Occupy me!

RB pointed out the other day that almost every time I tell a tale of work days past, it's about a job I've never mentioned. So... for the sake of those who must suffer through my stories, here's a tally of the various occupations I've meddled in. I'll try to keep it in chronological order, as best as I can.
1 Paperboy, The Patriot Ledger. My first "official job". I shared the route with my sister. Somehow we usually ended up owing the Ledger money every week.
2 House cleaner, for some messy lady. I'm embarrassed to admit I took the job because I thought "Light house keeping" meant lighthouse keeping. It didn't. I spent Saturdays vacuuming popcorn off of some fat lady's rug.
3 Cashier/bagger/carriage retriever, Star Market I actually had to get my work permit for this job. To this day I can still bag better than most of the idiots working in the grocers.
4 Stockroom clerk, Sears Auto Center. This was a fun job. I mostly set fires and injured myself. Ever pour lighter fluid down an exhaust pipe? It makes a loud "whoop" sound and shoots flames out both ends. Cool!
5 Gas Station Attendant, Gulf. I quit Sears to work here, only to get accused of stealing and fired. Turns out the owner was till tapping.
6 Assistant, Peck Funeral Home My first mortuary gig. I did a few removals, had some really gross experiences, and work visiting hours.
7 Apprentice Funeral Director, Keohane Funeral Homes I worked there while going to funeral school. 2 years, lots of stories not everyone wants to hear.
8 Easter Bunny, South Shore Plaza Enough said.
9 Customer Service Rep, Boston Financial Data Services I was working part time at the funeral home, got this job to pay the bills. Little did I know how much that damn company would dominate my path. And still does.
10 Shop Hand, Atlas Scenic Studios When I lived in Bridgeport, CT. We built sets for Broadway shows and Christmas windows for Macy's. One of my all time favorite jobs.
11 Team member, McDonald's I got hired, put on my uniform and got a tour. 10 minutes into it the manager told me I'd be cleaning grease traps. I went to the bathroom, changed back into street clothes and walked out.
12 Usher/attendant, National Amusement Cinemas Got hired, brought home the tie and vest, never showed up for work that night. Same day as my McD's gig.
13 Cashier, Stop & Shop Hired the same day as the last two. Got my ID, badge and apron. Never showed up for work. But I did get a weekly paycheck for $0.00 for three months.
14 CSR, BFDS History repeats itself. High stress job, lots of kooky people. I liked working there.
15 Clerk, Dean's Video Express Just call me Dante. Or Randall. A small hole in the wall video store that rented mostly hardcore porn. I developed my distaste for people there. Great quitting story.
16 Flunky, HS Wholesale Mineral Specimens The single most unique job I've ever worked, and one of the longest. There are less than 10 people in the world who I know that have shared the experience. Fodder for many a story.
17 CRS, Boston Equiserve Affectionately known as Equifuck. Met my ex-wife there. If there's a bright center of the galaxy, this is the company furthest from it.
18 Slightly higher paid flunky, HS Wholesale Mineral Specimens Yeah, I went crawling back. Albeit to a better job and new position.
19 Temp, Hollister I did day assignments, so I won't try to list those. They all sucked, except for my last one.
20 Coordinator, VNA of Boston Yup. That's where I'm spending my time now. 4 years and counting.
I think that's it, not counting odd jobs and under the table stuff. 20 jobs in 16 years. What have I gained from it? Mostly semi entertaining stories. I guess that'll have to do.

I hate paint

I do not like it, Sam I am.
Done: 3 ceilings, 2 rooms.
To go: 1 ceiling, 4 rooms, and all the trim and doors.
Moving: June 24th. Yikes!
I quit early last night as I was feeling pretty sick. Heat exhaustion, me thinks. I was sick to my stomach most of the morning as well. The weather has cooled off considerably, so I'm feeling much better.
In other news, the good folks at Hasbro have come up with the most awesome of products... Spudtrooper! I'm going to need at least 2 of those. Rumors have been confirmed that a reunited Pink Floyd will be playing Live8. Sweet! Hell indeed has frozen over.
I was actually feeling awake when I sat down to type.. now I'm tired and my back aches. So, rather than ramble on and piss and moan, I'm calling it a night. Busy day tomorrow catching up at work and venturing out for more paint. Woohoo!

Too tired to be witty

I have a feeling posts will be far and few between over the next few weeks. I have so much freaking work to do on that apartment!
On a lighter note, M&G were in town and came by for a visit Sunday. It's always a pleasure as well as refreshing to hang out with them. They are the perfect couple. M and I have been friends for years... at least 15 years if not more.
I wish, of course, that they lived closer so we could hang more often. Alas, I cherish the time we do get to spend together.
Apartment news... got 2 ceilings and two rooms painted, minus the trim. Tried to paint the bedroom ceiling tonight, but the paint wasn't taking and I was feeling sick to my stomach from the heat. So I called it a night. I have a feeling tomorrow might be a work at home sick day. I'm beat.
Well, time for a shower and bed. Just wanted to say hi to my faithful readers. Later!

Noooooooooooooooooooo!

Having a little fun at the expense of the dark lord of the Sith. I have to admit, a few of them made me chuckle.
Well, tonight KG and I ventured to Lowes to pick out paint. We only got 3 gallons, should be enough for the front 2 rooms. I figure I'll start there and hit the rooms one by one. Most days I have little to no interest in doing house work. However, everytime I go to Lowes, I get the proverbial hard on for all the tools and whatnot. I spend a few days thinking of all the crap I could do if I had the time or money.
Sometimes, it's a good thing I have neither.
Tonight is another hot and sticky night. I'm sitting here sweating, already thinking about the bedroom and the a/c. Think I might head there shortly. Rest tonight, paint tomorrow. Woohoo!
The new tenants came over to sign their lease today. I don't think I like them. Of course, I'm trying not to jump to conclusions, and I plan on being neighborly and all, but something about them just rubbed me the wrong way. I'm hoping life doesn't get complicated. Right now we have the whole house to ourselves, and I must admit, I like it.
Oh well, the only constant in life is change. We'll see how it develops.

Enough about me...

Here's a link to pictures from this past Sunday.
Andrew... I wish that we actually got the chance to talk.
My fellow NEGers... I love you guys. Thanks for making this happen!

Stop calling me Shirley

It is hot. Hot and humid. The warm weather had been eluding us for weeks. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad summer is starting. It just figures, though, that it waits to get hot and sticky until I have daily physical labor to perform.
All I did tonight was clean windows and spray bug repellant. Now I'm back upstairs and feeling sticky and damp. Not in a pleasant way. Maybe I'll take a nice cold shower. Yeah, that sounds about right.

That's me in the middle.

One for the fans

Well, for once I got off my self absorbed ass and did something good for someone else. And let me tell you, it felt good.
One of the nurses at work, CW, has a patient with muscular dystophy. He's 23, and hasn't been out of his house in four years, except for surgery. Turns out he's a huge Star Wars fan. CW was telling me how one whole room in his house is filled with SW figures. Last week, I was going on at some length about my repeat viewings of ROTS. CW informed me that her patient was being taken by ambulance, along with a team of nurses, to see the movie on Sunday.
Well, my wheels started spinning. Me, I had no problem going to see the movie 5 times. I'm able bodied, and I thank God for that. I got to thinking about what a big event it was for this guy to go see a movie. Then, I thought, how awesome would it be for him to show up at the theater and be greeted by stormtroopers?
Let me tell you... pretty freakin awesome. I put a post up on the NEG forum, and ended up with 3 stormtroopers and a photographer! Great, awesome, wonderful guys who on short notice gave up their Sunday to come down and make a special day all that more special. One of the troopers even drove down from Maine!
Well, we had a blast. We met CW and her patient at the entrance to the mall. We than escorted them through the mall food court to the theater. A good time was had by all.
After we got them to the theater, we spent some time trooping around the mall. We even got glamour shots done at a portrait studio!
So, in short, to Mr. A... I hope you enjoyed the movie and the Imperial presence. It was an honor to meet you. To my fellow troopers, you guys fucking rock! My faith in mankind has been renewed.

Memories of Mt Vernon

I spent some time downstairs washing walls today. Yeah, still gross. I took a lengthy break for family time and hanging with KG, then went back down to clean up. I dragged our plastic patio chairs over to the porch. The downstairs apartment has a porch! Grabbed my beer, lit a butt and chilled.
It was nice. Reminds me of living in Slumerville, hanging out with JN on the porch. Watching the crazy Brazilians and grilling.
Grilling and chilling.
I've been dreading all the work involved with making that place livable. Tonight, I got to taste the fruit of those labors. It's going to be much nicer living down there. Lots of open space, the yard, and a porch. I'm looking forward to moving.
Now I just need to get the upstairs rented to the right people. I might throw up an ad on craigslist . It's free, and I can write a nice lengthy description. The landlord will throw a 2 line ad in the Ledger, which will come out on Sunday and only be read by denziens of the South Shore. I figure an ad on CL might be spotted by a couple expecting a baby. They'd find themselves with the perfect apartment!
I'm just hoping we don't get stuck with more bad neighbors. This is a nice place, and we've worked hard to improve the energy around here. I would like this to continue and grow.
One can hope. That ain't a crime.

Ewwwww

So, I broke down and actually started doing some work downstairs. Honestly, I am not the neatest person in the world. Our apartment has quite a bit of clutter, and I have a bad habit of making piles. But for crying out loud, we keep it clean.
The people downstairs... I seriously don't think they cleaned that place once in the 14 years they lived there. Christ almighty. I spent almost two hours scrubbing grime off of the molding in one room. The sponge was black! I cleaned the windows in the front room... the paper towels came off black. Black!
Ugh. I so want to shower right now, it's not even funny. And I still have a long way to go.
The landlord is actually doing a lot of work, so I think I'll mostly just end up painting. Plus he's paying me $20 an hour to do it. Not bad. If I rack up a big enough bill, I might try to trade him the cash for a new gas furnace. Downstairs has oil, and we all know how damn expensive that is.
Tomorrow night I'll wash the walls, and then this weekend I'll paint the ceilings. That'll be a good start.

putting off the inevitable

So, what should I be doing tonight? Cleaning the downstairs apartment. Packing up shit up here. Picking out paints. What am I doing? Blogging, chatting with someone on AIM. I've had AIM for over a year now, never used it. Now all of a sudden I'm IMing. Stupid addictions.
But, I have a month to pull this all together. I've been staying up too late the last few nights, and I'm beat. So, tonight I will putz around here for a bit more, than toddle off to bed for some real sleep.
Let the work wait for tomorrow.
TK Junior has been humming "Ode to Joy" a lot lately. I broke out my guitar, as that's one of the few things I can actually play on it. After playing it a few times, he started singing right along! Nice. I think I might actually learn to play the thing now. I'm trying to encourage music appreciation in the little guy. Besides, I enjoy strumming, just wish I knew more than power chords. When we're moved in downstairs, I might actually be able to practice without waking him. So we'll see what develops.
Thought I'd something more to say...

