Would you believe next month will be two years since I graduated college? Crazy, right? Let’s not even discuss the question, ‘What have you accomplished since then?’ That question is for another time. Maybe when I accomplish something.
What really shocked me was realizing that I will have lived in the same place for more than two years for the first time since I was twelve. After that age I lived in the same place for the following: one year, one year, two years, two years, then college. In college twice I managed to live in the same place for consecutive semesters. I moved between the Fall and Spring during my Freshman and Junior years. Junior year I moved to Minnesota for my co-op where I was for seven months. You’d think I’d be good at packing and moving after all that. You’d think.
With all that, I never really settle in anywhere. I get everything set up for functional use. Why take the time to decorate or unpack unnecessary items if I’m just going to be moving them somewhere else very soon?
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Here at the house, new fire extinguishers have been purchased. I think we had at least one in the house before now, but I really can’t be sure. I think this purchase is a result of the tablecloth on the dining room table catching fire on Christmas Day. I had been wondering where the fire extinguishers were located in the house. I assumed we had them and had some theories on where I would look should the situation present itself. Probably not the best idea. The new ones are still in the boxes. They should probably be taken out of the box and placed strategically around the house so we can forget we have them again.
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If I worked in an office that had a radio station playing all day, I think I’d want that station to be XPN – UPenn’s ‘Listener Supported’ Station, all sorts of music I’ve never heard. The summer I worked at Weight Watchers they had B101 on all the time. I swear the same songs were played in the same order everyday. For those non-Philly people B101 is adult contemporary. When I went back for Winter Break that year they had switched to Oldies 98, which was awesome.
It scares me to think that people who think they like Fall Out Boy have never listened to Take This To Your Grave. I have timing. Its always good or bad, usually bad. I’ve never had average timing. I think I could go for some average timing or no timing at all.
Off the Books
If I were a reader and didn’t already have a stack of books I want to 
read this would certainly be on the list.
Every morning I start my day at work with a Snack Pack, usually its banana. Recently the tops to the pudding have not been coming off smoothly. I seem to have hit a bad batch. Nearly every day it tears or doesn’t even open. I have to resort to using a spoon and potentially getting banana pudding all over everything. This is quite disappointing after so many months of reliable pudding tops.
What happend to ‘Santa Stop Here’ signs? They came out of no where one year and every single house had one, even ones that didn’t celebrate Christmas. They disappeared as quickly as they came.
The biggest draw back to having my own morning radio show would be having to do meet and greets with fans. I’m sure I’d love the fans but I think I’d get really tired of saying hi and shaking hands. I’d even get tired of everyone telling me how great I am. I mean I’m already tired of that and I don’t even have a radio show.
December means Christmas but the first of the month means one thing: Advent Calendars. I don’t know what it was about these things but they were a staple of every December evening when I was little. Usually my sister and I would each have one. Each day they would tell part of a story. We would recite from memory the previous nights and then open that night’s door.
Some years, if my parents found one on sale after the previous Christmas, we would get an Advent Calendar with candy behind each door. We would have to trade off each night which one of us would get the piece of chocolate, its a good thing there were only two of us. If we were bad on our day, then we would lose our chocolate for the night and the other sibling would benefit. I can’t think of a more severe punishment from my childhood than the nights when I was denied the chocolate, likely as a result of something I did to my sister. Looking back it makes no sense. It was a tiny piece of year old chocolate that likely wasn’t even good when it was fresh.
Another tradition, which oddly enough depended on if my sister and I behaved each day was putting hay in the manger. Baby Jesus was not placed in our Nativity Scene until Christmas morning. Its just crazy to have him in there before, he wasn’t born yet. Each night depending on how good we were, we got to put hay into the manger. If we were really good then we got more hay. If we were bad during the day we’d be threatened with “Do you want Baby Jesus to freeze?” If we didn’t wise up, then no hay went in. On those rare occasions where the ultimate punishment was in order, hay was removed from the manger. I love how religion brings families together.
One year Baby Jesus didn’t make it into the manger. Christmas morning came and Mom couldn’t find him. He was never found. We just assumed he had his holidays confused and he ascended.
I have no luck when it comes to cars. Scratch that, my cars have no luck.
Last night my Mom backed her car into mine. In the driveway! The result of being backed into was scrapes on the passenger side going from the wheel to the back of the car.
I’ve been concerned about bumping into one of the other cars in the mornings because our driveway is so dark, the black mini-van is usually behind me, down the driveway, and the back window is usually fogged or icy. The driveway also narrows toward the end which barely allows for two cars to fit. Oh, and its 6am, so I’m wide awake.
It wasn’t even the first time that this has happened. My Freshman year of college my car stayed at home and my sister backed into it. Completely dented all around one of the front wheels. The car was older and wasn’t worth fixing. Still, my sister was so scared of my reaction I wasn’t told until right before the next time I was coming home. Try and imagine the different in anger level when your 8 year old car is hit compared to an 8 month old car.
