catch-up
four weeks.
*shakes finger at herself* bad kitten.
so, here it is, moments to the holidays, and i've four weeks' work of stuff to catch y'all up on.
well, three weeks ago, i started my job. job! whee! yay for income! i actually kind of like my job. i'm working (as a temp) for a company called Perfect World, who does free MMORPGS. they be based in china, and are trying to get their stuff out to an international market by translating their games into english. you can check out their website if you're really interested. anyway, i'm helping with the english translation, of course not directly from chinese (that would be too easy) but from very bad english translations of chinese (i'd put up a hilarious example here if i didn't think it would violate some term of my contract). anywho, not too bad, though staring at excel sheets is pain and having little to no direction most of the time is very frustrating.
OH WELL. 'TIS A JOB.
turns out it's right down the road from where i grew up, too. yes, my parents house is now closer to where i work than my apartment in san jose. irony at its best. the nice thing is that i actually know the area as a result (it's right near Oracle - I'm sure you can google maps them or something) and can somewhat entertain myself during my 2 hr or more commute by thinking of locales nostalgically. i also like to believe that someday i'll bring a camera with me in the morning and take fuck tons of photos of all the birds that inhabit the estuary right by my work. i try my best to enjoy it and think of the enjoyment rah_bop would get out of it, but occasionally i really wish that the geese wouldn't shit all over my path. because walking around geese shit is one thing, walking along the path at night quickly to catch the last shuttle is something else completely.
i'm working with four other guys, two of which have experience testing, and two that don't. the two that don't are both asian, and have become our "bill and ted" or "hiro and ando", if you get the drift. they just bounce off each other all day. i sit next to one of the duo and chris(tian), who saves my ass repeatedly by not laughing in my face when i ask dumb questions (like, how do i fscking change the camera angle?? after 2 weeks of working there, i did not know this. so stupid, i feel). john, the other experienced tester, sits on the other side of the duo, making verbal communication with him difficult. (we all sit in a line for some stupid reason)
there are two guys who are also temps (for the longest time i thought they were perms) who sit on the other side of the isle, who helps us out based on their experience localizing Perfect World. they alternately mock and pity us. our game is like 15% translated, at best. theirs was 90% translated when they started working on it. their names are chris(topher) and joseph. joseph is definitely the oldest person in the entire area, and has volunteered that he's been married and now divorced twice. christopher i'm pretty sure is still hitting on me in that somewhat lecherous way despite my multiple drops of having a boyfriend. nice, but creepy. creepy, but nice. you never know with tester guys.
eric is in charge of the new project that is being translated, while clifton is in charge of joseph and christopher. derrick is in charge of all of our souls and pretty much anything testing related, plus dealing with china. derrick is overworked. eric has only about a week more experience than any of his charges, and doesn't know wtf he's doing. clifton is relatively quiet except to settle things between joseph and christopher.
christian and i have been getting along well (he has a girlfriend and goes to school, a double + for guys working as testers, who typically have/do neither) and he's gotten along with the duo, so we all usually play brawl at breaks. i've been out to lunch with the duo + christian and also a wider group of testers (who don't sit in our area) with joseph, christopher, clifton, and john. all in all, they seem like good folks.
i am, if it hasn't become obvious already, the only girl tester.
there are female workers at PW, but they are not in testing. they are also all (with the exception of HR) asian women. sweet, and i think they feel sorry for me. they are constantly asking me if i need help with anything. i just smile and do my thing.
SO. that's work.
whee. there's been a lot of reasons i didn't write about this, though i really wanted to, and i'm still conflicted even now, but, to hell with it, you all deserve to know what's up, and i might as well have it written down somewhere, for posterity's sake.
remember my little freak out about dating a guy named Dan while also being with Jason? the whole, polyamoury thing? well, that's over now. i'm just with Jason, and that's probably the way it's going to stay for quite some time.
whether there was anything that could be done on my part or not is difficult to say. i, of course, with my overdeveloped sense of responsibility, like to believe that i could have made things work, could have done things differently or better. but what has passed has passed, and i've taken what i can from the experience. i now know a lot more about poly and about myself.
in the end, it came down to (from my perspective 100%) the fact that Dan isn't cut out for poly, and so was very jealous of me and Jason. totally okay. there's a lot of other side-stuff that came into play, and no small amount of misunderstanding that occurred which i'm still hurt about, but that's what happens in just about any relationship, ne?
