randomness

Let’s Hear It For Personal Days

Mom stopped by today on her way down to Texas. Yep, I took the day off and had a couple few hours of quality Mom time before she continued on her move South. I guess Gary still hasn’t closed on the house, and their stuff is living in his parents’ garage. (They live a mile away from the soon-to-be new homestead.) Anyway, Mom is planning to drive down to Texas over a span of about three days, after which she’ll join Gary in staying with his parents until they can find a mortgage broker that is willing to work with their credit. (Yikes.)

I’ve pretty much finished tweaking my portfolio page, although there are still a few things I’d like to add. As it is, if the nice folks at HR happen to look at my portfolio (hi, guys!), I won’t be embarrassed about it. Which is a good thing in a job hunt.

As predicted, tweaking my portfolio site helped me remember all the cool shit I used to do (when I had more access to expensive software and hardware). Even better is the fact that I can tell where my shortcomings were in some of the pieces I’ve posted, which means I haven’t gone rusty from being out of the academic environment for almost three years.

Doesn’t it figure, though—on my day off, when I was spending time with my Mom and tweaking my portfolio and hanging out at home with Aaron, I was also experiencing the beginnings of a pretty righteous cold. Now I have to go to work tomorrow with a nose like a faucet. Great.

Hey, HR? If you’re reading this, you might want to hold off and just do a phone interview or something until I get this cold under control. For your sake. 🙂

the ongoing saga of my job 3 Comments

Upwardly Mobile?

Well, I hadn’t been going to mention anything yet… but I have a job lead. I’m not saying where, but it’s in my same zip code. I’m all about that.

Anyway, I’ve been updating my portfolio page in preparation for sending the URL to the nice HR people. I don’t want them to look at a page that hasn’t been updated since… well, since 2002, possibly, or maybe sometime last year.

At least I’m not completely redesigning it again. I’m actually pleased with the design for now. It’s the details that I missed that are bugging the shit out of me.

Oh, and this may or may not be a good idea, but since I’m so proud of this new personal page of mine, I’m including it—and a link to it—on my portfolio page. Don’t worry, people will be forewarned; the link says, “caution: may contain strong language.”

And now for something completely different: A Very Large Cat.

site-related 2 Comments

I Made A Pretty

Check it out—I made a Favorites Icon! If you’re using Firefox, check the address bar. If you’re using IE, check out the bookmark for my site (that I’m sure you have at the top of your list).

If you can’t see it… it looks something like this:  

Heh. I’m so geeked by the smallest things. Go me.

randomness

Honing My Journaling Skillz

I’ve been bringing a spiral-bound sketch notebook to work in my purse, so that if I opt not to read my book, or if I have a brainstorm, I can sit in the breakroom or outside at the picnic table and write. I have yet to decide whether it’s had sort of the William Gibson blogging vs. writing effect:

I?ve found blogging to be a low-impact activity, mildly narcotic and mostly quite convivial, but the thing I?ve most enjoyed about it is how it never fails to underline the fact that if I?m doing this I?m definitely not writing a novel ? that is, if I?m still blogging, I?m definitely still on vacation. I?ve always known, somehow, that it would get in the way of writing fiction, and that I wouldn?t want to be trying to do both at once. The image that comes most readily to mind is that of a kettle failing to boil because the lid?s been left off.

Or, perhaps, my daily longhand journaling has helped me focus my thoughts and write more coherent entries—like practicing for a performance. I find that I write things there that I really couldn’t write here: naming names, for instance, or talking about my poop cramps, or just generally complaining about how tired or bored I am during the day. These things may or may not be interesting even to my closest friends, and may or may not get me into trouble if the wrong people read them.

*flipping through recent writing*

OK, here’s a sample of today’s longhand journal entry:

17 September 2004 | 10:33am
Sky Bank Arrowhead Service Center Break Room

I’m in a particularly foul mood today, and I’m not sure why. I know I’m tired, and part of me resents being here when a third of the department is off today. I can tell I’m still unreasonably pissed about [work event deleted]—but that was two days ago. I should be over it by now. I’m also kinda hungry, and munching on my sugar-free wafers isn’t doing much to help that. And I’m pissed off at myself for being ignorant about things, and having to ask questions in the first place. Which is asinine—how am I to know things I just don’t know? I have to ask to learn. I still hate having to bug people—because I know I am.

In general daily news, I still haven’t gotten an e-mail about my lomo photos from Snapfish, and I still haven’t gotten my gift certificate e-mail from Sky. *tired sneer*

the ongoing saga of my job

Not Blogging About Work… Nope.

I’ve heard too many stories about people who lost or almost-lost their jobs from blogging about work. I will not fall into said trap.

Instead, I will carefully avoid it by speaking in generalities and not mentioning any names.

I know I shouldn’t, but I hate it when I have to ask questions simply because I’m ignorant of a thing. Not because it’s a stumper, not because it’s complex, and not because I need a second opinion. I know, it’s no fault of my own that I’m ignorant, but still. Even more than that, I hate having to choose who I’m going to ask, given a selection of various potential gurus or wanna-be-gurus.

First, and most pleasant, are the people who are always kind and polite and stop what they’re doing to answer your question fully. These are in the minority. Then there are the people who don’t look particularly annoyed, and they give you their full attention, but you get the vibe that they wish you hadn’t come to ask them. Maybe they even put on the obviously-false politeness that’s so grating.

Next are those who very grudgingly answer your questions and make you feel inferior for having had to ask. These people tend to cross-examine the questioner, knowing full well that said questioner doesn’t know his or her ass from a hole in the ground at this point, and further queries are simply confounding the matter. In extreme cases, these people will just have the questioner turn possession of the question over to them for a solution instead of answering the question at all.

Finally, and I didn’t run into this until recently, are those who flatly refuse to answer your question, and request that you ask someone else. Granted, these people are generally overworked and pulled in several directions at once, but having the experience of being denied help entirely—not just put off—is a little demeaning.

In actual work-related news, I still haven’t gotten my giftcertificates.com e-mail from Sky yet. That’s annoying, because I’ve got it spent in my head: a Hauppauge WinTV PVR video capture card, an Epson Stylus R200 photo printer, and a Carlo Robelli acoustic-electric guitar. All from Amazon, of course. 🙂