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July 13th, 2009

12:48 pm - Funemployment Stage 3 They decided I didn't qualify for benefits for the first 2 weeks I should technically qualify for benefits because of my severance pay. Therefore, the week of July 4 is my "wait week", so I don't get paid for that week either. Sooooo I should get my money once they process my claim for this week next week sometime. They really don't want to give me any money. Radagast was neutered last Thursday and he is recovering well. I created a pen for him in the living room because he keeps jumping and zooming which is irritating his incision. It's not swollen or leaking but there is a big scab over it now. The vet told us to keep it clean but I'm not touching that scab. Better to let nature do its thing. My classes are in full swing and I have a lot of work to do. They are pretty easy and the assignments are pretty basic. The most challenging is my Editing class because I've taken on a big project. The other three are a piece of cake. For Usability, Nick has enlisted me to do a Usability study for one of their websites. He was tasked with it and unsure what to do, so I offered to do it for my class project. I'm also taking Fundamentals of Document Design, and I'm still not sure what I'm going to do for that class. I think on the ubuntu-doc mailing list someone drafted a CLI reference and I suggested putting it into a PocketMod layout, so I might do that for my project. I am not a fan of the instructor. She's nice but she's a froofy old lady and spends too much time talking about things that are common sense. A pre-req for the class was familiarity with layout software but that's not the case for most of the class, so she's dumbing things down to that level. Whatever, that's what bringing my laptop to class is for ;) She also seems to like to assign a lot of tedious homework. We actually have two assignments for the next class, redesign a flyer that she's provided in Microsoft Publisher format (which means I'll have to get it into InDesign somehow) and write a 1-2 page paper about a pamphlet of our choosing. I'm kind of regretting taking this class because I think I could have just read a book on it and gotten more out of it. Well, I have 4 more weeks to go, so we'll see, maybe she'll pick up the pace a little and quit talking about a lot of touchy feely common sense nonsense. My last class of the week is Fundamentals of Technical Writing and the same instructor that teaches my Editing class is teaching that one. He's great, he's got a fantastic, cynical sense of humor, he's genuinely interested in the people in the class, and he doesn't waste time going over things that should be "common sense". He rides the bus so we usually ride together after class is done. For Fundamentals of Tech Writing we're doing a group project. While I would rather work on something independently I understand the point is for people who haven't had group experience to understand what it's like working on things in the real world. We asked the instructor to just randomly assign groups, so he did based on where we were sitting, which was fine. I have a pretty awesome group. There are four of us, three of us are very much on the same page about things, and the fourth marches to the beat of a different drum. The other two, like me, have worked in corporate and have ample group/people skills. The odd duck is an older gal who hasn't had any group experience, has limited computer skills, and seems to not quite understand a lot of how the world works. Luckily the three of us are pretty focused on what needs to get done and we're very encouraging and not letting her distract or derail us. It's nice to have balance. Also the three of us are very pro-active about getting started on the project, so there isn't a sense of one person running everything and we feel it's a good balance. For our topic, we chose how to make a balcony garden. I didn't want to do anything too technical because no one else the group was comfortable with it and I wanted to make sure the project would be fun for everyone. If they had wanted to do something more technical I would have been more than happy to accommodate, but when we met I blatantly said, I will go along with whatever is chosen. When we were fishing for ideas, I just blurted out the balcony garden idea and everyone loved it. Ends up another gal in my group has also been wanting to do that! On top of that I'm working on the Ubuntu Install Guide. We finally sorted out our sections and I've got 3 I'm working on. I also plan to start the USB docs at some point... I was hoping to do that for my Fundamentals of Tech Writing class buuuut since we had to do a group project that wasn't gonna work. *sigh* On the job front, Nick is seeing what he can do to create an internship with a Copywriter that works in his division. Nick wouldn't be my boss; I would answer to a manager parallel to him. The Copywriter has a Tech Writing background but prefers Marketing Writing, and she's swamped and there's a ton of technical writing stuff that needs to be done. I'd be making as much as I'm making on unemployment but the work experience would be good, I'd like the work environment ok, and there would likely be a conversion opportunity in my future. So we'll see, hopefully that pans out. Current Mood: busy Current Music: Cocktails for Two - Spike Jones

