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 |   A little bit of everything, colored my own way. |
 BLOG CHALLENGE WINNER FOR SEPTEMBER 2011 AND APRIL 2012!! ** Image ID #1901871 Unavailable **  After almost a year away, I've decided to revisit Blogville. I'm refreshed and ready...this time around it'll be a little different. I'll talk about a little bit of everything...music, sports, retail life, and more. It's not for everyone...you might not like it, but someone you know (and possibly detest) probably will! WHO THE HELL DO I THINK I AM??  We're gonna find out one way or another!  Relax, enjoy, leave a comment, tell your friends... A special thanks to Julie D - PUBLISHED!  for the 2011 Quill Awards image!"There is only one way...it is THE WAY." -Photo Jesus  "Can't you count to one??"  Thanks for stopping by and showing your support!  |
| Good evening...just a short hello and how ya been... Y'all know I've been a proponent of the local Buffalo music scene for a long time. I came up being a co-worker and a friend with a member of Doombuggy, which opened me up to bands like Girlpope, The Dollywatchers and The Disappointments. Bands have to start somewhere, right? I told you a few entries back about our buddy Josiah, who drums for Letterset and Sunday Radio. We saw him the weekend past...I have video and it looks great but the audio is bad. But they have a new project with a bunch of other bands, and the cd release was the other day..."Buffalo Does Pop". Lotsa bands covering pop songs in a not-so-necessarily-pop manner. Follow me on this teaser: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEAQEZfYmq0 Even if you're not from Buffalo, support your local music scene. You'll never know what you might find yourself liking. And hey, I've showed you mine, so show me yours  . Links: http://www.lettersetband.com/ http://www.buffalodoes.com/ http://www.facebook.com/GoCiniris And whatever else Josiah says on this video: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1917144816071 If that video doesn't work, Facebook me for more info. And if Buffalo can show the world The Goo Goo Dolls and Snapcase, you have no idea what else you're missing these days. So please check it out, support local music, and nab yourself a fun cd...or just check out your local scene as well. You might be surprised. That's all I've got for now...GOODNIGHT NOW! |
| Good evening...so, you know I hafta start out with a link. It's appropriate. Saw this band opening up for Morrissey like two years ago at UB. Love when this stuff shows up on the iPod... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCSbMdI_clc Fantastic stuff? Maybe... I don't even know if I should be talking about this right now, but I'll throw it on Facebook when I'm done and see what happens. Soooooo, last week a boss of a boss of some of my coworkers that I may or may not know knew some people we worked with that had some information on a boss of a boss of some of my bosses of people I work with. (WHERE'S THE EMOTICON FOR "WHEW!!") So let's say this person who bosses over people that work with people I know is in her mid/late-30's, and could be seen by some as quote-unquote "attractive"...(she's tall, thin, is in a position of authority...has an accent from parts undeterminable, lives alone with her dog, has eyes that look as if they're looking beyond or quite possibly through you when she's speaking to you, and once touched me in a way that made me shrug in a creeped-out way...if you find that quote-unquote "attractive" in a particular beast). She makes good money and has a degree, reportedly, from the University of Phoenix. I'm not gonna link it cuz I don't believe the legitamacy of a degree from there, and I won't until they quit with the junk mail and spam. All of the necessary steps have been taken by her to secure her online privacy from the folks she presides over (and she's in that kind of position that nobody really cares about the people she works under, cuz they don't do much more than pretend to care about "us"). Which makes this all the more funny... Someone who knows someone I work with knows a coworker who happened to find her on Facebook and told a boss of my boss about it, and then proceeded to leak "it" across the store. And by "it", I mean a pretty scandalous/racy pic that this lady has posted on her profile, which is "private", save for her profile pics. Who poses for a picture wearing just a bra and a blazer, with hair that screams "I just got nailed in the hotel bathroom" and eyes that seem surprised there's a camera on them? Why, certainly, not the boss of a boss of some coworkers I know and work with from time to time, right? Nooooooo. VITAL STATS:  I can't believe how sick I've been lately...I spent all of another day in bed Monday, and that's not like me. Else, you might be hearing of this faux pas sooner. As per usual, the significant other, Jess the CWC is now sick (as I'm feeling better). This is a great life we live. Since I cooked dinner in her place, I made the most bad-ass fried bologna sandwiches ever. And that's a high compliment, coming from a guy who likes sandwiches a lot. Nearing 600 peekers. I need to get the strength back up, to keep this up. This entry is brought to you by A Tribe Called Quest's "Can I Kick It?" Yes I can. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbDFS6cg1AIThat's all I've got...time's running short and I've got the early shift tomorrow. And by early, I mean 5:45am. That's my thursday, y'all. Make sure you get yours while I'm out gettin' mine. P.S..... Show me a certain "dead" terrorist's pic and I'll believe it. Don't tell me you "washed him out to sea". This just reeks of conspiracy now. Either you stalked him, sniped him, and made an example, or nothing. No proof means no pudding, and you know damn well that's gonna bite you in the ass. The American public doesn't need headlines anymore...they need proof. If Rolling Stone magazine can publish pictures of American troops torturing overseas civilians, somebody needs to show me a dead Bin Laden before I believe it. I actually think the Sabres will win the cup before I see it, with the way our government runs things.That's my final fit. GOODNIGHT NOW!! |
| Good evening...just a short one to say hi and tell you what I'm up to tonight. Watch this video first though. Please. It'll make a lot of people happy... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8u7d5-Mw0ts That's Letterset, doing an acoustic version of "This Is Just A Filler Song", and our buddy on the bongos is their drummer, Josiah. They're doing a show tonight at St. Mary's high school with a few other bands, and we're going to support. The show's for a good cause too...cuz proceeds from the door and merch are going to benefit the Roswell Park Cancer Institute. For those of you not from Buffalo, this is it: http://www.roswellpark.org/ They study, treat and fight cancer. It's an awesome place, and it's the leading cancer treatment facility going. And really, what other business would I have being at a Catholic high school on a saturday night? Anyway, Letterset's a great local band...very punk/pop, with a lot of mid- to late-'90's influences (in my opinion, of course). Their live set is energetic and always awesome...if you're in the area, support a good cause and see a good bunch of dudes doing their thing. And if you're not in the area, but you like the sound, well, fire up your video game console, start up Rock Band 2, and download the actual version of "This Is Just A Filler Song" so you can get your Josiah on when you play drums (and he's a sick drummer, so start easy). If Rock Band's not your thing, they're also available on iTunes! "Sequel", "The Sequel B-Sides EP" and even their Christmas single "Little Drummer Boy" are all available for a reasonable price. I highly recommend them all. And not just cuz I know the drummer. Check out their website: http://www.lettersetband.com/ Photos, links, and general tomfoolery! One more live video... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_419ty3CQc&feature=related Hope you all have a safe and happy saturday...gonna catch some eats with the lady in a little bit and then gets me some rock on!! Goodnight now! |
