Top Seven Office Pet Peeves

Got this off Yahoo! today.

7. Misuse of work email. This includes pressing "Reply All" just to say "ok!." (22%)
6. Overuse of personal communication devices in meetings, i.e. cellphones, blackberries, PDA's. (28%)
5. Loud talking and obnoxious cell phone rings. No, we do not want to hear your cell phone's sound limit! (41%)
4. Odius food, perfume, or smoking smells. I could almost swear my last boss bathed in cologne. (42%)
3. Messiness in the breakroom, i.e. dirty dishes. (45%)
2. Poor time management while on the clock. That would be me right now! (54%)
1. Gossip. Or at least that's what I heard... (60%)

I'm Back

My friends, my acquaintances, and all you other people who read this blog, I apologize that I have been gone for so long. Not that it really ruined your day to find the same post up for the last nine days, but sorry anyway. I have been very busy at work, and when I have been home I've been far too tired to post. I am therefore taking time out of my work day to post so that you won't feel forgotten.

Like I said, life has been very busy - I'm loving my motorcycle (duh). Melissa is doing well and the baby inside her is growing. We're supposed to find out next Tuesday if it's a boy or girl! Yay! Seriously, it's about time. Seems like forever. We've started going to Bradley birthing classes, and boy howdy do you learn a lot in there! For those of you that don't know, the Bradley Method is an all natural approach to childbirth. It's a whole lot better than using tons of drugs and crap that the hospital loves to hand out. Not bashing anyone who does it that way...necessarily, but just saying that naturally might be the better way...moving on. Yeah so these classes, the lady can TALK. She talked for three hours without barely breathing! Wow. She is very knowledgeable about this stuff. We then watched a video from the 80's on someone giving birth naturally, and yes, we got to see the whooooooole thing. (Shudder). It was cool cuz it's a miracle from God, but it's definitely not...entertaining or something to watch while eating. Like I said though, learned a lot.

So how bout this weather, huh? It's awesome! Granted, it is a little cold riding to work in the morning, but by lunch time it's absolutely gorgeous! I'd love it if it were always in the 60's-70's around here. Clear blue skies, no rain, all that wonderful stuff that some states not next to the Gulf can have. Only thing about this weather is that it's thrown my allergies for a loop. I've been stopped up really bad ever since it cooled down. That's the price I pay to enjoy it so I'm not complaining much.

How is school going for those of you in school? I'm making it and keeping good grades, but it's semi-exhausting. I'll be glad when it's over. Hoping and praying that once I have my 60 hours I can call HPD and get in! Seems like such a long time ago since we first started talking about doing that. Well, it was last year, so yeah, long time.

So here's something I can't believe - it's November 1 on Thursday! And Daylight Savings ends on Sunday! Why is it that the days crawl by, but the year is gone before you know it? I can remember- well ok I can't remember January that well, but I remember February and March like they were last week! On the other hand, November means Melissa's little brother is turning 15, so he can start driving with us, and it also means Thanksgiving dinner and the one football game of the year that I actually watch. Not that I care who wins, but I watch because Melissa's family bleeds orange and I have to watch.

So it's only Tuesday, but I'm approaching it believing that it's going to be a good day. Yesterday was one of the first truly enjoyable work days I've had since starting here! Sad I know. So I should get to work, but I hope you've enjoyed this post. If you have things to be addressed or discussed, leave a comment and I'll try to get to it tomorrow. Later,

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Guess What...

Yeah so I finally bought my motorcycle on Saturday! It's a 2008 Honda Rebel and it's black. It had 2.7 miles on it when I drove it off the lot. Very nice bike. Yes, it is the lowest power you can safely by in a motorcycle, but it's my first bike so I'm ok with it. For those of you worried about why I didn't buy a used bike, I can send you the 30 page list of things to inspect before buying a used bike, and you have to be a mechanic to check some of that. Oy. Anywho, drove it around a lot on Saturday and Sunday and drove it to work today. It's a lot different than it looks - it's not easy. Yeah, you get used to doing things like shifting and braking with your hand and your foot, but it's constant attention - no slacking like in a car. I'm not trying to insult all you car drivers, but I'm saying that I can't like take my eyes off the road or just sit at a stop light and fiddle with stuff or deal with other people, or be on my cell phone. Can't do it. Not saying I'm better than you, just saying it's different.
Anyway, how was your weekend? Mine was obviously pretty quick. See any movies? There isn't much out to see. I can't believe Bourne Ultimatum and Rush Hour 3 are still in theaters!! I know they were good, but that good? I dunno about that.

