Thursday, May 28, 2009

The Midnight Snack Conundrum

So, it's obviously no secret that I stay up later than my parents when I'm living with them. I always get hungry late at night and go up to the kitchen for a midnight snack. Of course I do my best to be quiet, and sometimes I succeed. However, it seems to me that when I'm trying my utmost to be quiet, invariably I'll run into a chair and be subjected to the silence-jarring squeal of the chair moving across the tiles. Or I'll make some other accidental ruckus. My kitchen is especially echoey, too. So it's really bad. So honestly, how am I supposed to stay quiet when midnight snacking, if every time I try to be quiet I make a lot of noise? It's a conundrum. That's all. K, bye.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Pinnacle, Happy Gilmore and Wednesday Thoughts!

Hi!
I am actually kind of enjoying the new Pinnacle job. This is the most recent in various telephone jobs I have had before, and it's definitely the best of them all. While there's not tons of variety, there is SOME. Which makes it superior to said previous jobs. I'm an account creation guy, so I answer phone calls from the poor salesmen and techs across the country and in Canada and create new customer accounts (data entry) and give them information they need. It's easy, and I answer six different types of phone calls, which is better than making the same out-bound phone call with the exact same script for 8 hours a day. (That was what the rest of my telephone jobs consisted of. Yeah, not great.) Anyway, I'm happy about it.

Sometimes I like getting drenched in the rain. Super random thought. It hasn't even happened recently, but there's something very pleasing about it that I can't really explain. I guess it's just the child in me that enjoys being completely drenched... cool, huh? Am I alone in this?

"Doing the bull-dance, feeling the flow, workin' it, workin' it." I'm just watching Happy Gilmore and enjoying it. It's odd that of all the Adam Sandler movies Happy Gilmore is the one I own. It's definitely not my favorite, although it is making me laugh at the moment. Anyway, yeah, that's all. Bye.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

What we've learned so far from my JRP Blog...


If any of you (my many, many readers) haven't checked out my Just Ridiculous Polls blog, then I'm writing now to encourage you to do so. Some interesting statistics we've learned so far include, but are not limited to the following:
  1. 25% of those voting in one poll aren't potty trained. I find this surprising as I know of no tots under 4 that visit my blog.
  2. 56% of voters in a poll think Mary Poppins could win a fight.
  3. 11% of those asked would kick George Harrison if they had to kick a member of The Beatles. I don't know what situation would make kicking a Beatle necessary, but alas, that question was asked.
  4. 44% believe that we are not human, but are dancer. 33% think we're human.
  5. 33% want to be paid to kill a ficus bush.
  6. 17% dance with blue whales frequently.
  7. 60% think Texas would win in a fight with Sammy Sosa, 80 ants, a 5 dollar bill, and a stock broker.
  8. Finally, 30% would opt to get food poisoning from Taco Bell, if they had to get food poisoning.
These are IMPORTANT statistics. Please toss in your two cents. CHECK IT OUT NOW! (funk soul brother, right about now, funk soul brother...)

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Howdy?

Ya know, I think it's most appropriate to respond to a greeting of Howdy with something along the lines of "Doing well," or "Great!" Didn't it come from "How do you do?" and get shrunk (in classic American form) down to one word? That seems like it's right, but I'm too lazy to research it at this juncture. Anyway, just a random thought.

Also, it's pretty ridiculous that when replying in the affirmative to a text message I'll type in the exact same keys to say "Yes," but instead of accepting it when the prediction pulls it up, I put more effort into it and change it to "Yep." I just think saying yes instead of yeah, or yep is a little too formal for most text message convos. Just another random thought.

I feel pretty gross when my day consists of more than one fast food meal. It's going to happen fairly often with my job this summer probably. Gross.

And now ladies and gentlemen, for no apparent reason... Biz Markie.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Happy Wednesday Thoughts Day!

Well, it's Wednesday Thoughts Day... time for some thoughts!

