Blogger 365 Day 31 - Karaoke Friday - Voices

Sometimes when I put one of these types of blogs together, I do so not because it is a popular song, or even an annoying one, but simply because I like the the singer's voice.  On a night like tonight, where I am sitting alone in my apartment just thinking not so deep thoughts, that is as good a time as any to just grab a voice such as this one and enjoy it as background music.  I'll post the lyrics, because I always do on Karaoke Friday, but chances are you will not be able to match the singer on this one, so by all eans just sit back and enjoy, or maybe not.  To each their own and all that jazz.....

I sat within the valley green
I sat me with my true love
My sad heart strove the two between
The old love and the new love

The old for her the new
That made me think of Ireland dearly
While the soft wind blew down the glade
And shook the golden barley

T'was hard, the woeful words to frame
To break the ties that bound us
And harder still to bear the shame
Of foreign chains around us

And so I said the mountain glen
I'll meet at morning early
And I'll join the bold united men
While soft winds shook the barley

T'was sad, I kissed away her tears
My fond arm 'round her flinging
When a foe, man's shot burst in our ears
From out the wild woods ringing

A bullet pierced my true love's side
In life's young spring so early
And on my breast, in blood she died
While soft winds shook the barley

But blood for blood without remorse
I've taken at Oulart Hollow
I've lain my true love's clay-like corpse
Where I'll fall soon, must follow

Around her grave I've wandered drear
In night and morning early
With breaking heart when near I hear
The wind that shakes the barley

Penguins @ Kings 01/30/2014

Pittsburgh 4  Los Angeles 1 

Jussi Jokinen - G, 2 A

Tanner Glass scored has scored a goal in two straight games for just the second time in his NHL career

Blogger 365 Day 30 - Hints

     I have always liked to keep my blog an ope book, where people could just stop by, kick the tires and who knows, maybe they would actually like something.  Plus I am pretty much an open book kind of guy, if you want to know something about me, all you really have to do is ask.  There is little over the course of the last 8 or so years that I have kept secret. 

     That being said, there are times where I wish certain people would just take a hint already and get on with their lives, sans any involvement with me.  I say that because of this....

and this

     It would seem that despite the fact that I have had little to nothing to do with Ruth since September she is still content to come by this page.  Why I don't know, and honestly I don't care.  I suppose I could take steps to keep her off of my page, cutting it down to just people on Google or some such nonsense, but then that would be contrary to how I have managed my blog to this point.  I see no need to block whole swaths of people from my blog simply because there is one person that I would just as soon not see here.  And I would like to think I have been more that obvious in stating that fact, I have no desire to surround myself with people who do nothing but lie.  If anything, the one good thing about adapting such an attitude is it has helped me immensely in dealing with my current job.  Just as I don't lose sleep over what Ruth is doing these days, nor do I lose sleep over people whom I have had a hand in firing at work for cause.  I don't have the time, patience or energy to deal with such people.  It just isn't in my DNA.

     Maybe this will finally be the blog or moment when Ruth finally gets a clue, I doubt it but hope springs eternal.  For me, well I am almost one month into this project of mine, I see no need in stopping now.

Blogger 365 Day 29 - Combinations

     I am not going to waste your time tonight.  After hunting down pics two days ago, then sitting around my apartment doing audio editing last night my creative energies are somewhat spent.  On top of that I am at a teetering point where I consumed too much alcohol and also ordered food, so I am trying to keep my eyes open until the delivery guy gets here, though I may end up passing out into a plate of wings before all is said and done.  Given alcohol is one of the few things that acts like a sleeping pill for me, that will be a challenge.  But given how drunk I am, I don't trust myself near any kitchen instruments, so a drunken Grubhub order it is.  Good night.

Sabres @ Penguins 01/25/2014

Pittsburgh 3  Buffalo 0

Tanner Glass - G, A

Marc-Andre Fluery recorded his 27th career shutout and leads the NHL with 29 wins this season

Blogger 365 Day 28 - Three years and two cuts

     I know that I have been goofing a bit recently including yesterday's Grammy post, but it would be wrong of me not to remember that just over 3 years ago (Jan 25, 2011) Doug Hoerth passed away.  I have talked at length about him in previous blog entries, those of you that have been with me for the long haul already know that, so rather than just repeat myself I decided to upload an hour of a show Doug did back in the day, when he interviewed Robert Klein and I was lucky enough to be sitting in the producer's chair (I also booked the interview, but that was an easy get, Klein was already in Pittsburgh for another event).  Rather than me prattle on tonight, I will let Doug do the prattling for me

Blogger 365 Day 27 - The envelope please....

     Some very quick thoughts on last night's festivities.

Blogger 365 Day 26 - Visitors

     I don't have many contacts on here, only a a few people follow this blog and probably even fewer read it on even a semi regular basis.  I don't say that to complain, like I have said many times before I do this first and foremost for myself and anyone who wishes to follow along is more than welcome too.  In that regard though this is about as anti-Facebook as you can get, because over there I have 819 "friends", the term being used very loosely, some are people that are family, some are people I went to school with, some are people that I either have worked or am currently working with and some are indeed friends of mine, but the vast majority of them are people that I have met through one Facebook app or another.  Usually the apps are games and involve sending tickets, tokens or other such nonsense between people and the more people you have using the same app the more likely you will have success in the game.

