Wednesday,
April 25, 2012
- `These two
phrases sum up my work day today.
“I
can explain it to you but I can’t understand it for you.”
“Some people just need a sympathetic pat…
on the head… with a hammer.”
- Make a
copy of your patriarchal blessing that you can take notes on.
Tuesday, May
08, 2012
- Story
time! Ok, one of the reasons Google is so successful is because they give their
employees paid time every week to work on whatever they want for the company.
Lots of projects which are big now with Google sprung from this time, and
that’s why so many things are in beta haha.
Anyway, my
company started doing something similar. Quarterly we have a 24 hour “creative
spark” event where you work on whatever you want, and at the end everyone
shares their ideas/progress and votes on a winner. I decided to participate in
this one because someone proposed a great idea that I thought I could code. I
won’t go into detail but basically it’s a tool that combines the inspection
results from multiple technicians so you can compare what they said and come to
a more consistent inspection standard. I LOVED working on it though!
Programming is a creative process, building something, it’s very rewarding.
Lately I haven’t got to create much though because we’ve had bugs or
infrastructure problems to maintain or fix, hard ones too where it’s hard to
feel progress. So when I got a chance to use some work time for real creating I
loved it. I loved it so much in fact that I worked stayed until midnight that
day haha, then all the workday up till voting the next. And guess what? I WON!
$500! Good times.
- We got a
new team lead finally. His name is Naor (now-err) and he was born in Israel but
mostly grew up in Uruguay, random right? He’s super cool though. Raji was easy
to get along with but it’s not like we’d be friends outside of work. I feel
like if I’d gone to high school with someone like Naor we might have been
friends though. He’s just cool and we get each other’s sense of humor. Spent a
lot of time together at work too but more on that later…
- I realized
a big reason I hate lying awake at night haha. Besides the obvious “I’m in bed,
trying to sleep, but now I’m going to be tired tomorrow, and I didn’t even do
anything wrong!!” aspect. With me I can’t really get up and do something
(pre-break neck if I couldn’t sleep, I’d do some push/pull/sit ups, eat some
food, and go back to sleep. Worked pretty well. Now all I can really do is
think. And since nothing is going on at 3AM, all I can do is review the past or
think of what I’ll do in the future. But I can’t even write stuff down so
thinking about the future is annoying too! Actually my hospital bed and phone
are a good combination… Although my phone is hard to use from bed lol.
- I may have
mentioned this before, but it’s a really good thing I don’t crave junk food
like most people. I mean, I’m not health conscious at all, so I’d gobble stuff
up and probably have issues because of it. Heavenly Father knew this though, so
He just made me with a low desire to eat junk food. Perfact! Haha.
- Mark 10:13-16 Consider the Saviors tender
approach with children. I can’t picture President Monson being like “ew! Get
this child away from me!”
Wednesday,
May 9, 2012
- So I don’t
remember exactly when it was, I think the Friday before this Wednesday, but at
4PM they pulled us into a meeting and basically said “we haven’t released a new
product in over a eyar because it keeps having problems. Most companies die if
they go this long. We need to fix it and get it out the door ASAP!” So I worked
9AM-Midnight two Fridays and a Saturday, 9AM-6PM the Saturday of my birthday
party, and 9AM to 6AM on a Monday (21 hour workday! A new record!) and 9AM to
3AM a couple other days. Work has been INTENSE! Here’s where the aforementioned
lots of time with my new team lead has been haha. It has been great though.
Wonderful camaraderie working into the wee hours of the morning as a team (and
at a time when no one bugs you with side tasks!)
