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New Job
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The freedom to make a fortune on the Stock Exchange has been made to sound more alluring than freedom of speech. |
Wednesday, August 11, 1999
One year ago: Storytelling
This is the third day of my new job, working on the education center at Stockcharts.com. I'm learning a lot, and doing a lot of new things. It's great! But the novelty of it all is making me more fatigued than usual.
The first morning I got there early, but I couldn't get the key to my office working. (I had no trouble later, so I guess this was user error.) So I made numerous trips from the parking garage, across the lobby to the express elevator, then up to the top floor of the Bellevue high-rise where our office will be for the next few months, bringing up some of the odds and ends that I didn't bring last week when I dropped by. I stacked the stuff in the hall beside my office door, until there was someone around who could let me in.
The office suite is raw-ther fancy! One company runs the two top floors of the building, providing reception services, copy room (but they charge us for each fax and copy), kitchen facilities and so on, for offices that you can rent by the month instead of needing a long-term lease. The halls have plush carpets, with William Wegemann prints on the walls and antique sideboards scattered around. We have four offices at the end of one wing, and the offices around us aren't rented, so we have our doors open and dash back and forth between.
Both the main kitchen way down the hall, and the smaller satellite kitchen close to us, have dishwashers, and are stocked with substantial dishes, glasses and flatware. I stopped at the grocery store yesterday morning and bought frozen food to have for lunch some days. I expect I'll also acquaint myself with the neighborhood restaurants.
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Last night I came home at a reasonable time because I wanted to get to dance class. When the time came, I was so tired I just got into bed instead. I didn't intend to sleep, but I drifted off and didn't wake until midnight, when I went and took out my contact lenses, then returned to bed. Sleeping with hard lenses is contraindicated!
I still have all sorts of things to take care of: laundry, getting the trash out, and so on. I did manage to bag up the trash, which had been overflowing the kitchen trash can, so I'll take that out in the morning.
Monday and today I worked until late, around six thirty or seven. (That's late when you arrive at seven in the morning.) We are trying to get some new content ready for an investors conference that's happening this weekend. I'm wrapping my mind around the new technical terms, trying to define them without being self-referential and using the term in the definition.
I'm really enjoying the new work; I'm happy and focussed. I was chuffed when I found a few bad links on a page I was proofing: tangible evidence that I did some good! I also queried a minor editorial point, which probably pleased only me.
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Seattle Columnist Clark Humphrey of MISC talks about online journals today, distinguishing them from the weblog thing. He links to me and to the Pacific Northwest Journals Burb, so I'm happy!
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