Friday, November 28, 2008

No Regrets

After all the over analyzing about what I would do if I got the job I applied for it turns out that the decision was made for me. I didn't get the job. That's okay now I have fortified in my mind the idea of stalking Jay Cutler, mixed with pursuing grad school. I even have a fool proof bench sitting plan provided by my friend Lisa.

No but seriously in a way I'm kind of glad it turned out the way it did. I don't have anything to regret about the experience and I'm not entirely mad at my company. At least I wasn't until I heard that one of the applicants was actually given the interview questions beforehand. That seems a little odd to me. I guess life isn't fair.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Sometimes I wonder

I'm starting to wonder about the symbiotic relationship I have with some other people. It's funny to me, I'm in the middle of a mini-breakdown and the some of people that I consider my friends are all too busy with their own stuff to help me out.

Do I just have very bad judgement when it comes to people? Do I satisfy myself with just dealing with whoever is around at the time? Never really building up true friendships but only casual acquaintances?

It's not that all of my friends are bad people, but the constant reminders about how they have other stuff they should be doing but their spending time with me. Or changing the subject when they know that what we're talking about is important to me. I admit that I can get a little annoying sometimes when I dwell on things and a little goofy about other things on occasion.

But then again some people surprise you with their willingness to discuss your issues and help you through a problem. People that you don't expect. And to those people I am grateful.

Monday, November 24, 2008

Just another reason to hate Brett Favre

I don't hate Brett Favre exactly I just can't stand the way that every announce makes a big deal about him. I can pretty much guarantee that if you watch an NFL game on tv there will be a mention of Brett Favre. Even if his team isn't playing.

Yesterday Favre and the Jets beat the to this point undefeated Tennesee Titans. So now not only do we have to deal with hearing about how Favre is a giant killer but we also have to put up with obnoxious Pats fans and their 16-0 for at least one more season.

On a more happy note, I won my fantasy match up thanks to a ridiculous game by Randy Moss. I keep starting him even though he's not been putting up great numbers and I kind of lucked into a good game this week. Although my starting Cutler because the Raiders suck move didn't work out so well. I just hope Brees doesn't waste his good game against Green Bay tonight.

Friday, November 21, 2008

I'm going to use the lack of sleep defense

Today was such an odd day. Work wise it was fine, busy but fine. I'm still waiting to hear about the other job but my current boss also went over a growth plan with me which sounds like they want me to grow into a promotion. Which would put me in a slightly better place than if I took the other job. Unfortunately time lines were a little vague.

So now I'm life with a couple of scenarios:
1) I get the permanent job I applied for
2) I get the term job I applied for
3) I get neither job

Each scenario comes with it's own set of challenges. Although number 3 means that I don't have to make a decision which means that I can't have regrets in the future. I'm not quite sure what I would do if either of the other two go down and I guess I won't know until Tuesday, since I'm off on Monday.

But because of my confusion I really needed to talk to someone who knows about what's going on so I did that with one of the guys at work and now I'm having these warm, fuzzy completely inappropriate feelings towards him. So I'm blaming it on the fact that I've not been sleeping well this week so my mind isn't in such a great place.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

I'm disappointed

One of the disadvantages of having a rather large family (there are 6 of us excluding significant others) is that you have to come up with Christmas gifts for all of them. This was fine back when you couldn't afford much and neither could they. If you bought them a DVD or a book that was awesome. Now it's much more difficult. We all have our own money and you don't think twice about dropping $50 on something you kind of sort of want. Hell I just spent $500 shopping online.

On the other hand it's also difficult trying to come up with a list of things you want from them. So I started digging around online for things I might possibly want. One of my first stops was NFL.com. Where I discovered that I really want a Jay Culter bobble head for my desk. Except that it doesn't look like him at all. But I also discovered they don't have a Drew Brees bobble head. Does anyone else find that strange? I'm deeply disappointed in you NFLshop.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

I guess not everything has stayed the same

3 years ago I would have been all over today's throne speech. Hell I likely would have skipped school to watch it. I know I would have watched CPAC later in the evening to get strategists reactions. This year Nada. I kind of half thought about it this morning and then proceeded to ignore it as my day went on.

