I am still using my desk from college.  I suppose when I move again, I’ll need to find a new desk.  My desk is just one of those cheap computer desks that you can get for maybe $50 at Wal-mart.  I could get a new one now, but I certainly don’t have room for it, and besides, my current desk is not worn out.  I really just don’t need a new desk.  In fact, when I move I might just buy “another” desk, not a replacement desk but an additional desk.  I have plenty of computer paraphernalia to fill up multiple desks!

Hey Dudes and Dudettes!

I’ve missed you all in the past couple of weeks.  But not too much, as I was exploring a new country and having a fantastic time away from home.

Most of you are probably aware that I had some trouble with this site while I was gone.  But if you’re not, I’ll still forgive you.

I took oodles of photos - conservatively, I would guess there are around 7-8,000.  Obviously I’ll have to spend the next few days/weeks sorting through all the photos and picking out which ones are good.  Then I’ll post them on here for ya.

I was quite surprised, but I must admit that I enjoyed the vacation, however short, from this website and my email.  Our vacation went so so so well.  We were with a fantastic tour, and it was amazingly stress free.  Just no worries at all.

I did get free internet (30 minutes per day) at one hotel in Killarney, Ireland, during which time I discovered the troubles with my site.  I attempted to repair the problem and changed the theme to that (boring) default Wordpress theme.  In spite of my efforts, I think I lost the payments for a handful of posts.  Oh well!

Today I have done everything possible to avoid returning to work.  It’s just so nice being away!

I’m back now, though, and I am attempting to resume posting on this site at nearly the same frequency as before.  We’ll see how that works out - it will be busy!

Anyway, see ya later, doods!

For the past week or so, I’ve been using Johnson and Johnsons Clean & Clear Acne Clearing Facial Cleanser with benzoyl peroxide.  It’s been great, no complaints.

Tonight, I was scrubbing my face, as usual, when I poked myself in the eye (accidentally!!!), with a finger-full of benzoyl peroxide.

It wasn’t too horribly painful, but of course I held my eye open and held my eye under the faucet for a few uncomfortable minutes.

Now, a couple of hours later, I still have a kind of achy feeling behind my eye.

So I’m wondering… is it possible to pull a muscle in your eye??

I’ve made a lot of friends in my life.  That’s not a surprise, since I’ve known a lot of people in my life.

Some of my friends were not good friends.  You all know the type - they were only friends with me so that they could copy my homework, or because they enjoyed being cruel to me.

Some of my friends were only friends for a season.  We went to the same high school, or we had a class together in college, or we worked together.  When that season ended, we parted ways and lost contact.

Some of my friends have stayed in touch, but just barely.  We send an email or make a phone call every six months, whether we need it or not.

Some of my friends have lost contact entirely.  After a period of weeks or months passed, they or I made an internet search and sent an email or phone call.  We’ve resumed contact and now we happily talk often.

Only a few - two, to be specific - of my friends are life friends.  One I have known since I was seven and the other since I was eight.  I trust those girls like no one else.  They are soul friends, and I am blessed every day because I know them.

I am perplexed by this last type of friend.  I am always joyful when I am reunited with an old friend.  That’s why I am perplexed by old friends who reject efforts to resume contact.

Tonight I saw an old friend online.  We went to college together, where we were good acquaintences.  He was the boyfriend of a friend of mine, and we remained friends after they broke up.  We talked periodically, and due to my living situation, I usually went with him to the basement of his dorm during severe storm warnings.  I’ve seen him signed onto MSN Messenger several times previously, and I’ve im’d him, just to say hello and see how he is.  Yet I never get a response.

Friends can be so strange.

I’ve discovered the “boss rating” website I was looking for.  It’s called glassdoor.com.  You have to post a rating before you can have full access to all the other ratings, which is certainly easy enough.  It has all kinds of employers - everything from major corporations, to websites, to retail stores.  It’s also quite user friendly and easy to navigate.  The whole idea of it is excellent - employees can anonymously post reviews about their employers.  You can write what’s positive or negative about the job.  It’s a great resource for job hunters.

Yesterday I started using Johnson & Johnson’s Clean and Clear acne cleanser.  So far I’m not super impressed.  My neck, in particular, has begun to itch incessantly (not a surprise, since I use the cleanser in the shower and it rinses down my neck).  I’m not yet seeing a dramatic improvement in my acne, and if this itch continues, the cleanser will have to go.

