Rantings of an LGN Administrator

DA-NAAAAA

2009-02-10T11:57:00.000-05:00

COMING SOON:

ACTUAL UPDATES.

MAYBE.

Awesome day

2008-07-16T23:37:00.002-04:00

Well the last two days were great.

Jagushes got in from Texas on Monday, and spent the last two nights at Augusta's house. Yesterday night, Augusta and her family picked me up, and we went to Mama's Pizza for dinner, where we met the four Jagushes, as well as Maxine and the Aichems. Last night was a lot of fun, then, but today was a blast. Augusta picked me up again somewhere between ten and eleven this morning (I wasn't really paying attention; I was still a bit out of it), and took me back to her house for a grand old party with everyone who was at dinner last night plus Maxine's mother, sister, and brother, and about a dozen other people that I've never really met before. We played a lot of video games, and chatted, and hung out, and ate, and just generally hung out.

Video gaming took place on Augusta and Wes' Xbox 360, and included Soul Calibur II (Gabe is crazy as Voldo), Halo 3 (which I can finally play well with the two thumbsticks on a controller setup), and Unreal Tournament 3 (which I've never played before, but will now have to get the PC version of). Everybody got involved; relentless matches in Soul Calibur, team games with a 100-kill limit in Unreal Tournament, and crazy controller-swapping in Halo. It was a lot like one of the LGN parties, really, and just... a ton of fun.

It was great to see Gabe and Adrian and Julian again, too... I didn't realize how much I missed them. I wish they still lived around here, instead of halfway across the country. Hanging out with everybody all together was just really awesome. The three of them are so much more... mature? Something like that. I guess just older. But all three of them are fun to talk to and game with and just hang out with. I hope they plan on more trips back "home" in the future, because if they don't, I might just do it for them!

So yeah. Great day. I'd have liked to have seen the Jagushes off tomorrow morning before they leave the Anderson household, but unfortunately, it's not going to work out. I said goodbye to them all tonight, though, and I'm hoping to keep in a little better touch with them than I have in the past.

Tomorrow's my last day in a row off before another weekend of work, so I might do something with Augusta, who also has off from work, after Gabe and company leave tomorrow morning, but other than that, I've got nothing planned. Right now, I'm exhausted, so I'm going to vent off my last little bit of energy and then head for bed.

Daily excitement

2008-07-13T09:38:00.002-04:00

Well yesterday turned out to be quite interesting.

Mr. Braden picked me up at 1:30 PM, as planned, and drove me to work. The drive there was uneventful, but once we got to the Shop Rite parking lot, the first thing I noticed was that there were two cop cars parked out front. Once I got inside, I also saw a few policemen by the time clocks. Not too long after I started my shift and got to my post at the register, two ambulances pulled up, one of which shortly drove off again with someone, blaring the siren and everything. Turns out some guy died in the restroom. Not only that, but from what I heard later, the cops were after him (I know not why). I'm sure I'll be hearing more about this later. I hope I will be, anyway; I'm pretty interested in the circumstances surrounding all this.

Augusta picked me up after work, and she had an interesting story of her own to tell. Apparently, somebody broke into the library the night before last; broke a few glass doors to get in and stole their cash box (without taking the key that was in the drawer right next to it and which, she tells me, contains a relatively minimal amount of money. Since whoever it was left the paintings (some worth thousands of dollars) and the computers (this one should be obvious) untouched, I have to ask myself just how much of an amature this was. The doors they busted were worth more than what they actually stole. I mean, for crying out loud, who breaks into a library?! If you're gonna commit a crime like that, why not pick somewhere that's likely to have something worth stealing? Good lord.

I'm glad this isn't something that happened while Augusta was actually there working, though. Although if breaking into a library is laughable, I think holding one up would actually make me die of hysterics.

So today's a day. Augusta's driving me to work, because Dad decided he wants to stay at the lake longer. While I'm not complaining about getting to spend another car ride chatting with her, I do feel bad about making her drive me around, especially at such short notice - my parents didn't call me and tell me to look for another ride until 9:30 PM last night. I gave Augusta $20 for gas, though, and she doesn't seem too upset about it, so hey.

Now let's see if anything else newsworthy happens at work today...

Top ten ways to annoy a cashier: bonus ways II

2008-07-12T11:51:00.003-04:00

#14 - Lack of division: This one's fairly simple: on the conveyor belt, we have divider bars for you to place between the items of your own order and those of another person. The idea is that it shows the cashier where to stop; where one order ends and another begins. But you'd be amazed at how many people simply don't bother - they think that leaving some space between their order and the person in front of them is enough. Newsflash, people: it's an automatic belt. If there's nothing in the way, it'll roll your stuff right up to the front, and we cashiers don't always notice that there wasn't something there before. All sorts of confusion can ensue, often involving us having to void off items that belonged in somebody else's order and ending up needing to call for an override. And that's no fun for anybody.

#13 - Bags, not rags: Like most grocery stores these days, Shop Rite offers a small refund for each bag you bring in and reuse - two cents for each paper or plastic bag, and five cents for every cloth or canvas bag you use. Generally, I like the canvas-type bags - if made well, they hold themselves up better, are more durable, can have more packed into them more easily, and are just generally better than the old plastic bags. However, some people, whether out of a desire to avoid using plastic bags for environmental or durability purposes, or simply for the five-cents-per-bag refund incentive, bring in bags that were simply not made for grocery packing. Deep, heavy cloth book bags with no defined bottom fold that don't hold themselves up at all and are impossible to pack neatly or efficiently. Beach bags made of net that small items tend to slip out of. Now if you're going to pack your own groceries, hey, pick your poison. Be my guest. But if you expect us to bag your groceries for you, it'd be nice if it's with a bag that's not a total pain in the ass. Mind you, we'll pack without complaining either way - it's our job, after all - but that's one way to make it a little easier.

On the note of bags, let me take this opportunity to say that the reusable bags sold by A&P suck in comparison to the one Shop Rite sells - the A&P bags are made of a thick, stiff canvas material which, aside from holding dirt easily and generally being easy to make filthy, tends to mold to its creases when folded, and will keep trying to fold itself back up as we're trying to pack with them. Shop Rite bags, on the other hand, are just as durable, but hold up easily, unfold without trouble, and even have a little hook to hang them on the bagging rack with t stop them from falling over or anything. And they're also cleaner.

Buy my employer's product.

So Dad's gone again. He left last night after I got home from work. He'll be coming back again tomorrow morning in time for me to take the car to work (again), but today, I've got the house to myself. My neighbor's giving me a ride to work in a couple hours, and Augusta'll be picking me up tonight. She wants to watch Vantage Point (which she's borrowed from the library where she works) tonight at her house, so I guess that's my plan for the day. Should be nice - it'll be good seeing her and relaxing a little bit in the middle of my working spree - I worked Thursday and yesterday, I work today, and I work tomorrow and Monday as well. Then I get another three days off, during which the Jagush brothers and their mom will be visiting from Texas. I get to see Gabe's new short hair in person, and he gets to see my new long hair. Heh.

Top ten ways to annoy a cashier: bonus ways

2008-07-10T19:06:00.003-04:00

So at work today, I thought of a couple more ways to annoy a cashier that weren't on my original list of ten. Here they are:

#12 - "Here, rub this raw, bloody meat all over your hands:" Nobody really enjoys getting uncooked meat juices all over themselves. And for whatever reason, such meats are often poorly wrapped in plastic so that the blood can get eeeeverywhere. So it makes sense that, when buying "leaky meats," customers often put them in plastic bags. This is all well and good, except when they decide to put several packages of meat in one little plastic bag. Besides just being messy, this means that I, the cashier, have to reach into the bag and pull each package out individually to scan it. If you don't want to touch it, what makes you think I do? Just bag the damn things individually, and then, since the bags are clear, I'll never have to touch 'em. Nothing grosses me out more than having beef and chicken blood all over my hands. Sure, I've got disinfectant, but that's not quite the same as a good, genuine hand-washing.

#11 - Don't bring me into it: Every parent has their own way of disciplining their children, and I respect that, but what I don't like is when they try to bring me into the equation as a tool of fear to keep their kids under control. "Don't do that! You'd better stop or the man will yell at you!" Look, lady, not only does it NOT MATTER if your kids touches the conveyer belt, but I don't want them to be afraid of me! Leave me out of it! This seems to be a common strategy, however; it's often coupled with "you'd better do what I say or the police will come and take you away. They're coming right now!" I don't know about you, but it sickens me a little every time I hear a harried parent telling that to their little three-year-old kid who needs a nap.

Anyway, as far as the rest of my life, I've been having quite a nice summer so far. Went to the shore with Augusta and her family on Tuesday, which was a lot of fun. I managed to get a sunburn on my right foot, but nowhere else. Go figure. Better than my usual, which is every inch of my goddamn body. The Aichems came as well - I haven't really seen them in a long time, but we all had fun talking at dinner and generally socializing. Saw some mole crabs, too, which totally thrilled Augusta. She's so damn cute sometimes.

And speaking of my job, which we sort of were, I've officially tendered my resignation - my last day will be August 3rd, and then I'm taking the remainder of the month off to just sort of relax before going to Rowan on September 1st. At some point (probably the 4th of August, right after I quit), Augusta and I are going to head up to the lake together for a while. My second cousin Wojtek (VOY-tech) is visiting the U.S. from Poland and staying with us - or more specifically, with Mom and David up at the lake. He was only here (as in at our house in New Jersey) for one night (along with Aaron and Andrew) before they left again. So I hope he's having a good time. It sounds like he is. Dad and I have been pretty much home alone for the better part of the last month, but we're having a good time with it - watching movies and eating out, and so forth. And speaking of movies...

