Hmmm. So, tomorrows the last day at Officemax 907 and I feel a little sad. I really did enjoy working with the people there and learning things about desktop publishing and graphic design. The actual retail environment wasn't so bad either. Still, it was a retail job and I didn't want to keep it forever. People at work kept asking me why I quit so early. I'm not really sure. Part of it is stress; a stress that just sort of keeps building up and building up until it gets really annoying and makes me upset and irritable and unhappy and other such synonyms for "pissed off". Part of it may be that working was my link to having a social life, but we've lost so many of our employees over the past few months that it feels like the whole team-family aspect is just falling apart. That was one thing I really liked- the interaction with my co-workers. The customers...not so much, but my coworkers were and are pretty awesome people. And I think I will miss them a lot.

I've been having two types of dreams lately. One, is the kind where you can tell that you're making up a story in your head to amuse yourself because you are so damned bored being asleep that there's really nothing else left to do. You aren't actively involved in the dream, just watching. The second, is the kind of dream where you visit people you know (and sometimes, people you don't..?) and just sort of hang out. The first type of dream is really clear and defined- moment to moment- while the second is much more dream-like and things don't always make sense.

It occurs to me that the fact that I'm having the lattermost sort of dreams means that I'm...well, lonely. Not like crying to myself at night because I have no friends lonely, but lonely. I miss people- a lot of people. My friends from school totally spoiled me; I'm not used to not having anyone to hang out with. It's a bit of a bummer. Of course, come September 25, I will be living on a university campus, which will undoubtedly put me in contact with other human beings and therefore force me to make new friends. But, September 25 is a long way off- it seems like forever.

Waiting is hard.

Oh, I'm waiting for you too luv' - 15 days, is that right? Oh wait, does he even read this...? Oh well, whatever. I would get on AIM and babble to him myself, but I'm preventing myself from staying up all night by not doing that. Or talking to anyone for that matter. Hm. I'm being Internet-Anti-social. Ohhh, saaaaddddd. The internet is my only place to be social, and I'm being anti-social- Aka, WTF? X3

I had Handel's ice cream this evening and it was awesome. Man, I have got to remember to budget for icecream in college- it's important.

I did that weird thing at the library today where I check out books that I probably won't read because (a) I'll forget to read them at all before they are due (b) they are really boring/hard to read or (c) because I didn't really want to read them in the first place. These books are always non-fiction. Always. And 90% of the time they are technical or computer related. I check them out with the hope that I will have found something that I can actually understand for once and that it will answer a bunch of questions that I didn't even know I had to or wanted to ask. But that never really comes about. They are on topics that I am genuinely interested in, just not well-read enough to understand well enough for it to matter. This time it was two books on hacking and one on Cryptography- topics that, like I said before, I am genuinely interested in- I just don't know a thing about. Actually, I may sit down and read the book on Cryptography- that seems pretty interesting and fairly straight forward. The other two- I don't think so...I don't know yet. But, it's the library, so it's not like it cost me anything to give it a shot, right?

I also checked out some graphic novels--they are all in the Young Adult section and I feel stupid being over there because- yes, I am just barely an adult (lol) but I always feel strange around kids in high school because I look like I'm in high school, so they don't care. It's the fact that it's not awkward for them that makes it somewhat awkward for me. I don't know, but I don't like it. That, and the people who look down their noses at me when I check out graphic novels- "Don't kids these days read real books anymore?"- someone said that to me once. I was astounded. I was like, "I have hundreds of books at home that I read all the time; can't I do something fun and exciting once in a while without the criticism?" Jeez lady, excuse me for living a life of artistic joy and freedom. Gawd. I love graphic novels, they are a whole new form of visual communication and turn "reading" into a totally different experience. Plus, they've been around for thousands of years (yes, sequential art- think Hyroglyphics). I would suggest that they all sit down and read Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics", but the fact that it is in fact in comic form would probably prevent them from doing so. Ignorant fools- they don't know what they are missing.

