Me Can Account

Final grades were mailed out for my financial analysis for managers 1 class. Thought I'd share the grade of the class that I hated with a passion.

Your Grade:

Week One: 12/12 points = 100% = A
Week Two: 17/17 = 100% = A
Week Three: 22/22 = 100% = A
Week Four: 22/22 = 100% = A
Week Five: 27/27 = 100% = A

Final Grade: 100% = A

Comments from the teacher:

Text Exercises and Problems: Your answers showed a level of understanding that portrays an overall understanding of the concepts.
Comments: You did a nice job on your ethics article review. I have no additional improvements to suggest.
You did a GREAT job in this class!! Good luck to you!!

Yea. Now I hope to do as well in financial analysis for managers 2. This week's topic: overdraft fees. I can barely contain my excitement.

Stream of Consciousness (Did you know that Blogger actually limits how long your title can be?)

I don't want to call this post "Life Update" so I think I'm going to go with Stream of Consciousness induced by two days of being sick and couped up in my apartment

The past two days I have called in sick to work. Don't be alarmed, it's nothing major but still, work was not the place for me to be. I've slept badly the past three nights and I'm hoping I get a better set of winks tonight. I have to work tomorrow, my team has a meeting. I'm also sure the emails have flooded my inbox and that my desk is buried in paperwork. A project that I want rolled out by October 1 is on the list of priorities. Steve's back from vacation and I've spoken to him twice on the phone, telling him I wouldn't be there, but I haven't got to ask him how his trip was. Yuck.

Besides the bad sleep, I've felt yuck around my abdomen, which is why I haven't slept well. I'm going no farther to explain.

Sitting at home, staring at walls, drives be absolutely crazy. Once in awhile, I'll get a boost of energy and at least have been fairly productive during those bursts. I've reorganized one of my hall closets (things actually fit now - no more spilling out into the hallway!), emptied some boxes for DM to use in moving (read as cleared up my living room quite a bit), and organized my scrapping area. Besides DM's piles of stickers and paper set haphazardly, it looks pretty good. When DM comes over this weekend, she'll be pleasantly surprised at the room in that area.

I have been in the process of getting rid of piles and piles of excess scrapbooking magazines (parts without layout ideas) and hauled quite a few bags of garbage to the dumpster. There was a bad moment when one of the bags ripped open in the lobby and I had to run back upstairs to get more bags and then pick up random bits of paper. It's all that odd cardstock/shiny stuff and I don't have a place to recylce it here. Bah! At least when the bag ripped it wasn't full of rotten food and liquid.

About the only interesting (and that's debatable) part of these past two days was when my cell phone started beeping to tell me someone text messaged me. It was not a person I expected. Although, I should have because it's been a few months since he called. I only know one person who would ever send a message stating, "Yo yo how are you? doing" It's just great being in someone's little black book phone. Give it 6 more months and I'll hear from him again. He's in that stage of his life that I would refer to as the "job hopping stage." Former banker he now boasts working in sales for a construction company. A year ago, he was closing on mortgages for meth addicts. I think this new job is a step up. Maybe. The conversation over text message was kept rather short and he pretty much caught me up on his life. I didn't offer any info on mine.

I found an Amazon.com gift certificate that I had and used it. To accidentally purchase a DVD set I already own. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. I think the stress finally got to me. In my defense, I had originally planned on purchasing the item from Amazon with this certificate and then bought it in a store because I didn't have it. When I checked out online, I forgot to remove it from my cart. Damn.

I'm thinking about doing another post tonight for thirteen Thursday. I'm thinking. If you see it, I did it. How's that for a deal?

What does one do with 300+ floppy disks for an "A" drive when the last four computers that person has owned has not been compatible? I suppose I could purchase an external "A" drive and see what is actually on these disks, but I doubt the files are not even compatible to my system. Well, I suppose I can do the same thing with the disks that I've done for the last 8 years: put them back in a box at the bottom of the closet.

At one point in time, I thought that saving every single plastic bag that scrapping supplies came in would prove useful. What was useful was the actual mass organization system that I bought. Say goodbye to little plastic bags. I did.

I have no idea My father is a pack rat. That's where I got this problem I seem to have. Going through things the past two days, I have found more stuff that I thought I might need someday, you know, if the world was destroyed and I'd be forced to live in my apartment with no option to leave for thirteen years. Besides only having about a month's worth of toilet paper, I have enough supplies to entertain myself and keep myself smelling nice and fresh for years. The closet seemed to have 5 bottles of lotion (which I can't stand to put on), 3 bottles of body spray, 22 bottles of nail polish, 15 eye liner pencils, four boxes of bandages, 3 boxes of jewelry, over 100 scrunchies, and at least 7 bottles of hair goo. Now, I use the same three scrunchies over and over, rarely wear jewelry, and wear make up about once a year. The bandages seem to be the most useful things in the closet. ARGH! Don't get me started on my kitchen cupboards. No one ever needs 8 cans of creamed corn.

At my dad's on Monday, I found a box from my college days. In it was a 3-ring binder containing EVERY SINGLE report I wrote during my grade school years. Just in case I ever need to show someone the report I wrote on a Mary Higgins Clark book in the 7th grade.