I enjoy the feeling of getting a job even more when I have had a hard time getting one. Yes, I officially have a job now. I will be working this summer doing Account Creation (Data Entry) for Pinnacle Security. I'm pretty happy just to have a job finally. It was especially nice when they asked, "Are you okay with working Saturdays?" Instead of the comment everyone else would say, "Now, we are open on Sunday, so you'll have to work Sundays." It was also a bonus when they told me that this was "just" a seasonal position. That's "just" what I wanted! Good stuff.

I've never stuck to a workout regimen longer than a few weeks before, but I think this one is actually for real. I'm uber sore. I have two workouts that I alternate each day, and they each workout different muscles, so after working out today and yesterday for the first time in a while, I'm sore ALL OVER! It feels good though to have worked out hard enough to get me to this point, so I'm determined to stick with this. Wish me well!

Thought Three: I'm hungry. I've realized that these thoughts are not at all profound, nor do they seem like my normal thoughts. They're really just more of me-updates. Sorry I'm not a great blogger, but thanks for reading anyway!

Ouch...


Woodchop
Originally uploaded by Photosmudger
So, I decided today that I really really need to do some real workouts. I never play racquetball anymore, since it's not free here. And really all I was getting from that was a stronger right forearm (yes, my right arm is now bigger than my left, it's pretty funny), some cardio, and achy joints. So when I got home tonight I looked up a good whole-body work-out regimen and decided to give it a whirl tonight. Wow... I forgot that I hadn't had a real workout since... oh probably high school weights classes and I almost puked, and then almost passed out! It was nuts. I'm not saying it was a particularly intense workout as far as workouts go, but I'm just pointing out that my body hasn't been pushed very hard in YEARS. So I'm definitely going to keep it up and see if I can get any muscles on this body of skin and bones (and fat, from all those cookies.) One of the exercises included was the wood-chop as you see in the photo, but the one I did had two hands on the dumbbell and went all the way to the ankle. I need you all to cheer me on if I'm going to keep at this! (Of course, that would require that some of the few of you who read this actually comment once in a while! ;) ) Anyway, I know I'll ache tomorrow. K, bye!

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

JEFF, THE INCREDIBLE BLOGGER HAS UPDATES...


As you may have noticed (but I seriously doubt you did) I've added all of the posts from my former blogs: Random Combos (which was just pictures concocted on Photoshop) and Tiny Observations (which was exactly what the title says). Those blogs no longer really exist, but now the posts are available in the archive of this blog. Of course, I'll probably at times use their styles on this blog, but possibly not. Anyway, I've also added polls to this blog, but more importantly, I've started a NEW blog! It's awesome. It's only RANDOM polls. So I'll probably encourage you to go there whenever I come up with polls I'm proud of. You really should CHECK IT OUT! It's called Just Ridiculous Polls! It has already attracted attention from other states! (Ok, only 1, but Washington is pretty far away!) I'm especially proud of the poll about The Beatles. Anyway, follow that blog, follow this blog, you're awesome. The end... k bye.

Monday, May 18, 2009

STOCK-O-MANIA 2009 Results....


Well, the results are in. Jenny kicked my butt. We both finished with under $1 million, but she managed to lose less money than I did. It was that darn Omniture stock that I bought! It seems she was wise to buy Kraft. Anyway, CONGRATS TO JENNY! You managed to lose less money in a crappy economy than me! I think this all just goes to show that none of us should be investing right now. It's a mess! Well, see y'all later! K, bye.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

I'm nocturnal... time to file-dive!


It's finally happened. The last two nights I couldn't sleep until the sun had started coming up. Isn't that just WRONG?!! I can hear the birds chirping as I'm falling asleep. There's seriously something wrong with me, and I need to reverse my life. I am determined to change and wake up at a semi-normal hour and, more importantly, go to bed at a normal hour! I seriously have been having weird issues from it all. So I'm just announcing it so that you can all help me change.

Anyway, I'm not really sure what would make this blog any better... if any of you have ideas, I'd love to hear them.

