Surety

I thought about the title "Death and Taxes," but I have no deaths to report...;-) I just finished my taxes. Normally I'd not procrastinate this much, but this was my first year figuring them out on my own. Previously an uncle of my mom's who also does my parent's returns graciously did mine as well. This year I had to wait until I could catch my brother-in-law at home at a time conducive to coherent thought (i.e. not at 01:00 or right before leaving for work). Of course once he opened up Turbo Tax I realized that I could do it all on my own (besides asking him a couple questions for clarification). The amount I'll be getting back is substantial and will do well to supplement my current income.

I'm looking seriously into getting another job at the museum center (part time in the gift shops) to supplement my bigg's income--even though it would likely involve giving up days off. As it stands I can just afford to pay my bills, tithe, and for necessities like gas--nothing left over for savings or spending money (why I'm enjoying the quarter money--though tithing from that too and I've thought that if I'm going to give extra, which I can't afford from my normal income now, it would come from there--say to a missionary at church). I'll be able to sock this refund away in my savings account at ING Direcdt where it will earn a healthy 4% interest until I need it. Hopefully I'll find a better job soon, or at least I won't lose this one (I really don't think I'll lose it, so I'm not sure why I typed that--perhaps I'm just to strangely lazy to hit the Backspace key and I'd rather just type this longwinded parenthetical explanation!) so that I can leave the savings money alone for a while.

~Matt

Utterly disgusting

I've never been too tempted to smoke. I think it has something to do with all of the education as a kid about the evils of smoking, my parents, and how nasty cigarette smoke smells (those aren't necessarily listed in order of importance). Well what I had to do today didn't give me any reason to change my mind.

As you walk up to the outer doors of bigg's (for you California readers places in cold weather country have two sets of doors so you don't open up the warm inside to freezing blasts of cold air everytime somebody enters or exits) you will see signs on the doors notifying you that no smoking is permitted inside. Of course many people walk up to the doors with lit cigarettes, desparate to get in those last few puffs before they must enter the smoke free store. Instead of just expecting people to drop their cigarettes on the ground (though sadly many do--Have I ever mentioned that working with the general public day in and day out does more to support my belief in human depravity than anything else besides the Bible?) bigg's has provided containers where cigarettes may be safely disposed of.

They look like large board game pieces (like pawns from the game Sorry!). Near the top of the central pole is a hole through which the smokers drop their cigarettes. The cigarettes fall down the shaft into the bottom of the container which flares out into an open space perhaps sixteen inches in diameter. This area consists of a plastic bottom (similar to the top piece) containing a metal tub. The metal bucket is filled with water so that lit cigarettes are extinguished when they fall in. Well one of the more onerous duties which is incumbent upon housekeeping/carts staff to perform is the emptying of these containers.

In preparation one of the other staff and I each donned two latex gloves on each hand. Then after removing the top piece we used a wad of paper towel as further insulation before grabbing the handle of the metal tub and tipping the contents into a trash container. The smell from these metal tubs was as far as I can recall the most vile odor that my olfactory nerves have ever had the misfortune to encounter. I would rather spend all day in 100 degree weather in a well used cow pasture than spend five more minutes with that smell. As the other employee pushed the trash container in front of the store so we could go to the other door I very deliberately walked in front of him, upwind! *shudder* I only hope that I don't have to be involved in this process again while I'm employeed at bigg's. If I never smell that noxious odor again it will be far too soon!!

~Matt

Bittersweet

Well I'm giving up on the two books at at time for a bit I think. Not at all because it hasn't gone well. Each time I've tried it I've enjoyed the experience--though I picked the wrong two books the middle time--I've not yet finished Star Wars while I finished the first book in the omnibus Steven R. Green book...so those are on hold for a bit. I'm just plunging ahead into the rest of the DragonCrown War Cycle.

But I just finished Owls Well that Ends Well. Mark, I really can't thank you enough for directing me to Donna Andrews. I really, really enjoyed the Meg Langslow series!!! I mistakenly read We'll Always Have Parrots first, finishing it on the 26th of March. Once I had everything straightened out I purchased the rest and finished Murder with Peacocks on the 31st (purchased 3/29) with Owls following this evening after the rest in between. :-) So I'm somewhat saddened that I don't get to visit with Meg, Michael, and her crazy family for a while...but the fantasy I just finished was even more bittersweet.

