So I'm feeling kind of emotional and vulnerable and depressed right now. Yes, it's going to be one of those posts. You've been warned.
Yesterday was a really good day. Chem II's going really well, got two straight 100's on my last quizzes. Probability's really, really easy so far, but that's going to get interesting when the calculus stuff starts coming in, since it's been so long since I've really done that part. I talked to Jackie before class yesterday, that was really nice. She's got gorgeous eyes (and she knows it). Anyway, she's taking Calc I this semester, she's going to be a math major. Actually wrote my first essay for FA, have to wait and see how it's received.
Got an estimate on my truck yesterday. One thousand, six hundred, and twenty-two dollars and ninety-eight cents. My truck's not worth much more than that. We'll see how the insurance company reacts. The best part is that that's actually a little on the conservative side - that estimate is with having them just fixing the side panel, not replacing it. That number will go up by some amount - I don't know how much - if they have to just replace the entire panel.
So I've been playing Dungeons & Dragons - Tiny Adventures on Facebook, and healed Lilie's character a few times. Admittedly, it's enlightened self-interest - you get a buff for healing other people's characters. Odd dynamic, I think. Whatever. Then she invited me to Blood Lust, which is a weird little vampire game, but it's really integrating advertising tie-ins and recruiting to a new, infuriating level for those of us who look for that kind of thing ("Don't forget to invite daily!") I maxed out as far as I could go without recruiting more friends, so I quit that. But I keep seeing her in my online friends, and I don't even recognize her in the new picture she's got posted on her profile. Anyway, it had me reminiscing a lot. I hate doing that, especially when Lilie's involved. Started getting really depressed, almost to the point of tears. Of course, that left me with only one course of action - went through the list of girls' profiles on my friends list that'll make me super depressed - Chelsea, Lilie, Melissa, Ashley, Beth, those are the ones that come to mind.
Oh! I saw Ashley Hughes yesterday (it was a busy day, apparently) in the music building on my way out. I know she saw me. Not that any of that matters - like most of the girls in my life, they're a much bigger part of my life than I am in theirs. That's probably related to why I have such a hard time letting go of people. But that's another story for another time.
So yeah, went through those, was crying by the end of it. That's something I've done a few times in the past few weeks.
Yeah, that pretty much gets us to where we're at now.
Kate Perry -- I Kissed a Girl
Showing posts with label DnD. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DnD. Show all posts
2008-10-02
2006-11-28
I knew you wouldn't understand
One more to add to the baby watch - Carrie. Yup, Carrie. We were talking today just randomly, since we were both on and all, and she just kind of dropped that bombshell. Now, Lilie was saying that that's what people do, it's natural, it happens, blah blah blah. I agree. However, it's something old people do. These people - Carrie, Terri, Montana, Kristina, they're my age, my peers, my friends. It's really weird for me to think about those people getting pregnant, having babies of their own. Lilie suggested that it makes me feel old. No, it makes me feel young. Way too young. That's part of being an adult, being grown up, and it's something I don't want for a good long while yet. Hmm.
Also, the second D&D movie doesn't suck. That much. It's just like playing D&D with Jarrod and Mat and Luke... right down to the bad accents, random encounters with bandits, and overdone fantasy clichès.
Colette -- Didn't Mean to Turn You On
Also, the second D&D movie doesn't suck. That much. It's just like playing D&D with Jarrod and Mat and Luke... right down to the bad accents, random encounters with bandits, and overdone fantasy clichès.
Colette -- Didn't Mean to Turn You On
2005-02-19
You may know him as Señor El Roboto
First off, here's a picture of Lilie from EQFaces.com:
She says it's the last recent, decent picture taken of her. She still has long hair, though. Now, it's pretty short, and part is died this brownish-orange color. Very cute.
So yeah, I went over there Tuesday night. It was like... 1:30 am? Lilie and I were playing WoW, and I made a RvB reference. "Now I'm thinking about kittens... kittens covered in spikes!" and that piqued her interest. She mentioned that I hadn't ever brought that over to watch, I responded that she had never asked, and she said, "I'm asking now."
So I went over there. She told me she'd been really restless and bored lately. I popped in the RvB DVD... and it didn't work. Or rather, the sound didn't work. Sort of. She has a mono output on her TV, except it was trying to force Stereo output, so only one channel was coming out. Well, the other one was as well, but you could barely hear it. Oddness. We sort of watched some MST3K, but I may have chosen some bad things to start off with - the Summer Blockbuster Awards special. I'm going to burn Puma Man to DVD, which is such a hilarious episode... it was a tough choice - Puma Man, Time Chasers, Overdrawn at the Memory Bank, Laserblast, Hobgoblins, Angel's Revenge, Radar Secret Service, Riding with Death, Space Mutiny, Agent from H.A.R.M., The Final Sacrifice... any one of those would be a great episode. We'll see how she likes Puma Man.
Anyhoo, we had some horseplay too. Lilie started tickling me, which is always fun, if a little annoying, since there's not a whole lot I can do in defense. Well, other than curl up in a fetal position and cry. Not really. She's just not ticklish at all, so I usually just end up holding both her hands down so she can't. Shelley joined in, which is okay, 'cause she's ticklish, so I do sort of have a defense against her. It's just harder to make sure you don't accidentally hurt someone when it's two on one. Case in point, I was scooting across the floor, and I accidentally knee-dropped Lilie's foot. Hurt her really bad, but it's almost healed. She bit me on the upper forearm, which has left this incredible bruise. So Shelley eventually was going to bed, so we came back over here to watch RvB. By this time, it was like 4 am. Gyp started barking when Lilie showed up, but we quieted him down. So we were lying in my bed, watching RvB. And we fell asleep.
We woke up when my mom cracked the door open and yelled "7:30"! Luckily, she didn't notice Lilie lying there. Or if she did, she didn't say anything. Though, she would have said something by now. I can't describe how nice it felt to wake up next to Lilie in a nice warm bed... almost like old times.
Anyway.
She asked me to take her home *RIGHT NOW*, but I managed to convince her to wait until mom left. So, that was fun. Got her home okay, and Shelley hadn't even woken up yet, so she won't know. I don't know why Lilie was so worried about that, unless she just doesn't want Shelley thinking there's something going on between us, which there isn't. Went back over that night (Wednesday). I think. Wait, yeah. She called me and asked me to come over and help her set up her UI add-ons, 'cause I had shown her the suite that I use the night before, when she came over to my house. So, I went over there, brought her some KFC, and helped her. She didn't really need any, other than moving everything to the right directory. I feel proud, 'cause she's moved away from Cosmos. One more down in my never-ending fight to get people to stop using Cosmos.
Thursday, I opened. That was fun. Nothing major, though Dave did make a joke about me having sex with my mother, and everyone caught it. I wanted to smack him.
Went to play D&D that night. I think. Or was it Wednesday night? I don't really remember. Day's not important, anyway. Yeah, I think it was Thursday night.
Anyway.
Finally got to try out my new Elven Archer in combat; he got killed the second round. I was going to leave, when Matt pulled me aside and told me that this was all just Luke's dream. I didn't know why at the time, but I left anyway. I wasn't upset about being killed, especially since it wasn't really happening anyway, and I thought that was actually a neat idea - he did drop a hint or two about it during the combat. Later, I realized I was having a SaD attack. I don't really know if that's what I have, or just something similiar, but it seems to fit, and it's shorter than having to explain it every time. I kind of went into a negative emotion spiral after that. Later, when telling Lilie about this, she said that she hoped she wasn't part of it.
Sorry.
I mean, she wasn't really the cause of it, but she's gonna be part of 'em now. Major factor, in fact.
Anyway.
So last night, Lilie and I were gonna do dinner and a movie. Or rent one, or come back here and watch RvB. We went to Chili's, had a great time. She's much more upbeat lately, and talks a lot. I like it when she talks a lot - it's easier to learn things about her, to get to know her. She told me I over-analyze everything, even more than she does, and take it all to be the worst case possible. There's a very simple reason for that - I'm incredibly insecure. Anyway, we had a very nice dinner, then headed back to my place to watch RvB. On the way home, she said something along the lines of "I'd like to be back before it's too terribly late, say, before midnight?" At that point, I let her know it was approximately a quarter 'til. So I took her home. I had my arm around her, and she asked if I needed it back. I replied, "No, I learned how to drive with my left arm a long time ago." and laughed a little. She was like, "I don't want to know." "No, you don't." "I was being serious." "So was I. I wasn't going to say anything."
