Did anyone find a few packs of Smarties out there with the blue ones inside? They're vanishing fast...!
June 29th - Simpson Games
As I mentioned already a few weeks ago, I'll be returning to Niagara on July 31st for Nigel & Shawna's wedding, plus a week of relaxation and visitation. I was thrilled today to discover that the GO train travels directly from Pearson Airport to St. Catharines - for a trivial $14.05 fee, I can skip weekend traffic and the cost of a rental car! Yay! I'm still not sure if I will rent a car for the week while I am there, or just use the bus and rent a car when needed on a day-to-day basis. I'm quite used to walking or cylcling around town here in B.C. so depending on a car for transport seems rather odd to me now. Which is odd too.
Those of you who like The Simpsons are probably familiar with fan-art drawings of them, like this one from DeviantArt.com where the characters are drawn in a unique anime style - the artist has since gone on to fame and fortune thanks to that single picture, huzzah! Others have gone a different route, where they 'Simpsonize' characters, quite often from Sci-Fi - Dylan Meconis has done the entire cast of BSG, plus there are galleries for DC Comics characters, Marvel, movies and other characters... over a hundred characters in all. Quite a different take on the usual comic image.
Being a day off, it vanished fairly quickly - I ended up installing a few more games on my laptop, including Battlefield2, StarWars BattlefrontII, and one of my favourites: Dawn Of War, which is set in the Warhammer40K universe - tabletop gaming brought into the computer age in 3D. Which still doesn't mean you can't create your own boardgame pieces fairly easily... this shows you how. Simple!
June 30th - Mmmm.... Timmy's!
I was at the Colwood branch for a change today, actually arriving an hour earlier to do an interview for a prospective hire. One of my favourite things is the Bacon Breakfast Biscuit at Tim Horton's, which is where I did the interview today( I recommended she be hired ). Back to the biscuit: not too doughy, with just the right about of Crumbly Factor to it; a firm texture and a delightful taste, topped with cheese and bacon. One heckuva good start to the day... and a good thing too, because it was $#@! busy, being the last day of the month plus the last banking day before the holiday tomorrow. I felt rather stretched when I went home, 2 hours past when I had been scheduled to - I just didn't want to leave the other staffer to handle the massive influx of last-minute customers we were getting. Silly people.
Tonight also saw me send out a 90-day update to the members of my NWN project, to keep everyone updated and on track. It's very difficult to keep people who are on different time schedules in all parts of the world coordinated, but so far we are managing. Shared visions are tricky things, yet I am hopeful everything will be getting off the ground soon.
Another virtual world I miss is based on Battletech, where you run around as giant robots blasting other robots piloted by your friends to glowing little bits. There was a Battletech Centre at the base of the CN Tower way back in the 90's, which has long since vanished... but I did manage to find mention of an updated version being present at the Origins Games Convention this year. Simulator pods for giant robots... if I only had the capital to open one here or in Niagara Falls - tourist dollars! The official Virtual World website has a comprehensive listing of sites where the simulators will be this year - moblie mech madness!
And if you don't like virtual worlds, you can always just grab some wood, nails and glue to build your own. Plus you could hire this guy to do it - skills!
July 1st - Red and White
Happy Birthday Canada. I'll let others express my feelings about this lovely country we all share. Love ya.
For once, I didn't have any plans, or anywhere to go. I had expected to work today, but at the last moment yesterday I received word that Head Office had decided to closed my branch for the holiday. It was lovely to have the day off, with pay, but I had made no plans with anyone and so I simple stayed home and enjoyed the time off in the morning, because...
Unsurprisingly, by noon the park next door was packed with partying people. so much so that nearly 20 people crowded the tiny floating dock alone - this all in on a surface area the size of a modest bathroom. It likely made for a lot of new aquiatances and friendliness, but there was barely room to swig a beer out there, from what I could see. Thankfully nobody decided to dose the crowd with high-amperage music, as the chatter levels were loud enough already.
In the main, I kept to the quieter parts of the house - the racket next door in the park gradually died down towards dinnertime as more and more people left to attend various festivities elsewhere. I received word from a friend via text msg that the downtown was impossibly packed with people around the Inner Harbour - a literal zoo. So my desire to travel down there for the fireworks evaporated; I didn't want to wander around alone in a crowd, trying to find friends somehow, even with the convenience of cell phones.
July 2nd - Up, up and awa....zzzz...
I had my new trainee for the third day today; she seems to be taking things in fairly well. though it's obviously too early to tell much beyond that. Being a certified trainer for the company is an interesting thing, in that I get to pass along all my accumulated wisdom in measured doses and see how much sticks. So far, things seem to be going well, avoiding overload while making sure we stick to a schedule to cover all the bases. It's nice that we're at a store where some days are much quieter than others, as there's a lot of reading to do and I want to break that up with practical practice fairly regularly. So far, so good.
