Randomness

Several random things from today...completely unrelated, but most of them excited me nonetheless:

1. WeAreTeachers launched our marketplace in Facebook!!!  You can check it out here: I Am Teacher Marketplace.  This is HUGE...many, many hours of work (still many more to come), but a very important milestone for our little company.  It's so exciting to watch it take off and grow! (If you have a Fb account, search for 'I Am Teacher' in the applications and add it to your profile...pretty cool.)

2. On a more personal note...our family received some VERY EXCITING news today as well...  My brother-in-law, Joe, found out this morning that he has been accepted to Columbia for their MBA program.  We are so proud of you, Joe! (And very excited to come visit New York City...)  He and his wife, Candice, will be moving to NY in January...in the mean time we love that they are here in the metroplex after four long years in the San Diego area.  We all went out for a celebratory dinner tonight and had a wonderful time... here they are...

3. Have I mentioned that I freakin' love our church (Keystone Church)???  After dinner with the fam, I headed over to Simply You (owned by our good friend, Melody) to meet up with some of the women for a ministry event.  What an incredibly refreshing night to catch up with old friends and meet new ones as well.  I've been so busy with every day life that I really haven't taken time out to just stop, breathe, and take it all in.  Thank you all for giving me the opportunity to do that - you ladies minister to me every day and I am so thankful you are in my life.  And a HUGE shout out to Tracy for all of her hard work and organization...thank you!  (A side plug... if you live in the area and haven't been by Simply You... ya need to try it... yummm!)

4. This next item does not excite me due to obvious reasons...  I was saddened today to see that the little town Ben and I lived in outside of Minneapolis made the news because of a plane crash.  My heart goes out to that community...we miss our friends from Owatonna every day!

5.  And finally... My sister got she and I tickets to the John Mayer/ Colbie Caillat concert tomorrow night.  I know, I know...I said I was a music snob...go ahead and throw stones at me for going to this concert.  But, I am excited...very excited!  Not so much because of the music, but because it will be a fun night with my little sister (and one of our "surrogate" sisters, Blaire Bender).  And, because I am secretly hoping to see/meet Jennifer Aniston.  This may sound weird, but I know that she and I would be BFFs if we ever had the chance to meet...

So that's all for tonight...heading to bed to catch up on sleep.  But before I do, I just have to point out the obvious...I'm a list maker.  My apologies go out to all those that are annoyed by this, but it will continue.  

Microsoft vs. GM

Some of you may have already read this...But for those who haven't, and for those who feel only the deepest love and affection for the way computers have enhanced our lives... Read on...

At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated:

"If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon."

In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release stating:

If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:

1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash... Twice a day.

2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.

3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason.  You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue.  For some reason you would simply accept this.

4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.

5. (Being an avid Mac user...I love this one!) Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only five percent of the roads.

6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single 'This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation' warning light.

7. The airbag system would ask 'Are you sure?' before deploying.

8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key, and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.

9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.

10. You'd have to press the 'Start' button to turn the engine off.

Here we go...

Hello to both readers that might actually see this post...it is my first, so please hang in there with me.  I am starting this because I was challenged to blog at least three times per week by a friend and co-worker of mine, John Costilla.  Clearly, he under-estimated the depth of my competitive nature... I told him not to worry...that I would not disappoint... I'm up for the challenge, right? ...  So, here we go...

Since this is my first post, I thought I would start out by telling you a couple of random things about myself.  Some are serious, some are not...just want to give you a better idea about who I am and what I do.  In no particular order...here they are:

1. I have been married to my wonderful husband, Ben, for almost 7 years.  He truly amazes me every day.  We consider ourselves very lucky to have found each other because there's no one else in the world who could put up with either one of us... On more than one occasion we have definitely been described as an "overwhelming two-man show"... don't know if that's a good thing...but in any case, he is my best friend and I treasure our time together.  Here he is...actually smiling for the camera...

2. My faith is the most important thing to me - it is what keeps me going on the worst of days.  Even on my good days I know that my life looks nothing like the life of Jesus.  Thankfully, I have a wonderful church family who lift each other up and support each other - Keystone Church.  If you live in the area, you should check it out.  I am blessed every day by these friends.

3. I am an organizational / clean freak.  (I'm taking a moment right here for those friends and family that know me to gasp in utter disbelief.)  I hang all of the clothes in my closet according to color and sleeve length.  It drives me to mop every time I see little animal footprints all over our wood floors.  I can walk into almost any room and immediately know if something has been moved...even if it's just the slightest turn of a picture frame.  A little OCD?  Maybe...  But I'm not weird about it, if that's possible.  I don't impose this OCD-ness on others (I don't think)... I'm working on it. 

4. I love my job (and I really mean that...I'm not just saying it).  I'm the Marketing Coordinator for WeAreTeachers where I have the opportunity to work with an amazing team of people who are paving a new road in the educational technology world.  (I'm also paid to play on social networks like facebook, myspace, ning, twitter, and so forth - all from the comfort of my own home... Does it get any better than that???)

5. I would argue that McDonalds has better coffee than Starbucks.  We've all just been suckered in by the marketing geniuses that Starbucks hired. Props.

6. I am "one of those" animal people.  I have two boys...Johnny and Fat Jack (aka "The Boys").  Fat Jack is a 4 year old cat who already weighs 23 pounds...and growing.  He's well on his way to full-blown diabetes.  We've tried every animal diet the vet has to offer...even did the "South Beach Kitty Diet"...whatever that is.  Sadly, nothing has worked..but Fat Jack is happy and doesn't seem to mind.  (Side note here... Ben is NOT an animal person and definitely put a price tag on Fat Jack's life...we had to agree on a dollar amount that we would not go over for emergency vet visits after one of his diabetic attacks.)  Fat Jack showin' off that belly...

7. My friend, Trey, once said that he judges people by their favorite movies... After hearing that, I realized that I also judge people on a criteria almost as ridiculous...I judge people based on what music they listen to.  I am a self-confessed music snob.  Music is one of my passions and it will take a whole other post (or two or three) to talk about that...  BTW, if you're a music snob like me and you haven't been totally hooked on Pandora...you are missing out!

8. And, finally, my last random fact for today... I hold the record for the highest number of parking tickets ever issued to a single student at Baylor University.  (Again, for those that know me...SHOCKER!!!) This is a true fact and, last time I heard, still mentioned in the freshman orientations.  Not necessarily proud of that, but it is what it is... Do you think my car would still get the boot if I were to drive it on to campus today???

A big THANK YOU if you actually read all the way through this post to here...just realized it got pretty long.  Sorry about that, friends...I'll work on keeping it shorter.  In the mean time, let me know what some of your quirky/funny habits are...I like knowing that I'm not alone!