Campbell's Primordial Soup

Micks Tayp

2008-08-19T10:22:00.002-06:00

So I'm part of a mix tape club where each month an assigned person creates a mix based on whatever they want. Some have had a good mix of songs, some go with a theme, like dance music or off the wall indie-emo music or whatever. Well I made my own which is across the board. From movie soundtracks to country to punk rock. Here is the list. The mix is actually a zip stored on MediaFire which is AWESOME!

Goodbye boys!

2008-08-04T12:51:00.003-06:00

In other news... I had a vasectomy consult this morning. I'm going to schedule it and get my boys snipped. I'm scared, and a little reluctant because I'm considering it permanent. Some say they can be reversed, but I'm not going to count on it. While it would be nice to have another child, I don't think that my wife's back can take it. I'm pretty sure our finances and personal lack of responsibility won't be able to take it either.

Another child would seriously put a damper on our 5 year plan to be well on my way to another job via school. So after prayer and thoughtful consideration, I'm going to schedule it. *gulp*

Titled for Ben

2008-08-04T12:03:00.003-06:00

It's a funny thing when you complain to yourself and all your friends and family about how bad your situation (job) is, just how much worse it can get. I've been a phone jockey for the last 10 years. I started in 98 working for Feature Films for Families doing surveys. I moved to sales and then on to management. After our department got shut down, I got busted back to the phones. I left that company and worked for another doing sales. They laid me off, and I went to do support for GroceryWerks. Then I got my MSCE and worked for the prison and got fired for selling tobacco to the inmates. After that I was back on the phones doing web support for Ikano. I left that job after a year and became a waiter at Village Inn during the 2002 Olympics in SLC. After that fiasco, I did door to door sales for AT&T cable. That was good money, but it made me really hate people. I then went to work for my grand parents doing construction for the summer. In the fall, I went to work for Teleperformance doing dialup support for msn users. I left the next summer and worked again for my grand parents. Returned again in the fall to Teleperformance. It was early November when I heard about my current job opening up at Qwest doing DSL tech support. So in a nutshell, while I've done some other things, I've been on the phones for the majority of the last decade...

Read on for how just about any situation get worse...

When I left Teleperformance I was making $9.50 an hour. When I moved to Qwest, they started us out at $12.50 or so an hour. We could have started at $8 something, and the worked our way up to the cap. But since we started with some experience, they gave us 2 years worth of 9% raises every 6 months. So from December 1 2003, every six months we got a 9% raise till we finally capped out at the current rate of like $23.50 or so. Tack on benefits (about $12k a year) we're doing quite well here at the Q. The problem however initially is that it's still a phone job, and that always sucks your brains away. It wasn't all that bad though, lax management, friends at work and the most I've ever been paid. Things are changing though, the managers are now all about firing people and we have our very own national socialist who happens to share a name with the gayest computer company around. Things were so bad earlier this year that people who have NEVER done anything wrong in their lives were getting suspended (like from high school) for 3 days for browsing the net, or talking about Qwest policies on a public forum... Well all that sucks hard, but I have a group of friends that I work in close proximity with who can share my pain. Well had I guess. My best friend is leaving the company to go to school full time. That was a hard blow to my small amount of happiness at work, but I still had several other people I really like who work right near me. Well today the two that matter the most to me got different jobs within Qwest. I'm happy for them, for sure. Those 2 are going to be making a considerable amount more money and they won't be under the current management. The other guy, well he's on his way out and I can't be happier for him.

Meanwhile, I'm going to stick to my plan and hopefully be rid of this hell hole in 2-4 years. School seems to be my only ticket out of here.

Sorry for the long post, but ah stuff it.

I gots a hit!

2008-07-09T14:04:00.003-06:00

Well 2 actually. The first one was some dummy recording telling me that she could sell my car for more than I have listed and blah blah blah, she was interrupting call of duty time, so that was the end of that. The second hit was from a kid who wanted to trade me a 1998 2.5 Impreza with a 2003 WRX motor. Sounds enticing, right? Well it looks like butt, and I'm not a fan of butt looking cars... The search goes on. A pic of my car and his after the jump.

