Selling Out and Growing Up

Chandra and Jeff do the Appalachian

2007-06-21T20:35:00.000-04:00

OK So I already uploaded pictures from this, but I feel the entire story is deserved.

Last weekend Chandra and I were planning on going climbing. Allison was to be out of town, so it was just going to be the two of us. On Wednesday night, Chandra called and asked if I would like to go camping instead. Not having been camping in quite some time, I had to think, but eventually decided that it would be fun. Chandra found a campsite she thought would work, Sherando Lake in the Appalachian mountains. I called down and found out that they didn't take reservations, but that they hadn't filled up yet all year, and the previous week there had been 15 open campsites.

Being the cautious overplanner that I am, I jotted down the phone numbers and addresses of 2 other nearby campsites. We took off Friday right after work, trying to get down there before the gates closed.

Three hours of driving and an hour of wandering around the useless town of Front Royal later, we arrived at the park to find a "Campsite Full" sign and nobody in the little booth. No problem, I'm an overplanner, right? Unfortunately, I forgot that in the Appalachian mountains, cellphones are less than effective. Having no idea how to get to the other two campsites, and no way to contact them, we simply rolled down the windows and headed down the road with a song on our lips and hope in our hearts.

Along the way (and while harnessing the power of Blues Traveler), we passed a few people on the side of the road getting hiking and camping gear out of their car. We pulled over and asked them if there was campsite near by. They looked at us, with that "not for you" look on their faces (because we clearly didn't look like real hikers), but they did point out the entrance to a trail. "That white marking is the entrance to the Appalachian Trail. There's a shelter about a mile in there. Its a little bit uphill though. If you get there, you'll be able to camp there. We think about it, and after some deliberation and other such wonderment, we decide to give it a shot.

Unfortunately, we hadn't planned on hiking. So our camp gear consisted of two normal backpacks full of clothing, a shoulder bag of Chandra's full of random accessories, two GIANT sleeping bags (think 18inches plus in diameter), a medium sized cooler, a camp grill (with propane and a skillet), a guitar, and probably some other crap. This presented a conundrum . . . . .

We packed some drinks and snacks in with some clothes in the backpacks, as well as the tent, strapped the sleeping bags to us with bungee cords and string, and started into the trail. By now, its around 10:45pm, and we're hiking by flashlights and Chandra's headlamp. This is probably a good thing, because we couldn't really see far in front of us to how difficult the hike was.

At this point in my narrative, I'd like to point out something in which my opinion differs from that of our pioneering friends. "Uphill", I believe, is a phrase they used because "upmountain" doesn't roll off the tongue with the panache they were looking for. Unfortunately, in their quest for flair, they forgot how important factual accuracy can be, and we were left uniformed of the scope of the quest we were embarking upon. My point? It felt like we were climbing straight up.

We did finally reach a flat spot near the top of the mountain, where we were able to pitch the tent and sleep. When we pitched it, I felt it was much more easily accessible and flat than it was revealed to be in daylight, but it was still a fairly decent spot. We played cards into the evening, becuase hiking up a mountain actually kind of gets your adrenaline flowing, but eventually crashed and got some sleep.

Saturday we did some hiking around the area, went down to the car and got the guitar, camp stove, and food, and just hung out and relaxed most of the day. We found out by looking at some signs we found that we had pitched our tent somewhere around a mile from the entrance. We cooked lunch and dinner at the top of the mountain. After dinner, we were running out of water, so we decided to take the stove, guitar, and some trash back down to the car. The thought here was that we'd end up with less to carry down in the morning, which was a definite plus, and we'd also get more water that was in the car. We loaded up and started down the mountain.

We passed a few people on the way down, who I'm sure were amused by the sight of a guy with no backpack carrying a grill and a guitar along the appalachian trail. We got down to the car, where I reached into my pockets and realized that I hadn't brought the KEYS!!!!!!!!!! Needless to say, this was significantly unacceptable. Chandra ridiculed me, which I deserved, and informed me that she didn't hate me then, but she would about 2/3rds of the way up the mountain. We stashed the guitar and camp stove underneath the car and headed back up.

Did I mention this hike was upmountain? Yea. it was one heck of a climb. We got to the top, grabbed the keys, and returned to the car and the water. We eventually made it back to the top (again) where we relaxed for the evening, then packed up and returned to DC in the morning.

Long story short (or is it significantly too late for that?), we had a blast. It was incredibly impromptu in the first place, and then we ended up hiking the appalachian trail instead of camping at a lame national park. I haven't done anything that random in a while, and I look forward to doing more outdoorsy stuff the rest of the summer. I've been indoors for too long and this was incredibly refreshing.

So there you have it. The story behind the pictures. Enjoy :)

J

Music

2007-06-20T09:15:00.000-04:00

According to last.fm, my favorite bands, in order, are Metallica, Nickel Creek, Panic! at the Disco, Fall Out Boy, Korn, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Sonata Arctica, Sum 41, SR 71, and Cake.

Is it just me, or is that an incredibly random list of bands? especially at the top . . . . .

J

Climbing

2007-05-31T14:00:00.001-04:00

Most of you wont know what this means, but last night I onsighted a 5.9 and redpointed another 5.9 that had been giving me trouble before. It basically means I'm getting better at climbing.

I'm going outdoor climbing for the first time this saturday, which I'm very much looking forward to, in preparation for a trip to new hampshire later int he summer. Here's hoping I keep the steady development up and can actually do a decent job :)

such a rush

J

Back Again

2007-05-14T14:17:00.000-04:00

I haven't written anything in a while, honestly because I haven't felt I had much to say. I'm going to ramble now, and maybe be more focused later. Feel free to ignore the following post, as it has very little interest to anyone but me.

I've randomly recently become far more committed to being a "better me". I put that in quotes because I don't really know the best way to describe it, and thats not really it. I guess I'm just being more grown up? more mature? None of those really work. Perhaps if I describe the symptoms I won't feel the need to label the entire malady.

Historically I've always been bad at creating a routine. I can't decide that I want to do something every day, and then do it. Usually when I make that decision, it lasts a few days, then I take a day off, and it all falls apart. Something must've changed recently, though, and I don't know what.

For the last 2 weeks I've done pushups every night. I started low (20) and have increased 2 each night (I did 46 last night). I'm rock climbing regularly now, and I need to build some more upper body strength. I need to do several other kinds of exercises as well, but I chose to start with pushups. This is incredibly minor, takes all of 5 minutes each night (if that), but its a sign of dedication to a goal and is rare in me.

For the same 2 weeks, I've also done the dishes every night. I know, I know, this sounds like something you're supposed to do, but I don't. I've never been good at keeping my kitchen/apartment/living space clean. Still, every night before I go to bed, I've gone into the kitchen and washed the 3 or 4 dishes that were dirtied that day. This has prevented things from piling up, so one day when I actually cooked a real meal that involved several more dishes and cookware, it was a simple matter because I didn't have to wash anything beforehand to have a dish to cook in nor did I have to wash a sink full of previously dirty dishes before having space in the sink to wash the ones from dinner.

Friday night I received a bonus from work. Its a fairly sizable one, and will allow me to pay off my credit card (something I've been trying to do since I had to live on it for 2 months). Its going to require a significantly greater amount of financial self control than I usually have, however, so I've been tracking my spending since then. I sat down with a calculator and figured out exactly how much money I have to live on until June 10 (the next payday) and still pay all bills and stuff. I'm keeping track every night of all the things I've purchased that day, and I wont be caught off guard by missing money at the end of the month.

I don't know if this will all keep up, or if it will generate more good maturing behavior, or what, but I find it interesting. It seems weird to be proud of washing my dishes, but damnit, I am. That probably says something about me, but I prefer to focus on the good of where I'm going and not the bad that is where I'm coming from.

Here's hoping I stick with it

J

Concert

2007-04-15T19:08:00.000-04:00

Days of the New is coming to Jaxx nightclub. Anybody interested in going with me?

writers block

2007-03-12T21:54:00.000-04:00

Writers Block sucks. I can write anything I want on guitar, it keeps coming, but I can't even get a song I DONT like out lyrically, it just doesn't come.

I've got a few hooks I like but I can't do anything with them. I dont expect anyone to be able to do anything about it, but it frustrates me. I have no reason to believe I should be able write lyrics, but I'd like to be able to.

Bah

J

Money Update

2007-03-05T12:46:00.000-05:00

For those of you actually interested in my well being, as opposed to those of you looking to say mean things to me, I offer a quick update.

It seems that Verizon offered my name up to a pre-collection agency, not a collection agency. I think I've taken care of the money owed them (although I've thought this in the past as well).

I have, however, checked my credit report, and while my FICO score isn't great (the only reason sthey list are the accounts haven't been open long enough and too many people have been checking my report lately, because of the move), all of the accounts are in good standing and have never had a late payment, and more importantly, there are no collection agency records on there.

Also, it seems I've paid my father the money I owe him (he fronted me some cash for security deposit reasons during the move) and my credit card balance is back in the 3 digit range isntead of 4. I've never been in money trouble before, and this whole credit card thing is frustrating. I'll be back to safe again soon, but its nice to see in writing that there's nothing damaging on the report and as long as I get these balances down and keep paying it all off, I'll be fine.

So yea, I'm just feeling good financially, its nice to not be in trouble anymore.

Jeff

Adventures in Car Repair

2007-02-26T15:39:00.000-05:00

Bear with me, this will take a while. Still, its a particularly random story.

Yesterday morning (sunday) I went out for a drive. In the snow. BRILLIANT! I was trying to get some stuff done early before the snow got bad, because I had to leave town last night to get to a training class in Philly and I had a few things that had to happen before I left. While I was out, it started to snow worse. I headed home, but not early enough. My car skidded in the snow (while I was in first gear) and fairly slowly hit a curb with my front right tire. I got off the curb and continued driving, but it became apparent that I had messed something up, so I headed for a car repair place. I had to go to 3 places before I found one with a mechanic in on Sunday.

The gentleman at Mr. Tire promises to look at my car, but says he can't promise to get anything done on it. If its something simple, he thinks they might get it done Sunday, but if its difficult it will have to wait. I head home while they look at the car.

About 3 hours later I get a phone call. Rob from Mr. Tire says "The mechanic isn't done with your car, it'll be a while, but I just wanted you to know there's no way it'll be done today, there is some pretty significant damage, probably several thousand dollars worth. You should go ahead and call your insurance company." I call my insurance company, get my agent on her cellphone on Sunday, and she gives me the 24 hours claims line and tells me to try to rent from Budget or Enterprise if I must rent a car to get to Philly.

