My new specialty: Soft Lumber

Hello. Hello. We're going to be breathing down your necks for this whole week, er I mean, auditing your facility, this week, and we'd like to get an understanding of how your business works, first.

Hmmmm. This conversation turned into a two hour tour of Princeton's finest sawmill. First trees come in, then they get analyzed by a computer in this control room as to what kind of length and size boards will be feasible for each tree, then they get chopped, go through a type of quality control, and come out and get wrapped and sent off. What you, my friend, read in about three or four seconds, I lived through two hours of. Haha. Actually, my attempt to communicate to you the brutality of those two hours is for not. I enjoyed it. I love watching How It's Made on the Discovery Channel, so it's always cool to see what the heck they do behind the scenes before the wood goes on the house or whereever they decide to put it. However, I feel it necessary to insert a disclaimer here for those of you who also enjoy How It's Made: Most of what they tell you is not true. I watched an episode once when they were making a Kenworth Truck (nothin' but love)... and well, I worked in the plant where they made this stuff and that was my home away from home last summer for two and a half months. I think I understood the process pretty well. How It's Made gives you an awfully dumbed down version, misses all of the important details... it was just pitiful. But anyway, yes, our tour of the facility here in chilly Princeton (cross your fingers that it doesn't snow and keep me away from majestic Seattle) was very interesting. Such a mundane product. But totally cool. The tour guide, we decided, has an extremely high level of job satisfaction. I think my job satisfaction mirrors his, but I don't think it would take me two hours to tell you what I do... well, partly because I'm still not sure of exactly what I do ;) HAHA, I joke. I'm pretty sure I know what I'm doing :) This is why I enjoy being here in Canada, eh, on this audit because since I'm new, it gives me a look at the whoooooole process in a microcosmic world. We do all audit steps, just on a smaller scale, because, well... the plant is much smaller than say, a Fortune 500 Company... but that's just an estimate :)

In other news: The WSJ apparently says the email era is over... what???? "Why Email no longer rules"... people are moving more towards social networks and community sites. Interesting. I just sent an email about 30 minutes ago.... I think socially that's true, but for work... email is king. Like in accounting, cash is king (which, ironically, is the same sentiment I feel for my bank account... payday tomorrow!). Most social networking sites are great, but some are just far-reaching. Twitter, for example. I signed up for it for a week and then deleted my account. I just don't see the point. I think Twitter was invented for those people who constantly need to stay connected and let everyone know what they are doing. This is probably reflective of the level of importance we all feel. I mean, how many times have you had a conversation with someone and they complained to you about this or that, and you say, "OMG I have it so much worse... This one time, [insert any antidote here]" So Twitter feeds this need of letting all of your tweet followers what you are doing that is so important. And, let's face it, even if it isn't important (I'm sitting on the porch...), you want people to see that you are so important and finally have a moment of freetime for some R&R. Anyway, this rant sprang from the WSJ article about email. I call shenanigans on Jessica Vascellaro. Well, not 100%. 50% shenanigans. Email is still important for work. We can't post crap about confidential information on facebook. However, I agree, I typically "comment" or send a message to my friends via facebook instead of email. Although, I did send an email yesterday to a friend from my gmail account. Email will still be important when you sign up for crap, like notifications from Barnes and Noble or The Loft about when they have sales or if they feel so inclined to send you some discount coupons. Still important for those Nigerian money scams that people are still retarded to fall for. Still a totally viable means of communication. Perhaps, email is the new form of snail mail.

What are your thoughts about this? Is email really the old way? Are we really getting that old, that we now see the shifts and have to adapt to them? Are we going to be those people when we're like 50, we don't understand the "new" technologies, much like our parents today? (My mom still doesn't know how to save a phone number in her phone, for crying out loud! haha).

