Oh crap. I can’t believe I haven’t blogged in six days. Aren’t you all just waiting on the edge of your seats, like “what will she say next? it’s been a whole six days, come on! I just can’t stand it!” I stole the words right out of your mouth, I’m sure.

I will tell you why I haven’t been blogging much lately. It’s weird, I’m actually enjoying spending time with real live people. In person. For real. This is quite a change for me, this major introvert, and I can only attribute it to God remodeling my heart in that sneaky way he does (I love his sneaky ways).

It all started when I began reading the book, UnChristian. It’s about the perceptions people have of Christianity. It’s a sobering book. While reading the first half I kept saying to myself, “yeah, I hate Christians that are like that!” and then through the second half my tune changed to “wow, I’m like that too”. The book really pointed me to a very fundamental problem in my life. Without airing ALL my sins (there’s just not enough time) I will say that one of my greatest issues is that I am incredibly insensitive towards other people. Thoughtfulness does not come naturally to me. I say things that hurt others’ feelings without realizing it. If someone is talking to me, I don’t listen because I’m thinking of the next thing I want to say. I don’t call people enough. I don’t return my emails. I avoid people who are doing things I don’t approve of because I think I’m better than them.

I am very ashamed of this.

But the good news is that when God teaches me a lesson he makes sure to drill it in tight so I won’t forget. It started with the book. It continued when I decided to make a better effort to be plugged into my church by joining a bible study. As it turns out, the study they were just getting ready to dive into was one all about reaching out to people. I did not know this when I joined, but I find it hilariously appropriate. I guess this is the journey God wants me on right now. It’s a good journey, and a way overdue one at that. I mean, this is what Jesus Christ was all about - people - so it’s about time I started caring too (I’ve been calling myself a Christian since I was 7). For the first time in my life I can honestly say that I genuinely want to see people the way Christ sees them. And I believe God is starting to help me out with that.

I have always had a hard time seeing people the way Christ does, mainly because I was afraid of them. I’ve always been nervous around strangers, but after that first night of bible study I realized something - not once did I feel an ounce of anxiety about meeting the other members of the group, most of whom I had never met before. To go even further, I stayed late because I was having such a blast getting to know them better! The hostess still can’t believe it when I say I’m an introvert.

It’s just a start, but I’m not sweatin’ it because life is all about the journey. If God wanted us perfect right off the bat he wouldn’t have sent Jesus and there would be no use for grace. I am a huge fan of grace, and I’ll take all I can get of it. Lord knows I need it. Of course he knows, he’s GOD

Michael - “How can you tell someone you care about deeply, ‘I told you so’?”

Michael - “You are a thief of joy.”

Jim - In reference to spending the entire day watching Dwight to see if he spent any time on personal matters (i.e. sneezing, taking potty breaks), and consequently not doing any actual work himself: “It’s exhausting, being this vigilant. I think I’m gonna need to go home early.”

Okay, not really. I stole it from Rocketboom but it might as well be Mike’s…

A crazy long meme, with questions in no particular order…

1. Do you like blue cheese? No
2. Have you ever smoked? Yes
3. What flavor Kool Aid was (is) your favorite? I don’t like Kool Aid
4. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments? No
5. Favorite Christmas movie? Elf
6. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Coffee
7. What do you love about your Job?  The numbers
8. Middle name? Rae
9. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment: 1) I’m frustrated with the presidential campaign. 2) I’m happy to hear Palin wants to come to Michigan. 3) I think I’ll go get some ice cream.
10. Current hate right now? Politics
11. Favorite place to be? The couch
12. Do you own slippers? Yes
13. What color shirt are you wearing? Orange sherbet
14. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? No
15. Can you whistle? Not really
16. Favorite color? Red
17. Would you be a pirate? Arr, I’m not into stealin’
18. What vehicle do you drive? Buick Century
19. Worst injury you’ve ever had? Sprained ankle
20. How many TVs do you have in your house? Three
21. Do you have any pets? Yes, 2 cats
22. Your favorite book(s)? The Princess Bride
23. Do you collect anything? I try not to, clutter sucks
24. Favorite Sports Team? Detroit Tigers
25. What song do you want played at your funeral? “Worth It All” sung by Rita Springer
26. What are you listening to right now? Fox News
27. What was the last thing that you ate? Chicken and salad (didn’t get that ice cream yet)
28. Can you drive a stick shift? Yes
29. Last person you spoke to on the phone? The lady from my hair salon
30. How old are you today? 30
31. What is your favorite drink? Coffee
32. Have you ever dyed your hair? Yes
33. Favorite food? Pizza
34. What is the last movie you watched? The Station Agent
35. Favorite day of the year? The day of the first snow of the season
36. How do you vent anger? Cry, clean, or stomp around and slam things around
37. What is your favorite season? Winter
38. Cherries or Blueberries? Cherries
39. When was the last time you cried? When I miscarried in July
40. What is on the floor of your closet? Shoes
41. What did you do last night? Went to Bible study
42. Plain, cheese, or spicy hamburgers? Cheese
43. Favorite dog breed? Miniature Schnauzer
44. How many states have you lived in? 2
45. Favorite day of the week? Tuesday