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July 5th, 2009

08:28 am - Funemployment Stage 2 We hadn't checked the mail on Friday and lo and behold, a letter stating that YES I am eligible! Gee, thanks. I am taking "training" classes and reported it, initially thinking I'd get some love from Worksource but once I read the fine print in the stuff I recieved I realized it is more headache in my case than it's worth. So I said YES I am available for work, NO I won't forfeit my tuition, because I am taking part-time night classes and I'm not interested in non-regular daytime hours jobs at this point in my life. Been there, done that, no thanks. 9-5 plz. Now I have to follow up with them about severance payments I received from my former employer :) It's really dumb, the severance is a bonus that is attached to your previous employment and per their FAQ don't affect your current benefits. I totally get that. However, you still have to report it. Lame sauce. SO for the past two weeks I claimed I received two severance payouts, one each week. For those 2 weeks they are assessing my "availability" before approving payment. Also, my last day as an employee was June 15, but the week started on June 14. Because Funemployment works in weeks, they have to do extra paperwork to determine my payout for that specific week. Originally I was going to wait a week before claiming but the information I had said I needed to claim right away or I risked a delay in getting benefits. Um. I'd hate to see what they consider to be a delay... Yay bureaucracy.

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July 4th, 2009

02:59 pm Yargh, got a letter from unemployment that they are backlogged so it will take 4-6 weeks to process my claim. *sigh* Lucky thing I've got severance. I should get a payout about the time I find a new job :D Speaking of which Nick has been helping me out! I had suggested his team should hire me for a 6 month internship while I'm working on my cert. Ends up there's a need so it's a definite possibility. I am vying for August/September. Their division is currently doing well, even in this economy, so it's likely if I did land an internship that it could turn into something permanent. I'd be open to it because I expect the work wouldn't be so challenging and all-consuming that I'd still have time to contribute to the other projects I'm volunteering on. Also his company is Linux friendly :D Mainly what I'm looking for right now is a friendly, low key work environment where I can do my thing for a few years and not be consumed by work. I'm so burned out from the past couple years. I don't mind getting passionate and being all invested but at this point in my life, I really need a balance. It's like I need to start over in some ways. Do something simple and work my way up. Retrace the steps I wish I would have taken immediately out of college when I was figuring things out. The great thing about life is you can always reinvent yourself. Try something out, if it's not what you thought, at least you gained some soft skills or other useful life experience. Editing class is weird. It's so different from classes I'm used to taking. The concepts are really simple and really obvious. I'm used to things that are much more complex. I am also surprised that I'm the only technical person in class. I had said in introducing myself that I was strong technically but wanted to work on my writing. We took a self-test to gauge our understanding of English Grammar and I whipped through it and got everything right. Others in the class seemed to have trouble with basic concepts like what constitutes a verb or a subject. Granted, I had to review a lot of this when I was prepping for the GRE a few years ago, but I don't claim to be strong in this area. I am very curious to discover the demographics in my other classes. I don't want to sound cocky but I think these classes will be a breeze (but interesting, and not a waste of time or anything). We're covering copyediting right now which is really boring. I don't really see how it's practical, the text we are using describes this model where you mark up hard copy and submit it to a typist. Who does that anymore? Our project is to select a "raw" draft of something and edit it. Originally I had selected part of the training manual from the NOC (company specific items removed), but going over it just brought back bad memories. I also felt kind of empty about it, like it would just be an abstract exercise, not something people would actually use. I sent an email to the Ubuntu-docs list and got 2 possibilities. One is a packaging guide for builds and the other is a multimedia guide for new Ubuntu users. I'm still deciding on which one to use. Both docs are too long for my project so I have to do a subset, although I've committed to doing the whole thing regardless of the class project situation. I like the idea of my project actually benefiting some greater thing, and I think it will lend more credibility to my portfolio. When I was in college I started working part time jobs in the computer industry so I would have some work experience by the time I graduated. I've always been a pretty practical person and never assumed I would get anything just through luck or some sense of entitlement. In this case I am aware of who I am competing with in the market and am striving to make myself as marketable as possible despite the lack of specific experience. Three more classes starting this week! Usability, Fundamentals of Document Design, and Fundamentals of Technical Communication. I will be pretty busy this month! It should be fun :D Lots of writing to do, but I write a lot anyways so that's nothing new :D

