Friday
Wow, this is the first "real" Friday that I have had in over 3 months. I actually feel like the weekend is almost here and I have the freedom to go to bed as late as I want tonight. Maybe I will play craft, or maybe just watch lots of TV, knowing that I can sleep in tomorrow. How luxurious...
*****
It's hard to believe that May is herre. I've always associated May with "school almost over" feelings. And with those thoughts come the questions of "what are your plans for the summer". I think about my roommates from last year, and all three of them are probably looking ahead to the summer right now. Ray and Dan in grad school, Roi finishing his first year of teaching junior high kids, and they all probably either have plans or are making plans.
But now for me, May is just like any other month of the year. As a matter of fact, summer is just like any other season, except it's hotter outside, there's construction on the roads, and baseball games are on every night. The phrase "summer vacation" holds no meaning to me. For the first time, there's no questions about whether I'll be interning, vacationing somewhere, or taking summer classes, because work goes on like usual.
So as a result, I don't know what to gauge my progress on anymore. It used to be that after finals in May, assuming you passed, it means you successfully completed another year and were ready to move on to the next. This would be the time when you could reasonably and logically declare that you had indeed stepped forward in the past year.
Right now, there's no clear indicator or "measuring stick" for me to be able to say "This is where I was before, and this is where I am now. Look how far I've come." We progress throughout the course of different projects, and we have yearly performance evaluations, but it's not really the same. Maybe the only true test of "passing" at the job is "not being fired". So I guess I'm doing well so far, in my first 6-7 months of working. haha...
Friday, May 02, 2003
Thursday, May 01, 2003
Health
I've never been very body-conscious, but as I get older it seems like I should be more aware of my health. Like I never used to worry about the long-term effects of drinking, but now even when I just have a couple beers, it makes me wonder if my liver is gonna turn out like those horrifying pictures they used to show us in health.
And last month I made the switch to Miracle Whip for my daily lunch, after realizing how bad mayo is for you. Calories: 120. Calories from Fat: 120. Ummm.... sweet. The thing is, I don't remember looking at the label of anything before, but I've been doing it more lately for whatever reason. Not that I'm a psycho calorie-counter or testing my blood pressure and cholesterol every day, I'm just more conscious is all. I feel fine today, but I would like to be fine 15, 20, 30 years down the road too. So I figure it's probably worthwhile to take better care of myself now while it's early.
That means I will try to control my cravings for wings and other unhealthy foods. When I do eat out, I will order water more often and beer less often. My sandwiches will use a lower-fat spread, on wheat bread, preferably with lean white meat.
But all in all, I still think I'm in pretty good shape. At least I have no signs of arthritis yet.
I've never been very body-conscious, but as I get older it seems like I should be more aware of my health. Like I never used to worry about the long-term effects of drinking, but now even when I just have a couple beers, it makes me wonder if my liver is gonna turn out like those horrifying pictures they used to show us in health.
And last month I made the switch to Miracle Whip for my daily lunch, after realizing how bad mayo is for you. Calories: 120. Calories from Fat: 120. Ummm.... sweet. The thing is, I don't remember looking at the label of anything before, but I've been doing it more lately for whatever reason. Not that I'm a psycho calorie-counter or testing my blood pressure and cholesterol every day, I'm just more conscious is all. I feel fine today, but I would like to be fine 15, 20, 30 years down the road too. So I figure it's probably worthwhile to take better care of myself now while it's early.
That means I will try to control my cravings for wings and other unhealthy foods. When I do eat out, I will order water more often and beer less often. My sandwiches will use a lower-fat spread, on wheat bread, preferably with lean white meat.
But all in all, I still think I'm in pretty good shape. At least I have no signs of arthritis yet.
Wednesday, April 30, 2003
40 Years
There's this guy here at work who's retiring today after 40 years with the company. That just blows my mind... how before I was even born, he had already been working for over 17 years. During the next 23 years, I learned to walk, talk, use the potty, read, play piano, drive a car, and craft. I moved from unincorporated Downers Grove to incorporated Downers Grove to Taipei to Darien to Urbana to Champaign back to Darien and now to Palatine. I went through preschool, kindergarten, 1st-6th grade, junior high, high school, and college. All this time, he was in the same place, working at Northrop.
So me and some of the younger people here were talking about how we're always trying to just get through the week, and the weekend always seems so far away. And here's this man who has been through about 2000 of these weeks. I could imagine myself working here for a long time, but 40 years? That's just plain scary. Props to the old guy.
I don't know if that's a good thing or bad thing, though, to be doing something for that many years. It reminds me of About Schmidt. When you've been living the same life for so long, and suddenly it all changes at age 65, how do you handle something like that? Man, if I left this job right now after 6 months, I would really miss it, the people and the work and the sense of accomplishment. And we've all seen how Jordan couldn't stay away from basketball after retiring, twice.
