When I first started my job at the college back in 1997 it took about 3 weeks for my computer to arrive.
In order to get any work done I had to make use of my boss’ computer whenever he was away, or else go up to the art lab and use one of the student workstations, as they had all of the software I needed for my job.
This meant that I didn’t have a lot of free time for things like Web surfing and e-mail.
At the time I had something of a modern-day pen pal relationship carried on mostly via e-mail, so when I got home from my first day at work, I checked my mail and found a message from my friend bemoaning the fact that she hadn’t gotten a message from me all day and concluding that “maybe taking this new job wasn’t such a good idea after all.”
She was joking, of course, but it comes to mind as I consider how lax I’ve been in posting here.
Unfortunately, unlike the e-mail situation in that job (and my friend’s eagerness to receive messages from me), I don’t foresee that changing any time soon.
Not much of note happened today anyway, though, oddly enough, the one interesting thing that did happen actually relates to e-mail.
Sometime over the weekend some employee decided to try out his new e-mail account by sending out a test e-mail.
To everyone in the company.
Naturally, many people, confused as to who this person was and why they were receiving the e-mail sent out a response asking “Who are you and why are you sending me this?” or words to that effect.
Of course, they didn’t just hit “Reply” when sending this message, and instead hit “Reply All,” which meant that all employees had yet another pointless e-mail wending their way towards their inboxes.
A lot of people did this before (and even after) someone finally got sick of getting all of the e-mails and did a “Reply All” saying “Don’t ‘Reply All’ on this message.”
All told, there were 114 pointless messages waiting for me when I got in this morning.
This sort of thing used to happen at AOL all the time. It was almost comforting to be on such familiar ground.
Showing posts with label new job. Show all posts
Showing posts with label new job. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Thursday, January 17, 2008
The Joy Of Being Non-Essential
When I worked at AOL, I was considered “essential” personnel, which meant that come Hell or high water, I was reporting in for my scheduled shift and staying for the full shift.
My new job? Not so much with the essential, so when the skies over Northern Virginia opened up today and deposited a decent (for Northern Virginia) amount of snow, people started bailing left and right, including my boss, who came around and told me that I could do the same at about 2:30.
So now I’m home with some extra time.
Apparently we also normally close at 3 on the Friday of a holiday weekend, so tomorrow I’ll get out early as well, with a three day weekend ahead of me.
(This morning I was thinking about MLK Day and how there are no doubt plenty of bigots who are opposed to everything Dr. King stood for but are perfectly happy to get a day off. It seems unfair, to say the least.)
Today I did an office supply closet raid. I was telling Scott that I’m still adapting to the notion of having my own private work space. The other day I was hauling my laptop, mug, and portfolio/valise/whatever you call it out to my car at the end of the day when I realized that I could just lock them up in one of my cabinets. It was a rather mundane epiphany, but an epiphany nonetheless.
I encountered the first really cute chick I’ve seen so far today. She was by the elevators when I was heading down to the first floor. She’d pushed the button, and I said, given that there are two elevators on one wall and another on the opposite wall, “It’s kind of like playing Three-Card Monte when you push the button; you never know which of the three is going to be the one that dings.”
She laughed, and then when we got on the elevator she said, rather excitedly, “Can you believe this snow?” I confessed that I hadn’t known that it had started snowing, and we talked about the perils of winter driving, and the fact that snow (or rain, or wind, or slightly overcast skies) causes people around here to develop selective amnesia and totally forget how to drive, then we went our separate ways once the elevator opened.
I did a ring-check and saw that her finger was unencumbered. She was, as I told Scott, very cute and petite, which is how I like ‘em.
Scott suggested that I may be able to win her over with my charm if she is, as I suspect, located on the same floor as I am.
I’ll need to find out if it’s possible to buy charm over the Internet. I’ll have to check Overstock.
I didn’t see any in the supply closet at work.
My new job? Not so much with the essential, so when the skies over Northern Virginia opened up today and deposited a decent (for Northern Virginia) amount of snow, people started bailing left and right, including my boss, who came around and told me that I could do the same at about 2:30.
So now I’m home with some extra time.
Apparently we also normally close at 3 on the Friday of a holiday weekend, so tomorrow I’ll get out early as well, with a three day weekend ahead of me.
(This morning I was thinking about MLK Day and how there are no doubt plenty of bigots who are opposed to everything Dr. King stood for but are perfectly happy to get a day off. It seems unfair, to say the least.)
Today I did an office supply closet raid. I was telling Scott that I’m still adapting to the notion of having my own private work space. The other day I was hauling my laptop, mug, and portfolio/valise/whatever you call it out to my car at the end of the day when I realized that I could just lock them up in one of my cabinets. It was a rather mundane epiphany, but an epiphany nonetheless.
