So I was planning on writing a lengthy blog on Monday night, but I got all caught up in sending a lengthy email to a friend instead. To my friend: I apologize, I know you're busy, and probably had time to do more than skim. Next time I'll do better, and blog what should have been blogged. To everyone else: I'm leaving for Oklahoma at 3:15am Saturday. I suspect I will be very tired, but very happy to be disconnected from this monster called the internet. I need the break from work, and from myself. I have been living all wrapped up in my own head for too many weeks now. Next week is all about service: it's all about being "others" focused. I am soooo stoked to go!!
So I will see you all on the flip side, hopefully with some pics and tons of renewed positive energy.
:)
Meantime, don't forget to have a good night and a pleasant tomorrow! <3
Showing posts with label woot. Show all posts
Showing posts with label woot. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Thursday, May 14, 2009
help menus
Tonight I realized I'm not as tech savvy as I used to think. In fact, the longer I work in tech support, the more I realize how little I actually do know. Case and point:
1. Last week my neighbor, Amanda, was trying to show me some photos on her laptop. She was all freaked out because of virus warnings. She looked at me with her big brown eyes and said, "What should I do??!!!" I told her to run her antivirus scan. Advised her to keep her antivirus software current. Don't mess with viruses. Get whatever the latest greatest software is available to protect your computer. I know nothing about viruses, other than they are more often than not, very BAD news. I contracted the Facebook virus back when it was going around. That's when I realized I know nothing about viruses. Fortunately I work with some very talented people who do, but sadly my laptop still needed reimaged.
2. Due to MySpace I had some basic understanding of HTML. That is not to say I know anything about building web pages, because I don't. I learned that during my final project for my Advanced Tech Writing class. We had to put together a website and load sample pages onto it. I ended up paying for a host with a template so I wouldn't have to sit and figure it all out. One of my goals this summer is to learn the basics, so I can get my own site (gilliankilbride.com) up and running.
3. I deal with idiots on the phone all the time. People with CPA licenses asking me questions about why their corporate cards are not balancing. It blows my mind. What I have come to understand from these people is that an application is NOT "user friendly" if they have to read directions to understand how to use it. I'm actually ok with that. It gives tech support job security. So imagine my consternation when I had this thought cross my mind: "I can't understand why my iTunes won't play the whole dang playlist instead of just one song!! I've searched and searched for options but there aren't any! So much for Apple being user friendly!" DO'H!!!!
No, I never read the directions. Guess I should go now and read the help menu. Then I wouldn't be sitting here in silence trying to figure out what I want to blog about next.
1. Last week my neighbor, Amanda, was trying to show me some photos on her laptop. She was all freaked out because of virus warnings. She looked at me with her big brown eyes and said, "What should I do??!!!" I told her to run her antivirus scan. Advised her to keep her antivirus software current. Don't mess with viruses. Get whatever the latest greatest software is available to protect your computer. I know nothing about viruses, other than they are more often than not, very BAD news. I contracted the Facebook virus back when it was going around. That's when I realized I know nothing about viruses. Fortunately I work with some very talented people who do, but sadly my laptop still needed reimaged.
2. Due to MySpace I had some basic understanding of HTML. That is not to say I know anything about building web pages, because I don't. I learned that during my final project for my Advanced Tech Writing class. We had to put together a website and load sample pages onto it. I ended up paying for a host with a template so I wouldn't have to sit and figure it all out. One of my goals this summer is to learn the basics, so I can get my own site (gilliankilbride.com) up and running.
3. I deal with idiots on the phone all the time. People with CPA licenses asking me questions about why their corporate cards are not balancing. It blows my mind. What I have come to understand from these people is that an application is NOT "user friendly" if they have to read directions to understand how to use it. I'm actually ok with that. It gives tech support job security. So imagine my consternation when I had this thought cross my mind: "I can't understand why my iTunes won't play the whole dang playlist instead of just one song!! I've searched and searched for options but there aren't any! So much for Apple being user friendly!" DO'H!!!!
No, I never read the directions. Guess I should go now and read the help menu. Then I wouldn't be sitting here in silence trying to figure out what I want to blog about next.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
The sobering, the good, the funny, and the down right hilarious...
The sobering:
I emptied my mailbox after ignoring it for over a week, which is kinda normal for me. I think my mailman hates me. Anyways, divorce court officially notified me that our final hearing is May 21st. I already knew that. Hubby texted me at work last Friday to tell me. What was sobering is they tell you how much time they set aside for the hearing. Ten minutes. Ten minutes to end 11 years of marriage. How bout that.
