by Matt | Jul 30, 2003 | Work
That was perhaps the longest week of my life. Working 8am-11pm every day really took it’s toll. It was a really great learning experience though. For those that don’t remember, Paul and I just spent the week in “historic” Lubbock TX as the official photographers with the Miss Texas USA pageant. Basically I spent the week carrying equipment and learning what shooting a pageant was all about. We met some really great and down-to-earth people like Sargent Dave and his bomb-sniffing dog Biff who were just plain fun to talk with. I’ll say this for Texas, the have the one of the most “normal” populations for people I’ve seen in a long time. Well… except for the pageant moms, who were more of a pain in the ass than both soccer and hockey moms combined. I came really close to ending a few lives this week. Some of them are just downright scumbags trying to work every angle to get something for free. Thankfully my “I don’t give a shit about you” attitude beat their “we’re customers and we’re always right” stance. The funny thing was that the ones that were trying to get something from me for free or weasel their way into seeing pictures that we weren’t previewing were the ones that didn’t order anything and weren’t actually customers. Man do I have some stories from this week. It’ll keep me in new story material for months to come. Like the morning we were hanging out with Dave and the Police Commissioner and they decided to take us up to this really nice (and expensive) winnery were we got a personal tour, wine tasting and a few bottles to go home with. All things considered, and with all the work we did, it was a pretty good week. We had fun, I learned a lot and I think both Paul and I got an understanding about the way each other works as photographers.
There’s also been some interesting personal things going on. After talking with Toyota of Nashua we found it it WAS possible to completely transfer a lease making my parents single reason for keeping the car completely moot. There isn’t even any charges associated with it, I just have to take over the payments. While that would obviously be my first choice in cars the lease in unfortunately locked in at $250 a month and Nashua Toyota told us that I would actually have a really good shot at getting something well under $200 for the exact same car since I’m a first time buyer and they have programs for that. So, I’m going to see what I can get into a new Matrix for down here. I’m also looking at just about every other car on the planet. Today I’m also talking with Lending Tree and NH Higher Education to see who has the better consolidation rates for my loans. Once I consolidate my loans it’ll be time to go car shopping. It might be good to get a loan for the car and then re-consolidate that into the payments I’d already be making, but that’s something I’d have to talk with loan places about.
As you could imagine this also keeps me in Texas without clothes, a computer, anything. I don’t know how I’m going to get those down here. Honestly I have no idea. My parents close on the house today actually and so the phone is already disconnected and they’re living off their cell phones. They put all my things over my uncles house and are planning on staying a week at a condo at Loon Mt. and then a week or two at my uncle’s house. After that, if they haven’t found anything they’re going to get an apartment.
Today I have the day off since I just worked an 80 hour week so Lauren and I are going to run some errands. Groceries, T-mobile store to find a new faceplate for my shitty company phone, that sort of thing.
I really really wish I have my computer down here so that I could update daily and really rant and rave about a few things that ticked me off this week and a few things I heard in the news that just got me all worked up. I don’t, so I can’t. I’ve got to figure out a way to get it down here. How does Gateway and Dell ship their full assembled PCs without them being beaten to shit? I’ve got to figure out what (and who) they use to ship them.
Ok, it’s time to go. I’ll update when I can. I just wanted to let everyone know that I was back and that everything went well this week. Take care guys.
Matt out.
by Matt | Jul 20, 2003 | Imported Entry
Well, tomorrow at the ass crack of dawn I leave for Lubbock TX. It’s an 8 hour friggin drive to the middle of fucking no where TX to spend a whole week with the most insipid, air-headed morons on the planet: beauty pageant contestants. If it sounds like I’m a little hostile this evening it’s because I am. But not for the reasons you might think. I don’t want to bore you with details but my good for nearly nothing parents have decided it would be “easier” if I financed my own car and that the Matrix stays in NH. I just about threw a shit-fit. I have to say, and most of you will agree, that when I get pissed I REALLY get pissed. There’s no middle ground with “angry Matt” and holy shit is he pissed. I don’t have the vocabulary to properly describe to you just how angry I am at the moment. I’ve been here two weeks and in that time I’ve gone over more details in my life than I care to think about. I’ve made wedding plans, I’ve looked at apartments, I’ve figured out my personal finances, I’ve done fucking everything. And this, this pile of “fuck you” thrown right in my face isn’t fucking helping. I apologize for the excessive profanity but it’s the only thing that begins to approach my level of aggravation. After an extremely stressful week and a really stressful day of apartment hunting, and forgetting my credit card some place, and being hotter than the fucking sun, I come home and call my folks and this is the shit I get. They can’t make up their fucking minds about where they want to live but they can go ahead and decide to screw me out of a car. The reason they shoveled? Something along the lines of “it would be easier to register and get inspected if it stayed here in New Hampshire, we really think it might be easier for YOU if you looked into getting a new car”. For me?!?! Easier for fucking me! Are they insane?!?! They’re fucked in the head if they think that adding $20,000 worth of debt to my credit report and shopping for a new car will magically make my life easier. Sure, what the hell, more debt, why the fuck not. I’ll just go buy a house and a boat and two more cars and declare bankruptcy while I’m at it, then when I shoot myself in the face, no one will fucking wonder why. Easier…. go fuck yourself. You know what’s sick, what really makes my stomach turn, is the fact that I KNOW that my brother will get the car. He will. And he’s a fucking asshole for taking it. Fuck him. They never helped me get a car, they got themselves a car and just let me use it for a year while I was in Savannah. That’s what they did. I was fucking diluted enough to believe them. So now what the fuck am I going to do? I’ve been borrowing a car from Lauren’s folks for two weeks now, I can’t do that indefinitely. I NEEDED that car. It’s not like I just liked driving it and it made my life more pleasent… it was a necessity. I was looking forward to driving that car. It was my one single joy in life except for Lauren. The car and my girl…. that’s all I fucking had and they took it away. Why? Because it’s “easier” for them. I know I shouldn’t be complaining. Chris said it last week. That my life was going great and that I didn’t have much to complain about… guess what…. this is the kind of shit that happens to me… repeatedly.
