Women's Sci Fi Fan Club and Sewing Circle

[AsIs]

*hugs Pollymath* Great to see you here!

And ProfBrat, I got the book, since it is going to snow for three days and I won't be going anywhere, I should finish it soon.

[absom4]

Snow! Three days? I spent the afternoon under the Banyan trees in the park. 78 degrees and a lovely breeze. Bet you'd love to throw a pie my way right now.

[This message has been edited by absom4 (edited March 03, 2001).]

[This message has been edited by absom4 (edited March 03, 2001).]

[absom4]

I have'nt been here for a while and can't seem to get the smilies to work. Help,please.

[Erythrina]

Absom honey, see that "smilies legend" over to the left under "Your Reply?"

Smile is the colon paired with a right parenthesis --

Try it and soon you too will be a cool dude





------------------
The Red Witch
True Names by Vernor Vinge
[email protected]

[MightyLady77]

Hello, Folks.

Just reporting in. I've been out of touch a while. Check the Sewing Circle at SFV to catch the run-down.

I'll be stopping in here as well as Community Zero. I don't want to lose touch.

More later, kids.

------------------
Somebody should have labeled the future 'Some assembly required.'

[Lyta Alexander]

Welcome again MightyLady.

[absom4]

That's what I've been doing all along and the darn smilie still wont work . Funny, it always worked before.

[sindatur]

Hi Absom,

Do you by chance have the "Disable Smiles in this Post" box checked under "options" on the reply box when you go to make a post.

[AsIs]

Make sure you don't select disable smilies in this post, it is right above show signature.

; ) without the space is a wink

And : ) without the space is a smile

[MightyLady77]

Since SFV is down, here's a copy of my post at the Sewing Circle there. Hope it fits! Is there a character limit here?

>>Greetings and salutations, Everyone.

Sorry I've been absent for so long. And I can't even claim lack of time this time. So... let me launch into the litany of sorrow (tongue-in-cheek grin).

As of February 9th, I was laid off from my wonderful engineering job. It had become very stressful but, still, I didn't want it to end. Three weeks before I was laid off I was "promoted" from product engineer to Kaizen engineer. For those of you not into professional buzzwords, Kaizen is a fancy, Japanese way of saying "continuous improvement."

While I had a very good background for product engineering, I was unprepared to be a Kaizen engineer. My strength lies in an ability to follow details forever. I can dovetail specs, procedures, work instructions, customer prints and in-house Bills of Material together to make sure that the end product, be it a single part or a several hundred piece assembly, is as it should be to meet or exceed the customer's needs. I am a step-by-step person who slogs through the details.

Kaizen engineering requires a more holistic viewpoint. Continous improvement is easier to implement when one sees the whole process, not just the individual steps in the process. I gave it my best shot and I had an incredibly supportive supervisor--after all, she had lobbied to keep me rather than the engineer who had been with the company for several years and doing the Kaizen engineering since before I was hired. In the long run, though, if I hadn't been laid off I probably would have suffered any number of stress-related illnesses. I was feeling like I was drowning and barely able to keep my head breaking through to catch a gasp of air.

I would have been able to get a handle on the job. I know I'm capable of doing it. I didnt'want that job, though, and not under the conditions at the shop. Everyone was stressed. The corporate "campus" leader terrorized everyone and no one felt safe no matter how good a job they were doing.

To give you the bigger picture, the lay-off I was a part of took the lay-off head count to 126 people since Thanksgiving. So, the business is hurting right now and the lay-offs are needed to keep the business healthy. You can't pay people if you don't have the sales and shipments to put money in the bank. Still, I don't think that the atmosphere at the shop is the best I've seen in similar situations.

So there you have it... I am a member of the ranks of the unemployed...

On to the next item of my personal litany of sorrow. (You didn't think that was the end, did you?)

Four days after being laid off I had my companion of almost 16 years, my adorable fur-mudgeon, my sweet kitty, Fuzzy, put to sleep.

This was not a sudden thing. Fuzzy started having seizures several years ago and I have been giving her daily medication for a while. When the medication wasn't effective the vet would try additional drugs. But in the past few months Fuzzy's poor brain started breaking down at an increasing rate and there were no drugs left to insure the quality of life she deserved. During the last few days of her life she would walk in clock-wise circles, unable to steer herself out of blind alleys and obstacles that she couldn't scale. I had to block off every small opening I could and then she would wander into an area where she got her front paws, shoulders and head through an opening that she was too weak to lift her hind quarters through. I was constantly searching the apartment to find her and set her free again.

As she walked, she seemed unable to stop anymore to eat. I would mash up canned cat food with some water and pick her up in my arms to feed her with a syringe the vet gave me for that purpose. Neither would she lie down to rest. She would walk and walk and walk, always in clock-wise circles. I would pick her up after a while and lie her on her side in her bed so she could rest. During the last few days, I would pick her up and hold her in my lap for hours so that she could sleep.

After a weekend that allowed me to pamper her, allowed Aaron and his dad (who had had her in his life as long as I did) to say good-bye, I took Fuzzy to the vet and he gave her an injection. She was dead in a matter of seconds, her heart stopped quickly and quietly, ending a long life of faithful kitty service and love. (Pause to cry a little and wipe tears.)

After that, my next item seems so trite.

My car died. Almost two weeks ago. As of yesterday, Saturday, it has been resuscitated but I don't trust it. I stalled out at 3 different intersections while driving it home from the garage. This does not give me a warm and fuzzy feeling as I try to make it to job interviews. I need reliable transportation and I no longer trust the Volvo to provide it.

So there it is, Folks. I'm in the market for a new job, a new cat and a new car.

I plan to be fussy about each of them, though. I am making enough on unemployment that I don't have to take just anything to get by.

And, though I miss having a feline companion, I'm not going to scoop up a kitten just yet. Or ever, probably. I will most likely find an adult cat in need of a loving home, either from the newspaper ads or from the local animal shelter.

As to the car, well, I looked at a '90 Camry yesterday. But I really don't fit in small cars designed by small people for small people. So, hopefully, my mechanic is going to have another Volvo wagon for me to try out in the next week or so. Let's hear it for cars designed by Swedes for Swedes... cars that can seat 4 people who are 6 feet tall comfortably!

I know, I know, I'm not 6 feet tall... but I do have longer than usual legs for my 5'6" height and I never seem to fit into oriental cars without feeling like origami. My sister has been loaning me her Elantra and I have to put the seat all the way back, tilt the steering wheel all the way up and still I hit my head getting through the door!

Well, I think that's enough from me for now.


p.s. I did have a job interview on Friday morning and though it's a step back to QC Technician, if offered the job I will take it as the Director of Quality seems genuinely interested in motivating her employees to learn as much as possible. I would have the potential to learn, grow and move. *grin* It helps that I will start out making more than I was making as an engineer!

------------------
MightyLady of the Flame Red Hair
Somebody should have labeled the future 'Some assembly required.'

[This message has been edited by MightyLady77 (edited July 16, 2001).]