Time flies, seems like I just wrote in here, but I guess I didn't. I've been working at Moore each weekend since I wrote last. Mostly I've been doing the manifesting, which is slightly more exciting than stuffing envelopes. We're going back tomorrow (a day earlier for the week) because they called and asked us to come in. The 1st is also the beginning of the big quarter-end project with them, so after this we'll probably be there every day for the next 2 weeks or so, if it's anything like last time. Kelly hasn't actually called to tell us what is going on with it, I think they think they already told us :) Tomorrow won't be the quarter-end stuff yet though, I think we're just getting the other stuff done so they can concentrate on the quarter. It should be a long couple weeks between that and school, but that's ok.
The next quarter for Strayer was supposed to start on the 22nd, but was delayed a week because of the hurricane. The school is in the middle of where it hit the hardest, so they waited a week to start classes so people could recover. I did all of the first week's stuff then anyway, because I knew the quarter end stuff for Moore was coming and I don't want to have to do all my school work and also work every day any more than I had to. I did all the reading for next week today too, so all I'll have to do is watch the lectures and do homework. That's a fair amount as it is, but not too bad. At least I can spread it out over the whole week instead of having to do it at specific times. I would have done more already, but the assignments aren't posted in advance for any of the classes, so I can't do it early. Oh well.
So far the classes seem ok. The C++ class I'm taking seems to have a nice professor, so that's good. The networking class has a good one too. The business class is much more dry, there's no discussion, just reading and lectures, then quizes to take on each week's material. Very dull, but easy enough. The other two classes have more discussion involved, and feedback from the professors, which is nice. I'm not big on interaction in general, but it's nice to have at least some feedback on what you are doing. I just wish the stuff was posted in advance so I could work ahead some. I know what the reading will be for all of them each week, but nothing else.
We went for a walk in Penwood State Park today. It took us almost 2 hours to walk around the main loop, but it was a nice day for it. We stopped here and there to take pictures and were generally strolling. Sabrina had the day off too so it was nice to do something before I was working non-stop for a couple weeks. We won't see much of eachother until it's over with both of us working different times. It was a good day for a walk, nice and cool and sunny. You can certainly tell that fall is coming. Some of the trees are changing here, but not many so far. We'll have to go again when there's more foliage to look at.
We went to the casino last weekend too, which was fun. We didn't get back until almost 3am I think, after leaving around 7pm. We stopped for dinner on the way, then spent the rest of the night wandering around and playing slots and video poker. We had a good night again, after 2 big losing nights. We ended up with $3 more than we started with, so we were happy. Sometime we'll have to stay for the night, but it's pretty expensive. I'm not excited about spending $200 to stay there when it's only an hour from home or so. It'll still be fun sometime though, just for the experience of staying all night in a casino.
The only other thing new is that Sabrina got tickets to go see Barenaked Ladies at the Bushnell Theater in Hartford. That'll be fun, I like the group alot, and didn't realize they were even going on tour again. Sabrina had heard about it on the radio. The show is already sold-out, so we were lucky to get tickets. Sabrina bought them online about an hour and a half after they went on sale and within about an hour after that it was already almost impossible to get 2 tickets together. That'll be November 13th, and we'll probably head to Maine the next day for an early Thanksgiving. We want to avoid traffic and bad weather as much as possible, so we're going early. It'll be a big week for us :)
If anyone is interested in being notifed via email when I actually get around to posting on here, let me know. I can set it up to automatically email whenever I add a post. Either email me, or post a comment on here saying you want to know. :)
My class finished on sunday, and I ended up with a 98.6 average. Not too bad, but I had hoped to have a perfect score on my final, in which case I would've rounded up to a 100 average :) That's ok though. I don't know what I missed on the final, he didn't post any comments, just the grade. I probably won't ever know, but it doesn't really matter, I probably just missed something in the directions rather than getting anything wrong. My next round of classes starts on monday, and that'll take quite a bit more work than the single class I just finished. Hopefully they'll go ok. I'm looking forward to seeing what the setup is for them, they're not always the same as far as what is required and what assignments will be.
