5.25.2008

remembering the bricks

It's a bit irritating how I keep forgetting my password to this thing. Sigh.

Anyway, I'm feeling a bit nostalgic. I don't know how exactly, but I found myself at Purchase's page at Wikipedia. Reading about things I knew first hand, and some things I had forgotten or never knew. It all brought back memories that now feel like I had been in a foreign film.

I tell people all the time that it was a great year and I learned a lot. Most of it taking place outside of class. In fact, I remember very little about any of the classes I took other than my poetry class, and two classes that were best thought of as history classes. It wasn't so much the subject I was interested in, moreso the teachers. Very animated. And also a bit pretentious... but in a good way... like they had the right to be. And I didn't really care, I was engaged in what they had to say... most of the time.

But really, what I remember and love most, are the people and relationships with those people I had. And pretty much every experience I had there. It's all bittersweet because I loved it there but I know I could never go back to having things the way they were. Sure I could go back there, but it won't be the same. I could always create new memories, but it won't be the same. Sort've like a so-so sequel. I think if I were to have a sequel to follow up Purcahse, it would have to be another school entirely. And to think, that was about 4 years ago.

Indeed, it is time for me to return to a campus and learn more about the arts, people, and especially myself. I can only learn so much by watching movies back-to-back. I need the hands on experience.

So I may not make it to Virginia Beach this summer, and it doesn't look like I'll be in anymore plays this year, I should focus my energies in getting back into Middlesex. I really want something much more than a degree. I'm guessing and supposing I won't get what I really want without one. But I really don't know what life will bring me. I need to expect to surprised. I think that's how that last line of Dan In Real Life went.

My room is a mess...

5.22.2008

high school potty emergencies

As I'm thinking about writing this, I think this would be my 3rd or 4th post regarding the bathroom. Not that i spend a lot of time there, although it's not uncommon for me to make at least 2 visits there, and that's usually just to get out of the office or make sure my tongue isn't bleeding (I ate a dangerous lollipop one day, and no not the Maxxxed Energy Pop that's still in it's can on my desk... I think it will remain in it's can, just like how I won't open the bottle of wine from the great wine heist back at Purchase).

My complaint is that today, the bathroom seemed to be littered with paper trash everywhere! I don't care, it's not my place, but still... c'mon. Aren't we all adults working here? It looked like someone was playing basketball with the trash actually.

What's the difference between a high school bathroom and an office building bathroom? I know, sounds like a setup to a corny joke. But the answer is "newspapers." Practically 8 times out of 10... or um... 4 times out of 5, there is a newspaper on the floors in one of the stalls. Usually the sports page or stock exchange. Nothing good. If I'm ever stuck in the stall in question, I might glimpse at it. I like having reading material while I do what I do. But that's only when I'm doing that. In a sense, that's sort've why I like writing these blogs. It's reading material. It'll be a new thing one day. "The Pooper's Blog." Things to read why you poop. I know they already publish books for such things with tiny stories or random facts that take so much time to read, by the time you're done, you're done. Well, some people anyway.

Anyway, I just find it complexing to see these corporate bathrooms looking like bathrooms at my high school. Or younger. I'm not complaining, just observing. If I cared, I probably would've thrown all that trash away. But I don't get paid for that. Plus there's a dude that always seems to come by and "clean" the bathrooms... like a couple times a day... If it's day I make frequent stops and I see him leaving, I go in and it looks like he's the one who trashed the place.

As long as there is soap, I'm happy.

5.20.2008

customer diservice

Training began for me yesterday, to start work on different kinds of files. I actually started last, but this makes it official with the official training all day long in the training room with the trainers and the training lessons. Most of it was all well and good, but by the end of the day, as I told people that asked "my braid was fizzy." All that information to soak in started to wear me out. INFORMATION OVERLOAD! SHE CAN'T TAKE ANYMORE POWER CAPTAIN!!

Needless to say, I survived. As long as I know how to love, I know I'll stay alive. Haha... I jest. But I do know I'll be okay. I learned the job I know now the same way and made it through on top, within a few months. So I expect myself to do nothing but the same if not better. I will not lose! I keep quoting everyone and everything that comes to mind.

