Welshmnky

Memories of ND

2007-03-12T15:50:00.000-04:00

Things I will miss at ND besides my friends:

Old Senile men who say "I love you" when you help them change your password.
The lady who brings in doughnuts after every time we help her with anything.
Answering the phone and the person saying "Oh nevermind, I got it." and hanging up.
Things all of a sudden working as soon as I'm on the phone with someone.
Weird people with the she-mullett who wonder why they're treated like criminals when they break a gate, and then talk really loud in the help desk.
Weird people in general.
Paranoid Schizophrenics.

Things I will NOT miss at ND:

People who think emailing in every day will make us change a policy.
People who don't understand we don't make policy.
"Do you know who I am?" mentality.
People that will not be satisfied.
a "Culture of Ignorance".
People who's first language isn't English.
Supporting home users who use dial-up.
"Sorry, I'm Computer Illiterate, so don't try to teach me anything. Ever.
Fear of new things and new ways of doing things. ie, people still using Eudora complaining when we encourage them to upgrade to Outlook or Thunderbird.
Paranoid Schizophrenics.

OIT Help Desk Loses it's Voice

2007-03-06T13:29:00.000-05:00

That's right it's official. March 23rd will be the last day for the so-called "Voice of the Help Desk" here at Notre Dame. I'll be moving on to bigger and better things. Of all the places I have ever worked, this was by far my favorite. These were the first people that I've ever wanted to spend time with AFTER work; the first group of people I looked forward to seeing every day; and the first coworkers I really actually cared about. I'm also leaving the best manager I've ever had. She's fair, and a good leader. She sticks up for the people who work under her, and tries to improve us as well. I will sorely miss working at Notre Dame.

Starting March 26th I'll be working at GCC as part of their IT team. I'll be supporting approximately 80 users and about 200 computers. My main responsibilities will be Help Desk related but my job will eventually be very project heavy, which I love. Everyone I've talked to at GCC is excited that I'm coming, and they all say it's a great place to work. I'll be joining a team unlike anything I've ever been a part of.

I'm a little conflicted emotionally right now. I'll be leaving behind a great group of people and friends, but I'll be joining something amazing. I'll have the chance to help move a church that is already reaching people in our area to bigger and greater things.

The days are getting longer, and I'm getting more and more excited.

2007-03-01T15:14:00.000-05:00

Rock Hudson? Yeah. I'm that good looking :-p

Valumtimes Day

2007-02-14T09:30:00.000-05:00

That image btw is from www.4colorrebellion.com I like it, and I laughed a lot. Jeanette would appreciate it. Check out the site, they have a few other video game inspired valentines.

Well if you haven't seen the new Teen Girl Squad you can do so here: http://www.homestarrunner.com/tgs12.html . It's Valentinerrific... er somethin.

This is my first Valentines Day as a married man. Lemme tell ya, it's different. Jeanette asked me the other day what we had planned for tonight, and i told her "Sorry hon, you're not dating an independently wealthy poor manager of money." I can't just spend like a hundred dollars on flowers chocolate, fancy dinner, card, and other love typed things. So I've been forced to be a bit more frugal, and a bit more creative. What can you do with $38 to make a great Valentines day? Well, I made it work. I of course got her flowers. Those are required, but I also got her some... well I can't say yet because she hasn't gotten them yet. It's gonna be a good evening.

I like being married :-D

A Few Thoughts

2007-02-06T11:57:00.000-05:00

Women should not smell like raisins. No matter how cold it is.

Lean Pockets are just as good as Hot Pockets.

If you're told enough times by enough people; you'll eventually begin to believe you're Excellent at something.

Krunchers are THE best chips ever. Of All time. I can't get enough.

"No is always an acceptable answer."

"Thank you" is the correct answer to praise.

The Wii

2006-12-18T08:39:00.000-05:00

Yup that's right. Kyle has a Wii. (Yes please make jokes about the name... that is SOOOO not over done :-) ) Sunday morning I went and stood in line at EB Games on the south side of South Bend from 7am to 10am in hopes of purchasing one. When i got there there were two other ladies in front of me; one had been there since 3am and the other since 5am. They were really nice ladies and we talked a lot during our
long wait. Over time more people came and joined our line and by about 8:30 there were approximately 15 people in the line. Jeanette showed up around that time with some Hot Apple Cider for me (which was oooh so appreciated!) and she brought homemade cookies for everyone in the line! Most of the people in line took a cookie and even after Jeanette left they commented over and over about how great the cookies were and how much they appreciated her doing that. It was cool to hear people say things like that. I get to stand there beaming and thinking "Yup, that's my wife."
At about 9am the EB employee (We'll call him "Chris") showed up and let us know that they had 6 Wii's and handed out pieces of paper with our number in line to the first 6 of us (I was third!) and told us that they'd be opening a few minutes before 10am for those of us that had been waiting; so with the extra time, I went home and took a nice hot shower before heading back to make the purchase. I actually ended up getting the first one out of the box, and paid for it with the $180 of store credit that I had accrued from selling my xbox, gamecube and a bunch of games and controllers, and some money that I had been saving so I could buy one.
After about 20 minutes of unpacking and half an hour of updates (yeah that's right, I hooked it up to my wireless router and downloaded updates for my wii) I finally got a chance to play it.

Awesome. It comes with Wii Sports, which has Tennis, Baseball, Bowling, Boxing, and Golf. I played Bowling first, and found that Jeanette is a better bowler than I am (she got a strike right off the bat, where for me for some reason, my ball always went left right before hitting the pins!). It turns out though, that I am REALLY good at Boxing! The other games are each difficult in their own ways, but they're all a lot of fun. I finished playing after about an hour and a half and my arms were SORE. This is totally the most enjoyable workout I've ever done. I'm hoping to pick up a second controller today so that we can start playing some two player, because man... this thing is FUN!

Stranger than Fiction

2006-11-13T14:13:00.000-05:00

There are very few movies that I go crazy for, but let me tell you... This was an EXCELLENT movie. Jeanette and I saw it Sunday afternoon, and while we went in expecting another post-modern reminder that life is depressing and man is depraved, we left feeling good and loving the characters.

I won't spoil the plot any more than the previews give away but the idea is that Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) finds that someone is writing a story about his life and his impending death and he can hear the narration. Will Ferrell plays a quiet predictable IRS Agent who falls in love with one of the people he audits played by Maggie Gyllenhaal. Emma Thompson plays Kay Eiffel a writer who always kills the heroes in her stories and Queen Latifah plays her undesired assistant Penny Escher who, interestingly enough could have been played by anyone. The role wasn't a largely necessary one, other than it gave Emma Thompson someone to talk to, so I found it interesting that she would take such a small part, but she did a great job none the less. Dustin Hoffman plays Professor Jules Hilbert, a literature expert, who helps Crick figure out the type of story that he's in.

That's all I can give you without explaining too much, but it was a breath of fresh air to see BIG Names in Hollywood (Hoffman, Thompson, Ferrell) make an actual feel good movie that not only is funny, but has some great themes and morals to it.

I give this movie 2 Thumbs WAY up and like 4 stars or whatever it is they rate movies with.

Tags: Stranger than Fiction, Ferrell, Thompson, Hoffman, movies, review

Not Dead Just Sucky

2006-11-06T11:34:00.000-05:00

So after spending some time with Jeff this weekend, I kinda got a inadvertant kick in the pants about my blog suckiness. Honestly it's not that I don't want to post, its more that if I DO post I don't have anything to talk to Jeanette about when I get home because I've already got it off my chest before I see her. As a man I have very little to talk about as it is. I've considered quitting the blog all together, because I may have a total of 4 people who ever check my site including my mom, but I'd like to instead be reborn as something legit. I'm currently trying to decide what "legit" means for Welshmnky, whether it will be a life blog, a topical blog, some type of random blog or maybe something different entirely.

Change or die, but I can't stay the same.

Tags: blog, future

2006-09-20T08:22:00.001-04:00

Another shot

2006-09-20T08:22:00.000-04:00

Double rainbow at nd this morning!

The Horse Joke

2006-09-14T14:52:00.000-04:00

Kyle 3 years ago in 2003 Telling the greatest joke ever

Hair

2006-09-12T10:02:00.000-04:00

Ok, like... I'm not gonna blame this on Jeanette, but it's TOTALLY her fault.
Probably.

