Is it a sign that you’ve been blogging too much if, when you go to type an author’s last name, instead of typing “Blom” you automatically type “Blog”?

Just curious…. :)

Posted at 11:29 AM | (3)

I really, really love the internet. I suppose that’s a good thing, considering how much time I spend on it, both at work and at play. I love it even more now that I have discovered an easy source of popular TV shows, movies, etc. available for download.

In the process I decided to check out the show Dead Like Me. I probably would’ve watched it when it was first on, except that it is on Showtime, and I don’t get any of the paid movie channels. Anyway, I got through the entire first season in just a few days, and I think I like it.

I like it despite the fact that I wasn’t a big fan of Mandy Patinkin or Jasmine Guy. As long as Patinkin doesn’t resort to being a constantly singing characature like he was on Chicago Hope, then I think I’ll be fine with him.

Apparently I have a thing for the death shows, since I also enjoy watching Six Feet Under. This show is a little different though, in that the focus is on the dead people who have become reapers to release the souls of people before they meet their demise.

My only real qualm with the show is that they replaced Rebecca Gayheart’s character with some annoying blonde girl. I didn’t like Gayheart’s character initially, but right when she got endearing, they kicked her off. This new one is too one-dimensional I guess.

Anyway, on to Season 2—hopefully it won’t disappoint.

Posted at 11:49 PM | (6)

Today was a veritable parade of students—all looking for a place to live. They marched around the house briefly, some of them bringing a parent, I suppose to have them determine if this place was worth the money that they’d be throwing down every month.

The reason we have an extra room is because my landlady subtlely kicked out one of my long-time housemates—a guy from Singapore about to complete his doctorate. It started innocently enough; she raised his rent by $100, effective the beginning of September. He asked me about it, and being caught off-guard, I had to admit that I didn’t receive such a notice.

He went to her to negotiate the price, where she informed him that it was non-negotiable, and that at any rate, she was hoping to make this an all-female household. So, he is moving out at the end of this month.

It turns out though, that she may be a bit of a hypocrite. Her top candidate for the room happens to be a MALE grad student. I think she just likes him because he’s “cultured”—a theater student having lived in the US, England, and Germany.

I guess it doesn’t really matter to me, as long as she doesn’t raise my rent and the international students keep their hands off my food. They’ve been helping themselves to my bread, cheese, milk, and lunchmeat this past month. I was finally able to talk to my landlady about it, so hopefully it will cease. At the very least, she told me I could eat my share of her stuff, get compensation if I want, and also use the smaller spare fridge, where hopefully they won’t think to look. As nice as these exchange students are, I just can’t afford to feed them all!

Sophie was the lucky recipient of my Gmail invite. Of course, it turns out that I have received 4 more. This would normally be a cool thing, but since my invites are being avoided like the plague, I guess they aren’t as nifty after all.

I suppose I could give them to randoms, but I guess I was hoping to give them to people I actually know in some sense. Maybe I just don’t know the right people, hehe. Anyway, if anyone has any unique ideas on what to do with the invites, feel free to mention them to me.

Posted at 11:40 PM | (3)

I really need to learn how to sit properly in my chair. By the end of each workday, my back is totally sore. I had the same problem at my old job, initially. I think I just sit differently when I’m in a new place, learning a new job.

Eventually I hope I’ll get the hang of the location of my chair in relation to the keyboard/desk, and the types thereof. Although, it’s possible that the company does this intentionally to drum up business for the masseuse who comes once a week. If I don’t relax in my chair soon, I just might have to check her out sometime. Ooh I could really go for a nice, hard massage. :)

Posted at 2:35 PM | (9)

I’ve had a Gmail account for a few months now, and after a long drought, I finally have an invite to give.

Sooo, if there happens to be anyone out there who doesn’t already own a gmail email address, and would like one, let me know. Just in case more than one person responds, tell me a funny story or something, so that I’ll be more likely to pick you. ;) I will post the winner just as soon as I decide/get any responses.