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June 28th, 2009

01:59 pm - OMBlog I have been a blogging fiend for the past couple days! One of the pieces of advice the guest speaker at the Tech Writing info session gave was to Blog. I have 3 topic areas I typically post pictures and information on and 2 public blogs (this one doesn't really count). I've been paying for hosting on 3 sites because I had a lot of archived files. So I decided to slim down. Archive the files, cancel hosting, and move one of the blogs I was hosting over to a hosted wordpress account. I also set up a 2 photoblogs on Blogger because it integrates with Picasa. I now have (besides this one) 3 blogs: Leggo My Obento - my bento blog. Augustina's Crafty Blog - my blog of all things crafty and DIY. Augustina's Technological Blog - blog replacing gldvxx.com for all things Linux and otherwise technology related. The Ubuntu Doc team had a meeting yesterday that I was able to sit in up until the tail end. I got some info about Developer documentation going on as well, which is cool because that's ultimately what I want to be doing as a career. I am officially a writer on the new installation guide. We're sorting out style guides and divvying up tasks currently. I plan to submit a draft of my USB documentation in July. I started it, but decided I would rather wait for my Tech writing classes to pick up a bit because I might be able to apply something I'm learning to these documents. Luckily we're still early in the Karmic cycle so there's no hurry as of yet. We were talking about using DITA for the install guide, but may have to postpone and stick with DocBook for now. Either one is fine. I'm curious about using OpenOffice Writer as a DocBook editor. I'm taking a course on using Microsoft Word for Technical Writing and I'm excited to see how to apply those things to OpenOffice. My experience has been that even Excel and OpenOffice Calc had parallel features. I start my first Tech Writing class on Tuesday, Professional Editing I. The following week I'll start 3 more!! I am about to be swamped, but I'm excited. As long as the unemployment $ is rolling in, I'm not too worried. Since I got severance pay during a claim week, it's complicated things a bit and it might be a few weeks before I see any money. Luckily I have another severance payout coming on Tuesday. Worst case I'm living off the severance money and then get a pile of unemployment checks. *sigh* Current Mood: determined

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June 27th, 2009

11:35 am - Technical Communications Information Session Wednesday night was an information session for the Technical Communications program at Bellevue College. I've already met with the advisor and enrolled in classes, but she suggested I should check it out as there would be more information that might be useful. I am glad that I went because I got to see a small sample of other people that are entering this field and because I was able to talk to a Programmer Writer who was presenting (the area I'm particularly interested in going into). I was amazed that of the people there, only 5 had any significant technical background. Two individuals worked in help desk, one was a systems administrator, and another was an older gentleman had a mixed educational background in math, physics, and programming (but didn't mention a specific career background). The rest were non-technical, primarily from English and Marketing backgrounds. One woman in particular didn't understand Google searches. Other folks didn't seem to understand the concept of a portfolio or the nature of the job market. The first step in any career decision is to search job postings to see what current requirements are. I was amazed at the number of people in the Information Session that hadn't even done that much. The second half of the presentation was given by a Programmer Writer who works at Micro$oft. At first glance I thought his slides were really remedial, touching on topics like "soft skills" and "professionalism". I realized however, upon discussing this with Nick, that people really don't know that stuff. As a new college grad, of course someone needs to tell you these things. These were mid-career people, most of them at least 10 years older than me!! The rest was really talking about how serious Technical Writing is, touching on what the process involved. He really emphasized that you can be a good writer, but as soon as you want to do it professionally, the standard is higher and you really need additional training to meet that higher standard. I had the opportunity to discuss specifics about Programmer Writing and he was very positive and enthusiastic. We talked a bit about my background, interests, and career goals, and he was very positive and encouraging. We exchanged contact information and I sent him a polite "thank you" email the next morning. I'm excited to start my coursework to really find out how I compare to other folks entering the field right now. I'm feeling pretty confident that I'll be able to find work in August once I've put together an initial portfolio. The presenter also emphasized the importance of constant writing. I have 2 blogs besides this one, so I spent yesterday combing through them and proof reading. I still have a lot of work to do as far as cleaning them up goes, but I'm working on it. Also I decided I should start up a Knitting blog since I do so much of it ;D

