The Resurrection of Waldo

Back in the day, in GIS class, our final lab project was an exercise called “Where’s Waldo?” in which we were given a map of a made-up fantasy land called Finglepostein (actually a map of some state park in Washington, I think) and we had to navigate Waldo through orc camps and spy towers along the best path to save the princess from aliens that landed and captured her (or something along those lines).  This was not terribly difficult, but it was complicated, and took me several weeks to do.  I entitled my final project The Death of Waldo, which my advisor thought was funny. 

The other day, when I was looking at apartments, my dad asked me if there was a way to make a map of Albuquerque that showed areas with high crime rates, and also if I could plot out all of my potential apartment locations and make a path to all of them that would allow us to save the most gas.  And I said well, yes, those things are possible to do but I couldn’t do them without a lot more time, data, and most importantly GIS software.  My dad seemed surprised that I didn’t have GIS on my computer.  Um, yeah dad, for one thing it’s reaaallly expensive and for another, if I had GIS software on this computer, it would die.

So he settled for a GPS unit instead.  It’s really for me, because it’s going in my car, but my dad knows it will go to good use, as I am rather directionally challenged.  We went to Circuit City today and ended up with a shiny brand spankin new tomtom.  I looked at the Garmins too.  I learned GPS navigation on a Garmin handheld, and I like them a lot, they are a good brand.  But the tomtom had more features that I wanted so that’s what I got.

I’m getting excited to go now, and nervous.  Just a couple more days and my life will drastically change.  I spent yesterday at the cottage to spend time with/say goodbye to my family.  They are pretty cool people, especially my grandpa, who at 92 still enjoys a game of pool and discussions about reality television.  And it was a really great day, despite the sudden storm that blew up and almost knocked us off our kayaks.  I’ll definitely miss it here.

Job Update

Earlier in the week, my mom and I were working at the cottage and I got a phone call from the overly happy HR lady from New Mexico saying that she would like to extend me a job offer.  FINALLY.  On the inside, I was very excited, but I think I just replied with something stupid like “ok.”  But it didn’t really matter, she just kept on talking about start date, benefits, forms, blah blah, etc. etc. 

The next day, I got my confirmation letter and realized that I have to fill out about a bazillion forms  (Yes.  a bazillion) before I can start working.  This will be fun.  I suppose they have to determine whether or not I am a national threat (For the record, I am not.  I wouldn’t even know how to be if I wanted to), since I’ve never even actually met any of these people in person. 

It’s really weird how I got hired, actually.  Just a few days after I returned from my other interview in Houston (the ones who paid like a crapload of money for me to go down there and then never called me back), I got a call from the person who will now be my boss asking if I was still interested in the job.  Soon after that, I got another call from a guy in the Arizona office.  By the end of the week, I was their selected candidate for the job, which I found pretty strange, given my answers to some of their questions.  In a nutshell, this is kind of how it went (not verbatim):

-Do you know how to drive a stick shift?

-No.

-Have you ever done any field mapping?

-No.

-Okay you’re hired.

Seriously.  I mean I could be a crazy person for all they know.  But maybe they’re all a little crazy themselves.  Anyway… the point is I have my first real job. ev-ar. YAY.

Complications of a Mastermind

I am so depressed.  It all started yesterday afternoon when I had a craving for Dairy Queen.  I finally convinced my brother to go with me that evening after he got home from his friend’s house.  We walked there because we don’t live very far away and it was nice out.  I didn’t really want to carry my purse around with me and the shorts I was wearing didn’t have any pockets so I just stuck a $20 bill in my waistband. 

So we get there, buy our ice cream, and head home.  All is grand.  Except not.  As soon as we’re almost home, I realize, my change is gone (I put it in the same spot as before), so we end up walking aaaalllll the way back to DQ and find… nothing.  All the while with my brother saying “I can’t believe you would be so dumb!”  Defeated, I return home to cry and watch the end of Hell’s Kitchen.

And that’s how I spent $20 on an ice cream cone.

Fun Times

Ok.  so.  lots of stuff going on.  And not all of it that fantastic.  My uncle’s not doing well so my dad is probably flying down to see him and my aunt, who is having a hard time holding up.  And my 93 year old grandpa’s scheduled for surgery next week.  The next few days should be interesting.

As for me, my problems are more insignificant but still annoying.  I talked to someone about getting my transcript and they said my degree was posted (finally) and they would send my transcript out the next day.  That was last week.  So I’ve been waiting (im)patiently checking the mail constantly only to discover that the transcript was just processed and sent today.  Fabulous.  Luckily the lady down in HR is very understanding, as is my future boss.  It’s just that a lot of other things, like moving, preparing to move, and everything that goes with it, are being put on hold until the whole job thing comes through.

But I have been trying to make room for some fun.  I’m actually really getting into my book now.  The one I was talking about a while ago when I first started reading it.  It got way better.  It’s very long though.  973 pages.  My problem with books is that when I get to a part with a whole bunch of description or if there’s like a part about a battle I get bored and skip a couple pages to get to the more interesting part but then I feel guilty and have to read everything again.

But anyway, more fun stuff.  The other night, I decided I never get out so I initiated a family bowling night.  I did reaaallly bad.  The first game I got a score of 25.  Yeah.  But I improved over time and I even got one strike.  And I had fun singing and dancing along with the music. 

That’s about it.  Things are up and down.  But I guess that’s how things go sometimes.  Speaking of up and down, maybe I’ll go check how the Red Wings are doing.  Seeya.

*EDIT* Just caught the end of the game.  Wow.  Awesome.  Go RED WINGS!