dannyman.toldme.com

First Day at Work

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2003/04/17/first-day-at-work/

I got up at five this morning, before the sun, and after a nice hot shower and other morning rituals, I walked a mile through the damp, dark streets, to feast on eggs, toast, bacon and orange juice at Sam’s. I rounded the corner at 6:25 to help open up the coffee shop.

Working is good. After eight hours I’ve earned myself $64. It feels damn good and now I smell like a mixture of coffee and something like caramel. I’m hopped up on caffeine and hungry for some kind of greasy cheeseburger. The tips were pretty weak: I have $1.64 or so on top of the just over $2 I have saved up in coins. That could buy me breakfast tomorrow, or maybe some Taco Bell tonight. Maybe I can get someone to lend me a few more bucks tonight, or trade them an old chocolate chip scone or two for a cheeseburger. I’ll have money after I get home on Sunday, because on the one hand family likes to help, and on the other, there’s bound to be a place in Chicago for me to sell my baht off for real American money!

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An Enjoyable, Economical Evening

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2003/04/14/an-enjoyable-economical-evening/

I headed back towards campus and did my federal taxes. This was a little complicated because I had to hustle around and grab some extra forms to calculate my self-employed earnings from a consulting gig I did last year. Fortunately, I was able to achieve all of this at the library, despite my not being a student. Everything was done by hand, with a photocopy of everything for my own records. I’m supposed to get $640 back from Uncle Sam. I sure can use that money!

In the evening I was feeling kind of good about everything, so I figured I’d take my $7 and go have a good time. I went by the lounge where the old friend worked, and confronted a $2 cover charge. “Does that come with a drink?” Ordinarily this wouldn’t phase me, but given that I’d like a drink, and a meal on Sunday, it was a source of some concern.

Alas, I coughed up and made my way inside. There was some serious salsa going down. I don’t know any fancy dancin’, but this didn’t keep a couple of young ladies from showing me a step or two. And the long-lost acquaintance, who was working as a waitress for the evening, treated me to a Long Island, as I was keen on something strong and nursable. It was quite strong, but it disappeared when I got halfway through, a victim of overzealous bussing. Easy come, easy go. A good time was had by me, at least.

On the way home, I was feeling somewhat hungry. The half a Long Island had done well in a stomach that had only met the coffee shop scone and a fifty-cent poppyseed muffin I’d been saving from my voyage. I decided to drop a dollar at Taco Bell. “What’s a Supreme mean?” “Sour cream and tomatoes.” “Sour cream? I just like tomatoes.” “I think you can get the tomatoes for free.” But, there was some wrestling involved with the cash register, because you can’t get tomatoes for free, but he was going to get the computer to make an exception, because he’d already said I could get tomatoes, but the computer didn’t want to enable his non-conformity. I paid my dollar and took my plastic bag to the corner. Then I found that I’d been awarded two tacos, one with tomatoes and one without. I checked my watch, it was 11:45. A good note on which to end a day of lucky breaks.

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Potential

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2003/04/14/potential/

Some time back I had been chatting on IRC about the possibility of coming back to Champaign-Urbana, and a friend somehow mentioned that he knew a cute bartender in town with a very unique name that rang a bell. I thought a moment, and asked him if the lady in question was the person I thought she might be: a student who had attended the same high-school as my sister and I, my sister’s age. You bet!

So, when I got to town I dropped her a line, and she suggested that I visit her at work, where she would be “all day Saturday” so this afternoon I wandered around downtown Champaign in search of her establishment. I stumbled upon a coffee shop with an art gallery, that had a help-wanted sign for a full-time barista. Worth a shot! I was greeted at the gallery entrance by an eager young lady with an expressive face. I browsed the water colors and we got to chatting some, then I dropped in on the cafe, got a scone and a coffee and an application.

And an interview, that went pretty well. I suppose including my resume helped. The lady, who runs the place with her husband, is intent on getting service-oriented staff, along the idea that excellent service could be one of their market differentiators. Well, that and the art gallery and a periodicals room in the back, I really dug the place. The wage is pretty darn good too, and she explained that since they were from a social work background it was important to them to treat their employees well too. I was told to drop a couple of references and that I’d hear back from them in a couple of days.

