In times like these...

I love excel. Is it possible to love something that cannot love you back, I believe you can, and thats why I love excel. The spreadsheets we worked on this past week were very familiar to me. I did learn a few things, such as inserting graphs, which I had done before but like many things, i'd forgotten how to do. Using excel to calculate took me back to my statistics days, when i'd use the program to calculate standard deviation, to get an accurate mean and a whole bunch of other functions. It makes me wonder about how my son will learn to do mathematical concepts and how to problem solve.

There are two kinds of people, inherently hard-working and self-motivated people, and then there are the lazy people. I heard a story this morning about a man named Steve Cobbs. Steve was deployed to Iraq and while there he suffered a brain injury. Prior to his injury Steve was a higly skilled worker. He was the only trainer Mercedes Benz would fly to their plant in Alabama every couple of weeks to train new employees. Despite his injury and its devastating effects, he works. He received training at the Martha Jefferson Hospital in Charlottesville, Va. He applied for a job in the hospitality department following his training, but was unable to accept the position as he was in a rehabilitation center at that time. He saves the message from their HR department for future contact and a promise for a job. Adding insult to injury, Steve also suffers from PTSD, a condition that causes him to lash out at others including his wife. Theory X is a theory that states that a human being has an inherent dislike for work and will avoid it if he/she can. Theory Y states that people usually accept and often seek responsibility. Whichever theory applies to you, this morning I feel inspired by Steve Cobbs as he is a prime example of Theory Y and I think that you can be too.

For more on Steve Cobb's story and others like him, visit http://www.npr.org and enter the keywords Steve Cobbs or The Span of War.

Owwieeee, I want my mommie. My super sucky day began with a visit to Dr. K. (his full name has been excluded to protect his privacy, blah, blah, blah). Tooth number 18 has been giving me some grief of late and since Dr. K only does root canals on Mondays, today was my lucky day. I was kinda nervous when I got there, but as soon as the anesthesia set it, it was all good. He worked diligently and quickly, which I very much appreciated. When he was done, he gave me detailed instructions on how to care for my tooth. I'm now waiting for my cap to come in, I can't help but feel a bit old writing this, cause I thought only old people have caps on their teeth. My day continued to suck because I was supposed to do a ppt presentation in class but was too afraid to drool in front of my instructor and classmates, so I opted out of it and opted into going first on Wednesday. On and on with the sucky day, my dear old Steelers (http://www.steelers.com) lost to the Colts. This is the second game we've lost in a row, bringing our standing to a horrifying 7-5. It will be okay once we beat the friggin' Bengals on the 4th. Say a prayer for the Offense, they seem to be in hybernation.

The final exam is coming up and i'm beginning to get anxious. It supposed to be accumulative and I wonder how many of the questions from the practice exams will show on there. I'll have to wait until next week to know for sure. I have been using the lessons I learned from the excel project to create a few files on my computer. I recently created a spreedsheet with all my cd music names and release dates, I also created one for the movies that I have which also included the year of their release. I am working on another spreadsheet for movies that i'd like to see, this one also includes the year of their release. I do want to create a spreadsheet for all my contacts, so that when i'm sending out Christmas cards I can just transfer that data onto a word document and merge it into some labels. I'm really acquiring quite a few skills in this class.

For privacy's sake this message will not be understood by the vast majority of those that read it, I hereby apologize in advance. Wooi mwana wakwa Kamau, niwakura? Niwakigia na miaka mugwaja. Ninda shokeria Ngai witu ngatho niundu wa uria wothe atwikiire. Hena andu amwe mari na nganja nyingi, maugire ati gutire hindi ingia hotire gukuriithia ndi wiki na ukorwo wi mundu mugi, takimere riu ati ri, mukwiigwa uguo. Mwana wakwa no arakura mwimwoririire, ta kinjirei riu atiri, ahana atia? Murona atia? Niahana twana turia tungi, turia twa andu a guku? Tiga ni Ngai mwega, agihana o tao. Mwaka ugi ugithira, Mwathani etikira, mwana wakwa agakorwo agithomera Nairobi. Ti ati mathomo ma guku ni moru, ni ati mathomo ma guku tita ma mucie, nimwetikia? Ninda menya nimwetikia tiga kunyirira! Nindakirikia kwiigwa.

