April 2007
Thursday, April 26, 2007
It's taken me quite a while to post about my new job, because by the time I get home, I just don't feel like getting on the computer again. All day in front of one being really bored does not make one want to go back to that when you're at home and there's food, and then a couch calling your name. I only have 4 hours each night when I get home before I have to go to bed again. That's not very much time. I am seriously mourning the loss of free time here. Anyway...
Started on Monday, but nothing was ready for me so I mindlessly played sudoku and tetris online all day long. I think I also wrote an e-mail to Sam begging her to e-mail me back so I could have something to do. lol Everyone's very nice at least. Tuesday was the same thing, except that when one of the guys left he stayed logged on so I could check other people's work. Wednesday was the exact same as Tuesday. Today I came in later and therefore got to start checking other people's work sooner, but that didn't take long enough to keep me busy until the end of the work day. At least on Wednesday I got my company e-mail and login to the employee website. Today I finally got my key to get in and out of the office, too, so that's nice. Now I don't have to knock or borrow someone else's. *sigh* Hopefully my other logins will get setup some time next week so that I can actually work.
I know what you're thinking: who wouldn't want to get paid for just sitting around and surfing the internet all day? Me. I feel useless and it's just a big waste of time. I'd rather be doing something than just sitting around for this long. I mean, technically most of what I've been doing the past few months at home has been sitting around (and not always being productive), but at least I felt entertained while I was doing it and had the freedom to do different things: computer, TV, food, read, pet kitties, etc. Here there's just a computer screen in front of my eyes for eight hours straight. That's hard. It's been a long time since I've consistently sat at my computer for that long. And in the past when I have, I was engrossed in coding so it made sense and I didn't think about how long it was, etc. I'm starting to consider asking if I can bring my laptop. I have a book with me, but I'm afraid to read it. I mean, if I'm sitting at my desk reading when some exec. comes in, that probably looks worse than if there's the illusion that I'm working based on the fact that I'm typing or clicking or something. But then again, my own laptop would kill that illusion as well. Gah!
I'm, like, really confused over this job and whether I like it or not. It has goods and it has not goods. The goods are that everyone is nice, benefits are super good, and it's a job. The bads are that I don't do anything yet, it's a long drive, and it just blows to have to have a full-time job. I know lots of people do, and I thought I wanted one for a while a few years back, then I thought I had to get one but really didn't want one, and here I am. Maybe I will start to write more and therefore not have to have a day job for my entire life. I wrote some two other days while I've been at work, and it was good, but I'm in a very pessimistic mood lately (unfortunately), and it just doesn't seem like it's enough or whatever, but really it is good. Hopefully I'll start to cope better.
Going back to not blogging and not having computer time at home, I didn't even turn on my computer Monday or Tuesday. I only did yesterday because I had to for the theatre site, and I will do the same for the same reason tonight. I think I'll also try to answer a few e-mails tonight, but I'm not going to be as active with my own websites until I get used to this stuff, I think. I'm probably going to close down support at my scripts site for a while too as I just won't have time/desire to do that for a while. And now... now I am going to sleep.
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Thursday: My mom and I carpooled since her work is just down the road from my new work. I had some time before I was supposed to go in for paperwork and new hire orientation, so I used that to go buy a nice pair of pants that fit with the work dress code. Managed to make it there just in time. lol That went well. I had to sign a LOT of different papers and things. lol I came away with gifts though! lol I got a mug, notepad, pen, and a badge holder clip thing all with the company logo on it. Spiffy! Apparently, I'm going to also get business cards. lol Not sure how much opportunities I'll have to give those out to people being that my job is (as far as I understand) sitting at a desk all the time. *shrugs* But hey, I'll take 'em. ;)
That took almost two hours to go through everything, and even then I came out with "homework" to read the employee handbook which was another 46 pages. They are very thourough. *nods* After that I picked up my mom and we went to Wal*Mart where I didn't have much luck finding any business casual attire. It's obnoxious because they do everything by "season" so they have hardly any pants to choose from. I am NOT wearing a skirt, and I'm pretty sure shorts do not qualify. I had much better luck later at Target and found two more pairs of pants so now I have three, which should be fine. :) I think I might need a couple more shirts still, but I will worry about that in a few days.
