I liked this particular cartoon from phdcomics. It reminds me of our lab, and it works for other workplaces as well. Click the comic to see it larger.

Beginning with the red square, my grad school lab could be freezing cold, so I’d put a zero there. Since I worked with lasers, I worked in the dark as well. It could be rather difficult to stay awake if you didn’t get enough sleep the night before. “Not enough sleep” is a permanent condition in grad school. My advisor (for workplace, insert manager here) was probably a “1″. He was quite calm most of the time. Although he had this really annoying habit of not answering your question if he didn’t think you did enough thinking and research on your own. You had to ask the question in the manner that told him you had thought things out a bit first and done quite a bit of journal searching and reading.

As for the white square, for years I’d say it was more “VOR,” but the past couple of years before I left it changed to “BIO”. We had one particularly grad student who smelled. He didn’t just bother those of us int he group. We shared offices with other graduate students from other groups. The stink bothered them too. They wanted me to acquaint the guy with soap before I left. None of them wanted to be the one to tell him that he stunk. It was gross. If you were lucky, keeping about four feet away meant your nose wasn’t stinging. I never got around to the anonymous letter, soap and deodorant instruction before I left. I had better things to do, and I thought they should handle it themselves.

I’d say that the blue square should have a “3″. Productivity could be sucked out of you almost as soon as you walked in the door. It shouldn’t have been that way, but it was. When I taaobutbut productivity, I’m talking about getting the stuff done necessary for the thesis. I spent a year working on hardware and software just to obtain data. That year was useless when it came to advancing my thesis. Only the data mattered. We also moved the lab at one point. Moving a laser lab means six months of downtime. More time lost.

Now my last job, I’d put a “4″ in the red square because pump alleys are notoriously loud, but climate is completely erratic (unbearably hot to unbearable cold). I’d put a “3″ in the yellow square. For the white box: “COR”. I’d give the blue box a “4″. I think several of my coworkers would agree since when I left someone suggested not returning because there was no advancement.

I would like to hear about others’ hazard rating of their workplaces. Hopefully, yours is better than mine was.

I don’t have just one thing that I will remember most from this past year. I imagine that in the future the one thing I remember most about this year is meeting Mr. O. Oh, the things we did! Oh, the places we went! Oh, the people we met! What I will remember most is that I met someone as strange as myself. See, I’m not so strange after all. I hope that the upcoming year brings as much fun or more with O. Let’s make a few more memories.

There are other things that happened this year that I might remember, but it’s doubtful. I might remember that this is the year that the startup got funded, but since I haven’t seen a check for me…probably not. It will be more important once I see some money.

I may remember that I quit my job because it was just too painful to keep going. I do remember crying or nearly crying every morning before I left or while driving for weeks on end, wishing I didn’t have to be there. Yes, it was THAT difficult to be there all day. I could never quite put my finger on the reason, but I had a huge sense of relief when I quit. It was the right thing to do.

I will remember blogging again. I began writing here this summer. I will remember all of the commenters and loyal readers. You are few but great bloggers. Thank you for all your comments and stopping by. I’ve even gained some friends by blogging, and some day I will have to meet you in person.

Many little things happened through the year that changed my views and outlook. One hardly remembers the series of small things that effect the rest of your life. We only remember the big things.

I will probably remember catching my son with some of my lingerie catalogs. I knew that he’d grow up and be interested in girls. I just wasn’t expecting it this past summer.

It was quite a year. Busy. Boredom. Change. Pain. Joy. Amazement. I’m looking forward to what next year will bring.

It’s time to get back to getting something done. I feel a bit lost. Novel writing month is over, but my novel is nowhere near complete. I will have new work to do, but not quite yet. I still have a bit of shopping to do, which I’m not too happy about. I wish I had gotten it done a long time ago.

On the other hand, I am happy to see the John Bolton is out as UN ambassador. I think things are looking up all around.

Today will probably be a day of regrouping…finding my groove again.

I had a little celebration over my latest news beginning last night and going into this morning. None of the other people involved in the startup live around here. I decided to celebrate with a friend who understands how important this is. So we had dinner and then champagne and creme brulee. The champagne was terrific. I’m tired, and I have a bit of a headache from finishing off the champagne this morning. I will probably need to do double the hula workout to work off all the calories.

As I was typing the title for today’s post, it tried to fill in “Time to Panic.” It’s so funny how things change. And so quickly. I went out yesterday and bought what I consider to be an expensive bottle of champagne. It felt good to buy it. While I could probably use the money I spent on it for something else right now, it seems like the right thing to do. As a friend told me, this is a rare opportunity that very few people get. Now I can’t wait to open it. So although I don’t have any checks coming yet, and it may be January before they do, it is time to celebrate now…not later. I’ll celebrate the income later by paying off all the things I need to and buying some fun stuff.

Yesterday I received some news that had me shaking and stunned. Once I collected myself, I made several phone calls. I may have more calls once I get more details. The details won’t be posted here for various reasons. The news? The startup I have been involved in for the past four years finally got venture capital funding. We’ve been hoping for this day for years. However, “oh shit” comes to mind because now the real work begins–at least for me.

