I'm the new girl!

Yep, that was me today, and it was a very nice experience! It’s very har to describe, but it was such a nice new-girl experience compared to the last one I had. Maybe I was more confident, but I think it was more because everyone immediately felt very friendly and welcoming at HP, something that I didn’t necessarily feel at IBM. At least not from everyone.

What i did today was mostly to observe other people work and to sign papers and fill out a few forms. I got aquainted with the other people on the team and I think we’ll get along very well. I think I might even have arranged car-pooling and stuff. This week I’ll ride home to Greenock with one of the Italian girls, who was very nice. It turned out her husband worked at the Italian CF team at IBM, same role I’d had, but in a different language, obviously. It actually turned out that quite a few of the people on my new team has worked for IBM at one point or another, but found it lead nowhere, or that the pay was too low. In fact, very similar reasons to the ones I had for leaving. No wonder that place has an incredibly high staff turnover each year. And it’s nice to know it’s not just me. Very nice.

So yes, I think I’ll like it at my new workplace, and from what I’ve seen of the work I’ll be doing, I think I’ll like that too. Over the next three weeks I’ll get proper training and all that, and then I’ll be set off on my own. A bit scary, but with three weeks of training behind me, I’m sure it’ll feel a lot safer. ^^

So that was me today. I’ve spent quite a bit of the evening pouring my thoughts out to mum and then to Kev. He’ll be sick of me before we move in together :P And speaking of moving, I’ve also been trying to set up broadband and phone at the new flat, which worked fine until I was going to deal with BT. Same deal as with O2 a few months back. They wanted me to pay a deposit to set my account up. Probably because they don’t have any records of me from before October last year. It’s still bullshit though, so we’re going to set upp the BT account in Kev’s name to avoid all that.

And now I’m completely exhausted. New things and lots of impressions and learing has a tendency to do that to me. But I suppose I don’t mind that much. I do feel like I’ve accomplished something and that makes all the difference.

While we’re on the subject of large carps, we’re going to pay a little attention to the largest Koi Carp in the world, which has been bought for lots of maney by a British enthusiast. I think it looks utterly amazing in that picture. It’s almost like it’s not real, or that it’s a different animal disguised as a fish! I love how it’s almost plastic looking.

World's largest Koi Carp

“A British fish fan has taken delivery of the world’s biggest koi carp – a 4ft monster that tips the scales at a staggering six-and-a-half-stone. The mammoth fish – nicknamed the Big Girl – is the size of a 12-year-old child and three times larger than any other carp in the UK. Enthusiast Geoff Lawton paid an undisclosed sum for the 17-year-old koi from a specialist breeder in Japan. But he has already put a £30,000 plus price tag on the 90lbs specimen…”

Read the full article here.

I was going through some old Marilyn Manson albums yesterday and I was riding a huge way of nostalgia like a surfer king. I was re-living the music of my teen, sans the angst and it was great. I think I can quite confidently say that “Portrait of an American Family” is still an ace album as far as I’m concerned. It was shocking, rude and ground breaking when it came out. Of course I was too young to know about it at the time, but when I did hear it, I was baffled and taken away. It sure as hell wasn’t Spice Girls and I liked it.

So I sat there with my coffee, reading blogs, playing flash games, generally feeling quite cosy in spite of being at work, when I decided I’d find his new albums on Spotify and listen to them as well. Bad idea. I hadn’t heard anything he’d made since the Tainted Love cover and the best-of album. I put the newest album on first, High end of Low it’s called, and I had to turn it off. It was that disappointing. I didn’t want to ruin my nostalgia by laying a film of luke warm pretentiousness over it. So I went on to his second newest album, Eat me Drink me, hoping that it might be better. It wasn’t. It felt empty, hollow, completely free of sincere emotion. I turned it off. Whatever it was that I liked about Marilyn Manson when I was younger, and still do to some extent, has been completely washed away in his newer works. Where’s the emotion? Where’s the criticism? Instead of giving media a big smack in the face like he used to, he’s become just as much a whore to it as any old Heidi and Spencer.  It’s like he’s trying to be shocking for the sake of it, just spewing out obscenities without meaning, like he’s got nothing to say anymore.

And then Maja linked me to this…

Also, Michael K over at dlisted.com has a great take on the whole thing here.

In other news, we’re signing the contract for the flat today! I’m so excited. I’ll leave work early and get my ass to Shawlands where I’ll meet Kev and the estate agent. Fun fun fun!