I encountered the first really cute chick I’ve seen so far today. She was by the elevators when I was heading down to the first floor. She’d pushed the button, and I said, given that there are two elevators on one wall and another on the opposite wall, “It’s kind of like playing Three-Card Monte when you push the button; you never know which of the three is going to be the one that dings.”
She laughed, and then when we got on the elevator she said, rather excitedly, “Can you believe this snow?” I confessed that I hadn’t known that it had started snowing, and we talked about the perils of winter driving, and the fact that snow (or rain, or wind, or slightly overcast skies) causes people around here to develop selective amnesia and totally forget how to drive, then we went our separate ways once the elevator opened.
I did a ring-check and saw that her finger was unencumbered. She was, as I told Scott, very cute and petite, which is how I like ‘em.
Scott suggested that I may be able to win her over with my charm if she is, as I suspect, located on the same floor as I am.
I’ll need to find out if it’s possible to buy charm over the Internet. I’ll have to check Overstock.
I didn’t see any in the supply closet at work.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Jon And I Usually Don't Agree
Because I wasn’t there for the one held last Monday, this morning I went to a new hire orientation at work.
I discovered that, as I’d been told, the benefits package is pretty much the same as AOL’s, but considerably cheaper.
I also found out that there’s an actual pension plan in addition to the 401K program, which is cool, and pretty rare these days.
The other cool thing I found out is that even though I’m on salary, I won’t have to deal with the semi-monthly pay schedule, but will instead be paid bi-weekly. This is cool because it means that I will actually get to have some three paycheck months, whereas I would not if we were on the semi-monthly schedule.
Tomorrow I’ll be getting some training on the ticketing system that the NOC uses, which will help give me a better understanding of the kinds of issues that I’ll be running into in reviewing their tickets for problems, and then I’ll actually be sitting in the NOC to get a feel for how they operate.
Two recruiters contacted me today, one of them for a job in Atlanta – no idea why she thought I’d be interested in it – and I let them know that I wasn’t interested, then went to Monster to make my résumé no longer viewable, as I’m done with dealing with recruiters.
There’s a Shoppers Food Warehouse right by where I work, so I’d intended to stop there on my way home and pick up the things I forgot to buy when I went shopping yesterday.
I didn’t really want to, as getting in and out of the parking lot with all of traffic in that area would be a pain, but I told myself, “We’re stopping there after work,” to which I responded, “No, we’re not.” I then said, “Yes, we are,” but I knew I didn’t have it in me to force the issue, and by late afternoon I said to myself, “Fine, we won’t stop there, but we will go to the Shoppers in Leesburg on the way home,” which I found more agreeable.
(I don’t refer to myself internally as “we” out of any sort of royal pretentions, but rather because there are essentially two Jons living in my head. There’s the Jon who makes decisions about what I’m going to do, and then there’s the Jon who either ignores those decisions or chooses to go along with them. Depending on the degree to which there is disagreement, I sometimes go with “I” and “you” rather than “we.” My head is a confusing place.)
I was going to take 267 to 28 and 28 to 7, but I kind of spaced it once I got on 267 and forgot that the exit to 28 was right ahead of me, so I drove past it and ended up taking the Greenway home. This meant that, given that I didn’t take the exit to 15, as taking the Greenway stripped away some of my resolve about going to Shoppers, I would actually have to drive right past the street that leads to my house if I were to follow through on my intentions regarding shopping. My resolve did not hold, and I ended up making the turn and just going straight home.
We’ll see if I can manage to hit the store tomorrow.
And apart from having a squirrel waiting for me in the trap with its bags packed for its trip to the enchanted forest where I bring all of the squirrels who find their way into my attic and into the trap when I got home, that’s pretty much been my day.
I discovered that, as I’d been told, the benefits package is pretty much the same as AOL’s, but considerably cheaper.
I also found out that there’s an actual pension plan in addition to the 401K program, which is cool, and pretty rare these days.
The other cool thing I found out is that even though I’m on salary, I won’t have to deal with the semi-monthly pay schedule, but will instead be paid bi-weekly. This is cool because it means that I will actually get to have some three paycheck months, whereas I would not if we were on the semi-monthly schedule.
Tomorrow I’ll be getting some training on the ticketing system that the NOC uses, which will help give me a better understanding of the kinds of issues that I’ll be running into in reviewing their tickets for problems, and then I’ll actually be sitting in the NOC to get a feel for how they operate.
Two recruiters contacted me today, one of them for a job in Atlanta – no idea why she thought I’d be interested in it – and I let them know that I wasn’t interested, then went to Monster to make my résumé no longer viewable, as I’m done with dealing with recruiters.