With all the training I was doing, I didn't have much time to be at my desk and making calls, which is something I now will need to do a lot more apparently.

I did, however, make a series of calls to the same place after work to the cable company that also supplies my internet. Unfortunately, their systems had crashed and were down the first time I called, and second time, and the third time. They eventually told me to call tomorrow or GO ONLINE to make a payment. I plainly explained that's the reason I was calling because I couldn't go online. But there was nothing else he, or any of the other 4 people I talked to could do to help me. I actually wouldn't have minded talking to one of those automated voice things, ya know, the friendly robot person who is always happy and wants to be your friend but messes up a word here and there? Well I guess she was broken too. The billing department, which I needed, closed at 9... The last person I talked to said to just call tomorrow because it was 8:30 and they didn't see any solutions happening in the next 30 minutes.

Upset, frustrated, and on the brink of depression I decided to go venture out for food. First I stopped by Hollywood Video, which actually has better customer service lately. The employees were rather surprised to see me back so soon, or so frequently. I took my time, also trying to figure out what I'd feast on after I'd left. I picked up Paris, I Love You (official title was in French), and Casino Royale (the spoof one).

I then decided McDonald's because I didn't feel like going very far, and this was right down the street and practically around the corner from home. I went through the disgustingly long-wait of a drive thru. I order 10 piece chicken selects only to be rewarded with a 10 piece chicken nuggets. I rarely ever eat McDonald's because of what it does to my insides... but I the nuggests don't work for me. And I should've known something was up when I was riding home, and by the weight of the bag. Too lgiht, and it smelled terrible. Not the chicken select smell. Honestly... it was like greasy fish. Sadly, I didn't look in the bag until after I got home, in my room, and kicked off my shoes. At first, I wasn't going to go back. But I spent $9 on this. For something so... gross.

Ten minutes later I'm back at McDonald's but I go inside... The manager and some other employee are vocally going at it almost at the top of their lungs, in front of everyone (which is really just me, a small girl and her father). Clearly, they are upset with each other. I don't care, I just want my food. Someone else comes over to help me, and the dust settles as everyone (there was only 4 people working) goes back to work. I know the selects take a while to cook, but I be kind and patient and throw on pretend smiles to try to make their jobs and lives a tiny bit better. Doesn't help much. I'm just ready to go. And the place is a mess. Mushed fried and crumpled bags are all over the kitchen area. Some serious battles must've went on, indubitably. I just know it doesn't look professional at all. The fight does resume when the two go in the back. At least you can't see them, but you certainly could hear them. I can't say I know the details, nor am I sure I want to know. Mostly because the dialogue was in spanish. I didn't think of it at the time, but when I first came through, the manager was already unhappy. I thoguht she forgot about me as I sat by the window. I'm really too nice of a guy, I know.

My fizzied brain had one poopied day indoob and I needed to release some of the tension. I texted one of my friends for a little while as I ate my selects and watched Casino Royale and slowly prepared for sleep. My abs were fizzied too from the night before doing 3 set of 19 sit ups on my bed. They weren't real sit ups, but they must've done something because I felt it anytime I sat up last night. And in my legs too. That means I need to do it again tonight. No pain, no gain, right?

My brain and abs are going to be so sore by the weekend.

5.16.2008

i am the IHOP king

yum

5.13.2008

early birds get to stair master

I finally managed to get to work today before 6:30... 'Twas a struggle indoob. I seriously considered wrapping back up in my nice warm covers that were so soft and fluffy and warm and happy.

I managed to get out of the house before 6, which meant I'd probably be getting to my desk around 6:15ish... Traffic willing. But normally, the earlier I leave, the less traffic I have to deal with. Sometimes it's the opposite when I go home... the later I leave, the less traffic. Actually, back in my 8 hour shift days, traffic is fine before 4-4:30... I've been taking the back roads lately.

