Fockets

I made up a new word today...

Focket, n. (fock-it) a word referring to one of those stupid fake pockets sewn into a piece of clothing to trick you into thinking you have a pocket.

14 Women/Glad I voted this year

Today, Best Buy and WoLF (Women's Leadership Forum) sponsored a screening of the independent documentary, 14 Women. Briefly, it is about the 14 (now 16) women that represent our country in the US Senate. It was a look at why they got there, how they got there and how they balance personal life with a never ending job in Washington, DC. The other fun part of the movie was the answers that a group of elemantary school kids had regarding senators, politics and why women might be good at different jobs.

The highlight of the event, however, was a visit by Minnesota Senator, Amy Klobuchar. She was so down to earth and wholesome, like a neighbor or a mom. This year was probably the first year I took any interest in who might be representing me and my state. Like in an old post about the HRC, it seems like the older I get, the more important human rights and other issues are. I voted for Sen. Klobuchar, and tonight I wrote her a letter and thanked her. What she had to say, (and it really wasn't life changing) reinforced my vote and made me proud to say that she represents our state!

Please take a minute to check out the review on this movie and see if you can watch it. You may have a better appreciation for some of the women and men in the Senate.

http://silverdocs.com/festival/films/14-women/

I joined Facebook

So, I was totally holding out on Facebook. In fact, I made fun of some folks for joining it. I finally succummbed to peer pressure from an old High School friend and joined. I feel like a dork. You know what I'm doing now? Messaging people and adding silly stuff to my account. I downloaded some new software and was planning on spending my computer time using that. Instead, I find more totally useless stuff to do on the web.

I must say, I did finish quite a few things on my list this weekend. I even got two coats of joint compound up in our basement hallway. It was SO HOT here this weekend. All of the drywall dust stuck to me. It was really gross.

I was really lonely this weekend, but I had a nice long chat with my friend, Erica. It was so nice to catch up. Dustin will be returning home on Friday! I know this week will go fast as I have lots of things to do!

The Emoticon :)

The emoticon celebrates 25 years by Daniel Lovering Pittsburgh (AP) - It was a serious contribution to the electronic lexicon. :-) Twenty-five years ago, three keystrokes -- a colon followed by a hyphen and a parenthesis -- were first used as a horizontal “smiley face” in a computer message by Carnegie Mellon University professor Scott E. Fahlman, the university said. To mark the anniversary Wednesday, Fahlman and his colleagues are starting an annual student contest for innovation in technology-assisted, person-to-person communication. The Smiley Award, sponsored by Yahoo Inc., carries a $500 cash prize. Language experts say the smiley face and other so-called emoticons, or emotional icons, have given people a concise way of expressing sentiments in e-mail and other electronic messages that otherwise would be difficult to detect. Fahlman posted the emoticon in a message to an online electronic bulletin board at 11:44 a.m. on Sept. 19, 1982, during a discussion about the limits of online humor and how to denote comments meant to be taken lightly.

Motor Trend Secret Photos

Check out this Ford truck my friend and I saw on the way to work last week. They must be road testing it here in the cities...

Maybe I should send them to Motor Trend, although it's probably old news by now...

I kept Believing

So, Apple contacted me and I have a new computer coming, sometime this week. Diana at Apple corporate was very nice and determined that they had spent quite a lot of money shipping me new computers. In fact, not that there was anything wrong with this computer, but I will get a brand spankin' new one with more memory and a bigger processor!!!

IN the meantime, this is what happened the last time I tried to open PhotoShop:


Pretty awesome, huh?

"...Don't stop bel-ieving..."

I really can't stand Journey, but I had, "Don't stop Believing" stuck in my head and I made up some words like, "Don't stop believing that Apple is calling me back..."

Well, they did. Turns out the email I sent to the address that Dustin found online for sjobs@apple.com actually made it to Apple. After finally speaking to the friendly Apple Customer service rep that helped me originally, he informed me that I would be receiving a call from Apple Corporate Customer Service. Hmmm.

Now the waiting game. I'll let you know what I hear.

