Math......YUCK!

I hate math. I don't have time to explain right now, but I will later.

Sick, sick, sick

I am still sick with a cold and cough that makes it unbearable to sleep at night because all the drainage collects in one spot and sits there like a sumo wrestler on my head.

I go back to the doctor tomorrow (Friday) morning. Hopefully, they'll tell me something so I at least can sleep at night.

An attempt at poetry

I have never been very much for writing stuff down (kinda makes ya wonder why I have a blog, huh?), but with my little ones growing up so quickly, and the fact I see them infrequently, I figured I better start writing stuff down or else I may miss or forget something important along the way, so I will try to post something here every day.

Today's entry....

PS

I added a couple of verses and changed it slightly....here goes


I Stand

I stood in the daylight.
Hoping not to be seen.
Afraid to be with all the people.
Who are cruel and mean.

I stood in the nighttime.
Thankful for the peace.
Thankful for the serenity.
Of sleep's sweet release.

I stood in the shadows.
Wondering what I should do.
I stood alone in the shadows
Knowing that I miss you.

I now stand in the daylight
Alone and afraid
Wondering what I'll do now
I thought I "had it made".

I stand alone in the world
But I am not ashamed
I stand alone, enlightened---
By the light of the Torchbearer's flame.

Freedom.....

From my friend Ann and her blog. Love ya, girl! You had the wisdom I needed for so long.

I have decided that I deserve to be loved, and am capable of being loved. I also am going to pledge to love myself for the person that I am.

This is so freeing. I can be me now, and it's ok. There is nobody there looking over my shoulder, waiting for me to "mess up", so they can yell at me.

Mommy....

Hi there everyone (all 3 of you)! I have come down sick with a cold with a sore throat and so on.

Makes me want to stay home and eat chicken soup, especially when it is 11 degrees outside.

ZZZZZZZ

Not much to report from here. Classes have started, but it is too soon to tell how rough they are going to be. My new job is going well.

I am very tired though. Will be glad to have Monday off.

Hello world....

Not much going on with yours truly at the moment. I like my new job, classes start tomorrow, and everything is more or less right with the world.

More later....

How about this??

2005 SBC Cotton Bowl

Tennessee 38
Texas A&M 7

FINAL

Virgin Mobile....NOT!

Whatever you do, don't get a Virgin Mobile phone. You can buy it, but good luck trying to activate it! Virgin Mobile is a prepaid cell service that uses the Sprint network (I have a Sprint cell phone, and it works fine, except for the wireless web isn't working right now, BTW).

The reason I'm complaining about Virgin Mobile is that they must not have any concept of how busy the Christmas season is. I get hired by a company here that has a call center to activate Virgin Mobile phones for folks over the holidays. No problem. The school offices are closed until the New Year, so I figured I would pick up some extra money.

WRONG! I get there the first day after training and I sit there for about 5 hours or so not taking any calls because of a computer/phone technical issue. That part was actually pretty sweet.

We finally get some calls after much hand wringing and we set some folks up on the service. The next day, I come in and we're swamped with folks calling in. OK. Except, the system we use to activate folks (give them their phone # and program the phone so it actually works) is on the blink.

When that happens, we're supposed to tell these people to call option 2 (customer service/tech support) to get the phones up and going.

WRONG! Apparently, when these people called "option 2", the idiotic voice mail hung up on them, then they call us back raising all kinds of hell (deservedly so) because they have no phone #, and their service doesn't work.

I go back in today and we still aren't able to get these folks ringing away at the world, and they're still calling up giving us hell. I don't mind that too much; I just felt completely helpless not being able to actually DO anyhting to help these poor people who got stuck with this piece of junk. More than one person told me they were going to take the phones back where they bought them, and I openly encouraged them to do so.

Today was the last day of the assignment (Thank GOD!). I finally got so frustrated with not having the ability to properly do my job that I just walked right out the front door during my shift. Good riddance to bad rubbish!

Just as a side note, these phones cost anywhere from $50 to $150, and come with $10 of service on them right out of the box. I'm supposed to get a phone for free when I pick up my check on Thursday. If I do get one (I'm not holding my breath), that puppy is going right to EBAY.