On the topic of training: I wish, I wish, that I had this list in grade school to learn my ABC's from. Though I seemed to have turned out to be a SciFi fan anyway, thanks perhaps to my superhero Underroos and Superfriends wallpaper( mind had Shazam and no villains )in my childhood room. Made for good dreams!
On the other hand, some things most people just don't think about, like what happens to Disney Princesses when Ever After isn't so happy after all...
July 3 - Fridaze
Today I worked at our Colwood branch, and boy was it busy. It didn't help that I was with a newer teller, so that I ended up doing at least three transactions for every one of his... ah well. Better that there were two of us there to handle things, with my trainee hovering nearby taking it all in as best she could.
Sometimes, I wonder about the work week. I wonder that we all have to work, or at least the majority of us do. Some of us are lucky enough to love the jobs we do, in that they pay well enough that we don't have to worry incessantly about things like balancing the budget monthly. Adding kids into the mix only complicates things, which makes me all the more impressed with single mothers out there who make many sacrifices for their kids. Needing to work stinks, in my opinion, as most anyone you ask would rather not be working if they had the choice, apart from those who feel a calling towards their profession or the need for fame and fortune.
Thoughts on that? Anyone? Or am I wrong in that all of you would rather be doing what you're doing?
Maybe the folks at CLAW have the right idea... while British Airways might go to the other extreme to survive.
Or, if you can believe it, you can stab your friends on an MMO in the back to make some real-world cash. It just happened in EVE Online - scary!
July 4th - Boom and Bust
There were no fireworks for me today, just like on Canada Day - some people had told me that if the weather was right, one could stand on Dallas Rd on the southern edge of Victoria and look towards Port Angeles to see their fireworks for the Fourth of July over there in the USA. I was too exhausted from my day: between a busy customer day( good weather / sunny skies always does that )and trying to train my new hire, plus all the manager duties for the end of the month, every minute of the day was full. As are every day of mine for the next 2 months as I train - but that's part of the job, and I'll do my best.
Unfortunately, the evening was a wash, as our landlord did something that managed to both surprise and shock myself and my parents. I won't go into the details, but suffice to say all of our small 'goodwill' projects around the place have been suspended indefinitely, pending an explanation - if any is forthcoming, that is. Sadly, I was less shocked than my parents, as my grasp of the foibles and frailties of the human condition is much more refined than theirs, with my near-decade spent at MMart dealing with people, money and all the lovely trouble that conjures up. I have to say I am disappointed too, as I had been looking forward to more yardwork to get in shape, beautifying the place bit by bit as time and enery permits. Who doesn't want to improve the place they live in, without spending money, when they can?
But, being handy doesn't always mean the work you do is... good. Unlike Mike Holmes, the guys at ThereIfixedIt.com come up with solutions that will never be called elegant, pretty or professional - but they do make for good photos, so go have a look.
July 5th - Last Sunny Day
My morning was somewhat groggy, as I didn't sleep well last night( see above ). My mind, being the temple that it is, was busy whirring with possibilities and such late into the night, and so kept my body awake. At least I was able to sleep in a bit today, though the open window last night let me catch the unpleasant encounter of the dog next door meeting something nasty... though I don't believe it was a cougar.
First thing after breakfast today I eagarly logged onto Future Shop's site to pre-order Windows 7, as they had it at a 50% discount, plus a 'Staycation' Coupon for $10.00 off that... quite a deal. Or so I thought. You think I could get the site to let me order the thing? Nope. It stuck me in a loop, saying that I could neither ship nor pick up the item, no matter what I did. Very, very frustrating.
Instead of driving, I cycled over to Future Schlock to see what could be done... of course I was disappointed with the outcome. After a lot of head-scratching on the floor( great service there, fellahs... not. )the staff directed me to call the Customer Service line... where I eventually was told the item was actually Sold Out. Since the website didn't actually SAY this anywhere, I was rather put out... and chalked it up again to poor e-commerce design. Really: get it together, F.Schlock.
I managed to shed my disappointment by mid-afternoon, after diving into a 3-hour session of Civ:Rev that ended when I suddenly won in the middle of my grand plan - I hate that. The 'You have Won!' screen pops up and all of a sudden you are done, plans unfinished and that sense of victory stolen from you without rancor - darn the luck. Why can't that happen when I buy a lottery ticket - surprise win! I'd be good with that!
In the evening, I took the bus south to Victoria( it was door to door practially - wow! )to attend a 'meeting' a work: we started our new financial year this month, so staff gathered from the region to relax and eat free food while swapping stories. My fave part were the door prizes: I managed to randomly pick the best one there, an iPod Shuffle! Go me! Now I have some portable tunes, and I won't feel so behind the times... but have I given a little bit of my soul to Apple after all?
Time will tell... for now, I will Shuffle on!
