Cart before Horse

I just realized how truly crazy the people that I work for are. I was talking to my anal retentive assistant manager( henceforce called AR). I had notice that I was relieved for my break someone who was scheduled to leave at the time that I went to break. AR mentioned that THREE people had called in sick and thus we were short staffed. This made me raise an eyebrow and, I felt, opened a door to a question I’ve been wondering about. You see I’ve been working there for about 3 months and have often heard the managers complain about how many people have called in sick HOWEVER in the same amount of time I have never heard someone mention ala Dante that “ I’m not suppose to even be here today”= that they had been called in because of how many people have called in.
AR responded with something that I thought was truly batshit insane. She told me that it was the person calling in SICK responsibility to get someone to fill in for them. Imagine that, you’re puking your brains out- you’ve already made the decision to lose a day’s pay (as you’re part time and don’t get sick days), so why the f*** would you waste one moment wondering if the people at work were having a busy day.
I sort of pointed that out- editing myself from pointing out how truly insane I thought she was, and merely mentioned IF I was sick, how and why would I call others. I went on to ‘give her’ that if I had forgotten to ask for my cousin’s wedding off- that’s my responsibility… but otherwise, I’m sick. AR pointed out that EVERYONE (save apparently me) has a list of everyone else’s numbers and that my point was a ‘discussion’ that management had, along with their ‘on call’ status thing.
This just boggled my mind the fact that she called her batshit idea ‘one side of a discussion’. But then I have already decided that the next time they put me on call- I might not call in. They don’t pay me enough for me to waste a day with NO plans on the chance that they might need me to work- maybe if they paid me a flat fee that would be one thing, but if they don’t need me I don’t get $.

Please let me know if you agree or disagree that she is batshit insane. If you call in sick- who’s responsible for making sure work that day gets done? You or your boss?
I mean I understand in an office, there is gonna be paperwork that if you don’t do today, you’ll do it tomorrow but at the same time if there’s stuff that needs to be done THAT day- isn’t it your boss’ job to make sure it gets done on time?

Jealousy

I realize I am a somewhat jealous person. I don’t mean to be and of my many failings I find it the most annoying. Like several other emotional problems I have, I blame my parents.
Wait here me out.
I blame my parents because I know that I am NEITHER one of their favorites. I find it one of those sad ironic things that in a conversation with my dad- when he was trying to ‘cheer me up’ or some such… he pointed out that he knew that my older brother was my mom’s favorite. The gist of this conversation was that IF he had been able to fight for custody, as back in the 70’s women almost automatically got custody of kids, he’d have let her take my older bro and he (and his second wife) would’ve taken me. This conversation has always stayed with me as I thought it was really about him seeking absolution for him leaving my mom, then really about me esp. as it took place shortly after he was thrown out by his second wife( though last I heard it from him, he left her). I had had proof from him before this that my younger brother was his favored. I think I’ve mentioned it here but a) part of my father’s second wife’s obsessive compulsiveness meant that we opened x-mas presents one at a time… which means me and my older brother could always see how many more presents our ½ brother was getting. And as I also might’ve mentioned here( but mention to others often) one year my father forgot my birthday and then had the gall to remind me to call my younger brother for HIS birthday, nevermind the fact that I also never hear from my younger bro on my b’day.
So I blame my upbringing for the fact that every so often the green eyed monster rears it’s ugly head. That might be wrong and letting myself slide but there it is, when a co worker gets complimented, I sometimes wonder why it’s not ME who’s getting the compliment.
I say this because two of my ass’t managers were gabbing about how good certain people were for staying late this past week. It bothered me that neither mentioned me and that they mentioned one of the two people who cheesed me off in my last post. I don’t like this girl. They went on to mention how she stayed until 8pm yesterday… and I wanted to say that she stayed that late because she wanted to soak up hours. That she didn’t really do anything and that I had stayed until 11pm on Thursday to help the manager clean up. They went on to mention how the manager on duty hadn’t even known she was there. And I almost had to bite my tongue to keep myself from mentioning that perhaps the ass’t manager wasn’t told because this worker didn’t want the manager to decide to send her home.
So as said, I first felt slighted that these two assistant managers didn’t realize MY hard work…. Then I remembered that I didn’t really like either one.
While I’m jealous and want my managers to notice my good work- I realized that basically I dislike my job and so long as the scheduling assistant manager keeps giving me a good amount of hours, I’ll be happy. I’d like to think that the head manager( who I like) appreciated my staying late both on Thursday and the night before the fire inspection( when I was the only one there with him). Likewise I’d like the 3rd assistant manager to like me, because while I think she’s ditzy I do find her amusing….
So in conclusion- I’m jealous. I like people to like me, even if I don’t like them but I do try to let things go, as I want to end the day with as little stress as possible… Even if that means as I said in my last blog- letting out a yell or a rant here and there.

