a new career in a new town

Starting the Strayer assignment today - in a little over an hour, in fact - and hoping to get some clerical stuff done along the way. The job site is all the way across the county near Fort Belvoir, but since the hours are 12-6 the commute should be fairly easy.

Couldn't get through to the main DVS office in Minnesota, but the Rochester office allowed as how they could send my tabs to a PO box if I mailed my application and check in. We'll see if I can get an apartment this week; if not, plan B.

Time to finish my coffee, find my time card, put on my shirt and shoes and get rolling.

a new career in a new town

Starting the Strayer assignment today - in a little over an hour, in fact - and hoping to get some clerical stuff done along the way. The job site is all the way across the county near Fort Belvoir, but since the hours are 12-6 the commute should be fairly easy.

Couldn't get through to the main DVS office in Minnesota, but the Rochester office allowed as how they could send my tabs to a PO box if I mailed my application and check in. We'll see if I can get an apartment this week; if not, plan B.

Time to finish my coffee, find my time card, put on my shirt and shoes and get rolling.

Another couple jobs like this and I'd be on Easy Street

Got sent home after half an hour from Strayer since their IT department hadn't gotten me a login for their legacy mainframe system, but got paid for the full six hours anyway. Booya. The downside is that the job is only four days a week and lasts through the end of October. Well, what the hell; it gives me time to look for better jobs. In the meantime, I'm waiting for the one apartment place I seriously want to get back to me now that I've faxed my application in. It's possible having my last couple of landlords pissed off at me could put the kibosh on this, but there's nothing I can do about that.

Meanwhile, I see that most of the adjunct teaching positions in the community colleges require a Master's degree or 18 graduate credits in the subject area. Hrm. Maybe I'll be going back to school after all. Maybe the IRS will give me that job I always wanted with the secret police. :D

An observation that really belongs in the "things to think about" post: I don't notice how hot it is out here most of the time unless I'm stuck in traffic for a while. Most of the time I'm zipping around on the highways and byways, and only notice the heat when I come in out of it...at which point I can feel it radiating off me. Yow.

Another couple jobs like this and I'd be on Easy Street

Got sent home after half an hour from Strayer since their IT department hadn't gotten me a login for their legacy mainframe system, but got paid for the full six hours anyway. Booya. The downside is that the job is only four days a week and lasts through the end of October. Well, what the hell; it gives me time to look for better jobs. In the meantime, I'm waiting for the one apartment place I seriously want to get back to me now that I've faxed my application in. It's possible having my last couple of landlords pissed off at me could put the kibosh on this, but there's nothing I can do about that.

Meanwhile, I see that most of the adjunct teaching positions in the community colleges require a Master's degree or 18 graduate credits in the subject area. Hrm. Maybe I'll be going back to school after all. Maybe the IRS will give me that job I always wanted with the secret police. :D

An observation that really belongs in the "things to think about" post: I don't notice how hot it is out here most of the time unless I'm stuck in traffic for a while. Most of the time I'm zipping around on the highways and byways, and only notice the heat when I come in out of it...at which point I can feel it radiating off me. Yow.

Shifting priorities

I was doing a survey today for one of the companies that uses MyPoints and it occurred to me that despite having a fully functional TV in my room every night since leaving Minnesota, the only TV I've watched was this past weekend when there happened to be a couple of interesting things on the History Channel and Spike TV. Most of my down time on the road was spent sleeping, browsing the internets, or (occasionally) watching the Ai Yori Aoshi box set I picked up before leaving the Gopher State. Whether that was actually a more productive use of my time is an exercise left to the reader.

Tomorrow's pre-work to-do list includes getting a post office box out here in Chantilly and retrieving my boxes from UPS in Alexandria, assuming they haven't thrown them out already. I'm also going to pack lunch - Strayer isn't charging me for chow time, and eating lunch on the road before I get there can get messy and expensive.

