The Price of Convenience

I'm not the sort of person that makes New Year's resolutions, but....

2012-01-04T09:54:00.000-08:00

A couple of my friends stopped by on NYE. It was an unexpected drop in (tho one txted first to see if it was ok) that was prompted by them having to leave a local watering hole with the dubious moniker of "Ed's Dog House.'

Now, I didn't get all the details, but apparently there was a wake/memorial service going on (ik, r) and somebody said something that was misinterpreted, and at least a few people thought my friend said it.

Which he didn't.

So, in order to 'not get punched in the head' my buddies left.

So, in honor of that, I hereby resolve not to get punched in the head in a bar. Now, I've never gone to Ed's, and don't have any plans to, but still. In truth, I don't go to many (any) bars anymore, so I feel confident that this is a resolution I can keep.

I've also decided (tho not resolved) to try and do better with this whole blogging thing. I'm not going to go apeshit and say that I'm gonna post every day, but I'm going to post more.

I promise.

Yesterday, being as it was, my second day off, was a fuck off and do nothing day. Well, not nothing in point of fact, so I present you with:

A Day of Thrift Storing

There are several thrift stores within walking distance of my house, and when I'm feeling frisky, I usually hit all of them. Yesterday, my first stop was at:

I found some books (in fact most of my day was books) but also a wooden camel:

And what I plan to use as a bitchin' dice cup:

I also found some awesome candle holders, but I didn't know if I had enough money at the time, so I trusted the universe, and after dropping off my booty from Salvation Army, I went to a couple different stores:

Wherein I found more books, and a couple kitchen gadgets. I also stopped at a used furniture store that is in the same parking lot. I knew the store was there, but I didn't know that he has a pretty cool selection of books as well...

So, after spending a little money there, I headed home. Pops was back, and he decided to go to the last store with me, with a quick stop at The Salvation Army to get my candle holders:

Now, I don't smoke cigarettes, but after a phone call from my son, I had no choice but to pick up this ash tray:

And, since I'm sure you're all dying to know (not) here's the book swag I scored:

They run the gamut, from fiction to text books. I didn't find the one I was actually looking for (The Princess Bride since you asked), but I did find some I was pleasantly surprised by.

Oh, and in a shameless self-plug, my birthday is a mere 8 days away, so if one of you wants to buy me that book....

Anyhow, hope you all had a good Christmas/NYE.

Buenos con queso,

T.

I did something tonight that made me quite sad...

2011-12-23T22:49:00.000-08:00

When I got home from work (*MAD*house, thanks for asking) Pops asked me if I had any AA batteries...

Now, like most techies, I tend/try to have a supply of most types. C D (yes, D, I have a *good* maglite), but at this point in time, I was frustrated to find that I had none.

I know, right?

Anyhow, in a fit of robbing Peter to rob pay Paulness, I reasoned that I could happily share the batteries from my FM 2's motor drive, since I can't even remember the last time I shot film....

Needless to say, since none of them (eight) tested with a charge, and also given that two of them had started leaking, I decided that it was time to take all the batteries out of my film equipment.

All 3 of them (N70, 8008s, FM2) still have film in them, I just don't see myself using them....

R.I.P.

Buenos con queso,

T.

I'd begun to think I'd lost my marbles....

2011-11-13T14:40:00.000-08:00

I'm happy to say, however, that I simply misplaced them:

And below, some close-ups:

Oh, and in one of those 'it's so random I have to comment on it' ways, my 1,111th post was on 11/11/11.

I know, right?

Buenos con queso,

T.

George Lucas has been making money off me since August of 1977

2011-11-11T11:15:00.001-08:00

You see, that's when I first saw Star Wars.

In the theatre.

We didn't call it 'Episode 4,' and we didn't call it 'A New Hope,' we just called it Star Wars.

My sis and I were near the front of a line that must have had better than 150 people in it.

Also that summer, I bought the cards....blue borders, red borders...green, and then I think yellow (it may have been orange).

I had action figures, and I bought an X-wing model. I was mad for it all.

Then there was Empire. Saw that in the theatre too. And Jedi.

And all 3 of the 'new ones.'

And then, all 3 of the 'old ones' again, when they were re-released. I owned several different copies of each of the first 3 on VHS, and currently own all 6 on DVD.

I haven't bought them on Blu-Ray yet, but it's prolly just a matter of time.

May the Force be with you,

T.

Let's not dwell on it, shall we?

2011-11-05T15:24:00.000-07:00

So many things have happened that I don't even know where to start.....

Lesse....Yes, we went to Dland.

I've bought not one, but two new PS3 games....

I've been playing a stupid amount of EQ.....

I've been working....

And working.....

Working....

All in all, I've been a busy little beaver.....

I guess what really brought me here today, after such a protracted absence is the fact that serendipity (serenity perhaps) gave me another 'must have' tattoo.....

This one will be Chinese text down the back of my left calf that reads thusly: 宇宙间没有任何力量可以阻止我

For those of you that don't read Chinese, that says 'No power in the 'verse can stop me.' Actually, it's closer to 'The Universe, there's no power can stop me.'

How can I be sure, you ask? Well, that's a good question. I had the phrase in mind for a tattoo anyhow, so I was familiar with it. I tried a couple online translators, and they all kind of gave the same thing, but I wanted to be sure.

I send an email to a Professor of Chinese, one John Chang by name, and gave him the phrase and some background about the quote.....He sent me the above, and the other translation I got online....

Anyhow, I'm on my way (maybe) soon to stop in a couple shops and get prices and the like.

I'll keep you posted.

Buenos con queso,

T.

Simon has joined his ancestors.....

2011-09-09T11:32:00.000-07:00

I don't have all the details yet, but apparently Chinese neighbor guy has given up the ghost. We haven't heard too much about it, but as I get more info, I'll share it with y'all.

I guess Anna is still doing fine, but who knows? I've heard that old couples often go very close together, and they've been together ages from what I understand.

In other news, it's Friday, and boy do I need a weekend off!! Work's been a festering boil of conflict, and I've been tempted to just walk the fuck out.

I've never done that before, but I'm reacing my limit these days....

Also, 16 days and counting.

I know I haven't really blogged much about it (or anything else for that matter) but Dland is on for the week of Sept 26th this year. It's going to be a short trip, and only 4 of us are going (pops sis niece me), but my daughter's going to school in SoCal, so we'll get to see her too.

There's a chance that my friend Tammy might be able to join us on one of our days in the park, so I've got my fingers crossed for that.

It's been entirely too long since I've seen her....

Buenos con queso,

T.

No more mister nice guy.

2011-09-06T12:24:00.000-07:00

Now, as you may know, I've been helping out the old couple that lives next door.

I don't call them old lightly. He's 84, and she's 91. There have been some medical problems, and both of them are now in-patients.

Anna took a fall and broke her ulna and radius at the wrist, and her hip. I understand that she's had her surgeries, and is doing well, and recovering nicely.

Simon was having other troubles, and was admitted too.

I'm not sure the nature of all of his problems, so I can't elaborate.

Now, if any of you know me, you know that I didn't start helping Simon and Anna (two of the least chinese names ever) for any kind of reward.

I was simply being a nice guy, a good neighbor.

My good samaritanism did net me a couple things tho:

The first of which was a visit from a Health Department worker. Seems Simon, among other things, was diagnosed with tuberculosis.

This visit prompted the second thing I received, a TB test at the abovementioned Health Department.

I'm happy to report that 20 bux (out of pocket btw) and two days of vacillation between worry and virulent anger, that I'm not infected, but I'm still kinda pissed.

All I was doing was trying to be a nice guy, and not only did it backfire on me, it cost me money.

It may make me seem a bit petty, but methinks my days of helping out may be coming to an end.

Buenos con queso,

T.

Remember, remember, the fifth of November, the gunpowder, treason, and plot.....

2011-08-10T03:13:00.000-07:00

Given the title of this post, you'd prolly think that I'm watching V for Vendetta while I blog this, but you'd be wrong.....

I'm actually watching Episode 5 of Firefly, 'Safe.'

I don't know if any of you ever watched it, or the movie Serenity, and I know I've prolly talked about it before, but you really should give it a look....

But, I digress....

This is what I came here to share with you:

Hmmmmm

Buenos con queso,

T.

HOW hot did you say it was yesterday?

2011-08-09T02:18:00.000-07:00

Now, this isn't actually from yesterday, it was more like a couple weeks ago, but's it's impressive, nonetheless...

I know I've talked about the weather here, and how crazy it is, and I've even talked about this area being a 'mountain desert.' but I don't know if I've shown you what the desert heat can do.

I mean, I've shown you snow, lightning, wildfires, but through it all, there's the heat.

This poor soul was left in my Technical Advisor's automobile.

I present for your viewing pleasure, Hot Pez:

Poor Walleye.....or whatever the fuck his name is.....

Anyhow, as Paris would say, 'That's Hot."
Yes, I know that 'hot' shouldn't be capatialized, but I'll bet she thinks it does....

I'm just sayin'.

Buenos con queso,

T.

The most epic shopping list ever?

2011-08-01T12:25:00.000-07:00

Quite possibly.

I know it's been forever since I've posted, but I've gotten really tired of explaining/making up excuses for why I haven't been posting, so I'm not going to do it.

There have been some changes since last I posted (duh) which include, but are not limited to: getting a car, organizing my room (somewhat), a new cash windfall, and some good Samaritan work.

The car, if you care, is a 1982 Toyota Celica.

It looks something like this, although, not quite as new:

The color scheme is even basically the same.

Pops found out that he's entitled to (and getting) around 500 bux a month from the clerks union (which he didnt think he qualified for), which is nice, and will help greatly with the day to day/month to month money woes that we all face....well, that pops and I face, anyhow.

Not sure that his money will help any of you, but.....

I'm not really going to touch on my room, as I'm sure none of you care if my room's a mess or not (except perhaps for you mom), so on to the good samaritanism....

I mentioned, however briefly, that we moved. It was nothing major, just out of a condo to an apartment. I mean, it is closer to work, and the rent is 50 bux cheaper, and we don't have to pay utilities (except for cable/inet/phone of course) but basically, just new digs.

Upon moving in, like all good Americans, we closed ourselves in, and did our level best not to get to know our neighbors.

Well, except for James, my long-time friend, and tech advisor (apt 49) and a High School buddy, Bruce (apt 63), both of whom actually live in the same complex.

So, flash forward a few months, and one day, we notice our next-door neighbor (right hand side), whom I've since learned is named Simon, on the ground, struggling to get back on his feet.

I'm not sure exactly what happened, but he fell, either getting into, or out of his car.

Now, mind you, up to this point, the only thing I knew about him was that he was old (ive since found out hes 84), and Chinese. His wife Anna, is 90. Well, as a result of his fall, and for how long, I'm not sure, but he was giving a 'no driving' prohibition.

Being the nice guy that I am, I offered. I've taken him tothe doc's a couple times, and to the store a few times, and he's gotten to the point now where he trusts me. He'll give me money, the keys to his car, and a list.

I mean, he still checks the receipts/change when I come back with his goods, but that's just a cultural thing.

Now, as you might imagine, his lists are all written in spidery old-man printing. The other day, however, there was something else that caught my eye:

It's right there, at the top of the list. See where he asks for Kikkoman soy sauce? And then there's a Chinese character there?

If you look closely, you'll see that it's the same as the one above.

Now, say what you will, but I think that makes this the most epic shopping list ever!!

Buenos con queso,

T.

Why have a pause button if you're not going to use a pause button?

2011-06-09T12:03:00.000-07:00

I don't think I've ever mentioned it on here, and really, why would I, but I'm Hell on wheels with a remote.
Ever since the first time I got my hands on one, in the dim dark past, I've been in love.

I remember the pre-remote days, as some of you may. The days when 'cable' meant that you had twelve channels from which to choose!! Can you imagine? Not just 2, 4, and 8, with that 'riot snow' on ever channel in between? Rabbit ears? Yeah, I remember those as well. The clunky, tough to turn dial? When I was the remote control?

Yeah, it's all there for me, so you may begin to understand my love affair with the remote.

A device that lets you change the channel without getting up? Or turn the t.v. volume up or down?

My GOD!! Are you freaking serious? Even with a minuscule 12 channels to choose from, this made things so much easier. Now, with the Oh, I don't know 1000 or so that the right price can bring into the house, it's almost a necessity.

Like most things, I like my remotes to have a myriad of buttons. There are a couple (mentioned previously) that get a lot of use, namely the 'last channel' and 'mute' buttons. I use those like they're going out of style, and the mute button almost gets worn out. Even if remotes only had channel up, channel down, volume + and -, and mute, I'd still be in love.

These days, however, they're much more advanced. I guess that I should mention that as I blog this (from my coffee table since you asked) there are four remotes within easy reach. they are, in order of proximity, tv, cd player, digital media player, and home theatre.

With the exception of the audio device (silver) these remotes share some basic buttons: The volume, of course, and channel buttons, of course, but also something I like to call the four-way:

This one (my home theatre remote) also has some added buttons, but it's the four-way that we're on. Used primarily for menu navigation, it's a wonder of convenience up, down, left, right....all moves are a variation on these 4 directions, even in 3 dimensional space. The middle button, or 'go button' as I like to call it, confirms choice.

