Category Archives: Blog

Got a call from the second head hunter people. They want to set up a telephone interview with the insurance guys for next week. I suck at phone interviews. I’m usually okay face-to-face, but I can’t gauge body language and make eye contact and all that nifty stuff with just a voice encounter. I just don’t make as good of a first impression on the phone as I do in person. Well, crap. Nothing to do but try my best, I suppose. But I anticipate this will severely decrease my chances of getting that position.

Writing Stuff

Words: 935 on the novel WIP. Downloaded a slew of guqin music. A guqin is a sort of Chinese zither, a very old and traditional instrument, and it plays an important role in my novel. Doing a lot of research on it, and I realized I didn’t have a good enough idea of what it sounded like considering how key it is. So spent an hour or so, playing mp3 clips I found online. An interesting background to write to, but very fitting for this particular work. Also did a lot of research on the playing technique and things like theme and musical philosophy.

Been working on a sound byte “pitch” but everything I come up seems to have a ring of pretension to it. What reads as dramatic and interesting on paper sounds over-the-top and silly out loud. Grmph.

9,169 / 45,000 (20.0%)

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Interview: they’re calling me back today to schedule a follow-up. See Friends-Only post for details.

Got The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind from Netflix. I was pretty unexcited about the prospect of a Jim Carrey movie as I’m not exactly a fan of his. But it was actually really good, despite Carrey’s presence. It helped that he wasn’t doing his goofy, over-the-top “Jim Carrey” thing, but also, the story was really poignant and thoughtful. It was good. And I really adore Kate Winslet.

Having major technical issues. Comcast keeps fading in and out, making accomplishing anything Internet-related impossible.

Writing Stuff

Had Matthew first reader the folktale. Did two editing passes on it based upon his suggestions.

Club 100 For Writers
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So the job interview went well, but then it was just the recruiters making sure I wasn’t a psycho, and that I had the proper skillset. Check, not psycho, and definitely have the qualifications. I could’ve been in and out of there in ten minutes, except I kept asking questions about the position and stretched it out for another twenty.

Get this, the recruiter guy didn’t want to tell me the name of the company they intend to contract me to, citing things like confidentiality and client-recruiter business practices. Okay, fine, but it makes it hard for me to research information about a prospective employer. So I asked him a lot of questions like how large the company was, how long they’d been in business, where they were downtown, what their promotion system was like. And in the course of my grilling, I actually managed to trick the name of the company out of him, HAH.

Interland. As in the same Interland that screwed over arkhamrefugee when he worked for them. So, after chatting with the wondrous Badger Lord, I determine that I really don’t want this job.

The recruiters are supposed to call back today to set up an interview with me and Interland. I can’t refuse an offer of employment and still maintain my unemployment benefits, so I figure I’ll do what I never ever do at the interview, I’ll ask for more. I’ll ask them to document on paper the exact job responsibilities for the position, I’ll ask for a larger starting salary than their initial offer (which will still be significantly less than what I was making before), and I’ll ask for better hours. Might even ask them to throw in some free parking. If they give me all I ask for, then hell, I’ll take the job. But I’m betting they won’t want me.

So, NEXT career opportunity, please!

And hey, one excellent thing came out of this. arkhamrefugee is joining glenn5 and us tomorrow for our movie night.

Prepping for the job interview. Trying not to get myself stressed and anxious, but it’s deep into the inevitably on that front. I haven’t had to do an interview in over a decade. *twitch*

Writing Stuff

On a much more enjoyable note, I did the Apex interview yesterday. The questions ranged from meaty to light, and included one about Hobkin. I’m quite looking forward to seeing the finished publication.

The person in my writers group that I sent the Greek translation of “Manny” to has read it, and assures me it’s very faithful in tone and text to the English. There was one mis-translation he found, “teal” got translated to “tea-colored,” but all in all, it sounds like their translator did an exemplary job. Whew and woo! Definitely hoping 9 continues to buy things from me.

Words: Two passes on the folktale and completed the ending which I had been unsatisfied with before. Foisting it upon Matthew, then probably will send it up to Critters to get hacked apart. Then it goes out post haste to Cricket. I’m seriously considering skipping the Critters step this time around, but remain undecided.

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