m&m count:

red: 6 (+1 broken; '7')
brown: 7
blue: 11
orange: 12
yellow: 9
green: 14


and you know what they say about the green ones

here's who i've noticed gets on facebook the most:

not necessecelery in any order:

-unemployed graduates
-young, married wives
-nosy adults
-bored workers


do people feel the need to update everyone on what they're doing all the time? Some people do. What did young, married couples (wives) do about sharing wedding photos before there was facebook and flickr? How would anyone know that Sarah is visiting her best friends in the world?! REUNION, or that Johnny wishes he didn't have to go to work.

Believe me, i'm a bored worker right now, but once i stop being a bored worker, i'll spend a lot less time on facebook. Its not as though i spend hours on it now. But, since I have been on it during the peak hours of the working day 8am - 5pm... the conversations, and wall posts, and photo album edits, etc. that i have noticed are absolutely by mostly people in these categories (save the last, i just mention bored workers ... because they are the simple observers, with a rare comment here and there)

I don't know what's creepier... adults who are on facebook too much, or young single dudes that are on facebook too much? I think both might believe that a relationship may be kindled thereupon.

I also don't know what's greater... productivity (profits, revenues, and earned value) lost by a corporation who allows facebook to be accessed, or the hours wasted by the 4 aforementioned groups on facebook, when they could all be doing more productive things...

but then again... when has productivity and work ever been more fun than viewing vacation and "summer 2k8" photos?

i don't think i can say some of the things i want to say on my blog anymore.

i think my cutoff might be 1975+.

i think.

so if you were born before 1975... don't bother.

its "take your kids to work day" here at Raytheon. i'm bored, so i decided to go zoink one of the free duncan donuts. as i walk down to the cafeteria area, i observe 3 different situations that i found very funny. 1 made me laugh out loud.

1. Man sitting down in front of a tri-fold board about the Native American Employees Association - his co-worker/friend has obviously stopped to introduce his children. As I pass, i hear the demonstrator say to his friend's 14/15 yr old daughter, "Yah, I have one, too. She looks like you, She's a little shorter, a little bit thinner, and has lighter hair."

So i processed it, and then realized that this girl was easily old enough to have been insulted by it. [insert reminiscence of awkward middle school pubescent-developmental stages]. Then it occured to me - I hadn't really got a good look at this girl. So i thought, "hmm do I turn around and take a quick glance... not yet... wait till I'm a little bit farther down the hall..."

[daniel glances]

The girl really wasn't that chubby. I mean, I've got some chub to me, and she did, too. But I found it very funny, and let out a chuckle (man, that word is weird), and smiled as i went down the hall.

2. I'm walking behind a dad and his 2 sons, when I hear the middle school-aged son blurt out: "Oh, dad! At band camp, Johnny brought these cookies, they were shaped like little people, they were so good, and we ate them all the time."

This isn't that funny, but i did want to record that I actually heard a sincere "this one time at band camp..." quotation

3. I'm walking behind a dad and his daughter. Daughter (13-15?ish?) walks past a doorway, sees the silver, rounded square button of a handicapped access door opener, and punches it. Dad: "don't do that". I thought it was funny, dad instructs her to abstain from impulsively acting, 15 seconds after the fact.


Thats it. This wasn't as funny as I thought it would be. Good news: i get to leave work in 35 minutes. What about you?

Here are the results of a little observation/counting.
My hypothesis is true - there are more of my 'friends' who have taken only their new name, and not included their old maiden name.

Maiden name in facebook name: 26
(those with 'maiden' name in single quotation marks): 10
Only new (husband's) name: 34

hyphenated: 1

i discussed this with jenny last night: why some of my married friends dropped their maiden names on facebook, and others do not. and i think my thoughts were fairly accurate.

i'll do a count today, since i'll probably be bored, of my married friends, and how many kept their old names on facebook account, and who didn't. but i'm gonna go out and say - i think there might be more who only took their new name, and didn't put their old name on their facebook profile.

i'll qualify "friends" as this - i'm friends with them on facebook, or if i don't know them, i know (am friends with) their husband.

stay tuned.



oh, you need to blog.

this was great bag of original skittles:

yellow -- 11
green -- 11
orange -- 9
purple -- 9
red: 19

COMMUNITY>COFFEE

i've realized a few things this morning.

