I still think that they are cute

I started a new, full-time job today. I am now a nanny for a pair of fraternal, boy-girl infant twins. They are cute and keep me busy and even in my first day, with both parents still around, I have learned a lot. Oh, and I didn't break the baby and plan to stick with it, so I think that the first nine hours were pretty darn successful.

A list of ten things about today:

1. Babies smell very similar to the way cheese does when you are making it.
2. Cloth diapers (with a service) are easy and nice when you have the little plastic-elastic-velcro wrappers for them. With twins the service is even less expensive than disposable. And where are you supposed to put all those used, disposable diapers?
   
3. Apparently, baby formula can be any temperature between (but excluding) so-cold-the-baby-rejects-it and hotter-than-human-body-temperature. There is no particular scientific reason for a warm bottle.
   
4. It only takes one mistake to reinforce the need to put the lid on the bottle before you shake it up.
5. You'd have to be a masochistic idiot to wake a sleeping baby.
6. The baby carrier will be saving my arms.
7. Its way too hot for October.
8. Baby bottles have come a long way in the last 15 years.
9. It's hard to wait the full five minutes to see if a soothing method will work.
10. The bird swing is magic. Its creepy how well it works, but definitely magic.

I also got into reading my newest issue of The Economist and got some knitting done on a swatch/potholder. I'll definitely be back tomorrow!

Need an Assistant?

Second in an occasional series

Last week, I posted about my qualifications for being a nanny. Tonight, I am writing up my qualifications to be an assistant. Administrative Assistant, Executive Assistant, Secretary, Office Clerk... I'm not sure what all the shades of distinction are there, but there are many titles for the same general job; helping someone who is more in charge get their work done, by making it your work, and not screwing it up so that their life is even more harried and difficult.

Here goes, my qualifications to be an assistant:

• I find it to be humorous that job posters feel it necessary to put "greet guests and visitors courteously" and "answer phones politely" in the job descriptions. Last time I checked, in a business/work environment, it is generally important to always be polite and courteous to whoever one encounters. Golden rule and all. I'd hate to meet the assistants who caused those descriptors to be added to the listing.
• I type well. Its a side effect of using instant messenger-type programs since I was 14 or 15. I believe that I type around 50-60 wpm, and I don't suck at 10-key data entry either, provided that I don't have to switch between a keypad and a phone frequently. Does anyone know why calculators and computer keyboards are reversed from touch-tone phones in the order of the numbers? I misdial frequently when working on a job bid because I'm switching back and forth a lot.
• I have good math skills. I haven't studied past Calc 1 in 1999, but if I can break a problem down to an algebra, geometry or trig equation, then I'm golden. Apparently, I learned something in school.
• I take good phone messages, as my parents trained me well at an early age.
• If you, the boss, would like me to, I will keep track of your calendar. I attempted to do that for a previous boss, and it turned out that he didn't keep a calendar at all, and didn't want to start. I just kept an eye on him, and he told me when I needed to remind him about things.
• I read people well. I can tell who is slimy and who is for real.
• My PDF making skills are pretty darn good for someone without any formal training. Your tear sheets will never have catalog prices going to the client.
• I am skilled with Excel and Word.
• My proofreading skills are good. You won't send out any notices about "costumer service" unless the dressers and stitchers are going to be receiving massages.
• I travel a lot, and know my way around travel arrangements. I can get you fancy digs, refundable, first-class tickets and a car service to pick you up, or I'll get the cheapest plane ticket, a bed at the Red Roof Inn and a compact rental car. Tell me what you need, and I'll find it, book it, and give you a neatly typed up list of all the details you'll need to have smooth sailing through the trip.
• I know how to use ACT! I do not do it willingly because in my experience it is cumbersome and slows down the whole computer, but I know what it does and how to get around in it.
• I am good on the phone with screening calls, and promise to actually find out what the caller wants before passing them on to you.
• I have experience with ordering food for large groups of people, having taken that on in high school during shows with matinées. You won't have to eat the same old sandwich tray everyday if you don't want to, and I'll make sure to find out (and write down for future reference!) what the clients' likes, dislikes and restrictions are.
• Having seen the wide variety of holiday gifts and cards sent out to clients and vendors, I can help you avoid the duds and get the most bang for your buck.
  