I’ve gotta tell you though….I’ve been waiting a long time for an invite, just so I could use this clever entry title! I guess I can check that off my list now. I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

Posted at 9:52 AM | (24)

Man, ever since completing the latest 26 Things, I’ve been a total slacker in the photography department. I don’t think I’ve taken a single photograph since, and I’ve only posted to one photo meme in the meantime.

I guess it’s because I was changing jobs…not to mention I now don’t have easy access to the campus, on which I took a ton of my pictures. It was so easy to take shots of people, plants, buildings, weird looking art objects, etc. UCSB has it all!

I’m going to try to get my act together, I think. At the very least, maybe I’ll attempt Tracey’s easier 26 Things that are supposed to appear in September.

Posted at 8:12 AM | (2)

Well, like probably a lot of people, I’ve been watching the Olympics all weekend. Ok, actually, I’ve only been watching the evening coverage—since that’s when they put all the good stuff on.

I like diving, swimming, gymnastics, and track & field the best. Although, I prefer single diving to synchronized diving, and I don’t watch marathons, shot puts, hammer throws, etc, but I will watch pole vault, hurdles, and regular running.

I’ve learned a lot of things watching this year (I don’t think I watched the Sydney games)—I learned that Gary Hall Jr. is a freakin’ weirdo and I don’t like him. I also decided that I agree with Steve in that Michael Phelps is the one to root for over the Thorpedo. Oh yea, and who knew that some 20 year old white kid could kick ass in sprinting events.

Anyway, has anyone noticed how completely biased the US coverage is? They only show events in which we compete (which granted, is a lot), and only focus on our people, usually skipping coverage of how the competitors do. This isn’t such a big deal in events like swimming or running, where everyone competes at once—but in individual events like diving, gymnastics, etc, you often don’t see the other countries unless they are threatening to beat us. In a way it’s kinda sad, but I guess I know why they do it.

Hmm, I guess this post doesn’t have much of a point, other than to say I’ve watched hours and hours of Olympic coverage this year. Exciting how I spend my free time, isn’t it. :)

Posted at 3:51 PM | (4)

Besides all the free food, ice cream, and donuts that are available at my new job, I almost forgot to mention the other free stuff available. When I came in on my first day, the HR woman gave me a pack of miscellaneous marketing stuff. I got an insulated lunch bag filled with a bumper sticker, a button, a bookmark, a letter opener/ruler, and my favorite item—one of those squishy foam stress balls, in the shape of a star!

In addition, my boss took me on a tour of the warehouse to show me where to drop off packages. In the process she showed me some of the books published by our books division. She said that there is a box full of damaged books—ones that got returned and banged up in the process, or were messed up for other reasons. Basically, once they are put in that box, they are available for anyone to take home—FOR FREE!! There are some books dealing with cool topics, so I’ll have to keep my eye out for the good ones. I bet those are the ones that never get damaged though! I wonder if any of them could “accidentally” get dropped, LOL! :)

Posted at 8:07 AM | (6)

My first week has been good so far. I’ve learned a bunch of stuff—how much I remember on my own when I have to do it without supervision remains to be seen. :)

The best part about this week though is that I learned how much food circulates through the company! There’s been building-wide lunches, pizza lunches, ice cream socials, and best of all—Donut Wednesdays! Apparently, every Wednesday, one of the editors brings in donuts—sweet! :)

So yeah, one more day to go, and then I will have successfully made it through my first week. I wonder how long it will take before I remember who anyone is, and they start expecting me to know stuff…

Posted at 4:50 PM | (2)

I am ashamed to admit that I got lost on my way to my cubicle this morning. I knew there was a more direct way if I were to go in through the other door. But NOOO, I decided that I would go in through the lobby. I mistakenly believed that going that way, I’d just be able to follow the outer walls around to my section.

Nope.

I went down a lot of dead-ends, before I stumbled across the break room, that has two entrances—one of which is just down the hall from my cubicle. So I cut across and here I am! At least I did this early in the morning—no one was really around to see me wandering around in a state of confusion.