as i'm waiting for my clearances here at my new job, i'm amazingly bored. i have done very little substantive work, and its kinda been wearing on me. its ok - because i know that this is part of the industry i work in. i just wish it could speed up a little bit. for all of the new hires waiting for clearances, there is a huge room they call "the colony"... where they all wait together till they get cleared, then they go up with their supervisors to do classified work. my boss found a place for me up in our building just outside of the classified area (where i don't have access to yet), where i can be close, sit in on some meetings, and meet some of the people who i'll be working with.

but strangest thing... in my little cube, in my little hall, i have met 1 of the 6 people around me, and not surprisingly i'm sleepy and bored. I realized this - i don't need coffee when i have community. if i could come in the morning and say hello to people around me, and get to work with these people, etc. I would not be yawning and nearly falling asleep, and needing coffee, and watching the clock as hours creep by.

i know thats how it goes, but i do know that i realized for me, its incredibly important that I have people around me.

funny thing just happened... 2 young guys just stopped by my office - and Lindsey, my friend who told me about the opening here, told me about them - nice guys who are in our department. it was great to meet them, and i look forward to working with them. ha. its funny how that happens - literally right in the middle of me writing about community.

i can't wait to get started on my program- i just met my program manager... seems like a really nice guy. he's the guy i'll be reporting to.


---


Also recently, i've been conflicted, or my thoughts have just been stirred about a topic - blue collar work. or not blue collar work per se, but work that doesn't necessarily require highly skilled training or education. i'll explain... there is a nice guy i've seen around the campus here - he wears this cool bank of america hat, and he's black. he is some kind of maintenance guy/staff support - i'm not sure what his title is, but he's really nice. i don't know what kind of training he has or what his story is, or what education he has... etc. but i know this: if i was in a position like that, i think that i would be a little bitter. now i must be clear here - i want to explain how humbled i feel to have got to the position i am in - i have an incredible job, and got to get my masters in 5 years, and i don't necessarily feel like i've earned the things that i have... which i guess is good... i'm amazingly grateful to my parents, to my friends, to the Lord, for all that i have - opportunities, importantly.

what i am NOT saying is that this guy is unhappy, or unfulfilled, or upset, or bitter, or angry, or jealous, or whatever. i don't know his mindset, and quite honestly - i will ALWAYS wish peace and happiness upon people - doing whatever they want as a job, serving wherever they feel led, etc. i know that people won't find soul-filling happiness outside of the Lord, but i do know that they can enjoy what they do, if they enjoy what they do. my observation is simply this - that if i was in a position like his, ***and i knew that i was capable of more*** i would not enjoy it, and might hold a bit of resentment. now, i can't truly know if i would feel this, because i haven't been in a situation like that, yet. but i'm just conjecturing, and blogging, and this is where i like to share some thoughts.

i'll tell you this much too, you should probably start blogging, and stop just reading. this is directed at someone different.


the astros are doing fairly poorly as of late, but thats ok.

i'm really bummed that payday is still a week away, and i've been workign for a week and a half. brtual.

jenny is so great. this girl is really special.

don't vote for john mccain because your mother wants you to.


or because your father wants you to.


vote for john mccain because YOU believe he's the best candidate.


but i'm forced to type here that you can vote for john mccain for whatever reason you want. but if you're over 21 and/or married and/or graduated and/or strong enough to think independently...

i think i'm almost past the edge, crescendo, tipping point, next big thing, etc.

actually i think i'm in the middle of it. and i'm not scared. i thought i would be a little scared, but i'm not. i'm more nostalgic than anything - and not of anything beyond 2 or 3 years ago. perhaps thats because in the past 2 - 3 years i have figured a lot of things out. these things are not limited to the following:


- that me and my parents have become closer, as well as me and my brother
- that age is not as big a deal as it seems, or has seemed to me
- that i can't stand things that are "just the way they are"
- that i know of no other thing greater than the unselfish love of the Lord
- that i know that God loves us, and hates what we've done in classification and judgement
- i won't be doing any one thing for an extended period of time, for a while...
- i love people more than i even thought
- i've chilled out, and thats a great thing
- talk a lot less
- a lot less
- a hell of a lot less
- everyone gets lonely. even young married couples. even happily social individuals. even businessmen. even parents who have less to do than before.
- people can become far too stingy.
- people need to get out of debt quickly
- people who do things that are far below their talent level - will eventually feel unfulfilled and disappointed in themselves
- i'm glad when people figure out that sometimes the reason they are bored, is because they sit idly on their hands, missing the challenge they once thrived on, grew from, learned from, and blanaced SO WELL.
- move along
- proximity
- patience

no one updates their blogs that often. good bloggers do. maybe i'm not one. maybe i am.

