Currently browsing: UAB

Dreams are cruel

It’s been a while since I’ve posted “personal stuff”. There are a myriad of reasons, the biggest being that I work for a company that has a huge online presence — including blogging and social networking. Being at UAB, I was always selective with what I shared, but I’ve found that I have to be even more so now.

That … and I tend to go “anti-blog” when there’s a lot of family drama and other things going on.

I had a dream earlier this week that UAB called me and wanted me to come back. The details of the dream are very faint to me now, but I distinctly remember waking up and feeling very down. That feeling has pretty much stuck with me all week. I can’t shake it, and what’s worse, I don’t yet fully understand why it’s bothering me so much.

I once told someone that I didn’t know that I wanted to be a web designer until I was hired there. Sure, there were things that I didn’t like about it. Higher management didn’t think much of my department. The pay wasn’t that great, but the benefits were awesome. It was close to home, and I had a very flexible schedule.

What I loved most about the job: I got to create things. Sure, it wasn’t as often as I’d like, and the majority of what I created I couldn’t show off to anyone … but for me it was just a great feeling being a part of the team. I felt appreciated. My opinion mattered. I loved my coworkers — they’re great people. Some of my “customers” I could have done without, but there were several that I just adored and loved working with.

And before I knew it … all that was gone.

Sure, I like where I am now. The people are nice. The facilities are nice. The pay is great. The benefits are less than UAB’s, but nobody’s perfect. But I miss the creative stuff.

I think that’s what’s eating me up, and I can’t yet let go of it. I mean let’s face it, with the way the economy is right now and the local government’s current financial state being in the toilet, there’s no way I’m going to be hired back. And to be totally honest, I just can’t go back to work under the current administration. My department is full of great people, but the people in charge all the way up the hierarchy don’t appreciate them, and sure as hell didn’t think much of me.

Or, that’s the impression they ALWAYS gave me! Several people have tried to convince me otherwise. It’s hard to listen when their actions tell me something totally different!!

I recently heard from a friend who’s still there, and I’ve been replaced — well, sort of. My actual position still no longer exists, but my duties have been taken over by someone. She was brought in during last year’s “merger” and took over most of my workload when I was laid off. I unwittingly trained my replacement. Thanks to me, she’s got some SharePoint and HTML experience, so she was naturally selected to pick up my stuff.

I don’t think that’s what she wants, but I definitely get the impression that she feels she can’t do anything else there and is just doing what she’s told so she can keep her job. Not that I blame her. She’s a good friend of mine, I love her dearly, and I can’t bring myself to be mad at her. It’s not her fault that I was let go, but I still can’t help feeling like shit when I think about how easily I was replaced.

Thinking about it now, I guess that’s why I’ve been trying like mad to stay preoccupied with new obsessions. They’re distractions to keep me from thinking about how unhappy and useless I feel. If it’s anyone’s fault, it’s probably my own for not keeping my options open during my time at UAB. I was so happy to finally be there, that I shied away from any new possibilities because I felt loyal to my employer and refused to hear any offers from anywhere else.

That’s something that keeps biting me in the ass: being loyal to my employer. You’d think I’d have learned by now …

Humpday Hilarities

Late again, my bad. So far the new job is going well. Everyone seems really nice and the facilities are a LOT nicer than those I had at UAB. I’m not crazy about the commute, but I’m hoping that maybe I’ll be able to switch to an early schedule after I’m settled a bit.

Anyways, without further ado, here’s this week’s edition:

One morning the husband returns after several hours of fishing and decides to take a nap. Although not familiar with the lake, the wife decides to take the boat out. She motors out a short distance, anchors, and reads her book.

Along comes a Game Warden in his boat. He pulls up alongside the woman and says, ” Good morning , Ma’am. What are you doing?” “Reading a book,” she replies, (thinking, “Isn’t that obvious?”)

“You’re in a Restricted Fishing Area,” he informs her.

