The Stuff I Feel Like Typing

I Can't Decide Whether it's a Step Back, or a Step Forward

Wed, 14 May 2008 22:35:28 GMT

Concerning that computer problem: after some more searching on Google for the specific STOP error (0x0000007B, I think), I found a couple sites that said something to the effect of it being caused by any major hardware change. Motherboard, for example. That certainly would do it, in this case. So I brought the hard drive back over to them, hooked everything up, and turned the computer on. It got stuck POSTing, or at least the little white loading bar never filled up :s So Stuart (Terry's husband) turned it off, convinced that it was a problem with the hard drive, and probably five or six attempts at unplugging the hard drive and fiddling with the jumper, it would turn on, but nothing would show on the monitor. Or more specifically, the monitor stayed in standby mode. Offered to take the whole computer home and try it with our monitor, and ours says "No Signal" too :\ Feh. Stuart said he'd just get somebody else to look at it, but that he'd still give me the $10 *before* I offered to take it home, and I should've just said "Alright. The viruses should be removed, but I'm not sure what the problem with the monitor is. Sorry."

I saw a shirt on some site before going to bed that said "No, I will not fix your computer." I need one of those ;_; There was also one that simply said "Meh." though. I need one of those as well, except without the period. Such apathy in only three letters <3

In other news though, I'm closing with Michelle and Cam tonight, which should hopefully go about the same as yesterday night did. With some added running down to drive through to show Cam how to ring whatever in, of course. Joe ended up getting a ride home from Michelle yesterday because he had a headache and generally wasn't feeling well, but that's fine, I guess. If all goes as planned tonight, I'm going to try taking that route where I only turn left tonight, just to see how long that takes. I figure if I can walk 7km in about one hour, I can do ten in an hour and a half or so, but we'll see. I don't plan on bringing any money with me either, outside of my debit card, and a quarter in the event I need to use a payphone. At least not tonight.

Ooh, the phone is ringing. That reminds me of something :3 As we were walking down the hallway to Terry's apartment, I asked Mom when our next appointment to get our hair cut was. Usually it's on a Monday, and what did she say? The 26th. Not going to happen. Explained that I was going back to London on that day, and she said she'd have to phone Susan to see about changing the date. As we were pulling out of the parking lot, she asked me just what I was going to London for. All serious-like too. Told her the same thing I've told everyone else though. I went to visit some friends. Of course, she asked how / where I knew those friends from, and I just said "Online".

And otherwise, I'm once again getting repeatedly disconnected from the wireless internet, which is starting to get really annoying, but I only have season 7 of MacGyver left to download, after which the whole torrent is getting set to "Low" priority. Or perhaps outright removed from uTorrent, because Demonoid is really the only tracker I care about seeding on, and I didn't download the torrent from there.

Speaking of MacGyver though, I really need to stop watching it before I go to bed. Had yet another weird dream last night, where either Josh or Dad and I were driving around London looking for the apartment. We must've gone too far or something, because eventually we ended up out in the outskirts of the city. The weird thing about it was there were all sorts of large, black and grey futuristic-looking statues around us, and the other roads, that I took to be some sort of "publicity display" by the city council or some other governing body. Instead of turning back though, we kept driving along the road (which was actually a highway), and eventually came across a man and a woman running along opposite sides of the road, shooting at each other, and using the passing vehicles for cover :s That's all I can really remember, and it's not to say that they aren't cool, but they're still so weird at the same time. The best part about it is I'm only two episodes into season 3. It's going to be at least a couple months before my dreams go back to normal ^^;

But anyways, it's 6:30, and I still plan on walking *to* work as long as it's not raining, so this'll be done once again~

Problem Not Quite Solved

Tue, 13 May 2008 20:17:00 GMT

I had intended to have their computer fixed before I left, but I ended up taking the hard drive home, because Mom had to leave to pick Dad up from work, and their computer was running far too slowly for me to make any progress. Had I brought my debit card and PSP with me (or even just my debit card alone), I'd have told Mom I'd walk home, then stopped to pick up a snack somewhere along the way.

But no. So upon getting home, I hooked their hard drive up all by itself, and found that it wouldn't boot. Hooked it up as the secondary / slave drive after that, and our Windows installation would boot fine, but of the two times I allowed it to, both saw a "New Hardware Added" (or something like that) balloon message pop up, then the whole computer would restart. So I booted in safe mode, and ran [chkdsk /f f:]. That went fine, and next time I restarted, I was able to access the files on the drive as normal, so the first thing I did was to take a drive image, which is still on the desktop should I end up needing it.

Opened AVG, and started a scan on that drive on it's own which found 26 viruses, removed 24, and quarantined 2 or something of the sort.

It still won't boot. I do have another idea that I can try after writing this, but otherwise, I need to see about taking it back to them to check if it'll boot there. The only thing I can think of that might've caused that problem was running System Restore on the farthest-back restore point they had before we left, and forcefully shutting the computer down before it completed, but I can't see how that it'd cause it to just outright BSOD. For what it's worth, the little "Windows is restoring your files and settings" thing hadn't even appeared. Feh :\

And in other news, back to work tonight 'till Saturday. Pretty sure I'm closing with Michelle and Joe too, but meh, that's fine. If Joe and I do end up walking home together, I'll probably stop by Tim Hortons and / or 7-11, but if not, I'll likely go a shorter way. I've been meaning to time how long it takes me to walk that route that goes down Elizabeth, because if it ends up being 40 minutes or less, I'll probably walk there that way one of these nights, but otherwise, yeah. Just home will suffice~

Oh, and also, I was finally able to get to that BitTorrent Manipulation test. There is no indication that our ISP limits, well, anything, according to the results page. So that's weird. *shrug* I only have a little bit of Season 6, then Season 7 left to go, so with any luck, they'll be done by the end of the week. I can't foresee having to download anymore large files after that, but we'll see.

Anyways, I should try that other idea I had for fixing this problem, so hopefully it works...

At Least I Was Able to Sleep In

Mon, 12 May 2008 22:20:06 GMT

I still woke up at 2 as usual, but went back to sleep after that 'till 4:30 or so. Had *four* more strange dreams in that time as well.

[1] I was at work, on drive through, and was just heading back to the bathroom when a car pulled up, so I told them "I'll be with you in just a minute, okay?" My laptop was sitting on the back of the toilet for some reason, so I walked up to it, and opened Pidgin to check who was online. For some reason, there were four entries in the list, so I took a look at the 4th, and for some reason, Cola was in the list twice. I looked away for a second, then when I turned back, and noticed that there was now room for the list to scroll up and down. Scrolled down a bit further, and there he was a 3rd time. Moused over his userpic in order to right-click it and send him a message, and noticed the larger sized picture was different than the other one. Clicked "IM" anyways though, and had just enough time to type (but not send) "WHAT ARE YOU?!", then the customer that was waiting said "Hello?" or something, and asked what "That new chalupa thing you guys have is". Asked him if he wanted to know what came on it, and he got all angry, said no, then "What *is* it?" Told him it was a club chalupa, and the dream ended :s

[2] Apparently it was the 26th already. I was walking down the sidewalk towards the post office, which I thought was (and was in the dream) the train station, and noticed a sign in the window that said they still had tickets left, but that they were upwards of $100. Thought to myself that it was good I got mine at the beginning of the month, then walked in, and sat down facing the window. Pulled out my ticket to check the departure time, just to be sure I was there when I was supposed to be, and for some reason, saw I was more than an hour early. Figured nothing of it, because I had enough to do in the meantime. Made sure I had everything I wanted to bring with me, but noticed I didn't have my DS, but just as I was about to say "Oh well. I didn't *really* need it", I noticed it in my pocket.

