Some of you may not know Yair, in which case, I pity you. Yair is a regular (ie, daily) loiterer in our store. He's a young kid whose mom works in Chik-Fil-A, so everyday after school, he comes to hang out in the store. Normally, this sort of action would be discouraged. But Yair is totally awesome. Yair does such hilarious things as chatter to himself, talk to the demo units, and become morose over inconsequential things. The kid is a basket case, and he is inarguably the best loiterer ever.
So he comes in today...
Me: Yair, what's up?
Yair: I'm having a triple excellent week!
Me: Triple excellent, huh? what's so awesome?
Yair: And yesterday was the bestest day ever!
Me: What happened yesterday?
(we have Marvel vs. Capcom 2 in our demo)
Yair: Well, I was playing this game. And guess what? I'm the number one high score! It's so awesome!
Me: wow...
Yair: there's no memory card in it though, so I have to start over every day.
(Yair turns the demo unit on, and starts to play. This means there are no scores on there except for the preset computer ones. Yair plays it for a while, trash-talking the computer the entire time. 15 minutes later:)
Yair: O man! I'm number 6! AWESOME! (does a little dance)
I hope that, whoever you are, you're having a Triple Excellent week, too.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Denturistic.
So I have a recurring nightmare-theme of losing my teeth. For some reason, I have a terrifying reaction to the idea or suggestion of losing my teeth, and I'm not sure why. As a kid, I really hated going through that stage. I hated everything about it; the wiggling of loose teeth, the blood, and the gaping hole where something should be...it was so disgusting. And last night, again, I dreamed of losing my teeth. It was one of those regular dreams where I was walking around, talking to people, and all of a sudden teeth just started falling out, and I kept spitting them into my hand and trying to hide what was going on. It's so bizarre. I mean, granted, most of my dreams are bizarre, and are usually generically themed with loss of control, or imminent death, but this tooth thing is flat out weird.
So I'm interested...I know recurring nightmares are common...so what's your recurring nightmare? Mine is teeth, and the losing of. What's your demon that haunts your sleep?
So I'm interested...I know recurring nightmares are common...so what's your recurring nightmare? Mine is teeth, and the losing of. What's your demon that haunts your sleep?
Friday, April 6, 2007
The Fire Lord's Wife
Dream: I've been chosen to be the bride of the Fire Lord, our godlike lord and overseer. This is exciting, and as I am being led to his residence by his stern minions, I am both thrilled and terrified at the idea. Not for any normal reason, but because the Fire Lord is the font of technology. He's a technological deity, and as his wife I will have access to all his top-of-the-line computers and such. This is my passion, and no amount of hardwork or education could have given me what the position of Fire Lord's wife will.
His residence is the same dark, forboding building I remember it being from the glimpses in my youth. His minions push me through the door and then leave, bolting it behind them. I am left inside, alone, terrified. There are a thousand things vying for my attention. I'm a virgin still, and the idea of being anyone's wife is frightening. But even as scared as I am, I can see something is not right with my surroundings. The house is sterile, full of technological equipment and barely anything else, but that's to be expected. It seems, though, as if it is in a vast state of dissarray. There is dust and decay everywhere, and there are thick shadows in the corners. The place seems alive with malice, and my fear intensifies.
The Fire Lord appears, and he is a shock to me. He is not the god i imagined. He is a tall man, but he is old. His hair is white, and there are dark secrets in his eyes. He does not smile. He grabs me by arm and drags me into a hallway, where I cower beneath his dark gaze. He says things to me, things I do not understand at first. He tells me he is a prisoner here the same as I am, and that the house is not safe anymore. He tells me of dangers, and to stay hidden and quiet. He leaves me for a time, alone in the dark house. I can feel the malevolence of the place as if it were a tangible thing. Cold dark beasties hiss nasty things in my ears, and follow me from room to room. It is a long and panicked time I spend there, and I lose track of time.
The Fire Lord returns, with his compatriot who does not have a name. He is a serious looking man of slight build, but he radiates concern, and it's evident he is not one of the Fire Lord's (or my) imprisoners. They gather me up and we escape out a back entrance. And then, to my shocked horror, they get on motorcycles, and the Fire Lord sits me behind him. It's terrifying; there's so much wind, and the cycles are excruciatingly loud. All I can do is dig my fingers into his clothing and hold on, face pressed against his back as my hair is whipped around me.
