I changed my registrar for wallaceandgromit.net from gandi.net to godaddy.com this past weekend. I really loved gandi, their clean interface, unintrusive notification emails, it was a great registrar to work with, but since the exchange rates for dollar to euro started going up it’s just become too expensive. It cost me almost $15/year when I renewed princessleia.com earlier this year. Godaddy has lots of ads, and the process of clicking through to change to them was full of distractions (no, I don’t want hosting, or parking, or forwarding, or your stupid spammy newsletters or special deals!). But they’re cheap, and they have a good reputation.

So both princessleia.com and wallaceandgromit.net are registered until 2006.

Now, I since I have a whole domain devoted to Wallace and Gromit, I don’t tend to mention news I post there here, but this is so cool, Shaun is getting his own 40 part children’s television program on Childrens BBC!

It’s going to be done by Aardman, so claymation! YAYAY! Too bad I live in the US, and the first isn’t being released until 2006. I’m just hopeful that someday they’ll release the series on region 1 DVD. Maybe if the Wallace and Gromit movie is really successful they’ll be more motivated to bring more Aardman stuff to the states.

Now I’m going to go snuggle in my comfy bed with a glass of milk.

The week goes by quicker when I’m working. Each day flies by, before I know it it’s time to go home and I only have a few hours of “playtime” before it’s time to sleep and work again.

I know, welcome to reality, I’ve been spoiled for too long %)

Star Wars came out on DVD yesterday, I am quite torn between wanting my beloved Star Wars on DVD, and dreading how Lucas butchered it this time. Besides, I’ve already bought the stupid trilogy 3 times (on CED, regular edition on VHS, special edition of VHS). Damn that Lucas, I know I’ll end up asking for the trilogy for my birthday (which is in a week, the 29th, start saving up for gifts now).

My laptop won’t boot. I think the trouble was that the pcmcia slot is msotly shot, so I needed to wiggle around the card when I booted it for it to finally get connected properly and get a signal. That wiggling around sent a bunch of junk to the kernel, which made the laptop reboot itself. After the reboot it’d work fine, no wiggling needed, but I can’t imagine the machine shutting itself down randomly like that was good for even reiserfs. So now it’s all broken and not booting and I don’t want to fix it, I don’t want Michael to fix it either. We’ve wasted so much time on that thing.

I’m looking into getting a replacement laptop for Christmas, not completely sure what route to take with it though. Refurbished from IBM? New from Apple? Some other option? I have a few months to think about it.

Late last week we got up in the morning and noticed that Munch had a swollen eye. Having read some about fish and the common infections and diseases that are common among cichlids I suspected it was Pop Eye, and from everything I found online it seems my suspicions are correct. Poor Munch! To fix it we need to do more frequent water changes, and we bought some medication to put in the water.

We hung out with some friends this weekend, and then on Sunday did some shopping for food, ended up at our favorite Whole Foods market buying some delicious carrot cake and swordfish, mmmm. I’m still thinking of the yummie garlic swordfish because it was so tastey.

Sheesh, I’m a bit sleepy already.

*finishes up last piece of carrot cake and wanders off*

The work week went by quickly.

After work on Thursday we went to Montgomeryville to check out the Keystone Hops Homebrew Club at the brew shop. Michael had been before, but I hadn’t. People bring their home brews and we taste test them all (“We DRINK and call it taste testing!”). I tried a couple really hoppy beers, and was pleased that they weren’t too bitter. Tried a couple that were a bit weak and sweet, but for the most part the ones I tried were good. Then I started to not feel so good. I think I was tired and hot, but we left only about 30 minutes after we got there. Pretty disappointing for both of us. But there is always next month!

Last night Michael picked me up from work and we decided that we should go out for dinner. But where? We drove around for a bit, called up The Drafting Room to see if it was possible for them to make the “Chicken and Brie” sandwich that we love so much and they took off their menu. Sometimes they have brie for other seasonal dishes, but unfortunately this time they didn’t. Sigh. Then I suggested trying out Ortlieb’s Brewery and Grille again, because the last time we went they had good food but none of their brew. Inexcusable for a brewery! But their chicken sandwiches were killer, and they had Guinness on tap. So we drove toward Limerick, got a little lost and ended up at the front gate to the Limerick Nuclear Power Plant. Then finally found Ortlieb’s. They were closed. GRAAH! The website says “CURRENTLY CLOSED FOR REORGANIZATION” sigh. By then it was almost 7 and we called up the pizzeria down the road from us and got some spinach pizza, and went into Harleysville for a case of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.

