Get Me Out of Here

It's the people...I can't stand the evils that exist in people. Attitudes and behaviors are unchecked and when called out aren't even apologized for.

Earlier today someone dropped their entire tray on the ground. One, the amount of glass from the glasses we have to drink out looked to sum up to like 5 of them. It's ridiculous and probably part of why they're dirty hands couldn't hold up the tray. 1 glass is all anyone should need, if you run out of drink, go get more! It will speed up how long it takes to get a drink in the dining hall and maybe, just maybe, cause you to do a little more activity. And after dropping the tray the person just walked out of the cafeteria leaving the pile of glass shards, the broken plate, dirty napkins, and even the tray right were it fell, not telling anyone. Not that anyone needed to be told that it was dropped. It made plenty enough of an announcement itself with all the breaking stuff. It just annoyed me that no attempt was made to even help clean.

After my tray had been put on the conveyor and I had removed the silverware into the tub for them and my napkins thrown away (two steps other people are too lazy to do like requested) I walk out the cafe doors and start down the hall where this girl is obviously too busy or important to recognize me walking towards her in the only space I have to walk and move over. She walks right into me and the other two taking up the rest of the hallway just laugh and the three walk away without an apology after my sincere apology. The hallway is 5 feet wide, and three girls and countless other groups don't find it necessary to allow others the convenience of walking down the hall as freely as they feel they're entitled to everywhere.

Smokers, nearly every time I walk out an exterior door at this university I have to smell some idiot who thinks it's their right to ruin the day of everyone else. I could ramble about this for hours in hateful language but, I'll summarize my opinion in one sentence. Go smoke somewhere else so that the rest of us don't have to smell the stink of you dying.

Tonight a couple companies had some food tastings to the students in the dinning hall. Greed and theft disgust me. Apparently one guy couldn't get enough of the 2 bite portions under the heat lamp to fill his fat gut so he ingeniously thought to just take one of the whole pieces that had been sitting on a Styrofoam plate out of the heat lamp. Others decided that a mouthful of candy wasn't enough so took like 3 (of the same candy, not different ones to test all) of those servings.

I just wanted to vent. I want to be away from it all. Don't like complaining but with so many people just indifferent about their disgraceful behavior, beyond that of a normal person I just don't care about complaining.

Can't Sleep

Well I think it happens to all of us at some point. Something we did in the day or something with the conditions we're trying to sleep in makes it impossible to get to sleep. Normally I would simply lay there until I eventually fall asleep but I know what is causing this situation so I won't bother. I drank a bit too much caffeine this evening after having a 3 hour nap today. Both were really good ideas at the time but I know tomorrow I'm going to regret them when I'm groggy. Oh well, it's happened before and fortunately I don't have any reason not to take a nap tomorrow afternoon anyway (a shorter one as to not continue the cycle).

Random Fact:
I bought a reciprocating saw earlier tonight. It was a really good deal and I (hopefully) helped out the couple that was selling it to get themselves out of a hard place after the husband had been laid off. I gave them a couple extra dollars on top of what he wanted for it but I'm not sure if I gave him enough. I probably should have given more but it did feel good to be generous, especially since they drove it to my dorm so that I didn't have to find transportation and navigate my way to his house. His name is Doug and I'm going to pray that he and many more that have been laid off will be able to find a job and eventually job security.

Random Observances

SO, food, some things are meant to be hot. The food here is lukewarm. How disgusting. i would microwave it but then it just doesn't taste right. Besides, shouldn't food that is supposed to be warm, indeed be warm.

The cooks here also need to know, something referred to meat sauce shouldn't be 75% water, and should definitely contain more meat than tomatoes.

Swearing makes the swearer sound ignorant. Completely honestly, I hate swearing, cussing, bad talk or whatever you wanna call it. Using cuss words says to me that you don't have the intelligence to find a better word.

Sleep

So I just slept three hours in the middle of the day and I didn't know that sleep could hurt like this. I dont have body aches or anything but it seems that my brain is seriously slowed down. My body is like whoa, what happened. Yeah, just thought I would throw that out there.