Friday: I got up early again, but this time for something fun! I went to the screening of Spider-Man 3! Good stuff! Follows well after the first two, and I shall definitely be seeing it again opening weekend (or, at least I hope so). I'm going to try to be good and not give away too much here, which is hard for me. That's the one down side to going to trade screenings: two weeks of not having anyone else to discuss the movie with. lol I must say though, that I have never liked the character of Harry in these movies. He's just obnoxious and rude, etc. But in this one... well, I now like Harry. :) lol And the actor who plays him... he has such a pretty smile and sparkly, sparkly eyes. *big grin*
I think I just chilled at home the rest of the day until Stargate came on. Then, when those were over, I went to bed. Or, tried to anyway. I am finding it is hard to actually fall asleep when I should in order to get enough sleep to get up early the next day and not have a "lack of sleep headache" later.
Saturday: I woke up at 8 AM. Yeah. On a Saturday. I didn't actually roll out of bed until a half hour later, but I was fully awake at eight. Why? Because I have to start getting into a habit. I'm going to have to be getting up by at least 7 AM every weekday morning, which is quite the shift from 11 AM to 2 PM when I was previously getting up. Ugh.
I watched some TV for a while, then went and met Emily for lunch. After that I came home and chilled for a while again. When my dad got back we started working on my car only to realize we didn't have an oil filter for it. lol So, we did a few other things including changing the wiper blades. Then mom and I re-watched the SG-1 episode from Friday before I went to bed.
Today: Woke up at 7:30 AM for church. Even though I got more sleep than I normally get the nights before I have my volunteer Sundays, I was still way off my game today. *sigh* After church mom and I got lunch, then went to try and find me more dressy shoes. It wasn't totally a bust, but I wasn't sure about the one pair I sort-of liked so we're going to wait a bit to see how it goes. We ran a couple more errands before coming home.
Now, here I am... tired. And I have a list of things I need to do today as well. Gotta fold laundry, get my things together for work in the morning, make lunch for tomorrow, and a few other things I'm sure. lol Hopefully I'll knock out pretty quick once I lay down for sleep tonight.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
I got a job! :D lol I was still feeling unsure this morning before I left, but mom and I prayed, and then I prayed more while driving. The interview went really well and the people I'll be working with are very nice, and that helped me to feel a lot better about the whole thing and feel like it was the right way for me to go right now and okay with God. :) Actually, God is very good to me. lol Not only did I get the job, but the decided to pay me more than the original plan. :D So I get an extra two bucks and still get the benefit plan that has more to it. :) I have to pay some, of course, but now I can go get my teethed cleened again not too long after they said they'd prefer me to come back by! lol I don't have to wait six to eight years this time. ;) lol I'm still going to generally try and stay clear of the doctor as much as possible, but it will be nice to know that I can go without giving up an arm and a leg if I need to. And, I don't have to start until next week so I can make it to the Spider-Man 3 screening on Friday! Woo hoo! lol
The only bummer about the job (besides drive-time) is that I have to go get a new wardrobe for it. No jeans or screen tees, unfortunately. At least it's business casual, so not TOO formal. I can deal with that. I found a few shirts today when I went to the store and tomorrow I can hopefully find some pants. lol Sooner or later I probably would have had to get some clothes like that anyway. Hopefully there will be lots of sales at the store! lol
In addition to all the job stuff that happened today, the power went out for around an hour. Have no clue why as there was only very light wind, but at least it came back on! lol I was watching Flyboys when it went out. At least I hadn't gotten very far through it. It's a good movie. Aerial fights are amazing, and the end was like, "yeah! Take that!" lol Sad stuff in it, of course, since it's war-time, but pretty darn good. We also rented a couple other movies that we'll be watching over the weekend. :)
So, that's it for now. I can't believe I got a job. lol It's sort of funny too because I sort of just sent my resume off as a spur of the moment thing and then all of a sudden a couple days later I've got a job. lol Not complaining, just still letting it sink in. ;)
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
