No means no right? Apparently not to some companies. I've recently become aware of several different things on the computer and internet that when you say "no" it will just do it anyway. I'm sure everyone has experienced websites that are actually ads that when you try to leave a pop up box will come up and ask "Are you sure you want to leave?" This is where it all started for me, of course I want to leave! I hit the X didn't I? If your stupid ad was really that important to me I would have clicked on more things than just the X at the top you jerks. Unfortunately at work I deal with this because of some ads we run. I won't go into too much detail but seriously I don't like things like that. At the same time, if that was the worst of it here at work I probably wouldn't even complain. Let me tell you what is really starting to make me mad.

Instant messengers were the coolest thing back in the day. MSN and Yahoo were awesome. Since high school though no one really needed them anymore plus facebook came and killed them which is AOK with me because facebook is better anyway. In order to try and get in contact with someone I had met on my mission all I had from them was a yahoo account. I had seen them use the messenger one day when we went to visit them so I thought "hey maybe I could surprise them and try to contact them that way." So I downloaded Yahoo messenger and when it was finished it had two little check boxes that asked if 1. I wanted to install the Yahoo toolbar and 2. If I wanted to make Yahoo my homepage. So of course I clicked no for both of them, I had my internet set up the way I liked it, but after the installation of the program I opened the internet browser and what did I see? Yahoo home page and a huge annoying toolbar. not only that but all of my searches were changed to yahoo's search engine. Seriously Yahoo? This is why I hate you. This was quite a long time ago about two years ago and I still can't change my url bar search engine back to Google in my Firefox.

This brings me to what really makes me mad. My most recent "but I said no!" fiasco. We are going to go back to my job for this one. I call people that fill out forms online that want to go to school. Simple enough, and it seems nice because the people I call are requesting the information. Yeah that's what I thought too. We recently got a new lead provider that sells the leads for cheap to the company and I soon found out why. over 2/3rds of the people I talk to say they didn't actually hit submit but cancelled out before anything submitted. Now if this was the occasional thing I would just think "yeah right you're an idiot just hold yourself accountable for filling out the stupid form." However, since it's so often that people say that I know something is wrong. Apparently they are correct. Without hitting submit their information is sent to us as if they want to go to school so we call them. This drives me crazy. What happened to "no means no?" When did it become "you said no but I'll do it anyway."? Where have our morals gone?

Don't worry, no still means no to me.

To prove a point I downloaded Yahoo messenger to my work computer. Note that the yahoo toolbar is unchecked  also the homepage is unchecked

Oh what's this? I open IE and bam Yahoo is the homepage. At least  it didn't just add the toolbar this time, but clearly it downloaded when I said no.

The only way to uninstall the program and the toolbar is to go to control panel and uninstall programs. (this is mainly to show that the toolbar was in fact downloaded without my permission.)

Work

Everyone has something about work they gripe about. I am not immune. Here's just a few things that really grind my gears. 

Workin hard for the monies, so hard for the monies. 

I work at call center full of college aged kids. Other than the office manager everyone here is about 30 years old or younger. I think the youngest one here is 18. Young but still adults (I use the term "adults" here loosely and you will see why). Everyone here also lives on their own away from their parents. Now, we have the privilege of having a kitchen in our office that is routinely stocked by our office manager with things for us to eat and drink while we work. What a perk right? What blows my mind is that these "adults" I work with do not clean up after themselves. It would be one thing if there was just some trash here and there that they didn't throw away, but having that kitchen means we have a sink and dishes. Who in this world that is clearly revolving around you do you think is going to clean your nasty dirty dishes that you leave in the sink? I doubt even your mom would let you leave that kind of mess without saying something. Not only do these "adults" leave their filthy dishes for the whole office to see how much better they think they are than the rest of us, but all the jars and bread bags are still out on the counter open with peanut butter and jam all over the place. Are we five years old? Seriously? It's as if there is some kind of office gremlin that loves making a mess to piss me off. Sounds like someone complaining about their roommates right? Yeah well I AM AT WORK! I'm not even gonna go into how the water jugs in the fridge are ALWAYS empty (yes I fill them up, and I'm pretty sure I am the only one who ever does). That will send me over the edge.

WTF!? Do your dishes!!

Found under "arrogant" in Webster's

You know, I was honestly considering the possibility of an office gremlin. I could totally see that little spawn of Satan running around acting like a pompous snob. He's probably that same sneaky scoundrel who doesn't flush the toilet. (Everyone knows he exists because no one ever admits to not flushing, so he's gotta be real) I had too much respect for these people to actually believe they could be so arrogant and inconsiderate as to leave messes for others to clean up. Then I noticed just what kind of people that I work with. I've noticed several people that seem to have unlimited break time. Maybe they used a game genie to unlock the free break time cheat. ... or maybe they are related to a supervisor. These people also seem to be able to come and go as they please. 

