warweasel's Xanga

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 23:49:16 GMT

'Tis Over

Well... all but, anyway. In about 4 hrs, give or take a minute or three, I'll be back at work. Yay. It's unfortunate that the holiday is over... but... it was a good one and it did not seem to race past. It actually seemed to last the 4 days that it was... usually, that's not the case.

Perhaps it was because I chose not to sleep much?

Could be, I suppose. Friday actually seemed like two days... because I was up so early and accomplished so much before going back to bed and sleeping for several hours.

Spent a lot of time yesterday and today sleeping in... needing to switch my hours back to work schedule hours or I would surely die tonight. Especially since I originally woke at about 0600 this morning... despite the fact that I didn't go to bed until 0430 this morning. I got up because I couldn't go back to sleep (wasn't even tired) and played video games until about 0830 this morning... then went back to bed and slept like a log. Thankfully.

Last Night

After chow, me & moms watched more season 3 episodes of House. Next time we watch, we'll be on the last disc for that season... she's starting to catch up! Of course, as often as we do this... she'll probably not catch up to season 6 until it's out on dvd... she doesn't watch the show when it's broadcast on network TV. (Well... very rarely, because she goes to bed waaaay too early.)

After that, I came down and started messing around with the games on the computer. Playing. Got a text from my nephew... one of about 100 for the day (cuz he wants to play that game)... decided to answer him. It was close to 11p by this time. He doesn't outright say he wants to play the game... but he does. Kids, you know? I ask him if he wants to drive into the city with me so I can return that Dexter dvd... he says sure.

So we do that. Clear on the other side of the city we have to go to get to this Blockbuster. Even better, my friend told me the wrong cross street. Good thing my nephew could read the small print on the label and got the right cross street! Found the store, dropped off the video.

"S" lives on the way home from that area (thought not in that area) so me and the boy stopped there for a little while. The boy's met "S" before in the past... so they are familiar with each other. And we didn't do anything, just chatted for about 30 minutes or so... talked about hooking up later in the week, maybe. Then we left.

And even though we did nothing and said nothing of an adult nature... other than making plans to hang out later in the week... the boy was on to us.

"You doing her?"

He asks me this as soon as we get in the truck. I asked him why he would ask me that. "You are, aren't you?" He said this like he'd just discovered all the secrets of the universe. When I answered "Yes. Sometimes." He wasn't sure what to make of that. Because he was puzzled and asking so many questions... I just told him. He is 16, after all, not a little kid. So. Now he knows. All of it. He's been sworn to secrecy, too. Not so much about "A" & "S"... but Lil Miss is not open for conversation anywhere, anytime. Not that I think there's anything wrong with being involved with a 20 yr old... because I don't. Others, I know, would have differing opinions. Let's just say it's not something I'd wish for my mother (or her parents, for that matter) to know about. Not because I think it's wrong or that I'm ashamed... but because I don't want her father trying to kill me and my mother nagging my ass about such things. You know... in relationships like that, the morals of the situation are relative... I mean, it's one thing if I'm with a 20 yr old... it's another if it's YOUR 20 yr old. You know?

So. The boy was pretty much in awe of that whole situation. Mostly, I suppose, because I've got three options for getting laid and he can't even get a girlfriend. (Poor kid. I doubt he'll get one while he's in this school. School politics being what they are... he was given a label when he was in 1st or 2nd grade and that was the end of his social life in school. Period.) He'll get his shot, probably in college... but he'll go there a virgin (nothing wrong with that) who's never even kissed a girl. (How sad is that, really? Poor kid.)

I'm actually glad he's in those shoes, though. Glad I didn't suffer the same fate, but glad he is... which sounds cruel, I know... but if he doesn't have a girlfriend and isn't getting any play, there's no chance of him getting a kid he didn't plan on getting, you know? That and he can focus on other stuff instead of girls. Kids get so focused on that stuff so young... I know I certainly did. And how it came to pass that I never ended up with kids, I'll never know, as I surely did my share of barebacking in the day... and I became sexually active very young... 13 as a matter of fact. Not. Good. Made me quite happy at the time, of course, but looking back... really not a good thing. At all. My neice is 13... I can't even imagine, you know? Or imagine my nephew knocking it out at 13, either, for that matter. (or even now at 16...) Good grief.

Anyway...

I ramble.

We got back home here and I decided to play the game with the boy for a while. We played online with one of his friends... we just wanted to play with him alone, but other friends of his kept joining the game... the nephew's friend ended up pissed off because his other friends wouldn't leave the game... so he left, eventually. We played a couple of games with his friends then, cuz my nephew wanted to do that... by then it was about 0230... so I sent the boy home.

Of course, I stayed up a couple more hours after that... but no more game playing. Well. Not that game.

Today

Slept. Ate. Fixed my sis's photo order. Pain in the ass, but we got it done, finally. Looked at my text messages... like 100 of them today from my nephew. He should know I'm not going to play on a night when I have to work. I got about 100 other things to do. Like my laundry, for example. Plus, any day I work, I completely lack any motivation to do anything but lie around like a slug. The thought of going to work drains every bit of ambition from my body. It really does.

Photos

These are the photos that my sis & bil chose to use for their family shots & the kid's yearly photographs. I took all of the photos, of course. Which explains some of the poor quality. (not all of these are great photos... I do try, but sometimes... it just ain't happening.)

The family

The boy. Would've been a better photo if not for the shadows. They like it even with the shadows. Me? I just see shadows ruining a photo... of course.

I'm glad they chose this one. This was the best pic I took of Zach.

The girl...

The sis & bil...

The girl again...

The kids together. (Gosh... they're almost touching! )

Today's Video

Behind the scenes on the set of House... (Part 1 of 3)

Peace...

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 23:22:24 GMT

Well...

The holiday is drawing to a close. Tomorrow night will mark my return to work. Bah. Not looking forward to it, but... it's a necessary evil at this point in time, so off I will go.

I've spent the holiday doing a whole lot of nothing, really. And enjoying that. If I didn't work, I would never get bored. I don't get people who say they'd have to work or they'd have nothing to do... what the hell is wrong with them? Seriously? I could find... 1000 things to do if I didn't have to work. About half of them productive things, even. But be bored? Me? Nevah!

Holiday Recap

Wednesday: Came home Wednesday morning... the beginning of my holiday. Stayed up. The nephew came over at 0700 and we started playing Modern Warfare 2. I finally sent him home around 130p because I could no longer play the game successfully... concentration was gone. I needed sleep.

Slept. Got up. Ate some food. Thought about playing more MW2, but decided against it. Just hung out around Xanga and elsewhere on the 'net, played Sims2, that sorta thing... went to bed.

Thursday: Got up way too early. Hung out for a bit. Eventually called my nephew to come over play more MW2... we played that all afternoon until it was chow time. Ate turkey, watched football. Hung out at my sis & bil's house and chatted. Mom had to work Friday so she went home early. My nephew & his friend Andrew went bowling. My dad left & my neice retreated to her bedroom... so it was just me, my sis & bil... didn't stay too late, though. Me & my sis were going to do the Black Friday thing, of course, and my bil had to work, soooooo... I left around 9p. I think I went to bed around 930p.

Friday: Woke up at 0255... about 30 minutes before my alarm went off. Got a shower & got dressed, consumed caffeine, played Sims2 until it was time to head over to my sis's house. Got to WalMart about 0400. They let everyone in the building... guess they didn't want a repeat of the Ohio trampling death from last year. No waiting outside in a mass of people. You could go in and hang out. They had the BF special merchandise wrapped and guarded... that stuff you couldn't get until 0500. Though some people were cheating, of course. We stood by little boy's coats because my sis wanted to get a coat for one of her daycare boys. One of the parents of the boy is laid off (for the 2nd time this year) and the little guy is 6 yrs old and wearing a 2T coat that's waaaaay too small for him. (WalMart had little boy coats for $3.) She also got his little brother a coat... though his coat fits, the dog chewed the collar off of it. Of course, this is when the lady went into seizures and flopped about on the floor like a fish out of water. Very interesting. I'm glad the people on that side of the aisle did a good job so I didn't have to get involved. I was ready... I watched the entire time... but they did fine and didn't need any help, so I stayed out of it. Napped after I came home on Friday. Most of the afternoon, really. Played MW2 with my nephew until about 0130 in the morning. Played Sims2 after he left... then went to bed.

