A Moment in Time

I was heading home from work one day when I noticed something. It wasn’t anything big, couldn’t hardly be called interesting, and would have come and gone if not for my notice that night. Would my life have been dramatically altered? Would I have “Gone down a different path” so to speak, had I not noticed it… It’s really too late to know.  But it got me thinking. Life is full of these moments. Only, most of the time they do go unnoticed.

You’re at work. It’s been a long week, and you’ve got your manager breathing down your neck about this weeks mess. Forget the fact that you’ve been slaving away trying to fix someone else’s mistake. It’s your project now, and it’s not  “To Par”. You finally find time to take lunch, and that girl from the office you keep meaning to talk to is in the break room talking about the movie she and her friends went out to see last night.

That’s it. There’s nothing special about that situation.  Heck, it’s a story that plays on repeat at every job across the world, and yet…

Let’s say you’ve seen that movie, though you’ve had a bad week, and you’re not feeling very sociable. You get your food, eat, and return to the mines. It was after all the only time you get in a day where “Most of the time” no one is yelling at you to fix yet another problem. Two years later you finally move on to another job, and hey, life’s better now right?

Rewind that. Bad week or not, you’ve been meaning to talk to this girl, so you do. Just a few words about how you (did/didn’t) enjoy that movie, and hey guess what, she agrees. You guys talk for a few more minutes, and shoot, it’s time to get back to work. Two years later you guys (dated/never talked again/flirted but it never went anywhere/married/who cares) afterwards, and would you look at that, a whole section of your life was (possibly) changed in a moment.

(Almost “Pandering” with the “Romance Example”, but it adds the “Confidence” angle to this “Moment in Time” piece.)

It’s little moments like that which make up  the stories we have to tell from our rockers many years hence. And in these moments, where is your head at? Me, I think I’ll keep my eyes just a little more open, if I can. And maybe have a camera ready. ;P

 

If you don’t fail at least 90 percent of the time, you’re Not Aiming High Enough. –Alan Curtis Kay

    Anyone who knows me knows that I’m not one to walk around spewing quotes.  That’s because I keep them in. Sort of like a core set of “Rules” that shape my actions. I may not memorize the quote word for word, nor may I be able to tell you who said it, but they have a profound impact on my modus operandi nonetheless.

  I’ve equated it to programming code when trying to describe this to my friends. You can try and write code all day long, but if you don’t use the right functions (Disclaimer: The last thing I coded was in QBasic, so I may be butchering my analogy here. ;P ) you won’t get results. Typing “Make a Window with two panes.” won’t get you anywhere. As such hearing someone say, “Don’t be afraid to fail” doesn’t really cut it. For me that comes with an assumption that one’s reluctance to try harder/extend oneself is based one an internal concern over failure. That being untrue, I immediately discard the valid portion of the statement, “that you should extend yourself” (Subconsciously. What I really need is a “Code” to open “that” guy up… ) and in turn get nothing from it.

  Now this cute little quote though is something else altogether. It not only removes failure as an obstacle in it’s “Advice”, but actually includes it as a requirement in one’s actions. And that’s what I need. It’s kind of odd acknowledging a "Weakness" in being primarily successful at most of what you do… but think about it this way.

  If you’re constantly successful, that means that either you’re not working with stakes that balance your skillset well enough, or you’re some kind of luck master. Some people will tell you that "Careful Planning and Execution" is all it takes to be successful. Some people will also tell you that they can talk to your dead relatives and tell you things from beyond this life. What you choose to believe is entirely up to you. I don’t think my great grandparents can communicate with me any more than I think that "Careful Planning and Execution" is "All it takes". I feel that I’m living proof of that. I’ve always carefully planned, and executed with precision, and while I’ve not failed at the things I set out to do, I’ve not achieved something I’d call "Success" either.

  There you have the real root of it. What would you consider "Success"? That’s a personal question really. For some, success might be paying the bills, and raising a happy child. While other may not consider themselves successful until they’ve carved a place for themselves out of this world that will outlast them. My personal definition of success involves creation, be it written work, games, or something else. Thus far, I achieved what I’ve set out to achieve, but I’ve not really "Created" anything. At least not at a level that I would consider successful. I know that the main reason for this is my getting side tracked by "Conventional" definitions of success, but now it’s time to let go of that, and start failing.

NOTE: There are several threads that I’ve only lightly touched upon here, but this is more a rambling response piece upon hearing that quote. I could take several of these subjects out for a jaunt  in their own blog posts, and who knows, I might. ;P

 

Mini Update

I really need to write more often. I’ve actually composed a few different posts but they were they uninteresting to me. I’m not that sure what I want to do with this yet (And my life’s been rather a mess for long enough that I’ve not been interested in writing at all. ;? ) but I know that I want to do “Something”. I also wanted to bump my last post from it’s “Most Current” status. From the moment I wrote that things have just steadily rolled downhill, and while I don’t believe in deleting posts, I don’t want that to be my last word on the Subject at the moment. ;P

 

My Beautiful Lady

   Wheee….. so what’s new in the wonderful world of my life eh? Let’s see… I’ve obviously failed at updating daily for quite some time. That was due in part to having watched a friend and Co-Worker die at my job (Something that I’ve let eat me up enough that I’ll not go into more detail here.), and part to starting up a relationship with someone I used to date. I mentioned (Only a few posts ago here… wow, it’s been forever. ;?) before that I’d received a call from someone I’d not talked to in quite a while, that was her.

