Monday, May 3, 2010
Asshat - United we fall
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Two blogs in a week? Am I sick?
Sunday, May 02, 2010
10:50:57 AM
Welcome to the day where everyone is trapped. There is sort of a harmoniuc convergence of suck taking place in Pittsburgh today that pretty much leaves everyone homebound, unless they want to detour miles out of their way to get from point A to point B.
First and most detrimental to travel is the Pittsburgh Marathon, a race that all but cuts the city in half with its course. Those looking to get from the northern parts of the city to the southern can all but forget it and if you tend to live in the city's central and eastern sections, the course is all but a noose that chokes off traffic entirely. Add to that that the Penguins are playing host to Montreal in game two of their Eastern Conference semifinal and you have about 20,000 people trying to puncture the numerous street closings that the marathon has created. It is very much a lab rat/cheese experiment, with the cheese being the Civic Arena where the game is being played and the lab rats being hockey fans. Third is the fact that today is commencement for the University of Pittsburgh, so you have a constituency that is trying to get into town to watch their offspring grab a diploma, but it also signifies the end of the school year, so many of the people that live here part time during the school year are in the process of pakcing and moving out in the midst of the clusterfuck that is going on. Don't get me wrong, I am happy they are moving out, the fewer of them that are here the happier by and large I am, but for the day it is keeping me homebound.
Not that I would have had a huge amount of plans today anyway, after all I would most likely be spending he better part of the afternoon watching the hockey game anyway, since I am not nearly fortunate enough, nor wealthy enough to afford playoff hockey tickets. I will be content to just watching on my TV, but sadly that will have to wait a bit, as it is too early for the game yet.
And let me be the first to say that there is absolutely nothing on TV on Sunday morning. Luckily I was able to get in a little early morning web surfing, my new Amazon gift card was posted to my Swagbucks account, which I added meaning I now have $19 in there to spend. I also had a good day swagbucking so far, 2 for the toolbar refresh, 2 for the daily special offers and searches which got me 10 and 11 bucks respectively. So I start my next two week period in trying to get prizes with 324 of the 450 needed for my next gift card. Now if only all of my apps worked this well. I checked my Mysurvey account the other day, I got my bonus 500 points for a survey I did a couple of weeks back. The survey was 4 weeks long, each week you got 125 points, plus 500 bonus upon completion. This would normally be a $10 survey, as the exchange rate was basically a penny a point, with you needing 1000 points ($10) to cash out. Plus they would cut you a check for the money, no paypal nonsense or anything of the like, just a simple check in the mail. It was the route I usually went, save for when I got my coffee pot because the prizes in there are mediocre at best. at least they used to be, but now tyhe prize catalog has been expanded, but the prices have went up as well. The charitable donations remained the same, but everything else has been increased, so s $10 check actually costs $11.50, but there are numerous gift cards for $10 that can be had for $11, like CVS, Amazon, Red Robin, iTunes, Outback, all prizes that weren't available before and places that I sometimes find myself going to. Most likely I will stick with the Amazon gift cards, I have become a pretty big fan of the site and have gotten plenty of goodies from them since the start of the year. Most recently I got Mark Morford's book, he of the columnist for SFGate.com that shows up here in stolen content from time to time. I am about halfway done, but my favorite part of the book would have to be the Mullet Haiku segments, which are small but incredibly funny.
I don't know if I am looking forward to work on Monday, Ed is going to be back from Florida and I made the mistake of coming in on Saturday to place the order for Monday morning when Ed called. He wanted me to order more school supplies, even though we have most everything in the store already and we can get orders three times a week. Apparently I didn't have enough for him, and now we are getting into the mess that I haven't been looking forward to, where Ed will want too much backstock, while Brian will want me to keep the billing down. Add to that I just pulled one of Ed pet products from the shelves the other day, and I am sure I will be in for an ass reaming. See Ed had this idea last spring of ordering a product called Isopure, a protein type drink that failed miserably as a sellable product, so much so that of the 6 or 7 cases he ordered I have already pulled 5 of them for running past their expiration date. To make matters worse, the cooler he put them in was space that apparently was contracturally obligated to Gatorade. One of the things that I am getting to learn about this ordering business is that many of the vendors pay for space in the store, including cooler space, so anytime a product from one company ends up in another company's cooler it tends to piss off their reps. In the case of Gatorade, while they don't have a cooler for themselves, apparently the contract we signed with them grants them one of our coolers, as well as an additional shelf in a second cooler. Now Ed has the authority to bully the vendors to get what he wants, I do not, so when a vendor comes in as says I owe them such and such space Ed may argue with them, I am just stuck saying "Yes massa". So to make way for the Gatorade I went ahead and pulled the last of the Isopure, which wasn't selling anyway. It wasn't like I was pulling a Pepsi or Mountain Dew, stuff that we can push better than a case a day, rather I was pulling stuff that I couldn't sell a case in two months.
Now I don't think the Gatorade is going to sell all that well, it will do better than Isopure and we are getting a discount on it, but I am not expecting us to become a giant retailer of the beverage, but I didn't sign the contract. I have to play by the rules I am given, even if I don't like the rules per se. We could easily have gotten away with awarding them half of that space, though it would cut into the amount they pay us for the space, but any time we are in vioation of the contract technically they don't have to pay us anything.
Sorry, just hopped over to Facebook for a second and there was a code out for Swagbucks, 9 more for me. Thats 34 so far this morning, much better than yesterday when I coudn't get anything.
