Thursday, August 28, 2008
UPS update.
So I finally got around to calling UPS customer service today, told the guy my whole long story (I was polite), and he told me that they would be able to refund the shipping charge. However, since I originally paid the shipping payment to Wal-Mart, they would have to refund the money to Wal-Mart, then Wal-Mart would pass the money along to me. I was tempted to ask the guy why I couldn't just give him my payment information and have them credit my debit card with the cost of the shipping, but I know he would not have gone for this. They have a protocol in place, and they have to follow it. So he told me to contact Wal-Mart to get them up to date on the situation, and then it will progress from there. I just sent an email to the Wal-Mart customer service department, and that's where things stand for now. I'll let you know if and when I get my money back.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
The joys of apartment living.
As many of you know, I lived in an apartment for three years while at USC. But it was owned by the university, so all my neighbors were fellow USC students. So it was a pretty homogeneous group, you know, in terms of age and education level and shared experience, etc. Obviously there was racial diversity, since USC has a very diverse campus. Anyway, the point is you knew what to expect from fellow college students. Chances are nothing too crazy was gonna happen. I mean, you didn't expect things that were much more extreme than someone dropping a computer monitor off a third floor balcony (as my roommate did freshman year), or setting up a fog machine in the apartment and filling an entire wing of the building with dense fog (as a different roommate did junior year), or simply getting hammered and wandering around asking people to punch him in the face (as I did senior year, shortly after reading Fight Club).
When you live in a regular apartment building, with people who might be 20 or 30 years older than you, or who have completely different backgrounds and life experience, you're more apt to run into surprising things. Which brings me to the story of last night.
For the record, I have no idea who the woman in this story is, which apartment she lives in, or what she looks like. I keep to myself, don't interact with my neighbors much, and it seems like pretty much everybody in the building takes that approach.
Last night I went to bed between midnight and 12:30, same as I usually do, but I set my alarm for earlier in the morning. I wanted some time to read the paper and do some work before going to class, so I decided to get up at 5 (that's not as painfully early to me as it probably sounds to you; I'm accustomed to getting up at 6 or a bit earlier). So I knew I was going to be in for a long day, running on less than 5 hours of sleep. I sprawled out on the futon and probably nodded off around 12:30.
At about 1:20 a.m. I wake up. At first I'm not sure why. Then I hear a woman (about my age, judging by the sound of her voice, but that can be deceiving) start screaming. She sounded very angry, and what she was saying didn't make a hell of a lot of sense. I apologize, but I can't remember what it was that she was yelling. Keep in mind it was late at night and I had just woken from a fairly deep sleep. At first I assumed two or more people were involved in an argument, but as I listened I realized there was only one voice. This crazy lady was yelling to nobody in particular. But she was really pissed. To give you an idea of the content of her diatribe, I kept hearing references to a child (hers or someone else's I'm not sure), and she yelled "Fuck you!" repeatedly-- even though I'm pretty sure there was no one there. I think it was like when my dog used to go outside and bark at the moon. Or the bats. Or the parked cars. Or whatever the hell it is that prompts dogs to bark when they're outside at night.
Later on, the content of her ranting changed. She started screaming about Barack Obama at some point, although I could not discern if she was pro-Barack or anti-Barack. Around the same time, she used the phrase "back alley abortion" repeatedly, but I'm not sure if that was related to Senator Obama or not. For the record, Senator Obama supports a woman's right to choose.
It is interesting to note that the woman was not passive or sedentary during this period of screaming. It's not like she was sitting in her apartment and yelling out the window, or standing in the hallway. Sometimes I heard her running up and down the hall, and I heard doors slam. I'm not sure, but I think she would run outside the building, scream some stuff, run back inside, scream some more stuff, and repeat.
Oh, another phrase she used a lot-- "Go ahead! Call the police! Fuck you!"
I probably should have taken this advice. But I felt like I shouldn't just call the cops without trying to resolve the situation myself. After all, the Syracuse PD has enough to keep it busy. There is a surprising amount of violent crime in this town, considering the fairly low population.
So I considered going out into the hall and talking to the woman. But the more I thought about it, the more this seemed like a bad idea. I mean, she was clearly out of her fucking mind, and what if I walk out there and she's got a gun? I didn't think that was likely, but I wasn't ruling it out. Plus, here's what I actually thought would happen-- this chick was screaming at the top of her lungs to no audience whatsoever. And she kept requesting that whoever might be listening call the police. I really think she just wanted some attention, she probably wanted somebody to listen to her problems. And she was completely psychotic. I know from experience that, for some reason, crazy people like to talk to me about their problems. I think they somehow get the impression that I'm sympathetic, when in reality I'm thinking about the quickest possible way to escape from this situation.
So I was afraid that if I went out there and confronted her and asked her to keep it down, I would wind up listening to her sob story for the rest of the night. So I opted to ignore her and do my best to go to sleep. Unfortunately, this lady was not one to give up quickly, and she had one mighty set of vocal cords on her. There was no way to go to sleep with that shrieking going on. So I didn't get to sleep until she finally tired herself out around 4 a.m. When my alarm went off at 5, I felt like the running of the bulls was going on inside my skull. It's now almost 6 p.m., I haven't taken a nap at all (I almost never nap, it throws off my entire day and makes me very confused), and I feel surprisingly good. But that's probably because of the massive amounts of caffeine in my system. I don't have class until late afternoon tomorrow, so I am looking forward to sleeping in late. Just gonna put the cell phone on silent and have myself a rest. And if that lady starts screaming again, no hesitation tonight-- this is a job for the police department.
When you live in a regular apartment building, with people who might be 20 or 30 years older than you, or who have completely different backgrounds and life experience, you're more apt to run into surprising things. Which brings me to the story of last night.
For the record, I have no idea who the woman in this story is, which apartment she lives in, or what she looks like. I keep to myself, don't interact with my neighbors much, and it seems like pretty much everybody in the building takes that approach.
Last night I went to bed between midnight and 12:30, same as I usually do, but I set my alarm for earlier in the morning. I wanted some time to read the paper and do some work before going to class, so I decided to get up at 5 (that's not as painfully early to me as it probably sounds to you; I'm accustomed to getting up at 6 or a bit earlier). So I knew I was going to be in for a long day, running on less than 5 hours of sleep. I sprawled out on the futon and probably nodded off around 12:30.
At about 1:20 a.m. I wake up. At first I'm not sure why. Then I hear a woman (about my age, judging by the sound of her voice, but that can be deceiving) start screaming. She sounded very angry, and what she was saying didn't make a hell of a lot of sense. I apologize, but I can't remember what it was that she was yelling. Keep in mind it was late at night and I had just woken from a fairly deep sleep. At first I assumed two or more people were involved in an argument, but as I listened I realized there was only one voice. This crazy lady was yelling to nobody in particular. But she was really pissed. To give you an idea of the content of her diatribe, I kept hearing references to a child (hers or someone else's I'm not sure), and she yelled "Fuck you!" repeatedly-- even though I'm pretty sure there was no one there. I think it was like when my dog used to go outside and bark at the moon. Or the bats. Or the parked cars. Or whatever the hell it is that prompts dogs to bark when they're outside at night.
Later on, the content of her ranting changed. She started screaming about Barack Obama at some point, although I could not discern if she was pro-Barack or anti-Barack. Around the same time, she used the phrase "back alley abortion" repeatedly, but I'm not sure if that was related to Senator Obama or not. For the record, Senator Obama supports a woman's right to choose.
It is interesting to note that the woman was not passive or sedentary during this period of screaming. It's not like she was sitting in her apartment and yelling out the window, or standing in the hallway. Sometimes I heard her running up and down the hall, and I heard doors slam. I'm not sure, but I think she would run outside the building, scream some stuff, run back inside, scream some more stuff, and repeat.
