I forgot to change WordPress sites after posting that last post. Seriously, let’s all remember I’ve moved
Filed under: work
May 14, 2008 • 11:38 pm 0
quickies
1. this sounds like an awesome weekend project. it’s almost enough to make me go to SF! (because super happydevhouse and bay to breakers just aren’t enough)
2. i got a de facto extension on my midterm. i couldn’t handle both that and my portfolio presentation being due the same day. i say de facto because i simply forgot to finish it in time. the instructors couldn’t be cooler about it, just telling me to email it when i was done.
3. i kicked ass on the portfolio. don’t know why i worried about it so much. i think they were blinded by the great photos I used on my Keynote slides (most of them are in my flickr faves). the program director, normally a crabby old coot, was actually cordial, which is like, majorly unusual by his standards.
4. okay, actually, this midterm thing is bugging me. it’s haunting me like helen thomas haunted stephen colbert in that white house correspondents dinner video. i need to finish it, but i…just…can’t!
5. according to the iPod death clock estimator, my iPod mini is due to die on Memorial Day weekend. That is the worst possible time, because I have to work all freaking weekend (network switching party, gah!). on the bright side, if it were to die, i could try a project i’ve always wanted to try, and score major bonus points on the scale of g33kitude – turn the 3rd gen mini into a flash mini!!
April 24, 2008 • 10:13 pm 0
worse than me
The nonprofit where I have my second internship runs a film festival every year. It’s in the first week of May, so things are understandably a little crazy these days. I’ve asked them if there was anyhting I could do to help out but so far few takers. Most of them have been there for years so it’s a well-oiled machine, just one that happens to go insane this one month every year.
Still, I feel guilty going into work these days, since most of the tiem I’m just transcoding video files, which involves little more than sitting there, and shuttling a hard drive back and forth between computers every few hours. Plus I’m only there twice a week, 6 hours each day, so I can go home while it’s still light out.
I write emails to my supervisor and get responses as late as 1AM. I just wanna be like, omg go home!
On the other hand, maybe it’s good I’m not so involved. Especially since tomorrow’s COMPS!
March 8, 2008 • 12:20 am 0
moonlighting can’t be forever
the more i think about what i should do when i graduate (in 3 months!!!!) the less i know what i’d really like to do. i think i’d really like to work at a startup, because of the energy and the possibilities, not to mention the flexibility.
the problem is, startups don’t really need archivists, see? =D
i see *some* overlap between the things i’m most interested in right now and this thing that i’ve taken out $30k in loans for, but i wish i’d had more time to work out how i can make them work better together. i really need to pay back that loan, and i really want to make good use of this degree i’m getting.
so resolved, on this sad friday night: i will get my ass in gear to maximize these three months i have remaining.
well, after this week i will. after finals.
February 25, 2008 • 5:51 pm 0
only 40 hours left!
Last night was kind of a big night at the place where I’m currently an intern, so when I walked into work this morning, there was practically nobody there.
As people slowly drifted in, they were either hung over, sleepy, and/or pretty much useless. Everyone just kinda debriefed each other on the previous night’s happenings, and nobody got any work done (excluding people like me, who didn’t get to participate – which I didn’t mind in the least, to be honest!). The atmosphere in the whole building was pretty subdued, overall.
It was nice! Even more low-key and quiet than usual, making for a pretty relaxed workday.
Also, I found deluxe, raspberry- and mint-flavored hot chocolate packets in the kitchen today. Yummy!
Filed under: work
February 12, 2008 • 9:53 pm 1
or dilettantes?
The new digital archivist at the place where I’m interning started her job yesterday. Today we had a nice chat, and she’s really cool.
She went to library school in Florida, working in school libraries and doing media things and IT, before moving to CA with her husband and landing a cool-sounding job at a well-known basic cable network, setting up content management systems/workflows there.
Then she moved to Seattle and became a consultant, and did information architecture work at MS!!!! I told her Id’ just read about that thing in the IA polar bear book and she was like, heck yeah MS rawks!
Okay, so that comment took a few minutes for me to digest, but I can see her point, really.
Anyway she moved back down here because her husband hated Seattle (heh), and did more consulting work.
