Pleo: Virtual Pet Is Getting Closer

May 23, 2007 By Jesse Petersen

Pleo by UGOBEI have been keeping my eyes peeled for further information on the new virtual pet called Pleo that was featured in Wired magazine this year. It’s made by Caleb Chung, the creator of Furby, and really had me interested from the get-go. I signed up for the mailing list for announcements and finally got news that they will be letting subscribers know sometime in the next few weeks of its availability.

Word has it that it will sell for between $300-400, but that’s cheaper than having a real pet for 2-5 years or longer. You have to watch this video of its demo as a new-born getting booted up for the first time. Heck, it even sneezes! [tags]Pleo, Caleb Chung, ugobe, Furby, virtual pet, life form[/tags]

Filed Under: Personal

American Idol Final Performances

May 22, 2007 By Jesse Petersen

Tonight is the long-awaited final night of singing and competing for Season 6. We’ve seen stars like Chris Sligh, Sundance Head, Phil Stacey, and Melinda Doolittle fall out of the competition due to imcompetant voting by the American Public. I use a capital letter there to emphasize those voters as a moronic entity that should be fenced in somewhere near Area 51 under heavy surveilance.

We will see Blake Lewis and Jordin Sparks face off in an undoubtedly hot competition. They are coming in with two completely different styles, approaches to arranging the songs, and performing experience. Blake is a balls-out throw-down “I’m going to sing this the way I want, and you’re going to love it” singer. Jordin is a sweet, heart-tugger that can not only sing, but makes little hearts with her hands at the end and had incredible puppy eyes.

To top things off tonight, I heard on the radio this morning that Paula Abdul fell on her face trying to save her dog from damage. Sure… you weren’t drinking. Sure. Any dancer can move enough to avoid a face-plant if they’re sober. They must have played the sound clip of her explaining the fall 4 times during the morning report on my way to work. She sounds hammered to me. I can’t wait to survey the damage. /snork. Sorry, I shouldn’t laugh at someone’s injury… /snork. A faceplant the day before being on TV for the most-watched show so far this year.

Who will it be, people? Jordin? … Blake?

Jordin vs Blake[tags]American Idol[/tags]

Filed Under: American Idol

Pet Peeve #37: Noisy Side Conversations

May 22, 2007 By Jesse Petersen

Loud Howard - (c) Scott AdamsWe have someone who can always be heard on the phone from about 5 cubes away. Every word. Today, she was her typical self and stood outside our area and talked about a horse farm for handicapped people…for 5 minutes! The poor guy she was talking to was talking very quietly, so that if we didn’t want to hear what was being said, we could ignore it.

While doing this, no one can hold their own conversations, let along talk on the phone. It is a complete disruption and annoyance. After four minutes, she raised the bar, not in volume, but sheer insensitivity. Without any prompting from him, she blurted out “We adopted a horse for a year; it’s $3,000. Sure that’s a lot of money, but we could have adopted whatever. … If I won the lottery I’d be their benefactor.”

Within earshot of her, not to mention grabbing distance, there were FOUR people scraping by with less than one paycheck in reserves, and here she is flaunting how she dropped THREE grand on a horse that she doesn’t get to feed, brush, or ride on a daily basis. It is for other people to ride.

OMG, she came back and is talking again. Where is my baseball bat?

Filed Under: Office Life

Time for my Annual Review

May 22, 2007 By Jesse Petersen

I got an e-mail late last night from my boss with today’s schedule of annual reviews. Our department has our reviews today, and our other trade groups under her control are tomorrow. We all submitted our accomplishments for the year and we’ll see what Santa has in his bag. It will either be a really good day, or I’ll be royally pissed. I don’t think there will be much of an in-between.

Not that this will do anything good for my situation now that HR has already made their decree, here is why I’m qualified for a great (not nice) review.

  1. I thought of, created, developed, and maintained our document tracking database. It is currently tracking over 3,500 documents and 170 metrics of data. PMs and the VP are asking us for information that only my database can provide.
  2. I am always willing to work the hours necessary to get a job done. I have worked weekends and even a holiday because of deadlines.
  3. I am a Master Microsoft Office Specialist, and the only one in the Company. I get at least 1 question per day from a team member or other writer in the building about how to do something, often for a report or presentation at the last minute.
  4. I have shown a LOT of personal skill improvement this year, including going to a SkillPath seminar on using diplomacy skills in an office environment. I have had a tenth of the “coaching sessions” with my boss compared to last year. I hardly even see her now, because I’m not stirring up trouble.
  5. I work efficiently, so I’m not a resource drain on the Company.

I’ll let you know how it goes…

UPDATE: I completely agree with my evaluation (translation: YEAH, BABY!!!) and we find out about our increases later. It’s out of her control, but I like the performance number she gave me.

Filed Under: Office Life, Personal
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