Misery

well, today cg has her whole group tied up in looking for a christmas gift for her mom online...it has to be some specific color, and specific style, because her mom already told her what she wanted. None of them are getting any work done, just cruising the internet (meanwhile something has gone horribly wrong with two of my funds)

Bringing me to a problem that is larger than our own little cubeville: What's this about asking for a specific item for christmas? Isn't it the season of giving? Shouldn't you shut the hell up about about what you want and accept graciously anything anyone chooses to give to you? Yes.

I understand some people asking "what would you like for christmas?" I get it, people have asked me that question. I'm not saying don't answer the question, "I'd like a sweater." or "You can't go wrong with a Tony Hawk video game." But my point is this: If you have an item already selected, already picked out in your head, the exact item, no imitations, no knock-offs, no similar styles, but the one-and-only item then go buy it yourself for crying out loud! Why don't you just suck all the joy out of giving by providing store locations and barcodes for us? Why not just take down my credit card number and call your local Abercrombie/Kmart/Aldo/Crate&Barrel/Old Navy and order that thing you want in the specific size color pattern and flavor you've already decided would make you happiest? I'll tell you why. Because my credit card is maxed out. Ha. So there. So go on, tell me whatever it is you want to pretend I took time to pick out for you so you can feel fufilled this holiday. And then get ready to suck on a $10 Dunkin Donuts gift certificate in a home-made construction paper and crayon christmas card.

Merry Frickin Holidays.


oh yeah, recommended download: Pearl Jam, Once

no l-o-i-t-e-r-i-n-g a-llowed

Yesterday evening my dad got a phone call from a college buddy of his. They chatted for a while, catching up, and as parents do, started talking about their kids. "Tommy graduated in May, now he's working at State Street." And then my dad turns to me and says "Liz [the friend's daughter] has a friend who works at State Street, you should look her up." and, my dad repeats the buddy's comment true to form: "She's pretty, and single -no boyfriend."

So, I am about to email her. To say hello, and by the way, your friend's dad knows my dad, and says you're pretty good-looking, and I should look you up.

recommended download:
Pearl Jam, Crazy Mary (Boston, August 29, 2000)

world traveller

Ok, so I just read Maureen's livejournal...the whole thing. It took me like half an hour, and now my eyes hurt. More than that though, I am consumed by jealousy.

Tom and Maureen moved to Morrocco. Maureen is teaching there, the school gave Tom a job running the computer lab (and also the library). And it seems all they do is have adventures. Morrocco, Austria, Turkey? Greece? South Africa? Where will it end...these are the two I visited in London (marking the only time I've ever left the North American continent). Honestly guys, what's up for next year? Antartica? The deepest jungles of the Amazon? or have you already done that?

Whew. Ok. Having said that, there are many things I would like to do, for example
1. Fly to Morrocco and visit Tom and Mo
2. Fly to Milwaukee (ok, not as exotic, I know) and visit Donny
3. Fly to San Diego and visit Glenn (and juggle)
4. Buy a car and drive to Milwaukee and San Diego on a grand road-trip adventure

At present I have decided to pursue option #4. Therefore I am saving all my money, every penny, every single last cent, so I can buy a car, and enough gas to make it to CA and back.
I am also trying to figure out which car I should buy, there are a lot of them...what would be a good car for a road trip.

You know, like Caine in "KUNG FU." Just walk from town to town, meet people, get in adventures.
http://www.godamongdirectors.com/scripts/pulp.shtml

More later.
-T

recommended downloads:
The Darkness, Dancing on a Friday Night
Urge Overkill, Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon

this one's for you

Well actually, it's for all of you
a collective you.
you know.

anyhow, aparently my blog is more widely read than I thought, or perhaps more widely known than I thought.

so, since I haven't posted at all today, I'm sending a shoutout to those who read this blog, or those who have access to the link and choose not to read it. Thank you.

and now a special feature, a recommended download from an admirer of mine:
gang of four, at home he's a tourist and return the gift

and a recommended download from me:
piebald, rock revolution

cascadingly yours,
-T.G.M.E.