| Good evening....before I get to the crux of my wallowing tonight, I want to share this piece of information that Sabres Nation is probably already aware of by now, and has little-to-no bearing on my emotional well-being at the moment: http://wgr550.com/Miller-did-have-a-concussion-during-the-regular-se/9723489 Really?? Thanks for the update. Oh hey, by the way, the Sabres lost in game 7 to the Flyers. After six tight games, maybe "lost" isn't appropriate enough. "Blown out", anyone? Maybe a term isn't good enough. Let's go with they ran out of gas against a more talented team that played like they wanted it a lot more. Look, I'm not gonna beat up on anyone here. Let's look at the truth: on Jan. 1st, this team was dead in the water and hovering in or around dead last in the league. When you're 30th out of 30 going into the new year, you don't deserve a sniff of springtime-fresh Playoff hockey air. You're lucky you get a seat at the kids' table at the neighbors' Easter buffet, let alone play hockey on Easter. Yet, the hockey gods maxed out their credit cards trying to gift us a spot in the second season. Oh, and the Sabres also played pretty much playoff-style hockey from the start of the new year til, well, ten minutes left in game 6, and forgot about the memo that said they were supposed to show up at 7:30pm EST for game 7 and not 7:30pm CST. And here's where I get weepy.... Every year we believe. "This is OUR year!" We kinda laze our way through the first half of the season, riding the ups and down to see how things shake out. We're either buyers or sellers. And then it sinks in. IT. All of that believing leads to one realization....once they become buyers, we buy in... "This is OUR year!" We hang off of every period. We hang off every game. This is Buffalo...our next day is determined by how the Sabres played the night before. This is typical of every season...but this one. Enter new ownership, new hope, and a new attitude. Add to that the play of the best team in the league since the middle of January, and you can feel it. "This is OUR year!" We fight, scratch and claw to make the playoffs, and everyone's excited...we don't measure the end of winter in Buffalo by the growth of foliage and warmer weather. We measure it by mini Sabres flags going up on cars and the growth of playoff beards. We're in! We can do this! But this is Buffalo. We're there...we're just about there. Biiiiiiiiig difference. We get the invite. We show up. We make you think that this is gonna be OUR year...and all of that hope that gestated over the last few months is replaced in the course of a few short days...when they take that heart you've invested in them and treated it as if it's the same heart they're playing with...empty and drained. This is pretty much what it's been like for at least as long as I've been alive. Probably longer. Well, I guess there's one constant (usually). There's always next year. Hats off to the Flyers. Julie D - PUBLISHED! , collect your items (if anyone's wondering, we made a wager of local items that the loser sends to the winner...any suggestions, Buffalonians?). I'm not even gonna get into all the scenarios and what-if's about what the off-season will bring, save for the fact that this will probably be one of the most exciting off-seasons in team history (if the new owndership is indeed as committed to bringing the Stanley Cup to Buffalo as he proclaimed when he took control of the team). That's something to look forward to. Maybe I'll talk about what I think they should do in a few weeks or so...the bodies aren't even cold yet and the sting still smarts a little. Before I head off to read what Julie has to say, I'll leave you with this... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv9O0EQZvuY It still gets me a little misty in the sockets. Goodnight y'all. |
| A good day to you all...started sunny over here, then rain clouds jacked up the sun hardcore for awhile. And fast. And now it's sunny again. Seems the celestial beings know it's Game 7 in this Sabres/Flyers series. Given the series and Buffalo history overall, it doesn't bode well for the blue & gold. Stats aside, I've been lucky to be able to watch the previous six games of the series. Alas, that will not happen tonight, as I have to work. Sure, I can DVR it, but the one night I close each week is mirrored by my boss. She's a diehard Sabres fan also...and would certainly throw me under every bus she could if I called in and *gasp* left her by herself on this oh-so-important game that she can't attend, because it isn't in Buffalo. I've given thoughts to calling in sick today, because I spent an amazing 21 hours in bed since Sunday night due to a cold virus or something. Amazing because I slept for most of it; not so much because I got pretty much no sleep last night. Maybe the Melatonin cancelled out the store-brand Nyquil. So safe to say, I've got some energy stored up. At least enough to dig my phone charger up from out the back of my bed so I can plug it in at work and use the Flycast app on the Blackberry to have the game playing while I "work" (because nobody's gonna come in tonight....it'll be deader than dead with everybody else watching the game). GO SABRES!! VITAL STATS: When you're sick and you want to take Dayquil or Nyquil, why do they have to make those geltabs ridiculously huge enough that you practically gag on them while you choke them down? Sore throats = not conducive to swallowing. And neither is gagging to a sore throat. Hey, Julie D - PUBLISHED! and Brooklyn  , big props for the raffle tix the last few days!  This entry is brought to you by: http://beastieboys.com/preorder/ ...if the album is half as awesome as this short (half-hour) flick is, then I'll be stoked, cuz what I've heard already is awesome, and this short film features many cameos from some major stars. Just find the link that says "Fight For Your Right revisited" and click it. It's explicit, and it lagged a little on my laptop, but it's totally worth it. Not just for the beats, but for the hystericality.That's my joint for today...gonna break free from this and try to get to work on time, and maybe convince them to let me go home early, even though I feel a lot better. Peace out now, and GO SABRES!! |
| Good evening...for starters, a big apology to Julie D - PUBLISHED! for dropping the ball on her name last night. Here's the love, girl and congrats on your Flyers tonight. The Sabres looked like the Sabres that started the season, and not the ones who ended it. (SIDE NOTE): I need to remember to spell-check and re-read this once I've posted it.  So todaaaaaay...I'm gonna skip the traditional "tax day Beatles 'Taxman'" video in honor of this little peach. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1upAw0WLVxs And maybe you fools can tell me who the bigger idiot is between me, the post office, and the IRS. I'll give you one hint: it's neither of those three options. Usually, I'm the guy who does my taxes the second my W-2 hits my palm. Been that way for years. Maybe once or twice I've procrastinated about, but that was because there was usually an issue I couldn't get around and couldn't just do them myself. As a single guy with no dependents, how freaking hard is it to just pull out a calculator and bang out some numbers 'til I get a check? Not very. So I went on turbotax.com (I'm not even gonna promote the link by highlighting it, cuz they scam you, yo), just like I did last year to get my returns on a fancy debit card. Only problem was, I didn't get as much back as I thought I would. No biggie, cuz they took what I owed to the fabulous state of NY and applied it against my federal return. But this year, I wanted a paper check, so I could deposit it in an account (that isn't mine) to repay some back debt. Followed their "GPS system" and all went well, til they asked my some questions about last year's return. HOLD UP, WAIT A MINUTE... I went looking for last year's info. Oh yeah...I never printed it up. Tried to retrieve it, but I guess I used a different log-in and password, so they couldn't find it. And then I left it to live life. Until today, since I forgot about it on Sunday. Turns out all I had to do was get my electronic PIN from the IRS. No big deal...had they let me know that when I tried to do my taxes in February . So I call the automated system, press my crucial digits, and e-file my federal return for eff-are-double-e free. No worries, y'all.But state taxes...them's a bitch. Had to go through that damn website again and have them calculate it based on my federal return. Which was quick...but not so free. For $30.95 they'll allow me to print my NY taxes. Ahem, no thank you, and good day, turbotax. I've been doing my taxes by hand since I've been old enough to do grown-up math, so I'll handle this. Please and thank you. Problem is, it's already nearing 6:00pm, and the fancy, non-local post office closes at 7. So I scurry through the interneticity to e-file the form for an extension, because screw this, I'll find the paper forms, probably somewhere on www.irs.gov (yeah, they get no highlighted love either), and I'll just do it by hand like I always did. Plus it really feels like it goes by quicker for me, than waiting for a computer to load each page and calculate and navigate and constipate and whatnot. Besides, I don't feel like I make enough money to have a "tax professional" get a paycheck off of what I make. These are