I just looked on the map, and there IS a way to get here from the lobby, but it looks very confusing to someone who doesn’t know the building. I think I’ll stick with the direct way from now on. :)

Posted at 10:26 AM | (4)

I made it through my first day of work in one piece—woohoo! Like most new jobs, it looks like there are a zillion things I’m expected to know—I’m sure it won’t be bad once I learn it all. I mean, my last job had a zillion duties if you broke it down, but it didn’t seem like I did much.

I just learned some basic things today, and of course signed a bunch of forms, one of which I’m almost positive said that I promised to sacrifice my first unborn child to them. I did read a few sad things when the HR woman went over the policies—the first was the part that said “No downloading things onto your computer that aren’t work-related”, and the second said “No instant messaging”.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

So….are there any people out there whose companies have similar policies? Do you adhere to these rules, or do you flaunt them? Will I be able to survive??

Oh, but lest you think that those rules totally bring me down, there is still email. Oh, and I almost forgot the best part!!

I GET BUSINESS CARDS!!!!!!!!!!!

I feel so important getting my own business cards—not fake ones like some people make on their ink jets just to get a free lunch, but REAL cards! I don’t know when i get them though—my boss said that they do them in batches once they have enough orders, so it will all depend on when they have enough to warrant fulfilling the order. Hopefully soon though.

I’m going to give them out to everyone I know—they will be collector’s items, you know. :)

Posted at 5:54 PM | (7)

Eek, on my way to my first day of my new job. Wish me luck!

Posted at 8:15 AM | (4)

I just finished my last day of work today. I completely cleared off my desk, took care of all the emails, completed the checklists of things I needed signed off on by HR, turned in my parking pass, and now I’m home.

It’s weird….I thought I’d be more sad about it, but instead I just feel kind of apathetic. Maybe it’s because it hasn’t quite sunk in yet that I won’t be coming back on Monday. I wonder how I’ll feel on Monday morning when I drive past the University and continue on my way to my new job.

I will miss a lot of the staff that I’ve worked with over the past few years. Everyone says to keep in touch and stuff, but we all know that in most cases that doesn’t usually happen.

My party was ok. There was a lot of food, and I got a gift certificate to the bookstore. The only bad thing about the party was the VERY awkward silence that occurred after we all assembled around the food. At normal parties, people might say a few words wishing the person well in their new endeavor. No such luck. Instead everyone just kinda stood there, until the department head was like “well, I guess you should start in on the food” or something. Gotta love her.

Anyway though, I know I did a decent job there, and I think I’ll be missed. Hopefully everything will go well in my new job. Eeek, I wonder how I’ll feel about this decision come Monday—hopefully not apathetic!

Posted at 5:37 PM | (1)

It seems that blogging has indeed hit the masses. When even technophobes start using the term in conversations, you know the phenomenon has hit massive proportions.

The biggest boost to blogging took place recently at the Democratic National Convention, where they let several political bloggers attend, so that they would write about it on their sites.

Now I am SURE that blogging is mainstream. The proof? When I went to Amazon.com today to look something up, I noticed a message near the top that said “Looking for your plog?”

I clicked on it and it took me to my “plog”—my personalized blog for Amazon. As Amazon describes it, it is a personalized blog for each Amazon.com customer. “Your Amazon.com Plog is a diary of events that will enhance your shopping experience, helping you discover products that have just been released, track changes to your orders, and many other things. Just like a blog, your Plog is sorted in reverse chronological order. When we think we have something interesting or important to tell you, we’ll post it to your Plog.”

And, in case you clicked on your plog page but didn’t know what a blog was, Amazon tells you that: “A blog is a straightforward and now widely adopted method of posting a reverse chronological diary on the Internet.” and then proceeds to give you a list of some A-list bloggers.

Good grief—it’s everywhere! I’m just waiting for my grandma to ask me about “this blogging thing”.

