Tech Talk: This camera ain’t doing it
Recently, along with the podcast, I have also been doing videos here and there on YouTube. Here is an example of one:
All my life, I have had the worst luck with cameras. Currently I am using my phone and a Nikon CoolPix L830. I was super pumped when I got the camera a few years ago. It gave me the DSLR body I wanted, without having the bulky lenses, and the screen adjusted to help me take pictures.
It takes great pictures, but video, there are some issues. I am typically filming myself, and though the screen adjusts, it doesn't adjust so I can see it if I am facing the camera. So I can't really see myself, and I can't see if any adjustments need to be made. This was a lesson I learned with the most recent video that is coming out. The entire thing is blurry. It is insane. I am still going to post it because it took me forever to make and edit and practice makes perfect.
I do not have the ability with this camera to add an external mic. Not a big deal when I was just doing pictures, but now that I am making videos, I need an external mic. The microphone on this camera is not doing me any favors. For now, I am connecting a mic to my phone, and making a loud noise so that I am able to sync up the sound in editing. I am a big proponent of working smarter, not harder, and it seems to me that a smarter option would be a camera that has the ability to have an external mic.
So What am I Thinking About Purchasing?
I am the absolute queen of impulse purchases. I see something that is close to what I need, and I grab it, and a few months later down the line, I find out it does not have all the features that I want or need. I am trying not to make that same mistake with a camera, because let's face it, cameras are pricey as hell. I am not made of money and I cannot purchase a new camera every two years because I realize that a bell and whistle that I need, I didn't get because I picked the first thing that caught my fancy.
So far, this is what I know I want/need
- Movable screen so I am able to see myself when I am vlogging
- Ability to add an external mic
- I would like a small form factor, something I can shove in my purse and go and won't hurt my wrist to hold up for an extended period of time.
- This isn't a requirement, but if I could get a small form camera that has interchangeable lenses, that would be cool.
- Bluetooth capability.
- Under $1000 closer to under $700 would be ideal
- Really good stabilization. I waddle. It's a fact of life. I have waddled my whole life and so video tends to be shaky.
- I would like something possibly over a year old so that it has a lot of tutorials out for it that I can read and learn from.
- Common form factor storage card - Please no cameras with their own proprietary storage card. That gives me a headache. There is no need for it. SD is here, other forms of SD are here. PICK ONE AND USE IT!
- I need to be able to do 4k vlogging.
I don't have a pixel requirement because in this day and age, most cameras will give you what you need in the pixel department.
With these 9 things in mind I have started looking at cameras.
The first one is the Sony ZV-1
As you can see straight off the bat, it has the screen that I require. It has the ability to hook up an external mic, and from the videos that I have watched on it, it takes great pictures and video.
This one is the newest of the ones I have been looking at and has the highest price at roughly $800.00. I cringe at that cost. However, if you look on YouTube it has some of the best reviews. People even revisit it in videos and still enjoy it months later.
The next one is the Canon G7X Mark III.
This has everything that the Sony has. It is older, so it doesn't have all of the new shiny bells and whistles, but I don't know if I even want the bells and whistles. Its viewing screen does pull out so I could see it, but all I have seen thus far is that it pulls out above I believe. I like the ones that swing out to the side, but that isn't a deal breaker, you know? It has the small form factor and it clocks in price wise at around $650. which is a touch better, but what am I giving up for that extra money? Will I regret it when I discover I need something else?
The final one is killing me. It's the Canon M50.
This one is a little larger, but still has a small form factor that won't hurt my wrist. It has interchangeable lenses. You can buy it with one or two (obviously the price goes up if you buy it with two. It has the swing out screen, and also runs about $650.00 (with the single lens). It's killing me because this is the one I would immediately impulse buy, but I am trying to be the adult I know I can be and do my due diligence so I am not staring at other cameras when they come out. It also does not do 4K, which is a thing I will need.
I have watched this guy's videos and will continue to do my research.