I’ve talked about this before, but I’m toying the idea of picking up a journal again.  I’ve journaled a lot over the years, but put down my journal when I returned from Africa and haven’t picked it up since.  Tonight, though, I have a crazy urge to write about a dream I had.  Now, here’s the complicated part: I haven’t decided yet if I am comfortable with writing about this dream on my blog.  I want to remember it - though in fact, I suspect it won’t be difficult to remember.  It was an unbelievably vivid and personal dream.  I can’t decide if I want to share it online - or, for that matter, if you’ll be comfortable hearing about it.  What do you think?

I strongly suspect that, at the end of the summer, I will need to get a job to replenish my savings.

Because of my current amount of training, as well as the amount of time and energy I will have for this job, I strongly suspect that I will need to get the type of job that requires very little education.  You know what I’m talking about - the kind of jobs we all had to work during the summer when we were in high school.

I’ve had both good and bad experiences with these jobs, directly related to the managers.  Several years ago, I worked at a Fazoli’s restaurant.  My manager was named Dana Likely, and he was easily the best manager I’ve ever had.  Working with Dana was fun and encouraging.  He made the work fun.  He’s since been promoted within the Fazoli’s corporation, and he absolutely deserved it.

On the other hand, about a year ago, I worked at an Office Depot.  I have nothing positive to say whatsoever about my manager at that store.  I won’t name him here, since this is a public blog, but if you are really dying to know then you can email me or leave a comment.  This man was verbally abusive towards all the employees he disliked, although I felt that I was particularly subject to his abuse.  After I’d been there six weeks, he made an inappropriate comment to me, and I’d had it.  I walked out on the spot.  It’s the only time I’ve ever walked out of a job.

Of course, if I have to get another job like this, I would hope for a situation similar to the one I had at Fazolis, and try to avoid a situation similar to the one I had at Office Depot.  So I’ve been looking for a website that offers boss or manager ratings.  I’ve seen rating websites before for things such as “rate my landlord”, “rate my neighbors”, “rate my doctor”, and so on.  But I don’t know where to go to find a good “rate my boss” database.  Any suggestions?

I feel so fried today.

First of all, I am exhausted.  I hardly got any sleep last night - between all the commotion with the power outage and the sleep cycle change, I lay in bed awake for most of the night.  When I did get to sleep, it definitely wasn’t that deep, restorative sleep - just fitful tossing and turning.  There was periodic thunder throughout the night, which certainly didn’t help my quest for sleep.  When the lights came back on at 6:30 this morning, our house lit up and I got out of bed.

Now I am attempting to work on my code.  For several days now, I’ve been working through a PHP tutorial of how to design a wordpress theme.  All was going well until today.  I copied, pasted, and typed everything, exactly as the tutorial directed, and something’s wrong.  There’s a syntax error on line 74, which may also be an ansi/unicode error.  I have no idea how to fix it, and it’s incredibly frustrating.

So, between the exhaustion and the frustration, I just feel totally blah.  Maybe I need to take a nap.

We had another storm last night.  We also had another power outage last night.  Yippee…

So, with no power, our internet didn’t work (because the router and modem need constant power) and our computers didn’t work anyway.  We pulled out our handy “blackout” radio, a radio that picks up the audio on television frequencies, so that we could still listen to the news.

We pulled out all our candles and created a “soft light” zone around our dining table.  Hint: Tealights are fantastic for blackouts.  If you need to carry the candle with you, though, put a votive candle inside a baby food jar or votive holder.

Anyway… we played several rounds of Skip-bo by candlelight.  Then, when the news was over, we went to bed - because frankly there was nothing else to do!  It really makes me understand how and why people slept so much more before they had electric lights!

Yesterday was so busy.  I’m quite sorry that I was never able to blog yesterday, but I had so much fun researching. (Yes, researching.  I’m quite the nerd!)

My local library has just recently opened a newer, larger genealogy center.  The Midwest Genealogy Center began many years ago in the basement of the North Independence branch of the library.  Many books were donated to the genealogy center, and acquisition of the census records of 1900-1930 led to exponential growth.  The library built another building near the North Independence branch which served them well for many years.  However, as they have continued to grow, they outgrew this building and have built an even larger, stand-alone building.  They have an unbelievable amount of genealogical information in this new building.

Yesterday, my pastor’s daughter (Abbie), my mother, and I went out to lunch together and spent the afternoon researching at the new MGC.  It was an amazing and productive afternoon.  We were not even able to access the entire collection, because the microfilm and microfiche information has not yet been organized, but we still learned a neat amount of new information.  I spent a great deal of the time researching marriage and death records for my father’s side of the family.

I am looking forward to more wonderful hours at this library.  The microfilm collection includes a myriad of census records, and getting into that will be lots of fun.  Hopefully I will also have a chance to share the things I have learned with you.  It’s really amazing, and tons of fun to research.