Just checked the Post Gazette website to see if the marathon was over, and it seems to be, though they found a pipe bomb in a microwave oven along the course and had to detour the ending of the race. Let's see how big of a story that turns out to be as the day progresses.
1:57:16 PM
Okay, getting settled in for the hockey game, and yes it seems like I will be glogging this one. Quick recap on how we got to our current state, Pittsburgh, the 4th seed in the East, advanced to the conference semifinals after defeating the 5th seeded Ottawa Senators 4 games to 2, while the 8th seeded Montreal Canadiens advanced by defeating the #1 seeded Washington Capitals, coming back from a 3-1 series deficit to win 4 games to 3. Pittsburgh is now the highest remaining seed in the East, after #1 Washington, #2 New Jersey and #3 Buffalo all fell in the first round. This is the second game of this series, Pittsburgh won game 1 by a 6-3 count, going 4 for 4 on the power play, after Montreal held Washington to just one power play goal on 34 attempts in the first round. Both teams suffered a significant injury in game 1, Montreal lost Andre Markov and Pittsburgh lost Jordan Staal. Markov's injury to this point is being called an "upper body injury" which is hockey speak for saying that the Canadiens aren't telling, while Staal suffered a severed tendon in his foot and underwent surgery, though again because of the vagueness of hockey injuries the team is calling him "day to day". Chances are it will be plenty of days.
I know that my hockey glogs and posting of hockey game highlights may annoy some readers of this here blog, but I have been doing this for two years now (at least the videos, the glogging has been hit and miss) and in those two years the Penguins made the Stanley Cup final one year and won the Stanley Cup the next. last I checked you don't mess with success, so the tradition will continue. Perhaps some other poeple that read this blog might want to do the same thing, if it helped my team, perhaps it can help yours as well. I better shut up before the Pittsburgh Pirates try to employ me to help their woeful franchise. Hey, I am not a miracle worker here. After all, they have a streak of their own to maintain, most consecutive losing seasons by a North American sports franchise, and they are well on their way, starting the season 10-14. Worse still, they are 28th (out of 30 teams) in batting average, and 30th in earned run average, a recipe for disaster if ever there was one. In 24 games now they have been outscored by 83 runs. That my friends is a skill set you just can't teach, you either have that inability or you don't.
Let me say that I am loving the Stanley Cup commercials "History will be made" series. Sadly they tend to appeal to people that already follow hockey rather than those that are new to the game.
Okay, we are just about underway from the Civic Arena here in Pittsburgh.
Early on, just a minute or so into the game the Pengfuins have the games first good scoring chance but Halak is up to the test and makes the save.
Icing called on the Penguins 3 and a half minutes in, the faceoff will come back to the Penguins end and Montreal gets their first shot of the game. Pittsburgh seems to have the territorial advantage in the early going and it pays off, a goal by Matt Cooke and the Penguins lead 1-0. Pascal Dupuis and Max Talbot get the assists. I have to wonder if Max getting an assist is "superstar treatment".
It is early on, but it is almost like Pittsburgh is playing on a power play here early on. And it shows in the shot total, Pittsburgh leads 9-2. First commercial break. Just what we needed, commercials for me to mock.
Damn, nothing mockable to this point. I must be losing my touch.
Man I am watching Montreal and I can't help but wonder just how the hell they got out of the first round. I guess a goaltender can steal a series, because I have seen nothing so far in this series that leads me to believe the Canadiens had any business beating Washington.
First penalty, interference on Ruslan Fedetenko and Montreal gets the game's first power play opportunity. Maybe this will be the spark that Montreal needs to get on track. A real good scoring chance by Montreal on a redirected shot by Brian Gionta but Fluery makes the save and it remains 1-0.
Mointreal is getting some shots on this power play, but nothing to show for it yet. And with that the Penguins kill off the power play, back to even strength hockey for the time being.
The aggressive pace that started this game, especially by the Penguins, has slowed a bit and the play has evened out some but as a result there aren't many scoring chances for either team.
A GoDaddy.com ad, where sex apparently sells, except it doesn't. All is does is ask perverts to get their web domains from GoDaddy, only when they go there they are vastly disappointed.
A defensive miscue by Pittsburgh leaves Brian Gionta alone in front of the Penguins goal and a pass by Scott Gomez to him results in a tie game, 1-1. Benoit Pouliot gets the second assist on the goal and Montreal is strating to play like they belong here, taking the lead is shots as well, 11-9.
End of the first period, the score is tied 1-1 and not much happened since I last wrote something, one more shot by Montreal to bring the totals for the period to 12-9. While we are in the first intermission I am thinking some food my be in order.
Well the bomb during the Pittsburgh Marathon has been picked up by the Drudgereport. I figured it wouldn't stay local for long.
A couple of fried egg sandwiches later and I am ready for period number two.
Second period underway and like the first the Penguins earn the first shot on goal, though nothing comes of it and the score remains tied.
Still only one penalty called in the game to this point, very much unlike game one in that regard, where Pittsburgh had 4 power plays and Montreal had a handful of them as well.
A flurry of acitivity in front of the Montreal netminder but Halak was up to the task to keep the game tied. The second period continues to reflect the first, Pittsburgh is dictating the momentum early on, they have 8 shots this period in less than 7 minutes after getting 9 in the first 20 minutes, meanwhile Montreal is still looking for their first shot here in the second.