There’s a Shoppers Food Warehouse right by where I work, so I’d intended to stop there on my way home and pick up the things I forgot to buy when I went shopping yesterday.
I didn’t really want to, as getting in and out of the parking lot with all of traffic in that area would be a pain, but I told myself, “We’re stopping there after work,” to which I responded, “No, we’re not.” I then said, “Yes, we are,” but I knew I didn’t have it in me to force the issue, and by late afternoon I said to myself, “Fine, we won’t stop there, but we will go to the Shoppers in Leesburg on the way home,” which I found more agreeable.
(I don’t refer to myself internally as “we” out of any sort of royal pretentions, but rather because there are essentially two Jons living in my head. There’s the Jon who makes decisions about what I’m going to do, and then there’s the Jon who either ignores those decisions or chooses to go along with them. Depending on the degree to which there is disagreement, I sometimes go with “I” and “you” rather than “we.” My head is a confusing place.)
I was going to take 267 to 28 and 28 to 7, but I kind of spaced it once I got on 267 and forgot that the exit to 28 was right ahead of me, so I drove past it and ended up taking the Greenway home. This meant that, given that I didn’t take the exit to 15, as taking the Greenway stripped away some of my resolve about going to Shoppers, I would actually have to drive right past the street that leads to my house if I were to follow through on my intentions regarding shopping. My resolve did not hold, and I ended up making the turn and just going straight home.
We’ll see if I can manage to hit the store tomorrow.
And apart from having a squirrel waiting for me in the trap with its bags packed for its trip to the enchanted forest where I bring all of the squirrels who find their way into my attic and into the trap when I got home, that’s pretty much been my day.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
A Long Way To Go Just To See A Nice Ass
While I made some definite progress at work yesterday, getting my e-mail account actually working, setting up my workstation, getting access to some tools I needed access to, and getting a phone, I really didn’t do much apart from reading some existing documentation to get a feel for the sort of documentation I’ll be creating in the future.
My boss was busy doing stuff all day, so I only saw him when he’d periodically come around to check in on me. Nita, who’s pregnant, came in late due to a doctor’s appointment, and then spent most of her time getting set up in her new digs, so I didn’t see much from her, though she did e-mail me some information I needed.
And that was pretty much it for my first “week” of work. Next week will mark my first full week. Working for five days straight…it seems inconceivable.
Today I took a ride to Maryland with Kathleen. She had a bunch of books she wanted to sell, and none of the used bookstores in this area would give her a very good deal, so she found a place near the University of Maryland that would, so we went there today.
One of the girls working at the bookstore was cute and had a nice ass. That was pretty much the highlight for me.
On the way back we stopped for burgers at Five Guys, and then we swung by the comic shop so that I could pick up this week’s books, as I’d been too interested in just getting home after work and never got around to stopping to pick them up. It was a pretty light week – only three books – so I grabbed some more boards and bags. I really need to get moving on the bagging and boarding so that I can get everything into my database program and get everything organized.
Once I’ve gotten a few more paychecks into my account I’m going to buy some of these, as they’ll make the whole storage thing more convenient than regular longboxes.
Speaking of paychecks, as I mentioned, AOL actually paid out my severance money even though I don’t qualify for severance anymore thanks to accepting a position in a different branch on the corporate tree. On the advice of the recruiter from my new job, I moved the money to my high-yield savings account to let it gather interest until AOL got around to asking for it back.
They contacted me on Wednesday to ask for it back.
So now I have to move it back into my checking account to either write them a check or simply let them reverse the transfer into my checking account.
Oh well.
Anyway, that pretty much brings us all up to date, and it’s all I really feel like writing at the moment.
My boss was busy doing stuff all day, so I only saw him when he’d periodically come around to check in on me. Nita, who’s pregnant, came in late due to a doctor’s appointment, and then spent most of her time getting set up in her new digs, so I didn’t see much from her, though she did e-mail me some information I needed.
And that was pretty much it for my first “week” of work. Next week will mark my first full week. Working for five days straight…it seems inconceivable.
Today I took a ride to Maryland with Kathleen. She had a bunch of books she wanted to sell, and none of the used bookstores in this area would give her a very good deal, so she found a place near the University of Maryland that would, so we went there today.
One of the girls working at the bookstore was cute and had a nice ass. That was pretty much the highlight for me.
On the way back we stopped for burgers at Five Guys, and then we swung by the comic shop so that I could pick up this week’s books, as I’d been too interested in just getting home after work and never got around to stopping to pick them up. It was a pretty light week – only three books – so I grabbed some more boards and bags. I really need to get moving on the bagging and boarding so that I can get everything into my database program and get everything organized.