Ever since I've started to get to know her, which was almost 2 years ago, I've started getting hair in and on my ears. I never had any problems with ear hair, or nose hair or anything like that until "Jeanette" came along and now all of a sudden. BAM I have to like trim ear hair. What the HECK is that all about? It's weird man.
Now sure, I'd expect this if I were one of those guys covered in body hair (The Sleeveless Sweater) sure I could understand having to deal with it, but believe me... I aint one of those guys!

I don't know what she's putting in the food but... Is it worth it?
(above photo is not a recent photo of me, I stole it from the internet somewhere...)

Computer Illiterate

2006-09-11T12:21:00.000-04:00

Today for the 926th time someone came in our office and claimed to be "Computer Illiterate." I find it amusing that so many of these "Computer Illiterate" people know the term "Computer Illiterate." How in the world did they get a hold of this term, EXCEPT from the Internet? I watch a lot of TV, and I am yet to find a show that calls people computer illiterate (in fact you usually find good examples of people being able to use the computer to do all kinds of stuff on TV... Even things that aren't necessarily possible... But any way) I suppose that it could be word of mouth, but how would a term like that propagate itself so quickly? I dunno... Moving on.

I was talking to a coworker about it and we've decided it's just an excuse for sustaining your ignorance. "I can be dumb as long as I know how to label myself."

You'll never hear a mentally retarded person say, "Oh, I'm sorry I can't do that because I'm retarded as you can probably tell. Do it for me okay?" Of course not!! They try extremely hard to learn and to adjust and to get better. These people however are simply comfortable knowing nothing and don't want to learn when you try to teach them something as simple as creating a password.

No, I'm not exaggerating.

We had to explain to a 45yr old man how to create a password. This is not an ignorant man, it's a man who doesn't want to learn to do things for himself.

Some people just want you to give them the fish and then claim your fishing lessons are too technical. Even when the first step is pointing at the water and saying "The fish are in there."

Chicken Rub

2006-09-10T13:22:00.000-04:00

I am known for a lot of things, but one thing that most people don't know about me is that I LOVE to grill. Today at lunch I branced out for the first time into rubs. A rub is either a paste or just a mixture of spices that you (believe it or not) "rub" into the meat. Allow me to share with you the great recipe that I used today.

Herb Rub
combine 2 teaspoons dried rosemary, 2 teaspoons dried thyme, 2 teaspoons dried minced onion, 2 teaspoons FRESH minced garlic, 1 teaspoon salt, 3/4 teaspoon black pepper.
Enough for 5 lbs. of meat Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook

Rub that a couple chicken breasts, then grill them on medium heat, about 10min on the first side and 5 on the other side. When the juice runs white, take them off the grill and serve them with buttered corn on the cob and lemonade.

D.E.A. Licious.

Took a little while to get the rub all mixed together, but MAN was it worth it! That was the best smelling food I've ever taken off my grill!

2006-09-10T11:37:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the white bandana

2006-09-08T16:53:00.000-04:00

2006-08-25T13:35:00.000-04:00

toothpastefordinner.com

Beta

2006-08-21T08:23:00.000-04:00

Check it out! I'm Beta now!!!

You can be Beta too... Web 2.0 Logo Creator

2006-08-16T10:33:00.000-04:00

Me and tayla

The mind of an artist...

2006-08-04T21:19:00.000-04:00

Nothing great that is ever created by man comes out perfect on the first try. An artist knows this and is undaunted. Hours are spent fine tuning, honing skill. Patiently, persistently pressing on they spend hours and hours at their craft, forsaking all other pursuits, their art becomes their world. They don't go out when their friends want them to, they don't always catch this week's episode of "Popular Reality Show" They somehow missed it and don't seem to care too very much. Their art is their baby, and they'll tell you about it if you really want to know about it, sometimes they brag about it, but usually it comes with a second half where they point out how they failed in this and this and this, but they made it work here here and here. Artists are fighters, their enemy often times is their own skill, or the very media they work with; but with every failure comes pending success... and with every success, comes learning, and a new step is made, the art becomes clearer, it becomes better. Failure is never failure, it's a chance to improve the skill. An artist never approaches their media and tries to be the greatest at what they do. An artist pours himself out on the media and shows what they truly are.

My parents are artists, though they might not admit it themselves.

My dad is a gardener, and every year his garden is something new, something bigger, something cooler. This year he's found a way to almost completely eliminate weeds from the entire garden. The next year, he's designed a watering system that runs on a timer and he builds it himself. The year after that he's created a climbing tomato "tree" that's 20 feet tall that the tomatoes will climb, and pole beans will climb the 4 suspension wires. His strawberries are in a tiered area of the garden that he designed to minimize weeds, and help to hold water better. Will they give many strawberries this year? No, but next year... we'll be eating strawberries every night!

My mom will be surprised to read this, but she's an artist too ("Oh, I'm not an artist, I just follow a pattern!"). My mom makes quilts. My mom makes GORGEOUS quilts. for our wedding she made us this blue and yellow quilt that we proudly show off to everyone who visits our apartment. She spent months cutting tiny pieces of fabric that she had spent weeks picking out from different fabric stores, then she began the even more tedious job of piecing it all together. She could probably look at this quilt and see every mistake she made, but we see only beauty. This is something we'll be proud of for the next 50 years. My son will probably spill grape juice on it climbing in to bed with us. And even with a giant purple stain, we'll still put it on our bed and be proud of it. It's that great of a quilt.

I'm an artist in my own way I guess. I act and write some, but not as well as my parents do their things. But I'm still young and developing my skills. I hope to be as great as they are when I'm their age.

Tags: artist, gardening, quilting, pensive

Tuesday or wednesday or whatever...

2006-08-03T13:32:00.000-04:00

A representative from Microsoft just came to ND to show us all the wonders of Windows Vista. An hour and a half later i walked out with a free copy of Vista Beta 2 Ultimate and I'll get Release Canidate 1 when it comes out later this month. I'm trying to upgrade my work machine to Vista now to give it a real shot. It's taking forever to do which is kinda weird, but whatever I guess, I've got nowhere to go for 3 more hours.

Amazing Race Bachelor Party this weekend for 2 of my good friends, Derek is getting married next weekend, and Levi next month; both to beautiful women that I have a lot of respect for. It's really cool to see everybody gettin hooked up.

Oom Bop.

And then there were Two

2006-07-25T10:44:00.000-04:00

Ladies, gentlemen... Children of all your ages....

I'm married.

A month ago yesterday we tied the ole proverbial knot and began our life together. Allow me to share some G Rated observations of the past month

Sharing a bed with a girl is harder than you think. They are TOTAL blanket hogs!!
The aforementioned blanket hogs will accuse you of snoring if you say anything about them taking all the blanket.
Coming home to a wife who's missed you all day is sooo much better than a house full of guys or even a dog.
Laying with her head on my chest is the most peaceful place in the world.
Getting up in the morning is easier because i have someone to push me out of bed, but at the same time, she's really cute and snuggly and I don't want to get out of bed.
She is smarter than me in a lot of ways.
I can still beat her at Mario Party 7 though.

Bein married is seriously the coolest thing I've ever done. Words can't express the complete change in thinking I've been undergoing over the past 31ish days. It's like I now exist as 2 humans... I have two mouths to feed, two people to clean up after, people to protect, to provide for, to encourage, to take care of in every way I used to have to take care of myself. But the best part is, I don't have to do it all! She takes care of 2 people now two! It's so weird, but it's so perfect.

I'm no expert at marriage or nothin yet, so I won't try to impart wisdom to all of you married people out there, because... well, I'm new, but to those of you who aren't married yet... Be Careful. Get the right girl. Don't just marry someone who makes you feel good. Find a good person.
oh and talk.
Talk about everything.

No really, talk about everything. (Best marriage advice I've been given yet. From my friend Dustin Sahlhoff)

Caviezel

2006-06-22T12:26:00.000-04:00

'nuff said

Processing...

2006-04-16T22:11:00.000-04:00

*paces*
What do I stand for? Do I stand for morals and ethics all the time? Or can they be cast aside for the sake of a great storyline? Can my integrity be bought for so cheap a price? Do I stand for "Art for Art's sake?" Willing to stare into the darkness that is Man's soul because I am an artist/actor and I get something from seeing the depths to which a man's soul can fall? Why do movies like this appeal to me? Why do they appeal to guys in general? Sleven, Fight Club, Rounders... the list goes on. Twist-stories that go back years and years to the days of Hitchcock and others who twist their readers/watchers around on themselves and see not just a person who could do something like this, but the potential in your own soul. I loved these movies, not because they stood for what I want to stand for but because in a sick small way I related to them. I know my sin, I know how quickly a person can go from sane to insane at the suggestion of a glance. I watch people, I learn them, and these movies give me a deeper view into people's lives who are depraved and open, like a carcass with it's ribs split in front of me. I can't look away because I'm fascinated. I want to know what's in there, regardless of what it's surrounded by or how it's presented in front of me.