definitely times where you have to go for self. So in lieu of $30.95, I break north for the fancy post office. As I feel bad for doing business out of the village of Lancaster, this is a desparate time in which the village is of no assistance to this kid. And as I expected, the line is out the freaking door. Sure, they're postmarking in the vestibule, but that's if you're junk is stamped. "Hey honey, you got any stamps?" She says no. WTF happened to all the stamps?? Woulda been in-and-out, fo sho. But nooooooo. So I ask the guy if there's a machine in there that lets you buy one stamp. He laments that there used to be one, and can't understand why they took it out. Thanks but no thanks, partner. I'll just stand in line... (SIDE NOTE): I also had my busted DirecTv DVR, prepaid and ready to ship, on my person. Shit gets heavy, ya know? So as I'm waiting in a line snaking outside the building, I get to wondering...there's these automated kiosks they have set up that you can send things all over...if you have a credit/debit card. Well, I don't. And don't ask why, cuz that's another story for another time. Cash only, playas . I start wondering aloud "If anyone has any stamps, I'll give them a dollar for one". Mainly because I want to get the hell out of there for only needing one stamp (rather than buying a book of 18 that I'll never use, unless the price of stamps gets raised again five times before I'm done with it), and also because I don't want to miss the start of the Sabres game. I swear, next year around this time, I'm setting up a table in front of that grey box they call a Post Office, buying bunches of books of stamps, and selling them outside for a premium. Only so fools like me don't have to walk in and wait in that line.Speaking of that line, it eventually moved. The guy in front of me was pretty much in the same place...I noticed he'd had both his state and federal returns. And he kept pausing along the counters to fill out "return receipts" or something like that. And of course, he did them wrong. As I become the leader in line, I notice the PO counterperson joking with him...only, he wasn't "joking". "If you like those overnighted with a return receipt, that'll be $18.20". I nearly spit blood. The PO guy kept going over other mailing options, and then informed this guy he filled out his tags wrong. I exhaled briefly when I finally got called by my second-favorite name, "Next", to the next available PO counterperson. I get halfway there, and some elderly couple jumps the line and nabs my spot.  I turn around, realizing I've been paying all of my attention to the front of the line, and not the back. Apparently, these people had also effed up their situation, and were given a free pass back into customer-satisfactionicity, ahead of me. And it had to take me turning around, wondering aloud, "Did that just happen??" for me to get an answer. So they finally open up another "place of doing postal business" along the counters and I get my shit processed. I don't get the rigamarole about extra add-ons or anything...gimme my stamp, please...postmark it, and set me on my way, thanks. Total time in the game: One half of an hour. Oh yeah, by the way, according to turbotax.com, my estimated NY tax return is: $14. Turbotax, NY, The USPS and the IRS can all kiss this bruised ass by their bullshit. I don't wait in lines for nothing. Especially when I'm filing for an extension just so I can get $14. Christ, I probably spent that much in gas just driving to the PO and back. Probably not, but close. Just sayin'. VITAL STATS: Sabres lost, but I'm not yet in panic-mode. I should be, and I know what's wrong, but I'm not the coach. And I'm not gonna tell you what I think, cuz I'm probably wrong (maybe for today)...and I'm not the media. Numbers are trending. Peace be with you and all that, on Passover. I get a reprieve of sorts tomorrow; I get to sleep in. No appointments, no bullshit, no nothing. I get my sleepy on, and I do it well. And there is no listening to nothing at all going on. The house is silence when the Sabres lose a playoff game. I need to get away from it all. I need to brood. The analysis kills me. I already know, so no thank you. Two fingers = peace, and the thumb over = out. Like me for tonight. Gonna snuggle up temptingly and see what happens. Y'all figure it out and act accordingly. GOODNIGHT NOW! |
| Good evening...allow me to set the mood by telling you what the past few days have been like with this song... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0EsZSJIypE Last time I tried to blog, I discovered late-nighting it wasn't for me. I tried to bang out a nice long one, thought I saved it, and oops, must not have. Damn if there isn't a more disappointing feeling for a writer to not have their game backed up. Back in the day, that kinda thing would've shut me down for months (gotta trust me on my experience with that). The more disappointing aspect of that was I was gonna introduce a new feature to the space, the "One Drink Review", wherein I get some new music and try to review it in one listen, and it only takes one drink of your favorite soda/beer/tea/coffee/blood to read it and fall in love with it. Or hate it. And hate me. But it can take only a sip to hate. Moving on.... That whole "One Drink Review" idea's gonna become a steady feature in this here parts, once I get over the loss of a blog entry. Shit, it ain't like leavin' a notebook of poetry in a copy machine at a supermarket for a girl who in the end wasn't quite matching your level of interest. And if I can turn you on to one song by one band you may never have the chance to hear, I'll feel like my job is done. So I'm not even gonna get into all of the car problems we've had over the last two years. That's another blog entry all to itself, when the day is fitting. No, last night sucked but it was manageable...show up to pick Jess the CWC up at work, around 20 after 10. Pull up in my usual spot, chill, turn up some music, and wait for the people to come out. Out comes a coworker who's dropping bundles of who-knows-what all over the place. Drop the window to offer some sarcasm, and she replies with "your tire is very, very low". Ouch. Thanks for the info, now can you fix it? See I don't do good with cars. They don't live long under my stewardship. We just got new tires a few weeks ago, now why I gotta get a flat one?  We filled it at the gas station across the street and made it home. If we checked it in the morning, and it was still low, we'd take it back and get it replaced under warranty. Which we did. Only this kid didn't only make it through the morning asleep, his body decided he wanted to keep it going until almost 1pm. First time in a long time that could actually happen. Got that fixed, got a lot accomplished, and got through the day where it felt like we never had been out of the house. Seriously, Foursquare needs to make me the mayor of Foursquare, for all of the goings-around I did today. I've even got haters on Foursquare. That's bad...on them! Anyway, this week's been one of those "fits and spurts" kind of weeks. All or nothing I guess...comes and goes. Real-time cliches and some of those "awww, sweeeeeet!" moments, all boiled down into a few days. Sprinkle in some outlandishness, and it makes for a nice sample of what I go through. VITAL STATS: A missing entry certainly lets your numbers stagnante. I have some emails awaiting me...one is surely from Scrapple-hater and Philidel-fan Julie D - PUBLISHED! , haterading on me about the Flyers beating the Sabres the other day. I laid low on her about the Sabres shutting them out on Thursday, so I'm gonna keep it low now. It's a seven game series. There will be ebbs and flows. The Sabres showed a lot of discipline down the strecth by not taking a lot of penalties, and I doubt they'll take as again like they did in Game 2. If they play their game, in their building, there's no reason they can't be up 3-1 when they go back to Philly. Philly may have the talent and balls, but if the Sabres stick to the system and keep their heads on, plus get some clutch scoring, they can hang with the Flyers and their unproven goaltending. After traipsing the area today (and Foursquare me if you dare doubt me), this entry was created during this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw8PpYBiDsc, which is something I had on my old iPod that was backed up on the computer of some people I don't even know anymore. Jess the CWC's son grabbed the Gorillaz's discography today before we set out to "go for breakfast". As you can tell, breakfast didn't happen. But we were a part of this: http://www.dennys.com/. And no, I didn't try the bacon sundae. I don't do sweets much and I wasn't about to do maple syrup on ice cream. Denny's, although I love Maple Bacon, you need to find me a better way to do bacon with ice cream. Throw some chocolate in there or something, skip maple, and I'm down to try it. Or.... Do I need to restart my chocolate bacon crusade again?? Huh?? Who hears me now?? Thought so. Thanks to Theee CWC for today. That's all I've got for today. Ideas in April are like snow in April...sometimes it comes, sometimes it doesn't. Today, both came. And usually, I motherfussbucket them both. Today, I lucked myself. Can't wait to see how karma plays with that last couple of sentences. GOODNIGHT NOW! |