  So we went out, had dinner, danced, and quickly fell back into seeing each other again for the same reasons we’d gone out before. I asked her why she looked me back up, and she said that she just remembered being happy with me before.

  Anywho, Fast Forward to now and she and her fourteen year old son (He’s a teenager. I think every parent who’s raised a teenager understands that statement. ;P ) have moved in with me and my roommates (We have a Four Bedroom House, and there are four adults, one teenager, and a baby. It’s not crowded, but it’s certainly never empty. ;P ), and we’ve definitely had some growing pains along the way.

   For one, I’d not say we were “Lazy” (It’s such a mean sounding word. >.>) but we’ve always been Veeerrryyy laid back about getting things done around the house.

 

   Now, I used to be a neat freak. We’re talking daily vacuuming, frequent dusting, and keeping the entire house nice and clean. This was while I still lived with my Father, and I couldn’t have been happier. But then I moved out, and started living with my friends… let’s just say they weren’t the neatest… Don’t get me wrong, they were awesome people, and I loved living with them. Paid their bills on time, were fun to hang out with, etc. but you’d swear that they were allergic to cleaning. Anywho, I kept up with the house at first. Cleaned up after people, got on to them about cleaning, and so forth.

   Well, I was out of work for a couple of months (I don’t remember it being that long, but I’ve been told it was. Bills were still paid, but I was starting to get behind when I went back to work. ;?) and of course I just took it upon myself to do everything around the house so that at the least I was still contributing. This is where they broke me. It’s bad enough getting on to people about their cleanliness. It worse when you are daily doing nothing but cleaning up after them, and they don’t seem to care. So I stopped caring. Wasn’t easy at first, but you get used to it. (Sad but true.) Hey, I was a lot less stressed at least.

 

   Yeah, since then I’ve been far more lax on my cleanliness. I don’t leave foodstuff laying around (That’s still something I can’t stand.), and I tend to keep my clutter to my own areas, but I’m certainly not a neat freak, and my new roommates are the same. (A mite worse in that they do leave foodstuff out, partially due to there being a baby, but better in that they don’t have quite as much clutter.) So when she moved in, we agreed to keep things cleaner around the house… and let’s just say that while there have been improvements, things still aren’t as clean as she’d like them (Nor up to the level that was agreed upon during a sit down household meeting), and that’s wearing on her .

   Also, her son, while a good kid, is listless in life. He doesn’t care about school, life, or anything really. And it’s frustrating because we try to engage him, to find what may catch his interest, but he just doesn’t care (Or he’s acting like he doesn’t). There’s a lot more to him than I’ll go into here, and we’re definitely working on all that, but yeah. ;? (Again, he “is” a teenager, but it’s definitely more than that.)

   These minor “growing pains” aside, I’m really happy that she’s back in my life though. For one, it could be said that I’m not really good at taking care of myself. It could also be said that I’m thoughtless and insensitive. These things are true to varying degrees, and she offsets these traits rather admirably. She’s very Empathetic, and is quick to let me know when I’m behaving in a thoughtless or inconsiderate manner. This is a good thing.

   She’s also gotten on to me about taking care of my teeth. Let’s just say my mouth isn’t in “Great” condition. I went into the Dentist and needed a Root Canal, and will need several (21) Cavities filled. Most of it’s due to not flossing, as I was brushing my teeth, but that apparently wasn’t enough (And I definitely didn’t brush my teeth as often as I should have when I was younger. ). I wouldn’t have done this without her urging.

   She’s even brought more than just a higher level of cleanliness to the household however. We used to have “Cooking Nights” where certain people were responsible for making or providing a meal for the household. This lasted for a little over a month, and then died. Since she was used to cooking all the time anywho, working out an arrangement where everyone took a night to cook (And she took two) was awesome for her, and it’s gotten us back into a much better eating routine.

   There are countless other ways in which she enriches, and adds to my life, and I’m thankful for every one of them. To be honest, I sometimes wonder why she still cares for me when it seems she does far more for me than I do for her, but I’m glad that she does. I do try on my end to show her that I care, help with her son, and other things… but I just don’t feel it’s enough sometimes. I guess it’s a good thing I’m not the one making that decision though. ;P

   Well, that’s definitely the biggest change in my life as of recently. I’m trying to get myself back onto the Bandwagon, and start with my Blogging again, so maybe we’ll see an update around here… this month… or something.

 

 

Keyboard in the Dishwasher?

