Date: Monday, November 23rd, 2009 - 7:15am Subject: I Have a List This Time Security: Public

For most of the afternoon I've been typing things I forgot to mention earlier into Notepad as they crossed my mind, so here they are, grouped according to their common theme.

( Stuff Pertaining to Work )

( Things Regarding Emails )

( Other Miscellany that Doesn't Fit Elsewhere )

The last thing for tonight (and only one not in a cut) is a dream I remember from last night. I was at Tim Hortons, having just placed an order, so I walked over to a table and sat down, because I was eating there. What would my order be but a truly massive chocolate cake, that had to be as big as two norma-sized pillows. I somehow knew that they had a contest where your name would be displayed on some sort of recognition board if you managed to eat the whole thing in one sitting, and that's obviously why I ordered it. I can't remember eating any, unfortunately, but I do remember accidentally letting it flop into somebody's soup, because they were sitting across the table from me (the cake was folded in half for whatever reason), and also two small parts of it made to look like Mario and Luigi. I can't remember what significance those had, but I know there was something special about them. Eventually, as I was nearing the last few bites, somebody asked me where they could order one, and I told them no more could be made because they didn't have any ranch sauce left (I remember that quite clearly), and was just about to wake up before I thought to myself that I should say I wished they would bring the triple chocolate cheesecakes they used to have back.

Also, this wasn't in the same dream, but as it involves eating something, it might be related. All I can remember is biting down as if to chew into some food, and waking up just in time to realize I had bitten my pillow. Just the corner, thankfully, but kind of amusing to think about ^^;

All those things aside though, it's now quarter after 7 in the morning, meaning it's about time I went to sleep. Nothing really planned for tomorrow aside from work, but that's good enough for now because it means I've done everything I wanted to. Well, mostly, but the only thing that I can think of right now is visiting Giant Tiger one last time, and that will be taken care of within the next couple days~

Date: Sunday, November 22nd, 2009 - 6:10pm Subject: Ten Minutes too Late Security: Public

Giant Tiger closed at 6 today, which is rather a pity considering they have the last thing I need to buy for Christmas. Well, aside from wrapping paper and tape on the off chance I can't find any around here, but that hasn't been a problem the past couple years, so I'm not worried. Soaps were finally ordered last night, which might end up being a bit of a problem in the end. The confirmation email I received mentioned a two week lead-in delay because of the holidays, so hopefully they show up before Christmas Eve. Considering the size of my order though (eight bars of soap and a dish) that might be a stretch, but I'll just have to see then. As for the power adapter for my laptop, it might actually be here within the coming week. I thought it was being shipped from the states at first, but the tracking page says the information was submitted in Vancouver, so it would be nice to get that quickly :3

That update aside, I still feel like I'm going to fall asleep right now. Same thing at work yesterday night too, because for the first couple hours I was fine, but after 10:00 I was dead tired, and only managed to stay awake until 6am as normal because I wasn't letting myself go to bed without buying those things. Funny how that works, really, because between Thursday and Friday, I only got about 6 hours of sleep, but stayed awake until 7:30 in the morning, yet yesterday I slept from about 6:30 to 3:30 only to have it not make any noticeable difference. They're more than likely related though, and I slept until 4 today, so that might make a difference.

Might end up starting into one of the other puzzle groups in Pic Pic once I'm finished with this, but the mazes will be rather annoying whenever I get to them. iDeaS doesn't display them properly, so I found another emulator that does, but it doesn't use two different windows for the screens, and what that means is that when I take a screenshot to paste into paint, I get both screens and the menu of the program, which leads to having to erase more. Not really a huge deal in the end, and the puzzles themselves might be more annoying than I was thinking at first, simply because of the way I was going to solve them.

Before any of that though, I have some new music to sort out and dishes to take downstairs. I need to drink another one of my energy drinks as well because I can't go on the whole night feeling like this, but yeah. Maybe I will post a more coherent entry later, but we'll see then. I know of a couple things I could say, at any rate~

Date: Saturday, November 21st, 2009 - 7:32am Subject: I Continue to Procrastinate Security: Public

Those things online will be purchased tomorrow. Maybe. I've been meaning to for some weeks now, as you might expect, but every time I realize I still haven't bought them, I decide I have more important things to do, or that I'm not in the right mood. Problem is, waiting to be in the proper state of mind is very time consuming, and even when it does happen the feeling rarely lasts for more than a minute or so, and putting it off in favor of doing other stuff is obvious in what delay it causes. So tomorrow night, because I'm done work at 12, and won't have to worry about tidying up my desktop after all, because I did that before leaving tonight. Although along with that I still might go to 7-11 on the way home, as well as also hearing on the radio tonight that Real Canadian Superstore is having another one of their no-tax sales tomorrow, and there are a couple things I want to pick up there, so I might as well see about going when I can save a little money. Aside from needing to get a better look at what they have for Christmas candy, I also want to pick up an advent calendar even though Mom bought one for each of us already. Finally, I noticed on Thursday that they have some new (as in ones that don't look like those that I already have) faux fur throws up front, and I already bought one of them, but would like to get one, or possibly both more while they're still available.

Such is my logic for lots of things, really, but as yet it hasn't posed any huge problems.

Well, there actually is one, but it's only loosely related. I've been up since 12:30am today / yesterday, and am now finally starting to get tired at quarter after 7. Assuming I get to sleep by 8, waking up again at 4 would be reasonable, but I'm not sure whether or not that would affect my chances of getting a ride out to Real Canadian Superstore. I worry too much though, in this case mostly because I was searching for verification of that sale earlier, and one of the comments on the site at which I found it said that they had gone last year and it was really hectic. In and of itself that is sort of fun, mostly because it reminds me of going to Walmart on Boxing Day with our gift cards from Aunt Marie and Uncle Mark and looking around for stuff to buy, but I don't want to risk waiting in line for ten minutes when I have to work the same night. I'm just going all over the palce right now as well, so to set things straight, I do intend to see about going there later this afternoon. Hopefully it works out well, but if not, I'll have to make do with Giant Tiger and anything Sobeys might offer. Or possibly No Frills, but I haven't been to that place enough to know whether or not they'd offer much holiday-themed stuff.

