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.

Tiny Little Lights

Psst... you wanna know a secret?

I really like Christmas lights.

They may be one of my most favorite things actually.

I mean... I know they're basically pointless and a drain of energy and may possibly make people who don't celebrate Christmas feel uncomfortable or lonely or sad or something.

I'm mostly guessing at that last bit because I do celebrate Christmas so I really have no idea how the lights make people who don't celebrate Christmas feel.  I'm basing this guess primarily on a song a fictional 8-year-old made of construction paper sang once.  I'm realizing this might not be the best basis for a guess ever.  Unless I'm playing some kind of game about beliefs held by the characters on South Park.  That would be a really hard game - those kids change their damn minds a lot.

That was what we in the biz refer to as a "tangent."  By "biz" I mean... uhhh rambling professionally.  Only not professionally.  Because I don't make money doing this.  Amateur rambling.  Olympic qualifiable rambling.  Yeah.  That "biz."

So, anyway.  Back to Christmas lights.  Despite their possibly less desirable qualities, I really like them.  They're just neat.  In my humble opinion.

They just make me feel... good inside.  I'm not so sure I'd go so far as to say they specifically make me happy.  But damn I love Christmas lights.  They're just great.

...And now that I've written all of that and spent a lot of time looking at these pictures I realize they kind of look like little penises.


UPDATED:  Oh man... I just realized that I only took pictures of our outdoor lights which are all white, because I like white lights outside and the multi-colored ones on the tree.  But the ones inside weren't focusing correctly and eventually I gave up and didn't save any pictures of them.  So now my Christmas lights might be racist as well as insensitive to other religions.  Before I was just suddenly worried my lights were those jerks who insist on saying Merry Christmas instead of Happy Holidays because they know it makes some people uncomfortable and/or sad.  Now I'm worried my lights might be part of the Klan or something.  Which, you know, way worse.  I mean, those people suck but they're not the klan.... oh jeeze.

FURTHER UPDATED: Just to be clear: I'm joking.  And trying to be funny.

Avenue Q

Okay... so I can't really promise that this week has been super, fantastic fun.  It has not, in fact, been more fun than a barrel of monkeys.  Well I don't think it was anyway.  I haven't ever experienced a barrel of monkeys, so I don't know maybe it's less fun that people say.  (Speaking of - I sent a news story about an escaped monkey wreaking havoc in a suburb somewhere to a group of some of the people I would classify as most likely to utter "I want a monkey" this week and it was an epic fail.  It was the fail sauce.  It was very sad.)  However, I was instructed by my father to have a better week this week.  I do try to make my daddy proud whenever possible so here I am, if nothing else, having a better week than last week.

One of my co-workers walked up to my desk on Monday morning and said "is it going to be a better week for Caitlyn?"  I responded by saying "Well, it kind of has to be or I'm toast."

For one thing - my alarm clock has not had to go off at 4:30 am at any point this week.  That has to make a week better right?  Right.  So to make this as much the antithesis of my last post as possible (because apparently lists of things that suck offend my mom and I try to make her proud too - hi, Mom!) here is a list of things that are pretty cool.

q)  I'm starting my lists with point q now.  It's pretty cool.  I'm not telling you why.  But I know someone just laughed out loud at me.  So there.

2) I get to wear jeans to work tomorrow.  My life has sadly gotten to a point where that is pretty cool if you're me.

3)  I made some pretty awesome gnocchi for dinner tonight.  It tasted gooooood.

4)  I exercised twice this week after being lazy for, like three weeks strait.  It's pretty cool but, oh my gosh, my body hurts.

5)  Laughing out load at your personal email at work - because you know some awesome, hilarious people who send you email. 

6)  Finding news stories about monkeys.  Even if I know a bunch of people who don't appreciate them.  (I'm looking at you, Josh.  Okay I'm not.  I'm looking at my laptop.  Which is nowhere near you and I'm not even sure if it's pointing in your general direction.  Still.)

7)  I've gotten no fewer than three separate and independent compliments on my shoes this week.  Two of which were from fully grown men who, by all accounts, have never noticed that people wear shoes, let alone badass shoes.  (Yes I was told I was wearing some badass shoes yesterday.  It was awesome.)

