Life

Life comes and goes. I can not believe it has been over one year since I started writing in this blog. I believe every year has a different name. This year is going to be the year of growth and gain, last year was faith and discipline and the year before that was the year of "GET YOUR SORRY BUTT MOVING, LIFE WILL NOT WAIT FOR YOU.". So it is time for my occasional life update post.

The official close date of Blockbuster (My Job) has pasted and since then I have only worked one day in the Olympia Fields store. But before I start kicking my head I received an e-mail in response to my craigslist post looking for web design work. It dose not pay much but it is worth the reference in my portfolio to show to future jobs. The guy said he will contact me next week about meeting somewhere to have a discussion on details. I will post details on it after we meet. My dad and I just received our Business Cards in the mail about week ago. Now we can pass out cards and get a 90% more chance of get jobs.

As for the working only one day in the other store. (almost two weeks off) Well first off they transfered every employee except two to that store. Even Gwen my ex-store manager agrees they are trying to get us to quit so they can get out of paying Unemployment to us. I hate businesses that try underhanded tricks like that and they deserve to go under. I should be visiting my ex-store managers store on 33rd and king in Chicago something next week. I thought of taking the train because her store is only 4 blocks away from the tracks but all stations either over shoot the store by 10 blocks or under shoot it by 10 blocks, so annoying!!! I guess I will have to drive but also just on Sunday my tire popped from it being under inflated. I hassled with keeping it inflated the guys at the shop last time I got the tire replaced said my rim had so much rust the tire would not make a clean air tight seal. So I will hopefully make a trip to the shop today to replace the tire and rim. I believe Japan is right around the corner, I AM BELIEVING.

Sayonara,
Joel Greene

Inauguration 2009

Well the Inauguration of Barack Husein Obama has pasted. I have been watching the media since 10 o'clock this morning and my brain feels like mush because of all the pinheads in politics and drive-by media. So I am going to like my top 10 idiotic moments of politics in the past year.

99. My dad must have been mad about Obama winning he got mad at our cat and called it Obama. (I know it 99 but it was funny.)
10. Matt Damon says “I need to know if she (Sarah Palin) thinks dinosaurs were here 4,000 years ago because she’s going to have the nuclear code.” (Can I hear a PINHEAD!!!)
9. Also on Inauguration day Celeb on the news said she wants Obama to first focus on giving access to abortion to all women around the world... WHAT???
8. At a campaign event in Oregon, Barack Obama says, "I've now been in 57 states -- I think one left to go." (I know!!! Obama must be from the future. No, but there is 57 states of Islam.)
7. July 2008: Rev. Jackson said he would love to castrate Obama.
6. Obama said that he believes in his Muslim faith then he corrected him self to his christian faith.
5. Many people actually believe Sarah Palin said "I can see Russia from my house.". But that was actually Tina Fey impersonating Sarah Palin on SNL.
4. Joe Biden calls upon Missouri state Sen. Chuck Graham to "stand up," despite the fact that he is in a wheelchair.
3. On Inauguration day Rev. Lowery said brown can stick around -- (laughter) -- when yellow will be mellow -- (laughter) -- when the red man can get ahead, man -- (laughter) -- and when white will embrace what is right. (So who's the racist now???. I take that part of his prayer very offensively.)
2. Barack Obama bowls a 37 while attempting to woo blue collar voters in Pennsylvania.
1. Hillary Clinton gets caught lying about coming under sniper fire during a 1992 trip to Bosnia. She later claimed she "misspoke" and "said some things that I knew not to be the case."


Watch the classic John Edwards Video at the beginning of the primaries


#10 Comment from Matt Damon on Sarah Palin


Barack Obama is my president. I will honor him and hope that he makes to best decisions but yet I do not agree with him.

Updates 2.0

Happy Birthday to Me. Happy Birthday to Me. So my birthday has come and is going. Yep, I was born 22 years ago at 6:30 pm. Also I am only 14 closes away from my store closing. As I recall from a message my pastor gave one Sunday about change if you don't change you will be forced to change for the good or bad and for the longest time known that I needed to get a new job and I did not. So I am getting forced to change. Not that I'm being punished its just the way of life.

The last day to rent from my store is January 4th, 2009 and we are officially closed to the public January 11th, 2009. I'm trying to stay as long as I can to pack up stuff. There is several things I am trying to get from my store like the four TVs and brackets that we play dvds on and I would like to get the wood floor at the front of the store and Buy several movie titles that are not available anymore.