F*** Richard at Apple Support

Ahhh, blogging again. I must have my computer back, right? Well, kinda. Today, I spent one hour and 40 minutes on the phone with Apple support. I spoke to three operators of which the last I had to finally end the conversation with.

I love Apple, and I will never switch to PC, but I was VERY angry tonight. I missed my block club meeting because I was afraid I would waste another 15 minutes just waiting for an operator tomorrow.

Richard was very rude. In fact, if you ask my opinion, Richard does not live up to Apple values and stand up for the brand that he represents. He pretty much told me that it was my fault I purchased a refurbished computer and I should expect to send it back.

Here is what Apple says about their refurbished products:

Guaranteed Apple quality.

Before we put a pre-owned Mac, iPod, iPhone, or Apple TV up for sale in Special Deals, it undergoes a rigorous refurbishment process to make sure it's up to Apple's tough quality standards. We back it with our standard one-year limited warranty. And you have the option of purchasing an AppleCare Protection Plan for it.

Since I receiving this model of computer as a very generous Christmas gift, I have sent three different computers back before finally accepting the last one. The computer had been having some funny issues. Once a light started to shine out of the headphone jack, I was extremely suspicious. After trying to get Apple to send me a new computer, being the level headed person that I am, I sent it back hoping that it would come back repaired. It didn't.
After about an hour on the phone with two pleasant operators that could not help me. They finally forwarded me to an ESL operator who was not helpful. He was rude and insulting. He tried to manipulate my words. I finally cried. It did not win me a new computer.

I just composed a letter that I will be sending to Apple tomorrow. I am ready for a good sleep.

Vacation Up North

We finally made it "Up North" this summer! (Otherwise known as Horton Bay, MI) Being from Michigan, everybody there knows approximately where "up north" is. Here in MN, people also use that term. Even though they don't refer to the same places, it made me feel at home. My parents were kind enough to let Dustin and I share the cottage with Dustin's brother, his wife and their two kids. It was fun.

I had forgotten what it felt like to decide what time to go to the beach. And that's ok if going to the beach was all that we did. I actually felt relaxed when I came home. And, I had a suntan! It felt SO GOOD!

I'll post some pix shortly, but my niece declared to some small friends she made on the beach that they shouldn't worry because she'd be back next summer!

August WoLF Trip

In August, I had the opportunity to travel to Chicago for the Best Buy WoLF convention. It was Awesome this year! I was in a better frame of mind than last year's event, but on top of that, I thought it was better! I guess I really go out of it that we need to continually learn from adversity. Here is a sample of what I posted from the convention:
"One of the last bits I will add is the new friends I made and the old ones I re-connected with. Our pack added several new members last month due to a decline in our population. All I can say is that I think they are FANTASTIC. I spent a great afternoon getting to know a new member really well. Her number is in my phone already and I know I'll talk to her before the next meeting. I can tell already that our new members will be super engaged and ready to make a difference."


The other thing is that I am starting to meet other folks from around the company who may help me get to where I where I think I might want to be.

I went to several workshops including one about finding my own "brand" and about the Grameen Foundation. (please check them out if you haven't heard of them. It is quite interesting.)

The event left me very energized and I was able to hook up with some acquantinces from Ohio who reminded me that there would always be a place for me there.

Let me know if you'd like to hear more. I really enjoyed it.

New News

Boy, sorry it's been so long. I haven't blogged in a while for two major reasons.
1. My department got mad at me for blogging. Not here, but for the work sponsored site. Since my Wolf event, I haven't blogged there, either. I'm quickly losing the points that show up when you post.

2. I had to send my computer back to Apple. It should come back on Monday.

Point number two is a pretty sore point. I really wanted Apple to send me a new computer. They were very intent on repairing it instead of replacing it. I will never not use Apple, but it did not put much faith into their refurbished products. Dustin and I did, however, put that past us and purchased some more refurbished Apple products. So far they seem to work.

What are these products, you ask? iPhones, of course! And you know what else, I can't hook it up to my computer!

Bring it on. Text message me!

