Protection From Protectors

As I was signing on to Blogger to write this post, I was blocked by my web filter.  This is particularly weird because I've had the web filter in place for a while now and it has never blocked me from signing onto my blog ever before.  Not only that, once I had signed on to unblock the site, I had to unblock it again a couple times more before I could start typing.

I recognize that there are probably (almost certainly) blogs out there with content that I want to avoid.  Having the filter be aware of that is helpful and the reason I have it.  Not having it recognize the same site that I just gave permission to seems like an error on the program's part.  Even so, I suppose that I would rather it be overly protective than fail to do its job at all.

In an odd way, this reminds me of Edward Snowden.  He made a big move, at least in his mind, to protect Americans' privacy, doing what he thought was necessary for the greater good.  The difference of course is that in leaking classified information, Snowden put a lot of people's lives at risk, while my web filter simply annoyed me for several minutes.  He made a moral decision and then fled the consequences; if he really believed in what he did, he would stand trial and make his case.

Just as with my web filter, I think that most people would rather be safe and slightly annoyed than to be put in danger.  Yes, freedoms our important and whenever our freedoms are threatened we the people should work hard to stop it from happening.  That doesn't mean we should put other people's lives at risk or run from the consequences of our actions.

Shorties 3

As a refresher, here are parts one and two.

The March of Progress
In preparation for some of my upcoming interviews, I bought a new flash drive so I could more easily print files at local business that provide that service.  The last flash drive I had was the size of a small pack of gum and had a storage capacity of 256 MB (which I never even came close to filling up).  This new one is the size of my thumb from the tip to the first knuckle and holds 8 GB.  I'm also pretty sure that that this new one is cheaper than the last one, too.

Just a Little Off the Top
To further prepare for interviews, I got a haircut this week.  I went to a nearby barber that I think mostly caters to older men (based on both the customers and the employees), but I figured that a basic business haircut wouldn't be too hard.  While I would have preferred it a bit shorter, it looks fine.  One weird thing, though: he cleaned up my right sideburn, but completely shaved off left one.  I guess he forgot halfway through?

Everybody's Doing It
I went running yesterday, as per usual, and I was pleased to see at least half a dozen people running on the same route.  It was nice to see that other people in my neighborhood enjoy one of the same activities that I regularly enjoy.

Handcrafted
Being that I am working to save money where possible, I made chicken soup on Wednesday.  I had already saved the bones of three whole chickens in the freezer so I could make stock whenever, which I did on Tuesday.  To the stock I added sauteed onions, garlic, and celery, chopped carrots, chicken, and parsley, and finally egg noodles.  I'm not even a big fan of soup, but homemade soups (regardless of the chef) seem to hit the spot for me.

Busy Weekend
On Saturday, I'm attending the temple in the morning to help officiate in baptisms.  We're meeting at the Temple at 7 am, so it's really early for a Saturday, but it'll be worth it.  On top of that, the Ward is having a dinner for the sisters before the Relief Society broadcast that evening and I'll be a server for the event.  Giving up most of my Saturday might normally be a sacrifice, but right now I would simply be selfish if I didn't make myself available.

Fresh Spring

Thank you to everyone that has been offering prayers on my behalf.  Being unemployed is never easy, even in the best of circumstances.

I had my first interview yesterday.  Without going into too much detail, the job is for an actual technical writing position at a construction company that also does some design work.  They seem understanding of my situation and that losing my job was not due to anything in my control.  I feel that I answered the questions well and with the right amount of exuberance to sell myself properly.  My limited experience has also been taken into account.

Now, this was simply an interview, not a job offer, so nothing may come of it, but job offers only come from job interviews, so at least I'm on the right track.

I also have another interview this Friday.  Again, this would be for another technical writing position, but this one at an HVAC manual publisher.  Having options would not be a bad thing.

On top of that, a third recruiter called me, but I was getting ready for the interview and didn't hear my phone that was in the other room.  When I called her back, I just got her voicemail; I'm sure we'll be able to connect today sometime.