Well, that was nice!

On my way out, I chatted some more with the young lady in the art gallery … but she had to go greet some more folks who had come in. I reassured us both that if the job thing works out, I’d surely see her again sometime soon. I wandered out into the sunlight, cruising the streets of Champaign’s tiny downtown business district. Eventually I found the place where my old acquaintance works, but it was closed – an evening sort of place!

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Karmic Synergies

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2003/04/14/karmic-synergies/

I finished my state taxes today. I have about $100 coming from California. Yay. To celebrate, I went over to Za’s to spend my very last $3 on a coffee and a muffin. I asked the cashier if he thought it would come out under $3, as I had no change. He assured me it surely must, then rang up to $3.08. I was ready to downgrade my order when he did the easy thing of reaching into the tip cup and digging out eight cents. I thanked him for his generosity, and apologized that the tips were his money. He was upbeat – eight cents spread around four people! I told him that I wasn’t going to feel too bad, because normally I make a point of tipping decently, because I have worked as a waiter. That seemed to make him happier. Indeed, every time I have been at Za’s this week I’ve made sure to leave something in the cup.

I savored the French breakfast blend. It was slightly too-hot but quite soothing. Very French! And my chocolate muffin! Mmmmm!

I met Dan and Brijeet by the library at four, when Dan was picking Brijeet up from work. They are now both LIS people; Dan suspects that he has been accepted into the PhD program because even though he hasn’t received any notification, the campus phonebook server says he is in the LIS Graduate program, and if it is on the Internet, it surely must be true.

I got some quiet reading in in the afternoon sun, and when I was finished at Za’s I went and relaxed some more on the Quad, finishing another chapter. There were a couple of girls with a box of ducklings that they were adopting as temporary pets, that would be returned to the Ag school upon maturity. That was pretty neat. A little kid came to pet one of the ducks, and when his family turned to walk away the ducks made a bee-line to follow them. The girls retrieved the “attack ducks” and remarked that they were doing their duckling thing of following anything they could. Makes sense.

They are engaged to marry now, sharing a condo in Champaign that is already appreciating. It is a nice place built in the twenties that reminded me a bit of Mom’s apartment and Grandma’s old house. Very cool. What is even cooler is their kittens, who are very fuzzy, good-tempered, and playful.

We headed out for BBQ, their treat. I was most appreciative and the three of us put away a slab of pork ribs and a brisket, along with side dishes and pop. It was good eatin’. Afterward we walked over to Kopi and sipped on delicious coffee-based treats. I was most appreciative of their hospitality, but they recalled that a while back when I was in town I made the splashy gesture of treating the whole crowd to sushi. Ah! I knew there was a reason I tried to spend money on my friends when I had it that went beyond mere altruistic friendliness! The friends you treat well one day may take care of you another time. So be good to your friends, kids!

I love talking with Dan and Brijeet, coz they’re really smart folks with broad interests. Dan in particular is a kindred geek with some creative bents. Among other things, we talked about things like networking multi-dimensional finite-state automata as kinetic art, and the local business potential for wireless Internet services.

Back at the ranch, I finally made some minor technical changes to the way I’m handling HTML on the website, wrapping it in DIV elements with unique URLs based on timestamps. This will allow me to crawl through my files and compile a list of “what is new” that can be wrapped into a syndication feed. The upshot is that I want to try and be less linear, de-emphasizing the log here and surfing around to pay attention to a more thematic system of content-development. If I have an easy way to track and report “what’s new” that would provide a more immediate sense of reward.

Another benefit is that if others wish to create hyperlinks to sections within my HTML documents, I’ll have a standard “perma-link” mechanism available for them to use. Cross-referencing among “blogs” seems to be the latest fad these days, and I’ve seen some speculative buzz as to the potentially neato implications this could have for knowledge dissemination among trust networks in the digital age. Werd!

