I work again

After a week back in the workforce, I was feeling quite philosophical, but I couldn’t come up with a good theme that would work as a Tuesday Zep. Maybe next week if I’m feeling up to the task – it will probably be a private post, too…. Think “This I Used to Believe”. In the meantime, a few bits and pieces of what I’ve been up to lately.

The big news, of course, is that I gained an employer for the first time in over a year. I emailed some of the details to friends and family last week, but things have changed since then.

Initially, almost two weeks ago, I was recruited for a temp-to-hire call center job through Advantage Staffing. This position didn’t start until today, so I had them assign me to any old job in the meantime. They found me my first 3rd shift position at a car parts factory called Mitsuba. One week is about all I could take of that, although it was nice to be able to catch the World Cup matches live if I wanted to since they all occur between 7am and 4pm. I was lucky to get another job offer last week (these have been the only two, by the way, since I got laid off last year). Since this post is public, I won’t say too much about the cons I had to weigh, but I ended up taking the newer offer by XanEdu (pronounced like and played off of the Kubla Khan poem).

XanEdu makes custom course packs of copyrighted content, mostly for professors. I was hired as an Order Management Specialist, again temp-to-hire possibility by Labor Day. My job is to verify bibliographic data that is sent in for pack orders. While it’s not an IT position, the job is right up my alley. I actually enjoy data entry, the workplace is right downtown, I can take the bus from Shepherdsville, listening to music using headphones is encouraged, dress is casual (jeans), 8:30am to 5pm regular M-F hours, and I get to skim over potentially-interesting readings!

Today was my first day on the job. No more time for frequent Friendfeed activity, and even less time for the Tuesday Zep. I always appreciate ideas on what to write about. I know it’s not top quality content, but as I’ve mentioned before, this is mainly writing for writing’s sake. I’d share more of my thoughts about the job, but it’s getting late and I’d rather save that for next week’s “Deep Thoughts” (not by Jack Handy, but possibly as ridiculous).

I mentioned the World Cup earlier. While I’m not making any changes to my predictions until the end of the week when the knockout rounds start, I will say that it’s been fun to watch the games unfold – often just as exciting as the Olympics if you’re into that kind of thing. Check my past couple of posts for more on the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

I uploaded a few other photos today. Isis now has a boyfriend – he is Loki, the Norse god of mischief.

Video of the Week: Gemini Syringes by The Flaming Lips. I’ve never been much of a TFL fan, especially after seeing the bizarre I Can Be A Frog video when Embryonic released last year. I’ve been listening to the album on Grooveshark for the past couple of days and it’s one of those carefully crafted productions that takes the right circumstances before one can appreciate it. I can’t identify them, but I’ve now been in those circumstances.