Shorts are apparently now banned from my office. I’m not particularly thrilled about this myself (I’m prone to sweating out of context, like in a snowstorm; yes, it’s happened before. Don’t ask!) with a hot-n-sticky summer in D.C. approaching. I wonder how the other staff and interns will react — or if they will at all — to this sudden change in office culture.

I guess now it’s time to hunt for the elusive clothing species linenus pantus inmysizus (linen pants in my size); most khakis and jeans are too heavy for me to wear in summer. Ooh, or better yet those pants that can convert to shorts for those hot-n-sticky days I’ll be at both the office and the Fruit Stand. Now that I wouldn’t mind so much.

Let the shopping begin. CHARGE!!

• The Secret of Apple Design - Apple, Inc. has made an art of not talking about its products. Fans, journalists, and rumormongers who love it or love to hate it have long had to practice a sort of Kremlinology to gather the merest hints as to what is coming next out of Cupertino.
• Cool business card designs
• Oral sex can cause throat cancer - People who have had more than five oral-sex partners in their lifetime are 250% more likely to have throat cancer than those who do not have oral sex, a new study suggests.

I’m sometimes amazed by how frequently we refer to things by their initials here at work. Earlier, I responded to an email with the following:

OIS was never in the CMS, so this is an FTP thing.

In my last entry, I described meeting Cameron Moll as me having a “rock star moment.” By that, I mean meeting someone famous I admire for whatever reason. This is the good kind of rock star moment, that I of course would like to have more often.

And then, there’s the other kind of rock star moment, where I encounter someone who is either so wholly unpleasant or self-important that keeping my cool and remaining polite becomes that much more difficult. I had one of those tonight. I mention this in case any of you who follow me on twitter wondered what I meant when I tweeted.

11:00 a.m. My office.

Looks like I’m early to work, for once. The desk with the two monitors on is mine.

Photo taken with my camera phone.

The federal government closed two hours ago thanks to Mother Nature. My office follows the government, so when they closed at 2, we closed at 2. I should be at home, baking cookies in my bathrobe, right?

Well… no, not quite.

I’m sitting here in my office waiting on a phone call to find out if I need to head to my second job tonight. I work part-time at a retail location in Bethesda that’s not exactly easy to get to. Naturally, the one night I’m scheduled is the one night we get a winter storm.

Sure, I could have gone home anyway, but it takes me an hour to get home as is from the office, and that’s in dry weather. Then I’d have to turn around and head back out to get to Bethesda, which would take even longer. It’s not worth the time and frustration. If I have to go in — and I’m sure I will — I’d rather the experience be as painless as possible.

At least I’m earning compensatory time, but for some reason, baking cookies in my bathrobe is much more satisfying in lousy weather.

“Hello, I’m a Mac… Specialist.”

About two weeks ago, I got a part time job as a Mac Specialist at the Apple Store in Montgomery Mall. It was a rather long process for a retail job, but I was thrilled to get it.

“We’re gonna set you up for a training class,” the hiring manager told me.

“Cool! Okay.”

“… In Tyson’s Corner.”

Cue the tragic soap opera music.

Just before my office closed for a winter break*, they held their annual Christmas Holiday party. Once again, I wasn’t in attendance — I had a prior engagement.

Regardless of one’s attendance, however, everyone on staff gets a gift at the end of the calendar year. A few years ago, it was a pen. Then a watch the next year. A throw blanket and two extra large coffee mugs — which is, to date, my favorite office haul.

This year? A gym bag and a 32-oz. water bottle.

Is this a hint?

* (HA! The joke was on them — I was already on a winter break.)

Yesterday was my annual review, which I usually dread, but was full of surprises for once. The least of which was the fact that it actually happened on time. We’re not known for having our reviews done on time, much to our union’s chagrin.

My previous reviews weren’t stellar; they mostly focused on my lack of punctuality, pleasant disposition, and the quality of my work. All those factors directly connected to my severe lack of passion for the job, which I found tedious and unchallenging. That all changed when I accepted my current position. (Well, except for the fact that I’m still often tardy.)

Yesterday’s review was overwhelmingly favorable — at times, glowing, even. The positive comments far outweighed the negative ones; the few negatives were really just nitpicks. On top of that, I’m getting a 5% raise, which is a tidy little sum for me.

So, uhh, yeah… go me!

I spent a good chunk of yesterday afternoon setting up a podcast for work. Last month, we started a new MP3 series and there wasn’t a way to subscribe to the series easily without downloading the MP3 files manually.

That was, until yesterday.

When I uploaded the latest MP3 file, I decided to create and upload an XML file to allow people to subscribe to our podcast. This was officially my first foray into podcast creation — sort of. (I don’t create the MP3 files, but I just facilitated subscriptions, which people around here are very happy with. Yay, proactivity!) An article at Podcasting News was quite helpful in getting this done.

Over the last year, I often entertained the idea of creating a podcast of my own, but honestly, I don’t see the need for it right now. What would I do? Cover songs are covered. Tech blatherings are covered, ad nauseum. My life isn’t that terribly interesting enough to justify a regular audiocast. So, why bother?

It’s nice to know, though, that I understand how the XML file works now, and that I could start a podcast, if I wanted to. But I don’t really.

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