*stops and stares into camera*
But at what cost.
Fight Club had a blurred sex scene, Sleven had 3 that were far from blurred. the movie had 3 freakin porn scenes! We looked away 3 times instead of walking out, because the storyline was THAT good. When sex scenes go from two people under a sheet staring at eachother, to a pair of naked people in front of you doing things that I can't even say in front of my fiancee... we've gone too far. I almost went and saw this with her and her parents on opening night! Watching a movie like that myself is bad, watching it with the woman i love, worse, but going with your father and mother inlaw? HOLY CRAP.
Naw, I can't do this anymore.

Look, I know hollywood isn't reading my blog, no one does for the most part, and I'm fine with that, but I'm not gonna see movies like this anymore. I don't want that stuff in my head. That might sell movies to some people, but not to me. Not anymore. I'm trying to be different. I mean that sentence both ways. I'm done with darkness. I'm done. If I have to watch kids movies and romantic comedies for the rest of my life so be it.
*walks out and shuts the door*

Pause...

*door creaks back open, sticks his head in*
hollywood, if you ARE there - make good movies again. Sleven will be a flash in the pan, it's just like 98% of the other crap out there. Napoleon Dynamite gained insane following, not because of sex(none) profanity(none) crude jokes/innuendos(none) murders(none) but because it had endearing characters people related to, great dialogue, catchphrases people STILL (annoyingly admittedly) won't stop saying, and a terrificly simple story.
Bring me back in hollywood. bring me back in.
Come back to excellence again.
Please

*shuts door*

The Neighbors

2006-03-29T10:25:00.000-05:00

Jeanette and I have very... "interesting" neighbors.
First we'll start with my neighbors, because they're not as cool as hers.
Across the hall there is the "Frog Lady" and her husband, Mr. Frog Lady. Don't ask why we call her that, we just have for a long time. They're pretty loud all the time, and they leave their trash in the hall which stinks up the hall like old beer and stinky cheese. The frog lady is also in some unseen way handicapped. She has requested 2 "reserved parking" spots in front of our building for her 1 car. I think she works at Martins. Every morning when I go out to my jeep they sit in their car in the reserved spot and stare at me... just kinda watchin me.
Above me there's the young couple. I never noticed them until one night when i went to bed late and they were above me... umm, being a young couple. They have a baby that cries EVERY night. Last night the baby was crying and the guy was in the bedroom watching TV and as the baby cried he turned the TV up. Classy. Ignore your baby. I think the TV is a new addition to the bedroom, since I've never noticed it before.
As I walk into my building the first door just down the stairs ALWAYS has the TV on. I can come home at 3pm or 3am and any time in between... the TV is ALWAYS on.

Jeanettes lives in a building on the other side of our apartment complex, and things are even MORE interesting. Walking into her building 7 out of 10 days it smells like marijuana.
Downstairs and across the hall lives a guy who was in my dorm my senior year who was a missing person because he just left one day and never came back to school or the dorm, for like 3 months.
Across the hall from Jeanette she gets someone new every 6 months, she's had druggies (who she made friends with) an army chick (who she actually was in a Masters class with) and now a relatively normal couple.
In her building is also a creepy old guy who she says smells like pot and who has asked her out on dates on multiple occasions.
There's an African guy who comes around occasionally who wants Jeanette to meet his brother or something. VERY scary.
Above Jeanette and across is a new young couple. We first noticed them about a week or two ago on a friday night. We were in the middle of a semi-serious discussion when we heard the pounding. This was then followed by other sounds. We stopped talking and listened for a few minutes... and yeah... yeah, they were doin it. We giggled a little and went back about our convesation. The Sunday morning after that... yup, again. It's not really annoying, just kinda loud. and frequent.
And THEN directly above her apartment ANOTHER young couple who apparently will not be outdone. We've taken to turning the stereo on when they're being... noisy. We've found it's important to have a station with lots of bass.

People are weird. I'm glad I'm not one of em.

Technorati Tags: apartments, neighbors

Technorati Tags: apartments, neighbors

A Man

2006-03-28T13:36:00.000-05:00

a man comes into Walgreens to pickup his 17 prescriptions. He's about 55 or 60. 17 prescriptions is a LOT of medication.

"That's about 2200 dollars worth of medication there. A small price for life" "Wow. That is a lot."
"I just had a heart transplant, I drive up here to see my doctor, and then i have to drive back to Fort Wayne."
"That's a long drive."
"Yup." (he smiles)
"That'll be $50 for your prescriptions"
"Here ya go."
"Have a good day."

"They all are." (he smiles and walks away)

Technorati Tags: inspiration, Walgreens

If you're wondering where I've gone

2006-03-20T10:44:00.000-05:00

okay seriously.
you need to post more.
my wedding is 8 days away kyle.
8 days and still i find the time to post.

She's right, i should post more. but as to where I've gone, allow me to explain. Since the last time I've posted, I've started a new job at Walgreens picking up some extra hours, working weekends and Monday nights. Starting March 1st I started my training and worked every evening from 5 to 10 after working 8 to 5 at ND, and worked 9 to 6 on Saturday and Sunday until March 13th. If you're counting hours worked there that's about 178 hours straight working (I did have Thursday night's off because of dance lessons, but still). Needless to say... that'll tire a fella out. So yes, I've been a bit busy.

I'm on a "regular" schedule now, I work 9 to 6 Saturday and Sunday and then 5 to 10 on Monday's and I'll do this until the end of May. That'll help pay for some of the stuff I need to pay for for this wedding deal we've got comin up. Jeanette's telling her boss today that she's not coming back next year, She's a little worried about how he'll react, but at the same time, excited to finally have it "out there" and not have to hide how she feels about her job anymore. So we're excited about that.

Life is hard and good right now.

The Doomed Post worked!!

2006-02-17T16:24:00.000-05:00

I did it!!
By posting the toilet post before i had a job, they were FORCED to offer me the job TODAY!!!

I start FULL time March 1st!!

Six months later, I have the job that was coming "Any day now"

Thank you God.

technorati tags: Job

Doomed Post??

2006-02-13T12:58:00.000-05:00

Since graduating from college I've had 3 jobs. Durring my tenure at each of my two past jobs I have in some way written about the bathroom, and then in the next few months my position has been eliminated. In my current job i don't technically have a position to eliminate so maybe this will push them to create one for me.

So here we go.

In the office where I work, to get to the bathroom, we (both men and women) are forced to walk past the Coffee Room. It's just a tiny room with a coffee pot some cupboards and a sink; and yet, while it serves it's purpose of providing coffee to those who choose to drink it, it has another effect as well. A constant smell of old wet coffee grounds permeates the entire area around the bathroom doors. It reminds me of what it smells like if you dump your coffee grounds into a trashbag, then tie it closed, then two days later open it and stick your head inside.

I can bear the smell. Seriously, it's not all that bad. However I'm afraid it's going to eventually cause some sort of Pavlovian response where anytime I smell old coffee I'm gonna have to pee. I'm more concerned about this everytime I walk past there. I've started holding my breath, just to keep it from being engrained in my head tying urination and old coffee together. Sure right now you might think this silly but imagine the possibilities.

Weeks from now while driving around the back of Starbucks, I feel a strange pressure on my bladder.

Months from now while in Barnes and Noble, in the midst of ordering my usual Carmel Vanilla Mocha Frappaccino I strangely have to run to the back of the store to the restroom to relieve myself.

Years from now while taking out the trash, the bag breaks spilling (among other things) coffee grounds on the driveway I unexplicably wet myself.

