A Nice Little Summer

September 5, 2003

I’ve been a bad journal keeper. Stuff has been happening even and I haven’t kept everyone updated. I apologize. In my defense the online classes started at school and I work all day on the computer as it is. It’s hard to find more motivation to be on the computer to do journals and pictures. But, never fear! I am updating now.

A few weeks ago Michelle from California came out to Utah. I’m such a wonderful journal keeper that I didn’t take one picture of her for the journal. We did a few things but the main thing we did was me and her and Paul went boating to Flaming Gorge in Northern Utah. I did fish, and caught two little fish. Here is one of them. While there Paul and I went on a hike. It doesn’t look all the impressive but it was hard and we could have lost our lives. We didn’t though. Here is the hike and here is the hike, conquered.

The next exciting thing that has happened is The O’Connell family visited, Brian, Ashli, Abby and Allison. As the professional journal keeper that I am, I took virtually no pictures whatsoever, other than when we picked them up from the airport. We had fun, took family portraits, played scrabble, Abby and I did all kinds of uncle-niece things. Most the family went swimming at my condo, there was lots of food to be had. Overall we all had fun.

Speaking of the condo, I planted some giant sunflowers. 3 came up and bloomed, here is one of them. You can see the pumpkins at the bottom but they need some more time to turn into the behemoths that they will become. I will take more pictures then.

I also thought I’d get some pictures of Hannibal the Piranha up here. Here he is so you can see his size compared to the 20 gallon tank. I also thought I’d post a picture that is a little more clear.

In other news, work has been going really good. Too good. Lots of macros and attention from management and meeting new people and bonuses. So I’ve enjoyed that. The youth pastor at church left. Or his wife left and he followed her. It’s been nuts at church lately with the youth. They are looking at hiring some new folks and I told Pastor that I’m stepping back from youth when they get here. I will miss it, but there’s nothing going on there. I’m not contributing anything of any value at all, and I’m not getting anything from it either. No new friends, no activity. Just business and I’m not interested in that. Plus, I’ve never felt I was supposed to be involved with youth at all. I don’t like kids and they don’t like me and everyone stays happy that way. Being with youth means you have to be social and as per previous journal entries, I am so unsocial class=GramE>its not even funny.

Anyway, I will try to stick to updating this more often. Till then, this is Craig Greenwood, signing out.

Life Rolls Like a Bikeride

July 17, 2003

I have skimped on the journal.  My excuses are life is busy and there’s not been a tremendous amount of things to report.  Small things.  Church has hired a youth pastor and my job has shifted to worship leader for the youth group.  Which is fine.  I’d much rather do that than manage activities of teenagers.  Work is going fine.  I’m on this macro team helping people set up their computers with a tool to make them more efficient. It’s been fun.  I walk around and talk to people and help them.  Good for future promotion stuff and its just fun.  I have enjoyed work lately.  School, also plugging along.  I am starting the online campus this coming week.  I will do two more classes and then break in October until January.  Then I go to April and I will be Master Craig.  This last class was just stupid-easy.  All you had to do was show up and try not to drool on the desk.  If you can do that, you can get a master’s degree.

Today, of course, is my birthday.  I am 27 years old.  I feel 22.  I act like I’m 40.  There was cake today at work and cards have trickled in.  Tomorrow there will be a family dinner.  Classic Greenwood BBQ with homemade ice cream and more cake.  Should be good.  But this age thing…that’s not fun.  I don’t know where 27 year olds are supposed to be.  Are they supposed to be married and have kids?  I don’t think so.  I feel 22 and I know 22 year olds aren’t supposed to be married or have kids.  So, I’m working at eBay and watcing my 401(k) grow.  That’s the 40 year old in me.  That’s not supposed to be right for 27 either. 

A focus for a long time in my life has been socialism.  Not the political party, I’m talking friends, people, society.  I don’t really “do” people.  I don’t like people.  At all.  At times this is disturbing, because I’m supposed to like people.  But I genuinely don’t like them at all.  I like a few people.  Any people, as long as there are only a few of them.  Too many is just bad news every time, as is too few.  One is too few.  But one works.  But lately this social thing has come to the forefront.  I went to a party last week and it was such a slap in the face on how un-social I am.  I’m sick of trying to force myself to be social.  I’m just not a social person.  I can accept that.  I used to wonder where it came from.  But I realized this month that it’s my parents.  They have never been social.  It makes sense then that I would not be social.  I’m okay with that.