Jeebus help me!

So, the people downstairs have moved out. We suspected as much, but it was confirmed today. The landlord stopped by to inquire about the squirrels. We haven't caught any.
Well, he and I got to talking about the downstairs apartment. He asked if we would be interested, I asked how much the rent would be. $150 more than what we're paying now, and it's a lot bigger. It's also fucking filthy.
Next thing I know, I had agreed to do all the painting for him. He offered to pay me. KG and I talked it over, and took a look at the place ourselves, and decided what the hell. We'll move.
The landlord is taking a loss for the month of June. Me... I'll be spending ALL my nights and weekends downstairs. When I say it's going to be a major job to get that place livable, I ain't joking around. It's a total rehab. Everything needs to be cleaned and repainted. Cabinets and doors need to be replaced. It's going to be a major undertaking.
I should smack myself for signing up.
I called my sister to see if her and CC would be interested in renting our current apartment. It's the same scenario we pitched if we bought this place, except we'll all be renting. I'm keeping my fingers crossed they can pull it off. It'd be nice to have all family here rather than some new strangers to adjust to.
So, I guess I'm going to be spending a lot of time at Lowes . I put a lot of work into getting our current apartment fixed up, as it too was a shit pit when we moved in. At the time, it was very stressful. I was training all the TCs at work on the new system. KG was way heavy with child, due any day. But I managed to do it, with a lot of help. This time I'll have a month to get it done, and there's nothing huge looming over my head. That said, if anyone out there digs painting and listening to music, I wouldn't turn down any offers for help. Oh, and pizza and beer. That's always part of the deal.

Deactivated battle droids for sale

I just got home from my fifth viewing of ROTS. I'm wondering now... just what does Palpy do with all those decommissioned battle droids? Twenty years later, cira Episode IV, we don't see any hanging around. I'm guessing they got melted down and turned into star destroyers.
The Braintree cineplex sucks. ROTS was on a small screen, porno size theater. The projectionist screwed up the first five minutes of the film. The sound wasn't right, and the picture kept moving all over the screen. He/she straightened it out, but it distracted me from looking for the kitchen sink. Oh well... I'll catch it at the next viewing.
Today ended up being a pretty good day. Got up with Junior around 6. He went down for a nap at 11, so KG got to sleep in pretty late. My mom picked up the little guy, and brought me their old lawnmower. For keeps. So, I made a quick pass over the yard, and went shopping with KG. We had a good time, and we got back here before the thunder and rain arrived.
We discovered this morning that the downstairs neighbors are moving out. Unexpected development. I'll have to call the landlord tomorrow and see what's going on. If the rent isn't too much more, I'd like to move downstairs. It's bigger, but I have no idea what kind of condition it is in. Much food for thought there, as we're still kicking around the idea of buying the place.
Seems like TK Junior may have a cold. He's been stuffed up, and started coughing today. I can hear him on the monitor right now, and the coughing sounds pretty bad. Poor little guy. I'm hoping for some sun tomorrow morning so I can take him to the park.
Time to put my pjs on. TK 8103, out.

Wilhelm's screaming

Well, I'll be damned. I didn't know until this afternoon that the Saturn dealer in Quincy is gone. So is the one in Hanover. Nearest ones? Norwood and Medford. So, guess what didn't get fixed today.
I opted to hit the laundry mat instead. Vacuumed out the water in the car while I was at it.
KG took TKJunior to the cemetery for a walk. The cemetery near us is nice, and has a lot of room to run around. It's a weekend tradition. Most of it is old, but there is a new section. KG told me today, some lady was kneeling, praying at what turned out to be her son's grave. TK Junior walked over to her, knelt down, and held his hands in prayer, like her. He stayed next to her until she got up.
Pretty cool. There's a lot going on in that little head of his, and it's going to be a while yet before he can tell me about it. I'm looking forward to it.
I made a few calls while letting my unmentionables spin. Set a date to see ROTS with the Weymouth After Dark brothers tomorrow afternoon. Fifth viewing. I discovered a few things to look for this time around. I had already noticed Lucas in his cameo, but I had missed the Falcon and the sink. I'll be keeping my eyes peeled.
Hung out with the Diva's this evening. They got me at a week moment, and I agreed to create 11th Hour Productions with them. Long story I may get into later if anything develops.
Well, it's my turn to get up with the little guy in the morning. Time to smoke a last butt or two, and TV myself into sleepiness.

Rain Dogs

Well, today was fun. My cubemate has been more or less absent all week, training the temp who replaced one of our recently downsized TCs. Don't know if I've mentioned the high level of incompentency of our support staff. It's pretty bad, and mostly due to laziness. At any rate, the powers to be finally started cleaning house.
So... I finished off the week doing my job all by myself. Which is what I used to do before the arrival of my cubemate.
I actually left my desk for lunch today, joining Molius and DC in the office lunchroom.
CH bitched at me all day about my hair. I haven't had it cut for some time now, and seeing as today was very moist, I ended up with a shaggy jewfro. Doesn't bother me... it's just hair.
The drive home took over an hour and a half. Should have been 40 minutes at most, but traffic was a mess. I spent 80% of the trip in second gear. This was compounded by the fact that either my moon roof or windshield leaks, and the entire interior of the car was sopping wet. I'm talking 2 inches of standing water on the floor in the back. My pant cuff was soaked half way up my calf, and my ass was damp and itchy. Now that the weather is growing warm, the car is starting to smell. Soon it will be the Beast.
So, since people have asked, my plans for the weekend: Sleep late tomorrow, take the car to a Saturn dealer. Hopefully join KG and TK Junior at the park. Do laundry and buy groceries. Hang out with the Divas , see ROTS (again) with the WAD brothers, and possibly take the baby to the aquarium. Oh, and one of the aunties is coming up for a visit, and my mom wants to take him on Sunday. Which might mean going to my grandmothers. All in all, a pretty full plate. I'd like to add mowing the lawn to the list, as the grass is now taller than the baby. I shit you not. But, the mower is broke, and my parents have a ride on. So my options are pretty limited at the moment. I actually enjoy mowing. I'd like a mower with a bag, though. I'm not overly fond of raking up all the clippings and dumping them behind the tree line. A bag would make dumping them a lot easier.

Having fun in my Underoos

As I believe I have mentioned at one time or another, I am quite the Star Wars enthusiast. I like me some SW.
There's some funny things going on in the fandom universe these days. The 501st has had some really heated debates this past week about new costumes and such. It got a little ugly.
I'm wondering if perhaps some of us fans aren't a little emotional now that the saga has run it's course. Seems to me some people are acting out, as we do when we try to supress emotions.
Me... I'm remembering what it was like to be a child. A little boy. Those days when I played with action figures for hours and enjoyed the shit out of it. Afternoons of imagination, mornings full of cartoons. Cub scouts, sleepovers.
I'm grateful that I can reach out and touch those memories right now. I have a little boy. He'll soon be entering an age of wonder. I'm really excited for him, because I have no idea what his fancies will be. What will capture his imagination. Of course, I am attempting to lay a solid SW foundation, but ultimately TK Junior will be moved by what ever moves him.
I really dig the idea of passing the torch. I'll admit, I never really knew what to do with it when it got thrust into my hand. Here's hoping my guy does.
KG reminded me tonight of the herring run . I'm looking forward to their return, as the back river is a stone's throw from our apartment. We stumbled across it one evening walking to the pizza joint up the street. The water was teeming with thousands of these fish, and there were a bunch of weird, giant birds hiding in the trees. It didn't quite look like this. (second picture down) Very cool.

I hate night guy!

I love my wife. I love my little boy. I'm pretty fond of my occupation.
But I like some me time. A few hours to kill any way I see fit.
So that's why I'm sitting here, very late on a school night. Should be in bed, but I'm blogging instead.
Tomorrow morning I'll probably have that stupid dream again. The one where the alarm clock is practicing and it's OK to keep hitting the snooze.
And of course, I'll finally come to my senses, and find myself late once again.
It's trash day, it's raining and blowing, and my ass will be completely damp by the time I get to work. I'm loving it already.

Oneify

I have no frickin idea what that is supposed to mean. Well, after a little poking around, I learned this. Pepsi. Sure, I'm a drinker. They are after all running a SW promotion, which means I'm duty bound to buy it. Also, I like Mountain Dew, and make no bones about my short lived addiction to Pitch Black. But enough with the lame marketing tricks, guys. Coke tried this in the mid 90's. It was called OK SODA . The actual product tasted like shit, and was only launched in maybe 4 cities. But let me tell you, they had an awesome ad campaign. Truely original and entertaining. Short lived and long missed.
A few things that bother me about the cineplex:
Other people.
Sticky floors.
$3.45 for a 16oz bottle of Diet Coke.
TV commercials. TV is for TV. The small screen. If I want to watch TV, I'll stay home and do it. I like the trailers, it's part of the experience. And lame PSAs are OK. But I do not want to see ads for TV shows.
Parents that bring infants. I shit you not, some one had a baby at the 7:30 ROTS show the other night. Give me a break.
Hhhhmmm... thought I had something more to say. I still have work on my mind, and today was one of those days I'd like to put behind me. As much as I enjoy a day or two off, I really hate coming back and cleaning up the mess. Puts me in a mood for a day or two, and this week is no exception.
Here's a good one: I signed up for an "art selection" committee. Seems were getting 8-20 pieces of art donated to us, so they were looking for some people to make the selections. So, I signed up. I enjoy being on sensless committees. Sounded like it could be fun. Got an email about it today... it's going to be a 2-3 hour meeting. Knowing the people I work with, it'll probably end up being a heated debated over what to chose. And I'm betting there won't be one single SW piece or any nudes in there. Oh well. 10 people in a conference room for 3 hours to select some wall decorations? Argh. I'm still pushing for this . I think that about sums it up. On the other hand, both RB and CH will be there, so at least we should have a few laughs. They told us to bring lunch. Mayhap I'll get myself some baked beans.

