Jen's Superstar Journal

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• How have I been working out in the fitness room at work off and on for almost 2 years and never noticed the giant industrial fan in there? 
• I seriously am in love with that fan.
• I cooled off so fast after my workout because of the aforementioned fan.  I am going to try to figure out if I can plug it in near the treadmill to use it DURING my workout tomorrow and thereafter.
• I jogged again today.  This time for OVER 1/4 mi.  Woo!  Go me!  (If you missed it on my Twitter or even on the Twitter filter I have here, I jogged yesterday for just under 1/4 mi.)
• I travelled a whopping 1.7 mi overall on the treadmill today.  That's a whole 0.1 mi more than normal.  Not a huge deal, but encouraging nonetheless. 
• Jogging makes my butt sweat. 
• Jogging would make more sense if I were NOT in jeans. 
• Still need to work on getting my water intake up.  Only drinking about 32oz a day right now.  I'd like to see that number double.
• I'd like a treadmill for the house.  Cheap or free.   Probably not happening.

• Why do people always act so surprised when someone does the right thing?  I went to the Post Office on lunch because I needed something postmarked for today.  I had 46 cents.  I go inside and the the guy says it's 41 cents, I was like "Yeah, I know, I didn't have a nickel."  He's like "Ok, I'll take care of it." He didn't give me my 5 cents in change.  I thought it was odd, but whatever, it's only 5 cents.  I go out to the car and start driving down the street and realize one of the dimes is still in the tray in my car.  CRAP! So I turned around and went back to pay them.  The guy basically let me have the stamp for 36 cents.  But I felt wrong about it.  So I go back and he's in the back, but I tell the lady at the counter how I just bought a stamp and I thought I gave the guy 46 cents, but only gave him 36 and handed her the dime.  She thanked me way too much.  I was only giving them what I owed them.  Weird.
• Why is it when you go through a drive-thru restaurant and you pay them, they give you your change and immediately want to hand you your drink and then your food, never giving you a chance to put anything down? I only have two hands people.  Seriously.  Let me shove the change into my wallet real quick, or the very least, into the tray in my console.  And when you hand me a couple of drinks, give me 2 seconds to set them down before shoving a bag of food into my car window.  And for crying out loud, don't act annoyed that I don't take the bag from you immediately because I am setting the drinks down. 

I've seen a bunch of those election quizzes out there, but so far this one seems to be the most thorough.  I really liked taking it!

http://govote.com/Quiz.htm  

My results are  Here

And apparently I am a Populist-leaning Liberal!

So really, how bad do things have to get before I hit that part that always comes in the movies where my guardian angel comes down and tells me it was all a dream and I wake up and get to re-do it better?  I so need that day to be soon.  I'm breaking here and I am falling so fast and am running out of options to dig myself out.  I need some divine intervention now more than ever.  Lord, help me!

So I need to make some New Year's resolutions. 

1.  I want to get back into exercising again.  I was doing it pretty regularly from June to August and when I started dating Tom I kind of got away from it and my weight loss slowed way down.  So, I am going to start walking and doing my arms again during my 15-minute breaks at work.  Hopefully that will help me to drop these last 20lbs (though once I lose those I may try to lose another 20).

2.  I want to maintain my friendships that I re-kindled or developed this past year.  I have a tendency to sort of drift away from people after a while.  Now that I am a single mom with no real family, I think I need to be sure I maintain some really good and healthy friendships.  Don & Ellie, Jess, Krista, these are all friendships I want to be sure I don't lose. 

3.  Get the office turned into the playroom this year.  With any luck I can get this done before Ky's birthday at the end of February.

4.  Get my debt under control and implement and follow a budget.  Unfortunately, this one will have to start after I get my tax return since I need that money to help me get caught up.

5.  Spend more time living in the now.  I'm a good person and I need to have faith that good things will happen to me, 

From What Privileges Do You Have?, based on an exercise about class and privilege developed by Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill, Angie Carlen, Minnette Huck, Drew Lurker, Stacy Ploskonka at Illinois State University. If you participate in this blog game, they ask that you PLEASE acknowledge their copyright.

You bold the applicable items...

