 | Neuco on Game Crazy Sucks |
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| Chris on HP Sucks |
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 | Jodi on Punday, July 26th |
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| What would Corvallis… on Oregon Special Edition Barbie… | |
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The dreaded song demons are at it again. With the death of Michael Jackson, I have been listening to some of his songs the last few days. Man in the Mirror really speaks to the journey I started a couple of weeks ago. Yes, any change I want to make must start with me.
For the record, I love his music–particularly 80s and early 90s. I just want to enjoy his music for what it is. I refuse to watch the tabloid stuff about the problems in his life and ultimately his death.
Enjoy…
For my regular readers (was kind of surprised that there were any left given how little I have posted lately), you have probably been wondering what’s going on. First off, my posting has dropped to almost nil. Then I posted 3 relatively profound songs and vague details on something percolating in my life. I have always been a very private person by nature (so I have a blog why again?), but I do want to provide a thumbnail sketch of what is going on.
Several week ago, I had what I like to call an awakening. It was a realization that I was not the person that I want to be and deciding that now is the time to make the changes I want to transition to the person that I do want to be. Mid-life crises, maybe; becoming the person I want to be, absolutely.
Don’t panic too much. We’re not talking about radical changes–at least from an outward standpoint. You might not have even noticed any real changes if I didn’t talk about them in my blog. I’m not going to get 12 tattoos (hmmm, 1? maybe), not going to start skydiving (hmmm once? maybe), not going to buy sports car or a motorcycle, no torrid affairs.
So here are some of the things I want the new me to be:
Basically, I will no longer to be the painfully shy, angst-filled person that I have been since I was a teenager–if not earlier.
I also want to care more about those around me. With my family and friends, I want to speak kinder, be more patient, be more loving, compliment more often, and show how very much I care for and love them. For the next circle of people I interact with, anywhere from co-workers to the convenience store clerk, I want to always give a smile and genuinely take an interest in their lives.
Really, most of these changes are internal in how I look at myself and how I choose to interact with others in a more positive way. I have already started transitioning to the new me (1 week and counting) and I seriously already “feel” it. I am happier, more relaxed, more confident, and feel more control of my life than perhaps ever.
Well, I think that’s quite enough for now. If you made it this far, congratulations!
I think I smell a new regular feature to get me posting regularly again. Maybe I’ll entitle it “Seen on I-84″ or something like that.
Anyway, this is a picture of a cool old car that I took while driving riding on I-84 at the Flying Wye interchange. However, I really need to get a phone with a better camera if this is to be a new feature.
Okay, I took this picture while driving riding on I-84 between Nampa and Caldwell. I mean, is this something I should be concerned about at all? Something doesn’t look quite right, but I can’t put my finger on it.
Okay, the song demons are at it again. Here’s the song speaking to me today: One Step at a Time by Jordin Sparks. I had just always thought it was fun to listen. But now the lyrics are hitting home.
It’s been quite a sucky week, month, year, etc. I was listening to this 80s classic by Howard Jones and it seems to really speak to me today. The video is pretty wacky. Maybe watch the video and then go back and play it a second time with your eyes closed to take in the words.
I need to have a serious discussion with my brain. I am simply not happy with its performance in regards to dreams. First of all, I’m seeing too many repeats. They say that we use only 10% of our brain’s potential, so I think it’s got plenty of time to come up with original material. I simply won’t put up with this laziness anymore. It wouldn’t be so bothersome if it was a good dream being repeated, but in this case it is an unpleasant dream. I can’t remember the details now, but I know that it was not fun.
Secondly, I want to see my dream requests fulfilled. After all, it’s my brain and it darn well better do what I ask. I have always wanted to experience space travel. However, I can’t afford such a trip. Even if it were free, I might very well chicken out. So, I want a nice space travel dream. But has my wish been granted yet? Of course not.
So brain: Stop with the repeats and give me my space trip or there will be serious consequences!
John recently completed this high school meme. It looked like fun, so I’m following suite. Feel free to post your own and let me know.
1. Did you date someone from your school? My high school years were sad and pathetic romantically (and in most other ways as well). I didn’t date in high school.
