a few days ago i went out to lunch with my ex-boss. he heard about me getting a job and wanted to treat me out to lunch to congratulate me. we went to red robin. yay for bottomless fries!

he said it was good that i got the AKM job because they'll teach me a lot of things over there and that they're very smart people. he knows this because he has worked with them a lot of times before, and he never had to check their work because they're flawless like that. i was like, okay cool they seem very nice.

the first thing he asked me was what my goals are in life. i said i had no idea. and for the first time in a very long time, i actually meant it. i have no idea, not even now when all things seem to be laid out for me.

so he started off with giving me some advice. first thing he talked about was the 15-15 Rule. it's this thing where you come to work 15 minutes before your official time and leave work 15 minutes later than your normal off time. he said it's the best way to get noticed and make your company realize that you're hardworking and you're trying to be valuable and worthy to be there. he also talked about working efficiently. meaning, if you don't know how to do one thing, you should go ask right away and not waste time figuring it out for yourself because they're supposed to teach you anyway. the logic is that they can teach you things in about five minutes but learning them by yourself could takes hours. this will actually save them money because you'll be able to produce more work per unit time. but the point is, you always have to try to either save the company money or make them more money. if you can do either one, you'll make yourself less disposable. he warned me against using the internet unnecessarily because they keep track of which pages you go on and how long you're on them. he used to work at Hunsaker and apparently they had this software installed on all the computers and the IT guy had access to every window you opened on your computer.

the other thing he talked to me about was buying my first house. he said the market is good and relatively cheap right now so it's a good time to buy a house. he said i should get a 3-bedroom/2-bathroom house because it's the easiest to sell and i won't have a difficult time to sell it when the prices get better. but i was thinking to myself, why would i want a big house like that now when i got no one else to live in it with me? so that was a little weird. he also mentioned this government program that helps first-time homebuyers by giving them some sort of discount or a lower interest. i didn't really understand its terms when he was telling me about it so i'll probably look it up sometime this week. but then again, i don't need to do that now. i'll wait until i save up my 30 grand and think about this more.

oh yeah, he also warned me against overspending. he said just because i'm making real money now, it doesn't mean i can mindlessly spend all of it.

anyway, i thought it was cool that he went out of his way to give me some life advice. i think it's good that i somehow have this mentor figure, though not exactly my friend or family, who likes to give advice even if i don't ask for it. maybe it's because i'm almost the same age as his younger siblings so he probably sees it fit to give me some sort of direction in life. it's very nice of him to do that.