Once I’ve gotten a few more paychecks into my account I’m going to buy some of these, as they’ll make the whole storage thing more convenient than regular longboxes.
Speaking of paychecks, as I mentioned, AOL actually paid out my severance money even though I don’t qualify for severance anymore thanks to accepting a position in a different branch on the corporate tree. On the advice of the recruiter from my new job, I moved the money to my high-yield savings account to let it gather interest until AOL got around to asking for it back.
They contacted me on Wednesday to ask for it back.
So now I have to move it back into my checking account to either write them a check or simply let them reverse the transfer into my checking account.
Oh well.
Anyway, that pretty much brings us all up to date, and it’s all I really feel like writing at the moment.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
A Jon Is A Jon Is A Jon
Today wasn’t too much more eventful than yesterday. I got an e-mail address, but it won’t actually exist on the Exchange server until tomorrow.
I also got an employee ID, which meant that IT was able to hook me up with a laptop, docking station, monitor, keyboard, mouse, and a security token which allows me to log in to the VPN.
As far as any actual work, I basically just sat on a couple of conference calls so that I could be introduced to the other participants, though I didn’t actually contribute much of anything to the discussion.
Today was the last day for Nita, the person I’m replacing, who is moving to another group. When I was initially contacted about the position, it had been their intention to have me replace someone else who had left and have me work with Nita, but then she got the other job, so I ended up being her replacement, and they’re not able to backfill the other open position, so I’ll be flying solo. Nita will be available to help me out and answer questions while I get my footing, though.
However, she did move out of the cubicle and into her new digs this afternoon, so the cubicle is now all mine.
It’s nothing fancy – if you’ve seen one cubicle you’ve seen them all – but it does have a good location, as it’s close to the elevators and the restroom.
Our boss took our team out to lunch today for a “Farewell Nita/Welcome aboard Jon” kind of thing.
I’ve been doing what I can to forego the usual settling in period and to just skip to being the comfortable and relaxed version of Jon – to whatever extent I’m capable of being comfortable and relaxed, at least.
I’m not sure how well it’s working. The problem with making the leap is that without taking some time to read people and learn to gauge their responses, I run the risk of being a little too “Jon,” which is to say snarky and sarcastic, and not knowing how well that’s going to fly. Even when it’s restrained, my sense of humor can be…off-putting, so I’m still trying to be a little bit careful, and the fact of the matter is that I’m just not that good at things like small talk, or interacting with groups of three or more people.
As for the lunch, I was sort of the odd man out, as the rest of them were talking about people and events that I have no familiarity with, so it was difficult to join in, though, again, even under the best of circumstances I don’t do that well in group settings.
So we’ll see, I guess. So far everyone has been pretty nice, though they seem to be demonstrating the general lack of interest in finding out things about me that I so often encounter. I mean, nobody really asks any questions or makes an effort to have a real conversation with me the way that it seems to me that they ought to, or would if they were dealing with someone else. I don’t know, it just seems to me that when I’m among the entrenched I make a little more effort to get to know the new guy than the entrenched make to get to know me when I’m the new guy, which strikes me as a little odd. I mean, I’m the anti-social one, yet I make more of an effort to be sociable than normal people ever seem to.
But whatever; maybe that’s just a misperception – or misconception – on my part.
So far I haven’t encountered anyone who’s especially hot, though it’s not like that really matters.
I was tired last night so I went to bed about an hour earlier than I had on Tuesday night, but it didn’t do me any good, as I ended up waking up an hour earlier this morning than I did yesterday.
Today’s commute took quite a bit longer than yesterday’s, as I didn’t take the Greenway in. It’s just too expensive to take the Greenway, though, so I guess I’m going to have to learn to put up with the aggravation. I may just start going in even earlier to avoid some of the traffic. My boss is, apparently, pretty flexible about that sort of thing.
As I’ve mentioned many times, the whole five day work week thing will be a big adjustment. I mean, only two days off? WTF? Are we living in Soviet Russia all of a sudden?
But I’ll manage, I guess.
As I was driving home today it occurred to me that there’s really no point in getting anxious about how people are going to react to me or how well-equipped I am to do the job because, after all, I’m Jon. I just do what I can and things work out however they’re going to work out, so there’s really no point in getting too worked up about anything.
I also got an employee ID, which meant that IT was able to hook me up with a laptop, docking station, monitor, keyboard, mouse, and a security token which allows me to log in to the VPN.
As far as any actual work, I basically just sat on a couple of conference calls so that I could be introduced to the other participants, though I didn’t actually contribute much of anything to the discussion.