8)  I totally complimented my boss yesterday because I told her about this really bad dream I had on Tuesday where she quit her job and life at work just spiraled into this just terrible place to be and everyone was acting crazy - even the people who normally act mostly sane.

9)  Bubble Tea.  A large, cold, black tea with passion fruit and raspberry and pearls.  Oh my god that was fantastic.  I'm actually hoping that I dream about it tonight.  That's how good it was.

10)  Joe Mauer got his 1,000th hit on Tuesday.  Super Awesome.

11)  It's officially fall in Minnesota and I get to wear scarves without looking ridiculous again.  Fantastico.  (That is not a word, but I bet you know what I mean.)

12) I'm knitting myself a new scarf with some just stunning yarn.  I plan to take some pictures and throw them up here, so I'm not going to say too much more about it.  But I think I might be in love with some yarn.  I have a feeling this will be a complicated relationship.

 Right so this is where the antithesis thing ends.  Because last time I had a list of things that suck and pictures of things that don't.  I'm going to stick with the pictures of things that don't suck.  Because I don't like to take pictures of things that suck.  And I generally think things that suck are situations, which are tough to capture on film without people noticing.

So here are some more lamps that I shot while I was out on my walk a few weeks ago.  (I'm not even going to tell you about the typo I just fixed.  I need to talk about these photos and go to bed.)

These first two were flanking the doors to an Episcopalian church near Grand Avenue.  There was tons of carving and intricacy around the door and all along the facade so I really like the relative simplicity of these.

I especially liked this shot with orangey-yellow stonework behind it.

This set was on either side of the doors of a Lutheran church on Dale Avenue just south of I94.  I want to say it's Grace Lutheran church, but I might be making that up.  You know, it's not like I drive past it every day on my way home or anything.

These, conversely were very intricate - Particularly at their tops on what was really a fairly simple facade.  This second one was more weathered than the first and, though one of the glass panes is broken, was really, really cool looking.

I almost didn't include this one.  It's a pretty standard lamp and all that.  But the shadow convinced me.  (The Shadow knows!)  I love how you can see the shadow of that swirled part of the lamp that you can't see on the lamp itself from this angle. 

I loved, loved, LOVED the glass in this lamp.  The structure itself is cool too, but that glass just makes it.  That is just so cool.

Okay - no births to announce today and, as mentioned, this kid needs to get to bed in a big old way.  So I'm off.  I only have one more thing to add to my list of things that are pretty cool.
r) (still not telling) Earlier this week a guy at work was trying to describe how one of my co-workers and I are pretty good friends.  He expressed this by saying "you know, you two are downtown Julie Browns and all."  Yep.  Downtown Julie Brown.  That's me.

I Can't Think of a Bob Dylan lyric about Fireworks...

Happy Labor Day!  I hope everyone enjoys their... laboring?  Reprieve from laboring?  I hope you all enjoy your picnics, BBQs, and day off of work!  As I have previously mentioned, here, I loves me some fireworks.  I feel all holidays (and most days in general) should have fireworks.

So here are some fireworks!  (Taken on the 4th of July and unintentionally not posted until Labor Day!  Seems like a good way to celebrate Labor Day to me - especially since I don't really know what I should be celebrating.  I'm pretty sure it has to do with the military, so I apologize to any military members or officials I just offended.  Here, have some fireworks!)

Boom!

Ohhh!

Ahhh!

Pretty!

Kaboom!

Pow!

Zap! (Wait, no.  That's Batman.)

Anyone else humming a Sousa march right now?  Just me?  Fine.

Finale-ish!

UPDATE:  Steve looked it up on Wikipedia and if they're to be believed Labor Day is essentially a peace offering from the military for killing a bunch of laborers who were striking.  So... I'm no longer ashamed of myself for celebrating by going grocery shopping, playing video games and having tacos for dinner.

Stillwater At Night*

Going backward in time a bit - Steve and I spent most of the 4th of July out at his aunt and uncle's house enjoying the (incredibly) hot weather, great food, and some 4 square (the game you played at recess when you were 8.)