Michael Stackpole is an amazing author! The first book of his that I read was I, Jedi and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I think it might have been part of what has steered me away from the reset button Star Trek novels into more serious books (though I'm sadly behind on my Star Wars canon--I'm not even close to being able to read the New Jedi Order). The Dark Glory War was one of the best fantasies that I've read in years. It came across as real. The main character comes of age at the start--he is eighteen and just becoming a man. But throughout he realizes that despite what he does and accomplishes he is yet a very young man, never feeling the equal of the men around him. Yes as he is one of the heroes of the tale obviously he accomplishes much--but it feels more natural than most stories where the young boy goes off on a quest that turns him into a man. Stackpole is going to give me good direction when it comes time for me to get more serious about my fantasy writing.

I've long wanted to avoid sterotypes--to the point that I forever banished the idea of Elves from my personal fantasy universe (while keeping dwarves though). Even in the cooperative fantasy universe I developed with some friends I took charge of the Elves and have made them very different--they have different racial stocks, cultures, and religions--oh, and humans have more magic than they do. :-) *shrugs* But enough about me, back to Stackpole.

I say bittersweet because of the ending of DGW. I won't say more, but as I was as involved in the book as I usually am in good books it hurt to read the end. Of course I'm about ready to plunge into the trilogy that this volume was intended to be a prequel to, but still... If you read fantasy and are ready to get away from some of the cliches for a bit you could do much worse than picking up The Dark Glory War. If you've heard me talk about fantasy you know that I no longer even glance at any book by (blast what is his name...), oh yeah, David Eddings.

I read his four main series and was disgusted at the end when I realized he basically recycled the same plot, even down to many features of geography and politics. He claims that formulas are what sells and perhaps he is right. I still enjoy the novels of Terry Brooks--they are somewhat formulaic in the heroic quest mode--but they're more lighthearted and still enjoyable. Despite what publishers or David Eddings might claim I'm always ready for something good that bucks tradition--and Stackpole definately has that talent. I've already marked one of his other fantasies at the library and bought another with my quarter money (I ordered it on-line at Amazon)--both are stand alone. I can hardly wait to continue exploring his worlds! :-)

Recent Entertainment

First a report on Serenity. Yes it was just as good the second time. It has been long enough that I didn't remember every little detail before it happened, which made the experience more enjoyable. The extras were also quite nice. The easter egg on the main screen contains a short documentary about the Fruty Oaty Bars commercial (the one with the subliminal message that sets River off) and a full screen version of the commercial it self--all great stuff.

I was also reminded again how much I enjoyed both Firefly and Serenity for their dialogue. Joss was a genius writing the stories. The dialogue captures a sci-fi angle that yet feels archaic and western with splashes of Chinese not seeming out of place. This along with the constant humour is great. I can understand his pain in cutting some of the deleted scenes as they contain more excellent ripostes of wit.

Well my last reading of two books simultaneously went quite well. Phobos was a great sci-fi mystery and reading it along with We'll Always Have Parrots only heightened my enjoyment of both books. I'm at it again now. First I'd started Owls Well that Ends Well, but I don't want to finish it too quickly as it is the last of the Meg Langslow series from Donna Andrews that I have to read.

It works out great because when I went to Borders yesterday I not only purchased Serenity but I picked up four books by Michael Stackpole. If you're into Star Wars you may recognize him as the author of the X-Wing series. I've not read them yet, but if they're anything like his other books (including I, Jedi which I have read) they're probably quite good.

Unfortunately I ran across some of these books at a Cincinnai Public Library book sale a few months back and for one reason or another I didn't buy them. It breaks my heart (and wallet? ;-)) to think that I could have had two or three of these books for fifty cents if I'd only bought them then! I did get one 15% off for answering a phone survey from Borders and one using the weekly 25% off coupon, but still more than $0.50 a book! *sigh* Well I've just caught up to Owls in my reading of The Dark Glory War so I'm now switching back to Donna Andrews for Chapter Ninteen.

I leave for work at 13:30 so I think I'm going to go pack my lunch and then get in as much reading as I can. Or perhaps I'll just reverse that order... :-)

~Matt

PS This post reminds me that I haven't updated my library in a bit. I think that as I'm not likely to buy any books for a while I'm going to have to export my library to html and upload the new version. Hmmm...I might even post about the statistics later--they're quite interesting. I can't wait until I have all my books unpacked and I can know that every book I own is listed in my computerized listing!!

