Gift cards and crocheting

Over the last couple of months, I have amassed a number of Amazon gift cards. I'm at a stage now where I don't have anything to buy, other than items at the grocery or drug store.

Well, it's time for me to learn a new skill. I have selected crocheting. 

Years ago, a colleague-turned-friend tried to teach me how to crochet. It didn't work. I got all confused.

It's funny. I can do cork (spool) knitting. I can do finger knitting. I can weave. I can't crochet.

I have also tried knitting. I did pretty well, except that I didn't know how to bind off. That's another skill that I need to resurrect.

Anyway, I used some of my gift card balance to get crochet needles. They arrive on Monday. I'm looking so forward to trying out crocheting. I watched a decent YouTube video on crocheting for beginners. I understood it!

See, there is hope for me.

Dating and falling in love

Getting to know someone through texts is going surprisingly well right now. It requires some effort, but it has been pretty enjoyable getting to know each other.

He told me that he is starting to fall in love with me. We have been texting daily for nearly two weeks now. It's nice that we have feelings for each other. He's a decent person and we are taking it slow.

I like not being under any pressure. I like that our conversations evolve naturally. We think of each other often.

It's all about taking it at a comfortable pace. It's good.

Sewing, and wanting to learn how to knit and crochet

On Sunday, I spent part of my day sewing. I had a few articles of clothing that needed some attention.

I enjoy hand-sewing or using my sewing machine. I find it relaxing.

For years, I have wanted to learn how to knit and crochet. Years ago, I managed to knit a scarf. I simply couldn't bind off, though. I hope to resurrect these projects. I have a feeling that I'll find it relaxing once I get the hang of these techniques.

Update on cleaning out my car

I am nearly done removing my stuff from my car. I simply have a few items in my trunk. I will be ready when I return my car on Friday and get my new one.

I have been gradually removing my items each day, rather than doing it all in one shot. I have this magnetic mount (stand) for my phone. It has a 3M sticky backing. I have one replacement backing left. I am pleased that I don't need to buy some more.

I also figured out that you can stick a magnet inside your PopSocket and then stick it on the magnetic mount. Better late than not knowing!

For the longest time, I didn't think that I needed a PopSocket. I admit that it's easier to take photos with one.

Workshop is over, laughter is here, and packing is nearly done

My workshop ended on Wednesday. I learned a lot and am inspired by the information that I got out of it.

I decided to check out the Just For Laughs comedy festival after dinner. It was a ton of fun. I got to see a hypnotist perform.

I have done most of my packing. I am leaving later on today, driving home in my rental car. It has been nice taking a break from driving for the last three days.

Lots of learning and finding a similar me out there

This training session has been great. I continue to learn a lot about the subject matter, my colleagues, and myself.

There are participants from my office in Mississauga and in Ottawa. I have established a rapport with a colleague who works on a different floor than I do. We are incredibly similar and we get along nicely. We didn't know each other until we did an exercise and were paired up.

It's interesting when you find someone who is practically a carbon copy of your personality and life, but in different countries. It's cool.

Learning quickly

On Thursday, I realized that I am so determined to learn how to do tasks in a new software application that I end up being incredibly versed in it. I ended up telling a colleague how to do things in it.

I don't feel like I am an expert, but I have figured out how to do tasks that are needed for my everyday work. Most folks would probably give up. I have been fiddling around with it for weeks that I figured out functionality that wasn't in any of the instructional videos. I also couldn't find it in the user guide.

I felt good when I had my breakthrough. I am simply glad that I can use this application for my work, as the old system will be discontinued in a couple of months.

Breaking bad news too soon

My boss broke the news to me that my incompetent colleague will be let go. I'm not sure if I agree with his move to announce this information so early when he does not have an exact date for her departure.

I had mentioned this comment last Friday to him. The last thing we need is for her to be sad for a while. She apparently wept in front of him and perhaps stayed at work longer than usual the other day. She took Wednesday off as she wasn't feeling well.

She is a nice person. She is simply not a suitable fit for the job at hand. I expected her to take it bad. However, I was hoping that he would have a solid departure date, so that she can prepare. Perhaps he wants her to get a head start with a job search.

I looked at her resume. It says that she is a fast learner. However, when I asked her in my second interview with her (her third), she said that she is a slow learner. Ugh!

Hindsight is easier. I flagged the slow learner comment with my manager. He dismissed it. He now regrets it.

I am hoping that this entire mess is dealt with soon.

Wet screen protector

Last Friday, I had lunch with three colleagues, including one of my students. Several months ago, she liked my phone so much that she decided to upgrade to the same model. She is equally as enamoured over this phone as I am.

We sat next to each other at the restaurant. She admitted that it made her happy seeing my phone, as it reminds her of my phone.

