Steve’s Blog

I finally got a mobile phone! How utterly amazing, wild, daring, and uncharacteristic of me! Okay, nix amazing, wild, and daring. But it is definitely uncharacteristic of me. I don’t really like the idea of being reachable by phone regardless of where I might be. Sometimes when I’m on the bus, I just want to close my eyes and space out. If I’m walking down the street, I just want to be left alone. The idea of being “connected” actually freaks me out a bit. But a mobile phone does have its benefits. Besides, I can shut it off when I don’t want to be bothered. It’s actually an interesting story of how I got the phone, because I probably would not have gotten one otherwise.

My wife has a mobile phone, and for some reason, her mother wanted to get a mobile phone at a discounted rate through my wife’s mobile phone plan. When my wife looked into it, she found that it would actually be a good deal for her mother, as it would only cost an additional $20 per month, and her mother would send the money each month. So my wife arranged the whole thing, and her mother was added to her mobile phone plan, which had to be upgraded to the family plan. She even had her mom on the phone picking out a specific mobile phone to go with the plan! My wife received the new phone, set it up, and mailed it to her mother, who began using it. My mother in law sent us the phone payments as agreed. This arrangement continued for a couple of months…

Seemingly out of nowhere, my mother in law obtained a new mobile phone and plan on her own with her local phone company. Me and my wife were quite surprised when we learned this. Apparently, she had lost the phone that my wife sent her, and couldn’t find it anywhere! Strangest of all was the fact that my mother in law didn’t tell my wife about losing the phone until a week after it happened! Well, my wife gave her mother a few more days to search for the phone before she reported it to the carrier as lost. It was never found. Fortunately, there was no unauthorized activity on the phone that we could ascertain via the carrier’s web site.

My wife called the carrier to remove her mother from her plan, since she no longer had any use for it. But she would have to pay a cancellation fee - $175. Well, you can see where this story is going. My mother in law sent us the money for the cancellation fee, and I decided to use the money to buy a new phone so I could use the plan. That’s pretty much how I joined the mobile phone club!

It actually took me about a week or so to come to a decision about taking advantage of this opportunity, but the desire to easily stay in touch with my friends influenced my decision. A mobile makes this sometimes difficult task very easy.

Hello?

(lol)

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I just read a very powerful blog article by Steve Pavlina, Love Your Work or Don’t Work at All. That article’s content is so true. My previous experiences prove it! Read on:

My current job is only part time, and is not related in any way to my chosen field of Information Technology. (IT) I don’t really care for the work that I do, as it is mind numbingly boring. The only challenges are physical, so the only benefit of the job is a good workout.

When I first started this part time job about a year ago, I didn’t really want to. What I really wanted was to work harder on my web site, and also to find a decent, fairly paid job in IT that wouldn’t leave me exhausted after each day. (I have had several interviews last year, and two so far this year, but no offers yet.) But I took the job anyway, in spite of my reluctance, in the name of “responsibility”. The hourly rate was fair, (it was better than my previous IT jobs) and it felt good to bring home money that I had earned, as opposed to just sitting around collecting unemployment insurance.

I was hoping that my web site would “take off” and become a decent source of income, so I could quit the job. When I realized that my web site would not “take off” as quickly as I had hoped, I stepped up my IT job search, being more aggressive in applying to specific companies with good reputations. That too, is taking longer than I had hoped!

As time passed, I grew more and more annoyed with the job. I dreaded going in to work each night. When I was at work, I wanted to be somewhere else, anywhere but there. I became more apathetic towards my work. Eventually my annoyance and apathy slowly turned into a bitter hatred of the job! I still tried to do my best, but because of my feelings toward the job, the quality of my work suffered. My work quality will never be the same as when I first started. My heart was just not in it. I tried to use my free time at work to study and work on my personal projects. It did help me feel better for a bit, but it didn’t last. My disdain for my job was poisoning my work, and everything else as well.

I have only myself to blame. Against my better judgment, I took a job I didn’t really want, a job that, in spite of providing income, would slow down the pursuit of my goals - my dreams. I believe that I would have been better off if I didn’t take this job. However, that fact remains to be seen.

I am still looking for suitable IT work, and still working on my website. I am also learning more and more - which is perhaps the moral of this story: In spite of making bad choices in the past, press on and learn from your mistakes in order to build a better future!

In closing, I leave you with this tidbit of wisdom, a hard lesson taught to me by bitter experience:

“Always think for yourself, and make your own decisions. Never blindly do the bidding of others, nor foolishly follow the advice of the ignorant, but wisely consider the advice of many sages. After you have weighed all of your options, make your own choice independently, free from the interference of others. For free will is man’s greatest gift, and many woes to those who would dare to rob a man of his free will.”

That wasn’t too dramatic, was it? Oh well.

Take care! Until the next blog entry…

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