The past two weeks I have come home at 10:00 or 11:00 at night.  There’s no body around and its quiet and the mid-summer temperature is perfect.  So I go for a little midnight bikeride.  There’s no pedestrians, no traffic, no light, no animals.  Just me, driving around the shell of society.  Houses, empty streets, parked cars, and silence.  It’s good.  It’s relaxing.  There’s no rush, I don’t have to look out to make sure I don’t get hurt and I don’t have to make sure I don’t hurt other people.  I can just…coast and feel the wind.  People should do that.  Everyone should just avoid everyone.  It’s nice. 

In fairness people are basically all right too.  People are nice for the most part.  Stupid, but they mean well anyway. 

I’m done.  Oh I forgot, here have some pictures.  Here’s me with the first fish caught in 2003.  Also, here’s a picture of a Model T Ford dad and I found on the same fishing trip.  They were having a convention in Vernal that weekend.  The Hell’s Angels get old and retire to Model T’s apparently.  Good for them.

New Car

May 23, 2003

Once again I have fallen behind in updating the journal. The biggest thing that has happened since last time is I bought a new car. It's a 94 Mazda 626. The wholestory is that dad spotted the car parked on the side of the road for sale a few weeks ago and said, Hey, that's a good car. Someone should buy it. We stopped and looked at it and I cancelled it out right away because it needed a paint job.

A few weeks passed and the car was still there. So I thought about it and mom and dad both prodded me to get it. So, like the lamb that I am, I called. I decided I'd offer $500 less than the guy was offering. He accepted, so now I have a car.

Back in Nashville

April 28, 2003

It has been a month since I updated this journal. Not a tremendous amount has been happening. As I read through my journal I notice that many of the past few entries have been work related, so that means I need to stray away from work focus. Not just on the journal but life in general.

I have been in finance class in school and that has by far been the busiest (most busier?) class I have had so far. It is now over, I got a B. It was a fun class and I enjoyed it, but the assignments were extremely difficult and I missed a few points. I am not a 4.0 student. Sorry. But hey, a B isn't an F. B is still pretty good. That's what I'm telling myself. Next class is Computer Information Systems. The reading is half of what it has been in other classes and we're talking about basic computer information people. My life will be less hectic.

In fact, I'm thinking about switching my program from MBA to MBA with e-commerce emphasis. It's a little more expensive for each class, but it finishes in the same time, the classes are 100% on the internet, it means I won't have to take advanced finance and advanced statistics, AND the degree sounds better on a resume. I just need to do a little paper work, ask some final questions and if everything looks good I will make the switch to the e-commerce program.

After finance class got over I took a lovely trip to Nashville to visit my brother Eddie, and few friends from Nashville. It was a great trip and I had a really good time. Eddie and I recorded a song in a real Nashville studio at his school, SAE, and I got to see my friend Mitch. I haven't talked to Mitch or any of the TN folks in over two years. I called my other friend Courtney to let her know I was coming in town and to try and get everyone together. I thought there was no way Mitch would come. Courtney did a great job of getting all the old group of friends together. It was so good to see everyone. Mitch, Jamie, Brian, Courtney, Jason, and various roommates and wives. That was all the first night of this Nashville trip.

The next day Eddie and I got to hang out. One of the things we did was go to a pet store where they have piranhas for sale. They are legal in Tennessee. They had a 20 gallon tank full of about 30 baby piranhas. It was neat watching them school together and race across the tank. I don't get that effect with only one piranha, but mine is bigger and I like mine better! This pet store is amazing. They have all kinds of exotic stuff, including a full grown moray eel. Eddie and I also went to Dalt's, the restaurant where he works, and just generally had a good time.