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Approaching Verdicts

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2003/03/26/approaching-verdicts/

So, today I had my hearing before the administrative law judge regarding my unemployment eligibility. He makes his decision by the 28th, and I should receive the letter within a week.

It doesn’t sound too good. The letter of the law is that eligibility is contingent upon involuntary separation from your very last employer. Off the record, it was suggested that my error was in filing for unemployment immediately upon returning to the area, after previously quitting from the Pizza Place, which I had argued was only temporary employment. Had I taken a one-day temp job, I’d again be eligible. Weird laws.

Sometimes you eat the bear, and sometimes the bear eats you.

In the afternoon I had a reasonably positive interview with a swanky restaurant / bar / night-club in the Metreon. Five positions, one hundred applicants, I figure I can make it to a pool between 15 and thirty for round two, which is supposed to happen in the next few days, at which point I’ll definitely be employed, or not. I reckon my odds are roughly 20% of landing the job. This is actually pretty heartening under the circumstances.

What I appreciated about the day was that both of my judges were left-handed. I called my afternoon interviewer on this, figuring it doesn’t hurt to identify a point of solidarity on our shared minority status. After all, what good is a waiter in a swanky place who can’t schmooze?

If I don’t have a sufficient source of income in the next week or two, I’ll likely be making the decision to leave the area, probably returning to Illinois, where I’d be close to family and have a lower cost-of-living threshold to worry about. It’ll probably take a week to secure some gas money, and plan a little shindig.

For those who feel they’re not making enough decisions lately, you can judge my rhinoceros.

In unrelated news, I bought a bunch of vegetables today. I felt like some hippie freak, approaching the cashier with a variety of veggies, pita, hummus, and of course, some beer. Time to snack.

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<pre />

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2003/03/24/pre/

If I cry now is it for fear
  or joy?
 Elation or    Depression
   Peace or War
Idleness or  Opportunity
         ?

I have no lover, can I not love all?
They love me back, subtly and
                 I will also feel scorn
    but that too is a feature of
 Romance.

E pluribus unum
          The many but no one
                   all for me
all for me up to me all the time
with no relief except in sleep,
work or pleasure I can't
so well afford.

   cant cry why would I nothing going
                 on emotions -not Today
                       perhaps Tomorrow

                 I'll follow the sun

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Selling my Yen

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2003/03/24/selling-my-yen/

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Cheap Entertainment

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2003/03/22/cheap-entertainment/

So, Adam clued me into a website called PhotoSIG, which allows you to upload photos to be critiqued. You can only upload so often, which is actually kind of cool, so I started with my picture of the couples kissing goodbye at a Berlin train station.

The web site itself is a pretty darned reasonable time-waster, and time is something I have a surplus of these days.

I’ll post more photos directly into the log sometime soon. I went over to San Francisco yesterday to interview at a newly-opened Cafe-Restaurant-Cocktail lounge across from the newly-opened Asian Art Museum. The interview was weird, as if they had blown me off before I even sat down. Oh well, I got to admire and talk to some good-looking women while I was waiting. Then I went down to the demonstrations to watch the cops run around the place in riot gear. Got some pictures of them arresting people at a sit-in. Some excitement for a Friday evening.

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What You Can Do

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2003/03/18/what-you-can-do/

Whatever your feelings on the coming war, bear in mind that you can make the best of a bad situation.

You can strike a decisive blow for that which is good and decent about our country and give a pint if you can. With the military deployment, our blood supplies are stretched all the more thin: the Pentagon plans ahead for the fact that we’re going to lose quite a bit of it in the desert sands.

http://www.redcross.org/donate/give/

The nation needs your blood. If they don’t want your blood, for whatever reason, they can probably use your money, or your time. If you click that link at the bottom, www.givelife.org, you can register and search local blood drives online! Yow!

