Digital Wilderness

Congratulations to Carissa and Justin Rogers on their birth of their second child! Baby Claire was born at 5:06pm, 8 pounds 9 ounces. Mom, dad, sister and baby are all doing well.

Here’s a bit of humor for the day. Some of you have probably already seen this, but I couldn’t pass it up. His Majesty King Smokey is giving me the evil eye right now…

Excerpts from a Dog’s Diary
8:00 am – Dog food! My favorite thing!
9:30 am – A car ride! My favorite thing!
9:40 am – A walk in the park! My favorite thing!
10:30 am – Got rubbed and petted! My favorite thing!
12:00 pm – Lunch! My favorite thing!
1:00 pm – Played in the yard! My favorite thing!
3:00 pm – Wagged my tail! My favorite thing!
5:00 pm – Milk bones! My favorite thing!
7:00 pm – Got to play ball! My favorite thing!
8:00 pm – Wow! Got to watch TV with the people! My favorite thing!
11:00 pm – Sleeping on the bed! My favorite thing!

Excerpts from a Cat’s Diary
Day 983 of my captivity.

My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects. They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while the other inmates and I are fed hash or some sort of dry nuggets. Although I make my contempt for the rations perfectly clear, I nevertheless must eat something in order to keep up my strength. The only thing that keeps me going is my dream of escape. In an attempt to disgust them, I once again vomit on the carpet.

Today I decapitated a mouse and dropped its headless body at their feet. I had hoped this would strike fear into their hearts, since it clearly demonstrates what I am capable of. However, they merely made condescending comments about what a “good little hunter” I am. Bastards!

There was some sort of assembly of their accomplices tonight. I was placed in solitary confinement for the duration of the event. However, I could hear the noises and smell the food. I overheard that my confinement was due to the power of “allergies.” I must learn what this means, and how to use it to my advantange.

Today I was almost successful in an attempt to assassinate one of my tormentors by weaving around his feet as he was walking. I must try this again tomorrow – but at the top of the stairs.

I am convinced that the other prisoners here are flunkies and snitches. The dog receives special privileges. He is regularly released – and seems to be more than willing to return. He is obviously retarded. The bird has got to be an informant. I observe him communicating with the guards regularly. I am certain that he reports my every move. My captors have arranged protective custody for him in an elevated cell, so he is safe. For now…

Congrats to Paul and Emily on the birth of their first child! Sean Andrew Cahill was born at 6:27pm, weighing in at 7lbs, 2.8oz and is 21 inches long. More details on their site.

I knew it was coming, it was just a matter of when.

Murphy stopped by this weekend.

The “service engine” light of my car came on Saturday night. I dropped it off at the dealership Tuesday morning to have it checked out. Turned out to be a problem with the thermostat, which apparently was stuck open. Expense wasn’t too bad, but while waiting for a part, the service people did a routine inspection of the car and found that my brake pads and rotors were “in the red” and needed to be replaced.

Honestly, I wasn’t surprised by this, having been really lucky up until now. I’ve had the car for six and a half years and there’s over 90,000 miles on it – and this is the first time I’ve had to take it to the shop or had any trouble with it. People may joke that Ford stands for “Fix or Repair Daily” or “Found On Road Dead,” but mine has served me well over the years, and should last several more.

Overall, this isn’t a huge deal. I have an emergency fund that will cover the repairs. I find it highly amusing, though, that Murphy did indeed come. I’m on the verge of getting rid of my “stupid tax” from several years ago and being completely debt free for the first time in a few years, so of course Murphy would stop by. You always hear about it happening to others, but never think it will happen to you. With the added expense of school in the budget now, lots of travel this summer and other expenses, I’ve been wondering where Murphy was. He didn’t fail me, finally showing up for a visit this weekend.

I hope Murphy isn’t too disappointed that I’m kicking him right back out onto the streets.

Today’s moving day. For the first time in almost two years, I’m moving to a new cubicle. When I first started at PPD, I think I changed desks 5 times in the first year or so, but since then, I’ve stayed put.

