Frustrating

Today has been one of those days.  You know. The days you wish would just end.  I have been in a bad mood all day.  Hard to believe I know.  But I have.  It hasn't helped that I keep having to deal with stupid people and people that do stupid things when they know better. It just makes for a bad day.  It really doesn't help when people here at work do things that make my life even harder.  For example, we have a new credit union using our shared branching software.  They just started using it Monday.  Well, there was a new screen that was pushed out to them that was just finished like the night before. I have received zero training on this new screen.  Heck, I hadn't even seen it.  So I get a call at 5:00 from a teller at this credit union that is trying to close her teller drawer.  Well she goes to this new teller balancing screen and clicks on the close button. She gets a message saying that she can't close the drawer because it hasn't been balanced yet.  Now keep in mind that this teller has had more training on this screen than I have.  So here I am trying to figure out how to get this screen to let her balance her drawer so she can close it and go home.  Well, after about 15 minutes I finally figure it out.  So I help her balance her drawer and then she hits the close button.  It pops up the confirmation screen and she hits close again.  Does the drawer close?  Of course not.  It pops up with an error message saying there is a problem. So we can't close her teller drawer.  What is really frustrating about it is now I look like a complete moron because I didn't know how the screen functioned. On top of it the screen didn't even work.  That is a great way to show our newest customer how great our software is.  NOT!!!  See what happens when you try to rush things.  In the programming world rushing something new out the door without proper testing is a bad idea.  And this is why.  Oh well.  I'm sure I will get some crap from the guy who wrote the screen because I must have done something "wrong" to cause the problem in the first place.  But see.  How the heck am I supposed to be able to offer any kind of support on a product I have never seen?  I am good at figuring out software in a hurry.  Give me enough time with a program and I will figure out how it works no matter how complex it is.  But when you have a customer on the phone with you it is generally not a good idea to not know how the stuff they are calling about works.  Which in turn makes me look bad and incompetent.  I have pointed that fact out about a dozen times now in staff meetings.  And they recognized the need for making sure we were properly trained before they release new stuff.  They followed it well with the last module they released.  But I guess this one guy is above that.  He doesn't think we need training on his stuff because it is so self explanatory.  And yet, even when someone has had training on it they don't know how to use it because it is anything but self explanatory.  So I guess you could say that my suggestions about training the support staff on new stuff before it is released has been thrown out the window.  We are back to the old ways of doing things.  Good thing our support staff is good at what we do or we would probably lose customers because of stuff like this.

My Running Curse

I seem to have a curse when it comes to running 5Ks. Last summer I ran the Layton Fun Run.  This year I ran the Running of the Leopards. Last year I got sick the morning of the race.  I barely made it through the race but I did.  I was sick for several days after that.  With the Running of the Leopards I wasn't sick the day of the race.  I was sick a few weeks before it with a respiratory illness that has a 2-4 month recovery time.  So I ran the race barely able to breathe. What will happen with the next race?  I guess I will find out when I run the Fun Run again this year. Should be interesting to see what happens. I just hope that I am not sick again.  I might actually make the run with a good time if I am not sick. I don't know if I will be running any races before then but if I do then I hope I don't get some really bad illness right before it.

Lost and Confused

Do you ever have times when you feel lost or confused? I do. I do a lot lately. I have so many crazy things going on in my life that I often wonder if it is even worth putting forth any effort into the things I need to do. There are times when I feel like all my efforts aren't worth anything. It kinda sucks. Fortunately I am not a quitter so I will just keep plugging away at things hoping that one day something will come of my efforts. One day I will find out whether or not I was able to help someone out in some way. But right now all I see is someone that is just kinda there taking up space and getting in peoples way. There are even times when I feel like people don't want me around. I am often ignored when I say something during a conversation between several people. No one seems to care about what I have to say. Or when they do listen to something I say they either mock me or just look at me like I am crazy and don't know anything and so I should stop talking and go back to the hole I came from. Leona says I am socially awkward. Maybe that is true. Maybe I am only suited for an electronic social life. It is a very lonely life. One that I have been living for a long time. But there are times when I actually want to hang out with people. Talk with people. Real people in the flesh. But who would want to hang out with me?  Not very many people. It doesn't help that I have a busy schedule so I don't have time to go do things.  And when I do have time I am always broke so I can't afford to do anything. Being broke all the time really sucks. I work hard all day and have nothing to show for it. Someday maybe that will be different.  I certainly hope so. Someday I will finish a game that will sell and make me some money.  Then I can use that money to make my game programming career take off.  But first I have to get things going and that takes time.  Time that I never seem to have these days. And I need skills that I don't have.  Namely the ability to create graphics. Someday I will learn it.  But not today. Today is for developing my game programming skills. There is a lot involved in writing games and I am only about 15% of the way to completing a great game.  I have the ideas and the story lines.  Now I need the skills.

