Blogs much?

All these people have blogs now. When did this happen? Maybe I just never knew about it and they're thinking the same thing about me having a blog. It's all good, though. Welcome to blogging. Have I even blogged long enough to be able to tell someone else welcome? Anyway..

Today was great. I finished up a hard project that I got handed half-way through today. I didn't know if I would be able to do it all today without Travis' help, but I did, besides the initial instructions. I felt really proud that I even deciphered the ASP and ASPX coding to do all of it.

Ever since I've started this job, when I sign on I look at different elements of a website and think of how I would accomplish similar things. When I'm not sure how, I view the source code and find out. I guess I really am a web designer now.

God is blessing me tremendously. I haven't had to worry in over two months. I'm not bragging, just had to say that, and that's all I'm going to say.

Tonight Zac came to my house at the exact same time I got home, around 9:00. He originally was just going to drop by to pick up a video card for computer hardware testing, but we ended up talking about some light stuff and some heavy stuff. Anyway, he ended up leaving around 11:20 or so, and I realized after he had left how much I enjoyed the all of it.

Yes, Zac is an awesome best friend and all that jazz and him and I understand each other like I do with maybe two other people, but I that's not what I really, really enjoyed. I enjoyed the fact that someone could call, come over, stay until whenever, then leave, as they pleased and as I pleased them to. Zac can do this at my house without my parents caring, cause he's Zac, but few others could have stayed that late, especially on a work night, without any complaint from mom or dad.

I wish anyone could, though. That's why I'm really going to enjoying living in my own apartment that's open for anybody, unless I just want some me time.

Maybe even sooner than you or I expect.

Different.

I feel like my life has changed so much since I've started this job. I'm not sure if I like all of it.

I don't feel like myself. I feel very different than a few months back.

I think it has a lot to do with my living room. It's totally different now. Mrs. Lewis told us that in a dream, the condition of your house is the condition of your mental well-being. If things have been changed recently, your house feels uncomfortable... different.

I feel uncomfortable, and it's really annoying. Especially when I have an idea of what' wrong.

Money money money.

Assassin's Creed

I beat MGS4 last Thursday Then again Saturday. That was fun. I still have a lot to do in the game, but I figured what the hay, and bought Assassin's Creed Sunday, since it was cheap. It's a lot of fun, being able to climb buildings easier than breathing air. I'm still getting used to the fighting, but it's fun.

Short post today. I'll probably repost something later when I actually have something to talk about in detail and at length.

TiVo, I miss you.

You may have read the headline and think that for some reason I no longer have TiVo, and that's not true. I still have it, it's just that I don't use it as often anymore. Why not? Cause over this past month or so I've realized that work takes up a large sum of your time. In fact, I would be willing to bet that I spend five times as much time at work than I do home (disregard the time spent sleeping at home, that doesn't count, I'm not awake!)!

Because of this, when I am home, I decide to do the things that I really want to do. Until recently, that was go home, grab something to eat, watch a TiVo'ed Mythbusters or something similar, and unless I run off to hang out with people, watch other things on TiVo. Now it's go home, watch a Mythbuster while eating, then play PS3 if I don't run off to hang out with people. TiVo must feel neglected. Aww. I guess I should watch it some more and play less PS3. But over all this week, I've only played it twelve hours. ...I guess that is a lot? I don't know. Cause I used to not have to go to work and I would have just stayed home and played it. I guarantee you that if I didn't have to go to work I would have played it over 30 hours by now. Crazy.

So one solution to this problem? Well, I usually watch TiVo'ed stuff while eating, cause I don't want to eat and play at the same time, cause that would get grease on my PS3 controller. So therefore, I must eat more! Then I will watch more TiVo'ed stuff. That's a good plan, right?

Nooo.. definitely not. I guess I'll just have to pick up all the things I've recorded once the PS3 high wears off. I don't know when that'll be. My TiVo will run out room soon. How much space is in those things anyway? It needs like a TerraByte (TB). That would be awesome. I guess it has something like a 250GB in it.. that's how much the S3 ones have. Series 3 for you non-technical folks. Huh. I don't think mine has 250 in it. I mean, I know I've recorded a lot of one hour segments, but still, I think I'd be able to hold a little more. A TB would blow the space I have out of the water. Most people understand how large a GigaByte (GB) is, but just in case, I'll explain. So if you know all that jazz, skip the next paragraph:

/* WARNING! This next part is nerd-tastic. Skip it unless you want to fall asleep. */

Space on a computer is dealt with like this. The smallest piece of data that most people learn about is called a Bit. Most of the time, it's either 1 or 0. Eight of these bits make a Byte. Eight bits, or one byte, make up different pieces of data. A combination of 0's and 1's is actually what the computer receives when I type this sentence. Each of these characters are made up of eight bits, or one byte, each. That's how the computer understands data. 1,024 Bytes, or 8,192 bits, makes one KiloByte (KB). Most smaller images and text files are a number of KB. Some GIFs are about 10 - 40 KB, while some large text files and JPG files are around 100 - 300 KB, usually. Then you get up to 1,024 KB, and you get one MB. To give you a scale, the size of most MP3s is around 3 - 5 MB. One episode of your favorite hour-long show is around 320 - 400 MB. 1,024 MB makes one GB.

