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SEA CHANGE

Yesterday I found out that my company is shutting down on May 31.

I never really talk about my job much because it really is a more-or-less joyless experience and while I like the people I work with, I don’t really like my job.

But I HAVE a job. For two more months anyway. I was hoping that we’d still be around for at least another year to allow the economy to get back on track and whatnot. The owner of the company is at retirement age and we had speculated that things would shut down but not so soon. We also thought that if things were to end, the company would be sold and we’d retain our jobs, but I guess attempts to sell the company didn’t work out.

It really sucks. I mean, I live in the SF Bay Area and the unemployment here is way worse than in the rest of the country at something like 12%. I don’t know what I’m going to do.

I have a mortgage. Sigh.

I don’t have a car payment anymore though (thank God for small favors, I guess).

Mostly my worries are monetary in nature, just like they’ve always been. Just when I start saving money and have a nice little nest egg, I have a teeth problem. Or…move across the country. Or… get retired.

The thing is… I never really meant to stay in this job this long. But I got comfortable and I got a raise and you just let life go along and don’t really think too hard about the whole thing.

Until, of course, it comes on by and bitchslaps you back into reality.

For a long time – a year or more – I have felt really stifled in my day to day life. So stuck and in a rut. I’m not in a creative field; my degree is going to waste, and I haven’t drawn anything in, honestly, years. Doodles here and there or a commission but not for pleasure and not for lack of want. I’ve also been talking about getting an Etsy shop started up to sell my jewelry and possibly woven scarves. Maybe this is my chance.

It’s funny – last week I was bitching on Twitter about how I thought 2010 was going to be a crappy year… I should have known better than to tempt fate!

But in all honesty, I’m okay.  Things will be fine. I’m also still in shock, processing all this, so I don’t really know how everything will play out. But, you know, life goes on. Yesterday I was pretty cool with everything but today I’m just… really… mad.

I didn’t think I’d be unemployed for my 30th birthday though.

This too, shall pass.

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Housecleaning

Hahaha! You guys, don’t let the title fool you. I definitely don’t mean housecleaning in the literal sense of the word. I mean, I got my vacuum out of its dark secret closet and put it in the den to “remind me”… and there it has sat sadly for at least a week waiting for me to stop playing Super Mario 3 on my Wii and actually clean up for Easter. “Housecleaning.” Please.

No really, what I mean by it is that I occasionally get a bug to struggle with my website and clean things up and recode or re-upload or revive myself with smelling salts because it generally makes me want to lie prostrate on the floor for periods of deep contemplation.

The thing lately that has caused me massive annoyance over the last several days is the comment system that I currently run on WordPress 2.9.2. Comments are posted and I get them, but the posters do not get my replies. And frankly, that sure is annoying! I certainly don’t expect anyone to keep coming back to my site to check and see if they got a reply – I don’t check other people’s sites to see if I got a reply.  If I don’t get an email, it’s like it never happened.

So, still knowing nothing about PHP except that which I can sort of interpret and copy and paste, I went on a mission not to, you know, learn anything, but to see if I could find a widget that I could install that would force an email to any commenters that I have replied, or someone else has replied.

It took awhile before I realized that I should really be looking for a plug-in instead of a widget, but the lightbulb did eventually flash and I installed Subscribe To Comments.

I think it works.

I tried it out with an alternate email address and it worked for me. You need to check the box underneath the reply field in order to receive the replies. It doesn’t automatically send an email unless you do that.

So to help me out, I would appreciate it if you could post a test post (and check the box!) and report back.

Thanks!

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Sharks, Target, Knitting

This weekend was spent in abject lazypants-ness which has been fairly nice. Yesterday was “Big Animals Like Sharks And Crocodiles Killing People And Causing Mayhem” day on the SyFy channel, which I full up appreciated. There ain’t nothin’ like a little bit of shark/crocodile chomping action to help your coffee go down smooth.

Oh, one thing that cracked me up was on Dinoshark, where the main lady person was looking up ancient sharks on the internet and found the one that had been terrorizing the Mexican resort town in which the movie takes place.  She calls the main dude to tell him this, then gets off the phone, backs away from the laptop and takes off her shirt. Aaaand: scene change! She apparently just felt like ripping her shirt off for no particular reason beyond the obvious.

Whut.

Oh B movies, you are terrible!

Despite all that, it actually was one of the better SyFy made-for-TV movies, but that is not saying much.

Today I went to Target to buy lightbulbs because my porch light is always going out (I always leave it on) and it takes a specialized type of curvy bulb that I accidentally broke the last two of a few weeks ago, while rifling around in the light bulb cupboard (I forget what I was doing). While I was at Target I noticed that today was the day that the Liberty of London stuff arrived.

I like the bold patterns. They had a lot of stuff at this Target which is just a regular Target. But they didn’t have any bed linens that I could find. I would have impulsively and stupidly bought bed linens, so they were totally off the mark as far as targeting my consumption.  They did have a duvet set, but honey, I’ve got duvets.

I did like some of their kitchen stuff and I would love to have the big peacock feather patterned pillow to brighten up my futon couch, but I’m not paying $20 for a pillow.  So I opted for the $5 peacock feather mug:

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I liked the other patterns on the mugs as well, but I totally already have mugs and try to limit my mug acquisitions to ones that I think are really really awesome like my knitted texture mug from sbux.

The rest of the Liberty of London stuff was pretty nice. The clothes were cute but I was disappointed that they were for the most part made out of horrible chiffon/rayon blends which make my skin feel like it is burning off when it touches me. Nice! There were a couple of cotton things but not in the – you guessed it – peacock feather pattern.

ANYWAY besides watching sharks eat people and buying light bulbs and unnecessary mugs, I did work on a couple things this weekend:

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This is the French Quarter Sock from Knitspot. Oh how I adore Anne Hanson’s patterns! I am knitting this out of Knitpicks Gloss in the Kenai colorway and I like it a lot. However it might be too soft for cable work. I’m not totally sold on its stitch definition. Other than that, though, it’s a win as fair as sock yarn is concerned. OH BTW do you see the tiny tiny circular needle up in there? It’s a 9″ Hiya Hiya that I got last weekend at the Yarn Boutique. I think I really like the tiny tiny circular, but not for cable work, so I might switch back to DPNs. However, I think for whipping out a plain sock they will be awesome. You do have to rearrange the way you knit because you’re really knitting with the tips of your fingers.

And then the other thing I am working on is a plain jane sock out of some old Trekking XXL in #167 that I’ve had laying around for years.

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I am going to try to finish these, I really am. Really. They are kind of boring, obviously, but won’t they be nice when they’re done? Argh. I think keeping the leg shortish (about 5 inches) will help.

I am also working on a cardigan but it is also boring and stockinetty. More on that later.