So What Do You Want To Do?

That's the question that I get asked a lot when people hear that I've applied at the Apprentice School. Particularly, people I work with have asked me that question and I really have to hold back from saying, "Well, if I even get the job, there's a good chance, whatever field I end up in, that my salary will finally inch past the national poverty level."

Sad isn't it?

The amount of responsibility and even risk that I have at my current job would, in a perfect world, warrant my being "gainfully employed". At least slightly. Instead, I and my peers are told, in essence, that whenever something goes wrong at the branch level and it has cost the company some profit, then we are responsible. Conversely, when things go right (i.e. our branch nets a huge amount of money) suddenly the manager and his sales counterpart reap the benefits in the form of monthly thousand dollar plus bonuses. Nevermind the possibility that I and my coworkers could have had a hand in it. Thankfully, when our branch is doing really well, our manager occasionally purchases pizza for us, which he later sends up an expense request for.

Yes, I know that is what happens when you are in an entry level position in a fairly large company but it does get old. For example, one of our semi-upper management members sent an email to our area discussing, among other things, what folks in my current position are doing wrong. This email basically set forth the premise that I, and my peers, are grossly overpaid for the amount of work we do. This is the same person that, when challenged on this topic, would say, "You are awesome at what you do. Keep up the good work. Wish I had more like you." Come on. Do I really seem that naive? (Umm, don't answer that.)

I suppose this is one of those talents that you have to possess in order to move up in this company: the ability to agree with someone completely but still tell them that they are dead wrong. I mean that in all seriousness. I could sum up so many "discussions" with this manager with the following made up quote: "I know you would never do this but I have to tell you anyway and don't worry; I know every possible question and concern you could possibly have so don't bother saying anything. If you do say anything contrary, I will simply agree then tell you how you are an overpaid moron. Have I told you lately how much this company would miss you if you left? It would take us a matter of hours to find a chimp that could do your job better than you. And that includes all the time that he would spend throwing his own feces against the wall."

Wow. I guess I've got a little bit of pent up frustration about work. What was this post supposed to be about anyway? Oh yeah, my future career aspirations. Can you tell that those aspirations don't lie with my current job? I hope I was vague enough in my griping so that I don't have to resort to editing my profile so I'm a little more anonymous. Anyway, I'd better go now. Believe it or not, I feel much better. Thank you. Thank you for not ratting me out to my boss. 'Night!

Writing When I'm Tired

Over the years I've found that when I try to write (at least creatively) when I'm really tired, I have a lot more fun.

Oh, nevermind. My stupid cat just did something stupid that I've now stupidly got to deal with. Stupid.

Have I ever mentioned that I am completely over my cat? I like to believe that once he becomes an adult cat and not an insane, ultra-hyper, pcycho-kitty, that I will like him more. As for now, the phrase that describes him most for me "immensely annoying".

If there are any cat lovers out there reading this, just know this: I used to love cats, too, until recently when I discovered that they are actually immensely annoying.

More About Rainy Mornings

Well, it's Saturday, I'm off, and it's kinda rainy. Despite my last post about rainy mornings, I have to admit that I'm a little disappointed. I guess it's just not what I thought it would be. I mean, I'm still enjoying the morning so I guess I shouldn't complain. I think the whole problem is that I really like sunny mornings instead of rainy ones. Wait. I mean I really like snowy mornings. Not the ultra-sunny snowy mornings where even the darkest sunglasses can't help your eyes. I mean the super overcast and dark snowy mornings when sound is muffled and I don't have to go to work.

Now I've got it all figured out. I just like the mornings that I don't have to work or basically do anything. Yes, those are the mornings I like. For now...

Rainy Mornings

I love rainy mornings. To be honest, I wish I had more rainy mornings on my days off. Instead, it's usually a rainy morning on a work day. I don't why I like rainy mornings so much. It's probably because it sort of gives me license to sleep in and hang around the house without feeling guilty.

Oh well. As much as I'd like to be slack around the house today, I've got to go to work and be slack. Oops. I mean, I've got to simply go to work. Have a great rainy day! Enjoy it, those of you who don't know how good you've got it.

Riddle Answer

I was looking at the forecastfox area in the bottom right hand corner of my Firefox browser. Yes, it really is that boring of a riddle. Sorry, I hope it didn't sound too creative because, really, it wasn't.