That's basically 3 episodes of an hour long show. Let's do some math. If my TiVo is a S3 (which I doubt), then 250/3 will give me how many eps I can hold until my TiVo maxes out on space. The math shows that that's 83 with repeating decimal of 3 shows. So that means 83 one-hour shows and one ep of Robot Chicken. Yeah, I don't think I have an S3. I think at the most I've gotten around thirty to fourty at max. That's less than half the space. About 115 GBs or so. Maybe a little more.

Now, if my TiVo had a TerraByte of hard drive space, I could hold... 341 one-hour shows and a Robot Chicken episode. Why? Cause, (just like the others), 1,024 GBs is one TB. That's a lot of space.

/* All the talk of HDD (Hard Drive Disk) space is over now. You may return to your regular reading. */

So I am sad that I don't use it as much any more. I guess I'll just have to find more time to watch the shows I really like, or wait until I'm over this PS3 craze. Oh, and if I got something wrong about the way HDD Space works, and it bothers you to death cause I misquoted something, then Byte me. <-- NEEEEERD!

Different Music.

I've been listening to songs that I don't usually listen to a whole lot. Well, I guess just really one song that I never thought I'd really get in to. What song? Lovebug by the Jonas Brothers. I know. How strange. I keep thinking something like, "Isn't that the band that all the little girls love to swoon over and watch the Disney Channel all day long just so they could possible hear some of their music on the TV?" But, I have to admit, it's a real catchy song. So I guess thanks to Austin for introducing me to it a week or so ago.

I guess there's nothing wrong with listening to that music and liking it. It's just something I never thought I'd see myself doing. I guess that just proves that you can write music that almost anybody would like, even if you're a band that's geared towards a totally different group of people. I guess you just have to know what's catchy.

I've only listened to one other Jonas Brother song and didn't really find it all that great. It's that Burnin' Up song or whatever. The way his voice breaks after every line makes me unable to do anything but anticipate the next break, hehe. So, I guess in short, I'm not really a Jonas Brothers fan, I just really like that one song. But of course, there's nothing wrong with being a fan of them. It's just not my usual style of music. I still have a hard time listening to the parts in Lovebug where their talking or whatever. I also wish they'd repeat the chorus a little more when he plays the electric instead of the acoustic. ..and after listening to it again, I realize that I'm annoyed by his voice on the verses. Heh.

Cold.

I love cold weather. It makes me smile. Old Man Winter can be my friend any day. I'm a big guy, and as most other big guys, I sweat a lot and get overheated. I don't really mind sometimes, but other times I really want to cool off quickly when I'm like that. That's one reason I like cold weather. I can wear a hoodie and not get really hot. I can go stand outside for a hour without sweating.

Two really good things I can think of off the top of my head about cold weather a.k.a. winter:

1. It means there's football around somewhere. And I'll be honest. I'm not really a HUGE, MONSTROUS football fan. But I'll also be honest. I love football. There's something great about it that gets you all excited for the next game. It's knowing that in just a few seconds, the ball will be snapped, and you either cheer for your time to get ten yards or to give no yards. If they mess up and fail, you get mad, but then the snap will happen again in a few more seconds and they get to try again. I think that's the basics of a lot of sports. You get a chance to do something really awesome. That's probably why sports are fun. Anyway. Football is great.
2. Camping. I really enjoy the concept of camping. I like to be outside, despite what some people think. I really like to sleep outside. I love to be by a fire when it's cold. I love to smell like smoke. I like to go out and gather sticks for the fire. I think it makes me think of a lot of different things when I'm camping. One of them is that I think of what Jesus and the apostles went through when they were walking on this Earth. They had to walk all over the Earth, or at least Israel, (granted I don't walk all around Alabama), and at night had to pretty much sleep wherever. I'll bet that there were plenty of deep conversations that took place around a fire at night. That's what I like. There's just something about a fire, it being cold, and you being out in it at night. I love it.

I'll be honest. If it were to really snow heavily here in Alabama I'd be pretty excited. I doubt it will ever get really bad, but who knows? There was that one time in 93 when the Blizzard came... but I don't really remember much except for digging a tunnel in the snow to my neighbors house. Great times.