Mine:

His:

Blue Civic

2008-07-08T13:59:00.002-06:00

So I might be selling my Civic. But then again I might not be. I dunno, if I'm going to get a different car, then I'll have to. I can't afford insurance on 4 vehicles. I want a car that has a few amenities, like you know... Back seats, Air conditioning... a heater. Things like that. I've got my Civic up for sale on KSL.com, but it hasn't returned any results. I also put up a blog about it at http://bluecivic.blogspot.com, but nobody really knows about it. I'm going to have to replace the driver's side window since I shattered mine the other day after the dang thing fell off the track. I can't sell the car with a shattered window.

I guess I could, but I'm trying to maximize the amount of money I get for the car, and even though it might cost 200 to have a shop do that, I'd probably have to drop 500 off the price. I'm not sure I can do it, it's hard to maneuver in the door area.

2008-06-26T13:58:00.000-06:00

Testing... I'm making a new blog

To sell my car.

le sigh

2008-03-31T00:05:00.004-06:00

I've done it. I've told myself that I'm frying my brains on Math. Well it's complete. The soft gray matter is now an overcooked waxy lump that is incapable of further thought or learning. Thanks a lot math 1050. That sounds sad doesn't it. It would be much cooler if I could say, "Thanks a lot particle physics" or something like that. But I just don't agree with math.

We'll see how this semester pans out, but based on my last midterm, it can't be all that good. At worst, I got a 33%, and at best I got a 66%. I realize I'm just moaning, but seriously, how does one remember all the formulas and tricks and other crap to make this stuff work? And on top of that, if by chance I can flog my lump of mass formerly known as my brain into remembering the formula for exponential decay and then applying it to carbon dating some imaginary fossil leaf found in some imaginary desert it's going to take me quite a long time. I started to work that particular problem when I noticed that I had 25 minutes left of my 90 minute test and still had 6 of 15 problems to go. I find it annoying that the measure of my knowledge is based on how fast I can pull it from the recesses of what my eyes may or may not have transmitted correctly to my lump. Perhaps I'll study history, or something else. But based on my feelings toward this class and the fact that it's the bottom rung of anything engineering based, I think I'm going a different route.

Stake Conference

2007-12-03T20:32:00.000-07:00

We had our stake conference this past weekend and it was great! I find it kind of hard to believe that I could enjoy 4 hours of church on Saturday and 2 hours on Sunday, but it was really something else. The presiding authority over all the meetings was Elder Bruce C Hafen of the Seventy. You know how sometimes people with tell a few jokes during their talks? Well Elder Hafen told several each time and made for a very entertaining event. Of course, we don't go to church to be entertained and that wasn't his main message. Read on for more...

During the Priesthood leadership meeting from 4pm to 6pm, he told us that he is involved in the creation of a new church manual. I'm assuming the Melchizedek Priesthood leadership manual, but I'm not sure. Anyway, after about 40 minutes of talks and testimonies, he broke from the norm and had as close to a one on one as you can with as many men that were there. He asked us as leadership what the problems we saw in our stake was. The topics that were thrown out varied from disinterested fathers to forgotten families. It was a pretty big eye opener as to what our stake thinks are major problems locally.

As for the Adult Session from 7pm to 9pm it was a fantastic meeting that centered around rearing children. This talk was interesting as well, as it was both Elder Hafen and his wife Marie taking turns talking, back and forth about the differences between toddlers to teenagers and their experiences raising their 7 children. Elder Hafen told joke about his oldest kid who was I guess a troubled child, and he said that the lord blessed him with their other 6 kids in payment for taking his oldest off his hands, lol! He also put the proverbial "parental curse" of making their kids have kids just like them... He said that he had triplets, and that it's been very good for his character, haha that got a laugh out of the entire crowd. They had some good advice which I'm going to take to heart with my own kids. Probably the biggest thing I got out of it is that praise is paramount, and it's very trying as I found out the last 2 days in testing it out on my kids. In particular Trevor is a major thorn in my side sometimes, he's got to be the most stubborn kid alive. I love him to death, but it's really hard to be as calm as I need to with him.

