| I worked from home today, spending most of the day installing, configuring, and customizing a Lotus Notes database that I’m going to use for edit planning and managing.
I had a four o’clock one-on-one meeting via telephone with my manager, during which she informed me of some personnel and project churn—no big deal, pretty much BAU stuff. After we hung up, I remembered that I wanted to ask her about this year’s raises, and so I pinged her on our instant message system and asked her about them. “Can you dial back in?” she asked. |
I guess she wanted to tell me in person that I wasn’t getting a raise, which is exactly what I expected—and am perfectly fine with. I’m no stellar performer, and I’m way at the high end of the salary range for my level, and knowing this is exactly why my expectations were in line with reality.
I always look at raises as “gravy,” and since I live well below my means, it’s never a big deal when the gravy boat comes up empty.
| Good week for… | Bad week for… |
| Giving up smoking, after new taxes increased the price of a pack of cigarettes in New York City to more than $10. | Sharon Stone, who was banned from the Shanghai International Film Festival after she said China’s recent earthquake, which killed 70,000 people, was karmic payback for its oppression of Tibet. “Looking at it on the tape,” Stone later said of her remarks, “I look like a complete ding-dong.” |
~From The Week Magazine 06/13/08~
I decided today to not do the add-on trip to Hong Kong when I go to China in October.
It was a late night at the gym tonight. Kevin (av8rdude) and I were going to meet there at 7:30, but at about 6:15 he called to say he had been preempted by food and friends. I can’t think of a better reason to forgo the gym! So I went alone at about 7:00.
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Cardio (Treadmill) |
30 |
336 |
There was the most inane stuff on just about every television in the place tonight. It just blows my mind to think that anybody watches some of these shows.
After showering at the gym, I went to D.H. Hill Library on N.C. State‘s campus, only to find the walkway blocked that goes around to the entrance, and a sign directing you to go through Scott Hall to get to the brickyard, off of which is the entrance.
Well that’s all well and good if you’re a student and can get in the buildings at 9:00 at night. I’m not. And, I can’t.
Annoyed, I contemplated going to Helios, but they close at 10:00 tonight, which hardly makes it worth the time to get down there and logged in and stuff. By the way, who said Twitter isn’t valuable? It was reported on twitter today by @abbyladybug: Just in! A msg from a friend who works at Helios: “You can come back to Helios, we just raised the banquet seats and lowered the big table.”
Not only did the word get out using Twitter that they had addressed the situation, but the whole reason they did address it was because of people tweeting about how disappointed they were in the redesign! One of the tweeters forwarded the feedback to them, and they took action! I’m just saying…
I was on my way back home, when I remembered Cup A Joe in the Mission Valley Shopping Center, and I stopped there to have a cup of coffee and use their free wifi.
Of course, they wouldn’t know what a Single Iced Skinny Caramella Sugar Free was if I ordered one, so I tried their King Milky Way instead. My first reaction was, “This is terrible.” But, the more I drank of it, the more it grew on me. I think all the good stuff was at the bottom. Yum!
I stopped at the grocery store for vinegar, sponges, coffee filters, and crackers, all of which I got—and then some.
It’s very close to the four-month mark now before I participate in the People to People Citizen Ambassador Program’s Technical Communication Professional Delegation to The People’s Republic of China.
To that end, I tip-toed into some basic Chinese lessons for the first time tonight: Mandarin Chinese Lessons with Serge Melnyk. Oh boy. Not going to be a smooth ride at all: 