I guess I need to add to this weblog. You are growing tired of hearing about my woes. Probably thinking to yourself “Get a grip, Jeff.”
I’ve been taking job preparation classes at a consulting firm in Brentwood. They help you get your resume all together and get your prepared for a job, although they don’t actually go out and get you a job. My resume is done all wrong according to this consulting firm. So I’ve been redoing it. Always remember to use big words and showcase your talents. Never mention personal interests you have unless it specifically has to do with the job you are applying for. Listing volunteer activities helps, though.
I haven’t felt much like writing lately. Hence the short entries.

Seems so ironic that I’d be laid off now. I know I am not being punished by God or anything. It just seems like if I were to be laid off, it should have been when I was most selfish. When I first started to work at Nortel I was not very much involved at church. Basically I did the audio/visual ministry and that was pretty much it. Now I am so involved in church….Sunday school teacher….devotional speaker….etc. It seems like if there was a time for me to be laid off it would be when I was not very involved, instead of now when I am involved. Luck of the draw I guess. It is that mentality of thinking that I should be rewarded when I get involved at church and punished when I am not as involved. God doesn’t work that way. Maybe this whole job situation will lead to bigger and better things.
Today’s session at the job consulting firm was ok. Some of the stuff we discussed was painfully obvious, while later on it provided some good idea to look for jobs. I’ve got to do a 4 hour long personality test tonight.

It just takes getting my resume in the hands of the right person. I am concentrating on networking (i.e. giving resumes to people I know) rather than going down through the want ads in the paper. I never got anywhere using the want ad method.
I know you’re going to get tired of reading all about my job woes. But it is a high priority on my mind right now, so it is pretty much all I’m going to be writing about.
The dumbest reaction I’ve had lately is this. When I tell people I’ve been laid off, they say “What are you going to do?” What a dumb question. Let’s see….I think I’ll become homeless…..or maybe just give up and never get a job again. I just tell them “I’ll look for a job.” Hello? Isn’t that answer a bit obvious? Unless I was planning to go back to school to get my MBA….

Suddenly my photo album is made up a wide variety of pictures. Since I don’t use my 35mm camera very much, I don’t have many pictures which I have taken myself. The ones that are of my own doing were digital pictures which were printed out through an online photo printer. The ones I pay extra to have printed are usually the absolute best.
Then there are the pictures I borrowed from other people. Phil’s pictures were taken with a disposeable camera, as were other pictures taken on another disposeable camera I found. These aren’t usually good at all since these throwaway camera are of minimal quality. So my photo album has some really good pictures along with some mediocre pictures.
I never really understand the appeal of those throwaway camera. They cost about $5. Once you buy 5 of these things, you could have bought a real camera which could have been used over and over again. Cost outweighs the mediocre quality of the pictures you’ll get with these terrible cameras.
In other news…
Only 6 more days of baseball. What will I do if and when they strike? Continue to watch other shows besides baseball. The game itself ranks just above golf for excitement levels. Still, I’m not a big sports fan. Rarely do I even sit through a basketball or football game (and those are somewhat exciting).

Just a random thought – Making fun of members of the church of Christ (or any other conservative religious group) is kinda like making fun of the retarted kid in school. Sure, it’s easy to do, but can you really look at yourself in the mirror and feel good about yourself afterwards?
School Zones – With school starting up you’ll undoubtedly notice that there are plenty of school zones around. Speed limit 10 MPH. The problem with these school zones is that many times they span vast amounts of acreage. Many times you’ll never see a kid in sight of these school zones. Rushhour traffic comes to a standstill every morning due to these childless zones. I think school administrators have become overzealous in an effort to protect invisible children. They are impeeding commerce by imposing pointless school zones which protect no one. They should take a common sense approach to school zones. If children are present, then restrict speed. If children are never present, then don’t restrict speeds.
This weekend I finished putting together the MJ Camp slideshow using Kai’s Power Show. Those people who were patient with me and didn’t immediately bug me for picture CDs right after camp will receive this slideshow on any new CD I burn. Otherwise if I burned a CD before this, then they will have to be content with their slideshow-less CD.
“Now the World don’t move to the beat of just one drum…”
Tivo recorded Diff’rent Strokes for me today. One of the episode descriptions says “Arnold devises a scheme to get attention.” Didn’t this happen in every episode? No doubt Gary Coleman was the star of the show. No wonder he stayed so long during the series. For a while it looked as if he was 14 and still playing a kid who was 8.
This kid is really big. Anyone up for a trip to the big and tall store?

