another day another dollar
why do we work? I mean sure we all need cash but what else drives us to work at the jobs we work at? I think about this a lot because i spend a LOT of time at work. I figured out that working 50 hours a week hourly I make less then some of my techs. but is money what drives me? is it my sanity? I thought about it today on the drive home from work I've changed A year ago, I was someone completely different. This year I've changed , and i dont know if it was for the better. i'm more forceful at work with my demands, and expectations. I am quicker to be sharp about a mistake and demand correction. I see this as a positive thing. I am pretty deluged by work though and tend to stress occasionally. This i dont see as a good thing I need more balance in my life between work and interests. i need to not dream of work.
I need to spend more time out and about enjoying the city i moved into.

I want to get out more, see more, take more pictures. do more, be more!! We'll see, It;s going to be my goal to have a picture of the week for the website starting April 1st.
Trying never hurt huh? :-)
posted by Deborah Schumacher at 9:07 PM

Earthquake
Did the world move for you?
Well it certainly moved for me last week on Wednesday. it was the day that Seattle hada 6.8 earthquake. it happened quickly and only lasted 45 seconds, but for this poor midwestern girl, it scared the hell out of me. We dont do Earthquakes in Chicago and the only one i ever saw in Az was at 2 am, just small aftershocks from the quake in Vegas. that time I just thought i had been up a little too late and was dizzy. There was no mistaking the earthquake on Wednesday. The ground was rolling and everything was shaking. We ducked under our cheap ikea desks and waited for it to be over. Thank goodness there was no damage. I was worried about the office, sine the building is a little old, but all told we were fine.
Things at home were reletivly safe too. My main concern there being my cats and my book shelves, but again, no damage. (I even shooed Rob home early just to check on the cats. and they were fine)

I've seen Brian again a couple of times, both that date last Sunday and a date this Friday. i dont know if you would really call them date dates, Its just an opportunity for us to hang out and get to know each other better. I owe Roxanna some great thanks for introducing me to him. i've had a great time with him so far. Sunday we went and did the touristy thing, we went to the Fremont Troll, the Locks Archie McPhees, and Golden Gardens. Golden Gardens is a beach and dunes and we were there at sunset. We walked around and talked about a little of everything.

Friday Night we went to a local Pub Elysis (i think thats the name) and did some people watching had dinner and chatted some more. He's extremely intelligent and seems to know a little about everything. I worry about my inner dork, but I'm so comfortable around him that its not that big of a deal anymore. We then went back to my house and watched Anime (So Bianca -the second one) and then watched The Crow. It was about 2 am when he finally left.

I think the interesting thing is that he is so logical that he is a positive influence. I know it sounds weird. its just that we have some similar interests and its not till he says something to i wonder why I began thinking another way or doing something different. For example he is a vegetarian. I've been a vegetarian a couple of times in my life but am not at this point. with gentle probing questions he's made me wonder what exactly I'm getting out of eating meat. I wont change who I am for anyone. What you see is what you get. Its important to be that way. Especially when you are seeing someone. They should be attracted to who you are at the beginning and not who they could mold you to be. However I must admit to be open to new ideas and even a resurgance of old ideas. *deep breath* does that make sense? I guess the sum of it is, i'll eat vegetarian around him out of respect, (like a smoker will not smoke around a non-smoker) and may reconsider my meat eating habits, but I wont become vegetarian again because of him.
So I'm rambling this morning. :-) Trust me it makes sense somewhere in my mind.