The good:
School semester is finally over. I didn't study all weekend even though my facebook friends were lied to misled about that on Sunday. I actually went through the four tests we took during the semester on Monday and Tuesday nights, looked over another on Wednesday during lunch, and then went and took the test. My grade on the final exam was a 90, which pulled my shaky overall "B" up onto more solid ground. You may wonder why this was so important. Here you go:
1. The CLAST exam -- Florida's way of wringing more money out of its adult students is to force them to take a College Level Academic Skills Test. There is a math and an english section. I was already exempt from the English section because of all my English courses that transferred in from Temple University. The Math section is another story. I had not fulfilled my liberal arts requirements in Math, so no exemption there. I have had a CLAST hold put on my registration every semester since I reenrolled in school. I even sat through the CLAST and missed passing by SEVEN lousy points...sheesh. To be exempt, you have to have a 2.5 or better in two math classes. Stats is listed as one of those classes. The letter grade "B" puts me in the category of 3.0, so yay to the "B".
2. Reimbursement -- Work will only reimburse the course if you receive a letter grade of "B" or better.
3. Pride -- Pure and simple, I really didn't want to fail at anything. I have been humbled though, because that grade was made possible only through prayer.
The Funny:
I met Heather and Shayne during my first semester back in school. We used to sit through the boring tech writing class and laugh constantly. Since then, Heather and I have taken every writing class together (5 total), and Shayne has been in a couple of our classes too.
Last night Heather and Shayne had a final in a literature class they were taking together, and I had my Stats final. We hooked up afterwards at my favorite TexMex place, Tia's and hung out for a bit. I had my camera, and we had a blast. Heather took six pictures of me and Shayne together, and not ONE turned out well...They made me laugh the whole night, and I realized that I really am so much happier than I was a year ago.
Anyways, eating after 8pm is normally a huge no-no for me, and I remembered why at 3:30 in the morning when mild indigestion woke me up. After 1/2 an hour of tossing and turning, I got up and did my daily devotion. This morning on facebook, my status read:
NOTE TO SELF: No texmex btwn 8-10pm. It causes indigestion at 3:30am. NOTE TO SELF #2: Buy alka seltzer.
I finished reading and praying by 6am, so I set my alarm to go off in an hour and dosed off. I think what followed was hilarious, but I am giddy from lack of sleep.
The hilarious:
During my dosing time between 6am and 7am, I dreamed that my ex moved into my dining room. All his stuff: Bed (queen sized) book shelves (he doesnt own more than a couple of books) and a couple of chairs. Mind you, I live in a one bedroom apartment with about 800 sq ft. My dining room wouldn't accomodate most table and chairs, let alone a full set of furniture.
I was worried (in my dream) that I had woken him up by getting up at 4:00 with indigestion. He assured me this was not the case. I asked him when he was leaving, and he indicated that he wasn't planning on it. I told him he had to be out by the end of May, and started pointing out all the stuff he had to take with him when he goes. I woke up when my neighbors pounded on the door to ask why I was screaming.
Anyways, thats a REALLY long post. All that to say I'm so blessed to have people in my life who care, who make me laugh out loud, and who smack me around when I'm being stupid. You know who you are, and I love you.
I emptied my mailbox after ignoring it for over a week, which is kinda normal for me. I think my mailman hates me. Anyways, divorce court officially notified me that our final hearing is May 21st. I already knew that. Hubby texted me at work last Friday to tell me. What was sobering is they tell you how much time they set aside for the hearing. Ten minutes. Ten minutes to end 11 years of marriage. How bout that.
The good:
School semester is finally over. I didn't study all weekend even though my facebook friends were
1. The CLAST exam -- Florida's way of wringing more money out of its adult students is to force them to take a College Level Academic Skills Test. There is a math and an english section. I was already exempt from the English section because of all my English courses that transferred in from Temple University. The Math section is another story. I had not fulfilled my liberal arts requirements in Math, so no exemption there. I have had a CLAST hold put on my registration every semester since I reenrolled in school. I even sat through the CLAST and missed passing by SEVEN lousy points...sheesh. To be exempt, you have to have a 2.5 or better in two math classes. Stats is listed as one of those classes. The letter grade "B" puts me in the category of 3.0, so yay to the "B".
2. Reimbursement -- Work will only reimburse the course if you receive a letter grade of "B" or better.
3. Pride -- Pure and simple, I really didn't want to fail at anything. I have been humbled though, because that grade was made possible only through prayer.
