Category Archives: the ongoing saga of my job

jobhunt

Kinko’s

So, in Sunday’s Blade, I found not one but two potentially satisfying classified ads for Web Designers. Which sent me off to Kinko’s before work Monday to print off my specially-made resumé stationery. You know, the stuff that perfectly matches my portfolio website. When I proofed my document at Kinko’s, though, I realized that I’d goofed while resizing the final paper size to legal (instead of "a half-inch too narrow and an inch too long," according to Uncle Frank). The girl gave me the goof as a sample and I went off to work. Unfortunately, I didn’t leave work until 8:30pm (helluva half-day that was, at six hours), so I didn’t have time to get back home and fix the PageMaker document and get back to Kinko’s to get it printed.

Rant: Since when does Kinko’s close?! The BG Kinko’s has two signs on their front door: one that says, "24 Hours A Day, 7 Days A Week," and one that gives their real hours of 7am-9pm most days of the week. I thought Kinko’s was supposed to be "your 24-hour branch office." WTF? — OK, continuing on…

So, today, after Aaron headed off to work, I fixed my stationery (for real this time) and walked my newly-burned CD-R down to Kinko’s. Just as I had done last time, I put my CD on the counter and told the girl (a different one this time) that I had a PageMaker file on the disc of which I needed ten copies, color, tabloid size. She registered all that, and asked me, "Is this, um… is that a PC disc?" Hmm. I informed her that, yes, it was PC. She nodded, took the disc, and headed over to the far side of the employee work area, to the printing computers.

I milled about while she got over there and put the disc in. Finally she called out the name of my file, to make sure that was the one. Yep, it’s the only PageMaker file on the CD… but I just replied, "Yep, that’s it!" And, of course, I know PageMaker well enough to see over her shoulder at 20 feet that she hadn’t installed the fonts before opening the document — the font substitution dialog had come up. She looked confused for a moment, then just clicked through and brought up the document. Then she asked me if I wanted to come look and make sure it was OK before she printed it. I don’t think this is standard company policy… but I walked on back to her computer to look. Sure enough, it had substituted something that was not quite my fonts, and she told me so. I informed her that the fonts were on the disc, at which point she got the "boy, am I new here" look on her face and asked me if I knew how to put the fonts on the computer.

Way to make me feel smart, girlie! I needed an ego boost.

I tried to act informed (which, actually, I was) and I said something like, "Well, I don’t know exactly how you guys do it here… do you have any font management software on that thing?" Thank you, Graphic Design and Typography… thank you, VCT 308… I sound smart now. And she waded through the Start Menu until she finally found Adobe Type Manager and fumbled her way through installing my fonts. She probably had a bear of a time dealing with it later, because I know what a bitch ATM can be about ejected disks sometimes, especially if you don’t know what you’re doing.. Anyway, she finally got it going on, and I retreated once more to the customer side of the desk.

From here, the story’s pretty standard. Looked at the first printed proof, approved it, got my remaining nine copies, and paid about two bucks apiece for ’em. Yup, over $20 for ten color printouts on 11×17 paper. But I think it’ll be worth it. Yeah.

Incidentally, while I was researching hyperlinks for this entry, I came across a job posting on the Thread (formerly Image Source) website, and applied for it. So, that makes three possibilities outside of Sky and one within! Hey, Amy, my tarot was right: things are moving in the right direction! Glad I jumped on it…

the ongoing saga of my job

Blog Entry, Take Two

Dammit. I had a great start, then my computer locked up on the fucking History Channel website. I guess that’s what I get for wanting to put goddamned hyperlinks in my blog. Well, let’s see if I can get unpissed and recreate what I had. *deep breath*

Well, then… I’ve spent all evening watching VH1’s "I Love The 80’s Strikes Back" and playing Civ III. Fun at the time, but now I feel like I’ve wasted the whole goddamned day. I mean, I’d planned to post some stuff to eBay, and clean the computer room, and work on cataloguing my Smurf collection.

Yes, my Smurf collection. All 100 of them.

Two things recently prompted me to dig out my Smurfs and catalogue them for either general collecting or for eBaying. One was my thrift acquisition of a new knick-knack shelf: one of those typesetter’s cases that’s been converted to hang on the wall and hold trinkets. The other thing was finding out that Kris is looking to start liquidating his old Transformers and Star Wars figurines (still living at his parents’ house… come on, man, you’re 30 now!).

So, last night, there I was, sitting on the living room floor, watching a special about the Salem Witch Trials on the Discovery Channel and sorting Smurfs.

It’s going to take me forever to catalogue them the way I want to, but I’m going to do it anyway, because I’m curious as to what I have. I have the little guys all sorted out into a.) Smurfs to keep, b.) Smurfs to eBay, c.) Smurfs to thrift because they’ve been dog- or cat-chewed, d.) Smurfs without accessories, and e.) random accessories. Blueimps.com has been quite the find, as has MushroomVillage.com — they each have a great way of locating the official names and serial numbers of each Smurf. At Blue Imps, I can browse the images and say, "Is that him? Yeah, that’s him." At the Mushroom Village, I can type in a word, like "ball," and get photos and descriptions of Smurfs with, well, balls. (Bowling balls and soccer balls! Be nice!)

