0 to poo in 30 min. or less

Today was a good day. For about 7 1/2 hours of my shift anyway. The last 30 were just a treat and had me very frustrated and angry as I drove home. Generally, angry is not the place you want to be while behind the wheel of a car. Once again I am surprised that I am not a drunkard.

First, one of our managers came back and made a comment about putting stickers on some bargain books. Our company often can't return certain books so after they don't sell at regular price they get changed over to bargain in hopes of convincing people to buy something for $5.98 that they didn't want to pay $25 for in the first place. Anyway, corp sends us these lists usually a week or so in advance, but unless you are the store manager, you can't print the labels until the day the change starts. I had some free time while waiting for the truck to arrive on the 14th so I did the nice thing and printed up these labels and put them in the bargain manager's in-box. I also put a note on the computer saying I had printed them, etc.

This manager made a comment that it had been a week since the list had come down the pike and he made it sound like our new fabbo bargain lead was to blame for not getting it done on time. I said, "Would you be talking about the list I printed out and put in your in-box? Two weeks ago?" Ermmm.

Then the former bargain manager came back with a small stack of books saying that the uber had spotted them and believed them to be bargain, but they didn't have labels. I asked him if he'd looked up the bargain ISBN's. Nope. Thanks. Thanks a lot. He's making it sound like it's my fault that they are not stickered. I look up one of the books and the change over to bargain happened in NOVEMBER!!!!! When he and the "exceeds standards" bargain lead were in charge. When, in other words, they dropped the ball and never caught it again. Wanker.

Then, one of the managers comes back with two cordless phones that need to be sent back. When one of our phones dies, or goes falling into a toilet (this has happened multiple times by the way), we request a new one. When we get the new one in, I call a manager and get the phone to them. Inside the packaging is always a return sheet that needs to be filled out and sent back with the broken phone. 9 times out of 10 no one brings me the bad phone or the paperwork the same day. Sometimes after about a week the phone comes back sans paperwork.

We had a phone go missing a few months ago and everyone swore up and down that they didn't know where it was. We ended up having to pay for that phone. Guess what was found by our cleaning lady today. Yep. Guess what didn't have any paperwork. Yep. So, that phone had to be sent to one address. An address that our manager didn't write down correctly. Luckily, I had just tossed the sheet that had said address on it so all I had to do was dig through my industrial sized garbage can to find it. The second phone might be the one we "purchased," but the manager wasn't really sure. So, rather than lose it again, we are mailing it to someone at corp who will keep it somewhere (I'm picturing a warehouse much like the one at the end of Raiders...only with less Nazi memorabilia) until we lose another one and need to get this phone back.

THEN, I have finally got my coat on and am walking out of the back room. I turn to my night time person and say, "Get as much out of returns as you can. And as far as for tomorrow..." Before I can ask what time she wants to come in, she says, "I'll see you Monday."

WHAT!?!

I say, "Monday? What about tomorrow?"

"I'm taking a personal day."

"No one told me that." (Including her by the way.)

"It was on the calendar."

Ummm, no it isn't. It was changed on a schedule that was already posted, but no one told me. I should also note I essentially have no reason to look at the schedule since I work the same fucking thing every week. Not to mention the fact that she hasn't said word one to me this week about being gone on Friday. So now, I have no one working tomorrow night and 130 boxes coming in. I apparently have someone coming in to help, but they are working during the day and will be leaving around the same time as me which will give us anywhere from 2-3 hours to work on these 130 boxes.

MY FELLOW EMPLOYEES SUCK AND SUCK HARD. Or rather, some of them suck and suck hard. I hope the sex is worth it.

Editors note: I don't know if sex is actually involved this weekend, but I have a feeling heavy drinking is. This is just a guess on my part since I obviously don't know where she is going for the weekend.

On a more pleasant note the new Supreme Beings of Leisure cd is really good. 11i is the first cd from them in something like 3 or 4 years. SBOL are sort of a happier Portishead doing songs that would sound cool in a Bond movie. Also, I am in love with the first R.E.M. single which has me very excited about the new cd.

