I heart you little one!

I love my baby niece. Everything about her is cute, even her name: Emma Marie Joy. Darling, I know.

So here's a picture of her, because she's so cute, and I love her so much, and I want the world to see how  much I love her.

She's at Colonial Williamsburg with Grandma - who couldn't resist the temptation to buy Emma a reproduction "mob-cap".

I love you baby Emma. <3

Apple.... CORE!

Training for Apple is kinda cool. Its a classroom style, 3 day training group. Its also called Core, which I think is one of the most delightful puns I have ever heard. XD

My Core has about 50 people in it, from about 10 different locations. It seems to be a fun group of geeks, all fairly diverse, and spanning a lot of age groups. The mentors and leaders are pretty cool too... We're on a 15 minute break right now, and though we've done almost nothing besides introductions, I think its gonna be an interesting weekend....  =]

*Updates through-out the weekend*

Can this be done yet?

I think I'm done. I wonder how much noise that box will make when it hits the floor.

A lot of noise I hope, probably with the sound of shattering glass. Yeah....

I hope you step on it with bare feet.

Bleh...

I started the morning with an emotional hangover.

I went to bed angry last night. Not just angry either, but really angry, incredibly angry, so angry that most metal rock didn't sound angry enough. There was a lot of anger.

I often read in the evening, in bed, to unwind a bit. I could hardly concentrate though because I was just so upset, and ended up falling to sleep to some more rock music - the grown-ups' irritable version of "rock-a-bye baby". I slept really well actually, in a deep and peaceful sleep. But when I woke up I suddenly remembered what was so infuriating the night before and became just as upset again.

I ended up reading calming materials about peace and love, until the death-metal started sounding like an over-reaction instead of [as it previously had] the fitting end to Krissy Gill.

This whole anger-fest was about a manager at Applebee's. I don't know why, but where I'm concerned, she's got a total chip on her shoulder and she's just daring me to knock it off. I came really damn close to it last night.

Her housemate, Jeff, works at Applebee's too and is probably one of my favorite people there. He's told me before that Krissy is, for some unbeknownst reason, really harsh on new people. He's told her before that she needs to start being nice to the new hires, since half of them are scared of her. I'm not scared of her, she's the manager lowest on the totem pole. But I don't get why she is so bitter to me.

Where I'm concerned, Krissy is particularly nasty, more so than to any of the other new-ish people there. I noticed this about a week ago. I'll ask her for help with something, like voiding an item on a bill [for which I need an manager's override card], and she will make me wait, because she's chatting with someone. Or she yells at me for interfering with Expo [getting the food out], when all I'm doing is grabbing a small plate and not messing with the food she is plating at all. I realized there was unfair treatment going on when another employee had grabbed a plate a few minutes before, and had not been yelled at for doing his job.

It is highly frustrating. And if I ever let it slip to another manager the things she is doing, I can guarantee she finds a way to get back at me, even though I wasn't trying to get her in trouble!

Last night I worked a double - meaning I was there basically forever. At one point in the evening, I needed something voided from a check so the lady could pay and leave. She was old with a bunch of small grandkids and so it was especially important to be prompt. I went to find a manager, and found Krissy out back, trying to find her lighter in her purse. She informed me that I'd just have to wait because she was smoking. o.O

I told her I couldn't wait that long and went and found another manager, B., who was extremely busy, helping the host. I explained that I needed a void. She asked if it was possible to get Krissy's help. I explained that I'd just asked her and what she'd told me. B. wasn't at all happy. I knew right then that she was going to mention it to Krissy, and I also knew that Krissy would find a way to punish me. She did.

Its the time of year everyone hates: Inspections and tests. The inspections require hours of extra cleaning, and the tests are time-consuming, stupid, and impossible to answer 100% correct on the first go, because they contain lots of stupid questions that aren't discussed in the review videos or on the menus. Most managers require 80% to pass. Krissy is in charge of them this time, and she's requiring 100% which is making everyone hate her.

But, she lets us copy each other and use cheat sheets, so its not too bad. Well, except for me that is. I'm not allowed to talk to anyone while doing the tests, not am I allowed to create a cheat sheet, and she reviewed my notes to make sure I wasn't putting any cheating things on them. Not only that, but she won't let me do the basic tests like everyone else, but is making me re-do the entire server new-hire training module with tests.

She kept me 90 minutes after my shift last night doing these tests, because she refused to cash me out until I did x-amount. I was the first one cut for the night shift, and one of the last to leave. I was so angry with her. I think that she didn't argue with me when I told her I was going home and she was going to cash me out only because I looked slightly deranged and as if I would murder someone if she said no.

She did give me this long talk though, during cash out, about how important these asinine tests are [even the GM admits they are almost pure b.s.]. She also asked me to come in an hour early today to work on them more. I told her I couldn't. She asked what I was doing that was more important. I think I just sort of stared at her and muttered something and just got the hell out of there.

So yeah. I have to work with her tonight too. But I'm not going to take any of this bs from her. I'm also calling the GM and lodging an official complaint. This nonsense has got to stop.