Penguins @ Stars 01/25/2014

Dallas 3  Pittsburgh 0

Marc-Andre Fleury - 25 SV

Matt Niskanen had his career high 6 game point streak snapped

Blogger 365 Day 25 - Inspector Gadget

     At work we are in the process of installing a new register and camera system.  I say in the process because things are still being tweaked at this point, such as this past week we added credit card swiping software right onto the register terminals to replace the counter top credit card machines we had previously used.  Likewise we replaced the camera system hardware in the basement, replacing the older model with a new version that not only allows us to monitor all 16 cameras we have, but everything has been simplified to the point where much of the newer software is point and click, a far cry from the convoluted process we used to have to go through in order to located older footage.

Blogger 365 Day 24 - Karakoe Friday - Pick me ups

     After what can at best be called a hard week at work, at worst could be called a suckily hard week at work, I wanted to see if I couldn't find something that fit two criteria, 1) was a really bad video and 2) despite being a bad video would still act as a pick me up of sorts.  So I went looking on ye olde Youtube and I did find something.  Previously when I had seen this there though I never saw it under a specific record label channel.  Perhaps I hadn't looked hard enough, or maybe it has been posted since the last time I looked for it, because I know many of the music channels on there are trying to update some of the older videos that are in their catalog.  In any event, it is a cool way to kill two birds with one stone, a Blogger 365 entry and Karaoke Friday to boot.  I guess you could say I am multitasking here.  Sing along if you like, and if you choose to dance as well, let's just say the video sets the bar for how good your dance steps need to be.

You're going to dance,
You're going to dance,
You're going to dance,
And have some fun.

Dig!

The chills that you spill up my back,
Keep me filled with satisfaction when we're done,
Satisfaction of what's to come.

I couldn't ask for another.
No, I couldn't ask for another.

Another try...

Your groove, I do deeply dig,
No walls, only the bridge,
My supperdish, my succotash wish.

Sing it, baby!

I couldn't ask for another. (uh-huh, uh-huh)
No, I couldn't ask for another.

Groove is in the heart,
Groove is in the heart,
Groove is in the heart (astronomical!),
Groove is in the heart (hit me!).

Watch out!

The depth of hula groove,
Move us to the dance hoop,
We're gonna groove to Horton Hears A Who-oo!

I couldn't ask for another.
No, I couldn't ask for another.

DJ Soul was on a roll,
I've been told he can't be sold,
He's not vicious or malicious,
Just de-lovely and delicious.

I couldn't ask for another.

Oh, somethin' lives in this torso here,
Hot, got a deal, you wanna know,
Delightful, truly deee-liteful,
Like makin' it, doin' it,
'specially at a show (show).

Feelin' kinda high like a "Hendrix haze" (haze),
Music makes motion moves like a maze (maze),
All inside of me, heart especially,
Help of the rhythmn, where I wanna be.

C'mon flow and glow with electric eye,
As you dip to the dive baby you'll realize,
Baby you'll see the funky side of me,
Baby you'll see that rhythmn is the key.

Get, get with it, with it,
Can't think, quit it, quit it,
Stomp on a stoop when I hear a funk loop (loop),
Playin' Pied Piper, follow what's true,
Baby just sing about the groove.

Sing it!

Groove is in the heart (na nana na na),
Groove is in the heart (na nana na na),
Groove is in the heart (na nana na na),
Groove is in the heart.

1,2,3, blooooooooo!

Blowin double on those horns.

The groove is in the heart.

Groove is in the heart,
Groove is in the heart,
Groove is in the heart,
Groove is in the heart.

Read more: Metrolyrics Print Groove Is In The Heart

Penguins @ NY Islanders 01/23/2014

Pittsburgh 6  NY Islanders 4

Sidney Crosby, Chris Kunitz - G, 2 A each

Pittsburgh has three of players in the top ten in scoring in the NHL, Crosby with 72 points (1st),  Kunitz with 53 points (T-6th) and Evgeni Malkin with 51 points (T-10th)

Canadiens @ Penguins 01/22/2014

Pittsburgh 5  Montreal 1 

Jussi Jokinen - 2 G

All six of Pittsburgh's defensemen had at least one assist in the game

Blogger 365 Day 23 - Changes and updates

    Just a little aesthetic work today, in case you missed  may have missed out on some things.  First, if you look to the right, you may notice a couple of new books on the shelf over there.  I have finished 2 of the three books I bought off of Amazon earlier this month, which would leave me just one to go.  Of course I still have around $60 in gift cards for Barnes and Noble, and another $40 or so in Amazon gift cards so it isn't like I will be hurting for reading material any time soon, plus Dee just brought me a handful of books in that are still sitting on my desk at work.  In the process of packing up her house so she can sell it next month she has been either packing things up or just giving stuff away and the books belonged to her late husband and since she knows I like to read, she asked me if I wanted them.  I might not have picked them myself if I was at the bookstore, I know there is a David Baldacci in the stack, Malcolm Gladwell's "Tipping Point" and a book on Sigmund Freud.  Yes, I am a nerd.