Enterprise is, of course, closed on Sunday. The only Budget location open on Sunday is at the airport. I call Budget, and make a reservation. I give them my Credit Card number, Drivers License number, and Date of Birth. Kendra, the world's most awesome person ever, picks me up, and takes me to the airport. I go to the budget rental counter and hand the guy my drivers license. He looks at me and says "you're under 25? I can't rent to you" We go through an argument, I realize I'm going to lose, and I leave. I start going down the rental car row. "Will you rent to under 25?" "No", "Will you rent to under 25?" "No", etc.

Finally Dollar Rent A Car agrees to rent to me as long as I pay an extra $25 PER DAY (I need this car for a minimum of 5 days). Desperate, I agree. They give me a giant white minivan, because I'm such a minivan kind of guy. I get it at the compact price because I was willing to drive a minivan and they were running out of compacts. I figured the larger vehicle in the snow wouldn't be a bad thing. The total price, after underage fees and airport taxes, for 5 days, was an absurd $560. Still, nothing I could do. I get the car and drive to Philly.

This morning, I woke up and first thing called State Farm, now that there are claims representatives in (nobody works on Sundays, of course). I talk to someone, she tells me to have Mr. Tire finish their estimate and she'll have a claims adjuster head out on Tuesday to make an estimate, and we'll get it all taken care of. She agrees that Dollar's price was outrageous, and suggests I return it to the dollar here in Philly, pay the 1 way fee, and get another 1 way rental from hertz to take home. I agree.

Later, I call Dollar, find out the details on that, then I call State Farm, set up the Hertz rental. I'm in class, thinking i've got things figured out, when I get a call from Mr. Tire.

"This is Rob. You're not going to believe this, but we did an alignment on your car and everything is working fine. It looked a lot worse than it was. You can pick it up whenever."

Total Price to fix the car = $85.

Seriously.

Now I have a rental car in Philly, yet I wont be making an insurance claim . . . . . .

I could lead you through all the rest of it, but long story short, now I have to drive home tonight, drop this car at the airport, get a ride to Mr. Tire, pick up my car, and drive back to Philadelphia. Should be a blast.

!!!!!!!!

Not what I needed this weekend.

J

Verizon Sucks

2007-02-23T17:02:00.000-05:00

For all of 2 weeks last August I had a Verizon phone. I didn't get any service in my house or at work with them, so I cancelled it. They called back 3 months later asking for $240. I explained that I didn't have their service and had cancelled it, they said "oh, ok, well we'll redo it, you should get a confirmation soon about it."

They called back a month or so later, asking for $180 or so. I again explained that I didn't have their service. They said they'd send me a confirmation, I never received anything.

Today I received in the mail a letter from a collection agency asking me for $70 for Verizon. I tried to call Verizon. I get them on the phone, I get a nice sounding lady, she asks me for my social security number. I give it to her. I get no response. I wait. I say "hello?" She's gone. A few seconds go by, the call cuts off. Frustrated, I call back. "Our office is currently closed"

Apparently if you're talking to someone when they close at 5pm, they dont care, they're cutting off your conversation anyway. Seriously, who has a call center that closes at 5pm EST? When on earth to west coasters talk to these people when they have a problem? WTF!? And worse, I had someone on the phone who was talking to me! A real person! And you just cut me off? No "I'm sorry sir we'll have to continue this some other time," just BAM service gone.

I'm glad I didn't sign up with these people, I just wish they'd leave me alone.

Everything has a Story

2007-02-19T14:50:00.000-05:00

Lately I've become obsessed with my changing priorities. At the moment, I have a sizeable amount of money in my checking account, most of which I didn't expect to have. In the past this would have resulted in a new music instrument, or something new to go with my recording gear. Instead, I've spent it on paying off my debt and buying new things for my apartment, like silverware and photographs, frames for some stuff I already have. Its interesting to see the things I find important change.
As part of this obsession, I've found myself looking at all the stuff I already have. Everything I own, I remember how I acquired it. I find myself sitting in my apartment, looking around at stuff, and its interesting. This may be boring to everyone in the world but me, but indulge me. I find it interesting and its what I'm thinking about. Skip it if you dont care.

I have a bookcase that my guitar cases sit on. I bought it when I moved into my first off campus apartment. I still had my dad's truck, which I'd used to move in, and I had no money. I found a bookcase on craigslist for $20, so I drove to the guy's house to get it. He lived in southwest, just south of Independance Avenue. I'd never been there before at all, certainly not in a car. I drove down, he brought it out. The bookcase was on wheels, which I thought was odd, and had particularly odd dimensions. Still, it was cheap and thats what mattered at the time. He helped me load it in the truck, where it didn't quite fit, so I had to leave the hatch open. Getting it into my apartment by myself was fun, but I did it. I took most of the lower shelves off and put my guitars on it, using the top half for books. Now it holds plastic boxes above the guitars with all my cables and stuff in them.

I have two black elfa drawer units. A year or so ago, maybe a little more, I needed a filing cabinet but didn't want to spend what a real one costs, so I went to the Container Store. I found something perfectly utilitarian that would've worked, but it wasn't that nice. Ruth, on the other hand, found a black elfa unit with drawers on the bottom and filing space on top. Kate, who was working there and I know from church, somehow managed to talk me into buying not only the fancy elfa filing cabinet, but another filing unit as well, because they were both black floor units on sale, and elfa was discontinuing black. I think her basic point was I'd never get anything to match the filing cabinet since they were discontinuing the stuff. I bought it, spending way more money than I had, for random drawer units because they were a good deal, and now i have two black units that dont match anything else and sit in different rooms in my apartment. Lesson learned? I hope.

I have a comfy chair from ikea. Its not the Poang, its whatever the cheaper model of the Poang is, which I dont think they make anymore. I didn't buy it from ikea though, I got it the week Ruth moved into her new apartment in the Berks. It was in the basement of my old apartment building, for free. Problem was, the cushion was covered in cat piss. No problem for the premier scavenger, we ditched the cushion, bought a new one, cleaned up the chair itself, bought a new metal piece for the base to attach correctly again, and bam, we had a great chair. It stayed at her place for a while because she had no other seating and I didn't have a place for it. Eventually it came to my place, and then moved to my new place. Its a comfy chair, but I never sit in it. I dunno. Not my thing. I really need a recliner.

I have a bass guitar case. This case is currently holding its 3rd bass. My very first bass came with no case whatsoever. I bought it without my dad's approval, on layaway. He picked it up after I managed to pay it off. I must've been 14 at the time. When he saw it didn't come with a case, he bought me a gig bag to go with it. I used that bag for quite a while, until I started playing a regular outdoor night time gig. We'd place our bags and cases off to the side, and people kept trampling my bag because it didn't look like a guitar case or anything, just a weird shape on the ground. I decided I needed a new case. I sold my gameboy and a bunch of other stuff on eBay (through a friend, again, without my dad's approval) for something absurd like $127.50 (i think that was the final figure). I think the total package included to game boys, the link cable, a case that held both of them, a ton of accessories and a bunch of games. Thats the original giant grey game boy, by the way. Anyway, we went to the music store 2 hours away a few weeks after that, and I pulled out all that money and bought a really nice cymbal and a universal bass guitar case. I couldn't get a custom fit case because I hadn't brought my bass with me. I would've had to tell my dad why I was bringing it, and that would mean admitting I had the money, and i was a deceptive little child. Anyway, I bought the nice cymbal and the bass guitar case, went home with dad, who promptly found out where I got the money from, and got mad. I dont think he was all that mad about the gameboy, just that I felt the need to do it all behind his back. Regardless, once I had the case, people stopped stepping on it at the night gig. I've still got that bass, but it stays in its gig bag and a nicer bass occupies the case.

Thats all the random stuff I'm writing about now. I'll do a part two of this sometime soon probably. Take a minute some day and look around your apartment/house/dorm room. Who was with you when you bought stuff? Why'd you buy it? Did you plan on getting it, or impulse buy it? Was it a gift? Everything has a story, and the stories can get complicated quickly. Who'd have thought looking at a black bass guitar case would end up with me remembering how deceptive I was as a child and hoping I'm better about honesty now? I tried to avoid stories about significant things like musical instruments and computers, and stick to mundane things you usually look right past in the room, and the stories stayed interesting.

This has been Jeff's random musing for the day.

Bah

2007-02-17T17:38:00.000-05:00

Today = not so great

Last weekend was great. I had a lot of fun and technological problems randomly solved themselves. Today, those problems reversed. My iPod, which had been acting up for months and got all better last weekend, started acting goofy again. My studio monitors (very expensive speakers) no longer both work. Last week I finally got the left one working after months of downtime (probably close to a year) and the right one went out this time.

Plus, I spent 3.5 hours trying to get my car inspected. They charged me $20 to replace a brake light bulb ($2 for the bulb, $18 labor).

And to top it all off, went to Bennigans with Chris and Kendra, waited for EVER for our food to show up, and as soon as my wonderfully yummy loaded baked potato soup showed up, my stomach started acting up. I ate maybe two bites of it.

So now I'm going to walmart. I have sent a photo I wish to have printed to them already, and I'm going to buy picture frames and record album frames and some other stuff I need for my apartment, come home, and work on my apartment. Perhaps if I'm feeling super industrious I'll even find myself at the Container Store, getting a new ceiling pot & pan rack. Because apparently I'm old and boring.

Used to be when I had a bad day I'd play video games and blow stuff up, or something. Now I just spend money trying to make my apartment nice. I guess thats the "growing up" part of this blog, eh?

J

Err . . . . .

2007-02-06T12:22:00.000-05:00

OK So I've been busy. Got a new apartment. Those of you reading this on my blog and not facebook will have been wondering for weeks where pictures of my new place are, those of you on facebook should've seen me post pics a few days after my last blog post. Regardless, pics of the new place are in an album on facebook.

In other news, things are looking up in general. My financial situation is stablizing (its not perfect, but I'm not as worried about things as I once was), my job is stellar, my apartment is nice, and I've got awesome friends who keep me busy.

The prompt for this random little update, however, is my job. I talked to my parents last night for quite a while, and one of the things we touched on was employee performance and performance reviews and other such stuff, and my father mentioned that its often a good idea to stop by a boss's office for an informal Q&A type session where you ask him "hey, what needs to improve with my work?" It gives him a chance to tell you things he'd like to see change without them going on your record, and gives you a chance to improve them so come official performance review time, he'll notice an improvement, which is good.

So I dropped by my boss's office today, after letting him know I needed to chat for a few minutes, and ran through a few quick issues I had for him, and then asked him if there was anything he'd like to see change in my performance. I stressed this was informal, and I just wanted to make sure I was moving in the right direction. He told me that he couldn't be happier with my work, and that he loved my attitude and how proactive I was. He appreciates my desire to continually do bigger and better things, and yet also my willingness to accept "no we're not going to do that now."

