1. the freeze panes function in excel
2. how the boxes and lines connect and move together in visio
3. tiger pumping his fist after a good shot... on a ppt slide
4. the auto correct typing function on my iphone
5. pretty much all of my iphone apps but my favorites are word warp, fox sports (ok maybe that one's not so dorky), and quick voice recorder (that one makes up for it)
6. my outlook calendar...
7. ...and that it integrates with my iphone calendar
8. my travel schedule excel calendar with my weekend details inserted in comments
9. my little mouse with retractable cord
10. airline miles
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Fun Quotes
This weekend some friends and I are going to the lake. Here are a couple of funny quotes from conversations about planning and getting groceries.
Me: I am splitting the grocery list into 5 sections so each person going to the store can take one part of the list. I'm giving Craft the easy section and instructing Barrett to help him once he's done getting the meat.
Adam: Yeah, I could see how Craft wouldn't have a lot of grocery shopping experience. You send him for eggs and milk and he comes back with a sixer of bud and some beef jerky.
Me: I'm sending you the shopping list.
Adam: I trust your thoroughness.
Me: Watch, I will have forgotten something really important. Although the most important thing is definitely on the list.
Adam: While you say beer, I may have an argument for sunscreen. My worst hangover has been 1.25 days while my worst sunburn has made me sick and sore for a week!
Me: I am splitting the grocery list into 5 sections so each person going to the store can take one part of the list. I'm giving Craft the easy section and instructing Barrett to help him once he's done getting the meat.
Adam: Yeah, I could see how Craft wouldn't have a lot of grocery shopping experience. You send him for eggs and milk and he comes back with a sixer of bud and some beef jerky.
Me: I'm sending you the shopping list.
Adam: I trust your thoroughness.
Me: Watch, I will have forgotten something really important. Although the most important thing is definitely on the list.
Adam: While you say beer, I may have an argument for sunscreen. My worst hangover has been 1.25 days while my worst sunburn has made me sick and sore for a week!
Book Review: Basic Black
Basic Black: The Essential Guide for Getting Ahead at Work (and in Life) by Cathie Black is the best career book I've ever read. Its target audience is women, but I think it is applicable across both genders, and there are only a couple of paragraphs in the whole book that are female specific. Cathie Black is the President of Hearst Magazines, and in this book she offers advice and anecdotes she has learned along the way.
Often I find career books, especially career books aimed at women, to be demoralizing. They seem to spend a lot of time trying to convince you that in order to get ahead you need to be someone you're not. However, I found this book to be motivating, inspiring, and genuine. Cathie coaches her readers to use their inherent strengths to their advantage.
My favorite piece of advice from the book was:
Value yourself by your aspirations, not your limitations.
Cathie shared this advice paired with her personal experiences of starting her career. When she first graduated from college, she didn't have any skills that would distinguish her from a secretary, though she defined herself by where she wanted to go, not where she currently was. This mentality helped her look for and gain job opportunities that launched her on an upward path. I think it's pretty easy for all of us to think we can't do something because we don't have a particular skill, but focusing on the positive and looking for opportunities will keep us headed in the direction we want to go.
Often I find career books, especially career books aimed at women, to be demoralizing. They seem to spend a lot of time trying to convince you that in order to get ahead you need to be someone you're not. However, I found this book to be motivating, inspiring, and genuine. Cathie coaches her readers to use their inherent strengths to their advantage.
My favorite piece of advice from the book was:
Value yourself by your aspirations, not your limitations.
Cathie shared this advice paired with her personal experiences of starting her career. When she first graduated from college, she didn't have any skills that would distinguish her from a secretary, though she defined herself by where she wanted to go, not where she currently was. This mentality helped her look for and gain job opportunities that launched her on an upward path. I think it's pretty easy for all of us to think we can't do something because we don't have a particular skill, but focusing on the positive and looking for opportunities will keep us headed in the direction we want to go.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Too Many Hotels?
I promise I'm not making this up.
