What Thursdays mean to me
Thursdays were my favorite day of the week at work. I could find myself doing different sections of the paper at any week. Honestly, I like variety and having something different to do at my desk.
Well, now my Thursdays are to be spent at home. When I started this job, I had Thursdays off. Returning to them now feels weird, but I have to look at all the bright sides:
- I don’t have to wait in long lines at the grocery store, unlike on Fridays. I can find what I want, purchase it and bag in under 20 minutes. That’s better than the 40+ minutes I use per trip on Fridays.
- More opponents to play against on XBox Live. It makes Rock Band even more enjoyable.
- Great time for baking and napping, the Garfield philosophy of life.
- Thinking of how normal people have normal weekends.
permalink | Comment [1] | occupational | 05/17/2008
Life complicates everything
Reunion in Washington, D.C., in 2005
It’s that time of the year again when my college friends and I plan our annual reunion. It’s always a great time to be had to spend with the Lovelies each summer. It’s also the time I remember that working for a newspaper is a 365-day job whereas most people have things called “weekends” which occur on days like Saturday and Sunday.
At my old job, I would have to sacrifice overtime and two to three vacation days in order to get the weekend off to go. I’d return to work with disgruntle co-workers who don’t like to work the weekends and get ticked for working on two of them in a year, whereas I did this 50 weeks a year.
But now with my Pennsylvania job, I’m adjusting to having an extra vacation week, but my weeks have to be taken during certain months of the year. Plus, there are more employees to compete with for time. So I have to juggle which shift someone is taking time off and when it will happen, who will fill in for that person’s spot and how would the desk look like.
It’s almost as though I must put something into an equation and get a result. I also realize how much we take weekends and holidays for granted. I mean, no one doesn’t want to get their newspaper delivered just because it’s Independence Day or something in that fashion. Nevertheless it’s a bit more flexible now and less back-breaking here.
What’s funny this year is that I’m taking that week off to visit every family member with the 400 or so miles I will travel. I just hope that they will be home. They have to tendency to go on vacation and not tell anyone.
permalink | Comment [1] | occupational | 05/04/2008
Oh, politico
Yesterday, former President Bill Clinton delivered a speech in support of Hillary’s presidential campaign. It just so happened that it was across the street from my job. Imagine the chaos that awaited me.
Here’s my cartophobic entry from the event and my flickr set of outside the event. Too bad that I couldn’t attend the rally; I gotta make sure I can afford to live with the present economy.
permalink | Comment | out and about | 03/20/2008
Not so bad
There are my off days. My Page 1 design days. There are times when I don’t have much to work with and I have to be ultra-creative with what I can do in a certain amount of time. And there are days that I don’t fully understand the content.
That just happened earlier this week. I scavenged whatever I could grab on to and made something out it. At the end of the day, I was wiped out and didn’t what to see my design.
When I returned to work, I had a sinking feeling in my stomach, my head was hanging low and I wasn’t into anything. As it so happened, everyone liked the design. Really, really liked it. It was even on the 11 p.m. news. That made my week.
permalink | Comment | occupational | 11/29/2007
Return to normal
After nine days away from the office, I’m set to return today. This has been the longest vacation I have ever had and I’m already too weak to adjust to normal life. It doesn’t help that I’m sick and grumpy.
I’ve gotten used to my six-hour naps and watching cartoons all day. I wonder if I have forgotten all the things I need to know to do my job. My vacations are usually three to four days long, so nine days are a real treat.
I hope I did all the stuff I needed to do because I probably won’t have this again for another five months.
permalink | Comment | occupational | 11/25/2007
Changing weekends
Since I started my new job, I’ve had three changes in my days off. At first, my days were Wednesdays and Thursdays, not much different from the old Thursday and Friday schedule I had at the last place. I had my days planned out: retail shop on Wednesday, grocery shop on Thursday. I might even watch a Netflix pick on Wednesday night after watching Pushing Daisies and Hotel Babylon. Thursdays were for Ugly Betty and The Office. I rather enjoyed having these two days off because it felt exclusive for me.