Here's to future hopes.

My Annoyance.

So, I think I've officially found the first thing that I can't stand about blogger.com. I don't know, though, I may just be retarded and not be looking in the right spot. Maybe someone else that reads this has had this problem and can enlighten me on how to fix it.

How the heck do you search for other people's blogs?

Seriously? I've been sitting here for the last ten minutes looking over all the links on the dashboard thing and the homepage, and I don't see anything about searching for someone else's blog. Is there a way inside of blogger.com to do this? I'm starting to think that you either have to find someone using google or that you have to go to other people's blogs who already know the URL of the wanted blog and just link from there. Anyone know how to fix this? Anyone have Joseph Kinnaird's blog? You would think someone who builds webpages for his job wouldn't be this retarded, but seriously, I can't find anything on how to find someone else besides just knowing their URL.

Camping.

I really want to go camping soon. Like right now. Ok, maybe not right now, cause that would be crazy, but still... maybe this weekend? Anyone wanna go? There's just something great about being outdoors and sleeping in a sleeping bag with thin piece of material separating you from the ground and the open sky. Building a fire, roasting marshmellows, just sitting around with not much light other than the campfire talking about different things. Being very cold. I love these things.

The few times that I have been camping have either been with the Boy Scouts or one of the adventures to Oak Mountain State Park, which only number to four times total. That's not a whole lot of camping in my twenty available years. I guess this means that I should go again very soon to up the number, hehe.

So really, the recent past times I've been have been at Oak Mountian. It's fun, though. Just being outside and sleeping in a tent with a sleeping bag, getting a fire going, knowing that I can just run down a hill to the car and drive to Pelham close by to get something to eat... these things are nice, but I guess they aren't really "camping." So, I guess I need to go somewhere new, eh? Somewhere where a Starbucks is not five minutes away, I can't hear Hoover play their football games, and where public bathrooms are extremely public instead of bath houses.

Ya know, I remember a certain someone who said he has a large wooded area where we could set up camp far away from a lot of things. Also a possible Sipsey Creature Hunt. He didn't mention that, but seeing as how he lives there and we'd be in the wilderness (I think), why not? Hint hint.

Hint hint hint SHAWN hint hint hint. :)

Seriously though, we should sit down with Jo and figure out a date to get something going, since it's starting to feel really good outside.

World of Warcraft

So I think I've officially stopped playing World of Warcraft (WoW). I canceled my subscription the other day, for the second time (I resubscribed a while back, just cause I really wanted to play and see some people, but after three days, didn't touch the game). The cool thing is that Blizzard, which is the company who created WoW and maintains the servers, will keep my characters and their many different records for all of time, hoping that one day I will return to the world of Azeroth.

Truth be told, I will. WoW is too fun of a game not to play. The only bad part is that is can getting tiring playing the same old stuff over and over again. So what do I do? I quit it for a while. Now I know that I have a lot of obsessions that I rotate, but eventually some of them will dissapate. Want an example? Geocaching. It's been nearly a year or so. Granted, now it's getting colder and gas prices are lowering and I have been wanting to go outside more often for a while now, I don't think I'll be getting back into the hobby too soon. Will WoW follow this same path? Hmmm...

I've got a PS3 now, so anytime that I'm not hanging out with friends or doing work or random other things, I'll probably be playing on it. Why would I want to go back to WoW when I can play all the cool games for the PS3? Granted, I say that now, and 6 months from now I may be bored enough to go back to WoW.

Some people may also think that instead of hanging out with them I'll be at home, playing the PS3. Now, while this may sometimes be the case, it will not be the majority of the time. Why you ask? What's the difference from when I played WoW instead of hanging out with friends and playing the PS3? There's one HUGE difference: Mostly, the PS3 are single-player, not reliant on huge number of players to have events and scheduled meetings and happenings. Since WoW is a MMORPG, (Multi-Massive Online Role Playing Game), when you play it, you reliant on others to do certain awesome things within the game. What does that matter? I can pause the PS3. I can turn it off.

With WoW, I had to let other friends of mine know that I wasn't going to be available to play with them on certain nights because I was doing other stuff. That's fine, but when they really want you to go with them through this really awesome higher-level place to advance your character (and you care about that kind of thing), you go. Whenever they schedule it. Which usually cuts off some hang out time. In short, you can't get away as easily on WoW, when with the PS3, you can.