Online Journals have been on my mind a lot lately. Everyone at work seems to be using Live Journal, to post ad read each others postings.Sharon and Matt are using it too. In fact when Sharon was in town they tried to convince me that I should start one up. It is very tempting on one level and scarey on another. First off I'd love to read some of my friends and coworkers journals. However I dont think i would be nearly as free discussing things if i knew they were there to read it. I talk about work a bit and i dont think I would discuss it in quite the same way. Here i dont know who reads my journal and am more free about it. I know there is an audience out there somewhere, I just dont know who it is.. So for the time being i think I'll cling to blogger and not worry about editing my thoughts.

posted by Deborah Schumacher at 2:09 PM

Posting again, Sheesh has it been a month? Sorry for the lack of posting. Gotta get off my arse again. So I've gotten in touch with wendy and fiach lately. They both seem like they are doing well. i feel bad for not keeping as much in touch with them as i could, but hopefully they will forgve me.
Talking to fiach reminded me how damn stubborn my little bro can be. i love him but he is worse then I am. It was nice to talk to him, and see how he is doing. The time with Wendy was short but nice, seems that she is doing well. These are people that are important in my life, so touching base with them felt good, despite the guilt involved.

Roxanna from work has interouced me to a friend of hers "Brian" He's a nice guy, a developer for a web company. Super intellignt, sweet and cute to boot. Who could argue with that? He's active in the poly community here and seems to have a social life. Something that i let work get in the way of too often. Its interesting that he and Rob may have crossed paths a few times becuase of local poly group meetings. i dont usually do poly meetings, something to do with shyness and less control of the situation.
Its something i need to work through. We've gone for lunch once, and planned and cancelled two other evenings so far. Hows that for progress, Its only Wednesday and I've made 3 dates for the weekend. Two got cancelled though, one becuase he has other plans, the other becuase i couldnt get tickets to the same show. So we are going out Sunday night

Things at work are busy, hiring and training new people is always exciting, i like having fresh staff. More personalities to add to the mix. Keeps me on my toes most definatly Hopefully it will keep the other techs on their toes as well. i worry about times that i baby them too much. i'm not enough of a hard ass. i guess if there is something. i can learn from Jessica its to be a more critical manager. Not a bad thing to learn eh? I've got to keep people away from my desk chattering though. Its driving her nuts. i've always enjoyed it, feeling like they were in touch with me, but it is a bit distracting.

I was watching MTV Cribs last night, and saw the artist Moby's Crib. Very sparse minimalisic Not Cheap, What he has is the best that can be, he just doesnt bother with a lot of crap He's got a bookshelf, a bedroom, a studio, a kitchen, a living area and a loft. All that is there are things that he needs not nick nack dust collector crap., It was a breath of fresh air compared to other cribs.

Thats all from me except this lyric
"There were 87 advil in the bottle now there is 30 left, I ate 47 so what happened to the other ten?" - They Might Be Giants.
posted by Deborah Schumacher at 11:20 PM

Morning all, or rather it is afternoon at this point. One day I'll grow up and become a morning person. Or maybe not. Maybe I'll just find that flex job that allows me to work from home till 2 am then lets me sleep till noon. Writing would let me do that if i stayed motivated but again motivation isnt always easy to find. Its Sunday, I sit in Rob's office at Microsoft while he finishes up some work. Nice of him to let me do my update here. My only complaint? His keyboard is a normal old fashiooned one with the keys crammed together and it hurts my wrists a bit. As well as my spelling mistakes may abound. I must admit that for being the borg the microsoft campus is kinda nice. Not sure I could see myself working here but it could be fun. Although he does have his own office, something i wouldnt have. I'd again go into a call center. You've gotta do what you are good at, and call centers are my specialty. Not that I am leaving Speakeasy. I'm pretty happy there. so no need to go anywhere. :-)

The vines are still dying. I'm actually debating about whether i want to play at the new sites or not. I still enjoy writing about literature and ancient history and there is really no place as interactive as the vines. I dont quite care about the pay pal cash, its not important. Again I wish that someone would just buy the old vines and retool them. But we all have our silly little dreams dont we?