Oh, another phrase she used a lot-- "Go ahead! Call the police! Fuck you!"
I probably should have taken this advice. But I felt like I shouldn't just call the cops without trying to resolve the situation myself. After all, the Syracuse PD has enough to keep it busy. There is a surprising amount of violent crime in this town, considering the fairly low population.
So I considered going out into the hall and talking to the woman. But the more I thought about it, the more this seemed like a bad idea. I mean, she was clearly out of her fucking mind, and what if I walk out there and she's got a gun? I didn't think that was likely, but I wasn't ruling it out. Plus, here's what I actually thought would happen-- this chick was screaming at the top of her lungs to no audience whatsoever. And she kept requesting that whoever might be listening call the police. I really think she just wanted some attention, she probably wanted somebody to listen to her problems. And she was completely psychotic. I know from experience that, for some reason, crazy people like to talk to me about their problems. I think they somehow get the impression that I'm sympathetic, when in reality I'm thinking about the quickest possible way to escape from this situation.
So I was afraid that if I went out there and confronted her and asked her to keep it down, I would wind up listening to her sob story for the rest of the night. So I opted to ignore her and do my best to go to sleep. Unfortunately, this lady was not one to give up quickly, and she had one mighty set of vocal cords on her. There was no way to go to sleep with that shrieking going on. So I didn't get to sleep until she finally tired herself out around 4 a.m. When my alarm went off at 5, I felt like the running of the bulls was going on inside my skull. It's now almost 6 p.m., I haven't taken a nap at all (I almost never nap, it throws off my entire day and makes me very confused), and I feel surprisingly good. But that's probably because of the massive amounts of caffeine in my system. I don't have class until late afternoon tomorrow, so I am looking forward to sleeping in late. Just gonna put the cell phone on silent and have myself a rest. And if that lady starts screaming again, no hesitation tonight-- this is a job for the police department.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Got my computer, classes start tomorrow.
So the UPS situation resolved itself nicely today. I drove out to the pickup center first thing this morning and they had the package ready for me. I was in and out in about five minutes. So far I'm digging the new computer. I mean, it's going to take a while to get used to using a PC again after doing the Mac thing for so long, but it will be all right. There are a few things that are going to be a pain in the ass. The biggest one will probably be transferring all my music files, which I'm in the middle of doing right now. See, I wanted to just use my iPod for that. But it turns out that if you have an iPod set up to work with a Mac and you want to use it on a PC, you have to reformat it. And that erases everything on it. So now I'm using a USB drive to transfer the files from one computer to the other, which is a pain because it only holds like 2 gigs at a time.
Classes officially started today, but I don't have anything scheduled for Mondays this semester, so I start tomorrow. I don't feel like I accomplished everything I wanted to during my vacation (most glaringly, I still don't have a job), but I did get a lot done. And I don't have to spend that much time in class, so I should still have time to job hunt and work on some other things I've been meaning to do. Of course, time will tell how demanding my fall classes are. Maybe it will turn out that I'll be working all day every day, as I was during the summer. Either way, I'll make it work. Don't have much choice in the matter, after all. So I would say at this point I'm somewhat apprehensive about the start of the semester, but still excited and determined. I'll check back later this week to let you know how it's going.
Classes officially started today, but I don't have anything scheduled for Mondays this semester, so I start tomorrow. I don't feel like I accomplished everything I wanted to during my vacation (most glaringly, I still don't have a job), but I did get a lot done. And I don't have to spend that much time in class, so I should still have time to job hunt and work on some other things I've been meaning to do. Of course, time will tell how demanding my fall classes are. Maybe it will turn out that I'll be working all day every day, as I was during the summer. Either way, I'll make it work. Don't have much choice in the matter, after all. So I would say at this point I'm somewhat apprehensive about the start of the semester, but still excited and determined. I'll check back later this week to let you know how it's going.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Why I'm Doing This.
For some time now, I’ve been meaning to put down in writing the reasons for my somewhat abrupt and surprising decision to attend graduate school for journalism. The trouble was that I didn’t really know how to explain it at first. This is not to say the decision was impulsive or that I hadn’t thought it through beforehand. In fact, I put a great deal of thought into it-- agonized over it, really-- and I knew I had good reasons for doing it. I also had a vague sense or a general idea of what those reasons were, but articulating them in a way that would make sense to other people proved challenging. So I will do my best to make this whole thing coherent, but I can make no guarantees.
I first started thinking about going back to school to get a graduate degree in journalism sometime last fall (2007), while I was working for a collection agency called West Asset Management. Even though I had only been there since July, and I would wind up working there until the end of January ‘08, I already knew the job wasn’t for me, so I had started thinking about what my next job move would be. In this time period, I started writing a story/novel in which the main character was a sports reporter. I didn’t get very far into the story before abandoning it (although I may return to it at some point; it had some promise). An unintended side effect of working on this story was that, by putting myself in the main character’s shoes, I realized that being a reporter was something I would probably enjoy. Even though journalism is not creative, at least not to the same extent as writing fiction or screenplays, it would still be writing, and as far as day jobs go, it would beat the hell out of trying to convince ignorant deadbeats to pay their student loan debts.
So I started doing some research online about graduate programs in journalism, casually at first, and then more seriously as the idea really took hold in my mind. It turned out that there are not a large number of schools that offer master’s degrees in journalism, at least not in New York State, or in the Northeast in general. Considering I had just recently moved back to New York after four years in LA, I was not eager to do the long-distance thing again, and wanted to stay relatively close to home. I discovered that Syracuse University, which is only about a two-hour drive from where I grew up, offered the kind of program I was looking for (print journalism), and their entire communications school is held in high regard. I considered a couple of other schools-- Columbia in NYC and Emerson in Boston are the two that immediately come to mind-- but in the end I decided it was going to be Syracuse or nothing. I only applied to one school.
The application process took quite a while, especially since I had not taken the GRE. So I registered for that, took the exam in December (and crushed it), and started contacting former professors for letters of recommendation in the meantime. I also visited the SU campus for an open house at the communications school (Newhouse) in November, and liked what I saw.
While all this was going on, I warmed to the idea of going back to school, and the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea of working as a journalist. Still, I took a wait-and-see attitude. I might not even get into the program, and even if I did, I would want to know what kind of financial aid package they were offering before I decided to accept or decline. And, of course, if some other full-time job came along that would pay well and wouldn’t kill me with boredom, I could always toss the idea of going to grad school and just start a career.
I found out that I had been accepted in the middle of March, but I wouldn’t find out about financial aid for another month or so, and I didn’t need to make a decision until the end of April or the beginning of May-- I forget exactly when the deadline was. So I put off the decision for a while, though I continued to turn it over in my mind. By this time I had left the collection agency and was working as a substitute teacher. This was a much more pleasant occupation than the previous one, but the pay was terrible, and it wasn’t something I was in love with. It did help me figure out that teaching would not be the right profession for me, not long-term.
In April the school offered me a scholarship. It was a pretty good chunk of change, but still only covered about 25% of the tuition, and then I would obviously need to come up with living expenses on top of that, so I was still looking at a very substantial bill. In other words, the scholarship was something that pushed me in the direction of going back to school, but it wasn’t the kind of offer that made it a no-brainer.
Still undecided, and with the deadline drawing ever closer, things got more complicated.
I had taken some civil service tests to qualify for several state jobs in October, and was now receiving a lot of canvass letters about job openings. These weren’t offers, exactly, but the letters were to notify me that there were openings, to find out whether or not I was interested, and to set up interviews if I did have interest. My test scores put me at or near the top of the list of potential applicants, so I thought it was a virtual certainty that if I started interviewing for these positions, I would get offered a job sooner or later-- probably sooner.
