Not Dead Yet.
Here's hoping that I do not get blocked from my own journal for changing the icons and updating for the first time in almost a year and a half. Yeah, I cheated and used Gaia to come up with some characters for some of the new icons rather than actually trying to draw, color, and etc. stuff... but I stuck with my random decision to only use icons I make myself. There's that at least!
Anyhow... not much to say, just a note to declare my continued existence. Still working at the manufacturing place, though since my last post I have another new supe (more Musical Chairs; no one actually left, just got switched around) and another body in the department. Actually, two people have been hired since I was, but someone who was there when I came in took up an opening in a different department. It's still an excellent blend of people who are fun to work with. For some reason, I'm the one who can remember most of the various rules and multiple exceptions therein for order entry, which has been absorbed by our department. Somehow, I managed to store that information in that vast area of my brain reserved for characters and grossly summarized story plots, an area I would definitely like to be able to store other useful, possibly even practical, information in. It feels good to have a specialty.
Something I seem to get complimented on the most at, while at work, is my patience. It is very rare for me to lose my patience with a customer or rep. I definitely get frazzled (averaging 1.5 times per workday) but frustrated? Not usually. My "secret" is my ability to not take work personally, and to not take work home. For the former, I can get tongue-tied when someone is yelling at me about how something didn't work out like they had expected it to, but I do not get offended by their raised voice or curt tones. Well, I DO, but I don't take it as an attack on me. They are upset about a problem, and it is my job to see what can be done to correct it. Period. For the second, I am of a level of worker that I can say, "I will do the work, but I will not do it off the clock." My time is my time, company time is company time. The only downside to this is that anyone I knew from college was out of state, and I quickly lost contact with them after I came back home; and by that time, anyone I knew from high school had vanished from my life. I am the first to say that I was very much a loner in grade school, and now, living in the same house I grew up in, I don't have any kind of local social network. Basically, the only people I talk to all day are those I talk to at work, and then Mom when I get home. Yet anything I can think of in terms of meeting folk involve situations that I don't really enjoy.
Bars? Yuck - I don't drink, and that's the one exception to this state's no-smoking law, and smoke makes me gag.
Church? Plenty of stuff for retirees, for single parents, for grade school kids... young single adults? What're those? You mean, there's something between grade school kids and young adults seeking premarital counseling? The volunteers who aid church functions tend to be middle-aged or older folk whose powerful and vocal faith tends to grate against my semi-agnostic introvertiveness, if not just creep me out.
Alternate hangouts? No such beasts. There are no coffee shops, public parks, or any other such neutral grounds which I cannot think of examples of at this hour.
Yeah, basically existing right now. Still got my bunnies, though now I'm going to try my hand at Britannia Petites... like my hares, only their max size is two and a half pounds. (My hares can get up to nine and a half; my personal stock averages around seven.) Just bred my one doe yesterday, hoping for a Christmas-time litter. Based on the pedigree of her and the buck I bought recently, it looks like Brit breeders have been aiming for type over color. The Brit (this being the name of the Britannia I bought about three or four years ago on a lark, as a pet) has some opal in his, but he's mostly true to his shade, called chestnut agouti. That shade makes them look like small-boned cottontail rabbits. According to the latest Standards, though, opal isn't a recognized color in the US. Considering The Brit is going on six years old, I started off with him with my doe, Sue, rather than the other buck, Spider. Also, The Brit keeps to about 2 lbs., while Spider has consistently been coming in at 2.6 lbs. One tenth over max isn't a big deal - it can be blamed on a variance in the scale - just an annoyance that he can't seem to shake that tenth of a pound. Sue is older (by a couple of months) than Spider, yet she averages 1.7. I use an electric baby scale for measurement.
May have a litter due soon... ah yes, this year I finally got a Grand Champion, a doe I named Amber Rose. Briefly, a Grand Champion is a rabbit who, on three occasions, comes in first of a competition against at least four other animals brought by a total of at least three different breeders. This could mean against other animals in the same age group and gender at a large show, or against four total animals of the same breed in a smaller show. Each time the animal wins in that sort of situation they get a certificate called a "leg", and with three legs an animal can become a registered Grand Champion. The only major restrictions are that at least one leg must be from when the animal was considered an adult, and that all three legs cannot have been awarded by the same judge. Amber Rose managed to get all three of her legs by winning Best of Breed. It only took me about six years. ~_~ Still haven't sent in her legs to get her registered; really should. I bred her about a month ago to my British-blooded buck Ramses; would have rathered waited to breed her to one of my two junior bucks, but Ramses hasn't been aging well. Hopefully she took. Mom's doe named "Pop" (for "popcorn") is also due this week. She has gained no weight at all, but previously she's managed not to gain weight while pregnant; she's very ornery in general, but she's been downright mean the past two days, so odds are good she's going to be right on time.
I better get to bed. Slept cruddy this weekend - up most of Wednesday night sneezing; couldn't fall asleep early Thanksgiving and was up at about 3:30 for Black Friday; was up at least once every hour Friday night with a stuffed up nose in SPITE of taking a full dose of Nyquil; and last night I just could not fall asleep until after 5am. But now I am feeling sleepy, and even the me of my college days would allow that trying for six and a half hours sleep after the past several nights would be a good idea.
