Missing Link

I’ve been pretty quiet lately, which I suppose isn’t really that shocking an occurrence. I assure you all that I am doing quite well, which is partially the reason why I’ve not been blagging* so much. I don’t have time!

My new job has been, to date, fantastic. I thoroughly enjoy the work, as well as the people. The company itself is great – they demand a lot from their employees, but they reward that by giving employees everything they need to be successful and taking care of employees. It’s a wonderful change of pace from my recent employment where they demanded a lot but gave little back to the employees. They would be angry at me if they heard me say that: as far as the leadership team there sees it – they give a lot back to employees. Unfortunately, the leadership team for the company is out of touch with the Indianapolis office, and are only slowly becoming aware that it’s not a friendly or nice place to work. The contrast between where I am now and where I came from is night and day.

In other developments – This past weekend was decent. It would have been great, but Ann’s mom was in town (which in and of itself isn’t a bad thing), and Ann and I did not get to spend the weekend hanging out together like we normally do (which in and of itself IS a bad thing). My buddy Trevor had a birthday party (along with his sister and two of her friends whose birthdays all fell within roughly a few weeks of each other). It was…. interesting. There was plenty of drinking going on, as I expected there would be. There were also a lot of weird people who I did not know all that well (I had met most of them before at least once, but didn’t know any of them beyond having met them in passing). One of these strange people insisted that I looked very much like Steve Guttenburg, to the point where he was asking random other partygoers what they thought on the matter. (For those who have no idea who Steve Guttenburg is, he was Carey Mahoney in Police Academy, and one of the dudes in 3 Men and a Baby). Personally, I have no idea what the guy was talking about – I look NOTHING like Steve Guttenburg.

In other, other developments – I bought a new lens for my dSLR camera. It’s a Cannon 70-200mm f/2.8L, and it’s awesome. I plan on using it quite a bit in the coming months – first and foremost to shoot hockey with, but also to shoot nature and other stuff while I am out and about with Ann. The only downside is that it’s bulky and kinda heavy, but that’s the price you gotta pay for good glass. Well, that and the actual price of the lens.

And with that, I leave you all. For now. This coming week at work is New Employee Orientation (NEO), which I’ve been told will last approximately 4 days. Normally this would be the first thing a new employee is exposed to, but due to my circumstances they allowed me to start two weeks ago – so I’m getting it on my third week on the job. I have a feeling I will be putting in a lot of work from home in the evenings to make sure I’m caught up.   

Maybe I’ll write some more in the near future

* Blagging is taken from the XKCD web comic. It’s a mispronunciation of “blogging”, and is used in the comic as “blag”. Click the link above to see the actual comic.

Throughout our young formative years most of us can hardly wait to grow up.  We want to be an adult, to have the freedom to do whatever we want (really, the freedom to say “no” to our parents without it resulting in being grounded, smacked, or both.).  What we don’t realize (the grass is always greener…) is that being an adult is not all fun and games (unless your career involves fun and games, in which case the vast majority is fun and games).  We work hard to make money to pay bills and survive.  That little tidbit is obfuscated for kids – they don’t immediately make that jump in logic even though it’s right there in front of their face.

Part of being an adult is finding a job,  and then using that job to catapult your career forwards.  Some find jobs and stay with them indefinitely.  Others hop from job to job every few months.   Still others stay for a while, but over time trend upwards in their positions as promotions are passed down to them.  Very few, however, really enjoy their work.  How can I make this claim?     Well – it’s based off observation.  How many times have you heard someone say “Wow, I LOVE my job!” versus someone saying “Work sucks, I want to go home”?   I hear the latter more often than the former. 

That’s a pretty big problem, hating your job.  Since you spend the VAST MAJORITY of your waking adult life slaving away, it’s probably pretty important that you actually enjoy what you do – otherwise you’re in for a world of hurt.  You can probably survive for a year, maybe two, but eventually you’ll just grow to hate it so much that the thought of going into work will cause physical manifestations of your dislike for it.  I have SEEN someone get physically sick because they remembered on a Sunday afternoon that they had to go to work in the morning.

I KNOW this, yet I find myself where many Americans (and probably other nationalities too) find themselves – in a job I don’t particularly like.  It’s not that I don’t like the TYPE of work I am doing, or even that I don’t like the company I’m doing it for (both, on their own, I like). It’s when you put the two together that I don’t like it.

I currently do more policy work, and attending meetings, than actual hands-on technical work.  I miss the hands-on work, the stuff that I really enjoy doing.  I hate policy (especially when nobody reads it and gives you feedback on it…. After over a month….. and after requesting a response on it, repeatedly…. I digress), I abhor meetings (especially pointless ones where nothing happens) and I dislike working for a company that doesn’t give me the authority to operate effectively. 

I’ve been trying to determine my calling.    To figure out what, exactly, I’m supposed to be doing with my life. 

This past weekend I went with the team photographer for the Indiana Ice to go photograph one of their games.  I’ve been into photography for a while, but just this year got more serious about it – getting a DSLR and trying out new and different types of photography.  The chance to try sports photography from an incredible vantage point was awesome – I couldn’t pass it up.     

I had a great time at the game and really hope I have the opportunity to do it again.  You can see my pictures from the game here.

If I thought I could make money doing it, I’d turn to photography as a career.    I know I’m not nearly good enough a photographer to do that, though, so onward I march in the rat-race I call my career.