my window is open

It's been a long time since I opened my window. This winter is long. I'm trying to do things differently this time around. I'm tired of feeling stale.

I had a meeting at work this morning. It was probably the most productive meeting I've ever been to. Half the people were painting the room, and I lead the other half into a crop session. That's right. Cropping. I think we ended with with about 8 layouts this morning. In two hours. We're pretty efficient. It's funny I have all the material in my room. The good stuff. And I've only done two layouts. I don't know what holds me back. Having other people make them and encouraging them is fun. They were reluctant at first, didn't know what to do. I just told them, there's no right answer, just put down what you feel is good. They did. And it turned out great. How come nobody ever really said that to me before? I feel like I don't have that sort of encouragement. I always want to do things the "right" way, and I end up not working on it at all. I tried to be a perfectionist, and I give up when I can't get it perfect.

Having done something and learn from it is better then not doing it at all.

I can hear now....

So I went into work on Friday and I happened upon a pair of tickets for Foo Fighters. I'm not going into details, but it's unexpected to say the least, and I owe people some favors. Good thing I have a couple of Starbucks cards with sufficient balance.

I'm glad I decided to fill up the tank on Tuesday, it was very helpful. The trek up to Oakland isn't very far, but the traffic was bleh... Plus it was dark and rainy... not a very good combination.

I had very good seats, well it was a box, so it was pretty damn good. Food and drinks were provided, but the thing I'm most impressed about was the private bathroom. Oh man... if you've ever been to a concert with a couple of beers in you.... you know what I mean....

It was a very fun time indeed. It was one of the most entertaining concerts I've been to. I knew pretty much every song, even the new stuff. They played all my favorites all the way back to my high school days... that's a while back. The stage was across the arena, and there was a catwalk all the way down the center where the mosh pit usually would be (it was split in two). Dave Grohl would run up and down the catwalk, that was pretty cool. I have a couple of photos of that. When it came to the acoustic set, they lowered a circular platform in the middle, and played in the middle of the arena. Which makes my seats even better. Have you ever heard a triangle solo? We did, and it rocked.

I suggest watching the Long Road To Ruin video. See that tshirt the girls are wearing? I almost got one of those. lol.... I got this one instead, with the tour locations on the back.

ah yes, school and stuff

So this week was the first week of school. Well technically half week because it didn't start until Wednesday. It has been all kinds of suck. I have 3 classes I need to add into, and one of them I'm not even sure if there will be enough room. So yeah. Good times. I'm just not going to worry about it now, nothing I can do at the moment. I will most likely get into the classes I need. So yeah.... frustrating, but it will happen.

I did a fun little quiz thing on ABC News last night. It's a match-o-matic on ideology. So who are my top 3 candidates for this election? Biden, Dodd, and Hilary. Imagine that. I just find it amusing.

I think I got somebody at work in trouble today. I felt kind of bad about it for a bit. He's a nice kid and all. But when you sell 19 computers/printers with no service plans at all, and you tell me you didn't really try, I don't think I should feel too guilty about it. One of the managers said he needs to talk to him, another one got upset enough to want to see a write up. That comes at a bad time because he just applied for a leadership position. This gets me thinking. Am I out to get people that is actually nice to me? I feel like I'm out there to hinder somebody's career. He has a lot more to lose then I do. Maybe this is my way to try to push him to do better. I don't know. Maybe I like to put people down. I'm sadistic like that. Maybe I just felt obligated. I know it was the right thing to do. I didn't actually point out that particular shortfall. It stands out by itself. It is something I had to show those people anyway and they had been asking for it. Maybe that is where ethics and loyalty comes in. I tell it like it is. I do what I'm suppose to do. I can still sleep at night. That probably means I'm doing the right thing.

windows of opportunity

I was looking through the different shows I can watch tonight and a new show intrigued me. New Amsterdam was a show I was fairly interested in at the beginning of the summer. It never appeared because the big wigs at Fox decided to shelf it. From what I gathered they only produced seven episodes and probably won't go for any more. So why did I get to see it tonight? The writer's strike. They simply ran out of things to show. I guess even Fox can't get enough dumb people to go on their reality shows. But you know what, I'm glad I got to watch it. I liked it. There were some humor in there that I find quirky. How does this guy know so much? Well he's been living for 300 years for one... and went to a few educational institutions. I would too if I lived for that long. Anyway, I hope they air the rest of it. Possibly make more since 24 is getting push to lord knows when. Not that I've watched that for a while now.

Oh the other thing I liked was they used Your Heart is an Empty Room as the end credits for the pilot. How fitting. That got me to listen to my sappy folk songs. Had some Death Cab, now I'm back on David Gray. I used to say I have a soundtrack to my life. I think I lost track of that for a while. I don't know what it can be now. I'm not in any particular mood for any prolonged period of time. I have a tendency to go back to things that takes me back. It's a mental connection thing. I'm looking through my collection again. It's the experience factor. What music do to me so that it draws out emotions and make me recall events and link them all together. Is that how memory works? I know that's how a romantic comedy works.

