Digital Wilderness

Take a look at the sidebar for a new feature of the website. It’s a shoutbox. Also known as a tagboard or blabbox, a shoutbox is a place to leave messages to other visitors quickly and easily. It’s most useful for short, general messages and isn’t meant to be a replacement for comments. If you want to say “Hi” to someone, leave a brief message about the website, comment on the weather, cheer for your fave team, etc., you can leave the message there. Remember, keep it short. Longer comments can still be added under the General Comments, accessible from the Contact page.

It’s time for another 2005 goals checkup.

• Find a job
  Check! (details)
• Find a church
  Haven’t felt the calling for a church yet. Hope I’m not ignoring it…
• Have daily quiet time
  Still can’t manage to get in this habit. Keep me in your prayers
• Eat healthier
  Not any worse than the last checkup, but not any better either
• Exercise regularly
  Making a little progress, which should get better with the nicer weather
• Practice my guitar and sax
  Umm…
• Upgrade my blog software to the latest version
  Second attempt at the upgrade was successful!
• Redesign my website
  Got a couple of designs that are in the works, but nothing to show yet
• Start my book
  Still don’t expect this one for a while
• Keep in contact with “long lost” friends
  I would have to say this is the goal that I’m the most success with, and one of the most rewarding
• Spend less time at the computer
  Definitely accomplishing this one, now that I’m back to work
• Cut back on TV
  Overall, watching less TV since a good chunk of hours are filled with work, but still want to cut down on the amount of TV in the non-work hours.

It’s been an absolutely beautiful day today. Sunny, high in the upper 60′s, hardly a cloud in the sky. Great day to roll down the windows, open the sunroof, and jam to good ol’ Supertones as I’m leave work early again! Nothing like it, especially after the seemingly long winter.

I’ve had this insatiable appetite for ice cream sandwiches lately. Don’t know what’s caused it, but I’ll inhale a box of twelve over the course of a couple days. Probably not the best thing to indulge on, but mmm…they’re so good.

Results for the bracket pool, up to this point in the tourney, were posted today at work. I couldn’t believe it – I’m tied for first place! If UNC and UL make it to the final, and UNC is the champion, I’ll win it. If Illinois beats Louisville, though, I won’t be able to win. To be this close is amazing, though! I think it’s more bad picks by other people rather than great picks from me, but hey, however it works out is fine by me!

Congratulations to the UK women’s basketball team on a great season, which came to an end last night. They lost to West Virginia in the semi-final game of the Women’s NIT tournament. Would you believe it – they lost in double overtime, just like the men’s team. Read more about the game at ukathletics.com.

Sadly, I have to go to class now. Today would be a great day to skip, but I’ve already used my one skip day this semester. Since the class meets once a week for about 3 hrs, I limit myself to only missing the class once a semester. I knew I should have saved it, but instead, I used it during my first week at my new job. Oh well…

Hope you all have a great day!

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday, dear Grandma Vaught
Happy Birthday to you

I have to say that today has been one of my best days over the last few weeks, as far as attitude and productiveness. Usually, I’m exhausted at work, feeling like I have 100lb bags under my eyes. I drag myself through the day, then come home and don’t feel like doing anything. Today, though, I felt wide awake, especially for a Monday. I went to bed at 10:30pm last night, which is really early for me, and the pitter-patter of rain on the roof was nice and soothing. When I woke up, I felt very much refreshed and ready for the day. It was the opposite for most of my co-workers, though. Seems many people didn’t get much sleep because of the storms, so I kept seeing people with sleepy looks on their faces and lots of yawns. Guess I stole their restfulness for once!

The good day didn’t stop there, though. After work (I even ended up getting off 45 mins early!), I finally got around to getting my haircut. Ahhh, it feels so good. I tend to go too long between visits, and since I have thick hair, it tends to get “heavy” feeling. Always feels good to get it cut and lightened up some.

I came home after that, thinking I’d do some homework, work on my model trains, relax and watch some TV. As I was settling down, though, I got a call from my bud James. He was in the area and wanted to know if I wanted to grab a bite to eat. Having neglected him lately, I jumped at the chance to be able to catch up on things with a good friend, so we headed to Fazoli’s. Mmm, bread sticks.

On the way home afterwards, I decided to start calling some other friends that I had been neglecting lately. I ended up being on the phone for about two hours with various people. Those of you who know me well know that I’m not big on phone calls, so this was an impressive amount of time for me. It was really good to touch base with friends again, though.

After the phone calls, I finally got around to my homework for my class tomorrow. Of course, I did this while watching several episodes of “Who’s Line Is It Anyway?” That show cracks me up! Can’t count how many times I’ve laughed so hard that I’ve started crying.

And to top off the day, I’m blogging again! I’m gonna try to get back in the routine of posting daily, but I’m not going to force it.

Off to bed for me now, though. I wanna get my rest so I’ll have another great day tomorrow. Of course, if I don’t feel as rested tomorrow as I did today, then I’ll probably end up staying up late again

Buona Notte!

Holy cow! I’m out of breath right now. What a fantastic game I just watched, the regional semi-final matchup between UK and Michigan State. It was a double overtime game, with Michigan State eventually winning it.

It was back and forth most of the game, with Michigan State pulling away for a little bit in the second half. The ‘Cats battled back though, pulling within three towards the end of regulation. At the buzzer, Sparks shot a three, which rattled around the rim, took a bounce, and finally fell in, tying it up and sending the game into overtime. However, the officials took several minutes to review the call, since Sparks’ foot was so close to the three point line. Thankfully, the “ruling on the field” stood.