Today

Got up at some ungodly hour in the morning (0500?) and couldn't go back to sleep. Decided it was a good time, then, to clean the aquarium and the ferret cage. Got the aquarium cleaned first... then let the weasely ones out to play while I cleaned their cage. They were all kinds of excited. Bouncing off the walls and such.

Roran & I had a disagreement. I won, but I suffered the bruises for it. I was reaching into the 2nd level of the cage and Roran was standing below... he decided to stand up on two legs and taste my forearm, the little shit. He does that shit to me all the time and it really pisses me off. He's not biting super hard or anything, more of a hard nip, but he aims for the most tender places. (If he weren't so cute, I'd strangle him!)

I scruffed him for biting me, which pissed him off. When I let him go, he whirled around on me and got my wrist, which he refused to let go of... until I got really angry and started tugging whiskers. He got scruffed for about 5 minutes for that last one. He left four teeth holes and about a 2" bruise on my wrist that happens to hurt like a motherfucker. I could strangle him, I really could.

When I let him go from his 5 minute scruff... he certainly knew I was pissed off at him. But he started back-talking (yes... seriously) by hissing at me and then he'd run up and act like he was going to bite my finger. (I was pointing at him and threatening him. Sounds silly, I know, but ferrets are very, very smart.)

Engaged in a power struggle with a ferret.

I won, eventually. He backed down and went off to play. I just suffered more for it. And no... he's not nippy all the time... just every now and then. He's actually very sweet and very attached to me... like a baby, but when he's decided to be ornery, look out! He's such a little dick head when he's in that mood.

I played Sims2 for a while after that. Finally decided to go eat something and let Jesse out. Jesse went out to play while I ate. Mom & my sis went somewhere... so it was just me with the dogs. After I ate, I decided to go call "S" and see what was shaking there.

Went to "S"s place... haven't been over there for a while. Watched some football, enjoyed some adult beverages and engaged in adult activities. Watched some more football, enjoyed some more adult beverages, engaged in more adult actitivies. Rinse & repeat. Came home, eventually, and slept the rest of the day away.

Don't know what I'm going to do tonight. My nephew has texted me about 20 times today... he wants to play more MW2, I know. I just don't feel like it tonight. I'm just going to chill and hang out and not do a damned thing.

Actually... what I should do is get up, get a shower and go into the city. Get dog food for Jesse and drop off Dexter at Blockbuster for my friend. Not sure I'm that motivated. Could probably convince my nephew to go with me... as long as we play that game later on. Bah. I don't feel like playing that game today. And I don't feel like going into the city, either, for that matter. I feel like being a lump, to be perfectly honest...

From The Gallery

Good grief. Glad you are home safe and sound. I do not think you need to step foot in another WalMart til at least 2012.Why is it that WalMart is always the place that gets in the news for consumer hijinx? ~ queenie If it were up to me, I'd never set foot in a WalMart. I completely loathe those stores... they sell nothing but cheap crap, anyway... unless you're talking electronics or something. Unfortunately, they happen to be on the way home from work, so I step foot in them more often then I'd like. As for why the hijinx? I assume because of the clientele they attract, on the whole.

stupid news media -- gotta just say "a disturbance" so they get people all shook up ... sounds like enough excitement for a while ... enjoy the rest of your day... wrytercatblue Apparently, there was an actual disturbance at a different WalMart... that we found out later, though never found out the nature of the disturbance at all.

I stay away from black friday. I refuse to be subjected to crazy soccer moms in search of this years perfect gift. (the new thing is supposidly those fake guinnea pigs.. my cousin wants one and he has a real guinnea pig he's ready to toss so he can get a fake one, zuzzu or something pets.) 18 years old I experienced my first black friday as I tried to leave work, watched two old women battling over a childrens bike, watched john get knocked to the ground and ended up trapped in infants without an excape route to my car. (thankfully the management team opened the fire door in the break room and let those of us who made our way back there to excape the madness, out.) I will never ever go do black friday. Unless its online. :) ~ despondentdelerium I don't know if it's just being here in the midwest or what... I've never experienced any real rudeness or fighting or whatever on Black Friday. People have been generally pleasant. This Black Friday was... nice. The only bad thing was the seizure lady... we got what my sis wanted with no problems. The only bad thing was the check out line, which we stood in for about 45 minutes. But... everyone was pleasant there. No pushing or shoving or being rude at all. We were out of the store by... 0610 or so... and off to breakfast!

So did you find the stuff you wanted? ~ ElevenStones All I wanted was Carmex. And yes, I got that. I'm not there to shop, I'm there for muscle. That is all.

It amazes me that so many who are diabetic completely ignore their disease. I know of at least two people who are really flirting with death (one of them needs a transplant, he's been so bad about his diet). ~ butshebites I don't know if this woman ignores her disease regularly or if she just was too excited about the day of shopping to think about what she should've been doing... or what. I know she went down like a rock (fortunately, the guy standing next to her had good reflexes and caught her!), flopped about like a fish, went into cardiac arrest and then came back... and she was still completely out of it when she came back. So her BG must've been way low.

Um.......so they stopped CPR because........? ~ WordFaery Because they were able to regain a pulse and get her breathing on her own again. By the time EMS arrived she was concious and sitting up (with help) but completely out of it. They only did CPR for a short period of time... maybe... 90 seconds. They got her back real quick.

Gonna See...

If mom wants to watch House tonight for a while... that'll give me something vegetative to do. Then probably chill for the rest of the night and play Sims2 or something.

Today's Video

In honor of ferrets and Thanksgiving! (And no... NOT one of my ferrets...)

Peace...

Friday, November 27, 2009

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 13:38:39 GMT

Public Saftey Annoucement

If you're diabetic and going out bright & early to do Black Friday shopping, please EAT before you leave home so you don't end up flopping around on the floor like a fish outta water at WalMart, stop breathing & have to have cpr performed on you! Thank you.

End PSA...

Yes. Some lady at WalMart fell out in a diabetic seizure and then did the whole, stop breathing/stop heart beating thing. Right across the aisle from us. And no... didn't help or interviene this time. The people over on that side of the aisle did a good job... didn't see the need to add to the chaos... though I didn't leave the area until EMS arrived, just in case.

I've been an EMT for 21 yrs... I've got the good sense to know when to leave well enough alone and when to interviene. Also know enough to stick around... those performing cpr might've eventually needed the help, had EMS not arrived when they did. (Though they had stopped cpr by the time EMS had arrived, but still...)

So. That was our Black Friday excitement.

Of course, this apparently made the news bright and early this morning and was announced on air as there being a "disturbance" at WalMart... which my mom (who was work) heard... and freaked out, especially when she couldn't get a hold of my sis via cell phone.

Mom finally called back and talked to us and knew we were ok, so all was right with the world again. (She had the notion that someone had gone into the store with a gun and started shooting...)

Anyway...

I'm been up since 0255 this morning. I'm going back to bed for a while! Catch you all at a later time...

Peace...

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 23:39:39 GMT

Holiday

It's here! Yay! Ok... the actually holiday isn't until tomorrow... but I'm on holiday and that's what matters. NO WORK. That makes me exceptionally happy. Yes it does.

Last Night

Not much happened. We only had one supervisor, Sam. Apparently, Kelly had her appendix taken out... which is good because she was walking around complaining of her side hurting her for 2 days... she pretty much knew it was appendicitis, but didn't want to spend Thanksgiving in the hospital so thought that ignoring it was the best action to take. I told her that it would be better to have it out than to have it rupture... then she'd really be looking at hospital time... but she didn't seem to listen to me much.