"OK so today I wanna get to work ten minutes late, but when I get there I am going to set my computer to break so and leave for an hour. After that I will work for an hour (of which I will watch Grey's Anatomy on Netflix because even though we are not allowed to view videos at work I like to risk my job for Grey and her Anatomy) but after that hour I'm leaving. I'm scheduled to work 6 hours like everyone else but you know what? I'm special so I get to do what I want and no one says anything." - yes this actually happened yesterday. And if you ever read this, it was noticed by everyone in the room.


People think they are sneaky here, but they aren't. They are just never punished. So yeah I could totally see people like Grey's Anatomy leave messes and never fill up water jugs. After all if they aren't even accountable for their full shift of work what makes them accountable for anything else here?

Waiting

Waiting. It's all I have been doing this summer. When I think back to the summer of 2011 I am going to think "man all I did was wait till August and then the fun finally started." Let me discuss some of these things that I have been waiting for. First big thing is that I am engaged! Our wedding date is August 6th (hence the "fun doesn't start till August" thing) but worse than waiting for our wedding is that my fiancee has been in California with her parents and little brother since April! I wont get to see her until 2 weeks before the wedding. What is a guy supposed to do while his fiancee is gone for 3 months!? I'll tell you what I've been doing. Waiting... that's it. During this 3 month waiting period I've found myself waiting for a whole slew of different things, and what I have come to learn is that you wait and wait and wait then whatever it is you are waiting for finally happens! but then it's over and you're now stuck waiting for the next thing to come along. It's a horrible cycle that only leaves you wanting more.

Here's a great example. I like to think of myself as a big Utah Jazz fan. Living in Utah it's only natural. Man I love my Jazz but we sucked royally last year. Without getting too much into Coach Sloan retiring or the Deron Williams trade and whether or not I think it was a good idea, these things left us in a position to fail this year. There was little leadership on the team, we were very young and man did we fall. Luckily that left us in a great position this year for the draft. After the lottery I hear we now have the 3rd and 12th picks in this draft. Holy Crap! This is gonna be awesome! Just to make me more excited I am also a BYU fan and Jimmer was going to be in this draft with a possiblity of the Jazz drafting him. (no I was not a "draft Jimmer or else" kinda guy, in fact I had other players I wanted to see the Jazz take instead of him, but the idea was very intriguing) So there I was waiting for the draft. I'm pretty sure that while I was at work I looked at mock draft and Jazz insider stuff everyday. All I wanted was for draft day to finally be here. Then it finally came! Draft day! Then it was over. ... Was that story anti-climactic? Yeah well so was the draft. Don't get me wrong I am so excited to see how Kanter and Burks do on the team, but now I'm waiting for the NBA season to start. I waited and waited and it finally happened! then an hour later I found myself waiting again.


That story sums up my whole summer. Wait, then it happens, then wait again. Sometimes the waiting gets us no where, and we find out what we've been waiting for doesn't actually happen. Like waiting all year to see if you can get into the nursing program at your University; finally finishing all the necessary classes, taking the necessary tests, and going through all the interviews you find yourself waiting for the mail to come. What happens when the mail finally does come and the letter says they didn't accept you? You waited and worked hard and then what? Well that's what I'm dealing with. Now that I didn't get accepted it looks like I have to wait for another application process in August and see if I can do better in this interview. I'll have to wait to start the program while I take different classes.

Like I said before, this kind of mentality of always waiting for things will just leave you wanting more. Time for me to stop all this waiting, and just go after what each day gives me. I mean of course I'm gonna have things to wait for like my wedding, but waiting becomes a lot easier when you fill your time with fun, and productive activities. I guess I am supposed to know this by now, and part of me already did. It sometimes just takes a while to realize what you are doing in order to make changes. (yes I do like to pretend that I am an optimist) Some say waiting is for the birds, which doesn't really make sense to me because when I see birds they are always flying around or chirping and having fun. I say waiting is for people who can't think of better things to do than to just sit around and wait. Yeahh that sounds about right.

Charlie

Being LDS there is always the possibility that you will be called to serve in any number of positions in the local ward. Being in an LDS singles ward it's as if they've made 50 or 60 extra positions or "callings" so that everyone has something to do. Now, I know that with each calling comes an opportunity to grow and learn no matter how insignificant it may seem at first, but let's face it there is no stopping people from feeling that what they do to serve isn't worth anything.

