For those of you who actually still look at this...

Go here...

I might actually start updating again.

Of Washington and WaMu...

Things have been a bit crazy here the last couple weeks. About three weeks ago, my dad got a call from a company in Seattle saying that a woman he'd worked with at another company had recommended him for a position. They were quite impressed with his resume and were wondering if he'd be available for a phone interview. After the phone interview, they wanted to fly him up to Seattle for lunch and an in-person interview that Monday. He said that he was going to be in Atlanta on a business trip that Monday, but was available the following Monday. That was last week.

So, he flew up to Seattle last Monday, did the interview, and they said he would have a formal offer by the end of the week, if not the next day. He had an offer on his desk by Tuesday afternoon. He accepted a couple days later after negotiating some stuff, and so now we're moving to Seattle. Our house was put on the market Monday and he starts work on August 14th. My mum will be staying down here until the house sells, of course.

Now, for me, I was a bit worried as I've only been with Washington Mutual for three months. Standard policy is that you need to be with the company for six months before they will give you a transfer to another branch. I looked on the website and noticed there were a couple full-time positions open in the area my parents are looking at houses...so, of course, I applied. The recruiter contacted me via email and I explained the situation to her. She said that I should talk to my branch and regional managers to see if an exception could be made for me...especially as I don't really have much choice about moving.

I spoke with my branch manager on Tuesday, explained the situation, told her I'd love to stay in San Diego but just can't afford to live on my own. I said I want to stay with the company and would like to stay down here at least until they found a replacement. If possible, that is. She said she would email our regional manager about it, but was sure our regional would be willing to do everything she could to come up with a solution. I spoke with her yesterday and she said our regional would approve the transfer! She had me fill out one of the employee transfer requests, she and my regional signed it, and faxed it to the recruiter in WA this morning. I just finished a brief phone interview with the recruiter, it went really well I think, and she said she would email her branch manager, then email me with feedback.

Let's all cross our fingers and hope they'll accept the transfer.

Just had to share...

...this video.

Vader Bitch-slap

I suppose...

I should update this thing as I've not done so yet this month. Things have been really busy since my last blog. I've been putting in about 40 hours at work the last couple weeks as we've had people on vacation. I finally filed my taxes, got my returns already (thank goodness for direct-deposit), and blew a chunk of it on fun stuff for myself. A large portion of it went to bills and whatnot, but I got myself a new tat, a new corset, and new shoes. I also bought myself a couple new shirts from Pop Gothic that were on sale, but those aren't nearly as interesting as these. Have I mentioned I love Pleaser? So yeah...Birthday is next month. If you're going to buy me something, buy me some of their shoes. You can get me these, these, these, these, these, these, these, or these.

You can find some of those shoes here and here. If you decide to get me some, I wear a size six. Also, the heels are between 5 1/2 and 6". It will help narrow down the pages of shoes to search through.

That is all.

A Song of Sherwood...

by Alfred Noyes

Sherwood in the twilight, is Robin Hood awake?
Grey and ghostly shadows are gliding through the brake,
Shadows of the dappled deer, dreaming of the morn,
Dreaming of a shadowy man that winds a shadowy horn.

Robin Hood is here again: all his merry thieves
Hear a ghostly bugle-note shivering through the leaves,
Calling as he used to call, faint and far away,
In Sherwood, in Sherwood, about the break of day.

Merry, merry England has kissed the lips of June:
All the wings of fairyland were here beneath the moon,
Like a flight of rose-leaves fluttering in a mist
Of opal and ruby and pearl and amethyst.

Merry, merry England is waking as of old,
With eyes of blither hazel and hair of brighter gold:
For Robin Hood is here again beneath the bursting spray
In Sherwood, in Sherwood, about the break of day.

Love is in the greenwood building him a house
Of wild rose and hawthorn and honeysuckle boughs:
Love is in the greenwood, dawn is in the skies,
And Marian is waiting with a glory in her eyes.

Hark! The dazzled laverock climbs the golden steep!
Marian is waiting: is Robin Hood asleep?
Round the fairy grass-rings frolic elf and fay,
In Sherwood, in Sherwood, about the break of day.