Serenity

Well Mark went out and bought The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. I plan on buying that eventually--but it was another movie I had to get today. It has been out for a while, but regretably I forgot about it for a while, and didn't have money to get it--that was all rectified today. Today I purchased Serenity. I'm going downstairs to watch it now. I saw it in theaters--but only once, and I'm more than ready to enjoy it again! :-)

~Matt

Rain, i.e. liquid wet stuff from the sky

Yeah, that stuff. I used to love it, well I still do enjoy a really good rainstorm, just so long as I'm not working on that same day. Working outside as I do now I'm really not attracted to pulling carts through pouring rain or having to deal with drenched carts. Last night involved some rain, but thankfully much of the time I had to be outside it was barely coming down, if at all.

The picture at left is from 2004, during my last couple months at TMC. The view is towards the cafeteria and computer sciences building along the front of the library. I was standing in between Vider and Rutherford (but almost to Rutherford) when I took the picture. 'Twas a wonderful rainy day--or it had been.

I don't know if I've mentioned it, but I'm off on a bit of a movie kick. I have seven DVDs out from the library, and I've been enjoying them. :-) Last night I watched Shanghai Noon and this morning it was Shanghai Knights. Both were quite fun, and as I approached them first as comedy and then as historical fiction I enjoyed them much more than Zorro. Perhaps I just expected too much of Zorro, whereas these were entertainment from the start that happened to be interesting. You have to love the name of Jackie Chan's character Chon Wang (say it out loud) and all of the characters they run into are great.

For some reason I've never seen the movie Jaws, so that was also one of the movies that I checked out from the library. Of course I've heard about the movie for years--but I've never before taken the opportunity to lay hands upon a copy.

Now of course I'm still reading--currently I'm in the middle of Crouching Buzzard (well nearer to the end actually). But since after that I only have Owls I don't want to rush things too much.

I have some leads from Mark about other good mysteries though, and plenty of other books that can keep me occupied, so I'm not really that bad off...;-)

Still all this talk of rain (well and retyping my title) reminds me of the dangers of dihydrogen monoxide. You've heard of this dangerous substance, right? I think I might have blogged about this before--but if so it was probably back in '04 so here we go (perhaps again), but going nonetheless. Go to DHMO.org! Trust me, you can't afford not to protect yourself against this dangerous chemical! You'll definately thank me later for warning you about this grave danger.

Thank you and please resume your regularly scheduled lives and wait for my next update with baited breath.

~Matt

MIsc

Yes, I meant to type that capital letter "i." Sometimes when I'm typing fast I'll acidentally hold down the shift key a split second too long producing glitches like MIsc or I"m. I've been doing MIsc so long that I've now made it my standard abbreviation for miscellaneous (Cool, I spelled the word correctly on the first try, ;-)). But you didn't come here to read about my typing habits or pecuilar abbreviations (at least not for more than this paragraph, unless I type another blog post later ).

Okay, first of all I'll go to Harry Potter. I've read all of the Harry Potter books published thus far, i.e. all but the last book which Ms. Rowling hasn't written/published as of yet. I have enjoyed each one of them, and I've also enjoyed the movies that have been made. Yes, of course they have changes, but they've been good nonetheless. However, I wasn't as happy with The Goblet of Fire.

Perhaps the problem is merely my imperfect recollection of the book, but it seemed to me as though a great many things were left out of the film and as a result it (while also trying to include a great many other things) seemed to skip around at times, landing only too briefly on any one point. *shrugs* I did enjoy it, but I just felt that it was lacking. For example at the start I expected to see some of the World Quidditch Cup and was disappointed to see nothing beyond the introduction of the Bulgarian and Irish players, :(. But the movies are only a pleasant addition to the books anyway, as is nearly always the case with me (I can't think of a contradictory example at the moment actually) I'm in it for the books first and foremost! :-) And speaking of books, I'm quite upset with Mark!

I've already told Mark about this, so he shouldn't be too surprised. Yes, I'm quite upset that he didn't bug me to read the Meg Langslow series by Donna Andrews more often. As I noted in my last post I picked up two of the books--but I got the wrong two. I thought I had the first two when I actually had the fourth (Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon) and fifth (We'll Always Have Parrots). I read the fifth before Mark set me straight (thanks again! :-)) and so I purchased the first (Murder with Peacocks), second (Murder with Puffins), and third (Revenge of the Wrought-Iron Flamingos). On Saturday I picked up the sixth (Owls Well that Ends Well) using my Borders Rewards 25% off coupon.