Okay, so this is the first test of the Dishwashed Keyboard. ;P I think it’s working. I also happen to like how my hands are forced to work only on the keys they’re meant to be working on. I’m learning already (Something I was already aware of) that my Right Hand likes to go for the B. Hehehe, it’s now on the other side of a Gulf, and Only the Left hand is in position to hit it. ;P I like that. The " sign is still really close to the Enter Key… let’s see if I accidentally hit "Return" while I’m trying for " on this one too. ;? Hopefully not. Well… this is a senseless and goofy post… but it is what I promised for "This" Blog… ^.^ (O.o! I never realized I was hitting the ^ with the wrong hand… ;P My Right hand was just hogging all the keys… o.O! )

Continued Testing:
1234567890.+-*/qwertyiop[]asdfghjkl;’zxcvbnm,./`1234567890-=

Whoo Hoo! Tis a Success! Yes, you can Wash you Keyboard in a Dishwasher (In case you bought it, like I did, at say Goodwill, since it was an Ergonomic and you were using a Keyboard that came packaged new with Windows 98…) to get out the Gunkus you don’t even want to know is in there. ^,^

Observations:

The keys are a little stiff… as I did buy this used, and I’ve never used it before, I cannot be sure if that’s just this keyboard, or if it’s some side effect. I’m going with it’s just the Keyboard. Also, I can’t use it with my Keyboard tray in… since it’s like twice as thick as my old one, and there’s not enough room in there for it, and my hands. Finally, I now have Multimedia Buttons… I don’t know that’s I’ll ever use them (I had them once before on a Wireless Keyboard, and they didn’t really get used. ) but they’re there. (Also, the "Media" key links to a dead file… somewhat’s amiss in my File associations… I’ll fix that later.)

 

Post PAX Blackout is Officially Over…

  That’s enough of a post in an of itself, as it’s a warning that my Blogs are about to be spammed by me once more… but I’ll go further. ;P

  I simply adored PAX. This isn’t the Blog where I’ll be detailing that Love, you’d have to look over That Way to find that(When I get around to posting them)… but I will say that I’ve not had as much fun working myself to the Core as I had at PAX. This only reinforced my knowledge that Games are my Passion, and not just an interest with me, further reminding me that I should probably work on moving into at least a mildly relevant field… >.>

  I am a dope. I have an account set up at Buxfer (They are really quite awesome. I’d definitely recommend using them if you’ve been looking for some easy streamlined method for tracking your spending and IOU’s. They were great but mildly broken when I first signed up, but they’ve come a good ways, and now continue to impress me. ^.^ ) to track my Bills/Debt(Specifically with my roomies, which it excels in)/Money, and it even has a feature to remind you when you need to dump your Bank Statement so that it can stay up to date… Well I like an idiot ignored the reminder, and had to insert a weeks worth of Transactions manually… That wouldn’t be so bad if I didn’t rely solely on my Cards for everything… Though it did give me a chance to play with their newer bulk entries function, and I must say, it made if faaaar less painful.

  Hey look! A paragraph that doesn’t start with I! ;P Remember, the point of my constant Blog/Babble is to improve my writing, so forgive these follies (And Ream me if you wish, though if you’ve got a problem with my Capitalization’s, get in line, as they are an oddity I wish to retain in my Informal Writings. ;P ) and remember, it can only get better from here… Right? O.o

Finally, this weekend promises to be Interesting if nothing else… I’d already scheduled a day on the town with a friend of the Female Persuasion on Sunday, and then last night I got a call from someone I’d not seen in a little over a year, to meet up and have lunch Saturday… I was really looking forward to having this weekend to recoup and get a few things done around the house… well thus do the best laid plans fall to ruins. ;P

  SIDE NOTE: Jeez… it just keeps getting easier to ramble out a few hundred words… If I keep this up, I should actually be able to do NaNoWriMo for real this year! ^.^ (Hehehehe, trust me, you’ll here plenty more on that later. ;P )

 

So I know this looks like Monday…

And if you were to say this it is and doesn’t just look like Monday, well I couldn’t really argue with you… since you’d be right… In Mainland America! Though if I were somewhere else, like say maybe… Anchorage, Alaska or maybe Honolulu, Hawaii… What about them, huh? They’re not in Monday yet. And if they can claim not to be in Monday, then dangit, So can I! That way I don’t have to make up some lame excuse about how it’s not “Technically” the next day until I go to sleep to explain how I missed a day blogging in my so far unbroken run… >.>  So yeah… I’m still on a roll and stuff…

Okay, so I’m editing this to have at least a fake imitation of Blogging content. I don’t want to cheat anymore than I absolutely have to. Let’s see… the next day after posting that blog about Toilet Paper I ended up at a friends house where he’d left the empty roll on the holder and had just set the new one on the counter. I cracked up, and had to explain why walking into his restroom sent me into peals of laughter. Then, to top that off, I was back at his place today and used the other restroom… No toilet paper at all this time. Now that’s funny in and of itself, though it pales in comparison to the kicker… It had been a month since the last time I’d been over (The previous day aside) and he was living in another place the last time. I went into his restroom then and guess what, No Toilet Paper… It was just too funny. I just can’t win at his place. The next time I head over there, I’m going to have to remember to check the rolls for him… cause who knows who does it when I’m not around… >.>

(I promise to write about something non toiletry related next time. Probably… <.< )

 

Toilet Paper…

  It comes in rolls, and you replace the empty roll with a nice new one just brimming with Soft Goodness… at least you would… if you’re one of the elite few people in the world that actually does that. See, I’d love to just grump at my roommates for forgetting to replace the roll in the Public Bathroom, but it’s not just them. It seems like replacing the Toilet Paper is one of the most difficult tasks known to humankind, and that lucky there are a few souls gifted with the ability to do so, otherwise Cardboard would just rot off the holders, leaving them barren forevermore.