Do you work with cameras? Do you have opinions? I'd like to hear it!
How many times should you dust yourself off and try again?
Whew Chilay. It has been a week year. I don't even know where to begin with this.
I talked a little bit about this on Instastories earlier today. I graduated from college in 2008. That means I have been in the world of Information Technology for 11 years. 11 long, thankless years. For those of you that do not know, my major was computer information technology with a specialty in Microsoft Networking. I've never used the Microsoft Networking portion of this degree because does MS even deal in networking? Who knows. After working crap jobs for so many years, I kicked off my IT career doing help desk.
I've worked some form of help desk over the years, working my butt off, striving to do better and be better than I ever was *cue Pokemon song* but it seems like I could never get ahead. A few years ago I wrote a blog called When a Geek is Fed Up. It detailed some of the abuses I dealt with in a large corporate environment. I got away I was free and life was good.
Until it wasn't.
It seems no matter where I go or what I do, I can't seem to get ahead or get promoted. When i first started out in my field I understood. I worked for a tiny company. There was nowhere to go, nowhere to promote me to. I eventually worked up the nerve to ask for a raise and title change. I was told no, because my manager at the time didn't believe in different titles (which confused me to no end, but whatever). The environment I was in when I wrote 'When a Geek is Fed Up' was absolutely toxic. I applied for a position that would have been a promotion and I nailed the interview. I was what they were looking for. I found out later that the person that I was interviewing with, the person that would have been my manager actually wanted me for the position, but it was a good ol boy system and he was pressured to hire someone else. Namely my supervisor at the time who wasn't even eligible for the position at the time (he had just gotten a promotion and should not have been able to take another position for at least a year).
Why am I writing about this? Because it has happened again. I applied for a position I am qualified for. It would be a good jump for me, pushing me further in my career. It was with the same company I am currently with. I was hopeful and excited. The first month.
Two months after I applied they finally interviewed me. I thought the interview went well. I was to go on vacation a month after the interview but I figured I would have an answer by then. I was wrong. Two months after the interview, still no response. At this point we are 4 months past the point where I applied. Another two months pass. I finally got a "we're going with someone else."
Six months. It took me 6 months to get a rejection from a job in a company I work in. And what's more, I got the rejection while I was at work. This may sound strange as if I would get a response after work, but I was applying for a department. They are in another state. They typically call me after hours to let me know news. I then had to make it through another 4 hours at work without crying rage tears.
I know some people can suck things up and move it along to the next opportunity, but it honestly feels like I am drowning. I enjoy the people I work with, but my job duties have changed so much in the past three years, that I no longer recognize this position. There is no longer any joy in it as half the time I have no clue what is going on. I am disinterested. I want to focus on what I actually want to do for a career. How do I do that, when I can't even get a foot in the door of a company that knows my work ethic? It feels like I will always be slowly scrabbling at the ladder and I am so tired of it.
Laptop Search Begins – Gigabyte
To understand what is going on with all the laptop information, please go back to this post where I speak all about it here.
My current gaming laptop is a Gigabyte, so it made sense (to me at least) to start looking there for my Ultrabook purchase. I bopped over to their site, and what do I see under products?
They even have an Ultrabook category! I was excited. So, I started to peruse further. The Ultrabook series for Gigabyte is called AERO. They have a ton of different options. I am opting to look at the 14-inch models because as I said in my previous entry, I am looking for something slightly smaller. The model I am looking at specifically is AERO 14 (GTX 1050 Ti).
Right off the bat, the first thing I am noticing when it comes to these specs is that it feels as if these are gaming specs. I’ve not been in the room with many Ultrabooks that could take on gaming, but these are looking as if they might be able to. They have the SSD that I am looking for, storage is 512GB, comes with Windows 10 Home. It has a 14-inch display. I have no perception of measurement in my head, so I busted out a tape measure and measured my display on my work laptop. From corner to corner it is about 15 inches or so (always remember that displays are measured diagonally) and my work laptop is a full-size laptop. The laptop is gorgeous and comes in three different colors.
