OK so here's how this works.
Think of 13 people you know. friends, family, whatever... jot down 13 people.
Then answer 37 questions about them without peeking at the questions first or changing the order of the names. Yes, this is lame but this is what I do with my 20 minutes of "quota time" at work.
Alright kids- I took the Portland Police Bureau entrance exam on March 18th. I got my results yesterday. Of 216, I was ranked number 21. They say that there may be more than one person per rank- which makes sense because I thought there were about 250 people there. Regardless, I did well and I'm very excited about the possibility of this getting rolling. I'm not holding my breath as the recruiters and background checkers said it would take quite a while to get everything going, but I'm hoping that by mid summer, I can be enrolled in the academy and working towards becoming a Portland Police officer.
Random Side Note- I've been listening to a band called FlyLeaf for the past couple of days and I've decided that I like them. Hard rock with a positive message and a singer with one of the most pleasantly distinctive voices I've heard in quite a while. You won't all like her voice and you won't all like the music but you should all give them a shot. They're better than you think.
In other news- Carley's computer fried its northbridge. For those of you who aren't too computer saavy- that means that the way the brain talks to the rest of the system burnt out. It's like your cerebellum (I think) disappearing. The processor is fine. the memory is fine. the hard drive was fine. etc etc etc... But she had an eMachines. This means that replacing the motherboard would be about as costly and difficult as replacing the entire tower. So we did the latter. She got a shiny new Compaq and we dumped her old data onto the new hard disk and she's up and running. I got her old 80 GB hard drive out of the deal so I'm not as bitter as I could be. Bitter? Why? Because Carley doesn't even LIKE computers and she got a new one. I've been pining over a new system for... ever. and I'm still running my old system. Here comes the geek speak so you can tune out if you want.
Right now I'm running a first-generation Athlon 800. Yes- eight hundred megahertz- not giga-anything. 800 mhz, 384 MB of PC100 RAM, a GeForce2 GTS with 32 MB, a 30GB and (now) an 80GB hard drive, an 8x CD burner, and a SoundBlaster Live card. yes, Dad- your palm Treo is probably more powerful than my desktop.
This is what I want to be running. Now, I've thrown in some stuff I don't need- water cooling, plenty of software, etc... but that's my goal system. About 3 grand for the setup I want. Now 3 grand is a lot for a computer but if you were to get a system of that caliber built by alienware or Voodoo, you'd pay almost five grand. So I don't feel bad about it. I'm hoping that my system can keep it together long enough for me to set aside the money for a new one. I've decided to stop setting a timeline for that particular goal. Every time I do something like that, it blows up. I have two personal debts that I owe to very good friends and have owed for a long time. I will pay those off before replacing the computer. But every time I get a chunk set aside, something happens. Last year, my car kept needing repairs. I set aside 800 bucks for Carley's ring and my car needed 680 bucks of work. Then I got another 700 set aside and it needed 550 in repairs. Then I replaced it and the new car has been a dream but it takes a little longer to save money when paying the car payment. no big deal. I was back up to 800 bucks and BOOM. Geoff got fired. SO that money went to paying bills while job hunting.
ANYWAY. I'm back on my feet and making better money and things should be fine but I wanted to vent/whine about the whole "woe is me" crap. I haven't done that in a while so you can indulge me in this.
So a friend of mine from Iowa sent me a little survey thing about cell phones for her comp class. Pretty straightforward stuff and I was happy to throw in my two cents. The last question got me into a little bit of a huff so I thought I'd post it here for you folks to chew on.
The last question was:
"Do you think people are generally rude while using their cell phones in public? Why or Why not?"
Here's my response:
Generally, people are rude in public- with our without their cell phones. People in modern America have no sense of public decorum. We live in a society of "me me me. Now now now." which is why people drive a 3-ton SUV to soccer practice after having the trailer hitch removed, then get upset when gas prices go up and when they have a hard time finding a parking spot. This is why people think public transit is a stigma rather than plain good sense. This is why people often tip poorly. This is why people think it is the school's responsibility to raise their children. This is why people want beautiful roads, great parks, amazing schools, great technology at their fingertips and still want major tax cuts and higher wages. This is why Americans are spending more and more money on health insurance to battle the secondary impacts of obesity while driving themselves through the line at fast food restaurants where they buy more food per meal than they need in a day. This is why our generation's children will be the first in American history to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents. This is why we are fighting a war in Iraq with no clearly defined goals and no clearly explained initiative. This is why companies like Ford- who invented their business- are struggling to stay above water while companies they taught are trouncing them in every way imaginable.
