The change meter is back!!!!!!!

I haven't talked about the change meter in a while, so I might as well start off with that particular piece of info, where we have added another 30 cents to the ongoing total. I believe that brings us to $15.86 now. The theory that by working in a fast food establishment woul;d help in my chnage seekign efforts have paid off, as most of that addition to the total came straight from the floor at work.

I have completed my first full week at Subway, it seems like it will be easy enough, I just have to get a better grasp on what all needs done when it comes to closing the store. Uusally I close with one other person, but that person is mostly in the back getting the dishes caught up and doing the cleaning that needs done in the back of the shop, leaving the front to me, and given after this week I have done it twice, I think it is just a matter of getting a timing schedule down for myself and I will be fine. I was supposed to have someone close the front of the store with me on Friday, but he called in sick, and as is the case in fast food places, amples replacements usually aren't to bew had, especially on a Friday night in a college section of town. The allure of alcohol to the yopungsters is too much and so the chance they will want to work past midnight on a Friday is pretty much nonexistent. I did get my first check however. Funny thing is, we get paid every other Wednesday, and my first day was teh Saturday of teh second week of a pay period. Since I am trapped in the radio studio on Sundays, that meant my first paycheck consisted of all of 6 hrs. Go me, woohoo. I did pick up an extra shift this past week, so my check shouldn't be too bad coming up, it will close in on the 40 hr plateau, which fits my radio schedule just fine.

As for radio, it is still disenchanting these days, I am just doing my best to put on ye olde happy face. I didn't even bother suggesting I sit in for one of Lynn's days off this week. She is taking time off for vacation, and I wanted nothing whatsoever to do with it. I even told management as much. It is too much of a pain with little return for the investment of effor, let alone to be questioned about it after the fact again. Instead I put in for vacation time later in July, I am taking 4 days off, and I know that they are going to want me to find a replacement for my days off, but the fact of the matter is, nobody else is required to find their own replacement, and I am not going to kill myself to find one for me. I put a note in the booth for the days I will be off, beyond that I just don't care. Even this evening, while I would normally be sitting at home after getting my studio work done, I am stuck here running another stupid Nascar race, one which we didn't sell a single spot for. Management will be happy to know that I am billing them for wasting my time this evening, I have filled out a time sheet for the time I am sitting here. Normally I don't have to do time sheets, being salaried and all, I just have to show up and do my job, but if they are going to pull extra time from my schedule for stupid crap like this,. then they are going to pay me extra money. I could just as easily worked my part time job and made money, if that opprtunity is off the table, then I will take money from here.

It's bitterness kids, enjoy it, I do.

I did get a couple of birthday cards last week, from my grandmother and my aunt, and my mom called to say she had one for me but they want to come visit rather than just mail it. That's cool with me, we usually end up going out to dinner and I really need to spend some time with my family, I don't see them nearly enough. That is one of the reasons I am taking time off in July, a family picnicat my aunt and uncles house. Knowing my luck it will rain, which is why I am taking extra time off, it case the day is a wash out, I will still have time to go visiting and just get away from everything Pittsburgh for a few days. You don't know how refreshing it is to spends days not reading the paper, or if I am reading the paper, it is ober breakfast with coffee and eggs or a bagel and just pacing my entry into the day, rather than being out the door and at work by 5am. In those instances, coffee and cigarettes are a diet to wake me up, there is no enjoyment in taking coffee that early in the morning.

My fantasy baseball team continues to languish near the bottom of the league, I am 9th out of 11 teams, though I do lead two categories, strikeouts and stolen bases, so I may recoup some of my 55 dollar entry fee. There are 10 categories and the leader in each gets $10, so I could get $20 back if all hold at the current pace, though we haven't even reached the midpoint of the season yet, so there is still plenty of time for things to go haywire, though I can't fall much further, a slight bonus to being near the bottom, there is only one way to go, up.

