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December 18th, 2006
04:45 pm - On Vox: She's crafty!
 So I've already displayed my wonderous pillows and I thought it might be time for me to diplay a few other crafts. This is my first completed dress. In high school I started a dress but it never came to... » Read more on Vox
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December 8th, 2006
12:54 pm - On Vox: Be Present
I'm a worrier, a planner, a "be prepared"-er. I tend to focus less on the moment and more on the future and/or the past. If something small goes wrong - my tendency is to allow it to snowball into a... » Read more on Vox
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November 29th, 2006
01:48 pm - On Vox: Blood relatives
My trip back to Jersey and Maryland for Thanksgiving ended up being a lot more stressful than originally thought.While there were the normal family stressors - one stuck out a little more than usual this year. My mother has somewhat... » Read more on Vox
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November 14th, 2006
10:50 am
I really want to like Kelly Ripa. I used to like her...when she first started the show. And she's just so cute. And she's from NJ.
But now she's just so damn annoying.
Maybe Regis does that to you.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/moonsis/thoughtful.gif) contemplative
Current Music: Bling (Confession of a King) - The Killers
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November 9th, 2006
03:43 pm - Smooooooth Moooooooove
So far so good with Aje moving in. It's actually been a lot better than I imagined. A few minor tiffs here and there, nothing out of the ordinary and nothing really related to him having moved in. It's really nice to have someone to share household responsibilities.
Current Location: OUR Office :-)
Current Music: Colorblind - Counting Crows
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October 10th, 2006
04:28 pm - Trip to Athens
I suck. I forgot one of the best parts about last week...
Katie, Jeremy and I drove to Athens to visit Jonathan! I was a little worried with just getting over being sick and pulling my back form helping Jimmy and Kimber try to move on Friday...but going out and apparently Jonathan's couch is the cure for feeling sick and backaches :-)
Katie and Jeremy picked me up and then we headed to Willy's While we were enjoying our lunch the woman comes running and yelling frantically into Willy's "Ma'am!!! Ma'am!!!! Ma'am!!!! Call 911!!" She repeats that about 3 times and then explains that there is a horrible car accident outside. I look out the window and it was right infront of where Eric used to live and it looked like a black mustang was in the road which is what is girlfriend drives and I was instantly worried because a few weeks earlier Eric had gotten in an accident at the very same intersection. I ran to the window hoping it wasn't Katherine and then realized that while there was a black mustang in the road it was not part of the wreck and I remembered that Eric moved the week or two before. We finished and then took the back way out of willy's.
We got to Jonathan's after some confusion over Jennings Mill Parkway and Jennings Mill Road. Jonathan's apartment was really nice. I really liked the layout. I'm jealous of pretty much anyone who has a kitchen with more than 4 square feet to move around in but his kitchen was very spacious. So was his living room...and his bathroom...and even his bathtub. I can't wait until I own a house with a garden tub or at least own a house where a garden tub will fit. We watched part of the Tech game and then headed out to walk around UGA. What a huge campus! We walked to the radio station and got a tour from some nice UGA radio person who also threw lots of free stuff (bottles and buttons) at us. We left, hands full, and then walked around a little more with Jonathan as our knowledgeable tour guide and then off to walk around Athens.
Athens was very cute, i really liked the little town feel to it - like you could walk to anything. We went to a bar that i can't remember what it was called but it was really nice. It was very loud downstairs so we went upstairs and out on the patio and relaxed with some cheap-but-not-as-cheap-as-happy-hour-Athens-beer. Yum.
We then left and met Jonathan's friend for some Mexi dinner. Introductions went like this:
"Hi I'm Valeri"
"Hi i'm Mallory"
And that's about all I said to her because I was sitting the corner. She seemed nice. We ordered dinner and then moved on to dessert - I ordered a huge plate of sopapilla...it was tastie!
After dinner, the grocery store, and lots of margaritas I was on a HUGE sugar high. we started playing "Scene It: Music Edition" or something like that and the game was okay...but that last QUESTION was an INSTRUCTION not a QUESTION so I still don't understand that :-) (And no, i'm not a sore loser, i don't care that I lost but it wasn't a question! ) :-) We made cookies that came with edible sugar sticker things and they were very disappointing. And too much sugar. Sugar cookie with icing AND sugar sticker? no wonder i couldn't sleep that night!
We went to bed and katie and I got the high school giggles after hearing some really random unidentifiable noises. Slowly Katie and Jeremy fell asleep as I struggled....the two of them are not loud snorers but they snored together and it was freaking me out. if one of them took a big breath or paused in breathing, the other would wait to breath again so they were back in synch. It was weird.
