ziasudra: (Default)
President Obama.

That guy can inspire hope like no one else. Just scanning through my flist alone is making me feel all squeeful and emotional, seeing all of you post such inspirational entries about your thoughts and excitements and hopes and apprehensions for the next four years to come. Today is a day to celebrate. Tomorrow, it'll be the first day in a long string of days to get to work.

The realist in me is already fearing the onset of disappointment -- disappointment due to unrealistic expectations such as Client A who truly believes Obama's stimulus plan will give him instant money so he can save his home from foreclosure. Or Client B who keeps on insisting "Obama will make it better" as if the new president is the panacea to his personal finance mismanagement.

But I do hope in (realistic?) hope. If Obama stays true to his words and will cut out government programs that don't work while giving more money to those that do, then I'm hopeful that programs like the U.S. Department of Treasury's Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) Funds will be utilized and receive more support for the effective work that they are already doing. As for the current housing crisis, I cannot be more pleased that the (now former) NYC Housing and Preservation and Development Commissioner Shaun Donovan is now the Secretary of HUD. We -- collective we, referring to my and other housing/community development organizations in NYC -- have worked with him and the common verdict I've heard over and over is that he knows his stuff. After all, one didn't serve in NYC with the task to tackle the city's affordable housing problem without possessing the required "chops." If Donovan's tenure at HPD left him with only five foreclosures among 17,000 of new homeowners, then I am hopeful that this Foreclosure Crisis will have an ending at some point, with some possible solutions shining down on the other side of the tunnel.

We did help a senior client solve his subprime predatory lending-induced delinquency recently. We helped him apply for reverse mortgage so he didn't have to lose his home. That felt really good.
ziasudra: (Default)
Moon cakes are arriving our office in droves! Dark lotus, white lotus, no yolk, two egg yolks, sweet, salty with ham... you name it, we got 'em. Just last week alone, the office had already consumed three boxes of moon cakes and given away more than 10 as "prizes" to last Friday's small business owners karaoke lunch (don't ask...). I also got a box of Wing Wah white-lotus-with-two-yolks moon cake to take home with me, which is yum.

Today, Boss Lady bought what looks like 10+ lbs of longan fruits and gave each person a handful. Before I even finished the fruits, she gathered everyone up for "chee see cake time" to divvy up two cheesecakes a co-worker had made over the weekend. Now I've returned to my desk and discovered even more longan fruits cluttered next to my keyboard. I think I'm going to keep eating until the end of the day...

*is bloated*

Loooong Day

Jul. 9th, 2008 11:54 pm
ziasudra: (Default)
Oh, grants.gov, how I'd love to hate you!

Due to a variety of technical difficulties (one of them being our office's network security protection/access being too good), I ended up spending hours trying to get the online government grant submission site to work. With two proposals being initially rejected due to -- get this -- "broken pipe" (their words, not mine :p), I wasn't feeling too optimistic that I'd be able to successfully submit the proposals at a decent hour. Turns out, after numerous phone calls to the grants.gov IT help desk, I had to lower the access security of Adobe Reader to allow full transmission of data. I didn't leave the office until ~9:30 p.m. Blech.

Then I spent an hour and a half talking with a street person named John -- long story -- which means I had just managed to get home at a quarter to midnight. I'm in desperate need of a shower now, and then after that, sleep.
ziasudra: (Default)
Haha, I'm dense. Boss Lady & co-workers gathered the entire office to go have dim sum for lunch today and halfway through the meal I asked the person who organized this, "What's the occasion?"

Turns out the lunch was to celebrate my (almost) birthday.