I cant deal with those consequences. Maybe I'll just go upstairs and use the bathroom that has heat.

technorati tags: bathroom, coffee, Pavlov

Waiting

2006-02-09T13:30:00.000-05:00

Stiiiiil waiting. 4 months and change left now until the wedding, and as expected, it's tough going. The thing that makes it difficult is that our relationship is so close to marriage as it is. We do everything together as if we were already married (barring sex, living together, and sharing a bank account... and anything else inappropriate that i'm missing here or whatever) I come home at night to her, we spend our evenings together, we cook together, we eat together, we do laundry together, we (sometimes) brush our teeth together, we read together, we watch tv together, then she gets ready for bed and we pray together and i go home and sleep in my bed. we do this every night.

First of all, don't think I'm complaining, because I'm not. I love where we are and everything is great right now. The part that is difficult is the following.

There's a big difference between not having something "yet" and not having something "ever." If you can't have something yet, you know that eventually you will, and that's exciting and easier to deal with in some ways than not having something ever. On the other hand knowing you aren't going to have something ever has it's own advantages as you can resign yourself to it and accept things the way they are and move on. Not having something yet means it's always on your mind and you're constantly wondering, "is it time yet? is it time yet? when, when when??" It's easy to try to push it along faster and faster trying to make it get here before it's supposed to. And that's easy enough to do.

The great thing about being engaged though, is you know when. I know that June 24th, I will finally be married. So I know the "when." It's more like Christmas than some kind of surprise that I'm waiting for "any day now". Granted this does make it a LOT easier to wait for. But you easily get into the Count Down mentality and completely miss the great time that you're having right now. I'm trying very hard to avoid that. I was talking to my friend Ryan about it today, he conveniently happens to be a pastor at a local church, but he's also just a great guy in general, here's a short exceprt from our conversation:

Ryan: very true. it's weird though because you wait the whole time up to it, going insane, then it get's there and passes and it almost seems too simple. like "did that really happen?". I mean, you are together, then and everything, but like you said, except for sex and money, you pretty much already are. It's a little bit of an eerie feeling of same yet completely different at the same time...
Kyle: thats kinda what i'm expecting
Kyle: just kind of a sigh of relief... ah finally we can just be US totally and stop stopping short of being what we're supposed to be

Patience, and Contentment. the two things the Enemy wants me to forget. I'm glad I have a good woman beside me who reminds me when I forget, and I remind when she forgets. We're a good team.

technorati tags: sex, engagement, love

Monday Morning

2006-02-06T12:19:00.000-05:00

My dad told me to steal his MP3 player when i was home this weekend doing my taxes, so I did. It's just a little 128mb dinker, but it gets me to work and back and since i don't have a stereo, it's nice to put something in my head. Currently it has some Nickel Creek
and some nice classic rock on it, just because I was in a hurry. But it was a great drive in today. My favorite song on it right now is "It's a great day" by Paul Thorn. ~~Check that one out on iTunes~~ nevermind, that one isn't on iTunes... Dang you iTunes. You've let me down again. Great song, very funny. good stuff.

Did my taxes on Saturday, I'm getting some money back from state which is cool, but I owe $53.00 to the Feds. But I come out positive in the end which is cool.

Oh and it's that time of year. I'm totally getting a cold. I'm not upset about it. It's Feruary, and I haven't really been sick yet this winter, so I'm due I guess. No biggy. I've been sick before. Everyone here at the office has been taking their turns with it, and I guess my turn's comin up.

Jeanette and I are coming up on 1 year together which is cool. Last night a friend mentioned the girl I dated before her, and it brought mixed feelings. I went home and lay in bed thinking about it, and I had to thank God for what she did. If she hadn't dumped me, I never would have even looked at Jeanette and would never have found the woman I'm spending my life with. I prayed for her last night, that she'd find someone who would be good to her, and would take care of her the way she wants and needs. She's a great girl, but my biased opinion says I came out with the better girl. And that's ok. I'm entitled, it's my website.

That's a cool thing about life, "You can't pray for someone you hate (I never hated her, but this is a quote from someone so I'll leave it in tact), and you can't hate someone you pray for. Prayer requires you to care about the person." -Matt Olsen

boy am i hungry.

Quote of the week, "I'm all for women being treated equal, but they don't belong on the sidelines at the Super Bowl." -Jeanette
I am sooo marrying the right woman.

technorati tags: NickelCreek, Taxes, sick, Prayer

Writing becomes part of my career

2006-02-03T09:44:00.000-05:00

After last night's sermon at GCC on the spiritual discipline of Blogging, I felt like I needed to get back to this, and make it a priority.
SO, no apologies, here I am.

I've become the somewhat-official-public-relations-type-writer-guy for the OIT Help Desk. I'm writing a lot of stuff that's being pushed out to the web. I think they like me for a few reasons, the biggest of which is I volunteered, and the second is that I write for normal people, or atleast try to.

I really like my job, I really like my fiancee, I really like my family. They're all really good things right now. The weather is great here right now for the first week of Febuary, though I expect it to change to Icy Frigidity any day now. But that's ok. I'm only four and three quarters months away from my wedding, and that's DANG cool.

technorati tags: GCC, OIT

Confirmation again and again

2005-12-14T10:49:00.000-05:00

-Kyle

Last night I saw for certain that I've found the right woman for me.

I'm studying to get my Microsoft Certification, and to be honest it's been hard going. I keep failing the practice tests and it's getting pretty discouraging. Jeanette and I have talked about it and she offered to help me any way she can.

This past weekend we sat down for an hour or so and went over the book together and she helped me pick up some things that I had missed while studying on my own which was great and EXTREMELY helpful

But last night...
Last night after work she met me at my apartment. We watched cartoons (Invader Zim!)for a little while and ate pizza for dinner. Then we started studying. We did a 45 question test on the computer together, her reading the questions and the possible answers and then I'd try to figure out the right answer. A little background on these questions. These aren't just basic Multiple Guess questions, they're scenarios. You're in this situation, you want to do this this and this, which of these choices best accomplishes these? Jeanette was with me and enthusiastic through the whole thing. Words like SCSI, UDF file, REGEDIT, Dynamic Striped Volume... she stuck with it through the whole thing. I wanted to give up before she did.
A subject she knows little about, a language she doesn't really speak, a job that would drive her insane... she never once complained, she never said it was boring or called me a nerd, she never gave up.
We'll be back doing it again tonight after work.

THAT is love.

2005-12-07T15:51:00.000-05:00

It's funny how in my head blogging is. Everywhere I go I see stuff and think... "that would make a great post" and then i walk 10 feet further and see something shiny and forget what i was thinking about.

I'm beginning to hate college people. Not so much the people themselves, but the culture they produce. They create this mini ecosystem all to themselves where they think EVERYTHING is dreadfully important and worth changing the world about. Ofcourse all this does is get the campus up in arms about Something or annoy the general public. I read a recent letter to the editor in the Observer complaining that ND only reserved 1,500 tickets for the 8,000+ student body.

Whoop dee friggin doo.

I'm sorry, I thought you came here to get an education not to go to football games. I love ND football as much as the next guy, but hey - this is an educational establishment first and a sports team second (possibly third... not sure, thats always up for debate around here). The point is you have better than a 1 in 8 chance of getting a ticket. Now the game is in Arizona so not everyone is going to WANT to go, so that cuts it say in half, giving yo a 1 in 4 chance of getting one (this all done through lottery) If you have a problem with a 1 in 4 chance, you have some serious issues. And if you feel like the "Poor Seniors" are being screwed over because they might not get to go... then give up your ticket. trust me, we'll be going next year.

I sometimes feel like people just write things so someone will see their name and think they're cool. Let me tell ya kiddo's, I've been writing for a while now, and it's not very often i'm called cool for complaining about the establishment.

Here's what I've learned since getting out of college into the real world:

What to do when "The Man/Whitey" is getting you down.

Request change politely and respectfully. No one is going to want to change anything if you're bein a jerk to them. Remember, You aren't that important to them. They don't need your money, YOU need their services.

Think about who you're complaining to. Is THIS the person who can change things for you? Are you shooting the Messenger, preaching to the choir, or going to the policy creator?
And lastly, if you don't like the way they treat you, you can always take your business elsewhere. Whether that's changing your bank, your restaurant, your college or moving to Canada, If you can't change the establishment, change the establishment you're at.

