Category Archives: Life

Project = Done

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I’ve been trying to earn some extra cash at work by getting certified in some other small applications. It was a good plan, except that after a point they expect you to study and do projects outside of your regular hours. I’ve spent time in the evenings over the last two weeks getting this project wrapped up so I would be better prepared for a test tomorrow. I finally finished it about five minutes ago. I’ve gotten behind on some other stuff in that time so maybe now I can catch up a little bit. Just one more class, project, and test after this one tomorrow (for a while anyway). Woohoo.

Update: I passed the test.

It’s Over Already

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It seems like the weekends fly by. It doesn’t help that I connected to work for a few hours today so I could get a little extra time in. I tried to distract myself with football, but watching the Chiefs soon started to piss me off and I turned it off. I think everything that could go wrong, did go wrong for my fantasy team. The game was a battle for the bottom and I have a feeling I lost (or won, depending on how you look at it). I’ll find out tomorrow because I’m too cheap to pay for Yahoo’s stat tracker for live results.

We did get one major thing accomplished this weeked. We went to the JC Penney portrait studio for some engagement photos. We ended up waiting almost an hour beyond the time of our appointment, but they did acknowledge that fact by giving us two free sheets of pictures. I’m hoping to add a page soon with some details on the engagement and wedding, so look for that soon. I think Amber has already created something, but I don’t remember where it’s at.

I just finished watching Family Guy a little bit ago. It was one of the funniest episodes in a long time. The jokes were a nice mix of classic throwbacks to earlier episodes and excellent random bits that make the show so funny. Recently I’ve thought a few of the gags were a bit overused (think drawing out last weeks Osama scene while he rambles for no apparent reason), but tonights was spot on. The ending wasn’t the best, but still an excellent episode. It’s still some of the funniest stuff on TV.

Seth MacFarlane’s other show, American Dad, has been pretty good lately, too. It’s a different kind of humor, but with a similar style. It’s a nice followup for the Griffin family. We need to see more of the fish.

Origami

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I started learning Origami around 4th grade. I got a little kit with a book and some paper and went nuts. I never really went beyond the basic levels, but it was pretty fun. Occasionally I find myself making something when I’m bored (like now – I’m in a class at work where so far everything has been review). This gallery is way beyond anything I’ve ever done. Enjoy.

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Courage

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I just finished watching Inside the Actors Studio with Michael J. Fox. I’ve only seen the show a handful of times, but I saw a preview for this one yesterday and made sure to record it. His first major role on Family Ties started before I was born and ended before I was really old enough to care about TV shows enough to know who starred in them. I remember him first from Back to the Future and it’s sequels which I still love. It’s one of the few DVD sets I own, and the movies are so timeless I can’t wait to enjoy them with my kids someday.

When Spin City came out I watched it all the time. It was consistently one of the funniest shows on TV. It was never as good once he left.

I remember how I felt when he finally announced to the world that he had Parkinson’s (after hiding it for five years). I remember how I couldn’t believe that the disease could affect someone so young who wasn’t the least bit deserving of it (not that anyone ever is). I was sad he was leaving his show, but I admired his courage.

Tonight he sat through most of the interview and you would barely know he’s affected at all. Just over halfway through his symptoms finally became visible and he left the stage to take another pill. Still, when he came back out he was able to make a joke out of it and talk openly about how it has affected him. The fact that he doesn’t let it limit his life is really amazing to me. He’s gone on to started a foundation for Parkinson’s research, written a book called Lucky Man, and still dreams of put something new on TV or directing a movie. He also had some very encouraging words for a young actress struggling with a similar disease:

What’s in my power, what’s in my control? Do I throw in the towel and have a tantrum about it or kill myself or what? None of those are acceptable solutions to me. The only one that’s acceptable is to go on and see what happens. And what I find is cool is there’s great stuff out there. When you walk through this stuff, when you walk through the fear, when you walk through what are people gonna think about it, you know, what’s gonna happen. Well something’s gonna happen. And we don’t know what it is, but chances are at least 50/50 that it’ll be pretty good. And so I’m willing to take that risk.

I think I’m gonna buy his book and make a donation to The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.

Currently Playing: Surphace – Outlit

Thou Shalt Not Blog…

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Read:

Students can be suspended for a lot of odd reasons these days — wearing “objectionable” T-shirts, cross-dressing for prom, planning elaborate senior pranks — but a principal at a Catholic high school in Sparta, New Jersey, has added another offense to the list: having a blog.

Ok, stop. I don’t care if this is a private school or not, this is absolutely ludicrous. Who is this guy to say that none of the students at his school can express themselves through a website? I can understand if they want to limit comments made about the school or its staff, and it would be perfectly appropriate to hand out school punishments for violations in that regard. But to say that you can’t even have a blog because of the possibility of exposure to the bad people of the world…give me a break. That’s like saying you should never go outside because there’s a possibility you’ll get a cold that leads to fatal pneumonia. No one can live their whole life inside a box.

What really gets me is that this is an issue for parents, not the school principle. It’s the parents responsibility to make sure they know what information their child is putting out on the web, and to teach them what is appropriate and what is not. The school can certainly teach guidelines (and they should), but for a kid to face suspension simply because he writes his thoughts online is shameful. A school trying to instill values into its students for home life is one thing, but actually trying to regulate home life is something altogether different and completely unacceptable.

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Ouch

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I woke up yesterday with lots of pain from movement in my wrist. In some ways, this was nothing new, as I occasionally have some pain (sprain-like) in both wrists. It usually lasts for a few days and goes away. Well this time around I’ve been fighting it for about two weeks and it was finally starting to get better. Until yesterday.

So I decided I’d had enough and that it was time to make my first trip to the doctor since coming to Madison. I was thinking about it and I haven’t been to a doctor in about four years, so I just scheduled a physical. He looked me over and didn’t have any earth shattering news about my health. It was the first time I’d been to a doctor using Epic so that was kind of cool. He had them draw blood to do some routine tests, so I’ll get to check those results on MyChart sometime soon.

The pain in my wrist is being caused by a ganglion cyst. Mine is on the back of my wrist but it isn’t that large, but it’s big enough to see in relation to my other wrist. Let’s just say I’m hoping the immobilization treatment option will do the trick. I’ll be wearing a wrist guard for the next week or so hoping the cyst will go down. It feels pretty good after day one, so I’m just going to play it by ear.

Honeymoon Plans

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I finally managed to call a travel agent to try and solidify our Honeymoon plans, and I think it was an excellent idea. I went to Sandals.com and picked out an agent between here and Milwaukee and I think I got incredibly lucky. When we were planning our family vacation to Hawaii my mom called a travel agent but couldn’t seem to find a better deal than what we were seeing online. I think this time is going to be different though.

This particular agent has been to Jamaica over 100 times and has been to all of the Sandals resorts. So even if we decided not to book through her, I can pick her brain and ask all kinds of questions that I can’t really get from reading a review or looking at pictures. She also recommended Couples as an equally good option. So I’m off to check more stuff on the web and wait for her call to tell me what she found on pricing.

Currently Playing: (hed) pe – Ifo

Mild Weather = Awesome

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Not only is it nice outside, our A/C hasn’t been on almost all month. Our electric bill went from $85 to $25! Sweetness. Now if we can just hold off on the heat a little longer…

Currently Watching: Prison Break (it’s surprisingly good)