Heh. Never mind that I've co-planned many recent office birthday surprises myself. Apparently I'm gullible enough to fall for things right before my eyes. *is oblivious*

I'm going back and forth between beaming and headdesking right now. And falling asleep from food coma. Mmmmm... Chinese food. *burps*


ETA: Obliviousness x 2! We installed a new TV/computer system in the conference room today. Boss Lady lured me and my intern in to "check out the new TV." While I was distracted with searching for old Chinese pop songs on YouTube to show her, the entire office came in and there was cake. Cake! For me! Eeee, I'm soooo full now ^_^;;
ziasudra: (Default)
We had a Board meeting at work today. Board members are, by definition, Very Important People. Also rather nice, since no one can get too mean in front of container after container of Chinese food (yes, food is the highlight of the Board meeting). But Chinese food aside, Boss Lady usually shifts into super-alert mode whenever there's a Board meeting, as it's very important to please the Very Important People.

Boss Lady presented the organization's year-end report at the meeting. The year-end report that I wrote. And guess what feedback the President of the Board gave me?

"This is very well written. It's probably the best report I've seen in the past five or six years."

[livejournal.com profile] ziasudra: *beams* *squees so hard inwardly*

*squees some more*
ziasudra: (Starbucks)
Today was my last day working at Starbucks (T___T). The last thing I did was to have a review with my manager -- I got top scores, w00t! It was a series of saying goodbye to co-workers and customers the past few days. I think I'm going to curl up in my bed and mope now...

It's still too soon to post about my fellow partners and how I'm going to miss them (and miss them already), so I thought I'd post about 12 of my favorite customers as a tribute to them. There are so many more awesome customers... check out the name dump at the end of the post.

ExpandMy Amazing Customers... )
ziasudra: (Default)
The two ev0l proposals of d00m are done!!!

*collapses*

I know, I owe everyone and their pet zombie (would you believe how many of those I saw yesterday?!? Ick) replies to comments, emails, etc. I'll get to them as soon as I un-collapse.
ziasudra: (Default)
♦ I did a draft of my taxes today, using the free version of Turbo Tax linked from the IRS' page of free tax-filing programs, and estimated I might be able to generate enough new money from tax refunds to help me through a new wave of expenses and semester fees and travel spendings, etc. w00t!

Do check out the IRS page. Even if you make double (or triple) of what I make, chances of getting someone/some program to give you free filing is still quite high.

♦ Interesting news (to me, at least) of the day: YouTube plans to share revenue with users

♦ On a Starbucks note, last Friday, I worked at a different Starbucks store for the first time. It's a much smaller store down the street (literally), where there are only two openers and one of them didn't show up. So the poor shift supervisor was there all by herself until she "borrowed" me from my store. It was very interesting seeing how everything is so similar and yet different. I knew how to make the drinks and set up the pastries, but I was turning around in circles trying to locate things as simple as cups and bottles of syrup. I was "returned" to my store after a second scheduled person showed up. I enjoyed the experience. It was like taking a field trip
:)
ziasudra: (Starbucks)
Remember my squee about the new hours at my Starbucks a few days back? Well, there are always two sides to every coin, and today I experienced the Not Very Good Idea part of the hour change.

On paper, the time change makes a lot of sense:
♦ Old schedule: One shift supervisor, three openers, 30 min. prep time, store opens at 5:30 a.m.
♦ New schedule: One shift supervisor, two openers, 45 min. prep time, store opens at 6:00 a.m.

It's a great way to cut down labor cost, decrease unnecessary store operation hours (hardly anyone comes in to buy stuff between 5:30 and 6 -- lots of people come in to use the bathroom though -_-;;), and increase prep time before the doors are open. I agree with all that.

ExpandBut the new deployment doesn't leave a lot of room for margin of errors, so to speak )
ziasudra: (Default)
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!
Posting at 2 in the morning. No, I'm definitely not opening tomorrow, and the night creature that I am by nature, my bedtime instantly reverted back to late night/early morning hours *g*

I'm very glad I have tomorrow off from Starbucks. As much as I love working there, I realized I've been working eight days straight -- more than two weeks straight if you count my hectic two-day trip to Chicago last weekend as an extension of the no-rest period -- and toward the end of all the craziness, I was definitely starting to lose it.