I'd like to tell you what the main session was about on Sunday, but... well those kids of ours really make it hard to pay attention sometimes. Even though neither myself, my wife or my kids really get anything out of the talks, I think it's important for them to be there and understand that it's a life choice that will benefit them in teh long run, and besides after they're grown, we'll be able to pay attention then. =]

2007-12-03T08:51:00.001-07:00

I can't believe it's December already. Couple more weeks and it's Finals time. I'm totally not ready, but who ever is? I've been selling lots of my stuff I had on my old car to save up some money to get my Wife a Christmas present that won't suck. I hope she doesn't think it sucks anyway.

We had our stake conference this last weekend and I want to make a post about it, but not one tied to this one.... so later today.

OUCH!

2007-11-08T01:44:00.000-07:00

I'd like to let everyone know what I've been up to for the last couple days. Really it started back in May of this year when I woke up in the middle of the night with severe upper abdominal pain. I couldn't shake it, ibuprofen and tylenol didn't help so after 4 hours of unrelenting pain I went to the ER where they gave me an anti-inflammatory through an IV and I felt better. After talking to the doc, we decided that I had pulled a muscle while trying to get an old chain saw started the day before.

Fast forward to Labor day and I'm camping 35 miles of gnarly dirt road away from the nearest sign of civilization (easy to do in Wyoming) and I get the same pain. I was incapacitated for about 8 hours. I suppose I should describe this pain, it starts in the back just below your shoulder blades and feels like you [i]really[/i] need to pop it for it to feel better. Then it stays there, but spreads to the front of your chest just south of your xiphoid process (the bottom of your sternum) and aches and aches and aches and aches. It doesn't matter what you do, lay down, stand up, sit, crawl, moan, cry.. anything, it just hurts. =( Now I've felt worse pain before, but you know how they ask you at the hospital what level of pain you're feeling? 1 for nothing, 10 for the worst you've ever felt, well imagine and 8 that [b]never[/b] goes away. It just hurts, continually. So I was about to have my dad drive me into town when I started to feel better and decided I'd go to the Dr some other time so I didn't have to ruin everyone's camping trip.

Skip to Sunday night, and I wake up with the pain at about 4:00 in the morning and take some ibuprofen and it goes away. I have Wednesdays off and decide that since it came back for a 3rd time I'd go see a doc on my day off. Tuesday morning at about 4:30 it wakes me up again. This time, no drugs help and it gets worse. I'm sitting on my couch at about a 9 on the pain scale and I have to go to school to turn in my homework then go to work. I drive for about 30 minutes to school drop my homework off and by this time I'm almost throwing up the pain is so bad. So I call work and tell them that I'm not coming in and that I was going to the emergency room.

Luckily for me, our city just got a HUGE level 1 trauma center / mega hospital and transferred all the patients from the hospital closest to my work there. I get right into the ER, and they admit me. 30 minutes later I'm getting an ultrasound and they tell me that I've got gall stones. I'm only 28 and eat relatively healthy and I thought this was something only old people got. I figured that I'd have to pass a gall stone since I've heard people say things like that before. So the doc comes in and tells me that I need surgery that day (yesterday) or else I'll be back the next day with the same pain, probably worse. Again because nobody is at this hospital, they tell me that I can get in there right away and I consent. It was pretty scary being wheeled into the operating room and being put under. Especially considering that I had just enough time to call my wife and tell her to meet me when I got out.

Surgery lasted about an hour, they cut a hole under my belly button, and 3 more up top, filled my abdominal cavity with air and worked with their tools and scopes to crush up the gall stones and then remove my gall bladder. :scared: I guess it beats a huge gash in my side just to get it out though.

I'm all hopped up on pain pills now and I should be getting better, but I'm sore as hell. Sorry for the lengthy post, but hopefully if someone reads this then gets the pain I did (we're all pretty young and not used to the idea of organ failure) they'll remember reading this and get it taken care of.

[[[CLIFFS]]]
Weird pain for several months. Went to the ER. Had surgery to remove my gall bladder.

2007-10-26T13:51:00.001-06:00

I'm SOOO still here! Cars and kids and wife and work and school and c2c (not in order of greatest to lease or anything) have had an influence on my time.