The next day Eddie and I hit the studio and recorded a song by the band Adam Again called Worldwide. He was the engineer and I was the arteest. I sang, played guitar, did a solo too. Fun stuff. The end result is in the hands of the Ed- meister as he masters the project in the coming months.

That afternoon Eddie and I met Mitch for lunch and then toured the church she is currently working at. She has a desk and everything! Mitch also has a great dog named Tuffy, seen here in Eddie's lap. I always joke about using Mitch to get to Tuffy. This dog will curl up in your lap and rest for hours as long as you pet it. It's a little Yorkshire terrier and it's a great little dog.

Then we went to a church service at Mitch's church that night. It was basic, pretty standard church service. But the band was amazing, as should be expected in Nashville. I wish our little worship band at Freedom Worship Center was a tenth of what this band was. The drummer was actually a friend of mine named Mike Radcliff, who I met at the end of my Nashville days. He has a site www.mikedrums.com. He's a great drummer and it was good to see him play. The whole band was great.

The next day I left Nashville. Eddie is going to move back to Utah after school is done. I'll keep you posted!

Promotions are fleeting

March 12, 2003

There are many stories to tell.   I have waited to post all this to the journal because I have been going through waves of depression, anger, rage and rejection.   I've been worried about my ability to report this with a level head.   To summarize, I applied for a lead position and for a liaison position.   I interviewed once for the lead position and got a second interview.   They were going to hire 6 of 12 final people, of which I was one.   I did not get the lead position.   I got a form email saying I was one of the better candidates, which they send every time you fail the interview process.   That was a little like getting slapped.   My reaction was anger and then, "fine...ok...fine...(deep breath)...must prepare for liaison interviews."

During this time all the switching of Half.com to eBay is taking place.   I am in a training class to learn eBay to prepare for the role switch.   Who is the teacher of the class?   None other than the current eBay liaison.   He was the same guy who originally trained me in eBay when I started 2 years ago.   And he remembered me.   So during the training class I asked him about being a liaison and what to expect in the interview.   He gave me a few pointers.   I also asked a few other supervisors to prepare.   Then I checked my email.

I got another letter telling me how great I was but how I would have no interview.   They didn't even interview me.   This is a GREAT insult.   Now, don't get me wrong.   I'm not full of myself or anything.   I didn't think I would get the job.   But being told I wouldn't even have an interview...I was a bit upset.   I emailed back and asked "Why not?" and 5 emails later I still have not got a straight answer.   Management has told me very precisely how the interview process works, they have told me how great everyone's resume was, but they have not told me why I did not get an interview.   My take on it is, "Fine.   You will have to look me in the eye and spit on my face and tell me why I apparently suck bad enough to not even get an interview."   I can see if I was someone who had no experience with Half.com or a new employee or someone who was constantly joking around and never took anything seriously.   Tell those people "No interview".   But in my view you do not take someone who has shown up to work every day, who is the senior most Half.com representative, who knows the site and problems, who has trained other classes and done it well, and who has experience traveling and not interview them for a job like this.   If they don't want to give me the job, fine.   But if you disallow me from even participating in the race, I have a problem.  

So I have asked specific questions and I intend to find out what is going on.   Why do I suck?   I will get this information from them.  

Meanwhile, I got an A- in Accounting, which will do I guess.   It was a terrible class.   I started finance this week.   As soon as finance is over I will go to Nashville to visit Eddie for a while.

I haven’t updated you on church in a while.   Church is...going.   Last Sunday was awful.   Our keyboard player was gone so they used a fill in.   She didn't know how to use her own equipment, played everything two keys higher than normal, so they tuned up the guitar (?) and broke a string.   The key was so high the singer couldn't hit the notes and the whole band sounded like a Mickey Mouse music box because the keyboard forgot her pedal and had a staccato playing style anyway.   I haven’t captured half of the horror that last Sunday morning was, but I'm glad its over.

No growth in the youth group at all.   Same people, 3 kids who show up consistently who I am getting to know better every week.   This Wednesday we are going to a hockey game as our first youth outing, which will be interesting.  

Other than these things, nothing new is occurring.   I'm not going to sent an email out for this journal entry due to work stuff, so if you find this on your own you are welcome to read.   If not, it’s really a tragic loss on your part.