In the interest of me getting to bed before somebody else does wake up though, this is done for tonight. Back to work one more night tomorrow as already mentioned, from 8=12, but my schedule after that is a bit annoying, in such that I have a string of almost ten days where I close, have the day off, then close again, and have the day after that off followed by closing a third time. Progress might be made with GameFAQs while I'm asleep as well, but if I lay down while thinking about that, it's all I'll dream about, which will probably see me waking up several times like I did this morning to check the time in a daze then go back to sleep for another ten minutes. Fun, but it leaves enough to see about tomorrow, and that will be good enough~

Date: Friday, November 20th, 2009 - 5:11pm Subject: Done, at Long Last Security: Public

Only two things to mention right now, because I had to wake up at 12:30 today and am predictably tired right now. Plus wanting to finish a couple other things before leaving for work, and while almost two hours may seem like alot, that isn't quite as much as a need this time.

Anyways, Pic Pic for one. True to my expectations, I finished the 400th puzzle at about 4:20 this morning, and did nothing more to celebrate except from going into the bathroom to have another shower because I needed to make sure my hair was extra-clean. Level 5 can obviously be seen here though, and I've been repeatedly refreshing two tabs open to GameFAQs for the past hour almost, hoping for more luck than I had when I did the same thing with Picross DS. This time, however, the only other guide available is one that lists the puzzle names, but doesn't provide the actual solutions, so that might make a difference. I do definitely plan on continuing to the mazes and Magipic puzzles, but also feel I'm due for a bit of a break right now, having spent about a month just on the drawing ones.

There are also several other more important matters I need to deal with, such as Paint.net updating earlier and somehow starting Windows Updates' service again as well, which promptly displayed a dialog box telling me updates need to be installed, and that I would have to reboot for that. systeminfo shows this laptop has now been running for almost 21 days as well, and I know I've had to stop the service at least twice since starting work on Pic Pic, so it's definitely been a while. Then also, what with all the windows and programs I've had open lately, I've scarcely seen my desktop, but now that I've closed everything that doesn't need to be running anymore, I can see that it needs to be tidied up. That was actually a task I was going to take care of some weeks ago, now that I think about it, but suffice it to say I haven't yet.

More or less there's much to do when I get home, but first and foremost I need to buy those soaps and spare laptop power adapter before spending any more money. It was actually my intention to do so last night, but fell by the wayside after deciding to have a shower right away when I finished with Pic Pic. I'll worry about all of that later though, because for now I need to go ask Naomi if she wants the rest of these sour Starburst candies then at least put some new music on my PSP. Christmas stuff, because it's about that time, but truth be told I've been listening to it on and off for the past couple weeks. It's never too early, even though other people would definitely disagree with me, but meh. I like it~

Date: Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 - 1:44pm Subject: Almost Ten Hours Now Security: Public

I started a new puzzle after finishing the dishes last night, having not done any throughout the rest of the afternoon. That was at 6:30, and by the time I finished the tenth it was about quarter to 4 in the morning. Although I had to redo one because I got the brilliant idea to move the cursor to the last unfilled square before copying the screens into paint because that way only one would have to be overwritten, but since I'm not sure what iDeaS' keyboard controls are yet, I had to click on it, and clicking it filled said square in, thus finishing the puzzle, and making me very unhappy. What's more, I'll probably be spending the same amount of time on it tonight, but at least I don't have anything to be up really early for tomorrow. Grocery shopping is about it, but getting hair cuts on Friday will be a more significant bother, what with having to work the same night. And with Mary, at that, but Manoah's also on to close, so maybe it won't be an entirely bad shift.

As for the rest of today, my treat will probably be to go to Tim Hortons once I'm done at Heart and Stroke and see if they have any of the danishes I went to the one across the street from the police station looking for yesterday. I did get exactly what I wanted at Bun Master, and that probably won't be the last time I go there either, but then I figured "I want another one of those pomegranate cheese danishes, but don't want to have to go to the same Tim Hortons as before lest those people bother me again", so I walked up the street to the one mentioned above, only to find that they had none whatsoever. It's kind of funny to notice the way I look at those places though. Unless I know for a fact they're open 24 hours or later than normal otherwise, I assume that they must close really early, so if I want to go it would have to be around noon or so. Such as was the case with running back and forth to the post office last year, or to Bun Master more recently. Even though it makes much more sense to assume said places would operate on a 9-5 sort of schedule, that doesn't seem entirely likely until I've been able to see for myself <3

Not too much longer now though, so I might as well start getting ready. This may end up being a shorter afternoon than normal if the work I'm given ends up being as repetitive as Michele made it sound, but I feel after giving them at least a couple months now where I did everything required of me until I was told to head home for the day, leaving an hour early this time won't be a big deal. Although I do have to remember I still haven't given Michele an answer about the Christmas party (even though I have made my decision), but in the last email I sent her, I said I would know by the end of the month, so probably next week sometime. That way it won't seem terribly unusual, but before I go off plotting like this for another ten minutes, I do need to head out and see exactly what needs to be done with all those boxes this week. Should be fun~

Date: Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 - 5:54am Subject: My Memory is Awesome Security: Public

I had completely forgotten it was Adam's birthday today up until yesterday afternoon, but the only change that made was going out to Smittys for supper. In retrospect that worked though, because I opted to walk home and go around a long way so as to visit Giant Tiger again, but ended up taking a slight detour to Bun Master so I could check their hours. They're open 'till 5 on Sunday, and 6:00 the rest of the week, plus they have a sign up saying "We take debit now!" (as opposed to "Now accepting debit!" or some other more direct message), so I'll probably be going there tomorrow :3 Originally I was thinking of Wednesday because I'll be out that way for Heart and Stroke to begin with, but I'd rather go when they're still open for a couple more hours instead of after 5 when I might have to rush to pick out what I want.

As for Giant Tiger, I bought three really tiny boxes of four chocolates apiece, for Adam, Naomi, and Dad (which I'll hopefully be able to put into their stockings), a box of "creamy mint" type candies for Naomi, and cashew brittle (as opposed to peanut brittle) for Mom. I was thinking about getting more, but at this rate I'm going to wait and see what Real Canadian Superstore has on Thursday (if anything), so I can have a more complete idea of where I'd rather go. Then for buying soaps, not quite yet, as previously stated, but it might be a bit later than originally planned anyways, because if I do go to Bun Master tomorrow I very much doubt I'll be walking up to Taco Bell to get my pay stub as well. Still, that could just as easily be done on our way out to get groceries in a couple days, and it would probably be a good idea to see if I'm absolutely sure about what I plan to buy within the next couple days.