And agaim the mirroring of the first period continues, Pittsburgh gets called for a penalty, Brooks Orpik gets two minutes for holding. Last period it was the penalty that seemed to change the momentum, and the same happens here as it takes all of maybe 10 seconds and they score on the powerplay to take the their first lead, Mike Cammalleri getting his 7th goal of the playoffs, with PK Subban and Scott Gomez getting the assists.
Another flurry of activity by the Penguins, perhaps going down a goal woke them up a bit, but again there is nothing to show for it on the scoreboard. The opportunities are there for Pittsburgh, it is the conversions that seem to be problematic.
15 minutes into the second period and still no change in the score. Montreal leads 2-1, scoring on one of only two shots they have managed this period, while Pittsburgh is now 0 for 12 in the shooting department.
A three on two break for the Penguins, with Crosby and Malkin leading the charge, but Crosby's pass to Malkin is on the mark but the shot is denied.
Another break in with less than 15 seconds left, and the Penguins, while not scoring do manage to draw a penalty on Hal Gill forn interference and Pittsburgh will start the third period with the man advantage, but for now we have two periods in the book and Montreal leads 2-1. Shots in the second were Pittsburgh 18, Montreal 3.
2nd intermission and while some people will say that I spend too much time on this blog talking sports, especially of the fantasy variety that I like to partake in, I was bored last night and popped over to Hulu where I watched "Fantasyland". I guess technically it is supposed to be a documentary about fantasy sports, but it tends to focus almost solely on baseball when in reality there are a variety of fantasy games for a number of sports, so it seemed to be very narrowly focused to say the least. the major story in it invloved something called Tout Wars, a fantasy baseball league that is comprised of nothing but "experts" in the field of fantasy baseball, the people who work for sports publications or those who author their own fantasy guides for the upcoming season. Except in ths particular season they were inviting an amateur to play in the league as well, Jed Latkin, and while he did okay in the league (he finished 6th out of 12 teams) the movie made him look like a dork of the highest order. I get that there are people who follow fantasy sports more closely than I and can recite statistics at the drop of a hat and will even spend their waking moments with faces buried in fantasy sports publications, looking for a little extra something but this guy was over the top. He literally went to spring training and regular season games harasssing players and coaches about what they thought, as though a coach is going to tell anyone, let alone a fantasy geek, what his plans are for his lineup on a day to day basis. He also went about having T shirts made and handing him out to the baseball players he drafted, as if they give a rat's ass how his team is doing or the fact that he drafted them. As the season progresses, Jed is literally bombarding other team owners with trade offers, to the point he is sending them hundreds of emails on an almost daily basis. When that doesn't work he climbs in his car and drives to see them, not a simple hop across town either, but literally hundreds of miles to show up on their doorstep unannounced. I will say that they were more tolerable than I, I would have kicked his ass. While his wife is giving birth to their first kids (she had twins), Jed is in the lobby of the hospital trying to make another trade for his fantasy team. It is all just too much, by the time Jed gets hit with a baseball while watching a game at Wrigley Field, you only hope it kills him to end his moronic existence.
Third period, movie review will have to wait.
Pittsburgh starts the 3rd period with the power play, a power play that registers 3 shots but no goals, so Montreal kills it off, something they couldn't do in game 1. But no sooner do they kill off the penalty than Mike Cammalleri is sent to the penalty box, 2 minutes for high sticking and again Pittsburgh has the man advantage.
Another penalty kill by Montreal keeps the score at 2-1 and with less than 15 minutes left it will be interesting to see if Pittsburgh starts taking chances to get the tying goal. On one hand they seem to be generating shots, but still they trail by one.
8 minutes gone in the third, Pittsburgh again domination in shots, 7-2 but just can't get the equalizing goal.
Pascal Dupuis makes a nice move that results in a backhand shot that is saved, but earns the Penguins their third straight powerplay, as Marc-Andre Bergeron gets called for holding Dupuis on the move.
Montreal kills off the penalty, they don't even allow a shot to the Penguins during the power play that time, which is probably the easiest way to protect a one goal lead, don't allow shots.
Halak just continues to make big saves here, 6 minutes and change left and he has kept the Canadiens in the lead with some stellar play in net, including denying Matt Cooke on a rebound chance.
4:15 left, Montreal leads 2-1 and Pittsburgh continues to be frustrated, they have thrown 12 more shots at Halak this period and have nothing to show for it. An odd stat, in games where Halak has faced 40 or more shots he is 12-0. Pittsburgh has 39 right now.
Well it happened, too many players pinched in which reults in a breakaway the other direction and Michael Cammalleri scores to make it 3-1. The goal was Cammalleri's second of the game and 8th of the post season. Tomas Plekanec gets the lone assist.
Craig Adams gets called for a major penalty, 5 minutes for checking from behind and this game is all but over at this point. I can't see Pittsburgh coming up with two short handed goals here.
And that is a wrap, Montreal wins 3-1 to even the series at one game each. Halak ends up stopping 38 of 39 shots, certainly the best player on the ice this afternoon, and without him the result may very well be different. Next stop is game 3 in Montreal. I don't know whether I will glog that one or not, really haven't checked my social calendar yet to see what is on the agenda.
09:17:12 PM
Okay, I will try not to make this a week long blog and confine it to just one day. As it is I still need to run out and and do some laundry tonight and while I could take my laptop and blog from there, they do have WiFi after all, I will probably just take my book and get some light reading in instead.