I saw Wall-E with Augusta on Monday, and I have to say... I don't care if you're a ten-year-old girl or a 52-year-old biker punk, this movie is too goddamn cute to pass up. It was honestly the first Pixar movie I've really enjoyed in years. It was great. See it now. Your inner teddy bear will thank you.

Top ten ways to annoy a cashier

2008-07-09T14:25:00.003-04:00

In my time working as a cashier at Shop Rite, I've generally dealt with good people. Every once in a while, though, you run into that trouble customer, or even just a normally okay person who just doesn't get it. Here's a list of the top ten most aggrevating traits and habits for a customer to have. If you're reading this list, keep it in mind. Be kind to us register-running folk.

#10 - The take-charge type: We cashiers typically have a pattern that we follow for each person we check for, which helps us to get through the order smoothly without forgetting any of the basic procedures or otherwise slipping up. But once in a while, you find that customer who, although most likely trying to be helpful, manages to completely trip you up. This happens when people do things such as reaching around the console separating the customer from the cashier to swipe their discount card over your scanner, or grabbing bags off the rack while you're still filling them. This is doubly irritating because not only does it break the flow of the order, but it's almost offensive, in its own way. To use a metaphor, if cashiering is like driving a remote-controlled car, then these types of behavior is the equivalent of trying to yank the remote out of our hands. Not cool. Sometimes, it transcends mere irritation to cause actual problems - when people reach to try to scan their coupons themselves in the middle of an order, for instance, which causes all sorts of trouble with the computer. Just hand the coupons to us, please, and we'll get them for you after totaling the order; that's how it's supposed to be done.

#9 - Unaware rushers: By this, I mean when people are in such a hurry to get out of the store that they're not even paying attention to what's going on around them. Allow me to relate a story that personifies this: last weekend, I checked for a man with maybe three bags worth of items. He didn't have a cart, and he payed with a check, so after the order was completed, he spent a moment figuring his balance before collecting up his bags and leaving. Meanwhile, I moved on to take the order of an old lady who was only buying a couple loaves of bread. After I finished bagging the bread and totaling the order, I turned around to sort the coupons she had earned from the Catalina coupon printer while she counted out the money she owed me. While we were both looking other places, the first customer finally gathered up his bags, and was paying so little attention to what he was picking up that he managed to grab the lady's bag of groceries in addition to his own and walked off. After she paid (and after he was long gone, rushing as he was), we realized what must have happened, and I had to send her to customer service with her reciept to get what she paid for. This is just one example - other times, I've had people leave bags full of their OWN groceries on the belt and had to chase them down, or run off before I can give them their change. It holds everybody up when you do stuff like this, so don't just go grabbing everything in sight or running off without making sure you have everything.

#8 - "I'll just set this down here:" Another thing that cashiers have their own system for: where to put the coupons before scanning them. We can't take coupons until the very end of the order, after we've totaled it, but if you wait until then to hand them to us, it's easy to forget. So what we normally do is take your coupons at the start of the order, and set them down somewhere that we've trained ourselves to look before taking payment so that we remember to run them through. The problem comes in when somebody doesn't actually hand them to us or even mention that they have coupons at all, and instead just sets them somewhere that they deem appropriate while we're not looking and assumes we'll find them. I always set coupons next to the card payment console, and that is the only place that I'll see them. If you go sticking them on top of the coupon printer or something, you can, I'm sorry to say, kiss your discounts goodbye, because I'm not gonna notice them until I'm handing you your reciept, if indeed I ever find them at all. There's a way for you to make this even more irritating, too: proceed to blame it on us when you never mention your coupons and then we don't get them run through.

#7 - Chronic rebaggers: I like to do my best to bag my customers' groceries as neatly and efficently as possible. I try to put all the frozen foods together, keep the meats separate, make sure all the bags are neat enough to stand on their own, and so forth. But of course, even when you follow those general rules, there are people who would rather have their groceries packed differently from usual; people with bad backs want light bags, people who have to climb up stairs to get into their house want heavier bags, but fewer of them. Some people want certain things separated that most people don't bother with. Everybody has preferences - and I don't mind accomodating them at all! Just let me know how you want your stuff packed, and I'm happy to oblige. However, that key part - let me know - is often forgotten. It's rather insulting to see people out of the corner of your eye rebagging everything as you send it down the belt, rather than telling you how they'd like it done differently. "Why," you ask yourself, "am I bothering to bag this at all if they're going to re-do all of it themselves? Why not just let them bag to begin with?" And then there are the ones who DO decide to tell you how they want it done, only they wait until after the fact. "Actually, could you take these out, put that there, this one can hold more, pass me that..." Look, people, if you want to bag your own groceries, just say so. Don't make me waste my time when I could be moving you on out of the line and getting to my other customers.

#6 - Forgetful in line: I don't know about you, but I don't much like waiting in line behind... nobody. But it happens all the time - people get in line, load their groceries on the belt, and then... "Ah! I forgot something or other! I'll be right back." Now, usually people are considerate enough to do this either when they have a huge order and plenty of time, or nobody in line behind them, but what you have to realize when you're doing this is that even if there's nobody behind you at the time, there's going to be by the time you're back, and I'm the one who has to explain why they're having to stand around waiting while you finish getting the rest of your groceries. And sometimes people AREN'T considerate, and they run off when I've got like three items left and six people in line behind them - typically, they disappear before I can say "actually, could you make that a separate order...?" Don't do this, please. Before you get in line, ask yourself if you've got everything. Get it on the belt ALL AT ONCE - don't be running around finishing up in the middle of your order. Other people don't want to have to wait for you.

#5 - When in Rome, do as the Romans do: I'm pretty sure some people will get ticked off at me for saying this, but it has to be said: if you can't speak enough English to get you through a simple conversation, don't talk to me. I once had somebody who was having a problem with their Price Plus discount card. Now, if I could have communicated with him at all, I most likely could have solved the problem, but he barely spoke a word of English, and what words he did speak were buried in such a thick accent that I couldn't understand them at all. I had to call over a front end manager, and when SHE couldn't understand what he wanted either, we had to take him right out of the line (which he had been holding up for a good ten or fifteen minutes, by this point) and send him to customer service to finish his order. Honestly, I have no disrespect for foreigners, and I know first hand how difficult it can be to make your way through something as simple as making a purchase in another country if you don't know the language, but you need to know when to give up. This guy held the line up for so long over what probably amounted to a discount of no more than a dollar or so. Another thing: normally, I like to make some light conversation with my customers while I'm scanning and bagging their groceries. Something else that I really dislike is when they DO speak English, they say "hello" to me, and then start rapidly conversing with somebody else with them in a totally different language. I guess that's more their business though. And speaking of getting the cold shoulder...

#4 - Get off the damn phone!: When you get in line, and I say hello, it'd be nice if I got a response and some eye contact, but do you know how many people honestly can't be bothered to get off their cell phones for three seconds while they're buying groceries? They just keep gabbing away, and when I finish their order, it sometimes takes some work to get their attention so that they can pay. I had one woman last week who basically stood in place doing nothing for a good two or three minutes after set her up for a credit card payment because she was so distracted talking on her cell phone - thankfully, there was nobody waiting in line behind her, but it was still quite irritating. To be fair, not all cell phone owners act this way - some people are polite enough to say that they're in the store checking out and that they'll call back shortly. But the vast majority just act like the world around them isn't worth their attention.

#3 - Clueless as far as produce: Having worked in the produce department before I became a cashier, I have a fairly solid grasp on the identification of most fruits and vegetables I come across. However, there are still some I don't recognize, and some others that I have a clue about, but can't identify for certain without confirmation. Usually produce items have tags on them with their PLU (Price Look-Up) number, so this is irrelevant. Sometimes the tags are missing, though, and that's when we have a problem. "Are these snow peas?" "Uh, I dunno... maybe... spider peas?" (Tip: there are no such things as "spider peas") Turned out they were snow peas, but if you don't even know what they are, why are you buying them? Same problem with the different types of onions and tomatoes - Vidalia and Red onions I recognize; Canadian vineripe and plum tomatoes, too, but everything else I like to double-check to avoid charging the wrong amount for the wrong type of onion or tomato. But most people buying them don't even know what they are! A similar annoyance is the sometimes-ambiguous labeling of the PLU items from the bakery department, but that's not the customer's fault, so hey.

#2 - All your fruits in one basket: Another produce-related issue. When you know something is sold by weight, don't take six different things and double-bag them all together and then tie it up. I don't want to have to shred through six layers of bag to separate everything out. Either use separate bags, or, if you want to conserve a little, no bags at all. I assume you're going to wash it before you eat it anyway - I HOPE you are, in any case - so what does it matter? Saves everybody time and effort, and if I'm going to have to rip through the bag anyway, it doesn't really need to be there to begin with.

#1 - Honest jerks: As I said at the start of this post, most people I deal with are good people. Most people. But there are some who are simply no good. A story I often relate to friends is the one of a guy who came in on a Saturday night about five or ten minutes before closing and came up to the register with a bag of donuts from the bakery department. Since it was the end of the night, they were getting a little stale - and he decided that this entitled him to a discount. I told him that that wasn't up to me, and directed him to the head front-end manager - she told him that no, she could not offer him a discount on the stale donuts. Then he really started pitching a fit. "These are stale donuts! Are you going to sell these to people? People eat these!" (keep in mind that he asked to get these cheaper KNOWING that they were stale). "Yes," said my manager. "Yes we are." He was left dumbstruck for a moment as she walked off, and then spent the rest of the order being surly and badmouthing my manager ("what a smartass. She's a smartass, you know"). He said that at Dunkin' Donuts, they would give him the donuts cheaper at the end of the night if they were stale. He had come in here LOOKING for stale donuts so that he could try for a discount, and then acted like we were trying to poison him or something when we didn't give him one. What an ass.