I'm looking for a new job because I don't want to be transfered to a new store. If I get transfered Me or someone else will be just tumbling that stores employees in the air and making trouble. I got several leads for possible employment like someone at my church is a training manager for UPS and was going to ask someone at his warehouse if I could get a job there. But I just found out today that they are not hiring but I met someone at my work that said AT&T is looking for 800 new Uverse installers this year end and laying off 1200 people in other department of AT&T. At the moment their installers are working 10 hours a day 6 days a week at $17 an hour. They are union but I guess I can live with that also the average customer is waiting 90 days for installation. If I worked there and the information above was true I would be making $1020 a week. With that I can get a NEW CAR and save up for my trips to Japan quickly. He said to call him today between 12 and 4 pm but I did and got a message saying he would be out of the office until January 2nd. So I guess I got to wait until then. PLEASE PLEASE PRAY FOR ME SO I WILL GET THE JOB I ALWAYS WANTED!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Japanese Gift Exchange

As I might have said before I made a friend at the rakugo event in Chicago back in June named Asakichi-san. Well the other day we both got done with do a gift exchange over the mail. He sent me two containers. First one with Matcha (Powdered Green Tea - MY FAVORITE) and the other with dried green tea leaves made by his grandparent who grows green tea. He sent his on Oct 30th and I received it Nov 10th. I sent mine on the 17th and he got it on Nov 22nd. It was a bummer though that he spent about $7 to send one to me but mine which was about the same weight and size and cost me $22 to send. The idiots at the UPS store said it would cost $120 to send by them. It did not even say that on there website. Oh, yeah I sent him a 1lb bag of Dunkin' Donuts Coffee, 1lb box of Fannie May Choclate Assortment with the chicago skyline printed on the box and couple American Flags I picked up for only a few cents each. He sent me and e-mail saying the choclate was already gone and he loved the coffee. He has become a great connection for the future when I go the Japan, He might make a great Tour Guide.

Blockbuster Inventory

I just though I would post some information on last nights inventory
[Speed Results]
Me 3415 Items at 26 per minute
Brittany 2244 Items at 17 per minute
Adrien 1715 Items at 15 per minute
Jermain but did not get a chance to write down his results.

We were there from 10:00am to 2:15am
Still have tonight

Yesterday during church my pastor was talking about three transitions of change and he just mentioned the word ask god what job you should be looking for. Then It me that even if I'm praying for a job I'm searching in the wrong place. Then I realized I'm trying to leave Blockbuster not stay. I do not what to transfer to another store so here is what I'm going to do. I asked last night that if I can transfer to a different department in Blockbuster such as Scanning, IT and and well HHHMMMMMM Well she said she would find out for me whats available.

Sayonara for now

Black Friday

TODAY WAS THE DAY. My Dad, Brother and Me went to grab some Black Friday Deals. My dad wanted the $128 Blu-ray player from Wal-mart and I wanted the 32" AOC LCD from RadioShack. First we went to Wal-Mart and were hunting everywhere for the players and they said they had 20-so in stock and only 6 were behind the electronics counter. They did something diffrent this year I though made things easier. First they had almost 1000% more in stock and more products then best buy usually has. The store was already open and they had the big ticket items on a pallets with black plastic wrapping and people stood around the pallets and had to wait for 5am. I think this was better then tickets for items because some people would get 10 tickets. but in this setup they could get about one item because they had to wait at the pallet. The lady at the counter gave us the blu-ray player 8 minutes early.

Then we went to RadioShack and got my TV. The 32" Wal-mart had was regulay $499.99 was on sale for $388 but one Radioshack had was regulay $599.99 and was on sale for $399.99 it had some better features and the brand had much better reviews then the other. Also all the Wal-mart TV were gone in 5 minutes but the Radioshack had less in stock but lasted longer. Some people at Wal-mart were waiting since the night before. I got at Radioshack at 5:15am and was the first in line.

Last night I learned that Gwen my manager is leaving our store next Friday. She will going to a store in Chicago. because.........................my store is closing on January 11th, 2009. I think I might be a curse because so far me last two long term job they ended up closing the store......HAHAHAHA!!!!! Last day to rent Jan 4th and I volunteered to stay till the vary end packing up products and shipping out. I hope I can quit at that point and find something better.

We are doing one last inventory Sunday and Monday.

Laminin

Tonight was our first night of Home Group and we watched a teaching on DVD by Andy Stanley where he talked about how big GOD really is. And in the end told a story about a man who was some medical guy who told him to go home and look up laminin a protein in the human body.