[3] This one was a dream within a dream type thing. I was asleep in the same bed that's actually in my room, having some sort of bad dream, but it eventually ended, and I woke up. First thing I did then is what I normally do whenever I wake up (for now, at least), that being checking a couple things on my laptop. Mainly uTorrent right now, because I have one file set to high priority at a time, and when it finishes downloading, I put it on "Skip", because I find that if I don't, it'll eventually be redownloaded for some reason, and then I put the next file in the list on high. With that out of the way, the first thing I noticed in the dream was that Cola had IMed me about something strange that just happened, and I was about to tell him about the dream I just had, but I couldn't figure out the right way to say it, then I actually completely woke up.

[4] Don't really know how this one started, but I had received a large box. A large box with all manner of furry items inside. All I can remember were a (very) large leopard-spotted comforter (larger than the one on my bed right now), a second giant tail, and a bright orange tiger-striped tail and paws to go with it. Those sorts of dreams can be so cruel ;_;

Ended up sending Manoah an email explaining why I went to London before going to bed too. I had and still have no intention of telling him in MSN, but I do feel sort of bad that I said I would, just to decide not to. Having said that, the relevant bit is as follows:

"...what does the word "furry" mean to you? Covered in fur, or something along these lines? The latter is what we're talking about in this case.

Like I told you, I went to visit some friends, whom, along with me, are furries. Or perhaps it'd be more appropriate to say "furry fan" because as much as I'm sure I / they would love to be anthropomorphic animals, such a thing is physically impossible, with a couple exclusionary stipulations (for example, remember when I wore that tail in on Halloween?) ;_; Anyways they have a small gathering on Monday night, wherein other furries that live in London come to their apartment to hang out, chat with each other, and usually watch a movie or some other activity. So that's what I went to London for, and is also what I'm heading back to on the 26th. The reason I went to there for it is that I'd already been there once in the past, and wanted to go back again but didn't know where the apartment was, and where I'd stay overnight, and also, there are very few furries in this city. I can think of five, maybe six, at least one of whom I know you've met (they worked at Taco Bell for a bit). It honestly does get sort of lonely after a while."

*shrug* I would've linked to the Wikipedia page, but Wikifur's isn't nearly as long~ And of course, the email did contain a curt paragraph requesting he not tell anyone that works at Taco Bell. I don't care if they find out on their own, and I could care less about him telling someone that doesn't work there. One way or another, the only problem I might end up facing now is Josh somehow finding out, and getting angry at me for not telling him first. That'll be his problem though, because all he has to do is ask.

And now I have something to do with part of my night. Mom called Terry (the lady she works for), and we'll be going over there at 7:30 to see about fixing her computer. I suppose that means I should probably tidy up my desktop while I have a chance then. I downloaded several more DS homebrew games and ROMs, and they're still on my desktop right now :p

On a final note though, I've gone back to the old theme, obviously. The only thing I have to be fussy about with it is that I can't see any way to edit the "Track This" text :\ I like it otherwise, and that's really not noticeable unless you look right at it, so meh. It'll do 'till next time I decide to change it for a couple days ^^;

Why Does it Keep Disconnecting?

Mon, 12 May 2008 01:37:23 GMT

"It" being my laptop from our wireless connection. If I didn't know any better, I'd say it has something to do with me still having stuff downloading in uTorrent, and I've been trying to run this test to find out, but I keep getting a message saying that their server is busy. For almost a full week now :\ But that doesn't make sense anyways, because if that were the case, wouldn't it be affecting everyone? Neither Naomi or Adam have said anything about the internet disconnecting in them...

Anyways though, supper was alright, but for all the energy Adam and Naomi never seem to have at home, they sure do when we're out for supper / in a public place. Not quite sure what the total for everything was either. All I know is Adam gave me $5 back, so meh. Interestingly though, Naomi was *supposed* to bring some money, but of course, she didn't. Oh, how I wish I could tell Mom and Dad to start keeping track of what she's spending. She always seems to have money whenever she wants to get something for supper, or go out wherever else, but as soon as, but any other time, has nothing at all. Otherwise, it was nice, which is another fun thing. It seems embarrassing enough just thinking about it, but one of the things I wish I could do from time to time is to go out for supper with a group that's not my family. Feh.

So I might head to Tim Hortons once I'm done writing this, because I've wanted Timbits all week, and the couple times I went to one on the way home, there were none left :s Not sure what I'll do tomorrow, aside from sleeping in, but I'll figure something out~

A Change in Routine is Always Nice

Sun, 11 May 2008 10:25:50 GMT

Normally when I get home from work, I sit down in the living room in front of my laptop, check a couple things, bring it upstairs, and do whatever 'till I get tired enough to go to sleep. Tonight, however, I took it out into the kitchen, sat down at the table, and watched an episode of MacGyver while I ate my "supper". Normally I just forgo supper completely, and have a small snack when I get home from work, but I'm willing to make an exception for steak and the certain kind of potatoes that were made (cook them, scoop out the inside, add cheese / whatever else, and put the potato back in the skin) ^^ There were and still are plenty of those chocolate chip cookies left too, but I've had enough of those for now.

Work was alright, and of course the bar rush started at 2:40, but all the cars were gone by 3, so we closed, and were out of there within half an hour or so. I had planned on taking that hour-long way home, but in between starting out way too quickly which caused my legs to get sore again, and not really feeling like being out and about for an hour at ~3:30 in the morning, I took the route down Sandys. Unfortunately, I had to walk by what I'm going to refer to as the colossal eyesore again (if you've seen it, you know what I'm talking about), but on the way there tonight, I noticed that it said "Happy Mother's Day", so perhaps it'll have been taken down by next time I have to work~

Before I move on to something else though, a couple more interesting things that happened at work. Note that I was on drive through for the entire night, just so I don't have to mention in each one of the following.

[1] A lady came through with her daughter (at least I assume it was her daughter), and ordered, among other things, a bag of twists. When she got up to the window, she asked if she could exchange the twists for "Churros" (except it sounded like "Cheerios" when she said it). Had I not read this a while back, I wouldn't have had a clue what she was talking about. As whoever submitted that did though, I told her all we had were twists and pies, but it didn't go anywhere after that :s

[2] Some guy, after having paid for his order, said he had a question. Figured it was about the food or our hours or something, but what did he have to ask? I quote: "How in the hell did you lose so much weight?!" Apparently he met me about a year ago (or so he said), and in his own words I was a "big guy" back then. Then he asked me how I did it, and it was all I could think of to say "Nothing, really... I just walk to and home from work...?" What is one supposed to say in that sort of situation? It's the third or fourth time now I've had somebody tell me I've lost weight, and I'd love nothing more than to just say "Yes, and...?"

