I've also kept a few messages on pieces of paper that I might enter later. The main topics are cab drivers and other miscellaneous observations.
I've finished the first training session in Seattle and will be starting the next one in about a half-hour. Everything seems to be going OK. I'm now officially past the halfway point. Three more sessions to go. I'll have to be careful so that I don't lose my voice.
Also, no one has guessed how many times they thing that I'll be singled out by security in the airport. Give it a try you know you want to. Some background on my flights. I am flying via four different airlines, on one of the airlines I have a stop over for an hour before boarding another plane. So appropriate guesses would be between 0 and maybe 9 or so, especially if the like me at both the airport entry and the airplane entry.
Finished the second day of training in California. Right now I am finishing a few things online before my flight to Seattle. Three sessions down and four more to go. 72 and maybe a few more hours by the time that my flight lands and I'm back in the Twin Cities. It will be nice to sleep in my own bed and lay down on my own couch. Couches in hotel room are never soft. There always ready for a meeting to break out.
Oh, and everything is in kind of a blur. Lots of new people to meet and locations to remember. Also, lots of people from prior years to remember.
The first days training sessions have went well in California. If I'm not careful though I'm going to lose my voice. My back also hurts from stand so much. I should actually be able to get some sleep tonight.
So, it's super late back in the Central Time zone and I'm still working. I need to go iron my clothes and catch some zzzs. I'll try and let you know how everything is going tomorrow.
I got a little overzealous with paying bills and emptied my account today. Most of the checks haven't even left the building yet but I can't get them back. Have to do a little money moving.
Ready for my trip. Well mostly, I still have to put everything in the suitcase. It's not going to do me a lot of good having it spread all over the living room.
I'm wondering how many times I'll be searched. Any guesses?
Salmon and mashed potatoes for lunch today.
I finished reading The Catcher in the Rye last week and started reading Catch-22 this week. So far so good.
I made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich today using Archer Farms Blackberry Jelly, not so good. It's not sweet enough. So, if it's not sweet you would still at least expect it to be tart or something. It isn't even that. Oh, well now I have a whole jar of the stuff.
So, instead of getting a TiVo I could get a whole bunch of other things. Like a scanner or a digital camera. Or even cable for about a year and a half. Another option is a Playstation 2 with who knows how many games.
The final and probably most logical option is it put it towards the house. It probably pays for about 0.24% of it but at least it's a start. It buys a door or something.
Does anyone think that TiVo is worth getting? I've been looking at the new TiVo Series2 80 Hour Digital Video Recorder, $349. It doesn't seem to be too unreasonably priced. You do have to keep in mind that it's another $299 for the one-time product lifetime fee, instead of the monthly fee of $12.99. I figure it will be more valuable once we get cable, but it still works with normal TV. I personally just do not know anyone with one, so I am unable to decide.
I got my haircut and some Taco Bell for lunch. Friday's list is complete, except, I still have to watch and make sure the bank makes the correction correctly.
Frozen Gatorade is no fun. Plus when you open the cap it squirts out at you. Stupid expanding ice.
Finished a few of my errands on Friday. When I went to the bank I had to go into one of the back offices. About half a minute after the bank officer started to log into his computer the lights in the building went out and everything went dark. We both turned around half expecting a group of robbers to come in and demand the money. That didn't happen and after about ten second the power came back on. It could have been cool, but instead it just took longer for them to figure out how to fix the error.
So, I have today off from work. I have a few errands to run today. I need to go to the bank and have them fix out savings account. Somehow they decided to give us a lower interest rate. Hmmm, seems odd. I also need to go get my drivers license renewed. And definitely get a haircut.
I did a quick search and found that 'Survive!' regularly sells on eBay for around 40 dollars.
I played a rousing game of ‘Survive!’ last night. I've had the board game almost forever. The date on the box shows it was made in 1982. You have a small group of islanders that need to escape their island and make it to one of four other islands without being eaten by sharks or sea serpents, or having their boats smashed by whales, or even being sucked into whirlpools. I lost the first game to MB. However, we were playing nice and I was still trying to remember all of the rules. Brett and I use to play the game all of the time.
Apparently, I tried to move Easter. And for one week I succeeded. Just a note, when one thing in your schedule moves, holidays do not move with them.
I'm starting to need a fierce haircut again. Need to plan it around my trip and filming. I can’t get a haircut in the middle of those dates.
I watched the first half of Gettysburg last night. I’ll finish watching the other half tonight.
I found a way to make MB work on her web site content. I am watching Gettysburg tonight, four hours of war. That way she will want to stay out of the room and will work on her web site content. She actually has a few rough drafts for the pages. They just need to be finalized a little bit more.
I added the rollovers last night.
Things happening today
Filing taxes. They've been done for months but I waited to file since I owe money. I was also looking for some type of way to beat the marriage penalty. I only found one way. Buy a house and have lots of kids. That will show them. Lots of write-offs.
MB is making Greek Lemon Chicken Soup. Mmmm. I helped a little. If you were here last time she made it you know how good it is.
Actually working on a new main page for runningink.com, believe it or not. The new page may even go up this weekend.
Miscellaneous cleaning.
Here's the other reality of jobs. When a company wants you to do something it's very personal, friendly, and flexible. However, when you need something from a business, everything is official, by the rules, and inflexible.
Do for yourself what others can not.
Why do businesses expect loyalty from employees? Most business try to pay their employees as little as they can while still retaining current employees. Every year they offer a raise. Which in most cases simply keeps up with inflation. They also like to justify raises by having some type of a rating system in place. Then after you receive your rating and wonder why you didn't achieve the highest level they indicate that it's impossible to reach that level. Why include the level then? To keep you reaching.
About the only way to get a decent raise is to move to another company. Other companies will give you a larger initial increase then you would ever have gotten from your prior company. It's sad but true. Companies do not protect good works, but rather exploit them. Bad workers however don't have it too bad. They get the standard raise and don't have to apply themselves to their job.