Posted by Kiel on Mar 12, 2008
Ahhh, the beach. My Spring Break officially started after class today at 11:30 a.m. and I’m stuck in Indiana. Yep, that happens when you’re spontaneous and you normally make travel plans at the last minute. So for now, I am looking at beach scenes and wishing I was there.
It’s been a fairly exciting week, as I have been apartment hunting! Needless to say it’s been fairly successful and I think I may have found a place in Carmel… yup… Carmel. For all the trash talking I’ve done towards Carmel in my four years at North Central, I have decided that Carmel has grown on me.
I have plenty of money saved up to buy the essentials for the kitchen and bathroom and will probably look around places for used furniture (hello flea markets, Craig’s List, and Goodwill!). After I go on my shopping spree at Target, I think I’ll have a lot of what I need, I just won’t have any living room furniture, which isn’t a big deal to me. Why? Because summer time means that I’ll be outside a lot and there will be Tiki Time at Noah’s house!
Which by the way, reminds me that I need to find a bike to go on the Monon… I’ve been using my Dad’s bike for years, but I don’t think he likes the idea of me taking his bike with me.
So overall, I’m pretty content with life. I’m excited about the near future, the upcoming warm weather, a new place… I think everything is starting to come together.
I have to thank God the most for helping me through over the past several months. I’ve slipped up a few times, but I think I’m finally in a good place: at school, at home, and at work. Woo hoo! Well, that’s all for now. I’ll keep you posted on apartment updates! 
Tags: Carmel, moving, weather
Posted by Kiel on Feb 8, 2008
Today I’m starting a segment called “What Really Grinds My Gears” and yes, I’m borrowing that from Family Guy because it’s a good way to express my frustration.
If I’m in a cranky mood everyday, you may see one everyday… I don’t know. But HOPEFULLY I won’t have too many of these segments. So, without further ado, this is what really grinds me gears today.
So I went to Noodles & Company yesterday for some delicious lunch. Now, this particular location kind of has crappy parking… I honestly don’t think they really planned it that well. So when I pull into the parking lot and look for a spot a see a variety of signs (see below).
Now, not that these signs are really enforceable by any law enforcement agency… but still, it’s annoying! I don’t mind the handicap spots (those are covered by law), I don’t even mind the “Expected Mothers” parking at the grocery store, but this is just getting ridiculous.
It’s mostly ridiculous because when the developer applies for a permit, it says, “I will provide x amount of parking spaces for my customers.” Well, kind of hard for your customers to park if you’re reserving spots for the minority of people who are just running in and back out again. Make them find a parking spot like everyone else.
I totally gave up on giving these kind of spots any kind of respect. When I go to Chili’s, yeah, I park in the “Chili’s To Go” parking space. What are they going to do about it? Nothin, that’s what. Although I will say, I stay out of the “Expecting Mothers” spots… just out of courtesy.
So yeah, revolt! Park in those “reserved” spaces and tell them that “it really grinds my gears” when they pull that kind of stuff. Surprisingly, I’m in a good mood today, but love having the occasional rant.
Tags: parking, reserved, reserved spaces, restaurants
Posted by Kiel on Feb 6, 2008
Today is Ash Wednesday, which for those of you who don’t know, marks the first day of Lent.
I’m actually disappointed that I had class this morning because I was hoping to go to Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church to attend Mass and celebrate with the students there. No, I’m not Catholic anymore… but I am still a Christian and this is one of those dates on the Christian calendar that Grace doesn’t formally celebrate. I remember when I attended Saint Luke’s Catholic School and we’d have Mass on the morning of Ash Wednesday which would be followed by going to the Narthex (lobby) and have a cross placed on a forehead using ashes.
According to Wikipedia, these ashes typically come from the burning of the palm leaves used the previous year for Palm Sunday. These ashes are then blessed before placed on the forehead. Why do we put ashes on our forehead? As a visible reminder that we are dust and to dust we will return (Genesis 3:19). Some people use this day also as a day of when confessions are made and make a choice to give up something for 40 days (length of Lent).
I think when I was in Catholic school, I gave up chicken liver… which was extrememly easy because I hated it. Ha ha! To read more about Ash Wednesday, check out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ash_Wednesday
Tags: Ash Wednesday, Christian Holidays, Easter, Lent, traditions
Posted by Kiel on Feb 1, 2008
It’s been a while since I’ve posted on my blog… sorry!
I have had a pretty busy month at work. Our server broke down on the first of January and have been busy getting the site up and running. During that time, our server was “compromised,” meaning that a hacker was able to get in and plant phishing sites on it. Fun stuff! In fact, I received a call from the FBI field office in Denver about this and have been working diligently with them to make sure they have what they need (server logs, the folder where the phishing site was hosted, etc.). We have also been working on moving the site over to a new more secure solution, but that is not going as fast as expected… since we require more “server resources” and our new web host is unable to accommodate us at the moment.
In my personal life, things are going okay. I say this, because I always feel like things could be going better. School started this past week, which is exciting. I’m hoping to dedicate more time to my studies and actually RETAIN information rather than just trying to get a grade.
I have been very blessed over the past couple months to have formed a wonderful group of friends to hang out with. Ever since my breakup, it has been extremely hard on me to go from being in a co-dependent relationship to being responsible for numero uno. Through this time of solitude, it has been extremely difficult. I can finally see myself handling things better now than in the first few months of the breakup. Don’t get me wrong, there are still difficult days ahead, but I hope some of the hardest days are behind me. Fortunately I am beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel and actually enjoying life again and doing things I love with people I love.
So in a nutshell, that’s what’s new! I wish I could write more, but I’m still needing time to process everything. But so far, I am hanging in there by the grace of God. And even though things may not be going the way that I have planned them, I am thankful that I have a God who doesn’t forsake me or leave my side. Talk to all of you later!
Tags: breakups, phishing, server
Posted by Kiel on Dec 20, 2007
It’s been a busy week and a half, hence the lack of blog postings. I finally wrapped up finals on Tuesday and I have to tell you, that was a lot of work. At the beginning of the semester, I told myself I wasn’t going to procrastinate. Well, life got busy and I kept telling myself, “it can wait until next week.” Funny thing about that is, I ended up waiting until the last week.
But what I do like about procrastinating and cramming is that I actually learned quite a bit and it was a fairly enjoyable experience, except for the stress part of things. Next semester I’ll probably take one class (due to lack of options) and take it easy.
I have no big plans for Christmas “break.” I’m not taking any time off from work, but I don’t have any school, so it’s sort of like a break. I have been working on getting my new computer exactly the way I like it and I think I’ve gotten there. I’ve also bought a few video games to help occupy my free time over the holiday. Although, I am really tempted to try and read at least one book over break.
Things have been a little hectic here at work, been working with a volunteer to get a registration solution ready for our Women’s classes here at church. The biggest problem we ran into wasn’t the system that was developed, but PayPal. Fortunately we got it all worked out. We also had all the forms on our website crap out, so I had to switch to a third-party solution for the moment (I may write a post about that later).
Since I will be one of the few people in the building next week, you can expect some blog postings from me. Other than that, this blog posting is just to let you know that I’m still alive!