Here's a file-diving adventure:

Haha! This is from my "KAVE TV" class in high school. During my senior year all of my friends and I took a film-productions class. This was a simple assignment where we had to come up with a "mockumentary" idea. Here is my idea that I came up with:

Teenage
Hyperactive
Don’t
Wanna
Do
My
Homework
Disorder
“The Story of Jeff Ricks” Have “hidden” cameras on Jeff on a night when he should be doing homework. Show his THDWDMHD in action.(Me going crazy) Have “Professor” say things like: “THDWDMHD is a very rare disorder, in fact, it’s only found in the person of Jeff Ricks.” or... “THDWDMHD is characterized by excessive pen-clicking or spinning.” or... “The subject will try at moments to do his homework, but always the temptation to click the pen takes over, and there ya go. He’s off playing with something or other and acting like an ape. If I didn’t know better I’d say he has the worst case of “the psychotic crazies” in the world. But I know better.”


So that was my great idea. I'm guessing that I wanted to turn my unproductive hyperness into a productive idea and conquer. I really miss that class, it was fun. Anyway, that's all I have for you. I'm watching the Survivor: Tocantins finale.

Friday, May 15, 2009

"Watering" Old Faithful


Old Faithful
Originally uploaded by James Neeley
Hahaha, oh wow. I just saw an AP news article about two Yellowstone concession workers who were fired for "watering" Old Faithful. That was what the headline said, and I thought "Watering? What the...?" The two guys were caught having urinated in Old Faithful! Hahaha, I'm sorry, but I really really wish Old Faithful had suddenly decided to not be as faithful. What morons! I think it's hilarious, but they're idiots. Anyway, that's all I have for you tonight!

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Wednesday Evening Thoughts...

I think Barack Obama's grace-period is about over now. It seems that every regime-shift president has a period after their election where the media will spin or report everything in a positive way for them. By regime-shift I just mean the one that comes in to really change how things have been, or at least under that pretense. Barack Obama is the epitome of that kind of new president. However, it seems that his grace-period is ending. I just now finally started seeing some criticism of Barack Obama's moves in the popular media. Which makes total sense because after all... we are a scapegoat-loving nation. We still have a lot of serious issues, and turns out Barack Obama's star-power wasn't enough to instantly solve them. I don't think he should be blamed for our problems, but it really doesn't seem like his oft-mentioned "First 100 Days" have done all that much. Anyway, I certainly wish that his star-power had been enough to solve the nation's woes instantly, instead of just encouraging the largest jump on the list of baby names ever (Barack shot up the list of most popular boy's names). Then I wouldn't want to ask him, "Mr. Obama, where are the jobs you promised?" That rant is over.

I think those new Comcast commercials are FREAKY!!! Have you seen them? They're the ones where they sing kind of monotone and it's animated in a slightly realistic way, but reminds me of The Sims games. They always end with them spelling out Comcast. Anyway, they creep me out! I can't really explain it, but I guess it's mostly just the monotone way they sing. This isn't exactly what they're like, but it's super close:
Hahahaha... on the other end of the spectrum, I just saw an awesome commercial by Intel that I like a lot. It was an office scene with just a rock song playing and everyone was moving in slow motion. Then they all stop working at look at this short old guy as he's walking into the room. They all swarm around him and hold up papers for his autograph and one guy opens his button-up shirt to reveal a t-shirt with the guy's face on it. It then shows at the bottom of the screen that his name is Ajay Bhatt, the co-inventor of the USB. Then it says, "Our rock stars aren't like your rock stars." Anyway... it might not sound funny, but I thought it was hilarious. And I learned who one of the inventors of the USB is! I just found it! CHECK IT OUT!

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Google Trends...

Ok, I know I'm a big nerd. A big nerd. But I just barely discovered Google Trends last night, and I think it's very entertaining! (Jenny, if you don't already know about it, I bet you'd at least moderately enjoy it.) Google Trends is a site on Google that lets you see the trends in how many times something is searched, and where it is searched for most often. I searched for the phrase "I am bored" and was surprised to see that apparently the world is less bored this year than the previous few years, and that people in the UK are the most bored! You can compare different searches, too. For instance, I compared searches for Mitt Romney (of course he was most popularly searched for in UT), Sarah Palin, and Tim Pawlenty. Whereas searches for Sarah were non-existant for a long time, they immediately shot up when Tim Pawlenty's and Mitt Romney's search numbers dropped after brief spikes around the time when speculation about John McCain's VP pick was going on. So yeah... I know I'm a nerd, but see if you can find any entertaining trends if you're half as nerdy as me!

