Tube Distraction

The series of tubes led me down the Good URL Bad URL wormhole today. Enjoy!

David Sedaris Demolition Derby

I have been a huge David Sedaris fan for a long time, so we went to see him last night. Before the show started, we're just sitting there engaging in my favorite public pasttime: eavesdropping. We heard the kids (college-aged) behind us say "I cannot WAIT for the Demolition Derby on Sunday!" I elbowed My Better Half and said "What do you think the overlap is among the audiences for David Sedaris and the Demolition Derby?!"

After the Sedaris show, we caught up with some friends for a drink and I relayed to them the anecdote with a tone of "Can you believe that?!", and they replied "Uh...WE are going to the Demolition Derby on Sunday..." So I guess the Venn diagram would have more overlap than I would have expected.

In Which The Soup Informs My Reality TV Viewing

I have always been a fan of The Soup, and watched it for its pure comedy. But it's just dawned on me that I could be using it as a tool as well. I propose an inverse relationship: The less frequently a show's clips appear on The Soup, the more frequently I should probably be watching it.

Career Counseling. AKA General Life Therapy

I've decided to give career counseling a go. I've been utterly dissatisfied with my museum work lately, and wonder what else I can do for work. I worry that I'm over-niched and underqualified. I got a graduate degree specifically for museum work, and I've found almost no satisfaction from my work in collections management, which is what I always thought I wanted to do since undergrad. And those years that I've dedicated to museum collections management work have also been an opportunity cost - what other more general, marketable skills and expertise could I have been developing that aren't as specialized as database admin for museum collections management databases? The things that I think I might be interested in doing I feel I don't qualify for because I lack experience. Experience I could have been gaining all along if I had taken another path. And yet the experience I do have isn't adding up to personal, financial, or career satisfaction for me. I think that the things that I enjoy doing (like writing) I don't know how to transform into something that provides me with an income. And I don't know how to reshape the career path I'm in. Not to mention I'm pretty certain I'm not interested in figuring it out. I worry that I've made poor decisions in taking my last two jobs, but I also know that since I'm limited to the Phoenix area, if I had instead taken available jobs at Starbucks, I would resent that My Better Half got to pursue his career path through graduate school while I toiled away at jobs that required nothing more than a high school diploma. And yet sometimes I think I'd be happier doing that kind of work anyway. (And I'd probably have a 401(k), too).

Sometimes I think it's too late to correct course and pursue something else, but then I think I'm too young not to try something different. I think I went to graduate school because it was "the next logical step" and failed to explore the options available to me, so I'm taking this as my chance to do that.

My New Job Sucks

There. I said it.

No upward mobility, no possibilities for growth and advancement. No additional training or support for professional development. Basically, I'm my employers' bitch. It's 40 hours of "Dance, Monkey, Dance!" At first, it was really nice. I had left my museum job because I had been overextended, and stretched too thin. While it's nice to not be held singlehandedly responsible for several dozen projects at once, it would be nice to get the chance to take responsibility for at least one or two.

At least it's only 40 hours a week, unlike my last gig. And I can set my own schedule. But since it's become clear that my bosses have no interests in my development, and see me only as their hired clerical assistant, I guess I'll be revisiting other options for work. My museum experience has been illuminating. I feel like there are (basically) two paths museum professionals take. The first is to pursue work in a small institution where you can quickly become responsible for museum projects and endeavors like exhibitions or educational programming. But the problem with that path is that these young go-getters like me frequently don't get the mentoring and support that they need to develop. In my small museum job, I was on a staff of four, then three, then two. To whom could I turn for professional guidance and advice, especially since I had so little time to emerge from the trenches of day-to-day tasks? Where was I to find time to network? The other path is to take an entry-level position at a larger institution and work your way up over time. The trouble with that path is that young go-getters quickly bore and feel tasked with rote, repetitive data entry tasks that do not match the level of skill (and graduate degrees) they have attained.

So in leaving behind museums for a private art gallery, I thought I'd be making a transition to doing something else while I downsized my responsibilities and got my work hours back around 40 per week. I felt completely swamped and overwhelmed in my last position. But here I feel overqualified for the tasks with which my bosses task me, which is essentially serving as an on-call data entry assistant. I know there must be a way to find the appropriate balance somewhere out there in the museum world, but not when you're geographically tied to a specific place (and Phoenix is not known for its vibrant museum community, people).

