aikido 2 Comments

Should I Stay Or Should I Go

I haven’t been to aikido in a month. First, it was because of my pulled groin muscle. Then I thought it was healed, but it wasn’t really, so I stayed home a little while longer. Then I got a nasty cold, and that kept me away for another couple of weeks. Now I’m to the point where any conditioning I’d already achieved has long since gone, and I’m kind of afraid to just jump back into class. Every single solitary class has kicked my ass so far, save maybe one or two, and I know I’ll get my ass handed to me whenever I go back.

Still… as I’ve mentioned, I *am* paying for this. If I go more than twice a week, I’m getting a deal. If I go twice a week, I’m getting my money’s worth. If I don’t go at all, I’m wiping my ass with it.

I don’t want to be a quitter. I could go tomorrow morning… but let’s shoot for Saturday morning, shall we? I took a 45-minute walk this morning, after a couple weeks of being completely sedentary, so if I can keep that up and add to my activity level for the next few days…

Oh, who am I kidding? I’m just stalling. As per usual.

Don’t worry, dear readers: I’ll soon have another tale of aikido kicking my ass. I know you like those, you sadists, you. 😉

jobhunt

Day Two of Unemployment

Day One was spent recuperating from the incredible Flaming Lips show in Cleveland on Sunday. Slept in, chilled out, and came up with a battle plan. Day Two saw the initiation of said battle plan.

I identified two major issues that I need to address: productivity in job-hunting and organization in general. One affects the other, but I can’t just go at them one at a time. I need a pleasant and clean workspace to feel happy and productive; but I can’t clean to the exclusion of all else, and THEN go find a job. So, I set myself up a list of priorities for cleaning my desk space, starting with my file cabinet, moving to the stack of stuff on the floor, then the stack on top of the file cabinet, then the pile on my actual desk, and so forth. (Anyone who saw my immaculate desk at work wouldn’t believe that my desk at home is such a disaster.)

As for job-hunting productivity, I launched up my long-neglected Palm Desktop application. It has a task list and calendar, which is mainly what I need. I’m basically doing like I did when I was coordinating the database project with James: set up a short but vital list of tasks to accomplish the following day, so I feel super productive when I finish those plus more.

I’m also logging everything I’m doing in an Excel log, so I can track my productivity. For example, today I searched through all my del.icio.us jobhunt bookmarks and found two jobs I’m going to apply for tomorrow. I also followed up with a potential employer and sent my Personal Marketing Plan (i.e. my list of skills and target employers) to a former colleague to look over.

Since I got all that accomplished during the day, I didn’t feel bad spending my evening playing Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD on the 360. 🙂

If I can keep this up, I’ll at least feel like I’m not squandering my time at home. Still, this super-extended vacation is going to be weird.

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.