I’m thankful for…

• my family that love and support me.
• my friends that make me happy.
• my best friend who I enjoy talking and listening to almost everyday.
• my independence for the last 2 years.
• my job that I absolutely love and enjoy doing.
• my apartment that I have slowly but steadily furnished.
• the CTA for providing me with transportation everyday.
• my laptop for without it, I’d be lost!
• CSS3, jQuery, Ubuntu, Chrome, VLC, and Eclipse (to satisfy my inner computer nerd).
• Tumblr for providing me with hours and hours of enjoyment and distractions.
• Netflix and its instant streaming for providing me with hours of television to watch.
• Joss Whedon for Buffy, Firefly, Dr. Horrible, and Dollhouse.
• my newfound love for free movie screenings.
• J.K. Rowling for HARRY FREAKIN’ POTTER.
• the finale of Lost.
• Schubas and Lincoln Hall for having lots of awesome shows.
• Chicago Comics for being my local comic book shop.
• Fables and The Walking Dead for being consistently entertaining comics.
• relationships; even though they can be turbulent, they still provide lots of good memories.
• the city of Chicago for being a wonderful place and giving me a home.

What are you thankful for?

Sorry about that.

You know the usual excuses: work, life, laziness, etc… I’ve been more dedicated to microblogging; posting on my tumblr and twitter. Also, my readership has increased by like 2… and they’re from work. And that makes me a bit more wary about the personal stuff I post online, even though they’re pretty cool about most things.

So updates: work has been awesome, joined a softball team in the spring, had a fun summer, had an AWESOME birthday, and most recently been starting to go to movie screenings. I also met a girl… but I don’t think it’d be appropriate to blog about that right now.

I decided to finally update the site theme as well as make this post. I’ve been really lazy about updating this site, and my friend really berates me for it. So here you go: one new blog entry!

I have some draft posts actually with only one or two really interesting ones. I’ll try to post and write more, especially with what’s going on in my life. Until then, thanks for sticking around!

So I guess I should probably check in with how life is going! Pretty exciting, I should say for the most part.

First and foremost: I got my own apartment! This was back in the beginning of October actually. Such a momentous occasion should have merited a blog post almost immediately, but again, I was just so damn busy with settling in and work. It’s a one-bedroom apartment in a building that was previously a brewery. The layout of the building is a bit awkward because of the conversion, but the place isn’t too shabby. I don’t have much furniture: a mattress and a chair. The living room is a very barren place. -_- I’m still saving up for a trip to IKEA or something. Maybe I should just check craigslist. That’s actually how I found both my job and apartment… so why not?

Also, a couple days ago, I was finally offered a full time position at work! YESSSssss!!!!! I’m very happy there, and the new position will be giving me more development experience that I’ve been wanting for a while now. AND I’ll be getting a nicer salary! AND BENEFITS! Oh, how I missed you, health, dental, and vision coverage… So yeah, looks like things are starting to take off!

I’m quite proud of myself for getting this far on my own. Independence is awesome. Also knowing that I accomplished this on my own merits and abilities makes it all the sweeter. But again, a HUGE BIG GIGANTIC thank you to my cousin and her boyfriend for letting me stay at their place while I looked for a job and my own apartment. I seriously wouldn’t have had this awesome opportunity without their generosity and support. I took a risk leaving my last job and coming here to Chicago, but I’m very glad I made it. There were many reasons for wanting to leave, and perhaps I’ll share them here one day, but let’s not dwell on the past, hm?

And just because I got a sweet job and my own apartment doesn’t mean I can slack off! My New Year’s resolution: Go to the gym and get back in shape! Yeah, that’s such a typical resolution, but now I actually do have time and money go, so no more excuses! And I also saw a friend over the holiday break who’s been hitting the gym like crazy—and she is looking GREAT. I’m quite motivated by that actually, so I have a LOT of catching up to do. So come next week, I’ll stop by the gym around my neighborhood and check it out. I got one more resolution, but I’ll post about that later…

Have a safe and happy new year! Hope you had a great 2009, and that the next year will bring you more happiness than the last!

I woke up a bit late this morning.

I skip the shower.

I brush my teeth and wash my face.

I change and head outside.

It’s cold outside. It feels like winter is upon us.

I go to Potbelly’s for my morning bagel. They are out of bagels. I leave and go upstairs to work.

In my cubicle, I work on completing my project.

I chat with some friends in between. I miss them.

