I am the thrown stone...
Stored up thoughts and meanderings
First of all,
Happy Belated Halloween!
I haven't blogged for about 5 days, that's all I have to say...
Greetings from, not-so-rainy anymore Totowa, New Jersey! I am here now on my 7th here and still...pretty bored as usual. I try to make the best of my days here, so I guess it's okay. It's not vacation, it's work, so whatevers. But being here alone and working this particular shift(if you didn't already know, I work from 3PM-12AM over here) kinda sucks. Cuz I can't really see or hang out w/ my east coast friends. Plus I work weekends too so I can't visit my friends in Boston like I had originally planned. I did get to make a daytrip into the city before work though. They let me use the company car, which was a gigantor mistake, details to come. Needless to say, it is a lonely time out here. I got home from work last night and tried to relax with a couple beers and a smoke down at Doc's, where there was this really big Halloween party. It's hard to have fun when you're all alone. Some people actually sat down and talked w/ me for a while but after about an hour or so, I was just thinking of my friends back home too much and couldn't hang anymore. Plus, I was just too tired and went upstairs and hit the hay. So to make a long story even longer, my halloween pretty much sucked, comparable to that one halloween I spent in the computer lab back in college. But I am glad I have some friends out here...earlier this week, I got to see Ellen and Viet. We had lunch at this quaint little place in Soho called Greydogs(oddly enough, they didn't serve hot dogs) It was good food and a very comforting time to actually see friends, for a change. Didn't have time to see Leizl's work and Vera had a seminar, but maybe next week. Plus some of my other friends are rolling into NYC this week too, so maybe I can see them as well. Not likely, but it's good to hope for good things.
Word to the wise, don't ever drive in the city, not unless you're a new york taxi driver or a taxi driver from the Philippines. It is absolute chaos man. Being a Los Angeles driver, I figured I would've been able to handle it. But man oh man, I've never been honked at, cussed at, and cut off so much in my life! I was ready to have an aneurism right then and there. It was unbelievable! Drivers there are crazy aggressive, to say the least. Plus you can't turn right at red lights anywhere in the city, and even when it's green, people are crossing the street and the people behind you are honking cuz you're not going. Talk about stress...It would've been better just to take the train in, which is what I am planning to do the next time I go into the city. Sheesh...
Personality differences, group dynamics, negativity
The crazy thing about work is that often times, you will be thrown into a group where none of you really know each other, meaning you don't know what to expect. And it's a given that you won't always get along with, or like, even, the people you are made to work with. Well, here are the dynamics of my particular group. There are three of us. I'll be A and the other 2 can be B and C. Person B is the oldest in our group...about 30 and very quiet and laid back. Very sincere and really makes an effort to be doing something "useful." He gets frustrated when he feels like he's wasting his time doing nothing at all and not being "useful." I think a lot of us can learn a lesson or two from this guy. He is the dude that always picks me up from my hotel at the start of the shift and takes me back home. He's a real cool cat and we get along pretty well. Then there is person C. He is the youngest of our group, out of college about a year. I think he's 22 or just turned 23. He's pretty cool too, the first couple days after I met him again(I originally met him when he was down at the office back home for a few days when I first started), we chatted about this and that, laughed, he taught us asbout the project, me and B are pretty new to it, and really, he can be pretty cool. I guess you could say he's one of those really cool people, except for when it comes to work. The first few days of working together were fine, but then on about day 5 of working together, I started noticing how negative he was, or at least can get. I first noticed one time when all three of us were chatting and I forgot what we said, but he commented with this, "It's good to have some optimists around." I thought to myself, "Hmmm, that's a peculiar comment, I wonder what he meant by that." But last night, we ran into some frustrating issues(much too long to go into detail and much to boring to talk about at all), and he went off. Totally negative, and I was thinking to myself, man, get over it. I even commented w/ B later that evening, or rather, earlier in the morning, that he couldn't let things go. He must've ranted on and on about how things were so f-ed up and this and that...so much that I just started getting really irritated. He even went so far as to comment that the perfect ending of this bad night would be if we got pulled over, and BAM, guess what...we got pulled over and got a speeding ticket. Man this guy can be SO negative, so I know why he said what he had said earlier this week. Freak man... I tried to get him to stop, but he wouldn't. I told him not to waste his energy being pissed, it wasn't getting us anywhere, but he just wouldn't. I guess he just hasn't learned that that is just fruitless thinking, being so immersed in the negatory. He is also quite opinionated, which is even more of a bother. I remember at one point he was talking about how he hates how narrowminded some people are, and then he went right on and totally implicated himself as being narrow-minded. Holy sheesh! It all got me so frustrated about it when I got home, I had to totally vent about it, so thanks Cic for letting me let it out on you. So I've been thinking of ways to help him not be so negative but seem to have a mental block...man, I feel like a spop staffer again....
