I think my 08 playlist could best be described as random just like most of my life. The songs are pulled from different people places and things over the last year. I will admit the beginning of 08 seems like a bit of a blur but I'll do my best to make the songs as inclusive for all of 08 as possible. Yes not all of this music is the best or new but get over it. It's my year it review!
Chocolate - Snow Patrol
Beautiful Life - Charlotte Martin
Don't Stop Me Now - Queen
Elevate Myself - Granddaddy
I Don't Fell Like Dancin' - Scissor Sisters
Plain & Simple - Hello Stranger
Mouthwash - Kate Nash
Prince Charming - Adam & The Ants
Pull Shapes - The Pipettes
McPherson's Lament - Rogue's March
New Romantic - Laura Marling
A-Punk - Vampire Weekend
You Can't Stop the Beat - Hairspray
The City is At War - Cobra Starfish
Mistress Mable - The Fratellis
Shakin' - Metro Station
Adventures in Solitude - New Pornographers
A Comet Appeared - The Shins
Rock me Sexy Jesus - Hamlet 2 Soundtrack
Paint or Pollen - Blind Pilot
Notice me Horton - Seussical the Musical
Dents - The Acorns
* The Last 5 Years (The whole soundtrack)
*Spring Awakening ( Seriously Why didn't I know about this show till 08?)
And A million more I can't think of at the moment.
Happy end of 08 everyone!
Monday, December 29, 2008
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Holiday with a side of grumble
Today is christmas eve and I'm looking forward to the resident party at work soooo much more than my family one. Even with hightened anxity that could potentially be dangerous I would so much rather be there than with my crazy extended family. 35 people crammed into my parents house to complain about the food, weather, political situation, that I'm late because I have work and not exchange gifts because... well because they're cheap. We're not talking full on gift buying everyone buys for everyone but an adult exchange that was canceled so everyone buys one less gift.
Yes, I am a Grinch. I am a Grinch due to the actions of others who are passive aggressive and do their Grinch like activities on the sly that ends up not being so sly. For example repeated demands of 'making the schedule better' aren't going to happen. Yes, I'm 23 and your 59 but I'm more eduicated and experienced than you so I got daylight. Get over it. In the world professionals your age has no effect on your seniority especially since we all have the exact same start date.
In other news it could be 60 degrees by the weekend!?!?!?! WTF global warming! WTF!
Yes, I am a Grinch. I am a Grinch due to the actions of others who are passive aggressive and do their Grinch like activities on the sly that ends up not being so sly. For example repeated demands of 'making the schedule better' aren't going to happen. Yes, I'm 23 and your 59 but I'm more eduicated and experienced than you so I got daylight. Get over it. In the world professionals your age has no effect on your seniority especially since we all have the exact same start date.
In other news it could be 60 degrees by the weekend!?!?!?! WTF global warming! WTF!
Monday, December 22, 2008
Institutions
Today we went out to Mayview one of the Pennsylvania 'State Hospitals' aka mental hospital. Our visit out there has by far been one of the most depressing things I've seen in my life. Acres of disused buildings that have been left to all down made me think of all the thousands of people who had 'treatment' there. They're closing the hospital and are down to one wing for the 30 or so people who have yet to move out but those 30 people are in such an awful state. They call out for medication (making it obvious who's on meds and when) lunch was like a cattle call. All day they're locked out of their bedrooms left to only be in the social room and one day room off that. It was freezing cold with the old leaky windows barely keeping the bitter wind out. Everyone sat around in a medicated daze with their coats around them to beat the chill. In many cases we couldn't tell the staff from the patients.
I wish we could take them all to our facility. The reality is we're only saving two from another institution similar to this one.
Random: The history channel is talking about cannibalism. The bottom corner has their little logo as well as 'happy holidays'. My mind immediately went to a cannibalistic Christmas dinner. Yes, I'm a freak.
I wish we could take them all to our facility. The reality is we're only saving two from another institution similar to this one.
Random: The history channel is talking about cannibalism. The bottom corner has their little logo as well as 'happy holidays'. My mind immediately went to a cannibalistic Christmas dinner. Yes, I'm a freak.
