At work, lots of perks and no jerks

I'm enjoying myself at Network Solutions so far. It's only my first week, but I already like this place a lot. The culture is very friendly here, and this NetSol location is rapidly growing. From what I hear, it's mostly guys here, but the group of new hires that I'm in has only one guy. Not that he's complaining. :P

I've been hired as a designer for the Standard web design team. Basically I work on a lot of web sites for individuals or small to mid-sized businesses. The usual turnout rate for a standard package is only a couple of days. All the code is handled without my need to touch it unless there's some customization requested by the client. This is good, as it should help me concentrate more on the actual layout design. Hello, Adobe.

One of the new hires hinted me to www.sxc.hu, which is a free resource for stock photography. People can share their photos and others can download what they need. At least I won't have to come out of pocket for great photos to use whether for myself or for someone else.

Time to go. My lunch break is over, so it's back to training. Can you believe I actually have a final exam? D:

Job get! *Da na na naaaaaaa!*

I've been hired by Network Solutions as a web designer. The interview went very well yesterday. The lady who interviewed me told me she'd get back to me in a few days, but she called back today with the salary offer and other documents I needed to fill out. Sweet! No more credit card debt, I can buy a new car, and I can save up to buy or rent a place of my own...life is good right now. ^__^

Publish your Blogger blog to Livejournal (Part 2)

Testing the Blogger-to-Livejournal cross-posting technique I posted about previously. It should work. If you have a mailing list and it uses Blogger's BlogSend Address setting, you may just have to cross-post to your LJ blog the long way. The method I found out is supposed to be a "set it and forget it" method. Here's to hoping, eh?

EDIT: It works! Blogger2LJ cross-posting is a success.

Publish your Blogger blog to Livejournal

I've wanted a way to post this blog's entries in it's own separate LJ blog, not my personal LJ, because it can increase readership. I don't have many LJ friends, but if I did, then I would like to accommodate their desire to not have to leave their LJ comfort zone to view what's going on in my life.

I pay for this site, so it would make sense to make use of it. That and I like using Blogger more than LJ. Atom and RSS feeds are available here for anyone to subscribe, but there's no way to add a feed reader to a LJ account. I've read that it's prohibited to use embedding tags and javascript in one's layout. If I wanted to broadcast my RSS feed to my LJ account, I'd have to upgrade to "Paid" status. Not that it's needed. All you need is a LJ Plus account the current email address you use for your Blogger account.

Since this is about appeasing your LJ friends, I assume you already have a LJ account. If you don't have one, make an account and make sure that it's a "Plus" account. LJ members with basic accounts can't email entries to their blogs via email.

1) Go to the "Mobile Post" settings page of your LJ, and under "Allowed sender addresses", add the email address you associate with your Blogger account (it's in your "permission" settings if you've forgotten).

2) Under "PIN", create a pin number that is NOTHING like any password or PIN you've ever created. You don't want people guessing your LJ password based on your PIN number. If they do, they will gain control of your blog. Jot down the PIN just in case you forget it.

3) Change any of the Default settings to your liking. click "Save Settings". Now your Mobile settings are complete. Your LJ email address will look something like this: "username@post.livejournal.com", substituting "username" for your own LJ name of course.

4) Now remember the PIN you've created? You need this in order to post to your LJ blog via email. To do this, you'll need to either put the PIN in your email's subject, body, or in your LJ email address like this: username+PIN@post.livejournal.com (the "+" sign is needed). I don't suggest using the PIN inside of the subject or body.

NOTE: The subject and body of the email are the same as the subject and body of your Blogger blog post. If you put the PIN in either the subject of body of your blog post, the PIN will show up for the public to see in your Blogger blog, and that's not what you want. Use your LJ PIN inside your LJ email address for better security.

5) Copy your LJ email address (including the PIN). Go to your Blogger blog's "Email" settings. In the BlogSend Address box, paste the LJ email address. Save your settings.

6) Make a test blog post to your Blogger blog and publish it.

If it turns up at your LJ blog, then congratulations! You've successfully bypassed the need to pay Livejournal for web site feed broadcasting. All of your LJ friends can see what you're up to whether you post at Livejournal or at your Blogger blog. If it doesn't show up at Livejournal, then check your settings to make sure everything is right.

My bank hasn't been good to me.

Or my mom for that matter. Yesterday my mother asked me to pay our home's electric bill at the supermarket. I said "Whoa. Why pay money just to pay your bill? Why not use the online banking?". She explained she didn't have time to go to the bank to deposit it and the $1 extra to process the payment would go to her gas tank anyway. So I complied and paid the bill. All was well, except for the fact that my mother's story was half-assed.

Today Mom told me she got into it with the bank teller about cashing her check against her savings in order to deposit the money into her checking account. The teller told Mom that she can't do that. My mother told her that she could and always have without complications. The teller told her that the check have to be one from our bank in order to be cashed and then deposited. Upset, my mother told her it was none of the her business (putting it lightly, Mom cussed the lady) what she does with the cash she now has in her hands, and if she wanted to put it in her checking account, then she can do so. She didn't bother to get the manager, but she was so upset, she just left the branch.

I don't know where such a policy would come from, but I don't know if I can call bullshit on its existence either. I've been through the same situation, except I didn't argue with the tellers. I can't say for sure it's policy, because it's occurred at the same branch. If it's policy to not deposit cash from checks that are not from the same bank, then the tellers should explain WHY. There was no "why" for me or my mom. Maybe they have a problem with people bringing in bad checks, but there are other ways to deal with that already. There's no need for the bank to inconvenience customers who may need their checks to be cashed in order to have money in their accounts for bills.

I'm sort of glad that I applied to work at Convergys. The place may be crap, but at least they understand the convenience of direct deposit. Not like it matters. The bank I'm doing business with now may lose it soon. Seriously, they've literally took my money (only $4.26 but still MINE) and they keep charging me $5.00 every month out of my savings just so I can have savings. I'm debating getting rid of the savings account altogether.

What bank am I talking about? I've decided not to say unless it pisses me off more. If I find that the "policy" doesn't exist, I will be back to edit this blog entry. The next time someone Googles the bank's name, this blog may pop up in the results.