I am pretty sure this is a disease people. And it is genetic. Because I do have in my possession a report my dad wrote in the 4th grade about outer space. Before men walked on the moon. Yep, that's my family.

Speaking of my family, I got a bit of news recently. My grandfather (I've known about this for awhile actually but haven't mentioned it) has some form of cancer and has been going in for chemo. 99.9% of cases like his, caught when his was caught, are cured. So, besides his boredom of being hooked up to a machine for a few hours and having his already thin hair fall out, not much is different. Except the fact that my grandmother now drives him to and from the hospital. That's where my whole family is worried. This woman got stuck on a cloverleaf for over 20 minutes one time because she doesn't know how to merge. I hope she's taking side streets.

My cousin, Chris, has been going in for dialysis for a few years now. He's decided it is time to go back on the list for a kidney donor. I got an email that said something about a bovine implant for a stint? I think that's right. Interesting. I like Chris. He really is a good guy.

His brother, and also my cousin, Matt sold his house and made quite a bit of profit on it. Good for him I guess. He needs something happy. I say this because his wife left him for another man, twenty years her senior. He's got two kids and I've met one of them. I happened to be in Waterloo the day that kid was born. I tend to forget their names. This is absolutely terrible! I was going through pictures and remembering what it was like to actually spend time with this side of my family. They were cool when I was little. Now I like my aunt, Diane, and my cousin, Chris.

Months ago, I purchased, "The Colorado Kid," an audio book written by Stephen King. I bought it because I love Stephen King and hadn't seen the book in stores. I listened to it today. It's a mystery, no horror, from the master of storytelling. It was pretty good and I could definitely tell it was a King story.

My next class has started. Finance Part Deux. This one will actually get into present value tables and I'm not looking forward to it. Final grades for the first torture session class have not been distributed yet, but unless I got marked down during the last week, I should come away with an "A". I was at 100% at the end of week 4. I slammed the slackers idiots my former group members in the evaluation. I only consider that fair since I pretty much wrote all the papers and had to edit them too. I hate them all. I still hate them all. (By the way, this is meant to be funny. While they did nothing, I am done with the class and ready to let it go. Unlike the grudge I still hold over my cousin James for his provoking me when I was 8 or 9, causing me to lose patience with him after 20 minutes, hitting him with the heel of a stilleto in his arm, which my mom made me apologize for and make him a sandwich. He deserved it! Ellen even said so. Bah! See, the group members are getting off easy. They're just getting a grade higher than that of what they deserve.)

Well, that's enough rambling for tonight. I have decided not to complete a Thirteen Thursday post. Call it laziness, call it deciding that I am going to have something of content on this site again soon. One of these days. Maybe in 2008.

Sizzling

Back in August, DM and I traveled to a small Wisconsin town to go to the 20th anniversary party for my aunt/godmother and uncle. In 1986, I was the flower girl in the wedding and I do like this part of my family. My mom, her boyfriend, and my cousins, Ellen and Brad, were all going to be there. We had a great time and I've been meaning to post about the trip for some time now.

While I'm still not conscious enough to write up that post (school is killing my brain, just so you know), I do have a few pictures that I put together after the trip. I wanted to share a couple of the campfire my mom & Scott had at their campsite.

I call this one, "Painted Fire."


"Burning."


Also, if you didn't notice (because that would be quite odd not to), I played with my template again. I'm not entirely pleased with it yet, but I did change the colors and messed with the sidebar. I removed some pictures (hopefully to make room for more soon). I also deleted some really old, useless blog links and toys. I also updated my links list. If I missed you, let me know and I'll correct it.

What do you think? I'm still thinking of a new banner. It might get done during my week off of work at the end of October.

Interviewing Tips #2

Conducting interviews is an opportunity to see and hear exactly what a person should and should not do during a job interview. And sometimes, it is quite amusing to witness the mistakes people make during an interview. To share the enjoyment, I am going to start posting examples of what NOT to do during an interview if you do want to impress the interviewer. In a previous post, I wrote:

• Turn off your cellular phone. If you do happen to forget to turn it off, don't take the call.
• Bring in your identification card. Most companies do require some form of identification and some require background checks that require your ID number.
• Speak clearly. Mumbling while interviewing for a phone job does not score you points.
• Use complete sentences. Even if the environment is not professional, act like you are a professional.
• After the interviewer has explained that employees are rated on how quickly they can help customers, do not proceed to take 10 minutes to answer every question. Repeating yourself over and over does not make you look better.
• When you are the one making the interview last for over two hours because you can't shut up, do NOT complain about how long the interview is taking.
• Answer the questions asked. Pulling random facts that do not relate into the answer does not help.
• Researching the company you are interviewing is a good idea. When you only quote the website to the interviewer and offer no concrete examples of how you meet the company's vision, you do not sound like a fit for the job. Research is not the only thing we [interviewers] look at.
• Telling an interviewer that your answer to every challenge is to give the call to a supervisor does not promote you as a competent individual.