I have an interview for a job tomorrow. It's all come on so quickly which is making it more confusing for what to do. I applied around 3 AM this morning for a job listing I found, and then got a call just before noon today and talked to a recruiter. That went well and so she had me fill out the formal application on their website. About five minutes after I did that, she called me back and now I have an interview for tomorrow. I think I'm almost in shock because it's happened so quickly. Like with so many things I feel confused and undecisive. Part of it would be good, and part of it I'm not sure about, and I just don't know what way God is leading me. I'm afraid I'll go the wrong direction and botch up what otherwise would have been a beautiful future. My mom advised that I should just take the job if it's offered to me unless there's something that really lets me know I shouldn't because that would mean the door was open and if it was bad, God would probably close the door and they wouldn't offer the job to me. I think I'm also afraid of getting locked in to something I don't like and not doing something that fulfills my purpose. But I don't even know what my purpose is. I mean, I know the basic that is every child of God's purpose, but I don't know my specific one yet. I think I want to be a writer--that's what I keep going back to, but it's hard in that I don't write much and even if I was writing more, I'd probably still need a day job too, right? And I've been praying for a job, but now that it's looking at me as being a fair possibility I'm not sure. And I'm not sure I'm ready for full time either. *sigh* I just want things to be easier, but I don't suppose they can be... or I can't figure out how to make them be through how I perceive everything. I don't know.
And then along with that I also had to take my mom to the doctor earlier. She wasn't feeling very well. The doctor doesn't think it's anything serious though, and she feels better now, so hopefully everything is okay and there are no problems.
On the up side of things--and something that doesn't require deep thought, only excited-ness--I got my birthday presents from Sam in the mail today! :) She got me a book on Ireland and a pretty green feather pen. :D I'm bummed because her present didn't arrive at her place before she went back to school, so she won't get it until Summer. Blarg. Hopefully when she does get it she will enjoy it though. Okay, now I'd best be off to do some thinking (or try not to think about it).
Monday, April 16, 2007
Okay, so I have a problem. Just today I have designed two really cool looking card templates for TCGs I'm not really considering opening. And then there are at least two others I have templates for as well that I made a while back. And, knowing me, I'll probably end up coming up with some more. lol Then I jokingly told Sam that I could create a TCG with all of these! All the card templates are for movies so each movie would have it's own style card. And she said she'd join if I made it and now it's got me considering... What am I to do?! lol They look really cool, but that would be a LOT of effort. So, what movies do I have super pretty card templates for? Well, there's the Stargate one I had for my old TCG, Portal, then there is the rad Narnia one I made a few months back, and today the PotC and Spider-Man ones I made. I also have a Batman one (for Batman Begins), but that one doesn't look as good. lol It'd need work. Anyone else want to weigh in on this idea or want to make a TCG for just one of those subjects? lol Oh dear me.
In other news... there's not much other news. lol I have doen some more writing since my last post, but took yesterday off. Perhaps I'll be good and do a little more writing today? I also read some last night, which was good. Saturday I watched Flight of the Navigator on TV. That was fun. Yesterday mom and I watched the recent Stargate episodes again, which was also good. Humm... watched Planet Earth on Discovery last night. I probably shouldn't have watched the jungles one as there were too many creepy-crawlies for me. I had to fast forward past the nasty up-close spider parts. Yes, I don't like spiders, but I do like Spider-Man. lol I actually wrote a little short about that some time back. Maybe I'll post it one of these days. It's kind of funny. Okay... enough with the random rambling. Ta!
Friday, April 13, 2007
New episodes of SG-1 and Atlantis aired tonight! FINALLY! We have been waiting WAY longer than we normally have to for the second halves of the seasons. Sheesh! lol What do I have to say about the episodes? Daniel is the MAN and I totally knew the plan in Atlantis wasn't the real plan, and I was right! lol I didn't know what their real plan was, but I knew they had one and whatever it was it would work. Take that evil replicators! Hahaha!