However, I have a history of seeing something pretty in technology and blindly purchasing and dooming myself. See: My HP Garden Dreams laptop purchase from back in the day.
In other interesting facts, it is only 4 lbs, 1.9cm slim (whatever that means), the charging adapter is light, and has an additional USB charging port on it, so you can charge additional equipment. It has an intel core i7 processor. It has something called Thunderbolt 3 port technology which I had to look up. Thunderbolt is the hardware interface for ports. Thunderbolt 3 is the newest and has USB- C. I can go further in depth, but all you really need to know is that it seems like most of the USB ports on this laptop are USB- C. It also one of the things that allows this Ultrabook the ability to Output its display at 4K on 3 external displays. It allows you to tweak the fans, which I think is kind of awesome. It goes quiet, normal, gaming, or you can customize it. If you are a game streamer, it lets you adjust the background of your streaming without a green screen.
All of these things sound amazing. It is a gorgeous laptop. I have spent hours on the site looking at it. But does it meet the qualifications that I need? Let’s see:
1. It must be small. No full sized laptops This is a little smaller than my work laptop, which leads me to think it is a full size laptop. I think it gets away with being called an ultrabook because it is so light.
2. No HP Laptops. √
3. No Lenovo laptops√
4. I need a solid state hard drive√
5. No less than 128GB of drive space√
6. I would prefer a Windows machine, but would do Linux if everything else was there√
7. My price point is $500 dollars. So we need to talk about this one for a minute. Gigabyte only sells refurbished items on their website, so I had to Google to see a price. That is when it became clearly evident that this was an Ultrabook in weight only (UIWO?). This is a gaming laptop, and as such it has a gaming laptop price. It is about 1100 dollars over my budget. I may be able to fudge my numbers a bit and get a little more money for the right laptop, but I cannot fudge 1100 for a laptop that has a lot of bells and whistles that I do not need. No matter how pretty it may be.
So there you have it. Gigabyte has amazing laptops. I know, I own one, I’ve had it for a good little while and the product is good. It stands up over time. I’m able to play my games on it and have not seen a degradation of the quality. While I would love for my newest laptop to be with them, and they met a lot of what I need, they did not meet the two most important factors. So, the hunt is still on. As always, if you have any notebooks you want to recommend, or any thoughts on laptops in general, feel free to reach out. Leslie@geekygirlguide.com
Update: I was back on Gigabyte’s website when I noticed something:
They have an Ultrabook series, but if you look a little bit lower, they have a mainstream series. I clicked over to there:
And what do we have here?
Gigabyte does have some smaller less powerful computers! Let’s check it out.
*Starts Reading*
*Tries to find a price*
*Reads how old these are*
*Throws everything away*
So, after doing some reading, these laptops are from 4 years ago. Why are they still on your site Gigabyte!? We will not be diving in to the other laptops. My original opinion still stands. Gigabyte is too powerful and too expensive for what I need it to do.
On to the Next one!
Laptops, Netbooks, Ultrabooks, and You.
I am a big believer in using what you have. I am one of those people that is resourceful with the tools around me. My husband is frequently amazed by the meals I make with whatever we have in the kitchen. To me, it is like a puzzle. Use what you have and be as frugal as possible. That way you have money to splurge on other things. That is why I have been trying to use this Kindle Fire tablet and keyboard for the longest.
This is not working for me.
The keyboard is way too small for my chubby fingers. I can’t properly admin from it. The touch screen thing drives me batty. Also, I don’t care what you say, SILK IS NOT A BROWSER (#BrowserBias2018).
While I do own a lovely laptop, my laptop is a behemoth. I hate lugging it anywhere. It is a proper gaming laptop. I need to be able to write and admin the site from my living room, or the break room at work, or wherever I am at. I think it would be conducive to me trying to write more in 2018. Not just for the blog, but in writing prompts and the like. I could be wrong though and it would just devolve into another way for me to read more fan fiction. We shall see.
