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| So yesterday I turned 21. And no, I'm not hungover. Honestly, I didn't even have a drop of alcohol. I'll just have to find a way to make up for that...
My birthday didn't go as planned. I was stuck at work until 7:30, and by the time i got home, Blair and Trevor were gone. They spent their evening with Baby Lukas in the emergency room. He dislocated his elbow. Poor kid. He's doing much better now. Honestly, its amazing how well tylenol works on little ones. if something like that happened to me, i'd be screaming for something much stronger, lol.
Anyways, that was my day. I did get some decent presents, though. My sister and her husband gave me a fake iphone, which is pretty cool. My brother got me a memory card for the phone (since unlike the actual iphone, this one has no built-in hard drive). And my mom got me the shoes that I've been drooling over for the past few weeks. I have Emi to thank for that one, too, since she's the one who actually went and got them for me.
Still, no cake, no ice cream, and most importantly, no booze. so that makes me kind of sad, especially since i took today off from work specifically to nurse a hangover. Oh well. | | |
| Oh. My. God.
Seriously.
I just about died. My heart is still racing. All from a video clip that is probably less than two minutes long.
What could make me this excited? Perhaps it has something to do with a season finale of one of my favorite shows. No, I don't think that's it. Perhaps it has something to do with this.
Ah, yes. That's it. The Sims 3.
I'm not generally into video games. There are a few games I'll play on my PC when the mood strikes me. But there is just something about The Sims that just makes my brain turn to mush- in a good way, of course. There is just something about controlling virtual lives- deciding how a person looks, what their personality will be like, even who they fall in love with. I suppose one could say its a way for those of us who feel like we are out of control of our own lives to take control of something. I'd prefer to think its just plain and simple fun.
Now, I'm sure this isn't breaking news to anyone, especially anyone who pays any attention to video games, pop culture, the news, or really anything about what is going on in the world. But I tend to be blind to all of that, so when I saw the preview for this game, I literally squealed. It was not my proudest moment. Still, the feelings I got from watching the clip took me back. I remember the last time I had those feelings of excitement from a video game- The Sims 2.
The Sims 3 is everything that the Sims 2 was to the classic Sims. As technology advances, the game allows the player to have more control of little details. I remember how excited I was when I learned about the Sims 2. Things like being able to reproduce the good ol' fashioned way (as opposed to merely phoning the adoption agency, as it had to have been done in the original game), and that the offspring would physically resemble the parents, made the game seem promising. The different life stages, and the aspirations were also groundbreaking features for the Sims 2. The game surpassed the original in so many ways.
The time has come for history to repeat itself. This is epic. The Sims 3 is fully customizable. The player has even more control over little things like decor (and lets admit it- we've all spent hours building and decorating our Sims dream houses). Facial structure is fully customizable, as is body shape, and clothing. And don't even get me started on personality. No more picking an astrological sign or randomly assigning points to seven (or so) personality categories. Now we will have an entirely new range of personality quirks to play with, including evilness, and insanity.
The ability to play online is promising, as well. I never got around to playing the Sims Online when it was first available, as it was really a separate game from the regular PC version. Aside from being cheap and not wanting to pay for the service, it seemed fun but entirely unneccessary. Now that the online stuff is integrated into the Sims 3, I may decide to cough up that extra cash (depending on the fees, of course. I have yet to find info on that) for a bit of extra fun.
I'm sure there's a ton more that I'm forgetting about. I'd pre-order my copy right away, but being the cheapskate I am, I think I'd rather just spew on and on about this game to my family in hopes that someone will purchase it for my upcoming birthday. Sounds like a good plan, right?
And now its time for me to set aside my excitement for this virtual world, and focus on reality- the season finale of Grey's Anatomy... er, wait, maybe that's not quite reality, either. | | |
| so it seems the curse may have been lifted, and i'm not entirely doomed anymore. Alas, only time will tell... | | |
| First off, let me say that I love my job. I am slightly annoyed with the company, my co-workers, our products, etc., but under all that, I still love my job. I'm good at it, and that gives me enough satisfaction to stick it out for as long as it takes.
Now that I've gotten that out of the way, I get to gripe a bit.
Firstly (isn't that a weird word?), the company is pushing products big time this year. I do taxes. My job is to do taxes. I couldn't give a rat's ass about getting my clients to open savings accounts with our company. If it won't help them, I won't offer it. If they don't want it, its no chip off my shoulder. I do taxes. The company is really pushing a lot of the products this year, and putting a lot of pressure on the office managers to pressure the tax pros to sell the products. Pressure like that may work great in a work environment such as McDonald's, but someone needs to tell Russ Smyth (former CEO of Mcdonald's, current CEO of H&R Block) that tax preparers require a different management style than burger-flippers.
Second issue. Training. There are several first-year tax pros in my office this year. They don't seem to have been trained well enough to work our software. So now it is my job to babysit them, and answer any questions that may arise as they work on their practice returns. I am not a teacher. I am not being paid to teach. If I were offered a teaching position, things might be different. But at this point, I am being paid to do the same job that these new hires are being paid for. I have no problem with helping them out. I have a bit more experience, and I want them all to be successful. If I can share what I know and help them, that's fantastic. But it does start to get a bit annoying after awhile. There is a point where they really need to know these things. What else can I do? Just offer a friendly smile, and try to explain things as best as I can. Then I get to come home and gripe about it.
And third- my future is my business. Not anyone else's. In my field, most of my colleagues are retired seniors, stay at home moms looking for part time work, or businessmen making a bit of money on the side. And nearly everyone in my office is at least twice my age. So I get a lot of things like "Brittany, are you still going to school? What are you majoring in? You should go into _____ field, there are a lot of good career opportunities there. My son did ______ and now he works as a ______ and makes good money."
And it just goes on like this. Sometimes several times a day, from different people. I get it from my clients a bit, but its not nearly as bad. But I should not have to explain that my life is my life. I respect your life experience. However, following a cookie cutter career path is not the best option for everyone. I don't want to be a medical biller. I don't want to be a bookkeeper (only word in the english language with three sets of double letters in a row, btw). I don't want to do what everyone else does, just to have a job. I want to do something that I can get some personal satisfaction from. I shouldn't have to settle for less. And besides, how is it any of your business? I don't say "Hey, you are retired. My grandma is retired, and she lives in Alaska. I hear its really nice there. You should move up there. You'd like it. Oh, you don't like the cold? Well, its still a great place to retire and relax, and it would be good for you." I get that I'm young. I don't need my face rubbed in it all the time. I already have clients assuming that a first year tax pro knows more than I do because they are older, and I'm just a college kid. No mind that I have been doing this longer, and have been doing it well. I get it from clients. I do not need it from my coworkers. I am just as much of a human being as they are, and deserve to be treated equally.
oh good, an earthquake. feels like a good one. | | |
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