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June 26th, 2009

12:37 pm - Hill's Science Diet Prescription is a SCAM Went for a follow up visit to the vet, and I have to say, I'm really disappointed. They decided that he probably has a food allergy so we need to put him on a special diet, that I purchased there. This concerns me for 2 reasons. 1) I proposed this idea over a month ago after observing other symptoms that would indicate a food allergy but was told he was too young. 2) He did not start displaying these symptoms until he was put on the bland food the vet insisted I buy from their office. I bought their recommended food and began evaluating it. It contains soy, cellulose powder (sawdust, I'm not even kidding), and a host of preservatives. Furthermore upon evaluating his diet over the past few months that we've had him, chicken is on my possible list of irritants and that's what this kibble had as it's protein source. Upon researching further I discovered this whole "Hill's Prescription Diet" thing is a scam similar to the pharmaceutical industry's relationship to doctors. In veterinary school, little time is actually spent on nutrition education, and what time is spent is often sponsored by.... Purina/Science Diet. Additionally vets get kickbacks for selling this food to their clients. This food is only available through vet offices or through some pet food providers with a prescription. This is not a quality food and I suspect this food is what has been causing the problem... hence I'm spending at least $100 per vet visit and my dog is not improving. Sounds like the pharmaceutical scam of giving you one type of medicine then putting you on an additional medicine to treat the side effects.. and the cycle continues. The interest isn't on improving health. The interest is in making money at the cost of one's health. I'm transitioning him off of the bland diet and putting him on a grain-free premium quality diet. It's possible that he is reacting to something in the original food we were feeding him (same stuff the breeder was feeding him). I read it will take at least 12 weeks before we see results. The good thing about visiting the vet is we've ruled out bacteria as the cause, and also an obstruction or physical irritation as the cause. So it's likely dietary. Moral of the story: go to the vet to rule out obvious causes. Be aware that the treatment your vet prescribes could make your dog even sicker. Current Mood: infuriated

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June 22nd, 2009

01:51 pm - Batido Recipe Update If you use frozen fruit, you don't have to add ice. If you use 1/2c water + 1/2c evaporated milk, the texture will be creamier. Otherwise 2% milk is fine. 1 cup frozen fruit or fruit pulp 1 cup of 2% milk or 1/2 c evaporated milk + 1/2 c cold water Opt: 2-3 T Sweetened Condensed milk or sugar to taste. Blend with stick blender until smooth.

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June 19th, 2009

07:51 pm - New Yarns I went through my sock yarn stashed and assigned yarns to patterns. I set it all up on Ravelry so I can remember what I assigned to what. I ripped out (frogged) the sweater I had started earlier this year because it was really boring to knit and I couldn't imagine doing the back after I finally made it through the front. I found a pattern called February Lady that is a cardigan knit in the round in one piece, and then the arms are knit separately. It's a nice lace pattern so interesting enough to maintain. I cast that on at Tuesday's class and won't work on it until this Tuesday because I need the instructor to show me how to make the button holes. February Lady Photo from the author's website: Cascade 220 Superwash in a variegated aqua: I got a new knitting book by Nancy Bush called Knitting Vintage Socks. It has some great lace patterns for socks in it. The patterns are taken from a turn-of-the-century publication and updated for today's yarns and techniques. The lacy patterns do best with solid colored socks. I picked up some bright semi-solid sock yarn from Knitterly Things and I'm looking forward to making some of these fancy socks!! Current Mood: knitty

