5 posts tagged “job”
It seems that everything is moving according to the new plan. Michelle is in negotiation with her school about how to get to college, Sherry is settling in to her new routine and I’m working on the goals that I set earlier in the year.
We had a guest speaker in this weekend at our church. He’s the head of the Canadian organization and had a lot of really cool insights into the thinking of the Post Modern kids.
He said that their philosophy is all about the journey. They really don’t care about the destination as long as the journey was meaningful. They don’t have answers and can’t articulate why they make the decisions that they do. Their life is filled with mystery.
The old ways are no longer relevant and they reject the institutions and power brokers that Modern thinkers take for granted. Society is far more important than logic.
That actually makes me feel a lot better about where Michelle is right now. Everything that she’s doing is the new ‘normal’ for her era.
An ‘age’ usually lasts about 400 years (it’s been shortening with the globalization of the world, but you can still expect 200 years). That means that there are only a couple of generations that have to deal with both paradigms at the same time.
We need to find and embrace those thinkers who can freely move in both worlds. Bilinguals if you will. I need to find one of these people so that they can explain where Michelle is going to want to head next.
Just one funny story from Michelle’s new adventure: She works 30 hours a week at a minimum plus 1 job and is making ‘pretty good money’ in her view. Until she went to the grocery store. She spent $175 in one trip and used up about half of her paycheck all at once. She still needs to come up with rent, insurance, gas and cigarettes (oh, and phone and electricity and entertainment) with only half of her paycheck. Uh oh.
At least work is going really well for her. She’s in a call centre making appointments for people who have purchased technical support from Best Buy. That means that they are waiting for her call and are excited about getting the geeks into their houses to fix their electronics. She has to maintain at least 12 calls per hour to keep her job and if she can maintain about 24 cph then she gets a bonus at the end of the month. Cool. That $300 would go a long way to fixing her money troubles for June.
Sherry was rained out yesterday and spent her free time getting caught up on some projects around the house.
I got a thank you card from one of the boys that came over to our house for the Guys Games Day In on Saturday. (I invited three dads and their sons to come over and play games in my arcade. I’m running a very slight risk of being like Michael Jackson if I’m not careful…) Anway, two dads and four sons made it out and we played Wii and fooseball all afternoon –from 11:00 to 4:00. It was a Great time. I would say 9.5 out of 10 for overall enjoyment.
I’ll definitely have to throw one of those again! My basement is now legendary in the minds of three families. How cool is that?
I’m thankful that I can build relationships using the stuff that I already own
I’m thankful that I can enjoy my games for an entire afternoon and not feel guilty
I’m thankful that Michelle is making a go of it on her own
I know that God wants me to love those around me and has given me everything I need to do it.
Friday night was really nice – there were about 120 people at Georges birthday party – it was a nice turn out for a really nice guy. We only stayed for the meal (from 6 to 8) we skipped the dance afterward – we’re really not dancers and Sherry was exhausted.
The move at Shelly’s was a little different. Most of the big stuff has been moved the day before, so we were more or less moving boxes around the house and unpack some of the kitchen stuff. Sherry stayed and did a full eight hour day, but I got about an hours worth of work done and then just hung out with the guys.
It was nice, but I had a tonne of projects waiting at home for me – if we had known, I would have sent Sherry and I would have stayed and worked on my own stuff.
Sunday was a nice easy day. We worked on the wine project for a bit before church and then headed to the States as soon as the service was over. That was a nice trip.
Then we picked up some chairs at Canadian Tire and came back to work on some projects around the house.
Today I’ll be working on a major, major bug in my flagship product. That can’t stay there very long, but unfortunately it’s a nasty bug that’s going to be brutal to track down. *sigh*.
Michelle is painting her apartment – we don’t get to see it until the painting is done – appartenlty it’s a little run down and she wants to freshen it up before she shows anyone.
I’m looking forward to seeing it.
I transfer old vinyl records to CD (and 8-tracks and reel-to-reel tapes and cassettes). I also transfer VHS to DVD (and 8mm reels and super8 and digital8) as a hobby. The hobby is actually paying fairly well recently and I have two $500 jobs coming up in May. That should be a good time. Anyway, I’ve made about $800 since January and I’ve been spending it over the last couple of weeks.
I have a new hard drive (to hold all that video) and then I splurged on an iPod Touch (8G) and a couple of other things. It’s been really fun.
I’m thankful that I can use my talents to generate income
I’m thankful that Sherry lets me use my hobby money completely frivolously.