[3] Another guy. I'll call him Mr. Chatty. After I took his order, he asked if we had "Those cheesy beefy things", and I said yes (we have them for as long as we have the button, or so we're told), followed by him asking why it wasn't on the menu board. Explained that we didn't know how much longer we'd have it for, after which he wanted to know what it was like. Said it was sort of similar to a meximelt, except bigger, and with different stuff inside, and yeah. What's a meximelt? What comes on the cheesy beefy melt? Which is better. That, or a chicken soft taco? Then when he finally pulled up to the window, he felt the need to tell me he hadn't been "here" in a while, but yeah.

[4] I've probably mentioned him before, but one of our regular customers is known as the "Bean burrito guy" because he always gets two with no red sauce. Well, not *always*, but often enough to keep the name. He also goes by the nickname "Bushman" for some unknown (at least to me) reason. So he came through around 2 tonight, and while he was at the window, was talking to some girl standing outside his car. I turned away to grab his order, and when I turned back, she was sitting in the passenger seat. Gave him the food, and he pulled away, followed by another girl from the vehicle behind him running after them saying "Hey, Bushman! Get back here with my girlfriend!" Then he held up the line for several minutes ;_; It was really one of those "Had to be there" type things, but meh. It was quite amusing at the time~

[5] Manoah said not a word about the MSN / London thing I mentioned in my previous entry, which I'm quite fine with, because I decided he really doesn't need to know after all. Like I said, it doesn't concern work, and I only ever see him at work, so there should be no need for him to worry about it. Josh, yes, but as I told him when I asked if he'd be my guarantor for my passport application, I'll tell him why I want it if he really wants to know. Same thing goes for why I went to London, because yes, even though I don't see him a whole lot anymore, he still is my friend.

As for non-work stuff though, I take back what I said before about Stricken not being in Guitar Hero III. I finally noticed it in the list this afternoon. It's a fun song to play, but how is it that I didn't remember it was there? I beat career mode on Expert, so I must've played through it at least once... I notice there are a couple new track packs released for it too, but those will be waiting 'till next time I get paid.

Anyways, I'd go on, but I've forgotten the rest of the stuff I wanted to write (if anything) and it's already 6:22, so I should probably call it a night (or morning)~

One More Night...

Sat, 10 May 2008 20:18:17 GMT

I'm not entirely looking forward to it for two reasons though. One being that we didn't get a bar rush yesterday night (and thus we more than likely will tonight), and the other being Manoah. I mentioned how Josh had been bothering me about what I went to London for, then he wouldn't stop with the questions either. He wants to know specifically what I went for, and I told him even if I were to say then and there, he wouldn't know what it was, so I'd tell him on MSN. Got home, logged in using Mom's email account and added him, but by the time I went to bed, he hadn't asked anything, so meh. Is it really a secret worth hiding? No, but at this point, I can't see how being furry has anything to do with work...

Before I agreed to tell him though, I'd mentioned that I was going back at the end of this month, which got a "Huh! Maybe I should come along" from him. That'd actually be rather fun, but I doubt it'd happen, namely for him not wanting to pay for a train ticket there and back, as well as finding somewhere to stay. Oh well~ I'm sure I'll hear about it from him tonight, and I won't see him for several days after this, so that'd actually work out much better.

And on that note, thinking about that stuff and watching one too many episodes of MacGyver before going to bed is a more or less surefire way to cause strange dreams.

One involved me already being at the apartment, getting ready to go to bed, and seeing Cola standing in the doorway, so I said "Thanks again for letting me stay here overnight", to which he said "Yeah", which didn't quite feel right. But then somehow I was out in the hallway wandering around, and had this feeling that somebody was following / coming after me, so I went down to the first floor, and to the front door. Took my footpaws off first, because apparently I had been wearing them, and I didn't want them to get dirty outside, then I ran out the door all the way to the end of the "front face" of the building, around a row of bushes, and back up as close as I could get to the front door again. Knelt down, and tried to peek through the bushes to see whoever it was, but nobody ever came out :s

One of the other ones (I can only remember the one above and this one though) was more depressing. It was centered around a cat with some sort of small bomb around it's eyes. The "bad guy" (it was actually a woman, if it makes a difference) said something about how if we didn't cooperate, she'd detonate the bomb, and the cat would suffer for the rest of it's life. Said lady disappeared after that, so some other lady and a guy that was with us too started running (to where, I don't know), while I picked up the cat and started running after them. Probably ten seconds later I stopped, yelled at them to stop too, and held up the cat towards them, put my head down, and said something like "I... just can't do it...", and asked them to try removing the bomb. They both said it was too late, and that the best option left was to get outside, and let the cat run away, after which, well, whatever happens happens. Then I actually woke up, thought about it for a minute, said to myself "That dream really was depressing" and went to the bathroom :x

It still seems really strange / alarming going to bed as the sun is coming up too, but I'm sure that will change soon enough. Although I just know that once we go back to our summer hours (at the end of the month), there will be a Friday or Saturday night where we don't get out of there 'till 5, and by the time I get home, the sun will likely be at least part of the way up. Meh. All I care about right now is that I get enough sleep.

And otherwise, tomorrow is Mother's Day, but the only thing I really have to do is write something in the card I bought. Mom and Dad are both gone out to see a movie, so I have plenty of time right now, but that can wait 'till I get home from work.

I think that's it though. There's a note on the counter that says something about making cookies when they get back, so hopefully those are done before I have to leave, but otherwise, meh~

Just a Bit too Late

Fri, 09 May 2008 09:27:09 GMT

The new schedule is up at work, and I have next Saturday and Sunday off. I can't help but think it would've been fun to see about going to the mini-golf fursuiting event in London, then more than likely have just enough time to get back here and head to work ^^; The ticket I have is for the 26th though, but it's going to be fun going back to the furmeet again as well as getting out of Chatham for another day or so. I can wait for a few more weeks~ I sort of have plans for the 18th too, but they're weird. I technically don't have to be here, but just somewhere that I'm able to access a computer that's connected to the internet. I'll probably just find something to do around the house though, but that still works :3

So yeah. Today has been largely the same as usual again. The only unexpected thing was someone knocking on the door (who I thought was Josh at first) that had an envelope for me that I needed to sign for, but meh. It's nothing worth mentioning (yet).

Work was pretty much normal, in that it wasn't extremely busy, but not really slow, and as per usual with Steve, we closed at ten to, and were out of there at about ten after. I was awfully chatty with Manoah though, which was strange. I seem to have nights like that from time to time though, where I talk so much my throat begins to hurt. Thankfully they're fairly uncommon :s Withdrew that money for Mom and Dad on the way home, and took a vastly shorter route than yesterday night (up to McNaughton, down Woods, right at Lacroix, and home from there), but it was still nice. This whole walking home thing has something else interesting to it too though. In my entire life, I've seen a single rabbit in the "wild". As in, out on it's own, and not somebody's pet. And that was back when I was a kid, and we spent our afternoons doing whatever in Tecumseh park. Anyways though, since I started walking home from work, I've seen *five* Most recent was last night, walking down the street that connects Richmond and Park Ave (I can't think of the name, but I know it was "built" not too long ago), but it's still fun, in an interesting sort of way. And then tonight I saw a cat in the Wellington Center parking lot. Yay ^^

As for tomorrow, outside of going to work, my plans are *possibly* (if she's able to accommodate it) going over to visit the lady Mom works for, and see about removing a virus from her computer. Apparently I'll be getting paid $10 to do so, which raises an interesting point. At first I was going to wait 'till the 20th, because she wouldn't have the money 'till then, but I told Mom it'd make more sense to go over there as soon as possible, because I don't plan on taking money unless I know the problem is fixed. And in this case, my thoughts are more "Running a virus scanner is not something you should have to pay me for", but feh.