Today was the last day for Nita, the person I’m replacing, who is moving to another group. When I was initially contacted about the position, it had been their intention to have me replace someone else who had left and have me work with Nita, but then she got the other job, so I ended up being her replacement, and they’re not able to backfill the other open position, so I’ll be flying solo. Nita will be available to help me out and answer questions while I get my footing, though.
However, she did move out of the cubicle and into her new digs this afternoon, so the cubicle is now all mine.
It’s nothing fancy – if you’ve seen one cubicle you’ve seen them all – but it does have a good location, as it’s close to the elevators and the restroom.
Our boss took our team out to lunch today for a “Farewell Nita/Welcome aboard Jon” kind of thing.
I’ve been doing what I can to forego the usual settling in period and to just skip to being the comfortable and relaxed version of Jon – to whatever extent I’m capable of being comfortable and relaxed, at least.
I’m not sure how well it’s working. The problem with making the leap is that without taking some time to read people and learn to gauge their responses, I run the risk of being a little too “Jon,” which is to say snarky and sarcastic, and not knowing how well that’s going to fly. Even when it’s restrained, my sense of humor can be…off-putting, so I’m still trying to be a little bit careful, and the fact of the matter is that I’m just not that good at things like small talk, or interacting with groups of three or more people.
As for the lunch, I was sort of the odd man out, as the rest of them were talking about people and events that I have no familiarity with, so it was difficult to join in, though, again, even under the best of circumstances I don’t do that well in group settings.
So we’ll see, I guess. So far everyone has been pretty nice, though they seem to be demonstrating the general lack of interest in finding out things about me that I so often encounter. I mean, nobody really asks any questions or makes an effort to have a real conversation with me the way that it seems to me that they ought to, or would if they were dealing with someone else. I don’t know, it just seems to me that when I’m among the entrenched I make a little more effort to get to know the new guy than the entrenched make to get to know me when I’m the new guy, which strikes me as a little odd. I mean, I’m the anti-social one, yet I make more of an effort to be sociable than normal people ever seem to.
But whatever; maybe that’s just a misperception – or misconception – on my part.
So far I haven’t encountered anyone who’s especially hot, though it’s not like that really matters.
I was tired last night so I went to bed about an hour earlier than I had on Tuesday night, but it didn’t do me any good, as I ended up waking up an hour earlier this morning than I did yesterday.
Today’s commute took quite a bit longer than yesterday’s, as I didn’t take the Greenway in. It’s just too expensive to take the Greenway, though, so I guess I’m going to have to learn to put up with the aggravation. I may just start going in even earlier to avoid some of the traffic. My boss is, apparently, pretty flexible about that sort of thing.
As I’ve mentioned many times, the whole five day work week thing will be a big adjustment. I mean, only two days off? WTF? Are we living in Soviet Russia all of a sudden?
But I’ll manage, I guess.
As I was driving home today it occurred to me that there’s really no point in getting anxious about how people are going to react to me or how well-equipped I am to do the job because, after all, I’m Jon. I just do what I can and things work out however they’re going to work out, so there’s really no point in getting too worked up about anything.
Friday, January 04, 2008
Setbacks And Some Geeky Schmaltz
Because nothing in life – and in particular nothing relating to this job – has ever really been easy, I found out today that I am not starting my new job come Monday morning.
While I’ve been assured that it’s not actually a problem, apparently there is some information in my background check that couldn’t be verified in time to clear me to start work on Monday. I don’t know what that “something” is, but the long and short of it is that my start date will be delayed until probably the middle of the week.
Oh, and just to make things more irritating, even though I no longer qualify for the severance package payoff from AOL, today the money from the severance showed up in my checking account. This wasn’t a total surprise, as I’d gotten the little check stub/Advice of Deposit in the mail the other day, but it’s still irritating because somewhere along the line I’m going to have to give it back to them.
On the advice of the recruiter for the job that I want and now have(?), I’m transferring the money over to my high-yield savings account, as she’s seen it take 4 to 5 months for them to get around to sorting the situation out when this sort of thing has happened with other laid off AOL employees who moved over to that branch of the corporate tree.
So I might as well make some interest off of it while I wait for them to come calling to collect it.
This morning I headed to the comic shop, then stopped at Super Target on my way home and picked up some Just For Men. Light Brown was the closest match to what was my natural color. This afternoon I tried it out.
The end result? Well, instead of looking like someone who once had dark blonde hair and has since gone gray, I look like someone with brown hair who either has some oddly-placed highlights or is starting to go gray. I guess it’s an improvement.
I tried taking some before and after pictures of myself, but the lighting is such that you can’t really see much of a difference so I didn’t see the point of posting them.