Later in the evening we headed in to Stillwater to watch the fireworks.  We've done this before so we knew it was going to be ridiculously crowded.  To try to avoid some of that hassle, we parked on the Wisconsin side of the river and walked down from there.  We found a pretty sweet spot right on the Stillwater lift bridge that ended up being near enough to where they were setting off fireworks that they were exploding almost directly above us.  It was awesome.

We also got a really cool view of Stillwater at sunset, that just happened to be a really dramatic sunset that day.

*This is not a Bob Dylan lyric

Early One Morning the Sun Was Shining

I have to wake up very early in the morning.  So far as I have been able to tell, there have been no worms.  I do not see the benefit of being an early bird.  I like night time.  Night time is nice.  I'm productive at night.  In the morning I'm a crabby person.  I HATE waking up early.  I also get the added fun of driving in a Eastward direction for a good portion of my commute.  This is not generally a reality I'm pleased with.  The odds are quite good that I'll be doing a fair amount of squinting in the morning anyway, sun not required.  Sun just exacerbates the situation to the where I feel like I'm trying to drive with, like, half of one eye or something.  

I like cloudy mornings.  They suit my mood in the morning and also make it easier to see while driving.  (I am exaggerating this whole driving tangent at this point, please don't worry about me and those who share the road with me.)  

Once and awhile I break out of my curmudgeon morning mood to appreciate that morning skies can be very pretty.

This is not a picture of my street this morning.  It is a picture of my street some morning about a week ago or so.  (I'm now trying to remember why on earth I would have taken my camera to work with me last week.  I have no answers for myself.  I am now annoyed.  damn.)  I thought it was a very cool mixture of sunny and cloudy.  I also liked the variation of cloud types happening that morning.  This is the kind of morning I don't mind.  It don't make me all squinty, which is nice.

I'd like more of this kind, please.

I did warn you (if you're here via Facebook anyway) that the Bob Dylan references were likely to continue.

Stuck - Not Inside Mobile, Though I May Have the Memphis Blues Again

So, I like to think I'm a fairly intelligent person.  (Thank God I just spelled intelligent correctly on the first try.  Whew.)  I mean, I'm no genius or anything.  But I believe I am not an idiot.  I can do math and read a map and I have a stunning aptitude for remembering details from movies and TV shows and repeating those details later on.  That aptitude for remembering details also came in pretty darn handy when I had to memorizes 200 pieces of art in order to pass my midterms in college.  It's also a pretty handy trait when my boss walks out of his office and says, in a French accent, what amounts to "do you remember that thing I mentioned, not to you, but in your presence about 3 weeks ago and I haven't mentioned since then?  Tell me everything you know about that."

(This is an aside.  I so, so, so wish that I could blog about work.  I so wish that that was kosher.  I'm not kidding, I couldn't make this shit up.  I'm not that crazy.  Crazy yes, but not that crazy.  It has been brought to my attention that if I were to simply transcribe my days at work I could probably sell it as a spin-off/sequel or something to The Office.  It's disturbing.  It would also probably be therapeutic to blog about it.  But it's WAY not kosher or smart in any way to blog about your work.  I know this both because I'm not a total idiot and because I'm in HR and it would be really, super, extra bad for me to blog about my co-workers.  Let me leave it at this - the biggest understatement I can think of right now would be to say "I work with some characters."  This is the end of my aside.)

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is I'm reasonably sure I'm not a total moron.  So I get frustrated when I find myself confused by things like... weather.  Look I live in Minnesota.  I deal with a fair amount of severe weather situations in the average year.  I have a healthy respect for weather.  I know that it's not really personal but based on where I live Mother Nature is pretty much trying to kill me most of the time.  This is more or less reasonable if you're me.  But today... today was just confusing.  At one point this afternoon I was at work in Eagan, talking on the phone to Steve who was in St. Paul roughly 8 miles away.  It was raining where he was and sunny and clear where I was.  About a half hour later, the sun still shining as if there wasn't a cloud to be found, the sky opened up and there was a downpour.  What the hell?

