Motivation, Magic and a Midnight Job

The word of the week is relief.

February 11 - Five Interests

I mentioned last week that I'm working on forming a company. As a matter of fact, I'm working on forming TWO companies: one of them has to do with the idea for an Internet service and the other has to do with a bicycling product. Not quite alone the lines of what Bender has in mind:

In addition to laying the groundwork for both of these future companies, I've been steadily grinding away at getting started in the freelance writing business. Which doesn't pay a lot but it would be a steady income which I can do now that I can use my computer easily with the voice recognition software working as it should have in the first place.

On top of those three areas, the idea of doing voice acting work is still rattling around in my head, as is working on my novel which I hope to keep plugging away at to really polish the third draft this spring. And the new job is the fifth thing on my little life list.

So that's Five Interesting Things to keep me occupied and VERY busy for the next few months. Hopefully at least one of those areas of focus will result in something tangible happening; I know I'll be putting all my energies into doing what I can instead of focusing on waiting for something to happen.

February 12 - Footwear?

For the first time in many years, I was out today shoe shopping. Weird, eh? I'm one of those people who only know it's time for new shoes when holes appear in a sole…

There was a going out of business sale at Athletes World downtown this week, with savings of up to 70% on everything in the store. Seeing as the last time I bought a pair of 'pure' running shoes was when they were also on sale, I figured this was a good chance to pick up a new pair to use as I work up to getting into running this spring.

As it turns out, I ended up getting two pairs of shoes: runners and a pair of casuals, which I've never really had before as style isn't usually something I buy in a shoe.

Looks quite gripping, eh?

The runners I picked up are great and are made by the same company that my old runners are. The shoes are the Shadow Genesis by Saucony, which have received rave reviews at BelieveInTheRun.com - what I particularly liked was the fact that they seem to be very long wearing shoes, which fits right in with my penchant for getting the absolute maximum life out of my footwear purchases.

I'm looking forward to trying these out now that the good weather is starting to appear here. Taking a run around the perimeter of Beacon Hill Park close by will be a pleasure in these great shoes and I should be able to get in about three or four runs a week at about 5 km each on their longest circuit.

February 13 - Holy Donuts!

I've often heard it said that Tim Horton's franchises are like having a license to print money. It's certainly true that few Timmy's have ever closed for a lack of business.

But what does it actually cost to start up and run a Tim Horton's franchise? Having worked there all those years ago, I was generally familiar with what was needed to run a store in terms of staff and product but I've never been able to find any numbers on what the real expenses were.

Just search over at Franchisedirect.com and you'll deal to find information on many of the franchises out there, including Tim Horton's. I was surprised to see that it's not as expensive as I'd expected to operate a store, but you're certainly going to need more than a small business loan in order to get started. I estimate that the return. For a franchise investment is about a decade, to where you've repaid all your initial costs and you really start to make money. This also assumes that you have more than one store, as that accelerates the process to where a decade really sees you making a great living from Canadians who just can't live without their coffee or donut.

Me, I've had my fill from years ago. 

February 14 - I GOT A CALL!

It seems I have a reason to love Valentine's Day this year after all!

While I was visiting with my parents in the afternoon today, my phone rang in the middle of watching Puss In Boots. I took the call in the other room: it was from Staples! They wanted me to come in tonight if possible for an interview!

Needless to say, I was ecstatic! This was the first phone call I've received from a prospective employer in over a year - 54 weeks, to be exact.

I went in around dinnertime to the store and had an interview with the assistant manager, who told me almost immediately that she liked me after we had talked for just a few minutes about my qualifications. She called in the store manager and a few minutes after that they told me they wanted to hire me for the night shift, which I had known about already from talking to the assistant manager during the call earlier today.

It seems that they need some temporary help for a few weeks while two out of their three night staffers, who work putting out stock, were out due to injuries. It was expressed to me that when those staffers were back, I would be switched to a daytime position in either the technology or general sales sections.

