Month: March 2011

Life-condensed

Where Will He Go Next?

Karen

This is my oldest nephew. And this is a commercial for the Gowalla app he, and his co-workers, developed for the iPhone.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Where Will You Go?, posted with vodpod


(RSS readers, you’ll have to click over to see the video – sorry!)

Yes Gowalla lovers – my nephew is THE Keegan Jones from Gowalla. 😀 And the guy is only 23!! Actually, he’s 23 TODAY!

Happy birthday, Keegan!

They are constantly doing creative things like this with the company he works with. Wouldn’t that be a FUN job?

I want a job at his company!

I came on the scene when this dude was like one. In fact, me, Kevin and Dude were at Keegan’s seventh birthday party when I was pregnant with Jazz and I remember feeling really weird at his birthday party – just out of sorts. Not in pain, but something felt “off.” My mother-in-law said, “I bet you have that baby soon.”

Jazz was born the next day. (Meaning, Jazz will be 16 tomorrow!!)

We’re so proud of Keegan. He’s turning out to be quite the successful young man.

Do you use Gowalla? Or some other location app on your phone?

I don’t have a fancy phone, so I don’t use anything like this, but I know the programs are quite popular.

(P.S. Ugh. It’s laggy – you might hit the pause button and let it load before watching it. But please watch it – it’s worth it!)

random stuff

Everything’s Amazing and Nobody’s Happy

Karen

Love, love, LOVE this.

I am SO SICK of people feeling like they’re owed something for simply breathing and/or being part of the human race. In some ways? I sort of wish all of our modern conveniences, entitlement programs and cool technology would just disappear and we were forced to go back to the pioneer days.

Can you imagine the sheer panic?? Would people even survive without killing each other?

I honestly wonder.

Work Stuff

Are You Willing to Be the Flexible Parent?

Karen

That was the question I asked Kevin the other day.

“Because if I get this job, I will no longer be flexible. I won’t be able to drop what I’m doing and pick up a sick kid. Or run a kid to the orthodontist. Or run a saxophone up to the school on a Monday morning because a kid forgot to take it. Are you sure you’re willing to take on that role?”

He says he is. I hope he will step up and do what needs to be done if/when the situation arises. He’s been rather spoiled, if that’s even the right way to say it, all of these years when it came to the kids. I’ve been the buffer – I’ve been the one to take care of all things kid related leaving him free to concentrate on his job, on his career. He hasn’t once had to worry about whether the kids were all right, or if they were getting to school, or if they had their lunches … and that’s okay. We each had our own role to play when the boys were growing up – I was perfectly okay with it.

(Though I did sort of resent him a few times – he would get to get dressed up and go work in his fancy office and have adult conversations leaving me at home in sweats and elbow deep in diapers … but then I would think of the stress he had to manage on a daily basis and look at my sweet children’s faces and know in the back of my mind that it wouldn’t always be this way, that I would someday have the opportunity to get back out into the working world and do … whatever the heck I wanted to do with my life and LOOK. Here we are).

If I get this job, I will be unavailable to my family from 8:30 to 5:00, Monday through Friday. I told the company that I would be available, that my family didn’t really need me anymore. I know they will still need me, just not as much as years past.

If I get this job …

I can’t finish that sentence … I don’t have an answer yet.

I went on my THIRD interview yesterday.

I have to say, this has been THE most grueling process I’ve ever encountered in my working life. I’ve been pretty fortunate in that almost every interview (and I can only think of one interview I went on and didn’t get the job), I’ve landed the job. I don’t know if it’s my charming personality, or my ability to BS my way through the answers, but there you have it.

I’ve had it pretty easy.

But this go-around … wow. It’s been, and continues to be, quite a process.

The job I’m applying for doesn’t pay that great. But that’s not the reason I’m going through all of this. I’m doing this because I want to get my foot in the industry door. Maybe, a few years down the pipeline, I’ll find another position that is more in line with what I want to do (and I have no idea what that might be at this point, I’m keeping my options open – though I’m thinking it could possibly have something to do with technical writing if I’m reading the signs correctly), and since most companies hire within first before going to the public, I would have a good chance of landing this fictitious position.