She taught me something new. She went with a wet phone screen. It basically means that you apply the film by spraying a special solution. It makes applying it to the phone easier.

I have had a glass screen protector on it for a bit. The problem is that my phone is slightly curved, which means that the glass protector does not completely stay flush on the screen.

I noticed that my glass screen protector had a small crack in the left corner. I went online and bought a two-pack of film that you apply wet. It sounds like a sexual innuendo, but it's not!

I just applied it on my phone. Wow! I love how clean it sticks. I'm supposed to let it dry overnight to set. A day later, I am to use the phone case that came with the wet protectors. After five days, I can use my own case. Cool!

Learning from checking in on apps and broadcasting my location on social media

I had something odd happen to me yesterday. Some may consider it scary. I have a feeling that I have put some of the puzzle pieces together.

After work, I went to Starbucks to get a beverage. The baristas there were nice. I ordered my drink through the app like I usually do, went through the drive-thru, got my drink, and drove home.

I normally check in using my Yelp app. Some people are afraid of having their location shown. For me, I used to be in this camp. My thought is that checking and then leaving is okay. I'm gone that any stacker can't catch up to you.

Well, here's the odd part. I must have been twenty minutes away. I got a call from this Starbucks location. It was the cafe's phone number on my phone. It was one call after the other for a total of four calls. No message was left.

It then shifted to a completely different number. When the third call came in, I was waiting at yet another drive-thru. I answered the call and stayed silent.

The guy on the other end knew my first name and my phone number. He was wondering why I wasn't answering. Well, I was at a drive-thru deciding on what I wanted to order. He eventually hung up and called back for a fourth time.

I had placed my order. I picked up and said hi. He proceeded to say that I had checked in on Yelp and asked, "Why the f*ck do you check in so many times?" I decided to hang up on him. I didn't like the swearing and I didn't understand why he was so upset.

I have an app on my phone that not only blocks these calls, but I can report them to a database and add my comments. I did just that.

I see a couple of things that contributed to this incident:

• When I checked in on my Yelp app, it also broadcasts that check-in on Twitter. The guy saw my tweet on Twitter. I looked at the interactions and found one hit in my statistics. Only my friends on Yelp know my check-ins and they are decent people who would not harass me.
• As for getting my phone number, my Starbucks app was compromised a few months back. My phone number was likely obtained from that incident.

Put my tweet and my phone number together, and you have someone out there who doesn't have a life.

I also feel that he has a software application where he can change the phone number that ultimately gets displayed on your phone when you receive a call. It seems rather clean that he used the Starbucks number to call me four times, and then used another one with a different area code exactly four times in the same rapid succession.

When he swore at me, it was quiet in the background. He obviously was not at Starbucks. You cannot be in two different cities in the Greater Toronto Area within seconds.

When I was in Dallas, I disabled my check-ins being broadcast to Twitter. I don't know what possessed me to put it back on, but I have decided to permanently stop it.

It's quite the lesson. The good news is that I have set up these precautions and will see if it makes a difference.

Thoughts about how a newbie learns

It has been nearly two weeks that my students and I have been training the new employee. It has been a challenge for all of us.

I am still trying to figure out how this new employee learns. It's difficult to narrow down, but here are my notes:

• She is an extremely slow learner. She requires tons of repetition doing the same task before she begins to understand it.
• She is not good at recognizing patterns. If there is a clear example on the page, she does not know how to apply that example to solve her current problem.
• She does not read well. It doesn't matter whether she has a checklist or a procedure on how to do a task, she does not read details carefully. She also does not read e-mails well.
• Her comprehension is dismal. She constantly relies on my PowerPoint slides and treats them as the gospel. When she has a checklist to go through, she is still dependent on her slides and doesn't realize that the checklist takes precedence. When I quiz her on how to do something, she goes to her printed slide notes and doesn't get it. So, it's another explanation, but from a different angle. 
• She says thanks too often. Sure, we are all Canadian. However, saying thanks after every other sentence that we say does not register knowledge that we have passed on to her. It is also overkill.
• She is afraid to try anything on her own. When she had a question on how to edit a page the other day, I asked her to give it a try. She gave me a firm, "No!" Um, okay. Odd.

She does have a cartoon character voice. It's squeaky. One of my colleagues called it cute. I find it annoying the more she talks, which is pretty often.

My manager was impressed by how much information and research she did for her second interview. I didn't feel the same way. I realize now that it was all memorization. The comprehension is nonexistent. 

The red flag that I had during her second interview was that she admitted that she was a slow learner. I pointed that out to my boss. He said that the extra work that she does after hours will get her learning faster. I didn't think that it was the case then. I certainly don't see it now.

It is still frustrating dealing with someone who does not get what she is doing. I have even seen my students get frustrated.