However you looked at it, it means I HAVE A JOB, at last! RED-LETTER DAY!

Now I can get my life moving again, at least financially.

February 15 - Back to work!

I forced myself to stay up until 3:30am, to prepare for the night shifts to come. I have done a few years of night shifts almost a decade ago, so I know what to do to prepare and how to stay awake while remaining able to function effectively.

I went in early tonight and got to work right away to make a good impression. As it turns out, my overnight coworker was incredibly easy to work with and there were no first-day-on-the-job jitters on my part. All of the skills from my days at The Office Place came back to me very quickly and I managed to maintain an excellent pace keeping up with my coworker to set a great pace for getting things done. Soon enough, it was as though I had been doing the job for weeks as I worked steadily through the morning hours to get stock out onto the floor, barely needing to ask where anything went as I adapted quickly to their store layout.

Indeed, in the morning my coworker told the store manager who was opening he was extremely impressed with the way I'd helped to get so much done, despite being unfamiliar with the store or their stock system. This was probably why the store manager quickly told me that he wanted me to work five nights a week for the next two weeks - full-time hours right off the bat! I start on Monday!

I went home tired but happy, having gone from being unemployed yesterday to having a full-time job today. It may not be a job that's going to quickly pay all my bills or get me a silly super-yacht, but I am certainly MUCH better off than I was yesterday and it's definitely better than asking for handouts. No question!

So I'm back among the employed, happily so.

February 16 - Living-room... Hoth?

Some really cool Star Wars news this week!

A really big geek decided to turn his living room into a diorama of the Battle Of Hoth from The Empire Strikes Back… and it looks incredible!

I think of all the battles from all the Star Wars films, the Battle of Hoth is my favorite. It's gritty, fast-paced and just looks so cool with the AT-AT's attacking in the snow:

Those explosions ARE lit from within - nice job!

 

Check out the full story at i09.com where you can see a little bit more about what possessed this guy to re-create Hoth where his couch used to be.

Makes you wonder if someone out there right now is considering putting up a bunch of trees in their kitchen to give a place for Ewoks and the Empire to battle it out…

February 17 - Midnight Madness

Yesterday and today I stayed up as late as I could, well into the early morning hours in order to prepare myself for coming midnight shifts over the next two weeks.

It hasn't been easy, as I've been waking up every few hours as well as at the occasional thump that comes through the wall from the kitchen in the next-door apartment. I'll be leaving a very, very polite note for my neighbors in the morning, which I hope will mean that the occasional crashing drawer will be silenced soon.

Not my favourite game to play, sleep deprivation...

I'm not a big fan of midnight shifts, for the simple reason that they don't agree with my physiology: I'm not a night owl. There are many things to appreciate about working midnights, not the least of which is usually not having to deal with too many people, depending on the job that you're working. When I was working those graveyard shifts many years ago, I did enjoy the fact that there were far fewer distractions from getting your job done. However, I could only get my job done by staying awake and to do that I eventually had to go through two large pots of tea every night, which didn't do my stomach much good at the end.

It's going to be an interesting two weeks, coming up. When all is said and done, I should end up with a full-time job on day shifts that will pay the bills and hopefully have enough left over to get ahead a little month by month as I work on my Five Interesting Things that I mentioned at the beginning of this week's blog.

Any one of those things could take off and ironically mean that I may not need a day job. But, as any writer knows, you shouldn't quit your day job as most writers are lucky if they can just make a living doing what they love.

Which, really, most people would love to say about the passions in their lives. Right?

It's a little strange to be finishing this blog before midnight tonight, as that's usually the last thing I do before going to bed on a Sunday. Tonight however, I'll be up for at least another six hours until well after dawn in order to keep my new biological schedule ticking along. So I'll be doing a little reading, some writing and probably a lot of yawning with a little caffeine tossed in to keep my eyes open. It's going to be a very interesting week, I think, but I'm grateful despite being very tired already as it means that I'm employed. I'd have to say that's a pretty darn good Valentine's Day gift this year.