At some point in April, as I was running out of time to make my decision, I got a call from my friend Cory’s father, who is a pretty high-ranking official with Citibank (or, actually, I think Citigroup is the name of the corporation. I’ll just call them Citi to simplify). They had an opening in their Buffalo office that he thought I would be good for, and he encouraged me to apply. It wasn’t anything big, just an entry level job, but from everything I’ve heard, Citi takes good care of their employees, and with my work ethic and abilities I was confident I would be able to advance there (or anywhere else, really).
So it was decision time-- the lady or the tiger. Do I start interviewing and applying for these jobs and take the best one I can get, and embark on a stable but mundane career, or do I roll the dice with grad school, which would sort of set my whole life back a year or two and put me much further into debt, but would also potentially lead to a career I would find more interesting and rewarding?
Well, I thought long and hard about it and decided-- obviously-- to go for the master’s in journalism.
Okay, so that was the easy part. That was the chronology of what happened. Now comes the hard part, as I try to explain why and how I made this decision. And it’s probably more complex than you’re thinking.
I should start by saying that I actually did the opposite of what I wanted to do. Why the hell would I do that? Yeah, good question. Deep down, I really wanted to take the path of least resistance, the safer path, the road more traveled. I would field my job offers, take the one that was the most lucrative, finally move out of my parents’ house and get my own place, start working a real job, and be completely out of debt and building up savings within a few years (I had some student loan debt from my undergraduate years, but not a lot. My parents helped me out a ton with paying for college, plus I had a half tuition scholarship and some other scholarships, as well). Sure, I wasn’t really interested in any of these jobs I was thinking about, but I could live with that. I could deal with doing something mundane and dull, so long as it wasn’t terribly unpleasant. I had never really cared about getting a sense of enjoyment or fulfillment from my job. To me, a job was a paycheck and that’s all it was. The way I saw it, you shouldn’t be drawing your happiness or satisfaction in life from what you do for a living, but from what you do when you’re on your own time-- your relationships with your friends and family, your hobbies and interests, and so on.
When I was a kid, I always thought I was destined for something great, or at least something unusual. I couldn’t imagine ever being happy with a “normal” life, and I sort of pitied all those people who work regular, everyday jobs that aren’t weird or exciting (99% of the population, in other words). I could never see myself being happy with that.
Yet, after being out of college for a year, a normal life and a normal job were exactly what I wanted. I just wanted to work 40 hours a week, make a decent salary, have my own apartment, maybe a dog, and spend my free time hanging out with my friends and family, reading interesting books, and maybe writing a few books of my own if I worked up the ambition. It didn’t sound thrilling, but it sounded... good, you know?
But there was still something going on deep down, something in the recesses of my brain that I couldn’t quite shut up. It was this sense that I would be taking the coward’s way out, waving the white flag, turning my back on the wider world. And, for some reason, I felt like I couldn’t let myself do that. No matter how much I wanted to.
This next part is probably going to sound arrogant and weird and possibly ridiculous, but I admit that I have a narcissistic streak in me, and I’ve come to terms with that.
I think it’s safe to say that I’ve always had a lot of potential. And for that reason, it’s always been my perception that people expect me to do great things, and I had started to expect the same. As any pop culture junkie could tell you, Spider-Man 2 taught us that, “with great power comes great responsibility.” Well, I sort of think the same thing goes for potential. I didn’t ask for whatever abilities I have, but I have them, and I think I’m supposed to use them for something.
It’s strange, but I feel as though I have aged in reverse over the past five years or so. I’ve actually become less jaded and more idealistic as I’ve gotten older. When I was in my teens, I didn’t really believe in anything. When I looked at political issues, it always seemed to me like there was no right answer and no wrong answer. No matter what we decided to do about a certain problem, a lot of people were going to be pissed off, a lot of people were going to get screwed over, and a lot of politicians were going to make a lot of money. Why bother thinking about politics, I reasoned, when all of the options were really the same. That sort of thinking is why, to this day, I have never cast a vote in any election other than a school budget vote. But that is about to change. I’m registered to vote in Onondaga County (where Syracuse is located) and I’ll be heading out to the polls on election day 2008. Of course, I’m still of the opinion that my vote in the presidential election does not matter at all since it is a foregone conclusion that Obama will win New York State, but I have learned to embrace the symbolic value in casting a vote in a presidential election. For the record, it still bothers me that, unless you live in a swing/battleground state, casting a vote for president only has symbolic value. The electoral college really needs to go away.
Okay, I need to rein myself in and not go off on tangents. This isn’t about politics. The point I was trying to make is that I believe in things now. Some things, anyway. I don’t know what brought about this change, but I’m glad it happened. I’m not idealistic or foolish enough to think I can single-handedly save the world with my words or anything like that, but I believe that through my work I will be able to leave a mark, I will be able to change some things for the better. That’s why I’m going to work so hard at it, why I’m going to dedicate myself to it so fully.
Even though I’m only six weeks into my master’s program, I already feel like I’m more committed to this, that I’m more engaged with it, than I’ve ever been about anything. I haven’t done much this summer besides write and work and try to become more informed about the wider world. And the weird thing is I don’t really mind. I feel like I could keep going like this indefinitely, doing nothing but work, and I would be happy.
I realize that’s a complete departure from my earlier reasoning that your satisfaction in life should come from everything you do outside work, and that your job is just the thing you do so you can afford to live your life. I am unable to explain what brought on this reversal. Maybe it was just a natural part of getting older, or maybe it’s that I found a career path that really interests me. For most of my young life (all of high school and college, at least) I suffered from chronic boredom. I think this was actually the main cause of the problems I had with depression and anxiety a few years ago. I just didn’t know what the hell to do with myself. Now I’ve found... well, something I’m interested in. I almost wrote “I’ve found my calling,” but I don’t like that phrase. For one thing, it’s an overused cliché. But it also suggests that everyone has one true calling, which is a notion I reject as easily as the idea that everyone has one true soul mate.
I mean, maybe I would have lived an exciting, happy, and profitable life as a crab fisherman off the Alaskan coast (I’ve never watched that “Deadliest Catch” show, but the promos make it look bad-ass), or maybe if I had decided to go into comedy/acting I would have wound up being Conan O’Brien’s sidekick on the Tonight Show when he takes over in 2009, and I would have been known as the 21st century Ed McMahon (minus the foreclosure). But we’ll never know because I never tried to do those things. I am trying to do this, and I think it was a good decision.
So, you might be asking yourself, what is it that I hope to accomplish in my career, and where do I see myself in the future? Well, that’s another thing that’s changed recently, even since I first came to Syracuse. I originally saw myself working in a branch of journalism that would not be all that consequential. I thought I might like to be a sports writer. Covering the Bills and/or the Sabres for the Buffalo News (or the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, or whatever) would be sort of a dream job for me. And if I excelled there, maybe I could end up covering sports for something bigger, like a national magazine or ESPN.com or something like that. I would also be interested in doing film criticism. And one of my biggest inspirations when I decided to become a journalist was Chuck Klosterman. I would love to do what he does, and comment on various facets of pop culture (or, at this point it might be more accurate to say Klosterman writes about “culture.” His more recent articles have had more of a serious bent, particularly his latest column for Esquire, which I believe was one of the most sober pieces I have ever read by CK).
Don’t get me wrong, I may very well wind up doing one of those things, or perhaps all of them at different points in my career, and I think I would still enjoy writing about all those subjects. But I’ve also started giving thought to writing about things that are considered more serious-- politics, international affairs, social issues. Now, when I think about whose career I most want mine to resemble, I don’t think about Klosterman or sports writers like Bill Simmons, Peter King, or Vic Carucci (although I admire all those people a great deal. Well, maybe not Simmons). I think about Tom Wolfe. Wolfe first came to prominence as an extraordinarily creative and influential journalist, and wrote a number of nonfiction books that made a lasting impact-- The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, The Right Stuff, et al. Later in his career he started publishing fiction, and wrote what I consider one of the truly Great American Novels, The Bonfire of the Vanities (A Man in Full and I Am Charlotte Simmons aren’t half bad, either, but Bonfire is in a class all by itself). Just because I’m now becoming a journalist does not mean that I am walking away from creative writing (in fact, as I write this essay, I am preparing to launch a new creative writing project. I’m not giving out details just yet, but this will be happening soon, so just sit tight). Maybe I can do what Wolfe has done, and succeed at both. That would be the best case scenario.