There's another group of buttons that most, if not all, 'player' devices share. I don't have a bitchin' name for it, but it's the play/pause section:

This one, (also my home theatre) also has some other options. The main ones, play, pause, and the others are totally awesome. I use them with such regularity, that's it's a good thing that the buttons have the markings imprinted into them, because a mere paint job world wear off in no time.

Getting up to get a drink? Pause button. Miss a bit of dialog, or didn't see something clearly? Rewind. Suicide note, or boobies/other nudity? Pause again. Something that you really like? Awesome special effect (like the gravediggers head exploding in bones), or the 'human claymore' at the beginning of Swordfish, or again, boobies/other nudity? Frame advance, to see everything in it's explosive/bloody/sexy goodness.
I can't express my level of love for these handy little devices.

What about you? Do you love/use your remotes like I do?

Weigh in.

Buenos con queso,

T.

He would have been 45 today.....

2011-06-07T11:58:00.001-07:00

I miss you, buddy.

Buenos con queso,

T.

Fuck you, Thursday. Fuuuuuccckkkkk Youuuuuuuu!!

2011-05-13T14:45:00.000-07:00

Returning to it's roots, yesterday, Thursday handed me a royal screwing that almost sent me over the edge....

The first part of the day was unremarkable, but when I got to work? Well, that's when things changed.

It started when I found out that our truck crew (which is usu 5-7 people) consisted of me and only 2 others. One was in the truck, putting freight onto the line and me and the other guy had to take it off and put it onto pallets by department.

All 1600 pieces of it.

Which, as I noted above is at least a 4 person job, and even then it's a bit of a ball-buster.

Somewhere in the middle of it, one of the bosses came and pulled the other guy off the line to unload a different truck that arrived, leaving me to man the line alone.

It was fucking great!!

Only, you know, not.

Add in the realization at some point that I forgot to blog, and my first couple hours at work pissed me off soooooo much.

After getting break approximately 30 minutes late, I decided to post a quick blog from my phone to keep up with NaBloPoMo.

Only to find blogger down.

And on lunch?

Down.

The site was down long enough to ensure that I couldn't post.

There were other little work-things that kept adding up, and I can't cite them all here, but suffice it to say, when I clocked out last night, I was ready to spit fire....

I'd love to stay and chat more, but I have to get ready for work...

Buenos con queso,

T.

Douglas Adams died 10 years ago.

2011-05-11T14:37:00.000-07:00

Strangely enough, May 11th, the day he died, was also his birthday.

I never met him, never knew him, but I miss, and prolly always will miss him.

Just in case you forgot, my realization that Thursdays are evil, and the inspiration for at least one (maybe more to come) of my tattoos are a direct result of my love for his fiction.....

So, with that in mind, I plead with you:

Buenos con queso,

“Maybe it's other people's reactions to us that makes us who we are.”

2011-05-10T14:49:00.000-07:00

So, here we are again.

Well, I know I'm here, but as for the rest of you, I'll just take it on faith that you're here. Well, not here, but you get my drift.

Not much going on, but I thought I'd drop in and say 'Hi' anyhow.

I don't know if I've mentioned (and i dont want to check) but I've managed to get the weekends off. Not that I was trying to, nor does it really make any difference to me what days off I have, but there you have it.

It does make it easier for the D&D, and that's nice, but otherwise, all it means is that there's nothing on tv to watch on my days off.

I liked when I had Mondays off, 'cause I could watch Castle, but I've found a way around that too, so I guess all is good.

Guess that's all for now.

Buenos con queso,

T.

I'll give you a definite maybe

2011-05-09T01:41:00.000-07:00

What follows is a verbatim txt conversation that I just had:

                                                      No worries. What's for snacky? Cherry Cobbler?

peanut m&ms lol

                                                   ...obscure pun alert... You're such a goober...

I SO AM NOT! i dont generally like peanuts... how can i be a goober xD

                                                    Well....you're eating them *now* aren't you?

nooooo? -shifty eyes-

                                                    And aren't/weren't they called goober peas?

                                                    Aaaaanddd....since you *are* what you eat.....

goober peas? XD

                                                      Hey, I didn't make it up...google it

then im CHOCOLATE!

                                                      Well, and goobers.....

can i be a chocolate goober? xDDD

If it makes you feel better....hey, would you mind if I put this goober thing up on my blog?

go ahead :P

Silly, right?

Ok, so I guess a couple more photos....

My hands get pretty beat up at work:

One of exactly 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 permutations, which is approximately forty-three quintillion

My freaky, super bendy thumb:

And again:

And before you ask, yes, they bothdo that.....

And to end it out, a couple of my hair. I like the angle on the second one, and that I look pretty tatted up.....

Ok, that's all for now.

Buenos con queso,

T.

Maybe we don't always know as much as we think we do.

2011-05-08T13:01:00.000-07:00

I mean, I can remember when I thought this:

was a big rubber band.

And yes, when compared to the wimpy little newspaper rubberband that I knew at the time of my youth, I suppose it was.

Then, although I never got around to posting pics...(remember when i didn't have a digital cam), I saw rubberbands that put those to shame. Now, this isn't the actual rubber band (i don't think) but they are 7 inches long.

Oh, and they sting like a bitch when they hit you, even from across the room.

I found something the other day, however, that puts all previous rubberbands to shame.....

I present to you the M.O.A.E.B*:

Or, to put it in a little more perspective:

I know, right?

Also, some more light painting:

I have more, and intend to make more, but that's all you get for now.

Oh, and Happy Mother's Day to all you mutha's out there.

Buenos con queso,

T.

*Mother Of All Elastic Bands

Maybe, baby, you will love me someday.....

2011-05-07T13:05:00.000-07:00

Hello again.

I'm here, checking in, and letting you know that I'm....well, checking in, I guess.

I'm in kind of a rush tho, cause I have to play God tonight, and I to get my 7331 stuffzes in order and hauled over to my buddy's house.

So, in lieu of an exciting, wonder-filled post, some photos:

The Sierra-Nevada Mountains:

Spider:

Choose your pimp hat:

And here's one of me, if you care.....

With that done, I shall now bid thee,

Buenos con queso,

Okay, maybe it's just me, but.....

2011-05-06T03:17:00.000-07:00

Is this one of the freakiest things you've ever heard of , or what: Really?

I mean, it's prolly for realz the first step toward a full-body interactive suit (which might be cool), but, like most tech in it's infancy, it's just kinda spooky.....

In other news, photos:

This is the view down the hall to pop's room. It was like a 10 second exposure at f32, and I was wielding a 3 led under-the-cabinet attaching light bar....

Kinda cool.

Gonna play with the levels a bit in the future and see what happens.

Guess I'm outtie.

Buenos con queso,

T.

Maybe it's better this way.....

2011-05-05T14:30:00.000-07:00

Wow, a title that has nothing to do with the post it heads.

I've never done that before.

Nothing exciting, mind you, just a couple lines to fulfill my 'post every day' quota.

I really need to get to editing some pictures for uploading. Perhaps I'll get on that tomorrow.

Or maybe tonight when I get home from work.

Which, considering I work until 1 am, actually is tomorrow.....

Anyhoozle, just thought I'd drop in and say 'Hi.'

Buenos con queso,

T.

May the 4th be with you...

2011-05-04T11:50:00.000-07:00

So, here it is, the unofficial Star Wars day, and I find myself without a thing to wear....

Well, I suppose that's not literally true, but I surely don't have anything Warsish that I can wear to work.

I apologize if this all seems a bit disjointed, but I stayed up laaaaate last night....or, well, early this morning, I guess. It wasn't just for fun, however.

Well, actually, I guess it was. There's this friend I've made at work.....we'll call her S, and one day whil she was over here hanging out, I put on White Collar, and now, she, like Pops and I, is hooked.

We watched like 4 or 5 epi's last night, and the sun was coming up when she left. That, coupled with my 'inability to sleep when the sun is up' super power means I'm running on about 5 hours of sleep, which isn't much, as I've been getting very little lately.....

As I'm typing this, Discovery is airing one of those 'the end of the world as we know it' docu's.

You know, 2012's right around the corner. The whole 'magnetic field reversal' theory has been brought out, and they're talking about possible side effects: earthquakes leading to tsunamis, and super volcanoes erupting.

They've just started talking about what would happen if the Yellowstone caldera were to erupt.

Short answer: We're fucked.

Ok, enough of that. I've gotten one request for a video, and really, that's enough, but I'd like to see another comment or two from some of you.....just to know you're still lurking about.

Look for the vid in a day or so....I mean, I have to get a script together....or maybe a blog to read....

Buenos con queso,

T.

Maybe this world is another planet's hell.

2011-05-03T13:28:00.000-07:00

I mean, I don't really think/feel that, but it sounds good.

I don't really have anything planned to tell you today, so forgive me if this is a bit disjointed.

I've been playing with the new camera lately, so look forward to a post with some photos to come soon, but I still have to 'shop them, so we're not sharing yet.

I will say that I really like the new camera tho. I haven't played with the video function much, but I'm sure I will.

Hey, there's an idea.....if you want to see a short video post, let me know.

I'm counting on y'all to give me some fucking comments, as I never seem to get those anymore....

Buenos con queso,

T.

The game was called on account of love....

2011-05-02T03:33:00.000-07:00

Well, at least lust.

We were supposed to throw dice last night, you see. We didn't play last week (easter dont ya know) and we were going to be a person short this week, but we were going to soldier on.

The problem arose from the host. We always play at his house, and last night, his new S.O. was scheduled to stay the night....

With that supplying an early termination time, and with the unplanned late start, we decided that rather than rush, we'd just postpone.....

In other news, the theme for this month is: Maybe..

Maybe I'll do something on maybe tomorrow....

Maybe....

Buenos con queso,

T/.

Maybe this isn't the best idea.....

2011-05-01T00:18:00.000-07:00

It's nothing major, or bad, so don't worry, but I guess I'ma try the NaBloPoMo thing.

Hey, I can hear you laughing....that's not nice.....

Ok, so, yes....I've been very crappy at this lately....

Maybe now is the time to change.....

I also seem to have not posted about something that I thought I had...and a long time ago too.

I'm searching my previous posts, and if I discover that I haven't told you lot the story, then I will soon...

Ok, it's a lame beginning, but it's a beginning.

Buenos con queso,

T.

So, I've been doing better at this.....

2011-04-29T11:31:00.000-07:00

Have you noticed?

It's not like I've really had any more to share or anything, or even that I've finally slowed my schedule down (it still sucks), so I'm not sure why I'm posting again.

Maybe I just decdided to get off my ass....

>looks at self sitting in chair<

Or maybe not.

Maybe I've got wonderful things to share.....

>looks at current post<

Or maybe not.

Maybe, I'm energized with a new zest for life.....

Yeah, prolly not that either.

Oh well, take what you can get.

Buenos con queso,

T.

So, if I know what a person was trying to say, does that make me smarter than them?

2011-04-28T02:57:00.000-07:00

I mean, I've talked about the whole then v. than thing, so I'm not gonna drag all that back up, but I mean for real.

I was skimming along, and someone made reference to 'overhearing' a neighboring conversation as being 'ease dropping.'

Yeah, that's right, ease dropping.

I'm not sure how getting tense helps you hear better, but...

Also, this is pretty funny, if you're a fan of Castle, Firefly, or Nathan 'Just Like Million' Fillion.

Video

Also, after playing both Uncharted games, I can say unequivocally say that he would do this job much better than Marky Mark....

I'm just putin it out there...'.

Dont know that I've got much else....

Buenos con queso,

T.

Taste of the town...

2011-04-27T11:54:00.000-07:00

So, I'm here to tell you about chocolate....

First, the Tabasco stuff?

Yeah, pretty amazing, and a surprisingly strong kick. Most 'hot' things sold to the public are, at best, what I consider 'medium' heat. With the exception of Pace picante sauce. Their 'hot' salsa is pretty hot.

And I like that.

The Ghiraradelli dark stuff was awesome too..... Very intense, very earthy.

Mmmmmmmmm.

The other stuff was just milk chocolate, good, but basically the same thing as any other chocolate.

Pretty boring today.

Buenos con queso,

T.

Happy Giant, Egg-Laying Christian Rabbit Day!! (again)

2011-04-24T09:50:00.000-07:00

So, once again, a giant mammal has been and gone, and I'll I've got to prove it is a bag of candy....

Well, it's actually from my mom, and she dropped it off yesterday, but you get the idea. I'm not sure why she still gets/makes me a basket/random container every year, but I love that she does. It's one of the things I look forward to every year.

Much like socks for Christmas, another 'mom tradition.'

The swag from this year:

If you don't know, Ghirardelli is the best shit ever!!

Edible money, anyone?

Ah, there's the rabbit:

And, of course, something to get my geek on with:

I haven't tried any of the goodies yet (well except for a couple of coins) but I'll be sampling later today.

If the Tabasco and dark chocolate are good enough to warrant another post, I'll be back later to let you know.....otherwise, it'll prolly be tomorrow.

