they call, but it tries to save time by starting to call people before an agent is available to make the call, gambling that an agent will become available as soon as the callee picks up. The main reason they're illegal is that often the callee will pick up, and end up speaking to dead air, silence. That's classed as a nuisance call, and so is illegal in lots of places. I know this because several times in the last week (and the previous month) I've received phone calls from an unidentified number through the space of one afternoon, and not answered the call (generally I don't answer unidentified calls unless I'm not busy doing something, and because I'm often busy, they get relegated to the bottom of the pile). Today I answered such a call, and it was silent. 10 mins later, I got another such call, and it was digifone. A court could argue co-incidence, but I'm just not that popular - I don't get many unidentified calls. Hmm. Worth following up? Good news is they're willing to give me €235.95 off my next phone purchase, because I spend so much with them. Nice people.
That's it for now. Yet another resolution broken, but hey, I try.
posted by Jeremy Smyth 13:05 |