On the plus side, there are worse things that can happen to you in life than to experience 40 years of job security, work your way up in a large Fortune 100 corporation, retire with a lot of money, probably vacation and just coast the rest of your days, then leave a respectable inheritance to your kids.
There's this guy here at work who's retiring today after 40 years with the company. That just blows my mind... how before I was even born, he had already been working for over 17 years. During the next 23 years, I learned to walk, talk, use the potty, read, play piano, drive a car, and craft. I moved from unincorporated Downers Grove to incorporated Downers Grove to Taipei to Darien to Urbana to Champaign back to Darien and now to Palatine. I went through preschool, kindergarten, 1st-6th grade, junior high, high school, and college. All this time, he was in the same place, working at Northrop.
So me and some of the younger people here were talking about how we're always trying to just get through the week, and the weekend always seems so far away. And here's this man who has been through about 2000 of these weeks. I could imagine myself working here for a long time, but 40 years? That's just plain scary. Props to the old guy.
I don't know if that's a good thing or bad thing, though, to be doing something for that many years. It reminds me of About Schmidt. When you've been living the same life for so long, and suddenly it all changes at age 65, how do you handle something like that? Man, if I left this job right now after 6 months, I would really miss it, the people and the work and the sense of accomplishment. And we've all seen how Jordan couldn't stay away from basketball after retiring, twice.
On the plus side, there are worse things that can happen to you in life than to experience 40 years of job security, work your way up in a large Fortune 100 corporation, retire with a lot of money, probably vacation and just coast the rest of your days, then leave a respectable inheritance to your kids.
Tuesday, April 29, 2003
I Put The OVER in Overtime
After about 3 months of working OT, this week I am gonna finally take myself off this schedule. I have been looking forward to this point for a long time, when I get to leave work at 4:30 and go home to a place closer than 10 minutes away.
What to do with this extra time? I don't know yet. Yesterday after work, I went to Jewel to pick up some garlic and oranges. Went home, made rice, a dish of spinach, and microwaved a bowl of beef I brought from home. I make a mean spiznatch, by the way. Anyways, I ate dinner, washed the dishes, and it was not even 6:30 yet. I felt so proud of accomplishing all that by myself, when only a few weeks ago, I would only be just getting home at 6:30.
Next, I watched Everybody Loves Raymond. This is one of those shows I never really watched before but now I wish I did, cause I discovered that it is very entertaining. Up until last week, I had only seen about 3 episodes and it seems like one of the three was always on whenever I happen to catch the show. But anyways, I now think it is one of the funniest sitcoms on TV after watching it a couple times in the past week. Even though all of the people in the show are annoying, it just cracks me up so much.
The only thing is, I would rather shoot myself than be in a marriage like Raymond and his wife. To me, that's like the definition of lifelong misery right there. I don't care if she is attractive for a housewife-aged woman, can you imagine being ripped on by your spouse all the time? And I don't think I have ever seen them even kiss (let alone anything else), instead he is always saying stuff like "don't worry honey, I won't bother you for sex tonight." I mean, that's hilarious to watch, but it wouldn't be so funny if that was me. That's not what I picture a happy marriage to be.
I guess it's partly a reminder to me that love is more important than looks. This coming from a guy that has Britney Spears stickers in his wallet. But seriously, I don't wanna marry her, I just wanna admire her from afar. haha...
Maybe I will write a more in-depth blog about love vs. looks sometime, but I had a different plan for this blog so that will have to wait. Since I have 2-3 extra non-work, non-sleep hours in the day now, I'm gonna list some goals I would like to accomplish with this gift of time.
1. Learn to cook - I routinely mess up fried rice and boiling eggs, so this could be tough. I don't expect to be Iron Chef Chen, but it would be nice if I knew at least a few more dishes. In this day and age, I don't think guys can really count on the girlfriend or wife to cook anymore. Simply not gonna happen, so get used to it. It's good for me to be more self-sufficient anyways. But yeah, the first step should come later this week, when I will pick up a book at Barnes to get me started.
2. Get a telescope and learn about stars and shiznit - Except for a couple of my nicer friends, almost everyone I know either looked at me funny or flat out called me a nerd when I told them I wanted to do this. So SCREW YOU ALL. I'm getting a tizzelescope, and looking at frickin stars. I was gonna do it alone anyways. I already have the vision in my mind: open up the big window of my room on a clear summer night, put some Chopin on in the background, lose myself in the craters of the moon, engaged in deep thought and personal discovery. All you haters will be missing out.