Another thing I've come to realize while I'm out here...there is a huge difference of having opinions and being opinionated. I find it really good to have opinions about things, it shows what you like and what you are passionate about and stuff. But being opinionated, holding on to your opinions unreasonable and stubbornly. I mean stubbornly, I guess isn't that bad, but unreasonably? I mean, if you can totally back up what you're saying then fine, I respect that. I don't necessarily have to side w/ you, but I am open-minded enough to know that people think different things. I guess I'm just really annoyed right now...
The weather has actually taken a turn for the warmer as of late. Well, actually just today and tomorrow, it'll be in the low-seventies. That's just during the day though, it gets quite chilly again at night. I liked it better when it was cold...not rainy, but cold. The change in weather has actually caused my nose to bleed, which really does not happen very often...ask my friends, I can count on one hand how many nosebleeds I've had in my life. It happened while I was getting ready for work. I had to use one of the hotel towels, cuz there wasn't anything else to stop the bleeding with. It looked pretty nasty, I hope the cleaning lady doesn't freak out or anything. Oh just great...it's bleeding again...grrrr
I am really looking forward to coming back home. It'll be weird working a normal 9-6 shift again because I've kinda gotten used to sleeping in, but as always, I have been accustomed to change and I can adapt quite readily I think. So it might take a day or two, but it won't be so bad once I get back in the groove. But I am really looking forward to being within drive's reach of my friends again...Roscoe's and Hooters, digital pics and blogs, and all that jazz....
Appreciations
-My cingular Nation Plan
-IM
-E-mail
-Not being out here forever
-Being at the halfway point of my trip
-complimentary breakfasts
-being able to sleep in
-TV
-The bar downstairs
-The gym downstairs
Not-so-appreciated
-Rain(on the first few days here)
-working 3PM-12AM
-not really knowing my way around
-not having a car
-not being able to see my friends
-not being able to see my friends back home
I miss you guys
"If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself alone. A man should keep his friendships in constant repair."
-Samuel Johnson
Stored up thoughts and meanderings
First of all,
Happy Belated Halloween!
I haven't blogged for about 5 days, that's all I have to say...
Greetings from, not-so-rainy anymore Totowa, New Jersey! I am here now on my 7th here and still...pretty bored as usual. I try to make the best of my days here, so I guess it's okay. It's not vacation, it's work, so whatevers. But being here alone and working this particular shift(if you didn't already know, I work from 3PM-12AM over here) kinda sucks. Cuz I can't really see or hang out w/ my east coast friends. Plus I work weekends too so I can't visit my friends in Boston like I had originally planned. I did get to make a daytrip into the city before work though. They let me use the company car, which was a gigantor mistake, details to come. Needless to say, it is a lonely time out here. I got home from work last night and tried to relax with a couple beers and a smoke down at Doc's, where there was this really big Halloween party. It's hard to have fun when you're all alone. Some people actually sat down and talked w/ me for a while but after about an hour or so, I was just thinking of my friends back home too much and couldn't hang anymore. Plus, I was just too tired and went upstairs and hit the hay. So to make a long story even longer, my halloween pretty much sucked, comparable to that one halloween I spent in the computer lab back in college. But I am glad I have some friends out here...earlier this week, I got to see Ellen and Viet. We had lunch at this quaint little place in Soho called Greydogs(oddly enough, they didn't serve hot dogs) It was good food and a very comforting time to actually see friends, for a change. Didn't have time to see Leizl's work and Vera had a seminar, but maybe next week. Plus some of my other friends are rolling into NYC this week too, so maybe I can see them as well. Not likely, but it's good to hope for good things.
Word to the wise, don't ever drive in the city, not unless you're a new york taxi driver or a taxi driver from the Philippines. It is absolute chaos man. Being a Los Angeles driver, I figured I would've been able to handle it. But man oh man, I've never been honked at, cussed at, and cut off so much in my life! I was ready to have an aneurism right then and there. It was unbelievable! Drivers there are crazy aggressive, to say the least. Plus you can't turn right at red lights anywhere in the city, and even when it's green, people are crossing the street and the people behind you are honking cuz you're not going. Talk about stress...It would've been better just to take the train in, which is what I am planning to do the next time I go into the city. Sheesh...