Goodness, I am on a roll tonight...typety-type-type-type~

I saw someone's password the other day. It was QWERTY. Why are people stupid? Seriously- why are people so stupid? People sit around and blame hackers for identity theft. True- they do steal identities (them, and social engineers- yeah?) but, it's not like people make it incrediblely hard or anything. I mean, picture this: I work in a copy center, right? People make copies of some really sensitive materials all the time. They rarely leave anything like passports or Sosh-cards, but damn, they will leave copies of their documents. The other day, I found a six page document laying on the output tray of Self Serve #1. Being a curious little kitty, I of course proceed to read and see what it was. It was some medical documentation requesting something from someone (I don't know exactly what), but the big thing was that on all six pages was this woman's social security number. Just, written in on the line, clear as day. That, along with her name, birthday, address, insurance card number, etc etc. I mean, if I had the initiative at the time I probably could have stolen her identity. That's crazy. Just crazy. People don't understand what they are throwing around here- your SSN is You. Without it, you are seriously f'ked. I don't know why, because personally, I think it's just weird being attached to a number so I can...what? Pay taxes? Shiiiit. Crazy.

I think that my random urge to do karaoke recordings of Japanese songs is over...for now. I've still got the lyrics taped up on my wall for "Love is War" in both English and Japanese, just because there's that last verse of the Japanese version I can't quite get...It's hard to judge proper pronounciation when your reference/sample is a voice synthesizing program too. Hah. Still, if you're ever up for hearing my (really crappy) version of Love is War, I posted it on my imeem account- my name is AKA-KVW there. Please, don't download it like 0dd0ne0ut did, that's just embarassing. I want to re-record it, just to replace the one he downloaded. Bah! The tricky part is when to record it. I recorded the original, at night, the week mom and dad were gone- so I could be as loud as I wanted (which is important, because evidently, I speak much softer that I hear myself speaking). It would also help if I could sing properly...heh. Some internet friends heard it, they were like 'it's not professional, but you sound good'. It's like, yeah...I don't know why I had you listen to it in the first place...I hate it. But, I guess I'm a little proud of myself too. After all, I do love to sing! I just hate my singing! XD

Have I really been at this for almost an hour? Jeez, there go my plans of going to bed really early. I need to wake up "early" tomorrow because I still haven't written my nice-letter for Officemax yet. I want to write two- one for Officemax persons in general and one of ImPress persons specifically. I actually sat down at the computer tonight to write it, but the only program I have to write it in on this machine (that I can save it in) is Wordpad. That, and I'm tired and don't feel like being particularly emotional at the moment. Well, besides the blogging thing I guess, but I don't have to be nice or professinal in my blog.

Anyway, the weirdest thing about realizing that I'm not going to be working anymore is realizing that I'm not going to have a cash-flow anymore. I don't buy a lot of stuff (and when I do slurge, I feel really, really guilty for some reason...) but I do buy stuff on ocassion. Every once in a while I buy a new manga or CD or art supply or whatever. Not huge purchases, but still money you know? As soon as I stop making money, I'm going to stop spending it as much- that's my goal. I'd rather not spend it at all, but I know I can't do that for long. Things get boring and new things need to happen to fix that. It's a Haruhi Suzumiya outlook on things. By the way, if you haven't watched The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya you are missing out on life. Seriously. Not that it hasn't been ages since I watched it and not that I've finished it or anything, but it was awesome. It really was.

BTW- the first two graphic novels I checked out from the library were Volume 4 of the Scott Pilgrim series (which is so kick-ass, go read it NOW) and Confessions of a Blabbermouth (which was told a little awkwardly, but was very fun to read).

It's comics like this that make me want to create a more simplified drawing style than the one I have now. Sometimes, I think that the "manga" style tries too hard to be detail oriented, to the point that you wonder whether it really is just masking a crappy plot line. Like, 85% of all Shoujo manga titles. My comic is NOT a shoujo title and the whole thing is supposed to be character-driven, not detail-driven, so I don't know why I put so much effort into making it look "pretty". It's not a "pretty" story, it's a techno-thriller dammit! And 8/12 of the characters are boys! It does not need to be pretty! IT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE PRETTY!!

OK, I think I got all that out of my system...ahem.


Oh- today is my last day of work.

Tags: anime, art, books, comics, computers, dreams, life, om0907, random crap, social life (or lack there-of), stupid people, work
Current Mood: accomplished ( for what?)

I figure a quick LJ post would not throw me off my schedule too badly. lol.

