Proud to be an American

Nothing too exciting to report at this time, but luckily I'm halfway through the work week! Yay!

I just wanted to write a post congratulating Obama after today's inauguration.  I'm wholeheartedly relieved that he's our President now.  I wish I could have seen the live inauguration, but we didn't have a TV at work. I'll have to catch later footage. But I was 'watching' via the livefeed of commentary on The Times's website.  It was funny, kind of like watching a baseball game online when it keeps updating every few minutes.  I thought it odd that when I mentioned it to my coworkers, saying how it was moving for those of us who supported Obama, they were like "Oh is it?"  ("Is it" is how they say "Oh, really?")  I thought it was odd because Britons in general are so much more politically conscious. They didn't offer to let me leave early and watch it or anything, haha.

So today I did a website review for a company.  I went to their site and took screenshots of every page, then made notes about what worked and what didn't, from a user standpoint.  I didn't think I would ever use the user feedback analyses we did for Darcy's web design class, but, lo and behold, I had to do it just a month later.  Thank God I just happened to take that (not required) class or I would have had NO clue what I was doing.  I diagrammed the site in a flowchart and added that with the formatted screenshots and notes with a cover page. Then a couple of the guys took it to their presentation. I think they were helping the client with something else and also proposing a website redesign, and needed documented notes on why it wasn't working the way it was...so I was basically glad I didn't screw it up.  

I did some 'artworking' today, too. It's NOT what it sounds like, and I'm not exactly clear on what the all-encompassing term means, but essentially I took existing templates of business cards and altered them for specific clients.  I helped Siu cut up a bunch of proofs for a client, then helped edit ("did the amends" for)some of his other docs for them.  He's making a board game with cards for--get this-- an anti-terrorist agency in the States.  It was pretty crazy.  There are good guys and bad guys or something, and they take a training course and then play the game, where they have 'missions' (whether they are the bomber or the U.S. agent, I guess) that result in a fail or success. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to go into it more but it was definitely weird.

I tried prawn cocktail potato chips today.  I remember the stores having them in Ireland but I thought the idea of shrimp flavored chips was disgusting.  Turns out they're flavored like the cocktail sauce you serve shrimp with, and not like shrimp themselves.  So not as gross as they could be, but I probably wouldn't get them intentionally again...   It's weird, because they were kind of tangy salty, like salt and vinegar, and they also have worcestershire sauce-flavored ones that are popular. Then, today, one of my coworkers was eating beans in something called "HP" sauce, which smelled vinegary. I looked it up and apparently it's a malt-vinegar-based brown sauce that has been popular in England for hundreds of years. They apparently sell different varieties in the U.S. and Canada, but I've never seen it.  Oddly enough, there's a similar condiment called HB sauce, with the same basic ingredients.  HP stood for "Houses of Parliament" and HB stood for "Henry Baines."  So it occurred to me that I have no idea which one Andy was eating.  I just know that I can't handle vinegar flavors nearly as much as the Brits.

Speaking of flavor, Doug livened things up a bit by playing Eminem in the office towards the end of the day. ("He's rather offensive, you know, but brilliant.")  He also tried to pull the "what do you get if you take the word 'best' and remove the three letters closest to the beginning of the alphabet?" thing.....and I didn't fall for it this time!! HA!  But I made the tea anyway.

Daniel might come up this weekend! Or maybe I'll go to Leeds. We'll see. 

Anyway I should probably get going, but I'll give a final shout-out to Jenny, who is 'stalking' me on this blog, and to Barack Obama, who rocks in general and for whom I have very high hopes.

g'night!