Oh, the good ol' days...
Memorial Day weekend wasn't anything to write much about. Hung out at my best friend's house Saturday and Sunday, and slept over into Monday morning. Free food, free beer. I was given the option to work at my part-time job Monday... and I kinda wanted to because since it was a holiday, I'd get paid time-and-a-half. Getting drunk and sleeping away half of the morning ultimately won out, though. Woo.

I read my old posts from my old site and there's a clear difference in my writing style. I don't seem to be as much of a wise-ass anymore. But I still am. I just don't have the time nor tolerance to update this site like I used to do with ATG, nor do I do much link hunting or news reading online anymore. That used to be my bread and butter. It also doesn't help that I don't have my knucklehead college roommates around anymore to do knucklehead things with that I feel the need to share with the whole world. Now my life has gotten a lot more personal, and not meant for public consumption. Oh well. Such is life.

I really miss my smart ass commenting schemes, and in normal conversation, I am still very much a sarcastic punk.

It also seems that stuff I once wrote about three or so years ago, I don't write about today because it doesn't seem as "interesting" as it used to. It also doesn't help that I haven't seen a bat in a while, either.

I'm not sure this weblog thing is for me anymore. Don't worry, I don't intend to shut my doors down any time soon. It turns out that this site is probably the easiest way for me to keep in touch with those I don't get to talk to often. If ever. I think it would help if I actually whored my site out to friends and family. I wanted to keep it somewhat private while I still worked as a full-time retail worker, but since that's no longer the case, it's about time I open season, don't you think? Then maybe someone other than Jon will write something in the comments. :)

That sounds like a good idea, actually. I should get on that. I'm gonna build an ark.
I saw the sun once in probably two weeks. This rain is starting to get a bit old. Everything's A-OK
So nothing is wrong with my car. I took it to Ford and they ran their battery of diagnositc tests and came up with nothing. Normally when the "check engine" light comes on, it stores a code that indicated the problem in some sort of memory bank within the car, but they weren't able to pull up any such code. The "check engine" light wouldn't come on for them, either. So they gave me back my car.

I guess my car is possessed. Or maybe it's something I'm doing as a driver.

On an unrelated note, screw FOX for choosing to air some Star Wars episode instead of quality programming such as Family Guy last night. I don't get the whole Star Wars phenomenon. On the bright side...
The new job is going great, by the way. It's nice to be able to use my mind more than I use my back. It was a little overwhelming at first (go figure), but the pieces are starting to fit together now. I think I will do fine here. Lots of numbers involved. This job is so much better than my old job in a number of ways:

* Normal 8-4:30, Monday to Friday work hours. None of this variable retail schedule bullshit.
* Normal sleeping hours. I won't miss waking up at 5:00 3 days a week and being home after 1 AM twice a week.
* Guaranteed at least 40 hours of work a week. I don't have to fight for hours like a dog wanting table scraps.
* While we do have goals to reach, it isn't jammed down our throats. That might be because of the next bullet point.
* Everyone has a work ethic! Wow, that is so nice! Everyone is at least in their mid-20's, and probably have some sort of post-high school education. Not having to deal with those 17-year-old dust-collecting bitching wastes of space is gonna be great.
* Clean bathrooms. The bathrooms aren't public, so I won't have to deal with Johnny Can't Flush or that bastard who has to cover the sink counter with water.
* If you work 5+ hours, you have to take a lunch. You don't have to punch out for lunch. The time clock will dock it from your hours automatically. At my old work, they would yell at you if you didn't punch for lunch within 5 hours.
* Good food at the cafeteria. There wasn't a cafe at my old work, but at least at my new job people know how to keep the fridge and eating area clean.
* No running around like a fool. Instead, I sit down like a fool. That might get old quick, but we'll see. I'll go hiking if I need exercise.
* I have the tools to do my job. I got so fed up with not being able to find basic tools like pliers at my old job that I bought my own and used those.
* Since Keene is west of where I live, the sun is never in my face driving to or from work. Concord is east, so the sun was always in my face. Unless I worked at night, of course.
* Oh, let's not forget the money. I ain't gonna be richer than Donald Trump anytime soon, but I can make a living on it, and that's good enough for me right now.

So what do I do exactly? As a grocery wholesale distribution company, we buy products straight from manufacturers like Kraft and General Mills and sell them to places such as Shaw's and Stop n' Shop. Much like gas prices, the price of food isn't the same all across the country. There are diverting companies that will buy product from one region of the country where the price is low, then sell it to someone in another part of the country where the price is higher. The prices they offer is still cheaper than getting it straight from the manufacturer, and they profit as well, so everyone wins (well, not the manufacturers I guess ;)). Diverting isn't illegal, but it seems to be frowned upon depending on who you ask. Oddly, everyone seems to do it, even manufacturers themselves!