He obviously made no promises of any sort, but another thing he told me went basically like this. "I have a short list of people who I think are very qualified and good at their jobs that I keep my attention on for things like Team Leader positions, and you're definitely on that list." Thats a good thing, in my opinion, because here Team Leaders, while they have some management responsibilities, also often get to maintain their original job. I'm not willing to just become a manager, but picking up additional responsibilities (and pay) while still getting to do the technical stuff I enjoy would be awesome. I realize thats a long way off, but its nice to know where I stand.

He also mentioned that my government team lead and my government branch chief have both, on multiple occasions, mentioned how pleased they were with my performance, and my branch chief in particular mentioned how I'd worked out much better than he had expected. The expectation likely comes from my age, and when Ron pointed that out I simply replied that I'd had my share of idiot young employee moments, they just started when I was 14 so I've gotten through a lot of the hard knocks already.

So basically I went to my boss and specifically asked him "how can I improve" and he said "you're doing exactly what I want already, keep doing that, I'm very pleased with your work." Here's hoping he remembers that come performance review and raise time.

Jeff

New Apartment

2007-01-09T15:10:00.000-05:00

Alright, so I've moved into the new place. Most of my tuff is here, still have a few days to sort out the last of it coming over from the old place, and the cleaning of the old place. The kittens have moved, and all such wonderment.

There's a couple of things I'm not thrilled with about hte apartment, but you're going to have that everywhere, especially considering what I'm willing to pay, and all in al I'm pleased with it. I'll have pics and descriptions and such up soon, but I'm not posting pics til I finish unpacking. Think end of the week.

J

Very funny, God

2006-12-18T22:35:00.000-05:00

So I finally decided to get out of this bad living situation I'm in (w/ the horrible upstairs roommate) and I found a great new apartment. I'm really psyched about it. I agree to it, tell the landlord I'll be dropping off the security deposit, and start making the rest of the arrangements.

So of course, the first thing that happens is my car starts acting up. Time for a new starter! Yay! I dont know what this'll cost me but I wish it hadn't come up now.

Second, blue's weird freaky back acne picks this week to get worse. I think its some sort of bites but I can't find any critters/fleas on her. She got frontline for two months but I was hoping that with an indoor cat I wouldn't have to do it every month. The sores never healed. I see no fleas anywhere on her when I pick through her fur, but she has really weird sores that scare me, and I really dont want to be paying for a vet now.

Why is it that when I finally get some stuff worked out that all these bills and stuff come up? I still haven't bought all of my christmas presents worked out (Bought some of the friends and both parents, but sister and other friends still remain on the list) Am I not supposed to get this new place? Or is it just supposed to be a pain in the butt to get?

J

10 . . . 9 . . . 8 . . .

2006-11-28T20:17:00.000-05:00

Yet Again, we're dealing with a county courthouse putting up the ten commandments. This always comes up because people are obstinate and stubborn and try to force their will on others. Its so American.

I read about this on Fark.com, a website that has forums where you can discuss every individual link that comes up. As you know, I'm always up for a good debate, so I hopped over there to read. I got there a little late to participate in the beginning of the debate, but while reading through, I saw something interesting.

This is not actually about the 10 commandments being placed in public, which by the way I have no problem with (as long as its being used in a historical law context, along with things like the code of hammurabi, justinian's code, etc). This is about the odd Christian obsession with the 10 commandments.

2006-11-28 04:52:35 PM

EnoMan

I always wonder why they aren't more keen on The Beatitudes.

/grew up Catholic
//was always creeped out by OT-centric friends

2006-11-28 04:57:43 PM

Bonzo_1116

I think it's because the Ten Commandments are easier to follow: they're about stuff you're *not* supposed to do. You follow them by *not* stealing and murdering and lying. If you do absolutely nothing, you'll be meeting those expectations.

The Beatitudes seem to imply that you should get out there and *do* something to be a better person and a better neighbor.

It's the difference between saying "I'm a good person because I'm not stealing your coat." and saying "Here, take my coat, you look cold."

Wow. Seriously, thats amazing. Its the most well articulated argument about hypocritical christians I've ever seen. I will admit to being part of that group that would prefer to follow rules that say "don't do this" instead of "do this". I'd love to be a better person, but I'm not there yet :)

I don't really have much else to expand on this guy's statement. I may have that later, but for now I think I'm going to let it speak for itself.

J

Hmmmm

2006-11-27T09:11:00.000-05:00

"Your presence is requested at the Awards Banquet Friday evening."

"The Centech Group requests the honor of your presence at the autumn staff recognition dinner. 5:30 Cocktails, 6:30 Dinner, 7:30 Awards, 8:30 Remarks. Holiday Inn Arlington, Friday Dec 1, please RSVP by November 27"

OK, So TODAY is November 27. I get this today? How long am I supposed to have to make a decision? You tell me 4 days before the awards banquet that I should be there, and then you tell me I have to RSVP immediately?

I'm seriously not going unless I can talk someone into going with me, and it actually doesn't say anything about +1 (although I'm assuming it is). I don't know anyone else who works for CenTech, because the company is hemoraghing people.

Anywho, I just find it interesting that they definitely want me there (but only because I'm a new employee, so its just going to be recognition that I'm new, not that I did anything special), but not enough to tell me with enough time to make plans to be there.

Still, I need to have something better to do Friday than this or I'll feel bad for skipping. Plans, anyone?

J

One Nation, Indivisible

2006-11-14T11:51:00.000-05:00

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Looks good, right?

I mean, it certainly looks fine to me. I don't quite understand why we're pledging allegiance to the flag BEFORE we pledge allegiance to its republic, but thats really just a semantics issue. I think its a little absurd that we're calling our nation indivisible, when not only have we had a civil war, but we're clearly a divided country politically, economically, and socially. And I doubt very much that there is indeed liberty and justice for all here.

Still, I appreciate the thought. It gives us something to strive for. That pledge represents a goal which we can hope to attain. The only problem is, that isn't the pledge spoken in public schools. I don't have ignorant friends, and the only people who read my blog are my friends, so I have to assume you all noticed immediately that "under God" was missing from the pledge. I'm happy with that. Conservative Christian that I am, I prefer this pledge.

Why? Its simple. I'm a firm believer in the separation of Church and State. Go back and look at the history. The entire reason the phrase is IN the pledge of allegiance is because of the church. President Eisenhower's Presbyterian minister preached a sermon about wanting it in the pledge, and the next week Eisenhower was calling congressmen looking for someone to introduce a bill doing so. Its entirely about a church that believed "there was something missing in the pledge, and that which was missing was the characteristic and definitive factor in the American way of life.'"

He was right. The characteristic and definitive factor in the American way of life is our desire to impose our will on others. Christian or not, Republican or Democrat, it really doesn't matter. As Americans, we all tend to believe that our way is right and that other people just can't figure it out. In this, a single Presbyterian minister managed to press a Christian God onto a nonchristian nation.

What shocks me, though, is how many Christians CARE about this issue. I know Christians who deeply and passionately believe it should be in the pledge. I just can't get any of them to tell me why. I don't understand. I look at America, and I'm usually disappointed. I think our nation is definitely trending downward. Why are we trying to claim this is "under God"? It certainly doesn't SEEM like a nation under God to me. It seems like a nation under selfishness, where everyone is constantly looking out for #1. I certainly am.

It seems to me that right wing Christians should spend less time trying to make schoolchildren say its a nation under God, and more time trying to MAKE it a nation under God. At some point in time, and I don't know when, people decided it was more effective to legislate that everyone must believe in and love God than actually go out and demonstrate God's love to others. I don't know when that was, but it disappoints me. Christians need to stop trying to force their beliefs on others through legislation and try to show others how their beliefs work for them, on an individual basis.

For those Christians out there: I'm not saying that Christians shouldn't be outgoing and trying to spread the word. I'm saying, stop forcing your beliefs on people, and try to demonstrate your beliefs in a way that will make people WANT to be Christians. If someone legislated that you had to stick to old Jewish laws of purity, would it suddenly make you Jewish? No, you'd be pissed off that legislation was forcing you into beliefs you didn't agree with. Thats how everyone else feels when you force your beliefs on them.

For those Nonchristians out there: I'm not saying that you have to be a Christian, I'm just saying that individual Christians have the right to spread the word to other individuals. For example, I might invite you to church. Thats completely different from what is happening on a national scale.

So basically, I don't understand what the fuss is about. We can all agree that we're not a nation under God. Everyone who actually reads Jefferson's writings and the Bill of Rights will agree that we're not SUPPOSED to be a nation under God, and yet, we're trying to make elementary schoolers say that we are. Why? As Lewis Black puts it, "No child, when saying the pledge, is experiencing the rapture."

I'll end with something I read in a church bulletin a few weeks ago. "Christians need to spend less time trying to be better salesmen for the gospel, and more time giving out free samples."

- J

Bienvenido a Miami

2006-11-14T09:59:00.000-05:00

Just a quick note. I'm in Miami, and it is beautiful down here. I spent the other night in a hot tub, having a beer and watching a football game (while a bizarre Jewish outdoor wedding took place behind me). I plan to do the same thing tonight.

Its a little lonely here, because I'm the youngest person by at least 10 years, and I don't really know any of the other people who're down here, and my part of the job is very isolated anyway, but I'm getting some reading done and trying to enjoy myself, so its all working out, I think.

Thanks to my friends for watching my cats. I miss them . . . . :)

- J

I Voted

2006-11-07T20:06:00.000-05:00

And I really probably wasted 10 minutes.

Seriously. The next time somebody tells you "every vote counts," tell them you voted republican in the district of columbia. There wasn't a single candidate I supported who had a chance. The only joke of a representation we have to the US congress ran UNOPPOSED.

I couldn't even symbolically vote for anyone other than Eleanor Holmes Norton. No offense hon, but we just don't agree on a few things.

Bah.

Anyone out there reading this actually got a response? Why should I do this again in 2 years?

J

Thanksgiving

2006-11-04T13:49:00.000-05:00

Just a quick update.

I'm gonna be in DC for thanksgiving this year, just because I can't take enough time off work to go home for christmas and thanksgiving. Is anyone else gonna be around? I'm perfectly happy eating a turkey sandwich and watching football, but i'd rather not do it alone, y'know?

So if you're stuck in or near the district for thanksgiving and would like to join me for something at my place or invite me to something at yours, let me know

J

Random Update

2006-11-03T12:30:00.000-05:00

I'm writing because I'm bored.

I'm at work

I have work to do. I just can't get in the rooms I need to do it in, because inconsiderate people are having meetings in there! How dare they!

So, I'm waiting for tech support to call me back about a faulty product, and writing on my blog.