Fucking shit.
Oh yeah, and I leave for the middle of fucking nowhere tomorrow. And I’m in a great fucking mood. The job is going well. Thanks for asking.
I won’t be updating until probably next Tuesday so I won’t get to see you loving and supportive comments until then. Wish me luck… and I’ll try to get my blood pressure down.
Later.
And one for the road… FUCK. And I’m not spell checking this, so don’t bother pointing out mistakes… I’m not in the mood.
by Matt | Jul 18, 2003 | Work
Paul (the boss) has gone to get us burgers so I’ve got a second or two. The job is going great. We’ve laid down payment structures and what kind of commissions I get off things and as it is now it seems like I’ll be getting a commission or bonus off just about everything, which is really cool. For example, next week for the road trip I’ll be getting my 40+ hours plus a bonus just for going. Like I mentioned briefly, I also got a company cell phone. It’s an older Nokia 3390 but I’m told that we all might be upgraded soon. I’m also going to get to play (and probably take home) a laptop on a regular basis. It’s a P3 Ibm thinkpad so it’s not half bad. We had to install Windows on it yesterday which sucked because the CD drive wasn’t bootable and it doesn’t have a floppy drive. I also got reimbursed for my plane ticket down here and they gave me some “spending money” to buy some clothes because they felt bad that I was living out of a suitcase. I also, in un-EXPI like fashion, get a mini-fridge stocked with whatever I want… and I don’t have to buy it. Have I mentioned how cool this job is yet. Yeah… it rocks.
That’s about it for now. Tonight Lauren and I are going to look at tuxes and we’ll probably book our plane tickets back to NH this weekend. Monday I leave for west Texas and the pagent so I probably won’t be updating that week. Sorry. I’ll let you know how it went when I get back. Later.
by Matt | Jul 17, 2003 | Imported Entry
Can’t type long. Job going fantastically. Got reimbursed for plane ticket. Got company cell phone. Going to get bonus for road trip next week. Got new shorts and 2 new shirts. Life is good. Mexican food is tasty. Job is 99% retouching in Photoshop, at least for this week. Next week is road trip. Long road trip. I’ll update more tomorrow from work if I get a chance. Sorry for being brief. I really really wish I had an apartment to come home to instead of someones guest room and a half-broken 486 with a dial up. I want my Uber-Rig and a place of my own. Arg. But I can’t complain. Life is really good. The job is fantastic. Everything is going great. I’ll tell you more later. Gotta run. Sorry.
Matt out.
by Matt | Jul 14, 2003 | Imported Entry
I’ve spent most of today in front of the computer. It was my job today to look up ideas for wedding favors for November. I found a few interesting things (cd cases, nifty wine glasses, etc) and a few cool things I’m thinking about getting for my groomsmen. I’ll probably get something a little different for everyone since I’m sure Chip wouldn’t like a cigar case that I would get for Nagle and Jason wouldn’t like a techy-screwdriver-pocketknife geek toy that I would get for Chris. You can all rest assured that you’ll all get some cool little trinket.
During my web surfing I of course made my way around to my daily reads in order to catch up. While reading HardOCP I noticed perhaps the coolest case mod I’ve ever seem. Here is a link to the forum thread. He updated the post daily to show everyone his progress so the 20+ pages are worth a read for the pictures if nothing else. Here is the finished project (about half way down).
This got me interested in the project I was talking to chip about before I left. I was dreaming up a really cool WWII inspired case. I’d like it army-green with bullet holes instead of a case window, red LEDs and bomber/pinup-girl nose art on the side. Following a link or two I came across this guy who specializes in cartoons of that variety. They’re pretty cool. What’s cooler is the gallery section of his website… which in turn inspired me to do something with Docholoday.com… which I will do as soon as I have my computer back.
So, now I’m inspired with two new projects… which I won’t really have time to do with a new job and without an apartment to work on them in… but I’ll keep the ideas on the back burner until September or so. Anyway, just thought I’d share.
Later.
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