Ups And Downs
Sep. 17th, 2002 01:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
plutherusThinking of moving to San Francisco. Found lots of great apartments advertised. Spent all day Saturday calling them. None are available. Half of them have the same phone number. The guy, who seems to resent people calling him trying to rent full apartments, can't look through all his listings to see if any are available. I have to look, find one, then call him to see if it's still available. He won't answer more than two per call. After five calls to this doofus I stop calling him, and only call numbers that are different. He answers half of them too. Apparently, in the areas I'm looking in, there are only 3-4 property owners. The biggest shunts all calls to one asshole on weekends. The other three only have voicemail. I left half a dozen messages. As of today (Tuesday) only one has called me back. To tell me they don't have any vacancies in the building I was inquiring about. Hung up while I was trying to ask them if there's any vacancies in other buildings. Apparently, either there's still a significant enough housing shortage in SF so they can all afford to be rude, or they're just used to doing business that way, and haven't figured out that actually talking to potential customers might attract more renters.
For the first time since high school, I have dental insurance. Last year, a tooth started hurting me, so I took advantage of it. They looked over everything, and ended up doing six months of work, which would have cost me a few thousand dollars had I been paying for it. Considering that I have not been to the dentist for ten years, and that during that decade I've been, at various times, a nerd, a speed freak, and a homeless person, he says my teeth are in surprisingly good condition. Replaced all my old fillings, and gave me a bunch of new ones, but no crown, extractions, or root canals. Had four-month checkup two weeks ago, and everything looked (and felt) great. See you in six months. Yay, done with dentist. Now I have a toothache, been annoying me since Friday, when it started hurting suddenly halfway through a pint of Ben & Jerry's. Now I can't eat anything hot, cold, or crunchy. Back to dentist tomorrow.
Thought I had a job in Portland. Looked good, they found my resume on the net, and I was a perfect match. Travelling consultant job, good work, good pay, good home location. Two other candidates, one recent college graduate with no experience, another who's been out of work for a while and desperately seeking anything, despite the fact his skillset isn't quite a match. I found out last week I don't get the job. I mentioned during my interview that no, I don't have a college degree, but certainly have enough experience doing exactly what they want done, to make up for it. Claimed that the ability to actually do the job should be more important than a degree showing completion of unrelated study. Pointed out that my years of contracting experience allowed me to look at processes from all sorts of different angles so I'm actually a better match than someone who has even more years of experience, but with only one company. Found out later that I said this to a guy who has less experience, and all of it with one company, that he joined straight out of college. I didn't get the job. Anyone know anyone who needs a good Software Configuration Manager?
Six years ago, I wrote a play called Jahid, about a guy in Iraq who smuggles food and medicine past the UN blockades. Met a guy in San Francisco a few months ago who was interested in producing it, based on my description. All my paper copies of the original (along with all my original research notes) were destroyed when my garage in San Diego flooded in '98. I can't find either of the two CD's it was burned on. The floppy labelled "Jahid script" is unreadable in any of the machines I've tried. Sent it to a company along with $50 to extract the data. They couldn't. The hard drive it was on crashed years ago. The copy on my web site was wiped out in when I redid my web site a couple of years ago. Decided to re-write it from scratch, but all my attempts failed miserably. They just couldn't measure up to the original, which I had spent nearly a year on. Depression. Despair. The usual. Then a friend in Portland, while packing to move, ran across a copy stuck in an old Qaballah 101 folder from a class solis93 taught ages ago. She's sending it down to me tomorrow. I am ecstatic.
And now I can't find the producer's phone number.
And my tooth still hurts.
For the first time since high school, I have dental insurance. Last year, a tooth started hurting me, so I took advantage of it. They looked over everything, and ended up doing six months of work, which would have cost me a few thousand dollars had I been paying for it. Considering that I have not been to the dentist for ten years, and that during that decade I've been, at various times, a nerd, a speed freak, and a homeless person, he says my teeth are in surprisingly good condition. Replaced all my old fillings, and gave me a bunch of new ones, but no crown, extractions, or root canals. Had four-month checkup two weeks ago, and everything looked (and felt) great. See you in six months. Yay, done with dentist. Now I have a toothache, been annoying me since Friday, when it started hurting suddenly halfway through a pint of Ben & Jerry's. Now I can't eat anything hot, cold, or crunchy. Back to dentist tomorrow.
Thought I had a job in Portland. Looked good, they found my resume on the net, and I was a perfect match. Travelling consultant job, good work, good pay, good home location. Two other candidates, one recent college graduate with no experience, another who's been out of work for a while and desperately seeking anything, despite the fact his skillset isn't quite a match. I found out last week I don't get the job. I mentioned during my interview that no, I don't have a college degree, but certainly have enough experience doing exactly what they want done, to make up for it. Claimed that the ability to actually do the job should be more important than a degree showing completion of unrelated study. Pointed out that my years of contracting experience allowed me to look at processes from all sorts of different angles so I'm actually a better match than someone who has even more years of experience, but with only one company. Found out later that I said this to a guy who has less experience, and all of it with one company, that he joined straight out of college. I didn't get the job. Anyone know anyone who needs a good Software Configuration Manager?
Six years ago, I wrote a play called Jahid, about a guy in Iraq who smuggles food and medicine past the UN blockades. Met a guy in San Francisco a few months ago who was interested in producing it, based on my description. All my paper copies of the original (along with all my original research notes) were destroyed when my garage in San Diego flooded in '98. I can't find either of the two CD's it was burned on. The floppy labelled "Jahid script" is unreadable in any of the machines I've tried. Sent it to a company along with $50 to extract the data. They couldn't. The hard drive it was on crashed years ago. The copy on my web site was wiped out in when I redid my web site a couple of years ago. Decided to re-write it from scratch, but all my attempts failed miserably. They just couldn't measure up to the original, which I had spent nearly a year on. Depression. Despair. The usual. Then a friend in Portland, while packing to move, ran across a copy stuck in an old Qaballah 101 folder from a class solis93 taught ages ago. She's sending it down to me tomorrow. I am ecstatic.
And now I can't find the producer's phone number.
And my tooth still hurts.