Kinda Lazy

I've gotten really slack in the creative writing department here at my blog. My two readers are probably quite disappointed (I'm one of the readers by the way). Anyway, lately I've gotten distracted by selling junk on eBay. Last week I listed my "vintage" Vac-Man toy. I listed it at $4.99 and it closed at $64.01. Pretty darn good. The only problem is that the person that won said they made a mistake when they keyed one of their bids. This person claims he typed a comma instead of a decimal when bidding. I find all this out twenty minutes before the bidding ended.

The buyer, who is in Canada, said he meant to type $55. I noted that the next runner up had a rating of 92% while the winner has a solid 100% rating so I agreed to the $55. Today the buyer tells me that he misunderstood something about the shipping amount and that he cannot buy this item.

My knee jerk reaction was to leave this person negative feedback and relist the item. However, I'm willing to give this guy the benefit of the doubt and mutually withdraw our transaction. Unfortunately, I have to wait for this person to respond to the withdrawal. Oh well, at least he wasn't acting like a jerk about it despite how I may or may have not depicted him in this post.

In semi-related news, the price for the Xbox 360 was announced today. Here's the official press release. Or, more accurately, the prices were announced. That's right: Microsoft is releasing two different versions of their new console. The first one, or Xbox 360 Core System as it is officially called, will be priced at $299. This system will include the console, one wired controller, video cables, and an ethernet cord. The other one, or Xbox 360, will be priced at $399. It includes the console, one wireless controller, Xbox Live Headset, 20GB detachable HD, video cables, and a multimedia remote control.

Ouch!

I, along with many people (read: geeks) in the gaming community were a bit shocked at this price point. Not too long ago, it was implied that the Xbox 360 would be about $300 and that the wireless controller and hard drive would be standard. I think what most people are upset about is not so much the price (which is a bit steep) but more the fact that developers now have to create games that act like the hard drive is not there. Many gamers are afraid that quality will suffer.

Whatever. While following all of that crap keeps me entertained, the real meat of the issue is this: Will I be able to sell enough crap on eBay before the Xbox 360 ships (sometime in November) in order to buy one? I hope so. Sadly, my wheels are constantly spinning whenever I see something in my house that we're not using anymore. I'm always thinking, "I wonder how much I could get for this on eBay?" And it's not just because I want to blow a few hundred dollars on a video game system. Oh no. It was actually quite recently that it dawned upon me that I could used eBay to fund my next-gen console dream.

Well, I'll stop for now. I've gotten a bit wordy and I didn't even write anything creative. Except for this riddle: I see four suns and two moons obscured slightly by clouds. Ever-changing, ever present, ever constant. What am I looking at?

I'll have the answer to that spur of the moment pathetic riddle posted soon if I remember that I've even posted it. Until next time... Well, BYE!

Xbox Mature Gamers :: View topic - Coyote attack video

Check out this video. If you listen real close, you can almost hear the coyote growl right before it strikes.Coyote attack video

Some Vacation Pictures

I promised some pictures from our vacation so, naturally, I feel obliged to follow through. Anyway, here are a few shots:

This was actually the last night of our vacation but it's the only one with the most people in the shot.

I love this one of Joy and Molly on the beach when we were collecting sea shells.

This should be labeled as one of the most dangerous playgrounds available to children. I don't want to go into too much of it right now but I'll leave it at this: whenever Molly and Caleb went down the slide (yes, I let them go down the slide) the whole slide would shake and shift with their weight as they went down. Kind of scary.

Caleb, a couple of days after his sunburn. You can still make out the left over ruptured blister on his left cheek.

Joy, as we were driving back from Ocrakoke. Isn't she loverly?

Yours truly. Yes, I took this picture of myself while I was driving 65mph down the highway.

There will be more to come. It's just really late right now.

Back From Vacation

Well, my vacation ended when we came back home Sunday afternoon. It's now Wednesday and I'm finally getting around to putting something new up on my blog. Oh well. Hopefully by this weekend I'll be able to post some of the pictures I took. Speaking of pictures, I only used one of my 128MB SD cards and I was able to squeeze 132 pictures onto it. That's a lot of pictures. Anyway, it's good to be back but not back at work. Look for pictures soon.