I am very grateful to my Heavenly Father who is absolutely helping me out in my time of need. I have had quite a dry spell with regards to my job search, but it seems that I may have found a spring with which to renew myself.

Music (Techncial Writer)

Here's a fun song (with a terrible video) that may not be completely accurate for me, but still hits pretty close.

Making Everything Last

Because of my current state of unemployment, my Bishop suggested that I use the Bishop's Storehouse for some groceries to make my money last a bit longer.  Since I'm no fool, I took him up on the offer.

Now, for those readers that have never used the Bishop's Storehouse, they offer basic food and toiletry items for members in need.  The things that they offer, especially the food, is good quality stuff.  However, you better know how to cook because only a few things are ready to eat, like cereal and peanut butter.  Fortunately, I know how to cook.

Case in point, last night I had my first dinner in quite some time that didn't involve chicken (I'm not complaining that I've been having a lot of chicken, but it is nice to add some variety).  I slow-cooked a beef roast over a bed of sliced potatoes and onions.  In the freezer, for use later on, I have a ham roast and turkey roast (the church likes to provide roasts, apparently).

Prior to utilizing the Bishop's Storehouse, I was doing what I could to cut costs by shopping at particular places and buying as much as I could in advance.  There have been a couple of times when money was tight, but I didn't need to go shopping again because I had stocked up.

I hope this period of unemployment is short-lived, but for now it's nice to know that I'm making what have last as long as possible.

Peace ... through Vegetarianism?

I recently wrote about a bumper stick that I've seen quite a bit.  Today, I want to write about a bumper sticker that I've only seen once. I wish I could remember the exact wording of the sticker, or at least find a copy of it online, but I only remember the gist of it.  It was something along the lines of "I'm doing my part for world peace by being a vegetarian."  When I read that, I laughed out loud.

I'm no stranger to people with left-wing agendas (or right-wing ones, for that matter) proudly stating their outrageous claims via bumper stickers, but this one was still pretty outlandish.  From my understanding, the owner of the vehicle was claiming that meat-eaters are more violent than vegetarians because violence to animals leads to violence to humans.  Just like people argue that violent music, violent movies, and violent video games lead to violent behavior, even though a connection between them has never been proven.  I am not advocating partaking in violent media, but one does not automatically lead to the other.

That's also forgetting that one of the most evil people in history, the one person that everyone can get behind as being a bad dude, was a confirmed vegetarian.  Yes, I'm talking about Adolf Hitler.  A man who committed countless atrocities against his fellow human beings stopped eating animals for the final years of his life.

My point to all of this is that extremism tends to lead to bizarre arguments.  If someone wants to be a vegetarian, fine, good for them, but don't claim that not eating a hamburger makes you superior to me.  I see animals as resources to be used wisely.  I usually only eat meat once a day and, when compared to the average American, I eat a high amount of whole grains and fresh produce.  I also believe that animals should be cared for in humane conditions and killed in a fast, painless way.  I choose to eat food that is good for me, not because it puts me on some moral high-ground.

ADDENDUM:
While preparing for this post, I looked online for the bumper sticker that I saw and, even though I couldn't find the one I was looking for, I found one that was also silly.  It compared eating livestock to eating pets. I think that's silly because I would totally eat cat meat if given the opportunity.  Why is it that eating a cow is okay, but eating a horse is not?  I've heard, as an argument against eating them, that pigs are about as smart as dogs, but why can't we eat dogs?  Squirrels and groundhogs can be pretty cute, but I've eaten them.  And deer are beautiful, majestic creatures that can be quite tasty.  This isn't a "Modest Proposal" type satire, I'm honestly curious.  Leave a comment with your thoughts.

I Need Something With Some Room to Breathe

I'm pretty sure that everyone one knows by now, but I'll post this as a means of making it more official: I lost my job.  It's not as bad as it seems.