Blogger 365 Day 22 - Wakey, wakey

     I just woke up from my after work nap, and I am starting to understand why I am tired all of the time after work.  Sure, part of it would be the hours that I am putting in, though the amount of time that involves manual labor isn't nearly as much as it used to be prior to being promoted.  Rather it is the mental exhaustion that goes with the job; the inordinate amount of pressure that comes with the job, some self created and some coming from Ed, and the feeling that on days like today everything is an uphill battle, and rather than being able to make a straight line from point A to point B (this is what we need to do and this is how we get there), things gets side tracked on tasks that have little to no bearing on moving the business ahead, or the path we are taking from A to B ends up being a roundabout course with little guarantee of success.  I am not going to go into specific details about today, not because I am all that worried about what people may or may not read, but because I have little desire to relive today so soon after it happened.  Instead I stopped on the way home, got something to eat, got into my apartment and slipped into my fuzzy pajama pants, ate dinner and then went to sleep.  Right now, that is good enough.

Panthers @ Penguins 01/20/2014

Florida 5  Pittsburgh 1

Matt Niskanen - G

Loss snaps Pittsburgh's 13 game home winning streak

Blogger 365 Day 21 - Birfday Tard

   It would seem the First Lady of the United States turned 50 years old the other day.  This is something that would not be a date on my social calendar, nor would I even know about it, save for the fact I was sent an email by John Carlson, the Executive Director for Organizing for Action.  I have no idea just who or what Organizing for Action is, other than a political fundraising mechanism for the Democratic Party.  I think I got on their mailing list a while back when I signed up for some stupid online contest where you pitted your NCAA tournament bracket against the one submitted by the President f the United States.  I don't even think there were prizes offered, it was just a thing where you could see if on this particular topic (college basketball), you might be smarter than the leader of the free world.  Now I doubt Barack Obama sits down and fills one of these things out, this looks like on eof those tasks he would probably farm out to someone, just as the coaches college polls are very rarely actually submitted by coaches themselves.

Blogger 365 Day 20 - Quiet Reflection

     I am not going to waste everyone's time this evening with some rambling post about doing this or that happened.  That was yesterday's news so to speak.  What I will say though is that for the last little while now a sort of inverse principle has been taking place, days that when I look ahead to them and think they will be easy turn out in fact to be hard, and ones that I am dreading before they even get here turn out to at least be somewhat manageable.  I guess the rule of thumb I should be taking from this is to just dread everyday, that way the sucktitude factor is far more palatable than getting my hopes up only to have them come crashing down around me.   Point taken. 

Blogger 365 Day 19 - 48 hours in America

So, it has been a busy 48 hours or so, now I am just relaxing at IHOP having a late breakfast, I say late because it is almost 2:30 in the afternoon. I might have gotten here earlier, or maybe even not at all had it not been for my own stupidity, but one I got myself up and moving this morning I figured I might as well using my gift card from Christmas and put something in ye olde gullet as it were.

Blogger 365 Day 18 - Time out

No I am not stopping my project, in fact this thing has barely gotten off the ground, why would I stop now?  That being said, I don't have much time to talk or write, I am buried up to my neck in work related things, either things I need to do (ordering, invoices), mistakes that need fixed (computer crashes, over billed invoices) or doing other peoples work (stuff that should be done but isn't), which means my day is going to be a long and rather tedious one, and one that is going to keep me from being my ever loving wordy self.  Sorry.

Blogger 365 Day 17 - I am alive

Yes, I know I am getting to this late, but I just logged a 13 hour day at work.  I had just about finished with what should have been a normal day when another 6 hour project arose, that being getting the register system to be able to swipe credit cards, and while that was going on another vendor showed up wanting to install a snus cooler. 

I can honestly say that this job is driving me to drink, which I just did for the last hour and a half.  I just hope that this comes out somewhat legibly before the alcohol actually crushes what little semblance of sobriety I have left.

Capitals @ Penguins 01/15/2014

Pittsburgh 4  Washington 3

Jussi Jokinen, Olli Maatta - G, A each

Pittsburgh set a club record with their 13th consecutive home win

Blogger 365 Day 16 - Does it make a sound?

     That, my friends, is the question of the day.  Yesterday I tried doing something that I have done in past incarnations of this blog, that being, give something away for almost free.  Sure it would have taken a little bit of tie to list the names of 10 countries (9 actually, I gave you one) in hopes of winning a $20 Amazon gift card.  But as luck would have it, there wasn't a single bite, just one like to the post on Facebook, and no guesses neither here nor there, so I am left wondering, if a contest happens on the internet and no one enters, does it make a sound?  For the record, here is the list of countries that would have answered yesterday question.

Blogger 365 Day 15 - Shall we play a game?

Good thing I had this blog stored away for a minute, after drinking after payday I might question my ability to blog anything original, so I will go to ye ole fall back option, the blog giveaway.  I should start with what is at stake, a code for a $20 gift card at Amazon.com.  Not too shabby if I do say so myself, and I think I just did.  The $64,000 question is, how do I get said code/gift card?

As you know, I made mention recently of the number of people that have stopped by the webpage since it has relocated from Multiply over to Blogger.  I said this only because my globe on the main page had passed 1000 visits and my dashboard (which only I have access to) on Blogger had said there were over 5000 page views. 

For this particular task/contest, all you need to do is give me a list of the top ten countries that have visited this page, based on the Google dashboard tracking info.  The first person with the most correct countries out of the ten (yes, you do have to guess ten) will win $20 in Amazon cashola.  In the event of a tie, it will be the most accurate of those that tie (who gets the most right in slotting in the top ten), after that it will be based on the first correct answer  based on time, so do it, do it now.

