7/09/05
Now that I actually have a few photos up I've decided to link my Fotothing account here on my site. Fotothing is a photo-blog, so to speak, where I can upload photos and people can comment on them.
Speaking of links, apparently the OzFoxes still have a link to me! I'm surprised, since there is little to no Funny Animal related content here anymore. The OzFoxes is a funny animal web-comic about a group of farm animal/actors. As web-comics go, I highly recommend it.
7/07/05
What can I say other than... I hope they nail the bastards that did it, to a wall, with rusty railroad spikes.
6/09/05
I got the urge to shoot some pictures, so I grabbed my camera and my Zen Nano and wandered around outside (not too far from home, it was threatening rain). I took pictures of whatever happened to catch my fancy(lotsa' trees, for example) until my 256MB card and 32MB card where full and wandered back home (by then it was dark)
Well, I hooked up my camera to the computer and I thought dumped the pictures to my HD... wouldn't you know it some where missing? Maybe I didn't select them, maybe the generic Sandisk brand sticks suck, but whatever happened, I lost some of my (more intresting) pictures. I have to be more carefull next time.
Most of them where crap which is to be expected, I'm just wandering around with a mid-range camera and taking pictures willy nilly with little attention to composition and lighting, and of course you need to hold the camera still to take a good picture. Out of all of the pictures I took (well over 100) I had maaaaaaybe 12 good ones. I also decided I needed a new memory stick and ordered a 512MB Sandisk from Amazon.com.
I picked one of the B&W ones I shot in my room; the camera can only do B&W in manual mode, go figure. Anyway, I like that one the best of them all. Well, maybe there are a few other goods ones, but then, I'm afraid if I stuff yet another pet picture into the internet it's 'gonna 'splode!
6/06/05
My new digital camera came today. :D
6/01/05
Shining Force II: Bowie kisses Elis
5/20/05
The Untouchables
5/18/05
So, it's another image. I don't have much to say when I get around to writing here. I tend to read the newspaper at work and mull over the news articles, but by the time I get home from work I've either forgotten how I reached the conclusions I came to, or I have forgotten what I was reading about. I ought to get one of those small digital voice recorders and carry it around with me.
Bah, the cable was reverted to basic. Now I will have to buy all of the Full Metal Alchemist DVD's to see how the series plays out. It's looking to be a long one, too, at ~50 episodes. Speaking of buying new DVD's, I used to think FLCL was about as bizzare as they get, but after watching PuniPuni Poemy, well, FLCL has nothing on it I'm afraid.
Oh yeah, I have a cell phone now! Huzzah! :D
4/21/05
What can I say? I felt like drawing for a change. Of all my recent drawings, this one was the best.
4/07/05
I have five new listings on E-Bay:
- Entrepreneurship by Hisrich, Michael P. Peters, et'al'
- Economics by William Boyes
- Database Processing by David Kroenke
- Fundamental Financial Accounting Concepts by Cindy Edmonds, et'al'
- Record of the Lodoss War, Volume 2 (VHS)
3/28/05
Go visit the AmberJo Fury Blog
If you make AmberJo cry, I will glare at you (and then hunt you down and cut you like a fish). ‹--- AmberJo wrote that.
3/15/05
As I promised, here is the other shrink-wrap photo:
Click the picture for a larger version.
3/04/05
Well, the item didn't sell. I will probably re-list it tommorow with some changed options. In the meantime, I would like to share some pictures I took at work:
Click the picture for a larger version.
The unfortunate clerk in this picture was a good sport about it, what with three guys ganging up on him. He got wheeled around on that double-decker runner (out back, of course; they where not about to let the customers see this) before he was cut free. There is another picture of him that I will post when I get it.
Click the picture for a larger version.