First, this has been an incredibly stressful job for me.  I would go as far as saying that this was the most stressful job I've had up to this point in my life.  A lot of that comes from the fact that I didn't get enough direction from my manager, so when I would submit an assignment for her approval, I had no idea if it was what she was looking for.  I thought back to college and how when I would turn in an assignment, especially towards the middle of a semester, I had a pretty good idea of what kind of grade I would receive.  Sure, there were surprises, but after I had a feel for my professor, I could usually know what grade would be on the page when I got it back.  Not with my manager.  After four months, so much of what I was doing was still guesswork.

And that leads to the second reason I was let go, which is that they realized that they need someone with an engineering background.  They thought that they wanted a technical writer (the job was advertised as "Technical Proposal Writer"), but they had just created the position so it turns out that they thought wrong.  It's not really their fault or mine, but it still sucks.

Because the owner felt bad for hiring me and letting me go so fast, they gave me a bonus to help make it easier for me as I look for a job.  In addition to the next paycheck that I have coming anyway, they're giving me three-weeks pay as well as continuing my health insurance until the end of November (and I was instructed that if I haven't found a job by then to let them know and they'll work something out for me to stay covered).  It's still a lousy situations, but they're being generous with the severance package.

I've contacted my Ward's employment specialist and I've gotten in touch with the manager of the temp agency I worked at before RJM to try to get something right away.  I've also already posted my resume on several job boards and I'll continue to add to others as the days go by.

I don't want to make it seem like everything's fine because this is a dangerous situation to be in, but I have faith that this is what needs to happen.  The Lord directed me to move to Maryland so that I could find work and I don't think that it was supposed to be for just a few months.  I have a lot of work to do to find a new job, but I feel strongly that there is a job out there for me.  Maybe a better one, but at the very least a job that can be considered permanent.

Coexist

You've probably seen the above image before, usually as a bumper sticker on the back of a car.  Isn't it a nice message?  We can all live together in peace.

I hate it.

I want to be clear, I do not use the word hate lightly.  I may dislike a lot of things, but I hate very little.  I hate this image and the message associated with it.  The message isn't "We can move past our differences and live together," rather it's "If you think about it, we're really all the same" or at the very least "So many problems arise from different ideas; let's stop fighting over who has the best god."  Obviously, I feel strongly about my beliefs because I actually decided for myself what I believe rather than just going along with what other people were doing.  I earned my faith.

I mostly blame two things for the prominence this image has gotten: ignorance and social pressure.  Ignorance because people see that image and don't bother thinking about it past the most superficial message on the surface and social pressure because people see the bumper sticker and a) think it looks "neat" and b) don't want to look like a douchebag.  I emphasize "look" because who cares what kind of person you actually are, as long as look like a caring person?

This all seems like a new way of saying the message that was at the heart of John Lennon's "Imagine," only more succinct for our shorter attention spans.  As you might have guessed, "Imagine" is a song that I really despise.  It has a beautiful melody that's simple, yet haunting.  Again, if you only half-listen, it has nice message of "stop fighting."  But if you pay even the smallest amount of attention you'll hear that the true message is "we fight because of our differences, so if we got rid of the things that make us different, we won't fight anymore" (which is one of the main philosophies of the Amish).  That's rubbish.  We accept each others differences and choose to not fight.

In the end, it's probably best not to adopt world views based on bumper stickers or songs.

Generation Y

My generation has two labels that are often used interchangeably: Generation Y and the Millennial Generation.  For reasons I don't fully understand, I don't mind Generation Y and I despise the term Millennial.

The term Generation Y originated as the logical follow up to Generation X.  This makes sense to me.  Plus, I like the potential for "Generation Why?" as a play on words.  Millennial sounds much more like it was created as a marketing tool.  "Millennial" sounds "hip" and "cool" and kids will "dig" that "noise."  [Vomits.]  Sorry, that just doesn't open quote jive close quote with me.