Mom and I were watching one of the Planet Earth episodes last night and I'm wondering now if there are others like me. See, when we're watching all the scenes with one animal hunting the other one, I'm usually rooting for the one doing the hunting. If there's a wolf and a carabou (sp?) I'm rooting for the wolf to take it down! Other people are all like, "oh, I hope that poor creature gets away," but I feel bad if the wolf doesn't catch it. That's like a major bummer. And a great white going after a seal... go sharky go! (Off-topic some, but I'm SOOO excited for the 20th anniversary of Shark Week this summer on Discovery.) Am I the only one that does this? I mean, I feel sort of bad for the creature getting eaten, but when it comes down to it, I just sort of like the predatory animals a little better. *shrugs* Whatever. lol
You know what else happened last night? I wrote! Praise be to God! :D That's the most (if I even did any before) writing I've done in quite some time, so that was good. Not sure if I'll try to do more tonight when I'm done writing this, but I think I sort of feel like it... maybe I'll give it a shot and see how it goes. :)
Today I sold my old desktop computer. I got a whopping $75 for it. For the CPU, monitor, keyboard and everything. That's it. *hangs head* I paid around $850 for it when I got it, but the value has just gone down a lot since then. lol I originally was trying for $150, but then had to keep lowering it. I didn't even think I was going to manage to sell it for $75. If that had been so, I was going to donate it to a worthy cause. I would have rather of donated it than taken less than that! I was just going to end up donating it, but my mom suggested I try again with a lower price since I could sort of use the money at the moment, so I did, and someone came and got it! So again I must thank God. :)
After that mom and I went to do some errands and had lunch. :) I was brave at the restaurant and got something I've never had before. It was pretty good. And, I still have half of what was on my plate as left overs. I just can't eat that much people. Well, unless it's mac n' cheese or hamburger noodle bake... and then I'm mad at myself later for doing so. lol Okay, off to see about writing (or not writing) now!
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
I ate WAY too many cookies yesterday and today. lol Emily came over yesterday and we baked chocolate chip cookies. I polished off the last of them tonight. Of course, I didn't eat them all by myself, but I did eat a rather large portion of them. Ooh... so bad.
Monday evening I drove my car to meet Emily at the coffee shop! It worked! lol It still smells a little funky, but it runs and I can now drive places without having to ask my mom if I can borrow her car! Woo hoo! lol Another good thing about Monday was that Emily and I actually did some writing while we were there. That is the goal of most of our get-togethers but that's only the second time either of us have written anything, and the first for me. I'm still in somewhat of a creative drought, but hopefully that is changing itself. We only managed to do two short timed writing exercises before I'd had enough, but at least it was something. ;)
When Emily came over yesterday she brought her laptop so I could help her clean it up (it's bogged down with spyware and stuff, I'm sure). That didn't go so well because her computer is SO SLOW. Oy! lol At least we were able to run one scan and get rid of a few things, but we were having trouble with the wireless connection and couldn't download update4, etc. Hopefully she had some luck with that once she got home.
I haven't been up to much besides that. My room is fairly clean now, so that's essentially done for the time being. Oh, and my ear finally popped. It still feels like there's some wax left in there, but at least I can hear pretty well again. lol I thought I was done with the ear wax problems since I haven't had any for a long time (used to have lots of issues when I was little with that), but I guess it was just on a long break and is back for a bit now. lol Humm...
The only other thing to post about is what was on Oprah today. There was this guy on talking about happiness and whatnot. It was good, and hopefully I can begin to turn around with some things. I have what he called "destination addiction." lol Basically, I keep saying tomorrow I'll do this and it will make me happy. Or, if I can just do this or get to this point then I'll be happy, which isn't really how you're supposed to think of these things and it's not going to help any. So, hopefully I can get a little better about that and be happier. At least I'm not unhappy, just not as happy as I could be. Shall try to work on it. :)
Sunday, April 8, 2007
Happy Easter everyone! I hope you all had a lovely time with family and celebrating that Jesus Christ is risen! :D Church was very full this morning. Easter and Christmas always have extra people, which is good. :) The only bummer was that the music was too loud and it extra hurt my ears today. Normally it just sort of hurts, but the extra is that my right ear is plugged up with something (probably wax) and so that side is muffled and it sort of makes things through my left ear sound louder. So, that part was a little taxing, but I survived.