Oh, and since it fits, I got another email from Streetlights regarding that commission, but she only says she's sorry for the wait, and should have an inked version of the picture within the next couple days. Works for me, and I really haven't noticed the delay what with Pic Pic occupying all of my spare time, so I have no complaint. Got an email from Michele today as well, but all it said was that she wants me to come in again in this week, and that I'll probably be going through the boxes I organized last Wednesday to count the kits and make sure they're all there or something. I really don't want to, but whatever. It's all of four hours, and the only reason I'd rather stay home is to work on Pic Pic. Thirty puzzles left now, but the last five were all terribly large (1085×545), and somehow I can't see them getting any smaller, which leads me to conclude that ten a day may have been a bit too ambitious, but now I see it as a matter of getting five done before midnight, because I'll almost certainly have enough time for another five after that.

I do plan on getting to bed somewhat early tonight though, so as one last thing, a brief paragraph on work last night. Specifically, the amount of time between when I got there and started working. While I was still out in the dining room, a group of four or five guys decided they were going to be clever and start meowing at me. I, however, ignored them entirely, keeping my concentration on PSPRevolution, but that wasn't enough to stop them. Even after I changed then walked back up front, they started meowing again upon seeing me (or perhaps never stopped), which led me to ask Kaitlin what she thought. Apparently the common belief there is that they were being annoying, so I should've said something to them. What am I going to say? "Stop it"? That would only have encouraged them even more, and frankly, worrying about that isn't worth my time. Maybe if some day I were to be asked "Why don't you ever meow back?" I might give them an answer, but until then, it's funny to see what everybody else thinks, I guess.

Anyways, it's almost 6 now, which means I'm about done for tonight. I need to stop staying awake until 8 in the morning, and this seems to be the most sensible way to go about that~

Date: Sunday, November 15th, 2009 - 6:44pm Subject: Almost at the End Security: Public

Pic Pic, of course. I finally finished level 4 earlier this morning which ended up seeing me stay awake until at least 8:30, but at any rate, the picture of them can be seen here. I've already done two in level 5 this afternoon as well, but they're of course decidedly bigger, so the other three will be left for when I get home. Hopefully which will be at a decent time tonight, what with being done at 12 and all, but whether or not I go straight back to that remains to be seen. I actually have precious little time right now anyways though, because it's already quarter to and I haven't gotten ready for work yet either.

One thing I noticed upon coming home last night was that there were several pizza bun things from Bun Master in the fridge, which reminded me that I still want to go there sooner or later, but for now it seems the latter will be more likely. With this coming pay, I'll be giving Mom money for gas, then would also like to buy at least some of the snack gifts I plan on giving everybody for Christmas (at Giant Tiger, obviously), as well as soaps from Soapier, and another power cord for my laptop, because the one I'm using now keeps falling out on it's own, and while that's not a problem in and of itself, I have noticed that sometimes when I plug it back in I have to move it around before the laptop realizes it's connected, and I'd strongly prefer to be a bit proactive in this case and buy one now instead of waiting until the last minute like I did with my other one.

Although it stands to reason that since I still have the rest of the little tips that came with the universal adapter connected to my other laptop, and another model-specific adapter just for it, I might be able to power this one with another one of those said tips, but I'm almost positive I've tried them all already, and they didn't work. So that will probably be something to do on Tuesday night, because I'm already thinking about walking up to work to get my pay stub then to McDonalds for my ice cream cone if I haven't before then.

For now though, I should probably get ready for work and go see what tonight's four hour shift will hold. Yesterday was fine until about 1am, so perhaps this time will be the same as well. I can only hope~

Date: Saturday, November 14th, 2009 - 6:41am Subject: Definitely the Better Choice Security: Public

7-11 not having two of the things I wanted to buy there led me to go to both Tim Hortons and Giant Tiger as well earlier tonight.

Tim Hortons was just for a sandwich and one of those new pomegranate cheese danishes which I got the last one of after some other lady ahead of me in line ordered one as well, but it was while standing at the counter before placing my order that the fun thing happened. Some girl walked up to me, motioned over to a group she was with in the corner, and said they all wanted to touch my tail, but were too scared or something to actually come up and do that. In fun, of course, and I said I would be over there just as soon as I got my stuff, and that's exactly what I did. Not before she sat back down then came up to me again about a minute later asking what my name was though, and as with that cop who asked back during the summer, I said "You can call me 'Kar'. With a K, not a C" whereupon she walked back over to the table and sat down again. So after I was given my sandwich, I went over there too, and was introduced by that girl who told everybody they could touch my tail, and I even held it up to show that I didn't mind (just don't do it by surprise), but the only one who did was that girl (I can't remember her name, obviously), followed by her saying "See? I did it!" Everybody else laughed, and I told her "It seems like they're getting you to do their work for them" or something to that effect, and the thing I remember after that was her telling them "So now you don't have to laugh whenever he comes in", then inviting me to sit down. Not really wanting to, I made up an excuse about having to go home and get ready for work, then told everybody "It was nice to meet you" and walked away towards the door.

So that was fun, and definitely unexpected when all I get asked the rest of the time is what it's for / about, but yeah :3 As for Giant Tiger, let me just say I didn't even think of it as a place to buy Christmas gifts from. Not that I bought anything tonight, at least for anyone else, but I'm definitely going back early next week to look around further. There were at least a couple shelves of boxed chocolates and other candy, as well as at least one with decorations, so I'll definitely be able to buy some, if not all of the edible gifts I plan on getting there instead of at Real Canadian Superstore.

Suffice it to say in the end I came home with way too much food, but I'm still glad I went ^^ Not so much for sitting here most of the afternoon working on Pic Pic, but another fifteen puzzles are done, so I'm up to 350, and the last five were another size larger than the preceding 10 which wasn't quite expected, but it worked out well enough for me to finish the 350th by 6, so meh. There are only five left in level 4, meaning level 5 is going to be comprised of a whole 45 puzzles, but even so, they'll likely be enough to keep me busy until the end of the month. After all, I'm back to work tomorrow so I'll probably only finish 5, and the same will likely be true of Sunday. Actually, assuming that, I'll be finishing ten within the next two days, and have Monday through Thursday off, and it would definitely be reasonable to try and do ten a day then, so maybe even by the end of next week. We'll see, at any rate, and hopefully it doesn't take too much longer, because I can't bring myself to do other things instead. The only repercussion that's had so far is that I still haven't backed anything up like I said I was going to last weekend, but the other problem with that is figuring out what I have on each of my external drives now. Maybe I'll have to change the names to make it a bit easier to tell...