Oberon, Oberon, rake away the gold,
Rake away the red leaves, roll away the mould,
Rake away the gold leaves, roll away the red,
And wake Will Scarlett from his leafy forest bed.

Friar Tuck and Little John are riding down together
With quarter-staff and drinking-can and grey goose-feather.
The dead are coming back again, the years are rolled away
In Sherwood, in Sherwood, about the break of day.

Softly over Sherwood the south wind blows.
All the heart of England his in every rose
Hears across the greenwood the sunny whisper leap,
Sherwood in the red dawn, is Robin Hood asleep?

Hark, the voice of England wakes him as of old
And, shattering the silence with a cry of brighter gold
Bugles in the greenwood echo from the steep,
Sherwood in the red dawn, is Robin Hood asleep?

Where the deer are gliding down the shadowy glen
All across the glades of fern he calls his merry men--
Doublets of the Lincoln green glancing through the May
In Sherwood, in Sherwood, about the break of day--

Calls them and they answer: from aisles of oak and ash
Rings the Follow! Follow! and the boughs begin to crash,
The ferns begin to flutter and the flowers begin to fly,
And through the crimson dawning the robber band goes by.

Robin! Robin! Robin! All his merry thieves
Answer as the bugle-note shivers through the leaves,
Calling as he used to call, faint and far away,
In Sherwood, in Sherwood, about the break of day.

Brief Update...

Firstly, the newest addition to the family:













His name is Koa and he is a 10-month old black lab. He's going to be having surgery for his hip dysplasia on Monday, spend a few days at the vet, then he'll come back home to us. When my parents chose him, they originally stated they wanted to foster with the intent to adopt, but it looks like they don't even really need any time at all to think about it with Koa. They're going to email the head of Lab Rescuers on Monday to tell her they want to keep him. He is a surprisingly mellow dog, especially for one his size. He doesn't jump up, he doesn't bark, he doesn't reek of dog, and, best of all, he doesn't beg. His previous owners did an excellent job instilling basic manners in him.

Anyway, I finally got the plates for my car! w00t! I'll be heading up to Six Flags Magic Mountain with my sister, her Kuuuuba, and meeting some of Kuuuuba's equally retarded friends up there. It should prove to be a most excellent day of much roller-coaster riding. Hopefully I'll remember to take lots of pics this time.

Declaration of Revocation...

To the citizens of the United States of America, in the light of your failure to elect a competent President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective today.

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths and other territories.

Except Utah, which she does not fancy.

Your new Prime Minister (The Right Honourable Tony Blair, MP for the 97.85% of you who have until now been unaware that there is a world outside your borders) will appoint a Minister for America without the need for further elections.

Congress and the Senate will be disbanded.

A questionnaire will be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed. To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

1. You should look up "revocation" in the Oxford English Dictionary. Then look up "aluminium." Check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it.

The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'favour' and 'neighbour'; skipping the letter 'U' is nothing more than laziness on your part. Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters.

You will end your love affair with the letter 'Z' (pronounced 'zed' not 'zee') and the suffix "ize" will be replaced by the suffix "ise."

You will learn that the suffix 'burgh' is pronounced 'burra' e.g. Edinburgh. You are welcome to re-spell Pittsburgh as 'Pittsberg' if you can't cope with correct pronunciation.

Generally, you should raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. Look up “vocabulary." Using the same thirty seven words interspersed with filler noises such as "uhh", "like", and "you know" is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication.

Look up "interspersed."

There will be no more 'bleeps' in the Jerry Springer show. If you're not old enough to cope with bad language then you shouldn't have chat shows. When you learn to develop your vocabulary, then you won't have to use bad language as often.

2. There is no such thing as "US English." We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take account of the reinstated letter 'u' and the elimination of "-ize."

3. You should learn to distinguish the English and Australian accents. It really isn't that hard. English accents are not limited to cockney, upper-class twit or Mancunian (Daphne in Frasier).

You will also have to learn how to understand regional accents --- Scottish dramas such as "Taggart" will no longer be broadcast with subtitles.

While we're talking about regions, you must learn that there is no such place as Devonshire in England. The name of the county is "Devon." If you persist in calling it Devonshire, all American States will become "shires" e.g. Texasshire, Floridashire, Louisianashire.

4. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as the good guys. Hollywood will be required to cast English actors to play English characters.

British sit-coms such as "Men Behaving Badly" or "Red Dwarf" will not be re-cast and watered down for a wishy-washy American audience who can't cope with the humour of occasional political incorrectness.

5. You should relearn your original national anthem, "God Save The Queen", but only after fully carrying out task 1. We would not want you to get confused and give up half way through.

6. You should stop playing American "football." There is only one kind of football. What you refer to as American "football" is not a very good game.

The 2.15% of you who are aware that there is a world outside your borders may have noticed that no one else plays "American" football. You will no longer be allowed to play it, and should instead play proper football.

Initially, it would be best if you played with the girls. It is a difficult game. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which is similar to American "football", but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like nancies).

We are hoping to get together at least a US Rugby sevens side by 2005.

You should stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the 'World Series' for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.15% of you are aware that there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. Instead of baseball, you will be allowed to play a girls' game called "rounders," which is baseball without fancy team strip, oversized gloves, collector cards or hotdogs.

7. You will no longer be allowed to own or carry guns. You will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous in public than a vegetable peeler. Because we don't believe you are sensible enough to handle potentially dangerous items, you will require a permit if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

8. July 4th is no longer a public holiday. November 2nd will be a new national holiday, but only in England. It will be called "Indecisive Day."

9. All American cars are hereby banned. They are crap, and it is for your own good. When we show you German cars, you will understand what we mean.

All road intersections will be replaced with roundabouts. You will start driving on the left with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.

10. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call 'French fries' are not real chips. Fries aren't even French, they are Belgian though 97.85% of you (including the guy who discovered fries while in Europe) are not aware of a country called Belgium. Those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called "crisps." Real chips are thick cut and fried in animal fat. The traditional accompaniment to chips is beer which should be served warm and flat.

Waitresses will be trained to be more aggressive with customers.

11. As a sign of penance 5 grams of sea salt per cup will be added to all tea made within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, this quantity to be doubled for tea made within the city of Boston itself.

12. The cold tasteless stuff you insist on calling "beer" is not actually beer at all, it is lager . From November 1st only proper British Bitter will be referred to as "beer," and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as "Lager." The substances formerly known as "American Beer" will henceforth be referred to as "Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine," with the exception of the product of the American Budweiser company whose product will be referred to as "Weak Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine." This will allow true Budweiser (as manufactured for the last 1000 years in the Czech Republic) to be sold without risk of confusion.

13. From November 10th the UK will harmonise petrol (or "gasoline" as you will be permitted to keep calling it until April 1st 2005) prices with the former USA. The UK will harmonise its prices to those of the former USA and the Former USA will, in return, adopt UK petrol prices (roughly $6/US gallon -- get used to it).

14. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not adult enough to be independent. Guns should only be handled by adults. If you're not adult enough to sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist, then you're not grown up enough to handle a gun.

15. Please tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us crazy.

16. Tax collectors from Her Majesty's Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all revenues due (backdated to 1776).

Thank you for your co-operation.

Goodness...

It appears I've neglected you yet again. Well, I'm working on my second week of actual work, rather than training, which has been quite fun. I totally lucked out as all of my cooworkers, managers included, are fucking awesome. I think I'm really going to like working for Washington Mutual.

Right now I'm working on convincing Kendra to switch from Bank of America over to Washington Mutual as she's been making my starting pay for the last two years. She's qualified to be a manager, but her branch has refused to promote her because they "don't need" new managers. Hopefully, we'll be able to find a branch that can use her that's as close to her apartment as her current job.

Anyway, I got my spiffy new cellphone in the mail last week and I've already downloaded several fun new ringtones. I think I'm going to have to lay off acquiring them or I'll rack up an arm and a leg each month trying to keep up with all the fun ones I think of.

Next I need to find a day Mac and I both have off so we can make another trip to Disneyland as it's prime record-breaking season.

Yoink!

Your Linguistic Profile::

40% General American English

25% Yankee

15% Dixie

10% Upper Midwestern

5% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

WOOHOO!

I'm getting a new cellphone! Gotta love working for a bank that gives you all sorts of discounts on stuffs like that. And don't worry Court, it's going to be a Cingular, so we'll be able to chat all we want free of charge!