I should give an update, it turns out that the bomb during the Pittsburgh marathon actually wasn't, but you will be happy to know that the streets of Pittsburgh are safe because the police department detonated a microwave oven. Now if they could just get about detonating those chairs people use to save parking spaces the city would be completely safe.
And I still have to add some links to this entry, something I haven't done in a while but when I do it just makes the blog feel more complete, like you the reader can actually understand what it is I am talking about when I get all reference-y at times (like the max talbot reference).
By the way, in my last entry I mentioned how I was close to winning a prize on the Scratchix facebook app, well it turns out I didn't win. I got 9 of the 10 needed tokens but couldn't get the tenth, and the system reset so I am prizeless. Of course it didn't help that the app was down an entire day, and there is a side of me that wonders if they didn't do that intentionally.
Oh well, time to spell check and add some links and call it a night, since, well, it is night.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Weakly, or is it weekly?
Monday, April 26, 2010
10:56:37 AM
I'm coming home. Well, as much as Pittsburgh can be considered my home anyway. Not that that is a bad thing by any stretch of the imagination, and since I say I am coming home that means by definition that I must have went some place, and truth be told I did. Not any sort of fancy resort or spa, or some amusement park hundreds of miles away to spend my dinero on overpriced knickknacks and photos of cotton candy being shoved in my face, but just a simple trip home to see the family and get what can best be described as a recharging of the spiritual batteries that I need from time to time. Mind you, had there not been an excuse to take such a trip, I most certainly wouldn't have, not for a lack of love for my family or anything of the sort, but just that without an excuse to change my behavior I just have a tendency to continue to plug forward day after day and hope that something breaks the relative monotony. Thankfully my grandmother's birthday provided the requisite excuse for me to break with the everyday nonsense that doesn't really break my spirit so much as it just slowly erodes it away. After all, when was the last time I considered even attacking a page in this here blog with any sort of zeal? Sure I have posted a few things here and there, but by and large there has been a lack of creative fire that has not only left me with little to no desire to contribute anything new, but rather content in not doing so.
Now here I am, on a Greyhound bus, okay technically it is a Fullington Trailways bus, but you get the idea, my laptop open and functional and me with a desire to write something. For the recored, my laptop being functional is an issue in its own right, but after some dreaded BSOD issues this weekend and a costly expenditure of a brand new operating system (say hello to Windows 7 kids), here I am if not rip raring and ready to go, at least content in the knowledge that I am writing not out of some obligation to entertain the masses (or given the few people that stop by this page, the anti-masses might be more appropriate) but because I genuinely want to. Not sure when that last occured, but I think there have been a handful of celebrity deaths since then and Jay Leno was being unfunny at 10pm as opposed to being unfunny at 11:35 pm again.
But just because a spiritual battery is recharged doesn't mean that 90% of what I am typing is going to make a lick of sense, certainly not at the rate I am currently going. This is starting off much like trying to write in a moving vehicle, everything is all jumpy and all over the place, the only real difference is that my typing is a tad bit more legible. So I guess I have to find a starting point for this here blog, a jumping off point where everyone can get involved in the story. I guess we will go back to sometime late last week, I can't remember which exact day, but I was informed of a coming surprise birthday party for my grandmother. I was asked if I could come home for it, and I have been trying to do better on the whole family occasion thing, though I admit I am far from perfect and if I were home and present for each and every family birthday, anniversary, etc. , the size of my family alone would have me taking more days off than the federal government. So I tend to pick and choose, and the arbitrariness of my deciding is hard to describe here. Certainly one doesn't want to dismiss a day as unimportant that is obviously important to someone but by the same token, I do create a certain mental heirarchy where some events are just more important than others. So when asked about my grandmother's birthday and whether or not I could come home, I made certain that I could, because in my heirarchical standards I am aware that I am currently 40 years old and I still have a grandmother, a situation that even the most optimistic of person would have to admit probably isn't going to happen much longer. I don't want to sound fatalistic here, just realistic. I am blessed at my age to still have a grandparent and don't know just how much longer that will be the case.
9:59:58 PM
Sorry about that, some things happened that completely ruined my train of thought. For starters the laptop battery died on the bus, so it would seem my laptop issues haven't completely gone away. I say that only because when I fired this bad boy up it was reading that I had over three hours of computing time left, yet 20-25 minutes later there I was getting low battery readings. Not that I didn't have other things to occupy my time on the bus, I had two books that I am currently reading in my bag and I was close enough to Pittsburgh that I knew I wouldn't be stuck for too long doing nothing but reading, but still the battery dropping a charge like that is another issue that I need to look into. It hasn't been the best of days for ye olde laptop, but that is an issue we will explore later in the blog.
As if I needed further confirmation about the questionable number of birthdays I may get to spend with my grandmother, a mere day after being informed of the upcoming party and getting the all clear from work to take the time off, my grandmother gets admitted to the hospital with some type of blood disorder. For some reason her nose started bleeding and wouldn't stop and so she ended up in the hospital for a number of days while doctors tried to determine the cause and whether it was or wasn't something far more serious. I am far too much the layman in the realm of medical maladies to know what might or might not be, so rather than occupy space here with equally non medically trained family members opinions of what it may or may not have been, I will just say that she was in for about 5 days before being released last Wednesday, so the surprise party for Sunday was still a go.