I almost never felt annoyed at customers. But yesterday (Sunday) I was literally praying that the line would stop extending out the door, which never materialized :\ On weekends there are a lot more tourists and people who have time to dwindle about. Call me weird, but I actually like weekday morning customers who are in as much of a rush to get their drinks as I am to take their orders and get them what they want. Indecisive customers + overworked [livejournal.com profile] ziasudra = bad combination.

Then today (Monday) I'm just generally frazzled once the morning rush hit: running out of change (and taking forever to unwrap rolled coins), giving people the wrong change because I apparently forgot how to do basic arithmatic, forgetting to get people their coffees and pastries before sending them off to the sides to fetch their bar drinks... I lose at work today -_-;;

But enough navel-gazing. Here's what's happening around the world, because I haven't posted links in a while:
♦ LA Times: In mirror test, elephants show sense of self

♦ CNET: Seagate bakes security into hard-disk drive -- Hard-drive maker Seagate Technology on Monday provided more details on encryption technology designed to make life tougher for computer thieves. Good news to me.

♦ A follow-up to one of my previous post on the Brazilian election, from BBC: Brazil re-elects President Lula

♦ AP via Yahoo: Japanese champ eats 97 burgers in 8 min. I am... speechless.
ziasudra: (Writing)
Comment with your username and I'll give you an honest compliment. Then post this in your journal (if you want to) and spread the love!



5:30 a.m., October 26, 2006
*supervisor unlocks doors to Starbucks*

*not even a minute passes*

*multiple customers entered, demanding copious amounts of coffee*

6 a.m., same day
Supervisor: "Maybe we should do a coffee tasting." (Coffee tastings are for times when the store is slow.)

*not even half a minute passes*

*massive customers appear out of nowhere and the line is out the door*

Ziasudra: *headdesks*


Not surprisingly, we didn't have the time for a coffee tasting, only a tea tasting I squeezed in during my break. Where, oh where, do people get the idea that caffeine can replace sleep?
ziasudra: (Default)
See the beautiful fall leaves of Paragon Sport's home page? Pretty, but not exceptionally eye-catching, isn't it?

Well, for about 15 minutes on Friday, the home page was actually this -- I managed to capture a screen shot before the Web department took it down and replaced it with the leaves version. I rather prefer the sheep, personally, since I know I spent more time staring at the fluffy creatures than at the yellowing leaves. And if I were a customer, I'd be like, "Ooh, sheep = cool! Fleece = sheep wool. So, fleece = cool!" *fleece link clickities*

Too bad the higher ups liked the "tamer" leaves version better. *pets sheep*
ziasudra: (Cat Reg)
It's been thunderstorming outside for the past many, many hours. I'm glad I'm indoors.

I spent the past few minutes looking out the windows, just staring at the sheets of rain pouring from the sky, catching the flashes of lightning, listening to the rolling thunders, and watching the streets being lighted whenever lightnings flash across the sky.

Thunderstorms are awe-inspiring and remind me of God. Hopefully this thunderstorm won't add too much to the existing disaster of flooding in the area.



I’ve been thinking a lot about the concept of grace lately. It’s always been a subject that I’m interested in, but this post at [livejournal.com profile] robed_embrace got me thinking about the whole connection between forgiveness and grace, and what is it that makes these things so desirable yet difficult to give out.

As I’m looking around for jobs, I realize the one thing I really, really want—but probably won’t find too much of—is a gracious work environment. I was totally spoiled with working for InterVarsity, when grace and love for one another was almost a given. It’s too bad that being a campus staff isn’t my calling in life; I’d really like to stick around IV some more.
(Yes, I know about the less than gracious moments too. They do exist and I’ve seen plenty of that.)