UK looked great in the first overtime. They were ahead most of the time, but couldn’t hold on. Hayes and Azubuike were in foul trouble, though, and couldn’t play as hard as they probably wanted to. Michigan State tied it up, and the game went into another OT.

Things started to fall apart on the second OT, as the UK’s freshman began to show their lack of experience. Azubuike fouled out, and Hayes was still hesitant. Michigan State pulled ahead and stayed there.

It was a great season, though, with the team doing about as well as could be expected, considering the lack of experience this year’s team had. Considering we lost four starters from last year’s team, I personally didn’t think they would have as great of a season as they did. Kudos to the entire team for stepping up and making it this far into the tournament.

I’m sure gonna miss Chuck Hayes. Though he wasn’t a “star” or big time scorer, he did a lot of the little things that don’t make it into the stats, and was a great veteran and overall leader. He’s an all around nice guy and I wish him the best with his future.

As for the rest of the team, I’m looking forward to a great season next year. We’re only losing two seniors, Hayes and Josh Carrier, and only Hayes was a starter. With the freshman getting a lot of playing time this year, and much needed experience, they should be ready to take it to the next level this time next year.

Go ‘Cats! Thanks for a terrific season!

P.S. Go Louisville!

Matthew 28:1-10

After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men.

But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.”

So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

Boy, I’ve sure been bad about keeping up with the blog lately. I apologize to my faithful readers for the lack of new posts. I’ve just been so tired when I get home and haven’t been in the mood to write much. With less free time, it’s hard to keep up with all the blogs that I used to read, and therefore I don’t run across as many find interesting links and such to post. Speaking about work, I know some of you are wondering how my new job is going and what it is that I’m doing. Here’s the rundown…

Basically, MRL is a medical research lab that helps coordinate studies with Merck, Astra Zeneca and other drug companies as well as doctor offices, universities, etc. When the study starts, all samples from the various sites that are participating in the study are sent to us. The lab analyzes the samples, then the results get reported back to the various sites as well as the sponsor (the drug company, university, etc). My job, as part of the Client Support Services department, largely deals with quality control and ensuring that we have all the information necessary for the study. There are three teams in Support, and each is responsible for particular studies. There are roughly 100 studies at any given time, with some starting and some ending. Each study has a different “protocol” that specifies which tests need to be run, what information needs to be collected, how many patients are in the study, how many visits each patient should make, etc. Support makes sure that the each site meets this protocol, by making sure labels on the samples match up with the packing slips, that we receive the necessary patient information cards, that all necessary information is filled out on those labels and cards, that all samples are received from a particular site, that the sample is shipped correctly (such as frozen or refrigerated) and so on. If there is a problem, we contact the sites, usually by fax, to get the necessary information/samples. We also follow the samples within the our labs, to make sure that each sample goes to the correct lab for the necessary tests.

That’s my job in a nutshell… I’ve been there almost 3 weeks now, so I think I have a feeling on how the job will be in the long run. The job is much more clerical than I was anticipating. It involves a fair amount of data entry, more than I was expecting when I interviewed. I did know there would be some, but not to the extent that it is. Also, it can get really boring at times. There are several different “phases” throughout the day, and some can’t be done until other departments finish their portion of the work, or until certain reports are printed.

There are some positives to the job, however. The company has great benefits, including 17 days of Paid Time Off (PTO) per year. I earn roughly 5 hours of PTO every two weeks. Awesome! Also, the deadlines are on a daily basis, meaning that we have to get all our work done each day, with very little carry over to the next day. The building closes around 7, so that’s the latest I’ll ever be there, though I’ll normally be done by 5. No more staying past midnight like I did at Car-Part.com! We work in teams, so it’s usually no problem getting all our work done, and the people are nice and friendly. Needless to say, there’s very little stress involved.

This job isn’t a career job by any stretch of the imagination, but at least it’s something until the IT market gets going again…

Kutless released a new album at the beginning of March, entitled Strong Tower. Their previous album, Sea of Faces, is one of my all-time favorite albums, so I was anticipating some more great music from them. I will admit that when I found out that they were doing a worship album, I was a little disappointed. While I enjoy praise and worship music, I think it’s been overdone in the past couple of years, with just about every artist who’s at least “semi-major” releasing an album centered around the genre. Even though the songs are usually done in the artist’s own unique style, they still get old. I was also worried that Kutless would tone down their sound, compromising on what makes them so great.

Boy, was I pleasantly surprised! The album is awesome! While their sound is a little softer, it has only been toned down enough for this style of music. Thankfully, they’ve picked some of the better (in my opinion) praise songs, such as We Fall Down, Draw Me Close and Better Is One Day. There are also some new songs written by the band on the album (Ready for You and Strong Tower). These add a lot to the album, breaking up the standard praise/worship choruses with some new songs. They also did a remake of MercyMe’s Word of God Speak.

I’ll give Strong Tower an A-. If I weren’t getting tired of the praise/worship overkill, I’d score them higher. And it’s also not quite as great as Sea of Faces, which got a strong A+, but it’s still awesome.

If you’re a fan of Kutless, the album is a must have. If you like praise and worship music with a bit of an edge to it, be sure to check out the album. If you like great music, take a listen. In other words, go get this album!

Congratulations to my friend Misty R! She tied the knot this past Saturday, marrying Chris Enright at The Lakes Country Club in Westerville, OH. I wish you both the best as you begin the next phase of your life. Hope that you have a great honeymoon!