Don't even get me started on Cultural Competency

< / Rant >

Thanksgiving weekend

2005-11-28T14:42:00.000-05:00

What a great weekend. I'm well rested and ready to bust this week in the groin. (<--Admittedly over graphic statement)

We spent Thursday and Friday at her parents house in Ft. Wayne for Thanksgiving, and then Friday Jeanette and I went downtown to the annual Festival of Trees to see all the Christmas trees decorated for Charities... then we went ice skating and took some pictures. Unfortunately the camera died every time we tried to take a picture of us kissing there at the skating rink... We DID get some cute pictures of us all bundled up, but I'll have to put them up later, I left the camera at her place last night. Then after ice skating i took her to the coolest theater ever! It's a Dinner and a Movie type place. You order your food and they have tables there in the theater. We saw Chicken Little, Very Funny movie. Then we came back to her parent's house and watched tv until bed time.

The next day we drove up to Michigan and spent the weekend with my parents. They took us to the COOLEST restaurant ever. a little place we like to call Rockin' Robin's. I had a Bacon Cheeseburger with (get this) a fried egg on it. Lemme tell ya, that was awesome. Oh, and I failed to mention they have bottomless steak fries like other restaurants have chips and salsa. they were awesome. The next day we went to church with my parents and then I helped my dad hang christmas lights outside on the gazebo. We came back to South Bend and did some Christmas shopping and then planned out these next few weeks.

Holy crap. Jeanette has a final paper due next tuesday so I'm not gonna get to see her much at all this next week, but that works for me because I'm studying for my Microsoft Certification, we also need to reschedule our engagement pictures, get on the waiting list for a 2 bedroom apartment at Irish Hills, I need to schedule my Microsoft Test, Jeanette has 3 christmas concerts coming up in the next two weeks.

... aaaaand breathe.

New Email Subscriptions

2005-11-22T10:28:00.000-05:00

For those of you who are visiting my site daily (both of you) you've probably noticed the new addition to the sidebar there, Email Subscriptions. If you aren't familiar with RSS or would just rather receive my posts in your email than visiting here daily, you can put your email address in that box and as soon as I post, you'll receive it in your email. How sweet is that?

Very sweet.

Beating the System

2005-11-14T10:44:00.000-05:00

Ok before you start... I already know. But I have 2 friends who have done offers on this site and have gotten the stuff. One got an IPod and the other an Xbox game. So i'm serious it works.
I'm trying to get a free Xbox 360 because frankly I don't have the money for it. Yes, i know it's a pyramid scam. I'm ok with that. I'm smarter than the pyramid so I'll give you the trick to beat it so you can help me with this.

Go to the site above, creat an account. it will start asking you to "complete an optional survey" this is a dumb scam, close your browser and go to http://xbox360s.freepay.com(the main page) then click "Complete Offer" Scroll through them, if you see something you like, feel free to sign up for it, but I recommend the one from REAL. you sign up for a free 14 day trial and then after 1 week you discontinue your membership and you're done. That's it. People get caught in the trap when they don't remember to cancel their membership. So I'll help you out. If you do this, and email me when you do it, I'll email you in a week and remind you to cancel your membership. I just did it for a friend and it took me seriously about 5 minutes. I'll set a reminder for a week from today to cancel my REAL account and he'll be one person closer to getting his xbox360 and thats all it takes.
seriously.
So here's the link. click it and follow the above directions to help me get the best Christmas present of the year.
Free Xbox

oh and here's the specs on it:

Xbox 360 - Complete Premium Edition

Official Release Date: 11/22/05

Backwards compatible with previous Xbox games

20GB detachable hard drive

Wireless controller

Wireless Xbox Live headset

HD game displays on HDTVs

High-definition AV and Ethernet cables

Xbox 360 Media Remote Control

Detachable faceplate

Xbox Live Silver membership

Stream media from portable music devices & Windows XP PCs

512 MB of GDDR3 RAM

3 symmetrical cores - 3.2GHz each

500MHz ATI graphics processor

12x dual-layer DVD drive that supports: DVD, DVD+-R/RW, CD-R/RW, WMA & MP3

Built-in Ethernet port

2 memory unit slots

3 USB 2.0 ports

Wi-Fi ready: 802.11a, b & g

Why I'm not a teacher

2005-11-11T09:55:00.000-05:00

My solution to whiney kids running to the guidance counselor complaining because they were changed from soprano to alto:

"I say you go in there and tell her if she doesnt shut her little yapper you'll switch her to tenor and she can sit between "Billy" and *insert butthead male's name here*. Then you kick her in the shin, and pile drive her through the guidance counselor's desk to the sound of the guidance counselor saying "ahem, umm... lets find a less violent way to let out our aggression." and then you can say "sorry, i just felt that this was a situation for tough love." and then after a short discussion you warn "Lucy" that if she starts cryin' again you'll give her some more tough love through that table there by the door."

*Names changed to protect the brats.

Light and Breezy

2005-11-09T11:54:00.000-05:00

Well after the problems I had with that last post (I had made it in flock) I've decided to try something a little different. I'm trying a tool called w.bloggar. It's pretty sweet so far, so enough about it. How bout I get on with what I'm gonna write...

Every morning when I drive to work, I pass these kids waiting for the bus in my apartment complex, and every morning I see the same guy standing there. He looks like Carl from Family Matters, and every morning he smiles at me as I drive by. I really like this guy even though I've never talked to him, because every morning he stands at a bus stop with his 6 year old daughter and holds her giant pink backpack for her while she plays with the other kids. I don't know the guy, but he's one of two fathers who stand and wait for the bus with their kids. I don't know anything else about his parenting, but that's something I want to be able to do with my daughter when she gets to that age.

Congrats to you Carl, you win the father of the morning award. Thanks for setting a good example.

Notre Dame vs Tennessee

2005-11-09T10:03:00.000-05:00

Tea and Sympathy

2005-11-03T10:04:00.000-05:00

Giving advice is tough because most people either don't want it or aren't planning on implimenting it in the first place. This is hard for me because I think I'm smart and can fix most people's problems.

So today I've decided to try this a different way. Instead of thinking what I would do in their situation, I'm gonna first try to empathize with the person's situation.

So here we go.
The problem is huge to them. Giant. They're trapped in it and can't get out of it. Everyone knows about it and feels sorry for them and everyone is more than happy to offer one more piece of advice about how you can do "this" or have you tried "that?" and the person HAS tried This or knows That would never work for this situation. They want help, they want to hide, they want out... but they can't Get Out. Thoughts of Perserverance and Trying Again and Getting Up and facing Tomorrow only make things more difficult for them. Yesterday was tough, the day before was tough and even though the day before that might have been ok, they don't remember that. They're focused on the now and the hopelessness of tomorrow.

The part that baffles them is that they remember being good at something very similar to this. "I was able to handle X why can't I handle Y?" Thoughts of failure and impotence flood their mind. They can't do it. It doesn't matter what or how they try... They are going to fail tomorrow. Just like today.

They ask for help, people assume they mean advice, but what they really want is a way out. Immediate comfort is nice for the right now, but it won't help them tomorrow when they have to face it again. And they feel like such a burden bringing this up all the time. They're supposed to have their life all figured out by now, and the reality is that under it all they're looking for that child who always hid behind the furnace downstairs to cry... but the child is gone. There's an adult standing there who won't fit in the cubby hole anymore.

I'm a fixer. I want to help, it's my nature as a man. It's hard when I can do nothing, sometimes the person has to and sometimes the person wants to do it on their own.

Maybe I'll just sit still and shut up.

Technorati Tags: advice, problem

Post take 2

2005-10-27T08:35:00.000-05:00

Ever start writing a post and get about half way through it and realize it's really stupid? Man, I just wrote a really crappy post. Ick.

So, Jeanette and I came up with this fun game awhile back, when we see someone who really catches our eye, we make up some dramatic tragic story about them and how they ended up here. Like the mexican guy who walked up and down the road in our apt. complex every day on crutches. He became more than just "That Mexican on Crutches" he was Miguel, who broke his leg after saving 4 children from a burning apartment building on the 3rd floor. The crazy guy i see most mornings leaving that gas station talking to himself becomes Steve, the genius who worked out for himself a working do it yourself cold fusion reactor but because he looks crazy no one will listen when he tries to tell them about it.

It's a lot of fun and if I ever get time to be a famous writer I'll totally write it all in a book and make 100's of dollars.

Technorati Tags: Jeanette, Games

Flock!!

2005-10-21T11:14:00.000-05:00

Ok I just found this.www.flock.com. It's a new browser, and for those of you that blog this thing is great! It has a built in Blog editor that you just give it your blog URL and your user name and password and you're in! THEN when you get in, you can switch the TOPBAR to Flickr and you can login to your flickr pictures!