Your father wanted you to have this...

Well, my Star Wars weekend has drawn to a close. KG and I trekked out to Randolph last night to see ROTS with Molius and M. 4th time for me, and that's it for a while. I was still enthralled, even after seeing it almost every twelve hours, 4 days in a row.
I had to bail on the KISS 108 gig I was supposed to troop at. I checked the boards, and it sounds like the 2 troopers who did go had a blast, and made a long day out of it, despite the weather. Wish I could have been there.
So, being the fanboy I am, I loved the new movie. One thing that's been driving me crazy, though. All the ads and promos show Vader with his red lightsaber. Well, there was no red lightsaber in the movie! I know it's iconic and all, but he didn't once weild it. I guess seing Vader in a duel pre ANH will remain the stuff of dreams.
Speaking of ANH, KG and I watched most of it last night. It resonated with new energy this time, as I suspected it would. Deeper, everything took on a new angle. I suspect I'll be dedicating a few nights to rewatching the original trilogy this week.
Today, it's back to normal life and the responsibilities that entails. Logging into work, laundry, dishes and groceries.
One last SW note... ROTS brought in $85 million as of Friday. Most of the shows yesterday were sold out. Looks like this one is going to be a record breaker!

Do what must be done. Show no mercy.

I will preamble with this caveat.... Spoilers Ahead!
That said...

Anakin was sired by a Sith lord. Interesting. The Sith brought him into being to serve one purpose: destroy the Jedi.
He's got a dual purpose. On the one hand, for the Jedi, he fulfills a prophecy. The Chosen One, who will destroy the Sith and bring balance to the Force. I gather the prophecy didn't bother to get into specifics regarding just how we would accomplish this.
On the other hand, he was created to destroy the Jedi and usher in the return of Sith rule.
Of course, Anakin managed to very nicely fulfill both these chores.
The moment he drops his lightsaber and surrenders to the dark side, he understands his purpose. Why he is the way he is. He accepts it. Not with relish, but with resignation. And so begin an unfortunate chain of events.
I don't think the Sith planned on him having children. They wanted him raised as a Jedi, so the possibility must have seen remote at best. Not something to worry about.
And there was their undoing. I'm sure they scoffed at the Jedi prophecy. Little did they realize that because those children came to be, Anakin did indeed bring balance to the Force, and would find the compassion and selflessness within him to destroy the Sith. Destroy his master, and himself.
Good job, Mr. Lucas. Once again, the movie itself matters less than the story it tells. Star Wars remains greater than the sum of it's part.
Say what you will about directing, execution, wooden acting or stilted dialog. It's the story.
And the story kicks ass.

On a different note, there's tons of new armor! All kinds of variations. I swear Lucas does this to screw with the 501st. He's very tolerant, and indulgent, of our costuming group. We're a great group of people, and I'm proud to be a member of Vader's Fist. But, we have a lot of hard core fanboys. SW seems to have that effect on people. There are a lot of arguments over canon and screen accurate costumes. As with any activity that demands a lot of money and devotion, people tend to take it very seriously.
So here's Lucas, making it harder and harder to have hard line rules and stances on what is and what isn't "canon". Harder to make or own all the variations. He's having a little fun.
Hey... Kenobi said it best.
"Only Sith deal in absolutes."

The circle is complete

1977. I was four years old, sitting in a darkened movie theater with my father.
"A long time ago in a galaxy far, far way..."
That was when I was introduced to Darth Vader, dark lord of the Sith. I wondered, who was this man? How did he come to be incased in black, full of evil and hatred?
It's 28 years later, and now I know.
The saga has come to a close. Vader's story has been told.
I'm satisfied. I'm thrilled. I can't wait to see it again.
My favorite moment?
Obiwan standing over his defeated padawan. The anguish on his face and in his voice.
And Anakin's reply.
"I hate you."
What else can I say? Not much right now. The birds are chirping, and it's time for me to shower up and get ready to troop.
The countdown has ended.

Putting my coat on because...

3 hours, 43 minutes, 8 seconds!

The time is nigh

9 hours to go. Color me excited.
I've given up on the the prospect of getting any work done today, or leaving early. I had every intention this morning of getting a bunch of things done in anticipation of my 4 day weekend.
It only took a matter of minutes for that to go to shit.
Transfer problems this morning. I was commandeered by the IS department to do some troubleshooting, and that ate up a good chunk of my morning. Not that I mind... I actually prefer that to my other duties. I managed to get my mid week reports done, and answer my voicemail. At 11 I had to teach a class, and well... that pretty much destroyed any motivation I might have had for doing work.
So I didn't send out my summaries. Hardly looked at the error report. Didn't resolve any bad data. Shit... just remembered I have to replace holds.
On top of that I'm bone tired. I know my second wind will kick in shortly after I've left, but for now I'm dragging. I wanted to leave an hour early to spend some time with Dad, but there's no way I'm getting out early. Still lots to do.
Anyhow... this is the last post before I plop down to see ROTS. I have a feeling I'll be back with my impressions afterwards. I have a 3 hour window between getting home from the movie and heading out for my next trooping gig, so I think I'll skip sleep and just run on empty.
To all those not braving the midnight screening... May the Force be with you!
9 hours, 1 minute, 26 seconds.

Not the Jedi I should be

So, Dad came over tonight. Him and I went out for pizza and had a nice long chat about affairs of the heart. There's something very rewarding and refreshing about talking to your parent as a peer. It helps put this whole growing up business in perspective.
There's no such thing as an adult. We're all children. Only some of us have been around long enough and done the same shit so many times that we've learned a thing or two.
In other news, I just discovered there's a freaking icon on this blog template for inserting links. I've been writing out the HTML code every time. D'oh!
Speaking of links... My favorite site, Vader's blog is coming to an end. Sad, but brilliant. The author has timed it so that Vader's sacrifice coincides with the release date of ROTS. I'm going to miss it, it's been an enjoyable read every day.
Got the directions for my trooping gig on Thursday, and my work pass for the KISS 108 concert came in the mail. I've gotten more use out of my armor these past few weeks than in all the time I've owned it. While it'll be nice to see my schedule return to some degree of normalcy after this weekend, I must admit I've been bitten by the costuming bug. I'm already scheming up my next costume. Either an Imperial officer, or Palpatine himself. Looks like I'll be ebaying away some of my precious crap to finance it.
Anyhow, I'm tired. Time to call it a night and rest up for a very eventful few days.
1 day, 1 hour, 34 seconds.

Sith Happens

The lure of the dark side is strong. Merch, that is. I can't resist. Popped into KMart yesterday to pick up a Super deformed Vader for myself, and a really cute Vader hooded towel for TK Junior. The SW mania is growing, I'm having a hard time thinking of anything else.
Pictures from the charity premier are now up on the NEG site. There's one good picture of me, and I look like a total psycho. For the record, the theater manager had just made a big point about not leaving trash, and I was searching in vain for a trash barrel!
Anyhow... Dad is coming up for a visit tomorrow. Talk about picking a busy week to have a personal crisis. That's OK, there's always time for Dad.
I watched some ROTS trailers tonight. Call me a geek, but this one actually gave me chills.
Work today was fairly unexciting. I, as well as my buds, were all pretty busy, so there wasn't much time for entertainment. Tomorrow I'm going to have to get some serious work done so I can try and leave early on Wednesday to visit with Dad. Then, Thursday and Friday off for SW relatd activities.
Oh... which reminds me. The Ledger called me today... I won a pair of tickets to see ROTS on Saturday. Super sweet!
That said...
2 days, 1 hour, 13 minutes.

Putting the folks in a home

So, Luke Skywalker had it pretty rough, discovering that his father was the most evil man in the galaxy. None other than Lord Vader himself.
I've got no serious baggage like that, but I am discovering that my old man is a nut.
My parents divorced when I was 12, Dad's decision. Probably a wise one. Knowing my parents now, I don't understand how they managed to get together and stay together for 16 years.
Dad remarried. His second wife, Deb, she was a "complex" woman. I tried hard to like her. I respected her. But she's got some issues. Not the kind of stuff I feel like going into. They adopted a baby from China. My little sister, Emmi.
Well, two years ago, Deb kicked my Dad out the door. He had a nervous breakdown, ended up in the psych ward for the weekend. He's since got his shit together, somewhat. Declared bankruptcy to get out from under crushing debt. Got his own place, retired from the church. Started substitute teaching, bought an XBox. He's seemed pretty happy and on an even keel as of late.
So... a few weeks ago, he met this female funeral director. (He's still doing the priest thing part time, so this isn't all that unusual.) She's 33. Well, they ended up going on a date. Strange, but not crazy. These things happen.
Mind you, Dad is 56. He's lonely, I'm sure. He's had two marriages end, and found himself single and middle aged. So he's been pretty excited about his new girlfriend.
From what I can gather, he hadn't heard from this new girl in a week or two. They talked back and forth, but no second date. He decided to leave her a card and a rose, along with a 2 page letter filling her in on all that has happened to him over the last few years. Bad idea! I've written a few of those letters in my day, and they never, ever have the intended result. As a matter of fact, they tend to scare of the fairer sex.
As one would expect, he has not heard from her since. Spidey sense says let it lie. Give the girl the space she apparently wants.
Not my Dad. I just got off the phone with him, and he's camped outside her apartment with a dozen roses, waiting to "talk". D'oh!
D'oh, d'oh, d'oh, d'oh, d'oh. d'oh, d'oh!
Dad, if you happen to read this, I love you. But cut the shit! To quote young Skywalker, "I have a bad feeling about this."
I guess that's the joy of growing up. You have kids, who require all your attention and energy. Then your parents start acting nutty, and you have to take care of them as well.
3 days, 3 hours, 6 minutes.

What do you get a Wookie for Christmas?