Oscar Re-Cap

I should have put down some money. Out of the 21 categories I picked, I was correct on 16 of them. Overall, I thought the show wasn't bad. I question the use of Miley Cyrus as a presenter. I understand trying to go for a younger demographic (aka trying to be "hip"), but since most of her audience couldn't even go see a large portion of the movies nominated, it seemed dumb to have her there. Plus, I find her annoying. Here are some of my fave moments:

Jon Stewart saying "Gaydolf Titler." I'm 90% sure I heard that joke on The Daily Show awhile back, but I don't care. I laughed like a 12 yr. old.

Steve Carrell being quite the gentleman and going over to help Anne Hathaway walk down the rest of the steps before presenting.

Jon playing Wii with that girl from the choir.

Forrest W. hugging/supporting Marion Cotillard after she won Best Actress.

Jon bringing Marketa Irglova back out to say a few words since the band frickin' cut her off before she could utter anything. Thankfully, her words were beautiful.

The presenting duo's of Seth Rogan and that guy from Superbad whose name I am completely forgetting right now...I'll just call him Halle Berry...and Josh Brolin and James McAvoy.

Daniel Day-Lewis bowing before Helen Mirren.

And, I don't know about you, but I'd like to see Henry Kissinger: Man On The Go.

Some Kind Of Oscar Thing

Seems I would be remiss if I didn't plunk down some predictions quick like. I'll just stick to the biggies.

Best Picture: No Country For Old Men----I think There Will Be Blood has a shot, but it may be too long a flick for voters. I'd like to see Juno win, but the Oscars don't normally like happy.

Best Actor: Daniel Day Lewis. There is no one else.

Best Actress: Julie Christie. I've heard she's very good in this movie and the Academy like to give trophies to older actors who they may have skipped over in years past.

Best Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem. Great acting, mostly without dialogue. The only possible contender is Hal Holbrook who was very cool in Into The Wild and is old (see above).

Best Supporting Actress: Tilda Swinton. I didn't see too many of these performances so this is just a guess, but Tilda rocks in everything she does.

Best Director: The Cohens. If Paul Thomas Anderson wins, I think There Will Be Blood will get the best pic trophy.

Best Documentary: No End In Sight. Interesting how a few years ago, Michael Moore was getting shit for his anti-Bush, anti-war doc. and this year most of the doc's are on just how much we've fucked things up in Iraq. Hmmmm...

Adapted Screenplay: Toss up between No Country and There Will Be Blood. No Country had little dialogue, but what was there was essential and often lyrical.

Original Screenplay: Juno. Just damn good.

We'll see how I did this weekend.

Biss= Radiohead + Nap time

So, I caught another cold. Shocker. In other shocking news, I took a day off work today. It was sort of a birthday gift to myself. While doing essentially nothing all weekend, I was really tired. Today I did some work paperwork, took a nap, ate lunch, took a nap, watched several No Reservation ep's on the Travel Channel (I have a secret, strange crush on Anthony Bourdain) and decided to check email, etc. before probably taking another nap.

I don't know if it is a subconscious thing or not, but in the past two months I've started to feel old. Most of you know what is coming up in a few days, but I've never been one to fixate on age. The one thing I do find myself thinking about is regret and wondering if I'm where I'm supposed to be right now. I don't have complaints about my family or friends really. But I know I don't like my job. Okay, I hate my job. But, I have no idea what I want to do. It's a really big unanswered question that gets overwhelming at times. So, I try and take comfort in the things that make me happy.

To that end--I got tickets for Radiohead in St. Louis in May! Actually, I have two pairs of tickets. I found out last minute that they were going on sale this past Sat. and after a couple of calls to see if anyone wanted to go with me, I got some "I'll have to let you know" replies. I understand this because these people are married and have kids and can't just up and run off when they feel like it. Anyway, I wanted seats this time around. I got online plenty early and kept refreshing my page and right at 10 clicked the buy tickets tab and got...lawn seats. 10:03 and I get lawn seats!!! Damn. I went ahead and purchased them and for kicks searched for seats again. 10:07 and I get seats. Upper Center mind you, but still, Center and seats. Yeah!!!

So, I've sort of offered the lawn seats to someone, but if they aren't interested and you are let me know. I'll sell them to you for the $30 a piece without the "bonus fees" I incured. The show is May 14, 7 pm, Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in St. Louis. (Thom, I'm mostly talking to you here). If no one wants them, I'll try and sell them on ebay.

