The Last Day

Today was my last day at my job.  I'm pretty darn depressed about it right now; I really love this job.

I love the people I work with, the work I do, and the work environment.  It's hard to find something that good, and it's very hard to leave something that good.  My coworkers took me out to lunch today, and even got me a graduation/going away present--they got me a Longs Peak bench mark paperweight.  It's symbolic because I have graduated, and hence hit a "peak" in my life worthy of noting and measuring future accomplishment against.  I believe I will return to get my PhD and become a researcher; I feel that I belong with these people.  Onward to the next big thing, the next bench mark, as it were.

In answer to Fuzzy's question, I've been sick.  For the last month.  I was sick all of last week, but worked anyways in a desperate attempt to finish up all of the work I had left before leaving my job.  I failed, but it's okay because it's all ongoing type work that I can continue to contribute to (blah blah blah "but you're not getting paid" and whatever else--it's called pride in workmanship, people; my name is going on it, and I will be satisfied before I call it done, paid or not).  Then, I forced myself to take a camping vacation last weekend, where I unintentionally hiked a nearly 3 mile trail with a runny nose, cough, and not as much water as I would have preferred.  I complained the whole way, which probably wasn't much fun for the others on the hike, but I didn't die, which was a plus.

All in all, I am expecting to have a low week.  I am crawling into a hole to reflect and figure out what I'm going to do with myself now.

Alula

24 more reasons I love my job

A couple of weeks ago, my boss came to me with a onerous task; he needed to put together a literature review.  For anyone unsure of what a literature review is, it's where you go through a large number of recent publications and cherry pick the ones that seem the most interesting or relevant to a field, and then report them in the form of a bibliographic list.  My boss had made his review, and put it together--it took him more than 30 minutes per page to format all of the citations correctly (and at a length of 20 pages, that ain't no small feat).

He turned it in to the reviewers, who told him they didn't use that citation style, meaning he needed to reformat every single citation.  I got cc'd on the email, and immediately cringed--formatting is the kind of thing one can only do for 2 hours at a run before getting s truly horrific migraine, and they needed the reformat very quickly.

Literally seconds after this email arrives, I get another one from my boss: "If you do this for me, there's a quantity of your favorite beverage in it for you."

I roll my eyes, because he's my boss, and he hired me to do this kind of boring crap anyways, and even though his lit reviews technically aren't part of my job description, "miscellaneous projects as needed" is.  So I shoot him one back and say no problem.

I got the lit review done in time, with a lot of Excedrin.  Time goes on.

Then, today, my boss pops into my cubical and says "Great job on the lit review, and thanks!  There's a case of Monster in the back of my truck.  Don't forget to grab it before you leave tonight!"

And by case, he means a case.  As in 24 cans of Monster, which I totally thought he was joking about.  Good Golly!  Best Boss in the World!!!!!

This is a bonus system I can live with!
Alula

Parents, Bookstores, and Earning it

My first pea harvest this year--45 pods in total.

Q can tell all of you how I've been drooling over her new Barnes and Noble Nook the last few weeks. I will caveat here that Fuzzy owns a Kindle, an equally awesome product. After weeks of obsessive research, I elected that the Nook would be my product because it's more hackable than the Kindle, despite the fact that Kindle has a heartier brand, a longer and better tested run in the market, and what is generally considered the more user-friendly interface. Nook is has more open file formats and expandable memory, which for me as an individual, were strongly needed features.

I've wanted an e-reader for some time now, but have been holding out due to the price and skepticism over the quality of newly released technology. Generally, I have a 1-year rule for this kind of stuff; new products have problems that need to be worked out. Example: the Xbox 360 red ring of death, the hacked iPad, and the read-aloud feature on the Kindle that got canceled due to copyright infringement. The first round of sales are the last round of tests, and when it comes to shelling out a C-note or more, I like to learn from others' use and abuse stories to know exactly what I'm getting.

I finally settled that I would wait until my birthday, and use gift cards to offset the cost. Then, yesterday, I got an email at work from a research colleague. She had just gotten back from Spain, where she had presented our research from earlier this year to an international group of experts, and several had responded with great enthusiasm! Our research will be featured as a chapter in a book, and I have been invited to write up an additional report on my research methodologies. I got kudos all day, and from my supervisors especially. My main supervisor told me that having my first big publication at 25 was excellent--he didn't author until he was 42. I spent the whole afternoon thinking about my parents, and how grateful I was that they had fostered my academic and literary interests. When the book comes out, I'm going to get a gigantic magnet and stick it to their fridge.