As for those that can enter, well obviously anyone visiting the blog page itself can enter via leaving a comment below this entry.  I will also allow entries on Facebook, for those that know me there, though the comments/guesses must be made under this particular entry in the newsfeed.  My Facebook thread can be found here, https://www.facebook.com/mattpritt, if you wish to go that route.  For those that are Google+ viewers of the blog, first I commend you for bucking the trend and opting for Google+, second I suggest you get with the program because I have no time for Google+, so the chance I will be checking any potential entries over there is somewhere between slim and none.

Deadline for this particular contest is 4pm my time (East Coast side, holler like you got a pair), so hat i have enough time to review entries and pas along the winning info to whomever actually completes this task successfully.  The winner will be announced tomorrow, as soon as I tabulate all of the results (if there are any) and contact the winner.  As for your top ten list, I will give you a little bit of help, the country that would come in at #1 for the most frequent visitor of this blog is.....the United States.  So now all I need is numbers 2 through 10.   Good luck.

Blogger 365 Day 14 - Scheduling

     Well it still hasn't happened yet.  Ever since I got back from my two day foray home for the holidays I have been trying to get myself on something of a regular schedule, but nothing seems to work.   None of this early to bed, early to rise stuff for me, no matter how much sense it would actually make.  Instead my schedule usually involves me taking a nap after work, anywhere from 1 to 3 hours, followed by being up until 2am, having my alarm go off at 5am and then smacking the snooze button till somewhere around 7am and reporting to work at 8. 

      Work being what it is, my day ends anywhere from 4pm till 8pm (save for last Saturday when it ended at 12:30 am, because my life sucks like that) and by the time I get home I am tired again and in need of a nap, so it is wash, rinse repeat and the cycle continues.

     So today I am trying to force myself to stay awake, sans the nap.  After work I headed out to Red Robin for dinner, though I did end up falling asleep on the bus for about 20 minutes, and I used the time to just relax, enjoy some god food and catch up on my book.  I started reading it last week, but it seems I never sit down and relax long enough to spend more than 10-15 minutes reading.  Usually my reading time is on the bus either to or from work, neither trip usually takes more than 15 minutes, and then the book goes back into my bag until the next bus ride.  I think between the bus ride to and from dinner and just sitting down at the table, I probably banged out a good 100 pages, enough that I am more than halfway done with it now (it clocks in at 408 pages).  Of course there are two more books in the on deck circle when I finish this one, it would be nice if I got them all out of the way by Feb, because I still have a $50 Barnes & Noble gift cart to use plus two others that have maybe $10 combined on them, so there will be ample opportunity for me to get back into my reading habit if I so choose.

      Wish I could say there was something else exciting to report, but there isn't.  Today wasn't as bad as yesterday, but like I always say, every day is a day closer to my last day.

Blogger 365 Day13 - Fixing things

   Today was one of those days at work where everything just seemed to be falling apart at work, and I spent more time trying to fix stuff than actually get any real work done.

     First was an issue that had happened on Saturday, we received a grocery order a day late because of the weather last week so rather than me order Thursday for Friday I was ordering Friday for Saturday.  Because with my new found title I am not on the foor as much, I was walking around seeing what items we needed to order, and I got to one of our coolers where we have hot dogs and stuff.  I see that in that cooler we have three packages of bratwursts (jalapeno and cheese brats to be precise) but the sell by date on them is 9/17/13.  Now I could have sworn I have ordered them more recently then say, last July or August, which is when they would have had to have been ordered for that sell by date, but I thought maybe it was an issue with us, so I pulled he old one and ordered replacement packages.  Well the replacements came in on Saturday and sure enough the sell by date on them was 9/17/13, so our grocery provider has been shipping out out of date meat for who knows how long now, so getting credit for those was the first thing I had to deal with today.

     I say first thing, which is not really true, it was the first thing on top of the normal list of things I have to do on a normal Monday, which involves all of the sales and paperwork from the weekend.  Next we did get a delivery today as well, usually our Monday deliveries consist of anything that I have ordered on Saturday, plus any specials or promotions we may have signed up for previously.  Well I knew already that the ist of promotions was going to be big, the booking sheet was over a page long, but I didn't realize what all Ed had bought, had I I would have put a stop to it long before it ever got to the store, because he, for some reason, bought 40 cases of cigarette tubes, with 50 boxes in each case.  Don't get me wrong, we do a very good business in tobacco products, but not nearly good enough to have 2000 boxes of cigarette tubes laying around the basement.  And for all of the talk of how I am supposed to be keeping the ordering down and in check because business is slow, that right there would constitute about $4300 worth of tobacco nonsense.  So back to the phones I go to see if I can get them to take this stuff back as well.  Since this wasn't an error on their part, Ed scheduled this to come in, I do not know if they will take it back or not, if not then everyone in my family may be getting cigarette tubes next year for Christmas, because we will still have them in December.    I have already lived through the $11,000 Easter candy incident, I know how this plays out

     The Easter Candy Incident (thanks Weather Channel, buy toilet paper, do it now!) was another of Ed's ideas, because our grocery provider got stuck with extra Easter candy one year, $11,000 to be precise and in order to dump it off they sold it to Ed for $1000.  That would seem to be a good deal right?  Well, the ability to sell the candy was hurt somewhat by the fact that they delivered it the Friday before Easter.  I am not lying when I say we were still selling Cadbury Eggs in December for .10 a piece just to get rid of them.  We literally had two sections in the basement that were walls of candy, just boxes upon boxes that went from the floor up to the ceiling.