I had thought I might give you a general update on the condition of my life, just so people would know what was going on, because clearly there are tons of people who must know whats going on in my life. Then I realized, the last post I made was that. Damn Tiki Bar!

Seriously, I've spent all of my time lately either at work, working on the tiki bar, or playing pool. I have a new obsession with pool, and I'd like to be better at it. I've always enjoyed playing, but I've never really been good. I'm getting better, because now I'm playing regularly, but lets just say I'm not gonna be featured on Trick Shot Magic anytime soon.

I'm looking for someone who can actually teach me how to play better, but I dont know where to look. I'd love to have someone sit down and say "Jeff, this is what you're doing wrong, work on this and you'll be better at this game." I have no illusion that I'll become a hustler and be amazing, but I would like to be better than average, y'know?

Other than that, I spend a lot of time chillin' w/ Allison, my pool buddy. If there's a stranger pair of people to be good friends, I don't know who they are. We're so totally opposite that we're exactly the same. If you don't understand that sentence, you don't know us. I can't describe it, so I'll stop trying.

Thats all I've got for now. Peace out homeslice

J

Freaky Tiki Bar

2006-10-31T08:35:00.000-05:00

If you're reading this on my blog, you obviously chat with me on a decently regular basis, and are thus aware of my rather significant involvement in the Freaky Tiki Bar Project. If you're reading this on Facebook, you probably haven't talked to me in over a year and have no idea what I'm talking about. If you're reading this on facebook, I don't think all the pictures I'm going to be including in this are going to import correctly, you might consider hopping over to http://jeffderek.blogspot.com to see the awesomeness. The pictures are not placed in specific positions relative to the text, but they're more or less in order of construction.

So my buddy Chris is building a tiki bar. This is Tiki Bar 2.0. Tiki Bar 1.0 was a fairly simple affair to begin with, simply take some plywood and screw it together, and have a drink. It was elaborately decorated, but the underlying framework was relatively simple. It was a rectangle, with the bartender in the middle. Tiki Bar 2.0, in a new apartment, presented some challenges. We had to bulid it into a corner, and we needed to round off an edge. I've never done as much trigonometry as I did that first night, trying to figure out exactly where the angles were all going to fit. It was quite absurd. Graphic calculators were brought out and waaaay too many sheets of graph paper were wasted.

Now would be a good time to admit that I don't really know what I'm writing this for. Part of me wants to write a "how-to build a tiki bar" guide, another wants to write a "misadventures in tiki bar building" humor column, and another part wants to explain how much this bar means to me. I'm going to start with the third and probably work backwards.

Tiki bar building came along at an interesting time for me this summer. I was going through a particularly difficult breakup that left me with a lot of free time on my hands. I needed something to really invest myself in. I'm not going to say I've replaced my ex- with a bar, because that's just weird in so many ways, but I am going to say that this bar gave me something to be involved in that I really felt I could contribute something to. There are skills I was able to bring to the table that I felt were truly needed, and those of you who have gone through breakups will understand the need to feel needed and wanted.

We've done some crazy things on this bar. We built the entire frame out of 2x4's (you'll see a pic of me standing at the frame with a bottle of Pucker) and then covered it in plywood and Maple ply. We made the bar top 1 3/4" think. We built a roof with an angled front on it and mounted the roof with real 5" bamboo supports. We built a hinged door that raises and lowers to let people in and out of the bar. I legitimately can't believe some of the things we tried to do with the bar and I further can't believe how many of those things we've actually accomplished on.

We mounted a computer in the bar. Most of you are thinking "oh wow, a computer in a bar. Every bar I've ever been to has a computer so they can take my credit card and track what I'm drinking." You're missing me. I didn't say we placed a computer case on a shelf in the bar. I said we mounted the computer in the bar. We took the mother board, power supply, and hard drive from an old computer, and just screwed them into plywood. Its quite a hilarious picture to see, but its amazingly effective. There's a DVD drive mounted directly over the refrigerator. Its bizarre.

We used a lot of actual bamboo from calibamboo.com in this bar. The roof supports are real 5"diameter bamboo, and they're actually holding the roof up. There are two fenceposts in the back holding up the rear supports, but thats really only because fedex wouldn't ship 8 foot lengths of bamboo. The entire bar is edged in flat bamboo slats. We edged the front of hte bar surface and the top, then we countersunk the nails into the slats, filled in the holes, and polyed the entire thing. The rear bar shelf (the one with all the booze on it in the pics) is made out of 2" diameter bamboo poles. They actually support all the weight, just like the roof supports. Its a pretty cool shelf, edged in its own set of flat bamboo slats.

Other randomly cool things we did in this bar include the lighting system. Currently its an amalgamation of several things, so I'll try to explain them all. The basics aren't that much different from tiki bar 1.0, for those of you who were familiar with it. There are rope lights everywhere, and we control them with X10. There is a wireless remote for it, but the majority of the time the lights are going to be controlled from the computer in the bar. The ceiling has 5 rope lights in it. Red, Green, and Blue rope lights can all be turned on individually, as well as a white light that is on the X10 system. The 5th light is a little different, but requires more background to really understand.

For those of you not familiar with this apartment, you'll need to understand that the Tiki Bar has been placed in the approximate ideal position for a dining room table. This means that prior to tiki installation, there was a light fixture on the ceiling that was controlled by a dimmer on the wall. In order to fit the roof in place, we had to remove that fixture. Unfortunately, this lowered the available light in the room considerably. So, we installed a ceiling power outlet, and plugged in some rope lights. Now upon entering the room, you can use the wall switch to turn white rope lights in the ceiling on or off. This wasn't quite enough light for us, so we also added 5 halogen lights around the edge of the bar on the same circuit, so the bar gets quite bright when necessary.

We replicated the same Red, Green, Blue, and White rope light system underneath the bar surface, shining on the bar front and the feet of those at the bar. We also put a white rope light on the rear shelf behind all of the liquor bottles, and when it is turned on it makes all of the bottles glow from behind. Its a particularly impressive look, if I do say so myself. For halloween, we also installed 4 fluorescent black lights in the ceiling as well as a few other fun lights. There is way too much going on in this ceiling, but its a lot of fun ;)

In the front of the bar, we have a completely bizarre twist. We built in two columns of glass brick. There are 8 glass bricks (in two columns of 4) They are edged in the same flat bamboo trim as the rest of the bar. They look pretty cool by themselves, but that wasn't enough for the geek squad in charge of this monstrosity. We mounted LEDs in PVC pipe, and wired those LEDs to a controller attached to the in-bar computer. Now, every brick can be individually lit up with any color we choose (the R, G, and B LED's blend very well) I'll admit to being a little disappointed at how nobody at the bar can see this awesomeness, but I really think that in the long run we'll end up doing something similar using the same technology in the rear of the bar, so those sitting down can see and appreciate the light show.

We're also working on a little gizmo called the "Wall of Shots." Let me state up front that I first can't believe we tried it, and second can't believe that we're actually going to pull it off (if all goes well. The prototype is working, we just haven't gotten all the parts to test the full thing yet. They're 'in the mail'). Basically, its like playing the old game show "Press Your Luck" There is a section of the wall with a lot of vials on it, each filled various liquors and liqueurs. Each vial is lit from below by an LED. There is a single button at the bottom. You hit the button, all of the LEDs go off except for one, and that one randomly jumps around until you hit the button again. Wherever it stops, thats what you have to take a shot of :)

We've tested it with 3 LEDs, and we've done the wiring for all 32 LEDs that will be in the first version. We're waiting for a controller that can handle 32 to come in the mail, and then we'll be all set. Its a bit absurd, I know, but c'mon, how many times have you been at the bar and wondered "what should I take a shot of? There are so many choices!" Now you don't have to make that decision anymore, the wall of shots will do it for you.

So. Thats Tiki Bar 2.0 in a fairly large nutshell. If you managed to make it all this way through my rambling and such, comment on my blog or on facebook. Tell me what you thought, how crazy you think we are, and when you're coming to have a drink. I mean, its not my bar, but we'll work out a way for you to enjoy yourself. Its possibly the most random endeavor I've ever committed myself to, but I really have had so much fun doing this that I can't imagine a better way to spend a few months.

Keytar Appreciation Society

2006-10-25T08:16:00.000-04:00

Okay, after talking about it for weeks, I have now founded the official Keytar Appreciation Society Facebook Group.

Those of you who somehow managed to escape being shown Sonata Arctica videos featuring Henrik Klingenberg are going to want to check this out. Those of you who were forced to watch them will want to join just to show your support. Both groups of people are going to want to invite everyone they know to join the group. Its just the way of things.

But c'mon. Henrik is hilarious! And awesome! Simultaneously. Its great. Everyone needs to appreciate Henrik and the way he's bringing back the keytar.

Those of you who were going to mock me for this should realize that there is absolutely no challenge, and just not waste your breath ;)

J

Facebook

2006-10-24T14:28:00.000-04:00

Yes, Blue and Sable are now on Facebook

No, They didn't friend everyone they know. Don't feel left out, just friend them! (It takes way too much energy to friend everyone you know twice . . . . )

Yes, I probably have too much time on my hands

No, I don't remember why I decided to do it

Any other questions?

Kitty Prozac!

2006-10-15T13:16:00.000-04:00

OK, this is a short one. Still, I just needed to share this. I can't make my cats stop pissing on stuff. I have two litterboxes now so sable doesn't have to share w/ a girl, I regularly change the liter, not just cleaning it, I have the stuff you add to the litter that is supposed to fix the smell. Still, nothing appears to stop it. The only way I could make them stop pissing on my bed was to completely lock them out of the bedroom at all times. I can't lock them out of the living room too, so I've gotta find a solution to save my couch.

So I went tothe store today to look for a different smell remover than I'd been using, hoping to find PetZyme, which I hear is great, but they didn't have it. So I just go through the list of all the things they have. I find a new spray, and grab it. Then I notice that they have several things that are supposed to alter cat behavior. Most of them are like $50 for a little glad plugin like thing thats supposed to fill the house with pheremones or hormones or something like that. Then I see a product called Good Kitty.

Its kitty prozac! You put it in their drinking water and it supposedly calms them down and removes stress, so they stop pissing everywhere, since hte pissing is supposedly a stress reaction.

So, my cats are on prozac. Now If I can get me some, it'll all be better

J

Whats wrong with AU students?

2006-10-02T09:04:00.000-04:00

AU - hmmm . . .

That link is a post from a good friend of mine. I read the same post he refers to on the jolt, and its really an interesting point he brings up that I've thought up a lot. I'm more interested in where Max got with his thoughts than where the idea started. People are mean in general and I dont know how much of that is AU and how much is just modern society.

