Friday update

Worked yesterday morning before school at the new job (grocery store). Had a chance to meet and work with Brad the Store Manager, will be working in the packaged meat department. Same as all retail really, get product on the floor so it can sell, make sure it scans at the front, make the shelves/bins look full, keep the place clean, and last but not least be friendly to the customers and other staff (a little lacking in this place from my own experience). The owner and his wife are friends of mine, so that's how I got the chance, but now it's up to me to keep it.

Lots of homework, assignments, exams coming up... so school is busier finally! I know, why would he want to be busier? Probably because I seem to perform best when I have a lot to do, and also because I'm so easily distracted that if I'm focused on a few important things I won't be following some butterfly or whatever...

School today, 2 classes, then working till 9-ish, get Trusty Rusty from Dad, have some games tomorrow, and then drop it off afterwards. Will be at the store on Sunday, no problems so far for schoolwork on the weekend, class on Monday is a review for a test and I'm up to speed on everything so far. =)

late Wednesday night ponderings and little amusements....

  For some reason this pooch is talking my language!  Probably waiting for nachos.  =)

Finishing off some popcorn, Caesar's laying on the floor and it's snowing outside, again! 

Work tomorrow morning at 8am, no idea what's involved but if it's like any other retail, unload trucks, unpack boxes, make sure stuff is priced and can scan, then get it on the floor.  Next step, clean up and then repeat the first step.  Looking forward to it, the extra cash will be nice, gotta save for a "new" car, and by new I mean newer than a rusting '94 Intrepid that needs a new muffler.  ;-)

That's it for now, updates tomorrow night if I'm not in a coma.  night!

It's decided, I'm moving and this time, for all of the right reasons!

Rox is soooo cool, she sent me this link and now I want to leave the snowy Great White North and head to the Bayous of Looseeanna, or Louisiana.

Have a look, it's hilarious. 

And then when I eventually got home and finished shovelling all of the bloody snow.... I get online to chill for a bit before I start making dinner.  Rox pops on, we chit chat, and I mention the shovelling... well lil Miss Smrtypants for Missisisisiisiisisisppi asks if I buried someone...  man I laughed so loud that Caesar came downstairs to check on me.  I actually heard him get up and run down here... what a great line!

It's decided, I'm moving and this time, for all of the right reasons!

Rox is soooo cool, she sent me this link and now I want to leave the snowy Great White North and head to the Bayous of Looseeanna, or Louisiana.

Have a look, it's hilarious. 

Wednesday is like the never-ending day.... on and on and on... and then ..... and then...

We had a lockdown drill at school today... wow guess I shouldn't be shocked that no one took it seriously, but seriously what if?  what if some pissed off jilted lover or former student came in to exact their perceived revenge?  I really, really hope nothing like that ever happens because most of these kids won't make it out unscathed.

Weather related news, again we're getting a lot of snow and the grumbling about it continues... big storm due to a front coming in from Texas us causing an inordinate amount of snowfall, again!  Its January and we're in Canada, why don't people just move to Florida?  I'm sure the alligators would love your ass as a snack!  these whiners are probably the same morons who can't drive in the snow or rain, so go ahead move, it'll be better for everyone, or me at least.

My second class was cancelled today, the professor gave as much notice as can be expected with a death in the family... what can you do?  giving some good thoughts to his family...

*** Edit here - With the cancellation, 5 hour break till my next class at 3pm.... uggh.   Thankfully Kim was online to give me a hard time, and then.... and then... and then it was Rox's turn... and then......    I didn't forget this but just forgot to put thoughts to the keyboard; Tanya, my fav Islander photographer was also around today to chit chat with me between her oh-so busy work schedule (and furkid cuddling), sorry T. 

Discovered my transcript finally arrived from Seneca, tried to drop a copy off to my program coordinator, unfortunately he was meeting with someone and after over hearing a second off topic story I knew it was time to leave.