My first glimpse of Apple behind the scenes. =]

I just got back from signing my employment forms at Apple. This means I was allowed to go behind the big shiny silver door into the back rooms and hang out with the managers etc for a half hour. It was the most fun I've ever had doing paperwork in my life.

The store I'm working at is in this enormous and expensive mall. You know the kind I mean, Anthropologie on one corner, Gucci down the corridor, Louis Vuiton, Juicy Couture, Ralph Lauren and Betsy Johnson across the hall. Nice place.

I went in to sign papers at 8 this morning, meaning everything but Apple is still closed, and even that is only open for people with appointments. There was one of those black elastic lines in front of the door, to keep people from poking around in the store just yet. I hesitated for a moment on seeing it, but one of the employees looked up and said "Are you an employee?" I smiled and said "I am now." She laughed, welcomed me and told me to go on in.

It was so cool to be able to say that. I just can't help but smile when I tell people I work for Apple. =]

But yeah, back to the subject, fun paperwork. It sounds like an oxymoron, I know, but it was actually fairly amusing.

Here's what I saw behind the big silver door. A great big, warehouse. And some random offices stuck in corners. There were random tables standing about the place, those plastic pop-up ones that you get for $20 at Walmart, with chairs haphazardly placed around it, and bits of wire and cables and stuff sort of thrown on top. There are computers all over the place back there, and not just the ones in boxes. You'll pass the shelves of products, and just randomly wedged between a box of keyboards and another of mice, you find a great large iMac. Why it is just sitting on the shelf, I have no idea. Maybe they use them for inventory or something. Cables, cords, iPod docks, and other objects in various states of disrepair are in large bins labeled with things like "Sellable," "Repackage," and "Doesn't Work". It seems a very elementary but efficient organizational system. Its like the IT office at any given company, except the wires are less tangly. At any rate, just by looking around, you can tell that even though this is a hugely successful retail company, behind the shiny store front, its really just a bunch of computer geeks running things.

My paper work was digital, which was nice and expidited the whole procedure a lot. Then it was print the pdf and sign a few things and voila, I am officially working for Apple! I was filling out the forms in the office with a couple of managers, who were emailing and counting money and other such things. This was another time I noticed that they really are all just tech geeks. While in there, they just start talking about how the count from last night was short several hundred dollars. As you may know, usually managers don't discuss this sort of thing in front of random employees, and on top of that, they were remarkably cavalier about the situation. They were more puzzled by the lack of funds then they were worried about it. Of course they were concerned, but it wasn't in that uptight, nervously worried way.

At one point some long-haired guy pokes his head in and says "goodmorning." The managers said hi and continued working, I looked up and smiled. I then realized that neither of the managers had actually stopped looking at their computers during this exchange of greetings. How did I realize that? After the guy left, one manager turned to the other and said, "Not sure who that was, I didn't recognize the voice." She responded "Me neither. Must have been one of the new guys." They looked at me, and I gave a brief description of the guy. "Oh..." said the one. "That was probably Andrew..... Or maybe Phil." The other nods while still typing, "Yep, probably," she said.  LOL

I'm going to love working there. =]

[I have a 3 day training seminar on the 24th, after which I'll be on the schedule. Woot!]

YAYAYAY!!!

So, my Super Exciting News: I GOT THE JOB AT APPLE!!!!! I'm so excited and happy I can't begin to describe it. XD

Alright, you might be wondering whats up with me and posting stuff lately. I'll tell you. I have 3 posts, yes, three, that are written and just need a bit of cleaning up. I have not, however, had time to do said editing though, due largely to the Apple hiring process. I spent a week of free time playing with the various applications in the iLife suite [iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, Garageband, and iWeb, for those of you who don't know] in order to be up to date and speak coherently about them in order to move forward to the next step of the interview process.

This however meant that writing got pushed to the back burner, and the posts came together in bits and pieces. Editing is the most difficult process of a post, and I just haven't had the time or energy to do it. No worries, you'll get to hear all about my random doings on a regular basis again NOW THAT I'VE BEEN HIRED BY APPLE!!!

Yes, I am going to continue randomly yelling that fact in this post. =]

One of the things I had to do for Apple was to create a podcast. Except, they wanted a podcast with video, so more like a short movie. [A podcast is like a recorded radio show] I ditched the podcast concept altogether and just made a movie. Its by no means perfect, and large amounts of it were made between 1 and 4 in the morning, timing isn't always right, and visuals don't always flow like I had in mind, but whatever. I think its pretty decent for my first ever movie, and made in random bits of time when I wasn't working.

See, I had 48 hours to complete this podcast thing. I was working a lot of that time. The whole thing was oddly reminiscent of midterm exams - just sorting through the information and words in your brain at all hours of the day and night and trying to condense it into a sensible and coherent format. And then actually creating it at 3am, that was a lot like midterms too. =]

The terms of the assignment were thus: in 48 hours, create a podcast entitled "Why Me?" about why you are the best candidate to work at Apple, and keep it under 3 minutes.

This is what I came up with:

Ta-Da!

Anyway yo, I'm off to a cookie party. Chill out, stay cool, and be nice to shopping carts.

[IMA WORK AT APPLE!]