“I’m sorry, officer, but I’m not fishing. I’m reading.”

“Yes, but you have all the equipment. For all I know you could start at any moment. I’ll have to take you in and write you up.”

“For reading a book,” she replies.

“You’re in a Restricted Fishing Area,” he informs her again.

“I’m sorry, officer, but I’m not fishing. I’m reading.”

“Yes , But as I stated before, you have all the equipment. For all I know you could start at any moment. I’ll have to take you in and write you up.”

“If you do that, I’ll have to charge you with sexual assault ,” says the woman.

“But I haven’t even touched you,” says the game warden.

“That’s true, but you have all the equipment. For all I know you could start at any moment.”

“Have a nice day ma’am,” and he left.

MORAL: Never argue with a woman who reads. It’s likely she can also think.

Johnson and Johnson cares

One of the reasons I’ve been so tied up at work lately: several of my clients are working on new grants, and as such have deadlines coming up.

Oh the joy of hurried mad designing!

I was perusing one of the company blogs and noticed in the links that one of my client’s new sponsors for their grant will be Johnson & Johnson (as in the makers of Band-Aids and many other popular healthcare products). This isn’t the first time UAB has worked in conjunction with a large company in the name of research, but it surprised me that this grant and it’s many sponsors has been so hushed.

Anyways, it’s nice to see that — a large company such as J&J aiding in research. A lot of good studies go on here.

LinkedIn is useful

I’ve been on LinkedIn for well over a year but never really got into maintaining my profile until recently. Honestly, I never saw much use for it until I started working for UAB. A couple people in my department are heavy LinkedIn users and encouraged me to use the service to “grow” my connections, by reconnecting with old friends and coworkers and reaching out to new ones. (I even ran across my old auto insurance salesman on there!) It’s been pretty cool so far. LinkedIn has added plenty of new features over the last year or so and recently overhauled their Groups. I’m a member of a handful and hadn’t really gone back to check out the new additions.

At the urgings of a coworker last Friday, I logged into my account and checked out the new features — namely the discussions for each of my groups. I’d spent a little time over the past couple of days reading over various discussions for a few of my groups: SharePoint Users, the Libertarian Party, GMail Users, Internet Professionals Society of Alabama (IPSA), and so on.

I’ve discovered that there are a LOT of interesting things posted to these groups. I was reading over the Tweeple (as in “Twitter People”) postings this morning and ran across two Twitter-related gems that I wanted to share with y’all:

• How to add your latest tweet to your email signature
• How to send a DM to a person who is not following you

There are plenty more where those came from …

I’m not really sure why I overlooked this aspect of LinkedIn. Given the new groups I’ve recently discovered, I’m looking forward to finding a lot more insightful tips in the near future on various topics.

Tres geek. Sweet. :mrgreen:

See what happens?

Things at work have been “hairy” to say the least. I haven’t been able to post about it without divulging sensitive information, so I’ve had to bitch and moan about it to Jim mainly. (God bless him for that!) One of my biggest complaints lately have been that I haven’t been doing the job I was hired to do — design. For the past year, year and a half, I’ve been doing mainly support and “web gopher” (meaning go to this page, update this, etc.). I haven’t been designing much. Sure, I do a little in my spare time, but lately that’s been pretty much nonexistent.

I did get pulled off for a quick side project a few weeks ago. A client’s husband (who happens to be one of the deans here at UAB) needed a “quick” website for a seminar he was giving in Egypt. I met with him and discussed his needs. He was very sweet and pretty much gave me full reign to do what I wanted with his site. (which was VERY refreshing to say the least!) In just a few hours time, I re-designed his site and moved all of the old content over and updated as needed. He was wow’d. The following week I received a very nice email of praise, cc’d to my bosses and the head of our division.

Sweet.

Upon reading the email, my boss chuckled and said, “See? See what happens when you leave a designer alone long enough to actually let her do her JOB?”

