Work

So, basically today was the big meeting where my boss told D that he was going to be investigated and that his VPN access was being revoked. I obviously wasn't at the meeting, but she told me that he is disputing my claim. In case there are people that don't know by now, there was a day where he was working from home and he went away for his computer for 2.5 hours. He has done this quite a few times before, almost always when Anita is out of the office. I have kept track in my head but I haven't kept great physical evidence, which was bad on my part. I was furious this time, though, because I got very busy and I really, really needed his help. Not only was I doing my work but toward the end I was doing his because he wasn't there and people were asking for his work to be completed.

 

I guess it's probably instinct for him to defend himself, but I kind of feel like that's a really low thing to do (disputing what I said). It's just a total lie. I checked about every 5 or 10 minutes and he was very obviously not available. It would be a different story if I was exaggerating, but I am not exaggerating one bit. I would not bring something up like that if I wasn't completely serious.

 

So right now it's his word vs. mine. I feel REALLY dumb because my tries to contact him were via IM, and I didn't save the IM. So I'm thinking somebody from HR or wherever is going to go into my IMs now to look at them. I hope that my boss doesn't read my IMs with Nancy (though I don't know why she would). Nancy was kind of chiding me for not saving it. I totally agree, it was dumb of me. But I completely didn't foresee that it was going to come down to this, where I would need to provide hard evidence.

 

I sent one email to my boss that was going around (the same email that caused a huge ruckus with like 10 people when he did get back). It spanned about half an hour and I said that it was his project and he wasn't there covering that project. To prove that he was there, D sent her an email from when he got back that was from around 3:45 (my claim said that he was back at 3:15 so that doesn't really say much for his cause).

 

I suppose it'll be ok for a few reasons.

1. I am 150% confident that he was gone that entire time. There is no question.

2. He won't have any emails or any kind of work to show to back up that he was there, because he wasn't. All of our stuff is timestamped. You could even look at his internet cache or something if he was there and not doing work.

3. If need be they can look at my IMs to see that I tried contacting him at least 2 times.

4. They do have that one email that spanned about half an hour. It's not great, because he doesn't usually respond to emails or IMs sent to all three of us - it's usually me if it's a general question. But, because it was his project, I would under normal circumstances expect him to respond if he was there since he'd be the most familiar. As it was, I had to do a bit of research to figure out what was happening.

 

So I'm kind of shaky about this situation. I really should have known, but I guess for the future I will. Corporate stuff is so much less cutthroat in my head than it is in reality. I should listen to Joel more.

Oh My Lordy, Look Who's Forty

Does anyone remember when someone in Candy's family got a card that said that and I laughed about it for days? I still laugh. I think it was that scenario anyway.

 

I just finished my 2nd writing class and it was so hard!! I need to learn vocab quick, is my problem. I kept on wanting to say stuff I didn't know the words for and I think that my dictionary isn't quite reliable. I think it's kind of old and outdated. I DID manage to say "I am listening to my cat and he is meowing. His name is Daniel." Nice huh? Here it is! Eg er að hlusta á kött og hann er að mjálma. Hann heitir Daniel. I was so proud of that. Then she asked if he was a good cat and I said yes. I was going to say he's quiet, but a) he isn't and b) I didn't know if my word for quiet is correct or not. The word I know is from a Sigur Ros song and I didn't think it was the type of quiet that I'd use in that sentence.

 

I'm definitely making a lot of use of mixture of English/Icelandic. Englandic? Icelish? She wants me not to use English but I find it almost impossible so I'm always asking how to say this word or that word. For instance she asked me what I do for a living. How do you say anything about my job in Icelandic? So I said that part in English. She told me it is "Forritun". So everyone, I do "Forritun"! It's funny cause the word for writing is "ritun" - I think that's the weirdest word. Ritun? How is that like "writing" at all? I mean yeah, I see how it's sort of like it, but I am a person who knows a great deal about word stuff and I can tell you that it really isn't traditionally the same. If it went with all the rules it would be "ritandi" or something. I can't tell you how much Ritun weirds me out every time I see it. Is that nerdy or strange? It's just that I've been around Old English and English and all that crap quite a bit and that word just doesn't fit.

 

More later on work - the dreaded event happened today and I think that I might get dragged into it.

Another day, another dollar

I was just looking at this neighborhoods thing and was "laughing" because what I think is probably my neighborhood has a rape rate that's like 200% higher than the US average. Sweet! I knew I always felt creepy walking around after dark alone.

Work was, as always, interesting today. I was busier than hell and at the end of the day DeAndre goes "has it been this slow all week?" I sort of yelled/laughed. He heard that our fax machine was broken and so he went over and tried to fix it. I think that it was probably under warranty and he voided the warranty. We have a guy at our company that is licensed to fix HP products and this was an HP fax machine. The worst part is, he's done it before (with a computer). It voided the warranty on that too. He got in trouble for that.

I was working on this thing all day and meanwhile a dude I may have mentioned before was IMing me all day for help. Here's more boring information on that. There's a type of project that is particularly difficult to do, and I am an expert in it for some reason (I guess opportunity). So I was working on doing one and the other guy was for some reason doing one. I was pissed off that he was doing one in the first place because he has no idea what he's doing, and I don't know why they are making him do it. So he's IMing me literally all flippin' day long with questions, so that I basically did it for him. I didn't QUITE do it for him, and for that reason it's still not working. He kept undoing things I told him to do. I would tell him "You CANNOT do this and you HAVE to do this" then he'd do it but it would throw an error so he'd put it back. I said multiple times, "we can work through this error", because I'm used to errors and every day I work through every possible type of error that happens on our system. For some reason errors scare him and he doesn't like to work through them, so he totally undoes everything that he did since the past order, so basically we never get anywhere. It's very frustrating. He has probably placed 30 test orders by now.

Another annoying thing is his boss is freaking out on him, and when I gave him the steps to resolve one of his errors she told him to ask my boss instead. Like my boss is going to say something different? Go ahead, try her! For one thing, she is going to agree with me, and for another thing, she is not going to give you a list of detailed steps with screen shots, like I did. Well, it's ok, it happens to me all the time.

Needless to say, he did NOT do the list of steps, even though he was continually getting that error. I think it was far too complicated. Finally I just fixed it for him. Then he kept changing stuff back, and I said, please change that stuff back because it will throw the error again.