Peace and understanding. Goodwill to men.
Because he's already got a comb, and he doesn't use shaving foam.
But that's beside the point. I was just thinking about Episode I , and how much I really do like it. It was, after all, not for me, the grown SW fan. It was for kids.
TK Junior isn't even two yet. His favorite characters are Elmo, Pooh and friends, Teletubbies and Boobahs . And R2. For a little boy, R2 and Chewie are characters that are really appealing. Nick likes bears, and he thinks Chewie is a bear. I think he'd like Jar jar. Sort of like Barney. The young Anakin would probably appeal to him as well.
Eventually, he'll reach an age where he's ready to see TPM. He'd probably really enjoy it. Cartoony characters, a brave young boy saving the day, a cute girl in peril.
Starting him off with Episode I and moving forward in order really makes sense, and watching how he takes to it will be really cool. Will he identify with Anakin? How will he feel when Anakin falls? Of particular interest to me is how he'll feel when he's introduced to Luke in ANH. I don't know what my childhood impression of Luke would have been if I had known his backstory. Knew who his father was, who his sister was. Had seen Obi-Wan's involvment with the Clone Wars, having seen him teaching his pupil. I'd have a whole different perspective, that's for sure. The one that Nick will get.
Neat. Really neat.
In other news...
The lanlord stopped by with traps . He set them, and I placed them up in the attic. He'll be coming by Monday night to check them. Apparently, once we catch a squirrel, he has to kill it. On our property. He plans to accomplish this by immersing the entire cage in a bucket of water unitl the squirrel drowns. The traps are big enough that he'll need to fill a trash barrel at least half way with water. I don't know if he realizes it or not, but all our trash barrels have holes in the bottem, and there is no working spigot outside. I'm not sure how he'll manage to accomplish his murders.
It was a laundry day today. The forecast was for a shitty day, so I decided to do a few loads down at the 'mat. It needed to get done, and the place isn't busy on Saturdays. I had been doing laundry on Sundays, but it's usually packed with annoying people, so I prefer Saturday. Anyway, it ended up being a really nice day, and I wish I had taken the kid to the park instead. I could tomorrow, but it'll probably actually be shitty then. Figures.
On the way there, I picked up the Ledger for their SW special. Nick's picture is on their website, along with KG and I. We didn't make the actual paper, but I didn't know it at the time and wanted to see it. I also picked up MAD magazine , as they had a ROTS cover. I actually really enjoyed MAD, and was surprised at how political the humor was.
While at the laundromat, I kept getting distracted by commericals for SW Creatures on Animal Planet. Looks fun, but I'll be on my way to see it that night.
Finished up my laundry, then hit the grocery store next door. Back home, I attempted to start up the mower so I could cut the lawn. Put some gas in the tank, it leaked out through a rust hole. Tried to start it anyway, and the whole engine casing pulled off when I yanked the starter. That jammed as well. So... won't be trimming the back 40 any time soon. It's already a jungle out there.
Nick and I planted some flowers, then I walked down to Classic for some dinner. All in all, a full day.
Now KG and I are hanging out, per usual. I'm thinking about my little padawan and chilling to some Floyd.
4 days, 1 hour, 44 minutes.

Bantha poodoo

Thanks to DP, I got the first wave of BK toys today. Very cool. I of course had to remove them from their packaging so they can be played with. TK Junior was less than impressed, but I'm thrilled. I should be getting the next five on Monday. The best part... I'm not forced to eat at BK every day. That said, I'm sure I'll end up stopping in any way.
My dental appointment was a tad annoying. I thought I was getting a permanent crown put in, but it turned out I had to get impressions made. My temporary actually fell out during lunch today, so that was replaced with another temp. I have to go back in 3 weeks, and then I should finally be done with that tooth. Six visits and $1150 for one stinking tooth.
I hooked up with the Weymouth After Dark brothers tonight, and ended up spending almost 4 hours discussing SW. They're both trying to remain spoiler free, so I had to be careful. Sometimes I wish I could be spoiler free. But I can't. I need to know as much as I can as soon as I can.
The anticipation is reaching fever pitch. I'm kind of glad I didn't get to see the movie last night. This is it... the last SW movie ever. I'll never get to experience the excitement of the build up again. So I'm glad I can enjoy it while it lasts.
While hanging with the WAD brothers, we got into a discussion about dead malls and departed department stores in the area. The list is long... Paperama, Bradlees, Zayre, Ames, Lechmere and Caldor . Most of these places are Building #19s or WalMarts now. We also touched on the long gone treasure of the South Shore, King's Castleland . I have many fond memories of that place. And one bad one. There was a big statue of a knight that talked when you stood in front of him. I remember informing him that he had a caterpillar on his shoulder. I became irrate when he refused to acknowledge me, and continued to blabber on about the park. I thought he was alive. I was 6.
I wonder where I'll take Nick when he's a little older. There aren't many of these mom and pop bemusement parks around anymore. It's a shame.
4 days, 23 hours, 13 minutes.

Access Denied!

Well, hoorah for City Year, they managed to sell out the charity premier. Which meant we didn't get to see the movie. We got to hear the movie, but that was it. Alas, the countdown continues.
But, a fun time was had by all. This was my first time out at a big event, so I got to meet a lot of the NEG. That was pretty cool, and now I won't have to take guff for being the garrison's lone trooper. I also got the chance to meet Lenny Clarke and Tom Brady. Lenny I actually talked to, Brady was in the same room. So, that was kind of cool.
I decided to skip the post party as I was pretty sore, and have to work tomorrow. So now I'm back home, chilling with KG and looking forward to hitting the sack.
My sister got herself arrested today. Apparently a cop ran her plate and came up with a bench warrent. In reality, the warrent had been reversed, but it hadn't been entered in the SCMODS. So, she was handcuffed, taken to the station, and then had to appear in court in shackles. JeeBee thinks the whole thing was pretty funny. My mother, she did not. Anyhow, JeeBee now has a mug shot, which I need to get a framed copy of.
Tomorrow promises to be a fun day. Abbreviated work day due to a dental appointment to get my permanent crown, and the landlord is coming over to put squirrel traps in the attic. Which means I have to place the D Con up there, since I told him I did two weeks ago. D'oh.
Well, enough is enough. I'm still wearing my body glove, and I think it's time to get it off.
6 days, 43 minutes, 58 seconds.

Cuddlesome clone fun

So, tomorrow is the big event! I'm not sure what I'm looking forward to more: a day off from work, trooping, or possibly getting to see the movie. OK, that's a lie. I'm hoping to see the movie!
It's closing this week, so work has been pretty busy and stressful. Seems the second week of every month it's the same deal. Occupational menstruation . I managed to get my error list down to 9 patients. Not too shabby, considering I started the week at 120 or so. Got the two huge ones off, all that is left is stuff that is out of my control, or can be resolved on Friday. So we should make it, and I can enjoy my day off without stressing over it. Nice!
Watched Lost, and then got sucked into the begining of Next Stop Wonderland . I became disengaged the moment they had a scene on the T. Brought back very unpleasant memories of my commuting days.
KG bought me a present at the supermarket. Have I mentioned that KG rocks? I might have to bring my new buddy into work with me.
So, another night winds down. Think I'll putz around here a little more, and then play some more XBox. Finally killed Dooku last night. Woohoo!
Tomorrow: Polish the armor, clean the litter boxes, and head into town for the charity event. I have a feeling my butt will be dragging on Friday. If I don't get to see the movie, it'll be a late night, probably won't get home until after 1AM. If I do see it, I probably won't be able to sleep.
7 days, 2 hours, 5 minutes.

I have a fan!

Last week while I was trooping at the SSP, I had one of those funny little moments in life. A group of teenagers wandered into the store, mostly boys shopping for games. At any rate, there was one cute girl, and she got all excited when she saw me. She came over and said "Can I hug you?". Well, who am I to turn down such a request? I gave her a hug.
It was a cute and funny moment. The store manager asked me if that happened often. He was going to get himself some armor if it did. Well, it was a first for me.
Anyhow, while checking my email tonight, I found one titled "hello stormtrooper, I have a question..." Turns out it's the hugging girl.

hey!

I was looking at your webpage, and I had a question.... were you the stormtrooper at the South Shore Plaza? If it was you, then I saw you there on May 5th and I was so excited to see you that I ran up to you and gave you a hug! and I came back the next day with a camera but you werent there ;/ i went back to the mall today, and asked the emplyees of you were coming back, and they said probabally not..... but they knew who I was. They knew that I was "that girl" who ran up to you and gave you a hug. Even some customers knew who I was. I found this really amusing, how did they know? hehe, I dunno, but I thought it was the koolest thing though, so I had to email you and see if it was you. I would really appreciate it if you wrote me back!

thanks so much!
Lana
Too funny. KG and I had a good laugh over it.
Speaking of armor, I need to spend my evening tomorrow polishing it for the charity screening on Thursday. Apparently City Year hasn't done a good job of promoting it, and has only sold 600 tickets. Rumor is if the sales remain flat, we'll get to see the movie. So, I'm not linking to the City Year site. I don't want any of my one or two readers buying tickets and leaving me shut out!
Had one of those days today at work where pretty much every one was annoying me. Closing week always gets me stressed, and it doesn't help that I have a day off. Sure, I deserve it, and it's laughable to think they won't function without me. But I worry anyway.
Well, RB lent me a tape of 20/20 with interviews from the cast of Lost, so I think I'll go check that out. Then I'll go kick Dooku's ass. Never got around to it last night.
8 days, 2 hours, 25 minutes.

Order 66

Well, I was trying to be a good boy tonight. Figured I'd hang out with KG and make it a relatively early night. That was my intention, at any rate.
So here, it is, almost 11:00. I haven't played my ROTS game since I got it. But now the Dark Side calls me, and I feel compelled to try and kill Dooku.
Talked to the Weymouth After Dark brothers tonight, and re-scheduled our get together for Friday night. Seems they are planning on filming this summer, and want to incorporate my Weymouth Zombie Patrol into the script. Should be fun. From what F told me, the plot centers around a mockumentary about the Bridgewater Triangle . Promises to be a hoot. I enjoyed my two public access stints with them. They are pretty funny guys, and their unnerving knowledge of minor characters from The Phantom Menace is something to behold.
So... time to face the Count.
9 days, 1 hour, 3 minutes.