Today was the first day of the second week at Moore. It was pretty uninteresting, and much like it always is. We stuffed verizon bills for a few hours, then started doing the Manifesting for what was done. We were there until 3 instead of 2:30, then had to wait for a cab to pick us up to bring us home, since all the cars were in use for a change. Usually we can work something out for rides, but we couldn't today. As it turned out, everyone beat us home so we could've gotten a ride afterall. Figures :) We might need to take the cab again tomorrow but I'm not sure.
Last week we sorta got a promotion at Moore. We started helping with the Manifesting for the stuff being sent out, and its considered a higher-skilled job or something, so we should start getting another $.50/hr. Yeehaw. Better than nothing, but not a huge amount of money either. All it is is going through the stuff that is done and bundling it for the mail. It gets grouped according to zip code or some such, wrapped in rubber bands, then put in the post office plastic crates. There's a list with each job that says which goes in each bin, so it isn't exactly hard. You just have to make sure everything is there and in the correct sequence, or it's a pain to follow the list. In theory everyone would be doing that as they go, but clearly some people don't pay much attention. Frequently the address isn't showing at all, or there are 2 in an envelope so one is missing, etc, and we have to fix them as we go. Overall it's a pretty easy job, but we end up standing up to do that rather than sitting for the envelope stuffing :) I don't mind though, and working 3 days/week works for me.
Finally finished the job at TransAmerica. It was somewhat interesting, but after a while doing nothing but make copies gets pretty dull. We ended up doing close to 100,000 copies total, in a little under 12 days. We finished around 1pm on tuesday and then had just a few loose ends to copy after that, and were out at about 2:45 or so. It was a nice enough place to work, but tiring to stand all day and make small motions. It took a fair amount of concentration too, to make sure that you got the originals and copies exactly the same, including staples, paperclips, folders, etc. I won't really miss it, but it was nice to not have to be there until 9am too.
On the way out after we finished, we stopped in Kelly's office to turn in our time sheets, and they asked if we could work at Moore again this weekend. I said I couldn't today, but was free friday and saturday, but they said at first that they just wanted all 3 days. So Sabrina's father did it today, and while he was there they said that if I wanted to work friday and saturday I could. I guess I will, although I was looking forward to having the weekend off. Not that I'm doing anything the rest of the week, but that's not the point :)
Apparently Moore decided to try to keep temps going all the time, with two teams, the highly original A and B teams. Team A is working monday, tuesday, and wednesday, and Team B is working thursday, friday, and saturday, and both teams work 1 sunday/month. Kelly asked if we could both do team B for the rest of the month, so we will. The first week of October or so is the quarter end for Moore, and we'll be there for another 2 week or whatever of non-stop work like we did at the end of last quarter. They send out the quarterly statements for several investment companies and have to have the extra help to get it all done on time, so they have over 100 temps come in just for those couple weeks to work, then send everyone back home. After that, in theory, we'll go back to being the B Team and working 3 days/week.
It works out fairly well for me, since I'll be starting the next quarter at Strayer on September 22nd. I'll have 3 days of work, and 4 days to do my classes each week. Plus we'll be done at Moore by 2 or so each day (except for the quarter end) and so I'll have most of the days then too if I need them for something. The thing I'm vaguely worried about is that saying that I'll do this on an on-going basis may mean they won't give me other jobs that would pay better. Moore isn't exactly known for being reliable, some weeks I may work 3 full days, and others it may be just 1 or 2 or none. I don't like being tied to being essentially on-call 3 days/week and also prevented from taking better jobs. If they offered more money, that'd be different, but I'd rather take better paying jobs less frequently and do some different stuff, and hopefully stuff more interesting, than stuff envelopes for crap money with no commitment by them. I may talk to the people at Kelly and see what they have to say, I don't know if I'll be excluded from other job offers because of this or not, but would like to know before I do it too long. It'll be good through the quarter end job, but after that I may not want to do it.