Until then though, it's about time for bed again, because I got out of bed at ~2:30 today thinking the clock on my laptop said it was 4, and I've been rather tired all night as a result. Although I would rather not sleep in 'till 4 what with having to work tomorrow, but we'll just see what happens then, I guess~

Date: Friday, November 13th, 2009 - 7:05am Subject: Such an Awesome Day Security: Public

Mostly sarcasm, of course, but insofar as that I've gone downstairs maybe three times, left my room about four more than that just to run across the hallway to the bathroom, and haven't eaten anything aside from cereal, two cheese strings, and far too much Halloween candy. I'm actually trying to work through it as quickly and reasonably as possible, because the idea of going to 7-11 or Tim Hortons seems wasteful when I have snacks here. Maybe tomorrow night though, because if it ends up anything like today was, such a trip will be well justified. The reason I spent so much more time up here today was working on Pic Pic, as you might expect, and I finished twenty puzzles. Be sure to note I started at about 5pm and finished around 3am, with a couple hours spread out where I was taking breaks, but the result of that is being at 335/400, and the remaining 65 will be easily finished during the many days off I have coming.

I'm a little more uncertain about Magipic and the mazes though. The latter wouldn't be too hard, because I could just muddle my way through each maze then erase the trails in the dead-end paths when I can see the whole thing at once, but I've been working on the 400th Magipic puzzle before going to bed for the past couple nights, and just yesterday before finally nodding off, gave up on it after a full hour (accumulated throughout those nights), because I couldn't see any other clues. I know that will get better with time, because there are certain patterns I don't yet have the ability to notice (one referenced in the tutorial was something like the middle three boxes between a 5 and 6 will always be filled in), but for now, I guess sticking with the normal progression of puzzles would be the better idea.

However, that's not to say I've spent the entire day playing the game. I spent about thirty minutes earlier fiddling around with Styler and finding a new visual style to use, then further customizing the fonts to get them the way they had been in the one I had applied before, and for some reason now Firefox doesn't play well with me doing that, so it froze. I restarted it, obviously, but was then prompted to update Personal Menu and StumbleUpon. Thinking nothing of it, I clicked the continue button and waited, but when the browser finally started up, I noticed the changes I had made to those two extensions had been overwritten. StumbleUpon was an easy fix, but Personal Menu required completely replacing the extension's .jar file. Things are back to normal now, and I just took the extra measure of disabling checking for updates to extensions (all of them these days would be for Firefox 3), but that was still unexpected. At least it happened after I'd finished with Pic Pic for the night, or I might still be now ^^;

Anyways, unlike last night getting to sleep this morning isn't going to be quite so easy, so I might as well get to Rittai Picross or Pic Pic and see how quickly they can tire me out. By that I mean it's already 7am again and I'm barely tired (and just noticed the time on the "Post an Entry" page automatically updates now...), but I don't want to get too carried away. Sleeping in late is nice, but just waking up at 5pm or so?... Not so much~

Date: Thursday, November 12th, 2009 - 5:49am Subject: Almost Not Worth It Security: Public

From what I heard at work tonight, the store owner and co. were around in the morning, for all of ten minutes or so. They were pleased with how clean everything was, and I'm told said the place had never been so clean before, but it almost seems like wasted effort. Three days worth of extra cleaning for a ten minute visit? Sure, it could've been worse, because they might have decided to stay the whole day, or if only two days worth of cleaning had been done things might not have been acceptable, but it's kind of funny in the wrong way. However, as is mostly normal I shouldn't be worrying about that, what with having two days off now. Followed by many more, actually, because I'm back on Saturday for an 8-close shift, then 8-12 on Sunday, then four more days off, another two shifts on, one of which is a close and the other an 8 to midnight, then another two days off. Kind of good because that should give me more than enough time to finish Pic Pic, but our hours are getting drastically cut quite early this year.

Outside of work, I'm rather tired right now because of having to get up early for Heart and Stroke today, which was sort of productive altogether. Sorted out and organized 60 moderately heavy boxes containing all the kits for this year's P2P campaign, then counted whistles, made up a few more birthday things for the board they have of them, and was told to call it a day. Not before somebody looking like they were about to run into me while crossing the street to go to the post office, then also turning down the chance to get a free t-shirt <3 Each of the whistles had some information card about Big Bike attached to them, but they also came with a note saying to look for the "colorful sticker" because finding would get you a t-shirt. Sure enough, I encountered four of the things, and Michele, wanting to be nice, asked of I wanted one, but no, thanks. For now though I have to email her next week in regards to whether or not she wants me to come in then, and also after the appropriate amount of time, send her another email saying I won't be able to attend the Christmas party this year, because she gave me one of the flyers they made for this year's, and said I should let her know by the end of the month. Although my answer is "No" not only because I feel it the best choice, all certain things considered, but also because the menu choices this year looked hardly appetizing. My tastes have changed somewhat from when I was a child, in that I can now stand mustard and mayonnaise and all those other sauces aside from ketchup and whatnot (just for an example, that is), but I still cannot stand vegetables. And all the choices did involve them in one way or another ;_;

The only other option is to bring money and pay for my own meal, but in that case I might as well be going on my own instead of waking up early and being there by 11. There's nothing short of still being up at that time or some sort of natural disaster that could cause me to be out of bed then these days.

Since I'm starting to metaphorically run out of steam now though, the one other thing I mentioned doing tonight yesterday. The newest sketch of the commission can be seen here. It's not without its own problems, namely with the arm and pants that look like shorts, but the angle is definitely better. That's exactly what I said in my reply too, so for now, I'm not sure what to expect next. Perhaps a more finished-looking sketch, or maybe we'll just go straight to the finished image. I could've asked that too, but still have no reason to be in a rush, so all that matters is getting there eventually.

