I need all the luck I can get, little cat.

Humane Society of the US

Andhewaslikeohmygodwheeee!

I signed up for a brand new Yahoo account because my current one gets close to 300 pieces of spam every day and that's far too infuriating to deal with anymore, especially since the Yahoo mail Spamguard is worthless. Now every day when I sign on to My Yahoo and look at the Inbox preview I see Your Inbox is empty. This fills me with more joy than I am willing to admit. I think I'll just horde that email addy like a state secret for a while just so I can see that empty box staring at me on a daily basis.

I'm sad, I know.

This brings me waaaay back to when I first discovered the Internet, or at least Compuserve. Back when I was 70264,51. The only people online were geeks, technical businesspeople, and pilots. Nearly everyone typed with beautiful proper grammer. Things written without punctuation and capital letters were few and far between. And at that tender age of 14 the world opened up to me.

I used to visit chat rooms in several different Compuserve forums (SciFi & Fantasy, WorldsAway, Graphics). Chat rooms. What a concept! I would type something on my computer and somewhere thousands of miles away it would appear on someone else's screen! And they could type back to me! I remember the first time I saw a smiley. I was somewhere on the Compuserve CB, sort of a proprietary IRC, and people kept typing this mysterious colon-closing parenthesis combination. "Look at it sideways :)" someone said to me. The wonder!

I kept finding new things. IRC. Usenet. Telnet. BBS. FTP. AOL. Avatar-based chat. Then came the WWW. My first webpage. Java. Flash. Online shopping. Streaming audio and video. MP2. MP3. Failed ideas like VRML.

I have to wonder if there's anything left.

Mood: nostalgic
Listening to: Deva Premal - Gayatri Mantra

Today sucked.

It really did. It was one long anxiety attack after another. Muscle tension, hot & cold swings, and a restless mind. I've been trying everything to calm down. Meditation helped for about 10 minutes. Tea was ineffectual. I just took a bath, but I can feel my muscles starting to do that buzzing thing again. I'm going to have to take some Ny-Quil or something.

Mood: crappy
Listening to: the dove.

By the way...

I offer to you my resume in case you have a job to offer me.

EDUCATION

1992 - 1995 Nicollet Junior High School
Burnsville, MN

1995 - 1998 Burnsville Senior High School
Burnsville, MN

1996 - 1997 Dakota County Technical College
Rosemount, MN
Secondary Graphic Communications
* Studied and received hands-on experience in electronic desktop publishing, design, and printing.

1997 - 1998 Dakota County Technical College
Rosemount, MN
Secondary Animal Science
* Studied and received hands-on experience in the care, handling, biology, and use of several species of large and small animals.

1998 - 1999 University of Wisconsin - River Falls
River Falls, WI
Biology, Art
* Studied general education subjects such as biology, chemistry, English, drawing, and others. Began studies within the majors of biology and art.

Oct 2000 - Jan 2001 Dakota County Technical College
Eagan, MN
Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer Program
* Completed training in Microsoft Windows 2000 server and client software in preparation for the MCSE certification exam.

2002 - Present Thompson Education Direct
Veterinary Assisting
* Currently taking a home course to become a veterinary assistant.



WORK EXPERIENCE

Jun 96 - Dec 97 Pet Outfitters
Burnsville, MN
Sales, customer service, animal care
* Assisted customers in their purchases, advised new and current pet owners, responsible for the appearance of the store, responsible for the care and maintenance of small animals, reptiles, birds, insects, and aquatic life.

1996 - present Self-employed
Burnsville, MN
Web designer, HTML consultant, desktop publisher
* Advise HTML novices in the construction, design, and maintenance of web pages, design and maintain web pages for customers, design a variety of documents using desktop publishing software.

Aug 97 - Sep 98 Funcoland
Burnsville, MN
Game Advisor, sales representative, keyholder
* Handled sales of new and used video games and accessories, assisted customers in making choices about video games and systems, tracked inventory, maintained the appearance of the store. Responsible for opening, closing, and security of store.

Oct 98 - Dec 98 St. Croix Meadows Greyhound Racing Park
Hudson, WI
Dog lead-out
* Handled dogs pre- and post-race, responsible for health and safety of dogs during races, maintained the professional image of the company during shows.

