How many bad days to have a good one?
 

I figure I'd post this as a Life experience rather than a rant on paranoia or something. I hope my misadventures entertain the forum at least temporarily :P I would just like to warn everyone of the length of this thread. It could take up minutes of your time. (Depending on reading speed and interest) And this line is a kind of insurance to avoid any TLDNR replies, or at least be able to classify them as trolling. Glad to be back on TFP! and Enjoy!

I'm in a crossroads in my pre-career life where everything is slowly building towards what I'm going to be for the next 30-40 years. The thing is, what I was aiming for during the last few years have been nothing real or motivating. Business management is not for me, numbers stress me out, and I am too nice to screw people over. I've already started on the academics (switching to Literature, film, arts) now I need to move onto lifestyle. That is the switch from small town mentality to big city life.

Recently I've been on a mission, that mission is to find a job for the summer in the city where I attend University, instead of going back to my hometown. Sure, if I went back this summer the pay check would be nice and I would visit the family, but those are the only advantages. Of the disadvantages, there is several: long work hours+ intense labor= low energy, bad nutrition, unsteady physical activity, low motivation, lack of social interaction, loss of interest in things in general.

And so, for the last few weeks I've been asking around, going to websites, scouting the surrounding businesses, etc... The thing is, when it came to updating my Resume, (very out of date, since my last few summers have been on a "who you know" basis for work) everything started to go wrong.

First, the death of my trusted desktop. During my school I've been mostly using my laptop and only booting up the old beater to store data, or watch the odd movie. All of a sudden, with a goal of grabbing my Resume files, my computer just wont boot up, now I'm not turning this into a troubleshoot thread so I will not go into detail. Long story short, I have no immediate access to those files. So I guess it's time to start over.

Next up, the planning. So this was a Friday, and as any good college student, it was time to make the weekend go by the only way we know how. A few bars, a friend's birthday, late afternoon wake-ups, etc... That Sunday, I was reading over some notes from class when I figured I may as well do the respectable thing and plan out my class-free Monday. First on the list was: the Resume. I'll finish this section by adding that over the weekend I had been experiencing a few discomforts in the stomach area, which of course I ignored.

Monday morning, I beat my alarm clock. Not because I was excited to start this process. No, it was so my body could tell me it was pissed off and ready to make the next few days a pain in the ass. That's right, dry cough, 3 out of 5 Pepto Bismol symptoms and muscle pains, high fever. {Sadface} I haz da Flu. So that's great, you could imagine my motivation to write about my skills, goals, achievements and past work experience in this state. I forgot to mention that something came in the mail that day... My mom sent the application for the job I've had the last few summers

At least it was short lived, 3 days under the weather is all it took. This morning I was feeling mighty fine, and Microsoft Word was calling my name. Now I don't know you personally, but if you lost every copy of your Resume or files related, it would suck. Having to write that PITA again is to me Dreadful. I would rather write a 10 page essay on why I should get this job. Hell I should send this post as my cover letter to show my employer the journey I went through.

The biggest problem is that I have not looked into the structure of the Resume/CV since High school. Sure I know what to put in it but what's the order, what should I put in Italic and/or Bold how is the date format, what are the margins,... So off to the Microsoft Office website for some templates to help out on that structure. All was fine until for some reason, the Office website was being funky, the page was loading, links were appearing, but there was no flash, script, java, color, or anything visual on the website for that matter. It was as though the website had gone through a wormhole into 1997. Things like this happen sometimes but usually a quick refresh fixes the problem. Not this time Joe Nobody!

Now I'm not going on some Adjustment Bureau conspiracy rant or Paranoia of sorts. And I'm sure I'll get on that Resume as soon as this post is done with. It's just a little frustrating that coincidence has been playing hardball these past few days. I Don't Wanna Go Home!

SO that's my story up till about 40 minutes ago when I decided to come back to good old TFP where I've been a member for a while but been busy with other stuff. Glad to be back and it's nice to share this little story of life's moments of nowhere but up!

P.S. the Microsoft Office website just came up. :)

Welcome back to the board!
I hate strings of bad days, where nothing seems to go right. After a couple of days, though, it becomes so incredibly rediculous that I just start laughing my way through it. New problem? Ha! par for the course. I think I'll make a joke of it and move along. It's one of the only ways to sane through it.