This is from a while back when I was closing the store as Manager on Duty. Whomever made this cake, did a poor job of it; you can see the banner sagging and the figurine falling over. Not to mention the icing sliding off the cake itself! The customer has called to complain about the cake; she had brought it home without examining it closely and found the defects when she had arrived there. I told her to bring it in and I would refund her money and have a new cake made. It was a custom cake and we could not duplicate it exactly given that she had brought it back when bakery was closing down and only one associate was present. We where, however, able to create a reasonable facsimile from an existing cake. The customer was happy, so I figure it turned out allright.
Click the picture for a larger version.
All I can say is that he had been having a really hairy day, and he needed to sit down. Intresting choice of seating, Sam. :p
2/22/05
Check out my Auction on E-Bay :)
2/17/05
The Neo-(Amber Jo' Monkey Fury Deck)
- 20 Forests
- 3 Isochron Scepter
- 2 Chromatic Sphere
- 1 Fireshrieker
- 1 Thran Forge
- 1 Tangle Golem
- 1 Loxodon Warhammer
- 2 Yavimaya Elder
- 2 Craw Wurm
- 2 Vine Trellis
- 1 Fyndhorn Elder
- 1 Skyshroud Troll
- 1 Troll Ascetic
- 1 Plated Slagwurm
- 1 Elvish Pioneer
- 1 Eternal Witness
- 2 Fog
- 3 Fertile Ground
- 1 Naturalize
- 1 Journey of Discovery
- 1 Wild Growth
- 1 Nourish
- 1 Rampant Growth
- 1 Predator's Strike
- 1 Revive
- 1 Collective Unconscious
- 1 Tranquility
- 1 Gaea's Bounty
- 1 Beacon of Creation
- 1 One Dozen Eyes
- 1 Repopulate
- 1 Angelic Chorus (white)
2/15/05
It's tax time again, and I have to say that I'm elated.
No, I'm not crazy, but giddy. Giddy with joy that I did my own taxes this year. And it was easy; Very easy in fact. I don't make much so I can file the federal 1040EZ form. All I did was go online and retrieved the file, then I downloaded it to my hard-drive and filled it out right in Adobe Acrobat Reader 7.0. When I was done, I saved the file with all of the information in it. Of course, I kept a paper file copy for my records. :p
The State income tax form was a bit tougher. I went to the New York State Taxation and Finance homepage and from their used their wizard to determine the tax form I needed to use. Unlike the federal form, I can't save the changes and work on it later if I wanted so I had to do it all in one shot. All told it took me about 2 hours of careful work.
Moving along, less than a month ago I bought a new HP ScanJet 4600 and a HP LaserJet 1012. The LaserJet is very nice and so is the ScanJet but I went to use the ScanJet and to my great surprise it refused to work; all it would give me is a blank screen. I checked the support website and followed the instructions there. I did the same with the manual. It refused to work; the bulb would not come on. My scanner and printer both are under warranty, so I called HP. The nice (I assume Indian) gentleman had me unplug the USB cable from the computer and then unplug the scanner from the power and plug it back in again. The scanner bulb still would not come on. With astonishing aplomb he declared he was going to send me another scanner. It should be here in 5 days with a shipping label enclosed. :)
I picked up Inuyasha: The Secret of the Cursed Mask last Thursday, and didn't get around to playing it unties last Sunday. Overall so far, while the story is interesting, the battle system is a bit lacking. For one, the in-battle voice acting is a bit overdone, and battles tend to drag on to the point I find myself switching video modes on my T.V. sometimes. It wouldn't be so bad if they just moved along faster... What I am really waiting for, however, is Xenosaga II
2/07/05
If you haven't seen Digital Video Girl's website then you missed a truly astounding link to a Flabbergasting Video. It's a 70's and 80's children's show that, whether deliberately or on accident, encourages children to "pluck their twanger" and "play with their balls". This is a must see.
Moving on, I have an example of religious propaganda for you. The religious nuts come in and leave this kind of stuff all over the place. I'm always picking up flyers, flattened pennies with the ten commandments on them. All sorts of screwy stuff.