Sep 98 - May 99 University of Wisconsin - River Falls
River Falls, WI
Parker Hall recycling representative
* Encouraged Parker Hall residents to recycle, managed Parker Hall's recycling room, responsible for the pickup and retrieval of recycling containers.

Jan 99 - Jan 00 Chartwells
River Falls, WI
Student employee, foodservice employee
* Responsible for opening and closing of restaurant, prepared food for restaurant and catering, responsible for maintaining cleanliness and proper food handling. Managed stock and supplies for one half of the restaurant.

Jun 99 - June 00 Express Personnel Services
River Falls, WI; Eagan, MN
Temporary worker
* Worked for many different manufacturing companies, including a finishing and packaging company, a cookie company, and an assembly company. Responsibilities were many and varied, including maintaining cleanliness and food safety, packaging cookies and finished parts, assembling car safety kits, and picking and shipping orders.

Jun 00 - Jul 02 American Specialty Confections
Eagan, MN
Account Services Team Leader, Information Technology
* Responsibilities included maintaining good customer communications in all facets of the manufacturing and packaging of their orders, interpreting reports, researching, designing and implementing new, more efficient policies and procedures in the Account Services and Information Technology departments, accounts receivable and collections, maintaining both software and hardware on servers, laptops, and desktop PCs, and training of new employees within the department. Job required good organizational skills and self-motivation.


SKILLS

Typing 80 WPM
Over five years HTML experience
Extensive PC and some Macintosh experience
Microsoft server and client software, Microsoft Office, Photoshop, and various other software programs. Knowledgeable in MCSE subjects.
Customer service
SCUBA licensed


VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCE

Como Zoo Family Fun Run/Walk
America Online Virtual Places chat host
America Online Web Diner HTML support


REFERENCES

References available upon request.

...

It's been a few days so I suppose I should write something. I didn't get the scheduling job at the hospital in Edina. I cried. I'm over it. Starting tomorrow I'm hitting the part time job hunt hardcore. The guy at Scents Paradise is super enthousiastic about me being there on Fridays and Saturdays, so that has my spirits up. I made $8 today at Xtension Generation, but I got a lot of studying done. I'm going to hit the books again tonight and hopefully get done with this skeletal system/muscular system unit by tomorrow.

Mood: okay
Listening to: the news

Yeah!

Go get Peter Gabriel's new one, Up. Trust me. Rock.

I was bored today so I went for a test drive in a Ford Ranger. Bad idea. Now I want one so bad it hurts. I also bought a bunch of clothes in the event that I get a job where I have to dress like a conforming member of society. Savers and Ragstock are wonderful, wonderful places.

Mood: good
Listening to: Peter Gabriel - The Barry Williams Show

I slept all day.

It felt good. Not that I needed 19 hours of sleep. But I kept on going back for the dreams. Oh, I had a lot of dreams. And a lovely dream about sex with a Swedish man I used to know.

I don't feel bad about dreaming about sex with other people. It's normal, healthy, and fun. And when I wake up I can roll over, give Dan a kiss, and know that everything is great between us.

Swedish dream sex rules.

Mood: refreshed
Listening to: TV

Get off my lawn!

I saw a recent picture of Peter Gabriel while searching for his latest single. He's gray and that makes me feel old. I always used to picture him as the exhuberant, silly version of himself in the Sledgehammer video. I know he wasn't exactly a spring chicken back in those days, but that's what I grew up with. I don't even want to know what Phil Collins looks like right now.

On the same note, I keep looking around at the suburban kids in daddy's car who hang around Uptown to be cool and saying, "you're not old enough to drive!" They might as well be infants behind the wheel in my eyes.

Cripes. I'm not even in my mid-twenties yet.

Mood: old
Listening to: Fleetwood Mac - Gold Dust Woman (because I'm OLD)

Good gods.

Watched some horrid show on WB tonight with Tim Curry in it. Bad. Bad. Awful. Quite possibly the most contrived piece of shit I've allowed myself to watch in some time. (Well, what do you expect, PPC, it's the WB!) AND to top it off it had the Scooby Doo laugh track.

Because we couldn't find the remote control we ended up watching the Jamie Kennedy Experiment. jYou know, if someone decided it would be funny to ambush me on some hidden camera show my first reaction would be to punch the guy. And stomp on his nuts.