All of that has nothing to do with these two women I heard this morning while I was going up to my floor. I heard a couple shouts that echoed through the halls, but since it was so early, there was no one to be seen, except for the man behind me. And he seemed to be a manly man indeed, so I knew it wasn't coming from him. Once I got up to the 3rd floor, I looked over the railing to the floors below and saw a woman who apparently just ran up the down escalators. Then she hollered again, confirming my instant accusation of the earlier yell. She went on to talk to her friend telling her she enver thought she'd make it up. This is when I took my double take and noticed she's looking down the down escalators talking to someone else who apparently is also on their way up.

This is not the mall. Nor do they look like 10 year olds.

I'm going to make believe that they were exercising, since that escalator takes you to the gym in the basement, and a lot of people go down to the basement to walk or jog laps in a loop outside the gym, espeically in the winter.

I need to get active. I'm getting a desk belly.

girls in the winter

Ryder, a good friend and Purchase classmate of mine, once shared an amusing yet seemingly true relevation to me about girls in the winter time on campus. He said that they pretty much all of a sudden "hibernate" for the winter, staying indoors, in their dorm rooms, or just invisible altogether. Because we, specifically Ryder and myself, found this to be true and a little discouraging since we were both single and semi-lonely. However, how he knew this before it happened was beyond me. His plan was to cozy up with a girl before the cold hit, so when the girls moved indoors for the winter, they'd cozy up with him, since they were scarce in the barren wasteland of the bricked campus in the middle of New Yorkian forrests that was Purchase.
We found the theory to be correct, and to some degree we used it to our advantage having know a few female friends to cuddle up with to "stay warm" in our central heated dorms. I had the semi-enjoyable experience having two attractive female friends sleep in my bed one night. A twin bed was not emant for 3 people. I wasn't comfortable. I did not sleep. THEY slept. I did not. I wanted to sleep. But I needed to moved a leg or two. But I could not because someone's body weight kept me from doing so. So I slept after they woke up and went to their room in the morning. I was so tired. Sure I felt like "the man," but it cost me physical pain, sleep, and even some boredom.
Anyway, the theory of the hibernating girls seemed to in fact be true. Yet we saw a few females wandering about in the snow, msot of them weren't to be seen. We wondered how they got to and from class when we never saw them outside. Purchase does have tunnels, but the dorms didn't connect to the campus. And the campus tunnels were off limits to students unless you had authorization and access like I did. Even still, no girls were there. This goes into my own theory of "girl wonders" I'll get into another time. It's not like we didn't know where these girls were. Well, the girls we actually knew, we knew where THEY were. But the one's we didn't know, we couldn't find them. I must admit, I wasn't really looking for them. But in case I was, I didn't know where to look. Our only chances were seeing them at the food courts, other people's rooms, classes, hallways or the parties we rarely attended.
But alas, as the springtime came, the girls reappeared. From wandering the campus grounds, to just hanging out and talking outside. Nature... what a thing.
Turns out that happens at the work force. When I started here in September, there were some pretty faces here and there, seemingly around my age. But being a new kid on the block, I'm not the type to introduce myself to strangers until I get a feel for the place first. It's my thing. Anyway, the winter months came and anytime I'm outside, no one is outside. Not that I blame girls or people in general... I was barely outside. It was cold! What makes it relevant to the above story is a lot of the pretty faces that are rumored to be about this building, didn't start appearing until recently. This is besides the ones I already know, like the ones working in my department. But this is a pretty big place with a lot of people. And I saw very little of them. Okay, okay... a majority of the time I'm at my desk. But STILL! When out and about, there weren't many people around, much less the pretty faces.
So here it is now the middle of May, and they are all over the place! Well, not like swarms... but more than enough to know there's a strong female presence at this work force. And I don't mean just walking in the hallways or the cafeteria... they're all around outside too. And I can't just limit to attractive females, but its everyone. I'm seeing a lot more people that I've never seen before. And it's everyday. A new variety and change everyday. And you know what? I still don't talk to anyone. Go fig.

5.12.2008

growl!

Wow, I just went through a whole lotta bunch of frustration just now getting my password reset because I think I erased the cookies that held the password to this blog.

