I Coulda Been a Contender

Not really. Well, yes really. Just not yet. But maybe so. In some instances. Ok, enough.

At the least, I love that saying. Before 5 minutes ago, all I heard in my head was a harsh New Jersey type accent saying that line.

I guess it’s from “On the Waterfront”. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047296/quotes

And the reason that I like this quote, is throughout my life, I’ve partially strived to be a “jack of all trades”. It took lots of education, and lots of different work at things, and it’s still a work in progress, but I’m satisfied with where I am right now and where I’m going.

When I find something interesting, or something that I want to get “better” at, I work at it. For long hours. With lots of gusto.

After trying out the 3 major sports as a kid, and a major growth spurt at 14, I decided I might have a chance at making the NBA. Please, laugh all you’d like, for now. Ok, stop please. I was outside for 3-4 hours a night, in the pouring rain, shooting hoops on my new beloved basketball hoop that I got for Christmas. Every sane kid with any athletic ability dreamed to be Michael Jordan. But I worked at it, and realized my natural talent just wasn’t there to back up my work ethic.

But all that work got me somewhere. At least I can “play ball”. Sure, I play in the rec leagues, but at the least I can hang with guys my age. And just thinking of the entire male population, I’d have to say I’m in at least the top 35% of basketball players – that is, if we were all to have a giant one on one contest, I’d place myself at the 35^th percentile realistically. Which again, for me, is “good enough”.

Same thing with Tennis. Never thought twice about it while growing up. Looked like fun, tried it. Worked at it. Didn’t put in the same hours as I did with basketball, but I still did practice. And now I can run with people that played for 6 years throughout school – yes, they played in organized programs with coaches even.

Poker I fell in love with immediately. I can still remember the first time I lost $20 to a random group of guys less than a mile away from campus. I studied, and played, and lost some more. But during my poker heyday, I was pulling in close to a grand a month (which was a lot for me during college) and 19 people away from winning a seat to the World Series of Poker in 2005. “I coulda been a contender”.

So where am I going with this? A couple points: My dad. My dad could’ve been a contender. He’s worked his ass off for 30 years. One of his company’s best employees. And he’s seen it all. The boom and bust and the rebuild, and the layoffs, and finally he’s come to a point where he can almost retire. Really, the only reason he can’t is because my mom won’t let him. He turns 60 in May.

Before I continue the story about my dad, I’d like to mention regrets. There are those out there that say, “No regrets”. I used to be one of them. I used to try my best to live my life like that – as if every action I took I should look back on with pride and not question the route I took. But slowly I began to realize that saying to yourself that you have no regrets is fooling yourself. Ignoring your regrets, or if you don’t want me to speak for you, my regrets, sets me up for failure once again.

If I can acknowledge my regrets, I can move on, learn from my mistakes and hopefully pick the better path (notice not “right”) in the future. I have my regrets. There were things I have said and done in the past that I would change if I could. But I can’t. And having said and done those things, that places me in the position I am in today, right now. Knowing that, I’ve got to do the best with what I have left for myself at this point.

I could’ve been a contender at anything I chose. But I never felt the need to push myself that extra amount. That extra amount that contenders – those who truly love what they are working at – put in, and more. I’ve always thought, if you could say you were in the top 10% in the World – at anything – if you are better than 90% of the rest of the world at something – that really means something.

Sad to say, I think my only shot would really be breaking a world record of some sort. But still, even if I can aim for that top 25% region, I’ll be ecstatic. Obviously I’ll never meet every person in the world, but I have my peers around me to judge myself against. Averages and skill levels and ages are available on the internet at any time. As a small example I ran against 7500 other people (timed racers) in the St. Patty’s Day Dash recently. As far as my age is concerned, I was in the 46^th percentile (beating 54%). As far as other males go – I was in the 33^rd percentile. So just like everything else before, I’ve still got some work to do before I am satisfied.

Now back to my dad. My dad is 2 years away from retiring. In 2001/2002 when the stock market slumped after the terrorist attacks (and partially being overvalued/issues of fraud in major companies etc.) my dad lost more than half of his retirement money. And for those of you young people out there reading this, it may not seem like a big deal right now – mainly because you haven’t worked 25 years of your life yet to try and build something that you can hopefully live on for the rest of your life.

Here is where my regret comes in: I wish I had known. My parents asked me. I didn’t know enough. I should’ve taken the initiative. Instead I was just moved into the Seattle condo and discovering the joys of under-aged drinking. I was a stupid sophomore kid in college that didn’t give two shits about nothing except for school, drinking, basketball and girls (mainly). And that attitude continued well in to my early 20s.

My dad was 100% invested in the S&P 500 when it lost over half it’s value. He jumped ship taking with him a little over $200K and threw it in to a bond fund earning 3% a year vowing to keep what little he had left. After inflation his fund was only earning him less than 1%. Even a local bank could offer more. If I had only known, my dad’s account at a minimum right now would be close to $400K. At a minimum. It’s currently sitting at $220k with 2 years left before he wants to retire.

If I had known what I know now after only a year of extensive research on the stock market – if I had known in 2002 and given my dad advice then, I would’ve still picked a diversified mutual fund portfolio for him which would’ve turned his $200K in to close to $700K as of today. I had to just sit here for a moment to let that sink in. (Please, for those of you who laugh at a $500K difference, be thankful that you live such blessed lives. The rest of us aren’t so lucky)

And it’s been sinking in since I took the initiative 3 weeks ago. That sinking feeling – that “I wish I had known – I could’ve done something” – that terrible feeling that I could’ve been a contender – my dad could’ve been a contender. It’s harsh. And it’s what I’ve been dealing with lately.

I thought I grew up a lot after my issues in high school. I did. I grew up overnight. But I grew up for myself. My parents could’ve used my help in 2001. My dad could’ve used my help. And I regret not doing something for him. It would’ve taken literally less than an hour to change his 401K fund allocation. And 55 minutes of which would be me discussing with him why we need to take certain risks for him to get to a comfortable point.

But now, we’ve got 2 years left. 2 years left until my dad retires. I’ve got 2 years to figure out how I can get him to a point where he can live. My dad has enough capital right now to become a contender. He’ll have social security coming in, and my mom will continue to work because she loves her job (and the pay ain’t too shabby either!).

And now I get the chance to help them. Now I grow up for my parents. My dad said to me tonight that he wishes I had shown him this even 3 years ago. He was referring to his retirement company’s website which shows the yearly returns for his investment opportunities. Well I don’t get 3 years ago. I don’t even get yesterday back. I will do my best for them because this is what it’s going to take for them to live comfortably in to their old age. This is what it’s going to take so that they’re not a burden on their children if they require any kind of assisted living. And it’s not that I wouldn’t give everything for them – I would as they’ve done so for me – but I want to help now instead of looking back in 5 to 30 years and saying, “I wish…”

Sometime in the coming week I’m sitting down with both my mom and dad. And we’re going to formulate a plan. And I’ll follow through. I’ll control it. My dad was lost on it, and I needed to point them in the right direction. Hopefully I’m more wildly successful than I am realistically imagining.

Because I might get tired of being part of the working middle class. I want to live off of my money. And when it comes to money, I want to be a contender. My dad probably isn’t going to make it there, but at the least I’m going to try to insure that he has enough money to have his autumn years displayed in a golden color – Or that of his desired BMW 540.

Here’s a random Forbes articles about the top 1.5% of the top 1% of the top 1% (of top 1% - really even smaller). I would be happy if I could even get close…(Mainly I enjoyed the article title, but the article itself is a good read too IMO)

http://www.forbes.com/2007/03/20/sosnoff-bubble-burst-oped-cx_mts_0320sosnoff.html?partner=links

Here’s hoping I don’t let these thoughts keep me up any longer than they already have.

Sleep well.

