Finished

Well I finally finished my Superheroes episode. It ended up being 7,800 words long--and several of the later segments had either scenes I'd planned on cut, or were just shorter than I'd intitially envisioned. I even went so far yesterday as to not bring a book with me to work so that I would have to write during my breaks. It went well until I ended up talking to Miah late last night and then fell asleep writing. I woke up this morning and had everything done in a couple of hours.

Today I also went to the Covington branch of the Kenton County Library for the first time--they're having a book sale today through Saturday--but I'm working both tomorrow and Saturday nine through five. I spent eleven dollars and came home wth about twenty books--but several were children's books that I bought for my nerfs--five in all. I also bought a couple children's books for myself and several WWII era volumes. It was a good trip, but very light on the sci-fi/fantasy unfortunately.

~Matt

Rain, Rain

Come again tomorrow as I'm not working! :-) Normally I'd be sad about missing work on Sunday (we get an extra $1.50 per hour) but on the other hand it is Mother's Day and promises to be a very busy day at the store. So in the balance it isn't a bad day to have off. We'll see how much of that cheerful attitude I have when my paycheck comes though, ;-).

Today it didn't rain much, only a very few, very light drizzles through the morning. Then after 15:00 it started to rain hard at one point, but then only lightly for a while. I went out without a jacket and didn't really get very wet, I was certainly dry by the time that I left at 17:00. I even had my window down when I was on surface streets driving home.

I don't know if I've mentioned it before here (but I think that I have)--but now that I'm working outside I don't like rain so much unless it is a day off! :-) With any other job I could love the city of Seattle with all of the rain it gets--or even parts of Hawaii. Moving through or driving through rain is different than working in it, pulling rows of carts through a parking lot pocketed with deep puddles.

~Matt

Superhero

I'll be honest. This is simply a placeholder post because I'm too busy to actually post but I want to "post" before midnight. I've been busy writing my next episode of Superheroes to do much else on the computer.

~Matt

Pirates of the Spanish Main

Um, yeah...I'm hooked. The only problem is getting my nephews reliably hooked as well so I have some competition. The game is a tabletop miniatures game, but the miniatures in question are tiny pirate ships that you punch out of cards. Thes ships can be disassembled and put back into the cards for easy storage. It may not sound like much fun from that description, but I've enjoyed it so far.

You can see the official site for the game at this link. Check it out! The ships actually look quite cool when they're put together. I even had an error in one of the packs I bought, so I looked through the site to see what I had to do. I was informed that I needed to mail in the parts in question and I would recieve a replacement pack. When I want to write down the address I saw with surprise that it was in Cincinnati! I'm hoping that I won't have much of a delay in getting my new parts as even the USPS can't screw up the delivery that much. *crosses fingers and fervently hopes Murphy stays away*

Well today I slept in. Then this morning I finished compiling files for the Superheroes story. I've put all the current stories (not all of which are on the blog yet) into a Word document. I even printed them out. At 103 pages it took a while! Back when my friend Miah started this project I never imagined that we would still be going this much later and with this much text. By the way, in that total realize that each episode starts on a separate page (I'm currently writing number sixty), but that the font size is 10 point!

I so much enjoy writing these stories because you get to play around with characters that you and others have created. It is great to see how other people treat situations. Sometimes you might not like it at first, but several ideas I'd have never thought of have really grown on me. Well I really need to get back to the writing of that episode. I meant to go to the library for a while to work on it today, but I was stuck watching nerfs most of the day and couldn't get away. Oh well...I'll live. It looks though as my next day off won't be until next Thursday. *sigh* I'll have to suffer through seven straight days of labor. At least I'll have different schedules on some days so it won't all be the same.

~Matt

Tired

If anybody besides the future me (and he does count) cares I apologize for the lack and brevity of posts recently. Yesterday I was quite busy with the Superheroes story and today I was at work too long. The other guy working today has to leave early on Tuesdays anyway (so he starts early) but today he left two hours earlier than normal, so I had to do both carts and housekeeping for seven instead of just five hours. Let me tell you, that makes a difference. I was at work 36 minutes late just to get the lot looking pretty good, and I didn't even clear quite everything. I realized that if I tried to get everything I wouldn't leave until 23:00 and I didn't think they wanted to pay me that much. Right now I'm tired, and with apologizes must end this post. I think I can get back on track tomorrow with my last day off of the week.