I was one of those people that knew exactly what they wanted to do for a career from an early age. The teachers said I had the brains and talent to do it. My instructors said I had the ability to do it.

What I wanted was to play first chair first trumpet in the Boston Symphony Orchestra. I won awards in high school and got a full ride scholarship to a very good university with the music program that I wanted.

And then came the hitch. In my senior year, after getting the scholarship, I sustained an injury to my mouth. The upper jaw was broken and I lost a lot of teeth. Oh, they tried to put them back in and hoped for the best, but it was a lost cause.

I kept going backwards in the college orchestra, until I could no longer play at all. They told me that I needed to find a new major, and I had two days to do it. WTF!!! It was a 4 year scholarship, but it could no longer be music, since the only way they defined music was as a musician (no composing or conducting coursework).

I went nuts trying to come with an idea for a major. One of my hobbies was ham radio and I had been reading articles about computers. I was walking past the student union the night before I had to declare, and they were watching an old sci-fi movie about robots and talking computers. I thought about it all night. The way that I thought about it was that it wasn't just me that had to make some changes in the way they thought about things. Big changes were in store for everyone, whether they knew it or not.

Computers seemed (to me) to be one of the driving forces of those changes, but it would be how we humans interacted with those computers. On the form the next morning I wrote "Psychology of Machines". That bought me time to refine my thoughts. I thought of it in both ways. Humans had to learn to work with machines (what was later called GUI design) and machines had to emulate humans (adaptive intelligence and robotics).

The clerks were quick to point out that there was no such major in their list. The professors were eager to help me create one. When it came time for grad school, they all seemed eager for me to pursue it.

And then came the real world.... No one came knocking, except those same universities wanting me to do more study and maybe teach.

An idea came to me, so I tried it out. I went on a tour of a well respected computer company. When it came time for the "important dude" in development to make his pitch, I waited politely until he finished and then I asked my question that I figured was one step beyond his vision for the next generation product capability. I repeated this process for a few more tours.

Every one of them offered me a job at the same time. I asked my grandfather about these offers, since he was savvy in financial matters. At his suggestion, I formed a one-person company and contacted all of them. A career was born.

Wandrin.

I'm left with no words after reading your post. It is amazing to see what a string of events can lead to. I also have had a fair share of those nights thinking deep about the future. I spent my first year of University with the auto-pilot on, not worrying or caring, just waiting for the next step. Kind of like High school. But now, I feel like I'm in control, swerving around obstacles and exploring new areas.

Is it normal to have roughly two bad days per year? I used to have a lot of bad days, but my outlook changed.

No, I don't really have any bad days, either...none that I can remember. Maybe it's just that I don't dwell on whether a day is good or bad or not...either way, it's not something I notice or worry about.

Sounds like a string of trashy days...but I've got to point out, you completely glossed over the weekend. I'll assume you just kind of write those off as straight-up good days, regardless, but still be thankful for them!
And yeah, I'm putting of delaying my resume right now. Mildly intimidating, since I've never done one, and I'm not sure if I'll even need one. But I may as well start it soon.
I hope your days have gotten better since you posted!

Let me know when you find out the answer.

I'm ready for 2011 to be over, and it isn't even April.

No deaths in the family? Serious injuries or illnesses? Teenage fist fights? Breakups with girlfriends? Car wrecks? Drunken mistakes? Tattoo regrets?

Helluva life ya got there. And by that I mean that I think that your above statement is totally full of shit.

...

Bad is, of course, a super relative term. You've gotta consider the world of the particular person. Breaking a nail is the end of the world to someone on Rodeo Drive. Dodging disease and starvation and hot 7.62x39mm is probably a good day in Somalia. Most of us lucky fucks are somewhere in between.

...

I consider it a good day when I get hot institutional food and can enjoy shitting in a 100-degree fly-infested portable toilet.

I have friends that don't get that much.

this week has had such insane high and lows, I want a way to be on a beach with my wife just on a hammock and somehow for my mind to just go clear and for my thoughts to just vanish. Sadly I know my mind will still be racing 100 miles an hour and i would still be stressed.