.: bistan.net :.

This is where I’m going next Tuesday. Can you guess why?

As a hobbyist photographer, I always want the best picture – especially when my child is performing.  We learned a hard lesson at the preschool open house last year: Don’t get there on time . . . get there very early!  So this year, we did.

Here is a question for the reader(s): Suppose you arrived somewhere an hour early to get a good seat.  You rushed home from work, rushed to change clothes, and had to entertain two small children for that entire hour.  All of that just so you could (hopefully) take some decent photos of your three-year-old child singing carols.  After sitting for 45 minutes (and trying to entertain those two small kids), the room is about 90 percent full.  There are several seats in the back and one seat next to you. A man with a cane sits in the empty seat next to you.  His overweight wife then asks you to give up your seat so that she could sit next to her “handicapped husband”.  What do you do?

Now I certainly have ranted before on this issue.  I hate it when handicapped people attempt to exploit their disability to gain something.  I politely suggested that they sit together in the back, however, the thoughts going through my mind were much more colorful.  Throughout the entire evening, the man kept making remarks to his wife about how sorry he was that she didn’t have a seat and how inconsiderate people can be.  I bit my tongue . . . so hard.  I haven’t had a reason to show anyone at Mackenzie’s preschool the ugly side of Jonathan and I certainly didn’t want to do it at the Christmas Open House.

Should handicapped people have reserved seating at the front when there are clearly no visual or hearing disabilities?  Parking is one thing, but seating is another.  Like you, I may have left my “What Would Jesus Do” bracelet back in the nineties, but I would have given up my seat to a blind or deaf person.  I will not, however, give up my seat to someone attempting to exploit their perceived handicap.  Notice I say “perceived”, because I doubt that toting around a cane makes you handicapped.

So that’s what Jonathan did.  What would you do?

Why is everyone so surprised that Tiger has been cheating on his wife?

Tiger Woods is a human being — a member of the animal kingdom. He has the same non-manogamous desires as a dog or a rabbit or a . . . tiger?

While some humans, in fact, have the ability to demonstrate self-control, the vast majority do not. Let’s take food and exercise for example — 64% of adults in our country are obese. No self-control there. Then there is alcohol, drug, and prescription medication addictions . . . no self-control there. Oh yeah, credit card problems and other money issues . . . no self-control there either. I could go on and on.

And today, over 50% of marriages end in divorce. The vast majority of those divorces are the result of infidelity. On top of that 50%, not all instances of discovered infidelity end in divorce and on top of that, I would bet that a good number of affairs are never discovered. So take the facts above — humans do not possess self-control and infidelity is rampant.

Now add in the temptation factor. Look at rock stars, politicians, and athletes and their groupies/fans/advisors swarming around them constantly. Lots of temptation there. And being on the road constantly away from his family probably didn’t help the situation.

If the math equation isn’t enough so far, add in the clubbing.  There are three reasons to go to clubs — to people watch, to be seen, and to hook up with people.  Enough said.

I’m not condoning his affairs, but seriously people . . . you’re surprised?

Now watch, the media that made him is the same media that will dismantle him. Let’s just hope he can still hit a golf ball after this.

5 - AM wake up
9.1 – miles of running
15.5 – times around the block to make 9.1 miles
80 – minutes it took
4 – minute shower because running made me late
3 – times Tristan was told to not get a warning at school today
13 – mile drive to work
350 – suite number
5 – servers rebooted after 8AM because running made me late
1 – poptart
2 – bottles of water
2 – missed calls
1 – voicemail
4 – napkins to clean up Fred’s spilled coffee
5 – day weekend coming up
79 – messages stuck in the exchange queue because Microsoft sucks
25 – dollars to Amazon for completing a vendor survey
51 – videos encoded and uploaded
7 – sent emails trying to clear up email issues
1000 – things I would rather be doing

I can’t think of many phrases I hate hearing more than “But I just . . .”.

Any sentence that starts with “But” is most likely an argument or a whine.  I don’t want to hear either. If the phrase is injected in the middle of a sentence, the person saying it most likely assumes that you don’t want to do something, yet is still attempting to justify their request.
Argument example:
Homeless man: “Got a dollar?”
Me: “No”
Homeless man: “But I just need . . . ”

Whine example:
Tristan: “Can I stay up 10 more minutes?”
Me: “No”
Tristan: “But I just . . ”

Assumption example:
Law student: “I know you’re at lunch, but I just need . . .”

I really can’t think of an example where you could use the phrase “but I just” in a statement that I want to hear.

“I’m sorry, but I just . . .” (they aren’t really sorry)
“I know I shouldn’t, but I just . . .” (they knew they shouldn’t)
“I don’t mean to interrupt, but I just . . .” (they meant to interrupt)

I initially planned to write more about my least favorite phrase, but I just have better things to do.

This is only my 8th blog post this month.  Sad.

This month, my blog made $65.23.  That’s $141.68 since this blog began on July 15, 2008.  I’m a loooong way from being a professional blogger.  Thanks to whoever is clicking on my amazon links and purchasing stuff.  Also, thanks to those who are clicking on my adsense links.

I uploaded my final C# project tonight.  I am 1/10 of the way towards another masters degree.

I ran 37.2 miles this month, totaling 458.19 miles since I began running in February 2009.  That’s a pathetic average of 35 miles per month.

Hopefully, that chart will start to look more like an upward curve.  Then again, the summer heat is not a runner’s friend.