Rando One Liners – March

Since I was somewhat disturbed at what happened today at work, I was reading through my older blog posts (which make me happy to know that I’ve got a past)

And I found my one liner post. Lots of entertaining one liners at that. And I remembered why I did it – because sometimes I write too much, and sometimes it’s just better to get the point across instead of rambling. So, I’m going to try my best to go for that again. I’ve got way too many things on my plate right now, in my opinion, so getting it all out (dirty) in one liners I think will help a little bit. Here we go. I apologize if there’s not enough of a description to point you in the same direction I’m going. Maybe you need to read between the lines (there’s going to be space there).

Retirement accounts.

Michelle’s retirement account has taken almost 3 weeks to setup, at the least I am frustrated.

Zecco.com is a joke – the company is young – and there’s a reason they offer $0 commission on trades.

I want to max out everyone’s roth. I live for a tax free investing world – or at least Warren Buffet’s.

My dad has lost roughly 1% a year since 2002 in his retirement account.

He could’ve been a millionaire if he had just taken a little bit more risk.

But when retirement looms, as in, it’s less than 7 years away, I might have a lot different mindset about risk.

I believe if I ever get to that point, I will have failed my main goal in life: Retire early + Whoever dies with the most toys wins.

Really? That’s my main goal? I guess – the other stuff will come naturally.

Morale is very low in my department. Another great coworker will be leaving us on April 1^st.

I put up moving cardboard boxes on my cube to make my walls bigger and avoid the others.

I have the smallest bladder out of anyone I know. I am embarrassed when someone is at the urinal peeing as I am walking in, and then I am leaving the urinal even before they are done peeing.

I do not wait. If I feel the slightest urge to pee, I go.

By the time I am done writing this and posting, I will have gone 3 times in 20 minutes. Yes, I drank 40 ounces of water before I sat down and started writing. My body doesn’t think it was a big mistake but the annoyed part of my brain thinks it is.

I am frustrated that I am not just using one sentence in this one liner post.

I have my A+ certification coming up. I am halfway through a 900 page book full of stuff I “kind of” know about already, but will still study my ass off.

I am ahead of schedule.

I am betting Michelle I will lose more weight than her by May 15^th.

To help this bet, I have set a goal to run 100 miles by May 15^th.

I am behind schedule.

I am also led to believe that I have “skinny arms”.

I am eating protein bars, and lifting twice a week now, and am upping the weight every time I go.

It will literally be a miracle if my arms get any bigger.

I get tired working out so much.

I hate having 7 different passwords that I use. Having to scroll through all of them in my head takes up way too much time. No one would want to hack my info anyway.

The Audi dealership sent me this email:

Hi Seth,

I received an e-mail inquiry from you regarding an Audi on December 31, 1969, sent you a response and have not heard back from you yet. Maybe you are not in the market for a car, have bought one already, contacted us by mistake or maybe you really do want a car. So please let me know if I can be of assistance or if you are no longer in the market let me know so I can take you off of our list. At any rate, thanks for giving us an opportunity and I will be happy to help you out any way I can.

First of all, I am not a fan of your comic sans font.

Here is my reply:

December 31^st, 1969? Hilarious, I wasn’t even born yet. Was email even around then yet? I don’t think so.

I am angry with customer service wasting my time. I notice that when I call India – oh and I know when I am – that my average call lasts 4 times as long as it would have if I had dealt with someone here in the states. Is that saving money for your company? PAYPAL?

Enjoy your $20 in fees you’ve charged me since February – PAYPAL.

Definitely not my pal. But somehow I’m paying you? Ingenious company name I guess. No wait, it should be PAYENEMY or PAYADVERSARY

Words in CAPS should not be checked for spelling.

I am a high maintenance employee, therefore I feel sorry for my manager. But not really.

Sometimes I say things when I’ve been drinking and I just get this WTF look on the faces of the people I said it to. It sticks with me. For weeks. Until the next one comes along.

This past one was, “I’m worried about the soul and spirit of this country, I mean look at us! We’re focused on bullshit like YouTube and E! News network. There’s no value in that! The entire time, India, Japan and China are all raising their children putting them through 80 hours of science and math classes a week! We’ll be looking for jobs in the far east in at LEAST 7 years!”

All this as a response to, “Yeah, I love to goof off at work”. Looks of others – stuck in brain – can’t get out – like pine tar on plastic.

I should be going to bed now, but I’m not tired.

Pain, in my leg. Amazing how much a shin splint or just random hurting of knee can cause you to slow – to labor at things you should be “good” at.

It’s hard to improve when your body hates you.

My XBOX will be worthless in 2 months. WTG buyer’s remorse.

I wanted to post a picture of my goals from the nikeplus.com website. But I couldn’t login (see the 7 passwords one liner). I don’t think it’s my fault though – AH – it worked, stupid case sensitive user IDs.

That says I am 17.7 miles behind my goal. I have run 10 miles that haven’t been loaded yet. Figures. Still 8 miles behind.

It is never finished. I am always trying to catch something that is out of reach.

It hasn’t gotten tiring yet.

And So It Begins

March Madness. Even though my beloved Huskies aren’t in it this year, I still love it. At no other time during the year can you watch 4 different games at the same time (all crazy – all madness) from 9 am in the morning to 9 pm at night.

What does March Madness mean to me?

Early memories. I remember in junior high when they would roll out the TVs during PE, and we’d sit there on the wood floor in our “PE uniforms” watching the games. I remember how they’d turn on the TV during the 10 minute “between class” breaks so we could catch the games. I remembered other kids asking if I caught the end of the Duke game, if I saw the most recent buzzer beater, or the 5 seed that got crushed by a lowly 12 seed up and new comer Gonzaga.

And it was the same throughout the rest of my school career. It was almost as if the whole world stopped for those two first round days – 32 games spread out over 12 hours…and watched. The sheer number of games alone was a spectacle in itself.

Men’s college basketball is a different game. Sure each team has it’s “stars”. But it’s still the most pure form of basketball in my opinion. No million dollar contracts (for the players). “Team” ball. Students in the crowd that have waited their entire lives to upset an undefeated team coming to their home floor (WHO’S HOUSE!), camped out at the front door of the arena in 40 degree raining weather for the past two nights only to paint their bodies in their team colors 2 hours before game time – going in half naked and starved. And the emotion shows on the court too. Bodies fly around on the floor and in the stands. One and done. Don’t let it be your team.

All for a chance at what starts today. The experts and analysts and conference champions and the ratings percentage index – none of it matters as soon as that ball gets thrown up in the air for the first tip off (today at 8:45 am PST).

One of my best memories was following my favorite college basketball team of all time (The Huskies of course) to the first round in 2005 in Boise, Idaho. After hearing that I had received tickets to the opening round and round of 32 (since I was such a loyal fan from 2000 when we were terrible), I was scrambling to get the days off from work and trying to get people to go with me. Since I had already graduated from school (I was given one extra year of eligibility as a basketball fan! :p) I wasn’t dealing with what everyone else still in school had to before the first round started: Finals.

So after rounding up a few close friends (mainly for company – and to share gas/hotel costs) we headed to Boise. Lucky for us the Blue Mountains had one of the worst snow sessions I’ve ever seen. I was literally trying my best to follow in the tracks of a semi – who was leaving me (A SEMI!) going downhill. The drive to Boise is in the top 5 “worst drives I have ever taken” list. After finally getting to Boise that Wednesday night at 10:30 pm, we were lost. And here’s the problem with Boise: Everyone that lives there can somehow tell you’re an “out of towner” (could it be the Washington plates? MAYBE) and they blatantly lie to you. I have never had so much incorrect information given to me over a 3 day period. And it’s not even that they said, “I don’t know”…

OK – quick side complaint. If someone asks you where a road – or a hotel – or ANYTHING is in the area that you live – you either know where it is and give them directions – or you don’t know – just say it! Just say, “I don’t know where that is”. Don’t try to make up some sort of directions when you have no idea what you’re talking about. You’re very nice. But your directions got us even MORE lost. And it’s not that this happened with 1 or 2 people. It happened with almost everyone we met there.

