tiikerikani

[tiikerikani]

New Job is a hybrid workplace and they expect people to come to the office at least a couple of times a week, so I hope some social life and networking can actually happen???

I had asked at the interview whether they have Christmas parties, and they do. Last year it was a thing where they had a meal together and went bowling or something like that. (Bowling seems to be a very Finnish staff social thing.)

This is at least 10 times more social than Current Job (even before the panini).

#work

[tiikerikani]

Hooboy I have my exit interview tomorrow

I mean, I'm just going to be honest like I do every interview

"would you recommend working at this company to others"

not unless y'all knock it off with the AI thing

also maybe pay people more

#work

[tiikerikani]

Highland cow from Sally 4th Miniatures

I wanted to make the cow more orangey but was having trouble with it. Fortunately highland cattle come in a variety of colors, including brindle.

(I also felt the tail was too short so I extended it a bit. You can't really see the extension in the pictures.)

#miniature painting #mini painting #animals #cows #highland cattle #highland cow #sally 4th miniatures

[tiikerikani]

Rashers' Golem (Dungeons & Lasers World of Deuslair)

The glowing eyes and symbols were easier than I thought (I'm sure it's more complicated once you have things cast shadows on other things)

For a change, I used matte varnish over this (except the glossy water). It makes for better pictures but I'm so used to finished models having a bit of shine that the matte gives an unfinished look to me IRL.

#fantasy miniatures #miniature #miniature painting #mini painting #dungeons and lasers #golem #tree golem

[tiikerikani]

"horrible disaster of urban road design that doesn't properly act like a highway" is extremely accurate

Good morning. This is the best fic comment I have ever received.

#calgary

[tiikerikani]

people say folks with adhd struggle with "delayed rewards" aka long term goals and as such we tend to focus more on short term rewards. what they don't talk about is that at when we Do accomplish long term goals we don't actually feel anything proportionate to the amount of work we did to achieve it. In my head I suffered for a while and then money spontaneously appeared in my bank account.

[tiikerikani]

"I feel that it is time for me to pursue another opportunity that is more aligned with my career goals and values"

I’m 100% quitting my job if they require us to use Gen AI

They did, so I quit. I gave my one months' notice today and will start New Job near the end of next month. Of course I have to credit random Recruiter Guy for showing up in my life at exactly the right time; I wouldn't have left without an exit plan.

I try to be a principled person and there aren't always opportunities to safely stay true to those principles.

-----

When Recruiter Guy messaged me on LI last month, I was intrigued that it actually seemed like he'd read my profile (unlike the spammy messages I usually get). I've never worked with a recruiter before, so it was interesting having a sort of agent pitching you to the company and liaising with them instead of having to be persuasive and do all the arrangements on your own.

Since the technical writer role is a new position in this company, I figured that it would mean they would be open to ideas on how to do things and wouldn't be forcing me to use AI things.

When Recruiter Guy asked for my salary expectations, I gave him a number in the middle of the range that was in the job description. The entire salary range is a significant increase over what I'm earning now[1], so I had literally nothing to lose and everything to gain trying for this. He said he'd ask for a bit more than my figure. (And that's what I'll be getting.)

The role would be a massive step up in responsibility for me and I know it's going to be a challenge; as the in-house writer I'd be responsible for maintaining the entire documentation library[2]. In-house writer is actually the role that many technical writers aspire to. You get to work closely with and really know the products you write about, and you can give feedback during the product development process.

I would have asked about it anyway, but the interviewer wanted my thoughts about using AI, and I said something along the lines of "I know people who do, but I do not because I trust my writing skills and good writing that gets taken seriously needs to have a touch that only a human writer can provide." She agreed that AI text sounds really obviously fake, so I took this as a good sign.

There was a small sample task that I had to do on my own time (given a list of specs, write a brief product description). Not a huge fan of copywriting but a product description is still very factual and not usually trying to sell stuff to people who don't want it. I returned the assignment along with a thank you note for the interview.

The interviewer wanted to speak with one of my references, so I directed her to talk to my master's thesis supervisor. He made such a good impression that she wanted to read my thesis (which IS, in the end, the only formal writing sample I can provide because I can't divulge who I've done work for) and set up a chat for me with their HR person. Whom I spoke to on Good Friday because it wasn't a public holiday in their country and I didn't have big plans for the Easter weekend anyway and I just really wanted to move the process forward as quickly as possible. They were also extremely impressed and went back to Recruiter Guy right away, who then called me that afternoon. I'm sure he would not have done this if he wasn't optimistic about my application since he was very well aware that it was a public holiday for me.