Sigh.

Anyway, not only that but I accidentally sent an emailed blog to the wrong account. No doubt it didn't make it to the destination. Know how I know? It's not posted. Oh well, it wasn't time sensitive. I'll repost it tomorrow when I get back to work.

I'm so frustrated about it I forgot what I was going to write about it. Sigh.

5.08.2008

'the office' 2008 calender: may'

"Yeah, I'm not a temp anymore. Which means at my ten-year high-school reunion, it will not say, 'Ryan Howard is a temp.' It will say. 'Ryan Howard is a junior sales associate at a midrange paper supply firm.' That'll show 'em."

5.06.2008

i dislike tuesdays

I wrote a poem a few years ago, I think it's corny by the standards I write now, but it was called "Monday" or "Mondays"... I can't remember. But the point of the poem was how much I dislike Mondays and it had a basic rhyming scheme. Well, it was also one of the first poems I started incorporating punch lines, or just a significant ending line to really close out the poem. And the ending (punch)line, rephrased, is that for whatever reason, if I bypassed the trials of whatever usually takes place on Monday, I still have trouble because there's always Tuesday.

Took me a while to make the point, I apologize... But the latest not so great news is once again concerning Sam the car, when a supposedly off-duty cop on a motorcycle pulled up next to me around the corner from my house and told me that my brake lights aren't working, save for the one in the middle. I saw he was off duty because he had the uniform, but his bike seemed, ya know, not police standard. No lights or symbols. Anyway, I was waiting for a ticket or something, but no... Just a precaution and "You should get that check out." Dread sets in.

Earlier today, at work and not working, I looked into whole sale Nissan parts. I now understand why it'll cost $1600 to get my car fixed. The fuel injector is $120. And I need four of them. The head gasket, if I'm reading it correctly, and I'd like to think that I am, is only about $20. And from what I saw, it didn't look anything like what I thought a gasket was. To be honest, I don't think I've ever seen a gasket before. So if I saw it laying in front of me right now... nothing. Sort've like the drive shaft that fell off of the pick-up truck I was driving years ago. I had no idea what it was. Just a long pole looking thing that shouldn't be detached from where it was.

My other woes were just frustrated people on the phone making me a little frustrated. There's no point in explaining what was wrong, let's just say I worked in the shoe department, and she needed the clothes department. However, (and I don't really care) I may some how been able to help had I known more about serious fashion styles and the inner workings of things... but all I need to know and worry about is shoes.

Meanwhile, my co-workers had little issues here and there, but I only help when I'm asked. I feel like i'm butting in, unless of course they are openly talking about the issue at hand. But something a little irritating is when someone asks me a question, then I answer, then they ask someone else as if my answer wasn't good enough. If you don't want my help, don't ask! Sigh. Let me calm down. I need to make some phone calls and get my parents a little getaway that I know I'll be needing soon.

By the way, anyone have like $1000 to just GIVE me? It's not for my car. It's for everything else that has an extended hand waiting to go fishing around in my pockets.

close of an era... for some

May is about to close out, and for a few of my friends, aquaintences, and classmates of whom I practically never talk to but some how befriended on MySpace and Facebook

5.03.2008

corny bread

To make yet another long story short, my church is doing a chicken dinner which has been planned for the past month and is happening tomorrow... technically today. It's really the men's ministry's baby, but in these 13th hours... however the saying goes... we called upon the help of the women of our church. I remind you, we aren't a big church. Doesn't matter though. Some things had happened and we needed help preparing the food.

My task, besides making flyers and printing up tickets, was to make the cornbread. My mother told me AFTER I made them I should've made them basic, but its too late, plus I told one of my co-workers my "secret ingredient" so she'll be expecting it.