  I am one of those lucky souls… Gifted with the ability to disengage the old roll… bring about the change and rebirth that comes with the replacing of the rolls. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone into other people’s homes, and changed their Rolls for them. I mean, it’d be different if I was the last one to use it. Then the change is natural… but no. I come in, look around, and there it is. All the soft comforting goodness of the roll, left sitting dejectedly on a counter/the back of the toilet/on one those weird bathroom rack things. Setting apart from the place where it would be complete… little by little being bled of what makes it what it is until finally you’ve nothing left but the hollow empty husk… There are times when I walk into a restroom… and the horror of sooo many empty husks, just lying there having never tasted the simple sweetness of the replacing… having never experienced the true unity, and wholeness of being one with the holder… like a battlefield with only the innocent as victims of a careless disregard for the natural order of thing… it’s all I can do to keep my eyes clear as I take care of what needs to be done…

 

Hehehe….

  Wow, it’s harder than I thought it would be to Make myself post daily. I seriously don’t frequently have information that I wish to share/preserve… so why write? I know it’s to assist me in making a Habit and I’ll thank myself in the long run… but for now I’m just kinda meh on the whole thing. Hrmm… I’ve already “Cheated” by putting up a notice of intent in the places that would need such.. so now it’s “Go Time”…

  Let’s see… I finally Kinda fixed an issue we were having at the job. We’ve got these two machines to make designs for us, and one of them has a broken USB port, making Serial (Or Parallel… but we aren’t going that retro. ;P ) the only other option. So we buy this card from our IT guys (Now They’re a good blog for sometime… ) with two serial ports, and it doesn’t work. So I played around with it a couple days ago, even going so far as to get the Machine’s Tech Support on the phone in case it was something up with it, but to no avail. Well tonight, I go in and Re-Install it (Physically as well as Software) and after some playing around with it, I got one of the ports to work. ^.^ I was quite pleased with my accomplishment… though now I have to figure out why the other one’s still giving me issues. Heh, no matter. We can now use both Machines from the same computer, and That was the whole point anywho. (There’ are actually a few other Oddities I need to look into, but Meh… that’s the way of Computers. For every one thing you fix, you’ve got three conflicts to fix as a result. ;P )

  Booyah… there’s a quite respectable blog post… at random… and without impulse. Maybe not the most interesting thing I’ve ever written… but I did it. ^.^ Now I’ve got two reasons to be pleased tonight. ;P (If I can keep this up long enough, I’ll eventually have to start writing After and not Before I get to sleep. >.> ) Not that I want to keep a daily journal (Though That’s an idea… hrm…. ) but I need to find a way to get into the habit of writing. I’d love to do it more, and so if I can force myself to blog needlessly, I can eventually force myself to Really write as well… at least that’s the plan. O.o

  You know… I’m seriously considering a Journal… Diary… thing… Digitally of course.. but it would solve my problem of not wanting to spam up the sites people may at some time actually frequent, and would let there be a place I could write needlessly. Then if anyone was interested in my Day to Day activities, I could direct them there… (Stalkers! ) and leave these other places open for things that are a the least Interesting… you know, like the High Points… Hrmmm indeed. ;P

 

PAX Time

Sooo… it’s coming upon that time of year where I kill myself as a volunteer for a Gaming Con. I love every aching moment of it, and wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s also a little eye opener ever year, as while it’s approaching I tend to fee a stronger desire to do the things I really want to/should do… I know this is because Gaming is my passion (The Business of it as much as the playing of them) and as it wakes that fire in me I’ve been leaving dormant most of the year (This is a terrible thing… but I’m working on it).

This year like the last I’ve decided to start Blogging daily, (Though I fully intend on blacking out for PAX this time. I’m not crazy… completely… all the time anyway. ;P ) and like I’ve mentioned on my MySpace, having multiple places to do so will assist me in actually sticking to it, as I can dilute the flood of Bleah. Hehehe. Anywho, just popping in to clean out some cobwebs, so’s it’s not as dingy around here. >.>

 

Store Hours

  Why is it so blamed hard to find Operating Hours online… I know they want to get you to call, but if they’re closed, the least they can do is have a message on the Answering Machine with their Hours…. :/

  Okay, so I’ve got a few things to do today, and I’m up early enough to take care of them, and them *WHAM* Brick wall, I don’t know the store hours. No problem, I’ll just look it up right? No dice.  Two separate businesses have Store Locators but no Store Hours and when I try and circumvent that through Google, I get a FAQ on one of them saying basically, “Store Hours vary by location, so use the Store Locator to find the store nearest you and give them a call.”  Fine! I’ll bite, so I look it up, I call it, and guess what? I get endless ringing… no Answering Machine, no “Sorry we’re closed, please call back between xxxx-xxxx” Nothing… Bleah….