| Good evening friends...I'm gonna take a break from hockey talk since there's only scant time left til I shave again in hopes of growing a fantastic playoff beard, and talk a little about my day-to-days...yeah, I'm gonna talk about work. For something that means everything to me, it really feels like it's all about nothings. And that's plural, and I meant it. This talk goes beyond the basics...I love my coworkers, I don't hate what I do, I used to be good at what I did but now I'm doing something else, and everything's changing again. I'm what's known in the big world of my big corporation as an "STL", as in "Store Team Lead". It's a new position that was meant to replace the store inventory coordinator, only with more perks. And by perks, I mean more management functions, like more money handling, opening or closing the store when needed, and being more of a face of the store than you ever were before. My last position was HPS, which was running the photo lab. I actually acheived an even higher ranking, "Photo Jesus". Sadly, the company didn't monetarily recognize the status, but everyone else inside it did. Mainly because I lived up to it. And that's a smirk with a attached, cuz I've got a full pocket of emotions to pass around daily.So I suck at my job now, because my job went from semi-interesting and engageful to mundane and lame. Why? Because I've realized that what I do amounts to nothing. I mean, it means something to the checker-uppers higher up, but it almost really means nothing to me. Why is that? How can such a big company make something seem so small? Let me explain. Every morning, after I release the new batch of price changes and markdowns (and there's a whole lot more price changes than markdowns...picture me in "game show host" or "monster truck advertisment"voice going around the store, bellowing "WE'RE RAISING PRICES!!", cuz that's part of what I do) I grab a big, awkward, gun shaped device we'll call a "Telxon" (which sounds really cool, but it's not, and you can't get a high score on Pac-Man with it), which pretty much decides what I'll be doing for that day. Inventory work (ie; counting random items on a daily basis) feels like 80-85% of my job. Sounds easy, no? Feels like it sometimes. Faking it feels really easy. Sometimes it's 38 items. Sometimes it's 56. Sometimes it's 250. And sometimes it's kinda in a straight shot around the store. Other days, I get zig-zagged around like the water slide wants to take you through the sand traps of customers who think deodorant (aisle 2) should be in with first aid (aisle 9) (and no bullshit; this happened to me today). Some days, I get super-lucky and have to be in at 5:45am to unload a shipment, and get out early, but it's not like I can come home, crack a few beers and relax, cuz then I'm responsible for other things that require attention. Even then, it's not like I can get to bed any earlier than usual. The part that really sucks is that the attention-necessant parts of those days aren't quite forgiving nor appreciative. It's here and now, or hell to pay; be it ignorant people or damn obligations that are either of my poor choices or the choices of others that I have to deal with. The biggest bitch about my job is the Telxon; I mentioned it above. Like I said, it dictates my day. It tells me what to count. If I don't count everything, we look bad in a corporate-generated report. That makes the district manager look bad. Then that makes my manager look bad. Then I have to explain why counts weren't done. Then I have to tell her that I am scheduled two days off a week, and if you look bad, I wasn't there those days. So yeah, it's that kind of job where it needs to get done when I'm not there...skip the "management looking bad" bullshit for a minute and do my math...my counts accumulate, so if nobody does them on my day off, I'm stuck doing all of them, on top of being "semi-management" sometimes. And yet, none of that is my complaint, actually. One of my five workdays is actually dedicated to walking the entire store and scanning shelf labels of product I've considered the store is "out of stock". The Telxon then tells me if we have it or not. Some products are still available in our store, and I should be so lucky to find them. Usually, I'm not. And usually, I'm correct. Then I have to adjust the store's ordering level for that product. Which isn't as great as it sounds. My biggest fit though is, like I mentioned, the 80-85% of my job, which includes the Telxon. It tells me what to count, but the descriptions are so vague, and now that stores are going to be renovating soon, you can't trust what it's telling you as far as item location is concerned. To make matters worse, I'm looking for items with a quantity listed at store level of "0" (that'd be "zero", if you're keeping score at home) about 90% of the time. And if I can't figure out what I'm supposed to be counting, then eff it, we don't have it. Same with the bs we have way too much of...I'm not gonna count 46 frozen pizzas...that freezer is bullshit enough to get in to, without me getting claustrophobic once it shuts. I waste so much time looking for something we don't have, just to make sure we don't have it...or on the off chance we still may have it. And if it says we have "zero on hand", like 95% of the things the Telxon wants me to count, then why am I supposed to count it? If you know we don't have it, and once a week I tell you we don't have it, then why am I damned to be wasting time counting something we don't have? All it does it make me walk around the store, frustrate me, and frustrate my customers. And yes, they're "my" customers. Foursquare will tell you that when you check in to my store, I'm the Mayor. So step off when you can't find the full shelf of the couponed crap you're looking for, with your entitled attitude. Just because we advertize it, doesn't mean you deserve it over the people who came and got it before you. Give us hard-working nothing-counters a break. We'd love to manufacture your toilet paper and coffee by hand, so as to see it's still in stock for you on a Friday when the ad Breaks on a Sunday, but by then we're too busy dealing with a report telling us what we're out of, and to make sure we count what we're out of. And after basically counting it all week, yeah, we're mother-effing out of it. VITAL STATS: No, I don't do nothing at work. I just get frustrated at counting a lot of nothings, especially a lot of nothings that I don't really have an idea of what kind of somethings they might be. On a brighter note, the other 5-15% of my job has gone a lot smmother than recent weeks. That'd be the cash-handling aspect. I balance now like a champ. I punched out with the store looking immaculate (as oppsosed to what I walked into) at 10:12pm. The downside is I'm scheduled a certain amount of hours, and the "want to go home"vs the schedule kicks my ass in the wage department. Plus the fact that this week is the week we've got all of our appointments for various things scheduled, kinda sucks. Enough negativity! Just love up on this video... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9boD5WIUGTw&feature=feedu. Just kids being kids, right? That's me and my girl, unfortunately...she kisses me, offers suprises, and I dump just about eveything but yogurt on her dome. But that's why she's enough. And speaking of Atmosphere, I LOVE preordering stuff from their website, http://www.fifthelementonline.com/ cuz they always throw in free goodies. That's important in this online world. Sneak in a few surprises and you've got a friend for life. They threw me this video and I snagged a pre-order: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0chdjyvOIQ Just couldn't let it go that I still think the Sabres will pull this series out against the Flyers. This is for you, Julie D - PUBLISHED! : {link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JX4R2DWVhs8} And with that I bid you all a good night...It's only now that I regret I opted out of the cake 10-6 schedule I had into the 8-4 I requested. I'll believe it when I get fitted for a tux on Thursday. Til then, PEACE!! |