However, I'm extremely interested in his point about political discussions at AU. I lived on an honors floor in the dorms with lots of very politically active students, several of whom interned on the hill. Once I told them I was a conservative from the south, my opinion on political matters was no longer welcome in the discussion. We still hung out, but as a general rule nobody wanted to talk about politics or anything like that with me.

There was a relatively large group of us who all hung out together. As we worked our way through college, the group shrank, which happens as people form friendships based on more than just living near eachother. I found myself on the outside of the group. Many other things had happened and I probably deserved it as I'd been a bit of an asshole. However, when the only other conservative in the group found himself on the outside as well, he told me that he really thought we'd both been rejected in favor of people the group agreed with. I dont know how much I buy it, but its certainly not the most outlandish theory I've ever heard.

The key here is the culture at AU is such that people only want to hang out with people who agree with them. AU does not have a culture of openness and discussion between groups. Some individual people try to foster that, but as a rule they have not succeeded. As Max points out, people tend to talk AT eachother instead of WITH eachother. I hate the discussions that are basically people taking turns expressing views instead of people talking to eachother and listening.

Let me be clear. I have conservative friends. I have liberal friends. I have apathetic friends. I have learned more from the people who disagree with me than I ever have from people who agree with me, and there's a very simple reason for that.

People who agree with you dont challenge your opinions.

Its that simple. Max and I had tons of discussions through the course of college, and he made me defend my opinions. He didn't attack me, he just wanted to know WHY I felt the way I did. I realize I'm projecting a bit here, but I always felt that Max and I explained why we felt a certain way to eachother and allowed our explanations to stand for themselves, while conversations with other people have more often been attempts to convince the other person of how wrong they are.

Instead of yelling facts and figures at me and telling me how much of a horrible person I was, Max simply asked "Why?" whenever I said something he didn't agree with. I tried to do the same to him. There just aren't enough people at AU who understand the value of that.

I guess my message is, "AU! Challenge yourself! Find someone who supports Bush and instead of telling them how wrong they are, ASK WHY!" Feel free to follow up. If someone says they support Bush, ask why. Find out if they like his foreign policy, his domestic policy, or both. Find out if they like what he does or what he says he's going to do. Find out if they just think he's better than anything the Democrats put out and nothing special by himself. You may be surprised at what you find out. But if you just assume that all people who support Bush are evil, you'll never understand why people support him. This same argument is true for ANYTHING. Find out why people support the death penalty, why they're for or against abortion, why they like ketchup in little packets instead of bottles.

You may think you understand where people are coming from, but if you dont agree with them, how could you possibly have the same reasons for coming to the conclusions they do? You cant simply reverse your opinions and have it figured out.

Issues are rarely black and white. People rarely support the death penalty just because they're vindictive. Usually theres' more to it. Get in a discussion with somebody about something, and really listen to what they have to say. You don't have to agree with it. But how bad could it be to really understand where they're coming from?

J

Pardon Me,

2006-10-02T08:19:00.000-04:00

but I have nothing to say.

Which is a rarity, as most of you who know me are aware. I had a good weekend, I had fondue twice, I worked on the tiki bar, I helped fix my uncle's computer, I watched football and 24. I did play perhaps one of the best cards ever in Apples to Apples.

I had an amazing experience friday that I really want to write about, but I've told the story several times and each time I tell it, I feel like I'm not doing it justice. I should just try to write it and see what happens, but I'm afraid it'll sound stupid instead of interesting, and for some reason I'm letting that stop me. I'll fix that in a few. Expect that post later today, I would imagine.

I'm a busy person now. Its strange. I have monday night plans each week because of football/studio60, i have wednesday night plans every week because thats when I jam w/ chris and meyer. I try to have friday night plans every week because i'd like to be popular ;). Its just strange, I'm not used to having all these things to do.

I'll get back to you about that friday experience.

J

WTF Free Time?

2006-09-28T10:23:00.000-04:00

Slightly building on my last post but going in a completely different direction . . . .

A few weeks ago I changed my Netflix subscription from 2 DVDs to 3, created a second queue, and put a bunch of TV show discs in there, so I'd have some non movie stuff to watch. I figure, I'm home a lot more than normal, baseball season is ending, I need to have things to do!

I got 24, which I'm beginning to think was a mistake, because I'm already addicted (I'd never seen it before). Last night I bought the first season of Numb3rs, because its an awesome show and I found it for only $20. Plus it took me til late wednesday night to find time to watch the second episode of Studio 60, which aired on Monday.

So I've got all these things to watch, and my friends keep inviting me out to do things! I go play pool, I go build tiki bars, I go fix computers, I go record bands, I'm loving it. Its just funny that I made these plans to spend time at home by myself, and . . . . . I'm not doing it.

Not that I'm complaining, I just thought it was humorous.

J

Friends

2006-09-25T18:04:00.000-04:00

I'm going to refrain from going deep into detail here, but I did want to take a minute to say something.

I've had a rough summer. This one was remarkably similar to the summer of 2004, which was also difficult. The difference, however, is that in 2004 I felt alone through the entire ordeal, and this time I've had great friends who have been there for me the entire time. You've called me and invited me out to do things with you. You've asked me for favors and asked for my help (recognizing that I also need to feel wanted). You've accepted my help when I offer. You've listened to me rant and rave and not told me you were tired of it, no matter how many times I've called at a bad time.

I appreciate all of my friends, and if I haven't made it clear to you yet, I hope you get the opportunity to read this and realize how much you guys all mean to me. I've gotten closer with a few friends as a result of this, and I couldn't be happier about that. I dont know where I would be right now without all of you, and I can't say it enough.

Thank You.

- J

RFK

2006-09-20T16:05:00.000-04:00

Monday Night I had the most amazing RFK stadium experience. Its a bit of a long story, but if you're reading this, you know me, and if you know me, you know I've really never told a short story in my life.

So I'm driving home from work Monday, planning on watching Monday Night Football until 10, then watching Studio 60, and in general just having a low key evening watching television. I'm listening to sports radio, and I hear them announce "the Nats will be hosting the Braves tonight at RFK for the beginning of a 4 game series."

My first thought is "why don't I have tickets to this game?" My second thought is "oh crap! I do have tickets to this game!" As it happens, September 18th was originally supposed to be a day off for both the Nats and Braves. In April, they had a game rained out, and it was rescheduled for September. I had two tickets to the game in April, and thus my tickets from April were still good for this rescheduled game. They'd been sitting on a clipboard on a shelf all summer. 2 weeks ago, looking at the schedule, I'd been aware that the makeup game was coming up, but I had such a hectic last week that it completely passed me by.

So I get home, and I break out the cellphone. I have no idea who to call first, so I just write a text message, basically saying "Can I interest you in a free ticket for tonight's Nationals game? I've sent this to multiple people so get back to me ASAP," and I send it to a bunch of people. Everyone declines, because lets be honest, its 5pm and the game starts at 7. Allison, however, at least asked me when the game was before declining.

I call a few more people, get no takers, and finally tell Allison that if she wants to go late, we can still go, because I'm not going by myself so I'll just be home chilling. She calls around 7:45 and we take off. We get to the park around 8:30, go inside, grab some beer, and find our seats. We're in the 400 level, with a bunch of guys who all appear to be around 50 or older. They're all Nats fans. I, of course, am wearing my Braves hat. I get quite a good bit of ribbing for this, for obvious reasons.

Then, around the 6th or 7th inning, there is a pitching change. One of the guys gets up and walks over to the front of the section. He's a large black man wearing a little plastic batting helmet on his head, and a Nats T-Shirt. He holds two pens up to his mouth, like a microphone, references his player roster and scorecard, and proceeds to bellow.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, may I have your attention. Now pitching for the Atlanta Braves, Number 56, Oscar Villareal! Now playing left field for the Atlanta Braves, Number 18, Ryan Langerhans!" Someone behind us yells "And Langerhans is batting 9th," so our host continues his announcement, "and he's batting in the 9th position."

As he turns to return to his seat, he yells "We want the DH!!!" Apparently, he'd prefer to be rooting for an American League team. However, myself and several other good National League fans proceed to shout him down, "No we dont!" He stops for an instant, then yells "I want the DH!"

By this point in time, Allison and I are dying laughing. We've been enjoying the heckling, but this guy is hilarious. He continues it for every pitching change and every pinch hitter. Its high quality. Everyone cheers every time he announces someone, its just a lot of fun.

The 7th inning ends, and its time for some food. We go to get hot dogs, and Allison decides that she can't be known as the girl with the Atlanta fan, so we head to a mini team store. One oversized fitted hat, two hot dogs, and 3 condiment packs later, we head back to our seats. We're both wearing our hats forward, and since we sit in front of our heckling friends, they dont notice the hat immediately. We turn the hats backwards, and all of a sudden hear one of the guys yell "Hey! She's a Nats fan! You gotta kick him to the curb honey!"

Needless to say, we're in tears at this point. These guys are fans of the home team, and I'm clearly not. Yet somehow, they're just having fun with me. We chat about baseball strategy, and about which players are good, and why some players are out of the game and not playing, and in general just have a good time all being fans of the sport. Their mission, surprisingly, is not to ruin my experience becuase I root for the other team. Their mission is to have a good time with whoever is there.

Near the end of the game, the Braves pull away. In the bottom of the 9th, the score is 6-1. Apparently this left our hecklers without much to cheer for, because we're sitting there and we next thing we know, we hear a shout from behind us.

"TNT IS A HORRIBLE STATION."

We look at eachother. We look at the other people in the section. Someone says "well, I guess its time for commentary then." We laugh, and turn back to the game. Moments later:

"ATLANTA DOESN'T HAVE A GOOD BASKETBALL TEAM!"

This is, in fact, quite true. No contesting that. Good football: Check. Good baseball: not this year, but most of the time. Good Basketball: Umm . . No. Next:

"THE GEORGIA DOME IS SMALL. AND HOT. AAAND . . . . NOT VERY GOOD"

Classic. Does this need more explanation?

And of course, right before the final out is recorded:

"EVEN LUDACRIS DOESN'T LIKE THE BRAVES"

----

So, it was a spectacularly fun evening with random drunk people who were loud and funny and yet not irritating or obnoxious. This is rare, and I loved it. I'm going to Philly this weekend to see the Phillies and the Marlins, and I suspect that I will not have the same experience. I'm hoping though!

Yay for RFK and fun impromptu evenings.

-J

Panic! At The Disco!

2006-09-12T12:45:00.000-04:00

Just a quick note. Panic! At The Disco! is playing the Patriot Center on November 11th. I've got my tickets, and I couldn't be more excited for the show. Its 2 months from yesterday, and yet I'm already psyched up for it. I realize its a long way away, but this is the kind of thing where I always intend to get the tickets and go, and I forget, and the show sells out, and I'm too cheap to pay for the scalped ones on craigslist, so I dont go.

