Segundo Thoughts

Well, it was a short tenure to be sure. My temp gig in El Segundo dried up today. Situations beyond my supervisor’s control necessitated cutting me loose two weeks earlier than had been contracted. The alternative was to have me sitting around and getting paid for doing nothing. In theory I have nothing against such a situation, but in practice it does go against my principles. Plus it’s pretty boring.

My hasty exit certainly didn’t come as a surprise. With the projects I’d been given this week it was clear they were just monotonous time-occupying tasks cobbled together in order for me to at least be doing something… anything. One mind-numbing operation involved me cataloging search results, any duplicates along with link successes/faiures of some 1000-plus keywords. That took the better part of three days, and in the end was so meaningless that when I handed in the 50-plus pager that meticulously documented what I’d found for every single keyword and phrase, my supervisor thumbed through it and handed it back to me trying to figure out what I should do next. And what I was charged with doing next was even more inconsequential.

The supervisor — a very nice person tasked with keeping too many plates spinning in the air — expressed regret at the present “lack of available resources” and hoped that inter-divisional ducks would be better aligned properly enough to allow me to be brought back sometime in January and finish what I hadn’t even really gotten a chance to start. I told her if I was available I’d very much be game for that.

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Will

Will Campbell arrived in town via the maternity ward at Good Sam Hospital way back in OneNineSixFour and has never stopped calling Los Angeles home. Presently he lives in Silver Lake with his wife Susan, their cat Rocky, dogs Terra and Hazel, and a red-eared slider turtle named Mater. Blogging since 2001, Will's web endeavors extend back to 1995 with laonstage.com, a comprehensive theater site that was well received but ever-short on capital (or a business model). The pinnacle of his online success (which speaks volumes) arrived in 1997, when much to his surprise, a hobby site he'd built called VisuaL.A. was named "best website" in Los Angeles magazine's annual "Best of L.A." issue. He enjoys experiencing (and writing about) pretty much anything creative, explorational and/or adventurous, loves his ebike, is a better tennis player than he is horr golfer, and a lover of all creatures great and small -- emphasis on "all."