If that is not enough, I offer some more/new suggestions:

• You are one person and it is proper to refer to yourself as, "I," or "me." While highly amusing, referring to yourself in third person does not score points. Adding the word "the" in front of your name makes you sound egotistical and/or idiotic. For example, do not use phrases like, "The people like to talk to the Beth because the Beth is a good person and the people like the Beth."
• When asked a question about your skills, answering in numbers makes no sense. For example, if I ask you, "What makes you successful at [activity]?" it is not considered appropriate to answer, "Five and a half." When I ask for clarification, repeating the words, "Five and a half," makes no sense.
• Bringing up the subject of bowel movements is taboo. The interviewer does not care that you called in sick at your last job because you had diarrhea. That's too much information.
• Dress appropriately. If in doubt, overdress for the interview. T-shirts, flip-flops, holy/ripped jeans, and/or baseball caps are never appropriate for a business job.
• When the interviewer asks how many days you feel it is appropriate to call in sick each year, your answer should not be in the twenties. It is also not appropriate (while maybe honest) to tell the interviewer that you would call in just because you didn't feel like coming to work that day.
• Stealing from companies will not get you a job. Telling an interviewer that it is "okay to steal office supplies as long as it isn't cases of them," is not good.
• As for resumes, have someone proofread it for you. Changing your formatting mid-resume is not seen as a plus. Also, unless the job requires a large amount of experience, your resume should remain on one page. No interviewer actually cares if you volunteered for one month at a local club twenty years ago.
• Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits the discrimination in hiring and employment based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Other laws and regulations (such as Americans with Disabilities Act, Equal Opportunity Act of 1972, and Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978) also protect applicants from discrimination based on disabilities, chance of pregnancy, age, and veteran status. Employers cannot inquire about these statuses during an interview. Don't bring them up. You don't need to tell me about your children, spouse, church, what country you or your ancestors came from, how you want to get pregnant, how you have physical or mental disabilities, or that you served in a war. I can't acknowledge it or use it in my decision.
• Show up on time. Why is this so hard? If it is a phone interview and the interviewer is calling you, be near your phone. Don't let it go unanswered.
• Don't trash talk your former employer. Yes, I know you left for a reason. Be considerate because they did pay you and did allow you to work there. If you had problems with your last boss, that's fine. It's better to say, "There was a personality conflict," or "We had communication issues," than to say, "My boss yelled at me all the time." That makes me think you had performance problems.
• Most of all, the interviewer is appreciative of your time coming in to interview. Be courteous of their time too.

Some of these tips are funny and some are just common sense, but then, not everyone has common sense.

The Beth is now tired and the Beth thinks it may be time for the Beth to go to the bed. Have a 5 1/2 night.

It's like opening a present, listening to an anticipated album and discovering new favorites

My favorite band is Barenaked Ladies. While I love many styles of music, this band of Canadians have humo(u)r, spirit, caring, intelligence, and life in all of their music. There is not an album of theirs that I have not enjoyed, have not listened to a million times. Today, their 9th group album has been released. The album is called, "Barenaked Ladies are Me," or "BLAM."

I paid for the album a few weeks ago, being notified of the great deal through emails from the band (fan club alert!) and was thrilled to see it download in iTunes. By getting the pre-order, I was able to get the deluxe version at a discounted rate. Good music and a good deal! Heaven!

This post is a pure endorsement for a band that tries anything to reach fans. They have worked hard to develop an album they can be proud of and one that is sent to fans in anyway. A couple of years ago, they released a holiday album. To jump on the technology and mp3 era, the band released a version of the album on a jump drive, complete with a couple videos and random live tracks. How cool! I bought one even though I already had a jump drive (keychain drive, pen drive, use any terminology but it is basically a USB storage device) and already had most of the songs on the "album".

The band also records their concerts and allows them for download. I've bought a couple of the concerts, including the one that DM and I went to in Vegas. If you get a chance to see them perform, take it! The live show is awesome, full of energy, laughs, ad libs, and emotion. Tour dates for this upcoming tour are found here and I'm thrilled to see that the band is playing in Saint Paul on a Sunday! It may mean showing up late for karaoke, but I want to go. DM, do you want to go? I'm serious about this one. Consider it what I want for my birthday. I want to spend a night out at this concert. Ask Keem. The show is Sunday, November 19th and it is at the Excel Energy Center.

This album is produced by BNL and BNL alone. This was their project, no record label putting fingers in the pot. I do recommend a listen and if you like it, support the band!

The tracks are as follows:

Adrift - Ed Robertson sings this song about how things do not feel right anymore. "Your heart's got a heavy load, you've still got a long way to go, keep your eyes on the road." The lyrics make me think of a lost person, trying to discover themselves again in a world that has changed.

Bank Job - Ed sings this one. It starts slow but feels like it should speed up as Ed narrates a story through song. It doesn't speed up, but the bridge has more melody driving the song. "I was the driver, you ran the show, you had the last word, I knew every ..." It's seriously about robbing a bank that was full of "nuns." Plans gone wrong? It is funny.

Sound of Your Voice - Strong guitar intro. This song has an older rock feel. Steven Page (how I love him) sings this one. "How I miss waking up to the sound of your voice." It's got a good beat and you could dance to it.

Easy - The first single released from the album and a video has already been compiled for this song. The video goes through fairy tales and has a "Monty Python" cut-out feel to it. This is an Ed track and I can see why it was released as the first single of the album. This song is more folk rock sounding.

Home - Steven sings this one, soft and relaxing. "Where does the heart reside if not where I lay my head, I could run but I'm petrified, but choose this instead, again, again, again." "That's when I knew I was home."

