I liked this idea, so I'm inflicting on the rest of Xanga. It came in my email this morning with my Free Will Horoscope, written by Rob Brezny. Contrary to what ol' Robbo says, this is one of my favorite empathic pasttimes. So I'm sharing it.

My friend Ryan sent me a link to this company's web page today. I'm totally enthralled. They're a design-build company out in CA and they do all this fantastic modular stuff out of sustainable materials. And their company name totally rocks, too. Behold:

First off, I love this table. Squirrelies! In my house! yes yes. It shall be mine!

And this neato LED coffee table that responds to motion with twinkly lights (you know, because they can):

Thirdly, check out this cool office environment they designed for a game company, made to look like a sunken ship a la 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea.

Here's a work space-
  

A view of the divider arches-

A view of the office-

The game-testing space, complete with ginormous tentacle seating-

The "salon" area-

Oh, and they have a bar, too!?-

Today I heard back from Rampid, a game company up in Portsmouth. Funny, since i was just looking at those pictures up there and being all like, "Wah, i want to hang out and be a dork all day in a place like that, "

So, story goes I applied for a graphic design job there in March, when I was briefly considering a move closer to the ocean. Welp, suffice to say that plan changed, and  only now have they decided to get their act together and seriously pursue me. I've been e-bantering back and forth all day with the dude who's their hiring manager (I say dude because the company is basically seven 20-something dorky guys in an office, sha-weet), and he said i'm at the top of his list. Basically, they want my mad skillz. Or my boobies, whichever- long as they pay me. But I can't do it, because it's too far away, dammit, and everyone is disappointed about that. But! Maybe i can telecommute! Or do contract work, which would be tres cool. I will have to use my most wilesome wiles.

Gay marriage in Massachusetts was put to a vote on Beacon Hill today, and it's a go! According to our advocacy staff who were present, the House erupted in cheers and applause after the vote came in positively.  I'm sure plenty of people in this state who are members of the Happy Persuasion are cheering this afternoon as well.

Hurrah!

I just applied to teach art at a charter school where I'd get to design and implement the entire curriculum for their pilot art program. I am having visions in fingerpaint and seeing stars. Oh, man, that would be so freaking awesome. I want to do this so bad.

oh, please please please please..

Last week, my boss forwarded me a voicemail from the head of one of our programs, who was furious because I [supposedly] had not updated the website as she asked two months ago. This was followed by a sound scolding from my boss about being neglectful. Humiliating, to say the least.

I also was completely baffled, because although I'm fully aware of my potential to be an utter ditz, I generally do everything in my power to keep my flakiness in check. I'm almost obsessive at this point. Far from perfect, but I do my damndest. Most of my tasks come to me via email, so I am always putting them in my little queue and putting detailed labels on them and setting up priority reminders for myself. So when I scoured my inbox and found no such web-update request- aside from one I had already taken care of months ago- i was a little confused and upset, and told my boss as such.

Well, she said, there must be a new one, that's what they probably meant. You'd better fix this as soon as possible, because they're pretty upset and we can't have this kind of thing happening. Also some more scolding, etc etc. I felt REALLY bad, like, really really ashamed that I had somehow let someone down. So I hid in the ladies room for a while and sulked about it.

When I started this job, i came in with guns blazing, eager to use my mad design abilities for the greater good. Feh. To be honest, making the same boring invitations for the same Big Boring Boohoos has me kind of burnt out, but I'd hate to think that my lack of enthusiasm has lead me to be neglectful. Especially if it starts negatively affecting the kids and families we work with- that's what had me really upset. Who cares about some Board Member's hurt feelings; they can get over it for all i care!!! But if I ever let down a kid or a program I'd never forgive myself.  I felt I had somehow done that, and was starting to lose sight of my reason for being there. So I reasoned that if I'm this miserable, and my misery was depleting all the creative energy and potential to be put towards positive things, then i should probably just bail. Anyways, i have too many other really great ideas for some really great projects, and it's now or never time. So i decided to quit, and on Friday i gave my notice.

The kicker is, today I got an email from one of the people in that same program. Apparently, there was a miscommunication. Turns out that not only had I already updated the website just as i was supposed to months and months ago, but in fact no email had ever been sent to me with any other kind of task, so i pretty much got yelled at for nothing. To top it off, there wasn't even any new stuff to put on the website (for which i was also scolded) because they hadn't even decided on what to put there yet. So I'd done nothing wrong. Absolutely nothing. All that sulking in the bathroom for nothing.

Not true. What's done is done, and for a good reason. My last day is July tenth, and after that it's all onward and upward for me.

"and there were these squirrels,
and they were married merry...."

In the spirit of gearing up
to blow this popsicle stand, and in light of some controversy around
the existence of red staplers, I'm writing this post in honor of my
most -stalwart- cubicle accessory. Yes, i literally own an original, vintage red stapler. And no, I am not going to burn down the building.

Random movie trivia - Swingline didn't
make a red stapler until after Office Space, everyone was demanding
them.  The movie had 4 staplers that they painted red. -Posted 6/8/2007 8:23 AM by blackdove5

But...aha! I do indeed have a little red swingline "cub", dating from
the sixties (?). I found it in a storage room in the basement of the school
where I used to teach, and have hung onto it since. Apparently it's
something of a rarity. It's true that swingline stopped making red
staplers a while back, and then after Milton's infamous incident they
re-issued the red stapler due to popular demand. But my baby is the real thing: