hyphen_power

A cat, dinner, and a movie.

Sat, 19 Dec 2009 03:17:22 GMT

I swear, Sushi got me up four times this morning, apparently hungry but not really before I finally threw him outside. He just wanted me up at 4 in the morning, is all. Such a BRAT.

Yesterday was a lot of fun. Went out to Caraba's with some friends for some awesome italian food, then went to see the new Christmas Carol movie.

Verdict: It's not that bad.

It's a lot creepier than the previews make it out to be, which focus on the humor and sight gags. Remember that one where Scrooge gets it in the nards from an icecicle? Well, that's in the middle of a scene where the spirit of Christmas Future is chasing him around on a huge shadow horse carriage through the frozen lanes of London. It's pretty intense. There's some really moody scenes that I particularly enjoyed. The sense of isolation in Scrooge's mansion was enough to make me almost feel cold, and the last scene with Christmas Present is downright scary.

While it is pretty creepy, being a ghost story at heart, it's still pretty tame and ends on an uplifting note. JIm Carey must have had a dozen voice parts, including Scrooge, the first two spirits and a handful of minor characters and extras. And oh yeah, Colin Firth plays his nephew.

It's billed as a 3D movie, but the effect suffered from the fact that I could see the borders of the screen the whole time which broke the effect for me. The last 3D film I saw was at an IMAX theater, which has such big screens that the 3D effect works really well. As such it delves a lot into the gimmicky side of 3D filmmaking, which means lots of zoom shots, things being thrown at the screen and some pretty wacky camera work, but not so wacky you lose track of what's going on.

Animation-wise it's pretty standard CGI. Lots of detail, but little that really made me go WOW. It's painfully obvious who the important characters are just by looking at how detailed they are rendered. Scrooge = massive amounts of detail. Urchin #3: = bare essentials. The gestures are really good, but it's all motion-captured anyway. Pixar's more cartoony designs are still more convincing when it comes to expressions.

One small thing I was glad for was the choices they made for the Christmas carols played throughout the film. I'm glad they actually sang the lyrics that mention Christ (and clearly!) rather than just cutting to instrumentals or using more holiday-neutral songs. For me it felt good to find some mention the holiday's true star in this age of trying to please and avoid offending everyone. It's not central to the film, but it's a small thing that made me like it more.

ex dee

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 03:28:52 GMT

So I find out today that not only is there an honest to God tea shop at the mall (discovery made during Christmas shopping), but there is also a really cute girl who works there that I flirted with pretty hard core. She even asked when I'd be back, to which I responded with the oh-so-cliche "Depends. Will you be here?" Yeah, yeah. Give me a break. You all know I'm no good at ad libbing!

And just a few minutes ago I found out that Wendy's is giving free frostees with their combos.

Today has been a good day!

Woo-hoo!

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 17:12:37 GMT

Just reserved a ticket for the Eric Clapton / Roger Daltrey concert in March. *air guitars to infinity and beyond*

Update: now my whole family is going as well as some friends of ours! I wonder how many more people we know are going to wind up on this trip?

Gamer Post

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 05:27:57 GMT

I've been a gamer since before middle school, but only recently have I been able to get back into it.

Things I'm playing now:

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

This game is AMAZING. I got it because my coworkers were begging me to play them online, but I must rave about the campaign. It simply goes from one jaw-dropping set piece to the next. One mission you're sprinting across the rooftops of a favela with a militia army closing in, bullets zipping all around you and your commander shouting directions from a helicopter; the next you're fighting your way through Washington, DC with Russian soldiers shooting at you from the windows of the bombed-out capitol. Infinity Ward really outdid themselves with this title. The story gets more and more intense with each mission, and I'm wondering how the heck I'm going to stop the Russian invasion and bring Makarov to justice.

Prince of Persia

Very pretty, very relaxing. Running across a ceiling is one of the slickest moves I've seen in a long time.

Dragon Age: Origins

Been neglecting this a bit, but one hell of a game. Allister cracks me up something hard with his remarks, and I love snarking with him. Only problem is that playing it on a standard-def TV makes the menu text REALLY hard to read.

Street Fighter 4

Good game, but rather hard to play with the 360 controller. I think I'm getting the hang of it.

Halo 3: ODST

I'll admit I'm a sucker for Halo. The soundtrack is standard fare for Martin O'Donnel: awesome.

Also got the chance to play Rock Band at a friend's house yesterday. Yes I know I'm late for that, but that didn't stop me from having fun!

Still awesome

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:26:58 GMT

I don't know how many times I've watched this, but it's a lot.

I think...

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 15:54:46 GMT

I may have neglected this journal for too long...

AAAAAAH!

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:37:48 GMT

Sean Bean will play Eddard Stark in the Song of Ice and Fire series!

*faints*

Good grief

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 04:19:26 GMT

Nothing quite like having your supervisors show up for a surprise inspection and more or less tell you you're doing everything wrong.

Reaction: Meh.

More interesting than work, better than a real post!