Customer Satisfaction.

In grad school my advisor had a pet project of ‘patron satisfaction’. It was important to him to study libraries and find out if the librarians were doing their job by find out customer satisfaction. As I come from a retail background, I knew a fact that I don’t think he had realized. I could spend an hour helping a patron and they could still not be satisfied. It might be because the library didn’t have the book they REALLY needed or it could be that the information found in said books doesn’t jib with what they FEEL should be in the books- but never the less after bending over backwards for the patron, the patron will end up leaving unhappy even if the librarian has gone above and beyond the call of duty for them.

That’s how I felt on Thursday. Granted I have had a couple of days to calm down, but I still feel the need to post about this… because I TRIED to leave retail because I’ve grown to hate customers. I was taking care of two people, I had two co workers and neither of my co-workers helped me for about 5 min. I realize in hind sight that I got stuck in a grove with one customer- I wanted to ring up a shirt in a specific size, said shirt didn’t have a bar code and I couldn’t find it on the computer. Now maybe if they had handled the second person faster I would’ve just scanned another shirt and say f’ inventory sooner but they didn’t. The other person was looking for something they had lost. I told them it was right there, I then noticed it had been moved… and told them to go to lost and found at the info desk, as a 3rd person had found it and said they’d bring it to lost and found after a couple of min. Now since I was helping the first person, and my two co workers weren’t helping anyone, the second person got annoyed that I wasn’t helping them… even though I had told them a) their object had been found and b) it was at the lost and found. What was worse was my co-workers then started questioning ME about things, trying to figure out what was happening. I told them I’d appreciate it if one of them started ringing, as a line had formed, and everything was ok. They didn’t find this acceptable… so they continued questioning me. They then had an ‘intervention’ for me, telling me that the customer was unhappy and I was rude to them. I almost lost it with the two of them. BUT I didn’t. Instead I went downstairs to re-stock and let out a primal scream in the stock room( which I was lucky and was empty). Just because the customer thought I was rude, doesn’t mean I was… Just because my two idiot co-workers thought I didn’t do my job right, doesn’t mean they both don’t have their heads up their butts.

The only stupid thing I think I did in the above was to tell an ass’t manager about this. I told her this not to get them in trouble but to vent. She then quisi confronted them about this… and I thus need to relearn not to trust everyone with everything… that perhaps since she is a manager I shouldn’t tell her everything… though I do like her in a friendly sort of way.

Reciprocity

Normally when I do a favor- it’s because I’m a nice guy. Yes, I would like Karma, or the person who I’m doing the favor for, to remember and pay me back. However that’s not why I do the favor- I do it because I’m nice. I don’t keep a running tally as to who I owe a favor to or who owes me a favor; because that’s not the point the point is doing nice things for friends.
That said, if I do you a bunch of favors… I don’t expect too much balking if I ask for an easy and similar type favor.

I say this because a friend’s husband pissed me off. I have often given her MY discount at the game store. I have once in a blue moon inquired if her husband’s discount at his retail employers is better then their circular- and since the circular is usually a better price I go with that. Several months ago I ordered a comic for her using my sub at a comic place- so that a) she be assured to get the comic and b) she’d be able to get my discount. I got the comic for on Friday and she didn’t have the money for her… so I let her owe me. Last night I called her as I’ve been trying to find the PERFECT edition of Not Another Teen Movie… as I’d like to own it, but don’t want to buy 2 or 3 versions. I thought I saw the perfect ‘unrated special edition’ at her husband’s store on Monday before I went to work, so I asked her to get me the copy with the money she owed me. She seemed fine with that and told me she’d do it…

SO I was pissed when she came to the game store today without the movie. She claimed that her husband was cutting back on using his discount for ‘friends’ and that Best Buy was ‘cracking down on employee purchases’. So I threw a hissy fit at her. I pointed out, as above, that I often give her and her husband MY discount at the game store. I also know that she LEFT a job because they gave her crap for using her discount for him.
What bothers me about this is a) I dislike her husband and he NEVER seems to want to help anyone but himself and b) had she just told me when I asked her to do this, I would’ve thought him a putz but not gotten so angry… As it is I don’t plan on giving either of them a discount at the game store again.

Biting the hand that feeds me

There are two companies (well prolly more but this post is about two) that bring me much joy and as much frustration. For as much as I love their products, I’m not too fond of their business practices.

