Solved: Mystery of the 'J' in emails! :) (02/10/11)

For years, I have received emails that end with a mysterious 'J' at the end of the letter. Sometimes it would even appear within a paragraph between sentences. I could never figure it out. I know that 'jk' means 'just kidding', so I didn't know if 'J' stood for 'joking'... and if it did, it sure didn't make sense on half the emails that ended with it. It was a mystery. I even asked about it, and no one knew.

I then started to believe it was a signature mark. Just like I use '~' before my name at the end of my messages. But then I noticed that it wasn't used all the time.

Well, this was starting to bug me. I wasn't loosing sleep over it, but not being able to understand it when it appeared was bothersome. It also has shown up more frequently. So, the other day, I decided to do a search... I'm proud to say, I found the answer!!!!

It's because the emails are coming from MS Outlook. When a person wants to put in a smiley face, Outlook uses the font 'Wingding' to put it in. Well, the key for the smiley face is 'J'! That means that whenever I receive an email with this in it, I just see the letter in a regular font, not the smiley face. Wow, that makes more sense!

So remember, if you see a 'J'.... just remember it's a smiley face!!!! (and that person is using Outlook for their emails!)

J = :)


~Matt

RANT: Deciphering Those Text Messages...! (02/08/11)

Last week, while checking the facebook page for Springfield Public Schools to see if they were going to close, I ran across a wall post. It took me a while to decipher...  ugh... just a high-schooler thinking he could type faster by substituting letters with numbers or just not including them altogether. It was so bad, I just had to take a screen shot.

I'll have to admit, this is a big pet peeve of mine. Sure, I make mistakes when typing on my iPhone. But why do it on purpose?

I'm sure just by posting this, I could be offending someone who does it on purpose. Is it necessary? Some may argue that it's faster. Is it? How is it faster to replace "s" with "z"??? Seriously?

I ask those who do this... take a step back and look what you just wrote! It sure doesn't make you look intelligent! In fact, my 6 year-old daughter can spell better than you! Hey, and she's in kindergarten! In fact, I can make more sense out of her hand-written notes than I can these texts!

You can't tell me that this is an improvement with technology. It's horrible! I've actually spent more time deciphering these texts and post than I should have. Some colleges and high school teachers are trying hard to show that it is hurting our nation's language skills. Some businesses have even claimed that the text lingo has appeared on resumes and applications! Wow!

Oh, and take one more look at that screen shot. "Cancell" is spelled with one "L"! If you ask me, I think he really needs to be in "skool"!

~Matt

Week Rundown! (01/30/11 - 02/05/11)

Sunday:

I got up and headed into church for the monthly men's prayer breakfast. Had a pretty good van route, and was happy the the weather was still nice. Our quartet was asked to sing "sweet Beulah Land". We had each sang it before and was familiar with the song, but our quartet has never sang it, so we had to practice it several times. It turned out good, and we're planning to keep it as part of our line-up of songs!


Monday:

A pretty normal day... gym, school, and work!

Abigail picked Mysia up from school and I met them at the doctors office. Mysia had a check-up with the doctor on her neck glads that had been swollen for the past few weeks. After the appointment, I headed back to work and Abigail took Mysia home.

Well, the news had reported that the weather was to to get bad, with blizzard-like conditions tomorrow. So I decided to head to Walmart to pick up some de-icer and a covering for our vehicles. I don't know why, but I didn't expect the mad rush and stupidity at the store. I don't know why, this happens every time some 'major' storm is to hit. The bread was gone, the shopping karts were gone, and people were acting like idiots (more so than normal). Even on the roads, people couldn't drive... and it was only drizzling!!!!!

I warned Abigail before she left our house to be careful of the stupid drivers. Sure enough, she called me later to report that she had been cut off several times, and came close to avoiding accidents!

Oh, because of the weather, we canceled quartet practice. That gave me some time with the family this evening.


Tuesday:

Well, the storm hit during the night. Ice pellets were hitting the window and house. There was at least an inch or more on our vehicles. Schools were canceled, including the colleges. I went into work. However, the weather was getting bad, and the snow started coming down pretty good. I took off at 11am and headed home. The wind was pretty strong and several cars were already getting stuck in the snow.

After the kids took their naps, we went outside to play. It was pretty neat playing in a snowstorm.


