Saturday, February 23, 2013

Dream Journal - 2/14/2013 to 2/23/2013

I often have dreams. I often remember my dreams. So I decided to record my dreams, otherwise I'll forget them. I've actually been more diligent at writing in my dream journal than my normal journal.



2/14/2013
1. A bunch of Pokemon gathered together in a rectangular formation. They used a water attack to propel them forward on a wave. A few Pokemon in the formation were left behind though as they were fire types, who then rolled around in pain from the water while creating a wave of fire.

2. Can't quite remember this one. Something about a farm village-like place, with chickens, cat people, there was a war or something. There was a ward that was then split up when one of the lands gained victory in the war.

2/16/2013
Dreamed that criminals, for their crimes, were turned into trees. At the end of the dream, someone said "We do not at this time know how to turn criminals into trees."

2/19/2013
Had a dream that could easily be a horror movie. That doesn't happen very often.
A group went to the moon on a spherical space shuttle. There was a tent on the moon that for some reason didn't leak air. There were creatures in the shadows, working in swarms. These dark creatures would violently kill their prey, rip off their skulls, and wear them on their own heads. By taking their preys' skulls and putting them on their own heads they then quickly evolved into them.
The surviving crew then threw the spaceship onto a track and rolled it away, very much like that level in Super Mario Galaxy where Mario rolls a ball around. Their ship goes back to earth, burning in the atmosphere to kill any creatures that may have clung aboard. They thought they made it back safely, but soon the creatures were popping up around cities, mostly in their evolved human-like form. After killing more and taking more skulls, they even started talking. By the end, the super soldier serum (The one that created Captain America) was perfected, which gave the rest of the human population a fighting chance.

2/20/2013
Me, my family, and Seth L. went home from church. We stopped by sister Beck's home and talked. As we were about to leave I messed with their faucet, and she got upset that I was about to leave without putting the heat setting back where it was. Mom and the family left us, and I put the faucet's temperature setting back to where it was. Since the family left Seth and I, we walked home. Seth became a dog and started running, while I just slid along the ice-covered sidewalk. It was almost completely dark (Save for an occasional car's headlights) and we were in the west end of my neighborhood back in Oxnard. Eventually Seth ran ahead of me and I got on my bike (Which came from nowhere) and I put a strobe light on my belt so others would see me in the dark. I later made it home, my home in Oxnard, and found Seth banging on the door. He told me "The kids are awake but no one is opening the door." Because of my strobe light mom later came, in her night gown, to let us in.

2/22/2013
1. There was a board with different colored areas, and different colored papers that laid on it. The papers were then folded. The papers represented different government agencies or political parties, the board represented different areas or nations or political parties. Since the papers folded the different government agencies or political parties into different areas or nations or political parties, they came to me to help figure and sort things out, because for some reason I was the expert.

2. I was Robin, flying with Batman in the Batwing. We spotted some prison escapees on a rusted metal platform with cranes and crates by a dock, running towards an entrance to a Joker hideout. I jumped down and started fighting them all. They were highly acrobatic, and kept going no matter how much a beat them up. They also had a skateboard where instead of the board being horizontal with the ground, was vertical. One girl said "Just chill, dude!" and I said "We just found you trying to get into a Joker hideout, and you want us to chill?" Eventually they ran away. One guy went underwater to enter the hideout, with a jet ski following him, and I threw a bomb or something underwater at him. The girl was left behind and she was calming down. I said "Fine, you want me to chill out? I'm chill."

2/23/2013
I definitely had some dreams, but I can't recall them enough to bother mentioning.



Friday, February 1, 2013

Which is Better to Work for? A Big or Small Company?

The short answer: A small company.

The longer, more detailed answer: When I finally left college and looked to get a real job, I got my first job at DISH. You know, the satellite TV company. And not just any DISH office, it was their headquarters, so there were a lot of people there. My team alone was something like thirty people.

So, why did I not like working there? Well, I'll tell you. Just keep in mind that this is one man's experience, and I certainly don't speak for DISH.

1. You need permission to do anything. Want to access the Internet? Get permission. Want to have admin access on your own computer? Get permission. Want to download software that you need in order to even do your job? Get permission. And I'm not talking, "Hey boss man, can I do this?" No, I'm talking a formal request form that you have to wait and hear back from the higher ups. It took me about a month just to be "set up."

2. Cubicles. I didn't know it at the time, but I don't like cubicles. You're closed off from the rest of your team; it's just you and your computer.

3. The more people there are, the less you're going to remember/know people. I'm not a very social person, but I would like to at least remember the names of the people I work with (It's especially hard when everyone you work with has an accent you can barely understand).

4. I had to wear business casual clothes. Now this was more because I was at HQ than it being a large company, but still, I don't like having to wear business...anything.

5. In the three months I was there, I hardly did anything. Now this might not be the standard, but since I was on a contract-to-hire, they had to train me; test me out. I read training materials, manuals, whatever random things I could get my hands on, and did some IT security quizzes. I read stuff until I was bored out of my mind. I would ask now and again if there was anything, anything that they wanted me to do. Once in a while they gave me some menial things to do, but usually they had nothing. Many times I found myself spinning around in my chair. Whenever people asked me what I did at my job, I could only say "I dunno."

After my three months I was told they wouldn't be hiring me. I was a bit disappointed; I mean, hey, it was my first real job, and I didn't want to look for another one. But not long afterwards I was hired by The Library Corporation (Well, CARL, more specifically: a company previously bought by The Learning Company) on a six month contract-to-hire.

1. From day one I had a computer, chair, phone, and full admin privileges and Internet access. I was told what I needed in order to do my work and was set up in one day.

2. No cubicles (For development teams, anyways). My entire team can be seen at once, and all I have to do is speak if I want to talk to any of them.

3. Only about thirty people work in the entire office. I know about two thirds of their names (The other third I rarely have contact with), and while I still know very little about their personal lives, I've at least been able to learn that they're good people to work with.

4. I can wear whatever I want (Within reason, of course)! For someone who regards comfort far above style, this is a definite plus.

5. Within the first three days, I accomplished more than the three months I spent at DISH. They didn't give me pointless training courses that I'd later forget, they just handed me my assignments and I went to work. At TLC we follow a version of the kanban process management, a type of agile programming (I don't even know if DISH had a process management. Never knew of it, at least). In short, I get more work done, more faster (I know that's not proper grammar).

(As of writing this, I am still on my contract, but I'm 92% sure they'll be hiring me)

Again, this has only been MY experience, but if you're asking my opinion, then I'll tell you that going to work for a smaller company is better, at least for someone just starting their career.