hushed gray: the Kevin chronicles

Sunday, January 28, 2007

Another week
I need to throw some rocks out of my wagon. (Kudos to anyone who knows what I'm talking about.)

Had a nice Sabbath despite sleeping poorly Friday night. Mr. T spoke about combating mediocrity--definitely a message where I need to go back and review my notes. After services I went to lunch with Jennifer, Ashley, Teri, and Matt. It was a nice time. I have to give Teri credit, she has an uncanny knack for asking questions that ferret out little tidbits of information. Perhaps she should be an investigative reporter. And Ashley perhaps has questions about what happens after graduation, and I can't blame her. You go to school for four years and then go get a job, and then you just...work. I guess there are people in the world whose lives are centered on their work, but I don't know how they avoid being completely and utterly miserable. Working hard and putting forth effort is great, but you've got to balance it with something, primarily I think with personal growth and moving toward a position in God's Family. Okay, I'm through with my soap box for now.

Last night I was just hanging out by myself here at the apartment, which really does not happen much anymore. It gave me time to work on tracking down and editing some music that Devon and I need for our skit for entertainment night. Some time back Michael and Trisha had sent a Cool Edit Pro 2 CD to me--Adobe bought out Syntrillium a few years ago so the product isn't even manufactured anymore, but for the minor stuff I was doing it was quite effective.

It appears I have enough clean undershirts to get through tomorrow without a) washing clothes or b) buying more undershirts. Which is good, I'm penciling laundry in on Tuesday since I have a lunch meeting with the news director tomorrow.

The e-mail is about caught up, including the most recent couple of stamp trading requests, and now I can start on the letters that have arrived over the past week. That is one task I do enjoy.

I need to sort through that box of foreign stamps I've had sitting around for months and decide what I'm going to keep and what I want to try putting together for a lot on eBay. I probably won't get more than a couple of bucks if that, but for the most part it's not material in which I have a particular interest, and it's not material I'm ever going to have time to properly organize. Better to pass it on to someone else who might be able to get some use out of it, focusing my attention on U.S. issues and landscapes.

That seems to be it for the free flow of thoughts right at the moment, so I'm going to see about getting myself into presentable shape for work. Later peeps!

posted at 2:03 pm | permalink | 1 comment

Friday, January 26, 2007

Heigh ho, heigh ho, it's off to work I go
Called in on a Friday for the second time in the past three weeks, but I guess it frees me from deciding what to get done today. Farewell!

posted at 11:50 am | permalink | 1 comment

Rockin' pneumonia, boogie woogie flu
Sorry, but it's such a catchy song! Oddly enough, Clark Howard occasionally uses it as bump music, and Ed was able to figure out close enough to what it was for me to track down the title and artist. I'm apparently familiar with several of Johnny Rivers' songs, though I did not know that.

I think if I were forced to choose between spoken word and written word, I would go with written. I'll allow that spoken word better conveys emotions and urgency, but written word can be more carefully crafted, massaged until you've found the right words if you will. Never underestimate the power of the written word. Think that takes care of my random thought for the week.

On Thursday I finally finished plowing through a couple of stamp trading requests off the main Web site. I'm thinking I may need to set a limit on how many stamps I'll trade in a single exchange simply so I don't get these requests that take a week to process.

posted at 2:55 am | permalink | 0 comments

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

I don't understand
Can anyone explain why a letter postmarked in Ohio on January 18th would arrive here the same day as a letter postmarked in Ohio on January 13th? The only visible difference between the two envelopes is that the one that made the trip more quickly bears only a Canadian stamp (and yet I was not charged postage due). One of the vagaries of the USPS, I suppose.

posted at 2:49 am | permalink | 0 comments

Monday, January 22, 2007

Well that's weird
When I access my favorites in Internet Explorer, all the icons (whether favicons or the default IE icon) show up fine. When I access my favorites through the Start menu, a number of icons are mysteriously missing, replaced by the default program icon. I don't claim to understand why, this is just what I'm seeing right now.

It's really a pity no one is around right now because I feel like I'm in a very talkative mood tonight. There's just a lot of stuff bouncing around in my head. Some of it may end up here, some of it will definitely not end up here because I'm not a complete fool--no reason to say anything that could get me canned!

When I cranked the car to go to work, the air bag light on the dash didn't just go out as normal, instead it assumed a slow, steady flashing. The owner's manual indicates this means I need to have the side air bags checked, and the slow flashing of that indicator light will very likely spur me to have that done within the next couple of weeks. Since I've not been in any collisions, and based on previous experience/observations (such as the constantly-blinking thermostat light in the Jetta, the contantly-burning check engine light in my folks' Grand Marquis, etc.), I'm half expecting it to be a faulty sensor or something like that. Nevertheless, it's probably worth having it checked out before too long. Could go ahead and have the coolant hoses replaced at the same time since I don't know when the previous owner may have had that done.