That got her really, really upest. She said something about how me confirming it meant it was something she didn't want know about or something. Yeah, probably a bad idea on my part. So things got really quiet after that. I almost started crying - more on that later (later post). She called me on being so quiet, and I didn't really have anything to say. That's what I do when I screw up, or upset someone, or things along those lines. I get afraid to say anything else, 'cause I usually don't know what to say anyway, so I just get really quiet. Anyway, she said she might come over sometime today before work to hang out. The insecure part of me (which is running very strong right now) is keeping me from getting my hopes up.
So, that's the latest recap. I still have some posts to make:
My character list, planned characters, and UI mods
Analyzation of the Lilie situation (pfft.)
The resurgance of BitTorrent
Why people are idiots
Current music: Utada Hikaru, Final Distance
Current Modd: Anxious, restless
Oh, Dave just called to see if I wanted to work Sunday day or night. Why? WHy on Earth would he ask me that?
She says it's the last recent, decent picture taken of her. She still has long hair, though. Now, it's pretty short, and part is died this brownish-orange color. Very cute.
So yeah, I went over there Tuesday night. It was like... 1:30 am? Lilie and I were playing WoW, and I made a RvB reference. "Now I'm thinking about kittens... kittens covered in spikes!" and that piqued her interest. She mentioned that I hadn't ever brought that over to watch, I responded that she had never asked, and she said, "I'm asking now."
So I went over there. She told me she'd been really restless and bored lately. I popped in the RvB DVD... and it didn't work. Or rather, the sound didn't work. Sort of. She has a mono output on her TV, except it was trying to force Stereo output, so only one channel was coming out. Well, the other one was as well, but you could barely hear it. Oddness. We sort of watched some MST3K, but I may have chosen some bad things to start off with - the Summer Blockbuster Awards special. I'm going to burn Puma Man to DVD, which is such a hilarious episode... it was a tough choice - Puma Man, Time Chasers, Overdrawn at the Memory Bank, Laserblast, Hobgoblins, Angel's Revenge, Radar Secret Service, Riding with Death, Space Mutiny, Agent from H.A.R.M., The Final Sacrifice... any one of those would be a great episode. We'll see how she likes Puma Man.
Anyhoo, we had some horseplay too. Lilie started tickling me, which is always fun, if a little annoying, since there's not a whole lot I can do in defense. Well, other than curl up in a fetal position and cry. Not really. She's just not ticklish at all, so I usually just end up holding both her hands down so she can't. Shelley joined in, which is okay, 'cause she's ticklish, so I do sort of have a defense against her. It's just harder to make sure you don't accidentally hurt someone when it's two on one. Case in point, I was scooting across the floor, and I accidentally knee-dropped Lilie's foot. Hurt her really bad, but it's almost healed. She bit me on the upper forearm, which has left this incredible bruise. So Shelley eventually was going to bed, so we came back over here to watch RvB. By this time, it was like 4 am. Gyp started barking when Lilie showed up, but we quieted him down. So we were lying in my bed, watching RvB. And we fell asleep.
We woke up when my mom cracked the door open and yelled "7:30"! Luckily, she didn't notice Lilie lying there. Or if she did, she didn't say anything. Though, she would have said something by now. I can't describe how nice it felt to wake up next to Lilie in a nice warm bed... almost like old times.
Anyway.
She asked me to take her home *RIGHT NOW*, but I managed to convince her to wait until mom left. So, that was fun. Got her home okay, and Shelley hadn't even woken up yet, so she won't know. I don't know why Lilie was so worried about that, unless she just doesn't want Shelley thinking there's something going on between us, which there isn't. Went back over that night (Wednesday). I think. Wait, yeah. She called me and asked me to come over and help her set up her UI add-ons, 'cause I had shown her the suite that I use the night before, when she came over to my house. So, I went over there, brought her some KFC, and helped her. She didn't really need any, other than moving everything to the right directory. I feel proud, 'cause she's moved away from Cosmos. One more down in my never-ending fight to get people to stop using Cosmos.
Thursday, I opened. That was fun. Nothing major, though Dave did make a joke about me having sex with my mother, and everyone caught it. I wanted to smack him.
Went to play D&D that night. I think. Or was it Wednesday night? I don't really remember. Day's not important, anyway. Yeah, I think it was Thursday night.
Anyway.
Finally got to try out my new Elven Archer in combat; he got killed the second round. I was going to leave, when Matt pulled me aside and told me that this was all just Luke's dream. I didn't know why at the time, but I left anyway. I wasn't upset about being killed, especially since it wasn't really happening anyway, and I thought that was actually a neat idea - he did drop a hint or two about it during the combat. Later, I realized I was having a SaD attack. I don't really know if that's what I have, or just something similiar, but it seems to fit, and it's shorter than having to explain it every time. I kind of went into a negative emotion spiral after that. Later, when telling Lilie about this, she said that she hoped she wasn't part of it.
Sorry.
I mean, she wasn't really the cause of it, but she's gonna be part of 'em now. Major factor, in fact.
Anyway.
So last night, Lilie and I were gonna do dinner and a movie. Or rent one, or come back here and watch RvB. We went to Chili's, had a great time. She's much more upbeat lately, and talks a lot. I like it when she talks a lot - it's easier to learn things about her, to get to know her. She told me I over-analyze everything, even more than she does, and take it all to be the worst case possible. There's a very simple reason for that - I'm incredibly insecure. Anyway, we had a very nice dinner, then headed back to my place to watch RvB. On the way home, she said something along the lines of "I'd like to be back before it's too terribly late, say, before midnight?" At that point, I let her know it was approximately a quarter 'til. So I took her home. I had my arm around her, and she asked if I needed it back. I replied, "No, I learned how to drive with my left arm a long time ago." and laughed a little. She was like, "I don't want to know." "No, you don't." "I was being serious." "So was I. I wasn't going to say anything."
That got her really, really upest. She said something about how me confirming it meant it was something she didn't want know about or something. Yeah, probably a bad idea on my part. So things got really quiet after that. I almost started crying - more on that later (later post). She called me on being so quiet, and I didn't really have anything to say. That's what I do when I screw up, or upset someone, or things along those lines. I get afraid to say anything else, 'cause I usually don't know what to say anyway, so I just get really quiet. Anyway, she said she might come over sometime today before work to hang out. The insecure part of me (which is running very strong right now) is keeping me from getting my hopes up.
So, that's the latest recap. I still have some posts to make:
- Autumn Weave guild drama
Current music: Utada Hikaru, Final Distance
Current Modd: Anxious, restless
Oh, Dave just called to see if I wanted to work Sunday day or night. Why? WHy on Earth would he ask me that?
2004-12-30
Only if I could turn back time, I'd give my heart again, do it all again
"You know that place between asleep and awake , that place where you still remember dreaming? That's where I'll always love you, Peter Pan. That's where I'll always be waiting."
-Tinkerbell (Julia Roberts), Hook
I love that quote. I've been spending a lot of time there, which is why I've been remembering my dreams lately. I'm just off-kilter, unable to find my center, and that's a place of refuge for me.
Anyway.
The one I had last night (Tuesday night) was really weird. I was back in high school, at a football game with the band. But there weren't that many of us, as would be evidenced when we went to march and there was only a tiny portion of our formation. But I'm jumping ahead of myself. The first oddity is that our band and the other band were sitting on my front lawn. Well, our band was sitting on Ms. Adam's yard, and the other band (Hays?) was sitting on my front yard. They kept playing this one song to taunt us, and Mar called me, Chris Freshour, and some other guy over to figure out how to play it. The football game was going on at an NFL-caliber stadium, which I guess was connected to my yard. Just one of those dream oddities. Anyway, we went to march at halftime, and a lot of our formation was missing, but I could still see what it should have looked like, had anyone been there. I think I recall Mar saying something about how it was still a preseason game or something, and that's why so many people were missing.
Work was... interesting. Dennis is being an unbelievable bitch; I'm going to have to talk to Dave tomorrow about him. Speaking of which, I found out tonight that there's a manager meeting at 2 with Todd, which will be fun. Dave said we didn't have to dress up, so I fully intend to go wearing what I'm wearing now - sleeping pants and a really comfortable t-shirt. Or maybe not... maybe I'll change into my green pants. We'll see. Anyway.
