Quick post. Fellow WordPress blogger Andrea of edoodless is hosting an interesting project where you can choose one of her drawings that she has posted and write a poem or short story to accompany the illustration. She’s asking that all submissions reach her by Dec. 1.
You can read more about the project here:
https://edoodless.wordpress.com/2024/10/17/there-is-definitely-more-out-there-%f0%9f%aa%90/
This weekend, I’m finishing up my final project for a post-grad certificate program I’ve been enrolled in since January of this year. I’m currently knee deep in executing Python code to create a model that will assign a database of IT support tickets into different categories. Fun stuff! So while I’m busy working in a Jupyter notebook, I thought to keep thing moving along on my blog, I’d share some work from another notebook.
My sophomore year English instructor had us put together a notebook of our work over the fall and spring semesters. I didn’t have a computer at home at the time, so I remember working on this during my lunch break in the school’s computer lab. I don’t know why I chose a cursive font but whatever! She was nice enough to package our work in a spiral bound and laminated notebook, which I still have today.
I’ll share page 6 as it contains 1) a poem about summertime 2) a limerick and 3) a haiku.
It’s not award winning work, but hey I was 16 when I wrote these. The limerick still cracks me up- which tells me my humor has not changed much since I was in high school.
Seasons Poem
The hot blazing sun.
Its rays beam down to the Earth like a laser.
The days seem to last an eternity.
Patiently I wait for cool breezes.
As I step onto the sizzling sidewalk , I wonder
Will this hellish weather ever end?
Finally, I see a yellow leaf floating to the ground
As the wind travels through the cool night air.
Note: After reading this, the yellow leaf could be from a dead tree- you know- that died from the summer heat. The cool night air indicates the shift from summer to not summer but not yet fall. So, probably late August, early September.
Limerick
There once was a kid who had a dog.
One day the dog chased after a frog.
While running down the street.
A car the dog did meet.
And got squashed because of a dumb little frog.
Haiku
The clouds move swiftly
Fluffy and round, always moving
Stretched out in the sky
Have you recently come across any creative projects from years ago? Did it surprise you to revisit your work?
List 30 things that make you happy.
Multiply the above by 3. Done.
During a recent walk through my local convention center I looked upward and noticed faux bird and clouds/sky hanging throughout the expanse of the food court.
I *think* I get what the vision was here, but the size of each piece seems rather small; the sky/cloud pieces especially should be larger in my opinion.
I’m curious if whomever came up with the idea- if the execution was as intended.
I’m curious if it’s weird to eat your meals under a fake sky with fake birds.
Lastly, I’m curious if when this food court is open and hopping, if convention attendees even notice the fake birds and sky adorning the ceiling?!
Sidenote: The “featured image” you may have saw in the WP Reader was WP’s AI generated image.
While the “sky” and “clouds” are more noticeable, this looks like bird wings hanging from the ceiling, instead of the representation of a full bird. Verdict, this is even creepier than the actual installation.
Do you have any public spaces in your area with *curious* adornments? Drop a note in the comments below.
HOUSEKEEPING
Unfrazzled Analyst is now on Instagram. Feel free to follow and check out bite sized versions of the posts you see here.
One strategy: improving people’s workspaces when they are away from their desk.
Noise is an underrated topic for the working world. Depending on your work environment, the type of noise that permeates through your workspace can vary from the drone of electric tools to the bustling sounds of a cafe.
I’ve always worked in an office environment. I’ve spent many years trapped volutarily located in the confines of floors in buildings of downtown areas. What I’ve learned over the years is it takes immense patience to work around people you’d probably slam the door on if they showed up at your house other people.
For my entire career as an office worker, I’ve had some type of hybrid or alternative work schedule. The difference between the past 4 years and the “before” time (we all know what I’m talking about here) is that the days in office vs. remote are flipped. Before- I was in office 4 days a week, and at home 1 day a week on average. After, well you get the gist.
I still commute to an office a couple of days a week to keep up appearances , because the company said so, be a “team player”. even though in my current role I have no real reason to be there. It’s ok because I get to waste more time getting “the scoop” from selected co-workers in the office and go for long walks in the area it gives me a change of scenery each week. Nevertheless, when I’m in the office it still requires patience to focus amidst other people’s noise.
