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.
  

Another shot

Double rainbow at nd this morning!

Computer Illiterate

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."

Tuesday or wednesday or whatever...

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.

Caviezel

'nuff said

A Man

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

The Doomed Post worked!!

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??

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

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

Writing becomes part of my career

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

Notre Dame vs Tennessee

Anything for a friend

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?

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

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

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.

Wait, you wanna give me WHAT??

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.

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

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.

Just gimme a minute here

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.