Here's hoping that things get better, although things look bleak right now.

Turnips and learning

I had a good Saturday. I slept in and got nearly eight hours of sleep.

I went out to run some errands. I am the odd one who enjoys grocery shopping on a Saturday.

I drove a few towns over to a discount grocery store that specializes in frozen items. I like the frozen, cubed turnips. There is no need to spend time peeling them. They are also uniform in size and cook evenly.

At the checkout counter, I took everything out of my basket. The cashier asked whether the turnips take long to cook. I said not really. I put them in soups and pan-fry them. She liked my answer.

I am a foodie at heart. Perhaps I look like I know what I'm doing. Not really. I learned that I enjoy eating turnips about half a year ago! I am still learning and it's a journey.

The cashier was great at packing all my groceries into my single reusable bag. I was impressed. I need to learn how to bag like she does!

Exhausting week and questioning comprehension

What a long week! I'm exhausted.

I wrapped up a major release and pushed out a minor one. I got my little team consisting of two students and me to train a new employee on our team. It's good that she has been hired to take over some of my development tasks. However, I am still unsure about how I feel about her.

The way that she learns and comprehends puzzles me. She talks a lot. Information relayed to her doesn't register in her head.

She had a question about a feature and what the difference was between the options. I asked if she wanted to try one of the options out. She said with authority, "No!" That's not a good sign if you are all questions, you can retain answers, and you are hesitant to explore.

Yes, she talks a ton. It's to the point where I have to tune out. She also sounds like a little girl and she's nearly thirty years old. It's difficult to listen to her.

I am hoping that next week will fly by. I'm simply glad that the weekend is here.

World Cup fever

I am in a World Cup pool at work. There are roughly three women in a heavily male-dominated office pool.

"I am leading the pool," I told my guy.
"Really? That's cool!" he exclaimed.
"Thanks. I have been leading for over a week. I hope that I can hang on. That's the bonus that I never got at work this year," I replied.
"I have full confidence that you'll win it," he said, smiling.

My guy loves when he learns new things about me. I am a hockey fan. However, I have loved watching World Cup games since 2002. I got laid off in the States that year and moved back to Canada. I had nothing better to do than watch games at odd hours of the day.

Here's hoping that I can hang on and win.

My new sewing machine to create a micro skirt

Each year, around Christmas, I tend to pick up a new skill or a skill that I once used often. This year, I have it down to three:

• Knitting
• Crocheting
• Sewing

I taught myself how to knit with needles years ago. I never got around to binding off, so I definitely need a refresher there.

I don't know how to crochet with a needle. I simply know how to finger-crochet a single, linear row.

By sewing, I am referring to using a sewing machine. I haven't done that since my early undergraduate years.

On the weekend, I bought a sewing machine. It's a portable one that weighs five pounds. It is far from being a toy, but it's a good starter machine for me. It also came in purple, so I had to.

I am tired of hand-sewing clothes that have unravelling seams. I need a sewing machine that keeps my threads in place a lot longer. 

I broke the news to my guy.

"I always like that you are constantly learning," he said to me.
"Thanks! It keeps my mind sharp," I replied.
"With practice, you can sew a micro skirt. I'd love to see you in and out of that," he hinted, smiling.
"I could give that a try. Maybe I'll start with a pillowcase, as you love to sleep, and then move up to a skirt" I replied.
"You're sweet," he said.

It's exciting to be creative and crafty.

Compatibility test - laundry

My guy and I get along, which is one reason why we have been a couple for a while. We both came to the conclusion that we are compatible. We aren't carbon copies of each other, but we have some differences that make things fun.

One topic that we both like is laundry. Another is cleaning. We never get bored of figuring out how to clean items. We both enjoy doing laundry.

"Can you wash your sneakers in the washer?" my guy asked me.
"Sure, I have done it. It works pretty well. I don't have a dishwasher, but I would recommend using that because you do," I pointed out.
"Really?" he said, intrigued.
"Yes, it works even better than the washer," I replied.
"My sneakers are muddy from camping, so I'll give it a try."

Compatibility makes a relationship so much easier. We learn from each other and we grow.

Being together and learning about a spreader bar

My guy and I always have good chats over Skype when we are apart. Somehow, our conversation got a bit serious for a bit the other day.

"It has been over five years that we have been together," he said to me.
"Yes. It doesn't feel like it, though," I replied.
"I agree."

It doesn't. It's probably because we see our relationship constantly strengthening and growing. Things are still fresh and exciting after all these years.

Then, there's the spreader bar that intrigued me from Fifty Shades Darker. It did the same thing for him, too.

Again, our relationship continues to be fun the more we learn about things together.

It's good to be nice

I have been told that I am a nice person. You hear the old adage that nice folks always finish last. There are times when I feel like that's the case, especially when people on my team cannot handle their workload and I end up having to do their work. It is completely unfair.