If anyone noticed it is shaped like the cross. GOD is in the BIGGEST of things and the smallest of things. Its funny that a lot of sites (EX: Wikipedia) do not show a picture of laminin or morph the picture. Make you think they do it on purpose. Here is Wikipedia's description of laminin.

Laminin is a protein found in the extracellular matrix, the sheets of protein that form the substrate of all internal organs also called the basement membrane. It is the major non-collagenous component of the basal lamina, such as those on which cells of an epithelium sit.^[1] It has four arms that can bind to four other molecules. The three shorter arms are particularly good at binding to other laminin molecules, which is what makes it so great at forming sheets. The long arm is capable of binding to cells, which helps anchor the actual organs to the membrane.

The laminin protein is made up of three separate parts, called the A, B1, and B2 chains. That gives it a total of six "ends", which accounts for a lot of its flexibility in connecting up various kinds of molecules. Because of this, scientists who create biomaterials are extremely interested in the whole family of laminins^{[citation needed]}. They are a family of glycoproteins that are an integral part of the structural scaffolding in almost every animal tissue. Laminins are secreted and incorporated into cell-associated extracellular matrices.

Laminin is vital to making sure overall body structures hold together. Improper production of laminin can cause muscles to form improperly, leading to a form of muscular dystrophy. It can also cause progeria.

Obama Online

Funny video of obama using his computer.
(Bummer he is using a Macintosh. I love Macs)
Sarah Palin for President 2012

Nick Movie

So, I just got done watching the premiere of the nick movie "iCarly: iGo to Japan". I don't usually watch that show but because of the theme of movie I did. I would like to say it was not terrible. It needed to be more accurate tough. First mistake was the steering wheel was on the wrong side in all vehicles including driving on wrong side of the road. (That can be fixed by just flipping the image.) You can tell they recorded the movie here in America. I give it a 3 out of 10.

Watch their sneak peek here:

We are so screwed!!!

So the other day we elected our next president of United States of America, Barack Husan Obama. So get ready for higher taxes and losing the war. I'm just glad he did not get a filler buster proof senate. This will keep him from going mad with power. But I always told people who did not like George W. Bush Jr. that they need to respect him even if they don't like him and that is what I'm going to do, even if it is MR. B.O.

Holloween Night

Well as I said early early this morning in a previous post. I wore my kimono at work and it was a huge success. I showed up and Gwen (My Store Manager) loved it. About 10-20 people though I dressed as a Samurai. I was aiming for that but I was unable to get a Katana (Japanese Sword) (Real or Fake) in time. Gwen was a Angel and Brittany (Key Holder) was a Devil. (-:

Also tonight I learned something very important. my blockbuster store is closing January 11th. But before I start banging my head on the keyboard. This might be what I need to push me to another job. rvgtfhrftb4ujymh I don't know if this is good thing or bad. I think I will pro sue the Geek Squad Job a little bit more.

Sayonara,
Joel Greene

,eelty,345y.,BANGwm6l;khm.e4 mwHEAD45.6hmw3ey/ONw4.,ymwsdnenl rln5hwgjbgKEYBOARDj,bgleubbadtg................................................

In 2007

In 2007

Whats New?

So, there is not much to update people on. Just some small changes. Yesterday I changed my hosting server from hostdime to inmotion hosting. I had to start paying a bit more but it might be worth it since hostdime in the beginning was great but now they are really getting at me. First they changed some PHP configuration on me and disabled a ton of handy features with PHP. (Sorry to the illiterate people who don't know technical computer terms) and the other day I created a new site using the mediawiki kit (FYI. Wikipedia Base System) But with the PHP limitation gave it some problems. I e-mailed them about it and they said in my translation "To Bad". they said put a PHP.ini file in each folder and website I am hosting to fix the problem, well thats fine and dandy but I have at least 30 domains with about 10 folders each (30 x 10 = 300 copys of PHP.ini) So forget them I switched to this new hosting service and got a VPS (Virtual Private Server). I would explain but it would be easier for the non-geeks to goto wikipedia and search for "VPS"...

Well today (being 2:30 in the morning) is holloween. Tonight I am wearing my yukata to work as a dress up. I showed pictures to our Asistant Manager and he loved it so much he wanted me to wear it. yet hes on vacation for the weekend, to bad. I can't wait till tonight but then I got a meeting and closing on saturday. I think tomarrow I will tell Gwen that I'm no longer available for Fridays but I hope that dose not mean she will start sceduling me for sundays tough I hate working weekends and sundays at BB with a vengence surtenly when its two or more nights in a row. One time I had to work Friday, Saturday and Sunday in a row. I hated it. Well I am glad our BB is only open till midnight on friday and saturday but 10pm on all other nights.


