we all want to change the world

you may have noticed, papa johns has a whole wheat pizza crust now.

I was excited because I’ve been several pizza places in cincy and none of them had a wheat option.  and I like papa johns.  and whole wheat.  so if THEY have wheat, other places must soon get it!  yay!  it’s a whole wheat revolution!

tonight, mairead was going to a retreat so she had to leave before I got home so we decided she’d order us a papa johns cheese pizza on whole wheat crust and we’d try it out (we also had a coupon).

here’s my thoughts.  tasted like papa johns pizza on a whole wheat crust.  the crust was a little dense and wheaty, definitely not like homemade.  by wheaty I mean, you know that flavor that you get with store-bought wheat bread? that’s what it tastes like.  cheapo wheat baked good, which it is!  I expected nothing more from them!  but enjoyable, I think.  I would and probably will buy it again.  I like it better than some places’ white crusts, which isn’t too hard.  I’m a sucker for whole grain baked goods (and if you add greasy cheese and banana pepper, well there’s no contest).

covert IT

today, the brothers are gone, so I alone am Mercy Connections Technical Support.

there’s a wide range of people here who do not understand computers or technology.  we have people of the faithful variety (standing in front of the printer saying “please please print, just print, ok? dear lord let this print”), people of the destructive variety (maybe if they print their corrupt files quickly they’ll actually print before the computer and printer shut down), and people of the fearful variety (”I’m sure I’ll break it if I try to do it myself, so could you?”).

earlier today, destructive and faithful were at the printer discussing who could be printing everything that seemed to be coming out before their print jobs (they use the slow color printer for black and white jobs and then freak out about how long it takes).  I watched them deliberate for a while, but then the printer did that freezing up thing it does when life gets too much for it to handle (ok so that’s not really why, obviously, but I don’t feel like explaining our technical issues).  I observed them try to troubleshoot a bit, destructive running back and forth from her office (”I’ll try printing it again!”), faithful peering into the printer to see if anything was happening (”It’ll work, I know it!”).  finally I decided to be merciful and quickly fixed the problem from my work station.  magically, (to destructive and faithful) the printer began to work again.

I’m hoping they have meetings this afternoon and will be out of office.

again, my lacking education

here’s the thing.

I have no idea how to get a job.

tomorrow and next thursday I have to teach a 6 hour long computer class to a group of students studying to be nurse’s aides or something like that.  I don’t even know.  it’s not connected to MNM, where I actually work.  it’s just that our program director said that we’d provide a teacher, as we’ve done in the past.  unfortunately the woman who used to teach the class has moved far, far away and our program director didn’t think about finding someone else who could actually teach.  and, as everyone here has some crazy inflated idea that I am fabulous at everything they could possibly want me to do, she decided that I’d be the person for the job.  that, and I have more free time than anyone else.  I tried in vain to explain to her that I am completely unable to teach anything except maybe math and that there is a big difference between knowing information and teaching information, but with no luck.

besides the obvious not knowing how to teach thing, I actually don’t know the things they want me to teach.  I mean yeah, I’m solid with keyboarding but the other things, making a resume, online job applications, these things I am totally lost at.  I didn’t have a real resume until college and then I just sort of copied steph’s quickly one afternoon.  my resume sucks.  I need one of these courses myself, forget teaching it!  and online job applications?  when have I ever found a job?  pretty much never.  I looked on monster.com last fall when I was desperate for employment but I couldn’t really sort out useful jobs from the hey, be our telemarketer crowd (not that I would have shunned being a telemarketer but I’m pretty sure I would not excel at that job, I mean, you have to talk to people).  and now I have to teach a bunch of uninterested adult women how to do it?  I am not a person who commands respect (I can’t even intimidate kindergartners. really now).  I have the feeling it’ll be a long day.

but, maybe I’ll learn something.  maybe in helping them I’ll actually learn how to do it…probably not though…most likely we’ll spend a painfully boring 12 hours together and then they’ll never ask me back.

still in flux

ok so I suspect the fam will be happy about this one.

sometimes I have nothing to do at work so I look at grad school programs.  lately I’ve been looking at non-profit management programs.  though I still kind of prefer international development programs, the fact that I  want to do non-profit work makes looking at the non-profit management programs not a bad idea.

so, I’ve added Indiana University - Bloomington to my grad schools to visit list.  they’ve apparently got quite a good program (us news puts their non-profit management program first in the country).  they don’t have a nice list of all the places their recent graduates have jobs like the other schools do, which I have looked over many times, but perhaps I can get that information on a visit.  it’s only a couple hours from here so I can do it some weekend.  I’m not in love with their core curriculum but considering the path I’ve taken to get to this point, it’s worth a look.

so over that

ok so this week I got new cds from the library.  Made of Bricks by Kate Nash, and Magic Potion by the Black Keys.

Magic Potion I love, of course.  I just really like the Black Keys and have for ages.  I think their sound is great, they’ve got soul and power and all things good.  very bluesy (and surprisingly, from Ohio). this album did not disappoint.  unfortunately, they’re not playing any exceedingly cheap shows in the cincinnati area any time soon (what’s up with that, black keys?).

Made of Bricks.  eh.  I know she just won best new british female artist, and she’s not bad, but I can’t help but feel like I’ve heard it all before.  I like Lily Allen, and I like Regina Spektor, but Kate Nash just feels like more of the same.  Is this the sound of British female musicians now?  I haven’t heard Duffy yet, but now I’m hopeful that it’ll actually be something different (yes, I know Regina Spektor is not British, but she is kind of in that musical category and I kind of felt like Kate Nash was trying to bridge the gap between Regina Spektor and Lily Allen, but that’s just me).  I just expected more, I guess.  it’s not a bad album, just not great.

I told my librarian my theories today as I swapped these cds for the Klaxon’s album.  we’re developing quite the music rapport.