This fall, I plan to run 4 10Ks, a 13K, and a half marathon — all in preparation for the 2010 Goofy Race at Disney.

That’s enough math for tonight!

The faculty and students at work are currently on spring break, which is great!  I’ve been able to catch up on so much stuff.  On Friday, we are all off.  I seem to work for the only employer that includes Good Friday as a paid holiday.  My plans?  Rip up the cheap flooring in my bathroom and install ceramic tile.  Of course, you will be able to read about the entire experience right here in a few days.  Let’s hope it goes well.

I’m also trying to finish out this stupid C# course.  I have one more project due at the end of the month and then I’ll be one-tenth of the way towards a second masters degree.  I haven’t decided if I want to attempt any courses this summer.  The summer semester is only a month long and I’ll be in Colorado for one of those weeks.  Mercer is sending me to do a presentation at a conference in JonBenet Boulder.  Also, I may ditch the graduate courses over the summer because I really want to upgrade my MCSE from Windows 2003 to Windows 2008.  I have the materials, I just need the time.

If I could just lock myself in a closet for a month with nothing but books and a few computers . . . actually I would probably just waste the time by playing on Facebook and Twitter.

Since I’ve been slightly neglecting this blog lately, I figured its a great time for a life update.  In no particular order:

RUNNING: I ran 4 miles tonight. It’s the longest distance I’ve done since the Disney Marathon, which was almost 3 months ago.  I’m just over a 9 minute/mile pace at that distance.  I have five races scheduled in April/May so I’m really going to be hitting the pavement.  It feels good getting a trophy at the end of a race!

SCHOOL: I turned in my second C# project last weekend.  One more to go and then class number one of masters degree number two will be complete.  Summer semester is going to be rough because it’s less than a month and I have a work trip to Colorado scheduled right in the middle of it.

WORK: Work sucks lately.  I just hate being there.  Our worthless marketing guy is trying to take over technology and my boss doesn’t like to fight the political battles.  On top of all of that, four years of doing the same things is getting boring.  There is no chance of advancement in my current job and my boss doesn’t support formalized training (even when it’s free).  I would really like to get my expired CCNA back (which wouldn’t cost the University anything but time), but the boss believes that if you train someone, they will leave.  I’m not knocking my boss.  He’s a great guy both in and out of work, but I need challenges!!!  I would go for the CCNA outside of work, but I don’t have time.  I do have a 5 day weekend beginning tomorrow, so maybe I’ll be re-energized by Wednesday.  If things don’t improve over the next few months, I may jump into the job market.

TRAVEL:  Yes, we are hitting the road again Sunday.  Back to Disney World.  As annual passholders, we can book the value rooms for next to nothing.  Apparently though, too many of them have been booked, so someone from Disney called me today and gave us a free upgrade to one of the Deluxe Villa Resorts (Old Key West).  It should be a great weekend.

TELEVISION: LOST is really slow-moving this season.  Some questions are being answered, but there’s not much new.  I’m ready for more action.  24 is pretty much the same old thing.  Some [insert hostile county]ian terrorists plan to detonate a [insert WMD type here] weapon in the U.S. and Jack is going to save the day.  Been there, done that.  The best part of the entire show is Chloe!

So it’s Thursday.  Smack in the middle of Cherry Blossom week here in Macon Georgia.  You would think important stuff would be going on here.  Think not.  Take a look at the most viewed stories on macon.com:

I mean, I could understand if he was stabbed over a sirloin. Or maybe a chicken leg. Or even one of the free scoops of cherry ice cream they are giving out downtown. But a waffle?

Six years ago when we got married and moved into this house, we did what was pretty normal at the time: we got a telephone line.  From the time the line was turned on, we were inundated with calls for the P… family.  I’m guessing that they had our number before it was assigned to us.  

My first clue was that Georgia Power wouldn’t let us use our new number to have power turned on for our address, because the number was associated with a delinquent account.  After that, it was credit card companies and even Gillead Christian Academy (a local extremely conservative private school).

Joel and Sonja P… are the main culprits and their son Jonathon gets almost as many calls.  Here is how the conversations for Jonathon would usually go:

Bill collector: “Hello. Is Jonathon there?”
Me: “This is Jonathan.”
Bill collector: “My name is blah blah and I’m calling about the money you owe me blah blah.”
Me: “I’m sorry, you have the wrong number.”

Do you think the bill collectors bought it?  Of course not!  Once they confirm there is a Jonatha/on here, they think I’m changing the story when I tell them they have the wrong number.  So here we are, six years later, still getting harassing calls for the P… family.  

So how am I smarter than the bill collectors and why all of this tonight?  Using my common sense approach to researching on the internet, I’ve found them all.  Joel works (or worked) at the local Honda dealership, Jonathon is currently in the Marine Corps and Sonya (and possibly the others) attends a baptist church that is 1/2 mile from my house.  The latter two are on facebook, along with extended family, cousins, etc.  Why can’t the bill collectors use google?  It certainly would increase their recovery rate.

The number actually forwards to my cell phone now — our land lines are long gone — and when this AT&T contract is up in 2011, the number I’m referring to will be gone as well. 

Now, even though hardly anyone reads this blog, I’m calling these people out.  They deserve it after years of telephone calls and dinner interruptions.  I did hold back a little.  I haven’t published their address here.  They moved into their current house (which they paid $84,000 for) in November 2002, about 5 months before I got stuck with their number.  It’s all about research!