~Matt

Um, this is an update, right?

I went to first service this morning and then went in to work. I haven't had any time for the promised pictures of free comics or any descriptions of such. Right now I'm going to try to read for just a bit and then go to sleep. However, I am off again tomorrow, so I can sleep in!! :-)

~Matt

Free Comic Book Day

Well I want to type more, but I'm a bit caught up in my book right now. I'm reading Treasure Box by Orson Scott Card. It is quite fascinating. I was intrigued when I read the back cover, and continued to be interested as I got into the first few chapters. It is contemporary fiction, and promises on the back to turn into horror/thriller. It doesn't disappoint, but it was so delightful that the back didn't have any real spoilers. I couldn't see what was going to happen based on what I read there, which I was quite thankful once I realized the real point of the book.

I'll post pictures from today in a bit. None from the actual day since I didn't take my camera with me, but of some of the stuff that I procured today. 'Twas good.

~Matt

400

Yes, I finally have 400 books entered into my book database program. I use the book collector program at Collectorz.com. You can download a free trial that lets you enter up to 100 books. I did this a while ago and soon realized that I needed to have the full program so I bought it long before I'd entered 100 books. ;-) One of the benefits of the professional version is that you can export to html. You can see my library here on my website. I don't have the 400 book version converted to html yet, so the list you'll see via the link is a bit out of date.

These 400 books are merely a fraction of all the books that I own. I conservatively estimate that I own 1,000-1,200 books (possibly as many as 1,500?). However, most of them are burried in my storage unit where I cannot get to them easily. Last summer I removed a couple boxes to enter into the program. I've also entered the few books that I've pulled individually out of my storage unit and the many books that I've bought since moving to Kentucky. So the 400 aren't just the ones I've bought or anywhere near my true total.

I'm really looking forward to the day that I have every one of my books entered and can download my list to a handheld computer (like a Palm). Then when I go to a bookstore or a used book sale I'll know exactly which books I already own! I'll even know the format and condition of my books so I'll know if I need to get a new version (say it is the only book of the series I have in paperback and I find a hardcover at a book sale). I wish I'd found this a couple years ago so that all my books could have been entered before I moved, but alas that didn't happen.

Well I'm off to the museum in a few minutes, so I'll have to keep this short and fairly close to on-topic. I was off today and I'm off tomorrow. It is wonderful to sleep in finally! :-) Today was a day to pay bills. I also transfered some money into savings (it has been too long since I've been able to do that!) and wrote out a tithe check (I'd been saving money from the past few pay checks so I didn't have to write many tithe checks--I don't write very many checks at all actually).

Tomorrow is Free Comic Book Day! I apologize for not blogging about this sooner. If you have the time check out the site tonight and find a store near you. Go! Participating stores will have free comics and some even have other events going on. I'm planning to take a couple of my nephews along. It should be great fun. I'll be wearing my Schlock Mercenary T-shirt. :-)

~Matt

The Mothman Prophecies

I'm not sure where I stand with the "horror" genre of movies. I enjoy M. Night Shaymalan's movies as well as Hitchcock's Psycho and The Birds. I also enjoyed watching The Mothman Prophecies this evening. On the other hand such movies as the Texas Chainsaw Massacres don't look interesting at all. I watched The Ring and The Grudge, but those were a bit too intense for me, with no real hope.

I'm usually on the edge of my seat, and have to force myself not to pause the movie if I'm watching it via DVD. I enjoy the suspense, the director's attempts to scare you. But I don't want to be "gored" to death with blood and guts or watch something where an unstoppable force of evil murders everyone. If you know from the first few minutes that a character can walk out a door without being jumped by an axe murderer then I'd say the movie has hope. If you're in suspense, but your imagination doesn't adapt the plot into fourteen new ways to die before the next morning, it has hope. I enjoy a movie with suspense, but hope.