Apparently, however, Malachi said something that changed her mind. About... how would her kids feel if they were having Thanksgiving without mommy... because her appendix busrt, she became septic and died. Apparently, that line worked. I guess I just wasn't using strong enough language.

Merrill, the part timer was our escort since we didn't have two supervisors... which is good because he rarely ever forgets to give me a break. Though I have to say he was disappointed last night. He came in and I was not watching House. He then tells me that he almost forgot to come back there, but then he remembered that I'd be watching House and he wanted to watch some House, too. Unfortunately, he got stuck with Dexter. On the upside, he decided he liked Dexter, too... even though he liked House better.

But... that was about the excitement for the day. Very little paperwork to complete... area searches were completed... then I watched Letterman & Ferguson before starting in on Dexter.

Home

Got in around... 0630. My nephew was over here by... gosh, might've been before 0700. (I had told him to go to bed early and get up early and we could play the game first thing in the morning.) Dogs had a short run... it was too cold to be outside for long... not because of the air temp, which was in the 40s, but the damned wind was blowing so hard, you couldn't get away from it. Not sure what the windchill was, but it was blowing the cold right through both my & Zach... bah!

Dogs away and we start gaming while the ferrets play. The ferrets were very interested in my company. They know when there's someone new hanging about... so, of course, they had to make pests of themselves for a while. Oliver was running and leaping, attempting to tackle Zach. (Ferrets just don't get that they're little some times!) Roran was trying to decided which body part he wanted to taste (he settled on my arm, the shit) and Isaac was trying to be a cuddle bug, which is his nature... everybody else was just playing.

We actually had to stop gaming once... well, didn't have to, but chose to... to watch AFW... All Ferret Wrasslin. Magnus was beating up Roran... who is about twice his size and less than half his age. It was rather amusing. Then Oliver decided to get involved in it. It was rather amusing to watch. Not so easy to describe, but fun to watch just the same. The looked like a furry football rolling about the floor, really.

Me and Zach played Modern Warfare 2 until 130p. We did stop around 11a for some food & soda... because I was getting really hungry. But other than that, we played from about 7a until then.

I finally had to stop because he was just killing me all over the place in our last match. He killed me 7 times and I killed him 1 time. I was just getting tired and had developed a severe case of SNS - Shiny Nickle Syndrome. I'd be on the hunt... being cautious and watching myself for his devious & murderous little ass... and then? I'd see some cool graphics within the game and completely lose focus on what I was supposed to be doing... causing him to be able to kill me in numerous different ways while I was distracted by the "shiny nickle".

Sent the boy home, went to bed.

Slept for less than 4 hrs and then up for chow. Then this here thing. Yippee...

Cold

I think I'm catching one and I am not amused. So far... it's just the faintest of indications that one may be on the horizon. My throat hurts. It hurt yesterday, off and on. I thought it was because of the dry air in the house, but... it's not gone away, so I assume that it's a real cold thing. One of my little sinuses keeps clogging up while I sleep. That's annoying. And I'm sneezing quite a bit.

I never sneeze.

Seriously. Unless I get into a bunch of newly disturbed dust (allergy) or I'm sick. Otherwise? I don't do the random sneeze for no particular reason thing. If I'm not in dust and I sneeze? Sickness is coming. Bah.

I suppose running about without a coat ever and staying up all day (when I should probably be sleeping) and playing video games with the boy probably aren't helping that anyway.)

Tomorrow

Thanksgiving. Hopefully, the turkey will be smoked all day and then fried. Weather permitting. And it does sound like the weather will be permitting. We haven't had a fried turkey in a couple of years... either because of the weather or the fact that my bil, who does the turkey frying, was sick. Hopefully this year, it'll happen.

Probably spend most of the afternoon at my sis & bil's house... eating and watching football games. That's what you do on Thanksgiving, after all. I suppose my nephew will want to play more of that game as well. That's do-able. Maybe earlier on in the day, before the food part starts.

House

Just some links for you, if you're an interested House fan. An LA Times interview with Robert Sean Leonard (Wilson), a BBC article about House saving a man's life AND the first three minutes (the teaser) to next Monday's episode of House. The teaser involves House & Wilson (always worth watching!), House & guitar & singing (at an inappropriate hour of the morning) and Wilson & a friend that is not House. (It is also the only time you are likely to ever see Robert Leonard in hunter's orange. ) Go. Read. Watch. Etc.

Today's Video

Two actually. From Ferguson... two parts of the same interview from last night's The Late Late Show. The interviewee was Peter Capaldi. I was familiar with Capaldi before last night, only because he was in the Brit series Fortysomething with Hugh Laurie, which I happen to own on DVD. (Which, by the way, is an amusing little Brit comedy series, all of 6 episodes in complete. I guess what we in the US would call a mini series.

He is a Scot and has been a friend of Ferguson's for many, many years. (They were in a band together in their late teens/early 20s) A fellow Scot and a friend of Ferguson's? Always an entertaining interview!

Part One!

Part Two!

And... Happy Birthday!

To Billy Connolly, who turned 67 yesterday! And you know I love Billy...

Wildebest ~ Billy Connolly

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Peace...

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:10:46 GMT

Holiday Eve

Tomorrow morning at 0600 sharp, I will officially be on holiday. I'm ready! Just got to survive the night and get to it in the morning. I'm so happy it's finally here. Not so happy that it'll be gone in a flash... but... whatever. I'll take what I can get, I suppose. What choice do I have, after all?

Work

Back to the pod last night. My little hole in the wall, where nobody ever goes. Especially true last night. Nobody could be bothered to give me my first break at 0100. Was a little annoyed by that... but instead of becoming angry, decided to do a little social experiment. Well... not really a social experiment, but an experiment just the same. I decided to not say anything... and see if anyone ever managed to make their way back there all night long, or if they were just going to ignore me for an entire shift.

It sounds like a huge inconvenience to not get a break... but it's really not. I'm pretty self contained back there. I have all the amenities. Water, bathroom, food. (Snacks the kids don't eat... usually fruit.) We're not supposed to use the bathrooms back there, but the simple fact is... people do. And I did.

And... I didn't say a word.

Kelly was the supervisor in charge, so technically it would've fallen to Jake to do breaks. But... Jake also likes to bring his XBox into work, set it up and play video games all night.

Now...

Nobody really cares if he does this. I surely do not. However... it'd be nice if he like... did his job first. And continued to do his job, for that matter. You know? It's not a huge hardship for someone to stop playing their video game for 15 minutes to give them a break, you know?

But... Jake never showed up at 0100. Nobody ever showed up at 0100. Or 0200. 0r 0300... finally Jake rolls in at 0400. At least he finally remembered my last break, eh? And on time, even.

And no. I didn't act mad with him, didn't say a word to him. It was an experiment, after all. Just wanted to see what the results would be. Now I know.

Malachi called me in the middle of my experiment to report to me that Rick & Jake had approached Ruby and "asked" her if she would mind working control for a while and Rick would work her pod. The reason for this? So Rick and Jake could sit in the break room and play video games, that's why. Rick obviously can't come out of control to play video games...

That is wrong on so many levels. Seriously.

Ruby complained about it to Malachi... but she agreed to do it. She's waaaaay too sweet & nice to say no, honestly. They left her in there for several hours while, they fucked around playing video games. And, of course, they picked the right person to ask... you noticed they didn't go ask Malachi some fucked up shit like that, right? Right...

Kids today.

What's going to happen... and can see this coming a mile away... is that someone is eventually going to get pissed off at Jake for sitting around and playing video games all night and they're going to complain... to admin. And then they'll ban our gaming systems... just like they banned our laptops... and then I'm going to be pissed off yet again. This is always how shit gets fucked up. You got one idiot that can't managed to do things the right way and they fuck it up for everyone.