 

It was the Best of Times…

Okay, so yes it’s my fault I haven’t yet gotten a Helmet with a Face Shield… but I don’t need to be punished my Mother Nature for it!

I woke up just in time to head to work today (Friday, but since I’ve not been to sleep it’s still “Today” to me. ;P ), and discovered it had snowed… okay, so that kinda stinks, I’ll have to take it slow, and I might be late. It could be worse right? So I pull out of my driveway, and at the corner of the street my Moped dies.. greeeaaattt… it’s doing that again. Whatever, I’ll be late but I’ll live. About a block or two from my house it starts to snow. Are you kidding me? Sure, lets add to the Mushy ground.. *grumble, grumble* and I soldier on… Another block and it starts hailing.
We’re not talking the cute, oh look it crushed ice kinda hail, but the HERE COMES THE PAIN BITCH!!! kinda hail, the, “How you liking you faceshieldless Helmet Now!?” kinda hail. The “Hell no you aint gonna get to work in time, In fact, you gonna stop to ransack your bike seat praying for something to cover yo face before I grind it like pie crust!” Kinda Hail… yeah, “that” kinda hail…
Well, I did ransack my Bike seat, and I found one of those “Reusable Shopping Bags” that are popping up all over the place now and sat on the side of the road trying to figure a way to wrap that thing around my face, and stuff it into my jacket so I could make it to work without looking like I’d survived some kind of Slasher Flick. I managed some semblance of cover for my face (Courtesy of Wal-Mart! Thanks Wally World! ;P), and started off. Then my glasses began to fog due to my breath now going up from the face cover…
Here I am now driving to work in the Hail, tugging my helmet as low as I can with one hand while still being able to see from under it, while pulling down the face mask every few seconds with my other hand to give the air time to De-Fog my glasses and the hail time to pizza my face, while driving my moped (When I wasn’t Restarting it) with… wait, I only have two hands… Eventually I made it to work (And to my credit, I was only ten minutes late, even after all that, so Phhbbbttt!!!) and that’s when the day Started to go downhill..

So on the way out the door one of my guys called me up and let me know that he wouldn’t be in today because he’d “Sprained his knee slipping in the snow, and didn’t want to be on his feet all night”… Yeah… not that I don’t believe him (Not that I do either) but that is kinda a lame excuse to call off work for, he’s a good worker with no history of this though so whatever, I’ll be short one guy, hey that’s cool we’ll survive. I get to work after a lovely ride (“Hey, would you look at that, it’s snowing outside. Must have sucked riding here on that…”) and after fending a few people’s comments about the weather I got my guys started, at which time I noticed that my Senior worker was doing the Frankenstein Shuffle.

See… he’s got these back problems, and he went home the previous night due to problems with his back, but he was going to the Chiropractor today, so he’d be A-Ok… and he was doing the Frankenstein Shuffle. This did not allude to good things for the evening. He’d be slower than usual and we’d have to struggle to make our two projects for the night, but hey it’s Friday we’ll do what we have to do, go home, and enjoy our weekends… Except him. His back was too bad, and he had to start his weekend “Go home so he’d not Over-Exert himself, allowing him to be fresh on Monday.”

Now contrary to popular belief, I don’t run some huge crew of fifteen people (Yet. ;P), I run a crew of eight people… counting myself. Two of them have been pulled from my shift for a special project, and while their new “Temporary” schedule overlaps ours a mite, they might as well not be there. Two more of them work in the Metal Shop. A mostly separate (And soon to be literally separate) operation that while I’m learning about slowly, I really don’t know all that much about, so they’re practically not there. That leaves four of us and being down one guy really sucks. Being down two means that over 50% of my current workforce is now gone. Taking into consideration the fact that I’ve not only got to keep the current project moving but also load the warehouse(Did I mention it was snowing), and train the new guy to do the work I need him to do today this wasn’t looking good… oh wait, that’s right, you don’t know that yet. The one guy I have left is the newest (Hasn’t even been there a month) member of my crew, and he’s never done the work he needed to be doing today. No I’m not kidding.

This stinks, but no worries it could (Will) be worse. I’m going to have to be realistic here so I strike one of the projects for the evening. At less than half a crew getting half the work done is reasonable. Especially when you take training into account, so yeah, this really stinks but we’ll make it.

While work was originally underway the shipping dude who brings the majority of things in checked to see how busy we were (How much he can leave for me to bring in) and I informed him that we were “Just Fine, and he should leave it all”… not that’s not right, I remember saying he needed to bring it all in because we’re missing someone, that’s it… anyway he was meh about it, but it’s “kinda” his job and he got back to it. We continued on, (Senior guy’s still here at the moment. He doesn’t Skip Gaily away leave until 1730 thankfully, thus work is getting done) and I had to get with a few people before they left for the day. Well… while I’m talking to the Plant Manager (Guy’s gone now), the shipping dude shows up and informs me that, “It’s all done have a great night”… and then I stop daydreaming because I know he’s here to say, “Have fun” as he leaves for the day (He’s getting stuck in the ice and since it’s far past the time he’d normally leave, the rest was left to me). Thankfully there’s not that much and I head out to do it… before getting stuck in the area assisting my guy plotting. (To be fair, you really can’t effectively plot alone) I’ll put that stuff off a bit and get to it once I have this guy going on the next stage of the project, which while he’ll need trained in(Again, he’s never done it before, and it’s not “Exactly” Plug and Play) he’ll be able to work alone from there.

