A different approach.
So here's what we're going to do for today. At the start, it's 10:36am and since my tieout reports are being abnormally slow, I'm going to be posting in here sporadically every few minutes or hours or so. By the end of the post, it'll be the end of the day and we'll see what we come up with. Sound good?
Oh, by the way, each little snippet will be listed with current music. I like music. A lot.
"The Promise" - Ryan Farish
10:39am - Yep, it seems this will take a while. At least until the reports start working faster. Actually it might be Pandora, which usually slows my internet to a crawl in select days. But I don't care, since it helps me get through this grunt work so much better. Right now it's on the Ambient/Background music playlist I made, which is made up from Ray Lynch and Ryan Farish. Both amazing new-age artists, by the way. Youtube 'em.
"Behind the Waterfall" - David Lanz
10:50am - Gotta say, this computer really kinda sucks for multitasking. And I really have set up quite a multitasker here, what with posting every few minutes and listening to Panorda on top of my reports. You'd think they would replace these computers every year or so, with all the extra funds they have, but whatever. I'll be done with this by the end of today, and have the rest of the week off essentially.
"Miles Away" - Ryan Farish
10:56am - So it's really 2009 now. I'm finding it hard to adjust to writing dates on forms once again. I hadn't really pictured 2009 until now, actually. 2004 and 2008 were easy to picture way before they happened, because they were milestones...you know, graduation and all. 2009 is a different story, though, since I really had no idea where I was going to be or what I was going to be doing at this point. Well, until around April or so.
"Autumn Prelude" - Peter Kater
11:06am - Sweet. Now we're back in business. Ok, now that the reports are fast again, I won't have time to write in between each one.
"Together We Will Conquer" - Ryan Farish
11:43am - I feel cozy and happy. I'm not sure why, maybe it's the music. New age piano-style songs are sort of cozy, I suppose. Still chugging away at the reports here, only a little over 1,000 to go, which is maybe 2 hours at the most. It goes much faster when the reports run at a decent speed, like now, as opposed to this morning.
"The Serpent Mound" - Laura Sullivan
11:52am - Spoke too soon, I guess. It's kinda slow once again. Incidentally, the theme song from Lord of the Rings in playing. Well, sort of...bits and pieces show up every now and then in the movies as part of a full song. That pretty flute riff used in reference to Frodo is what usually comes to mind for me, but the rest of the song is really good too.
"In Dreams" - Lorie Line
11:58am - Well, it crashed. Temporarily, of course. I need to empty my internet files out apparently. While it's doing this I'm reading in the daily newsletter about a branch of my company that does work with NASA and the new generation of spacecraft being put into development soon. I immediately emailed the PR rep associated with the article asking how to find a job in this field. We'll see what happens, shall we?
"First Light" - David Lanz
12:15pm - Slow once again. Man, I'm really making this place out to be a dump, huh? It's really not that bad. I've definitely had worse jobs that paid a lot less. The PR rep said there's not much chance of a good response other than "make sure your resume is posted online", but I gave it a shot anyway. I think it's time for lunch.
"Movement V" - Vangelis
12:46pm - Ahh, that's better. I've taken a break from doing reports to lounge around on the internet for a while. While I'm at it, I might as well take this time to discuss recent happenings in the last week or so. Last Friday I went out to Newtown for a job interview and got to tour a satellite integration bay, so that was pretty sweet. If things go well I'll be working there pretty soon, and then I can start looking at new apartments out in the beautiful countryside of Bucks County.
I'm going to Camelback this Saturday to dust off my snowboard, so to speak. I've never been there before so it should be a good time, since being by yourself is better if you haven't been to the mountain before. Next weekend will be Blue Mountain, the first trip with the company ski club I'm joining. Next month, though, will be the big one: Park City, Utah. I got a travel gift card for my graduation, and I'm going to use it to take a long weekend at Park City. The plane will probably be the worst aspect of it, since I'm pretty sure I have to detour to Phoenix first both ways. The hotels out there are looking pretty cool, though...balcony, fireplace, kitchen, hot tub. I'll be by myself, once again, so I'll have to get around a little bit and see if I can meet some people quickly (yeah, I know...easier said than done for me). It's hard finding friends who both snowboard/ski AND are really good at it. Too bad Tom and Nick are in college at this point. Oh well.
Ok, back to work for me.
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2:27pm - Done! Finally. I know I shouldn't really be celebrating, since now I basically have nothing to do for the rest of the week, but still. Now I can parttake in the chess tournament we've set up here in the office, which I've been putting off until now. Apparently I'm the "top seed" at the moment.
On that note, I feel like I'm finally getting fairly comfortable with the people around the office. I figured it would take a while, but now I actually feel like I have "work friends". I'm going skiing with one next weekend, and supposedly playing poker with a couple of them on Saturday. So that's cool.
I'm going to spend the next few hours surfing the internet and contemplating my New Year's resolutions. Before that, though, I'm going to take a look at last year's resolutions and see how I did:
2008 NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS:
-Graduate with above a 3.0 GPA
-My final GPA was 3.08. Check.
-Play guitar well enough to the point where I no longer feel guilty inside when I tell people I can play guitar
-Well, I actually know a heck of a lot more about playing now than I did then, so I think this is a check.
-Score more than 1 point in the BIG EAST outdoor meet (7th or better)
-Nope. Scored 11th due to the competition being a LOT higher than last year.
-Get a (real) job
-Check. :)
-Clean my room and suite more than 3 times in the entire semester
-Actually I think the tally was around 5 or 6, so check.
-Spend more time down the hall
-I think I accomplished this. Check.
-Finish the Orion CEV project
-Check. Took a while, but it WAS finished.
Well then, I'd say I set pretty realistic goals for myself. Let's see if we can get 100% on this next year, shall we? At the moment I have 3 new resolutions to put down, and I'll think of more later.
2009 NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS:
-Go to the gym at least 3 times a week. I know this is basically everyone's resolution, but I feel like I can realistically accomplish it because I've been going 3 times a week for the past 2 months.
-Play guitar to the point where I feel comfortable showing off a full song in front of someone without them thinking I suck.
-Go on a real vacation. My ideal candidate is scuba diving in a tropical location.
"Serenade" - Jim Brickman
2:52pm - Okay, got a few more.
-Get a "real" job. Last year it was a job that paid a real salary, this year it's a job that involves space engineering. Hopefully Newtown will be my solution to this one.
-Travel outside the country. If I go to, say, Aruba for the vacation, this is hitting 2 resolutions at once.
-Make a total equal to or more than 3 new friends. Friends are defined as people whose numbers I have and who I hang out with on a semi-regular basis.
-Update this journal at least 5 times more than last year. This is lofty, but I'll try my best. That would be equal to 10 posts, or 30 if I count my entire senior year as "last year". Hmm...I'm going to have to start thinking in terms of normal year cycles instead of school year cycles from now on...
"Montezuma" - Cusco
4:20pm - Well, it appears to be the end of the day for me. I won the chess game, thus advancing myself in the tournament, which is cool. It's been forever since I played chess regularly, back in 8th grade. I'm gonna log my hours and go to the gym.
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