I’m thankful that there are so many cool gadgets out there.
I know that God gifted me in the area of Technology and that He wants to bless me through that talent.
Well, ok, not the whole day, but the training that I’ve been looking forward to for so long has been cancelled.
Bummer. Now I have to wait until next year to be trained as a True Colours teacher. Bummer.
Michelle had a meeting with a counselor at school yesterday and came home amped about going to college again. She found out that she can transfer her credits from her first year of General Arts to the program that she decides on after first year. She had assumed that the first year of GA would be a waste of time and money.
Of course I feel that even just for the opportunity to mature in a higher education environment that it would be worth the money to do a year of GA. It’s a lot better than working at Tim Horton’s for a year!
Good progress is being made on my current project. I had to write my own scroll bar yesterday since the teeny tiny ones in Windows won’t be nearly big enough for the Sausage FingerTM UI that I’m writing. It was kinda cool. I love my job.
Sherry was told yesterday that her end date should be the end of November again. which is a good thing if you look at the forcast! (Of course we’ve seen this before…)
I hope he means it this time. I need her to run interference with Michelle.
(Ok, one quick tale out of school. She came home yesterday and the dishwasher was full and dirty. She put soap in it and turned it on – it took less than 30 seconds AND she complained about how much work it is. If that’s how much she values the family…)
I’m thankful that we have a full set of really nice dishes. It makes entertaining a lot more fun. I also have a full set of really nice cutlery.
I’m thankful that this house is better insulated than the last house. We were able to move some of the heating budget into other, more productive, places.
I’m thankful that both of our cars are ready for winter. The van is in really good shape and our car is ready too. The car even has a remote starter for mornings that you really don’t want to go out. Very nice.
The dog is fine.
She was mad at me for most of the day, but she was fine. Her eye is fine. She has a dark patch around her eye to begin with – Sherry gave her a bath, which perked her right up and she’s fine.
Whew.
Michelle had a Dr appointment yesterday about the acid problem with her stomach. Turns out the ultrasound found that her stomach was out of line with her diaphragm something and something something. So the Dr. said it was fine and something something.
I was listening. Really. I don’t think Michelle did a great job of telling me everything the Dr. said.
Sherry has been asked to stay one more week. That means she’s in to December before she’s done. That’s a little sucky.
We’ve cancelled my Excel classes for the season. Turns out that Christmas time is a bad time to ask people to spend money on training. Bummer. We’ll offer it again in the new year. They’ve also made me retitle the classes.
So, “Managing Workbooks” becomes “Tame the Document Monster, Learn How to Use Workbooks Properly”
I guess I see the point.
I’m thankful that the Dog is OK. I’ll need to try not to overreact at night.
I’m thankful that I don’t have to teach a class of three people tonight. A big room is a lot more fun.
I’m thankful that Sherry has a job to be working late at. It really helps out with the budgets (but I am looking forward to earning enough that she doesn’t have to work anymore).
Good morning all. Today's topic is Religion (I've already talked about politics, so I should be able to offend just about everybody shortly).
As I see it Religion is bad.
Let me explain. I'm going to use the word Religion to represent the structures, superstitions, rules and institutions that men have put together around their Spirituality. (And before I continue I believe that Spirituality is good).
In the beginning God walked with man in the Garden of Eden. There were no priests, there was no building, no alter, no rules, no power to abuse - just God walking with man in the cool of the evening. And it was good. It was exactly the way that God had intended us to relate to him.
If you skip to the end of the book (the Book of Revelation) and read the last couple of chapters it describes the new Eden - the way it will again once all of the crud has been fixed in this current world. Once again there is no temple (which would have been scandelous in the day it was written!) It's just God walking with man again - exactly the way it's supposed to be.
So if you look at the way that God would have us relate (Spirituality) then there is no church building, no power brokers, no wealth hording, no rules, no dress code (Adam was Naked!), no pretenses, no Holier-than-thou attitudes, no masks, no walls -- just people walking with God.
Thoughts?
--
In other news: Michelle came home and we're good again.
I'm struggling to get everything back under control -- Alpha needs an official clean up crew - without someone being in charge nothing gets done properly. *sigh* Aren't we all adults?
Mike (my brother) found me a job posting that starts at more than twice my current salary. But, I'm already working for my other brother (Bernie). Do I apply? Will it rock the boat?
Electricity is way too expensive.
Heroes is a cool show.
Christmas is only 82 days away. I'm not ready for Halloween yet!