So yeah, I got the offer email just as I was about to leave for the concert last Thursday, and I wrote back immediately to accept it. Recruiter Guy called me as I was getting out of the metro and I really hate talking on the phone in public, but THIS WAS IMPORTANT ENOUGH for an exception. We discussed the start date and agreed that I could have a gap week in between to just...catch my breath and rest a bit.

New Job is a hybrid workplace and they expect people to come to the office at least a couple of times a week, so I hope some social life and networking can actually happen??? Their products include hardware devices so it also makes sense that I need to physically be there to examine the things to document them properly.

__________

[1] With the amount of experience I have now, with a job that requires a university degree and specialized language skills, and living in the Helsinki area, I should NOT be earning BELOW the national median wage!!!

[2] A recurring theme in my art and what I try to do with it is wanting to be seen, so it would mean a lot to me to be able to point to my work and say "I did this," rather than writing anonymously as a contractor.

#work #moral of the story is that some linkedin headhunters are legit #I can't guarantee it'll be a dream job before I start #but it's OUT OF GENERATIVE AI HELL

[tiikerikani]

I'm still waiting on the official paperwork for New Job, so it was mildly amusing to log in to work this morning to find a message from my boss saying she'd approved my summer vacation request for August (which I'd made a couple of months ago)

I've also been really lethargic since Thursday night. It's been really difficult to get food into me (have had better luck with water) and I just go straight to bed after work and sleep a couple of hours and somehow drag myself out of bed to stay up until 3 and maybe assemble a few models and feeling a bit bad about it because there are so many to paint already

#work #dramatic irony is my favorite kind of irony

[tiikerikani]

Beastmen painted in the style of John Blanche. Figures by Crooked Dice.

I'm not too familiar with his work since the Warhammer universe doesn't appeal to me (too grimy and extreme), so this is my take on at least the Blanche palette. What's more naturally brown and dusty without necessarily being grimy than desert wasteland? (Surfaces on metal miniatures usually have some natural pitting and roughness vs perfectly smooth plastic, which is a quality that I'm also taking advantage of here.)

It was a lot quicker to paint these than I expected. Speedpaint and washes are your friends here.

This was for a painting challenge over on Mastodon. I also have some human figures I could probably do up later to match.

(I spent a while photoshopping out the background. Maybe it's a bit extra.)

#fantasy miniatures #mini painting #miniature painting #miniatures #crooked dice #blanchitsu #post apocalyptic #beastmen

[tiikerikani]

Slightly different

2024 Apr 05 – Espoon Kultturikeskus (Tapiolasali), Espoo

When I got off the metro I went to the random (broken) piano in the bus terminal and played a few songs (on the off-chance somebody recognizes what they're hearing but probably not).

Mirror selfie was better today:

A groupie couple whom I don't have a nickname for (but we have spoken to each other several times) was next to me. The gent is usually in some dress shirt with a busy floral pattern, I think. We had a good conversation going waiting for the thing to start. It helps that I actually had something interesting to talk about (new job!!!!) when folks ask how I'm doing. (I said he could add me on Facebook so he did. Finally collected a groupie on my Facebook.)

Most of the familiar faces that I recognize only came to this show, except for the Superfans, who were one seat away from me yesterday and a bit farther back today. (The Thursday show was added later.)

I don't think I have yet collected a picture of this gesture:

Markus was wearing fun socks again but they were different socks. I couldn't make out what was on them.

No but seriously Markus's smile though

My pictures usually suck from just not having a good camera and having slow reflexes for this sort of thing, but I try to compensate by making them compositionally interesting? There's parallels to how I compensate for my lack of (formal) singing technique with body language, or leaning into composition and vibes over technical precision in my painting.

Anyway I digress.

Well. I filmed the song but the camera was on potato mode. The audio is fine but this is what home video was like in the 1990s. The 90s is considered retro and "in" now, right? (I feel extremely old writing this.) The solo sounds improvised; I'm almost certain it's been different every time I've heard it.

(You may note that this is also a good demonstration of what I mean about getting my wild gesticulation habit from him.)

WHAT is going on between the two of them back there (they have a little choreography where they're whispering to each other and miming things.)

The conversation with the groupie couple continued after the performance and we weren't in a huge hurry to get out of the hall, so the roadies started distributing set lists to anybody who was still around. They took one.

(the set list is slightly different from yesterday, just like my outfit. and the guitar solo.)

