Had a really fantastic Christmas and New Year. While they haven’t lacked for stress and drama, the last two weeks have been informative – transitional – as the time around the new year often is. There are three relationships that got some consideration over the last couple weeks. Despite the fact that I have a blog and occasionally expound upon my feelings at length I’m generally pretty uncomfortable doing so publicly. But I feel the need to make a few comments here and now – for posterity, I suppose. The first relationship is with work – with my job, office, whatever you wanna call it. It’s not in great shape…
-
-
The Gospel of Social Media
While my current job doesn’t have a lot of social media work built into it, it is still something I find myself thinking and talking about a lot. Since I do website development for clients we’re often asked about the need for social media accounts and I frequently find myself trying to talk these folks off the proverbial ledge: you do not need 15 accounts in each of the “hawt” social networking tools. I’m also in a grad program for Technical Communication and have over my years in the program become something of an advocate for providing training on these tools in a professional environment. In fact, I’m requesting that…
-
Geek Girls Unite
I recently attended BarCampRDU for the first time. I’m not going to go into detail explaining the concept behind this event but in a few words it’s a tech-heavy un-conference that takes place annually in the Raleigh area. It was a great event. Circumstances being what they were I was only there for half of the day but it was well organized, the sessions I went to were great and there were some really cool people there – kudos to the planners and participants! As the day began to wind down I noticed some dissent in the #barcampRDU twitter stream that I thought was very interesting. tesmith #BarCampRDU feels like…
-
Consider me ignited, Raleigh
Way to go Raleigh! Last night’s Ignite Raleigh event was a very entertaining blend of technology, entertainment and education. I could go on and on about the awesomeness of the event but let me try to keep things brief by highlighting a couple of particularly fantastic contributions… Everyone Needs a Dumb Guy Chris Moody (@cnmoody) did a presentation about the “dumb guy” in the office who asks the often dumb and difficult questions the client will ask. It was a very quick look at the benefits of broadening your advisers; diversity of POV leads to more information and better decisions… sounds like he’s read ‘The Wisdom of Crowds‘! Chris did…
-
A Year of Twitter
I have been so busy posting to my blog on a regular basis I belatedly realized that I have hit 1000 posts on Twitter! I guess my micro-blogging habit has really interfered with my regular blog updates (not that I was doing terribly well at blogging before the distraction of Twitter…). I spent some time going back through all my fascinating posts and realized that I’ve nearly hit another milestone: 1 year on Twitter. My first post was September 18th, 2008. It was at times sweet, nostalgic, painful and hilarious to read my thoughts on events of the last year. There were very few things that I couldn’t find a…
-
30
I turned 30 this past weekend. I knew it was coming, and I did my best to ignore it. Ultimately it was a very low-key day featuring breakfast with the family, a nap and then dinner and drinks with friends. There was very little fanfare (friends gave me a whispered rendition of “Happy Birthday”) but it was nice and now it’s passed so I only need to think about it when I have to check the little boxes for ones age range. I hate the age boxes. Rather than whining about the birthday, which we all know I can do, I thought perhaps I should share some of the wisdom…
-
Something to Look Forward To
So to preface this post, I’ve had a little to drink tonight. And I think there’s some rule about don’t drink and post but I’m FAR too wise to listen to such silliness. Went out with some friends this evening. It’s so nice what a little alcohol and some good company can do with an evening. Anyway, among our ridiculous suggestive comments, stupid ideas, happy/dirty/forgotten memories and frustrated work stories was a discussion on travel. Now these are some of the same people I went to NYC with this past New Years and we had a great time. What’s more, we traveled well together (I thought. Wait, you don’t agree?…
Related Posts
All-Star City
-
Baby News (no, not mine)
I’ve mentioned in passing that my cousin, Yorii (not her real name– I know, a shock) is pregnant. She reached a certain age and, still single, decided she would take matters into her own hands. One donor and some hilarious and heart-breaking antics later, she’s seven months along. In her exceptional wisdom she has decided that it is I that she wants as a coach, supporter and cheerleader in this process. So my duties will include helping her through labor, driving to the hospital (that is going to S-U-C-K), fighting for her wishes in the delivery room, keeping the ice water (no ice chips!) coming, cutting the umbilical cord (squishy!)…
-
More for Me!
I have been mocked pretty mercilessly for the whole “year of Jen” thing (can you believe my co-workers actually read this thing? Joke’s on you!) but I’m stickin’ to it. I realized today after a completely meaningless interaction with a waitress that I have gotten better and stating my point-of-view, even when I don’t want the confrontation. I’d like to think I’ve also gotten better at knowing when to say nothing, but that may just be an excuse for all the times I say nothing. My latest year-of-jen extravagance is that I’ve bought myself a new bedroom set (check out the picture)! My brother put up crown molding, I painted…
-
Headline News in Sucksville
So I’m really pretty positive no one is reading this or will ever read this. But the point has been to keep people I don’t talk to that often well informed. So here are the latest news stories in Life o’ Marit: Brother shaved head, not actually a cancer victim Intense work frustration leads to job search Heat wave ruins joys of fall Work stress, apathy leads to academic decline Cholesterol Test Wednesday; Panic ensues Frustration and depression summit this week ‘Caveman’ worst comedy since invention of wheel Have a great week ya’ll!