In addition to my recent job plights, I have found the museum field frustrating on so many other levels. They're all underfunded and overextended. They often seem to attract pretentious A-holes to their boards, whose conservative values and visions often clash with the innumerable incredibly talented, thinking-outside-the-box creative types who work there. Museums frequently offer few benefits. I'm in my 30s and have never had a museum job that offered a retirement plan. And in my previous job and my current one, I'm left to obtain my own health insurance (and since I don't qualify for private health insurance, I'm basically screwed). So all of this makes me wonder what else can I do with my degree besides museum work? I think it's time I find out, because I strongly suspect that the field to which I have dedicated 8 years of my life so far is not for me. Hello, career counseling!

My Recipe Files

I've just discovered that all of my recipes go as follows:

Step 1: Gather ingredients.

Step 2: Heat oven.

Step 3: Call my sister-in-law, the chef.

Genius

I think that next to every Apple store in America there should be a Kick A Genius store. Y'know, let everyone get their frustrations out.

Panic at the Workplace

Today I learned that my workplace has a panic room. Seriously.

It's on the upper level, which I've only been on a couple of times. Okay, but here's the thing about the overdesigned wonder in which I work. The upper level is all glass. The exterior walls are glass, the interior room partitions are all glass. Glass, glass, glass. And in keeping with the architecture, the panic room's walls are also...you guessed it!

What's more, is that since the panic room is in the center of the building, it's basically a panic fish bowl.

How Bad Did I Look Before?

I’ve been free of the museum job and the Boss for two months now, and met my friends for a drink after work this evening. The first thing my BFF said was “You look GREAT! The lines on your face have gone WAY down!”

So it’s not just me. I felt like that my museum job took years off my life, and other people saw it too. Can I sue for pain, suffering, and the cost of Restylane?


Rave of the Year, 2008 edition

My 2008 has been made. I have hated this guy ever since I encountered him on CNN YELLING at me and just generally being a prick. Today Dick Quest got arrested!

Unfiltered Thoughts: Architecture

So my new job is in a private art gallery in someone's home. And by home, I mean overly designed architectural marvel. And by marvel, I mean that it's, uh, special. Unique. Ok, it's just straight-up fucked up, really. The building is shaped like a parallelogram. Well, actually, it's a rhomboid, not just a parallelogram. So there are no 90 degree angles anywhere in the building, and everything, from the furnishings to the fixtures, is custom-made. It may sound pretty cool, but there are some pain-in-the-ass quirks about it for someone who works in such a contrived and unusual structure.

For starters, I work on the basement level. On the south end of the basement level, the ceiling (or the floor of the ground-floor level) is actually a series of plexiglass skylights that let in a lot of natural light. So much light, in fact, that they had to install custom sunscreens on all of them. Not only because of the light and resulting heat, but more importantly because the homeowners store their textiles on the south end, and textiles are easily damaged by light. Meanwhile, the north end of the basement level, where the offices and kitchen are, and where someone like me works 40 hours a week, has no windows or natural light of any kind. It's a mind-boggling arrangement. Valuable textiles' exposure to light should be minimized as much as possible, whereas natural light is good for a healthy work environment for people. So why they didn't just flip the arrangement, and put offices on the south end and textiles on the dark north end, is beyond me. I would say it's just a decision that the owners made after the architect left the scene, but I know how the owners work. They stay on their help employees, contractors, groundskeepers, and architects like a hawk. And there was a clear and conscious decision to place the office spaces on the north end. There are no rooms at the south end - the textiles are displayed along partitions, not walls or within interior rooms.

Beyond the appropriation of space on the basement level, there's also an issue with the furnishings. Every single furnishing is a built-in. While my office is beautiful - sleek glass and dark black countertops - there are some problems. My desk is also a rhomboid to remain parallel to the interior and exterior walls. Have you ever tried to cut a perfect 90 degree angle on a surface that's a rhomboid? Give it a go and tell me how that works out for you. And everything is fixed. Also, the surfaces are all at a fixed height (which is exactly the wrong height for me), so I'm developing carpal tunnel. When I adjust my chair height so that the seat has me at the appropriate spot, there's only a couple inches clearance under the table. And try as I might, my thighs are not a mere 2". Finally, there are some major oversights in terms of accommodating basic needs. Because all storage is also built-in, there are no wall hooks, no closets. Where am I supposed to hang my jacket or put my wet umbrella?

It's utterly baffling, because I'm left to think that either the architect missed some key details in terms of thinking about how people would work in and use the space (as this level was specifically designed for the homeowners' hired help), or that the architect's attempts to incorporate such improvements was entirely overridden by the homeowners.

Please to Explain, NYC edition

Can someone please enlighten me as to why NYC is so great? Maybe it’s awesome for people with money, but for me?