In the meantime, and more immediate, I need to go to bed before it becomes 7:00 and I start falling asleep sitting up like this. I downloaded a new DS game a few days ago which is pretty much a 3D version of Picross, so that's serving well to keep me occupied in between Pic Pic's Drawing and Magipic puzzles. Also for something to make me tired enough to fall asleep, which is exactly the purpose it will serve tonight~

Date: Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 - 5:15am Subject: That Needs to be Changed Security: Public

Gmail Notifier just startled me significantly with the sound it makes when you receive a new email. In this case it's one from LiveJournal about somebody's birthday coming up, but that's beside the point. Although to my understanding the sound isn't part of the program, but rather comes with Windows, and is seemingly the official mail notification sound. Of course, like anything else it can be changed from the appropriate window, but finding an un-obnoxious sound to use is another thing entirely. The closest I've come is one of two or three bits of this song (I can't find the exact spots right now), but even that's not quite as easy as it sounds, because even isolating those specific parts would still include the music / noise in the background. Or I could do the more sensible thing and just disable it, but that comes down to a weird matter of purism <3

It seems equally fitting that most mornings when I wake up and open my laptop to see a new email about something or another, I'm able to find the volume knob even being half asleep still, and turn it down before the sound plays. Just one of those things, I guess.

Michele did indeed get back to me today though, the result of which is me going to Heart and Stroke tomorrow, rather against my will, but one day in three weeks won't hurt, and it has to be better than sitting here. Then work as well, but even that could be worse because the store owner and his son are supposed to be in tomorrow to conduct an inspection of their own. Most likely in the morning, because even they have to realize the place will be far cleaner then than at any other time during the day. Also good for that was having tonight off, because I'm free of worrying whether or not our close might not have been good enough. Such is obviously the reason I would've hated to be in Manoah's position tonight, but being as he's a manager, he probably has far more clout than we would in the case of saying "We all did our best, so hopefully this is good enough."

I also received another email with a new sketch of that commission mentioned a while back, but at least for tonight, I'm going to leave uploading it until tomorrow. Too early right now, and I should probably respond to her first ^^;~

Date: Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 - 6:44am Subject: Strange Causes of Worry Security: Public

I already mentioned it yesterday, but I sent an email to Michele asking if I should come in this week and whatnot, to which she replied at about 8:30am, which is obscenely early for one (far too often repeated) thing, saying "Let me think about it. I'll get back to you." I... guess. Whatever you say, in fact. Is there some reason you still have to think about it, even after having the better part of two weeks to do so? I mean, it's not that I mind the possibility of having another week off, but to say "Let me think about it" makes it sound, at least to me, like there's something I've done to merit you not wanting me to return. Admittedly an over-imaginative point of view, but saying "I'm still not sure. Let me see what I have to do and I'll get back to you" would take just about as much time, and eliminate any room for wondering. Maybe she'll respond at about the same time this morning, or later this afternoon, but it'll have to be today, because she can't very well email me on Wednesday morning and say "You can come in this week" because I'll still be asleep.

Then on the same general topic, back when I was getting that second pair of ears from Chesh and they finally showed up, I sent her an email, as you would expect, to say "They got here safely, and are exactly what I wanted, so thanks again." Her response? Well, first of all, it was "How do you like them?" which I had answered in the previous message, but I sent her a slightly longer version of the same thing, and got a reply back from her that said something like "I just like to make sure my repeat customers are happy, so I'm glad to hear that". Given past correspondence with her, not something I would have expected her to say before, but if anything I guess that's what I get for having preconceived ideas about how somebody will talk. Not a bad thing by any means. Rather sort of interesting, but the difference doesn't really make any in this case.

As for today though, I have nothing to do aside from the dishes, so hopefully I'll be able to sleep in for as long as I've wanted to the past couple days. That actually wasn't as bad this morning, but I still couldn't drag myself out of bed for the world until about half an hour after I woke up. Even after I suddenly jolted out of sleep at ~11, then sat up, opened my laptop, and went to type something or other into Notepad, I think, before finally realizing it was too early to be awake and going back to sleep. I do continue to blame Pic Pic to a degree, but as with other such games in the past, I haven't yet had any dreams as a result of playing it excessively. Well, there was one to be fair, but it only involved a Magipic puzzle that I was most of the way through, but then realized I had messed up part of, and was somehow lucky enough to find the mistakes without muddling things further.

One last abrupt subject change for now, because there's some cleaning up that absolutely must be taken care of before I go to bed. Josh stopped by while I was at work tonight. I recall him saying "Hey losers" in jest to get our attention, then referring to me as "The freaky kid I've known since grade 3" or something to that effect to his girlfriend. Grade 4, to make one correction, but otherwise it was a... nice way for him to say hi. Not that I'm taking offense or anything, because if I did want to be hurt I could still be brought to tears by some guy on the bridge while walking to work saying "You must be [expletive] retarded". My response to him was "Alright" coupled with shrugging my shoulders <3 Kind of funny that my main worry about any possible confrontation on the bridge is somebody pulling my ears off and tossing them into the river, but on the other hand, if that were to ever happen, I would make every effort to lift them up and over the side. I can't see that ever happening, of course, but it's just fun to think about.

Anyways, I am being abhorrently incoherent and unorganized right now, so I'm just going to work on my cleaning then go to bed. Maybe tomorrow my thoughts won't be so erratic~

Date: Monday, November 9th, 2009 - 5:45am Subject: An Improvement Overall Security: Public

So I find myself here again. 5:46 in the morning, and I've not much to do. Just got around to plugging my PSP in finally because it needed to charge, and it's quite nice being able to reach down beside my bed and only feel one cord as opposed to a whole bunch tangled together. Went searching around for a ROM of The Fantastic Adventures of Dizzy earlier, back at the beginning of the hour or so, and would like to play it some before my shift starts tomorrow. We had, and still might have the actual cartridge, but as at least one of the reviews on GameFAQs says, there are no save points in it at all, which makes the game quite hard. On top of that, you only have three lives, and to get more, you have to find puzzle scrolls scattered about (I can only remember one though), and complete a sliding puzzle to rearrange pieces of parchment with the phrase "Hocus Pocus Busy Wizzy Conjure Up Another Dizzy" on them. As well as a picture of stork for some odd reason, but the thing about them is the time limit. The only other thing I can remember about the game at the moment is a triceratops found some ~4 screens to the left of where you start the game. Normally it would attack and kill you, but by getting as close as possible without it charging and "dropping" a whole chicken, it (the chicken) would fly up off the screen and the dinosaur would run after it never to be seen again :B

At least I hope my schedule will permit that, because I only have three shifts on the new one, and am not about to play it here because that'd lead to giving up on Pic Pic and all the work I've done to date would be put to waste. Admittedly I've only done two in this whole day, but that was enough to bring me up to having exactly 300 done, and given their size now, five all in one go (without diverting to other things) might be a bit ambitious. Although it might be just as well, because I did one before leaving for work earlier, and that feeling of being tired I mentioned in my previous entry had almost completely disappeared. Mind you, I'm not terribly tired right now either, and haven't touched the emulator in a couple hours, so for all I know the two things aren't related after all. Getting back to my schedule for one more minute, I went to the bank right after leaving work to check my balance, and it's at $1,709 even after the money put on my mastercard and the ~$16 that went to Halloween candy. There's no way it won't be going below that before next time I get paid, unfortunately, but it's still nice to see that not buying stuff at 7-11 just because I have the night off or whatever is having an effect.