So, tonight and tomorrow, mom is having a sleepover/art party with her ATC buddies here at the house. Which means the reason I haven't been online in like, two days is because I've been cleaning my room. It is...clean. "The floor is clean" is a more accurate statement, I think. You can make it from the door to the window without hurting yourself. I consider that an extreme improvement. My closet isn't too bad either- you can open it and nothing will fall out. The desk won't be so bad after I clear all the art books I have piled up (from the bathroom cabinet- they seem to have built up there over the past 4 months or so) and a few old binders and such. The latter of which will go into my "papers and stuff I might file later or might just pitch depending on my mood" box that I've created for just such a purpose. :D

I do have work today, which is why I scheduled my nap from 11:30 to 1:30, to give me time to rest before I eat dinner (at around 2). I need to be the polite sub-hostess and set up the Acer Demon to allow a Guest account for people who wish to check their e-mail. Mom set her laptop up, but in all honesty, the Acer Demon- in all it's crappy glory- kicks her laptop's ass in a cage fight. So, I figure setting mine up too would be nice. I also need to draw up a few little things, including instructions on how to turn on the shower in my bathroom so you don't SCALD yourself the first time (like I did). These are just curtesies, so mom doesn't have to explain everything.

Anyway, I feel really crappy today (thanks hormones) and so I don't want to go to work, but honestly don't want the social interaction of 6+ women I've never met before, so the lesser of two evils (for the time being) wins out. I work at 3 and stay until around 9:30. When I get back, doubtless everyone will still be awake and being art-y. Maybe by that time I'll feel better.

I want more caffeine, but don't need it- but I WANT it dammit. DO WANT.

Something random for you: Because I went out a purchased a new microphone for various reasons, I decided to record myself singing an anime theme song. I think it's...well, I hate the way I sound. But I find it REALLY FUNNY. I'd like you guys to hear it too--how would I go about posting it here? It's a .WAV file (legally, Audacity can't really save as anything else- though I think there's an outside program that can convert to MP3?). The recording is fairly terrible, because the only way I knew to pick up the song was to place the speakers very close to the mic. Also, I was trying to be very quiet because my parents were asleep next door, so I was singing/ whispering/ strangling myself to make it sound OK.

LOL~ I CAN'T SING WELL. DON'T YOU WANT TO HEAR? You can feel free to make fun of me for it. X3

Anyway- I gotta go and eat something soon and make up those signs for people, so I'm out yo. PEACE.

Tags: art party, random crap, recording, singing, work
Current Location: home
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: The End Has No End ~ The Strokes

Yay! Seriousness. So, coupla' things going down in me-land.

First up, I finally purchased a new desktop computer! I just sent in the order an hour ago. Ivy Tech Community College gives really sweet student discounts through Dell.com so I decided to go for a really nice computer with a good graphics card and a TON of HDD space and RAM so that I will be able to run Photoshop, Mozilla, iTunes AND other stuff without the super-lockup. Yeah, and it cost me about the same as the Acer Demon after the discount (it was a good $460 discount off of the $1200 computer!). So in about a week or so, I'll be running a sweet new machine. Totally wicked sweet dude. :D

*edit: Did I mention? That awesome price includes a 19" flat screen monitor, mouse, keyboard, 3 year warranty, free shipping and a bunch of other stuff? Oh yeah, and it runs Windows XP Professional. Yeah, it's that awesome.

Next, if you are as-yet unaware, I no longer work as a Sales Associate at OM, I now work back in the Print and Document Services in ImPress! So I make photocopies, bind books, use drills and giant cutters, laminate stuff, scan and print stuff, create self-inked stamps (in less than 2 minutes- oooh!) and tons of other stuff. I've even been allowed to tinker with the DTP (Desktop Publishing) stuff, even though only one of our Associates is professionally qualified as DTP (she goes to Ivy Tech as well, and is majoring in Graphic Design through them). So far, I've only scanned things and edited out copier-spots and lines and whatnot, but it's still awesome. Much more so than hanging around the register or shelving things. Yep. The only downside? There are only three of us total, and we all work one at a time, so taking lunch is a tricky thing, since you aren't supposed to leave the counter unoccupied, but you can't eat there either. I think the longest ImPress lunch I've gotten was 11 minutes total, lol. But it's cool, since during all the quiet spots in the work day, I'm not required to do anything but keep things clean and organized and check the e-mail for ImPress.