Bull in a China Shop - The fun, campy song of BNL. "I'm a tired old metaphor for everything you can't afford, for everything you can't afford to be." It's an upbeat, quick song with Stephen singing. "I can't hear a thing because I stopped listening." "I'm the reason I don't go out." "If you lived here, you'd be home by now. If you still lived here, you'd be home now with me!"

Everything Had Changed - Steve sings this one. I'm just happy every time I hear his voice start a track. It's sick really. There's some good strings in this song (compliments of Jim, I'm sure) and a bit of bluegrass feel. I'm sure that's a banjo going throughout the song, driving the beat. "Then one day, I was not alone, everything had changed, everything was strange..." I like it.

Peterborough and the Kawarthas - Jim sings this one. Jim Kreegan typically plays the bass (not the electric kind, but the large stringed instrument). Once in awhile, his voice will show up on a track as the primary singer. While I like the song, I'm usually confused by his songs. This one is no exception. It does have a radio broadcast during the song that makes me wonder if it is a short homage to "We Built this City."

Maybe You're Right - Steve again. Background is mostly synthasized with guitar picking driving a bit of melody. Another soft, sweet tone with a deeper meaning. "Shall I, take back, everything I never said, and live, my whole life, in silence instead?" "There was a time when crying was a crime and now I think I'm losing my mind taking it all to heart." Ed has a large vocal part on this song and the chorus has a round between Ed and Steve. They echo each other, strengthening the song. The break of horns is unexpected and totally awesome to end the song with power.

Take it Back - Nice piano/keyboard track running through the song. This is an Ed-on-vocals track. "If I said something to make you mad, I'll take it back." I do love the line, "Is this a news report or a trailer for a motion picture, it all fades to grey." "Save me from a villianous imagination, deliver me from my friends." The keyboard track really drives the song.

Vanishing - Kevin Hearn has a few songs on this album where he does main vocals. "He's a magician, hoping and wishing, that you're the one vanishing." A bit haunting and yet it fits the feel of the album. The lyrics include a verse about the Bellagio and I wonder if he got the idea at an actual performance of magic.

Rule the World With Love - Steve! "While we were napping, someone else began to rule the world with love." Nice message, "Love will conquer all, one for all ... love and war is won." "Hearts are won, empires fall, and love with love, all is fair in love and war, love for all," are all lines in the song. Pretty and feel good.

Wind it Up - Strong electric guitar and Ed's voice starts this one out. "You've done a lot of yelling pointed at my eardrum ... I'll get back to you once I get my disguise on ... Had it up to here." The lyrics indicate this may be a song about the fights a married couple may have. And from the sounds of it, could be a nasty fight. "If you are leaving, then I wish you luck, I hope someone can make your heart form, I was a baby when I learned to suck, but you have raised it to an artform."

Serendipity - Kevin Hearn sings this track. He's normally the keyboardist but I enjoy it when he sings a song. The fact that there are multiple singers in this band is nice to mix up the tracks, the feelings. This song has a beat that reminds me of a song from Maroon called, "Conventioneers." The lyrics are nowhere close to that song, but the keyboard accompaniment is similar.

Something You'll Never Find - Steven sings this one. Fast paced music and one I'll have to listen to a few hundred times. "You're looking for someone, I'll never be."

One and Only - Another Ed-on-vocals track. Slower than normal for a BNL track. Not sure what I think yet.

Angry People - Steven singing again. This song is campy and upbeat again, but about attitudes and how negative (or angry) people try to drag down those around them, making happy people feel bad for being happy. "We just drag you down until you're just like us." This is the happiest song about negative emotions I think I've ever heard. What else can you expect from a band who wrote a song about shopping to mock the United States view of our economy and how to avoid world issues by spending money?

Down to Earth - Ed sings this upbeat one. "What's more ironic than a hippie in Versace?" "Hey now, wake up and lose the make up ... you really want to show her how she's just so down to earth via satellite."

Beautiful - Ed-on-vocals again. "What if you were not so simply beautiful?" "Hoping it's deeper than skin," this song is a bit jazzy. It's a nice change from the other songs, a different feel, more romantic. I do love how the band is not afraid to have different types of musical influences. The album, "Everything for Everyone," has various styles of music on it, ranging from bluegrass to techno to latin. This band constantly evolves and tries new things much to the enjoyment of the listeners.

Running Out of Ink - Steve has this one. It is quick, jumpy, and fun. "It's bigger than you think, I'm running out of ink, give a guy a break, this is what it takes to drive a man to drink." The lines are delivered as fast bits of information and I do like it.

Half a Heart - Ed again. "Anyone with half a heart would help me out before they let the other half find out ... anyone with half a heart would let me drown."

Maybe Not - Ed blares this one out. It's strongr than he usually sings and I didn't expect that, but I like it. "Maybe you'll forgive the things that I forgot. Maybe you're forgetting all the times we fought. Maybe we should divy up all the things we bought, but maybe not." Sounds like the debate over whether or not a couple should break up. Is it harder to stay together or to split up? Interesting question to ask. The beat of the song is jumpy and I found myself bouncing to the beat.

