Shinji's Blog

I'm in a strange place right now, both physically and mentally. Hrm, when did I last update?

Oh. Well. Let's play a little recap then. Let's talk job shenanigans, relationship change, and some musing and pondering, the last of which is what's driving this update.

I was lucky enough to pick up a job at a mercenary call center called Upsource in New Bedford, doing outsourced support for The Neat Company. It's a scanner aimed at small businesses and consumers as it easily helps people file away receipts and other expense related stuff. I started in February at 40 hours a week, when two weeks out of training Neat cut Upsource's budget in half, forcing half of our team to take layoffs and the other half to stay on at 20 hours a week instead. Then, two months later, Neat killed off everyone but a few people. Then a week later, they were gone too. This was after over several months Neat and Upsource hired three training classes worth of people. Fantastic people management.

Luckily, I was re-hired by Upsource, after about two weeks of panicking whether I'd be employed or not, for another vendor. It's going to be with Zink, a color thermal printing company. The job, after doing some hunting and realizing what I could be doing and making if I'd managed to get a bachelor's degree, is not where I want to be. However, I'm really looking forward to this job. The tech behind Zink is very interesting and exciting and I do believe there are some genuinely good people running Upsource. Horrible management from Neat aside, Upsource lowered the hour requirement for insurance in response to the budget cut and has tried to re-hire directly from those they had to let go due to Neat.

Relationship wise, things have been thankfully interesting. After a long spell of not finding anyone, I ran into someone at a Gatecrash pre-release. We hit it off, but after a few weeks, things rapidly deterioated. While life wasn't as perfectly stable as I'd want it to be (finances and job were up in the air), I had gotten tired with being lonely plus felt things were recovering well enough (job seemed to be holding out and I was finally saving money again). So, I started using OkCupid again and was meeting with people. A few floundering dates later, I met Konig.

So far, things with Konig have been nothing short of delightful. Upfront, things have been amazing. He's funny, smart, loves gaming, has great interests, and is wonderfully independent. It's tough gauging his emotional interest at times, something he's admitted he's aware of. But other than that, it's been just about a month and I'd say things are off to a beyond incredible start. It also doesn't hurt that he's less than a thirty second drive from Game Underground, so I've been visiting him during the week, drumming during the day and then hanging out with him at night. Good arrangement, until I start working for Upsource/Zink mid-July.

Personally things are good. Right now I'm in a strange state. While things are nice, my problem is displayed below:

I'm temporarily jobless, and I've been on extended visits to Konig. Being away from my house for so long, and freed from the constraints of running the joint (playing host to IIDX visitors, taking care of Oliver, other shenanigans), leave me feeling strangely liberated. I'm really tempted to start some new things, like becoming a regular at Game Underground, being part of their drafts, coming up to Framingham more often, playing more Magic thanks to Konig, and other things. However, all that will change once my job starts. I don't even know if I could regularly draft once a week as this job will have me working random Saturdays with a commute that's an hour long. Given that counterbalance, it greatly undermines any feelings of freedom I have.

I'm also eerily reminded of a brief part in my life where I was a frequent con-goer. Waking up in unfamiliar hotels all the time, having a blur of people and exciting, and rushing to pin down memories so they wouldn't fade with time... It was a delightful mental war. I find myself wondering what would life be like if my work was all telecomute, and I just wandered from hotel to hotel, crash space to crash space. I think about Amanda Palmer and her lifestyle. And I wonder how and if at all I would do in such a lifestyle, specifically the nomadic aspect.

Thanks to some introspection prompted by Konig, I've come to decide that music is likely not a main career for me, and that I'd rather focus on technical stuff. I love doing tech support, I could also see myself being a trainer, or some such similar pursuit. After browsing LinkedIn for about a half hour, it became alarmingly apparent I'd either need a lot more field experience than I have or a bachelor's degree to get decent employment. So, I'm hoping to grab a technical associates from CCRI and finish up at a major school. I just don't know if any of my credits from my general studies degree are still applicable, given they're just about a decade old.

I'm eager for more questions and feedback from you all. Also, here's hoping blog updates become a habit. I know, I've said this before, but I have so much more at stake and that I care about on the table. It's one hell of a muse.

Take care and safe, you lot.