Useless Blogging

From the Language Log:
Yale Sluts and Princeton Philosophers.

Enjoy.

At work, and in sort of a holiding pattern before a New Hire Orientation this morning. I don’t want to start on stuff that I’ll shortly need to abandon for three hours, so I’m posting this to end the blog-attendance truancy going on in here.

Things continue to go pretty well. In recent days gone by, I’ve been to a birthday party for a one-year old (which was attended by 52 people), and haven’t been to a birthday party for a six-year old (did I get that right, Julz? And did you get our package?). This upcoming weekend is a Juniata Alumni event, the first in Baltimore for the Baltimore crew, and I’m looking forward to it. 23 people had signed up last I looked (my family being four of them), so the turnout should be very nice for the kickoff thing we’ve got going on.

Friday night was an unofficial employee happy hour, fo which I was granted permission by The Boss to attend. Good thing too, because these folks enjoy themselves; not that co-workers from my past life didn’t enjoy themselves, but I certainly didn’t get to experience it firsthand very often.

My kids are enjoying video games, which warms my heart. Emma has taken to Animal Crossing (I picked up a GameCube controller post-xmas for GC games on the Wii), and Sara is all about I Can Play Piano (a gift from my in-laws). Now to get them into two-or-more-player games…

For those who come here hoping for a deep thought, here’s what I’ve got going on right now: What’s your most favorite sound you heard today? For me, the timpani in Roy Orbison’s “You Got It” is winning thus far.

Baaaaa-beeeeeeee… you got it.

From SeriousEats, which was in turn from Ian’s Gut Check blog (which I was the first to post to del.icio.us, thank you very much).

As it’s been pointed out, I’ve been derelict in my posting duties since announcing the new job. I was all too aware of this myself; I’d be looking at my blog and thinking to myself, “Man, I’d write something, but I’m just BEAT.” And so thoughts went unwritten, until now. And Grey’s Anatomy is on now too… coincidence?

First, on New Year’s:
The brouhaha that normally is December 31st (and surrounding days) failed to appear this year. Between psychos, work, lack of money, and getting sidetracked to Florida while coming down from Connecticut, the population of the party was far thinner than years past (especially when compared to last year’s shindig). A sum total of five people who do not normally live in our house were willing and able to attend (though a sixth put in a showing on the morning of the 1st). On the plus side, I’ve got a lot of liquor and beer now.

Next, the job:
The job is good times. Hard workin’ times, to be sure, but good. It’s remarkably nice to read Dilbert and think that it’s about OTHER PEOPLE now.

I have something akin to a cubicle, but bigger and more open, and with a window (through which actual light comes!). There are some photos below the cut at the end of the post, if you’re interested. Thus far I’ve been able to wow folks with my Excel wizardry and Access prowess (the latter I really kinda forgot I even had), and they have me assisting with interviews (one so far, another coming up next week), since the new person will be spending a lot of time pulling me out of their back pocket. Me, I’m just thrilled that there are people to talk to. Working from home was nice and all, but the reason I did it was mainly because no one interacted with me when I was in the office with VZ (owing primarily to the wholesale team being scattered to the four corners of the earth, and less to personality conflicts or whatnot). I like people, and getting to be around them again is really quite nice.

I’m in the office for around 9-10 hours or so, depending on the day, at least for the time being. I’m not only trying to make a halfway decent impression, but there’s a LOT to learn. The systems there are complex the way the back of an entertainment center is complex: at any given point, the answer is obvious — connect a wire from one spot to another — but when you add it all up, the system can get pretty severe. The good news (well, a piece of the many bits of good news) is that the people there like what they do and work hard for their results. Vibes are contagious.

Every now and again I get a whiff of how things are back with the old career, and it sure does paint a picture where I’m the lucky one for having been tapped on the shoulder back in November.

I’m tired, but it’s a good tired. A worthy tired. And I hope that explains the lull in posting.

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