Work: Day One

A bit hectic today, but I’m guessing almost all the days are going to be like this. :) I got in around 11, as per Justin’s instructions (to give him some time to get settled, and get a few things underway). Due to some red tape, Matt (the other contracted worker) and I both did not have computers. So we spent most of the day twiddling our thumbs and talking to one another, and trying to get "caught up" on what’s to be expected of us.

For roughly 6 hours, Justin kept trying to show me how he and Ben set up a few of the sites we need to migrate. Every few moments, a phone call would interrupt us. Busyness, as Justin was trying to figure out where our machines were.

Before I know it, it’s lunch, and I head out with Justin, Ben, and a few other Q101 folks. I felt a bit awkward at first, since I didn’t know anyone. And for a good part of our walk to lunch, I tried sporadically introducing myself to the people around me. Let’s see – I was trying really hard to remember everyone’s names: Kathy (sp?), Anthony, Phil, Mike. I’ll have to do that whole stop-someone-in-the-halls-your-name-is-BLANK trick. I suck with names; other things… like what someone had to eat, what they were wearing, where they sat. That crap I remember. But actual names? Nothing but tumbleweeds.

When we got back, Justin had to lead a pretty heavy phone call with webmasters from all over the place. So I hung back, half-listened, and studied up a bit more on grep patterns. Here’s how most of my afternoon looked:

On the perimeter of the room, there are two very spacious "offices." One was empty, and I snuck in to take a photo of the view. I must say, from the Merchandise Mart and Q101’s office… the view is spectacular. And to top it off, there were something like 12 cases of Budweiser stored in the office to boot. The interesting thing, it turns out, about radio stations… there’s always prizes or promotional material lying around.

Before leaving, I spoke some with Ben about a possible Flash module he’s working on. If tomorrow is as slow as today, I may spend some time and try to hash out various approaches. :) Yeah Flash!

I rode back on the Blue Line with Justin, and we chatted a bit about the future. I’m excited by the prospect of this job turning into a full-time gig, but I’ve been fighting the urge to fantasize just yet. After all – it’s only been day one, and I haven’t even done any real work yet!

The idea of working for Emmis excites me a great deal… to the point where the letdown of not getting a full-time position would depress me immensely. Better to think in the short-term, and make myself invaluable in the meanwhile.