Memories of ND

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

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.

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

Valumtimes Day

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

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

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

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