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The Weekly Rant 7/13

There are a few things the just bug me. I'll start at work. I love sunlight shining through the windows at work, but there is his person there who just insists on having the blinds closed. I get to work early in the morning and I open the blinds. It just happens that he arrives right around the time that I do, and, boom, they're shut again. I noticed, from the first time I went down to see Jason on the floor beneath mine, that something was different about his floor. IT WAS THE SUNLIGHT!!! There was not a covered window on the whole floor. I guess I can't relate that to worker productivity, because Jason doesn't do anything, just kidding bud. I guess I don't do much either. I'M BLAMING IT ON THE IDIOT WHO DOESN'T LIKE SUNLIGHT!!!!

As you know, I love my apartment, but I guess I should've know what I was getting myself into when the "manager" didn't know a darn thing about the place ex. I has him if the neighborhood is safe. He tells me, "well, when I walked up here I only saw you two here." WHAT KIND OF IDIOT RESPONSE IS THAT?!?!? Well, as you know, my air conditioner went out. I called it in right away. How long did it take to fix it? 2 weeks?!?!? Not very cool (literally).

I had been living at my apartment for a week without a key for the mailbox. That's fine for right now, while I don't have any mail for a little while. I finally go in and ask again for a key. The woman (blond) at the front desk couldn't find it, so she had someone change the lock and give me a new key. Good job, they did it, w00t! So, the next day I went to use the key, but realized that it didn't even latch. WHAT GOOD IS A KEY IF THE MAILBOX DOESN'T LOCK?!?!?!? I put in a work order for that about a week ago, nothing has been fixed.

The last, and maybe the most important item for this week is my oven. All I have to tell you is it's GOLD. It's probably made from the early 1970's. Something I didn't realize when I walked through the place before renting was that the knobs on the oven were COMPLETELY worn off. I have tried to make 4 pizzas. Do you know how hard it is to cook something in the oven when you don't know what the temp inside of it is? VERY HARD!! On an assortment of settings my pizzas were terrible. Three of them were terribly soggy and one was totally burnt. It looks like it'll be a while before I make any Texas Sheet Cake over here.

That's all for now.

Time to go on a rant

I feel like I need to start going on rants. I guess the forth of July fireworks brought me over the edge. While Dan and Elissa went early afternoon to save a great spot for us on the edge of the river (great spot by the way) there were some others who waited until 10 minutes before the fireworks started to get equally great spots, OUR SPOTS!!!

These kids, 20 of them to be exact, I will call them hoodlums. They didn't even ask us if they could sit there. We had set up tarps (pretty good size ones) almost right up against the tall brush along the river. These hoodlums come along and sit in the area between us and the brush, probably 2 feet deep. They force us to back up and they even sit on the tarp too.

It wouldn't be that bad if they were good kids, but no, they were hoodlums!! They set off 3 or 4 fire crackers, they broke down a small tree so that they could see better, and one of them brought a dog in and smoked, the dog didn't smoke, (that would've been pretty funny though).

On another note, the announcer on the radio (before the fireworks) said what he liked about the 4th in Cedar Rapids was how quickly people can get home. He said that within 15-30 minutes everyone would be out. I didn't even get out of the parking lot until 45 minutes after. Then it took another 15 minutes to get onto I-380. GOOD JOB GETTING MY HOPES UP. I think I will now make the rant a weekly post.

Freedom Festival Part II: Glenn Miller Band

As I said in the last post the Freedom festival has many fabulous activities for the whole family. They have the Cardboard Boat Regatta, the dragon boat race, the BBQ roundup, and the Glenn Miller Band. Those are only a few of the many activities going on during the 2 weeks that is the Freedom Festival. I want to focus this post on one of the events: the Glenn Miller Band.

If you don't know who the Glenn Miller Band is, you're missing a lot. They play a Big Band style of music that was popular back in the 1930's and 1940's. I would have to say the average age of the people attending the concert was about 65 years old. That is including Dan, Elissa, and me lowering the median age significantly. I do have to point out that the people sitting right next to me helped raise that average age back up because they were 97, 93, and 93.