If that happens I'll put my foot so far up his ass...

But that was really all for work. The population went back down below 50... but only just. I have only 11 detained youth on my pod. 4 females and 7 males. Very quiet over there really. They don't even generate all that much paperwork. At least at the moment. And that's certainly fine with me.

Today

IHop Tuesday. I was sooooooooo hungry all night long. IHop chow hit the spot this morning, that's for sure. And because last week someone asked what I eat when I'm there... I always have either sirlion tips & eggs (Sirlion tips with onions & mushrooms, hash browns, 3 eggs and two pancakes) or the T-bone (same extras as the sirlion tips.) I'm not much of a breakfast food person, honestly. I'd rather eat steak. Though I do like biscuits and gravy... I've never had them at IHop. I'm partially to... steak.

Chatted with my friend over chow... nothing all that interesting going on. I think she kinda wanted me to hang out with her, maybe tomorrow... but I had already told my nephew we could spend the holiday playing Modern Warfare 2... and he's so excited about that, he's abut to burst. (Seriously... it's all he's talked about all damned week... every night, around this time, he starts texting me about playing. He has, in fact, been texting me the entire time I've been writing this. )

Slept well today. Got up and had chow. Now I'm doing this. Yay.

From The Gallery

LOVE STEVE MCQUEEN ~ queenie As should everyone. Though I've met people who actually don't like him at all. Personally, I think those people are cracked. And everyone's entitled to their opinion, no matter how wrong it is... right? This is still America, after all.

Honesty does make people happy (after it pisses them off, sometimes). ~ butshebites Yes, yes, yes! I don't get the whole lying thing, I really don't. Or making excuses or whatever the case may be. I also don't get the reason behind lying (well... making an excuse) for something as silly as Jake did. I really don't. All he had to do was say that Rick handled it wrong. Easy enough. But no... he chose to make excuses. Rick didn't even make excuses. And most people are happy if you tell them the truth, even if your truth is stupid as fuck.

I am glad you are enjoying reading Stephen's book , have you watched the DVD yet of the series. I watch some of the series. It is remarkable that many Americans have not visited many states compared to vistors. I have been to RI, Mass, CT , Cal, TX and Il. ~ englishjuls I have not seen the DVDs yet, as they are not yet available in the US... at least they weren't when I ordered the book, anyway. I will probably buy the DVD set when it's released in the US... just because I think they'll be just as interesting as the book is...

As for the whole Americans not having visited many states thing... my guess is that most of that is economic. I would love to go to California, Hawaii, Alaska, Maine, Vermont... etc... but those places are too far away and I can't afford to go. I can't afford to fly... plane tickets to most locations are outside of my affordability range, to be perfectly honest. I could certainly drive to those places... it'd be cheaper... but then I run into the lack of time off thing. Not affordable in that fashion.

Yes... I've been as far as Florida... most of those far reaching southern states were visited when I was a kid and went vacationing with my parents. We never flew (couldn't afford it), we always drove and always took a two week vacation, which my parents spent all year saving up for...

I can afford to go about... 2 or 3 states in any direction from me... depending upon how large those states are and that's about it. The right & left coasts are outside of my reach. Unfortunately... and unless something changes drastically, they always will be...

you haven't been to new england & the northeast corner states -- those are the only places i've been -- except for a trip to north carolina by truck & back by bus that i don't remember cuz i was stoned the entire time (many moons ago...) will have to check out that book ... do you read The Smirking Chimp website? ~ wrytercatblue No... I haven't and I'd love to go... I just can't afford that kind of a trip, unfortunately. I've never taken an entire bus trip stoned out of my gourd, though I do remember being drunk as hell on a cross state ride on a Greyhound bus. My friend Bob & I drank our bottles of rum whilst eating grasshopper cookies. It's a wonder we didn't barf all over that bus, to be honest. And no... I haven't read The Smirking Chimp website... but I will check it out.

People of all Countys have their own ways and for some reason they think the whole thinks and acts the same as they do. and if not then they think something wrong with THEM ~ Starwolf Yes. Exactly my point. I don't think there's anything wrong with what other folks do... don't have time for that. But, as with the flag thing, I just assumed they did the same in England as they do here. Never occured to me that it would be different... which, I suppose, is a rather silly assumption all things considered. I don't think it's wrong of the Brits to not display their flag all over the place and certainly don't think the Brits are any less patriotic when it comes to their country than we our about ours... not at all. I guess, honestly, I never really thought about it... and in not thinking about it, just assumed it was there as it is here.

Today's Video

Little Stevie's best song ever, in my opinion...

Superstition ~ Stevie Wonder

Peace...

Monday, November 23, 2009

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:52:04 GMT

Inching Closer...

To the holiday weekend! I now only have to survive tonight and tomorrow night... then I'll be free for the next four days. I should be ok... bolstered by House tonight and IHop Tuesday tomorrow morning. It is these little things that get me through the work week! Sounds ridiculous, I know... but it's true.

Work

The population is still low... but has creeped up over the 50 mark. I suspect that it will continue to creep. I can't see the population staying this low for any extended period of time. Especially with the holidays coming up. (Some kids want to be in jail for Christmas because we give them a present... nothing spectacular, donated gifts from the public at large, but for some kids? That's all their going to get, even if they're not locked up.) Besides the kids who want to be in jail for Christmas, there'll be the ones that the police are looking for... the ones with broadcasts and warrants out... they are much easier to find during the holidays. It is not uncommon for the police to do warrant calls in the wee morning hours on holidays... when people (old/young) aren't expecting it.

Malachi was late last night. And then pissed off. Jake & I were the only peeps in shift briefing... Malachi was supposed to be there, too, but he wasn't. After a while Jake asked me if I had seen Mal anywhere in the building prior to coming into briefing and I told him I had not. Jake was wondering where he was and I told him that it was not at all like Malachi to be late. (I think this is the 2nd or 3rd time in 8 yrs...) He said he knew that and that he was concerned that something might be wrong.

Either way, someone needed to call Malachi and find out what was going on so he told Rick, who was in control, to call Mal and find out what was going on.

So Rick did.

I got my briefing... ("Nothing happened today") and went to control at that point in time. Because Rick could not reach Malachi, Jake was trying to figure out how he was going to run the building with only 6 staff...

Not long after that, Malachi calls back and says he's on his way.

Well... Malachi gets in while I'm in control. He's pissed off. He asks me who called him... and I told him that Rick had because Jake had asked him to... why?

That fucking idiot called, let the phone ring one time and then hung up. He didn't even leave a message. If I hadn't heard my alarm go off, I'd still be at home, over-sleeping.

He was hot.

He thought it was some 2nd shift idiot that had called and not gave a shit if he got the message he was supposed to get or not. That pissed him off plenty... when he found out it was a 3rd shifter? Wooooo doggies.

After he made his first check, he marched down and asked Jake what was up. He asked if they can talk because he needed to know if they made a new policy about contacting people who hadn't shown up for work. If they still were supposed to leave a message or just call, let the phone ring once, then hang up.

So, Mal goes down there and asks those very questions. Jake... like a knucklehead... starts making excuses for why this happened instead of just saying that Rick was wrong to do it that way. That just pissed Malachi off even more... so he walked out of that office and onto the pod where Kelly was... he went to her and asked her the same questions he asked Jake... and she did the smart thing and said that what Rick had done was dumb... which made Malachi a little less annoyed... but he was still pissed off at Rick.

He finally catches Rick in the hallway and asks him what his problem was... why he only let the phone ring once and then hung up without even leaving a message. Rick said that he did that because he didn't want to "bother" Malachi... because he figured he was probably already on his way and he hates having to call people and ask them why they're late when they're already on their way.

This explanation made Malachi happy.