Move along, please

I've got nothing witty or even remotely interesting to post tonight. It's late... too late for a school night. I figured if I wrote something here, I might then get myself to bed.
Poked around google looking up prog rock classics. Found this, um, rather thorough annotation of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway . I used to be a big Genesis fan. Haven't listened to that album in years, and I only have it on cassette.
Also read a little Floyd history. It's been nice having KG digging Floyd. She endures if I go all out prog and actually pull out Genesis. I resisted tonight, as I recoverd my lost copy of Dark Side and Echoes. We enjoyed hearing them again.
Anyway... my back is killing me and I have a very sore throat, so time for bed.
Oh... speaking of the esoteric, check out this site . Don't get me started on how much I love The Residents.
OK, for real. That's it.
10 days, 17 minutes and 40 seconds.

The post war dream

It's great to be an american.
We've got ourselves, when all is said and done, a cool little country going on. We have freedom. We have liberty. And we pursue happiness, with varying degrees of success. That's what a bunch of guys in wigs set out to create, and so far we've all done a pretty good job of making it so.
You know what's really cool about being american? No one ever dropped bombs on us. No one ever flew over our sleeping suburbs and rained fire upon us. No cities leveled, no air raid sirens.
I've never had a Wednesday night tv viewing interrupted for potential shelling. I'm grateful for that. Because that would suck.
It's why I spend time thinking about zombies. The idea of our society falling apart around us due to some overwhelmingly destructive event fascinates me. It was nuclear war as a child. The undead as an adult.
But there are whole countries out there that live in the shadow of just such events. A young British man remembers hiding from the bombs. Remembers losing his dad to some unseen enemy. He grows up and sings in a band.
They make some good music. Then things go south. A wall gets built.
Tonight KG and I listen to the separate halves of Floyd. Roger always gets me thinking about war. I guess that's his intent. Post Waters Floyd just makes me miss Roger. Even if he makes me think about war.
The wind is blowing tonight, shivering me timbers as I type. Did a laundry run today and hit the grocery store. Not fit for man or beast out there. I wonder how RB faired with his outdoor event.
At Shaw's I used the self check out. I'm a big fan of the concept, even if it does cost me $1.25 to use it. Anyhow, the belt misread and kept insisting I remove a non-existent unexpected item. Someone had to come over and over ride it, then confirm there was indeed no unexpected item.
Now it's later, and I'm about ready to wind down with the tube and prepare for a day of baby play and house cleaning. I decided to honor mother's day by being a good husband to my wife. It's the least she deserves.
11 days, 1 hour, 49 minutes.

No dark sarcasm in the classroom

My mind is feeling a little restless tonight. Not quite sure what train of thought it wants to catch.
Totally forgot I was supposed to meet the Weymouth After Dark brothers tonight. My social calendar is usually so wide open that any engagement is an event. However, this being a SW spring, I've actually had a lot on my plate, so I easily forget one here or there. How annoying.
I've been wanting to write about the curfuffle with my cubemate, but everytime I sit down to do it, I just can't be bothered.
One of my regular readers on journal space has been mentioning Roger Waters alot, and it's got me jonesing for Amused to death . Strange in of itself, since old Mr. Rogers always puts me in a queer mood.
Weekend forecast: shitty. I have a ton of laundry to address, an apartment to clean, and a mother or two to pay my respects to.
I also need to whup Dooku's ass so I can progress in my damn game. (Loved you in The Creeping Flesh , Christopher.) For an old coot, he's got some serious fight in him.
KG overheard a conversation between our landlord and the folks downstairs. Seems they are in arrears with their rent. Reminds me I need to look into that whole home ownership thing.
Sign... work.
12 days, 2 hours, 15 minutes.

No taking pictures in the mall!

That's what security told us this afternoon during my trooping stint. Odd, to say the least. First I was asked to stay in the store because the mall president was there, and then we were told no pics.
First off... I'm the Imperial agent. Isn't it my job to be the oppressor?
Anyhow, it was a good time. 6 hours in armor. I walked away with the ROTS video game, a poster, and the strategy guide. Not too shabby. I didn't have any problems, and was generally well received by the mall rats. One old lady did ask me what I was supposed to be. When I replied "a stormtrooper", she took off her glasses and said "That's all we need. More guns."
Odd.
KG and TK Junior came by at the end of my gig. TK Jr was especially cute, wearing a stormtrooper ringer T. He was shy at first, then kept running around yelling "Daddy! Daddy!" Best part... he saw the cover to the SW Battlefronts game, which has a TK on the cover. He pointed at it and said "Daddy!" Very, very cool.
KG posted a Poem for Vader on her blog. It's refreshing to read something both creative and NOT written by a rabid fan boy. I'm reminded once again why I love that beeyatch so much.
13 days, 2 hours, 12 minutes.

So it begins...

I was poking around Boston.com and found my picture today! Tomorrow is my SSP gig. Should be fun. I have a new body glove to test, so I got that going for me. The previews I've seen for the game look pretty sweet.
No sleep until May 19th. I figure I'll play the game through the week ahead. Then, I'll watch Episode I and II before I go see III. Gotta get in shape before the big night.
Anyhow... hung out with Names and the Big C tonight. Played some Lego SW and watched Lost. A pleasant evening out with the boys.
I'm looking forward to a day away from work. I have a feeling I'll dial in for a while in the morning. It's a fair trade, though, because I'll get a lot more work done.
Then, it'll be off to serve the Empire. My sworn duty.
TK8103, out.

In a nutshell

My two favorite Simpson's lines ever:

Grampa Simpson- "Here comes three!"

Homer Simpson- "I'll regroup at Red Lobster."

I just watched the bonus DVD that came with the ROTS soundtrack. Best piece of SW merchandise I own. And that's coming from a guy who has his own stormtooper armor.
In my 28 years of watching SW, that was the most satisfying 70 minutes. Ever. The entire saga brought together and given the proper perspective. Loved it!
If you buy nothing else, it must be this.
I also managed to score myself a
Darth Dew Slurpee at 7/11. I don't remember if I chronicled my obsession with Pitch Black here, but I was pretty hooked for a while. I didn't enjoy the actual Slurpee as much as I would have in my younger days. But it was nice taste the grape goodness again.
Had a difficult day at work today. It so reminded me of junior high that I don't feel like going into it. Suffice to say, crow tastes great. I love it.
Also picked up some work gloves for the yard. Now I won't get another blister on my thumb from raking. I finally found a toy rake and hoe for TK Junior. It's never to early to get them working!
Final thought for the night: When the nice folks who design highways decided that lane merges were a good idea, I wonder if they had ever actually driven on a highway and met all the wonderful assholes who use them daily. They might have thought twice about forcing people to cooperate.
I need to get this for my new cube. D'oh, sorry. That was one extra thought.

9 to 5, for service and devotion

Started off my day rolling in to work half an hour late. Doesn't matter what time I leave the house, I always end up getting in at the same time. Late.
Said good morning to my cube mate. Ran two huge reports. KS came in, needed a cab. Called the cab company. CK dropped in, wagged her new boobs in my face and somehow talked me into cleaning up a huge mess of hers. FK came in to have me fix a service code. CS emailed me about visits in the wrong episode. Turned out to be an episode that should have been deleted, resulting in several emails and phone conversations with BM. Still not resolved. JM returned two incomplete FIFs. I checked the logs and emailed the coordinators who were supposed to review them. Then walked the FIFs back to them. KE left me a voicemail to delete a visit. BM left me a voice mail about erroneous notes in the system. I researched that and emailed her back. Ms. Newman emailed me wanting to know my vacation schedule so she could write up the POC support schedule. Ran 2 smaller reports and distributed those. SB came by with 485 problems. I fixed those. MC left me some overlaps to resolve. 2 people left me parking tickets to contest. DM came by and wanted to smoke. My cubemate left sick, leaving me the cube to myself (woohoo!). Got a meatball grinder for lunch. LL interrupted with a question about 110s. KB came in with a problem, ignored me stuffing my face and hovered. I chose not to look at her... she went away. BM called me again with more follow up note problems. PG called and needed visits unlocked. Started looking at my huge error report, 189 patients that have to be off by next Friday. Discovered that my cubemate fucked up big time. Huge mess. I had to start cleaning it up, eat crow and apologize to all the clinical managers over it. Meeting with Molius and RB bumped back, ended up being the high point of the day. KS called, her cab didn't show up. I called the cab company, had another one sent. MP came in to get her laptop back. DT needed help with hers. KS found a loaner laptop sitting in her office, I returned that to MT. Bitched a bit to MT. Managed not to do a single thing on my list of daily tasks. No data export, no final claims. No bad data. Packed up my shit, stopped to chat with KB on the way out. 10 minutes before I could pry myself away.
Got home, took a dump, turned on the laptop to work again. Decided to give Molius a hard time when I discovered I hadn't updated my password. Worked an additional hour and a half from home.
Pretty typical day, except for my cubemate's big mess up. That I'll end up cleaning up, and taking some of the blame for the fall out. Because that's what I do.

WWID

Caught the new Family Guy tonight. Not bad. I'm not going to get all critical, because it was the first show in a few years. I'm sure team FG is excited to be back to work, and I'm confident they'll hit their stride before too long. The opening dig at FOX was good. Made me chuckle.
Tomorrow starts a busy couple of weeks at work. We're heading into closing again, and I'm taking a lot of time off for various SW events. This Thursday it's to pimp the ROTS video game . I get a free copy for doing a 6 hour gig at the Plaza. Incidently, that's the same mall that I played the Easter Bunny at back in '92. Next Thursday I'm doing the charity premier. That's the week of closing, so I might actually come in, or work from home for part of the day.
Speaking of work... last week I was tasked with adding all the clinicians' titles to their names in our personel files. Something about HIIPA regulations. I had to print a list of all the clinicians in our district, and then go in and add SN, PT or OT to all their names. I was feeling a tad capricious, and decided to add GOD to my name. I don't document visits or anything like that, so I figured no one would notice. Well.... I noticed two days later while running some reports that I do write a lot of notes in the system, and suddenly they all read Schultz, Christopher GOD. Figured I'd better rectify that. Luckily, when I removed the suffix, it got pulled from any existing notes as well.
So, I was God for a few days, and no one noticed.
I did managed to get a TPS Report created, and it's actually used. Soon I shall distribute a memo about the need for cover sheets. Call me a geek, but I'm looking forward to going back tomorrow. I do enjoy that place.

So be it.... Jedi!