The first is Wizkids. Evan has often heard me cuss about them. I really like their heroclix, and I wouldn’t mind giving them so much money if I didn’t hate their business practices from both a professional and fan perspective. I say professional because I work at a game store and while Wizkids doesn’t screw us as much as Game Workshop- that’s sorta like saying Mitt doesn’t piss me off as much as W.
From the professional pov, I hate their ‘clix brick’ marketing idea. Wizkids decided to pressure people to buy in groups of 12, starting with their last set, by saying that if you buy a dozen- you’ll get a cool limited figure… that you can’t get any way else. I wouldn’t mind this idea- and would’ve thought it was a cool incentive… if it weren’t for the fact that you have to buy ALL at once. Now as a collector, I know I’m going to buy enough so I can do that… BUT working at a game store I know some people can only afford 3 or 4 at a time. Worse I know a guy who’s going to be in 4 sealed tournaments, so he’ll buy 12 but only 3 at a time… so he can’t get the mail in, even though he’s buying the 12.
It gets worse for the store… As say I have a brick- 12 boosters. I get a customer at 2 pm and he wants 5 boosters, which I sell him. Then at 4 pm, I get a customer who wants a brick. I point out I only have 7 boosters, and he decides NOT to buy them because he needs the brick. So I’m stuck with 7 boosters.
I also need to mention that today I had 3 conversations with the same customer about the clix brick. You see he had a stroke and his memory isn’t anywhere near where he’d like. Even on the best of days, he often gets things totally confused. So I have told him that he should wait to open his brick in front of me. That I will help him with all the paperwork but had to STRESS that he needs to buy 12 at once. That the 4 he just bought from another store( as we were out) meant NOTHING to the mail in, as this other store also didn’t have a full brick to sell him.
Next is the Convention Exclusives that vex me from both POVs. These are BIG figures that you can only get at conventions. Conventions which don’t happen in my home town even though said ‘town’ is Boston. So the only way for me to get them as a buyer( besides ebay) is to BEG a friend to go to a convention near him and HOPE that he can get one… Oh yeah that’s the other problem with these Con Exclusives, Wizkids willfully makes less then demand for them. They go to a convention with hundreds of thousands of geek boys and girls with only 3,000 of their TOP product. What I wish they would do is have the item roll out as a Con Exclusive for about 5 months and then let us carry them in the stores. I’d like that because a) I think the game store could’ve made some money if given a chance of selling Phoenix, and b) many people like me would then have a better chance of getting cool stuff and giving Wizkids more of our money. As it is, the people who make out like bandits on Con Exclusives are those who sell it on Ebay.
Which leads to the next problem: Limited Edition Figures. These are ‘special’ figures that you can only get buy winning a sanctioned tournament. This pisses me off, because I feel that there are a lot of people like me who enjoy heroclix- want ALL of the figures but aren’t the best clix’er around… Oh and don’t have a bottomless wallet to buy these figures online. I know that some places( like in Chico, Ca) the gaming scene is a nice friendly affair, not so at my store. Wizkids implies that this tournament scene helps the stores and builds a customer base. I say NOT SO. What happens is, our judge is a gun- one of those people who plays to win. He’s not fun to play with as he’s in it for the prizes… He will often find the best and broken figures and use them to stomp the tar out of anyone else. The people who show up for his tournaments are the same, they’re not fun to play with and I know I don’t have a chance as I don’t have the time to go all over the web figuring out what figures are broken. There are TWO prizes at these tournaments- one for the top winner, one for showmanship… however as the guns travel in packs… I know no matter how nice I am, they’re gonna vote for each other.
Now there were two sets where they put the Limited Edition figure in the booster packs. Wizkids did color them slightly different and called them ‘Super Rares’ if you got them from the pack instead of winning them… but as far as I was concerned, they were the same and I loved this. I bought WAY more DC figures from that set then normally as I liked the ‘Super Rares’ and was very happy to be able to pull them. So what happens is the guns like the judge complained that these Super Rares cheapened their prizes( re: made the prices drop on Ebay) and Wizkids listened to these jerks rather then the fans like me…. Which is a sad thing.

The other company is the Cartoon Network. They’ve come out with a lot of cool shows and then promptly buried them for crap. I blame them for the lack of Reboot in my life… as Mainframe did come out with a ‘season 4’ and Cartoon Network didn’t properly hype it and buried the episodes… I had to get them from a friend in Canada (thanx Kel). There were cool toys that were planned, and I saw on websites that were scrapped because there wasn’t enough demand. Likewise, I’d like to think if they promoted it- more people might've been turned into fans which would've lead to a FIFTH season of Reboot.
In fact, lack of promotion is their biggest problem. They don’t have ads on their network or web site( which is a joke) letting me know when NEW episodes of my favorite shows are going to be on… Or when they’ve moved my favorite show to…. I really think that Megas XLR was one of their coolest shows and died because others gave up on figuring out when it was on.
This second part is here because Justice League started showing new episodes… and I missed a few. They’re also showing this show at 10:30 pm on a Saturday night. I’m just like huh? How do they expect to get good ratings for this at such a crappy time… esp when then give Bobobobobo as a lead in.
So I’m going to have to look for a place to download Justice League as I was told there was an awesome one where Flash and Luthor change bodies… which is made more awesome by the idea that Flash is voiced by the guy who does Luthor on Smallvile

Thanks Evan...