And I’ll be honest. The more I learn about this job, the more I want it. It sounds challenging and interesting and I’m quite certain I would learn a lot working there. It’s in an industry I’m not familiar with, but I’m a fast learner and I always enjoy a challenge.

I wish I could be more specific with you all, but you know the first blogging rule of thumb – don’t write about work. So, I’ll have to keep it pretty generic.

For even if I don’t land THIS particular job, I have applications for other positions within the industry so it’s just a matter of time before I land SOMETHING.

Anyway … in case you’re just tuning in (Hi!), I went on my first interview a few weeks ago. I met with a recruiter whose job was to screen me to see if I was even a plausible candidate not only for the job I was applying for, but for the company in general. I was nervous, but held my ground (even though the questions she threw at me were from left field and I was left dodging and fumbling for a smooth recovery). I could tell she liked me (well honestly, WHO doesn’t? *wink*) and I charmed my way past the gate.

I was in. But where would I end up?

My second interview was with the supervisor and manager of the department I was applying for. Again, I was nervous but I went in with the attitude, “oh well. If it doesn’t work out this time, it’ll work out the next time” and I think that actually helped me. In fact, a little advice for those people out there looking for a job –

You have to CARE, but NOT care at the same time.

How’s that for cryptic?

In other words, be nervous, it’s okay to be a little nervous, it ramps up the adrenaline and keeps you sharp, but if you’re TOO nervous, then you’re likely to flub up and come off as a blubbering idiot. So in some ways, you have to sort of shrug it off and think, “Meh.”

Does that make sense?

At any rate, the second interview went really well. At least, I thought so. I felt like I did a good job answering the questions and I even found some common ground with the two women interviewing me (teenage/grown kids, kids who not only played in band but also played the saxophone, etc). And I left the interview feeling pretty confident – not confident that I had the job, but confident that I was honest with them and that I did my best.

I thought that was it. I thought the next time I heard from them it would be either to say yay or nay.

Not quite.

I got a call Tuesday. When I returned the call, “K”, my potential boss, wanted me to come in for a THIRD interview on Wednesday only this time, to meet and talk with the team – the other women I would be working with if I got the job.

*GULP*

Tuesday night, I AGONIZED over what I was going to wear. I didn’t want to dress too formally because then I might come off as too “good” for them, or a business snob, or whatever. I wanted to fit in. Make it seem like I would be a good fit with the rest of them. Thank God I noticed what other women were wearing at my second interview – smart, business attire. Nothing too formal, but it wasn’t too casual, either.

I went back to the mall.

(Have I mentioned how much I LOATHE the mall??)

I found another pair of slacks (they’re wide legs, which, I’m not sure how I feel about simply because they’ll likely be out of fashion in a few years, but *pfft* since when have I cared about fashion trends – but I bought them because they were super comfy) and tried on several business oxford shirts. I liked one top in particular, but …. $60?!? FOR A SHIRT?? I. Don’t. Think. So.

I ended up finding the same thing (only with french cuffs! I love french cuffs), at JCPenney’s for 1/3 of the price (they were on sale). I bought a black one, a white one, and a tangerine one (thinking that would look killer with tanned skin and black slacks. *snap*).

And when it came to dress for my interview yesterday, I didn’t end up wearing anything I had bought. I wore my same black slacks, and a french blue oxford top that I bought from Old Navy a while back and a white t-shirt underneath it. (Actually, I don’t want to wear any of the new stuff until after I land a job. That way, if it doesn’t work out, I can take everything back. See? Always thinking). I was afraid it was a little too casual, but I went with it.

I arrived right on time (actually, I arrived about twenty minutes early, but I stayed in my car and listened to the radio until about five minutes till) and “K” met me. She took me back to a conference room and had me sit on one side of the table while four women, plus “K” came in and sat on the other side.

I was in the hot seat.

And I said that out loud. Which made them laugh.

Whew. They had a sense of humor.

Each of them asked me a question. Which I sort of fumbled through, and then one of them asked me …

“What goals do you have for your life?”

Now, I COULD have said something smart about wanting to make a career out of the industry I was applying for, but I didn’t. I decided to just keep it honest. I knew they would be able to tell a “bottled” and insincere response, so I simply said …

“I’d like to be published someday. I’m a writer. So it would be fun to see my writing out there. Also? I just want to grow old with my husband, play with my grandbabies.” I shrugged. “I’m a pretty simple woman.”

