This Application Goes To Eleven

I recently had an experience where I applied for a job online that involved eleven different, independent steps to complete the application. This is after you had to create your initial profile with a bunch of the same information to begin with.

Seriously, dudes...

I fully understand and accept your need to know all of these things about me that are clearly stated on my resume separately from my resume despite the fact that I am also sending you my resume because...

Okay so I don't understand your need for this, exactly. But I do accept it and that is actually the important part I think. Seriously though I'm giving you all of this information no less that two times and you've still got eleven steps for me? Eleven? You really couldn't have combined any of these things together? Perhaps the personal information and the personal preferences could have been on the same page? I don't know... maybe the work history and the education history could have been combined? See how those things had similar words in their descriptions? Usually a good hint that they can be combined together.

I'm only making these suggestions as someone who's done this... a lot. And kind of has done this for a living... twice. It's cool though. There's really no reason to pay me any mind. Keep annoying the shit out of your applicants. It's actually a really solid way to weed out people who are only semi interested in working for you. Really only keeps people like me who seriously want a new job in mix. That's fair. Still, you're way annoying.

Le Sigh...

More old pictures. This time of a fancy fountain we saw on a trip looking for wedding venues (way back in the day now.) Water and light and movement and all that though. Waaaaaaay better than just repeating the same five pieces of information over and over and over again. Holy smokes.

ohhhh, light under the water 

And walls of water

And, uh... well, uh... inappropriate spurtings of curiously white-looking water

It looks like there's a secret world hidden back there - like Narnia, only damper

Hm, there's those spurts again... Rainbow Toe is right - I do have a guttermind.

On the other hand, if you're looking for a photo focusing on a few droplets of water - I'm your girl.

Abstraction - that's where I excel.  That and apparently photo captions.  It's a skill.

'Splosions!

If you know me at all, you know I freaking love the 4th of July.  It's such a wonderful holiday.  I could spout off a bunch of founding fathers stuff and yay America and whatnot.  It would probably ring false and/or sarcastic though.  Probably because I would be at least partially sarcastic about it.  I love my country very much, but I think I'm pretty realistic about it - we're messed up in a lot ways.  If you haven't watched Newsroom yet, you really should.  Sorkin, man, he'll get you riled up.  This might be one of his best speeches ever.



So even that last half it rosy colored glasses in my opinion, but it was at least better.  And I get the point.  It's not anymore, but it could be again.

All the same though, I love the 4th of July.  BBQ's, chilling outside with friends and/or family all day, then watching people blow shit up.  It's a great holiday.  It's brilliant.

So last night we went and literally got on a train to fireworks town.  No seriously.  After work we headed to Osceola, Wisconsin, boarded a train, rode for about an hour, took a short bus ride and arrived in Marine, Minnesota for fireworks basically on Main Street.  Which were pretty much right over our heads.  Like, bits of firework falling on us, right over our heads.  Pretty awesome.  It was a great time.  Really the only thing that kind of sucked was that the air temperature was roughly that of the surface of the sun.  Holy fuck it's hot out.  So incredibly out.

Then we took a bus back to train back to Osceola and drove home.  Which is to say, we had a great night but didn't get home until really late and I haven't even looked at my pictures yet.

So here are some pictures from Lake Superior quite awhile ago.  (Thus the old signature.)

doesn't that look inviting?

Don't you want to go sit there next to the lake?

Aaaand pile some rocks on the arm of your chair in a... neat looking way?

Happy Fourth of July, Y'all!

Call It A Countdown You Mustn't - Day 3 - Geek Girl Edition

One of the things I like best about myself (stick with me here, I'm pretty sure this turns out way better than it sounds) is that I'm just a gigantic nerd.  Seriously.  Big.  Fat.  Nerd.

I am a geek girl.  (I watched a video a few weeks ago about calling yourself a geek woman rather than girl and, wow, it made totally awesome, valid points that I totally agreed with.  Geek girl just rolls off the tongue so much better though.)

And that kicks ass.  Like I said, probably the coolest thing about me.  Super big nerd.  It's where a lot of my humor comes from and I'm also kinda smart so that's cool too.  Pretty sweet package overall, the nerdiness.

Settle in for a long-ass story - because there's bonus Christmas nonsense today!  (Man I hope that's incentive.)