The Funny:
I met Heather and Shayne during my first semester back in school. We used to sit through the boring tech writing class and laugh constantly. Since then, Heather and I have taken every writing class together (5 total), and Shayne has been in a couple of our classes too.
Last night Heather and Shayne had a final in a literature class they were taking together, and I had my Stats final. We hooked up afterwards at my favorite TexMex place, Tia's and hung out for a bit. I had my camera, and we had a blast. Heather took six pictures of me and Shayne together, and not ONE turned out well...They made me laugh the whole night, and I realized that I really am so much happier than I was a year ago.
Anyways, eating after 8pm is normally a huge no-no for me, and I remembered why at 3:30 in the morning when mild indigestion woke me up. After 1/2 an hour of tossing and turning, I got up and did my daily devotion. This morning on facebook, my status read:
NOTE TO SELF: No texmex btwn 8-10pm. It causes indigestion at 3:30am. NOTE TO SELF #2: Buy alka seltzer.
I finished reading and praying by 6am, so I set my alarm to go off in an hour and dosed off. I think what followed was hilarious, but I am giddy from lack of sleep.
The hilarious:
During my dosing time between 6am and 7am, I dreamed that my ex moved into my dining room. All his stuff: Bed (queen sized) book shelves (he doesnt own more than a couple of books) and a couple of chairs. Mind you, I live in a one bedroom apartment with about 800 sq ft. My dining room wouldn't accomodate most table and chairs, let alone a full set of furniture.
I was worried (in my dream) that I had woken him up by getting up at 4:00 with indigestion. He assured me this was not the case. I asked him when he was leaving, and he indicated that he wasn't planning on it. I told him he had to be out by the end of May, and started pointing out all the stuff he had to take with him when he goes. I woke up
Anyways, thats a REALLY long post. All that to say I'm so blessed to have people in my life who care, who make me laugh out loud, and who smack me around when I'm being stupid. You know who you are, and I love you.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Spiritual Gifts
Last August I somehow became involved in the College Ministry. It's an interesting story of me drifting aimlessly into the youth leadership planning meeting and leaving with the vague idea that I would be co-leading the group. While things didn't exactly work out that way, and the Children's ministry pulled me away for a whole month, I am now spending my time with the college kids, building relationships.
One of the students, still a fairly new christian, wanted to investigate the subject of spiritual gifts, so the teacher collaborated with one of the pastors and we ended up with a packet of information to sift through, and some dvds to watch.
The booklets begin with 129 statements and a rating scale of 1-5. The instructions are to label each statement according to the rating scale: 1 is least like you and 5 is most. Through lots of complicated instructions and processes I won't detail here, you could easily see on a grid all of the spiritual gifts, and which one was strongest for you. Mine was encouragement. But I already knew that. I took a very similar test in Atlanta 7 years ago, and had the exact same gift. What did surprise me was the 2 runners up. In the prior test they were Hospitality and Service. This time it was Faith and Evangelism. I know my faith is very strong, and I know I have come a long way from my upbringing, but I had no idea I would score so highly in the evangelism category. I will address the reasons for surprise in a future blog.
Overall, although the test was helpful, it served only to confirm to me what the Holy Spirit was already working in me during the past six months. My gifts and personality traits (there was a personality test in the packet also) are uniquely suited to things like choir, prayer, counseling, and discipleship. It struck me today as we were watching one of the dvd lessons that go along with the packet: part of the reason I have a fountain of joy in the middle of pain is because I am following the Spirit's lead. I am actively encouraging people, began prayer walking in January, and am currently building relationships that will hopefully have an influence on others' walks with Christ.
All this is not to toot my own horn, but to encourage you to pray and ask God for direction in where and how you should serve. You should not be feeling frustrated and burnt out over what you are doing for Jesus, but instead feel fulfilled. I know my spiritual journey in the last year has taken me down a very strange path. But now, in the middle of great stress (school, divorce, and other stuff) I have indescribable JOY.
One of the students, still a fairly new christian, wanted to investigate the subject of spiritual gifts, so the teacher collaborated with one of the pastors and we ended up with a packet of information to sift through, and some dvds to watch.