I live in a different city from where I work so I can walk through construction zones for a change from my quiet tree lined neighborhood.
I had different office jobs throughout my college career, but the REAL adjustment came into play in after I completed my master’s degree and stepped into my first analyst job. This was the first job where I had to really concentrate on the work- it was mentally taxing.
The type of troubleshooting I had to do required more thought and diplomacy than I was used to on my other jobs. I was a budget analyst at a large state agency and errors in calculations had consequences.
Now, I don’t know if I took the job too seriously or if the others in my office didn’t care, but I was stuck with 2 co-workers in particular, let’s call them Helene and Kara- that TALKED LOUDLY ALL DAY. EVERYDAY. ABOUT EVERY MINUTE OF THEIR LIFE IN THE OFFICE AND OUTSIDE.
Oh- and lucky me, because they did a alternate work schedule of working 8- 9 hour days in a row to get every other Monday off, they were usually in the office by 7:30am and already knee deep in conversation by the time I rolled in at 7:45am.
A typical morning was something like this:
“Oh Helene- may I offer you some pop- corny corn?” Cue INSANE LAUGHTER FROM BOTH.
“OMG Kara that is one of the BEST Doug Heffernon lines”. (Note: I had not seen an episode of King of Queens at this time to know WTH they were talking about).
“Ok Helene, this is your week to take care of Seamus! Here you go”. (Seamus was a leprechaun pen they played with in the office. Yes these were grown ass women that cared for a leprechaun pen. Don’t worry there will be a post about this in the future.)
“Kara, when are you going to join my Zumba class?” (Helene taught Zumba classes in addition to this day job).
“Oh, I’ll aim for this Wednesday. I just got a phone # from the new guy on my bus route, and that’s a perfect first date.” (Idk what bus route she took- I never had that kind of experience riding the bus all these years).
“That’s perfect, I have five spots left and I”m trying to fill them up”.
“What time is it?”
“Eight thirty- is it too early for a snack run?”
“Yes, let’s go in an hour.”
“OMG guess who I ran into?”
“Who?”
“That lady with the eyebrows that used to work down the hall?”
“OMG does she still pencil in her eyebrows like its halloween?”
“Girl and then some”.
AND IT WENT ON AND ON LIKE THIS ALL DAY LONG. I didn’t have control over the background noise and it was frustrating as hell. There were no TVs in the office, so I had to rely on music. Thankfully, I had received a free iPod for joining my school’s alumni association. It had still been sitting in the box- my second week on the job I tore open that box and got to work filling it up with music.
Fast forward to today. I have no clue what happened to Kara and Helene, but I continued to have my share of Kara and Helenes in the office over the years. I still don’t understand how I had patience to not snap and strangle them all zone out the din. But somehow I managed. I’m fortunate that now I have a dedicated home office which makes it convenient to control noise. And because I have an office at the office complete with a TV, I can shut the door and just leave the TV on to drown out the Kara and Helenes of today.
Serenity Now!
But for those of you stuck with sitting out in a cubicle or open workspace with such inconsiderate delightful co-workers, get yourself a good pair of headphones and find the background noise you can control. And know that I feel for you!
Preface
I recently posted these photos and zine as four separate posts on a different blog…
Sound confusing? Well it is.
Since the beginning of this year, I’ve wanted to start fresh with a new site and be more intentional vs my initial go round blogging from 2011-2014. So in June I did start fresh and built a new site where I was going to be more serious. And I started posting things.
In digging through my WordPress account, I found this blog that you’re reading now.
And … cue face palm.
I forgot I had this blog. And reading back through the contents, I was like – this is my true voice. Actually I created this blog as a complement to my main one back in 2012 because the main blog was focused on sharing the interesting and weird stuff I photographed in my area, in addition to sharing snippets of writing I was working on at the time. This blog was my sarcastic side- the “let me make fun of the absurd.”
The reality is, my true voice is somewhere between my two original blogs. But there’s no reason I can’t do it all in one spot. So I’m going with this one.