My manager suggested to the group that we do some re-arranging, to fill in empty cubicles that were in the middle of the my department’s row. As I mentioned previously, I have my foot in two departments right now, so I volunteered moving to a cubicle that’s closer to the department that I want to be more involved with. I liked where I was, but some change is good. I’ll be by different co-workers, but still close to the ones I previously sat by. I hope the move pays off…

I’m thinking of doing some re-decorating of the ol’ cubicle, too. My working area is usually pretty decked out. I’ve put up UK stuff, nature pictures, collage of pictures with friends, bookcase and various other things to make it more home-y. If I’m going to “live” in the cubicle for 8+ hours a day, I want it to be as peaceful and relaxing as I can make it.

I ran across this link yesterday, Custom Sculpture and Displays by Tom Spina Designs, which showed a Han Solo desk (which was for Mark Hall of Casting Crowns).

I don’t think I can, or want to, go quite that far. I’m thinking about getting a tranquility fountain and changing out my pics, maybe adding some Xavier gear alongside UK, but I’m not sure what else I’m going to do. Is your cubicle/office decorated? Any suggestions?

Never fear, I’m still here. I know that I haven’t been posting as much as I typically do lately… Wish I had more to write about and more time to write about it… It’s been pretty crazy the last couple weeks. First round of tests for the semester are over, and I did well, so that makes me happy. I’ve learned from last semester. Now I want to slack off some, but I can’t – finals are in a couple weeks!

Speaking of a couple weeks… Thanks to my awesome brother, James and I are heading down to Lexington at the beginning of March to see Dave Ramsey live. We’re both looking forward to the road trip and the seminar. In particular, I’m interested in what he has to say about investing and his take on the current economy. I’ve been doing a lot of reading on mutual fund, economics, etc., so I really hope he talks about this in more detail than he covers in his books (though I’m thinking he won’t).

Thanks to a co-worker, I’ve been able to watch an “old school” favorite show of mine – Sports Night! Had a bit of a marathon on Sunday and, ah Jesse, good stuff! Awesome show! Check it out if you’ve never seen it. Unfortunately, it only lasted two seasons… :-/ This makes me want to get another old school fave of mine – The Adventures of Brisco County Jr., featuring none other than the man, Bruce Campbell.

Keep me in your prayers as I lead my Bible study tomorrow (Tuesday) night. I wasn’t supposed to lead it for another couple weeks, but due to a sickness for the person who was supposed to be leading tomorrow and other factors, I volunteered to move my session up a few weeks. I’ll be covering spiritual gifts, specifically the charismatic gifts of prophecy, tongues, miracles and healing. I actually started preparing for this a couple weeks ago (rather than waiting until the last minute as usual!), so I think I’m ready enough to wing it. I’ll also be going over the results from the group’s spiritual gift tests. Using my gift of administration, I’ve made up some charts and graphs, and have all kinds of stats on the results. I’m excited about this lesson and I’m looking forward to some good conversations.

That’s all for now. I gotta get to bed!

Just when it seemed that UK was turning the corner and pulling things together to make a run for the tournament – they go and get THRASHED at Vanderbilt. I didn’t think UK would win this game against a revenge-minded Commodore team, but I didn’t expect to get WALLOPED by 41 points. I certainly didn’t think they’d be down by 30 at the half – while only scoring 11 points! UK had more turnovers than points in the first half! Ugh… I know UK isn’t a great team this year, but are we really that bad?!? Apparently so… Remember the days when Vandy was the doormat for UK teams? Those memories are getting hazy…

Ummm…go Xavier! :-/

I’m in an interesting position at work – I’m the last remaining employee that has detailed knowledge of a particular system. Namely, I’m referring to PPD GCL’s Remote Data Access (RDA), which is the website that displays test results online for clinical monitors, sponsors, investigators, etc. to view. This is the job that I started back in March of last year. Since then, I’ve been doing both my previous job (data transfer manager) as well as this new job. When I took the RDA job, I was one of three employees that was responsible for the RDA, with me replacing an employee who was leaving the company. A couple months later, another RDA admin left. This employee was not replaced, so that left two of us handling the RDA.

