The Afterlife - life after college

I'm back... ish

2009-01-04T14:37:00.001-08:00

Many of you may know that i have once again moved north to the land of salem. I going to be working for verizon still but just in a new location. So what's new with Joey since last i blogged? Well i have a beautiful girlfriend named Sheree, we have been dating for a little over 2 months making it my all time longest relationship. She is 19 a soccer player and my only beef with her is that she is husky fan... due to the fact that her dad has twice graduated from UW and she grew up across the water from seattle. It's ok though, cuz there's never really been a better time to hang out with husky fans than now :)

I feel like a i ruin the picture here... but i'm over it

Also last time i was on here i believe i said that i wanted to write a book, i've found that to be a rather difficult endeavor so i decided to write in a form that i am more qualified to do... short children's stories.

I wrote several for classes while in college and liked it so I may grace the blogger pages with some that i have written recently, we'll see how i feel about them after proofing them.

Also the second anual tripod christmas pictures occured recently and i thought i would share a couple that i found to be especially awesome. For those of you unfamiliar with my christmas pictures they are awesome and last year we were very goofy in them so this year we went a little more serious.

Well you are all mostly caught up. So if you like having me blog leave a comment so that i know i'm talking to more than just me haha yes that was pitiful cry out for comments i know. Enjoy the day, i start my job in the new location tomorrow, wish me luck.

In a month...

2008-08-20T10:25:00.001-07:00

So once again I have neglected my blogging duty and I'm sure that that will cost me the 3 readers that I have. So here's what you need to know. I'm in the midst of working 9 days in a row... this is day 2.

I can solidly blame my lack of blogging on the fact that I work and that has set my other interests to the side.

One thing that i see in my future is me going back to school to get licensed to teach, I have made an attempt, a small one, at the business world and I gotta say that I don't like it. Not because I somehow consider myself too holy to peddle cell phones to 13 year olds. But mostly because I feel like what I do doesn't matter.

There is some debate as to where and when I will go back to school, and there are several tests I must pass before this is even a possibility. There is a small chance that a teacher or two may read this and let me tell you that I am very open to suggestions and advice.

Now you know, sorry that this is a boring blog I promise that when I have some semblance of time I'll right something more entertaining... also I've been thinking about writing a book, a western possibly.

Just a week in the life...

2008-07-17T17:18:00.000-07:00

Much has transpired since last I had the chance to talk to many of you fine people out there. There has been good and strange events occuring up here and I just had to share them with someone.

Following my first week of training I took a short trek down to a little town outside Vancouver WA, a placed called Hockinson. I did this in order to participate in the 5th annual Clark County Dunk Hoops Invitational. This prestigious event is an outdoor 4v4 basketball tournement, played on a slightly smaller court on slightly shorter hoops 8' 9" to be exact. Games are played first to 25 by two's and three's and goal tending is allowed on shots shot within the key.

The field was made up of 16 teams ranging in age and skill level. My team, the abtly named "abusement park", failed to achieve victory in all three of it's games losing by 6, 5, and 7 respectively to better teams.

The team named "balance your Skyward", named after it's best player and tournament mvp Warner Pacific Alumni Jaxin Skyward... his real legal name, won the tournament.

After my brief stay in Hockinson, I returned to Bellevue sunday night, and after 1 day of training i dubbed it time to see the sights of Seattle, so I went to the sight that everyone who comes through the Seattle area goes to see. Not the space needle, too common, not safeco field, too many losses, but Jimmy Hendrix's grave.

I know that when you think of a great like Jimmy being burried in his home town you think of a great monument with giant memorial placards and Foxey Lady being played over the speakerphones on loop. That's what I thought of too... it was an actual graveyard, no fanfair, no giant statue of Jimmy, and no Purple Haze. I'm not sure if any of you have taken pictures in an actual graveyard before, but I felt kind of guilty and a little worried about karma and other hippy doctrines.

As if seeing the moldy grave of Jimmy wasn't enough Jenea and I (who I have neglected to state was with me for this whole adventure... sorry) decided we should go find some out of the ordinary food. We ended up on first and cherry in downtown Seattle eating greek food. I enjoyed a fine lamb gyro (pronounced hero like superman not gyro like the copter... I was informed) while Jenea had the chicken. Also we enjoyed bachlabaff (phonetically spelled :) ) for desert before wandering down to the pier.

The weather up here has been fantastic so we asked a bum how to get to the closest pier, and after he washed my window and shined my shoes we found the pier not two blocks away.

