Sunny Tuesday afternoon at the corner booth of Johnny Rocket's, a less-than-stellar throwback burger joint - burgers are average at best, shakes are average, service is outstanding. They're all about creating the experience, which is nice, sometimes. In moderation. Was headed to one of the local bar/restaurant deals but none of them open until evening, it seems - then I ran into Amanda, who was on her way back from the grocery store (also working from home). So we came here because there was parking and we knew they'd be open.

Amanda's one of my friends from the Hoboken church - most of whom I see very little anymore. I suppose summer is around the corner, however, and that always seems to be the time I reconnect with the folk here in town, as there's no youth group to lead and my Sundays therefore tone down a fair bit. Ooh and summer means baseball as well, I can't wait to go to a game. Peter (another Hoboken buddy) got tickets last minute to the Yank's opener Sunday night, and that left Mike, Jason (the roomie), and I all on our own to find a place to watch the game. Watching with those two is fun because Mike really likes Boston and Jason really likes New York. Not the way Peter does, though. Watching with Mike and Peter can be life-threatening. I think both the teams suck, personally. You spend that much money on a team, they should win the series every year. My favorite thing to point out is that my A's consistently make it to the playoffs when their total team salary is less than the Yankee's pitching salaries alone. There's no good response to that.

Work...not getting a lot of positive vibe about finding the right client position starting out - seems like a lot of the positions that are currently listed as open are looking for people with a lot of system-specific experience (SAP, Siebel, Peoplesoft, Retek, Oracle, etc.) - something I would like to get (particularly SAP and Retek), but they're not really big on sending new hires straight into systems training. I get the impression that I'm supposed to begin picking these system skills up on the job before I actually go for some advance training on them, but at the same time I can't really apply for all these positions where I would be most likely to learn such things. What's more, it looks like I may be relegated (is that the word I'm looking for) to working local, and I actually want to travel - rack up the freq flyer miles and whatnot. Eh, its just my first project, I guess.

Chantilly Lace is on the radio. I like listening to oldies, every once in a while. In moderation.

Standard week, schedule wise - not counting the whole working from home gig. Tuesday night Men's Accountability, Wednesday night Home Fellowship Group, Thursday working on the website with Godfrey, Friday chill. I think I'm going to the zoo with the youth group on Saturday, and there may be something else going on but I can't think of what at the moment.

Oh and congrats to the boys of North Carolina for squeaking out a win in what should have been a blowout. How they let the Illini back in that game is beyond me.




I think I may post this on Wednesday, actually, if I can think up something worthy of blogging in time for Christian Carnival tonight. I need to keep submitting to them so that I've attained some kind of unspoken "regular" status by the time they get too popular to keep posting every single contribution in a single week. They're up around the 60s right now in terms of total submissions posted in a given week, as far as I can tell, which sounds like a lot of work. However, if I remain unstaffed for another week, it may be a good challenge to take on.

Time to head home and catch a run, then do some cleanup before the guys come over.

…

Well I obviously didn’t get around to posting this or anything else on Tuesday. Ah well, next week for some actual decent blogging, for a change. Perhaps. In the meantime you’re stuck with more of this endless drivel.

It’s the middle of another sunny afternoon and today’s eatery of choice is Qdoba, another contender in the latest phase of slightly-above-average over-Americanized Mexican grill fast food joints. I like the idea of a burrito the size of my head, and as such am a regular visitor at this fine establishment.

Ever notice how certain words get changed, perhaps forever but more likely for about 3-4 seasons, by reality TV? I submit: apprentice, survivor, contender. I don’t watch reality TV. I don’t watch any TV really, I watch movies. But reality TV just seems like such an amusing concept to me – in the first place, don’t people usually watch TV to escape reality, or at least view a reality they can’t access – nature shows and the like? And furthermore, doesn’t the actual “reality” in these shows seem a little contrived? Or a lot? Artificial boardrooms and boxing rings, I tell ye!

Still haven’t heard anything on a potential position, but I found one I liked recently in San Fran, so I need to run home and call my HR rep about that.

Being out during the day has been strange. Its made me realize that I’m still pretty young, but I’m getting older. The only people you see on the street are the cavalcades of new mommies, stroller jockeys every one of them, interspersed with the meandering elderly. More of the first in Hoboken’s case. Compared to either of these, I feel I’m at a pretty early stage in life still – maybe halfway into my second quarter, to speak in business terms. Which isn’t too bad. Not ready for kids or anything like that, yet. But I’m moving along, at the same time. The park in the middle of town - full of loud children - reminds me of that. I’m an adult now. I’m not sure how or when it happened, but here I am, all the same.

I want to go back to work where I’m safe from all these scary things that come out during the day.