In the morning we made some delicious garlic and cheese biscuits, eggs and bacon. Yum Yum! We took showers and headed out!
It was a good visit, great to see Jonathan and his new place and his new school. I'd go back :-)
Current Location: MY OFFICE!
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/moonsis/happy.gif) happy
Current Music: Nothing is worth losing that - Telefon Tel Aviv
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October 5th, 2006
10:52 am - MAJOR UPDATE
Wow - it's been awhile.
I'm off the horribly boring project that I have been on since June - yippeee! I've been picked up on a new project and I think I should start on Monday. It's located in Phoenix but I don't have to travel every week - the guy I interviewed with said that it would probably be about 15% travel. Which works out great for me.
Jimmy and Kimber moved out and they had a heck of a time doing it. I was sick and tried to help and ended up killing my back on the 2nd piece of furniture i moved so I was out. A few hours afterwards their huge U-Haul broke down and after over 4 hours of waiting and 2 hours of my driving there I got them back to my house. Saturday apparently U-Haul had a problem with giving them a working U-Haul so they came back on Sunday to get the rest of the little things around the house.
Sunday night Aje came over and I was so excited about having Jimmy's old room back that I had a huge burst of energy and we ended up painting Sunday night. Monday Aje's mom came over with the truck and a carpet steamer and she steamed the dining room while Aje and I used her truck to go to my mom's and move a desk, two bookshelves and my futon. The room looks awesome. We shifted some furniture around...if you've been in my house the black/brown cube bookshelf that was in Jimmy's room is now in the dining room. The only things in my room right now are my bed and two dressers....it's so relaxing now.
Tuesday I somehow convinced Aje to go to IKEA with me. Once he was there he was really into it and we got some stuff...a new TV stand, a few lights, trash can for the office, desk blotter, a shelf, etc.
Wednesday Aje had to go back to work, and I interviewed for a project and got on it. It's located in Pheonix - but i'll only have to travel 15% of the time or so. I'm excited because it deals with some stuff similar to what I did at Wells - workflows and service requests. It sounds like its going to be a little more complicated than that but that also excites me because I really need a challenge. I've been so bored lately. After I got accepted on the project I ran out to get a new phone since my old one was hanging by a thread...literally. I came home and just as I was starting to put the TV stand together Aje came home and he helped. Then we rested the rest of the night...watching Thank You For Smoking (great movie) and then an episode of Law and Order. Aje went to bed and I stayed up sewing and watching TV.
This last week has been great!
Current Location: MY OFFICE!
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/moonsis/energetic.gif) energetic
Current Music: When You Were Young - The Killers
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August 29th, 2006
07:28 pm - Sigh
It's sad when the most satisfying thing that you have done with your day in awhile is to get on your hands and knees and scrub the kitchen floor and then a grand finale of vacuuming under the cushions of the couch.
Sigh.
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August 22nd, 2006
04:07 pm - Things that make you go "Hmmmmm..."
Dave Chappelle is on Oprah...
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August 16th, 2006
12:31 pm - I need a new washer
Everytime my washer runs it sounds like a jet engine and it's about to take off out of my house. I'm torn between going and getting a cheap one for about $250-$300 or getting an energy saver, energy star compliant one for about $600. One good thing about themore expensive ones is that they tend to use less water, are more gentle on clothes, use less energy and they leave the clothes more dry so the dryer has to run less.
hmmmmmm
Current Location: My room
Current Music: Delerium -Serenity
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June 20th, 2006
12:09 am - I'm a biker babe!
riiiight...
But I did buy a bike.
This one.
I'm getting a computer put on it tonight so I can measure distance and speed and stuff. I went to Performance Bikes at Perimeter they are having a big sale that ends tomorrow. I think the 2007s start coming out now. Performance bikes give you lifetime tune ups and repairs. Also if you buy anything for your bike there - they will generally help you or put it on for free. Yippee!!
I made a friend in the diamond business!!
Tomorrow I'm going to pick the bike up and I think Aje is going to go with me and look into a bike for himself.
We'll see. Either way I want to hit up Silver Comet soonish.
Current Location: My room
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/moonsis/silly.gif) giddy
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June 19th, 2006
10:34 am - Shoutout to Waffle House on Jimmy Carter!
Waffle House is for late nights when you are studying or drinking and you want some cheap grub fast. You aren't concerted with a friendly wait staff or a clean table, cup, fork, spoon, etc. So now that I'm not going out drinking all the time nor am I studying - it's been rare that i got to a Waffle House. About a year or so ago, Jimmy and I decided to try the Waffle House down the street because it was new - figuring it would be clean. We were correct and very pleased but assumed the friendly staff and missing grime was simply due to the newness of it. But here it is - over a year later (possibly two) and this is still the best Waffle House I have ever been to. The servers are very friendly and lively, the place is clean, it's a pleasure to go. I'm not sure what the manager is putting in the water but it's working.