Work tomorrow morning, 8am.  Class is at 3pm, so I'll finish up around 1pm, head home and get my act together, the usual.

I know this is all point form and not in my usual in-depth and well written prose, but I'm a little tired and perhaps a tad grumpy from how things developed today once I got to school.  Tomorrow will be better!  *repeat mantra*

random Tuesdays

RJ says:
if i could pick one food group to eat forever at the expense of all others... it would be nachos


Was chatting with my pal Rox tonight and oddly enough food came up, among the many topics along with world peace, astrophysics, the water quality of the Great Barrier reef... you know, just the normal conversation topics that everyone touches on.

So, nachos, corn nachos with a nice hot tomato based salsa.... mmmmmm

Tuesday's aren't long enough but then.... well.... it's Rantday!!!

Couple of things that normally start the burn... you know that burn of anger when you see something that just doesn't make sense?  When you "know" it's not right, that it shouldn't happen, probably because "everyone knows"... ya know what I mean?

So now that we all understand the burn, here's what caused a few flareups today.  First topic is the loud talkers and secondly people who put their feet up on the back of chairs or seats on the bus.

Loud talking... why?  what is it?  Here's a cartoon that shows a favourite tactic of the Loud Talker. 

As you can see.... it annoys everyone around them and they are oblivious to their actions.  I see these people on the bus, at school, in the malls, just about everywhere.  And it doesn't have to be with a cell phone, it could be just raising your voice to be heard or having your iPod earbuds in and not turning down the volume.   All things considered I think it's rude.  When I go to school I often spend time in the LRC (Learning Resource Centre, basically a big computer lab).  To me this is a place of learning, quiet talking perhaps but not for conversations, go to a public area like a cafeteria or a lounge area to talk/chat/share your drunken pub stories. 

Or as in today... don't pick a table where I'm sitting to have a chat with your 3 year old daughter because she's not talking loud enough to ask for her juice.  The room can seat 300 comfortably, there are 6 people in it, including me.  I'm minding my own business when Big Daddy sits down and offers her some juice, wants a please and thank you from her.  Dude has a loud and scratchy voice, perfect for yelling at a night club, probably not so good at advising your daughter in a public place to "talk louder".  And then when she's intimidated by your loud voice, she gets quieter!!  So what does the d-bag do?  He threatens that she can't go home and watch her movie... I know I have some father issues of my own, but this guy takes the cake.  Honestly it's not the advice he was giving, it was the fact that he picked a table where I was when he could have gone anywhere to talk to her.  What really makes me laugh is that when I packed up to leave because his loudness was really bothering me, he left as well.   What the deuce?

Next topic... putting your feet up on seats, backs of chairs.  I get on the bus today, and wander to the back where all of the cool kids are... there are always seats that face each other back there and I normally sit back there to keep room up front for older people who like those seats.  Well when I got back there, not only were there 2 kids with their feet up, they were on opposite sides of the aisle and talking to each other... so these 2 miscreants took up the space of 8 people, with their loud talking (please see above) and putting their dirty feet up on the seats.  Ok d-bags!  now the seats are wet and dirty because you're stupid,  and you're friends so sit together so others can use the same bus without sitting on top of each other.

All of that flashed through my mind quickly as I walked towards the back.... however I knew of the perfect way to correct their actions.... =)   First I stopped at the section where they were, they looked up at me and stopped yelling, sorry loud talking to each other.  Yes they were both wearing iPods with the music turned on... ?  Turn it down so you can hear your friend meathead!  

Anyways... that's my Tuesday rant.... don't worry someone else will provide material for me to comment on soon I'm sure. Also, you can leave your stories about loud talkers or whatever it is that's started your burn, I'd like to hear that there are others who get annoyed as much as I do. =)

Next I looked at one of them till he moved his feet, then the other followed suit.  As I sat down, I asked just one question "is anyone else sitting here or are you saving this seat?"  A mumbled "no sorry about that" came from the hoody wearing little punk. 

work? ...werk? ...get a job already!