Yes. It's the most ridiculous explanation ever, I think... Malachi thought so, too... but he also believed that Rick was being honest when he said it... and Malachi is more concerned about you being honest than being smart. We both laughed, however, at Rick's excuse. Isn't the point that you're supposed to bother someone... in case they've overslept or something? Yes. Yes, it is. But... Rick doesn't want to bother people. Silly, silly boy.

The rest of the evening I spent reading Stephen Fry in America.

I'm enjoying this book very much. First of all... it's interesting to look at these United States and our citizenry through the eyes of an "outsider", for lack of a better term. Secondly... Stephen Fry is an intelligent, charming and funny soul and all of that is clearly evident in his writings.

And... I have no doubt that some Americans would pick up this book, read it and be offended. (Those people would be far right leaning Bible thumping homophobes and "patriots" who believe that anyone who disagrees with them is unpatriotic... etc and so forth.) Stephen makes no bones about that with which he disagrees. I wouldn't say his honesty is brutal... it is not. But if he doens't care for something, he says so...

And let's face it... some people are going to dislike him regardless of what he writes because he's a foreigner, a homosexual and an athiest. And we all know that that combination is enough to make some people's heads spin on their axis, regardless of anything else... right?

I have to admit to the occasional feather ruffle from him... mostly because when it's said out loud or, in this case, written in a book... it seems like an attack. It's most certainly not an attack... only an observation made from someone on the outside looking in. When I turn around and look at it that way, it's not so feather ruffling anymore... it's hard to hear something critical of your country, from a foreigner especially, and I think this is especially true for us Americans.

One of the things he said (of many) that struck me was our love of our flag. Well... maybe not exactly our love of it... but our habit of displaying it all over the place, all the time. Something that is not done with the Brit flag, apparently. Which... was something that had never really occured to me, to be perfectly honest. I just assumed that there were rows of homes in England that had Brit flags flying outside them... like we have here.

I guess such is not so.

This wasn't brought up in any critical sort of fashion... just an observation he made. Something that we do here that just isn't done on his side of the pond.

I also have to say that I'm extremely jealous of Stephen... for he got to see all 50 of our states. All of them! We Americans should all be so lucky. I have been to a fair amount of states... but not all of them. (More than half, though, which is actually reasonably impressive, I tihnk.) I would like to be able to say that I've visited them all at some point in time, though, before I croak.

I have visited...

Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Monatana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin & Wyoming.

So, anyway. The book is an interesting read. I'm more than halfway done with it now... I'm sure I'll finish it next Sunday night...

Elsewise...

Nothing much going on at all here. Just counting down the days until the holiday. I'm sooooo looking forward to the holiday... the time off... I need it!

Really... nothing going on. Seriously.

Today's Video

The chase scene from Bullit. Steve McQueen and bitchin' ass 60's Detriot Iron. Doesn't get any better than this... and, if you're a bright cookie, you'll figure out what it means to "McQueen" someone...

Steve McQueen ~ Bullit

Monday, November 23, 2009

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:56:27 GMT

I like him...

Short Week

Starting the short work week tonight. I just want it to be over so my four day weekend can begin, really. Hopefully, the week will be good... since there are only three days of it, seems like it shouldn't be too hard to pull of a good one, you know.

But...

It's not off to the greatest of starts so far. I woke with a pounding headache... probably a migraine, but whatever... I have got it under control now, but I'm so tired. Or... I feel so tired, anyway, despite having slept most of the day. That's going to make work a joyous experience for certain.

And...

The Steelers lost. Again. To the fucking Chiefs? Something is seriously fucking wrong if shit like getting swept by the Bengals and beaten by the lowly Chiefs is happening, that's all I gotta say. Don't know what... but somebody (Mike Tomlin, perhaps) had better fucking figure it out soon before the season's a wash...

I expect

That I shall sit in control tonight and read Stephen Fry's book, Stephen Fry in America... hopefully, that will maintain my interest for an entire shift and pass the time without me noticing it's passing. That would be most amazing and most appreciated if that were to happen. Listen to music and read that book... I hope it passes the entire night, but hope I don't finish it in one night... cuz I'm fresh outta books after that's done.

The rest of the week? I have high hopes for... Monday night is House and Tuesday is IHop... Wednesday, I'm starting my holiday. See? It's looking quite promising, don't you think?

BFTV

That would be Band From TV... they were set to play a gig in Madison, Wisconsin last night... but as the band was boarding the plane, the gig was cancelled on the other end. No idea why it happened. (Well... I'm sure someone knows why it happened... I, however, am not that someone.)

I'm really quite glad that I didn't try to go to this gig. The only reason I didn't go was because of the time of year... driving that far, at the end of November? Yeah... that's just asking for a blizzard or some shit like that to happen... had the gig been scheduled during the summer? I'd have no problem making that drive (about 18-19 hrs round trip) and I would've purchased tickets and made hotel reservations, etc...

And then been shit outta luck...

After I'd already started on my way there. That would've been annoying. So, for once? I'm glad I missed out on an opportunity... since it ended up being a non opportunity in the long run.

Instead of playing a benefit gig in Madison, Wisconsin, BFTV fed the homeless at Union Mission in downtown Los Angeles. (Though band members Bob Guiney and Adrian Pasdar did go to Madison to appear at the Women's Expo there, as scheduled...)

Click here to read a nice blog article about BFTV.

I'm hoping BFTV will do another midwest gig... in warmer months and closer to home. Hope the last minute cancellation of this gig doesn't keep them from looking to the midwest for gigs. (This would've been their first midwest gig, had it not fallen through.) We'll see, I guess...

Yesterday

Hung around during the day. Had the dogs outside to play ball in the yard. It was pretty decent out... lower 50s, I'd guess. The dogs were enjoying the outside time and the ball chasing. They ran until they were all huffy puffy and then we came inside.

I eventually went to my ferrety friend's place. Brought the ferrets with me... the first time in about 2 months or so that they've been able to play together. (Due to mine being sick & hers being sick...) Needless to say, I've had very tired ferrets all day today. Not a peep outta them.

They also got to play with my friend's parent's dog... a golden retriever. My ferrets have never played with a dog before... they seemed to quite enjoy it. Maybe not the being slobbered upon, but most of the rest of it.

Oliver... he was the amusement for the evening. Ollie is a good natured, sweet, happy go lucky little ferret. Very bouncy and high energy. (Even for a ferret) He's never been a ruffian... one to pester other ferrets (in a mean spirited way) or any such thing... he's like the happiest ferret on earth. No kidding.

But last night?

Last night he flipped the fuck out on one of my friend's baby ferrets. Now... I say they're baby ferrets and, technically, they are... they are less then a year old. They are also huge. They are bigger than my Roran... both of these babies weigh over 5lbs. They are fucking monster babies!

Oliver... who is their half brother (same mother)... is a runt. For a breeder ferret, he's just a wee little thing. He's over 3lbs... but he's not anywhere near as long or thick as these babies (or Roran, for that matter)... doesn't have the big, blocky head... none of that. He is a runt, through & through.

Well... most of the ferrets had congregated under my friend's bed. To sleep, I would suppose. My friend and I were watching a movie. Well... all the sudden there is a huge ruckus involving a lot of ferrety screaching & hollering... I thought it was Isaac at first... but after listening for a bit realized it wasn't his screech...

So, I went over to the bed and saw a couple of ferrets going at it... reached down and "rescued" Oliver from the baby ferret... took him over to the sofa with me and held him and told him what a mean baby ferret for picking on lil Oliver like that!

But Oliver... he didn't wish to be consoled. He wanted down.

So I put him down and told him if he got picked on again, it wasn't my fault.

Not 10 minuts later, the screeching is happening again. We pause the movie and look... out from under the bed, comes a baby ferret... running his fat, waddly ass as fast as he can... with Oliver right on his heels... his back.. and eventually his neck, where he commenced to biting (and shaking) the living shit out of the baby ferret. The baby ferret was screaching like he was being killed.

A familiar screeching, as a matter of fact.