Currently I'm reading Crouching Buzzard and I'm thoroughly enjoying all of the books. Certain things that puzzled me about Parrots are finally making sense now that I'm reading the others. I only regret that because I read it first I mentally perceive that I have one less book to read (which if you just consider in order I do). No Nest for the Wicket isn't coming out for a while yet (August 8th). All of my current books are in paperback (all but Owls were specially priced at $3.99 instead of the typical $6.99) so I'll probably check that one out at the library. But anyway, back to the books. Mark told me about them, but if I'm only starting them now so longer afer I first met him he obviously was laying down on the job. :-)

Oh yes, the money for these books. Well I totaled up my quarter money and it came to nearly $100 for the month of March. I've already spent some of it and plan to ration the rest out. I'll still keep track of the total I've collected, but I'll probably save it for a month and then turn it into spending money by exchanging it for bills at my bank.

My job is going well--I think that my feet are definately toughening up after so long on the hard store floors, and I'm albe to pull more carts than before. It isn't exactly a normal work-out routine--but being on your feet seven hours a day (minimum) and regularly pulling between twelve and seventeen carts across a parking lot is bound to convert even a couch potato eventually. ;-) And just to set the record straight, I'm not a complete couch potato. I'd be more of an any-flat-surface-where-I-can-read potato if anything. ;-)

Tonight it rained, quite heavily for a bit. This precipitation was accompanied by thunder and lightning for much of its duration, thereby limiting the other carts/housekeeping employee and myself confined to the store for the last quarter of our shift this evening. Thankfully the rain finally stopped and we were able to clear the lot before the thunder started back up. Normally it wouldn't be a big deal, but we left at 22:00 and I'm the next carts employee scheduled, starting tomorrow at 15:00. *sigh* The 15:00-23:00 shift is not my favourite. But of course I'm sure that I'll manage somehow.

As you might imagine from the image on the right I recently watched the movie U.S. Marshals. I believe it was the summer of 2004 that I first watched the movie The Fugitive. I didn't realize until tonight that U.S. Marshals is somewhat of a sequel to that movie as it stars the same Deputy U.S. Marshal, Sam Gerard (played by Tommy Lee Jones). I enjoyed the movie quite a bit. Some of the twists were quite obvious, as for example the guilt of the fugitive, but others were more entertaining.

One recent movie that I didn't enjoy at all was the Legend of Zorro. It definately did not live up to the first movie in the series. Its "history" was even more convulted and inaccurate than any other movie I've seen lately. Stop your eyes now if you've not seen the movie and care about spoilers (my advice would be to skip it and spoil yourself if you must know what happens).

The movie was set in 1850 and yet the "bad guys" were ready to conspire with the fully-formed Confederate army that was prepared to attack the North. Never mind that the Confederacy wasn't acutally formed until Lincoln was elected--he was the catalyst. *sigh* I don't even have the energy to tear apart the movie. I'm tired from my long day and the blasted "Springing Forward" nonsense. I changed my clock last night, but I still operated on the old time as far as my reading went. ;-)

Good night all, I hope to return here soon.

~Matt

The Late March Roundup

What you see here is the result of my current "carting" efforts at work. $65.50 in quarters since February 28th, seventeen days of work in total. I'm really wondering what to do with the quarters. I don't think it will take me that long to fill up the jar--at the very most three or so months. However, assuming I say at this job for a while I could fill it up several times--and I don't have any desire to just keep filling up jars and jars without any end. I might wait until the jar is filled once, and then just save quarters for a month. It certainly would be great to go to a bookstore once a month with my quarters and go crazy buying books! :-) Speaking of book buying, I had fun today.

I recieved some money for my birthday, so naturally I decided to spend it on something fun! Tonight I spent several hours in the local Borders bookstore. Yes, I spent several hours trying to pick out three paperbacks to buy! But if you know me very well or have ever visited a bookstore with me you won't be surprised at all. I'm am definately a biblioholic (by the way that is an excellent book--Mark, get it! and I intend to blog about it soon) and quite unrepentant about the whole matter. Well I settled on a sci-fi novel rather quickly actually. It is apparently a debut novel, and from the back description and the prolgue I was intrigued. Over the course of my time I also read a bit more, and it stayed good--so that book was good to stay, Phobos by Ty Drago. (You might like it Mark, 'tis a mystery as well as sci-fi) A bit later I settled on a fantasy novel by Simon R. Green, a British author. I'd purchased the first part of his Deathstalker series years ago and partially finished them. Then during the last year I checked them all out from the library (including the most recently published which finished up the series) and read them all. They are definately an excellent epic series, if somewhat lighthearted (i.e. not hard "good phsics" sci-fi) and bloodthirsty space opera. Anyway, I knew he had written other books and so I decided to get the first of his Hawk and Fisher series, Swords of Haven. (Don't go for it Mark, pure fantasy, ;-)). Now we come to the good part.