A while back on a weblog I saw these questions possed toward their readers. These were a bit thought provoking so I thought I would answer them.
Where do you live?
I live in Mount Juliet, Tennessee….usually shorted to Mt. Juliet or simply “MJ” to those who know it well. It is the Purple Martin Capital of Tennessee. Don’t ask me what a Purple Martin is. I’ve never seen one. They tell me it is a bird.
Why do you live there?
I grew up here. It is home to me.
What cultural opportunities do you have?
Cultural opportunities? Depends on what you mean by cultural opportunities. If you mean museums and junk like that, there are plenty of museums in Nashville like the Cumberland Science Museum, Cheekwood, the Parthanon. Mt. Juliet doesn’t have much in regards to culture.
As far as experiencing other cultures, there are probably Indians around here who can show you their culture, but I don’t know where they are.
What recreational opportunities do you have?
There’s Charlie Daniels’ Park in the city of Mt. Juliet which has tennis courts and junk like that. But I never go there.
Old Hickory Lake is good for boating and other things, but again, I never go on it.
What do you like about it?
The hometown feel about it. The friendliness of the people. The church I attend. Hometown values. A sense that there are some really silly politically correct people in the world who are trying to impose their views on everyone else. Mt. Juliet residents generally consider this type of stuff against the grain and refuses to accept such garbage.
What do you hate about it?
Good ole boy politics. Having only 2 lanes instead of a much needed 4 lanes on Mt. Juliet Road. No good restaurants in the city of Mt. Juliet. No retail establishments like Kmart or Wal-Mart….then again maybe that’s a blessing.
That the area completely shuts down if there is a hint of snow in the wintertime.
What qualities really stand out? (good or bad)
Kudzu in the summer. Those vines grow long and deep. I saw some up in Portland, TN, not too long ago. I should have taken a picture of it. Sometimes the south is seemingly the only place you can experience Kudzu.
The heat. It can get really unbearable in the summer time.
Plenty of lakes for water recreation.
Would you recommend it, and why?
If you are just like me, yes. Otherwise if you come in trying to change it with big city Yankee ideas, then don’t bother. I like it the way it is, thank you very much. This might be a testament to my supposed closemindedness. Or maybe I just don’t like change.
If I were to move there, what would I really need to know?
If you are coming from up north, you will absolutely have to have a car with air conditioning. I’ve heard they don’t have air conditioning as standard equipment on cars up north.
There are insects called “chiggers” which will bite you when you are out in the yard. I only emphasize this because I saw a news report about them opening the Saturn car plant in Spring Hill, TN. They had to educate the Yankee workers about this insect.
How is it different from other places you have been?
I’ve been to China and Canada before. It is different in that it is home. Everything is familiar here.

Mt. Juliet’s City Government has control of cable channel 3 in order to show community announcements. In order to see a certain announcement, I watched it for an extended amount of time. The announcements are in Power Point format. It wouldn’t be as monotonous if there weren’t so many of them. But there is a huge amount. It must take 30 minutes to cycle through all of them.
Anyways what I noticed was that they were playing mp3s of Jimmy Buffett songs during the audio portion of it. I wonder if the RIAA would be interested in this…. Broadcasting Buffett songs to a large subscriber base when the record companies aren’t getting a dime for it…..
See pictures of my friends’ recent trip to Disney World.

Who would have thought the Mt. Juliet KFC wouldn’t give me 3 empty chicken buckets? I wanted to get some empty buckets for skits at camp (Our theme is Kids for Christ (KFC)….or more appropriately – KFC: Tastes like chicken). Maybe they wouldn’t give it to me because they thought I might try to put some other brand of inferior chicken in it to sell. Anyways there are plenty of other KFCs which could be asked.
The electricity went off for a brief period of time today, but the cable TV and cable internet was out for a few hours. Work pretty much stops around here when my internet goes out. I do most of my stuff on my work PC over the company’s intranet. When it isn’t available, there is not much I can do.

It’s Fall Creek Falls….the crown jewell of the state’s park system. I’ll be heading out there Friday afternoon by way of Cookeville and Sparta. I’ve driven through Spencer, TN, before. There’s not much to it. Even smaller than Watertown.
What will we do at Fall Creek Falls? Probably some hiking, bicycling and other fun stuff. I’ve dragged my dad’s bicycle out of storage. Surprisingly the tires are still good….they are not flat after 4 days of being inflated. It isn’t exactly the best bike, but I’ll get by with it.

One of my friends pointed out that I’m always surprised to learn that people actually read this webpage. “If you don’t want people to read it, then don’t update it everyday.” he said.
It appears that it’s going to be one long hot summer, if this spring’s temperature is any indication. All I know is that I left for Canada 2 weeks ago with 60 degrees and now I’m back with 80 degrees. It is supposed to cool down some, but it seems like I completely missed spring. Middle Tennessee’s humidity is killing us.