It has occurred to me that maybe I could have accomplished these things without going to grad school. I know people who got their undergraduate degrees in English, just as I did, and wound up working for newspapers without getting a master’s in journalism. I also understand that you don’t need to have an official job as a journalist to research and write articles, to try to expose a truth that most people are not aware of. With the advent of citizen journalism, largely due to the internet and the popularity of blogging, everyone has a voice. Everyone is a journalist if they want to be. But being a professional gives you a certain credibility-- and a built-in audience-- that you don’t have if you’re trying to do it all independently. I could produce the best journalism in the world on this blog, but how are people going to find it? It would be inaccurate to say that being a professional journalist will give me a voice-- everybody already has a voice. But it might give me a very large megaphone.
When I started my classes this summer, I didn’t really know what to expect from myself. I knew I could write, but I didn’t know if I could report. I’m not shy, but I’m also not the most outgoing person in the world, and one of my biggest questions was whether or not I would be able to interview people effectively. I still consider my interviewing style something I need to improve, but I was able to do it well enough to produce some good articles for my summer writing class. Some very good articles, if I may be permitted to pat myself on the back. Obviously, as this year goes on I’m only going to get better and better, and I’d like to think I’m not bad to begin with.
For most of my life, people have had more confidence in me than I’ve had in myself. I’m the biggest critic of my own writing (despite the self-congratulatory statements made in the last paragraph), and when I was struggling with the uncertainty of life post-college, I found it difficult to believe people’s assurances that I would eventually figure out what I wanted to do and that everything would work out. I didn’t know if I would figure out what I wanted to do. There were times when I wondered if there was anything I really wanted to do. Maybe it was just in my personality to be an underachieving lazy bum for the rest of my life. I started to hate myself a little.
Fortunately, those worries are all behind me now. I am now certain that I can do this, that I want to do this, and that I will do this. Going to grad school was absolutely the right decision. I finally got one of the big decisions right, and that feels good. I still have a long way to go, but I am growing more and more certain that I am going to be extraordinarily good at this, and that I am going to rise far, and that I am going to rise fast (because of my high yeast content. What? Where the hell did that joke come from? I think I’m getting tired. Ah, what the hell, I’m gonna leave the yeast joke. This paragraph needed some levity). If I continue writing this blog for a long time (years, we’re talking), and I see no reason why I wouldn’t, I think it’s going to turn into a chronicle of my rise to the top of my profession. So stay tuned. I think the next decade or so is going to be a profoundly awesome experience.
Well, there you have it. In a rambling, circumlocutious way, I think this should have answered a lot of your questions about what I’m doing and why I’m doing it. If you have any more specific questions, feel free to ask. I obviously am not opposed to writing about myself (there’s that pesky narcissism again).
Lastly, I want to thank all my family and friends-- anyone reading this, really-- for being so supportive. There were some days (months) when I thought my future looked rather bleak. I might not have gotten through that time, or had the courage to take the plunge and go to grad school, without the support of all the wonderful people in my life. If I ever accomplish anything great, much of the credit will be yours. Unless you’re just some random person who stumbled onto my blog. In that case, I don’t owe you anything. But thanks for reading, man.
I first started thinking about going back to school to get a graduate degree in journalism sometime last fall (2007), while I was working for a collection agency called West Asset Management. Even though I had only been there since July, and I would wind up working there until the end of January ‘08, I already knew the job wasn’t for me, so I had started thinking about what my next job move would be. In this time period, I started writing a story/novel in which the main character was a sports reporter. I didn’t get very far into the story before abandoning it (although I may return to it at some point; it had some promise). An unintended side effect of working on this story was that, by putting myself in the main character’s shoes, I realized that being a reporter was something I would probably enjoy. Even though journalism is not creative, at least not to the same extent as writing fiction or screenplays, it would still be writing, and as far as day jobs go, it would beat the hell out of trying to convince ignorant deadbeats to pay their student loan debts.
So I started doing some research online about graduate programs in journalism, casually at first, and then more seriously as the idea really took hold in my mind. It turned out that there are not a large number of schools that offer master’s degrees in journalism, at least not in New York State, or in the Northeast in general. Considering I had just recently moved back to New York after four years in LA, I was not eager to do the long-distance thing again, and wanted to stay relatively close to home. I discovered that Syracuse University, which is only about a two-hour drive from where I grew up, offered the kind of program I was looking for (print journalism), and their entire communications school is held in high regard. I considered a couple of other schools-- Columbia in NYC and Emerson in Boston are the two that immediately come to mind-- but in the end I decided it was going to be Syracuse or nothing. I only applied to one school.
The application process took quite a while, especially since I had not taken the GRE. So I registered for that, took the exam in December (and crushed it), and started contacting former professors for letters of recommendation in the meantime. I also visited the SU campus for an open house at the communications school (Newhouse) in November, and liked what I saw.
While all this was going on, I warmed to the idea of going back to school, and the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea of working as a journalist. Still, I took a wait-and-see attitude. I might not even get into the program, and even if I did, I would want to know what kind of financial aid package they were offering before I decided to accept or decline. And, of course, if some other full-time job came along that would pay well and wouldn’t kill me with boredom, I could always toss the idea of going to grad school and just start a career.
I found out that I had been accepted in the middle of March, but I wouldn’t find out about financial aid for another month or so, and I didn’t need to make a decision until the end of April or the beginning of May-- I forget exactly when the deadline was. So I put off the decision for a while, though I continued to turn it over in my mind. By this time I had left the collection agency and was working as a substitute teacher. This was a much more pleasant occupation than the previous one, but the pay was terrible, and it wasn’t something I was in love with. It did help me figure out that teaching would not be the right profession for me, not long-term.
In April the school offered me a scholarship. It was a pretty good chunk of change, but still only covered about 25% of the tuition, and then I would obviously need to come up with living expenses on top of that, so I was still looking at a very substantial bill. In other words, the scholarship was something that pushed me in the direction of going back to school, but it wasn’t the kind of offer that made it a no-brainer.
Still undecided, and with the deadline drawing ever closer, things got more complicated.
I had taken some civil service tests to qualify for several state jobs in October, and was now receiving a lot of canvass letters about job openings. These weren’t offers, exactly, but the letters were to notify me that there were openings, to find out whether or not I was interested, and to set up interviews if I did have interest. My test scores put me at or near the top of the list of potential applicants, so I thought it was a virtual certainty that if I started interviewing for these positions, I would get offered a job sooner or later-- probably sooner.
At some point in April, as I was running out of time to make my decision, I got a call from my friend Cory’s father, who is a pretty high-ranking official with Citibank (or, actually, I think Citigroup is the name of the corporation. I’ll just call them Citi to simplify). They had an opening in their Buffalo office that he thought I would be good for, and he encouraged me to apply. It wasn’t anything big, just an entry level job, but from everything I’ve heard, Citi takes good care of their employees, and with my work ethic and abilities I was confident I would be able to advance there (or anywhere else, really).
So it was decision time-- the lady or the tiger. Do I start interviewing and applying for these jobs and take the best one I can get, and embark on a stable but mundane career, or do I roll the dice with grad school, which would sort of set my whole life back a year or two and put me much further into debt, but would also potentially lead to a career I would find more interesting and rewarding?
Well, I thought long and hard about it and decided-- obviously-- to go for the master’s in journalism.