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June 17th, 2009

03:03 pm - It's Official! I met with the adviser for the Tech Writing program at Bellevue College yesterday and it went well. We worked out a plan for my certification that is like a basic Technical Writing + Programmer Writer emphasis. They are updating their certification criteria to be more strict starting in the fall, however she said they would honor the old system since I'm starting in the Summer. I said I'm ok to take whatever class she thinks would benefit me. I'm taking five classes this summer! Three are 5 weeks long, one is 3 weeks long, and the last one is just all day on a Saturday. Four of them will have projects due at the end which then go into my portfolio for review. It will be sufficient for me to start looking for Tech Writing work in the Fall while I continue with my certification. I'll be signing up for four additional classes, two in the Fall and two in Winter. The last class I need is only offered in the Spring. They don't offer classes for some specific software applications I'm interested in, but UW does through their own Technical Certificate program. You can apply to enroll in single courses, so we'll see how that goes. The one class at UW is the same price as 4 classes at Bellevue College so it won't be cheap, but I think it will be worth it. The UW class is a sort of all-in-one survey of a few of the main software programs including FrameMaker and Robohelp. Bellevue College focuses on InDesign and Microsoft Word. In both situations I create projects to be used in my portfolio. My plan for the next year is, in Fall start looking for temp work in Technical Writing (or even an internship). Continue temp work through Spring and then look for an FTE gig once I get my cert. Hopefully the economy will be looking a little better by then but we'll see.... In other news.. time to apply for FUNemployment benefits....

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June 15th, 2009

03:45 pm - Radagast Poop Update It's baaaack. We thought the blood + squirts were clearing up... and he fooled us again :( It will go on for a few days, then it will look like it's clearing up, then it comes back. Each time we think he's getting better and each time it ends up he's not. So he's on bland for another week per vet recommendation and I scheduled a follow up appointment for next Weds. Srsly we *will* get to the bottom of Radagast's bleeding bottom. I ordered some books off Amazon and didn't realize I'd already put some in my cart, so I will end up with 2 copies of a few of them to send back. Great. I wondered why 4 books were like $100 but I just figured I suck at the maths. A roomate from college is going to be in town tonight/tomorrow! She had moved down to Portland and was working on her Master's. I haven't seen her in at least 8 years! It will be interesting to see how much we've changed in each others' eyes :) Probably not that much. Maybe we're both a little less idealistic... ;D

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June 12th, 2009

07:56 am Got the Flex forms hooked up to PHP scripts, it was a lot easier than I thought it would be. Spent most of yesterday talking to HR and calling various agencies to check on the status of my benefits and what next steps I needed to do as a laid off/exiting employee. I found out they are paying COBRA to extend my health coverage through August!! I also researched Technical Communication certifications. I was interested in doing this online course but after trying out a FrameMaker tutorial I was not impressed. It seemed to be targeting people who didn't even know how to use a word processor, and I didn't feel that particular program would be a good investment. I looked at community colleges around the metro area to see if any of them offered anything, and lo and behold Bellevue College (formerly BCC) offers a certification program. I can catch a direct bus from downtown to their North Campus where the classes for this cert are held and it only takes 30 min. Classes are anywhere from 5 weeks to 3 weeks to a single day depending on how many credits the course is worth and how complicated the subject matter is. Courses are offered at different times throughout the quarter and don't necessarily extend the full length of the quarter, so I might be able to finish my cert by October or November. My plan is to start looking for tech writing work in September regardless. Ideally I want contract work, that way as things come up or I have questions, I have the resources in the program available to me for assistance. I was talking to my dad yesterday and we both think the market will take another dive before it starts improving. That's the other reason I only want contract gigs, until the market stabilizes. There are a lot of good companies in this area and once things pick back up I think there will be some good opportunities. It's just a matter of hunkering down and preparing in the meantime :D Current Mood: optimistic