Ya this is seriously cool.

How can we understand our path?

2005-10-20T08:38:00.000-05:00

This verse popped up this morning in Proverbs 20 and it caught my eye because it's totally what i need today.

"How can we understand our path, when it is God who directs our steps?"
It made me stop and think about what that means.
When you go somewhere, it's not the path that matters, it's the destination that you're concerned about. The path is a temporary thing. It's the constantly changing circumstances that we're surrounded with. As we walk we start looking down at the path and wonder how the heck we got here and why we have to walk through this mess...

A job we hate
A job we don't have
Losing a loved one
Sickness
Fear
Depression

The list goes on, but we're all there. Life doesn't make sense to us if we're looking at the path.

But the problem comes when we forget the other half of the verse, "...when it is God who directs our steps." God doesn't just give us an address and tell us to find our own way. He'll never say "well just head up over that hill there, then take a left, then you're gonna head on that way for a fur peace then you're gonna come to a fork in the road..." It says He directs our steps. He takes you to the destination but he tells you where to step every step of the way. "Step here. ok, here. alright step here..." God isn't the Yellow Pages, that give you an address and makes you figure it out for yourself. God isn't the old codger at the gas station that gives you directions based on markers. God is more like the Seeing Eye Dog for the blind guy, He knows the destination and how to get there and He sees things you don't. Sometimes He'll take you the long way 'round, and sometimes he'll shortcut you through the woods... But He knows what He's doing, and He's not going to leave you.

Even if you let go of the leash.

The State of The World

2005-10-18T09:42:00.000-05:00

Tibet may never become a fully recognized country. China keeps saying "Solly we waiting on paypa' wok"

What China doesn't seem to get is that Tibet's been going through the ringer on this for along time now and is gettin pretty fed up with getting pushed aside. China would benefit greatly from recognizing Tibet, but the way it's going it might not happen.

Tibet just might stop caring what China thinks and start talking to the U.S.
Tibet really likes China though.

Update? Update THIS!!!

2005-10-03T15:46:00.000-05:00

Hey wanna know what went on this weekend? Check out the Wedding Blog! You can be the first to comment!! Do it. Do it.

Anything for a friend

2005-09-26T21:17:00.000-05:00

Today a very close friend asked me to post something funny. So i will forego my usually rants about employment and lack there of, and give what i can.

I'd like to start off with a quote from Jeanette, tonight while talking about the new movie "Just like Heaven" she said that Reese Witherspoon was totally "Anal Redemptive." I haven't seen the movie yet, but evidently her butt is able to forgive sins. (I'd now like to welcome the perverts who searched for Reese Witherspoon +Anal to my site, you're not gonna find what you were looking for, but hopefully you'll enjoy your stay)

Here's an unrelated link to a friend's site with thought's on Women's hair loss This is very funny. Read it.

ok i'm really not that funny today, so i'm stealin from others. I attribute it to an overly intense drama this weekend, filming last night in the rain for 4 and a half hours and then filming a commercial tonight.

Love ya Jon, We're praying for you both.

The sound of impending good?

2005-09-22T13:34:00.000-05:00

It's been a rollercoaster ride these last few months, let me tell you, but things could soon turn around. Right now I'm working in the main help desk at ND and loving it. The job will go full time eventually (waiting on someone else to move fully to another department) but right now I'm working 40hrs at a paycut from my old job... so we're hoping this goes full time as fast as possible.
I've also decided that I've finally learned my lesson and will be pursuing some Microsoft Certification over the next 3 months so i can be more marketable and become more proficient in my job. My mom said she'd buy the book for me and pay for the test if i take it in the next 3 months, but if I don't I have to pay her back, so there's some good incentive.
Also!!! as of last night I now have a wedding blog!! check it out Kyle and Jeanette's wedding blog I've got a few pictures up so far and an initial post. Check it out won't you?

God seems slower than i want Him to be

2005-09-13T23:05:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I lost the job at ND a while back, we all know that. Since before that ended i've been searching for a new job, with ups and downs along the way. This job looks great, he definitely wants to hire me... a month later he wont return my calls or emails and im told by their hiring manager that they've decided to take some other canidates to the next round of interviews. One place hasn't contacted me in almost 2 months now and i've pretty well given up hope on them. The part time job i'm in now will eventually go full time... when that happens and if i'm the one she decides to hire... who knows? I've applied online, i've sent resumes, i've talked to friends, i've networked, i'm doing everything i know to do... and so far, i seem to have squat.

I have a severance package that will suppliment my part time job until the end of this month, and then i'm in trouble. I have about 16 days of full time work left and then... i don't know what's going to happen.

Ok, so what God's done for me: Let me stay at my old job 2 whole months after they made the decision, got me part time work there at the University with people i really enjoy, got me a severance package that gives me my benefits and full time pay until the end of september.
So ya, He's definitely taking care of me, i don't doubt/deny or question that. I'm just afraid of what's going to happen october 1st. He's never let me down yet... and i dont think he will. I have no problem trusting God, it's all these idiots He put me here with that i'm concerned about.
I don't know if my feeling that I should be doing more comes from my parents pushing me constantly to go door to door with my resume, or if i'm really supposed to be doing something else here.
"Hope Deferred is a rotting in the bones" and let me just say, i can feel it.

Hello Mike, Thanks for Reading

2005-09-07T15:09:00.000-05:00

This is the middle afternoon of the first day of the rest of my life.
Time ticks away as five o'clock moves closer.
Waiting for the phone to ring, glad that i can answer most of the questions.
Upset that i'm not logging enough of my calls.
Beating myself down is familiar, don't have the energy to do it again.
Gotta stop that.
Not sure how.
The sun glints off the angular leaves outside my window,
Wish i was out there.
Glad i have windows and can enjoy them.
Notre Dame's win over Pitt heralds the coming of Fall,
the leaves haven't changed yet but my eye's open for it.
My four favorite seasons are in order: Summer, Fall, Spring and Matt Damon.

Will these updates never end?

2005-09-07T12:30:00.000-05:00

Yes yes I know it’s been a while. Believe me, I’ve missed this more than you know. I had to write something today though, for a few reasons, first of all I just came upon a verse that I really like, and I wanted to write it out to help me memorize it, AND because a lot is going on right now.
First the verse: Romans 6:13 “Do not let any part of your body become a tool of wickedness, to be used for sinning. Instead, give yourselves completely to God since you have been given new life. And use your whole body as a tool to do what is right for the glory of God.” I read this a few minutes ago and really got hit by that.

Second the happenings in my life.
Ok wait, I gotta apologize for all of these short updates on me, as soon as things calm down I promise to get back to writing like I used to.
Anywho… Still waiting to find out about a new job. I’m working part time at the University in the afternoons, and that will eventually go full time, we’re just not sure if it will be in time. Wedding date had to be moved back because of a mistake on our part to the 24th of June instead of the 17th.
At church I've graduated from "Script Writer" to "Screen Writer" as i helped write my first video/drama for the upcoming LOST series. It was a lot of fun because with video you have so much more room for creativity, and with GCC you have a plethora of people to tap for everything from iron working to burned out Cessnas. For those of you interested check out gccwired.com and then click media player to see some of the drama work that we've done.

I'd like to also give a shout out to an old friend who i've found again, Lindsay from Michigan who's in in Texas again because she can't get enough of the Red Dirt. Good to hear from you again. Pre-Congrats on what should be happening soon.

Spiraling

2005-08-16T15:05:00.000-05:00

A quick break here, as things start spiraling faster and faster.

Wedding stuff is starting, her mom is looking at halls already, and I’m going to talk to the guy we want to do our wedding tonight. I’m saving for the ring (or am I saving for unemployment? Still not sure yet), and things are as usual pretty tight. Sunday night we celebrated 6 months together by driving back from Ft Wayne from her parents and reading the new Harry Potter book together in the car and eating homemade Skyline chili at my apartment. Wait, no that was last night… everything runs together.

Hey, speaking of last night, I had a little taste of nostalgia that very few here in the States would have any idea about. I had Thumbs Up Cola. It’s made by Coca Cola in India, in the same factory as Coca Cola, and has an extremely similar flavor to Coca Cola. How, you may rightly ask, did I procure such a thing when I haven’t been to India in 7 years? When I was down in Cincinnati visiting J’s brother and his wife we went to Jungle Jim’s where I picked up 2 bottles. Deeeelicious

Tonight I have my 201 class at GCC taught by Dr Bob which is gonna run from 5:30 to 10:00 tonight. I probably wouldn’t have done it if my good friend Luke hadn’t talked me into it, at least I’ll have someone to sit next to, AND a great speaker and friend to learn from.