I just fell asleep, then woke up; it's like 10:40. Adam just called, asking if I would come in for Dora. Hell, no. Usually, I would - I'm fairly good about coming in to cover other people's shifts; however, I don't like him. It's not just that, though. It's more that I can't stand that place right now. I feel it as soon as I walk in, and it stays with me until I leave. Argh, and I have to go to a manager meeting at 2 as well. That'll be fun. It's just... I've lost my center right now, and I can't find it. That's always been very important for me, and without it, I tend to be thrown off-course a lot.
Anyway.
Lord of the Rings: The Third Age is great. One of the most compelling RPG's I've played in a long time. Star Ocean 3 is cool, but I can only take it in small doses. FFX-2 is cool, but can get repititious at times. People have accussed them of stealing elements from other games, but it works out just fine. The battle system has definite elements of FFX - you see the action order on the upper right, and actions happen immediately, and have a cool-down time, as opposed to a charge up time. You can also press L1 to switch party members in and out, as you get 3 people in the active party during battle. The battle engine is very reminiscent of FFX and X-2 as well. One change I really like is that you get to equip your characters with a full suite of equipment, something that's been missing from recent FF games. I'll post a list of the different slots, but I suspect it's almost 10, not counting accessories. There's 109 FMV cutscenes; you can access any previously earned one at any time. All o f them are edited scenes from the movies, though, with voiceovers. There is a lot of in-game cutscenes as well, which I also enjoy. Overall, I feel like I'm playing D&D. And that's just great. Fitting, too, since D&D is more or less based on Lord of the Rings.
Had a weird conversation with Suzie last night after work. She was playing the part of the relentlessly upbeat optimist, and I, the depressed apathetic pessimist. Not quite a reversal of roles, but odd enough. I think it might just be the pregnancy. Come to think of it, I don't know how pregnant she is, or when the baby's due, or anything like that. All I know is, she didn't waste any time - we broke up February 1st, and I think she was married within three months. Something like that.
Anyway.
Not much else going on lately. Haven't played DDR since before Christmas, which is bad. Haven't played D&D with the guys... damn, it's been a while. However, I have already let them know I want to come back, and they've been quite receptive. I think I'd also like to run my own campaign again at some point.
2004-10-31
I said do you speak my language; he just smiled, and gave me a vegemite sandwich - Men At Work, Down Under
Few things to catch up on - the SFFS party, the party (and lack thereof) last night, Shelley's Friday night, etc.
So I'll start with boring stuff first, to get it out of the way. I finally processed the 500+ DDR mp3s I got through DDRAmerica. That was a major pain in the ass. I had to go through and edit each one's ID3v2 tags, because they had all kinds of weird capitalizations going on, and I had to retype the name and artist fields on each one. The album field was fine, though. That took something like three to five hours. But that's finally over with, and I've got all of them on my playlist now (which has been updated, now up to almost 2200).
I've got some pictures to upload; I'll see if I can get to that today before I have to go to work. Probably not, though - I have to clean my room and mow the lawn. Fun times.
So, the SFFS Party:
I found out about it Monday while playing DDR; I asked Derrick if he or anyone else was going to Dragon's Lair for open gaming on Thursday; he said no, because he was DJ'ing at the SFFS Halloween party, and most of the SFFS people would be there. I asked the guys about it while playing D&D that night (well, sort of; I didn't stay long; I'll come back to that). Michael said he'd go if he wasn't doing anything else, and to call him and ask. So I did, and he wasn't, so we went. Lilie was working 4 - C, or I would have invited her as well. I got my fairy costume together - the wings, bought a new tiara, the old magic wand, and some glitter. I tried to find a girl to put it on - to make sure nothing went wrong - but was having trouble. I forgot momentarily that Lilie was at work and called her (This becomes important a few chapters down the road), but just couldn't find anyone. I ended up talking to Lauren Wyatt, who I really haven't seen since high school (though we did run each other at Spider-Man, but spoke only briefly). She cut her hair fairly short, and she wasn't wearing a necklace. Other than that, she seems basically like I remember. Anyway, she put the glitter on my face; I also learned how to do it on my own, should the need arise later (and it did). She also lent Michael some horns on a leather band, so he had a costume as well - a white devil, or something like that. Preparations complete, we headed to the LBJ Student Center.
There was a guy dressed as Robin Hood standing outside the door, greeting people. I would later learn he was the SFFS's faculty advisor. Michael and I went in and paid our entrance fees; Brett was sitting in one of the chairs at the table. That was weird. I guess I knew in the back of my subconscious that he was in the SFFS, but it didn't really occur to me that he'd be there - he didn't say anything Monday night, and an officer at that!
The setup was fairly standard - there was a table on the back wall with some food and drinks, as well as two little globe things with dry ice and water to provide some odd smoke; a handful of round tables scattered throughout the room; there was a projection TV set up on one wall with Halo and two linked X-Boxes; Derrick had brought in his computer to play music, though the speaker setup sucked - it was just his personal speakers. They provided decent music, but the whole effect was... kind of laughable. Not that many people showed up - I'd guess less than twenty. At least half the people there were involved in setting it up, which is cool, but not a good ratio.
I played a lot of Halo, though I don't think we ever even got a full eight players. I stayed on the projection TV and held my own for once. We played mainly 2 on 3 or 3 on 3 teams. A few people rotated in and out, but there was core group of four or so people - I also met Rem, who does Halo LAN things, and I may be going to some of those. Which would be cool.
Caleb was there. That was another occurrence I should have anticipated, but didn't because I wasn't thinking. He wanted to talk about why I had stopped talking to him, while I really didn't. I really just didn't want to talk to him at all. I'm not mad at him or anything, I just don't want to be friends with him or hang out or anything.
Oh, and I got hit on, for the first time in my life. Of course, it was by a gay guy. Which puts a humorous slant on the whole thing. I'm flattered, don't get me wrong. It's just funny. It started during the officer auction, which was just sad. No one bid on anyone. Not really. Michael won Brett for like 20 bucks. Anyway, I was sitting at one table with Michael, and this guy was sitting at this other table with a much larger group. We kept making eye contact, and he raised his eyebrows at me once or twice. Michael noticed this and commented on it. Later, when we were just standing around talking, he totally just came up and started joining in on our conversation. Or tried to, at least - none of us really responded to him at all. Later, after Lilie called (more on this later), Michael, Brett and I were standing around talking. I was relating what had just transpired between us to them, and again he came up and stood with us. I kept referring to 'her' in an obviously more-than-friends manner (well, sorta - "She just wants to be friends", "She called and we talked", etc). So I think he realized I'm not gay. But then Brett asked me what Caleb wanted - I guess he noticed that Caleb kept coming up to me and trying to talk to me - and I said, "Well, he wanted to talk about why we broke up." (which is what I refer to it as). Later, Michael commented on that - "Do you realize what you just said?" (Talking about breaking up with another guy in front of the gay guy who'd been hitting on me). That alone was worth the price of admission.
There were some cool costumes. Well, I guess. There were two Indiana Jones, neither of which was James East (who was also there) or Josh (who usually does that). There was a wizard, who looked really cool. Lily (Derrick's girlfriend) was a cat. There were two other girls dressed as cats as well, though I didn't know any of them. Brett was dressed as some 70's guy - big fro, white shite, gold chain with a peace sign. He wouldn't disco, but Michael may force him to since he bought him in the auction. Liz, this girl, had on a huge burgundy dress and a sort of peacock mask - it was really pretty, and had a lot of glitter on her exposed shoulders and upper torso. We even had a weird discussion about the differences in our glitter - mine was much more outspoken; hers, more subtle. When we first started talking, she asked me if she knew me from somewhere, but I didn't remember seeing her before. She later changed into a much smaller black dress, and I didn't even recognize her - I'm just not good with faces until I spend some more time around someone. But she seemed pretty cool. CJ was some anime character and won the Male division of the costume contest, which annoyed me. Seriously. He's kind of annoying overall. The overall winners were these two chicks dressed as vampires. Not cool vampires, but angst-filled, noble-type vampires like something out of Vampire: The Masquerade or something. The one who spoke couldn't think very fast on her feet, either - she tried to deliver an impromptu monologue, but it didn't work at all. I wanted to smack her. Hard.
I did win a door prize, though. As did Michael. We could take one thing off of one table, or five comics. I took this little grey stuffed spider with six legs. Which makes it not a spider, I s'pose. The other choices were a bar of soap with a Princess Amidala action figure in the middle, or something else. That, and I don't like comic books. That's what Michael took. They ended up giving away all of the comic books at the end anyway.