Seth: Where can we park? (once we got to the arena)
Parking Guy: See that road down there behind those stands? Keep following along that road and then go left past the 3rd grand stand and you’ll see a bunch of orange cones you can drive through to the booth where you can pay for parking.
(We follow the directions and get to the booth)
Booth Guy: Sorry, you’ll have to turn around and come in through the other direction (the other direction is stacked with cars trying to pay for parking). I can’t allow you to enter the parking going this way.

ARGGGHHH…(just 1 out of at least 10 examples of us getting misdirected)

And now that I’ve got that off my chest, I can talk about the “good things” about the trip. I got to see my beloved Huskies make it to the sweet 16. They didn’t play that well – but they played good enough to make it there. Obviously, I had a feeling that we’d be knocked out during the next round (ALTHOUGH LAST YEAR WE GOT SCREWED BY THE REFS! GARRR!).

We were able to walk around a lot (as it was a college campus – that sucks BTW – if you’re considering Boise State, don’t go there. There are other campuses across the country that are much better looking at the least) and immediately after the live games we were able to watch, we went immediately to the hotel to watch the rest of the games on TV – and drink. The drinking, I almost hate to say, was my favorite part. Over a 2 day period (minus the sleeping and time actually spent at the arena), 3 of us consumed over 60 beers in the hotel alone. That doesn’t take in to account the drinking we did at the local Japanese grill, red robin, chili’s…etc. When you’ve got game after game after game after game – and games shown during commercial breaks and the half time show – that’s a lot of drinking to go along with those games. I can proudly say, it has to rank in my top 5 of “most consistently drunk over a 2 day period” list. (I must have a lot of lists I guess)

And even though the weather was freezing for most of the time, and even though the city of Boise was pretty boring and full of liars – I had a blast. It was probably and will probably be one of my favorite “sports fan” experiences of all time. And I have the NCAA tournament to thank for all of that.

Good luck to all of the teams participating over the next few weeks. Especially those with the odds stacked high against them. Everyone loves to root for the underdog.

And for those of you at work on this glorious day – please do check out http://www.ncaasports.com/mmod/welcome for free streaming on demand video of most of the games on. I know that I’ll be enjoying them.

(I have pictures that could go along with this post – will try to post later).

The pros and cons of working the “early shift”

Since most actions that I take are based on a quick “pros/cons” or “opportunity cost” analysis, it would only make sense that “working early” would be one of those things. I can understand that there are those out there that are pigeon holed in to a shift – business needs – family needs – a yoga or dance class that meets 3 mornings a week, etc. But not me. No pigeons and no holes for me – yet.

So for the rest of you – if it is available, and you live in the Seattle area like I do (read: TRAFFIC) then why not? Hopefully my silly list of dashed points will help you change your mind on getting up at “dark o’clock”. I think that most people like to hear the bad before the good, or at least I do, so we’ll start with those. And I think I like to read the bad first because it makes the good that much sweeter. If the good were to go first, the bad would kind of sour the taste in your mouth afterwards. Like doing the chaser before the shot.

And as a definition of early, many of you would think “7 am”. So I’m just going to say that early is any time before that. (I get up at 5:45 am and start work at 6:30 am as of currently).

CONS of working early:

-It’s really freaking early (this is the most obvious). Most people my age can’t handle waking up before 6 am.

-It’s dark outside when you wake up (during the winter months). I associate darkness with sleep. And the world is a much colder place in the early morning. The bed is that much warmer in the winter months.

-I don’t get to “take my time” when I wake up. In order to get more sleep during the early shift, I wake up as late as possible and then rush through everything. When I used to work the “later shift”, I could slowly take a shower, cook myself breakfast, even sit down and enjoy some morning TV. I tend to forget things when I’m rushing out of the house.

-I’m sleepier earlier. It’s hard to go out on those Friday nights and even stay up until 1 am. By 11:30 pm I’m yawning and looking for my bed. Add in having a few drinks and s’ova.

-I sometimes miss important afternoon meetings or announcements after 3 pm. Most people work until at least 4, so sometimes that “last email” goes out by the time I’m already enjoying the comforts of my home.

-I crave lunch and dinner at weird times. Most people would associate lunch with noon. Usually I eat at 10:30-11:00 am. Which means that I’ll be wanting dinner by even 4:30 pm, when most people would associate dinner with 6 pm or later. Most places aren’t open at 10 am for lunch, nor are any non-24 hour places open before 6 am.

-A normal “night” activity, for example a basketball game that starts at 8:30 pm completely crushes my schedule, and I feel extremely tired the next day. I get home at about 10 pm, then have to shower, have to calm down a bit, and suddenly I look up and I’ll be getting 4 and a half hours of sleep for this night.

-Once you get your body properly waking up early everyday, it’ll want to do the same thing on the weekends. Being up at 7 am on a Saturday morning with nothing to do is not fun at all.

PROS of working early:

-Traffic. I did mention that most people my age can’t handle waking up before 6 am. I guess I should just say it’s “most people” and cut out the “my age” part. With less people awake, that means a lot less people on the roads. People who work the early morning shifts see how traffic is supposed to be: Nonexistent. As a side note: I think that early morning drivers are better drivers because they don’t want any hassle at all. They have a destination, they’re going to get there – there’s more focus on driving because there’s less focus on everything else – other drivers included. For those of you that haven’t seen the freeways at 5:30 am, wake up early one morning and go for a drive. I’m a much more calm person (by about 30-40%) ever since I got out of traffic. Not only that but I gain an extra 30 minutes to 2 hours every day that I would’ve been stuck in traffic for. TWO HOURS of my life back every day! Assuming a 50 weeks of work per year, and saving 45 minutes of traffic on average, you’re looking at almost an extra 200 hours a year (almost 10 whole days!) that are available for you to use how you’d like – since you’re not stuck in traffic anymore. I should just end the “pros” list here. This is really all that should need to be said.

-Most of the months (7+ months out of the year) there is light out (if not sun – shocking) at 6 am. What brought about this blog post was that I was noticing I could actually see the road without having to turn my lights on. Was it the full moon in a cloudless sky? Probably. But with daylight savings time coming soon on the 11th, I don’t even thing I’ll need to use my head lights. In my opinion watching the sunrise (for those of you that have windows at your place of employment) is one of the most calming and spectacular ways to start the day.

-Starting work early means getting off early. Every day I get off of work, there is that small taste of satisfaction looking at the faces of my coworkers, jealous of me “getting off already?” and then looking at their clocks and saying, “I’ve got at least another 2 hours to go!”.

-Activities after work are much more accessible. Working until 6 pm gives you very limited ability to see the “sneak preview” of “300” showing at Pacific Place at 7 pm. Good luck getting good seats when you show up at 6:55 pm. Happy hour. I actually get off work in time to enjoy the “real” happy hour. Not the one from 9 pm to close. Getting places before everyone else is like being given the secret code to a concert ticket presale. You’ve got the head start on everyone else.

-Along with the nonexistent traffic, it’s a lot like running errands on a vacation day. If I’ve got to go to the bank, pick up something at the grocery store, get my oil changed etc. I can do it right after work. And I can almost guarantee there will be no line when I get there. Or possibly the “stay at home mom” with her two kids in tow. And I can handle that. Skipping out on all the disgruntled employees who just got off of work is great on my psyche when it comes to my outlook on my community. And the same thing goes at the gym. About a fourth of the “usual” crowd that shows up around 5:30 pm to 9 pm is there. I can work out without having to wait for things.

-I take more advantage of my time after work. While working the late shift, there were days during winter that 100% of my time after work it was dark out. And I like to be outdoors. Shooting hoops, throwing the football around, going for a run or walk. It’s hard to do those things in the dark. And working the late shift, “prime time” comes right after you get off of work. After the 8 pm to 10 pm slot is up, you’re kind of scratching your head and looking for something to “waste” time from 11 pm to 1 am since you’re not sleepy yet. While I’m working the early shift, I can go to sleep at 10 pm without feeling guilty about sleeping “early” because I’ve already had 7 hours of “leisure” time after work. Getting more daylight in after work makes me more productive and also puts me in a better mood.