     Problem number three I had started working on last week and finished today, that being fixing the schedule at Gus Millers, because the person who was running the store on Saturdays told Dee and I that she really didn't want to work weekend, and I am sorry, but if you tell me you don't want to work, I'll replace you with someone who does.  So I did some finessing of the schedule and asked around and today manage to nail down Saturdays so that the person that doesn't want to be there is in fact, no longer there. Score one for me.  Of course I no more than solved that scheduling problem then I got another one today, a couple of people have just been butting heads too much and we will be better off separating them, so it is back to the drawing board as to how to make that schedule work.  To make it a little more challenging, my head manager at that store will be taking time off for dental surgery, so I may be looking to fill even more holes in that schedule before all is said and done.  Hopefully he will only be out a day or so and it will not be much of an issue, I will learn more about that tomorrow.  (Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya, tomorrow, you're only a day away.)

    Number #4 occurred when I took the Gus Miller deposits to the bank today.  The numbers all added up which is good, but as they were verifying my deposit amounts, the computer system at the bank decide now would be a great time for a system wide failure.  Tellers couldn't log in or look up account information, it was like a bad episode of Star Trek, I was waiting for Tribbles to pop up from behind the counter.

     I am starting to agree with the Boomtown Rats, I don't like Mondays.

Blogger 365 Day 12 - Transmogrification

A few weeks back I had mentioned in a blog that I was remembering m dreams more often when I woke up.  Not only was I remembering them, but they were becoming more vivid and in some cases, strange.  At least straange as far as I could recall from my previous dreams. 

Penguins @ Flames 01/11/2014

Pittsburgh 2  Calgary 1

Marc-Andre Fleury - 27 SV

Pittsburgh has recorded 15 of a possible 16 points in their last 8 games

Penguins @ Oilers 01/10/2014

Edmonton 4  Pittsburgh 3  OT

Sidney Crosby - G, A

With the goal, there are now only three teams in the NHL that Crosby has not scored against in his career (San Jose, Chicago, St. Louis)

Blogger 365 Day 11 - The best laid plans

   Today wasn't going to be fun, I admit.  Working on Saturday usually isn't fun, on most days I can bang out the work that needs done, plus a little side stuff, like tinkering with the register system, or looking into new products to sell in the store.  Slide in a meal out, either breakfast or a lunch at the Squirrel Cage and I can finish the day with a someone contented feeling of accomplishment.

     But I am still taking the Polar Vortex in my anal vortex as it were.  The cold snap that happened earlier changed our schedule slightly.  Because the Sledd delivery trucks could not be started on Tuesday due to the cold, our deliveries that were scheduled for Wednesday and Friday were pushed back to Thursday and Saturday, meaning I had to go in earlier that usual today and, with Sammy's help, put away a grocery delivery that otherwise would have been taken care of on Friday.  While that adds to my workload a little, it was still possible that I could just bang everything out all at once and be done with it, provided the delivery arrived early enough.  It didn't, it showed up at 10:30am.  Of course the fact I showed up for work at 7am meant that I already blew three hours of my day just waiting on this thing. 

     To add to the party, while I am checking in and putting away groceries, one of our repairmen, Doug, comes into the store.  We had a problem in our deli section where too many items were plugged into the same outlet. Running off of the same circuit, the deli had two steam tables, a soup warmer, two table top mini ovens and a microwave.  Of course that meant any time the microwave would be started all 6 items would shut off because the circuit was tripped.  Today Doug came in to look at the problem and offer a potential solution, which was a new outlet run from the circuit box in the basement, drilling through the floor and up beside the table where the steam tables currently sit.  I am thinking cool, so when do you want to do this?  His response is, how about 11pm tonight?  Fuck me, bend me over and fuck me.  So I could either spend all day at work and then be there tonight as well, or just come home, maybe nap a little and then go back in, which is going to be the new plan.

     By me writing about this though, that changes another plan.  I had a completely different idea for what today's blog was going to be about, it is something that will keep though, I did take a couple of notes just in case I forgot where I was going with it, so I should be fine there.  Nothing in it is of a time sensitive nature.  I actually filed some of the notes away in a draft here this morning when I first woke up, while sucking down a cup of coffee. 

     I also putzed around the page, just seeing if my blog had any noticeable traffic the last few days.  I can get some ideas of where people are from based on the globe on the right, if I click on it, it gives me a list of what countries, states/provinces, and cities visitors who stop by the page are coming from.  The TIP box on the left will actually give me the IP address of anyone who checks in as well as how they were referred to the page, did they come in through Google+, Facebook, search engine, etc.   I noticed someone from here in Pittsburgh was checking out a few different entries, which is all fine and good, I have no problem with that.  It also told me that my ex girlfriend, Ruth, has been on here twice in the last few days.  Apparently the last words I had for her ("You want to walk away, then just shut the fuck up and do it already, I really don't mind or care at this point.") weren't clue enough that her presence here is neither required nor requested.  Perhaps now that message will be a little more clear, though given how things are working out these days, probably not.