I had been wondering what I was going to do for work since nothing had been happening. Now I don’t have to wonder or worry. Funny how things work out. It seems that my life is coming together.

I survived the interview, but I came home exhausted. It took me until the last couple of people to get an idea of what they were looking for. There wasn’t a lot of talk about the job itself. I only met a few people who you might directly work with. Most of them would be people you might interact with on occasion. I hate wishy-washy interviews like that. Although I was trying to figure out if its a place I might like to work. I really don’t know. I think it is very difficult to figure that out during an interview.

Well, I have nothing to show for National Novel Writing Month. I have a lot of catching up to do. The goal is 50,000 words in a month. My biggest problem is getting started–finding an idea. I had that trouble in college fiction writing class. I had a good professor who was able to talk with you and pull out ideas. Once I have my idea, things go pretty well. If anyone has any suggestions on getting those ideas out, I would be glad to hear it.

I’m ready for this week to be over. I have a “recital” coming up in about three weeks, so I have extra dance practice. It’s amazing to me that I always get to Friday without having made any plans for the weekend. Every week is like that. Seems other people make plans, and I don’t. Sometimes that means I don’t do anything special. Other times it means I make plans on Friday evening for Friday or Saturday.

Technorati: writing, procrastinating, hula

I’m posting this in the evening because I probably won’t have time to post tomorrow morning. I can’t trust Blogger to work all the time, so it’s better to do it now. A company that won’t be named thinks they are doing my a favor by offering me a day of pure torture. That’s an all day interview, meeting 8 people and a presentation followed by grilling. No guarantee on lunch…I have foods I can’t eat, so I may find myself somewhere I can’t eat. I prefer to keep my eating habits to myself. I can’t afford to eat the things I shouldn’t. I will be sick the rest of the afternoon. Hmm. On second thought, it sounds like a good way to get out of the interview, but I don’t know how I would get back home.

I will mostly likely travel in traffic both ways, and there’s no way around it. I’ve told other people about this interview. Most are incredulous that this is the way things are done. It’s like a stress test. By the time I have been asked the same question four times, I’m about ready to snap. Every person asks the same questions. Sometimes you get a different question or two, but rarely. I don’t know why they think this is the way things should be done. Then everyone gets together with their notes on you. Now for the fun part! Everyone, and I mean EVERY ONE, has to agree that you can do the job and that you fit in with everyone else. Well, I can do almost any job, but I don’t fit in every where. In fact, I’m reminded of high school and earlier when I was such a freak–unlike everyone, which, of course, is very un-cool. So I not only do I have a day of repetitive, inane questioning, I also get to go through a popularity contest. Shoot me now, please.

I will have to let you know how it really goes, how stupid it really was. I’m not thrilled about getting up early, and my cats will be unhappy. I didn’t get much sleep last night, so my body will want to make up for that lost sleep.

Technorati: Why are interviews stupid?

I now have two interviews coming up. One is just a simple one-on-one meeting on Monday. The other one is an all day ordeal complete with a presentation. They even requested a title and abstract prior to the interview. Am I just out of college? Crazy. I dug out an old presentation from my graduate school work. Thank goodness it had notes. It may not be a great presentation (it was once when I knew the stuff better), but it will have to do. I think I will take a friend’s advice to act like I don’t really need their job. Actually, I don’t at the moment, and I’m not sure I even want either one. Although hunting up projects is no picnic, I would much rather do that and have control over my life. There’s something about being required to be at work especially when I don’t want to be (say weekends, evenings–over and over) that just pisses me off. I guess she’s seen this attitude work to her advantage. I think I can see why. Desparation–the opposite–is never attractive.

Also–silly me–I signed up for National Novel Writing Month. I guess I thought it might be a good kick in the butt–a goal even. But, along with other great writers, I’m an expert procrastinator when it comes to writing. I’ve put it off for years, even though I think I have a novel somewhere that needs extracted. Sounds painful. It starts November 1. I began a little something after my nap, but I have no idea where it’s going. My worst problem has always been coming up with a topic. The writing comes along fine once I have some sort of minimal plot and characters to work with. I just never make it that far. Then comes the worst–finding someone to buy it and publish it. At least I hear that’s the worst. My mother has a friend with a great novel, according to everyone who has read it, who keeps tinkering with it and hasn’t bothered to find a publisher. Everyone gets stuck at a different point. If you have an interest in writing a novel and think that a goal and the possibility of meeting with others with the same goal would be helpful, you should sign up.

Technorati: work, interviews, novel, writing

I feel like staying in bed today. I haven’t had a rush of blog ideas in some time. Blocked. At least, semi-blocked. I do manage to write something. It is now less than a week to Tahitian tryouts. I’m completely preoccupied with getting ready. I still have a lot of work to do. I’m worrying about finding work. I need an income, and I don’t seem to be very good at finding one. In fact, the last time I was unemployed it lasted for a few years. The market stunk. All the chasing never worked. I only got a job when I relaxed and let it come to me. Go figure.

So I welcome any advice on blog topics or finding that elusive income. I think I will go back to bed.

Technorati: bed, writer’s block, work