The handout guarantees me all sorts of bad things will happen if I don't prostate myself before Jesus. It's a classic example of the fabled slippery slope; an emotional appeal to fear without any proof. Of course, slippery slopes are not unique to the bible thumpers, although they where certainly the first, promising mankind all sorts of awful things if they didn't fall in line. In today's world, they are used by the liberals, especially in Europe to fantastic effect. I always find it sad and even Ironic that the progressives both in the states and abroad have used this insidious form of fear to push their own agenda. 40 Years ago it was global cooling; they where predicting doom and gloom if mankind kept on his slippery course. Today it's Global warming; in all these cases, both secular and religious, it's all based on could-be's and maybes.
2/05/05
In my hometown there are three grocery stores. Tops Markets, Jubilee Foods and Aldis Foods. I myself work at Tops markets doing whatever they need me to do. While I'm not as fired up as I was a few days ago, I wanted to say a few things about the stores.
I simply loathe Jubilee. When I was growing up I would go in and shop from time to time, usually to get some bulk candy to satisfy my sweet tooth. Jubilee then, as now, has something Tops and Aldis lack, a security department. I can recall one time being in the store and being followed all over by their security officer. Knowing now what I now know about shoplifting prevention, he must have thought I was a five time convicted felon on the take. At the time, I was very uneasy being followed around by a scruffy, half-shaven man. I have since found out that Jubilee contracts out and that on more than one occasion they have said "F*** You, I don't work for you, I can do what I want" to the management.
Ah... the management. I realize you can't judge a book by it's cover, but the store manager looks like a fugly Italian mathematician. I've witnessed him go off on his people; you don't do that, especially not in front of customers. Speaking of management, I once was checking out there and their front-end was run by a large, muscular skinhead with visible swastikas tattooed on his body! Now that was disturbing... I know people have a right to express themselves, but there are certain rules to presenting yourself in a professional manner.
Speaking of professional manner and front-ends, that leads us to the cashiers; I was in the store with my mother and her friend and as we where checking out, the girl waiting on us was talking to a girl two checkouts over, hardly glancing at our order. I admire her deftness with her cash register, she hardly looked at it, but I would have liked at least a smile and a nod. And her dress, belly rings, dreads (which I don't mind, they where neat and unobtrusive) and an ill fitting shirt. She projected a slovenly appearance that turned me off.
Then there is the store. The lighting is bad. Old orange-ish lighting that gives the whole place a drab, oppressive feel. The floors are cracking and buckling in places... all signs of the stores age. Looking through the doors into their back-room you can see a disaster waiting to happen. They have a video rack that, no joke, has moves from the early nineties, covered in dusty. The whole store is rather dirty, though like the floors and lights you have to take it in stride. Even when your on top of things when you get a great deal of traffic, it can be very hard to keep things clean. The displays... are unimaginative at best. For example, if your going to stack milk crates in a tiered pattern... cover them with some of the plastic table cloths used at kids parties. You would be surprised at how nice that can look when it's pulled back and taped behind where you can't see it. Then you can stack stuff on top. That may sound strange to some, but look at the nice stuff we do with displays in supermarkets some time; if your local guys are worth their salt, they can produce some nice looking stuff.
So what do they have going for them? Prices. Their prices are significantly lower than Tops Markets in most categories. More over, some people *cough*my mother*cough* like their meat more than Tops meat. It is an advantage that they recently lost to Aldis, however, and it's showing; Jubilee foods stores have been dropping like flies in New York, and I would imagine that even our local store is having trouble.
Next up is Aldis, best described as the bastard child of a British Nanny and "That 70's show". The store is has a clean as a whistle, prim and proper feel to it. If Tops' main strength is our variety, Adlis' is it's lack thereof. There a four main "Aisles" with the product being left in on pallets in neat rows. Against he back and left walls, as you face the back of the store are the cooler cases. They carry all the basics with no muss and no fuss. I could find anything in that store in a matter of minutes and I rarely go in there. Everything is grouped logically and it flows well. The help is well dressed and they seem to be on top of things. Moreover, I don't think I have seen more than three employee's in that store at any given time.