The Sabbath was fairly nice overall. Mr. S used Elijah kind of as a focal point for a sermon on depression. Interesting. After the Sabbath, Matt, Devon, and I drove down to St. Augustine to visit with Jennifer, Ashley, and Teri. We played Pit (I tied for last) and Cranium. And let me just say that I am nearly always on the losing team when it's guys vs. girls. This is by no means a slam on Devon and Matt; we did very respectably at Cranium. Anyway, it's just an observation. It was a fun night, and we guys got back up this way before it was too terribly late.

Although I'm caught up on written correspondence--in part due to an expected letter not having arrived just yet--I am terribly, terribly, terribly far behind on e-mail once again. I've really got to get better at managing my time.

There's more to discuss, but I'm tired. I ought to finish prepping the mail that needs to go out today so that I can get to bed for a few hours.

posted at 2:55 am | permalink | 1 comment

Friday, January 19, 2007

That's disturbing to me...it's disturbing...yeah, very disturbing
So yesterday I went to the laundromat (to do laundry), and it was far busier than I was expecting based on the past 2+ years I've been going there. Nevertheless, I found available washers and dryers and wrote a letter while my clothes cleaned. But that's not the disturbing thing.

The disturbing thing arose after I finished the laundry. I went to the post office, which was not as busy as I expected, in search of stamps. In particular, I was looking for the new Oklahoma stamps that are supposed to be out by now. They didn't have any! Now seriously, that's like me going on air without any news. Sad. Anyway, I settled for another sweet issue, a booklet of the new Love / Kisses stamp. It'll move the mail for now, at least.

That is, of course, presuming the mail doesn't simply get lost. I had to pay my phone bill over the phone today because the check I mailed over a week ago still hasn't shown up and the bill's due tomorrow. The check could still get there, in which case I'm paid up for this month and next, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. An expected letter also has not arrived in my mailbox yet...just how much disruption could the federal holiday at the beginning of the week have caused for the USPS?

Spent quite a bit of time on the phone this evening catching up with family and friends. Had brown rice and chicken for dinner again, very tasty. Also toyed around on the guitar, nothing too spectacular but it was enjoyable.

At this point I have nothing in particular planned for after the Sabbath. Despite my appreciation of order and structure, I don't mind having a fair bit of unbooked downtime. Guess that's okay as long as I don't waste it all.

posted at 10:52 pm | permalink | 1 comment

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Middle of the week
I'm not sure how it happened, but I'm nearly out of 39¢ stamps. I'm going to have to rectify that situation, with the new Oklahoma issue if the local post office has it in stock.

It is wet and rather cool today, not bone-chilling but only in the 50's. Yesterday it was around 80.

posted at 3:27 pm | permalink | 1 comment

Sunday, January 14, 2007

How 'bout that grapefruit?
It's nearly time to head back to the mines, but I do want to briefly recap what was really a great weekend, primarily on the strength of how enjoyable the Sabbath was.

Grapefruit I hadn't been to visit the Tallahassee brethren since last May, I guess, so it seemed like it was high time for a trip over there. I left the apartment right at 10 a.m. and arrived at the E's by 12:50. I was greatly surprised to find Mr. W there--had no idea he would be over that way. Transferred my stuff to the E's SUV, then Mrs. E, Mr. W, and I set out for Tallahassee.

All the old guard was at church, along with a Mrs. R who apparently just started attending recently. While attendance numbers are about the same as when I left, there's the prospect of at least a bit of growth in the area, which I was pleased to hear.

In a group that small, all visitors are celebrities for a day--and liable to be asked to do something. I lead songs, which I didn't mind doing, and asked Mr. W to give the closing prayer. Joked that he probably thought he'd get out of that by not being in Jacksonville!

We had a very good DVD sermon by Mr. Dave J, after which we partook of a meal, then visited for a while. After getting back to the E's place I sat and talked with them for a bit. Mr. E gave me three gigantic grapefruits, one of which is pictured. I got back to my apartment around 10:30 or so, so it was a rather long day with a lot of time on the road--and yet I feel very refreshed. It was quite a pleasant day. (For what it's worth, the car got a bit over 42 miles-per-gallon on the trip. It was almost entirely open highway driving between fill-ups, so I think this is probably about the most accurate mileage number I've gotten on that front.)

I spent parts of this afternoon getting some stamps sorted out and getting checking account records up to date.

posted at 5:27 pm | permalink | 1 comment

Friday, January 12, 2007

Fair and balanced, sure
There's some stuff I didn't get to this week (such as but by no means limited to cleaning the shower), partly due to less than perfect time management, partly due to just not having enough time. I'll try to sweep up at least some of the remnants on Sunday.

Little Green Alien I got an envelope from a friend today, no note inside but instead a box containing a green three-eyed alien pen. What an awesome gift, and quite a friend I've got. And yesterday I got a letter from Jessica, and earlier in the week (or last weekend, one) a note from Aunt Donna. A decent week for mail in spite of the sundry bills that arrived.

My stamp collection hasn't been completely neglected this week, but with a busy work schedule giving me nearly 50 hours on the timesheet it hasn't gotten a great deal of attention, either. Have filled a stamp trading request or two from the main Web site, but that's the bulk of it. It's a pity, too...in browsing through some of the trades I've received over the past few months I've spotted some really nice (albeit inexpensive) stuff that I'd like to get sorted out and integrated into my collection. It is in some strange way relaxing. All in good time, I suppose.