I only have 20 Smurfs catalogued in my little Excel file (with name, ID, variation, and notes), so I’ve quite the haul ahead of me. Oh, and if you’re checking up on me at eBay to see what I’m selling, my ID has changed to reflect my married name. I am now dschnuth on eBay. (And, yes, I’ve got some stuff up right now. I’m selling the beginning of my closet junk: old McDonald’s Happy Meal toys.)

In other news… I managed two culinary feats today. I made dinner (yes, it’s a feat) and I hardboiled some eggs. Now, wait, let me tell you all about it. As for dinner, I steamed some cauliflower and baked a chicken breast. But since dousing the chicken in lemon or soy or a concoction of the two plus some honey (which I’d come to enjoy) is out with Atkins, I discovered the art of mixing Worchestershire sauce into some mayo and using it as a glaze of sorts. It was actually quite yummy. So, culinary feat #1 was a success. Mmm.

Culinary feat #2 was not so much. I put some water on to boil for eggs, and didn’t forget about it for too long. Which is more than I can say for the eggs. Here I was, playing Civ III, when I glanced at my watch and realized that the eggs had been boiling for twice as long as necessary. Like, 45 minutes. I freaked out and ran into the kitchen, which was thankfully not on fire, and rescued the eggs. I ate the one that had cracked when I’d first put it in — and it tasted burnt. Hell, it even looked a little burnt inside. I’ll bet you didn’t know you could burn a fucking hardboiled egg, did you? Me neither. Well, luckily enough, the rest of them just seem to be a touch overdone, not nasty or inedible. I feel like a fool, though, just the same.

And at work, things are a little happier. Andrew and Ruth (our boss and his boss) had private meetings with all of us, except the newest temp and Loni. The newest temp, A (yes, another one), wasn’t progressing fast enough, so they "cancelled" her. That’s the polite term for firing a temp, since you cancel her services through the company, and they call her to let her know she’ll be getting a different assignment as soon as one becomes available. Not like I’ve been on the receiving end of that or anything… ahem. So, Dawn realizes that we didn’t fire (sorry, cancel) the old new temp — that is, Lorna, the one before “new” A — just because she wasn’t catching on. It was her absenteeism that really did it. So, Dawn has been quite pleasant the past two or three days. It amazes me that she can turn it off like a switch, though.

It must have taken a lot of energy to be that pissed off for an entire month, considering that she can just blink and be back to normal. I don’t know about you, but if I’m pissed at someone for a whole damn month, to the point of not speaking to that person, it’s going to take more than just being told I made an incorrect assumption for me to get back to being OK with that person. Of course, you know me — I find it hard to hold a grudge for more than a few days at a time, unless it’s something big. Like with Dan’s brother, Matt, the time that he nearly stiffed me for the fifty bucks he offered me to make his new drumcorps’ website, and then told me that he’d hired someone else to completely redesign my just-launched site, and informed me that they would be using the same page structure and copy that I’d written basically out of thin fucking air. That pissed me off, and I still don’t think I’ve quite recovered. And that was damn near seven years ago, I think. I don’t take kindly to being used… and being paid fifty bucks (most basic sites cost $200 or so) to fabricate a website from a single brochure, then having that copy stolen and being told, "thanks anyway," that qualified to me. It still does. Not that I’m bitter or anything. 🙂

Wow, I kinda rambled for a while, didn’t I? Ah, well. I need to go wash some dishes so Aaron doesn’t come home to a sinkful. I’ll at least do the stuff I dirtied, if not all of it. I’m trying to get better at that, but I still suck sometimes. At age 27, I’m still very much a wife-in-training.

OK, I’m going to go now before I get too down on myself for my poor housekeeping skills.

P.S. – I think we have a CD around here that Kris made us of all his old tunes, including Schnuth, Put the Hamburger Down. I’ll ask Aaron if he knows where it is.

randomness, the ongoing saga of my job, weight loss

My world

Aaron and I just had a major thrift purging, and took a carload of stuff to Goodwill. Seriously. A carload. The backseat and trunk were both full of computerage and old clothes. Mac Classic from Sheryl (rescued from an untimely demise in a landfill), scanner, Mac 7100, older Mac whose number I forget, 13″ Apple Monitor (which had to go to Salvation Army instead, since Goodwill doesn’t accept monitors), Genesis consoles and controllers, two bags of clothes, some books, an external Mac modem, etc, etc. We freed up a good amount of room in our bedroom and our computer room. And, hopefully, we racked up a good amount of thrift karma, to counteract our bad luck at finding deals at Goodwill and the flea market lately.