So... Hi.

stressfull

2007-09-17T10:19:00.000-06:00

I took my civic out for a spin last night. I've still got some vibration due to the axles so I won't be driving it long distances, but it's still fun and fast around town. Hopefully next summer I'll be doing some of this:

2007-09-14T15:06:00.001-06:00

I'm still here... I just moved desks and I've been uploading pics of the camping and other trips.

brb

Hmm

2007-09-04T15:18:00.001-06:00

I wonder if the LDS church sponsored a NASCAR team if they'd get more membership. Perhaps I'll write the $cientologists and see how their campaign is coming.

Camping pics to come!

ICMP!

2007-08-31T12:48:00.001-06:00

I'm going to live in the woods for 3 days! Not turning into mr lightning, but my friend Sam sent me this pic:

I'm going to jump into a super cold layk! I love doing that. GOod luck to you all and I will return to the civilized world on Tuesday.

2007-08-30T11:56:00.000-06:00

I thought this was cool.

We're going camping this weekend and I'm going to be gone forever! Well till monday. I'm going to take lots of pics and share them. I've also got some pics to share from our trip up to the copper mine this last weekend.

It's MONDAY again!

2007-08-27T10:37:00.000-06:00

That's right folks the beautiful M day is back again. What a weekend we had, I thought that on Saturday I'd be going to Evanston early early to help my dad unload some Hay into his barn, but I called him at 8 and he was 2/3 done so he said not to worry about it. So instead we went to IKEA to look for a bunkbed for our girls. That place is nuts! We might have found something, but we'll have to see. After that we went up to the Kennecot copper mine outside of Heriman Utah.

and saw some big ole dump trucks!

I've been up there before, but my kids hadn't and they enjoyed it. Cheap family fun day I guess.

Sunday was a pretty good day too. I had my first Elder's Quorum meeting in the new ward early that morning, then church from 9-12. After church it was a lazy day full of reading and naps. (loved it) Then we went to a fireside which was amazing. This guy in our ward named John Watkins who has retired from the Air Force has told me this story a few times. While in the 82nd airborne wing, he was the only LDS member in his platoon until a guy named Kenny joined up who was also LDS. Being members as they were they referred to each other as Brother John and Brother Kenny. Also being stationed in the deep south, there was a large contingent of black people in their unit, he said that they fit right in as a lot of people called each other brother and bro. After a few years him and Brother Kenny baptized 7 or 8 other members of their platoon and they had a big group of members who they called Brother Bob, or Brother Joe.

Well the fireside was about missionary work and he was the first speaker and he told this story in great detail. After John, there was a musical number and then a new speaker got up and introduced himself as Brother Belonte from California. As it turns out their family is spread out Utah, Idaho and California and have yearly reunions, and this one happened to be in Utah. As the speaker went on he started to mention more and more of the same points in John's story. Finally coming to the point in his story where he said he was in the 82 airborne and although he didn't join the church while in the service, he did 5 years later all because of Brother John's influence and example. John had no idea and it was amazing to see this all unfold to him for the first time, to watch him find out first hand that he had been responsible for over a hundred and fifty people joining the church was an amazing thing. The oldest daughter from the family got up and presented Brother John with a plaque with their family story on it and a list of all the 150+ people he had helped towards the gospel. It just goes to show you that we have no idea that we are being watched. People may not think that we are the true church or that we're a cult or whatever, but if that is so, then why are we held to such a high standard by those who don't even think we're right? Something to think about. =]

EEP!!

2007-08-24T11:16:00.000-06:00

Not much anymore gets me all giddy inside like a school girl, but this does:

Oh yea, that's my new train! My friend Chris took this with his cell phone as he was driving to work today (very dangerous Chris!) but come 2008, I'll be riding that badboi to work instead of cars and buses!

Edit: Found this pic:

A new one!

2007-08-22T18:06:00.000-06:00

my friend derek has a new blog

http://grayreview.com

I saw this...

2007-08-15T17:53:00.000-06:00

Saw this vid on my friend's site:

And it reminded me of this one I saw:

Type rest of the post here

My bro's home today!

2007-08-15T11:55:00.002-06:00

It's been like 18 months I think, but my brother Ben is finally home from Iraq. He flies in today at at 6:21. Going to be lots of family out there for the homecoming. I can't wait, and I'm glad to have him home. He's going to be staying at our house for a few days with my nephew, I wish I could have more time off from work while he's here, but such as life.