Buenos con queso,

T.

Sarah Connor's answering machine is gargantuan......

2011-04-22T13:02:00.000-07:00

Due to my lack of posting lately, it may not be immediately apparent to y'all that I've been offline for a week or so.

If it wasn't for my iPhone, I'm sure I'd have lost my mind without internet, but the little trooper pulled me through.....

Now that I've got that out of the way, I want to tell you what I did last night.

According to the latest timeline/time travel/preventative measures, Judgement Day, as portrayed in the Terminator mythos occurs/occurred on April 21, 2011.

That was yesterday, in case you didn't know. In honor of this, I watched The Terminator. Whenever I watch an older movie, especially one with futuristic overtones, I have a tendency to notice tech stuff.

It prolly stems from the whole geek much/tech whore parts of my make up, but whatever the case, I saw something last night that really hit home:

See that monster box next to her phone? Yeah, that's her fucking answering machine

Kinda puts it all in perspective, doesn't it?

Buenos con queso,

T.

He jests at scars that never felt a wound.

2011-04-09T23:56:00.000-07:00

Remember when I told you I was going to post pics from last week's game?

Yeah, well, I decided that they sucked (cause i used my phone) so I shot a better one tonight.

I'm not going to show you that one yet, though.

Not because I'm an asshole or anything, but I want to bring you up to speed first. I know I've told you that I'm builing props (didnt i) to make the game more interesting, but I don't think I've let you know that, as with many things in my life, I've gone a bit overboard.

I showed you the table, or at least the component parts, but I've also made walls and other things as well.

Our game continuted from last week, and as my intrepid adventurers worked their way through the dungeon, it looked something like this:

The dice represent the players (duh) and the number is the marching order. The walls you see are of my own making, and consist of cardboard, and magnets...

As the party made it's careful way along, I could (and did) slide the walls around to make corridors, rooms, and the like. The group met some enemies, did some battle, found some items....

Things were going along well, and then James had to leave. At that point, we convinced N and K to play along. N and K are both girls, just so you know, and K is the SO of one of the other players.

Both of these girls have said that they didn't want to play. We didn't let that stop us tho. I gave them some easy tasks, let them roll some dice....

Well, all I can say is that I now need to roll a couple more characters....

I'm pretty worn out, cause playing God is a lot of work, so I'll leave you now...

Buenos con queso,

T.

I almost posted yesterday...

2011-04-07T12:43:00.000-07:00

No, really.

Almost.

I'm posting today, so I guess that counts for something. It's not like I have ton of witty things to say, or even anything interesting, but I'm trying to be better about this (since ive sucked so bad for so long).

I still haven't really taken the new camera out to play yet, but I hope to soon. Perhaps this weekend.

I may even shoot a short video, just for the novelty of it. I'm not sure it will have the highest production values, but....

Now that I have a new camera, I've decided to send my old one to my daughter, as my son already has a DSLR, and my daughter told me that I prolly 'wouldn't consider it a camera' when I asked what she was shooting with.

I had to order a lens for it, which arrived yesterday, so soon I'll box it up and ship it off to her. She's really excited to get it, and I have to say, it makes me feel good to be able to gift her with it.

I guess that's all for now.

Buenos con queso,

T.

The dice throwing started last night.....

2011-04-04T11:00:00.000-07:00

Yes, that's right, I totally got my geek on last night.

I think I mentioned that I was going to start running a D & D game, but in case I didn't, I did.

If you know what I mean.

I have a pic or two, but as I took them with my phone (which died and is now charging) I don't have them to share at the mo. After it gets some juice, I'll email the photo to myself and then post it.

As if you care.

I'm sure none of you have ever thrown dice to see if you decapitated the orc, opened the chest, or triggered the trap.....

The game went well, and I have high hopes for the remainder of the adventure. My intrepid group has found the first level of the dungeon, and have found a couple pieces of the puzzle that is the underlying theme of the game.

Well, my game that is.

In other news, it looks like work might actually be coming through with my new day off schedule. I've gotten told for weeks now that I was going to have Saturday and Sunday off, but so far it hasn't really materialized. I did have this weekend off, and I think I have next one off, but I won't know for sure until I check at work today.

It would be nice to have weekends off, tho it doesn't mean as much as it did when you were a kid in school, and since Sunday Football looks like it may be in jeopardy (the only reason I really wanted sunday off) it'll prolly happen.

Ok, guess I'm through for now.

Buenos con queso,

T.

I'm getting tired of this shit.....

2011-03-25T11:15:00.001-07:00

Ok, so as promised, here are shots from yesterday:

Well, last night, actually. Those are my footprints, in case you were wondering.

And this is what I got to walk to work in the day before yesterday:

And we're supposed to get snow for the next two days as well. I heard a rumor that it was Spring, but I've actually seen very little to indicate that I'm not being lied to.....

If any of you have any nice, sunny weather that you're not using, we could sure use some. If you ship it UPS Priority Overnight, or even Next Day Air, I'll gladly pay you the shipping.

As soon as I thaw out, that is.

Buenos con queso,

T.

This guy is off his fuckin' TREE!!

2011-03-24T02:28:00.000-07:00

Two grand for a bug, and it doesn't have an engine?

I don't know what he's smokin', but I'll bet it isn't legal.

In case you're wondering I did get my new camera, and I can't believe how much I love it. There are a myriad of new features and all manner of foofoorah that I haven't really explored yet, but one thing that they did do, was a Godsend.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I like to take photos in the dark. Sometimes just in shadow, sometimes at night.....any chance I can get by moonlight....

Well, given the nature of that type of photography, it's tough to see the controls on your camera. I mean, am I in Program mode for a baseline exposure, or am I in Manual, adding light by the double?

I mean sure, you can carry a flashlight, or wear one of those dorky headlightbands (yes i do 2 in fact), but then there's something else to hold/juggle/keep track of...

This new baby tho?

Yeah, on the back screen (theyre calling it a monitor now) an animation of the mode dial (that looks exactly like the real one) lights up and rotates in real time, so you can always tell what mode you're in.

Now, I haven't really taken her out and put her through her paces, but I fully intend to very soon.

Ok, here's a non macro close up with my new cam. Just the stock lens, cropped for size but not dpi:

Batman

If it ever stops snowing (again this am have photos soon) I plan on going on a real walkabout for some wild art.

I guess that's about all I have to say for now....Oh, except for the fact that the game is coming along nicely.....

Buenos con queso,

T.

I've decided to start a paper and dice game....

2011-03-19T14:30:00.000-07:00

Well, not like invent one, but you know, just run one.

For a number of reasons, I've decided to use the 1st edition AD & D ruleset. Well, as a guideline at least. I plan to simplify some things and just generally make it more fun to play.

It's been forever since I've run (or even played in) a paper and dice campaign, so I'm planning on doing some things to spice up the gameplay, in hopes of sparking interest, and providing a more interactive experience.

In that vein, I've been thinking about scale model props and such. While in this frame of mind, I was stripping motherboards for processors and heat sinks when I found something remarkable:

Now, to me, this looks very much like some ornate Edwardian era table leg. That it should be in a computer seems slightly incongruous (boy does thatword look wrong), and the function it performed was very unique.

It was holding a processor board to a very low tech heat sink:

See that thin, flimsy aluminium stuff? Yeah, that was folded and glued to the piece in the back, and the whole thing was held to the processor by 2 of the plastic 'legs' from the first picture. I figured since the legs were coming from the computer that I should try and see what other props I could fashion from computer parts.

So far, all I've really made is the table top:

In case you can't tell, that's the 'heat sink' flattened out and painted. I did make a border of wooden dowels cut to size, but mostly this table will be constructed from a computer heat sink.

Which is cool, right?

I have grand plans to make more props for the game, and I'll keep you posted on that (if any of you care) so you can see my unparalleled crafting skillz.

On a completely unrelated note, Michael and I had a scheduled a photo walk, but as the weather was snowy here, and I didn't want to get my gear wet, I opted for inside photos to his outside ones.

As usually happens when I'm shooting indoors, I started playing with macro.

We exchanged gps numbers, and as you can see, I really need to invest in a carry around notebook:

I haven't really played with all the images I made yesterday, but I do have a couple to share with you. The 3 I'm going to share all started with the same image, and then I did some tweaking with the levels. And before you ask, yes, I really can stack 3 dice like that. No glue, no tricks, just a steady hand.

Ok, that's all for now.

Expect a big update and prolly tons of photos when my new camera arrives.

Buenos con queso,

T.

The road to Hell is paved with easy monthly payments......

2011-03-19T02:26:00.000-07:00

Some of you may remember when I got a Dell account, and that at that time, I bought the laptop I'm currently blogging on. Since then, I have made prompt and diligent payments, and then the other day, I noticed something....

I looked at the credit limit (a paltry 1k when i got it) and saw a staggering number. Total credit, $3100.00.

I nearly shit myself.

Visions of bad ass computers/peripherals/tvs/techwhorry goodness.....

But, the interest rate on the card is pretty steep, so I try not to use it too much. After some discussion with Pops, however, I submitted an order today.

No, not a top of the line computer.

Likewise, not a 60" HDTV (tho they sell them).

No, they had the Nikon D3100 for the very attractive price of $599. I prolly shouldn't have, but I did....

I ordered that bad boy.

I can hardly wait to take it out and play with it.....

I'll keep y'all posted.

Buenos con queso,

T.

Do you ever read the Craigslist.org personal ads?

2011-03-15T02:09:00.000-07:00

I do, but mostly as a joke.....

I mean, do you really want to search for true love in the same venue where people are giving away used cooking oil, broken stuff, and furniture that I wouldn't let dogs sleep on?

Don't get me wrong, there are some ok deals on there too. I've seen what can be collected with just a small amount of effort. There are things that worry me tho, like the spelling and stuff.....

You all know what a grammar Nazi I am.

Take this, for example:

Now, that's prolly a pretty good pet, and if I had the room, and well, the responsibility, I'd prolly have a dog like this, and in a perfect world, I might have helped this woman out.

That's the kind of thing I expect on the internet, so, I can live with it.

Then we have things like:

I have a word of advice for you. If you ever see the words 'perfect for burning man' in a description of anything, run fast the other way. The dead giveaway? No picture. Hear those sirens?

I can't think of a single time I've seen those words in an ad and even been remotely interested in anything that was proffered.

Ok, now a disclaimer:

What follows from this point forward may offend some of you. If you get offended easily, I suggest you don't read any further.

Unless you want to be offended.

In that case, go right ahead.

What we are about to experience is sexual in nature, and as it was researched on the internet, where truly any perversion can be extensively catered to, you might even say that it's explicit pornography.

That's not for me to judge. What follows are actual screen captures from craigslist.org free personal ads.

Last Chance.....

Ok:

I thought I'd have something to say in comment to this, but....I got nothin'.

Except of course, to restate an earlier observation: Beware the 'no picture' ad.

Although, pictures don't always help:

My favorite part? 'I'm looking for help in return.' That means she wants to get paid for sex. Does she not know we have legalized prostitution in Nevada?

Not that I've ever gone to the ranch and bought any. I have gone out for drinks tho. It's just one of those things you have to do at least once in your life if you live here.

Now for the grand prize winner....:

I mean, you have to hand it to her. She knows what she wants*, and she's not afraid to ask for it, but still.....

Makes me wonder, you know?

Buenos con queso,

T.

* I sent her a link to this ad:

(not really)

Wait a minute....is it starve a cold, feed a fever?...

2011-03-03T21:02:00.000-08:00

Hell, I don't know, but I can tell you this:

I've been sicker that I care to talk about for like 4 days now.

I sit here now, drinking tea (kava if you want to know) and hoping that this *yuck* will just let me go, and it occurs to me that I once saw a horse kill a clown.....

Sorry, that wass t.v. intruding.....

Nighters (and dont get sick)

Buenos con queso,

T.

My tomorrow is not your tomorrow....

2011-01-26T19:46:00.000-08:00

Obviously.

It's a little different for me now, as I'm working swing shifts now, which puts me home around 12:30, or 1:30, if I've got the later shift.

That, coupled with my still not being able to sleep much past 9 am has made me a very tired boy lately. It's also kinda screwed my days around. Night is day, day is night.....

I'm sure you understnad.

Well, if you've ever worked that shift that is...

A lot's been going on, but not a lot that's really exciting....

Work's been dealing me a pretty bum hand, but it's nothing I can't handle.

I'm still carless, but that's not a surprise. I've never really been all that worried about having a car to get around, and with the new pad, I'm only like 15 mins away from work, which is nice.....

Let's see...what else....

Oh, I gave blood again. This time, my walk to the UBS building only took me like 3 minutes. See, I'm basically across the street from them now. I'm trying not to let them konw that though, 'cause they'd prolly just set up a machine at my house, and donate every day when I get home form work.....

I'm sure I have dozens of other stories to relate, but those will have to wait.

I'll try and be better....

Buenos con queso,

T.

Happy New Ye.....er, wait...

2011-01-24T22:00:00.000-08:00

It was called to my attention last night, that I haven't posted, not only in a while, but since last year.