However, I already posted some cool photos on the other blog so rather than a simple reblog of those posts, I’m making ONE BIG POST mashing together the photos I posted on the other blog and now all my current content is in one place because I can. :-p
So here goes…
The ZINE
You can download a PDF copy here or from the DOWNLOADS page.
Below is the Digital Edition…
Garden 1: Japanese Friendship Garden/Rohohen: Phoenix, AZ
So now that you’ve seen the ZINE, below are some photos of the Japanese Friendship Garden, also known as Rohohen. Prior to November 2021, I’d never visited the gardens. I ended up here after registering for a weekend writing class through the Phoenix Arts Center. The class was focused on using nature and meditiation to generate written work. Having been to various writing workshops and conferences over the years, this was by far my favorite workshop.
The entire workshop was conducted at the garden over two morning sessions (9am-noon). Both days, we were given time to wander the garden on our own, encouraged to sit and observe, meditate.
After a specified amount of time, the class of 10 plus the instructor would converge on the lawn where we’d discuss our observations, read short pieces on nature and then write based on prompts given to us by the instructor.
We’d then share pieces of our writing to the class. It was a very positive experience!
One drawback is that our class did not stay in touch. One of our classmates did send out a group email after class to see if anyone would like to have regular meet ups at the garden for future writing sprints. Although some of us responded, nothing ever came of it.
I have found it hard to locate a writer’s group – either in person or virutally- but in the meantime I’ve continued to find smaller events/opportunities such as this workshop to keep me motivated and inspired – to move forward with my craft.
I did generate many pieces of writing during this workshop. Last year, I began to sift through my scribblings from this weekend. As a result, I created the zine referenced above to highlight some of my writing from this weekend.
One thing I reference in the zine is an apartment complex that overlooks the garden, as seen in the photo above.
If you are ever in the Phoenix area, I’d encourage you to visit this spot! Despite a nearby festival intruding upon the serenity of the garden on the second day, the garden is truly a hidden treasure in the city.
Garden 2: Vizcaya Gardens, Miami FL
Taken March 2015 at Vizcaya Gardens, Miami Florida overlooking Biscayne Bay. It’s a historic estate that was owned by some bigwhig from the 1800s but has many antiques as well as actual gardens. Definitely worth checking out if you’re in the Miami area.
QUESTIONS:
Questions for you!!!
Please drop a note in the comments below!
Originally posted on October 14, 2012 by Nicole
Author’s note: Current day commentary has been added in italics.
Do you work in an office environment (down to a couple of days a week now). Do you typically buy or bring your lunch to work only to eat it at your desk ( used to be no- but there’s no lunchroom on my floor but I have an office now)? If so, here is a friendly piece of advice. If you have trash generated from your lunch, do everyone in your office a favor and throw it away in the trash can located in your company’s lunchroom or kitchen or whatever trash can is farthest away from where you and your co-workers sit (yup I still do this cause I don’t want food trash in my office).
Photo by Polina Tankilevitch: https://www.pexels.com/photo/crumpled-fast-food-paper-packet-4109270/
Each day, thousands of workers find themselves relegated to eating lunch at their desk due to:
Health and workplace experts are always telling us we shouldn’t eat lunch at our desk. Eating at your desk adds germs to your workplace surfaces (seriously wipe down your workspaces weekly with Clorox wipes), and you don’t get a chance to “unplug” and clear your mind, which often times bogs down your afternoon productivity.
Despite the numerous warnings from “experts”, walk into any workplace and you see countless workers hunched over their desk scarfing down whatever they could throw together in their lunchbox before running out the door that morning.
It happens, and I’m not here to lecture people on the hazards of eating at your desk. But if you are a cubicle lunch eater, I want you ask yourself a question. That question is “do I enjoy the smell of rotting trash?”
If you answered “yes” to the above question, just stop reading this blog post right now. Nothing I say will change your mind about your habits.
If you answered “no”, then next time you get ready to throw away that banana peel or can of sardines in the trash can sitting right under your desk, imagine yourself sitting on a mountain of banana peels and sardines. It isn’t a pleasant scenario to imagine, isn’t it. But guess what – the is probably the image that your cubicle neighbor will generate once that sardine can hits the bottom of your stinky trash can.