So yeah, I mostly just wanted to say I got my bike and I'm gonna be super careful. Gotta go. Later,

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Zzzzzzz......

I am tired today. Started out feelin' really good! Got like 9 hours of sleep last night which is insane for me. Couple things I'd like to say for starters and that will probably give me more crap to ramble about. First, the quiz at the top of the screen is totally rigged. The only reason I got Batman is cuz I went down and answered "no" to every question. If anyone actually takes the quiz, they're gonna get Superman. I tried a couple other patterns with my answers and got Iron Man and Super Girl, but still the quiz is rigged.

Also, y'all can talk about thanksgiving food all you want, but the best thanksgiving food is still Cheese Grits. You can't have Thanksgiving without them. You could have a festive day with family in November, but you couldn't call it Thanksgiving.

Hmm, yeah so I still have nothing really to talk about. Huh, figure that, me with nothing to say. If you see pigs flying, don't be surprised. Oh well, I'll try again tomorrow. Later,

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Ouch

So I'm really stinkin sore. I did a class this weekend learning how to ride a motorcycle, and while I had a blast, I'm really sore. There are muscles in your body that don't normally get used, and motorcycle riding uses them to the MAX. Ouch. Anyway, the class was awesome, and you finish with a huge sense of accomplishment, because a lot of that stuff they teach you is hard! I did great, and learned a whole lot, but still I am very sore. Ouch. Here's a picture of the bike we practiced on. It's a Buell Blast (Buell is owned by Harley Davidson). Pretty cool bike - 500 cc's, comfortable, and fairly neat looking. This is actually the color of the one I practiced on too. Although, now that I'm thinking about it, ours didn't have rear-view mirrors, but that's probably a good thing, because that would have been another thing to remember. There's a lot to think about when you're riding a motorcycle. Both hands and both feet have something to do the whole time. Still, most fun I've had on a weekend since I got married. Wasn't more fun than getting married, but a blast (see the humor? we rode Blast's...okay nevermind). How was your weekend? That was my whole weekend, so it seemed pretty short. I'm gonna try to go get my license this week I think (if I can find time). If you decide you want to learn how to ride, let me know, cuz if you go to the same place I did and mention my name, I can get a gift certificate to buy gear.

I tell ya, I'm just so GLAD to be back at work today. Just floored. Yeah, so I'm having trouble keeping track of time - I've already been here for an hour and thought it had just been 15 minutes, so I'm gonna go now, but I'll try to post more later. Prolly won't though. Oh well. Later,

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Oh Friday, how I love thee

Yeah not really. Friday's are becoming just like any other weekday. My Saturday's are always so busy that there's not really a weekend. If I'm not serving at church on Sunday I can sleep in till 9 or so, but that's the only day of the week I can sleep past 6:30. It gets old real quick, but that's life. Plus it won't always be this way. I'm starting to think that life is divided up into an endless amount of phases, and some feature of your life is a temporary one whether you realize it or not. For example, all this waking up early is a phase for now because after I get out of training with HPD, I'll prolly have to work nights for a while. Or if you're a parent, you think it's gonna be forever, but eventually your kids move out and even though you're still their parent, you're not responsible for taking care of them anymore. Always something temporary, so don't stress over stuff, cuz you never know what might be gone tomorrow.

So I haven't posted all week. Miss me? Yeah right. Anywho, don't really have that much to talk about. Been a busy week - lots of work - spent most of wednesday night at church - good times. Learned how to work the sound board at the youth building. I'm really excited to learn the differences on the big board over at the main church building.

