Thursday, September 30, 2004

If You Secretly Like Michael Bolton, We'll Know

This is a cool article, but at the end of it, it kind of feels like a waste of time. The gist of it is that scientists have no idea what they're doing.

Nevertheless, it's a cool experiment - to find out what people think of as cool. It is slightly upsetting that they jump to conclusions and say, "You're cool! We all worship you!" and then are like, "Hey, wait a minute. Woops, never mind. You're a dork!" They shouldn't overestimate the technology, and they shouldn't judge the results of the test before they know what they're talking about. It's absurd to apply labels to the test subjects the way they did. Especially when said label has positive or negative connotations. Science in its truest form has no bias. It's just a means to discover facts. Unfortunately, there is a lot of bias in this experiment ("cool fool"?).

I do like how the guy who consciously decided what's cool ended up originally being the most uncool of the three tested. But then he got all egotistical and was like, "No, wait! I'm the coolest!"

Ugh. And don't even get me started with carbon dating. Ever since I heard about it in sixth grade, I've doubted its validity. And this article is from 2001, for goodness sake. But do we hear this on the news? Do school curricula get updated? This is the first time I've ever looked it up, and it's the only time I've heard of it.

And here's a short site that I can't find anything else about, but it's a valid idea.

*sigh* I need to read this book. I'm in a mood for conspiracy and I'm feeling like people are too trusting. So much so that common sense is thrown out the window.

And in other news, when is the new dishwasher going to get here?!

Wednesday, September 29, 2004

Yeah, it's got a hemi.

Obviously, I haven't posted in a while. I've written one entry on my PDA, but I don't think it's blog-worthy. Just a bunch of the "I'm so tired" same old stuff, cuz I wrote it at work. When I was tired.

Renaissance is playing with her bucket. She's putting the same toy in it a bunch of times. She's so cute.

Today, Renee, Renaissance, and I will be going to the park. If Renee can ever get around (I love you, Renee). I can't remember if we've ever been to this park, but it'll be cool.

Renee and I decided that maybe the best thing for Renaissance's first birthday party would be if we didn't have it at our new apartment. There will probably be over 23 people, and it's just not big enough. So we'll probably be having it at a relative's house, then invite people over if they want to see our new place (which will probably be almost everyone anyway, but at least it'll be optional).

Well, I'm gonna go finish watching Pimp My Ride. "This is out of control!"

Saturday, September 25, 2004

And remember, only you can prevent wildfires.

I don't have anything really cool to write about, but I want to post really quickly before I go to work. This time it's Hollywood Video...

I think tonight I'm going to rent Supersize Me and Shaolin Soccer. The third rental is undetermined as of yet. These will probably be my last or second to last rentals before I quit. I'd still like to quit after my friends come down, but Renee and I have had some discussions and plans may change. I don't know.

I may write a review on Supersize Me later. Emphasis on "may". I already know Shaolin Soccer rocks, but Renee needs to see it.

Anyway, it's time for me to get going. Wish me luck...

Friday, September 24, 2004

A quick lesson in something called tact...

...and making comments only after making extended observations.

I'm a little worked up tonight. There's a guy I work with who feels it's his duty to coach me. I disagree. He feels that I don't multitask because he was watching me at one time when I wasn't - because the tool was acting funny and I felt I should babysit it.

And the "tips" he gave me were wrong anyway - what I was doing was actually the most efficient use of my time while reducing the likelihood of human error.

He didn't see me when my trainer was on vacation and I had to handle multiple tools at once all night. And yet, multitasking is supposed to be some brand new concept to me. I got certified in eleven days, and that was only because tools were going down and everything's been hectic the last two days (so it would've been nine). And the guy who certified me told my trainer that out of all his years of certifying, I was the only one who got every question right and knew what can be run in what tools without having to look anything up.

I'm sorry for this rant. I guess it can all be summed up by this: I'm not stupid and I hate when negativity consumes people.

Good morning.

Thursday, September 23, 2004

I miss home...

But I get a three day weekend soon. I just need to keep telling myself that.

I think we sold Renee's car. My friend hasn't seen it yet, but he just wants a car to drive in the winter. This will be the first time any of my friends has come to "see me", even though it's technically to get a car.

