We have clouds, rain, 60 degree weather. This calls for hot chocolate.
Oh, but not just any hot chocolate. It calls for spicy hot chocolate. I can't even drink the regular stuff anymore.
Just mix a little cayenne and a little cinnamon in with your regular cocoa mix, and tada! It's soooooooo good. You must try it. Trust me.
If you think that I'm weird, think again. I didn't invent this myself. The credit goes to Caribou Coffee. I just figured out how to make an enjoyable home substitute.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Monday, October 3, 2011
I'm Out of Meat
So I'm not allowed to buy groceries until I'm either completely out of food because of this whole moving thing. Well, I'm pretty much out of meat, which means I'm going to primarily be vegetarian soon (temporarily).
I have 1 can of tuna, 1 fish filet, and 2 bratwurst.
I will probably eat the can of tuna sometime soon, and the brats are going to be eaten with some pasta and spaghetti sauce for meals later this week. I'm saving the fish filet to celebrate when I get a job (if I get a job before I have to move, that is). So perhaps in the next week I will run out of meat.
I'm not really that bothered. I have gone vegetarian before because meat takes too much time to cook (I can be lazy) and because meat is expensive (I can be cheap).
Tonight, in transition towards my impending meatlessness, I am eating broccoli and garlic sauce over rice. Yep, that's it. Hooray for living cheap and cleaning out the cupboards. I'm actually quite pleased with this arrangement.
I have 1 can of tuna, 1 fish filet, and 2 bratwurst.
I will probably eat the can of tuna sometime soon, and the brats are going to be eaten with some pasta and spaghetti sauce for meals later this week. I'm saving the fish filet to celebrate when I get a job (if I get a job before I have to move, that is). So perhaps in the next week I will run out of meat.
I'm not really that bothered. I have gone vegetarian before because meat takes too much time to cook (I can be lazy) and because meat is expensive (I can be cheap).
Tonight, in transition towards my impending meatlessness, I am eating broccoli and garlic sauce over rice. Yep, that's it. Hooray for living cheap and cleaning out the cupboards. I'm actually quite pleased with this arrangement.
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Crochet Madness
My super secret crochet project.
It's not so super-secret now that I've posted it on here.
The bird hat for my mom.
The angle makes the one eye look like it has more white than it really does.
It's pretty cool thus far.
Working on a scarf now.
Applied for the Job I Really Want
So I wrote a cover letter and revised my resume yesterday for the job I really want. Thanks to my peer reviewers, Lindsey, Chris, and Adriane.
It was an electronic application, but I still got to write a traditional cover letter, which is what I really prefer.
And, though they did have a box for cutting and pasting my resume into, they also had an upload Word document option, so I got to use my branded resume. You know, it has my name very large so people will remember me and a font that hopefully captures my professional persona.
I do worry that with a Word document, they will have a different version of Word and things will shift and look messy, or they won't have the same fonts, so it will default to something ugly (nervous smile face). I wish I could have uploaded it in PDF format, but that never happens.
I'm excited, and I really hope I get this job. I do need to keep applying for other things though. It would be very silly to put my eggs all in one basket, especially with such a well-known company that will probably receive hordes of applications.
It was an electronic application, but I still got to write a traditional cover letter, which is what I really prefer.
And, though they did have a box for cutting and pasting my resume into, they also had an upload Word document option, so I got to use my branded resume. You know, it has my name very large so people will remember me and a font that hopefully captures my professional persona.
I do worry that with a Word document, they will have a different version of Word and things will shift and look messy, or they won't have the same fonts, so it will default to something ugly (nervous smile face). I wish I could have uploaded it in PDF format, but that never happens.
I'm excited, and I really hope I get this job. I do need to keep applying for other things though. It would be very silly to put my eggs all in one basket, especially with such a well-known company that will probably receive hordes of applications.
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Captain Productivity....Up, up, and away!
So, I have been out of town the past two weekends. It's resulted in my apartment being a general disaster all week, so I'm gonna clean up my mess, and then hopefully still feel enough motivation to apply for a job or two.
