reviews 2 Comments

The Flaming Lips in Concert


[Posted on Flickr by dianaschnuth].

This was quite possibly the most fun I’ve ever had at a concert.

Not only are the Lips an incredible band from a musical and lyrical standpoint, but they put on a great show. The audience participation bits actually don’t seem cheesy or silly. —Well, I guess they do seem a little silly, but no one really seems to mind. Who cares, when you’re beaming a laser pointer (provided by the Lips) off of a giant mirror, or participating in a “scream-along,” or bouncing a giant balloon through the crowd up to the very top of the upper balcony?

You MUST check out the rest of my Flaming Lips photos. They tell some of the story. As for the rest of the story… you really just had to be there.

Best concert EVAR.

ETA: Here’s the first couple minutes of the show, recorded by Yours Truly:

the ongoing saga of my job 1 Comment

The More Things Change…

The cycle comes around again, and I find myself in a familiar stage of life. Familiar, yet not the same.

Hello, unemployment!

The last time I was unemployed was Winter of 2002. It was January, and I had just earned my Bachelor of Science from BGSU. I was living in my first apartment, alone, more than halfway through my lease, with no income in the foreseeable future. I borrowed money from friends to pay rent and bills while sending out resume after pointless resume. Without a car, my job choices were severely limited, and I ended up finding a short-lived part-time job at a local photography studio. I had also signed up at Manpower, but they’d only landed me one brief assignment at the County Courthouse. Once they found me a full-time assignment at Sky, though, I bid the studio adieu.

I worked in the mailroom at the Sky Service Center for a few months — March through May, I believe it was. There was a major merger that May, though, and the mailroom duties I’d been performing were being moved to another location. So, I was without income again.

Sometime around this point was when Aaron and I moved in together. I don’t recall if I was unemployed when we actually moved in, but I do remember that I finally bit the bullet and took a third-shift gas station attendant position at Meijer not long after. That job didn’t last long, thankfully, as Manpower called with another assignment: Lockbox at Sky Bank. I quit Meijer without notice, just in time for my Mom’s annual visit at the end of June.

I started in July as a temp in Lockbox, was hired on permanently in October 2002, and I’ve been gainfully employed by Sky ever since.

Until today.

Today is different. I’m getting quite enough severance and retention to keep my half of the bills paid well into next year (if I’m frugal), and I have a reliable car with which to drive to a potential job. I have over five years of experience in the work force (I hate the term “the real world”), and I have a couple different directions in which I’m thinking of taking my career. I have a more professional-looking resume, and I have more experience writing cover letters that actually target the employer’s needs. I’m better at interviewing and schmoozing in general. The “me” of today is much more mature and pragmatic and employable than the “me” of five or six years ago.

I’m not panicky. I’m not nervous. I feel like I should be, but I’m not. I just know something will present itself, something that screams my name, not just something that sounds like it wouldn’t suck.

I’m going to take a few days’ vacation, then I’m going to start the job hunt on a regular workday schedule. I’m fine. We’ll all be fine.

You hear me? We’ll all be fine.

house

IKEA Mania

Last weekend, Sheryls and I had an awesome girls’ afternoon o’ shopping up in Michigan. First stop: IKEA.

Now, I’ve mentioned IKEA before, and had grand plans… and they didn’t quite work out. But now I have ideas for the kitchen that don’t involve very much money. At all.

The IKEA store features a showroom, where you look at the furnishings and textiles and accessories and fixtures in their native environment. You can see how everything fits together, how it actually looks in a room, and how it would function. The kitchen setups were great, because I could stand in the middle of a kitchen setup and say, “This is exactly the size of my kitchen!” And I could see how they put cabinets and shelves and everything together, and get ideas for how to maximize my own kitchen space with IKEA products.

Let’s back up a bit. The duplex apartment Aaron and I rented before we bought our house had a truly indecently excessive amount of storage and counter space. We had cupboards that remained empty the whole time we lived there. This kitchen, not so much:

We have appliances that remain on the counters, unused for months; we have a crapload of stuff on top of our refrigerator (not shown); our drawer of pots and pans is in constant disarray; and I’m always afraid that my rummage sale spice racks are going to fall into the sink.