Two weeks ago, my remaining RDA colleague retired. I’m all alone!

There are no plans to replace the retiree, so it’s all on me now. I’m still deciding how I feel about this. On one hand – talk about job security! And bargaining power! The company would be in quite a predicament if I left, so I would hope they would do what they can do make me happy. I also essentially have free reign to restructure and re-design the processes and internal implementations as I see fit, since I don’t have to run it by any other colleagues or train others on any changes.

On the other hand, this puts a lot of pressure on me, since I have sole responsibility of the system and I’m the only one performing the day-to-day tasks, maintenance and upgrades of it. As of now, I can’t really take any extended vacations. I’m the only one on call during the weekends. I have no backup if I get overwhelmed. All the workload is on me, leaving little time to develop other programs, learn new processes or get involved with designing new systems.

No matter how I feel about it, though, you can bet I’m going to use this to my advantage. I just need to make sure I’m smart about it, and not blunder my way into an awkward situation. I’m going to make a play for more compensation and/or promotion, and if PPD doesn’t work with me, this should at least be a good experience and good talking point for job interviews. I’ve written about some of my frustrations with the company in the past – now it’s time to use my leverage to try to do something about that. Will it work? We shall see…

I should be doing homework and studying for my test on Monday, but instead I’ve cleaned the kitchen, talked on the phone, cleaned some windows, upgraded my blogging software, worked on a side project for work, watched UK win a(nother) game, messed around with YouTube and iTunes… I’d have to say it’s been a productive day, even if I haven’t done what I should have been doing. Funny how that works. Any other day, I’d be procrastinating cleaning, but today I’ve procrastinated by cleaning. I guess it’s not so much what I should do but what else can I do instead. Reminds me of the joke about guys and TV – “Men don’t care what’s on TV. They only care what else is on TV.”

I saw Wicked at the Aronoff last weekend. Good show! This was the second time I had seen it, and I think I enjoyed it more this time than the first time. If you’ve never seen it, I’d highly recommend it. Even Nick enjoyed!

One of my favorite scenes of the show revolves around the song “Popular.” Here’s a clip from the show starring Kristin Chenoweth: Popular.

Katie Rose Clarke played Glinda in the version I saw last week, and her take on the scene was even funnier. We were at the Saturday matinee, so I think she ad-libbed parts of it. Hilarious!

I stumbled on a new band today – Air Five. I was half listening to ChristianRock.net when their song “I Will Carry You” came on. When I heard the chorus, I stopped what I was doing and just listened:

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Just as faith is about to let go, that’s when my Jesus said,
“No, This one is mine. I will not let him go.”

*chills*

That’s all I have for now. Let’s hope I can get myself more motivated to study now!

Things have been a bit hectic and crazy lately, hence the lack of posting. So, just to get a post up so the site doesn’t go stale, let’s talk Super Bowl XLII.

What did you think of the game? I didn’t really care much about the game going into it, and it was a pretty boring game until the end. I’m not a fan of either team, but I was pulling more for the Patriots just because I wanted to see a perfect season, something I didn’t think would ever happen again. I’m not bummed that the Giants won, though. Now I can focus on college basketball!

Thoughts on the half time show? I didn’t watch any of it, since I was busy losing at euchre in another room… :-/

What was your favorite commercial? If you don’t remember them, YouTube has the collection. Some of my “faves” (they weren’t really that good overall) were the Bridgestone “Squirrel in the Road,” Doritos “Mouse Trap,” Diet Pepsi Max “Roxbury/What is Love?” and several of the Budweiser commercials. I can’t really figure out why, but the SoBe Life Water “Thriller” commercial was catchy, too.

The worst ones? Take your pick out of any Salesgenie.com commercial. Blah

Two tests coming up…hopefully more posting when those are out of the way.