Well, I've been tossing around the idea of getting a part time job to help with expenses, plus it could lead to something permanent after I'm finished at college.  Turns out I ran into a friend from the golf course and he offered me some part time hours.  I said yes, but only if it works with my college schedule and the hours I need for studying and homework.

Checking the schedule tonight and will update tomorrow after I confirm what I can accommodate.

Update:   I took the job, will start Thursday morning and get to meet the store manager and sign paperwork... bla bla bla.

new blog editor thinger...

Was surfing early this morning and found a cool add-on from Mozilla, Scribefire.  Basically it let's me add items to the blog at any time, rather than making an effort to open a new tab for the blog and entering things that way... trial period will be one week, and hopefully it works!

Oh so early on Saturday....

Yep it's early, someone woke me at 4am-ish by trying to take over the bed. I used to have a strict rule of no canines on the bed, but the upstairs boy finally broke me and my rule. He got onto the bed finally last night and proceeded to take over. I however told him that was the final straw and that he had to get his big butt over to his own side. After much grumbling and moaning he hit the floor but came back a little while later. In the end though, I can't sleep and decided to share the story. If I was really malicious I'd start calling everyone I know and wake them, but I'm a nice guy. =)

Classes went well on Friday, it was weird because I hadn't attended any on Friday the previous week as I was "sick", which is code for having some games to ref in the Atom tournament. At one point I was wandering around looking for my Business Stats class because I had the wrong room number written down.... luckily I ran into someone from my class and they took pity and led me to the class. A little homework this weekend, mostly for a Quality Management project due on Tuesday, it's also a group assignment which is a little odd because I really don't know anyone that well and in a lot of my classes I'm the outsider as most of the students know each other from 3 previous semesters together. A nice young lady took pity on me, and then another asked to join our group, they're both very bright so I'm sure they'll carry me nicely.

Had a very interesting conversation with a dear friend, we've known each other for 5 years now and have quite a connection. She's recently moved back to Ontario but for some odd reason we haven't been able to get together for a visit. I'm trying to change that, possibly visit within the next week or so. More details will follow as that situation develops.

Last night was a lot of fun, just hanging out with Caesar and messing around on the internet, when my sister pops on. I sent a message to her, and she got back to me right away, usually when she's on it's one of her older girls and they just give me the quick "hi Uncle Rob". But she and I got on the webcams and chatted for almost an hour. Her little terror Sam was there and was entertaining as always, he's a great kid. Her youngest was asleep, and the remaining 2 were out with her hubby Dan getting some movies. The 3 movie amigos made it back in time for me to say hi and thrill Olivia Joy with some neat webcam effects this laptop has. Sam had already seen them and had kid-friendly demanded I do something funny, which I tried to do with some clicking on the touchpad. Here's one pic that I took that shows some of the effects. As some of you know it's goofy and a little funny but that's how I roll.

And now I'm surfing again and getting some food in my bellay, somewhat lazy day today, laundry, homework and a visit to the Larkin's later for dinner.

Remember to check back frequently, you never know when I'll say something funny, it may have even happened in this post. once. hah!

Almost forgot....

Was surfing the internetal tubes... and found this cool site of a guy who creates art on the New York subway system. His process involves defacing posters, and since that's a crime in NY, he does it very guerilla like, covers his face, stuff like that. I think it's art but others may not, look at this video and then have a look at his pics here.

January continues.... on and on, and on... and on....

More snow? more cold weather? and by cold weather I mean -25C, that kind of cold... so wearisome, normally I'm good with weather good or bad, but right now I would love 2 weeks in a warm tropical climate. Ok weather rant over.... for now!

School, school is cool, don't be a fool stay in school... not sure where the rhyme came from but it might have something to do with a few beverages I had last night with the boys (Joey Pistachio and Special K). Not a really late night but out for drinks, then shooting a little stick, I won in the end, thank you K for sewering the black, I know that you know that I knew you were gonna choke at the end!