It's not that it's not important or interesting to me anymore but I'm falling into that trap where my day to day things are more pressing than keeping tabs on the current political climate in our country. I guess this just proves what everyone told me. Politics don't matter in the real world.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

The hard part is over, now for the waiting

So most of you know by now that I had a job interview today. Like most people I find job interviews stressful. Seriously if employers want to know how potential employees will handle themselves under pressure they need look no further than the interview.

I am the type of person who panics for no reason. Case in point every time I had to write an exam in University whether I needed a good mark or not I'd end up calling my parents bawling that I was going to fail. Like somehow that single test was the end of the world. So as it happens I called Mom and Dad last night, they weren't home. So I tried Dad's cell and ended up talking to my Aunt who gave me suggestions and tips on dealing with the interview.

Did it help? Probably not. But now that I'm done the interview all that's left to do it wait. The nice thing for me is that if I don't get the job I've still got something to fall back on. I'll still have my old job. It will be difficult to have to stay given that I told the people in my department that I had applied for the job but really what difference does it make. If I don't get the job then I'm just not the right fit, and that's okay. Or at least that's what I'm telling myself today.

Whether I get the job or not I've gained valuable experience, I've spent a little more time getting to know me. Also I may have used this interview as leverage for a potential salary increase at my current job. We'll see how that one plays out.

Monday, November 17, 2008

The more things change...

You know the saying the more things change the more they stay the same? Well after writing this post I realized just how true it is.

Someone who reads my blog occasionally, but sometimes forgets that there is a comments section told me that she read that post and she laughed. I couldn't figure out why she thought it was so funny until I really started to think about it.

It would appear that I'm exactly where I started a little over a year and a half ago. I'm about the graduate from my certificate program, whereas in May of 2007, I was graduating from University. I have the same job that I did when I first graduated, but in between I worked a term in a different department. I live with my little brother in an apartment, but he moved out for about 6 months in between. Even on the crushing side I'm still crushing on a QB who's mom probably cuts his hair, though I've switched from Eli Manning to Jay Cutler.

So really as much as things have changed in the past year I'm really back to where I started.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Goal of the week

As usual a review of last week's goal. Actually I know there wasn't a goal last week but let's go with the week before that then , I did finish my lesson 4 reading now I just need to do the assignment for lesson 4.

This is actually a big week for my personal goals. First and foremost I want to finish the lesson 3 assignment. I've only got one question left so that should get done tonight unless I'm too tired to do anything which it's looking like I might be. Then I want to finish lesson 4, which again is just the assignment and if I actually sit down and do it on Saturday that will be the end of the course.

The final goal is to finish knitting the left mitten of the new set I'm working on for a co-worker. I enjoy knitting while I'm watching TV anyway so I thought I might as well make something nice for someone else. It also helps me use up the grey yarn I was going to use to make a sweater but then got frustrated when it was miles too big and quit working on it. So now I've got 8 balls of this fuzzy, grey stuff that's perfect for winter wear and not much else.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

My week off

So it would appear that I haven't written in a week. I guess it's mostly because I don't have a lot to say. I was also sick for about 4 days. I still don't have anything to say but I thought I'd better write something before ya'll stop checking back to see if there's anything new.

Frankly there is nothing new with me. I'm still at the same job, living in the same place with my brother, doing all the same stuff I've been doing for the past year and a half. Does that mean I'm in a rut?

Thursday, November 06, 2008

Of adverse weather and ridiculous shoes

Whenever the weather is crazy bad I am almost inevitably wearing the most inappropriate footwear. First of all I should mention that I'm all about sensible footwear. I'm not one of these girls who has 30 pairs of shoes (although my shoe collection has been growing recently), I have 2 main pairs aside from my sneakers. Brown flats to wear with brown inspired outfits and a pair of black suede casual shoes for work.

