An oldie, but a goodie

I was searching on google a few weeks back. Words of the day were my name, The Q's name and aNoobia. I always like searching aNoobia because it's a word I created in high school that I pretty much use for everything. Seeing as how it's pretty unique I get very few hits and they're usually all related back to me.

In doing so, I found an old blog that I had totally forgotten about. I thought I had deleted most of my old blogs due to their depressing and retarded content, but I guess I missed one. Anyway, I just got done perusing all of the entries on that particular blog and realized why I deleted all the other ones. It's full of whiny, high school crap and I am ashamed that I ever wrote it. I understand that it's okay that I wrote that stuff because it's how I was back then and I've changed since. Still, it's embarrassing.

Time for class.

But I glow in the dark and I won't sit still.

Boredom

What a really boring night. I haven't had a night at work where there was nothing to do in a looooooong time. I am now reminded of how much it blows.

I guess it wasn't all bad. My coworker and I decided to make shields, swords, and helmets out of cardboard. It was interesting to see our different styles. I tried to keep mine consistent and I think I accomplished my goal. I'll bring my camera to work tomorrow night and take pictures so you all can see what we did with our time at work.

You all might remember a few months back when I entered the Threadless competition. I didn't win. No worries, I still got a laptop which was my intention by entering. I have since entered another contest: The Apple Insomnia Photo Festival. Basically I was given 24 hours to shoot one photo that I felt best represented the word growth. Unfortunately I cannot post it here due to the rules, however, in a few days it will be posted on Apple's website and I'd like to ask all who read this to please go vote upon it.

I know the prize is a MacBook Pro and yes I know I already have a MacBook, but I don't have a MacBook Pro. Besides, if I were to win, I'd end up giving The Q my old MacBook so she can have a nicer laptop, and she in turn would give the iBook I got her for Christmas to her sister. So it's not like I'd be keeping two laptops. That's just ridiculous.

I'll understand if you don't vote on my picture. I'm sure there are much better photos that have been submitted, but I'd appreciate your support.

Sing news with passion of the pistol

Video game moments

Today after class, I walked into my apartment and had an Animal Crossing moment. In Animal Crossing, if you haven't played in a while, walking into your house sucks because it's completely infested with roaches.

Now, my apartment is by no means infested, but a roach did scuttle across my floor when I switched the light on. I really had to pee though so I grabbed a nearby cup and slammed it down on top of his ass to keep him incarcerated whilst I relieved myself. Once I finished, I returned to the cup and proceeded to swiftly end his little roachy life. I really hope he didn't have any kids. I'd feel bad if I deprived a roach dad of his roach children....Nah.

Tonight at work has been tolerable. No messes to deal with. Ron the Xerox technician and I exchanged music. My Black Keys for his Grand Funk compilation. A fair trade if I do say so myself. I haven't listened to Grand Funk Railroad since summer break in elementary school with my dad. Certainly brings back memories.

Not much else to report. The next 24 hours will be interesting weather-wise. We're in for a nasty bit of stormage. Maybe even some tornados. Tomorrow night at work will be interesting.

Oh, and if anyone has $20,000 they're willing to part with, there's a sweet 1962 Cadillac for sale. There's another one for $4,500. Not as good condition, but still pretty rad.

I'm getting closer to my home.

Frustration

No matter how many times I explain something to my fellow key-ops they never learn.

I try to teach them how to run jobs more efficiently to lessen the amount of work that our auxiliary workers have to do and they never do it. In the end it just slows everyone down. It's sad because it doesn't even require that much effort. Ten minutes of extra work for a key-op could potentially equal hours of work saved on aux. The math makes perfect sense to me. I suppose it's a good thing I work a 12 hour shift. At least I can go home knowing that half of the days work will get done more efficiently.

Now, I am certainly not saying I am a better key-op. Most of the people that do the same job as me are way more experienced. I understand it's tough to break habits. But seriously, ten minutes of work to save a few hours? I just don't understand that. Hopefully some day my ideas will stick, until then I just have to shake my head every night I come into work and am bombarded with mass piles of auxiliary.