Something funny is that we were working a lot on the iSeries, which is this type of system that has an MS-DOS looking interface (incidentally, my dad spent 25 or so years at IBM developing the iSeries). In the iSeries you go around to different screens and do stuff, much like on any computer. Anyway, all of the screens list their name at the top, and to get to the screen you type in the name of it. That's the first thing that you learn how to do. So this guy I was just talking about sends me a screen shot of one of the screens called PR49 and said "Do you know how to get to this screen?" I replied "Ummmmmmmm....type PR49???" I laughed a lot, and so did my boss. You see, because it's the first thing you learn about iSeries..........ahhh...............nerd joke.

What else...the project I was working on turned out really, really well. I was very proud. However, I learned suddenly at 3:30 that I needed to write documentation for it for a meeting tomorrow. PLUS I had to do Icelandic tonight so I had a busy night. Got it all done though. The documentation wasn't too bad. It was only a page. I thought for sure it would be at least 3.

I seem to be writing a lot of negative stuff about work lately...oh well. Hehe...there are good things! It's been very busy the past week or so. My boss reminds me a lot to calm down. Having a lot of work always makes me really energetic, which is weird.

I had a strange exercise in Icel. tonight. I got to this page that had a picture of a living room with stuff in it and the directions were all in Icelandic. Usually they have an English translation just in case, but this one didn't. (Side note: on something I was looking at today it had the word "enska" because it was the heading for the column of English words and on first glance I thought it had gotten my user name from somewhere. HAHA) So this picture thing, I hardly understood the directions because the directions said to write down the words of things in the picture. Really? Just write the words down? (And by the way, I didn't KNOW the words yet) Am I wrong to think that's weird? Well, I did it, by looking in a dictionary. I would have thought I'd have to write the words by the thing, or write something about the words like how to decline the noun.

So I learned about a million and a half nouns and also how to say "I think that......." and some past tense stuff.

I am hungry. And kinda tired! And my legs hurt from exercisin'.

I'm so psyched!

I just did my taxes and I got an insane refund. Remember how I had to pay $400 last year? (Probably not - well, I did.) This year I get an insanely huge refund! I was SHOCKED. I guess updating my tax stuff at work helped. Then I get the other refund thing - this is excellent!!! This guy at work was saying he gets $8,000 because he was able to claim child care payments. Anyway, in a couple weeks I'll be rich!!!!! Maybe I'll go get a piano after all! ;) DIGITAL piano that is.

People

Firstly, I don't understand people.

 

Secondly, I just watched this movie called After Life. It's pretty much about people who have just died and have to choose one memory from their lives to keep (and forget everything else). It's an ok movie. It made me think about what I'd choose if I died right now and that whole deal happened to be true. (It seems a little weird to me, but that's beside the point). Also, gee, I wonder if there is a person who watched this and didn't think about what they'd choose. If so, is that person mentally exceptional? Anyway, I thought of a few, but I'm not going to share them, so too bad!!! It's between me and my after-life-guardian, a 22-year-old Japanese man who died in WWII!

 

 

Weird Day

Regarding the other day when I was pissed and didn't want to talk about it - I received news today that the person responsible for the main event of that day is going to be disciplined for it (having work at home privileges revoked) and investigated by HR. I was happy to hear that "justice would be served" as it were. I hate saying "as it were"...is that not the most pretentious saying ever? I guess I'll probably be asked for my input on it. I'm glad the situation has escalated this far because in my mind it was very serious. I don't think the person will get fired. There was no warning involved, so that would be unfair. I thought about having a discussion with this person but I never did. It might be seen as cowardly or something, but I didn't know what to say. I actually attempted it a little bit but it didn't go over well.

 

Otherwise it was a dumb day, but very nice outside. Hey everyone, Lost starts this week and Jericho starts on Feb. 12.

 

Off to exercise.

Class

So there was an announcement on the site that skype isn't working for my teacher, so no class today. Interesting....I had mild panic because mine was acting weird as well. But I fixed it. I'll wait for like 15 more minutes I guess and then email her.

 

I forgot to mention that I watched this new Romanian movie called "4 months, 3 weeks, and 2 days". AV Club gave it an A so I thought I'd probably like it. It's on On Demand (IFC in theaters). By the way, I noticed that On Demand movies are now $5 instead of $4. That sucks. I usually watch free ones but still, it sucks. This one was $7 since it's in theaters. Anyway, it is pretty good. It's set in 1987 and it's about two girls who are trying to get an abortion for one of the girls. It was pretty good. On a side note, I had forgotten that Romanian is a Romance language. (I can't believe I forgot, it has the same name). Their word for thanks is merci, and some of their numbers are dos and cuatro and stuff. It's weird. I had totally forgotten so I was expecting Russian or something. Well, they do say "da" for yes. I don't know how much to write because I don't know if people will watch it or care if I'm writing about it. Well, here below I'll write more.

 

**************

Here below I'm going to discuss the movie. There are no "twists" so nothing will be ruined, but in case you don't like reading about stuff before you see it, then don't read it.

 

I'll tell you one thing, there was one part that made me extremely squeamish, that had to do with inserting a "probe" which was actually a tube. It was "sterilized" in alcohol. I say that in quotes because I mean it in a very loose sense. The guy doing the procedure wiped the tube once with an alcohol-soaked cotton ball and set it partially on some gauze. The procedure was putting the probe in really far and then leaving it there until the fetus came out. The name of the movie comes from how far along the girl was. So yup, they showed the fetus after it came out. That was nice. Thinking about that "probe" is making me want to throw up. It seems to me it's probably like a pap smear times 10. And I hate those so much!!! I was closing my eyes during that part like it was a horror movie.

 

They didn't think they could find a person to do the procedure so far along except for this guy. Otherwise, apparently they would have called a woman. So, it ended up that they didn't have enough money to pay so they both had to sleep with the guy. Can you imagine anything weirder than having to sleep with this skeezy much older dude and then he performs an abortion on you immediately afterwards? Not to mention, the friend had to as well and she really didn't have any reason to except to help her friend. Hey, guys, would you do that for me? Feel free to say no. I just wrote a huge paragraph about this and deleted it because of its innate controversy and weirdness.