They seemed to like that answer. For truly, it was an honest answer. I figured, what do I have to lose?

This is me, ladies, take it or leave it.

Even though that interview was by far the hardest and most nerve wracking interview I’ve had to date, I felt like it went okay. I made them laugh several times and I felt like we formed a precarious connection. “K” wanted to see if I would gel with the group as it was very important to her that her team work well together and get along.

“K” told me it was between me and one other person. I had made the top two, hence the reason I was even there to begin with – most people didn’t make it to that stage.

So now I wait. She’s pretty anxious to get the position filled, so I’m hoping for a fast turn around. IF I get the job, then I will have to go through two days of industry orientation before I actually start working at the facility where I applied.

I have mixed feelings about all of this, quite frankly. One part of me is pretty excited because I’m starting a new chapter in my life. I’m looking forward to getting back out into the working world once again and financially contributing to the family.

But one part of me is sad. I’m also closing a chapter in my life. Though I feel very fortunate and blessed that I was able to stay home with the boys while they grew up into young men, they don’t need me around as much. In fact, this will be GOOD for them because they will be forced to take care of themselves. It will also set a good example to them – mom got a job. It’s good for them to see, and hear, me go through this process. The very same process they will be going through very soon.

I think Kevin has mixed feelings about this, too. He would prefer that I stick around the office and grow my website business (which I still plan on maintaining, it’ll just be more of a part-time gig now), but I’m just not disciplined, or motivated enough, to make that happen. And the money is unpredictable. It ebbs and flows and I would prefer to work somewhere where the money is a constant source of income.

This industry has some pretty spectacular benefits, one of which is a tuition reimbursement plan. If/when I land a job with the company, I’d like to take advantage of that and maybe go back to college and work on my Masters degree. Just typing that makes my heart pump faster.

I wasn’t sure I should have even written about this journey. I mean, if I don’t get the job, then … AWKWARD. But you know? It’s going to happen. If not THIS job, then SOME job because now that I’ve walked through the door? I’m ready to find a seat and stay a while.

Abundant Life

Audio Teaching: Highlights from Live Out Loud – Part 1

Karen

by Billy Darr / Kathy Lunardini / Nate Graeser / Josh Anderson
This month’s tape/CD features exciting excerpts from teachings at our 2005 Live Out Loud Teens & Twenties Conference in Augusta, MI. Here’s the lineup: Billy Darr (What God Has Given Us), Kathy Lunardini (How to Stay Fired Up), Nate Graeser (Will You Answer the Call?), and Josh Anderson (Release from Bondage).

Click the arrow to listen.

Check out Truth or Tradition teachings on:

Facebook
Twitter
MySpace
YouTube
iTunes
Amazon

Politics

My Political Observations

Karen

WARNING! Political stuff ahead – skip this post if this stuff drives you nuts. I have no wish to upset people, but I also refuse to stick my head in the sand and not voice my opinion about the crap that’s going on in our country right now, either.

Saw, or rather “heard” this (it’s an audio of a very disturbing meeting) on The Blaze this morning:

Here’s a favorite comment on this story on The Blaze:

Without banks, I would love to see someone that is ready to start a business without backing. Or buy a home without the loan, or get a car, or go to college. These are not the banks fault for providing the money for the people that can’t afford something right now without saving for it, it is the people that buy crap on credit. SNL skit that was awesome with Steve Martin, “If you don’t have the money, Don’t buy sh!t.”

It is sad that people blame those that have a business as being the problem and not the people that are irresponsible for taking the terms in contracts.

I honestly don’t understand how the left can think that money from the private industry somehow belongs to them. It belongs to the private industry. It comes from people who took out loans to buy cars, houses, etc. It comes from people who took out loans to go to school, to do something with their lives, to learn a trade they could make money in and support their families with. People don’t have to take out loans. People could save up money and pay cash for everything. But if people take out loans, they are expected to pay them back. That’s why it’s called a LOAN. And once they pay off their debts, their credit scores go up. And once their credit scores go up, then the banks see them as a safe investment and are more apt to loan them more money at better interest rates because they have proven to be trustworthy and responsible. That’s how the system works AARGH.

