Entries Tagged 'What I’ve been doing' ↓

Meet Orange Girl – an interview

First time I’ve been interviewed for being me. It’s on the site: Meet the Gravy along with a bunch of other Xeroes and interesting people. I’ve reproduced it here below.

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So who are you anyway, and what do you do?

I’m Orange Girl. Or OG, no, not Original Gangster … I’m Xero’s Community Manager and look after all our company social media accounts and keep watch over many forums and our own Xero Business Community site. It’s one of those jobs that no-one understands and everyone wants … I mean, all I do is fluff about on Twitter and Facebook all day … right? A teenage dream?! Some think it’s really easy, others think it’s really hard, and many think they know how to do it better. I’m a digital message air-traffic controller.

What was your last job before getting into this?

I’ve been Xero’s Community Manager for almost 4 years and the 3 years before that I wrote and developed Xero’s Help Center. And before Xero I was working in a bank in NZ on a short contract as a business analyst, I was buried somewhere deep in the wholesale lending department trying to change some long-winded process involving several systems into one. Most of my working life I’ve done project management, business analysis and product documentation.

And why did you decide to do what you do now?

I like startups, those early days where you can see that what you do is useful. I’ve worked in startups with Rod (Xero CEO) before so when he and my husband Craig (Xero CTO) started talking about this idea (Xero) being the next big thing I was caught up from the start. And as the financial controller in our family the decision to take out 2 loans to invest in Xero had to run through me! I joined pretty quickly in the first few months because Rod promised there’d be orange in the brand. There is 🙂

What is it about the 60/70/80/90 that you miss most?

Knight Rider.

What is the biggest challenge facing SMEs today?

Probably the same big challenges we all face – dealing with information overload, so many choices and options and noise out there, how do you know what’s the best thing, that you’ve made the right decision and how do you know you’ve got all the information to make those decisions? How to keep up in this fast paced world where things are changing so rapidly?

Can cloud software solve that challenge, and if so how?

I’m not sure whether it helps or hinders actually! So many options and review sites and choice. However the standard cloud stuff makes it easier – no massive investment in IT and consultants, if you make the wrong software choice, move on. And of course the time savings and ability to get help – if you’re deep inside trying to make your business successful and stick out in a crowd, cloud software gives you the chance to use it where and when you need to even if that’s out of regular business hours and give others access if you need help.

If you could retire now, what would you do? Or not do?

Find something to write about about and post often on a blog or write a book.

If you could give your younger self some advice, what would it be?

Make friends with your sister. Don’t worry so much about what other people think. Speak up.

If you could buy anyone a drink in a bar and chat to them about anything, who would it be, what drink and what would you talk about?

Wow, if only I had time. Lots of people. I don’t like bars or the social pressure to drink. It’d be a coffee shop and I’d have a flat white (or equivalent). Anyway … someone who’s fascinated me over the last couple years is the person behind the San Francisco Bay Bridge Twitter account. Before moving to New York I lived in an apartment looking over the bridge and felt we became quite good friends. (This is embarrassing but I’d often get home from work, go directly to the window and say out loud “hello bridge.”) I’d love to talk to the guy about how he got into it, where he gets his intel from, and how he maintains his secret life.

If you could walk up to anyone, kick them in the shins and shout something at them, who would it be and what would you shout? Go on, get it off your chest.

I know you mean figuratively but I just don’t feel that angry towards anyone. Plus I don’t like confrontation and would be petrified they’d shout back at me. I do feel rather annoyed and let down by the people who design lingerie though – I would love the opportunity to “yell’ at Fantasie or other makers of lingerie at the ‘fuller’ end and ask why no orange? It’s not fair that those of us who can’t fit into skimpy strappy things are restricted to beige and black. Or I’d give people who shout in my direction from the safety of their keyboards a good talking to – there is a real person at the end of your tweet or forum post and I’m really truly honestly just trying to help.

If you could walk up to anyone and hug them, would would it be and why?

My best friend Leeann who I met in my second week at university. She’s the closest friend I’ve ever had and it’s just coming up on 10 years since she died. Since her passing I’ve not had another deep friendship like the one I had with her and I’ve lived my life since then with a terrible undercurrent that everyone around me is going to be taken away.

