This is why I haven't posted in a week: I've been waiting for the call from Summit.

I don't think they ever planned on calling me back though.

I called them earlier this morning, and the HR person said they found someone for the job already. Dagnabbit.

:(
:(
:(

I have an interview this coming Tuesday for the Summit job. :)

So... if you remember my story about my layoff business....

Let's count. Assume there are 14 people in the three shifts total.

Four people got laid off, right? Two of the people who got laid off chose to resign instead of go through the protracted process of getting their pay.

Then two more people decided to resign. These two people are from one shift. Add to that one of the people who got laid off and resigned, and that's three people gone from a shift, leaving only one person in the first shift.

I just got a text message asking me to come in tomorrow for shift one instead of shift 3 because of this news. There's now one person in Shift 1, Three people in shift two, counting one person who's in layoff status, four people in shift 3, which I'm supposed to be in, and one person sliding shift.

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This news was punctuated by my immediate boss telling me that one of his bosses from the upstairs office apparently has a job opportunity for me. This should be good, right?

Well, if there's one thing I know about the office upstairs, it's that the specific branch of the company that they probably want me to work for is a gold farming operation for MMOs. Chances are I won't be working as a gold farmer... but if I find out tomorrow that they want me to do search engine optimization and other things related to making their gold farming business stronger, I'm definitely going to be annoyed.

Sigh... how the hell does one get through these sorts of things? I'm not used to saying NO. :(

The interview went well, I think.

There's supposed to be a second interview next week, and I hope I get called for it. :)

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Just heard recently about NBC's To Catch a Predator.

My god... it's sickening, sad, and funny at the same time.

I have an interview tomorrow at 11 am.

Pray for me, or wish me luck, or whatever it is you do to infuse magical power into someone.

Before I begin, I'd like to apologize for being cryptic. I wanted to get everything off my chest in one go so that I wouldn't need to explain myself after writing this down. Also, if I appear to be a bit melodramatic in writing this, I'm sorry. I guess I sometimes write like that without noticing.

Anyway, on to the long post/rant/plea.

Let's begin with what happened. This is updated with the events that happened earlier at work (I just got home) so this is going to be longer than I expected.

At 5:20 a.m. of Thursday morning, Philippine time, I was taken aside by my boss. He explained that, because the website/blog/company I work for was losing money, they had to let four more people go. I was one of the folks they were retrenching/downsizing/whatever it's called.

It was a bit of a shock because I always thought I'd be a bit safer from the firing squad. Due to earlier retrenchment and resignations from other members of the staff, I was essentially the guy who had been there the longest. By my count, I had worked there for 521 days as of earlier this morning. I started work there on July 31, 2006, so I felt like I had just hit a milestone by hitting two years in my first job.

Now, when I went in to work earlier, apparently more drama happened. The head boss came down from his perch in the high heavens and ranted to the shift on duty at the time about how we supposedly weren't working, and how we were losing him money. Furthermore, a directive was passed to us via email that changed our duties radically.

Our website is comprised of the main webpage and the various sub-blogs. Then there's an extra portion that hosts downloads for various files. Unfortunately, the download page makes the company more money than the website, so we were essentially told to stop writing, hunt down anything of value online that isn't nailed down (metaphorically speaking) and then upload it to the downloads website. Each member of the shift assigned to uploading duties has a quota of 100 downloadables to put up in approximately eight hours.

Connected to this is the fact that according to the new directive, only one person per shift can write articles. The problem is, that person has to write the equivalent of 17 articles in eight hours. This is lessened somewhat through cross-posting to multiple blogs so that it counts toward the quota multiple times, but it's still a lot of articles.

My shift was the first shift to follow the directive earlier, and I got the writing duties. While I like writing, note that the maximum quota that we've ever had to do previously was eight or nine articles. I managed to write eight articles, with some of them being cross-posts, and I failed to write for three of the blogs. My officemates who had been assigned to uploading duties were also able to find 100 files to upload per person. Needless to say, the new directive seemed entirely unrealistic, and it's tempting to resign right now, were it not for the severance pay I would be receiving for lasting 30 days.

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Now, while I haven't really revealed my job to people here (My contract states that I cannot name the company I work for because they want people to think the writers are American), let me just say this: I am a video game blogger and, for the most part, I'm happy with what I do.

I like writing about video games, and through the course of two years of blog writing, I've grown to like the atmosphere behind writing for an audience, even if the audience has this tendency to turn on you at every turn and call you a fucktard every so often.

I want to get paid to keep doing that if I can, but if not, I'd be happy just having a place of my own to blog about videogames. This is where the friends list comes in.

I've resolved to not act like a victim and spend weeks feeling bad about myself, which is why the first thing I did when I got home after being told I was let go was to email my friends and ask them for help in finding connections for a new job or for skills training. I'm essentially asking the same of my friends here on Livejournal.

I'd like to continue blogging about games, even if it's without pay, as it makes me happy and keeps my skills honed. To that end, if any of you have connections to or know of openings for video game blogs, perhaps you could let me know? I'd like to apply for any positions they have on hand and work my way up.

I've also decided to take this chance to humbly ask dystopia and interfaceleader if they would ever consider having a male writing for Girls Don't Game. I know your site would thus become a misnomer, but I know I have the experience and knowledge to contribute to a gaming website that often offers up videogame-related essays.  