I Can I Will I Do - I first heard this song as a live track. "You don't think I can love you, but I can and I will and I do." This is a Steven vocal track, always my favorite. While I enjoy Ed's voice quite a bit, there's something about Steven's voice that draws me in. It's probably because of "Break Your Heart," but that's another song and another story.

Fun and Games - Ed sings this one out that starts with the snare drum counting out the beat like you would expect in a military setting. Once the intro passes, the song picks up with electric guitars and then the song breaks out into something you'd expect in "Chicago," the musical. Then back to the regular beat. It sounds like the song is about politics and possibly history or just the fall of a nation. "Who knew this barrel of fun would be a powder keg." Knowing the views of most of the band, this is possibly a slam at the governments of North America.

The New Sad - Steve again! "Everybody knows that happy is the new sad, I'll imitate my dad and never crack a smile again." This song has a bird singing and cooing in it. I'm not entirely sure what to thik of that. The lyrics make me feel this is a song about aging and losing what we all had when we were young. Every BNL album has a song, somewhere on the album, that drives a depressing message. This feels like that song.

Quality - Another Ed-on-vocals track. Not about the quality monitors I deal with at work. Not that I expected that. The lyrics seem to travel around the world, mentioning England and Japan. It also puts every -y word I can think of in it to rhyme. Catchy and cute.

Another Spin - Kevin sings again! How cool! At first, I thought it was going to be a piano bar ditty, but that even makes sense for it to be a Kevin song. The spinning object seems to be a globe.

What a Letdown - Ed sings this one too. It's on the iTunes download, but I didn't see it on the band's site. I've heard this as a live track from one of their concerts (they played various songs in development while touring). My favorite line from this song is, "That might have been funny at twenty but I just turned thirty-two, oh well, what a letdown."

Why Say Anything Nice? - Another Steve song that wasn't listed on the band's site. "Why say anything nice when you can say nothing at all?" I'll have to listen to this one a few times and I'm sure I'm going to love it. It has a fun beat and I do love Steven Page.

*Note: iTunes lists the tracks in a different order than the album on the BNL website. The listing here is in the order from the band's site.

BNL's catalogue of full albums:
1. Gordon
2. Maybe You Should Drive
3. Born on a Pirate Ship
4. Rock Spectacle
5. Stunt
6. Maroon
7. Everything for Everyone
8. Barenaked for the Holidays
9. Barenaked Ladies are Me

Worth mentioning:
Vanity Project (Steven Page solo project)

Final Grade

My grade for Human Resource Management has come in. My teacher sent one that said I didn't participate the last two weeks and while I was thinking of a response to her, she sent another one stating, "Sorry for the confusion. Great participation." I guess I did comment more than 2 times each week. Seems like the counts were 50 and 52 times.

But, that makes no sense. What does make sense is the fact I made it through the class with over 99%.

(I lost a couple partial points here and there in group assignments where a title wasn't proper APA format and a few sentences phrased in different ways than she would have liked.)

The good news - I guess I was able to pass a class that was what I get paid to do at work. Yea!

Once Upon a Time...

...there was a young woman who kept a blog. She posted regularly about her adventures. Those adventures included trips to a local karaoke bar, funny anecdotes about the neighborhood pool hall, or even stories about work. One day, that young woman found she was running out of time. What is the culprit hindering her from rambling on and on about simple topics like buying office supplies? It's good you asked. The time thief is called, "School."

Extended learning. That seems to be the theme of my life at the current time. I'm not complaining. Learning is actually a passion of mine. I like learning; it doesn't matter what the subject is. Well, I guess I don't seek out opportunities to study chemistry or sci-fi literature history. You could lump those categories together, right? I think I made up the second one. Although there probably are experts out there who could tell you the subtle nuisances of various sci-fi writing techniques and when certain topics were first introduced.

The current theme of my extended learning is truly, "Management." As in management theory. At school, I just completed a class called, "Human Resource Management." I loved it! Final grades are not out yet, but I would imagine I passed. I hope so. Since the topics covered in class are what I earn a paycheck for. We talked about hiring & firing (terminations for all you PC-junkies out there). Benefits & compensation? Been there, done that. Performance reviews? Besides the ones I've written, how does at 3,000 word paper describing a total performance management system sound? If you said, "Boring," my job is not one I'd suggest.

HR Mgmt (because I have seriously written it out enough times) ended on Monday at midnight. My next class, Financial Analysis I, started on Tuesday at 12:01 am. I liked the one minute break. You could never imagine what I completed during that time. (In reality, I finished up assignments and posting Monday early evening and didn't check into class until early Tuesday morning).

Financial Analysis. I should be able to pass this. Should is the key phrase here. I work, for the past nine years, at NABABNA, a financial services company. Banking. Finance. Goes hand-in-hand, right? I'm apprehensive.

My fears for this class are not unwarranted. The class starts with some accounting (managerial - not the fun number-crunching kind that was my major once upon a yesteryear) and I barely remember any of the concepts. That's not what bothers me.

What bothers me (and this is not a well-known fact), is that in my previous schooling at a different management college I managed to "not pass" finance three times. There is only one subject that I never passed and it has to be finance. Kind of ironic, huh? I'm sure that instills confidence in all you that bank out there.

