joedonahue.org

In perusing the latest Application Development Trends magazine, some interesting numbers were posted. One of which said the average employee wastes 2.09 hours a day. Of all the things mentioned on there that employees do during this waste of time, reading their magazine wasn’t one of them. Or blogging. They also said that entry-level Programmer/ Analysts should expect to get $57,000 a year.
They were wrong on that one too.

That was for Mindy Toye, who would often refer to our meetings in military terms – “After Action Review.” After an event had concluded, we would hold an AAR to discuss how it went.
The morning of Thanksgiving actually unfolded exactly according to plan. Julie was up at 6am for Turkey Detail and I slept in until 9:30. I actually slept in a lot this week, mostly because I can “sleep through a warzone.” (Julie Donahue, Interview, 11-27-2005) Julie proved this by turning the lights on in the bedroom, then opening up the door to the living room and turning on the television.
So I got up and began work on the Yorkshire Pudding, and I also had to peel and cut the carrot and turnip. I figured we would just get the frozen stuff, but I really had to work to get that sidedish in. Dave refused to eat the carrot and turnip for family reasons, but everyone did have some Yorkshire and they really liked it. Including me.
Andy brought over Rat Race, which I had never seen, and it was watched and enjoyed by all. We let the meal sit awhile and about halfway into the movie broke out the desserts! I would tell you what they were but I can’t remember what Dave’s was called, so out of fairness I won’t name the others.
There may have been a pumpkin pie. And an apple pie.
The movie was resumed but soon Andy had to leave for work, followed by his performance with the Salvation Army Brass Band at the Plaza. We wanted to go, but.. turkey. Yup. He also left his Corn Pudding and movie with us, which he has yet to reclaim.
(Saturday?) The three of us – Julie and I with her sister Amy, who spent most of the week with us – went to the movies to see Rent. So we watched Derailed, and left partway into it. It was just a little too intense for us, although now we would really like to see the end )
Amy left last night to go back to Chicago, and despite the tornado that hit just northeast of us, we understand that she left on time. She is supposed to upload pics on here, so hopefully that will happen soon.
And now.. I need to reboot my computer. It’s been on for 63 days and needs a breather.

There has been much discussion as of late on the subject of Turkey Day, and although this wonderful day has yet to pass, I hope to encourage discussion in another path. This very afternoon, upon the event of Walking Cult, we discussed the local Kansas City boy who has decided to skip college and go pro as a cyber-athelete. I mentioned my high-school memory of the intense debate on whether or not Marching Band is a sport, and it was also mentioned that ESPN now covers poker games. How about Nascar? or Golf? What is a sport, and how can you define it? A few criteria arose, such as “You can get hurt in it.” I once hit myself in the head with a drumstick while playing. Is music a sport?
Anyway, it came up that certain factors could determine it, such as the pay you recieve. Whatever it is, I think marching band is a sport, but playing video games and poker is not.

Joe and I had to pick my sister Amy up at the airport last night so of course I had to TAPE Gilmore Girls so that we could watch it later We have big plans for Amy today, lunch at the Publishing House, Shopping at the Plaza and then perhaps some KC BBQ later on! I haven’t seen any of my lovely sisters since June and it’s nice to have family around. (this would be a great place to post the picture of Amy and Sara D. with the wine charms up their noses, Joe-Help me out!)

I was excited that I would have Amy here to help me cook for Thanksgiving Dinner, but as my mother says:

It’s the Blind Leading the Blind.

We’ll make you proud Mom, I promise! We’ll let you know how it turns out!

Whilst I was at Eastern Nazarene College, I participated in a yearly event known as the Finkbeiner Fast, where students would fast for a meal and the cafeteria would donate a proportional sum of money towards a cause. It was not until my Junior year when I was at the Student Leadership Conference as the SMO-elect where I learned the story behind all of this. Kurt Finkbeiner was a student at Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa, Idaho in the late 80′s. Kurt was known for being an overly compassionate individual, and was as well the Student Body President. The day before he was to graduate, he drowned. The Student Governments of all the Nazarene colleges, which get together every year, decided to fast a meal at each of their schools and money raised would be donated towards a common cause in Kurt’s memory. This has happened ever since, and is a Student Ministry tradition at ENC and at other schools. I was profoundly impacted by this story, and made the attempt to share it with others who participated in the fast.
Today I met Kurt’s younger brother, who is a fellow employee here at NPH. Sometimes what appears to be just another meeting turns out to be something quite different.