My brother just went for some testing today because of some problems he was having and got the results back. He has something weird, but at least they know what it is, he isn’t in any pain or anything, but… it’s just not good. He’ll have to take medicine for the rest of his life. I’m not listing the name of what it is for 2 reasons, 1, it’s a pretty personal issue, and 2, I have NO idea how to spell it. Suffice to say, he needs prayer as he learns to adapt to this. I know I would have a hard time coping with this for awhile, but he’s tougher and smarter than I am so I’m sure he’ll do fine.

On the job front… I wait more. A new opportunity has arisen, but as with just about anything employment related it gets tied up in HR for undefined amounts of time. I need money, somebody better not be playin solitaire when they could be working on my stuff.

Ever feel like your feet are moving faster than the rest of your body, like when you try to sprint down a hill and slow yourself down at the same time? I’m kinda there right now, and I like it.

Wait, you wanna give me WHAT??

2005-08-10T16:52:00.000-05:00

Did you predict i'd forget to take my camera on the camping trip? Cuz I did.

Anyway, this is cooler than all that.

Just found out about an oppurtunity here that would make me a GOOD size chunk of change atleast temporarily and potentially long term. Add this to the two jobs I'm interviewing for right now, and things are starting to get interesting...

more details later...

God just sorta has a way of working things out better than i thought He would.

Man, i'm stupid.

The Tail

2005-08-05T16:15:00.000-05:00

This weekend will be the first convening of The Tail of the Sagarsee Lineage. My brother's and I are the last Sagarsee male's in our family to the best of our knowledge, and currently there are none coming after us. While we hope to remedy that, the solution is a ways off.

We're going camping at Potato Creek State Park here in in Indiana. Thing's are a lot more expensive than I remember them being last time i went camping at a state park, but it will be with it to spend a weekend with my brothers out in the woods.
Hopefully we'll have some pictures to post of the trip when we get back.
I'm hoping this turns out to be at least an annual thing, now that we've all moved so far apart it's becoming more and more important to schedule time together. No one would have thought we'd eventually grow up when we were hanging upside down from the pine tree out front,but here we are, grown men.

"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once and awhile you could miss it." -Ferris Bueller

2005-07-29T15:16:00.000-05:00

An hour and a half remained until he was free to leave; no cutting out early today as he had to man the phones from 1 to 5 instead of his prefered 8 to 12. This was the day he'd waited for all week. Friday, the day the love of his life and he would take the trip south to Cincinatti Ohio, home of the famous WKRP. He sat in his chair staring at the computer screen hoping the phone would ring or he would receive an email or an IM... anything to keep him occupied for this last little bit of time. Sure he could have cleaned his desk, but it always seemed pointless until he lost sight of his keyboard. That also was his attitude on washing dishes and doing laundry, both of which he hated doing, but begrudgingly always did. As he looked at his desk he realized he'd forgotten to take his Nexium and knew with the long trip ahead of him he'd best take it now or else this would turn out to be a very unpleasant trip. He popped the purple pill and sipped from the lemonade he had bought at lunch from sbarro. Now that his ulcer is on the way he can't drink caffeine. Don McLean swaggered from his speakers singing about the day that he'll die; if he had died after this song had came out he'd have been an enormous hit and all would have mourned him, but instead he'd gone on to make a load of crappy albums that never went anywhere near American Pie. "eighty degrees" he thought to himself as he checked the weather for the fiftieth time today and looked out the window at the sky littered with clouds and the trees waiving silently in the gentle breeze that must be just outside his window. Behind him he heard his fellow employees discussing things they could have asked him about but didn't. He decided not to chime in because they wouldn't listen anyway. The taste of his cheap lemonade lingered on the roof of his mouth so he went for water. "what is that smell??" he wondered to himself. He had a nose that was stronger than most, and thus was privy to things that most would never notice until they had stepped in it. Something smelled sweaty and kind of like vinegar. He was pretty sure it wasn't him. "still eighty degrees."

an hour and ten left.

Constant Upheaval

2005-07-28T10:14:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago I would have told you my life was nearly perfect, I was looking to get a new job doing the thing I’ve always wanted to do, I was about to talk to the father of the girl I’m in love with, the sky was blue, the birds were chirping… all was well with the world.

Oddly, this scared me. I mean, if everything had gone as well as it looked like it was going to, life would have been perfect… and that’s NEVER been the case for me.

Luckily, something fell through. The job I’ve always wanted fell through, leaving me soon to be unemployed. Right now it’s just a count down until my last day here (Aug 31) and let me tell you it’s hard to stay dedicated when there’s nothing keeping you here. I’m doing it, mind you, but I constantly have to check my attitude.

So I’m job hunting again, I have a few good leads and granted the ND Human Resources Dept IS helping me all they can. I spoke with a lady on Monday, and she’s going to push me to businesses outside of ND that they have good relationships with. I’m pretty stressed about the whole thing of course as this couldn’t have come at a worse time (attempting to save up for a ring).

So, as strange as this sounds, I sort of feel more comfortable this way. That’s probably a lie, I really do hate all this stress, but if things all of a sudden became perfect I’m not sure what I’d do. Maybe I’m not comfortable; maybe the correct word is familiar.

On the super bright side though, her dad gave me the thumbs up to marry his daughter. I feel ridiculously honored and humbled. It’s strange to have a great family on my side and one on her side as well. This is what people always told me to wait for. “She’s out there. Just wait for her. You’ll find her. The perfect girl.”

Believe me, I’ve found her.

A Few Thoughts on Leadership

2005-07-12T13:47:00.000-05:00

Ok granted, the buzzword in business and churches alike for the past 10+ years has been “Leadership” and developing leadership, and synergizing leadership and blah blah blah… but what is this creating? Massive amounts of Middle Management. The chance to manage even one or two people is jumped at faster than a $20 on the sidewalk. People would rather have Mgr. before their name than make another $5k. Why? Because we’re told we’re supposed to.

Now I’m not saying John Maxwell isn’t great, and that he doesn’t teach good leadership principles, because he is and does. I like John a lot, but eventually the pendulum he started needs to swing the other way.

Ok, we’ve developed our leaders, but what about our followers?

What are the “Seven Habits of Highly Effective Followers”? Rather than pushing them to perform just for a raise or a new title and some power, shouldn’t we be pushing them to follow because that’s the way you’re supposed to work?

I think the topic has some merit, and over the next few weeks I want to look at it more. Somebody should write a book on this, preferably someone with a longer attention span than mine though…

I think this is especially important for people my age. We come out of college and we’re expecting some high paying job as a CEO. This however seems to be the exception instead of the rule. This leaves us discouraged and disappointed as we assume a role with “Assistant” tagged on the end. How do we become the good followers that our employers will keep on board long enough that we can get rid of that Assistant tag and become Managers? Another question, what’s wrong with being an assistant?

Right now they’re just thoughts to ponder. I want to start down this road though; I’m hoping it doesn’t turn out too much like “Brave New World”

Ole' Kentucky Home

2005-07-09T12:15:00.000-05:00

Ok so as promised, here are the pictures from Kentucky.
This is me driving my jeep down the creek. It was really cool, the creek actually crossed the road, in 2 places. note: i didn't say the road crossed the creek, i said the creek crossed the road. Nate and I turned down it and drove up a ways in both directions. This was a pretty shallow part, but still really cool.

These were some of the horses that my cousins own. They had a lot of em. I was really hopin to get to ride one, but the one guy was gone and the other had messed up his back pretty good, but he promised to let me ride next time I come down. These were the mommy and the baby horses. There were probably 6 or 7 pairs in this field.

These were the stallions. Evidently they're pretty virile, as they have like 6 or 7 kids between
the two of 'em. As you can see in the picture, the one on the right is giving the other one a firm pat on the back. Or, he's trying to kick him in the face. Either way they were really cool.

And here's Nate. He's looking as sexy as ever posed on top of a waterfall. You can't really see the
waterfall from this picture, but trust me; it's like a hundred feet tall. This was taken down in the "Holler" where Nate and i spent the night in a cabin my cousin built with a chain saw. WAY cool. The place was seriously neat, they had 3 beds, a fridge, an old wood stove and a disgusting outhouse!! it was just like home! .... ok well i really only have one bed at home, but it's pretty close.

