Raving Amicks

Most everyone knows that I’m back at that old job yet again, but I figured I’d share what I’m doing these days since it completely changed from when I left in February. So here’s the job in a nutshell: I currently write and produce four “shopping” slideshows a week.

My all-time favorite piece would have to be the first slideshow I wrote: 25 Fall Fashion Classics Under $100. I actually had the time to really focus on writing this slideshow, so of course it’s the best one.

My other favorites are Costume Ideas for Couples and this particular slide in Sexy Halloween Costumes—but only because of the absurdity of these Halloween costumes. The copy for these two is nowhere near my ideal quality, but each was written in under 30 minutes.

Lastly, I’m working on a secret project that should launch next week. This secret project is awesome and will focus on writing quality content over pumping out sheer quantity (as is the current process). So yeah, I’m super excited about this. Although, Tyler can attest that I’m also a raging, stressed out bitch due to the overwhelming amount of conflicting projects I had this week.

I just completed this ad today! The previous ad had a bunch of pictures of the employees, which was good but had already been done, and the pictures included many of the previous student employees and hadn’t been updated in a long time. For this ad I wanted to put an emphasis on the student run aspect of the store, and the fact that we’re a non-profit organization so all of our revenues go back into the student body. So I took a picture of Mary a good friend of mine and fellow student worker at the bookstore. Along with the slogan “students working for students” Leigh Ann and I came up with 10 of the top reason why students should shop at our store. We went around the store asking people for their opinions of what they thought were the best reasons. 

Mindy and I were able to catch up with Mason today, so we interrogated him a bit and I’ve added it all to the “Mason’s Whereabouts” link on the sidebar. Keep in mind that the link will not work unless you are logged in, for obvious reasons. Here’s a picture to whet your appetite:

And he’ll be coming with Dieter and Mindy and I for Thanksgiving.

Hey, Fellow Amicks! I hope all has been going well for everyone. Tyler doesn’t really fill me in on the latest details (but is that really surprising?), so for all I know the old home is full of cobwebs and bats and you added five more dogs to the pack. Though I must admit, a pack of eight dogs would be pretty awesome. Who needs cars when you have eight crazy spaniels?

So what’s happened with me? Well, a lot of small, boring details. Nothing that fun. You’re not really missing out on much. Oh, but I did get my first ever 100% written-by-me article published at MSN Shopping last month. It’s not a big revenue-driver, being about container gardening, but it was still exciting to have the opportunity to write about something fun and have it promoted on the MSN homepage last month. In case you’d like to read it (even though it’s designed to sell a product rather than blow your mind), here’s the article: “Itsy Bitsy Gardens.”

Oh, and that title—not mine. Something along the lines of “5 Themed Container Gardens” was apparently too boring. The same goes for “Fall Fashion 2008 Preview” or “Fall Fashion 2008,” which goes live in a few hours under the name “Sneak Peek: Fall Fashion 2008.” But at least this bad boy will most certainly be a huge revenue-driver, and I can soon brag about how I wrote an article read by x thousand people that made xx thousand dollars.

It’s titled, “How Not to Talk to Your Kids” or “The Power (and Peril) of Praising Your Kids”. While the article focuses on studies done with children, it’s pretty obvious that everything in there applies to people of any age. It’s an incredibly eye-opening investigation of praise, and I think it will make a lot of sense to anyone. Read it, or you fail!

Good Design is Green

Most of my genius ideas happen in one of two places: while in the shower, and while bored to tears when waiting for the bus. On Monday, while I was bored to tears when waiting for the bus, I was hit by one of my genius ideas. The idea? I’m convinced that a key part of being eco-friendly relies heavily on good design. Dieter, take note (even though most of this is a joke).

I shall use my current place of employment as an example. I know, I know. It’s just too easy to poke fun at them since everyone knows their design is horrific—be it program interfaces or hardware. But don’t worry, I’ll take my example a step higher than the easy-to-make-fun-of products they create. I’ll take it to the women’s bathroom!

Let’s begin our journey at the very essence of the women’s bathroom: the stall. And more specifically, the toilet. Women, you see, have the misfortune of needing disposable paper toilet seat covers to do any of their business. And trust me, if you’ve seen some of the people I work with, you’d definitely not take your chances without the seat covers.