People. If you don’t like the banks and interest rates and so forth, then save up your cash and pay cash for the things that you want. DON’T TAKE OUT LOANS. It’s simple, it’s called choice. It floors me that there are some people out there that think other people’s money is THEIR money. How would you feel if I DEMANDED that you give me everything that you’ve worked your ass off for – I didn’t work for it, I don’t know you very well, it’s not mine to take, but WHO CARES! I’m an American citizen, I haven’t worked as hard as you, I haven’t taken advantage of the NUMEROUS programs out there designed to help people like me, I WANT YOUR MONEY SO GIVE IT TO ME.

It’s truly unbelievable.

And I have to ask a question, just WHO is bankrolling these lunatics and their “community organizations?” I think that definitely warrants an investigation, don’t you?

And did you note the bit about stirring up chaos and confusion? That’s how the left work, folks. The more chaos, anger and violence, the better to get what they want because they don’t have a leg to stand on, otherwise. It’s sick.

Now HERE’S a strong African-American leader! I wish this man was our president instead!

This man wouldn’t be afraid to make decisions for the good of our country. I hope he stays in politics long enough to make a serious run for the presidency someday because I’d vote for him.

Democratic Senator Reveals Nearly $300,000 in Unpaid Property Taxes

Any way you slice it, $287, 273 is a lot of money, especially in this economy. For one-term Senator Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., up for re-election in 2012, that’s the amount of personal property taxes she failed to pay since 2007 on a plane she and her husband, a millionaire businessman, partially owned.

“I have discovered that the…personal property taxes on the plane have not been paid,” McCaskill told a small number of reporters on a conference call Monday. “There should have been a reporting to the county of the existence of this airplane…There are people I could blame for this, but I know better. As (a former) auditor, I know I should have checked for myself. I take full responsibility for the mistake.” Audio of the call was sent to Fox by a McCaskill aide and can be found here.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee quickly pounced releasing a video after the senator’s admission showing McCaskill in 2006 telling voters, “If my walk doesn’t match my talk, then shame on me and don’t ever vote for me again.”

I am so sick of this crap!! Politicians are supposed to be leading by example and yet how many stories do we hear, from BOTH parties, of politicians breaking the rules and doing whatever the hell they please? This has GOT to stop, folks. These people need to be held accountable and voted OUT (if not prosecuted!!) the moment they knowingly do something dishonest.

Missouri, if you vote this woman into another term, I’m going to be SERIOUSLY disappointed in you.

Claire McCaskill has GOT to go.


Bill Maher Calls Sarah Palin a Female Vulgarism, NOW Stays Mum

Bill Maher uttered a female vulgarism when referring to former Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin on his HBO show Friday night.

“Widespread sexism in the media is one of the top problems facing women, and seriously affects women in politics. A highly toxic media environment persists for women candidates, and discourages all women – irrespective of political persuasion – from running for public office,” Yana Walton, Vice President of Communications at Women’s Media Center told FOXNews.com. “Despite the fact that women make up half of the population, we’re only 17 percent of congress. Bill Maher’s misogynistic comment about Sarah Palin hurts all women, not just Palin, and not just conservative women. By insulting her gender, rather than her platform or stance on issues, he insults women as a group.”

So if a prominent media figure had made such a disparaging remark towards a leading female Democrat, like Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, would the mainstream media have reacted with outrage?

Damn straight, dude, leave the personal insults out of it. Stick to the issues.

Wait. You DO know what the issues are, right?

May I ask you a question?

I’m honestly confused by something … WHY is it America’s responsibility to be the Global police? I honest to God don’t understand why our country feels like it has to get involved in other countries’ disputes.

I can understand our involvement if say, other countries have the capability of hurting our country in some way and we go over there and kick butt to let them know that we aren’t going to tolerate any sort of attacks on our country, so don’t even think about it. (The whole Iraq weapons of mass destruction thing).

I can understand our country helping another country out during a disaster (like poor Japan, for example).

I can understand our country helping another allied country that ASKS for our help. (Israel)

But I CAN NOT understand why we feel compelled to get involved in another country’s civil war.

Like Libya.

Look. I get it that we’re concerned about who might take over Libya after Qaddafi leaves. We can only hope whoever that might be is 100 times better than that mad man.

But really, why is it any of our business?