The other problem with it is whether it's even a virus or not. I know Dad would call both a virus and spyware the same thing, and that's where the problem comes in. How computer literate is she? Probably not very considering this, but oh well. I burned the DOS version of F-Prot to a CD, and have ClamWin Portable, and the installers for AVG Free and AdAware 2008 on my USB stick. It'd help alot more if I could actually see the computer, but oh well.

Otherwise, I should probably tidy up my dresser a bit (or at least sort out the pile of money on it), then I'm going to play Picross DS 'till I get tired enough to go to sleep~

Why Wait?

Thu, 08 May 2008 19:37:41 GMT

Took that long(er) way home yesterday night, which ended up being about an hour and a half worth of walking, but meh. It was fun and nice out too, except for one thing. Stopped at Tim Hortons on the way home (the one on Keil), and bought ~$3 worth of stuff, which I paid for with a twenty. The cashier gave me 6-something back, then told me she still owed me another 5, so she gave me that, and I left. As I was crossing over the street to the ATM (to get the money to put in Mom's card) I realized I should've gotten three fives back. What did I do though? Reasoned that if somebody did that to me at work, I wouldn't believe them, and just kept walking. It's only five dollars, I know, but I still badly want to go back there, find that same employee, and ask "Are you *trying* to shortchange your customers?" Feh.

Whenever I'm feeling in the mood to take an even longer route home though, I'm going to go the same way as I did yesterday night, except keep walking down Park Ave. straight through to Queen, and head home from there. Why? There's something strangely pleasing about turning only one direction the entire way home, and if I were to go that way, I'd always be turning left~

Work was alright, mainly because it was like Monday night again (slow after ~11), but Michelle couldn't make it for whatever reason, so Cindy ended up closing. Not bad for her first close on her own (without another manager there to show her what to do), but unfortunately, she's on the list with both Karen and Earl now too for not knowing how to wring the mop out. Maybe I'm just being overly fussy about it, but it's one of those *cough* "If I can be bothered to do it, why can't you?" things. Oh, and Joe is indeed slow, where washing dishes is concerned. On an unrelated note though, according to him, should I choose to walk home this coming Tuesday, he'll be walking with me. I know I will be, for three reasons now (the third being the price of gas lately), and the company will be a nice change, so meh.

Speaking of company, Josh got to bothering me last night about what I went to London for again, and I simply told him "I went to visit some friends". Cue the usual "Oh, I know! He went to visit his girlfriend... Oh, no! He went to visit his boyfriend~" stuff, then he got this serious look on his face, stared straight at me, and said "No, I'm really curious. What did you go for?" Dear Josh: I told you I went to visit some friends. That's really all there was to it. Once you move up to London, I might, circumstances permitting, visit you at work and explain what's different about those friends, and thus also the other reason I went, but if not / until then, why can't you just take my word for it? I was thinking about sending him an email explaining things, but no. Well, not yet, at any rate.

Otherwise, meh. It's 3:30 in the afternoon, so I'll probably head downstairs sometime soon, but before I do, I need to figure out just what I've done to Firefox. I installed this extension last night, because for the past several days, I've had enough space in my tab bar to open one or two new tabs before the scrollbar would appear, and it works (I've got nine open as I write this), but it seems to have broken both LiveClick as well as Smart Tooltip ;_; Perhaps restarting Firefox will fix that though. Oh, and I also installed FunPidgin, which seems to have deleted my "Foxies!" smiley theme :\ I know I can remake that without too much difficulty though, so hopefully I can have those problems fixed before I leave for work tonight.

I believe I'm closing with Michelle, Steve, and Manoah, so it shouldn't be a bad night, but that's what I thought about Tuesday at first too ^^;

Maybe Tonight

Wed, 07 May 2008 20:31:38 GMT

I *was* going to pick up some candy or something on the way home from work, but we ended up doing a food swap with Dominos, which saw me eat four or five pieces of pizza (as well as some cheesy bread) which felt like quite enough :s The good part of it though is that the amount on my pay stub was ~$350, but there's a bad side to that too. Consider that it's the first pay of the month, and Mom and Dad will be getting their $205 right away for those various things. Then also, I plan on contributing $50 for taking Mom to Boston Pizza, and I plan on getting her a card and putting $40 inside. So there goes exactly $295 right there, and I'll most likely spend at least $20 more before the 22nd (our next pay). Feh.

On the topic of the card though, instead of leaving for work early and risking either taking too much time at Shoppers or the card getting bent, I just plan on taking yet another different way home on Thursday. What I have in mind is more or less the same as this, except I'll be walking down Keil to Park Ave, then heading towards Sobeys. I could save that 'till Friday or Saturday, but I don't want to leave it 'till the last minute. I still will head to the bank to withdraw the money on one of those nights, but that's completely different.

So as for work, outside of the food swap, it was throughly stressful and annoying. Not as bad as some other nights, but the store was still a mess right up 'till midnight or so, and it was annoyingly busy / steady on top of that. I know I've said it before, but I was able to finish making one order, and another customer would pull into the drive through, or someone would come into the dining room. We got out of there in good time though (thanks in no small part to Michelle letting us close at quarter to without knowing what time it was), but it was still frustrating. Tonight it's Michelle, Joe, and me, which should be alright, but Joe seems to have gotten himself a reputation for being slow and "dopey", so we'll have to see what that's all about. Hopefully it stops raining before 7 too, or else I'll be getting a ride there again :\

Anyways, I believe that's it once again. I'd like to find something to eat before Mom and Naomi get back from wherever they've gone, so I might as well right now~

Doing Things the Hard Way

Tue, 06 May 2008 22:57:48 GMT

Naomi and Adam both want to get their passports now, like I said in my previous entry, and one of the things I showed Adam yesterday was this site, because I figured he'd read through it for himself and see the option to apply online. I came home from work to find two printed (as in, presumably go to the post office and ask for an application) forms, and envelopes in which to send them in. But fine. Whatever. I assume it'll all work out the same in the end, but it's still amusing :3

And things are getting back to what they used to be like in terms of sleep now too. Twice in a row now, I've gone to sleep at ~6 in the morning, and woken up at 2 in the afternoon yesterday, and 4 today. Sort of better too because I don't wake up at noon, spend three or four hours in my room, then head downstairs and feel like I've wasted my time by being up there. Unfortunately, sleeping 'till 4 like I did today leaves me feeling like I have hardly any time in between going downstairs and having to leave for work, but I've done everything I planned to so far, so meh.