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 02:27:42 GMT

Take How good of a Calvinball player are you? at HelloQuizzy

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Should have seen this coming

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 19:24:08 GMT

I think we're about to lose about half of our drivers in the next couple of weeks. Work is going to be fuuuuuun.

Huh.

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 05:47:01 GMT

I came home from work, ate the dinner mom left for me in the oven, then proceeded to lie on the kitchen floor and play with my cat for some time.

Am I losing it or just bored?

Deathmobile Mk. II

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 07:14:17 GMT

With the help of a small loan from my dad, I am now the proud owner of a horseless carriage!

It's a 2002 Chevy Blazer. Ironic considering my first car was a '92 version of the same model. They're even both black inside and out. The timing was all kinds of perfect. I went to high school with the guy who runs the dealership, and he knew I was in the market for a vehicle when a lady traded in the Blazer for a different car. It's still in excellent condition, and after they detailed and inspected it for me it was good to go. He even filled the tank and changed the battery. The only noticeable bits of wear are a hole in the center console's pad and a long scratch down the right side.

But really, any qualms I have with it are minor at this point. The car is signed in MY name, under MY insurance policy and paid for with MY money (aside from the loan which I will be paying back). And it has a working air conditioner which makes driving in the summer heat so much more bearable. The only thing I've forgotten so far was to put a house key on my key chain XD

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:29:29 GMT

Dear coworker who developed a case of the "I don't feel like its," called in and forced me to open the store on my day off:

Grow the fuck up.

On saving money

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 18:17:54 GMT

The thing that sucks about trying to squirrel away as much money as you can:

No matter how good the reason, the fact that I don't get to go out very often (because going out = spending money) means that I have NOTHING to talk about since I'm working all the time.

The good news is that should come to an end soon, as I may be able to start seriously searching for a car after tomorrow's paycheck. Then I can afford to be a little more liberal with my monies. After I get paid again because I will be BROKE for a little while.

See? All I can talk about is work!! It's driving me nuts!

So here's a video about cats, by engineers, for engineers, and the general public.

You know what?

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 07:03:32 GMT

It feels really refreshing to have every single one of your personal and professional faults spelled out and why they're causing conflicts, even if it's from someone you've only known for a couple of weeks. I'm actually more annoyed that I've been allowed to get away with all this for so long without anyone telling me!

A not-so-off day off.

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 06:05:33 GMT

It sucked getting called in to work today, but since all I had to do was drive, it was a refreshing change of pace. It was nice for once to only have to worry about my own work, as opposed to keeping track of everyone else in the store like I usually do. All in all, I didn't mind so much, and I made almost forty dollars in tips! Not bad for a Tuesday night. Plus hey, I like driving to begin with.

At least I was able to follow the LSU baseball game on the radio, which turned into a real nail-biter. I was able to get home in time to see the final two innings, and the Tigers were able to pull out a very close victory over Texas. Tomorrow is game two, and if LSU wins tomorrow, they take home the championship! I'm not counting on being home early enough to see much of it, but you never know. It's going to be a good one, if tonight's game was anything to go by.

Also, because my store hit all its numbers last period, I got a bonus check! It's not much, but anything more than my usual wages is good to see. Hopefully I'll just be a couple more paychecks from affording a car. I know that it won't ultimately make me happy, as material possessions so seldom do, but it WILL make things a little easier for me since we won't have to plan ahead for when people need transportation around here.

Provided, of course, the car isn't a total lemon.

Icon Related

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 07:37:21 GMT

These past few weeks have not been kind to us at work. We are going through one of those "revolving door" periods where people keep getting hired, fired or quit and all related stresses involved. The biggest source of stress for us right now is that we have a severe shortage of drivers at the moment and can't seem to fill the ranks. It helps very little that one of our best drivers who also worked the most hours decided he'd rather repair windshields for a living right now. It's not so bad that they quit, but that they wait until just before their shift starts to call in and say they're not coming in today or ever.

With so few drivers, it's hard to keep our delivery times low which makes the supervisors unhappy. I think for now they understand our predicament. It also means that when a driver can't make it, our pool of available drivers is really, really small or nonexistent. To put it simply, being even one driver short on a Thursday or Sunday makes an impressive dent in our numbers.

We keep getting lots of applications, but we can't hire just anybody. It's a pretty intense job at times and you have to be able to work very fast and not mind working late nights and weekends. It seems Terri is very reluctant to hire minors due to labor laws. It's much easier to schedule someone who doesn't have to take a half-hour break every five hours. Thankfully the insiders we have now are total troopers and actually like working a lot. One of them will probably get management training once she turns eighteen.

Also, one of our assistant managers has decided she wants to step down, which means my two day weekends are probably going to get halved for a while. Again.

One thing this is teaching me to deal with is my tendency to let myself get overwhelmed and end up panicked. It hasn't been easy, but I am slowly learning to deal with problems as they come, rather than trying to deal with them all at once and getting ahead of myself. Terri has said it'll click one day. I hope that day comes soon.