Okay, so that was the easy part. That was the chronology of what happened. Now comes the hard part, as I try to explain why and how I made this decision. And it’s probably more complex than you’re thinking.
I should start by saying that I actually did the opposite of what I wanted to do. Why the hell would I do that? Yeah, good question. Deep down, I really wanted to take the path of least resistance, the safer path, the road more traveled. I would field my job offers, take the one that was the most lucrative, finally move out of my parents’ house and get my own place, start working a real job, and be completely out of debt and building up savings within a few years (I had some student loan debt from my undergraduate years, but not a lot. My parents helped me out a ton with paying for college, plus I had a half tuition scholarship and some other scholarships, as well). Sure, I wasn’t really interested in any of these jobs I was thinking about, but I could live with that. I could deal with doing something mundane and dull, so long as it wasn’t terribly unpleasant. I had never really cared about getting a sense of enjoyment or fulfillment from my job. To me, a job was a paycheck and that’s all it was. The way I saw it, you shouldn’t be drawing your happiness or satisfaction in life from what you do for a living, but from what you do when you’re on your own time-- your relationships with your friends and family, your hobbies and interests, and so on.
When I was a kid, I always thought I was destined for something great, or at least something unusual. I couldn’t imagine ever being happy with a “normal” life, and I sort of pitied all those people who work regular, everyday jobs that aren’t weird or exciting (99% of the population, in other words). I could never see myself being happy with that.
Yet, after being out of college for a year, a normal life and a normal job were exactly what I wanted. I just wanted to work 40 hours a week, make a decent salary, have my own apartment, maybe a dog, and spend my free time hanging out with my friends and family, reading interesting books, and maybe writing a few books of my own if I worked up the ambition. It didn’t sound thrilling, but it sounded... good, you know?
But there was still something going on deep down, something in the recesses of my brain that I couldn’t quite shut up. It was this sense that I would be taking the coward’s way out, waving the white flag, turning my back on the wider world. And, for some reason, I felt like I couldn’t let myself do that. No matter how much I wanted to.
This next part is probably going to sound arrogant and weird and possibly ridiculous, but I admit that I have a narcissistic streak in me, and I’ve come to terms with that.
I think it’s safe to say that I’ve always had a lot of potential. And for that reason, it’s always been my perception that people expect me to do great things, and I had started to expect the same. As any pop culture junkie could tell you, Spider-Man 2 taught us that, “with great power comes great responsibility.” Well, I sort of think the same thing goes for potential. I didn’t ask for whatever abilities I have, but I have them, and I think I’m supposed to use them for something.
It’s strange, but I feel as though I have aged in reverse over the past five years or so. I’ve actually become less jaded and more idealistic as I’ve gotten older. When I was in my teens, I didn’t really believe in anything. When I looked at political issues, it always seemed to me like there was no right answer and no wrong answer. No matter what we decided to do about a certain problem, a lot of people were going to be pissed off, a lot of people were going to get screwed over, and a lot of politicians were going to make a lot of money. Why bother thinking about politics, I reasoned, when all of the options were really the same. That sort of thinking is why, to this day, I have never cast a vote in any election other than a school budget vote. But that is about to change. I’m registered to vote in Onondaga County (where Syracuse is located) and I’ll be heading out to the polls on election day 2008. Of course, I’m still of the opinion that my vote in the presidential election does not matter at all since it is a foregone conclusion that Obama will win New York State, but I have learned to embrace the symbolic value in casting a vote in a presidential election. For the record, it still bothers me that, unless you live in a swing/battleground state, casting a vote for president only has symbolic value. The electoral college really needs to go away.
Okay, I need to rein myself in and not go off on tangents. This isn’t about politics. The point I was trying to make is that I believe in things now. Some things, anyway. I don’t know what brought about this change, but I’m glad it happened. I’m not idealistic or foolish enough to think I can single-handedly save the world with my words or anything like that, but I believe that through my work I will be able to leave a mark, I will be able to change some things for the better. That’s why I’m going to work so hard at it, why I’m going to dedicate myself to it so fully.
Even though I’m only six weeks into my master’s program, I already feel like I’m more committed to this, that I’m more engaged with it, than I’ve ever been about anything. I haven’t done much this summer besides write and work and try to become more informed about the wider world. And the weird thing is I don’t really mind. I feel like I could keep going like this indefinitely, doing nothing but work, and I would be happy.
I realize that’s a complete departure from my earlier reasoning that your satisfaction in life should come from everything you do outside work, and that your job is just the thing you do so you can afford to live your life. I am unable to explain what brought on this reversal. Maybe it was just a natural part of getting older, or maybe it’s that I found a career path that really interests me. For most of my young life (all of high school and college, at least) I suffered from chronic boredom. I think this was actually the main cause of the problems I had with depression and anxiety a few years ago. I just didn’t know what the hell to do with myself. Now I’ve found... well, something I’m interested in. I almost wrote “I’ve found my calling,” but I don’t like that phrase. For one thing, it’s an overused cliché. But it also suggests that everyone has one true calling, which is a notion I reject as easily as the idea that everyone has one true soul mate.
I mean, maybe I would have lived an exciting, happy, and profitable life as a crab fisherman off the Alaskan coast (I’ve never watched that “Deadliest Catch” show, but the promos make it look bad-ass), or maybe if I had decided to go into comedy/acting I would have wound up being Conan O’Brien’s sidekick on the Tonight Show when he takes over in 2009, and I would have been known as the 21st century Ed McMahon (minus the foreclosure). But we’ll never know because I never tried to do those things. I am trying to do this, and I think it was a good decision.
So, you might be asking yourself, what is it that I hope to accomplish in my career, and where do I see myself in the future? Well, that’s another thing that’s changed recently, even since I first came to Syracuse. I originally saw myself working in a branch of journalism that would not be all that consequential. I thought I might like to be a sports writer. Covering the Bills and/or the Sabres for the Buffalo News (or the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, or whatever) would be sort of a dream job for me. And if I excelled there, maybe I could end up covering sports for something bigger, like a national magazine or ESPN.com or something like that. I would also be interested in doing film criticism. And one of my biggest inspirations when I decided to become a journalist was Chuck Klosterman. I would love to do what he does, and comment on various facets of pop culture (or, at this point it might be more accurate to say Klosterman writes about “culture.” His more recent articles have had more of a serious bent, particularly his latest column for Esquire, which I believe was one of the most sober pieces I have ever read by CK).
Don’t get me wrong, I may very well wind up doing one of those things, or perhaps all of them at different points in my career, and I think I would still enjoy writing about all those subjects. But I’ve also started giving thought to writing about things that are considered more serious-- politics, international affairs, social issues. Now, when I think about whose career I most want mine to resemble, I don’t think about Klosterman or sports writers like Bill Simmons, Peter King, or Vic Carucci (although I admire all those people a great deal. Well, maybe not Simmons). I think about Tom Wolfe. Wolfe first came to prominence as an extraordinarily creative and influential journalist, and wrote a number of nonfiction books that made a lasting impact-- The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, The Right Stuff, et al. Later in his career he started publishing fiction, and wrote what I consider one of the truly Great American Novels, The Bonfire of the Vanities (A Man in Full and I Am Charlotte Simmons aren’t half bad, either, but Bonfire is in a class all by itself). Just because I’m now becoming a journalist does not mean that I am walking away from creative writing (in fact, as I write this essay, I am preparing to launch a new creative writing project. I’m not giving out details just yet, but this will be happening soon, so just sit tight). Maybe I can do what Wolfe has done, and succeed at both. That would be the best case scenario.