One of the things I've been doing with my time is playing a bunch more "Illust Logic DS and Colorful Logic", and I finally finished the first part of the "regular" puzzles. Now they're bringing color into them, which makes them so much more confusing. See here for an example of what I'm talking about. One of the main rules in the other puzzles was that there had to be at least one empty space between each group of filled-in boxes. Now I have to wrap my head around the fact that there doesn't have to be a space as long as the colors differ ;_; On the good side of things though, whenever I should be able to complete some of the puzzles I've been stuck on in Picross DS. You don't get hints in the other game, and it doesn't tell you if you've made the wrong "move", which should help quite a bit.

Anyways, it's 6:53, so this might as well be done. We get our pay stubs tonight, and I figure if I made more than $300, I'm going to go to Mac's on Sandys (just for a change), and if it ends up being closed, I'll just go to 7-11. Maybe~

Not Quite as Bad as Expected

Mon, 05 May 2008 21:18:16 GMT

Why did I keep all those boxes in the first place? I finally got around to collapsing / cutting up and discarding all the boxes I've had sitting under my bed for about half a year now, because they were really just taking up space. Well, to be technical, I saved two which I'm using to store those fur throws, but the other ones are now in the garbage. I guess I thought I'd have need for them eventually :x

Anyways though, fun facts about last night's close:

[1] Earl does not care about line being bagged / the fry dump being done / whatever else, as long as it's not too early. We usually start that stuff as soon as possible, but he prefers it to be left 'till 9 or 10.
[2] Like Karen, he (Earl) does not seem to understand wringing the mop out after dunking it in the bucket, nor what it means to do a thorough sweep.
[3] Quarter-to and five-to are the same thing where cleaning the grill is concerned.
[4] Closing five minutes early is fine, as long as there aren't still customers waiting then.

In all, it wasn't a bad night (aside from the walk home), although I did not enjoy having both Earl and Steve tell me to tuck my shirt in and put my name tag on when I hadn't even clocked in. But that's another fun point: one easy way to annoy just about everyone there is to refuse to clock in 'till the exact hour you're supposed to start. Or maybe it's just stubbornness on my part, but I'll freely admit to that. The walk was bad because I started out way too quickly which made my ankles really sore, and by the time they finally "stopped" I was only five minutes from the house. Hopefully tonight goes a bit better.

Oh, and that's another interesting thing. Naomi just came down here and asked me where I got my passport pictures taken. Told her "the place in the mall" (I couldn't think of "Sears" right away, and besides, it won't hurt her to look it up on her own), and that it cost $20. Not quite true there. It was actually closer to $22, but they were able to give me some discount. Then Adam piped in with how he needs his as well. The amusing thing about Naomi wanting to get hers is that she's not even making enough at her job to chip in for the internet, so how is she going to pay the $87? Even more if she takes it to the post office... Oh well. I have the satisfaction in this case of knowing that I've already sent my application off, and thus have a bit of a lead. I highly doubt they want to get theirs to go to a furry con, but then again, it'd be more weird if they did :p

And finally, Mother's Day was brought up at Swiss Chalet last night by Dad, who wanted to know if we had any plans. Adam's already bought Mom one of those waffle makers from Smittys (right in front of her, might I add :s), but I suggested taking her out for supper, and we decided on Boston Pizza. Dad phoned and made the reservations when we got home, so they're for the 11th (obviously), at 6pm. Good thing I have that day off :3 Never been there before though, and Adam says it's expensive, so I plan on chipping in $50, and most likely leaving for work fifteen minutes or so earlier than normal, so I can head to Shoppers and get her a card.

So tonight, I'm closing with Michelle and hopefully someone else, which means that once again, there's a 50% chance of me being on drive through, so I should probably get the dishes here done now. That can wait for a bit longer though~

Slight Change(s)

Sun, 04 May 2008 21:20:37 GMT

That other theme was getting really old, and I tried to use the colors from this one in it, but that didn't work out (or moreso, I didn't have the patience to see if there was an option to set the entry background color), but I like this one anyways. The only problem(s) with it right now are that I'd like the "Edit", and "Add to Memories" (at very least) links to appear down there with the "Leave a comment" one. I can edit the text on the customization page, but it doesn't show up in here :\ Also on the topic of the "Leave a comment" link, I need to think of something new to put there. It makes me blush to even think about it, but I was going to have it say "Leave a Pawprint", but then what would the other one be? It wouldn't make sense to say "Read All", but... feh. I'll figure something out ^^;

There was something interesting in the kitchen when I came down here though. Specifically, a clipping from what I assume was a Wal-Mart flyer, with a little note attached. I scanned it, of course, so go here and take a look. Last time I recall anything being said about that was back when we were still in public school. To the best of my memory "Have you heard of a game called Duke Nukem 3D?" I can't speak for Adam or Naomi, but being as silly as I was back then, I said "No", in hopes that they'd just say "That's good, but if you do, we want you to tell us." It is a videogame, plain and simple. Where GTAIV is concerned, I have no interest in buying it right now, because the only game I play on the 360 is Guitar Hero III, and we don't have a PS3. If and when the PC version comes out I might see about... "acquiring" it, just to see what all the hype is / was about.

Getting back to the note though, it's funny. "Your very life may depend on it"? How so? Are you saying that if one of us goes out and buys the game, you'll kill us? I know what he's (Dad) is going for in this case, and believe me, "lifestyle" would be a vastly more appropriate word. But to be honest, I don't enjoy being told what I can and cannot do in the first place. Feh.

Ooh, and even more excitement now. Pop was stolen from Dad's fridge in the basement yesterday night. Naomi is responsible, and my reasons for saying so are as follows: Adam and I both have full-time jobs, and thus can buy those sorts of things with our own money. Secondly, when I went downstairs to grab my shirt for work (I dropped it when I took everything out of the dryer, evidently), the light in the front hallway was on. Naomi is the only one that does that, and frankly, I can't believe she's still afraid of the dark. Most definitively, Dad said he found "her cans", and told her to "Get off of it" after which she said something like "Oh, just stop", and ran upstairs.

*sigh*

Such are the fun things that (still) go on around here...

The pop thing reminds me of something else though: starting this Thursday (since that's when we get paid), I'm going to try to limit myself to $20 per pay for going to 7-11, Tim Hortons, or wherever else to get snacks. The way things are right now isn't so bad for eating alot, because I like to think the walking to / home from work I do is helping, but I still intend to have 10k in my bank account by the end of the year, and we're already into May :\ I know I don't have to say it in here, but a little accountability can't hurt~

And I've just been informed we're going to Swiss Chalet in about 20 minutes, because the hamburger Mom was going to use for the spaghetti sauce for supper has gone bad or something. Meh. Works for me~

Otherwise, I'm not looking forward to work tonight for having to close with Earl, but we'll see what happens, I guess :3

Boring Day

Sat, 03 May 2008 23:21:48 GMT

I probably shouldn't complain too much though, seeing as I get to close for a full week starting tomorrow. I am looking forward to the walking to and home, but not the actual working :p But we do get paid this week, so there's that too, although if I remember right, that full week I had off a little while back will be showing up on this one. Feh.