Being that IKEA is made specifically for small spaces, I think I can seek solutions there:

This is my Photoshop representation of what our kitchen could look like with a $50 investment. If that. The Grundtal system includes a wall-mounted rail with various sundry items to hang on said rail: spice rack, dish drainer, S-hooks for pans and utensils, and a whole lot more. We could make use of our wall space — and have a much sturdier (if slightly smaller) spice rack. (But we could get *two* racks…) I also see some under-cabinet task lighting, a new overhead fixture, and a dishwasher in our future. (Dishwasher sold separately.)

Where will the countertop appliances go? Hell if I know. The kitchen will get rearranged somehow, and counter space will be had. I haven’t used my flower vases in forever — maybe an appliance or two would fit in the drawer currently occupied by my multiple vases. I really only need one or two. I could also relocate my candle supplies to a space in the dining room and free up one more small corner cabinet. Install one of those neat organizer racks that pull all the way out, and we’ve got even more storage. Install one of those in the drawer of pots and pans, and we’ll have easier access to what we need. I don’t think IKEA sells the pull-out organizers, though. Meh.

One step at a time, though. First, I have to buy or borrow a stud-finder, so I know where I can install my rail.

jobhunt 1 Comment

Future Planning

So, I’m starting to realize (with some help from my friends) that any job I take at this point is going to be entry-level. Not coffee-bitch entry-level, maybe, but college-grad entry-level. Basically, I’ll be pretending that the last five years never happened when I’m looking for potential jobs. Granted, I’ve learned a lot of valuable office and interpersonal skills since graduation six years ago, but I’ve only meagerly advanced my technical knowledge in my field.

Speaking of: what *is* my field, anyway? We had this discussion before, to a degree, where I bemoaned my lack of advanced skills in any given field. But even assuming that I’m getting a glorified intern job… I have a clean slate, assuming someplace will take me. I could go marketing, or IT, or something else.

I’m even contemplating taking evening classes, once I get myself a new steady job. Maybe get a certificate or an Associates at Owens in… IT? Marketing? Something that will get me where I want to be in my new company. It’ll depend on what kind of tuition reimbursement my new employer has, if any, and if I end up getting any on-the-job training in things I want to learn, like .NET or some other technology.

I still maintain that this is a delicate balance. I have to be receptive to whatever comes down the pike, and be prepared for just about any opportunity that presents itself. Winds of change, and all that.

It’s kind of like aikido: I could be thrown down and be totally unprepared, and get hurt. I could be thrown down and be excessively tense and resistant, and get hurt. Or I could take the energy that’s directed toward me and use it to my own advantage, being ready for what’s to come, take the fall rolling and come up on my feet.

I’m not terribly good at that physically yet; maybe the mental concept will come easier.

randomness 1 Comment

Guilty Pleasures

I don’t ever look up exactly when it will be broadcast, but sometimes I’ll flip past Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team 2… and watch the whole show.

Honestly, it reminds me of drum corps in a way. It’s just that what they do is different from what we did, and even different from what the colorguard in the corps did. But it’s rhythmically-based physical routines in unison, and something about that really catches my attention, no matter what genre it is. Maybe because I know what kind of concentration and memorization and muscle memory that takes, on top of the sheer physical nature of what you’re doing. At least I didn’t have to worry about my figure in order to make it into drum corps.

I think the show is also helping me to break through my jealous stereotypes of skinny chicks: the successful cheerleaders have to not only have flawless bodies and pretty faces, but they are actually judged on intelligence, not to mention their ability to dance and to learn choreography quickly and accurately. The dense and ditzy ones don’t stand a chance.

I remain fixed in my assertion that many skinny hos are dumb blonde fluff chicks. Still, watching these ladies learn choreography and be both athletic and artistic makes me realize that I can’t jump to conclusions.

Plus… even though I’m a girl, I still can appreciate the eye candy. And, really, what girl wouldn’t like to fantasize about herself looking like a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader?

Don’t lie.