Thought for the day: if you want others to bite their tongue with you, you better damned well be prepared to deal with them with tact.
That said, I feel guilty about nothing.
I made the mistake of going grocery shopping on Friday evening. It was terrifying. The store was filled with trashy couples and their ten thousand screaming children.
I'm going to Chicago tomorrow. I'm pretty excited about this. It's only for the day, but I'm hooking up with two of my friends. Plus, we'll be going to House of Monsters and Quimby's and getting dinner at Pacific Cafe. It will be nice to see Chicago, too. This is my favorite time of year there.
I applied at Blockbuster yesterday. I know, I know, but it's all crappy chains around here and I figured a video store was at least remotely related to something that interested me. Ugh. Scary. I filled out their little electronic application, and they had one of those personality tests.
These are always vile and evil, but I wonder if maybe this one didn't go over the line and into the area of discriminatory. There were a lot of "state of mind" questions which specifically related to depression and anxiety. There was a slew of questions, things like "are you gloomy more often than happy?" "Do you have optimism toward life?" "Do you worry a lot?" "Do you feel comfortable around other people?" "Do you have frequent mood swings?" Some of these really are nobody else's business. All that matters is how you treat customers and your ability to push buttons. I started deliberately giving the opposite answer of what they were looking for, simply because I was so offened by the questions I knew I would never accept the job.
These are all too common with low paying retail jobs these days. It's pretty vile. Since depression and anxiety are considered to be an illness, it's right up there with questions about health or disability and should be treated as such. The most insidious part of this, though, is these questions are only asked for the lower paying jobs. These companies know that if you're making seven dollars an hour, you don't have the resources to get a lawyer for inappropriate questions. Who I am as a person is nobody's business but my own. The only thing that matters is that I be able to do my job.
Well, so much for that idea. I'll keep looking, and I have a few leads for next week.
I'm starting to get really experimental with my school projects. I know it's the opposite of what they want, but I am so tired of the uncreative environment of my school. I'm sick of their narrow view on art, and the way they seem oblivious to any creative possibilities with most graphics software. I did a fun project where Maria turns into a ghost and meets her demon cat confidante. I scored it with Current 93. It's one of their noise tracks. I think I'm going to really scare my teacher and my classmates, and I'll be blowing the "A" average I have so far with this class but I don't mind. I'm weary of all the banality. There's a whole world of usefulness with Flash, and I'm not going to let the class stifle me just to get a better grade.
I'm actually pretty proud of the job I did. In a way I am looking forward to the reaction I'm going to get. Kalamazoo is just so bland and lifeless, it seems my only joy anymore is poking it with a stick...