2. Did you marry someone from your high school? No, I married someone from my wife’s high school.
3. Did you car pool to school? Sometimes. Mostly though, I walked before I got my license and drove by myself after.
4. What kind of car did you have? A puke-green 1975 Chevy Vega. This may explain my answer to #1.
5. What kind of car do you have now? A red 2008 Toyota Corolla.
6. Its Friday night…where are you now? Watching TV and having a beer.
7. It is Friday night…where were you then? You would probably find me with John. Either at his house, my house, a high school sports game, or cruising. And if we were cruising, you’d find us chugging…a 7-11 Super Big Gulp.
8. What kind of job did you have in high school? I was a gas station attendant at a Chevron gas station.
9. What kind of job do you do now? I’m an IS Administrator.
10. Were you a party animal? No.
11. Were you considered a flirt? No.
12. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir? Yes, I was a band nerd. Yet more evidence for #1.
13. Were you a nerd? I won the trifecta of nerd-dom: band, science club, and chess club.
14. Did you get suspended from school? No, not in high school. I was suspended once or twice in Middle School.
15. Can you sing the fight song? No. However, it is to the tune of On Wisconsin. I guess our school was too poor to come up with its own song.
16. Who was/were your favorite teacher? Ms. Richter (Math) and Mr. Endicott (Social Studies).
17. Where did you sit during lunch? In a chair like everyone else.
18. What was your school’s full name? Ontario High School
19. Where did you party the most? My place or John’s.
20. What was your school mascot? The Tigers! And this was during the 80s. In band, we played Eye of the Tigers so much it made our ears bleed.
21. Would you do it again? Only if I could do it right this time.
22. Did you have fun at Prom? Do we have to keep bringing up dating? Are you tring to rub salt into the wound? Please again refer to #1.
23. Do you still talk to the person you went to Prom with? One last time, see #1.
24. Are you planning on going to your next reunion? Most likely. It makes for some cheap entertainment.
25. Do you still talk to people from school? A few of them.
26. What are/were your school’s colors? Cardinal & Corn, whatever the heck those are. How about red and yellow?
I’m not sure what’s in the water lately, but I’ve got two friends on different ends of the country considering a move to England. The way things are going in the US, maybe it’s not a bad idea. I think England would be a blast.
Anyway, in their honor, here is England Swings by Roger Miller.
Okay, I’m forcing you to join me in my boredom at the tire shop. Hey, get back here. I need some company.
Yesterday, we woke up to some snow on the ground. The Older Daughter is now driving to school every day. Being an adult with lots of life experience, I advised her to keep her speed down and not follow too close. Then I headed out to work.
It really wasn’t that slick…until…the final road leading to my workplace. Me…the responsible adult…with all my life experience…found myself going a little faster than I should have and following a little too close. I discovered this fact when the truck in front of me came to a sudden, dead stop. I hit the brakes, but just slid. All I had time to do was swerve to avoid rear-ending the truck. I jumped the curb and then ran over some concrete scraps. There was a nasty scraping noise underneath the car. Not missing a beat, I regained control and got right back on the road. There didn’t seem by be anything wrong with the car.
Backtrack with me to a few months ago. Same tire shop said that I needed new tires, but that they could go a little longer. Looking at the bank account and the economy, I decided to wait. I was hoping I could milk them until next fall to save a few bucks. This is the responsible, smart adult thinking again. I had noticed some loss of traction…particularly with water, dirt, or gravel on the road. After yesterday, it would appear that this same loss of traction also applies to ice and snow. Go figure.
Since I drive about 30,000 miles per year, I decided to go with tire that has the longest tread life, longest warranty, and, therefore, the highest price. They are the Toyo Eclipse. It’s going to be a little under $600 out the door for the 4 tires. The warranty is for 70,000 miles. Sheesh, they’re only going to last a little over 2 years. Oh well, better $600 every couple years than $400 every year I guess.
While I’m here, they’re going to hoist the car up high enough to see if there is any damage under the car. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. However, given my luck, you’ll see another post soon about the damage.