Never got around to tidying up my closet last night, and I doubt I will tonight either, because there's not that much space in there to begin with :\ I do, however, think I'll head to 7-11 and Tim Hortons a bit later on, because I've really been wanting to spoil myself lately, and I might as well do so while I have the day off ^^ That won't be for another couple hours yet though, so meh. Speaking of which, I should probably go put my laundry in the dryer...

Well actually, there is one other thing I could do tonight, but it's going to take a while even if I do start now. There's an external hard drive I bought a while back that, for the longest time, has been sitting next to the computer downstairs without so much as being turned on. So yesterday night, I brought it up here, connected it to my laptop, and transferred all the files to one of the other external drives I have. So now, there's a 300GB one that I'm using entirely for TV shows and movies (I recently "found" MacGyver, and 44.5GB for seasons 1 through 7 is quite a bit of space), and the other (120GB, I think) one is being used for music, random pictures (there's actually a folder on it called "Random Pictures"), wallpapers, and other such things. Then there's a third one I have too, but it's effectively a copy of the 120GB one, for the sake of redundancy, and because it's physically much smaller.

Problem is one of the folders on the second drive has who knows how many duplicate files in it, and it really needs to be organized anyways, so I might at least start on that.

Anyways, laundry~

I Can Has Train Ticket ^^

Sat, 03 May 2008 00:44:52 GMT

Yes, it's a horrible title. No, I couldn't think of anything else. The only problem I have with it right now is that the departure time from Chatham is 2:48 in the afternoon, and I really doubt I'm going to want to be up that early :s I'm quite fine with the arrival time (3:45), because like I said a couple times already, I figure it'll take me about an hour to get to the apartment, and I'll more than likely stop by Wendys or some other fast food place on the way there to grab something to eat. It really is nice having something like this to look forward to :3

Unfortunately though, like that time I walked to 7-11 and Tim Hortons a while back, my pants were falling down half of the way to the train station :x I can literally do what the guy in this picture is doing with his pants (just without quite so much empty space), and it's not a good thing ;_; Also in that picture though, I like how his shirt is tucked in. Hmm~

And it just had to rain today. It was supposed to yesterday night, but never did, although I suppose that's alright. It's nice to be inside when it is, but it's really a pain when you want to go somewhere. It wasn't as busy as Steve made it sound like it was going to be either, but I'm sure that'll have changed tonight. Next time I work is Sunday though, but that's going to be fun anyways, because I get to close with Earl and Cindy. Feh. That Cindy being the one that's becoming a manager too, seeing as Cindy L. quit, and I could be sure I saw her while we were getting groceries yesterday. Mind you, if it was her, she's apparently working there now...

Anyways, I have the whole night ahead of me now, so I think the first thing I'm going to do is see about (re)organizing my closet~

Mostly Work Stuff

Thu, 01 May 2008 08:36:10 GMT

Something amusing to start. See here. It's something from work, but there were two copies of it, so chances are they'll just make another copy, or I could take it back in tomorrow night, but that wouldn't be worth the trouble :s I booked the 27th of this month off though, so all I'm waiting for now is a reply from Cola, which I hope to get sometime later today. We will see~

Otherwise though, I really like my schedule for the next week and a bit.

Thursday: 8 - close
Friday: Off
Saturday: Off
Sunday: 8 - close
Monday: 8 - close
Tuesday: 8 - close
Wednesday: 8 - close
Thursday: 8 - close
Friday: 8 - close
Saturday: 8 - close
Sunday: Off
Monday: Off / No
Tuesday: 8 - close

As before, curiosity (and largely unchanging shifts) make kitty sad ;_; Even more so because I'm not sure if we're going back to our old hours now either. I suppose the best I can do for now is to take a look when I go in tomorrow night... Speaking of which, Steve thinks it's going to be busy, for it being the first Thursday of the month meaning some checks come out or something. Feh. It's him, Michelle, and me closing, and having Friday and Saturday off, I plan on walking home no matter what Michelle says. I should try to think of some way to explain why I don't want a ride, but all I can come up with is "I just want to walk." True enough, I guess, but it seems sort of... simple.

It was quite slow tonight, which made for a nice start getting back to work, and surprisingly nobody asked me what I'd been away for three days for, but I've more or less decided that if anyone asks (family or otherwise), I'll just say "I'd tell you, but I doubt you'd understand", and if they press any further than that, say "Would you know what I was talking about if I said I went to a furmeet?" Either way, it's a win / win type thing. I did leave a copy of that scan of the sketch Cooper did for me on the downstairs computer, but only because it's the one the scanner is attached to, and also because I figure it can't hurt one way or another. Perhaps it actually could, but if so, such a circumstance doesn't come to mind right now.

And so tomorrow, we're going grocery shopping at 4, then I have to head off for work at 7. It's going on 4:30 in the morning as I write this though, so I should probably finish it up and try to get to sleep for that very reason :3

Back to Normalcy

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 22:33:39 GMT

At least where "normalcy" is going to bed around 4, waking up at noon or so, then leaving for work at 7. Feh. Yay for boring routines~ Still no email from Michele though, so I'm just going to assume she doesn't have anything for me this week. And like I said in my previous entry, unless things have been changed since I last checked, I have Friday and Saturday off, and I'll definitely have something to do on Friday. Although before I go, I will need to ask Cola what a good time to plan on showing up would be. 5:00 or after seems to be the best bet, but that depends on what schedules the trains are running on...

And otherwise today, not much of note again. Depending on how I'm feeling when I get home, I may or may not go through my closet and try to find some space for a couple things in my room. Specifically, I'd like to find somewhere to put all those fur throws, and I think one of the collapsed boxes I have underneath my bed might work, but even if it does, the problem turns to finding a place to put that box. Same thing goes for all my tails too, because they're still on my top bunk right now, but I lay down up there before going to bed at night, because I find that if I lay down on my bottom bunk, I get tired enough to go to sleep way too quickly :\

Anyways, it's now 6:30, and I do plan on walking to and home from work, so I should probably go get ready to go. I believe I'm closing with Steve tonight, but one way or another, we'll see~

Home Again

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 03:12:13 GMT

With a distinct advantage over last time: the only thing keeping me from going to the furmeet again is not having a train ticket. I have a general idea of how to get from the train station to the apartment (which, by the way, should be about a 45 minute walk if I'm figuring things correctly), know where the specific apartment is, and also that I'd be able to stay there overnight, and head back to Chatham once again by either the afternoon or evening of the next day. So for now, I plan on booking the 27th of May off tomorrow (my name is already written in for the 26th), then on my next day off (Friday, last I looked), head up to Via Rail to see about getting a ticket. It may be a bit early, but I can't see why that'd affect anything. Right now, I'd like to try for at least one a month, but we'll see what happens~

Then upon getting home this afternoon, the first thing I did was checked if Michele had sent me an email about coming in this week, but instead had received an email from LiveJournal that said someone named "noirhearted" on here had sent me a message. Figured it was more than likely somebody that was at the furmeet, but apparently it isn't. *poke* Hi ^^ I'm not entirely sure who you are, outside of that you live in Chatham too, but a little mystery is always fun :3