| Good evening and a happy Sunday to you all! I wasn't gonna stop by today, then I did. I had things I wanted to rant about, but I won't. Instead, I have something I need to speak to. The NHL regular season is now done (save for the Min/Dal game playing in the background). Lo and behold, the first shot has been fired in what will be a lengthy battle between "The City Of Brotherly Love" and "The City Of Good Neighbors" over the next two weeks. And no, it hasn't come in the press between the Flyers and the Sabres. It is here, on these WDC pages, courtesy of one Julie D - PUBLISHED! . I'm not gonna post pics of CWC's cats with Sabres stickers on them (even if I could catch them and have them on long enough to get the camera and take a few shots). I don't have any pics to my knowledge of me with any Sabres, or any professional athletes, for that matter. But I have this...and even if both of these players no longer play for their respective organizations anymore, and even if the Sabres don't even wear the same colors anymore, it's a clean, legal hit, even in today's NHL. So take that, Jules... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3Gvfr9GUC0 I'm not gonna lie...I posted it a few times on Facebook last night. It brought me joy. What I love almost as much as the hit in that video is the ironic background music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JI-o25K6B-E. I have to say though, RJ's call at the beginning of the first video is vintage playoff hockey broadcasting at its finest. So that's what I've got for today. A handshake and a "good luck" to you, Julie, courtesy of the blue and gold. And I hope we don't embarrass you too much. VITAL STATS: According to the weather app on my phone, it's 77 beautiful degrees in The 'Lo, breezy, slightly cloudy with no humidity and NONE of the rain that was forecasted. 'Bout time, Spring! Can't wait to be blogging from the porch or patio! I had the house to myself for most of the afternoon...stay tuned as to why, as I should promote Jess the CWC's activities a little from time to time. I'm just gonna enjoy my me-time a little bit more for now, as she's on her way home. There's nothing like having a quiet house to disrupt with loud music and hockey! Almost at 400 looks and a few new friends along the way. Not a bad week over here, fo' sho! Speaking of loud music, this entry was created while listening to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8BuAVVNh6w while the aforementioned hockey game lingers in the background. A nice, epic song is only the first step to an epic journey of devotion that is the NHL Playoffs. Save it, bring it, and share it. GOOD DAY NOW!! |
| Good evening everyone...if you've stuck around here long enough you'll see that I've been draped a little....up there, next to the blog's title and "book item" icon....see it? Look a lil bit harder. It's a blue ribbon! Yay me! I hope someday to find a nice set of matching curtains. For those of you unfamiliar with the way Writing.com (heretofore mentioned, and will be so going forward, as WDC for the uninitiated) works, is that members can comment and rate items. Members can also leave you fun little gifts as terms of appreciation of your work and skills. That's what the blue ribbon is for. And who's it from (so that they may be so publicly thanked)? WDC members who don't already know, I'm telling you now: The one and only Julie D - PUBLISHED! is back! And it's about to get hot, folks. Julie D and I have been pals for a little while now, then went mysteriously AWOL. No calls, no letters, not even a trace of DNA. Timed so coincidently ironic with the launch of this blog, almost a year after I ended my last one and probably three since our last correspondence, was the email announcing her revival as a WDC bloggist. Julie is a Philidelphian; a Philidel-fan, dare I even say. We've been known to go back and forth with her Phillies and my undying love for all-things-related Mets baseball. But those who know me know best that baseball season doesn't start 'til hockey season's over, y'all. Which leads me to make this bold prediction: The Philidelphia Flyers and Buffalo Sabres will meet in the first round of the NHL playoffs. I even put it in bold, cuz I believe it. And I put believe in italics cuz I really believe it. And I put....wait, I could be here forever. So as the Sabres, who are guaranteed absolutely nothing yet, are roaring into the "second season", the Flyers are limping along into theirs. A #2 seed verses a #7 seed....smells like upset! And I promise the smack talk between Julie and I will be awesome. So stay tuned for that, and check her link out at the top/left of your screen. When you're done with this, of course. Anyway, to my Lancaster/Depew friends, how was that power outage last night? Pretty sweet, no? Yeah, no. Couldn't do anything. Stuck in a room as the sun's fading, faced with having to have conversation with everyone else. Luckily, I wasn't doing something like this and being cut off, only to be faced with arguing boys and whatnot. Such gladly was not the case. Hope there's no horror stories out there, friends. I think it was only out for 45 minutes to an hour or so. But still...I've got this fun little app on my phone called Foursquare. It's totally stalker-heaven. You use it to "check-in" wherever you are, you get points for check-ins, and earn stuff like "Being The Mayor" of certain establishments if you check in often enough. Currently I am the Mayor of my work, Jess' work, my basement, and the Subway restaurant next to my work. My parents would be so proud to know that my once-promising political career now consists of that, if we actually liked each other .The reason I mention this app (available at http://foursquare.com ) is that while I not only find it a little fun, but Lancaster's had two power outages in the last 2-3 months. I'm considering creating a venue and just listing the address as my zip code. And every damn time there's a power outage, I'll check in at "Lancaster Power Outage- AGAIN!!" and see how long it takes for me to become Mayor of that. By the way, if you're ever on your way over and happen to be looking to check in, find me at "My ManCave" on 4sq (as the kids call it, I imagine, these days). I'm the dapper gentleman in the corner of the basement, on the right of the stairs. VITAL STATS: Orange is a great color, if you don't bleed blue and gold. Gotta send a shout-out to my cool-shit friend Nicole, who I haven't talked to in awhile and I don't even know if she knows about this....drop a comment on Facebook and say hi! I should call ya sometime, I know. But I don't. Cuz I don't call anyone. Thank you all for helping me top 300 hits so fast. I know it's not a big milestone, but it's pretty cool. This entry was created while listening to, among other things, the debut single by the Beastie Boys' keyboardist, recorded some time in 1998 I think. Maybe not. Maybe so. Still, it's fun. Watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dqxYjkwfzYThat's it for tonight y'all. It'll be nice to sleep in before I make a dash to cover my mayorship at work around 8am or so. Peace! |
| So I've been banished to my ManCave, apparently doing time for the "attitude" I copped after being given attitude. Coincidentally, Jess reminded me that I hadn't blogged in a few days. Not that they've been all that interesting anyway. But there are a few things I'd like to share: At 7:45am, after already being at work for two hours, this is definitely not the song I wanted to hear. Yet, it is definitely the song I heard: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGytDsqkQY8 Besides the one Tragically Hip song, the one Modest Mouse song, and the one Jay-Z remix that occasionally gets some airplay, the song selection at work sucks. The beautiful part about said ManCave is that it's nearing completetion . Not sure when it was gonna happen, but thanks to our DirecTv DVR receiver in the living room nearly blowing up last night and necessitating a call to customer service, I'll finally have the ability to watch tv on my side of the basement. Once I get the dartboard hung, get a new cushion for the papasan chair, move a few more things around and get some pictures hung, I'll be straight pimpin' in the bottom of the house. I generally, as a rule, make it point not to eat food that looks like baby food, but I'll make this one exception: Green Tea-Mango smoothies from Wegmans. I'm gonna make all the out-of-towners jealous here: http://www.wegmans.comGive it up if your grocery store sells just about everything imaginable, plus it's a pizza shop, Chinese restaurant, coffee house, sub shop, dvd rental store, craft beer heaven and isn't Walmart! So this smoothie is absolutely addicting. Tastier than sin, almost as rewarding, and healthy. However, it is the color of strained peas, and looks as such. But it gets a pass in my book, just like the smelly kid in elementary school who always shares his cupcakes at lunch...looks can