Maailma palaa

Kohti sydänpeltoja

Intiaanit

Jee jee

Ilman mua

Tummilla teillä

Samaan mutkaan kaatunut

Exodus

Tanssimaan

Paviaani

Kiljut riemusta

Reppana

Faarao

Kolme hyvää vinkkiä

Kanto

Onnellinen mies

Hetken ikuinen

// Ei voittajaa

// Kukaan ei koskaan

// Arlandan portailla

[Concert write-up archive and master calendar]

#music #concerts #vesterinen yhtyeineen #set list

[tiikerikani]

When the pieces fall into place

I have had so little sleep for the last week that I definitely had rings around my eyes when I looked in the mirror this morning. I relate to this post a lot:

Anyway, after work I left the apartment a bit later than I wanted, because I got an email just as I was about to leave, that I GOT THE JOB!!! (more on that later as it's out of scope for this post.)

__________

2024 Apr 04 – Espoon Kultturikeskus (Tapiolasali), Espoo

I managed to catch Pate at the merch table, and he promised to deliver my packet to Senpai (I made him a little calligraphy piece).

I noticed that there was a little pile of leaflets for their big stadium concert in November (did I write about this yet, it was announced in January) which is kind of funny because it has been close to sold out for weeks now. Like, you've 100% made it to top tier when you can fill a stadium THAT quickly.

This post is mostly pictures because I got good pictures!!

Except this one. Why is it so hard to take a good mirror selfie. Why do people crash my (otherwise) good mirror selfies.

This sharpie line on the edge marks centre stage:

Stella is substituting for Heini while she's away:

Have I already photographed this gesture before? (probably. he doesn't have that many gestures.)

Markus always has a grin on and it's hard to look away from it, lol.

(He was wearing the fun socks.)

There's a few times while Leo is doing the invisible microphone thing when he's mirroring what Senpai is doing and it's funny.

This is not the cleanest picture because it's a split second thing when he leaps down from the riser, but there's a nice symmetry to it:

Without string players, they all fit into the picture from the first row without using the wide-angle lens on my phone :)

Tomorrow I will try to film all of Kanto, so you can check out the long guitar solo. I filmed just the solo today but cut it off too soon since it continues a bit after the vocals come back in. So you may as well have the whole thing.

Other stuff

I can't get over this picture that was in Apu magazine last week (he was the cover story). It's a very evocative photo because it's a peek behind the (proverbial) curtain of his stage persona. I think it's also very melancholy, which is entirely appropriate since the article is about his mental health (it has been his ... theme in interviews since late last year).

Buried in the end of the article at the bottom of the bio box was a release date at the end of April for a live album. This hadn't been officially announced yet at the time. It was confirmed and available for preorder today, and it turns out NOT to be the performance in Turku last spring (where he'd mentioned it was being recorded) but the one in Helsinki. It's also not ALL of the songs, of course. I'm probably just going to preorder it and pick it up after work that day instead of being weird and taking the day off to get it the moment the shop opens. After all, it's content that I have (literally) heard before.

They are also publishing a biography book in the fall!! Does that mean Senpai might show up at BOOK FAIR (best fair)???? Will he write another weirdly personal note in my copy???

Maailma palaa

Kohti sydänpeltoja

Intiaanit

Huomenna kaduttaa

Ilman mua

Tummilla teillä

Samaan mutkaan kaatunut

Exodus

Tanssimaan

Valot eteiseen

Kiljut riemusta

Reppana

Faarao

Kolme hyvää vinkkiä

Kanto

Onnellinen mies

Hetken ikuinen

// Ei voittajaa

// Kukaan ei koskaan

// Arlandan portailla

[Concert write-up archive and master calendar]

#music #concerts #vesterinen yhtyeineen #set list

[tiikerikani]

#cows #:p #blup

[tiikerikani]

It's labeled a lammasu in the model kit /shrug

Lamassu aren't Egyptian but it's fantasy stuff so anything goes I guess.

[tiikerikani]

I think people get mixed up a lot about what is fun and what is rewarding. These are two very different kinds of pleasure. You need to be able to tell them apart because if you don't have a balanced diet of both then it will fuck you up, and I mean that in a "known cause of persistent clinical depression" kind of way.

#psychology #fun #i might share some thoughts on this later

[tiikerikani]

I think I'm having more fun with the World of Deuslair stretch goal boxes than the core set.

Here I used Army Painter Speedpaints only, except for the final highlights (yellow). It just seemed like the kind of character that would look good being splotchy rather than neat.

I stuck the alternate head on the ground as a bit of extra support for the one leg but the thing is still quite delicate on those stick legs. (I don't know how people put up with this on Warhammer AOS figures.)

#fantasy miniatures #miniature #miniature painting #mini painting #dungeons and lasers #halloween #scarecrow

[tiikerikani]

What the fuck

#boop #boop o meter

[tiikerikani]

#boop #boop o meter