You know, I just don't have that much to talk about for right now. Well, I have something to talk about, but I don't want to talk about it right now. Wait 'till next week, and you'll hear all about it. Later,

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Whose Halfing Fun Two Dei?

Yeah, so if you can't tell - I'm bored. I have lots to do today, but I'm bored nonetheless. That's a fun word to use - it's three rolled into one, and even though it's real, it looks fake. Just like nevertheless and stufflikethat. Ok, the last one was fake, but you get my point. What point, you ask? Why that's exactly the point - there is no point. If you're shaking your head, don't worry, you're going to do it again before you finish reading this post. Unless, that is, you stop reading right now...

So today's been normal - worked, had some coffee, went to lunch, ate waaay too much, worked some more, talked to people... Oh, have you ever watched or read The Phantom Tollbooth? If you are my wife, you're probably sick of hearing about it, but I got to thinking about it last week, and last night I found it on YouTube. That's right, I found the entire movie. Of course, it was in fourteen different parts, but it's the whole thing. It's from 1969, so if you go look it up, don't expect a work of art. It's pretty good though. Watched it for the first time like ten or twelve years ago, and I can't remember why I started thinking of it again, but I did, so there. See? Again with the shaking of the head. I told you.

Did you see the news story about the cop up north who killed six people? Someone said it was over a girlfriend or something immature and stupid like that. Couple things about that. First, he was only 20. Why was he on the force that young? I know there's not a lot of difference between twenty and twenty-one, but it's still something. Also, though it makes me sick to read the story, it makes me even sicker to see that it was a cop. Law Enforcement in America is already given a hard enough time about tasers and "police brutality." Was it worth killing people to get back at his girlfriend or whoever? No it wasn't. Crazy, stupid, messed up world we live in.

Kinda hard to believe it's already October. Doing anything for Halloween? We're not. Well, ok, I take that back, I am going to Walmart the day afterwards to take advantage of all the cheap candy, but other than that, we're not doing anything. I don't really have a point to make with that, just thought I'd mention it while I'm typing the rest of this pointless crap. Speaking of crap, if you want to cure someone of fast food, have them watch Fast Food Nation. Don't watch it with them because it's gross. Don't tell them it's gross either, unless you know they'll come beat you up for not warning them. Also not a good movie for pregnant people to watch since they're already nauseous enough.

Right, so I thought I'd check the public opinion by doing a simple Google search. I typed in "crazy people," and this was the second picture that popped up. That's Michael Jackson if you can't tell. You gotta wonder sometimes about people, cuz you see what they'll do just to stay in the spotlight. What makes them want to do that? Is there reason behind Britney's madness or OJ's "innocence?" I don't think there possibly could be. It's funny, too, (well, sorta) cuz if you look at the weirdest people in the world, most of them started off just fine. Perhaps they just started off too soon in the spotlight. The Olsen twins and Lindsay Lohan strike me right off the bat. They were famous sooo early, that by the time they came into all their money and popularity, it was just too much to handle, and they crashed. Lindsay Lohan has literally crashed several times, but we won't go into that. I used to think I wanted to be a movie star, but can you imagine how awful that must be? They can't do anything without a camera or ten spying on them! Yeah, I get upset sometimes because they're way overpaid, but I feel so sorry for them at the same time, because they have no private life! What makes Americans so desperate to know everything about JT or Britney or J-Lo? Personally, my life is way too interesting and busy to be obsessed with celebrities. Ok, off that soapbox now.

Well, I've only got one hour left to go at work, so I'm stopping now. Later,

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School again!

This is more of a test post than anything else. I imported this blog into Facebook, so I'm seeing how good it is at updating regularly. If you are reading this, visit my actual blog moneydude524.blogspot.com and let me know! I'm at school right now in class or I'd do a longer post.

