Musing on the new job

When I was hired on permanently, I moved from the "boring" side of the building to the "lively" side.  Even though I'm now separated from my boss by what seems like miles of office space, I'm now closer to the people I actually support.  I continue to be amazed at how much I seem to have in common with the various people at this place.  You know, you get into a familiar place after 12 years where you've known people for so long and you think that no place will be as good or as interesting. 

You all know about my newish obsession with soccer.  The thing is, no one at my old job had any interest whatsoever in the beautiful game.  That's why it is so amazing to me that there are like 5 guys here (including my boss) who actually play soccer on an indoor team.  Not all of them follow soccer on tv like I do, but at least one does...and I sit next to him.  Also cool is that the team that my coworkers play on just won their league championship (without my boss who is out due to injury).  These guys have a miniature soccer ball that they sometimes kick around in the halls.  (The last person who sat in my office HATED it when they did that.  She got so fed up one day that she took their ball and hid it.)  The other day, the little soccer ball rolled into my office and I kicked it back out.  That was very different behavior than they were used to.  The guy who sits next to me has one of those half soccer ball decals that is stuck to his office window so that it looks like a ball cracked the glass and is stuck there.  I notice it almost every time I walk into my office.  It never fails to bring a smile to my face, partly because in my imagination I envision the Thierry Henry super expensive lifesized wallbanger hanging on one of my walls.  (If only...)

All this soccer love ... it's just one of those things that would have meant nothing to me a year ago.  Now it is part of what makes this place enjoyable.

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Trip Talk

I was talking with some coworkers about my trip last week.  There were a couple of interesting details in this conversation.  First, one of my coworkers, who will get a name as soon as I think of a suitable one, went to China on a teen church group trip.  He's asked me to bring back a particular t-shirt because, according to his wife, it was one of only three shirts he wore when they began dating.  For some odd reason, it shrunk in length, but doubled in girth, so it's not even suitable for his wife or child to wear.  (It actually sounds like it would fit me perfectly.) 

The other funny thing is that one of my female coworkers asked me if I'd started packing yet.  The two men laughed.  Ignoring them, I replied, "I haven't packed yet, but I've been thinking about doing a test pack."  Again, the guys thought that sounded hysterical, but the girl totally understood me.  She even gave me a couple of good packing tips. 

I've been wracking my brain trying to figure out what to pack to accommodate the potential weather differences.  I just looked up the latitudes of each major city we'll be visiting.  I was a little disappointed - basically, latitude can't really tell you anything about potential weather.  For example, Beijing is on about the same latitudinal line as Washington, D.C., Indianapolis and Aspen.  Obviously, there are other facts that cause each of those cities to have very unique weather patterns.  But if I had to pick one, I'd say that Beijing's weather is probably closer D.C.'s than the others.  And I'm really surprised at how far south Hong Kong is.  The only State that compares to it latitudinally (at 22 degrees) is Hawaii, which isn't totally surprising.  But it is surprising that Key West is north by 2 degrees.  Again, it is amazing how other factors cause one place to be hotter than Baptist hellfire, while the other is a tropical paradise.

Regardless, we're talking about the average high's starting in the low 50's and going up to the mid 70's by the end of the trip.  How do I pack for that AND pack light AND keep room to bring home lots of cheap Asian crap?

See?  I need to do a test pack!

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Camera Learnin's

This new camera has really put me in a weird place.  I was so used to my old system.  I new exactly how to make it do what I wanted it to do.  And now I don't know how to use all the bells and whistles of the new camera, even those that are very basic from camera to camera.  I started thinking about it and at some point, I didn't know how to do those things on the old camera, either.  I read the manual.  So I got out my manual to answer the two biggest issues I've had so far:

1.  Autobracketing.  When this is set the camera will take three photos in quick succession.  The exposure for each image is changed so that you have one "perfect" exposure, one "too dark" and one "too light."  I had gotten to the point with my old camera where I always liked the "perfect" image, so I rarely used the other shots.  So I basically stopped using bracketing.  But there is a cool new technology emerging with digital imaging.  It's called HDR.  There are now programs that will combine all three of those exposures to grab the best parts of each.  So the "dark" one will probably capture details around the sun and clouds better than the other two.  The "light" one will capture details in shadows better than the other two.  The "perfect" one will capture details in mid-light levels best.  This HDR will combine all those "best" views to one phenomenal shot.  Here's just one example.