I can understand our compassion for the rebel troops that are being slaughtered by Qaddafi’s troops and our willingness to step in and save the day.

But really, WHY is this our fight? I’m sorry these people are being killed, it’s a terrible tragedy, but not to sound heartless or crass – Why is it America’s problem?

Why are we sending troops over there, putting American soldiers at risk, spending money we don’t have … if Libya wants to have a civil war, then let them fight it out.

It doesn’t have anything to do with us.

I was watching talk news last night, and everyone was in an uproar over the fact that Obama bypassed Congress entirely and just made the decision to start the no-fly zone without going through proper channels (Seriously. You can’t be that surprised by this – Obama thinks he single-handedly owns/runs America). I thought the real issue was being swept under the rug – WHY are we even there to begin with?

Democracy is great. But not every country wants it, or is ready for it. Why do we feel compelled to push our beliefs on everyone else? This drives me nuts. This is probably one of the few (if only) thing I agree with the left on. I’m all for helping people. I’m all for protecting people from radical terrorists groups. I’m all for helping a country pick up the pieces and try and build a new, better, stronger country.

But I have a problem with us sticking our noses where it doesn’t belong. And I don’t think we belong in Libya.

Unless they directly threaten, or attack us, America needs to stay out of it.

Book Corner

Book Review: One True Thing

Karen

One True Thing
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks (August 8, 2006)
ISBN -10: 9780812976182
320 pages
Author Website

My Grade: B-

Plot / Premise:

I’ve decided to copy and paste the plot summary from the below source. I always feel like I don’t do plot summaries justice and I’m only regurgitating what other people have said and … okay, fine. I’m lazy. I’d rather concentrate on character development and writing style.

From Barnes and Noble:

The novel begins with a deceptively hubristic prologue in which our narrator, 24-year-old Ellen Gulden, describes what it’s like to be in jail charged with killing her dying mother. Then we get the real story, every painful, ironic bit of it. Fresh out of Harvard and eager to prove herself as a journalist, Ellen is completely unprepared for her rather elusive and dismissive father’s request that she move back home and nurse her mother, who, at age 46, has suddenly become terribly ill. Ellen has always been a daddy’s girl, dismissing her homespun mother as an anachronism. Now, as she enters her mother’s world just as her mother is about to exit it, everything she’s ever assumed about her family and, indeed, life itself is challenged.

Overall Thoughts:

Dense. Beautiful prose. That’s how I would sum this book up front. This is an author that likes to take you on her character’s journey through the senses. I admire this type of writing because writing this way is HARD. It requires the writer to draw on his/her sensory experiences and I just haven’t paid that much attention to how things sound/smell/taste/feel in my lifetime so that I can regurgitate those sensory details in my own writing. When I’ve been forced to do so (creative writing classes in college), it was like pulling teeth and I remember spending HOURS, sitting at the dining room table, hunched over my laptop and agonizing over first what to write and then how to write it.

Put simply, it was hell for me.

So I can fully appreciate this kind of writing.

With that said, it’s not an easy read. Again, it’s dense. Which means the plot sort of stalls so the reader can get inside Ellen’s head and FEEL what she’s feeling before the story can move forward. This kind of writing doesn’t appeal to everyone and I confess, I have to be in the mood to read it. In fact, it took me six weeks to read the darn thing. (But to be fair, I wasn’t really trying to read it it, either. Life got in the way).

The subject matter is sensitive. It’s about a woman who, in essence, is guilted into coming home to take care of her dying mother. It’s also about her complicated relationship with her parents. I could relate to a lot of this character’s issues. And though I wouldn’t be resentful of having to put my career on hold to help my mother, I can imagine it would be hard to juggle all of those complicated feelings.

Ellen’s character was a bit too hard for me. She came off as brassy and a bit bitchy, if you want the truth. Even when she was accused of assisted suicide, she didn’t quite take it seriously. It was almost as if she wasn’t a participant in her own life. I tend to create the same kind of characters, so this was a good lesson for me to be careful when I write “tough” characters – I don’t want them to come off as brassy and bitchy.