Just purchased my tickets for ROTS. I'm going to the midnight show in Randolph on the 18th by myself. KG's not that hardcore. Got tickets for both of us Friday morning. I have Thursday, "Empire Day" off, and will probably go with the divas.
Really... I don't have a problem. Bought TK Jr a Vader pillow and beach towel, along with another T shirt. Oh, and some Lays chips (Anakin sticker) and more Keeblers. But we did need munchies for this evening. I resisted the delux Grevious figure with "Secret Lightsaber Action". Not that he didn't look cool.
A man's gotta know his limitations.
It's late, I'm still up, and it's my day to get up with Junior. So I should be smart and toddle off shortly. Probably won't, though. I still have 3/4 of a beer to go.

Sitting on 93 South

That's where I found myself late this afternoon. Here's a few things that crossed my mind.
-Toilet paper. Cat food. Soy milk. Bananas. Soda and cigs.
-Ahhh, it's Friday. I hope Junior sleeps late tomorrow.
-I hope he sleeps through the night.
-Stupid ashes blow back in the window everytime I flick. Why do I even bother?
-Star Wars. Star Wars. Star Wars, Star Wars, Star Wars. Star Wars!!
-Maybe I should start a blog for one of the cats. Secret thoughts of Stewie?
-Support the troops? Support this, you stupid bumper sticker buying idiot!
-It's a lane drop, you friggin idiot. A lane drop!!
-Need to order my ROTS tickets this weekend. Don't forget.
-You know, the forearm pieces of my TK armor would really come in handy in a zombie attack. Bite proof!
-Damn, I hope I have time to shit before KG and the baby come home.
-It'd be nice to only want to collect one thing. Stupid pop culture, now I have to watch Reservoir Dogs this weekend!
-I would feel more comfortable if planes flew on the ground.
-Sometimes, people who feel OK don't deserve it.
-Why do they play REM on a classic rock station? Not that I mind, I like the song and all, but do they classify as classic rock? What is the definition now? And why will they give away tickets to Def Leppard yet not play their songs?
-I sing good when I'm alone in the car.
-I like a manual transmission and all, but it really sucks when you're sitting in traffic. It'd be nice if it shifted for you. Oh, yeah... they have that. It's called an automatic.
-901VFB. Very flatulant Bostonian.
-A lot of these cars seem to be from Toyota of Weymouth. Odd.
-I really, really want to Force choke the living shit out of Bob. Seriously.

Yup. Like Homer, I get bored and make up my own movie in my mind. Happy weekend, all. You deserve it.

One of those moments

The other day while picking up some scripts at CVS, I picked up a Death Star PEZ dispenser. When I got home from work today, my sister and her room mate were here waiting for me. We hung out for a while, and then they left. I was playing with my PEZ dispenser when they left, and offered up the last pieces of candy in it. Nick saw me playing with it, and wanted to hold it. So, I let him. He held the dispenser in his hand, looked at the Death Star and said "Moon." To which I replied:
"That's no moon. It's a space station!"
Thank you, Nick. You rock.

TK Junior 

Costume junkies are people too

I was checking the 501st boards tonight, and found a link to a great doc in the works.Heart of an Empire is about the people behind the masks. The human side of the 501st. I haven't made a trip to a children's hospital yet, but I've heard many times that a lot of the guys are pretty torn up after leaving. I look at TK Junior, and I refuse to even contemplate anything bad happening to him. Albin Johnson, the founder of the 501st, has a little daughter. She's got a brain tumor.
Sometimes God kills little children.
Being in love, loving, being loved... they are wonderful things. They open you up to a world of hurt, of course. But it's good to know you can feel something strong enough to be hurt by it's loss. That's what life is all about, I suppose.
Tomorrow, life will be full of meetings and reports. I get to learn about all the wonders of Horizons 9.0. I get to summarize and share our error report. I get to listen to the nurses' union reps bitch about all the clerical work they have to do, and how the laptops are destroying their lives. I wish, I wish so much, that for one moment I could be like Darth Vader. I would stand behind the conference table and clench my fist. FK, the labor leader, would choke, and I would say simply "I find your lack of faith disturbing." I shit you not, the lure of the Dark Side is strong.
Alas, I will have to be content to share my wry observations and go about my business.
I'm going to have to miss my 3PM cookie break. But at least I get my cube to myself for the day. So I got that going for me!

Milk and Cookies

So, sometimes being vocal with your geekiness pays off. I've been lamenting the increase of shitty food in my life lately. I gots to get me all this SW merch and tie-ins, and it requires eating a lot of junk food. So, I was a bit dismayed when I saw pictures of the 20+ kid's meal premiums at Burger King. They're really cool, but that's a lot of flamed broiled crap to consume. Well, my griping paid off. Seems DP's sig other manages a BK, and she's going to hook me up. Sweet! I was starting to suspect I'd be starring in the sequel to "Supersize Me". Dodged a bullet there.
Seems Trainwreck has created some hard feelings with my counterpart Mcmee. MT has a tendency to talk directly with me about what people in Operations "should" be doing rather than going through my boss. Fine with me, I have no bones about making policy decisions. However, Mcmee is supposed to be my equal, so she got a little bent when MT asked me about having her help out with training. MT did not ask Mcmee or my boss. Oh well. I took it upon myself to share the info. All I know for sure is that MT decided I was the go to guy before she ever met me. I think I've done a pretty fair job of living up to that expectation. It's not my fault the powers to be thought we should have two people in my position. And it's not my fault that not everyone is like me. It's probably a good thing. I try to do the best I can in my role, and I mostly succeed. The nurses trust me, and they like to deal with me. I enjoy helping them. I've been roped into a number of committees as well. Not my favorite thing, but I think I have a pretty good perspective. I can see things from both the clinical and the clerical side. I fix all the mistakes that both sides make. So I think my opinions are fairly balanced. I get the feeling sometimes that my boss and Mcmee think I've gotten a little big for my britches. Maybe I have. I dunno.
Anyhow... that's all shit I get paid to think about. I stumbled upon Darth Vader's blog tonight. Pretty funny stuff. I'm hoping the author keeps it up. With ROTS around the corner, it could only get funnier.
Ahhh, which reminds me. I need to head over to the Target website and buy a Darth Vader sprinkler and slip and slide for TK Junior. I swear, it's for him. Really.

All that and a Daddy too

So, I've been a bit neglectful as of late on my family site. After getting in the habit of blogging, it's felt too cumbersome to go onto the family site and muck around with HTML and uploading jpgs. As a result, my few faithful readers have been deprived of all things Nicknick.
I feel bad. I like the thought that family cares enough to check in for updates and pictures of my beautiful, happy boy. And I enjoy sharing them.
Being a father is an amazing fucking thing. Seriously. Every day of my life I get to be filled with wonder and fierce, animal love. When I see that half lidded, lopsided grin pointing my way, and catch those little twinkling eyes with mine, I touch the face of god. Of love. I dig it. It's hard to capture those thoughts and emotions in words. They transcend description. They defy language.
Anyhoo... I've decided to make some good of my newest addiction and start a TK Junior blog. I'm not promising anything yet, but I figure I'm more apt to update if I'm on here anyway.
Well, it's Friday night. Great Gig in the Sky is playing. Joe's Apartment is on. TKjr is sleeping soundly, and I'm feeling good about life.
Thank you RB for the Keeblers. Now I can get me some cookie jars!

Happy Birthday KG!!

Yes, my beloved turns 33 today. In honor of this event, I stopped into Newbury Comics on the way home to pick up a present or two.
First up was Cannibal The Musical. I picked out an Elmo video from Junior ( he takes for granted that we're all huge fans. Which, of course, we are). Then I grabbed a copy of Pulse. We are grooving to that as I type.
I have to admit, I am really, really fond of Roger Waters. I believe him to be the single most self absorbed person I have ever come across. But there's no irony in it. He's genuine. Authentic. And I like that in a person. Doesn't really matter what the quality is, as long as it's the real thing. I am fortunate to know many authentic people.
Anyhow... Floyd. I misplaced my copy of Dark Side a while back. Molius was cool enough to rip my a live copy from '74. It's good stuff. There's a chemistry between Waters and Gilmore that works perfectly. Pulse is from '94. No Roger. That's the problem with the post Waters era. Pink Floyd without Roger Waters sounds like Pink Floyd without Roger Waters. Roger Waters solo sounds like Waters without Floyd. They are incomplete.
But it's all still good.
Poor guys. They're getting sued left and right by their former back up singers. But that's beside the point.
I resisted all SW temptation while shopping for KG. Well... almost. We needed soda, and through no fault of my own, all Pepsi bottles are currently adorned with SW guys. Sweet!That got me thinking, and I found an old journal entry. I wrote it the day after I saw Episode 1. So I thought I'd share.
Oh.... the wife I mention... she's not mine anymore. I've got a much better one now. I love you, Kage. You truely rock my world.

May 20th, 1999. Every Saga has a beginning. Why do I feel that mine has just done that?
It could be any number of things, actually, but we all know it’s not. Sixteen formative years following those precious influential ones. A journey begun, uninformed, unseen, for my head was bent low. So here I am, 26, and the signpost appears.
Ritual. I can see this thought is going nowhere because I am stoned and I was interrupted by my wife. It’s the intrusions into the private moments I mind, despite the fact that that is part of the package. The pull of the Dark Side is strong, for fear does lead to anger, which then blossoms into hatred. Hatred rains down upon the heads of all with suffering. In any form, in any guise, the fact is still the same.
Anger grows from fear of a path obscured. All things stopped to rescue this fair maiden. Concentration and focus, things hard enough to come by due to deficiencies of diligence, were on the moment. Hit pause, freeze frame. No script, no safety net. Action.
Inertia follows. Stress mounts. Karma knocking at the door? What is being said? A mistake? Not a mistake, lack of focus? Somewhere, the path is not being followed. And ripples engulf us. Frightened of swells, gulping nervously for breath, losing site that the edge is only inches away. Or is it? It’s all a matter of perspective, and that was something I knew I had lost. No compass, no clue.
Clouded is his future. Much fear in him.
Yes, but he is the chosen one.
We have to ask... how much is fate, how much is happenstance?
And what does it really cost us.

The large print giveth and the small print takest away.