Maybe part of the reason I don't like Millennial is because I'm at the beginning of my generation.  Depending on who you ask, Generation Y begins around 1982 (though possibly as early as 1979 or as late as 1983) and ends around 2000, though it's hard for me to think that a thirteen-year-old and I are in the same generation.  The term Generation Y appeared first, back in 1993, and I was exposed to it first.  The term Millennial appeared in, you guessed it, 2000.  I feel that the older term fits better, but it seems to have fallen out of favor.  Being an older member of Generation Y, I think I may be set in my ways.  Millennial sounds too new.  I'm in my thirties and I don't think too many new things apply to me.  Personally, I feel that the generation should be split and Generation Y covers the first half (including me) and the Millennial Generation covers the second half.

Either way, we're not the best group of people.  Based on my readings, Generation Y-ers or Millennials tend to be more narcissistic than previous generations.  We tend to be more tolerant and accepting of others.  We tend not to have strong philosophical views or to be very religious.  Entitlement is a major issue with my compatriots as is procrastination.  We tend to delay both getting married or starting careers when compared to past generations.  We also tend to put a very high value on entertainment.  Anxiety in some form is more prevalent than with previous generations.

Ultimately, I think I like Generation Y better because I adopted the term when I heard it and I feel that Millennial was thrust upon me.  And, as is common among my generation, I don't like being forced into anything.

Day of Service

[A quick update: I did the follow up test on Friday as I said that I would with no reaction whatsoever.  I'm disappointed, but not surprised.]

As I wrote last week, I am the ride for a new member of the ward, Samuel.  I didn't pick him up yesterday because he contacted me ahead of time that he was going out of town to visit someone.  I certainly didn't mind giving Samuel a ride, but a week off wasn't a terrible thing, either.  Well, the Lord recognized that I needed to still serve others and found a way to make up the difference.

Saturday afternoon, I got an email from the Sunday School president asking me to teach the Gospel Doctrine class the next day.  I have plenty of experience teaching Sunday School, but most of that experience has been in either the Primary or the Young Men/Young Women's age ranges.  Teaching people that are my age or older was an entirely different challenge.  Of course, I agreed to teach. (One thing that I think is interesting is that I prepared with the idea that I would ask for lots of class participation, but didn't get as many comments as I hoped for.  Luckily, I was ready to make adjustments and I ended up reading more stories to fill the time.) The class went well and I got a few comments that I did a good job, though I felt that I could have made some improvements.

Later, in Elders' Quorum, one of the members asked if anyone was a fast typist.  We have a deaf fellow who attends the ward and one of the Ward Clerks signs for him for the first two hours, but attends High Priests' Group for the third.  In Elders' Quorum, the deaf member sits next to someone with a laptop and reads the transcription.  I said that I could type quickly and moved into the available seat and started typing.  Now, I should say that the last time that my typing speed was tested (last year some time), it was 50 words per minute.  That's not really fast enough to transcribe someone speaking in real-time, so I had to edit things down.  Picking and choosing what to type and what words to quote what to paraphrase and what to skip was rather nerve-wracking.  By the end of the meeting, the back of my shirt was wet because I was sweating so hard.  The brother (I never learned his name, unfortunately) that I was typing for shook my hand and made it clear that he appreciated my effort to include him in the lesson.

I know that service is an important part of life and as we work to lift others up, we end up on a higher level as a result.

Results: Inconclusive

I had my latest allergy test recently to determine if I'm allergic to naproxen sodium.  The short answer is no, I'm not.  [Annoyed grunt]!

I went to my allergist's office with the same bottle of naproxen that I used when I last reacted.  He took out a tablet, broke it in half, and and had me chew and swallow one half of it.  I then sat in the examination room while reading an ebook for about ten minutes.  He came back and checked on me, saw that I wasn't reacting, and had me chew and swallow the other half.  The reason for chewing it was to speed up absorption and potentially trigger a reaction faster.  After another ten or fifteen minutes, he came back to check on me.  Still nothing.  He sent me home, telling me to call him if I had any sign of a reaction, which I didn't.

