Websites I Recommend For Getting Cool Stuff

www.swaptree.com

Have an old book, video game, CD, or DVD that you rarely use? This website allows you to trade those unwanted items for things you do want or need. All you have to do is create an account and enter the ISBN number or UPC code of your unwanted goods. The site will then tell you what you can trade for those items. For example, I have a book I accidently ordered from a book club that I have no interest in reading. Someone, somewhere apparently does want to read that book and he or she is going to send me a Tony Hawk Xbox game for the novel collecting dust on my bookshelf. Good deal! Users can even create or import wish lists to swaptree.com, and the website can figure out if the user has an item he or she can trade for one on their wish list. Traders can even print correct postage directly from the website to ship trades. Going to the post office isn't even necessary!

www.swap-bot.com

This website also involves trading, but is a little different. At swap-bot.com, users find common interests and swap items based on those interests. For example, I like books about ghosts and all things paranormal. I am currently in a swap where I will select a paranormal book based on my assigned partner's interests, and he or she will send me a book based on my likes and dislikes. Users can participate in swaps in a variety of categories. My favorite categories are books, seasonal, bath and body, food and beverage, and postcards/letters. I have been a member of this site for over a year and have sent and received ghost stories, weird Japanese things, chocolate, lotion, Valentines cards, books, candy, etc. It's fun!

http://www.mysavings.com/free-product-samples-section/

This is a good, reliable free samples site. I request free samples every week and I also get free samples every week, often two to three times a week. I have received free toothpaste, tampons, various kinds of food, shampoos, conditioners, deodorants, pet foods, and more. It's very simple to request the samples and at times you won't have to buy shampoo or toothpaste because you'll keep getting samples in the mail.

http://www.online-sweepstakes.com/

Every so often I go through a sweepstakes entering phase. This is one of those times. Online-sweepstakes.com lists hundreds of sweepstakes that anyone can enter, all organized into neat, convenient categories. The categories include international and domestic vacations, electronics, books, clothing, sports, kid stuff, pet stuff, and a lot more. The fact of the matter is, if you enter several sweepstakes regularly you WILL win something sooner or later. My entering frenzies never last longer than a month, but during those times I have won tickets to a Nascar race, Rachel Ray dishware, an Itunes giftcard, movie tickets, a CD, a DVD, and more stuff I'm sure I've forgotten. The biggest prize I won was an ugly Pandora charm bracelet from Glamour magazine. It was valued at $1,200 and I sold it on Ebay for something like $600. I am dying to win an international trip, but that has yet to happen. If you win a trip from the site you'll have to take me!!

Wild Imaginations

Lately my imagination has run a bit wild, and I frequently find myself imagining bizarre situations with crazy results. For example, right now I'm sitting at my desk at work and the engineering manager is having a phone conference in the main boardroom. What would he do if I barged into the room and tried to kick out the 14th story window? I'd surely be fired, probably arrested, possibly put in a psychiatric ward. I have no desire to kick in the window of course, but it's interesting to imagine my coworkers' reactions. My husband and I went to Sea World a few weeks ago and I wondered what would happen if I jumped in the polar bear tank. Would someone come in after me or would they just let the bear eat me if it wanted? Not all of my imaginings are potentially fatal, however. Sometimes I wonder what people would do if I went to the grocery store and started throwing boxes of cereal at other customers. Good times. Does anyone else imagine bizarre scenarios or am I just strange?

Speaking of strange, I am currently reading a book called Pretty Little Mistakes, a kind of Choose Your Own Adventure for adults. Basically, the story starts off with the reader graduating from high school with two choices of future action, college or travel. Each choice leads to a different storyline, with more choices (and storylines) along the way. I've read my way through a few stories and so far I've committed murder and suicide, gone to jail, survived cancer, been murdered, become a lesbian, etc. etc. Last night, I was raped by a gorilla named Shenanigans. Didn't see that coming. Never the less, the book is entertaining and good for people who don't like or don't have the time/patience for reading an entire novel. I do recommend it.