 

Christ, can you imagine? The girl who wasn't having the procedure seemed to not be fazed by it but it was almost like "oh, just another thing happening in my day from hell, might as well do this too". The whole movie is in her point of view and she keeps going through more and more and more crap.

 

At the end, there is a scene where they're in a restaurant that same night and they get served a plate of stuff like brains, marrow, liver, etc. It is almost kind of humorous in a terrible way.

Oven

I cleaned my oven today (with the chemical oven cleaner) and almost choked to death. It's clean now though. I wonder if it's possible to get melted plastic off a stove thing. I stuck it in the oven to see if that stuff would get it off but it didn't. I suppose maybe if I heated it more and then threw more chemicals on there again.

 

I got my first Skype class in an hour. I'm really nervous. :( I'll let y'all know how it went.

Pianos

I've been searching for pianos (like to buy one) and I'm driving myself insane. I really can't afford one but I want one so badly. I went to a store to look today and didn't really see anything. I didn't really feel comfortable buying one. So then I was looking at that store online and it has its own credit card. I almost applied, then I said "self, what are you doing?" I successfully exited out before I applied for it. I think by now I've decided I'm going to just not get one. I just can't do it. As much as I want to play along with Sufjan Stevens and Sigur Rós, I can't do it.

tax rebate

did you guys see that tax rebate thing? ahhhh i'm psyched for it!! from what i read, i'll get a lot. thank fuckin' god.

:D

I am having the best day today! It's great! And I'm not even being sarcastic.

 

I forgot to mention, my teacher has been teaching online for 11 years. And she lives in Italy.

 

Anyway, I hope today continues to be awesome! I'm just feeling really happy and amused.

Wow!

It's gonna be 22 outside tomorrow!

 

I had my first actual lesson today (previously it was just me studying and doing work on the website). It went well. My teacher is funny. Every time I say something right she puts a flower (it's on MSN messenger). We talked about where I live and what I was doing right then, basically. I learned a couple other things. We also talked about Sigur Rós, the University of Minnesota, the weather outside, etc. I can say some things about the weather.

 

I've been writing this entry for like 4 hours. That's enough already.

 

 

Changed my mind

I am not going to write about it probably, but I am looking for a new job now, officially.

I'm over it! I am so done with being there.

Wow

You aren't going to believe what happened to me at work just now. I'm in shock. I'll write about it later

Insane!

It's insane to me that whipping cream for 5 minutes turns it into a completely different consistency. I guess it's like a lot of things, like water turning to ice when it's cold, but this just seems weirder to me cause I'm not used to it.

Eye appointment

I had a great eye appointment today. My doctor said "Your eyes look great and you have really good control over them." Thanks? Hehe. He said they healed perfectly. I'm going for a Lasik consultation in a month. They think they'll probably only do it on the left eye (great, less money!) He was really happy with them, "especially considering how far the left one was turning out." I agree - I think it was really bad by the time I had surgery.

 

What's weird is that's probably the last time I'll ever see that doctor because the Lasik one is different. Weird.

 

It brought back memories being there today because there was a kid there who was about 7 who has the same thing I did. Ah, fun. Well, he'll be able to get rid of it earlier since there is surgery now. I overheard their visit and they've been doing a patch for a month (which I did when I was 4). They are going to continue with that for a while.

The most frustrating drive ever

So I left Madison at 4:45 today (Emily, did you see me fall on my ass TWICE?) Guess what time I got back here? 11:30. So...usually it takes slightly over 4 hours, but this time it took nearly 7. That is almost a work day. I feel disgusted. Anyway, I saw 16 cars in the ditch. That doesn't beat the record my dad saw one day from Rochester to Madison - 28 cars. I nearly saw one go down right in front of me. It caught itself though.

 

7 hours in the car is a really long time when you're expecting it to be not that long.

 

I stopped once to get gas (and to call Emily asking about the weather), once to go to the bathroom, and once to get windshield wiper fliuid. That one was funny and scary. The only other things on the road were semis, who were passing me at great speeds and shooting tons of crap on my car. Yeah, I really think it's great that you're huge and have 18 wheels so you don't have to worry about slipping, and you can see the road perfectly with your 20 million watt headlights which always blind me. But please, truck drivers everywhere, when passing a tiny car, can you please stay in the other lane for more than 1 foot before going back in my lane? I and all other tiny car drivers everywhere would truly appreciate it. Anyway, at one point I ran out of fluid suddenly and I was like "SHIT SHIT SHIT" because I couldn't see. It was able to eke out one last spurt. Then I saw a sign for a gas station in 1 mile. I purposely drove really slow because I'd had trouble with exits before. But alas, I missed it. I had to drive 20 more miles for the next gas station....meanwhile I was trying to minimize the dirt from semis which was interesting. I found that slowing down immediately after they pass and not turning on the wipers was the best bet.

 

Also an interesting thing to do in bad weather is to plan out every few minutes where you should point the car if something happens. I made myself laugh a couple times. "Whoa, TOTALLY don't go over there, that's like a 200 foot drop. The other side is fine."

 

Now to attend to Daniel, who is starved for attention.

More work crap

Ugh, it sucked today. Yesterday I may have mentioned this issue we had "after hours" (I don't remember what I said about it). Well something broke and since I'm in support I'm supposed to somehow get people to work on it or something. We have a sort-of process in place for after hours emergencies, but yesterday was weird and I didn't know what was going on because DeAndre was taking care of it. Then he left and didn't properly explain it to me, and I had no idea what the issue was, then everyone started calling and IMing me to bitch me out. It SUCKED and was really confusing. I didn't even do anything (which was probably the problem in their eyes). My boss took care of it a little bit this morning and stuck up for me to everyone, which was good.

Well, wouldn't you know, out goes DeAndre today and out goes my boss, and the same thing happens again. This time nobody was around. I went and verified the problem (so I thought) and paged a developer to work on it (after frantically IMing Nate for his opinion on whether to page them or call them - didn't know it was possible to frantically IM? I did it). Meanwhile I was getting bitched out again by the other people from yesterday. Then, the developer came online to work on the problem and he determined that there was no problem and that I had called him for no reason. Oh, I was pissed. Not to mention he said a bunch of stuff to me and copied my boss and boss' boss.