Might as well get ready for bed right now though. Nothing to do tomorrow aside from work, but I sent an email to Michele when I got home, and depending on her reply, I might have to force myself to get out of bed earlier on Tuesday so I go to sleep earlier as well. Well, there was one other option crossing my mind, but it was staying up from when I got out of bed until when I'd normally be laying down again the next morning / night, because that way I'd be getting a better and more satisfying sleep. I mean, think about it. That trip we took to Mississauga a while ago. I got about two, maybe three hours of sleep between when we left Saturday morning and returned Sunday afternoon, and it was the best feeling ever to come back up to my room, unpack everything, and just lay down to sleep for a couple hours. Although I suppose part of that would also be due to having just come home from the trip, but it's still a feasible enough thought. I might even suggest doing that tomorrow night, what with having Tuesday off and all, but I don't think so. Not right now anyways, and I do need to be getting to bed despite having said I would be ten minutes ago, so I just need to put a couple new games on my DS, and I think that'll be it~

Date: Sunday, November 8th, 2009 - 5:06pm Subject: What Amazing Timing Security: Public

I've been incredibly tired since I woke up today, and the thought just occurred to me to have a shower before work instead of after. Just as I was about to get up though, who do I hear stomping into the bathroom instead? Adam. And he always takes his sweet time and never bothers to clean up the... detritus left along the bottom of the tub. Therefore I'm left to deal without, and in such am hoping that the walk to work and just being there later will be enough. It's actually kind of odd feeling this way, because I got more sleep last night than I did yesterday, but it would seem that's just my luck. Or perhaps it's residual fatigue left over from finally finishing this, having to redo two of those puzzles on top of it as well, because I didn't leave any squares blank (it auto-completes when they're all filled in), and they were already at the point of taking half an hour to do without even copying them to mspaint. Oh well though. That's 295 down, 105 more to go, which I would say are reasonable to see being done by the end of the month :3

So yeah. Work tonight, which I'll have to leave for in about an hour, and I find myself thinking ahead to Tuesday and Wednesday. Tuesday I have off from work, and Wednesday was when I figured I'd be going to Heart and Stroke this week (assuming Michele has work for me), but it's also Remembrance Day. As much as I want to just flat out assume they'd be closed, there's still this slight suspicion that they might be open, because it doesn't feel like a "real" holiday. Sure, I know we used to do stuff at school for it, and I've been seeing people everywhere wearing poppies for the past week (seems a bit early), and it also incidentally marks my 4-year date at Taco Bell, but that's it. Meh. Tuesday is my only real concern because that's the night I have to wash dishes, and for the rest of the week, I just have to cross my fingers and hope there's a new schedule ready when I go to work tonight.

Anyways, I'm just going to say this is done right here this time and go see if the shower is available yet. Maybe work will give me some interesting things to write about, but even if it doesn't, I should also have that sketch (or those sketches) coming tonight, so they may be waiting for me when I get home. Hopefully~

Date: Saturday, November 7th, 2009 - 7:12am Subject: Just at the Last Minute Security: Public

"Last day" might be a more accurate description in this case, but when I went out to Real Canadian Superstore earlier today, all the Halloween candy that was just inside the larger part of the building when we went grocery shopping was gone. What's more, I happened to notice while getting milk on Thursday that they had some boxes of candy on one of the shelves at the very back of the building too, but today they were replaced by what looked like boxes of Christmas decorations. So yeah. It's definitely a good thing that I asked for a ride, because I still was able to locate what stuff they had left and bought three packages (indeed <3) which turned out to be quite heavy. On that note, it's definitely a sign that Christmas is quickly approaching when they have decorations up all along the back wall and whatnot. Still seems a bit early, but then again I've been listening to Christmas music on and off for the past two days myself so I'm not one to talk ^^;

Continuing on the topic, I also had another chance to go to Money Mart, and put another $20 on my card there, so one way or another there's enough to cover both the monthly fees and price of the Reader's Digest subscription if it does indeed turn out to be ~$50. I'd really like to know what the delay is, at that, but perhaps it's just normal and the order will be processed next week. Although that doesn't make sense either, because I was given a deadline of November 7th to contact them if I wanted the name on the gift card to be changed, and one would hope they'd not do that without acquiring payment. Nothing much can be done about it for now though, and as far as both of us are concerned, I've paid, which is the only obligation I was required to fulfill.

Moving on, a rather interesting curiosity. Last week I received an email written almost entirely in Japanese, that appeared to be some sort of account registration notice from PSN Japan. I was tempted to write it off as spam and click the appropriate button in Gmail as such, but decided to archive it instead, because the idea of somebody registering with my email address was plausible enough (I couldn't say how they found my address though), and I figured if they were going to that much trouble, I might as well let them be unless anything malicious ever came about as a result. Unfortunately, there's not much I can do with the account because I don't know the password, or the date of birth given upon registration (I've already tried mine), but despite that it's funny in an odd way. I received another email from them (PSN Japan) today, which is what brought on the desire to write about this in here, but it's content was not much more than a list of new / upcoming games, with longer paragraphs devoted to a select few. LocoRoco - Midnight Carnival, "PixelJunk", and "Ghost in the Shell", that I can see without consulting Google's translator. As stated at the beginning of this paragraph, it's a curiosity if nothing else, so for now I'm just going to sit back and see what happens. For example, I would assume there's a message board on there, and it would make sense that private messages sent to any specific member could also be forwarded to their email address. That does assume this other entity hasn't disabled such an option, but for the time being I'm counting on that.

