People can be so stupid…

I work for a rather large company.  It’s safe to say that there is probably 5-10 thousand employees with email accounts around the world…

So I’m sitting t my laptop, doing some things for work… and I get this email with the subject line…

RE:  Let’s see if you reply…if you don’t, it explains a lot.

Um.  I don’t know who this guy is, but I click on it, and read it… it turns out that it’s a stupid chain mail that he fwd on to a few of his friends,  and cc’d  ALL USERS (United States)…

I’m not having a bad day, a bad weekend… But stupid people that don’t check the addresses before sending out emails are complete morons.

I joined a Facebook Cause called… Smacking Stupid People in the Face So hard They Might Get Smarter.  He’s one that should be smacked, but unfortunately I don’t think that it will make him smarter…

Happiness is…

Well I decided to invest in web space… One of the things that I hated the most about using wordpress.com was that it really limited the things i couldn’t do. So in the coming weeks, you’ll see a new ballardbound.com with some cool new stuff… Now I guess it’s time for a crash course on HTML for me…

I’m a little teapot…

So as part of my new years resolution of only going to Starbucks once or twice a week, I’ve had to come up with another form of caffeine.  I’m not a fan of the office coffee, nor can I drink pop (that too is down to 1 a day, which I save for lunch)…

So out of the remaining choices (there was really only 1), I decided to start drinking tea.  I alwas drank tea at Chinese restaurants, so I kind of knew what to expect.  The kitchen in the office has a rack of teabags, but who knows how old they are, the dust on them tells me that it’s been there for awhile.   But in the cupboard, there was a box of 20 Earl Grey tea bags…  so I drank those… and kept on drinking them.  I tried a couple of different flavors, camomille, green tea, orange citrus, and disliked every one of them.

My obsession with Earl Grey (and other black teas) has gotten so bad lately.  I’ve gone so far as to drink Caffeinated Earl Grey in the morning, and decaf earl grey in the evening.   Caffeine in tea affects me more than caffeine in coffee does.

Gotta go and prepare one more cup of decaf before the end of the night…

Tax Time…

So I’m the usual procrastinator when it comes to taxes… I wait until the last weekend to file.  Last year was doubly worse.  I e-filed my taxes, then as soon as I e-filed my Federal and State taxes (had to file in Oregon since I spent 3 months there before moving to Seattle)… I got an email from my HR department saying that they mis-reported some earnings.  Attached to the email was an amended W2, with instructions that I had to file an amended tax return by October 15.   I didn’t send it in until the 15th of October… It was a good thing that I actually got more money back.  So in November, I got a check for $3.08.  It was a a 3 dollar refund and 8 cents in interest.

So this morning, I just got my W2 in my mailbox…  I’m going to do my taxes today!   I should get some money back.  Hopefully…

Subtle revenge is sweet…

This video came across my email yesterday afternoon.   For those of us in the industry, this is hillarious.  For everyone else, probably not so much…

Still waiting…

25 Random things about me…

Y’know… When this first started floating around Facebook, the first thing I thought was…  “Fuck.  Another one of these stupid email type surveys… IGNORE!!!”  But after reading a lot of my friends ‘notes’  I couldn’t help but start to think what would be on my list of 25.  So I decided to publish one myself.   It’s also below in case you’re not on FB, or one of my FB friends…