- I did get
to take my birthday off to run errands. It was a Wednesday. I d renewed my
driver’s license, had lunch with Kalia (way fun!) got my van repaired, vegged
out somehow that night until Audrey came over and we opened my birthday
presents with the fam. Some way fun stuff. I think if you have to do a gift
with me, gag gifts are the way to go. I got a hand cross-stitched sign from
Grandma Higgins that says “home is where the cat is”, the stickers to put on my
new van, labels to mark my stuff that say “Corbinealious Brycetholomue
Campbelliticus Maximus Danger III” and my cell number, and so on. Great day J
Saturday,
May 12, 2012
- I KNOW
I’ve mentioned this before, but I used to throw parties all the time, and now I
don’t like to at all. It’s a little sad to me but it’s true. I decided to throw
a party for my birthday anyway. And I was going through the standard stress I
dislike of “well who do I invite that will get along? And I need to invite
enough people that it’ll be a good turn out but not so much that it’s chaos…”
and so on, and it was bugging me, so I was like “forget this, I’m inviting
EVERYONE” and I literally sent the invite to like 230 people. I have slightly
mixed feelings on the outcome but overall I’m glad I did it. I got to see a lot
of people I hadn’t seen in a while, and it was fun. There was like 60ish people
throughout the night (not all at once). The problem is I didn’t feel like
organizing, so everyone just chatted. And pretty much everyone only knew who
they came with. So my host instinct wanted to make sure everyone had a good
time, and it just wasn’t feasible. I however did my best to ignore it, I don’t
need to be responsible for everyone else’s fun, and I enjoyed myself enough,
but I probably won’t do a mixing pot party like that again. Not without
actually planning games to play or something.
Monday, May
14, 2012
- I love how
cool everyone at work is. If you burn out you just go chat randomly with
someone for 5 minutes and then go back to work haha.
Tuesday, May
15, 2012
- Diablo 3
came out today! And it is epic, especially multiplayer. I’ve been slightly less
social as result of wanting to play it, but gratefully not anti-social haha.
Saturday,
May 19, 2012
- So my
cousin Celeste Poll passed away from cancer. Today was a benefit concert meant
to raise money for a bone marrow transplant, but she passed away a few weeks
before. They decided to do the concert anyway though, and they asked me to sing
“You Raise Me Up”, which I did, and I feel like it went well. Anyway that ended
at like... 4? I’d been playing a bit of D3 during the week, so I figured I
should be social after the concert. I called Amannda Batton and we did dinner
and discussed books. We ended up agreeing to swap and read The Host for Mistborn.
(6/3 update, I finished the host last night and very much enjoyed it). Anyway,
I’d discussed doing this same book swap with Alicia Williams, but she didn’t
own the book so it hadn’t happened yet. I figured giving Alicia our other copy
of Mistborn was at least a good excuse to see her though haha. So I dropped off
Amannda and called Alicia to see if I could kidnap her right away, and she said
yes! She was just getting off of work! Double win for spontaneity today! Usually
it fails me nowadays :/. Anyway, I was just going to bring Alicia to my house
to get the book, but my parents were going for a walk and invited us to join
them, so we did. Then they invited us to watch “The Iron Lady” with them (kinda
weird for someone like me who knew little to nothing about the history the movie
was portraying) and we did. And me and Alicia CUDDLED! I went to bed super
content that night haha.
Sunday, May
20, 2012
- Numbers
31:46 ends with a winky face!
Thursday,
May 24, 2012
- “I invite
each one of us individually to recognize that how we disagree is a real measure
of who we are and whether we truly follow the Savior.” – Quentin L Cook April
2010 conference. I really liked this quote
- So last
night was fun. I came home and found we’re babysitting my 2 year old niece,
Becca. And she is SO CUTE! And was so excited to see me! She’s at the point
where she says a lot of things, but it’s almost all gibberish besides “yes” and
“no” haha. She understands you fine though. “Becca! Go pick that up and tickle
your face with it!” pretty complex instructions, but she gets them haha. She
was saying my name too though, and it was super cute. Then Haley (3.5?) and
Megan (5?) came back. Haley thanked Heavenly Father that she’d get to play with
Corby during the dinner prayer (in her princess voice) and Becca repeated
“Corby!” mid prayer excitedly. Hard not to feel loved with all my nieces
adoring me haha. We drove around the house sometimes with all 3 girls on my
chair, it left me grinning all night even though they left at like 7:30.