-I sometimes miss important afternoon meetings or announcements after 3 pm. (Since some of you would say this is a pro)

-Although I hate waking up early on the weekends (because both my dog and my body force me to) by 11 am each weekend day, I look at the clock and say, “Nice! It’s only 11 am, I’ve got the rest of the day ahead of me”. Where as before, I would sleep until 9:30 am or even 10:30 am, and by 3 pm, I’d be depressed by how much of the day had already passed me by.

I have more “pros” but they seem as substantial as previous points I’ve made. Hopefully by writing more in the “pros” section I can persuade (yeah right) those of you reading this to switch to an earlier shift. Weakest end to a blog post ever.

Random Notes - February

I really do hate these. Not really. I just don’t like to “title” most of my blog posts because that gives me the ability to free write. Really, I’d like to entitle this post, “A lame attempt at filling the month of February with at least 4 blog posts”. Because it is.

It’s hard to keep up with something I wrote last week that I consider some of my “top notch” stuff. I can’t always produce stuff like that. And the sad thing is, is that I’ve got 4 different drafts written for blogs I could post at any time, and they would make sense within my blog because I talk about random things, overblown-see-way-too-much-of-the-forest-for-the-laurels-you’re-looking-at
-outside-your-5’X4”-plexiglass-window-oh-my-gosh-I-think-this-is-your-longest
-run-on-ever.

So because of that, I need “cool down” sessions that don’t need any build up, or don’t need any explanation, or, I’m looking for another “or” here because 3 “or”s makes it look and read well. Bah.

So, for my sanity, I pull together a group of one liners, a post of magnificent insignificance.

I received my bonus today. Or I didn’t receive it, but I was given the paperwork that showed the amount that I would be getting along with my paycheck March 15^th. I also received how much my raise would be. For my bonus, we were given a “median” amount of 10.8%. Since I was one of the top performers in my group (I believe the top when all was said and done for the year) I expected a swing up to 14%. That was in the “perfect world”. Let’s just say that the “perfect world” got even more perfect. More perfect than I could imagine. And my face hurt from smiling for the next hour.

Here’s an idea: People like cash right? Most, sane, greedy capitalistic American pigs like cash. Want people to work hard for you? Pay them more than they expect. Surprise them. Don’t buy them pizza randomly. Don’t shower them with gift cards to gas stations 15 miles away from their homes. Don’t patronize them by giving them the “reward” of being able to wear jeans to work. Give them cash. Cold, hard, beautiful smelling cash. Direct deposited. Maybe actually handing the physical green backs to them? If my manager walked up to me and handed me $500 today and said, “Here you go, here’s some of your bonus”, I would be ecstatic. Much more than them telling me that I would get to wear jeans every day this year. Much more than them buying lunch for us for the next 3 months. Much more than getting new computers. Key words: Cash. Handed me. Much more.

Although I am VERY happy with what I’ve been given, I hate to point out a few things: I was told the bonus would be calculated based off of the overtime I had worked last year. It wasn’t. I am hoping (really crossing fingers…really only thinking this has a 10% shot of working) that what I was told last year by a previous manager will stand. We’ll see. I was also expecting a raise of 6% at a minimum. Guess what. I got what I expected. At a minimum. C’mon! Inflation was 2.5% last year! You’re only going to give me double the inflationary rate? 7-10% would make me much happier! How about just $300 extra? That’s all I really want. Make me a round number. I’ll be discussing this with the “higher ups” tomorrow. No trip report. Because this is all I’m going to mention on this topic.

I don’t like “waiting until this show is over” to do something. There is a reason I pay an extra $10 a month for DVR. It’s so that you can tape whatever rerun of “How do I look”/”What not to wear”/”Fashion police”/”Red Carpet Fashions”/”E! Daily 10”/”Hogan knows best”/"Extreme makeover"/"Dr. 90210" or whatever the fuck else your watching. If I ask you to do something 3 times that really means I need you to do it. The 3^rd time you should be running to do it. Shit, at most I only take asking twice don’t I? And it’s just TV. TV will be there when you’re/we’re done. The same shit. Different time. Nothing new learned (unless you’re watching for educational purposes – LAUGH)

When I ask you something, I am looking for a “Yes” or “No” answer. Do you? Or do you not? In my book there are no, “Perhaps, Maybes, or We’ll sees”. Why let people hang on? What kind of shitty game are you trying to pull? Just let people know you’re intentions and quit fucking with them and especially wasting their time/energy. Sometimes I wish I surrounded myself with more decisive people. I strive to provide a good example by telling people up front, “Yes I can” or “No, I can’t”. I’d expect the same sort of treatment in the future.

Do people not update their blogs because their life is uninteresting? Or because they have nothing to write about? Or maybe they don’t write very well? Or so they think? Or maybe it’s just another one of those “I’ll start one but never keep up with it – ever” type deals. *sigh*

Alan Greenspan says that recession is coming. Makes sense. 4 years riding the Bull, gotta get eaten by the Bear sometime. Should be interesting times this summer as far as the market is concerned. Also, all the sub prime lenders and those defaulting on those sub prime loans (way to go America – land of the material wealth in trade for debt to income ratios of 1,000 to 1!) are all getting butt hurt right now – and it’s only going to get worse.

I just realized today that my mom is very healthy and probably won’t be out of my life until I’m at least 55. That is, unless she gets some sort of terminal cancer or something. I pray to God not. However, knowing that she’ll be around for a good 30 more years (again, very good chance of this, but no harm in hoping for the best right?) makes me feel very good and safe. Mama’s boy? Probably. I can’t say the same for my dad since he’s had health issues over the past 8 years, but I think no matter what, he’s lived an excellent life. I’d be very happy if my dad got another 20 years. (My dad is 59 and my mom is 49)

Kind of weird and morbid to think about this kind of stuff…but, I’m more weird than anything I guess…or a lot more realistic than a lot of other people who just, “Don’t want to discuss that sort of thing”.

For those of you following my “sports betting blog” it’s now finished. Sportsbook.com for some reason feels the need to charge me $30 to deposit and withdraw my money. The kid who gambles MAYBE $500 a year on sports? You’re going to charge me 10% to play? Isn’t taking my money when I lose enough? BOO on you. Until I find a new sportsbook that doesn’t charge me, that blog will be dead. Maybe I’ll change it to my investment blog? Now there’s an idea…

Having to pee in the morning is terrible. I wake up at 5:40 am. That’s the time my alarm goes off. However, I usually get up around 4:00 am to 4:50 am because I have to pee. I drink a lot of water before I go to bed. So usually I try to stay up as late as possible (or at least until I am tired) so that I don’t have to pee early in the morning. If I get less than 7 hours and 15 minutes of sleep, I feel great the next day (unless I only got 4 hours), and I sleep all the way through to 5:40 am the next morning. However, if I do end up getting even close to 8 hours of sleep, surely I’ve got to piss by 5:00 am. But I don’t.

I’m lazy, and I roll around in bed, squeezing my bladder, thinking, "if I just push my body pillow against the in question parts it'll stop the urge and flow", and trying to go back to sleep. And I get in this “half sleep” where I think of the day ahead of me, what I’m going to wear, what I’m going to eat for lunch, if I’ve got any meetings, if I’m going to pack clothes to lift at the gym after work…all the time, angry at my weak bladder. Sometimes I have enough of the urge to go that I just get up and I can fall right back asleep after releasing. But sometimes, it’s just on the verge. Like the time you just drank that 20 ounce Sprite at the theater during the opening scene and now…dangit – you’ve got to hold it for the rest of the movie. Theatre for you Canadians or "cooler than thou" Google employees.

This is my life. I’m so glad I’m getting this stuff out. My dream is to read it years from now and laugh at my ridiculous self. And on that note, good night.