That aside, it's been another typical day. Should be getting at least one more sketch from Streetlights on Sunday, so I'm looking forward to that, but otherwise, it's 7:40am, and the reason for me being up so early should be all too clear by now. Fifteen puzzles left in level 3, and I finished the same number today (actually 18, but I accidentally did 3 of level 4's without realizing), so perhaps tomorrow will end up going the same :3 Well, with the addition of going to Tim Hortons maybe, because I want another sandwich, and have more than enough in cash to buy one. We'll just have to see then~

Date: Friday, November 6th, 2009 - 6:35am Subject: Who Made This Decision? Security: Public

Much earlier this afternoon, I finally got around to filling out the subscription information for Mom's other Christmas present, and was immediately confronted with a message saying the shipping and billing addresses couldn't be the same. Honestly, who decides that? In the end I phoned them and was able to place the order that way, with the addition of making the lady on the other end laugh when I told her I wanted the name on the gift card to be "Santa Claus", so at least that's done. Well, that is to say it would seem so, but logging into my account right now, my balance still shows as $61.32, when I loaded only $60 onto the card before we went grocery shopping. I really wish it would change as well, because I couldn't make out whether the total was ~$30 or ~$50, and if it's the latter, I definitely have to put some more money on it tomorrow. Yeah, I should've asked for confirmation, but I didn't, and at least the repercussion of that is minimal.

Should it have changed by tomorrow, I might actually see about going to Money Mart again, because, well, there was still plenty of Halloween candy to be picked from at Real Canadian Superstore, but none of what I was looking for. The red boxes / bags labeled "[something] Favorites" that come with Kit-Kat, Coffee Crisp, and Aero chocolate bars along with boxes of Smarties. Thinking myself clever, I decided to not buy anything there and go to Sobeys after I had taken care of some things at home in hopes that they would have a wider selection, but as it turned out they didn't have anything at all. Actually, they did, but only bags of the aforementioned variety that were $6.99 for a package of twenty, which was way too expensive. Therefore, I plan to either walk or get a ride out to Real Canadian Superstore later today, and stop by Money Mart during one of those trips. Then McDonalds too, because I haven't used my free ice cream thing yet, and I really should before I forget about it and / or the expiration date passes.

Otherwise, this has been a typical day off, at least as of late. Fifteen more puzzles done in Pic Pic, and the size has increased again (now up to 545×655px), and I did finally finish the second Magipic one, which was a frog. Then the one after it too, so as before, it's nice to know how to do those puzzles now. Not that it's related, but one other thing I need to remember tomorrow is to back everything up, as per usual. It's been a while since I last did that, and started earlier by moving the remaining episodes of Rugrats and whatnot to the appropriate hard drive, so I might as well finish while I have the time.

I can't think of much else to say aside from that though, so the best thing to do is lay down and go to sleep. At least today hasn't been entirely uneventful~

Date: Thursday, November 5th, 2009 - 6:09am Subject: What an Awful Choice Security: Public

Reference once again to that "Curiosity killed the cat" adage. Steve was complaining last night that the grease trap was starting to back up again, which it has done countless times before, and is always easily determined by the... unique smell. Rather appropriately, I got put on drive through tonight, and ended up having ten or so minutes without any customers after all the dishes were caught up, so I decided to pull the lid off and have a look inside, and saw this (which may or may not be a nice picture depending upon your disposition). It should do for at least a couple days more though, and even after that it's good to know that cleaning it out in the future, at least in terms of it overflowing and making a mess, is a simple matter of popping the lid off and scooping the stuff out

Also somewhat related to work, a less-serious question that was on my mind before the End World Hunger thing ended. When asking customers "Would you like to donate a dollar to help end world hunger?", some of them would say "No, thanks." Why thank me? I'm not offering you anything, outside of possibly acknowledging your philanthropic interests, and even then, by saying no, you're completely destroying that theory. Now, perhaps if I were to have asked "Would you like to not donate a dollar?", their answer would make more sense, but so doing would invite other questions. "Do you mean 'Yes, you don't want to donate' or 'No, you don't want to not donate?" Weird thoughts, but I can also understand the ingrained idea of politeness and blurting out that response without really thinking of what you're saying. To give a little more merit to this paragraph, judging by the sheet in the office, we may be getting that Black Jack Taco as our next promotion. The dates were November 23rd to January 10th, but the weird part about it was the sheet mentioning "Crisis product recovery", but all I can guess towards the meaning of that is that it didn't go over well in the states, to they want to bring it here in hopes that it'll be more popular. We'll see, I guess.

In the meantime, I've been having a pretty standard night since getting home. Finished up to puzzle 240, faster than I did yesterday, and judging by where the arrow is now, it's definitely quite reasonable to assume I'll be into level 4 by the time I go back to work. Of course, there won't be a whole lot of time for that tomorrow afternoon, because I have at least four places to go for sure. The bank to get money for Mom and Dad, McDonalds because I found one of those Monopoly pieces for a free ice cream cone outside at work last night, then to Money Mart so I will have the funds necessary to cover November's fees, as well as enough to buy that Reader's Digest subscription for Mom, and then out to Real Canadian Superstore. I kind of want to see if Bun(s) Master is open before going to any of those other places as well, but at least for this week, that might fall under the category of unnecessary spending.

At any rate, we'll see tomorrow, and for now, it's bedtime. Well, within the hour, to be fair~

Date: Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 - 4:16pm Subject: So Much for Saving Security: Public

No matter which way I go about it, my pay this week is entirely spoken for. Technically about $45 of that could be seen as optional, but for right now I just plan on trying not to drop below $1,600, and hoping to make more next week. Sure, there isn't a great chance of that happening, what with getting so very many days off lately, but I can still hope. That was probably the worst part of last night, closely followed by having to make sure the store was extra-clean, because Shawn is supposed to be down for the whole day today. Whether that means he'll be there until when the dining room closes remains to be seen, but the latest I've seen him there in a while was ~8:30, and that was on another day that he was said to have been around for the whole afternoon. Hopefully that won't prove to be a big deal, because tonight is my last shift until Sunday, so to end on a satisfactory note would be nice.

I can't think of much else to say otherwise today. Pretty much immediately went to Pic Pic last night when I came home, and spent about four hours completing seven more puzzles, so level 3 is about halfway done, but at the expense of it sucking up all of my time <3 As yet there's nothing else I would do with that time though, so meh.