We don't do diverting at my work. Well, not that I know of. We do get hundreds of diverting offers a day, though, and we have buyers who do the negotiation to get what the diverter is offering. My role as a sourcing analyst is to take the offer that is given, find out which warehouses can use the product(s), determine how much we need and how soon we need it, and let the buyer know the pricing history of the item and how much of a savings we'd be making if we took their offer "as is." I feel like I'm like one of those guys that pull up random stats and useless facts during televised sporting events. Well, not really. But you get the idea. I sift through the crap and provide the buyer the information he or she needs to make a smart buy.

It's not exactly rocket science, but it's a living. :) With the perks I listed earlier, I think this was a good move on my part. Triple Whammy
Looks like my car isn't having a happy time. It's starting to do that whole "look at me, I can't accelerate after slowing down" thing again. It stopped for a while when I recently went to get my oil and transmission fluid changed, but it did it again for the first time in at least a week on my way home last night. I had to pull over because I couldn't get any speed and let the cars behind me pass. It sucked. And the "get serviced" light came on. It gave me flashbacks of when my Civic blew up on the highway five minutes after the "check engine" light came on. That was a bad time. At least this time around I have a cell phone if shit goes down, so I don't have to hope someone I know pulls over and picks me up (which happened when all things coolant-related on my Civic died and killed the car). Hopefully whatever service I need done on it won't cost me an arm and a leg. I guess we'll find out Monday when I drop it off at the Ford dealership.

Looks like my computer isn't having a happy time, either. It randomly locks up. Sometimes, I won't do anything and it will freeze. Sometimes, it freezes when I play a game, or if I copy files, or if I click on a link, or surf the web, or if I check my mail. There's no rhyme or reason behind it. I eradicated everything on my hard drive last night and started from scratch again, but it's still doing it. At this point, I'm thinking my motherboard needs to be sent out and replaced, but I don't think I can afford to go a week or so without a working PC. Sure, I could use the one I gave my mother or something, but... this one is custom fitted for Yours Truly. And everything plugs into the motherboard, so getting it out and putting a new one in is a time-consuming pain in the ass. Damnit.

Looks like I'm not getting drunk in Maine this weekend. My gallivanting accomplice had issues that came up. Friggin' sucks. Since I now have nothing to do, I called my old place of work to see if they could use me Sunday, but they're content with giving me the whole weekend off. With a malfunctioning car, computer, and no busy work, this could be a very long weekend. :/ I'm gettin' paid, Bitches!
I started my new job on the right foot. I woke up, showered, shaved, and got dressed, only to soon find out I was awake four hours ahead of schedule. I thought my alarm clock woke me up, and I saw the ":45" side of the digital time readout. Thinking it was 5:45, the time I set my alarm clock for, I got ready for work. It was actually 1:45. It didn't even occur to me when I noticed it was pitch black outside. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me when I was done in the bathroom; I had to look at other clocks just to make sure. But yeah. Four hours early. But I did get to sleep in until 6:00 or so because of my idiocy.

The job itself seems simple enough. It doesn't strike me as having a high learning curve (that may be unfair because I do learn quickly), so I should have the job mastered almost instantly. There is a lot of busy work, though, which is what I like. It'll make the shift go by so much quicker. I will also have my own cubicle, which is clearly the sign of mid-20's white-collar work. The cubicles are only about three feet high. Even sitting down, I can see everyone. Now if only I could get my own Swingline stapler, I can get started on those TPS reports.

The work environment is nice and clean and sports such features as a shower, an ATM, a cafeteria, and women. What else could I need? ;)

It's too early in the job for me to say with clarity and succinctness what my role will be. I can give you a muddied down, "in a nutshell" type of uncertain perspective, or you can check back with me after a couple weeks. I'm leaning towards the latter. My list of celebs to see in order to die happy
Bonus points if I can say hi and shake their hands, but I'm not gonna raise my expectations that high.

Shirley Manson -- check. Perhaps my last moment of true awe-struck bliss.
Lewis Black -- check. Best comedian ever.
Mario Lemieux -- eh... that's gonna be tricky (doesn't play much, and the NHL is on strike), but not impossible!

Lewis Black played last night in Concord, and I attended with my mother. I don't ever get to do anything with my mother, so this made a decent Mother's Day gift. Two birds, one stone. It was a pretty funny show. Unfortunately, Lewis Black isn't the type of comedian where you can just say one of his jokes out of context and it'd be funny, so I can't really pass on anything he said to you as a quick one-liner and still have it make any sense. But what was nice is that despite all of the cd's I've heard of his, and all of his bits he has on The Daily Show, he came out and had 100% fresh material. It was quite impressive. They were having fireworks going off in town for some gay reason, and that threw him off for a good 15 minutes, but he was able to ad lib a lot. My mother says he's a genius. I agree.

