Sunidesus Speaks

I couldn't resist this particular friday five. My faith is so important to me.

1. Were you raised in a particular religious faith? Yep, Christianity. The Lutheran Bretheren denomination to be exact.

2. Do you still practice that faith? Why or why not? Yep. I don't go to church regularly any more, but I do go on occasion. I went through the teenage "I'm mad at God" phase, but now I'm back. I trust Him to take care of me. I pray, both to say thanks and to ask for His help.

3. What do you think happens after death? If you have taken Jesus Christ as your savior then he will take you to be with Him in Heaven. If you have rejected Him, then you are stuck forever banished from Him. Otherwise known as Hell.

4. What is your favorite religious ritual (participating in or just observing)? One of my favorite things growning up was the candlelight services. At my church we had candlelight services on Christmas Eve and on Good Friday. Both were amazingly powerful. More than once I've started crying during services just thinking of the amazing sacrifice Jesus made for us. Easter is always fun too. It's such a joyful day. But the candlelight services are definately my favorite.

5. Do you believe people are basically good? Tough question. I tend to believe that most people are good. But, all of us are sinful. The words "good" & "bad" are separate ideas from the idea of sin. A person could be very "good" but no matter what a person does in their life, they are sinful until they accept Jesus as their savior. So the idea of "good" & "bad" become irrelevant. In God's eyes we are all sinful, we're just forgiven or not.

Just so everyone knows... I'm more than willing to discuss religion/beliefs with people. I am NOT willing to argue. There is a difference. OK, lecture over.

Every day I get A.Word.A.Day in my in-box. Today's word seemed to fit the whole idea of blogging really well.

blatherskite (BLATH-uhr-skyt) noun

1. A person who babbles about inane matters.
2. Nonsense; foolish talk.

OK, my blog isn't always inane babbling, but I do tend to degenerate in that direction quite frequently!

Everyone send labor vibes to Jen it's time for that baby to come out already!

Which Personality Disorder Do You Have?
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This is actually kinda acurate, or at least acurate a few years ago. I'm not this extreme any more, but I'm also medicated so that has an effect.

My brother is home from college for the weekend and I took a couple very strange pictures of him. They're over in the PhotoBlog, so head over there and laugh at my goofy little brother.

I found this story over at Jeff's place. It made me laugh out loud in the middle of the newsroom. The world's highest scoring soccer game. Yikes!

Elections are coming up in just two days, it's been such a nasty negative campaign here. Especially for governor. I CAN'T WAIT for Tuesday so all these stupid ads will GO AWAY!! I'm leaning towards voting for the Green Party candidate, both because I agree with him more than the other three, and because I don't think I can stomach voting for the Republican or the Democrat. The fourth guy is a lunatic so I'm for sure not voting for him. I'm kinda just ranting here. I'm just so sick of all this political garbage. On occasion I yell at the TV during the breaks at work. Whenever we've counted it up about 3 of every 4 spots we're running are for politicians. I know that it pays the bills, but there HAS to be a less annoying way to do it.

I just checked my stats, and I've had 3 people get to my site in the past 24 hours with a "bare feet" or "stocking feet" search. Do I really talk about my feet that much?

Jenn had her baby! Happy Birthday Julia!!!

Someone at work said offhandedly that he thought that Mormons wear special underwear. This sounded very odd to me so I went on-line and searched for evidence of this "Mormon underwear." To my surprise I found that it exists! Apparently Mormon's have "garments" that they think prevent bad things from happening to them. Basically they're long underwear with symbols sewn into them over the breasts. Women wear these things UNDER their bras (and other unmentionables). There is a great thread of ex-mormons discussing their magic underwear here. It's amazing to me that when a lot of these people stoped wearing their "garmies" they seriously thought that they would be hit by a car or something else equally bad.

So, factor in my overactive imagination and what do you have? A superhero wearing long underwear. Picture him standing in the typical superhero pose, hands on hips, chest out, wide stance... "You can't hurt me! I'm Magic Mormon Underwear Man!"

I also found this article. It's a really good rundown of all of the contradictions of Joseph Smith (the founder of Mormonism) and Mormonism itself. I admit I've never really known that much about Mormons, but the more I'm reading the more I'm learning how strange it is. They're seeming more cult-ish to me by that second.