You can see why I want to delve into this HDR thingy, not that I will capture images anywhere near that good.  So the first thing I needed to do was figure out how to make my new camera bracket shots.  I have now done so.  Whew!  The bad news is that I'm saving three big honkin' files per image.  I'm gonna burn through my memory cards like crazy.  I already have two.  I may wander over to Frye's to see how cheaply I can pick up another one (or ten).

2.  Using old lenses.  I was lead to believe from the marketing hype that I could use all my current lenses on my fancy new camera.  So far that has turned out to be true in all but one case.  I forgot about my funky Ukrainian fish-eye.  I took it with me when Poly and I shot in town...to no avail.  I couldn't get it to take a picture with that lens attached at all.  That was a big disappointment.  I have been thinking I might get some interesting shots with that fish-eye on my trip.  It's definitely not an every day kind of lens. 

Again, reading the manual saves the day.  I found a setting in my custom menu that allows me to use even this most primitive of lenses on my new camera.  How marvelous.  My next mission is to test it to see how the images look.  I could go into a lot of technical mumbo jumbo to explain why this is important, but I won't.  Suffice it to say that what used to be wide-angle on my old camera is considered normal on this camera.  I have no idea how that change will make this lens look.  And I highly doubt that the Ukrainian company has come out with new lenses to adjust for digital SLRs...but I could check.

Sorry, another post that probably wasn't too interesting for you...

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Get Out of Her Indeed

According to this story, Vatican City is the most crime ridden place (per capita) on earth. 

How do we submit things to Watching the World?

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Coffe in the mouth, not on the clothes

I just wanted to send a quick update to let y'all know that since I've been using my laptop bag I haven't had any coffee spillage incidents.  I know you've been awake nights worrying about me...

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What a dork! I forgot to take my medicine for the second time this week. I was 2 mins away from work. Now I will be over a

Office Antics

I've mentioned before that there's a healthy college rivalry here in my new office.  One of the losers, I mean dawgs, sits just outside my office.  I had to create a couple of new user ids into our system for him today.  Just to get his goat (though I honestly don't have any use for a redneck goat), I made his password "ugasucks."  I expected him to storm into my office demanding a new password.  Instead, he politely responded through email, "New password please."

Well, that wasn't good enough.  So I forwarded it over to a brother alum asking, "Do you see anything wrong with this password?"  (I cc'd the original guy to keep him in the loop.)  The dawg fan replied asking that his password be changed to "six years in a row."  Now that was the kind of response I was looking for.  Being fairly new to this whole "I give a rat's butt about my alma mater" routine, I didn't really have a comeback.  My brother alum filled in the gap by recommending I change the password to "Ga Tech has 4 national titles and u(sic)ga has only 2."  Longish, but effective.  The final request was from the dawg, "National titles won in prehistoric times don't count, we go by overall head to head record." 

Yeah, that's definitely too long.  It was rather fun listening to the laughter as each person opened up their email to read the latest suggestion.  The loser, d'oh! "dawg," finally came into my office to ask, "Is that really going to be my password?"  I laughed and told him no.  So I asked him what he wanted it to be.  He asked, "Can it be anything?"  Me: "Well, it can only be 8 characters."  In true dawg fashion, he was stumped trying to think of an 8 letter word that he would remember.  I had to "uga" it down for him by saying, "It can be less than 8 letters."  He left my office to ponder it.  Seriously?  Seriously.  I finally just assigned him a new one that was more favorable to his favorite school.  I won't reveal it, but lord, if he forgets this one, he will have certainly lived up to the uga name.

* All of this is posted in good fun.  I know I have faithful readers out there who are uga fans.  This world is plenty big enough for all kinds of people - even those who have bad taste.

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Getting a complex

I see that you've all been very supportive of Poly and his photographic pursuits at Flickr.  I appreciate that.  But I'm developing (pun intended) a slight complex since none of you ('cept Poly) have ever commented on any of my photos.  Did I miss something or does the saying really go, "Silence is the greatest form of flattery?"

I've posted lots of new photos in the past couple of days.  Go therefore and comment.

Also, here are two links to what Flickr considers "the most interesting" photos from my stream and Poly's stream.  (I think these links should always show the most current "interesting" photos, so save the links.)

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I'm taking this show on the road

The comedy show continued this morning.  I got out of my car with my bagel and coffee.  I opened the trunk, got out my laptop and closed the trunk.  In order to get a good handle on the laptop, I put my bagel (in its paper bag), coffee and laptop back on the trunk.  The wind kicked up and knocked my bagel bag over...which then knocked over my coffee.  Thankfully, the coffee was on the downwind side of my laptop, but the sleeve of my sweater was not.  Did I mention that I JUST did laundry on Sunday?  Have I mentioned that I'm wearing a sweater that was dirty for a long time and I kept forgetting to wash it, so I was really excited to put it on this morning?