So how do you iron out a situation where one person says it's a problem and another person doesn't? I don't know how. That's why I'm not a manager. I couldn't properly explain to either party why it wasn't a problem or was a problem (whichever was the case for that person), so both parties were upset with me. I don't like conflicts or people being upset with me so I of course left crying.

What pisses me off is that I do as much as possible not to call or page the developers, and I ALWAYS verify the problem first, multiple times. I am really intimidated by them, because they always do stuff like this. I do everything possible to avoid these situations. He might not have liked having to go online to work, but I don't like being chewed out for 2 hours every day just because I happen to be the middle woman. Besides, I always have to go online to work at night!! And I always have to stay late. The other two have never in the entire year of our existence had to deal with one of these, and it happens to me about once a month. Whine whine whine!!!

On the other end of the stick (as Emily says), people don't remember that my job is to help fix problems. That is what I do when I am working at my desk. So when I am talking to people, I am trying to fix problems - I'm not purposely not fixing problems. That would be what I did at work if I was a hilarious court jester or Satan. Certain people are so intent that I'm hindering them that I can't actually help no matter how helpful I'm being.

I AM SO OVER EVERYONE'S ATTITUDES!!! Why can't people just be fucking NORMAL to people?

This is what would happen if I was all three of the people involved in the situation today:

Me 1: We haven't gotten orders since 4.
Me 2: Hey Me 3, no orders since 4.
Me 3: Well, I just saw that a bunch went through, I'll keep an eye out.
Me 2: Thanks. Me 1, a bunch just went through and they're going smoothly now.
Me 1: Great!

Time elapsed: 47 seconds.

Time elapsed on actual situation? 90 minutes.

Dammit! It's midnight and I haven't done my homework!!

w00t everyone

how's everyone doing? good i hope. i'm good, i think i have lost about 10 pounds already in the last 2 weeks, i'm feeling good about that. i got in a weird sleeping pattern the last few nights. started my class yesterday. the first week was about how to say hi, 3 verbs, and pronouns. they have f-in 40 pronouns. i have this page printed out and it's incredible. i'm trying to figure out the number in english. ok, in english we have 20. So basically they have double the amount and you have to figure out which one to use based on where it is in the sentence. it's funny, in old english it was the same and we had almost exactly the same words. i recognize them and how weird they are - for instance, "us" is "okkur" and i think that used to be the same word in english. but english got rid of all that because it's not an easy thing for a language to keep up over thousands of years with millions of speakers over the whole world. the reason icel. could keep it is because they're a tiny nation with virtually no outside cultural influences.

 

anyway, the past couple of days have been interesting at work. joel has been wearing me down with arguments. last week sometime he was talking to me about something that really pissed me off. here's what it was. i work in support which is a section that's sort of offset from everyone else. a contention point, at least with he and i, is that he does not think my group needs to know anything about what they're doing in his world. i maintain that my group supports his world and we need to know what they're doing so we can fix it when they screw up. he flat out told me "i don't see how it's any of your business" which really pissed me off, i was angry for a while at him. since then, we have been in this ongoing conversation for days and days and days. it is physically wearing me down. i can't argue this much with someone. yesterday we must have argued for 4 hours. i have never known a person like him! he is a unique character.

 

i think i finally was worn thin late today...something else happened at work which involved somebody else yelling at me, which as you all know i don't deal well with, and i went off on joel. he's been talking this whole time about how my side lives in a culture of corruption, and everyone is vindictive on my side, and everyone is always pissing him off. he's very negative. i finally told him to cool it, because when i'm hearing that everyone in my group is a terrible person, i have trouble believing the whole "but not you" scenario...i don't like the whole victimization thing he's doing, because it's really hypocritical...he said "i'm tired of all the crap i get about my team" and i said "all i've been hearing from you for the past week is crap about MY team!!"

 

i think quite a bit of the problem is in his head...he's so worried everybody hates him, and that's not the case. i told him that my group is not out to get him. nobody over here is vindictive, what would we have to gain by that? we do our jobs over here and we do what we need to to get the work done. there are exceptions, but for the most part i think my group runs really well. i'm talking about the big group, not my little 3 person group. i mentioned that in my year-end entry, how i greatly prefer where i'm working now.

 

i don't know how joel can function being so angry all the time. it could be that i opened myself up to it so maybe it's just the concentrated force of a lot of built up frustration.

 

but back to this afternoon, i was worn thin and i got frustrated and left, then he sent me a long email about some of the same stuff, which was nice and thoughtful. i have been thinking about it, not sure what to reply with yet.

 

my friendship with joel is weird. i don't know anyone else, besides sarah to a much lesser extent, who i have had an extended argument with for days and days. and i get really pissed at him and yell at him all the time and he does the same, but it's just all part of the deal. hardly anything he says fazes me, which i think is the most interesting part of all. i have friendships with people where everything they say fazes me. but i don't know, i guess this is a different one. as some lady said one time, "i guess we'll live it this way". those people who know how i roll with sarah, it's like that times ten and without as much of me crying about guy issues. nancy said today "i sensed tension between you and joel" and i went "i just didn't feel like talking to him right then" which was true...i didn't have any tension in my brain, i just went to talk to nancy so that's what i was doing. it was weird, i couldn't get over that.

 

well, i hope that wasn't too disjointed. i have a lot of thoughts about it that don't really exit my brain in any kind of order.

Damn

I hate when I start cleaning, then get really tired, then have to stop, and I'm right in the middle so everything's a mess. That's what just happened.

Prayer per day

I have been trying to figure out the best way to propagate this information, and I guess this is the best way.

My sister was at my grandparents' house yesterday, and she was on their computer. They have Vista and one of their widgets that I put on when I was fixing up their computer is a prayer per day thing or something, because I knew it would gain me good granddaughter points with them, since most God things do. So my sister sent me the one from yesterday:

Lord, anoint Pat Robertson with Your wisdom and guidance this year.

Hahahahahahaha!!!

