Luigi Largo decreed that it's Talk Like Luigi Largo Day, and, after checking out my work schedule and phone bill, I want to do just that..  Today was Day 10 of work without a break; and I won't have a break until Day 13.  My phone, which was previously notorious for pocket-dialing those in speed-dial, has apparently pocket-downloaded 5 photos, half a MB of data ($19.32 without the data plan!), and Super KO Boxing 2 (a $7.00 game), which added nearly $28.00 to my phone bill.  I'm not happy about that.  I always make sure my phone is locked before I pocket it, but when I get a text or voicemail, it's able to be unlocked with a single key press, instead of the multi-key unlock combo.

:anger:

I bought some Woodchuck Draft Pear Cider, and I must say it is tasty and excellent.

Also, Rehearsal was alright.  Definitely weird, there, now.  Not dramatic, but ... awkward.. :/  I'll save that for a later post, I suppose.  Or, I could not blog about, and say I will, which was my true intention.  :p

Deadbirds was a cool movie.  Not scary, but very well constructed scenes.  The single issue that got to me was the lack of flicker in the lanterns.  The rest was okay!

I dunno.. I had something good to post about, but my scuking phone bill distracted me.

Everybody's getting so annoying quoting viral YouTube videos.  x.x

Augh, what kind of artist am I?! Obviously one that hasn't seriously worked with color. I thought Orange and Green were complimentary, but I was wrong. x.x Timber was right in his discernment of the Orange and Blue schema (Note: Schema is not the right word.  How many times am I going to have to proof this post? This is number 8). Too long with graphite has stunted my artistic growth. I must now expand into the realm of IMAGINATION if I'm to become a better artist. :p

I don't get a day off this week.  WTF?!  :pout:  I work 37 hours, though, which is good.  I'm using CatchTheCaracal, now, on Twitter, but instead of posting from him, I post from Kreoche to him, as such:

So if ya follow me on Twitter, you'll see these once a week, unless I forget to send it. Which I do, often.

( Photo of Food: )

I cooked a fish last night. I had a chunk of Mahi Mahi, which I fried up with oil and some blueberry/acai flavored vodka. I then set the pan to warm, while I moved the fish off of the pan. I then put half of a tortilla in the pan, and toasted that. I removed it when it was nice and crisp, put ranch dressing on it, then the fish in the center. I folded it and I ate it. It was one of the best things I've cooked. =]

I was reading through my blog, looking for the post on Soylent Green, when I found this.  It's fairly epic:
True Story - Bard Style  (Oct. 28, 2008)

I worked an opening checker shift... 0500-1330.  Nev drove me in. Thanks, NEV!  :D  I got all the tasks I needed to finish done in the first half-hour, and there was a lot of time between orders, so I bought a copy of the Wall Street Journal to read.  It was interesting.  Sometime a few hours into my shift, one of the assistant managers walked up to me and said I could be written up for that.  I said that I had bought the periodical; however, she explained that because I was doing something leisurely (reading) while on the clock, it could be considered "time theft".  That's a load of crap.  I had all my tasks done. It came down to doing one of two things between orders: doing something productive (reading the WSJ), or standing there, bored, playing with the pen chain.  The obvious, practical answer has been ruled out by the stifling, impractical stupidity of management, in favor of an answer that obeys every asinine rule to a fault. It's pathetic.

- The article I was reading was called Man vs God. It was supposed to be a debate between a renowned expert in science, and a renowned expert in theology.  Richard Dawkins vs Karen Armstrong.  I read Dawkin's points first; they were rather compelling.  Next, I read Armstrong's. I've never heard of her before; I don't know of her related credibility, but I figure since she's been pitted against Dawkins, she knows her stuff.  I was thoroughly disappointed.  Instead a debate, like it promised, she pretty much agreed with what Dawkins said, except on one point: Dawkins said that Evolution leaves God with, at best, nothing to do (at worst, he doesn't exist).  Armstrong countered that God (an entity that is the same between all religions) is a necessary mythos for our emotions to fall back on, so we can cope with the inescapable suffering that we encounter in life.