While I guess I should be pleased that I didn't have to deal with another allergic reaction, I'm frustrated that I still don't know what sent me to the hospital.  That means that I could have a reaction at any time because I don't know what's causing it, so I can't prevent it.  The naproxen would have been easy.  Easy to avoid, but I would have to avoid all painkillers because they all fall into the category of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug or NSAID.  If I react to one NSAID, I'll probably react to all of them.  Honestly, I would take not being able to fight headaches or muscle aches if I could know what I'm allergic to.  I really thought this was the trigger.  With this removed from the picture, there's no pattern to my reactions, except that they seem to always occur right after a meal, but never the same meal.

Just to make sure, my allergist told me to take two tablets orally tomorrow afternoon, to see if I react.  I'm not expecting anything, but I'll follow through with the order.

Didn't Give Up

Last week was a particularly tough one at work.  There were a lot of things due all at once, plus I had to cover for one of my coworkers who was on vacation.  Add to that my allergy medication was really making it hard to think clearly with how drowsy it was making me.  This caused me to make multiple errors with preparing documents and getting them out to our clients.  At one point, my boss said that my performance was so bad that she wondered if I was "daydreaming" instead of working.  It was these words that convinced me to stop taking my allergy meds; I had already been thinking about it, but this was what I needed to push me to do it.

On Friday, everything came to a head.  I arrived at work unmedicated, worked through lunch, and even stayed nearly two hours late to get everything out on time.  When everything was said and done, my boss said that she respected the fact that I never gave up during the recognizably difficult week.

This reminded me of one of the few time that I was fired from a job.  A little over a year ago, I worked for about two months as a telemarketer.  I am uniquely terrible at sales: I recognize the agency of the customer and, while I try to convince them to buy the product I'm selling, I will take "no" for an answer.  Anyway, the reason I was fired from this job was because I wasn't producing the necessary numbers needed to remain employed.  On my exiting interview, my manager assured me that I was being let go not for a lack of effort, just a lack of results.  Looking back, I think I was one of the few people he ever had to fire, because most people quit when they saw how hard the job was (every week, a half-dozen or so people started and by the end of the week, only one or two remained).  I was bad at my job, but I was never going to stop trying: I had to be forced.

Now I have a job that, while not perfect, is far and away the best job I've ever had.  If I didn't give up on one of the worst jobs ever, I'm not going to give up on the best.

Good Intention, Poor Execution

Last Sunday, there was a new member that came to my ward for the first time.  His name was Samuel and he had just moved to the area from Mexico, though he's originally from Nigeria.  He wanted to come to Church, but had no transportation.  I volunteered to be his ride for the foreseeable future.  I had been thinking that my life was missing a means of offering service on a regular basis, and then this opportunity presented itself very soon after.  I recognize Heavenly Father's hand when I see it.

Anyway, I had his address and a new GPS unit (thanks, Mom and Dad!), so I didn't bother looking up where his apartment was.  Well, I had forgotten to charge the unit before I left the house and I don't have a car charger for it yet, so the unit died.  (I should probably also mention that I was driving from Ian and Amanda's place, since I'm house-sitting for them this weekend).  Before the unit died, I had made it to my last freeway exit, but in an area that I had never been to before, though it's not too far from my apartment.  After thinking about what to do, I called my folks, explained the situation, and asked for them to look up my location online to help me out.  They were very kind and helped get me to where I needed to be and gave me directions on how to get to Church.  With that done, I hung up and knocked on Samuel's door.

Once back in the car, I immediately made a wrong turn, rendering my directions useless.  Samuel knew the area a little bit and within ten minutes we were on the right freeway and I soon recognized where we were.  We made it just in time for the closing hymn in sacrament meeting.  Drat.

After Church, I got lost again.  I pulled off and asked for help at a gas station.  I had simply gotten on the freeway going the wrong direction, but had driven fifteen minutes or so in the completely opposite direction.  With the new information, we got back on the road and soon I was able to get Samuel home without further trouble and made it back to the Larsens' on the first try.

Samuel was very appreciative and never said anything negative about my complete lack of direction (which I'm sure Allison can vouch for).  With all of the driving I did today, I think I can make it back to Samuel's apartment without needing directions, but I'll charge the GPS unit for next time, just in case.