Changes at Work

February 10, 2003

Today we were informed of a major change at work. I wanted to report this change for the sake of my own memory so I can look back on this. There are going to be changes in my life because of this change. Could be good, could be bad. Here's the change. Half.com general support is being outsourced to PRC. What that means is they are taking all the Half.com jobs in Salt Lake City and giving them to people in Florida and India because they work for less money.

The 40 or so people that work in Half.com support in Salt Lake now will be trained in other eBay queues and dispersed to different teams. So where do I fit in you are no doubt wondering? I know I am wondering such things. I'm the Kana Helpline for Half.com. When I was first told about this I thought "Well I guess I could go back to eBay support, that'd be all right, or live chat. That'd be fine too I guess." But then I realized they are going to piece-meal the jobs and schedules based on seniority. And guess what folks? I'm the most senior Half.com rep in the entire building.

Meanwhile I all ready have an application in for a lead position. Ah, the elusive lead position, which is constantly given to people who were hired after me and are younger than me. Also with this change, they are hiring a new position they are calling a Half.com liaison position. This will be directing information between Half.com and Florida so that new changes of the site are communicated. This is a position between a lead and a supervisor, at least that's the way I understand it as I write this now.

I also have the option of staying the Kana Helpline. The lead would be good for management experience, the liaison would be exciting because its brand new and who knows what could happen, the Kana Helpline position would simply be answering phone calls from reps in Florida, but doing exactly what I'm doing now. If I stay on the helpline, I will be involved with bugs and with tech, which I have grown to hate over these many months.

As of now, I'd be happy with the lead and I'm extremely curious about the liaison thing. I'm going to talk to some people about that.

But that's what happened today at work. Something is going to happen. It will all be decided by the end of March. It's going to involve change. I will keep the journal updated.

I almost forgot. I promised something in the last journal that I could not pass up. Here is the world's tiniest Brazilian flag.

School and a Snail

February 2, 2003

Happy Groundhog day. I hope you all have erected your groundhog tree and finished your holiday shopping. I have sent my groundhog cards and am looking forward to the meal where we will have traditional groundhog food. You know, baked potatoes and HAM FRIED GROUNDHOG!!!! Groundhogs are nothing more than professional rats. Rats with little ties and jobs.

Anyway, not a lot has been happening. I got an A- in my economics class. I have moved on to accounting, which is no fun. People shouldn't be accounting. It's like learning rules about where to put numbers on pieces of paper so that the IRS doesn't kill you. Why don't we just tell the IRS to mellow. Well I guess that wouldn't work. It seems the workplace is too competitive and must be kept in line to prevent Enron from happening again. That's the hottest topic in accounting today. See how boring this stuff is?

I have no pictures to post this time around. I did however start the Weblist which I hope you are enjoying. No one responded when I asked who was interested in being on a Weblist so I just nominated people I thought might want to be on the list. If you're on the list and want off, tell me and I'll do it. If you're not on the list and want on, tell me and I'll do it. You just have to email me. I wish I could do a whole cgi thing and have it all automatically added, but I'm not that advanced in my HTML.

Hannibal the piranha is hanging in there. Mac the snail, God rest his soul, is no more. He couldn't take the pressure. He was eaten to death by the most vile of creatures--wild goldfish who were about to be food for Hannibal. Ah, the circle of life.

I have no big plans coming up so who knows what excitement the next entry will hold? Perhaps a large stick of butter, or may haps, even the tiniest little Brazilian flag you've ever seen.

Vegas Again with a Dash of Sunday School

January 16, 2003

Vegas has happened again. It was a bit of a fiasco though. Lucky me got sick as I was driving down there which has turned into a 2 week flu. Then this “free” vacation thing didn’t come through. I can still use the vacation I just couldn’t the one weekend we were down there.   Something about how I was supposed to notify them 30 days earlier. Anyway we survived. I got there first and got a room, Michelle and Rochelle showed up about an hour after that and then Paul arrived in all his splendor and glory!