On another note, I got called to be the elder's quorum secretary again, this time in the Wedgewood ward and Mike Mitchell is the president. To be honest, I figured I'd be one of his counselors. But kept in mind that I'd go where ever I was directed. When I was asked to be the secretary I felt a little bit... I dunno, jealous or offended. Offended is too powerful of a word, I guess maybe hurt or something. But I was reminded of a story I heard of a lady who was the relief society president in her ward or stake for a number of years and it was and did a fantastic job at her calling. When she was released, she was called to the nursery and everyone in the ward thought she'd resent it and be hurt about it. But she, magnified her calling and made it the best nursery she possibly could have and did a fantastic job. With that mindset I went to a meeting with the president yesterday to go over my duties as they were going to be totally different in this calling than the last one. Talking to Mike he said that he really really wanted me to be one of his counselors (I was the 2nd counselor when he was the 1st in the last ward, and for 3 months as secretary I was basically the 2nd counselor because ours moved out of the ward) but kept getting the impression that I should be the secretary. He told me that he had to take an extra day longer to ponder making me the secretary and after that got the same feeling. I feel like my calling is coming from the lord, not the president.

One last note and I'll close this super long post, my best friend asked me to stand in a circle with him as he blesses his baby girl this Sunday. I'm very excited and happy to be able to return the favor he did for me in blessing Penny. Congrats Ben.

FINALly

2007-08-08T10:37:00.000-06:00

I took my math 0990 Final yesterday. It was 33 questions long and I only questioned my answers on 8 of them. So if I missed all 8 of those that would give me a score of about 86%. That's just for the final, which is 30% of the final grade, but I think I made pretty educated guesses about those 8. I guess there is also the chance that one of the ones I'm "sure" about I got wrong as well.

WE WILL SEE! Meanwhile, new math classes start August 22nd!

1010 ftw!

I almost fell off the blog!

2007-08-06T13:08:00.000-06:00

Nah, I've just been taking a break from everything now that my wife's family is out of town. I love having friends and family over, but I also love it when they leave. My daughter Penny is sick with 3 different things! She's got 5 fever blisters on her lips, trench mouth and a virus in her lymph nodes causing her to have a fever. Lindsey took her to the doctor last night and I think she'll be ok with the medicines she's been given.

We went to our new ward this last weekend. It was good, I was glad to see some familiar faces and excited to see a bunch of new ones. My good friend Mike Mitchell was called as the Elder's Quorum president of the Wedgewood ward. He was previously the 1st counselor in that presidency in the Clearfield 3rd ward. I'm excited for him and I think he'll do a great job.

I've started working out again. I did last Friday, and I've told everyone at work that I'm doing it. Hopefully the fear of being ridiculed for not being able to stick to my 'workout' will keep me in line. Long enough for it to become a habit for me. Not that anyone here has any room to talk, bunch a lardos. I've been using the nordic track we have downstairs in our workout room and it kicks tail. Hopefully it will kick my gut's tail.

2007-07-31T11:30:00.000-06:00

For some reason my wrist is killing me. And I need to be healthier. I don't smoke anymore, so now I gotta fix my eating... and lack of exercise. There is a gym here at work with some equipment and showers, and I think it would be better to do that on lunch instead of eat crappy food. SIGH! This is harder than quitting smoking.

shake-up

2007-07-30T13:00:00.000-06:00

Change can be hard but also rewarding. This past Sunday we had a stake meeting where they realigned all the wards in our stake. I was in the Clearfield 3rd ward and we met at the building just down the road from our house at 1pm. Now I'm in the Wedgewood Ward that was cut out of another stake and brought into ours, along with our whole street and the next one north which was in the 3rd ward previously.

We have a new bishopric, a newer building that is on the same road as our old one, just a bit farther to the west across state street, and we're meeting at 9am instead of 1pm. That is kind of nice because we'll have a large chunk of the day left when we're done, but it's hard to get 6 people ready and out the door by 8:45. I don't like 1:00 meetings either because it takes your whole day. 11:00 is just right, and if we stayed in the 3rd ward we'd probably have that schedule next year. This ward will probably move to the 1:00 am after the new year, so it will be another year and a half before we're on the 11:00 block.