I’ve got him trained, he’s ready to roll, and it’s Lunchtime. That works out; I’ll head out to McDonalds, grab a bite to eat (While testing my Moped in the Snow because it hasn’t stopped since we got to work), and come back to load the Warehouse while he rolls along on his project. Let’s put something out there real quick. It’s April. I don’t know about your grade school, but at mine they had this cute little phrase about “April Showers” bringing “May Flowers”, and this is Seattle so “Showers” happen every so often (Heck, I bathe once a month at least! ;P). But this wasn’t a shower. This was a Fricking Blizzard. And if having a solid wall of snow wasn’t enough, it was the “Fluffy”, “Beautiful” kind that STICKS TO FRICKING EVERYTHING!!! So we already had three inches of snow and it was still coming down hard. Needless to say it was “fun” getting to Mickey Dee’s and I learned that no, Mopeds do not like thick snow. Not that I was expecting it to, but I did have to go home at some point, and I wanted some “Practice”. Really, a little slipping and sliding both ways aside (And it’s still dying if I let it idle too long) it was a rather uneventful lunch. Heck, I’d even go so far as to say I had a “good” lunch. Then I went back to work.

On my return (I’ve still got some time left over believe it or not. ;P) I’m quickly pulled aside. The Machines are having problems. It’s nothing serious, but he’s new so he was severely crippled work-wise until I got back. I show him what to do to get things running again, and I finish off my lunch (I’ve spelled that wrong every time I’ve typed it. Can anyone tell me what a Luch is? -.-). Now it’s time to bring things in right? Well yes… there’s a catch though. I may have mentioned before that it was snowing. I might have also stated that it was building up rather well. What I failed to mention was that I had to bring everything in up an inclined surface… in the snow… on a Forklift. Let me defend my train of thought here for a second. It started snowing while I was headed in to work. It had snowed prior, but it wasn’t snowing when I left the house so obviously if I waited it out, the snow would stop. That’s where my mind was going when I initially didn’t “Rush Out” to bring things in. That was five inches of snow earlier. Live and Learn eh? Still, it’s a heavy piece of machinery, surely a couple inches of snow isn’t going to stop it. Besides, the remaining crates were quite literally right outside. I could have lain from the bay door to the crates stretched out and touched both. There were more a mite further out, but only a mite, and like I said, it was a big piece of machinery. So I plowed it out into the snow.

Have you ever driven in the snow? Well you could have right? But you’re smarter than that. You know, a car is a tad heavier than a Forklift, and if you saw five plus inches of snow you probably wouldn’t “Plow” out into it right? Yeah… apparently I should think things through a bit further sometimes. On the plus side, I didn’t slide into or damage anything. On the negative side, my forklift wasn’t coming back up the hill without my digging it out. You see, when I started into the snow, I was all pleased with myself because I was having no problem moving forward into the snow, so ha! I was right, the forklift is A-Ok out here, and it even turned around, albeit with a mite of sliding but I was now facing back toward the door and the crates I needed to grab. Thing is I was only “Partially” correct. Sure… no problem moving DOWNHILL. So while I was happily facing the right direction, I was also “Happily” sliding the wrong one. Move out of the Warehouse, Slide Downhill. Turn Around, Slide Downhill. Give it Gas, Slide Downhill… it took me a few moments to see the pattern… Slide Downhill. Yeah…

Okay, so I flubbed. I can fix this. I’d a little earlier watched my Metal Shop guys bring their material in right before lunch and I’d seen them use a piece of Sheet Metal to “Plow” the snow with a path from the door to the material making the job simplicity itself. So I’m a smart guy, and I grab a piece of Plywood so I can do the same. Here’s the thing. My brilliant plan would have worked just fine… had it occurred before my other “Brilliant” plan. The Plywood moved the loose snow just fine, but for some reason there was a good bit of Hard Packed Snow which may as well have been Ice “Glued” to the pavement as far as my Plywood was concerned. It was almost like someone had come through with a “Big Piece of Machinery” and compacted the snow…

Well I moved all the loose snow out of a path big enough to drive the forklift to the first of the crates and then to the door. That accomplished I jumped on the Forklift and Slid Downhill… You see, the thing about “Packed Snow” is it kinda makes driving a bit difficult. So I went for a “For Real” snow shovel which for various reasons (Snow being lower on the list) we actually have, and I actually Dig the Bloody Machine out. That being done I “bring everything in and go home to warm cocoa and a hot shower and….” *Slap* grab the crate and slide downhill. *Slap* No seriously, *Slap* Dangit! Stop slapping me!