Blogger 365 Day 10 - Karaoke Friday - Graduating perhaps

     There is a reason why I had to post the rules for this project yesterday and this would be it.  I had the idea for today's karaoke entry for a few days now, and I had to decide in my own head whether or not this would be worthy of a Blogger 365 heading.  At the end of the day I decided that it would be, because the story of how I came across this entry was enough of my own that I think it adds a significant piece to what otherwise would be simply a video with lyrics.

     I was siting in my apartment the other night, just killing time more than anything else.  I had went over to Facebook and played the few games that I try to keep up on over there, followed by checking the status of some of the friends I tend to keep closer tabs on than others.  After that I went to Hulu to see if there were any TV programs that I had missed that I wanted to watch.    There wasn't.  So I headed off to Youtube, thinking maybe I would find a good hour long video of a show that maybe I wanted to watch but missed.  Still nothing,  I was left with little to do, so I started looking up videos.  I started with some old school R&B videos, not the new fangled crap that is just slowed down rap but with little to no content, but rather slow moving, she is going to drop her panties, sexy R&B stuff, the type that would make the Teddy Pendergrass's and Barry White's of the world proud.  And for the record I did find a few, most notably was "Don't Disturb This Groove" by The System.  Easy right, I got a song and that is Karaoke Friday.  Well, not so fast. 

     As I was looking, I kept poking around Youtube, after all if I could find one cool song I forgot, maybe there were two.  Then I remembered a few of my guiding principles of the whole Karaoke Friday thing, sometimes the video or the song has to suck, either because they are so bad that the general populace was spared of their existence, or because the song/video was popular but upon reflection one is left wondering just how the hell that happened. 

     I got it in my mind that I would look up the year I graduated high school, 1987, because I was looking up old music anyway.  Sadly this is what I found.  Karaoke if you please, don't if you are smart



Gonna make a move that knocks you over
You watch this turn this one's gonna put you away
But I'm doing my very best dancing yeah
Every time you're looking the other way
But I could move out to the left for a while
Or I could slide to the right for a while

And I could get up and back
I'm Right on track (is that gonna get You back)
But is right on track
Is that gonna get you back

And I could get up and back
I'm Right on track (is that gonna get You back)
But is right on track
Is that gonna get you back

Is that gonna get you back
Is that gonna get you back

And I've been trying to get your attention
I'm very, very close to thinking of a way
And I could be big and tough and other funny stuff
But you, you just keep looking the other way
I could move out to the left for a while
Or I could slide to the right for a while

And I could get up and back
I'm Right on track (is that gonna get You back)
But is right on track
Is that gonna get you back

And I could get up and back
I'm Right on track (is that gonna get You back)
But is right on track
Is that gonna get you back
Right on track
Is that gonna get you back
Is that gonna get you back

How far away can you go
And still be dancing with me
Would you mind staying in the vicinity
I've not been faring badly
But I would gladly take you back, back

Right on track, Yes You're there, right on track

There must be some kind of bad connection
Because this music does not sound the way it did
I got to get up and back 'cause I've been off track
And that may be just why you disappeared
But now I've got you in the corner of my eye
And I've got one more move I can try

And I could get up and back
I'm Right on track (is that gonna get You back)
But is right on track
Is that gonna get you back

Yeah I could get up and back
I'm Right on track (is that gonna get You back)
But is right on track
Is that gonna get you back
Right on track
Is that gonna get you back
Is that gonna get you back

And I could get up and back
I'm Right on track (is that gonna get You back)
But is right on track
Is that gonna get you back
Right on track
Is that gonna get you back
Is that gonna get you back

Get you back
Is that gonna get you back
Is that gonna get you back
Is that gonna get you back

Get you back
Is that gonna get you back
Is that gonna get you back
Is that gonna get you back

Get you back
Is that gonna get you back
Is that gonna get you back
Is that gonna get you back

Blogger 365 Day 9 - Rules

I have been thinking about this project of mine for the last few days, just what would qualify as a 365 post versus any of the other stuff that I have done over the years that shows up on the page from time to time.  I think my line in the sand as to what qualifies and what doesn't qualify consists of what original content I put into any given entry.   So if I were to life an entire entry or article and put it here (stolen content as some of you know), then I can't really call that my daily entry, somebody else has done all of the heavy lifting.  Similarly, I am not counting any of the hockey videos that I put up as part of this project, because most of the post is the video, I only add a couple of notes about the game.  Of course I have another reason for posting the hockey videos, since I have added them to my blog the Penguins have appeared in two Stanley Cup Finals, winning one and have not failed to make the playoffs since I started posting my brief recaps, with assists from NHL.com and the NHL channel on Youtube.

By the same token though, I think I will add any Karaoke Friday videos as legit Blogger 365 entries, because not only is their a video and lyrics for the reader to follow or sing along with, but usually I kick off those entries with some sort of story as to why I chose whatever song I chose.  And while Friday is in the title, I think we have come to realize by now that not every Friday gets a video, only really when the  mood strikes me. 

In conclusion then, because I am so good at taking one sentence and making it two paragraphs, in order for me to banner something as being part of the Blogger 365 project, it has to carry at least a significant amount of stuff that comes from me.  This may or may not help you weed through posts in the future, if it has the project heading, then chances are I am part of it is some capacity.  Mind you, it will all be tagged, for easier reference for anyone who would be foolish enough to want to go back and read the whole series. 
With that out of the way, I already have an idea for what will be coming tomorrow, and after that, who knows?  I guess we will all have to just wait and see.

