Another Face In The Crowd

It's been about a month and a half since I last blogged and it was a meme. I haven't been much for blogging, that doesn't mean there hasn't been a bunch going on. I dated a guy for a couple weeks and then moved on. I almost lost my friends because of said guy (I'll take 95% of the blame on that and the other 5% can be chalked up to misinterpretations). The company I work for is masking a mass layoff by stating that the employees aren't the right fit or aren't performing to levels they should or have been at. Instead of getting laid off, they are getting fired and I'm sure unemployment benefits are being denied.

With all of that going on, and a huge lack of interest in blogging, I'm not going to promise anything any time soon. I've also found pretty much the one and only virtual social interaction that I care to maintain. There's links to the right for towards the bottom of several social networks I belong to, but I'm trying to streamline them all into as few as possible. I tried Twitter for a while, liked it but got bored with it, and my interactions declined. I tried blogging for a while, liked it but got bored with it, and my posts declined. I have myspace and the main reason I liked it over facebook was because it allowed the users to customize the templates themselves. So I've decided that my main outlet for both real and virtual friends will be on facebook. Some of you may have already seen the email for a friend request. I either had you email address or knew your full name (or found you on someone else's list), some of you have links posted on your own blogs. The more I thought about it, I have decided to leave the option open to you. I'd like you to friend me on Facebook, but if you don't want to that's cool. But if you decide to, click the link below.

Daniel Thomasson's Profile

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As you can tell, I wasn't really worried with formatting proper paragraphs.

I stole this from Kelly over at Rambling along in life...with a Stern point of view. Some of the songs fit so perfectly that you'd think I hand picked the songs, but I promise I didn't.

RULES:
1. Put your music player on shuffle (ALL MUSIC).
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS!

IF SOMEONE SAYS "IS THIS OK" YOU SAY:
Freakshow - Britney Spears

WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
2 Man Show - Timberland feat. Elton John (so true at times)

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
Beat It - Fall Out Boy feat. John Mayer (it's been known to happen before, I just hope it doesn't happen to the Boy from Memphis)

HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
Butterfly - Corinne Bailey Rae

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
Toy Soldier - Britney Spears

WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
Rapture - iiO

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
This Is Not The End - The Bravery

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
If I Ruled The World - Tony Bennett feat. CeLiNe DiOn (spelling courtesy of an inside joke between Terry and I)

WHAT IS 2 + 2?
What a Catch Donnie - Fall Out Boy

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
Not Your Enemy - Jesse McCartney

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Heaven On Earth - Britney Spears

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
American Boy - Estelle feat. Kanye West

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
Dignity - Hilary Duff

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Disappear - Beyonce' (This one worries me)

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
Father Figure - George Michael (pretty funny)

WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
Love Remains The Same - Gavin Rossdale

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
Better - Tom Baxter

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
Sexual (Li Da Di) - Amber (*giggle*)

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
Maneater - Nelly Furtado (*giggle*)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
Hide and Seek - Imogen Heap (I can see some relevance in that statement)

WHAT'S THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN?
Save Me - Kelly Osbourne (Depends on whose trying to save me)

HOW WILL YOU DIE?
Fashionista (Original) - Jimmy James (HAHAHAHA! A shopping accident. What a way to go!)

WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU REGRET?
Seasons of Change - Corinne Bailey Rea

WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH?
Something Special - Usher

WHAT MAKES YOU CRY?
Broken-Hearted Girl - Beyonce'

WILL YOU EVER GET MARRIED?
Dirrty - Christina Aguilera feat. Redman (hum, wonder what that's supposed to mean)

DOES ANYONE LIKE YOU?
Way I Are - Timberland feat Keri Hilson & D.O.E (well if you don't like me the way I am then there's no point in being in my life)

IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?
Skake - Ying Yang Twins feat. Pitbull (I definitely wish there was less of me that does shake)

WHAT HURTS RIGHT NOW?
Starless - Crossfade

WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?
Runnin' - Jesse McCartney

Last week was nothing typical by a long shot.

On Monday, the rains started. The temperature was hoovering right at 32°. The ice and sleet started accumulating on the trees and power lines. As I was getting ready for bed, the power was starting to flicker.

Tuesday morning, was a normal day. The roads were clear enough that driving to work was possible. The rains continued all day with the temperature continuing to hoover right at freezing. My boss decided to let us go an hour early as he was anticipating things to get worse. At 4 pm, I lost my electricity. As the night went on, I found out through text messages that most of the town lost power.

Wednesday morning, I still had now electricity. I called my boss to get the game plan for the day. The office was without power. He told me to check in around 11 am to see if we would work at all that day. I didn't work at all on Wednesday. About 2:30 pm, I got a call from my boss telling me that I was going to Memphis to work in our office there. At first, I was upset because the whole office wasn't required to work, but later the thought of a warm hotel room with a hot shower, television, and internet was just fine by me.

Work on Thursday was only slightly productive. We had our toll free number forwarded to the Memphis office so we were getting the majority of our phone calls. It was mainly a day of playing catch up and damage control with customers who had tried to contact us the day before. I was also able to shadow the manager of the department that I will be managing in my office. It's part of the career development plan that my boss and I have devised. As the day was winding down, my boss told me that I was going to get the day off on Friday. He was calling those who didn't work Thursday to work Friday. He gave me the option of staying in the hotel room or going back home. After finding out that I was still without power, I decided to stay. I spent the evening chatting online with friends and strangers.