Monday, May 11, 2009

Text Message Post

Ugh! I just got done with an interview with sears. I would only get paid 6 an hour plus commission!

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Text Message Post

This is just a test to see if i can actually post to my Blog via text message from my phone. It wouldn't let me send the picture of my fat cat. (End of text.) Sweet! It worked! I'm getting that random picture of my cat on here anyway!
There! Take that cell phone!

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Hi, I'm Jeff!

I'm dumb. Why do I never just stop and as my good fictional pal Garth Algar says: "Live in the now!"? I always look forward to whatever is coming up next and never just enjoy whatever phase of life I'm in at the present. I very much need to be enjoying the fact that I'm out of school and have tons of free time.

Studying for the LSAT is going pretty well. I still need to work hard on that.

No, I still don't have a job. I at least have one interview on Monday, but I'm not holding my breath. We'll see how it goes.

Today was a very chill day. I hung out with my mom for much of it. I tried to help her fix her turn signal on her Jeep (turns out her whole socket needs to be replaced, lame sauce!) I did a DVD lecture of LSAT doopledoo, and then I went to visit my step-Grandma in her nursing home with my mom. (My grandpa was there, ready to go with his myriad of stories and off-color jokes.) I went to Best Buy and got new earbuds for my iPod and and then I went running. Fun stuff! Now I'm here rambling on about how I'm too whiney. The end. K, bye.

Friday, May 8, 2009

Hadizatou Mani


85357726WM008_HILLARY_CLINT
Originally uploaded by hc1026
The world is so diverse. Yeah, I complain about not being able to find a job that I want, or about having to take a hard test like the LSAT, or about not getting enough relaxation time, (haha, I get PLENTY of that)... but there are still people who are slaves even today! I was reading the 2009 version of Time Magazine's "100: The World's Most Influential People," and I came across a woman named Hadizatou Mani. In order to be a member of the UN, a nation must submit their law to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights's stipulations. One of which says: "No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms."
--Article 4, Universal Declaration of Human Rights. So I was surprised to learn that the nation of Niger, that was admitted to the UN in 1960, only criminalized slavery in 2003! Hadizatou Mani was still held captive by her owner until 2005. He was NOT good news at all. Fortunately for Nigeriens (not Nigerians) she demanded justice and sued her country and won her case in 2008. Good thing there are people like her that do something about it, but how sad is it that slavery isn't dead? I hate when I find myself so caught up in my extremely small problems, and I fail to remember that there are people out there with REAL problems, and that are more than justified in complaining. Just another reality-check for Jeff. K, bye.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Slightly Belated Wednesday Thoughts...


I'd probably be ok if there weren't any more weddings for a while. I enjoyed Nate's wedding today a great deal. However, I wouldn't mind if there weren't any more weddings for the rest of the summer. They're pretty long events. I like them, and I like celebrating them, but not for as long as is generally necessary. I should make an amendment to the previous statements that I don't mind if weddings go on in the next while, just not weddings that I'm a part of.

The LSAT is going to be quite difficult. I know that isn't really a new thought to anyone, but preparing to take it in June is kicking my mind's butt right now. My mind is all sorts of tuckered out! It really kind of scares me back into thinking that I'm not going to be good at all of this, however, I am quite encouraged by my first 4.0 in college that I got this last semester! Woot! My curse of getting one A- each semester is finally broken! Double woot!

Window-tinting is valuable in facilitating a more comfortable atmosphere in a motor vehicle. Translation: GREGORY IS WAY TOO HOT NOW!!! I never realized how much the tinting on my car's windows reduced the heat inside until the tinting was gone. Oh well, cest la vie! What with spending all that money to get my car registered and buying LSAT prep stuff, I certainly cannot afford to get new legal tint on my windows. I'll live. I'll just complain more, but I'll live. :)


RANDOM: Inspired by a list that Taren saw on a Sonic Restaurant sign, here's a "Sonic-Style List" of EXCLAMATIONS THAT WILL LAST THE AGES:
Egad! Awesome! Oh! Wow! Zounds! Kumquat?!