I spent a couple more hours pouring over the bookshelves that I'd already spent hours in back on the first of the month (when I first got my Borders Rewards card--more on that later). I went back and forth around the sci-fi/fantasy section. I didn't want to just buy books that I need to complete a collection, or experiment with just the first book of a fantasy trilogy. Then I realized I was near the mystery section and I tried to remember one of Mark's favourite authors. I knew I'd read her Turing Harper novels, and that Mark was always trying to get me interested in her other books. Finally on the back shelf (the first alphabetically) I stumbled upon the Donna Andrews novels. I was quite excited to discover that each of her books had not only a normal mass market paperback edition, but one priced at $3.99 as well! After reading the first two chapters of We'll Always Have Parrots I was definately hooked. (Mark, do I read Amazon right, you haven't reviewed this book?!) So I picked up that (the first) and the second, Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon.

Right now I'm going back to an experiment that I tried last year with Stephen R. Donaldson's Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever and Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow and Thorn. I'm reading a chapter of Phobos, and then one of We'll Always Have Parrots. I find it increases the tension, and keeps me in two books at once. The experiment did go well the last time, hopefully it will this time as well.

I was almost ready to close off this posting when I realized that I do have more information to post! It just snowed early this week! I had Tuesday off from bigg's since I was supposed to help conduct training at the museum for some new staff. I haven't yet been so glad not to be out with the carts! We had several inches of snow Tuesday morning before the sun rose, and it kept drifting down (though not much at once) all throughout the day. The roads were somewhat nasty that morning, but thankfully I didn't have to go anywhere all day! :-) Of course, as always seems to happen after a snowfall I was a bit late the next day, so I didn't appreciate the time needed to scrape snow and ice off my windshield. I can only figure that the snow partially melted and then refroze right on the windshield--and hadn't warmed back up at all when I went in to work yesterday morning. But I can't really complain, I wasn't late or anything like that.

Well I'll leave you with a picture of what the front yard looked like earlier today, :(.

~Matt

PS I'm done posting from Picasa. I finally discovered I can add multiple images directly from Blogger with the same options. It is much easier, and I can save drafts in case anything threatens to go wrong.

Long Overdue

But at least there aren't any fines for late blog posts, eh? Not like the library, but I don't get free books for blogging so perhaps the library is better after all :-) When you read the Superheroes and Villians episode LIV you should notice a reference to this period (or unperiod?) of my blogging. ;-)

Well I have several items of note, I'll start with the most recent first. My birthday was this Tuesday. I've now been residing on this terrestrial ball for twenty-four years! *sigh* I feel old (I know I'm not objectively old, I just feel like I am), I'm sure 25 will feel quite strange.

Along with that comes news of a couple birthday presents. The first is pictured to the right and below. When I moved out I left my mom with some of my favourite shirts that I didn't really have any reason to wear any more. After all I've been out of high school for six years this June, why would I want to wear a senior shirt from my high school anymore? Especially when it is on the other side of the country. Well my mom and dad went the extra mile and made me this quilt/bedspread for this birthday. Wow, I was quite surprised when I opened the package. I hadn't expected anything like this! Included are all of my school shirts--from my elementary schools, junior high, high school (including Academic Decathalon, PE, and my senior class shirt!), as well as several of my favourite Habitat animal shirts and a couple others. (I just realized that many not know about Habitat shirts. Their factory used to be located in Colorado--before they moved to Mexico--and we would buy "damaged shirts there." Usually there was little wrong with them, but the prices were great. Their shirts feature all kinds of wild animals and they usually make shirts for companies like Bush Gardens and other similar venues. All of the animals you can see on the quilt/bedspread are from Habitat shirts) You can also notice that she took smaller logos from the shirts and put them between the other squares, 'tis wonderful!

