I Think I'll Wait For A Sale

Looks like WalMart is trying to increase their profits again.

MMM.... Eye Coffee

Spotted this in the coffee shop at work the other day. I decided not to try it.

Relatively Funny

This past weekend I attended a Tupperware party with my two sisters. Just by mere coincidence we ended up sitting beside each other in order of our ages. I'm the oldest, Wendy is second and Melissa is the baby. During the demonstration, the hostess showed us how you can actually bake a cake in the microwave with the new Tupperware bowls. She made a chocolate cake with cherry pie filling mixed in. After it had cooled she began cutting it and serving it so we could all see how moist and yummy it was even though it had been microwaved.

When she started to hand me a piece, I politely declined by saying "No thank you, I don't like cherries." She tried to hand it to Wendy who said "No thank you, I don't like chocolate." So she moved down toward Melissa and held out the piece of cake, to which Melissa said "I am so sorry, but I don't like chocolate or cherries." At which point we all died laughing. It would have been funny enough if we hadn't been all lined up in a row, but to hear it back to back like that was hysterical.

My sisters and I look nothing alike. If you saw a picture of us all together you wouldn't guess we were even from the same family. But spend a bit of time in a room with us and there's no denying it. We are definitely related.

A Blogging Dilemma

I’m having a dilemma. A blogging dilemma. I want to use this blog as a place where I can just say what’s in my heart and what’s on my mind as a way of releasing my worries and frustrations, etc. I like that if I did use my blog for that purpose, random strangers from across the interwebz can leave me comments and offer me advice, or sympathy, or simply tell me I’m stupid for worrying about such trivial things. I think that would be a great service to me; it would help me see things from a fresh perspective if I got this sort of honest feedback from people who don’t know me enough to worry about offending me or hurting my feelings.

Unfortunately, as soon as I made my first post several years ago I decided to tell all of my family and friends “please check out my blog”. And several of them do - which immediately meant I am not able to use it as a place to tell the world about any doubts or worries I’m having about my family and/or friends. Because they might read it. And be offended. Or have their feelings hurt. And that would suck…. a lot.

So naturally, I do not use this blog as a place to get things off my chest. I’ve convinced myself that’s okay because I truly do not want the people I love reading something here that may upset them. But lately, I’ve actually been considering inventing an alter ego for myself and starting a new blog that my family doesn’t know about. And the more I consider it, the more it bothers me to realize how I’m censoring myself here on my own blog. It’s not like I am looking for a place to trash talk anyone. I have no need to post anything horrible here, would never say anything like “so and so is such a dirty whore” or “I wish so and so would never speak to me again”. I simply don’t have those kinds of thoughts. But there are times when I want to whine about how I wish someone would make better decisions, or I had my feelings hurt because so and so did “this” to me, etc. And I’m afraid to post those types of things here even though I desperately want to.

So what’s your opinion internet? Should I just suck it up, say what’s on my mind and have enough faith in myself, my family and my friends that nothing I post will cause a serious issue? Or should I start a new anonymous blog and not share the web address with everyone I know? Or is it completely wrong of me to want to get things off my chest in this manner?

Not So Funny Now, Is It?

Yesterday I stopped by the local Walmart for some groceries and a bag of Timothy Hay (for my pet bunny of course) and I overheard part of a conversation that made me laugh. I was up near the front of the store and passed by a small group of employees all huddled together talking. There were a couple of women who were probably in their 40's, one who seemed to be a bit younger at around 30, and a gentleman who was roughly late 30's. As I walked by, I overheard the sentence "I've heard from several people that Farm Town is better than Farmville." I actually snickered out loud. OMFG, these "middle-aged" people at Walmart are standing around having a discussion about Facebook games. It made me laugh for two reasons. One being, my friends and I have had this same silly discussion and we prefer Farmville... these Walmart idiots are wrong. The second reason I laughed is because working in the IT industry you can't help but realize that the older someone is, the less likely they are to stay on top of the newest trends in technology. Add that to the fact we live in a rural type area and you can sort of understand why it caught me by surprise to realize what these people were talking about.

It cracked me up so much that I immediately texted my brother, who also works in the IT industry, something along the lines of "ha ha, just passed a group of middle-aged people standing around in Walmart discussing which is better - Farm Town or Farmville." He texted back "lol" and I carried on with my shopping trip. But suddenly a few minutes later, it hit me... wait a minute, I'm middle-aged. I will be 39 in less than 2 months. OMG, I'm getting old and my mind refuses to realize it. Now I suddenly feel bad for laughing at these guys. They are probably around the same age as me. And I'm a Facebook addict who plays the same silly games they were talking about. (I play Mafia Wars too, but I digress). I have even nerdier discussions than this one with my friends. It makes me wonder what the younger people I work with think of me.

And the whole thing has taught me a lesson: The next time I tell a story about anyone who is over 35, I will no longer use the word "middle-aged" to describe them. Instead I will say "older" so it won't appear as though I'm making fun of people who are basically my age.

The Infamous JK Wedding Entrance Dance

Okay, two things. I know no one reads this blog AND I know that everyone has already seen this video. But I am posting it here because I love it and I want a place to store it so I can always track it down in case I wanna see it 4 years from now and I forget what it was called.

This is so much fun. I actually cry watching it (because I'm a nerd and I cry more for pride and happiness than I do for sadness). I would love to meet all of these people, they look like a fun bunch.

Just tried to upgrade my Alltel account to a new Verizon phone & learned im not eligible until January. How very disappointing.

Sitting at Patton Alley Pub with my friends & coworkers to celebrate my bosses bday. Good friends, good food, good times.

Just watched the space station go over my house in Republic, Mo. Pretty cool.

Roadtripping thru Arkansas, drinking a new Sonic strawberry limeade chiller. This drink is amazing.

