A moment of silence

...for Timmy, my G3 Powerbook. Our four and a half years together came to an end last week, when his logic board simply gave out. I feel like I should be planning a memorial service or something. Once I harvest the data, anyway.

I'm in the middle of a contract gig, which should generate enough spending money that I can get a 12-inch iBook or something similarly cheap. Sturdy would be nice, too. I need it to hold out until I get a regular job, at which point I can hopefully get something with a little more oomph. I'd like to think that the day I'll be able to afford Oomphy is close at hand, but I'm nothing if not realistic.

My current gig is in Glendale, which is close enough for me to come by and monopolize my parents' Mac while I wait for traffic to clear up. It is also very close to the Glendale Galleria, where I've been going to grab lunch. Walking in there is odd: I see the stores in front of me, but I have this sort of mental overlay of what was in a given spot back in the day. This is probably a sign of many things -- chief among them being that I need to get a job that's closer to my current neck of the woods.

I'm a little singed from being at the beach yesterday. I'm not complaining. It was a perfect beach day -- sunny, not too hot, pleasant breeze, good company from the L.A. and San Diego chapters of the UCSC alumni association -- and a little red on my face and legs is a small price to pay. It was one of those days which gets me wondering why anyone would ever want to live anywhere else... and then I had to drive home from Dana Point, which took me well over two hours.

Still, not a terrible compromise in the scheme of things.

A Note To Potential Employers

If you want to hire someone like me -- someone who can do many different things, and who's been doing them all for some time with success -- then you really need to offer me more money than I'm getting in my unemployment checks.

Back To The Coffee Shop

I am officially back to being unemployed.

This does not come as a surprise, in and of itself; after all, my contract was always due to be up at the beginning of July. I was just hoping that, given that I've been on the hunt for months, I would have found another gig right now.

That's not how things worked out, though. And so I'm back to dragging my laptop around to coffee shops, where it's air conditioned and I can get some job-searching done. Even while I was employed, my creaky old laptop Timmy and I could often be found at the Starbucks on Westwood just south of Olympic. If things continue like this, I may get a chair named after me.

I have a couple of employment possibilities. I have a call in to my creative agency. I have some great people looking out for me.

And I have way too much time on my hands.

Readers of this blog, you have been warned.