Nonspecific

Forget summer nights turning into fall days; summer may have well overstayed past it’s farewell date on the calendar, but it looks like old man winter wants to finally move in.

It’s 65 degrees today in the ‘burgh and you know what!? It’s freakin’ November! We are suppose to be freezing our arses off at football games, huddling around bonfires and kegs, wrapping ourselves up with flannel at night and putting the wind breakers away for the year.

Instead, I’ve been alternating between no coat, a wind breaker and a slightly heavy coat - not freezing my arse off at football games and instead of huddling I’m finding myself sweating next to the bonfires.

Look, I’m not complaining too much… because I have enjoyed going out in the evenings with just a long sleeve shirt - especially on Halloween - and enjoying lunches outside in the sun. But you know what? It doesn’t really feel like Fall! Normally I think of fall as the mid 40’s to mid 50’s… not 60’s and 70’s! If this was music we were talking about at a party, I’d say we were a decade off.

So as the weather forecast is starting to show winter unpacking, I’d like to say goodbye to Summer 2008, again; and if Summer happens to see Fall in the off-season, I’d hope there would be mention of Autumn returning next year.

BTW: Winter… don’t get too comfy like Summer. I’d like the April showers and May flowers to feel welcome in 2009.

Here are some pics from the “calendar” Fall season, to send off Summer / Fall? and welcome winter with scarfs n’ coats.

How do you find those jobs that are meaning full and involve great things? Those jobs that are “different”? Those jobs that make you feel part of something large and important? Those jobs that are part of your life? Those jobs that allow you to work freely without restrictions? I want a career like that. I desire to be a part of something like that. A job that requires a lifestyle does not scare me. Those jobs and careers, make me smile.

I don’t think jobs of that nature are able to be found, I think its something that luck or fate has to bring and I just have to hope.

It’s amazing the stuff you can get done while listening to some tranquil tunes. Productivity has been off the charts recently, luckily there is no union slowing me up.

My apartment is finally coming along and almost ready for visitors! (Not that it has stopped me from having any.) But I have finally finished building shelves and getting crates in for the record collection! And good pal Christi is coming in a few weeks to organize all the records, so I have to be ready with an organizational system!

That said,

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Personally, I’m probably leaning towards answer 4, but I’m open to suggestions!

This is 3 personal posts in a row… I’m gonna have to change that. I mean, all this election stuff going down in under a week?! Surely there is bound to be a political post brewing!

But back in my world…

Be bluntly honest:

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I wouldn’t put this past my clumsiness on a date:

“The man was carried away by emergency services, with the toilet still attached to his arm.”

Recently I’ve started taking the bus to and from work to save money, gas, be “green” and not loose my parking spot. The spinoff of that is I started frequenting a local coffee shop as I wait the 20-30 minuets for the bus. Then one Wednesday I met this girl working behind the counter who had a good sense of humor and just went with my indecisive nature when there was more than 1 option. Well as the weeks went by we would have small talk- nothing big or deep, but something nice to look forward to. 

More recently I have found myself making an extra stop just to see and talk to her at work. (Not the creepy kind.) So I finally found the courage with a little help from her, to see if she’d like to meet up at a time when work wouldn’t be involved.

We agreed on this friday. I have no shame in admitting to anyone but her, that I am nervous. Seriously. It’s probably a good nervous, but the possibility of rejection and awkward moments is a scary thing.

I am looking for any first date tips or advice. It’s been many years since I’ve been involved in the dating scene, so I’m looking for all types of advice and stories. Post in the comments (or as many of my shy readers do, email and IM me.)

I did something new for this Friday, I’ve guest blogged over at Free and Flawed!

Check out my guest post to find out how the bidet is going along with a cool post-it.

Rarely do I look at the play count stats on my iTunes, but as I waited on hold to cancel my verizon dsl service I noticed one of the more interesting tunes near the top. It’s called, “Every Car You Chase” and it’s a mashup by Party Ben. The song combines The Police’s “Every Breath You Take” to that of “Chasing Cars” by Snow Patrol.

I’ve played this song a few times on the radio and have gotten a positive response; and out of the many mashups I collect, this is one of the better ones. So if you are in a music mood I thought I’d share:

It’s late and I’m tired. All I wanted to do was come home from work and send some email, watch some youtube or hulu and surf the web.

This is the second time I’ve tried to do that today, first when I came home from the radio station this morning… and now tonight when I came home from work.

Both times the PPPoE was down on my account causing the internet to die. The only way to fix the problem is to re-power the modem and quickly do your business on the net, as it will soon be out again. When you call tech support, you get a HORRIBLE phone automation system and people in a sweat shop half way around the world. Once someone is finally on the phone they have no way of fixing your problem except to constantly tell you to re-power everything. Re-powering is a load of bull, especially when it’s several times a day.

I guess the awesome Verizon DSL rate was for a reason, service SUCKS! So I’m done with you Verizon, and I suggest everyone avoid their DSL service. Comcast is coming first thing next week!

Oh Starbucks…. I’m afraid that I’m going to be adding you to my boycott list, which hurts me because I have some good friends who you employ. I also enjoy your drinks, luckily I live in an area where you haven’t killed the local competition!

Starbucks, you have recently been doing things that I don’t agree with. What it all comes down to is that you decided to leave your market niche in the sight of greed, and now I see you breaking apart like a used and abused coffee filter.

My main complaints of you at present are with pushing special needs workers out the door and now with your horrible waste of water. I use to really respect your organization for hiring people with special needs as part-time cleaners. It not only provided you with cheap labor, but people talked good of you for doing so. Then, out of no where you decide it’s time to start saving the couple of pennies you are paying these people who are cleaning up after everyone and washing your dishes. Seriously, not cool… especially because we know the big wigs are still getting their raises and bonuses.

Thanks for taking away a job my sister really liked and enjoyed. The sad thing is, that before the store got a new manager… the old one was even trying to set my sister up for failure, so you could save even more money when she left! So not only did you scale back the work to hardly once a month (from two to three times a week) you tried to make her working experience crap from ridiculous treatment at work. The result you had? I gave up my two or three times a week drink to once a month. 

Now thank-goodness we have The Sun doing an investigation here. You want to save some money? Try not having a big water bill. I know there are more environmentally viable solutions available. It is the year 2008 and we often are faced with droughts and water problems in much of the world… yet there you are leaving the water run and run like a kid brushing their teeth all day long.

I am a strong believer in conserving our natural resources… and I see that you are not. Just as I would not support a political candidate who believed in or supported wastefullness, I will not be supporting you till yins decide to cleanup your act.

Support local coffee shop trade! I do, and it feeeeelllss great!

Links of interest:
Starbucks Gossip
I Hate Starbucks
Sun article on water waste
BBC article featuring Starbucks rebuttal 
Find your local coffee shop