I made my trip home Friday after work. Thankfully downtown Pittsburgh really isn't all that big a place, so I took some stuff to work with me that I wanted to take home, my laptop and some deodorant and what not and just went from work right to the bus station, since the bus was leaving 40 minutes after my shift ended. I didn't even bother to pack clothes, for two reasons, one being that I didn't want to lug a bunch of stuff into work with me, I figured I would just pick up a couple of things at Wal Mart when I got back to Indiana PA to wear for they few days I was there and the second being that even if I wanted to lug all that stuff with me, I got sucked into the hockey game Thursday night, a game that ended up going three overtimes and didn't conclude until around 12:30 am, and by then I was too tired to even consider doing anything but going to bed.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
9:25:09 PM
Sorry about that but I was getting sleepy after a long Monday that started with a bus ride and ended up with me spending far too many of my waking hours sitting in a bar drinking. Playing pool as well, which is always nice especially since I wasn't shooting all that poorly, I basically was winning some games with some decent shooting and the ones I lost were ones I most certainly had a chance at winning but it was more my mistakes than anything else that cost me in those outings. Maybe I will get into some more of that later, but we have a long way to go here and a relative short time to get there.
Before I forget, I would like to add to the change meter. I slight increase, I have only found $1.59 since my last posting, the new total is now $164.18.
One of the disadvantages of blogging on my laptop is that I don't have a home network per se, so I have to either add my DSL connection to the laptop, or opt to finish writing this then flash drive it over to the desktop so I can actually post it on the web. I am going to go the USB route for now, but at some point in the near future I may just throw some money at a wireless router, since I now have some experience with such things. But that too is further along in my story, I need to get back to where we last left off on my voyage home.
So I didn't pack much and I went to work Friday with the intention of just leaving work and walking across town to the bus station, roughly a 10 minute walk, tops. By going home I was missing out on what is becoming sort of a tradition around the newsstand, that being every couple of weeks we all get together after work at 110, a bar across the street from us, where we drink Long Island Iced Teas and throw darts and just carry on having a good time. Actually is started as a Strong Island Iced Teas, the difference being twofold; 1) all of the licquor used in a Strong Island is top shelf versus the well stuff, and 2) the price is significantly higher, $12 for a Strong versus $6 for a Long. After having a couple of the more expensive variety on our first outing, I have cut back to the cheaper ones. Not that they are any less effective, quite the contrary, the last time I went out I had 6 of them (served in a 22 oz. glass) and can honestly say that I have actual spots to that evening that I just don't remember, including paying my bar tab. Thankfully someone was sober enough to let me know I didn't fail in that obligation, but I did wake up the next day actually wondering if I did or not, and if I didn't just what the hell did I do with my money. I was apparently a happy drunk, but by the same token there is a certain scariness factor in not being able to remember things. So while I was going to miss a staff outing, it was a mixed blessing of sorts, I like hanging out with them, but I am not real good at shutting myself off so it was probably better that I had other plans.
I make it to the bus station with plenty of time to spare, and the bus station was recently remodeled so I actually didn't mind waiting, as opposed to before when it smelled an awful lot like too much urine and too little of anything else. My bus arrives on time and I realize that I am in for a two hour ride. Mind you the distance between Pittsburgh and my mom's house in Indiana PA can be covered by car in about an hour, but by bus it turns into a two hour tour, one in which you only hope the tiny bus isn't tossed, because I imagine we would indeed be lost. I climb onto the bus, two bags in tow, my backpack that has my work stuff, my personal care stuff and two books, and my laptop bag. I get on the bus and figure that maybe I will start my blog entry on the way home, but alas the battery was dead. No harm, no foul, I pulled out my new Mark Morford book (which I got for free from Amazon, compliments of Swagbucks) and began reading one of my favorite liberal columnists.
The bus no more than gets out of downtown and we get stuck in traffic. One of the quirks about Pittsburgh driving for those of you not in the know is that by and large Pittsburghers suck at driving through tunnels, and with three major tunnels in and around Pittsburgh (Squirrel Hill, LIberty and Fort Pitt) what ends up happening is traffic slows to a crawl. One would think that if someone were so worried about claustrophobia or the tunnel just collapsing the smart thing to do would be speed up, but not here, where rhyme and reason never shall meet. Instead they slow down, creating bottlenecks and traffic jams. Sure enough I got stuck in one.
By the time we got out of the tunnel and made our first of two stops between Pittsburgh and Indiana, in Monroeville, we had already been on the road better than an hour. This was looking like a bleak ride, potentially three hours at current rate if not more, as the second stop in Vandergrift actually takes the bus about ten miles out of its way and that was still ahead. Thankfully the bus driver called ahead and found out there was no one and nothing to pick up at the second stop so we just blew it off and managed to make it to Indiana only about ten minutes behind schedule.
My mom and her husband were there, so I threw my stuff in the car and we proceeded to Spaghetti Benders, a local Italian place on Philadelphia Street, the main drag in Indiana. I must have been giving off an alcoholic vibe, because they asked me if I wanted a beer with dinner and usually dinner is a time when I do not drink. I prefer a simple glass of iced tea (brewed, not that prepackaged Nestea crap) and Sweet N Low. I know Sweet N Low may cause cancer in rats or something, but last I checked I wasn't a rat and it dissolves in cold beverages much better than sugar does, which just lays in the bottom of the glass like some dysfunctional pyramid constructed by a drunken Aztec. A tasty dinner (I opted for the buffalo chicken pasta) and then it was off to the homestead where I could actually dump my packages off.
