Tag Archive for 'work'Page 3 of 3

Cubicle Days 25 Jul 06


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Are not very fun. I long for the day when I’m not sitting here in a cube farm, listening to everyone whine and complain about the security clearance system, all day long. I mean, yes it’s frustrating to not have a clearance, but calling the clearance department every single day makes them dislike you very much. Probably enough to just let your paperwork sit on their desk another month or two. Sometimes you just have to let go and realize that you can’t control everything, and make the best of your situtation. Especially when you find out that the clearance department lost a bunch of your paperwork, and you’ve been waiting 4 months for nothing. Simple things that I do to help me to not stress out about working in an “uncleared” farm (cough leper colony cough):

  1. Listen to my iPod: My favorite, since music can have a very calming effect on me. This also helps me drown out the incessant conversations of my cube mates. They can’t seem to be quiet and keep to themselves…how can they be real engineers and be so social? * (See obligatory engineer joke at bottom of post) And the upside is that I can actually have my iPod right now. When I become cleared and am no longer ostracized from engineering society, my iPod will not be allowed to accompany me into the “cleared” area.

  2. Drink Lots of TaB: Really, like a whole bunch. In fact, my stock is dwindling, and on last trip to Raley’s it wasn’t restocked yet. :(

  3. Take Periodic Sunshine Breaks: This is just good advice if you’re an engineer period. Sometimes us nerds have a tendency to sit in front of the computer a bit too long, and not actually go out into the sun. And it helps clear your head to get up every few hours to stretch and get some fresh air.

  4. Obsessively Compulsively Check Knitting Blogs: Sometimes the lack of work and the boredom begins to set in, and the best remedy I’ve found is to go on a blog checking spree, seeing if any other people have knitted something amazing since the last 30 minutes since I last checked.

So those are the small ways in which I deal with little work frustrations. Do you have any tips for dealing with blabby cube mates?

As far as knitting goes, I’m almost done with this cabled purse for the artisan fair. The deadline is swiftly approaching, so I’ve been knitting a lot lately. Quite relaxing.

And finally, in “OMG! Stockpile Money!” news, I just discovered that Village Wools is having a huge inventory sale next month to prepare for the upcoming shop move. 15% off everything!!! This will be very bad for my wallet.

EDIT (Forgot the Engineer Joke! Thanks Joanna!):

So what’s the difference between an extroverted engineer, and an introverted engineer??? The extroverted engineer looks at your shoes, while the introverted engineer looks at his shoes. Ba-dum-chi!

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Adam
in knitting, local yarn store, work and yarn nerd
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in which i spew randomness 20 Jul 06


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Today is somewhat random…and so I’m going to make a list to jot down the googol of thoughts swimming around in my brain.

  1. bureacracy is frustrating. especially when your security clearance application gets returned after waiting for 3 months because someone lost a form, and you have to start the whole hurry up and wait process all over.

  2. my stash is dwindling, as I’ve made a new hat and quite a few Mason Dixon Washrags (why are they so darn addicting?)…I think a stash stocking trip is order. or SEX* as some dirty minded knitters would call it.

  3. le chantilly brownies have to be the best ever. it was definitely the highlight of my day to enjoy one after lunch.

  4. in a completely undisguised and overt attempt at comment whoring I’ve moved the comment link to a more prominent location, and added a pestering message. if this desperate subtle hint doesn’t work, I may have to put hyptonizing music or videos on the site.

  5. I renewed my long dormant eMusic subscription (now that I have money) and downloaded some good indie tunes, including Sufjan Stevens, Neko Case and Ryan Adams. rock on.

  6. I have a very cool idea for a new pattern swimming around in my head and on the pages of my infamous notebook. I call the concept “knitting fusion”. more info to follow when the idea is more real and less ethereal.

  7. having a garage is probably the single most amazing thing that’s happened to me this year. the very thought of being able to walk into the garage and get in my car or bring in groceries without getting wet when it’s raining it’s simply mindblowing. I’m sure the family of the man who invented the garage is filthy stinking rich, like the people who invented ziploc bags or tin foil.

  8. I’ve been reviewing my signals theory books today, and studying such wonderful things as discrete fourier transforms, aliasing, the nyquist-shannon theorem and the hilbert transform, to name a few. riveting stuff I tell ya. (I know it might sound boring to you, but I really do love it!)

*SEX = Stash Enrichment Expedition. Don’t ask me, I didn’t come up with it.

Ok, that’s about it. Now there are a ( googol - 8 ) thoughts flying around in my head, at least it’s somewhat of an improvement.

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Adam
in blog, knitting, work and yarn nerd
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Working for the Man 09 May 06


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Well things have been changing pretty rapidly around these parts, and I have a lot to report. I finished school last Friday, and that was a very wonderful feeling :) It is still weird for me to think that I don’t have to go to school as an undergraduate student anymore, and that it’s already been 4 years since I started at Tech. The time certainly did fly.

And in my usual fashion, I’ve jumped into my next activity with absolutely no break, save for the whole no homework thing. I started my new job at Sandia National Labs yesterday, and so far it’s awesome. I don’t have my security clearance, which means it’s a bit difficult for me to get some of the things I need to done, but everyone I work with has been really helpful in working around the problem. I work out in what I’ve termed the “Leper Colony”, but at least I get a lot of exercise walking all over base all day :) And today I got some work on a project, and let me just say, it’s like a dream come true. I never thought in my wildest dreams that I could get paid to work on the stuff that I am. It’s so amazing, and I’m completely thrilled! I’m very thankful to have found something I really love, it’s a very good thing to wake up and be excited to go to work.

As far as the knitting world goes, I was planning to cast on for the Topi hat from the latest Knitty, but I got bitten by the sock bug again. I am almost done with my first sock, using the Thuja pattern from Knitty. I really like this pattern, the ribbing on the top looks totally awesome. I was going to take a picture…but the darn camera chewed throught the last of the AA batteries the other day.

Anyway, it’s in the same yarn as my last pair of socks, the black and white varigated one. I really like knitting men’s socks, because it means that 400 yards can almost cover 2 pairs, since I like shorter cuffs and have somewhat small feet. Also, I convinced Scout to sell me her first dye of her new Smore’s Colorway, which is absolutely amazing! I can’t wait to make some sweet socks out of it!

Well that’s about it, so peace out knitting world, I’m off to bed since I have to arrive at my cushy government job bright and early ;)

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Adam
in knitting, nmt, socks, work and yarn nerd
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