Lilie called me at one point. That's significant, 'cause she NEVER calls people. Well, she calls people back, but that's about it. And she was just returning my call from earlier. But we had it out. We talked about our relationship, and our physicalility - as she put it, her 'line' is in a different place from other people's. So we're just friends. Which is cool. Because we're very close friends - I trust her immensely, and do feel very close to her. We're fairly close physically as well, which is what was was causing me all the confusion in the first place, even though she had said that we were just friends. It's just one of these things that's ingrained deep in my psyche. I'm working on not falling in love with her just 'cause we hug a lot and what-not, and she shows such definite caring, and is so sweet, and... well, you get the point. I do like her. A lot. But I can live with 'just friends'.
Mom's freaking out about me not having the yard mowed yet, so I'm going to have to do the rest later.
So I'll start with boring stuff first, to get it out of the way. I finally processed the 500+ DDR mp3s I got through DDRAmerica. That was a major pain in the ass. I had to go through and edit each one's ID3v2 tags, because they had all kinds of weird capitalizations going on, and I had to retype the name and artist fields on each one. The album field was fine, though. That took something like three to five hours. But that's finally over with, and I've got all of them on my playlist now (which has been updated, now up to almost 2200).
I've got some pictures to upload; I'll see if I can get to that today before I have to go to work. Probably not, though - I have to clean my room and mow the lawn. Fun times.
So, the SFFS Party:
I found out about it Monday while playing DDR; I asked Derrick if he or anyone else was going to Dragon's Lair for open gaming on Thursday; he said no, because he was DJ'ing at the SFFS Halloween party, and most of the SFFS people would be there. I asked the guys about it while playing D&D that night (well, sort of; I didn't stay long; I'll come back to that). Michael said he'd go if he wasn't doing anything else, and to call him and ask. So I did, and he wasn't, so we went. Lilie was working 4 - C, or I would have invited her as well. I got my fairy costume together - the wings, bought a new tiara, the old magic wand, and some glitter. I tried to find a girl to put it on - to make sure nothing went wrong - but was having trouble. I forgot momentarily that Lilie was at work and called her (This becomes important a few chapters down the road), but just couldn't find anyone. I ended up talking to Lauren Wyatt, who I really haven't seen since high school (though we did run each other at Spider-Man, but spoke only briefly). She cut her hair fairly short, and she wasn't wearing a necklace. Other than that, she seems basically like I remember. Anyway, she put the glitter on my face; I also learned how to do it on my own, should the need arise later (and it did). She also lent Michael some horns on a leather band, so he had a costume as well - a white devil, or something like that. Preparations complete, we headed to the LBJ Student Center.
There was a guy dressed as Robin Hood standing outside the door, greeting people. I would later learn he was the SFFS's faculty advisor. Michael and I went in and paid our entrance fees; Brett was sitting in one of the chairs at the table. That was weird. I guess I knew in the back of my subconscious that he was in the SFFS, but it didn't really occur to me that he'd be there - he didn't say anything Monday night, and an officer at that!
The setup was fairly standard - there was a table on the back wall with some food and drinks, as well as two little globe things with dry ice and water to provide some odd smoke; a handful of round tables scattered throughout the room; there was a projection TV set up on one wall with Halo and two linked X-Boxes; Derrick had brought in his computer to play music, though the speaker setup sucked - it was just his personal speakers. They provided decent music, but the whole effect was... kind of laughable. Not that many people showed up - I'd guess less than twenty. At least half the people there were involved in setting it up, which is cool, but not a good ratio.
I played a lot of Halo, though I don't think we ever even got a full eight players. I stayed on the projection TV and held my own for once. We played mainly 2 on 3 or 3 on 3 teams. A few people rotated in and out, but there was core group of four or so people - I also met Rem, who does Halo LAN things, and I may be going to some of those. Which would be cool.
Caleb was there. That was another occurrence I should have anticipated, but didn't because I wasn't thinking. He wanted to talk about why I had stopped talking to him, while I really didn't. I really just didn't want to talk to him at all. I'm not mad at him or anything, I just don't want to be friends with him or hang out or anything.
Oh, and I got hit on, for the first time in my life. Of course, it was by a gay guy. Which puts a humorous slant on the whole thing. I'm flattered, don't get me wrong. It's just funny. It started during the officer auction, which was just sad. No one bid on anyone. Not really. Michael won Brett for like 20 bucks. Anyway, I was sitting at one table with Michael, and this guy was sitting at this other table with a much larger group. We kept making eye contact, and he raised his eyebrows at me once or twice. Michael noticed this and commented on it. Later, when we were just standing around talking, he totally just came up and started joining in on our conversation. Or tried to, at least - none of us really responded to him at all. Later, after Lilie called (more on this later), Michael, Brett and I were standing around talking. I was relating what had just transpired between us to them, and again he came up and stood with us. I kept referring to 'her' in an obviously more-than-friends manner (well, sorta - "She just wants to be friends", "She called and we talked", etc). So I think he realized I'm not gay. But then Brett asked me what Caleb wanted - I guess he noticed that Caleb kept coming up to me and trying to talk to me - and I said, "Well, he wanted to talk about why we broke up." (which is what I refer to it as). Later, Michael commented on that - "Do you realize what you just said?" (Talking about breaking up with another guy in front of the gay guy who'd been hitting on me). That alone was worth the price of admission.
There were some cool costumes. Well, I guess. There were two Indiana Jones, neither of which was James East (who was also there) or Josh (who usually does that). There was a wizard, who looked really cool. Lily (Derrick's girlfriend) was a cat. There were two other girls dressed as cats as well, though I didn't know any of them. Brett was dressed as some 70's guy - big fro, white shite, gold chain with a peace sign. He wouldn't disco, but Michael may force him to since he bought him in the auction. Liz, this girl, had on a huge burgundy dress and a sort of peacock mask - it was really pretty, and had a lot of glitter on her exposed shoulders and upper torso. We even had a weird discussion about the differences in our glitter - mine was much more outspoken; hers, more subtle. When we first started talking, she asked me if she knew me from somewhere, but I didn't remember seeing her before. She later changed into a much smaller black dress, and I didn't even recognize her - I'm just not good with faces until I spend some more time around someone. But she seemed pretty cool. CJ was some anime character and won the Male division of the costume contest, which annoyed me. Seriously. He's kind of annoying overall. The overall winners were these two chicks dressed as vampires. Not cool vampires, but angst-filled, noble-type vampires like something out of Vampire: The Masquerade or something. The one who spoke couldn't think very fast on her feet, either - she tried to deliver an impromptu monologue, but it didn't work at all. I wanted to smack her. Hard.
I did win a door prize, though. As did Michael. We could take one thing off of one table, or five comics. I took this little grey stuffed spider with six legs. Which makes it not a spider, I s'pose. The other choices were a bar of soap with a Princess Amidala action figure in the middle, or something else. That, and I don't like comic books. That's what Michael took. They ended up giving away all of the comic books at the end anyway.
Lilie called me at one point. That's significant, 'cause she NEVER calls people. Well, she calls people back, but that's about it. And she was just returning my call from earlier. But we had it out. We talked about our relationship, and our physicalility - as she put it, her 'line' is in a different place from other people's. So we're just friends. Which is cool. Because we're very close friends - I trust her immensely, and do feel very close to her. We're fairly close physically as well, which is what was was causing me all the confusion in the first place, even though she had said that we were just friends. It's just one of these things that's ingrained deep in my psyche. I'm working on not falling in love with her just 'cause we hug a lot and what-not, and she shows such definite caring, and is so sweet, and... well, you get the point. I do like her. A lot. But I can live with 'just friends'.
Mom's freaking out about me not having the yard mowed yet, so I'm going to have to do the rest later.
2004-10-06
How can I look in your eyes when I feel I can fly? I have to run away.
So when we last left our intrepid hero, he was just getting off of work on Sunday. (Warning: PoV shift back to first person).
I was fairly tired, between the back-to-back 8 - 5 shifts, with the non-stop frenzy of school, work, and DDR I've been doing the past two months or so. I pulled up to my street, and noticed in dismay that all of the convenient parking spots were taken. I initially elected to just park right in front of my driveway. I pulled up behind Jerry's truck, when a green truck pulled up right next to me. There were two girls sitting in the cab, waving at me. I didn't hear if they were saying anything; Paul Oakenfield's 'Send Me An Angel' was playing fairly loud. I paused the music, and the driver asked me a simple question - 'Do you recognize me?' 'No.' 'It's me, Mindy.'