Needless to say, I wish I could work with him more than my actual clients, LOL! I mean, not only did I get a very nice “thanks” out of it, he also sent me several goodies from his organization, including a set of nice promotional pens.

Freebies = GOOD! :mrgreen:

As much as I love working for UAB…

… I hate hate HATE their insurance! :evil:

In all fairness, they have been pretty easy to deal with except when it comes to getting my Axert refills. Honestly, I’m having to jump through hoops just to get what my doctor has prescribed for me!

In this regard alone, they are WORSE than Blue Cross!

Stories of heroism and intrigue

There are a lot of things I wanted to cover today, unfortunately I wasn’t able to finish this post prior to class this afternoon, so bear with me … there’s a lot here.

Those of you who are local I’m sure have been following the story of the busload of Marines that overturned Sunday. They were from E Co., Anti-Terrorism Battalion, 4th Marine Division, returning from a weekend training exercise. I read this morning about Lance Cpl. David Miles, the Marine that passed away Monday afternoon from his injuries. However, even in death he still served others.

“According to his mom, he was very adamant about (donating) his organs … so the mom is very adamant about carrying out his wishes of harvesting as many of his organs as possible.”

Courtesy of The Birmingham News.

No doubt about it in my mind, he’s a hero. Courtesy of Villainous Company, here’s another tale of heroism: America’s Female Warriors Show Bravery, Loyalty. Greta highlighted a brave soldier’s father that she has met through Soldiers’ Angels: Robert Stokely, a fellow SA member and father of Mike Stokely who proudly gave his all for his country in Iraq.

Honestly the grace and bravery that our finest men and women exhibit every day never cease to amaze me. Too bad the liberal media doesn’t show them more often! :sad:

On Cookie’s site earlier today, I read a story about a couple of vets experiencing problems with Verizon:

Verizon Cancels Returning Marines’ Cellphones, Gives Their Number Away, Charges Them $500

Two Marines, a husband and wife, found Verizon had an unpleasant welcome-home gift waiting for them when they got back from serving in Iraq: canceled cellphones, a $500bill, and their phone numbers were given to other people. Under the Service Members Civil Relief Act, when a soldier goes off to war, they’re able to send their deployment letters to their service companies and get their service put on hold. Apparently in the case of Haley Katz and her husband, that letter wasn’t good enough. When they complained and reached a manager, the manager told them ” it was their fault they owed the money”, and then hung up on them. Read their letter as published in Stars and Stripes, inside…

At 3:30 a.m (Iraq time), [recently], my husband and I called Verizon Wireless to reactivate our phones, as we are returning home [from Iraq] soon and wanted to catch the company during its business hours. Upon speaking with a customer service representative, it became apparent that Verizon not only suspended our contracts, it disconnected our phones and gave our numbers away to other customers.

What is truly amazing is that the company took the letters our commanding officers signed regarding our deployment dates, and deemed the letters not worthy of suspending our contracts. It continued to charge us for those months without notifying us and when we did not pay, it disconnected the lines.

Long story short, when we called to reactivate our phones they told us our numbers no longer existed and that we owed them nearly $500!

When we asked to speak to a manager, we were told nothing could be done. When we did actually speak to a manager we were told it was our fault that we owed the money. The manager then proceeded to say “We’re sorry but nothing can be done for you. Goodbye.”

We were hung up on … in Iraq … at 3:30 in the morning. Real professional.

We spoke to another manager who was courteous enough to recredit our accounts and cut all remaining ties with their service. We are no longer with Verizon Wireless.

For all of the soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen out there, make sure you are checking up on the status of your accounts. Apparently, a letter from your command stating you are deploying is not enough these days. And aside from seeing service members off at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point (N.C.), I am not sure what else they are looking for.

Marine 2nd Lt. Haley Katz
Camp Fallujah, Iraq

:shock: I’ve heard horror stories about Verizon and their crappy customer service for years, but this takes the cake!