I hardly see religion like that anymore, or, at least... first off, It's hard to see how she's able to merge all the gods of compassion, such as the gods of Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, etc, into the same being.  They aren't, despite the similarities.  However, I suppose if you see all gods as mythos, then, yes, it's easy to do.  Like the stories of Atlantis and Lost could be the same, I guess.  I need to look into this.  I want to find out which theologians actually believe that there's something spiritual, that is, above and beyond the physical world, that can operate separately from it and within it; and which theologians are more like psychologists, who try to explain the spiritual phenomenon as figments and evolutionary coping devices to compliment our emotions.  As much as I enjoy science, I understand that spirituality is separate from the physical, yet deeply and intimately connected; much like a player is separate from the game he plays (such as The Sims), yet deeply and intimately connected.  The Sims don't see this outside world at all.  They act on a set of pre-written instructions, what to do based on variable conditions.  We are much the same way, biologically, but in a much more complex manner.

Those are my 12 cents (inflation, you see, does that to a few pennies).

You guys know the drill: any tl;dr's get a virtually stabbing from me and my alt, Luigi.

I might have more to say on this, however.. I'm exhausted. and I'm hungry.  Hunger usually always trumps sleep, though, so.. bacon, maybe? Bacon, potato, cheese in a tortilla.  Breakfast burritos!

There was a customer who was trying to act angry, or something, sometime last week. She was returning produce from her cart back onto the wet rack. I asked her if there was a problem I could help with, and she was complaining about not having the kind of steak she was looking for, or something, then threatened to go to King Soopers.

I said, "Well, I hope you find what you're looking for over there."

That threw her off. She was expecting some ass-kissing, and I don't do that. I believe in free market, and competition. If you're discontent with our store, please, do us, and our economy, a favor, and spend your money elsewhere. It's economically feasible, in that it promotes competition, and prevents monopolies.

But she stated that again, "I'm going to King Soopers."

I said, "Okay. Good luck with your cookout! :D"

---

Something that's been bugging me at work, as well, are my produce department compatriots. They're all cool, but they can get on my nerves easily. One thing they've all been doing... in the random days our shifts overlap for an hour, or so, each coworker comes up to me and tries to give me tips. Each one has come up to me multiple times, pulled me over to the wet rack, and said something like, "This is how I do it. Observe and do as I did from here on out." The first few times, I did. The more recent incidents have only pissed me off. Three things: I know how to work the wet rack; I've been doing it a while. Second, I can't please everybody; they all seem to dislike each other's methods. I'll find out what works with me, the methods I'm most efficient with, and I'll run with them. Finally, produce is one of my favorite departments to work in, and when people in my own department waste what little time I have that management hasn't already wasted for me, I get pissed.

---

Also: Nev, Strill, Bonus, and Stray are playing with a watered-down Ouija Board^TM. I freaked 'em all out! I went into the kitchen, and balanced the nested metal bowls on some ice cubes, went back into the living room, and waited... When I heard them crashing down, I started screaming and telling them to let go of my face!  It was great!

Well, lately, we've been having guests over very often to the pad for various reasons. TJ and Laken came over for Repo! blocking. Nev, Blue, and Holly have been over lots for movie nights, art jams, and the like.  Ashleigh came over to make a celebratory meal for us; she only makes that German dish about twice a year, on special occasions, and she made it as a welcome home gift for us!  Nick visited which was cool.  He's off to college shortly.  I will miss that brother.

Well, Nev and Holly visited us tonight.  Holly brought her copy of Rocky Horror Picture Show.  It... well, I didn't like it.  I will not recommend that film or theatre experience to anybody.  It's a trippy, musical nightmare with an incoherent plot (if there is one at all!).  Strill brought up the question: How could anyone like this enough to form a shadow cast?!  All the characters are insane.  Argh... My eyes! They bled tears of insecurity!  I'll admit, I am somewhat scarred by watching a movie where Ian could fill every role.

Arrrrgh....  My tongue is burning... Tampered pepperoncini!  Egads!  Wait, maybe that's the vinegar.

I've been drawing a lot of caracal lately.  I know I need to expand my concept base.  More art is coming!  And, perchance, a Repo!-based desktop.  Stay tuned!