I'm done now, I was just so flabergasted by the magic underwear that I had to post it!

I've been slowly working on re-designing my pages so that they all match a little better. I think I've got a top banner done for this page, and hopefully soon for the PhotoBlog page too. I also made a button for myself! It's over at the upper right. Feel free to copy to your server and use it. That's what a button is for after all.

IWTB and Nikki went to visit Nikki's daughter Hannah on Halloween. They took my camera with them and I've finally posted one of the pictures. It's over in my PhotoBlog because it's part of my Theme Thursday for this week. Anyway, it's a MUCH better picture of her than the one I've been using. She's up above 9 lbs. now and is looking much more like a "normal" baby. I'm praying that she keeps getting better and can come home soon!

Apparently a guy was arrested in Hong Kong for selling drugs to buy missiles. He was planning to sell the missiles to Al Queida so they could shoot down airplanes. The close to home part? Last April he came to MY CITY to buy a car. That freaks me out that this guy was in my town. If he was here and no one noticed, what else is going on that no one is noticing? Yikes!

There was just a Sharpie commercial on tv. (I'm watching TechTV) It's one of those where the host is running around with a mic asking people "How do you use your Sharpie?" Whenever I see those commercials my brain immedidiately goes "I use my Sharpie to mark scripts!" During times when I'm directing all three shows at work, I think I go through a pen every 4 days or so. Hmm, I should buy some Sharpie stock! The joy of a new Sharpie is a wonderful thing. OK, I'm a dork. I like new Sharpies.

It's a giant, interactive, colon! Yikes!

Link from Gretchen

I think I got my redesign of my PhotoBlog finished. Now all three of my main pages have a similar design/color scheme. The next thing is to deal with my archive templates.

I spent part of today over at my parent's house. I've managed to get myself horribly into credit card debt and I'm completely unable to solve the problem by myself. So, I was over there getting help from Mom with money stuff. Obviously I still have to pay off everything myself, but it helps to have someone to talk to and help figure out how to deal with things. I'm just so horribly in trouble and I don't know what to do about it. OK, pity party over.

What box do you get put in?
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But we all knew this already didn't we. When I looked at the other results they all really made sense to me. So the descriptions at any rate are pretty acurate!

Found at Lori's

I'm getting close to having my thousandth hit. Chances are it'll be me, but maybe not! Maybe it'll be someone interesting and exotic. Hey, I can dream right?

Apparently other people think that the whole Mormon underwear thing is weird too. I've gotten 11 search engine referrals since Wednesday with that search string.

I honestly hadn't thought about it being Veterans Day today. Really all it meant was that there wasn't mail in my mailbox this afternoon when I left for work. But while blogreading over at WWDN I found this post. I've never really thought about veterans or the military that much. They're just these people out there somewhere. But that really made me think. Go read it everyone!

It's the Tuesday This or That. I'm not sure what inspired me to do this one this week since I haven't done it for quite a while but... I'm doing it this week.

1. Hershey's Kisses: with or without almonds? Without definately, I like my chocolate unadulterated.
2. Wizard of Oz: Scarecrow or Tin Man? Hmm, they're both so adorable.
3. Meat eater or vegetarian? Meat eater. I could very easily be a vegetarian philisophicaly(sp?) but I like meat a lot, so that would make it difficult.
4. Buy books or borrow them? Buy. I like being able to go back to a book whenever I feel like it.
5. At the bank: ATM or human teller? Depends on the mood I'm in. Usually human.
6. Oil or gas (or other) heat? I think I have gas heat but I'm not positive.
7. Pen or pencil? Neither, I prefer my 'puter. If I write anything longhand I get blazing pain up and down my wrist after writing just a few lines. I can type for hours without a problem though.
8. Drive or use public transit? Drive, I like my car.
9. Who IS James Bond: Sean Connery or Pierce Brosnan (or any of the others in between)? Sean Connery.
10. Your ideal breakfast: full (bacon/sausage, eggs, pancakes, etc) or continental (bagels, muffins, fruit, cereal)? I don't really eat breakfast, I never feel like eating until I've been up for a few hours and by then it's usually time for lunch. If I do eat breafast though it's more likely to be full than continental.

