Jon-Paul Lindquist

To follow up on the earlier post

I found this article that I thought was a little interesting. Seems people are already finding a way to make money off of this. . .

From the Arizona Republic

Pluto the planet lives on in kitsch

Virginia Anderson
Cox News Service
Aug. 29, 2006 12:00 AM

ATLANTA — On the one hand, you have to pity Pluto in its fall from planetary grace. On the other, maybe Pluto will have the last laugh. After all, how many celestial bodies of any size have as many objects named for them as it does?

By noon Friday, makers of T-shirts and bumper stickers had come out with a full array of Pluto-inspired products to help fans mourn - or defiantly protest - its exclusion from the roster of planets just a day before.

So even if Pluto has been eclipsed in cosmic importance, its fans can find solace in a seemingly infinite array of art - and kitsch.

Here’s a sampling:

• T-shirts and bumper stickers with such sayings as “I miss Pluto,” “Pluto is a planet!” “Pluto was framed!” “Keep the 9th planet a planet” and “Save Pluto, Take Uranus” are being offered for sale online.
• Pluto figures prominently in several songs, including the B-52s’ “Hallucinating Pluto” and Christine Lavin’s “Planet X.”
• Check out the DVD aisle for Pluto movies, such as the critically acclaimed “Breakfast on Pluto” or the critically bashed “The Adventures of Pluto Nash.”
• Feeling literary? Pluto has inspired several books (and book titles), including the scholarly treatise (and aptly named) “Pluto,” and served as the setting for others, including Dave Sim’s 1996 novel “Minds.”
• Seeking fine(?) art? An abstract oil painting of the former planet was available online on eBay Friday for as little as $20.
• And while it may be a painful reminder of its new status in the solar system, you also can find a Pluto paperweight on eBay for $80.

In 1930, an Illinois farm boy, Clyde Thombough, discovered what soon became the 9th planet in our solar system. For the last 76 years, it has been our understanding that the solar system consisted of 9 planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.

This past Thursday, August 24, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) voted to revoke Pluto’s planetary status in order to be more in line with our ever-changing definition of what a “planet” is, and fitting it into a lesser category of “dwarf-planets.” The new definition of a what a planet is goes something along the lines of “a celestial body that is in orbit around the sun, has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a … nearly round shape, and has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.” Pluto has been disqualified because it’s oblong orbit overlaps that of Neptune.

This may not be earth-shattering news, but it certainly does shake things up a bit. As our technology grows, our understanding of such things expands along with it, and thus we may need to redefine what was previously understood. This is just something that happens with time though, and will certainly happen again in the future.

I guess the only bad news is that instead of the classic mnemonics kids used to learn in school to remember the order of the nine planets, we’re going to have to start learning some new ones to remember the order now. I guess companies that manufacture models of the solar system are back in business though! They get to create a whole new group of products with the new definition.

All in all, just a bit of news. Kind of makes you think a little bit, I guess. Time goes on, definitions change, planets disappear. Poor Pluto. I guess I just feel bad for it. It didn’t really have enough time to prove itself to the universe. It’s just a baby compared to how long we’ve known about the rest of the planets. Oh well, c’est la vie! Let’s just deal with it and move on. I’m sure there will be some more changes to come in the future.

You can read more about it in the article I was reading: Then there were 8: Pluto isn’t a planet

To follow up on the earlier question, YES I still have a job! THANK GOD! Whoa was I nervous about that, not gonna lie! It’s really hard to have your entire future/career reside on one test that you have to take and pass. That’s a lot of pressure! I mean come on now!

That’s only the beginning of the good news. . .

The best part about this, not only did I pass the test, but I was the only one who got a 100%! That made me so happy! It made me feel validated somehow, like I really knew what I was talking about. I do like to take a little credit where I feel credit is due though. I do know how the internet works. I do know how to troubleshoot a lot of issues. I do know how to cross sell products. And I know the basics about their products already, or at least where to find more information. That’s half the battle.

Not a bad situation, right? This only gets better though!

Not only did I pass, and I still have a job. Not only did I get the only 100%. I get an extra $30 in my pocket for acing the test. How cool is that!? Nothing like free money!

I really don’t mean for this to sound conceited, or to toot my own horn or anything, but I’m just really proud of this! I really want to work for this company, they seem awesome so far! Everything seems to be going well. I’m just really excited! There seems to be a lot of potential to make a lot of money and get into other departments, and I can’t wait to see where things go!

Score One For Me!

