Erin's Blog

Link/Tip of the day:

I couldn't help but laugh at this fake TV show.

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More boring stuff about my life....

My current landlord is kicking me out. Well, not really "kicking me out." He wants to fix up the place and try to get more rent for it. Unfortunately, he can't do that while somebody (read: me) is living in the apartment. August 31st is the last day I may inhabit this space. So, I've been busy looking for a place to live. I think I found it yesterday. I asked the prospective landlord if I can move in on the 15th, and that was OK'd. Pro-rate the month of August. Sweet. I even lined up a few friends to help with the move. Sweeter.

Been keeping busy with the new work schedule. I hate it. Luckily (or maybe not so luckily, as you will soon read) things will change as soon as September 1st. "Why change" you may ask? Well, our company got bought by one of our competitors. Strangely, we did more sales and business than this competitor, but they bought us. Weird. And of course, they aren't saying they bought us -- they are calling it a "merger" to sound more friendly. The legal paperwork I've seen says they're buying out our owner. Gotta love liars.

In any case, the combination of the two companies will prove (at least to the employees of the two companies) that 1 + 1 = 3. We both did the same thing in our own ways. But when you combine the two companies with the same ultimate goal(s), things get mixed up. Badly. We need to come up with new ways to do the same thing(s) all over again. Arrrgh.

So what I'm trying to say is this: despite the promises that nobody will lose their jobs, in the end, we will likely have too many employees doing the same job. This means we will have a situation where we will either A) not have enough work, so everyone will take a pay cut because of lack of hours, or B) have to let some folks go. If option B) happens, I will likely be on the list of folks let go, only because I've been with the company for only 9 months now. Sure, there are several (5 or 6) people "behind" me on the seniority list that will surely go before I. But I see it as inevitable. Dammit. I liked this job, too.

So, now I've been sending out resumes. I actually got a response last night. They want me to come in person to apply at their offices. Fun.

Oh well, I have a job at least until September. For now.

_erin

Link/Tip of the day:

From the page:

The "Big Guy" is Canon's largest EOS prime lens, a ridiculously huge 1200mm monstrosity. There are only about ten of these things in existence. Sports Illustrated owns two of them. Generally speaking you have to be a major corporation to even think about buying one, as they're individually hand milled in Japan to the tune of about USD$80,000 each.

Read more...

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More boring stuff about my life....

Well, today I finished the motorcycle class, and I passed! I now have a card to present to the DMV to get my "M" endorsement. Fun stuff! I had a great time, and would recommend it to anyone.

I knew that I got a pretty bad sunburn yesterday, but I didn't realize quite how bad. Today when I was on the range at the class, my neck felt wet. I thought nothing of it as it was over 100 degrees today and everyone was sweating. Then I went to scratch my back, and realized why my neck was wet -- blisters. My neck is covered in 2nd-degree burn blisters. Ouch. Fucking ouch.

Today I wore a button-up, long sleeve shirt with a collar, so my neck was not exposed to the sun at all. I put sunscreen (SPF 30) on all of my exposed skin. I am still in pain. You can see where the gloves I wore ended and where the sleeve from the shirt I wore yesterday began. It looks like I have red bracelets about 2 inches wide around each wrist, kind of the opposite of what happens when you wear a watch and get sunburned....

One of the ladies in the class brought her digital camera (I thought of bringing mine, but didn't think I'd have any time to take pictures) and she got a shot of me giving my typical cheesy grin and giving a thumbs-up. Anyone that knows me knows this pose well.... I gave her my e-mail address, so hopefully I will have a pic of me in the class to post here. That'd be nice.

Oh well, I'm tired and have to get up early (not as early as this morning, though!) for work tomorrow. 'Night!

_erin

Link/Tip of the day:

This is an interesting site -- they have setup the Google AdSense advertising and are using the profits to buy Google stock. Genius!

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More boring stuff about my life....

It's been a while now. Haven't been on any more photography expeditions, though I did take some pictures when I visited a place called Tiny Town with a co-worker and her two daughters. Had a good time, too.

Work has been crazy -- the new owners are moving in on Thursday. I worked one of my days off this week and it happened to be the worst day ever since I've been working here.

Today I went to a motorcycle class. It is a two-day class offered here in Denver that will get me my M endorsement on my license.

The whole motorcycle "thing" was prompted by a talk with a friend at work (thanks Re!). He was talking about his "bikes" and it got me to thinking. I asked a few questions, and he even offered to help teach me to ride. I thought that I might save some money on fuel with the exorbitant fuel prices around here, too. So, I found this company that offers classes for a reasonable rate and I signed up.

Today was the first day of training. We spent about 3 hours in the classroom. When we introduced each other, we had to tell three things about ourselves -- the trick was that one of the three had to be a lie, and then everyone in the class (there are 12 students and 2 teachers) had to try to guess which item the lie was. It was actually a fun thing to do, too! The class is mostly women, so that was encouraging. The instructors are funny so that makes things more enjoyable, too.

Then we went out in the parking lot and played with motorcycles. I had never even _sat_ on a motorcycle before today, and by the end of the class, I was driving one around the lot at 40mph and loving every minute of it, too!

Motorcycles really were confusing at first -- a lot of controls that are similar to a car, but in very different locations with very different manifestations. Sure, a key is a key, but the key on a motorcycle doesn't actually start it like in a car....

After getting acclimated to the various controls, I only fell down once. It hurt only a little bit and did not damage the bike. I now have a large bruise developing on my right thigh, however. I also got a leg cramp behind my left thigh just a few minutes ago. My hip joints hurt when I was riding, too -- only because they made us walk our bikes (by remaining seated and "walking" with our legs to move the bike from place to place). The bike I had (a Honda Rebel something-or-another) is a little too low to the ground for me to walk comfortably with it. I was just too big for it, really. When the handlebars were at full lock to either direction the the handles hit my legs. Tomorrow I will try to get a taller bike to see if that helps....

I also got totally charred today -- sunburn SUCKS! My neck is on fire right now. I applied some sunscreen, but the damage was already done. When I went to dinner, a perfect stranger commented on how awfully sunburned I was! But, what do you expect on a cloudless day with temperatures in the low 100-degree range? Tomorrow should be slightly better -- temps should range in the high 90s. Blue Junk™, here I come!

Oh well, I have to get up at the buttcrack of dawn tomorrow to go to the second day of the class. Off to bed!

_erin

Link/Tip of the day:

Interesting site on how to make a ring from a silver US quarter or half dollar.

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More boring stuff about my life....

I am working days now. Still getting used to the new sleep schedule. Fun.

I recently purchased a Canon EF-S 10-22mm wide angle lens. Now that I am awake during the daytime, I figured I could go test out the lens in the light! Here are some of my favorite pics:



























All of the pics can be seen here.

_erin