i don't do sales

I'm looking for a new job. If it involves me trying to coerce someone else to buy something, I don't want it. But what else is out there?

For those wondering, I don't hate my job. I just need a job with the potenial for more pay and better benefits. My roomie is leaving for wifehood in eight months, and then the apartment and all the bills will be 100 percent mine.

cold work

Day after Christmas.
Work is quiet.
Work is boring.
Work is freaking cold.
I guess the minion in charge of the thermostat has the day off...

i've been poisoned

Turns out what I thought was the return of my acid reflux is food poisoning. The probable culprit as determined by my doctor: Something I ate or drank while in Japan. I like to blame the chicken I ate the day after I came home.

Either way, I've been food poisoned for over a month now.

Started new meds yesterday. Keep your fingers crossed...

a little schadenfreude

A long time ago at a place far, far away, the woman I worked for determined I wasn't a good fit for her team, and she said things that made me think I was horrible at my job, and worse, that I was an all-around failure as a person.

As time passed, I realized that the real issue had nothing to do with my abilities--which are pretty darn good--or with me as a person. I didn't fit her mold. She couldn't control me. I wouldn't be her drone. So she pushed me out. It was as simple as that. Still, the period was a painful one in my life.

Then today I heard a story of this woman trying similar tactics on a good friend of mine. I was surprised. Why try to push out someone who is so talented?

Then the little bit of schadenfreude kicked in. I feel bad my friend went through this, but it gave me a twinge of happiness, too. While I don't doubt that others believed me that the situation was bad, I doubt that they fully believed me that what was said to me was really as bad as I reported. So having another person report being dragged through a similar experience provides me with a bit of vindication.

A job is a job. A life is a life. I may not love my job, but can I still love my life?

healthcare companies hurt us and themselves

I just don't get it. I see where being corner-cutting assholes keeps the money on the side of the insurance companies. But sometimes that Scrooge behavior costs them too.

Deny coverage and some, like me, will foot the bill for that service or prescription. Some, though won't pay, and then come knocking at insurance's door when the problem worsens or beget new issues.

Our healthcare must make the shift to recognizing the health and cost savings of preventive care. I just wish insurance companies would do more than just pay lip service to this idea. If they did, they might find themselves saving money in the end, with fewer costly surgeries.

day two is good up

Pink hat
Originally uploaded by theCallowQueen.

On day two of our Japan Adventure, we hit the fish market and hit some museums with some nice walks through parks. Oh, and I saw my first Native American band playing in Japan (it would not be my last during our trip).

I'm in the system

So I had KU send the art institute my transcripts when I enrolled there.

My account number on the bill was my old student ID number.

I wanted to pay my bill online, so I had to get an online ID. They offered up springs, my old email address. And then asked me for my current email address, and said anything sent to my old KU address would now be forwarded on to that email.

My old KU email address couldn't possibly still work, could it? I thought I had to give money to the school and get an alumni email address.

The test: I went into Facebook and clicked to sign up for the Kansas network. I put in my old KU email addy and then went to my current address to see if the request would be forwarded.

It worked!

This is trivial, I know. I have no need for the additional email address. But my workday was pretty bland.

But maybe I should be creeped out by the fact that KU has kept all this information on me...

Trip pictures up on Flickr

Golden fish
Originally uploaded by theCallowQueen.

Day 1 of my trip to Japan is up on Flickr. Enjoy!

i have returned

The trip was good. Spending the trip with countingpigs was good. Getting to see 42destune was good.

Being home is good. Being back to work is tolerable.

I took about a thousand pictures. I'll let you know when I've posted them on Flickr.

In not good news, the G-man's car was stolen out of our parking lot night before last. It was parked in the slot right beneath my bedroom window. Troubling.

i have arrived

I feel a little overwhlemed. Things are more foreign here to me than anywhere else I've ever been.

I felt accomplished leaving the airport and changing traings, but then I got lost on foot. The addresses are done much differently here. And figuring out exactly where one is at is a complicated task when street sings are lacking. A very nice woman on her way home from work helped me along my way. And now I'm here, I'm safe, and I'm very tired.

I hope countingpigs arrives soon; then I can go to bed.