Archive for March, 2008

In Design, Out of Life

Monday, March 31st, 2008

I don’t think I’ve mentioned it among the morsels yet, but I recently got a new position at the church.  I go from department to department filling in when people are on vacation or until a position is filled.  It’s like I’m a permanent temp.  The position was originally titled a “Floater,” but the 7th grade boy inside of me (not literally) laughs at the potty humor implied whenever I hear that.  I’m trying to get “Circulating Staff” to catch on.  We’ll see.  If all else fails, that boy will be highly amused.  If you ever find me laughing at a fart joke, I beg you to sit me down and have “the talk.”

Tomorrow I’m helping out in the communications department putting the bulletins together using Adobe InDesign in CS3.  I was doing some online training today, and the trainer in the video said, “If you’re upgrading from CS2, you’ll enjoy some of the great new developments.  If you’re upgrading from CS1, your brain might actually explode from all of the cool features you’ll be encountering.”

I’ve never even used CS1, so what does this mean for me?!!  I feel that for the sake of the cleaning company, I should at least wear a hat to work.  And I should probably note that I’ve always thought that I’d like to be buried, but at that point… what does it matter?  It’s not like small bits of me are that much better than smaller bits of me.  Seems like a waste of casket if you’re not going to use the whole thing.

If I have to risk my brain so that 7,000 people can know what the theme for Vacation Bible Camp is (”Once Upon a Parable,” by the way), then so be it!  That’s the kind of sacrifice I’m willing to make.  Though I’d probably think twice about it if I didn’t have that darn 7th grade boy living inside of me.  He’s not the brightest one in the bunch.

It’s the End Of the World As We Know It

Sunday, March 30th, 2008

Think Geek is selling one of the best t-shirts ever.

Inigo Montoya t-shirt

I don’t mean to be consumeristic, but my world might end if I don’t get that shirt. Seeing that I share a world with most of you, you better hope that I get it.

Twitterpated

Saturday, March 29th, 2008

I’ve just made a new discovery. I’m sure you know about it as you are much cooler than I am, but on the rare chance that you haven’t, check it out. It’s Twitter. As they say on their site,

Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?

It’s like rapid blogging via texting. I found out about it when Amy L. (who seriously needs a blog… come on, folks… give the lady a little encouragement!) pointed it out to me on Dooce’s site. Hil-ar-i-ous! Treasure! I tell you, it’s treasure! Dooce linked to a friend of hers, that I would like to be a friend of mine. I only know him from his brief bits of Twitter, but I can tell we’re off to a what could be a fabulous, lifelong, one-sided friendship. Wouldn’t you want to be friends with somebody that came up with sentences like this?

Just came to. There’s a tiny lump next to me here in the bed. Little buckle shoes sticking out. Dear god I hope it’s a leprechaun.

or

Sorry gang but I’ve got some serious “resurrected after being dead for three days” morning breath.

So have fun checking out the Twitter Treasure. Maybe I’ll get up the courage one day to do some twittering of my own.

With Me, It’s Heavy On the Hate

Saturday, March 29th, 2008

Tonight we saw that New Balance commercial that starts off, “You’ve got a relationship with running, a love/hate relationship.”  That’s when Brandon chimed in with, “Actually, running and I broke up.  We bump into each other every now and then and it’s really awkward.”

Thou Shalt Not Score

Thursday, March 27th, 2008

This morning in staff chapel, we sang Chris Tomlin’s Everlasting God.  Part of lyrics are

You do not faint
You won’t grow weary
You’re the defender of the weak

While we were singing today, I thought, “This song could go an entirely different direction if the A in ‘weak’ was an E.”