I'm going to repeat that, as it bears repeating. 'It's me, Mindy.'
She then went to park so we could talk in slightly more convenient circumstances. I parked across the street, and tried to compile my thoughts and regain my composure while she walked from her truck to mine. I had NO IDEA what to say - this was Mindy. I haven't seen or talked to her in, um, three years? I was fairly certain she wanted nothing more to do with me. So she walks up to my truck - I'm still sitting in the driver's seat. I still can't get over how much she's changed. She was wearing a bikini type thing (I think, she's becoming a little fuzzy - my visual memory was never very strong, especially when it comes to describing people); she's dropped some weight. She was never very big, but she was... not quite thick, but almost. Solid. She's definitely 'thin' now. She's also aged a lot. Well, I guess that's to be expected. The last time I saw her (before this), she was... 14? 15? She's 18 now - that's a major bit of growing up, especially for girls. So both of those combined, she looks *way* different. She was always attractive, but now, even much more so.
We talked a little bit. She asked me what I'd been up, and I told her. 'Nothing.' Seriously, what have I been up to? Nothing. Told her I was at SWT now; still at Sonic, finally an assistant manager. She also asked me if I was seeing anyone, and I briefly mentioned Suzie, but that other than her, there hadn't been anyone else. She told me she saw a 35 year old for a while (2 years) (I guess that's who Rose saw her with that one time in IHOP), but no one else really other than that. She's going to UTSA, studying psychology (I forgot if that was her major or minor, and what the other one was), working full time in San Antonio. She was living in San Antonio, but she's living her right now to help take care of her grandmother, who's sick. She asked for my number, which I gave to her (entered it in my phone herself), and she also asked if I'd like to hang out sometime - go to a movie or something. Care to guess what I said?
If you said 'yes', you are correct. I think that about covers everything. Oh, and at one point (like I said, my memory of the event is fairly fuzzy, and growing more so), she asked, and I quote, 'Can I have a hug?' It felt good. The hug, I mean. Mindy and I clicked. We really did. Granted, our relationship (most of the second half, I think) was marked by a large number of tribulations, but I have a large number of good memories of her. I don't remember much of the fighting, but I do remember the hugs, and the kisses, and the looks of joy and happiness. The feeling of warmth, of love. I just don't know. Heather says I have some decisions to make, and I guess I do. If she ever calls me back, that is. I gave her my number, but failed to ask for hers.
I hope she doesn't construe that as a lack of interest. I was really tired from the 15 hours or so I'd worked, the lack of sleep, and was also in something akin to a low-level state of shock. I really didn't know what to say. I mean, I'm all for resuming contact with her. I'm probably close to her as anyone, save Rose and Jarrod. Being closer to someone you haven't seen in a few years than any current years is... odd. The weird thoughts come when I remember one small fact about Mindy and I. We got back together 8 times. To the best of my recollection, we weren't able to spend more than a little time in each other's company without ending up back together, or well on the way.
So I'm not sure how I feel about this whole situation. Except for one thing - I keep hoping she'll call, and we'll got out and spend some time together. Even if it's just talking, catching up on the past few years. Hypothetically speaking, if things were given the chance of progressing further and it was solely up to me... I just don't know. Things have been so weird lately, I've felt adrift in a lot of ways. My perosnal life has been.. odd. Take Suzie, for example. Don't get me wrong, she's a sweet girl. But that's a situation I *never* should have wandered into. If I had been thinking clearer, hadn't been going through such social withdrawal and lonliness, probably would have escaped the whole thing altogether. I'll probably just handle the situation like I do DM'ing a session - deal with it as it comes up. So we'll see.
I was *really* weirded out after that, but strangely exhilerated. So I did the next thing that came to my mind after going in. I called Lilie. We talked for about half an hour. Topics varied. Nothing terribly heavy, but it wasn't all just light-hearted fluff either. Definitely the longest phone conversation I've had with a girl (not counting Rose) in a while. Eventually, though, I told her I had to go, which I did, because I had to shower and do some stuff. Nothing else really of note on Sunday - studying for tests, homework, that kind of thing.
So then came Monday. Which makes sense, I guess. Anyway. Found out the DDR machine was broken Monday morning. It broke my heart. Well, not really, but it was annoying. I was really tired all day and fell asleep in CS. I think the two are related. Took a probability test, which went very well. I got everything right, except two things. First, I misunderstood one question, so I answered it the wrong way. I did right the correct answer down as an aside, so he may give me partial credit or something. That mistake, I can live with. The second is much more annoying: I didn't even see the fourth page. Seriously. Which is endlessly annoying. Luckily, there was only one problem on that page, and an easy one at that, but it really, really annoys me. I would have gotten it completely right, but instead, I'll get no credit for that.
Monday night, went over to Matt and Luke's for D&D. We decided to restart the campaign, so they started building new characters. I'm trying something new - no PrCs, fairly strict die rolling, stuff like that. Consider it an experiement. We'll see how it turns out. They seemed to resist it at first, but I think they'll accept it. Or not. They can always have someone else DM.
Tuesday was my first shift as assistant manager. It went okay. The new shirt didn't prove much of a hindrance, though we'll see how it does in the kitchen tomorrow. (Side note: "Send Me an Angel" just came up on Winamp.) It wasn't that different from what I've been doing, which gives me some encouragement. I definitely didn't have any problems with the crew. I did the deposit and what-not, and that took a while, since Javi had to walk me through it. I counted down the carhops, and two of them were 7 and 12 dollars short. I *hate* it when I have to tell a carhop they're short. It makes me feel really bad, and it's the main issue I have with the job.
I got home about 7 or so, and had chem homework due at 8 - with a 2 hour grace period. So, of course, Lilie calls. Which was really, really cool. That doesn't happen that often. We talked a little, and I invited her to fifty cent night at Showplace. Nothing terribly great was showing, so we went to see the Bourne Supremacy. Next week, Spider-Man 2 and the Village is showing, so I'll end up going to see at least one of them, if not both. Anyway. We went in, and sat down. We both had our feet up on the seats in front of us, and talked a little more. Some girls came and sat down in front of us (there were plenty of empty seats, but they choose the ones in front of us; how annoying). So we had to take our feet down. I actually had mine resting on the arm rest; the girl to the left said it was okay, that it didn't bother her, and I could keep it. She then turned and said that she reocgnized me, and correctly identified me as someone that plays DDR on campus all the time. Apparently, she works at one of the nearby businesses, and sees me all the time. Or something like that. But Lilie couldn't really see over them, so we moved back a row. And put our feet back up on the chairs. We talked a lot, which is cool - I've always been a talker during movies (I got 'shushed' during Catwoman. Seriously.) She did lay her head down on my arm for most of the last third or so, and I kind of lay my head down on hers. Or something like that. I even ventured far enough to play with her hair. A little. Very little. Anyway. After the movie, we loitered in front of the theater for a while (well, we sat in the theater for quite a while after the movie ended, probably twenty minutes or so), talking. Eventualy, we walked to her car, she left, and I went back to my truck and left as well. She might make it Thursday, but might have to work. Friday is anybody's guess - I don't think anybody's going to be there playing, so I don't know. I think we're both off, though.
I'm not sure about us. I think she knows I like her, but first off, I don't know how she feels, and she's never really voluntereed any information on the matter. Maybe I'm supposed to drag it out of her? I've never really known what to do in these situations. Rudy would say this is my chance to avoid being dragged down into the friend zone, if I'm going to do so. I don't think she's dropped any hints or anything, but I'd be the last person to know if she did, so I'm probably not a reliable source of information on that front. We'll see.
I was fairly tired, between the back-to-back 8 - 5 shifts, with the non-stop frenzy of school, work, and DDR I've been doing the past two months or so. I pulled up to my street, and noticed in dismay that all of the convenient parking spots were taken. I initially elected to just park right in front of my driveway. I pulled up behind Jerry's truck, when a green truck pulled up right next to me. There were two girls sitting in the cab, waving at me. I didn't hear if they were saying anything; Paul Oakenfield's 'Send Me An Angel' was playing fairly loud. I paused the music, and the driver asked me a simple question - 'Do you recognize me?' 'No.' 'It's me, Mindy.'
I'm going to repeat that, as it bears repeating. 'It's me, Mindy.'