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St. Patrick’s Day

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2003/03/18/st-patricks-day/

My second shift tonight was pretty nice. Smaller boat, smaller crew, St. Patrick’s Day celebration! I had a hearty meal of corned beef, potatoes, salad, and carrots up in the pilot house. There was considerable activity at the Port of Oakland, giant container ships attended by beautiful white cranes, pulling containers on and off the waiting ships one after another: zip, zip, zip, zip! I saw one ship with a bunch of Hanjin containers, and I was thinking “Hanjin, Hanjin … Han Chin? Han Chinese?”

I got into a discussion with one of the guests who was also standing at the stern, watching the port. Those ships are from the other side of the Pacific! Those containers are International trade – goods, which employ people. Containers of hope floating across the ocean of a troubled world.

Jessica lost her retail job today. While she was dismissed for performance reasons, I suggested that he may have been looking for a pretext to cut staff without resorting to layoffs, on account of Unemployment Insurance premiums being based on claims made against an employer. I hope she’ll be okay.

It was a laid-back, middle-aged crowd who ate well and drank well and danced only a little. At the end of the night the tips were split four ways among the service staff. $22 in my pocket sure feels good.

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Dinner Cruisin’

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2003/03/17/dinner-cruisin/

I got to work on Saturday night. One of three shifts I’ve got with the catering dinner cruises on the bay. Barring some implausibly huge tips, the money will still be less than my month’s “burn rate” but some income is better than no income. Tomorrow I should perhaps call the Unemployment Insurance people and explain that if I don’t get a hearing on my appeal soon, I might never be able to attend such a hearing because my destitution may force me from the area. We’ll see. I’ll also cruise around a few more restaurants.

There were no tips on Saturday, we had a high school dance. It was pretty interesting even if the young’uns don’t tip the bartender for booze they can’t buy. I was the only male on the dining staff. I think that this was the reason that I was selected to jump off the back of the ship when we pulled up to the dock to secure a line. Adventure! Excitement!

Another shift tonight! The management is very chill. “If you want to eat, just make yourself a plate and hide it behind the bar.” The Chicanos in the kitchen relax on the latter leg of the cruise, chatting on cell phones. Our path was out of port in Alameda, a wide loop around Treasure Island, and back under the west span of the Bay Bridge. It was quite wonderful to look up in the sky and cruise under a beautiful, grey, man-made structure.

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Coast Guard Regulations

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2003/03/11/coast-guard-regulations/

So, Saturday I attended the second-round interview for the ship-board catering position. “You’re a veteran, so you should be familiar with our drug-testing policy.” Round two was basically paperwork, before a three-hour mandatory safety-meeting, where all the company’s employees reviewed safety procedures, including “man overboard” and “fire” and other stuff. We went on a short cruise where the senior staff retrieved an imperiled PFD from the frigid waters of the bay. It was a pleasing ride in beautiful weather, and one of the older employees, a bartender, explained how it was handy to respond to difficult guests with the response, “Sorry, these are Coast Guard regulations.”

So, how do I, having formerly rejected an office job over drug testing rationalize my consent for a catering position? Easy: Coast Guard Regulations. While drug testing remains a pretty crappy way of safeguarding employee performance, some degree of paranoia is forgivable when the staff are charged with the safety of drunken guests in the frigid waters of the San Francisco Bay. I can also change my mind, if I like, once I’ve secured some other source of income.

The job search seems to be looking up a bit. I applied at a slightly creepy theme restaurant smack dab in the middle of the Fisherman’s Wharf tourist trap. Okay. Then truck it over to the Mission to apply for a position at a pizza restaurant that had a nice little homely feel about it. The guy seemed interested in my pizza-specific experience, explained that the owners were going to be changing something in the near future, and that he’d refer my application to them.

A few more places to visit tomorrow, then I have to ask the catering company about getting some hours under my belt, and eventually pester Zachary’s to see if they’ve reviewed my application yet. Other good news from Brian is that a chunk of forwarded letters has, at long last, arrived at Mountain View, including the bank statements I back-ordered! Yay!

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Numerous Small Victories

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2003/03/06/numerous-small-victories/

A lawyer has been arrested for wearing a pro-Peace tee shirt. IN AMERICA! I hope the justice system still works, here, and he’s not to be incarcerated as an enemy combatant, and stripped of his citizenship, and shipped to Cuba to be interrogated.