The benefactor, the Father, had given us a gift. It was ours to do with as we pleased. To take it for what it’s worth.
It’s not about net asset values. It’s not about testosterone. It’s not about hype. It’s about hope. It’s about compassion. It’s a fable.

Imagine that Jesus was crucified as an infant. Never given the chance to disappoint us with his inescapable humanness. Imagine he died an innocent. Now imagine there was no guilt. Is any of it necessary? You should just do what ever it takes to prosper, to empathize, and to benefit whenever possible. Mutual harmony is not such a scary thing as it seems. A hug is a pretty groovy thing.
And connecting, love, they ain’t so bad either. Touching is ok without the greed. It’s fat free and good for blood pressure. Pregnant women or women planning to get pregnant can handle it without risk of specific types of birth defects. I really, really want to know what those defects may be. Are we talking Sudden Infant Lycanthropy? That kind of frightens me, I’ll admit it.
Anyway, see the movie. Enjoy the experience. Have fun, and for a little while, try imagining. See what you think of.

My frickin teeth!

OK, ROTS merchandise is everywhere. For me, it's like every Christmas ever. The supermarket, the department stores, even the Qwikimarts have Star Wars stuff everywhere! Just today I was going gaga over SW boxer shorts and bedding sets. Tons of new toys and games..... you can see how this could easily lead me to financial ruin.
So, being the responsible adult I am, I've decided to limit the bulk of my merch purchases to food tie ins. I figure I can eat the food, so it's not a total waste of money. True, it means eating a lot of things that aren't part of my daily diet: Sugar cereals, poptarts, Cheez its, fruit snacks, candy. I have a big box I've been putting the empty packages in. So far I've been doing pretty good. Or so I thought.
M&M now has a downloadable PDF checklist so you can keep track of ALL 72 FREAKING PACKAGES!!!! And Skittles... well they have 48. 48!! I can't eat that many fucking M&Ms, nor do I want to! Christ almighty, can't we draw a line somewhere? If all I want to do is collect stupid plastic wrappers adorned with my favorite SW guys, I have to eat at least... AT LEAST 120 bags of sugar!
Well, this kid ain't gonna do it. Nothing's stopping me from buying all the mini M&M tubes with character toppers, but I have to draw the line somewhere. This collecting thing is getting out of hand.
And that leads me to my point. Collecting Star Wars action figures when I was a kid meant buying toys to play with. Yes, I took good care of them, but I played with them. So did most normal kids. That's why the damn things are so collectable. No 30 year old psychos hoarding shopping carts of PVC figure, never to be released from their cardboard and mylar prisons. The originals are a hot item because 95% of them were opened and played with. THEY ARE FUCKING TOYS, GOD DAMMIT!
Now, every company that gets the SW license makes "limited edition collectors items." What the hell is that? You only make 500 of something so everyone wants one, no one plays with it, and some fat asshole buys them all up and sells that at a huge mark up. Screw that. It's all about fun for me. If I'm buying an action figure, I want to play with it. I want my kid to play it. You can have your exclusive "lava red Vader" and you can cram it up your ass. Me, I've got the Hasbro T-16 Skyhopper. And sometimes, when I'm alone, I fly it around the room and think about teleporting off this planet.
That said, if anyone has a lava red Vader, or some SW M&M wrappers they don't want, I'd love to have them :-)

Spring cleaning

We had a very lovely Sunday. The baby stayed over his grandmother's Saturday night, so KG and I started the day off sleeping very late. Haven't been able to do that in quite some time.
I got up, coffeed myself awake and did some yardwork. There's two or three fall's worth of leaves piled up under every nook and crannie in the yard. Quite a bit of work, and still not done. KG bought some flowers for planting, and some yard stuff for the boy. Now that he's running around, I figured it would be nice to clean up the yard for him. Make it a friendly place.
The landlord stopped by on Saturday to snake the drains. Seems some concrete got down there last weekend when he was fixing the front steps. He expressed an interest in selling this place, and asked me if we had thought about buying at all. I hedged on an answer, since I wasn't sure where he was going with the conversation. Anyway, he mentioned he had offered it to our downstairs neighbors for a reasonable price. I'm aware that they are house hunting, but I also am aware that they are looking to get out of here. So, with a little prodding from KG's mom, my wheels started turning...
We could offer to buy this place from him. Move downstairs, make some repairs, and rent our apartment to help pay the mortgage. Our apartment is technically 3 bedrooms, and with new windows and doors could fetch at least a couple more hundred a month then what we're paying now. Or, even as is could go for a little more. That should, in theory, leave us with paying pretty much what we are now for a mortgage rather than rent.
Of course, this means two things. One, we have some work to do in order to get a mortgage. This is not my strength. We also need to look at some creative possibilities. That is my strength. So, we'll have to see what develops. The more I've thought about it, it would really be a good idea. This place could become a nice little home. If we're really lucky, perhaps we could manage to rent the upstairs to family or friend. My sis comes to mind.
Food for thought.
Speaking of food, I seriously have 5 boxes of Cheez Its in the house right now. All with SW characters on them. That's a lot of salty snacks. I bought a huge box of Apple Jax to get the lightsaber spoon, and ended up with a duplicate. Looks like RB will be getting a new spoon!
Pepsi has SW bottles now, so I bought a few of those. I also bought Crispix for the R2 bowl offer. Then at Walsmart I picked up SW sneakers for the boy. I couldn't resist getting the 4 saber Grievous for myself. The cashier looked at my items and said "Looks like someone's little boy like Star Wars." To which I replied "Nope, but Daddy does."

A Purple Umbrella and a 50 cent Hat

KG and I are hanging out, chilling to ZLX on a Friday night. They just played "Heartbreaker". This, of course, leads to a Zepp twofer, because you have to play "Heartbreaker" and Living Loving Maid" together. Kind of like "Peace Frog" and "Blue Sunday". Or "Brain Damage" and "Eclipse". The songs flow together.
OK, typing quotation marks is a real pain in the ass, so enough of that. And why the hell doesn't a keyboard have the cents sign? That's annoying.
Anyhow, as I was saying, or trying to say before I got distracted by my poor typing skills... There are certain classic rock standards that just have to be played back to back. It's the way of the world. Problem for me is, although I enjoy both songs, I'm always bothered by the coupling of heartbreaker and living loving. For me, they just don't together. Strange. Makes me wonder why I'd harbor such a crazy notion.
Well, when I first got into zeppelin, I borrowed most of their albums from my Uncle Mark. He's the one primarily responsible for turning me on to all the great classic rock acts. When I finally turned my attention away from prog rockers Genesis, he was ready and willing to lend me good music to groove on. Groove I did, and groove I still do.
The first copy of Zeppelin II that I listened too was on cassette. I carried that in walkman and car for some time. II and III are still my all time favorites. Anyhow, I guess back in the day when cassette tapes were the dominant format, the labels would occasionally re-arrange the order of certain songs so that the tape length was relatively uniform on both sides. Saved the consumer some time not having to fast forward or rewind to hear the whole album.
Zeppelin II was so re-arranged. If memory serves me, heartbreaker was followed by "thank you" on side A, and side B started with living loving maid. So, that's how I learned the album. Everyone with their vinyl or CDs knew the songs went together. I, I did not. And so, everytime I hear that twofer, I think about how they don't belong together. But maybe they do.
Some of us have developed a slightly different perspective, and that is a good thing.

Instead

Another largely unproductive day at work. I'm sort of discouraged, because it looks like we won't be making closing tomorrow. During my short tenure in this position, we've made closing. Every month. Without fail. But... Not this time. Through no failure on my part, mind you. One patient will remain on our error list, and there's nothing I can do about it. Such is life.
My manager is on vacation, kicking her heels in Sin City. The manager who is instead for her is off tomorrow, and asked me to be instead for her. So, this puts me in the unique situation of being in charge of two departments for the day. I feel the lure of the dark side already. How I would love to terminate a whole bunch of people in my one day as boss. I can imagine MC and JC coming back on Monday to find both their departments empty.
Of course, I wield no such power. But it's fun to imagine. On the plus side, I am literally in charge of myself, so I decided to give me a break. I told myself I didn't have to do any work today. And I haven't. I'd tell me to go home early, but I have to drive to NH tonight for a wake. So I'm actually stuck here waiting for KG to drive up. Bummer. Maybe tomorrow I'll let me go a little early. Me deserves it.
In other news, I've been spending quite a bit of time on Lego Star Wars. It's been a lot of fun. I managed to make it through all the levels pretty quickly, but now I have to replay each one to find all the secrets and bonuses. That'll unlock the bonus level, which I'm hoping has something to do with Episodes 4-6. There is something thoroughly enjoyable about sitting on the couch, controlling little Lego SW characters. A novel idea that turns out to be quite addictive.
Yesterday, Molius blogged about all the annoying comments he got at work when he decided to wear a tie. I've gone through the same thing, even when I was wearing one once a week. So, with that fresh in mind, I've been sitting here at work today in a tie and blazer. I can't begin to tell you how satisfying it is to me to see the look on these jokesters faces when I inform them that I am dressed this way for a wake. It may be sick, but it gives me a good laugh.

RPOs and popping zits

KG and I had very different days at work today.
Jimbo stopped by the cube for a chat this afternoon. He was inquiring as to whether or not I'd be interested in coming over this evening to watch him perform self-surgery on a blood clotted fingernail. I declined with regret, since that sounded pretty fun. Later today, he stopped by after having succesfully employed an office paperclip to do said surgery. I'll have to admit, his finger looked a lot better.
This lead to a conversation about our signifigant others' proclivity for popping back zits. Seems both our ladies enjoy this past time. For me, it's an occasional, short lived torture. KG does a good job. She gets all my posion out. Jimbo's gal likes to force them before they even have a head. That's brutually dedicated work.
Molius brought me a TK Pez dispenser. It makes a nice compliment to my Mikroman.
KG works for the same company that kept me employed for a good number of years. Biffdis. The wonderful world of mutual funds and financial services.
Seems they have this silly policy that if you want to open a mutual fund, you need to send in an application and a minimum of 1K. Seems fair to me. Any old hows, she told someone to reject an account application beacuse there was no check. Someone was nice enough to try calling the guy three times. They held the app for several days. Couldn't get a hold of him. So, the verdict was to write a pleasant letter of rejection, and return the application to him. This should, in theory, inform him that he failed to send a check, and allow him the oppurtunity to rectify his oversight.
Not to be. The person processing the rejection demanded a manager's approval for the rejection. The manager, excercising his MBA entitled authority, made an exception and told them to open the account. Decision made on a whim. KG, being the woman I love, baulked at the notion, and said so. As only KG can.
So, net result: The shareholder, because that's what he is now, gets a new account with no money. He can send the money whenever he sees fit. KG, she has a meeting with the Bob's tomorrow morning to discuss not the process or procedures used to make her decision, but the tone of her voice.
That's work for you.
Oh, and someone finally invented the perfect alarm clock.