Intel has trademarked the term Ultrabook. For them it means a line of high-end sub notebook computers that are smaller (think old school Net Book) but has a decent battery life. This is exactly what I am looking for. I need something small and compact. I don’t need to game on it. I need to be able to admin the site, surf the web and write my short butt off. Also, and this is a pure vanity situation, but I need it to fit into my new Kate Spade backpack. There is a small list of older models of Ultrabooks listed on Wikipedia here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ultrabook_models. That will give you some examples on what I am looking at.
I have some other rules for this new piece of equipment coming into my life:
1. It must be small. No full sized laptops
2. No HP Laptops. I had an incredibly bad experience with HP that nearly caused me to fail a college course several years ago. Ever since then I have been put off HP. HP if by some chance you see this blog, and want to talk to me and prove me wrong about your products, feel free to reach out. Leslie@geekygirlguide.com
3. No Lenovo laptops. Want to know why? Read here: http://money.cnn.com/2015/02/19/technology/security/lenovo-superfish/index.html
4. I need a solid state hard drive
5. No less than 128GB of drive space
6. I would prefer a Windows machine, but would do Linux if everything else was there
7. My price point is $500 dollars. Ideally it would be under $400, but I am not holding my breath on that one. For all of you scoffing at the price, saying I will not find what I want for that price, you better watch out. I love a challenge. Also, one thing I love more than reading? PROVING PEOPLE WRONG!
So that is it as far as my requirements. I must tell you, when I first started writing this, I scoffed because I thought I only had one or two requirements. Turns out I am slightly picky. Picky is good though. It will ensure I get what I need and what I want. I’ll be taking you along on #UltrabookWatch2k18 with me. I’ll be researching Ultrabooks and writing about what I find here, using the requirements up above to see if what I find is a good fit for me. I hope you will come along with me on this journey. Maybe you will find something you didn’t know you were looking for as well.
Prepping my Equipment
With the ability to blog more often, I needed to get my tech life in order. I also needed to do it cheaply, because I am balling on a budget.
Let's start with my phone.
I am currently rocking a 32GB Nexus 5x. Side note, I was in the mall grabbing lunch last week and the woman in the Sprint kiosk tried to tell me my phone was old! My phone is old if you are one of those people that gets the latest and greatest as soon as it comes out, and while I would love that to be me, I do not have it like that. My phone will do just fine, thank you weird Sprint lady. Ugh.
Anyway, on my phone I use Feedly to see what is going on in the technology world, Twitter and Facebook to keep up with you guys. While I do have the WordPress app on my phone, I was running into issues publishing documents on there. That has been fixed, but typically I use Evernote to write my blogs, and publish on my laptop when I get home.
Now, have you ever tried typing anything other than texts on your phone? It is long, tedious, and a hassle. When I would go to proofread, I would literally be crosseyed. Enter my Kindle Fire
I've owned a Kindle Fire for a few years now, using it mainly for internet browsing. I decided that I needed to make it work for me. For Christmas last year I recieved a cover for my Kindle that has a bluetooth keyboard attached, which is what I use when I am on my lunch break. I have Evernote installed on this as well, so as long as I have wireless access, my entries are populated across every device I have Evernote installed on.
In addition to Evernote, I have a clipping tool, so that I can screenshot as needed and a file browser, so I can work around the limitations of the Kindle. For example, I am currently working on crafting some gifts. I have a notebook set up in Evernote about one of my projects. I had a zip file in the notebook. I unzipped the file, but you don't really have a way to file explore on the Kindle without an additonal app. Is the Kindle the most functional and convenient tool for blogging? Not really, but with the proper apps it works just fine, I had it already, and after adding a keyboard it works beautifully.