That's it for the week... less than a month until I am Niagara-bound!
June 29th - Simpson Games
As I mentioned already a few weeks ago, I'll be returning to Niagara on July 31st for Nigel & Shawna's wedding, plus a week of relaxation and visitation. I was thrilled today to discover that the GO train travels directly from Pearson Airport to St. Catharines - for a trivial $14.05 fee, I can skip weekend traffic and the cost of a rental car! Yay! I'm still not sure if I will rent a car for the week while I am there, or just use the bus and rent a car when needed on a day-to-day basis. I'm quite used to walking or cylcling around town here in B.C. so depending on a car for transport seems rather odd to me now. Which is odd too.
Those of you who like The Simpsons are probably familiar with fan-art drawings of them, like this one from DeviantArt.com where the characters are drawn in a unique anime style - the artist has since gone on to fame and fortune thanks to that single picture, huzzah! Others have gone a different route, where they 'Simpsonize' characters, quite often from Sci-Fi - Dylan Meconis has done the entire cast of BSG, plus there are galleries for DC Comics characters, Marvel, movies and other characters... over a hundred characters in all. Quite a different take on the usual comic image.
Being a day off, it vanished fairly quickly - I ended up installing a few more games on my laptop, including Battlefield2, StarWars BattlefrontII, and one of my favourites: Dawn Of War, which is set in the Warhammer40K universe - tabletop gaming brought into the computer age in 3D. Which still doesn't mean you can't create your own boardgame pieces fairly easily... this shows you how. Simple!
June 30th - Mmmm.... Timmy's!
I was at the Colwood branch for a change today, actually arriving an hour earlier to do an interview for a prospective hire. One of my favourite things is the Bacon Breakfast Biscuit at Tim Horton's, which is where I did the interview today( I recommended she be hired ). Back to the biscuit: not too doughy, with just the right about of Crumbly Factor to it; a firm texture and a delightful taste, topped with cheese and bacon. One heckuva good start to the day... and a good thing too, because it was $#@! busy, being the last day of the month plus the last banking day before the holiday tomorrow. I felt rather stretched when I went home, 2 hours past when I had been scheduled to - I just didn't want to leave the other staffer to handle the massive influx of last-minute customers we were getting. Silly people.
Tonight also saw me send out a 90-day update to the members of my NWN project, to keep everyone updated and on track. It's very difficult to keep people who are on different time schedules in all parts of the world coordinated, but so far we are managing. Shared visions are tricky things, yet I am hopeful everything will be getting off the ground soon.
Another virtual world I miss is based on Battletech, where you run around as giant robots blasting other robots piloted by your friends to glowing little bits. There was a Battletech Centre at the base of the CN Tower way back in the 90's, which has long since vanished... but I did manage to find mention of an updated version being present at the Origins Games Convention this year. Simulator pods for giant robots... if I only had the capital to open one here or in Niagara Falls - tourist dollars! The official Virtual World website has a comprehensive listing of sites where the simulators will be this year - moblie mech madness!
And if you don't like virtual worlds, you can always just grab some wood, nails and glue to build your own. Plus you could hire this guy to do it - skills!
July 1st - Red and White
Happy Birthday Canada. I'll let others express my feelings about this lovely country we all share. Love ya.
For once, I didn't have any plans, or anywhere to go. I had expected to work today, but at the last moment yesterday I received word that Head Office had decided to closed my branch for the holiday. It was lovely to have the day off, with pay, but I had made no plans with anyone and so I simple stayed home and enjoyed the time off in the morning, because...
Unsurprisingly, by noon the park next door was packed with partying people. so much so that nearly 20 people crowded the tiny floating dock alone - this all in on a surface area the size of a modest bathroom. It likely made for a lot of new aquiatances and friendliness, but there was barely room to swig a beer out there, from what I could see. Thankfully nobody decided to dose the crowd with high-amperage music, as the chatter levels were loud enough already.
In the main, I kept to the quieter parts of the house - the racket next door in the park gradually died down towards dinnertime as more and more people left to attend various festivities elsewhere. I received word from a friend via text msg that the downtown was impossibly packed with people around the Inner Harbour - a literal zoo. So my desire to travel down there for the fireworks evaporated; I didn't want to wander around alone in a crowd, trying to find friends somehow, even with the convenience of cell phones.
July 2nd - Up, up and awa....zzzz...
I had my new trainee for the third day today; she seems to be taking things in fairly well. though it's obviously too early to tell much beyond that. Being a certified trainer for the company is an interesting thing, in that I get to pass along all my accumulated wisdom in measured doses and see how much sticks. So far, things seem to be going well, avoiding overload while making sure we stick to a schedule to cover all the bases. It's nice that we're at a store where some days are much quieter than others, as there's a lot of reading to do and I want to break that up with practical practice fairly regularly. So far, so good.
