The way I see things…

Alright, so every week when I take the Metra to Union Station we pass this huge cemetery.  I look around to see if there is anyone visiting/mourning/grieving their loss, id say I rarely see one person.  Ok, that’s none of my business, people probably have better things to do…I rarely go to my nieces or my grandpas grave anymore, I used to, but I really don’t see the point.  So what is the point of a cemetery?  I see it as a huge waste of land, that is owned by someone selling plots(~4ftX8ft) to people to put their loved ones who have passed in the ground for 1000s of dollars.  Humanity has been doing this for thousands of years but I mean honestly, what a scam!  If you really want to remember someone, wouldn’t you rather look at pictures or watch home videos or something.

I see these huge plots of land as wasted space that could be used for hospitals and clinics and schools and other useful/productive services to society.

Burn me when I am dead and pour me into the Grand Canyon.

Or

Donate me to science.

I am such a small part of this world, and it feels like my entire world just came to a grinding halt and headed into a completely different direction.  Over the past 18mos I have been working at a small business that I helped open and start up.  After the first few months you can usually tell if the business is going to last or go out of business.  Things were extremely volatile, there would be months where things were great I was in line for a promotion/raise, 15-20 new temps would be hired on, then a few weeks later all of those people would be let go, morale would be really low, the insecurity of the job sets in and I begin to panic and save more money and look for a new job.  So over the course of my work at this company, I would say I saw it coming, it was just a matter of when.  I had a long meeting with my direct supervisor and a few other of my colleagues on Wednesday, I was basically able to squeeze as much information out of my supervisor to the point that things were looking really bad and he recommended looking for a new job, but insured us that we would be given a reasonable warning if we were to get laid off.

Today the Vice-President came in, which was unusual as of late, because he hasn’t been around.  He used to come around every other day when things were running great.  He held a meeting and basically said, “I hate to do this, but today is everyone’s last day of work here, we are locking the doors and sending everyone home with 2 weeks severance and all of your vacation time paid to you.”  So just like that about 30 people out of a job, most guys with families at home struggling to pay their bills as it is, with this screwed up economy.

What sucks for me is this not only effects me immediately but it now effects my brother who just went through a rough time.  He recently divorced his wife, mainly because she cheated on him and drove them into bankruptcy.  Last week he came to me and asked me if I could do him a favor, I didn’t know what to expect.  He said, “Greg, do you want to be my landlord?”  Ummmm, what I responded!?  Basically we came up with this deal where, he wanted me to buy a house and then rent it out to him.  Because of his current financial situation he would not get approved for a mortgage.  I was excited, because its a great investment for me and I get to write it off on my taxes, plus we were going to split the equity when the house sells.  Today while I was in the middle of the D-Day Meeting, he called me excited telling me that he talked to his friend who is a Mortgage Office and said that I basically got pre-approved for a great loan, with a great interest rate.  Sadly, I had to call him back to tell him I just lost my job, and that I could see this significantly impacting my chances of getting a mortgage now.

Losing a job sucks, it’s like…now what.  I am so used to waking up every morning, giving my dog her aspirin wrapped in a slice of American cheese, making myself a glass of ice water and eating either a piece of toast, English muffin, or a egg and cheese bagel, listening to Mike&Mike on the way to work seeing the same cars en route to their jobs in the morning.  The good-mornings at work, the morning meetings that I for some reason looked forward to.  The jokes about how bad of shape the company is in, talking about the Stock Market with Tony.  It all just ran into a brick wall.

I did have a job interview yesterday, for a pretty sweet place.  Hopefully I get that.

This is just my story, and sadly the percentage of stories similar to mine continue to grow at a rapid rate across the country.

Tonight, I decided to finally go see Amrita play.  Mike has been bugging me to go for the past few months, and I always seemed to have an excuse not to.  Usually he plays at like midnight at some bar downtown, which is quite inconvenient, this time it was at 830 at a suburban Junior High School….yea.  I really didn’t know what to expect, because he hyped it up pretty well telling me pretty big bands were gonna be there…and I just wanted to support him and Matt r.  Anyways I got there, I stood there by myself for some time and felt like a total creep pedophile, because everyone seemed to be 13-15 years old…and I don’t quite look old enough where I could have gotten away as looking like someones parent.

Anyways, after awhile I started to see people I knew.  I ran into Al, who used to be in Amrita a long time ago, and I ran into this girl from high school.  She told me all about how shes going into the Americorp.  Similar to the Peacecorp, except you stay in the U.S., its not as long, and there are more financial benefits.  I have always been interested in joining the Peace Corp, but that is quite a commitment that I don’t know if I am up to at this point in my life.  After listening to what she had to say about it, and later researching it….I am seriously considering joining this.  Since, it is government funded…they pay for part of your college tuition, pay for living expenses…and give you spending money.  On top of that they have programs, that you travel all over the country with a group of people in your age group for about 10 months helping develop communities and individuals in poverty.  Also from what she said, if you complete this AmeriCorp program…it counts as a part of your training for the Peace Corp.