However, there are moments when folks surprise me. I had several of those on Monday.

To backtrack, an extraordinary event took place. In the past, I could never get any of my co-op students to get proper access to do their timesheets electronically. It would take weeks, simply because those people at work who are responsible to give proper access privileges to new co-op students drop the ball.

Guess what? I managed to get both students to complete their timesheets by Wednesday. Yep, the had access less than three days into their stay with the company.

My manager came up to me, oddly, on Friday the 13th, while I was cutting birthday cake to celebrate special days for a couple of colleagues, including one of my students.

"What did you do to give them access?" he asked me.
"I contacted the Finance department and submitted a request to fix their workcentre code," I replied.
"I was surprised that they had completed their timesheets for this week," he replied.
"You shouldn't be. I finished my timesheet on Monday. You know that they will complete theirs early, too."

It's true. Every student that I have had so far has never been late submitting their timesheet.

On Monday morning, I had a busy start. I had to talk to the contractor, get RAM installed for my laptop, and complete various requests. I managed to talk to both co-op students, to tell them that we'd meet in ten minutes. I then stopped by my manager's desk to ask whether he got RAM installed for his laptop. He did.

"I got you these," he replied, handing over a large bag of shelled, dry-roasted peanuts.
"Awesome! Thanks so much. You made my day," I replied, which was true.
"You're welcome. They come like that, without any labelling, which should not be the case," he replied.
"Well, thanks for the contraband peanuts. I will enjoy them," I replied.

Then, my students surprised me when it came to how quickly they pick up concepts.

The contractor had edited a couple of guides in the past. One had a couple of issues, which were pointed out to her by another writer over a month ago. I tasked her to fix them, which would have been a fairly quick update. She never got around to it, so I decided to offload it to the co-op students.

The update involved fixing a missed letter in a word, adding the chapter number and date, converting the Word document to a PDF, uploading the document to a network drive, and creating a new documentation build.

I showed them what steps they needed to do. One of the writers followed along and actually completed the task as I showed her. I was impressed. I told her so.

The other one managed to update our helpful how-to instructions on fixing timesheet issues. Again, I was impressed.

I have forgotten how wonderful it is to work with bright students who absorb information fast and are eager to work. It's a nice change.

Art, students, and learning

Things are good, but busy. My guy and I continue to chat on Skype while he is away on business, which makes us less miserable while we are apart.

Today's post is different. Since early May, I have been working closely with two co-op students. I have trained them and guided them through a number of work tasks.

Perhaps I am in the wrong field. Part of me is thinking that I should have become a teacher. Instead, I drifted from being a mathematician, to a computer scientist, to a writer.

It's funny how things happen. I have no regrets about being a writer. I enjoy it. I also get to explain in writing how to do tasks, which benefits the reader.

I have been told that I am a good teacher by my last two student interns. It's a nice feeling.

This internship is the first one that I have supervised in which we have two interns. It has been wonderful seeing their progress and how they have become stronger writers.

One impressed me so much that I decided to nominate her for an intern award. She finally got the word last Friday. She wrote a lovely, heartfelt e-mail to me. It is one of those e-mails that you want to print out and never delete.

The other intern showed how giving she is. She had a number of tickets to various tourist sites. However, she couldn't go. She offered them to me. This past Tuesday, I decided to book the day off and go to an art exhibit that I have wanted to attend for a while.

I was thankful that she asked me if I wanted to go. Although it would have been nice if she had the opportunity to go to the museum and see all the art exhibits, I bought her a book showing all the beautiful artifacts that I had experienced. The book also came with a DVD. She was elated.

It's nice to make the day of folks that you work closely with. They have also taught me so much in return. The learning experience has been enriching for all of us.

App development involving my getting a spanking

My guy and I are similar, which is one good reason why we get along and are a couple. We seem to be on the same wavelength these days when it comes to learning. We want to do something different to stimulate our brain cells.

For me, it's learning how to drive a stick shift car. I have one more lesson to go.

My guy told me the other day that he is learning how to create apps on Android. It doesn't surprise me that he is fiddling with this new learning experience, as he is nerdy like I am.

"Do you have any suggestions on what apps I should develop?" my guy asked me.
"How about a hot dog app for me?" I said, teasing him over my love for eating hot dogs.
"Um, no," he said, chuckling afterwards.
"How about a spanking app?" I suggested.
"Hey, I like that!" he said, with excitement.
"For the spanking sound effects, we can record your spanking my bare butt and use that in your app."
"See, you always have good ideas," he said, complimenting me.
"I hope that I get this app for free because I sleep with the developer," I said.
"Of course!"

It's good that I get a spanking and a spanking app for free.