Only one of my cars has ever been totaled. I wasn’t even in it at the time. My sister, only having had her permit for a few days took our car (it was both of ours) out with my step-dad to practice. In the neighborhood across the street a bus ran a stop sign and turned right into the car. It was entirely the bus driver’s fault (crazy side note: the bus driver was related to my dad). I wound up running to the other neighborhood only to see them attempting to drive it back. One of the saddest sights I’ve ever seen. The only bright spot was that my sister said the CD didn’t skip. It was Green Day’s Warning. From then on the car that replaced that one I referred to as mine, my sister had half and car and she broke it.
While the worst damage seems to occur when I’m not in the car I haven’t entirely avoided car trouble. Just a few weeks ago my car got a flat. That was somewhat stressful but I bought extra warranty for my tires so it didn’t cost me a dime. My real bad day happened back in high school. My car was sounding funny on the way to work. I decided to go back home and borrow one of the other cars. Something seemed wrong with that car as well on the way, but I was out of options. When I made it to work I found it had a flat tire. Fantastic. The day I broke two cars is still discussed to this day. Hey, at least I didn’t back into a parked car.
That was the fortune in my Fortune Cookie today. I’ve never heard any superstitions about fortune cookies but people must have some. If they don’t, they should. Here are some possible superstitions you could have about your fortune.
1. You must finish your meal before opening the Fortune Cookie.
Here you would have to define what finishing actually is. Its Chinese food so finished would have to be for that particular meal. There are always leftovers.
2. You cannot share your fortune.
Is it like a birthday wish? If you share it won’t come true. It seems like fortunes are always shared and discussed. Its the most enjoyable part of the Fortune Cookie.
3. You must eat the entire Fortune Cookie. Except of course for the fortune.
I don’t think I’ve ever eaten the cookie. However, I think this is the most logical superstition of the bunch.
For today I finished my food, by writing this I’m sharing, and I did not eat the cookie. I still hope that I will soon be involved in many gatherings and parties.
So, I’m not sure if this is really the type of post we’re going for here, it isn’t necessarily a group discussion, but, it’s something I’ve been wondering about and feel the answer might be interesting to others as well. My question here is, Mike, what is the goal of all of this? Your site, The Daily Email, the Google Group, the Mapper, Frapper, Rapper, Napper (I’m at work and my mind wanders)…this site…All of the nerdy Comp Sci stuff… What is this building up to? Are you just trying to make a forum to keep people connected in this CrAzY world? Or are you trying to build some sort of Mike-Janke-coup-de-Google-cyber-empire? Maybe you just get a kick out of playing around with code and techy stuff (I personally shudder at the thought)?
Sincerely,
Curious in Seattle
Ok, so I guess the fact that I’m employed makes me a somewhat functioning member of society. Still, as my Mom has been so lovingly saying over the past few weeks, “You’re going to be 24 and what have you accomplished?” She says that in her ‘I love you and all but seriously …’ voice. It did get me thinking, what are the accomplishments a 24 year old should have reached by this point in life? Here are the few big ones I came up with.
Graduate College: Check. Its been almost a year and a half now, which is hard to believe. Do I have to go to grad school? I don’t think its a requirement. I’m on the fence about going myself. What I do know is that I’m not going to grad school just to go, I will have a clear goal in mind.
Have a Job: Check. It took a little while to find the job, a little longer to start getting paid, and then a while longer until I was actually given work to do. Its actually more complicated than that sounds, if you can believe it. I actually have a really good job for such a recent graduate. I think my salary is fairly decent, I get 27 paid days off a year (if you count holidays), hours are flexible and I don’t have to work much overtime. The work isn’t stressful and my co-workers are easy to get along with. It could be better: I could have internet at my desk and be allowed to bring in my iPod. Just things I will be aware of if the next job I look for is in the same field.
Move Out: Not yet. I see both sides to this argument. My side … I have a reasonable commute, I get along with my Mom and Step-Dad just fine, and of course its cheaper. Yes, I do pay rent but its not that much considering it includes food and utilities. Paying for a cable package like this on my own would make me go broke within days. Not having to worry about making dinner every night is another huge plus. The other side … To me the most appealing thing your own place is the space. I feel like I’m still living at college, just without a roommate. All my stuff is packed into one room. I don’t have a separate room to put things. I don’t have a living room with a sofa and coffee table. Everything I own is either in my room or stored somewhere else (basement, garage, etc.). I’m not someone who stays out to all hours or does things that my parents will have a problem with causing tension in the house. I’m not planning on moving out just to do it and cross another thing off the checklist. Put this one on the Things to Accomplish by 25 list.
Be in a Relationship/Married: Nada. Sometime in the future a discussion will have to be had on the merits of this being an accomplishment. For my generation this concern likely moves to the list of accomplishments by 30. So I’m not worried about this too much right now.