But today I had to go and wear these new shoes I bought at Payless last night, as shown on the left (aren't they cute?). Of course because I hadn't had a chance to wear them yet I didn't realize that the would cause massive blistering on the sides of my feet. So I had to walk home in pain.


Not only that but we're experiencing our first winter storm of the year, a Colorado low that's moving through the next couple of days. Yeah, screw you Colorado just for this I hope the Broncos lose tonight. But not horribly and I hope it's a really high scoring game because I'm starting Cutler. It's more freezing rain than anything else but it's cold and wet.


But hey at least it numbed my extremely sore feet. I'm starting to feel it now that they're thawing a bit though.

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Missed Opportunites

Last night's election filled me with an odd sense of nostalgia. When I was in university I had a little stalker. Actually he wasn't a stalker at all. He was just this guy in one of my classes who liked to walk me to my bus and talk about how well I would fit in with his family and friends. Okay so it was a little strange. But he was from Texas and so we shared alot of ideology. Maybe it's just because I'm going through a bit of a dry spell but I kind of miss those days. A least it was nice to have someone who agreed with me around once and a while. Anyway I guess the point is clearly he liked me and well it's been a long time since I found someone who really liked me. So uh yeah.

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Election Day - Part I can't count that high

I've decided to take a stab and semi-live blogging the election. By semi Live-blogging I mean posting updates during commercials as I don't have wire-less internet or a TV in the room with my internet. I didn't blog for the Canadian election because I wasn't home that night.For previous posts click here:
Part 1:http://janalee19.blogspot.com/2008/11/election-day-part-1.html
Part 2: http://janalee19.blogspot.com/2008/11/election-day-part-2.html
Part 3: http://janalee19.blogspot.com/2008/11/election-day-part-3.html
Part 4: http://janalee19.blogspot.com/2008/11/election-day-part-4.html
Part 5:http://janalee19.blogspot.com/2008/11/election-day-part-5.html

I don’t know if I’m missing any important election news as I got a little distracted by other non-election blog posts. Well it was kind of election related but funnier.

Okay I’m back. I heard there was a big projection coming up. I’m quitting once they announce a projection for president. I’m tired and I suspect that we could have called it about an hour ago. Hooray for battleground states.

I’m still floored that McCain is under-performing Bush. Is it really more the popularity of Obama than the unpopularity of McCain? It must be. That’s the only explanation I can come up with.

Ohio called for Obama, that leaves us 194-69. Fox has bigger numbers for Obama they’re up to 200, but they’ve also got McCain’s numbers up a bit too. Not looking very conservative there Fox.

Franken is leading in Minnesota. That’s not good. What the hell is wrong with people in Minnesota. Hmm… scratch the grad school plans? Still haven’t heard from Indiana. Unless I just missed it.

Holy crap Hank Williams Junior is playing at the Republican thing. That’s pretty cool.

So CNN just went through the likelys, the maybes, and the extreme long shots for McCain and they couldn’t get to 270. Which means they SHOULD BE CALLING THIS THING. But they won’t. But looking a the map it was kind of funny. Easily 70% of the map was one shade of red or another and yet there was no way to get McCain to win. Gotta love those rural states. Even the cities in those states aren’t very big. Take North Dakota, Fargo and Grand Forks are extremely small cities.

New Mexico for Obama, Louisiana to McCain. Sadly I probably know more about the history of Louisiana than most Americans. Anyway we’re up to 199-78.

Wow that popular vote number is crazy close but not in the elector college. Funny we just talked about this at work today about how it’s not the popular vote that counts.

Oh I get why CNN won’t call it. 6 more hours of coverage. But I'm ready to call it. Let's welcome President Obama.