Cheers,

Oh, Canada

Well, two real weeks have gone by in my first position post-graduation. And I'm still swimming. No sinking yet. I have actually also been driving. Five hours of it today. From Seattle to Princeton, BC... which is about 200 km east of Vancouver, just to give you a little bit of geography. Want some more geography??? This town is about two streets wide and three streets across. It's super tiny. The hotel is great, though. I have two beds, I have a table, a microwave and a fridge, and a pretty nice bathroom. The TV has cable, so obviously I'm getting my fill of CNN. It's probably a good thing I don't have cable at home because I would watch CNN all day long... which would mirror what I do on the weekends now that football season is upon us. I try to be productive and study and do really important, meaningful things. But then that turns into me sitting on the couch with my Becker book in my lap watching all the games. So then, I migrate to Starbucks by my house to study because there's less to do there besides, well, study. And then it turns out that my cute Starbucks boy is working and so then if he comes by to pick up garbage or sweep or something I just get nervous and can't concentrate because he is so adorable. And of course I've never spoken to him. But it's nice eye candy, you know. Who has time for all of that mushy gushy stuff anyway?

So anyway, now I'm in Canada and in a hotel room there isn't much to do. Which will be great for my productivity after I finish writing this post. There are so many things just going through my mind, though, it's crazy.

Obama won the Peace Prize? Really? I mean, I voted for him and I'm so glad he is leading us, but the Peace Prize? What about all those people who devote their entire lives in the name of peace? The people who are nameless and faceless right now, working behind the scenes, orchestrating wonderful not for profits or are on a mission working with the underpriveledged and war ravaged towns. What about those people I say! Summary: Go Obama, but let's recognize others as well. (I mean, what's next? Will Brangelina get the Peace Prize next year???)

Next: I cannot find my Twilight DVD. I am so sad. I was hoping to watch it this week while I'm in Canada-ville. But, it was no where to be found in my room. I might have left it at my sister's house when I was housesitting in August, actually, because I haven't been able to find it in a while. I finished reading all the books and I am so excited to watch New Moon. I will be in Moses Lake I think when it comes out, working, however I might just sneak out at midnight to go watch it. Just because it's the Twilight Saga. And I wish I could have a romance like theirs in my own life. Even though all men are assholes, especially finance majors. It's a catch 22. (Which is a great book, btw. I can't wait to be all settled down into a work routine, sorta, and have some time to read for fun!!!)

El tema proximo: I miss Europe so much. I had the lucky opportunity of visiting Rome for training for work a few weeks ago. It was absolutely amazing. I love European cities. Life is so different there. Granted, yes, I am usually there on vacation and so life in general has the "rosy sunglasses" feel to it for that sole fact... but I did live in Sevilla from September to December last year and I got into a groove. Life is so slow paced there. It's honestly, stressfree. My senora... the only thing that woman worried about was cleaning her floors, really. She went out with her friends to tapas all the time, saw peliculas every miercoles with her boyfriend... she was living the life. The Siesta is a reality, not a myth. Taking a nap in the middle of the day??? Nice. Especially since we would usually be up till late in the evening. The style is so nice there. Guys actually know how to color coordinate and know what looks good and actually apply it to their wardrobe. Zara is amazing. Bershka. Stradivarius. El Corte Ingles, obviamente. Life was super.

DISCLAIMER: Not to say I don't like living and working in Seattle. But you know the song by Augustana called Boston. Sometimes I want to do that. Just move. First move, though, will be moving OUT. I really think living downtown would be super, but it's a little pricey so I think I'll just move to Eastlake with Cybal and Tina or stick to West Seattle but just... the other side of West Seattle that's further away from Mama. I love her to death, but I need my independence. And I just signed up for the gym in West Seattle for one year... so it'd be pointless to move away from it. I've gone consistently for the past two weeks I've been a member and it feels so great. In the summer, I went running in Lincoln Park almost every morning, but it's too chilly for that, and now the gym has so many machines so you can work lots of different things, not just the cardio. So this is super.

I also really am enjoying my job. So why would I move away from something I liked? I know I just started so it's all still fresh and new and exciting, but I think it's actually a really great place and I do like challenges and this job will probably present many of them. So, yay. I want to definitely stay long enough to get to move around a little bit... move up, yes, and then moving literally would be cool but not necessary because I adore Seattle and all of her glory (But let's be honest, a global rotation in Sevilla or London or Warsaw would send my excitement levels to the next galaxy). And then move to like, Advisory or DPP would be super rad.

Okay, I think that's enough for now. I still have lots of thoughts. But, I should look at my Becker book before I go to bed :)

Cheers,

Olivia