In my last, (and notably lame) post, I forwarded a number of not-excuses for my absence. Near the end, I mentioned that I was playing Black Ops. And GT5 was bitchin', as anticipated...

And, of course, I've resubscribed to EQ. I can't tell you how much time I've wasted in that game....and, I haven't gotten noticeably better.

Now, I'm going to do something I've never done here: I'm going to totally geek out on EQ, and tell you the story of my latest character, Krafty. If you don't want to read about that, then I suggest you leave now....

Or scroll down for a quick and dirty.

Real stuff tomorrow, I promise.

Upon fair Firiona Vie, where we lay our scene, rolplaying is the accepted norm....

I got into all this because it was roleplaying. I mean, I still remember the name of my first AD&D character. I've played on this server before, and had a great time. I was, unfortunately, alone, as all my rl friends weren't playing at the time. I ran off to FV, and started a necromancer....go figure. I made level 66, and was drawn back off the server.

Now, I find myself in roughly the same position. Add to that the fact that they added character slots (at first only one then later three now 8), and a 50% experience bonus. That, coupled with Hot Zones (exp bonus zones every 5 lvls) and mercenaries that you can now hire (warrior healer dps), the ground was ripe for invasion.

Krafty, as you will come to find out, is a Halfling. A Halfling rogue, in fact. He started out in Rivervale, as most of his race do, and plied his trade in the Thicket. Outfit in the merest of gear by local standards, and wielding a highly questionable weapon, he wrought havoc.

Around level 5 or 6, he sought out the services of a Cleric. High Elf. A bit out of character to hire one of the tall races, but he came highly recommended, and seemed to be trustworthy.

Out into the world they went, Krafty raining death from a thousand wounds, Devlas keeping him alive. As his abilities grew, he pushed further into the forest. Soon, much sooner than he should have been able to, he ran to the goblin camps. Most of the creatures in the forest ignored him, but not the goblins. Two of them guarded a campfire, and death was in their eyes.

Giving a nod to the cleric, he threw a knife at one of them. This, of course, brought him running. Predictably, his friend followed him. It was at this point that Krafty began to have thoughts about mortality. Either one of these green freaks was capable of ending him, and yet here he stood, going toe to toe with them, relying on a tallie to save him.

A thousand horrible ends ran through his mind, but happily, the healer did his job. Flushed with success, Krafty ran on, seeking others of their race to play with. He found camp after camp of them. By sneaking about, using cover, and just generally being sly, he was able to clear all of them. Things were looking good.

That was when he stumbled upon a camp of orcs. Goblins are bigger than Halflings, sure, but not as stout. Orcs, on the other hand, tower over them, and weigh roughly 3 times as much.

Knowing it was a bad idea, he threw another knife.

This time, only one came to play, and that's probably a good thing. Devlas was hard-pressed to keep up, and by the time the orc took to his heels in flight he was nearly out of mana.

After a short rest, they were able to continue. Krafty couldn't believe how fast he was growing in power. When he was about 20, one of his Guildmasters suggested that he look into poison.

Travelling to the city of Crescent Reach, he took instrucion in the finer points of pharmacology. He also learned where he could buy poisons...

After applying these new toxins to his blades, he was nigh unstoppable. He conquered Hot Zone after Hot Zone, rising so quickly as to doubt his sanity. Skills, weapons, armor. All of nearly legendary strength came to him, and not a small amount of platinum.

He fights still, but has paused in his meteoric rise in power to work upon his skills. He's a baker, a tailor, a smith, a brewer, a potter, and will soon be learning the rudiments of fletching.

Ok, so there. Quick and dirty for those that don't want to read all that. I started a rogue, and got him to level 21 in 12 hours and 24 minutes. By comparison, my rogue on my first server is level 16 with 96 hours played.....

Yeah, leveling is soooooooo fast. Though, that's not all that it's about for me. I also like 'typin wit an accent, and talkin' fer all the werld as iffen I actually was a roguish type, makin me way in t' werld.'

Oh, and the poisons I mention in the story (dont you wish youd read it now), yeah, the one I'm using at my current level (63 btw with like 50 hours played) go off randomly in combat, and do 2700+ (5400 if it crits) to the mob I'm fighting, and they scale every 5 levels.

So, anyway, that's one thing I've been doing instead of posting. In fact, I think I'm going to play a bit more right now.

Again, real stuff tomorrow, I promise.

Buenos con queso,

T.

Geez....where to start...

2010-12-04T11:36:00.000-08:00

I guess it's obvious that I haven't been posting lately.

I don't really have any excuse.

I've been tired, certainly, but that's no excuse.

I've been kind of depressed (anni of gregs death and all) but that's no excuse.

I don't have my computer/room set up from the move yet, but that's no excuse.

I can't even say that I haven't had stuff to blog about, because I have.....

I guess I'm just lame.

That's more of a reason than an excuse.....

I will say that Black Ops is fucking sick, and I plan to know soon if GT 5 is.....

Buenos con queso,

T.

The Measure of a Geek Should be his Potential for Disassembly.....

2010-09-24T16:58:00.000-07:00

Or, to put it another way, my old man's a T.V. repairman. He's got the Ultimate set of tools.

Is it a guy thing? Maybe.

Is it a geek thing? Definitely

I'm not sure why, but for just about as long as I can remember, I've been in the business of taking things apart. Big things, little things...

Anythings, really.....

From the first time I found a rare-earth magnet in an old school (pre break up) Phone Company phone, I was hooked. I must have been 9 or so. Somehow, I'd come into possession of one that looked something like this:

I'll have to admit, I was pretty new to the game, and I had trouble with the dial (never did get it off), but when I found 3/4th's of an inch of a cylinder magnet that I could barely pull off the screwdriver?

Yeah, I was fucking hooked.

See, I think magnets are pretty cool.

So, in a search for them, and perhaps answers too, I began a long series of, well, lets call them 'component part reductions.' I've taken apart engines, waterbeds...computers.

Well, pretty much anything.

I've even put some of those things (back) together. Sometimes they worked, sometimes they didn't, but I know I've fixed not a few things just by taking them apart and putting them back together.

And that's the crux of it. See, in order to take things apart well, you need a certain set of hardware. I mean, everybody has a set of wrenches (dont they), and prolly 2 or 3 (each) Phillips/flat head screwdrivers, but we geeks need something more.

This is just part of my current bit set:

Oh, and in case you were wondering, all those fasteners? Yeah, you have to save them. Here's a glimpse my current 'screw jar.' (note the bag of torx in the background):

In addition, my bit driver (not pictured) has a neodymium magnet on an 'antenna' reacher that's like 2 feet long.

I've picked up batteries with it...

Now, with all the diversity of fastening options out there, one of the most ubiquitous, and various, must be the common screw.

I've seen screws 3 inches long, and I've seen them half an inch long. Only two choices, other than size. Phillip's, or flat.

Because I'm a geek, I'm happy to say I had the right driver (phillips) to remove this screw:

Say what you will, but that fucker's small...

Buenos con queso,

T.

Son number 1?.... Yeah?.... 'S tall drinka cocksucker's not dead

2010-09-23T16:23:00.000-07:00

So, lots of things.....

I haven't been whining (or tweeting) about it, but I've been in absolute Hell since Saturday morning, when I woke up with a slighly sore throat.

Which was worse on Sunday, and accompanied by copius phlegm, both running out my nose, and clogging my lungs. It was so bad, in fact, that I went home early on Sunday.

And called in sick on Monday.

Due to the new (bullshit) scheduling and assorted other crap at work, I had the next 3 days (tue wed thu) off, and here it is, Thursday, and I'm feeling somewhat better.

I mean, I still feel like shit, but at least not loose, runny shit.

Sorry, but I've told you before, I don't pull punches.

What makes it even better, is that for the last 3 days, I've been (slowly) working through the mountain of shit in my room that needs to be discarded/organized/packed for the upcoming move. Add to that the dust (do you know any guys that dust) was beating the shit out of my allergies the last few days, and you can, perhaps, get a small glimpse of the Hell I've been in.

Or not.

I will say, packing my movies was like a trip down nostalgia lane. I saw/found titles I didn't know (or couldnt remember) I had, such as:

Nate and Hayes

Pump up the Volume

And of course, my old friend:

Schoolhouse Rock

Now, in all honesty, I knew I had that last one, I just wasn't sure exactly where it was. There were others, of course, I just posted a couple of the more obscure ones to see if you were paying attention.

I'm still working on the 'taking things apart' post, and hopefully, I'll have it cobbled together soon.

Ok, gonna go grab a beer, and jettison about 10 lbs of snot outta my noggin...

Buenos con queso,

T.

So, I guess I can share the big news...

2010-09-09T20:11:00.000-07:00

I didn't want to jinx it by saying anything about it, but Pops and I are moving.

It's not far, and it's just another apartment, but still....

It's smaller, of course, but the owner pays the utilities....and the rent's 50 bux cheaper....

That's kind of hard to beat right there.

Of course, that means I/we have to pack/sort/sell 9 years worth of accumulated crap...

I am not amused.

Hell, I packed a box tonight with somewhere in the neighborhood of 172 DVD's, and I think that's like half of the movies in here.

That doesn't count video games (playstation playstation 2 playstation 3 xbox) or the maybe 60 CD's I still have....lost my music in the war.....

I have so much shit to do.

Oh, if any of you care, it looks like my schedule at work may be changing. We've gotten a new Store Director, and he's got very specific goals and plans, so he's kinda shaking things up.

In any event, I may soon be leading a 'swinger's' life. I mentioned it when I first got hired, and some of you may call it second shift, but for me, it's always been swing shift.

I'd be working 4pm to 1 am. It's kinda harsh, but when you consider that you can do just about anything 24 hours here, it's not so bad. You just adjust your routine.

In case you're wondering, shopping at 1am is peaceful.....

However it all shakes down, I have at least 2 more weeks of dayshift, and then...well, who knows?

My days off may even change.

Eh.

Anyhoo, just thought I'd pop in and share.

Buenos con queso,

T.

Eviill. Eviill like the frooits of the Deviill.....

2010-09-05T05:10:00.000-07:00

What, you really didn't expect me to post yesterday, did you?

Silly rabbits.

Ok, so the other day (or a month ago) I was watching So I Married an Axe Murderer, which if you haven't seen it, is worth a look, if for no other reason, to see the origins of Dr. Evil, and prolly Fat Bastard as well.

In any event, there's a scene with Mike Meyers and Nancy Travis, and he says to her:

Ha! Name one evil thing you've done. And it has to be really evil. So evil, in fact, that you would say it was eviill. Eviill, like the frooits of the Deviill.

Just because of that, I started thinking about my own actions, and if any of them could be classified as evil. It was a tough lot of soul-searching, not just because nobody wants to believe they're evil, but because I've been a pretty nice guy for much of my career.....

I did come up with one thing tho, that while not 'like the frooits of the Deviill' was at least mostly evil.

This goes back to my Freshman year in High School, so like a billion years ago.... It's a long story (and i may have told parts of it before) but I spent the second semester of my Freshman year at the school in California that I would most likely have graduated from if we hadn't moved to Nevada.

Due to differences in class availability and such, one of the 'classes' I had was Library Science. This was basically 50 minutes of re-shelving books in the stacks, emptying trash cans, and when there was nothing else to do, reading.

It was a pretty sweet gig, actually.

Now, seeing as how this was like 1980, this next bit is/was all futuretechy.... They had what is now mandatory in all stores: Those little plastic towers that read the 'you're a thief' tags. In our case, it was a magnetic strip that had been installed in the spine of the book, and it actually locked the turnstile so you couldn't leave.....

Well, one day, as I was shelving the books, I found one that had the metal strip hanging out....almost all the way. Now, I'm not sure why, but rather than take the book up and report it, I simply removed the strip. I'm also not sure why I put it in the librarian's sweater pocket, but that's what I did.

Now, I was long gone before she would have tried to leave, but I often speculate on what might have happened. I can see her, alarm going off, unable to turn the stile, trying like Hell to figure out what was wrong. Maybe searching her purse for a book she'd forgotten to demagnetize....finally finding the little strip in her pocket....

Now, you may be wondering if I ever felt any repercussions from this little stunt, and I can happily say no, as she hung her sweater on a rack in a highly public area of the library.

Well, at least she used to.

Buenos con queso,

T.

They say that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.....

2010-09-03T18:30:00.000-07:00

I certainly hope that's not true.

If it is, I know right where I'm headed.

See, I've had the best of intentions to blog lately. I have some good stuff to share, including, but not limited to the following:

1. A photo blog entitled 'Found Faces.'
2. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.
3. A really funny bit about my mother and some frogs....
4. Several work posts.
5. The Great Chicken Purchase of 2010.

That's just a few of the things I've had on my mind lately. I really, really meant to blog about at least one of those in the last...well, however long it's been since I've had a real post, and not a wimpy little 'I'm tired' one.

I do have some fun stuff to tell you, and a good number of pictures to go along with them, so bear with me, and I'll get you some good stuff soon.

And so, to the title.