One Less Day Department:
Back in the summer of 1987 in a Spider-Man annual (which is part of my collection), Spider-Man (Peter Parker) married his longtime friend/sometimes girlfriend Mary Jane Watson, a character first introduced into the Spidey mythos back in 1964.
While plenty of stories – some good, some bad, some dreadful – featuring a married Spider-Man have been told in the last two decades, somewhere along the line Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada decided that it is completely and utterly impossible to produce Spider-Man stories so long as he’s saddled with the old ball and chain, and that having Spidey be a mature, married man makes it equally impossible for new, young fans to relate to the character.
With that in mind, comic fandom was treated to an editorially-mandated “event” entitled One More Day, which Quesada himself drew, the purpose of which was to resolve this “problem.”
There are plenty of comics blogs which have discussed this issue to death, so it’s not my intention to delve too deeply into it here, but there are a few things I want to say about it.
Quesada has gone on record as saying that he didn’t want to simply kill off MJ or to have them get divorced, as it would send a terrible message to the kids.
So what did he do instead? He had Peter make a deal with the Devil to rewrite history so that the marriage never happened.
Because that’s a much better message to send to the kids.
(As a side-effect of the history rewriting deal, they also retconned out something that was, unlike the marriage, actually a legitimately bone-headed move: Spidey publicly revealing his secret identity.)
Personally, I think the marriage was a good idea, and that it does not present a barrier to telling good stories. In fact, it creates considerably more possibilities than endlessly exploring the woes of a single Peter Parker as he struggles to find love could ever hope to do.
Beyond that, there are already existing Spider-Man comics that do feature a single Peter Parker, such as Ultimate Spider-Man (the whole purpose of which was to tell modern stories that present a young, single Peter Parker) and Marvel Adventures Spider-Man.
Further, an entire generation of comics fans has grown up with a married Peter Parker being a simple fact of life.
What’s really at play here is not some concern about what the fans want – in fact, the guy at the comic shop told me that several customers have requested that the Spider titles be removed from their subscription lists – but what Joe Quesada wants. And what he wants is for Spider-Man to be exactly the way he was when li’l Joe was reading comics.
This is actually a pretty widespread trend in comics these days. So many creators are trying to make comics the way they “should” be, which is to say, the way they remember them. Nostalgia is the most important consideration, and anything that’s happened in the years since they were reading comics can (and should) be thrown out the window. Screw character growth, screw history, and screw what the fans actually want.
Okay, getting a little off track here; the above is itself suitable material for several lengthy posts.
To get back to my point, I need to get into some of the actual content of the One More Day storyline (which, taken out of the context of the rather heated debate, was actually a really bad story). The catalyst for Peter and MJ – both had to agree to the terms of the deal – to enter into this pact was Peter’s beloved Aunt May getting shot with a sniper’s bullet intended for Peter. Not for the first time, May’s life was hanging by a thread and her chances for recovery were virtually nil. Peter did everything he could to try to restore May to her normal state of health (which has never really been good – she is a very old woman, after all), but to no avail.
The deal he was presented with was that in exchange for giving up his marriage, the Devil (technically a demon named Mephisto) would restore May to health.
(What does Mephisto get out of it? There will be a part of Peter and MJ’s souls that remember the love they shared and will be crying out in pain throughout eternity, a sound that will be pleasing to Mephisto’s ears. Also, their love is so pure and wonderful that their forsaking it will be an affront to God Himself, which Mephisto will also get off on. I told you the story was really bad.)
Anyway, we’re getting close to my point, which is that there is one thing that I haven’t seen mentioned a lot in the various comments I’ve read about the story, and which was not mentioned at all in One More Day itself, and that is this: had she known what Peter and MJ were doing, May would never have approved.
The last thing that May would want for her beloved nephew, whom she had raised as if he were her own child, would be for him to give up his happiness for her sake.
If she’d been given the opportunity to speak, I imagine May would have said something like this:
I’m an old woman, Peter. An old woman who has lived a long, full life, one that has, perhaps, had more than its share of tragedies, from the loss of your parents to the loss of my darling Ben. Despite that, I have no regrets because I had the opportunity to share a long life with your uncle, and though I would have liked that life to have lasted just a little longer, I know that one day he and I will be together again and our love will last throughout eternity.
I have also had the opportunity to watch you grow into a fine man. A strong man. A loving man. A man like your uncle. A hero. Sometimes I look at you and I can still see the sad, awkward boy that Ben and I took in and loved as our own, and when I think about how far that boy has come and what he’s accomplished, I feel like my heart will burst with pride to think that I played any part in making you the strong, wonderful, heroic man you are.