I was just going to send Evan a thank you letter to thank him for suggesting free rip to me. I just used it... After backing up my computer COMPLETELY and fully. And Free Rip worked fine. I saddly don't know where the wire to the computer to psp is( which sux because it's also the wire to my camera) but that's my fault for being a messy librarian.
However before I wrote the letter I realized I wanted to thank him on my blog as he really has been helpful to me through the years.

So thank you Evan for all your support, all the advice you've given me, all the help you've provided and just being a friend. As I've said before I don't think I have that many and I count you as one.

I also want to make a vow. This year I'm going to Amsterdam on vacation. Next year( assuming I have a job) I'm promising you here now.... I'm gonna go to CA. If you don't go to Comic Con, then I will find a way to get to Chico. I think I owe you a beer and I mean to buy it for you.

That said, the meeting will prolly be anti climatic and I'll grow to hate you ;-) But I think that promising it here might help to 'make it so'. Besides with all 3of my brothers currently in Ca. might be able to get the 'rents to kick in some $ for the trip.

The other comic

A lot of news has been given to the "muslim" comic that offends. However, it's only on Fox about a week or so ago that I heard about the comic below.
( yes I'm late blogging about this but that's what happens when you work a 6 day week)



I wanted to put here( basically all my blogs) because I thought it was an amusing and TRUE comic.

Yes- Rummy had the gall to say that today's troops are "battle hardened."


I just find this to be laughable. I thought the first punchline was the fact that NONE of Bushco has been "battle hardened". But apparently I was wrong as my google search of 'rumsfeld "battle hardened"' turned up a bio of Rumsfeld subtitled- The Leadership Wisdom of a Battle-Hardened Maverick.

I swear like most stuff coming out of Bushco... if it wasn't sooo darn sad, it would be damn amusing.

Oh and this comic is the gift that keeps on giving as O'Reilly was pissed that the cartoonist didn't have the BALLS to appear on the Factor. O'Reilly basically said that if the cartoonist was going to publish this crap- he should appear on the Factor, that not appearing on the Factor made this guy a chicken and took away from this point. O'Rielly then showed a clip of the cartoonist on the Paula Zahn show, which btw is on CNN at the same time as the Factor. I thought this was darn amusing as I feel that NO left leaning person should go on Fox. I feel the left just gets yelled at, and it 'shows' that Fox can book a 'balenced' show even though the show isn't balenced as they end up cutting the left's mike and letting the right wing talking heads fawn all over the Bushco and the host.

So I'm putting this cartoon all over to show my disdain for the White House and how they're handling the war.

W. in the Arts.

I have ALWAYS thought that George W. Bush reminded me of Martin Sheen's character in the Dead Zone... That W. like Greg Stillson would have NO problem starting WW III because he BELIEVED in his heart it was the right thing to do and he'd go to heaven.

I have yet to use the software that Evan suggested to me to turn cds to mp3s( I'm a wuss and fear my computer dying again) so I was listening to a tape on Saturday as I did my cardio workout.

It was a tape of the musical Metropolis( didn't make it to the U.S.) and on came The Elitist Dance... and for the first time, I thought perhaps Metropolis was also a metaphor for what W. is doing to the U.S. as he gets rid of the middle class, and empowers the rich with tax cut after tax cut- and helps prove that you only have rights if you can afford a lawyer... I thought this song could be sung by any number of his supporters and friends on the Fox News Channel

We're the cream, we're the crust
We're for pleasure, we're for lust
All the fun has just begun
We are the children of the sun

Cutting teeth, cutting through
Life for me is death for you
Shut your eyes, shut your ears
We are the children of the years

And to us nothing really matters in this world
It's power that's the thing
The taste of pure sweet decadence
And the pleasure that it brings
A sweet young thing to hold
So we will not be cold
And winter snow will never come
And we will not grow old
That's what we have been told
It's always been like this
Machine built edifice
The power of Metropolis!

I'm sure there are more analogies for what what Bushco is doing for us, such as the 1984 comparison to W.'s power grab... how he wants all this power because 'we're at war' in a war that will never end because it's against an IDEA and not a actualy country( like Oceania)... but I find it interesting whenever I see them.

I (like millions) hate my Jorb

I think life has to give me a kick in the pants every so often (like my dad) to remind me how much MY life sucks.