Even if that's not true, I'm still pretty sure I'm heading somewhere warm when I die. I don't really think it's my fault tho. See, I'm the guy that sees a guy with one arm/half an arm, and I think to myself 'Need a hand?'

I've also been known to tell jokes about lawyers that are less than savory. I mean, lawyers are almost people, and I've made pretty bad fun of them on a regular basis.

I once even referred to a 'mentally ill small person' as being 'a little nuts.'

Nothing evil, you understand. Well, not really evil.

Not evil like the frooits of the Devill.*

But you know, not what the 'nice people' think.

Buenos con queso,

T.

*More on that tomorrow.

All your choices make you change your mind, now your calender's complete

2010-08-21T18:58:00.000-07:00

So, a new banner pic, a new post.

Same old shit.

I'm tired all the time.

I'm sleeping like shit.....

I'm working too hard, for not enough money, and it's fucking killing me.

On another note, the Raiders are (i hope) beating the Bears atm, and I'm going to go watch.

Did I mention that, among other things, I'm a football whore.....

Buenos con queso,

T.

So, I totally didn't blog last night.....

2010-08-14T05:45:00.000-07:00

But then, I guess you know that.

I'm just so tired when I get home these days. I mean, the walk to and from work isn't that bad (less than it was to the pawnshop) and in the mornings, while it's still cool, it's even kinda nice.

The walk home is usually a sweat-fest, but I have my iPhone, so at least I'm entertained.

The major difference is that I'm on my feet and moving all day at work, less breaks and lunch.

And up and down ladders.

And lifting/stacking/moving boxes of stuff.....some heavy, some not so much.

I mean, it's nice that I have stuff to do all day. There are very few 'what can I do now' moments, and that makes it easier to get through the day. It also makes the time go by faster (well seem to), which is nice.

I'm hopeful that once I get used to running around all day again that I'll be able to recover from it better.

As it stands tho, I'm just a tired pup.

Also: To the fuckwad that called me last night around midnight and woke me up....fuck you you wrong number dialing prick.

Since you woke me up, you could have at least stayed on the phone long enough for me to answer.....

Why were you even dialing a number. Don't you have a contact list in your fucking cell? Either put your fingers on a diet, or add the folks you want to call.

I was not amused!!

Buenos con queso,

T.

Dont' give me speeches, cause they're oh, so droll....Leave me alone, let me rock and roll....

2010-08-11T17:05:00.000-07:00

I just looked, and noticed that I've had a pretty crappy post count for 2010. I'm not sure why that is exactly, but I'm going to try and to a little better.

I'm not making any promises, but....

Hell, I'm not even sure anybody's still reading this thing anyhow.

I never get comments anymore....except for the spam ones....which I now filter out...

My stat checker doesn't get hits from any of the ISPs I used to know...like Ohio or Lousiana.....or Michigan for that matter.

Are you folks still there?

Should I keep doing this?

Please, let me know if you're still out there reading.

Buenos con queso,

T.

PS mad bonus points if you can name the song/artist that the title comes from..... t.

I made a fortune selling bubblegum in Jr. High.....

2010-08-07T05:10:00.000-07:00

Well, maybe not a fortune, but I (and greg) had a pretty sweet little racket.

It all started the Summer before my 8th grade year. Greg and I stopped by the local Long's drugstore, and I saw something I'd never seen before:

Banana Bubblicious.

Now, I'm a big fan of banana flavor, if it's subtle enough, so of course I bought it. I've never been the biggest fan of gum, but some things must be done. Needless to say, it was awesome!!

I only chewed one piece, and I saved the rest. School was starting the next day, and I wanted to have some gum for school. Little did I know but taking the gum to school would be a life-changing event.

As it turned out, that was the only piece I chewed. I ended up selling the remaining pieces (4 if you remember the package size) for fifty cents. Not each, mind, but total. Either way, I made enough to buy 2 packs.....

At the time of these events, see, Bubble Yum and Bubblicious were selling for twenty to twenty five cents per 5 piece pack.

What did I do with my .50 cents, you ask?

Well, I bought 2 packs for school the next day. Those 2 packs net me $1.00.

Which was enough for 8 packs....

I'm sure you can see where this is going.

Within a very short span of time, I was buying a box of gum (24 packs) every day, and selling same. I paid between $4.80 and $6.00 a box, and I was netting $12.00 every day.

As I said, it was quite a little racket.

Like all successful dealers, I followed the 3 rules of good business:

1. Give them what they want. My biggest sellers were banana, orange (both bubblicious), wild cherry, and regular old bubblegum flavor (bubble yum).

2. All cash all the time. I never extended credit. I'm sorry, but if you can't scrounge up the dime for your gum, you'll just have to think of something else. On a side note, I never traded gum for sexual favors.

3. Never get high on your own supply. Shortly after the onset of my entrepreneurial career, I gave up gum chewing almost totally. I would enjoy the occasional piece with friends, after the work day was done, or on special occasions, but very seldom did I indulge.

There were other considerations, of course. I did pay for protection (one piece a day to my muscle mark), and at least once, I had product stolen from me....but these things were just the cost of doing business. All in a day's work, so to speak.

Oh, and by the way, Greg was doing the same thing. We had different classes, and different clientele, so there were no 'gum turf' wars or anything. We were like Sears and Macy's.

This went on for months, and thinking back, I can't remember why we stopped, but we did. It was really a sweet deal.

And, in case you're wondering, I never got caught. Not many dealers can say that they went their whole career, from budding start to well deserved retirement without a single bust. To my knowledge, I was never even surveilled, or thought to be a person of interest.

I wish it was that easy to make money now.....

Buenos con queso,

T.

If you have to take me apart to get me there, then I don't want to go...

2010-07-22T17:07:00.000-07:00

I don't know how much I've talked about it, but I'm a huge fan of Douglas Adams. Not only the 5 volume HHGTTG trilogy, but also the two Dirk Gently novels.

I've read the series more times than I can count, and my 'Don't Panic' tattoo is directly from the book.

In fact, I even got the template I used for the letters from the BBC production of the book.

It's science fiction, but it's not dry, hard to relate to science fiction.

It's laugh your ass off funny sciene fiction.

Below, is an excerpt from 'The Restaurant at the End of The Universe,' which illustrates his style of writing, and is a good example of why I love it so much. After the excerpt, there's a little song.

Share and Enjoy!!

Arthur woke up and instantly regretted it. Hangovers he'd had, but never anything on this scale. This was it, this was the big one, this was the ultimate pits. Matter transference beams, he decided, were not as much fun as, say, a good solid kick in the head.

Being for the moment unwilling to move on account of a dull stomping throb he was experiencing, he lay awhile and thought. The trouble with most forms of transport, he thought, is basically that not one of them is worth all the bother. On Earth -- when there had been an Earth, before it was demolished to make way for a new hyperspace bypass -- the problem had been with cars. The disadvantages involved in pulling lots of black sticky slime from out of the ground where it had been safely hidden out of harm's way, turning it into tar to cover the land with, smoke to fill the air with and pouring the rest into the sea, all seemed to outweigh the advantages of being able to get more quickly from one place to another -- particularly when the place you arrived at had probably become, as a result of this, very similar to the place you had left, i.e., covered with tar, full of smoke and short of fish.

And what about matter transference beams? Any form of transport which involved tearing you apart atom by atom, flinging those atoms through the sub-ether, and then jamming them back together again just when they were getting their first taste of freedom for years had to be bad news.

Many people had thought exactly this before Arthur Dent and had even gone to the lengths of writing songs about it. Here is one that used regularly to be chanted by huge crowds outside the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation Teleport Systems factory on Happi-Werld III:

Aldebaran's great, okay,
Algol's pretty neat,
Betelgeuse's pretty girls
Will knock you off your feet.
They'll do anything you like
Real fast and then real slow,
But if you have to take me apart to get me there
Then I don't want to go.

Singing,
Take me apart, take me apart,
What a way to roam
And if you have to take me apart to get me there
I'd rather stay at home.

Sirius is paved with gold
So I've heard it said
By nuts who then go on to say
"See Tau before you're dead."
I'll gladly take the high road
Or even take the low,
But if you have to take me apart to get me there
Then I, for one, won't go.

Singing,
Take me apart, take me apart,
You must be off your head,
And if you try to take me apart to get me there
I'll stay right here in bed.

...and so on. Another favorite song was much shorter:

I teleported home one night
With Ron and Sid and Meg.
Ron stole Meggie's heart away
And I got Sidney's leg.

Best tattoo question ever.....

2010-07-21T05:15:00.000-07:00

I've mentionied it before, but I'm one of those folks that has no problem talking about my tats. In fact, I'm actually kind of bummed that more folks don't ask about them.

It's always fun to talk about tats with people.

Now, as you all may know, I have a kanji tat on my left inner forearm. I got is as a memorial for the folks I've lost in my life, and at the time I actually got it, I had lost four people in 5 months.

Now, given the preponderance of bad kanji tattoos out there, I did all my own research, and printed out a copy of the character that I wanted, and while I was 99% sure that it said 'death', as I'd intended, there was always that nagging little 1% of me that wondered:

Did I find the right kanji? Did the artist tattoo it on right? Would anyone really be able to read and understand it?

Well, the dilemma was solved for me this past Sunday. I was at work, and a lady I'd not seen before (but whom i now to to be japanese) asked me why I got/wanted a tattoo that said death.

I told her the story behind it, and how it was to remind me of all those I'd lost, all the while, brimming with joy that she'd seen and read it, and it actually said what I'd hoped it did.

Needless to say, I was in a great mood for the remainder of the day, and I still get a little grin when I think about it.

Buenos con queso,

T.

Dish Network is a flaming bag of dog poo.....

2010-07-13T22:35:00.000-07:00

No, I'm serious.

We've had it for about 18 months now, and I have to say, it's prolly the worst thing I've ever spent money on.

It's not just that 85 percent of the channels are either pay per view, paid programming, or fucking home shopping network clones, nor the price they charge for 90 channels of pure crap.

No, what's been pissing me off (for like the last month) is that at least once a day (and sometimes up to 3 times a day) the fucking satellite signal drops, and I'm forced to watch the 'acquiring signal' screen for 10 minutes or so.

Today was the last straw.

As some of you may know, I'm a huge fan of the tv series Firefly. It's one of those shows that I loved so much that it died.

I lasted only a single season. In fact, a mere 14 episodes.

Not only did I love the stories, the premise, and the effects, but the cast was stellar. Nathan Fillion as Mal, Summer Glau as River Tam, and Alan Tudyk as the pilot Wash.

Adam Baldwin was in it, and a couple of other actors whose names you may not know. One of my favorite characters, in both the series, and the movie (serenity if you dont know) was Kaylee.

Played to perfection by Jewel Staite, Mal sums it up perfectly when he states: 'I don't believe there's a power in the 'verse that can stop Kaylee from bein' cheerful.'

Well, that right there says all you need to know about Kaylee. Well, except for the fact that I absolutely love her character. She's cute, she's funny, girly, and the ship's mechanic to boot.

She's wonderful.

Well, tonight, Jewel Staite was on Warehouse 13, which I've been waiting to watch since sometime in May or so when Jewel talked about her role on Twitter.

I set my DVR, and readied myself for the glory.

Then fucking piece of shit Dish Network lost the signal 3 fucking times in the first 15 minutes of the show....

No fucking joke.

I was (and am) sooooooooooooooooooooo fucking pissed. So pissed in fact, that I called and cancelled the fucking service.

Fucking piece of shit Dish Network.

Never again, you fucking fuckers.

Oh, and I got a job. I'm working at WalMart as a back room stocker. I'm not really sure of my duties, or my days, but my schedule is 4pm to 1am, which we like to call second or swing shift.

I'm just fine with the hours, in case you've forgotten.

Oh, and I didn't have to cut my hair, and I get to wear jeans to work.

I know, right?

Less than 3 weeks unemployed.

I think that's a record for me.

Buenos con queso,

T.

What can I say, I'm lame....

2010-07-11T05:38:00.000-07:00

You'd think that with all this extra time on my hands, I'd be blogging more, but as you can see, I haven't been.

I don't know why really, except for the fact that without work, I have even less to blog about.

I am pretty excited about going to the Fandoango for brunch today. I know you don't really know what I'm talking about (except for you mom) but they have the best fucking buffet in the world.

Well, at least the best I've been to. Some family is coming up from CA, and all my local family (mom pop sis my 2 neices gramma sis's bf) are gonna go get our feed on.

Also, as it's Sunday, it's (pretty sure) a champagne brunch, so I get to do a bit of drinking too.

I'll twitter some updates and photos later, so if you don't follw me on twitter, you won't get the instant updates, and will have to come back later (or maybe tomorrow) for pix and such.

Buenos con queso,

T.

Busy busy busy

2010-06-29T21:05:00.000-07:00

Well, not really.

You can actually translate the title to read: I've been playing alot of EverQuest lately.

I could go into the details, but as I've pointed out on more than one occasion, only one of my readers (hi andie) would really appriciate hearing about it.

And I'm not even sure she would, so I'll just say I'm having fun with it.

I've been neglecting other things, like my blog....

