Latenight links

Hello. Work's been ok. Friday went by with ease, though I was working much harder than on thursday, when I was just learning the ropes. Saturday was the worst though. People queuein for 20 meters before the store opened. Crazy bastards, thinking that if they're early they'll avoid the crowd & lines. Fools! Anyway. Here's a quick link before I got to bed. I thought it was mildy amusing, not having heard the song before. Let's make it clear that I am not a WoW player/fan either! Did you know that it's 20 years since the Challenger disaster? Anyway, time to go to bed. I'll finish up with a quote from one of the investigators of the case, a special friend of mine: Richard 'dick' Feynman: "For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled." Amen.

First impressions

Hello there. How can I help you? First day at work. The work of a IT-equipment & supplies salesman is not too shabby. But do not get me wrong. It's not glamorous either.

The good sides:

1. I can buy hardware & software for my own use, slicing through the margins.
2. The customers are humble - for the most part.
3. You're constantly selling different things - from 42" lcd tv's to laptops to 10-packs of dvds & the odd cables & connectors.
4. The co-workers are easy-going, smart, and helpful.
5. It's a hell of a lot closer to home than my last place.

The bad sides:

1. I can't buy that much hardware because the salary isn't SIZZLING. It's OK. I get a whopping two thousandths of whatever I sell as commission. Well suppose I sell stuff worth 30k per day, that's 60€ bonus. Wee. May all the fucking yuppies come my way.
2. Some of the customers are annoying PERIOD.
3. Few breaks, you cannot relax much. People are watching.
4. It's taking away my evenings and saturdays. Well I get compensated for that!
5. Still not quite what my schooling should get me.

You do the math and tell me. At least I am moving on.

New template

To celebrate my 50th post, I opted to change my template to something a little more, err, green. 50 posts in what, 55 weeks is not much, hey? Perhaps a little more discipline is needed of me. Anyway, here's a link for all you sickos who want to learn of the evils of this world: The Crime Library!

Arbeit macht frei

A twist of good luck. I got a job as a sales rep in the IT field. I went and quit my old & dreaded warehouse job! Good bye, good riddance, & farewell. As my old workfriend with whom I've been through 3 different jobs noted: arbeit macht frei! It's quite possible to get rid of a shitty job through getting a better one :) Awesome. In another fantastic strike of good news, we will get a free accomodation in Copenhagen come April. We are going there to attend my cousin Anne's wedding & she's promised to let us stay at their flat during the weekend. The married couple will be staying at a hotel. This is excellent and most welcome news.

I checked yesterday, and my work practice credits have been approved in full. Superb! I was a bit worried if my old POS work could be approved, but damned if it didn't. This day has been full of good news. Things are on the up & up! I just hope everything goes well tomorrow, as I start work at the new place.

Freezing!

This morning had to be the worst in a long time. Waking up - fine. Quick and hasty (and tasty) breakfast, ok. But the weather. -20'c with 8m/s winds. I walk to school regularily, regardless of weather. That principle may have to change. For reference, go here and click on the link to see an interactive graph that depicts how much 'bite' the weather has. It shows how cold the weather feels on your skin by taking into account the wind speeds. So this morning, I was exposed for 15 minutes to approximately -32,5C. When it is cold and windy, quite often my eyes start to leak. Today, in that weather, the tips of my eyelashes developed small round bits of ice. I kid you not. The worst part of the walk was while I was crossing an approx 170m long bridge at an elevation of... hmm say 15 meters. The wind on that bridge is viciously penetrating. There was a couple of times last fall when I almost fell into the ground because of a vicious whirl! Well this time it blowing that hard, but felt cold enough. Ouch! The wind was head on. Breathing was difficult. I couldn't keep my eyes open for long periods. Suppose the breeze was 15m/s. That would be -36 in the 'bite' index. At that level, you get frostbite if exposed for ~10 minutes or longer. I believe it :P

Tomorrow morning is going to be another struggle. But have no fear - I shall be better prepared. Sidenote: as I was walking back from school (the weather relatively cozy now with the suns warming effect) I got to thinking about all the poor bastards throughout history who have had march or wage war in freezing conditions. Poor bastards indeed. Well, enough about the weather - I apologise (even though I am excused by my geographical area with 4 seasons!)