i loved being with dan. he was a very easy-going type of guy, and i hope that somehow, we can hold onto the friendship we had. he was and still is a very important person to me.
for the few of you privy to the more intense moments around that time, yes, i was in a crisis as to whether or not to be with jason, with dan, or with neither. i did a lot of thinking (and not a lot of sleeping) and talked with my dear dear friend eagleofmeaux to make sure that i was making a good decision. in the end, i had to accept that no matter how much i wanted to hold onto dan, that the facts were that: a. he was saying he needed to bow out and b. by the agreements we all had made, because yes, we all sat down and talked about our mutual relationships, i was allowed to stay with jason without guilt. that, in fact, it would be wrong of me to leave jason purely because of fact a. jason had nothing to do with dan's needs. jason wasn't to be punished because dan and i couldn't handle poly.
it was a hard decision, and one that i'm still getting used to, but at least now, to a certain extent, i can talk about it without going into an unhappy place.
and we're almost up to the present...
so about two weeks ago, i had a cold. normal sniffles, sore throat, typical thing. it went away for a couple of days, and then i noticed that the sore throat was kind of lingering. in fact, after a few more days, the sore throat was worse than it had been before. by last friday, i couldn't sleep through the night because of the pain.
saturday, i went to the clinic at the hospital across the sleep, and procured me a 'script for some penicillin. today it's five days later, and i'm still not sleeping well, though the pain is considerably less. i'm on a steady regimen of penicillin and ibuprofen, and am looking forward to the day when i can get a good night's sleep. seemed to be getting better, but then last night, i woke up at 4am with my throat swollen and in incredible pain, so the gods only know where i am in terms of recovery. i've got five more days of penicillin, and hope to be feeling better by the end of that.
needless to say, i've been out of work all week, and not too fond of the telephone lately either. i feel for keishigomu, though i know what she's going through is much worse. more than once i've wished for a new throat in the past few days, and i'm sure she's felt the same.
as a result, the holidays are going to be *really* low key for me. i'm kind of sad, no special nummy food, but i'd rather not make people sick, so... we'll get by.
once i'm feeling better and back at work, i'll try and get together gifts, but they will be late. i apologize for that, but it's been one hell of a month.
*hugs* to you all, and hopefully i'll write again before another 4 weeks pass.
*shakes finger at herself* bad kitten.
so, here it is, moments to the holidays, and i've four weeks' work of stuff to catch y'all up on.
well, three weeks ago, i started my job. job! whee! yay for income! i actually kind of like my job. i'm working (as a temp) for a company called Perfect World, who does free MMORPGS. they be based in china, and are trying to get their stuff out to an international market by translating their games into english. you can check out their website if you're really interested. anyway, i'm helping with the english translation, of course not directly from chinese (that would be too easy) but from very bad english translations of chinese (i'd put up a hilarious example here if i didn't think it would violate some term of my contract). anywho, not too bad, though staring at excel sheets is pain and having little to no direction most of the time is very frustrating.
OH WELL. 'TIS A JOB.
turns out it's right down the road from where i grew up, too. yes, my parents house is now closer to where i work than my apartment in san jose. irony at its best. the nice thing is that i actually know the area as a result (it's right near Oracle - I'm sure you can google maps them or something) and can somewhat entertain myself during my 2 hr or more commute by thinking of locales nostalgically. i also like to believe that someday i'll bring a camera with me in the morning and take fuck tons of photos of all the birds that inhabit the estuary right by my work. i try my best to enjoy it and think of the enjoyment rah_bop would get out of it, but occasionally i really wish that the geese wouldn't shit all over my path. because walking around geese shit is one thing, walking along the path at night quickly to catch the last shuttle is something else completely.
i'm working with four other guys, two of which have experience testing, and two that don't. the two that don't are both asian, and have become our "bill and ted" or "hiro and ando", if you get the drift. they just bounce off each other all day. i sit next to one of the duo and chris(tian), who saves my ass repeatedly by not laughing in my face when i ask dumb questions (like, how do i fscking change the camera angle?? after 2 weeks of working there, i did not know this. so stupid, i feel). john, the other experienced tester, sits on the other side of the duo, making verbal communication with him difficult. (we all sit in a line for some stupid reason)
there are two guys who are also temps (for the longest time i thought they were perms) who sit on the other side of the isle, who helps us out based on their experience localizing Perfect World. they alternately mock and pity us. our game is like 15% translated, at best. theirs was 90% translated when they started working on it. their names are chris(topher) and joseph. joseph is definitely the oldest person in the entire area, and has volunteered that he's been married and now divorced twice. christopher i'm pretty sure is still hitting on me in that somewhat lecherous way despite my multiple drops of having a boyfriend. nice, but creepy. creepy, but nice. you never know with tester guys.