Man though, I'm getting really annoyed with the ear thing. It started yesterday afternoon/evening. I was careless with the cotton swab and it went farther into my ear than it should have. I think what happened was that it pushed some wax further in, thus creating the current problem. Oh yeah, it's still plugged good. I've been sticking ear drops in and squirting water at it to no avail. *sigh* What's bothering me even more than the annoying muffled state is that pressure is building in there and it sort of hurts a bit. At least every once in a while I can move the outside of my ear to get the blockage scootched enough to let air out/in and it gets better. Right now it's very unhappy though because I think I was overly zealous in squirting water in my ear a bit ago. Unhappy feeling.
On the up side, I'm almost done cleaning my room! I've finished as much of my closet as shall be done at this time and I cleaned off my desk yesterday, too. Now I just need to vacuum and such and I'll be good for a while until I make things messy once again. :)
I also helped my dad put a new battery in my car yesterday and took it out for a test drive. I can now use my car!!! That was the first time I've driven it since... probably sometime in November maybe. Wow. Still looking to get another car because mine's still leaking water into it. We found at least one spot where it's going in. It probably could be fixed, but it's not worth it to me to spend the money on that, especially since I don't have a lot of money right now. lol Which means I must continue on in the job hunt. Joyous.
Oh, and how could I almost forget? How terrible of me! Happy birthday Sam!
Friday, April 6, 2007
Oo-de-lally!!! I got Disney's Robin Hood Most Wanted Edition on DVD for my birthday today. :) It's much nicer than the Gold Edition DVD. lol Anyway... I'm 22 now!!!! *jumps around* Yay!
I got up around 11 this morning and go ready, then mom and I went out for brunch at this place that has REALLY good french toast. :D Yummy. Then we went to Staples to see if they still had the pens in stock that would be free after rebate... they didn't. :( We even checked another store later and they were sold out, too. Oh well. Anyway, mom and I went to see The Last Mimzy, which was good. After the movie we went and took some old computer monitors to a PC recycle place. Believe it or not, that was my suggestion. lol two of them had been on the floor in my room for months, so it was really a rather nice birthday present to get rid of them and not have them around anymore! Look, floor! Hehehe.
After that we went to Target where mommy bought me the DVD and a candy for Easter. ;) The last two stops were the grocery store, and then Baskin Robbins. At the grocery store I picked out a pizza for dinner and bought a lotto ticket and a sudoku scratch ticket. Got nothing from the scratch ticket, and I'll have to wait until Tuesday or Wednesday to find out about the lotto one, but I'm guessing that'll be nothing, too. lol Twenty bucks or something would be nice though. ;) At B.R. I got a scoop of chocolate chip cookie dough with rainbow sprinkles on it. :D
We came home and I had flowers and root beer waiting for me from dad. :) Then, I cooked the pizza, watched the movie, then I got on the comp. for a bit, watched another movie, and now I'm back here again. lol Oh yes, and I called Ran on the way to brunch to wish her a happy birthday as well. :) And my cousin Mike was sweet and called me/text messaged me to wish me a happy birthday, too. All in all, a lovely birthday. :)
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
I may be really good at HTML. I may be proficient in Photoshop. I may even be well into basic PHP. But I still can't get a job involving those things.
My mom thinks it's because I'm not putting forth enough effort into looking and applying to places. And it's true, I'm not putting as much effort into it as I could be. However, the real reason is because there are no companies--that I have found--that just need someone extremely good at HTML. They all want you to have a B.A. in some internet or computer related field, or they want you to know Dreamweaver (why should I know how to use that if I can code by hand?), or they want you to know five or more internet languages as opposed to the two I can use. Is my A.A. worth absolutely nothing? Does it not matter that I've designed websites for small companies and was paid for it?
I can't help it. Every time I search Monster or some other job site looking for a possible position I get depressed. As much as I like how my websites look and know that I'm good with HTML and solving code issues, I can't measure up to what people are looking for. I don't know. It's the same in this as it is in pretty much all other things: half of me thinks I can, half of me thinks I can't... and it's usually the can't that wins out. I feel like I'm failing. And it's terrible because I'm only judging it by the world's standards, and I know I shouldn't. But I can't seem to break out of it yet. I want to do so much and be so much and part of me thinks I can and part of me calls myself a fool. I hate the word fool.