Round two!

2008-06-12T11:56:00.001-04:00

Ha-HA. 'Bout a week and a half later and I'm already back. Not even halfway through the month. This means that any updates between now and July will be above my minimum.

As Craig Ferguson would say, "take that, people!"

Not much going on lately. On Tuesday I had to get up at five in the morning so that Mom could drive me to Rowan for orientation at nine in the morning - Rowan is a three-and-a-half hour drive from where I live, and I managed to sleep for about three hours of that time, so at least I wasn't tired. Orientation wasn't that impressive, honestly - the staff and faculty speakers they had all sucked; just reading off of PowerPoint presentation bullet points on the giant screen behind them, which was light-blinded thanks to the windows in the ceiling of the basketball court that it was held in. But they did have really good free danishes, which I took way too many of. And I got my class schedule all figured out, which is good. The one thing that WAS interesting is that I found out that Rowan has pools. Two pools. Pooooools.

I think I know where I'll be spending most of my downtime at that school.

So I've got an eight-hour shift at Shop Rite starting at quarter of two. I didn't tell this story yet, did I? When I went back to work, I told the guy who hired me that I'd like to work twenty-hour weeks. I put down on the application I filled out that I'd like to work twenty-hour weeks. Well, guess what? Nobody bothered to inform the people in charge of formulating the weekly schedule of this little piece of information. So this week, I'm set up for thirty-three hours. I worked Sunday, as always, and Monday. Then I'm working today, and Friday and Saturday as well, and these last three days are all crazy-long shifts. On the plus side, I'll get more and longer breaks, and since they screwed up, they told me I'd be first on the list if anybody's getting off early. And starting this Sunday, my schedule will be twenty hours per week, like I wanted. Ah well. One day at a time. I'll live. I've got stuff to do, too - I took part of a used roll of paid stickers, and I'm sketching a landscape onto the strip of paper. Just a neurotic little form of entertainment.

Also, I went to the doctor this morning for my first checkup in a gazillion years. Found out that yes, I do still have issues with needles. But I got some blood drawn, and I got three vaccinations, including one for chicken pox, which I still haven't had. Ever. Less disease is good, I guess. Only problem (which they didn't really look into, since I was pretty much there just for the vaccinations) is that it seems to me that my vision in my left eye is ever-so-slightly blurry. I can still read everything with it that I can with my right eye, but not nearly as well. Maybe that's just today, though. Maybe there's something in it. I hope so, anyway. Although it would give me an excuse to wear a monocle, which would be awesome.

Only other thing is that I went to see Augusta for a few hours yesterday because she's down with mono and feeling crummy. She says she felt better afterwards, and at the very least, she was certainly happier, so that's good. I like being able to do something, even if it's really only moral support. So we had fun. Played video games, sat around, et cetera. And I found out that in Soul Calibur II, Raphael DOES have one weakness: Spawn. I was sad, but happy at the same time. Now I have a new obstacle to surmount. To training!

ENEMIES EVERYWHERE!

2008-06-02T15:45:00.005-04:00

Wow. Suddenly I understand why Augusta was so hooked on Mass Effect for so long. This game is awesome.

I've been playing for a few days now pretty much whenever I get the chance, and so far I've got only one major complaint (which I'll explain in a moment). As a whole, though, the game is beautiful - it's got an engaging storyline, likable characters, controls and a camera that don't throw you through a loop, great combat mechanics, brilliant AI, simple team management controls, and an absolutely awesome ability/item customization menu. Oh, and it's graphically pretty. Basically, it's an really fun, engrossing game, and I love it. The cinematic branching conversation system is really cool, and makes the voice acted conversations that you can have with NPCs in Oblivion look like a load of crap - due in no small part to the fact that all characters with which you interact are totally unique, with defined motives, personality traits, and, of course, unique voice actors and dialogue.

With one exception. This is that complaint I mentioned.

When you're in combat, both your squadmates and your enemies will occasionally throw bits of dialogue at you, as per usual - status updates from your team and taunts and such from your enemies. Well, your organic enemies, anyway. When you're fighting the synthetic Geth, all you get is their cool electronic murmuring. Your naturally-evolved foes, however, use English. I'm honestly very disappointed at how quickly these taunts get repetitive, especially given the stellar quality of the voice acting and the dialogue in every other aspect of the game. When storming Fist's club, however, and fighting through his bouncers and bodyguards... well...

"ENEMIES EVERYWHERE! ENEMIES EVERYWHERE! ENEMIES EVERYWHERE! ENEMIES EVERYWHERE! ENEMIES EVERYWHERE! ENEMIES EVERYWHERE! ENEMIES EVERYWHERE! ENEMIES EVERYWHERE! I WILL DESTROY YOU! ENEMIES EVERYWHERE! ENEMIES EVERYWHERE! ENEMIES EVERYWHERE! ENEMIES EVERYWHERE! ENEMIES EVERYWHERE! ENEMIES EVERYWHERE! I WILL DESTROY YOU! ENEMIES EVERYWHERE! ENEMIES EVERYWHERE! ENEMIES EVERYWHERE! ENEMIES EVERYWHERE!"

... And so on. I'm dead serious. That's practically a direct transcription of those very grating five to ten minutes. It's amazingly frusterating; I actually found myself becoming so irritated that I was literally yelling back at them to SHUT UP. If they either didn't feel the need to scream something EVERY TWO SECONDS, or, failing that, at least had more than just two voice clips to choose from (one of which, as you might have noticed, seemed to be greatly favored over the other), it might not be so bad. But jesus christ, BioWare. That was a mistake. I'd be happier if they didn't make any noise at all.

Thankfully, from what I've seen so far, it looks like I'll be fighting mostly Geth, and therefore won't have to invest in a pair of earplugs for the combat sections of the game. And since the rest of the game is so well done, it's definitely not enough to ruin the overall experience. But it's a major inconsitancy in an otherwise brilliant game, and a major oversight, in my mind. I'm suprised that the developers couldn't find the time to put a little more focus on upping the quality of this combat dialogue.

Oh well. At least I can kill 'em. That tends to shut them up, even if nothing else will.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, I went to Augusta's last PYO concert yesterday, which was wonderful. Maxine came too, so while we waited for Augusta's group to come out, we sat and doodled on our programs. And once she DID come out, they did awesomely - played some really great pieces, and played them well. After the concert, we all went back to Augusta's house and hung out and ate pizza, and generally had a lot of fun. And I actually talked to Mike, too! For the first time in just about ever! He says he'll e-mail me finally, but we're still waiting on that one. Putting him on speakerphone was fun for all, though.

So not much else going on at the moment. David's got the Mass Effect DVD at the moment for installation, and Dad's out, so we can't watch disc 2 of Heroes right now, so I think that since David's wandered off, I'll steal the disc back and get back to the Normandy once his installation is done. More news at eleven!

(probably not)

Hilarious news item of the day

2008-05-31T13:13:00.006-04:00

So I was just browsing the international news on my Wii, and I came across the following AP news story:
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TOKYO - A homeless woman who sneaked into a man's house and lived undetected in his closet for a year was arrested in Japan after he became suspicious when food mysteriously began disappearing.

Police found the 58-year-old woman Thursday hiding in the top compartment of the man's closet and arrested her for trespassing, police spokesman Hiroki Itakura from southern Kasuya town said Friday.

The resident of the home installed security cameras that transmitted images to his mobile phone after becoming puzzled by food disappearing from his kitchen over the past several months.

One of the cameras captured someone moving inside his home Thursday after he had left, and he called the police believing it was a burglar. However, when they arrived they found the door locked and all windows closed.

"We searched the house ... checking everywhere someone could possibly hide," Itakura said. "When we slid open the shelf closet, there she was, nervously curled up on her side."

The woman told police she had no place to live and first sneaked into the man's house about a year ago when he left it unlocked.

She had moved a mattress into the small closet space and even took showers, Itakura said, calling the woman "neat and clean."
____________________________________

So after I finished cracking up, I had to ask myself - how on earth could you possibly manage to miss that in your own home for that long? Almost makes me want to start checking all of my closets, just in case. Nonetheless, that's probably the most inventive and devious homeless woman I've ever heard of.

Okay, so aside from that, I've got a funny story of my own to tell. We went to the lake on Sunday last weekend and stayed the night to get the place cleaned up and open for use later in the year. Sunday night we went out to a Hibachi grill for dinner, and found out why you don't let part-time college students run loose working in a Japanese restaurant.

While we're waiting for our chef, the table is set. We each get a folded napkin with some silverware and a plate. While we're all sitting around talking, I reach for my napkin to get some water I dripped, only to find that it's somehow disappeared. Figuring I'm nuts and I must never have had one for some reason, I reach under the table and get another one out of the basket. Ten minutes later, our appetizers arrive, and I look down to see that my plate is gone now, too. Apparently, somewhere in the restaurant was a very stealthy, very overzealous waitress tasked with table clearance.

Shortly afterwards, the chef shows up and looks at me, puzzled, asking where my plate is.

"I have no earthly idea."

So that was pretty strange. Maybe I'm just getting paranoid after all this, but I think I'm going to have to start paying close attention to the people around me. There're plate thieves hiding in closets everywhere you look.