This is the waffle House on Jimmy Carter in the LA Fitness shopping center. Go.
Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: None...yet
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June 16th, 2006
02:24 pm - Today Sucks
Why is everyone so damn aggressive today?
Here is just a small subset of things today that should not have been greeted with aggression:
* Asked for more work at work - somehow this turned into the third degree about why I'm not charging my time to a system I didn't know existed nor do I have access to do.
* Schedule a dentist appointment - several loud obnoxious sighs from the receptionist were unwarranted while I opened my wallet for my insurance card
* I finally got some work and one person said to extract scripts for all of the SPs and Views - another said just the modified ones - this turned into a 30 min debate
* I asked a DBA for access to a separate databse so I could test the scripts. She created a new user with a new username rather than adding the permissions to my existing user so when I was asking her for help she actually said "You should be able to get one of the developers to help you - haven't you done this before??" Yea - haven't you set up user accounts before? She later apologized.
* Confusion with Aje as far as when he gets off work and when we are hanging out and any type of plans for today.
Current Location: Norcross, GA
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/moonsis/okay.gif) blah
Current Music: Stars and Sons - Broken Social Scene
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June 8th, 2006
07:57 pm - Childish Behavior (read: acting like a silly woman)
How to you recover from childish behavior?
How do you do that while proving that someone else was childish first?
....
Maybe there is no hope for me...
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June 5th, 2006
06:15 pm - Hang Gliding Take 1 - 5/13/2006
Photos from Take 1 of Hang Gliding.
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June 2nd, 2006
09:30 am - The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman
A few weeks ago I finally finished The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman While it took me awhile to read – I’m glad I did.
I found the book interesting and I learned a lot of little tidbits about companies that I never would have known. Did you know that JetBlue’s entire reservation system is run by housewives in Utah? The founder of JetBlue calls it “homesourcing” – how clever. Did you know that UPS does much more than ship packages from point A to point B? UPS helps synchronize global supply chains for companies. UPS will actually repair a Toshiba laptop if it breaks down and you “ship” it to Toshiba to have it fixed. And though Friedman is not a Wal-Mart advocate, he does detail some of the GOOD things Wal-Mart has done.
According to Friedman, Globalization 3.0 started in 2000 and the US has been distracted by everything but what’s actually going on. Global Supply chains are interconnecting the world and while American is sleeping (read: focusing on the War on Terror, the PROBLEMS with outsourcing, etc) , people in India and China are taking “our” jobs. The problem I have with this is…so what? If American’s are too lazy and asking for too much money – why not go to someone in another country to get quality work for a fraction of the price? I find it very similar to affirmative action – but instead of trying to keep minorities employed (qualified or not), we are trying to keep Americans employed. In an ideal world – the person who does the job best, who can be more of an asset to the company should get the job – and hey, look, that’s what’s happening with outsourcing. Ideal world? I think not – but outsourcing is “good for humanity” as a friend of mine said. It will lower the price of goods for everyone by getting the job done at a cheaper cost.
I am relatively new to the workforce (3 years), but in my few years since graduation I’ve seen so much deadwood in companies it is unbelievable that these people go to an office and call what they do “work”. If you are worried about losing your job – maybe you should get some more training, become better at what you do or become an expert in a completely different area. The key is to remain adaptable. And it all comes back to Darwin – survival of the fittest.
One of the main points of the book is Friedman identified 10 “flatteners” – events which significantly helped flatten the world. Those can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_world_is_flat#Chapter_2:_The_Ten_Forces_That_Flattened_the_World.
Friedman also proposed an interesting theory, he named it the Dell Theory of Conflict Prevention (loosely morphed from his McDonald’s Theory of Conflict Prevention from his book The Lexus and the Olive Tree). The theory states that no two countries who are part of a major global supply chain like Dell will go to war against each other. This actually makes sense. With different parts of companies outsourced to different countries – war would sever the ties in the global supply chain. Lose your place in line and there are bunch of companies and individuals willing to take your place – all over the globe. Lose your place in line and you may never get it back.
While I enjoyed the book, it did seem a little EXTREME. It’s an interesting read – with some interesting points – but I got the feeling that if I didn’t become as adaptable as I could within the next 30 sec my job could be out the window.
But – I suppose enthusiasm isn’t a bad thing. And maybe that’s what American’s need – an enthusiastic kick in the butt.