Here’s the thing. I remember that way back in my Youth Group people would joke that Snow was God’s Dandruff… well if that’s the case then God was giving his hair quite the Shakedown because no sooner had I cleared the path and hopped on the forklift to bring the crate in, than it’s covered itself back over. No, I don’t mean there was a light dusting of snow lightly blanketing the path. The snow was coming down so fricking hard that you COULDN’T SEE THE GROUND BENEATH THE SNOW moments after shoveling it up. By the time I made it to the end of the path I was shoveling, I was already snowed in. Clearly this wasn’t going to work like I could have hoped it would. I managed through Rapid Shoveling, Driving, Sliding, and Shoveling to get the first crate in, but the amount of time it took, and the sliding that resulted was ridiculous. It didn’t help that the Packed Snow from before was mainly still around. I’d made dents in it, but getting rid of it all would have taken far too long with a Snow Shovel, and was impossible with my Plywood. But wait, where’d I get the idea for the Plywood?

Had I started out just using the Sheet Metal like they had, I wouldn’t have had quite nearly as much “fun” so it’s a good thing I didn’t… Anyway, even with the sheet metal (Which worked exactly like a me powered plow, and took care of the Packed Snow without “too” much fuss.) the snow was still coming down hard enough that I had to “Plow” between every Crate I brought in. Also, lest you think I was allowed solid work time to get this worked out, I remind you that I had someone who had just learned to run the machines they were running inside whom “Occasionally” needed some quick troubleshooting. Don’t get me wrong. He was doing a great job, for someone who’d just learned their job that day. But still, added to a few missing people and some “Light” Outside work, it really killed time. Three hours later and I’m back inside taking an assessment of where we are. Three hours after Lunch, which happened halfway through the eight hour shift leaving us with a Whopping one hour left to “Really” work.

Long story well… longer, we weren’t anywhere near finishing the project for the night. Not only because he was learning his job as he went along, but also because of a few quality issues which left us short earlier. So I had to replace the earlier pieces and try and get him to finish a much as he could in as little as time as possible. Since I was down two guys, I offered him Overtime to get more done (Which thankfully he accepted) and that gave us two hours now. Tweaking his process a mite, I was able to get more done there, and I then busied myself on replacing the Bad Glass. I won’t go into specifics, but let’s just say that I had some trouble doing such and by the time 0100 rolled around (He normally gets off at 0000, so his extra hour was up) we were faaarr closer than we had been, but still not there. So since he’s ready to get out of there (I was ready to throw a party, why would I want to leave now? ;P) I offered some Overtime to my Metal Shop guys (They get off at 0100 this week) and one of them took it. Excellent, I could get “That” much closer to… Oh look, there’s a huge puddle growing from a machine I was filling “Real quick while I worked on something else…”

At this point I had to admit defeat. I wasn’t going to finish even the one project tonight, so I needed to get a count of what was left and wrap up. Thanking him for staying I handed him a Floor Squeegee and starting shutting down for the night. Thanks to my new guys inexperience he left the area “Disheveled” and it took a bit just to get organized. With everything locked up, shut down, and the numbers in check I was finally ready to go home at 0240! (My Metal Shop guy cleaned up the water, and I had him run a few mirrors but ultimately it only “Nudged” us closer to our goal. He did however get me out of there quite a bit earlier and for that I was very thankful. ;P)

Now I’d love to Regale you with some story about how I Carried my Moped home in 10 inches of Snow through Softball sized sleet while trying to avoid the creepy foreign guys who were parked in the middle of the road right around the corner from my work… but aside from the creepy foreign guys, it wouldn’t be true. ;P And they weren’t so bad. They seemed interested in my Vehicle (Mistaking it for some kind of Snowmobile O.o ) and one of them asked for a short ride on it. I let him know that two people would break it and after declining the cigarette he offered, I went on my way. A mite odd to be sure, but nothing worrisome.

The ride was mildy eventful towards the end however. As I turned onto the “Final” street before My Street I noticed that it was a mite “Less Travelled”. So I slowed it down and a little ways down the road I noticed a branch in the way. Now, I could have just gone around it (Like I initially did) but then I got to thinking about it, and I realized that while people “should” be careful while driving in the snow, it’s not assured that they “will”, and while it’s not My job to look after anyone ignorant enough to ram into a Branch in the road, I was on a Moped, and it was a simple matter for me to hop off and move it off the road. So I turned around, moved the branch, and then continued on. Round the next corner there was another branch (Now when I say branch, I mean big enough to damage/cause you to wreck your car sized branch. Twigs I would have ignored). Simple matter, I didn’t pass this one, moved it and continued… to the next branch.

This was getting just a little silly. Surely I’m not the only one who’s come down this road as was evidenced by the car tracks going around the branches, but here they were (Getting progressively bigger to my dismay. ;P ). So I continued moving branches/small trees all the way to my house. All said I moved about five or six counting the last one… which was special. See, anyone who knows me knows I’m “slightly” OCD, so once I start something, if possible, I want to finish it. Well this last branch was decidedly not “Small” and inconveniently had a whole tree growing out of it. I fought with it for a bit, but it wasn’t going to budge, so I decided that if I could find a saw I would come back and take care of it (I defend that by pointing out that it “was” only one street away from my house… not that it would have mattered. >.> ) . So I get home, look (I don’t own a saw, but apparently my Roomie does. ;P ), find a saw, and return to remove the branch from the road. Finished with my Community Service I finally head home and promptly write the Odyssey you see before you.