I'm also changing my browsing habits...while I've been reading Megan McArdle since 2001, when she was blogging at Live from the WTC (later renamed Asymmetrical Information) I don't think I'll be keeping her blog at the Atlantic on my A-list of blogs I follow daily. For one thing, the Atlantic is paying her to blog about economics, and that's all she's doing. Which is boring*. For another, the commenters at the Atlantic are the worst sort of fever-swamp Democratic Underground moonbats, and I'm just not willing to voluntarily put up with that. Ms. McArdle will be cut to the quick, no doubt. [/sarcasm] Ironic that this should happen after I finally show up in Washington and have a non-zero chance of actually meeting the young lady.

Finally, if you've read Quartered Safe Out Here, any of the Flashman novels, or the monumentally awesome The Pyrates, you MUST read McAuslan Entire, which is the sequel to the first book and tells the tales of Dand McNeill after he gets his commission at the end of World War II and goes from Borderers in the jungles of Burma to the Highlanders in the Libyan desert. Originally published as three separate books (The General Danced at Dawn, McAuslan in the Rough and The Sheikh and the Dustbin) the book is full of win and hilarity. Unlike QSOH, it isn't a novel so much as a collection of stories, most of which revolve around the oddities of life in a Highland regiment and a fair number of which involve the "filthiest soldier in the Regiment," Private McAuslan, who more often than not saves the day in a manner nobody could have possibly seen coming. Really, you need to read this, and don't skip ahead to "The Constipation of O'Brien" or I'll banjo ye, I will.

*If you find economics more exciting than I do, by all means pop on over there, and take a gander at King Bananian's joint while you're at it.

Shifting priorities

I was doing a survey today for one of the companies that uses MyPoints and it occurred to me that despite having a fully functional TV in my room every night since leaving Minnesota, the only TV I've watched was this past weekend when there happened to be a couple of interesting things on the History Channel and Spike TV. Most of my down time on the road was spent sleeping, browsing the internets, or (occasionally) watching the Ai Yori Aoshi box set I picked up before leaving the Gopher State. Whether that was actually a more productive use of my time is an exercise left to the reader.

Tomorrow's pre-work to-do list includes getting a post office box out here in Chantilly and retrieving my boxes from UPS in Alexandria, assuming they haven't thrown them out already. I'm also going to pack lunch - Strayer isn't charging me for chow time, and eating lunch on the road before I get there can get messy and expensive.

I'm also changing my browsing habits...while I've been reading Megan McArdle since 2001, when she was blogging at Live from the WTC (later renamed Asymmetrical Information) I don't think I'll be keeping her blog at the Atlantic on my A-list of blogs I follow daily. For one thing, the Atlantic is paying her to blog about economics, and that's all she's doing. Which is boring*. For another, the commenters at the Atlantic are the worst sort of fever-swamp Democratic Underground moonbats, and I'm just not willing to voluntarily put up with that. Ms. McArdle will be cut to the quick, no doubt. [/sarcasm] Ironic that this should happen after I finally show up in Washington and have a non-zero chance of actually meeting the young lady.

Finally, if you've read Quartered Safe Out Here, any of the Flashman novels, or the monumentally awesome The Pyrates, you MUST read McAuslan Entire, which is the sequel to the first book and tells the tales of Dand McNeill after he gets his commission at the end of World War II and goes from Borderers in the jungles of Burma to the Highlanders in the Libyan desert. Originally published as three separate books (The General Danced at Dawn, McAuslan in the Rough and The Sheikh and the Dustbin) the book is full of win and hilarity. Unlike QSOH, it isn't a novel so much as a collection of stories, most of which revolve around the oddities of life in a Highland regiment and a fair number of which involve the "filthiest soldier in the Regiment," Private McAuslan, who more often than not saves the day in a manner nobody could have possibly seen coming. Really, you need to read this, and don't skip ahead to "The Constipation of O'Brien" or I'll banjo ye, I will.

*If you find economics more exciting than I do, by all means pop on over there, and take a gander at King Bananian's joint while you're at it.