Oh well, I guess we'll see what happens.

but worth it

2007-07-27T22:53:00.001-06:00

I've never felt the spirit of the lord stronger than I did today. I'm drained metnally and physically. Kneeling at the altar with Lindsey adn looking into her eyes I knew that she was mine forever. Then having my 3 little bambinos brought in and sealed to me forever was the "prize" as our sealer put it. This before handing the "deed" over to my wife. lol what an awesome guy he was. I've got a lot of math to do tonite, btu I don't think I'll get to it. I suppose I'll make a day of it tomorrow.

Thank you to those of you who know who you are.

Boy is it ever early!

2007-07-27T05:35:00.001-06:00

Round two! Ding.

wow

2007-07-26T23:02:00.000-06:00

What an experience! It's just after 11 pm, Thursday July 26th 2007. This evening my wife and I received our endowments in the Salt Lake Temple. I can't digest everything, but I took the advice of several of my friends and family that was given before we went.

The most common piece of advice I was given was to stand back and listen to my heart and take a moment to 'feel' how I felt. Happiness and wonder were what overcame me. To stand and make covenants with my father in heaven, made me feel accountable for my life and the way I live it.

I'm so thankful for the people in my life that helped me along the way, and for those who were there in the Temple with me. I had a lot of family there, and a few friends. Ben, Mike and Von, I'm so thankful for your lives and influence.

Tomorrow I'll be sealed to my wife and Noah, and Trevor and Penny. Once Morgan comes of an age where she can make the choice to do so, she'll have the opportunity to join her siblings in being eternally sealed to her father.

We're made it!

2007-07-22T21:23:00.000-06:00

I'm stoked. No work tomorrow, or for the rest of the week. I'm also bummed. The stake is splitting our wards up, or changing boundries rather in all the wards. We've made a lot of good friends here and it's too bad that we won't be able to see them as often. Hopefully since our ward is the smallest in the stake, we'll only get new people.

Talk about a big shake up though, all the bishops in the stake are being released. Well actually, everyone is being released. Our Elder's Quorum presidency will be disbanded after next Sunday. I've only been the 2nd counselor for about a month, but was the Secretary since February. I have a feeling that a large portion of our ward is going to be cut off and put into another ward, and unfortunately that section of the ward has some of our very close friends in it. I'm not saying it's going to happen, but if I had to venture a guess, it'd be that.

Well moving along, talk about busy, for the last two nights in a row we've had about 25 people at our house for dinner. It's awesome though, our house is nice and small but we have a huge yard for all the little ones to play in. I'll post some pics when I get a chance.

I'm sad though that my oldest daughter Morgan couldn't be with us because it was her mother's weekend to have her while she's down for the summer. Morgan was so excited to see her mom, and then her mom pawned her off on her grand mother to go camping for the weekend, so they've had her since Thursday and they weren't back in Evanston at even 5pm today. I talked to Morgan's mom (henceforth "she who shall not be named") and she said that we could meet tomorrow morning to pick Morgan up if she can find a ride. This really sucks, I have a whole week off work and my daughter who has been looking forward to spending time down at our house while I'm NOT at work is missing it all. I'm going to have to have a chat with she who shall not be named's mother, if she wants to take Morgan to do things that's fine, but she'll do it on she who shall not be named's time, not mine.

Well enough of that, tomorrow sometime we're going down to Utah county and we're going to hike up to the Mt Timpanogos caves and do that whole thing, then have a birthday party for someone in my wife's family.

blark1

9 In a row

2007-07-21T01:54:00.001-06:00

Since it's technically Saturday, I'm officially starting my 9 days off in a row.

FTW!

One to go

2007-07-19T21:59:00.000-06:00

Horray! Score: 100%

Like I said though, easy test. I guess.

1/5435

2007-07-19T15:51:00.000-06:00

I collect mountains of pictures and store them here. I find them all over the place, people send them to me, browsing forums or just where ever. Anyway here is a small collection of some of them. They're not in any order, just random

So yea, I like cars and I like Honda cars. For some more samples, read on.