And since I'm cheap, I guess I won't be quitting my job at Hollywood Video just yet. There's no way I'll be driving there from our new place, but I still have a little time to quit. And I can rent some free movies for when they're here. So that should be cool.

Okay, well I'm gonna play some games now...

Tuesday, September 21, 2004

"I got an email in my pocket; and I think it's starting to melt."

I'm just catching up on old Strongbad emails and this one's pretty good.

Don't forget to wash where the sun don't shine!

...and this is just wrong.

...and thirteen minutes for my first compliment from a butterfly.

Time it took for my first compliment on my pants: 11 minutes.

Granted, it was from a NASCAR-loving redneck with six teeth (rotted), sitting in her red pickup truck smoking a cigarette, but she identified with my pants.

And this is my proof that Virginia needs me to be a straightedge hippie.

W00t.

Bwa ha ha

Kiki with bells is officially back.

But not for long, because his pants have a small hole in the crotch.

But he doesn't care!

Monday, September 20, 2004

First Post Written (Mostly) From Work...

I'm so tired. Not so much sleepy tired, but my feet and legs hurt really bad. I guess that happens when you work 36 hours in three days and your job doesn't involve sitting.

On a happier note, I have Monday and Tuesday off.

My life is pretty boring. Most of my time is taken up by my job and it feels more annoying right now since this is the first "three day week" I've ever worked here. Only three more hours to go, though, and then I'll be on my way home.

So my plan for tomorrow is to balance my checkbook and finally get groceries. Renee and I bought some clothes but we've been starving ourselves the past three days. We haven't had time to get food.

Anyway, weekend, here I come...

Note: Sometimes when I have some spare time on my break at like 5 a.m., I'll write an entry on my PDA, but I don't want to post from the computers at work because they track everything and I don't want random IT people reading my blog. So I'll change the date and time to when it was actually written, and not when I posted it. Please don't get confused. Everything is normal. Don't panic. Blah.

Wednesday, September 15, 2004

Phil of the Future looks really stupid...

Tomorrow is our last day of being broke. We've struggled to make it, but we did. I was kinda depressed on Monday because I realized that I'd screwed up with the checkbook balancing... again. But anyway, I don't like talking about money. Especially when I don't have it.

My training at my new job is going nicely and I will hopefully be certified to run the tools by myself on or around Sunday.

It's been cool living here, but I'm done with it. I don't hate this place like I did our first apartment, but I am sort of apathetic towards it. I want to like where we live. I want a home instead of a "house". I realize our next apartment still won't be home, since we're planning on leaving there in about two years, but I still think it will feel more like home.

(And I want a home built at least in the 1990's).

So now I'm looking at colleges to go to and I'm interested in the University of Richmond. I ordered a brochure, so we'll see where that goes. I guess it'll be about another year before I can get back into school. I hope wherever I end up going, my credits from my prior college experience will transfer.

*sigh* Anyway, as you can tell, right now there is a lot of wishing, wanting, hoping, and waiting. I feel like I'm in purgatory (yes, I've been watching too much Dead Like Me and this thought is brought to you by the episode titled "In Escrow"). I'm a dork.

Also, as some of you may know, I'm really bad at titles. So from now on, if I can't think of an applicable title for my blog entries, I will use semi-random words, or whatever is on my mind at the time. See above.

Saturday, September 11, 2004

Just four more hours, mommy...

It's way too early for a yard sale. Who is up at this hour... on a Saturday?

Wednesday, September 08, 2004

Update: New Apartment

Take a look at Renee's LiveJournal. I'm so tired. I'm really as excited as she is, but I just woke up and it's time to eat, then get ready to go to work. I can't believe the lady called us back today. I wish I could figure out how to isolate an entry on LiveJournal (so the link would go to a specific entry, rather than the whole blog). I wonder if you can. Hmm...

Anyway, a free pizza! That's awesome!

Update [Sept. 13, 2004]: The link to Renee's LiveJournal has been updated and now goes straight to the correct entry.

Reminiscing...

I just was playing around and found my old LiveJournal rip-off, called a Blurty. I wrote everything back when I was working for K*B Toys and Renee and I weren't married yet. If you're bored, take a look.

I'm Beginning to Get Sleepy...

It is 3 a.m. and I am trying to stay up again. My personal goal is 4 a.m. We need to go to the apartment place tomorrow to get approved. So I need to be awake.