Other Thoughts

SO, as I sit here, I realize that I haven't really blogged about anything very important. It's mostly been stuff I see that I like or find weird. After having been given the opportunity to meet someone at work (that I haven't met yet)I have gotten more inspired to write more. In fact, I wrote a whole big page at work today.
To paraphrase, the more I have been writing, the more I have been liking it. I continually blog on an internal BestBuy site, but only my co-workers get to read it. I don't even think that my co-workers read it...It is people across the company that I don't even know. I am looking forward to it, because in two weeks in Chicago, I'll be able to meet some of them.

In any event, i feel that I am getting behind on technology these days. Is it because I'm getting old, or because I'm out of the store? I don't know. I learned all about web 2.0 which was really cool, but I'm way behind on all these other things like net tagging (del.ic.ious), RSS feeds, stuff cell phones can do, etc. For instance, I called a friend's cell phone the other day. When it rang on my end, I heard a song! CRAZY!!! Why had I never heard of this? Maybe because I have an old phone and no longer work in the wireless department.

Enough for now. I will update later if anything comes of the great idea I had for work.

How do I get this trailer?

So, last weekend, Dustin and I went up to the north coast of MN with my parents. It was really nice to get out of the cities and also nice because I used to spend the entire summer with my family up north in Michigan. This year I will be lucky as I will have spent time up north in MN and in MI! Stay tuned for the story of the latter. I will be there this time next saturday!

In any event, on the way home, we stopped at the much talked about Betty's Pies.

There was a wait at 3:00! It was quite the popular spot!

Just as we were finishing our meal, I looked out the window and saw this spectacular rig pull into the parking lot. This trailer must hold one of everything that every true Minnesotan might want. Please look at the picture for details, it is truly worth 1000 words!

The new blender...

So, someone told me about this link the other day. The feature video combines two products i love, Apple electronics, and kitchen electronics! Usually I always buy my kitchen accoutrements at W-S, but I might have to forgo and purchase this truly amazing blender!

Check it out:

Lawn Mowing

So today I saw an awesome lawn mower. Some guy had a small hill in front of his house and apparently didn't want to push the mower up or down the small hill. He had rigged a piece of what looked like clothesline to the lawnmower handle and was standing at the top of the hill letting the mower down via the ropes. I'm not sure how well it was working, as it looked like the lawnmower had steered itself into the chain link fence bordering the yard.

Sorry I don't have a photo to go with this.

Wrapping Rap

So, as I was wrapping gifts for customers at Williams-Sonoma tonight, I made up a wrap. My co-worker asked me never to repeat it, but here it is:

" My name's Danielle and I'm here to say that I love to wrap gifts in a beautiful way.
Hat box, shoe box, linen or platter, when I'm done your gift is much phatter.

(Beat box here...)

Red or cream, gold or green, whatever color it is, it'll look keen."

I'm still working on it, so stay tuned for more verses.

Door County-Part 1

So, this past weekend, we ventured to Door County, WI for some summer fun. This is some of what we saw... The first place we ate on Friday was Al Johnson's. This place is special because every day they bring goats over to the restaurant and they graze on the roof all day. It is quite the novelty. Here are some shots...















After that, Dustin and I got forced to sit in this huge adirondack chair. We made his parents sit in it, too.








I went golfing. I only took about 12 mulligans over 9 holes...









We went to a really cool garden/antique store that had a pineapple plant from Florida growing. I loved seeing it and wondered what a whole field of pineapples looked like.
Here we also pretended to be coneheads.











Please stay tuned for photos of a true Wisconsin "Fish Boil."

SuperDog

See this dog...?













This dog was so excited to see The Gangler, that she put on a supercape and jumped through our front door!











We now have a new piece of glass in our front door, which I must say is much nicer than the one that was there.

Basketball

Boy, I think that the last 10 minutes of last night's NBA playoff game plus the last 7.5 minutes of tonight's game is probably the most professional basketball I've watched in the last 5 years. Too bad, Cleveland lost, but I must say that the game was quite exciting. As good as it was, I probably won't be watching very much more professional sports.

HRC

So, I have recently started to learn more about the Human Rights Campaign, or the HRC. I'm proud to announce that the company I work for, Best Buy has received a score of 100 from the HRC. That basically means that Best Buy offers the same benefits for same sex couples as they do for hetro couples. Not only is it great for our employees, but it shows people in both straight and GLBt community that BBY is willing to defend ALL human rights.