Working on new webpages, going to finish up Dreugan.com and MysticalSeeker.com. I was looking at a new addy theworldsaddress.org As a site devoted to TMBG :-) I'm still developing SeattleJo.com too. Its time to move some of this stuff there and buy that domain. While Chicago is home, Seattle is the present and I need to live in the present not the past.
posted by Deborah Schumacher at 12:26 PM

A couple of interesting things have happened that insipire me to write today.
. One is the additon of a new server at blogger. Some of you may not realize, but in order to update this all I do is log into a site called blogger.com , type it in, hit publish. and voila! Well its an easy process saves me from updating HTML all the time. (and still you only get semi regular updates, well... DEAL! lol) But Blogger, who offers this service free for a little bitty ad at the bottom of the page was hurting. In a bad way. It was apparent that they needed additional servers, but didnt have cash onhand. Where are they getting their cash at after all?? So what did they do? They appealed to the people who use the service, "Send us money and performance will improve" And guess what? People did,. People dug into theirn pockets and donated money for a "free service". They have 2 new servers and a little extra change for the next one. WOW! Couldnt other places do this? Could other web servers thrive on the donations of those who love them??

Kind of related is my second item of note.The death of the vines. Not the death of the authoring areas, but yes the death of the communities. They cant keep up with the old vines, are no longer maintaining them. Sad as it is, its been apparent for a while. The smaller vines just disappeared, the larger vines are choking. The bigger the site harder they choke. If you are hanging on with them i wish you good luck. What I find interesting is peoples reaction to it. Its showing me how the citizens really felt that they "owned" a portion of the site. They felt by paying their money, they owned a part of the site. This gave them additional privelages and they felt they had contributed. Well that obviously meant jack shit in the long run. The community they signed up for is dying. They are scrambling to replace it in their lives, and I'm seeing that everyone wants to lead the new revolution. They want to be the one in charge of the new site, and be the ones who can say if it stays or goes. The main problem? Well it seems they are builing their new "group" on someone elses infrastructure. How much can an EZ board or an Egroup handle? What happens if Egroup dies? Just a thought to chew on.

Oh btw. unisntalled Odigo. No more coffee boy.

posted by Deborah Schumacher at 7:01 PM

Back from Vacation, its Friday night, gamers are over and I sit in front of the PC.
Life is good., Christmas was fun with the car being one of our gifts. I also got a new digital camera. Low end all the way but, thats not what is important. I wanted seomthing to play with and learn on., After a while and when the prices go down I'll get a bigger better faster model.

Vancouver was GREAT! I had a wonderful time vegging out. We spent lots of time reading, shopping, saw a few movies.No Tv, No computers, No stress. What joy! I read more of the Enders Game series and discovered that the second two books were not as good as the first two. Oh Well, It was a joy to delve into them sipping coffee, and just "being" We also went to Science World and saw the "Mystersies of Egypt" Imax movie. All in all a great vacation.

My mind has turned to the next year. My path for the future is unclear. Unlike some people i know I dont sit down and work out what my plan is for the next year. (Coffee boy does, thats who i was thinking of) So where do i want to go? who do i want to be? I'd like to look at homes get an idea of what we are going to spend when we buy., We wont be able to buy until next year at the earliest. It would be nice to know what area we aim to go into. I'm also looking at going back to school, expanding my knowledge etc. More on that later, updating while I have the chance, the food is here and I'm having dinner
posted by Deborah Schumacher at 8:35 PM

Have you seen AmIhotorNot.com? it lets men and women rate each other based on looks. The intersting thing is that most men have a rating of 7.5-8 and most women have a rating of 2.5-3. Why? Why do men get rated higher? Do women have more realistic standards for men? Or are men looking for perfection that they wont find? Its just amusing to me.
No you wont find my picture up there.
I am not hot. Never have been by any standards. Never will be.

