I Am the Master Stasher
For those of you who don't know, we put our house on the market a couple weeks ago and it has been an adventure.
If you have problems with keeping your house picked up (and I'm not saying we do...well, I do) sell your house. I don't think I have picked up more stuff more times in my life. I have also become a "master stasher." That is the art of finding little nooks and crannies you hope people won't pry into to store all of the junk you should really throw away.
I guess the key would be to not acquire so much junk. (again the focus is on me and not Mickie...just wanted to make that clear.)
So here are 5 things I have learned so far from this experience.
- I am not the world's neatest person, if fact I think I probably rank somewhere behind China.
- Don't give your cell number to a real estate agent - your minutes will get devoured like a pie at fat camp.
- It's really weird to leave your house so others can come look at it.
- It's really weird to look at a house when the owners are still there.
- I can't think of a fifth, so I guess I'm a slow learner...more to come as the excitement builds
In case you are interested in buying our house, you can find more info here.
MySpace Part Deux
I recently wrote about my gut-wrenching entry into the MySpace swamp. Once I got in I didn't realize that I was going to be sinking faster and deeper into a quagmire of horrible design and layout. I started to customize my page and then gave up and pondered even telling anyone about it, lest my skills as a graphic designer come into question...okay so you already question them, shut it.
I felt nauseous every time I visted my page to see my new friends or to see what pithy comment had been written-until today. Mike Davidson (one of the blogs I read regularly and the host of the famous Steve Jobs Movie Poster Contest) wrote about his experience customizing MySpace. After looking at what he had done I injected some sanity into MySpace.
You can see all the tomfoolery here.
I'm Sorry...
This is quite possibly one of the hardest posts I've ever had to write. I'm very emotional as I write it so if that comes out in a wrong way forgive me.
I need to make a confession to everyone that reads my blog. I did something last night that I swore I would never do. I've heard stories of others that had done it and I always said to myself "that won't be me." I saw youth pastors and youth leaders do it, but I was still in denial that I could ever stoop so low. My guilt and shame have gotten the best of me today and I can't bear it anymore. I need to confess.
I signed up for a myspace account...
Don't judge me all at once. I fought this with everything I had, and in one moment last night all of my willpower came crashing down. I sat in front of the computer with glazed eyes and couldn't help myself. Throughout the late hours of the night I was in deep in a myspace frenzy editing my profile, feverishly searching for old high school friends, wondering when I would quit being a "myspace loser" and actually get some friends, trying to figure out how in the world to get a song on my profile, and finally figuring out that clicking "home" at the top of the page lets you edit stuff.
So there you have it. My confession. I deeply regret my actions. One piece of advice: never say it won't happen to you-because before you know it you'll be in up to y'ur neck! For those of you who want to see the incarnate evil that is my myspace page, click here.
Acting Like a Chicken with Wet Hands
I am a big proponent of common sense (though some would say I fail to practice it at times). On a daily basis I come across stuff that was clearly not thought enough about. Case in point: in one of the men's restrooms at work the paper towel dispensers are about as high up on the wall as humanly possible. Vince Carter would have a hard time getting his hands dry in the proper fashion.
The height is not really the thing that is frustrating - it is the fact that every time I reach up with wet hands, all the water ends up running down my arm, over my elbow and into my shirt. I've tried various manuvers to ward off the annoying trickle. My favorite is the chicken wing. I put my elbow as high up in the air as I can without breaking my arm and then proceed to jab down on the dispensor in a sort of short pecking motion. I've also tried the "pull the torn edge from the previous paper towel and hope the next comes with it" manuver. Though that rarely works.
So next time you have a relatively simple task to accomplish, take a minute and think about the long term consequences of your actions. You may have to endure walking into a mens room and being exposed to my foolishness.
The Toil of the Desktop Calendar
Anyone else feel guilty when you get behind a few days on your desktop day by day calendar? Getting a daily desktop calendar for Christmas feels like a commited long term relationship and if you're not in for the long haul you are sure to break your vows. This is how it normally goes...
The weekend came, Monday morning was crazy and before you know it papers are piled high and the poor desktop calendar gets shoved to the back. Only when you emerge from your paper disaster do you see the corner of the little desktop calender peeking from above the fray- and that is when the guilt hits. You've let him down - you promised to spend a little time each morning laughing at his cartoons, or marveling at his little bits of wisdom and trivia only he can provide.