This has been a presentation of the Tuesday This or That, we now return to your regularly scheduled blogging.

Well, I did it. I made an appointment with a credit counselor dude. Thursday at 1:00 p.m. I'm going to try and figure out how to get myself out of the mess I'm in. Major money issues. I am completely incapable of dealing with credit cards and got myself into a world of trouble. Hopefully this guy will be able to help me.

I have a question for all you moveable type users out there. I'm thinking about changing over to using that instead of Blogger. (I really do like Blogger, honest) I like that moveable type automatically pings weblogs.com and has comment stuff integrated. I've really enjoyed Blogger, but I think I'm ready for something with more options.

I'm wondering about the interface of moveable type though. With Blogger I can use any computer to enter blogs and it's all on-line, program and everything. Moveable type wants me to download their program and run it off my own computer? Is that right? Could I blog from a different computer then? or does it have to be my one computer that has the program? That's my main concern right now. Everything else about it looks great.

So... any suggestions, endorsements, warnings about moveable type? I appreciate the input!

Well, talk with credit counselor man didn't go as well as I had hoped. He can help with the long-term stuff like reducing my interest rates and the length of time it takes me to pay it off. BUT, the amount of my monthly payments wouldn't be changing. It would be just one payment instead of 7 which would help, but I was really hoping he would get it to go down so I could afford it.

I'm definately needing a second job now. I can not pay my bills on the crap I make right now.

Side note: I also had my thousandth visitor to my little corner of the world. I don't have time to go investigate who/when it was right now so I'll do that later tonight when I have some more time.

Ever poked a penguin? Go try it out. It had me laughing quite loudly in the newsroom.

Link from Megan

Well, it appears that mister (or miss) number one thousand was yet another visitor off the "mormon underwear" search string bonanza. He/She came knocking at 8:52 this morning. I honestly have no idea how to trace an IP address, so I don't know where/who or all that fun stuff. But, I've gotten 1000 hits and I think that's cool. Yep, I'm a dork.

The face I show is smooth
but my true face?
Hidden under many layers, is cracked
I feel it shatter to a thousand pieces
They are too many, I can't hold them

Glue oozes around the edges,
but it's slipping
Rolls of tape surround it,
but they're falling

I can no longer hold

This is a great idea. Limiting the weight of textbooks/backpacks. The article says that high schooler's backpacks are weighing in at up to 40 pounds. I completely believe it. Lugging that thing around was a huge chore. I remember calling home many times for a ride because I had homework in so many different subjects that my backpack was unmanageable.

I graduated high school 5 years ago & those backpacks are only getting worse.

I'm going to have to try to catch this. Maybe I can catch a picture (or more I hope) of meteors. That would be really cool.

All kinds of good info from Cis

Thanx!

My Dolce is a silly boy. About an hour ago he basicaly put himself to bed. He climbed into his cage and has been perched on one foot with his eyes closed ever since. I was feeling a little hungry so I grabbed a box of Cheerios that's been sitting next to me. As soon as I opened it his little head popped up. "Is that food you have?"

Just got around to reading Lori's blog for the first time in a couple days. Her parrot Earl died suddenly. Everybody send hugs her way. I can't imagine losing my Dolce like that.

This is one of the most digusting things I've ever seen. It's the attack of the sewer volcano!

I can't decide if this is creepy or not. Basically it's a company that uses the carbon from a cremated relative/pet to make a diamond.

I remember a story we ran at work a couple years ago about an artist that used ashes in paintings for the survivors. When I first heard about it I thought "Eww!" but after watching the piece it was very clear how much respect this artist had for the person whose ashes they were using. It came off as a very nice way to have something tangible of a loved one who is gone. The paintings were also of something emotionaly significant or relavent to the person that was gone. In the end I thought it was maybe not so creepy after all.

So, maybe having a diamond isn't really all that creepy either. A physical way to stay connected to someone who has left. It's something to think about anyway.

Link from Gretchen

ABC has sunk to a new low. I didn't think it was possible that reality TV could get much worse, but here it is. I work for an ABC affil, I'm going to be forced to watch at least some of this drivel. AAHHH!

link from Megan

It snowed for about 10 minutes just now. It was really pretty, but definately not enough to stick to anything.

