Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Mary's LiveJournal:

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Thursday, May 1st, 2008
1:04 pm	Is this a Fetish? Ever since I went to California last year, I've had this preoccupation with sand. When K went back to visit his family last time, I asked him to bring be back some sand. He somehow managed to smuggle home a shoebox sized plastic container of it! I feel compelled to touch it every day. I also like to put my bare feet in it and try to pick up bunches of it with my monkey toes. It's actually more like a craving...sort of like a pms chocolate craving. Or maybe like the druggie druggie fix those bums behind Green's Package Store are always looking for. It's not like I've never been to the beach before - I spent almost every summer of my childhood at the beach. So why now? Do I have some mineral deficiency? It's gotten to the point where when I see something that looks sandy, I want to touch it. In fact, I think I've just been outed. A few minutes ago, I was sitting in the back parking lot playing with some sand sized particulates when my boss walked by. Should I expect an intervention?! (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 30th, 2008
12:42 pm	More Random I had to get up and barf in the middle of my morning meeting today. How many people do you think asked if I was pregnant? There are some medications you really shouldn't take on an empty stomach. Someone at work has been eating my cheese! The second half of Torchwood season 1 isn't as good as the first half. I got in trouble today at work because I found out about the fire drill ahead of time and was wearing my earplugs when the alarm sounded. What are your predictions on how America will have changed 10 years from now? (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, April 29th, 2008
2:14 pm	Observations and Questions Please note that these are not necessarily all related. Just random stuff. Jack Harkness has a pretty severe overbite. How is it that an immortal can get shot and heal right before your eyes, but if he gets into a fist fight he has a bruise the next day? How can any man think that farting wouldn't be a turn off? Quite suddenly all the last names in my work Outlook address book are in ALL CAPS. Don't try to poke through the paper safety shield of a new bottle of pain reliever with the edge of a superglue tube. Really bad idea. When will the part of Boulevard next to the Cotten Mill Lofts reopen? Krog street tunnel has become a carbon monoxide death trap lately. What are cats thinking when they have stare downs with one another? (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008
12:52 pm	/Dork On I'm so pleased with myself right now! I just finished my first php enabled page that performs a complicated query I built based on my date range, displays the results and then exports it all to excel. Considering that I only knew the basics of SQL and nothing about php a month ago, I'm feeling pretty damn proud! Now that I have this, it will cut about 8 hours off of the preparation time required for one of my monthly presentations. Woo hoo!! (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 25th, 2008
7:55 pm	The Recession is Unsexy With the price of everything going up, salaries going nowhere, and a future that most definitely doesn't involve the word "retirement", the media have been dispensing all sorts of advice on how to save money without resorting to splitting the ole' two ply. I can't help but read every little bit of it in the hopes of learning something useful for the rest of us. Of course, it never really pans out that way. These nuggets of wisdom are almost always things that I do even when my 401K hasn't devalued 20%. So I thought I'd compile a list of the things I've been doing to make sure there's enough money to both pay the mortgage AND fill my gas tank. Here goes! -Wear PJs whenever possible. This eliminates the need to spend money on expensive jeans and other cute things that might actually make me feel sexy. -Stop wearing makeup to work. Fuck looking good for those people! The downside is that if catch a glimpse of myself in a mirror it makes for an automatic I'm not pretty day. -Avoid shopping of any kind whatsoever. I send my bf to the store with a list and some cash thus avoiding any opportunities to impulse purchase expensive import beer, salad bar by the pound (I once made a $12 salad at Whole Foods!), shrimp cocktail and pre-cut, out of season fruit. And Target? I won't be setting foot into that money black hole until 2010. -Don't leave the house. I find I spend a helluva lot less money when I'm a recluse. Hell, why go halfway? Don't get out of bed or bathe either. I'll show those utility companies who holds the purse strings! So what if even I wouldn't fuck me! That's my list for the rest of us. What's yours look like? (6 Comments |Comment on this)
