Week in Roundup

Dear Diary,

Well, the first week of me working is great and over. I am officially a card carrying member of corporate america. The contract I'm working at put me in the offices of Nokia here in Dallas. Nokia is the most laid back environment, and what makes it even more laid back is the fact that our technology department falls under the umbrella of the marketing group.... so little or no effort at all produces ooh's and aahh's from the higher ups. It's quite rewarding.

So far all week long, my first week has consisted of probably a grand total of 4 or 5 hours of real work and about 25 hours of meetings.

My job is to be a web developer/webmaster for www.NokiaUSA.com. It's a really tough job, lemme tell you. If you believe that I have some swampland in Florida you might be interested in. ;-) Ahh so little to do, and so much time to do it in.

I don't want to lose all my friends, so I won't mention my salary. But it's enough to be considered a crime.

This week we are babysitting a cat for Crackbaby's girlfriend. And we are babysitting our friend dirty.a.sid and his kid (he's looking for a new apartment this week). And I'm finally working and keeping my mind sharp again. Which is a good deal.

At my job I have not a cube, not an office, but count 'em, one TWO offices! yes! Because I'm going thru a consulting firm, I have an office at the firm I share with a couple guys, and I have an office at Nokia that is all my own! yes! Don't ask me why, the rest of the team is in cubes, but me, an office. I'm pretty happy about the whole deal.

And yes, the facial hair is staying off. I guess I'm used to my new look. I'll post a pic for all of you to look at. I'm sure you are all real interested. Look for that some day when I'm bored at work with the quickcam.

At any rate, it's Phitt's birthday tonight... so I've gotta go celebrate. Everyone sing happy birthday for him. It'll make him feel all speshul.

/rizzn

Quote of the Entry: "One was nice. One was...not so nice. Then another guy came in. That was fine for a little while."

- kat

Quaffing Coffee (say that five times fast)

Dear Diary,

I am now working at my new job. Well, I do say working in the loosest sense of the word. They gave me a bunch of papers to fill out and things that you normally fill out when you start a new job, and now I am sitting here at my desk in my office doing absolutely nothing. I feel like I have really achieved something here. (no sarcasm intended!)

I know the people here are going to be cool because they guy across the way has a framed schwa poster in his office.

Apparently I'm not going to be doing web design as I first was informed. I am actually going to be an admin. Which is fine with me I guess. It at least sounds fun. I get to administer and set up the offices exchange servers. Now granted I have never done this before, and also granted that they project manager who gave me this assignment and hired me knows this, BUT, I am still assigned this task.

But my first assignment is to sit at this desk till someone tells me where the network data center is. And I am dutifully performing this task while quaffing coffee and typing to you, diary.

Hrmm.. I think I'll go get some more coffee.

/rizzn

Quote of the Entry: "Take it away, Enrique!"

- kelly

Yay for Sheep

Dear Diary,

Well fun day today. I completely changed my appearance for the sake of a job. Gone is my facial hair. Yes, all of it. My face is as smooth as a newborn baby's butt. (not that I'd know personally how smooth a baby's butt is, it's just an expression)

I'm not real happy about the whole deal, but it's supposed to basically ensure that I land a job that pays 65k a year, so I guess I can't complain about it real loud.

And I have to wear a suit and a tie. You can guess how happy I am about that whole deal too, but hey. Everyone has their price I guess. And someone found the price it takes for me to remove my copious wallet chains, shave the goatee and the sideburns and wear a suit and tie in three digit degree weather.

I guess that makes me a suit now.

One of the people that Phillip and I used to make fun of while we were out on our cigarette breaks. I remember him or I asking the other if we thought we'd actually become a suit. I didn't know but Phillip took a look at me and told me I for sure would never be a suit. Oh well. ;-)

Well, I'm going to make a mix cd now. Fun fun.

/rizzn

Quote of the Entry: "Yeah. You read that right. BARNYARD FUN. "

- crackbaby

Hi there.

Dear Diary,

Well, what can I say. I guess I'm back. I took about a month's worth of vacation. Hi.

I really don't have an excuse for it other than I needed to straighten things out. Things in life were going poorly all around, but now I think I've got things on the right track. (Gee how many times have I said that?).

But anyways, hope you like the new dezine. It's pretty stupid, I know, but hey, no one will probably ever read this diary anymore -- it's been ages since I've appeared online.

And to allay any questions, the answer is no, I didn't go to jail again.

But thanks for asking.

I guess I'll let you know more of what's actually going on in my life in a little bit. Right now I'm going to go to sleep at what we here people call a 'decent hour.'

/rizzn

Quote of the Entry: "Blood and bloody ashes!"

- super fast kel

MAS: Quantum Leap pt I

Dear Diary,

I made the device, yay!

