karmaville

Counting down

I am finding it harder and harder to stay focused on my current job.

Today is my first weekday that I have worked since I gave my notice so it has been a series of meetings to re-assign my priorities and begin training the people who will take over my responsibilities. At this point they are not going to hire someone to replace me until at least November so I can't train too much.

My transition plan is light on things for me to accomplish before I go, but I still have a few things. i just can't seem to get in gear and get them done. Hopefully I will because I don't want to get stuck having a weeks worth of work to do in a day at the end.

It doesn't help that I was going to leave a little early today and get a jump on some issues for my new job but my boss crashed her Outlook inbox (over 20,000 new messages in the past six weeks) by not following my instructions on archiving and deleting so I have to rebuild it before I go home tonight.

I can't wait to leave this place.

Teeth

I went to the dentist yesterday for the first time in a really long time. Ever since I was a child I have had a mortal fear of dentists. It probably didn't help that when I was about seven, I was getting a tooth pulled and the dentist slipped with the Novocaine needle and pushed it through my cheek. That was one piercing I didn't really want.

So I went into yesterday's appointment with a bit of trepidation and plain ol' wet-your-pants fear. Fortunately, it wasn't as bad as I had feared.

A patient and calming hygienist, a professional yet happily goofy dentist, and a spectacular view of a ivy covered hillside made all the difference. Okay, the third one wasn't so interesting but the first two were.

All in all, no cavities, just a tiny bit of pain, and no major problems. Although the dentist told me I have extremely large teeth, an unusually small mouth, and a regular size tongue.

More than a day later, I still don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing.

So I have been smiling a little more than usual today with my (sorta) bright smile. Now if I can only do something with my goofy front tooth...

Update Update Update

I start my new job October 13th.

WiFi in the Garden

As some of you know, I (currently) work for a nonprofit garden in Portland. I floated the idea of adding free WiFi access for visitors as a way to increase our attendance.

I figured the cost was ~$1000 a year and would increase visitors by 100 a month at an average of $5 a ticket, so (100 visitors*$5 each)*12 months=$5000. Therefore a cost benefit.

In order to sell it to her, I need a rough idea if my figures are right. So a quick informal poll:

Would you be more likely to visit a Garden if it offered free and open WiFi access?

For Portlanders, would it convince you to buy a membership for free admission all year?

Update Update

"We are really excited about him, he is a perfect fit. We're sorry we are going to steal him from you."

--HR manager to my boss during return phone call checking references

Update

Well, I sent an email to the human resources contact for the job I was applying for to see where my application stood. Well, a got the "your background application is stil being processed" response which is good news.

Since I had to pass a FBI background check previously, I should be okay there.

{sidenote} I am the only one in my family who actually has NOT held a Top Secret security clearance in my life. I gotta figure out how to work for the goverment so I can get one! {/sidenote}

Then ten minutes ago, I recieved a call on the main line asking for employment verification, so there are now up to checking my references (I snooped my supervisor's voicemail, with permission, to make sure it was me).

So, hopefully news soon.

Sidd Finch Mourns

CNN.com - A Sad Loss

George Plimpton, who more than most men of 'class', appreciated and celebrated the world of sport, has died.

Soomewhere Sidd Finch mourns.

Customer Service

Since I have begun using Typepad, I have had several questions as to how certain things work. Having worked in cusotmer service, I can understand why answers take a while, why the customer is not always right, and how frustrating it can be when someone asks a question instead of looking up the answer.

Tha's why when I receive great customer service I try to make an effort to recognize it publicly. In every instance of my support questions to Six Apart for help, I have received a personal and complete answer within three minutes. Three minutes! It takes my email that long just to travel through the internet servers.

Not only have I received good and fast answers, but Brenna, the person has always responded, has been courteous and helpful beyond what I have expected.

So thank you Brenna.

Oh yeah, Mena and Ben? Give her a raise, she deserves one.

FeedDemon RSS Aggregator

As my experience with weblogs became more pronunced, i.e. checking many sites a day, I decided to investigate RSS aggregators. I checked out a few based on recommendations but never found one that gave me what I wanted in a clean simple format.

As I was going through the Typepad resources pages, they recommended FeedDemon. So I downloaded the program and gave it a try.

It is simply the best RSS aggregator I have found.

Still in beta, but I have yet to discover a single issue.

My Top Features:

- Extreme ease of use
- Hides in the system when not in use
- Group "newspaper" format for large quantity reading
- Tabbed browsing in previews
- Auto XML-RDF locator
- Keyword Watch from incoming feeds

Did I mention it was easy to use?

I tend to shy away from paying for software when there are open source options but this is one program I will most definitely buy once it is released.

Oregon

Check out these beautiful photos of Oregon.