I'll have to go back next year. Supposedly this was one of the last opportunities to get a Lewis Black bobblehead doll. I think in the future they intend to introduce a bobblehands doll instead. I'd buy that. I wanted to pick up his Nothing's Sacred book that night and have him autograph it, but a family emergency sent us outside after the show. Luckily, I'm a patient man... I'm in no rush. I'll get it next year.
I came, I saw, I conquered.
I did end up hiking Wednesday up over in Pillsbury State Park. I went alone and made it worth my while, and found a pair of caches to boot. There were some nice views and if I have more time, I'd like to go back again and explore more and take some pictures, perhaps have a picnic and play frisbee in one of their open grassy areas. I had to work that night, so those activities will have to wait.

I'm hoping my next conquest will be around the Bar Harbor area of Acadia National Park. I think my trip there will mostly involve drinking, but hopefully I can convince the people I'll be with to check out the sweet views with me. We'll see. Pics Ahoy
If things go my way today, I'm gonna go get lost in the woods for a while. I figured this would be a grand opportunity to purge my collection of geocaching pics from the year before:

The first four pics come from atop Temple Mountain in Miller State Park, a place you will be lead to should you do the Stone Chair cache. The first pic is the stone chair itself, while the second pic is a shot of what I believe to be Mount Monadnock. There were an assload of random rock piles and cairns nearby, and that's what pics #3 and 4 show. It was like a ghetto Stonehenge up there.

A week later I went to do the Flagpin cache, which is at the summit of another mountain in Miller State Park. Well, I don't know if you want to call it a mountain, since instead of hiking the steep grueling trail, you could walk or drive your lazy ass up the paved road to the summit. Too bad I didn't realize that was possible until after I nearly killed myself from exhaustion. Damnit. The first two pics show Mount Monadnock I think. The third pic is of a rock I found while getting lost trying to find my way to the third cache in Miller State Park. It was completely secluded off trail. I settled for this instead of having to bushwhack my way to my next find.

Poor Farm Treasure is a cache located in the backwoods of Weare, NH. The last two shots are from the drive to the cache. Nothing special about them. Just some trees. And my retirement home.



Office Space
It looks like my current place of employment will keep me on a part time basis, one shift a week. That's all I can really swing, anyway, unless my new job turns out to be cake. I don't need the money, nor do I really need the discount (although it is sweet). I'm doing it more to stay in touch with some people instead. Of course, I already said all of that earlier, but screw it, I just said it again.

New job starts this Monday! How exciting! I still need to buy a lot of collared shirts and dress pants. Luckily, the last day I work this week is tomorrow night, so I still have plenty of time. I like being kidnapped.
Well, by certain people, anyway. I'm not big on spontaneity, but the occasional spur of the moment can be quite rewarding in its own way. Especially if alcohol is involved. :)

Various friends and work comrades keep trying to coax me into purchasing World of Warcraft, an online massively multiplayer game that everyone and their mother is apparently playing. I like those sorts of games (RPG's anyway, and MMORPG's can make great time sinks if done correctly), but I don't have the free time I once had back in college or between jobs. A lot of the newer games out there run $12-15 a month for a subscription fee. I used to play Asheron's Call in beta and the first year it was available, and that was $10 a month. And that game, despites its outdated graphics (which I've heard are getting a much needed overhaul), had new monthly content and an ongoing story line that make it worth the investment. I didn't feel like I had to play so much to get my $10 worth each month. Unfortunately, a lot of these new games out there look pretty but don't have much else going for them. I haven't been keeping tabs on any titles recently, but it seems almost all of them can't even go above the bar that Asheron's Call has set for me. Want my money? Keep my game fresh with new shit to do! And make it worth my subscription fee, because I don't have the time or tolerance to powerlevel in a rather static world.

I may consider purchasing Guild Wars, though, which is along the same lines as those other MMORPG's out there. The biggest difference is, however, that there is no monthly fee! That's perfect for people like me, who are lucky if they even have time to post on their website, let alone play games. You will have to pay when you want new content -- a mini-expansion pack of sorts -- but you can play it "as is" without ever having to shell out another dollar. I know some people planning to pick up this game, and I may do so too when the price drops a bit and when I finish my latest game, Vampire: Bloodlines. That could be a while. I don't have time to play it. :) But it is friggin' good and I enjoy it. Thoughts to ponder
Can fat people skinny-dip? "Oh boy, I hope you stayed away from that 'Beyond' section...."
I have about a week to go before Operation: New Job becomes priority alpha and Operation: Rape Jerome's Colon comes to an end. Fun times. Looking forward to it. It seems like my "old" place of work will be content with keeping me for Sundays only, which is good. It lets me keep my sweet discount and keep in touch with my people. I wouldn't know what to do if I had Sunday off anyway. I don't remember the last time I had it off! With the exception of Easter -- didn't Christmas fall on Sunday, too? -- I think the last Sunday I had off was when I took a weekend off to see my college boys in Boston for an overnight BBQ and drinkfest last summer. Yeah, sounds about right.