Election Day - Part 5

I've decided to take a stab and semi-live blogging the election. By semi Live-blogging I mean posting updates during commercials as I don't have wire-less internet or a TV in the room with my internet. I didn't blog for the Canadian election because I wasn't home that night.For previous posts click here:
Part 1:http://janalee19.blogspot.com/2008/11/election-day-part-1.html
Part 2: http://janalee19.blogspot.com/2008/11/election-day-part-2.html
Part 3: http://janalee19.blogspot.com/2008/11/election-day-part-3.html
Part 4: http://janalee19.blogspot.com/2008/11/election-day-part-4.html


81 to 34 now. Sorry I missed the projection so I don’t know where those came from. Pennsylvania is Obama So now it’s 102 to 34. Can we call it now?

Okay now I actually am calling bias on CNN. They’ve got at least 2 and probably more reporters in Chicago to report on the Obama campaign. That doesn’t seem odd to anyone else? Oh I’m just paranoid, okay.

Okay it looks like the Republicans have thrown in the towel. Not that they’ve announced it yet but from the report it seems pretty clear that they know it’s over.

102-43, looks like Alabama is the one they called for that. More projections to come in 1 minute. I kind of hope this is quick. I’m almost election-ed out. And just I do like to make my own verbs why do you ask?

More projections just made. 174-49, I don’t know if Minnesota to the Democrats is a surprise or not. North Dakota went McCain though which I find kind of interesting because it‘s close to Canada. I’m still waiting for results from Indiana.

Here’s why exit polls are crap. 20% of people said race was important but 55% voted for Obama when race was important. I don’t for a second believe that. I think it was important to more than 20%. Oh and now they’re discussing the whole race issue. If Obama wins does that mean that the race card goes away?

And the Democrats have a majority in the Senate, interesting. I wonder if that means that the Democrats will take a lot of heat in the next election or if they’ll just keep blaming it on Bush (or Canada).

One of the Republicans called Al Franken a lunatic. I am kind of interesting in the Minnesota senatorial race. Mostly because all of my American network television comes out of Minnesota so I’ve seen a TONNE of attack ads.

Georgia just called for McCain, bring it to 174-64. Did Obama pick up all of New England? I don’t know if everything is in there yet but everything that I’ve seen has gone Democrat.

Election Day- Part 4

I've decided to take a stab and semi-live blogging the election. By semi Live-blogging I mean posting updates during commercials as I don't have wire-less internet or a TV in the room with my internet. I didn't blog for the Canadian election because I wasn't home that night.For previous posts click here:
Part 1:
http://janalee19.blogspot.com/2008/11/election-day-part-1.html
Part 2:
http://janalee19.blogspot.com/2008/11/election-day-part-2.html
Part 3:
http://janalee19.blogspot.com/2008/11/election-day-part-3.html

South Carolina was just projected for McCain. So we’re at 16-3. That won’t last long. See 2 minutes later we get, 77 to 34 for Obama now. That’s cool, Maine and Nebraska can split up their electoral votes. I like that, it’s more reflective of the popular vote in the State.

Yeah those interactive maps are freaking awesome. I think we’ve already established that I’m a giant dork.

I don’t understand how everyone hates G.W. Bush but McCain is not even doing as well as Bush did in the last election. Don’t get it. Okay change in demographics explain some of it. Indiana is looking kind of red map-wise but it’s kind of population centered too.
Ohio and West Virginia and New Hampshire are largely Obama. Georgia is Republican.

It’s it odd that I’m live-ish blogging election coverage but watching Greek during commercials?

I temporarily switched to Fox. So funny. It’s all about understanding the bias and then adjusting the information to suit. Seriously, I do the same thing with the CBC. I don’t know if I’ve expressed my dislike of the CBC but it’s like the Canadian equivalent to Fox except on the opposite end of the political spectrum.