Circa 10/31/96

He sat alone in his apartment, waiting. This was nothing new. In fact, it was pretty much an established ritual. Not that he minded, though. No, it wasn’t waiting for friends to call that caused him annoyance. Often he was left hanging by one person or the other. Hours spent waiting for plans to take shape. It wasn’t this at all.
It was the fact that he spent this time so idly that ate at him. The period between getting home from work and actually heading out for the evening had the possibility of being constructive time. Time spent catching up on the perpetual maintenance of his apartment. Time spent paying bills, or pouring over the flood of magazines and newspapers that came in daily. Time spent organizing and throwing out. Instead, this down time was often spent in front of the TV, accomplishing nothing. He could perhaps rationalize this if he was absorbing something useful from the TV- even pure entertainment. But as of late he could not even remember what he had watched five minutes ago. Truth be told, it was time spent slacking- physically and mentally.
Projects left uncompleted. Phone calls put off. In his own low-rent psychoanalysis, he felt this was a result of childhood development (or lack there of). His parents, however eager to encourage his myriad hobbies and interests, never put any pressure on him to follow through and complete something. They never required him to become proficient in any endeavor. He saw the tenfold uncompleted model kits of his youth. All were projects begun with enthusiasm and intent. All were begun with diligence. However, when it came time for the tedious assembly of engine parts or the like, he lost his steam. All were left half finished. He saw these incomplete kits reflected in the semi-chaotic clutter of his apartment. He saw it in Mark’s music video he was creating-mired at the three quarters completed point.
As far as the apartment clutter, the problem seemed to be that as long as things remained at a level he considered manageable and livable, it was OK to leave it be. Occasionally, it would sink lower. He would spend several phrenetic hours "cleaning house" until again he reached the acceptable level of disorder.
As for the music video, that was more complicated. He truly desired to complete that, if not for himself then at least for Mark. What had been completed had been done in a burst of creative energy. He had stopped to rest and contemplate how to arrange the ending. During that hiatus he had lost his momentum. Now the stress of wanting to finish the project, coupled with the stress of other pressing matters, chocked his creativity. Those bursts of inspiration were coming less and less. It truly upset him.
Chris sighed and snubbed out his cigarette. He looked at the mashed filter thoughtfully. Smoking helped whittle away the time. It was a sure way to kill seven minutes and take the edge off of boredom. Also, it kept him from actually doing anything. To get up and clean would mean leaving an unattended smoking article. To read or pay bills would distract him from smoking, leaving the cigarette to burn into a cylinder of ash. At three dollars a pack, Chris did not feel quite so rich as to allow himself such shameless waste. So he let the habit remain what it was. A crutch.
Now he sighed more loudly and stood up. The cat, which had been sleeping against his leg, looked up quizzically. Petting Quentin on the head, Chris reflected on how his reflection also ate up a lot of time. He never made any serious effort to resolve anything. He would just sit and reflect on his life. He would acknowledge his problems and shortcomings to himself, and then let them be. No plan put into motion on actually addressing and redressing them. If knowledge was half the battle, then it was one more thing he spent his life in only going half way.
For someone who supposedly craved resolution in life, he had developed a rather pernicious habit of leaving loose ends.
The tolls of his inaction were beginning to show, however. It was this more than anything else that made him realize it was time to break this pattern. It was one thing to wade in mediocrity and lack of initiative* if it only hurt yourself. But others were affected, and that he felt, was unallowable.
He felt that the center of this mental holocaust was the quagmire of his adolescence. Those years were a juggernaut of turbid emotions he could not reconcile with. To avoid the confrontation with his own damaged soul that he felt was unavoidable, he intellectualized rather then emoted. To open that flood gate would be overwhelming. Perhaps though, he feared, it was time to do just that.
The Great Flood. Sacrifice. Rebirth.
It was without a doubt frightening. His own emotions were his personal Gethsemane. He would drink the cup of his psyche only with grave resignation and dread.
Chris S

I found that entry on my journal file. Were it not for KG and Nick, I'd probably be singing the same song these days.
Just for shits and giggles, I googled my blog name. Only two hits came up: the blog itself, and this. Interesting, someone is keeping track!

Sneaky Sith Bastard

I went back to work today, woohoo! Of course, there were tons of problems, lots of things to catch up on. I took a Vicodin around 10, and felt pretty stoned for the rest of the day. Not pleasant stoned. More like my eyes were out of focus and I couldn't concentrate.
On the way home I popped into Newbury comics to pick up Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds B-Sides and Rarities . I'll be spinning that shortly. While I was there, I saw these neat little mini busts of various Star Wars villians. They didn't have any Stormtroopers in stock, so I opted for Vader . I got home opened it up, and found Darth Maul inside! Hey, I got nothing against Maul. He's pretty cool, in a junkyard dog sort of way. But I wanted Vader.
Oh well. Could have been worse. It could have been Wat Tambor.

Post Op Blues

So, today was a fun day. We had our first real taste of spring. Sunny and warm, almost hit 70. I was feeling very lucky, as I got to leave work early, and finally managed to pick up Lego Star Wars, which I will be getting back to shortly. On a less exciting note, I got to undergo some dental surgery .
In order for the DMD to get the post done, he had to cut away the gum around the tooth. They peel it back like a banana. Then, to insure that it heals up nice, they cover the area in silly putty. OK, maybe it's not really silly putty, but it sure looks like it. Silly me, I thought it would be a small area, right around the tooth. Oh no... the lower half of my jaw is covered in this pink shit. I've been oozing blood, and the temporary crown isn't placed as well as it was, so I can't bite down very well.
This will last a week or two. In the meantime, I have a scrip for Vicodin (nice!), and I'm on a soft food diet. Not supposed to smoke, either. Oh well. I was reading over the post op instructions, and I noticed they also advise against heavy lifting. Heavy lifting???? I'm not sure what that has to do with my teeth, but I'll avoid it anyway.

Darth Pope?

OK, so maybe I've got a little too much Star Wars on my mind these days. Now that the Pope has died, and a new one must be chosen... I came up with an idea for world peace.
We need a Sith pope. One who will rally the flock. Convert all the right wing fundamentalists, since their ideology is pretty much the same. The Catholic church has power, money and influence. Create a grand army of the faithful, Christians Soldiers, if you will.
Then, like the Romans, the church should occupy the Middle East. Reclaim the Holy Land. After all, it is their holy land as well. Crush all resistance with brute force. And what do you have? World peace. More or less.
It worked for Sidious. He did end the war. And Vader did technically bring balance to the Force. So maybe it'd work here as well. Hell, while we're at it, how about giving me some Jedi powers? All I really want is the ability to do the Force push. Or maybe the choke. That'd be cool. I have a feeling I'd be neck deep in the dark side in no time!

Chillin at Toshi Station

The Force was in full effect today. Not just for me, either. I started off my day with a trip to Target, WalMart and Borders to partake of all the new SW merch. I was good. I came home with a Clone Trooper, a T shirt for Nick, some M-pire M&Ms, the novel, and the visual dictionary.
This evening, I did a stormtrooping gig at the MoS. They are going to have a huge SW exhibit this summer, so they wanted a couple of troopers to show up tonight for a private party. It was a good time. On the way home, I popped into Toys R Us to check out their display. Tons of really cool toys which I resisted. I did pick up some SW beanie babies for Nick and a lightsaber lollipop for me.
The day was not a total success. Lego Star Wars was the one thing I really wanted to come home with today. After searching fruitlessly for it most of the day, I learned it hasn't been released yet. Tuesday. D'oh!
So, I will have to be satisfied for a few days with what I have. I've got me some reading to do at any rate. Then, Tuesday, it'll be time for some fun in front of the TV.

The acting President was kissing an imaginary toaster...

Just watched the season finale of Battlestar Galactica. Wow. I say it again... wow. For those who haven't been following, now is a good time to start. It's mini-series month on Sci Fi. So, you can catch the pilot, and they'll be rerunning the first season. It's been the best hour on TV this year, and I'm already looking forward to July, when season 2 launches. I'm almost as excited about it as I am about ROTS.
Speaking of men in robes, the watch is on for poor John Paul Dos. JP, I hope your journey is easy. It should be interesting to see how the world plays out with his passing. Big changes are afoot. I'm hoping for the best.

They're after me lucky charms

So, we're doing a system upgrade at work this weekend. Our server has been shut down, all the laptops returned, all the desktops sleeping. Tomorrow we'll have a shiny new update. To prepare for a computerless weekend, I had but one task today. Print the Alpha list.
The Alpha list is a fearsome creature. A 500 page report that has been rumored to slow our network down fo hours, creating havoc for the brave souls in Operations. The legend of the Alpha List strikes fear in those who depend on it.
Well, I did a test run yesterday, and found myself with only a large document that took fifteen minutes to print and had no apparent impact on the speed of our network. Nice. So I wisely decided to wait until the end of the day today to print 2 copies. It'd take half an hour, most of the people who use that printer would be gone, and it would be more up-to-date than something I printed yesterday. Ha!
I warned folks I was running it at 3. Leave the printer alone, and all will be well. At 3, I ran it, and all was good. I checked on my report, I walked away to get some more paper. I returned a few moments later to discover the Leperchaun pulling the drawers out. She managed to jam the printer while impotently poking about. The report was getting all screwed up, the printer was off line, and the minutes were ticking by.
Molius to the rescue, the printer back on line. I manage to get my 2 copies printed, and only stayed half an hour late.
Tomorrow, I head back in to test the system. Make sure we can all continue to do our jobs badly. Then, it's off to the stores to check out all the ROTS merch. Do our taxes, and then head back to Cambridge to do some trooping. A full day for sure. Others will be spending the day actually putting our whole business back on line. To those about to spend a rainy Saturday not rocking, I salute you!