I thought I'd be able to hang in there for another month.

( AIDS-Face has done it again. )
She need to drink bleach and die in a fire of AIDS .
   - - -
No, but I'm terribly pissed off.  I can't keep thinking abour this, or I'll break my hand punching an inanimate button.  And I'm no longer covered.   x.x 

( That rant is what happens when a stupid person walks through the room as I'm beginning to post something... )

Anyway.. I was going to be meeting with Tom and Scott, two dudes from school with whom I am working with on a great new project, called Counter Crux for the time being.  However, Tom double-booked his schedule, and went with his first plan, as he should have.  Scott had a family emergency he had to deal with.  I'm still confident that this is going to get off the groud.  None of us procrastinated in school (there was one guy who did, but I didn't invite him into this project for that reason).  So, I'm still at home.  I'm thinking of napping for a half hour, then drafting a script, or typing up some character development timelines.

I'm still being exhausted, even though I'm out of school; however, I figure it's something I can solve with some self-discipline.  Things like a curfew.. Staying up til 4:30 am and missing half a day of sunlight is not good for me.  Keeping an organized room is another goal.  This is all I really wanted to post, but distractions distracted me.

Where is the joy I'm supposed to get from eating Sara Lee bread?  I opened the bag, which claimed joy from eating something with no artificial colouring or flavouring.  Upon biting into the baked wheat lump (conveniently sliced, too!), I noticed no such brilliance.  Cripes, their marketing has deceived me.

Gads, why do internet folk insist on critiquing grammar and punctuation like it's their divine duty? I was reading the memo from lj_maintenancethat gave a heads-up of an upcoming hardware upgrade, and some users were bitching about the unneces'sary placement of apostrophes and the wording, like learning to write a college thesis was sooo third-grade.

Alas, it's the internet: the place to belittle people on irrelevant matters. In online social interactions, your ego is only as big as you make it look. Nah, I understand getting pissed off at allegedly-elite typers, but this was an informal memo!  "Grammar Nazis" should be put in their place; not 'cos they're dangerous, but 'cos they're detrimental to civilized, rational conversation.  They won't analyze actual content until the paragraph is perfect by their ridiculous, formal standards.

Update on the Windows Fiasco:
Here's all I want to recover:
 - iTunes Music Library
 - ... video games.
 - Photo directory
 - Custom GlovePIE scripts
I can't recover these 'cos I'm not fluent in GRUB-speak.  So, I tried to procure Hiren's Boot CD (flash drive format) for the recovery tools it contains, and I either A] killed both flash drives in this laptop (not too likely; write-caching is disabled), or B] I somehow burnt the USB ports.  x.x 

I'm ready to give up and wipe my drive clean..
I think that's what I'll do... tomorrow.

P.S.  Salem, if you're reading this, you are grounded from using computers between the hours of 00:01 and 05:00 for the next month!

A creepy guy started talking to me on the train. With no introductions, he immediately started to talking about how Obama is the best Democrat president since Kennedy, a judgment based solely on his campaign.  He went on to talk about how Obama will make the entire middle class rich. Everybody. Yeah, right.  He also said that the middle class will not have to pay taxes under Obama.  That'll go over well.  As much as I dislike taxes, I need to pay them.  They cover useful things, like the police force, road maintenance, government programs... the Government.  I like those things more than I like no taxes. He didn't catch any of my many hints that I didn't care about what he was talking about.  Apparently, he kept mumbling something about, ..he didn't believe me...  I eventually asked who he was, and he pointed at a guy down the car whom he had spoken with earlier.  I told the creep I'd go see if I could change his mind.  I sat down with his back to me, and asked the man in a whisper if he had followed me.  I then told him I was supposed to be telling him why he was wrong, but really, I just wanted time away from that creep.  We talked intelligently for a while about politics and computers. That was good.  Then he left, and the annoying guy came over, and asked if I converted him.  I told him no, and he bugged me more about how everybody was right in blaming Bush and his war for the crappy economy.  Don't wars -stimulate- economies?! I can't blame one man for ruining the economy, and I likely won't be congratulating one man for fixing it. I told him I was getting off at Auraria, and I did.  I jumped to the next car.