At the gift store, the manager has been hiring a bunch of people (more then 4), which means less hours for everyone ELSE. At first I was under the misconception that the hours given to the NEW people would be taken from the slackers. That was until I saw next week’s schedule and found that I lost about an hour and ½ each day. Ouch. That’s 6 hours gone from next week.
Now I didn’t really intend to stay at the gift store for more then say a year- as it was another crappy retail job in my string of crappy retail jobs, but still this accelerates the job search for the NEXT job.
It also burnt my goat that last night there was only two of us closing on a busy Saturday night- me and the head manager. He complained at about 4pm that it would just be the two of us… I told him, yup I knew that. Didn’t he? As while one person called in sick, she called in Friday. He shrugged, and he knew. Then at 8pm (we closed at 7:30) as I went from one end of the store to the other cleaning and straightening… I pointed out that he should talk to the scheduler and have more people close on Friday and Saturday… He then retorted that he did indeed have more people…
I kept the snideness out of my voice and tried not to say much more. Especially as he crowed about what a GREAT day the store had. Because if I had talked, I would’ve told him a) if the store’s doing so well- share the wealth and give me some of my hours back 2) I know you have more people- who are ALL starving for hours iii) what’s my motivation to do a good job.
iii- was my mantra at Staples… I only did an ok job there because that’s what I felt Staples deserved. They gave me crap… and so didn’t get my A game--- Well I fear neither will the gift store now…
I’m also unhappy there because all the managers talk down to me. I understand my job…. Don’t complain pre-emptively. I know to watch the register, I know to say hi to people, I know when it’s not busy to straighten, and I know that one product doesn’t go in front of another one. Please give your life lessons to the new hires- and let me do my job in peace.

[note: with the snow day; I lost 1/2 my day at the game store... which I couldn't really afford this week]

Voices

So I was watching the Fairly Odd Parents the other day… A pretty good show, though I actually prefer Danny Phantom but catch the Odd Parents whenever it’s on and I’m bored. Anyway, I thought I recognized the voice of Timmy’s friend Chester McBadBat( the one with the braces) so I checked it out on IMDB and found out a) that it there have been TWO Chesters, either of which I could recognize- as one is Frankie Muniz( Malcolm) and the other is Jason Marsden who does numerous voices( including Billy Numerous). However what really blew my mind is that the same people who voice Wanda and Cosmo also voice Timmy’s parents. And that sorta blew my mind in a logic loop- as aren’t Wanda and Cosmo just ‘wishful’ parent figures for Timmy?
Also amused by the fact that Timmy is voiced by Tara Strong, who does Princess Clara and Toots on Drawn Together, and Raven.

I’ve also been meaning to blog about the Boondocks. While I like the show, I’d like it A LOT more if they had TWO people doing the voices of Huey and Riley. I think since the two kids are suppose to represent two different movements within the African American community, it would be nice if they spoke with two different voices… Esp. as I have problems sometimes figuring out which one is talking.
That said, I do like the show and did like that the white power is named after the villain in the Lorax and voiced by Granny Goodness… I mean Ed Asner.

Traveling music please!

I’ve told adj. this on ym, but figured I should give the 4-1-1 to all as I’ve just learnt a bit more about things.
My younger brother is getting married this year. He told me in Jan. that he proposed on New Years( I think Kel did that as well… but of course years ago). He then went on to say that he was thinking of either New Orleans, New York City or Ireland for the wedding. I told him that I was for A) or C) as A) I had not EVER been to New Orleans and would like to financially help them and C) I wanted to go to Amsterdam this year so I could use his wedding as a jumping off point to Amsterdam.

He’s decided on a small civil ceremony in NYC, followed by another civil ceremony in Ireland. This is to happen in late June (June 28th for Rehearsal dinner and the 29th for the wedding). So I guess I’ll be in Amsterdam on Aug. 1.

Yippie.

Oh and I’m not going for the legal smokes… but for the culture and the legal adult stuff.
;-)

Food

Several thought about food; sort of a collection of bloggets if you will.

Even though I’ve lost a lot of weight (down 34 lbs.), I still consider myself a foodie. I love food. I enjoy eating, and oft times I think of when and what I’m eating next.
For breakfast I always have my cliff bars, I’ve tried a couple of other flavors- but the mint chocolate is the keeper because it has the caffeine kick that the other cliff bars lack. I always have my Weight Watchers for dinner- though I alternate between 4 or 5 of them (and once in a while lean cuisine’s ravioli), however I still let myself ‘go’ for lunch. Which is to say, I have a ‘sensible’ lunch but eat whatever I want or can get. However because of my job, I eat mostly at the food court because it’s cheaper and easier then going to the local mall- I only have about 3 out of 7 possible lunches where I can get ‘anything’… added to that I have to be at the game store at Noon on Sunday and my options get a bit worse. Usually for the Sunday meal I eat Panda Express as its pretty good, cheap Chinese