Our plan was to go see the Blue Man Show.   It cost $80 but we have never seen it before and always wanted to. Well we saw it. I’ll tell the story when I get there. It was a typical Vegas trip.   There was a LOT of people in Vegas. And we walked around and saw all the hotels. I would say that my FPSI (fun per square inch) of Vegas has been filled.   The first night we went into FAO Schwarts, a big toy store. Rochelle found a largo piano that tickled her fancy. Meanwhile Paul and I met up with dark lord of the force. It turns out that after the Empire fell he got a job directing traffic in a toy store.   Oh how the mighty do fall!  

We walked so much the first night the second night we decided to drive which saved us from walking all the way back to our hotel. We just had to remember where we parked. We ate at a lovely Italian restaurant where there was some live mandolin and guitar players playing. They were nice and played requests. We also stopped by many of the shops and played with their toys.   There was some innocent people walking out as we walked in one store, so I demanded that they put funny hats on and pose for a picture. They did.

Finally we all went to the Luxor and after asking some other poor stranger to take our picture we saw the show. There was no picture taking during the show, which was funny.   Some of the skits were a little off the wall but overall it was good. I’d recommend it to others. I’m not sure it was worth $80, but the price had turned us away on other trips so we were determined to see it. After the show the blue men were out in the lobby posing for pictures. There were so many people we couldn’t get near, but I raised my camera over my head and this was the result.

The next day we all went our separate ways.    

Now, if you have been keeping up with the journal and the saga that is Craig’s life, you know the church, Freedom Worship Center, recently let their youth/music pastor go back home to MO.   I had a feeling they would ask me to fill in at least as much as I could. This was exciting to me but scary at the same time. But I’m never one to do anything halfway so I prepared myself.  

Well, I am now teaching the youth Sunday school class on Sunday mornings and I am sort of the youth advisor at church.   I don’t think there’s any official title there. I know this journal entry is long all ready but I wanted to share my full thoughts on this new string of events.

When I was in college I was invited to play drums for a youth group. The problem was that there was only one youth member in that group. For some reason I took it upon myself to help grow this youth group. So I (primarily) planned a youth party. Me and 3 friends from college and the youth pastor and this one youth member went out to the surrounding neighborhoods and knocked on doors and invited all the kids we could to come to this youth night. I designed and printed up handouts and planned the whole thing. After knocking on about 50 doors I found out that the local high school was having its homecoming dance the same night. But it was too late to stop so we kept going.   I figured, “Surely not ALL the kids will go to Homecoming. I sure didn’t go to my high school’s homecoming.”

The night of this event came.   I had rented movies, ordered pizza, got drinks. Not one person showed up.   Just me and the youth pastor sitting around watching Jurassic park on a projection TV. I was basically devastated. After putting about two weeks of thought into it I decided this is God’s way of telling me I am NOT supposed to be a youth pastor.   I washed my hands of it and walked away and never thought about it again.

So, now here I am again being some form of youth leadership in a church. The youth group has about 5 kids that come. I’m scared to death it will flounder if I try to mess with anything or do anything over the top.  

So far I have taught two Sunday school lessons and we just had a youth group meeting tonight. Me, Christi (a girl that is helping out with the youth as another advisor) and two youthers showed up. We played Monopoly.   (What else could we do?)   Hopefully the church will hire another youth pastor soon. I think I will still be involved with the youth. It’s just scary to lead something like that. Especially when I have never done anything like it before.

I like it though. It’s fun, it’s new. Meeting some people, taking me out of my shell a little bit. We’ll see where it goes. I’d like to get a name for the youth group soon, and get a web page.   Really bring some unity to the people in the youth group, help the church over all grow as a body, actually change some people’s lives. That’d be sumpthin, huh? If I was speaking in “church-ese” I would say something like I want to see God grow in these kids and help them learn about Christ. I’m not much of a churchese talker though. I think it’s better if I can talk in language I can grasp and understand.  

I will really feel good if I am able to help the youth group grow, as in introduce new member’s who start regularly attending.   That is when I will consider this venture a success. I’ll keep you posted.

I think this is my longest journal entry.   Oy. Thanks for reading.