We were on our way out of seattle when we found what we thought was a little corner book store, it turned out to be a very very large corner book store that we spent darn near 2 and a half hours in. I ended up buying a book entitled twilight (Yes James, the same Twilight your thinking of)

Today is thursday the 17th and I will be coming home tomorrow to do the most important thing I'll do all summer... enjoy Dark Knight, the new batman movie.

This is by far my longest and most pictured blog ever, all the pics were taken on the phone that verizon gave me so forgive me for the grainy pics, enjoy.

Can you hear me now?

2008-07-08T23:01:00.001-07:00

Well as many of you may know yesterday I began, what you people fondly refer to as, the real world. I am and will be up in Washington for my continued training here at Verizon. Monday was a lot of CYA stuff about how to not harass women and whatnot. Today was slightly more hands on but still I am technically classified as clueless.

There are some cool perks to being in my particular track, that track being the RLDP or retail leadership development program, first of all I was given a free phone that I'm not supposed to call any of you from, not to mention that it's not hooked up, also next wednesday we're eating with the regional president, pinky out, and thirdly I'm supposed to move up in the company at a rate that's three times that of the average hire.

Their putting a lot of pressure on us to show leadership from the very beginning, which is difficult for me because there are many people who could use some verbal abuse and belittling, not to mention the poorly acting educational videos or the lengthing company credo.

All in all two days down so far so good. They comp me for food so I get to eat a lot of terryaki, my hotel room has two beds and I have friends nearby so it's not a terrible experience.

Alas I must leave you at that my friends, getting up before noon is starting to take it's toll on me and I must rest my weary eyes.

Jackson OUT

Eugene 08

2008-06-30T23:17:00.000-07:00

It turns out that doing hard time at Seneca Sawmills has ended having some perks. This very night that perk was sitting on the finish line as Andrew Wheating came in second at the Olympic trials here in Eugene, we got the tickets from Aaron and Marie Jones and I'd like to think it was because of all my hard work I put in at Seneca.

I hadn't been to the track at U of O in a quite a while and I must say that I am very impressed with what they've done. Eugene really does deserve the title of "Track Town USA." The crowd was very loud the weather was perfect and the company was superb.

Tomorrow I will jog and pretend that I am an olympic runner and then I will thank the lord that I'm not, because after watching the 5000 meter mens finals I can truly say that I find the ability to run that far that fast to be just plain unnatural and in some way, gross.

J

My camping trip

2008-06-30T01:31:00.000-07:00

I have returned from my two day rafting trip. I would like to have put up some of my own pictures of this trip but as many of you know water and electronics don't mix so i left mine at home. I learned several things on this trip, things like always set up a tent no matter how nice the day was or that the most effective way to throw someone off of a boat is by going off with them and most importantly i learned that the mckenzie river is very very cold.

In two days we floated 50 miles of river, the water was very high, and cold, so we moved rather quickly covering the first 20 miles in 2 and a half hours. We made camp at the Mckenzie Bridge campgrounds and then floated our way down to the damn next to the Mckenzie fish hatchery. Many bumps and bruises were won by many of us but i think that everyone as a whole would agree it was a weekend well spent.

But alas, I have returned to the civilized, electrified, instant world with a pair of lobster red knees to proved my stories true. Tomorrow I will once again fake train for the race that i won't be running in :) cheerio and goodnight.

J

Day 3

2008-06-27T11:50:00.000-07:00

I have now ran a total of 4 miles, 2 on wednesday and 2 this morning I am sore and stiff and I'm not sure this is the hobby for me, bu alas i shall continue. Thank you to everyone who encouraged me to keep this up but I'm sorry to say that I do not think that I will be race ready come July 4th so I believe I will keep up my current July 4 tradition which is 930 breakfast at the park followed by knocking little kids over to steal their candy at the parade, i'm off to ice my back, heel, quads, calves and bum... Joey out

Well Hello you....

2008-06-26T01:54:00.000-07:00

I realized it had been too long since my last post 1, when i realized that last you knew i was debating whether or not to flee the scene, and 2 when I was informed via Jamie Riddle that Candy had decided it was time for me to update all of you on my life.

First off I am glad to say that with minimal haggling I was able to get a position in eugene, so I will continue to live the no rent dream as well as keep close to family and friends. I will be departing for Bellevue Washington July 7th for my 3 weeks of training in the high octane world that is cell phones.