School isn't going horribly (yet). I've caught up in Public Speaking, English Composition and...well, almost IntroMicroComp. Intermediate Algebra though...I'm fairly sure I've failed that one. Actually, I'm pretty sure a ton of people did, because when I came to class today there were 2 of us and later the third girl came, but STILL that's only THREE students! Crazy! But at least we're getting back into stuff that I remember from Alg1 and Alg2. It's sort of a bummer though, I'm having trouble with the same things I did back when I took class with Mr. Melosh (damn the man) and the class is really fast-paced so I work on mastering everything I can, but I wind up skipping things I don't get right away. Mr. Melosh, I hope you lose tenure. :\

So, if I DO flunk MAT111, I have two choices:

1) I can retake it over the Summer (after I quit work) and hopefully be able to master it with a full semester's length.

OR

2) I can forget it and enter into IUPUI on the Freshman level, and sort of take that year...again. :(

Mom says I should pick choice (2) but I honestly don't want to be a Freshman AGAIN just for one class! I would rather struggle through it over Summer Break than have to do it again in the Fall. I want to move on with life, not repeat the same crap again. But, I will have to apply to IUPUI ASAP (lol) so that I can get into the system and assure myself a spot in the apartments or else I'll be S.O.L. in the Fall.

Other things? That commission I received through dA is pending-request, since he wants a background layout for an animation and I'm not too great with those. I told him that if he supplied me with enough information about what he wanted I would work from references to get it right. I haven't gotten a reply yet though; I fear he has decided to commission someone else. Which isn't too bad, but he was the one who sent me the Note saying that he liked my style and then asked me to do something that doesn't even APPEAR in my gallery. Of course I'll have to practice it, but whatever. It's his money- his decision.

I haven't played LoZ: PH for a while since I'm stuck on a part where you have to be clever AND fast or you're dead and it's driving me nuts because I can't focus on it properly when I'm so busy. It'll have to wait until at least my first 2 classes end (MAT and PS) or else I'll never get it done.

Remember how I wrote about finding that woman's planner on the road a few weeks back? Well, yesterday Mom and I decided to be good people again and helped out a young woman when her car ran out of gas juuuuust as she was entering the intersection. We had to park behind her car (to stay out of the way of other cars) and then (with the help of a random man who was also feeling generous) we pushed her car to the other side of the street and then drove her to the nearest station to buy a gas canister and then back to fill her car. It was exciting. And tiring. And followed up by Taco Bell. Nom-nom-nom. :9

Not much else to write about for now...work in an hour, so I guess I'd better get goin'! Ta~!

Tags: acer demon, cis101, com101, computer, dell, eng111, impress, iupui, loz:ph, mat111, om, school, work
Current Location: on the couch yo.
Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: Unconditional - The Bravery

Evidently I can't work on Algebra for longer than 6 hours (2 hours, 30min break, then the rest). At least, not when I'm sick. I can't focus anymore...just completely brain-dead (and why not? It's almost midnight dammit).

Did I mention I was sick? Yeah, I had to leave MAT111 early today because I was so ill I couldn't focus. Not sure what's wrong with me, but it feels like either a cold or a sinus infection. Either way, not fun. And you should have heard me practically begging to get today off at OM! I mean, it's not like I take days of regularly! I've worked for nearly 4 months and this was my FIRST SICK DAY. Even though I've needed others.

No work tomorrow, since it's Easter (Corporate decision? Probably.) so at least I can get more sleep. Hey, no school either! Maybe I can actually GET BETTER. What a concept! :o

Happy early-Easter.

Tags: mat111, om907, school, sick, work
Current Mood: exhausted

So, I never like to talk about myself in a big way, but today I have to say I was a pretty good person. :)

First off, it's Sunday and Sunday is always the weirdest day at OM because all the new ad set comes out in the Sunday paper, all the new signage is put up in the AM and all the customers are confused. This is also the period of time where we have to pay the most attention to the stock because Clearance items move FAST in our store. (It was made a little more annoying today since there were multiple errors regarding inventory, so the computer was wrong about just about everything and we had to run around and check the floor, top and backstock to find out if we even had what the customer wanted.)

Anyway, let's just say it was a busy day- OK?