Anyhow... not much to say, just a note to declare my continued existence. Still working at the manufacturing place, though since my last post I have another new supe (more Musical Chairs; no one actually left, just got switched around) and another body in the department. Actually, two people have been hired since I was, but someone who was there when I came in took up an opening in a different department. It's still an excellent blend of people who are fun to work with. For some reason, I'm the one who can remember most of the various rules and multiple exceptions therein for order entry, which has been absorbed by our department. Somehow, I managed to store that information in that vast area of my brain reserved for characters and grossly summarized story plots, an area I would definitely like to be able to store other useful, possibly even practical, information in. It feels good to have a specialty.
Something I seem to get complimented on the most at, while at work, is my patience. It is very rare for me to lose my patience with a customer or rep. I definitely get frazzled (averaging 1.5 times per workday) but frustrated? Not usually. My "secret" is my ability to not take work personally, and to not take work home. For the former, I can get tongue-tied when someone is yelling at me about how something didn't work out like they had expected it to, but I do not get offended by their raised voice or curt tones. Well, I DO, but I don't take it as an attack on me. They are upset about a problem, and it is my job to see what can be done to correct it. Period. For the second, I am of a level of worker that I can say, "I will do the work, but I will not do it off the clock." My time is my time, company time is company time. The only downside to this is that anyone I knew from college was out of state, and I quickly lost contact with them after I came back home; and by that time, anyone I knew from high school had vanished from my life. I am the first to say that I was very much a loner in grade school, and now, living in the same house I grew up in, I don't have any kind of local social network. Basically, the only people I talk to all day are those I talk to at work, and then Mom when I get home. Yet anything I can think of in terms of meeting folk involve situations that I don't really enjoy.
Bars? Yuck - I don't drink, and that's the one exception to this state's no-smoking law, and smoke makes me gag.
Church? Plenty of stuff for retirees, for single parents, for grade school kids... young single adults? What're those? You mean, there's something between grade school kids and young adults seeking premarital counseling? The volunteers who aid church functions tend to be middle-aged or older folk whose powerful and vocal faith tends to grate against my semi-agnostic introvertiveness, if not just creep me out.
Alternate hangouts? No such beasts. There are no coffee shops, public parks, or any other such neutral grounds which I cannot think of examples of at this hour.
Yeah, basically existing right now. Still got my bunnies, though now I'm going to try my hand at Britannia Petites... like my hares, only their max size is two and a half pounds. (My hares can get up to nine and a half; my personal stock averages around seven.) Just bred my one doe yesterday, hoping for a Christmas-time litter. Based on the pedigree of her and the buck I bought recently, it looks like Brit breeders have been aiming for type over color. The Brit (this being the name of the Britannia I bought about three or four years ago on a lark, as a pet) has some opal in his, but he's mostly true to his shade, called chestnut agouti. That shade makes them look like small-boned cottontail rabbits. According to the latest Standards, though, opal isn't a recognized color in the US. Considering The Brit is going on six years old, I started off with him with my doe, Sue, rather than the other buck, Spider. Also, The Brit keeps to about 2 lbs., while Spider has consistently been coming in at 2.6 lbs. One tenth over max isn't a big deal - it can be blamed on a variance in the scale - just an annoyance that he can't seem to shake that tenth of a pound. Sue is older (by a couple of months) than Spider, yet she averages 1.7. I use an electric baby scale for measurement.
May have a litter due soon... ah yes, this year I finally got a Grand Champion, a doe I named Amber Rose. Briefly, a Grand Champion is a rabbit who, on three occasions, comes in first of a competition against at least four other animals brought by a total of at least three different breeders. This could mean against other animals in the same age group and gender at a large show, or against four total animals of the same breed in a smaller show. Each time the animal wins in that sort of situation they get a certificate called a "leg", and with three legs an animal can become a registered Grand Champion. The only major restrictions are that at least one leg must be from when the animal was considered an adult, and that all three legs cannot have been awarded by the same judge. Amber Rose managed to get all three of her legs by winning Best of Breed. It only took me about six years. ~_~ Still haven't sent in her legs to get her registered; really should. I bred her about a month ago to my British-blooded buck Ramses; would have rathered waited to breed her to one of my two junior bucks, but Ramses hasn't been aging well. Hopefully she took. Mom's doe named "Pop" (for "popcorn") is also due this week. She has gained no weight at all, but previously she's managed not to gain weight while pregnant; she's very ornery in general, but she's been downright mean the past two days, so odds are good she's going to be right on time.
I better get to bed. Slept cruddy this weekend - up most of Wednesday night sneezing; couldn't fall asleep early Thanksgiving and was up at about 3:30 for Black Friday; was up at least once every hour Friday night with a stuffed up nose in SPITE of taking a full dose of Nyquil; and last night I just could not fall asleep until after 5am. But now I am feeling sleepy, and even the me of my college days would allow that trying for six and a half hours sleep after the past several nights would be a good idea.