The GirlAlive Blog

Ewido

My dad made a post about Ewido and I’m glad he did.  I ran it on my computer and it took about an hour and a half, but in the end, everything it running twice as fast as before.  My husband would know that I’ve been complaining for weeks about this thing being painfully slow.  Now it’s all fixed!  Read my dad’s post here.  Or just skip that and download Ewido.

Alana 

www.girlalive.com 

Bizarre dream

So I woke up this morning from the weirdest dream.

I was back at one of my old jobs (we’ll call it Company A) and they were at the center of a reality tv show that had celebrities doing data entry to see if they could make it in a normal job.  The computers were hooked up with an alarm system that would go off if anyone started falling behind.   Some of my old friends from that job (who I will call J and K) were working there, alond with my old boss L.

The only celebrity that I remember there was Ewan McGregor, which makes sense because I think he’s completely adorable.  He was entering claims, but started getting slower and slower as soon as I walked in the room.  Slow enough that his alarm was going off.  And it turns out that he had a huge crush on me, and instead of working was writing love poems about me in the computer.  So he got fired.  

As dreams do, this one shifted sharply to some sort of classical music concert.  I was there with my aunt and my grandmother (who has been dead for years) and we were running late but got there just as it was starting.  As I was sitting there listening to the music from near the back row, someone sat down beside me.  It was Ewan McGregor again.  He started introducing himself to my grandmother and my aunt as "Alana’s fiance".  I tried to tell him that I was married, but he wasn’t having it.  Then I woke up.

I stayed up for a few hours crocheting and reading, then went back to sleep.  I had another weird dream where I was in some sort of challenge at my old university.  It was maybe something like a scavenger hunt.  Some guy I don’t know paired up with me because he had a crush on me.  Then I got on a bus and went home, and then woke up.

I don’t know what to read into all this.  Odd.  All I know is that I still think Ewan McGregor is cute.  And I’m still glad I don’t work at Company A anymore.

Alana

www.girlalive.com 

Shopping and Lying

I went shopping today.  Well, the first thing this morning was cleaning the guinea pig cage.  Those little rats sure do poop a lot.  Then I waited until 2:00 and went shopping for food.  We needed some food here, and also the guinea pigs had no veggies.  So I got important things like discount greens for the piggies and the DVD of "Serenity" for me.    I also bought a whole bunch of unhealthy things like toffee cakes and caramel and chocolate shortbread.  (In case mom is reading, I bought chicken and broccoli and mushy peas and stuff too.)

I sent in a resume for a job as a scriptchecker for the SQA (which is the educational testing authority for all the exams that Scottish high school students do).  I got an email saying to call a lady at the job agency and so I did.  She said, "The job starts in April and runs to the end of July and it is full time.  Is that okay?"  My brain immediately said, "Your parents are visiting in April and if you say yes you won’t get to see them!"  Then another part of my brain countered with, "I need money and mom and dad will understand.  The husband can show them around."  And all this internal debate was kind of meaningless, since my mouth had already said, "That sounds great.  Please send me an application."

Gotta go start dinner.  I think we’ll have szechuan turkey and broccoli followed by spotted dick with custard. 

Alana

www.girlalive.com 

headache

I’ve had a headache for several days.  I think it is stress related because of how I got flat-out rejected at the last job interview, and I still don’t know what I should have done differently.  I have another interview next Monday for a job I really want, and I don’t know how to correct mistakes that I can’t figure out.

I put up a new set of t-shirts.  I have been watching a lot of South Park lately, and it shows. 

My dad made a new blog, which is pretty cool.   I also put a whole bunch of linky things for other blogs in the column to the right.  None of them link to me except my dad. 

Sales at my shirt shop have dropped.  I’m not sure what I can do to push more.  The simple fact is that the economy sucks and no one is buying t-shirts, no matter how well-designed and clever they are.

I need to go cook dinner.  My husband has been home for a while and I’ve been up here in my office since he got home.  I was supposed to go to the grocery store today, but I didn’t.

Alana

www.girlalive.com 

worthless

I had a job interview on Wednesday.  It was for a part-time job doing medical data entry.  I rocked the interview.  Medical data entry is all I’ve done for the last 4 years.  I was charming and funny.  I gave good answers to all their questions.  They interviewed 7 people and they were going to call 3 people back for a second interview.  I got a straight-out rejection.  Not even a second interview.

What can I learn from this? I have no idea.  I was fully qualified for this job, and I couldn’t even make the first cut.  Maybe the interviewers want someone stupid and unqualified.  Maybe my personality is repulsive.  Maybe they hate fat people.  Maybe they hate Americans.  In any case, I’m starting to learn that no matter how qualified I am, I’m never going to find a job in this country.

My fingers are frozen because we can’t afford our heating bill.  I’m almost completely out of money.  And I’m just a big stupid unemployable drain on my husband.

Alana

www.girlalive.com 

Rules of Laundry

Okay, so for the benefit of anyone who lives with me, I will type up some clear and concise rules of laundry.  This does not apply to the guinea pigs in my house, since they do not wear clothes.  Some of the other people living in my house apparently were never taught tidiness or consideration for others.  Where your mother failed, let me fill in the gaps.

1. Clothes only belong in 3 places in my house: on your body, in a laundry-related machine (for a maximum of 2 days, or preferably only when said machine is in operation), or in a designated clothes storage area (see rule 2).

2. Designated clothes storage areas include our bedroom, the other bedroom near the bathroom, and possibly a laundry hamper, if it is kept in the upstairs hallway.

3. Designated clothes storage areas DO NOT include: in a basket on the kitchen floor, draped over the living room chairs, hung over the stair rail, piled on top of my boxes in the downstairs hall, or in a pile in the corner of the bathroom. 

4. Clothing that is not confined to the laundry machines, your body, or the designated clothes storage areas is really getting on my nerves and will eventually be chucked out into the back garden as nest material for neighborhood squirrels. 

Thank you. 

Alana

www.girlalive.com