In any event, I also learned some appalling news that in thirty three (33) states, if your company doesn't protect you, you can get fired for being gay!!! That horrifies me. Today I filled out the form on HRC's website to urge my congress person not to vote for President Bush's nomination of Dr. James Holsinger for surgeon general.

Visit the website if you have a chance...

Brown's NOT in Town

So, my neighbors who moved were back in town this past weekend to finish up some stuff on their house. Among those tasks were signing some paperwork and packing it up in a UPS overnight envelope and dropping it into a UPS box. We headed out to downtown St. Paul for dinner with plans of dropping it in a box after we ate. One would think that we would have encountered several boxes to drop the package in. No such luck. We saw NONE, other than inside a building, on the streets of St. Paul. Instead of venturing back into the building we snuck into to avoid the wind and sudden 40 deg temperature, we decided to drive to our neighborhood UPS store assuming there would be a box there. NO SUCH LUCK. Is that crazy? Why was there no box at the UPS store??? We finally returned home without UPSing the envelope.

Swinson's (or the re-invention of the TV dinner)

Over a chilly Saturday night dinner of Meatloaf and Fish 'n' Chips, the discussion turned to the vintage TV dinner. What became of the real TV dinner that you had to cook in the tinfoil pan in the oven for 45 minutes? Has this delicacy given way to the soggy variations that the microwave now offers? I remember it was a treat when a babysitter came as my brother and I always got to choose a TV dinner and eat with the TV on! What a treat! I always selected fish and chips. I don't remember what he picked...

In any event, Dustin, the Gangler, and I came up with a new way to market old-school TV dinners. In light of all of TNT's "Dinner and a Movie" type shows, lets team up with them and do, "TV Dinner and a Movie." The show would allow time to put your TV Dinner in the oven, take it out and wait for it to cool, and eat. Maybe there would even be a special shout out to the funky brownie that came for dessert in the tinfoil package.

What do you think? Swinsons? Should we package them with some vintage looking food imagery on the cardboard lid?

Block Club/Little Brown Dog

So, I just joined a block club. For my block! I mostly joined because my neighbor friends moved away and I wanted to met some new people. Believe it or not, I met some really nice people! We all climbed out of the woodwork after the winter to meet up! Someone set up a message board so we can all chat about the little brown dog that gets out among other important neighborhood news.

My co-worker told me I should write a story about the little brown dog. It could be kind of a poem...
Little Brown Dog I see you today
Little Brown Dog, can you come and play? Why are you afraid? Don't run away. Will I see you another day?

Ok, so it needs some work...

Monday

So, today was Monday. It was also early when I got to work. Well, at least earlier than when I like to go to work! I put my vintage iPod on total shuffle which I don't usually do, and lo and behold, the first song it played was Monday, by Wilco! I think iPods can think sometimes...

Other than the fact that today was one of those days that you work all day, but never get anything done, I did get my awesome new chair today! I inquired a few months ago at work, and ended up getting my very own size small Aeron Chair!!! I'm rollin' with the VPs now!

Mix Tape

I was at my friend's house tonight, and she dragged out a bin of tapes. We found some gems including Weird Al, Skinny Puppy, The Cure and James. There were some mix tapes in there as well. Do you all remember your tapes? Did someone special make you a mix tape? Did you make someone a mix tape?
Here's a super embarassing blast from my past. I have a red Case Logic case of cassettes in the basement. I know it includes: Wilson Phillips, Roxette, U2, Sting, OMD, a bunch of REM, Sinead O'Connor and some other winners...

Old Friends

So, I'm on a quest to find old friends on MySpace...I guess I'll see if they still want to be my friend...

4/29
Yeah! One old friend wants to be my new friend!!!

Apple TV

OK. I love Apple products and my husband and I totally fit into Apple's customer category.
In any event, we went out right away and bought an Apple TV. This stupid thing gave Dustin a HUGE headache. Though, in retrospect, I believe that it is the Linksys router and of course, not the Apple TV :)

Our house came with a network which we thought would work to our advantage, but it seems like some of the wires are bad. All we wanted to do was run this thing wired to our tower so we didn't have to stream as many files. Our house also seems to be a bunker of sorts and doesn't always have a great wireless signal.

