Breaking the ice
Posted: 23 December 2004 at 21:52:32
Hmmm... I’m in a bit of a bad mood.
Abrupt Contraction
Dax walked with me out to my car today when Iw as done with work. He told me Guru Labs won’t be needing my services anymore because January and February are their slowest months. They’re going to have several instructors in town during that time so they won’t be needing me.
There’s nothing really wrong with this. My 3-month contract is up and Guru Labs simply chose not to renew it. I’m fine with that. What I’m not fine with is that he broke the news to me so abruptly.
I asked Dax and Bryan a month ago if they thought they’d be interested in renewing my contract when my 90-days were up. They said it depended on how the workload looked. I think I was also asking for some kind of advance notice of whether or not I’d have a job when my current contract was up.
The timing of all this — two days before Christmas — doesn’t help either.
The good news is that Iodynamics has had a very busy month and has some work on the horizon. I think I’ll be fine, at least for the next 30 days or so. That gives me some time to pursue some other contract work as well.
That all said, I really have enjoyed working at Guru Labs. I felt I was learning something new every day. It was only a stressful job when I felt like Dax was looking over my shoulder and questioning everything I was doing and how I was doing... but I suppose that’s healthy. His comments on stuff were usually very helpful and steered projects in the right direction. He just has a tendency to come off sounding like he thinks you’re an idiot for not thinking of things in the first place.
Ho! Ho! Ho! Apocalypse!
I’ve tried to pay attention and to not let Christmas sneak up on me, but alas, it has. There’s a lot of stuff I was hoping to get for people for Christmas and here I am on 23 December with a lot of stuff unobtained. It doesn’t help that I feel less liberal with opening my wallet. I also don’t know where half the gifts I have bought are at right now.
I’ve lost track of a lot of things these last few months just because I’ve been working non-stop.
A new way of looking at things
For Christmas, I asked for a new digital video camera. Christine and I (eventually) agreed we should wait until after Christmas to do this because prices would probably be better but then I looked on EBay. A Sears liquidation outlet was auctioning off display/open-box models of the video camera I was hoping to get and it looked like I could get one for a lot less than retail. So, I bid... and won... and got a Samsung MiniDV video camera for about $100 less than retail.
When I found out I won, I ordered a firewire card for my computer and got ready to transfer the video from the Sons Of Nothing show at DV8. Unfortunately, the video was a big disappointment. Dan — the lighting engineer we hired — did a horrible job lighting the stage. It was too dark most of the time. Solos were rarely lit enough, if at all. To top it off, my new camera was having serious problems with tapes recorded on one of the three cameras. I suspect either the record head in the camera we used was dirty or there’s just a general incompatibility between the signals recorded on that camera and what my Samsung will read.
So, that was a big disappointment.
Still, it was a good learning experience. :-) Next time (and I really hope there will be a next time), we’ll have complete control of the lighting situation and we’ll have time to rehearse the video crew and the lights together. Oh, and we’ll do a better job of actually getting people to come to the show. *sighs*
Speaking of Nothing
The band (aka Sons Of Nothing) has three shows locked down in Colorado in late January. We’re all very excited about that. Meanwhile, they’ve been working on new material for the album coming out this next Spring. It’s sounding, to borrow a term from Jennie, AWESOME!!!!.
If you’ve heard Mr. Serious, you’ve only heard the tip of the iceberg (or is it “the skin of the tomato?”) of what is to come.
I’ve also been privy to some news that the band is working on polishing one of my favorite Floyd tunes that they’ve never played before. I about died when I heard about it because I never thought they’d play it.
The plan
Tomorrow (Christmas Eve), we’re heading up to Cache Valley for Christine’s grandparents’ party and then visiting with my sister for a bit. Then we’ll be heading back to Salt Lake to hang at my parents’ house and eat some of my mom’s delectable and scrumptious clam chowder.
Maybe I can find some time in there somewhere to go shopping for those few last-minute items.
Saturday (Christmas day), we’ll be heading up to Roy to hang with Christine’s parents.