Transparent Dangling Carrots

So I’ve bene thinking about Gord’s blog entry about promising himself a Nintendo DS if he meets his weight goal.

Now, I have really shitty willpower. Always have. If I want something (and it’s something I can actually do/get/have) then I know I’ll do/get/have it, regardless of whether or not I do whatever it is I’m supposed to do before I “allow” myself to get/do/have the thing.

So I got to thinking. What could I promise myself that would actually make me follow through for once?

At this point “the wedding” isn’t a good enough motivator. It’s still 6 months away, and it’s not something I can really focus on right now due to school work and final exams (ever!) coming up the week after next. A 6-month long goal is just too long for me right now.

So… what could I offer?

If I had a job, I’d know in a second that I’d bribe myslf with a nice trip to Vegas. Damn, how I really wanna go with you guys.
But I have no job, and thus no money, so a $1000+ trip isn’t something I can offer myself. (C’mon job!!)

So I was thinking maybe a corset. Like, a real corset, with real steel boning and proper lacing (not crappy plastic boning with ribbon laces like you’d get at Victoria’s Secret). Maybe something like this, though perhaps in a nice brocade. Something for outerwear, not underwear.

EDIT: And no, this isn’t some weird, convoluted April Fool’s Day joke. I forgot it was April Fool’s Day. D’oh!

Job Hunt Update

After sending out dozens of resumes (ok, probably only around 35-ish) I finally might have an interview. Emphasis on might, but hey, it’s the most response I’ve gotten so far. And it wasn’t even from a resume I sent out, it was from a placement agency (the kind companies hire to find good employees, not the kind that people go to to find jobs) that found me through Monster.ca

Anyone ever hear of Wheatley, Ontario?

Me neither.

It’s a teeny-weenie little town right near the most southern point in Ontario. 1700 people.
It’s about a 1/2 hour away from Windsor and that surrounding area. Frikkin’ far away from everything else except the States.
Apparently, they are known for their fish. Yay.

Anyway, this company called Omstead (“I get it!”) which I can only assume is a play on “homestead” (“Oh, now I get it!”) is looking for a Development Technican. Entry level, working with their frozen food products.

Blargh.
But since it’s the first company that’s expresses any interest in me beyond “we’ll keep your resume on file for up to 1 year”, I hope they give me an interview. I also hope it actually involves real lab work, since the lady at the agency doesn’t have full details of the job. The next issue would be finding a job for Josh in the area. For your viewing pleasure, I give you the Yellow Pages entries for Wheatley. There are 5. Yes, 5. (I will assume some are missing, since this Omstead place doesn’t show up on there, and their address is definitely in Wheatley). But still. It’s funny.

Google Knows I Exist!

Woo! My site, caitlin-brown.com now comes up third on a Google search for my name! ^_^

Before, if you searched for me, anything actually by me was burried in a mountain of Julie Caitlin Brown stuff.

Didn’t take as long as I thought, either. Cool.

Now, to actually find time to write the tutorials people are asking me for…
(on that note, if anyone has anything like a tutorial they want up on C-B.com for some reason, let me know)

LFG!

Who’s (still) in the Guelph area this weekend? Wanna come keep me company at GryphCon?

It’s the gaming convention put on by the Univeraity of Guelph Games Club, this weekend March 3-5. It has potential to suck (avg 100-200 people) but this year it’s free for vendors. I can afford free, and I’m poor and need sales. Even a few.

Anyway, my roommates are out of town skiing all weekend, and Josh was just here last week (and I can’t pick him up myself since I’ll need to be at the University and bus fare + taxi to London bus station is kinda expensive >_<), and I've got no one to sit with me. :( I don't expect the booth to be very busy, especially while the various games are actually running but it would be nice to talk to someone this weekend, rather than sitting at a table by myself with nothing to do but study (and really, there's only so much studying I can force myself to do in one weekend when there's not an exam on Monday). Come seeeeee meeeeeee!

Winter Wonderland

In Kincardine now.
The drive was kinda shitty; the usual “blowing and drifting snow” across the highways. Otherwise roads were clear, until we got to Amberly where Highway 21 was completely closed. Flashing lights and everything.
So we took Lake Range Road into town. I’ve never gone that way before. Yay me!

Anyway, here for the weekend. Gonna see the play my mom’s in, and visit with my wedding decorator ’cause she wants to meet. I’m desperately trying to think up decoration ideas before the Sunday meeting. I honestly haven’t thought about it, and frankly probably won’t seriously think about it until at least after I graduate. :p I just don’t have the time to spend thinking about something so far away when I need to focus on graduating and getting a job now

New Layout for Raspberry Paws

Raspberry Paws finally has a new layout! It’s not the ultra-personalized one I’ve always wanted (which did involve both kitten feet and raspberries, incidently), but you’ll notice in the past year that has not been forthcoming. Maybe someday, but until then I at least have a nice looking layout for my blog. I like this one. ^_^ Though if you’ve been keeping track, all of my websites have been green lately. Oh well. Partially because I like greens, but also because two of them use the same OS layout.

I think the wedding.raspberrypaws.com wedding site will eventually be swapped over to purples to match the wedding colours, but I haven’t had time to do that yet either. Those things called “school” and “working to pay rent” keep getting in the way.

I did manage to add-in the new “mood” feature to this layout. The default place for moods to appear is below the time posted, so I had to both move it and make it appear where it does without going in front of/behind the post text. It worked out, so yay! If you’re wondering, no, I didn’t draw those (I wish), it’s just a free mood set.

As always, if anyone’s browser has a problem with this layout, or antyhing else, please let me know. Though I think this one should render properly on both Firefox and IE.

Jobs Jobs Jobs!

Hey, does anyone know if the Maple Leaf plant in Kitchener is a good place to work?
I just applied for two jobs there, a Microbiology Lab Technician and a Quality Control Technician. The Micro Lab one sounds like exactly what I want to do as a career, so of course the shift is Thurs – Mon and the “weekend” would be Tues/Wed. Oh well, the job part sounds super.

Just wondering if anyone has heard anything about them, employer-wise. Anyone around here know anyone who works there or anything?

I also applied for a job with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. Yay for food microbiology! The job’s in Ottawa, and while I’d rather stay in the Tri-City area for now, the starting salary is $60,000 to $78,000 (depending on experience, of course, and I at least have 1 year more than “none”). Doing the job I want, and getting paid almost 3 times as much as I’ve ever been paid before? Hell yes I’d move to Ottawa for that! ^_^ I also submit my resume to their “biologist pool” here for the CFIA location in Guelph.