Lent and Self Over-Analysis

Well, today is Fat Tuesday. Some people are getting drunk. Others are getting fat…ter. Some just gave up on their new year’s resolution. Others are disappointed in the way their Valentine’s day went. Some are angry that others got the day off for a non-holiday. Some people, including me, laughed hysterically at a President’s day sale at Levitz’s commercial that included a Levitz truck backing up to the front door of the White House and our President, fearless leader and commander, repeatedly saying the word “So-fa”. (I searched for about 2 minutes for a link for everyone, but if you missed it, sorry. Definitely the best commercial since I’ve seen the Superbowl – not that there were that many good commercials anyway).

So even though I’m not Catholic (really, do I know what I am? This question is obviously meant for many many many more blog posts) I still “occasionally” celebrate Lent. It’s fun to give up stuff you think you need and test your will power. Burgers. Alcohol. Gambling. I’ve done it before. And I won’t go in to all that mumbo-jumbo over what Lent is and how it came about. Everyone reading this either should A) Know what it is B) Know how to run a google search C) Side note – with the appearance of sites like Wikipedia and ehow.com will anyone within walking distance of an internet connection ever have the ability to ask an actual question (that obviously has an answer) without being responded to with an annoyed, “I don’t know, why don’t you GOOGLE it?”

I’m afraid for our generation. All of our technological advances, and rarely can I find someone refreshing that has anything to say anymore (go figure, I’m writing in my blog instead of yucking it up over a beer – yum beer)

After much run around, let’s get to part of my point. I am giving up impatience for lent. Should lent be capitalized? My spell/grammar check doesn’t come up with anything. I prefer it capitalized, like God, even though the jury is still out on whether or not a higher power(s) really do(es) exist.

After much stress over the past year of me wanting to fast forward to next year, to next week, to the next paycheck, to next May, to the next 3 day weekend per pointless holiday (but a good cause for a great furniture commercial!) I am starting to realize that it’s all going to come in due time. There’s no point in wanting to rush it because it will come. I’ll be here. Even though I was slated to die by 25 (and even I thought this and still 35% of me does – yes, you read that right. I am honestly 35% scared I will die in the next 7 weeks) I don’t think I will. I think I’ll be that old angry bastard that outlives everyone. And has memories to prove it.

Now here’s where the “over analysis” section of this post comes in. Don’t you like how I make sure to partially stay on topic? I was obviously a terrible essay writer in college/high school/junior high…not really though.

I am part of a generation that cannot be defined. Sometimes for fun though, I like to label my peers. I like to label myself. Again, for fun. Because sometimes, it just fits.

And in doing so, I’ve come up with a few things in relation to my desire to give up impatience for the next few weeks. And that is that I feel that I am a part of two groups. One is the “instant gratification” group. Everyone knows this. Everything is so much faster. Everything is so much more accessible. Shit, I wanted to go buy Jim Cramer’s book tonight. Hell, I could do it online right now with the gift card I won for being such a “good little employee” in the 4^th quarter. And with that money, I could have it shipped overnight to make sure a FedEx (love the logo BTW guys) truck is ringing my doorbell tomorrow by 3 pm.

OR, I’ve got my car. I’ve got my gift card. Barnes and Noble is open I believe until at least 10 pm. I could’ve taken 25 minutes out of life, driven down and picked it up. Anything I want. Anytime I want. As long as I have the desire, it is mine. I can’t even imagine what it was like for people back in the 50s to wait for a letter from family. Within an hour of a baptism I can see pictures of my Godson (notice G) and forward it along to everyone that was there. Imagine how long it would take me to send 1 picture to one of my cousins in NYC via Pony Express? Hell, some Indians might even shoot the damn carrier down if he got unlucky (not that I know this occurred in the past, just trying to make some light of the situation, err dark?)

And not that there’s any problem with this. For the most part, I like the availability. My dream in this area is to have everything open 24 hours. I need to know that if I have a craving for a sandwich from Fred Meyer on a Wednesday morning at 2:23 AM that they’ll be there for me (unfortunately they’re not and probably due to FDA regulation bullshit they have to take all the food that isn’t purchased and chuck it).

But the thing is, all this speed, and all the availability leads to burn out. This leads me to my 2^nd point label of my generation as the “everything sucks” generation. Things are hot for a MAXIMUM of 5 years. I think even that lifecycle is getting shorter and shorter. Think of things since you were 13. Tell me how many of them are still “cool”. Even things that lasted longer than 5 years still fell off. Still struggled after that 5 year breaking point. Things grow for 5 years, things are “hot” for 5 years while the speed carries everything around and then it sucks. Suddenly just that 1 extra person found out about Jason Mraz and now he sucks. He’s overplayed. He’s not as talented as I once thought he was. Please, by all means use MySpace as an example. Heck, use this blogger. I guarantee within 5 years traffic on both of these sites will be cut in at least half.

The backlash within the “everything sucks” generation is tremendous. The hatred with which the American public/media can come at a celebrity could be unbearable. I’m amazed that more of them don’t go absolutely berserk or commit suicide. Most celebrities/things just fall away and then are discussed 9 years later through coworkers with the discussion ending in “No, Angelica Huston played that creepy metal thing with weird arms in Captain EO, here, look at the link to Wikipedia” (and your coworker emails you the link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_EO)

So how does this all pertain to me? A good portion of our debt will be done May of 2008. That’s roughly 1 year and 2 months away. We’ve already finished about 20% of it…all obviously on no interest financing (I feel very smart for doing this) and it feels good to be done with part of it. I’ve gotten a little “taste” for what it feels like to have some cash just floating around, smiling at you and saying, “How would you like to spend or invest me today?”

And just the thought of knowing that raises will come. Tax returns will grow. Equity in our home will build. Bonuses and stock options will be given. Knowledge about everything will multiply. Memories will be made and shared. Life will change for the better. The future looks so bright, I want it to be here now. I see things like stocks from China going up 97% over the past 2 months. And I think to myself, if this had been 5 years down the road and I had had $50K invested it would now be $100K…and how suddenly dreams of being a millionaire…a multi millionaire…aren’t so far away.

And I can’t wait. Because waiting sucks. Remember, if I don’t get my “instant gratification” then “everything sucks”. But tonight, when searching for something to give up for Lent, this is what I came up with. I can wait. The next year will be great. Heck, we’re only 3 months away from the beginning of warmer temperatures. And I shouldn’t be pushing through each day, killing to get to 7-10 years down the road. I’m newly married, in a year I’ll be surrounded in more liquid funds than I’ve ever seen in my entire life and really won’t know what to do with it. Here’s praying at the least I’m smart about it. And if you’re thinking to yourself that I may be a little obsessed with money, that is probably true, but to me, it’s really the only worry I’ve got on my mind right now. And honestly, I feel extremely lucky to be saying that.

But until the weekend, until next may, until retirement and beyond, each day is working towards that point. And I want to make it a point for this Lent season to stop a little bit when I start to feel myself rushing. To take a deep breath when I notice my daydreaming start to excite me about my future. To take Wednesday for what it’s worth and not wish I could be at Friday already. There’s a reason I’m here tonight writing this and a reason as to why I’ve got to sit through another 3 days until I’ve got another weekend. I should be savoring this time instead of wishing I was further along. I don’t want to look back at 40 and say I wish I hadn’t hurried so much.

Now is a great time for me to take advantage of my situation. The anticipation of what’s to come is just icing on the cake of what is the present.

And jokingly, for those that really don’t know what Lent is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lent (link is serious)

Bittersweet Symphony + Extraordinary

"I'm tired of being ordinary".

Someone told me this once. Complaining that their lives were sham. That there was no point.

That what they did on a day to day basis made no difference whatsoever. That if suddenly they were to die, sure their small group of friends, family and acquaintances would all miss them and die, but what would their legacy to the human race be? None really.

"Well do something that makes you extraordinary then."
"Like what?"
"I dunno."

On the road home, stuck in 50 minutes of traffic for 12 miles...a song came on the radio that absolutely spoke to me.