In my defense, I didn't actually fail the course. Instead, I just never completed it. I enrolled three times. I paid for the course three times. But in my youth, I made a couple of poor choices. The first was not entirely my fault, but the second and third times definitely were. The first time I took the course, it was on-campus. On the day of the final, the electricians were working on the wiring in the run-down, hole-infested, dumpster-diving environment rental unit I lived in. Without notice, the power was turned off and when I awoke, two hours after the final ended, my alarm clock was flashing pretty red numbers at me. The university I previously attended had a pretty strict "no exceptions" policy regarding the missing of a final. So, the first INCOMPLETE ended up on my record.

Trying something different, I signed up for correspondence learning. That's where procrastination took over. Here's a piece of advice: don't take a class that allows you 9 months to finish. If you're anything like the typical 20-year old, you won't start day one. Then, if you're like me, you'll find the packet of information in a pile in your room 10 months later. Rinse, lather, and repeat. That's how you can end up with three INCOMPLETEs on your record. Oops.

Obviously, this is not something I'm proud of. This time around, I'm planning on completing the coursework and actually taking the final. Age has taught me something at least.

Class has started; I've posted my discussion questions for this week (determining the monthly payment amounts for a mortgage - Excel is your friend. Love the mortgage amortization table I found as a template.) I have to write a paper about ethics and finance (think Enron scandals) for this week's mega-assignment. And I have to participate in class. Which will be slightly more difficult than last class's daily updates on techniques I use in management. I had four people out of 16 in the last class ask to work for me. That felt good. This will not happen with finance. I can predict this fact.

Speaking of learning, I received my "diploma" today. On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, I attended a managerial seminar/training at work on Ken Blanchard's Situational Leadership II. Mr. Blanchard has written such books as, "Raving Fans," and "One-Minute Manager." The class was pretty cool. Nothing overly earth-shattering, but fun and a good opportunity to sit back and think, "Am I effective?" Without violating any copyright laws, the basic premise for the class is that here are four stages of development everyone goes through to learn a task. Guess what? There are also four styles of management and they correspond. Most managers use only one style of leadership and so they are effective only a part of the time. In this class, we discussed providing direction to those who don't know how to complete tasks. We talked about supporting emotions. Again, nothing earth-shattering, but fun to look at which style is appropriate. I'm actually going to train my team on a portion of the learning (well, what I can fit into an hour long meeting from 18 hours of training). Steve, the super-fantastic-awesome-rock and roll all-star team lead, will get more of a picture of the training.

I did enjoy the training (couldn't you tell?) and liked the eye-openers of times when I am sure I was not as effective as I could have been. Management is learning every day. I am passionate about it and I guess that's a good thing. It is what I do for a living.

On the subject of work, my team is still awesome. I asked DM if I played favorites with bankers once. She replied, "Yes. But they are all your favorite." I have a couple of bankers applying for new jobs, promotions and I'm encouraging them as much as I can. I will be MAD PROUD (sorry for the caps, but it seemed to fit) of them if they get the position. The job I have does not tend to keep bankers around for more than a year. That's a fact. As much as I'd love to keep my team for years and years, the job is one that people master and move on. If I accept this and do the right thing of developing people, I can find reward in this fact. I'm working with Steve to get him promoted (although I'd be lost without him). But he deserves it. He's worked very hard and he would be a great manager. There are big things on his horizon.

So, what else is new? Hmmm. I've been scrapbooking a little, not working on photoshopping pictures since my external hard drive seemed to be defective and stopped working the day after I could have returned it to Best Buy (ARGH!).

I made green beans for myself. When DM and I went to Wisconsin (which I still need to write about), we stopped at this little family run farm on the way home. I bought corn, a watermelon, and green beans. It was the first time I cooked them myself and I have to admit, they were edible! I'm a horrible cook. Not because I make bad food, but because I rarely cook anything for myself.

DM has been writing up karaoke adventures as of late. I had a cold this past weekend (summer colds are awful) which entailed my use of cold medication. Advil Cold & Sinus should come with the warning, "Beware, side effects will include the loss of a minimum of 20 I.Q. points." I get goofy and silly. Others find it entertaining.

Since I was at work for the day shift the past two days, my mom wanted to go out to dinner. She took me to the Green Mill, a chain restaurant popular here. Scott was there too. I really enjoyed spending time with them.

My dad's birthday is Thursday and I'll be taking him out on Monday. He's golfing this entire weekend.

Oh, I ran into man-boobie guy again. The caretaker of my apartment building is a man I have nicknamed "Man-Boobie Guy." I know, it's wrong. On many levels. The reason for the name has to do with the fact the first time I saw him he had no shirt on and I thought there was a half-naked woman wandering around my apartment building. Scary. I saw him on Tuesday, as I was leaving for work. He initiated conversation with a chipper, "Howdy!" Which made me look at my outfit, trying to see if I was wearing a cowboy hat, cowboy boots, spurs, or any form of an overly large belt buckle since nothing in his appareal indicated the use of this type of greeting. Much to my surprise (because I'm known for frequently dressing up for work like I was going to go wrassle cattle on a ranch), I was not wearing anything that would indicate this as a proper greeting. I said hello and went along my way.

I suppose that's enough for tonight. I will try to make the rounds now to other sites. Hope all is well in the blog-o-verse.

What I Did Today...