The inside of my wrist is sticky and probably will be for the rest of the day.  On the good side, it smells like White Chocolate Mocha latte.  But I have to crook my arm around to an uncomfortable position to benefit from that smell. 

I think the conclusion I'm reaching is that I need to start using my laptop bag.  It's just so heavy.  My old laptop was so small that it was far easier to just carry it around instead of lugging the whole bag and computer.  But until I regain my fine motor skills, I think I need the safety it provides.

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Whacha been doin'?

I haven't given y'all an update on what I've been doing in a while.  Mostly that's cause I haven't done a whole lot of social things.  But as Poly has blogged about, there have been some fun times that I should mention.

Poly and I began the year with a renewed commitment to photography.  On New Year's Day, we drove around to a few random places to shoot: an abandoned school, an abandoned town (well, it looked abandoned to me) and ... I guess that was it - seemed like more.  We got some shots that we were fairly happy with.

The following weekend, the Olive girls came into town.  They stayed with me, but I didn't really see them.  I went to a nature walking trail not far from my house to shoot.  OK, so winter is not the best time to shoot nature.  Got it.  I'll try again in the spring.

This past weekend, Poly and I went into the city to shoot: a historic bridge, a creepy train track crossing, a cool building under construction and then just the streets as we were driving home along the scenic route.  Poly got some great shots while I was driving.  I cried foul and told him that he's driving next time.  Poly pointed out that if we'd been in a convertible, we would both have been able to get good shots.  I am mad about photography and I have spent wads of cash on it, but even I draw the line at buying a convertible car just so we can take good shots on fair-weather Saturdays.  But if any of you fine people have a convertible you'd like to lend us, we will gladly take it.

I've started lugging my camera with me everywhere I go.  I don't want to be the creep who's always pointing it at people and going, "Say 'cheese.'"  But I do like to capture little moments, even random items, whenever and wherever I go.

I bought a "pro" account at Flickr.  Before you say, "Gee, there's another wad of cash down the drain of photography," I must tell you that a "pro" account is only $25 per year.  I get unlimited photo storage space, unlimited uploads, unlimited photo administration, and lots of other things that only have meaning to Flickr users.  Since I have a new digital camera, I know that I will use Flickr a lot.  So it was totally worth it for me.  I will also make an effort to get some of my older work uploaded (though I'm not sure how best to do so).

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These are a few of my favorite Jews

I don't have time to come up with new words to the Julie Andrews' song from the "Sound of Music", but someone else did a lame version. 

When the boss yells,
When my food burns,
When I'm feeling sad,
I simply remember my favorite Jews,
And then I don't feel so bad.

I wanted to put out a media alert that two of my favorite Jews will be on the Daily Show tonight, Jan. 15.  Jon Stewart (seeing as how it's his show, he's kinda always on it) will be talking to Josh Bernstein (my VERY favoritest Jew - yeah, yeah, excepting all those from the Bible), host of The History Channel's "Digging for the Truth."  His show starts back up next Monday and he's promoting a book.  So Josh is starting a publicity blitz for both.

And, oh, by the way, you should check out the new season of "Digging for the Truth."  If you like this blog, you'll love Josh's humor.

Mondays at 9:00 on The History Channel (that's 52 for me and mine).  It begins with a two hour special next Monday.  (But you've probably heard that before...)

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Officially welcomed

So, at my new job there are a couple of hierarchies. 

1.  The man who started the company.  He's technically the owner but at some point in the recent past, he included his son and two sons-in-law in the ownership of the company.  I have never met him.  I would say that I probably never will but I may have the opportunity at an upcoming BBQ (not the Baby Jesus BBQ).
2.  That second generation of family member owners are collectively called "the guys."  They make all the big decisions, but rely heavily on their three executives to run the daily operations.  I just found out that the two daughters and one daughter-in-law (in other words, the wives of "the guys") are collectively referred to as "the girls."  They run the mortgage company.
3.  The three executives don't have a collective name, but I like to think of them as "the boys."  They actually come in to the office every day (as opposed to "the guys" who may be conducting business from various field locations - a well-earned benefit of being an owner).  One of "the boys" is the man I call the guy who runs the place.  He's the man that everyone turns to when they need an answer, even "the guys."  He's been with the company for a LONG time.  The other two "boys" are newer to the company.  One of them is my boss' boss. 