Maybe I should write a book where people can choose to jump in polar bear tanks and kick in windows.

Temp Job-New Kids-October

Oh, the humbling continues. I'm now working a temp job where I spend my days delivering lunches to VPs and restocking break rooms. However, I only do two hours of actual work (the rest of the time I'm on the Internet like now) and I get paid $15 an hour so I can't really complain. My friend had someone quit on her last minute and I wasn't doing anything anyway, so here I am. I'm still looking for a real job and one of these days I will get my act together. I have until the end of October.

I occasionally change up the stocking techniques, renegade that I am, much to the chagrin of the office administrator. A week or so ago we engaged in the great paper towel shuffle. I'd move the paper towels next to the cutlery bin and she'd move the paper towels back to the middle of the counter. This happened a dozen or so times before I lost interest and admitted defeat. Today began the soda power struggle. Since 1812, the administrative assistant has apparently stacked soda in double layers. I decided to utilize just one row so that people aren't constantly knocking things over. I was questioned about my technique and told that double stacking is the best defense against warm soda. She's right I suppose. Eight people could descend upon the refrigerator at once and take a Dr. Pepper, leaving no cold Dr. Pepper for the next person. Imagine if someone were forced to put ice in a cup or select another flavor or walk to the other kitchen. The horror!

I can't believe it's been nearly a year since we left Japan! Almost all of the teachers we knew have gone back to their countries, even those who were in Japan for several years. I hate how time passes so quickly. My husband and I went to Charleston for Labor Day weekend and even though it seems like we lived there only a few months ago (it's been more like a year and a half), I realized that I have no ties there anymore and that that part of my life is history. It's the same with my hometown of Oklahoma City. Of all the friends and family I had in the area when I moved away six! years ago, only one or two remain. Everyone else seems to have migrated to Texas for some reason. Sometimes I feel like I don't belong anywhere anymore.

Okay, I hadn't intended to be melancholy. On a totally random note, New Kids on the Block is going to perform here in November and I am very excited! I was obsessed with them as a kid, but my parents never took me to any of their concerts. The outrage! I plan to wear my New Kids shirt, get drunk, and scream like a maniac. I only hope that they play their old stuff and not try to woo us with the new songs. I can't think of anyone who would be interested in that. You're my Popsicle!

I'm also excited about it almost being October. I have decided that October is my favorite month and Halloween my favorite holiday. I'm not even going to pretend that it's Christmas anymore. I love how the weather gets cooler (although not much in Tampa) and how there are a bunch of new pumpkinish beers. I love the dorky Halloween decorations, the ghost features on TV and in newspapers, costume parties, horror movies, and haunted houses! So much more fun than carols and Christmas shopping. I haven't decided what I want to be for Halloween. Right now I'm debating between gory Anne Boleyn, Jem (truly, truly, truly outrageous), or gory '80s zombie.

Until next time...

Delusions of Grandeur

I had a job interview on Wednesday and it got me to thinking about how utterly clueless I used to be about the job hunting process. When I graduated from college and moved to Tampa six years ago (six years!!!) I had an unbelievable case of new graduate arrogance and new graduate naivety. I don't know if other new graduates think the same way, but I was certain that a college degree guaranteed success. I majored in public relations and was sure that a fabulous career at a hip PR agency was only an application or two away. I was so sure of this that I moved from Oklahoma to Florida with no job prospects and only $1,000 in my bank account. I didn't know anyone in Florida, and had never even been to the state, but I wasn't worried in the least. People tell me I was really brave, and I let them think that, but I was really very naive.