Today was a nice, restful day. I went to my dad's house and helped him pick grapes. He was getting them ready for juicing (wine). It was nice to visit with him and I did get a few pictures (did you expect anything less?)

Picture Madness

Well, besides school, my activities have included cleaning my apartment, listening to iTunes, going to karaoke*, and playing with pictures. Since I've learned a few more things in Photoshop, I've been eager to experiment on various pictures from DM & I's trip to Portugal last year. Can you tell I have a major case of Wanderlust?

Here's some of the recent pictures:


Can you tell where I eliminated the power line from this shot?

There are more on Flickr and I obviously went a bit extreme with some of these.

My template has been bugging me lately. I feel the need to update it, change it, start over, I don't know. I'm looking for any suggestions. Anything that bothers you? Any pictures you think would make a good banner? What do you think my banner should represent? This urge hits me at least twice a year and I can't believe how long I've waited.

*Ruth asked a couple of questions about karaoke. I'll try to answer them.

"What do you sing?" Um, let me get the list out. I try new stuff once in awhile, but my standard list includes: Son of a Preacher Man, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Total Eclipse of the Heart, You Can Call Me Al, All That Jazz, Different Drum, You Can Leave Your Hat On, Have You Ever Seen the Rain?, and Mad About You. This last Sunday I tried a couple of Doors songs and realized that I grew up on that music, so it was easy to sing.

"What about taking away karaoke?" This question was in response to a MEME about giving up certain things. There is no price that will make me give up karaoke. It's my social outlet.

"Do you sing by yourself?" 95% of the time. Once in awhile there will be a group that sings happy birthday or something like that, but usually I sing alone.

"Do they have private rooms for just you and your friends like they do in Japan, or are you all in the public eye?" There's no private rooms. It's a bar. We all sing in front of anyone in the bar.

Birthday at the Chalet

DM and I have come to the conclusion that a rating system to measure the "weirdness" at karaoke needs to be created. We can use it to measure events outside of the Chalet, such as shrunken head man.

What we've determined so far:
10 - Top weirdness - Shrunken head man;
9.5 - Bikini wearing woman (I haven't posted this. Two Thursdays ago, a woman wandered around in the bar in her bikini.)
9 - How did I end up on a date with Pete?;
8.5 -
8 - Char's tires being stolen;
7.5 -
7 - 4-inch p*nis man;
6.5 - Crack Smoker;
6 - Dude, stop drinking bleach;
5.5 - Air guitar man;
5 - Ketchup dancer;
4.5 - CSI: Chalet;
4 - Craig's truck being stolen;
3.5 -
3 - Chalet Lockdown #2;
2.5 - DM & I drunk (weird for the fact we were drinking, but nothing overly unusual happened that night);
2 -
1.5 -
1 - Normal day, nothing odd at all

We're trying to determine quite where the night of Angie's birthday falls. Place your votes after the photo essay.


The birthday girl, now 25 years old.


There was cake.


It ended up on Angie.


Shannon and Amy, taking pictures of Angie


There was singing.


And creepy men who kept hitting on the women, not backing off when they were told no.


Who then fell asleep. Human Jenga was banned rather quickly.

Pictures of the argument immediately after this man awoke are not taken. Then he started touching Becky. I believe he offered her $150. This did not go over well. Another rule was made, "If you need immediate action, do not ask Andrew." It took three hours for this man, who was fall down drunk, to leave the bar.


A game of figuring out other actors and actresses that were in a Brittney Spears movie was started. (Something to do with 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon.)


Bryan is quite scary wearing this hat, shaped like a birthday cake hat.


And DM forked Stoobs.

Happy Birthday Angie!

Sick Day

Yeah, I didn't go to work. I think being in the heat on Tuesday didn't help me. I just can't handle it. Yuck.

Joe posted this and I tried it:

Your English Skills:

Punctuation: 100%

Spelling: 100%

Vocabulary: 100%

Grammar: 80%

Does Your English Cut the Mustard?

I think I got lucky on a couple vocab questions. My vocabulary is not that strong. I question my spelling all the time too.

This is what I did today:















I miss Portugal. Obviously. And I was on a panoramic kick.

I'm still catching up on reading blogs. School is kicking my butt (well, taking up time.)

An Example of My Life Influencer

Cats are not animals my father is overly fond of and rabbits are animals that he likes. In his backyard, there is a family of rabbits that live under his shed and eat the grass that grows. He's not trying to keep vegetables growing and he doesn't mind them. He does mind the stray and loose house cats that wander his backyard, looking to leave rabbit guts in a not-so-neat little pile every where.

Dad had a problem. His dilemma was to find a way to keep the cats out of his yard.

When I arrived at his house last Sunday, I noticed a couple of things that didn't seem in place and didn't seem like normal items for my father to have.

The first is an attachment on his faucet in the basement that is designed for easier pouring of water into specific objects.

The second thing I noticed was the bag of water balloons.

The third thing I noticed was the stash of filled water balloons sitting next to the backdoor.

As it turns out, Dad went to Target (a local retail store) to purchase these water balloons. The bag was the only item he bought. As he was checking out, this is the conversation he had with the woman:

Woman: These look like fun! Are they for your kids?
Dad: No, they are for cats.
W: Oh! Do they like to play with them?
D: No, it is a non-lethal way to get them out of my backyard.

