This page is obviously designated for me to rant and rave about what ever is on my mind that I think others should know.  You might see some spark of creativity in here from time to time, but don't expect any words of wisdom.  I'm defiantly not Confucius or King Solomon.
        To keep this page idiot proof entries will be chronological.  The newest entry will be at the top to the oldest entry at the bottom.  Got that Rain Man, have fun.

 

06.28.02

     At work this past week a box of kittens arrived at the Outreach office.  Apparently the kittens were from the corner of our parking lot where the mother left them.  To quickly get litter into the care of people the kittens were given some clients and the rest distributed among the staff at Key Point.  One staff person specifically wanted one of the kittens but could not take it home till the weekend arrived.
     So I took responsibility of looking after the kitten while it needed extra care for feeding and a place to stay until the staff member take it home tomorrow.  I decided to call the kitten Jazz for the time that I had it.
     To see pictures of Jazz, click here.

 

05.26.02

     Yesterday I went with the Young Adult Bible Study group to Ladew Gardens.  It was a rather nice day, being partly cloudy and nice temperatures.  The day lent well to pictures too by diffusing the sun light avoiding harsh angles.
     I think the highlights of the day go to Andrea and Paul.  First, Andrea was given the advice of an older couple to make everyone else in the group carry the baby's bags so she would not have to contend with the baby stroller that did not function well on the stone paths.  Also, during lunch Andrea defended herself from a curious stray cat with her foot while eating and feeding Lillian at the same time.  Finally, honorable mentions go out to Paul and his peanut butter & jelly sandwiches.
     Click here to see pictures from the rest of the day's adventure at Ladew gardens.

 

04.23.02

     The saying goes that a man or woman's job will eventually kill them.  I am beginning to believe that this is true.  I am a Mental Health Associate for a non-profit organization.  My primary objective is to rehabilitate my clients with skill-goal oriented objectives helping them in sustaining independence in their community.  Given that my job is performed within the mental health field a crisis arises every now and then with a client.  It's what you expect, it's a experience everyone has within the job.
     However what you don't expect is when everyone needs crisis intervention at once.  I have a 15 person caseload of clients to look after when I walk into and out of work everyday.  Of those 15, five to seven of them are hot ticket items right now for crisis intervention.  It is almost like it's seasonal, like around Christmas or other holidays, but it's spring time instead.
      All of the sudden clients are becoming homeless, abusing substances, or not taking their medication at all.  If my clients are not loosing their minds I certainly will sometime soon.
     Being a man of passion I find that trying to help my clients only drawing myself closer to their underlining persional issues whatever they may be.  The point being, I find myself biting my nails, wanting to smoke or venting anxiety in trying to help micromanage someone's situation.
     Trust me the feeling of helping someone make you feel great.  But I have to keep remembering that there is only so much that I can do.  My job is only from 8 to 4:30 and that is where I need to draw the line between my job and personal well-being.  I don't know if that line exists but if I find it I will let you know.

 

03.24.02

     Timing and transitioning are two things that I have yet to master.  I have a PDA, my job provides me with a Franklin planner, and I have a 2002 calendar with my social events listed on it.  But yet, breaking the spell of procrastination seems more like a dream than a reality for me.
     All my life I've been told by teachers and instructors to learn to hurry up and get my work done.  As if humans had some innate biological clock that is preset to function on paperwork and institutional to-do lists. 
     Unfortunately (or maybe I am fortunate), I never learned to monitor, organize, or show effort in scheduling.  In my opinion, as narcissistic as it may sound, it's not me but the rest of the capitalists who need to cool off and smell the roses.  I enjoy time for myself.  I am not disturbed by the thought that I take a few more minutes for lunch or getting out of bed.  In fact the only thing that leads me to getting anything done at all is that I take care of myself first.
     As the eternal pessimist I believe in chaos over organization.  I find my creativity rising out of need instead of want.  Almost like a reflex something comes out of my brain instead of dwelling on deadlines and procedures.
     Alas, I eventually break down falling into the monotony of planning my week in advance, telling others "No I cannot do that today because of such-and-such", and watching the weekly weather report to see what tomorrow will bring.  All spontaneity is lost and I dwell over completing reports for the 9:00 staff meeting.  Shoot...that reminds me I have to sync my PDA with my PC...got to run :)

 

02.05.02

I came across a rather funny situation that I thought would be cute to share:

    I have been attending a church that recently put on the production "Heaven's Gate and Hell's Flame", a play about when someone passes on into the afterlife.  A night when the production was playing, I attended the church's young-adult bible study, instead.  At the bible study there were only a handful of us there due to other members being involved with the church play.  As the study progressed, there were some latecomers who missed the announcement to why the group was so small that night.
    So when the bible study ended we found one of the late arrivals had a guest with them and we all took turns to introduce ourselves.  At the conclusion of everyone's introduction the leader of the bible study turned to greet the guest and said, "Sorry for such a small crowd tonight, we normally have a larger group.  But everyone else is at Heaven's gate and Hell's flame."

 

01.31.02

Anyone who knows me knows that I love Star Trek.  I watch the original Star Trek, The Next Generation, Deep Space 9 (I really only watched episodes after Worf was introduced into the storyline), and Voyager.  But this 5th incarnation/prequel, Enterprise, is very disappointing.  I realize now that I am only watching this series based on devotion to the name of Star Trek. After watching an hour of one of these episodes I say to myself "I actually watched this crap".  This is Star Trek watered down.  The storyline only minimally holds my attention because of allusions to the future of Starfleet.  Without going into a long opinion of why I will no longer watch this show, I will only humor you by combining the two things that I find truly annoying: Enterprise and George W. Bush.