be, well, overlooked sometimes if the end-result is pure yummy goodness. (EDIT NOTE): I forgot what I was gonna put in here. I made some spelling upgrades. Besides that, I forget...I may have gotten ahead of myself. UPDATE: Looks like we'll have the new DVR in two days. Sweet. However, they want to charge us $69 for the additional (or as I like to call it, "ManCave-awesomizing") receiver. To which the response is "Ummm, not today..." when they want to tack on an additional charge for installing it. Just effing send it to me! I'll run the cable, drill the hole needed to run the cable, plug all the necessary wires in the proper color-coded spots, and set the tv up appropriately. They said they can't waive the installation fee on their end, but if we order it online, we'll have the option of waiving the bastard fee. Apparently, I have power that DirecTv customer service does not, yet it somehow still doesn't put a new receiver in my basement. This confounds me, and I'm confounded rarely. To further add to my confoundedness, when we moved into this house just over a year ago, they sent us two additional receivers and a man in a fancy van to hook them all up, no questions asked and no change of money from us to them. Ehh, still beats cable for price and picture quality in my book. That, and the NFL Sunday Ticket and upgrade to the "Holy Shit, that's everything!" movie package they offered us last fall for a piddly $6 extra a month pretty much seals the deal on that for me. VITAL STATS: Worked an awesome 5:45am-1:45pm (actually 2pm) shift today...lather, rinse and repeat it again tomorrow for another fun day of unloading shipment of product that everybody claims we're always out of anyway. If I'm even 10% lucky, I'll get a repeat of a near-rendition of this again tomorrow: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGWbt3DSje0 Yes, this sorta happened today. Thank you George, for probably the best day at work in a long time! And thank you for that also, George's better half Ashley, for making it possible...and for the Hot Sauce-infused, sliced chicken breast that made for some fantastic sandwiches on break! Sometimes I really do love my job! Not so much the work part, but you'll have that. (By the way, get it here: http://www.sausageguys.com/ ...I wonder if they ship out of town...). This item was created under the influence of this song, which has been stuck in my head for reasons unknown all day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5c6ngfrLgNw, Soul Coughing's "4 Out Of 5". I totally miss that band...and the lead singer's solo output is good, but not as great as the band was. 274 views to date...Who's gonna be 275?Questions, comments, or insults? Leave them in your comment box of preference, and they'll be sorted proper and addressed. Til then, I'm gonna negotiate some dinner and try to fall asleep at a reasonable hour. Hopefully with a belly full of pasta and a Sabres playoff birth clinched via Hartford Carolina losing to Detroit tonight. GOOD DAY NOW!! |
| Notice anything different? Probably not. I've retired the "Brekdancing Panda". Poor him and his lack of an "a" in his pic. Thor has taken his place. His rightful place, after he lost his home in his photo lab. He moved on to greener pastures. Now he counts things for a living. He makes a buck more an hour doing it, but he stilll finds needs to raise his hammer once in awhile. He's occasionally reminded that he could make even more, like his lover just found out she is, but he needs to adjust. He had to take himself down a peg or three just to find a place, and some happiness. And he found it, did he! Dressed in Photo Jesus drag, he had the time of his life while being multi-productive and comfortable. Of course, that productivity can outrace you sometimes. "More and more!" the people clamor. The fans adore you. The people you make money for want more money. You become too good for what you're too good at, they say. And they think that the almighty dollar makes it all better. Thor knows better. He knows that he had the power of his lover once, in a different village. While he understands the "different village, different people, different way" discussion, he also has to see things from his perspective and realize that when he's ready and able, he'll be able and he'll join the semi-elite corporate ranks. If, and a BIG when, he's ready. Burn him once, shame on you...burn him twice, shame on him. There is only one way...and it's THE WAY. VITAL STATS: Jess got a promotion today! Instead of us working the same job under different expectations in different stores, she'll rank above me by a lot of money. YAY! But she earned it, yo. She works, and it has worked for her. One can only learn from her. Written while listening to http://www.hawksleyworkman.com/ ...remember that post a few days ago about gay bars? Well, while I love women, I have figured out that there is only one (Canadian, albeit) male on the face of the planet that I can actually declare to be "sexy" and say it without quotes around it, and mean it. Mr. Hawksley Workman, I'm looking at you. And I just finally got the cd I ordered eons ago (and then replaced with what I actually ordered from the usually reliable http://www.maplemusic.com/. It'll have to grow on me, because it's way more produced than his older stuff. Enjoy the clean link down here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7DZYjh9GSI Then put your fat pants on and dance. Cuz you feel like hell and you need to. Especially after working from 6am-3:30-ish, grocery shopping, appointments, and whatnot, and not being able to relax til almost 8. Man that's a long-ass bullet point! Big ups to G-Stam for the piccy! Sir, thank you, sir!Ok, I'm done. I'm gonna wonder what the next day holds. Sometimes, it doesn't hurt if you take a step back and do the same. Even if it doesn't come true. GOODNIGHT NOW! |
| It's an adventure! It's an empire! Well, no, not really. I mean it could be, sure. Just not yet. But what it really is, actually, is an extended Facebook status update. Really. "What on earth do you mean?" I can hear you all asking. "Why is this relevant?" and "Why do I care?" are other mumblings I hear under your collective breaths (by the way, need some gum?  ).I'll tell you. Many of you are familiar with blogging. Many more of you are more familiar with Facebook. Blogging has been around as an acceptable form of social media for quite awhile; Facebook, while not as long, is arguably more popular and probably used more than any other form of networking. That's the start. But I'll tell you, I don't care what any Wikipedia entry tells you, all Facebook is is condensed blogging. Ergo, blogging is Facebook for people with longer attention spans. Plain and simple. Facebook limits your status update to a certain amount of characters. Just like Twitter, text messaging and proper morals. Allow me to analyze this a little further. When I check Facebook, I go back a little bit to see as many updates as I can handle, comment and like when applicable, and then screw it...I'm playing Madden Superstars or Bejeweled Blitz. Not that I don't care about every single one of my 1100+ friends, because I love most of you (ok, almost love almost most of you), But you use your space to create what I need to hear, and then I move on. It's a single-step interaction operation. Blogging, however, expands that window. You can't fit a story into a sentence...sometimes more detail is necessary to fully convey something properly. EXAMPLE #1: On any given day, a typical status update from me could look like this: Today at work I managed to make my boss call me an a-hole not once, but twice! That's great and all. It has all the necessary elements you need in a status update: a summary of your day, some humor, and some intrigue. But therein lies the rub: intrigue. Now you want to know, and that status has done exactly what the status-pusher wanted: Comments, or what is commonly mistaken for "interaction". Which can be great...good statuses have like 40-50 comments, with approximately half coming from the status-pusher themself. But ultimately, even with mobile apps and all the on-the-go technology at hand, it's very time-consuming if you let it be (and dammit, you're interesting, so why wouldn't you want it to be??). The back-and-forth of commenting is worse than having an actual conversation (assuming you have actual conversations with anything more than your plants or pets). Hence, my opinion on the beauty of blogging. Sure, it takes a little more work up front, but doesn't anything else that is ultimately more rewarding in the end? See, if it wasn't interesting to you, you wouldn't have made it this far. And if it is interesting, but you're not moved enough to say anything, you move on. And even if you do comment, it typically doesn't quite go back-and-forth so much. If it does, it's generally easier and more acceptable for the bloggist to answer multiple comments in one witty "follow-up/summary" comment. More of a win-win for everyone!  