Friday, February 29, 2008
Dirty vs. Messy
I think everyone falls into one of two categories: neat freaks and non-neat freaks. I’m not saying the non-neat freaks (such as myself) live in filthy pigstys, but they definitely have lower standards of what they consider “clean”.
The difference is in how you define “clean”. Neat freaks define it as spotless surfaces - no clutter, no dust, no smell. To them, “dirty” and “messy” and indistinguishable. My sweety will look at the living room one weekend and declare that it was dirty. I would look at it, see the few cups and tissues laying around, and reply that it was only slightly messy, but not dirty. Had there been mud tracked onto the rug or spills on the table, then I would have called it dirty. Messy means things are a little disorganized, but generally still clean - you won’t get dirty by hanging out in that living space.
In this case, I think tidying up a bit is in order, but not necessarily cleaning the house. Not so for my sweety, who is quite the stickler for neatness. Whether it’s messy or dirty or whatever, it doesn’t matter. You clean the house. It used to be a point of contention because she would always see dust and I would, admittedly, always turn a blind eye to it. I can’t help it. Dust doesn’t bother me. It always comes back, so why fight it?
The way people define “dirty” and “messy” occurred to me this morning when a coworker said her desk was dirty and then went off to find the Simple Green. I looked at her desk and only saw a bunch of papers and folders. For me, stacking them all together would have solved the problem, especially since she already Simple Greened her desk a few days ago. The funny thing was, after she cleared off the papers, I saw the big, pink strawberry juice stain in one corner. Turned out her desk was dirty after all, even by my standards.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
The seedy underbelly
Most companies want you to see their rosy exterior—everything’s peachy keen, everyone gets along great, and it’s a well-oiled machine. It’s not until you’ve been there a few months that you start to learn about the seedy underbelly of that company. The real truth comes out.
So I’ve been at my new job almost seven months now. I didn’t realize it had been that long already! Lucky for me I still enjoy the work (most of the time), and the people I work with are all right. But the thing that I find most alarming about this place is the number of people leaving. I found out the other day from a coworker that, between people quitting and being fired, the turnover rate around here is 70%. Seventy percent! That is incredibly high! I don’t know where they got their information, but I believe it. Only one other person besides myself remains of the original design team. Everyone else either got canned or couldn’t take it anymore. The web designer who’s been here the longest started one week before I did.
I think it’s the way the company is run. Communication is a little off. I didn’t find out that the most senior member of the design team (who started 3 months before I did) was leaving until two days before his final day. He says he gave two weeks notice, and it was never announced. The receptionist, who was always busy and seemed to have really cared about the employees and did her best to accommodate their needs, got fired inexplicably. There was an announcement via email, but no explanation was given. Everyone was baffled and shocked. We prodded the HR assistant for information about why this happened, but she was tight-lipped about it, stating she wanted to maintain the woman’s privacy. A week later she quit too. Only I didn’t find out about it until two weeks later when I asked if she was on vacation or something.
Why are people so eager to leave? Why are they so eager to fire people? I’m not a gossip, so I’m usually the last to find out about these things. Maybe it’s just as well that I remain oblivious. Ignorance is bliss, right? If I don’t feel like I’m being wronged, I’ll still be happy at my job. Lucky for me (and I mean that in the most sarcastic way possible), the one web designer left on my team is Chatterbox. Mr. Nonstop Blabbermouth who would be the most amazingly productive coder if he would just shut up. He bugs me, but the upside to the incessant chatter is that he chatters with everyone else, and it’s how I get most of my information about the goings on around this place.
So far, from what I can understand, most of the trouble stems from a few key individuals in upper management who are more interested in job security than in a well-oiled company machine. They promise the moon to the clients and then make us lackeys take the fall when we can’t meet their unrealistic deadlines. I don’t know. It’s what the last web designer who quit said. Maybe it’s true. If it is, some people around here need a swift kick in the pants and a vigorous poke in the eye.
Posted by
Geeky Dragon Girl on 02/21 at 08:03 AM
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Office Hijinks
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
I haven't been to the gym in 3 weeks
But it’s not out of laziness! Hey wipe that knowing look off your face. About three weeks ago I came down with the flu—a really nasty strain that had me bed-ridden for 3 and a half days. I could trudge around the house and stuff, but it was really uncomfortable to do so. I can’t recall that last time I’d ever been that sick. Shivery, achey, chilly, sniffly, phlegmy and whiney (these must be the dwarves that didn’t make it into the movie). Going to the gym was out of the question.
But why for three weeks? Isn’t that just some silly excuse? Oh ye of little faith. My sweety’s brother-in-law had the flu too (his whole family did!) He would stay home for a couple of days, then go back to the store he owned to work. And not just walking around here and there selling things, he would actually make deliveries of extremely heavy mattresses. He got sick all over again, with aches and a fever and everything. So he stayed home a couple more days, then again went back to the store and did the same thing… and he got sick again!
I guess this flu virus is quite tough to fight off, because any strain you put on the body can cause a relapse. No way I want to get that sick again, so I’m taking it easy until I stop coughing up this nasty phlegm. I feel fine, except for this persistent cough. I figure if there’s still phlegm, then there’s still a battle going on inside. No sense in diverting energy away from it to exercise. And if it means I get to play video games during my lunch break instead of lifting weights and running nowhere on an elliptical, then oh well!
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Geeky Dragon Girl on 02/20 at 08:59 AM
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Monday, February 11, 2008
Wii-ly big disappointment
Fellow video gamers have told me that the downfall of a really great systems have usually been a lack of really great games. Like the Sega Dreamcast. Sega Game Gear was also really good, I thought, although it ate through batteries like some kind of monster. They just never really caught on. Maybe it was bad marketing. I don’t know. The point I’m actually trying to make is my Wii-playing time is suffering a lot because there needs to be more great games for it that really take advantage of the unique wireless controls.
Wii Sports, which comes with the Wii console, is fine example of what Wii fun is all about. Simple to learn, fun to master, and great either alone or in groups. When Winter Sports The Ultimate Challenge came out, I thought this might be another fun title to have. The reviews I read on Amazon seemed generally positive, almost glowing, so I thought this would be a great addition.
Boy was I wrong. It’s so boring. The speed skating you just swing your arms back and forth. Is there some kind of strategy to it? Do you just pump the controllers as fast as you can like in some minigames? I don’t know, there doesn’t seem to be any kind of training mode that tells you. The ski jump has even fewer instructions. After the fourth time landing on my face I had the sinking feeling this game was a loser. The bobsledding seems pointless after you run and jump into the sled. What are you supposed to do, lean or something? Two minutes of leaning back and forth with no visible difference in the action gets quite tedious. The figure skating is a rhythm game, which I tend to be sort of good at sometimes, provided they’re simple enough. The cross-country skiing was weird in that your skier kept losing stamina and and pretty soon everybody else is miles ahead of you because they can inexplicably ski harder than you can. There’s just nothing giving me tips on how to do it right. I stop moving and your stamina goes up. I start skiing and he immediately loses steam. What a loser. I’m sure it’s probably me, but what kind of a stupid game doesn’t have tutorials?
There were other games built in there, like the luge and curling, but I couldn’t bring myself to try them after being bored to death by all the other events. I’m going to try poking around some more to see if there really isn’t a training area hidden somewhere in the game. But more likely than not I’m just going to put this thing up for sale and get rid of it.