It'll be a busy spring. My final thesis is starting to take form. Did some initial research at the school library today. Apparently there has been some interest in the topic in the last couple of years. I found two somewhat similar thesises made. I'm wondering whether I should take a peek? Perhaps get some ideas for references. I have had to sign a nondisclosure agreement with the company I'm making the final thesis for. The good thing with this is that the firm will be providing me with information, guidance, and ultimately - money. Not bad. Too many of my colleague students past & present have had to do their thesises without getting financially compensated for their efforts. Anyway, as far as secrecy goes, any & all information about the topic, as far as details to the company in itself is conserned - shall be beyond the scope of this Blog. However! The final thesis after all is a public document. It will be reviewed by senior staff at my polytechnic. I will present it to public in an 'open to all' seminar. And finally, there will be a copy of it available at the school's library. It'll be a fine day indeed when I am done with this project. Cash and glory. Well, at least cash and a sense of relief.

Work front news: email frenzy back and forth. I may become a freelance technical writer. An ISO certified translation agency contacted me regarding my open application. We have exchanged several emails and it looks good. If they find something that would fit my experience and talents, they'll send me a small sample. I will process it (translate most likely) and send it back. The company will then decide if I'm up for the project or not. Naturally, I have no idea when such projects will come my way. Maybe never. But the fact that a senior staff member of the company has been willing to exchange emails with me so freely has led me to believe that perhaps there is hope. Today, around noon I got a phonecall from another company. About a position in an IT sales. I'll go to the job interview on monday 12.00. It would be part-time. Decent pay. Nice benefits (though I really shouldn't be buying hardware right now). Just what I need. Let's hope it works out! I'm also expecting a couple of responses to my summerjob applications. These would be accounting firms. The topic does not _really_ interest me, but hey - anything is better than what I've been doing for the last two summers. Well maybe it's not that bad - but still. I'd rather have a real job.


Interesting times indeed.

Frenzy

Hello there! School's kicked off. So has the ever annoying search for summerjobs! Maybe this summer I will finally get something good going. I should be done with 95% of my studies by the middle of april. It's going to be a rough ride untill then. The topic for my final thesis is pretty much set now. Gotta start doing the research for it. It'll be about how to economically internationalize an new-media company. Around 40 pages will do it. Back to studying Accounting, out of all things. Sigh!

Happy New Year

Hello. Still alive! Time flies by fast, and blogging is difficult without discipline. I'll just start on the theater bit. It was surprisingly good: Shakespeare done in a modern adaption with sexy undertones. My grades for school were rather good, 4's and 5's (out of 5). I had a few nice evenings between friends, cousins and family. Wintertime is perfect for sitting together with a few good people, eating snacks, drinking Glögg and maybe playing a bit of Carcassonne.

Christmas was rather nice and cozy, except that I had to go to work on boxing day, d'oh.
The eve we spent at Minna's parents, and xmas day at my parents. Nice set of presents we got, yessir. Not a single CD or DVD this time though, which may strike most people as weird! What with the days of burning dvd's & fast connections, perhaps people don't see the point anymore. Unless you really like & enjoy something - then you prolly want 'the real deal' - given you've got the money for it.

New year was a strange affair. Minna had work from 10pm-4.30am, while I had work on new year's day from 8am to 4pm. Not much of a party. But we did try - we went to one party at around 7pm - but naturally Minna had to leave pretty soon. I followed suite an hour after that with Martti, Emmu & Heljä. Got to see the fireworks, and drank a few beers. Even thought I showed considerable restraint as far as drinking went, it still wasn't easy to go to work the next morning. Most likely it's just because of lack of sleep.

With the days being so short, you've got to have something relaxing to do in the evenings, or you'll go crazy. Sitting in front of the telly, or watching movies nonstop will get you fucked. At least it gets me very edgy. Which is why I've been try to get some exercise in... I actually borrowed my brother's ice-skates and went skating with Ali last week. What a disappointment that was. Maybe it was the skates, or the fact that I was last on ice in the 90s - but man, I was crap. Back in my early & later teens, I was pretty good. In the A-team in school. But damn. I think it's at least partially due to the equipment. The skates blunt & loose from the ankles, hockeystick was too long, and the ice sucked.. Excuses? - I really need to find a saw from somewhere. And buy some skates. The old ones I own are a few sizes too small. Besides the slight discomfort and disbelief of noticing the degradation of my skills, I really enjoyed exercising outdoors for a change. Squash & gym are both cool, but you don't get the same feeling afterwards. Being outdoors for a couple of hours in mild frost temperature is something else. I plan hitting the ice again this week, either today or tomorrow.

Let's hope 2006 is a good year. Some of the future highlights: we are getting married, I will graduate, and (possibly) get a decent job. Cheers!