Workin'

Workin' on Icelandic tonight. If I ever forget the f-in word "efni" then you should kill me. I translated some stuff on the site and that word was every other word (it means content) - also I cannot forget the word "skrá" which means list. I only found one funny word. Here it is: undirvef - it means internet. Undir = inter and vef = web. I chuckled about that. Anyway, efni and skrá are tacked on to every possible word. Site-content, page-content, file-content, writing-content, etc. File-list, page-list, user-list, work-list, etc. They love compound words. Let me find the longest one that I saw. Here it is: eyðufyllingaræfingu. That only has three words in it, I guess. It means gap-filling-practice. What does that mean though? The whole sentence says "Give stars for reading assignments - in this screen is an explanation of where data is listed and where stars are given for gap-filling-practice" - ok, doesn't help me at all. Do I get stars for filling gaps? In teeth or roads? Is it some kind of activity I haven't seen yet where I fill in the blank? OHHH I bet that's it, filling in the blank. Ok. I feel better now. The "data is listed" part is still strange, but I don't have to worry about that particular screen because it's for teachers.

 

I had a really weird day. I worked from home for about 2 hours and then I took a nap for an hour and then I went to the office for the rest of the day. It is so hot in my office I almost went back home. I am so uncomfortable in there, I want to ask to move. I thought I'd try to make it to 5 so that I could search for the pager. I lost the pager and it's only on from 5-7. So Joel talked to me for a while (actually yelled at me - he was in a bad mood today and anytime that happens I receive the brunt of his wrath) and then I called the pager but didn't hear it anywhere. I searched at my apartment then finally found it under a CD case on the floor. The battery is dead so that's why it didn't beep. Anyway Nancy and I started Atkins together yesterday again and I am feeling weird because of that which is why I stayed home for a while, and I have my ol' kool-aid saliva back already. This is maybe my 5th time and this time I am also experiencing lightheadedness and extremely low energy. I'm sure it'll go away though. It's a lot better than a couple other times I've done it. Every single time I've gotten sick and had to take a day off, so this isn't bad. You always hear it's nice to have a friend to help you on, but I never realized how much it helps. It makes it about 100000% better. Both of us really like it for the most part, so we're hopeful about the future. We like how it makes our skin good. :)

 

Joel is in the "other" part of our division and he's always mad at something that's going on on my side. His big thing to say is "you people don't know what the hell you're doing" and "you people suck" and "you people think you're so smart but you aren't" etc. I always tell him "you realize that I am a part of YOU PEOPLE and I'm sitting right here?" He goes, "Oh, I'm not including you." But after hearing 57 you peoples in a day it's hard not to think that it doesn't include me. I got slightly agitated today at it. Not too bad though. It's weird sometimes though. I always try to keep a neutral position or at least to argue the side that I agree with, which a lot of the time is my side. Believe it or not, Joel can have exaggerated arguments sometimes! Today he was ranting like crazy about support, which is me and my boss and DeAndre, and he was like "blah blah blah shouldn't be the responsibility of the lowest people on the ladder" or something and I said "EXCUSE ME!?" He of course goes "Oh, I didn't mean you" well, ooookkkkkk man. I have no problem yelling at him and I did then, and he apologized. Sarah, you came up in the conversation because we talked about people who remember weirdly large amounts of information.

 

Vel spilað og gleðileg eyðufyllingaræfingu,

Elizabeth

Placement

Somehow I placed into the second level (there are 4) in Icelandic but I'm going to take level 1. I decided to do that because I need major help on speaking and listening. Part of the class is on Skype so I'll get experience with that. Starts on January 14 - should be interesting. I'm going to look around at the syllabus and stuff tonight. Vel Spilað! I'm starting to really enjoy saying that so maybe now I'll sign my emails and blog entries like that, even though it makes no contextual sense.

 

I'm thinking about watching Das Boot tonight. We'll see. My other goal is to clean the kitchen. Also qualifies as we'll see.

 

Vel spilað,

Elizabeth

Happy weekend!

I already told Emily this story, but the other day when she was here we went out to eat and I miscalculated the tip quite a bit. I felt bad so I sent the remaining money with the receipt in the mail to the restaurant. I hope he is able to get the money and it doesn't get held back by some weird law or something. I don't know what else they would do with it.

 

I was reading a blog entry on AV Club about overused online phrases and one was "Well-played!" I agree with that because it's said about every fifth comment on AV Club. Anyway I found a good replacement. I was studying up on my Icelandic stuff so I could do the placement exam for the school I registered with. I have this CD that has a bunch of games, and I don't like the CD because it's all spoken and I am terrible at hearing stuff. So I was playing this game and I kept hearing the same phrase and I figured out it means "Well played!" - "vel spilað!" So now I can say that instead :) There were a couple games I was clueless on and maybe 1 I was good at. The one I could do really well was listen to numbers and then click on them. There were two games that had the words written down that they were saying and that was good so I flew through those because I could just read it. Ugh. They talk extremely fast and do not enunciate. It made me think of the other day when I heard someone say "This is good" but it sounded like "This goo" and I thought, that would be confusing for someone who didn't know English well. I feel like that's what they are like on this CD. If you're creating a language teaching software that's primarily listening, you have to be really slow. I swear it sounds like they have really thick accents or something. I've heard a good share of Icelandic in movies and these people on the CD sound weird to me. Can Bjork do it? She has a clear voice and enunciates well.

 

I took the placement exams and did ok. There were 8 different "assignments" and to me it didn't seem like they were in any kind of order even though they were numbered. I flew through 3 of them. There were 2 I could not do. The others were medium. Looking back on it I'm laughing because one of the medium ones was an article about how Beyonce likes fast food.

 

I am going to say in advance that I'll probably be talking a lot about the class so I hope nobody is annoyed by that.

 

Well, I'm going to bed now. Later.

2007 Year-End Review

Man, this took forever to write.