When the cycles stop, we are in the middle of a forest. It's Fall apparently, the ground carpeted with brown and gold leaves. We are being followed already by a nameless evil, and the men abandon the cycles and rush into the woods, me in tow. There is a path there, and we follow it deep into the forest. Our footfalls are muffled by the leaves, and the forest is menacingly silent. I am wracked by bouts of terrible, bone-freezing fear. My entire life has fallen around me. And now these strange men are leading me away, making me a refugee in my own country, leading me deep into a foreign forest, and there's no end in sight. We walk through the woods for a long time, and it all looks the same to me. The path changes, but nothing else does, and my panic and despair are rising. Finally, I stop walking and burst into tears.
The Fire Lord and his companion begin to argue. The companion is angry; he wants them to abandon me here if I won't keep walking. He says they owe me nothing, and that I am only a burden. The Fire Lord disagrees, and sounds compassionate, but I am too scared to care. He comes to me and grips my elbow and looks into my face, and he tells me that there is an end to this journey. He knows it is frightening, and I will never have the life I used to, but he says at least it is a life free of captivity. A free life, to do with as I will. He tells me that if I want to take this chance, I have to come with them, but that I am free to stay if I wish.
His words calm me down, and when they start walking again, I follow. Slowly first, but then faster, until I am leading them down the path instead. I am increasingly urgent to get to our destination, to see this end, this amazing free place that I cannot comprehend. I would be running, but the leaves are slippery beneath my feet, and I am afraid of falling. The wind blows stiffly in our faces, and I open my arms and life my face to its touch. This is free wind, I tell myself. This is freedom. The Fire Lord's companion tells him that he thinks I'm insane, and the Fire Lord chuckles and shakes his head. I ignore them, and hurry onward.
The path ends in a sheer rock face. On closer inspection, there is a ladder of sorts carved into the stone, rough handholds and footholds scratched into a crease in the rock. The Fire Lord says it is the only way up. It looks dangerous. One lost grip, and a climber will fall straight down to the ground. There is no chance of not being injured should we fail. But I have already set my life on what lies over that cliff, so I leap at the wall and start up the ladder with a vengeance. I try not to think about what will happen if I fall. There's no point in thinking about that. If I fall, it's all over anyway. The climb is impossibly difficult, but I push onward. I can hear the men below me, inching forward. At last, amazing to behold, an end to the rock appears beneath my grasping hands, and I pull myself over the cliff onto the top of a mountain of leaf-blanketed earth. I am on a ridge, and below me, in the valley...my free life waits. The leaves are deeper here, and as I clamber down the steep slope, I am almost wading through them, pushing them away with my hands, swimming through an ocean of fallen leaves. Hope rises, warm and ebullient, in my chest. As I come closer to the Destination, I notice things in the leaves; books, all of them, my favorite books. Books from when I was a child, and an adolescent. All the written words that, when read, made up who I am, there in the leaves in this strange forest. The hope bubbles out of me in laughter, and it is the first free laughter I have ever felt, and I rush forward into a Free Life.
His residence is the same dark, forboding building I remember it being from the glimpses in my youth. His minions push me through the door and then leave, bolting it behind them. I am left inside, alone, terrified. There are a thousand things vying for my attention. I'm a virgin still, and the idea of being anyone's wife is frightening. But even as scared as I am, I can see something is not right with my surroundings. The house is sterile, full of technological equipment and barely anything else, but that's to be expected. It seems, though, as if it is in a vast state of dissarray. There is dust and decay everywhere, and there are thick shadows in the corners. The place seems alive with malice, and my fear intensifies.
The Fire Lord appears, and he is a shock to me. He is not the god i imagined. He is a tall man, but he is old. His hair is white, and there are dark secrets in his eyes. He does not smile. He grabs me by arm and drags me into a hallway, where I cower beneath his dark gaze. He says things to me, things I do not understand at first. He tells me he is a prisoner here the same as I am, and that the house is not safe anymore. He tells me of dangers, and to stay hidden and quiet. He leaves me for a time, alone in the dark house. I can feel the malevolence of the place as if it were a tangible thing. Cold dark beasties hiss nasty things in my ears, and follow me from room to room. It is a long and panicked time I spend there, and I lose track of time.
The Fire Lord returns, with his compatriot who does not have a name. He is a serious looking man of slight build, but he radiates concern, and it's evident he is not one of the Fire Lord's (or my) imprisoners. They gather me up and we escape out a back entrance. And then, to my shocked horror, they get on motorcycles, and the Fire Lord sits me behind him. It's terrifying; there's so much wind, and the cycles are excruciatingly loud. All I can do is dig my fingers into his clothing and hold on, face pressed against his back as my hair is whipped around me.