The only way you can get away from WoW is to stop playing (obviously). Yet since you're not interacting with just AI, but also with other humans over the intrawebs, you hurt their feelings too when you no longer show up to play. I know, I know, you're thinking, "But these are your real friends! You can reach out and touch them! You'd choose internet friends over them?" And my answer is that it's situational. When they've helped me out in getting further in the game, I have to help them back out, or even just be around them for the heck of it. It's like an unwritten rule. I think it's called common courtesy or something. Besides, I see most of my friends at church stuff anyway.

The only reason that I wrote that last paragraph was to say this: I'm leaving WoW officially. I haven't really been playing at all since July (maybe a total of 5 hours). As of now, I don't really plan on going back anytime soon. I know that I may be tempted when Wrath of the Lich King comes out, but then again, not really, cause it's the same thing, just to level 80. I don't think I will. I have too much fun hanging with friends instead. And when no one is wanting to hang out, or I don't want to hang out, I'll play my PS3.

The only part about this that sucks is the fact that I'm hurting some people who I used to play with all time by not showing up. They're probably used to me not being there by now, but I know they miss me. I sit next to one of them ever Sunday in the Orchestra Pit. Don never rags me about not being around, cause, as he puts it, "I know you're young and you have a life, so go live it." But every now and then, he'll tell me how much he does miss me. And how much Shawn misses me. Shawn is a guy from Canada who I played the game with more than Don. He and I leveled our characters up from 15 or so to 70 (about five or six months worth of playing a good bit each week). So I feel for them. Maybe one day I'll come back to play again. I see Don at church, but I don't see Shawn, obviously. Pray for him, please. He isn't a believer.

So yeah, Goodbye for now, WoW! Hello $15 more each month!

Muwhahahaha.

Some people are upset that I spent so much money on a gaming console. Others don't really care. I just want to say that I still have plenty of money and I love the new PS3 I've bought. Wanna know the main reason I bought it? Look up. Metal Gear Solid 4 has to be one of the best games I've ever played. I haven't even really dug into the deep story behind all of it yet. I'm just now starting Act 3 of 5, and I'm sure that it's about to get even heavier and more exciting. From the moment I first fired up the console and stuck this game in I knew I was going to love it. I can't wait to figure out how it ends and then play it fifty more times, hehe.

If you want a run down of how the game goes or what it's about, don't listen to me, cause that would take too long and I'm too lazy to type it out when you could just read it from someone who's already wrote what it's about. <- Run-On sentence? If Joseph doesn't work tonight, I'll probably just go home and play this game till I'm too tired. I don't know, though, if someone calls I may end doing something with someone. Just depends I guess. I am pretty tired. So what will I purchase next? Hmm.. I'll probably end up saving my money up till I have enough to get the item pictured below, but of course make sure I have enough money left over to last. I may end up putting away $100 each paycheck or more towards it. Why? Just cause.

(Beach included)

Don't worry! I still have a lot of money saved!

I am a victim. I now will go home each night and spend a few hours glazing my eyes over my TV screen. Not watching a football game or a popular TV show, not even a movie or anything from any type of broadcast channel. I will be playing my PS3. That's right. I bought one. And though I say I am a victim, I am very happy. I'm pleased with it so far, and I think it'll bring me loads of fun. Too bad it cost a lot of money.

But, I have no real bills so pay, I'm not hurting for money, and I get paid every week, so I'm not worried about spending a lot of money the first few months of my job to get things that I've been wanting for the last few years. As long as I continue to put a certain amount away and not spend it like I've been doing, I'll be fine. I'm only going to buy things I really want when I have more than enough money to buy them.

PS3 rocks.
(And by putting it in bold, you can tell it really rocks.)
(Italics means it really really rocks)
(...you get the point.)

Boredom at work leads to...

So stuff goes by pretty slowly at work when you have no actual work to do.

So I did some Photoshop stuff:




This was a tutorial one that I followed.. just something to kill some time. I actually did it a few days ago, just now uploading it, though. I liked the example in the tutorial better than the way mine came out. The only thing I really liked from this one was the rendered astral clouds in the background. Those were fun to work on.




New logo for our student ministry service, Resonate. See? The o is resonating.. and the t is a cross. How clever, right? Errr.. yeah. this really was just a side effect of the below picture, which I did earlier today when I had nothing else to do.

This is a new picture for Resonate. I think I'll be making more and more of these when I don't have HTML stuff to do at work. And yes, this one was a tutorial.



This was my favorite of all the projects I've done so far. Probably because I didn't follow a tutorial, but just used elements that I've recently learned in PS. This will, as long as he doesn't care, be Jo's intro pic during his sermons from now on.

So tell me what you think of them. I really didn't enjoy the alien one, besides the astral clouds in the back, which you really can't see that much of. The logo ones were fun, but the one of Joseph was my favorite, just due to how it turned out, I guess. Let me know what you think.

More

More photoshop. Things are about to get good. I has a feelin.