And now, of course, the down-sides of me as your assistant:

• I have successfully avoided Power Point almost entirely for a decade because I've never seen it used well except as a server of images for a theatrical production. However, its just another MS Office product, and I'm pretty sure that if you know what you want in your presentation, I can make it work and not be so boring it puts the clients to sleep.
• My experience with QuickBooks is solely in the Sign*A*Rama custom install, but I've read the manual and it sure doesn't seem like rocket science or brain surgery.
• I hate slimy sales people with a passion, but enjoy developing relationships with vendors who are genuine. Please don't make me order mini-blinds, but I'll get you a great price and service on flooring!
• If there isn't a certain amount of math and hands-on production of stuff (even well-made presentation packets work for me) I will become bored and irritable. Especially if you are working to bring about the downfall of society.
• I need to eat every 4 hours or I will edge towards a melt-down. Conveniently, I tend to come with snacks just-in-case.

This time around, the list is a bit more balanced between pros and cons, but I think that is because I have less knowledge of what assistants do, besides anticipate the boss' needs and try to work independently.

More to come in the future.

News and Upcoming

Most of you do not know this, but its time to put the word out. I no longer work at CSSI. Therefore, I am searching for new employment, though first I have to decide what I want that employment to be. If you have any ideas, leave a comment or send an email. Thanks!

Now, onto the fun stuff.

I have had an Etsy account and an empty shop for years now (since November 2005, right after they started), and have decided to really try my hand at crafting for sale. The product line, at this point, will include record bowls, woven flowers, coasters/mug rugs and spiral notebooks. The notebooks are the things that I am most excited about, as I have some great ideas for them and a coil binding machine (manual punch, electric roller insertion) on its way from Canada, and supplies on order from a US vendor. As much as eBay is annoying, you can get good deals there with a lot of effort (and the help of eSnipe).

You can help me out in a number of ways, some of them right now, and others in the future (watch this space!).

1. Go to my etsy shop here: Bee-Ewe-Tee-Full Creations and "heart" me to put me on your favorite shops list.
2. I have a logo of sorts that I have used in the past for tagging items under this name. If you are able to help, I need some graphic design help, once I scan in the sketch that I do. I've got that covered at a friend's house.
3. If you have any sort of interesting stuff you think I should use as notebook covers, old vinyl records or unused paper (blank, lined, gridded, colored, etc...), let me know and I probably will make it into stuff.
4. When the binding machine gets here, I will be more than happy to beat Kinko's price and make your books for you! The thing needs to earn its keep, even if it is making workbooks and marketing material, or securing your knitting pattern booklets.
5. There will be some naming contests coming up on this here blog! With prizes!

I think that 5 ways to help are enough for now. Tell your friends, and keep an eye out on my pages.

its amazing

what a difference two columns can make in an Excel spreadsheet.

tomorrow is another day.

Just an update

Archer Farms Salt & Pepper potato chips are good, even though they leave your mouth with that pepper-y feeling. Maybe they should be called Pepper & Salt chips. Try adding Canfield's Seltzer Water for extra mouth zing!

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I love my blue basketweave sweater from Eddie Bauer, and I would link to it or show you a picture, except that it appears to be gone from both the main website and the outlet website. Last week, they were down to only having them in cream size medium, which is not my size, otherwise I would have bought a second one. There is just one problem, it seems to shed and pill an awful lot. I hope that I am imagining it, but it seems that the underarms may even be developing holes at the seam, from fiber loss. I wore it over a white shirt today and discovered that I can't take it off because I am now wearing a white and blue fuzz shirt. I think that when it dies, I might have to use this sweater as a template for knitting myself a new, sturdier one. This sweater is 60% cotton, 20% wool, 10% nylon and 10% angora rabbit, so that is a majority of the component fibers as short-stapled, prone to pill and shed, fibers. I don't think its a very wise decision. But I bet that if I put my mind and needles to it, I can make an even better sweater (this one is just the right fit and proportion for my slouchy preferences) with something in a sturdy wool. I'm not certain that I have the patience to knit an entire sweater in what appears to be 14 sts/inch basketweave, but I will probably be able to figure something out. First, of course, I should finish some other projects. Like my fun fur hats and mom's hat and my fair isle sampler sweater.

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I am 11 pages from the end of Jeanette Winterson's Lighthousekeeping and I'm considering not finishing. I have no idea what the point of the book is, who the narrator is (or maybe there is more than one?) or why I should care. I mean, I think that the main narrator and voice of the story is the orphan girl Silver, but I'm not sure. Also, the pages are not laid out like regular pages. There is a lot of white space for a novel. This book might be over my head.

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Sarah Louise sent me a book of Psalms on Friday and it showed up today! How's that for speedy postal service. We must have a site visit going on at the 60640 post office or something. Its a fairly modern translation and I look forward to giving it a try. Also, a book of the Bible in book format is much less daunting than the freaking gigantic things I checked out of the library.

