When Things Go Wrong, Stay Above the Fault Line

Read an interesting article about the blame game.

Cultural Tip of the Week

Here's your cultural tip of the week. To make sure you don't offend your friendly neighborhood Middle Eastern friend, DON'T EVER, EVER, EVER give him the thumbs up. I was doing some assigned reading for my anthropology and found out that that the thumbs up is the equivalent of the middle finger to many cultures in the Middle East.

Bitter Grapes

The best clip ever:



I didn't get to do this in Italy.

Good Day

I finally got my check...YAY!!! Now I can pay my cellphone bill, which makes me happy and I'm sure AT&T as well. I got a turn-off notice in the mail on Monday and I've been getting phone calls every other day for about two weeks. Today, I made payment arrangements with the nicest lady. She gave me until the end of the month to completely pay off the bill, but as soon as the check clears, that bill is history.

Today, I got re-energized...I found that place of joy in doing my job. I met with a department on some proposed software and they were great. We talked and brain-stormed and it looks like we're going to go with the software. This is the great thing about my job. I wasn't there to shove my thoughts down their throat. I was there to facilitate the move to a new and improved process. My relationship with this department has grown so much in the last year and a half in a positive way. They make me love my job.

Big Girl

I'm going to be brave and sleep in my bed tonight. Everyone has told me that I can't except dust mites...they're every where and despite my worst fears, I'm told that they won't eat me in my sleep. I'm still going to get some mattress covers on Friday. Also, this weekend, I'm going to vacuum everything under the sun.

Last night was my first class at College Park. I felt totally overwhelmed on that campus. It's so huge. But after making a panicked call to Jurea for directions, I was able to make my way to my class - American Pop Culture. This class is going to be interesting, even if it's not what I was expecting. We five books to read, but I think I can keep up with the reading. I more worried about my Anthropology class. That also has five books, but the amount of readig seems to be higher than the other class.

I was putting away my clothes tonight and thought to myself, "I wish they had these textbooks on CD". I do so much better reading when someone else is reading aloud. I don't know why that is... I guess it's a learning style.

American Pop Culture... and Sandy

Tomorrow is my first day of American Pop Culture at UMCP. Check out the map for College Park. You let me know if you can read it. I had to zoom in to 600% to really get an idea of where I'm supposed to go.

As for the class, my instructor left some kooky messages on the webtycho site. They make him sound like he's going to do his best to make the class fun. My idea of the class is watching tv and listening to music for 15 weeks.

On a completely different topic, I've decided that I want to meet Sandra Bullock. Not just because she's the basis for my alter-ego. But also because she's such a great actress. I watched two of her movies back-to-back today...not on purpose, mind you...there just happened to be two Sandra Bullock movies (The Lake House and Hope Floats) on in a row on HBO today. She has such a wide range and she just seems so geniune. Some actors seem to play the same role over and over again. For instance, Matthew Perry, for the most part seems like he's playing Chandler Bing in every movie I've seen him in (except for the Ron Clark Story). Jack Nicholson is another one... he plays a psycho in every movie he's in.

Yet Sandra doesn't. It's a joy to watch her perform mostly because it doesn't feel like a performance. I get the same feeling watching Ashley Judd. I think it's a rare gift to have.

My Wish List

It's Oprah's fault

I watched an episode of Oprah the other day that totally freaked me out.. The topic was about keeping your house clean and the measures that we should take that most of don't know about. Once of the things that they talked about was how often we should vacuum the mattress and change the sheets. They showed dust mites under of a microscope and it freaked me out.

My mom told me that dust mites are everywhere and really you can never totally get rid of dust mites. Still, I've been nervous about getting in my bed. So tonight, I'm sleeping on the couch.

Projects

Talk about writing a check I can't cash... I had the bright idea to start a project that seemed easy enough. But in reality it was more time consuming than I realized. One day I was sitting here minding my own business and a thought popped into my head.

"Why don't we use our calendar service to create a TV guide schedule for HCCTV?"

Oh my goodness... I should've brushed that off as a mere passing whim and kept on going. This project, that I thought would take a few days, has taken me a few weeks to complete. And I'm still nervous that it's not going to be completely correct. Hopefully, it'll be ok and not the complete and total mess that I think it might be.

The Corrs

This is why the Corrs are the greatest Irish folk/rock band. I just love their music because it always lifts my spirit. I wish they would tour in the US.

Much ado about nuthin'

I haven't written much of substance lately. I've had a busy summer and my brain has needed a break from deep thought. Have no fear, though. I'm starting classes this week and I'm sure that I've have something highly intelligent and brainy to say soon enough.

I'm taking an anthropology class and an american pop culture class. It's the first semester that I'm not in class that requires me to make a website (YAY!). As much as I love working on the web, lately, it hasn't interested me as much.

To be honest, working hasn't interested me as much either. Everytime we finish a major project, I feel like I lose a little piece of my desire to work on the web. It used to be fun and now, more and more, it's feeling like job.

I want the fun back.