So, as a floor associate today I got to help everyone, everywhere all the time. And I did. I helped well over 50 people total and even helped 5 of them personally, to the point where we were joking and laughing about things (building and maintaining rapport with a customer is crucial to understanding what it is they need and how we can help). I was going up and down and in and out of everywhere looking for things and I called 4 different stores trying to check for a shelf- that sadly, no one had -for a customer. I was everywhere, doing everything and I got a lot of personal thank-yous and even people who remembered my name. Yay! My feet (really just the right foot- not sure why) hurt like crazy, but it was worth it to see so many people having a good experience in the store.

Besides that, I was also a good, honest person today. Mom was driving me back from work and as we were getting on the main road to get home I spotted what appeared to be a black leather wallet. I pointed it out as we passed and mom said that she saw it too and wondered if we should turn around and get it. Well, we had to go about a mile or so around so we would wind up on the correct road, facing the right way, but we eventually got back over there and while stopped at a red light, I jumped out and sprinted to the road to grab it. I jumped back into the car and opened it --It was a planner by the way, a nice leather one. Mom said the obligatory 'wonder who it belongs to?' and I got to respond by opening the planner and saying, 'why it belongs to this woman; look here's her driver's license and insurance card". It was sort of funny. I looked on the first page of the planner and luckily (unlike me) she had filled out the personal information section. I called her home number and got her son (I think) who said to call her on her car phone and we did. She was so shocked. She said "Oh my god, it must have fallen off the back!". Luckily, we didn't have far to go to return it, she was driving literally two streets down from the road we found it on and so we met right outside a Panera Bread, gave her the planner, and that was that.

Good times! I like being a good person. :D

LOL, random note: I don't have a single icon marked with the tag "happy".

Tags: customer service, found a planner, om, work, yay
Current Mood: satisfied
Current Music: Polka Power! ~ "Weird Al" Yankovic

Enter the ICHC online Poker Cats Contest!

Actually, it's supposed to be getting warmer and supposedly we've hit our final big-snow time, so no more of that. Actually, the bad weather totally wrecked OM's sales this last week and I'm sure dozens of other stores too. What a bummer though, you'd think people out here would have gotten used to it by now, but everyone is complaining and getting in car accidents and all sorts of loser-y stuff like that. OMG LOSERS. They also don't get Daylight Saving Time either. D:<

So, I'm totally bumming over the loss of the ability to run PSE3.0 on the Acer Demon. I mean, seriously, it's bogging down AGAIN and this time it doesn't really have a reason to! I mean, I've got plenty of RAM and plenty of HDD space too! It's just slowing down. Firefox is doing that thing where trying to stream anything causes the CPU usage to skyrocket through the roof to about 98% or 99% which is bad, if not dangerous for the 'Demon's health. Blegh. Time to invest in that desktop I was going for. *sighs* At least I've got plenty of money to invest in it this time.

Which reminds me, (1) need to mail in latest paycheck (2) need to switch paycheck to direct deposit.

Tags: acer demon, computer, dst, lolcats, random crap, weather, work
Current Location: home
Current Mood: awake
Current Music: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds - From the "i am sam" soundtrack

(Uninspired title: FTW?!)

Sunday always means busy-busy-busy at work because we've got all this new ad to place out and all of our sales, rebates and clearance totally changes every week. So I had to wake up this morning, shuffle through The Indianapolis Star and find our Ad set and start memorizing stuff before I got to work. I got most of it about 4 hours into work- luckily, I worked register, so I had a copy to refer to if I needed to reassure a customer that I wasn't making things up to cheat them out of money- and YES, it really IS "buy two get one free: Same item only" for reals yo.

I got to work half and hour early, which was actually pretty good because despite the poor souls that spent all of last night (and I mean night- 10p to 5a Logistics people) not everything got out on the shelves so I got to help shelve stuff before my actual shift started. The day went well, only a few difficult customers and in the end my drawer balanced, so all in all it was a good day for me.