Mtukufu Rais Baba Wa Taifa His Honorable President Mwai Kibaki Leo....

It must have been like an exaggerated version of apprentice, the prezo yaani fired everyone, wooi! Yaani if you don't agree with his draft, you get the axe. When my brother called me earlier today to tell me that everyone had been let go my response was much like yours "ATI WHAT!" Yeah man, errbody is pigaing kaguu in nairo looking for a new jobo.

For those of you that don't know, the symbolism of the fruit came about to help illiterate citizens pick a side. Orange (Olange) meant that you were against the draft, and banana (Mbanana) meant that you were all for it. The time came to vote on the draft and it flopped. No at 3,5478,477 (57%), and yes at 2,532,918 (43%). This is a major defeat so Kibaki did the next best thing, he fired them all. The cabinet ministers and the assistant cabinet ministers, leaving only him to run the country, well add a few DO's here and there.

This is one for the history books my friends, it certainly will do as a great conversation starter for the holidays. Unless of course you "a a mbanana"

Somewhere between my two hours at the library and biology lecture, I had a half hour to run an errand, and grab a quick lunch on campus center west. As I sat there alone enjoying the sunshine, Nuerta came and sat with me. Nuerta had recently met some guy and was going on and on about how she couldn't wait to see him again. While she spoke, and I ate, Richard came by. Richard is a quadripalegic who uses his mouth to steer his wheelchair in whatever direction he'd like. Nuerta and Richard are friends, I have only seen him from afar, and much like everyone else, I don't speak to him. Richard was upset because Nuerta would not go digging into trash cans to retrieve bottles and cans for him. Nuerta got upset with Richard because he would not respond to her. Nuerta then got up and left me seated there with Richard across from me. I continued to eat my lunch all the while afraid that he would drool or do something that would make me lose my lunch or get grossed out. Another lady came by and put her empty plastic bottle in Richard's recycling bag. A young man was about to drop a glass bottle into the trash can behind me when I yelled out 'WAIT!' 'Give it to Richard.' The young man had a puzzled look on his face, but complied with the request. Richard made a barely audible sound as if to thank him. So, again, here I was enjoying what was left of my lunch with Richard and when I was done with my Sobe Green Tea, I too gave my bottle to Richard. I like Richard, he's nice, and he recycles.

It's been quite sometime since this blog was created, so recalling some of the information as to how to create a blog is proving challenging. The good thing about this site is that all the information needed is so user friendly, you wouldn't have to type up all the information, click on create only to find out that your password isn't long enough or your username already belongs to someone. The system tells you before you proceed that you need to pick another username, because the one you want, is no longer available. I find maneuvering through the site at times redundant because you can't log on and go directly to the blogs, you have to find them. I am learning how to get around the site, which links are available to get me to where I want and how to edit my posts. I also appreciate the spell check feature on this site.

Have you ever wondered why your boss is so dumb? I used to wonder, I realized that a smart boss will always surround him/herself with people who are much brighter that they are, or can ever hope to be. Why would you hire people who are of the equal ability as you, you might as well as do the job yourself right? Anywayz, I was elected as a voting member of my son's scite council. If you don't know what an scite council is, you are either not a parent, or one that is not very involved in your child's education, so look it up! So, here I was sitting in this meeting which is what I seem to be doing a lot of lately, and I got a glimpse as to what my life will be like. I will probably spend a large number of work hours in some board room somewhere, with a bunch of mindless drones that dictate my in office actions, and a cold shiver ran down my back. How can I prevent this from happening? What can I do? This is the part where I declare my resolve, or my genius plot to evade sheer boredom and job dissatisfaction, unfortunately I have neither. In light of all this, I'll settle for being the mindless drone, and be perfectly happy to dictate to the bright ones what they can and can't do within the confines of my office, damnit.