Frog In North Georgia » Work

Lightbox project

Christine Eclavea Mercer — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 13:41:45 +0000

This is what I’m doing this morning. Not nearly as complicated as the setup shown.

How to Create an Inexpensive Photography Lightbox (with pictures) – wikiHow

being able to light a piece properly to show the true color and beauty of it can be difficult. A light box is a great solution. It provides light diffusion and a uniform background against which to place your piece. They can be expensive though. There is a solution, costing as little as $2 (or free if you already have all the materials), using a cardboard box, poster board and some tissue paper. This light box can be used with any light source, and even outdoors.

The Good, the Bad, the Insidious Racist

Christine Eclavea Mercer — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 22:36:00 +0000

I had lunch with a racist yesterday.

Not on purpose of course. I have found some of her remarks to cause my ears to prick up, feeling something untoward before. Yesterday I decided it is racism.

I happened to be leaving for lunch at the same time as a coworker, Jn, so invited her to join me. She said, she and D were going for salad and I could join them. So I tagged along. It came up that DD and Jn’s child love Dora the Explorer. D said she DOES, NOT, LIKE, DORA.

Jn said she really likes that it teaches her child Spanish, and wishes she had the opportunity to learn Spanish too.

D said that is her problem with it. Why should we have to learn to speak Spanish, when they are coming to our country. They should learn to speak English and should not be accomodated.

I have no problem with teaching immigrants to speak English. I am put off by the nasty attitude of D, the disgust in her voice, as though somehow “those people,” who speak a language other than English as their first language are beneath her, and parasitic.

I am of course, a child of legal immigrants. This makes me sympathetic to the difficulty that is encountered by most people in learning a new language. My family most definately speaks English – and French, and Japanese, and Spanish, and Italian, and American Sign, and Thai.

I find trash speaking any tongue disdainful, and that includes D.

Oops, threatened a coworker

Christine Eclavea Mercer — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 01:52:00 +0000

My exuberant, 20-something coworker, T, got carried away today and started throwing things over the cubicle wall at idiot 20-something coworker who can’t stop talking about Chuck Norris.

I couldn’t take it anymore. Without thinking I said, “T, if he hits me in the head with something, I am gonna kick your ass.”

The whole room erupted in laughter. T and an older, female coworker, J (not the one who quarrels with boss), were laughing so hard that they were turning colors.

I apologized for swearing at T. They thought this was even funnier. J told T that she is not only certain that I am prepared to kick his ass. She is sure that I can do it.

Later T came back to his desk, next to mine and when he saw me started laughing again. Very seriously but smiling, he said, actually, he thinks I’m a very nice person… And he also thinks I can kick his ass.

Turf Wars and Bachelor Row

Christine Eclavea Mercer — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 18:59:00 +0000

On the other side of my cubicle wall are four young men. Two are bachelors, one is engaged to a coworker, the other is married. But my boss has taken to referring to that section of the office as Bachelor Row. We have a lot of interesting project names, so initially I thought Bachelor Rowe was the name of a project. Ugh.

There are about 50 employees in the company, several who have been working here for years. Those folks are zealously guarding their turf – as though there isn’t enough work to go around.

Ettiquette in the workplace

Christine Eclavea Mercer — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 17:56:00 +0000

Even though I haven’t worked with men for two and a half years, or anyone really, and don’t have any Post books nearby to reference, I’m certain that coworkers are not to greet each other with, “Hey baby!”

Power, as illustrated by a stapler

Christine Eclavea Mercer — Thu, 31 May 2007 14:25:00 +0000

The accounting department in which I work would like an electric stapler. Being an accounting department that has grown from a staff of one, to a staff of four, and has not yet transitioned to a paperless system, we use a lot of staples.

Yesterday, I hear the person who orders the supplies say very loudly to another employee, “I am NOT going to order a $20 stapler!”

As though this expense will come out of her personal budget.

Office politics. Ugh.

It’s like Friday, psyche

Christine Eclavea Mercer — Thu, 24 May 2007 17:31:00 +0000

My office, always an interesting place, is operating like a Friday. People are relaxed, dressing at the lower limit of the dress code, and chatting up a storm. Disorganization reigns. I would like to be working on a project. But obviously, I’m not. I’ve not been assigned anything. It’s a hurry up and wait day. Bah!

Tomorrow is going to be painful.