We are doing this awesome sale on our custom made self-inking stamps and I really, really, really, REALLY want to make one that I can use to stamp my art instead of a plain old signature. I like the idea of the signature, but no one can even tell it's mine. The "AKA" actually stands for something: "Akuwaneko (screename1) Ki77y (screename2) Aqua (My favorite color + the first part of several of my screenames)" it can also be "Aqua Kitty Akuwaneko"  and you can throw in "Krystal" too if you want; any way you put it it's still AKA. So, I want to design a cool logo-esque design to put on my custom stamp and it will be AWESOMENESS. Yes. :D

Stuff...nothing really happening around the household. Just trying to keep everything organized (a losing battle when it comes to my room) and things of that sort. I'm trying to cut a deal with my parents about my new computer- I haven't quite figured out exactly what the solid rules to it are, but basically if I can get myself registered for IUPUI after my classes this Spring AND make my way into the dorms BEFORE school starts in the Fall, they will help me purchase a really awesome computer that will be ten times better than the Acer Demon and be able to run Photoshop and Mozilla without locking up my freakin' OS.

In other news: I'm suddenly inspired for no reason at all and I'm off to do a character design. Ja~!

Tags: art, character design, computer, deals, dorms, logos, om907, random crap, school, stamps, work
Current Location: home
Current Mood: creative
Current Music: DotA - Basshunter (addicting song, seriously)

I want to start playing an MMORPG, but I'm still completely cheap, so it has to be free. It also has to fit within one Gig of space on my PC hard drive!

I liked playing RO, but my old server LorRO died and my accounts with it. I used to play Maple Story, but I hated it. I tried Trickster Online, but it was WAY too laggy and I played Granado Espada, but it was too large and it's not free anymore.