I've already loaded the crochet projects into their appropriate baskets, made coffee, sorted laundry, put the clean dishes away.
Right now, I've got the timer going for a load of laundry. I have four more lovely, color-coded mounds taking up the living room floor. It's a laundry rainbow, but I guess that's what happens when you wait 3 weeks to do laundry--towels, bedding, bathrobe, all the random extras need washed at once. I wore most of my jeans at least 3 times.
I've got a stack of receipts and mail next to me to sort and log. I will sort the mail into piles for filing, shredding, and responding. I log all my receipts into a notebook with categories of spending so that I can see how much I am spending and assess how I can improve my finances. My budget is pretty tight, so it's important to know where I stand. Right now I stand in a mound of receipts because I've been on the road a lot, and that happens. This will have been a pricy month. Hopefully October will be like August...surprisingly cheap.
After that, I think I will make zucchini bread to work as breakfast. I have a rule when it gets down to the last month-or-so before I move that I have to be very creative with my food and eat what I have. I ran out of cereal yesterday, so the baking supplies will be developing breakfasts for the remainder of my time here. I think when I get down to the bare bones of my fridge, freezer, and cupboards, I will buy 1 bag of potstickers and 1 of edamame for my dinners. I will perhaps buy a few sale microwave box meals for lunch at work. Potstickers smell like feet when microwaved, and it's never a good idea to make your work environment smell like that.
Of course, the cat crawled into my lap while I've been blogging, and that always ruins my motivation to do anything. This morning she was curled up next to me on the bed, so I read the first 50 pages of Water for Elephants instead of getting up. I really do need to apply for jobs though, and I'd also like a relaxing bath to perhaps indulge in more reading about circus folks, so I'd best clean up this place. A serious vacuuming should be in order after the laundry rainbow is washed, dried, and folded and no longer on the floor.
I've already loaded the crochet projects into their appropriate baskets, made coffee, sorted laundry, put the clean dishes away.
Right now, I've got the timer going for a load of laundry. I have four more lovely, color-coded mounds taking up the living room floor. It's a laundry rainbow, but I guess that's what happens when you wait 3 weeks to do laundry--towels, bedding, bathrobe, all the random extras need washed at once. I wore most of my jeans at least 3 times.
I've got a stack of receipts and mail next to me to sort and log. I will sort the mail into piles for filing, shredding, and responding. I log all my receipts into a notebook with categories of spending so that I can see how much I am spending and assess how I can improve my finances. My budget is pretty tight, so it's important to know where I stand. Right now I stand in a mound of receipts because I've been on the road a lot, and that happens. This will have been a pricy month. Hopefully October will be like August...surprisingly cheap.
After that, I think I will make zucchini bread to work as breakfast. I have a rule when it gets down to the last month-or-so before I move that I have to be very creative with my food and eat what I have. I ran out of cereal yesterday, so the baking supplies will be developing breakfasts for the remainder of my time here. I think when I get down to the bare bones of my fridge, freezer, and cupboards, I will buy 1 bag of potstickers and 1 of edamame for my dinners. I will perhaps buy a few sale microwave box meals for lunch at work. Potstickers smell like feet when microwaved, and it's never a good idea to make your work environment smell like that.
Of course, the cat crawled into my lap while I've been blogging, and that always ruins my motivation to do anything. This morning she was curled up next to me on the bed, so I read the first 50 pages of Water for Elephants instead of getting up. I really do need to apply for jobs though, and I'd also like a relaxing bath to perhaps indulge in more reading about circus folks, so I'd best clean up this place. A serious vacuuming should be in order after the laundry rainbow is washed, dried, and folded and no longer on the floor.
Friday, September 30, 2011
"On Keeping a Notebook"
I just read Joan Didion's "On Keeping a Notebook," courtesy of my friend Brigit's blog (that's brig + it, not bridge + it).
As a side note, Brigit is the original source of my nickname Schurl. I owe her for it. It has become my unique identifier. The one separated out from family history and background. It's me, as the person I have made of myself, not defined by where I come from.