Tonight we grilled some brats, played some Rock Band & sat outside chillaxin. Its been a good night.

Whatever it is, I hate it

I am in a bad mood. Or maybe it's a sad mood. Possibly even a minor depression. Hopefully just a funk. Honestly, I have no idea what kind of mood I'm in. I have cried two or three times today. I have gotten angry way more times than I should have. I have laughed less than half as much as usual.

I want to sit here and do nothing but finish the book I am reading. I want to watch a funny movie and laugh myself to tears. I want to login to WoW and complete some daily quests and farm some more herbs. I want to go to bed right now and let sleep end my day. I want to stay up all night and distract myself on the internet.

I am not normally like this. I don't know what's causing it. I don't even know what it is. But whatever it is, I hate it.

Yuck, it's Monday

Back in the day, when I worked in a factory doing manual labor on a production line, I knew that Mondays sucked because it meant a return to the grind. The weekend was over, no more relaxing on the couch. My time belonged to "the man" once again and since my time had just been my own for two days in a row, Monday was always the adjustment period. The day I was grumpy about being stuck indoors making widgets instead of sitting on the front porch at home and sipping some iced tea. But I was never one who hated Monday's and threw a big fit about them. They sucked worse than the rest of the week, for sure, but it wasn't a huge deal.

However, I am now officially declaring that Mondays suck and I hate them. Let me explain - I now work in a customer support environment on a computer helpdesk. In case that statement alone doesn't make you guys realize how bad my head hurts on Mondays, then let me give you a couple of examples of how every Monday around here works:

1. Did you know that every Monday at least 73% (not an actual statistic, but it's gotta be close to accurate) of all employees in my company forget the password they have used every day for the past 2 years? And when they call in, they make sure to let us know how stupid we are for doing whatever update we did over the weekend which would cause this login issue. Every Monday. Seriously.

2. Did you know that even though our pc tech's only work a normal 40 hour / 5 day work week, people are angry to discover that the broken monitor they called in at 6:00 pm Friday evening was not replaced before 7:00 am Monday morning? Seems as though our hardware department needs to hire additional magic fairies to secretly do the work over the weekends when no one is here. Because the magic fairies everyone believes we already have are just not pulling their weight anymore.

But I think the worst part about working in any type of customer service environment on a Monday is the fact that the majority of your customers are suffering from their own Monday crankiness and taking it out on you. Not only do I dread Mondays on this job, I almost always get a tension headache on those days. It sucks having to apologize to people who are pissed off that "you guys did something to my computer over the weekend" when "we" didn't do anything. But I do apologize. Over and over again. And it gets to me. It really does.

Me having a bad Monday no longer has anything to do with me... it's all about taking abuse from everyone else who is having a bad Monday. I know I'm not the only person who has this problem. I feel sorry for all of us who deal directly with customers. Luckily, Monday only comes once a week.

Having a bit of insomnia tonight. Watching shows about babies. I want one. But not as bad as i want sleep.

I Has A Bunny

Earlier this year my beloved hedgehog, Bella, passed away. Not having her to hold in my lap and talk to has been bothering me more and more lately, so I decided it was time to get another pet. After doing some research I found that a Holland Lop bunny may be just what I needed. Cute and cuddly and content to sit in laps, yet not as temperature sensitive or easily startled as a hedgehog. So I found a breeder nearby and last night I went and picked out my new little friend.


Here's a picture of him sniffing around his new environment and checking out his toys. He's 8 weeks old and is actually going to be bigger than I first imagined. I'm still working on naming him... haven't completely settled on one yet. In the meantime, I'm just calling him Bunny.



I've got to work with him to get him used to his new environment and get him comfortable around me. Apparently they can even be easily trained to use a litter box and can then be allowed to roam freely around the house (as long as it has been bunny-proofed, of course). I don't think we'll get to that point, simply because bunnies love to chew and I would hate to risk him chewing on a door frame or an entertainment center. But it's pretty cool to know that I can let him down and he won't mess on the carpet.

Sitting at a bar, listening to a live band. Gotta be at work in the morning. I should do this more often.

I am getting ready to wipe my laptop & start a fresh install. Im scared.

Testing mobile blogging capabilities. If this works okay then I may start building my blog up again. Woot.

Ten Of My Favorite Songs Of All Time

These are listed in no particular order, because I love them all equally. Click on each song to see the You Tube video.

Foo Fighters - Let It Die

Phil Collins - In The Air Tonight

Jefferson Airplane - Somebody To Love

Talking Heads - Burning Down The House

Alice In Chains - Man In A Box

Tears For Fears - Mad World

Johnny Cash - Hurt

Harvey Danger - Flagpole Sitta

Staind - Outside (live)

Toadies - Possum Kingdom

*THIS SPACE HAS BEEN EATEN BY WEBSENSE*

I had a really good post here a mere hour ago. A post that was a good 5 paragraphs long. And funny, man was it funny. There was even dialogue. Real, honest-to-goodness dialogue. And when it was finished and I realized it was one of the most glorious posts I had ever written, I clicked "Publish Post". And WebSense ate my words.

What's WebSense you ask? That's the internet filtering software that monitors the company network at my place of employment. This is not a post against monitoring company internet usage. I understand why they do it and even though sometimes it seems a bit extreme, it is very necessary. What I can't understand is why, if you are going to block me from posting to blogger, why would you even allow me to log in to blogger, click on the "create new post" button and spend 30 minutes typing it in. Why not just block blogger as a whole?

WHY DO YOU TORTURE ME WITH YOUR RANDOM BLOCKING? YOU ATE MY WORDS AND NO MATTER HOW HARD I TRY I CANNOT GET THEM BACK.

p.s. this post brought to you from my unfiltered home network