Wednesday:

Well, so much for going anywhere!!! Yuck! It was still snowing in the morning, and there was no way were going to even try to get out! It was a day at home for all of us.

Abigail was bored, so Sam dropped her off after lunch. He has a truck, so he didn't have any problems on our road. I worked on shoveling the driveway after the kids napped. It took a while, but I finally got it cleared. Abigail played with the kids in the snow.

Because of the snow, church was canceled. Total accumulation at our house was 10 inches.


Thursday:

Well, it was back to work for me. My mom agreed to watch the kids since schools were still cancelled, and Lydia went in to work. Lydia was able to work the entire day to make up for missing the hours earlier. Since my car didn't have heat, Lydia dropped me off at work and she picked me up afterwards as well. We picked up the kids from my mom and headed home.


Friday:

The schools were cancelled once again, but Malachi had daycare. Lydia dropped him off, then Mysia off at my parents', and she headed into work for half a day as scheduled. I went back to work as well. At the end of her shift, Lydia was told that she was let go. That shook her, as this was unexpected. Lydia picked up Mysia and Abigail and came home. She then started doing some job searches on line and was able to submit some applications.

I got off work, and the weather was already starting to turn bad again with more snow. I was heading to pick up Malachi from daycare, and a semi truck caused me to veer to side of the road and I got caught in the ditch. My car couldn't drive out of the 10 inches of snow! Thankfully a guy helped me out with his truck. It took over 45 minutes, but I made it home!

We ate chili, and contemplated on whether we ought to try and go to the gospel concert we had planned to attend. Abigail was to be our babysitter for the night. Well, we finally decided to go, and I'm glad we did! We got to see the Kingdom Heirs in concert, and boy... what a vocal line-up they have! We also got to visit with friends as well.


Saturday:

Abigail had spent the night, and woke up with the kids... allowing Lydia and I to sleep in. Which is what we usually do anyways, after turning on the cartoons. Breakfast was cereal and eggs, and we just had a lazy morning.

Lydia worked on sending in some applications, and I dropped Abigail off at home before heading to the library. I had volunteered to help with Mysia's school yearbook, and I ended up meeting with the lady in charge of the project. We went over what needed to be done. Hopefully it will all work out.

I came back home, ate a late lunch/snack and then headed out to do grocery shopping. Lydia worked on housework, and had the kids work on their rooms. We had our friends, Doug and Mary, over for bean dip & chips and to play games. We played several rounds of banangrams and then played the Wii. They left after midnight, and we headed to bed.


~Matt

FarmVille For Dummies???? (02/07/11)

Do you need help with your farm? Well, you're in luck! Here in a few days, you can purchase "FarmVille For Dummies"!

I'm not joking! I guess that some people actually need guidance to work their virtual farms. I laughed so hard when finding this bit of info out, I just had to share it!

~Matt

Shoveling Snow (02/03/2011)

Well, you'd think because of this "Blizzard of 2011", with me staying home, I would have wrote a few more blog posts. Sorry. I was still a busy guy! I've been meaning to get on the computer and write some thoughtful articles for this blog. So hopefully I'll get around to that sometime. We'll see!

Yesterday, we ended up with 10 inches of snow. Schools had been canceled (and they are again today), and I didn't even try to go in to work yesterday. However, that didn't keep me from keeping busy. I worked on projects, spent time with the kids and Lydia, and also shoveled the driveway!

To think that I used to like shoveling when I was a teen! I had it in my mind that it would be a pretty cool job to have every winter. My mind has changed now. Of course, 10 inches of snow isn't the easiest to work through either. If it were only a few, I think my dislike for the chore would have been less. I was sweating by the time I was finished!!! Go figure! Oh, and it took me longer to shovel then it takes to mow my entire lawn in the summer!

I seen several guys going from door to door, offering their snow-shoveling services to the neighbors. The thought hit me.... if I had the money, I probably would have paid. But here I was, already over half-way done, and I was determined to finished. They greeted me as they walked by. I shoud've asked how much they were charging, it probably would have made me feel better that I did my own driveway and saved whatever amount!

I am satisfied with my work. With what I accomplished. Unfortunately, I have to wait and see what happens now that snow is in the forecast for Monday!

~Matt