Sounds like a deal to me!!

—You run an orphanage and have had a hard time making ends meet. A car dealership offers you a new van worth $15,000 for free if you will falsely report to the government that the dealership donated a van worth $30,000. You really need the van and it will give you an opportunity to make the children happy. Do you agree to take the van?

—You are waiting with a few other people to board a bus. The bus pulls up and before you can board the driver gets out and goes into the convenience store to get a coffee. You are the last to get on the bus. Do you pay your fare?

—You discover Bill Gate’s wallet lying on the street. It contains $1000.00 Do you send it back to him?

—You can only rescue one of each of the following, which do you save?
a) A child or an adult
b) A stranger or your dog
c) Hitler or lassie
d) Your spouse or a Nobel Laureate
e) A dog or a weasel
f) Your entire family or the entire canine species
g) A bottle with the cure for cancer or your brother
h) A bottle with the cure for cancer or your brother who just gave you one of his kidneys

—Are the following acceptable grounds for a person to take the life of a non-human animal?

a) Its noise bothers you at night.
b) The wolf is killing your sheep.
c) Its meat makes a tasty dish.
d) You enjoy seeing it squirm.
e) The gophers are destroying your vegetable garden.
f) You just don’t like snakes
g) The condor (an endangered species) keeps killing your prized carrier pigeons.
h) I enjoy hunting.

to GregJSchneider.com

I will have blog with an RSS feed and what not….I am going to try and figure out a way to upload pictures via cell phone.

and I havent decided what else to have….maybe my resume or something, I  dunno

I would appreciate ideas.

I have had other personal websites such as gregjschneider.net and biggreg85.com before, but I dont expect this to be too great.  My main focus is to just use it as a tool to expand my knowledge in web design, as I have quite a big offer/future proposed to me.

I should be analyzing my article on the inflation of the CPI for my economics class, but I am just not feeling up to it.

IT….

What is “IT”?

IT, is usually used to reference something that has been previously mentioned.

Nike tells us to just do…IT

IT, is the title of a movie.

IT, can be used in the context of “doing it” in sexual terms

IT, can be the abbreviation for Information Technology

What if you want to find “IT”?

IT, isn’t anything you can find at a store or purchase online or in a catalog.  IT isn’t an accomplishment that you may feel will fulfill your entire life.  There is a never ending list we generate of those ITs.  Nobody can give IT, to you.  IT is something you find that separates you from you normal everyday life with something that makes you feel alive, IT is selfless. You feel refreshed, you feel happy doing IT.

-Woke up to Sophie pushing on my chest like she does every morning. Except she doesn’t understand the concept of weekends, and started this at 7am as if I were late getting up for work.

-Put some clothes on

-Ate a Jalapeño Cheddar bagel from American Bagel along with a glass of orange juice.

-Played with the little dogs….Tobby, Buddy, and the new one Hemi.

-Watched an episode on the Travel channel about the US mint at West Point, they make gold coins.

-Did some online class homework and discussion board work

-Emailed my local government professor, I need to do this project on a problem in the 6 surrounding counties. I cant think of anything except for the freight train problem going through barrington.

-Took a shower

-Went to Gamestop, returned a PS3 game and  bought Madden 2007 USED for $14.99!!!….since  the game I returned was more I actually got money  back and a better game.  I dont think I am ever going to  buy a new PS3 game…waaaaay tooo expensive…USED they  are always at least half the price.

-Watched some of the 2008 NFL Probowl

-Bought a couch for my bedroom, delivered on Saturday.

-Solved my rubiks cube

-Configured my harmony 1000 remote control.  My work gave me this remote as a “bonus,” its a $500 remote control, that can control pretty much anything.

-Played some Playstation 3

-Did some math homework

-Now I am going in my hot tub and then going to sleep

-great day, the way a Sunday should be.

It’s about that time of year where I generally start to work out/eat healthier. Each year I happen to progressively stay more disciplined and usually have better results. Last year my big fault was simply my decision to switch fitness centers in which I go to. I canceled one membership and just happen to never get the membership at the next. Terrible Terrible Terrible.

This year I have made a simple spreadsheet in excel to keep track of what I eat at certain times through out the day, consisting of 3 meals and 3 snacks. Snacks will generally consist of a piece of fruit. Something to keep my metabolism going through out the day. The 3 meals will consist of smaller portions than I have now. Hopefully this spreadsheet will help keep myself accountable, and I will be able to pin point my mistakes. I am going to double the amount of water I drink through out the day, which is already A LOT. I am going to start off with a simple exercise on a daily basis of walking my dog, sit ups, push ups, etc. Once I get a grip on the full-time school full-time work schedule, I will work in a work out routine.

In the past I have found that I usually make such drastic changes in my work out routine and eating style that its just too much of a lifestyle change for me to grasp. This time I will work it in slowly so it isn’t such a shock to my mind and body.

I am sticking with my pre-season picks, and I don’t think they are too far off…