RosemaryLong.com

Going to Melbourne to visit Ash soon.

I can’t believe it’s already been three weeks since I started at Comrade. It’s been a whirlwind, but the busy-ness and energy and focus at the company is invigorating. In my first week I pushed out a website, a push page (HTML email template), did some Flash updates, and a couple of estimates. Adding to that list, since I started:

• Two more push pages for different clients
• Half a website (functionality client demo, next week is making it look sexy)
• Another half-website for a different client (lots of multitasking here)
• Plans for our company site redesign (no, it’s not a common thing, but I’ve had involvement in redesigns for Critical Mass, Applied Communications, and now Comrade as well)

Culture-wise, I’ve discovered several other areas of a good fit:

• Communal oatmeal (I love oatmeal)
• During my tour I noticed a couple of bottles of unopened gin. Today while looking for peanut butter I found some vodka, and this afternoon I was shown the beer fridge.
• There is a Dreamcast, Wii, and Neo Geo in our lounge. We have DDR dance pads and Rock Band guitars and drums downstairs.
• The company summer event includes an overnight stay at Kicking Horse, BBQ and rafting, but the part that makes me the most proud is a day’s worth of volunteering at the Mustard Seed.
• Shared Japanese snacks!
• Fun with action figures (I’ve been reassured that HR policies are pretty lenient and I can be my usual NSFW self. Won’t do it right away though.)
• Everyone’s friendliness, honesty, willingness to collaborate, and drive to push out great work. We had a brainstorming session and it was inspiring and good-kind-challenging to hear aspirations of getting a Webby.

I’m even getting used to the tiny spoons that make me feel like an ogre whenever I use them!

Some vice triggers that I’m making a list right here to avoid overdoing include:

• Starbucks everywhere! When they open a DeVille across the street I’m going to have to exercise my strongest discipline.
• Manuel Latruwe and Bernard Callebaut also in walking distance.
• Aforementioned bottles of my preferred spirits.
• Sushi a block away too! They have amazing lunch specials for $9.50 or $10.50 and the food is really fresh and artfully prepared.

All in all, I really feel at home in my new position already. With our lunches out, outing to see Star Trek, and close-quartered collaborative work style it sometimes surprises me that it hasn’t even been a full month yet. Here’s to another two weeks of great work before I go to Australia to visit Ash and come back forgetting how to do simple tasks such as remembering my name.

Back in the day, someone who managed websites was called a webmaster. Being a girl in a mainly male-dominated world I tried to distinguish myself by identifying as a webmistress. Today I put my powers to good use in attempting to aid Mistress Matisse. Totally a highlight of my career if my efforts are worthy enough to be helpful.

I couldn’t help but snicker when I saw the word “bottom” in the code. Maybe our worlds aren’t too different.

Yup, I was kind of cranky in my last post because I felt obligated to write a post about my job transition. When I got the offer I wanted to tell everyone of course, but I hadn’t given my notice in yet. On my last day I was in no condition to blog, and I enjoyed most of my weekend computer-free. I’m going to be easier on myself this time and I’ll do point form notes, whee!

• Super excited to start my day, wore my spirit on a shirt given as a gift from a friend.
• So excited, I was at the train station 20 minutes early.
• Train trouble getting downtown meant lots of delays, and after it cleared up there was a passenger medical emergency on the train ahead of me so I had to wait longer. I had to run down 1st St and was 8 minutes late on my first day. (My 20 minute train ride got bloated to an hour long one.)
• Was ready to get busy into work, but was surprised there wasn’t a computer at my desk when I got there.
• I love tearing perforations/peeling stickers/opening things +  I love getting new computers = Highlight: unpacking my new iMac.
• Sushi lunch with the team followed by Starbucks. I could make a habit of this (oh wait, it already is among the other Commies). :)
• Looking forward to pushing out a redesigned site at the end of the week, but enjoying the slower-paced transition period in the meantime.
• Bringing in my DS tomorrow so I can get schooled by Weslie and Debbie. Heh.

I bugged Weslie that he owes me one more job since I got him in at the Learning Commons and Critical Mass and he was one of my references for this job. He pointed out, “But that would mean we’d have to leave Comrade.”

I don’t think that’s happening anytime soon.

Easter dinner with my inlaws is tomorrow, and naturally I volunteered to make a dessert. For Christmas I made a rich and decadent peppermint devil’s food cake, but for Easter I wanted to make something light and springtimey.

I dug up an old recipe from grade eight for a german fruit flan, knowing that even though the procedure was simple (airy cake base, cream cheese filling), I could really have some fun with the fresh fruit topping.

I have three regrets about making this. One, I wish I searched for blueberries, as the color would have really taken the presentation to another level (I currently have peach, mango, strawberry and kiwi on it). Two, I should have remembered my grade eight science classes where we discussed that gelatin plus kiwi equals unset gelatin because of enzymes in the kiwi. Regret number three is a selfish one. I should have filled a ramekin with the batter and made myself a mini flan. Waiting until tomorrow’s dinner is going to be torture.