Ice Carvings

wow... for the longest time i felt guilty about not writing in an entry, only to realize it has only been nine days since my last blog. I fell down to the flu last Monday and Tuesday, so it's only now that i got some free time. there's been a blaze of activity since i joined the escudo, and i spent the last few weeks in a blaze of meetings, getting to know the beer's top bosses and getting in with the flow. it helped a lot that my co-workers in the department were all intellectual and (to some extent) emotional peers -- a sharp contrast to the times when i had to play referee to cutthroat salespersons and subjugate myself to an egomaniac numbskull whose personal profit and ambition comes first. i won't go so far as to say that ego and ambition would not rear their ugly heads here, but at least the rules don't keep changing. My boss is very nice, very encouraging, and so far i haven't let her down in work. My teammates all have the support group mentality down pa

Maybe I've been the problem Maybe I'm the one to blame But even when I turn it off and blame myself The outcome feels the same I've been thinkin' maybe I've been partly cloudy Maybe I'm the chance of rain And maybe I'm overcast and maybe All my luck's washed down the drain I've been thinkin' 'bout everyone, everyone you look so lonely But when I look at the stars, When I look at the stars, When I look at the stars I see someone else When I look at the stars, the stars I feel like myself Stars looking at our planet, Watching entropy and pain And maybe startin' to wonder How the chaos in our lives could pass as sane I've been thinkin' 'bout the meaning of resistance Of a hope beyond our own And suddenly the infinite and penitent Began to look like home I've been thinkin' 'bout everyone, everyone you look so empty But when I look at the stars, When I look at the stars, When I look at the stars I see someone else When

After a full six months of working by myself, here i am back in the land of the cubicles and charts. and it was an interesting day. first, the HR case officer was on leave, so i had to foot it the whole morning. My boss was going to show up after lunch after a month-long medical leave, so the next in line toured me inside. The central a/c was down and i was wearing long sleeves and a tie. Everybody i was introduced to suggested i should wear something more comfortable. I spent the better part of the morning dressing up my boss's panel with welcome back strips of multicolored japanese paper. viewing the results, i sure hope that the guys grade effort and not the results. then, i realized that lunch time was spent by the group converging on the area where my table was. it seemed that my table, along with the next table, was the lunch area, and i spent my first lunch sharing food with everybody else. A little cajoling prompted me to treat them to dessert of sweet corn ice cream and ch