I heard Dave Ramsey read this on the air and just had to pass it along. I don’t know much about science but this made total sense!

The Heaviest Element Known to Science

Lawrence Livermore Laboratories has discovered the heaviest element yet known to science.

The new element, Governmentium (Gv), has one neutron, 25 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons, and 198 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312.

These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons.

Since Governmentium has no electrons, it is inert; however, it can be detected, because it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. A tiny amount of Governmentium can cause a reaction that would normally take less than a second, to take from 4 days to 4 years to complete.

Governmentium has a normal half-life of 2- 6 years. It does not decay, but instead undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places.

In fact, Governmentium’s mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganization will cause more morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes.

This characteristic of morons promotion leads some scientists to believe that Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a critical concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as critical morass.

When catalysed with money, Governmentium becomes Administratium, an element that radiates just as much energy as Governmentium since it has half as many peons but twice as many morons.

Listen to Dave talk about this on-air

* Dave Ramsey did not write this. It has been circulating around the web for some time but seems more fitting than ever right now.

So, that V.P. debate was interesting. Of course many of the statements made by both candidates were stretches of the truth or altogether false. That is so frustrating. As I was checking up on all the facts I came across this gem:

Who Caused The Economic Crisis?
So who is to blame? There’s plenty of blame to go around, and it doesn’t fasten only on one party or even mainly on what Washington did or didn’t do. As The Economist magazine noted recently, the problem is one of “layered irresponsibility … with hard-working homeowners and billionaire villains each playing a role.” Here’s a partial list of those alleged to be at fault:

• The Federal Reserve, which slashed interest rates after the dot-com bubble burst, making credit cheap.
• Home buyers, who took advantage of easy credit to bid up the prices of homes excessively.
• Congress, which continues to support a mortgage tax deduction that gives consumers a tax incentive to buy more expensive houses.
• Real estate agents, most of whom work for the sellers rather than the buyers and who earned higher commissions from selling more expensive homes.
• The Clinton administration, which pushed for less stringent credit and downpayment requirements for working- and middle-class families.
• Mortgage brokers, who offered less-credit-worthy home buyers subprime, adjustable rate loans with low initial payments, but exploding interest rates.
• Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, who in 2004, near the peak of the housing bubble, encouraged Americans to take out adjustable rate mortgages.
• Wall Street firms, who paid too little attention to the quality of the risky loans that they bundled into Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS), and issued bonds using those securities as collateral.
• The Bush administration, which failed to provide needed government oversight of the increasingly dicey mortgage-backed securities market.
• An obscure accounting rule called mark-to-market, which can have the paradoxical result of making assets be worth less on paper than they are in reality during times of panic.
• Collective delusion, or a belief on the part of all parties that home prices would keep rising forever, no matter how high or how fast they had already gone up.

The U.S. economy is enormously complicated. Screwing it up takes a great deal of cooperation. Claiming that a single piece of legislation was responsible for (or could have averted) the crisis is just political grandstanding. We have no advice to offer on how best to solve the financial crisis. But these sorts of partisan caricatures can only make the task more difficult.

I agree with this wholeheartedly. There are multiple factors that caused this problem, and one swift $700 billion move from the government is not going to solve it. Everyone, and I mean everyone needs to be committed to turning this thing around. I’m not an economist so I don’t have all the answers, but I do have some insight as far as what we hardworking Americans must do to insulate ourselves from this sort of crisis: Stop borrowing money. Live on less than you make. Save for the emergencies. Save for the future. Forget about the Jones’ - they’re broke.