Hey blenderhead, they're starting to ask questions

Weekends

I can't begin to describe how wonderful it is to have fridays and saturdays off again. I actually have some sort of a weekend now. I got my grocery shopping done AND I finally washed my dishes. Then entire collection. They've been sitting in my sink for almost a week now and the bowl that had previously held coleslaw had begun to create it's own atmosphere. The next step would have been multi-cellular lifeforms, but I destroyed any possibility of that. Now I know how God felt when he washed the earth of all the sinners with 40 days and nights of rain, only in a much smaller amount of time.

On the menu tonight we have a showing of Hot Fuzz with a large group of my friends. Ten of us will hopefully be laughing until we puke in the next couple of hours. In case you weren't aware, Hot Fuzz is a movie done by the creators of Shaun of the Dead. An extremely funny movie billed as a "Romantic comedy....With zombies." I'll let y'all know how Hot Fuzz is when I get the chance.

In Swamp Chicken news, I posted some new pictures of us on our MySpace: We Are Swamp Chicken! Bruh and I had way too much fun with the iSight camera on my laptop. Check it out though.

Heaven smiles above me.

Continuity

I came to the realization yesterday that I really don't get out enough or do things to further my knowledge. As soon as I get home from work or school, I stay there. I sit on my couch and play video games or watch TV and I don't play around with Photoshop, Illustrator, or Flash like I use to either.

So in addition to the realization came the solution: Get out more. I live in West Campus for crying out loud. There's a million and two things to do within a five mile radius. I started my new path by venturing over to the local starbucks, sitting outside and smoking cigarettes whilst drinking coffee. It felt really damn good. I even had my laptop with me to mess around with illustrator a little.

Now I'm at Starbucks again; a different one. I know I've already been to the same place twice, but I have to start simple and work my way up. It feels good to be away from my stuffy apartment. It'd probably be a better experience if I cleaned the place up and did the dishes, but that's besides the point....

It'd still be stuffy.

One light, one mind, flashing in the dark.

Head On

Compared to last night, tonight at work is at the complete opposite end of the spectrum. Yet it's still frustrating. God damn perfect binder....

I designed a business card for a friend of mine. It's funny, the man has been trying to get a business card together for almost a year and the whole time I told him I could do it for him but he never listened. He wanted a really fancy card printed on mylar or some other translucent material. He contacted me last week about it and agreed to do it. He told me what he wanted and I threw something together. Lo and behold he liked it and now I've got it all nicely printed out and ready to go. Here's what I did:



He wanted a grip load of stuff on it and at first I thought it was going to be a really busy card. But I used all that education I've been getting at ACC and incorporated all the elements he asked for and some he didn't. I'm pretty happy with the end result. If you like what you see and you or someone you know needs a business card or something else, let me know and I'd be glad to help.

Along the same lines, a girl in my sociology class was recently browsing my myspace pictures and really fancied my "Art Deco" picture I did. So much in fact that she asked me if I'd do it to one of her pictures. Networking is a great thing.

My rehearsals last for hours and hours, with diligence I have been blessed.

Late Night

A little over half-way done with my first graveyard shift since three months ago. Now that I have food in my belly I think I can make it the last six hours.

Working graveyard I don't have anybody distracting me and I can really bust ass on all the jobs. I'm probably going to burn myself out if I keep going at this pace.

Oh, and in case you need someone to talk to between the hours of 9pm and 9am on Sundays, Mondays, or Tuesdays, I leave my iChat open so feel free to bug me. I'm sure I can offer some keen words of wisdom between running machines and doing auxiliary work.

Yes, I am relieved to know I'm not a golem

Simple

Some douche bag decided that it'd be funny to destroy some of the plants I've been growing.

The Q bought me three little starter kits of marigolds. They came with seeds, a little pot and a pellet of soil that you added water to and expanded. I grew them in their little pots until they were about three inches tall and then transplanted them into some bigger pots and set them outside to get better sun and hopefully bloom. They were doing pretty well until last night. The Q and I went to Kerbey Lane for dinner and upon our return home, the marigolds were still there in their new homes. Later, I went outside to water them before I went to bed and they were destroyed. Someone had ripped them apart and left little stubs.

Needless to say, I was pretty pissed. Who the hell does that? As I fell asleep I pondered this question. Either some drunken buffoon thought it'd be funny or someone maliciously attacked them in order to enact revenge for something I may have done.

Now I am by no means a bad tenant. The worst thing I do is practice with Bruh on Saturdays. We don't play past nine or ten and we'd happily reschedule if someone were to knock on the door and ask. So I came to the conclusion that whoever did it, did it because they're a douche bag and don't care about other people's property.