My job: In January I became the team lead of the team I was on. (Oh really, I didn’t become the team lead of a different team?) It was a nice thing to be, especially because I was/am the youngest person in our entire division. It meant that I was the answer-er of questions and do-er of the more difficult tasks. However, I quickly became extremely bored with everything I was doing and absolutely hated going to work every day. Remember me complaining about how my brain was wasting away to nothing? About a month later a promotion came up that I really wanted, and so I applied but I didn’t get it (the girl who started at the same time as me got it). Then, another sort-of promotion came up and I applied for that one too and got it in late February (the job I have now). It became clear after the fact that they created the other job for the other girl and this job for me. I wish they wouldn’t do all the smoke and mirrors crap, but I guess it was nice that they wanted me. We hired DeAndre I think in March, and shortly thereafter we moved into the development section. I cannot express how much more (infinitely) I like it than the other area, both work-wise and management-wise. The other area is ridden with politics and petty arguments all day and every day. That’s part of why I got so sick of my previous job. I’d even go so far as to say I am glad I did not get the other job because I’d still be over there. I’ve learned quite a bit in my current position, and have certainly enhanced my problem-solving abilities, since that’s all I do. I think that in the past 2 or 3 months I’ve become more skilled at certain things than my boss, which is interesting/fun. Since I am a person who gets bored easily with work, I have been asking her periodically to let me do some new things that are outside of our usual realm. She has given me a little bit when she can. Joel also gives me stuff to do sometimes, since he also got a promotion about 2 months ago and is now a manager. I am glad I'm friends with him because he gives me insider information every day and sometimes allows me to input my opinion. He also lobbies to get me included in meetings sometimes. I've managed to nudge my way into a couple of recurring meetings. I would love to do all kinds of other stuff but I think that around there everyone’s pretty protective of their particular stuff that they do (I don't blame them), and there isn’t too much moving around job-wise or changing of tasks. I don’t see a real chance for me to move forward very far to a totally different job within the company, at least in the near future. At this very moment I guess I’m ok with that. The pros definitely outweigh the cons at the moment, and I can say definitively that I am nowhere near as disgruntled with my job as I was at the beginning of this year. But I don’t think I’m going to be ok with it forever. I have way too much need for challenge and blah blah blah. I think I’ve done ok for only being 25 and not having a degree in this field, so I want to be able to continue forward as far as I can without stopping.

What else happened: I got my kitty. As you may remember, Emily went with me one day in April to a few different humane societies and when I saw him I fell in love. So I put him on hold (yes you can do that) and went back a few days later. Remember the problems I had earlier with him constantly licking himself? He doesn't do that anymore. And the only times I've really gotten mad at him are when he is meowing too much (he is noisy).

My stepmother was diagnosed with breast cancer in late August. She had surgery almost immediately and started chemotherapy and radiation. I believe she only has one chemotherapy session left. She's doing pretty well and seems really upbeat now. She has lost all of her hair and her other big thing is that her sense of taste is way out of whack. And, her eyesight is out of whack. My grandma had a stroke at the end of May and my dad was diagnosed with pre-diabetes around the same time. My aunt had a carpal tunnel procedure and lost eyesight in one eye. One of my other aunts got breast implants (interesting huh?) My grandpa had skin cancer surgery the day before Thanksgiving...my uncle had throat surgery a couple weeks later...jesus christ! And of course I had eye surgery in September. Lots of medical stuff, but everyone's good!!!

I don't even really know if I should mention Tom, but I guess it was a huge portion of my life last year. The year started off on a great foot when he half-broke up with me on New Year's Eve. I visited him in January, May, and June. Quite a bit of the last two months of our relationship were bad and very unhealthy, at least for me. Some was good, but the only thing I can remember is being pissed at him for not calling me for 3 days or 4 days or 5 days and to me, that was as if my brain was metal and liquid oxygen was poured on it, or something. It was so weird and confusing. I'm not sure if it was the same for him, but I do know he was much less invested in the relationship, or at least it seemed that way. To me it was a serious relationship and to him I wasn't even his girlfriend. I have no earthly clue how that happened (and honestly it's hard for me to admit that fact, but it's true). I think that the clincher for him was the distance. It never bothered me, but I can't make another person not care about something. So he ended it at the end of June (extremely poorly I might add), and it sucked. Sarah was really good helping me through that week or two that was really bad. I tried my best to block out everything about him and the relationship and I did really well with that, until it came rushing back to me last November and totally screwed me up again. I did not realize until then the extent of the damage the relationship had done to me - not only the breakup, but the actual relationship. Even though it ended 8 months ago or whatever, it was still dominating how I acted on a daily basis. But since time had passed, once I figured out what was up I was able to more properly un-corrode my brain about the issue (with help from friends, again, who have listened to I don't know how many hours of me complaining about my problems and still are my friends for some reason). So that was that thing.

I did some good work on my website back in March - created some proprietary web-based software that is just for my personal use to more easily handle the database. I haven't done much since then. Oh, and I had to transfer my domain name to a different registrar, which took no less than 3 months. It's done now, though.

Candy and Jake's wedding was in July, and it was such a great event. The best part is that all of the Mifflin roommates were able to be in one place together for the first time since we lived together. I think everyone had a great time - I certainly did.

In August Emily and I went to the convention and had an excellent time. I still have my book of jokes sitting here and I haven't transcribed them into my blog. Sorry :( I was just talking to my boss about the convention because she has been renting SG-1 on Netflix. She wasn't that impressed when I said "I met Daniel Jackson TWICE!" I should maybe have mentioned I made him laugh twice.

Bands I saw this year: Arcade Fire (twice), Bright Eyes, Ryan Adams, Long Winters, Jimmy Eat World, Ben Gibbard, Snow Patrol. Did I miss any? That doesn't seem like a lot, does it? There was a drought/famine from June-September and then I didn't go to any in November or December. I'm bummed because for some reason Conor came to Minneapolis last weekend and played two shows under a pseudonym at the 400 BAR. Can you imagine? I guess the pseudonym was sufficient enough to make enough people not realize it was him. Bummed!!! My favorite concert was probably the Arcade Fire one here in Minneapolis. It was a great night that I got to spend with Nate. The Jimmy Eat World show I went to was pretty good as well, because they put on a great show. The Ryan Adams one would have been better if I could see, and if it was longer. It was actually really good though and I had some visions during that one (also went to that with Nate). The Benny show was at First Avenue and we had sightline seating for that. My shoes hurt a lot, that's what I remember from that. :) The Long Winters one was TINY and Laura and I were 6 feet away from John Roderick. It went so late and I leaned against the wall and could feel the music. Then, remember the next day I wrote JR an email and he replied via blackberry? Hee hee. The Bright Eyes show was ok, I guess. I remember being soooooo excited to go. I also remember how tiny Conor seemed. He needs a better tailor for his white suit.

