MadMup.com

Make it a good day!

-SooAnn

I got that at the bottom of an email from my friend SooAnn a couple of weeks ago. I think the email was about setting up pictures for contacts on her Blackberry, I'm not sure. What struck me was that it wasn't "have a good day" or "hope your day's good," it was "(implied 'you') make it a good day." I determine how my day will be based on my actions and reactions. It's kind of a Carpe Diem kind of thing, and makes you want to march around your prep school's yard and stand on your desk.

It's a good reminder.

Labels: it's been said

2 comments

My brother sent these cards along to me yesterday, drawn by my nephew (6 years old) and niece (4). As I understand the procedure, the kids draw and/or write, the results are scanned, and then the scanned pics are fiddled with in Photoshop according to the wishes of the specific kid.



This one is by my nephew, and he's very aware of the cat situation at my place, i.e., that there are some. I believe the mouse is intended to be a gift to the cats for my birthday. The Photoshop filters used are his current favorites.

Natalie has chosen to write her birthday greetings to me, with translations by my brother. He swears these are word-for-word translations, and he's pretty sure that the "I hope you deserve something" in the lower right corner means she wants me to get presents and isn't some sort of judgment call on her part. William Munny would tell her "Deserve's got nothin' to do with it," but I still appreciate her intent.

Thanks, kiddos!

Labels: birthday, family

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525,600 minutes, 525,000 moments so dear.
525,600 minutes - how do you measure, measure a year?
In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee.
In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife.
In 525,600 minutes - how do you measure a year in the life?

525,600 minutes! 525,000 journeys to plan.
525,600 minutes - how can you measure the life of a woman or man?
In truths that she learned, or in times that he cried.
In bridges he burned, or the way that she died.

How about love? Measure in love. Seasons of love.

-Excerpted from "Seasons of Love"

I was given another year, and my memory doesn't allow me to remember everything that took place in it. The things that stay with me are the relationships built and friendships made. I wasn't always so good at everything this last year, but I have good friends, and that makes for a good year. Thanks everyone. I look forward to this next year.

Comic courtesy of PBF Comics, which aren't necessarily always something I'd recommend.

Labels: birthday, songs

8 comments

Today is New Boss Day at work. The boss that hired me retired last October, and we've had an interim boss since then. Today's the first day for the new fellow.


I can't speak for the rest of the people in my department, but I'm a little nervous. I like things to stay the same, and it's pretty much a sure thing that they won't. There's been rampant speculation on what might change, but no one knows exactly what will happen until it happens. We're meeting as a department tomorrow, so I imagine we'll at least get a partial picture of things to come.


Getting a new boss is trickier business than getting a new job, I think. When you get a new job, you know things will be different. With a new boss, you're more in limbo, unsure of what's going to happen next.


When I was the Director of Student Activities at the college I worked, I made a pretty big change my second year, one that required meeting with the President of the college several times, along with a few other higher-ups. It took a lot of convincing, but they eventually let me implement my ideas. What was the main impetus behind the change? My getting hazed seven years prior as a freshman in that same college. When students joined a society (kind of the small Baptist college version of fraternities and sororities, sorta...), there was one big night where the new members were inducted. Whereas it had once been a fancy affair with dinners and whatnot, by the time I was in college it had become a "throw eggs at the new person and yell at them" kind of thing. It left a bad taste in my mouth, and for the next seven years I noticed every bad thing about the current society set up that there was, and used them as my supporting arguments for change. I got the Dean of Men on my side and let him run with a lot of the details, and together we put together an alternative that focused more on helping people than throwing eggs at them and making them do push-ups.


You never know how something like that will work out, but they're still using that system now, almost ten years later. My brother works at that college, and tells me that there's good and bad with the system, and there've been some tweaks to it here and there, but it still seems to be working fairly well. I know that's got nothing to do with me, but it does serve as a reminder that sometimes change is okay.


I'll let you know in ten years how this one ended up.

Labels: change, job

3 comments

With thanks to bd for the image.

Labels: videogames, Wii

3 comments

Twitter saves lives.

So maybe more of you should join up. I worry!





(Thanks, Cousin Laura!)

Labels: technology, texting, twitter

2 comments

Thanks to everyone who entered my Fifth Year Anniversary Contest. I think maybe I'd have gotten more responses had I offered a new car or Wal-Mart gift cards instead of Star Wars DVDs and MadMup.com gear. Something to keep in mind for the next contest, I guess.

The actual numbers are as follows: 675 blog entries and 72 articles written for DEN. I don't know whether to be surprised or disappointed or proud of those numbers, but there they are.

The surprising thing is that the closest guess was only 2 off! My Oregon friend Bonnie guessed 673, and she was so confident of her guess that she didn't even put in a tiebreaker guess. Her gamble paid off! Bonnie, contact me about whether you'd like the Star Wars DVDs or some MadMup.com gear!

In second place was "The Obscure," whose identity is known only by a select few. Once Bonnie lets me know her choice, I'll let him know what his guess of 700 has earned him.