You promise it won't happen again, but deep down you know its just a matter of time before you look down and your calendar says June 2nd and the real date is September 3rd. Sometimes you'll try to get back on track. You'll rip out an entire 3 month section to try and make things right, but you're out of the habit now. Another month passes and the same Far Side cartoon from September 4th is staring back at you - sadly, with crumpled edges. It is then when you give up and say "Next year I'll do better little desktop calendar. I promise I'll change you every day. We'll laugh, we'll cry, we'll dance a jig...until next year little calendar."
Modeling in Titletown
We just got back from lunch. Green Bay is not the place to come for a gourmet meal, but the small place we went to had really good burgers...Wisconsin has a afinity for putting butter on all of their burgers I'm thinking...good fries too.
As for the training, I just created a chinese roof. And you all are thinking wow! Me too. I just hope I can remember, retain, and apply...
I bet you are all on the edge of your seat for my next post...more to come...later (I think I used the diareses way too much in this post...)
The Time of Your Life
Throughout my life I have celebrated various days. Some have real meaning, some are nonsensical. Some have been celebrated with others and some by myself. So I come to this particular day, and in reading this I am sure you are thinking, "hmmm, today must be some sort of special day to be writing a post about certain celebrated days..." Actually, no. I am just waiting for some software to install on my computer and thought I would write a little something. This is the first thing that came to my wacky mind. So today (which I am dubbing "Reflect on Various Days Day") I will countdown some of my favorite days I have celebrated in no particular order.
- Talk Like a Pirate Day - I can't say I have officially celebrated it on it's specific day but I wanted to once I read about it...arrrr.
- NFL opening Sunday - I really don't care who is playing, I'm just excited that the America's pastime is finally back - Go Broncos!
- Karate Wednesday - This was a favorite in high school. During periods 3 and 4 at various times we would let loose our best karate yells and chants of "wax on, wax off."
- Christmas - Does this really need an explanation? I will reminisce on my all-time favorite present though. The coolest gift I ever received was my first video game system not from my parents as you would expect - but from my little brother. It was a Sony Playstation. Not only was it an awesome gift, but he saved for a long time to buy me that. Then it was stolen from my apartment...but insurance bought me a PS2, so, really he got me that as well. Thanks Bro!
- 230 Dorm Devos Night - Ahhh 230. Truth be told, every night in 230 was an adventure, but dorm devo night brought it to a whole new level. We packed 30 guys in the living room of an apartment for singing, fellowship, the planning of an "occansional" prank, a spiritual challenge and a weekly ritual, the buck buck. A couple memorable moments were when Dave King actually left his wonderful faith dinner on the carpet which had formally been in his stomach, and when the 300 lb behemoth Jeff Metheny launched himself from the counter top and proceeded to keep chiropractors in business for the next 60+ years.
- Woody's Day - This was probably the pinnacle of the week in high school. Every Tuesday a group of close friends would congregate at Woody's Wings and Things to enjoy camaraderie and hot wings. The funny thing is, I really don't like hot wings but due to the mob mentality and peer pressure and just wanting to be part of the group I actually grew to like them...but only Woody's wings.
- The second Friday in July (or sometimes the first and on rare times the third) - This was the first day of our annual summer vacation to Winter Park. Since I can remember,
my family has spent a week in July at our condo in Winter Park. The first day there was always the best. I would run around the place looking for any treasure that the previous tenant might have left behind. I found a shell necklace once, but that was about it. It was always cool to make the first trek to 7-11 to buy a Richie Rich comic book and coke/cherry/lime/whatever else slushy. I also could not wait to get to the pool and hot tub and try out my new rad googles I got from Yellow Front. It was also an interesting experience to go to the game room. Each year I would hope they would have some new games, and each year I got to play Ms Pac Man, and the same old reject airplane shooting game.
I am sure there are many more days I could write about - and probably will, but my software is done installing now.
It would be cool to hear about your random memorable days - leave a comment and enhance the blog experience for everyone. And if you can't think of one...Make today special.
Validation Junkie
So about this whole blog thing...is it a fad or is it here to stay? I think for the most part it is here to stay. It gives people an outlet to be heard and a way to express themselves. But I would tend to think that most people will not just post for the sake of posting. They need some validation that people are reading what they are writing and care about what they are doing. I am no different in this regard and I get the most pleasure from the comments that you all leave. I think most bloggers would always like to see more comments but I understand as a blog reader you have to be really moved by something in order to comment on it. I also understand that boring posts like this one will probably not get as many comments, unless it strikes a nerve with you.