My Joe Random character is continuing to do well. I did simualte the games he was on the DL, and I brought him back and managed to gte the average somwhere around .430 or so, and upped the HR total to 4 in just 19 games played, with 13 runs scored and 10 RBIs. I went ahead and requested a call up, just to see what would happen and it let me go back to the major league team. I have just one start since being called up, I am not good enough to start everyday though I can spell people when they need a day off. In my only game I went 1 for 5 with a double and run scored. Not a great effort, but hey, I won the game and it was against Tom Glavine and the Mets, so I can't complain too much, after all Tampa bay does suck, so if I get a chance to lead the team to a few victories against superior competition, all the better.

No one asked me about it, but I did change the background on the page for a reason. I needed a new Pittsburgh pic since I had tired of the fireworks photo over the Point, so I figured what better photo than one of the most famous Pittsburgh photos ever. For those unfamiliar with the picture, which I imagine is most of you, since it was taken in 1960, the picture appeared in Life Magazine in the fall of 1960 and it is taken from the top of the Cathedral of Learning, shot from behind some onlookers down into Forbes Field, where the Pirates used to play. What made the photo so memorable was that it was taken as Bill Mazeroski hit his walkoff homerun in the bottom of the ninth inning of game 7 of the World Series to beat the New York Yankees 4 games to 3. Forbes Field has long since been taken down, and I don't even think you can get out on the ledges of the Cathedral of Learning anymore, and least not without sneaking, and the photo wasn't taken by a sports photographer if memory serves me correctly. Just someone who happened to be in the right place at the right time back in the day where everybody wasn't walking around with a cell phone camera. Ah, the good old days.

An Asshat update from last week, the two moms are facing 5 counts of involuntary manslaughter, 2 counts of reckless endangerment, 3 to 4 counts of child endangerment and filing false reports for lying about the presence of a babysitter that evening. I really am trying to temper my rage regarding the matter, which is quite hard to do. Ther are times where passion overtakes reason, and it while it is easy to say that they should just be locked up and throw away the key, I think that might be a bit much in this instance. I am not saying the mothers shouldn't be punished, only that the punishment should fit the crime. In that regard I think the DA Stephen Zappalla is probably right in saying the crime is involuntary manslaughter, the tragedy certainly fits the description where negligent behavior results in someone's death. I don't think anyone would say that going to the bar and leavine 7 kids home alone constitutes a behavior that is even remotely responsible.

I should set up for tomorrow morning while I am here, it will be less to do when I get in in the morning, considering I still have to do laundry when I get home. I am such the procrastinator that I am just letting life woverwhelm me. Maybe the motivation of going on vacation will be the kick in the ass I need, I hope so, not much else has worked to this point.

I still haven't had my meeting at the station about how much I make, though I am starting to think they assumed that by saying we would sit down and talk about it, it would be the same as actually sitting down and talking about it. They are sadly mistaken. The advantage of being with only one job for the last month or so was I was able to update the resume and get some newer refernces added to it and as a result, I am able to send out applications at my leisure to stations all across the country. One of the cool things about my part time job, besides the fact that I get free food, is that they are willing to work around my schjedule, almost too willing. Makes me think they are desparate for help, though if they keep hiring help as cute as the last girl they hired on Saturday, then I am all for desparation. Not that I would ask her out mind you, she is much too young andf i have learned you never date people you work with, the Animal Planet Rule of dating is in effect there "Don't Shit Where You Eat".

I finished reading "Infamous Scribblers", which was an okay book, I really didn't learn much. I'll admit it was interesting to get to know some of the players in early journalism in the colonies and eventually, the states, but I knew enough about the era that journalism was at best a lossely defined term and those that think today's journalism is skewed really need to go back and check their history. I'll admit that I have problems with the media today, but these terms of liberal or conservative bias are pale comparisons to how slanted journalism was when our nation was first founded. That being said, if I have finished readingf a book, that means I am reading another and I am, as I have started into "Warlord: No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy" by Ilario Pantano. So far it is a good read, but I have barely scratched the surface of it. I will get into more details about it in a later blog, but for now I will just leave it to you, the investigative blog reader that you are, to do your own homework on this one.

Well, I think I have said enough for one day, you can talk for a while if you wish, or you can't just discount this to the idle ramblings of someone who is incredibly bored at work listening to a bunch of fools drive around in circles on the radio.