After Dustin spent the entire day on the phone with Linksys, Apple, and finally a senior technical agent at Apple.

Finally we got the thing to stream our music...

I thought technology was getting easier, not harder...Does anyone else have an Apple TV? Even though it was in the circular at Best Buy, neither of the home theater associates knew what it was...Ahhh. Sad.

WoLF

So, most of you who know me know that I participate in Best Buy's WoLF program. For those of you who don't this is a program that was started by one of Best Buy's female VPs. It stands for Women's Leadership Forum, and is comprised of approx. 1600 men and women in all sorts of job positions throughout the company. There are several ways to participate, and I happen to participate on a "pack." My pack meets monthly in the DC/Maryland/Northern VA area. We have 5 corporate members and about 12 field members. Each month we get together and we discuss company things, participate in giving back to the community or other things... It is a great idea, but when you have 17 great, dynamic people in a room, it is hard to get things accomplished in one 4 hour meeting a month. For the most part, it is great, but if you ask me, this last meeting was a disaster. I really apologize if any of my pack members read this and get offended, but this is what I feel. We went to the Distribution center to visit some of the women that work there and in the service center. It was my impression that we would introduce ourselves and then open the floor to conversation. One of our members took over and pretty much directed all of us into telling our own "wolf story." By the time we were done, there was nothing else to say. I'm sure that some of the stories touched the people, and honestly, it was nice for me to hear some stories that I had not before. However, I think the other associates were sort of overwhelmed by us...Not only that, but we all ended up missing our flights, including the visitor we brought in from out of town. I honestly thought that two of my pack members were going to have breakdowns. I returned mentally exhausted. I really think that everyone is not on the same page. and I have some major concerns on how our next project is going to come together. Aside from that, I had a big miss at the regular part of my job and came back to some grumbling. Needless to say, it was a long week and I was very busy today...

I will post more on Wolf later...

My Friends

So, I have sad news tonight. I learned on Wednesday that our neighbors, but more friends than neighbors, are moving :( It is a double edged sword, as I know they will be moving on to better jobs and a city with a lower cost of living, but there will be a void in my heart and in my neighborhood. I will miss their creative spirits and smiling faces. As always, I will be able to to keep up with them via the wonders of the intraweb and jeff's ever entertaining blog, and the good old telephone. Hell, I could even drive to Wisconsin to visit them. Unfortunately, it doesn't take the place of running up the street...

Not only are they moving, but our other neighbors and friends that live next door to them are moving as well. Did we move in and scare everyone we met away? I suppose that there is now opportunity to meet some new friends...What's the old song from Brownies..."Make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold..." then I think the group takes turns and has the magical experience of singing in the round!

Speaking of Brownies, I did a badge with yet another neighbor's Brownie Troop. It was quite fun. I helped them learn their Careers Try-It! We talked about women in the past and some women who were pioneers in the past. Not just the Laura Ingalls type pioneer, but career pioneers. We also talked about things you like to do that could be a career. We had lots of shopper, athletes and lifeguards. Vetranarian was another big choice. I guess we had a lot of pet lovers. I finished by having them draw a logo or a business card or a picture of where their business would be. The drawings were a little less exciting than I had expected, but maybe my expectations were too high.

As far as expectations go, I let some of my co-workers down at work. Ahh. I will take it as a learning. This past week was a tough one. I am working on my drawing. I will start to post some sketches...They are getting a little better. I am really trying to work on perspective and getting comfortable drawing little things without rulers. The only thing is that I need to set up a little schedule for myself. I am having a hard time deciding what to draw...maybe I'll just piggyback on other's projects and draw related things...

Auto Show

So, in light of my friend, Gretchen, posting a slew of recent blogs, including our trip to the Auto Show about a month ago, I figured that I better post a few of the photos I liked. As she said, the auto show here in MN is kind of a disappointment, especially after growing up in Detroit. There really aren't very exciting displays and the concept cars are pretty lacking. Also, the lighting in those places is pretty weird, and I think the setting was wrong on my camera. Unfortunately, I do not have Photoshop on my laptop, and although iPhoto is great, it's no Photoshop. I was trying to take photos for work of some cool displays, but I really didn't find anything too inspiring. I think I put one case in here with some wheels embedded in it. If I edit the other uninteresting photos, I'll post them...