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June 10th, 2009

10:58 am - Radagast, Web Sites, and The Dentist Radagast is still sick. I took him to the vet again last week since he's had some blood in his poop for over a month and it hasn't cleared up. They found some bacterial overgrowth, but nothing significant. He's back on antibiotics. The antibiotics just make him really sick, I hate giving them to him. For the past couple days he's been a lot less animated and goes through periods where he's not interested in food at all. Luckily he got his last pill today, yay! The vet said to only give him 1/2 cup of his bland diet each day, I've been upping it to about 3/4 cup because he's so skinny. You can see his ribs and feel his vertebrae when you pet him. He needs to be on the diet at least until Saturday to see if it clears up the blood in his poo. If it doesn't...... well more vet time :( Been working on my personal website. I set up a new domain to provide an online portfolio of technical writing and some of the web development work I've done. This week I set up a monitor a friend had given me in exchange for some web work. It's pretty fancy, HP with speakers! So I was inspired to start working on my site. I spent Monday working on the HTML interface and coding the PHP forms. A visitor can submit comments which are then emailed to a specific address which is then forwarded to my gmail which I check frequently. I'm using gmail's filtering to only accept emails that have the subject in them I specify in that form. I also wrote a script that will automatically send a copy of my Resume as a PDF attachment. I don't like having my Resume up there for everyone to see. This way, I know who is requesting it and I have a way to contact them. I spent Tuesday setting up the Flex/Flash version of the site. Flex is really awesome, I can't tout it enough. Today I plan to link up the forms to php scripts I've written. Tomorrow I'll add some transitions and gussy up some of the UI/navigation. Then I can deploy it! Finally Thursday I'll need to work on a current PDF version of my portfolio (aka work samples). I have samples but they are all over the place and some still contain some proprietary data I need to edit out or blur. For my portfolio, I plan to have 3 versions, a PDF one that can also be emailed as an attachment, a limited HTML version that mainly provides instant access to writing samples, etc, and the Flash version which will have a nice UI, navigation, and even some notes. I need to get ink cartridges, but I plan to make my own handwriting font that I can use to scribble notes and comments on the Flash version of my portfolio. I'd like to use it around the website so it has a personal human touch to it. I also need to squeeze in some time to do a FrameMaker tutorial. I'm working on the usb docs for the Ubuntu Doc Project and want to see if I can use FrameMaker to put it in DocBook format. Plus I have it on my resume so I should probably get familiar with it ;) Finally, the Dentist. Before my insurance runs out, I scheduled 2 last dental appointments to fill my remaining 5 cavities. I had one today and one Friday. Their out of pocket prices aren't terrible, so if they don't all get filled, the most I'll probably have to pay is $200 each for any remaining cavities. Otherwise my last checkup was good, no new cavities (these are just old ones that have been lingering.). They are molars so my face will be numb for like half the day. Current Mood: numb Current Music: Saturday Night on Saturn - Les Baxter

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June 6th, 2009

11:57 am - Works in Progress: Lenore Socks and Old Shale Scarf Here's my progress thus far on the Lenore Socks: I'm doing the Large Lenore pattern for the leg since I have fatty boombaladdy calves and I'll reduce to the regular Lenore pattern for the feet. I think I could have done the regular Lenore pattern with a size 2 needle for the calf and been ok. Instead I did the cuff in a size 2 needle and dropped down to a size 1 after the cuff was done. I like my socks snug so I'll stick with the size 1 through the foot. This is the project I started in my lace class I took last week: I'm making a scarf for my mom in an "Old Shale" pattern using Panda Cotton Crystal Palace Yarn which is a blend of Bamboo and Cotton. It's really soft and drapey. I will definitely need to make a pair of socks out of this! Current Mood: mellow

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June 4th, 2009

04:38 pm - Batidos Batidos are cuban milkshakes. I love them because it satisfies my ice cream craving, I get fruit and dairy, and they aren't too high fat or high calorie. My recipe is below but everyone has their own. Regarding fruits, I like using Mango the best, you can use fresh mango, frozen mango, or mango pulp (most latino grocers carry a variety of fruit pulps). Mamey, Guanabana, and Guayaba are traditional. For the American palate I recommend Peach, Strawberry, or Banana. You can also mix fruits. You can also make a big batch and then freeze them. I think batidos freeze pretty well. Just defrost for about 30 minutes (until the outer part is melty and the middle is still frozen) and stir. Batidos de Auggy 1 cup Milk (I use 1% or 2%, traditional is whole) 1 cup Frozen Fruit or Pulp (use seedless pulp if possible for raspberries etc) 2 T Sweetened Condensed Milk (or to taste) Sugar to taste (if you like it sweeter) Handful of ice cubes (half a tray maybe, just enough to cool it down) Blend in a blender or with a stick blender in container of choice. I like mine really thick but if you like it less thick just add more milk until it's the consistency you prefer. Current Mood: hot