Awhile back Steve and I were in the car on the way home from somewhere and - searching for something we hadn't talked about already that day - I said:

"I was reading Wil Wheaton's Blog the other day and -"

"Whoa, wait," he interrupted, "you were reading Wil Wheaton's blog?"

"Yeah."

"You were?"

"Yeeeees." (This seemed pretty obvious to me, as I had just said so.)

"Why?"

"Because it's funny?"  (Again, these are the things that seem obvious to me.)

"But you don't like Wil Wheaton."

"Why wouldn't I like Whil Wheaton?!" (Seriously, we kept saying his full name.  What's up with that?)

"You've never watched Star Trek.  You're not into that.  What reason would you have to be a fan of Wil Wheaton?"

"Stand by Me."

"Are you kidding?"

"And Toy Soldiers."  (Seriously - Toy Soldiers was, and remains, part of my reasoning.)

"... I... what... that doesn't even make sense, Hun."

"Sure it does.  He's the kid from Stand by Me.  Which I love.  So I love him.  Then he was in Toy Soldiers.  Which I also love.  For some reason.  So I keep loving him.  Now he has a really funny blog which I read and love.  And he guest stars on stuff I usually watch and enjoy.  So I love him."

"But he's best known for a role on Star Trek, which you don't and never have watched."

"So?"

"So that's why people know him."

"But that's not why I know him."

"But that's not why everyone else knows him."

"I don't see how that's a reason why I shouldn't read his blog."

"... I guess.  Go on."

I proceeded to tell him whatever I'd read on Wil Wheaton's blog that had made me giggle and, as we were getting out of the car a few minutes later Steve said to me:

"Seriously, Hun, you should just watch Star Trek already.  You're so close to you're black belt in nerd, Hun, just go for it already."

...And that was hilarious.

A few days later I sent him an email that said:
"So I've been meaning to ask:  If I do watch Star Trek, do I get an actual black belt?  And if so, what does a black belt in nerd look like exactly?  Does it have decals?  (I personally think it should have decals.)  Does it come with a holster for a light saber?  It seems like any sort of belt for a nerd should come with holsters for various weapons - swords, stakes, phasers, light sabers, etc.  Is there a ceremony of some kind involved?  Like a crowning, but with a belt instead of a crown?  A belting, if you will?

Also, inquiring minds want to know (okay, well one inquiring mind wants to know): does nerdery follow the standard levels of belting:  i.e. white, yellow, orange, green, purple, red, brown, black?  What does one have to do to attain the various lever?  Am I really a brown belt nerd?  I know I'm nerdy, I like my nerdiness, still."

His response was:  "ummm... sure?  I don't know, Hun, it was just a joke.  But I this this conversation proves your a nerd already."

And because I'm unwilling to let things go:
"Well I'm not denying that I'm a nerd, sweetie.  I think that's been pretty blatantly obvious for quite some time now.  But... it was a good joke, and now I want a black belt in nerd.  I could do it, if I train hard enough... I can do the crane like Daniel-Son!  Sweep the leg!  Wait, no.  That was Johnny, dammit.  Wouldn't it be cool?  My black belt in nerd with like a little Nintendo controller on it, and - I don't know, like a Lego brick or something, and... a little TARDIS! and it could have a little holster for my blaster (cause hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side and all.)  It would be my nerdy badge of honor."

... And then Steve stopped talking to me about this topic.  That was probably the right plan of action for his sanity.  But we don't value sanity that much in our house.

I'm sharing all of this because tonight the super huge geek girl inside me had a very exciting night.  Why?

See that?

And that?

I made those.

HEEHEE!

I made paper snowflakes that look like Yoda and Boba Fett!  Hee!

I have more that look like Darth Vader, C3PO, a Storm Trooper and a Clone Trooper.  (When I showed them to Steve he said to me "You know it's seriously hot that you know the difference, on sight, between a storm trooper and a clone trooper, right?"  Which made me laugh.  Because, yeah, I kinda do know that.)

Now before we get too crazy I didn't just make these up.  I made them from templates.  Which I originally read about on EPBOT (which I love to pieces) but the TARDIS one looked way too complicated for me to attempt.  Then I saw them again, specifically the Star Wars ones, on Geeks are Sexy, which I check several times a day and may be the site I look at more than any other actually.  It's awesome sauce.  Plus - completely accurate title.  The Star Wars designs got me much more interested and once Boba Fett got into the mix (via Anthony Herrera Designs, which is also included in the GaS article) I was hooked.  It was tricky, especially Yoda.  There are some really teeny cuts in there.  But so, so cool.