I told my friend to remind me of what I said if I ever express an interest in teaching English. Reading other people's papers are frustrating. Most of the papers I read were fine, but some of them are real gems. I can't understand how muddle people's thoughts can be. I honestly think some of my free writes are more organized then what I read. I don't know what's going on with people. Anyway, school is almost done for the year and I really need a break. I need to stop and really think about what I want to do. There's still so much to do. I feel like I'm sort of drowning a bit. I know I'm not, because I know what it's like when it is worse. Everything seem so much easier after I have hit bottom. I have that "could be worse" attitude.

I don't really want to leave the job I have right now. But I'm also not too keen on some of the many changes also. I think I need to make some hard choices fairly soon. The last few weeks have been pretty demoralizing at work. I'm tired of fighting about my schedule. I'm tired of people taking my work for granted. I'm doing things at work that's not even part of my job and they are some how expected of me. Even worse, they don't give me the time and resource to do it. I do wonder about why I'm still there and not look for something better. I think I'm too comfortable.

and I think to myself...

...when is this going to end? That was roughly 5:30 Friday morning. Better known as Black Friday. No not really. That's what I thought I would be thinking. It turned out to be quite fun really. I don't think we were as prepared as we could have been, but whatever. The good part is I felt like I put in some good hard work, and it makes it seem worth it. I have never yelled at that many customers in my life. It was FUN!

hang on a second

Before you think I threw myself off the far end of the literary train, you need to know I spent about 4 hours writing the last post. Considering it was a paper due on Monday. lol...

So how about this weather? Everyone were all depressed over the weekend and I was totally chipper. My sup was gonna choke me for being chipper. Well he was kidding of course, or I guess. He is a bit morbid. Actually I do recall he likes rain. So huh? Whatever. I think I'll start calling him Chuck. Go watch that show on NBC, it was bomb.

It's moon festival tonight. That means a huge full moon, and I need to get my ass up and get grocery before I get run over by little old ladies. My water got turned off again this morning, I don't know what in hell they need to fix, but I can't take a shower, so I'm kinda pissed.

I need to go to the store to pick up the new Foo Fighters CD also. I have so much to do. Then I have to be back home in time to work on a project with a classmate. Good flipping times.

Time to find some water.

come on people... i'm just doing my job

All you crazy people with anger issues, ignorance issues, biting more then you can chew issues, metro-fi issues, attention span issues, etc, etc, etc... Go bother somebody else. Or better yet, go jump of a bridge will ya? Yeah I'm talking about you, bleached blond lady with all of the above. No you don't get to look at me like I'm stupid, because you are the dumbest bitch I have ever met. If you can stop and listen to me talk for more then 2 seconds then you would know everything spilling out of that gaping hole in your head are wrong. If you know that better service, why don't you just use it? You know why you're asking me about it? because it doesn't fricking exist. Good job lady. Get the fuck out of my face.

sanity check

I think I'll have a case of the Mondays for about... oh at least another 4 weeks, not counting today. The marketing class is kind of mmm... hate to say it... boring. I think it's because I've had marketing before. I think learning how to use the equipment would help. *sigh* Anyway.

Work was long this weekend, and I got almost nothing done. I'll be working way too much this week. I already knew that. I do get a little bit of time to get some of that paperwork out of the way. And the more pay would help a bit. I can use it.

I don't get how some people can't learn how to do their job more effectively... after at least 6 months on the job... close to a year. How some people lack problem solving skill escapes me. It leaves me with more things to do. Some people just don't know how to think in an efficient and profitable manner.

I just realize I'm not really going to have a holiday until the 4th of July. True I am taking a day off this 24th to go to SF pride with some friends, but that's not really off. I for one think it's going to be a lot of work. So yeah... not until the 4th of July. After that, I get a bigger break in August. I already have plans for that... woohoo!

viewpoint

I am one of those strange people who is more or less enthusiastic about my job. I really think it's because I'm not there that much and do not have a lot of responsibilities. Since I'm so chipper and helpful, they put me in the Viewpoint Committee. Viewpoint is a measure of how much the workers enjoy working at our establishment. I don't feel this years score was a true reflection of how people feel. It's way too high. Most people just gave 5's across the board just to get it over with. I have seen some improvements since the survey, but it's not enough. Motivation is a huge factor. It's not something a group of underlings can change. The only things I can think of right now that can improve the working experience is to bring a sense of community to the workers.

I am guilty of not communicating. Most people in the store doesn't know what it is we do when we wake up too early on a Saturday morning to meet. Sometimes we get things done. We had some great ideas last week. I brought up a few of them. We need a comments box. Which we have. Just needed to label it as such. We should decorate the hub. Put pictures and such on the cabinets. That is the only place where we can put things up. But of course, those things don't happen because we in the committee don't have the motivation to do so. Motivation really comes from top down, and that's another story.

I had a couple more ideas. I want to make the display more interactive. People can write on it. Add to lists, suggestions, votes and such.

A lot of pictures. We have a lot of pictures stored up already, we just need to print them. I'm thinking a new myspace group. People need to turn on the receive bulletin feature.

Taking email is a good idea. People want immediate response. I don't think the comments box thing is really going to work. Bulletin board type of thing is good.

I want to take suggestions from people. Collaborated suggestions. I want to know! Yeah I think I'll make a few more suggestions next time.