Anywho, back to "On Keeping a Notebook." I read it, and while some moments were so distant to me that I was only skimming and not absorbing, other's hit like a brain freeze, forcing a strange sort of self reflection.
Reading what Didion wrote about why she keeps a notebook was like reading about myself. It made me feel like an ethereal poet. Somehow above this world and removed from it in an empowering spiritual way. It also made me feel hollow, removed -- hopeless. I will never be enough in touch with reality to be happy with the way things are. I'm in my own little world, both beautiful and empty, toggling back and forth between pride and self-dejection.
This all sounds very melancholy, but it's this toggling perspective that drives me to do something meaningful, yet hopefully keeps me humble after I accomplish things. It's not bad, just difficult.
As a side note, Brigit is the original source of my nickname Schurl. I owe her for it. It has become my unique identifier. The one separated out from family history and background. It's me, as the person I have made of myself, not defined by where I come from.
Anywho, back to "On Keeping a Notebook." I read it, and while some moments were so distant to me that I was only skimming and not absorbing, other's hit like a brain freeze, forcing a strange sort of self reflection.
Reading what Didion wrote about why she keeps a notebook was like reading about myself. It made me feel like an ethereal poet. Somehow above this world and removed from it in an empowering spiritual way. It also made me feel hollow, removed -- hopeless. I will never be enough in touch with reality to be happy with the way things are. I'm in my own little world, both beautiful and empty, toggling back and forth between pride and self-dejection.
This all sounds very melancholy, but it's this toggling perspective that drives me to do something meaningful, yet hopefully keeps me humble after I accomplish things. It's not bad, just difficult.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Productivity--Always Difficult to Define
So I've been pretty productive.
I haven't, however, applied for any jobs this week. I need to. Saturday, I better behave myself and commit to the time consuming process.
I will need to tailor my resume to each job. Research each company and write cover letters. Send it all off. I will probably be forced to fill out some of those tedious and redudant online applications, which are so hard to do well. I really do prefer a quality cover letter and a resume to those online systems. They strip away ones humanity, and really, it's a particular manifestation of humanity that makes a good documentation specialist.
I mean, to write something that communicates important information, you have to be able to get into the shoes of other people. Not everyone is good at that. Documentation specialists need to be attuned to the needs of others to increase communication. I'm not talking empathy here; I'm talking awareness, even logic. A strong sense of the social interworkings that make communication work is necessary.
I guess these systems could work if you're looking at experience, if you're relying on the resume to do all the work. I'm applying for entry-level jobs, the resume can't do all the work. The cover letter has to make the impression, and it's almost impossible to do so in those online structures--at least most that I've seen.
So please, cross your fingers that I don't have to fill out those things. They are not my forte.
- I cranked out a miniature crochet object that will remain mysteriously non-descript for now.
- I have finished the basic form of the bluebird hat for my mom, complete with wing-shaped flaps. I also completed the white portion of one eye.
I haven't, however, applied for any jobs this week. I need to. Saturday, I better behave myself and commit to the time consuming process.
I will need to tailor my resume to each job. Research each company and write cover letters. Send it all off. I will probably be forced to fill out some of those tedious and redudant online applications, which are so hard to do well. I really do prefer a quality cover letter and a resume to those online systems. They strip away ones humanity, and really, it's a particular manifestation of humanity that makes a good documentation specialist.
I mean, to write something that communicates important information, you have to be able to get into the shoes of other people. Not everyone is good at that. Documentation specialists need to be attuned to the needs of others to increase communication. I'm not talking empathy here; I'm talking awareness, even logic. A strong sense of the social interworkings that make communication work is necessary.
I guess these systems could work if you're looking at experience, if you're relying on the resume to do all the work. I'm applying for entry-level jobs, the resume can't do all the work. The cover letter has to make the impression, and it's almost impossible to do so in those online structures--at least most that I've seen.
So please, cross your fingers that I don't have to fill out those things. They are not my forte.
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