Work is overrated. School (college) is underrated, and, underappreciated by most. My goal is to work just long enough that I can sustain a college student lifestyle. Sleep until 10, breakfast prepared by someone else, videogames in the afternoon, hang out with friends for dinner and afterwards, and it won't matter what night of the week it is you drink, because you won't be working the next day. Maybe a part time job to keep me grounded, but really just so I'll have someplace to call so I can lie about being sick. A lifestyle where I can devote a few hours a week to meaningless games clubs or activities (juggling) and/or a lifestyle where I would be responsible for the safety/wellbeing for younger college type people (ra).

Because I miss school. And I miss no income. Really. Making-do, scraping-by, that's real character building...but I think the biggest part is, when everyone you know, when 20,000 kids your own age living with six block of you are in the same situation, that can be a lot of fun. I mean stealing ketchup from the dining halls fun, I mean borrowing flatware, and dishes, and bowls, fun, I mean picking your fights, and sticking with them (like bringing ketchup into the dining halls). Like partys getting broken up where the drunk RAs outnumber the on-call RAs three to one or better. Being able to visit your friends because they live two flights of stairs away, and not two airplane flights away plus a two-hour layover in chicago.

I'm thankful for the memories, and the friends I share them with.

cascadingly yours,
-T

published

I had a conversation the other day about publishing my IM conversations, because they're just so darn good that people everywhere would enjoy them.

somebody beat me to it. (link^)
-T

stylin'

Today cg is chatting and laughing on the phone, wearing a sunshine yellow-on-yellow striped top and black pants with the black heels. She looks good, but today, I look better. With my straight blue, white buttoned shirt, and cream-colored flat-front khakis (black shoes, black belt) I am styling.

The mood here seems to be relaxed and excited for the holiday (Thanksgiving) because we don't expect much work today, a whole day off tomorrow, and a short day friday (since the market closes early)...it's almost, but not quite a three day workweek, but we're feeling like it is just the same.

recent income proof news: yesterday one of my funds had a problem, and when we went to check my old income log backup printouts we couldn't find any from the 15th. I'd lost the income logs for not just the fund with the problem, but all my funds, for the 15th. It was a little disconcerting, a little frustrating, but most of all surprising, since I'm actually pretty good at remembering where I put things (fyi, the income logs get put in my desk, it's not like they'd go wandering off). However, today I found them, all of them, and we're cool. Except the problem we were trying to trace to the 15th didn't appear there, so I didn't really need the income log for that day -ha.

To sum up: my recent news about the world of mutual funds is boring, because my job is boring. Thank goodness cg is here for me to observe (and for you to read about) or we'd all be asleep most of the time -not that that's a bad thing, it' just I think they'd fire me if I slept at my desk 4 hours a day- :)
quote: "It depends on your definition of asleep. They were not stretched out. They had their eyes closed. They were seated at their desks with their heads in a nodding position." -John Hogan, Commonwealth Edison Supervisor of News Information, responding to a charge by a Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspector that two Dresden Nuclear Plant operators were sleeping on the job.

recommended downloads: Bob Dylan, Don't Think Twice, and Phil Ochs, Here's To The Land Of Richard Nixon

sick, but not out sick

I'm sick, I've been infected by what must be the less-than-deadly-but-still-mischevious strain of the influenza virus...or maybe it's the common cold...the point is I feel terrible.

But thank goodness for wonderdrugs! Currently I'm running on a couple ibuprofens maybe later I'll switch over to good ol' tylenol, if I can make it til then without hacking up a lung...the point is I love modern medicine: they've found a way to make it possible to feel terrible and still be able to come into work! Stupid Pilgrims.

oh yeah, cg is still cute, nothing new to report

recommended downloads: Dynamite Hack, Bring It On, and Stephen Kellogg, She Moves In Such A Way

Today I am...

...sick. I took friday off, just in time to catch a cold. Like I planned it. Sore throat for the weekend, super gravely voice in the office on monday. I have to shout to be heard.

