Go, fight, win.

So Hayley did this tag about high school and apparently it's all the rage... some other people did it, and some other people promised to do it. I also want to give another try at a tag that addresses things I did years ago without getting super long winded like I did last time. (apparently I've already failed... This 6 or seven sentence intro isn't helping...) So here goes.

1. DID YOU DATE SOMEONE FROM YOUR SCHOOL? No way. I went on plenty of dates, including every single dance since I turned 16m but never seriously dated anyone. That's a waste of time in high school

2. WHAT KIND OF CAR DID YOU DRIVE? A '85 Chevy Cavalier. All my older brothers and sisters drove it before me. We affectionately called it "the lawn mower" because it sounded like one.

3. DID YOU PASS YOUR DRIVER'S LICENSE TEST YOUR FIRST TRY? Heck YES I did!!

4. WHERE YOU A PARTY ANIMAL? Sorta... I kinda crossed lots of click boundaries, but didn't get too crazy. I was still a band geek, after all.

5. WERE YOU CONSIDERED A FLIRT? Nope. I came across as more of the funny, friendly guy.

6. WERE YOU IN BAND, ORCHESTRA, OR CHOIR? Totally a band geek. I even learned to play bari sax my senior year so I could play in the Jazz Band. I was in Wind Symphony, Marching Band, and the Pep Band, too. And I loved every minute of it.

7. WERE YOU A NERD? Sorta. I was more an overly confident, outgoing spaz than a nerd.

8. WERE YOU ON ANY VARSITY TEAMS? No way man. Unless you count Marching Band as a varsity sport. And you should. (I've got facebook flair to prove it.)

9. DID YOU EVER GET SUSPENDED/EXPELLED? Nah.

10. CAN YOU STILL SING THE FIGHT SONG? Hells yeah!!! "Fight, fight, fight, for West Jordan High and Vic-tor-y!...."

11. WHO WERE YOUR FAVORITE TEACHERS? ....hmmmmmm... Mrs. Leyva, the band teacher for sure. Other great influences included Mrs. Glightly my English teacher my junior year and Mr. .... oh crap... just forgot his name!!! Bickmore (Thanks, Tiff!) He was an English teacher in 12th grade... also the advisor guy for student body officers... come on fam, help me out with this one...

12. WHERE DID YOU SIT FOR LUNCH? All over the place. I moved around a lot. Most the time it was with people in band, though... sometimes even in the band room.

13. WHAT IS YOUR SCHOOL'S FULL NAME? West Jordan High School

14. WHAT IS YOUR SCHOOL'S MASCOT AND COLORS? Jaguars. Black, blue, and White. (lets go, lets fight.)

15. DID YOU GO TO HOMECOMING AND WITH WHO? Like I said, I went to every dance... I don't remember who I went to Homecoming with... I'd have to check Mom's scrap books for the dance pictures.

16. IF YOU COULD GO BACK AND DO IT AGAIN WOULD YOU? That depends. Would I go back and do it again as the person I am now, no... If I did it again as the teenager I was, sure. I didn't hate high school, I'm just past it now.

17. WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER MOST ABOUT GRADUATION? Being checked to make sure I had clothes on underneath and didn't have a knife. I also remember the speaches were kinda boring. And my hair was a matted mess after.

18. WHERE DID YOU GO SENIOR SKIP DAY? I don't remember... But what I do remember is one time a bunch of us ditched an assembly to go play Golden Eye at my house, then my dad came home early and I told him there was an optional assembly and they let us leave early for it... I'm pretty sure he didn't buy it but he was cool about it, especially because we said we were going back to school right then. I'd like to say we did go right back to school because we felt horrible for getting caught, but really, we went to another guy's house and kept playing... I guess that's my confession. Sorry, Dad!

19. WERE YOU IN ANY CLUBS? Besides band? No. Who has time for more clubs after band?

20. HAVE YOU GAINED SOME WEIGHT SINCE THEN? Definately. But I'm trying to lose it

22. ARE YOU PLANNING ON GOING TO YOUR 10 YEAR REUNION? Yep. It's next year, actually.

23. DID YOU HAVE A JOB IN HIGH SCHOOL? Oh yeah. Like most Ward children, I worked at Shopko. I was a Customer Service Specialist in Housewares.

And that's it!!! I tag anyone who reads this. I'm usually very nice about not tagging anyone, but if you make it this far, then you're tagged. Take THAT!

I've converted

To google reader.

I've changed my blog roll on my side bar. It's back to normal links. This makes that list on the side about half as long. But now I get to see when everyone has updated in google reader.

I'm thinking of doing some other updates to my side bar. Maybe some photos or something... I also want to change my banner image. Any suggestions?

Pereception

Ok, Katey forwarded the video to me and it was very interesting. Take a look...



It was just too good to not post!

A voting confession

Ok, here's the truth... I wasn't gonna vote. I don't like either candidate very much and think we're not better off either way. So I wasn't gonna vote. Then Sunday, I was listening to church music, and one of the stations has this feature where a this guy tells a story, shares a scripture, and then gives some sort of spiritual message. Sometimes the messages are really corny and I go to the other Sunday music station. Well, last Sunday, I only caught the very tail end of the message, and it was about voting.

The end of the story he told was about the Boston Tea Party. The Bostonians were smuggling in tea from somewhere else that was more expensive than the tea coming from England. But the point wasn't the cost of the tea, it was the taxation without representation, and that was the message they sent when they tossed all that tea overboard. They would rather pay the more expensive price for the smuggled tea than not have a voice in their taxes and how they were governed. Then he said only about half of U.S. citizens voted in the last election. That's half of us that let other people decide our fate and gave up our right to representation. And that was what Lucifer's plan was. To take away our right to choose and let him decide for us...