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
After not driving my car at all for MONTHS, I may finally drive it in a few days. Yes, it's true--if I can get it to start. ;) lol Hopefully all that remains to make it usable is to get a new battery, which I will find out about by the end of the week, I think. I still want a new (used) car, though. This is the second time I've had to clean mold out of the thing, and I never want to have to do it again. lol Is that so wrong? And even though it's clean, I'm still not thrilled about getting into it whenever I decide to go to the auto shop to get the battery checked/replaced. lol I've been looking at car listings online, but haven't seen any that call out to me. That is probably partially because my budget is not at all high. Nope, not even remotely somewhat on the high side. No news yet from the job I applied to, and haven't found any others to apply for so that's not helping my new (used) car prospects either. *sigh* I did get this thing in the mail the other day that said that I may be entitled to part of a settlement and receive money, but I find that very unlikely to happen and if I was truly eligable and did receive money, it probably wouldn't be much. But then again, if they want to send me 20 bucks, I'd be okay with it! :D Oh, silly me.
Nothing else for now, except that my birthday is Friday and Sam's is Sunday. :) My plans thus far are to go to a movie and out to eat with my mom (and dad, too, if he's off of work in time), and also probably go by Staples. Why Staples? Because they're offering FREE pens after a rebate, and they're a kind a really like! Only, it's while supplies last, so I hope that supplies last until I get one or I'll be a little bummed, and they just shouldn't bum me out on my birthday! lol And yeah, I totally get excited over pens. I'm a writer; it makes sense. ;) I would have also had new episodes of SG-1 and Atlantis to watch that evening, but then they pushed it back a week. Rawr. On Saturday though they're playing the next TV movie to a series my mom and I really like, so that's exciting at least.
Sunday, April 1, 2007
I went to a wedding this morning. When I got there I didn't know there was going to be one, but there was. lol A couple got re-married during church service today! It was really cool and I was all like, "I'm not gonna cry." lol I teared, but did not cry. ;) They'd gotten divorced, but then back together and were remarried in front of all of us at the end of church today. Cool. :D
Speaking of tearing up... I did that both times I saw Meet The Robinsons this weekend. lol I couldn't help it! The ending was so happy, and then there's a quote from Walt Disney and I'm a sucker for those. I was actually surprised by how much I liked the movie because I wasn't expecting much from it at all. It was very cute though and has a very deep meaning to it, which was one that I, incidentally, needed to hear. Go see it!
Last night when I got home from my second time watching the above movie I turned on the TV and started watching a Titanic show on the History Channel. If you do not know, I find the Titanic and its story (as well as the storys of those who were aboard) very fascinating, so I know a somewhat fair amount about it (by no means an expert, but more than the average person). I ended up watching all two hours of the show because it was talking about a theory I had not heard before: that the Titanic may have also punctured its bottom as well as the starboard side of the hull when it scraped along the iceberg. That's very plausible since icebergs are mostly underwater. So, they went down to the wreck on three dives to see if they could find any evidence that would support that theory. The last day they found two complete cross-sections of the double-bottom quite far from the main wrecks (plural since it's in two major pieces with large debris fields). That's not evidence that it did get damage to its bottom when it struck the berg, but it is definitive evidence of the break-up, which was in some conflict from the original eye-witness reports. They ended with a new theory of how the ship actually split in two, which was interesting as well. I'm gald I watched the whole thing. :) And speaking of such shows, more Planet Earth is on tonight, so I'm taping those again! lol
I think that's pretty much it for now. I've considerably cooled down about my last post. lol That didn't take long after I wrote my anger down. ;) In other news, I've applied for another job so we'll see if they contact me about it or not in a few days or so perhaps. It's for a very well known company, so I don't know if they'll hire me or not. I applied though.
Oh, P.S. Everything I wrote is true. I don't do April Fools pranks. THIS, however is totally fake, but extremely funny. :D