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May 28th, 2009

08:51 am - Last 2 Days Today and tomorrow are my last 2 days at work. Today will be spent moving all my office items back into the NOC and determining what needs to be shipped down to San Jose. Tomorrow I'll probably just hang out in the NOC and do the rounds. I have mixed feelings. I like the company but I am at a point now where I have such a bad taste in my mouth. The powers that be are more concerned about the bottom line and less about quality. Several folks have expressed that they are amazed that I'm being let go because I'm so valuable. Jobs are going to India. Soon no matter how valuable people are, it won't matter. Ultimately it's about what is cheaper for the company, not what makes logical sense. In any case it's been a good journey for me. I've grown up a lot and evolved. I have long term goals for my career and I feel pretty focused and somewhat in control of my life. I'll figure this out and I'll be fine :) Monday I am going to enroll in my online course and start on my Technical Communications certificate. I'm also starting on my portfolio website where I can post examples of my work. I will also be starting on the Ubuntu USB documentation and getting more involved with the Doc project. I know it sounds wussy but I've been waiting until I'm done with work so mentally I can be in a place of being 100% focused and in a place of starting over. Anyways... off to the grind for the second to last time :)

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May 27th, 2009

09:29 am - Socks Away! My mom sent me her sock club yarn. She's in 2 different sock clubs and a bit backlogged since she's recently had hand surgery for carpal tunnel. The sock pattern is called "Fraggle Squiggle Socks" and the color yarn they sent out is "Pepe Le Plume". Very purpley and the pattern looks like a lot of fun. Nabbed from Flickr, the Pepe Le Plume yarn and Fraggle Squiggle Sock pattern from RSK I'm finishing Barb's second sock, it's coming along nicely :) I'm using the bright sock yarn in the lower left hand side I picked up some Deborah Norville Serenity yarn on sale at Joanne's awhile back. It's made with bamboo, it's super soft and only about $3 a ball. I think I got it for even less than that. 1 ball makes 1 sock more or less. Deborah Norville Serenity Sock Yarn I'm using Serenity Yarn in Indigo My plan is to make the Jaywalker socks. I hear they are a little tight so I will need to add a few stitches to the circumference since I have bigger calves. Jaywalker socks on Flickr, search Ravelry for "Jaywalker" to find the pattern. Current Mood: jubilant

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May 22nd, 2009

02:38 pm - Radagast's Sensitive Tummy We met with a Dog Trainer on Sunday for a "Puppy Headstart" session! It was really fun and we learned a lot. She introduced us to clicker training and gave tips for potty training and other positive reinforcement training techniques. She also emphasized the need to socialize him ASAP. I signed up for additional classes at Ahimsa Dog Training in Ballard starting Monday. The Puppy Kindergarten classes are half puppy play and half training. Radagast has picked up the training very quickly (he's so smart!) and LOVES the puppy play. In fact at Wednesday's class I had him playing with the big dogs and he was wrestling with them and pinning them down!! I have probably been overdoing it with all the new treats for the little guy because yesterday he threw up once after getting off the bus (I thought it was related to the bus ride tho, and he didn't throw up again). He threw up again today and also has had some squirty poops and gas. The trainer introduced using Easy Cheese, and I think it's too much for Radagast, or maybe I've just been giving him too much. Luckily he REALLY likes his kibble so I'm using that for treats instead along with some boiled chicken breast. I give him Natural Balance Lamb and Rice Limited Ingredient and the trainer had introduced us to this Natural Balance sausage. My only issue is that it contains wheat, but I don't know if he has an issue with that. It might not be bad in small amounts. I picked some up for him in Lamb, same flavor as his kibble, so that should limit his tummy reactions. The chicken and sausage are to provide a little variety with the kibble so the novelty doesn't wear off. Given how food driven he is, I don't think that's likely. Here's a couple pics the steward of the Pillars Dog Park on Cap Hill took of us, it's funny how we both blinked in the second pic!!! Current Mood: content