A few weeks after the move, I slowly began to realize that getting a job was not as easy as I'd thought. Apparently employers valued experience more than a degree. While browsing through the want ads one Sunday afternoon I came across an ad that screamed Entry-level Marketing and Public Relations!!!! Work with Fortune 500 companies!!! NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY!!!! I thought the ad sounded promising so I called the number and went in for an interview the next day. When I arrived, I was immediately wary. A stereo in the corner blared rock music and several people awaited interviews in a small, dingy lobby. No one, including the employees, appeared to be over the age of 25. A "manager" eventually called me into his office and gushed about how awesome the job was, telling me that I needed to come in the next day for a field test. The manager's enthusiasm was catching and I agreed to go, but my then boyfriend (now husband) talked me out of it. He had had an nearly identical experience with a company displaying a similar, over punctuated ad and the position turned out to be nothing more than unsolicited, door-to-door sales. His company made him wander around a mall for eight hours so that he could try and sell "spa packages" to anyone who would listen. I've since met several other people who have had terrible experiences with these type of companies. Lessons learned: 1. Avoid ads with capitalization and exclamation marks. 2. If the ad sounds to good to be true, it is.

One another occasion I saw a listing in the paper for a pharmaceutical sales rep. I called the number and the woman who answered asked me to come in for an interview. "Wow," I thought "I actually have an interview with a pharmaceutical company! Sales reps make a lot of money and they get their own cars too. This is awesome!" I drove to the office, checked in with the receptionist, and immediately felt wary (again). The ad was actually placed, not by a pharmaceutical company, but by a temp agency, and when I went in to speak with a career counselor we didn't even discuss pharmaceutical sales. The woman was more interested in setting me up with another client than getting me a job and would call me at home to try and persuade me to go on a date with the guy. Nevertheless, I desperately need a job and the temp agency eventually found me a position at a small software company. The job supposedly involved "many hats," but as it turned out, my sole responsibility was cold calling HR managers to try and make appointments for the sales department. I despise making unsolicited calls and cannot force myself to do it. In the month or so I was there I only spoke to one HR person, the rest of the time I dialed and hung up or purposely called companies with automated systems, knowing I'd never get through. I couldn't quit because I'd signed a contract with the temp agency and they would charge me a $1,000 for not staying at least three months. Thankfully, the software company very nicely fired me and arranged it so I wouldn't have to pay the fee. They must have wondered why they never heard me talking on the phone. Lessons Learned: 1. Don't sign contracts with shady temp agencies. 2. Don't accept a job that has anything to do with cold calling 3. If the ad sounds to good to be true, it is (again).

After the cold calling debacle, I worked in retail for a few months, and with loans from my now husband barely scraped by making $8.10 an hour. This was utterly depressing because I had worked in the same department for the same company in college, but for more money. I didn't make enough to pay my bills and my employer actually garnished my wages because I had fallen behind on making payments to their store credit card. While I was there someone wandered into the store and tried to sell me a spa package. No joke.

A few months after I moved to Tampa, a neighbor eventually got me a job as a claims adjuster at a local insurance company. Even though the job had nothing to do with PR, and even though I swore in college that I'd never work in a field unrelated to my major (ha!), it was a normal office job, it paid well, and I eagerly and ecstatically accepted the position. I got the job because the neighbor put in a good word for me and because I had insurance experience (in college I also worked at an insurance claims call center). Lessons learned: 1. Experience is much more important than a degree! 2. Having a degree (or two) does not guarantee success. 3. When it comes to job hunting, don't be arrogant or the job gods will humble you.

I don't want to even get started on the ridiculous things I said in interviews. Let's just say I used to answer the standard "tell me about yourself" question like I was dictating a personal ad. While I am in no way a job hunting expert now, and while I'm sure I have many lessons yet to learn (like don't quit one job without having another), I like to think I am much more savvy at 28 than I was at 22, and that eventually I will find a job I like (or can at least tolerate) in a field related to my education. I refuse to give up hope!

What about the rest of you out there? Were you able to find a job related to your degree? Or are you working in a completely unrelated field? How did your job search go right after you graduated? Did any of you have the same delusions I had? Do tell.

Unemployed!

Yesterday was my last day of work, and I am officially unemployed (again)! I suppose I should feel sad or anxious, but I don't. The job just wasn't working and to me it wasn't worth staying. When I started going home for lunch and chugging beers to relieve some of the stress I knew I had to get out. Sometimes being broke, uninsured and happy is better than being employed, insured and miserable (and an alcoholic), at least in my opinion.