Blogger 365 Day 8 - Unblogworthy

Not sure what to say today. Things aren't bad here, they are just going along I guess. We have hired three people so far that have a good chance of sticking on as full time employees if they want, which is good because since Christmas we have lost three people as well. I would like to continue hiring people, but Ed is the ultimate decider on such things. I know we have a stack of applications yet and I would like to get us to a point where we are no longer scrambling when someone either needs a day off or calls off sick. Right now we still have a few people who I think we are asking too much of and while they do not complain, if something bad should happen to them, it wouldn't be a matter of replacing them, but replacing two or even three people, because that is how much work they are doing.

By the same token, business has been off the last few weeks, what with the Christmas break and all, we are slower though that should change starting next week. Pitt already started their classes this past Monday, which will help business at Gus Millers, and Point Park and The Art Institute come back on Monday, which will help Smithfield as well.

Of course each day brings me to a day closer to a point that I am not looking forward to, Dee has apparently gotten a buyer for her house that she put up for sale in the fall. She is supposed to close on that sale next month and which point the clock will definitely be ticking on how long it will be before I am running both stores by myself unless Ed finds someone to take her place, and right now he hasn't been in much of a hurry to do that. I know she want to be out by June, the same month as my birthday, so happy birthday to me, here's my present, more work. Yay!!!

Anyway I do not want to spend my evening complaining, like I said right now things aren't that bad. Just typical I guess. Probably not even blog worthy, but some days my life isn't all that blog worthy either.

Penguins @ Canucks 01/07/2014

Pittsburgh 5  Vancouver 4 SO

Sidney Crosby - G, A 

Dan Bylsma becomes the winningest coach in Penguins history

Blogger 365 Day 7 - Distractions

I knew it would happen sooner or later, that my blogging time would face a challenge, would I get to a point where I wouldn't have enough time in the day to grind out a blog.  I didn't realize it would be this early in the year, but it is something I anticipated nonetheless.  I just didn't realize that the distraction would be of my own creation is all.

I was sitting around the house Sunday night, I couldn't sleep because I made the mistake of taking a nap early Sunday afternoon.  So instead I was finding things to do, washing dishes, taking out trash, cooking, etc.  Still I  couldn't  get myself to a point where I was tired enough to fall asleep.  Then I remembered that I still had a little bit of money left in my Amazon account and while I was working on the Christmas list post, I remembered that I did not get any books for Christmas, so I decided I would head over to Amazon and get something to read.

Amazon will offer free shipping on an order, provided you spend $35 or more, otherwise you pay extra to have your order shipped, so I went all in and got three books, one hardback, one longer paperback of the non fiction variety and of course another Robert Parker.  I often treat my reading like eating, non fiction books tend to be the meat and potatoes types stuff, fiction is the dessert.   I placed my order, opting for the free shipping (5 to 8 business days) and used the address at work as the place for my order to be sent to, simply because I have no desire to go to the post office and shipping to my place of employment avoids that headache completely.

So what should show up at work today, a mere day and change after I ordered it?  All three books, and while I like blogging and will do my best to continue to carve out time for it daily, I am absolutely geeked about all three book selections that I made.  Even as I type this I am thinking I can't wait to get back to reading (I started one of them on the way home from work).  This will be a test of my blogging discipline, of that I am quite certain. 

Anyway, just wanted to offer a heads up.  7 days down, 358 to go.  Let's hope I can keep those dates.

Blogger 365 Day 6 - By the numbers

The cool thing about having features laying around the blog that I can revisit from time to time is that on a day like today, where really nothing is entering my brain that would be remotely blog worthy, I can always use those as a fall back option.  Today is one of those days.

I think the last time I updated the change meter total was back in early November, so an update is called for, and it gives me another chance to keep the Blogger 365 thing going.  Since my last total I have found another 23.65, so I do have a new total and that total continues to creep ever so closer to $500.  As of this writing the change meter total sits at $479.79.

And since I am doing a numbers sort of thing, I guess I should say thanks to everyone who has stopped by, as two different milestones have been passed since this blog has been relocated from Multiply.  According to Blogger, we have passed the 5000 page view mark and according to the little spinny globe thing on the page, we have also passed 1000 unique visits.  For little old me?  Really?  So for everyone who has stopped by, muchas gracias.  Next stop, 10,000 and beyond.

Jets @ Penguins 01/05/2014

Pittsburgh 6  Winnipeg 5

Evgeni Malkin - 2 G, A

Penguins tied a franchise record with their 12th straight win at home, Dan Bylsma tied Eddie Johnston for most coaching victories in Penguins history (232)

Blogger 365 Day 5 - The results of Christmas

This is a second of an annual blog entry, first I do the Christmas list, then I do the follow up to see what I got versus what I asked for.  Mind you, I know that my mom pretty much spoils me this time of year, it has always been the one holiday that she goes all out for, it has been that way since I was a wee little kid.  Of course I am not a kid anymore, despite rumors to the contrary, but that hasn't stopped her from going way above and beyond around the holidays.  Anyway, time to look at the list and see how things turned out.