Oh, and the second picture is a bit messy because I just threw it on my bed for a picture, no thoughts being directed towards neatness at that particular moment.

The second "present" also comes from California. Last year my youngest older sister informed the family that she was pregnant. This is Erin, the one I lived near during college. Well her due date was early March, so of course I hoped for her baby to be born on my birthday. One of my nephews here was born on March 10th and I always tease my eldest sister Laurie about "waiting four more days." Well I now share a birthday with my 18th nephew! :-)

Now strawberries. Strawberries are my favourite food. I cannot get enough of them! This was fine growing up in California with stands literally just down the road. We always had plenty during the season and my parents would fix strawberry shortcake and strawberry pie. Mmmmm...delicious! Well moving to Kentucky has made finding decent strawberries difficult. Nowhere grows strawberries like Southern California, nowhere! Working in bigg's as I have I pass by the produce department every day, so I finally had to buy a box of strawberries for myself. These are huge California berries (I didn't take this picture until I had eaten most of them) that while not as good as those purchased from the stand weren't bad at all.

To make sure that my precious berries wouldn't get eaten by the rest of the family I labeled them very plainly: "Touch and Die! ~Matt" Of course then my sister had to leave her own note: "Not only did I touch them--I thoroughly licked and drooled on them : )" She is an evil person isn't she?

Okay, the job. Well they hired me telling me that I would be doing carts mainly and that housekeeping would come eventually--I shouldn't worry about such duties right now. Well of course it was housekeeping duties that I started off doing--then came carts, ;-). Now I do both fairly regularly, but they each have their ups and downs.

Carts is outside which can be good in nice weather, though it is more physical. But on the plus side I get quarters! The carts at bigg's connect to each other via small chains. To unhook a cart to use you need to place a quarter in the device on the handlebar. Once you return your cart and lock it into place your quarter pops out. It is a great way to encourage people to return carts to the cart corrals. Plus it keeps carts together when we cart people have to bring them in. Well sometimes people don't retrieve their quarters--and in that case we cart people get to keep them! My best day so far is $8.00!! My lowest was $.025 because I only retrieved one cart that day--every other day has been at least one dollar. Currently I have $45.25 in quarters in a jar. I'm considering saving until the jar is full and then I'll splurge on something, or many somethings! :-)


The other side of my duties is housekeeping. Once an hour I have to walk to about twenty places around the store and scan barcodes. Basically this ensures that I'm visually inspecting the floors of the stoor at least once an hour. In between the "logs" (as these scans are called) I go out and clean up reported spills, I clean the bathrooms, and I go out and help to bring in carts so as to retain my sanity and not just stand around bored. Sometimes I give myself a mission to find some product so that I can beter familarize myself with the store. The bad part of this job is that the store floors are quite hard (harder than the asphalt and concrete outside) and my feet are always sore after a shift indoors. I need to get new reliably waterproof boots anyway. I might make sure to get some gel insoles at the same time to help me out!



Now for some webcomic news. As you may not know I read an ever increasing number of webcomics. Yes, I definately have taste and there are many that I've tried that I'll never touch again. But I also have a good sized bookmark folder waiting for me to sort through, and if I like the comic, I want to go through and read all of the archives. I recently found three awesome strips by the same author. Nip and Tuck is about a pair of fox brothers. They're rednecks, but wonderfully sensible and conservative! Tales of the Questor is normally only published once a week I belive, but it is a larger full colour spread. It is an epic fantasy tale that often leaves me thinking that the author is a genius because he catches and plugs many potential plot holes before they can begin to leak! I've finished reading all of Nip and Tuck but I'm not quite yet done with Questor. Now another reason I'm enjoying it is because of the spiritual implications. I haven't figured out if it is true fantasy, sci-fi, or allegory--whatever it is it is awesome. Finally you have Under the Lemon Tree/Goblin Hollow (I'm not sure which is the real name). I've only started going through this one--but a while back it crossed over with another strip I read. It features Ben the bear and all the physical manifestations of his subconscious. It looks like great fun.

Please go and check these wonderful webcomics out, and if you can help the artist out by buying something. I'm very definately adding these to my list of comics I want (nay need! ;-)) to buy in book form.