I didn’t get enough sleep last night. The last bits of hurricane Ivan hit our area, and didn’t disappoint. Hail, wind, rain, power going out, intense flooding in town, Michael had to go to a different grocery store than normal because the bridges leaving Schwenksville were completely submerged. It all seems fun now, but it made sleeping last night a bit difficult. And in the middle of all that, Caligula jumped on the counter and knocked down our dish drying rack, which lead to the breaking of a couple new wine glasses. Grr.

Speaking of Caligula being where he shouldn’t be, the other night we were sitting in bed watching some tv, and Caligula pushed open the bedroom door, and started playing with some plastic sounding thing on the floor. Puzzled, Michael looked down and saw that he had my Gummy Bears! He had jumped up on the counter in the kitchen where they had been sitting since Sunday, carried the bag into the room, and started gnawing on it. Kitties don’t eat gummies. I suspect he was just doing something troublesome to get our attention since I’ve been working so much lately.

Working. I got my first paycheck in the mail today, woo! Which reminds me, I need to pay bills.

Today has been nice. I sat with Caligula on the couch in front of a nice fire and did a bunch of reading. I finished Hackers & Painters, which was pretty good. Not sure what we’re doing tonight, Michael is bottling beer right now and some friends might come over (if they can get past the flooding downtown).

Wow, it’s almost 6!

*wanders off*

Well, it turns out that Michael’s contract with Sprint ran out in July. We figured we’d just add me to his plan, but we found out that doing that would be a bit expensive and we decided to look elsewhere. On Monday night he ordered a couple flip phones from Verizon. When we got home today they were on our doorstep.

I am not too into cellphones, which is one of the reasons I never had one before now, but it’s not such a bad little thing. It doesn’t sound as horrible as I expected, maybe we’re close to a future where cellphones don’t suck. The phone has text messaging, so now I can be one of those people who can’t tell the difference between IRC and “chatting” on their cellphone.

Today at work they asked me if I could stay for the next 3 weeks. I accepted of course, it’s not a bad job, and having guarenteed income for the next few weeks is great, especially since my birthday is coming up and I want to buy myself lovely things to get over the fact that I’m turning 23 and still don’t have a clue where I’m going with my career %D

I spoke with my Aunt Elaine the other night. It’s always nice talking to her, she makes me feel more sane and grounded. I’ve lived with her a few times, and we’re very close, but we have a tendancy to lose touch when one of us moves. I hadn’t spoken to her in almost a year. She’s finishing up her degree at RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology) and then she’s looking for a place to settle down, considering Philly. That’d be cool, having family around again would be nice, especially family that I actually LIKE.

I had a weird dream about coffee makers last night.

Today was my forth day at work. Still not so bad, I can already see I’m better on the phone than I was before, and my multitasking skills are improving. It’s very busy, but that just means that the day goes by very quickly.

Unfortunately today the other temp walked out. I honestly don’t understand why, perhaps she was used to the lazy office gopher jobs that some temp jobs turn out to be. But to walk out without saying a word? This was a grown woman! Made the day much more busy, but the great thing about being a temp is that it didn’t make it any more stressful. I don’t have to stay an extra 3 hours to deal with the mess that was left from someone walking out. I can leave my work at work, I don’t have to care when things get messy, what a new feeling! Even the work at the gas station came home with me after they learned I was responsible enough to pile responsibilites on top of (and I was foolish enough to accept).

I like temping for now.

I hung out with my friend Nita on Sunday. We went to Quakertown to do a few things, and ended up going to the $2 theater to see “I, Robot.” It was a fun movie, while people not familiar with robotics scifi might think it’s clever, it’s all just rehashed ideas from scifi writers past. I’d say it was worth the $2, I was entertained.

Now I’m going to go spend some time with Michael and watch Bladerunner, yay!

*wanders off*

Saturday was a good day.

I finally got around to setting up the java chat option for xelium, and pulled together some php to make a simple nickname login so it doesn’t just assign an Anon nickname.

