norsegirl | Entries tagged with ebay

People have been asking what cool stuff I've found on e-bay. I also have to decide what to wear to the Roller Derby fund-raiser tonight. I'll be serving drinks on skates, and possibly doing a bit of bouting too. The only guidance I've got is "dress to impress". So I thought I'd take some pics and let you guys have a say :)

( Lookin' hot behind the cut )

And during the whole photo shoot, we had sad, bored, loyal beagles:

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Well, what outfit does everyone think I should wear to a rock-concert/fund-raiser where I'm a bar-tender and bouting rollergirl?

Still no word back from Bioware as to whether they want me or not. And finally got a raise here, which will make it harder to leave. I hate the job, I hate the hours and the variability of them, and while the money isn't great, it isn't so bad that I am forced to look elsewhere, and it is permanent and secure. They're just not going to fire me unless I do something really bone-headed. It's not the worst job ever, it's just not the best either. So I'm faced with a general malaise that may not be great enough to truly motivate me to do anything more than complain.

In other news, also got the once a year bonus. It wasn't a tonne of money, but it was enough to cover all my evil e-baying the last few months. I really should post pictures of my fabulous new wardrobe. And should stop browsing on ebay every time I am bored at work, which is frighteningly often.

Didn't win the big prize last night. Didn't win any of the smaller but still okay prizes either. In fact, didn't even win the $20 booby prize. Stupid, useless ticket. I was really fantasizing about being able to call my boss and up and quit too.

At this point I'd REALLY like to just up and quit, but realistically I have no good reason not to be working at something. I just need to start using my spare time more efficiently to look for something else. I am soooooo terribly bored here. I know I've learned all I can from this role, and the longer I'm here, the more dead-end it looks. As far as I can figure, only one, or maybe two of the 30 or so managers here was promoted internally. The rest were poached from other companies, people with previous management experience. Without previous experience, I get the feeling I won't even be in the running for any job remotely worth having here. They don't seem to either consider other things like education or personality, nor do they have a way to achieve the experience needed for the more senior positions. So might as well cut my losses and get out rather than continuing to slave away on the bottom rung of the ladder, looking up at the glass ceiling of unattainable experience. That said, I'm finding it really hard to justify up and quitting with nothing else to go to. I need to get off my butt, put out a few resumes, and start looking for those greener pastures.

The other reason I need to get outta here is that I am so bored I am occupying myself doing the only thing I can get to here... e-bay. More great stuff arrived yesterday. A fabulous velvet mini-dress and a great little reversible plaid skirt. As much as I am doing pretty well on e-bay, getting great deals on things that fit, look sensational, and are way cheaper than I would be able to get them anywhere else, I have to admit that I am also picking up a lot of things that I don't actually NEED. It's like how some people fill that empty space/remedy boredom by stuffing their faces with food, instead I'm stuffing my closets with clothes. Problem being, the more money I spend on junk I don't need, like clothes, the less money we have to spend on the things I do need, like savings and a future house.

Anyway, my parents called Monday and decided they are coming to visit this weekend. I figure my dad is coming to kick my ass into gear and nag me into finding a job more worthy of my education/intelligence/skills. Unfortunately, this has resulted in my actually spending less time on the job hunting as I am spending time cleaning the house to make it presentable. Last night we did a whole lot of work on the main floor and it's looking pretty decent. I could still fuss and tweak things, but it's been vacuumed, dusted and straightened up to the point where it looks like civilized people live here. This morning I did the bathtub. This leaves the rest of the upstairs bathroom and all of the downstairs bathroom to complete, which is easy enough as it is just cleaning, not putting stuff away and finding places to stash more stuff. Also have to do a bit of laundry, which I have been avoiding as the basement light has gone out and I don't have a ladder tall enough to reach and replace the bulb myself. Landlord has been called, but no sign of a maintenance man yet. The most difficult job I must tackle is getting stuff put away upstairs and setting up a guest room so I have somewhere to sleep. Though it was immaculately clean a mere few days ago, the purge downstairs and a few SCA events have resulted in my studio being a complete disaster yet again. That's what I'll be tackling tonight.

Still haven't washed those pants. Starting to feel a bit like an oversized 5-year-old "you can wash them when you pry them from my cold, dead fingers and I'm not taking them off until they're stiff". I really should get to washing them on my day off tomorrow. On the bright side, a cool skirt arrived, so I've been rotating between the kick-ass pants and the skirt. And of course I was at an SCA event on the weekend so it's not like I wore real clothes Saturday. Sunday was PJ day as usual.

SCA event was pretty pleasant. I had to waste a lot of time doing crappy exchequer stuff, for which I still haven't quite completed the report. I forgot everyone's names of course. I had to get up at 4am and my brain was all kinds of not there. Feel like such a moron when I do that.

On the bright side, got to see and enjoy Wernar's very entertaining stepping down (he diced his crown away to his heir). Got to give the largesse I made to Gemma. Got to have a little visit with all my lovely LJ friends (Mona, Manyra (whose name was one of the many I embarassingly forgot that day), Pandorasbox (whose SCA name I have forgotten now of course. Starts with a Y I think)) and other non-lj-enabled buddies like Tammy (old friend of Fenrick's, many funny tales)and Kalira. Also got to spend a lot of time in the car with Fenrick, which was fabulous as usual. I really like road trips with Fenrick.