Not this time. P!atD, here I come!

-J

9/11

2006-09-11T10:23:00.000-04:00

Many people out there will write many more eloquent things today about today's date. I myself have nothing particularly deep or important to say, and I only want to give everyone one thing to look at.

This is the original discussion thread from Fark.com on the morning of September 11th. You can read the thoughts of people worldwide as they watched the events of that day occur. Don't read it if you dont have a few minutes to do the entire thing. Its a very sobering thread to read, and I don't know what else to say about it, so I'm going to let it speak for itself.

- J

Registered . . . .

2006-09-08T21:29:00.000-04:00

Because two posts in one day isn't enough! I bring you . . . a third!

Not only am I bringing you a third post in one day, I'm bringing you a second controversial post in one day. Please, nobody hate me for this ;)

Yesterday I went to the DC DMV and got a new Drivers License. When you register for your Drivers License, you also get the opportunity to register to vote. In the process of registering to vote, I had to choose a party to register with. This was quite a difficult proposition for me, believe it or not. I really didn't know what to put.

I'm from the south. I was raised very conservative. I'm just going to give you a random stream of consciousness laundry list of my opinions. These are opinions. Opinions. Opinions.

I'm in favor of guns. Shotguns and Rifles. Anything that you use to hunt, I'm in favor of. I really love venison and I respect hunters. However, I'm violently (an inappropriate adjective if there ever was one) against handguns. If you show me a reason for a handgun that isn't shooting someone, I'll let you have one. I know people who own handguns who ONLY shoot them at ranges, and enjoy doing so immensely. OK. I'm wiling to allow handguns as long as they have to stay AT the range, and can't be taken away from the range. I just dont see why people need to have easily concealable weapons. I'm also against assault rifles, for obvious reasons.

I'm Anti-Abortion. ProLife is a stupid phrase. I am against abortions for people who have already had the opportunity to choose. I'm in favor of the procedure being legal in situations where the mother's health is involved, and in rapes and other such extreme situations. I'm simply against abortion when the procedure is performed only for convenience. I dont know how to legislate this so I've stayed out of the arena. Perhaps abortions can only be performed on a doctors recommendation? I dont know. And because I dont know, I try to leave it alone.

I'm against the death penalty. This is a new thing for me. 4 years ago I was pro death penalty. I'm not entirely sure what changed my mind. Some of it is historical, but mostly its practical. The death penalty does NOT deter crime, that much is fairly obvious. And while I'm not a numbers guru, I've heard things like it costs $40K/yr to house a convict but it costs over $1million to execute one. The execution cost is obnoxious, and I've done nothing to verify that, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was true. Regardless, until God calls me up and tells me "actually, jeff, go ahead, you can kill people who do wrong things," I'm going to assume he'll take care of it in the end.

I'm against blue football fields. This is completely unrelated, but ESPN is on and Boise State and their stupid field just took the screen over.

Here's a difficult one. I think the Bible says homosexuality is wrong, but I also think thats not my place to legislate. I support equal rights for homosexuals. I dont know how to accomplish that goal, but I support it. There's no reason homosexuals should be discriminated against in our society. Thats part of why I love America. The fact that my religion says something is wrong (at least, in some interpretations), doesn't mean everyone has to accept that. I love that. Yay America. Now if only the damn system worked. Let me be clear. I think the Bible says all sins are equal. I sin. A lot. Too much. I don't think I'm ANY better than any homosexual. I don't think they're "bad people." I know several gay people and I do my very best to define them by what they do and what they're interested in, not their sexuality. Its not my place to tell them they're wrong, and Its certainly not my place to judge them for it. I love my friends who are gay, and I hope they can figure out how not to be offended by this. I certainly dont know how to reconcile it myself, and thats a frustrating situation. However, for the moment, I'm going to say that if I were able to vote on a gay marriage amendment, I'd probably have to vote against it. The big problem is how marriage is linked to both religion and government. I dont want to deny anyone rights they deserve under marriage, but I dont want to tell a religious institution that they have to accept anythin they dont want to. Ultimately though, I think I'm going to come down on the side of people's individual rights are more important.

I'm for small government. This government has its hand in too many things. Government does way too much subsidizing of random things it shouldnt be. Like taxpayer funded art. I think not. There was a 2 million dollar study that sent bicyclists up and down Connecticut Ave all day, and determined that biking up and down connecticut ave was bad for your health because of all the smog you inhaled. Shocking. Biking around metro buses means you inhale nasty stuff? Say it aint so!

I no longer support George Bush. This disappoints me. I have done EVERYTHING I can to support this man. I've made excuses. I've tried to believe. Its like those UFO posters. Imagine one on my wall with W's picture, "I WANT TO BELIEVE" at the bottom. However, I just can't anymore. I really think he did some great things early on in his presidency, and I certainly don't think John Kerry would have been a better president, but it disappoints me to see how bad George Bush is doing. It is becoming clearer and clearer that there never WAS a plan for what to do in Iraq after invading. There's no real concept for how to treat Iran and North Korea. And there's absolutely no thoughts that the opinions of the rest of the world might matter. I worry about the state of our government, that Bush and Kerry are the two best people we could come up with to be the president, and I worry even more about our upcoming options in 2008. I am not optimistic.

I'm against affirmative action. I'm sorry. I really am. But I didn't oppress anybody. Why is race a factor in college admissions and other stuff? Especially when it comes to things where the entire process is blind and people never meet in person. Why should you know what race people are? How could it POSSIBLY matter? College admissions should be blind. No access to racial information. You can't abolish discrimination by . . discriminating.

I'm for alternative energy. I dont know what this means. Heh. Seriously. I think we need to ween ourselves off of oil, and I applaud Hybrid vehicle manufacturers. I'd like to purchase a Hybrid, but at the moment my car is almost paid off and I like it that way. My next car will probably be a Hybrid of some sort, but a larger one, like the Saturn VUE hybrid or the Escape Hybrid. Still, I'll try :)

I hate Ann Coulter, Pat Robertson, Michael Moore, and Al Sharpton equally.

I think Intelligent Design and Evolution should BOTH be taught in schools, and I simply do not understand how Evolution rules out Intelligent Design. Is it all that hard to believe that God is the brains behind Evolution? Why do Christians hate Evolution as a theory? What part of the evolution theory says God couldn't possibly be involved?

I'm for better education but I dont know how to accomplish it. I think a good start would be getting decent teachers in the crappier schools, but thats very hard. A lot of good teachers wont teach in those parts of town because they're not comfortable there. My mother teaches at a school in a particularly bad part of Macon GA, and I dont like knowing the neighborhood she works in every day. And we're just talking about Macon GA. I can't imagine what women working in cities like Chicago and Detroit feel like venturing into those areas, much less how their husbands, fathers, and children deal with it. I have no answers, but the system needs smarter people than me working on it.

------

So. Thats it. I dont follow any party line. I'm definitely right of center, but I like to think that I put thought into all of the issues and dont just blindly say what somebody else tells me to.

To make a long story . . . long, it comes down to this. I knew I couldn't register Democrat, because I only agree with them on a few issues. However, The Republicans have just been embarassing me continuously for the past 4 years or so. This was frustrating.

I registered Independant

Doh!

2006-09-08T14:57:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I got a bluetooth keyboard and mouse for my computer. I dont need a wireless keyboard and mouse, but its a step up to an optical mouse from a ball mouse, so I said sure and took it.

So I try to set it up, and I get the keyboard to connect, but the mouse wont connect. I add it as a device, and it says its added, but it never says connected, and if I close the bluetooth manager and reopen it, the mouse isn't there anymore. I spent 20 minutes on it before it was time to go, and then just figured I'd deal with it in the morning.

I get in this morning, do a few other slightly more important things, then sit down to try and get my mouse working. I download new drivers. I visit help sites. I uninstall everything and reinstall it. I finally figure I'm just going to shut the computer down and let it think for a bit, then try again.

I turn around to do some stuff on the new Mac Mini I just got. I dont have enough monitors in my cubicle to show all 5 computers and the VTC unit at once, so each monitor can show more than one thing. The Mac shares a monitor with the VTC unit, and I had it switched to VTC, so I couldn't see the Mac. I switch it over the Mac, and there are like 500 errors on the screen. "Bluetooth Mouse connected. Please click connect to confirm connection." The computer simply couldn't understand why I kept trying to connect to it but then wouldn't confirm.

I spent over an hour staring at a PC trying to get this mouse in my hand to connect to it, and the mouse in my hand spent an hour trying to connect to the Mac sitting behind me.

Doh!

Simple Overreactions

2006-09-08T12:33:00.000-04:00

This is a dangerous thing to start writing about but I'm going to do it anyway. I'd said I'd try to keep posts like this to a minimum, and I shall, but I'm hoping that writing this will help.

I'm emotional. All the time. I always have been. I dont hide it well. I cry at sappy movies (really). I dont know, its just who I am. So when I get frustrated with things, I dont always deal with them well. I try to deal with them better, and I'm getting to the point in life where I'm better at the public perception of how I'm holding on, but inside I still have no idea whats happening.

Lately I've been spending a lot of time hanging out with other people. I'm recently single (and everyone who is reading this knows all the details), and I'm really feeling the void. We were basically living together and we were together all the time. I always knew I could count on her to be there and I always knew I'd have someone to spend time with every day. I suddenly dont have that anymore. And the strange thing is, I have great friends.

I do. I really have some awesome friends who have stuck with me through this and hung out with me even when I was a miserable person to hang out with me. You know who you are, and I appreciate it greatly. I'm not that great at saying it in person, so this will probably have to suffice. And in fact, this week, I've hung out with several of them. I had 9 people over at my house Monday night for a cookout, and it was a blast. I played guitar with Mark on piano Wednesday night, and I had dinner and played guitar with Chris last night. It was fun. I've had people to hang out with and stuff to do all week.

So why am I so lonely? I really dont know. There's just a void there. I cant fill it with other friends, but I'm certainly not someone anybody else wants to date at the moment. I'm going to have to get over it and move on, but this just doesnt seem likely. How do other people break up with someone and end up dating a new person 2 weeks later? I see it all the time, but the only two breakups I've ever had have left me emotionally wrecked and unable to be happy for months afterwards. I dont know where to go next and what to do.