Thanks for hanging out with me at the tire shop and listening to my sad, boring tale. You may go now if you would like. I might just take a nap while I wait.
It’s my God-given right to:
It’s my God-given right.
We had a major thunderstorm last night. It took our power out for a couple of hours. Having the power go out really messes me up. You’ll find me stumbling around the house searching for flashlights and candles. We have plenty of them, but I think that they have some secret evil pact in which they hide from me when I actually need them. Plus, there must have been at least a dozen times that I walked into a room and thought to myself “Hey, it’s dark in here…I need to turn the light on.” And I actually tried turning it on before realizing that…duh…it won’t work.
After the rain passed, we grabbed some lawn chairs, a few brewskies, and headed out to watch the storm. We just love watching thunderstorms at night. It was in the distance, so it wasn’t that risky. We had some nice conversation and enjoyed the nice breeze. Good times.
Thanks to John via Chris for this one.
Here’s a meme with 50 seemingly random questions that I will answer with my expert writing abilities.
For the next week, DITH will be on location in beautiful Cascade, Idaho keeping you up to date on the latest events there. This may include none, one, some, or all of the following:
As always, this exclusive content is available at no extra charge. However, contributions are always happily accepted.
For the first time in 17 years, I found myself unemployed on Friday. Regular readers know that I found out that I would be losing my job last fall and that I have, in fact, found a new job that I will start in about a week. So I’m actually only going to be unemployed for a week. But it makes for a good headline, no?
The final week at the old job was quite a challenge. I had accepted the finality of it and just wanted the week to be over so that I could move on. I grew more excited that the end was near as the week wore on. Then Friday rolled around. I had decided that I would spend the morning saying good-bye to as many people as I could. As I made the rounds, I felt a profound sadness. After all, these are the folks that I have shared a substantial part of my last 17 years with. We have shared teamwork, laughter, hard work, success (most of the time), and failure (occasionally). But we have always been a team…at times like a family. That’s the toughest thing to leave behind–the wonderful people.
As I walked out the door for the final time, a smile swept across my face. And in fact this smile lasted the rest of the day. It was a selfish smile. One celebrating the accomplishments of my time there, the fact that the turmoil is finished for me, and that I am moving on to a new, exciting chapter in my career.
For my colleagues that remain, I wish nothing but the best for them. Despite the huge personnel cuts, I still have a lot of friends at the company and the company means a lot to the local economy. I wish nothing but success for the company and my former colleagues going forward.
Those of you that follow this blog regularly may recall that I found out last fall that I would be losing my job to outsourcing in July. I’ve been looking inside and outside my company since then and had not been successful in finding something that was a good fit.
Well, that has finally changed for the good. I was just offered a position as the IT Administrator for a small manufacturing company. Basically, I’m going to be their one-man IT department. It is going to be a radical change from being in a very specialized position at a large company to a jack of all trades at a small company. However, I’m looking forward to the new challenge, and thankfully they are willing let me work through the learning curve on some of the areas that I’m not as strong in.
Since one blog is not enough, I’m starting a new blog called One Man IT Shop to chronicle my transformation from a Fortune 500 IT foot soldier to the general of a one-man IT army. It’s going to bore the snot out of just about everyone. I put the chances at less than 50% that even one person will be interested. But it’s mostly there for me anyway.
I think that a lot of times we are anxious to move on to the next stage in life because we think it’s going to be so much better: When we’re in high school, we want to be adults; when we’re out of high school, we want to be married; when we’re married, we want kids; when we have kids, we sometimes look forward to them moving on; then we long for retirement so we can relax and enjoy life. We never seem content with the here and now. However, the here in now is what we have. We need to linger and enjoy every minute of it. These are the precious times that we will one day long to return to.
A fabulous song, “You’re Gonna Miss This”, by Trace Adkins does a great job of reminding us to enjoy today because it will be gone all too soon, and we’ll wish we had it back. Check out the lyrics below and/or listen here.