So there is one new thing going on. My dad and I our starting a business called Greenetree Surveillance Systems we install surveillance cameras. In reality it was started last year in September but we had no other work until early this month. First we redid are first job because the first people moved to a new location. then he recommended someone else to us almost an hour north of us. My dad made a comment that our jobs are getting farther and farther away because the our next job is almost 3 hours away. We might just go for a full day and then stay in a hotel. So our current job is not bad but is sort of bend in the neck. First it has took almost 4 weeks on and off to complete the job. My dad and I were both going to make $700.00 each but now because of the guy he has delayed our final payment til Friday since we finished on Tuesday. I'm thinking hello our contract says upon completion. At first my dad had me put a password on there system and told the guy until he pays us we will hold on to the password. then the guy though a fit and said that us putting a password is very unprofessional and I am thinking "yeah, and not paying is unprofessional". My dad gave in and he had me take the password off. He needed to hold his ground. I wish he did.
My mom today pointed out that I am having favor with my job, money and people. Like the other day my dad asked me to get Thanksgiving off so me and him can wait in line for the HOT FRIDAY (BLACK FRIDAY to some retailers) specials. I asked my boss and she said all employees are required to work either Thanksgiving or Christmas Day. But I said I have something to do Thanksgiving but I don't want to work Christmas (NEVER CHRISTMAS!!!) and she said since I am like her senior employee she would make an exception and I don't have to work either. (Thank you god.) And I have been late a few times also I only started in Nov '07 So I am no senior and there are many other employees working their longer then me. I thank god for what he has done and will continue to do. I don't work as much as I should and I am being blessed with money. I'm being quite faithful with my tithes and I'm scared to stop or miss one because I would bring misfortune to me because of it somewhere down the road.

Well we are only 5 days away from the US Presidental Election. And I going to be very outright forward. I HOPE AND PRAY JOHN MCCAIN WINS. (Sue me!!! I don't care.) If he dose not this contry will become socalist in no time at all and I would say it will mark the END DAYS for sure. Think of it the bible talks of people being blind of the last days and look at how many people think Barack Husan Obama is just wonderful.

Well I can see I am sort of blabbing away. Good Bye for Now.

Sayonara,
ジョエル グリイン (Joel Greene)

P.S. Also nothing new with Japan no answers from anyone. But I am more passionite about it then ever before. If anyone has incurragement for me please comment it here.

Small Updates

Well its been almost a month since I posted. I got a answer from Applied Systems. They told me I was not qualified for the position. SHOOT!!!. Well I have had several people tell me I should work for Geek Squad at Best Buy. Well I never wanted to support people who take so much advantage on customers by inflating their prices to ridicules amounts. You know its over a hundred bucks just for them to show up. But I guess I have no other choice. I found out from my old co-worker from Radioshack in Hazel Crest. He know that a guy named "Jon Smith" has become the Hiring Manager of Best Buy Mobile the Cellular Department of Best Buy. And maybe he could get me into Geek Squad easily. I'm going to visit him tomorrow (Tuesday). I also bought me my second kimono today this time in Black. I also bought a couple of weeks ago the undergarment for my kimono. Now I just need yo get my obi 100% correct and I will be set. Hoping to hear from City of Osaka soon so I can get involved another event. This time I will wear my kimono for sure.

And today I got an estimate on getting my convertible top fixed. about $1300 altogether. $155.00 to replace my hoses. $1000 to replace the whole top. $205 to replace to latches.

Job

Well I finally got my resume into Applied Systems and got a call to come in and take the placement test about 1 week ago. I went in and I was told they would get back with me in 2 weeks. I really need to get that job. I'm going to give them till next Tuesday then I'm going to attempt to get a job in downtown Chicago. Someone I used to work with at Walt's Food Center named "Debbie" has a son who is a lot like me. He haves a ability and passion for computers. She said he got a job as a Computer Consultant downtown.

This week I am working every night at Blockbuster. Last night was part 2 of our inventory. Last Wednesday we were done at 1:30am but last night we got done at 3:30am.

ジョエル　わ　まいにち　はたらいている わが　つくりて　を　みている。

さいばら、
　　ジョエル

Return from 12 Day Florida Vacation

Konbanwa,

SO I HAVE OFFICIALLY RETURNED.