I still talk to her. I miss her terribly, relationship wise, but I miss her more friendship wise. Its just not back to where we were, and I doubt it ever will be. She makes me laugh and I enjoy spending time with her. I enjoy chatting with her online. I read her away messages and look at her name when she's offline hoping she'll log on soon. I look at her name when she's online and wonder if I can IM her or if I'm coming on too strong and need to back off. I've deleted her from my buddy list twice to stop obsessing about it, and only end up checking her info anyway by typing in her name manually. (NOTE: I am not doing anything stalkeresque or creepy, I havent followed her anywhere or done anything untoward, I just miss my best friend and I dont know how to handle it).

The other day, she posted a song lyric in her profile that I didn't know was a song lyric. They were painful words to read, and I IM'd her attacking her for trying to hurt me immediately. She told me they were just lyrics and that she always posts lyrics and never really means anything by them, but it still hurt a lot. The next day they were gone. I dont know how to react to it, but I know I probably overreacted before. I just dont know what to do.

So in conclusion, I'm a wreck. I'm lonely and screwed up, and if you see me say things like "I'm lonely" or "i feel alone" or anything like that, it doesn't mean that I don't appreciate you as a friend or anything you've done for me in the past 2-3 months. I love all of my friends right now and I'd be even worse off right now without you. I hang out with you and enjoy being with you, and I do my best to be an enjoyable person when I'm around others. I hope I succeed more than I fail. The key to getting through this, I hope, is learning to actually be happy the entire time I'm with people. Usually its periods of happiness followed by gut wrenching moments of loneliness without any cause or warning whatsoever.

I dont know where I'm going with this. I miss being happy. I miss my girlfriend. And I miss being able to count on her to always be there for me no matter what. I know there are other people out there who will be there for me if I need them, but for some reason its not the same, and I dont know why. I appreciate those of you who have been there for me and will continue to be, and I hope this verbal assault hasn't offended anyone out there. I just needed to get it out there and hope something good will come of it. At the very least, I hope it gets off my chest and lets me get back to work without obsessing for a few hours.

- J

Muse?

2006-09-06T08:49:00.000-04:00

I have a Muse.

At least, I think I have a muse. Someone has certainly regifted me with the ability to write music again.

I haven't played my guitar seriously in about a year and a half. I used to write a lot, and I just havent done it lately. However, I've recently started playing again with two of my friends (two acoustics and a piano makes an interesting sound), and as such I've started writing in my spare time at home. I have a beautiful guitar that was a graduation present I still haven't put to good use, and it seems now is as good a time as any.

I'm going to write a paragraph now that will mean nothing to the nonguitarists among you. Simply assume the point of this paragraph is that I found a cool new toy that makes my guitar sound awesome.

Have you ever used a Partial Capo? I'm talking about a capo that only holds the A, D, and G strings. you place it on the 2nd fret, and it means that if you strum an open chord you're playing an Esus. It opens up worlds of cool chord possibilities, especially if you pair it with a regular capo (Capo on 3, Partial Capo on 5?). I made my own partial capo with a Keyser capo and an exacto knife this weekend, and I've been writing songs with it ever sense. The one thing I dont know is what will happen when I try to add a regular guitar into it, with Chris playing with me, but surely we'll find a way to work something out. I'm really excited to add piano, that much I'm sure about.

So I've got this new toy, and I'm writing a lot with it. I dont know that anything I've written is any good at all, and at this point you really can't know. I'm writing four chord progressions and other such wonderment. Its what happens when I bring it to the band and let the piano get involved that the magic really occurs, and that is scheduled to happen tonight. Look for excitement and wonder tomorrow.

I'll have another post later today about something random, I think. I need to write about something other than immediate happenings in my everyday life, and I shall. No promises its interesting, but check back anyway, because if you're reading this now you're probably gonna be bored in the future too.

J

Where'd You Go? I Miss You So

2006-09-05T07:02:00.000-04:00

Last night I had several people over. We did burgers on the charcoal grill, and hotdogs and corn on the propane. I also cooked up a pot of chili so those of us who had dogs mostly had chili dogs. It was a lot of fun.

People left rather early, around like 10:00. That wasnt a big deal, because most people had work and/or class early in the morning and its hard to fault them for that. I took advantage of the evening time and turned on the Florida State/Miami game. I'd been taping it, so I was able to start at the beginning and watch the entire game.

At the end of the game, I walked down the hall by the kitchen and noticed that the back door is cracked open. The regular door handle doesnt close wel so I usually keep it deadbolted, but we'd used the door and I hadnt deadbolted it again yet. My first thought turned out to be a good one. "Oh god, where are the cats."

I spent 45 minutes looking for them, but at 1:45 I had to give up, because i knew I had to get up a t 6:45. I locked my screen door and left the regular door open, so that if they came home they'd be able to push on a door and wake me up (which I know sable can do). Around 5:15 I woke up, and didn't see them anywhere, and it was getting loud outside, so I decided to shut the door. I checked the patio and they werent there either. I went back to bed.

Sometime in there, after I shut the door, I had a dream that they came home. I dreamed that I opened the door to the patio and they came in. However, when i woke up at 6:15, I looked around and it was pretty clear that that had not happened. I went out to the patio, though, and opened the door, and there they were, soaking wet, meowing and trying to get back in. I let them in, locked them in the kitchen so they couldn't get dirt and wet all over hte living room/bedroom. I tried to dry them off a bit with a towel and then I went back to bed. I was just too exhausted to stay up with them at all.

So now I'm awake and my kittens are home. Still, thats not how I wanted to spend last evening. They worry me when they pull crap like this and I dont like it.

Jeff

Morning now

2006-09-01T07:15:00.000-04:00

OK, I just wanted to put up here that I'm better now. I just had a pretty crappy day yesterday, and then people were busy and I just ended up watching the ball game at home by myself. The braves, of course, lost ;). Anyway, I slept and I'm up now and I'm better.

We've all had the bad days. I still dont know how I'm going to get the tools needed to do my job, or any of the other things, but its all good. On to the labor day cookout!

I cleaned and tested the new grill yesterday. I dont have what appears to be a "diffuser" of some kind, that goes between the heating element and the grid thing. It looks like there was a thing before that spread the flame out and such, and it got really old and just broke. It doesn't look replaceable and I dont know enough about propane grills to know if it needs replacement. If you understand propane grills and would like to look at mine with me, I'd appreciate.

Regardless, the cookout will go on, because I still have the charcoal grill, and we were gonna do the burgers on that anyway

J

Thought for the day

2006-08-31T20:16:00.000-04:00

Being bitter and angry because you're lonely is a self-fulfilling prophecy

Today Blows

2006-08-31T14:07:00.000-04:00

I'm not going to bitch long I promise.

Today sucks. I dont have the tools to do my job, just found out they're most likely not going to get me the tools to do my job. I'm lonely and tired of being so. I want to get drunk and dont have anyone to do it with me, and that seems like a bad decision anyway.

Thats it. Just needed to vent.

Philly, anyone?

2006-08-28T09:10:00.000-04:00

OK, so in late July I conned two friends into riding with me to Philadelphia to see the Braves play the Phillies. We drove up, had cheese steaks at Pat's for lunch, and went to the game. As we walked up to the stadium, the skies were darkening. By the time we made it up to our seats, it was pouring rain. We stayed for 2 hours, and then they cancelled the game. We were told that our tickets weren't refundable, but that they would be good for the makeup game.
Lucky for us, they scheduled the makeup game for a Saturday. In fact, its a day/night doubleheader. Our tickets are for the 1:05 game, but there's another game at 7:05 that we could go to if we wanted to buy more tickets (and why not buy them? We'll already be there and thats the expensive part of the trip). It could be a lot of fun.
Enter the problem. Both Mark and Mike are busy this weekend. They cant go to the game. So I now have 3 tickets to a game in Philadelphia, and I'm going alone. I'm looking for someone to go with me. I could take two people, or I could take one person and we could trade the third ticket in for a ticket to the night game and buy one more. I just need someone willing to go with me! I'm estimating it'll cost around $50-$60/person for just one game, $75-$85/person for two. Thats really not a bad price considering it includes gas, tolls, parking, food, and tickets.
Anyway if you're up for a game, let me know!

J

Feelin' Single

2006-08-25T09:19:00.000-04:00

Seriously, this is one heck of a change. I haven't spent this much time at home chillin by myself in 2 or 3 years. Probably more. I'm playing video games and watching TV, playing on my computer, and in general just being home by myself. The friends I have who are still in town do have lives and I'm trying not to push myself onto everyone as their new best friend, so I'm not out doing things every night.

Its just strange. I wasn't out every night before, but I always had somenoe to be with, and now I dont. Its not necessarily bad, its just a very big change, and I'm feeling a little more alone than I have in a while. Its just odd.

So thats my little story. I dont know what it means. I just spent wednesday and thursday night at home playing with my kittens, and last night before I went to bed, I thought, "is this it?" I go to work in the morning, I come home and make dinner and feed my cats and watch tv at night. There's nothing profound about it, nothing exciting, its just all sort of routine, and it strikes me as odd.

I dont understand me . . . . .

J

WTF Facebook?

2006-08-23T11:22:00.000-04:00

OK, So I'm a college graduate and I still do facebook. Get over it. Still, I find it intersting that when I logged in today, it said "Looks like you blog on Blogger. Would you like to import your blog to your Notes?"

Apparently now, anything I add to my blog here on blogger will automatically get fed to my facebook profile. So my miscellaneous rantings and nothingness are now getting pushed out to the masses.

Sorry if you're reading this. I have nothing to say and I'm just writing to keep my sanity. You'll get to see the occasional cute picture of my cats, and that will happen far more often if I can get my camera working again, but other than that its just going to be drivel from someone who feels weird as a graduate and doesn't really know what to do next. . . . .

J

????

2006-08-23T08:35:00.000-04:00

Pardon me, but I have nothing to say.

Its odd, isn't it? Only a week after I start doing this I've already skipped two days and I"m not sure whats about to come out. Thats ok. I'm not trying to write anything topic based and I'm not trying to write every day. I'm just stream of consciousnessing everything and hoping I dont offend people. If I offend somebody, please, let me know and I'll apologize to you for it. And if you've told me you have thick skin and wont be offended, dont go back on that ;)

I helped Meyer move into the dorms last night. It was interesting. I haven't spent time in the dorms in a long time, and it was happy "meet the freshmen" time for quite a bit of it. I dont want to say I feel old, because that really isn't the right word, but it felt awkward realizing how much older than them I was.

There's my topic for the day. What is the word for how I currently feel? I dont know. Let me try to explain the feeling and you can try to pin a word on it.

I feel old. Not as in my joints dont work and I've been here to long, I feel old because my priorities have changed. I feel like an adult. I dont like saying that because it gives one of two connotations. 1) I wasn't an adult while I was in college, or 2) I think that just because I'm out of college I'm suddenly an adult. Those are COMPLETELY opposite representations of the word, obviously, but I dont know if I' m supposed to be an adult or not. Sometimes I think I am, sometimes I think I'm not.

