Erin's Blog

Link/Tip of the day:

This is a very interesting site about the "numbers that control your life" -- your SSN, your driver's license number, passport decoder and more! I typed in my name and birthday and it spit out my old Maryland driver's license number! Creepy!

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More boring stuff about my life....

Things have been going well recently! Last week I went on three interviews, and the problem is that all three places hired me! Yikes. Now I need to decide where I want to work. I figured I'd ask for your opinions...

Current job: $12/hr plus tips, health costs me $200 per month, no 401k, no holiday pay, no overtime pay (they are federally exempt from paying overtime and they are taking advantage of it by working me 52 hours per week!), I work nights and weekends and do not have much choice in the matter. This is the reason I started applying and interviewing -- I'd like to have my nights and weekends back.

Job Offer 1: $35/hr, full health benes paid for by the company, 401k, the whole schpiel. Workdays are Mon - Fri. Only problem is that I can only work 4 hours per day, and that is a split shift -- 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon. This frees up my nights and gives me a break in between for lunch, errands, etc. Kind of nice, but kind of a pain in the butt, too. Oh, there is limited to no work available in the summertime, necessitating a second "summer" job.

Job Offer 2: $12/hr, health benes add up to $100 or so per month out of my check, 401k, etc. Work is during the daytime, but with an unknown schedule as of now with possible weekend hours.

Job Offer 3: $14/hr plus tips, health benes cost me approx $200 per month. Work is available both days and nights, but is given out by seniority meaning I'd likely work nights and weekends, at least for the first few years (there are approx. 90 employees at this company).

All 3 jobs (and my current job) are doing basically the same thing, and I think I would like the actual work in all three of the new situations, so that is not really an issue. I liked the people I met on the interviews in all situations, and my current job has some "drama" going on, but I can tolerate it for the time being.

I am heavily leaning towards job 2 for full-time work in the summer and part time the other seasons, where I would be full-time at job 1. Problem is, I don't know how receptive job 2 will be towards me working very few (or no) hours during the other 10 months of the year....

Any ideas?

In other news, I got to satisfy my photography jones on Tuesday -- I bought a new lens for my Digital Rebel and then went out to test it out. The new lens has a feature called "image stabilization" that allows you to take extended exposures by hand without ending up with a blurry photo. I put it to the test at nighttime in Downtown Denver and during the daytime in Clear Creek Canyon. Some of my favorites:















Check out all of the pics here.

_erin

More boring stuff about my life....

D'oh! I forgot to talk about the LA trip... Things went well, had a good time. Pictures of the meet are here. We met at the Petersen Automotive Museum. Very neat place if you're ever in the LA area.

It was great to meet some of the friends I've known online for a few years now. Rocket, you truly rock!

Thanks again to De for letting me stay at her place!

_erin

Link/Tip of the day:

American Traveler International Apology T-shirts. Funny stuff!



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More boring stuff about my life....

Well, it's been a while now and several of you are asking for updates, so update I will. Remember, you, the dedicated reader, asked for it!

I have been working. Work has been typical -- long hours, little pay. Oh well, it pays the bills. And now I have off three days a week. Back in February I was working most of my days off, in fact, that entire month I only had three days off! Yikes. I have learned to take my days off. In fact, I turn my phone off when I am not working. I recently had a conversation with my boss where he asked me to give him a "working number," LOL! I told him the number they have works, I just don't turn my phone on at all.... If I didn't have to make a call here and there, I would probably turn the damned thing off. I never use it. As some of you may or may not know, I don't like to check my messages, either. The last time I turned the phone on to call a friend, it said I had 7 voicemails waiting. I probably have 9 or 10 by now. I wonder when my mailbox will fill up and when someone calls it will hang up on them because my box is full? [evil laugh] Muah-ah-ah-ah! [/evil laugh]

Well, the reason my boss took me aside and asked for a working number is that they had wanted me to come in an hour early on Friday. When I asked what was up, he got all secretive. We agreed that I would come in an hour early on Monday, but all weekend my mind was wondering what I had done wrong.... Turns out that it was a random drug test. Whoop-dee-frickin'-doo. I was all worried for nothing. Bleh.

I was in an accident the other day. Luckily, it wasn't my fault, nobody was hurt, no major damage, and I didn't get a ticket. The cops were super-cool about the whole thing, too. They arrived on scene and didn't even ask me what happened. When I started to tell the cop what had happened, he finished my sentence for me: this guy pulled in front of me while I was obviously moving. And this twit was a fucking valet, too! ::shakes head::

I saw Mel the other night. I went to pick up a few things from her place (tax refund check = woohoo!). The first attempt to pick it up a few days ago failed -- I was late because of a four-car accident on I-25. By the time I got there, she wasn't home. Though on Tuesday night I was on time and was able to get my things. I brought her a present -- Mike Doughty's Haughty Melodic -- and picked up two boxes of miscellaneous things, a picture and my tax refund. I asked if she knew where my empeg is, because I've been without since I moved out. It wasn't with all of the stuff I'd just picked up. She didn't know. Bleh. Now I need to file a police report that it was stolen. Maybe my car insurance will cover it? they don't make them anymore and they are going for a pretty penny on eBay.... In leaving, I realized I hadn't seen her in more than a year. Wow. Time flies.

I bought the upgrade for Mac OS X -- the new version is 10.4 and is code-named "Tiger." I am using it on my desktop Mac as I write this. I haven't noticed any real speed improvements, but there are several new features and slight interface changes. I think it was worth it for the feature called "Dashboard" alone -- a very cool program that always runs and keeps several handy tools at the ready anytime you need them. I especially like the weather forecast.

I am selling my PowerBook G4. If you know anyone that wants a good, used machine, check out the ad.

_erin