insomnia.

i think its interesting to see blogging's popularity increase over the years. i have seen numerous friends start blogging, then fall off, some even start again, then disappear.

not to say that there were a few months at a time when i didn't blog, but still... i've been at this game for a while. and i'm glad. i'm not even a very good blogger. the pro-bloggers update more often and have more insightful things to say. in fact, there is only a rare blog of mine that is dynamic, and or funny or exciting. with that being said. i'm proud to have a random blog that menas a great deal to me and few other people.

if you're reading this and don't understand me; know this - i believe in communication and community, and relationships. and i believe that these things occur and develop most in this order: face-to-face, via the telephone, via written comm, then digital/modern media.

any relationship begun in any way other than face-to-face, lacks a bit of sincerity, and has more room for error, at lease INITIALLY. development can take it into a better realm, but not without a great deal of work.

that being said, anyone who does not pursue realtionships in their community, i believe is missing out on a great deal.


THAT being said, pursuing too many realtionships can cause problems, and i'm one to know.

but closing yourself off to only a few, i think, can be boring and can take away an edge of your personality. certainly, there shouldn't be 5 new relationships brewing in your life at any random point, but i think you see what i'm saying. i guess its because i hate when people are WAYYYY too comfortable. don't get me wrong - i'm certainly one who likes to be comfortable. i know that there is a time and place for it, too. and i can't wait to enjoy some comfortable time in my new life in dallas. but i always want to grow. and so should you.

i think that a true artist does not care what people think of their art. they do not care whether the song they write or the poetry they compose is received well by an audience, or not. they just do it. so when someone says "you need to appreciate the bravery and fear that an artist must accomplish", i can do so. however, i won't respect it as much as the artist with the attitude that says "to hell with what you think, i'm in love with my art. i'm in love with the way i express it, and the way i create it, and the way it touches my soul."

i think that those times where an artists' creations are received well and enjoyed by an audience (the larger the better, most likely), must be icing on the proverbial cake. if you don't like someones' art, thats fine. but appreciate their passion in making it.

and even if you don't, true, obsessed artists couldn't give a damn what you think.



i think thats why bands like radiohead and oasis have been around for a while, and even though their creations aren't as well received in the United States as other artists, they have enjoyed careers that span decades and sleep under the glow of grammies and platinum Billboard awards.

The idea of middle-to-late aged women sitting around during the middle of the day and looking at facebook profiles and picture albums - bothers me. Isn't the whole idea of community slightly sabotaged when communication, congratulations, rejoicing, and encouragement take the form of keyboards and mini-feeds?

I enjoy facebook for any number of reasons... not the least of which is ease and convenience of communication. However, a social-networking tool such as facebook is, was not initially designed to be a spy-tool, a gossip-wheel, or a PRIMARY means of communication... especially for individuals in parental positions and with responsibilities far greater than a term paper or reading reviews.

Still, I must express my belief in freedom of individuals to do whatever they would like. To that end, I blieve greatly in personal liberty to join or do or say anything, so long as it does not infringe or drastically impair the common rights of others, to that same liberty.

all at once, the world can overwhelm me.

i got AA back to back. the first time, i end up scooping a pot (275), on a sick, sick call. board reads K-8-2-10-7, dumbass makes it 65 after i check it to him, and when he value bet 65, i looked at the pot, and decided to gamble.

he said: I got a pair.
i said: how big?
he said: real small
railbirds: "hurry up guys..."
i said: turn it up

i said: ship it.

i love my brother so much

derek webb is not afraid to write lyrics that ring true, and will ruffle feathers. he bases so much of his music, and specifically his lyrics, in truth, and love. and if you haven't figured out that love takes the form of upsetting people sometimes, then welcome to life.

"there are two great lies that i've heard.
the day you eat of the fruit of that tree, you will not surely die.
that jesus christ was a white, middle-class republican, and if you wanna be saved, you have to learn to be like him."

i learn from people i don't expect to learn from, sometimes. sometimes, those people are people that i THINK i DON'T want to learn from.