What’s your favorite meat and gravy meal?

Precooked sausages (like those you get in NZ), not gravy – Watties tomato sauce, mashed potatoes and Veuve Cliquot.

What is your greatest achievement?

My Masters of Library and Information Studies. That degree was really hard and pure determination (plus what it cost me without a student loan) saw me through to the end less about 10kgs. I wasn’t a librarian when I started out and was way out of my depth until the elective courses later in the program where I found my niche with the ‘Intro to the World Wide Web’ course (as the web was back in 1996). I was the first at my university to submit my research project as a website and I wouldn’t be where I am today if I hadn’t discovered the wonderful logical uniformity of HTML and ended up with a job out of university hand-coding and project managing websites for various NZ government organizations. Plus I have had a dream for 10 years to live in New York, I’ve worked hard to make it happen, and I’ve just arrived. That’s pretty unbelievable.

What do you want to achieve that you haven’t as yet?

Confidence. I spend too much time worrying that I’m not doing a good job and that I’m not being useful. And perhaps some me time. I’d also like to wave those orange glow-sticks and guide a 747 into the gate.

What’s next for you?

More Xero! And becoming a New Yorker.

Channeling Beckett

Stepping out for work! Boots a third the height of Beckett’s but I think I’ve seen her in this shirt!

Ready for work

Full moon

Tried to get a picture of the full moon over the bridge a couple of nights ago but it hasn’t worked very well. For all the fog and haze that hangs around the hills and bay here usually, the night sky here is just stunning at the moment. The hills over in Berkeley and Oakland are extremely clear and sharp and all the lights are very sparkly and reflective on the water. It’s a joy to come home to.

Full moon

Bridge emerging

Spent so much time on the couch today trying to relax in true Boxing Day style that we were treated to the very rare sight of the bridge emerging from the fog – firstly because it doesn’t usually get foggy in this part of town and secondly because if it does we’re usually at work during the day and miss it clearing.

It took about an hour from thick pea soup all morning to clear.

Bridge in the fog

Bridge in the fog

Bridge in the fog

Bridge in the fog

Bridge in the fog

Bridge in the fog

Bridge in the fog

Tinting time

After my New York girl time experiences I was all set to face similar issues when getting my eye lashes tinted here, however it seems it’s not such a rare occurrence and the first salon I saw in our neighbourhood does it. However they do it public style sitting up, just like New York – this time it was in a busy hair salon and really freaky.

It’s like taking some activity that’s totally private (oh I don’t know, perhaps stuff like cleaning your ears, pulling a wad of knickers from your butt, picking your nose, plucking/tweezing/waxing, bawling like a baby, picking your toenails) right out in to a public space. It took every ounce of will power (and I have a lot of that) and a whole lot of adrenaline (yuck clammy hands) to not open my eyes. Sounds simple right? Keep your eyes closed? I can’t even do that in a yoga class of 6 where I’ve been going for 3 years let alone in a busy salon, right by their waiting area, with my face pointing towards the people waiting and reflected in every mirror for people getting their hair cut to see! It’s not even that I wasn’t supposed to open my eyes, like yoga or eclipses or flashing epileptic rock band lights, it’s actually don’t open them in manner of Vampire Eric (my fav) going out into the sun light – searing burning pain the consequences of which would’ve been far more embarrassing than sitting there with eyes closed having a treatment that’s on their salon menu so everyone probably knew what was going on and was ignoring it anyway … well not that I could see!

The woman I had was very patient, she talked me through what she was doing, even though she knew I’d been doing this for quite a few years, and stayed nearby the whole time – I just bowed my head and squeezed each of my fingertips in turn in my lap and tried to visualise what each of my fingernails looked like (am not much of a visualizer either, way too practical, hence the choice of strange things to visualise) and it worked – after what felt like half an hour my eyelids stopped fluttering and I stopped sweating. I might not wear ridiculous high-heeled shoes or anything that causes blisters or stupid pinching clothes or scratchy zippers but in an act of vanity (and to stop all the comments about how tired I look) I’ll continue to put myself through this!