My friend and I watched this and laughed for a good 10 minutes before rescuing the baby ferret. Yes... that sounds mean, I know... but it was funny for one thing and for another thing, Oliver wasn't really hurting the baby ferret... hurting his feelings, perhaps, but that's about all.

So. When I "rescued" Oliver the first time, I had actually rescued the aggressor. I don't know what that baby ferret did to Oliver, but he was one pissed of little runt, let me tell you. Oliver was mad as a hell and he wasn't going to take it anymore... whatever "it" was. I have never, ever seen Oliver act aggressively. Ever. So, whatever the babe was doing, Ollie had apparently had plenty enough of it.

Got home around 11p.

My nephew had wanted to play video games when he got back from working the football game. He got back home around 1140p and we played Modern Warfare for a couple of hours.

I went to bed around... 330a, I suppose.

And That...

Was pretty much my weekend. My friend & I went out for Indian food last night, so I have some shrimp vindaloo left over... I'll be having that for breakfast. My friend thinks I'm crazy for eating anything with vindaloo curry in it to begin with and then thinks I'm even crazier for coming home and eating it for breakfast. What can I say? I like hot food... and this batch of vindaloo shrimp wasn't even that hot, to be honest. (she would be to differ... she had some, then told me I was fucking crazy. ) Oh well. Should be quite delish by tomorrow morning, no doubt.

Today's Video...

More Monte Python...

The Lumberjack Song ~ Monte Python's Flying Circus

Peace...

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 05:45:39 GMT

Weekend!

Huzzah! Yes. Quite ready for it. It's gotten off to a good start... not that I expected it to do anything else, but you never know. I know tomorrow will go by quickly and then I'll be at the weekend already... but the good thing is that whole part about only working three days next week.

Hello four day weekend!

And it'll be Thanksgiving. Which means food will be involved. I like to eat. I like to eat turkey. There will also be football involved. I like football. I like watching football. See? A good holiday. Not as good as July 4th... nothing beats The Three Bs... beer, bbq and blowing shit up. Nothing!

Work

We were short staffed, but it wasn't any sort of problem. It just meant that nobody would be anywhere near me all night, unless they were giving a break. Not that they tend to come hang out with me, anyway, but leaving less people just means less possibility. 'Tis a good thing.

Paper work & area searches were completed... Letterman & Ferguson were watched... the remote control to the dvd was unhidden and I watched House all night. Thought about playing video games, but setting everything up is annoying... not that it's difficult or even time consuming. It's just more time consuming than slipping a dvd into the player and pushing play. I didn't feel like doing much more than that, so I didn't do much more than that.

As for the dvd remote control...

The fucking school teachers. We have school in our building. It is part of the city's public school system. We have our our dedicted school teachers (I mean that in both ways that it can be taken, by the way) and our own principal. Our detained youth go to school all year round, with week long strategically placed breaks. (The thought is that most are so far behind in school, they can use their time in our facility to try to get at least somewhat caught up... or not lose any ground, as the case may be.) School is mandatory. You don't go to school, you stay locked in your cell for day.

Anyway...

These fucking school teachers (most of whom I actually like, by the way) come into the facility and think they run shit. (Some more than others.) It's very nerve wracking. Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday of this week the motherfuckers hid the remote control to the dvd player. It's not their remote or their dvd player, for that matter, but that's how they roll. They come in and think everything is theirs. It's very annoying.

The remotes for the tv (I have my own, so I don't care about the facility's) and the dvd player have always been kept in the teacher's supply closet on top of the filing cabinet. They keep them there because it's locked and the kids don't have access, but all the teachers and staff do. See?

Well... for this week, they decided to remove both of the remotes and hide them in their office. Now... I would say that this wasn't intentional are their part if they had just left the remotes lying on their desk. But no. First it was in one filing cabinet... the next day, it was in a desk drawer... the next day? Elsewhere yet again.

So, I basically spent 15 minutes three nights in a row, looking for the damned thing. Rifling through their desk drawers and filing cabinets in their office trying to find it.

Of course... if they realize you've been IN their office... let alone rifling through their shit? Then they get all bent out of shape. Staff has no business in there... and no business getting into their desks...

I told Kelly on Tuesday night that if the motherfucking dvd remote was hidden, again, for the 3rd day in a row I was going to find it and then join them in their game. Let's see how they like them apples. Kelly just laughed. I'm not sure if she laughed because she thought I wouldn't do it or laughed because she knew I would. I would expect the latter... but you really never know with these people.

So. Of course, they did hide it again. And I rifled through their shit and found it again. And when I was done with it, I hid it from them. In their own supply closet... just not any place that they'd ever think to look for it. Motherfuckers. Ha. Take that.

When I came onto my pod last night, the first thing I noticed was a note from the teachers written on the white board which asked if any staff had knowledge of where the dvd remote was, could they please return it to the supply closet where it belongs?

That amused me.

Granted. It doesn't take much. So. I used the remote all night and when I was done, I returned it to it's proper place. Hopefully, the motherfuckers learned a lesson. If I have to go hunting for it again, I'll make sure they never ever see it again after I find it. Ever never. They want to play hide and go seek? I can play that game, too. Waaaaaaaaaaay better than they can even imagine.

And yes. I do realize it's childish. I don't care. They started it!!!

Home

It was mighty nippy outside this morning. Under 30F. Still haven't thought about a coat or even a jacket. Had to do a little scraping on the windows to leave work. I hate scraping windows. With a passion. But driving blind is a pretty silly thing to do, so I scrape.

It was foggy, foggy, foggy outside. Like I picture the English Moors would be... like a scene from An American Werewolf in London... couldn't see a damned thing. Really don't appreciate that type of fog so much.

I had to stay in the city (driving wise) since I had to drop of Dexter at Blockbuster. Fortunately, that's on my way and on a main road that leads back to the interstate... so it's all good. They little bit of delay also allowed some of the fog to lift... so the interstate wasn't so foggy by the time I was back on it.

And, amazingly enough, no ice on the bridges.

Which was good since the traffic was skipping along at it's normal well over the speed limit pace. I try to stay off the interstate if the roads are icy... big rigs sliding all over the place and little rigs with idiot drivers who insist on driving 85 mph despite the road conditions... I'd really rather not share asphault with them...

Had the dogs out, ferrets out. Messed around on the computer a big. My nephew was texting me from home and eventually, from school. He found a tattoo he wants to get. He's 16. My sis & bil said that he could get one if he picked one out and then didn't change his mind about his choice for one year. So... his one year officially started today. We'll see if he keeps his choice for the next 364 days. (I think he will, honestly...)

Slept well. Had a dream I no longer remember. I think my sis was in it... but I don't recall.

Mom woke me at 4p and said she didn't feel like cooking anything so she wanted to take me out to the local bbq place. Well... hell... I'm down with that! BBQ? Seriously? I'm all on that. Had a half rack of ribs, those fat ass fries, cole slaw and a cornbread muffin. I love cornbread. I was stuffed when I left.

My nephew had been texting me while I was waiting for food... and I had been answering, but obviously had to stop that when the ribs came. Don't want a messy phone, after all. Ate, came home and the boy started texting me again. He wanted to show me the flash (tattoo art) he had picked out. So I told him to come over. Pretty cool tat... a dagger with a dragon wrapped around it... and some cool smokey type edging.

He stayed after that and we spent the next several hours playing Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. Two man co-op missions. Blasting the shit outta bad guys. Fun stuff.

Now?

Just chillin'. My fingers are cold because before the boy left, we were standing outside bsing... talking about Monte Python, actually, and laughing at ourselves while running lines from The Holy Grail. I hope my fingers warm up. I hate for my hands to be cold. Makes all the rest of me cold, too. (Same thing with the feets.)

It's only 1230a so I suppose I'll be up for a while yet. A couple hours at the least. Then I'll head off to bed. To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there's the rub!