However, I missed having Fridays off. It would have created a problem for me if I wanted to visit friends or I would have to take vacation days in order to have a Saturday off.
This week, I had Monday and Tuesday off. I was so close to my last days off that it didn’t feel like time off. I just ran a bunch of errands on those days.
Starting November 11, my days off will be Friday and Saturday. I haven’t had a Saturday off in four years. Plus, I finally get to check out the arts community here on Friday nights. And my first Friday off just happens to be my birthday. Talk about lucky.
permalink | Comment | occupational | 11/02/2007
I work, therefore IM
There are many differences between my new job and my old job. Despite that the two jobs are within the same franchise (well, it’s not technically a franchise in the McDonald’s sense, but more in a CNN sort of sense) and under the same title, things are done differently.
For example, we’re all on this one big computer system, and now I have more clearance in the properties’ subsystems. In a way, I could work remotely from one property to another. I don’t do as much customer service (thank goodness!) and I don’t have as many advance pages to design for upcoming editions.
However, I have to get used to IM. I had that with my former job, but I believed that I only send three messages in the year we had it. Now, I send at least 20 per day. Seeing the little message alert icon makes me paranoid, hoping that I haven’t ignored an important IM. I keep the sound on mute so I have to pay attention to the flashing icon.
Next week, I have some additional training to do. I hope to have a normal week soon.
permalink | Comment | occupational | 10/04/2007
Are you a member of a geek industry?
There have been moments in which I know I belong to a special set of geeks. I never realized the span of it until I started following the Society of News Design’s SND28 Blog this past weekend. It’s the big design industry contest, and I have never had the guts to enter it. It’s so competitive.
Anyway, what I have been thrilled with/disturbed by the most is the multiple outlets this contest judging has had. The coverage is in a blog, in flickr tags and on YouTube. Before, newspapers were threatened by the growing presence of the Internet, but now the industry is embracing. That’s a good thing.
Now, why is it so geeky? Did you check out the video link to the Los Angeles Times’ three-mile entry? Total geekdom.
Heck, I’ll be in a sea of these people next month, so I should prepare myself for that.
permalink | Comment | occupational | 02/20/2007
Oh, finally
The office makeover is finished and now I’m in the opposite corner of the room from where I was stationed for over four years. There is new carpet, newly painted walls (at least in some parts) and finally the personalized space I’ve always wanted. In my purchases, I bought a $1 Valentine’s Day pail for my pens and scissors, a red and striped mug for coffee and hot chocolate and a black mini-tower to keep my time cards and sticky notes. The accessories now match my Sodoku day-by-day calendar. Now, it looks coordinated and clean and not like a combination of Big Lots finds and the leftovers of a former reporter.
I am missing one thing: a mouse pad. It’s been three years since I last purchased one, and the one I have is a plain black pad. It’s not fashionable, but it does its job. Today, I’m going through day 3 of the mouse pad hunt. I went to two Wal-Marts only to find pads with cats on them. There’s nothing wrong with cats; it’s just that I’m not a cat person.
When I purchase this and have the area set up just right, I’ll upload a photo of the new space.
permalink | Comment | occupational | 02/02/2007
Not so much like home
Since starting my job out of college, I have tried to not make my desk look like the one I have at home. There are no personal items other than a photo collage I received from my college newspaper upon graduation. I’ve made due with what was provided and have only added a stack of baskets to condense the clutter. But I do hold the title for messiest desk in the office.
My space is so impersonal that the background image on my computer’s desktop is still the Dell logo. There’s a Rolodex from a former copy editor that I have never used that is still on my desk, and a Christmas mug from six years ago (before my time there) is my pen holder.
This week, the office is getting new carpet and paint, and we have to clear our desk and work in a small room on the weekend. This gives me the chance to make the space personal. I plan to deprive Target of its fashionable office supplies and raid my photo stash for the perfect background image.
However, the only downside to this room makeover is that my desk will be moved away from a window, the television and the ladies’ restroom to a dark corner near the front entrance. It’s not the most ideal place.