Time out while I grab my flash drive and see if it will work. I know that shouldn't be an issue, but these days I take nothing for granted with my laptop. It has been testy lately, so I want to make sure all is running as it should.
Anyway, after making back to the house Mike wanted to take me for a ride in his new toy. Technically it isn't a new toy, he has had it for a while, he bought it last year, but it has been in storage most of the winter to protect it from the elements and what not, but with it being a fairly sunny day he felt the urge to bust out the Corvette and take me for a spin in it. So out we went, just to dust the cobwebs out of it so to speak on some of the freeways around Indiana, and we did, running it up to between 150-160 mph at times. I have to admit I am not easily impressed, but I was impressed with how well it handled and how easily it picked up speed. I have no doubt we probably could have went even faster given how smoothly the car rode but we backed off of that and then took the car through town, checking out some of the downtown sites as well as those sites on the IUP campus.
After we took the car back to storage we drove over to Wal Mart, Mike was interested in getting a wireless router for the house, and that was fine with me, I needed to pick up some clothes anyway if I wanted to have something to wear. So we checked out routers, got one for about $35, and I managed to buy underwear, socks, a pair of shorts, a pair of jeans and two shirts for $50, so it was a productive trip.
We made it back and were putzing around the house when my mom got a phone call corcerning the plans for Grandma's birthday party, as well as a birthday party for my second cousin the day before, who was turning 1. During the phone call she found out that earlier that day one of my uncles on my dad's side of the family was killed in an auto accident. Before everyone gets all teary eyed and offering condolences in the comments section, relax a bit. I can honestly say that I barely knew him and probably never spoke to him. I have few dealings with my dad's side of the family since he and I just aren't that close. This was my aunt Patty's second husband and was probably best know for being the owner of the convenience store in my hometown of Elderton. Many of the local folk know him, he worked there most every day, but since I haven't spent a significant amount of time there since about 1987, i knew of him but really didn't know him. Apparently what happened was he was driving and went across the road and hit the guard rail on the opposite sideand came back onto the road and was hit by a coal truck coming in the opposite direction.
Apparently I am supposed to be the resident computer expert in my family, which is akin to saying that Rush Limbaugh is a political expert, rather there is just as much chance that i could do harm as do good, but the job of installing the router was left to me. Thankfully is was all pretty easy, and I had it up and running in about 15 minutes. , which was cool because that meant I now had internet access on my laptop. I know, I am an addict, I use my computer here in my apartment for just about everything, from simple web browsing to actually a significant amount of TV viewing. Recently I have been watching hockey games online, I found a site that streams sporting events (as well as other things) live so I am at a point where I would be all but lost without access to the world wide web.
I managed to get my computer online and hopped onto Facebook, where I tinkered with some apps that I play every day. I am not caught up in any of the more time consuming ones, no mafias or farms or anything like that for me, just some simple ones that I can complete a days commitments in rather minimal time. One of which, Scratchix, I have mentioned here previously, and I mention it now because for a change I have an outside shot at winning something. I picked up my eighth token out of the ten needed for the DVD of the month prize. Of course it is one of those Twilight movies that I have absolutely no desire to see, so even if I win it I doubt I will keep it, probably just give it to one of my friends. I would give it away on here as a blog prize, but I wouldn't know how to go about that since they mail the prize directly to the winner.
I have decided that a prize will be coming to the blog again, just not sure when. I said that i want to get my Coke Reward points to 2000 before I cash out again, and I am thinking that will be when the prize comes forth. That gives me plenty of time to come up with good ideas for a giveaway, since I haven't even reached the halfway point yet, though I did have a nice run where for 4 straight weeks I maxed out on the number of points that could be redeemed (120) and even this past week I logged almost 90 and I know I have another case of out of date stuff at work that I can get the caps from as soon as the rep gives us credit for them.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
9:47:31 PM
I guess I should apologize for all of the interruptions to this blog entry but I have to assume that by now most readers to the blog are all but accustomed to it. Still, the sad fact of the matter is that life and work have conspired to keep me from working on this entry more regularly that I would like. Of course on Tuesday I was back on my regular 7am-3pm grind and within a day there I had three different people tell me I wasn't allowed to take another day off. Guess they will be extremely disappointed when I take my week's paid vacation then, this past Monday was just one of my bonus days I got for working both Christmas day and New Years day. And today when I asked if I could grab my paycheck while in the office (I tend to wait until late in the shift, after all I am working, I really don't need to be lugging cash arfound while I am on duty) I was told that I am the only person whop deserves to be paid. I tried to be humble about that comment, saying I really doubt that is true (which I do, there are quite a few people who I think are worthy of their checks, though there are some that paying them is just flushing cash down a toilet) but it was just bone of those comments that makes me wonder just how low the bar is set if I am the example for others to follow. Hell I wouldn't follow me into a public restroom let alone my example as a model employee.
Friday, April 30, 2010
9:50:02 PM
Okay, I keep putting off this entry. Not that that was the original plan, but life just gets in the way sometimes. That being said I need to finish this and now seems like as good a time as any, though the longer I keep putting this off the more likely I am to forget details. So without further adieu, let's get back to our story shall we.