Of course... not meaning the same variety of sleep that Hamlet was refering to... oh no. Not that sleep. I would never, ever pull the Dutch act... unless there were some serious extenuating circumstances, anyway. I like myself entirely too much for that business.

Anyway...

I'm doing nothing but rambling on...and quoting literature, apparently, so I think it's time for me to post up an illness of the day and a video of the day... and be on my merry way! (Hey! I rhymed! )

Today's Illness

Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease

And yes. I know what it is. I knew what it was before I linked it. And no... I didn't get this one from House... though it has been mentioned on House before. I actually got this from The X-Files many moons ago. This is one illness you do not want to get. It is uncontrollable and incurable. Nasty, nasty stuff...

Today's Video

I had so much fun laughing with the boy about Monte Python, I thought that a Python video was an all together fitting and proper way to end this post...

Dead Parrot ~ Monte Python's Flying Circus

Peace...

Friday, November 20, 2009

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:12:04 GMT

It's Almost Over

The work week. Almost done. I'm glad. I'm ready. At least I don't feel so tired this evening... I was really tired all last night and had that damned annoying ass headache, too. Not terribly bad... just annoying. It stayed with me most of the night. Got worse during Ferguson... because Ferguson & Lewis Black amused me half to death, and all that laughing made my noggin' hurt more. But it was worth it.

But, regardless... I'm ready for the weekend. 8 more hours of... work... and then I'll be done. And have a short week next week. I'm quite ready for that... though I know it'll zip by like nothing. They always do.

Work

The population hit the big 50. That's still low... but the mid to upper 40s were nicer. The pod that was closed was reopened after one day. See... told you it would be. Shit like that never lasts very long.

Not much else happened. There really isn't much going on. Inmate wise, staff wise or admin wise, honestly. The last edict that admin issued was promptly ignored by everyone. Of course... we all knew such would be the case. I certainly didn't have any intention of paying it any sort of mind, that's for sure. But... that's me and I tend to play by my own rules most of the time, anyway. But... nobody else is paying it any mind, either. Amusing, eh?

I watched Letterman & Ferguson... then played NCAA football on the PS2 the rest of the night. Ferguson was awesome... David Duchovny, who I like a great deal (I love his sardonic sense of humor, the fact that he's not an idiot... and he was Mulder for 9 yrs. How can you not like that?), was on the show. I was amused by David & Wavy the Croc/Aligator's back 'n forth. And Lewis Black following Duchovny. Brilliant!

Black & Ferguson were making fun of the Twilight movies (as well they probably should) and Black commented that he'd rather do what the young people call "cutting" than watch that movie. Ok... that made me start giggling pretty good cuz I think all this Twilight stuff is really silly... and then I started thinking of my supervisor, Kelly, who is all into the books/movies and Robert Pattinson and I knew she was watching Ferguson... and I knew that was going to annoy her... so that made me laugh even more...

And then she called me over the radio to whine about it.

Ok... when she did that? That pretty much sent me right over the edge. Took me about... 2 or 3 minutes to regain my composure enough to answer her over the radio without falling out into giggle fits.

And... yes. I am easily amused.

Home

Dogs out, ferrets out. Isaac ferret is really feeling better now. Last night before work he was beating up Roran... who is much, much bigger (not to mention younger) than he is. Not sure what got that started up, but Roran was trying to run away and Isaac was hot on his heals. And then when Isaac would catch Roran, he (Isaac) would scream like he was being killed. Isaac is deaf, you may recall... he screams bloody murder when he wrestles... win or lose, doesn't matter. Of course, he had no idea how loud he is... but man, he can let loose with some ear-shattering pitches. Wow.

Skipped around Xanga a bit, read my email... sent an email or two. That was about that.

Went to bed... finished up The Gun Seller in bed. Nice read, all told. Laurie did a really nice job. He could probably have a decent career as a writer, if he chose. (Or a musican or probably 10 others things. How the hell does one guy get so much talent and someone like me gets shit? That's soooo not fair!) Everything made sense in the end, he tied it up in a neat little package. A tad predictable... but not horribly so. The protagonist, Thomas Lang, is an entirely likable kid... and, as I mentioned before, quite amusing. Good read. I'd recommend.

I finished the book... I think there were only two chapters left... but one was long as fuck... and by the time I was done, my eyeballs were suitable worn out. Good enough for sleeping, then. (I had not be at all sleepy when I went to bed... had hoped reading would push me over the edge and it did.) And off to sleep I went.

Dream

Strange little dream. Though it sorta made sense. It was a combination of my work, House & The Gun Seller... sorta. Yes, I know... my brain decided to weave a bunch of stuff together. Silly brain.

I was at work... but my work was at Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hosptial... only it wasn't... it was my building. But it wasn't a jail, it was a hospital... but the parts that I saw of it, looked exactly like my facility. Minus the jail cells, of course. Funny how you're brain'll do that to you, huh?

I was in the main break room... the one that has an outdoor break area... and I could hear someone trying to break in from the administration area into the break room. That door doesn't lock in real life... but, in the dream it did... there were two people trying to get through it. I kinda thought... "Oh shit", but wasn't really that worried. One voice was a female, the other male... and I was hoping they wouldn't get through.

But they did, of course.

The male person was Dr. Robert Chase... the female was faceless, but her name was Latifa... she came from The Gun Seller. Chase had a gun. Sweeeeeet. Latifa might've two, but I don't think so. And she sorta disappeared, never to be seen again, after Chase got into the break room with me.

So... Chase is there with his assault weapon... and I'm there with my cigarette, wanting to go outside and smoke it. And we both know each other and stuff... and finally, I'm like... I'm going outside. He told me not to because he had a gun. I just looked at him, shook my head at him and told him again that I was going outside. He said he'd shoot me... but I didn't believe him and I told him so... and I went outside. And he didn't shoot me.

When I came back in (yes... I could've gotten away at that point, but I came back into the building. Go figure.), I didn't see Chase anywhere. I went around and started warning other people that he was taking over the building by force. Or with a gun, at the very least. That seemed to freak people out a bit. It didn't really freak me out because I knew he wasn't going to shoot me. And probably wasn't going to shoot anyone else, either.

The last I remember is later finding Chase & Foreman way out back of the facility, burying a dead baby. Chase, apparently, had killed the baby... that was the reason behind the whole take over thing... and Foreman was helping cover up the whole situation... and by default, I suppose I was too, since I didn't tell on him. (If you don't watch House, Chase recently killed a patient intentionally... James Earl Jones, as a matter of fact... but obviously not an infant. And Foreman did help him cover it up... so there ya go.)

The guns and taking over a building came from the last two chapters of The Gun Seller.

I'm amused that I'm as unaffected in my dreams as I usually am in real life. (I'm not an excitable personality... not prone to fear or panic or anything like that typically.) In my dream, I got a guy with a gun threatening to shoot me and I'm still going out for a smoke... ya bastard. That is so me. Of course... if I pulled that shit in real life, I'd probably get my head blown off, huh?

Ah, well...

The God Son

Haven't heard a peep from him since 11/4. I'm not really sure I'll hear from him again for a while... maybe a long while. I'm sure I said a thing or two that hurt his feelings. I usually do. Those things are typically called "the truth" by the rest of us. You know... all those things he wishes not to hear.

His mom told me that his sister said that he came into the bank (she didn't see him, but one of her coworkers did) to cash a check from McDonald's... so at least he seems to have a job. That's something. Also said he was riding with an older lady... so hopefully, he did find some place else to stay, other than his friend's drug dealing parent's house.

I hope so.

I hope that he's not writing me because he's so busy busting his ass working. That's what I hope. I don't know if that's the case... I doubt that it's the case, because history tells me to doubt it. But, I hope. I do. I want him to do things the right way and have a decent life instead of being wrapped up in the criminal justice system his whole life. It's a craptastic way to live... he needs to figure that out before he gets himself dug into a hole he can't dig his way out of...

I just don't know what to think...