And I know it has spoken to me for sometime. It just didn't come through as clear as it did that June afternoon. 92 degrees and hundreds of cars in front of me...stuck.

Trying to make ends meet
You're a slave to money
Then you die

I'll take you down the only road
I've ever been down

All struggling to get home. Faces on hands. Listening to the radio.

Just to be home to sit on the couch and watch the TV.

Well at least, for most, it's a lot easier than "work". It's a lot more comfortable than sitting in your business casual and crappy office chairs from the 80's.

And you're free to do what you'd like at home. I guess that's the comfort of it.

But how do we all continue on? How do you find purpose in your life? Are the distractions of "shiny objects" or the daily rumors about so called "celebrities" enough for you to hold on to?

Sure, those with children, I can understand. You have children. You have lives that are your responsibility. I can see the purpose in a parent's eyes.

But what about me? Where does my purpose come from? No other lives truly depend on mine. And the difference I make in this world when I'm all said and done will be very little, if at all any.

So what. I want to be extraordinary. How I become "extraordinary" is up to me though. And that's the tough part. I want to be a good force in this world. I want to do more good for it than I do harm. And I just want that to be a portion of who I am, because no matter what, I have to be selfish in the end. Even though I feel like I've got to take care of things outside of my control, I've also got to take care of myself. And making myself a better person doesn't immediately translate in to making this world a better place.

And it's all "wants" and there's very little "do"s. And that's why this is my blog. Because I get to write things out on paper that I've been thinking of. How punching a clock makes me really sick sometimes. But how other people are going through the same thing and somehow they push on day after day. Yet, some people never have this same realization that I do. And that I have this feeling every couple of months...

But I'm doing just fine. A change isn't required. Most people would say I was doing better than fine. But sometimes good enough isn't good enough for me. Ugh, I've been thinking too much today.

Happy President's Day.

Running and Goals

I’m not sure what happened to me.

I’ve been a runner ever since cross country in high school, but ever since high school I’ve been running sporadically. Maybe once a week during the summer, and not at all during the winter.

I figured I had enough running with the long hours I used to spend at the IMA playing basketball. And I was fit. So it’s not like I needed the extra workout. But then alcohol came along. And Dick’s at 3 in the morning, or maybe A pizza mart. Extravagant (not really) trips to whistler that included eating out every 4 hours on top of a drink with every meal. Work. Work happened.

And somewhere along the line, I went from being a “skinny” 190 lb kid to a “beer bellied” 205 lb guy. And I know. I know it’s not that big of a difference. I know that people would look at that and say, “Well I know X guy who’s gained 100 lbs since high school”. But I’m not that guy.

So I set a few goals for myself. By 2008 I will be dunking with at least 1 hand. I’m working on my vertical leap (I only need to add about 3 inches – sounds a lot easier than it actually is) and I want to run the Seattle Marathon. What the fuck, this will be my “quarter life crisis” since I’ll be turning 25 in April anyway. Run 26 miles to bring on the 26^th year in my life? Sure. Sounds like a good idea.

What started it all: I’m back in the gym. Sports is the reason why I work out. Some people work out to look good. Others just do it just because it’s “something to do”. Some people set resolutions for themselves to “lose weight this year” but I wonder the percentage of people still sticking to their resolution by March 15^th? This is partly the reason I stayed away from the gym for most of January…to avoid the “non-regulars” the “seasonals” as I like to call them.

With Michelle introducing back in to organized basketball in the Boeing league, I’ve got a reason to be in shape. I don’t want to be the guy getting left when someone charges hard from 25 feet out to the key. I don’t want to be the guy, during playoffs that’s bent over on the bench, almost about to puke from running so hard. I’ll admit, our team isn’t in the top division, but even in the lower divisions over the past 2 seasons (past 2 quarters) we’ve barely been about .500. I’ve wanted that to change. I’ve wanted our team to run hard, play tough D and win. I don’t claim to be the reason we’ve done so well this season, but I’ve felt much better during our games and we’re off to our best start ever, 4-0.

Running is an interesting thing for me. It’s like “optional work”. I don’t know if anyone feels like I do almost every morning, but every morning I wake up, I say to myself, “I don’t really want to go to work, but I have to.” So I do. With running, it’s completely my choice. Maybe I should say it’s more like a college class. I don’t really have to go if I don’t want to, but wouldn’t I feel better about spending my time learning in the class room setting taking advantage of the money that was spent to pay for that tuition?

Just getting started is the hardest part. Gathering up my running clothes, getting changed, setting up my nike+ (my new favorite toy!)…and mainly just having so many different excuses to not go running is the hardest part about running. Getting out and going there. And when my schedule isn’t the same every week, that makes it tough too. The schedule is this: Lift at least twice a week. Run at least twice a week. Basketball once a week.

The problem with the schedule? There’s no set time or dates for any of it. It’s all very “free form” because it is my “free time”. I just wish I could have that feeling every time I finished. I wished I could know that feeling immediately as I began running. That feeling of accomplishment. The feeling that I pushed myself.

And it’s weird, because I know that feeling. I’ve felt it many times. It’s just having that desire to get to that point that holds me up.

But once I get started (when I do get started) that 30 minutes of running that I do is great. The first 10 minutes I usually spend clearing my head. I’ve constantly got about 3-4 things on my mind. Bills I’ve got to pay. Jobs I’ve got to apply for. Something mean that someone emailed to me and why it affected me emotionally…But once I hit that 5-10 minute mark, it’s clear. My mind is “clean” for lack of a better way to describe it. My focus suddenly shifts.

It shifts to my breathing. The rhythmic in and out of my breath. My foot strikes. Am I using too much toe? Am I rolling my left foot from in to out too much? What’s my speed like right now?

By the end of my run, my focus turns to muscles burning. Which muscles are hurting me right now? My calves, my thighs…can’t stop now…more than halfway finished…here comes the hill, push hard until the top and then you can coast down the back end. This is me hustling to the ball faster than them. This is me out lasting them. What was that sound? Imagine that dog barking is chasing you…run faster…

It’s all very weird self-talk shit that I put myself through. You get a lot of silence (I don’t listen to music when running) when you’re out there on the road in 30 degree weather by yourself for 30 minutes. My neighbors probably think I’m crazy because I typically end my runs with a half-sprint where I come in to our cul-de-sac looking half dead and stripping off my clothes while stretching out.

But I love it. And the fact that it’s good for my body makes it all the better. If I could just help other people with my running, people in need, it would be the perfect act. Wait, I can run marathons and have people sponsor me per mile to donate to good causes right? My life is over…

The idea of running a marathon – and doing well, not having the ambulance drive me across the line as many have proposed – seems like a very daunting task. I was reading up about training for it and some of the web sites suggested running 10 miles in the morning, 10 miles at night. TEN MILES. My normal run right now is 3.2 miles, and that’s still a bit tough for me. My hope was to build up to 10 miles by this summer, have the ability to run 10 miles and just GO, and then do that every other day during the week. After running those every other day, I want to run the full marathon amount (~27 miles) over the weekend.

But just thinking about that makes me kind of freak out. 27 miles? Seriously? I don't think I've ever run that far over 10 miles...and that was in High School...

And I was thinking today about caloric intake. 27 miles would be more than 4 hours straight of running. Right now I run 3.2 miles in 30 minutes and burn 500 calories. Multiply that by 8 and you've got a burn of 4000 calories. A dieter's dream...so I was asking my doctor today (I got a physical) and she said that my "body would adjust" and would try to balance out everything I was burning.

Just for that fact alone, I am interested to see how I do at running 27 miles. And I've got 9 months and counting to properly train. Everyone's been telling me that I need at least a year to train properly. I think that I can usually accomplish tasks (when I dedicate myself to them) at a much faster rate than the average person...

I hope I don't get hurt/injured...

Values

I love to read.