It started raining while I was driving home from work today.  I was about three blocks from home.  It transitioned from a few drops to yet another downpour.  I had to wear my sunglasses the entire way home.  By the time I parked my car there were pounds of thunder every few seconds, it was still raining like crazy, it was hailing and it was STILL SUNNY.  I don't understand.

I do understand though.  Logically I know how and kind of why these things happen.  All the same while I was trying to figure out how I was going to get from the car to the apartment with the least amount of hurting and/or soaking myself possible I couldn't help but shake my head and think "these aren't all supposed to happen at the same time!"

This is a stunning example of how my day went in general, by the way.

Anyway one thing I will say about weird-ass weather, It makes for some pretty cool light.

This was while it was taking a break from raining.  Note the sun.  It starting raining again roughly 5.8 seconds later.

But I mean, come on, that's just in my courtyard.  I can say with some authority (because I see these things while I drive home) that, for example, downtown St. Paul looked pretty freaking cool this afternoon.  Let's take a look at a close-up shall we?  Just for chuckles (this is what actually got me to take the pictures in the first place so it seems fair to include it.)

Maybe (probably) it's just me, but that's a pretty cool looking tree for being a tree that is otherwise not that interesting.  That was the worse sentence ever.  Wow.  Going to go rethink that whole I'm not a moron thing...

By the way, the title of this post came about by trying to describe to myself how I was feeling about this whole weather situation and eventually I just decided I was stuck between knowing what was going on and accepting what was going on as possible while I'm awake.  I say I may have the Memphis Blues again because I don't really know what, specifically, the Memphis Blues are.  I have my guesses, but who really knows what Bob Dylan is talking about right?  So without proof that I don't have the Memphis Blues, it is always possible that I might have them.  You stopped reading this awhile ago, didn't you?  That's cool, I get it.

Fridays in the Park

Sooo... Remember the other day when I posted a picture of a unicyclist in Como Park and said it was pretty cool, but it was no monkey?  Yeah.  This is an effin' monkey!

His name is Michael and he is a monkey.  I assume, based on the shorts, that he plays basketball.

This is a monkey people!  In the park!  Totally random!  Monkey!

...And I took some other pictures too.  None of them are nearly as good as monkeys.

Fancy Camera

Somewhat randomly Steve had a very fancy camera in his possession for about 20 hours or so early this week. Some of those hours included our walk at Como Park on Monday so we took it along and I got to play a little bit.  Big fun.  Especially as there were just tons of puppies in the park that day.

If you look closely, there's a big ol' bumblebee on that flower.

 

There is a puppy hiding in those bushes!

Looking down at a bit of the man-made waterfall.

 

Some ivy or something growing on the rocks around the waterfall.

 

Some late afternoon light shining on this absolutely beautiful lily.

Look at how deep that red is.  Just gorgeous.

  

We always seem to see something completely random when we go to Como.  An unicyclist is no guy walking around with a full-grown monkey on his shoulder (oh how I wish I'd had my camera with me last week) but it's random enough for my tastes.

A very happy puppy.  I think I saw this dog "pulled over" about four different times so he could be pet by small children who were clearly in love with him.

 

A nice view of the lake.

 

A shot of a wild rose that was blooming a little way away from the bench where we were.

 

A cool looking plant that I was fascinated by a the time.

 

I liked the way the light was hitting the leaves on this tree.

 

An adorable little puppy that was very, very happy to see every single person that passed.

A cool lakeside house.

The actual waterfall (now that I've posted pictures of the stuff around the waterfall.)

This was such a pain in the butt.  It was still as can be until I decided I wanted to take this picture.  Then the wind started blowing like mad.  It figures.

 

Some cool sort-of back lit thistles.

 

An interesting collections of greens around the edges of the lake.  (Not shown: the disgusting, SMELLY scum/algae that's still covering a good portion of the lake.)

 

A nifty Birch tree.  I always try to take cool pictures of birch bark because I think it's super cool, the pictures usually turn out lame though.

 

Some very deeply veined bark.

This tree had some weird stuff hanging from its trunk.  It kind of looked like old clothes or something.  The sun was shining right on it so it was rather hard to tell.

 

Finally, a happy cloud!

Fun with a fancy camera!  Woo!