You do not faint
You won’t grow weary
You’re the defender of the week

Can you imagine turning on the T.V., the sports commentator comes on and says, “And the latest in soccer news is that the UEFA has named God as the defender of the week.  This bold move has left much of the world asking What? Que? Ce qui? Che cosa? Huh?.  Just when everyone thought that Paolo Maldini out of Milan was a shoo-in, comes this surprising announcement.  The President of the UEFA, Michel Platini, defended this decision by saying that

While Maldini played superbly in the game against Barcelona on Monday, we felt that his performance was not quite on par with God who stopped scoring in 4 different games with his use of a dust devil, a bolt of lightening, a wild dog darting across the field and what can best be described as the spontaneous combustion of a ball.  We just found that God was a much fiercer competitor this week than Maldini.

And now onto basketball.”

God doesn’t just play to play, He plays to win.  So three cheers for God, the Defender of the Week!

Put Downs

Wednesday, March 26th, 2008

Putting a friend down is never nice… especially if your friend is a horse.

Last In the Neilsens

Tuesday, March 25th, 2008

So I’ve been watching High School Confidential on WE tv which is self described as

“In this unprecedented television event, we follow 12 diverse girls through their tumultuous and exhilarating high school experience. They encounter sex, drugs, unwanted pregnancy, health crisis, and family chaos – all while trying to discover who they are. Each episode explores the girls’ stories through four years of heartache, discovery, friendship, and self-acceptance. These are stories we can all relate to.”

Except here’s the thing, I can’t relate.  In watching this show, I realize that I must have had the most boring high school experience ever.  Seriously.  If there was a “Janelle” episode.  It would look like this:

Freshman year

  • Went to a New Kids On the Block concert in Oklahoma City.
  • Got into a fight with my two best friends that resulted in them no longer talking to me.  I’d go into details, but I think it involved New Kids On the Block, and I don’t feel the need to further humiliate myself than to admit the simple fact that it involved New Kids on the Block.

Sophmore year

  • Joined the flag team.  It’s like cheerleaders or dance team, but significantly less cool.
  • I was grounded for spending too much time with my friends.  My parents wanted to see me at home, and grounding me seemed like the most efficient way of making that happen.  I know what you’re thinking, and I don’t get it either.

Junior year

  • Had friends call me out of American History class to assist them in their “research” for Debate.  The research that we were doing involved a deck of cards in a game that we renamed Ketchup Bottle Crust to make it family friendly.  Skipping class - okay.  Skipping class to play a dirty named game - too far.
  • Got my 76 Datsun 710 stuck in an ATV course that was on “No Trespassing” land outside of town.  Don’t know what I was thinking besides, “Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!  Uh-oh.”

Senior year

  • Became captain of the flag team.  I was #1 of the significantly less cool group!
  • Got chased by a buffalo while wearing my shiny flag team uniform.  You know something’s wrong when you hear an entire stadium gasp.

So there you have it, the oh-so-exciting Janelle episode.  Set your DVR now!

Can you beat that?

A Letter to Ikea

Monday, March 24th, 2008

Dear Ikea,

Hi, How are you?

I was wondering why you haven’t put a store in the Kansas City area. Do you not know how badly we need you? Sure we have plenty of furniture stores around here, but none of them are nearly as trendy and none of them have any products with two dots over their vowels (makes the Os look like little shocked faces mid-word).

It’s very disheartening that you won’t consider us here in the middle of the states. Do Californians really need 8 stores? What about us? Yes, yes… we know… we can always shop online. But how are we to know how soft your Gosa Pinje pillows are if we can’t touch them? And how can we experience the thrill of your shopping cart escalator if we can’t ride it?

I know, who am I to ask a major corporation like you to accommodate a little shopper like me? Don’t get me wrong. I understand that you’re a pretty big thing…probably the biggest to come out of Sweden since Abba. If you can wear jumpsuits like this, you may even get bumped up to #1.

Abba

All I ask is that you consider putting a store in the Kansas City area, and if you won’t, could you send me 1 Kramfors and a couple of Tylosands… you know, the ones with the shocked faces in the middle?

Thanks! Or as you say – Tack!

Janelle

Happy Easter!

Sunday, March 23rd, 2008

easter.jpg

Home English Home

Saturday, March 22nd, 2008

Home English Home

It’s got everything you want in an English lesson…love, tragedy and sushi.