Soul missing reward if found
Between the R US and my crazy family my soul has decided to once again take a vacation over Christmas. I think it walked out yesterday morning when my Mom made me cry before the sun came up. That's a special skill making someone that upset before a sunrise. The R US is contribution by making me extremely tired and stealing my sleep. No sleep, no pleasantness it's simple enough.
I really hate having commitments made for me that I'm not aware of till 24 hours before they happen. I like knowing what's going on and the Holiday season people made commitments for me left and right. No, I can't be at the church choir practice when I'm working my real job till 5pm then going to the R US from 6-11pm. If you asked me when I worked I could have told you that rather than people just being angry with me. Because I don't make the schedule.
Thankfully tonight is my last shift this week at the R US. I still haven't heard about birthday yet. it looks like I'll be working 7am-3pm on the day (which is nice) and 7am-3pm the next day... which kind of sucks because I don't like getting up early after staying up late. I'm shockingly human.
Hm... this is really debbie downer-y. Sorry about that. my soul will be back around the 27th I think.
I really hate having commitments made for me that I'm not aware of till 24 hours before they happen. I like knowing what's going on and the Holiday season people made commitments for me left and right. No, I can't be at the church choir practice when I'm working my real job till 5pm then going to the R US from 6-11pm. If you asked me when I worked I could have told you that rather than people just being angry with me. Because I don't make the schedule.
Thankfully tonight is my last shift this week at the R US. I still haven't heard about birthday yet. it looks like I'll be working 7am-3pm on the day (which is nice) and 7am-3pm the next day... which kind of sucks because I don't like getting up early after staying up late. I'm shockingly human.
Hm... this is really debbie downer-y. Sorry about that. my soul will be back around the 27th I think.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Physical Restraints and Innuedos
Innuendos are hard to avoid when the trainer is saying 'now take him from behind'. The room would burst into laughter and snickers as people played into it more and more. We learned physical interventions today... well it was supposed to be interventions in general but it was focused on physical. It was a day of 'next time do it harder', 'she likes it rough', 'yeah your legs between his' ect... My comedic high point was when they paired me up with 'the dude' (who's been mentioned before). He's about 6' tall and I'm 5'1''. The hold basically had my head either in his crotch or his ass. Extremely awkward even if we're cool music buds and have been training together for over a week now.
Over all I hated all the holds we did today. Every single one we did would end up leaving a bruise on someone if they were struggling (if they aren't struggling they shouldn't be in a hold). I know better ones where if I hurt anyone it would be myself that I'm much more comfortable with. Truth be told I would rather not use physical intervention and thankfully the branch I'm in doesn't do it (unless it's worst case going after others kind of deal). I'm a fan of verbal intervention and giving people the opportunity and space they need to bring themselves down with support standing by if they should need help. We touched on the behavior rainbow of joy a bit. It's an arc of escalation, out of control period followed by deescalation ... well that's my jobs version. The version I knew before was more intense and will be the one I think about.
Now for something completely different... I dressed up a The DoctorDonna for Brian's Super Hero themed 30th birthday party. It was fun and no one knew who I was and were inappropriate with my sonic screwdriver. Then I was sick for the next 48 hours of the weekend sleeping or attempting to keep food down. I didn't work at the 'r us' because I couldn't do either of those there. At the moment I'm getting ready for bed leaving a video I need to edit till the morning.
15 days till my birthday. I'll find out tomorrow if I have to work on it or not. I'm trying to be positive and not bet on me getting the midnight shift.
Over all I hated all the holds we did today. Every single one we did would end up leaving a bruise on someone if they were struggling (if they aren't struggling they shouldn't be in a hold). I know better ones where if I hurt anyone it would be myself that I'm much more comfortable with. Truth be told I would rather not use physical intervention and thankfully the branch I'm in doesn't do it (unless it's worst case going after others kind of deal). I'm a fan of verbal intervention and giving people the opportunity and space they need to bring themselves down with support standing by if they should need help. We touched on the behavior rainbow of joy a bit. It's an arc of escalation, out of control period followed by deescalation ... well that's my jobs version. The version I knew before was more intense and will be the one I think about.
Now for something completely different... I dressed up a The DoctorDonna for Brian's Super Hero themed 30th birthday party. It was fun and no one knew who I was and were inappropriate with my sonic screwdriver. Then I was sick for the next 48 hours of the weekend sleeping or attempting to keep food down. I didn't work at the 'r us' because I couldn't do either of those there. At the moment I'm getting ready for bed leaving a video I need to edit till the morning.