EXAMPLE #2: If I blogged about what I did to my boss for her to call me an a-hole twice in one day, you'd already know the whole story. That eliminates the comments like "What did u do?" and "OMG 2 funny!". Whatever conversation is amped up from there, a little more intellectually. Again, all the better for those who care more than others about that kinda stuff, I guess. Like dorks like me. SO WHAT DID WE LEARN FROM THIS TODAY? Besides the fact that my boss really thinks I'm an a-hole? That everyone has their limitations. Some are fine with 15 second bursts of info, some want a minute or so more, and some will tune in long enough to get the whole story up front. Congratulations for having the attention span to make it this far! And every story has a moral at the end, kinda like a fairy tale if you will. What's this one? Watch this video first, and then tell me. It's "Just" by Radiohead, by the way, for those unenclined to watch linkage. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_qMagfZtv8 The moral is, you don't always get to hear the ending. Sure, I'll tell ya, but all ya really need to know is that I'm a snotty lil prick to my boss sometimes, and her reaction is generally priceless. Plus, I need to keep a job, and detailing my hystericalness isn't always an appropriate way of doing so. Even if I'm the only one who thinks it's funny. But I'm guessing, in this case, I'm not the only one. VITAL STATS: My boss called me an a-hole twice, while I managed to get all my work done today in a timely fashion. http://www.omahasteaks.com is usually great food...but avoid the Crab-stuffed Sole. Unless you like bones in your fish, and seafood in general. I'm writing this on a partially-filled belly. And if you've seen this belly, you'd say that's probably a good thing. This was written during taking peeks at the Sabres game. They're up 1-0 after 2 periods over the Rangers, who they're trailing for playoff position. They're playing it like a playoff game...close and tight. By the end of the game, I'll be fully standing about six inches away from the tv. I don't know who Aram Khachaturian is, but bless him for this orchestrial piece of genius I have loved since the days of my youth: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqg3l3r_DRI (It's clean; children are allowed to look at a picture of an ugly old guy while some horns and woodwinds yammer on melodically).That's all I've got for today folks...gotta Sabres game to get back to before I hit the sheets in anticipation of work at 6am. Gonna be a long one. Unless, well, never mind....  ...you probably already know...GOODNIGHT NOW! |
| Good afternoon...I'm here to present to you all an experience I recently had. Life is full of new experiences, or at least should be. For a little background, I've included a brief clip of what we're about to get into. Enjoy... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GMZjkNW5b8 There. Now, with a lot of things in life, this comes with a disclaimer. Or, at least, a lot of things should come with a disclaimer. DISCLAIMER: I am not gay. It has been very well-documented my various exploits with those of the female variety, and most have been enjoyable. However, I happen to know several folks who prefer the company of individuals who are of the same sex as his/her own, and that's cool. Hey, to each their own, and live and let live, and (insert other friendly cliche here). Now, let it be known that while I am friends with lots of homosexuals, life didn't always come so easy in that respect. I was never a full-blown homophobic (Would that have made me partially-blown? Discuss that on your own time.). I never went around bashing gays with clubs like they were baby seals. But was I uncomfortable? Certainly. Puzzled by this trending attitude as the movement gained momentum in my teen years? Sure. When we're younger, we're always fearful of things that aren't like us. In order to accept this into our own "personal society", we have to face that fear. We have to learn. We have to grow. We have to see; and only then can we learn to accept. At least, that's how it came along for me. I was the son of a racist who threw around the N-word often enough that I thought he had a record deal with Def Jam, and his cure for AIDS was to "take all the n*****s, faggots and drug users, put 'em all on an island and give them guns". Creative, he was, no? Anyway...moving on... So as I mentioned, I experienced a "first" for me. Even at my age, it's nice to still have "firsts". And this was a biggie for me. On Sunday afternoon, I went on my very first trip to a Gay Bar. See, Buffalo has a pretty decent community of rainbow colored, flag-waving members of society. And these people like to have drinks and socialize. These establishments have opened, making it safe for these people to do just that in an environment that doesn't have a threatening feel of people staring, mocking, or otherwise passing unnecessary judgements. They are non-exclusive, open to everyone, and, I'm proud to say, a damn good time. We went because it was one of CWC's co-worker's birthday, so her work people were gonna be there, and some of my co-workers as well, cuz, they're, well, gay, and this is where they hang out. At first inspection, it looks like any other dive bar in pretty much any other community in Western New York...well-stocked bar, jukebox, posters up announcing shows, etc. Only it's a little more purpley and most of the patrons are not like me. Which I'm ok with. Party started at 3...we show up at 5 cuz I'm like that. One of J's friends is already trashed. She's straight, but licking J's face to the point of J being uncomfortable...and to the point of wanting to hook up with my girlfriend. Oh dear me... Now, most of those who know me know that while I'm accepting of all types of people of any variety, there is one simple rule I've placed upon my homosexual friends that should be adhered to at all times: Do not let your friends hit on me...that is the only thing about men who like men that really makes me uncomfortable. And I can honestly say I don't know why that is, unless it's the fact that I have to turn them down. But sure enough, some big, bald, brown dude gently smacks me on the chest as I'm coming in from having a cigarette and holding the door for him, and says "Thank you, cutie" as he walks through. Ahhhhh, ummm, excuse me?? Those who know me know that I do not believe myself to be a "cutie", though it is nice to hear once in awhile. But to hear it from another dude is just kinda off-putting, if ya know what I mean. On the flip-side, we met a very nice lesbian couple who absolutely adored us and told us that several times, between group hugs and stuff. Jess told them how we met, and they friggin' loved me like a champ for it. That, I really enjoyed. So overall, it was a great time. It had to happen eventually I figure, what with all the gayness surrounding me and all. Maybe all it took was just the right people. Or maybe all it took was me. Either way, fun. Everyone should go at least once, and stay for more than a drink or two. You'll never know what can happen...especially when a boss of your girlfriend is drunk beyond belief and groping everything. That's all I'll say about that. VITAL STATS: Bullet points rule! 78 views on four entries ain't too bad when I should be doing better things like answering emails and doing housework. Borders was out of the book AND cd I was looking for. So I'm out of my "Save 40% on one item" coupon. It's ok though, cuz I saw my old manager from when I worked at the smaller Borders, and we spoke for a few minutes. Special shout-out to Justin, who reads this stuff...thanks! This was written while listening to this: Indie hip-hop's head of the class...(explicit lyrics and Beastie Boys samples, so hide the women and children...):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlqJl2XDhkU Celebrate life and each other, often. Peace homies! |