Secondly I have picked up a very original hobby, jogging. Today was my first day of jogging, I ran for two miles down from my house and back. At the end of my job I wondered a couple things 1 who was the jerk that decided that this was an appropriate way for human beings to excercise, back in the good ol' days people didn't just run for no reason, they were either chasing or being chased both good reasons to go fast. 2nd I realized that I am going to need some tips from the jogging enthusiasts, if you are one or know one or more than likely are married to one please inform them that I am perplexed at the ability of anyone who willingly puts themselves through this on a daily basis.

Thirdly, Luke and I have continued along the path to fit our house with everything it needs, today one of the things we bought was a scale. The scale was my idea although now I semi regret it, the liar told me I was about ten pounds heavier than i thought i was. So once I am seeking help from my audience about tips that will help me get ready for bikini season. While bikini season has some differences for guys, i must try to look my best to be around bikinis, it is still an important time. Let me know any good ideas you have.

I believe my newfound jogging hobbie and the scale are related hopefully someone out there can help me get into the swing of things, i heard that starting out is the hardest part.

I realize that this has turned into some form of reverse help column where I right and article and hope you help me, I would love to do a traditional help column but no one has asked me any questions.

Hope all is well on the other side of the internet.

j

I'm back

2008-06-08T07:27:00.000-07:00

Well folks after a brief hiatus I have returned to my rightful place. All has gone pretty well for us moving in. The internet is hooked up as well as the TV. Unfortunately I am yet to find that special place inside the house where I have a single bar of reception, so no matter how modern we get out here I still feel like I'm on an island when I get out here.

I an attempt to save money i have been driving Jonathan's ruckus about the streets of Creswell, it took me a little bit to get used to it, mostly the stares, but I feel like an almost adequate driver now.

I have enjoyed the last week or so living down here but it seems that it was not meant to last. I was informed on friday that my job will not be here in the eugene area, in fact the closest they can get me is the Portland metro area. As a joke I asked if they had any positions in Honalulu, and guess what? They do. Not only do they have positions open but my contact was "Very Interested" in finding a person to work there and wanted to hear back from me soon about whether or not I'd like the Hawaii position.

At first I laughed at the idea but the scary thing is that I'm actually considering it, your thoughts?

Movin man

2008-06-01T18:26:00.000-07:00

I realize that I have been MIA as of late for that I apologize. I have been in the midst of moving from Salem back home. After finding the job market a little lacking in our great state capital I have decided that it is good and proper to stop living in a place where i pay rent when i don't have a job.

Aside from the moving I have kept myself busy with my new position as assistant coach of the Sprague Freshman Summer basketball team. I always knew that I would impart my wisdom to young mold able minds and I now I get that chance. So far my record is 1-1 but considering that I lost by 7 in my first game and then won by 42 in the second, my math shows that on average I am 2-0. My kids are great and I'm having a ton of fun.

I have fielded many questions about my previous post and as to whether or not I wrote those myself. The answer of course is yes. Due to my vast experience in the legal and business world I was able to whip up that list in about 8 minutes, it was easy to get it into my blog because it is footer of every email that I send out for my both business and personal reasons.

I will be without much exposure to the internet for the next couple of days so I hope that you all will bear with me as that writing a blog is hard without said internet.

I never knew...

2008-05-24T10:02:00.000-07:00

After seeing the resulting comments of my last post I was shocked by the power that my little opinion holds, plus I thought it was really cool. I never thought for a second that people who were going to see that movie would change their mind because I thought it was terrible.

For the first time ever I feel like I need to be more responsible with my opinions and I will be. That being said, the movie was still pretty bad and I don't feel bad about saying that.

It is memorial weekend and I am seconds away from hopping in my car and driving it down the ol' homestead and seeing the fam. I hope you all have a great weekend full of seeing whatever movie you want regardless of what some unemployed 22 year thinks.

In this lawsuit charged world I believe that it is best that I start covering my tracks so I have prepared a disclaimer that should cover my for pretty much any lawsuit someone could through my way.