This is where we get to the detriments. The checkouts are set up in such a way that you put your stuff on the checkouts, bring your cart forward and the cashier fills your cart up again with the goods your going to buy. Aldis bags are very sturdy, but you have to pay for each one ($1? .50cent;? I don't don' remember). Your encouraged to take cardboard boxes off of display, or bring your own bags, but more often than not people don't want to pay for bags and there aren't enough boxes to go around. I've gotten creative with their displays to secure my mother boxes from time to time. ;) You also have to 'pay' to get a cart. A Quarter into the locks frees the cart, re-locking the cart once it's been lined up again frees the quarter.
Some people may like the self-serve idea, but I don't care for it much. It's ok for a few items, but with Aldis low prices, few people walk away with a few items @_@
Then there is Tops Markets, the richest plum of them all. It's a landmark in the community, spreading joy and sunshine... and... excuse me, a few of my coworkers are giving me dirty looks... Anyway, We have been in the community at least as long as Jubilee has and have a substantial customer base. Tops is upscale compared to our competition. We focus primarily on customer service, which is second only to our variety. I could tell you stories of course.... ah, the turkey story... :p But I don't want to get fired. ;)
I would say our greatest weakness is our prices. We are pricey, something nobody denies. But try getting Kosher Matzo balls at Aldis. Jubilee might be able to order them, or maybe not. What can I say, Tops is the second happiest place on earth. :)
2/03/05
Today has been a blah day for me. I slept in until around 1:30 p.m. and then had trouble getting up. When I finally did get up, I logged into the the credit unions website to check my account balance for my share draft; today is payday and I have direct deposit into my share draft account. Well, my ledger and the banks balance didn't match up ›_‹
I sat for nearly an hour and a half going over the numbers but got nowhere. To make matters worse, the website kept locking up when I tried to pull up the transactions from last year. I ended up walking over to the credit union and having one of the ladies printing it out on their end. I have to say I was disappointed in the service I received; I have done business with them for 9 years and they have always been helpful. This time however, the girl I talked to seemed clueless Though I appealed for help, all I got was series of banal questions that sounded like they where being read straight from a manual. Eventually, I managed to pry a printout with a list of all my transactions since I last ordered my checks. I took it and went home.
Well, after some serious number crunching with my graphing calculator, I managed to finally get it all to add up (it was a mistake on my part, but I knew as much when I started). When I told my father about it he advised me to make a note in my ledger that the credit union was reporting I had $2 more than my ledger and just continue writing checks under the assumption it wasn't there. This was after I had begun going through the printout check per check. Gah. Well, I finally managed to virtually match it up, only to find I was 0.03¢ off! After additonal careful scrutiny, I eventually found the mistake a good way back in the ledger. I made a note that point, and modified my last entry to reflect the new amount; I wasn't going to erase and rewrite everything a third time. What really frustrates me is that thought I had been very careful›_‹
Valentines day is nearly upon us. Where I work, it has been that way since the 2nd of January; they had all of the Christmas stuff down and the Valentines stuff up. In the spirit of Valentines, several of the guys at work got together and game me a Valentine:
Guys, I know I'm handsome... and that you can't resist, but I don't swing that way. Sorry. ;)
In other news ReLANtless is hosting another LAN party come April! I went to December's party and had a great time. If your in the Batavia area and your game geek, be sure to sign up.
2/02/05
Today finished the new design for my website. The old one was several years old and getting stale so I am replacing it with something new.
I probably won't be migrating much of the old content, but only time will tell.
I never really realized how much crap I had sitting around on this website. I need to sift through it, but I probably won't post much if any of the old content (and updated resume is a good candidate).
