new and improved

i like how my work addressed the problem of only having one bathroom for every 1500* or so people by painting the front doors a nice shade of olive green. it's like a home improvement bandaid: "there, there, that's better."











*this is not a scientific statistic. i have no idea how many people work in this building, or, even on my floor.

settling in

i figure you're settling in nicely at work when someone who's going on vacation asks you to take care of their plants while they're gone. either that, or, you're seen as that weird girl who sits in the corner and doesn't talk to anyone which means--naturally--you're good at taking care of plants...

the logic behind graphing

since a large part of my job has to do with the presentation of data (i.e. making boring stuff look pretty), i'm always searching for new ways to make my powerpoints look more spiffy. i like the look and feel of graphs because A) they take a lot of data and compress it into a very small setting and B) they incorporate COLOR (even if it's just the random colors excel chooses for me...). i'm pretty good at determining whether a graph looks good after the fact, just like i can tell you if a sentence is correct after you've written it or paint colors go together well after they're up on the wall. but unlike these 2 comparisons, i really never had an idea why a certain graph would look better than others. i kind of just close my eyes and click on one...

until TODAY, that is. i decided to do some research on why certain graphs are better than others and came across this tutorial. i think it's for high schoolers, or maybe even kids in junior high. but i found its very basic instructions refreshing and easy to grasp. i also feel like i've probably learned this before at some point in my life. oh, well! it's never too late to learn it again!

lackluster

why am i not motivated to do my work today????????????? I SUCK.

becoming even more excel-proficient (read: geeky)

have i mentioned that i love excel???? well, i do. that is aside, but i thought i'd just say it.

i spent some time today learning keyboard shortcuts for excel tasks i do all the time. i figure since my job entails me using excel about 90% of the time, these are worth knowing. also, my keyboard & mouse setup is not all that great, so using a mouse is annoying. but i have always hated using a mouse.

here are some of my faves:

shift+space: highlight entire row
alt + = : autosum function
ctrl + +: enter a new row

supposedly, ctrl+alt+V will open your paste special menu box. however, you then have to revert to the old keyboard trick of Alt + the applicable underlined letter, use your arrow keys, or transfer back to the mouse...so, still not the greatest shortcut key. anyway, i have a pretty custom menu bar for my paste special tasks. yes, i have to use the mouse...but customized menus are worth the pain!

i guess i will never know as much about excel as some of the bigger geeks out there; but, i can keep learning!