I recently have pined for several foods from one place for weeks as I just couldn’t get there or wasn’t in the ACTUAL mood on a day I could get there. Oddly both were from the same pizza place and neither lived up to the hype. The two that didn’t hit the spot, and I wasn’t sure if that I had built them up soo much in my mind, or just that the pizza place has gone to pot is a bbq chicken fingers and a small onion pizza.
However another place, where I buy the pizza by the slice (New York ‘style’ large slices) was just as good as I remember when I went there Saturday. The guy behind the counter mentioned that he hadn’t seen me for awhile… I explained I was on a diet, that pizza wasn’t on it- but I still HAD to have my pizza slices.
Another place that’s still good, but I rarely get from as it’s a bit pricy (for me at least… I mean compare $20 for take out to the $5 for a local Chinese food place that has spring roll, main course and rice) is a place that makes southwestern egg rolls and jalapeno poppers. The poppers are great because they’re with cream cheese (instead of cheddar) and they send them to me with Russian dressing, which just makes them even tastier.

It was also interesting that at work- I found a bag of bite sized candies. I loaded up my pocket and told other minions about it. I did NOT ask whose it was, I just took some. One of my female co-workers mentioned that I had a REALLY happy face as I ate a mini milky way. I pointed out that I’ve been on a diet and this is the first time I’ve had chocolate in AGES. She countered that she didn’t think I needed to lose weight, and I pointed out that this is AFTER losing a good amount of weight (not mentioning that she’s a little chucky herself ;-) )
I will admit however that I have been grazing on cashews. My sister served on Christmas these wonderful thia lime flavored cashews… and when I found them at Trader Joe’s I had to have them but I’ve been careful, only eating a handful or so at a time… so the bag has lasted me over two weeks and I’ve still managed to lose weight.
Heck one of the reasons I felt I ‘deserved’ the cashews is I’m about 10 lbs. from what I consider my ‘ultimate’ goal and I sort of wonder what I do when I hit my ideal weight.

Which leads to the last part of this post…. Yesterday I was getting my Weight Watchers and I decided to look at the Hungry Man meals. I figured that just maybe I could think of upping my intake a bit.
However I was shocked at the caloric difference between them. I looked at the chicken strips with cheese fries- it’s part of their 1 lb. of food meals, and I noticed that the amount of calories from FAT on the Hungry Man meal was more then the amount of total calories of a Weight Watchers meal I was buying.
Wow. Needless to say I put the Hungry Man meal down.
And there are times that I miss my Wendy’s, however I remind myself that I’m not eating there due to my diet but because of Fast Food Nation and my craving for it goes away.

I can't see this blog...

Ok.. for some unknown reason I can't see mine or evan's blog BUT I was able to log on and I'm checking to see if this will work.

Evan- please email me at my yahoo address if this works.

For the rest of you- I got cable modem today and I was able to hook it up with little problem save for the inability to see blogspot and one or two other sites. I'm using IE--- and having a cable modem I downloaded Netscape(my previous browser of choice). Said download too only a bit longer then it does to type about how long it took
;-)

If anyone knows why I couldn't see blogspot... please post here so Evan can tell me... Error message in Netscape is connection was refused...
Explorer can't find the server for http://devanpeterson.blogspot.com/

[postscript: never mind... as A&A posted to this... it was a blogger problem and not my isp. Keeping this up to thank Aimee and Angie for help.]

Intolerance.

I mentioned on Evan’s blog that I wanted to blog about something that happened to me on X-mas. The truth of the matter is- I have a good size back log of blogs due to the whole computer crashing. While the computer was down, I mainly just gave y’all updates on the computer and the ‘kvetch of the moment’ so I’ve been storing this post for a month or two.