Gonna be buying a lot this coming week, too. Need new clothes. Need lots of high-margin accessories in case they don't want to keep me on a part time basis. Need to scour eBay for killer deals. Need to live life up while I have the time off.

I neglected to mention it last week, but Family Guy is back on the air! All other shows pale to Family Guy. Bow your head in respect! It's worth staying up for, even if you have to wake up at 4 or 5 in the morning like I do. Now hopefully FOX will leave it at this time slot (Sundays 9 PM) instead of pitting it against shows like Survivor like they used to. And they wondered why the ratings sucked back then... idiots. No Pants Day tomorrow!
Sorry for the short notice, but tomorrow is the day to liberate yourself from the oppressive tyranny that is pants! See nopantsday.com for details.

Kinda wish I was working. I did mention it to a few people at work, but I forgot to make fliers. I should have made my last day of work to be tomorrow, because there's a good chance I'd be fired if I did this stunt. :) Shit to do tomorrow
* Call NEC and see if I can RMA my DVD burner. I fucked up the open/close button when I took it from my old computer case and put it into my new one. It doesn't work anymore. Hopefully I can get a replacement.
* Visit the US Cellular dealership in town and see if I can attach myself to my mother's cell phone plan, and therefore get my own number and unlimited NH calling for $15 a month. Otherwise, see if their Trackerflex plan would be my best solution. I don't use the phone often enough to warrant paying $40 or more a month for it. I was hoping to be the last person in the world to get a cell phone, but I have needed one on too many occasions recently.
* Fill out, photocopy, and mail stuff for mail-in rebates.
* Mail Twizzlers to a friend of mine I haven't seen in about six years. Twizzlers are her reward for listening to a story of my downtrodden life pre-job offer. :) I may throw in something extra, too, just for the hell of it.
* Make an appointment to get my car's oil and transmission fluid changed.
* Replace the loud and rattling fan from an old video card. I sold my old case to my mother, took out some choice parts she doesn't need, and threw in some older stuff that will suffice to keep my selling cost down. Turns out that my old Geforce 2 card's fan doesn't rotate consistently and is one loud son of a bitch.
* Tie up everything in my new system and consider my work done until I get a working DVD burner.
* If time allows and weather permits, head in the direction of Mount Sunapee and see if I can hit up to four caches.

Perhaps later this week:

* Pick up random electronic odds and ends like rechargeable batteries, canned air, printer ink, and such.
* Clean the inside of my car. It ain't really dirty since I take good care of it and I have rules in place for my passengers, but there's quite a bit of sand and dust building up.
* Set a haircut appointment to get rid of my white man fro thing I got going on.
* Get wasted Friday night. Let's here it for birthday parties and free alcohol! :) Almost done!
Five shifts left over the next two weeks at my old job. How exciting!

My supervisor didn't like the fact that I broke my separation notice to a couple managers first instead of him. He still seems upset over it, a week later, even though he says he isn't. I went to a pair of managers first because they are the ones capable of increasing my pay, and I wanted to give them the decency of trying to meet my new employer's pay rate. Supervisors normally don't have that sort of power. Of course, the managers couldn't match my new rate of pay, but I still wanted to give them that chance before I put in my notice.

In a sense, I can see why my supervisor would be upset, but since he doesn't really have any pull in regards to pay rate, I chose not to go to him first. Perhaps I should have told him first -- I'm very very distrustful of everyone and he was the only person left in the store that had my trust (note that I find a lot of people trustworthy, but I choose not to give them that opportunity to win me over) -- but I stand by my decision. I didn't think it would mean so much to him if I went to someone else first. I didn't even go to my manager (my manager was on vacation), but if I had to go back in time and do it all over again, I would have broken the news to my manager first then break the news to my supervisor afterwards. But what's done is done. No sense dwelling on it.

Some of the higher-ups in my store are looking for a way to retain me at part time status (I shit you not when I said I'm the best there is, the best there was, and the best that ever will be). I'm not against the idea, but aside from working Sundays or maybe Friday nights, I won't really have any availability. I don't need the money badly. I'd do it more to stay in touch with a few people. And I guess the discount doesn't hurt, either. I barely use it though, so whatever.