It all comes back to laziness, greed, complacency... Americans have become decadent, selfish, silly, weak, and proud. I love my country but I'm terrified of what we're becoming.
Ok... So you all know I applied to be a cop. The physical test is passable but not easy. So I've changed my workout to incorporate more cardio and some plyometrics. It's hard so far. Actually- it's not. I just don't like it :-)
What I decided to do was give myself an actual workout plan. Usually I go to the gym and do whatever workout I feel like doing. I alternate muscle groups and do a bit of cardio but I don't have a schedule or plan. So I made one. It's a six week, rotating plan. I have high-rep days and I have "push" days and I do cardio. I still do more weights than cardio but I have more cardio than I used to and since it's planned out, I don't lift extra just because I don't want to do cardio today. So far- I've realized that treadmills are weird but I think I can get used to them. Elliptical trainers are also weird but I kinda like them. Mostly, I like feeling like I'm doing something better for myself than just lifting weights. I hate getting out of breath and if I can get to where I can run three miles at seven thousand feet above sea level, I think I'll be doing pretty good in that department. So that's the world so far in my book.
In other news: Carley graduates in 43 days. Give her money. We're hoping to move to Oregon and we don't need to carry any more crap. So checks, cash, bonds, stocks... cool. Furniture, clothing, kitchen stuff... less cool. Still cool- just less so. Ummmm unless you want to get her an '06 Toyota Tacoma. Access Cab, SR5 V6 with the towing package, heated seats, automatic transmission. Silver, red, or blue. I think you should ask her which color to be sure.
In other news: there is no other news. I work a lot, I love my life. I want a Corvette, a good computer, and a bitchin' kitchen. That's about it.
OK kids- sorry. It's been a LONG time since I updated, I know. Sorry. Anyway. The girl and I are back from Oregon and our much-needed (and much enjoyed) vacation. Merry's family is spectacular and made the vacation about a million times better than it would have been otherwise. Thank you so much. So much. We took about 450 pictures which I will be putting up at some point... but for right now, you can look at Carley's Snapfish album. We went to Maltnomah Falls and climbed the whole damn thing (totally worth the sore butt the next day) and went to Tillamook and the cheese factory. The best part of this trip, for me, was the Ocean. We went to Pacific City (I think) and to Terell's family's beach house for an afternoon. We played in tide pools, ran from the surf, searched for sand dollars, and basically had a good time. The best part- I have never seen Carley so happy as when she was running around on the beach in Oregon. She was just elated to be back "home" and by the ocean. I've never seen her so happy and that made it a great thing for me as well. I love seeing her happy like that.
Four days after we returned from OR, I started my new job at a relatively small (200ish employees) company here in Springs that I'm thoroughly enjoying. I have cool co-workers (mostlY) and I actually enjoy my work so far. The starting pay is higher than Current was after three raises and I enjoy the work even more than I enjoyed the AR job. It's still not quite as fast-paced as the warehouse job was but the range of duties and expectations is so much wider that it totally makes up for it. I have plenty of freedom, lots of responsibility, and the company is growing fast. That means that things change frequently and ideas and suggestions are taken into account and acted upon in a relatively timely manner. It's very VERY cool so far.
Also- I'm a little worried aboutmy cheer gym. Last year, tryouts were poorly publicized and not very well executed. Because of this, we only had two teams which were both fairly small. I can't let people like Cassie and Kristin do so little this year. They have so much potential that a high-school squad simply can't bring to fruition. I want our gym to succeed in such a huge way that it hurts to see it falling apart. I love what I do and I love the kids I work with. Cassie is a great co-worker and a dear friend and I don't want to see things fall apart at the gym. Blah. I don't think that it will collapse, but if there isn't a full high-school team this year, we'll lose Cas and Kris and I'm not so ok with that.
Finally- I want a new computer. I have some options. I can drop a large sum on a computer that will be incredibly powerful/useful/adaptable but very expensive and with no warantee. Paul (the future brother in law) can get me a badass discount at Best Buy. But I won't get as much power or flexibility there. Also- Dell has a discount outlet thing. The selection is acceptable, the prices are wonderful. But Dell doesn't sell AMD processors (not a fan of intel) and at the Dell Outlet, there is no customizability and the selection is only varied over time. Basically watch and see if what you want shows up. My computer is increasingly switching from slow to unreliable. Slow I can handle. I whine, but it works. Unreliable is another story. I keep my finances, thousands of pictures, music, corrospondence, and my writing on my computer. I can't risk it falling to pieces on me. So I am adding that to my shopping list. Crap.
Ok I'm done whining.