- So I’m
still trying to date Alicia, but I realized part of my worry with the whole
thing. She doesn’t reciprocate in any way I can pick up on. I can’t tell if
she’s just letting me take her out to be nice. I tell her how attractive she is
all the time, or how I’d like to see her, but I don’t really remember her
expressing the same back. I mean, she’s willing to go out when I try to take
her out, usually if girls aren’t interested they turn down 3rd and 4th
dates. And she DID cuddle on Saturday, including getting up and then laying
back in my lap again (whereas usually girls won’t come back to the cuddle if
they get up and don’t want to cuddle) but usually when cuddling someone will
hold my other hand that’s not rubbing their arm, or they’ll rub an arm back, or
they’ll move into you a little in a “I like that” way, and maybe Alicia just
doesn’t express stuff in that way. But really I’m just not sure if she’s being
nice or if she’s potentially interested. My usual past responses would be A.
Bring up a DTR and find out, or B. stop taking her out and see if she says
anything. I feel like I’ve often had DTR’s way too prematurely though, and I
also often move on to trying to date other girls before I’ve even really given
the current one a chance. Back to a previous analogy of trying to start too
many fires and as result none light. So I’m trying to go with C. just keep
taking her out when you can and see what happens.
- I love how
Gambit switches sleeping places every few weeks. Sometimes it’s CJ’s bed,
sometimes it’s the blanket closet, sometimes it’s the couch, sometimes it’s the
foot of my bed… the current few week traditional spot for Gambit though, is he
comes in at 4AM-ish, puts his head on my left shoulder, and stretches out his
body along my torso between my arm and chest. Best cat cuddle position ever
haha. And he’s still on my bed every day when I get home! Also makes me happy
haha.
Friday, May
25, 2012
- Fought
some zombies in my dream last night. Yeah, I’m awesome.
- Also,
texting girls the preceding zombie statement as a conversation starter is
largely inefficient. I tried it.
Sunday, May
27, 2012
- So my van
finally came back from Arizona with the ramp modifications! It still needs the
hand controls though… And one of the 3 guys working at Mobility solutions got
terminally I’ll, so they’re way behind. They won’t even be able to start my
project for 3 weeks. But! We put the alligator stickers on the van, so it’s
official now :P
- So Micah
FINALLY agreed to read Mistborn! Made me so happy! Haha. The first book took
him like a month, then like two weeks for the second, then 3 days for the
third. He’s still reluctant to really express enjoying them that much. Whether
it’s conscious or subconscious he seems to want to find faults in it. But he
did say he enjoyed them, and I think the speed at which he read book three
speaks volumes. But whatever the case I’m glad he finally gave reading an
actual chance. Maybe he’ll go back to his “books aren’t for me” opinion, but at
least I feel like he was exposed to literature he’d like. If he wants more I
have other Brandon Sanderson novels, or other good reads I can suggest…
- Been
texting another girl I met online a bunch, Sariah. She lives in Florida, and
she’s pretty attached to the place. So we’ll probably never meet, sad story.
But it’s fun to talk to someone throughout the day.
- Better
texting throughout the day is Sarah Flinders! Who lives in Orem! I met her at
Natalie Haight’s B-day last year. And she is cute and awesome, I wanted to add
her on FB that day, but I was flirting with Natalie a bunch and it felt like it’d
be rude to go add and start flirting with her friends. But Sarah added me a few
months later and we started talking slowly. At this point we text probably 4/7
days of the week at least a little. She’s a funny one. She is good at so much
but she doesn’t believe it at all about herself, she struggles with confidence
a lot. All I really can do is tell her how wrong she is when she expresses her
supposed shortcomings lol. She’s also scared to death of relationships. I’m
pretty distraught with dating too at the moment (not in the same way as her,
haha) so I don’t really have any plans
to try wooing her, even though she has a large amount of traits I hope my
spouse has someday. It’s good to have friends in the Orem area though. Of all
the people I wish I had more time to see but don’t get to, lately she’s
probably at the top.
