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Awaiting new assignement - 23 May 1998

Well as expected my auditing job with Merrill Lynch was completed on Wednesday. After the job was completed and I had returned my security badge I discover that they need some people to assist them with a NT4.0 and Microsoft Office 97 rollout. It is estimated that the roll out will take up to six months to complete and involve installing new machines and operating systems on over 1,500 machines throughout Merrill Lynch. After completing the auditing task so quickly I was asked back for an interview for the roll out team on Thursday. I expect to hear about this job on Tuesday ( Monday being the Memorial public holiday here ).
The news here is full of yet another school shooting where a student not only killed his parents but returned to school and gunned down ellow students. It seems that this sort of thing is happening way too often at the moment. Everyone here is looking for explainations and solutions. I think that one of the best ways to truely combat this is to remove the ease with with people are able to gain access to firearms. This would no doubt prove almost impossible with the culture and mentaility over here, yet I can't think of a better solution and nobody else seems to be able to either.

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Complete - 13 May 1998

It is now been about three weeks since I started doing this audit work for Merrill Lynch and am very close to completing it. There are a few lose ends that need to be finished and these are proving a little difficult to organise. Hopefully the job should be over by the middle of next week and I'll be ready for another assignment. I hope that any new assignment allows me to make greater use of my technical skills. I should know more of what is happening on that front next week.
In the meantime I also went to the X-Files expo. It was basically an event for fans of the TV show but was a interesting eye opener into the way things are here. Basically you had to line up for hours to get or do anything. For example, we had to line up for about an hour to get in, once we were in we had to line up for tickets to get people's autographs. If we did in fact succeed in getting a ticket we had to line up once again to actually get something signed ( I didn't even bother wasting my time !). There were lines to see the movie preview, lines for merchandising, lines, lines and more lines ! The Expo ran for about 5 hours and combined a number of exhibits with stage appearances by the stars. The Stars who appeared included : Steven Williams who plays X, Dean Haglund who plays Ringo Langly from the "Lone Gunmen", Nicholas Lea who plays Alex Krycek and of course what would an X-Files expo be without a "rare stage appearance by the talented star of the X-Files" Gillian Anderson. Needless to say the place went really berserk when she made an appearance ! 

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Employment

Another employment agency, Princeton Information, has a position available at Merrill Lynch. The job involves installing a software cataloguing program that profiles each workstation and reports the information about its installed software and hardware back to a central location. The job will involve the installation of this software on over 1,400 machines throughout the organisation.
After an interview with the client, another consultant and myself, have been accepted to complete this project. The project is expected to take about two months to complete and hopefully after this there may be a position available within their IT department. Anyway at this stage I'm glad to start working and remain here in Manhattan.

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Situation Changes

Well I have just been informed that deal between JP Morgan and Chelsea has fallen through and they are no longer accepting consultants. This puts a new light on my situation, I may now have to work for any organisation anywhere in the United States. This comes as somewhat of a surprise after investing so much time and effort establishing myself in Manhattan. There is still a chance that I may work here in Manhattan but things are now very different from when I initially arrived !

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My local Diner 79th and 1st

Frustrated

Well it has been nine weeks since I have arrived and I still haven't started working yet ! This is proving to be frustrating for the simple reason that I don't really feel settled until I know what my working hours will be. In these nine weeks I have had a grand total of three interviews. Most of the interviews appear very positive at the time and assure me that I've all but got the job, but alas this has yet to be the case.
I am now beginning to get used to having to find something to do day in and day out. Thank goodness that baseball season has finally arrived. I've been to see the Mets play twice and will hopefully see the Yankee opening game this weekend. Another thing to look forward to this weekend will be the Kramer reality tour.

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