Five annoying similarities between George W. Bush & Enterprise:

1.    George W. uses a tax deduction to appeal to Americans.
       Enterprise uses a "trekie" deduction to appeal to viewers.

2.    George W., a blundering president with his father's cabinet.
       Enterprise, a blundering series with its creator's producers.

3.    George W.'s "faith based" initiatives.
       Enterprise's "faith" based theme song.

4.    George W. fighting "unknown evil" in the world.
       Captain Archer fighting unknown species in the universe.

5.    George W.'s administration is really run by Cheney.
       Captain Archer's ship is really run by T'pol.

 

12.24.01

     Good grief, I've finally took time to update my e-journal.  First of all that I'm doing fine.  I've survived the new year celebrations and will soon be cruzin' into a new semester.  That's right I'm hitting the books, back to school.  I'm going to be picking up some credits for classes that I need to enter into a Master's program for Psychology Counseling.  I also have to eventually take the GRE's and find professors who will make recommendations for myself, but I think that will all happen in due course.  Other than looking forward to going back to school I haven't been up to too much lately.  
     I've finally joined one of the coolest, creative, and interactive websites I've come across in awhile:  www.realmofredheads.com.  My username on the site is CelticNomad.  I thought that the username that I came up with was rather cool, but now I'm starting to think that it sounds a bit juvenile.  Here I am a 23 year old man calling myself the CelticNomad.  You'd think that I have my own line of comic books with a name like that.  Maybe I should have just called myself RedheadedGuy, with less flair and more normalcy to it.  Oh, well we only live once.
     I'm a news junkie I must confess.  While I am working during the day I most of the time have NPR playing in the background of my office.  So all day today I keep hearing about John Walker being brought back to the States since his 5 year spiritual journey and Teliban conversion in Afghanistan.  So I'm thinking to myself, well this guy is going to have a hell of a homecoming party, eh?  Here he is a 20 year old kid, not even the legal age to drink and he's getting all the unsolicited press coverage that anyone in his situation wouldn't want.  He's waived his right to an attorney (though that is still to be contested), he's already spilled his guts on CNN, and the kid will be estranged from American culture for the rest of his life regardless if he is in a federal prison on a life sentence for conspiracy charges.  Even if this kid did "switch sides" he is still an American citizen, will have a regular trial, and will be assimilated back into his original culture regardless of his experiences in Afghanistan.  I really don't want to make any conclusions to this but I think this whole situation is being handled wrong.  I am assuming that Walker has more political ties to the Taliban, rather than physical interactions, and should not bear the weight of September 11th. charges because of his affiliation to the Taliban.  Of course as more information is released by the press my mind may change when Walker discusses more of his interaction with the Taliban.  It will be interesting none the less.  Many commentator in  are saying that Walker is being treated as a spy that were arrested in recent times.  It will be interesting to also see how the Bush administration will handle the PR around this issue till the Walker story subsides.

 

09.20.01

    Hmm...tonight has been very interesting.  I watched TV at 9:00 tonight and to watch the president's address to the nation.  He defined the terrorist, stated what they did, defined the opposition and stated our demands.  Then he concluded with the spirit of America and what we are about to face in the years ahead.  The president also distinguished the radicals of the Muslim faith from though who practice their beliefs in peace.  The president also created a new cabinet position to report to him directly about terrorist activities.  He appointed his good friend and current governor of Pennsylvania, Tom Ridge.  Governor Ridge went back to PA tonight and announced his resignation as governor on Oct. 5, 2001.  On a national basis this is very uplifting.
    The majority and minority leaders of the Senate didn't even oppose what the President said.  They gave a unity speech indicating that Congress is behind the President 100%.  Congress has already appropriated money up to $40 billion as a down payment toward war efforts.  That legislation passed quickly as will other appropriation that are bought to the House and Senate floor in the months to come.
    I just don't know what to think.  Patriotism is definitely at an all time high, bipartisanship truly exists in Congress over the last 10 days.  The total body count from the attacks are approaching 6,000 people.  But is this what really has to happen to have our country pull together, to get Congressman and women to sit down and talk to each other on a human basis?  It's horrible but uplifting and necessary for the terrorist attacks that last Tuesday morning.  I wish I knew more then what I do right now.  Nothing seems to satisfy me in trying to find logic in the situation that we are all effected by.

 

09.15.01

    Finally I got this home page under way.  I spent a good deal of the weekend getting this son of a gun updated and adding other web pages for what it was worth.  Do not expect this site to be updated daily because I will eventually fall behind in updating it anyhow.  One thing is for sure I'm have a lot of success with the software that I'm using.  I have FrontPage 2000.  The latest version is 2002 but I find that I cannot afford that at this time.  Besides for what I'm doing FrontPage 2000 is great for my needs.
    I guess I really don't have anything else to say at this point.  I've been typing away all day and I'm quite tired of staring at my monitor.  But please sign my guest book in the meantime.  It's located on my home page when you first loaded my site.  If you have any questions or comments I'd be happy to hear them, just give me a ring at my email sc6096@homail.com.