I grew to hate the job for two reasons: it was extremely stressful and the boss was horrible. I could have probably handled one or the other, but not both. Constant stress and a screeching, crazy boss is a deal breaking duo in my book. I worked in the marketing department of an architecture/engineering firm. Whenever an engineer or architect wants to pursue an advertised project they have to submit a proposal. The marketing department is responsible for coordinating such proposals. In general, this involves gathering all of the required information from the engineer/architect, laying out the text and graphics in a desktop publishing program, completing any necessary forms, proofreading and editing sections and ensuring the proposal meets all of the potential client's guidelines.

The process sounds simple enough, but there was nothing simple about it. To properly complete a proposal, the coordinator has to rely on at least three other people: the project manager to provide necessary technical information, the graphic artist to design graphics and a proofreader to, well, proofread. One (or all) of these people is certain to be a pain the ass. I always hated group projects in school, and to me the job was nothing more than a series of group projects from hell. The engineers and architects are almost always ridiculously last minute and they rarely give coordinators all of the necessary information/materials until the day the proposal is due. As a result, the coordinators are constantly scrambling to get proposals done on time. At first I thought the last minute stuff was a fluke, but it happened over and over again. The last minute scrambling results in lower quality proposals because coordinators simply don’t have the time to review everything thoroughly. I found this to be nerve wracking as the coordinators are ultimately responsible for the proposal and any mistakes it contains. Some potential clients are so picky they will throw out an entire proposal if a period is in the wrong place and I was constantly terrified that I was going to lose the company millions of dollars because of a dumb error. The whole process was a giant hassle, from start to finish, and I really don’t see how anyone can do it long term.

Be that as it may, I probably wouldn’t have quit so soon had I not had a terrible boss. I could tell almost immediately that my three coworkers hated the boss, even though they were trying to hide it. I noticed lots of furious whispers and angry typing. There was also a strange tension in the air. I remember wondering how everyone could sit so quietly for eight hours. It turns out that talking irritates the boss and that anyone violating the silence will be rewarded with meaningless busy work or a slammed door. My coworkers could tell stories for days about the terrible things she’s said and the crazy things she’s done, and I witnessed a few of these things myself, but my main problem with her was how she handled (or didn’t handle) my training.

When I first started, I didn't have much interaction with the boss. She basically plunked me down at a desk and told me to review various training manuals on my own. I worked with the boss for three weeks before she went on a three-month maternity leave. Before she left, she sat with me on only once occasion (approximately thirty minutes) and showed me how to pull basic information from the company database. That was the extent of my training with her. On one occasion, I went to her with a question and she told me she was too busy and to ask my coworker. As a result, I wasn’t trained by my boss. I was trained by my coworkers. They are the ones who answered my questions and showed me how to perform the various tasks that came up during the coordination process. In the three months the boss was out my coworkers helped me whenever they could, but they were busy with proposals of their own and I had to try and figure out many things by myself. They were able to teach me various aspects of the job, but it wasn’t a cohesive training process, and I still wasn’t confident in my abilities when the boss finally returned from leave.

When the boss returned, she mentioned sitting down with me to see how things were going but that never actually happened. She answered questions and made edits but we never talked about my progress or about things I might need to work on. She seemed to very busy again. One afternoon, shortly after her return, I overhead the boss talking to an engineer about me. The engineer had called her on the phone and the two of them were discussing a proposal I had just completed. I know this because she was practically yelling and I could hear her clear across the room. I heard her say “that’s a training issue” and “that’s no excuse, she should know that by now,” in an irritated tone. I was certain I was in trouble and expected her to call me into the office, but hours passed and she never said anything about it. I eventually told her I’d overhead the phone conversation and asked if I had done something wrong. She assured me that I’d done nothing wrong, that she would have let me know if I had, and that the engineer had told her I’d done a good job. She didn’t tell me what it was I should’ve known, nor did she address “the training issue.”