I feel adult because my goals have changed. I mean, I work in a cubicle, and I love my job because it provides stability in my life. I make the same amount of money each pay period and I go to the same office at the same time every day. I like that. It just feels weird to like that. The purchases I make have also changed. Recently my parents asked me what I wanted for my birthday and my first thought was "well i really need new silverware" I just made a purchase I'm really excited about: I bought a slipcover for my couch, and a tablecloth, some pillows, and a throw that all match the red wall I painted in my apartment.

The next thing I want to buy is a new vacuum cleaner. I've got it picked out, but I'm holding on until I move because my floor isn't level right now so I dont think it'll help that much.

Do you see where I'm going with this? I just have different goals and aspirations than I used to, and it freaks me out.

So what do I call this? Am I growing up? Was I not grown up before? Will I be grown up soon? What on earth is going on?

Incidentally, on a completely different note, I got homemade cookies in the mail for my birthday. I love my friends :)

OK This has to stop

2006-08-20T19:23:00.000-04:00

Twice now I've sworn I was getting rid of the kittens. Not because they're not awesome. I love them. I really do. I just dont like them that much all of the time.

I had them for 6 months with absolutely no problems at all. Then once I didn't clean the litter box soon enough for them and they shat on my bed. It happened again about 2 months later. Now, all of a sudden, 5 times in the past week they've shat on either my bed or my futon (only the futon if I'd locked them out of the bedroom)

Today, on my BIRTHDAY, they not only shat on the futon, but they pissed on it too. I'm running out of energy to deal with this shit. There's food in the food bowl, water in the water bowl, and the litter box is immaculate. What else can I do? I play with them, but its hard to want to play with them when they're shitting all over everything.

In all honesty, I'm keeping them around because I'm somewhat lonely now that Ruth isn't around as much. But right now, I'd rather be alone than cleaning up piss and shit every day (twice yesterday and twice today).

They're in the bathroom right now, and I honestly dont know when I'm letting them out.

J

Interesting Solution

2006-08-19T12:34:00.000-04:00

So I've talked a lot about my kittens. They're wonderful people . . errrr. . . . kittens. However, they recently had a quite painful and drawn out bout with fleas. It ended up taking 3 attempts to fog the apartment and 2 flea baths to finally clean the apartment up.
As a result of this experience, they're now afraid of the floor. That, of course, is where all the fleas were, in the carpet. However, they're gone now. I just can't convince Sable and Blue of that fact. They're convinced the fleas are still around and if they stand on the floor they'll get them.

I have a second problem, this one somewhat less irritating. My kittens are fat. Not as much as they were, because I've had them on a diet for a while, but Blue especially needs to lose a little weight. They simply eat too much food, and when I put out less they meow nonstop until they get more. I can usually just put up with the meowing, but when I'm trying to sleep at night it is something less than desireable.

So, I have a creative solution. The food and water are now on the carpet. Not for any length of time, but for now, they'll have to choose to go hungry or stand on the carpet. I figure one way they lose weight, and the other way they stop being tired of the floor.

The floor thing doesn't sound lik that big of a deal, but understand that they jump from furniture to furniture and knock stuff off of tables and couches and stuff when they skid. They're also putting nice little gouge marks in furniture and my legs when they're afraid they're about to hit the floor. No good. That fear needs to be remedied.

Here's hoping it works!

I love these guys

2006-08-17T20:08:00.000-04:00

I had a long day at work today and came home planning on going to bed. I watched my two daily sports shows (Around the Horn and PTI) and then put on my cheesy netflix movie that arrived solely because I never adjust my queue (Miss Congeniality 2? What was I thinking?) Its now in the mail, and I'll be watching preseason football for a little while until I fall asleep on the couch.

The awesome part of the evening, however, is my kittens. The entire movie, both of them were snuggled up on the couch with me. I love my kittens so much, because they like to be with me. Now they're sleeping elsewhere cuz I got up and started working on the computer, and they have to get their rest if they're going to run spastically around the apartment.

Thats Jeff's little shot of joy for the day. Don't expect these posts to be this regular for long. Its new and I'm looking for happy things to write about

J

Selling Out (or How I Became a Cubicle Warrior)

2006-08-16T08:45:00.000-04:00

So here's the deal. This is going to be a long post. I'm not writing it all at once. If you know whats good for you, you wont read it all at once. If you're like me, you don't know whats good for you. Some of you may know all of this, some may be tired of it. Don't read it if you dont want to.

I recently accepted a position with the CenTech Group, a government IT contractor. The contract I was specifically hired for is at US Coast Guard Headquarters in SW DC (yes, there is a southwest quadrant. I was shocked too). I'm fairly sure I didn't apply for this job, and that my resume was found on Craigslist. It might have been monster or yahoo, but I think it was Craigslist. Anyway, I was interviewed and didn't really get a lot of details about what my job specifically was, I think because they weren't really sure. CenTech mostly does IT support and computer work, not A/V stuff. It appears that to get the contract with 40 some odd programmers and such in the building, they had to be willing to provide the 4 or 5 A/V guys. So here I am.

When I got here, I was pleasantly suprised to find out I knew a lot more about my job than I thought I did. The job title on my offer sheet was "Video Teleconferencing Technician," and having never used Video Teleconference (VTC) equipment before, I was somewhat worried. As it turns out, I'm just doing the part of VTCs that involves all the equipment in a room, i.e. the TVs, Speakers, Microphones, Mixers, Amps, etc. While this isn't the dream job I had envisioned when I first majored in Audio Technology, it is the dream job I have been envisioning for about a year. I get to play with toys, I get to decide what needs to be done, and I go to the same place every day instead of chasing my office around the area. I like my cubicle, even if it is a cubicle. There are only 3 people in my little tiny cube farm, so its not like I'm part of a huge area, its just me and 2 other guys chillin in this office. And they're both cool.

I shall now take a break to share with you a photo of my kitten. He's a cat now, but I still wish he was a kitten. He still acts like one, but he's huge. Thankfully, he and his sister are both losing a little weight since I put them on a diet, and it appears they're over their recent bout with fleas. Thank god. I started buying them expensive food, but they're worth it.

Back to my story. Actually, we're going to go back a little further than where we were. During my interview, they asked me how much money I wanted to make. I hadn't really given it a lot of thought. The real answer was "as much as I can," but that didn't seem right. I pulled a number a little higher than I thought I could justify out of thin air, and wrote it down. The NEXT DAY they called me and offered me exactly what I asked for. Clearly I should have asked for more. That said, I don't know anyone else who graduated with me who is making more than me. That just means I don't know them, because I dont know a lot of people in my class, but most of the people who took the same kind of classes I did are not making what I'm making. I guess that makes me a winnar! Or something . . .

So here is the rehearsed bit about what my job is. I do video teleconferencing. However, there are 2 parts to video teleconferencing. The first part is whats in the room. In the most basic system, there is a camera pointed at you and a mic to pick up your voice, a video screen to see the other end and speakers to hear them. We have a few rooms that are very basic like that, and some that are full on rooms with multiple plasmas and projectors, multiple cameras, wireless mics, and seating for 200. There are, in total, about 50 rooms. We use less than 10 on a regular basis.

The second half of video teleconferencing is the teleconferencing part. Thats where you connect several different people in several parts of the country together and they all chat and have fun. There's a shocking amount of work involved in this, you need ISDN and networking experience that I dont have, and you really have to know your stuff. I dont know any of that and I was worried about having to know that. It turns out that isn't my job! My job is to work in all of the rooms and know the gear. Someone else's job is to connect it all. (As it turns out, the guy whose job that is quite two days before I started, but thats another story)

Thats quite a bit of information for you to process all at once. Go have a coke. I'll still be here when you get back

J

Morning

2006-08-16T08:38:00.000-04:00

This morning didn't really happen. I woke up at the right time but couldn't keep my eyes open. I left my house 5 minutes late only to realize that I needed gas to get to work. Oh well. I only ended up being about 8 minutes late because traffic was light, and I stayed pretty late yesterday. This place seems pretty good natured and I dont think the real boss noticed I was late at all.

There's nothing on my schedule. All day. Nothing. There's a guy who called this morning for help before I got here, but he really needs help on Friday. I'll probably end up talking to him for 5 or 10 minutes, but thats it, if that even happens.

So I'll keep trying to learn new software and figure out how to program touchpanels. Its great fun.

I'll finish the job explanation a little later in the day. Dont feel like it now, not until I get some caffeine.

J

Working Late

2006-08-15T16:52:00.000-04:00

So its only my third week and I'm already working late. Its not like they're forcing me, I volunteered. There's a video conference going and I'm here just in case something goes wrong. I agreed to stay late so I can get off work and go do something else tomorrow.

I should backtrack. I'm now an Audio/Visual Specialist for the Coast Guard. I maintain about 50 conference rooms in Coast Guard Headquarters. I do all the cameras, TVs, projectors, mics, conferencing, etc. etc. that happens here, except the classified stuff. I'm currently redesigning one of the main conference rooms and rebuilding it from scratch, and over time I'm going to end up doing that to all 50 of them, each with varying degrees of reworking. Several rooms are completely functional and just need a little bit of cleaning up to make them look professional, others barely work, and only then if you know exactly what to do.

This post is short. I didn't finish my thoughts. The meeting I was here to watch ended, and now I'm leaving

Goodbye. I'll be back

Why?

2006-08-15T16:23:00.000-04:00

Why am I doing this? I dont know. Last time my life fell apart I started writing, and it helped. Then I wrote something in a blog I thought nobody was reading that offended someone, and she's never spoken to me again. So on the surface, this is probably a bad idea.

That said, there's a lot going on I want to write about. I dont know why I think anyone will want to read it, but thats besides the point. I'm certainly not trying to create the world's most popular blog. I just want something easy to use.

There will probably be a lot of pictures of my kittens. I tried a kitten photoblog for a bit, but there wasn't enough to keep it going, because I only have the 2 kittens and 3 rooms in my house, there is a finite number of cute things they can do that people want to see in a picture. However, I'm hoping that if I get this whole thing going and I'm writing some too, that the kittens will be a refreshing change of pace.

I hope I dont turn this into a venting and bitching session for me. I want to write about how exciting my new job is, and looking forward to my new apartment. There will probably be some entries that suck and depress people, but my goal is to be upbeat and share joy.

Thats all I have now. I'll have more in probably 10 minutes or so when I decide to write about something, but I figure that the introductory post shouldn't take more than 2 minutes of my time to write stream of consciousness, and I've reached that point. You really dont need to know anymore.

I love you all, thanks for keeping in touch w/ me, even if you just read this occasionally