Paychecks and Photoshop

Ok, so I love...

1) My new job (I promise I'll stop saying that soon)

2) Photoshop. Adobe in general.

I get paid every Thursday at 12:00 am. Direct deposit.. which every company needs, cause it's awesome for the employees. So I've been paid twice now at my new job, and it still has not hit me that I have the largest sum of money my bank account has every seen. I hope it never does, and I never go crazy and spend a lot of money without having a lot to fall back on. (Isn't that what a lot of people want?)

So, that being said, I will probably be getting a new computer very soon. Gaming computer. It'll cost a lot, but I have a plan and a budget. Actually the budget is my plan. I have a weekly budget.

Photoshop is awesome. I've found a really cool tutorial site which I am looking through. Using one of their tuts (which I think is intraweb lingo for tutorial.. I hope) helped me make this:

(Click to view it full sized)

More to follow.

First Week!

I love my job. It's great. I left Friday afternoon and immediately as I got on the interstate wanted to head back Monday. Plus, next week will be even better, cause I start getting paid every week on Thursday. Who cares if it's far away? God will provide.

Anyway, I love it. It doesn't feel like work. Time flies by. The people are great. Awesome atmosphere. Yup, God's amazing.

"Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life" - Confucius

Second Day!

So, I am loving my new job. It was more exciting today, cause I had a lot of new stuff to do. Did several pages and stuff. So yeah, I love it. I get to wear shorts, I get to do HTML, and everyone there is very friendly and Godly.

There's only one downside: it's thirty-three miles away from my house. Which, really, is not that bad considering the amazing opportunity it is, and the awesome pay for my first "real" job. I just wish it was a twenty minute drive instead of a forty. I'd be able to save on gas as well.

There's two branches to this company: North and South. Hanceville and Hueytown. The reason the North branch is so far away is cause that's where Mr. Lowery lives. The building is on his estate.

Here's the thing... this time last year, the North branch had only seven employees. Now, a year later, it has sixteen, I guess actually eighteen (me and some new IT guy coming next week). There's only room for three more people in the building, which means Mr. Lowery would either have to expand the building, or move the office. Here's my question: Is it selfish for me to pray that he moves the office to somewhere like.. Gardendale? Or somewhere in Birmingham?

He'd be about twenty minutes away from it in G-dale. Some people, who live in Cullman, would have to drive forty minutes to get to G-dale. I'm planning on getting an apartment in Fultondale in the next year. It would be awesome! The reason I say this is because he mentioned how the company was growing fast in the interview I had him. He probably wants it to continue growing fast, but not everyone is going to want to drive all the way out there. So why not move closer to the big city of Birmingham?

Wow, I'm selfish, lol. God gives me an awesome job and I still want something. Anyway, what are your thoughts? Be honest. I'm seriously praying that either 1) God moves the office close or 2) He provides a way for me to make it up there and back each day (which I know if he wants me there, he will). Cause my car isn't the greatest, and that is a lot to put it through each day. Especially a lot when the roads are torn to shreds and bumpy like everything, haha. Anyway, tell me what you think.

P.S. ....technically I could do this job from home.... hah! Nah. I'm sure they'd want me close to them so they could tell me when my pages look wrong in person instead of telling me over a Instant Messaging service or telephone.

First Day.

First day of my new job. Wasn't terribly exciting, cause there really wasn't any work for me. Tomorrow will go quicker, cause I'll have work to do.

Apparently I'm going to start saving for a car.. woohoo.

Please pray that God helps me find what I need, not what I want.

They're All Out Without You, Having Fun.

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. - Jeremiah 29:11

God is a great God. I mean, he's really amazing. I have no right to call him amazing because that's like an insult to how truly spectacular he was, is, and will always be. He does some really strange things, though, but don't worry, they're amazing too. We may not know why he does those things, because they may not be what we want, but yet, in the future, we can see why. Sometimes he doesn't give us the job we really want, only because he knows that something much better for our career will appear soon enough, and that if we can just be patient and seek him, he'll appear and so will what we need. He brings with him the things we need. And eventually the things we want turn into the things he wants, so that his mission and work becomes our work. This is what I want, and I'll do what I have to get it. Today, I praise God for his amazing work as he's given me something I'll remember for the rest of my life. I pray that I use it for his glory, as he would have me do. Thank you, Lord. You knew all along why nothing else was turning up results, and why the job I wanted to badly at Apple said no. It's because you had a better plan for me to become a Web Designer, to start my career, to save money, to learn better skills, meet new people, and start living.

I start a week from this Monday. :) Once again: w00t.

Job...? YES.

So I signed a piece of paper today that said I'm official with Sitel.