And... I uploaded a ton of Hannah pictures. I redid the People section of the Photo Album so that there is an entire section just for her. The new photos were taken by IWTB on Halloween when she went to visit Hannah with Hannah's mom Nicole. If everything continues to go well, she'll hopefully be able to come home by Thanksgiving. Everyone send good vibes her way!

Apparently on Wednesday ABC kicked but in ratings. But it was with that Bachelor nonesense. It rated higher than the Victoria's Secret runway show, and the West Wing. How very wrong.

A bunch of people from work went to Kathryn's house for Joe's birthday party. We played Scatergories for a while. The last thing we did was play Catch Phrase for 2 hours straight and had an absolute BLAST! I took some pictures which I'll try and post in a little bit. They need to be re-sized and all that first.

The capitol of Michigan! Detroit!
Toast winner!!
If all the ones become twos and the twos become ones then we'll change teams right?
NO!!!

I think this is the fastest turnaround I've ever managed for getting pictures into my Photo Album. Birthday party pictures are up from last night. Soooo much fun! They're in the people section, or you can click here and follow the "next" links to see all of them.

Round spinny thing!
Lazy Susan!

A bowl, it's in the middle!
Goldfish!

You know those Visa commercials that have famous people trying to write checks but not having an ID? I just saw the one with Charlie & Martin Sheen for the first time. Usually those spots are just spots, but that one made me laugh out loud. Very funny!

What does everyone think? Is this going too far? There was a high school football team around here that had to give up their playoff spot because they had ineligible players in the previous games. They ended up forfeiting (sp?) the game from the week before because of it. So, out of the playoffs they went. But going to a court for something like that? I'm not sure if that's called for.

So this is where that check for a million dollars went. I knew those Publishers Clearing House people wouldn't lie to me. They said I was already a winner, so my winnings must have ended up under this guy's house.

Unfortunately the hunter eventually won but at least the deer got some kicks in first.

I don't actually have any major problems with hunting. We've pretty much eliminated their natural predators so we have to take the place as an unnatural predator. What I don't like are the people that go hunting just to shoot something. I'm perfectly fine with people hunting for food, or here in Wisconsin to help with the CWD problem. It really does have to be done, but hunting just to shoot something is just mean.

I've got another job interview for the much needed second job. It's with Kohl's on Tuesday morning. It's just for a holiday temp position, but I really need anything I can get so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it goes well. So send good interview vibes my way everyone.

This makes me happy. It cracked me up the first time I saw it 4 years ago or so. But when I went looking for it a few months ago it was all messed up. Thankfully someone else made a tribute to the original that looks to be exactly the same (to me at least). So now I can have happy hamster dances whenever I want! Woot!

Go ask Halley she's got a really great answer to that question.

It's Thanksgiving in two days. Anyone have special plans?

My mom informed me the other day that I'm her designated kitchen helper. Most of her side of the family will be there and she doesn't want any of them in the kitchen so apparently I've been elected! I might have to stay overnight there Wednesday, otherwise I'll never get up in time to be of any use to anyone.

I need to find some silly turkey graphics to stick in here on Thursday.

I just finished writing my very first resume and recording my very first resume tape. I'm only sending out three right now, just to kind of "test the waters" I guess. I don't really know what's out there. I sent one to Madison, WI which is only about 30 markets above where I'm at right now and in the same state which is nice. I sent another to Norfolk, VA which is an above 20 market so that one is a long shot. My last one I sent to TechTV. On the jobs section of their site they have an opening for a production person with my experience. I know it's another long shot, but it can't hurt to try right? The worst that happens is nothing, I can live with nothing.

Everything's getting mailed tomorrow so we'll see!