Christmas and a Trip to Vegas

December 27, 2002

Another Christmas has slipped through the hourglass of time. The hourglass of time being a different hourglass than the hourglass of fluffy bunnies (?). Eddie has come home from Nashville. I have seen friends and family. Good times abound. So many stories to tell. How bout this one first:

Pastor Jim, the music pastor at church who leads worship and is the youth pastor, no longer works there. At this point I only have very limited details on what happened. All I can report is that he does not work at the church anymore and he is moving back to Missouri. This all happened very suddenly. I'm hearing rumblings that they want me to not only lead worship but also teach the youth group on Sunday mornings. I told them I would be happy to fill in temporarily but I'm not much of a youth leader and I'm definitely not a worship leader. More on that story as it develops.

You all want to know what I got for Christmas. You do. I can tell by the way you keep reading this sentence. I got a digital camera and a power drill, both of which were surprises. I can put the drill to use somehow someday I'm sure. The camera I have all ready put to use. In fact, this is what Christmas at the Greenwood's looks like. I also got a much-needed God-fearing beard trimmer. I bought a beard trimmer for $.25 last year on eBay. I got what I paid for. It was truly junk. It did not fear God. It laughed at God, and so God crippled it. But this beard trimmer fears God, and God blesses the beard trimmer, rightly so.? I got some towels and sheets, some "Get Fuzzy" paraphernalia (A comic strip in the newspaper), a fishing pole, Beatles CD and puzzle, some fancy leather gloves for driving and other things. Over all, kudos to all who contributed, thanks to all who read this entry!

I mentioned Eddie earlier. He was there. Tara was also there for Christmas morning. Here is their pic. I mention this primarily because I had a pic and it just needed to be posted.

Paul and Amber came over the next day, we did our annual gift exchange which was magic as always.

In all the glory of Christmas there were a few things I did not get but still wanted. So off I went shopping the day after Christmas. I bought a nice ski outfit. I was truly one happy ski bunny, and I mean that in the most macho way possible.

Next week I am off to Vegas to meet Paul and the shells (Michelle and Rochelle). That should provide additional pictures and stories. I was given free nights in a nice hotel when I bought the condo so we are staying in Vegas for free. The most expensive part will be gas for the way down. I am driving alone; everyone else is meeting me there. I will update with that story soon!

Fishing, Danny Topping

December 12, 2002

Sorry it’s been so long since I updated.   A few small things have happened but nothing overly noteworthy.   I’ve mostly just been working.   Dad and mom and I went fishing out at the little pond in Tooele, Utah.   It was an hour and a half drive to get there and the pond itself was just tiny.   There was some fish food in a wheel barrow by the side so we threw some in to test the presence of fish.   The surface of the pond boiled with fish.   It was FULL.   So catching the fish isn’t like conquering the wilderness in this pond.   It was more like shooting monkeys in a barrel.   We each caught 4 or 5 fish.   Dad had a good time and so did I.

Thanksgiving happened the next week.   Danny Topping and his lovely wife and two children came down.   It’s been over a year since I’ve seen Danny.   There was an open house and there was a lot of people there so I didn’t get much conversation in with Danny.   Wednesday Danny and I went skiing.   His wife came but she just sat in the lodge and didn’t ski.   My camera ran out of batteries so I have no pictures to present.   It’s the same as pictures in the past.   Just people in coats going down the mountain.   Half of them ski, the other half roll down on their sides.   I am proud to say I did not fall once the entire day.   There are some people who say that means I didn’t actually ski since I didn’t fall.   Those people are wrong.  

Beyond that I really have no news.   Just work, school a little.   Economics is going fine.   It’s hard and I have to apply myself more, but I’m surviving.   I’ll probably end up with a B in the class.   We’re on winter break now so for now I’m school free!   Um, the piranha is fine.   The snail is alive!   He moves around the tank once a week for 2 days and then curls up and sleeps for 5 days.   He does not eat the algae and I’m not overly pleased with the results.   At least the piranha doesn’t eat him!  

I’ll try to update more often in the future.   Perhaps something will happen out of the ordinairy.