I was praying later, before I went to Jo's, that God would give me a Web Design job, and that the one I'm trying for would be great. So what do you know? No lie, less than a minute after that prayer, if not sooner than that, the phone rings. It's my Recruiter friend, Mrs. Diane, wanting to set up two interviews. The first is with her, just to fill out a background check and for her to meet me and see if I'd get along with the people there, and the second is with Mr. Lowery and his wife. Wow. Can I say that God is flippin' amazing? I think so.

I'm not going to lie. I'm not the best Christian ever. I try, but I still make my mistakes. That's why I'm saved by GRACE, not by works. RIGHT before I prayed that prayer I remembered (not the reference or even the whole verse, just the last few words of it) James 4:2: "You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God." So, I asked. And, Matthew 7:7a-8a: "Ask and it will be given to you...For everyone who asks receives;" I received. I rejoiced. I still ask that God guides me through the final parts of this process and lets me finish strong.

Big Freakin' w00t. =)

Finished.

Ok, so, since yesterday afternoon I've been working on a spec assignment for Mr. Lowery, the owner of Health Resources. If he and his design team likes the design I put together, then he'll consider hiring me. I hope he likes it. I've been working on it for a long time. Probably... sixteen hours or so. Clicking, doing one thing, re-doing that thing over again cause it looked just a little bit wrong, blah blah blah. A lot of stuff. Surprisingly, each time I walked away from the computer, I wanted to go back and work more, and I still want to work on something else now. I do believe this is what I really want to do for a good majority of my life: Web Design. I pray that God gives me a job in Web Design. This one would be nice for a great start. Regardless, God is still awesome.

Tomorrow looks bright. I want to wake up early. I want to get going early. I have a few things to do, but mainly, I just want to be. Whether that's here, the church, BAM, or Starbucks, who knows? All I know is that I love God, I love life, and I love what I'm doing right now.

w00t

More Photoshop.

Here's the original:



Here's the Photoshop'ed:

So, this is my second real attempt at Photoshop-ing something. The main thing I wanted to do in this picture of Maranda was remove the lone strand of hair from the left side of her face (guess really it's HER right side..). So, I accomplished that, with little bitty scars, right? Eh. If you look closely, or you may not have to, hah, you can see the mix-match of light and dark around her cheek. That was the last part of the project when I finally said, "Forget this. It's 4 am. I'm tired. Good night." when the stupid heal tool wasn't working like I would have liked it to. I guess for my second real attempt it's not that bad, right? Tell me what you think. Hope Maranda didn't mind me experiment with the elements on her face, haha.

Now that I look at it again, that right cheek really bothers me. Gah. I'm going to bed before I fire up PS again.

A Fun Night.

Tonight, obvious from the title, was fun. Hung out with Sam. She got off work at 6:30. Picked her up from her house at 7:20 or so. Went to Starbucks and hung out there for a while, talking, laughing, and drinking coffee. Only stayed until 8:50 or so. Went to 280, Narnes and Boble. Talked, sat, walked. Then went to IHOP and ate. Fun times, yah?

I never really know what to expect when I talk to Sam like I did tonight. She's pretty random sometimes. Other times she's not so random, but definitely not very predictable. I told her that I couldn't marry her cause she didn't get excited about the way butter melts pancakes. She was fine with that, till I told her I guess if I had to I would settle for her. She got upset about that fact, hahaha.

Speaking of which, we decided the girl I will marry will (well, at least I'm hopeful) have a great love the Discovery Channel. Maybe not even the Discovery Channel, but just the unpredictable pattern of randomness that is my different obsessions. Not really that she has to like what I like right then there, but hopefully she'll change it up like I do. Anyway, as of now, Discovery Channel. And she needs to have a bunch (or at least one) l in her name. Random? Nah, it all makes sense, I promise.

The recruiter for the Web Design position, Mrs. Diane, sent me a spec assignment from Mr. Lowery to determine if he liked my creative ideas. What do I have to do? I have create a landing page for a product of his, and create an HTML ad to bring potential customers to this page. Yeah, I'm going to get to work on that, as I told her I would probably have it finished by tomorrow. Exciting!

A Job!

I has one. It's a-ma-za-zing! So.. I said in my second-to-last blog that I was going in for a test then hopefully an interview with Sitel, right? Well, I went today, missed my turn on I-20, lol, then had to go a different route that got me there regardless of my missed turn, and took the test.

The test was only four different, simulated calls, and I'll be honest, I could have sworn that I failed it. They give you a practice run first, and the program malfunctioned because I clicked on the Company's Policies instead of waiting for the phone to ring. So when it does ring, I try to click back to the answer station and it won't let me. Instead, it rings again and a pop-up window appears saying, "Answer the call."