Fleet Week

Fleet Week brought the navy to town. There was a big frigatey thing and an aircraft carrier parked outside our apartment in the habour for a week and quite a few airshows – the noise of the Blue Angels buzzing the city was very cool – F/A-18 Hornets. We got to see some of the fly-bys and aerobatics from our apartment but most of the activity was over the Big Orange Bridge.

Fleet Week

Fleet Week

Fleet Week

Fog

We’ve seen misty fog, sometimes low over the city, but this morning was the first creeping fog we’ve seen – woke to this amazing site!

Creeping fog

A little bit more American

Today we experienced an hour of American government department to get our Social Security numbers. After the brief visit a couple of weeks ago where there was barely any wait and a lovely lady who explained we were too early, that our immigration status hadn’t flowed through to their system yet, we arrived just after 9am this morning (Monday) hoping for the same. Not so.

  • the line was outside the building to go into the foyer for security checking and they were only taking 2 people at a time through the bag scan and metal detector, several ahead of us didn’t seem to speak English so lots of short-tempered mad hand waving and strip-off motioning by the 2 guards to get them to put their stuff on the belt and walk around through the metal detector. One at a time.
  • the security guards processing the bag scan and metal detector were worse than TSA – even I had to take my jacket and watch off, I felt completely naked. I wear more through airport screening. They turned away some people in front of us – not sure why but I could lip read “you can’t bring that in here” – perhaps they had guns in their bags. We had to open our laptops and turn them on until they booted. Heart missed a beat when Craig tried to explain his battery was flat. They scanned the laptops twice.
  • the room we waited in last time probably had 50 people waiting in it, instead of the 20 that were there last time. We went to the monitor, checked in and grabbed our number, we knew the system. Now, to choose a seat – after a homeless man made the most disgusting gravelly wrenching liquid cough and (eeeeuw I feel nauseous typing this) spat up something brown on the floor then went into the bathroom to carry on coughing for a couple of minutes (magnified by all that porcelain) our seat choice was clear – way the hell over the other side of the waiting room.
  • our number was 15 away from the next one being called, and stamped on our receipt, it said “expected wait time 90 minutes”. OMG, I looked around the waiting room, 90 minutes of coughing, elderly Chinese couples who kept dozing off and missing their number being called, several homeless people (educated guess based on their carts and sleeping mats), 4 wheel chairs, several middle-aged men in army fatigues/camoflage-themed sweats with authority attitudes muttering under their breath “what gives you the right to treat me like that” (obviously had a run in with the security guard), a couple from Russia who I could see were filling out the application form all wrong and had to look up in their passports whether they should tick box ‘male’ or ‘female’, was ahead of us – it was going to be a long morning. Pulled out our cell phones. No coverage.
  • finally, after half an hour our number was called. We handed the clerk all our papers through the glass window – passports, application forms, marriage certificates, work permit – everything we had. He said hello, nodded and tapped a couple of keys on his keyboard. Then for the next TEN minutes we sat in silence while he scrolled up and down, tapped a key here and there, and stared at his screen. I was desperately trying to see the reflection in his glasses of what was on screen – I was convinced he was reading a newspaper, checking out his horoscope, sports scores or something. While we waited, I listened to everyone else’s business … no-one seemed to be there to get a social security number …
    • someone was in a custody battle over their son and the mother seemed to be taking the child out of the States, he had a court order and was denying receiving something else from the court so was trying to win a he-said-she-said argument with the clerk
    • a guy had been hepatitis free for 12 years but had some problem with his disability/medical payments and was locked in a he-said-she-said argument about which agency was responsible with the clerk
    • a young guy hadn’t paid his taxes and they’d seized his car and his momma had sent him down there
    • an elderly Chinese woman was explaining loudly to a clerk that she had a bank account, had received a hundred dollars into it but the clerk wanted proof of it, but the woman was adamant she couldn’t have proof because she’d spent the money; the clerk explained that a bank statement would show the money going into the account, but the woman said she couldn’t show the money because she’d spent it … and on and on …
    • eventually one of the guys who’d earlier been turned away at security screening came into the waiting room – what did he do? Stash his gun in a bush on 7th street?
  • after 25 minutes and finally some typing action, our clerk printed out a couple of receipts for us and after earlier only saying ‘Hello’ we said ‘yes’ when he asked us to confirm our names and addresses were correct – none of the long discussions going on at all the other windows. He said our new social security numbers would be with us in about 2 weeks. We rushed out of there.