And believe it or not, when I worked at McDonalds, there was a lot of grace going around too. I’ve been trying for ages to pinpoint why I absolutely, positively LOVED working at McDonalds, and maybe this is it—most of the Mexican employees were in the same boat, so to speak, and they worked together almost like a family (with a generous share of bickering and blame shifting). At the end of the day, no matter how bad things went, many of them still carpooled and/or shared apartments with each other. Yes, there were stuck-up managers and a few Everybody’s Least Favorite Employees, but even they were seen as part of a group, like the annoying mole on your left arm that’s still part of your body.

Let’s not forget the Chinese restaurant job. I was a part of the family, even becoming the boss’ daughter’s tutor when she became one of my kiddies at the middle school. Taking her out to movies and helping her work on her high school application were like part of my job responsibilities, even working on her dad’s résumé *g*

Hmph, all the job hunting has turned me emo and introspective. Maybe my true calling is to work as a jack of all trades at a family-owned restaurant
^_^;;
ziasudra: (Default)
So, remember how I resolved last semester that I'm not going to end yet another semester by stressing myself out with two jobs? Well.

Got a call today and was offered another month-long gig at a publisher. This time it'll be production instead of copyediting, but it's with the same company, so I kind of know what to expect. Pay is good—suffice to say that it's more than 4 times what I would have earned back in my teenaged McDonald's job. But same as before, I'd have to cut back on my kiddies job at the school and I'll work myself right into the busiest part of the semester, with a final paper and thesis progress looming over my head.

I'm also offered an opportunity to work extra hours with the school over the next few weeks. Shifts are flexible, and the extra work carries into the weekend. I signed up for this before I got the call from the publisher. So if I take the temp job and the extra work, it'll be straight working from weekday to weekend. Hmm.

So, two jobs? Three jobs? Good idea? Bad idea?

[Poll #700137]
ziasudra: (Default)
If you still recall, I was working as a temp copy proofreader for three weeks back in December. My stint was with TWICE magazine, the publication that is currently following the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) at Las Vegas, January 5-7, 2006.

I read pretty much everything for their CES Daily, except for the ads and some articles that came in after I finished working there (the picture is a few years back).

It was a lot of fun (I had a hard time convincing my supervisor that reading copy for eight hours straight was fun) to read about the different types of consumer electronics products that are set to make their debut at the International CES. I learned a lot too, albeit about products that are way beyond my budget to acquire.

But in case you're interested in buying that latest toy for parents/friends/siblings, here are some things that I read about over and over again while working at TWICE, so I figure they must be the highlights of the show
;)

~ Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD. Is it a format war? How much better is one over another, or are they both good in different aspects? From PC World: DVD Format Wars: Bad for Everyone?

~ MP3 players of all kinds, from the iPod to iPod imitations to iPod competitors. Players are getting nifty. Video playback and wireless connection are among the new features being heavily promoted, as well as a host of accessories designed to accompany newest models of MP3 players. From Digital-Lifestyle: CES 2006 Starts: MP3 Player Sales To Soar 200%

~ LCD screen TVs. It seems the plasma TVs aren't as hot anymore, literally. LCD-screen TVs are the latest talk of the town, ranging from the BenQ PL 427 42-inch LCD TV to the (!) Sony 82-inch LCD TV. I can't even imagine fitting an 82-inch into a room! But don't discard plasmas just yet. A host of new plasma technologies are introduced with new TV models, with Philips showcasing a bunch, IIRC.

~ Bluetooth. This is going to be everywhere at the International CES. Phones, stereo systems, MP3 players... it seems like everything is going to have Bluetooth technology in the future. If you don't know what Bluetooth is, learn about it here. Chances are, you already have some Bluetooth products at home.

~ VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). In layman's terms, Web phone. It seemed like every other article I read mentioned VoIP in some manner or capacity, with Skype and Vonage and other companies coming up with new service packages and better technology. With broadband Internet connection becoming more popular, VoIP will most likely experience a surge in 2006. If I'm not so much a non-phone person, I'd probably give Skype a try. *hides from friend who works for Vonage*


I can go on, but that'd be regurgitating hundreds and hundreds of pages I proofread while working at TWICE. I'm just really excited about the International CES because I'm geographically close enough to Las Vegas for the local news station to be talking about The Big Happening in town for consumer electronics peeps.