Ok so about school, week 2 and it's going alright, still getting the routine down, pretty sure I have the location set for all of the classes, gotta tighten up on the teacher offices. I looked for a school map before classes started and all I could find at the Fleming site was a parking lot map? wth? this college has a Cartography program, that specializes in GPS plotting.... c'mon make mapping the school a final project for the damn students!!! I was talking to a classmate yesterday and he said the same thing, it can't be this simple, can it?

Anyhoo.... dealing with new people is always interesting, good and bad. First impressions are typically bang on, however I'm new to the groups in each class, so I'm trying really hard not to bias myself towards or away from anyone. Till Tuesday.... there's a young person in several of my classes, I'm sure they have ADD or ADHD, unusual in a female but she's gotta have it, always bouncing her feet, very impatient, talking during lectures, and most important trait - never, ever wrong. She let me have it in a class when the teacher was asking for our opinions on cooking steak, apparently her 10 years of cooking is more important or valid than my 25 years of cooking for myself? Who does that? short sighted people I guess... however she got me all riled up and yesterday I vented on Kim, ty for putting up with it for the 5 minutes. After my early morning coffee/msn chat with Kim (where I vented), I then rushed off to catch the bus and make class on time. Computer lecture.... snoozefiesta for 45 minutes, Fire Drill for 10... gotta love standing outside with 1800 other people who are all shivering. Then I go to the next class, sit down at a table of people I recognize from other classes, and who sits down beside me? her.... How was I supposed to know? I mean that won't happen again, but I told myself "self, just deal with this for now, and next week, try another table, different people, college is about networking..." 30 seconds into the seminar the teacher shushes her.... and she gets pissed at him.... later on in the same class we had to break off into groups and select a position on a situation and then present and defend our positions, she's in another group and acted so angry that people were afraid to say anything against her. Ok, so the lesson here kiddies, meet more people and avoid the crazies right? Not saying she's crazy but our personalities don't mesh together well, and it's best for both of us that we don't clash or knock heads. Wow, that's good advice, wish I had learned that a loooooong time ago, I bet my ex's all wish the same. =)

lazy Sunday?

Off to do some shopping, making an early dinner today for the ladies upstairs. Trying a few new Asian inspired recipes, my friend Carla from Edmonton sent me a great link for a curried rice dish. I'll link it later if it works out. =)

Have another game to ref tonight just outside of Peterborough, could be interesting as it's a small arena and the fans are close to the ice surface.

The ladies just left, the cab finally showed up... and no I didn't join them, I'll take a stance of not partaking of the "fun" of the bar over saving a few dollars and staying home.

Caesar was his usual annoying self and got into everything possible, such a handsome boy!

i'm heading to bed shortly, have some reading for school tomorrow and another game to line tomorrow night, nothing too stressful.


Thanks for reading! =)

Different Saturday stuff

Saturday, still not feeling well with the cold, but I'm a trooper so I perservere through 3 games last night, and 2 games this afternoon.

When I got home bumped into Carrie from upstairs (my landlord), she's having people over and invites me for bevvies. Game on... after I get something to eat.

So I wander upstairs and meet Carrie's friend Carrie/Kerry.... weird a little but she's really nice so it's not too awkward for me. =) A few bevvies into the night and Carrie's sister Danny comes home after a while and we watch some pics of Danny's New Year's worm attempt plus a cool improv with a plastic bag...... you gotta see it.... different is all I can say, by different I mean funny sheeit.

And now I get to watch the ladies get their makeup done..... man I'm so cool! :-\

Oh yeah, Caesar, the fuzzy cinnamon ruler of Duffus St is wandering around to get affection from everyone like a champ. more to follow...