Also, Dad finally set me and David up with some more disk space for our desktop computers, which turned out to be more of an ordeal than planned. Each of our computers has a CD drive and a DVD-ROM drive. The CD drive we never really use - since we don't burn directly from disc-to-disc (I rip it to my computer and then burn from there), the only real use for the CD drive is to maybe have a second disc in while there's something in the DVD-ROM drive, since the DVD-ROM drive can read regular CDs in addition to DVDs anyway. So to make room for the extra disk drive, we were going to take the CD drive out of each computer and replace it with the new E drive.

This was all well and good, and we got both computers all set up again, moved tons of stuff from the D and C drives to the new E drives, and we generally happy with life... until I tried to play Lost Planet and the disc wouldn't read.

It was at this point that I realized Dad has somehow slipped up and taken the DVD-ROM drive out instead of the CD drive.

So we took 'em apart again and switched the correct drives in. David set his up a couple of days ago, and it was working great. Yesterday, we bought Mass Effect for the PC, so last night I went to set my PC back up as well, booted it up, popped in the disc...

It still wouldn't read.

Naturally, I was puzzled, especially after double-checking to make sure that I had a DVD-ROM drive this time and finding that I did indeed have the correct drive. After a moment of sleuthing, I discovered that not only did my computer not think it had any kind of disc drive installed, but that it wasn't recognizing the E drive that I was fairly certain was still in there either. The E drive containing all of my subbed anime and all of my music and all of my images.

This displeased me.

Now, my family's crazy, so despite the fact that it was somewhere in the realm of 1:00 AM, Dad was still up. I brought the damn thing upstairs again and we took it apart once more right there on his bed to fix the problem. Turns out both the DVD-ROM and the new disk drive were set to "slave," so the computer was acknowledging neither. Simply switching the disk drive to "master" fixed the problem, and I quickly got my PC up and running again, installed Mass Effect, created my character, and went through the first awesome few minutes of the game before finally going to sleep at around 3:00 AM.

So right now, I'm off to play Mass Effect. Two last notes before I do: one, Soul Calibur Legends for the Wii has a crap story, laughable cutscenes (and in some cases voice acting), relatively bland environments, and repetitive enemies, just like all the reviews said it did... but it's still extremely fun to play. We got that yesterday too, and I've been killing my right arm with all the sword-swinging, and loving every hokey minute of it. Second, I'm finally employed again - I went back to my job at Shop Rite yesterday, and my first day on the job again will be this Wednesday at noon. Followed by this Thursday at noon, this Friday at noon, and this Saturday at 10:30 AM. And although the weekly schedule starts on Sundays so I don't know what time yet, I'm quite sure I'll be working this Sunday as well. So I should be able to buy stuff again very soon without having to wait for David to owe me money first. But the plus side is; earlier shifts! Just what I always wanted!

Now, I'm off to kill some Geth. I'll touch in again later.

Keeping my quota

2008-05-18T09:10:00.004-04:00

It seems that my "bare minimum" in blog updates per month so far has been two posts - I had eight the first month, then two in March, two in April, and now here it is May, and this is my first time updating this month. Guess I'll have to crank out another one before June. I thought my updating speed would pick up as soon as the semester ended, but this is honestly the first time since finals that I've really felt like it. We'll see, though. Maybe I'll even put out two more updates before the end of this month. Oho.

Anyway, much has happened since my last update in mid-April. Most obviously, as I mentioned, the semester at WCCC ended a couple of weeks ago, and I managed to get through finals alive. Augusta and I studied together for the biology final, so we both did really well on that. The psychology final was a take-home multiple choice exam (a hundred questions in all) that we got a week before the due date, so that was extremely easy - a little tedious, perhaps, but definitely not something that would be easy to screw up on. My computer applications final was in basically the same format as the other two exams in that class, except that it combined the use of Microsoft Word, Excel, and Access in one big project. Not hard. And I suppose you could consider the final for my art history PowerPack class to be part of regular finals - that one was actually pretty challenging, but I got through okay. Overall, two A's and two B's. Very pleasing.

Augusta did really well too - she got three A's and one B. One instance where I do love being able to say "I told you so." She always stresses out and worries so much about her college work and her grades, but she always does awesomely in the end. Of course, she'll attribute her success TO the stress, claiming that it spurred her to work harder, rather than seeing her success as proof that she doesn't NEED to stress about doing well. Silly girl. Her GPA is higher than mine - 3.8 versus 3.5 - and I think that I do really well, so frankly I don't think she has any business worrying about the things she worries about when she always does so great anyway. Ah well. She'll have to recognize her own brains at some point, I figure.

So finals ended, and then I spent a week or two just hanging out. We got Mario Kart Wii, and in a bizarre twist, we've finally found a video game that the entire family can play together - yes, even Mom plays Mario Kart. Usually as Bowser. Go figure! So the four of us in my family spend a few nights each week racing one another - Mom and Dad have actually improved quite a bit, moving from 11th and 12th place on average to 3rd or 4th behind David and me, sometimes even beating us. I spent about a week refining my racing technique down to a fine point in order to earn star ranks and beat staff ghosts, finally unlocking all of the playable characters.

I also finally gave Metroid Prime 3 some quality time, and actually beat that game completely two days ago. I can't decide if Corruption is easier than Echoes was, or if I'm just better at it - due in no small part to the gloriously intuitive and comfortable control scheme offered by the Wiimote and nunchuck setup. Either way, the game was an awesome experience overall - unlike with Echoes, I never felt stuck or lost for more than a few seconds, and I think that helped to make it a much better game, in the end. I was quite pleased when it didn't take me several months just to figure out how to DAMAGE the last boss in Corruption, à la the final fight against Dark Samus in Echoes - that one was just frustrating, and it sucked a lot of the potential fun and cool factor out of the battle. So yeah, bottom line; Corruption was put together a lot better than Echoes, and it was a lot more fun to play, so if Echoes frustrated the hell out of you (like it did most people) and you decided not to even bother with the sequel, let me tell you, it's safe! Don't miss out!

Eventually I'm going to play through Corruption again on the harder difficulty setting, but first I'm taking a retro nostalgia trip through Super Metroid. I downloaded it from the Wii Shop Channel to the Virtual Console a month or two ago, but I never really got to it until now. The game is just as fun and atmospheric as I remember it being, though. There was a little upset Friday night after I beat both Crocomire and Phantoon, obtained the grappling beam, the wave beam, and the x-ray scope, and then proceeded to die without saving. Nonetheless, I plan to get back to Super Metroid later today, and hopefully it won't take me too long to make it back to where I was before my little mishap.

I also picked up a copy of the PC version of Assassin's Creed after trying it out on Augusta's 360 when they rented it, and was pleasantly surprised to find a game that lived up to its hype. Few things are as fun as leap-stabbing an unsuspecting guard, slaughtering his comrades with my mad short sword skills, and then finishing off those still clinging to life as they writhe on the ground, all to "save a citizen." Look, citizen, I'm glad I helped you out and all, but honestly? I didn't really do it for you. I'm withholding a more thorough review until after I've actually beaten the game - I'm up to the last fight, but I've been putting it off for several weeks now. I just don't want it to end! Maybe I'll pair it with that mythical Sins of a Solar Empire one I mentioned last update.

Gaming aside, Augusta has finally deemed it warm enough to ride around on the ATV, so we've been doing that a lot lately, which is great fun - before now, I've only had the chance to drive it myself on rare occasion, but I can confidently say that it'll be happening a lot more from now on. I might even start driving it around on my own, just for sport. She also borrowed the first Indiana Jones movie from the library, and we spent an afternoon watching that in preparation for the new one that's going to be released soon. Our one-year anniversary is this coming Friday, as well, so I'm really looking forward to that. We've got it mostly planned out, and I think it's going to be a great day. Once that's over with, I'll no longer have an excuse to not be going back to my job at Shop Rite, so I'll probably be doing that sometime next week. Probably.

And finally, yesterday was my graduation. I've got my degree, and I am done with WCCC. It's kind of sad and happy at the same time, you know? Knowing I'll never be going back there, I mean. Although half my family (aunt, uncle, two cousins, and my only surviving grandparent) dropped out on me at the last second, and Maxine was unfortunately unable to hitch a ride, I was still really happy to see all the people who did make it - Augusta and Michael, of course, and Georgia, as well as Pilyon, Amanda, Aaron, Andrew, and the mythical Bob. The weather was gloriously cooperative, and it was a wonderful day, all in all - the ceremony went off without a hitch, and we all went to a massive lunch at a local Mediterranean restaurant afterwards before coming back to our house and just hanging out. Even got a good game of Halo in involving Mike, and I'm happy to see that his PC skills haven't rusted up on me - he's just as good a competitor as ever. Hell, I was happy just to see Mike at all - it seems like it's been forever since I've talked to him. Turns out he has e-mail, so hopefully he'll keep to his word and I'll be getting his address from him soon so we can keep in touch better. Augusta stayed for several hours after everybody else had left, so we cuddled and watched several episodes of the Japanese version of the Death Note anime (with English subtitles) together. What a perfect pair of lovestruck nerds we are.

Not only did I have a great day and get to see everybody, but to top it off, I actually got exactly what I wanted for my graduation present - a brand new, ultra-powerful gaming laptop! With Vista, no less. Looks like I'll be having to pick up a copy of Halo 2 for the PC, finally. Argon MK III is in the mail on its way as I type, and I can't wait to see it. Or touch it. Or use it. Parents, if you're reading this, I am oh-so-grateful. Georgia, Liz, Mike, and Ed also got me a MASSIVE amount of non-perishable food, a water filter, and Mike's old mini-fridge to keep me sustained at Rowan, so that should be great. With every sip of clean water and every spoonful of ramen, I'll be thinking of them, heh.