On the topic of training: I wish, I wish, that I had this list in grade school to learn my ABC's from. Though I seemed to have turned out to be a SciFi fan anyway, thanks perhaps to my superhero Underroos and Superfriends wallpaper( mind had Shazam and no villains )in my childhood room. Made for good dreams!
On the other hand, some things most people just don't think about, like what happens to Disney Princesses when Ever After isn't so happy after all...
July 3 - Fridaze
Today I worked at our Colwood branch, and boy was it busy. It didn't help that I was with a newer teller, so that I ended up doing at least three transactions for every one of his... ah well. Better that there were two of us there to handle things, with my trainee hovering nearby taking it all in as best she could.
Sometimes, I wonder about the work week. I wonder that we all have to work, or at least the majority of us do. Some of us are lucky enough to love the jobs we do, in that they pay well enough that we don't have to worry incessantly about things like balancing the budget monthly. Adding kids into the mix only complicates things, which makes me all the more impressed with single mothers out there who make many sacrifices for their kids. Needing to work stinks, in my opinion, as most anyone you ask would rather not be working if they had the choice, apart from those who feel a calling towards their profession or the need for fame and fortune.
Thoughts on that? Anyone? Or am I wrong in that all of you would rather be doing what you're doing?
Maybe the folks at CLAW have the right idea... while British Airways might go to the other extreme to survive.
Or, if you can believe it, you can stab your friends on an MMO in the back to make some real-world cash. It just happened in EVE Online - scary!
July 4th - Boom and Bust
There were no fireworks for me today, just like on Canada Day - some people had told me that if the weather was right, one could stand on Dallas Rd on the southern edge of Victoria and look towards Port Angeles to see their fireworks for the Fourth of July over there in the USA. I was too exhausted from my day: between a busy customer day( good weather / sunny skies always does that )and trying to train my new hire, plus all the manager duties for the end of the month, every minute of the day was full. As are every day of mine for the next 2 months as I train - but that's part of the job, and I'll do my best.
Unfortunately, the evening was a wash, as our landlord did something that managed to both surprise and shock myself and my parents. I won't go into the details, but suffice to say all of our small 'goodwill' projects around the place have been suspended indefinitely, pending an explanation - if any is forthcoming, that is. Sadly, I was less shocked than my parents, as my grasp of the foibles and frailties of the human condition is much more refined than theirs, with my near-decade spent at MMart dealing with people, money and all the lovely trouble that conjures up. I have to say I am disappointed too, as I had been looking forward to more yardwork to get in shape, beautifying the place bit by bit as time and enery permits. Who doesn't want to improve the place they live in, without spending money, when they can?
But, being handy doesn't always mean the work you do is... good. Unlike Mike Holmes, the guys at ThereIfixedIt.com come up with solutions that will never be called elegant, pretty or professional - but they do make for good photos, so go have a look.
July 5th - Last Sunny Day
My morning was somewhat groggy, as I didn't sleep well last night( see above ). My mind, being the temple that it is, was busy whirring with possibilities and such late into the night, and so kept my body awake. At least I was able to sleep in a bit today, though the open window last night let me catch the unpleasant encounter of the dog next door meeting something nasty... though I don't believe it was a cougar.
First thing after breakfast today I eagarly logged onto Future Shop's site to pre-order Windows 7, as they had it at a 50% discount, plus a 'Staycation' Coupon for $10.00 off that... quite a deal. Or so I thought. You think I could get the site to let me order the thing? Nope. It stuck me in a loop, saying that I could neither ship nor pick up the item, no matter what I did. Very, very frustrating.
Instead of driving, I cycled over to Future Schlock to see what could be done... of course I was disappointed with the outcome. After a lot of head-scratching on the floor( great service there, fellahs... not. )the staff directed me to call the Customer Service line... where I eventually was told the item was actually Sold Out. Since the website didn't actually SAY this anywhere, I was rather put out... and chalked it up again to poor e-commerce design. Really: get it together, F.Schlock.
I managed to shed my disappointment by mid-afternoon, after diving into a 3-hour session of Civ:Rev that ended when I suddenly won in the middle of my grand plan - I hate that. The 'You have Won!' screen pops up and all of a sudden you are done, plans unfinished and that sense of victory stolen from you without rancor - darn the luck. Why can't that happen when I buy a lottery ticket - surprise win! I'd be good with that!
In the evening, I took the bus south to Victoria( it was door to door practially - wow! )to attend a 'meeting' a work: we started our new financial year this month, so staff gathered from the region to relax and eat free food while swapping stories. My fave part were the door prizes: I managed to randomly pick the best one there, an iPod Shuffle! Go me! Now I have some portable tunes, and I won't feel so behind the times... but have I given a little bit of my soul to Apple after all?
Time will tell... for now, I will Shuffle on!
That's it for the week... less than a month until I am Niagara-bound!