Herein lies the problem: the toilet seats at my current place of employment are sharply curved so as to point immediately inwards to the bowl. These aren’t the standard toilet seats found in a typical home, mind you. They are special poorly designed grade A utility seats. These seats are so special in their poor design that when I place said disposable seat cover on the seat, it slides down into the toilet bowl. I must then attempt to place another seat cover across that foul curved seat of environmental doom, trying to position it just right so it does not join it’s comrade in the bowl. If I’m lucky, this might work. Most of the time, however, the second cover will quickly slip down the angled seat and crumble into the watery abyss. And often the third. And sometimes the fourth. I must continue to place seat cover after seat cover until the covers already crumpled in the bowl provide enough of a buttress to keep the last one in place. Then, and only then, am I free to use the toilet for my bodily needs.

Think of all this waste! Anywhere from two to five toilet seat covers must be wasted before I can safely use the toilet! (more…)

Instead of working due to adverse weather conditions, I stayed home and made this tasty pumpkin bread. I also braved the insanely cold weather and took some pictures our puny dusting of snow. Despite the small amount of snow, it’s really treacherous out there. While I was wandering around, I encountered a few poor idiots who thought they could drive somewhere. I guess they didn’t realize all the roads were completely covered with ice—some with more than an inch.

Meanwhile, Tyler “telecommuted.” Of course meaning he sat around and read stuff on the internet and sent the occasional instant message to other coworkers who were doing the same. Ah, if only I could be paid to stay at home and make tasty food.

More on the snow/ice conditions in Seattle later.

So currently Chelsey attends school at Clark College where she also works in the campus bookstore. The bookstore just got a bunch of new sweatshirts, shirts, and jackets in stock and subsequently needed them to be modeled on the school website. So Chels and two girls working in the bookstore took the opportunity to model some of the clothing. Here are a few shots of chels, other than the sweatshirts being massive i think she looks pretty damn cute take a look->

Hi Amicks and Friends!

I don’t have any literary or story-driven posts for you today, but I thought I’d check in and update you on my life through my words (and not Tyler’s “yeah, she’s doing pretty well…”).

I’m still bored at The Big Suck. I can’t wait till this job ends, but I did decide to let them renew my contract until January 31st. I figured it would hold me through the holidays since the job market stalls during that time.

I spend the majority of my work time playing on the interweb at Etsy, which is an orgasm of crafting and shopping. I don’t do so much of the shopping part, as I’m still very poor. But I did indulge in these really cool organic and healthy dog treats called Pupcakes. The name made me so happy, I couldn’t help but buy them. Mary probably won’t get all 12 “pupcakes” as that would make her fat, so I’ll probably bring some down for the “Mother unit.”

I am taking the GRE for grad school next Monday, and I’ve been slacking on studying. For the programs I’m applying to, the GRE is required as a threshold to weed out non-serious candidates. However, no one looks at the scores most of the time—unless you’re at the very bottom of the acceptance pile. I still want to do as well as possible on the test, and since I never work at work, I thought that I should use this time to study. But then I felt kinda odd about installing my GRE prep software on their computer. And I also felt kinda odd about bringing my giant GRE book with me and studying in the open office I share with four other contract workers.

So instead of studying for the GRE, I’ve been editing some of my older short stories. The majority of my application rests on writing samples, and then a wee bit rests on letters of recommendation. Most of my former instructors want samples of work before writing their letters, so I’m trying to crank something out. I choose to use my older stories because they had been through class workshops and received feedback from former instructors. I also thought they would be easier to edit and strengthen as I can examine them more objectively.

Oh, and back to the GRE. There really needs to be a video game for the Nintendo DS that helps one study for the GRE. I say this because there are already two “brain-training” games for the DS that are quite fun. And I really do feel like they make me smarter. Well, they’re not supposed to “make one smarter,” but rather exercise one’s brain and wake it up. Though that’s really just making one’s brain smarter, right?

I remember when I first made this website, I was afraid that I would be the only one to post.

Lol.

Anyway, a newer Mac OS X version of the software for that USB Missile Launcher I got you guys was recently released. Someone try it and tell me if it works.

Mindy went to San Francisco and while she was gone I saw Pirates of the Caribbean 2. I think I’m going to have to watch it again. Lots and lots of people said it was crappy, but I liked it.

Mindy took her Nintendo DS Lite with her to California, and in its absence I’ve gone kind of insane. I think I’m going to buy a black one from the UK for way more than it’s worth. On Ebay. I think my hour and a half commute to T-Mobile also is making me insane. I hate Ebay.

T-Mobile still hasn’t fired me yet, so I’m still going strong on my third week. I’m even shaving regularly.

Ooh, that reminds me, I need to ask my boss for a day off. Mason and I rescheduled our visiting-the-home for next, next weekend, because this weekend a friend of mine is having a bitchin’ house-warming party.

Also, Uncle Jack should be making a post soon.

That’s all! I hope everyone’s having a great summer!