Side notes:

The writer's strike is over which is good news, but 24 has decided to just can this season and wait to do their 7th series Jan. of '09. Oh well.

Lost continues to just be fabulous! I knew it was Ben. I just wish I had someone at home to verify this.

Duke lost only their second game of the year to a good Wake Forrest team. I've always liked Wake and they are really strong at home (now they are 14-1 there). Duke played well the last part of the first half and came out strong at the start of the second, but Wake took over at about the 9 minute mark and never looked back. They pointed out two Duke weaknesses--so-so free throw shooting (we're not as bad as Shaq, but still) and no real inside game. Of course, it doesn't help when all 5 of your starting players foul out during the course of the game. None the less, after Duke's loss to Pitt they really focused on their mistakes and came out winning. Hopefully the trend will be the same after this loss.

Love is in the air...or is it a virus?

Like everyone else in this area, I am sick. Again. My illness has kept me from being on the computer because I like sleep soooooo much more. This absence has done a few things. First, it made me almost miss hearing that Radiohead are coming to St. Louis and tix go on sale tomorrow. (Wish me luck) Secondly, I'm sure Jackie is annoyed because I haven't written in many, many days. And finally, it means that my Valentine's Day movie list is a day late. Oh well. I'm doing it anyway.

Off Beat Romantic Movies To Watch Instead of Something Starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan:

**Strictly Ballroom--Baz Luhrman's (sp?) debut follows two dancers as they navigate the ballroom scene and each other. Very creative in regards to the visuals and setting up Baz's sense of whimsy and humor. I love that the "ugly duckling" doesn't get turned into a traditional swan at the end.

**Secretary--James Spader and Maggie Gyllenhal (sp) are perfect. A really moving love story that just happens to be about people who figure out that they are into S & M and are brave enough to love each other the way that is right for them.

**Rushmore--Anytime I can fit this onto a list I will. Bill Murray began his re-emergence as an actor in this role. Watching he and Jason Schwartzman fight over the same woman is both funny and touching.

**Me & You & Everyone We Know--Here's another story about two people who seem to be just outside the norm that they would never find anyone, but they find each other. Some potentially rough subject manner is handled skillfully and with warmth.

**Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!--Suck it up and read subtitles for Pedro Almadovar's flick about a felon who once slept with a porn star and has been obsessing about her ever since. He finds her and kidnaps her. Trust me. There is a love story here. It's funny and sexy and features an early performance from Antonio Banderas.

Quick side note:
Jinn is back!!! Yeah!!!! Well, she's back for 4 hours a day and can only lift up to 20lbs.. But, she's back!

I'll let you know how I do with Radiohead tix.

PBS Update

http://www.wtvp.org/index.asp

Go here to check out the latest bit of info on our local station's efforts to stay on the air. If you can make a donation, please do. We are really close to a resolution. Thanks.

It is freezing cold in the computer room today. Good for the hardware, bad for the blogger so I'm going to go back into the living room and get under the covers. Maybe I'll do my taxes. Probably not.

Rocket Science

Well, my list of '07 Best Of Flicks keeps growing. I'd read about this movie quite some time ago, but it never came to town. It is now out on DVD and I got the chance to see it tonight.

If you are a fan of films that have a quirky edge to them, you will definitely want to check out Rocket Science. The utterly adorable and fabulous Reece Thompson plays Hal Hefner, a high school student who is shy and stutters. He is very much lost in the world and is taken aback when the head of the debate team approaches him to join the team. She tells him that she can just sense that he would be great.

Hal is overwhelmed by the attention, more so since it's coming from a girl he finds cute. Hal does his best to impress her not only in respect to the debate team, but also to impress her as a guy. Reece makes Hal sweet, but not sugary. He has very expressive eyes that come just short of entering the puppy dog stage. It is very easy to connect with Hal and you feel for him throughout the whole picture. The actress who plays Ginny deserves big props for handling her dialogue. The speed with which she talks is just crazy, but you understand everything and it seems a natural rather than a forced sort of character trait. Plus, she's pretty witty.