Ok, so i lied it's not really a hundred feet tall, but it's a really cool waterfall. The water level was
down because they hadn't had much rain, but there was still enough water for me to wash my hair in (wash: rinse grease and smoke out from the night before).

Kentucky is a BEAUTIFUL state, if it werent for the complete lack of civilization, i would totally move there. The people there are so much nicer than northerners, land is cheap and brimming with oil (my cousin is an oil rancher in KY) and i could have a dog named Opie if i lived there. I think that's pretty sweet.

Ok, so this one requires some explaining. Nate and I were driving home from Kentucky and since my stereo got stolen, we had to listen to a CD player and ear phones. That song by Michael Jackson was on, the one about butterflies or somethin, and this is the picture Nate took of my interpretive dance. This is the international symbol for "Butterfly".

How DO the ladies control themselves?

Just gimme a minute here

2005-07-08T16:13:00.000-05:00

It’s been a long last few weeks for me. Lots of stress and very little rest. Tonight J and I are gonna lay around and probably fall asleep watching Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

In the last 2 weeks I’ve lost my job, seen friends, seen LOTS of friends, been without J for almost 2 weeks, driven to and from Russell Springs, KY, hung out with my brother at ONU in Ada OH, 4th of July party, made a kung fu video for church, welcomed J home (see previous entry) and killed her the fish I was fish-sitting.

I need a nap. Preferably a nap with the woman I love. My plan for tonight is to fall asleep watching Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, then wake up and maybe get some pizza hut ordered in… nope nope… I’m broke, no pizza. *sigh* I spent a ton of money on gas getting to KY and back. It sucks when you can’t plan for expenses.

Ok so anyway, this is my last complaining post for awhile I promise. Tonight I’m gonna post my pictures from KY. They’re really cool.

King of Woo

2005-07-07T15:57:00.000-05:00

My girl is home.

Wow. It’s funny how much you can miss someone. I mean, sure she’s just “a girl” but… she’s more than that. We’ve spent pretty much every evening together for the past 4 months, and being without that for 2 weeks is like someone coming in and taking the toilet out of your bathroom and saying “hey Bub, I’ll bring this back in a few weeks.” Sure you can get by without it, but do you want to?

Yes. I just realized I compared my girlfriend to a toilet.

I welcomed her home properly; she came over to my place filled with candles and soft music playing in the background. After saying our hellos, I gave her a foot massage as she told me about her drive home. It was so good to see her and just be near her again.

I am the King of Woo.
Woo: Population 2.

There’s a problem with this though.
I’m sitting a really high standard. I mean, if I do stuff like this “Just Because” how do I handle the big things? Can I keep this up for the next 80yrs+? I think I can pull it off at least for another 20 or so before I start to lose my creativity, but… whatever. Right now is good. That’s all that matters.

On a sadder note because of the terrorist attacks that happened this morning her dad wont be able to take his trip to Oxford to present his speech on “The elements of law and religion in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and Jack London’s Martin Eden.” He’s of course sympathetic to those in England, but this was a big opportunity for him. He was invited about a month or so ago and it was a great honor, now things are postponed indefinitely.

Pray first for the families of those hurt and killed in the attacks, then pray for him; this would be a tough one.

Lightning Rod

2005-07-05T10:24:00.000-05:00

Well before I get into my weekend, let me tell you about my job.

To quote a post 8 months ago “It is finished.”

That’s right kids, Kyle lost his job again. Feel free to start calling me “Lightning rod” as I tend to attract these sort of things.

So God is freakin awesome, and I don’t deserve to be called his son. Here’s why:

So big boss calls me and gives me the news. I get pissed. Really pissed, (for the sake of time I wont explain, but I had good reason to be) walk out to my jeep and call and talk to my mom and dad (always a good idea) and they calm me down some. I then had to go to a luncheon for our department. That was uncomfortable. I didn’t talk at all. If you know me that’s rare. My big big big boss at the end of the luncheon gave us the afternoon off and as I was walking out, my boss stops me in the parking lot. She apologizes over and over about how sorry she was that it happened like this, she feels terrible, knows I’ll do fine and will get another job and offers to let me have Friday off. I take it. I get in the jeep and sit there for a minute. Crap. I can’t be mad at her now. She said sorry. But I could still be mad at my big boss, so fine. I just needed to be mad, and that’s ok. So I head back to the office to finish up some stuff. My boss is there. We start talking again, and she mentions that she talked to a lady in HR on her way in and that she’s going to do everything in her power to get me a job here so that I don’t end up unemployed. She has since followed through on that and is going above and beyond what she needs to do to help me out.

Now here’s the thing. This all happened within a 3 hour span of time. I’m in shock and awe and anger and various other emotions and then I can’t be mad like I want to be, and then I can’t even worry like I wanted to because I have someone helping me.

I read this morning in Purpose Driven Life (Day 18) that we are to forgive right away. Forgiveness isn’t trust, forgiveness is letting go of the past, trust is about future events and it takes a track record to build. So I have to forgive my big boss. So I did that. And im cool now.

Moral of my story: When something bad happens, keep your eyes open right away because God can bless you faster than you think. I wanted a good day to mope and be angry, He came through in under 3 hours. God cares more than you think.

I'm Tired

2005-06-29T12:38:00.000-05:00

Oh so tired.
I'm supposed to find out today if i get to keep my job or not, and i don't know if I'll even hear today. I'm stressed about that.

I haven't heard anything about the other job that i applied for that is hung up in HR. I'm stressed about that.

There are some projects that i'm working on right now that are for really important people. I messed it up, and now i'm fixing it on a time crunch. I'm stressed about that.

Last night i was at church from 5:30 until 1:15am making a kung fu movie. I'm tired and grouchy. I'm stressed about that.

My grandmother who just found out she has stomach cancer and had most of her stomach removed now will most likely have to take the chemo that they said she probably wouldnt need and just found out that her blind husband has been charging thousands of dollars on credit cards that they cant afford. We're going down there this weekend. I'm stressed about that.

I have no money. None. at all. Yesterday i checked my balance and i was negative a bunch because my insurance direct withdrew my payment. I have overdraft coverage, but because of the timing that's gonna cost me $64 that i didnt want to waste. I'm stressed about that.

My ankle hurts now, even though i haven't twisted it. This is usually caused by heavy stress. I'm stressed about that.

All this stress... is making me a very angry person. If it weren't for self control, i would swear a lot and hit people. Thank you God for that.

My girl is on Prince Edward Island right now.
I wish i were with her.

Another day in paradise

2005-06-24T12:31:00.000-05:00

Today is another momentous day for me. They all seem to be as of late. This afternoon I have a meeting to find out if I get my job back(I was RIFed) and then I think I have another one next Tuesday and that will be more about that. ALSO today is my mom’s 43^rd birthday so happy birthday to her. ALSO this morning Jeanette left for 2 weeks on a road trip with her mom to Prince Edward Island in Canada. Ya, granted in the grand scheme of things, 2 weeks really isn’t that long, but hey, I’m allowed to miss my girl.

Let me tell ya, this whole “Relationship” thing is great. I can’t say it’s been easy, because they never are; but it’s been good. We have our challenges, and our struggles, but we’re both committed to this and we aren’t giving up. For those of you that are counting we’re at 4.5 months. To quell your naysaying (those of you who naysay) who might say things like “oh, you hardly know each other! You probably don’t even get on each other’s nerves yet! It’ll never last! Just wait until she sees how annoying and messy and and and… whatever else you are!!” well to you, I’d like to do a little naysaying of my own…. “Hey! Shut up! Trust me, we get on each other’s nerves, we push each other, we get mad, we forgive, we laugh, we cry (well I mean… SHE does… I’m a man. I don’t cry), we grill out together. So there ya go. My daily quota of nay is now said. (Naysay is one of the best verbs EVER!)

Ok so anyway things are going well. Gwyn is gonna mail me her Cable modem so I can get internet up at home and then my blogging revolution will begin anew. Whether or not I’ll stay on xanga is yet to be determined, but I’m leaning away from it strongly. I’ll encourage you all to come follow. It’ll be fun out there. We’ll all go together. Once again a Welshmnky shall lead them. I don’t call you my followers for nothing.

Oh and if you are from work and you’re spying on me, I wrote this at lunch and posted it during some free time I had. Thought you should know.