Ring.

"Answer the call."

Ring.

"Answer the call."

Ring.

"Answer the call."

"I'm trying! You won't let me get back to the original screen to hit the blasted button!"

So I just click "End Practice" and it says, "Good job completing the practice session! Good luck on the test!" Crap. The test starts, and angry callers start calling in. Even a woman who was begging me to adjust her credit limit even though it was against the policy. I really felt like I failed it.

I walk out after I finish it and wait in the lobby. My friend Lasagna (that was her name, I promise!) tells me I did good and hands me a bunch of forms to fill out. I fill them out after asking about different things in them, then she calls Jessica to interview me. What? I could have promised I was going to fail that test.

Jessica interviews me, keeps everything really friendly with me, even talks about some stuff not really relevant to the job, just making conversation. She seems to like me enough to hire me, so I guess she did. She gave me directions to get my drug screening, and then tells me after it and my background check comes back she'll call to confirm my training schedule. Sweeeet!

I am now a Customer Service Representative for Sitel. Eh. Guess it's not all that glorious or anything, but hey, it's a job. I'll be making eight dollars an hour for the training sessions (basically get paid $1540 for going to a class five days a week for seven weeks), then eight-fifty after that with probable advancement soon after I actually start the real job, plus soon-to-be benefits. Money is good, right?

I am looking forward to some money every two weeks. What's sad is that at this other job (which I'll find out if I have an interview for by Monday) I'll be making twice the money I will at Sitel. PLUS I would be doing what I love to do: geeky things like web design. How awesome? I seriously thank God for this job at Sitel, but I do pray that I can have a greater job in Hanceville with Health Resources.

So have you ever taken a drug test? If you're in the current workforce, I'm sure you have. How awkward? I just felt really strange. I'm not really going to talk about it anymore, but seriously. I just want everyone to know that I felt very strange handing that cup over to a nurse.

Could I have anymore paragraphs in my blog? Anyway -- Life is good. I think I'll end this blog with the fact that I'm tired. Maybe tomorrow I'll tell about my time in West Blocton earlier tonight. But as for now, good night.

Photoshop

I just spent several hours in Photoshop playing around with the above banner. Just wanted something to do with the program, so I decided to make a banner. Whatcha think? Looks like some new person just played around with Photoshop for a few hours, huh? Well, I guess it's a learning experience. Now I just need $800 to buy the program, haha.

Now to actually find out where Sitel is.. and go to bed. :)

Jobs, Gayness, and other stuff.

So I just finished watching I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. That was a funny movie. It kinda made me think, though, about how Christians are supposed to treat homosexuals and such. In fact, I don't think there needs to be a clarification on the subject if you're truly following Christ. One man having trouble lusting after another man is the same as me trying not to lust after a woman in God's eye. Sin is sin. Everyone needs salvation from their sins. Homosexuality is an abomination in God's eyes, yes, but isn't every sin unpleasing to God? Then what right do we have to look down on a people who are struggling to find their place in this world? We don't.

Anyway.. to clear up some stuff, here's my resolution of these thoughts: There's no right to judge a non-believer whether they be homosexual or not, because we as Christ Followers cannot expect the world to act as Christ would. Now, if the person claims to follow Christ and still struggles with this, there's no way I'm going to judge them, because I myself, as a male, struggle daily to keep my mind free from sexual perversion pertaining to the fairer sex. Sexual sin is sexual sin. Instead, I'll try to help this person as I try to help myself avoid such temptations, maybe offering guidance from different verses that warn about sexual sin. They deserve love, not hate. And as a Christ Follower, I should show love to all, not just heterosexuals.

So I may have an interview tomorrow. I'm hopeful, at least. I mean, I called Sitel today and they told me take the Assessment test that I've taken like.. four times by now. I took it, called her back, her being a woman named Jessica, and she told me that I failed it.. hahaha. So I asked her if we could just the scores from the first time I took the test. She said we could, and that I should come to Sitel tomorrow for the next part of the assessment and if I pass, for an interview afterwards. Nice, huh? I hope so.

There's this other job.. ya see that job would be customer service for now, maybe a technical service later on down the road. The other one would be a Website Designer position. How awesome would that be? That's what I wanna do for the rest of my life, right? Yah. So anyway, I've been speaking with this woman named Diane who apparently is a recruiter for.. well.. I'm not sure if she recruits for a lot of different companies, but I know she recruits for Health Resources. I called her up (got her number from monster.com and that's where I orginally saw the job opportunity) and she sounded really happy to be hearing from someone. So we had like a little phone interview, and she passed my resume onto the owner of the company, Mr. Lowery. She said if he liked everything, which she thought he would, that she would contact me before Monday or Tuesday and set an interview up with her on either of those days. So, that's cool.