After having Christmas with my father, my brother and I went to my step sister’s house. My father is a good host to friends but not so great to family. Even though he has his own house and three sons (and a desire for grand kids), he has no ‘crash space’. There are no guest beds or sofa bed… So me and my bro went to my step sister’s house who had several beds for me, my brother, her brother( my step brother), and her mother and step father( her father is my step father…)
While having dinner with her- I forgot how it came up but I called the pope “The Nazi pope”. I did that because I think that’s a descriptive name for him, sort of like calling Jon Paul II, the polish pope. I also will admit that I call him the Nazi pope- because I have been told how ‘infallible’ the pope is( as an agent of god) and I have problems accepting an ex-Nazi as infallible.
My older brother called me stupid and got angry… while my step sister pointed out that her step father was catholic and that I should watch myself around him. My step sister AND her mom didn’t argue with me, they just wanted me to be civil around the catholic… I could accept that rule. I did NOT however like my brother calling me stupid. He also had a problem because when I eat at a table I often look forward and NOT at the speaker. It’s a bad habit I have, but there it is- I often don’t look people in the eyes when I talk to them.
So anyway my brother gets mad. He later “apologizes” by saying that he would expect a comment like that from our mom but expects better from me. This made me wonder WHY he expects better from me??? I mean I know my mom is a bit of a bigot, and I don’t consider myself one but that the same time, the older I get the more I end up disliking things and getting ‘set in my ways’.
I then earn negative points with my brother and perhaps the others there… when I say that I’ve been working on a catholic friend of mine to NOT go to church. My older brother again gets angry at me and accuses me of being intolerant. I basically defend myself by pointing out that living in Boston I’ve been reading- and seeing all about the priest pedophile scandal from the church THINKING about declaring bankruptcy so they don’t have pay, to the accusing the victims (as oft happens in rape cases), to the church accusing GAYS of being the problem (because you know all evil pedophiles are gay. Just ask all the girls that were molested by priests.)- So I’m tired of the Catholic Church.
This made me think that a) I made a bad impression on my step sister’s mom( this is only like the 5th time I’ve seen her…) and b) I found it interesting that my older brother is calling me intolerant.

I think I’m pretty opened minded… I think him and my father while they speak of being open minded have a more defined sense of what they consider RIGHT and WRONG. This is my opinion however- I just know I rarely have told someone they were wrong, unless it was a factual matter which I knew the answer… Whereas my older brother often takes the view that someone who disagrees with him is a) stupid b) wrong or c) both. Heck, being one who has a long memory of ‘people who done him wrong’- I still remember that on a college vacation I was going to see a movie with Alex (my step brother), my brother decided to ‘join’ us and then decided that HE wanted to see another movie… A movie I didn’t want to see. When I told him this, he told me that a) many reviewers liked the movie and b) his gf at the time liked the movie c) millions liked the movie. I responded that a) the reviewers might not have my tastes in movie b) ditto his gf and c) I wasn’t like millions of people- who also at one point believed the earth was flat( that’s bringing up the logic argument that 5 million people CAN be wrong). He countered my argument by physically threatening me. Now I recently reminded my mom of this disagreement with my brother to point out that I don’t trust him to allow me to have my own opinion( he wanted to “help” me clean up my apartment and I told her I didn’t trust him to let me decide how to do things), she countered that the movie incident was YEARS ago… but let it drop, my feeling is that yes it was over a decade ago- BUT he was an adult at the time and it helps shows what sort of adult he is.

So I thought about my brother calling me intolerant. I did this because while I first thought this was simple name calling- I am self aware enough to every so often check my views and see if they’re still valid. And I came to the conclusion that I am indeed intolerant of the Catholic Church in specific and Christians in general. However in my defense, I feel that the church and Catholics have earned my distrust and dislike of them… So it’s a thoughtful intolerance. I have also admitted to not taking a shine to organized Judaism at times--- so while I think there is more from Christians to dislike, I have said here before( and prolly will say again) I have a problem with organized religion in general.
And thus I will live with my brother calling me intolerant, I will continue to try to make sure my friend doesn’t give money to the Catholic church and I will try to behave myself around my step sister, her mother( and step father) and my nephew. And I will continue to not really give a crap what my older brother say- though it might take me a bit of time after some conversations to realize how much crap he is full of this time.

Oh… and almost forgot- as Evan implied- christens have been pretty intolerant of me and mine. Whether it’s the ass’t manager at Brookstones who told me that that Jews would be the chosen ones AGAIN- once they’ve accepted Jesus… to the Ass’t manager at Staples who asked me why Jews don’t accept Jesus as Christ to Bill O’Rielly who’s offended when you wish him a “Happy Holidays” but doesn’t think an Orthodox Jew should be offended by a “Merry X-mas”, to the fact that many of the laws in Ma. and the U.S. are about making people live in a ‘good Christian manner’ even if they’re not Christians and have no desire to be one in the future.

(note: word didn’t accept blog as a word but does accept y’all and kvetch)

Read a book?

I’ve been slogging through a fantasy book for the past week or two. This is the 4th(?) book in the series and there is NO end in sight. NONE. Heck the author doesn’t know when he’s going to finish.
So about 2 days ago, I decided this is the last book in the series. Yes, he’s a good writer and I like his writing style but I want a f***ing resolution already. I want there to be an end. He doesn’t have to wrap up EVERY thread- though I’d appreciate that…. Just the main storyline and say- there that’s it.

Then as I was on the train tonight I thought- well if I don’t plan to read the whole series- why should I bother finishing the book?