The Mothman Prophecies was recommended by Miah in a conversation where we discussed the different horror/suspense movies we'd seen. He thought that I'd enjoy it--so I checked the movie out from the library and tonight I finally watched it. He was right. It was suspenseful and I actually did have to pause it to go watch CSI, but it was good. I enjoyed the ride through the story, even with all of the unanswered questions left...

~Matt

PS CSI was good--again different from normal, but definately quite enjoyable.

CSI

Well tonight a new episode of CSI is on, and I'm home to watch it! Yeah! I still enjoy CSI, years after I started watching it. This season has been especially good with several episodes that tweaked the normal formula and brought out the character's personalities and quirks. I'm speaking here of the original CSI, set in Las Vegas.

For a while I watched CSI: New York and CSI: Miami, but I've since given up on both. At first it was enjoyable to watch the new cities and new cast members, but earlier this year I realized how far the two "sequels" are in quality from the original. I don't know so much that it is the fault of the actors, mainly I think it is the writers (though I do like the Las Vegas actors best). I can't quite put my finger on specifics, but the writing is always weaker on NY and Miami. They make mistakes, rush things, or always have suspects confess to wrap up the case. Even with things like the "mole in the department" thread on Miami I found myself becoming less and less interested in the two shows. Finally I gave up on them altogether. I haven't watched a new or old episode of either show for probably two months now, and I'm not missing them at all! Now the Las Vegas show on the other hand I plan to keep watching as long as it is made--assuming that it doesn't jump the shark.

~Matt

Steps

Don't ask me why I was thinking about it, but today I realized that I never walk up stairs one at a time. I'm not sure when I stopped, though it was probably quite some time ago. Everytime that I go up a set of stairs I either bound up two at a time (frequently the case here at home) or I walk, but still two steps at a time minimum. Perhaps it is a sign of my general impatience, but I simply cannot stand walking up stairs one at a time. If I am trapped on a set of stairs behind someone dawdling I will slow down, but still go up two at a time if it is at all possible.

I just finished watching tonight's episode of Lost and just in case anyone from the West Coast is reading this I'll refrain from any spoilers, but wow... If you watched the last new episode you'll know that Michael is back. I think that it feels much like the absence of Claire felt like last season with all of the reruns--it seems like he has been gone for much longer than he has been in show or even episode time. Arg, I don't want to say any more at all for fear I might inadvertently spoil something. I'll simply say that the flashbacks are of Ana Lucia and we learn quite a bit, quite a bit.

Oh, and if you tune out during commercials, don't! There is one that you won't want to miss!

~Matt

Long Day

I only worked a normal eight hour shift, but still it felt like it was much longer. There were two of us for my first three hours only, then it was just me for the rest. I don't mind the reverse of this when it is just me for the first five or six hours of the day, because I know that even if I get behind on carts someone will be in later. In the evening though like today it can get bad because there are multiple demands on my time and such things don't overlap too well temporally. However, I manged to pretty much get everything done (I had someone else complete a couple tasks) by 22:00, so I'm doing okay now. I'm must enjoying my well earned rest--until it is time to sleep once again. Tomorrow thankfully I'll be working an earlier (but not early) shift that will get me home just in time to watch Lost!

~Matt

People

...are stupid. A person may be smart, but people are stupid. So says me. Feel free to disagree, but you're wrong. ;-)

Just take any random sampling of people, say the people you'll see in eight hours if you hang out at a grocery store (the time and setting are of course chosen randomly in my example!). The sheer amount of stupidity, selfishness, and orneriness (defined quite aptly by WordWeb as "Meanspirited disagreeable contrariness") that you'll see are enough to destroy any lingering belief in the inherent goodness of man.

When I arrived today I spotted a man that I've come to quite dislike over the past month or so. He is an older man, in his seventies or eighties. He comes in and wanders the lot just so he can pop quarters out of carts. Now as a carts employee I get to keep all of the quarters that I find. I understand that people will occasionally find an accessible cart with a quarter in it and will use it or pop the quarter out. The purely selfish part of me would prefer I be the only one to find these carts, but I understand it. On the other hand I take a very strong dislike to anyone deliberately driving to the store just to pop quarters from carts. They're not exactly like tips, but they're part of the reason I stick with this job. The extra money is nice!