You may ask why don't I take my laptop where ever I go. I mean, it's a laptop right? Well, yes it is a laptop, but it is a gaming laptop and is massive. The only time I take it with me is if I am headed on a trip out of town. Even then, a lot of times it does not get pulled out, especially if it is something I can do quicker with my phone (check email, tweet, Facebook).
The thing I am noticing however, is that the battery drains on the Kindle Fire quickly. I have to charge it daily, even if I am not using it. It is an older model as well, so there is no fast charge on this thing. It takes forever to fully charge if I let it drain completely. I usually find out when I get to work. If it is completely dead, I can get it to maybe 25% before lunch time.
I honestly want a bigger tablet, something with a little more power that I can use for other things. But that is a little further down the line.
New Phone Blues
I need a new phone. This sucks.
For those of you not in the know I am currently rocking a Nexus 4. It is getting older so, it is becoming less and less compatible with programs, and updates that come out. Plus, the past couple of years I have gotten used to listening to a lot of podcasts. I do not have a lot of space on this thing. With all my apps, pictures, and podcasts I am frequently running out of space. I have like 15 gigs. The majority of my time is spent on my phone (as opposed to my laptop) so I tend to run out of space fairly quickly. I am sitting here researching phones and I have a list of things I want. So far here is what we got:
- Android platform
- At least 32 gigs of space (prefer 64 or even higher)
- Fast processing speeds
- One of the more popular ones, so that I have a distinct choice in cases
Typically I leave phone decisions to my husband. He is a better researcher than I am. However I am learning that we value different things in phones. I use a lot of different game apps, and he has no interest in them. I take a lot of pictures, he does not. So what in the world does it look like handing off the choice of phones to someone who doesn’t do any of the things that I do?!
Thing is, I hate researching. I tend to get overwhelmed very easily. But I am going to suck it up and do it. Because I need a new phone.
Xfinity, no one likes you
So, my honey and I were out at breakfast this past weekend when we tried to connect to the wifi. We have been going to this place for years and they have always had unsecured internet access for people to use. Recently they have made a few upgrades and locking down the wifi was one of them. Not a huge deal, but as I am looking at the list of available SSID's available to connect to, I noticed an unsecured "xfinitiywifi". I showed it to my husband and he informed me that this was a common thing now. Comcast is using your modem to broadcast a signal so subscribers can sign in and use wifi where ever they are at.
This doesn't seem safe, or legal. When I got home, I googled a bit of information on it and came across this year old article on Ars Technica. The article states the good it could be doing, but it doesn't talk about the possibility for hacking. Also, when people connect they are using a piece of equipment on your network. Which means they are using your electricity. Will this increase your electricity bill?! Is Comcast going to put some money on your electric bill? Since they don't want to credit your bill when they have outages for days (*cough polar vortex cough*) I am going to go with no.
http://sprudge.com/20-tip-jars.html
This whole debacle fortunately does not apply to me and mine. We do not rent Comcast's shitty equipment, we purchased our own. But it is still truly concerning.
Do you have Comcast? Do you take advantage of the wifi access points from them around your town? How do you feel about it?
My Top 10 Podcasts – Part 1
Two years ago, I did not listen to podcasts. I had heard of them, but I never really paid attention. That all changed a year ago.
"Give me some of your favorite podcasts!" One of my Facebook friends posted. In 15 minutes she had a resounding list. One kept popping up over and over and over again. "Welcome To Nightvale" I decided to check it out. I started at the very beginning and was hooked after one episode. I started at the beginning, and was done in no time. I began searching for other podcasts to listen to while I was waiting for an update to WTNV. It just kind of snowballed from there.
Let's start with how I listen to my podcasts. Podcasts are called such because of Apple. These types of broadcasts have been around forever, but Apple made it simple (as they do with most things) to get all of these in one spot. I am not an Apple product user. I never have been. I find it amusing that even when I was all about trends and trendiness, I never had an Apple product.
My current smart phone is an LG Nexus 4. My phone is great, however I got the low end of the memory when I purchased it. I know now that my next phone will have the most memory I can get.