Approximately a week or two after this incident, I had to review the professional goals she’d set for me in my first week and finalize my mid-year review. This was all done online. In the comment box I wrote what I thought my weaknesses were. My intent was to alert the boss to my weak points so that I could possibly get additional training and/or help with my problem areas. I was completely taken aback by her response. She wrote that my competence level would have been higher had I taken more notes during training sessions or used down time to practice new skills. That comment is ridiculous because I took pages of notes (I counted at least twenty when I cleaned out my desk) and I spent hours practicing new applications which she would have seen had she bothered to read my early timecard notes. I don’t know where she got the idea that I wasn’t doing these things. I have a suspicion she placed all of the blame on me because she was worried my written concerns would make her look bad. She also wrote that I needed to take the initiative to ask questions regularly. As I’m sure my coworkers will agree, I asked plenty of questions, and unlike her they never told me they were too busy to help. It’s difficult for me to understand how she could give me any kind of review after being out three of my four months, much less a bad one. She rated me as “below target” in the two most important categories (70% of my goals), and perhaps I was below target, but it’s not entirely my fault as her comments suggest. The implication that I was not able to meet my goals because I (and I alone) didn’t put enough effort into becoming successful is unfair and hypocritical. The bad review was the final straw and I put in my two weeks notice immediately after reading it.

Even if the boss hadn’t given me a bad review, I’m not sure I could have worked with her for any extended amount of time. She’s rude, abrupt, unethical and abrasive. I’m actually surprised she hasn’t been fired by now. Here are a few anecdotes:

* She told one of the coordinators that her husband was wary of hiring Mexican landscapers because Hispanics steal. The coordinator’s last name is Perez. Another coordinator, last name Carreño, also heard this tidbit.

* She got caught using another employee’s password to hack into her boss’s timecard.

* She regularly screeches questions from her office or interrupts conversations without so much as an “excuse me.” Half of the time I couldn’t tell who she was talking to because she’d just start screeching without warning or preamble.

* She told us she doesn’t like to use digital cameras to take pictures of black people because photos from digital cameras are too dark and black people can’t be seen.

* She took a company-owned laptop home (without permission) so that her husband can use it for work.

* She brought in photos of her naked, three-year-old child and asked the (male) graphics department manager to make her a collage.

* When she was trying to get pregnant, she told the other coordinators about the different positions she and her husband would try. When her in-laws visited she told everyone how she had to hide her dildo and sex journals.

* She refused to transfer files her boss’s boss asked her to transfer and then acted all confused when her bosses got upset with her.

* One afternoon the marketing assistant learned her mom was dying of cancer and had only a few days to live. When the assistant called in from her mother’s bedside, the boss’ first response was to ask when she would be back. Another coworker emailed the boss to say she would be taking a day off to attend a great aunt’s funeral and the boss’ one sentence response was “you can’t take bereavement leave for that.”

* She took a coworker’s used vegetable tray and used dip home (I’m talking several days old) so she wouldn’t have to buy new ones for her daughter’s birthday party. She regularly eats other people’s food without asking.


Like I said, there are stories for days about this woman. I’m just glad I don’t have to deal with her or the last minute scrambling anymore. While I don't have another job lined up, I'm looking, and something will come along eventually. Until then I'm going to enjoy my free time by watching Office Space, going to the pool, writing and placating my husband by keeping the apartment clean.

Take This Job...

Despite the gushing just a few months (and a few posts) earlier, and despite the fact that it took me months to find a real job, I've quit the one I have because it's horrible and I hate it. My last day is June 26th. Hopefully I'll be able to blog more then.

Vote or Die!

If I still have any readers out there, I will let you choose my next blog topic. You can give me your own topic or choose one of the ones listed below, based on events from my past. My current life is dull. The choices are:

A. The humorous shenanigans and/or frightening brainwashing sessions at an Oklahoma Southern Baptist youth camp (I worked there when I was 16 and 17).

B. What happened in Spring Break 2000.

C. The ping pong show I witnessed in Thailand.

D. Gun safety night with my drunken father.

E. My junior high stalking (I was the stalker).

In the meantime, enjoy this Saturday Night Live clip of the Japanese Office.