Define me

There’s a new game in the Washington Post called Sudoku. It turns out that I kick ass at these number puzzles and solved two in under 10 minutes. I feel another obsession coming on…

Relatedly (totally making up words here), I took a short “geek test” and only scored 57.5% geek. I do have a “geeky” job (which boosted the score), and have been dubbed the “maven of multiple regression” as of today. Maybe I’m more of a dork, or my own special breed of oddball. I have to justify the other 42.5% somehow.

Not a blog block

I have been butt-ass-busy at work as of late. Lame excuse, but an excuse nonetheless. I have not died, lost the use of my hands, gone brain dead, or anything like that. My ass (and the rest of my body too) has been ridden by my boss, who all of a sudden, decided to do all this work in a short amount of time. I don’t think that makes up for his overall slacker status, but it does show his ability to hustle once in a while.

2 rolls of tape and 4 glue sticks later, two giant correlation matrices were born. By giant I mean, dwarfs the one that I had done previously. 59 variables makes 3,481 correlations to analyze. Not to mention the ba-gillion regressions with every possible combination one can think of. All this work has been completed for a presentation in July. So I guess the harried work situation was essential.

Things are starting to slow down at work, and I can concentrate on more important things in life such as blogging, and hopefully blogging about more exciting things than work. MKD is the “keeper of all things social,” so I need to check with her to see what we have penciled in her planner. I hope zoning out in front of the boob tube is in there because I could really use that about now.

neuroses

Is it wrong that I am having MKD buy TWO more vacuums for the 900 square foot apartment? We have an upright, but now we are investing in a small handheld vacuum for those hard to reach places (dog fur travels on its own) and a steamer for the deep clean of carpets (dog paws bring in all sorts of outside crap). Molly likes to think I am Monica from Friends, but I just like things to be clean and tidy. Is that too much to ask for? Sheesh. I think my need for cleanliness arises from growing up with an anal/crazy mother (come on…who didn’t?) and being germ/bacteria/virus phobic (no one likes getting sick, right?).

On a side note, I just ate a freaky, diseased looking almond M&M. Sometimes I worry about my blasé attitude toward prepackaged food items. How much “safer” are they really?

Review update

I heard back the status of my review…they got back to me quicker than I originally thought. I received the promotion I wanted (since I already did the work anyway, but the higher title makes it official), and a 15% salary raise (which is a helluva lot better than the 10% that is the maximum with annual reviews, but I got the extra 5% due to the promotion)! Kick ass! Most people here get around 5%.

Boo-yah! (happy dance)

One is the Loneliest Number

There is a new tattoo place that opened up by my work. I have yet to stop in to see what kind of designs they have. My first tattoo was chosen off the wall because something drew me to it. To me, it is a Celtic type knot with Asian accents and style (even though it is more like a tribal design with purple shading) because I like to think I am of Irish decent even though I am completely Asian. I got it done on my back left shoulder when I was 19 and I still love it. Plus, I like having it back there because I forget I have it and it surprises me how cool it is each time I rediscover it.

Anyway, seeing this place everyday has been inching me closer to getting another one. I think it has been long enough that I have forgotten how painful it was and can go under the needle(s) again. I will most likely get the second one on my back again. I just do not want to be one of those people who end up having over 75% of their body tattooed. I am trying to pass in the corporate world and there are negative stereotypes associated with tattoos whether we care to admit or not.

But on another note, it turns out a few of my coworkers have tattoos. I wore a tank today so we could easily compare tattoos. One of my coworkers totally takes the cake because her tattoo takes up her entire lower back area (which makes the rest of ours look puny), and she should be commended for getting it all done in one sitting. I am not going to be as ambitious as her, because something less than a few inches is more than fine with me.

Corporate whore

Had my review at work finally. My year mark was over a month ago, but certain top people do not like to part with money and hold off things like this for as long as possible. I received the highest ratings on all my work and all the dimensions of interest. Now it is up to the top people with how I should be compensated, and hopefully not screwed again.

When I first took the job, they could screw me because I was fresh out of grad school. Now, with the required “real world” experience and advanced degree, the pendulum has shifted. I am hoping for a title change (since I already do the work beyond my position) and a decent pay increase. I believe the highest I can get is 10%, which I really hate because 10% on crap is still crap. I feel that when you make under a certain amount, we should be talking about changes in tax brackets rather than petty percentages.

You know you’re getting old when…

-You complain about something being too loud.
-9 to 5 is your life.
-You go to a bar and obsessively wonder how carpet could be sticky.
-You keep up with current events so talking to people at work steers clear of anything personal.
-With car shopping, you look for the one that has the highest safety ratings and good gas mileage.
-You use coupons at the grocery store.
-You talk about the weather to random people in the elevator.
-You complain about things not being the same price as they were when you were a kid.

Sigh…

That was so yesterday

I took a long lunch yesterday to see “Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.” First off, the movie was incredible. Secondly, I need to take long lunches more often. Then to add to my newly acquired slacker status, I left work early to catch up with a friend and her bf. It had been too long since I last saw her, and I need to do a better job at being social. Being in the “real world” and out of college really puts a strain on your social life.

As many already know, I am engaged! Happened last Friday, right before MKD’s birthday. You can read up on it on MKD’s blog. My parents were weirded out at first, but I have noticed improvements in their behaviors. If they meant all those things that they said to me when I came out to them, then everything should turn out fine.

Now, it is on to planning a wedding. Who knew there would be so much to think about? At least we have made a few decisions. We have agreed that it is going to happen in the fall, there will be an open bar, and the DJ is to NOT play the Macarena or the Electric Slide at any point (we have a ba-gillion songs already lined up from our extensive music collections). Other than that, everything is up in the air. But we have a long time to work out the details and we are procrastinators. As for the honeymoon, we ruled out somewhere tropical because of MKD’s intolerance to light, and are thinking about somewhere in Europe (has to be gay friendly) instead. I am up for anything because it does not matter where we go as long as we get to spend time together and not have to worry about work and other life bullshit.