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In any event, I'm posting this as a reminder to myself as well. I've resolved to not become a victim, and that means learning to fight back when adversity strikes. Right now, I'm in a state where adversity is trying to get the better of me, but I won't let that happen.

interfaceleader also managed to put it best in a recent entry she made:

Life is everything outside the box that you drew. Life is messy, and warm and squelchy. Life is long walks, and naps and loving people with abandon. Life is broken hearts that heal, lie is death and birth and circles. Life is shouting nonsense into the void, just to hear yourself and your echo. Life is making poetry that nobody understands, but makes you cry every time you read it and remember what you thought. Life is here and now, there is no substitution, no waiting, no qualifications needed. Life is other people, long lunches, the pauses between words. Life is everything that happened in that heart-beat when nothing happened and you changed forever. Life is taking control, losing control, forgetting control. Life is power and vulnerability, life is learning to to be strong and flexible, not hard and brittle. Life is new growth, new challenges, new days with sunrises like orange juice and caramel.

I guess this is life. Welcome to a new chapter of it.

Haven't been able to sleep very well.

Imagine your worst day ever.

Then imagine your worst day ever becoming 2.75 times worse.

Then imagine that worst day ever spilling onto the day after.

That's how the past 19 hours have been for me.

I was writing this short preface post that made me feel extremely pathetic, then I realized that if I really want to break past the barriers in my life, I have to have some pride in myself and what I've been doing for the past two years.

That said, I'll have a potentially long post up when I get back from talking to someone. I'd like to ask for help from the people on my friends list, so I can move forward from this rut I feel I'm in.

Anyway, *hugs* in advance to everyone on my friends list. :)

Today I found out about a group of people who call themselves Otherkin.

Apparently, these people believe they are "soulbonded" to a character in fiction, usually in literature, video games, or anime.

I recently found this out by visiting the sf_drama community, where a recent post talked about a horrible housemate who was apparently the equivalent of a cult leader to a group of otherkin (an exaggeration, to be sure, but not exactly).

http://community.livejournal.com/housematehorror/tag/%27insane+housemate%27+series+about+sarah

Anyway, if you want to read all about this... soulbondedness and insane drama, feel free to check the above link out, beginning with the bottom-most post, going up. It's hilarious stuff, and it's not even finished yet.

1. Friends
2. Sex
3. Music
4. Vices
5. Love
6. LiveJournal

Ask me a question from each category. Then post this in your LJ and have people ask you questions.

And yes... you can ask me anything about the following categories and I will answer them truthfully.

Meme from darkprism

Jumpinjessflash, Purple_Mirie, quarr3l, prawninator and boin_na_croin have been added to the filter for that date/really weird thoughts entry. You should be able to read it now.

My very first filtered entry is up.

It's about the date I mentioned recently and what I'm currently going through right now.

If you want to read it, and aren't part of the filter, let me know in this post and I'll look into adding you to the filter (or possibly not, depending on my preference).

Last Friday, I went on a date.

It was Great!


Now it's time for me to....




























CONTEMPLATE!


PS: Who thought I would say something naughty? :P

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoliosis

I apparently have mild scoliosis, say the doctors. :(

Keitai Sousakan 7 tells the story of Keita Amishima, an otherwise average (and somewhat apathetic) high school student who gets involved with the organization known as Under Anchor, a high tech anti-cybercrime task force. He joins the organization and is paired up with Seven, a cellphone-slash-robot who has the ability to hack into computers, and together, they undertake missions that help protect the telecommunications and internet infrastructure of the world, as well as some stopping a bank robbery or two on the side.

Now... that blasted blurb above is the best I can do on a moment's notice, seeing as I'm typing this out of my ass. Basically, it's a good show, with a main character who is likable by his very nature as the sterotypically apathetic typical high school student with a streak of kindness and duty to his fellow man. Best of all, you have a talking cellphone robot who has his own personality, and who isn't afraid to chastise his "buddy" Keita when the kid's being too loopy.

tvnihon.com is where I get my subtitled versions of the show, and it's worth downloading at least the first 45-minute episode (subsequent episodes are only 20 minutes) to get a feel for the show's plot and pacing. It's a worthwhile Japanese drama/tokusatsu show, with good special effects, interesting situations, and, well... a talking cellphone robot.

Haven't posted in three weeks, even though I've been checking LJ daily.

Been trying out Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures... it's an alright game, but in it's current state, it's not super fun yet, other than the first 20 levels or so.

Went out with my blockmates from College, and that was fun. I really miss them all.

There's a chance that, should I fail a few more tests, I'll be diagnosed as a diabetic, and I definitely don't want that.

Also... back pains this week. There's this chronic pain on my back, right side. Had an x-ray done to check it out, and I'll find out the results soon. I hope it isn't serious.


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I miss people. I wanna hug some friends of mine, and some LJ friends as well. I miss that feeling of closeness, I guess. Or maybe I'm just lonely.

OH MY FUCKING GOD.

YES, THIS POST WILL BE ALL IN CAPS.

YAY! DIABLO 3!

So... I realize I don't get out as much anymore because I work nights... but basically, I miss my real life friends, like Paula, Bia, and Ingrid, and *inserts a pre-determined list of people I love*

Sometimes, when I check my blog entries and see that they get to meet up and stuff, I feel bad.

I intend to change that. Gotta be more active in keeping up with my friends. Gotta start smiling again.

Starting.... now. ^_^

It's a funny thing. I come home from work, and I have this urge to scroll through friending communities looking for interesting people to befriend and know.

Observations:

There are a lot of people who want to connect with other people. Perhaps that's part of the nature of being human.
Not a lot of guys post "add me" advertisements.
I'm part of a very small microcosm of the entire LJ community, and it'll probably be impossible to get to know everyone.