Anyway, when I last left off I had just connected the wireless router to my mom's computer. Mike had also purchased a flight simulator game, which he was trying to install on his laptop but was having little success. I didn't follow him step for step through the installation process, so I don't know what he did wrong but the game wouldn't run properly. Maybe it was a problem with the game, maybe it was something he did, I can't be sure all I know is that it didn't run right. I made a couple of suggestions, based on what I had read out of the game's handbook, but it was of little to no help. It may simply be that it was too sophisticated for his laptop, or maybe there was a glitch in the game itself, but it wouldn't run. Anyway, after doing a little web surfing of my own and watching some satellite TV I called it a night. Memo to self, never get satellite TV, I could easily turn into a couch potato. I found myself watching some of the odder things out there, stuff I would never normally watch but because I had access to it I let it pollute my brain.
Saturday morning arrived and I managed to put down about three cups of coffee to get myself started and went to check my email and do my early morning facebook apps when after a little bit of surfing up came BSOD (Blue Screen of Death for those not in the know). This had happened before with my laptop, and I couldn't locate the version of XP that came with my computer, so I had to use the version that came with my old desktop. I think that part of the problem stemmed from trying to get Windows XP updates, since Windows no longer supports that format and I was using a borrowed copy. I don't know if I just misplaced the copy that originally came with the laptop or if they had used part of the hard drive as the backup (a process that my mom's old desktop, a HP, did rather than issue a boatload of disks everything was kept on a separate section of the hard drive) but during the last BSOD episode I couldn't even access that to check and see if that was the case. So instead I reinstalled XP with my borrowed backup. Now here comes BSOD 2 (Electric Boogaloo) and me without a copy to reinstall everything. A mere day after acquiring the router and having access I was once again Internetless. Tell me that wouldn't be a cool name for a band. They could play a bunch of music from the 20s and 30s to audiences of the elderly who still think the World Wide Web is just a fad that is going to go away any day now. I couldn't escape BSOD either, though I tried everything I could think of, using last good configuration, safe mode, all of the tools my limited mindset could bring to bear on the problem with about as much success as Tiger Woods leading a life of celibicy.
Luckily I had some activities planned for nthe day, so being without my computer wasn't going to be much of a problem for the time being, I had a birthday party to attend for my cousin's husband (his 30th) and their daughter (her first) that was being held in my hometown of Elderton, at what used to be the old American Legion hall where I would sometimes go to play bingo with my grandparents but was now sort of a rental hall for special occasions and I guess this qualified because they rented it. It was nice, I got to spend some time with some family members that I haven't seen in months, but there were a lot of people from Adam's family and friends who I just didn't know. I spent most of my time talking to my cousin Scott, who I was happy to find out had gotten called back to work after being laid off for a while. Maybe that is a sign that the economy is starting to turn around a little bit, or maybe it is just nothing more than a blip on the radar screen of life, I have no real idea. Of course one of the topics of conversation was the car accident from the previous day. Those things tend to happen in a small town, the accident is the big news, whereas here in the city, even if Pittsburgh isn't that big of a city, accidents are just par for the course, not really noteworthy unless someone of note was involved. Back there, since everyone knows everyone, everyone is of note I guess.
When the party broke up and we all headed our separate ways I still had some things to do. After all, grandma's surprise party was the very next day and I hadn't even made my dish for the occasion. My mom was just bringing pies, not homemade, just store bought ones, but that meant we had to go to the store, so off to WalMart we go. I get the idea in my head that I am going to make chicken salad, so I had to get all of the ingredients, three pounts of boneless, skinless chicken breasts, some celery, mayo and some lemon juice. I assumed that my mom would have some black pepper, which she did. I also picked up a couple of loaves of bread, wheat and italian and while in the store inspiration hit me. I might be able to get my computer back if I was willing to splurge on a new operating system. So $120 later I am the proud owner of Windows 7, and truth be told I wasn't even sure it was going to work. My laptop is certainly not a top of the line model per se, so it was going to be a coin flip as to whether or not it would actually install. I wasn't too worried about memory, with nothing on the laptop thanks to BSOD, I had little to worry about in that regard.
We get home and I start the process of installing 7, and while that is going on I head off to the kitchen to start making the chicken salad. Since I couldn't find any large skillets for the chicken I was stuck making them two at a time, and worse I wasn't using my stainless steel cookware, so it was taking even longer for the skillet to heat up. Thankfully there was an episode of South Park on (The Facebook epsiode, which is priceless btw) so I officially multitasked, watching TV, installing a new operating system and cooking chicken all at the same time. And people wonder how I can remain single.
Whatever problems Mike had with his flight simulator game, no such problems for me as I kicked ass and took names on the new operating system. The only problem was that I had no sound, I had to go to the Dell website and download the sound card and drivers for that, but once you get used to the site, it is actually pretty easy to navigate, so I got all god like and on the seventh day there was sound ( at least in Jewish fashion, I realize the Sabbath is Sunday for most everybody else, but this is my god like story and I am sticking to it) and if that wasn't enough of showing off on my part, I also diced some celery and starting pulling the first of the cooked chicken out and chopping that up as well. Really ladies, you have to wonder just what it is you are missing. Well, you don't have to wonder too much, I already told you, chicken salad and South Park, pay attention will ya?
I managed to get everything and as an added bonus a Penguins game came on, Game 6 of the series against Ottawa and again I fell in love with satellite TV all over again. Usually if I am in my apartment I have to find a feed online, and while that isn't too difficult it can be problematic just the same, Some times there are too many people watching the feed and a lag problem ensues, other times, like when I watched game seven between Washington and Montreal, you just can't understand the announcers. I think it had to do with the fact I was watching the Russian feed, and if you are wondering if I speak Russian let me say nyet.