As for goings on around here, outside of getting our new washer and dryer, there hasn't been much, apparently. Went out to Wendys to get some food around 8, and on the way back, Mom thanked me for leaving a note on the computer about how long I'd be gone for, but aside from that, and being asked what I did (I still haven't said anything yet, but I may), nothing much has happened. Well, Adam's 360 game collection has increased since I last saw it, and there were what look like a pair of work pants waiting for me in the mailbox when I got home, but yeah. Nothing significant, at least :p

Anyways, that thing I wrote about in my previous entry. What I only had in physical form, and would post once I got home. This <3 As the description says, it's done by Cooper, who I met both at the furmeet, and at some other gathering the night before. Funny story, really. Before I actually knew it was, I thought it was her, and all I could think at the time was "You aren't going to do my sketch now, are you?" One of the reasons I like to leave those things to email is because it gives me a bit of time to figure out the best way to say whatever, but she got up from the chair she was sitting in, walked over to and sat down on the couch next to me, and asked me "So what did you want again?" followed by something about stopping procrastinating, and at least wanting to have the sketch done before I had to leave. As opposed to trying to explain it right there, I opened the email, let her find the reply where I told her what I wanted, and she started drawing. The only things I remember hearing her say after that were something about it being all in pink, and also, I think "Floofy tail". Yes, floofy tail please <3

Then, the night of the actual furmeet (I'm not sure what the thing on Sunday night was for, but it was fun anyways), she brought in the completed sketch, gave it to me requesting that I scan it and email her the file (apparently her scanner is broken), after which I put it in my laptop (so that it'd stay between the screen and keyboard when closed), and right now, it's on my dresser behind me ^^ I really wish I had one of those plastic covers for it, but I might, so we'll have to see after I finish writing this and taking care of a couple other things.

That'll probably happen right now though, because like I said down below, I'm sure there are other things I want(ed) to write about, but nothing comes to mind, and there are some more pressing matters anyway~

Fun Night x2 (If Only "Funner" Was a Word)

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 07:12:15 GMT

Had an interesting start to the day though. Woke up around 11, feeling nowhere near tired enough to get back to sleep, so I got up, stumbled into the bathroom, went about my business, flushed, and watched in amazement as the water in the toilet got higher and higher :x I turned it off before it completely flooded, but yay anyways :p

The couple hours after that were spent trying to fix a problem I created by messing around with the ACLs for my external hard drive, which were eventually solved by enabling the option to show the "Security" tab in the properties window, and setting all admins to have full access to the drive.

As for the furmeet, it was both good and bad. I will admit that I'm slightly disappointed with myself for not putting on either my tail or footpaws, but hopefully this "Coming to the furmeet" thing doesn't end up being a one-time arrangement. Assuming it's not, I *want*, right now, to, before we leave London tomorrow, ask Cola if we can head over to the train station just so I can figure out how far away it is, and what sort of stuff there'll be for me to look out for to make sure I'm headed the right way. I did head out to Tim Hortons earlier, and on the way back went to "Hasty Mart", but there still appears to be a good distance between there and Via Rail :s I can't see minding the walk though, so the distance shouldn't be a problem. There's also the issue of "Would I be able to stay overnight?", but I can always ask about that too.

Anyways though, I bought a pack of 40 Timbits, which I planned on sharing with everyone at the furmeet, but between food already being ready / made (potatoes, chips and dip, and pizza), *and* one of the other furs asking somebody who work(s/ed) at Tim Hortons if the Timbits came premade in a bag or something, I never got around to it ;_; Oh well. I can always take them home and work on eating them there.

On the good side of things though, I didn't sit in the same spot all night this time, and actually talked. Well, more answered questions I guess. Specifically "What's your name?", to which I said "Karadur", when I gave my real name before, and also "Where are you from?" and "What are you?" The last question had me sort of confused until the word "species" was added, then it was just a simple matter of saying "Oh! Snow Leopard!". Speaking of which, the next entry I make from home *should* contain something I've wanted for a while. I'd post it right now, but I only have it in physical form, and it's not complete by any means, but at any rate you'll just have to wait and see ^^

Oh, and I also played a bit of Okami today, which has been... interesting, thus far. For one, I cannot draw a straight line with the Wiimote to save my life, so it's a good thing they added the "Hold Z" option, and also, the analog stick is screwed up. Pushing / holding right makes you move at a walking pace, even when you should be running :\ So perhaps I'll have to head up to EB Games while we're getting groceries on Thursday and see about buying another one.

With that though, I'm sure there's more stuff I wanted to write about that I've forgotten, but it's three in the morning again, and I'm not sure what time we're leaving tomorrow, so I should probably at least get ready to go to sleep :3

Fun Night

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 07:44:31 GMT

One thing I would like to see about doing tomorrow is to find a convenience store and / or Tim Hortons in close proximity (half an hour or less, preferably) to pick up some snacks. Really the same as I do sometimes at home, but meh. A quick search in Google Maps has shown that there is both a Tim Hortons and a convenience store a short distance away, so as long as I can get back in, I might head there around 5 or so...

The ride here was uneventful, mostly because my main thoughts were "There has to be something we can talk about", but actually turned out to be "Hey, it's Dragostea Din Tei. I haven't heard this song in a long time, but I can still remember some of the words, so I'm going to sing!~" That and some other song having to do with "end of the world", but yeah.

I really can't think of anything else right now otherwise :s There was a bit of an awkward moment earlier where Madius looked down at the bag with my tail in it and asked "Why do you have fur?" Let's put it this way: if I was more used to that sort of question, I would've just said "It's tail. I plan on wearing it at the furmeet tomorrow", but in this case, I just said "It's for the furmeet" ;_; And then there's also one thing I should be bringing home that I may have to remember this by (you might know what I'm talking about, Cola), but I'll leave that 'till I'm at home again~ Also, I wish there was some way to make the "Location" text in this entry blue, but I can't, and / or don't have the presence of mind to right now (I'm starting to get tired -_-).

On that note though, it's 3:37 in the morning, and I'm not sure what time I'll be getting up tomorrow, so I might as well call it a night right now :3

Slightly Over-Ambitious

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 17:44:54 GMT

I took yet another different route home yesterday night, as so: link. Like the description says, given the right weather, it is a nice walk. And by "right weather" I mean cool enough out that you start to get cold after a while, but stay warm as long as you keep walking. Went to both Tim Hortons and 7-11 along the way, and by the time I got to the latter, I was actually sweating :s Although the good thing about going to those two places as well is that I only spent ~$8 between them, five of which came out of my account. It definitely won't become a regular thing, given the length, namely, but there are really no immediate time limits when walking home from work, so I might as well take my time :3

As for work, it was busy, as you might expect. Starting to get really frustrating, too, but one thing I may or may not start doing is every couple hours or so, ask somebody to take over whatever I'm doing, and go outside or into the dining room and sit for five or ten minutes. Both Josh and Ange are working over supper today, so hopefully I end up being on something other than line, but we'll see, I guess.

And then tonight, I plan on trying to be home by 1 again, because there's obviously some stuff I need to do here. Namely, wash the clothes I'll be taking and figure out exactly what I'll need to pack for tomorrow. It's really sort of strange. The weeks leading up to here, it's been lingering in the back of my mind, but were always quickly followed by the thought of "But that's still a while away yet". I am excited, but also slightly nervous, because although I'm looking forward to the furmeet, I'm not sure what I'll do otherwise, and fear I might look or feel awkward as a result ;_;

On that topic though, Adam doesn't have to work on Monday, and thus will be up late Sunday night, so instead of just leaving a note in the kitchen or front hallway explaining where I'm going (I could, but I don't want to risk them seeing it before I leave), I think I'll either send him an email, or use Mom's Hotmail account to let him know what's going on via MSN.