The guy who runs the place says hello to me every time he sees me in the hall.  He's taught me some stuff (I probably could have figured it out on my own, but it was fun being taught by "the answer guy").  He definitely knows me and I feel comfortable around him.  The other "boy" is very friendly.  I don't have as much occasion to see him, but when I do he goes out of his way to wave or say hello or make some funny comment.  On my second official day, I had a meeting with him in his office about a report he wanted me to work on.  He began by throwing his arm around me and welcoming me to the company. 

So you see why it's been a little unsettling to me that my boss' boss has barely said two words to me since I arrived back in September.  I know he knows who I am.  I occasionally see him in the mail room and/or hallway.  But while he seems to chat with the lady who runs the mail room, he has never chatted with me.  In fact, I don't know that he'd ever even said hello to me before today.  I was starting to think he didn't like me, even though the fact that he allowed me to be hired seems to indicate otherwise. 

But just now I was walking through the mail room.  He was in there, so I looked up at him with a very friendly face.  He looked up ... and said ... "Welcome to the company, officially."  He spoke to me!  I think I heard a heavenly chorus.  I didn't want to scare him away, so I simply replied, "I'm thrilled to be here" and left before I wore out my welcome.

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H&B, The Clumsy Oaf

The last two mornings have been a veritable comedy of errors for me.  As I've blogged about before, it's not uncommon for me to look down and find food stains (or actual food) on my cleavage area.  But the last two days, I've taken this to new heights!

I began yesterday with my mucho deliciouso Venti White Chocolate Mocha Latte from Starbucks.  At some point during my consumption of this tasty beverage, I simply forgot how to drink out of a cup.  I pulled the cup away from my lips before I was done.  But instead of dribbling coffee down on my mock turtle neck, I ended up with a splash of coffee on my leg - a new experience.  Thankfully, I was wearing black pants, so after wiping away the majority of the drink, there was no stain to speak of.

Next I went into the bathroom to apply my make-up (already at work).  We have really nice smelling hand lotion in our bathroom.  I noticed that the dispenser for the lotion was clogged, so I grabbed a paper towel, ready to unclog it.  I didn't realize that the unclogging would turn into an explosion.  I ended up with lovely smelling hand lotion all over my, you guessed it, cleavage area.  I was extremely thankful (yet again) that I was wearing a mock turtle neck.  I turned it around hoping that no one would notice the big ol' lotion stains on the back of my shirt as I walked away from them.  At least I was able to forget about them for the rest of the day.

This morning, I was juggling my shiny new laptop, a bag full of stuff that I seem to carry everyday (including the mail from yesterday that I had not yet sorted through), my aforementioned morning dose of Starbucks, purse and swanky digital camera slung over my left shoulder, left ear sporting my blue tooth ear piece and right ear sporting an iPod earbud.  (How VERY  un-horsenbuggy-ish of me.)  When I got to the door of my office building where I had to hold up a swipe card (which I have attached to my purse with one of those pull string thingies that Poly loves to play with), I had to shuffle stuff around in my arms to get to the card while NOT dropping the laptop.  Somehow, the act of opening the door jostled my coffee enough that some of it jumped out of my cup and landed on several of the items in my arms, including, you guessed it, my cleavage area.  Thankfully, my office is not far from the door.  I was able to get into it without anyone seeing me in my general state of disarray.  Again, I am thankful that I'm wearing a black sweater.  There are no visible coffee stains on my sweater.  Somehow my red pants escaped "the big splash," as the incident is now being referred to (by me alone).  Though I was reminded while typing that that my red pants proved earlier in the morning that they won't show a coffee stain.  When I first got my coffee this morning, I didn't realize that the moron teenager at Starbucks hadn't wiped the bottom of the cup.  I did the standard "place the cup on your leg in order to move your hand down to the bottom of the cup so you can drink it while driving" manuever.  That left a tiny half circle coffee ring on my red pants.  I've just checked that spot and there is no trace.

I know your day is complete after reading about my banal food/lotion/clothing mishaps.  You may skip the rest of your day and go directly to bed.

Note to self: Keep a big honkin' stash of industrial strength napkins in your office.

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Things to Get for My New Office

More than one person has commented on the blank walls in my office.  They tell me that I need to hang something on the walls.  Besides the "Wallbanger" life-size static cling of Thierry Henry, I haven't given it much thought.  My colleagues have encouraged me to hang my college diploma.  I never thought I would be that kind of person.  However, there's a battle raging in these halls between my alma mater and our biggest rivals and we're outnumbered.  So I may have to dig my diploma out of the trunk it's been sitting in for ... 12.5 years (ouch, that's painful to admit).  It's been rolled up for all that time, so it's not gonna be pretty at this point. 