Well thanks everyone for bugging me. I've been somewhat worn out for the past few weeks with many 14:00-22:00 and 15:00-23:00 shifts. Plus once I put something off like the work part of this post that action becomes habit and hard to break. ;-)

~Matt

PS Thanks to Wikipedia for the shopping cart image. The article alco contains a reference to the kind of carts that we use at bigg's:

Sometimes the customer has to pay a small deposit by inserting a coin, which is returned if and when the customer returns the cart to a designated cart parking point. Some retailers sell "trolley tokens" as an alternative to coins, often for charity. The mechanism can often be unlocked by inserting a keyinto the slot to open the lock.

We don't sell tokens, but they give them to the cart control employees so we don't have to use our own quarters to unlock and lock carts.

bigg's

I'm now employed. bigg's is a local grocery chain and I've gained employment there. 'Tis full time, which will be great, and the pay isn't that bad. The only bad part is the department--carts control and housekeeping. I'll treat it like any other job and do my best, but this wasn't what I imagined doing when I set out to find work! ;-) For now I'm going to work and build up my savings. I'll keep my eyes out for an office or other higher paying full time position as well.

Perhaps I should have posted this earlier, but for some reason I didn't. I figured it was time now as I have to be at my orientation/training in an hour. :-)

~Matt

William Henry Harrison

My first grade nephew came home today and as my sister started in on homework with the kids he reminded her that he has a report due tomorrow. Usually she asks me to help the kids with things like this (I helped my niece make her Valentine's day box) because she has already done many projects with the kids and doesn't want to do any more. For me it is the first time so it doesn't bother me as much, ;-). The report had to be on a president, but not Washington, Lincoln, or George W. Bush. Of course we could have gone with a president that was familiar like those three, but where is the fun in that? :-)

We decided on William Henry Harrison. You remember him, right? Grandfather of Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd president--he died after only a month in office. He was also known as Tippecanoe after the battle he wone early in his military career. If I'd thought about it a bit longer I might have gone for someone even more forgetable like Polk or Hayes, but...*shrugs* 'Twas fun anyway!

~Matt

Mañana

Tomorrow I have two appointments with temp agencies, one at 09:30 and the second at 14:00. Hopefully in between the two I'll have time to go by the agencies that I registered with here in Kentucky last January. I'm still hoping that other jobs will pan out--but if not these might get me something at least. And I'm certainly not adverse to a temp-to-hire position if I can land one. :-)

This poem I wrote a week ago yesterday at church. 'Tis an old habit of mine writing poetry during church sermons--I think I started it during chapel when I was in college actually. :-) Yes, I do still pay attention--in fact sometimes writing the poetry helps me to stay focused on the sermon.


Faith's Furnace

Burn away the dross,
- Sear the open wound.
Give to me O Lord,
- Your strength in me.

My flesh does strive,
- Against your Truth
Come to me O Lord,
- Your presence in me

Work through my life,
- Root out treason.
Live in me O Lord,
- Your assurance in me.

My mind will wander,
- Away from worship.
Lead in me O Lord,
- Your purpose in me.

Tear down my lies,
- Strike down the sin.
Grow in me O Lord,
- Your victory in me.

That is all for now, well, except that I haven't been watching as much of the Olympics as I would like. But it seems every time I turn it on I see ice skating or speed skating. Everything else I enjoy, skiing, hockey, heck even curling--but those two aren't my favourites. *shrugs* I still have a few days left to change my bad habits--especially with CBS only airing rereuns.

~Matt

Sorry, no pictures please

This is just a quick post. I just updated my list of blogs (down on the left side of this page). I think I've got all of the blogs I read down there. But if I forgot you somehow drop me a line and I'll go in to change things. I just realized yesterday that my old list had been up for far too long without editing. Enjoy!

~Matt

Snow is Beautiful

Well perhaps not when it is sticking to the roads and making driving insane, but otherwise it is definately a beautiful sight. Right now I'm sitting at the library and watching as snow comes down in the courtyard outside. There is just something beautiful about this white stuff falling.

It isn't anything like hard rain pounding down or an assault of hail. At times the flakes seem to be driven downwards by the wind. Othertimes they drift gently with the breeze, falling gently to their rest amid the ground's white blanket. (Yes, I deliberately deleted the space between other and times, it just seemed to work)

Really it is amazing how much snow can change a landscape, even more than fallen leaves. Snow comes down and blankets everything. It muffles colours and rounds sharp edges. It looks so soft and so wintery. It just seems right to see the snow fall down.

The picture above is from the driver's seat of my van facing the rear before I left for the library today. That is my brother-in-law's truck behind, the one Chris usually drives.

~Matt