15 days till my birthday. I'll find out tomorrow if I have to work on it or not. I'm trying to be positive and not bet on me getting the midnight shift.
Monday, December 8, 2008
PASS
P - pull
A - aim
S - squeeze
S - sweep
If you didn't know how to use a fire extinguisher you do now. Also don't put water on a grease fire (including paraffin wax) it only makes it worse.
Why yes, I did do fire safety training today. We also did OSHA which for my job was all about blood/fluid born illness and such. There was also the usual new hire filling out paperwork and policy stuff too.
I thought it was going to be completely awful all morning. The lady doing the training was mean and the room was divided into two groups. Those over 30 at the main table and one guy the same age as me who was also shafted to the 'kids table' as they called it. I honestly sat at a card table like it was a family thanksgiving all day. In the end it turns out the dude the same age as me is pretty cool. He like Battlestar Galactica, Heroes and a lot of the same music I do. In the end it ended up getting better. We even finished early at three. Then our real boss came in and talked to us for 45 mins of unpaid time because we all had clocked out at three.
Tomorrow is driver training which can go several ways:
1. Awful, because it snows, the van I have to test in is a manual, the trainer is crazy or I just fail at life.
2. OK I drive ok and am just 'meh'. This is acceptable.
3. They have a weird driving thing where I just have to sit there all day because I can't even rent a car since I'm not 25 yet.
4. Amazing and everyone marvels how well I drive a van going back to the days of hauling around my friends on the academic team to out 'social events' being sure to have juice boxes and snacks on hand. (I promise at the time my life's ambition was NOT to be a soccer Mom.)
Then next week we'll be visiting the state institution meeting with people who have potential to thrive in the personal care home setting. Then we're doing shifts in the other home (on the other side of Pittsburgh, which thankfully transportation will be provided for us since it would be a 2 hourish commute not counting traffic) till our people move in after Christmas, the 29th to be specific.
Did I mention on top of this I'm still at the 'R US'? I'm not sure for how long I'll be doing full days of real work then going to there for a full shift till midnight or later. Adventures right? Did I mention I haven't done any of my Christmas shopping yet? Not a single bit. As in NO ONE is getting a gift thus far, not even my parents and sister. Something must be done about this tomorrow and Wednesday... because those are pretty much the only days I can do anything about it.
Randomness: The movie Amazing Grace is pretty good. Then again I have always had a soft spot for Ioan Gruffudd since Horatio Hornblower
A - aim
S - squeeze
S - sweep
If you didn't know how to use a fire extinguisher you do now. Also don't put water on a grease fire (including paraffin wax) it only makes it worse.
Why yes, I did do fire safety training today. We also did OSHA which for my job was all about blood/fluid born illness and such. There was also the usual new hire filling out paperwork and policy stuff too.
I thought it was going to be completely awful all morning. The lady doing the training was mean and the room was divided into two groups. Those over 30 at the main table and one guy the same age as me who was also shafted to the 'kids table' as they called it. I honestly sat at a card table like it was a family thanksgiving all day. In the end it turns out the dude the same age as me is pretty cool. He like Battlestar Galactica, Heroes and a lot of the same music I do. In the end it ended up getting better. We even finished early at three. Then our real boss came in and talked to us for 45 mins of unpaid time because we all had clocked out at three.
Tomorrow is driver training which can go several ways:
1. Awful, because it snows, the van I have to test in is a manual, the trainer is crazy or I just fail at life.
2. OK I drive ok and am just 'meh'. This is acceptable.
3. They have a weird driving thing where I just have to sit there all day because I can't even rent a car since I'm not 25 yet.
4. Amazing and everyone marvels how well I drive a van going back to the days of hauling around my friends on the academic team to out 'social events' being sure to have juice boxes and snacks on hand. (I promise at the time my life's ambition was NOT to be a soccer Mom.)
Then next week we'll be visiting the state institution meeting with people who have potential to thrive in the personal care home setting. Then we're doing shifts in the other home (on the other side of Pittsburgh, which thankfully transportation will be provided for us since it would be a 2 hourish commute not counting traffic) till our people move in after Christmas, the 29th to be specific.