May as well see about getting to bed, hopefully a pleasant day is in store. Farewell.

posted at 11:40 pm | permalink | 1 comment

Thursday, January 11, 2007

I'm not much for politics
But did anyone else get the gloomy feeling there wasn't much new in the President's speech on Iraq? I'm not saying I've got any better ideas and we don't get involved in that stuff anyway, but I'm glad I'm not depending on human leaders to fix things up.

Except for Sunday morning, this week has been disturbingly unproductive and to some extent unfulfilling.

For what it's worth (which may be "not much"), McAfee SiteAdvisor seems to like Philosateleia okay. Who knew? Again, I'm not sure of the exact value of this.

I'm out of gas. Goodnight.

posted at 2:52 am | permalink | 1 comment

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Why does it have to be so complicated?
I think I can make it official now: I'll take a crime scene with a dozen police officers than the outside of a sports bar with a dozen football fans any day.

At least I can reasonably presume the officers are sober.

But having to go out to get MOS on the Gators win could have been worse. At least the Gators did win, so I was talking with happy, inebriated souls. Had the Gators lost, I would have been talking with a bunch of angry drunks.

Seemingly not the most productive day ever at work, but we got that audio.

On an unrelated note, I very much recommend Nickelback's "If Everyone Cared," which I heard today for the first time. The chorus: "If everyone cared and nobody cried / If everyone loved and nobody lied / If everyone shared and swallowed their pride / We'd see the day when nobody died." I think it sounds rather millennial.

I'm going to sort or soak some stamps to try to unwind before catching a few hours sleep. Later on, laundry. Goodnight.

posted at 2:43 am | permalink | 1 comment

Monday, January 08, 2007

Handkerchief, please
I think my head's going to explode. For some reason the allergies have been in rare form the past 18 hours or so. As soon as I finish this I'm going to bed. I'm not sure that'll help much, but it seems like a reasonable alternative given the time anyway.

Despite my efforts to stay busy, work was kind of slow. When the local "news" stations lead off with 10 minutes of coverage of the Florida Gators (who aren't even based in Jacksonville in the first place), I get a little bit annoyed. Not greatly annoyed, just a little bit. And I don't think it's so much that I dislike the news and sports worlds colliding, it's more that I dislike when sports masquerades as news and there's really no connection by which one could really even argue that it's news. But then I'm just a producer.

One thing that did kind of keep me going today is plans for a visit to Tallahassee appear to be falling into place. I haven't been over there since Mother's Day weekend of last year, so I'd say it's about time for a trip.

posted at 2:42 am | permalink | 1 comment

Friday, January 05, 2007

No overtime, please
Well I should get paid for 55 hours of work this week (47 worked plus eight for New Year's Day). I'm scheduled to work 49 hours this coming week, though that total could increase slightly if I'm called in early at any point.

As you might guess, I'm a bit tired right now.

I'd be well advised to put some things in order around here this weekend.

Earlier this week I saw a fellow (presumably one of my neighbors) walking around with a pet raccoon sitting on his shoulders.

posted at 10:21 pm | permalink | 0 comments

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Burning the midnight candle at both ends
So I walk into work today, and on glass door in the hallway is a sign with bold lettering proudly welcoming the newest "edition" to one of the stations.

I weep for the English language.

Seriously, folks, I got called in early today. That's not so much as a surprise as is that I worked a full week-and-a-half on this crazy shift before getting called in early for the first time. I've worked about 28 hours this week, and I'm scheduled for 18 more.

Oh, and did I mention I'll get paid for eight more hours for New Year's Day? I may be wiped out at the end of the week, but a tolerably healthy paycheck ought to come along somewhere in the near future.

The work schedule has kept me from getting much of some other stuff done this week, but there are only so many hours of the day, and I like setting aside some of them for sleeping and eating. And now that I'm doing doing the latter I think I'd like to do some of the former.

posted at 2:55 am | permalink | 1 comment

Monday, January 01, 2007

What time is it?
I had a very nice weekend. As I noted in my last entry, Friday was reasonably productive, and involved lots of "socializing" (albeit by phone and IM) that evening. The Sabbath went well, too; there were on-and-off rain showers Saturday morning, but by that afternoon it was mostly sunny and really very nice outside. Devon, Matt, and I had the opportunity to go to lunch with Mr. J, who regaled us with stories from his youth. Mr. J made the interesting observation that we're going to have to be prepared for the billions and billions of people that will be resurrected after the first 1,000 years because they're all going to need something to eat and somewhere to sleep that first night. I'd never really thought about that angle.

Matt and Devon came over to my place Saturday evening and we just spent the evening talking. We're all only in our early 20's, but looking back on the past few years time flies. Matt spent the night here before heading out yesterday morning, and I spent some time yesterday grappling with some new additions to my stamp collection. Then I went to work.

And frankly, I don't so much mind working on New Year's Eve. There's no way I'd be out and about, and the ridiculous glasses and hats revelers shown on TV were wearing...it's all a bunch of foolishness in my book.

posted at 11:18 am | permalink | 1 comment