Rarely do I get to read anymore. Last year, I read a lot. The year before that I was reading a lot. From my count about 8-10 books a year. And then the 4 years before that I was just reading text books mainly. Maybe one “for fun” book during the summers. Just as of this past year I stopped reading. Maybe it was because I was reading so much online. So many emails. Web forums. Articles on almost anything, everything you could find on wikipedia. Linking from one subject to the next, taking on pointless little tidbits I’d figure would be useful the next time I was in a bar. Or maybe something to mention to the wife during a silent moment in the car.

And I’d say I had stopped reading since about this past March. I don’t know. Things got busy. Owning a house is a lot of work. I can’t even imagine doing this with children, let alone children and a dog. But finally, since I’ve got some time and I’m working on a few things (about myself), I got back in to reading. And admittedly, (and I’ve always known this) I feel more wholesome reading. I feel more calm. I feel excited about the person I am or motivated to do things to change my part of the world. And I believe that wholesomeness is created by the TV turning off. By me avoiding worthless games where I defeat enemies that were programmed long before I even shot them down, and will be there, waiting for me whenever I want. And avoiding, sadly, the internet. Something I already spend 6 hours a day on at work.

And I enjoy reading things that change my mind on subjects. That challenge my thoughts. Because even the smallest tinkering of my mind is still better than me learning about the background of Justin Timberlake’s latest film “Alpha Dog”. In the scheme of things, something like that is so miniscule it’s ridiculous we waste our breath, or even my writing on it. I used to read “brain candy” books. John Grisham, Wilbur Smith, and yes I even got in to Dan Brown. But rarely did I learn anything from those…

So, of course, I’m hanging from Obama Barack’s nuts now. More importantly, I’m hanging from Oprah’s…I guess…nuts…well, something I’m hanging off of from her. Ever since “Poisonwood Bible”, I’ve been buying up her book club stuff for years. Shit if books had a stock value to them I’d be throwing my entire net worth in to any book Oprah endorsed. Because it is excellent stuff. And it gives me the much needed motivation and excuse to read. And the reason for my title tonight? Something that I’ve thought about a lot lately, but just wasn’t able to write out as eloquently as Obama, from “The Audacity of Hope”:

“When I was a community organizer back in the eighties, I would often challenge neighborhood leaders by asking them where they put their time, energy, and money. Those are the true tests of what we value, I’d tell them, regardless of what we tell ourselves. If we aren’t willing to pay a price for our values, if we aren’t willing to make some sacrifices in order to realize them, then we should ask ourselves whether we truly believe in them at all.

By these standards at least, it sometimes appears that Americans today value nothing so much as being rich, thin, young, famous, safe and entertained.”

This rung so true with me it was ridiculous. This is the part where I get excited. When someone nails me right on the head when I knew I was doing something that wasn’t working just right, but could open my eyes up to something I could possibly start changing about myself.

What do I value? Entertainment. Safety. Money. Looks.

Earlier in the “Values” chapter he goes on to talk about all the stuff we like to “talk” about…but rarely do any of us take any action.

None of us like that fact that many inner city school children cannot read at a 2^nd grade level when in the 6^th grade. But how many of us have actually taken the time to volunteer and help those kids out? No one wants to be in the inner city…remember, “Safety”.

So people look to the government. They say, “Hey! We want you to fix our schools and we don’t want to pay another dime in taxes!” I look at my retirement accounts every day. And I’ll fight tooth and nail to get as high of a raise as I feel I deserve. Did I ever fight this hard when it came to anything else? “Money”.

Instead of keeping quality teachers in Washington state, or providing better technology to help our children compete in the future against other countries which are either 1) Quickly gaining on us or 2) Already surpassed us in intelligence/work ethic, we are looking to spend millions of dollars to build another arena. You know, that thousand dollars you spent on season tickets to the Hawks, those thousands of people that did…If each of them had put even a quarter of that money in to their local schools I’m sure it would’ve made a huge difference. “Entertainment”

And lastly, what do I see when I turn on my TV? When I sit and listen to people complain? It’s about how fat they are. It’s about how they wish they could change themselves. It’s about how in a few years they’ll be considering plastic surgery. And sure, I run and workout every other day, and yes, part of it is for my health. But mainly? I’d rather have a six pack than the six pack of beer I’ve got sitting on my gut right now. “Looks”.

So for me, it’s time for a self-audit. And it’s almost kind of sick to be excited about something like that. But as I mentioned before, it’s self-development. Growth. And of course the cynical side of me will still battle with these thoughts. I mean sure I may feel like I’m progressing, but what am I progressing towards?

But really, that’s a lot deeper than I’d like to get in for right now.

Random Rambling Post

Sometimes I wish everything that I wrote had meaning. Or had a point. Or had a direction I was going in. But sometimes I feel like not being so serious and just writing. Hopefully this can be one of those types of posts.

Last night I had a dream that I got a weekly report from my assistant manager that I was doing “medium”. I woke up this morning feeling kind of uneasy because as of the past year I’ve been the “all star” which isn’t that hard when your department is 8 people large and not growing.

Medium. That’s kind of funny. That’s not even a real rating. It’s more of a size. Maybe that’s what kind of bothered me about it.

Before going to sleep I was laughing pretty hard because I was thinking about Michelle’s phone conversation with sears earlier on in the afternoon. While calling a Sears “appliance specialist” the phone rang through to the sound of people talking in the background and someone typing nearby. Since I’ve worked on the phones basically all my life, I know this was basically someone not paying attention to their phone ringing. The phone automatically picking up, and them leaving the headset somewhere on their desk.

The best part of it was Michelle trying to get the attention of anyone there. Just the way she was half yelling, “HELLO!” in to the phone without being too loud, but loud enough…the “Is anybody there? Is anybody working?” And finally after 5 minutes of this and me chuckling to myself, she finally hung up. The annoying thing is; they’ve got the automated voice response system. You know, the woman who asks how she can help you? And then she says, “If you need help with appliances say, ‘Appliances’”. And then when you say, “Applian-“ she cuts you off and says, “I’m sorry, I don’t understand. For more help you can either say…”

Grrr…frustrating.

After getting married, Michelle changed her last name to mine. You know what I find annoying? The women who have to hyphenate their last name. If your name is so important to you, why not just keep it? Are you trying to show balance between your name and your husband’s name and that’s why you’re hyphenating it? And your children…you’re going to force them to include that hyphen all their lives? And what happens if you have a son who marries a woman that wants to hyphen their name? Does it become name-name-name? And whose name comes first? If the reason you are hyphenating your last name is to show “balance” (really I don’t know the reason why, I guess I could wiki it) then who’s name goes first? And if a name shows up first wouldn’t that create an “imbalance” between the names? Why not create a hybrid name?

I mean, I’ve heard of the people with 4+ names in their name, but don’t you think it’d get a little tiring? Then again, I’m the guy who thinks most people should just have 1 syllable first names. Yes, I am that lazy. But obviously not lazy enough to ponder stupid shit like hyphenating last names.

http://www.king5.com/topstories/stories/NW_011607WABmarthalakeKC.49c1e46b.html

The winter takes another life.

Interestingly enough I’ve been wanting to walk out on my pond…definitely not as deep as Martha Lake (probably 5 feet at the deepest) since I used to walk out on ponds when I was a kid after a few weeks of freezing temperatures. And interestingly enough, I used to throw rocks on to the ice to try and break it or poke holes right next to where I was standing to see where the water was. I’m glad we didn’t get any fish or coy for the pond…they would’ve been long frozen by now…

Frustration: When you have “friends” or “a friend” who doesn’t respond to 3 different forms of contact. Over a week period I have left 1 voicemail, sent 2 texts and sent 1 email. Wouldn’t this be enough for someone to realize that you were trying to get a hold of them to ask them something? The only way I see this not working as valid means of contacting someone is for the following reasons: 1) They are in a remote location or on vacation and left all contacting devices at home. 2) They have no way to contact you because they have either 2a) Dropped their cell phone in to a hot tub/ocean/bath tub/etc. 2b) Lost their cell phone completely 2c) Haven’t had access to their email for over 2 weeks. 3) They’ve read through your texts/emails and listened to your voicemail but just got too caught up in other things to answer your question/request.