Posted at 2:58 PM | (4)

Well, I just got back to my desk after having that annual employee evaluation. Surprisingly, on a scale of 1-5 (1 being best and 5 being worst), I got almost all ones, and a few 2s, which gave me an overall performance ranking of a 1. This is quite a change from last year where I got mostly 2s and a few 3s, for a ranking of a 2.

This deparment head NEVER gives people rankings of 1s, which leads me to believe she only did it because I’m leaving. It makes me wonder what I would’ve gotten if I was staying. It’s a good thing I’m not staying though, because it doesn’t appear that we will be getting any raises again.

During the evaluation, the head mentioned that I certainly hadn’t burned any bridges, and that she wanted to have this on record in case I ever came back to the Library and/or University in the future. I suppose that is very nice of her, though a bit surprising.

So now I am just doing some more cleanup—it’s amazing how clean my one desk looks after I threw out 2 years worth of duplicate journals! Party for me tomorrow, yay!

Posted at 9:49 AM | (3)

I just can’t seem to stop….reviewing, that is. Kevin opened up Beta Testing of The Naked Word over the weekend, and since then I’ve posted several reviews.

So far I’ve reviewed the books I’ve read recently, along with a selection of products that I use often. I tried to pick products that were in different categories, to give a variety to my reviews. So far it’s been fun writing a few small paragraphs detailing my thoughts on using a product. Hopefully someone, someday will find them useful.

In the meantime, if you signed up for the site, go post a review! It can be of ANYTHING, so no using the excuse that you have nothing to review. Think of all the objects you interact with on a daily basis, and write a fun, useful opinion of it!

If you didn’t sign up, well, go do it now! Check it out, the more the merrier! Not to mention, the more feedback, the more useful the site will become.

Oh, and try to beat me in number of reviews….if you can. I’m a reviewing machine!

Posted at 12:57 PM | (1)

So my car is having some (hopefully) minor issues again—the engine Malfunction Indicator Light decided to randomly turn on again. I say again, because this happened to me shortly after I purchased my car back in mid-2002. The last time, they chastized me for using middle-grade gas, instead of the high-end stuff. However, since that time, I have ONLY used the high-end gas, so I can’t imagine that that’s the problem. I think the light coming on may have SOMETHING to do with the fact that I had a bit of trouble starting my car on Friday—as it came on shortly thereafter. However, since then, it has started fine, and drives like normal, just with the annoying light.

Not wanting to drive around with a potential problem, I took the car into the dealership today, sans appointment. So, who knows when I’ll get it back UPDATE 11:05AM: They just called. It’s already finished and ready to be picked up! Woohoo, who needs an appointment! Anyway, that doesn’t explain the title of my post. The title is derived from today’s bus ride to campus.

I’m sure you’ve been on a bus where everyone is totally silent the whole way, reading papers or staring into space. I’m sure you’ve also been on buses where everyone is chatting away. For some reason though, I was a little annoyed by the girl that chatted NONSTOP for the entire 20 minute ride. She was the only person talking, and indeed, even her friend barely got a word in edgewise.

I now know all about the excursions she took, some sand or clay she wanted to texture, etc. The worst part is that every other sentence sounded like this: “So I was like, aren’t you going to have another trip?” “And he was like, no I don’t think so.” “And that was like, not what I thought” etc.

Ok, so I know I say “like” a lot too. I even say “dude” a lot. I don’t know, I guess I just thought it was too early in the morning for someone to talk LOUDLY nonstop. I mean, most people in the morning just sit there and read their morning papers—I’m sure the enjoyment of that must have been infringed upon with the lone loud voice, that scarcely took a breath.

Does stuff like that annoy you too? I’ve taken the bus a dozen or so times, and this is the first time that this type of person has appeared.

Posted at 8:44 AM | (6)

Did anyone watch I love the 90s on VH1?

I am semi-ashamed to admit that I did. I couldn’t help it! There is just something so fascinating about those VH1 programs—especially the fact that they made a nostalgia show about the 90s, when we are only 4 years removed from that decade.