The happiest day of my life was the day you made MJ your wife. To think that you could find someone who complements you so perfectly, someone with a fierce spirit and a heart full of boundless…it filled me with so much joy to know that you had found a love like the one Ben and I shared.
And I would happily give up my life to make sure that you hold onto that love.
Let me go, Peter. My time has come, I’ve lived my life, and I so want to be with my Ben again, to hear his warm laugh, to feel his strong, gentle arms. Let me go, and know how much I love you, and how much I love MJ, and that all I want is for the two of you to know the happiness that Ben and I knew.
Don’t throw love away, Peter. In the end, it’s the only thing we really have.
*Sniffle*
Anyway, I realize that this new status quo is, like all things in comics, likely only temporary, and I’m not filled with anything even remotely like the near-murderous rage that some fans are over it, but I do think it was a dumb idea (and lousy story), and thought I should put my two cents out there and speak to the issue of May and what her wishes would have been, since no one involved in the story seemed to be capable of doing so.
While I’ve been assured that it’s not actually a problem, apparently there is some information in my background check that couldn’t be verified in time to clear me to start work on Monday. I don’t know what that “something” is, but the long and short of it is that my start date will be delayed until probably the middle of the week.
Oh, and just to make things more irritating, even though I no longer qualify for the severance package payoff from AOL, today the money from the severance showed up in my checking account. This wasn’t a total surprise, as I’d gotten the little check stub/Advice of Deposit in the mail the other day, but it’s still irritating because somewhere along the line I’m going to have to give it back to them.
On the advice of the recruiter for the job that I want and now have(?), I’m transferring the money over to my high-yield savings account, as she’s seen it take 4 to 5 months for them to get around to sorting the situation out when this sort of thing has happened with other laid off AOL employees who moved over to that branch of the corporate tree.
So I might as well make some interest off of it while I wait for them to come calling to collect it.
This morning I headed to the comic shop, then stopped at Super Target on my way home and picked up some Just For Men. Light Brown was the closest match to what was my natural color. This afternoon I tried it out.
The end result? Well, instead of looking like someone who once had dark blonde hair and has since gone gray, I look like someone with brown hair who either has some oddly-placed highlights or is starting to go gray. I guess it’s an improvement.
I tried taking some before and after pictures of myself, but the lighting is such that you can’t really see much of a difference so I didn’t see the point of posting them.
One Less Day Department:
Back in the summer of 1987 in a Spider-Man annual (which is part of my collection), Spider-Man (Peter Parker) married his longtime friend/sometimes girlfriend Mary Jane Watson, a character first introduced into the Spidey mythos back in 1964.
While plenty of stories – some good, some bad, some dreadful – featuring a married Spider-Man have been told in the last two decades, somewhere along the line Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada decided that it is completely and utterly impossible to produce Spider-Man stories so long as he’s saddled with the old ball and chain, and that having Spidey be a mature, married man makes it equally impossible for new, young fans to relate to the character.
With that in mind, comic fandom was treated to an editorially-mandated “event” entitled One More Day, which Quesada himself drew, the purpose of which was to resolve this “problem.”
There are plenty of comics blogs which have discussed this issue to death, so it’s not my intention to delve too deeply into it here, but there are a few things I want to say about it.
Quesada has gone on record as saying that he didn’t want to simply kill off MJ or to have them get divorced, as it would send a terrible message to the kids.
So what did he do instead? He had Peter make a deal with the Devil to rewrite history so that the marriage never happened.
Because that’s a much better message to send to the kids.
(As a side-effect of the history rewriting deal, they also retconned out something that was, unlike the marriage, actually a legitimately bone-headed move: Spidey publicly revealing his secret identity.)
Personally, I think the marriage was a good idea, and that it does not present a barrier to telling good stories. In fact, it creates considerably more possibilities than endlessly exploring the woes of a single Peter Parker as he struggles to find love could ever hope to do.
Beyond that, there are already existing Spider-Man comics that do feature a single Peter Parker, such as Ultimate Spider-Man (the whole purpose of which was to tell modern stories that present a young, single Peter Parker) and Marvel Adventures Spider-Man.
Further, an entire generation of comics fans has grown up with a married Peter Parker being a simple fact of life.
What’s really at play here is not some concern about what the fans want – in fact, the guy at the comic shop told me that several customers have requested that the Spider titles be removed from their subscription lists – but what Joe Quesada wants. And what he wants is for Spider-Man to be exactly the way he was when li’l Joe was reading comics.
This is actually a pretty widespread trend in comics these days. So many creators are trying to make comics the way they “should” be, which is to say, the way they remember them. Nostalgia is the most important consideration, and anything that’s happened in the years since they were reading comics can (and should) be thrown out the window. Screw character growth, screw history, and screw what the fans actually want.