I don’t know if we have any Boston Red Sox fans out there at the moment, but I would like to take this time to. . .jump around excitedly and stick my tongue out at you! LOL! No, no, I’m sorry. You’re probably already feeling pretty down in the dumps if you know what I’m talking about already. You must understand one thing: the Yankees vs. Red Sox rivalry is one that withstands the test of time. I don’t care who you are, but everyone has a favorite! If you know me, you know I’m a Yankees fan. Not gonna lie! You either love ‘em, or you hate ‘em. That’s just the way it is.

The Yankees, however, did sweep the Red Sox recently in a 5 game series putting them 6½ games ahead of the Red Sox. Gotta love it! Couldn’t be happier! I won’t go into the gory details I suppose, cause I’m tired and wanna go to bed, but please, read the full article, and revel in their success with me!

URL : http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14454997/

Last week and this week are training at the new job. Last week we went over a lot of information we’re going to need to do the job, i.e. how the internet works, misc. tech support, specific support for customers, navigation and about the various products offered. Today is the final exam covering everything we learned last week. I’m not terribly concerned at the moment, but in the back of my head, maybe I’m a little nervous. I need to pass this test with an 85% or better to still have a job, so that’s really a lot of pressure. My entire career resides on the results of this one test. That’s a little overwhelming if you really think about it, which I’m trying not to do. I still have a couple hours before I need to be there.

I won’t know the results right away, but I’ll be sure to tell you how it went. And tomorrow I’ll let you know if I still have a job!

Wish Me Luck!

Started my new job last week finally! I just need to reiterate how excited I am about this! Finally done with the hell that I liked to call “Harris,” not that it’s really hell in the fullest sense of the word, but you catch my drift. Oh yeah, and they screwed me over when I left too, so now I really hate them!

When someone leaves a job, there’s bound to be some type of adjustment made on your paycheck; either debiting for any days you may have missed in the pay cycle or whatever, or crediting because of any vacation you may have accrued, etc. I understood that was coming. What I didn’t expect was for them to debit the whole amount of my check out of account, overdrawing my checking account, and my savings that I have hooked up to it. Needless to say, I wasn’t too happy about that, and I’ve been reeming people out for days, not that there’s anything they can do supposedly. They will feel my wrath before this is over!

Anyway. . .moving on!

About the new job. . .

The new job has all kinds of perks associated with it. Allow me to elaborate. . .

• Closer to home
• More money
• More along the lines of a career I would like to pursue
• More money
• Closer to home

You can tell what’s really important to me here, can’t you? First of all, I’m getting a job closer to where I live, so I don’t have to drive almost 40 miles one way to work every day in horrible traffic, which could take me up to 2 hours to get to work on a bad day. I am now travelling less than half the distance, in better traffic, and I’m getting paid more money for doing that. How cool is that!? Not only was I going to be able to pocket some extra cash just by saving on gas, but I’m getting more of it on top of that too.

Sooo anyway. . .

Instead of working at the bank anymore, which I just absolutely love! (Note: sarcasm) I’ll be working for a local internet company, specializing in domains and hosting and other fun stuff that’s right up my alley as a programmer / web designer. If I could find the little disclaimer note they gave me, I’d be more than happy to talk about them, but I don’t want to get in trouble!

Definitely a step in the right direction though. . .very excited about this!

Well, I think that’s about all I’ve got for now, I’ll be sure to update ya’ll when I get going with that too and let you know how it’s going! (can’t believe I actually just said “ya’ll” - suppose I could go back and edit that, but who cares, right? Don’t judge. . .)

Boredom is taking it’s toll pretty quickly here. I started a new job last week, which is going great by the way! So far, so good! My hours are almost the opposite of what they were before, so my sleep schedule is all screwy. I didn’t go to bed until 8 or 9 this morning, and slept until 6 or 7 at night with a splitting headache. Waking up with a headache like that doesn’t really motivate me to do a whole lot, not gonna lie.

So I’ve been sitting on the couch pretty much all day, watching TV and movies and just feeling kind of blah I guess. Finished watching Season 2 of Dark Angel on DVD, and I have to say I’m sad to see it go. Jessica Alba really made that show, that’s pretty much the only reason I watched it. Nothing else is really on TV at the moment though, and I’m running out of movies to watch, and I really don’t feel like moving a whole lot to be honest. So here I am, just hanging out.

I really need to get my sleeping schedule back in order so I don’t keep staying up all night and sleeping through the day.

That’s pretty much all I had to say I guess.
Carry on. I’m sure I’ll be up for a while still