4:32 pm	Regards, Why aren't there more acceptable business email closings? A lot of people use "Thank you" but why do I want to thank people for reading a report they are making me do? "Regards" sounds so stiff and "Sincerely" sounds dorky. I typically use "Regards" myself. Sometimes, when I'm feeling spunky I'll use "Warmest Regards" which always generates a lot of replies since I'm not really seen as a super warm person at work. Am I missing out on some better ones? I just scanned a few of the 4500 emails in my inbox and no one ever uses anything other than those 3. BORING. (14 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, March 24th, 2008
12:43 pm	YouTube Like a most people, surfing YouTube can suck lots of my free time into a vortex and where I come out is rarely similar to where I jumped in. For instance, I might start off watching funny cat videos and end up watching "the Making of TubGirl". I blame the "you might also like" links (as opposed to a lack of self-restraint). My question to you is what is the weirdest YouTube journey you've been on? Current Mood: lunch break (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, March 22nd, 2008
12:48 pm	Because a couple of people have asked... No, I'm not making it to Frolicon this year. There are many reasons I decided to skip this year - some having to do with finances, the date sneaking up on me, and a really terrible bout of food poisoning that makes the thought of drinking, eating and moving around...ugh...I probably should've cleaned out the fridge after last weekend's power outage. Even though I'm green with envy (heh), I hope everyone has a wonderful time! I'm checking LJ a little more often lately so I am looking forward to the pics and wild tales. Current Mood: nauseated (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, March 17th, 2008
12:10 pm	PHP Help One of my goals this year is to become more familiar with the current sw applications with the hopes of moving into a TPM, SW Dev or Systems Analysis position when the job market loosens up a bit (assuming it does!) I've learned enough SQL that I've developed a few queries that have definitely helped my department so the next step is to get them up on a dynamic web page which is where the PHP comes in. So far I am not finding it to be nearly as intuitive as I would like especially in regards to boolean operators. Also testing it out is a pain since no tutorials I've found have a mini php interpreter like so many of the SQL ones did so I have to save all my practice pages as files within the root and then call them up with a browser. Kind of boring! So my question to you all is what books, tutorials and the like would you recommend? I've already got my apps servers set up and a ton of table data to play with so I'm all set with that part. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, March 15th, 2008
6:05 pm	Question I'm having one of those "I don't feel pretty" days which is really frustrating since I have plans to go out tonight. Anybody have any suggestions or motivating experiences to share that might get me out of the funk? (11 Comments |Comment on this)
9:49 am	We _finally_ have power again. Hoping that everyone in my area is safe and sound! (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, March 8th, 2008
7:44 pm	? What's there to do tonight? (13 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, September 14th, 2007
12:41 pm	Looking for Romantic Italian Restaurant This weekend is the CK's b-day so I want to take him out for a romantic dinner. I'm thinking Italian. For being an intown girl, I hardly every dine out, so I'm relying on you folks to push me in the right direction. What can you recommend? Must haves are a great wine and dessert selections. Thanks everyone! Current Mood: working (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, July 7th, 2007
2:36 pm	This is the first time in a month that I've had considerable "me" time. Since K moved, I've been either at work, getting thrown under the bus at work, covering my ass at work, stressing about work while not at work, talking on the phone from people at work, having nightmares about work or trying really hard to forget about work. I actually woke up one night muttering "no more work, please don't give me anymore work!" I've been so traumatized by my cell ringing that the phone mail keeps piling up. I realized today that the number of messages waiting had decreased because they are too old to be saved by the system. Oops! I hope they were too important! Having Cali K around has been a comfort and our living arrangement is panning out much better than either of us imagined. He got a job making much better money than he ever has before and started just 3 weeks after his arrival. I have to admit that having him not work for those first few weeks was kinda nice. I could always count on coming home to clean laundry, a fridge full of groceries, no dishes in the sink and slightly less needy pets. Another thing I can count on is a big wad of brown hair in the tub, the wuzz, wuzz sound of the ultra dorky Star Trek Celebration light saber, and his cat Morpheus climbing on top of the fridge to eat the pet food I thought was out of his reach. Even though it was out