I know some of you out there might say “but I throw stuff away all the time at my desk and I never smell anything.” To those people, I say liar liar pants on fire. Even though you don’t notice the odor, odors have a way of working through cube walls. Your cube mate didn’t eat clams casino for lunch, so your cube mate didn’t acclimate to the smell and become oblivious to it – you did. The odor from your lunch may not bother you, but it most likely is bothering someone else.
So, my tip is quite simple. Don’t throw away your food trash at your desk. Get some exercise, and walk on over to the lunchroom to throw your trash away in that trash bin. Your co-workers will thank you.( Also, I can’t emphasize this enough, wipe your workspace down with Clorox wipes at least once a week.)
10. I’m absolutely certain that the square root of 4 is 2.
9. I’m absolutely certain that every 10 seconds, another 10 seconds has passed.
8. I’m absolutely certain that I’ll never visit the Republic of Cabo Verde because the idea of being surrounded simultaneously by water and volcanoes is not my idea of a good time.
7. I’m absolutely certain I’ll use the restroom today.
6. I’m absolutely certain that my yard contains dirt.
Also- contains grasshoppers in the summertime.
5. I’m absolutely certain that I’ll be uncertain about some things.
4. I’m absolutely certain that despite my best efforts, pockets of uncertainty will cause anxiety and I’ll have to remind myself not to get all stressed out over unimportant things.
Let’s keep things in perspective. If you die on the job, you’ll be forgotten by next week.
3. I’m absolutely certain that Garfield the Cat hates Mondays. As does most of the working world.
2. I’m absolutely certain that “the sun will come up, tomorrow. Bet your bottom dollar
that tomorrow there’ll be sun.” I’m not into musical theater but even I know this song lyric and hey, it speaks truth.
Yes this is a sunset, not a sunrise, but the sun has to set before it can rise again. Also, this was my first attempt at painting last year. I’m certainly not a professional but it was fun painting this.
1. I’m absolutely certain that there more life lessons in store for me.
Originally posted June 20, 2013 by Nicole
Authors Note: Reading through this, much of this material still holds today in 2024 and if anything, has just illustrated how this particular social media site has gone downhill.
Maintaining a career in these modern times is difficult. Between the economy and the rapid pace of technology, some industries are shrinking while others are expanding. Those of you actively job-hunting know that competition is stiff for jobs. Those of you who aren’t actively job-hunting are being encouraged to network, network, network to keep your name and credentials out there in case you do find yourself unemployed.
These days, many hiring managers don’t just rely on the references you provide them to check your credentials and background. No, like everything else technology has added rather than reduced a layer of stress to a process in our day to day lives. Now, hiring managers often run your name through their search engine of choice and expect to find you on at least one of the major social media sites.
While Facebook has been used by some as way to network professionally, more and more people have joined Linkedin to maintain their professional profile. Linkedin is pretty much the buttoned up, watered down version of Facebook.( Author’s note: Now in 2024- the posts are basically FB lite. Just check out https://www.reddit.com/r/LinkedInLunatics/ for proof. ) Now, I to this day refuse to join Facebook (still refuse) but I did reluctantly join Linkedin about two years ago (2011- so present day 13 years) after being successfully browbeaten by numerous business articles insisting that one simply MUST be on Linkedin to grow one’s career.
Aside from collecting co-workers like baseball cards on the website, you are supposed to join groups and post comments on forums to flex your expertise in your chosen career. Most of us on Linkedin however, rely on the “let’s just connect with as many people as possible” strategy in the hopes that the more your name pops up on contact lists, the more likely some recruiter will find you and offer you your dream job.
Two years into being a member of Linkedin, I’ve yet to move onto my “dream” career (still haven’t but current role gets me closer). Instead, I’ve been hunted down by recruiters strong arming me into interviewing for lateral positions which would lengthen my commute by 15 miles only to be contacted by another recruiter who called me about two potential job opportunities then never called me back (LOL all still holds true today). I have had better luck with applying to positions directly via a company’s website. I’ve had a 75% success rate in obtaining an interview this way, but alas the jobs I’ve interviewed for weren’t quite a good fit for me.