She then went to park so we could talk in slightly more convenient circumstances. I parked across the street, and tried to compile my thoughts and regain my composure while she walked from her truck to mine. I had NO IDEA what to say - this was Mindy. I haven't seen or talked to her in, um, three years? I was fairly certain she wanted nothing more to do with me. So she walks up to my truck - I'm still sitting in the driver's seat. I still can't get over how much she's changed. She was wearing a bikini type thing (I think, she's becoming a little fuzzy - my visual memory was never very strong, especially when it comes to describing people); she's dropped some weight. She was never very big, but she was... not quite thick, but almost. Solid. She's definitely 'thin' now. She's also aged a lot. Well, I guess that's to be expected. The last time I saw her (before this), she was... 14? 15? She's 18 now - that's a major bit of growing up, especially for girls. So both of those combined, she looks *way* different. She was always attractive, but now, even much more so.
We talked a little bit. She asked me what I'd been up, and I told her. 'Nothing.' Seriously, what have I been up to? Nothing. Told her I was at SWT now; still at Sonic, finally an assistant manager. She also asked me if I was seeing anyone, and I briefly mentioned Suzie, but that other than her, there hadn't been anyone else. She told me she saw a 35 year old for a while (2 years) (I guess that's who Rose saw her with that one time in IHOP), but no one else really other than that. She's going to UTSA, studying psychology (I forgot if that was her major or minor, and what the other one was), working full time in San Antonio. She was living in San Antonio, but she's living her right now to help take care of her grandmother, who's sick. She asked for my number, which I gave to her (entered it in my phone herself), and she also asked if I'd like to hang out sometime - go to a movie or something. Care to guess what I said?
If you said 'yes', you are correct. I think that about covers everything. Oh, and at one point (like I said, my memory of the event is fairly fuzzy, and growing more so), she asked, and I quote, 'Can I have a hug?' It felt good. The hug, I mean. Mindy and I clicked. We really did. Granted, our relationship (most of the second half, I think) was marked by a large number of tribulations, but I have a large number of good memories of her. I don't remember much of the fighting, but I do remember the hugs, and the kisses, and the looks of joy and happiness. The feeling of warmth, of love. I just don't know. Heather says I have some decisions to make, and I guess I do. If she ever calls me back, that is. I gave her my number, but failed to ask for hers.
I hope she doesn't construe that as a lack of interest. I was really tired from the 15 hours or so I'd worked, the lack of sleep, and was also in something akin to a low-level state of shock. I really didn't know what to say. I mean, I'm all for resuming contact with her. I'm probably close to her as anyone, save Rose and Jarrod. Being closer to someone you haven't seen in a few years than any current years is... odd. The weird thoughts come when I remember one small fact about Mindy and I. We got back together 8 times. To the best of my recollection, we weren't able to spend more than a little time in each other's company without ending up back together, or well on the way.
So I'm not sure how I feel about this whole situation. Except for one thing - I keep hoping she'll call, and we'll got out and spend some time together. Even if it's just talking, catching up on the past few years. Hypothetically speaking, if things were given the chance of progressing further and it was solely up to me... I just don't know. Things have been so weird lately, I've felt adrift in a lot of ways. My perosnal life has been.. odd. Take Suzie, for example. Don't get me wrong, she's a sweet girl. But that's a situation I *never* should have wandered into. If I had been thinking clearer, hadn't been going through such social withdrawal and lonliness, probably would have escaped the whole thing altogether. I'll probably just handle the situation like I do DM'ing a session - deal with it as it comes up. So we'll see.
I was *really* weirded out after that, but strangely exhilerated. So I did the next thing that came to my mind after going in. I called Lilie. We talked for about half an hour. Topics varied. Nothing terribly heavy, but it wasn't all just light-hearted fluff either. Definitely the longest phone conversation I've had with a girl (not counting Rose) in a while. Eventually, though, I told her I had to go, which I did, because I had to shower and do some stuff. Nothing else really of note on Sunday - studying for tests, homework, that kind of thing.
So then came Monday. Which makes sense, I guess. Anyway. Found out the DDR machine was broken Monday morning. It broke my heart. Well, not really, but it was annoying. I was really tired all day and fell asleep in CS. I think the two are related. Took a probability test, which went very well. I got everything right, except two things. First, I misunderstood one question, so I answered it the wrong way. I did right the correct answer down as an aside, so he may give me partial credit or something. That mistake, I can live with. The second is much more annoying: I didn't even see the fourth page. Seriously. Which is endlessly annoying. Luckily, there was only one problem on that page, and an easy one at that, but it really, really annoys me. I would have gotten it completely right, but instead, I'll get no credit for that.
Monday night, went over to Matt and Luke's for D&D. We decided to restart the campaign, so they started building new characters. I'm trying something new - no PrCs, fairly strict die rolling, stuff like that. Consider it an experiement. We'll see how it turns out. They seemed to resist it at first, but I think they'll accept it. Or not. They can always have someone else DM.
Tuesday was my first shift as assistant manager. It went okay. The new shirt didn't prove much of a hindrance, though we'll see how it does in the kitchen tomorrow. (Side note: "Send Me an Angel" just came up on Winamp.) It wasn't that different from what I've been doing, which gives me some encouragement. I definitely didn't have any problems with the crew. I did the deposit and what-not, and that took a while, since Javi had to walk me through it. I counted down the carhops, and two of them were 7 and 12 dollars short. I *hate* it when I have to tell a carhop they're short. It makes me feel really bad, and it's the main issue I have with the job.
I got home about 7 or so, and had chem homework due at 8 - with a 2 hour grace period. So, of course, Lilie calls. Which was really, really cool. That doesn't happen that often. We talked a little, and I invited her to fifty cent night at Showplace. Nothing terribly great was showing, so we went to see the Bourne Supremacy. Next week, Spider-Man 2 and the Village is showing, so I'll end up going to see at least one of them, if not both. Anyway. We went in, and sat down. We both had our feet up on the seats in front of us, and talked a little more. Some girls came and sat down in front of us (there were plenty of empty seats, but they choose the ones in front of us; how annoying). So we had to take our feet down. I actually had mine resting on the arm rest; the girl to the left said it was okay, that it didn't bother her, and I could keep it. She then turned and said that she reocgnized me, and correctly identified me as someone that plays DDR on campus all the time. Apparently, she works at one of the nearby businesses, and sees me all the time. Or something like that. But Lilie couldn't really see over them, so we moved back a row. And put our feet back up on the chairs. We talked a lot, which is cool - I've always been a talker during movies (I got 'shushed' during Catwoman. Seriously.) She did lay her head down on my arm for most of the last third or so, and I kind of lay my head down on hers. Or something like that. I even ventured far enough to play with her hair. A little. Very little. Anyway. After the movie, we loitered in front of the theater for a while (well, we sat in the theater for quite a while after the movie ended, probably twenty minutes or so), talking. Eventualy, we walked to her car, she left, and I went back to my truck and left as well. She might make it Thursday, but might have to work. Friday is anybody's guess - I don't think anybody's going to be there playing, so I don't know. I think we're both off, though.
I'm not sure about us. I think she knows I like her, but first off, I don't know how she feels, and she's never really voluntereed any information on the matter. Maybe I'm supposed to drag it out of her? I've never really known what to do in these situations. Rudy would say this is my chance to avoid being dragged down into the friend zone, if I'm going to do so. I don't think she's dropped any hints or anything, but I'd be the last person to know if she did, so I'm probably not a reliable source of information on that front. We'll see.
Tic-toc, you've got the spot; Here I come, ready or not
Yeah, things are going well right now. I'm having trouble sitting still in class - that well. DDR machine's fixed, and played a little during lunch. (I refer to my half hour break between Intro to Fine Arts and Computer Science as lunch). Went to a movie with Lilie last night; that was fun. I'm going to seriously annoy my CS teacher and be a complete smart-ass with the next program, and I'm going to love every minute of it.
Had my first shift as an assistant manager yesterday. It went fairly well. It wasn't *that* much different from what I've already been doing. The crew responded fairly well; didn't have any authority problem. There's a few reasons for that, and I'll be going into that later in my next post. Right now, I'm in between CS and Probability; that's usually a fifteen minute break, but today, it's like twenty minutes or so. Again, I'll go into that in my next post.
My last substantial post was Saturday morning, so I have a fair bit of catching up to do. I'll start now, and see how far I get.