I almost miss lunch again. I get Potbelly’s. I eat my sandwich and read my book. I go back to work.

My project is finished. I work on the next one. It involves Ruby. It was a bit of a brain buster. I figure out a vital function. I leave the rest for tomorrow.

I leave and head out to the bus stop on Dearborn and Jackson.

I take the bus north to the Newberry Library. The author of The Time Traveler’s Wife is doing a reading from her new book, Her Fearful Symmetry.

I get in line with my copy of her new book. The lady in front of me has one copy. She wants to get another copy. She asks me to save her spot. I do. She leaves and gets another copy. She comes back.

She soon changes her mind and wants a third copy. She asks me to save her spot. She leaves and gets another copy. She comes back.

I pay for the book. I find a seat in the room. I’m early, so I read The Time Traveler’s Wife some more.

Audrey Niffenegger soon comes. She reads the first chapter. SPOILER: The main character dies in the first chapter.

She does a Q & A. One question is if she follows a writing regiment like Stephen King. Her answer, “Stephen King is a real writer.” LOL. I want to ask her a question, “Was there anything you cut out or rewrote in Time Traveler’s Wife?” I’m not sure if it’s polite to ask such a question, so I don’t ask it.

Another question is what’s her favorite book. She makes a ‘book club recommendation:’ Was by Geoff Ryman. I like anything Oz related, so I wrote it down to add to my list.

Afterwards, I get my copy of Time Traveler’s Wife and Her Tearful Symmetry signed by Ms. Niffenegger. I’m all giddy cuz I get easily starstruck.

I take the bus back home.

I make pizza on naan bread. It is yummy.

Then I write a new blog post. It goes like this…

When people ask me, “What do you do?” I usually respond, “I’m a producer for a website.” It’s basically a site for visitors to search for a home or property to buy. As a producer, I help a lot more with the front end stuff, working with HTML and CSS. Lately, I’ve gotten some extra projects that involve javascript and ruby, which has been a blast to work with. I do some basic coding and not any major programming, but I’ve been really happy working there. This is stuff that I usually did in my spare time during college and my last few jobs. I’m kind of psyched that all that work and learning I put in on my own time has finally paid off. And this job offers me new stuff to learn as well as the opportunity to sharpen my skills.

So yeah, I love coming to work. The people here are awesome. The environment is pretty lax; I love wearing jeans to work. Currently, I have a 10 minute walk to and from work, but that’ll change once I move to my own place. Work may be farther from my new place, but I think I’ll love the area that I’m moving to. And I’ve also grown to love working on an actual ‘product.’ This is a site that millions of users utilize, and it feels great to know that I’m putting something into that. It almost feels like something I’m a part of helping to create. If I could, I would work on websites as my career… Google, I’m looking at you!

It’s a great job. The only downside is that it’s a contract job. They’ve extended it, which was really awesome. But I would really like to be there full time with benefits. However, I’ve been getting more and more projects that are a bit outside of the scope of the original role they intended. So hopefully working on these projects will show them how much value I can add to the team. Keepin’ those fingers crossed.

So, yeah, I’m finding it a bit more difficult to figure out what it to write about. Looking back at old posts about 2 years ago, when my blogging frequency was up to almost 5x a week, I put up little blurbs like youtube videos or pics, etc. But I do that with my tumblr now. And then I used to write a little bit more in-depth posts with more substance. And then I moved to Chicago. And the posts kept coming later and later…

I can probably attribute the lack of posts to my job hunt, then my new job, and then the apartment hunt. I was fully focused on those goals, but still microblogging in between.

And now things are coming along more swimmingly. I got a job. I’m doing pretty well in it, and I’m really happy doing what I’m doing. And I also signed a lease for an apartment! This was about a week ago, so I haven’t exactly moved in yet. I’m really really excited about living in my own place for once. I am pretty sure this will be the first time I’ve ever lived alone by myself. I’ve either lived at home with family or at school with roommates. I felt like a total scrub. >:(

But I’ve gotten a surge of freedom and independence since I came to Chicago, and now I look forward to the next step as I move out of my cousin’s closet (yeah, did I mention that? I live in a CLOSET. LOL) into my own apartment.

Now I just have to figure out how to get the rest of my belongings from Maryland as well as start to furnish the place. My taste style in furniture and home decorating seems to be set in modern/contemporary… which probably equals to spending a lot of $$$. I’ve been collecting ideas on this other tumblr actually.