I also have some news (possibly) but I don't want to jinx it, so I'm not going to say anything about it.

Well, I guess I just said something about it, but I'm not going to say any more.

For now.

Buenos con queso,

T.

So, I guess I should have waited to post yesterday....

2010-06-24T06:50:00.001-07:00

At least I'd have had something to post about.

If you follow me on Twitter (and if you dont why dont you), or if you're in my family then you know that I got fired yesterday.

If you're not, then I guess you just found out.

Of course, I didn't find that out until after I'd walked all the way to work. My boss, who has to answer to the owner, delivered the news in his office shortly after I arrived at work.

He wasn't happy about having to let me go, but the owner is the owner, and what he says pretty much goes.

I guess it seems he didn't think I was listing enough stuff on ebay, even though not having stuff to list isn't really my fault.

Oh well, what can you do?

So now, I get the joy of finding a new job. I'm not really worried about finding one yet, even with the depressed economy, as I've always been able to find a job. Of course, it's only been a day (already applied at walmart) and of course, I'll be applying around town, but as it's only been a day, I'm not stressing.

Yet.

If things don't go well, then we'll see. I'm easy though, in that I'll take just about anything. I'm not one of those types that will turn my nose up at a job. Hell, if worse comes to worst, I'll get a job at Taco Bell or something.

I'm pretty sure that I'm just going to fuck off today. I may go out and apply a couple places, but I'm not sure. I suppose I could use today to get a sample manuscript together so that I can start sending it around to get my book deal.

That'd solve all my job problems.

Buenos con queso,

T.

Am I going mad or did the word think escape your lips?

2010-06-23T07:06:00.000-07:00

It seems like every time I blog I'm apologizing for not having blogged.

I'm sure that gets as old for you as it does for me, so I'll try not to do that anymore. I wish (as usual) that I had wonderfully exciting tales of wonder and awe to explain my absence, but once again, I have nothing.

I guess that actually goes part of the way to explaining why I haven't been blogging.

Not a lot has really been going on. It's started getting hotter, which is a blessing and a curse, cause when it gets hot here, it gets hot. Today is predicted to be 87, which isn't all that hot, I guess, but it still sucks.

I really wish I had more, but....

Ok, time to get ready for work.

Buenos con queso,

T.

Wish me luck.....

2010-06-11T10:03:00.000-07:00

I'm sending my new computer back today.

Please join me in hoping/praying that they can find out what's wrong with it, and make it work for me.

Although, at this point, I'd almost rather they offer me a refund, 'cause Lappy's doing just fine as an eq machine....

Well, it's another 'from work' post, so it's short.

Buenos con queso,

T.

So, I re-activated my Netflix....

2010-06-09T20:30:00.000-07:00

And I'm already in love with the 'stream to the PS3' thing.

They sent me a disc (that i dont have to return) to put in, which gives you a code (that i can enter on my iphone) and viola, I can choose from tons of tv shows or movies that I can watch instantly.

Well, to be honest, it takes a minute or 2 to get going, so it's not instantly, but it's pretty fuckin' close.

In addition to that, I still get to have them send me DVDs to watch. The plan I'm on allows me one at a time, but as many as I can watch in a month.

All that for $8.99.

How could you possibly go wrong?

Buenos con queso,

T.

Oh, don't look at me like that....The internet is full of broken promises....

2010-06-07T06:31:00.000-07:00

I know I said I'd be back yesterday, but yesterday didn't go quite as I'd planned. First of all, it was fucking hot. Not as hot as Vegas, or some other places, granted, but I don't do well in the heat.

Part of it's because my body temperature runs somewhere between 99.5 and 100, and part of it is because I have hair almost down to my ass. Throw in crappy air circulation at work, a dress code that won't allow me to wear shorts, and no a/c, and you can begin to understand my prediciment.

The heat started making me feel sick somewhere around 11 or so, and it didn't really let up until about 15 minutes after I got home and swapped my work clothes for a pair of shorts.

No shirt, no socks/shoes, just a pair of shorts.

And I was still hot.

Couple that with the fact that my leg felt like a rat with dull teeth had been trying to gnaw it off all day, and ask yourself if you would have blogged.

Yeah, I didn't think so.

Ok, so, on to news.

I haven't mentioned it (mostly cause i havent been blogging) but I took the plunge and ordered a new computer.

I went a little retro, and custom designed a P4 system with 4 gigs of ram and a 1gig PCIE vid card. See, knowing what I do about eq (which is what this box is primarily for) I know that this would tear it up.

I didn't go Dell, and I didn't go HP, as, like anything else, when you buy a name, that's what you mostly pay for: The Name.

Parts is parts, as they say.

I'm happy to report that my computer arried Thursday last.

I'm not so happy to report that I have to send it back, as it's not doing what it should. Does this make me happy? No. Does it make me regret my choice to go generic? No. Did this cause me to go ahead and try to plug my laptop into the internet and see if it would run eq? Yes.

I'm happy (and sad cause i didnt try sooner) to report that my lappy eats everquest. Well, at least so far. I wish I'd have tried earlier, but I never in a million years would have thought that it would work.

I've also plugged a USB mouse and keyboard into Lappy, and am currently using it to type this fabulous blog.

Ok, so on to the maudlin.

Today would have been Greg's 44th birthday.

It's funny how the time gets away from you. We're working on 2 years since he died, and it still tears at me that he's gone.

If any of y'all are still reading this, please send out a silent 'Happy Birthday, Greg.'

It'll mean a lot to me.

Buenos con queso,

T.

Ok, so sue me.....

2010-06-05T06:36:00.001-07:00

I've totally been a crappy blogger.

I get that.

I've also been dealing with a pulled hamstring (not fun if you were wondering) and life in general.

I realize that life in general is what blogging is all about, but.....

So, yeah. I was a while ago, like a couple days before we left for the wedding that I pulled the hammy. I think I got it from a 'step lower than expected' episode. That, or I've been running track in my sleep or something.

Whatever the case, it fucking hurts!!

If I'm up and moving around (like walking a mile and a half to red lobster) it's mostly ok, but any time I have to actually sit or stand, I get what feels like someone jabbing a knife into the back my upper thigh.

Well, my ass, if you want to get technical. Sadly, there's no real 'cure' for it. Rest, ice, and, well aspirin. That's about it. Let me tell you, it fucking sucks. It's bad when walking to work actually causes less pain that getting in/out of the car when I get a ride.

But enough bitching.

The wedding was great, and (some of) the food was great. I posted pix from the wedding on my twitter, if you want to go see them. I'd post them here, but they're in my phone, and I'm not in the mood for the whole process I'd have to go through to get that done.

I've got more to say, but this is getting long, so I'll come back tomorrow.

Promise.

Buenos con queso,

T.

Continental breakfast? Yeah, right!!

2010-05-22T09:44:00.000-07:00

If you follow me on , (and if you dont why dont you) then you may know that I'm in Fresno for a wedding.

We're staying at a place called The University inn, which is right across the street from Cal State Fresno.

We got here yesterday afternoon, checked in, and then decided to go have some chow. Since we saw a BJ's Brewhouse on the same street as our hotel, we decided to just walk over and have some dinner.

Turns out that while we thought it was 'just down the street,' it was considerably further than we'd anticipated. We saw Marie Callendars, Black Angus, and various other eating establishments.

We never did find BJ's, but we did make it to Red Lobster (our second choice last night) and since we'd never eaten at a RL before (and since we had no idea how far away bjs was) we decided to eat there.

Both Pops and I were impressed. The food was good (sauce was a little overpowering), the service was outstanding, and it was a very reasonable price. The blue cheese dressing needed help, but overall, it was a great dinner. Oh, and the free bisciuts rock.

We walked (miles) back to the hotel, and crashed out. Well, after a beer to two.

We got up this morning to have our continental breakfast....

Now, when I think of a continental breakfast, I think some kind of sweet roll, or muffins, or fruit....Not so much the case at this place.

There were 4 loaves of bread, a bowl of jelly paks, and a couple toasters.

There was coffee, of course, and a couple canisters with dry cereal in them, and a couple pitchers of milk.

That's all.

Pretty pathetic, actually.

Needless to say, we got a couple of coffees to go, and I went to Mickey D's for some Value Menu Goodness....

Being the dumbass I am, I decided to walk. Mc D's was much further away than I'd remembered, even after last nights walking fiasco....

Of course, just after we ate, we got a call from one of my cousins (in the same hotel) to let us know that everyone was going to breakfast.

Story of my life.

Buenos con queso,

T.

Life is a comedy for those who think... and a tragedy for those who feel.

2010-05-13T11:29:00.000-07:00

Horace Walpole is credited with that quote.

I don't know if he was the first to say it or not, but I tend to agree with the analysis.

I'm posting from work today, so I don't get to write much, but I thought I'd drop in and post so y'all don't think I've fallen off the face of the Earth or something.

Hope all is well with y'all.

Buenos con queso,

T.

Happy Mother's Day....

2010-05-09T11:07:00.001-07:00

To you, Mom, as well as any other mothers reading this.

That's all for now.

Buenos con queso,

T.

Two hearts slamming/As one /It's Blood music

2010-05-04T10:17:00.000-07:00

Once again, tendency to be early has bitten me in the ass.

See, the vampires got ahold of me this past Friday, and I set an appointment. I had this great plan for today that included a trip to walmart, the to the coven. As I was walking, and not really sure how long the trip was going to take, I left a little earlier than I would have if Wally world wasn't involved.

Needless to say, I got to UBS waaaaaaaaay too early.

Got to the front door at 10:00, and they aren't open yet. I'm hoping that they open at 10:30, but I'm not counting on it.

Buenos con queso,

T.

Suki plays with Leo, Sasha plays with Brit, Adolph builds a bonfire, and Rico plays with it.

2010-04-29T21:35:00.000-07:00

I came here to bitch, and now I don't know what I want to say.

I mean, I could bitch about the weather, but I've been doing that a lot lately.

I could bitch about work, but I really don't mind my job. I mean, I hate that I'm working at all, but you know what I mean.

I seem to bitch about work even more than I do the weather, though.

I guess I'll tell you another story from my 7-ELEVEn days, and that way I can entertain you and bitch about work at the same time.

I call this one:

What drive through?

Early in my career in the C-Store business, our handyman did us a huge favor. He gave us one way doors. See, when I started there, the doors would push in as well as pull out (that sounds bad) and it was very irritating, because the doors when pushed open, would inevitably lock open and would break the door buzzer light....

And it would go off continuously....Imagine the old round, red school bell. Yeah, like that but a little smaller.....

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

It was fucking ghastly!!

I can't tell you how happy I was when he made them one way doors. I was also surprised that it was as easy as it was. He merely pop-riveted an L-shaped strip of aluminum into the the top of the door frame, restricting the door's movement.

It was brilliant, and it provided me with endless hours of entertainment. I know, because on slow nights, I'd count, that fully one-third of my customers would look right at the sign, and push ineffectively on the door.

Many were locals, and would say 'Heh....you'd think I'd learn....'

Yeah, think being the operant word.

But, I didn't come here to talk about that....

Believe it or not, that was all exposition.

So, picture it:

I'm in the vault (aka walk-in cooler) stocking one night. I didn't mind doing it, and actually preferred to, because I did it right. I'm cruising through, grabbing beer, soda, whatever, when I hear this tremendous

BANG!!

My first thought was 'What fucking now?!?'

I head out of the vault, and look towards the front door, and see a pick up truck.

On the sidewalk.

With his bumper against the frames of our double doors.

Seems his 'gas pedal malfunctioned' or 'his breaks were soft' or he 'hit the brake instead of the gas,' I don't remember which, but what made it memorable were the glass doors.

See, they were intact. After everything was over....insurance, cops, a total fuck-a-roo, I took a look at the door. Now, this was a typical 7-ELEVEn, with those nice double doors, which are set in a pretty sturdy aluminum box which surrounds both doors. Yeah, that huge door frame punched into the store by almost half an inch, and neither of the doors broke.

I think about that little inanimate aluminum strip every now and then, and every time, I thank my handyman again. See, had that strip not been there, the doors would have slammed open, and one at least (would have hit the magazine racks) would have exploded.

Cause you just know who would have had to clean up all that fucking glass...

Buenos con queso,

T.

P.S. Here's an HNT

Subtle innuendos follow/There must be something inside

2010-04-26T12:10:00.000-07:00

So, I'm marginally back online at home.

I can't play eq, and I can't....well, I guess all I can't do is play eq, but I still feel like I've lost a limb or something....

I've been on Twitter.com quite a bit lately, due to my 'puter difficulties. It's not the same, of course, cause I only get 140 chars to say stuff, but I do my best.

Oh, I also applied for an internship on Ellen's Show, so if there's a vote/popularity contest thing, I expect at twelve votes,as I have 12 followers....

I mean, right?

Buenos con queso,

T.

ps if you want to follow me on twitter search for...duh....kvenya

City girls just seem to find out early, how to open doors with just a smile....

2010-04-22T08:31:00.001-07:00

Well, it's HNT, so here you go:

Since I got to walk to work in a snowstorm, that's all I'm giving you today.

Buenos con queso,

T.

