work « ((little fat notebook))

Posts Tagged ‘work’

Tide of change

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: future, observation, work

01 October 2011

So much has changed at work in the past couple of weeks – the call center people moved to a new office, a couple of people left, and we had some major changes with an important client I work with. It feels like a season of change or maybe even growing pains that we are experiencing and the office is a lot quieter now! I’m reminded of when I first started, when there were just about a dozen of us.

I am also the only full-time girl left in the office again. It can definitely get lonely at times and the constant ESPN playing on our TVs is a reminder of the disparity in gender. I don’t usually mind though, since I’m used to environments dominated by men… JROTC & ROTC, film crews, and the financial industry, to name a few. In fact, not too far into the future I will be at yet another one: business school!

Overall it’s the sudden drop lack of talking in the office and the extra empty space that has changed the vibe, so I’m looking forward to a good bonding session at the upcoming company social this week. The tide seems to have changed around here, ushering a new era for us! I think that may also mean a shift in my focus at work, so hopefully that turns into plenty of learning and growth.

Online again!

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: experiences, internet, opinion, work

26 September 2011

Wow, I’m sitting here in the room, with internet on my laptop! Yeah, I know, that sounds so mundane and even expected, doesn’t it? Well, it’s not after a month of only having access to the world wide web via my phone. The open signal at my apartment went away and after a couple of weeks trying to get around it, spending time at Whole Foods, staying late at work, and even waiting in line at the business center for their computers, I’ve decided that this is a luxury that I can and should get. After all, I’ve saved 8 months worth of internet service fees already!

Awhile back, some of my coworkers introduced me to Clear, so I began to research that in depth, since I really liked the idea of having portable internet (I thought about tethering my phone, but it cost too much for too little bandwidth). After thinking about it and teetering between yes and no, I finally decided to see if I could get a modem for cheap on eBay. Much to my surprise, as I was following a modem & router combo to see what kind of price I could get it at, I came across a banner ad for a FREE one! This definitely peaked my interest, so I clicked on through and found an amazing deal: free modem-router ($120 value), free activation fee ($35 value), and free first month’s service ($45 value)!

Granted, I did have to sign a 2-year contract, but that’s pretty fair and I don’t mind it since I can bring the internet with me when I move. The only thing I wasn’t crazy about was that I was not given an option for the $35 plan, which is slower, but cheaper. However, I called up their sales guys and was told that I can downgrade from the $45/month to the $35/month plan without a fee. I sure hope he didn’t give me misinformation, but if that’s the case I’ll just change my plan later on! I really doubt I’d need the super fast internet speed, so why pay $10 more a month? That adds up fast to $240 throughout the course of my contract!

Oh wait, but I’m getting ahead of myself… right now I’m enjoying some free internet at Panda’s hotel room and it feels so strange after so many nights of not being to get online with my laptop! I did receive my Clear device today and I’m really excited, but since I have internet for now, I don’t want to turn it on and activate it until I need it this weekend. I can’t wait to try it out though! I’ve heard great things, especially from our IT guy at work and he should know, right? I just hope I can get a decent signal at my place.

Pertinent work

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: future, observation, work

26 August 2011

Recently I’ve found my work experience to be very valuable for a lot of people. Or at least they seem extremely interested in learning more about the details of what I do… I guess doing online work is pretty pertinent to everyone.

It’s really interesting to see how much I do know and have learned! I guess I didn’t realize the depth of my knowledge base until people started asking detailed questions about all aspects of what I do. What’s also great is that our company has such a broad scope that we end up doing a lot of things.

Having a general knowledge of how marketing works in the online world is a useful asset that I’m sure will serve me well in many future endeavors. I’m glad I stumbled upon this industry and have seen many facets of the business. Who knew that a Craigslist listing could get me so far!

Magnetism

laelene Posted in video blog，Tags: fun, observation, science, videos, work

20 July 2011

Having fun with magnets!

magnet power from Mary Qin on Vimeo.

Sendoff

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: experiences, friends, opinion, work

30 June 2011

Well, the time has come. For months, one of my coworkers has been preparing to go off to business school (in China) and today was his official last day. We’ve gone out to lunches, dinners, and even had a little in-house party. We presented him with a cake, a card, a goodie bag, and an iPad! All in all a pretty good sendoff, I’d say. By now all the loose ends are pretty much tied up and his replacement, a friend of his, has been all trained up and is ready to take over his role. Tonight, eight of us joined him at his place for one final shindig to send him off. I’m glad that we got a chance to hang out one more time, since I was getting kind of sad at the end of the work day.