Later in the day, I'm driving home, and as a planned errand, I stop at Barnes and Noble to check out the Nook in person and quiz the sales reps. Walking up to the door, I'm hit with a huge wave of nostalgia, because this was the bookstore of my youth. I'd spent hours in there while my mom or dad just patiently waited on a couch somewhere, browsing fiction, science, art...This was the store that started it. In some small way, that Barnes and Noble contributed to my love of reading, writing, and research. And on the day that I got confirmation of getting published, in the topic of language and the next generation of technology, I wanted to celebrate by getting something from my old friend, the bookstore, and it seemed only appropriate that it would be something to do with the next generation of literature and technology.

I went home, I got my husband, and we went back and got the Nook (I didn't actually need Mr. B to make the purchase, but I wanted him there for my moment of nostalgia and victory dance). I'm counting it as my early birthday present, and I LOVE it. DoHP, Munchkin, you need e-readers--I've had mine for just over 12 hours and it's already changed my life.

Alula

School, Weight, and Sleeping Computers

I'm exhausted. And I have a hyper-involved group for one of my group projects. This is not a bad thing, but good god, my email and our group page is going to explode. I am taking a break.

And I have officially given up on dieting. I suck at it. I sit on my widening butt for 8 hours every day because of my job, and cutting calories has never given me more than 2 pounds of weight loss. So I am finally admitting defeat--I caved and spent the money for a 20-punch pass to the local rec center today. I'm going to try a 5-week experiment where I go for four 1-hour days every week.

I am effectively instituting a gym period in my life. I'll be sure to let you know how it goes.

Today, one of my coworkers (an older-than-me woman who is also in my MLS program) called me from home to say she was really worried about her computer because it had crashed again. Now, she's not the most technically apt of people--the last few times she's called me regarding computer problems were because she was worried someone had "hacked" her when her computer started doing automatic updates, and once when her computer would not turn on (result of dead battery). This time, she informed me, she was sure she had done it in--she had accidentally hit "logout" instead off "power off" and the computer "seemed to be stuck--the lights are all on but the screen is blank and it's not turning on or off!"

Well, my goodness! I calmly explained the sleep and hibernate functions of laptops to her and told her to hold down the power button until the laptop shut down, and then to reboot it like normal.

And she was very grateful--she once paid a certain highway robbery group of technically oriented people dressed like a '90s stereotype and run by a large electronics store more than $150 to fix a problem like this.

It's nice to be appreciated. It's nice to help. It's also nice to look at people my parents' age and think how cute they are, and not mean that in a demeaning or derogatory way--computers are confusing to people who don't use them often, and sometimes I forget that.

Alula

The Saga of Grumpy Begins

I haven't posted in quite some time sorry ladies, so I'll attempt to make up for it. I have truly had a summer to remember. The new job is FABULOUS, thought a thirty of more minute drive each way. My first experience camping was so delightful, that I wish I could do it every weekend. To top off the good stuff, I should officially have a piece of paper that says I have some form of education at the end of this semester.

Now for the interesting stuff... I have overloaded myself once again, like Alula I am a masochist. The gal I work with, I am referring to her as Grumpy because she brings a cloud of doom and hate with her while somehow managing to make her face look like an ugly dwarf, she is terrible. Behind my back she is going to my boss attempting to become my supervisor, and she's only been here one week longer than I have. Neither of us are trained enough to be the supervisor at this point, and she is being very sneaky instead of being honest and waiting her turn. Do not take this as me wanting the position for myself, I want only to work... not to be anything special. I enjoy my job, and she is making my life miserable.

She has left ealy everyday for the past two months and our current supervisor, Sparkley, was getting very upset and speaking her mind to the whole front office including Grumpy's best buddy Prego, after she left. Prego proceeded to tell Grumpy what Sparkley had said the very next morning, and there was a confrontation that afternoon. Sparkley is a good friend of mine and got me the job, so now I am almost sure I am getting the silent treatment because Grumpy assumed I was complaining to Sparkley about her, and that I want to stop her from getting a promotion. The other morning our big boss was running late and had a meeting promptly at 10am with three men from Korea, he called to say he was late and keep them happy until he gets there in a bit, not one minute later they walk through the front door. She was so rude to them they left and came back about 30 minutes later. Knowing that these men just got off an airplane from Korea to come see us, it baffles me to think they could be treated with such a non-care and disrespectful attitude. Everyday I come into work and sit there for 8 hours getting the silent treatment from both my coworkers. All this just started... heck we actually used to get along and communicate like civilized human being once in a while before this experience.

I am getting very frustrated with this woman, and wish i could speak my mind to her so she knows that I didn't do anything, and the problems people may or may not have with her are not because of me but because of her own actions and rudeness to everyone. Oh... And did I forget to mention, she's pregnant and hasn't told anyone yet.

What should I do???