And speaking of human depravity, there’s the Berkley protesters. We’ve all heard of this one, right? Today, Rachel Lucas gave plenty examples of and commented on the ‘fine minds’ (and I say that lightly!) objecting to our nation’s finest.

Somebody please put these morons out of our misery!

Moving on to cooler (and more intriguing) things … a Starbucks employee donates a kidney to her customer. In today’s Mental Floss blog postings, a UAB study is mentioned where researchers are studying the use of scorpion venom in cancer medication. (YAY us!) Also, one of my fave sci-fi blogs, IO9, tells me that there is a remake coming for one of my favorite ‘B’ movies, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes! :grin: And last but not least, a funny bit courtesy of A Bama Blog: How to tell that you’ve ticked off an engineer.

I think that just about covers it.

Oh … before I forget … anyone going to OmegaCon this weekend?

We need more of these

(cross-posted to The Cotillion)

I was perusing The Birmingham News blog entries and ran across this one, featuring a local Marine vet who’s making a stand in honor of those who have served and sacrificed for our freedom.

Michael Rudulph, a three-tour Marine veteran, has taken a stand — vigilantly guarding the Eternal Flame of Freedom monument, a tribute to all war veterans, located in Linn Park here in Birmingham. The flame has been out for many years, and no one knows for certain how long or why. Sitting beside the monument with his own make-shift torch, a fire extinguisher, and some coffee, he has vowed not to leave his post except only to attend his classes at UAB and to sleep.

My hat’s off to you, Mr. Rudulph! It does my heart good to see our own local heroes stepping up and setting a good example for the rest of us. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I for one am tired of hearing about spoiled rotten starlets and pop stars hopping in and out of drug rehabilitation clinics. Give me more stories like Rudulph’s. Stop rewarding bad behavior with press and start rewarding those who are actually trying to make a difference in this world — even if it’s only starting with one monument in a small park in the South.

To Michael, thank you for your service and for raising awareness. To The Birmingham News, we need more of these!

Woohoo!

I got the news this past weekend (via a UAB “welcome packet”), but it hadn’t really sunk in until I signed the papers this morning. As of today (well, November 1st actually), I am now a permanent state employee. My job here at UAB opened up a few weeks back and I applied and was approved for an upgrade from full-time temporary to permanent status!

YAY!!!!!

While my actual job doesn’t change any, I do get a few additional benefits, including the ability to start attending school. If memory serves me, UAB pays for 18 credit hours per year, so that’s a class or two each semester. Picking a major will be hard — right now EVERYTHING interests me! :mrgreen:

So now I gotta see about getting my transcripts sent over here and how to start the application process and all that mess … but I’m excited! :grin:

I blame John :)

I decided to kill a little time waiting for Futurama to come on, and stole this from John.

1. Are you ready for 100 questions?
Um, sure why not…

2. Do you watch college football?
Absofreakinlutely.

3. Who will fill this survey out after you?
Someone bored.

4. Who was the last person to send you a text message?
Jim.

5. Do you love anyone?
Yep.

6. Are you happy?
Yep.

7. Where was the last place you went shopping?
GoGamer.com

8. How do you feel about your hair?
It’s wild and unruly, it’s pretty cool that way …

9. Where do you work?
UAB.

10. Last thing you ate/drank?
BLT and sweet tea from Hamburger Heaven.

11. Do you wish you were someplace else right now?
Nah … I like living here.

12. Do you have any pet peeves?
Plenty … how much time you got?

13. Do you have any expensive jewelry?
Depends on your definition of “expensive” … I have pretty simple tastes, nothing overly extravagant.