I just got off the plane about 3 hours ago. Florida was very interesting. It was great weather and the last couple days we had below 80 degree weather with very low humidity. We return right before Hurricane Ike hits.

We were at my Grandparents Late Aug 26th thru Sep 1st. Then we went to Orange Lake in Orlando thru today (Sep 6th).


Awesome Resort/Timeshare. I suggest you check out it place first next time you are in Orlando, Florida. On tuesday (Sep 2nd) My Parents, Grandma Dot and Me went to a YWAM Orlando church service for staff members where guest were welcome. The service title was "Patience". It's hard to admit but that was targeted to me. I need patience for this dream of Japan. I got to talk to Barbra and her husband face-to-face and I got so many answers and information. Her husband is the IT guy for there Orlando Base. I saw there base and it was amazing.

(TRUTH TIME)
I got have a good talk with my Dad over my dream. I have relized how many people don't trust me that I will carry out my dream. My dad told me about several people who told him that. Which it makes me upset to not be treated like an Adult. I fell like when people do that they are underminding me. I do understand my dad is still in authority but it would be nice if people would tell me to. One concern I've received from friends and family is if I go to Japan and not like it or come home early well if that is what happen then "I WILL KICK MY SELF SO HARD MY CHRILDREN WILL FEEL IT!!!". My dad pointed out that people will not be interested in suppoting me if I can't prove my passion. And he said I NEED to take my two week or more trip to Japan (costing about $3,000 dollars) and paying for it and the lecture part of DTS my self. Because DTS is a schooling (You even get college credits for taking it.). Starting monday I am going to try to get a new JOB harder then before. In order to make the money by next year I need to get a job paying about $600-$700 a paycheck (even if its seperate jobs combined to make that.) I need to get out of Blackbuster because I go to work and get SO STRESSED!!! (I think thats one reson I can't lose weight and I'm affraid I'm going to go bald if it continues like this.)

PLEASE. PLEASE. PLEASE. Pray for me and ask GOD to show me the way.

As a update to some I really don't know why I care so much about Japan. But I can't get it off my mind. People ask me what I like about Japan but I can't answer because I don't know...
Hope to upload some pictures and video soon from the trip.
I return to work on Monday (Sep 8th).

Sayonara,
- Joel Greene

Update

Just though I would post a quick update. My family and I are about 1.5 weeks from our 12 day vacation to Florida for my Parents 25th and Grand Parents 50th Anniversary. We will be flying out Tuesday (8/26) Afternoon. It's an interesting story about these tickets. My dad won these tickets from Wendy's collect 64 cups and get a plane ticket promotion a couple of years ago. He never thought he would get these tickets. He was at Wendy's one day looked in the trash and saw about 10 cups. So for the next three four days he went dumpster diving. When he was done he had earned enough cups to send the whole family anywhere Airtran Airways fly's for free plus TAX.


I talked to Barbra at YWAM Orlando and next week someone will call me and schedule a tour of YWAM Orlando when we are in Florida. I hate going so long with out talking to people I know. I have not been able to get a hold of Josh who suppose ably is working for YWAM. Shamin has not logged on mySpace since 6/25. If I have not mentioned Shamin before she lives in Tokyo, Japan and I met her on mySpace earlier this year. She is christian and attends chruch. She said her church works with YWAM. Also Maria and Sandy have not replyed to any of my e-mails.

- Joel Timothy Greene

New Info

Well today it's official I received my passport. I have taken the first big step to going to Japan.

Last Sunday (8/3/08) I found out from Jacob Davis at my church that someone named Josh Topper (A long time friend of mine.) is in Florida working with YWAM. I was amazed because I no idea. I have been trying to call him all week. Hopeful I get a hold of him soon.

My friend Luke recommended a book to me called "In a pit with a lion on a snowy day" by Mark Batterson. It's based on a verus in the Bible about Davids Strongest Soldier who chased a lion into a pit and jump head first after it. It teaches to jump head first into Hugh Opportunity and trust GOD will carry you though. For me that would be raising $10,000.00 for DTS.

Not that I believe in Fortune Cookies but today to went to a Chinese restaurant and my fortune cookie said "Your problem will be better next month". I'm not sure if this should be good news or bad news...

Monday at about 8pm we had huge summer storm. We lost power for almost 2 days. Half of Hazel Crest, Homewood and Lansing lost power. Here is some of the Pictures of the damage to our power poles. (Sorry for the quality. Was using my cell phone.)