Cool… now I look forward to writing a new piece tomorrow. And I can’t back out of that now, cuz I am committed to getting back into the blogging scene.

Things have been real busy and chaotic the past month. I thought I’d just post something real quick before the month is up.

Biggest announcement: I got a job! ::does a happy dance:: I start July 1st, and I’ll post more about it then.

In addition to getting back into work this week, I got these things to look forward to:

- Dan and Trav are dropping by Chicago today. Excited to see what shenanigans we’ll be getting into!
- Flying to Maryland for the weekend! It’s July 4th, but also my birthday weekend! I really have no plans this year for it, but I’m really psyched to see friends back home. Still haven’t decided where I want to celebrate, but I’m kind of leaning towards Annapolis right now… we’ll see.

Stay tuned!

First Version

My first iteration of my evolving resume. I just started learning to use GIMP, previously using Microsoft Word to create resumes. The upside is that I can get more creative with my layouts and use more fonts as long as I convert the final file to a PDF. The downside… I feel like it can get way too crowded and busy for HR heads to look at.

I thought it definitely LOOKED way cooler than my previous resumes, which were restricted to less fancy fonts and ::shudder:: “tabled” formats.

I also REALLY liked my last minute inspiration for a “</resume>” tag at the bottom of the page. I had a lot of white space to fill. I initially was thinking of a graphic of some sort that represents me, but I decided that an kind of image would be distracting and just went with a simple text, that being a closing HTML tag noting the “end” of my resume.

Second Version

The second version. I changed the font for the blocked text mostly because I thought it was a bit too small and wouldn’t read well when printed. It would be this version that I started having friends look at to give me their critiques.

Third Version

Started to really flesh out the resume from here. It’s not aligned properly because I went for another layout as you’ll see in the next version.

After some critiques from some friends, I followed a format that worked for them on their resumes. That is, their job history divided up under Experience Headings. I thought this was pretty cool since an HR head sees a LOT of resumes and usually have to skim through them in less than 30 seconds. My job history before was listed chronologically, but it was cluttered and a hiring rep wouldn’t be able to cypher the best details of myself from it.

By using the Experience Headings, I can state 3 of my best attributes that describe me as well as highlight for the hiring rep what they really want to know from a resume.

I had to add 2 more positions to my experience history so I can have a third heading. I had to pretty much pull out my freelance work and school experience, which I think helps since that’s where most of my programming and developing skills came from.

I decided to take out the bullets and go with blocked texts, mostly because it became a pain to align texts with the bullets and also to save some space.

The References section was also taken out because, really, if an employer needs one, they’ll just ask for it despite it being said on my resume or not.

Fourth Version

The current version of my resume that I’m using.

I tweaked the layout a bit. Instead of dividing it into two columns like before, I went for a more row-like format with sub-columns. That way I could fit in more, such as the Objective.

A lot of the experience summaries got rewritten and cut to give just the gist of it all rather than cluttering the whole thing up.

I took out the gray header background to make the resume more printer friendly. While I like a contrasting background, I think it’s more practical to make the resume easier to print and read for more technical head hunters.

Fifth Version

I decided to make a more simple and straightforward version using Word with less fancy fonts and layouts.

It spilled over into a second page, kind of breaking the “One-Page-Only Resume” rule. I think that can be forgiven in some exceptions.

I made this mostly because I figured that some hiring managers read resumes on their blackberries or some portable device. Also, by creating it in Word and then converting it into PDF, I’m able to preserve the actual “text” in the file; meaning that the PDF can actually be “searched” through (Ctrl-F) for keywords.

Before, on GIMP, I saved it as a Postscript (.ps) file and then converted it to a PDF. Unfortunately, you couldn’t really distinguish the “text” with search mechanisms.

And that’s what I got. I’m always looking at my resume to see what it is I could be missing or how I can always improve it. Got any suggestions?

