And here's what we got:
Back in the day, I worked at a place that, while educational, was terrible to work at in a first world sort of way. I wasn’t getting paid my due, the atmosphere wasn’t what one would call supportive, and the management was… well that’s where this story comes in. I won’t name the company, though [...]
You know, every time I have one of these impromptu hiatuses – hiatusi? hiatusae? – I always try and recall just what caused me to stop posting. It’s not like I was posting every other day and got burnt out, no no, I was posting once a week. But of course the cycle dies off and you end up with what, a five month break in posts?
That’s not kosher.
The irony is that if I had just managed to keep up with my weekly posting, I would probably have a more complete list of things that I have actually done. It’s a self-defeating cycle of suck, and I seem to really enjoy the ride. Never mind that I ride it in a busted up canoe, or that the ride takes me through a course that would make most white-water rafting professionals crap themselves just a little. I do it for the thrill.
Alright that may have sounded a tad insane, but I was on a roll and went with it.
So as stated it’s been a good 5 months since my last post, and I’ve got no good explanation for the break in content. I did just get back into school and I did start applying myself more for freelance stuff, but that’s hardly an excuse. Regardless, I’m back on the horse for now, and I’m feeling if not inspired, than at least motivated. To kick things off, I’ll give a quick rundown of everything that’s been going on with me recently.
I swear I’m not that self-involved. No, really I’m not. I am not a self-centered arrogant prat! Good god, you kiss your mother with that mouth? That’s sick man. Sick.
So a while back I mentioned going back to school. In fact, I even recall writing a collection of articles all about the subject. I’m sure I’ve mentioned it in my twitter (or at the very least, bitched about it). Well unlike the real world, College gives you large, void-filled breaks between semesters. This allows people like me ample time to run out of excuses for things we should have either done, or been doing during the academic time frame.
In my case this revolves around:
Now since only a couple of those are actually proactive (I’ll leave you to decide which) I have to pick and choose what and when I do these things. What is the result? Well to give you a glimpse, it’s almost 2 AM as of the start of this post. This is after I applied to many, many bursaries through my school. Who knew that working two jobs wouldn’t be enough to actually stay out of debt? Guess I’ll have to get some more!
My financial woes are not what I plan to talk about today though. I plan to talk about what I can take away from my first semester.
Okay, technically this would be my seventh semester if you are counting the six from the last time I was in school. That is also part of this so read on!
As a bit of a change of pace, I’m going to talk about Poverty. I’ve joined with many, many other online writers today to join in and participate in talking about this years subject (Poverty, in case you forgot).
I thought at first about writing about Poverty all over the world. Then I thought about writing about Poverty in your own country. That’s when I realized I could talk about my own country, because damn it, I live here and this shit’s important. This is probably one of the issues closest to my heart on this planet and I’ll be damned to give up an opportunity to help.
That’s right, I’m school-bound once again. Two more years of weird sleep schedules, assignments, cliques, teachers, and too many people walking around in pajama-bottoms.
Joking aside, I’ve decided to go back to school for Graphic Design. Over the past two plus years, I’ve felt that though I’m reasonably good at programming, it’s not really what I want to do for the rest of my life. I’ve had a good run at my current place of employment, but I feel that it’s just not the direction I want to go in the long-run. You see, as I worked along side everyone I constantly felt myself obsessing over certain points; namely UI design, usability, and common sense in design.
So I’m nearing the end of my first major project. Well alright I’ve had many projects in my life, but this was my first professional project. I was … many things in my project: Lead Developer, Lead Architect, Psudo-Business Analyst, Negotiator, Trainer, Mediator, Whip-cracker. The list goes on.
As the project is finally winding down, I feel it prudent that I write down some of the nuggets of information that I have gleaned from the experience.
Follow along and learn with me as I half-rant life tips.
Everyone’s done it. We get lazy, we’re pressed for time, or we otherwise don’t care enough to standardize our stuff. I can note this most prevalently in code, but it easily extends into design and every day life.
I cannot claim to be innocent of this crime, nor would I. It takes effort, experience, and an iron will not to cut corners in everything you do.
I was once a student in college. During one of my summers I had a summer placement where I was put in charge with creating an entire CMS-based website for a certain not-for-profit company. To that note, there was not CMS, so I was expected to create that too. This company had many facets, most of which had their own way of doing things. I had four months to do this, and I was on my own. Did I mention that it also had to have a total multi-tiered user-management system thrown into it as well? Like I said, I was supposed to create a CMS-powered website.
Suffice it to say, things didn’t go well.
I had an amazing 20 minutes of utter relaxation at work the other day. I didn’t even realize it until it was nearly over, but I think I’ve solved the equation. As it turns out, I think I finally understand why coffee shops are so damned relaxing.