I felt so dirty – the creaking of the metal seats, in the waiting room and in front of the clerk windows (all bolted down by the way), the coughing and the smell will haunt me for a while. I was wondering out loud about all the people we knew who live here who’ve had to go through that but The Mister pointed out that if you’re born here you get your number then so perhaps I’ve experienced something special that most Americans don’t get to experience. I want to live and work here – this is part of it, part of becoming a little bit more American. God I hope we don’t have to renew these numbers like we have to for everything else official we’ve got – we didn’t hang around to ask!

Playing house

With our first visitors due to arrive this weekend we set about assembling the sofa bed – which arrived in a very thin box from Ikea and was to miraculously transform into a sofa which transforms into a bed!

Ikea is an expert at DIY – everything comes flat-packed or shrink-wrapped and you’re to assemble it yourself – and because of that you don’t need your own tools. Bonus! We don’t have a mixing bowl, frying pan or iron, let alone a screw driver. Ikea assembly also requires you to interpret pictures – box-sofa-bed transformations certainly needed consultation with the instruction manual but it contained no words, only pictures. Before we set out I held up the instructions for The Mister to see and pointed pointedly at the first picture and translated for him – “don’t be a hero and huff and puff and shove things around and do the whole thing yourself and jam your finger and get shitty, get a helper and together you’ll smile and get it done.”

New sofa bed

Yes, I agreed to be the helper and not the instructor so he could retain his man card 🙂 Off we went following the pictures. No parts left over and everything went how it should including some fairly complex bracket and spring thingies that are the transformation mechanism for sofa to bed to couch. And we were smiling proudly by the end of it!

Get all the pieces ready …

New sofa bed

Bed bit done – flash too – it’s a slat bed … complete with complex bracket screw thing expertly attached with tiny allen key and spanner!

New sofa bed

A couch …

New sofa bed

A bed …

New sofa bed

While we were playing house we also arranged some other bits and pieces we’d collected while out. Two very cool orange baskets I’m using as fruit baskets from Crate and Barrel – love that store, so much orange stuff!

Orange fruit baskets

The Mister reckons the apartment has definitely got an orange glow to it now.

We also discovered The Container Store – oh my god – floors of nothing but mostly plastic storage stuff – coat hangers, office supplies, laundry baskets, wardrobe shelving, all sorts of hanging/sliding/under bed storage for small pokey places, rubbish bins … you get the idea. One thing I wanted was something to keep all the bottles of stuff in that we use in the shower – being a shower over a bath, shampoo and face stuff was beginning to pile up around the edges of the bath and it’s SO annoying when you’re trying to clean around it. The shower head offered no ability to hang a basket type thing over it so we looked at the suck-on canister things. I was a bit dubious though, with heavy bottles of shampoo I thought whatever we got would slide down the wall. But enter the ‘super sucker’ – big suction cups and a kind of clipping mechanism so it uses it’s own weight to maintain suck – it’s brilliant! And very sturdy.

Super sucker container

New York jigsaw

It’s finished! After a start that went nowhere much back in early March when I found the edge pieces and Sara joined up one side, we’ve picked it up again over the last 2 weeks – it looks great!

It was so cool doing the first layer that had some street and building names – knew straight away which part of the puzzle to go to.

New York jigsaw

New York jigsaw

The middle layer was pretty quick and formed the foam base for the buildings to fit in.

New York jigsaw

Putting in the buildings was quite time consuming – some had unusual bases otherwise there were a lot of square and rectangle buildings to put in and the little plastic replicas often not so easy to recognise.

New York jigsaw

New York jigsaw

It’s been very cool the last week as more buildings have been put in, coming up the stairs to the first thing you see in the lounge being the coffee table with New York at eye level.