It took me over 2 hours to go from JFK to my hotel in Manhattan by subway.

It smells.

It’s so, so dirty. I've seen piss, vomit, and all kinds of bullshit on the streets. Everywhere I go, all I can think of is of all the filthy nasty hands that have also touched the door handle I have to touch.

For $250 a night, I expect a goddamn coffeemaker in my hotel room. Or at least free coffee in the lobby. Assholes. And a shower with hot water.

It just cost me $9 to get a bottle of water & an iced coffee.

The world does not revolve around you, NYC, as you clearly believe it does.

$23 for lunch?! Seriously??

I can't even breathe. There's so many people, there's no space to spread out, no space to carve out for your self. Like at cafes, bookstores, restaurants, it's just stools at counters or sharing a table with complete strangers.

Must. Escape.

In Which I Go Through the Open Window

Today was my last day at my museum job! On to another museum-ish job. Not exactly a museum, but a private art collection, where I’ll be managing the collection and doing research. It’s going to be different in a lot of ways, but the one that I’m looking forward to most is having a clearly defined role that will enable me to concentrate on one project at a time and do each well. I wasn’t able to negotiate putting off the start date, so I’ll be starting after a long weekend, rather than after the years weeks of vacation I actually need to rest up & recover from my museum job, but at least I landed a job in my general field. And that is a feat in and of itself in this economy.

And Why Would I Want to Do That?

So today, I read this article on Slate about changing a night owl to a morning person. I am not, nor have I ever been, nor will I ever be a morning person. Those perky little fuckers just make me want to hurl.

Work Assessment

So in looking for new work, I’d applied to a position at another nonprofit that seemed to have its act together. I wasn’t sure if the position was right for me, but as I got to know the company, I felt like it was a really good fit. Read: they pay well and offer benefits.

But the hoops to go through in applying for the job were borderline ridiculous. In addition to the usual cover letter and resume, phone and in-person interviews, I had to take an enormous battery of personality assessments. I had been told that regardless of whether I was offered the position, I’d be given the results. After I’d gotten word that I wouldn’t be offered the position, I hadn’t heard from the HR folks, so I finally called to inquire and had a phone consultation with them today to go over the results. The first thing the HR woman asked (excitedly) was, “So! Did you get the job?!”

 Um, no.

“No? Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.”

 (Um, why the hell didn’t you know that already? Weird!)

“Do you know WHY you weren’t offered the position?”

No. I simply received a letter that stated that another candidate had been offered and had accepted the position.

“Well, we’ll see what we can find out on our end and give you a little more feedback on that at another time. In the meantime, just try to understand not to take this personally and ....”

 I tuned out. It’s hard not to take this sort of thing personally.

Anyway, on to the results. I was shocked at how accurately the results reflected my work style and personality. I was measured in four cognitive ability areas: vocabulary, numerical and visual analysis, verbal reasoning, and critical thinking. For these four tests, I rated “far above average” in these areas. But that wasn’t the interesting part. The assessments also measured my work personality in several areas.

As far as my leadership style, I am comfortable at being in charge but it’s not something that I have to have at work to be fulfilled. (Check). I am open and willing to challenge the status quo and challenge authority, not a blind follower. (Yup.) I am willing to voice unpopular opinions, but I am also concerned about what other people think of me and my work. (So far, three for three.)

On a scale of introversion to extraversion, I am in the middle. Which means I need to be around people and be given the opportunity to work on teams, but I also require alone time to think, contemplate, and do the tasks that contribute to the overall project. Sounds right.

I am not only comfortable working among people who are different from me, I actually prefer that because I am inspired and fueled by the diversity of approaches and ideas brought to the table. I have strong empathetic skills. I am good at listening to and understanding others, I am concerned about others’ feelings, and I am approachable. I am dependable and see that follow-through is important, but I’m not overly concerned with details to make me a perfectionist. I am highly focused on achievement and strive to exceed my goals. I prefer to be self-directed and independent, but I like a lot of variety in my work -- I get easily bored with the same thing or repetitive tasks. I am naturally curious, I am skilled at understanding myself, my thoughts and feelings, and reading non-verbal cues. The tests even revealed that I’m quite sensitive, that it is difficult for me (though not impossible) to address sticky or sensitive issues and I take constructive feedback way too personally.

While I may not have landed the job, I think all of this info is a really key takeaway as I look for other work, particularly since I’m considering bailing on the museum, and even nonprofit, sector altogether. The problem is I don’t know how to find work that best suits me…