A little after 4:30 we headed out, I needed to swing by the temp agency to drop off my timesheet and pick up a few things, then I wanted to go to the Sprint Store in Montgomeryville to look at cellphones. We figure it’d be good for me to have a cellphone now that I’ll be away from the house more often and needing to coordinate when and where I need Michael to pick me up after work.

So we drove to Lansdale and hit some traffic. I hate Lansdale, but today it seems that they were holding Lansdale Bike Night 2004, and most of Mainstreet was closed, including the stretch where I needed to go. Arg! Scratch that idea.

We headed to the Sprint Store. Parked, walked to the door at 6:01. They closed at 6. Damn it! I might just order the silly phone online, I don’t care much what it looks like, I just though it’d be need to hold before I buy/order.

From there we drove to Philadelphia, for the Jeff Greinke Gatherings Concert.

We got into the city around 7, the place was swarming with college students. We stopped at The Last Word bookshop and picked up a couple books, browsed for a bit. Then we went over to St. Mary’s for the concert.

I really wasn’t sure what to expect, I’m not familiar with Jeff Greinke‘s work. We picked up a copy of Lost Terrain on our way in, and got comfy in the pews (which is possible if you bring a big pillow). They turned off the lights and the concert began a little after 8.

What a great concert it was! (now forgive me if I butcher ambient termonology here) It was really all across the ambient spectrum that I’m familiar with. Some quiet landscape stuff. Some weird sound stuff… including a couple pieces with a Trombone! There were some dark ambient pieces which I really really enjoyed, I was able to close my eyes and play Alice in my own dark wonderland while the real world melted away. Mmmm, I had a very nice time.

Today I have plans to go out with my friend Nita, yay!

Work was good today. It’s not as busy as it will be on Tuesday, so I was able to continue getting used to the whole thing. It’s amazing how much easier it all is when I stop trying to live up to the ridiculous expectations of perfection that I have a tendancy to hold myself to. Temps aren’t expected to be perfect.

I realized today why people had such high expectations for the “paperless office.” So much of the paper shuffling we do is really not needed if computers were used for more of it. I wonder how much of the world is still lagging in efficiency like this. Probably lots.

That’s what I need to do with my life, become an efficiency expert! While folding up those orders I had so many ideas on how to streamline the entire workplace.

Then again, me and half those people in the office wouldn’t have a job anymore if that happened. Maybe efficiency isn’t everything.

And I don’t know what I’m talking about anyway, I’m just The Temp.

Work ended around 3:30, apparently they have less work for us to do on Fridays. I asked if it was possible for me to just hang around the office and read until Michael could pick me up at 5. The supervisor didn’t have a problem with it, but then a woman I had been working with all day offered me a ride home since she lives near me. Yay! I got to talk with her on the ride home, turns out she’s a really cool woman, and despite hating computers (because she’s worked on one everyday for over a decade), she told me that her husband uses Suse at home, and that’s the computer she checks her email on and things. Neat! She’s casually used linux for over 5 years, starting with Red Hat. See, linux isn’t such a bad desktop for casual computer users.

Since I got home early I decided to do some cleaning. Had the place mopped and vacuumed by the time Michael got home around 5. Feels so much nicer being in a clean house.

I definately need to get at least 8 hours of sleep per night though. I worked all day and I’m still wide awake right now, but yesterday I was just exhausted.

My brain is a little bit mushy, so if this isn’t coherent, just move along.

I didn’t get a good night sleep last night. I foolishly stayed up late to watch a video game documentary on PBS (which ended up being not so good because they jumped around too much) until 11. Then of course I had to think about starting the job today, and that kept my brain working when I wanted to be sleeping. Then Michael wasn’t sleeping so well, so around 4:30 or so he got up for a few minutes, and I was woken up. I stayed in bed trying to get back to sleep. Then the alarm went off at 5. I tried to pretend I didn’t hear it, but got up at around 5:10.

Michael and I got out of the house by 8, and I was at work at 8:30. The day went well enough, calling companies to take their orders, answering phones to take the orders all morning. Then the afternoon spent putting together orders. Unsurprisingly I enjoy the afternoons much more, paper shuffling is easy, being good on the phone and juggling people on the phone is not so easy for me. It’s ok though, this is the sort of thing I want experience with. The people I work with are nice too. I’m sure I’ll do fine, even if I don’t exactly enjoy it.