And I’m thinking of setting the book aside and giving it back to the library. I usually finish what I start unless the movie is just sooo bad… and the book isn’t bad but I feel I shouldn’t waste my time investing in these characters as I prolly am just gonna ask Adj. how it all ended in 10 years--- if it ends.
( yeah adj. I’m talking about Feast of Crows)

So odds are I’ll return it Monday, esp. as I just logged on and found the library has another book on hold for me.

Office Politics

God, how I hate office politics. I really wish that people were simple, no backdoor dealings, no hidden agendas.

I have a manager that I like and three ass’t managers that I don’t. As I have a habit of giving people nicknames… Not to protect their identity or anything but because it’s easier for storytelling; like calling my Staples supervisor the cow instead of Joanne. I haven’t really settled on the 3 ass’t managers but so far we have- the ditz, the anal retentive and the fat one. I hate to call the last one simply fat… but I have to differentiate her from the anal retentive one. It seems that after manager A. left, they made the fat one manager for the store for awhile. This didn’t work out so they got another manager… the one I like, and who hired me.
The problem is that the fat one still works there… and seems to be pissed. She still wants to do things HER way, even though she’s not manager. I know of at least one time that she went around the manager to ‘get things done’.
This week during remodeling, as things are getting harder- the manager felt he had to come in every day this week; for fear that she’d do something that he didn’t like.

How this is affecting me NOW. I wanted to leave work early tonight because I’m a bit tired… and I have to meet my trainer tonight. I wanted to eat BEFORE I met with the trainer as otherwise I’d have to eat at about 8:30/9pm. I finished at the Main Store about 5:15, and talked to the manager, who I like. I told him I was tired and would be able to work at the New store for about 15 min. and then I’d like to go early. He said fine, and in fact gave me permission to leave at 5:15. While I was getting ready to clock out, a co worker suggested I ‘get ready’ before clocking out to milk my time. I told her I saw her point- as I was leaving 45 min. early… Which the fat manager heard…. She basically told me to go upstairs and see if someone needed help. I didn’t tell her that I had been given permission to leave… as I had decided I wanted another 15 min or so of money. So I went upstairs and told the Anal Retentive that I’d help her for 15 min. That Mike( the good manager) had given me permission to leave early but I didn’t want to leave TOO early. I helped her for about 15 min and then left. I got my coat and got ready- to drag down the clock as suggested by co-worker… However the fat ass’t manager was there and when she saw I was leaving asked me if there wasn’t any MORE work for me upstairs. I told her this time that the manager had said that I could leave early. I know she wasn’t happy with letting me leave early, as she felt there was sooo much work. But I don’t care what she thinks. I also get mad at her because one day this week I asked her to move so I could clock in… She mentioned that I still had another 3 min before I was scheduled. I wasn’t happy about that as I was there to WORK. I was there to work, and I don’t want to just hang around waiting.
So again- good manager let me leave early. Bad ass’t manager won’t let me leave early OR let me come in early.
I really wish they transfer her. Esp. as the manager just let me know that he’s being woo’d by Brookstones to come back to work for them.

Calling In...

Every so often I think of calling in sick to work, usually because like everyone else I'm just tired of the crap at work or just filled with inertia. This past Monday, I told one of my cooler co-workers that I almost called in. I was tired on Monday and just didn’t feel like working. I, however, went in because I knew that this week they were re-molding the store and a lack of man power would really affect things.
See in retail if you’re a man down, usually that affects everyone else because management schedules the minimum amount of people to save money- so if you’re sick, everyone else is picking up the slack. I remember at the tail end of my first retail job getting crap because I just started burning through my sick days as I was tired of the job and not being appreciated there.
I didn’t call in sick to Staples all that often though because even though I hated Staples, I have this ‘work ethic’. People often called in sick at Staples and often times I was the one picking up the slack (as god knows the cow wouldn’t do it). So because I didn’t want to pick up the slack for others… I didn’t want to force others to pick up the slack for me. Also, I would sometimes look at the schedule and make sure that I didn’t call in on a manager I liked. I’m quisi loyal and nice to nice people- so I don’t want to create headaches for good managers.
There’s another reason I didn’t call in to Staples or the gift store this week…. I work at both as part time. So if I call in sick, I don’t get money… That was a pretty good incentive at Staples as I needed the money and they’d often mess around with hours to make me hungry for money. Right now I need money for my Heroclix addiction (new DC set due out Feb. 15th) so that was another reason not to call in on Monday.
I did find it amusing though that the cool co-worker suggested that I do call in as I haven’t called in AT ALL since I started at the gift store (which has been about 2 months). So maybe I’ll think about calling in sick in a couple of weeks- after I get the DC heroclix and build up my bank account again… and do it on a day that the manager isn’t in( like him- don’t like two of the three ass’t managers).