More about Me

So one defining thing about me is my pet peeves. Not that I speak out about them much or make a huge deal about them but they define many of my thoughts. One of the things that bugs me the most is wastefulness which my girlfriend will testify is the truth. Waste of almost anything bothers me and I guess here at a college campus it's easy to find. Mornings when I'm getting ready in the floor bathroom I'm annoyed by others who turn on the sink faucets full blast and let it sit for minutes at a time without using it. I know they're not waiting for the water to warm up or anything because the hot water is hot within 5 seconds of turning it on slow stream. And almost everyone leaves the water dripping. I make it a point to turn the faucets all the way off if I see any on. In the toilets, I hear people pulling feet and feet of toilet paper (the rolls squeak on the holder). Maybe it's them getting tissue paper with which to blow their nose later, but that can be every time. Granted the toilet paper is pretty thin but the amount I can tell they're taking is ridiculous! Wiping should take like 2 gos at most, like a couple feet of our thin stuff will cover that, except for extreme occasions when 3 wipes may be necessary and the lengths adjusted accordingly. And those people who feel it necessary to put paper on the seats, get over it! It's your backside touching it. That part of your body shouldn't come in contact with anything but your clothes and hands which will be easily washed not long later, as will your body. Even if you do come into contact with a few germs, they'll help you! What an astounding idea lost by our nation and doctors and everyone it seems, immunity via your own body. You don't need antibacterial unless you know you're coming into contact with bio-hazards, which are usually marked. And even if you find that you DO for some reason have to put toilet paper down on the seat, have the decency to flush it down the toilet so others don't have to pick it up after you let it fall half into the toilet then soak up water onto the seat or on the floor. You took the time to put it there, you don't even have to touch it with your hands if you're that afraid to touch something that has touched your own body. Use your feet. The fear of germs has created a sickly country infected by more and more things. I won't deny the danger of things like H1N1. Some people are weakened naturally, but other weaknesses are self inflicted. I leave my comments there. Other wastes bother me too. There is a limit to the amount of stuff I like to save. I save useful stuff that can be fixed and/or donated, but unlike a packrat I will throw out and recycle those things that can be and need to be. I like space, and if too much isn't put back into cycles of use, it piles up and causes unneeded clutter.
I'm not a super "green" enthusiast. I agree that it is great if we do what we can, but if we all use our brains (hard/impossible for some, like those who run the water and use a roll of toilet paper to wipe) acknowledgment of actions would lead to an automatically self sustaining life style for us all. I do love being outside though. Doing all I can outdoors is refreshing. I love to exercise chopping wood and clearing of fallen trees with a good ole fashion axe and bow saw. Growing up in a small town has given me an appreciation for the small things like being able to go out into the small wooded area behind our country home, as well as the ability to slow down and take in my surroundings. The world moves too fast, based on hours of meetings, television, video games, and cell phones. Speaking of which, a "free upgrade" as offered by many cellular phone companies does not indeed mean, your phone is useless come spend more. Save your money people. Another pet peeve: Waster's of money. I'll hit a nerve of everyone by saying it wasn't the bank or wall street that made this financial crisis, it was stupid people. The last generation lived within their means because they had to and knew to because of their fathers and mothers. Banks wouldn't loan them thousands. They couldn't get 1t0 credit cards because the company knew it was going to be a loss for them. Then as the world moved forward and my generation came around, everyone seemed to lose their sense of limits. Banks and credit card companies started wanting to make more money, perhaps a moral lapse but no more a different philosophy than any of us have. We would all like a little more income if possible. So banks and credit institutions of other sorts started being more giving in hope of getting a little more back. In so doing they welcomed the most ignorant of people. People that felt that living out of their means would be ok in the end. Well, it wasn't, and as I've heard too many people say (too many because I don't like foul mouths) "assuming makes an ass out of you and me". Well, "you" was the mass populations who borrowed more than they could ever hope to pay off. "Me" was the banks. It's true, they've been made into asses, for the failure of people to use their brain. Yes, the banks should be loaning out the money they've been loaned. Yes, American taxpayers with a brain should not be paying the bonuses of those bank executives. But No, the banks are not the evil ones. They got back the money they gambled using a BUSINESS tactic. They are business people after all, and they made the money back with interest as we all should. But somehow, the people who borrowed all the money, and couldn't pay back what they owed and agreed to under law, just get written off and forgot about. If taxpayers want the money back, I know just where to go to get it. Previous owners of homes paid for with money borrowed that they lost because they were trying to live out of their means.
People reading this will say, but they have no money to pay it back to the taxpayers. I know. They shouldn't. The next generation is going to continue this trend of bad spending as long as any of us fail to appreciate smart handling of our money. So, I say instead of blaming and going after those (credit institutions) who earned the money they are entitled to, we go after those who spent money they had no right to. Keep those who are in debt, in debt. Period.

All will tell me, whether they agree or not, I will be sorry if it ever happened to me. Indeed, I will be, but not sorry for the values I hold now, but sorry that sometime along the way I lost those values. Keep me in debt if I've ever worked myself into debt. I'll deserve it. Period.

God bless those charities that do help those in need, and may we all see it to, within our means, give to charities in a free (not bitter) way so that those who need it may find a way to work out of their poverty.

More ranting later.

Jesus is my Lord and Savior.
-Gregory Michael

About Me - how inadequate of an analysis, More later.

