Didn't even have time for a shower

I didn't like today at work.
Not sure I can cut it if it's going to be this stressful everyday.
How do you walk out on a job if you work from home?

Jan. 24 worst day of the year

Well, it wasn't a bad day for me. It was busy and pretty frantic at work. I was sucked into the laptop vortex from 7:30am to 6:00pm, I only emerged to get a sandwich at noon and a green tea at 3pm. I missed the almost 70 degree weather outside.

Overall it could have been a lot worse. I picked up the handle of a pan that had been in the oven yesterday. Last night I thought I had burned the skin on my left palm and spent several hours desperately grasping ice packs in an attempt to stop the pain; it was a balance between searing heat pain from the burn and pain numbing frozen pain. I fell asleep high-fiving an icepack on my pillow, either I was going to blister from the burn or lose a finger to frost bite. I woke up this morning and my hand looked a little bit branded in places, no pain, no blisters and no swelling. I've never seen anything like it.

Flood and Tornados

So here I am in Arizona. It hasn't stopped raining since I arrived on the 2nd. The state brags 360 days of sunshine, well I think I'm here for the 5 days of clouds, rain and severe weather. Yesterday we were under flood watch, I went to bed with the rain lashing against my hotel window...I awoke early morning to thunder and lightning. During lunch we were caught in torrential rain and hail. In the late afternoon when I thought the weather was subsiding the tornado warnings started, the funnel cloud sightings increased and the skies darkened. This is really not what I expected from a place people call "a desert".

Is an uneventful year a successful year?
Is a boring year a good year?
It wasn't a bad year I suppose.

• I managed to stay employed for most of the year; I started the year as a contract project manager for Sun Microsystems and will end the year as a professional services project manager for Thomson NETg. I was only unemployed for 6 weeks....compared to 2003, I did better this year!
  
• I didn't lose the 8-10lbs I wanted to...but I didn't gain anything either...not bad, I guess.
  
• I didn't sit the PMP certification test, but I know more and I'm closer to getting the certification.
  
• I didn't make as much stained glass this year, but I did dabble in mosaics and ended the year melting glass and making dichroic glass earrings.
  

I'll be 101010 in binary next year.
That will be exciting :-)

Happy St Andrew's Day

Happy St Andrew's Day - I'll be having a wee Laphroaig this evening.

It's cold and snowy outside, just like home. The house is warm and cozy...not like home :-)
I have a lot of traits from my parents. I learned a lot from them but I prefer to heat the house a little more than they did. I talked with my brother at the weekend and he takes after them, we calculated that I spend 3 to 4 times more per month on heating. I truly am a chili willy (like the Walter Lantz cartoon).

So, in my spare time I continue to melt glass...my latest creations are really cool dichroic glass earrings, the only problem is I want to keep them all. Today, I plan to check out a Coomers store and see if they have any space left so I can sell some stuff. I really need to clean out the basement...and making some money would be nice too!

Interview

Had an interview yesterday in Scottsdale. I flew down for the day and had a blast. The company was wonderful; great products, great people. It reminded me of a couple of places I had worked before, they were small companies with very creative hardworking people. Everyone cared about what they did, no laziness or complacency. I had wondered if those type of companies still existed...until yesterday!

Then I got a call this morning saying they would like to offer me the job, whoohoo!

I start in the middle of December, so I have a couple of weeks to play - bonus!

On Sunday night I came down with flu! This was my first contact with flu...on Monday I thought I was going to die of dehydration. I'm starting to keep fluids down, but I have a really bad case of sleeping sickness. I can't stay awake for more than 3 hours without needing a 2 hour nap! I hope this means I will be protected for the rest of the winter.

Si-O-Si Designs

Have kiln - Will use!
I have made 4 glass candy dishes, 19 earrings and 2 brooches made of melted glass and 18 glass labels that can also be used as Christmas ornaments. One of the guys I went for lunch with this week said he could help me set up an e-commerce website. At the time I was polite and thanked him for the suggestion....but now I'm really thinking it might be worth doing.
I'm generating inventory at an alarming rate.