- Finally
got the 80% approval from Medicare to pay for my wheelchair! It’s going to cost
me $4000ish out of pocket (ugh!) but it’s in motion now…
Monday, May
28, 2012
- I'm
sitting in my van and I totally saw bird poop land on my windshield!!
Wednesday,
May 30, 2012
- Alma 18.
Ammon gets SO EXCITED when he sees his opportunity to restoring the flocks of
the king, kinda a funny missionary experience to get excited about. But also
very interesting and symbolic that literally gathering sheep is one of the
first big things Ammon did on his mission…
- Been a
rough few weeks at work. Reading sons of Mosiah chapters and a little sad I
didn’t get to serve a full time mission. Ignoring the trials of housing and
earning a living and dating in favor of just doing ones best to further the
gospel for two years sounds amazing.
Friday, June
01, 2012
- So at
church a few weeks ago the activities committee went to relief society with a
bunch of cake boxes, and they had girls who wanted to pick one and sign their
name and number on it. Then they took the boxes to elders quorum and had guys
take them. A staged group date basically. The couple works out baking the cake,
but they bring it Friday and there would be decorating supplies. After church Brittany Jorgensen was like
"Corby! My box is still there! Come grab it!" We are friends, I was
fine with the idea of her being my partner at a group activity haha. I ended up
working that whole evening and had to cancel though (I HATE cancelling on
people, it's the worst.) And I'm a man of my word, so I promised to take her
out next chance I got. She had to cancel the next one, which was funny. Anyway,
I finally took her out tonight. I feel bad but I was actually dreading it a
little. Our senses of humor clash a bit. And although she says we’re just
friends and she’s not trying to date me, I still feel like she is interested
and trying. Maybe she’s going for the “become his friend and then it can
progress to more” route. Or maybe she’s like a guy and lying to herself without
knowing it. But whatever the case I don’t feel convinced. Anyway the date was
fine, we did Red Lobster and saw MIB 3. She did like 75% of the talking, maybe
more, but it seemed to make her happy and I didn’t need to be heard really so
it was fine.
Sunday, June
03, 2012
- So I so so
wish I remembered my dreams last night in more detail. I remember there was a
big long one with Audrey in it. She did something and I was SO angry at her (I
wish I could recall what! I've never been angry at her) and I was running from her
but she came after me. Also I could fly haha. Anyway I was still upset with her
by the end of the dream, but I feel closer to her this morning for some reason.
Weird huh?
- Moving,
ahh what to say? Ok, CJ is moving out in the Fall for sure because he got
accepted to BYU. I want SO BAD to move out, but I fear I waited too long to
move on it, and I’m not even sure I can find health care still. However, I’m
thinking this is a “step out into the darkness with faith, and the Lord will
guide your feet. Er, wheels.” type scenario. There’s various problems though.
#1 wheelchair housing is rare. #2 most places are full already by now. #3 the
only time places are open to research is during the workday. I keep thinking
when Summer arrives and I have more free time I can dig into figuring it out.
But it IS Summer and my schedule doesn’t free up any more than any other time
of year. So I really need to figure it out or take days off or both… For health
care I’ll probably need to hire out of pocket a nursing student from BYU or
something. Moving out is definitely
possible though, oh! And my cousin Joshua Rogers wants to come too! That’d be
awesome! Just got to figure out how still.
- The
farther you get from a target, the harder it is to hit it. True for both archery
and The Gospel.
- I need to set
weekly goals to solve specific problems. Find housing week, resolve health care
week, etc. If I can solve such problems in one week haha. But often weeks go by
without focusing on anything but weekly survival/happiness. I need some future
progress in each week, and I think deciding on a focus will help that.
- I always
feel like there’s so many things I haven’t talked about, but I suppose I can’t
document it all haha.