It has occurred to me that maybe I could have accomplished these things without going to grad school. I know people who got their undergraduate degrees in English, just as I did, and wound up working for newspapers without getting a master’s in journalism. I also understand that you don’t need to have an official job as a journalist to research and write articles, to try to expose a truth that most people are not aware of. With the advent of citizen journalism, largely due to the internet and the popularity of blogging, everyone has a voice. Everyone is a journalist if they want to be. But being a professional gives you a certain credibility-- and a built-in audience-- that you don’t have if you’re trying to do it all independently. I could produce the best journalism in the world on this blog, but how are people going to find it? It would be inaccurate to say that being a professional journalist will give me a voice-- everybody already has a voice. But it might give me a very large megaphone.
When I started my classes this summer, I didn’t really know what to expect from myself. I knew I could write, but I didn’t know if I could report. I’m not shy, but I’m also not the most outgoing person in the world, and one of my biggest questions was whether or not I would be able to interview people effectively. I still consider my interviewing style something I need to improve, but I was able to do it well enough to produce some good articles for my summer writing class. Some very good articles, if I may be permitted to pat myself on the back. Obviously, as this year goes on I’m only going to get better and better, and I’d like to think I’m not bad to begin with.
For most of my life, people have had more confidence in me than I’ve had in myself. I’m the biggest critic of my own writing (despite the self-congratulatory statements made in the last paragraph), and when I was struggling with the uncertainty of life post-college, I found it difficult to believe people’s assurances that I would eventually figure out what I wanted to do and that everything would work out. I didn’t know if I would figure out what I wanted to do. There were times when I wondered if there was anything I really wanted to do. Maybe it was just in my personality to be an underachieving lazy bum for the rest of my life. I started to hate myself a little.
Fortunately, those worries are all behind me now. I am now certain that I can do this, that I want to do this, and that I will do this. Going to grad school was absolutely the right decision. I finally got one of the big decisions right, and that feels good. I still have a long way to go, but I am growing more and more certain that I am going to be extraordinarily good at this, and that I am going to rise far, and that I am going to rise fast (because of my high yeast content. What? Where the hell did that joke come from? I think I’m getting tired. Ah, what the hell, I’m gonna leave the yeast joke. This paragraph needed some levity). If I continue writing this blog for a long time (years, we’re talking), and I see no reason why I wouldn’t, I think it’s going to turn into a chronicle of my rise to the top of my profession. So stay tuned. I think the next decade or so is going to be a profoundly awesome experience.
Well, there you have it. In a rambling, circumlocutious way, I think this should have answered a lot of your questions about what I’m doing and why I’m doing it. If you have any more specific questions, feel free to ask. I obviously am not opposed to writing about myself (there’s that pesky narcissism again).
Lastly, I want to thank all my family and friends-- anyone reading this, really-- for being so supportive. There were some days (months) when I thought my future looked rather bleak. I might not have gotten through that time, or had the courage to take the plunge and go to grad school, without the support of all the wonderful people in my life. If I ever accomplish anything great, much of the credit will be yours. Unless you’re just some random person who stumbled onto my blog. In that case, I don’t owe you anything. But thanks for reading, man.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Let's get ready to fumble
I'm watching the preseason game between the Vikings and Steelers right now. Because there's not much else on. I think the only Olympic events on tonight are track & field and... diving? Is it diving? I can't remember, I just know that it wasn't interesting. Anyway, Steelers rookie running back Rashard Mendenhall just lost a fumble. Get used to this, Steelers fans. The first time I watched a full game of Mendenhall's was the last game of his college career-- the Rose Bowl against USC, last January. When I watched him play, I immediately noticed he was a very talented guy, but he did not take care of the ball at all while he was running with it. He carries the ball like a loaf of bread, as my junior high football coach was wont to say (I don't understand it, either). Everybody's been going nuts over this guy in the preseason, saying he's going to leach carries from Willie Parker and he could take over Pittsburgh's starting tailback job, and on and on. First of all, this is ridiculous, because Parker is awesome. Like, one of the league's top 5 backs when healthy. Why would any rookie get a chance at taking his job? Unless it were 2007 and the rookie were Adrian Peterson. Anyway, back to Mendenhall. I'm sure the Steelers coaches are working with him on the way he carries the football, but it will take time to break these deeply ingrained habits. Expect fumbling to be a constant concern for Mendenhall in at least his first couple years in the league, and it could be a problem that dogs him his entire career. Bottom line: Do not overvalue Mendenhall-- or undervalue Parker-- in your fantasy drafts. If you really want to take a rookie running back, I would definitely take Darren McFadden over Mendenhall, and I would probably take Jonathan Stewart and Steve Slaton over him, as well. But not Felix Jones. Felix is a good back, but Marion Barber is gonna be a beast this year. Just you watch. Okay, enough football talk. I'm out.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Brown is the color of shit.
In my last post I talked about how I ordered a new laptop. It was supposed to be delivered via UPS. And, according to Wal-Mart's web site, it would be delivered today. I am writing this blog post on my ancient Apple iBook. Read this letter to find out why. The letter will be updated before I actually send it to UPS, so I can include any information about what happens when I go back to the UPS store on Monday.
To Whom It May Concern:
I usually do not make a point of complaining when I receive below average service from a company. In fact, I believe this is the first time I have ever written a letter of complaint. What moved me to write this letter was my experience with your company today, which was by far the worst customer service I have ever received from any company or organization, bar none.
A few days ago, I ordered a laptop computer online via www.walmart.com. Since I needed the computer right away, I elected to pay extra for next day delivery, which cost $22.97. The computer did not ship for a couple of days, which is not the fault of UPS (or of Wal-Mart, for that matter). It took a couple of days for my payment to clear, and I expected that. I received notification that the package had shipped on Thursday, August 21 and it would be delivered Friday, August 22.
I am currently on vacation, so I was home all day. I live in an apartment building, and I was concerned the driver might have trouble getting my package directly to my door, so I went out into the hallway and the entranceway several times that morning to see if the package had been left there. Around 11:30 a.m. I found a note attached to the doorway saying that the driver had been there to deliver the package but no one was home and so it was returned to the warehouse, and another delivery attempt would be made on Monday.
Obviously, I did not see the driver while he was here, but it seems to me he couldn’t have made much of an attempt to get inside the building. People often go in and out, and if he had knocked on the front door, there’s a good chance someone in an apartment on that side of the building would have heard. Also, I never received a phone call. When I placed the order on Wal-Mart’s web site, I supplied my cell phone number. I do not know if UPS normally attempts to contact people by phone when they’re not home to receive their package, but doesn’t that seem like the kind of thing you should do? You’re in the business of delivering things to people, so it would probably be beneficial to contact your customers to find out the best way to complete the transaction.
I did not want to wait until Monday to get the computer, so I called UPS to arrange to pick up the package later in the day. The representative told me that I could go to the UPS Store at 6975 Northern Boulevard in East Syracuse between 7:00 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. that evening to receive the package. I told her I would so.
So I took the time out from my Friday night to make a special trip to the UPS Store. I arrived there around 7:15 p.m. There were two customers ahead of me in line. The first was a young woman who was expecting several packages to be delivered to her residence, but she experienced a problem similar to mine. The driver apparently could not get into the building, so he just left a note on the door (I heard the young woman say she lived in a sorority house). The customer and the UPS employees were having a disagreement because the customer claimed only one attempt to deliver her packages had been made, and the UPS staff claimed three attempts had already been made. I, of course, do not know all the details of this situation and cannot make any judgments regarding who was in the right and who was in the wrong, but the point is that the customer was very unhappy with the service she had received, and the staff at the customer service center did not seem friendly, helpful, or sympathetic to her situation in any way. She eventually left with the situation unresolved.
The next person in line was a young man who had been to the UPS store the night before to pick up a package. He got the package, took it home, and opened the box. He was expecting to find stereo speakers. He found a shotgun instead. This really happened. I can only assume that accidentally giving firearms to people without any sort of background check is not something your company would like to make a habit of. I will concede that the customer is partly at fault in this situation, since stereo speakers and shotguns do not have remotely similar shapes, and he probably should have sensed something was awry when they gave him a box shaped... like a shotgun.