I would also like to include some music I listened to a lot this year. I'm going to see if I can embed a thing in here. We'll see. I listened heavily to Sufjan Stevens and at the end of the year I decided I loved his entire family, because his brother Colin sings/plays on some of the Christmas stuff and his family is otherwise mentioned in the stories on the Christmas box set. For some reason I have been thinking for weeks that I wanted to write in my blog that I love Sufjan Stevens' entire family. So there it is. I also listened very heavily to Ryan Adams. I would not be surprised at all if 50% of my music listening was Ryan Adams. I was able to do that because he has recorded about 742 albums. He has a song with my name in it and it's a good one. I got into JEW's new album, one of Saves The Day's older albums, The Annuals, some random stuff from The Current, oh I listened to Arcade Fire probably for 3 months at some point, Sigur Rós as usual...hmm. I don't think I had a Death Cab stint this year. I had a major one in 2006 that I think got it out of me for a while. I am including some random songs I listened to a lot plus some of the ones I mentioned in the above paragraph. Note: Some of the best songs weren't available for this playlist thing, so that sucks. Just thought I'd mention it in case for some reason you thought I'd have a song here and it's not here. (Who would think that though?)





Ok, just a note, that thing cut off over half of my songs, and there is no way I'm going back in there, so too bad!!!

I decided to write about movies and tv, but not much, because I'm getting tired of writing. I watched the entire series of: Lost, Heroes, Seinfeld (took me 3 months!), Family Guy, and both Offices. Excited for Battlestar Galactica to come back. Sunshine is coming out on DVD next week.

HERE ENDS LAST YEAR

My most exciting thing so far this year (at least for me) is that I'm going to be taking an Icelandic class starting January 14!!! From an actual teacher in Iceland!!! Do you guys remember when I tried to take 2nd semester Icelandic and it scared me to death and I had to drop it and it was the hardest thing ever to do? Well this will be tailored to me and my current skill level. It's going to be expensive, but I really want to do it. I just need a kick in the ass and something to get me over the weird bump of grammar that I get stuck on every time I get back into teaching myself. I'm pretty excited - the school just opened last fall and it's for Icelandic as a second/other language (ISOL?). It is geared toward online learning, so it's perfect. The school is called Tungumálaskólinn (The Language School - original, right?) After I do the first semester I'll think about doing another semester or finding a language pen pal.

I know none of these will ever happen probably, but this year I'd love to see Sufjan, Sigur Rós, Death Cab, JEW, Ryan Adams, hey what the hell maybe Coldplay (I think my Death-Cab-Show-Count is almost equaling Coldplay-Show-Count at this point)...who else...hell, anyone I like. I REALLY want to see Santa Sufjan though, probably more than any other band/person. Hey, remember when we saw him in St. Louis, Emily and Brighton? That was awesome.

I am hoping to move this summer - Joel suggested I look for a condo, which I think is a good idea. I don't know that I'd be ready for a house, but I have to move out of the apartment. Maybe I should look at the condos that are directly next to where I work. ;) Just kidding. I'll probably try to stay in the same general area if I can, though. I love this part of St. Paul and Roseville is good and convenient, etc.

Otherwise I'm feeling really good about everything, and so far everything has been wonderful. I can't shake the weird feeling that the new year is pointless logically, but I'm glad it exists ceremonially because it gives people like me a motivation to change, however psychological it is. :)

Album study

Here is the outcome of my extremely dorky spreadsheet that I mentioned last week. I was telling Laura a little about it, but here's the reasoning behind it. I have thought a lot about albums over the years and how they are put together (for instance, I've noticed that track 4 is pretty consistently a good song). I came up with some semi-arbitrary classifications and made up a bunch of data on albums that I know well enough to assign my classifications to. I did 55 albums. I did some graphs but they didn't turn out that well. So here is some of my data. I would also like to add that my classifications and how I assigned them were highly subjective or objective, whichever is the one I'm thinking of. (I will never be able to tell the difference. I think I mean subjective in this case.) And yet another thing: I based percentages on the total tracks of that number (for example, track 22 only had 1 total, track 12 had 11 total, track 1 had 55). Hope you enjoy and do not laugh at me that much.

Best song on the album
Notes: Track 4 had the most, which I was expecting. Tracks 1 and 2 had a lot as well, which I also expected.
1 - 7 - 13%
2 - 8 - 15%
3 - 2 - 4%
4 - 10 -18%
5 - 3 - 5%
6 - 3 - 6%
7 - 5 - 9%
8 - 2 - 4%
9 - 5 - 10%
10 - 2 - 5%
11 - 3 - 12%
12 - 3 - 27%
13 - 0 - 0%
14 - 0 - 0%
15 - 0 - 0%
16 - 0 - 0%
17 - 0 - 0%
18 - 0 - 0%
19 - 0 - 0%
20 - 1 - 33%
21 - 0 - 0%
22 - 0 - 0%

Good songs
Notes: These were almost totally evenly spread out over everything, which I guess makes sense.
1 - 40 – 73%
2 - 42 - 76%
3 - 37 - 67%
4 - 37 - 67%
5 - 28 - 51%
6 - 37 - 69%
7 - 37 - 70%
8 - 37 - 70%
9 - 35 - 67%
10 - 25 - 63%
11 - 20 - 80%
12 - 11 - 100%
13 - 5 - 71%
14 - 2 - 40%
15 - 2 - 50%
16 - 1 - 33%
17 - 0 - 0%
18 - 0 - 0%
19 - 0 - 0%
20 - 0 - 0%
21 - 2 - 100%
22 - 0 - 0%

Emotional songs
Notes: I didn't really have a hypothesis on this except that I thought track 4 would probably have a lot and track 1 would not have a lot. I was semi-proven right. I guess track 3 is not a popular one for this category.
1 - 5 - 9%
2 - 7 - 13%
3 - 2 - 4%
4 - 10 - 18%
5 - 7 - 13%
6 - 5 - 9%
7 - 7 - 13%
8 - 6 - 11%
9 - 8 - 15%
10 - 7 - 18%
11 - 7 - 28%
12 - 3 - 27%
13 - 0 - 0%
14 - 0 - 0%
15 - 0 - 0%
16 - 0 - 0%
17 - 0 - 0%
18 - 0 - 0%
19 - 0 - 0%
20 - 1 - 33%
21 - 0 - 0%
22 - 0 - 0%