So that should pretty much bring you up to speed on what's been going on since last update. Right now, I need breakfast something fierce. I'll be back soon!

Loooong day

2008-04-14T21:03:00.003-04:00

Holy crap am I tired.

I got up at seven, got everything together, whipped up a quick hard salami sandwich to eat in the car, and left for biology class early. This was nice, because I didn't feel like I had to rush while I was driving, and in fact, I got there about ten or fifteen minutes early. Class happened, and we got out half an hour early (which led to some "I wanna take a nap but I can't" time), then psychology. Psych got out early as well, so I went and bought the textbook I need for my art class. Then lunch with Augusta at the Eagle's Nest, which was great, as usual - Eddie makes a mean sausage egg & cheese roll! Had some fun hanging out 'til her next class started, and then came time for the real work: editing for the newspaper.

Now, editing newspaper articles is really sort of a fun thing for me, and if you have to be doing a lot of work on a laptop, the upstairs lounge at WCCC is that place to do it. Plus, I got to talk to Augusta a little between her classes. But man... it took so long! I was there long after she left for home at five. It was very nearly 7:00 PM by the time I finally got out of there. On the plus side, I did get it all done, and I managed to track down Mr. Homa, as well. Looks like the next issue of the Campus Racket is ready to go! Considering the disastrous mess that my management of the paper last semester turned out to be, I'm very happy that things are going so smoothly with the new team I've got on my side this semester. It helps when you're not trying to do all the work yourself!

It's gonna be kinda sad leaving the team at the end of this semester, but at least I'll feel like it'll be in good hands - whoever ends up taking over as editor-in-chief is going to have an über business manager, reliable layout in the form of Mr. Homa, and of course, Professor Hillyer. She'll keep things whipped into shape, I'm sure. But you know what I think bodes best for the paper? It's the fact that the student body knows we exist now. We've got a little support finally, and people are sending us almost more articles than we can use, which is great - big step up from last semester, when we had to basically squeeze rocks for articles and still got almost nothing. A lot of people graduated in the last year, and with no paper getting printed last semester, a lot of the new students didn't even know we had one. Not great for submissions.

Now to see if I can land an editing position at one of Rowan's newspapers once I'm there...

Other than that, not much going on today. I think Raven and I will be doing something tomorrow. Considering how physically exhausted I am right now, I think I could use a day to relax and just hang out. I was originally going to devote today's post to a more in-depth look at Sins of a Solar Empire, but when I was planning that, I also wasn't expecting to be at the college for nearly twelve hours. So maybe next time? Yeah.

My online stalker demands that I update my blog

2008-04-13T09:27:00.002-04:00

(My online stalker may very well be Augusta)

So, let's see. Stuff.

Well, while I was at the college the other day, I found something rather interesting: I looked up LGN on Google, and came up with this.

Now, I'm not sure exactly how the logistics of the whole thing work, but if I'm understanding this correctly, LimeGreenNetwork is the site people visit third most often after searching for the Dojo, behind only the Dojo itself and Nintendo's official Pokémon website.

Further investigation turned up the keyword page for LimeGreenNetwork itself. Again, if I'm understanding this site, people looking for lyrics to songs by the band Natural Breakdown spend more time on my site than people looking for anything else, and about 50% of the people on LGN go on to visit the Dojo. About 15% go on to Bleach Exile (which is the only thing that comes close to Natural Breakdown lyrics in terms of time spent on LGN) or to look for Led Zeppelin wallpapers, and a little more than 5% search for... "sex pictures." Huh.

Kinda makes you wonder.

So anyway, after looking at these statistics, I started getting a little curious. According to this place, LimeGreenNetwork refers an average of 1,241 people per month just to the Dojo alone. If that's an accurate stat, I have to ask, exactly how many people ARE visiting LGN, overall? How do they find it? Do they come back, or is it more of a "whoops, didn't mean to go there" sort of thing? And how did all of these keywords come to be associated with my site? I'd be very interested in finding stuff like this out - not that I've tried and failed or anything; I haven't bothered at all yet. But I'd like to get around to it at some point.

At this point, I was going to reference the number of hits registered by the counter on LGN's main page and compare that number to the 1,241 average mentioned above, but after going to look at the counter, I found out it's down, and, thanks to 1&1's hosting pulling their FrontPage support, I have no way of fixing it at the moment. Bugger.

Oh well. 'Nough of that for now. My hash browns demand flipping.

Okay. Now where was I?

Well, I've not been up to much else since the last update. I have some editing to finish for the paper before tomorrow, and I have class at noon (my Art History powerpack class started last weekend). The class is actually turning out to be quite fun and interesting, and I've got a good professor, too, which helps, of course. It's focusing on sculptures, statuettes, architecture, and that manner of thing. There was a class trip to the Met in NY that got cancelled, but Professor Gallagher actually has me interested enough that I think I'm going to go under my own steam sometime in the next few months (Augusta wants to come too, so hey! Good times for all).

I've also been working on cleaning up my organization for all of my music on my PC. About half of it is ripped from CDs that Augusta either lent to or burned for me, and as such, the filenames are simply "1 Track 1" and so on. Also, a lot of it doesn't have any track info whatsoever, either. My first target was Green Day, so I spent part of Friday and Saturday naming all the files properly and searching for all the accurate track and album info. I also dug out the old Green Day mix CD that Augusta and Maxine gave me a few years ago (before I started listening to "real" music again) and finally ripped that one, too, which added 21 new songs to my collection. While I was at it, I also downloaded a much higher-quality copy of "Whatsername" than that one I already had, which was kinda crap. So woo all around.

During this whole process, a couple of interesting things happened. First of all, I found out that a couple of songs I listen to all the time on The Bone and think about finding out who the artist is so I can find downloads for them - namely, "When I Come Around" and "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" - are actually by Green Day, and I was never bright enough to recognize them. Which is funny, because a lot of other songs that I didn't have on my PC before this weekend, like "Basket Case" and "Welcome to Paradise," I also hear on The Bone frequently, but I recognize them instantly as Green Day songs. Weird.

Second of all, while I was looking for that high-quality copy of "Whatsername," I stumbled across something else rather interesting on the download list:

13 - Green Day - Whatsername mp3 download
Green Day - Whatsername mp3 download
GreenDay-13-Whatsername mp3 download
Green Day - Whatsername mp3 download
Dean Gray - Whatsername (Susanna Hoffs) mp3 download

"Green Day, Green Day, Green Day, Green Day... 'Dean Gray?'"

So, of course, I had to download it.

What I found when I got home and listened to it was extremely strange - it started out as basically a dance/techno sort of remix to "Whatsername" with Billie Joe's singing from the original version pasted into it, but then all of a sudden, part way through, Billie Joe singing "Whatsername" was replaced by Susanna Hoffs of The Bangles singing "Manic Monday," still to the same remixed "Whatsername" music. Then back again. Then it was both of them singing bits of their respective songs back and forth to one another. As I later described to Augusta, it was as though two totally different songs had made love at a disco, and this was the resulting bastard child. Not to say it was completely horrible - I kinda liked it, so I kept it - but it was just weird.

After doing a little research at The Green Day Authority, I deduced that the song was probably part of American Edit, a mash-up album released by Party Ben and team9 before receiving a cease-and-desist order from Green Day's record label. It's interesting; I might try to find some other stuff from this album and see if it measures up.

Other than all the Green Day, David finally turned 13 on the 4th. He's a damn teenager now. A TEENAGER. I feel old. But one of the things he got was a PC game called Sins of a Solar Empire. Now, I had managed to never hear of this game before he asked me to play it with him later that day, but I have to say, it's awesome. I'm not going to bother describing it all right now - look it up on IGN or something if you're interested - but in short, imagine a space-faring Age of Empire featuring inter-solar-system combat and a free control camera allowing you to view the action from any angle or distance.

And laser beams. Loooooooots of laser beams.

So that's my new PC obsession.

Oh, and Augusta's renting Assassin's Creed on her 360 - I need to check that game out. Hopefully I'll have the chance before she returns it. She says it be awesome, though.

Anyway, that's all I got for the moment. New stuff later - I actually have other things I could talk about, I just don't feel like it right now. You people aren't cool enough to warrant my attention.

Be back!

Pretend this is two weeks ago...

2008-03-26T16:24:00.002-04:00

Haha. Regular updates. Hahaha.

*yawns*

Well, as I sit here cooking fried buffalo chicken strips for a sandwich, preparing to leave in about half an hour to meet Augusta for dinner, and wiping drool out of my beard, having just woken up after falling asleep on the couch, I find myself feeling like updating my blog. Go figure, huh?

Stuff has, in a word, happened over the last couple of weeks, but I simply don't feel like enumerating all of it right now. But there were some highlights. Aaron and Mandrew came over for spring break, and stayed for Easter, which was quite fun, as always. During that same time period, I came down with something (I know not what), that started out as a sore throat and, during one shift at work, got progressively worse until I literally could not talk. TOTALLY lost my voice. Then the next day, I was just croaky and congested without the sore throat, and then the day after that, short of a few sniffles, I was fine. Fastest, weirdest thing I've ever caught.