Next i assume they will be providing a show entitled, “I love the early 00’s”, to debut in 2006. :)

Anyway, the shows do present a bunch of things you forgot you loved about the 90’s, but most importantly, they have a bunch of cool people talking on the subjects, like JOHN MAYER! :) That alone totally makes it worth it. Go get addicted if you haven’t already; the episodes are still showing in repeats!

Posted at 11:06 AM | (4)

Every company has its policies—that’s all well and good, as they are designed to keep things running smoothly. However, every once in awhile you encounter instances where exceptions should be made—sometimes this happens, but more often than not, procedure is followed to the letter.

Such is the situation that I encountered yesterday. I discovered that, despite the fact that I’m leaving next Friday, I am still going to be given my annual evaluation. The weirdest thing is that, in the past, other employees have left around this time of year and were not required to have their evaluation (all annual evaluations are given during this time of year, regardless of what month you started working).

Therefore, I am stumped. I can’t figure out why they are still going ahead with the review—it’s not like they are going to give me a raise—heck NO ONE is getting a raise with the budget as crappy as it is. I feel that I’ve done a good job—I’m smart, learn quickly, and complete tasks in half the time it takes other people—so I can’t imagine that they want to get in some cheap shots at me before I ditch them, but you never know.

I guess I’ll find out next week. This is SO lame!

Posted at 8:20 AM | (11)

Friends of mine that travel in some specific social circles already know this news, but for the rest of you, I will fill you in.

My good friend, Kevin, has created a super nifty new review-type site. It’s called The Naked Word, and it’s rapidly being devloped as we speak.

This will be a place for ANYONE to sign up and review ANYTHING you can think of—books, movies, cars, music, soap, your neighbor’s bad hair style, WHATEVER! You will also be able to search for specific things, browse categories, browse users, etc. You can meet people who have the same interests as you, as well as get opinions from a variety of different people all in one place. Heck, you might even make some new friends in the process.

Therefore, if you still haven’t clicked on that link to go check it out…..what are you waiting for?! Go take a look around, and most importantly, SIGN UP!! The beta isn’t QUITE out yet, but you can keep abreast of all the latest development info, as well as secure your desired username. You will then also be the first to know when the site is ready to accept your reviews.

So go there NOW, and don’t forget to save up those product/movie/music/book reviews!!

It is now officially less than two weeks until I begin my new job, and I feel like I haven’t accomplished much in the way of tying up loose ends yet. I still have yet to clear out the 100+ emails in my inbox, my desk is still a mess, and there are at least 3 unread issues of my favorite German-language journal, Stern, sitting beside me.

On the plus side, I did show my supervisor how to print out one of the reports that I took upon myself to do every week. I suppose that’s the downside to hoarding a task—when you leave, no one else knows how to do it!

I should really just buckle down and sort through the years of stuff I’ve amassed at my desk—it’s just easy to get overwhelmed when you aren’t sure where to start!

Posted at 10:08 AM | (8)

Hooray, today I was finally allowed to add my link on the 26 Things page—so go do it now for your project now, if you haven’t already. It seems that Tracey wasn’t notified that it was time to renew her domain, so it lapsed and she was unable to add the submission form. All is well now though, so it’s all good.

My weekend was all right. Besides finishing up the project, I also did a bit of driving to attend a coworker’s bridal shower on Saturday. It was nice, and she got a ton of nice gifts—primarily from Williams-Sonoma. The only downside was the food—almost everything there was stuff I don’t eat! There were like, radish tea sandwiches; cornbread things with pureed onions, sour cream, and other stuff; salad with vinaigrette dressing, nuts, and some other weird things, etc.

I tried hard to eat some of it, so that I wouldn’t look too weird. It was REALLY hard—I totally wanted to gag on some of that stuff. Meanwhile, everyone around me totally cleaned their entire plate. Am I really the only person who didn’t like the stuff?!

At least I tried, right? That should impress some of you who know me well!

Posted at 8:29 AM | (5)