So what do YOU play? I wouldn't mind playing RO again if I could get a better server. :3


~~~

In other news, yesterday -my day off- I went to Ivy Tech and applied for my remaining 12 credits required to transfer to IUPUI. I get to take two courses here in my hometown, one in Indy and one online. I will be taking MAT-111, ENG-111, Fundementals of Public Speaking, Fundementals of Microcomputers (i.e. Computer Operations). I'll be starting the first class in mid-Feb and the last classes in late March. They are all scattered weekly classes and they're all morning courses as well, so they're here and there I suppose. Anyway, the whole idea is to hit my 15 credit transfer limit by the end of Spring semester, move to IUPUI campus in Summer and attend IUPUI courses in the Fall.

Anyway, I have work again today from 5pm-1?pm (maybe 10, maybe 11). Night shift FTW.

Tags: courses, iupui, ivy tech, mmorpg, ro, school, work
Current Location: basement
Current Mood: blah

I totally suck because I just now noticed the message saying that vampire_writer 's birthday was 4 days ago. Dammit. Sorry Sabby! Happy Belated Birthday to you~!!! <3

On a totally different topic, I have decided that the Pipe Organ is my second least favorite instrument in the WORLD- the first of which being, of course, the kazoo. Yes, the Pipe Organ is painful to listen too. At the moment the NPR station is doing it's Pipe Dreams program that features - you guessed it!- Pipe organs! Oh yes, it's horrible. All the songs sound like perky hymns or really depressing carousel music. It's just...painful. D:

And if you're wondering what my third least favorite instrument, that would be the ukelele. Yuck.

Anyway, I still haven't gotten the Acer Demon back yet, but today is Sunday so no mail- perhaps tomorrow; hopefully Wednsday at the latest. It only took it 2 days to get to TX, it shouldn't take any longer getting back to IN from TX. Either way, I can't wait to have my own computer back! Seriously, I forgot how much it sucked to have to share The Microwave with the family (though it does have an awesome screen now).

I'm looking into purchasing a desktop computer now. It's going to be the main computer system, while the Acer Demon will just be a few smaller programs and things I need to lug around to school and whatnot. This time, I'm going to be very, very careful about paying a good amount for a good computer and not just choosing what looks like the best deal. I didn't have to do much research since I'm pretty knowledgeable in all the things I need to cover- the trick is to make sure all the components are adequate without being overpriced.

I'm a Big Brand name purchaser- I stick with what's been proven to work. (I will never again purchase an Acer computer, I don't care if they are loosely connected with HP or not- they suck.) This time around I'm going for a Dell. Why a Dell you might ask? Well, besides being a brand name manufacturer that I know produces quality machines (We used to have 3 of them and the FUSD used Dells too) they are also the company that offers the most computers left that are still available with Windows XP. I flat out refuse to use Vista. Yes, it looks nice, but it doesn't work as well and it's too foreign of an operating system for me to handle- XP is what I have been trained in, XP is what I'm sticking with!

I've got two picked out. There is nearly a $100 difference between them, but they are practically identical systems overall. One is "home and home office" while the other is "small business" - the "small business" is cheaper for some reason. I'm not sure I see the difference between them? Anyone want to exercise their Computer Skills and tell me what the difference is?

The Home Office Machine (Customized)- $529
(The first time I did this one I wound up with a $618 price tag, so I think I missed something the second time around...)

The Small Business Machine (Customized)- $379

Both of these prices seem reeeeeeaallllly LOW and I keep thinking I've missed something reeeeeaaaally important when customizing the Specs, so any help on that at all would be FANTASTIC. Thanks~! :D

It's COLD. Toddling off to bed soon...

Tags: acer demon, computer, dell, pipe organs, school, work
Current Mood: cold
Current Music: PIPE ORGANS AAAUGGGH

So, yeah, the interview with the manager today went really well (evidently the man I spoke with yesterday is the Sales Manager; this guy is the Store Manager). He was very impressed by my tales of working at Pages Thru Time Scrapbooks and the problem solving portion of the interview. It was basically like the first interview, because they base a lot of their decision on personality there's a lot of "storytelling". We actually talked and laughed. He was really nice and laughed a lot.

The best part was when I was telling him about how disappointed I was that I couldn't help save Pages Thru Time because the owner never listened to my suggestions about improving the store and I was saying that I really loved working there and how I worked up to the last day, even after the manager quit, and he looked me in the eye and said "Do you know why you did that?" and I was like "...no?" and he burst out with "Because you were the best employee they had". I almost freaked! I laughed and I just sort of nodded/shook my head in disbelief and I could tell I blushed too. I wasn't sure what to say. After that we talked about the sorts of difficult customers that you encounter in the Sales field and told a few more stories.

Tomorrow, I've got a lot to do: drug screening, obtain valid Indiana license or ID, re-check all my references (one of them, my Computer Teacher from last year, quit as I found out today from a very suspicious secretary-suspicious of me that is).

So, yeah, I'm employed at Office Max store number 0907. I'm really excited about starting work there. I should be starting on the 27th.

I think one of the things that really sold him in the interview was my answer to that "Why do you want to work here?" type question, because I was ready with an honest answer to a problem that has been plaguing me for months and I just sort of realized it yesterday. I want to work, because I need to be productive- I need to be doing something routine that I can schedule and keep track of -because I've been really, really unmotivated lately (anyone notice?) and having a job will give me the drive to want to work to achieve something! I have no real reason to get up and get dressed in the mornings anymore. No school to wake up for, no friends to go see, just sitting around the house. And that's awful! I need to have something pushing me. 

After I start working, I can see things falling back into a nice, even routine. I'll start being more vigilant in my artwork, especially my webcomic, and I'll most likely be more social as well. My room will not become a giant mess because I won't be spending massive amounts of time taking things in and out of it and not putting them away. Basically, I'll be a lot less lack-luster, and that's something I'm really looking forward to!!

There are other little things too, that I'm excited about (because I'm a newb) like wearing the store uniform, using the wireless headsets to communicate with coworkers (they don't use walkie-talkies anymore), learning how to use the computer touch screen cash register, getting to organize the little things, keeping the front area neat and organized, meeting sales goals, getting to talk to people and help them, working with computers and printers and all sorts of stuff like that. Yeah, I'm weird. I like the organization factor of the whole place. Yay organization!

So, uh, between now and my first days at Office Max, there are a couple of things I'll just note here:
--Mom and I are going to visit the Keystone at The Crossing shopping mall. If you were from Carmel, you'd know this is a big deal. Let me just say this, they have a Cheesecake Factory and it has valet parking.
--My uncle (Kevin's younger brother) is coming on Friday to spend Christmas with us.
--Before that, I'm tackling my room and I will clean every inch of it and every inch I can't clean by Friday I will stuff in little inch-sized boxes and put in my ginormous closet for later.
--What's that one thing...? Oh yeah, Christmas. Right...

~~~~~
Purchased Cards: 90% complete (except the mailing bit, that's tomorrow)
Handmade Gifts: 75% complete (still)
Purchased Gifts: 85% complete (still)

Tags: christmas, holiday progress, job interview, organizing, shopping, work
Current Mood: pleased