First week of school

Well the first week is almost over, 4 days into it and today was one killer of a workload. Yep one class at 3pm, luckily the prof had us out of the class in time for me to catch the 4pm bus....I think I spent more time on the bus or waiting for one today than I did parked in a classroom.

I'll try to recap how the week has gone down, nothing too crazy really but some interesting observations.

Monday - Orientation at 11am for new students, well I'm not really a new student because I managed to wangle some advanced standing due to my previous college career, but I went just to see if there was anything interesting I should know. Well I sat through 20 minutes of it and everything I heard was available on the college's website, and I had already read most of it. So I left to grab a coffee and wait for my first class. 2 hour class on Transportation, I thought this would be my easiest class because of my previous experiences working in trucking and logistics... boy was I wrong, this prof knows his stuff inside and out, very impressive.

Tuesday - busy day, have to be at the school for 10am.... whoops made a mistake on my schedule, make that 11am, had to sit through 5 minutes of a Law Enforcement or Police Foundations lecture to realize that while I was in the proper room, I was an hour early.... nice one buddy! had to endure the walk of shame to the door, haha! And then I ran into a guy from the golf course, ended up being 5 minutes late for the class... watdaheck? Business Stats, teacher was very professional, went over the course outline, laid out her expectations, game on! wait? what? need a calculator? dammit! another trip to the bookstore or Staples. My next class was a lecture seminar on Negotiating Skills, small class of 90 or so, thankfully they break down into smaller groups for the lab portion. Finally after a 3 hour break I had my last class of the day, Quality Management, this class should be interesting as my teacher is also the Program Coordinator. Finished up at 740pm, nice bus ride home, freezing cold walk from said bus stop to the house.... brrrrr was I cold? better believe it, felt like an hour before I felt like I was thawed.

Wednesday - Fairly busy day, 3 classes, Advanced Computers, then Negotiating Skills lab with a little 3 hour break before Stats at 3pm. Not sure how I lucked out with all of the breaks but I'm sure as a whole the College is at capacity for students and teacher utility, so the breaks are built in to maximize effectiveness. see that? that's Quality Management talking there... just one class the night before and I'm already smarter than I was a week ago..... hehe! Another funny thing about Wednesday is that while I was walking to the bus stop.... as I was approximately 100 feet from the stop, my bus drove past, didn't stop as no one was there but just kept going west on Lansdowne St.... guess who needs to read his bus schedule more closely? yep you got it the first time, so when I got to the school I was 25 minutes late for my first class (what a great start!)... I grabbed a coffee and a seat in the hallway after I lurked around and found where my second class was (made that one on time, look at me go!)

And then today (Thursday).... yep pretty exciting times, but I am enjoying it. I know in the end after I'm finished that I'll be ready for a challenging position in the workplace. School is great, but unless I win the lottery someday, I'll be working for quite a while.

One thing I noticed during this week was the dress code for most of the students. Yes I know they're younger but they all dress the same for the most part. Ok the girls seem to like black tights with Ugghs? and of course the required hoodie and a jacket with furred collar. The boys are wearing jeans, skater shoes, hoodie or long sleeve Hollister shirts and ball caps..... I know I'm older but why? If this place is supposed to be getting you ready for the workplace, shouldn't you act like you're already at the workplace? I wore jeans twice this week and khakis the rest, but none of this hat bs or sweatpants I keep seeing. The faculty should be doing something about this, these young people are not helping themselves by dressing like this. If the education is getting their brains ready, they need the mental focus for the workplace to also be instilled. Wearing the proper work "uniform" will help with this but since I'm in their peer group as a fellow student, it's not my place to bring it up. Maybe an anonymous letter to the Dean would work... what do you think?

Mid-week funnies

So yesterday I was working on the rant, and just finished posting it when I got a phone call from Blockbuster, oook. Well it turns out that some games I had rented on NYE were returned improperly, so I the next nanosecond I was wondering how did I return games improperly, I didn't return them because they were left at Kelvin's home after New Year's.... then the polite lady from Blockbuster told me they were taken back to Rogers and that Rogers had called her.... hence the reason for the call to me.