I seriously have a lot of pictures, but I have WAY more car pics than anything else. I do have a few pictures that I need to clear off my server.

But that will happen when I have some time, so enjoy some more pics!

haha

So yea, I have lots more of those...

Quality

2007-07-19T13:22:00.000-06:00

Last night I got a 100% on my practice test. Hopefully I can recreate that tonite when I do the real test. This chapter has been pretty easy so I don't see a problem with it. It's been on graphing linear inequalities and solving word problems with linear inequalities.

Anyway, this morning I took part in what is called a Tech Council meeting here at work. Basically, there are about 20 people or so on a conference call. Most of the people are agents from our call center in SLC, some from the center in Boise and a big chunk from our vendors in the Philippines. The rest of them were management with the biggest fish being my boss's boss's boss's boss. She is the "VP-Network Ops and Eng" and is just below the CEO of our company.

While there were a lot of agents listening in and participating in the discussion today, 2 of us gave 10 minute presentations about two different talking points. The first guy rambled on for 15 minutes about ownership and urgency on calls before being cut off by someone else to get the call moving. Then it was my turn, I gave a presentation on "words that work" and how to convey a sense of urgency with all types of customers. Why do I know anything about that? Well the entire 2nd quarter I was on the QA team and got to spy on people and their calls. During my time there I think I did a lot of good as far as clearing up gray areas where people were failing QA scores because they didn't know how to pass. It's pretty cool to get some recognition at this place. Especially considering that less than a year ago I was on a Warning of Dismissal discipline step for being tardy to work too much.

I'll step off my soap box now. =)

math

2007-07-18T20:16:00.000-06:00

Just a word for the wise, don't ever stop taking math unless you plan on never taking it again. I'm taking 3 practice tests for my 'online' math class. It's w34k m4th but hey I'm figuring it out. Tomorrow I have the real test then only 1 more chapter and test till the final. I'm still trying to convince myself that I should continue on in the fall and take yet another math class, but I suppose I will.

I may even take math until my brain oozes out of my nose and fries my calculator.

(that's my brain.... oozing....)

Friday Friday Friday!!

2007-07-18T17:25:00.001-06:00

Next Friday, July 27th I'm going to be sealed to my wife and 3 of my kids in this beautiful building to the left.

We've been aiming for this point in our lives for the last 8 years. I know you're supposed to get married here in the first place, but we just weren't ready to make the commitments that we will make there. Several of my friends and family are going to share this occasion with us and we're happy to have them join us.

8:20 AM that morning is when the ceremony begins, so plan on coming around 7:45ish. See you there!

I'm new to the internet.

2007-07-18T15:50:00.000-06:00

I'm being forced under duress to create this blog. I suppose I'll make it about myself, my family and my love of cars... or something. I'm twenty eight years old, I have a beautiful wife and four awesome kids. Morgan, my oldest daughter just turned 10 in May and lives in Wyoming. Noah will be 7 in September, Trevor will be 5 in November and Penny will be 3 in October. In just over a week they will all be sealed to me for all eternity in the Salt Lake Temple. It's been a long time coming, but I'm ready.

For some reason I can't get enough of cars, and consider myself an automotive fan. I can see beauty and potential in almost any car design (with a few exceptions like the Pontiac Aztec) and I enjoy driving cars as much as I do looking at them. More so I guess.

I have 4 cars at the moment, a 1995 Honda Civic hatch that got smashed and is being parted out, a 1994 Geo Metro that only has 3 cylinders and does real good on gas, a 2002 Ford Windstar (awesome kids) and then my other Honda, a 1992 Civic hatch with a JDM GSR motor. The motor is mated to a JDM B16 LSD tranny for a quick shifting 6 speed feel with only five gears. So on the freeway 80 mph = 4750 rpm. The thing is light and has a 'few' less creature comforts than most cars on the road. Stock the trim of civic I have has no power steering, windows, door locks or mirrors. It didn't come with air conditioning either. To add (or subtract) from that the heater has been removed, the rear seats have been removed, there is no sound deadening, no radio and no driver's side airbag. This car is my toy and I will use it the same way I used my Teal 95 hatch, at the auto-cross and at the track.

So family, church, work, school and cars. That's what I do.