» Out of my depth

it's a Miracle...
Way back in the 80's my first real girlfriend had convinced me to go to bible study class with her on Wednesday nights. I happily agreed, thinking that I could just hide the fact that I was a total atheist.

My plan worked until one night we watched a video of the "Lady of Medujorge" and all of the pilgrims who had traveled to Yugoslavia to experience this "miracle".

After it was over, instinctively I blurted out "What a load of crap". I then realized that everyone else in the room had been moved and affected by the video in a different way than I had. My remark was met with cold stares.

I was politely, but firmly asked never to come back.
(Tue 19th Oct 2004, 16:06, More)

» Unexpected Good Fortune

Being laid off's the best thing that ever happened to me....
I had been working for a medical delivery company in Houston, TX for 4 years. In October 2002, they announced that we were all getting laid off in December so just get ready for it.

It just so happened that the same company had a position open in Pittsburgh, PA and that they could set up an interview for me much closer to home in Dallas, TX. I went to the interview, it was horrible, humilating and just bad but afterwards I went to visit an old high school friend of mine who lived in Dallas.

He let me crash at his house that night. When I work up the next morning, a sign had been hung from the ceiling of the hallway "You Have An Interview At My Company at 11:30." so I got dressed in my same nice interview clothes from the night before, went to the company and got hired on the spot.

My first Christmas bonus was $11,000.
(Fri 15th Sep 2006, 20:49, More)

» Evidence that you're getting old

The first symptom...
..was when I started to dislike teenagers.

I can't stand to watch MTV at all.

I think the best music was made in the late 80's-early 90's.

Top 40 music is largely garbage.

I don't understand hip-hop at all.

A girl in my office didn't know who Milli Vanilli were or why they were famous.

I am worried about cholesterol, diabetes, cancer, etc.

My little sister is creeping up on 30 years old.
(Thu 28th Oct 2004, 17:57, More)

» How nerdy are you?

Gary Gygax set the wheels of my fate in motion.
Even though I never met him, Mr. Gygax has had more influence on my life than just about any other human on the planet.

I can remember the first time I ever saw the box set of D&D with the red dragon on the cover, I was 12 years old. From that point onward, nothing would ever be the same. I became so obsessed with D&D and rpg's in general that I actually flunked out of 6th grade.

I haven't played in18 years or so, but I can credit D&D with:

1. Me becoming an athiest.
2. My intense interest in computers (which is the field I work in now).
3. My love of Monty Python.
4. A very good understanding of probabilities.
5. The huge amount of reading that I did as a kid, to the point of reading university level European history texts when I was 12 or 13 years old.
6. My general outlook on life.

I have been sad all week remembering all this stuff and thinking about all my D&D adventures, it makes me want to climb up in the attic and find all my books and modules a fire up a campaign.
(Fri 7th Mar 2008, 19:21, More)

» Job Interviews

Sabotaged!
When our branch was being shut down, we were informed of all of the other job openings at the company. I seemed remotely qualified for one, so I applied and got an interview. It was a four hour drive to the offices, but, having just learned how to use Access and SQL at school, I felt like I would easily get the job.
It turns out there was a woman there who thought I was trying to take her job, she managed to talk herself into the interview and proceded to make me look as bad as possible, throwing out questions that no one would know and just being as horrible as possible. I have never said "I don't know" and "No" so many times in a interview.

Lucky for me, I called up a guy that I went to high school with who lived in the same city where I drove for the interview. He got me an interview at his company the next day, I got the job and moved two weeks later. I still work there, it's great.
(Thu 20th Jan 2005, 22:22, More)