Current Location: Norcross, GA
Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: SILENCE
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May 22nd, 2006
09:21 am - Weekend update with Norm...err...Valeri
Friday night
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Flew in and then jetted out with Aje, Jimmy and Kimber (I keep wanting to say/type Kimmy and Jimber) to go see Da Vinci Code. What a let down. Jimmy had some confusion over the motivation of some of the characters in the movie. I remember it being quite clear in the book though I could not answer his questions. But - the book was much more suspenseful, a real page turner so possibly I was readding it so fast that I didn't stop to think about motivation and just accepted it.
Saturday
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Aje and I got up did some laundry, ate some breakfast and in general bummed around until about 4pm. Katie and Jeremy picked me up to go to Jonathan's b-day at his sister's house and Aje headed downtown to set up for the show. Jonathan's b-day party was a lot of fun - there was a spacewalk and cake and all the things you would expect at both a 26 year old and a 1 year old's birthday :-)
Saturday night we headed downtown to the Atlanta room to see Aje's show. It was very cute to watch Aje run around and fiddle with everything making sure it was "just right". He was very cute. The show was a lot of fun. Besides katie and Jeremy - Laura and Greg, Daniel and Mohammad showed up. Good times! I had a very good time - drank a lot and danced a lot. Aje dedicated a song to me - that was really sweet :-)
Sunday
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Aje and I recovered from the night before and watched some TV. I watched Scrubs, Law and Order: SVU and Law and Order: CI. Then we watched two episodes of 24 Season 3.
And now - I am bored.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/moonsis/sad.gif) bored
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May 15th, 2006
07:46 pm - Hang Gliding
So Saturday was supposed to be hang gliding day but it turned out to be too windy and we coudlnt' do our tandem jump. We ended up driving around Lookout mountain/valley and chattanooga and it was a good time. Got some great pictures and got to know some new people. We did get to play with some hang gliders and do the second part of the hang gliding package which was ground training and some small hills. We ended up not being able to do the small hills because of the wind again but we practiced on some flatter surfaces and even got some air. It was a lot of fun. Even though we didn't get much air I could see how people love hang gliding. I can't wait for our tandem jump and then some more training on the small hills.
I think it would be really awesome to follow through with the training so I could hang glide solo. eeeee!! super excited!
Current Location: Plymouth, MI
Current Mood: bored
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May 10th, 2006
08:29 pm - DEEEE-troit
I've been shipped off to Detroit as of TODAY. When I told Carrie I was going to Detroit she said "oh they have a really big airport - it's pretty nice" and no less than 5 min later i recieved an email from Katie saying "..its yucky..at least the last time I was there..." so I didn't know to expect...what I did see was definitely not ANYTHING I could have imagined...
The airport turned out to be quite nice - they must have renovated it since the last time Katie was there - which i'm assuming was close to 2 decades ago :-) I was following the signs to ground transportation when suddenly I found myself moving through a very *interesting* tunnel. I'm not sure I can even accurately describe it, but I'm going to try...I've never seen anything like this in an airport before. It was dimly lit with people movers on either side. The ceiling was domed and the sides where were flashing and swirling with different colored lights, giving a somewhat waterly but flashy feel to the tunnel, all the while there was some really awful electric guitar-only concert playing very loudly. It reminded me of going to the roller skating rink when they would swirl the lights on the floor, turn the lights down and I half expected the white lines in my pin striped pants to brightly light up from the UV lights that seemed to be missing from this spectacle. I'm really surprised there was no warning for people prone to seizures or even wearing hearing aides - the music was VERY loud. It wasn't a short tunnel either because I had a lot of time to think about what was going on around me. If you ever haave a layover in Detroit and you haven't sen this tunnel - go walk around.
I WISH I had my camera with me - I will bring it next week just for that purpose of documenting my trip through this psychodelic tunnel.
***EDIT ****
This Google video does NOT do the tunnel justice (or the music) but here you go: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1811522208268131631&q=psychedelic
Current Location: Dearborn, MI
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/moonsis/exhausted.gif) exhausted
Current Music: Deal or No Deal
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May 8th, 2006
03:06 pm - Hang Gliding
Oh - and this Saturday I'm going hang gliding with Jimmy and others. I"m so excited...and little scared. But it should be really cool. I like that it's all day too. The description from the google calendar event that Jimmy sent out:
You will fly your first flights in a controlled enviroment, surfing the slopes of our small hills, only about 5 to 10 feet off the ground. You will get five opportunities to fly from our small hill with a certified instructor guiding you step by step. After your morning session you will fly tandem with an instructor by your side to an altitude of 2,000 feet above beautiful Lookout Valley where you will build on your experience in learning to fly the glider.
Current Location: My room/ Office / Work
Current Mood: excited
Current Music: Dave Matthews - Oh
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