My sister just bought a house. A small one. Small by anyone’s standards, really. We thought she was nuts at first, but you know what? I’m a little envious! The layout of the house is great and has all the space she needs for her family of four. No more, no less. There are huge advantages to this, number one being that the cost is well below their means and will leave breathing room in the budget. Breathing room is an absolute must. The other advantage, the one that makes me so envious, is that her small space forces her to keep only the things she needs and say no to the rest. She has a built in defense against clutter!

It doesn’t matter what other people think. People may say my sister’s house is too small, or that mine is the junkiest on the block, but we don’t care! We can sleep at night not worrying how we’re going to pay next month’s mortgages. And more importantly, we are surrounded by family and friends who love us no matter what our houses look like.

Thanks to my employer, Mike and I had the opportunity to attend the MSU football game today, as well as a stupendous tailgate party. I had volunteered to bring coffee to the tailgate, and I successfully did, but not without sacrifice. We were driving to my coworker’s house to pick her up for the tailgate and we came very close to missing the turn onto her street. Mike slammed on the brakes just in time to make the turn, in the process causing the two carafes of piping hot coffee that were safely nestled around my feet to tip over. Onto my feet. Piping hot coffee - I do not know what piping means, just know it was VERY HOT - spilled through my shoe, through my socks, and onto my toes. In nanoseconds.

I wish you could have been there. It was truly an experience I will not soon forget. Not quite Saturday Night Live material, but hilarious nonetheless. Here is how it went:

As I was coping with the seething pain of the hot coffee on my flesh, I had just enough mental capacity left to know that I must remove the shoe, then sock, now no now oh dear God the pain the relentless pain. Shoot. Hot. Oh. Hot. Shoot. Make it stop. Get the shoe off, Mindy. Haaah, eeeeh, oooh. Shoot. Oh, this is her house. That’s crazy, you stopped at the right house.. oh shoot… haaah… can you go knock on the door? Ohma, ohma. Gaaaa… haaa.

Yeah. That’s pretty close to how it went. Replace the shoots with the real four letter word and that’s about verbatim. And I totally have the blisters to prove that I am not kidding about the hotness of this coffee.

Thankfully, the coffee incident was the worst of the day. The rest of the day was fantastic. It was a beautiful day for a football game. We had delicious food, good people, perhaps a little bit of beer, and MSU beat Iowa 16 to 13! All in all the day was pretty stinkin’ cool. Mike ended up snagging a security gig to fill in for a friend so he didn’t watch the game from the stands with me and my coworkers. No, he watched it from behind the goal post. Here was his view of the game, followed by mine.

Mike’s View:

My View:

Yes, his view was better for watching the game, but my view was the best for watching the marching band at halftime. So there!

Mike also got a few shots of some MSU football people that he would want me to post (he’s seriously loving these football gigs).

Javon Ringer:

Mark Dantonio:

Ringer is one of the players and Dantonio is the head coach. Mike says they’re kind of a big deal. I don’t know. Football is clearly not my sport. I’m just in it for the food!

Just a little internet fun…

Get Your Cyborg Name

So I’m watching the V.P. debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin. I just have one beef with the first part about taxes and the rest of the debate I’m sort of lost on.

Biden defines “fairness” as increasing taxes for those earning $250k or more and giving tax breaks to the middle class. So the more money you earn, the higher rate you’re taxed at. How is that fair? Sounds to me like a penalty for being successful. He said that the “super wealthy” don’t deserve tax breaks. Really? Do you know these people personally? I’m certainly not one of those people, but I don’t really care for that logic. You say fairness, I say unfair redistribution of wealth.

I do like what Palin says about personal responsibility and living within your means, but it really creeps me out every time she looks directly at the camera.

I hate presidential elections. I don’t want to vote for either candidate. It’s a matter of picking who you like the least and then voting for the other one. Crappy.

“I paid $3.55 a gallon for gas on Saturday. That’s a good price!”

Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad gas prices have gone down some. It makes me very happy. I just never thought I would ever be excited about $3.55 per gallon. I won’t even pay that much for milk, and milk is awesome. Gas just gets me to work and back, but milk does a body good.