She assures me that there will be plenty of work out there for IAs. So it’s too bad I’m not majoring in IS and specializing in IA, eh?
She also ventured that content mgmt and DAM would be okay too, job-wise. Hmm, okay.
She said UX was also big.
I dunno.
Are chimeras hirable?
October 17, 2007 • 11:23 pm 1
about the aged
I don’t want to sound like a provocateur (provocatrice?), or like an ingrate, but sometimes when I think about happenings in the field I work in, I can’t help but feel that we, the students, are never gonna achieve anything until all the old people retire.
It’s nothing against old people in general. Just these old people, in my profession.
And I’m not saying they’re completely useless. They still have plenty of good in them, for certain things (many things, even). It’s more about the attitude they have: “This is how we’ve done it before, so there’s no other way to do it.”
Well, no. Times change, and these days, times change drastically.
Don’t mind me. This is the characteristic impatience of youth speaking. Like, go away, old people, and let us do our thing, because it’s better than what you all have now.
And of course that’s not fair. Without those old people we wouldn’t have ANYTHING to work with, to speak of.
I guess what I mean is more like, okay, old people, good job and stuff. But it’s time to go, the fat lady has filed for social security, and we have some ideas brewing that we’d really like to try, because we think they’ll do some good.
Filed under: work
September 17, 2007 • 6:04 pm 0
it is good to be back!
Last weekend was spent furiously moving a lot of my things from Cerritos to Westwood. I enlisted the aid of my entire family (actually, I didn’t even know I was going to, until it was time to pack the Explorer, and learned that if we folded over the back seat, we’d need two cars if we all wanted to go. “Who’s we?” I asked. “Everyone!” said my mom.
Anyway, this new place isn’t really as nice as my place last year, and it’s more expensive, to boot. Plus, my roommate has lived here since last year, so I feel like I’ve moved in uninvited to a stranger’s home. Oh well, that’s what I get for being lazy and not bothering to explore all my options.
I will say one thing: the commute to work is now LOVELY! I leave my apt. at 9:20 and get to work less than 30 minutes later. Oh, the novelty! It’ll wear off soon, no doubt, but then again, I only have about a week left at my job.
September 13, 2007 • 7:35 pm 0
don’t need no pants suit
I lined up a meeting to discuss a practicum opportunity for the fall quarter. Actually, I thought it was an interview, but when I got to the site today, I realized it was definitely a meeting. Like, a “when do you want to start?” and “Here is all the cool stuff we have” kind of meeting.
I was totally overdressed.
What’s funny is that now I’ll be working for an Asian-American organization. I generally tend to ignore all that Asian-Am stuff completely. But I think that’ll make this more of a learning experience.
More importantly, I plan to get a lot of hands-on experience working with video and digitisation, so hopefully that will come to pass. They definitely need to get stuff done in that department.
The only downside is that it’s smack in the middle of downtown LA, ie it’ll be quite a commute from Westwood. Better than from home, I guess, but if I were working at Fox or MGM I’d be so much closer. But I’m too intimidated to cold-call the more corporate places. And that’s fine, for now.
So yeah, I’m interning at yet another non-profit, and one with much less of an institutional presence than my school. Oh well. At least the dress code fits me perfectly!
One stupid thing I said was when the guy asked if I was going to keep doing my current summer job during the fall. I told him I would, but mainly for money. Then he said his org. might be able to pay me, which totally caught me off guard. So I told him I hadn’t been expecting that, and then I mentioned that I actually needed the credit more. Which is true, but why did I tell him I wouldn’t need the money?? Dahhhhh
July 26, 2007 • 10:56 pm 0
Long weekend!
Three days a week, I work in shifts with my coworker (we can’t work at the same time because the only thing we can do is use a single program that can’t even process two things at once), I’ve decided to take tomorrow off. It’s just not worth it for me to drive to Hollywood just to work for four hours, and then brave home Friday afternoon traffic. Normal afternoon traffic is awful enough.
Luckily everyone in the office is environmentally conscious, and also laden with enough common sense to see that this works out better for everyone.
Woohoo!
Filed under: work