of my comfort zone to bring anyone into my home like this, I think it is helping me. While I'm still tired a lot of the time, I'm finding myself with longer spurts of energy than before. Since April, my car has had no air conditioning. Now that he is here to drive his car, I'm much more open to going places. I'm also finally training my replacement at work. They had to cave and bring someone in from the outside at a much higher rate just to fill the position. After 1 week, I give her a 50/50 chance of staying. She's not enough of a masochist to deal with this client for long. But if this works out, there may be some light at the end of the tunnel. I have no idea what their ultimate plans are for me at that place, but it wouldn't surprise me if I got my own department. It could suck more... who knows.....but for now at least I can have a little hope for less misery. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 12th, 2007
1:28 am	Yes, I;m a little tipsy 'cause i don't gots to work tomorrow. How can we endure a meaningless existance and still have a conection to other humans? I hate being alive, but if that's the way it has to be, I'd at least like to be enjoyed by other humans. And i'd really like it if they didnt annnoy the fuck out of me. Evolution sure is strange. How do you bring meaning to you life? (9 Comments |Comment on this)
1:26 am	Firstly I need new icons. That one up there is from like 2003. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, May 19th, 2007
7:57 pm	Geez...I need something to do tonight. (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, April 19th, 2007
12:22 pm	I wonder Will I go to the Atl Comic Expo? I'm trying to motivate myself to go. I've been sitting around at home enough, right? I wonder if there are any parties or if it will be as tame as the Anime Con is. Seems like it might be a last minute thing. (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, April 1st, 2007
1:22 pm	In a weird rut I finally have a small break from my recent relentless work schedule and stress. We finished up a major project on Friday so I took off early and am enjoying an entire weekend without either going to work or working from home. I have lots of chores to do, especially with California Kevin coming into town for Frolicon - not that we will even be here since I booked us a couple of nights in the overflow hotel. Still, it might be good to sweep up the dog hair tumbleweeds and conquer the dishes and laundry that have piled up these past couple of weeks. Yesterday I decided to do a little shopping. Normally I wouldn't think twice about it, but I had to really work myself up to do it. I kept finding myself making excuses not to go. What the heck is up with that? Have I gotten so used to being miserable that I can't even enjoy something that I used to do for therapy? When I finally forced myself out, I had a pleasant enough time, but questioned every decision I made. Should I go into that store? Should I try that on? Should I ask if they have this in my size? I felt so self-conscious! I'm stressing myself out with all this thinking and second guessing. I really don't understand what's going on in my head. Maybe I've gotten so used to having work control me that making decisions on my own is scary? And yes, the word is scared. I feel scared, but of what I'm not sure. Current Mood: confused (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, February 24th, 2007
11:18 am	Thanks and another question Thanks everyone for your great suggestions for an old TV theme to use for my presentation. While its not as old skool as I was looking for, I went with TNG due to the large cast. The characters actually line up pretty well with the people they represent. Since I will be using this presentation to train help desk people on our practices, the dork factor of TNG is also appealing as a way to keep their (and my) attention. After all, this presentation will last 2 hours and I have to do it 4 times in two days. I am still working on the powerpoint doc that will be used for this. As I am searching for sound clips and other attention grabbing video, I couldn't help but be lured to the youtube site. This is a place I've begrudgingly avoided knowing that it would suck me in and not let go and that I would also feel ultra non hip since I didn't jump on that bandwagon from the get go. That's pretty fucking sad. To think I intentionally avoid fun things so that I don't have more reasons to be angry about my lack of work/life balance! Being an adult absolutely sucks! Besides working on the presentation, prepping for another biz trip, weekly house chores and trying to sort out the problems with my health insurance over the weekend, I am also going to be investigating joining a professional organization specifically with the intent of using it to find a new job. I have never been willing to pay the dues to PMI, I'm not sure if it will even be worthwhile. What experience do you all have with these types of career specific organizations? Is the $150 bucks worth it? (3 Comments |Comment on this)