Tomorrow might be a bit more interesting, because there'll be a bunch of running around to do in the afternoon, to the bank and Money Mart and Real Canadian Superstore, then maybe out to Sobeys later at night after that, because even with lack of money I'd like to pick up just one bag of Halloween candy. After that, probably just more of the same like the past several days, but that's just the way things go I guess. The past two nights I was going to sleep with stuff running through my head that I had forgotten to write about, and then that ended almost as soon as it had started, so yeah. Although going back to the first paragraph for a moment, I do have about $20 extra now, because I was assuming this week's pay was the only one between now and going to get our hair cuts on the 20th, but looking at the calendar here, there's actually a second one on the 19th. Mind you, I would still strongly prefer to have more, but that's a given no matter what time it is.

Anyways, in the interest of me not sitting here until 7 trying to think of stuff to write about, I'm going back to Pic Pic. Maybe I can get five more puzzles done before leaving for work~

Date: Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 - 6:55am Subject: Time is Running Out Security: Public

Both in an immediate, and somewhat distant sense.

Closer to the moment, it's almost 7am and I still haven't gone to bed, for working on Pic Pic since I got home (around 2) and completing ten more puzzles, since I didn't do any earlier today. Was in quite an irritable mood when I finally got out of bed, because I set my alarm for 3pm, figuring otherwise I'd sleep in later than that, but didn't want to let my sleep "patterns" get too out of hand. Unfortunately, I woke up the first time about ten minutes before that, feeling this immutable nagging, even while asleep, that my alarm was going to go off soon, and as such, when I saw what time it was, set the alarm ahead to 4, and went back to sleep. The problem was that last hour. While I was, for all intents and purposes "dead to the world", I didn't have what could even remotely be called a good rest. I was either worrying about the time, or thinking about that commission (I refer you to my previous entry), which somehow was able to keep me from falling fully asleep. I can't remember what time I got out of bed after that, but I know my alarm didn't go off, and from then until I went to work, everything was just annoying. From having pillows in the window to block the sunlight to the thought of having to leave for work at 7 (insignificant to sensible, thus), my mood was of the "Touch me and I'll rip your head off" sort.

That has definitely changed now, helped mostly by work being slow and setting aside any forethought regarding my actions, but the main point is that I hope to get a better sleep tonight. At least I'd better, considering the time, but we'll see.

As for the second subject of the title, the Christmas gift idea I wrote about yesterday night. The reply I received says that yes, they can put a different name on the "So and so gave you a subscription" card, but need that information by November 7th, so if I'm going to buy one for Mom, it will be done so on Thursday, and definitely at the expense of more money going into my bank account. As for the question about when the first magazine would be received, they usually start on January, but that can be changed at the customer's discretion. It will be rather complicated, but I'm more concerned with the deadline for the notification card. For now, this depends on what I see when I get my pay stub tomorrow night, I guess.

Given the time right now though, I'm going to bed. Back to work both tomorrow and Wednesday which is alright if anything, and otherwise, that just leaves the dishes before heading out for my next shift. Oh, and adding a note to Rainlendar about haircut appointments on the 20th too, but that's easy enough~

Date: Monday, November 2nd, 2009 - 5:48am Subject: If I'd Known Sooner... Security: Public

As mentioned last week sometime, Mom's birthday was on Tuesday and, being at work from 5-8, therefore missing any celebrations, figured it wouldn't be necessary to get her a card or anything this year, but I felt a bit bad for having done that. Skip ahead to yesterday night before I left for work, and I asked for clarification on something she'd mentioned a couple weeks prior. Something else she would like for Christmas if, for whatever reason, I wasn't able to find the DVD she wanted (she still doesn't know anything about it other than me telling her I'd look). The gift? A subscription to Reader's Digest, because to the best of my understanding, Grandpa or Grandma (does it ever feel weird typing that...) used to have one, and gave her the magazines when they were finished reading them, which she quite enjoyed. Anyways, the title come in when I figure that I could've given her the DVD as a birthday present and something to take the place of a card, then "given" her a subscription to Reader's Digest for Christmas, but it's too late for that now.

I still did take a look at the site yesterday, and found that a one year subscription is about $30. Of course, their policy for cancellation (at the end of the year) is that the customer needs to do that instead of them asking "Would you like to renew?", but that's to be expected. Then the feeling of detachment on the site overall was quite apparent, and thus really not something I expected before. Not that it will have an adverse effect on anything, but I always saw that magazine (and therefore everybody involved in producing and distributing it) as being more closely bound together, but that isn't the case. Meh. For now though, I sent them a message asking when the first magazine would arrive (the same month of the subscription, or the one after), and whether or not they could put a different name on the "Somebody gave you a subscription!" card they apparently send. If I do get that for her, it's not going to take too much work to figure out who it was, but I'd like that to remain a mystery for at least a short length of time. Being as it was Sunday today, they haven't responded yet, but hopefully tomorrow, so I'll have to wait and see.

Otherwise today, I've been... doing a hell of a lot of work in Pic Pic, I guess. It may not seem like too much, because I've only completed 19 puzzles for the day right now (and yes, the 20th will be done once I finish this entry), but they're all fairly large (either 485×485 or 485×545 (pixels)), so I'm pleased. The second Magipic puzzle continues to elude me (even though I finished the third on my second try), but I'll give that another try tonight too, because I almost had it before I went to bed yesterday, but screwed up somewhere in one of the corners. Not that it's related, but I'm also somewhat frustrated with myself regarding that new commission. When I first set out to describe what I wanted, I had a solid vision in my mind, and everything seemed to make sense, but now that it's come down to me having received two sketches (the second of which can be seen here, by the way), and it still didn't seem quite right, but then it hit me. I'm thinking of a view from behind and off to the side, which would completely obscure, well, my face, I guess. As such, I figured that perhaps a view from the side, but turned forward / to the right maybe twenty degrees would be better (so it'd still be like standing off to the side, but still with the face in view), but if that doesn't work, I'm just going to ask to go back to the original sketch, except looking up at the sky instead of having head turned to face outwards, and a couple other minor changes that have already been worked out. It's frustrating, really (entirely on my part), but the how / why is sort of weird.

For now though, I'm going to leave any thoughts of that until I see what will presumably be a third sketch (which is the same reason I intend to compensate her afterwards for these repeated changes), and in the meantime play Pic Pic until I get tired. Shouldn't be too much longer now~