jd yates

My digital convergence quotient went up about 193 points today on the news of a Blackberry native Facebook app. For those of you who don’t understand what a HUGE thing this is, here’s the deal:

This stands to cut my poke response time by seconds, maybe even minutes! I’ll be able to send status updates in the blink of an eye, alerting all 284 of my friends of my every action with annoying little notifications at least 36 times a day (If you thought my blog update emails were annoying… get ready). It’s even increased my ability to pull up embarrassing pictures of people at inappropriate times! Can you imagine? Before you know it, I’ll be able to take pictures of people in the bar and friend them via complex facial mapping technology, removing any requirement to actually meet people. Possibly the most exciting day… ever.

If anyone thinks any of this is funny… have you met me?

(Personal update: There is no update. Living situation is still miserable and I’m still looking for a new place. If you’re unfamiliar, see Moving Misery. Everything I’ve seen so far has been scary/creepy/weird/urinated/mildly pedophilic. Any helpful information would be tremendously appreciated.)

I don’t necessarily believe it, but analytics says someone is reading this, so… This is me casting a wide net. (update: it’s just me.)

I need to move… now.

Anyone with information that might help me find a place (criteria = cheap! … and short term/central Dallas location are heavy considerations) please contact me immediately.

Know someone that needs a roommate? Sweet, hook it up. Lonely and looking to share your fabulous and gigantic downtown apartment? This is your man. An unused walk-in closet? I’m all over it!

Ready, set… Go.

Note: Candidate roommates must have an appreciation for overuse of ellipses…

Where to begin?

Life = upside down.

Before: Stable, relationship, beautiful house, fabulous car, work only if I wanted to, and relatively few worries.

After: Destroyed relationship, no place to live, no job to support myself, and no direction in life.

That’s about as concisely as I can explain my hesitance to write lately, for fear of being run by the the anger and depression that have dictated my mood for the last month. Writing it makes me realize how absolutely I set myself up for this, that it was inevitable. I was so reluctant at the beginning of the relationship to put myself in a position where something like this could happen, but against my better judgement I did, and here I am. A clear lesson in trust.

My inner spinster has resurfaced. I’ve concluded that I’m chronically un-dateable, deficient in innumerable ways such that I will never be capable of supporting a long-term relationship of any kind. To say nothing of how detestable the thought of “dating” sounds. I’ve therefore resigned myself to perpetual single-ness.

Moving on… What’s next?

I don’t have an effing clue. I just spent 10 days with friends in Arizona hoping to get far enough away from the problems to have sufficient clarity to formulate a plan for my life, both in the long and short term. This circumstance was so incredibly unforeseen… I never imagined what I might do if my life were to change this drastically.

Here’s my best effort:

I need to go back to school. After the loss of my job (a matter that bears no discussion in this forum, for the ignorant and haphazard way I was treated) I have realized how difficult it would be to re-enter the job market at that level with my current qualifications. Barring a degree, I am stuck at a relative plateau of employability. The thought of going back to a dead-end 9 to 5 that barely pays my bills is deplorable. On a less constructive note, I never experienced the college life. I’ve always envied my friends who ran off to college after high school and enjoyed their first taste of independence without all the financial burdens of real life.

This poses several problems: Where to go, what to study, how to pay for it, where to live, and how to pay for that. I don’t quite have answers to all (read “any”) of those issues… but I’m working on it. Ideally: UT Austin, Computer Science, student loans, an apartment off-campus, and said student loans… but those things pose a whole other gamut of issues (getting accepted, exorbitant cost of living, where to live in the meantime, etc…)

Anyway… I’ll sign off for now, for my return flight is about to land, but to anyone that reads this: Feel free to submit your thoughts on how best to solve these issues I’ve been forced to contemplate.