unbibium

The job interview went well. Just my luck I'll get the job with the 71-minute commute.

ASU called me back for another one but I don't think it's much of a fit...

should call Larry and ask what the deal is with Limelight...

IRL I haven't visited the old office at all, but I keep having dreams where I've been sneaking into work and doing things for free there. I had a really vivid one tonight, vivid enough that I realized what was happening and waited outside my old boss's office to beg for mercy or maybe an extra day's paycheck.

anyway the job hunt is going slowly. Unemployment payments are disqualified until December 20. Not sure whether that means I get my first $240-minus-taxes on that day, or on the 27th. but it will pretty much cover only my mortgage. If I do my taxes right away then I might not run out of cash until March. In theory I could plunder my 401(k) at that point.

I failed to cancel my cable TV but I got $20 knocked off it. maybe I should try again. Also maybe I could put my home warranty on pause or something. I'd switch to a high-deductible medical plan to save money, except that would only work if I didn't have to go to therapy.

I have an interview Monday so this all might be a moot point. I could get hired next week or in January or in February or never.

I spent money last weekend. Not a lot of money, but more than I should have spent. Because I figured I'd be employed by now. Indeed, all that panic I was doing before the interview was because I was afraid I'd have to choose between two offers, and pick the wrong one. I really herped the derp there. Now I'm actually afraid of being underqualified or unemployable.

Last weekend I did two interviews on Friday and one on Monday. All three said no thanks.

At least I have one on Monday.

Yesterday I spent the afternoon on Roosevelt Row, to see what it looked like during the day without the crowds. Outside, it was a wasteland, with undeveloped spaces and sidewalk construction everywhere. Inside, it was like Seattle, with little laid back places to grab coffee and buy records. It felt good out there.

Today I spent the afternoon on my first hashing event in months. I got lost at a part of the trail that was near my house, so I went home and had a sandwich to recharge... but I had to go back to the start of the trail because I had left my phone there to charge.

I think I perhaps should have written about yesterday earlier, so I could remember why exactly I felt so good. Probably had something to do with 1990s nostalgia. Meta-nostalgia, even, since I remember ten years ago I got into the habit of going to Arizona Mills to have a cup of coffee, listen to tech podcasts, and try to rekindle my hope for the future.

Some more memories of the dream surfaced though. There are still so many gaps that it would be tedious to try to coax a narrative out of it... so here's just bits I remember in no order at all:

• team trivia at a new place where nobody showed up, so I left and came back and jecooksubether, whom IRL I haven't seen in five years, was there.
• somewhere near my old office, a gigantic video arcade was opening up. IRL, I no longer live nor work in that area but awesome things are being built. Also in my real neighborhood, endgame opened which would be awesome if I were still an active gamer.
• found myself in a home full of strangers. they had cats. including some super tiny kittens that were hiding in the stairs. I made friends with them but didn't learn their names or memorize their address so I could come back.

now I'm awake and it's 9:30 maybe breakfast can happen now....

ok, whole morning in bed

when i went back to sleep i had a dream that the hash house harriers were having a trail that started on my street. i still didn't participate

oh my

Last night I had one of those back-to-normal dreams... except as it turns out, I'd been sneaking into work and volunteering every so often over the last two months, and I was afraid of getting caught.

weird, eh?

Also, the office was expansive and brightly lit -- probably because it's better lit than my house and the office I interviewed at last week -- even though by most standards, many parts of it are poorly lit.

In real life, I spent a bit of time trying to imagine how to rearrange my furniture, or what kind of lights I would need to buy, to make my house a little more conducive to staying awake in.... maybe more pendant lights?

turns out I never took down my "i'll be back in town october 22" voice mail. took care of that this morning.

if I can get out of bed, here's some ideas:

1. write a thank-you note to the interviewer from last week
2. do that angular.js experiment I've been thinking of
3. click on some more jobs on LinkedIn

should have breakfast first. i bought coffee beans. i haven't made my own coffee though.

i want to ride the light rail to the other end too.

Hadn't remembered a dream in a while. This one had a lot of stuff from previous dreams: airports, ownership of strange houses, bathrooms in unexpected places.

In the airport part, I was at a gate and realized I hadn't printed my boarding pass. I started looking for a place to check in, someone told me I had to go outside the security gate, and when I asked if there was a way to not do that, I was directed to a really narrow hallway with an elevator. I called the elevator, and stepped in, and I thought I was in a bathroom but no, the elevator is next to it and there's no wall. I pressed the third floor, my other hand got stuck in a way that was dangerous now that my unprotected elevator was moving past the floors... but I got it loose before it got pinched off. I didn't print anything but I did end up in a parking lot.

In the strange house department, I thought that I had bought the house of a dead relative in Western New York. I wanted to sell it because I can't pay two mortgages right now. Also, I was walking through a neighborhood, thought I recognized an old friend's house, I knocked and the door was open, I walked in and called, I walked out and it looked to have a lot of tables and chairs out back. maybe this was a school or something, and someone forgot to lock up, so I left.

if dreams are diagnostic at all, maybe this one just means I'm past the meta-funk that consumed me the last week, and I'm back to my normal rut.

Ok tomorrow I'll go through my voice mail and call back all the recruiters I've been neglecting.