1. I know everyone in the world, so I never need to ask for ID.
2. “I’ll be with you in one moment,” means “Come right up here into my business.”
3. Every bank in the world steals money from its customers, particularly the ones that don’t keep a register.
4. I’m always kidding when I tell people a check is not any good. I’m a good kidder.
5. I know the balance of every account at the bank.
6. I am at the bank just because I feel like it; my window isn’t actually open when I say, “May I help you?”
7. I know everyone’s account number.
8. I know everyone’s address.
9. I don’t understand how banking works.
10. I have to do whatever the person who gave my customer the check said.
11. I don’t know how to count.
12. I don’t know how to add.
13. I don’t know what the date is.
14. I can read everyone’s mind.
15. If I ask for your social, Im trying to steal your identity.
16. I know when every new coin will be arriving.
17. I know how much everyones bills are for the month.
18. We don’t sell stamps.
19. We are just here for fun on most holidays, were not really open. We love when you rub it in.
20. When someone asks how you want your cash back, you are supposed to tell them after you get your money back.
21. Apparently people have different definitions of commercial.
22. Your time is more important than mine. I have no life. When you show up 5 minutes before we close to make 10 deposits or open a new account, we dont mind.
23. Everyone with the Bank name tag is related.
24. I am also your secretary.
25. We love to place holds on your checks for fun, we are the only bank that does it.
26. 13 hours and 10 minutes is not enough time for people to do their business.
27. I am in charge of the never ending popcorn, smarties, and coffee.
28. It is polite to ignore someone when they say hello.
29. It is my fault when someone cuts you in line. I should have been paying attention to you and not your money.
30. I know what a checkingdepositwithdrawal for savings is.
31. Being rude should make me want to help you more.
32. I am not really human, I should not make mistakes.
33. It is okay to go into someones office when their door is shut.
34. I have a secret collection of licenses in my cubby.
35. I cant hear. I need you to ding the bell 5 times in a row.
36. The sign that says Next Window Please is just for decoration.
37. I make people wait on purpose, it’s fun to make them mad.
38. I know everyones pin number to their ATM card.
39. Fraud isn’t real, I should give customers exactly what they want.
40. The coin machine is my favorite thing to do.
41. The bank gives out free poinsettias at Christmas, we order them for you, not the bank. Display only means whatever you want it to mean.
42. Please and Thank You are forbidden words at the bank. We hate to hear them.>
43. Checking and Savings deposit slips are EXACTLY the same, we just like the color pink and wanted to make them more colorful. Marking through the word savings changes the deposit slip completely!
44. When I tell someone the same thing over and over, I’m just doing it for fun. I like to waste my breath.
45. We will break the rules for anybody as long as you gripe for more than 10 minutes.
46. I am a professional coin counter. Even when the machine is broken, I will count the coin for you by hand!
47. I am psychic; when you call I can recognize your voice and pull up your information. My computer is voice activated. It’s that fancy technology we have.
48. You don’t have to tell me that you’ve been with the bank for 50 years… I can tell.
49. Even after 4 years, I am a new teller to anyone who has never seen me before. If I have never met you, I have no idea what Im doing.
50. I make the rules for the banking industry. You can blame everything on me!
51. I’m an idiot.
]]> http://www.battlerobo.com/2009/02/top-50-things-ive-learned-being-a-bank-teller/feed/ 1 http://www.battlerobo.com/2009/02/the-windy-city/ http://www.battlerobo.com/2009/02/the-windy-city/#comments Fri, 06 Feb 2009 04:59:45 +0000 Jay http://www.battlerobo.com/?p=842 Continue reading →]]> Sorry, guys. I know I promised more frequent posts, but you know… was moving and all that. You know, to Chicago.

And it’s awesome! Sure, it gets plenty cold, but I think I prepared for it pretty well. And it’s kind of true: Chicago knows how to handle snow. Maryland and DC: we are wimps. hahaha. Anyway. The train ride was pretty uneventful. The lounge car was nice for a while. I could have been more comfortable in cabin seat, but I think regular coach was okay. Probably wouldn’t do it again. Unless I had a riding buddy. ;P

Roommates are awesome. My cousin and her bf have been most hospitable and I think we’ll get along just fine. They taught me a little bit how to cook, I’m embarrassed to admit. It feels great though–being on my own. I miss everyone back home terribly, but I haven’t felt any regret with my decision. Every time I go out in the city, exploring the area and getting familiar with the streets, it feels like home. The atmosphere here is just perfect for me. It’s the big city feel, but it doesn’t seem too busy or stressful. Exactly the reason why I came here (well partly, but that’s for another day).

Still haven’t gotten a job yet. It’s starting to worry me a little bit, but it hasn’t gotten to the “oh god, I’m stressing out; what am I gonna do?!” point. I’m looking and applied to some places. Hopefully I’ll get something soon.

Been doing plenty of other things, too. I just wanted to drop in a quick update for you guys. More to come. Later.

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