1. I went to a French Immersion school for 7 years
2. I never had to take a school bus to school. Only on field trips.
3. When travelling for work, I don’t like eating dinner in restaurants alone. I’ll either order room service, or go get something and bring it back to the room. But I’ll eat breakfast in the hotel restaurant by myself.
4. I am very indecisive.
5. I remember how to play 2 songs on piano… “Lost in your Eyes” by Debbie Gibson, and “Right Here Waiting” by Richard Marx.
6. I have over 15,000 songs on my iTunes, 85 GB of music.
7. I am the whitest Filipino you will ever meet
8. When I lived in Tampa, the same person cut my hair for at least 12 years.
9. I have a secret obsession for the music of the Carpenters. Because of this, Mom always played their LP’s for me at night before I went to sleep.
10. I choose to go to Starbucks because I know that they’ll get my drink right every single time.
11. Freddy Kreuger gave me nightmares, and because of this I hate horror movies.
12. I love to cook, but I hate cooking for just myself.
13. Despite all the good non-chain pizza joints all over the place, my favorite pizza is a Pizza Hut Supreme Pan Pizza.
14. My first car was a 1984 Carolina blue Chevrolet Caprice Station Wagon. When I put the car in reverse, it would beep loudly. The tape deck in the car was broken, so I had a boom box in the center console between the front seats.
15. I wish I still played saxophone and piano.
16. When I am not at work, I look at my Blackberry every 15 minutes to see if I have a work email.
17. My first job was at Sears in the shoe department.
18. I don’t like watching movies alone, but I subscribe to Netflix.
19. If i can avoid it, I would never sit in the upper level of any arena or stadium for a concert or a sporting event.
20. My favorite movie of all time is “When Harry met Sally”
21. I have 6 different watches, but I wear 2 of the religiously.
22. Even though my Dad and I don’t see eye to eye on a lot of things, I still consider him as my Hero, and someone I will always try to be like.
23. Every time I go to Disney World, I feel like a kid all over again.
24. I subscribe to HBO only to watch Entourage and Flight of the Conchords.
25. I hate everything about purple.

This will probably be the only survey type thing I’ll ever fill out.  Until I’m put under a time crunch and promised bad luck for the next 90 days if I don’t fwd it out to 20 people…

New Years Resolutions…

Yeah, everyone does it. I traditionally don’t make resolutions, because in a short time, it gets broken… Same thing with Lent for me. I have never believed in sacrificing something like caffeine, or chocolate, or whatever…

But things change.  I made a few…

While I don’t plan on giving something up for lent, I have decided to make a couple of resolutions… Here they are, mainly for me to put down on paper, and to try and abide by…

• Finish projects that I start. If it’s promising myself to read more often, to write more in this blog (those top 10 lists need to be written), or to write more letters to friends instead of emails…
• Be active 4-6 times a week. I have a membership for LA Fitness, and was going during the spring.  But since I injured my back back in the summer, and since its a 30 minute drive from my house, I conveniently stopped going.  Now that my back is better, and that there is a LA Fitness about a mile from my home, I don’t have a reason.  Also think that I should be walking more.
• Drink more water. I tend to drink either coffee or pop before i take a glass of water.  Time to change all that.  Daily suggestion of water intake is at least 64 ounces.  My intake is about 8 ounces.
• Cut down daily soda intake to 1 can. If I’m going to fulfill my water resolution, I need to cut back somewhere.  So pop it is.   While I don’t think that I can go with no soda cold turkey, I think i can cut down my intake to a can a day.
• Cut down Starbucks to once a week.   At work, there is a daily pilgramage at around 10am to the Starbucks across the street.  And sometimes there is an afternoon run to the ‘Bucks for an iced tea, or another latte.  Average cost per visit $5.00.   Do the math.  If I only go once a day, that’s $25.00 a week.  $1,050.00 a year.  Let’s say that I go a second time about 3 times.  so that’s 8 times a week, for 52 weeks.  $2,080.00…   Once a week for a year is only $260.00.  A lot nicer.
• Only go out to lunch 1-2 times a week, and bring lunch from home. See prior reasons for wanting to cut back.  And besides, that’s a lot of unhealthy food to eat.
• No more fast food, especially at lunch. Goodbye Pizza Pro. Goodbye Dome Burger.  Goodbye King Deli.  Hello more salads and sandwiches.
• Make more time for me. For the longest time, I’ve always given time to other things, such as work.  It’s time that I try to give more time to myself, to do more things that interest me.   Whether that be reading the books that I have on my coffee table, catching up with friends, spending more time with my family (especially my nephews), It’s something I should probably do.

Sounds like a lot, and I’m sure it is, but I have to give it a shot.  2009 is the year.