By the way, I did something stupid yesterday, and yes, this is so obviously something I would do. I bought a coffee maker for my desk at work. It's a small, four-cup unit just for personal brewing. It's great, cuz in five minutes I have two cups of coffee. Anyway, I was thinking that since I only paid $13 for it, that maybe it wouldn't be super hot. I mean, seriously, how good can a cheap walmart coffee maker be?? Well my friend, let me tell you it makes a HOT cup of coffee. I figured that out by burning every taste bud off my tongue. Stupid move, I know, but hey, it's me! Later,

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Friday Fun

I'm into alliteration and I don't know why. Oh well. So google has this thing you can do now that's almost like a game. It gives you a time limit and a partner that you don't know and can't communicate with. It then shows you pictures and has you start putting in suggestions until the two of you duplicate an answer. For example, if it put up a picture of alaska, you might say, "state," "alaska," "cold," etc. It keeps going until you and your partner have guessed the same word. Once you get that picture you get another one and you keep going till you run out of time. it's fun too because you get points, i'm just not sure how. Anyway, you're wondering where I'm going with this. At the end, it shows you the pictures you worked on, and it shows your partener's words. I just thought this one was funny. I couldn't tell what the picture was, and apparently my partner couldn't either:












passed
www.codinghorror.com
Partner's guesses:computer, chat, wtf is it, i cant see it, omg, i hate you google


I just thought his/her answers better reflected our frustration than my guess of "website."

Anyway, I'm pretty sure you have to be really bored to find it entertaining, but if you want to do it, go here: http://images.google.com/imagelabeler/ and enjoy.

So other than that, Friday's going normally, I'm still at work, and probably will be till 5:30 or 6. I'll try to update my Facebook tonight for those of you that care. Later,

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Whoosawhatsit?

Sooo, couple things to mention, then I'll just type till I get bored or interrupted or bored enough to get interrupted... Hmm.

So anyway, had an interesting evening last night. I volunteer with the Tech Arts ministry at our church when I can, usually doing camera work. James also helps with the Tech team, only he knows how to do almost everything. Everett (the guy in charge) wants us to come over to the new youth building and work tech team over there. I couldn't figure out why at first. He said he needs people over there to push the quality up. Right now, they're working with the same equipment as the adult building, but the quality level of production is lacking. Like I said, I only do camera work, so James had to teach me a lot of stuff last night. I learned a whole lot, though, and feel comfortable using what he showed me. I'd need more training before I started using the same equipment at the big building just because there are more eyes watching, and even more important, more experienced eyes. We had a couple rough spots last night, but what we helped to put out was apparently lots better than what they've been getting, so that was encouraging to us. I had a good time learning and seeing how things work.

Thing-to-talk-about number Two. I read a news article this morning that and European company is coming out with a gum that's not sticky! I'll give you a minute to recover from that.......... Enough time? I know. Now I'm thinking a couple things. First, what?? Second, who actually put time and energy into that thought? Seriously, who just suddenly says, "I think gum shouldn't be sticky anymore...I'll change it!"? It must be a big problem in the UK, because they spend like three million a year cleaning gum off the streets and park benches and stuff. What are they doing to clean it off? Does it cost $1000 to pay someone to run a paint scraper down the underside of your tables? If so, I'd take that job. It'd pay better than what I do now. There are a few problems with this gum though. The biggest fault I'm seeing? It's water soluble. Enjoy your gum, but don't take a sip of water, cuz there goes your gum. Who thought up that idea? And, how can it be water soluble, but your spit doesn't dissolve it? Sounds a little fishy to me. Speaking of fishy, wouldn't it be a great practical joke if someone could create bad-tasting gum that looks normal? Can you imagine if there was someone you didn't really like, or someone you just wanted to play a joke on. You give them a piece of gum, they start chewing it, and realize it tastes like green beans, or sweaty socks, or fish sticks or ooh, pepto bismol? That would be funny. Of course, you'd have to keep track of which pack of gum that was, cuz it wouldn't be a funny self-inflicted joke.

So I just wasn't happy with the picture of the motorcycle that I put up earlier, so I went back to the store and took a pic of it with my phone. This is it. I think it's pretty sweet, and it will be just what I need to get around town. Still don't know all the details, but would love it to work out. Just so y'all know, I'm mostly putting this up cuz my wife said she liked it when I put pics up here, and she would have hated it if I put a pregnancy pic of her up here, so I put the bike. Moving on...