I don't want to give anything away, but I will say that there is not the traditional sort of neat wrap up at the end film. The end satisfies, but it is not stereotypical. There are plenty of funny and odd moments through out thanks to a unique group of characters that surround Hal. His brother and Ginny, head of the debate team are two standouts, but everyone has something to do in this movie. The soundtrack is done mostly by Clem Snide I believe and fits the tone of the movie. There is also a great bit involving a couple working through marital issues via music therapy. This therapy finds them playing Violent Femmes on cello and piano. The first time you hear the song you pause and try and finish it so you can figure out what it is. Also, the Femmes turn up again using my favorite tune from them in a funny scene during which Hal is dealing with his love fueled angst.

While not the same as Little Miss Sunshine, I don't think it's a stretch to say that Rocket Science comes from the same corner of the heart. Check it out and enjoy a performance from an actor who could easily become the next John Cusack.

WOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

DUKE WINS !!!!!!

Greg Paulus goes 6-8 in 3 pt. shots....sweeeet! Lance Thomas really stepped up both with points and defense....yeah!! Plenty of forced turnovers...happy, happy, joy, joy!!

I'm really surprised they didn't go inside to Tyler H. more often. The guy went past Michael Jordan on the list of top scorers at NC. He got 28 points tonight. In the first half, I think he had 18 while the rest of his team as a group scored 21. I would have been tossing him the ball on every play. Oh, well. Not really all that upset that NC didn't do that.

The win helps make up for my crappy day today at work. I believe I may have killed someone in a prior life because I can't seem to catch a break. We didn't get a truck on Friday due to the snow so we got hit really hard on Mon. The gang did a good job clearing stuff out, but we got another big-ish delivery on Tues. I left at 4:15 thinking my night person was just running late. She comes to work directly from class so I figured she got tied up at school.

Nope. Turns out she'd had someone call in for her. She was out sick. The call came in around noon. When did I find out you may ask? I found out this morning when I walked in and saw that all the boxes that were there when I left were still there. Nice. At first I was really horked off at the manager who took the call. Then, I found out that around the time the call came in the manager was busy dealing with our resident martyr. Seems she'd gotten caught with a Reese's peanut butter cup at the customer service desk. We aren't supposed to have food on the floor, but considering there are several employees who break this rule that don't get punished, I can't really blame a person for being annoyed at being singled out.

But, I do have issues with that person turning the incident into an opportunity to have their usual meltdown. Crying in the breakroom and wasting the time of the manager by talking in their office for over an hour is a bit extreme. Because of this distraction, I never found out I had no one coming in. If I had known, I could have called my other night person to see if they could come in and work. Evil spreads and spreads quickly. Remember that kids.

Y The Last Man

Is it wrong to have a crush on a character from a comic book? This is the predicament that I find myself in. Even worse, I won't get the chance to see my crush anymore because the final issue of the comic has hit stores.

Y The Last Man has been mentioned in this blog several times. Telling the story of Yorick Brown, the last man left on Earth after all the other men die in an apocolyptic instant, this comic has been one of the best things I've ever read. It is equal parts funny and sad. It never shied away from tough topics as we followed Yorick and his friends, all of whom were fully developed characters in their own right.

I fell in love with Yorick over the course of 60 issues. He had a great sense of humor and tossed in enough pop culture and literary references to keep me well pleased. I cried over the deaths of two main characters. I laughed out loud a lot. Besides Brian K. Vaughan's outstanding writing, co-creator Pia Guerra's illustrations really stood out. Everyone looked real and the action flowed with a sort of cinematic beauty.

The ending left me pleased, but not quite satisfied. I know there is more of Yorick's story to tell. I just hope someday I get the chance to read that story.

On a different note--I am finally well!!!! Let's hear it for the Z pack! Normally, I try to avoid having to go the route of antibiotics, but when you are way down, you are way down and need help. Also, how cool was Lost last night?! We've got 3 of the Oceanic 6 figured out, but what's up with the guy showing up to ask Hurley about the people who are still alive? Was he talking about the rest of the 6? Was he talking about those who may have stayed on the island? And, how sad was Jack's face when Hurley went and sided with Locke. It's good to see Lost starting off strong.

Finally, Duke came back from being 9 down to beat NC State by 20!!!! Woo-hoo!!! Go Paulus!