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50 Questions #17

July 25, 2011 · Personal, Questions & Prompts · No Replies

From 50 Questions That Will Free Your Mind:

What one thing have you not done that you really want to do? What’s holding you back?

I have to choose only one? Or is the purpose of this question perhaps to motivate a person into doing just that, as a way of prioritizing?

In that case, I suppose I would select finishing college. I’m coming up on my twentieth high school reunion (not this year, but soon) and in those twenty years that goal has never really quite gone away. There have been several times I’ve chosen not to go back or continue and there was a long period when college didn’t pass a cost-benefit analysis — I wasn’t at all certain I’d increase my income enough to offset the cost of student loan payments.

That last reason went away with my job at Intuit, and that fact is one of the larger reasons I finally decided to go ahead and do it. Life won’t be fun for me financially for the next three to five years, but I’m hoping to come out of it on the other side with a degree.

Money held me back, and I do worry about the student loan payments — but I believe that removing the higher income I’d had has given me a different outlook that may lead to a different outcome. I’ll know in a few years.

Writer’s Block: Horrible bosses

July 11, 2011 · Questions & Prompts · No Replies

Writer’s Block for July 8, 2011:

Who was the worst boss you’ve ever had? Did you ever get your revenge?

I won’t name names or give specific details; that would be a bad idea for several reasons. But I don’t have trouble identifying my worst boss when asked the question.

A side note before I get started: if you know me “in real life,” you may recognize this person anyway. Please respect both our privacy and refrain from identifying her. She doesn’t deserve that, because I believe she honestly thought she was being a good boss.

50 Questions #16

July 10, 2011 · Questions & Prompts · No Replies

From 50 Questions That Will Free Your Mind:

How come the things that make you happy don’t make everyone happy?

Because I’m not everyone; I’m only myself. If everyone were exactly like me, the world wouldn’t just be boring. It would reflect both my strengths and weaknesses at a level that created a skewed and, quite frankly, scary place.

The idea of taking sheer delight in the differences between people and cultures was ingrained in me before I was old enough to walk and talk. I don’t think my parents were wrong to do that; rather the contrary, in fact. As a whole, the people of the world tend to balance each other out in terms of similarities and differences.

I wouldn’t have it any other way. The differences are one of the things that make me happy.

My Take on Florida v. Anthony

July 9, 2011 · Current Events, Politics & the Courts · No Replies

I’ve been dismayed in the aftermath of the Casey Anthony trial.

But not for the reasons you might think. I didn’t follow every move via the media, and I haven’t been posting to (or even reading) the many places online where it is under discussion. I’ve simply been checking headlines periodically to see the progress. So I’m not familiar enough with all of the ins and outs of the legal case to be able to guess as to whether Casey is guilty of murder.

I’m far from alone. Nobody else is that familiar either, except for the judge, jury, and perhaps the relatively few trial-watchers who made it into the courthouse every single day.

But according to the Associated Press, some of the reactions have included people accusing the jury of murder, including calling for their arrest, and making death threats. I’d like to believe that those are extreme reactions. But it dismays me to see them happening at all.

Day 421: July 9, 2011

July 9, 2011 · Personal · No Replies

Previous Update: http://sonria.org/blog/2011/day-414-july-2-2011

Project URL: http://sonria.org/project/101-in-1001

List: http://sonria.org/blog/2010/day-0-may-15-2010

I fell off the wagon this week, although there was a very good reason: a I got a job, at least for a little while. I actually already had accepted the offer when I made last week’s post, but I wanted to wait until I actually started before making any sort of announcement.

It’s an interesting place to work, and things seem to be going well, but it’s the first time I have worked the pre-8:00 shift since I was 22, which was longer ago than I care to talk about. Adding to the situation, my non-morning-person tendencies had asserted themselves even more strongly during five weeks of unemployment than they had at Intuit, where my base hours were 9-6. So, it’s been an adjustment — although certainly not an unwelcome one!

This being said, a reason is not the same as an excuse, and the reason I’m making a post with bad news is to give myself an incentive to follow up with good news next week.

21. Complete and post a three-item thankful list every day for 180 consecutive days.

Because I started the job, I will go ahead and give myself credit for this week even though I missed (and subsequently made up) two days. But I’m not going to allow myself to get away with it again.

97. Make one substantive blog post per week for 26 consecutive weeks.

I am not, however, going to let myself get away with missing this one due to the presence of WordPress’ delayed-posting feature. So, I’m resetting back to zero — again. This being said, I have a couple of ideas in mind for posts, and a day and a half of weekend left.

101. Post progress each Saturday.

It wasn’t exactly progress, but here’s the post.

Next Update: July 16, 2011