Well, I am going to stop my ranting for now.  I know I seem a little crazy and this post rambles a lot. But that is usually how things in my mind work.  I generally have several different thoughts running through my head at the same time. Writing them down often gets jumbled up because they are all coming out at once. Maybe that is why I am socially awkward. Because I am thinking so many things at a time that what I am trying to say never comes out like I want it too.  Hmm.  There is a thought.

Cub Scouts

Getting a cub scout pack going takes a lot of work from a lot of people.  It should be interesting to see how things turn out. 

Branch Mission Leader

The last two years as the Branch Mission Leader has been quite an experience.  It certainly had its ups and downs. I just thought I would share some of the experiences I had as well as what I have learned from my time working with the missionaries.

When I was extended the calling by President Saxy two years ago I remember thinking that I was in no way fit for  this calling.  I accepted it but I didn't know how well I would do at it. I was handed a binder with a bunch of papers in it and I was told to go out and figure out what was going on.  The Branch had a mission leader about six months before I was called that got things organized a bit but moved before anything really got going.  So I had to do a lot of organizing and figuring out how things were supposed to work.  I was thrown right into the middle of the pilot program that the Church was doing at the time.  It was a program that is now used church wide but at the time there was only like 16 stakes doing the new mission plan stuff. So I had to learn all that stuff. Fortunately the other mission leaders in the stake were very helpful in explaining the whole thing.  Also, shortly after I was called there was a training meeting with the Ogden mission president and an area authority on the plan. So I had a lot of good training to get things started with.

After a few months of not much going on things changed in a hurry.  It got to the point where I was going out with the missionaries to lessons every single night.  I didn't have any branch missionaries back then and I had no hope of getting any either.  So I had to do it all myself. It got to the point where Leona set ground rules and told the missionaries I wasn't allowed to go out with them on Sundays or Mondays any more because she wanted to actually see me every once in a while. We had a few baptisms during that time.  One of which you probably know.  It was Troy Price.  Probably the greatest thing about being a Mission Leader is that you don't have to worry too much about being transferred. I have been able to watch Troy go from an investigator to a new convert to receiving the Priesthood as a Deacon, learning to pass the Sacrament, becoming a Teacher and now he is a Priest.  It is very rewarding seeing the fruits of your labor continue to grow.  As a full time missionary you never really get to see what becomes of the people you taught. You teach them and move on. Rarely do you get to see the fruits of your labor (even though I married the fruit of my labor ;) ). Seeing people join the church or return to the church is a great feeling.  Knowing that you helped them makes you feel even better.

Another thing I learned is that you don't need to be called as a branch missionary to do missionary work in the branch.  Most people here in the branch are really good about missionary work.  People are so willing to go out and invite their neighbors to meet with the missionaries. They are always willing to help. If you look at the branch today, it is where it is because of the efforts of all those who are in the branch. It could have easily stayed very small in size.  But now we have the same attendance as a lot of wards. It has been great watching the branch grow.

I have learned that any missionary effort, no matter how small, can have big results.  Even if it is something as simple as talking to your neighbor about your family home evening the night before.  You don't have to invite them to anything. Just share your family experience with them.  If they seem interested in something like that then invite them over for your next family home evening. Heck, invite them over for dinner and let them feel the Spirit in your home.  That is all it takes sometimes to get someone to join the Church. It is amazing how often we have missionary opportunities and we don't even know it. I guess that is why we are taught over and over to live Christ-like lives all the time. You never know when someone will see your actions and make life changing decisions based on what you did without you even knowing it.