Well, here we are at Monday morning. It’s a little better than your standard Monday because this week brings with it two days of no work and no school. “Praise God from whom all blessings flow…” Thanksgiving will also be extra-special because Julie’s sister Amy will be joining us, as well as Andy Fey and David Blair. Ardrey. I am going to try and make some of my favorite Holiday dishes, but it will be my first time so I don’t know how it will turn out. Three in particular are the culinary manifestation of Thanksigiving in my family tradition. Yorkshire Pudding, Carrots & Turnip, and Brussel Sprouts. Everyone likes to make fun of people that like brussel sprouts, but I think they are good. There, I said it!! I like brussel sprouts!
I have also begun the work of brain-washing Julie to a good American understanding of how Turkey day works. First, she gets up early to begin working on the meal while I sleep in. She can wake me up with enough time to take a shower before the meal, and following the event she can take care of the mess while I watch football.
So far.. its not looking like it will go to plan. Mostly because she wont make brussel sprouts for me, so I need to make them. I once asked my Nana what she does to make brussel sprouts so good, and her reponse was (in her british accent) “boil them to death.” Sweet.
ENC/General/imga0087.jpg And for your viewing pleasure, I present you with an official Second Memorial Moment. Trent and Peter and I were just hanging out in the hallway, chatting it up, and Peter got bodyslammed by Animal. Many a night were spent just hanging out in the hallway. Second Memorial, I salute you.

For all of our friends who view this site, there has been an astonishing new breakthrough in the lives of the VanAmburgs and their cat Nutmeg. Amara has recieved a job in Bedford, Massachusetts. Hence, we will be moving back into that area straightaway.
Just thought you all might like to know.

Yours truly,
Peter and Amara VanAmburg

I enjoy my routine of naming posts with two things that happened and are completely unrelated, yet conjoined nonetheless. It’s good times.
Tuesday brought with it an email from my wife, asking me to join her that evening at the local Tires Plus. It was a thrill to accept her offer and so I went, down unknown roads and previously untraversed ways to pick her up from where she had dropped off her car for a few hundred dollars worth of brake repairs. Also good times. While we waited we went to Funhouse Pizza and Pub, which was a strange experience. It’s a sports bar with a few really old quarter-driven carousel type devices in it. At one point a man came in with his kids and, after sending them over to the motorized horse, remarked to himself “This place was my favorite when I was a kid!” – Which both makes me wonder about the age of the equipment as well as how often he got out of the house as a child if his favorite place was the bar where his parents took him. It was pretty ghetto, but the pizza was really good. We were told they had the best pizza around, and I won’t argue it.
This morning was interesting as I was walking up to the formal lounge at NTS to work on some Greek, as the excellent student that I am, when I noticed that the other chapel-skippers were predominantly ENC’ers, and I had to join them. One Andrew Fey and I ended up playing foosball against a couple of guys who looked like they were pretty serious about the game, so I was getting ready to be completely embarrassed but we did good and won the two games we played!! It was all thanks to naming the guys on our team, and my offensive line was Jose, Hector, and Andreas. I laughed so hard, it was great. Hector scored like three in a row and Andy and I were like ‘Go Hector! You’re the MVP!!’
::whew:: I need to wipe the tears from my eyes. Good great.
Everything else is pretty normal. I think I am going to get together with Dave, Steve and/or Andy tonight, but as of right now there is no plan. So, it will probably happen.

P.S. – After reading this entry, Devastatin’ Dave sent me an email with this remark:

Be strong with the ladies if I don’t rescue you. It is entirely appropriate to meander through the living room in your boxers, drink some milk from the bottle and then stumble back to the office while your house is full of women.

I want to say “I am ALWAYS strong with the ladies!” but I can’t tell if it is in appropriate or not.

So I was trying to fix some e-mail settings today and I stumbled across my custom Outlook dictionary. Every e-mail I send gets spell checked and sometimes instead of “ignoring” a word I will just add it into the dictionary. I took a quick look through and found some pretty awesome stuff. I have decided to henceforth (bing!) dedicate my life to creating the rockingest custom Outlook dictionary that has ever existed.

Here’s some examples of what I found in there (please note that all of these “words” will be accepted as spelled correctly):

Andallwithit
Awesomer
Booya
burntsiennahead
Carumba
Clobberin
Davarino
Devastatin
Donahue.org
Estewin
Estoobeen
etrujillio
Fargus
Gimme
Gunnar
heebly-jeeblies
hootenany
kylealspach
Ljubljana
lordy
ok’ed
rad
rawk
Sauron
SCHOOOOOOOOOOL
Shaka
Southwood
Stillions
Sunterday
shaka-lacka
shmancy
superest
tcotmmmitttmtentttttt
VanAmburg
wifer
yasukebeor
xx
xxxx
yerdrA

10 bonus points to the first person who recognizes that first one.

nothing else to say.