The Final Straw

Oh, for pete's sakes!

My coworkers and I might just be the only people who can say "we hate our job, and our job hates us."

Bending the Rules

Now that we've been at this hospital for over 3 weeks, there is REALLY nothing to do there. I mean, it's ridiculously slow. Naturally, being an intelligent individual, I am endlessly searching for something to keep me occupied. Unfortunately, nothing is allowed by our "managers". damn. Now we're at a really really small hospital in Manteca. There are more of us than there are nurses! So we get thrown off the floor because we're crowding them.

Twist of irony: I drew this at work two weeks ago, and I am posting this update from work now. MUAHAHAHAH! I'm subverting the system!

Study, Study, PANIC

One would assume that if one was in a training class for four months and the average time required to pass the training exam was approximately one month, that one would be quite over-prepared by that time.

The day I drew this, we found ourselves in the awkward position of being trained in the SAME. EXACT. CLASS. as we were in the month before. Same topics being covered. Same doctors teaching us. They didn't recognize us at all. It was as incredibly mind-numbing as it was the first time.



Then, one of the head honchos came in at the end and quizzed us (this happened last time, too, so it wasn't much of a shock). But he decided to act offended that we didn't know how to do anything in departments aside from our own (if "Lisa" works in the emergency department, why on earth would she care to know how jerky a surgeon is going to be when she doesn't know where he should click to learn his schedule. "Tanya" wouldn't be interacting with surgeons anyway!).

In any case, all the doctors started freaking out that we didn't know anything and "Go-Live" is in just 9 days, and our exam is in 2. It's a little late to question your teaching methods, no?

Worth Waiting For?

This comic took a ridiculous amount of time to make. Most likely because every computer I've worked on in the past week has been remarkably finicky. As you can see, work was often a little hectic when I was working in the college computer labs, and our new director had stepped things up a little, so the majority of us were running around like crazy. With clip boards and name badges. Nothing makes me feel more official than a useless piece of pressed wood with useless pieces of paper attached to it.

It was also spring semester midterms time, so many of the people around me were in a semi-dream-like state, which required poking and loud noises to shake them out of it. I, myself am prone to such hallucinations as sleep and watching tv. These things simply do not exist.



Sometimes, we all just want to be appreciated for all the running around we do.

This comic features much smaller lines because everything was scanned in originally at 150dpi and then had to be copied over and shrunk down. I'm not sure I care for the style but at least it's done. I was having so much trouble with the tablet and the Photoshop program at work that I actually did half the comic in Macromedia Flash before I gave up and resolved to figure out what the hell was wrong with the tablet driver.

I still have no answers. But this seems to be a common theme, so I'm not going to panic about it.

Sugar High

From working in the computer lab, senior year:

"Ahh, another late night in the computer lab. I'm working a double shift, from 8pm to 2:15am, and I'll probably feel pretty darn tired at the end of it, but my coworker, A- has got to be exhausted. She's been here since 7:45 this morning, taking 6 shifts in a row. Exhausted and CRAZY. This is what happens to you when you have no exams. She's written 3 essays today, and when I look across the hallway, she's actually dead asleep at the desk. I don't blame her.

I recently had a conversation with some of the older folks in my dorm about jobs and employment. Looking back, I haven't had it too bad, and my work experience is definitely well-rounded. They say that's a good thing, since a lot of places won't hire college students straight-off because they've never had any office experience. I've had plenty. I present to you a vague resume of my life:

Chore Pay - My parents paid me a $5 a week allowance if I did all my chores. This included making the bed, tidying up my room, doing the dishes, helping to fold laundry, taking care of the dog and so on.

Dotcom Pay - In 7th grade, I somehow managed to make it onto the roster as a beta tester for a pre-teen website. I gave suggestions and edited and created content. Pretty sweet gig until I realized that I was only making $200 a month. But the dotcom bubble burst 4 months later anyway and it ended up not much mattering. Which wasn't much of a shame because whoever chose their color scheme must have been blind. It was that ugly.

Icecapades Pay - In 10th grade, I became the newest skate guard at the local hockey arena. This would have meant a lot more if they weren't so desperate for staff that they'd hire any schmo off the street. They even hired people who couldn't skate. But the pay was minimal ($6.25 an hour), and my boss was a jerk. And it's hard to get to a skating rink that far away when you haven't got a car. And did I mention my boss was a Jerk?

File Pay - After skate guarding and nursing a lot of scraped knees and bruised egos, I got a job at the local news-clipping agency. You know how after talk shows they say, "If you would like a transcript of this show please contact...." I worked at the place that made those transcripts. I filed. Good God, did I file. I was so fricking efficient. And at the end of the day, it was like I hadn't even made a dent in the pile. There was no feeling of accomplishment, because as soon as I'd finished filing a stack, my supervisor would have already placed a new stack on my desk. It never ended. It was awful. The following summer I went back. And I managed to make it into the summer-worker elite of computer input. Which didn't suck. But my boss was still a Jerk.

And there have been internships and summer jobs

And now I work in a computer lab where people of questionable intelligence abuse me daily. "My computer won't start up!" "Why don't you have PC's?!" "I forgot my printing card!"

Today's comic is of myself and my coworker.



It never ends. I brought candy to work today. Too bad that sugar wears off so quickly..."

IM: May be Hazardous to your Health

'Course, there's always been a weird side to journaling on various websites. I have an account on an online social networking site and I've gotten some bizarre stuff. Mailbox limits and sensability require:
Point of order A) I actually had to clean out my mailbox. Not that I ever actually even approached my 300 message limit, but it was starting to get a tad cluttered. That's never happened before.
Point of order B) I'm getting IMs from some really bizarre people. Let's just narrow things down here.

Attention please! I'm glad my entries entertain, however, I will NOT be having sex with you, anal, oral, or otherwise. I do NOT want to see pictures of your genitalia. And NO, I do NOT want to give you my credit card information and run away to Nigeria. I'm sure it's a very nice country, but the hot weather would make my hair frizz. Some very common IMs have the following effect:

Rage... Building,...Vision... Blurring... AAAARGH!

I know more of you are just dying to know what happened after I sent in my special studies. It eventually got there on time. On the other hand, maybe you're NOT dying to know, since you're probably all of the impression that that was the end of it. I know, I certainly did.

Unfortunately, no. It's not the end.



More stress and GRAAAAAAH! was headed my way. Needless to say, I was less than thrilled. I got an email from my advisor which basically said, 'I can't give you a grade until I talk to you face-to-face'. Big uh-oh moment. I marked it as un-read and vowed not to think of it for 2 days. Two days later, I opened it, sent her a reply and suggested a meeting time.

The day after I heard from my advisor, I also got a message from my Mentor who said my advisor had been talking to him and she had said my paper was SO good, she was trying to find out if I'd copied parts of it from somewhere or had had any outside help.

Yikes! Serious accusations there, and totally false! I was filled with worry and stress once again, because I needed to talk to her and make it all right. Tsoris! Anger! Frustration! Like a good soap opera, right? Now all I needed was an evil twin sister to run off and marry some guy named Hernando and they would come back in 2 seasons with a small child/baby and dump him on me. I hate babies.