Once we loved the flowers, now we ask the price of the land.....

2010-04-15T09:39:00.000-07:00

It really sucks not having access to a computer at home.

Of course, that's at least partially my fault, as I haven't tried anything else to fix my desktop, nor have I even tried to put my laptop into the network upstairs, and see if I can get it online.

I just seem to find other things that need to be done, I guess.

On a totally unrelated note, I've decided to start an 'obscure song quote title' theme.

I have no idea how long I'll be at it, nor even how often I'll be posting, but if any of you are still reading this drivel, please join the fun by seeing if you can identify the source of the upcoming titles, today's included.

I should prolly stop fucking around and get to work.

Sigh.

Buenos con queso,

T.

We had a storm coming in this morning....

2010-04-11T18:33:00.000-07:00

So, no spacestation pics or vids.

I'll have more as soon as I can.

Buenos con queso,

T.

I hate busy work...

2010-04-10T18:56:00.000-07:00

I guess I should explain that.

See, I have no problem doing boring, mindless repetitive tasks if I'm at work. In fact most jobs I've had have had at least an delement of repetition, if not specific daily routines. Now, I don't necessarily subscribe to the 'if you've got time to lean, you've got time to clean' philosophy, but if there's work for me to do, even if it's of the abovementioned variety, most of the time, I'll just work

I'll work through breaks (wait what are those), Hell, half the time I'll forget to take a lunch

No, what's been pissing me off lately, is the busy work in video games.

Again, I think I only have one regular reader that's a gamer, so if you want to leave now, I'll understand.

If you've been reading here lately, you may remember that I've been playing a borrowed copy of God of War III. Or maybe you don't, but for the purposes of today's story, it really doesn't matter. There are many things I expect in video games.

I expect my FPS to have a badass sniper rifle.

I expect my RPG to have great combat and spell effects.

I expect my action/adventure games to have puzzles.

These are all good things.

Even quests are good things. Go here, kill this guy, get a part
of the puzzle/weapon. I'm fine with that kind of stuff.

Tough bosses, locked doors, and hidden passages; I'm good with all that.

No, I'm talking about the annoying 'time wasters' that the designers toss in just to make the gameplay longer.

Things like timed puzzles. These just piss me off. I just got to a spot in GoW that goes like this: You're locked in a room, and there are flame jets on both sides of the room, and yes, the fire will kill you.

Fast.

Above you, trapped in a glass box is the person you're trying to save (escort missions suck too). If you take too long solving the puzzle, the box fills with water, she dies, and you fail. That's where I shut it off this morning. I hate when the set some arbitrary time limit and expect you to
work on their timetable.

I probably died 15 times before I shut the game off. Bullshit like this serves no purpose but other than to rack up some deaths, and make the game last longer. Time should only be a factor in sports games, or racers, where times are actually used, either as limits, or scores to beat.

Something else that pisses me off are fucking rythym puzzles. I'm a whiteboy from NorCal. I've got no rythym. I mean, I've made my peace with it and everything, but I also choose not to play games that utilize it.

Well, in case you couldn't see it coming, GoW III has one of those too.

Man, was I pissed!!!

That was another of the places where I just turned the fucking thing off. There's a reason I don't buy that type of game, and I resent the designers forcing me to.

Ok, enough of that.

I'm going to look for the space station again tomorrow morning.

Stay tuned.

Buenos con queso,

T.

I was up even earlier than usual this morning.....

2010-04-08T10:43:00.000-07:00

But, it was at least partially my fault.

See, I set my alarm for 5, instead of the usual 6 am, as there was something I needed to do this morning.

So, instead of waking up at 5 (which is when i usually wake up) I woke up at 4:22. Needless to say, I just went ahead and got up, because trying to sleep for 38 minutes would have been a joke.

So, I can hear y'all asking me what in the world would have gotten me up that early this morning.

Well, I'm glad you asked. See, I downloaded an app from N.A.S.A. the other day. Among other things, it lists 'viewing opportunities' for sky-bound objects.

Case in point:

That, friends and neighbors, is the International Space Station as it tracked across my morning sky. Now, I didn't have my tripod, so the picture's a little shaky, but that white line is the path that the ISS drew as it headed from WSW to NE on it's way around the planet.

I'm going to try and shoot some video on Sunday, but I'm not sure how that will go.

Check back, if you're of a mind.

Buenos con queso,

T.

Well, swapping out the power supply didn't work.....

2010-04-07T15:28:00.000-07:00

Well, it kinda did. I mean, now my fan comes on, and the HD access light comes on, but the computer doesn't boot.

I don't really want to do it, but my next step is to canibalize a hard drive from one of my other computers and see if that flies.

I just hope the drive that's in the 'puter will still work as a slave.

Or I've lost all my music.

Again.

Grrrrr.....

Buenos con queso,

T.

Kratos

2010-04-06T12:39:00.000-07:00

I'm trying (once again) to post a photo without an actual computer.

Here's hoping it works.

Buenos con queso,

T.

That was supposed to be a picture of the God of War III box.....

2010-04-03T22:48:00.001-07:00

I'm not really sure what happened to the pic.

Oh well, whatevz.

Yeah, a buddy loaned me his copy, as he's playing MW2.

I plugged it in, and what can I say but Holey Schmoley!!

The intro, or what I like to call the 'come on', is amazing. Not only
does it depict all the key scenes from the first game, but it does it
masterfully.

The start screen??

OMFG!!!

I have pics, but obviously I'm not going to upload them, given my
earlier failure, but as soon as I can get to a computer, I'll post them.

The game itself is just fucking crazy. I know that only one of my
readers is a gamer (hi andie), but if any of you have a PS3, and if
you played the earlier games, I highly suggest you pick it up.

I was pretty tired, so I only played to the first checkpoint, but, as
noted above, it was fucking SICK!!

Oh, and I'm having a little contest:

The 1st person to buy me an iPad will be my new BFFL (best friend for
life).

Buenos con queso,

Sent from my iPhone

Fwd: Guess what I'm doing tonight?

2010-04-03T20:45:00.001-07:00

Sent from my iPhone

Begin forwarded message:

From: "T.J." <kvenya@gmail.com>
Date: April 3, 2010 8:31:20 PM PDT
To: NewJessi <mamachaos4@gmail.com>
Subject: Guess what I'm doing tonight?

Sent from my iPhone

Thursday scores a checkmate....

2010-04-02T13:12:00.000-07:00

While I was at work feeling sad and blue because of the radio, there was a scheduled 'area power outage' in my neighborhood.

I'm not sure why, or who, or anything, but suffice it to say that from 8am until noon yesterday, 'they' had the power off at my house.

Unfortunately, my computer was running at the time. I usually shut it down when I'm not using it, but I had a DVD burning when I left, so I didn't shut down.

In retrospect, I prolly should have.

See, when I got home last night and hit the power button, I got no response.

Nothing.

I'm guessing that the power surge/spike from the restoral of power lunched something. Maybe my power supply, maybe the motherboard, maybe something else. All I really know, is that I'm without a desktop right now.

I'll prolly see if I can fix it, but I have a sneaking suspicion that I'm going to have to buy a new box.

NOT what I want to do right now.

Well played Thursday, well played.

Buenos con queso,

T.

The radio's killing me today....

2010-04-01T14:41:00.001-07:00

Did you ever haveone of those days when every song they play makes you think about your lost loves?

Well, I'm having one of those today.

Guess that's all I have for today.

Buenos con queso,

T.

There's an app for that

2010-03-28T20:47:00.000-07:00

So, I was thinking back, and it's been ages since I made a post about my iPhone. What the hell's that about?

I know at least one of my readers has one (hey Q), but I don't know about the rest of you. If you don't, well, if you have the means I highly suggest you pick one up.

It's sooo choice.

I've been mucking about in the app store since I got my new baby, and I've acquired a fair few. I've only paid for one (its called appzilla and is 50 apps in one), and that cost me a massive $0.99.

I know, it was a wrench paying that, believe me.

I've got one that converts my iPhone into a police scanner. Well, not just police. Fire, weather, and oh yeah, I was listening to Tokyo air traffic control.....

I picked up a Twitter app, and of course, the marble maze. I also picked up Pandora.

I've got one that converts pictured into red/blue 3d images.

One I got in honor of one of my readers. She's been in and out around here. You may remember her as Whiskeymarie. See, she's a big monkey fanatic, and whenever I send her a package (which i just did) I make sure to put in a few monkey-related items.

So, here, for you Whiskey, is Monkey Flight.

I tried to embed that video, but it didn't want to play along.

Buenos con queso,

T.

Edit:

HA HA!! SCREW You Photobucket. YouTube rocks.

Ok, I'm not taking the blame this time.....

2010-03-27T06:45:00.000-07:00

See, I was posting from my phone last night, like I've done several times, and for some reason, Blogger ate the post.

I totally could have reposted and all that crap, but I was tired, and just said Fuck It. I tend to say that a lot when I'm tired.

I'm still tired, just so you know. I woke up way to early (again), and now I'm waiting for my coffee to brew to try and take care of this tired for me. One of these nights, maybe I'll actually get some sleep.

Well, I can hope.

Buenos con queso,

T.

Geez....it's a good thing I'm not a brain surgeon or anything.....

2010-03-26T06:26:00.000-07:00

Because if I forgot operations as often as I forget to blog, there'd be a lot of crazy/dead people out there.

I've been going over it in my head, and I can't figure out how or why I forgot to blog yesterday.

I know, I'll blame it on Thursday. I haven't blamed anything on Thursday in a while.

In case you don't follow me on twitter, I should tell you that we had snow on the ground yesterday morning. There wasn't a lot, or anything, but it was snow.....

Yes, that's right, fucking snow!!

What the shit is that about? It was supposed to snow last night, but I don't know if it did or not. I haven't really looked outside yet.

I guess that's all from T.J.land this am.

Buenos con queso,

T.

I'm broke down, insufferable--my mind is on the blink, It's later than you think and I'm too daze gone

2010-03-24T13:14:00.000-07:00

Wait a minute, what happened to Monday and Tuesday...

Oh, yeah, now I remember. I went shopping all day Monday (see my tweets) and then did some drunken gambling.

Oh, and I had a surprise yesterday, and got to go play some golf (see my tweets).

On both of those days, due to beer and such, I found myself too relaxed to post....

Which basically means I fell asleep, and woke up too late (after midnight) to get a post in on time.

Oh well, as I said when I fucked up the first time this month, I'm pretty ok with the fact that I didn't get posts out.

I was having too much fun, and as long as I have an excuse, I don't mind that I missed.

Buenos con queso,

T.

I must be cruel, only to be kind: Thus bad begins and worse remains behind.

2010-03-21T20:50:00.000-07:00

Aren't Fridays the shit?

I love them, even tho my Fridays are Sundays.

I wish I had some wonderful words of inspiriation for you all,
but I'm whipped.

Buenos con queso,

T.

Strange traffic.....

2010-03-20T20:34:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I'll admit it.

I have stat trackers on my site. They're right over there, under my little flickr app. If you click on Sitemeter, or Feedjit, it will take you to the stats pages.....

I should tell you at the outset tho, that I'm not really interested in how many people hit my page, but rather where they're from, and mostly, what they searched to find my site.

I've talked about it before, but I still find it facinating what obscure search paramaters sometimes bring folks into my little world.

Some of you may remember this post from a while back.

Well, imagine my surprise when I checked my stats today, and saw that more than 20 people had hit that page today.

From Facebook.

Yeah, what the fuck?

So, diligently sorting through the info, I found that at approximately 10:45 am my time, someone in State College, Pennsylvania googled the phrase 'jeopardy toilet paper thief. '

Now, why anyone would be surfing that particular phrase is anybody's guess. I mean, if you'd never heard about it, you'd never search for it (obviously) and if you did know about it, why wouldn't you just write something yourself?

Or maybe try and find one with a little more information? Let's be honest: my post isn't chock full of facts or anything.

In re-reading it (i mean i had too right) I grinned as I read the 'call of the day.' It still cracks me up that someone would ask me the number for their own voicemail.

Oh, by the way, if any of you see a reference to that post on somebodys wall, or if some sends it to you, please let me know. I'm dying to see how it was presented on facebook.

Buenos con queso,

T.

The problem's plain to see; Too much technology

2010-03-18T20:01:00.000-07:00

It occured to me tonight that with the obscene amount of MW2 I've been playing lately, I'm surprised that I haven't missed more days of blogging.

In fact, if you take into account that I'm even playing as I post, it's downright miraculous.

Buenos con queso,

T.

I don't have anything strange to say tonight.....

2010-03-17T21:05:00.000-07:00

It's St. Patrick's day.

I had this for dinner:

Times 2. I'm stuffed, and I'm going to pass out now.

Buenos con queso,

T.

A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March

2010-03-16T18:11:00.000-07:00

I had planned a whole big post for yesterday, but as you may have noticed, I missed my blogligation yesterday.

Yup, that's right, I fucked up again.

Oh well, I'm over worrying about it these days. If I remember, I remember, if I don't I don't.

Whatevez.

Buenos con queso,

T.

The strangest thing.....