I dunno, tonight I just felt like a total wreck after work. While I'm sure this isn't the first or last employment crisis the store has ever had, I can't help but entertain thoughts of looking elsewhere for work. I think it comes down to what a friend told me while discussing my career path: While I can do this type of job and do it well - that is, a job with a lot of things going on at once -, I most certainly won't be happy doing it for too long.

By the time my parents leave for Australia, I think it would be best if I am employed in some other area. And in that regards, the clock is ticking.

GYAAAAH!

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 06:39:30 GMT

I love my cat. My favorite thing about him is that he's often there to greet me after I get home from work. Of course he really just wants me to let him in and feed him, but at least he's friendly to me over something ^_^

Tonight, however, he was a little too excited to see me. In fact, he couldn't even wait for me to pull into the driveway. I was a couple of houses down when I saw a black and white shape bounding toward the car out the corner of my eye. I slammed on the brakes about as hard as my heart went into cardiac arrest, fearing to feel a slight bump and find a black and white pancake behind my car >.<

Thankfully, he veered away, and after I parked he trotted to me blissfully unaware that he'd tried to cheat death. Grrh. God dang cat.

Dear Marvel:

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 18:25:41 GMT

When you kill off a character by SHOOTING HIM IN THE HEAD and go to the trouble of replacing him with a flawed but determined rookie who is totally aware that he can't fill his predecessor's shoes, is it really that much trouble to keep him dead? All this does is give me one more reason not to read Marvel's mainline comics. I think your entire editorial staff needs to be fired and replaced with people who actually know how to write.

This brought to you by news that Marvel is, surprise surprise, bringing the original Captain America back from the dead after killing him off a mere two years ago.

Rumors

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 19:49:57 GMT

Rumor has it that they may start making us close the store an hour earlier in the near future. Of course I'm not going to believe anything until I hear it from higher up, but I think it's a unanimous opinion among the staff that this would be a very good thing. Generally, the last hour of business on any given day is completely dead and is generally spent cleaning the store, doing paperwork, and running up our labor costs due to having people on the clock without any orders coming in.

Even the GM agrees that would help the store, since after a certain point there aren't enough orders coming in to really help our numbers at all. I'll keep my fingers crossed, but I won't be surprised at all if it turns out to be simply a rumor, either. And hey, getting the chance to go home earlier would be a very good thing.

post-mortem

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 07:37:08 GMT

Did I say one thirty? I'm sorry, I meant two fifteen or so.

pre-mortem report

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 20:14:50 GMT

I am beat. Got up at five this morning to go fishing. Got home around three. Now I have to go to work at four and close the store, so I won't be getting home until around one thirty in the am.

My chances of going to church tomorrow are looking preeetty slim.

Curses!

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 17:42:42 GMT

I actually get outside on my brother's weight set to do some lifting, and just when I'm getting into the groove the clouds start rumbling with thunder. And seeing as I'm lifting a steel bar over my head, I decided that it was not worth risking a freak lighting strike.

Icon Related

Thu, 21 May 2009 06:54:44 GMT

Yes, I know, it will all go towards making me a stronger, more mature individual. But that doesn't stop me from declaring to night a total clusterfuck.

You see, today was the high school's graduation, and we were blissfully unaware and woefully under prepared. The result was predictable but nonetheless regrettable. We could handle the massive amounts of business, but somewhere along the line the orders started going completely wrong, which only caused more chaos, and then in the middle of all this my GM (God bless her) gets a call from her sister telling that their father is on his deathbed. Even so, she didn't get to leave for over an hour after that. I mean, my God!

In the end I had to keep everyone at the store past closing so they could clean while I did the nightly paperwork, which I did not even get started on until almost closing. Still didn't get out until very late and I'll probably get grilled on it again. I'm just thankful I wasn't missing any money, which I was afraid of the whole time.

If we're going to continue operating in this town, we'll have to stay on top of local events. Tonight was just too much.

Ugh, what a night. And yesterday the GM told me if she ever got fired the store would be mine. I really, really hope she was joking. Being just an assistant manager there is bad enough. Two more days and then I get a day off. Siiiiigh.

Facts about Rich

Fri, 15 May 2009 06:12:47 GMT

Things Rich can do well:

Single tasks that require a large amount of time and concentration to achieve a good result.

Examples:

Role playing
Audio mixing
Writing
Cooking
Cleaning

Things Rich can't do well:

Multitasking.

Examples:

Trying to close the restaurant while juggling customer orders, inventory, accurate cash counts, managing labor costs, cleaning, making food, keeping the drivers going smoothly and praying that nothing goes totally wrong in the meantime, like coming up a few bucks short, which happened. Also, trying to do all of this in as little time as possible, which tends to cause stress to manifest itself in the middle of my back as I hope I don't have to get lectured by my boss again.

In short, learning how to juggle a dozen tasks at once with a time limit has been a messy process. I feel like I've run up against a wall that's going to take some serious effort to overcome.

The GM has really only been clamping down on it this week, but my sense of perfectionism won't let my conscience rest even though I know it's just going to take time and effort to streamline the whole process. It's also probably going to be a stumbling block for me as I will want to get everything just right and double and triple check it for accuracy. I just hate making mistakes >.<