I did, however, finish my budgets today, which is, I think, a good thing...it means a smidgen more free time. A better thing is that crazy-hyper-6-coffee manager is out today, so I can relax as I get back into the swing of things.

recommended downloads: Jefferson Airplane, Somebody to Love

ok, this is a post for those people out there (Adina) who have accused me of stalking the cute girl.
two points
1. I made her up, I have a very active imagination
and
2. I don't think it's stalking if it's a passive activity, we (the fictional cute girl and I) work in nearly adjacent cubicles. It would take more effort, foresight, and planning to not observe her during the day.

p.s. recommended downloads: anything by The Who, but especially Can't Explain

todays recommended downloads

Weezer: Love Explosion
Bowling for Soup: On and On (About You)

I try to keep up with the daily download recommendations for two reasons:
first, I think it's nice to share with the readers the music I'm enjoying on a particular day, maybe they'll try a download sometime and discover some new music...
and second, it's because I've had trouble in the past spelling "recommend" so I like to keep practicing.

Maybe yesterday was laundry day

Ok, so today cute girl is hot. Tight black-and-tan sweater (black stripes thick on the bottom, thin on top, tan stripes thin on the bottom thick on top), straight floor-length black pants (the flowy kind...you know the ones I mean), and black shoes with about an inch heel. Def. best-dressed today, until she puts on her blue coat and ugly scarf to go outside.

Also, for those of you unfamiliar with Dan Goldin, or Dan Goldin Day here's a brief wrap-up http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/1013052/posts
BU had elected him prez, decided to throw him a party and gave everyone the day off last Nov. 17th (2003) then, when they booted him, they were going to cancel the day off which would have forced me to take an exam for which I wasn't prepared. However, cool guys that the BU trustees are, they decided to give us the day off anyway, thus saving me from a sure failure. Consequently, I took an oath that day to celebrate Dan Goldin and the role he played in the debacle, by celebrating "Dan Goldin Day" every Nov. 17th (observed friday, see earlier post for schedule for the week of 11/15). Also, it's much easier to say and remember than "Nov. 17th, I-lucked-out-and-got-extra-time-to-study-for-a-big-exam day" :)

Fashion Bug

OK, so, if she wasn't the cutest girl in the office I would definitely be critiquing her taste. Today she came back from lunch with an adorable orange purse -nice pattern, leather strap, and of course I find it adorable because it's attached to her arm. But the rest of the wardrobe...

Light blue knee-length heavy coat, big brown buttons; four-color knit scarf brown, white, pale blue, pale green (probably an abercrombie); ugly light/electic blue top, the fake hooded sweathshirt kind where the hood is just for show; greyish pants, no belt; black shoes

Well, like I said, if not for being the cute girl, she'd not be winning any of the best-dressed-in-the-workplace awards...

Feel free to comment, critique, question, or leave some fashion tips

PEACE.

Cute Girl Update

Cute girl is reading a novel at her desk. I wish I could read here at my desk, but I guess that's unproductive or something...I'd like a little sign I could hang on the corner of my cubicle that says "being unproductive." Maybe if I could read here at my desk she would notice, maybe then we would start talking about books, maybe she would be impressed by my pronunciation, articulation, and vocabulary, maybe also she'd think I was cool. Maybe she'll just keep reading her novel and I'll keep sitting here waiting to accrue.

10-6
p.s. Red Dragon Tattoo is still stuck in my head

This job is getting easier

When I started here I spent three days shadowing to learn the Ways of the Fund Group. They were the easiest three days ever. Not only did I not have to do anything, but additionally, there were no problems with the funds, so we didn't have to do any trouble-shooting, and we got out early (5:45) each of the three days.

Naturally I expected things to run less smoothly when I took over my own funds, and, as expected, things ran less smoothly. In addition to not knowing what the hell was going on there were also terrible problems on the funds. Don't get me wrong, it was a valuable learning experience: learning to identify problems, learning which ones I could take care of, and which ones to take to a manager. I also learned the best time to approach my managers, and which one to approach with which type of problem. (Peter is 6-large-coffees-a-day hyper and is good to go to when somebody else screws up your fund - Dan is relaxed and explains everything and is good to go to when you screw up your fund - and Mike is chill and is senior manager and can fix anything, so he's good to go to when your fund suddenly turns up bankrupt and you're so totally confused you forget which cubicle is yours.)