Did I mention on top of this I'm still at the 'R US'? I'm not sure for how long I'll be doing full days of real work then going to there for a full shift till midnight or later. Adventures right? Did I mention I haven't done any of my Christmas shopping yet? Not a single bit. As in NO ONE is getting a gift thus far, not even my parents and sister. Something must be done about this tomorrow and Wednesday... because those are pretty much the only days I can do anything about it.
Randomness: The movie Amazing Grace is pretty good. Then again I have always had a soft spot for Ioan Gruffudd since Horatio Hornblower
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Awesome Stuff
1. I GOT THE JOB. I am officially a full time employee in a field that is secure. This is 100% awesome.
2. I finished 'The Pillars of the Earth'. 973 pages of great historical fiction. I won't write a review because it would be hard not to spoil it. My only issues came late in the book at the high of action and I don't want to give anything away. So you should read it, because it really is great. I put the 'sequel' on McPherson Christmas list so maybe I'll get it.
3. We've caught two of the five cats running around the apartment complex. This means there will be no howling cat sex or fights in the basement at 2am anymore... or at least less of them. It's the loud obnoxious one too.
4. I washed my favorite hoodie and it's all warm and lovely again.
2. I finished 'The Pillars of the Earth'. 973 pages of great historical fiction. I won't write a review because it would be hard not to spoil it. My only issues came late in the book at the high of action and I don't want to give anything away. So you should read it, because it really is great. I put the 'sequel' on McPherson Christmas list so maybe I'll get it.
3. We've caught two of the five cats running around the apartment complex. This means there will be no howling cat sex or fights in the basement at 2am anymore... or at least less of them. It's the loud obnoxious one too.
4. I washed my favorite hoodie and it's all warm and lovely again.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Weirdness
I dreamed last night that as part of Civilization (the game) you have to build stores for celebrities. For example I'm playing as France and Mary Kate & Ashley Olsen wanted a store in Lyon and Paris Hilton wanted one in Paris. Then Robin Williams wanted to open a store in an Indian city that defected to France. Crazy right? That's what I get for watching e! news while playing Civilization before bed.
In slightly less weird news... I had my second interview yesterday. I think it went well the guy told me I have 'great interviewing skills and give well thought out answers'. I don't' really know how to take that. Is is really complimenting me or is he calling me fake for not being more candid. I want to think it's a good sign but I don't want to get my hopes up.
With nothing to do today (aside from taking my neighbor to see his parole officer) I plan on watching the Office most of the day and finishing up the two Christmas presents I'm making that need to be mailed really far.
In slightly less weird news... I had my second interview yesterday. I think it went well the guy told me I have 'great interviewing skills and give well thought out answers'. I don't' really know how to take that. Is is really complimenting me or is he calling me fake for not being more candid. I want to think it's a good sign but I don't want to get my hopes up.
With nothing to do today (aside from taking my neighbor to see his parole officer) I plan on watching the Office most of the day and finishing up the two Christmas presents I'm making that need to be mailed really far.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Not so depressing
I thought I'd put something here so it wouldn't seem like the world was so fucked up at the moment. Alas all those feelings still hold but I went grocery shopping an got taquitos, whole fruit bars, nutella and corn nuggets. I know gross combo right? I didn't eat them all at the same time so no need to be grossed out. However I did have the corn nuggets and they were amazing.
In random news Heroes is still weird (as in slightly off) but I'll do my best not to spoil it for anyone. Chuck was actually quite good this week too and I'm looking forward to the Office coming back I was really bummed there was no Thanksgiving episode.
ZOMG HEROES!!?!??!?!?!?!??!?!??!?!??!?!??!?!???!?! I should never blog as I watch a show now I really want to spoil it. Gotta post now so I don't feel tempted.
In random news Heroes is still weird (as in slightly off) but I'll do my best not to spoil it for anyone. Chuck was actually quite good this week too and I'm looking forward to the Office coming back I was really bummed there was no Thanksgiving episode.
ZOMG HEROES!!?!??!?!?!?!??!?!??!?!??!?!??!?!???!?! I should never blog as I watch a show now I really want to spoil it. Gotta post now so I don't feel tempted.
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