Personality differences, group dynamics, negativity
The crazy thing about work is that often times, you will be thrown into a group where none of you really know each other, meaning you don't know what to expect. And it's a given that you won't always get along with, or like, even, the people you are made to work with. Well, here are the dynamics of my particular group. There are three of us. I'll be A and the other 2 can be B and C. Person B is the oldest in our group...about 30 and very quiet and laid back. Very sincere and really makes an effort to be doing something "useful." He gets frustrated when he feels like he's wasting his time doing nothing at all and not being "useful." I think a lot of us can learn a lesson or two from this guy. He is the dude that always picks me up from my hotel at the start of the shift and takes me back home. He's a real cool cat and we get along pretty well. Then there is person C. He is the youngest of our group, out of college about a year. I think he's 22 or just turned 23. He's pretty cool too, the first couple days after I met him again(I originally met him when he was down at the office back home for a few days when I first started), we chatted about this and that, laughed, he taught us asbout the project, me and B are pretty new to it, and really, he can be pretty cool. I guess you could say he's one of those really cool people, except for when it comes to work. The first few days of working together were fine, but then on about day 5 of working together, I started noticing how negative he was, or at least can get. I first noticed one time when all three of us were chatting and I forgot what we said, but he commented with this, "It's good to have some optimists around." I thought to myself, "Hmmm, that's a peculiar comment, I wonder what he meant by that." But last night, we ran into some frustrating issues(much too long to go into detail and much to boring to talk about at all), and he went off. Totally negative, and I was thinking to myself, man, get over it. I even commented w/ B later that evening, or rather, earlier in the morning, that he couldn't let things go. He must've ranted on and on about how things were so f-ed up and this and that...so much that I just started getting really irritated. He even went so far as to comment that the perfect ending of this bad night would be if we got pulled over, and BAM, guess what...we got pulled over and got a speeding ticket. Man this guy can be SO negative, so I know why he said what he had said earlier this week. Freak man... I tried to get him to stop, but he wouldn't. I told him not to waste his energy being pissed, it wasn't getting us anywhere, but he just wouldn't. I guess he just hasn't learned that that is just fruitless thinking, being so immersed in the negatory. He is also quite opinionated, which is even more of a bother. I remember at one point he was talking about how he hates how narrowminded some people are, and then he went right on and totally implicated himself as being narrow-minded. Holy sheesh! It all got me so frustrated about it when I got home, I had to totally vent about it, so thanks Cic for letting me let it out on you. So I've been thinking of ways to help him not be so negative but seem to have a mental block...man, I feel like a spop staffer again....
Another thing I've come to realize while I'm out here...there is a huge difference of having opinions and being opinionated. I find it really good to have opinions about things, it shows what you like and what you are passionate about and stuff. But being opinionated, holding on to your opinions unreasonable and stubbornly. I mean stubbornly, I guess isn't that bad, but unreasonably? I mean, if you can totally back up what you're saying then fine, I respect that. I don't necessarily have to side w/ you, but I am open-minded enough to know that people think different things. I guess I'm just really annoyed right now...
The weather has actually taken a turn for the warmer as of late. Well, actually just today and tomorrow, it'll be in the low-seventies. That's just during the day though, it gets quite chilly again at night. I liked it better when it was cold...not rainy, but cold. The change in weather has actually caused my nose to bleed, which really does not happen very often...ask my friends, I can count on one hand how many nosebleeds I've had in my life. It happened while I was getting ready for work. I had to use one of the hotel towels, cuz there wasn't anything else to stop the bleeding with. It looked pretty nasty, I hope the cleaning lady doesn't freak out or anything. Oh just great...it's bleeding again...grrrr
I am really looking forward to coming back home. It'll be weird working a normal 9-6 shift again because I've kinda gotten used to sleeping in, but as always, I have been accustomed to change and I can adapt quite readily I think. So it might take a day or two, but it won't be so bad once I get back in the groove. But I am really looking forward to being within drive's reach of my friends again...Roscoe's and Hooters, digital pics and blogs, and all that jazz....
Appreciations
-My cingular Nation Plan
-IM
-Not being out here forever
-Being at the halfway point of my trip
-complimentary breakfasts
-being able to sleep in
-TV
-The bar downstairs
-The gym downstairs
Not-so-appreciated
-Rain(on the first few days here)
-working 3PM-12AM
-not really knowing my way around
-not having a car
-not being able to see my friends
-not being able to see my friends back home
I miss you guys
"If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself alone. A man should keep his friendships in constant repair."
-Samuel Johnson
posted by lil jay at
11:43 AM
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