Good luck to that poor fool when he tries to activate it!!

Helpless.....

There is nothing more helpless than when your child is sick, especially when they are a baby. It doesn't help that I live 75 miles away either.

Anyway, my little one (Bryan) is in the hospital with a bout of pneumonia. He came down with it yesterday. He seems to be doing OK now, but will be there a couple of days.

Aren't they cute?

My two little boys, Ben and Bryan.

On the 5th day of Christmas....

Well, I haven't posted a lot lately, so I figured I would let you know what has been going on with me in the interim.

1. I got a new job with the Scripps Research Center that starts on Jan. 3. Scripps owns HGTV and some other cable netowrks, plus a bunch of TV and radio stations and newspapers. They also sponsor the National Spelling Bee in Washington, DC. I will be conducting media research and other polling and marketing efforts. I'll also still work for the University part time.

2. My transmission is fixed, but my van is still in NC. I'll go get it at some point soon.

3. It is supposed to snow tonight and tomorrow here. I sure hope it doesn't.

PS: It didn't snow but for about half an hour. No road problems here!

One week until Christmas. Are you ready?

Thanks

I had a very nice chat today with an online friend. The first of many, I hope. Thanks for being there for me, Ann. You know where I am if you need me for anything!!

Merry Christmas!

Snow....

I don't normally like snow, well I should say I don't like driving in it. I wrecked my car in the snow last winter. However, I just looked out the window and saw it snowing a little bit and it looks kinda cool.

Got my grades back today. 1 A, 2 B's and a C+. Not too bad considering everything that has happened since school started in August. GO VOLS!

Pictures

Ben and Bryan-May 2004

Here is a picture of my 2 kids. Ben is the older one. He loves helping his mother with little brother.

Here we are....

Well, my beloved Tennessee Volunteers lost in the SEC championship game to the Auburn Tigers 38-28, which is honestly a lot better than I thought they would do. They now go to the Cotton Bowl in Dallas to play Texas A&M on January 1. I think I'll pass on the $75 tickets and the plane ride to Dallas though. The basketball team lost to UT-Chattanooga 69-68 yesterday. Looks like it's gonna be a long year for Buzz Peterson.

As for me, my transmission blew up on the way to visit the folks in North Carolina over Thanksgiving. It's getting fixed. I'm now in the middle of final exams. 2 more to go and then I get almost a month off.

That is about all for now.

Thanks to my fellow blogger from my hometown (Greensboro, NC), TheShu, for a couple of things.

a) Putting up with me when I get going on one of my many rants on his Greensboro is Talking blog or on the Greensboro Sports Message Boards. I know I shoot off (hockey pun not purposely intended) my mouth occasionally, but my heart is always in the right place.

b) Putting a link to this site on his site. We may disagree about a lot of things, but I know his heart is in the right place too.

Hi there everyone! I am now officially in the world of the bloggers! God help the Internet now!! Seriously, this is completely a work in progress, so any suggestions as to what direction I should go are more than appreciated.

First, a little about me. I live in Knoxville, TN and I work and go to school at the University of Tennessee (therefore, "Big Orange"). I grew up in North Carolina where I played hockey as a kid. I played right wing mostly, therefore the "right winger" part, although as you can see from my links, my political leaning is also to the right, so I figured I would use the double entendre here.

I did play hockey with somebody who made it to the NHL and became one of the better defensemen to ever play the game. His name is Teppo Numminen, and last season he played for the Dallas Stars after spending many years with the Winnipeg/Phoenix franchise. I also played hockey with Jeff Varner of "Survivor: Africa" fame. He played some pretty decent defense too, although his brother Kevin was "the man" on our team with no doubt. I still to this day have never seen anybody with his pure speed and agility on the ice at his young age at the time. I first met him when we were both 5 or 6.

As for what I want to accomplish with this site, I have no idea. It just sounded interesting and something I've wanted to do for a while, but never got started.

Any constructive suggestions or comments are welcome, but no name calling or being mean. That isn't cool.

Happy blogging!

Mike