This morning I woke up to my alarm at 3:45 am, in the middle of a dream/nightmare. In my dream, I was staying at a hotel with my parents. We had walked out to a car to head somewhere, and I realized I forgot something. My dad was annoyed that I had to run in and get something, as we were already running late (of course... have you ever traveled with me and my mom?). On my way to the elevators, I realized I needed a new room key, so I walked up to the hotel front desk to get a new key. As a very friendly rep at the front desk was helping me, I was looking anxious since I knew that my family was impatiently awaiting my return. The hotel manager (a 6 foot, 300 pound woman) walked by and noticed me looking anxious and started being rude to me. So I started being rude back. We exchanged words and were both getting pretty angry which peaked when the woman looked like she wanted to kick my ass and started to storm around the front desk. Meanwhile, I can talk the talk but, I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty terrified by the very angry, 6 foot, 300 pound woman storming in my direction. The lobby was very crowded, so I was trying to quickly weave my way through the people and to the elevator to escape her. My lead was growing narrower by the millisecond. And that's when my alarm went off. Saved by the bell!
This morning I woke up to my alarm at 3:45 am, in the middle of a dream/nightmare. In my dream, I was staying at a hotel with my parents. We had walked out to a car to head somewhere, and I realized I forgot something. My dad was annoyed that I had to run in and get something, as we were already running late (of course... have you ever traveled with me and my mom?). On my way to the elevators, I realized I needed a new room key, so I walked up to the hotel front desk to get a new key. As a very friendly rep at the front desk was helping me, I was looking anxious since I knew that my family was impatiently awaiting my return. The hotel manager (a 6 foot, 300 pound woman) walked by and noticed me looking anxious and started being rude to me. So I started being rude back. We exchanged words and were both getting pretty angry which peaked when the woman looked like she wanted to kick my ass and started to storm around the front desk. Meanwhile, I can talk the talk but, I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty terrified by the very angry, 6 foot, 300 pound woman storming in my direction. The lobby was very crowded, so I was trying to quickly weave my way through the people and to the elevator to escape her. My lead was growing narrower by the millisecond. And that's when my alarm went off. Saved by the bell!
Friday, May 15, 2009
Home Sweet Home
Finally home! Tonight I get to sleep (one of four consecutive nights to come!) in my own bed ending a stint of sleeping in 8 different cities in 11 nights! (Though, one of those cities of eight is counting my own bed last weekend.)
To recount for you:
Monday - Saginaw MI (night 1, city 1)
Tuesday - Detroit MI (night 2, city 2)
Wednesday - Denver CO (night 3, city 3)
Thursday - Dallas TX (night 4, city 4)
Friday - Dallas TX (night 5, city 4)
Saturday - Houston TX (night 6, city 5)
Sunday - Houston TX (night 7, city 5)
Monday - Ontario CA (night 8, city 6)
Tuesday - Ontario CA (night 9, city 6)
Wednesday - Vancouver WA (night 10, city 7)
Thursday - Portland OR (night 11, city 8)
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Book Review: A Sniper in the Tower
This will be the first of a few book reviews in a row as I've gotten a little behind!
A Sniper in the Tower: The Murders of Charles Whitman is about just what it sounds like! This book is pretty fascinating, well I guess if you're fascinated by that sort of thing! Especially if you know all the sights and locations discussed in this book as it goes through Charles Whitman's life and preparations to carry out the very first random mass murder in the country, this book is captivating from beginning to end.
Probably most fascinating was that everyone seemed to think Whitman was a pretty normal and nice guy. Even decades later, his friends would still say they thought he was a very nice guy. He did have a brain tumor (found during autopsy) and he was taking some drugs (though due to being immediately embalmed, they couldn't determine if he had taken them prior to the murders), but neither of these seemed to impact his actions. His murders were calculated and planned in advance. He started typing a letter explaining why he killed his wife and mother hours before carrying out those actions, while his wife was still at work.
If you're sickly fascinated by the unthinkable, from Austin, or went to UT, you should definitely read this book! I can't wait to watch the TV special and tour the campus again with Matt so we can recount all we learned from the book!
A Sniper in the Tower: The Murders of Charles Whitman is about just what it sounds like! This book is pretty fascinating, well I guess if you're fascinated by that sort of thing! Especially if you know all the sights and locations discussed in this book as it goes through Charles Whitman's life and preparations to carry out the very first random mass murder in the country, this book is captivating from beginning to end.