Unfortunately Michael got stuck at the car dealership all day getting repairs on the Rav4. He just went in for an oil change and they found a bigger problem, which was completely covered under our warrenty (yay!) but kept him away from work all day (no yay). But that meant he was able to pick me up right when I got out of work at 4:30.

I came home and made dinner. But I was so exhausted, I ended up skipping the phillychix meeting tonight, which I feel bad about since they tend to not happen if I don’t show up.

Blah blah blah tired going to bed now.

The temp agency I went to yesterday gave me a call and offered me a 2-5+ week job.

It’s just customer service and taking orders (data entry) over the phone, but the place is local (Harleysville), the hours and pay were fine and the dresscode is casual. I decided to just go ahead and take it. I want to work, and this job is fine and gets me the office experience I need. It seems like a laid back enough assignment that I can get used to the whole temping thing again.

We’re going to drop by the temp agency this evening to pick up the paperwork I need, and I start at 8:30 tomorrow morning. Yay! Work!

*wanders off to check on brownies*

This morning Michael wasn’t feeling very well. His allergies had him up at 3 am, and while I was getting dressed this morning for my interview at the temp agency he asked me if I’d mind driving myself to the interview.

Drive myself?

I hadn’t driven since February 2003!

I’ve had a license for nearly 5 years, and used it extensively when I lived in New York, driving from Syracuse to Rochester and all sorts of crazy places in between all the time in my old cars. But that didn’t mean I liked it. I hate driving.

That said, I’m not a bad driver.

Anyway, I agreed to drive myself, it wasn’t too far. I figured the little bit of nervousness I’d feel from driving for the first time in a year and a half would somehow counteract the nervousness I had for the interview.

I was mostly right, driving the Rav4 took some getting used to, it certainly doesn’t have the pickup that the Jeep had, but it’s a nice car.

I got to the temp agency a little after 9, found parking easily, and went in.

I impressed them with all the computer knowledge I had without attending college. I charmed them with stories of the hardships of web developing as a private contractor. But at the end of it all:

“Things are a bit slow. I have an administrative assistant job that a few people have applied for, but might not be filled yet, we’ll know by later this week. There is a data entry and customer support job that I’ll know about later this week. Oh, and if you want to start today you can take a stocking job at a local Department Store.”

This was rather discouraging. Administrative Assistant and Data Entry + Customer support jobs aren’t a problem, I’m willing to do those. But she didn’t seem hopeful about IT jobs coming in, contrary to what a woman I spoke with on the phone said. I expressed my concerns, and the woman actually gave me the name of another temp agency in the area that might be able to help me more! So I told her I’d consider the job options and get back to her, but I am not sure I will. Oh well, at least it wasn’t my performance that made this unsuccessful.

So I came home and made an appointment with that other temp agency for Thursday at 9:30 am (that was the earliest they could get me in). This place even has a website[1] with job listings that seem rather extensive. It’s all much more professional looking and sounding than the place I went to today. I’m hopeful I can get constant and good assignments, but we’ll see when I go in for my interview on Thursday.

I was a bit bummed by this morning though. I was able to salvage my day and send off a few resumes to some craigslist postings (one of which I later learned might be going to a friend of mine in the area, d’oh!). Also was able to send my resume to a friend of ours who knows some HR people in the IT world who might be able to help me out.

While trying to cheer myself up today, I remembered reading in my Home Comforts book an interesting tidbit about pancake mixes. Apparently pancake mixes that you buy from the store are pretty basic, and can easily be made at home with a few basic ingredients. So I decided to try to make some pancakes from scratch. But what kind? All I really have for sweet flavoring is cinnamon, so I looked for a cinnamon pancake recipe, and found this one. The dry ingredients make enough for 3 batches, you save the 2 batches you don’t use. It wasn’t any harder than making normal pancakes from scratch, as always the hardest part is cooking them in the frying pan so they look like normal edible pancakes. And it was all a success!

Too bad Michael had gone off to work, I would have liked to share this delicious acomplishment with someone. I’ll have to buy some whipped cream and make them on some weekend.

While I made these Caligula wasn’t much help. At least he stayed out of the way %)

Michael is picking up Indian food for dinner tonight, yum yum! He should be home soon, so I should wrap this up.

*wanders off*

[1] Right now I’m making a conscious decision not to mention company names I work for in my public blog. I’ve mostly stuck with this in the past, I’ve heard more than one horror story about people’s lives being harmed by workplace information posted in their blogs.