Once again, I'm about to talk about pictures I'm not ready to post. But alas, I will in due time. I know I still need to show off the "junlge" in the dining room. But this was quite a task tonight. I made a total of around 70ish pieces of cornbread. I used 14 boxes, 14 eggs, who knows how much milk, a few cups of sugar, many dashes and dozen of [secrect ingriedient], 7 1/2 sticks of butter, 2 pans, 1 oven, an iPod hooked up to a little but decent speaker system, 2 hours, a few early text messages, a couple burnt fingers and two sore feet. Strangely enough, it didn't take as long as I though, yet, I didn't know how long I would take. Did I lose you? I think with more pans, I may have been done sooner. I never factored in cooling times. I burnt myself a few times being too impatient. But I'm done and they are ready to go. Just need to wrap them in foil so I can bring them to the church.

Now what's a chicken dinner without the chicken? I have to stop by Wal-Mart... for like the 5th time since Thursday to pick up an order of fried chicken. This was not the plan. Like I said, some things happened so this became a plan C. Plan B is still in the works though, but we'd rather be sure than sorry, ya know?

My family, my church, and myself can't wait for this to be over. Especially my parents and I... This has been quite the stressful event. More than it should've been. But hey, we can roll with the punch and remain victorious. It ain't no thang! So we just hope we have enough food for all that pay or come to pay.

I want to plan a little getaway for my parents. They are exhausted. Did I mention ealier this week we had to do a rush move for my grandmother? Within a week, all of her stuff is either in our house or in storage. And my parents are cranky being as tired as they are. Who can blame them. They do more work than our government. Sigh...

Cornbread tomorrow. Yum.

5.02.2008

vroom vroom goes the cars

I brought Sam to the doctor today. The doctor, like many doctors I hear about often do, told me bad news. Fortunately, they kept me up to date throughout the day so they didn't have to lay it on me all at once. They also needed to do that so they knew what to take apart, what to fix, all that stuff.



Anyway, my grand total came to $430. Another fortunate thing is that I didn't have to pay for the major recall that was on my car, so that saved me over $1,000. I can't really be sure because they actually found 2 recalls with my car and fixed both per recall agreement. However, what they did find that unfortunately wasn't recalled and I hoping was, was the issue with my check engine light, which has been on probably half the time I had the car now.


CYL 1 MISFIRE, ENGINE OVER TEMP. BAD FUEL INJECTOR, NOW ON #2 CYLINDER. BAD HEAD GASKET, COOLANT LOW, CO2 TEST FAILED. RECOMMEND HEAD GASKET AND FUEL INJECTOR. EST $1606.00 +TAX. CUST DECLINED REPAIR AT THIS TIME.


I feel great about that. Apparently, this is a serious problem, because the two things wrong could spell certain inevitable doom to poor Sam. One is more serious than the other, and if one goes, the other is sure to follow. Sorta like the Twin Towers or a married couple that's been together forever.



But that will be a repair for another day. For the time being, I have a plan to look into these parts needed, try to find them for cheaper, then goto my pal down the street OR call on my best friend to see if they could save me some money. These are some big IFs though... Because I need to find the parts first. And right now, I don't have a clue of where to start. Well, other than Amazon.com which is where I find a lot of the things I have now that I found savings on. And at this point, shipping & handling is the same as if bought gas and I drove out to the store to get whatever I was looking for.



In other news, I saw a really awesome movie today since I was home and immobile. Normally I save the reviews for MySpace, but this one really got me since I'm developing a road trip themed series of short films. The scary part is the main character, whom is played by James Marsden(aka X-Men's Cyclops), is a college grad on a road trip to search for meaning while also avoiding following his father's footsteps. Fortunately, this movie makes a lot of different turns which made me enjoy the movie a lot. In fact, I may recommend this movie to a lot of people because it's so different and entertaining than a lot of road trip movies I've seen. Well at least I think so. Takes a lot of htose elements of inquisitive college kids, fairy tales, "the road less travelled", romance, comedy... I don't know, it's just great.

And should you get to see this movie and wonder why it might make you think of Back to the Future besides cameos by Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd, the guy who wrote and directed this movie, co-wrote and co-prodced the trilogy. I didn't look into the movie's score, but it also sounds similar. Plus, it's another car movie! C'mon!

Well, 'tis time for me to go a-churchin' once again. Then when I get home, I begin a-bakin'. More on that later. I'm about to be left.