Old New Ideas

I am currently watching some college football and am wondering if the entire football world has lost their marbles. Whoah! Onside kick! The kicking team recovered! It’s as if all the teams thought to be good in the NFL are not, with surprises from the weekly games coming left and right. College football is exactly the same, with upsets and meltdowns aplenty.

I’ve been to a few college football games this year and have thoroughly enjoyed every one of them. I visisted my pledge brothers in Alabama and saw my old friends in Baton Rouge. I had a great time with both groups of friends, although the differences between Tide and Tiger fans are about as small as the Grand Canyon.

I got a new phone last week. It’s the iPhone 4 and I have fallen in love with it. I’m no longer the sole person who cannot send or receive picture messages. No longer do I have merely 3 games on my phone. I am able to video chat with my girlfriend and find a taxi cab number while out on the town. It’s great and I am surprised that I could have ever settled for my previous phone. No matter what, though, that phone lasted a long time. My old phone was a soldier, deflecting any drops with ease. Together we struggled through many things. That phone has been through everything, and when the phone tech asked if I wanted to recycle it, I had to refuse.  How can you give away something that helped to create so many memories? That’s difficult to say as I feel like Benedict Arnold, turning my back on what I have begun to trust. The flashy, elaborate iPhone took the gusto from my old phone, knocking all qualities out of the picture. Except  one.

Durability.

My old phone and my current, but very old, car are both durable.

They may not be new a flashy, but they get the job done.

I miss things like that. What happened to functionality and resourcefulness? I feel like al products these days are gimmicks, attempting to lure the consumer into the the idea that a Nuevo-riche look is easy to obtain with sleek, gloss black products. Whatever.

I mean go to Best Buy and all of their stuff looks nearly exactly the same. I like things you can depend on, and it’s these products that make me wary of chain superstores.

One thing I am certain of, and that’s the idea that these products and people fueling the connectivity-themed modern world are unreliable. We’ll see how such a fast paced world works, with everyone seemingly jacked up on 5 Hour Energy. Patience, dependability, and loyalty are qualities that are my favorite selling points, be it products or personalities.

Send Me on My Way....

Blog Blog Blog.

This week has been pretty good, as I had a tiny vacation for All Saints Day and Election Day.

I work in DeSoto Parish doing title work and abstracting for a company (industry ethics don’t allow me to say the company name) and the courthouse was closed on Monday for All Saints Day mad Tuesday for elections. Good little holiday but I still worked from my house, which I have converted into a home office. I live with two friends, Grant and Cameron, in a house that Grant’s mother bought and renovated. We helped with the new additions and repairs and have been living here for exactly one year this Sunday. After doing all the painting, some carpentry, and other large endeavors around here the house has become extremely endearing.

We worked so hard to help her complete the renovations and played a humongous part in the completion and final layout of the house.

As I said, I have turned my room into a home office with a desk, printer/fax/scanner, lights, file cabinets, wireless keyboard, and huge monitor.

This monitor happens to be a Christmas present to myself from last December, a 42” Samsung television. I can hook my computer up to the television and sit in my bed surfing the net, working on the DeSoto Parish Clerk of Court website, or even writing a blog post. I also have speakers set up to send out soothing music to aid my studying or to make a more intense experience while watching an action movie.

Okay, okay.

I know it doesn’t sound like an office environment with all the fun gadgets, but I do work very hard.

It’s tough juggling 15 hours of school and meeting weekly deadlines for my job but I work hard enough to do so. Many people in my office try to make me look bad, as they realize a 21 year-old kid is doing the same thing they are. It’s ok, I don’t let it bother me anymore because I know I’ll be much better off in the long run if I hold my head high and work my butt off. I have been blackmailed before, with a still unknown perpetrator going through my work and leaving me notes claiming to “tell the bosses” that I wasn’t completing my work. I do my work, just on a strange and different time frame. Let’s call it the college student timeline.

I sometimes feel like a chicken with my head cut off, flying down the highway to Mansfield, LA to get to work on time then flying back north to get to class or to work on papers and projects. The one thing that keeps me going is the idea that I can further my general knowledge about life, people, and myself if I am able to push myself past my comfortable limits.

I love to test and challenge myself in any way possible. Can I make an ‘A’? Can I close the gap in the chain of title for the abstract I’m working on in time to make the deadline?

I like to power through adversity, if that’s a good explanation. I feel many people merely settle during their life and find themselves wondering “what if?”.

I never want to put myself in that situation, which is why I feel like it’s necessary for me to keep on keep'in on.

Here’s a quote I wish I could take credit for, but I’ve always remembered it as it’s from my favorite movie, Braveheart.

Every man dies, but not everyman TRULY lives.

Bang, boom, pow… I’m out.