A little poem

Roses are red.

Violets are blue.

This is a poem

That I wrote for you.

This is a blog

Where I can write

Sometimes in day,

Most often at night.

This is a poem

You're on the 'Net.

These are some words.

Are you bored yet?

Soil is brown.

Earthworms are pink.

They never get poems.

Why, do you think?

I'm on my phone

And on a couch.

What rhymes with couch?

Crouch, grouch, and ouch.

That last rhyme scheme

Does not really fit,

But this is my blog.

I do what I want.

I have a foot.

I have some hair.

I am a human.

No surprise there.

What is today?

Friday, I think.

Tonight I prob'ly

Won't sleep a wink.

I kinda cheated

By short'ning a word.

I did it again,

But nobody heard.

Nobody heard that

Because it's just text

And not read out loud

(But I'll do that next).

Is this a talent?

You bet your behind.

Poetry's hard,

So please be kind.

How is it going?

Hey, what's up, doc?

How 'bout this weather?

I hate small talk.

I'm out of random

Things I can say.

This poem is over.

Have a nice day.

Step Into My Office

I have completed my first week at my new job.

I'd just like to talk for a moment about my office. As mundane as it might seem, I've never had my own office before. Now I do, and it's pretty awesome.

My supervisor seemed a bit apologetic when she showed me on my first day, saying that my office was a temporary one and that I'd have a real one with a window sometime in February when the building's construction is finished.

I couldn't really understand what was wrong with the one I have now.

I have two desks, and a spinning chair so I can switch between them easily. I have a work laptop with TWO additional computer screens attached to it. The desktop switches between gorgeous landscapes. I have a handful of nice pens, highlighters, and sticky notes from the supply room. I have an extra chair so people can come sit down and chat with me when they're passing through the hallway. I have a door that goes directly to the conference room, so I'll never be late for a meeting. And now I have a sign with my name on it outside my door so everyone will know where to find me.

I have some extra space in my office that I don't know what to do with yet. I might need some sort of artificial tree.

A lot of my coworkers have decorated their office doors for the holidays. I'm going to do that as well, and I've got some ideas I'd like to try out if I can, but I drew a little picture of a Christmas tree on a sticky note and put it on my door for the time being. It works well as a sort of minimalistic decoration. 

I'm thinking of all the nerdy things I can bring to decorate and liven up my office. I'm also trying to gauge whether I can bring a blanket to work without getting spoken to. Most importantly, I'm trying to decide on a method of organization for all the various papers I have floating around.

If you're on the fence about getting a desk job, you should definitely listen to your heart and do what you think is right. But it's really cool to have your own office. I'm just saying.

The Chronicles of Ticket Pony

Once upon a time, a small child visited a space museum and lost a toy pony in its depths. An employee turned the toy in to the Lost and Found at the ticket desk.

For days, the pony hoped that her owner would come back to rescue her, but the child never returned. She waited under the ticket desk with the other lost, unclaimed items and watched the hustle and bustle of the cashiers selling tickets and memberships to excited museum patrons.

One day, the ticket desk staff took pity on the pony. They adopted her as their own and taught her how to ring up ticket transactions, void coupons, staple receipts to maps, and organize the office supplies. The pony was a bit small to take on such big tasks, but she tried her hardest because she enjoyed having work to do and being able to help people. The ticket desk staff took photos of her and shared them with each other to remind themselves what hard work looks like and to brighten each other's spirits.

We on the Guest Services team have seen a lot of Lost and Found items come and go. One time there was a gigantic Spider-Man action figure that looked like Iron Man from a distance. Once there was a single sandal with a child's love note tucked inside it. Once there was a selfie stick that became a remarkably good lightsaber when it was extended.

And then there was the pony.

The pony is supposed to be the character Rarity from the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic TV show, but we nicknamed her "Ticket Pony."

 
http://mylittlepony.hasbro.com/en-us/ponies/rarity/

We had some very slow days at the museum in between the Fall Break and Thanksgiving crowds. To stop ourselves from going insane from boredom, we would sometimes arrange Ticket Pony on the desk to make her look like she was helping out or just commenting on life at the ticket desk. We would take photos of her and upload them to our Snapchat stories so that our friends who weren't working could see what Ticket Pony was up to each day. It didn't affect our ability to help museum guests, and it quickly became a running joke.

Since I'm leaving the museum to start a new job, I decided that I would hire Ticket Pony to be my honorary replacement. So I took her home one day, used an old doll hairbrush to clean up her mangled hair, and made her a lanyard so she could fit in with the rest of the team.

(Please don't use mobile devices while driving. It's very dangerous.)

I'll be looking forward to seeing the continuing adventures of Ticket Pony when I move on to my next job.

I have a new job!

Ladies and gentlemen! I have very exciting news!

Starting Monday, Dec. 14, I will begin my new full-time job as a technical writer at ERC!

Of course, I will be very sad to leave my friends at my current job at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, but this is a very important step for me. I've been applying for jobs since I graduated with my Bachelor's Degree in May, and now I finally have a job that's related to my degree. Without going into too much detail, the pay and benefits are far more than I was expecting for an entry-level job, and I am more than grateful for this opportunity. As an added bonus, everyone at the office seems really nice!

I have a lot to learn about technical writing, but I'm eager to get started. Here we go!

New Milestone: Best Ever

I did it! I beat my all-time NaNoWriMo word count!

My new record to beat is 12,400 words and climbing.

This is still far behind the 50,000 words that I'm supposed to have written by the end of November, but I'm celebrating anyway.

New Milestone: The Big One-Oh-Oh-Oh-Oh

I hit 10,000 words on my NaNoWriMo project!

So, including all the words I wrote before NaNoWriMo started, my novel is at 19,680 words. That's crazy, you guys. I would have to go back through my old laptop, but I'm pretty sure this is the longest thing I've written since my first "novel" that I wrote in middle school.

The novel I'm working on now has significantly fewer sudden rainstorms.

New Milestone: OVER NINE THOUSAAAAAAAAAND

My word count for NaNoWriMo 2015 is, as many Dragon Ball Z fans might say, OVER NINE THOUSAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND!!!!!!!!!!!

I haven't really watched Dragon Ball Z much, but I can appreciate a good meme all the same.

Of course, I am ridiculously behind on NaNoWriMo. I'm supposed to be at 28,333 words right now, and I haven't even broken 10,000 yet. I don't think I'm quite done writing for tonight, though, so perhaps that will change! At the moment, the NaNoWriMo website is telling me that I can still finish on time if I write 2,902 words per day for the next two weeks, as opposed to the 1,667 words that I would write per day if I were actually on target.

Will I make it to 50,000 words this year? You know, I'm not sure. I have family coming later this week, and you're not supposed to go and hide in your room when you have family visiting you from all the way across the country. I'm going to really try, though. I've been bringing a notebook with me to work so I can write during slow moments (although I maintain good customer service practices!), and that's actually helped me get a lot of work done.

Writing by hand and adding the words to my Word document later has been a really good technique for me. Sometimes I have a hard time getting started when I'm typing, but it's almost always easier to write with a pen.

If nothing else, I'm going to beat my all-time NaNoWriMo record! Surely I can beat 12,360 words. Surely.