On Sunday, the day before the cousins left, we all met Augusta and her brother Wes for a few games of bowling at our favorite lanes, which was incredibly fun, but, as usual, destroyed my hand since I haven't been bowling in about a year. However - however! I got my first ever turkey! I am SO proud of me! So that was pretty cool for me. And I've decided that my goal for this spring and summer is to go bowling frequently enough that it doesn't hurt my hand anymore.

Side note: it has just come to my attention that we are out of bread. So much for that sandwich theory.

I need to start checking things like this BEFORE I start cooking. And look at this! There's no good dip left, either! Buffalo chicken with cheese it is.

Anywoo. That's all the major eventage that comes to mind at the moment. I'm so, so happy that it's starting to warm up - Augusta and I spent all of lunch, both today and on Monday, outside in the campus yard. Beautiful weather; and it only gets warmer from here! To think that this is the cold end of spring makes me very happy indeed. Soon enough, it'll be shorts, sandals, and sunglasses, tee shirts at the heaviest, and open windows. I'm looking forward.

Anyway, I'd better get kicking here. Be back before April, I hope.

Triumphant return

2008-03-11T09:34:00.004-04:00

So it's been a while. Get off my back.

Today is one of the first days in a while where I have had no work, no classes, and nothing to do. So let me update you on all that's been going on since the last time I posted here. Oh, and I’ve decided that I’m going to be using real names from now on, just because I like it more that way. Hi, I’m Greg. I’ll be editing the older posts to reflect this change (and so you know who everybody is) later on, but at the moment I can’t be buggered.

I have had some busy days, some fun days, and some weird days, but life continues to be good, as always. I think my two greatest "personal pride" moments were getting the best score on my psychology midterm of anyone else in my class, and having somebody I was checking for at work tell me that they like how I was doing my job so much that they were going to write me up a recommendation to my bosses. And some funny stuff happened at work, too; for example, a guy came in with his wife and had his fly down. I couldn’t bring myself to tell him, so I don’t know if he ever figured that one out. And there was also the time that I greeted a customer and, in the process, accidentally faked an (apparently very convincing) Irish accent and then had to hold it up throughout the order so that I didn’t look like TOO much of a weirdo.

There’ve also been a couple of things worth ranting about, but aside from my persistent irritation about Microsoft’s irreversible “upgrade” to the Zune software, I can’t think of any at the moment, so those’ll have to wait for another post.

Other stuff: Augusta finally got her nose pierced over the weekend. I admit, it doesn’t look hideous like I anticipated – I suppose I’ll grow to appreciate it. And she seems to be quite happy with it, of course, so I guess it’s a winner. She and I have also worked up to the last level of Halo 3 in co-op mode, now – hopefully we’ll beat the game the next time I’m over there. She’s already beaten it herself, of course, but still, I wanna see. Blowing up 343 Guilty Spark and hearing the noise he made as he died… Oh, what a satisfying experience.

Also, David and I finally got our Wii about two weeks ago! And of course, you all know what that means… yes, we have Super Smash Bros. Brawl! Happyhappyhappy. We bought it the morning of the day it came out – two days ago – and already we’ve beaten Subspace Emissary completely in co-op, and unlocked every character but one: the Wind Waker version of Link. Actually, both of us have reached the point where we could have unlocked him, but he’s a little bastard and we keep losing to him in the Challenger Approaching match.

The game as a whole is awesome, though; Ganondorf is back and better than ever, baby! You have no idea how happy that makes me. He’s similar enough to how he played in Melee that I still know how he works and don’t have to re-learn him, but his moves have all been tweaked subtly to add 700% more kickass coolness to every facet of his existence. And there’re plenty of other characters that I simply love; I enjoy playing as Meta Knight just as much as I anticipated (so cool), Samus is shinier than ever before, and King Dedede, Wolf O’Donnell, Sonic, and R.O.B. are all pretty damn good (and cool, of course), as well. Oh, and Snake. God, Snake. He’s friggin’ hilarious. Where another character picks up a food item and quietly eats it, Snake adds a wonderfully-delivered “tastyyyy.” And you have to remember that this is in his deep, gravelly, very masculine voice. Everything he says is gold.

Oh, and my laptop seems to be dying. That’s a little upsetting. All of a sudden, Cobalt has decided that if you move it physically – even just a little bit – it’ll cut power to itself and turn off immediately. Hopefully that can be fixed. Although if it can’t be… graduation present, parents?

That’s all the major stuff I can think about at the moment. I’m sure I’ll think of more later, but that’s what new posts are for, right? Now that we’re all caught up, hopefully we’ll go back to some regularity here.

Not on the ball

2008-02-22T11:53:00.003-05:00

This is actually about something else that happened on Wednesday, but I forgot about it when I was making that post. So here it is. I think this deserves its own post anyway.

So on Wednesday, in between leaving the college and going to work, I mentioned I had lunch with Dad - we went to Arby's (where, incidentally, I actually got a job several months before getting my job at Shop Rite, but I quit before my first day because they wanted me to shave my beard clean off), got a couple of roast beef sandwiches, and ate in the plaza parking lot. Now, I don't recall if I've mentioned this or not, but for the past couple of weeks, Colo and I have been trying to track down a Wii system - we want to buy one before Super Smash Bros. Brawl comes out on March 9th. So since there's a Gamestop in this plaza, and since we've also been trying to find some good new Gamecube controllers, I figured I'd stop in and kill two birds with one stone.

I set my sandwich aside and walked into a different world – a world where customer service did not exist, ringing phones were a mystic enigma, and a man with a hand scanner could do as he pleased by virtue only of said hand scanner.

There were three or four other customers walking around the store, and a single employee – the guy with the hand scanner – was crawling around the walls scanning every game on the shelves one by one, apparently taking inventory. The phone was ringing. It kept ringing for about five minutes. Nobody picked it up. Apparantly Handscanny (as we’ll call him throughout the rest of this story) was the only employee in the store. I walked over to where the Gamecube controllers were, checked them out, and then did my best to look interested in something. As Handscanny skittered past, he asked if I needed anything, I asked if they had any Wiis in stock, he said no, and I walked out, slightly dazed by the egregious lapse in phone-answering that I had just witnessed taking place at what was supposed to be a business establishment.

I called Colo about the controllers I had seen up for sale, since they looked like basically what we were looking for, and he agreed that I should go back in and buy four of them. I walked back into the Gamestop.

Now there was only one other customer in the store with me, who appeared to be basically just browsing. I picked up four of the controllers, walked to the checkout desk, and set them down. Then I waited. Handscanny was now crawling about the lower shelves, apparently paying no attention to the world outside of his handscanning sphere. The phone was ringing again. It went on for another five minutes while I stood there uncomfortably and fought the urge to pick it up myself, then finally stopped. A moment later it started up again, and went on for its third five-minute shift. During this, Handscanny turned to me long enough to tell me he would be right with me, and then went back to handscanning. A couple minutes later (the phone still ringing), he finally stood up and walked around behind the desk to answer the damn phone. As he passed, I heard the single stupidest thing I’ve ever heard any employee of any business utter in front of a customer:

“Christ, you’d think when you don’t pick it up they wouldn’t call back!”

I swear to God, those were his exact words. It was all I could do to stop myself from replying sharply with something to the effect of “and you’d think when they CALLED, you’d PICK IT UP, you jackass!”

As he finished up the call and finally took my purchase, whining about what a stupid question the customer on the phone had just asked him, all I could think about was how quickly I would fire this guy if I owned this store.

Now, I’m sure that taking inventory was something that was part of this guy’s job and something that he needed to do, but if you’re the only guy on shift and you’ve got customers, you need to get your priorities straight. Answering the goddamn phone is more important than taking inventory. A customer WAITING TO BUY SOMETHING for about ten minutes is more important than taking inventory. If there had been any other Gamestop employees in the store to see this guy’s behavior, or if I myself had decided to call and complain about him, his ass would have been canned so fast he would have been left wondering where his precious barcode just went. And I’ll tell you for sure I’m not going to bother calling that store if I’m ever looking to buy something.

Whoever decided to leave him in charge of the store made a BIG mistake.

Victoly!

2008-02-20T22:35:00.002-05:00

Well! Today was pretty good at the college - I found out from Professor Hillyer that Mr. Homa got us a person to do layout for the Racket! It's one of his students, too, so they'll be working with him directly, which is good. So we've got everyone we need! Our new business manager has already sold hundreds of dollars worth of advertisements, we've got dozens of articles; way more than we need, and all by the deadline; and we've got our layout guy! So that's all coming together wonderfully. I stayed after lunch, too, and did some more editing for the articles that came in this week. It looks like some really good and varied stuff. I'm quite pleased with the way things are going!

Also, I finally tried something new at the cafe - instead of my usual sausage egg & cheese roll, I had a bacon cheeseburger, since I've heard they're really good there. Which I can now confirm - they are. Nonetheless, I don't think anything beats Eddie's breakfast sandwiches, so I'll be going back to the usual next week. At least I can say I tried something else now.

After leaving the school, I had lunch with Dad and then went to work at 5:00 PM. Work honestly started out kinda badly today - I started out the day by telling one of my managers that he was nuts and then realizing five minutes later that he was actually right, and after that it kinda went downhill, with me doing one thing wrong after another. Things improved after my break, though; I got to check next to my buddy Kyle, so we chatted things up a bit, and once I relaxed I stopped screwing everything up. And I finally figured out how to do WIC checks on my own! That's actually really good. Those and rainchecks are the two things that confused the hell out of me; my getting them down pat is good for everyone. Now I don't have to call for help every time somebody tries to pay with a WIC check. Yay.