The Penguins won, clinching the series and leaving me happy that they will be moving on in the Stanley Cup playoffs, the chicken salad turned out pretty good, good enough that I almost starting eating it that night, and the installation of the operating system was a success. As I sometimes like to say at work, "All I do is dominate." Then again I am full of crazy vernacular like that, that unless you know me on a day to day basis, you just wouldn't understand.
All things being done and my god like status firmly established I went ahead and did the next thing in the god book and rested.
I realize I am probably offending my Christian readers with all of this god talk but rest assured I mock because I don't care. It's not like all that many people come to this page, those of you that do should know by now that pretty much anything is fair game here.
Sunday arrives and more coffee ensues. Odd little tidbit is that I didn't have any bagels this time. Usually when I am at home I will have a bagel or two with my coffee, my mom will normally buy some just because I am home, this time I don't know if she even had any. Not that I was complaining, I was just happy to be off of work for a few days, though technically I was only taking one day off, Monday, which was a travel day for me, back on the bus by 9:30 am and in Pittsburgh by 11:30 am. Not that I couldn't have stayed longer, but I wanted to get a little quiet time in without all of the hustle and bustle that comes with a trip home before I had to go back to the daily grind. After all, I was home for about 2 and half days and ended up going to two parties, so it wasn't like I really stopped being on the go all that much.
Back to Sunday, I get up, the computer works fine, as if evidence of that wouldn't be obvious from the fact I am putting together this entry on it, so we back up the pies and the chicken salad and what not and head out to the party. The forecast called for rain, but other than a couple of sprinkles here and there it was a pretty pleasant day. And my grandmother was surprised when everyone starting showing up at her place with food (and chairs and all of the things to pull off a picnic type party). I'll admit that the chicken salad wasn't a big hit, not because it was bad, but people were more into the grilled meat (burgers, hot dogs) but those few that had some, myself included, thought it turned out pretty good. It wasn't the success of my last dish, when I made spinach dip, but I didn't want to be that guy that always brings the dip. Once you get typecast like that, you just can't escape it. Look at Bob Saget, he used to be incredibly funny and one of the foulest mouthed comedians I know, yet "Full House" killed him. He can never be funny again. He is always going to be that nice guy stuck on mediocre shows with no real personality of his own. He is the dip guy. You know he is always going to bring the same bland thing time and time again.
The party was a success, there are photos around here that cover that so I will not spend more time on details. The rest of my time home was pretty uneventful, we had roast and baked potatoes for dinner Sunday night, followed by a drive out for ice cream for dessert (I got the chocolate chip cookie dough flurry) and then it was just more of me killing brain cells in front of the TV and computer. Mike still couldn't figure out what was wrong with his game, he was threateneing to take it back to the store because he thought there was a glitch in it, I doubt that, I imagine if there was there would be a patch for it online or they would have pulled it from the shelves, but what do I know.
Monday I wake up, not a lot of time before I have to be at the bus stop, but enough that I turned on the TV and one of the History Channel type stations has a show on called "Monster Quest". The title gives away what the show is, people go looking for monsters, today's victim was Sasquatch. They started off with a little history of the creature and they said something that automatically proves that either Sasquatch doesn't exist, or he is an abject failure sitting around his parent's basement smoking pot and playing XBox. Apparently Sasquatch was the protector of the Native Americans. Let's see, they go from having a continent to call their own to having a fucking casino in upstate New York. Sasquatch better hope he is in a union, because that type of shoddy work would get most of us fired from our jobs.
All that was left to do was the packing, which was going to be as little more complicated since I did buy clothes while at home, but nothing I couldn't manage, until my mom started coming up with stuff I needed to take bnack with me. I talked her off of the ledge and escaped only with an extra two 2 liter bottles of Pepsi in tow, but it was enough that I ended up being stuck with another entire bag to carry on the bus, to go with my backback and my laptop.
I have already detailed what happened on the bus, no need to revisit it here, the laptop died, at least the battery portion of it. I got in to Pittsburgh on schedule, so I walked over to work, just to make sure the order wasn't getting screwed up, and all seemed to be runni9ng smoothly. Litrtle did I realize how unsmoothly things were until I got there for my first shift on Tuesday, where things that should have been done on a daily basis were all but ignored in my absense, and it seemed like I spent the better part of the week just trying to catch up on everything and never really getting there. I am stuck going in on Saturday again to put the order in just to get that caught up. Not only that but I have people complaining about the hours they are getting but when hours are available they don't want to work. Sure they would like to come in and be paid for being there, just as long as their actual job doesn't get in the way. It is enough that I am wondering if I wouldn't be better off by myself, working 16 hour days and just doing everything, that way I know it will get done. Prime example, we found out this week that Ed is coming back from Florida a week early, he will be back on Monday, so ideally we would like to have the store nice enough that when he comes in he doesn't complain. As a result there were extra hours to be had for those that wanted them, yet when it came time to take advantage of that fact no one wanted to stick around. At some point I can't be sympathetic to anyone's hardships if on those occasions they can address the issue they can't be bothered.
I suppose I can leave the bitching about my job for another entry, I think we can all agree this has gone on long enough. I need to get some sleep if I am going to be punching the clock again in a couple of hours.