So as far as the car issue, its been resolved. The test drive turned out well, and as of today I am the co-owner of a new car.
Heading for Vacation now. More when i return
posted by Deborah Schumacher at 10:57 PM

So more stuff on the Car. Am I boring you yet? WE are looking at a new car tomorrow night, a little Toyota Echo. I'm looking forward to having a car with a working drivers door! Ok so we havent taken the best care of the car. Its one of those things. we always find somehting else to spend our money on. Its all about budgeting and responsibility. I have a time wrestling with responsibility. (And stress too, I shut down with too much stress) So thats it. More on it if we get the car. And probably more on it anyway even if we dont get the car. lol.


With a love for music I must say I am not so sure about Erasure singing "My Favorite Things" With Melissa Ethridge at that. Its interesting to say the least.

Ok another Gripe i'm going on vacation on Saturday. (Yes we are going to Vancouver) I've planned to take it easy for the most part. Destress and relax. I purchased book 2 and 3 of the "Enders Game " Series by Orson Scott Card. Thinking that it will be perfect to keep reading that as I am up there. The books were set to arrive yesterday. And Supposdly they did.UPS says they were left at the front door at noon. Who leaves a box on the front door at Christmas??? It grew feet and disappeared. I'm annoyed, becuase now I am afraid i wont have my books to read! I'm going to run to the library tonight after work (meaning I have to leave at a decent time) and get something. I may be insane, but vacation for me is going to be bookstores, and movies and coffeehouses. Maybe a few museams. Going to try to keep it affordable and low key, no point to running around like a chicken with my head cut off. I do that enough during the week,

Well my lunch is coming to a close,. Good food, good rants, good music.


"All I want do is to thank you, Even though i dont know who you are." Geggy Tah "Whoever you are"

posted by Deborah Schumacher at 1:18 PM

I hate Cars.
I hate driving ok cant hate something i dont know how to do, but.. I hate the fact that my car is DEAD!!! It died Sunday. Its either a problem with the Gas pump or the CPU. Either way we are talking about $450++ for repair. Last time I checked blue book the car was worth 500 bucks or was it 50? Its not like the car hasnt served its purpose. Its 12 years old,. has been through 4 states, 3 major cross country moves and other sorts of abuse. It deserves to die.
But that means I need a new car.New or newer. No real prefrence, just something dependable that we arent pouring money into (other then gas and regular maintainence)
Depressing. This still may cost us the trip to Vancouver,. but as we have the rail tix already we are trying to still go. Taking the Bus is working out ok for Rob, and I've always taken the bus anyway. Well unless I con him into driving me.Oh well more on car crap later.. :-(
posted by Deborah Schumacher at 1:10 PM

"Harsh words are spoken Promises are broken,. and love walks out that door" - do you know this wonderful early 90's tune? Grayson Hughes is the artist and the video had people climbing out of suitcases. Sounds like fun doesnt it? Its interesting that many songs of the 80'a and 90's can be identified not only by their tune but also by the video. Although in the early 80's too many of the videos were too similar for this to work.


So it was an interesting weekend. Carbon Monoxide poisioning at work on Sat, causing me to miss the party Saturday night. Sunday was heralded in by the Car breaking down. I hate it when that happens. For Christmas I want a nice newer car. Is that too much to ask for? Dependable alone would be good. This might cost us the trip to Vancouver for Christmas. That does not make me happy. :-( Oh well. Even so I'll still take a week off of work, I'm in need of Some R&R.


So what am I doing for new years? The votes have come in, and I've decided not to do much of anything. I volunteered to work actually, Just a couple of hours, 6-10pm, I probably wont even really work officially, Just bring in some food and movies for folks so they can have a good time. . I like making people happy :-)
Well thats about it for an update now.. What more can I say at this time? not much really. More later I am sure
posted by Deborah Schumacher at 12:40 PM

So its now the 8th of December. A week since I last wrote that blog. Gammer night again and stuck at the pc again. But are weekly updates at least something? I think. We'll work on the daily ones again Soon!!! I promise. At least a couple weekly maybe.