Recently I have had the figurative hand of guilt slap me the face over this issue. Over the past year I have been a Family Home Evening group leader, second counselor in the Elders Quorum, and now family history Sunday school teacher. It has been brought to my attention by my oh so kind and loving fiancèe that I haven't had the best attitude about my callings. Yes the one that loves me and wants to marry me took that figurative guilt hand, cocked it back, and swung it right at my face with full force in the form of the words, "I haven't known you to have a calling that you didn't complain about."

"Not true!!"
"How dare you say that!"
"If things would change then I wouldn't have anything to 'complain' about."
"Oh my gosh, I'm a horrible person."
and finally, "Wow you're right I never realized it before, but I do complain about my callings."

In a matter of minutes I went through 5 stages of grief. Grief over having a piece of my pride die and being forced to eat some humble pie. Whether it was feeling like no one in early morning meetings cared that I was there or even wanted or valued my opinion in any way shape or form, or the fact that FHE in a student ward is only there so that the students can find people to date and I already had a special someone, or that I am a teacher of a class that last week I only taught 1 person, I always found something to complain about. When did I become so negative?

Ultimately it takes a realization that you are not the kind of person who you've told yourself that you wanted to be to really take the steps to change.

 I served a full time mission for two years in Tennessee. In order for me to even be ready to go on a mission I had to really make some important changes in my life. Not that I was a bad kid, I mostly just didn't do daily things that I needed to do. After coming to my senses and really doing my best to be a worthy missionary I left on a journey that would change my life. Now, I'm explaining all of this so that I could get to this point. In my first area my companion and I had a ward mission leader named Charlie who was 22 and had just gotten home from his mission. I first met Charlie within the first few days of being in Tennessee. That first time I met him he took us to get dinner at a local Dairy Queen. (which is actually how I started to think about him because today I was at Dairy Queen for the first time since he took us) Over that first meeting I saw in Charlie a quality that I told myself I would have when I got home. Charlie wanted to do everything he could to magnify his calling. He wanted to help us in any way possible. Anytime we needed him he was there for us. It didn't matter what time it was or what he was doing, Charlie always found a way to help us. He was such an example to me. I wanted so bad to take what I learned from him home with me so that I could be the kind of person he was when I got home.

So here is the question. How did I get here? How did I go from having such a drive to be like Charlie, to whining all the time about what the callings I have? Part of me wants to blame it on the singles wards, but honestly that's just me complaining some more. It is true that I don't feel the same about church when I go to a singles ward compared to when I go to a family ward, but that's because I allow things to bug me. I allow the feeling that singles wards are just a place where people try to advertise themselves just to get a date to really bother me and take away from the spirit of going to church. It's time to face the fact that I am not where I wanted to be 4 years ago. How I handle it from here is the real test.

For this realization I thank my fiancèe for helping me see what I needed to see. I also thank Charlie for being an example to me 4 years after buying me those chicken tenders at Dairy Queen.

Zombies!

May 21, 2011, the end of the world. Upon thinking about just how the world is supposed to end today, my mind has immediately turned to the one topic that seems to the fascination of the masses, a zombie apocalypse. Now I don't know if this obsession with zombies is due to the success of movies like I Am Legend, Zombieland, Dawn of the Dead, Night of the Living Dead and so forth; however,  what I do know is that zombies are everywhere

I don't know how this zombie-love happened, or even when it happened. It was as if I woke up and zombies had be come more popular than Lindsey Lohan. (you know because people stopped caring about her when she... well, no people still care about her, but they shouldn't)
Now, I've done some research on the subject, and what I found interesting is that zombies themselves have evolved. What ever happened to the slow moving "braaaaaaaaiiiiiiinns" zombies that I always knew? Who gave them the power to run!? The scary thing about zombies was always the sheer numbers of them. You start injecting them with some virus that make them turn into some sort of super-zombie and holy cat turds that's scary! Ok, so I can understand that today's super-zombies are considerably more awesome than old "braaaiiins" zombies, but come on. There are scarier things out there. Perhaps our new found zombie love is due to the fact that zombies have indeed gotten more terrifying, other creatures of horror have just gotten more... sparkly. (I bet Dracula really is pissed) Let's be honest, to people who actually liked these classic horror characters, having vampires taken from them was devastating. It's as if Stephanie Myer took a part of these people, dressed it up like a fairy, and forced it to play with Fabio in the romance section of the library for all eternity. Let's face it, vampires will never be the same, so to have a classic horror icon get stronger and faster is quite the contrast from making him wear a too too and prance around pretending that he still is scary.

Whatever the reason may be for this zombsession, the fact is the zombie apocalypse has begun. Movies, TV shows, books, the news, social media, social events, T-shirts, the desktop backgrounds of the computers at my work, these things are EVERYWHERE! (oh and this month is apparently zombie awareness month) and I don't know if there is any stopping them even if you are like me and wish it would end. Let's just hope that when they make a musical it's somewhat entertaining.