The application I use to access podcasts is BeyondPod for Android. I tried other applications, but they didn't feel as user friendly to me. There is a free verion and a paid version. I used the free version for a while then switched to the paid one. According to the website, the Lite (free version) has the same features of the Pro (paid version) except the following:
- You will be able to update only one feed at a time.
- You can download only one episode at a time.
- You can play episodes only at normal speed.
- Chromecast support will be disabled.
- Scheduling of automatic updates will be disabled.
- EpisodeSync will be disabled.
The main things that I needed from Pro were the first two on this list. I have a lot of podcasts...as well as feelings.
It is user friendly and the only thing I wish that it had (and this is totally superficial) is the ability to change the color of the application. The only two color palettes you have are a khaki color or dark. Boo.
So that is the hardware my podcasts run on. Lets jump into the podcasts. These are my top 10 in no particular order. I like them all equally.
We've already talked about this in a previous post. Perfect Carlos, Cecil, The Old Woman who secretly lives in your home. They are all amazing characters. This podcast is delightfully weird and is an absolute joy to listen to. I wish I lived in Nightvale. I would happily join Tamika Flynn's band of mercenaries.
2. We're Alive - A Story of Survival
I discovered this podcast roughly a year ago. I don't remember how, and I do not remember why. But I was hooked instantly. It tells the story of a hodgepodge of people, banding together as the Zombie Apocalypse is in full effect. There are a lot of twists and turns along the way. This podcast has been going since 2008 I do believe. Sadly, it is coming to an end. According to the website the finale premeres in LA on July 19th in a live performance. It is killing me that it is ending, as I have grown to seriously care for some of these characters. It feels like it did when Harry Potter ended. I have thrown absolute tantrums on twitter about characters and they have responded. Observe:
@geekygirlguide @WerealiveFans chapter 44?
— We're Alive (@WereAlive) April 24, 2014
And
@geekygirlguide @WerealiveFans WOW! Take the day! — We're Alive (@WereAlive) April 24, 2014
As you can see, I love this podcast. And I love that they interact with my crazy butt.
3. The Read
I don't even know how to begin with The Read. Let me start at the beginning. I live for Kid Fury. I originally started watching his YouTube videos when he talked about the drama he had when trying to get home to watch Scandal:
I was in TEARS of laughter from the jump. You'll notice in this one he briefly mentions the podcast him and Crissle do. I went ahead and checked it out shortly after that.
Bruh. Bruh. Honey, Linda, listen to me right now. If you love Beyonce, pop culture gossip, ratchet music, and just straight silliness. You must listen. There is swearing on here. Please keep that in mind. I don't even care. I'm grown.
From my list so far, you can kind of guess that I enjoy podcasts that tell a story. I am an avid reader. I have never really used books on tape (or cd, or whatever medium you want), but this is what some of these would be. Leviathan Chronicles are no different. It tells the story of an immortal population with a twist. This took some getting into. I think it was roughly the third episode before I was actually invested.
They currently have up to the first half of season 2 out. There have been multiple setbacks recently and the owner (Director? Writer?) Christof Laputka has a State of the Union that has been out there for a while explaining the delays. Christof, if you read this please know that there are people who enjoy this podcast who would have no problems donating to a Kickstarter fundraiser for you. I need to know what happens to Tulley. I also want to punch Maccallen in the face.
BoN holds a special place in my heart. They reached out to us on twitter. Matt lives in Indianapolis (like me!) and Llana lives in LA. Kind of like how Blondie is in Vegas and we co-write on here! For those of you that do not know, a Blerd is just a Black Nerd. Growing up, I didn't run into many Blerds and it wasn't until I was a full fledged adult that I truly let my Geek Flag Fly. BoN talkes about the things that we all care about, such as E3, Comics, Gaming, and more. I appreciate what they do, and hopefully maybe we can collaborate on something someday!