Today's Video

I've posted this once before, a while back. This is the digital drum set I'm going to get. (The Roland HD-1) This is by far the best soloist I've found on youtube using this drum set. I love this guy's beats... especially in the beginning. Very cool. Hopefully around the first of the year, I'll own this set!

Peace...

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:34:15 GMT

Almost

The weekend. It's almost here. Tonight & tomorrow night, right? Yup. (Had to check my calendar and confirm today actually was Wednesday. Sometimes I lose track.) So. Yeah. Tonight & one more. Not much... but tonight, it seems like a lot. I'm ready for the weekend. I'm tired and right now I have a stupid headache that I woke up with... it's annoying me. It's not so bad that I need to call in sick... on the other hand, it's not so good that it won't get worse and make me miserable later on. Especially, if I stay tired.

Swell.

I'm sure I'll be fine. I probably just need to wake the rest of the way up. I slept really well and woke up still feeling like I needed to be asleep... I dunno. Hard to explain, I guess. It's like needed to catch a second wind before I've ever caught the first one, basically.

Work

Still not too much going on there. It is incredibly quiet. Our population rose a wee bit, but it's still under 50. We worked with only 6 staff last night. (Two of those were supervisors) One of the pods was completely shut down because it was empty. How's that? We even had a sick call for our shift and didn't need to find coverage for that person, because we didn't really need them to begin with... crazy.

How long this trend continues remains to be seen. I'd expect not very long. I'd expect and certainly wouldn't be surprised, to find out that the pod that was closed yesterday is open already today. I don't know that, of course, but I'll assume it's so... because it likely is.

I watched the last season two episode of Dexter last night... then continued on with the 2nd season of House. That was after watching Letterman & Ferguson, of course. And doing the local & LA Times crosswords... completed them both again. Again left the evidence of my superior intellect behind on the male pod staff desk for the idiot staff on 1st shift to contemplate. I know. Not very nice. Don't care.

At least the night went by quickly. Having something to watch... even if it's House... again... passes the time. And I get pretty engaged in House, even if I've seen the episodes before. (I could say the same for The X-Files... I could literally sit and watch the episodes over and over and over and never get tired of them. I should finish off my X-Files dvd collection... I have seasons 1-4 on dvd... just need to get the five that followed.)

The Job

Just a follow up from yesterday, really. Because I wanted to say that, you know... not every single one of these kids fails to make something of their lives. Every now and then... and it is a rare event, believe me... one of these kids will get themselves squared away and end up doing good things with their lives.

In the almost 11 yrs that I've been working in this facility... of all the thousands of kids that have come through the doors and out again in that period of time, I can think of two that have turned themselves around. Now... there may be more. I don't know what every single kid that's been there in the past 11 yrs is doing now. I know where a lot of them are... I see their names in the newspapers or on TV when they've committed their latest crimes or have been murdered or whatever the case may be. But these two stand out.

One is Brandon. Brandon was a bad, bad, bad kid. Nice kid... which sounds contradictory, I suppose... but I always thought he was a nice, pleasant kid. I always liked him and I never had any trouble in dealing with him. But he was a naughty one. He was a hardcore gangbanger, drug dealer... he started coming into our facility when he was 12... he was in and out until he graduated to Big Boy Jail. I always assumed that Brandon would end up killing someone... or someone would end up killing him and he'd spend the rest of his days away from society, one way or the other.

It didn't play out like that, though. Brandon was lucky. Religious folks might say that "God had a plan" for him. I'm not religious so I won't say that. Brandon got caught up in a federal drug investigation. His friends that weren't already dead (13 of his best friends had been murdered in gang violence) ended up in prison. He somehow managed to escape any charges in this drug bust... and it was that bit... having lost nearly all his friends to gang violence or prison, that made him take stock of his life and start doing things differently.

He works now. And he's a rapper. He's actually quite good at it, too. He's not your ordinary rapper. Instead of rapping about the glory of gang life, drugs and what not... he's rapping about the negative aspects to that life style and rapping about positive stuff. He's come into our facility twice in the recent past to talk to your detained youth... it's good to show them that there are other ways of doing things.

At any rate, I'm glad that Brandon is doing things differently. Like I said, I always liked him and thought he was ok... even though he was a bad ass. He's 24 yrs old now... and doing things the right way. That's cool.

The other success story is Armando. Armando was another likable kid. He wasn't in our jail much as a juvenile, but his charges were serious. Armed robbery and the like. He never was never charged as an adult, though, because shortly after he left our facility for the last time, he had a son... and decided that he needed to do things differently for the sake of his kid.

He got a job working at the state pen... and he works part time for us. And yes... that was quite weird at first. For me, anyway. A former inmate is now a coworker... how often do you suppose that happens??? Not often. I like Armando. He is a very, very nice kid. (He's also 24 yrs old now) Hard worker, always on time... nice and pleasant to talk to... no bullshit.

So. Sometimes, there are happy endings. Just not very often.

And, for the record... it may seem like I hate my job... but I don't. I really, really, really dislike a lot of my coworkers and administration and the bullshit that comes along with the job because of idiot coworkers and administration. If the place was well run (and it's not), I'd probably love my job.

But. Since it isn't that way? I'm rather... well, I don't hate my job, but I don't love it either. It's just sorta there... a place I show up 5 days a week to get a paycheck and not much more than that. Just so you know.

Holidays

Next week starts the holiday season, yes? Cool. I like the holiday season as it means time off work and time I get to spend with the family. I like my family. Well. Most of them, anyway. Let's just say I like my immediate family... and I like spending time with them. So the holidays are cool.

On the other hand...

There are members of my extended family that I don't much care for... not after last year's events, anyway. Not that I cared all that much for them prior to last year. I didn't. But, beings as they were family and all, I gave them the benefit of the doubt.

But no longer.

Nope. They crossed a line and it's one that you can't uncross once you've crossed it. You know? What gets me rattled during the holiday... well... as rattled as I'm likely to ever be, anyway... is the fact that now, around this time of year, I have to start thinking (dreading) about having to spend the holidays with these people. Last year, they were kind enough to remove themselves from the equation by traveling to Florida to spend the holidays at their friend's condo on the beach. (You can run that last line through again, with the snottiest Richy Rich voice you can muster... cuz that's how it was presented, when it was presented.)

I was soooooo happy about that last year. I could give two shits where those motherfuckers spent their holiday... on the fucking moon, for all I care. As long as I don't have to share oxygen with them, I'm quite happy. And last year? I was quite happy. They were nowhere in site! It was awesome!

Of course...

Not sure that such will be the case this year. I am crossing all my crossable parts. Because I don't wish to share oxygen with them. Ever. For any reason. The problem is... if they stay here, they will invite us. And if they invite us... my dad will want us to go. And if my dad wants to go? We will all drag our sorry carcasses there, whether we want to or not. For him. Because that selfish ass is his only remaining family, besides us. And despite the fact that his brother is a first class asshole? He still loves him. What're you gonna do? I will not hurt my dad by saying no. Yes... it sucks to be me, cuz I don't want to be around them. But everyone else, but us, has fucked my dad over and hurt him... be damned if I'm going to join that little club. Fuck. No.

So. I hope the motherfuckers find somewhere to go. Somewhere that's not HERE, thanks a bunch. Otherwise, Christmas or one of the days around Christmas is going to suck balls.

What I'd really like... is for them to retire and move the fuck out of the country. I know that sounds like a "that'll never happen" scenario... but that's not true. They've actually talked about it. They lived in Australia for a year and they've talked about retiring and moving there. My uncle is already retired... just waiting on my aunt to be retired. It's probably wishful thinking to think they'll actually do it... but I hope they do.

Of course, I'd owe an entire country an apology... but at least they'd be out of my hair.

Today's Video

Just to prove that all rap music isn't about violence, I present you with this...

Good Ass Mother Liker ~ Hugh Laurie & Stephen Fry

Peace...