Furthermore I'm convinced that the man knows exactly what he is doing and that it is wrong. If I'm out in the lot (I'm not allowed to kick him out because that was tried before and he produced a reciept proving he was a legitimate customer) and walk towards him he looks at me and walks away. If he thought he was doing nothing wrong he would keep going, regardless if I was near or far. He can't just be avoiding me because of what I've done to him because I've never done anything to him. From what I've heard and seen he basically drives to the store (or is dropped off) just to pick up quarters--and sometimes he buys lottery tickets with the quarters. He might shop, but not most times--he is just coming to "quarter poach."

I remember years ago I was at the Tucson airport with a younger cousin. For some reason we were outside for quite a while so we started returning luggage carts. You rented these carts for $1.25 I believe and if you returned them to the collection area you recieved one quarter back. My cousin and I were returning these carts and keeping the carts when some employees chased us off and told us to stop. At the time I couldn't understand it--but I get it now. They probably were used to collecting the carts and keeping the quarters--much as I do today.

Well, back to generalities. Many people will deliberately ignore me when I'm forming up a line of carts (usually 12-17) to pull in and will walk across the aisle to put their cart in an empty cart corral. 'Tis only a few nice people that ask if I want the extra cart. Then we have the people that cannot be bothered to put a cart in behind the other eight carts and instead put it on its own right beside them. I don't think people ever think about how the carts get back to the front of the store unless they're invonvenienced by me pulling a row. That is another problem--momentum.

When I pull rows in I have to gain momentum, otherwise I'd be bent over double the whole time with the effort. Stopping mid-trip and restarting isn't exactly an attractive option. Therefore I consider that I have the ultimate right-of-way because of the necessity of momentum. I figure I wouldn't wreck a car, but do you want to see what crashing into a row of carts would do to your car? Trust me, a row of 16 carts isn't light!

I think my favourite have to be the deaf and blind people. I sincerely mean no offence to those actually deaf and/or blind. I refer to those people that slowly take their time procuring a cart from the space where I need to pull my big long row. I have to stop my row of carts as I try to pull them into the corral and wait while they slowly put in the quarter, detach their cart, and eventually (emphasis on the length of time implicit in the word eventually) move into the store with it. I've even seen them pull some trash out of a cart (I don't always have time to remove it--especially if it is in a cart in the middle of a row and I'm pulling them in quickly to clear the lot) and just drop it on the ground right in front of me. Oh, but don't forget Lowes.

Our store is right next door to a Lowes home improvement store. We technically don't share the same parking lot as their plot is slightly lower than ours and separated by a wide planter. This however doesn't stop customers from bringing Lowes carts into our lot and then leaving them in our cart corrals. Obviously I have nothing better to do than return carts to the other lot. I've wondered what such people would do if I showed up at their work and deliberately made things tougher for them.

Now to be fair some of the complaints above I would never have fathomed before I started this job. However, the fact that these might apply to me doesn't change the facts. I'm also a member of the fallen human race and heir to the same general stupidity as everyone else. I think we should stop speaking of common sense. Our vocabulary should morph into "uncommon sense" and "common stupidity." This would be much more accurate! I never thought about some of these things before, but I should have. I might wish I'd had a better full-time job for a while now, but the things I've learned at UPS and bigg's have been quite valuable, such as how I'll treat carts whenever I'm shopping from now on.

~Matt

Dreams

I had some of the strangest dreams last night and this morning. I had my alarm set for early this morning, but as I don't have to go into work until just past noon I actually reset it a couple times and hit snooze several more times. When I do this I'll fall back asleep, but when I do I very often have vivid semi-lucid dreams that I can recall for a little while when I actually wake up.

Unfortunately I didn't start typing this right away, so I do not recall much of my dreams. From what I can remember they were about two different resistance groups. They may have been based in the mountains. But the strange part was the application of dream logic. I think that I was involved with both groups somehow, even though they had completely different goals and may very well have been at odds. Yet while I was dreaming this made perfect sense and I went along great. *shrugs*

~Matt