Wednesday, July 1, 2009

win some, lose some ( a small setback)

As the saying goes, you win some, you lose some. This instance is a 'lose some' scenario. And this lose pertains to my job. I lost it. But I saw it coming. The job had a large sales component, something I knew that I would never excel at. When I was looking for other jobs between Dec 2008 and April 2009, I always shied away from sales jobs because I know me - I'm not much of a salesman. But since this was the only place that wanted to hire me, of course I took the position.

Anyways, after about 2 1/2 months at Lifestyle Family Fitness, I find myself unemployed again. Like I said though, I actually saw this coming. My sales performance had never been up to snuff - I had only gotten 3 clients in the time I was there. On Monday I saw that my manager had set up a meeting with me for yesterday afternoon before my shift was to start. I didn't take that as a good omen. I actually said to Jo the day before that I might be unemployed soon. As I drove down to Apex to work yesterday, I told God, "I'll accept whatever happens today." They were going to fire me, but gave me the option to resign just so it wouldn't reflect bad on me.

The great thing is that I learned a lot while I was there. I had zero personal training experience before, but now I have some. I got to work out for free in a really nice gym. I met some great people. Also, after having looked for jobs for so many months without success, it was nice to get a job and see that I Was somewhat worthy of employment. In general, I'm thankful for having had the chance to work there.

I'm really disappointed that this job didn't work, but at the same time, Jo and I are really hopeful. She had a great interview yesterday; the interviewer said she thinks Jo is perfect for the position. She actually went back this morning to do some testing and hopefully we'll know more about that job soon. And I've got another interview tomorrow that I'd already set up last week before I lost this job.

As cliche as it could sound, I'll say this anyway - I do trust in God. After all, at this point, what other option do we have?

Sunday, June 14, 2009

funny things Adelle has said recently

Adelle is way too funny. She always says the funniest things and keeps Jo and I very entertained. Here are a couple of unintentionally funny things she's said recently.

Adelle: Daddy, can you jungle?
Me: What?!
Adelle: Can you jungle - throw balls up in the air and catch them?
Me: Oh, you mean juggle.
Adelle: Yes. Can you?

(when Honza's dog Shtutzy got tired of playing and went to lay on the porch)
Adelle: Where's Shtutzy going?
Me: She's going to lay on the porch. She gets tired because she's an old lady.
Adelle: Well, I'm a new lady.
Me: Actually we would say, 'young lady', not new lady.
Adelle: Oh.

She truly cracks me up!

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Spaced - what we're watching

I'm a big fan of Shaun of the Dead. A while back I was talking with a friend about it and he told me about a British sitcom called Spaced that Simon Pegg (who plays Shaun in SotD as well as Scotty in the new Star Trek movie) and Nick Frost (Nick in SotD and also Simon's best friend in real life) were in. It's also directed by Edgar Wright who directed SotD. I have been wanting to see it ever since he told me about it and I finally got around to watching it. Both Jo and I are watching it on DVD and it is hysterical! Here's a link to a clip of Tim Bisley's Happy Dance from Spaced. This show is so ridiculously funny and quirky and Jo and I both give it a thumbs up.

Friday, May 22, 2009

oh my goodness!

Found this site, AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com by way of Neatorama. This picture literally causes me pain when I look at. Jo could never talk me into something like this, not in a million years!

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Los Cronocrímenes

Timecrimes is a Spanish film (Los Cronocrimenes is the Spanish title) which shows us how bad things can get when you mess with time travel. Its a very simple story, moves quite rapidly (its only 90 minutes long), and doesn't waste a minute. Whoever created this film is quite clever. It got also got 86% at Rotten Tomatoes.

Its one of Magnolia/ Magnet Film's Six Shooter Series. Not long ago, I blogged about Let the Right One In which is also in that series. I would bet that based on seeing these 2 films, that the others in that series are probably phenomenal as well.

Friday, May 1, 2009

the truth about swine flu

This is from the L.A. Times via Neatorama (make sure you read the last bit in bold):
"...scientists studying the virus are coming to the consensus that this hybrid strain of influenza -- at least in its current form -- isn't shaping up to be as fatal as the strains that caused some previous pandemics....In fact, the current outbreak of the H1N1 virus, which emerged in San Diego and southern Mexico late last month, may not even do as much damage as the run-of-the-mill flu outbreaks that occur each winter without much fanfare...[During] a typical flu season in the U.S., between 5% and 20% of the population becomes ill and 36,000 people die -- a mortality rate of between 0.24% and 0.96%."

So its bad enough to be all over the news, but won't even be as bad as the regular flu.  Hmm, sounds suspiciously like other disease scares from the past decade.  Remember SARS?  In 2002/ 2003 SARS was all over the news.  According to the World Health Organization (WHO) the total number of deaths WORLDWIDE was 774.

And then whatever happened to the bird flu?  Again according to the WHO the number of people who died from it between January 2004 and April 2007 is a whopping 257 WORLDWIDE.

Summary: the Swine Flu ain't all its being hyped up to be.  Its just one more thing to be scared of and one more thing to make people watch the news and read newspapers.  My advice about swine flu comes from Public Enemy - Don't Believe the Hype!!