She wouldn't talk to him or make eye contact after that.

He is hoping that if the cats get a little wet, they will stay away from his yard. If it doesn't work, he may put a safe dye in the balloons so the owners realize that letting their cats out is illegal. Last case scenario, he will get live traps and give the cats to animal control. He doesn't want to hurt the cats in any way and mostly he just doesn't like them loose because they can get hurt or cause hurt to other animals.

And that is my father. This is how he thinks.

Do You Like?

What do you think?

My Weekend & Some Pictures

I feel like I actually accomplished something this weekend. Strange for me.

On Sunday, I got up pretty early and headed over to my dad's, beating him home. He was out golfing. I managed to get three loads of laundry done (yea! Clothes for the week!) and when he got there he ordered a pizza for us. Afterwards I picked up DM and we headed to karaoke, as usual.

Also as usual, an interesting individual latched onto us. His new nickname (in our circle of friends) is TCC. It stands for "Tom Cruise Crazy." He was slightly drunk (not fall down drunk) and hyper active. TCC approached our table and asked if we wanted to go swimming. The bonus? There was a diving board and everything. This man was also running around the bar without his shirt on and kept picking up his friends.

When he was leaving, Amy went out to see if he was driving. Shannon and Becky followed her. He came back in as they were walking out the door and he grabbed Becky's face and kissed her. She screamed. It was quite amusing.

Karaoke itself wasn't that exciting. It was just nice and fun. We talked with Angie (Steve broke up with her), Amy (just back from vacation), Becky, Shannon, Char, Liz, James, Bryan, and Dean. Good times.

Today, I got up early again and went to the dentist for root canal phase 1. The dentist (who's previous work and trauma on the tooth is what caused the root canal) took needles that are small put in proportion to my tooth are gigantic and shaped like screws and scraped out the root of my front tooth. It didn't really hurt (he did give me plenty of numbing shots), but once in awhile he'd hit the still clinging to life nerve and the ice pick pain would shoot straight into my brain. Next week he'll finish up and fill the tooth again. Not fun.

I went to my dad's after that to pick up my laundry (which had to have 1 more cycle in the dryer at the time I left on Sunday). He took me grocery shopping with him (even bought me some nice snacks for work - crackers, grapes, etc. Dads are so nice!) Then I took him to the movies and we saw Pirates of the Carribbean - Dead Man's Chest. Much like the first movie, but still fun. Creepy monsters. It ends on a cliff hanger and so I'll have to wait a year to really know the end of the story.

Then I came home, put away some groceries and laundry and then played with Photoshop on some pictures I took on Sunday.


Shadow on a Grape Leaf


Deadly Nightshade (may not actually be deadly, but it is nightshade and it grows in both my dad's and my mom's backyards.)


Nightshade Berries (minimal Photoshop here. Only the frame and text added. I just really liked this shot with the natural shadows and bright red berries.)


Afternoon Light (actually, I didn't mean to take this picture. I moved the camera away when I had decided to not take a different picture and ended up with this. Kind of abstract.)

Worth 1,000 Words...

Okay, so more pictures. But at least these are recent pictures and they are to explain the adventures DM and I have had recently.

One night, after karaoke, I was dropping DM off at her place and these things were all over the place. A couple flew into the car (causing us both to scream in fear). This one landed on my windshield and chose to die there. Yuck, yuck, yuck.

Mayfly (Photo Titled, "It Came From Outer Space.")


It's Me! This is from karaoke last Sunday. Should I update my profile picture?


This is Becky. She is our friend. She used to date Nate. Then Nate broke up with her (they had been dating 3 or 4 years and he had told us he was going to propose to her). Then he married a 22 year old within 2 months of the breakup. The marriage was in January. Becky then dated Andrew. That didn't work out.


Guess Who's Back, Back Again? Yeah, this is Nate. Turns out his marriage? Not so good. Looks a bit devilish here, don't 'cha think?


Here's DM's new profile picture, larger.

And another Photoshop project. This is a palm tree that DM and I would see every day as we walked to the Metro while we were in Portugal. I only cropped a litle, added a slight blur, and brought down the brightness of the sidewalk/walls. Then I added the frame and text.

Happy Weekend Everyone!

It is nice that it is Friday now. This is a short week for most Americans. I'm going to work tonight and Saturday night, as usual, but enjoy the fact that my work week is really only 3 days. Pretty nice.

Still learning things in Photoshop here. Nice, cheap hobby. It costs nothing to take the digitial pictures and I have the software and service for Flickr already. (Finances are a little tight right now.) These are some new projects.


Edits: Minor color correction. Cropping. Added the borders and text.
Sunset taken at work.


Edits: Cropping, borders and text. Simple.
Scene taken less than 1 mile from where I live. It's the Mounds View Watertower.


Edits: Sky color correction. Brightness of white wall lowered. Cropping. Borders added.
Sight in Evora, Portugal, that we saw when standing at the Temple of Diana.


Old picture of me playing pool on 1-1-2003. Taken by a friend who no longer seems to want to talk to me. But still feels the need to read my blog. (Annoying.)
Edits: Remove color from most of picture. Enhance greens of the felt. Gaussian blur the entire image. Add borders and text.