Dude! Why didn't you look at the damn boxes? It says right on them Blockbuster and even has the address tagged on the box. So I walk over to Rogers, wait for them to find the bloody games again and then walk 6 blocks to Blockbuster.... man, now I learned a good lesson here didn't I? Don't let Kelvin take any games back for me ever again! I'll let Kelly do it, she's way more responsible. =)

Just today I was talking on Messenger with Kim, and for some reason her Facebook wouldn't load, but when she asked me naturally mine was. So I went on a conspiracy guy rant for 5 minutes, talking about how they track where we are with cell phones, how they record our Messenger conversations. And then the topper, how they can implant trackers in us when we go give blood or spend time in a hospital..... needless to say she thought I was completely serious, which I wasn't.... hehe sometimes I can be funny, but only sometimes. ;-)

Tuesday's Rant of the Week!

Well there have been times lately when some things just annoy me to no end, to the point when I want to yell at someone. That someone being the person who's doing something that makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever!

Here's an example, I live in Canada, a part of the world where it snows often during the winter time (when the little blue ball we live on moves closer from the warm bright thing we call the Sun)... and that snow needs to be moved off sidewalks and removed from cars.

Snow removal... just take it off of your sidewalk, I walk a lot, as do a lot of people, and I really dislike trudging through snowdrifts because some jerk is too lazy to work on his sidewalk for 15 minutes. It's exercise, who needs a Wii? Get a shovel you meathead and move that bloody snow! You bought a house, take care of it! Make your home look someone lives there who cares.

Clean snow off the car, why you ask? Because if you don't remove snow from your car, it's dangerous for fellow drivers and yourself. You might not be able to see out the car windows, or built up snow flying off your car could obscure another driver's vision, possibly causing an accident. Also getting back to walking...I don't know how many times I've been going across a street and some moron can't see me and almost runs into me. What on earth were you thinking? Just take 2 seconds and clean the car off, and I mean all of the windows not just a little spot that only you can see out of. Guess what I saw this morning? Yep, you guessed it a redneck driving a truck, and said redneck had only scraped off enough snow and ice to see out the side window and the front. The whole surface area he could see out of wasn't more than a large dinner plate, on either window! And yes he drove into the crosswalk at a red light, and yes I was walking across said street. What a complete imbecile!

There you have it, my inaugural RotW!!! Woooo, look at me go and get all of that frustration of lazy slack asses off my chest! So please remember to be shovel your sidewalks and clean your car off. This suggestion will only be good for another 3 months, then you can read my rants about people who don't wear tshirts in the summer and should.... eww man boobs? dude...

peace! =)

Day 2 of '09

Happy New Year to everyone reading, which probably means Mom and Dad... *note to self, increase marketing budget, ie tell more people*

So NYE was fun, spent it with my best friends, Kelly and Kelvin, who had invited some of their friends who just moved from Saskatchewan, Stuart and Adrienne and li'l Riders fan Will. Kelly and Kelvin's daughter Taylor was running around also, very entertaining while rambunctiously crawling all over the furniture trying to look at Will, who is 8 weeks old.

Had a chance to play with the new Wii that Kelvin found online somewhere. It's uncanny the man can find stuff at a great price, he's like a cyber-bloodhound, just give him something and tell him it's nowhere to be found and within minutes he has it, hours for something impossible like a Wii just days after Christmas.... mad props K, maaaad.

So I spent most of yesterday cruising around the internet, in a somewhat vain attempt so far to find a decent calendar template for Excel. One of my NYE resolutions is to stay more organized, critical with school and everything else going on. But everything I've found so far is just a basic template, no real way to add items like you can with Outlook, which I'm avoiding at all costs (for now).

Anyways that's it for today, have some games tonight and a few this weekend, nothing too crazy, that's next weekend... oooohhhh boy! peace!