That gave me some perspective. I did some last minute research, and while I may not have been the most informed voter, I still voted. See?


Hope you voted, too!

My spooky Halloween story

Ok, so I'm not the kind of person to talk about scary stuff or to dwell on ghosts or spooky things like that. I do, however, get on scary movie kicks now and then, but usually regret it. (Jason, remember that one movie where the werewolf flipped off a guy?) As a kid, I liked scary stories and even made my parents buy a few of those R.L. Stine books, including various volumes of the Goosebumps series. In short, I love Halloween and on occasion, I like to be scared.

So on the way to work last Friday, I was listening to 101.9 The End after hanging up on the phone with Hayley, and the were taking calls of listeners who were telling their creepy ghost stories. Some of them were really disturbing, some funny, and others just spooky. I was totally hooked. On top of that, Hayley had pointed out the sunrise and it was very fitting for All Hallows Eve, with lots of whispy clouds in the sky, and the rising sun turned them red, orange, then pinkish, but kept enough cover that it was still dark outside. The scene was perfect, so when I got to work early, I decided to stay in the car and continue to listen to the ghost stories. I was freaking myself out a little, and even watched our un-finished third floor for any suspicious movement.

By the time the next commercial came on, I hadn't seen any apparitions, and resigned to my fate of working the rest of the day. I left my car even with the joking thought that I shouldn't be so intrigued by scary stories or some spook would follow me around! Well, once I got to my desk, I was again creeped out. My mouse was off the desk just hanging by the cord, my tissue box was shoved behind the two monitors on my desk (it is usually on the shelf above), some books and binders I usually keep propped up and on the right side of the shelf were scattered or lying on the left side of the shelf, and some papers I haven't touched in months were out of order and on top of the books. My desk was in a mild state of disaray. I'm farely certain it wasn't the cleaning crew. They never touch my stuff, and have even left cash on my desk untouched before. I have seen them more than a few times lately on the nights I've worked late, and I sorta trust 'em. It was definately freaky.

So what do you think? Did I actually get haunted by a ghost that left the radio, but didn't really have enough time to cause total rucous? Or were some people at work messing with my stuff? Whatever the truth is, I think it was quite fitting for it to happen on Halloween, right after listening to 30 minutes of ghost stories. :)

I'm such a loser

Ok, I haven't really haven't said a whole lot (on my blog) about how I'm doing on my biggest loser competition. I'm sort of looking at it as an investment in weight loss. So how's my investment going?

I've lost 49.2 pounds.

That's right. And this week was a great week. This week alone I lost 7.4 pounds. Some of you might know from my facebook status that I've added P90X to my repertoire. Between that and Weight Watchers, I think I've got a great shot at winning my biggest loser contest!

So that's the update. Keep rootin' for me!

The near death of a salesman...

This week has been a very busy week of work and a very cruddy one. I'm about ready to kill a sales rep. And his manager. Could they save just a few more GIGANTIC details for the last minute? Maybe ignore the project just a little longer, then tell me we need to change every graphic I've used so far? Or even add a huge graphics project that also takes the graphic designer and the marketing manager's time, then give me the assignment to write a description about it? Even though it's not finalized? Yeah, I can do that. And that ain't the half of it. sonsa bitches...

Things have been so stressful, I've even resorted to listening to Classic 89.1 on the drive home to calm down about it.

But today when I got to Hayley's, all that bull got swept away when she kissed me. I'll tell ya, that stinkin' sales rep and his manager don't even know how lucky they are. If Hayley wasn't there to calm me down, I might just kill them. With my bare hands.

Ok, I know all the crap I have to do tomorrow hasn't magically disappeared, and I'll still have to get it all done by Friday, it's still nice to come home (...while it's not my house just yet, it's still home) to someone who helps me calm the freak down and feel ready to take on the next day.

Our (faux) wedding announcements

Ok, obviously Jared has too much time on his hands. While I'm impressed with the photoshop skills (...probably illustrator skills, right?), it's still funny that you'd find time to put this together.

Everyone, I'd like to show you the wedding announcements we'd use if Jared was in charge.


Oh, and for the record, our cars are silver, not gold. Sheesh, get it right.

I ate a snack and I liked it...

Ok, I should start off by saying that I sorta like that "I kissed a Girl" song by Katy Perry. I know I probably shouldn't, but I do... sorta. I like even more that Hayley once misquoted the lyrics once and said, "...the taste of her cherry lip balm" instead of chapstick. I don't think I've let her live it down. :-)

But that said, I don't mind making fun of the song either. And SNL has done it. Check out this video, which includes, "The Less Provocative Songs of Katy Perry."



I think my favorite is "I Have a Pen."

Finally finished!

I don't usually resort to crazy sized fonts, but here goes... my house is finally done!!!!

I'm pretty excited about it. The city has inspected and it's no longer condemned. Sweet, huh? I had my final walk through today. There were a couple of things that need to be fixed, but they'll get that done. They apparently broke one of the lights on the fan in my living room, so they're going to replace that. That means I've got new paint all over, new carpet all over, new fire detectors, and now a new light fixture in the living room. Pretty sweet.

They also have to fix a light in the master bedroom and do some touch up painting. The contractors should be out of my hair entirely by Tuesday or Wednesday next week. My money is on Wednesday, with how long everything has taken, but that's still ok. I'm going to move back in to my place this weekend!!! I'm pretty excited about it. Hopefully the curse of conference weekend bad weather won't be severe enough that I can't get my stuff back in. I'll post pictures and stuff of the new paint and carpet later.

Oh, and thanks Jared and Liz for letting me crash at your place for so long! I'm sure you'll be happy to be rid of me. :-)