She was staring out the window of their SUV
Complaining, saying “I can’t wait to turn 18″
She said “I’ll make my own money, and I’ll make my own rules”
Mamma put the car in park out there in front of the school
And she kissed her head and said “I was just like you
You’re gonna miss this
You’re gonna want this back
You’re gonna wish these days hadn’t gone by so fast
These are some good times
So take a good look around
You may not know it now
But you’re gonna miss this”
Before she knows it she’s a brand new bride
In a one-bedroom apartment, and her daddy stops by
He tells her “It’s a nice place”
She says “It’ll do for now”
Starts talking about babies and buying a house
Daddy shakes his head and says “Baby, just slow down
Cause you’re gonna miss this
You’re gonna want this back
You’re gonna wish these days hadn’t gone by so fast
These are some good times
So take a good look around
You may not know it now
But you’re gonna miss this”
Five years later there’s a plumber workin’ on the water heater
Dog’s barkin’, phone’s ringin’
One kid’s cryin’, one kid’s screamin’
And she keeps apologizin’
He says “They don’t bother me.
I’ve got 2 babies of my own.
One’s 36, one’s 23.
Huh, it’s hard to believe, but…
You’re gonna miss this
You’re gonna want this back
You’re gonna wish these days hadn’t gone by so fast
These are some good times
So take a good look around
You may not know it now
But you’re gonna miss this”
We try not to get too sappy here at DITH. However, this simple story of selflessness is touching and deserves a wider audience. Please take a moment to read “A flight of compassion“. It reminds us all that we to think of the needs of other sometimes rather than just ourselves.
It’s a rare treat when The Wife and I are able to meet for lunch during a busy work day. Yesterday was such an occasion. We met for lunch at a Chinese place not too far from where I work. It was a nice break from a hectic day. We caught up on life, talked about the kids, talked about the new business, etc. Alas, the time passed much too fast and soon we were cracking open our fortune cookies and paying for lunch. My jaw dropped when I read my fortune:
Ok, I know you are like: so what? Those that follow this blog know that I am being laid off this summer. My last day happens to be July 18th. This is exactly 3 months after our lunch date: April 18th.
How freaky is that?
As the years roll by, I find it really interesting what will spark a long-buried memory. The Younger Daughter wanted to play a board game recently. She went to the game closet and pulled out an ancient game that I, for some unknown reason, have been lugging around for years–Bermuda Triangle. This game was introduced by Milton Bradley in 1976. It doesn’t appear that they are still producing it, though I don’t know how long it was on the market.
In a nutshell, you have a fleet of ships going from port to port delivering cargo. You earn money for each successful delivery. Unfortunately, there is an evil cloud that moves randomly about the board sucking up ships in its wake. It is mostly a game of chance; however, there is some strategy involved in trying to block other ships from docking safely away from the cloud.
I enjoyed the game as a child, but wasn’t really excited that she had chosen this game. But, that’s what she wanted to play, so that’s what we’ll do. I opened up the box to start setting up the game. When I pulled the board out, I noticed several blades of grass in the bottom of the box. This seemingly random discovery is where I took a quick journey back about 30 years.
My best friend during my pre-teen years lived just 3 houses down. We were inseparable. On a beautiful, sunny, summer day in western Oregon, he had come over for an afternoon of fun. We were just finishing up sandwiches and lemonade that my mom had made. After that, our first order of business was to get some trucks to honk at us. You see, we lived about a half a mile from a sawmill. So, we would go stand out by the road and pump our arms to get the log truck drivers to honk.
When we tired of that, we decided that it was time for a board game. We settled on Bermuda Triangle, but decided that it was much too nice of a day to sit inside at the kitchen table. So we took the game and our lemonade out on front lawn. I don’t recall how the game went or who won and I really don’t care. It was a great, lazy summer day.
This memory had been tucked away in my brain until the discovery of the blades of grass that had been in the Bermuda Triangle box for nearly 30 years. It was with almost sadness that I cleaned out the box. But I don’t want to be some freak that saves 30-year-old grass.
You saw the game box above. Now look at a zoom in on a particular part of the box. Here’s something you don’t see much anymore: “Made in U.S.A.”
