It’s not often that I write about politics, but after reading just the first couple paragraphs of this AP article on PE.com, I had to comment. According to the article, Bush is not going to withdraw our troops from Iraq until the country is "stabilized". First of all, what is his criteria for or definition of a stabilized Iraq? And, perhaps more importantly, will Iraq ever be in any degree of stability? Not likely.
Sorry, boys. You’re not coming home. Ever.
It is November 27, which means that I have two days to find my journal and write my annual State of the Sweetums report. I made up that name just now, but there really is a journal (several, actually) and I really do comment upon my life every birthday. Unfortunately, I have papers to grade right now, so the journal will have to wait.
I considered writing my annual birthday entry in this blog, but I have decided that the information likely to be contained within may be so explosive as to affect the lives of all who read it, and for all our sakes, it must remain sub rosa. I just made that up, too. I have no secrets, really. But I could make up one of those, as well.
I think that my tendency toward procrastination and my job as a writing instructor do not match up well. However, neither is likely to change, so we must press on.
Anyway....
Sometimes I can’t believe I’m getting paid for the work I do. In many regards, it’s the second easiest job I’ve ever had. (Now, Crown Books was eeeasy! And it paid accordingly.) There are difficulties and frustrations, but I’m pretty darn happy overall!
Yes, it's wishlist time! Thanks to Kaboodle, you can view the last couple items in my wishlist in the little box over on the left, or the entire list here. Check it out and buy me something cool!
Sometimes at work I feel like the reality TV star that comes in late in the season, never quite fitting in.
Bandwidth thief that I am, I'm blogging in Redlands thanks to some poor unsuspecting wireless broadband customer. I don't feel bad. It's not like a person says, "Hey, where did I put my bandwidth? You know, I think it must be stolen!"
I've had a good day of prospecting out in the field for a change, as opposed to sitting in the office all day making cold calls. It feels so much more productive this way. Some reps hate doing walk-ins, but I love them. Well, I love them as much as anyone can love talking to a complete stranger.
At any rate, I just thought that I would mention how you can help our Happiness Fund grow! Do you see that little ad over on the left? If it interests you, click on it and buy something! Christy and I get a small commission, which will be deposited directly into our Happiness Fund. I've added several companies with whom I either already do business or will very soon, so you can rest assured they are good.
Well, my shady spot keeps moving, so I think that's my cue to head back to the office.
Well, in the battle of the virtual worlds, Second Life has won not only my vote, but it also got Christy hooked in! One minute she was watching me play, and the next she had downloaded, installed and started playing it herself. I’m impressed.
I liked the idea and the look of GaiaOnline.com, but it’s just too buggy to be any fun. It seems like it’s in alpha testing! Not to mention, there wasn’t enough activity in the “world” to keep my interest.
So it looks like Christy and I are Lifers now. See you in Muhalu….
Yes, apparently for the holiday season, Charmin is sponsoring a 20-stall restroom, complete with attendants, in the middle of
In other news, GaiaOnline.com appears to be very buggy. Though I haven’t given up on it (yet), I started my Second Life. It looks pretty cool, but it runs a little slow on my non-gaming-ready laptop. It seems to me that There ran much more smoothly. I would switch back, but Second Life appears to be it. But, you know, anything beats MySpace….
I may be dropping City of Heroes for GaiaOnline.com. I just signed up and look how cute I am! Sites like this put MySpace to shame. I can't wait to actually dress my new self!
… they’re our readers. Collect them all!
Wow. The Sydney Morning Herald actually had a set of toy figures made representing the diversity of their readers. And this has got to be one of the cutest sites I’ve ever seen. Ah, those Australians….
I haven’t discussed work very much lately. I’ve been feeling a lot of frustration and discouragement. I knew this would be a challenge, but it’s downright hard!
I came into this job with little in the way of structure. “You’re the guinea pig,” they warned me. With essentially no sales materials to speak of, I am expected to go out and sell online advertising. That’s tough. You try it.
Well, needless to say, after nearly three months of this, I am discouraged. But I have hope. Today, I met with one of the long-time online sales reps. Not only did she have some good suggestions for me, but she also made me see that it’s a struggle for everyone. We’re all in the same boat, and all we can do is work together as a team. We’re all learning together and the only way we can fail is if we don’t persevere.
Oh, and you know what? That works for life, too.
Last night, with Christy’s approval, I picked up a Creative Zen V, a nifty little white-with-red-trim 1gb MP3 player. We had talked about getting matching iPods to act as encouragement for going to the gym, but I’m perfectly happy with something-less-than-an-Apple-product (i.e. something less expensive). I brought it to work, and although one of the other employees doesn’t hesitate to plug in his ear buds, I waited for my break to do so. As a result, I spent about an hour dozing in my car to the ultimate best-of collection.
Expect a full review after I’ve had a chance to put it through its paces.
Suffering from hockey withdrawal due to our lack of anything more than network TV, I was very happy to discover that some Anaheim Ducks games air on KDOC. But I was ecstatic when I read that the NHL and Google have partnered to make all the games available on Google Video! I think this may just be for a limited time, but at least I can get my fix for now. If only I was at home to watch some hockey!!! Being a responsible, working adult sucks. Ha!
I've been a happy user of Google's customizable start page. But in one of the dozen or so marketing/advertising email newsletters I receive at work now, I read about:
NetVibes.com
ProtoPage.com
PageFlakes.com
I am tooling around with all three, but I have to say that I just really love the look of ProtoPage. It's certainly not the most functional of the three, but man, I sure wouldn't mind starting my day by looking at that! Nice....
Also, to my delight, I found out that I can get paid to blog! Yep, thanks to PayPerPost.com, I can get paid an average of $5 per blog post... and I would only have to sell out just a wee bit. Okay, a lot. But hey, I'll take money for my writing whenever and however I can get it! Now, if they'll only approve this blog....
Yes, Christy's right. I have gone mad with this Tivo thing. It's wonderful. Oh, and what she didn't mention is that I can transfer the shows from our Tivo box to my laptop. Then, with a quick copy to my flash (thumb, USB, et al) drive, I can watch TV on my break at work! (Now that I've finished watching Season One of the new Doctor Who during my lunch hours, I'm free to start watching my Tivo'ed shows.)
I... LOVE... THE NEW... DOCTOR WHO!!!
Lastly but not leastly, I am very happy watching movies on Starz Ticket.
Who needs cable with all of this other exciting technology?!?
G'night!
 |