Saturday was okay. Worked 8 - 5. I was really tired after that, so I came home and crashed for a while, then played SO3 until it was time for work Sunday; again, 8 - 5. That shift *sucked* - it was Frank and I in the kitchen (the last shift where George wasn't replaced); Javi was managing, so he spent most of the shift in the kitchen as well (when he wasn't in the back watching the football game, that is). Rudy opened, so he stayed around until 2 or so and helped us out as well. So things didn't go that bad, but they could have gone a lot better. I don't like Frank. He's an okay guy, but I really, really don't like new cooks. Especially ones that suck.
Sunday after work is when things started happening, but since it's time for me to go to Probability, I'll talk about that later. Probably much later, since I'll probably go play some more DDR after class, then find something to do this evening.
Oh yeah, we also started our D&D campaign over. But again, that's another story, for another post.
Had my first shift as an assistant manager yesterday. It went fairly well. It wasn't *that* much different from what I've already been doing. The crew responded fairly well; didn't have any authority problem. There's a few reasons for that, and I'll be going into that later in my next post. Right now, I'm in between CS and Probability; that's usually a fifteen minute break, but today, it's like twenty minutes or so. Again, I'll go into that in my next post.
My last substantial post was Saturday morning, so I have a fair bit of catching up to do. I'll start now, and see how far I get.
Saturday was okay. Worked 8 - 5. I was really tired after that, so I came home and crashed for a while, then played SO3 until it was time for work Sunday; again, 8 - 5. That shift *sucked* - it was Frank and I in the kitchen (the last shift where George wasn't replaced); Javi was managing, so he spent most of the shift in the kitchen as well (when he wasn't in the back watching the football game, that is). Rudy opened, so he stayed around until 2 or so and helped us out as well. So things didn't go that bad, but they could have gone a lot better. I don't like Frank. He's an okay guy, but I really, really don't like new cooks. Especially ones that suck.
Sunday after work is when things started happening, but since it's time for me to go to Probability, I'll talk about that later. Probably much later, since I'll probably go play some more DDR after class, then find something to do this evening.
Oh yeah, we also started our D&D campaign over. But again, that's another story, for another post.
2004-09-29
I only want to be the one you love
What did I do Monday night? Trying to remember...
Oh yeah, played D&D with the guys. It was fun. Well, until the end. Michael's character died. That's my second PC kill (ever), both of which have been in this campaign. The first was Caleb's orc, who opened himself to two attacks of oppurtunity when he decided to pursue a fleeing goblin at full speed (run). One of them was a crit; the other, just a hit. This case was slightly different. The party was attacked in the middle of the night by a powerful demonic construct intent on recovering the powerful artifact they carry. He was really powerful - eye rays, five melee attacks, and Regeneration/Construct traits. Michael was the only one who could hurt him. It didn't end well. Everyone was seriously injured. Of course, Michael later called me to point out important revisions in 3.5 that would have prevented a lot of the difficulty in the encounter, and would have definitely prevented the death. I'm not sure how I'm going to handle the situation, but am probably *not* going to change anything.
Work yesterday was okay. Worked 8 - 3, but I was in charge (it was only me and Allison) from 8 - 10. Handled things okay; we did get one fairly crazy rush, but got everything out quickly enough. Dave didn't come in 'til 11:30 or so, so there were a few things we hadn't done yet. He was just being really bitchy; I think the fact that we were almost out of popcorn chicken, lettuce, and eggs. He blamed it on employee theft, which I'm questioning. I don't doubt that there are people there who would steal, but... lettuce? Processed egg patties? Raw popcorn chicken? We finally went through three more modules in the Ast. Manager handbook, and he told me that next week, he'll have me in a shirt and tie and running a 2 - 5 shirt, to see how it goes. I'm... fairly nervous. I mean, I think the crew will help me out. I've worked there for a long time, which is both good and bad. On the good side, I know what's it like to work any given position, and the crew knows that - it's not like Dave, where we feel like he can't empathize with what we're going through, and he's just making unreasonable demands. I'm also friends with the vast majority of the crew, so they'll respond better as well. On the negative side, though, they're less likely to follow me and might think they can get away with more, since we're friends. I'll have to walk that line very carefully.
Didn't do much Tuesday night; took a nap, then played a lot of SO3 - I've been powering up in the plains with some harpies and odd dodo-like birds that have a powerful earthquake attack. Been having to use tactics, which is odd - brute force doesn't really work, unlike most RPGs.
Today was a fun day at school. Chem went alright, and I finally noticed the girl next to me's rack. On a related note, she's really cute. But anyway...
Intro to Fine Arts was fairly unnoteworthy. We're talking about the High Renaisssance right now, which is pretty cool. I need to review what I missed before our next test, which is next Wednesday. I also have to do a critique soon.
I played a game of DDR between FA and CS, but I'll do all the DDR in one clump (it all runs together anyway).
Had a test in CS today. It was fairly easy. I did it all in hot pink, while the guy next to me was making a crack about being so primitive - carving wood to mark a piece of processed wood pulp, or something like that. I think he's just upset about the computer thing from earlier, which really just made him look like a whiny bitch. Finished the test within half an hour, so I went and played DDR again before going to probability.
Probability was fun. We've got a test Monday, so we reviewed today. The girl behind me (I'll learn her name one day) was lost a few times, so I helped her out a little. I should give her my email or something for whenever she needs help. Stayed after and talked to Dr Snyder about a proof he mentioned in class, and we worked through it. Didn't realy do anyting after that, just went home.
I decdied to take the Campus Loop bus back to my truck, 'cause my legs are really tired - the constant DDR and work hasn't really given them a chance to refuel. I probably won't play any DDR Friday (yeah, right).
These three people were sitting on the far side of the bus loop, but the RR12 bus just passed them by; they ran after it, to no avail. They were quite upset, vocally so, and the girl even made a comment about having to wait another half hour for another bus. Of course, another RR12 bus showed up within three minutes. Jonathan, on the other hand, my friend from Diversions, missed the Post Road bus, and would have been stuck there another half an hour to forty-five minutes, but I offered him a ride home. Took him home, came home, that kinda thing. It gets a little fuzzy here, but I ate some cereal, then basically fell asleep.
I woke up about 9:50 or so, to the phone ringing. It kept ringing. Neither Janelle nor Mom was answering it, and it was really pissing me off. They were *right* there. I hate that noise so much. Then it rang again, and they answered it after a while. Gyp came into my room, and I sent him out. He then started whining - I couldn't tell if he wanted out or into Janelle's room, but Janelle was just ignoring it. I called her on it, and she responded with something about it being my fault, because I bothered him or something equally idiotic. I wanted to smack her.
Then, on that show on G4TechTV where they just play head-to-head, the first game was DDRMAX2. It was pretty pathetic. They were doing stuff on light and basically just sucking. It made me wish I was on the show, just to show off my mad skills.
Speaking of which, had fun playing DDR today. We can't play doubles anymore, because they're not bolted together anymore - they start to seperate to much. I tried playing Nonstop/Random All/Doubles; my second song was Paranoia Rebirth; I was going it, until the gap between the pads got too much and I couldn't do it anymore. It's a shame - that machine is in such good condition, otherwise. Charlie and I also played some Nonstop/Random All; our first song was Max 300. I couldn't do it - I still don't have the stamina, but I'm getting close. I also had it on 1.5x, which just wasn't working. He pulled it off, though. Most impressive. We drew a fair crowd playing during lunch.
Oh yeah, played D&D with the guys. It was fun. Well, until the end. Michael's character died. That's my second PC kill (ever), both of which have been in this campaign. The first was Caleb's orc, who opened himself to two attacks of oppurtunity when he decided to pursue a fleeing goblin at full speed (run). One of them was a crit; the other, just a hit. This case was slightly different. The party was attacked in the middle of the night by a powerful demonic construct intent on recovering the powerful artifact they carry. He was really powerful - eye rays, five melee attacks, and Regeneration/Construct traits. Michael was the only one who could hurt him. It didn't end well. Everyone was seriously injured. Of course, Michael later called me to point out important revisions in 3.5 that would have prevented a lot of the difficulty in the encounter, and would have definitely prevented the death. I'm not sure how I'm going to handle the situation, but am probably *not* going to change anything.