It hasn't been all roses.  There have been many times where I have been extremely frustrated with the full time missionaries.  It is very frustrating trying to get missionaries to teach someone when they won't walk out to the branch.  They live on the other side of the stake and sometimes the missionaries that were here didn't have bikes.  And they didn't like to walk out here.  There were times that I felt like a taxi cab.  I would drive them all over.  And not just in the stake.  Since we have the district leader covering the branch I often times had to drive them out to places like Syracuse and West Point.  I had to take one to Roy once even.  It got old after a while.

I had times where I got fed up with it all and didn't do much work during the week.  I had several meetings I had to go to every Sunday so my weekends felt really short. I got tired of all the meetings I had to go to.  I don't know how people in presidency positions can stand all the meetings they have.  It would drive me crazy. But I survived. I learned a lot in those meetings.  I learned how to be a better steward over the people I was called to serve. I learned how to better organize my time. I learned how to better report what needed to be reported in the least amount of time possible and still get what needed to be said said. So it was a learning experience for me.

 Am I glad I have been released?  Yes and no.  I will miss working with the missionaries and teaching like I was doing.  But at the same time I will have a little more time to do the things I have been putting off for a long time.  I also have my new calling that is going to take a lot of time as well.  It is something new and different.  So it should be interesting. I am grateful for the time I had as the Branch Mission Leader.  I got to know a lot of great people. I learned a lot of things that have helped me become a better person.  Now it is time for me to move on to the next lesson.  Cub scouts is something that has always been a part of my life and yet I haven't really done much with it.  So I guess I get to start doing all the stuff that my mom did when I was growing up.  At least I have someone that can guide me when I get lost :)

Thus ends one chapter of my life.  On to the next chapter...

Another Weekend

Another weekend has come and gone. At least this weekend I was productive for at least one day. I spent about 12 hours cleaning on Saturday. I spent most of today in bed because I was having dizzy spells. I am hoping that it was just a side effect of the Whooping Cough that I am getting over and not my body deciding it wants to have a dizzy phase again.  I don't have time to deal with dizzy spells right now.  I have a million things to get done this week so I don't need anything slowing me down.

Whooping Cough? Seriously?

So I was diagnosed with Whooping Cough yesterday.  What is up with that?  It does explain the extremely bad cough I have though. I got some good meds and it is a lot better.  But my ribs are nice and bruised from coughing so hard. I am just glad that the meds are actually working.  I have had a cough like this before and the meds I was given took a long time to get rid of the cough.  But then it was an asthma cough and you can't treat those with antibiotics. Sadly, I missed a soccer game tonight because of the cough.  I normally wouldn't skip a soccer game because I was sick but I decided that since I can barely breathe as it is I probably shouldn't push my luck. I don't even remember the last time I missed a game of soccer because I was sick. Oh well.  There is always next weeks game...

Changes

I sense there are some major changes in my life coming very soon...

Some days I wish that I was all knowing. Some days I'm glad I'm not. And some days I just wish that I knew the answers to some of the mysteries in my life...

Having a Concussion

I was playing a game of indoor soccer last night. I got tripped while chasing down the ball and I ended up falling into the wall head first.  I slammed into it pretty good.  It didn't really hurt all that much when it happened. But by the time I got home I had a little bit of a headache. This morning I woke up with a nice bump on my left temple. I also had a sore wrist and my knee had a nice bruise. As the day went on I started to not be able to focus on things.  I couldn't focus my eyes for more than a couple minutes.   By noon I couldn't concentrate on  anything and I was having a hard time thinking straight.  It was really weird. I looked up the symptoms of a concussions and I had over half the symptoms.  So I ended up coming home from work before I got to the point that I couldn't drive.

I have never had a concussion before.  It is the weirdest feeling.  I don't think I like it all that much.  What is crazy is I have hit my head way harder than that before and not gotten a concussion. So why this time?  I think the main thing is how I hit the wall.  I hit it head first and straight on my temple.  So I guess in all reality it could have been much worse.  Good thing I have a VERY hard head. It comes from a lifetime of hitting my head on things.

Bird Playing Defense

Check this owl out.  He just wanted to play some defense for his team and got himself killed doing it.  The player that kicked him should be kicked but what can you do? Shame on him.