Weekly Log - 30 through 05

Mon 30 Mar

... I'd rather not type a lot about this day. Mondays blow chunks and Murphy, in all His Magnificent Mindfuck, remains master and commander. The best part of my day were the twenty minutes I spent quietly in the shower.

Tue 31 Mar

Well, the shit hit the fan with the bills once again. The electricity bill's late, the water bill's late, and there's no food in the house. Mum brought home some dough later on, and gave me and my brother 10 euros each. She told us to hang onto it, because that's pretty much all the cash we'll have for the next couple weeks.

Once again: how did this happen? Money slips away from our fingers like it was made out of snot!

Wed 01 Apr

Alright. I've taken the step. We need the some cash and we need it soon. I've been out of a job for a full six months now. It's time to do that which I said I wouldn't do again. It is time to walk right into the ranks of the damned, and once again, face the mouth of madness. No, I'm not gonna take the Oaths of Dagon. I'm gonna find a job in the most ill-paid, frustrating, useless and annoying trade I ever had the pleasure to meet in all my years as a worker. Indeed. I am once again... seeking job in a call-center. Crow, it turns my gut upside down just thinking about it. The long hours sitting in an uncomfortable chair, reading mindless babbling from a computer monitor, trying to sell people what they don't need... just thinking about how many assholes out there own a phone leaves me in despair.

I am gonna do a last, desperate attempt of not ending up in a call center. I will give myself a seven day period starting today. If in these next seven days I cannot find something else... I will put myself up for a call-center position. I did Internet work today, raiding several sites for ads and putting up ads myself. I wanted to type "Please, I'll take anything but call-centers. I only have seven days!" at the end of every ad I placed. If Sadako was coming for me out the computer monitor, I sure as a fuck wouldn't bother looking for a job... in fact, I'd find a way to get into the biggest call-center in national territory. I would be dying, but fuck me if I'm going alone!

Thu 02 Apr

A friend of mine came over to cook pasta and hang out. He helped me sort out some more ads and get a few of my character sheets in order. This guy is someone I call "the technical guy". As D&D is concerned, if you need feats chosen or explained to you, he has forgotten more about it than I'll ever know. He's one of my oldest friends - I'd say about... what? Nearly ten years - and we don't see each other very often anymore since he started working for an airplane company. He's literally all over Europe on a given week.

Fri 03 Apr

Took a trip to the other side of the river, and checked some places where, I was told, they were asking for personnel. Found jack, and on my return, I was once again defeated. It's at times like this my thoughts turn strangely critical... somewhat bitchy. I think of everyone I know who is incompetent yet holds a job... I think of every restaurant where my order got wrong, every place where I had to wait over 30 minutes for service, every bookstore where I met people who could hardly speak in a more or less understandable way, let alone find a book in computer registry... I think of every magazine stand I've been to where people were rude to me... every counter clerk I ever found that was so stupid it was a wonder he wasn't walking on all fours... I think of everytime I went to the post office and was sent from one counter to the next because nobody knows what the fuck they're doing. I think of every interview I went to, where people didn't hire me on grounds I didn't complete college, eventhough I was more than qualified for the job...

It's at times like these I say a prayer against Murphy and add four curse words per sentence.

Weekend 04 - 05 Apr

I took a long, long stroll on Saturday morning, looking for a job in the vicinity of my home. Mum raised a very good point today: the pass to Lisbon costs 50 fuckin' euros. I'll have to keep searches as much as possible on this side of the river.

On the evening, I went to see a concert for a tribute to Xutos & Pontapés (free entry plus 5 euros' worth of booze) with some friends and Kid Bro, which was great. As usual, this sort of thing is held on the other side of the river, and as such, I had to take the 4:40 boat home, the 5 o'clock train and walk half of this town up and down to leave some friends at their place before going back to mine. We played some games and had fun until the end of Sunday's afternoon. I checked for answers to my ads: zilch. Answered to some more and called it a day. This was probably one of my last outings for April, unless I come into money sometime soon.

I downloaded two horror seriers (Masters of Horror and Tales of the Crypt) and watched several movies. Mostly horror, but I decided to toss in a couple comedies for good measure: Shaun of the Dead which I alread knew and The Blues Brothers which was nothing short of cool. I also downloaded a few Xutos & Pontapés albums I was missing, and I've been playing a lot of Shinobido, which is the only game that gets frustrating, and I keep playing nevertheless.