When the cycles stop, we are in the middle of a forest. It's Fall apparently, the ground carpeted with brown and gold leaves. We are being followed already by a nameless evil, and the men abandon the cycles and rush into the woods, me in tow. There is a path there, and we follow it deep into the forest. Our footfalls are muffled by the leaves, and the forest is menacingly silent. I am wracked by bouts of terrible, bone-freezing fear. My entire life has fallen around me. And now these strange men are leading me away, making me a refugee in my own country, leading me deep into a foreign forest, and there's no end in sight. We walk through the woods for a long time, and it all looks the same to me. The path changes, but nothing else does, and my panic and despair are rising. Finally, I stop walking and burst into tears.
The Fire Lord and his companion begin to argue. The companion is angry; he wants them to abandon me here if I won't keep walking. He says they owe me nothing, and that I am only a burden. The Fire Lord disagrees, and sounds compassionate, but I am too scared to care. He comes to me and grips my elbow and looks into my face, and he tells me that there is an end to this journey. He knows it is frightening, and I will never have the life I used to, but he says at least it is a life free of captivity. A free life, to do with as I will. He tells me that if I want to take this chance, I have to come with them, but that I am free to stay if I wish.
His words calm me down, and when they start walking again, I follow. Slowly first, but then faster, until I am leading them down the path instead. I am increasingly urgent to get to our destination, to see this end, this amazing free place that I cannot comprehend. I would be running, but the leaves are slippery beneath my feet, and I am afraid of falling. The wind blows stiffly in our faces, and I open my arms and life my face to its touch. This is free wind, I tell myself. This is freedom. The Fire Lord's companion tells him that he thinks I'm insane, and the Fire Lord chuckles and shakes his head. I ignore them, and hurry onward.
The path ends in a sheer rock face. On closer inspection, there is a ladder of sorts carved into the stone, rough handholds and footholds scratched into a crease in the rock. The Fire Lord says it is the only way up. It looks dangerous. One lost grip, and a climber will fall straight down to the ground. There is no chance of not being injured should we fail. But I have already set my life on what lies over that cliff, so I leap at the wall and start up the ladder with a vengeance. I try not to think about what will happen if I fall. There's no point in thinking about that. If I fall, it's all over anyway. The climb is impossibly difficult, but I push onward. I can hear the men below me, inching forward. At last, amazing to behold, an end to the rock appears beneath my grasping hands, and I pull myself over the cliff onto the top of a mountain of leaf-blanketed earth. I am on a ridge, and below me, in the valley...my free life waits. The leaves are deeper here, and as I clamber down the steep slope, I am almost wading through them, pushing them away with my hands, swimming through an ocean of fallen leaves. Hope rises, warm and ebullient, in my chest. As I come closer to the Destination, I notice things in the leaves; books, all of them, my favorite books. Books from when I was a child, and an adolescent. All the written words that, when read, made up who I am, there in the leaves in this strange forest. The hope bubbles out of me in laughter, and it is the first free laughter I have ever felt, and I rush forward into a Free Life.
Thursday, April 5, 2007
Shameless Solicitation
Hey there, bestest people in the whole wide world! *insert huge innocent grin here* You may remember me from such blogs as this one, and that other one. But that's not important. Tonight, I've come to talk to you about a subject close to my heart: cancer. Leukemia and Lymphoma, to be precise.
Some of you may know a certain "misplaced yankee" by the name of Jimmy Barnell (James Barrell to the uninitiated). Well, his esteemed and excellent girlfriend, Heather Elliott, is currently abusing her poor body with regular bouts of crazed marathon running. I know, she's crazy. But she's crazy in a good way. She's doing all this unnatural physical activity to prepare for a real, honest to gods, marathon on april 28th. This marathon is part of an effort to earn money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. And to do this marathon, Heather needs money. In fact, she needs like $4500 worth of money.
I'm not rich. You're not rich. None of us go home at night and roll in mountains of money. But, I'll let you in on a secret: money adds up. Amazing, I know. So, I'm not asking you for money. That would be wrong. And if I were asking you to contribute money to this worthiest of worthy causes, I wouldn't be asking you to do it in copious amounts. Maybe like $10, maybe $20. It wouldn't be much, but it doesn't have to be. In the tried and true words of our annoying parents, "a little goes a long way".
To learn more about what you can do for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society fundraiser (LLS for short), email Heather herself at jhelliot30@yahoo.com or donate money at http://www.active.com/donate/tntenc/tntencJElliot .