The lady at the coffee shop introduced herself today. I forget her name. I left her my resume, which she accepted, explaining she’d just taken two new employees on, but in case one falls through, she’s still taking applications …

A lot of victories today. I finally got through to the unemployment folks … they haven’t assigned me a hearing yet, but at least now they have my new address and are sending six weeks of claims forms that I haven’t received to me in Oakland. So, while I am nearly completely broke right now – I’ll know just how broke when I sit down and do some tidying-up tomorrow, I may yet be in line for some hefty checks.

I dropped the application off at the restaurant near Union Square … things are slow just now, but they hope to make some calls in a few weeks. I filled out an application at Zachary’s Pizza, and submitted a cover sheet with my resume, explaining how much I would cherish the opportunity to serve God’s own Pizza. They were doing brisk business even in the mid-afternoon, and the tone of the application really appealed to me. I’m supposed to hear back from them next week after they check my references.

After that I navigated over to Alameda to attend a group interview for a ship-board catering position. It is a company that does dinner cruises for special events. About a dozen of us sat down around a table, and had to introduce ourselves, and outline our qualifications. We were then told to wait with each other to be called out for one-on-ones. About five people were called out for one-on-ones, and never returned. Our hosts then returned and said, “Congratulations and welcome to round two!”

We were given packets that included a tax form, and asked about availability for interviews Saturday morning … we walked away with the feeling that perhaps we’d been accepted into their Army of Caterers, and that we will receive fuller orientation, and in coming months, because this is the slowest time of the year, some paying gigs.

My turkey may not be completely burnt after all.

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Pounding More Pavement

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2003/03/05/pounding-more-pavement/

First place I went to today was remodeling, and confessed that they’d filled their staff a few days before. Okay. Next I arrived early at a place in the Marina district that has a position open. They told me to drop by again at 3PM for an informal interview. Killing time, I wandered around the neighborhood and stumbled upon Pizzeria Uno. Because I’m a Chicago Pizza kind of guy, I dropped in and asked if they were hiring. “Do you want to make money?” They accepted my resume and the waitress explained that she was also interviewing around, because there just wasn’t any business where she was. She explained that the market was flooded with workers in part because of all the dot-com types who were reforming themselves. I smiled sheepishly.

She clued me in to a place near Union Square that’s hiring. I waited about a half hour for my informal interview at the first place. As I waited, I got tense and excited; Customers would come in and I wanted to greet and seat them. Alas, I only get to do that sometime after they possibly call me in again sometime next week for “a more formal” interview.

I found the place by Union Square, grabbed an application, and was told that if I have a resume, I should attach it to the application and bring it in between 2PM and 4PM for an interview. Seemed like a pretty swank place.

Say what you will about the service sector, but I enjoy getting out of the house to track restaurants down and be blown off in person a little more than dropping e-mails into the void and never hearing anything. It sucks that gas is so expensive, on top of I’m so broke.

I suppose I should try calling the unemployment office again tomorrow. I can also return to the Union Square place, and then a dining cruise place in Alameda is conducting group interviews at two times tomorrow evening. I may ask Nice Coffee Shop Lady if she needs help in he morning: if I can score that gig then I can keep afloat while pursuing additional evening revenue.

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Karma

Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2003/03/04/karma/

A bum asked me to dig into my pockets … I came up with three cents in change. Later I walked down the twisty hill to one of the local coffee shops, ordered a coffee and a pastry, then offered them a traveler’s check. Nope! All else I had was $2 in cash, so I stuck to the coffee, the rest going in to the tip jar: I may be broke, but I’m not without my scruples. The woman asked if I was new in the area, and gave me the pastry for free, explaining that she hoped I’d come back again. I just might, but next time I may bring my resume, as she has a Help Wanted sign in the window.

I bought some oranges and chewing gum at the Albertson’s across the street: traveler’s check cashed. I’ll need to figure out a good place to exchange foreign currency for dollars really damn soon.

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