How likely that is for these people to be in one of these situations...or all three at the same time? I’m thinking very unlikely. Which leads me to another point. Let’s say I never responded to emails or phone calls or texts. Would anyone still talk to me? Maybe I should start following other’s examples and just either ignoring their calls or texts or just “forgetting” to call back? Who needs flaky friends anyway?

On a less serious note, I think one of the most simple yet satisfying things a person can do is to pick a big booger. I love to pick my boogers. Especially the ones that you don’t grab on the first “pick”. You’ve got to go back in there and dig around until you grab it. And then BAM…when you pull that sucker out…sometimes it’s so large that it’s actually impressive (to me). And I feel better that I was able to get something that large out of my nostril. And yes, of course I think boogers are gross. Unfortunately sometimes I’m proud of mine…

The Worst Winter Ever

Ok, so it’s only January 11th, 2007 right now. And I know, there’s probably still a couple months ahead of us until The Worst Winter Ever (TWWE) is over. And honestly? The only thing I think could change my mind about this winter? Was if a tropical wind blew through here and all of a sudden it was Hawaii. Yes, not Hawaii like weather. Not just 82 degrees and humid, but the darn thing actually brought the beaches, waves, and how about some of the luaus too? That would nice for those of us who have witnessed first hand TWWE.

There may be some people that might question me in saying, “how is it possible that this was the worst winter ever?”

Let me go through and point out some of the differences between this winter and winters past:

October:

October had nothing wrong with it. Everything was basically normal. I really had no complaints. We did drop below 30 degrees a few times. Not unheard of. This is your so called “calm before the storm”. You can’t really include October in the winter months because I consider it as one of the fall months. So, I’m not really sure why I included it here. Maybe I just want my blog to be as content-happy as possible. Or keep up with my preset standards of writing way too much to explain basically nothing.

November AKA “Rain”:

The rain didn’t stop. And it wasn’t just “Seattle rain”. Because Seattle rain is nice. Seattle rain is mid 40s to mid 50s in temperature, and a light drizzle or mist. The rain is so unaffecting it’s like when you get caught at the grocery store in the produce isle and they decide to “wash” the vegetables (supposedly to keep them fresh or clean, or maybe both – how that works, I have no idea). People can function in that rain. Sure it’s a little gloomy, and yes, now the days are starting to get shorter, but everyone is excited for Thanksgiving and the coming holidays. This year was different. Instead of that nice, light mist, we received down pours. Yes, plural. It was like God was doing his dishes, cleaning out one of his pots he used to make soup for all of his children, (or maybe just one hungry one) and was filling it up with water to rinse and he dumped it on all of us, Seattle. God’s in-sink-erator. By the 15th of November I was thinking to myself, “this has got to be some sort of record”. And sure enough, by the 16th it was. Not even barely past half way through the month and we had already broken the record for the wettest month recorded in Seattle history.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003433002_weather16m.html

(Article to rain record on the 19th of November)

But the weather doesn’t know records. I understand that records are meant to be broken. But typically records are just barely edged out. This one was crushed. In my lifetime, I’m unsure if I’ll ever see this again. Just as a little excerpt, I thought this was interesting: “Forks, annually the wettest place in Washington gets an average of 17.72" in November and currently has 28.24". (http://climate.washington.edu/events/2006NovRain.html) Only 6 inches off of double what they normally receive. And everyone knows what almost 1” of precipitation per day can do to an area…flood it. There were plenty of people who had to evacuate their homes because the water from the surrounding rivers had come up too high. What usually were puddles on the streets had now become ponds. Back when I lived out in Issaquah, I remember driving through carnation and thinking how it would a total swamp if that place ever got enough rain. And sure enough, on the news, there was carnation. People traveling by boat on what used to be roads…

Grisly death story: A woman was trapped in her basement while it flooded. She screamed for help as the basement filled with water until it filled to the ceiling. Water pressure kept the door to the basement closed on her so she was not able to get out. Neighbors heard her screams and called 911. They tried to resuscitate her when they finally got to her, but were unsuccessful. Drowning in your own basement? Ridiculous.

December AKA “Snow and Wind”:

Near the end of November is when we started getting the snow. Snow around here typically isn’t that bad. I’ve seen some bad snow before, but back then to me it was, “AWESOME SCHOOL CLOSURE SNOW!!!” The snow isn’t really that mentionable, seeing as I received at the most 6-8” at my house which is almost laughable to many other states/countries during winter. However, the cold front that moved in immediately after the snow was no fun at all. All of that snow turned to ice on the road ways + All of the transplants from California + All of the native idiots from here in their big bad AWD/4X4 SUVs who think they can tackle any weather? Rubber on ice is rubber on ice. No matter what car you drive. Anyway, it makes for interesting times on the road. I remember reading in the Times about a guy who stayed in his ’98 Mustang for 18 hours overnight because he got stuck on a hill…just so it wouldn’t get stolen – and laughing hysterically about it. 1) No one wants your car buddy. 2) If they wanted your car, do you think they could go far in these conditions?

Normally I can handle myself quite well in the “cold” with just my fleece coat, thick pants and my leather shoes. Not this winter. I remember going on to weather.com in early December and seeing that it was 8 degrees outside. But it felt like ZERO. And that wasn’t just my opinion. It was stated on weather.com.

By mid December, that was done and gone. And finally I was thinking that we might have some “normal” winter weather. You know, the stuff I mentioned earlier. We had gone about 8 days without any problems…until the giant wind storm hit. And yes, again, (hopefully you’re getting the theme by now) every winter we get wind. Sure, we may lose power for a day or have the lights flicker…but we once again, broke a record. It was the highest wind gusts ever recorded in Washington state history. 69 MPH. If you read through the following link, there are just ridiculous things in there: Planes damaged by high winds. PLANES. Cop cars damaged after roof flies off of dealership. And it’s kind of odd how blatant and boring they write what would normally be interesting stuff.

http://www.komotv.com/news/local/4921736.html

Grisly death story: A couple was driving down a heavily wooded highway when they stopped because a large branch was blocking the road. While the man was out of the car trying to move the debris out of the roadway, another tree fell (from the high winds) and crushed both of them. Sometimes it’s just your time to go.

And my personal story? Wind knocks down trees and sends branches (and other debris) flying. Which in turn knocks down power lines, which in turn means that I have no power or heat. Me and a million and a half other people were in the dark. In December I was without power for 6 days total. 4 of which were right after this storm. I have never had my power out for more than 3 days. And the best part of it was? Literally 200 yards from where I lived, those people had power after 2 days. So those extra 2 days were excruciating. When you sit in a house that’s 40 degrees you realize how lucky you are to have power. And being without power those 4 days? Got me sick. Well I suppose it didn’t help that I was still going about my life normally as if the power wasn’t out. Taking a shower and then jumping out of the tub to a freezing house can’t be good for your health. Playing football in the frozen mud in 30 degree temps can’t be good for your health. And the unfortunate thing? It wasn’t a 24 hour sickness. Almost a month later, I’m still coughing from it. Oh and Christmas? Both Michelle and I were sick. New Year’s? Michelle was still sick. I got my dad and my sister sick too. Overall, a successful sickness. *sarcastic*

January AKA “Ok, this can stop now”:

I’m sitting here, at work. It was 23 degrees coming in to work. 2 people out of my 8 person department are not coming in today because of the snow and ice on the roadway. Already 10 days in, I’ve been without power for 3 of them. When you pay almost $150 a day to live in your own home, it’s extremely frustrating to have to stay with family in the guest room because it’s just too cold to stay in your own house. With most winters, I’m ready for them to end by February. Move this one to today, January 11th. I am ready for this winter to end now.

Where’s that Hawaiian breeze? One of the managers here wrapped his cube in posters of Arizona to make himself feel warmer while he was at work. Sometimes, the mind and body can only take enough…