This product is meant for educational purposes only. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental. Void where prohibited. Some assembly required. List each check separately by bank number. Batteries not included. Contents may settle during shipment. Use only as directed. No other warranty expressed or implied. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Postage will be paid by addressee. Subject to approval. This is not an offer to sell securities. Apply only to affected area. May be too intense for some viewers. Do not stamp. Use other side for additional listings. For recreational use only. Do not disturb. All models over 18 years of age. If condition persists, consult your physician. No user-serviceable parts inside. Freshest if eaten before date on carton. Subject to change without notice. Times approximate. Simulated picture. No postage necessary if mailed in the United States. Breaking seal constitutes acceptance of agreement. For off-road use only. As seen on TV. One size fits all. Many suitcases look alike. Contains a substantial amount of non-tobacco ingredients. Colors may, in time, fade. We have sent the forms which seem to be right for you. Slippery when wet. For office use only. Not affiliated with the American Red Cross. Drop in any mailbox. Edited for television. Keep cool; process promptly. Post office will not deliver without postage. List was current at time of printing. Return to sender, no forwarding order on file, unable to forward. Not responsible for direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages resulting from any defect, error or failure to perform. At participating locations only. Not the Beatles. Penalty for private use. See label for sequence. Substantial penalty for early withdrawal. Do not write below this line. Falling rock. Lost ticket pays maximum rate. Your cancelled check is your receipt. Add toner. Place stamp here. Avoid contact with skin. Sanitized for your protection. Be sure each item is properly endorsed. Sign here without admitting guilt. Slightly higher west of the Mississippi. Employees and their families are not eligible. Beware of dog. Contestants have been briefed on some questions before the show. Limited time offer, call now to insure prompt delivery. You must be present to win. No passes accepted for this engagement. No purchase necessary. Processed at location stamped in code at top of carton. Shading within a garment may occur. Use only in well-ventilated area. Keep away from fire or flame. Replace with same type. Approved for veterans. Booths for two or more. Check here if tax deductible. Some equipment shown is optional. Price does not include taxes. No Canadian coins. Not recommended for children. Prerecorded for this time zone. Reproduction strictly prohibited. No solicitors. No alcohol, dogs, or horses. No anchovies unless otherwise specified. Restaurant package, not for resale. List at least two alternate dates. First pull up, then pull down. Call toll free before digging. Driver does not carry cash. Some of the trademarks mentioned in this product appear for identification purposes only. Record additional transactions on back of previous stub. Decision of judges is final.

This supersedes all previous notices.

Thank you and, if you read the whole thing, sorry.

1 mistake = 4 hours of my life and a half a tank of gas I'll never get back

2008-05-23T13:57:00.000-07:00

When I think of Indiana Jones I smile and remember fight scenes on an airplane, Sean Connery Calling him "Jr.", the fact that he hates snakes and of course the whip. So when I was called at 10:40 pm and informed that there was a ticket waiting for me to see the midnight showing of the latest installment of the series, The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, I immediately came to the conclusion that it was worth the drive. Unfortunately I was wrong.

What Followed was one of the worst cinematic adventures of my profound moving watching life. From Indy surviving a nuclear blast by hopping into a refrigerator, to the revelation that all of our technology is really from aliens. The movie was predictable and contradicted most all of the good films that preceded it. This movie is not worth the price of admission and I would heed each of you to cling tightly to the fond memories of these movies and save your money for something that will not suck out your happy thoughts.

This movie severely underachieved and I was wondering if any of you could name the last good movie Spielberg did since Jurassic Park. I give the movie two thumbs and all my toes down.

The Afterlife

2008-05-23T01:17:00.001-07:00

Yes it's true I graduated, unfortunately that has led to the uncomfortable stage of life after college. Now, I have always considered myself to be a somewhat responsible individual but, I am still in the stage where I think that I should be able to stay up late and sleep in with no repercussions. Fortunately the business world is a forgiving one right?

I have, in fact, accepted a position at verizon wireless that starts July 7, a day after my 23rd birthday, and despite my prior aversions to employment I'm actually feeling something that could be called excitement for the next stage in my life.

SinceI feel that this page may never be read by anyone other than myself this question may become rhetorical but.... How do you people do it?!!? Get up everyday and go to work, I am struck mostly speechless that dad has been able to get up and do what it is he does for so long, and what's more important than that is that I can't remember him complaining.

Also, since graduating, I have taken up a volunteer position as an assistant coach for the Sprague High School Freshman summer basketball team with my roommate Kyle. Much like me, Kyle is famous at his home school somewhat for his athletic triumphs and more so for having a taller left handed older brother.

I've done three practices and I like the sound of being called "Coach Jackson" I especially like it when their voices crack while yelling BALL!!! or STICK!!!

I think that this is a pretty adequate first post. Enjoy. If someone reads this then perhaps there will be a second.

p.s. The picture on this post is the one i have on the cover page of the resume I used to get my job