The booklets begin with 129 statements and a rating scale of 1-5. The instructions are to label each statement according to the rating scale: 1 is least like you and 5 is most. Through lots of complicated instructions and processes I won't detail here, you could easily see on a grid all of the spiritual gifts, and which one was strongest for you. Mine was encouragement. But I already knew that. I took a very similar test in Atlanta 7 years ago, and had the exact same gift. What did surprise me was the 2 runners up. In the prior test they were Hospitality and Service. This time it was Faith and Evangelism. I know my faith is very strong, and I know I have come a long way from my upbringing, but I had no idea I would score so highly in the evangelism category. I will address the reasons for surprise in a future blog.
Overall, although the test was helpful, it served only to confirm to me what the Holy Spirit was already working in me during the past six months. My gifts and personality traits (there was a personality test in the packet also) are uniquely suited to things like choir, prayer, counseling, and discipleship. It struck me today as we were watching one of the dvd lessons that go along with the packet: part of the reason I have a fountain of joy in the middle of pain is because I am following the Spirit's lead. I am actively encouraging people, began prayer walking in January, and am currently building relationships that will hopefully have an influence on others' walks with Christ.
All this is not to toot my own horn, but to encourage you to pray and ask God for direction in where and how you should serve. You should not be feeling frustrated and burnt out over what you are doing for Jesus, but instead feel fulfilled. I know my spiritual journey in the last year has taken me down a very strange path. But now, in the middle of great stress (school, divorce, and other stuff) I have indescribable JOY.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Facebook update
I have been without Facebook since April 3rd. Not be be dramatic, or anything like that, but this is like the Ancient Mariner: Water, water, everywhere yet not a drop to drink!
Last Thursday, Barak Obama added me as a relative on Facebook. That night, I changed my primary email because I am about to disable the one I used to open the account. Friday am (on my morning break, of course!!) I tried to log into Facebook and could not. Thinking I was an idiot and couldn't remember my password, I asked for a reset. Nothing. None of my six email addresses received a password reset from Facebook. So I sent them an email. I received a reply back, which basically asked me to confirm that I was me. Not really sure how that works, but ok. I responded. I waited patiently for them to respond to my response. Finally, I sent them another email. And another... Sad story. If I'm not on by the end of the semester (April 25th) I will open a new account under my maiden name (I'm changing it legally this summer, anyway), and see you all there.
Meantime, the notifications that go out from facebook tells me that MYRELATIVES has found 48 potential new relatives for me. TYVM stupid app, but the fact that they are related to relatives of mine, doesn't mean that they are related to me... And what is with all the distant cousins? I don't even know the proper terms for half of you. But, our moms were 3rd cousins once removed, (or something like that) so we are related. Can't lie to a facebook app, now can we? So how many of you are related to Barak Obama? Does this mean we get invited to the White House for a slammin' 4th of July BBQ??
Also, last night was the first performance. It was fun. I think I'm going to relax and enjoy tomorrow. Don't know if I'll ever want to do this again, though, cause it stretched my nerves to the limit. Rather be safe in the middle of the choir. Your mistakes get covered up there...
O well, back to the monster project due next Monday. Ya'll take care and leave me some love. :)
Last Thursday, Barak Obama added me as a relative on Facebook. That night, I changed my primary email because I am about to disable the one I used to open the account. Friday am (on my morning break, of course!!) I tried to log into Facebook and could not. Thinking I was an idiot and couldn't remember my password, I asked for a reset. Nothing. None of my six email addresses received a password reset from Facebook. So I sent them an email. I received a reply back, which basically asked me to confirm that I was me. Not really sure how that works, but ok. I responded. I waited patiently for them to respond to my response. Finally, I sent them another email. And another... Sad story. If I'm not on by the end of the semester (April 25th) I will open a new account under my maiden name (I'm changing it legally this summer, anyway), and see you all there.
Meantime, the notifications that go out from facebook tells me that MYRELATIVES has found 48 potential new relatives for me. TYVM stupid app, but the fact that they are related to relatives of mine, doesn't mean that they are related to me... And what is with all the distant cousins? I don't even know the proper terms for half of you. But, our moms were 3rd cousins once removed, (or something like that) so we are related. Can't lie to a facebook app, now can we? So how many of you are related to Barak Obama? Does this mean we get invited to the White House for a slammin' 4th of July BBQ??
Also, last night was the first performance. It was fun. I think I'm going to relax and enjoy tomorrow. Don't know if I'll ever want to do this again, though, cause it stretched my nerves to the limit. Rather be safe in the middle of the choir. Your mistakes get covered up there...
O well, back to the monster project due next Monday. Ya'll take care and leave me some love. :)
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