| Good evening.... Two examples from the last two days about why I feel customers shouldn't talk to me: EXHIBIT A: So I'm cashing out customers at a back-up register (for those who don't know, I'm in a semi-management position at a very large pharmacy chain) when an older gentleman asks me for a raincheck on a product we're out of stock on. No problem, I think. Then somewhere, in his small-talk, says, "I don't care, I'm not paying for your Trojans." Ummmm....Excuse me?? "Yeah, I'm not paying for your condoms." I shake my head as if my head isn't capable of shaking, look at him, and say, "Dude I've been with the same girl for 2-1/2 years. I don't need 'em." [SIDEBAR: I said nothing while cashing him out at all about condoms. I do not know where this man, who came before me at his wife's behest looking for pink salmon in a can, got the idea I might be macking on anyone for prophylactics.] He then decides to continue a conversation that I'm not interested in at 10am by telling me he doesn't even know how much they go for nowadays, and if I know the "going rate". To which I again repeated the headshaking answer, substituting "No idea man" for "I don't need 'em". He walked away a little miffed. Sir, I'm sorry, but please don't initiate that kind of conversation with me if you're not going to like the results, regardless of your intent. Thank you, and good day. EXHIBIT B: I'm taking a short break in the office with two higher-ranking members of management, when the cashier pages for someone to take a customer service call (and I take the pity usually, because they usually deal with a lot of the crap I dealt with up above, only tenfold). The three of us are sitting there, all kinda WTF-ing it and comparing notes...I took the last call, one manager took the call before, and the other manager outranked us and wanted nothing to do with it. So I manned-up, or as I like to consider it, "India'd-up". Yes, I adopted a fake name and an accent much like one you hear when dialing a big company's customer service line that outsources their "customer service operations" to places abroad. This sent the two other office occupants into separate fits of hysterics and wonderment. She was looking for some dental product I had never heard of, so as I put her on hold with full confidence I would find what she was looking for, they asked me what it was. "Something something mouth rinse..." and as I walked away they told me what it was and where to find it, and sure enough I did. I came back, grabbed the call, grabbed my fake accent, and told her I had it and I'd hold it in the photo lab for her. I thankyoubyebye'd her in proper form and hung up. The laughter ensued. No matter what happened the rest of the day, it woulda been a good day anyway from that point on. And it was. As I walk out of the office to put the product in photo, the tech wonders why I'm laughing as I'm telling him that a customer is coming in a half-hour to pick it up, but might be looking for a small Indian boy. I cop my accent again and say, "I do not know?". Wait a second...wait a second....and he busts out laughing cuz he gets the joke just before he realizes he does. Quality play on my part, I must say. Oh, and when the customer came in to pick up her merch, she was totally confused, apparently. Saw her goods, said "I think you're holding this for me...", the tech gave it to her and cashed her out and she walked away puzzled. Again, please, don't talk to me. UPDATE: Yes!! A fantastic night at the Sabres game last night (my pics are on Facebook if you need to see them) with ridiculously awesome seats, and a big shutout win today. I could not be more happy for my favorite hockey team. And that sounds like a cheesy homer statement, which it is, but so what...it's been a long season and things are looking up, so mad love for the Sabres. That's all I've got, or all I've got time for, as the CWC (Remember her? We'll still call her "Cute Walgreens Chick" for those that don't know her as "Jessica") was like "Oh, you're blogging? I'll leave you alone" and adopted a snotty tone like I was the bad cat that couldn't stay out of the garbage, when in fact I had managed to keep up an entire conversation with her the whole time and not get annoyed til she saw what I was doing. Then she sarcastically asked if I mentioned how much of a nagging bitch she was, in that kind of tone. To which I responded, "I will if you want me to." Please, don't talk to me. That's it for tonight folks. More adventures planned for a welcomed day off tomorrow...including the possible purchase of Soundgarden's new live cd/dvd combo at, of all places, Borders. I'm hoping this is on it...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8nkHrv_4Mg GOODNIGHT NOW! |
| A quickie update, if you will.... A day of good news, if you like Radiohead. Their new album is coming out next week, as opposed to the reports it was coming out in May. So, yay! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfOa1a8hYP8 I've been going since 5:30am, so forgive me if this seems short and what-not. WDC members who I've lost blog-touch with, hit me up so I can check out your blogs again. Some of you have dropped out, dropped off, or just pulled a me and gave up. I found a few of you, but I'm pledging back in, if you'll have me. I dunno if I can sleep...Jess got us sick Sabres tickets tomorrow night. Actually, I got them; she just ponied up the ching for 'em. Stubhub.com is where it's at for tickets. Center ice, 5 rows up for Sabres tix, at around $150/pair is well beyond larceny, and certainly far beyond the going-rate. Needless to say, I'm excited. I'm fine with 300-level tix, where I can watch plays unfold and see everything. But she wanted to "get really good seats, once, in her life". So we did it. I may have an ugly day at work tomorrow also, but that's not yet for me to say why and yet to be determined. Worry not for me, since it doesn't involve me. So far... We've got a sick kid in the house. Painful-sounding vomiting, enough to wake the mother hen. She said one name, another kid emerged, and who knows what kind of hell may or may not break loose when the battle for the shower commences tomorrow morning. I think that's all I've got. I'm sure I'm leaving something out. I usually do. So I'll end here, within my excitement divided between tomorrow and Tuesday... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fe6X9fLLp0Y So many big, awesome, crazy things that could happen tomorrow. And just so many enough that could swing me down. P.S. (to a friend in a rough patch of life, and you know who you are...): I'm sorry I didn't take your call right away. I was in the bathroom, getting ready for an appointment. But I really hope you're ok. We'll talk soon. If you want to. But my take is you need to get your ass someplace safe and totally away from that dude, history or not. Otherwise, he's gonna end up rewriting your history, and very unfavorably at that. I say this because I care a lot about you. I can't help you if you don't answer my returned call. And I can't help you if you can't just leave. I want to help you. |
| 14 views in 2 hours is fantastic...anybody else wanna do that math for me as to how that'll play out over 3 years (or the estimated length of my last blog, give or take)? First step in fixing things (because we all know that as soon as something new is rolled out, there's something wrong with it): KILL THE BREKDANCING PANDA. Do it gently, as it was a gift. But please...I'm a grammar whore, and it doesn't serve me well otherwise. Snap decisions and good intentions...but no. Wrong, bad, and no. Bad panda. So to my handy WDC friends who see this, I will be on the take at a decent GP price for something new to stick up there. I don't have any ideas. Except for monkeys. Monkeys earn you coin, fo' sho'. Save a panda, hire a monkey. Or something. Man I can't wait for this to actually get interesting and relevent. |
| I'M BACK! It's been awhile. I've been a little busy. But I'll be around...dammit, that means I should catch up on other blogs then, no? Eh, it'll probably help. Anyway, I've missed writing, and this was when I was at my best (in my opinion, at least). So I'll check in a few times a week, hang a few words up here and there, and see what sticks. I left because I was out of inspiration, I suppose. Nothing more to say about anything. Couldn't put the perspective to anything in particular. Then it hit me...just talk about everything. Anything. Whatever. Music. Sports. Work. Politics. Entertainment. Life. Anything goes...or at least I hope it does. Be warned...if I offend you, it won't be on purpose. I'm open-minded. I'm a thinker. Sometimes we won't agree, but healthy debate is pretty a-ok with me. And if you missed it the last time around, here it is:
Hope this works... VITAL INFO: Written while listening to watching having Family Guy on in the background.  |
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I'm glad you read and enjoyed this, Ann...I know if I were ever presented with the same situation again I wouldn't be as uncomfortable. It's amazing to see how things have changed in five years...I can only imagine how much perception has changed over the last 50. I've always felt that gays were no more or no less than anyone else, and you're absolutely right that they are just like everyone else in 99% of activities. And if that 1% is what creeps people out, well, it's none of their business anyway...and there are better, more tactful ways to respond than with hatred.