I'm just a (ab)normal college Senior, without a desire to go out and do the "crazy" things that really make a college experience. My free time is mostly spent working on schoolwork. It's not that I don't have other things that I would like to do. I have many hobbies that focus on my uncanny ability to fix things. My major is Computer Engineering for which I do a lot of coding composing many programs and systems to accomplish those somewhat behind the scenes actions that we don't thing about regularly. I found out yesterday that one of my teachers' assistants owned a company that built the software for controlling the orders at McDonalds. That's something I had never thought about, that's how Mcd is so much faster (not than other fast food restaurants, they are equally enabled, just poorly managed). I enjoy my major, immensely, but it's not what I do as a hobby. I don't seem to have the ingenuity or need to think of my own problems to be solved using my skills. So, I put my effort into the problems posed by others. I like solving others' problems and helping people out. Instead I spend my free time when I have the opportunity into fixing and improving things of mine. Over winter break (a whole month, good or bad in terms of accomplishments) I was able work on my first vehicle (a beautiful 1993 Chevy C1500 stick-shift short-bed pickup) including sticking the rear view mirror back up -- i know, not that hard -- pulling the fabric off the ceiling piece -- equally easy but needed, I'll replace it when I get back to it -- and replacing 75% of the steel brake line --painfully long process without a proper shop (I had to move the gas tank, and with all the rust I couldn't take it all the way down so I had to work in a 5 inch gap. Slightly convenient was the fact that the old line was so rusty it just snapped and came out without me needing to disassemble it. Unfortunately I found that out after I had done 90% of the disassembling, lol.). Oh, I should mention, I live in Central Illinois, where we have a decently mild winter. It was only around 20 degrees Fahrenheit on average for the entire time I was working on the truck. I was in a garage so I didn't have the beautiful snow to contend with, or the wind, but the only thing keeping me warmer was an electric space heater placed right next to the two layers of pants and shirts I was wearing! It was really fun, I think the part that kept me going was listening to the Christian music station (WIBI) as well as my desire to keep that old truck running. I don't think my dad wants to keep putting money into it, but with me doing most the work to keep it running, it's really not that expensive of an investment (except the gas). It gets similar mileage to most pickups even though it has the weaker 6 cylinder in it, which is part of the problem. Burns less gas with a smaller block, but still has to pull the full size truck. It's no S10. I do love to play in it, especially in the snow.
Other accomplishments over my break include a very entertaining 5-day trip to Kansas City, Kansas to see some friends, looking through and reducing the amount of stuff I have stored away to move out with me when the time comes, helping my mother do some "spring cleaning" type stuff, finding some pictures my mother had lost a year ago and making her day with the discovery, finding and purchasing my second beautiful vehicle, an indigo blue 2006 Toyota Corolla (also manual, I love manual), and lastly getting my wisdom teeth pulled out.
Not sure if it's my high tolerance for various things (like those wonderful 20 degree days or body pains of various sorts) or if I'm just lucky or whatever but I had little pain at all from the tooth pulling experience. My beautiful lovely girlfriend Jessica was disappointed when I wasn't loopy at all after coming out of anesthesia. She wasn't there, my mom drove me home, but she would have heard about any from my mom if there had been any. My mother hit the target when she said that she thought I was gonna go off on the orthodontist's assistant. I didn't actually but the lady was talking to me like a 5th grader before the procedure and was treating my no differently afterward when I was at practically full capacity except for my tiredness. The lady had told me to be a couch potato once I was home but after my sleep on the drive home I really didn't feel like sitting around doing nothing. I rarely do. Instead I went about my business going through stuff of mine weeding out and pitching (the part forgotten by my mother the packrat) that which I didn't need.
I love helping people like I mentioned before. I'm good at fixing things but at some point all my stuff is, well, fixed, at which point there's nothing left for me to have fun doing. I'm pretty sure I get the handyman trait from my mom's dad. He has always been good at fixing things including things his friends bring to him to have fixed, things given to him that he fixes from broken, or things he finds "dumpster diving" though in a small town there is rarely the requirement of getting into any dumpsters to find these treasures. I can't really say that the trait all comes from that side though because my dad is pretty good at the same and his male relatives are similarly enabled. I suppose it comes from the small town roots. There isn't always someone around to fix everything, and why pay for it when you can do it yourself?! I don't like to. I have somewhat of a trust issue with strangers fixing my things. I rarely thing other people can do any better of a job than I can. The only reason I really ever do it is the fact that they have the proper tools to do so. I'm working on a remedy though. I know I'll never get the specialty tools required for every job but I am building up a tool base with which I can perform most repair tasks.
Anyway, I'm pretty good at fixing things, and if I have the materials and tools to do the job I don't turn down the opportunity to have fun fixing or building/making in the first place.

Bored now, stuck at school without anything to fix. I started this blog and have run out of flowing ideas for the moment. Check back later.

Jesus is my Savior.
God Bless.
-Gregory Michael