Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Who's watching me in Moscow?
I've had several hits on this site coming from Moscow and I can't even imagine that someone is reading my boring drivel from so far away. Who are you? I am intrigued. And kinda flattered.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Stupid Grad School
I've been meaning to post for awhile. Like, months. But stupid school and work and life keep getting in the way. When I started Seoul Cliche it was a means to an end: communicating with my family and friends and telling the stories of my little Korean adventures. What I didn't expect was that blogging would be a great outlet for me. I have a tendency to let a lot of crap rattle around in my head and putting it on paper (read: the Internet) was a great release and allowed me to clear my head.
I haven't posted in months because, well, I've got too much rattling around in my brain to come up with a cohesive thought. Right now I'm in week five of Business Law and Business Statistics, both topics that are turning my brain into mush. Law has turned out to be a bit more interesting than expected, but statistics has got me swimming. I like the idea of statistics, and of how they are gathered. I like analyzing the results and I like drawing conclusions. But getting there? That's dang near impossible. It's like reading Greek. Actually, it is reading Greek, as most of the formulas are written in Greek. For example, this:
is the formula for the mean of a sample. Really, all it says is that the mean (μ) is the sum of results divided by the number of results. It's an average. Why the hell can't they just say that??? Why do I need a Sigma and a Mu and a bunch of other meaningless characters to determine an average?
Anyway, that is where my brain is at. Other than that, things are going pretty well. I've got some fun projects at work - I'm overseeing the rebuild of our website and the remodeling of our demo room, helping with the planning and marketing of a technology summit, doing some graphic design and learning a lot more about copiers than I ever wanted to know. I managed to waddle to the finish line at the Shamrock Run, made my first attempt at snowboarding, paid off the trip to China (departing 6 weeks from today!) and am working on my sideline business with X.
Rob's been helping me with the yard and we've made some really good progress, I'll add some photos on the ol' Facebook. We've got a long way to go still, especially considering we both have geriatric backs. Hopefully in the next month or so we'll be ready for BBQ season. Yippee!!
I haven't posted in months because, well, I've got too much rattling around in my brain to come up with a cohesive thought. Right now I'm in week five of Business Law and Business Statistics, both topics that are turning my brain into mush. Law has turned out to be a bit more interesting than expected, but statistics has got me swimming. I like the idea of statistics, and of how they are gathered. I like analyzing the results and I like drawing conclusions. But getting there? That's dang near impossible. It's like reading Greek. Actually, it is reading Greek, as most of the formulas are written in Greek. For example, this:
is the formula for the mean of a sample. Really, all it says is that the mean (μ) is the sum of results divided by the number of results. It's an average. Why the hell can't they just say that??? Why do I need a Sigma and a Mu and a bunch of other meaningless characters to determine an average?Anyway, that is where my brain is at. Other than that, things are going pretty well. I've got some fun projects at work - I'm overseeing the rebuild of our website and the remodeling of our demo room, helping with the planning and marketing of a technology summit, doing some graphic design and learning a lot more about copiers than I ever wanted to know. I managed to waddle to the finish line at the Shamrock Run, made my first attempt at snowboarding, paid off the trip to China (departing 6 weeks from today!) and am working on my sideline business with X.
Rob's been helping me with the yard and we've made some really good progress, I'll add some photos on the ol' Facebook. We've got a long way to go still, especially considering we both have geriatric backs. Hopefully in the next month or so we'll be ready for BBQ season. Yippee!!
Thursday, January 1, 2009
The Year in Blog
2008 has probably been the most interesting and favorite of the last few years. In January I was honored to be one of the lucky few attendees at Sara Lou & Stew's fabulous Timberline wedding. I'm not sure I had ever had so much fun at a wedding before, and I'm not sure I've ever been so cold in a hot tub! Soon after, in February, I was asked to take a big trip for work and started the long preparation & freak out process. I started blogging, and so did Sabine. Sadly, Sabinedog's blog seems to have been removed from the internet - too bad, because her posts were hella funny!
On March 7th, I departed for my two month adventure in Seoul. Flying to Korea in 1st class was the last easy thing about the trip, but I had a lot of fun and learned many things about the country, the culture, my job and myself. Highlights for March include staying at The Dormy, seeing Jason Mraz, learning about the layoffs at home and drinking Soju with friends.By April I had started to get a little homesick but was still trying to make the best of the trip. I got to see the entire city from Namsan Tower, along with the amazing cherry blossoms. I went shopping in Insadong and had the best night of my trip at Lotte World!
When I landed in California the first thing I did was send a text message to all my friends that said "I love this Country!" Being home had never felt better and I spent most of May enjoying the company of my friends and my dog. I bought my lovely little mac and started making plans to leave my employer.
BeansandNuts was born in July, I hired little Russian men to work on my kitchen, signed up for a great diet program and I attended my second wedding for the year. X and I took a little camping trip to Ft. Stevens State Park with the dogs in August. When I returned, I gave my notice at work and willingly became unemployed for the first time in five years.
The MBA program at Marylhurst seemed like a great fit, so I started classes in September and began making friends. I was down 30 lbs on my diet and I turned 30 years old! Jayna and Eric came to visit for the Miss White Trash Pageant, I attended a pub crawl, and I met the man. I think September might have been my favorite month. After just one (amazing!) month of freedom, I accepted a job in October. I went to see Matt Nathanson with a hot date and attended two more weddings - a small courthouse ceremony and a charming beach wedding that ended at the Sportsman Pub and Grub.