6. Stuff you Missed in History Class
I am going to be honest with you when I say history did not capture my attention in High School/Junior High School. I always made it a point never to fall asleep in class, no matter how tired I was because I snored like a bear back then. To this day, 9th grade world history is the only class I have ever fallen asleep in. Seriously passed out on my desk. I got detention because it is pretty much impossible to discretly sleep when you snore like a damn bear.
I felt like adding this podcast to my roster was going to be a mistake. I figured I would try one and delete the stream if I did not like it. This particular podcast has over 600 episodes. I started with number one. I believe this podcast started in 2008. I am currently in the year 2009. I've listened to over 50 of them. One of the hosts has changed so far and it looks like both will be changing the later I get into them. My favorite podcast is where they talk about Australia's Stolen Generation . I had no clue that this had happened. I spoke to some of my Australian friends and they gave me the breakdown on how the impact of the stolen generation reverberates today in Australia. It is crazy.
I did not realize my countdown was going to be as wordy as it is. So I am going to save the last 4 for a Part 2!
Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered (not in a good way)
Humans are weird creatures. Some of us are loud and combative while some of us are soft spoken and passive. We are all different and that is great. It makes the world a more interesting place to live in. Sometimes we don’t know how to deal with the actions of others or situations that our environment have put us in. Instead of making changes and doing big thangs, a lot of us put our heads in the sand and bemoan our fate. I am guilty of this quite often. There is a saying that is attributed to several different people; Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Sometimes it is hard to make that first step to change. This is why I am writing this. A change will do you good, as it sort of did me. Here are the steps I follow and questions I ask myself when I am truly unhappy with something for the examples, I am talking about my former job.
1) What exactly is making me unhappy?
When I first started my old job, I was ecstatic. I had been out of work for two years, and before that, nothing I truly did was IT. This job promised to change that. I learned a lot, and as time went on, things were becoming old hat. By two years in, I had surpassed my current job position. But there was no where for me to go. Remembering the arduous job hunt from two years prior, and how hard it was to get this job, I floundered. I stayed miserable far longer than I should, telling myself that I should be grateful to have a job.
What I didn’t realize was that in two years the game had changed. I was a big fish in a rapidly shrinking pond at my job. I wasn’t learning anything new, and I wasn’t going to be allowed to pursue the career path that I wanted to in IT in this job. Another thing I did not realize was that yes, my job hunt was difficult prior but I had nowhere near the skills or the resume that I did now.
2) Is there anyway I can become happier in my current position (current relationship, etc.)?
The straw that broke the camel’s back as far as my old job went was the very last review I had there. My boss gave me a glowing review. He was happy with all aspects of work that I was doing. During the portion of the review where he asked if I had any questions, I asked “Is there anyway that I could get promoted with job title and pay?” I was straight up told no. My old department ran incredibly lean. There was no place for me to go, and my boss wasn’t even trying to keep me. This was going to continue to be a miserable place for me as long as I stayed there. It was time for me to go.
3) Where to boss?
This is rough. You need to sit down and think what do you want out of your next situation. For me, I wanted a place that once again I would grow with. I learned so much from my old job. It made me more than a tech: I am an IT professional in all aspects of the word. I don’t just look at the problem and figure out how to solve it. I look at all aspects of a situation to prevent the issue from cropping up again. I wanted a place that would help me onto the track that I wanted to be on. I knew my end goal was to become a DBA. I knew I was not at that stage in my career at all. I wanted some place that would put me on the right track.
4) Let’s do this!
I knew what I wanted, I was ready to hunt. Dozens of resumes were sent out, interviews were given. For the first time in my life interviews didn’t phase me. I have all of the soft skills that IT people are always pushing. I have the technical skills as well. Why should I work for you? Tell me about your company. The interviews never felt one sided. We were testing each other out. Are you a good fit for me? I already know I am a great fit for you. Eventually I happened upon a company that is a great fit for me.