Believe it or not, I think I'm out of stuff to say for now, so, later.

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Hullo, Hello, Hallo!

Good morning and good day to you! It is Wednesday, in case you hadn't noticed. I'm trying to be positive about today and stay in good spirits, and so far it's working! It also helps that I'm counting down the hours until I can leave, and updating it every half hour makes time fly by! How is your week going so far? I hope it's going well. The first couple days of this week weren't so great, but what Monday is ever that great? Unless of course any of my children are ever born on a monday, that wouldn't be so bad.

Speaking of children, we had another doctor's appointment yesterday and everything seems to be going fine. The baby is growing normally, as is Melissa's tummy, but she's looking pregnant, so it's so adorable. We get to go back in three weeks for a check up, and three weeks after that we'll find out whether it's a boy or girl!

So I had a bright idea yesterday... I say I had because, well, it "it was a good plan...until now." That's from POTC 1, for all you unsalty people. Garr. Anyway, I got a facebook last week, and I've been going through finding people I used to know. I've found 25 or 26 people so far, and last night I got the bright idea of poking all of them to see who would poke back. And it's great too, because I get the messages on my cell phone so I don't even have to be at a computer! Problem is, everyone poked back...all through the night. I think the last text message I got was at 2:30, which is almost funny, because my wife jokingly predicted that I would. On the other hand, I guess it's nice to know that people check their Facebook often, so if for some reason I needed to contact somebody, I could do it pretty quickly.

Don't get me wrong - I like Facebook now that I've found several people. What surprises me is that people keep finding me. It's cool when people find you, because doesn't that mean they wanted to find you? I mean, it seems to me like you'd have to be looking for them. Unless they were looking through their friends' friends list, saw you, and figured "hey, what the heck, ADD." I dunno. What will be more interesting, I think, is how many people I "know" on Facebook are actually interested in staying connected, or whether they just want a longer friends list than everyone else. I suppose that remains to be seen.

I do have one sad thing to point out about this post - I started writing it almost four hours ago. I keep getting interrupted, but then again, that's probably because I'm at work. I better go. Later,

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Number 3 coming up...

So how was your weekend? Was it everything you dreamed it would be? Yeah, uh huh, keep lying to yourself. Weekends in this country are so rarely a true time to relax like they should be. Weekends are now when everybody gets out to do all the stuff they didn't get to during the week. I know - we do it too. I did have one interesting thing happen this weekend... The fire alarm went off at school (college). Somebody in a Chemistry lab spilled some stuff, so they set off the alarm as "a precaution." Yeah, you know they so enjoyed that. Long story short, we ended up getting out of class 55 minutes early, so I got to go home and watch a movie before my next class. That was a little relaxing, but my wife was not at home, so it could have been better.

So we have pregnant doctor visit number three tomorrow! I have no idea what happens at this visit. We have heard the hearbeat, and seen the ultrasound, we don't find out what it is till next visit, (I mean whether it's a boy or a girl - we KNOW it's a baby). Of course, she is already 16 weeks, and I read somewhere that sometimes they can tell by week 15... Then again, they are more likely to be wrong the earlier they test, and we don't (well, I don't) want to take our boy home in pink anymore than we want to take our girl home in blue. We can wait another four weeks to find out what it is. It will be nice to know, because that way we can pick a name and not tell anybody! Ha ha. There are only like two, maybe four people we will tell, and you know who you are. If you're wondering "Is that me?" then no, it's not you. Like I said, YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE. :)

Ugh, so many good movies out. I need to go see some. Even more than that, I need to go to the shooting range. It's been a month and a half, and they say that you should go at least once a month if not twice to maintain your skills. Oy. If only I had time...

Sooo, I'm gonna go work, cuz I get paid to, and it would be a shame to not earn that money. Of course, they'd still give it to me if I worked a half-day. "Cuz, even if you only play a half-game, you still get the whole snow-cone. You don't get half a snow-cone, so, yeah, I'd- I'd rather play- I'd rather play half-game. Still get the whole snow-cone." Watch brian regan videos if you don't know what I'm talking about... Later,

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