So, a description of the photos...
- An awesome Lotus. Not a bad deal in terms of sports cars you can buy these days...
- Gretchen and Jahnvi checking out a Mini
- Dustin in a hot 911. Should I expect one in our driveway one day?
- That's me...in a GTI that is the same color as our old kitchen...
- A display I liked...

Ice Cream

So, this is one of the things I had to share with you from the other site I regularly blog on. Sorry I haven't been posting here lately, but I've been super busy at work, and then I had to put some time into checking some of the work blogs out. It really isn't part of my job, but I have made it my responsibility to stay tuned to what is going out in the Best Buy Cyberspace world. This post was up recently, and I don't know where it came from, but I want a t-shirt with this design on it. If the file wasn't so small, I'd totally make an iron-on. Maybe I will anyways, it will just be very little. It will be good for people totally in my personal space.
What do you think? Do you think it is funny?

TV

So,

I never used to watch TV, other than stupid Re-runs of Saved by the Bell and Wings...but now, with the advent of the DVR and an awesome new TV, I spend countless hours watching garbage that sucks me in.

Has anyone been watching LOST? For the two or three years that that show has been on, I can't believe that they have only been on the island for what, 60 days? Why do they show you an episode where tons of "important" stuff happens, then they follow it with two or three filler episodes that keep you hanging...? I keep watching it...
(like right now, as I blog about it...)Desmond is having another vision and has convinced Charlie, Jin and Hurley to go with him. Is he trying to get Charlie killed? I guess we'll find out in a minute...

As well as LOST, we have found the first season of The OC on the Soap Network. I really can't knock those who watch American Idol when I watch this other crap. All I can say is that if you watch AI, you are buying into the American Pop Culture crappy music that hey pump into all the crappy radio stations that are out there...

So, are we going to see if Juliette is truly a plant tonight, or is she going to cross the others...?

Oh wait, commercial break...

Our Woodwork

So, we worked really hard to redo our TV room. We pulled down all of the nasty walls including the wall on the other side of the room. That was to allow us to change the very large door into a pocket door. On top of that, we removed ALL of the woodwork in the room and lovingly sanded every single piece of it. We then re-stained it and put a new coat of urethane on it. It changed the color. In fact, the woodwork now looks all milky and not at all like we took the time to do everything we did to it.

So, the other day, we bought new oil based urethane and went ahead and put a coat of that on the doors. It is definetly the winner. I really want to take the urethane back to Menard's, but I sort of feel like it is the same as telling a server that you didn't like the sandwich you just finished...

Helvetica-A Movie about a Font!!!

So,

Here is a new design movie about a font! I can hardly wait to check it out! Here is a description of the movie:

About the Film

Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which will celebrate its 50th birthday in 2007) as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives. The film is an exploration of urban spaces in major cities and the type that inhabits them, and a fluid discussion with renowned designers about their work, the creative process, and the choices and aesthetics behind their use of type.

Duluth

So, Here are some photos of the industrial areas of Duluth. We were there this past weekend and made some stops at some plastic distributors. I should have walked around a little more, but this is what I captured out of the window of the car...

Now, the one on the top is a different story. That was in Grand Marais. I think it was a bait shop, but I'm not sure. If it had been open, I would have ventured in. Now I'll just have to wonder...

Check out my portfolio

More Snow!

So, Believe it or not, we had more snow last night! Not a lot, but after being almost 80 degrees last week, it was a strange sight. It will, however, allow us to get one more trip snowboarding in! So much for spring skiing though, as the temp is still supossed to be in the 20s.

Been thinking about this movie...

So, For whatever reason, I've been thinking about this movie. I saw an article online saying that Disney didn't re-release it on it's 60th anniversary. This was a huge monetary loss for Disney who was afraid that folks these days would find the movie racist. What do you think? I remember seeing this movie when I was very small...