Though my flowers are ruined, I am optimistic that they will rebound. I'm also glad that they decided to fuck up my flowers and not The Q's bike, Chloe. It's a nice bike and I'd hate to see it ruined because of something I did.

Other than that, things are cool. I'm starting my new shift tonight: 9pm-9am, Sunday through Tuesday. I'm excited and nervous. I've thought the whole thing through and I'm fairly certain I won't die of exhaustion this time, but I wasn't able to sleep all day today, waking up at about one. This is mostly due to the fact that I worked the remainder of my day shifts yesterday and don't have any time in between to fully acclimate myself to third-shift. Tomorrow should be easier.

Wow. This is the fourth post in a row for me. Stranger things have happened I guess.

For the benefit of Mr. Kite, there will be a show tonight

Crazy

Working for a big company definitely has its perks. Once you've been with the company for 90 days, you get access to lots of discount programs. One of which I decided to partake in. I can get t-mobile hotspot service for half the cost giving me unlimited access to all the t-mobile hotspots EVERYWHERE. This is definitely a good thing. Whenever I'm at work I can stay connected and not have to worry about getting in trouble for accessing stuff on a company machine. Or I can go to the local starbucks and drink coffee while I'm working on homework or even work on stuff if I'm traveling to Michigan.

In signing up for t-mobile, I finally was forced to figure out my budget and what I can and can't afford as far as bills go. I've got my bills scheduled in iCal on my Mac so I know readily when things are due. This is also a good thing.

I've always had problems with money. As soon as I get some, I immediately want to spend it. I've never saved more than 800 dollars. And when I have, I usually spend it quickly. Take this laptop as an example. After purchasing it, I've realized that I really need to start controlling what I can and can't buy. It's an important skill to have.

I know you guys don't care about that kind of stuff, but I'm on break at lunch and I'm bored. I just thought I'd share.

You never give me your money. You only give me your funny paper

Same ol', same ol'

I know you're all pretty tired of hearing me go on about laptops. Like when I got my first one; the iBook G3 and now the new Macbook. But I'm still just stupefied at how great having one of these is. Here I am, sitting outside in the absolutely gorgeous weather leeching off of the hotel across the highway from work. You couldn't do anything like this 15 years ago; hell, 10 years ago. Technology is a wonderful thing.

Work has been interesting today. Ben brought in his iPod and his new Apple HiFi I talked him into buying and we've got it plugged into a TV watching Stranger Than Fiction. It's hard to work when you've got a good movie playing. Nonetheless, working I am. The machines are running much better today since the air conditioning has been fixed. For those of you unaware, moisture is a production operator's worst nightmare. When paper gets slightly moist it refuses to be run through a machine and cause major head aches. Today, that is not the problem. Today the problem is the fact that rubber is not invincible.

As stated previously, the weather outside is beautiful. If you don't work today, or you have time to take a break, step outside and enjoy it. We won't see weather like this for much longer. All we have to look forward to is five months of unbearable heat, broken up by maybe a week, at most, of rain. So go play some frisbee golf, go biking, drink a beer, whatever. It's nice.

Wash me clean and I will run until I reach the shore

Hot Diggity Dang!

I don't know what it is about laptops, but they always make me feel like writing in my blog. A shit-ton has happened since the last time I updated. I didn't get the job that I applied for. I applied for another job in addittion to that one and also did not get it, but I did at least get an interview. I'm bummed that I didn't get that one because the boss was really cool. Hell, he even called me back like he said he would. How weird is that?

So I spoke of a laptop. As of today, I finally have my hands on a Macbook. It's not a black one, but it's just as fast. It's super neato keeno weeno and I love it. Photobooth is so much fun to play with and having a laptop with wireless internet is nice too. A lot of you probably think I'm nuts for buying one and you're probably right. But what's done is done and it will definitely help me in the future.

Swamp Chicken posted three new songs on Myspace. If you haven't checked us out yet, we're at www.myspace.com/weareswampchicken. We played our first show of sorts a few weeks ago at a friends party. Surprisingly, we were well received. I was very pumped.

Other than that, the only other new thing is that I'm switching back to third-shift at Kinko's. I'll be making more money and I'll have Fridays and Saturdays off again which will be SO nice. I'm very excited.

Outside the world, out there you don't hear the echoes and calls