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May 13th, 2009

09:25 am - PTO plus Knitting PTO has been fun thus far! I discovered I had accumulated another day so I took Monday off too. I have knitted some washcloths with some linen yarn my mom had sent me. I did one in garter stitch and started one in "rice" stitch which is where you go in the back of the loop when you knit and intentionally twist the yarn. It was a real pain and I wasn't really that impressed with the pattern so I pulled it out and did a checkerboard pattern. I finished that and am doing a seed stitch cloth. The seed stitch one is nice and nubbly, it might be my favorite for a washcloth stitch thus far. Euroflax Sport in Aqua Went to Bainbridge Island on Saturday with some coworkers. That was a super fun trip! We went to Churchmouse, a yarn shop located near the Ferry Terminal. I definitely need to go there again, or sign up for a class or something. It was a really nice day and the whole area was just so pleasant and pretty. We had lunch at Nora's and also visited a fabric shop called Ester's, which had a great selection of fun fabrics and notions. Me knitting on the ferry I picked up 2 different colors of Noro Kureyon Sock yarn and a skein of Socks that Rock "Jasper". The Socks that Rock will be for some lacy socks, probably Lenore, and the Noro will be for some other pattern that I'm not sure of yet.. Lenore Pattern Socks That Rock by Blue Moon in Jasper Noro yarns are neat because they are dyed to create different patterns. There are various ways to influence the pattern but I'm not that advanced yet. This site has some examples of what that looks like - http://www.knittingfever.com/c/yarn/noro-kureyon-sock/ Noro Kureyon Sock Yarn Noro Kureyon Sock Yarn

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May 11th, 2009

09:39 am Radagast is acting like a normal puppy again which means I can resume his previous walking schedule. We're working on balcony potty training him and we're going to have to start enforcing the crate more. Recently he's started pooping in the apartment -- previously he was really good about not doing that. He's also starting to develop food obsession, so I'm starting to feed him more and on a more regular schedule. 7a-7:30a - Wake up, let him out to relieve himself and feed him. 10a-11a - Walk + Play (1 hour) (when he goes to doggy daycare this will be the time we'll walk him to the daycare) 2p-2:30p - Let him out to relieve himself + play/attention 6p-8p - Walk + Play + Feed (he is usually really hyper at this time) 11p-mid - Let him out to relieve himself + snuggle/attention

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May 7th, 2009

01:37 pm Crappy work thing number one is as complete as I'm willing to get it prior to exiting. The previous build engineer (previous to the guy I've been working under on the job rotation) had put together a reporting dashboard cgi front end and the whole implementation is insane. The database is a one size fits all solution where strings of text are parsed out to determine various things. I'm like um, hello Relational DB? It could have been so much easier, but I think the key trait of a build engineer is the desire to excessively overcomplicate simple things. He also did some wonky CSS so I can't really modify the tables in his HTML without hosing the whole UI. Normally I would sit down and sort everything out, but at this point I just want to slap on the changes we need and be done with it. Which I did. And it's not *great* but at this point it's not my problem. Second item will require me to physically go into the office because I forgot to install something on a machine that can only be installed via a CD. I've been working from home all week because I just don't see much point in going in. I have to come home in the afternoons to take care of Radagast. He hasn't had his shots yet due to being sick so I can't take him to doggy daycare. I end up wasting more time and energy going to work then coming home than if I just work from home. I will be going in later though, probably when Nick gets home so I can pop a CD into that machine I'm working on. Currently I'm just syncing to a more current source code branch which will take *forevar* so I'm just putzing around doing some much needed Perforce account cleanup for now......... Yay work. My last PTO before layoff starts Monday and will last for 2 weeks! Hoping to pick up where I left off with the usb-creator docs in the Ubuntu Documentation project. The combination of finishing up work and the new puppy hasn't left much time, so it will be nice to sit down and work on something I enjoy. :D Current Mood: chipper Current Music: Dead Language - Love Spirals Downwards

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