by on June 8, 2007

Music at Work Is Pretty Sweet Home Born to be Kryptonite

I know that looks like my words got jumbled, but I can’t nail down one song for my friendly “Tag, you’re it!” from Terry Starbucker today. This is for his request to participate in Songs That Make Your Heart Sing by Hilda Carroll.

I love music. To me, a good evening is a nice dinner and 2 hours of American Idol or a Joe Satriani concert on HD. I grew up with band, choir, and listened to tapes when I went to bed. I’d fall asleep listening to my Walkman trying to drown out the sound of the cicadas in rural Ohio on a warm summer night.

I’m an audiophile by nature and sport the best headphones I can afford (currently the Philips SHE9500 Premium Sound), and I listen to Yahoo! Music’s Launchcast all day long at my desk. To come up with my favorite song, I just couldn’t. You can’t nail me down to one book or movie, either. 🙂

According to my stats, my 3 favorite energy-giving songs are:

  1. Sweet Home Alabama
  2. Born to Be Wild (dangerous for me to listen to in the car)
  3. Kryptonite

If those songs don’t wake you up and want to kick butt and take names, nothing will, IMHO. While I have thousands of songs in my ratings and dozens of “I love it”-rated songs, these will get me going every time. How about you, Phil, Steve, and Kent?

Filed Under: Blogging
by on June 7, 2007

What I Got Out of SOBCon07 and How it Changed Me

Jesse Petersen, up close and personalI have been, for a great many years, an introvert. I would say I was nearly off-the-charts-introverted when I was 16-18 years old. That does not mean I did not have friends, but that I chose them deliberately and with much consideration of thousands of attributes and scenarios. I was messy, but then again, that was how I saw people. I still do to a great extent to this day.

Last night, my shrink (I call him that, but he’s really a psychologist that is great with “normal” people) had some insight to some extraordinary changes we are seeing in me. Today, I peel back my mask and show you what’s underneath partly as a result of SOBCon07.

Ready?

I have what is called “a hatred of humankind.” Not my words, but his. People are messy. They hurt you, demand things, give you things, and then demand more because of it. After years on the playground, on team sports, and playing office politics, I was wounded. People sucked and I didn’t care much for any of them aside from my family and people I already knew. I wanted people to be like machines, like I saw and still see myself as. Weird, I know, but that is how I have operated for years. Until I met my wife, that is.

Five years ago, my life changed. I suddenly became more interested in how someone else felt than myself. I sacrificed my time, my money, my gas, and my energy for the well-being of another person. It was wonderful. Until I got hurt.

Now that I am happily married for almost 8 months now, I am feeling more secure with people in general because I am successfuly navigating a close relationship that takes hours of attention each week. It’s a lot of work, but it is decidedly worth it. I attended SOBCon07 all by myself without having met anyone else attending. The closest contact I had until then was phone calls with Liz Strauss and our many comments on each others’ blogs.

I walked into the social time Friday night and found an empty table to put my laptop bag at and wait for others to come to me. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Blogging, Relationships
by on June 6, 2007

You’re Fired!

I wonder...What would you do differently today if you suspected it might be your last day at the office?

Pink SlipI had a nasty dream up until I woke up this morning. I have no idea how long I was dreaming this awful scenario, but it freaked me out. For some reason, my subconscious dreamt that the chief of Company security, a security guard, and someone lurking in the shadows came to my highly modified dream-like work area to let me know that today was my last day and placed two 2’x1’x1′ boxes with lids on my desk to pack all of my things. Then I laughed and told him I’d need more boxes than that, so they all left me to pack up.

My cube mate was quietly crying around the corner, devastated that someone so fun was leaving, so I kept up a friendly chat the whole time. For some reason I had about 15 Beanie Babies, a laptop, and more gizmos than you can shake a stick at.

I was freaking out the whole time I was packing, thinking about what we were going to do for money. This is the best job I’ve ever had, it’s barely paying the bills, and we’d only have one more quarter paycheck coming if today was my last day. “That’s it; we’re sunk,” was all I could think for a long time in my dream.

Then something happened. I remembered that I have a degree. I have experience. Better yet, I have a network of people and friends and family that will chiefly make sure we don’t starve or lose our apartment. Best yet, I have a promise from God that all of my needs will be met on a daily basis.

I have full confidence that people will help funnel work my way until I can firmly settle down into something freelance. It was an uplifting event. I have never awoken so pumped about the day with a total “come what may” attitude. Not that today would be my last day, but what if Friday was? I think I would handle it a lot better than before my dream.

Now I hand this off to you. How would you take such life-changing news? Can you find it within yourself to pull yourself up and keep on trucking if today was your last day at work?

Filed Under: I Wonder, Office Life
by on June 6, 2007

Rolling Rock Beer; Fair or Foul?

This had me in stitches, however, I recently read some angry pieces about men being portrayed as guffawing baffoons in the media. Obviously, some people think this is funny, as almost 1 million people have viewed it on YouTube’s site.

What do you say, is this commercial fair or foul?

Filed Under: Wacky Wednesday
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