Responding to Negative Reviews:

The follow-up of the book as expressed in Part Two was only the rambling self-importance of a narcissistic feminist campaigning strongly in favor of today’s evils-as-rights. Katherine Gulden, for all Ellen’s (or Anna’s) wishing it, would not have been the woman that Ellen (Anna) described, either in her relationship to Brian, or to her husband, or to Ellen, or to herself. Ellen (or Anna), in spite of her self-righteous avowals would not have protected her father. At least not in the father-daughter combination she had portrayed in the rest of the book.

The book, in short, did not ring true.

I disagree. I think this book was a pretty accurate portrayal of a self-centered woman who is desperate to retain her individuality while at the same time try and please her parents. I think that’s a pretty common desire – to want to please one’s parents. And I totally bought the whole father asking her to come home and take care of her mother bit because Ellen is desperate to make her father proud of her. She’s never felt smart enough to compete with her father so she uses this opportunity to show him that she’s a strong, intelligent and capable woman. Though she does resent him for asking. And while we’re talking about the father – UGH. Talk about an arrogant, clueless, poor excuse for a man.

The feminist comment is interesting. I never really tagged Ellen as a feminist but now that I think about it, I think this reviewer might be right. She had a very self-important attitude about her accomplishments and intelligence and though this might be an unfair assessment, I sort of categorize feminists into an arrogant and self-important box. Perhaps that’s why I disliked Ellen’s character so much, because of these “feminists” traits.

Ms. Quindlen doesn’t attempt to write about things she doesn’t understand, but she understands so little of the mother/daughter relationship that the book is rather empty. The mother, Kate, is so wonderful, so nurturing, so accepting. She spent her life creating a beautiful home and loving her family. She bears her illness with grace and courage. The daughter, Ellen, has only to watch, learn, and forgive. With Kate for a teacher, she could hardly do otherwise.

Ellen is not jealous or resentful of her mother. She is merely dismissive of the way her mother chose to live. As the novel progresses, Ellen realizes that there’s a lot more to her mom and less to her dad than she had previously thought. Welcome to adulthood, Ellen.

‘One True Thing’ wraps an inherently messy experience up in a very neat package. The novel rings true only to those of us fortunate enough to have wonderful mothers, only to those of us whose lives have never been touched by terminal illness. At its core, it is Anna Quindlen’s elegy for her mother and her childhood: touching and personal, deeply felt, but without the resonance that would have come had she explored the less attractive aspects of the relationship at its core

I completely agree with the second and third paragraph, but I have to disagree with the first paragraph. I thought Quindlen did a great job portraying Ellen’s dismissive attitude toward her mother. She took her mother for granted and it was only after she had passed away did she really learn to appreciate her for who she was, not for what she did. Just because someone has a wonderful and nurturing nature doesn’t mean that they are appreciated, especially by their children.

Ellen is immature and selfish and learns, by taking care of her mother, by being FORCED to be compassionate and understanding to someone else’s plight, that people shouldn’t be put into nice, neat categories. Though it was sad that it took her mother dying for her to get to know her, the fact is that she had the opportunity, and the experience taught her about reality and forced her to grow up and accept people for who they are, not for who one wants them to be.

By the way, I have this book for sale in my book store if you would like to purchase it and check it out for yourself.

Book Corner

Spring Reading Challenge ’11

Karen

Ready to read? As usual, I’m trying to read more … I go through spurts where I will read two books a week and then nothing for two months. It’s terribly frustrating to ME because I want to read more, I enjoy reading, always have, but I just can’t seem to tear myself away from the computer (i.e. Twitter – darn you Twitter!!)

I complain that the boys spend too much time on their computers, and yet, here I am setting a STELLAR example. Since I’ve vowed to be a good example for my boys, I’m going to really try and read more so they will look back on this time period and say, “Man, mom sure read a lot,” as opposed to, “Man, mom sure goofed off on the computer a lot.”

At any rate, my average reading rate is two books per month, (and when I say average, I mean average in the loosest since of the word), so I’ll keep it realistic and list six/seven books I plan on reading before June 20th.

ADDED: Chocolat by Joanne Harris, Meet Me in Venice by Elizabeth Adler, The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, The Guy Not Taken by Jennifer Weiner, Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer, The Sinner by Tess Gerritsen

In addition, these books will be for sale in my Amazon book store after I read them, if you’re interested. (I’ll be turning the book store back on shortly – stay tuned!)

Happy reading!

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