Gimme A Break

An ex-co-worker of mine was lamenting how she dreads having to go back to work after this long stretch of annual leave. I used to feel that way too when I was working fulltime.

The only difference is that I never considered nor made my office my second home. I was clear about striking a balance between family and work. I mean, even if I lived in the office, I’d still never be done with work.

Basically the work would always be there, it was just up to me to know when to walk out of the office and home to my kids. I was by no means an irresponsible employee but I had my priorities. And once I got those down pat, it was easy.

For some people, I know it’s not so easy. Their work is their life and even though they complain about having to go back to the grind soon, I know they wouldn’t have it any other way :lol: .

Different strokes, that’s all.

• is your home office office-like?
• slow but at least I’m blogging again
• Tuesday morning blues
• sauna au naturale
• what a waste!

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Many of those who run a home business send out emails to let their customers know about their promotions. I receive quite a number of these from local malls as well because I’m such a shopaholic.

If you have a mailing list, you might want to check out iContact, a leading email marketing service, which has recently included the iContact community into their product.

The iContact community feature allows your visitors to comment, rank and discuss your newsletter. The top ranked content gets featured on the community home page.

You can find out more by reading their blog. And while you’re at it, why not sign up for a free trial of iContact and see for yourself?

• do the dofollow
• software for your intranet
• ami-chan blogs
• no average mom
• smelling like roses

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About the contractual job I was offered yesterday, I told the guy that I would think about it and call him back. I really can’t decide if I want to give up my fancy-free lifestyle to tie myself down to a desk again, even if it’s for a few hours a day, know what I mean?

I thought about having to give up my mornings. I thought about having to give up hanging out with my friends. I thought about having to give up my workouts. I thought about having to give up blogging.

Ack! It’s not what I want. So I can’t take the darned contract.

I called the guy up and told him, thanks but no thanks. He sounded disappointed but didn’t want to admit it. I hope he has better luck finding someone who’s as competent and responsible as I am, heh!

• call from the nosies
• message before calling
• a geek squad is what you need
• the making of a fool
• the hi ho, hi ho dilemma

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One of the guys I worked with previously called this morning to offer me my contractual job back. Well, it’s going to be a new contract doing pretty much what I was doing before.

I’m practically hitting the roof with excitement at the thought of dragging myself to work again. It’s been a while since I stopped. I kinda like the fact that I can go dancing and hit the gym any time any day.

So I’m not sure I really want to wake up before first light, grope my way around getting dressed and made up, gulp down a hurried breakfast and trudge off to work with the rest of the world. What do you think?

• the newcomer
• my two left feet
• breakfast with an old friend
• coffee break
• the making of a fool

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I met ex-colleague at the grocery store yesterday that I hardly recognized. She seems to look older and somewhat worn after her, was it, two kids? Taking care of two kids isn’t easy, I guess.

I thought she was still working fulltime but it seems she left to stay home with the kids a few years ago. Now that the kids are at school, she’s working part-time with a small company doing market research.

Raising kids don’t come cheap these days. She says she needs the money since her husband’s business is not doing too well. I hope things work out better soon.

• dealing with the business jitters
• strangers for daughters
• work hard but won’t spend
• a fun way to make money on the weekends
• one lucky girl

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My ex-boss was never the kind of guy who would listen to good advice. When we were setting up our corporate website and blogs, we specifically requested to have it set up on private virtual servers for better performance and security.

We did all our homework and presented him our dedicated virtual server plans. He wasn’t particularly impressed, said it was too costly.

He insisted we run everything on our inhouse servers. As it turned out, the silly thing died on us one day and we ended up signing up with a virtual server hosting provider. Wish we could’ve said ‘told you so’.

• driving me nuts
• make a list to save money
• virtual sticky pads
• got my house plan picked out but…
• me and the mosquito

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There was a time when I wanted to sell my hand-made beaded jewelry at Sunday markets. I was told that even for a guy, it’s not easy to transport and construct the trade show display, which is typically very cumbersome.

Someone recommended ExhibitDEAL which is offering Entasi Tension Fabric Displays with an easy to assemble, sturdy aluminum frame.

They also have some of the best graphics around. And apparently they’re so easy to put together that even women should have no problems with it. Since I’ve abandoned my idea of selling my beaded jewelry, I’m saving it to tell someone who might need this in their business venture.

• contemporary gold
• a fun way to make money on the weekends
• times are bad
• Quick Shop makes it easy to save
• traveling light even with a baby bed

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I don’t know if it’s the weather but I’m constantly running out of printer ink. I don’t print a whole lot – well, not enough for the ink cartridge to dry up so quickly anyways. So something must be pretty thirsty to be guzzling ink at this rate.

Frankly I hate it when I run out of ink and I need to print something in a hurry. I hate to say this, but I’ve never quite learnt my lesson not to wait till the last minute to print something out.

My last resort has always been to email my documents to someone at work and have them print stuff out for me. So far, they’ve been great about this.

But I’m just waiting for the day when they’re going to tell me they’re fresh out of favors . Then where will I be?

• more copies
• food, favors and fun
• a good pen
• the black hole… that was popcorn
• not an ounce

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There was a time in one of my previous jobs that I was walking into the office with a mask on every morning.

The corporate culture that I once thrived in had gotten so hostile that it was impossible to survive without a mask, you know what I mean.

Well, that’s not entirely true. I could’ve left my mask at the door but then I’d have been such easy prey for the backstabbers and scheming instigators.

My mask transformed me into this tough cookie with ninja moves who fought back quietly and steathily in self-defence. Never quite the person to take the offensive, I was almost always at the mercy of those clawing their way up the corporate ladder.

I wouldn’t say it had always been easy for me, being a woman, to manage a motley crue of men in the kind of stormy corporate climate we had. But I have a few good men who still swear that I was the best boss they ever had.

It was only with these few guys that I could put away my mask for a little while because I knew they valued my struggles and my support. I fought for them as hard as I fought for myself.

In the end, the mask got to be a little too much. Day by day, it was transforming me into someone I hardly recognized and liked even less. It was time. The mask had to go. I just couldn’t wait to be me again.

• upgraded to WP2.5
• seeing between the pixels
• mom’s date with a mosquito
• my favorite uncle
• the obstacle race

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Today’s been a super busy day. It’s my first day at work on a contractual job that I’ve been offered.

I’m pretty excited about the prospect of dressing up and getting back into a little bit of the social scene.

It does get somewhat reclusive being a busy mom. So I’m glad for the opportunity to get out. Of course, the money’s always nice too. No complaints about that.

• the hi ho, hi ho dilemma
• the answer is no
• ain’t nothin’ I can do ’bout ‘em busy days
• back to the grindstone
• back to the grind

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