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Continental fixed my flights for the birthday trip to Denmark. So we won't be flying from Chicago to Newark, NJ by heading southwest, or Newark to Copenhagen via Antarctica and Finland. It was very prompt of them and even Lacey looked into it for me, as it was clearly a ridiculous (and possibly funny) database error.

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I had to wait at the Field Museum today in the main hall while my boss and other assorted co-workers had a meeting in the depths of the offices. (they left for the meeting while I was still measuring a room... leaving a note that they would be back to get me... and there is no way to find where they were without a guide.) While I waited, I had a lovely conversation with an old lady who worked as a guide-type person for the Sue dinosaur. We talked about interesting things on the internet, and I told her that digital cameras were really easy, even though they were much less so five years ago, so she should make the switch. We also talked about how Frango mints have changed and expanded their range in recent years. Of course, she also told me all about Sue, and explained the weird sticking out bone underneath the tail.

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Speaking of work, there is a creature living in the ceiling and maybe the wall of my office in the blockhouse. We have rats, and two cats that are living in the building, both species of which are feral and decidedly un-pet-like. Over the weekend, one type of animal or the other fell through the acoustical tile (it shifted, the animal fell) in the women's bathroom in the blockhouse. I am terrified that the creature (which will probably turn out to be an angry 15# rat) is going to fall through the ceiling in the middle of the day, when I am sitting right there, probably on the phone, and it will be followed by an army of creepy crawlies.

Ick.

I hope that Scot figures out how to get it out tomorrow. The main trouble is that above the acoustical tile, the floor of the second level (storage) is 1/4" plate steel. So whatever is in there is pretty much stuck at this point, and we can't get to it. Ewwww.

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We are finally having seasonable weather here. I should learn not to leave fizzy, canned beverages in my car trunk, in Chicago, during seasonable January weather. At least the ice doesn't get everything wet.

The Bears helmets for the Art Institute lions look really great in the shop. I hope that they look even better on the lion-backers.

Thanks for reading down this far. Sorry that there are no links or pictures, but I'm just not up for it today.

Resumes

I've been with my current employer for almost 2 years now, and this is my first real job out of college. The last time I did a resume was when I was finishing school, with the intention of finding the job that I have now. The most current resume that I have is dated October 2004, but it was written to be current as of January 2005. Somehow, I think that I will fall behind in my resume skills, as well as how it fits in to have real, working experience on your C.V., if I don't update soon.

I am looking for *your* resume, primarily for arrangement and language and which sections you put in, to figure out what works best for *my* resume. I don't really care what your industry is, or how old the resume actually is, I just want lots of bits of inspiration. I accept almost all formats, and I'm pretty sure all of the ones that a person sends a resume in, and there is an email link in my blogger profile, or leave a comment here.

Has anyone ever applied for a job online? They frequently have boxes that you are supposed to fill in, (like sections in a resume) and I suspect that there is a trick to them. If you know what it is, let me know. How are you supposed to format it? Do you just use list-format words, or full sentences? I can't apply to work at Google if I don't know the trick to the form.

In two years of working in a real office, as the smallest fish in a big lake, I have learned things about my work habits and preferences that are not necessarily positive, but will have a bearing on whether I would be any good at a job, or if I would like it. The one that is safest to mention on the internet is that I am a lousy negotiator. It could be the best job in the world otherwise, but as soon as they put "strong negotiation skills needed" into the description, I'm out of there like a fat girl in dodgeball. I can stand firm in my position, and I can see your side of things, but I don't really have an inclination to negotiate. I do poorly shopping in third-world markets. How do you deal with that both in the search and the interview?

This may return to the drafts pile in a couple of days, depending on my confidence. I am mostly motivated by the fact that the most recent item on my old resume (a relative asked me to send it to them) is The Duchess of Malfi, which was my Senior TD crew assignment at CMU. Just a bit out of date. But it did have a neat staircase, a super-butch cantilevered platform, and a clever pneumatic fire curtain avoidance trick rig. Still, not exactly the most recent project that I've worked on.

BlogThis!

The BlogThis! extension is Firefox doesn't function when using the new Blogger beta. Has anyone found a replacement dealiebob for quick blog posts? Or do you just switch back to IE or write the post from scratch? I am actually finding that the new IE7 is pretty nice to use, but maybe I need to change something in my Firefox. I hear that there is a new version that I'm sure I haven't switched to.

Also, did anyone else have a total MS Outlook meltdown yesterday morning (Thursday)? And then did you go and download and install what seemed like 10 MS Updates and then it all worked again? Or was it just at my company? You know what was the best part about it? I had my computer fixed before the IT guy could even figure out what was happening. He is a useless, salary-drawing lump as far as I can tell.