Category: Blog

Last Man Standing

I’m working on restraining myself from starting sentences with “So,…”

I learned yesterday that the woman who shadowed me shortly after I started working with CTB was fired. I learned today that the guy who started working a little before I showed up quit both school and work this week, to join the occupy movement full time. That leaves just me and my boss as far as Connecticut recruiters. I’m not sure if they’re planning on hiring anyone to replace them or not, but I’m fine either way. I liked working with both of them, but this also gives me a larger area to cover, and more restaurants to potentially sign up. Hurray money!

I also got to file a formal complaint with the Meriden police department today. A lock had been cut off one of our oil containers, and some oil was taken. We’re starting to file reports, in order to build up a record of theft.

Designer

Apparently I’m a web designer now. I guess it’s not really a new thing, it’s all over my resume – designed and built the website, designed and built the website, etc. It’s something I always seem to end up doing, in part because I’m asked, in part because I volunteer, but mostly because web designers charge so damn much. I’m not a good web designer, as proud as I am of my website I can’t claim that. Regardless, it seems like I’m doing it more and more. I made the website for Nishi’s business, which she has started up again, and I made a redesign for Connecticut BioFuels, though it’s unclear if/when it will be implemented. Now I’m involved in a start-up of a friend of mine, and it looks like I’m their man on the web. I’m not complaining, I just find it funny that I keep drifting towards something I consciously avoided.

I have no desire to be a web designer and nothing else. It isn’t a full time job that would work for me. I don’t think I have a good aesthetic eye, for one, and I’ve never been especially handy with graphic design. I love the initial part of designing a website, planning and troubleshooting. The fine-tuning bugs me a bit more, often because it consists of a thousand tiny changes that I largely disagree with. I think to really make a good website you need to be both involved in the project and tweak it as it is used. Being a professional web designer precludes all of that. But I’m not a web designer, and shouldn’t be looked at as an authority about what makes a good website. In that way I’m thankful for the middle road I’ve paved.

Work

There were many things I could do for two or three days and earn enough money to live on for the rest of the month. By temperament I’m a vagabond and a tramp. I don’t want money badly enough to work for it. In my opinion it’s a shame that there is so much work in the world. One of the saddest things is that the only thing that a man can do for eight hours a day, day after day, is work. You can’t eat eight hours a day nor drink for eight hours a day nor make love for eight hours — all you can do for eight hours is work. Which is the reason why man makes himself and everybody else so miserable and unhappy. –William Faulkner

Nishi has been going into work very early all week, arriving at the shop by 0600. I’ve started working full weeks too, and Nishi commented today that all we do anymore is work. Lately, when people ask me what’s up, I just reply with ‘work.’ I’m beginning to remember why I tried so hard to avoid this.

Living outside

Living in the garage, I’m a short walk to plumbing, food, and cable. I like having that forced interaction with the outside world. Whatever the weather conditions outside, I have to walk through it to eat and poop. This was probably what I liked best about living in the bus. Lack of utilities aside, it has windows running down the length of every wall. It makes it impossible to disassociate from your environment. I am seriously considering compartmentalizing certain parts of my dream house into different buildings, just to preserve that connection.

There Will Be Blood

The market for waste vegetable oil is presently booming. There is a lot of money to be made, and that money is responsible for my present employment. The biodiesel market is in something of a bubble, since a competitively priced, widely available alternative exists and there exists little incentive for people to use biodiesel if it costs more than petroleum diesel. The point will be reached where waste oil suppliers are being paid the highest possible price, and incentives to switch will disappear.

But in the time being, it’s mayhem. Waste oil processing companies can get away with crazy things, and oil pirates are running around at the same time throwing a wrench in the works. We have had rival companies place locks on our containers, leave their containers in place after a client switches companies, and an ex employee of my company is running around pretending to still represent them, promising to pay exorbitant amounts in order to get oil. It is quite ridiculous. I’m not sure what to make of it.

Humbled

The job search has been eye opening. I went into it with unrealistic expectations, and was very surprised by what I found, in terms of both salary and availability. I sent out far more resumes than I can count, and was repeatedly turned down from jobs that I knew I could do well. I’m not sure why in the face of everything I had heard and seen in recent years I expected anything else, but I did. While working with the Census, I remember one of the higher-ups mentioning in a meeting the high amount of highly skilled people who were filling those positions, he said, “For example, there are three PhD’s in this room.” So while I could do those jobs well, it’s very likely someone else could do them better.

The other thing that surprised me was the dismissiveness of many companies. I guess when you’re receiving hundreds of resumes for every position, you can’t really go on anything other than a first impression. And I guess my first impression wasn’t the right one. I used a resume that had without fail guaranteed me call-backs only six months ago, and never heard back about the majority of positions I applied for. I even made a new, bulleted resume that cut out all of the fun fluff (whole sentences) that had made up my first resume. It didn’t portray a version of me that I liked, but I was trying my hardest to sell out and failing, so I really had to go all in.

And of all the jobs I could have gotten, I got one that I actually have experience doing. And I had sent them the good resume, which meant that they actually liked me, a strong indication that it would be a good fit. So I’m now employed by Connecticut BioFuels, where I am tasked with going to restaurants, and convincing them to sell their waste oil to my biodiesel-producing employers. It pays well, gives me a good deal of independence, and I don’t feel like I’ve sold my soul. I can’t wait.

Endo, Storm

Nishi’s laparoscopy confirmed that she has endometriosis, which she has suspected for about a year now. It’s great that we can now move forward in treating it and getting her to feel better, for the first time in years.

While she’s in bed mending, I’ve been firing off job applications left and right. Not sure yet what will pan out, but it’s progressing.

When I talked to my dad today, he mentioned the storm that will be passing through this weekend. He was talking about heading down to Niantic, to stay at my grandfather’s house, which has a generator. I thought about this, and how the bus, in Middletown, is capable of sheltering and sustaining people if the power goes out. It has its own power supply, and can cook food or heat water with propane. I like that it’s already fairly far towards being self sustaining, but it has a lot further it can go.

Fest Recap

Wakarusa, in Ozark, Arkansas, is a wonderful festival. It was the first of this summer, and the best so far. The venue is a great mix of open field and sparse forest. Waka also had a great mix of large and small stages, so if you felt like dancing or felt like sitting, there was always a place for you to go. But what made Wakarusa such an incredible festival for us was the people who attended. There was such a sense of camaraderie among the festival goers, it was hard not to love it. The easiest way I can explain it is that everyone there was already friends with everyone else, they just hadn’t met everyone yet.

The Arch

Bonnaroo was Bonnaroo. That is, big and obnoxious. The crowd is very different there, but the people we worked with were great, and helped me make it through that festival without losing it. Bonnaroo does have spectacle though. During the Primus show, though I think it was actually for the end of My Morning Jacket’s set at the main stage, a group of skydivers descended on the crowd, dropping glitter and tiny LED helicopters in their wake. Easily one of the more amazing things I’ve ever seen.

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We spent some time in Memphis and Chicago, which were both great cities where we met great people, but the next destination was Electric Forest. The crowd at the forest was a little closer to Wakarusa, but not quite right. We had fantastic neighbors for Electric Forest, who made the whole experience that much better. The heart of the forest is an actual forest (since we still camp in fields) with lights, art, interactive installations and a music stage. No pictures I can take can do it justice, but they’re worth seeking out.

Onward to Grey Fox and Tweed River.