NY Rangers @ Penguins 01/03/2014

Pittsburgh 5  NY Rangers 2

Chris Kunitz - 2 G, A

Pittsburgh has won 11 straight games at home

Blogger 365 Day 4 - Sleepy time

This is going to be one of those ever so brief blogs.  What can I say, I am coming off of my sugar high right now.  I went to bed at what would normally for me pass as a reasonable hour, I was asleep by 1:30am after all, but I was also meeting Sammy for our Sundae Saturday thing at 6:30am, and before I could meet him I had to stop by the store and let the overnight guys know that they will be having a new person working with them on Monday.

Before I closed my eyes last night I set the alarm on my iPad, I have been using the alarm clock on it as a back up to my normal alarm clock, which is set three hours ahead so that the first thing my head has to do in the morning is math to figure out just what time it is.  I know it is stupid, but it works for me, if I can get my brain moving early the rest of my body will eventually follow suit.  Anyway, because I went to bed when I did, I only woke up once during the night, around 4am, which is good for me, usually I am up and down all night.   I see what time it is, realize I do not have to be up yet and go back to sleep.

The next time I wake up, I see the time on my alarm clock and hit panic mode, I am late and going to miss Sundae Saturday breakfast with Sammy.  I look and see I didn't set the alarm on my alarm clock and figure that I must have slept through the iPad alarm or forgot to set the snooze function.  So now I am hurriedly packing things up and grabbing stuff to weat, into my bag goes the iPad, pants go on, sweatshirt is on because it is very cold outside.  Next thing is the laptop.  I hate Windows 8 because of the added steps involved in properly shutting off the computer, no longer is it simply that start box in the lower left, now it is this signing out nonsense first, then another screen, then off.  But I do not want to do anything that may damage the laptop, so I sign myself out first, then the next screen pops up with the time and date as well as the shut down switch.  That is when I see that I am an hour ahead, my head did not to the clock math properly, so I can either stay awake and be on time, or try to get a few more minutes of sleep.

I  decide to stay awake, no sense in trying for a few extra minutes of sleep, besides the unneeded panic I put myself through by thinking I was late pretty much ruined anything restful I could have accomplished by climbing back into bed anyway, so I just stay up.  So now I am working on about four hours and change of sleep to head downtown and first go to work, then meet Sammy.

Thankfully that all went according to plan, and we made it to Deluca's right around 7am.  We both ordered Funky Monkey breakfasts, but the service was a little slow today, so I ended up having 4 cups of coffee by the time we had received and then eaten our breakfasts.  Breakfast looked a little something like this

After that was a full work day between both stores, so right now I am just coming down off of a sugar high.  I wonder if junkies crash this hard. 

Blogger 365 Day 3 - Sometimes the cleverness isn't in the title

Hello!!!!  How ya doin?  Just standing at the bus stop here, waiting for the 38 Greentree so I can make a venture out WalMart way.  I got a $50 gift card for Christmas which means it is a grocery run for me.  Of course I would wait until the day that it is frigidly cold outside to do this, the high has been in the teens all day and when the wind does blow the chill feels below zero.  Cold is a state of mind though, of course it is a state of mind that my fingers are unhappily a part of as I type this.  But I still have 10 minutes before my bus so I will suffer in text if not in silence.

Blogger 365 Day 2 - Not sleeping the deep sleep

Still feeling the effects of my trip home this past weekend. I mentioned that I worked on Christmas day, as a result I did my grocery order on Friday last week as opposed to my normal Saturday order day, so I might be able to sneak in a few days at home with the family. I left Pittsburgh Friday evening when they came to meet me, and got back here Sunday evening, but the thing about going home is that it almost always messes with my sleeping schedule, which is bad to begin with.

Penguins @ Devils 12/31/2013

New Jersey 2  Pittsburgh 1

Matt Niskanen - G

Sidney Crosby had 32 points in December ( 9 G, 23 A)  and leads the NHL scoring race with 59 points so far this year

Blogger 365 Day 1 - The Announcement

Okay, I have been thinking a lot about this recently, and after some deliberation I decided that perhaps I should make a second attempt. Fans of this blog, well okay, I will not say there are fans, more like people that happened to bump into this page on more than one occasion will remember that a about three years ago I tried embarking on a quest of sorts, to post at least one blog a day. That process was both good and bad, good in the sense that the only way I really get better at writing is by doing it, even if I have to force myself to do so, bad because it was a project that was going along quite well and then I let my life get in the way of things and I fell off pace about 3 quarters of the way through a year.

I forgot why I was doing it back then, I caved into pressures that I really didn't need to and put the concerns of others above my own. That doesn't mean I am advocating that I should go about my life as a self centered prick, but some things in my life need to be mine, and this blog is one of them; my place, my rules, my bitching and moaning, my life. Simple.

I have spent parts of the last few weeks looking back on my previous blog posts, I forgot that I have been at this for over 8 years now and the one thing that I felt was that the more frequently I blogged, the better it felt to me. Maybe it didn't read as well, that would be for others to determine, but my head was in a better place. It would be like someone going to the gym, for me the only way my head feels better, or sharper or more active is to use it more often. Only coming on here when I feel like it isn't a challenge, nor is it all that stimulating from a mental perspective.

So without further adieu, my first post of 2014 is the announcement of Blogger 365, an attempt to put forth at least one blog a day for the next calendar year. Of course by putting Blogger 365 in the title of this entry, in essence announcing it before it happened even though it is happening as you are reading this, I have created one of those Star Trek like temporal loops. I wonder if this means I have to go all “Mirror Mirror” Trek and shave back down to a goatee.