Never continue in a job you don't enjoy. If you're happy in what you're doing, you'll like yourself, you'll have inner peace. And if you have that, along with physical health, you will have had more success than you could possibly have imagined.
  --Johnny Carson


my boss: are you enjoying your job?
me: yeah, it's been really fun!
my boss: i never want you to wake up in the morning dreading going to work.
me: me either! :)
my boss: well, if you ever start not enjoying yourself at work, let me know and i'll see what i can do for you.

then at 9.45 tonight i called him because one of the firewalls was having issues. at the end of the conversation, he said, "it was a joy working with you today." i didn't quite know what to say...i spent about 1.5 hrs with him today and we were confused and frustrated most of that time. i don't consider it a horrible time or anything, but i don't know if i would think of it as a "joy."

yeah...so my boss is definitely cool!! i never thought i would look forward to going to work, but i do...and alot of that is because of him!

Everybody's Free (to Wear Suncreen)

i've always loved this song... i heard it yesterday and decided to see how i was doing with this advice. here are the lyrics and my tally on how i'm doing:


Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of ’9[9]...wear sunscreen. i wear it about 50% of the time i know i'll be exposed to the sun

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be IT.

The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience.

I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded. But trust me, in 20 years you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. i've already thought about this some, but obviously not as much as i will in a few more yrs

You are NOT as fat as you imagine. yeah, i know

Don’t worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday. now that i have a job and a place to live, i don't worry or even wonder much about the future

Do one thing every day that scares you. i'm not so good at this in my personal life, but i do it quite a bit at work

Sing. i do this often, though typically not in the presence of others

Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts, don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours. i think i am decent at this

Floss. only the week before i go to the dentist and when i eat corn-on-the-cob

Don’t waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind. The race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself. need to do alot of work on this

Remember compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing this, tell me how. i think i'm decent at this -- i even put some of the compliments i receive in a txt file to look at on crappy days

Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements. well, i don't really have any love letters...and i keep all my bank statements

Stretch. at least a few times a week

Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don’t. n/a at the moment bc i love what i do and i can't imagine doing anything else right now

Get plenty of calcium. check

Be kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone. check

Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll have children, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself, either. Your choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s. Enjoy your body, use it every way you can. Don’t be afraid of it, or what other people think of it, it’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own. i think i do all right with all of these (except that i berate myself too much), though i seriously doubt i'll dance the funky chicken ever

Dance. Even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room. once in a while when no one's around

Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them. i only read them if i can't figure soemthing out

Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly. check

Get to know your parents, you never know when they’ll be gone for good. not so much...i know i need to...but...

Be nice to your siblings; they are your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future. i've always gotten along really well with my brother and since last semester i've gotten to know my sister much better. i know we all need to be allies through whatever any of us may face

Understand that friends come and go, but for the precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography in lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young. i realized this once i graduated from hesston college...it's on my mind at least once a day

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard; live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. i doubt i'll ever do either of these -- i love midwestern small towns too much!

Travel. not too much yet, but, as i've been saying for awhile, soon

Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old, and when you do you’ll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders. i've accepted this, but still complain about each of them

Respect your elders. check

Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one might run out. check

Don’t mess too much with your hair, or by the time you're 40, it will look 85. check

Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth. this depends...i can be good at this, but am often really not-so-good

But trust me on the sunscreen.


  --Mary Schmich, Chicago Tribune

Do you have the time to listen to me whine
About nothing and everything all at once
I am one of those
Melodramatic fools
Neurotic to the bone
No doubt about it
Sometimes I give myself the creeps
Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me
It all keeps adding up
I think I'm cracking up

  --Green Day, Basket Case

yet another post where i'm sharing, but not really sharing...

so yesterday an insurance agent came by the courthouse to assess the hail damage on my car. i (or rather mom) got a check for almost $1200. but........i looked again at the damage this afternoon...and...apparently the 100+ degree weather has popped out most of the damage. the deepest dent on my hood is now a minor ding that i wouldn't have noticed if not looking for it. so i'll still have a mechanic look at it and hopefully pocket a bunch of extra cash!! i never thought i'd be thankful for the heat.