eric is in charge of the new project that is being translated, while clifton is in charge of joseph and christopher. derrick is in charge of all of our souls and pretty much anything testing related, plus dealing with china. derrick is overworked. eric has only about a week more experience than any of his charges, and doesn't know wtf he's doing. clifton is relatively quiet except to settle things between joseph and christopher.
christian and i have been getting along well (he has a girlfriend and goes to school, a double + for guys working as testers, who typically have/do neither) and he's gotten along with the duo, so we all usually play brawl at breaks. i've been out to lunch with the duo + christian and also a wider group of testers (who don't sit in our area) with joseph, christopher, clifton, and john. all in all, they seem like good folks.
i am, if it hasn't become obvious already, the only girl tester.
there are female workers at PW, but they are not in testing. they are also all (with the exception of HR) asian women. sweet, and i think they feel sorry for me. they are constantly asking me if i need help with anything. i just smile and do my thing.
SO. that's work.
whee. there's been a lot of reasons i didn't write about this, though i really wanted to, and i'm still conflicted even now, but, to hell with it, you all deserve to know what's up, and i might as well have it written down somewhere, for posterity's sake.
remember my little freak out about dating a guy named Dan while also being with Jason? the whole, polyamoury thing? well, that's over now. i'm just with Jason, and that's probably the way it's going to stay for quite some time.
whether there was anything that could be done on my part or not is difficult to say. i, of course, with my overdeveloped sense of responsibility, like to believe that i could have made things work, could have done things differently or better. but what has passed has passed, and i've taken what i can from the experience. i now know a lot more about poly and about myself.
in the end, it came down to (from my perspective 100%) the fact that Dan isn't cut out for poly, and so was very jealous of me and Jason. totally okay. there's a lot of other side-stuff that came into play, and no small amount of misunderstanding that occurred which i'm still hurt about, but that's what happens in just about any relationship, ne?
i loved being with dan. he was a very easy-going type of guy, and i hope that somehow, we can hold onto the friendship we had. he was and still is a very important person to me.
for the few of you privy to the more intense moments around that time, yes, i was in a crisis as to whether or not to be with jason, with dan, or with neither. i did a lot of thinking (and not a lot of sleeping) and talked with my dear dear friend eagleofmeaux to make sure that i was making a good decision. in the end, i had to accept that no matter how much i wanted to hold onto dan, that the facts were that: a. he was saying he needed to bow out and b. by the agreements we all had made, because yes, we all sat down and talked about our mutual relationships, i was allowed to stay with jason without guilt. that, in fact, it would be wrong of me to leave jason purely because of fact a. jason had nothing to do with dan's needs. jason wasn't to be punished because dan and i couldn't handle poly.
it was a hard decision, and one that i'm still getting used to, but at least now, to a certain extent, i can talk about it without going into an unhappy place.
and we're almost up to the present...
so about two weeks ago, i had a cold. normal sniffles, sore throat, typical thing. it went away for a couple of days, and then i noticed that the sore throat was kind of lingering. in fact, after a few more days, the sore throat was worse than it had been before. by last friday, i couldn't sleep through the night because of the pain.
saturday, i went to the clinic at the hospital across the sleep, and procured me a 'script for some penicillin. today it's five days later, and i'm still not sleeping well, though the pain is considerably less. i'm on a steady regimen of penicillin and ibuprofen, and am looking forward to the day when i can get a good night's sleep. seemed to be getting better, but then last night, i woke up at 4am with my throat swollen and in incredible pain, so the gods only know where i am in terms of recovery. i've got five more days of penicillin, and hope to be feeling better by the end of that.
needless to say, i've been out of work all week, and not too fond of the telephone lately either. i feel for keishigomu, though i know what she's going through is much worse. more than once i've wished for a new throat in the past few days, and i'm sure she's felt the same.
as a result, the holidays are going to be *really* low key for me. i'm kind of sad, no special nummy food, but i'd rather not make people sick, so... we'll get by.
once i'm feeling better and back at work, i'll try and get together gifts, but they will be late. i apologize for that, but it's been one hell of a month.
*hugs* to you all, and hopefully i'll write again before another 4 weeks pass.