They also let me off early (9:00 PM instead of 9:45 PM), which would have been great if it weren't for the fact that Dad took the car and I had to wait until 9:45 PM for him to pick me up anyway. As it stood, though, it was still nice - I got to sit around in an empty parking lot and enjoy being outside (cold though it may have been), and talk to my family on my cell phone while I waited for Dad to show up.

So yeah, good stuff in the end, as always. Now I just have to see how I did on this morning's biology exam...

Valentine's Day secret mission

2008-02-19T15:00:00.004-05:00

So, part two of the "I meant to write about this DAYS ago!" series: Valentine's Day.

Valentine's Day went very well. Augusta had work starting at four, so we couldn't really do anything then (or so I had her believe), and we planned to make up for it on Sunday (or so I had her believe). In reality, I've been planning for more than a week to show up at her house and suprise her, which I did - got up at 7:30 AM to be getting everything together; a dozen roses, a necklace, a CD, et cetera. Then I went offline a bit before noon to "take a shower" and twenty minutes later showed up at her house. What's funny is that later on, I found a post on LGN that she made at just about exactly the time that I was leaving the house saying that she didn't "have anything planned for Valentine's Day, unfortunately."

So I showed up at her house, and her parents answered the door and caught on quickly enough to not tip her off - apparantly, Augusta herself had just gotten out of the shower mere moments before, and was in fact attempting to contact me on Google Talk. Oh, the irony. So her mother told her to put something on and come down, which she did, to find me standing there with roses looking mildly amused. There was much hugging. I have got to say, the look on her face when she first came down was the cutest thing I've ever seen. Imagine if 1,000,000,000 kittens formed into a suprised and happy facial expression. It was like that.

I hung out with Augusta until she had to go to work at 4:00 PM... Cuddled, tickle-fought, talked, went out for lunch... She even bought me a box of my favorite cherry cordials to reciprocate. Which reminds me, thank you, honey. They were good.

Honestly, the best part of the whole deal was just seeing how happy my showing up by suprise made her. I felt really good about pulling it off so well. Gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling inside. I like warm fuzzy feelings. And I don't think I've ever been told I'm "cute" so many times in a four-hour period before. Man, I do love that girl.

So my Valentine's Day was spent in the company of my sweetheart. I think that's a win, right?

STRANGER times at WCCC

2008-02-14T19:15:00.004-05:00

Okay. Holy crap.

I meant to post on Wednesday, then on Thursday (with Wednesday's intended post combined into it), then I meant to post both of them on Friday, then Saturday... today, damnit, I'm finally going to get this crap written. XD

So first, Wednesday.

Wednesday, the weather sucked amazingly - ice and rain and icy rain and snow and slush and all that stuff you really don't want to have to drive in. But, naturally, I DID have to drive in it, because I have college classes on Wednesdays. Luckily, I remembered to call the college first and make sure they weren't cancelling; not because they were, but because they ended up opening at 10:00 AM instead of 8:00 AM like usual. So I went back to bed for a bit and then got on my way at around quarter after nine.

Well, at that point, I was vastly underestimating the craptasticness of the driving conditions I was in, and it took me all of maybe thirty seconds before I managed to swerve my car into a 360-spin going downhill - two times, the whole way around, into a snowbank facing the wrong way.

As soon as the car stopped in the bank, my thought process was as follows:
"Woah."
"Oh damnit, I can't go forward."
"Jesus, I hope I don't have to call Dad and tell him this..."
"Oh, thank you, car... I can go backwards."
After that, I got my self pointing the right way again, and continued, slowly, to WCCC.

I reached the college without further incident, and pulled in at the same time as Raven. She told me to go in ahead of her while she called her mom to let her know she had arrived safely. However, when she came in, she informed me that, at the exact moment we were pulling in, the college had changed their late opening from 10:00 AM to noon. Needless to say, this was at least mildly aggravating. Why the hell couldn't they have just done that to start with? Now we were there two hours early for no reason!

After a little griping, we went up to an empty computer classroom where we worked on one of Raven's speeches for her public speaking class and I did some editing work for the Campus Racket. Then we screwed around on the internet for a bit. Then I went to look for Jeebler (or Mr. Jeremy Beeler) to see if he could get me out of that radio class. Turned out he wouldn't be in until noon. Okay. I could live with that. So we hung out, did work, et cetera, et cetera. In all honesty, the college is kind of fun with most of the student population absent and everyone just kinda hanging out and having fun.

So noon came; we decided to go out to lunch at a local diner since all of my classes had been effectively cancelled, and Raven's only classes didn't start until 2:00 PM. Lunch was good, and we got back and I checked for Jeebler again.

Now he was in a meeting until three.

*sigh*

Okay. Did more hanging out. After Raven went off to class, I started downloading some music onto my laptop in the library. At three, I checked again, and FINALLY caught Jeebler, got myself out of the radio class (hooray!), and signed up for the art history PowerPack in April. Cool. Got all that done.

I also ran into Professor Hillyer; she told me to track down Mr. Homa and ask him about getting someone to do layout for the paper. Turned out he wouldn't be in until 5:00 PM. So I hung out until then, talked to people, et cetera. Five came, and I found out it wasn't FIVE, it was actually five THIRTY. Hung out until five THIRTY, and finally found out that... Mr. Homa wasn't showing up. Damnit. So I left him a message and FINALLY went home.

So that was Wednesday. XD

Next I'll write up Thursday, but first I'm posting this separately before I decide to edit it or something.

Strange times at WCCC

2008-02-11T22:30:00.001-05:00

Well, today was a weird day at the college. First, in a fundraising competition for United Way between Warren County Community College and Centenary College New Jersey, each school's respective president spent 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM being duct taped to the a wall through student and faculty donations of $1 per foot of tape. Augusta and I each donated for three feet of tape during lunch and got to "stick it to The Man" (the name they gave the event). Really, it was more like sticking The Man to it - "it" being the wall. Somebody put a pink Giants cap on poor Doctor Austin, and they had a piece over his mouth, too (with "Giants rock!" written on it). Needless to say, most people found the whole situation to be endlessly amusing, myself included. At the end of the competition, we contacted Centenary and compared totals - turned out that WCCC won! So that was fun.

After lunch, Augusta normally has a math class at 2:00 PM. However, while we were sitting outside the classroom waiting for it to start, we overheard someone talking to one of her classmates, saying that the class was cancelled today and that the professor that normally teaches it was being replaced. Augusta told me that he was an auditor who sat in on their class a week or two back. Word started to spread pretty quickly, and finally the guy came out and said what was going on. Apparantly the professor was pretty unpopular - not because he was mean or anything, but just because he didn't explain things especially well - and so WCCC decided to fire him. Naturally, this resulted in some of the bitchier students cheering and "good riddance-ing." The auditor was waiting outside the class to tell the students that it was cancelled and to tell the professor that he was being let go.

Now, I don't know that they should have kept this guy if he wasn't teaching well, but regardless, I wasn't too impressed by the way the situation was being handled. First of all, they should have just put a sign up on the classroom door saying that it was cancelled, like they normally do - the students didn't need to know the professor was being fired, or why. But second of all, letting the professor drive down to the college expecting to teach a class and then stopping him in a public hallway to tell him that he's been fired and that he can turn around and go home is a rather shitty way of dealing with things. Augusta and I didn't stick around to see what the auditor actually said to the guy when he came in. I hope none of my employers ever treat me that way.

So Augusta went down to the library, intending to use her newfound free time to do some research for one of her projects, and I went down to my next class, which also was supposed to start at 2:00 PM - intro to radio. There I found Professor Hillyer - my communications professor for the last several semesters - talking to the professor for my radio class. Turns out that the other guys who were in the class all dropped it after the first week, leaving just me in attendence.

Now, before I explain this further, I think need to elaborate a little on this radio class - it's actually more of an internship; class is held once a week, and then there's a "lab" once a week as well, which consists of heading to the radio station where the professor works at 5:00 AM and staying there working with her until 9:00 AM, four hours later. Now, as good as "radio internship" looks on a college transcript or a resume, I was never too thrilled by the whole lab setup for what only counts as a three credit course. Nor was I especially enthusiastic about the class itself.

So anyway, today, I talked to the professor after Hillyer left, and the deal is that she doesn't want to come to the college every week to teach a single student (me), which is of course perfectly reasonable. So she wants to effectively cancel the class portion of the internship, and instead have me come in to the station more than once a week (like two or three times instead). Still at bizarre hours that require me to get up at four in the morning. Now, I just don't want to be devoting all that time to a class that I'm not particularly enjoying so far and don't find to be notably interesting when I also have a job, the school newspaper, and other classes to worry about. So I think I'm almost definitely going to drop radio, and take an art history PowerPack class in April instead, which fulfills the social science elective (which I would be losing by dropping radio) that I need to have in order to graduate in May.

Honestly, if that is what I end up doing, it'll be a huge load off of my shoulders - I tend to do very well in PowerPack classes, and although I'd basically be blowing three weekends in April, after that it would be done and over with, instead of doing this radio thing multiple times a week from now until May. So that's got me feeling altogether more comfortable about the whole situation than I have for the last couple of weeks.

In non-collegiate news, I recently got word that one of my cousins will be coming down from New York this coming Sunday and staying the week, which will be nice - I haven't heard much from her lately, so it'll be good to catch up. And of course, I still can't seem to get in touch with Michael, although I've basically decided that I won't be holding the LGN party until May or June anyway, just because it'll be easier to get everybody together when they don't have classes and coursework to be worrying about.