The young man eventually received the correct package and left. Now it was my turn. I had my driver’s license ready to prove who I was. I had the note the driver had left attached to my door earlier in the day. I had my tracking number and all the details of my order. The man working at the counter got my last name and the name of my street, then went to find my package, and I waited for him to return. And waited. And waited. He returned about 15 minutes later. With no package. He informed me that my package had been misplaced when it was brought back to the warehouse. It was supposed to be set aside for pickup, but apparently just went with all the other packages. The man claimed there was no way for them to locate the package that night, so I would need to pick it up at a later date. At no point did he apologize, and the entire time he acted as though he were the one who had been inconvenienced. I should have asked this man’s name, but I was so frustrated at the time that I forgot about it. I suppose you could just look at the records and see who was working the customer service desk at that location between 7:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. on Friday, August 22. I can only hope they are better at keeping their records than they are at providing customer service or delivering packages.
Since I did not see any other options available, I agreed to come back to the UPS Store on Monday, August 25 and pick up the package then. So now I will make a second trip to this location (when I should not have needed to make any) and I will receive the package four days after Wal-Mart shipped it. And I remind you that I paid to have it delivered the next day. Also, it’s not as if I passively sat at home and waited for the situation to resolve itself, or waited for the package to come to me. I made an active, conscious effort to retrieve my package, and was thwarted at every turn.
Since I did not receive the service I paid for (next-day delivery), and because this was caused by the staggering incompetence of the UPS staff in Syracuse, I fully expect to be reimbursed the $22.97 I paid for shipping. I could also ask to be compensated for the miles I drove on my two trips to the UPS store, and for all the time I unnecessarily spent on this situation, but I would settle for the shipping cost.
I am a reasonable person, and I understand that I should not hold a grudge against an entire company because of one bad experience with a few specific employees. The truth is I have received a number of items from UPS in the past, and have not had any problems until now. Therefore, I will continue to do business with you if I receive what I consider to be a satisfactory response to this complaint. If not, I will simply take my business to FedEx or the Postal Service. Thank you for your attention in this matter.
Sincerely,
Nicholas C. Roberts
To Whom It May Concern:
I usually do not make a point of complaining when I receive below average service from a company. In fact, I believe this is the first time I have ever written a letter of complaint. What moved me to write this letter was my experience with your company today, which was by far the worst customer service I have ever received from any company or organization, bar none.
A few days ago, I ordered a laptop computer online via www.walmart.com. Since I needed the computer right away, I elected to pay extra for next day delivery, which cost $22.97. The computer did not ship for a couple of days, which is not the fault of UPS (or of Wal-Mart, for that matter). It took a couple of days for my payment to clear, and I expected that. I received notification that the package had shipped on Thursday, August 21 and it would be delivered Friday, August 22.
I am currently on vacation, so I was home all day. I live in an apartment building, and I was concerned the driver might have trouble getting my package directly to my door, so I went out into the hallway and the entranceway several times that morning to see if the package had been left there. Around 11:30 a.m. I found a note attached to the doorway saying that the driver had been there to deliver the package but no one was home and so it was returned to the warehouse, and another delivery attempt would be made on Monday.
Obviously, I did not see the driver while he was here, but it seems to me he couldn’t have made much of an attempt to get inside the building. People often go in and out, and if he had knocked on the front door, there’s a good chance someone in an apartment on that side of the building would have heard. Also, I never received a phone call. When I placed the order on Wal-Mart’s web site, I supplied my cell phone number. I do not know if UPS normally attempts to contact people by phone when they’re not home to receive their package, but doesn’t that seem like the kind of thing you should do? You’re in the business of delivering things to people, so it would probably be beneficial to contact your customers to find out the best way to complete the transaction.
I did not want to wait until Monday to get the computer, so I called UPS to arrange to pick up the package later in the day. The representative told me that I could go to the UPS Store at 6975 Northern Boulevard in East Syracuse between 7:00 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. that evening to receive the package. I told her I would so.
So I took the time out from my Friday night to make a special trip to the UPS Store. I arrived there around 7:15 p.m. There were two customers ahead of me in line. The first was a young woman who was expecting several packages to be delivered to her residence, but she experienced a problem similar to mine. The driver apparently could not get into the building, so he just left a note on the door (I heard the young woman say she lived in a sorority house). The customer and the UPS employees were having a disagreement because the customer claimed only one attempt to deliver her packages had been made, and the UPS staff claimed three attempts had already been made. I, of course, do not know all the details of this situation and cannot make any judgments regarding who was in the right and who was in the wrong, but the point is that the customer was very unhappy with the service she had received, and the staff at the customer service center did not seem friendly, helpful, or sympathetic to her situation in any way. She eventually left with the situation unresolved.
The next person in line was a young man who had been to the UPS store the night before to pick up a package. He got the package, took it home, and opened the box. He was expecting to find stereo speakers. He found a shotgun instead. This really happened. I can only assume that accidentally giving firearms to people without any sort of background check is not something your company would like to make a habit of. I will concede that the customer is partly at fault in this situation, since stereo speakers and shotguns do not have remotely similar shapes, and he probably should have sensed something was awry when they gave him a box shaped... like a shotgun.
The young man eventually received the correct package and left. Now it was my turn. I had my driver’s license ready to prove who I was. I had the note the driver had left attached to my door earlier in the day. I had my tracking number and all the details of my order. The man working at the counter got my last name and the name of my street, then went to find my package, and I waited for him to return. And waited. And waited. He returned about 15 minutes later. With no package. He informed me that my package had been misplaced when it was brought back to the warehouse. It was supposed to be set aside for pickup, but apparently just went with all the other packages. The man claimed there was no way for them to locate the package that night, so I would need to pick it up at a later date. At no point did he apologize, and the entire time he acted as though he were the one who had been inconvenienced. I should have asked this man’s name, but I was so frustrated at the time that I forgot about it. I suppose you could just look at the records and see who was working the customer service desk at that location between 7:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. on Friday, August 22. I can only hope they are better at keeping their records than they are at providing customer service or delivering packages.
Since I did not see any other options available, I agreed to come back to the UPS Store on Monday, August 25 and pick up the package then. So now I will make a second trip to this location (when I should not have needed to make any) and I will receive the package four days after Wal-Mart shipped it. And I remind you that I paid to have it delivered the next day. Also, it’s not as if I passively sat at home and waited for the situation to resolve itself, or waited for the package to come to me. I made an active, conscious effort to retrieve my package, and was thwarted at every turn.
Since I did not receive the service I paid for (next-day delivery), and because this was caused by the staggering incompetence of the UPS staff in Syracuse, I fully expect to be reimbursed the $22.97 I paid for shipping. I could also ask to be compensated for the miles I drove on my two trips to the UPS store, and for all the time I unnecessarily spent on this situation, but I would settle for the shipping cost.
I am a reasonable person, and I understand that I should not hold a grudge against an entire company because of one bad experience with a few specific employees. The truth is I have received a number of items from UPS in the past, and have not had any problems until now. Therefore, I will continue to do business with you if I receive what I consider to be a satisfactory response to this complaint. If not, I will simply take my business to FedEx or the Postal Service. Thank you for your attention in this matter.
Sincerely,
Nicholas C. Roberts
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Job hunting, buying stuff, etc.