Anyway, have to run and do some crappy training here at work - sigh.

Current Mood: silly

I've received 3 of the bunch of things I've purchased on e-bay now. The dress I purchased whose condition was listed as "good" is FABULOUS! Fits like a glove, looks great on, very impressed with that little $10 purchase. The pants that arrived a few days later are also sensational. Also fit perfectly (who'd have guessed I'd have better luck picking sizes at random and hoping for the best than actually trying things on in a store eh?) and I have been wearing them since they arrived (should maybe consider giving them up for a day so I can wash them). The pants were also a great deal. For about $60 I got something that would have cost about $100 in a store this side of the border. And did I mention I LOVE them?

Then the coat arrived... and my little e-bay bubble burst. The seller had listed it as "condition: New: without tags" and in her item description indicated she'd "barely worn it before she grew out of it". I have things like that. Mostly summer clothes I bought at end of season, then put on a little weight over the winter and couldn't fit into come spring. Worn once, packed away, and never to be used again. Still probably wouldn't describe them as "new" if I went to auction them, but that was what I was thinking. So the coat arrives... it has stains in various places, is frayed around the bottom edge, and has a small tear in it. I'm not impressed. "New" it is most certainly not. I write to the seller to complain. She says something to the effect of "I can't help the fraying, I'm short" (that's nice and irrelevant, you should have described it in the auction and chose not to). Also indicated that since I'd bought it considerably less than retail ($80 retail, I paid $52 plus shipping to bring it to $67, so hardly less, and I've gotten better deals in stores on ACTUALLY NEW merchandise on sale) I should suck it up. If she hadn't ever described it as "new" I'd probably just suck it up, try my best to clean/repair the coat and maybe give it to a friend. But that little "new" in there just pisses me right off. No one in their right mind could describe this thing as "new". Have put in a claim with PayPal for an item being significantly not as described and am hoping for the best. Also took pictures of the offending spots/frays/tear to prove my case. Big ol' waste of my time, but don't want to let the liar get away with it. GRRRRRR.

It was bound to happen eventually I guess. Still, was hoping for the spree to go well a little longer. And I'd love to say "lesson learned, only buy things that are actually new", except that the sensational little black dress was listed as used and I could swear when it arrived that it was good as new, and if I skipped all used I'd have missed out on that one. Frustrating when you don't really have a way to evaluate someone's trustworthiness or a way to calibrate their definitions of condition against your own.

Current Mood: frustrated

Anyone watch Oprah yesterday? She had all these people on talking about some DVD and book combo called "The Secret". Basically saying the whole universe is mind over matter, and that the secret to getting what you want is simply to visualize what you want and ask for it, believe that you will get it, and act in a manner that will promote your goals. And of course, the corresponding rule in this equation is that if you don't get what you want, that you must be blocking yourself by not truly believing. Everyone seems to be hailing this as some great accomplishment and startling, life-changing revelation. As far as I can figure, this is all a load of crap. That stuff is easy and obvious. If you know where you want to do, the "secret" is to just keep running that way. And thus, obviously, any steps you take that are in a different direction are going to take you further from your goal. Anyone should be able to see that without even looking that closely at the idea. It's not that their idea is wrong, it's just that it's so obvious I can't believe anyone would pay for it.

The "teachers" of this secret, and the people that are making a crapload of money off this DVD, are those "motivational speaker" types whose lives were the best examples they could come up with for "before" stories. I always wonder what happens to these people a couple of years down the road. One of them, for example, had already come to the brink of bankruptcy twice. I wonder a decade down the road, if he's not there again despite the boatload of money he's making today. I always wonder what is the difference between this kind of person, the kind that does the motivational speaking gig, and a con artist. They both make their money by telling you the stuff you want to hear.

Anyway, getting away from the hope for schadenfreude, it got me to thinking. In a way I'm sure they're right. Being successful is simply a matter of defining success and then striving for it. As "groundbreaking" as this secret is, I think they are missing the point entirely. The trick to having a successful life is not simply achieving goals, but on setting the right goals. The ones that will actually make you happy. Telling someone how to do something is relatively easy, whether it's getting out of debt, losing weight, or meeting people to date. Telling them or helping them to decide which of these goals will actually make them happy is a whole heck of a lot harder. The world is full of unhappy people with great accomplishments. If someone finds the secret to that little detail I'll buy.

So yeah, just me again whining that I have no idea where I want to go and what I want to do with myself. The reason I'm not moving forward is that I have no idea where I want to go. And as tempting as it is to just keep moving and give myself an illusion that I'm on my way towards something, I think I really need to pull over and check the map. Problem being I don't know how to read my own map. What kind of professional can help you chart a path for your life and help you find your passion?

In other news, had a little e-bay spree a few weeks ago. Never bought anything on e-bay before. Quite pleased with my first attempt. A little black Tripp NYC dress that fits like a glove. Smells a little funny though. Even Anna thinks it's a bit odd. She kept coming up, sniffing the dress, then sniffing my face or hands, as if to say "gee mom, that's something real funny you rolled in there". I'll post pics of the fab new dress later, in the meantime, for the curious, here's the link to the auction.