Thanks again for participating, and thanks for reading. You're always welcome back.

Labels: contest

2 comments

It was five years ago today that I started this blog. I wish my first entry was something memorable and different from all the other first entries to blogs, but it isn't. I remember wondering if the thing would even work and if I would ever do anything with it. Here I am, five years later, desperately clinging to some sort of misguided hope that this blog will turn me into some kind of writer.

In Internet years, five is an eternity - All Your Base gives way to Badgers gives way to Dramatic Prairie Dog gives way to who knows what else. It turns out that five years in "real" life is a long time, too. So much has changed in the last five years that it's hard to grasp it, really.

I don't believe any current reader of my blog has read through all five year's worth - and I'm not suggesting anyone take the time to do it now! - but take a look at the posts on the left under the heading "Some Favorite Posts" to see what I've enjoyed writing, if you're so inclined.

To mark (ha!) this grand occasion, I've decided to hold another contest:

How many posts have I written for this blog? This is kind of a trick question, because you won't be able to go back through and count them and get the right answer. I have written some/many/several entries that are not posted, were posted then removed, or have not been posted yet. I am going by the number listed on my Blogger Dashboard, so no one but me has any idea what it is.

Tie-Breaker: How many reviews/articles have I written for DEN? I've been writing for that site for four years now (even though I'm currently extremely behind on an article), and have enjoyed that as well.

So, leave your guesses in the comments. The person who guesses closest to the actual number will win either a set of DVDs of Episodes IV-VI of Star Wars, or something from the MadMup.com store - winner's choice. Second place winner will get whatever the first place winner didn't want. The contest closes at 7:00 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, 4/24/2008.

EDIT: Since it's been asked a couple of times, let me clarify: it's just "closest," not "closest without going over." I couldn't get Bob Barker or Drew Carey to help out, so that's how we're rolling.

EDIT #2: The Star Wars DVD set is Region 1, so a winner outside of the US or Canada will have to be happy with MadMup.com gear.

Thanks for reading. I recently registered the domain name for another five years. I'm curious to see what they'll hold.

Labels: contest, meta

16 comments

Africa Edition!

• There are palm trees and coconuts in Africa.

Now, that might seem like a silly thing to you, but it was a revelation to me. It wasn't that I had decided on my own that there were no coconuts in Africa, it was more along the lines that I had not considered it and, when confronted with the idea, came to the idea that there were no palm trees in Africa.

I guess it's because I associate palm trees with tropical climes, and I, like so many others, think of Africa as being mostly desert. The biggest hole in that way of thinking is that "Africa" isn't like "Indiana" or "Texas" or even "The United States." Africa's a whole continent, second only to Asia in area, so it's crazy to not think that there'd be, you know, more than one climate represented.

I learned this new-to-me information from a girl (she's younger than me, so she's girl) who grew up in Africa, but is currently a part of our class at church. She's been a font of knowledge on the subject of Africa, and usually delivers it with a "How in the world do you not know this?" look that does a good job of reminding me that there's a lot I don't know, and some of the stuff I do know, I don't actually know correctly.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, lions aren't a common backyard nuisance in Africa like stray dogs are here. So that's two things I've learned.

Labels: things I've learned

3 comments

Pledge drives produce conflicting feelings in me, and I can't be the only one. I'm talking specifically about the pledge drives that radio stations do, as I rarely run across the TV ones, and even more specifically about a station here in town. I realize that non-profit stations need to raise money somehow, but there has to be a better way, doesn't there?

Most of the chatter they do to try to convice you to chip in can be pretty much summed up in the last thing Kramer says in this quote from an episode of Seinfeld entitled "The Pledge Drive":

Nana: Hello, I'd like to speak with Jerry. This is his grandmother.

Kramer: Oh, uh, Nana. Hello.

Nana: Tell Jerry I'm sorry, I'm going to have to write him some new checks.

Kramer: As long as you've got your checkbook out, how about forking a little over to PBS? You watch the station, don't you? You don't want to be a freeloader.

Here's this station that I've been sort of nonchalantly listening to when BAM! - pledge drive week. Now, rather than just listening, I'm being confronted with the fact that by not chipping in, I'm being an awful, awful person.

Sure, I realize this sort of thing is a necessity. It's nice to not have to hear commercials all the time, and the people that work at the station should get paid for what they do. In fact, there was a time in my life where I really wanted to work in radio. I still wonder every now and again if I'd have been any good at it. So I can understand that part of it.

But the hassling! These normally friendly people are saying things like "Only 5% of our listeners have donated" and "If you're not a part of this, you're missing out" and all it sounds like to me is a couple of knuckle-cracking thugs looking around and saying, "Nice radio you got here. Be a shame if anything happened to it."

So I'm equal parts ashamed and annoyed, the first because I can't bring myself to donate and the second because I can't bring myself to stop listening to them badger me. I'm some sort of sadistic freeloader, which seems like a contradiction in terms.

The good thing is that the pledge drive is over now. I guess we'll see if there's still a station to listen to in a month.

Labels: grr, Seinfeld

5 comments