Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Movin' On Up

Who's got two thumbs and a new manager position?

THIS GUY!

I had the second interview for the temporary program manager postion today and it went rather well. Before I'd gone in, I'd basically decided that whatever happened, it was a win/win situation. I'd either get the job and open up opportunities and new challenges for at least the next few months OR I wouldn't get it and would be able to go back to my old program and get back to work doing the things I've had on hold since last year.

Well, seems that it's opportunity time! I got the call less than an hour after the interview and am starting in the new role ASAP.

The strange little twist is that in order to keep my hours up, I'm also going to be doing my current job (though only for a fraction of the hours per week) in addition to the manager job. This should keep things quite interesting. In effect, I'm running one house and am second in command in another house. Hopefully my brain won't fracture from the cognitive dissonance and recreate the scene from Scanners!

Thanks for all of the prayers and well wishing from people over the last little bit. This has been an absolutely surreal experience for me as I went from almost not bothering to apply to landing the job in the space of a week. Just imagine how I'll do if I apply for a job I actually want :)

Friday, February 24, 2012

No Fail State

So I'm experiencing something of an existential quandary at the moment. People at work have been bugging me to apply for manager positions when they come up, so I finally pulled the trigger recently when a temporary one was posted in the area.

Today I had the first interview for the position. Now, keep in mind that I don't really want to get the job, though I also think that there are several reasons why it would be a good move for me. If nothing else, the timing stinks as I'm just about to return to 'my' program after being off at another location for the past 7 months.

Plus the number of hours for the position aren't really going to work as far as my income situation goes. I'd basically be taking a pay cut of half my pay, which would be a REALLY bad idea right now.

I did have a great interview today though. It has been about 7 years or so since I last interviewed for the manager position and I think that because I went into the interview today not caring about the results, I was much more relaxed and natural during the process.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, I guess), I just got a call back for a second interview next week. ARG! I mean, I thought I threw up enough red flags during the interview that they'd go with someone else. I think I actually said, "If you've got someone else coming who really wants the job, give it to them!"

So much for subtlety. I need a new strategy for Monday so that they'll have no option but to hire a different candidate :)

All of that aside, if they can fix the hours so I don't lose pay (or at least, only lose a little bit), I kind of DO want to get the job so that I can get the managerial experience... ARG!

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Don't Call Us

Seriously, don't call us. Our incoming calls aren't working for some reason. We can call out and the internet is working, but any incoming calls just cause the line to blip once and then that's it. Static.

Odd...

Anyway, Bell will be coming to fix them... on Monday... if we're lucky. Sigh.

Friday, February 10, 2012

Getting My Name In A Game

If you have been following game news this week, you'll be familiar with the Double Fine Kickstarter project. It basically boils down to one mad genius (Tim Schaefer) who wants to make an old-school point & click adventure game. The thing is, nobody makes these kinds of games anymore, at least not here in North America, so despite being one of the best adventure game designers alive, Schaefer just can't find a publisher to back him.

So he put out the call on Kickstarter to raise money from fans to the tune of $400000 by mid March. After 24 hours they've already raised over a million dollars and with 32 days to go, they're closing in on $1.5 million!

Given my love of the genre and the guys making it, I tossed a few bucks their way. Whenever it comes out, I'll be reading the credits since my name's going to be in there as a patron of the arts :)

Plague House

It has been a delightful time here over the past week. A norovirus was making the rounds at the kids' school and while Garrett was spared most of the brunt of the germ, Kara was down for the count for almost a week.

Thankfully they're both more or less back to fighting trim, but it wasn't a terribly fun week for kids or parents in Acton (and we seemed to get off easy compared to some of the families around here!)