I would love to do this job, but there's only one liiiittle, painful bit of information that kinda makes me hesitant, and that's the fact that I'd have to drive to Hanceville every day. But to be honest, for me to get a starting job that pays like this and gets me great experience with Web Design, I'll drive that far. Who knows? Maybe I'll love it so much that I'll never want another job and I'll just move up the company? I dunno, hah. We'll see. Just keep me in your prayers, that God would give me a good job that I can do and that paves the way for my future. Whatever that may be, haha.

So hey, don't tell my parents all of this, but I keep thinking more and more of how cool it would be to have my own place. They probably know I'm thinking about that. But yeah, I'd love to have my own apartment. I don't care if someone's there with me, that'd be cool, I think. Like Caleb or Austin. But really I guess any of my friends would be good roommates. But where to live?

Fultondale. I've thought about it, and decided to be impulsive. I found some apartments behind BAM (books-a-million) and they seem cool. They're close to the interstate, and if I were to get that job at Hanceville, that would be so much quicker to just jump on the interstate and drive up there. If Caleb lived there, he could just jet up to Wal-mart for now and then later in life to his job at whichever dentist office he decides to work at (if he still wants to pursue that).

The prospect of being able to move stuff around in my own place and not worry about anyone else's real opinion is really nice. My mom and dad wouldn't mind me moving stuff around, but they would probably wonder why. Maybe I just want a change. But also, the thought that whoever wanted to could just swing by my place to hang out for a little while is really cool, too. I think that's one of the main reasons. They could spend the night if they wanted to, cause it's my place. I think that's cool. Maybe I'm strange?

I've been listening to a lot of American Idiot recently. Which is weird, cause yes, I did use to love ol' Green Day and Billie Joe, but that was back in Middle-to-Early-High school. But for some strange reason I'm repeating my past and listening to the music. I've been listening to the whole album for a while now.. bout a week. I end up trying to find out more about the music and the meaning behind all of the lyrics. As I read on and on, it kinda makes sense with what I thought the whole album was about, but then I'm kinda bored with it, cause the story that Billie set out to make up isn't nearly as appealing as I thought it was going to be. So.. here I am about to move on to something else and say goodbye to the CD as I did when it first came out. Oh well. I'll probably listen to it again in a few months or years time.

I think I'll go do something else now. Maybe figure out where I'm supposed to go tomorrow for that assessment test/interview with Sitel.

Sensitivity

I've always thought of myself as a sensitive person. I always thought that my feelings could be too easily hurt, or that I always took great care when it came to the feelings of others. Apparently this is not the case, and I am a much large jerk than I could have imagined. How crazy.

But, let's be honest and look from my perspective, because what other reason could you have to read this other than to see what I think? I believe that some people must just be, for lack of a more sophisticated term, "babies." Seriously, when did things get so serious? I know that I'm apathetic when it comes to most stuff, but I'm seriously concerned about how serious some people take such "serious" matters as have been defined by several serious conversations earlier this day. Maybe I am a jerk because I do not care as much.

That's another thing. I'll tell people I don't care when what I really mean is "I don't care about this nearly as much as you obviously do and I seriously wonder why we're even having this conversation as it is a waste of time, effort, breath, and so many other contributing factors." But of course, when you mention that this is what you really mean, it comes off far worse than "I don't care," so I'll stick with the latter. It's not that I don't care; I don't care as much as you do.

That in itself seems rude, too, doesn't it? The fact that I don't care about something someone else obviously cares a lot about is rude, right? Well, depending the person and the situation that we're in -- I don't care.

Maybe time has shaped me differently on the inside in the past years. I just feel like there are more important matters at hand and that by spending more time on whatever subject just causes the more important matters to slip further away and therefore let the stuff I don't care about win! And we can't have that!

Seriously. Don't be afraid to approach me about a subject. I'll listen, even if I don't care. I'll talk about it, even if I don't care. There's just a certain limit and certain actions you have to take that lets me go down the path of me blowing up in your face all the while saying "I don't care!" To be honest, the only person to have successfully done the above is Kristi Manning. Hat's off to ya. Nothing against her, and nothing she doesn't already know, it's just that she knows how to push my buttons on a comparable scale with my mom. Wow.

So yeah. You know you've made me angry when I say "I don't care!" It's at that point in the conversation when I'm just trying to end it so the person will go away. Why? Cause I'm a selfish being. I've lost track of what I was trying to say at the beginning of this.

Some people are too sensitive. Grow a spine. Everyone can be courageous and speak up if they work at it. Do not let every little thing that happens in the world get you down. There is more to life than the present.