As planned, this morning I went out hunting for more job applications. Having not receieved any calls back from previous places where I turned in applications, it was time to expand my search. Statistically speaking, I figure I must be bound to get a good hit eventually, so the more places I go, the more likely I am to find something. The goal at this point is still part time work.

Most likely prospect for the day: Boston Market. The person at the counter said they are hiring somebody for evening shift. She even gave me very clear instructions about when the best time to come into the store to talk to the hiring manager will be.

Crappy prospect for the day. An Arby's had a sign on the window saying they are hiring assistant managers. It wouldn't be my ideal choice (if I'm gonna do fast food, I'd rather do something slightly more upscale like QDoba or Noodles), but I may as well check it out. The person at the counter had no idea, but gave me an application.

Upon reading the application, I decided that I would go for this as an absolute last resort. After the quiz questions aimed to test one's knowledge of basic arithmetic (that was on the applicatiion for the "manager" positions; the normal application is even dumber), there were a few standard boilerplate paragraphs with things potential employees must agree to. Included in the text:

I further agree to submit to any examinations (including examinations which may include but not be limited to a pre-employment drug test for the purposes of determining the presence of narotics, marijuana, and/or other illegal substances) by doctors or other persons selected by the Company.

Nu uh. None of your damn business. Any chemicals which may or may not be in by blood, DNA, or urine are of no concern to any potential employer. Their concern should strictly focus whether I am able to show up on time, get the job done, and do the work with competence. Unless it involves contagions which may affect others, what I do or do not do or take or do not take during personal time is, frankly, for me to worry about.

The fact that such insanity has been allowed to permeate so much of the work environment is an utter disgrace, in my (haha) humble opinion. To a large degree, it is the employees of the workforce who have let it happen; if we didn't accept such terms, and refused to work for anyone who attempted to perpetrate this kind of nonsense, it wouldn't be a problem. End rant.

Afternoon. I worked on buildmeasite. Since I haven't signed any NDA, and none will be needed (we're a new new startup), I'll elaborate. Well, basicly, I wrote a bunch of perl code to write config files for apache and bind. Eventually, it will read all the configuration info from a database, stick it into some nice object oriented perl data structures, and spit out files (the part I wrote today), and the virtual hosts, mail, and everything will work like magic.

And in case anyone is wondering... No, I've never done anything like this before in my life. Write "perl" code? ... which creates "configuration files"? ... based on parameters which are stored in a "database"? ... which have been gathered from a "web forme"? Pwa! Foreign concepts. I've never heard of such things before. Ever. It's all completely new to me. :)

(Ok, so I had to give the people who might be reading this from my last job something to laugh at. There it is. A pitiful attempt at humor.)

Contrary to plan, I found myself getting ridiculously unproductive and sleepy at around 15:00. So I reluctantly decided to take a nap, since not much work was getting done at that point anyway. (Might have had something to do with the sandwiches I ate for lunch. Really tasty, but too much wheat does make me sleepy.)

Slept for a couple hours. Woke up at 17:00 feeling refreshed, if a bit groggy. Resumed work on buildmeasite at 17:30 (roughly), and continued for a couple hours, and at 19:30, found a something resembling good stopping point, and committed my current hacks^H^H^H^H^H code into cvs.

Now, I intend to go to the club, relax, and maybe get a little release via physical exertion in the form of repeated movements in time with music. Gotta prepare quickly, so I don't end up too late. Peace now.

Resentment is for fools. I'm throwing mine away. Peace to everyone at eSoft as well.