I knew I would enjoy this evening because of the great music, but I actually ended up talking to Florence (the 97 year old) for most of the evening. It was great. Listening to great music at the same time as making friends with people who are a few generations older that I. I think the thing the surprised me the most about Florence was that even though she was sitting in a wheel chair, she made the time to get up and dance with her 93 year old brother.

That's one thing I like about Big Band music, it bridges generations. It was great to see all the old people dancing on the "dance floor" in front of the stage, but it was just as nice to see the young couples, and even fathers with baby daughters and mothers with baby sons dancing. All in all it was a great evening.

Apparently the Glenn Miller Band has been here every year for the past 20 years around the 4th of July. Next year if you're in the area I'd recommend joining in the festivities.

Here are some of the pictures from the concert...






Eugene and his wife of 70 years







Florence (97) dancing with her brother Eugene (93)





Dan and his wife of 7 months (Elissa)

The Great Cardboard Boat Regatta

In my short time in Cedar Rapids I have learned of many traditions, but few will be as great at The Great Cardboard Boat Regatta. This fun race has been a tradition in Cedar Rapids for many years. It started in 1974 on the campus of Southern Illinois University as a class project. The students were to create a boat that was made entirely of cardboard. It was not a competition of time, but of engineering design.

Now, 32 years later, the tradition remains strong in Cedar Rapids. There is a short course that the participants have to go through. The fastest times advance to the next round, and the top winners in each class get a trophy. I'm pretty sure thousands of people don't come to this event to see people finish the race, I'll bet they come to see people crash and burn (although it's really tough to burn in water). It seems to me the people of Cedar Rapids are becoming very smart because very few of them sank. One of these years I'll have to enter into this competition with Dan. I think our goal would be to win the Titanic award (best sinking boat).

I'll give you a few examples...



this one (above) is one of the more impressive cardboard boats




this one still needs a little more work!

If you're ever in Cedar Rapids over the 4th of July, give some of these great events a try. I know you'll enjoy them

Working at MCI/Verizon Business

As you all know I have been working at Verizon Business for 3 weeks now. I am getting the hang of everything. It seems like the days just fly by, so that is a great feeling.

For those of you who don't know what I do I'll give you a short description. I have access to contracts that have been signed by the customer and Verizon Business. I have to check to see if it is an existing customer or a new customer. My job is to set up the pricing for the option 2/3 voice part of the contract. I deal with local, long distance, toll free, conferencing, and a little voice over IP. I have to search through the contract for all of those things and then input it into our computer systems at Verizon Business. There are several steps and applications that I use, so it can get quite complex.

I am glad that they are giving me plenty of time to learn what I need to do before throwing me into the fire. I am actually working on real contracts for training, but they are the easier ones with fewer pricing options selected.

Anyway, on Friday I did a contract from beginning to end without any help and it was all correct. I'm well on my way now.

Lack of blogging

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. I said in the beginning I would blog about the Cubs and Packers mainly. Well, since I disowned the Cubs about a month ago, my topics have been limited. To go along with that, I have relocated to Iowa and now have a full time job (Battle for Middle Earth 2), and something on the side (Verizon Business).

I will try to blog more often so I can maintain my small, yet dedicated viewers.

Welcome to Iowa

I am now in Iowa! I have left my roots in Crackford Illinois to come to the glorious City of Cedar Rapids. Cedar Rapids has a great balance of the city life and small town feel. My first day at work I walked a couple of blocks from Verizon Business to a food court. To my amazement and wonder the sidewalks were filled with people. I had gone from a dead downtown (Rockford) to a very lively one in Cedar Rapids. The people in IA seem very nice, but a little insane about their college sports team (the Hawkeyes). Their PRO sports team is the Hawkeyes.

Anyway, Iowa is great. I do like my job too. Right now it is a bit overwhelming, but I am catching on slowly but surely. My job basically entails me inputing some data from signed contracts into the Verizon systems. It might sound simple, but it'll take me another couple of weeks to really feel comfortable doing everything. Thanks for all of the prayers for me throughout my job-seeking process. I am greatful to have such great friends as you.

P.S. I'll try to update my blog a little bit more than once every two weeks.