There are many socks on the floor. I need to go fix that.

Tuesday, September 07, 2004

New Apartment

Renee and I (and Renaissance, of course) went looking for a new apartment today. We had three on our list to look at, and one that stood out to us (but was kind of far away from my new job). I could only get ahold of another apartment complex, so we decided to go to that one first. We had a little bit of trouble getting there, but once we were there, we fell in love.

It was perfect. The one we want was built in 1991, it's bright, one story, the kitchen has real countertops (not painted!), the patio has no dirt (so less bugs/slugs), there are outlets and a light on the patio, an outdoor storage area, two full bathrooms, the air conditioner is quiet (!), a coat closet, etc., etc., etc.

We want to live there.

There's one that opens up on like the first of next month, but they'll hold it for us for up to three weeks. We're going to go back tomorrow to fill out an application. Hope everything works out and we get the one we want (need).

Saturday, September 04, 2004

Late Night/Early Morning Post

I'm so tired... my eyelids are sticking to my eyes. I have to stay up until 7 a.m. because I start working the night shift today. At 7 a.m., I'll be going to bed. I've been tracking down my friends' blogs so I can put them in a bookmark folder. That way, I can just click Open in Tabs and everybody's stuff open up and I can keep up with people. So far I have Nick, Becky, and Renee. They're the only people I know of who have blogs. And Renee doesn't count, because she's my wife. I know what's going on with her anyway. It's still cool to read what she's thinking about stuff though.

I didn't get out of Hollywood Video until 12:40 a.m. tonight. That was kinda crappy. We're getting a new store director because our old one is opening up a new store. Tonight was the new store director's first closing, so things went a bit slow (i.e. he was straightening everything behind me). And I'm anal. So I didn't miss anything. Oh well, though. It was only twenty minutes longer than any other closing I've ever done. Maybe ten, but I'm whiny.

I'm gonna... walk... over here now.

Wednesday, September 01, 2004

Worst... Day... Ever...

It's official. I had the worst day I've ever had. Guess how long it took me to get home on my first day of work. Really, guess.

Six and a half hours.

Four p.m. to ten thirty. What a load of crap. And guess what else: even though I fully charged my cell phone, the battery died. And since the interstate I was on got closed, I had to take an exit I'd never taken and I had no idea where I was. Or how to get home. In the dark. And pouring rain. If I turned on the air conditioning, all the windows and windshield fogged up. So I had to keep turning on the defroster. Which made the car hot, and me sweaty. It sucked so bad.

So then, I finally get home and the power is out. Until today. That's two nights without power. The first night, we spent the night at Renee's aunt and uncle's house. Renee got a half an hour of sleep because Renaissance doesn't like sleeping in other people's houses.

And then last night, we went to Wal-Mart and bought batteries and a really bright battery-powered light and I set my phone's alarm for 5:20 a.m. I woke up on time and showered, then came downstairs to sit for a few minutes since Renee didn't want to wake up until 6 a.m. I set the alarm on my PDA and when it went off five minutes later, I hit snooze. The same thing happened again, and then, being the genius I am, I was like, "All right, I'll get up now," and just shut off my PDA. Bad move. I woke up at 7:15 and had to run out the door.

Renee and I had planned on her dropping me off at work, so just in case it got too hot in the apartment, she wasn't stranded here with a ten month old. But we didn't have time to get everything around so we decided to have her stay home. So I was 30 minutes late to work. On the day when we meet the guy who, I think, is in charge of like everything. Great.

So I got out of work early, at 3 p.m. and when I got home I ran in the house (Renee's phone was off). But it was cooler inside than it was outside and it wasn't too bad. So I was glad for that. There are benefits to living in a place with no windows.

But things seem to be getting better now. Our power is *finally* back on. Traffic lights are working on our main road. And I'm settling in to my new job nicely. I still have absolutely no idea what I'll be doing, but I'm getting the best training I've ever gotten for a job, even if so far it's all just general stuff. Tomorrow, I actually enter the fab and get to learn about my job. It'll be the first of many twelve-hour shifts. It's gonna be cool, though. So, now I have to go watch TV for a little bit, and then Renee and I may go to Wal-Mart again to get some more food. I don't know though.