zahnster

With my recent announcement that I’ll soon be leaving Zenbe and the comforts of New York City for a dream job with Apple (and warmer climates), I kick off what I know will be a truly exciting year.

In celebration of this, and in light of many others’ posts about their new year’s goals, I present my own list of goals that I will be striving for in 2009.

1. Become financially prosperous
Raised by a single mother, I come from a very working class background. As a child, I watched my mom fight to stay afloat in the financial waters, running into things like unemployment, gender equality, and the general obstacles of life. When I grew up, I knew that I’d have to work my ass off to make it in this world, and my hard work and perseverance are starting to pay off. This year, my primary focus will be on saving money and making investments which will help ensure a financially prosperous future.

2. Have more adventures
This is actually going to be a pretty attainable goal for this year. As I am going to be working remote for a while, part of my money-saving strategy includes moving back home – and home for me just happens to be Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. My dad and stepmom have a well-established life there, having been there since 1999 selling real estate, and by going back, not only will I gain massive benefits from Mexico’s low cost of living, but I will be able to go on tons of adventures and weekend road trips. Mexico is a seriously beautiful country, filled with jungles, mountains, rivers, and valleys, and exploring them has been something I’ve dreamed about for a long time.

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In my last post, I mentioned how I felt a bit underwhelmed at the coding practices behind the new msnbc.com website. Judging by the majority of the response (and the ‘web elite’ response at that), I have no idea what I’m talking about. Doctypes apparently are throwaway items in standards-based web development, and using TextMate automatically makes you a web expert.

I admit that I could have been a bit more tactful with some of my previous comments, but I did compliment the design, and I am still very impressed with it. However, even after the explanations and the excuses about 10 year old code and CMS limitations, something doesn’t sit right with me. I can’t quite put my finger on it, and I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but I feel like the front-end development on the site could have been executed better.

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This morning I woke up to my friend Kelly calling me and telling me that all downtown trains were closed. Apparently, a huge storm ripped through the city (I must have been tired – I slept right through it) and this morning, for the first time ever, I experienced how the city completely falls apart when Subway service fails to run. Busses were packed like sardine cans, and cabs – cabs were nonexistent. You had to be good to find a Cab.

I’m at work right now, walked about 60 blocks this morning to get here – I’m just nervous about how the commute home is going to go. With a heat index of over 100 degrees, I really hope that a walk home is not required.

Have you ever been talking about someone and then you turn around and realize the person you were talking about is standing right there?

That happened to me today, but in New York fashion, the person I was talking about was David Hyde Pierce.

So the story goes like this – My company’s clients are largely made up of Broadway musicals, so as I mentioned before, there are certain perks involved. After seeing The Color Purple the other night, it really got me in the mood to see more shows, and in no time I’ve gotten a short list of “Must see’s”.

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Last night I went and saw The Color Purple, and I can’t even begin to express how amazed I was by the show. I had never been to a Broadway production before, and it blew me away, the talent, the sets – everything. I’ve turned into such an American Idol sellout, but Fantasia had such a wonderful performance, and it’s great to see that she’s kicking some ass in the Entertainment world.

And, this is really cool, I was sitting right next to Sherri Shepherd. Of course I was a retard and had no idea that she was famous until the people were lining up for autographs. I must say that she’s one of those honestly good people; we chatted for a while when I was all alone and quite frankly a bit intimidated by the lights and the rush of the people ushering in, and it was really nice to have someone to talk to.

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Ok, this is probably the most obvious statement in the world (to anyone that knows me, at least) but I’m a huge fan of NBC’s The Office, and in particular, the story of the receptionist, Pam Beesley.

Since the start of the series, she’s been the sweet, downtroddden girl – the quiet wallflower of the office. Once you get to know her character, you can understand why. She’s had a very contained life – same boyfriend since high school, same job for years. If you’re in a situation like that, you get used to the flow of things and they start to become standard. It’s easy to ‘forget’ how to fight back, how being ‘alright’ with how life is going can be a blanket of security, and you hide behind it rather than pursue what it is you would really like.

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I’m one of those people who think that all blogs should have an introductory post – one which summarizes what the blog will be about and gives a little information about the author.

So here we go. My name is Jade Rauenzahn and I’m a web developer. By day I work for MindComet, an interactive advertising agency in Maitland, FL, where I’m constantly challenged to come up with new concepts and web solutions. It’s fun, and it keeps me on my toes.

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