1. Father went to college
2. Father finished college
3. Mother went to college
4. Mother finished college
5. Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor
6. Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers.
7. Had more than 50 books in your childhood home.
8. Had more than 500 books in your childhood home.
9. Were read children's books by a parent.
10. Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18
11. Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18
12. The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively.
13. Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18.
14. Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs.
15. Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs
16. Went to a private high school
17. Went to summer camp
18. Had a private tutor before you turned 18.
19. Family vacations involved staying at hotels. OCCASIONALLY
20. Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18.
21. Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them.
22. There was original art in your house when you were a child.
23. You and your family lived in a single-family house.
24. Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home
25. You had your own room as a child.
26. You had a phone in your room before you turned 18
27. Participated in a SAT/ACT prep course
28. Had your own TV in your room in high school
29. Owned a mutual fund or IRA in high school or college
30. Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16
31. Went on a cruise with your family.
32. Went on more than one cruise with your family
33. Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up.
34. You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family.



So I got 13.  I never felt very privileged compared to my friends, but I did get to grow up in a fairly affluent neighborhood and go to good schools.  I never really felt like I was deprived, though.  I know my mother put herself into GREAT debt to make sure I had the things I needed and had a normal upbringing.

OK had to do this to keep me from going insane...

Create your own Google Christmas list!
Go to Google and type in quotation marks your name and then "wants" (ex. "Jennifer wants").
Copy the first 12 sentences that come up and repost in your own note - that's one for each of the 12 days of Christmas.

1. Jennifer wants us to build a doghouse for Homer 
2. Jennifer Wants To Work With Ex-Husband Brad, Angelina is unhappy.
3. Jennifer wants to be adored and worshipped like the royalty she feels she is.
4. Jennifer Wants Justice and Peace.
5. Jennifer wants to settle down with a reliable man and start a family.
6. Jennifer wants to take Tasha and her older daughter, Kaila, to a zoo and somewhere where she can be around water, something she loves.
7. Jennifer wants to be friends with Brad Pitt!
8. Jennifer wants to keep it quiet.
9. Jennifer wants Jack to buy her new breasts.
10. Jennifer wants to hear her grandmother's voice one more time.
11. Jennifer wants to show her father that she can manage the business.
12. Jennifer wants to turn an unused porch into a relaxing outdoor escape.


Wow, I really want a lot!

This is pretty cool! I have to remember to throw this on my myspace tonight when I get home (since work is ghey and won't let me on that site).



I hope this works because my work computer is being a butt-head. If not, I will edit this later tonight from home.

Subject: Congress is selling out the Internet

Hi,
Do you buy books online, use Google, or download to an iPod? Everything we do online will be hurt if Congress passes a radical law next week that gives giant corporations more control over what we do and see on the Internet.

Internet providers like AT&T are lobbying Congress hard to gut Network Neutrality--the Internet's First Amendment and the key to Internet freedom. Net Neutrality prevents AT&T from choosing which websites open most easily for you based on which site pays AT&T more. BarnesandNoble.com doesn't have to outbid Amazon for the right to work properly on your computer.

If Net Neutrality is gutted, many sites--including Google, eBay, and iTunes--must either pay protection money to companies like AT&T or risk having their websites process slowly. That why these high-tech pioneers, plus diverse groups ranging from MoveOn to Gun Owners of America, are opposing Congress' effort to gut Internet freedom.

You can do your part today--can you sign this petition telling your member of Congress to preserve Internet freedom? Click here:

http://www.civic.moveon.org/save_t…

I signed this petition, along with 250,000 others so far. This petiton will be delivered to Congress before the House of Representatives votes next week. When you sign, you'll be kept informed of the next steps we can take to keep the heat on Congress.

Snopes.com, which monitors various causes that circulate on the Internet, explained:

Simply put, network neutrality means that no web site's traffic has precedence over any other's...Whether a user searches for recipes using Google, reads an article on snopes.com, or looks at a friend's MySpace profile, all of that data is treated equally and delivered from the originating web site to the user's web browser with the same priority. In recent months, however, some of the telephone and cable companies that control the telecommunications networks over which Internet data flows have floated the idea of creating the electronic equivalent of a paid carpool lane.

If companies like AT&T have their way, Web sites ranging from Google to eBay to iTunes either pay protection money to get into the "fast lane" or risk opening slowly on your computer. We can't let the Internet--this incredible medium which has been such a revolutionary force for democratic participation, economic innovation, and free speech--become captive to large corporations.

Politicians don't think we are paying attention to this issue. Together, we do care about preserving the free and open Internet.

Please sign this petition letting your member of Congress know you support preserving Internet freedom. Click here:

http://www.civic.moveon.org/save_t…

Thanks.