Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Job thoughts

As I get ready to start a new job for the first time in about 9 years, and having just listened to the "Plan B" episode of This American Life (in one of the acts, Jonathan Goldstein describes his 10 year career as a telemarketer), I got to thinking about jobs in general.

In the "Plan B" episode, Goldstein talks about how he was embarrassed to tell anyone what he did. I've never actually been embarrassed by a job, but for a while, I wasn't really proud of what I was doing. My self-image, as long as I can remember, has been defined in large part by my intellect. I think I'm a pretty smart guy. I'm no genius, but I do well at most of the things I attempt and I know my limitations, and I'm comfortable with them. I had always figured that my eventual career would be something intellectually stimulating, although I never really zeroed in on anything, even in college. After graduating college with the training to be a Latin teacher, something that truly didn't interest me, I found myself at a loss. I spent several months in a minimum-wage job as a mailroom guy, then landed at Principal as a claims examiner.

Now medical claims examiner isn't a job for trained monkeys, but it's not rocket science either. There was a lot of drudgery - answering phones all day topping the list. And the pay was pretty bad, mid-20's per year. I worked with some really good people (Michelline worked there, too) and some real dunces. It didn't fit my self-image and I always thought I should be doing something more challenging (and better-paying wouldn't hurt). My self-esteem definitely suffered for it. After 5 years, I escaped into IT, doing Y2K testing and have worked my way up from there. Finally, I was doing something that felt right.

So that was one thought I had about work, how people's self-worth gets tied up in their careers, and how it happened to me for a while. But the other thing is, looking back, that 5 year stretch was really valuable in a couple of ways. First, it gave me a very solid grounding in the business side of medical insurance. This has served me very well as I've worked my way into software development. Most people in IT don't have any background in business operations, and the fact that I do has helped me to move into some unique positions. Second, and more importantly, having a job I hated has given me a much greater appreciation for what I do know. I hear people complain about working in IT all the time, and I wonder if they've ever had a really shitty job. I feel very fortunate to be where I am.

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Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Badvertising

There's a radio commercial I hear quite a bit that annoys me everytime. It's for a local Lexus dealership and it talks about a deal where you can get free valet parking at a local mall if you buy a Lexus. I don't really see anyone being swayed by something like that, but that's not the part that annoys me, it's at the end of the commercial where they say, "there's never been a better reason to buy a Lexus." Really? Does Lexus corporate know about this? Because if the best reason EVER to buy a Lexus is that you get free valet parking at a mall, then their cars must really suck, and they should probably drop the price down some. Or maybe people could just buy a Hyundai and use the difference to pay for valet parking.

Every time I hear this stupid commercial, I'm convinced it will be the last, and someone will realize how bad that makes their cars sound, but no, I guess car dealers aren't terribly bright.

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Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Finally!

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Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Broadcasters Piss Me Off: Mathematical Edition

If Mike Tirico happens to be reading, I'd just like to let him know that what separates one team's score from the other team's score is called the difference. A differential is something else entirely.

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Monday, January 12, 2009

HD

So I'm flipping around looking for something to watch, and I end up slumming through the non HD channels, and happen upon The Daily Show. After watching a few minutes and remembering how funny it is, it makes me wonder why I never watch it anymore. The answer, of course, is because it isn't in HD. I rarely even check these low digit third world channels anymore. But that brings up an interesting question: why the hell isn't there a Comedy Central HD channel? They seem to have snuck by without one somehow. When I only had the networks, and maybe ESPN and premium channels, this was perfectly understandable. These things take time. But as the other normal cable channels that I watch regularly, like FX, AMC, SciFi, Discovery, TNT, TBS, etc. have all shown up on my HD lineup, Comedy Central is still absent. And now, as I flip through, I see HD channels like E!, Animal Planet, HGTV, the Travel channel, Cartoon Network, Golf, and nonsense channels like UHD, and PLDHD (seriously, what the fuck is PLDHD?), or MYTVJ (I don't know either), yet still no Comedy Central. Do they just not want people to watch it? I can't really think of any other reason at this point. Any other channels that are conspicuously missing an HD version?

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