It's the Tuesday This or That, and it's all about Thanksgiving today (er... yesterday)

1. Stuffing: baked inside the turkey, or separately? I'm not sure, whichever way my Mom does it!
2. Fresh or frozen turkey? I think we usually have a fresh one.
3. Cranberry sauce: jellied or whole berry? Whole berry! and it has to be fresh. None of that canned nonesense.
4. Stay home or visit friends/relatives? Thanksgiving rotates between my mom's brothers and sisters. The ones that live here anyway which is most of them. This year it's at my parents house.
5. Do you cook Thanksgiving dinner, or let someone else do it? My mom does it, but I always help if she asks.
6. Traditional turkey dinner, or an alternative (such as vegetarian)? Traditional. Including the weird family tradition of rutabaga. No one really likes it, but we all have to eat some. It's a very twisted family tradition!
7. Regular potatoes or sweet potatoes? Regular and mashed. Lots of butter.
8. Homemade gravy, or the jarred stuff? Homemade.
9. What part of the turkey do you prefer...dark or white meat? White, very moist with gravy or cranberries on top.
10. After dinner: football or Christmas movies? Movies or board/card games, no football.

I'm at my parent's house and all the relatives just left. So, it's just me and my mom and dad. Lots of good food and good fun. I took a couple pictures of my little cousins Luke and Josiah; they're both just adorable.

Last night, well technically this morning, Keva, Kramer, and I went fire chasing. Someone called the station around 1ish to tell us that there was a barn fire about 30 minutes from us. Since we didn't have anything better to do we went to see if we could get some video for the morning show. After 45 minutes to an hour of wild goose chasing we found it. There were still a lot of flames and tons of smoke. The barn was really just the four stone walls by the time we got there. It was quite the amazing thing. We ended up with a really good vo/sot that the competition won't have!

Stepping out of my work persona... it was really sad because this family lost all of their hogs, and their chickens. The mom also thinks that two kittens that she hand-raised died too.

It's very odd to go to or see something like that. The work side of me goes "Great video! Good story!", but the person in me feels the tragedy of it. It's very hard sometimes to remember the human side of it. I hardly ever go to cover things, I almost always stay in the station and just see the video that comes back. I think that makes it easier for me to forget that these things are happening to real people. It becomes "just video" to me.

Sorry, didn't mean to get so morose there!

Happy Thanksgiving to all, I'll probably be posting pictures of Thanksgiving (and some cool fire pics too) later today or tomorrow.

Everybody go give Cheyenne hugs. She needs them right now!

I finished re-sizing, cropping, and writing the html code for my fire pictures. I finished just before I had to start working on the 10pm show, howzat for good timing! Now I'm finished with all work related things and I'm going to head home in a couple minutes. I'll upload once I get there because it's easier than uploading from work.

Tomorrow is going to be laundry day I think. The clean clothes are becoming quite scarce so I really need to do a couple of loads.

The fire pictures have been uploaded to the Photo Album. They are in the Miscellaneous category. Or if you want to do it the easy way you can just click here and keep clicking next to cycle through them all.

The 2000th picture with my camera happened at the fire too. I'm posting that one over in my PhotoBlog. That's it for now I think.

I just managed to lock myself out of my appartment. I had my arms full with computer, purse, and two bags of laundry. Just as the door shut I had that split second of clarity... NOOOOOO don't pull the door shut. CLICK! I had left my keys on the bookshelf. I did have my purse and therefore my cell phone, so I called my mom. (I was headed over to do laundry anyway and they're all of half a mile away) My landlords weren't home so I figured I'd call home and call them from there. I'd just leave a message for someone to please go next door and unlock my door for me.

Just as I explained this to my mom, my landlady pulled into the driveway. "Mom, nevermind. My landlady just drove up." Then... beep, beep, beep... my phone died. My landlady laughed at me and then let me in. I grabbed my keys, re-locked my door (with keys firmly in hand) and loaded my laundry into my car. A very relieved me drove to my parents house.

Now the phone is re-charging and my first load of whites are going in the washing machine. Added bonus... I'm about to get a Mommy Meal. What is it about Mommy cooking that is so much better than anything I can do?

And a Hannah update. She's still in the hospital although there isn't really anything wrong with her anymore. She still has a trach but both of her parent's know how to take care of that. The hospital is really dragging their feet for unknown reasons. Also, she's probably Deaf. Keva called and told me that they did a hearing test and it appears that she's 100% Deaf in one ear and 80% in the other. So, depending on what ends up happening I may be babysitting and teaching parents how to sign. I don't consider Deafness a tragedy, it's just a different culture and language, but I know it will be hard for Hannah's parents to deal with so everyone please keep them in your thoughts.