Anyways, it's almost 2, so I might as well get my stuff ready for work and head downstairs~

Forgot my Hat :x

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 18:07:30 GMT

A little less than halfway home this morning, I started going over the close, trying to think of stuff I might have forgotten. Couldn't remember anything directly close-related, but I did recall that I left my hat on the microwave :s But I ended up waking up for a bit at 9 anyways, first having to give Cola a link to the directions to get here once more (if you happen to need it again, either let me know, or it's somewhere in the email :p), so I phoned them and asked Ange to put it in the office.

As for the close itself, it was interesting, because there were five of us (Michelle, Steve, Cam, Joe, and me), and we were still really disorganized. We got out of there around 1:30 though, which is alright. And once again, Earl is starting up with stuff he doesn't want done on closes (right now, it's not doing the grill 'till 5 minutes to), which is amusing for two other reasons. One, I'd be much, *much* more willing to listen to and abide by his "rules" if he closed more than once a month, and two, we closed at 12:50 last night. I shouldn't have to explain more than that *sigh*

I'm not entirely looking forward to my shift today either, considering it's 8 hours, and the last supper shift I worked dragged by so slowly. They are genuinely easier than closes (busier, yes, but you don't have to worry about getting stuff cleaned up, etc.), but not without their own disadvantages. Tomorrow is going to be different, for obvious reasons, but we're not quite there yet ;_;

Oh, and now I'm being tasked with finding a train engineer hat on eBay for Mom. Well, really for the kid she works with, who apparently likes trains. Feh. I now have $12.39 left in my Paypal. Yay~ There are only two things I'm thinking of getting that I'd need money in there for anyways, and they're definitely waiting for at least a month.

Anyways, it's 2, and I leave at 3, so I'm going to post this then play a couple songs on Guitar Hero III :3

Quite Frustrating

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 17:52:24 GMT

Searching Google for "ds picross" without wanting to see "Picross DS" anywhere in the results is fun :s I found one though: "Illust Logic DS and Colorful Logic". As best as I can tell, it's Japanese only, but I downloaded the ROM anyways and it works fine, despite not being able to read anything. Thankfully everything important is self-explanatory, as long as you've played Picross DS or something like it before :p

But yeah. For the fourth or fifth day in a row now, I'm up at 1, but I do feel rested, so meh. Was sort of strange earlier though, because I woke up at 12 too, and like what happened before, could not remember where I was, and what the date and time were, followed by trying to remember if I had to work, and I do / did, which sucked, because if I hadn't I would've tried to sleep in a bit longer. I may or may not be able to on Sunday, but I'm not concerned about that, because there'll be enough excitement that day to keep me awake ^^

Mom and Dad both know I'm going to London then though, but I still don't think they have any idea that I'll be there 'till Tuesday, but meh. If Adam's at work when I leave, I'll leave a note in Notepad on the other computer telling him how long I'll be gone, and to let everyone else know as well. If he's here, I'll write a note on a piece of paper and leave it in the kitchen or front hallway (wherever nobody's at when I leave). I had planned on doing the MSN thing up 'till now, but I can see that being more trouble than it's worth in the end :\

I have to leave now though, so this is done once again~

One Supper Shift Down

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 07:23:50 GMT

To start, something directed specifically to Cola, because he was offline at the time I wrote this, so I couldn't ask him then: what time do you plan on being here on Sunday? 3 in the afternoon got brought up the other time I asked you, and that's fine with me, but I'd like to make sure we're both agreed on the time :3 It's just that with those supper shifts I have coming up on Friday and Saturday, I probably won't talk to you then, so I might as well ask you now. I might still poke you on MSN tomorrow afternoon to make sure you saw this though ^^;

Anyways, that different way home was a 50 minute walk. Might differ in the future, but this time, I took McNaughton all the way out to Delaware instead of Victoria. Actually though, it was 45 minutes, if you consider the time I spent in 7-11 trying to decide what I wanted. Quite a nice walk though, because work was busy, and rather annoying, thanks to Earl. For one, he decided I'd be staying 'till midnight, despite never getting a definite answer from me, and also, he put a till on in my name a full hour before my shift started. Thankfully, it ended up being over, because otherwise, I would've left a curt little note for him. And I worked with another new guy tonight whose name is Cam. He actually brought in his application / resumé yesterday night, asked to talk to Michelle (well, "the manager", to be technical), and next thing I know he's coming in to work tonight :p For the little bit tonight though, he seems pretty good, and I do close with him again tomorrow night, so yeah~

And now I'm just writing this, then I'm going to tidy up my room (again) plus a few other things, then tomorrow, I have to be at Heart and Stroke for 2, 'till when I don't know, but hopefully just until the stuff I have to do is done, then we're going out for supper (probably to Smittys), then work at 8. I'm just repeating my previous entry now though, so I might as well get going on the other stuff~

"You Printed Your Signature!"

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:54:25 GMT

Yeah, I did. I never thought such a thing could cause such a fuss either. The guy had to call the passport office, ask them if it was alright, come back up front and ask if I had anything else with my signature on it (I gave him my health card, followed by having to explain that my signature was on the *front*), followed by him giving me a small lecture about the difference between writing and printing, having to fill out a couple more things (writing the words "Single", and "No" in two different places on the application), after which he didn't have anything else to fuss about, and filled out his stuff. I overheard him on the phone too, saying something like "I've seen old people do it, but never something like this". All I could think was "Excuse me? I've printed my signature for as long as I can remember, so I don't see what the big deal is. I have my Health Card right in front of me, as well as the two pictures I scanned of it yesterday night and signed. What proof more do you want that this is how I've signed for ages?" :\

And that all happened *after* going to Taco Bell and getting Josh to fill out the guarantor part of it, where he wrote some wrong numbers and had to white them out as a result. Had I known that was considered altering the application, I would've asked him to initial it right then and there, but no ;_; I have to go all the way over to the post office, have them tell me "He needs to initial this, because he changed it", but first I had to go home to get my Health Card, then back to Taco Bell again, then to the post office once more, and I ended up walking halfway home from there because Mom left to take Dad to work without telling me where she was going :s

But the main point is my passport application has been sent off (and I'm out $108 as a result too ;_;), so now I'm just waiting. Got what I needed at Shoppers and the bank as well, but that's less-urgent, so for now, my main concerns are going to work, then to 7-11 when I get done there. Oh, and we're going out for supper tomorrow too, which is going to be nice ^^

And yeah, they did want me to close, but I told Earl "Yes, I can close, but I don't want to", and Josh "I am going to start at 5. If *I* think they need me after ten, I'll stay, but I'm not making any promises." For what it's worth, Michelle called in sick, which is funny, because she seemed absolutely fine yesterday night.

Anyways though, I need to get my stuff ready for work, and head out in about ten minutes, so this is done. Maybe tomorrow things will be back to normal :3