Quiet songs
Notes: For this one, I thought that track 1 would not have a lot, and later tracks would have a lot. It seems like they were pretty evenly spread out over the last half or so. I was right about #1!
1 - 3 - 5%
2 - 5 - 9%
3 - 6 - 11%
4 - 15 - 27%
5 - 13 - 24%
6 - 13 - 24%
7 - 12 - 23%
8 - 10 - 19%
9 - 13 - 25%
10 - 13 - 33%
11 - 10 - 40%
12 - 5 - 45%
13 - 3 - 43%
14 - 1 - 20%
15 - 3 - 75%
16 - 1 - 33%
17 - 0 - 0%
18 - 0 - 0%
19 - 0 - 0%
20 - 1 - 33%
21 - 0 - 0%
22 - 0 - 0%

Loud songs
Notes: I thought track 1 would have a lot and whoa, track 2 was the runaway winner here.
1 - 3 - 5%
2 - 10 - 18%
3 - 4 - 7%
4 - 1 - 2%
5 - 4 - 7%
6 - 6 - 11%
7 - 3 - 6%
8 - 5 - 9%
9 - 5 - 10%
10 - 5 - 13%
11 - 2 - 8%
12 - 0 - 0%
13 - 1 - 14%
14 - 0 - 0%
15 - 0 - 0%
16 - 0 - 0%
17 - 0 - 0%
18 - 0 - 0%
19 - 0 - 0%
20 - 0 - 0%
21 - 0 - 0%
22 - 0 - 0%

Radio-friendly songs
Notes: I'd say track 1 was probably my pick for the winner. Looks like the first half or so were pretty evenly spaced and fewer showed up in the last half.
1 - 9 - 16%
2 - 11 - 20%
3 - 9 - 16%
4 - 7 - 13%
5 - 10 - 18%
6 - 6 - 11%
7 - 3 - 6%
8 - 6 - 11%
9 - 4 - 8%
10 - 0 - 0%
11 - 1 - 4%
12 - 0 - 0%
13 - 0 - 0%
14 - 1 - 20%
15 - 0 - 0%
16 - 0 - 0%
17 - 0 - 0%
18 - 0 - 0%
19 - 0 - 0%
20 - 0 - 0%
21 - 0 - 0%
22 - 0 - 0%

Bad songs
Notes: My instincts would choose 5 and 6 for this category. Whoa, 5 definitely won. Tracks 1 and 4 look good.
1 - 1 – 2%
2 - 3 – 5%
3 - 8 – 15%
4 - 2 – 4%
5 - 13 – 24%
6 - 4 – 7%
7 - 3 – 6%
8 - 8 – 15%
9 - 9 – 17%
10 - 8 – 20%
11 - 5 – 20%
12 - 3 – 27%
13 - 0 – 0%
14 - 0 – 0%
15 - 1 – 25%
16 - 0 – 0%
17 - 0 – 0%
18 - 0 – 0%
19 - 1 – 33%
20 - 0 – 0%
21 - 0 – 0%
22 - 0 – 0%

Worst Song on the album
Notes: I would have said that tracks 1 and 4 wouldn't qualify because I can't think of a single opener or 4th track that I hate enough to skip. I was right about that and was kind of surprised to see 9 with the highest count.
1 - 0 – 0%
2 – 4 - 7%
3 - 5 - 9%
4 - 0 – 0%
5 - 6 - 11%
6 - 2 - 4%
7 - 2 - 4%
8 - 6 - 11%
9 - 7 - 13%
10 - 3 - 8%
11 - 2 - 8%
12 - 2 – 18%
13 - 0 – 0%
14 - 0 – 0%
15 - 1 – 25%
16 - 0 – 0%
17 - 0 – 0%
18 - 0 – 0%
19 - 0 – 0%
20 - 0 – 0%
21 - 0 – 0%
22 – 0 – 0%

First/last song statistics
Notes: I did this along with the last song stats because sometimes I think of albums in terms of their first and last songs. My hypothesis was that first songs were more peppy and last songs were quieter and more emotional, but both were good. As far as first songs being peppy, I think that turned out to be right. For last songs being quieter and more emotional, that also turned out to be right. I was interested to see that I characterized more last songs as bad/worst because generally I think I like last songs better.

First:
Best - 6 - 11%
Worst - 0 - 0%
Good - 41 - 75%
Bad - 1 - 2%
Quiet - 2 - 4%
Loud - 4 - 7%
Emotional - 5 - 9%
Radio - 9 - 16%

Last:
Best - 4 - 7%
Worst - 4 - 7%
Good - 32 - 58%
Bad - 4 - 7%
Quiet - 12 - 22%
Loud - 5 - 9%
Emotional - 9 - 16%
Radio - 0 - 0%

Statistics I didn't want to do a huge analysis of
Notes: I noticed that a lot in the "good" category were track 4 and in "bad" were track 3.

Good/quiet
Most - 4
Least - 1 and 3

Good/emotional
Most - 4
Least - 3

Good/quiet/emotional
Most - 4
Least - 1 and 3

Good/loud
Most - 2
Least - 5

Good/radio-friendly
Most - 1
Least - 9 and 10

Good/loud/radio-friendly
Most - 8

Good/emotional/loud
Most - 2 and 5

Bad/quiet
Most - 3 6 9 and 10

Bad/radio-friendly
Most - 3

Bad/loud
Most: 3 6 9 10 12 and 15

Best ever songs
I did a little bit of analysis on the songs that are on my list of best songs ever written. I will list the songs here. This is one of the first times I've compiled this list in writing. How exciting!

Arcade Fire - Intervention
Arcade Fire - Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
Arcade Fire - Rebellion (Lies)
Bright Eyes - Don't Know When But A Day Is Gonna Come
Bright Eyes - First Day Of My Life
Coldplay - The Scientist
Death Cab For Cutie - Company Calls Epilogue
Death Cab For Cutie - Transatlanticism
Jeff Buckley - Lover, You Should've Come Over
Jimmy Eat World - 23
Long Winters - Commander Thinks Aloud
Radiohead - How To Disappear Completely
Sigur Rós - Viðrar vel til Loftárása
Sigur Rós - Von
Sufjan Stevens - Casimir Pulaski Day

What tracks are these songs? Wow, 7 was the winner!! I think that since Viðrar vel til Loftárása is track 7, it truly deserves to be the winner even if it was the only one.
1 - 2
2 - 0
3 - 0
4 - 3
5 - 0
6 - 1
7 - 4
8 - 1
9 - 2
10 - 1
11 - 1