So by this point, all that was left was to spend some quality time with him before he flies off to a faraway land where Facebook and Google don’t exist. Thankfully, we’ve got some techy guys who can set him up with a VPN account so he won’t be completely cut off from the world. After all, he just got a Google+ account and what a shame it would be to set it all up only to never use it!

This time when we left him, it felt right. We’d spent as much time as we could together and got some good old bonding in outside of the office, all of us just friends. It’s the kind of camaraderie I was hoping for when I mentioned potentially setting up happy hour sessions after work. It’s great to get to know my coworkers in a relaxed setting with no time constraints and it’s a pity we don’t do it more often. I hope that it doesn’t always take someone leaving to get us all together. And I hope that we’ll be able to stay in touch as our friend embarks on a new chapter in his life!

Happy hour

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: experiences, friends, opinion, work

17 June 2011

Tonight I went out to dinner with a few coworkers and their friends. Initially, it was supposed to be a happy hour sort of thing, but two of the guys got caught up with work, so we didn’t leave until about 6:30. We were also going to celebrate one guy’s birthday and his pending departure to go to business school. It turned out to be a great meal and it made me wish that our company organized some happy hours for coworkers to spend time together after work.

I have a friend who goes to happy hour with her coworkers nearly every week (or at least has the opportunity to) and I think that’d be a nice thing for my office too. I mean, we do have lunches together pretty frequently, but there’s always a time constraint and people can’t really unwind like they could on a Friday after work. Plus, people seem to bond better over alcohol and the whole nighttime scene makes things feel more intimate. I mentioned this to one of the coworkers who was out with us and he thought it was a good idea as well. Perhaps I’ll try to arrange something and start a new office tradition!

Jumping lessons

laelene Posted in video blog，Tags: amusing, animals, behavior, videos, work

13 June 2011

Between this and helping him off my lap, I’d like to think I trained George to jump. 😛

jump george from Mary Qin on Vimeo.

Back to work

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: experiences, holiday, panda, work

30 May 2011

All too soon the holiday weekend is over and Panda and I are back to our lives so distanced from each other. It was a nice long weekend though, and a welcome break from the hubbub of the daily grind. Today we got to spend the day at the LA Zoo, exploring the various habitats and enjoying the beautiful day. Tomorrow morning he’s off on a plane back to the East Coast and I’ll be in the office not long after. It’s been a great 10 days having him around and I look forward to the next time he’s in town.

If only we had more 3-day weekends! This one has been gloriously long and we got so much done it’s hard to believe it’s only been a few days and not an entire week. I can’t wait for the next one in just over a month. Hopefully I can fly out to see him again at that time and enjoy some more time out east with him. I like the idea of us traveling back and forth to see each other while we’re living and working so far apart. Hey, when you’re young, traveling is a fun perk! I plan on taking advantage of it while I can. Maybe even do a mini vacation to another city while we’re at it.

But for now, tomorrow is the start of a new work week and we have two new interns joining us, so that’ll be cool. I always love a little bit of change and since I hear both are girls, that really helps the male to female ratio in the office. We haven’t had that many women in the office since I’ve been around! I’m looking forward to it.

Long weekends

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: holiday, observation, opinion, work

27 May 2011

It’s amazing how quiet things are in the office the day leading up to a long weekend. People are so eager to finish the day early that not much gets done, which sort of perpetuates the whole situation. After all, why stick around when you’ve finished up your work for the week? And so it goes, usually with no more than a half day’s worth of work accomplished before everyone packs up and heads out. Unfortunately for me, I do my weekly reports on Fridays and they always take up quite a bit of time. Many a time I’ve been the last one left on a Friday night and today I was determined to not let that happen again.

Thankfully, I didn’t have too much work to do besides the report, which takes about 3-4 hours to compile. It didn’t help that our CTO brought in a Justin Bieber DVD to play, which was at once annoying and distracting. I can only handle so much tween screaming before getting a major headache! I was relieved when that was finally over and I was nearing the end of my report. It was almost 4 PM and there was light at the end of the tunnel!

Ah, American holidays. It’s so rewarding to get a long weekend to recoup after months of the daily grind. I’ve hardly even gotten to rest on the weekends since there’s just so much to do. Hopefully I can catch up on some rest this weekend, what with no GMAT class or events to attend. Still, Panda’s in town so I want to do some things with him and of course we want to try to meet up with some friends before he jets off again. I’m glad we have the extra time!

George

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: animals, pictures, work

12 April 2011

We have a new puppy in the office and he is adorable! It’s super hard to get him to sit still for a picture though. I’d totally love to have a puppy like him.