14. AIM or Yahoo?
Neither.

15. Do you like math?
Sure. :mrgreen:

16. How many hours on average do you work a week:
50 (day job + side project)

18. Favorite baseball team?
Haven’t watched it in years.

19. Favorte NBA team?
Ditto.

20. Do you watch the Olympics?
Sure.

21. Last restaurant you went to?
Hamburger Heaven

22. Who was the last person to call you?
Jim.

23. What’s your sign?
Does this look like a bar to you? I didn’t think so.

24. Do you have a favorite number?
Yup.

25. Last time you did volunteer work or made any donations?
Earlier this week.

26. What do you spend the majority of your money on?
Bills.

27. Where does your family live?
Not too far from me.

28. Are you an only child or do you have siblings?
1 younger brother.

29. Ever been called a bitch?
Yep.

30. Got any guilty pleasures?
CHOCOLATE!!!!!

31. Do you drink beer?
Not really.

32. Whats your favorite color?
Blue.

33. Did you ever collect Beanie Babies?
Only kitties, lizards, snakes, wolves, and frogs.

34. Ever bought anything online?
At least once a week.

35. Myspace or Facebook?
Both.

36. Do you have T-Mobile?
Hell no. I roll with Helio, baby!

38. Do you sometimes wish you were someone else?
Who doesn’t?

41. Last time you saw your parents?
At my wedding.

42. Do you have any talents?
A few.

43. Ever been in a wedding?
Yep.

44. Do you have any children?
Yep.

45. Last movie you watched?
Inuyasha: the Movie

46. Are you missing anyone at the moment?
Yep.

47. Did you take a nap today?
I wish.

49. Ever been on a cruise?
Nope.

50. Did you notice number 40 was missing?
Yeah … along with several other numbers.

52. Do you have any wealthy friends?
I wish, LOL!

53. Ever met anyone famous before?
Does someone from “The Real Life” count?

54. Favorite actor?
I have to pick one?

55. Favorite actress?
Hrm, I have several.

56. Are you multi-tasking right now?
Yep.

57. Could you handle being in the military?
I think so …

58. Are you hungry or thirsty?
Neither.

59. Favorite fast food restaurant?
BK.

61. What is your average cell phone bill?
$150

62. Do you own a camera phone?
Yep.

63. Ever had to take a sobriety test?
Nope.

64. Do you believe in Karma?
Absolutely!

65. Can you speak any other languages?
A little Spanish and Japanese.

66. Last time you went to the gym or worked out?
Right before my wedding.

67. How many pairs of shoes do you own?
10 … 21 if you count boots.

68. Do you have a photo hosting site that you use?
Zooomr, baby!

69. Last place you were?
At my desk.

70. What is your college mascot?
An elephant.

71. Ever been to Las Vegas?
Nope.

76. Have you ever been gambling?
Yep.

77. How old are your parents?
21 years older than me.

78. When is the last time you updated your blog?
Today.

79. Do you have your wisdom teeth?
Nope.

80. Favorite place to be?
New Orleans (pre-Katrina)

81. Have you been to New York City?
Nope.

82. Favorite sit down restaurant?
Cajun Steamer

83. Ever been to Disney Land?
Nope. Been to Disney World though, it was way cooler.

84. Do you have a favorite cartoon character?
Yup, several.

85. Last thing you cooked?
Shell pasta with meat sauce.

86. How is the weather today?
Kinda rainy right now, a little warm for this time of year.

87. Do you email?
Every damned day.

88. Last letter/piece of mail you received besides junk or a bill?
Merle Norman catalog.

90. Last missed call?
Telemarketer. (scum sucking maggots)

91. Last voicemail you received?
See #90.

92. Do you drunk dial/text?
God no, this isn’t college.

93. Stupidest thing you ever did with your cell phone?
Not capturing “the perfect shot” when I had the chance.

94. What is the best city in the state that you live in?
The one I’m in now.

96. Did you just die?
:shock: WTF?

97. Are you bored right now?
I’m filling this stupid thing out, aren’t I?

98. Last concert you went to?
I honestly can’t remember at this moment. It was probably Obliviaxe (which should tell you how long it’s been).

99. What do you think about before you go to bed?
Probably work.

100. What are your plans for tomorrow?
Work, make/have dinner, work on side project.

Next Page »