What would I call my business?
Since I would be selling warm and cold glass products (melted and stained) I need a name that covers both. Years ago when I had thought about selling my stained glass I went through some creative sessions using the word glass combined with color; opal, spectrum, rainbow....Nothing got me excited. So for now I am using the name Si-O-Si, the chemical structure of silica - the main component of glass; Si-O-Si Glass Creations, Si-O-Si Glass Designs, Si-O-Si Art...

Job hunting

The job search continues....Week Two

So far my updated resume is on 4 websites, I have sent it out to 5 friends and contacted 2 recruiters I have used before. I have also applied for 4 jobs, one of which I was rejected in less than 6 hours! I am signed up on 5 daily e-mail blasts that send out jobs and contracts to bid on. My resume, cover letter, portfolio and references docs are all up to date. I have had lunch with 5 people this week. This has all filled my week pretty well, but I am concerned about how I will fill my time next week, and onward, before I get another job.

Sorry to post an e-mail - but this sums up my feelings today.

It is very tough to be a Republican in 2004, because somehow, you have to believe concurrently that:

1. Jesus loves you, but shares your deep hatred of homosexuals and Hillary Clinton.
2. The United States should get out of the United Nations, but our highest national priority is enforcing U. N. resolutions against Iraq.
3."Standing Tall for America" means firing your workers and moving their jobs to India.
4. A woman can't be trusted with decisions about her own body, but multi-national corporations can make decisions affecting all humankind without regulation.
5. Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime, unless you're a Conservative radio host. Then it's an illness and you need our prayers foryour recovery.
6. The best way to improve military morale is to praise the troops in speeches, while slashing veterans' benefits and combat pay.
7. Group sex and drug use are degenerate sins, unless you someday run for Governor of California as a Republican.
8. If condoms are kept out of schools, adolescents won't have sex.
9. A good way to fight terrorism is to belittle our longtime allies, but then demand their cooperation and money.
10. HMOs and insurance companies make profits and have the interest of the public at heart.
11. Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy. Providing health care to all Americans is socialism.
12. Global warming and tobacco's link to cancer are junk science, but creationism should be taught in schools.
13. It is okay that the Bush family's "Carlisle Group" has done millions of business with the Bin Laden family.
14. Saddam was a good guy when Reagan armed him and Rumsfeld reassured him he was our buddy, a bad guy when Bush's daddy made war on him, a good guy when Cheney did business with him, but then a bad guy again when Bush junior needed a prop for his re-election campaign as the "war president"
15. A president lying about an extramarital affair is an impeachable offense. A president lying about WMD existence, to enlist support for an unprovoked, undeclared war and occupation, in which thousands soldiers and civilians die, is, somehow, solid "defense" policy in a "War against Terrorism".
16. Government should limit itself to the powers named in the Constitution, which should include "banning gay marriages and censoring the Internet".
17. The public has a right to know about Hillary's cattle trades, but George Bush's Harken Oil stock trade should be sealed in his Daddy's library, and is none of our business.
18. What Bill Clinton or John Kerry did in the 1960s was of vital national interest but what Bush did in the '80s is irrelevant.
19. Trade with Cuba is wrong because the country is communist, but trade with China and Vietnam is vital to a "spirit of international harmony".
20. Affirmative Action is wrong, but it is OK for your Daddy and His friends (here and in Saudi Arabia) to get you to graduate from Yale without studying much, to dodge the draft in the Texas Air National Guard, to bail out your companies Harken Oil and the Texas Rangers, to get the Governorship of Texas, and then to have the Supreme Court appoint you President of the USA.
21. You are a conservative, but it is OK to spend like there is no tomorrow and run up deficits that your grandchildren will have to pay, while at the same time refunding as much tax money as possible to rich people who do not need it.

This illogical behavior can take a toll on a healthy mind. So if a friend of yours has been acting a bit dazed and confused lately, be nice: he or she may be a Republican!