I'm not understanding ER right now. Dr. Green is dead? Or not?

Mood: sick
Listening to: ER

I love people.

Thanks, JS at 12 frogs

Mood: amused
Listening to: Slayers - Just Be Conscious

That's all.

http://tiles.remember.yahoo.com/view/4522c30de3

I'm not turning on the TV today if I can help it. Not because I'm callous or bitter or jaded, but because I don't want to spend the day crying. Especially when I have a job interview at 1:30.

Mood: sad
Listening to: those damn cicadas outside

$4.40 for a Tensack, baby.

I have found a new toy at www.substance.com/es/mom/. And now I present to you:

Foxy Brown
Where all the women at?
Edna, from the diner.
PPC joins the cast of Friends

Mood: amused
Listening to: Slayers - Going History

Okay. Okay. ....... Oookay.

What an odd day. Dude calls me at 9:30 AM wanting a henna tattoo. Okay, sure, fine. I get there and he wants his entire arm done. Okay, sure, fine. Then he tells me he wants to come back in a couple of weeks, have me design something, and go straight to the tattoo parlor with it.

Wow! Weird! Flattering.

I'm going to start hanging around Xtensions Generations on Tuesdays and Thursdays doing my thing. She was really cool about the whole thing and sounded pretty excited. Yay!

Going to a job interview thing for some financial company attached to Citicorp on Thursday, then meeting with some at home business guy on Friday to see what's up.

What a Monday.

Mood: good
Listening to: Slayers - Don't Be Discouraged

DAMN IT. I forgot to turn my alarm on and I didn't wake up until 7:00. No Farmer's Market for me today. Guess I'll try again tomorrow.

I can't remember if I'm shadowing at 10:00 or 10:30 this morning. Shit. What a good impression.

Mood: worried
Listening to: Dan's snoring.

Whee.

So I got very little sleep last night. I went to bed at 10:00 and woke up around 1:00 to thunderstorms. I tossed and turned and fought Dan for the blankets until 4:00, when I finally just said fuck it and got up. I made jewelry until 10:00 this morning.

Got to get up at 4:00 AM tomorrow anyway. Oh well. I'm going to be smart about things and haul my crap down to the car tonight instead of zero-dark-hundred when I could very well kill myself on the stairs in a stupor of exhaustion.

Oh yeah, I forgot about those scary metal cage swings where you're supposed to sit in the little dune buggy-looking thing and pump with your arms. I wonder if there's a name for those.

Mood: tired
Listening to: Bad Religion - Destined for Nothing

Hopehopehope

Got a call back from the vet clinic I interviewed at. Seems they want me to come in on Saturday and shadow for a few hours. Whoo hoo!

Must...not...get....hopes raised........

Oh yeah... the Women's PGA is a major international event?

If you happened to have been watching the webcam for the past twenty minutes or so you would know that I finally got my ass back on the Gazelle. Scott, Heidi, Dan, and I went for a walk last night. A long walk. Perhaps too long for 11:00 PM. We got home at 12:45. We did, however, stop off at a park for a little while. Heidi and I swung on the swings and the boys smoked cigars. They have really nice swings now that are like butt-conforming plastic chairs. You can sit back, relax, and watch the sky go up and down. We never had anything like that when I was young. Hmph. We had those weird rubber duel-diaper swings for babies, but that was as fancy as it got.

Hey - remember when you were young and you and a friend would do a "spider" on a normal swing where one person would sit on it normally and the other sat on that person's lap so you were face to face? Yeah. That seems perverted now. Ah, to be young and nieve.

Mood: Good
Listening to: Pink - various tracks off Missundaztood Mizunduhstood Misundaztood Whatever.

When filling out countless job applications you will inevitably run in to the Federal Affirmative Action questionnaire. Being biracial (Korean-American) I get a little offended by not being able to choose more than one race. Fuck you, Federal Government. Fuck you, Affirmative Action. Fuck you for making me feel like a freak and an outsider.

Mood: Irritated
Listening to: Sevendust - Home

Blowing

I've reached the point of desperation. I NEED A JOB. I'm going to talk to a temp agency tomorrow. I'm probably going to be putting up or taking down signs for some "major international event" for three days. Well, it's something.

Mood: Depressed
Listening to: TV