"Are you in the holiday spirit?" Its how the conversation started with the barista at Starbucks. I looked at him, a moment passed and admited the truth. No. He agreed that he wasnt either and as the years went by it got harder and harder to get into the holiday spirit. I nodded echoing his sentiment. The holidays seem to be more about guilt and greed these days. Not that its not about giving, but its have you given enough, have you spent enough ? Its almost as though you are trying to buy yourself more worth in the other persons opinion.
With the newspaper strike in Seattle they have been turning out a rather luckluster paper. However the Sunday Paper (Free because it had so little REAL content) However it was still still the size of the average Sunday Newspaper. Why? The Sunday Ads. Just stuffed with advertisements of people offering those perfect gifts for you to purchase and give.

Who isnt offering gifts these days? Starbucks has gift suggestions, the grocery store has gift suggestions. Even the gas station has gift suggestions. Whats this mean? That any gift will do? Maybe. I think our culture is actually is pushing us to the bigger better faster more! I hate that I dont think it is what the holidays should be about. Normally when we discuss Christmas my take on it is, that its not my holiday.
I've always felt weird about reliogen.
posted by Deborah Schumacher at 10:12 PM

Ok next update, Time has passed. I actually sat down trying to work on an update early this week on my lunch break. Unfortunatly I get nothing done at work other then work. Especially at lunch.

So here I am , it is Friday night the gamers are behind me gearing up and I am on the pc, chatting surfing and writing. What a good way to spend Friday night. Music blasting in my ears nothing but inspiration at my fingertips. interesting things that have happened.. hmmm not too much.
Thanksgiving The day of overeating and football passed with out too much notice here. I made a turkey , took it to work and fed them! Woo hoo. WE watched Dogma on one fo the Imacs and just kicked back. They also brought a fair amount of alcohol.. it was interesting but a good time was had by all..

Otherwise things are good
posted by Deborah Schumacher at 8:00 PM

Blog.
Blog
Blog

What is a Blog? and where the hello have I been? and what the hell brought me back?
Well a blog is the equivelant of a journal entry. I'm now using it to publish these. The benefit being that I can publish them on the fly. From work, from home, whereever. no worries about editing the html. no worries about uploading it etc. So I'm going to give it a try and see how it works out for November.

Where have I been? Work. Sometimes I swear I live here. Othertimes i know i do. On most levels its all good However it has reduced my time for sitting around working on my webpages. The Journal is one of the main things that has suffered. I'll see if this format works and helps with the time crunch.

What brought me back? Did I discover pockets of time unused before that are now free? Nope. Was I worried about my audience? Well honestly, no... I knew you all would move on to something more interesting, and those that did stay? Well then i kept them in suspense. I actually came back based on a letter from an old friend. I've joined Alumni.net to find out who of my highschool cohorts were online and registerd. As i scrolled through the names , one lept out at me, and danced before my eyes.

The memories a simple name brings back. Memorries of devo hats, deep deep purple toiletes, making out in the woods, Weird AL Cds and the Church of the Subgenius. There are so many memories I have from the time that we were together. I'm not always very good at keeping communication open with people from my past. I have few contacts back in my home town, and nil in Phoenix my most recent residence.However reconnecting with Dan has given me an anchor to my past. Someone who knew me before I became the rockstar that I am.. lol Ok WEll maybe I am not a rock starlet.. but I've changed. Times change, the locale has changed. Having a friend from that long ago just says home. And happiness in this case.

So since Dan has inspired my return to my journalistic efforts. I think I'll be spending some more time thinking of the old days. When we met, how we met and why we split.
Remember I over analyze everything so this should be amusing and fun.. lol
I feel like Minnie Drivers character in Gross Point Blank When she is talking on the radio about her boyfriend who split and left her dateless for the prom. Just living the past in a public forum for all to read and comment on..

Thanks Dan for the kick in the ass bringing me back here.
posted by Deborah Schumacher at 5:18 PM