3. Watch Godfather movies - I have wanted to watch Godfather for the longest time. Haven't seen it before, but I liked Goodfellas and Casino, and I'm sure the Godfather series is even better than those. You might even say they are the "godfather" of all mafia drama movies (yeah, I'm so clever). Well, Brian has them on video and I will have to make time to watch them in the coming weeks. After that, maybe the Sopranos. Then, possibly 24 or Sex and the City. Also The Natural and Field of Dreams. While we're at it, why not Major League? Caddyshack sounds good too. There's too much stuff I haven't seen.
4. Get Pocket PC - I talked about the Toshiba e750 about a month ago, well, now I'm waiting either for the price to come down a little, or rebates to be offered, or maybe newer and cooler models to come out. There are rumors of a new HP IPaq model to be released soon. But definitely, within another month, I want to pick one up. There's so many things I think I could use it for, that I won't bother to list them all here. Basically, they are all nerdy purposes anyways so there's no point in feeding my nerd-image. We'll see whose productivity will be skyrocketed in a few months, and who will be laughing then. muahahaaha
5. Spend at least one night/week at the library - Last week, my favorite Palatine-native Cindy showed me around the Palatine Library. I was seriously in awe. I mean, Indian Prairie Public Library at Darien was pretty nice, but there's just no comparison. This place has an underground parking deck. The magazine section and video section are huge, not to mention computers everywhere. I even saw Mech Chick there, the obsession of Master P's college freshman year (which faded later on). I can't wait until I get two things in writing with my name and Palatine address on them so I can apply for my library card. Then not only will I be able to borrow books, but I could also use my pickup line on Olivia: "Good thing I got my library card, cause I'm CHECKING YOU OUT!!" Yes, she'll love that one.
6. Organize a game of softball - This is one of the things I miss most from school last year. Getting a bunch of us together, going to an open field, and just playing for a couple hours. Using folded up 24-pack beer cases as the bases, hitting until the ball unraveled and then driving with Chras to Dick's Sporting Goods to buy another one. Hopefully we can pull at least one game together sometime soon, and multiple games to follow in the summer months.
7. Find Sean Paul and kick his ass - I hate that song. Maybe it's partly because I understand zero words in it, but it's just annoying. The only good part is the little kid dancing in the video, but that's only like 10 seconds.
*****
Nobody knew the origin of the quote from my blog about my computer: "Why you gotta be wastin my flava?!" Interestingly enough, I saw this movie on TV last night as VH1's "Movies That Rock". For those that might be wondering, it was said by Kenny (Special K) in "Can't Hardly Wait".
After about 3 months of working OT, this week I am gonna finally take myself off this schedule. I have been looking forward to this point for a long time, when I get to leave work at 4:30 and go home to a place closer than 10 minutes away.
What to do with this extra time? I don't know yet. Yesterday after work, I went to Jewel to pick up some garlic and oranges. Went home, made rice, a dish of spinach, and microwaved a bowl of beef I brought from home. I make a mean spiznatch, by the way. Anyways, I ate dinner, washed the dishes, and it was not even 6:30 yet. I felt so proud of accomplishing all that by myself, when only a few weeks ago, I would only be just getting home at 6:30.
Next, I watched Everybody Loves Raymond. This is one of those shows I never really watched before but now I wish I did, cause I discovered that it is very entertaining. Up until last week, I had only seen about 3 episodes and it seems like one of the three was always on whenever I happen to catch the show. But anyways, I now think it is one of the funniest sitcoms on TV after watching it a couple times in the past week. Even though all of the people in the show are annoying, it just cracks me up so much.
The only thing is, I would rather shoot myself than be in a marriage like Raymond and his wife. To me, that's like the definition of lifelong misery right there. I don't care if she is attractive for a housewife-aged woman, can you imagine being ripped on by your spouse all the time? And I don't think I have ever seen them even kiss (let alone anything else), instead he is always saying stuff like "don't worry honey, I won't bother you for sex tonight." I mean, that's hilarious to watch, but it wouldn't be so funny if that was me. That's not what I picture a happy marriage to be.
I guess it's partly a reminder to me that love is more important than looks. This coming from a guy that has Britney Spears stickers in his wallet. But seriously, I don't wanna marry her, I just wanna admire her from afar. haha...
Maybe I will write a more in-depth blog about love vs. looks sometime, but I had a different plan for this blog so that will have to wait. Since I have 2-3 extra non-work, non-sleep hours in the day now, I'm gonna list some goals I would like to accomplish with this gift of time.