I weighed myself again yesterday, and found that my weight loss has temporarily stagnated at eleven pounds. Which, don’t get me wrong, I’m still grateful for, but I’m hoping to continue to lose weight at a decent clip, so I’m not tempted to drift from the Atkins Way. I do know I’m still burning fat, though, cause the pee-strip tells me so. Just to show how much weight this week and a half of Atkins has helped me lose, let me show you the lovely chart from my Excel weight-tracking worksheet (yes, I know, I’m a dork):

click for larger graph

That’s from mid-November of last year to right now. Note the stretch after the wedding where I didn’t give a shit about how much I weighed, and didn’t even weigh myself at all for a couple months. Also note the dip at the beginning of the chart, and the righteous rebound right after two Christmas dinners in a row. 🙂

In case anyone cares about my crazy work soap-opera… Andrew decided that one of the temps who was prepping should move to being a processor, and that Rama (who, you will recall, complained about being a temp and having waaay too many hours) should return to prepping. This took effect on Tuesday, and we’re all happy about it. All except Dawn, the other prepping temp, who pretty much hates all of us now, since we were instrumental in getting our old temp canned. But, really, Lorna just didn’t get it, for the most part. I won’t go into it, since you won’t really follow, but suffice to say she was inconsistent and just didn’t get it. So, yeah. All of us are in a great mood except for Dawn, who scowls and gives us all a silent treatment like we haven’t had since Junior High.

Still on the agenda: Loni’s carpal tunnel worker’s comp claim. Oh, yeah, and let’s see what Ruth says when she gets back from vacation and all the shit’s gone down. 🙂

P.S. – I’m on vacation today and tomorrow. Aaron and I are going to Ann Arbor tomorrow. Whee! Four-day weekend! Outside of my honeymoon, I haven’t had one of those for a long, long time.

the ongoing saga of my job

Purple Pee and Workplace Bitchfests

Atkins diet is still going well, though I find myself occasionally desiring some ice cream or a serving of lemon shrimp from The China. I just keep telling myself that in another week or so, if we decide to stop the induction phase of our diet after two weeks, I’ll be able to buy the carb-controlled ice cream and the Atkins chocolate bars.

Aaron bought the pee strips that turn purple if you’re in ketosis (that is, burning your stored fat). His turned from light beige to dark beige on Tuesday or Wednesday, so I checked mine. It promptly turned a lovely mulberry. 🙂 So, I’m in all-out ketosis. I’m ketosing like a motherfucker. And I’ve lost five pounds since Monday, though I’m not officially updating the weight record until Sunday morning.

OK, here’s the latest on the work saga. Andrew’s boss, Ruth, is gone for vacation for another week and a half yet. So, someone in our department (I’m not sure who) talked to Justin, who is basically Andrew’s equal in the hierarchy, but over the Item Processing department, and also under Ruth. We ended up having a meeting with Justin (who’s probably my age or a year or so younger, and is a really nice guy). Actually, we had a bitch session with Justin, and he let us run it. He went through three sheets of paper, jotting down all the shit we unloaded about how much we can’t stand the shit Andrew pulls. Loni went a little over the top and called him a flat-out liar, but I tried to help keep things in perspective by offering specific examples. Everybody pitched in, except Lorna, who was out at the doctor’s office today, and maybe even the hospital. We’re not sure. Anyway, a lot of complaints were aired, and I think Justin is going to see what he can do to get some of them addressed. Technically, we’re part of Item Processing, so I guess he’s kind of like our supervisor, in some benevolent uncle kind of way.

That probably made no sense to anyone who isn’t familiar with my workplace. Ah, well.

the ongoing saga of my job, weight loss

Atkins and Aaron and work. (oh my)

Even though my site seems to be down, I’m still going to post an update.

Aaron and I are finishing up Day #3 of the Atkins Diet, and doing surprizingly well. People have told me they felt like crap during the initial induction phase of the diet — I feel great. I feel less lethargic than I did, though I’d stop short of saying I actually feel energetic. I at least feel more alert… though that could have something to do with my attempts to get to bed before midnight this week and last.

I’m enjoying having him home when I get home. It’s like every night is a weekend-night. All except for Monday, when I worked 12 1/2 hours.

At work, we swapped off what clients’ accounts we each process, and our temp, Rama, has apparently hit her breaking point with the stuff I used to run. She’s now complaining to our boss that she should only be working 30-35 hours a week as a temp, and she’s working 40+, and she wants to swap off with one of the other temps, so they can process for awhile and let her prep the work like they do. No dice, as per our meeting last week, but our supervisor, Andrew, said he’ll step in whenever she’s ready to go home. She was not satisfied with that answer, since it seems like he’s just trying to placate her, and not deal with the problem at its source — the problem being that the processors work 45-hour weeks (soon to be longer still), and the preppers are scrambling to barely make their 35 to 40.

We’re all at a snapping point. We’re sincerely hoping that we can all quit at once, having found other jobs, and leave Andrew floundering. We’ll see…