When I finished Yoda, I said to Steve "Hunny, you have to come and look at this.  It's so cool!"  I'm not kidding, I was literally bouncing.

Steve loves the Fett.  So I knew I could get him on board with this.

I had decided earlier today to post a picture of our Yoda tree ornament tonight:

Because of course we have a Yoda Christmas tree ornament.  It may not be the first thing that occurs to you, but once you start thinking about it - you don't want to live in a world where we don't.  I don't want to live in a world where we don't anyway.  I mean seriously.  Yoda ornaments should be the new pickles (you know? the Christmas pickle tradition?) - and that's as someone who totally loves pickles too.

That reminds me - I have a pretty great story about standing up for the awesomeness of Yoda as a, like, 8-year-old that I'm not sure I've ever actually told anyone.  Once upon a time I joined some friends who were playing in the school yard by our house.  They were talking about Star Wars, which I had recently seen for the first time, and which characters were their favorites.  They asked me who I liked best and I told them - Yoda.  Because Yoda was, and is, the shit.  What I didn't know or particularly understand at the time was that they weren't necessarily talking about who was the best character (Yoda) they were talking about who was the cutest.  This was the Han Vs. Luke conversation.  (The answer is Han, by the way.)  So their response to me was a fairly incredulous "Yoda?  Ew.  He has ear hair."  No joke, this was like 20 years ago and I remember specifically that they pointed out ear hair.  I gotta tell you they teased me pretty hard for probably 10, 15 minutes or so and the whole time I was like "Whatever, Yoda is way better than Luke." (Which is totally true, by the way.)  And they kind of made me feel like crap.  It's not really their fault either, I didn't get what that conversation was really about until I reflected on it many years later.  And not even that I wasn't aware of boys being cute at that point or anything - I just wasn't there for the beginning.  Anyway - the point of the story:  Even at 8 years old, Yoda was freaking awesome.  And even now, faced with the question "Who's better: Han or Luke?"  I'm probably just as likely to say Yoda as I was then.  Because Yoda's still the best character.

Don’t Call it a Countdown – Day 1

I don’t really like all the countdown type of things various… well mostly television channels do at Christmas time.  In my opinion, no matter what particular carols or ABC Family will tell you there aren’t “days” of Christmas.  There’s Christmas.  There’s Christmas Eve.  If you want to get super technical (and/or you live in Britain and/or Canada) there’s Boxing Day.  That’s about it.  This whole 12, 15, 25 Days of Christmas thing bugs me.

Don’t get me wrong I like to put up our tree as soon as possible.  If Steve would let me it would go up the day after Thanksgiving.  He doesn’t though so I usually have to wait until the first weekend in December.  If I further had my way it would stay up until February.  I don’t get my way then either, though, and so it gets taken down shortly after New Years.  Apparently it’s “more special” this way.  I don’t think he understands – the Christmas tree is awesome and length of display does not dispel from said awesomeness.  Duh.

Anyway… I like our decorations and I have a tendency to take pictures of them.

It has also come to my attention recently that I don’t really have much to “say” exactly, but I do seem to ramble a lot.  And some people find that entertaining.  And by “some people” I mean “mostly me.”
And finally, I recently came upon the need to – metaphorically – say “suck it – I like my pictures” to particular people.  Which… I can’t really talk more about to the whole internet, because I’m not a moron.  
But it made me think of something that, historically, Kris Kristofferson is known for saying; more personally, my dad is known to quote; and more recently, The Bloggess made into a card in her shop (Don't let the bastards get you down) – which is making me giggle.  A lot.  I especially like the Winnie the Pooh-esque balloons.  Very festive.

Anyhoodle – I’m thinking that for every day between now and Christmas (which, incidentally, is 12 days so I guess that makes this a partridge in a pear tree) I’m going to post a picture of one of our decorations and something – possibly about that decoration or possibly just me rambling about how I don’t like ABC Family very much.  

Just don’t call it a countdown.  I don’t like that.

I can't see any better way to start something off than with a penguin.  Obviously.