Probably most fascinating was that everyone seemed to think Whitman was a pretty normal and nice guy. Even decades later, his friends would still say they thought he was a very nice guy. He did have a brain tumor (found during autopsy) and he was taking some drugs (though due to being immediately embalmed, they couldn't determine if he had taken them prior to the murders), but neither of these seemed to impact his actions. His murders were calculated and planned in advance. He started typing a letter explaining why he killed his wife and mother hours before carrying out those actions, while his wife was still at work.
If you're sickly fascinated by the unthinkable, from Austin, or went to UT, you should definitely read this book! I can't wait to watch the TV special and tour the campus again with Matt so we can recount all we learned from the book!
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Weekend in Review
Last weekend, Tim, Megan, Rocky, and I went to San Francisco and also took a side trip to Napa/Sonoma on Friday. We are a great travel group (for each other, I'm sure other people might not like our travel style) because we don't really make plans and just play everything by ear. This is probably especially fun for us because in real life we're all super planny. A great thing about traveling with Tim is that it's like you have your own paparazzi tagging along. I made sure my camera battery was charged before the trip, but I don't think I ended up taking any pictures. Below is a summary of our weekend in pictures, courtesy of Tim. :)
Tera and Tim on the bus to Napa/Sonoma. We had this really annoying bus driver who thought he was funny, but he wasn't.
Tera and Megan at the Napa visitors center.
Tera and Megan at the Madonna winery in Napa. (Winery 1 of 3)
Megan expertly swirling her wine.
Megan, Rocky, and Tera in the Sonoma town square during our lunch break.
Tim, Tera, Megan, and Rocky at the Jacuzzi winery.
Mega, Tim, and Tera at the Jacuzzi winery (winery 2 of 3)
Rocky, Megan, Tera, and Tim at the Jacuzzi winery.
Notice Rocky's hand on his hip in this picture. One of the great things about digital cameras is that you can make fun of people right away if they look goofy in pictures; you don't even have to wait to get the prints back...
So that's what we did...
We love taking family portrait style pictures on our vacations together. This one is at the Viansa winery (winery 3 of 3)
Inside the tent that totally sounded like it was going to blow away.
Another family portrait style picture, where we're all about to blow away
I love this picture
Tera, Tim, and Megan in front of the Full House house.
What a fun and relaxing weekend! We had a great time, caught up on sleep, ate a lot of great food (to the point that we thought we were going to explode), and it was great to hang out with old friends! It sounds funny to call "work friends" old friends, but it was four years ago that we worked together. Time flies when you're having fun!
Tera and Tim on the bus to Napa/Sonoma. We had this really annoying bus driver who thought he was funny, but he wasn't.
Tera and Megan at the Napa visitors center.
Tera and Megan at the Madonna winery in Napa. (Winery 1 of 3)
Megan expertly swirling her wine.
Megan, Rocky, and Tera in the Sonoma town square during our lunch break.
Tim, Tera, Megan, and Rocky at the Jacuzzi winery.
Mega, Tim, and Tera at the Jacuzzi winery (winery 2 of 3)
Rocky, Megan, Tera, and Tim at the Jacuzzi winery.
Notice Rocky's hand on his hip in this picture. One of the great things about digital cameras is that you can make fun of people right away if they look goofy in pictures; you don't even have to wait to get the prints back...
So that's what we did...
We love taking family portrait style pictures on our vacations together. This one is at the Viansa winery (winery 3 of 3)
Inside the tent that totally sounded like it was going to blow away.
Another family portrait style picture, where we're all about to blow away
I love this pictureGetting ready in our hotel room to go out to dinner and then meet up with some friends. I had on about 12 layers of clothes (a normal shirt, a wool sweater, and a jacket) because California is colder than one would think.
When you have the opportunity to take a picture like this, you just have to.
Megan and Rocky in front of the Full House house.
Tera, Tim, and Megan in front of the Full House house.What a fun and relaxing weekend! We had a great time, caught up on sleep, ate a lot of great food (to the point that we thought we were going to explode), and it was great to hang out with old friends! It sounds funny to call "work friends" old friends, but it was four years ago that we worked together. Time flies when you're having fun!
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