So I am stuck. Do I write about things that will make more people comment thus satisfying my insatiable appetite for blogger validation? Or do I just write about the things that I find interesting? Hmmmm...you tell me.
Okay weird rant over...
I am a little over 2 weeks into my new job and I am loving it. Like any new job there is a uncomfortable period of adjustment as you meet new people, learn office politics, and figure out what you are supposed to be doing. But for the most part that is behind me. I like the people I work with and I get to do some really cool things.
I got some new headphones for my iPod. I am listening to it a lot at this job and the headphones that came with it were hurting my ears. I purchased a pair of Sony MDR-EX81 white headphones. They have an incredible sound and are very comfortable. They also block out all background noise which is good and bad. Good, because then I don't hear the ambiant noise of a factory, but bad because I can't hear my phone ring on my desk 2 feet away (yes, they are that good).
Tonight we are planning to take Mia to a pumpkin patch where they have animals and all sorts of fun stuff. Check back later for pictures and whatnot. It should be a lot of fun.
We are four weeks into our new church. For those of you who don't know we are part of a group from our home church (Saylorville Baptist) that is starting a church plant in Polk City. Everything has been going great. We are having one service on Sunday morning and then meeting at Saylorville for the rest of the time. Each week our attendance has increased, we had 62 people a couple weeks ago and we have already seen one lady get saved! It is pretty cool to be a part of something like this. It is as close to a original "New Testament" type of church that you could get. You can find out more at www.lakesidefellowship.net
Mia is doing new things all the time. A couple days ago we were downstairs and she decided to go back up. Well she only went about half way, turned around and asked me "ready?" She asked several more times and I finally said that I was ready. Then she walked down the stairs and jumped off of the last one and made a clean standing landing. Wow. What will she do next? I do have some video that will hopefully get put up soon, but don't hold your breath.
Well, the time is now for me to close. This post has been brought to you by the number 7 and the letter q.
Evolution of the Hip
First off, if you are expecting some musings of old folks and their leg troubles, sorry, not what I had in mind. But since you are here, you might as well keep reading, or click on one of those ads on the right...
My thought today is directed at the ever changing world of design. What was cool 20 years ago was not cool 10 years ago and is starting to become cool again. My case in point is wallpaper. If you want to be ahead of the trend go ahead and start wrapping your walls in all their papered bliss. Maybe not you say? Take a look at web design today. I find it fascinating that trends on the web seems to mirror trends in life just at an extremely elevated pace. In our example of wallpaper, it was all the rage when people started figuring out that you 
could place graphics on web pages. In fact it got to be pretty ugly and it was a rare site you saw that knew how to use wallpaper or a graphical background correctly. Most of the time it was an offense to the eyes. That seemed to fall off and solid color or 2 or 3 colored backgrounds became the dominant force. But now, I am seeing on a lot of contemporary sites (developers and designers that have a voice in the community) the trend back to a graphical background. This time however, they are very subdued and classical. It is interesting how this very renaissance look can be so modern.
I think what I like about it so much is the fact that it is subtle enough not to overpower the content on the page, yet is intriguing enough to warrant a deeper look. I think the word "intrigue" probably describes it best. You will notice that in my efforts to "be with it" I also have this type of background for my pages. I have done quite a bit of searching for these specific types of backgrounds and have found very little. Most of the stuff along the same lines is very cheesy and doesn't convey that specific sophisticated classical look. I did find one website that has quite a few of these. Here is the link. If you follow the link you need to scroll a little bit. The patterns in the examples on this page are great but you would still need to take the opacity down quite a bit in order for them to not overpower the content on the page.
So, if you are looking to lead the way, contact your nearest wallpaper store and have them print you some of those.
Subconscious Marketing
So here's the deal...every week we get a mailer advertising 3 incredible deals for our local grocery store. A lot of the time its things like a gallon of milk for .99 or free bananas, etc. The last few weeks however there has been a coupon for .10 off each gallon of gas you purchase from the store's gas station. Cool, right? Maybe not - at least for me... See when I realized I had saved a little over a dollar on my gas purchase I thought to myself..."hmm self, you could use a Gatorade right about now...and since you just saved a dollar you can go into the convenience store and get one for only .50!" Wow! That's a great deal!!! So I did. Only later did I realize that I had been taken by the scam of getting me in the door.
See, today people pay at the pump more and more and rarely go inside. This, I believe is hurting a lot of gas stations. So they need some way to get you inside to see all of the high priced goodies. Enter the coupon that conveniently (or not) you have to use inside...and thus my flavored drink purchase. Pretty smart.