Obama won the election by a surprising (to me) landslide in November and I had an absolute blast with my date for Denim & Diamonds. For Thanksgiving, I traveled to Tucson for my fifth (& Final!) wedding of 2008 and reconnected with some amazing friends that I missed more than I ever realized. December brought the tragic loss of my Sabine but also a great, joy filled White Christmas and the birth of a close friends baby boy. I spent about 7 days strait lying on my butt and playing on the internet because I could not leave the house - the snow was beautiful but I'm glad to be mobile again.
As amazing as 2008 was, I think 2009 is going to be even better. I don't think there will be five weddings this year, but you never know.. in the meantime, I'm looking forward to continuing school, learning to snowboard, spending more time with my friends and my guy, meeting the new babies that have arrived or will be arriving soon, attending the Newport Seafood & Wine Festival and going to China. I hope each of you had a great 08 and have an even better 09!!
XOXO
On March 7th, I departed for my two month adventure in Seoul. Flying to Korea in 1st class was the last easy thing about the trip, but I had a lot of fun and learned many things about the country, the culture, my job and myself. Highlights for March include staying at The Dormy, seeing Jason Mraz, learning about the layoffs at home and drinking Soju with friends.By April I had started to get a little homesick but was still trying to make the best of the trip. I got to see the entire city from Namsan Tower, along with the amazing cherry blossoms. I went shopping in Insadong and had the best night of my trip at Lotte World!
When I landed in California the first thing I did was send a text message to all my friends that said "I love this Country!" Being home had never felt better and I spent most of May enjoying the company of my friends and my dog. I bought my lovely little mac and started making plans to leave my employer.
BeansandNuts was born in July, I hired little Russian men to work on my kitchen, signed up for a great diet program and I attended my second wedding for the year. X and I took a little camping trip to Ft. Stevens State Park with the dogs in August. When I returned, I gave my notice at work and willingly became unemployed for the first time in five years.
The MBA program at Marylhurst seemed like a great fit, so I started classes in September and began making friends. I was down 30 lbs on my diet and I turned 30 years old! Jayna and Eric came to visit for the Miss White Trash Pageant, I attended a pub crawl, and I met the man. I think September might have been my favorite month. After just one (amazing!) month of freedom, I accepted a job in October. I went to see Matt Nathanson with a hot date and attended two more weddings - a small courthouse ceremony and a charming beach wedding that ended at the Sportsman Pub and Grub.
Obama won the election by a surprising (to me) landslide in November and I had an absolute blast with my date for Denim & Diamonds. For Thanksgiving, I traveled to Tucson for my fifth (& Final!) wedding of 2008 and reconnected with some amazing friends that I missed more than I ever realized. December brought the tragic loss of my Sabine but also a great, joy filled White Christmas and the birth of a close friends baby boy. I spent about 7 days strait lying on my butt and playing on the internet because I could not leave the house - the snow was beautiful but I'm glad to be mobile again.
As amazing as 2008 was, I think 2009 is going to be even better. I don't think there will be five weddings this year, but you never know.. in the meantime, I'm looking forward to continuing school, learning to snowboard, spending more time with my friends and my guy, meeting the new babies that have arrived or will be arriving soon, attending the Newport Seafood & Wine Festival and going to China. I hope each of you had a great 08 and have an even better 09!!
XOXO
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Ooops
Apparently I blew my bandwidth on PhotoBucket so I'm downgrading to a standard template. It's not as pretty, but at least it works.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Simmer Down
I had intended this blog to be for family and friends - I began blogging during my trip to Korea, as a way to keep my loved ones informed of my adventures. I found I enjoyed it and it was a good outlet for me. On my last day of work it was brought to my attention that this blog had been discovered by management. I was saddened that people I trusted felt it appropriate to share and sad that it was being taken so seriously. I opted not to post about it at the time because I didn't want to burn any bridges.
Today I was politely declined for a temp gig based on my blog... it's not a big deal, I think the position requirements have changed since it was first mentioned to me and it's probably true that it's not a perfect fit. But I find it sad that so much is being read into this blog (ha, no pun intended). Reading a blog can be like reading a diary - a voyeuristic view of someone else's life and as such, should be taken with a grain of salt. After all, just because I say I want to kill someone at Fred Meyer doesn't mean I'm going to do it.
As far as my time with my last employer, for those of you lurking, I would like to put it on the record that I love that company and I had some great times there. When I was hired I figured I was going to be in that role for 2 years, max. I stayed for 5 because I loved the company and my coworkers so much. I have no doubt that someday it will return to being the great place to work it once was and if I could have stayed and moved into another role I would have. I just didn't see a future for me in that particular job. So please, don't feel that any of the things I have said on here are more than the mutterings of someone blowing off steam and please, for God's sake, don't take it personally.
Today I was politely declined for a temp gig based on my blog... it's not a big deal, I think the position requirements have changed since it was first mentioned to me and it's probably true that it's not a perfect fit. But I find it sad that so much is being read into this blog (ha, no pun intended). Reading a blog can be like reading a diary - a voyeuristic view of someone else's life and as such, should be taken with a grain of salt. After all, just because I say I want to kill someone at Fred Meyer doesn't mean I'm going to do it.
As far as my time with my last employer, for those of you lurking, I would like to put it on the record that I love that company and I had some great times there. When I was hired I figured I was going to be in that role for 2 years, max. I stayed for 5 because I loved the company and my coworkers so much. I have no doubt that someday it will return to being the great place to work it once was and if I could have stayed and moved into another role I would have. I just didn't see a future for me in that particular job. So please, don't feel that any of the things I have said on here are more than the mutterings of someone blowing off steam and please, for God's sake, don't take it personally.
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