Domestic Geek

I am finding it increasingly difficult to care about my current workplace. They should've just let me go with a severence, y'know? Like you're going to get my full attention for the next three weeks. It's hard enough to finish out a two week notice period when you're the one that initiated it. Try doing a month when your employer is letting you go and there are too many designers working here. It's a good thing Independence Day is next week and I get that day off. It's so tempting to call in, but I can't afford to have them dock my pay, y'know?

I made it over to the Tattered Cover on Saturday. It wasn't any more busy than ususal. The sad thing was that all of the comfy reading chairs had already been taken out. They had some folding chairs set around, but not really conducive to sitting back to enjoy the atmosphere. I was talking to one of the employees about their move and he had said that everything was going to be moved in one day. According to a piece on saw on WB2 news this morning, they did it. I'll go check out the new digs later this week.

Marcus and I went to Finn McCool's for dinner last night. I had a gift certificate that expires on 6/30, so that was the last opportunity we had to use it. It's in a really bad spot, though. It's up on Arapahoe & I-25 and unless you know it's there, you'd never see it. I had a Buttermilk Fried Chicken breast. Not too bad. The broccoli was really tasty. I'd go again if it was closer. The pool is free, so Marcus and I played a couple of games. Man, I am so out of practice. I used to be really good, but now, not so good. It was good to do something a little different for once.

Well, I thought I had lots to say, but can't really think of anything else.

I read a Sneaky Sugars article on Discovery Health earlier this week that talked about the incredible amounts of sugar in our diets. It said that 7 grams of sugar (on the nutrition label) is approximately 1 Tablespoon! Not small t teaspoon, but large T Tablespoon. I was appalled. Out of curiosity, I looked at the label of the Dannon Frusion I've been buying for breakfast lately (thinking it was healthy). One little 10 oz. bottle of mixed berry flavor had 48 grams of sugar—almost 7 tablespoons! Don't even get me started that part of that sugar was High Fructose Corn Syrup. No wonder I don't lose weight. Then people have the audacity to wonder why our society is so overweight. I'm making a concerted effort to rid my diet of as much processed sugars as possible. I'll still have an occasional Starbucks or a coke for a treat, but no more white sugar in my tea, no more processed beverages daily, no more!

Today is the last day that The Tattered Cover Bookstore will be open in Cherry Creek. I'm heading over there to have one last wander around. It's kind of sad since it's been there so long, but at the same time, maybe i'll go more often now that it will be somewhere that has close free parking. Now I have to park in the Cherry Creek mall's parking garage or park in one of the neighborhoods several blocks away and walk over. I hope it's not overly busy, but I'm afraid it will be. I'll kick myself if I don't at least give it a try, though.

So, I've tried to post about this three separate times this week. Each time I forgot to hit "submit" before I closed the browser window. Lame. Here we go again:

I was told on Monday that my last day of work will be July 14 and no, I haven't found a job yet. I'm a little panicky. This is what I get for trying to be honest with my employer. I figured if I let him know I was looking, they'd hire somebody when I found something. HA! My replacement started on Wednesday. Everybody around here knew for awhile except me. I knew people were avoiding me, I just didn't know why. Yay. I didn't think it would take this long to find another job, though. I should've just taken my piddly raise, kept my mouth shut and gave a two weeks' notice when I found something. That'll teach me. I know in the long run this will be a good thing because I really hate driving all the way down here for a job I don't really like all that much, but it still sucks that I didn't leave on my terms and am now being forced out. My manager told me I could file for unemployment. Yeah, like I'd do that unless it was the last resort. Anybody need any design work done?
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Threadless is having a contest and I really need to come up with an awsesome entry. Here's the Grand Prize:

• 17" Apple MacBook Pro
• Adobe CreativeSuite 2 Premium (for Mac)
• Wacom Graphire 6x8 Tablet
• Canon Pixma iP4200 Color Printer
• Apple 1GB iPod Nano
• Sony MDR-V7000DJ Headphones
• "Font Showcase" font package from T26
• Full collection of custom printed CDRs & DVDRs with Trigger Cases from 5inch
• $100 iTunes Gift Certificate
• 2 12-pack cases of Red Bull
• 12 Club Membership
• $300 Threadless Gift Certificate
• $500 in cash

A PRIZE PACKAGE WORTH MORE THAN $6,000!

Yeah, so I want that.

I went to the Denver Media Group meeting Wednesday night. Man, was that a huge waste of my time! The topic was CSS and it was supposed to be about the new CSS features in Dreamweaver 8. Well, most of those people there are print designers and don't know squat about HTML or CSS. The others of us were extremely well-versed in web design and CSS and just wanted to know about the Dreamweaver features. The lady that was there was knowledgable about Adobe GoLive, but no so much Dreamweaver (Macromedia was only purchased by Adobe about 6 months ago). She spent most of the time trying to explain CSS to the designers and was greeted mostly by glazed stares. I was bored because we never really got into what I went for. *sigh* Oh, well. Then, the main door prize was a copy of Dreamweaver 8. It was won by the guy that runs the prepress department at Marcus' new job. He doesn't do web at all and probably won't ever use the software. Not fair. Should've been two separate places to throw your business card. At least my friend and former superior from the screenprinting place won a Dreamweaver 8 book and he let me have it (he was one of the people glazing over during the presentation). Maybe if I ever get Dreamweaver 8, it will come in handy.

It's been a good week for bumming lunch off of people. Tuesday, one of the franchise owners was here and he took me and my manager to lunch. I think the manager was feeling guilty for having to let me know I was out of here the day before and that's why they invited me along. Whatever. Free food when I'm poor is a good thing. Then today our office manager took us to lunch. We all ordered calzones. They were so huge that everybody had half of one left to take home. YUM!

Did you hear about the Saga of the Stolen Sidekick? A woman left her cell in a cab in New York and the people that had it wouldn't return it. I found the link inititally on a friend's site and have been checking the status of the whole ordeal daily. The police finally arrested the chick that had it and now a lot of people are definding that girl and giving the guy that put the web site up grief because they want to auction the phone off on eBay. Geez, people, get a life. When did it become ok to excuse bad behavior? I'm becoming increasingly disgusted with how criminals are treated like victims and victims are treated like criminals.

I want to learn more about Kabbalah.

I'm freezing here. Air conditioning was put in a couple of weeks ago because we were all roasting. Now we're cold. I complained (nicely) and I'm not the only one that's cold, but I'm being ignored. Sometimes I am so cold that I can't even type. Not good. One more reason I'll be glad to be away from here.

Well, I had a lot more to say earlier in the week but can't seem to remember a lick of it right now. I guess I'll have to save whatever that was for another time.

If you missed it when I said it before, I love reading Gaping Void. Of particular interest to me was his How to be Creative posts. Dig around there a little—read it all...it's good stuff.