work

iTunes is my friend

/ Toastie / 3 Comments

I hadn’t been speaking to iTunes in awhile. I had ignored it for months before I got my new PC at work, and I basically ignored it until today. And then I realized that my new PC probably wouldn’t have the same mysterious sharing problem that my old one did when it came to my iTunes library. So now I can share my stuff at work. The good part of this is that people get to listen to the music that I have. The bad part is that people get to listen to the music that I have. For better or for worse, I haven’t limited the library to just Toastie Radio material. So if I have some ZZ Top for some inexplicable reason, it’s there. Maybe I’ll edit the work playlist at some point. I don’t want to be known as the guy who as seven albums worth of stuff from _____ _____, even if I can honestly claim that I don’t like 80% of it. (So you still like 20% of it???)

Anyway, refriending is a step on the way to actually using my much-underutilized iPod. And it’s a way to finally catch up on Real Time with Bill Maher since I stopped getting HBO after my three free months.

Stock photos on websites…why?

/ Toastie / 5 Comments

My employer has a new website.

Apparently, this is the face of our organization or the community we serve:
Who is this guy?

And these are two other faces that represent us and the work we do and our mission:
And who are they?

I just don’t understand. Thankfully, there is the Firefox AdBlock plugin, so after today, I will never need to look at these images again.

Dual-Core, Baby!

/ Toastie / Leave a comment

I just got a new PC at work. Now, just about anyone in a position similar to mine has a laptop, and my teammate and I both asked for laptops; we had been asked for our preference. But we got new desktops anyway. On the bright side, it’s a sweet machine, a Dell Optiplex 745 with 2GB of RAM and a Dual-Core processor. Fun stuff.

Pimping my cube

/ Toastie / 3 Comments

I just realized that the panels in my cube are easily interchangable I have two whiteboard panels that I have to (sigh) get up to write on. So I switched one of them with the non-functioning, utterly useless fabric panel to the right of my monitor.

Not that I ever use my whiteboard.

My sense has always been that people who use their whiteboards a lot are a helluva lot more organized and productive than I am. Then again, some people, upon inspection, may be found to be keeping the same stuff on there from one month to the next just to make it seem like they’re organized and productive.

Vacation time

/ Toastie / Leave a comment

I must be very used to being a contractor and not being able to take time off and still get paid, because by the end of November, I will have accumulated 11 vacation days. And despite my best efforts to be a sickly slacker, I still have 3 sick days stored up.

On a tangential note, my employer contributions to my 403(b) retirement account begin this month.

Duke does have pretty good benefits. And I do have the iPod. 🙂

Back from maternity leave

/ Toastie / Leave a comment

There’s a director coming back from a long maternity leave tomorrow, and there’s a big banner in her cube for people to sign and welcome her back. I wrote:
It’s awesome that Namibia let you bring the baby back here!

…because Baby Suri jokes are passe…