Wow, that was Cathartic. And if you’ve made it this far… Uhhh.. Congratulations? Win Get? I’m sorry but your Pineapple is in another Cupcake? ;P Anywho. I’ve been at this for Four and a Half Hours, and I have to be at work in Another hour, so I’ma wrap this up and head off to the shower. (Yes, after the Ride I just took, I’m going to get transition without sleep straight to work. Crazy? You Betcha. ;P)

*Crosses his fingers for “Today”*

 

Driving Thoughts…

Okay, so let’s go into “Real” Blogging territory now. ;P

I knew it “Could” happen, and I almost thought it might, though now it “is” happening. I’ve really enjoyed my Moped since I bought it, but now it’s starting to feel a mite “Slow”… So while I originally had little to no interest in a Motorcycle, I’m now thinking my next “Vehicle” will be one. Sure cars are nice every once and while, but that’s what friends and roommates who think that two wheeled vehicles are impractical (Or who have kids, and thus couldn’t have a Bike if they wanted to) are for.  >.>

On the subject of my Moped, I finally changed the oil. It’s still sitting in the garage while I find the time to take it somewhere (Not really sure where you take oil, but I do know you shouldn’t just dump it. ) but at least it’s done. Now the thing is acting “Sluggish” though, and it cut off a few times the other day, so I’m going to have to take it in to get looked at. That’s definitely one bummer about owning a moped. The mechanic I’ve trusted with my car in the past doesn’t work on them, and can’t personally recommend anyone that does (He actually bugged me a mite by suggesting I just “Take it to xxxx” where xxxx is the random shop around the corner, displaying a complete lack of regard for the fact that they may or may not be of Any repute at all….) so I’m kinda hoping to “Luck Out” and find one since I’m terrifyingly bad with Automobiles of any kind. ;P

I also haven’t gotten around to buying a helmet with a Face Shield, but since I wake up just in time to get to work, and I don’t get to sleep until 0600, I’m not going to have time to get one unless I “Make” time.. and I’m not the best at that (Too much a creature of routine… :/)  I really should though.  Anywho, that’s all for now.

 

This is a Test…

Of the “Not so Emergency” FireFox Feed Reader… ;P  My brother is testing out how FF displays new Feed Content, so you get a “Highly Fulfilling” Blog Post as a Result. ;P

 

A Plan…

So, I’ve got this Idea. First a Point of Reference. Immediately after starting up this Blog and getting it all nice and Set Up, I stumbled into my Google “Cloud” (Their word, not mine. ;P) and noticed that I “Technically” had a Blogger Account through them as well…  “/  So now I had two Blogs where I was hoping for one. This of course is “Great” for my “Write More Initiative”, but kinda Confusing on the “What the heck am I going to do with Two Blogs?” side of things.  So I came up with an Idea.

I’ll use “This” Blog for Day to Day, “While Riding home last night I realized a couple things…  I don’t like the taste of Mosquitoes… and I should probably buy a full faced Helmet” kind of Blogs, and the other for my “Creativity”/Gaming related Blogs.  This Separation keeps me from wondering if something is “Suitable to be Blogged about” as if I don’t feel it fits one Blog, I can put it in the other. (And If I don’t think it fits either Blog, I either shouldn’t be writing about it, or I can plop it down in my MySpace Blog. (Which is primarily for Family, and as such they know to expect a certain level of *Ahem* “Interestingness” from me. ;P )

So with that out of the way, I can now focus on the more important things… like finally getting around to changing the Oil in my New Moped… ;P

 

Soo… Here we roll.

Yeah, I know… super creative first post title. I’ll be blunt, not much of a writer. Buuutttt… that’s why I’m trying to motivate myself to write more. I figure if I keep crapping out words, eventually the quality/consistency should improve… right? ;P ( Shhhh… don’t dash my hopes “Quite” yet. Give me a year of delusions first. ) So here it it, my first “Official” Blog.

I’ve tried the Diary Thing a long time ago ( Love the Site Format, and tools… discovers I wasn’t really a “Diary” kind of person. I feel that if I’m going to write something, I really want it “Out There” [ For Evaluation/Criticism/Growth, etc.] and while there’s the Community feel there[Awesome Community By the By. ;P] it’s definitely a site for a “Diary” [ Shocking given the title eh? ;P ] ), I have a MySpace ( My Ex had me sign up, I was original against it, just for general purposes… ;P But it’s since become an invaluable way for me to make, and keep contact with family and friends [For Example, my brother, who've I've not seen since I was fiveish, found me through it. So yeah, it's definitely good for that. ;P ] ), and a FaceBook ( Honestly, not sure why I originally signed up for this… I think someone noticing I had a MySpace decided I needed a FaceBook as well… :/ though it is most definitely not updated as often [ See: Ever ;P ], though with my new “Write More” Initiative, that may change… >.> ) So yeah, I’ve been “Around the Block”, though never really had a “For Real” Blog…

Boom! Here I am. ;P ( For how long though… O.o ! ) Now… to play around with this “Web-Ware” and figure out what I can do with “My” Blog… <.<