2010-03-14T06:00:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted about music in a while, but here goes.

So, I'm cruising through iTunes, building a playlist of 'essentials.'

There are some songs that I just have to be able to listen to whenever I want. Here, in no particular order, are a few of them.

1. Jet Airliner, by Steve Miller. (i love the joker and fly like an eagle but hear them too much)

2. Heart of Glass, by Blondie. (the original not the funky disco one *must* have the word ass or wph wtp)

3. Life in the Fast Lane, by The Eagles. (this is prolly #2 on my atf list)

4. Hard Headed Woman, by Elvis Presley. (he really was The King)

5. Juke Box Hero, by Foreigner. (what can i say)

I am sad to say that due to a past hard drive crash, there were some songs that I could not add to the playlist. These include, but are not limited to:

1. Industrial Disease, by The Dire Straits.

2. Hard to Handle, by The Black Crowes.

3. Why Can't I Be You?, by The Cure. (iknow right)

4. Rock of Ages, by Def Leppard, nor I might add, any of that album.

5. Most of my Rush collection (which im working on as i speak)

So, for no reason at all, I'm going to make this a meme. I'm not really one of those 'tag you're it' kind of meme'rs, so if you want to play along, please post your top 10 (or 5) songs. I'd appreceiate it if you put a link back to my post if you do.

Buenos con queso,

T.

P.S. one that i should have put in that top 5. dont know what i was thinkin' Turning Japanese, by The Vapors.

P.P.S. also, and i have no fucking idea how it ended up in my library, none other than the 1987 pop classic by Tiffany, I Think We're Alone Now. in case you were wondering, thats the strangest thing.

P.P.P.S last one, i promise. the title's actually a movie quote. obsure, but outstanding. any guesses?

Is it bad karma to pee on a fortune cookie?

2010-03-13T11:34:00.000-08:00

I'm curious about that, cause last night at WalMart...

I went in to take a leak and saw a (packaged) fortune cookie in the knee-high urinal. Seeing it, and that the urnial was so low, I backed up a bit, and turned to the taller one.

As I stood there, I thought 'that's actually pretty funny. I should get a pic of that fortune cookie.' Of course, as soon as I thought that, someone came in and started using the other urinal, thus thwarting my photo opportunity.

I know he was peeing on a fortune cookie though, and I was just wondering if anyone knows if it's bad luck, like breaking a mirror, or walking under a ladder....

Please weigh in with your answers.

Buenos con queso,

T.

I have a great story to tell you...

2010-03-12T20:54:00.001-08:00

Tomorrow.

I know, I suck, but I'm fucking bushed. I haven't slept all that well the last coue
nights.

Buenos con queso,

T.

You know something I don't need?

2010-03-11T18:53:00.002-08:00

One more fucking person to tell me that I should get a fucking bike!!!!

I'm fucking serious, folks.

For some reason, the fact that I'm between vehicles seems to being the adviceniks out of the woodwork. For the record, I'm not adverse to bike riding. I've had my share of bikes, and while I've enjoyed riding them, most of my rides involved simple back and forth trips, which I suppose is what we're talking about, here, but with some important differences.

For example, the trip from my house to work takes just about as long walking as it would riding a bike against the wind, which due to our mountain winds would be both ways for me.

Also, as soon as you mount a bike, you're piloting a 'vehicle' and are subject to traffic laws. As a pedestrian, I always have the right of way. When a gust of wind blows sand in my face (a regular occurance) I can lower my head without fear of wrecking.

I don't have to find a place to lock up my shoes, either.

Are folks so adverse to walking in this day and age that the thought of someone doing it makes them want to fix something that's not broken?

I don't know, but the next person that says that to me stands a fair chance of getting punched in the chops.

I'm just sayin'.

Buenos con queso,

T.

Strange emails from the ethesphere.....

2010-03-10T20:29:00.000-08:00

And no, I'm not talking about my spam...I plan on doing a blog about my spam at some point, but I always seem to put it off....

In any event, as you know (if youve read here for any length of time)one of my duties at work is to answer the store emails.

I get all kinds, just like my personal email.

Some are for one of the managers, or someone else in the store. These are dutifully printed out and hand delivered to the intended recpient. Often, they'll come back to me and tell me to respond, and what they'd like the response to be.

I also get spam at work (big surprise) but just like home, I neither open, nor read same. I simply bounce them to the sender, camoflauging our working email addy as a broken one.

I also get (rarely) emails asking valid questions about stuff on ebay or gun broker, or on the terms of our layaway.

Yes, we offer layaway. Even for things bought online. It's a wonderful world, and we're doing our best to make it better.....

I don't know if I've bitched about it here or not, but a good portion of my ebay mail contains only a single question: 'Do you have a "buy it now" price for this?'

Now, if any of you have been on ebay, you know that if there is a buy it now price, it's right fucking there!! If there isn't a buy it now price....well...there fucking isn't one there!!!

Well, needless to say, I got one of those today, to which I sent the usual response:

'Sorry, but my boss (and owner of the store) wants anything that we list to run the full length of the auction.

Thanks,

T.J.'

That's verbaitm. I mean, I've typed that enough times that I could type it with my eyes closed. Well, since I'm a touch typist, I can type pretty much anything with my eyes closed, but you get my point.

Somewhat later, I received an email telling me that 'I want to put this on layaway now, how do I do that' on an item that was still on auction!! I respond by saying that if someone is high bidder, and wins our item at the end of auction, we invoice them for a down payment, and go from there.

To which this fucktard responds 'Dang it. I thought you'd quote me a price and take it off of auction, and then I'd just pay it off all at once.'

I looked at the previously deleted email, and sure enough, it was the same prick I'd told earlier that we don't end auctions.

I swear, I fucking hate people.

Buenos con queso,

T.

2010-03-09T20:41:00.001-08:00

I found this site.

I didn't really explore it, but it seems fun.

Buenos con queso,

T.

I hate when I forget to blog...

2010-03-08T21:21:00.000-08:00

Well, I guess I didn't actually forget, but I almost did.

iPhone to the rescue once again...

Well, guess that's all for now.

Buenos con queso,

T.

I've always relied on the kindness of strangers...

2010-03-07T09:27:00.000-08:00

Well, in all actuality, I guess I've always counted on the stupidity of strangers.

There's not a specific instance of stupidity that I came here to share today, I just thought it was a good twist on the classic quote I used for a title.

I think I may have seen the movie once, and I know there was an episode of The Simpsons wherein they did a Springfield version of it.

This is kind of rambling and strange, so it fits with the theme for the month.

Oh, I should mention that Mr. Ridiculous came in again yesterday, and I'm not ashamed to say that I ran away like a frightened little girl. I might have stayed, but he came in like 5 minutes before my shift was over.

Buenos con queso,

T.

At least now when I forget to blog before leaving the house...

2010-03-06T08:20:00.000-08:00

I can just whip out my iPhone and take care of it while I ride (or walk) to work.

How cool is that?

So, are you all sick of hearing about my new phone yet?

Yeah, well, get used to it. I'm going to be going on about this new beauty for ages to come. Nothing really exciting today, just wanted to get my daily post in.

Buenos con queso,

T.

Do these cookies taste a little strange to you?

2010-03-05T06:28:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer: The story you're about to read is true. The names have not been changed to protect the innocent. Mostly because there are only 2 people in the story, and I didn't know the other guy's name, and since I'm the other person, well, I'm pretty sure you'll know who I am even if I change my name.

Also, it's kinda gross, so if you're squeamish, you may not want to read any further.

Ok, so let me set the scene for you:

I was working at the 7-ELEVEn in Morro Bay California while I was going to school. It was a pretty good school job, as I had the swing shift (3-11pm) which gave me plenty of time for my classes during the day.

I knew most of my customers's faces, if not their names, and I had a good rapport with the folks that came into the store.

I also saw some shit that will turn you white, to quote Winston Zeddmore, and it was my stretch in that purgatory that produced the title for this blog, which will also be the title (eventually) of my book.

On the swing shift, I saw all types. Students from the local schools, parents on the way home from work, beach goers, old retired couples...It ran the gamut. I also saw many folks that were, let us say, chemically altered.

Not that I'm judging, or saying that getting your party on is a bad thing, but it gets kinda old when you have to wait on them.

This one night (i dont know what time but it was dark out) this group of kids (by my standards anyhow) comes in to feed their need for munchies. Again, not judging, but it can get realllllly old waiting on folks that are drunk/stoned.

They buy their items, and off they go.

Sometime later, one of them, I'll call him Blondie, returns. In his hands, he's carrying the box of cookies he bought. On his face, he's wearing an expression of combined revulsion and disbelief. He set them on the counter and said:

'Dude there's a problem with these cookies.'

Knowing that this kid's plastered, and wondering what could possibly be wrong with them, I open them up. I saw immediately what the problem was. Some of the cookies were mangled, and appeared to have been ground into powder.

Also, there were some very small moths in the package.

Oh, and moth larvae as well. Now, I don't know why fly larvae are called maggots, while moth larvae are called....well moth larvae, because at that moment, I couldn't have told you the difference.

The look on the kids face is starting to make sense now. If I'd been out partying and started eating a box of cookies then, I don't know, felt something crawling on me, or Heaven forbid, something burst in my mouth, I think I'd have been pretty grossed out too.

Tho I was feeling his pain, my only option is to offer him his money back. I mean, that's really all I could do. I tell him so, and says:

'No, dude, you don't understand. I ATE some of these.'

I told him that I did understand, and now matter how much I sympathized, the only thing I was authorized to do was refund his money. I told him that the owner would be in for the graveyard shift, but that unless and until he spoke to the owner, all I could do was refund his money.

Needless to say, he took it, and left without incident.

Ok, so yeah, it's gross, but even in the midst of my disgust, I couldn't help but wonder how they had gotten there. I mean I don't remember what kind of cookies they were, but the packaging seemed pretty secure. It was a white cardboard box which was tightly wrapped in paper, for crying out loud.

My only guess is that it must have happened in the plant somewhere, long before the cookies made it to us.

In any event, if you want my advice, always check your cookies before you eat them.

Buenos con queso,

T.

It's strange...

2010-03-04T05:34:00.001-08:00

Having this iPhone, I mean.

Normally, I'd be at my desk doing this, but instead, I'm sitting in a chair in the living room waiting for my coffee to brew. Not that I'm complaining, you understand. There's something about the smell of coffee on the brew that's absolutely Heavenly.

Sadly, however, as much as I love my coffee (and i do) it doesn't quite live up to the smell. Popcorn's the same way. Again, I love me some popcorn, but it doesn't taste as good as it smells.

In fact, just about the only thing I can think of that does, is bacon.

Mmmmm..... Bacon.....

When it's cooking, it permeates the air with a promise of deliciousness, and unlike coffee and popcorn, it delivers.

Well, if it's cooked right.

There aren't many things worse than burnt bacon.

Or burnt popcorn for that matter.

Buenos con queso,

T.

I think I threw my back out opening my Carmex

2010-03-03T07:08:00.001-08:00

Well, not really, but that's the most strenous thing I've done lately. I mean, I know I have a bad back, so I'm ultra careful.

I lift with my legs.

If I need to move something heavy, I'll get help.

In fact, I'll do almost anything to avoid putting my back out.

That being said, something went wrong yesterday. I don't know what happened, but all day yesterday (and so far today) it's all I can do to stand up.

In case you were wondering, it's not fun.

Buenos con queso,

T.

When you're strange....Faces come out of the rain...

2010-03-02T11:28:00.001-08:00

I know, I know, that's two titles from the same song.

So sue me.

I'm going to tell you about the strangeness of my yesterday now. See, Monday has become the new 'cash my check and get my drunken gamble on' day. More of of necessity than anything else.

See, I get paid on Fridays, and I could totally go out Friday night and play, but then I'd be suffering on Saturday. Or I could go out on Sunday night, and be suffering Monday morning.

I find it's much nicer to walk over in the morning on Monday, though. There are those that will argue that you shouldn't drink 'before the sun's over the yard arm,' but I say nuts to that.

I'll drink whenever I damn well please, and there's not a fucking thing you can do to stop me.

Anyhoozle, Pops and I both had a good day at the casino. He cashed out $100. I cashed out $200. It's a good thing too, because, I was a victim of C.P.F. yesterday

For those of you that don't know, that's Catastrophic Phone Failure. It's not something I was unprepared for, you understand. I've had this particular cell phone for a year now, and it was really starting to show it's age. Well, yesterday, it gave up the ghost.

Fortunately, I had some ready cash for my upgrade, and after a short stroll to the AT&T store, I'm the proud owner of.....

....drumroll please.....

A brand-spanking-new iPhone.

That's right, bitches, I'm too cool for all of you now.

I've been playing with it almost non-stop since I got it. It's like butter baby. The only problem I can see coming from this new addition is that I'm prolly gonna be spending way too much money on ring tones.

They have a vast variety to choose from, and they're only like $1.29 each. I mean, in the grand scheme of things, I prolly don't need more ringtones than the stock ones, but I know I'm going to get more.

I mean, wouldn't you?

Buenos con queso,

T.