wcities

I work there as of yesterday. Yeah, imagine my shock upon receiving a phone call two minutes after sending my resume. They wanted an interview that very afternoon (this was Tuesday) but that was no-go since I had game stuff to do.

Tangent: Actually, soon after that I barely had anything to do because Alice had typo'd my demo time in the e-mail she sent out, so she had to cover it.

Anyways, I went down there Wednesday morning before going to the grocery store. Took the 27, which is really not much more convenient than walking by the time you rack up 20 minutes waiting on the corner and walking a substantial number of big SOMA blocks anyways. Might as well get the exercise and take a more direct route. Unless it's raining, that is, or freezing. I may look into an alternative bus route for foul weather conditions. At the moment, though, I wasn't sure I would even take the job...

wcities.com is a travel guide website. What I do is write (under close and efficient supervision) things such as this. That one actually is mine, not like you can tell. For an hour of said activity I make ten freelancer dollars. Anyhow, I thought at first that churning out these throw away snippets would ruin my writing, that the computer lab-like office environment was a little freaky, that I would perhaps rather continue at Nijiya despite its shortcomings. In the end, though, the tantalizing proximity to both 1Up and GamePro, as well as the fantabulously flexible scheduling won over.

The End...err, beginning

My first day went pretty smoothly. Everyone seemed friendly enough and not too annoyed when I asked questions or requested that something be printed since the computer I was on was oddly not hooked up fto the printer. First order of business was distinguishing me from the other Emily, which we did the old-fashioned childhood soccer team way-- by calling me Mikey instead.

I was pretty nervous and I'm always worried I will make a mistake entering the data. Writing the blurbs take a bit of thought, but the data feels harder because it's so important. If you say they take VISA and they don't, or you typo the phone number, some poor traveler will be out of luck, or rather, they will goto a different website more informed than ours and find what they want. The company would slowly decay in this manner and...well, yeah, the point is I would be doing a bad job and that's bad, but it's also sometimes difficult to nail down the stats.

The editor-in-chief is a pretty kooky fellow. The remembered me as the freelance writer who for some God forsaken reason left Milwaukee for Stockton. Fair enough.

"You speak Japanese, right?"
"Well, not fluently, but I'm still studying."
He flags down the assistant editor and tells him to have some chick come over. "You speak fluent Japanese, right?"
"Noooo," she says, embarrassed, "I only studied..." trails off mumble mumble....
"Well, this girl here speaks perfect fluent Japanese down the letter," he announces, pointing at me, "In fact, she translated the first edition of Hirohito's War Diaries and got lots of great press." I begin my disagreements as the girl reacts,
"Wow, that's amazing! I'm so jealous!"
"No, totally not true."
"Oh, don't be afraid to take a compliment. She really did it."

x_x

I think this is his strange way of getting us all acquainted, whether that means spreading crazy rumors or immediately making connections and citing our common interests or both, I'm not exactly sure, but it does seem that way. Later on when I mentioned that my Dad lives in NY he made a phone call to some fellow who wandered in (of course, from NY) and became involved in the search for where exactly the Gardens at Turtle Point are. (You would think "at Turtle Point," but it's a little more complicated than that.)

Seems like the guy thinks I'm ok, though. Seems satisfied with my writing and was also very impressed when I pointed out that "ok" and so-so" are the essentially the same thing. It's good when your boss thinks you're smart.

Only bummer of the day was that I thought I would have time to finish the MCJP and Walt Disney Studios Park (East Paris,) but 5:00 hit faster than was convenient so I had to quit and send it unfinished to someone else for later. The great thing is that I can just do that---there's no take home work whatsoever. That combined with the fact that I can take off to do demos or whatever else I need is pretty awesome.

Next week will be a short one. Don't even get back to town until Tuesday (I'm in WI, ne, in fact I wrote this by hand on the plane out of extreme boredom after my DS died five minutes in.) Won't make it with enough time to make going into the office worth it, but Wednesday morning I'll be in for three hours before doing some residual cashiering (yeah, I gave my two weeks) and then Thursday is my first full seven hour shift. Shouldn't be any problem, though. Lunch at 1:30, break at 4, it's a front-heavy schedule, which is the way to go.

Friday, I actually took off because I get to go to a big cool demo before grocery storing.

Once the grocery store is done with it will be easy to fit in 20-30 hours a week, but I'm worried that I won't have tome to do stuff I need to do otherwise. Hopefully not getting home at 9 pm will balance out with the extra working hours. That and I shouldn't be quite as bushed afterwards since it's a desk job. Then again, commuting on foot for an hour and a half most days may take its own toll. WHO CAN SAY?

I really wish my DS wouldn't have died. Totally meant to find a plug while I waited to board the airport but check-in with Midwest took about three years since they only had two people at the counter. By the time I got through security and grabbed lunch, it was already my turn to board.

Guess I may just have a nap before we get to Kansas City. Wish we didn't have to stop.