And becaues I'm a complete blog geek, here's TWICE's blog, reporting in from the International CES.
ziasudra: (Default)
So, first day of work today. It went well. I didn't feel like I was as "new" as last time, because it's technically my second time working for the same umbrella corporation, and the cubicle layout on every floor is exactly the same, so I felt right at home :)

I read copy for eight hours straight, making changes by hand O_O It was a LONG day. Good thing I remember all my editing symbols. Now, this may not sound fun, but I had a good time. I never learned so much about consumer electronics, never knew that, if you have the money, the entertainment systems you can buy can be so absolutely amazing.

For example:
The YAMAHA RX-V2600 receivers. Suggested price at $1,399 USD, it has a 4000:1 contrast ratio, 720p Texas Instrument DarkChip 2 (whatever that is), brightness level of up to 1,000 ANSI lumens, a six-segment color wheel, adjustable color mode, and customized optical design.

Of course, I was more excited over reading about MFuel (Mobile Fuel) Digital Power Line products. An MFuel Pak line Game Pak, at $199.99, can extend hand-held video game device's battery life by some ridiculous amount of hours, among other things. Not to mention the CK 3400 LS-GPS device with Bluetooth technology, promoted by Parrot, that would make a perfect Dad/Uncle/Male Friend if I haven't had such bad experiences with GPS systems in the past. I've decided that I like Bluetooth technology, even though I don't have a cell phone and rarely use my PDA.

So I survived my first day ^_^ I predict that I'll spend the rest of my temp job drooling over product descriptions as I comb through them to take out commas and add in hyphens.
ziasudra: (Cat)
I had a good interview and... I have a job!!!

This is totally an unexpected blessing, a pleasant surprise, an early Christmas present. I went into the interview with some really clear stipulations: I need to start next Tuesday, need to have flexible Mondays and Fridays so I can go teach my kiddies, and need to be able to leave early on Wednesday for the first half of the month for a class.

I didn't even need to open my mouth. Literally. The editor-in-chief managing editor said everything for me between the two of them: they expect me to work Tuesdays through Thursdays for the month of December, are totally fine with me leaving early on Wednesdays, and my first day is to be next Tuesday. I might even get a pay raise from my last time around, since the rates are higher during Christmas season.

I took that all as some sort of divine confirmation.

So I'm back where I was at the end of last semester: simultaneous papers-in-progress, and two part-time jobs. Only this time, I have 3 papers + a Web site to develop instead of just 2 papers, and on top of everything, there's a holiday rush I need to shop/write/mail items for. But it's all good
:) I hope...

Thanks to all of you who gave me advice/thoughts. *hugs*

Note: This means that I will be at Address #1 (the New York one) for the entire December. Use Address #2 only if you want the mail to get to me in the first half of January.
ziasudra: (Default)
Got a phone message yesterday. Called back today.

- Hello, Ziasudra? This is L calling from [company name]. I came across your résumé and have a temp job position for you.
- *inwardly jumping* What are the details about this job?
- It'll be for about a month, most likely only for December.
- What kind of hours will this require?
- Regular, 9 to 5. Are you interested?
- Er... yes, I'd like to know more details about this.
- Great! I'll set you up for an interview with the supervisor.

Fast forward to the end of the conversation. In short, I landed myself an interview tomorrow at 10 a.m., with the "supervisor," who, incidentally, is the editor-in-chief of the publication that I will potentially be working for.

Now, here's the hard part. Assuming everything goes well, I'll pretty much have the job. But should I take it? I made a list of pros and cons. What do you think?

ExpandRead List... )

I guess I'll find out tomorrow whether I'll be potentially hired. But in the mean time, what kind of vibes are you getting? Should I go for it? Not go for it? Any thoughts/comments/suggestions?

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