What’s with the creepy choir boys at the Republican camp? I’ve noticed that CNN is showing a lot of shots of the Obama party but only one or two of the McCain camp. Maybe they just think the Obama thing is more impressive and I don’t want to call bias on CNN but it I do feel that it’s worth mentioning.

Election Day - Part 3

I've decided to take a stab and semi-live blogging the election. By semi Live-blogging I mean posting updates during commercials as I don't have wire-less internet or a TV in the room with my internet. I didn't blog for the Canadian election because I wasn't home that night.For previous posts click here:
Part 1:http://janalee19.blogspot.com/2008/11/election-day-part-1.html

Part 2: http://janalee19.blogspot.com/2008/11/election-day-part-2.html



Oh hologram reporter, that’s some Star Trek shit right there. Awesome.

Here’s the thing about this election. If Obama happens to lose, which isn’t very likely but IF he does, I can already see a Michael Moore documentary about how McCain/Palin “stole” the election. God I hate Michael Moore. Actually I don’t hate because hating requires energy and well hating him would be a waste of energy. Sorry that was a bit of a detour.

Holy crap why does Florida account for 27 votes? Is the population a whole lot higher than in other states? Oh I like that CNN’s Florida polls are way off. As in they don’t add up to 100%. That’s kind of scary given the 27 votes.

Oh recession talk. Scary stuff. Recessions are that rainy day that people tell you, you should be saving for. I’m not actually all that worried at the moment about a recession. I guess if I lost my job I’d be a little more worried. But I’ve saved a bit and I don’t NEED to go to Scotland next summer. I want to but it’s all about tightening the belt. Sorry, that was some more tangent for you.

Oooo… Obama leading in N.C and Florida. Florida by 57%, that’s huge. Okay popular vote is 51% for Obama. But clearly the popular vote doesn’t necessarily give you a winner.

Alright this one Republican strategist is making me angry. I don’t know who he actually is, but he’s continuing to stress that “it’s early, it’s early”. Yeah we get it, you’re not willing to admit that your guy might not win.

Election Day - Part 2

I've decided to take a stab and semi-live blogging the election. By semi Live-blogging I mean posting updates during commercials as I don't have wire-less internet or a TV in the room with my internet. I didn't blog for the Canadian election because I wasn't home that night.
For part one click here:

http://janalee19.blogspot.com/2008/11/election-day-part-1.html


Okay, okay so it’s still early. And now the pundits are talking strategy. You know, what worked and what didn’t. I like how the Republican strategist are wearing red ties and the Democratic strategists are wearing blue. I guess things really are black and white in the U.S. Or Blue and Red if you will.

I really don’t get the American system. I suspect the Americans say the same thing about all of the Parliamentary Democracies out there too. But whole electoral college thing confuses the crap out of me. And how the entire state popular vote determines how ALL of their votes will go.

I also don’t understand how both candidates promised tax cuts. Anyone seen that 10 trillion dollar national debt they’re running? Seriously if you can budget tax cuts you might want to try budgeting debt reduction instead. It makes me angry.
I’m kind of surprised that Obama had more money than McCain to run this campaign. Aren’t the Republicans supposed to be the party of the rich?

Oh they’re making projections for Vermont and Kentucky. One for each. They are usually pretty accurate because they don’t announce until they know for sure. But Kentucky is worth 8 points while Vermont is only worth 3 so that means McCain is ahead… for now. Wait they’re showing 0% for each and zero votes reported in 0% of the polling points in Vermont but they’ve declared Obama. Make sense of that one for me?

I can’t help but wonder how splitting demographics by things like race and sex don’t promote racism and sexism. I guess that’s one of the downsides of statistics. You can break things down so much that they don’t really mean much.


Election Day - Part 1

I've decided to take a stab and semi-live blogging the election. By semi Live-blogging I mean posting updates during commericals as I don't have wire-less internet or a TV in the room with my internet. I didn't blog for the Canadian election because I wasn't home that night.