Wow, I didn't realize several days had already gone by since the last time I posted. I've been really busy for a dude who is ostensibly on vacation. My student loans for the semester just came in earlier this week, so I've been taking advantage of this by buying certain things I've been needing for a while. The most notable is a new computer. I have purchased a Toshiba laptop, which should be delivered to my place either tomorrow, Saturday, or Monday. Yes, it's true, after being a dedicated "Mac guy" for over 5 years, I'm making the switch back to PC. If it's any consolation, I'm not happy about it. It was strictly a matter of economics. I could get a decent PC laptop for $500. A good Mac laptop would have cost more than twice that much. So I will temporarily be dealing with the hell that is using Windows, but I'll go straight back to Mac as soon as I can afford to, and I'm going to keep the old computer, both because I think it would have virtually no resale value, and because there are certain things I use it for that I expect will be either a pain in the ass or impossible on the PC. Plus, I can always just break out the Mac and type an article on it strictly for nostalgia's sake. I love this thing. I used it for my entire undergraduate career. I wrote my novel on it. This thing is never leaving my side. When it becomes incapable of doing anything at all, maybe I'll have it bronzed or something.
So it turns out I borrowed a little bit more money than I really needed for the semester. It's hard to say exactly how much, since I have trouble predicting how much I'm going to spend on things like food and gasoline, but I should have a pretty good chunk of change left over. With that in mind, I've started looking for short-term investments. Might as well make that money work for me while I have it. Today single-game tickets went on sale for the Bills. Since I am a member of the Bills Backers, I got a crack at them four hours earlier than the general public. So I bought a total of 4 tickets to 3 different games (one for the Jets, one for the Chargers, two for the Monday night game against Cleveland), and I am going to scalp the hell out of them. Hopefully I'll make a tidy profit on the deal. I figure, worst-case scenario, I sell them for face value and break even on the deal. Or, for some reason, I become unable to sell them at all and I just wind up attending these games myself. As far as worst-case scenarios go, that's not a bad one to have.
While I think ticket dealing could be a lucrative part-time business for me, I am still looking for "real" employment. I still haven't heard back on one of the TA positions I applied for, and I was told today that they would be making their decision either tomorrow or Monday. Which is good, because the semester starts Monday.
If I don't get the TA job-- and at this point I'm not expecting to, although I would still put it firmly within the realm of possibility-- I've got some other things working. I applied to teach test prep for Kaplan. There's a Kaplan center right on the SU campus, so it would be convenient. I hear they pay pretty well, and they have flexible scheduling and don't require a ton of hours, so that would be a great job for me. I'm also probably going to place an ad on Craigslist, and possibly ads in the Syracuse Post-Standard or the SU Daily Orange, letting people know that I'm available for private tutoring, coaching people on their writing, etc. Not sure how much interest there will be in that, but it's worth looking into. And I'm scouring Craigslist and the newspaper classifieds to see if there are any jobs that really appeal to me. So I'll find some sort of employment, and hopefully sooner rather than later.
I've also been spending a lot of time looking for the cheapest place to buy my books for the semester, which has been surprisingly time-consuming. I'm going to wind up saving quite a bit of money by buying stuff on eBay, or by buying used books from Amazon or other web sites, but I'm seriously questioning whether or not the money I save is going to be worth the time and effort I'm putting into it. Not to mention that eBay orders and used books web sites frequently take a long time to process orders and ship them out, so I might get behind on my reading assignments while I wait for the books to arrive.
Last night Cousin Eric stopped in Syracuse on his way across the state, going home to WNY from his current job in New Hampshire. We hung out for a bit, grabbed dinner at this very good Chinese place on campus, it was a cool time, and fun to see somebody from home down here in the 'Cuse. And it won't be long before I repeat the experience. My parents are probably going to stop in either Saturday or Sunday, when they're driving back from Saratoga, because they plan on attending the Travers Stakes on Saturday. Also, Eric will be driving back to New Hampshire on Sunday and he may stop again. Good times.
Anybody out there who used to read Rage Pirates knows that I've done a lot of writing about the NFL in the past, including a big season preview article the past couple of years, as well as weekly columns once the season actually starts. I've been dying to write stuff about the NFL lately, but just haven't had the time. I highly doubt I will be able to write a weekly football column while attending grad school this fall, but maybe I can sporadically write about the NFL a few times over the course of the season. And I will try to write a season preview, since it was always a fairly popular and well-received item on Rage Pirates, but I can't make any promises. I'm juggling a lot of things right now.
Okay, this is a pretty long entry and my eyes are getting tired. Long day. Time to have a cigarette, maybe watch a little Letterman, and be asleep within an hour, hour and a half. Sounds like a solid plan. See ya next time.
-Nick
So it turns out I borrowed a little bit more money than I really needed for the semester. It's hard to say exactly how much, since I have trouble predicting how much I'm going to spend on things like food and gasoline, but I should have a pretty good chunk of change left over. With that in mind, I've started looking for short-term investments. Might as well make that money work for me while I have it. Today single-game tickets went on sale for the Bills. Since I am a member of the Bills Backers, I got a crack at them four hours earlier than the general public. So I bought a total of 4 tickets to 3 different games (one for the Jets, one for the Chargers, two for the Monday night game against Cleveland), and I am going to scalp the hell out of them. Hopefully I'll make a tidy profit on the deal. I figure, worst-case scenario, I sell them for face value and break even on the deal. Or, for some reason, I become unable to sell them at all and I just wind up attending these games myself. As far as worst-case scenarios go, that's not a bad one to have.
While I think ticket dealing could be a lucrative part-time business for me, I am still looking for "real" employment. I still haven't heard back on one of the TA positions I applied for, and I was told today that they would be making their decision either tomorrow or Monday. Which is good, because the semester starts Monday.
If I don't get the TA job-- and at this point I'm not expecting to, although I would still put it firmly within the realm of possibility-- I've got some other things working. I applied to teach test prep for Kaplan. There's a Kaplan center right on the SU campus, so it would be convenient. I hear they pay pretty well, and they have flexible scheduling and don't require a ton of hours, so that would be a great job for me. I'm also probably going to place an ad on Craigslist, and possibly ads in the Syracuse Post-Standard or the SU Daily Orange, letting people know that I'm available for private tutoring, coaching people on their writing, etc. Not sure how much interest there will be in that, but it's worth looking into. And I'm scouring Craigslist and the newspaper classifieds to see if there are any jobs that really appeal to me. So I'll find some sort of employment, and hopefully sooner rather than later.
I've also been spending a lot of time looking for the cheapest place to buy my books for the semester, which has been surprisingly time-consuming. I'm going to wind up saving quite a bit of money by buying stuff on eBay, or by buying used books from Amazon or other web sites, but I'm seriously questioning whether or not the money I save is going to be worth the time and effort I'm putting into it. Not to mention that eBay orders and used books web sites frequently take a long time to process orders and ship them out, so I might get behind on my reading assignments while I wait for the books to arrive.
Last night Cousin Eric stopped in Syracuse on his way across the state, going home to WNY from his current job in New Hampshire. We hung out for a bit, grabbed dinner at this very good Chinese place on campus, it was a cool time, and fun to see somebody from home down here in the 'Cuse. And it won't be long before I repeat the experience. My parents are probably going to stop in either Saturday or Sunday, when they're driving back from Saratoga, because they plan on attending the Travers Stakes on Saturday. Also, Eric will be driving back to New Hampshire on Sunday and he may stop again. Good times.
Anybody out there who used to read Rage Pirates knows that I've done a lot of writing about the NFL in the past, including a big season preview article the past couple of years, as well as weekly columns once the season actually starts. I've been dying to write stuff about the NFL lately, but just haven't had the time. I highly doubt I will be able to write a weekly football column while attending grad school this fall, but maybe I can sporadically write about the NFL a few times over the course of the season. And I will try to write a season preview, since it was always a fairly popular and well-received item on Rage Pirates, but I can't make any promises. I'm juggling a lot of things right now.
Okay, this is a pretty long entry and my eyes are getting tired. Long day. Time to have a cigarette, maybe watch a little Letterman, and be asleep within an hour, hour and a half. Sounds like a solid plan. See ya next time.
-Nick
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