And then there's always the opportunity for me to hang my own photos.  I had one propped up in my last office because I could never get around to matting and framing the ones I wanted to hang so that they'd match.  But I think hanging some photos would make this place (and me) seem more permanent.  So I should get around to it.  There's not a whole lot of people in this office who would notice that the matting didn't match, but it would drive me nutters.

I also need some smelly stuff.  While I can't actually light candles (like an idiot at my last office did), I can get one of those plug-in dealies or some "sticks."  I just bought my mama some of each of those.  She told me the scent she likes and that daddy won't let her leave a candle burning in the bathroom unattended.  (Even though I disagree with Daddy's blanket statement that "unattended candles are the number one cause of house fires," I do agree that it's probably not a good idea for my aging parents to participate in this practice.)  So I bought her three non-burning smelly things:  a set of big "sticks" in a scent that I really like, a set of small "sticks" in a scent that she really likes and a plug-in thingy in a scent that she really likes.  I meant for her to successively try each one to decide which she likes best.  She got them all out and immediately started using all three at the same time.  I haven't been over to her house of ill (Daddy has/had pneumonia) since she began her assault on the senses to see how overpowering it is. 

But this is a posting about my office, not my mother's house.  I also want to pick up an image laden calendar.  I saw one in B&N the other day featuring images of China.  I may go back for it.  The problem is that while I want a wall calendar, I don't think I have enough space for a traditionally sized one.  I can only hang a calendar that is about 15" tall when opened.  Not many scenic calendars are that size.  But I'm sure I'll figure something out...

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An Update on Updating

So I have one more way to update my blog now...from the comfort of my easy chair in front of my tv or sitting in my bed.

That's right, folks. I got my laptop today. Nothing fancy, just fabulous for the freedom it allows me. Right this second Mike Rowe is telling me that there are over 400 breeds of chickens while he prepares to do his "dirty job" in the hatchery.

Anyhoo, yesterday was my official first day at my new job. Unfortunately, it coincided with another person's last day there. The two events were related, but not of my arranging. Out of respect for those who worked around the other person, I did not "claim" my office immediately. I was trying to decide the best time to move in. After I found out that the local vultures had started pillaging equipment (like the 19" flat panel monitor), I decided that one morning was plenty of "mourning" time. I moved in this afternoon and reclaimed my fancy monitor from the neighbor who'd nicked it.

The good: My new office has a window. It looks out onto the parking lot where people spend their smoke breaks, but still, it's a window. Not even the owner of my last company had a window in his office.

The bad: My new office has glass beside the door. Because I'm at the end of the hall, there is darkness on the other side of that glass. The glass just acts like a mirror in which I can see myself while seated at my desk. UGH! Very disturbing. I am trying to come up with an effective and professional-looking way to block the glass. Until I come up with a better solution, I have just propped a whiteboard up against it. I've written "DO NOT MOVE" on the whiteboard in case my thieving neighbors get any funny ideas.

The odd: I found several binders in my new office that date back to 2004. These binders are full of stuff that is obviously out of date. So I have no idea why the other person was hanging on to them. And here's the kicker...the binders were clearly marked to show that they used to belong to a woman who still works here. I shot off a quick email to ask if she wanted the biners and got a negative reply within 15 minutes. There was definitely no reason for the previous occupant to hang on to them! Well, they're gone now.

Balls!

Poly and I went out to try our new cameras today. First we went to a school that is completely misnamed. It is called Hopewell, but is SO not full of hope. I don't know how long it has been abandoned, but it is kinda creepy. It's all wet and dark and mildewy. Some rooms have a little bit of natural light. All the rooms have graffiti. (Did I spell that right?) We saw a few words repeated throughout the graffiti - my favorite was "BALLS!" I got an interesting shot of an electrical panel, a piece of paper with a butterfly on it and the boiler room.

Then we went up to a little town that doesn't even have a stoplight. There is a two-block long section in the middle of town that used to be "downtown." There are a few shops that are closed but still have a seriously odd combination of merchandise in them. In each of these shops, there are rocks that can easily be polished into gemstones lining the windows. Then in the middle of the shop, there's a table with these adorable Chinese statues. Then there's nothing in the back of the shop. And that's the exact setup in at least four stores. It's really weird. I loved the Chinese statues. I would totally buy one if the shops were ever open. But I don't think they are.

Anyway, to see my better photos, click on the Flickr link.