And most unfortunately, all THREE of my batteries for Cobalt, my laptop, seem to have died simultaneously, rendering me unable to use it without the power cable. I'm hoping Dad will be able to scrounge up another battery or two from the mass of spare computer parts in the attic, but if he can't, honestly, at least it was the batteries and not the power cable. On my last laptop things stopped working the other way around, so I can tell you from experience that good batteries don't mean crap when they're dead and you can't charge them.

Happy yesterday + random musings

2008-02-08T23:03:00.001-05:00

Well, I had a rather irritating morning yesterday, but the rest of the day was great. And the irritating wasn't really that bad, in retrospect. I ended up waiting forty-five minutes for a wayward tech guy to fix a printer before I could leave my word processing class in the morning - he never actually did, so in the end we just used a different printer. So that was kind of a waste of time.

After that, though, I spent about an hour at home playing Star Fox Assault and Super Smash Bros. Melee with my little brother, which was fun. At around 11:30 AM, I left for Augusta's. She and I drove to and hung out at the mall for a few hours (where I bought a new pair of Chucks!), then had a really nice dinner, got some ice cream for dessert, and finally drove back to her house and hung out there for the rest of the evening; first digesting our heavy Italian meals, and eventually playing a little co-op in Halo 3. Really great day/night, though. Augusta sounded like she had a lot of fun too, which is of course good. :]

In other news, I have no other real news! I'm working a later shift at work tonight - 5:15 PM to 10:15 PM - but other than that, nothing doing right now. I've spent some time today trying to track down a good torrent download for the Super Smash Bros. Brawl gamerip, which was recently successful. Now we just have to see if the download actually works.

Oh, and I have to remember to burn a copy of Saliva's "Blood Stained Love Story" album for Augusta before we have class Monday morning. I've been meaning to do so for a while, but crap keeps happening that stops me from getting it done. TODAY, I SHALL BURN!

I've also been thinking a little about plans for the next LGN party - always great get-togethers for everyone involved. I like to try to plan them for while we have some of the cousins over, so perhaps for spring break? Othewise it'd most likely be better to wait until the end of the current semester, which means not until May. Hm. Something to ponder, I suppose. One of the key points in any LGN party planning exploits is always actually getting in touch with Mike to see what he's up to and when he can come down. After all, it's not a party without everyone's favorite demented co-admin!

Slice of life

2008-02-07T12:11:00.002-05:00

So let's see, a bit about me? I've never done much writing about myself - wasn't able to keep a journal for more than a week or two at a time, never really blogged before... So I can't say that this will necessarily come out so well. Nonetheless, I couldn’t think of anything to complain about at the moment, so I figure I might as well offer proof that I’m not just some ornery old bastard.

See, the funny thing is, despite the impression you might have gotten from my Grammar rant, I’m actually quite the optimist. People can suck, but you can at least ignore the sucky ones.

Current life for me is good. I’ve been attending Warren County Community College for the last few years, where I’m having a great time (and managing to learn stuff while still doing well), and I’ll be graduating from there this coming May with my associate’s degree in communications. After that, I’ll be spending two years at Rowan to earn my bachelor’s, and then I’m hoping to get a job as a journalist.

I’m also the editor-in-chief of the WCCC newspaper, the Campus Racket, which basically entails writing a few articles and editing everything else. If you didn’t get it from my grammar rant, editing is my thing. Right now I’m working as a cashier – formerly a produce associate – at my local Shop Rite, which I actually enjoy quite a bit. You meet some interesting people there.

I have a little brother, David, who’s developing into quite the worthy tactician in Age of Empires and similar. I’ve got some great friends that I’ve known for years – my best bud Michael, who I’ve known since I was seven, and a number of other great people I’ve known almost as long, such as Maxine and Ben, my eternal gaming rival. I’ve been together in a long-term relationship with a great girl, Augusta, for the last several months. Augusta has been a great friend to me since I was about ten, and she is one of the rarest of all creatures on this earth – she plays Halo and Soul Calibur, people! And she’s actually GOOD!

So in summation; I like my job, I’m doing well in school, I have some great, loyal friends, and I’ve got a healthy relationship with an attractive girl who’s not only all-around awesome but who can also tolerate my neuroses. And people wonder how I can be optimistic about life!

Hmm. So there’s something of an introduction. Now if I mention any of this stuff later on, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Hopefully you have a better feeling for who I am. Always better in context, right?

Stop speaking in tongues!

2008-02-05T12:02:00.003-05:00

This is Greg J. here. I created this blog as a supplement to my website's news page; this being a place where I can lean a little more on personal rants instead of things actually relevant to said website (http://www.limegreennetwork.com/, if anyone's wondering). I shall begin this process with a rant on one of my greatest pet peeves…

Grammar! Anyone on LGN can tell you, I'm a total grammar nazi. And of course, spelling is also an issue. Now, if you really don't know how to write very well, and you don't understand grammar entirely, that's one thing. I still say it's not too hard to get a clue, but I'll give you a little sympathy there. You know what REALLY gets me, though? The people who do it on purpose - in other words, the abomination that is AOL Shorthand.

Now, I’ve heard all the justifications for AOL Shorthand – “it’s easier,” “I need to be able to send messages quickly,” and of course “everyone else does it now anyway.” Only one of these excuses has any validity, and that one only in certain situations. I concede that sending messages quickly CAN be a priority over appearance in online gaming, where being “typekilled” is a constant danger which increases with the length of your sentence. So it’s semi-acceptable to me to see Shorthand language used in such situations. However, any of the other justifications for its use, in any other situation, will not fly with me. Let’s face it, people: we’ve gotten lazy.

When you’re chatting online, sending a text message, or sending an e-mail – ESPECIALLY that latter – there is NO good excuse for saying “o” instead of “oh,” “u” instead of “you,” “r” instead of “are,” “b” instead of “be,” and “2” instead of “to” or “too.” I mean, wow. At most it saves you a whole TWO keystrokes! Good thing you didn’t have to hit those two keys, or you could lose your fingers! Or just look intelligent. I’M NEVER SURE WHICH.

Seriously, people. To anyone who’s not a brain-dead e-baby, typing like that makes you look like a complete, unrespectable idiot. You could be revealing the meaning of life, but if it starts with “ur about 2 b enlightened, lol” not too many people will listen. It’s just sheer laziness, and it’s laziness that happens to be lowering the collective intelligence quotient of the planet. If it’s not worth taking the extra nanoseconds to type out properly, it’s not worth saying at all.

Oh, and grammar. God, the poor apostrophe… Never has a punctuation mark been so needlessly and cruelly abused. I’ll do everyone reading this a favor and give you a quick lesson on the correct use of the apostrophe:

- If it’s being used to indicate possession, it belongs either before the “s” added to the end of the word (“George’s house”), or, if the word being modified already ends in an “s,” the apostrophe belongs AFTER it (“Chris’ house”).

- If it’s being used in a contraction (“it is” to “it’s,” for instance), you will have to learn where it belongs on a case-by-case basis (“you are” to “you’re,” but not “your!”)

- If it’s being used within a quotation (“so I said, ‘no, you do it,' and then he ran off”), the apostrophe is used in place of a quotation mark around the quoted phrase within the quote.

In NO OTHER SITUATION is the use of an apostrophe acceptable! One of the things that used to drive me nuts (until I finally just ripped it down last week) was a sign on a club bulletin board at my college posted over a list of club members reading “our officer’s.” Unless there was more to that sentence (“our officer’s duck collection”), that apostrophe did not belong, and the correct wording would have simply been “our officers,” sans apostrophe. Unfortunately, mistakes of the exact same nature are made constantly. Another popular victim is “it’s” and “its.” Despite the rule on apostrophes and possession that I previously cited, when you’re saying that something belongs to “it,” the correct spelling is “its.” Although it might not look like it, “it’s” is actually a contraction of “it is,” and should not be used otherwise. A lot of contractions get that, actually – “you’re” (contraction of “you are”) and “your” (“your house”) get confused all the time.

Another grammar mistake seen all too often, which drives me up the bleeding wall, is when People Capitalize The First Letter Of Every Word In A Sentence, or Else use first Letter capitalization seemingly at Random. Sweet Zombie Jesus, people... Here's when you capitalize the first letter of a word: when it's someone or something's name or title (as in "Sweet Zombie Jesus"), and when it's the first word at the start of a sentence. THAT'S IT! NEVER ANY OTHER TIME!

"A lot" is the common victim of Frankensteinification by being combined into a single, unnatural word - "alot." Guess what? "Alot" is not a word. As my first English professor at college, the great B.J. Ward, put it rather brilliantly: "it's rather like going up to your mother and asking if you can please have 'acookie.' Not quite correct." And speaking of things Ward would like you to know, "OK" and "okay" are both acceptable spellings of the word, but uncapitalizing the acronym version ("ok"), actually creates a bastard word that one would pronounce using a hard, German-esque "ach" sound.

And of course, there’s always the simple misspelling of words. Now, to your credit, some of the spelling rules we’re taught when we’re younger are lies. “I before E except after C?” More like “I before E except when it’s not.” Tons of words break the “I before E” rule – “weird,” for instance. However, there are other words people get wrong all the time that I simply can’t understand. Some of them, like “teh,” are just typos; the result of hasty typing. Others come about when people are typing words they’ve only heard but not seen, such as “walla” instead of “voila.” Some misspellings, however… just boggle the mind. Look, people… if you know you’re not good at spelling, just… just use a spell check, okay? Please? It’s not that hard. And it’s good for my brain.

So yeah. I think I’d better wrap this up now before I go on too much longer. I’ll post again with another rant soon enough. Hope you all learned something here today.