i've now been a lan manager for a week. monday was quite the day. sunday night there was a storm (see the hail posts), so i had to go in sunday night to reboot one of the servers. (currently all of our ups's aren't working...hopefully in a month we'll have new ones.) then i got to work on monday and one of the as400's needed a reboot, which i had absolutely no idea how to do. after about an hour, it was finally working. then i settled into my office to get caught up on email, etc. things went well until 1.45 that afternoon when one segment of the network went down. i had no idea how to even approach the problem. but knoppix saved me once again (it also totally saved my senior design project last semester). i won't bore the non-techies with anymore of this...if the rest of you want to know more, just ask... the rest of the week flew by. i'm keeping busy and absolutely loving it!!

in other news, I GET PAID ON MONDAY! i never thought i'd be so exciting about shopping! maybe now i won't feel like a college student in a house...maybe it'll actually appear like an adult now! :)

is july over yet?

It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents--except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness. --Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford

yesterday afternoon i went to grand island (about 45 mins from my place in kearney) with my sister because a bunch of my cousins were going to the water park there. afterwards we went to valentino's. i pity all of you who have never been to one. i believe they're only in nebraska though. it's basically an italian baffet and, let me tell you, it is amazing!! while we were eating, it started raining. my sister's boyfriend had driven his motercycle so he left almost right away to drive back to kearney. the rest of us waited it out until it stopped. about 1/2-way to kearney, it started pooring on us. i was going 80 (speed limit is 75) and i slowed down to about 60. then the hail started. before long, i was down to 30 and my sister and i were scared shitless. after a few miles, we pulled off at an interchange and parked under an overhang at a gas station. we surveyed the damage and there were some dents on the hood and roof, but the car was wet so it was tough to see much. (today i looked alot closer and i have several small dings on the roof and hood, as well as some much bigger dings on the hood.) we parked there for about 20 minutes until the hail stopped and then drove the rest of the way back on a state highway a few miles off the interstate. it took us 2 hrs to drive what normally takes 45 minutes. my sister's boyfriend stopped once because it was raining too hard, but he beat the hail home, so that was excellent.

i don't think i've ever been that scared driving before. the hail was making terrible sounds as it hit the car. i talked to mom a bit while we were sitting at the gas station and she couldn't believe how loud it was over the phone. i was so scared that my windshield would shatter as i was driving -- how freaky would that be!

anyways...i'm very thankful that i have full coverage on my car. now the only problem will be finding something to drive while it gets fixed. with my sister in town, it shouldn't be too difficult, but we shall see...

i always knew i liked the midwest...guess i need to get to the coasts. hopefully sooner rather than later. :)



create your own visited states map
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please don't bash...

...mennonites (including amish)
...small towns
...poor farmers and their communities
...small schools

these things have made me who i am and i am proud to be a part of each of them. i take it personally when people around me bash these things, which is something i need to work on.

i don't want any apologies or comments, as i know those that said these things didn't intend to offend me or anyone else for that matter. venting is one thing, but bashing it quite another. i'm not thinking of specific people who have dissed these things in front of me, but 4 yrs of overhearing/being told this crap is finally getting to me.

thx.

my living room :)

the living room and the kitchen are the only rooms that's i'm satified with at the moment. i'm obviously still a college student in spirit (and really poor until i get my 1st paycheck).

guess i should quit my current job...

Your 20 Year High School Reunion by Babybear089
Your Name
Your Age
Your School
How much you will be worth	$662,676
Your Job	Burnt out Druggie
How many failed marraiges	7
How many pounds you will have gained	187
Quiz created with MemeGen!

Your 20 Year High School Reunion by Babybear089
Your Name
Your Age
Your School
How much you will be worth	$1,328,596
Your Job	Artist
How many failed marraiges	6
How many pounds you will have gained	159
Quiz created with MemeGen!