1. Learn to cook - I routinely mess up fried rice and boiling eggs, so this could be tough. I don't expect to be Iron Chef Chen, but it would be nice if I knew at least a few more dishes. In this day and age, I don't think guys can really count on the girlfriend or wife to cook anymore. Simply not gonna happen, so get used to it. It's good for me to be more self-sufficient anyways. But yeah, the first step should come later this week, when I will pick up a book at Barnes to get me started.
2. Get a telescope and learn about stars and shiznit - Except for a couple of my nicer friends, almost everyone I know either looked at me funny or flat out called me a nerd when I told them I wanted to do this. So SCREW YOU ALL. I'm getting a tizzelescope, and looking at frickin stars. I was gonna do it alone anyways. I already have the vision in my mind: open up the big window of my room on a clear summer night, put some Chopin on in the background, lose myself in the craters of the moon, engaged in deep thought and personal discovery. All you haters will be missing out.
3. Watch Godfather movies - I have wanted to watch Godfather for the longest time. Haven't seen it before, but I liked Goodfellas and Casino, and I'm sure the Godfather series is even better than those. You might even say they are the "godfather" of all mafia drama movies (yeah, I'm so clever). Well, Brian has them on video and I will have to make time to watch them in the coming weeks. After that, maybe the Sopranos. Then, possibly 24 or Sex and the City. Also The Natural and Field of Dreams. While we're at it, why not Major League? Caddyshack sounds good too. There's too much stuff I haven't seen.
4. Get Pocket PC - I talked about the Toshiba e750 about a month ago, well, now I'm waiting either for the price to come down a little, or rebates to be offered, or maybe newer and cooler models to come out. There are rumors of a new HP IPaq model to be released soon. But definitely, within another month, I want to pick one up. There's so many things I think I could use it for, that I won't bother to list them all here. Basically, they are all nerdy purposes anyways so there's no point in feeding my nerd-image. We'll see whose productivity will be skyrocketed in a few months, and who will be laughing then. muahahaaha
5. Spend at least one night/week at the library - Last week, my favorite Palatine-native Cindy showed me around the Palatine Library. I was seriously in awe. I mean, Indian Prairie Public Library at Darien was pretty nice, but there's just no comparison. This place has an underground parking deck. The magazine section and video section are huge, not to mention computers everywhere. I even saw Mech Chick there, the obsession of Master P's college freshman year (which faded later on). I can't wait until I get two things in writing with my name and Palatine address on them so I can apply for my library card. Then not only will I be able to borrow books, but I could also use my pickup line on Olivia: "Good thing I got my library card, cause I'm CHECKING YOU OUT!!" Yes, she'll love that one.
6. Organize a game of softball - This is one of the things I miss most from school last year. Getting a bunch of us together, going to an open field, and just playing for a couple hours. Using folded up 24-pack beer cases as the bases, hitting until the ball unraveled and then driving with Chras to Dick's Sporting Goods to buy another one. Hopefully we can pull at least one game together sometime soon, and multiple games to follow in the summer months.
7. Find Sean Paul and kick his ass - I hate that song. Maybe it's partly because I understand zero words in it, but it's just annoying. The only good part is the little kid dancing in the video, but that's only like 10 seconds.
*****
Nobody knew the origin of the quote from my blog about my computer: "Why you gotta be wastin my flava?!" Interestingly enough, I saw this movie on TV last night as VH1's "Movies That Rock". For those that might be wondering, it was said by Kenny (Special K) in "Can't Hardly Wait".
Monday, April 28, 2003
Lately I've been reading a lot of blogs by people who are graduating this May. It's gives me a weird feeling because exactly one year ago, that was me. Realizing things like "I have 13 more days of class" and "This could be the last final I take, EVER", it really doesn't seem like that long ago when I went through those phases.
And when I talk to people who are about to graduate next month, I never know what to say to them. I wish I had some great advice to offer, or experiences to share about post-college life, but I guess I'm still kind of wandering myself. Even though it's been 11 months, and in these 11 months I've started working full-time and moved out on my own, I don't know if it's ever sunk in that I'm done with school. You might even say that a large part of me still feels like he lives in room 312 at Green Balconies.
So if you are reading this and happen to be graduating in May, don't expect any awesome advice from me about "the real world". But I will say congrats and welcome to our post-college community. Join us in our cool club of fun.
And when I talk to people who are about to graduate next month, I never know what to say to them. I wish I had some great advice to offer, or experiences to share about post-college life, but I guess I'm still kind of wandering myself. Even though it's been 11 months, and in these 11 months I've started working full-time and moved out on my own, I don't know if it's ever sunk in that I'm done with school. You might even say that a large part of me still feels like he lives in room 312 at Green Balconies.
So if you are reading this and happen to be graduating in May, don't expect any awesome advice from me about "the real world". But I will say congrats and welcome to our post-college community. Join us in our cool club of fun.
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