Friday morning I took things pretty easy. I got ready and left Memphis around 10 am. As we were driving back into town, I was amazed at the damages. Trees were still ice covered and had snapped in the weight of the ice. I arrived back home around noon to discover I still had no power. A quick check of the temperature and my apartment had held to 55°. One Monday, I cranked the temperature up to 75°. I guess it's a good thing my landlord pays the utilities and overinsulated the hell out of the apartment. I spent the rest of the afternoon napping and text messaging a guy I'd chatted with online the night before. He convinced me to come back to Memphis and hang out with him. I left Jonesboro around 9:30 pm to meet him at his job when he was getting off work. We later went out and had a few drinks after returning to his house.

Saturday was spent with the Boy from Memphis. We got lunch, ran around town, and had a great time. He had to be at work at 7 pm so I left Memphis around 6:30. By the time I made it home, I had power again. I took it easy the rest of the night.

Today has been a rather lazy day. I've done my laundry and cleaned out my refrigerator and freezer. I've also talked to and text messaged the Boy from Memphis.

It's amazing how quiet things really are without any electricy. There was no hum of electronics or appliances. There was very little traffic. It was almost eery for things to be so quiet.

I recently finished watching Seasons 1-4 of Nip/Tuck (I'm sure those who follow me on Twitter are happy about that). I'm in withdrawals now. They had some outlandish plot lines (drug trafficking heroin from Columbia through breast implants, The Carver, a kidney harvesting ring), but that was what kept me entertained. The family plot lines (divorce, remarriage, divorce again, then trying to make it work outside of marriage) didn't really do it for me.

I find humor in the fact that my boss want to improve morale within our office, yet can't see that the one person he goes to discuss issues within the office is the one creating the low morale. I find it funny that he can't see the change in our attitudes when she's not in the office.

I'm somewhat superstitious when it comes to talking about something too soon. I hope that wasn't enough to jinx it.

Work has a program that they started this month to help those who smoke to quit. I've got to keep track of how many cigarettes I smoke so I've got a program for the iPhone that helps me with that. I'm supposed to have someone call me on Feb. 4th for my initial consultation and then he will decide if I qualify for patches/lozenges. I've started going outside to smoke because I smoke less and keeping Jolly Ranchers to tie me over between smokes.

Several of the (social networking) websites that I visit on a regular basis are incorporating a feature that I have a love/hate feeling towards. They are incorporating a tracking aspect to them.

While I like that fact that I can see those who have viewed my profiles, I don't like that fact that the owners of those profiles I view can see that I've viewed there profile. It's what I like to call lurking in the background.

I've always been one to lurk in the background, whether virtually or in person. I prefer to observe others rather than to be the center of attention. I prefer to wait to see if someone will talk to me rather than be the one that initiates contact/conversation.

It stems from my deep seated fear of rejection. Something that I truly need to work on because I know that what I get out of something is proportionate to what I put into it.

In the meantime, I'm still torn about the tracking aspect of these websites.

This song pretty much sums up the way I have been feeling the last several weeks. Maybe I'll talk about it later. I heard the song while finishing up Season 4 of Nip/Tuck tonight.



The Submarines - Brighter Discontent

The celebration for New Year's this year started out with a production. Originally Terry, Jamie, and myself were supposed to travel to Little Rock, AR to hit a bar and to celebrate Jamie's 40th birthday. It was going to be a big deal with several of our friends in Little Rock joining the celebration.

As the days grew closer, things started to fall apart. One of the couples, Jill and Matt, had made other plans. Tianna's father has been in and out of the hospital so she was scared of being away from the phone for too long or in a bar where she couldn't hear the phone. Heather and Sarah were just going to take it easy as they own and run there own boutiquey kitchen store. They are the only employees so they wanted to enjoy the day off.

Terry then started looking to his brother who live in Cape Girardeau, MO. He was going out of town to visit some of this friends. Terry and I then started looking at restaurants in town to celebrate.

Then comes New Year's Eve. Terry's brother calls to tell us that he cancelled his plans and wanted to know if we were still coming up. Jamie sent a rather cryptic text message that we thought was him cancelling.

Finally everything came together. Terry, Jamie, and I had dinner at O'Charley's with Kim, a friend's sister. She was on call and got called in right after dinner was over. After dinner, the three of us went down town to Brickhouse Grill, a restaurant/bar.

At first, the evening started off pretty boring. The three of us sat at a table just looking around at people, drinking, and chatting a bit. The band that was playing upstairs was too loud for us to really carry on a conversation. After the clock had struck midnight, the fun really started. The three of us were outside smoking when some random guy started talking to us. He was talking about getting laid and how many girls phone numbers he had gotten. We were all snickering at him. Out walks a girl to smoke. After we were able to get away from the guy, we all started to the girl, Lindsay. She'd smuggled a bottle of champagne in and had come outside to drink it and smoke.

After a bit of conversation, her friend comes out. She was talking about not having a guy to kiss. After the two girls went on for a while about not having a guy to kiss, I took it upon myself to help them out. Terry followed suit and Jamie was forced to kiss them.

We all went back inside for another drink and Lindsay and her friend went on there way. They ended up leaving for a party. Terry, Jamie, and I went home.

After about an hour online, I went to bed.

All in all, what I thought was going to be a let down of a New Year's celebration turned out to be rather fun and interesting.

Today after talking to Terry, I found out that he gave his number to Lindsay. She apparently was cautious of getting Terry's number because she said that she would be the girl who would actually call him. She seems like she would be fun to hang out with. Since both of our fag hags (Jill and Tianna) have both moved away, Lindsay may just be the new replacement.