Thursday, February 19, 2004
Day 9,818
It's update time. That special time for wrfarah.blogspot.com, in which we depart from our amateurish poetry and silly, prose musings, and actually give the readers a cognizant news report. After all, what's an ethos without clarity?
• I do have a job now. I'm a temp, but us temps prefer the term "contract". It gives our friends and family the false impression that we negotiated this "contract", and that we're very serious, and that we're not really just cheap labor without benefits.
• I work for a company that processes a great deal of financial transactions. I don't think it's important to discuss the details. As I replied to my grandmother, who asked me whether my new job was interesting: "No." But it is fairly challenging. The day passes, and I find myself returning home happy. And I've found myself guilty for underestimating the value of a paycheck. Remember all that liberal goodness about the evil of money and corruption and blah, blah, blah, blah? That's great and everything, but life sure is less stressful when you're not worrying about making the bills.
• No, I'm no longer going to the women's college. I may return at a later date once the finance situation improves.
• I am still editing my second book. It's going slowly, but I'm pleased with the progress. It's less a process of fixing what is there, and more a matter of what should be added. I can see a point -- maybe two or three months down the road -- in which I'll be satisfied with it.
• I've been kind of nervous at this new job because: I'm contract, and they can dismiss me for no reason; my job could move to India at any moment; every phone call I make or take is recorded and archived; I'm videotaped everywhere except the bathrooms (and I'm skeptical about them too). So rather than cruise the internet on my lunch break, I've been bringing Theodore Roethke's complete collected poems. The last two days I've read the same one over and over again: "The Pure Fury". Roethke has his oblique moments, but also his great ones.
• The Roethke reading is probably informing a new Carmody poem I'm working on that should be up on the site in a day or so.
• There are three areas of ceiling where I work. The middle area, the largest, which covers the call center, contains 3,150 ceiling tiles.
• The 29,452nd meal this morning: mini wheats that were actually mini. Why do they have mini wheats that are the size of my hand? At what point do they become "maxi-wheats"?
• Working does not mean my visits to the clinic are finished. Hopefully I'll return to my friendly, twice-weekly morning place next week, where the opinions and movies are free . . . if not always intelligible.
• The movie of the week at wrfarah.blogspot.com is Frauds, a silly, scary British film with Hugo Weaving and Phil Collins.
• And seeing as I've always disagreed with the assumption by all Dylan fans that "Blonde on Blonde" is his best album, that is this week's cd of choice. I still say it's not his best . . . but it's growing on me, with classics such as "Just Like a Woman", "Most Likely You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine", and "Pledging My Time".
• I've finally gotten my wife to admit she doesn't like our fourth bird. Now it's just a matter of figuring out how to convince her we need to get rid of it. Who am I kidding?
• I do have a job now. I'm a temp, but us temps prefer the term "contract". It gives our friends and family the false impression that we negotiated this "contract", and that we're very serious, and that we're not really just cheap labor without benefits.
• I work for a company that processes a great deal of financial transactions. I don't think it's important to discuss the details. As I replied to my grandmother, who asked me whether my new job was interesting: "No." But it is fairly challenging. The day passes, and I find myself returning home happy. And I've found myself guilty for underestimating the value of a paycheck. Remember all that liberal goodness about the evil of money and corruption and blah, blah, blah, blah? That's great and everything, but life sure is less stressful when you're not worrying about making the bills.
• No, I'm no longer going to the women's college. I may return at a later date once the finance situation improves.
• I am still editing my second book. It's going slowly, but I'm pleased with the progress. It's less a process of fixing what is there, and more a matter of what should be added. I can see a point -- maybe two or three months down the road -- in which I'll be satisfied with it.
• I've been kind of nervous at this new job because: I'm contract, and they can dismiss me for no reason; my job could move to India at any moment; every phone call I make or take is recorded and archived; I'm videotaped everywhere except the bathrooms (and I'm skeptical about them too). So rather than cruise the internet on my lunch break, I've been bringing Theodore Roethke's complete collected poems. The last two days I've read the same one over and over again: "The Pure Fury". Roethke has his oblique moments, but also his great ones.
• The Roethke reading is probably informing a new Carmody poem I'm working on that should be up on the site in a day or so.
• There are three areas of ceiling where I work. The middle area, the largest, which covers the call center, contains 3,150 ceiling tiles.
• The 29,452nd meal this morning: mini wheats that were actually mini. Why do they have mini wheats that are the size of my hand? At what point do they become "maxi-wheats"?
• Working does not mean my visits to the clinic are finished. Hopefully I'll return to my friendly, twice-weekly morning place next week, where the opinions and movies are free . . . if not always intelligible.
• The movie of the week at wrfarah.blogspot.com is Frauds, a silly, scary British film with Hugo Weaving and Phil Collins.
• And seeing as I've always disagreed with the assumption by all Dylan fans that "Blonde on Blonde" is his best album, that is this week's cd of choice. I still say it's not his best . . . but it's growing on me, with classics such as "Just Like a Woman", "Most Likely You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine", and "Pledging My Time".
• I've finally gotten my wife to admit she doesn't like our fourth bird. Now it's just a matter of figuring out how to convince her we need to get rid of it. Who am I kidding?