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Summer-no-time...

It's kind of funny how it's the time of year that I've been CRAVING for so long, and yet it's most redeeming quality doesn't seem too available. I LOVE getting done with school for the summer because usually my stress just melts away and I have extra time to kill in whatever non-productive way I deem fit. However, this year, I've BEEN SO BUSY! I got all moved home last Thursday and then had Anthony's wedding all day Friday. Saturday I started getting my car registered, while I passed the emissions, I failed the safety test due to my windows being tinted, and then there was Nate's bachelor party, Sunday was fairly normal, yesterday I tried to get my tinting removed but had to set an appointment for today, mowed the lawn, tried to find a job, finally cleaned all my stuff and officially moved in to my room, and saw a movie. (Ok, I realize that this all isn't all THAT bad... but I'm getting to a point... somewhere along the line here...) Today I had to go remove the tinting from my car windows that kept me from passing my safety inspection on Saturday, I had to go actually finish getting my car registered, I bought LSAT prep stuff, tried to find a job (even my backup jobs aren't really working out at this point...), cleaned my car, fixed my mom's toilet, etc. SO the whole point of that meaningless rant was to say sorry for not writing on my blog! (That may sound dumb to my handful of followers, but alas, I was chewed-out for not writing enough tonight!) So, Jenny, I'm writing! I think I'll spice this entry up by making this another FILE-DIVING ADVENTURE!!! Here we go.......

OH WOW! I just found the WEIRDEST poem that I had to have written when unable to sleep or on some sort of drowsiness-causing medicine... umm... I can't believe I'm letting people know that I wrote such a psycho poem, but here you go. Here's a poem entitled "Find Your Period and Cease":

No one knows what me.
Somehow I don’t really think I know me.
One knows me, but I don’t.
My thinking drives all around,
But never really arrives.
Where do I go?
What should I do?
When will I?
Sleep only fades out one day,
Awake fades in another.
What will happen?
Yes, no. What are the answers.
Up down. What direction.
Never, forever. I’m lost.
Am I good?
Am I bad?
Am I important?
Am I empty?
Am I valuable?
Am I worthless?
Am I worth one?
Am I worth none?
No one knows what me.
One knows me, but I don’t.


Choose your own mystery.
Pick your story.
Where will you go?
Where are you going?
Are you ready?
Be prepared.
Are you good?
You wish for a star to fly past.
Your life has a cast,
And you’re the hero.
That’s what they tell you.
But what hero?
Can you tell?
Break it down to you.
You’re just a question.
Find your period and cease.
You’re not the same.
You can’t.
You won’t.
You will.
You can.
You.
Pick your story.
Find your period and cease.

Well, there ya go. Uh, yeah... please don't stop being my friend! :) JK. See, Jeff's File-Diving Adventures can indeed be ADVENTUROUS!!!

Friday, May 1, 2009

Jeff Update...


I've now graduated! Yay! That was a lie. Boo! But I am done with another school year, and only one more to go until I'm done with my history degree. Yay! I don't have a job yet. Boo. (Yay/Boo is over.) I keep holding out and hoping that something awesome will come along, but it really hasn't happened yet. I'll probably be working a telephone support/sales/customer service type of job, because that seems to be what's available. I'm all moved home to American Fork again. It's nice to be here, but I still don't feel settled into summer yet. I know that I got at least two A's this semester, but I'm waiting on 2 grades, one of which I'm very concerned about, but we'll see how that goes. This morning I went to my good pal Anthony's sealing. I like weddings. I don't really like that they last all day and are tiring, but I like them nonetheless. This wedding had a ring ceremony and it was the first one like that that I've ever been to. Anthony got me a tux and I was one of his "groomsmen." It was kinda fun walking down the aisle. The picture above isn't that great and doesn't show off how kick-trash I looked in the tux, but ya know. That's the best pic I could take quickly with my phone. That's my buddy Griff next to me and the blurry face next to him is my pal Nate that's getting hitched next week. Fun stuff. Well, I don't know if my life is exciting enough to mention too much more, but I am very happy to be home and to see my friends down here again. I'm sure I'll miss Logan, but I'm glad to be here. The end... k bye.