Okay well it’s not MY election day. We already did that a couple of weeks ago and everything that I wanted to happen there happened. Tonight is US election day.

I’m not going to pretend to be impartial and feel free to hate me if you want but I’m much more Republican than Democrat. To be honest I didn’t really watch much of the pre-election coverage it didn’t matter much to me and it’s not like I was voting anyway. But I know that they’ve been predicting an Obama win for a long time. But I think it’s going to be a lot closer than people think. That’s the joys of secret ballot, you can vote for whoever you want for whatever reason you want and not have to answer to social opinion.

I know that sounds terrible but it’s true. For example, if you want to vote for lower taxes because it’s going to benefit you, you don’t have to justify why it’s okay for children to live below the poverty line because you have lower taxes.

Holy crap it’s 49% to 50% for Obama in Indiana right now, can’t get much closer than that.

I just want to say that I probably would have been one of the apparently few people who stayed home for this election. I heard voter turnout is going to be huge. Well good on Americans. But I wouldn’t vote for either of these people for president. Actually that’s not entirely true, I wouldn’t vote McCain because his running mate would make a mockery of the U.S. internationally. It’s kind of the same reason that I wouldn’t vote for Stephane Dion in the Canadian election. I wouldn’t vote Obama because I don’t like the Democrats policies.


CNN has some really awesome stuff. They’re all about crazy exit poll stats. For example, the percentage of white evangelical voters that voted for each candidate and broken down by state. That’s some ridiculous stat crunching. And ya’ll know how I love stats.

Monday, November 03, 2008

Screw You, Kyle Orton

Also (too), what the crap Braylon Edwards? Way to have a good game when you're sitting on my bench. Once again my fantasy team got killed. This was a freaking terrible week. I should have started Jay Cutler, not that he was much better and he doesn't look nearly so much fun to drink with.

Although the injury to not-so-drunken Kyle Orton did lead to the return of Rex Grossman. It also lead to the return of the Rexy-Back video. Seriously every time I hear Sexy-Back I start singing these words instead. There is also a Matt Hasselback version of the song but it's not as cool.


Saturday, November 01, 2008

Pre-game Jitters

There's a saying that goes "no one cares about you fantasy team" and you know it's probably true. But that's not going to stop me from talking about mine.

As you've seen I like to keep you updated on my team. This week I'm starting Kyle Orton at QB because well Drew Brees is on a bye week, Jay Cutler has a sketchy finger and Chicago is playing Detroit so there are points for the taking. So I'm a little nervous about the outcome.

Also if I lose my match-up this week then one of the guys will be overtaking me for first place. I've been having fun being in first place. Also because the guys are not taking the whole losing to a girl thing very well.

I think I'm probably a little too into this whole fantasy thing. It's pretty apparent when you boss starts asking you about it. But it's not like I'm checking it out at work because well it's blocked.

Yup, this is my starting QB people. If this doesn't go well I might have to pick up my own bottle of JD to ease the pain.


Holy Crap I just watched College Football

I never watch college football. Mostly because unlike everyone in the US I don't have a cheering interest. Sure I'm probably going to end up there for grad school one day but at the moment I've got nothing. I also have this thing about college football. It's kind of like watching junior hockey, yeah it's fun but it's not as good as the real thing.

I lived on Campus for 3 years while I was going my undergraduate degree and I didn't go to a single football game, even though my school's team was one of the best in the country. I preferred to check out the volleyball team instead.

So why would I spend most of my Saturday watching Florida vs. Georgia, instead of say sleeping? Well it's simple really, Tim Tebow.


I know that I should hate him on principle because he plays for Florida. It's kind of like Duke or Notre Dame, you don't need a reason to hate you just do it. But then he goes and spends his spring breaks doing missionary work, so really it's almost a wash.

Okay that's enough Tim Tebow for now. But if I had to pick a College Football boyfriend this would be it.