So that is where I am at now. The company I am currently at is as enthusiastic about me as I am about them. My department is another story. There is a lot of things going on that make me doubt who I am and what I am trying to become. It is dragging me down quite often. I am not in tears like I was at the end of my last job, but I am slowly losing steam. So I started looking at my list of questions again. I am on question #2. There is a way for me to become happier. and I am working on it. If you have a full time career a lot of your time is going to be spent doing this job. While it should not be the end all be all of your happiness, if you are able to you should at least not want to huddle under your bed crying when it is time to go to work. I recently took a step that should change how I feel about everything and continue me on my path to who and what I want to be.
What do you do when you are unhappy with a current situation? How do you handle it?
I am not here for CiCi’s Pizza.
Two days before Thanksgiving, my husband and I were exhausted. We both work full time jobs, and were hosting turkey day. The kitchen was relatively clean, and neither of us were in the mood to mess it up with dinner. Around dinner time, my husband uttered the words that I would soon regret agreeing to:
"Do you want to go to CiCi's Pizza?"
For those of you that do not know, CiCi's is an all you can eat pizza buffet. The pizza isn't great, but it is cheap and there is plenty of it. Two grown adults can get full here for less than 20 dollars. You can feed an entire family of 5 for like 25 dollars. This is why I should have expected everything that happened.
We walk in the door, and I am treated to two little girls attempting to bargain with the cashier. Their parents aren't paying them a bit of attention. One girl was roughly 7 or 8, the other 5 or 6. between the both of them they had two dimes and a penny, and was trying to convince the cashier to trade them for two quarters O.o. The cashier was patiently explaining to them that the money they had equaled 21 cents and that she could not give them two quarters because that was 50 cents.
"Well, can we have a quarter?"
Parents, please do better with your children. I know math is difficult, but don't have your little kids up there asking for random amounts of change. It makes me want to grab a whiteboard and sit people down and teach math.
We should have walked out then. Eventually they got the hint and returned to their seats. We paid for our meals, got our drinks, and proceeded to grab some pizza. There are children running EVERYWHERE, parents not paying attention, and little kids playing at the soda fountain. I walked out the door, looked up, and came back in. My husband asked me what I was doing. "I wanted to make sure we aren't at Chuck E. Cheeses.
Go be a kid here. Where it says you can be one.
Eventually someone notices that their kid is up to no good. Instead of going to grab them we were treated to the following for roughly 10 minutes:
"David...David come here.. DAVID I SAID COME HERE!!! DAVID PUT THE SALAD TONGS DOWN AND COME HERE! DAAAAAVIDD WHAT ARE YOU DOING COME HERE I SAID!!" For. Ten. Minutes. Believe me, I counted.
My second trip to the pizza line, and I just gave up at life. I was attempting to recover from a long day. The day was nothing but a series of disasters, one right after another, and I was trying to just eat dinner in the midst of Lord of the Flies.
(Me, shortly before we took our leave Fox.com)
A little girl had been ripping and running up and down near the pizza the entire time we were there. I knew something was going to happen, and knowing my luck, I should have known this was going to happen to me. The little girl weaved through my legs as I was taking a step. I stumbled, but righted myself, but my pizza? Landed right on top of her. She began to shriek like she was on fire. No worries, I didn't burn her. Pizza was lukewarm.
At that point, I felt like I should probably leave this place. I set my plate down next to the little girl who was now alternately shrieking and eating the pizza from her head, grabbed my purse, and my husband and left.
Cici's pizza isn't the best thing on earth, but it is plentiful. The employees are super nice. They greet everyone that comes in the door, they visit the tables and ask if there is a specific kind of pizza you would like to see on the bar. They deal with this nonsense EVERY DAY. There is one particular guy, I am not sure if he is a manager or not, but you can tell he truly loves what he is doing and I appreciate that. However, I feel like CiCi's is the place where people are going to congregate after the apocalypse happens and they are left behind. Just a bunch of crazy people, honey badgering it.
www.clantoolz.com
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