Some of you may know a certain "misplaced yankee" by the name of Jimmy Barnell (James Barrell to the uninitiated). Well, his esteemed and excellent girlfriend, Heather Elliott, is currently abusing her poor body with regular bouts of crazed marathon running. I know, she's crazy. But she's crazy in a good way. She's doing all this unnatural physical activity to prepare for a real, honest to gods, marathon on april 28th. This marathon is part of an effort to earn money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. And to do this marathon, Heather needs money. In fact, she needs like $4500 worth of money.
I'm not rich. You're not rich. None of us go home at night and roll in mountains of money. But, I'll let you in on a secret: money adds up. Amazing, I know. So, I'm not asking you for money. That would be wrong. And if I were asking you to contribute money to this worthiest of worthy causes, I wouldn't be asking you to do it in copious amounts. Maybe like $10, maybe $20. It wouldn't be much, but it doesn't have to be. In the tried and true words of our annoying parents, "a little goes a long way".
To learn more about what you can do for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society fundraiser (LLS for short), email Heather herself at jhelliot30@yahoo.com or donate money at http://www.active.com/donate/tntenc/tntencJElliot .
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fungus
Do you ever feel like you're standing on the edge of a high cliff? Like, as long as you don't look down, you'll be fine. But as soon as you see it, you'll fall off it and never be able to get back.
I've been waiting for a yes or no from a job I applied to. My plan, if it can be called that, was either to get a yes, and turn in my 2 weeks here, or get a no, and look for another job. It's getting harder and harder to wait, though. I love my store very much. I feel like it's mine, and collectively ours (the group who works there). I take pride in how I run it, and how much I know about it. But my extreme loathing for the company that runs it is building up, and one day the dam is gonna explode, and there's nothing I can do about it.
I fairly blatantly have a "problem with authority". People telling me what to do gets under my skin, fast. So a certain amount of irritation is to be expected, and I work past it most of the time. But when my corporate bosses tell me that because I'm a girl I'm unfit to have managerial responsibilities, that whips me into a red hot fury, the kind that people don't escape from. I'm not exaggerating, by the way. A District Manager of a neighboring district told us that female employees who feel uncomfortable closing alone don't deserve to have the responsibilities of a management position. Nothing in any of our job descriptions say "willingly put yourself in obvious danger to make payroll costs cheaper for your bitchass company". And gender has nothing to do with whether someone deserves a position or not. But, that's the company I work for.
I do realize that there's a lot of bullshit that you simply have to swallow at any job. But there's a line, and they've crossed it. And there really is a point where I have to either leave and keep my dignity, or stay and hate myself for staying. And I think that point is nigh.
/sigh.
I could use more quality time with my loved ones, I think. It's so easy to lose track of time in relation to my....relationships. Worst sentence ever -.- Optimally, I'd like to hang out with my friends at least every other day. But there's always work, and it always gets pushed further and further...
I'm standing on that cliff, and I'm terrified to look down. I'm afraid of what waits at the bottom.
I've been waiting for a yes or no from a job I applied to. My plan, if it can be called that, was either to get a yes, and turn in my 2 weeks here, or get a no, and look for another job. It's getting harder and harder to wait, though. I love my store very much. I feel like it's mine, and collectively ours (the group who works there). I take pride in how I run it, and how much I know about it. But my extreme loathing for the company that runs it is building up, and one day the dam is gonna explode, and there's nothing I can do about it.
I fairly blatantly have a "problem with authority". People telling me what to do gets under my skin, fast. So a certain amount of irritation is to be expected, and I work past it most of the time. But when my corporate bosses tell me that because I'm a girl I'm unfit to have managerial responsibilities, that whips me into a red hot fury, the kind that people don't escape from. I'm not exaggerating, by the way. A District Manager of a neighboring district told us that female employees who feel uncomfortable closing alone don't deserve to have the responsibilities of a management position. Nothing in any of our job descriptions say "willingly put yourself in obvious danger to make payroll costs cheaper for your bitchass company". And gender has nothing to do with whether someone deserves a position or not. But, that's the company I work for.
I do realize that there's a lot of bullshit that you simply have to swallow at any job. But there's a line, and they've crossed it. And there really is a point where I have to either leave and keep my dignity, or stay and hate myself for staying. And I think that point is nigh.
/sigh.
I could use more quality time with my loved ones, I think. It's so easy to lose track of time in relation to my....relationships. Worst sentence ever -.- Optimally, I'd like to hang out with my friends at least every other day. But there's always work, and it always gets pushed further and further...
I'm standing on that cliff, and I'm terrified to look down. I'm afraid of what waits at the bottom.
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