according to anna

If I were a GPS…

If I were my Garmin, I would be disappointed when people turn me off before reaching the destination.

I think about that…every time I turn it off…It must feel sad to not ever reach its goal. It? I suppose I should continue the personification enough to give it a name…How about Gary? Gary the Garmin?

Poor, poor Gary.

Let there be light!

We just replaced our hallway lightfixures.

We went from these ugly things:

To these pretty ones (but without the brass knobs):

It looks soo much better.
Goodbye old lady lights!

Recruiting

Ever since I declared my major in the IT field, I’ve been in the minority. There were very few women in my CIS classes…even fewer in Computer Science. Now, I am the only woman on my team of seven.
Most of the time, I don’t mind being the only girl. It does get a bit annoying though, when we all go out to eat and they talk about sports the whole time. Or, when they blow off steam, they shoot nerf guns at each other and I inevitably get caught in the cross fire.

I was curious about this, so I did a little research.
According to the Nation Center for Women & Information Techonology, last year women held 24% of IT-related occupations. And over the last 8 years, the interest of women in IT fields has decreased 79%. This was a surprise to me. I didn’t realize the the numbers had actually declined.

It seems like one of the reasons why women don’t find IT attractive is the perception that it is “nerdy”. The “IT Screen Goddess Calendar” was put together to change the perception of IT and to show women in IT in a different (and perhaps sexier) light.

But rather than trying to change the perception, I’ve just accepted it. I guess I no longer see “nerdy” or “geeky” as a bad thing. Perhaps that is why I’m in IT?
Just think of all the successfully geeky people out there…Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, etc.
Why would being a nerd like them be such a bad thing?

Okay, ladies…I can tell you are not convinced. So check out these reasons why you should look into a career in the IT industry:

• You can have your pick of the guys. The geeky/nerdy guys may not sound appealing at first, but they are generally nicer and smarter than your average guy. Dating a geek may take some adjustment, but don’t worry…we have directions.
• You can still be creative. I think most people don’t realize that there is a creative aspect to IT. It is not just writing code, you can write beautiful code that other people can truly appreciate.
• You will learn all sorts of useful things…like how to fix your own computer, host your own website, etc.
• Money — I’m not gonna lie, you can start your career with a higher salary than you would in a lot of other industries…But this can’t be your only incentive - you have to have the skill sets to back it up.
• You can be a super hero. It is pretty cool, when you can automate something that used to take hours of manual work. Business Analysts are super appreciative when they can spend more time doing their job and less time manually consolidating data. You are enabling them to do more with their day and they think you are a super-hero for it.
• You can be geeky about whatever interests you, and nobody will judge you for it. Nobody cares that I have star wars toys all over my cube.
  Embrace your inner geek!

what a deal

We just bought this Broyhill Janice chair (ours has a different fabric).
It was originally $799 and we got it for $325
Yay for clearance!

Now I just need to find the same fabric so I can make (or buy) matching throw pillows.

I love…

I love the smell of a new book.

I just finished reading My Sister’s Keeper.
I may love the smell of a new book, but I need to make sure the next book is a happy one. This one just makes me cry.