Remember that conversation I told you about in the diary about being someone else for a day?

I made this device based off this show called Quantum Leap. Maybe you've heard of it. Well, it lets you go into other people's bodies.

Well, I programmed it with the members of the Mutual Admiration Society and my dna.

Then i turned it on.

But nothing happenned.

So I guess I'm going to sleep now.

next

/rizzn

Quote of the Entry: "I had a throat swab, yum, and tomoro I get to go back for blood tests. Woo! I love blood tests."

- kelly

Mutual Admiration Society

dear diary,

what to talk about what to talk about.

well, the deal with my business are going good. the web hosting deal looks like it will happen. phitt announced that he will now seek the money needed to invest in it, and all that reamains is to get the ball rolling in that department.

oh yes, the secret i was going to tell you about today.

bet you thought i forgot about that didn't you.

nope.

okay. starting tomorrow i'm going to have a guest diarists here, as is kelly, kat, doug and crackbaby.

check it out here: Mutual Admiration Society

During the next few days we are going to write in each other's diaries. it should be fun. hopefully all will go as planned.

well, i'm all out of words, i'm going to see if phitt's up to making some music, and we'll see where that leads.

/rizzn

Anatomy of a Diary

Dear Diary,

I have a secret. I ain't gonna tell you till monday though. I think I'll tell you. We'll just have to see. Depends on if you behave good between now and then, as my mom used to say. Probably still says it too.

Well, I'm pretty much back to the same ol' Rizzn. Forgotten about last night, or at least buried it some. I'm not going to think about it till I'm ready to deal with it I guess. I dunno. That's bad. But most people seem to say don't worry about it.

The person I would most like to ask would be my dad, but I don't think he'd quite be objective about the situation. Considering he doesn't know the whole story. He doesn't even know I was homeless for a month or so.

I've noticed how diaries seem to go thru an evolution and eventual de-evolution. Or maybe it's not really an evolution proccess. It's more like a cycle.

Let me describe it for you. (you knew I would)

It all starts out with this fateful entry, entry number one. Sometimes the diary is still password protected, but usually the content is always the same.

Dear Diary...

I just found this neat little thing from (so and so). I really should keep a journal (lists positive benefits here), although I'm undecided as to whether it should be public or private. We'll just have to see.

signed, Kootyr

Then, eventually, all the diaries that I read and know obviously eventually became public, so there's the obligatory next entry about:

Dear Diary,

Well, for better or for worse, it's going to be a public diary ...

The entries in this stage of development are usually two paragraphs long, probably four sentences a paragraph. They document what happenned that day, and really don't talk about much of importance. Usually.

Then you get to another stage where they develop the sence of an audience. And then the writer tries to be funny and muse about the fact that he/she will not be able to be truly honest since he/she accidentally without thinking told some of his/her friends about the site.

Then there's the stage where the diary writer starts to just not care and writes about what he/she is actually thinking/feeling. Probably by about this time the writer has accumulated quite an audience. Or at least a small base of loyal readers.

These two stages have fairly well developed writing in them, assuming the writer is capable. Longer paragraphs, more of them.

Then, likely what will happen is a dramatic event in the writer's life will occur. If the writer has a hit counter, he/she will notice an immense surge in readership. He/she will chronicle the event in it's entirety, the more earthshattering, the more people read it. He/she will probably gain some loyal readers out of this event as well.

At some point or another, the dramatic event will come to a conclusion, and readers will no longer be on the edges of their seats wanting to hear the next update in the saga. But a few new hardcore readers and the old faithfuls will likely stay.

Then the degeneration begins. The writer reverts to the first stage, except in a different form. The content will contain stuff about the goings on of day to day life. But the format will be one line paragarphs. Basically, a stripped down version of journalistic style of writing.

This is the most perilous time in the life of a diary. I have seen more than one diary die in many stages, but this is the most likely place for a diary to die. (not that they can't be revived afterwards -- a diary never really dies, it's a drug, it just goes into remission)

And then the cycle can begin again.

I'm not saying everyone goes thru this exact cylce, but it's common enough. Some people stay in certain stages longer than others. But it's pretty much standard.

I had other things to talk about too, but I'll save that for another entry.

/rizzn

Quote of the Entry: (from the Chat Logs)

RznDoUrdn: it has been raining alll day
KellyIsMad: Big mother thunderstorm here and the sky is green. I think I'm gonna log off before lightening fries another modem.
KellyIsMad has left the room.
TenderPoison17: Hello my little tonto. I apologize, but I have to go meditate and hope there's no freaky 22 year old there tonight.
TenderPoison17 has left the room.
RznDoUrdn: sigh
RznDoUrdn: left me all by meself.
RznDoUrdn: and i'm talking to myself.
RznDoUrdn: fabulous.