At times I’ve thought about deleting my profile (still think about doing this). Yet I remain. Why? Well, because the one perk of remaining on Linkedin is that you can spy on your co-workers.
Now, before I elaborate on this point, let me say that there are many nuisances on Linkedin. For one thing, when you log into your homepage, Linkedin will feature 4-5 business articles ( not sure they do this anymore).
In addition, you will find that several of your connections have also posted links to business articles they feel you should read. While this doesn’t sounds so bad, having so many business articles grouped together illustrates how most business articles just rehash the same crap over and over.
Once in awhile, you might see an article that shows promise.
An open bar in the office? So now my coworkers can annoy me while sober AND drunk!
On the downside, you have to wade through numerous “5 Reasons You Suck at Your Job” or “Why Top Companies Won’t Be Hiring this Quarter” or “Why Trend X is No Longer Trendy” type of articles.
Really? The job market is experiencing slow growth? The devil you say!
Do you really need an article to spell this out for you? After the initial “honeymoon” period on a new job, it’s been my experience that 2:1 you probably do work for a stupid company.
I don’t even know who or what Huawei is. Thank you Linkedin, for making me feel stupid.
After you wade through dry business articles posing as trendy advice columns, Linkedin will try to recommend jobs that you should apply for. Problem is, these jobs recommendations as far as I can tell are based on keywords from the job titles in your work history. So if you are trying to switch careers, these recommendations won’t be helpful. Also, 50% of the job recommendations I receive are for sales jobs I am not remotely qualified to apply for (still true- which tells me LinkedIn’s algorithm still sucks after all these years).
Sales Manager III? Wow, I’ve never even held a sales job in a retail store, let alone field sales.
Another annoying aspect of Linkedin is that it likes to remind you of how long you’ve been trapped at your current place of employment. The real kick in the teeth is when your co-workers chime in to rib you about it.
Once you get past all this, you can find some good stuff on Linkedin. For example, you realize even that the senior level manager who sits down the hall from you is also ashamed to work for the company and recently changed his job title on Linkedin to identify himself professionally as an improv actor.
The next fun feature is uncovering lies your co-workers tell about their work experience. You see, Linkedin profiles are essentially resumes. This allows you to rifle through the BS they’ve been using to pad their resumes.
Senior Analyst
Company X
Public Company; 1001-5000 employees;
March 2010 – June 2011 (1 year 4 months)
When you are checking out another person’s profile, Linkedin gives you a rundown of other profiles people checked out after reading the same profile you are looking at. Sometimes this information can be telling about who else you are lumped in with professionally.
Note: All profile pics shown in this blog post are clipart photos EXCEPT for the Hooters girl above. That’s the actual pic on Linkedin. No, really. I just stuck a red dot on her face to protect her identity outside the Linkedin universe, but somehow I don’t even think it matters.
This leads me to another interesting point about Linkedin. This is supposed to be a professional networking site. Linkedin encourages you to use a professional photo to establish yourself as a credible expert in whatever it is you do. Yet some people still don’t get it. As a result, you’re likely to come across the following profile pics:
The Children – numerous people post a picture of their kids instead of themselves.
Random Object – some people post a pic of an object or symbol instead of a photo.
Guess which one I am – Then again, some people opt to include a picture of themselves…among a crew of others.
In addition to the fun features I’ve shown above, you can also endorse the skills and write recommendations for people you know. This is great if your boss or a co-worker check off endorsements on your profile or write a glowing recommendation. This is not so great if the endorsement or recommendation comes from your mom or your spouse.
In a nutshell, despite the dry business discussions and overt lies found within the pages of Linkedin, it does provide some chuckles and helps you keep tabs on the people you work with everyday. It’s an easy way to maintain an online presence for career purposes. If used correctly, you can use Linkedin solely for business contacts and then promote the fun stuff, like your personal blog, for your other social media sites. (Author’s Note: RIP Twitter.)
unfrazzled analyst 