But, since then, things have been gradually getting easier. I'm moving through the Things-That-Need-To-Be-Done-On-A-Daily-Basis much more quickly, and understanding them a little more each day. I'm trouble shooting funds, and now know not just that there is a problem but actually what the problem is before I take it to the manager to get it fixed.
When I was training I was bored...I think I'm almost good enough to start getting bored again.
If that's the case, expect blogging to pick up (take today's entry, for example)

Meantime, I'm going to try and find a classic rock radio station online so I can listen to some tunes...or maybe try to figure a way to hook up the iPod to my computer terminal so I can listent to my tunes...we'll see

For now, Tom out.

Happy Dan Goldin Day

Some people have an iPod because they like gadgets. I have one because I love music.
recommended downloads: Red Dragon Tattoo, Fountains of Wayne; Beer Goggles, Smashmouth

Hope you're all enjoying Dan Goldin day as much as I am...and I hope some of you will join me for the annual Dan Goldin parade on Friday.

calendar entries for the week:

monday [11/15]: wake up, work, go home, play xbox, sleep

tuesday[11/16]: wake up, work, go home, play xbox, sleep

wednesday[11/17 - Dan Goldin Day]: wake up, work, go home, watch West Wing, xbox, sleep

thursday[11/18]: wake up, work, go home, xbox, sleep

friday [11/19 - Dan Goldin Day (observed)]: sleep in, don't go to work, play xbox, maybe take a nap, enjoy a nice long lunch, annual Dan Goldin Day parade, call some people, head into boston, party, meet friends, eat, drink, and be merry.

Today cute girl is wearing the good shoes. brown, one strap, closed-toe, inch-and-a-half heel. She also has a pale green turtleneck sweater which complements her red hair nicely.

in other news J hasn't had the radio on all morning, allowing me to work in relative peace

I'm becoming more familiar with Kurdish, as Irman, who sits to my right is on the phone with friends and family throughout the day. Irm's a nice guy.

And, for those I've not told: I've decided to grow my hair long, like past my eyes long, johnny damon long, lacrosse player long. I figure it'll take me until sometime after new years, so I'm sure all my christmas pictures will be a fright.

Back story.
So When I first arrived here on the floor I was placed in an "office" with four other recent employees, really it was a big closet with some computer terminals. The placement was temporary, and soon we were re-assigned to "cube-ville" populated by three groups us (the good guys?) the cute-girl's group (cgg) and the PAs (who book trades)

Cute girl is diagonally across the aisle from me, the cubicles only have three walls, so no one's really closed in.

So, Day one, I realize I sit close to the cute girl (plus 1) but directly across from jonathan who listens to nothing but opie&anthony and laughs out loud at only the most obnoxious comments all day long (minus 1).

Day two I learn the cute girl's name: Meredith, which is a pretty nice name (plus 1), jonathan is still there (minus 1).

Day three the cute girl mentions her dog to a coworker, a lively conversation about pets ensues, I listen quietly(having no pets of my very own). However it is revealed through this conversation that cute girl's puppy does not belong soley to her, but rather the dog is owned by cute girl and her [dramamtic pause] boyfriend (who I'm sure doesn't treat her as well as she deserves). (minus 2).

Day four jonathan is out (plus 1) cute girl is looking at lingerie online (minus!). Still Day four, later on cute girl is talking (loudly, and animatedly) on the phone about her upcoming TRIP TO HAWAII! (minus minus minus) where she will probably be wearing the new lingerie for the live-in boyfriend. Argh.

Day five, cute girl still sits across the aisle (plus) jonathan is back(minus).

Back.

I'd like to announce my return to online postings. It seems to be the cool thing to do when work isn't enough to keep you busy 9-5, so here I am.

My initial objective is to keep all of you current on the situation with the cute girl at work. In my next entry I shall try and sum up what has transpired to this date.

p.s. There will never be any music better than rock
recommended downloads: Queen, Fat Bottomed Girls; Judas Priest, The Hellion; The Kinks, Lola