Okay, getting a little off track here; the above is itself suitable material for several lengthy posts.
To get back to my point, I need to get into some of the actual content of the One More Day storyline (which, taken out of the context of the rather heated debate, was actually a really bad story). The catalyst for Peter and MJ – both had to agree to the terms of the deal – to enter into this pact was Peter’s beloved Aunt May getting shot with a sniper’s bullet intended for Peter. Not for the first time, May’s life was hanging by a thread and her chances for recovery were virtually nil. Peter did everything he could to try to restore May to her normal state of health (which has never really been good – she is a very old woman, after all), but to no avail.
The deal he was presented with was that in exchange for giving up his marriage, the Devil (technically a demon named Mephisto) would restore May to health.
(What does Mephisto get out of it? There will be a part of Peter and MJ’s souls that remember the love they shared and will be crying out in pain throughout eternity, a sound that will be pleasing to Mephisto’s ears. Also, their love is so pure and wonderful that their forsaking it will be an affront to God Himself, which Mephisto will also get off on. I told you the story was really bad.)
Anyway, we’re getting close to my point, which is that there is one thing that I haven’t seen mentioned a lot in the various comments I’ve read about the story, and which was not mentioned at all in One More Day itself, and that is this: had she known what Peter and MJ were doing, May would never have approved.
The last thing that May would want for her beloved nephew, whom she had raised as if he were her own child, would be for him to give up his happiness for her sake.
If she’d been given the opportunity to speak, I imagine May would have said something like this:
I’m an old woman, Peter. An old woman who has lived a long, full life, one that has, perhaps, had more than its share of tragedies, from the loss of your parents to the loss of my darling Ben. Despite that, I have no regrets because I had the opportunity to share a long life with your uncle, and though I would have liked that life to have lasted just a little longer, I know that one day he and I will be together again and our love will last throughout eternity.
I have also had the opportunity to watch you grow into a fine man. A strong man. A loving man. A man like your uncle. A hero. Sometimes I look at you and I can still see the sad, awkward boy that Ben and I took in and loved as our own, and when I think about how far that boy has come and what he’s accomplished, I feel like my heart will burst with pride to think that I played any part in making you the strong, wonderful, heroic man you are.
The happiest day of my life was the day you made MJ your wife. To think that you could find someone who complements you so perfectly, someone with a fierce spirit and a heart full of boundless…it filled me with so much joy to know that you had found a love like the one Ben and I shared.
And I would happily give up my life to make sure that you hold onto that love.
Let me go, Peter. My time has come, I’ve lived my life, and I so want to be with my Ben again, to hear his warm laugh, to feel his strong, gentle arms. Let me go, and know how much I love you, and how much I love MJ, and that all I want is for the two of you to know the happiness that Ben and I knew.
Don’t throw love away, Peter. In the end, it’s the only thing we really have.
*Sniffle*
Anyway, I realize that this new status quo is, like all things in comics, likely only temporary, and I’m not filled with anything even remotely like the near-murderous rage that some fans are over it, but I do think it was a dumb idea (and lousy story), and thought I should put my two cents out there and speak to the issue of May and what her wishes would have been, since no one involved in the story seemed to be capable of doing so.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
That Was Fun. No, Wait, It Was The OPPOSITE Of That
Too fried for a real entry. It was a long, boring day. The job looks at though it will be thoroughly unfulfilling, which bothers me more now when I’ve had the opportunity to find a fulfilling job than it did when I was working in an unfulfilling job. I’m just so over the whole NOC environment.
But I have to pay the bills somehow.
I’d hoped to come home and find a message from the job I want, but alas, there was no such message. There was, however, a message from Kathleen, who sang, to the tune of “Happy Birthday,” “Happy first day of your crappy new job, happy first day of your crappy new job to you,” which did at least make me smile.
I’m on a Monday-Friday, 8-5 shift until sometime in January, at which point I go to my regular shift, which is Friday-Monday, 6-5. It’s like my original shift at AOL plus one more day. It was the only shift available that would give me three days off and not be swing or midnight shift.
Okay, that’s all I’ve got.
But I have to pay the bills somehow.
I’d hoped to come home and find a message from the job I want, but alas, there was no such message. There was, however, a message from Kathleen, who sang, to the tune of “Happy Birthday,” “Happy first day of your crappy new job, happy first day of your crappy new job to you,” which did at least make me smile.
I’m on a Monday-Friday, 8-5 shift until sometime in January, at which point I go to my regular shift, which is Friday-Monday, 6-5. It’s like my original shift at AOL plus one more day. It was the only shift available that would give me three days off and not be swing or midnight shift.
Okay, that’s all I’ve got.
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