Work yesterday was okay. Worked 8 - 3, but I was in charge (it was only me and Allison) from 8 - 10. Handled things okay; we did get one fairly crazy rush, but got everything out quickly enough. Dave didn't come in 'til 11:30 or so, so there were a few things we hadn't done yet. He was just being really bitchy; I think the fact that we were almost out of popcorn chicken, lettuce, and eggs. He blamed it on employee theft, which I'm questioning. I don't doubt that there are people there who would steal, but... lettuce? Processed egg patties? Raw popcorn chicken? We finally went through three more modules in the Ast. Manager handbook, and he told me that next week, he'll have me in a shirt and tie and running a 2 - 5 shirt, to see how it goes. I'm... fairly nervous. I mean, I think the crew will help me out. I've worked there for a long time, which is both good and bad. On the good side, I know what's it like to work any given position, and the crew knows that - it's not like Dave, where we feel like he can't empathize with what we're going through, and he's just making unreasonable demands. I'm also friends with the vast majority of the crew, so they'll respond better as well. On the negative side, though, they're less likely to follow me and might think they can get away with more, since we're friends. I'll have to walk that line very carefully.
Didn't do much Tuesday night; took a nap, then played a lot of SO3 - I've been powering up in the plains with some harpies and odd dodo-like birds that have a powerful earthquake attack. Been having to use tactics, which is odd - brute force doesn't really work, unlike most RPGs.
Today was a fun day at school. Chem went alright, and I finally noticed the girl next to me's rack. On a related note, she's really cute. But anyway...
Intro to Fine Arts was fairly unnoteworthy. We're talking about the High Renaisssance right now, which is pretty cool. I need to review what I missed before our next test, which is next Wednesday. I also have to do a critique soon.
I played a game of DDR between FA and CS, but I'll do all the DDR in one clump (it all runs together anyway).
Had a test in CS today. It was fairly easy. I did it all in hot pink, while the guy next to me was making a crack about being so primitive - carving wood to mark a piece of processed wood pulp, or something like that. I think he's just upset about the computer thing from earlier, which really just made him look like a whiny bitch. Finished the test within half an hour, so I went and played DDR again before going to probability.
Probability was fun. We've got a test Monday, so we reviewed today. The girl behind me (I'll learn her name one day) was lost a few times, so I helped her out a little. I should give her my email or something for whenever she needs help. Stayed after and talked to Dr Snyder about a proof he mentioned in class, and we worked through it. Didn't realy do anyting after that, just went home.
I decdied to take the Campus Loop bus back to my truck, 'cause my legs are really tired - the constant DDR and work hasn't really given them a chance to refuel. I probably won't play any DDR Friday (yeah, right).
These three people were sitting on the far side of the bus loop, but the RR12 bus just passed them by; they ran after it, to no avail. They were quite upset, vocally so, and the girl even made a comment about having to wait another half hour for another bus. Of course, another RR12 bus showed up within three minutes. Jonathan, on the other hand, my friend from Diversions, missed the Post Road bus, and would have been stuck there another half an hour to forty-five minutes, but I offered him a ride home. Took him home, came home, that kinda thing. It gets a little fuzzy here, but I ate some cereal, then basically fell asleep.
I woke up about 9:50 or so, to the phone ringing. It kept ringing. Neither Janelle nor Mom was answering it, and it was really pissing me off. They were *right* there. I hate that noise so much. Then it rang again, and they answered it after a while. Gyp came into my room, and I sent him out. He then started whining - I couldn't tell if he wanted out or into Janelle's room, but Janelle was just ignoring it. I called her on it, and she responded with something about it being my fault, because I bothered him or something equally idiotic. I wanted to smack her.
Then, on that show on G4TechTV where they just play head-to-head, the first game was DDRMAX2. It was pretty pathetic. They were doing stuff on light and basically just sucking. It made me wish I was on the show, just to show off my mad skills.
Speaking of which, had fun playing DDR today. We can't play doubles anymore, because they're not bolted together anymore - they start to seperate to much. I tried playing Nonstop/Random All/Doubles; my second song was Paranoia Rebirth; I was going it, until the gap between the pads got too much and I couldn't do it anymore. It's a shame - that machine is in such good condition, otherwise. Charlie and I also played some Nonstop/Random All; our first song was Max 300. I couldn't do it - I still don't have the stamina, but I'm getting close. I also had it on 1.5x, which just wasn't working. He pulled it off, though. Most impressive. We drew a fair crowd playing during lunch.
More pictures
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| This is my Chemistry class. That's our professor, Prof. Feakes. She's pretty cool. I think of her as being very motherly. I don't know why; it's just something in her demeanor. This gives a decent view of our classroom, Centennial 157. It's a big teaching auditorium. That tripod in the walkway is for our E-Response pads; I don't have one. I mean, I do, but I don't use it. Or something like that. | This picture is fairly dark and hard to see, but it's my Intro to Fine Arts Class. I usually sit on the stairs, since the rows are really, really small and I don't like trying to squeeze through. We usually just look at a bunch of slides and what-not, and occasionally listen to some music. |
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| This is Charlie, the guy I play DDR with a bunch. | This is my current machine. Nice location, right in the middle of the hall going to the cafeteria area. It's an Extreme, in very good condition - no sticking, all the lights and speakers work, etc. 50 cents for 3 games, with everything unlocked. |
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| Now on to Probability. This is the girl that sits behind me. She's, well, not clueless, but has trouble following everything our professor says. I would too, but I don't listen to everything he says, so I don't get lost as often. And yes, that does sound really weird. | This is a (very blurry) picture of our Probability guy, Dr. Snyder. He has a tendency to ramble on about problems; not the mathematical aspect, but the "word problem" part of it. Very... odd. Cool guy otherwise. |
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| Last Thursday, Michael, Luke, Brett and I went to Dragon's Lair for open gaming. We ended up taking different vehicles, and I ended up between Luke and Brett. Here's Luke ahead of me at the stoplight at Sessoms and N. LBJ. | Same as before, but here's Brett. |
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| Here we are at open gaming night. They have a room set up for it. Well, kinda. It's just got some tables in it with chairs on either side. Not terribly impressive. We felt like we were in a cave or something. | Here's the view of the store from the door to the cave. |
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| This is the front desk lady/chick girl. Yeah. I saw her on campus Friday. | Hey, look Nov. |
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| They have TMNT too. | And Pirates, why not? |
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| Side shot. | Yeah, buddy. Max combo on Exotic Ethnic. This is when I thought all those girls were still watching, but they had left after we finished 'Heaven is a '57 Grey Cadillac'. Not great for PA, but considering that A)this is the second time I've passed it and B) a month ago, I couldn't even do that, I think it's pretty good. |
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| This is Chelsea, the girl who interviewed us for the paper. | Here she is, talking to Stefan. |
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| Here's the two of us. Yep, me and Chelsea. | This is my 1459 combo on Nonstop/Random All/Difficult. Not too bad, if I do so say myself. I almost had a max combo; 1 arrow less than Great. I'll live. This was right after I had talked to Chelsea, and she was still behind us, talking to Stefan. That is partially why I did so well. Hell, that's the main reason. Well, two. |
2004-09-27
See, I've got a four leaf clover; it's gotta bring a little luck
My sleeping habits are so weird. I don't really have a consistent "sleep-time"; for example, I slept (approximately) 11pm - 3am, and I'll be up until after we play D&D tonight, or, if things go oddly, until after I get off of work tomorrow.
Speaking of which, today was a fun day. George called last night and said he was stuck in Austin, and ended up not coming in. Today, he didn't even call. So he's fired. Which is good, despite my previous comments. Although it did force me to work a little longer than I hoped for - Thomas was hoping to pick up extra hours, so he was going to come in at 2 for me; Rudy ended up bringing him in about noon and he stayed past five; I worked 8 - 5. Came home, mowed the lawn (front and back) and Ms. Adam's front lawn (since her lawn mower is broken right now), then showered and went and gave Freddie a ride to work. Saw Lilly again, not that that matters.
My schedule for this week is interesting -
Tue 8 - ? (Couldn't read it, though Rudy thinks it's 2 or 3)
Thu 12 - 6
Sat 8 - 5
Sun 8 - 5
Saturday and Sunday are going to be fun - back to back 10 hour (trust me, they'll stretch that far, especially Saturday) shifts. Though I do I have Friday off again; maybe I'll come up with something to do this time.
Last night, a large group pulled up - apparently, some team from Kansas City or something. We got slammed - that's why I ended up staying 'til 11:45 or so. They kept trying to order from the stalls (along with some boy scouts that pulled up today). That segues into another story from last night (this is pieced together from talking to Adam as well as my own experience last night):
Several people were trying to order from stalls on foot. We don't allow that, for various reasons. First and foremost, your safety. If a customer is standing close to the menu board, there's a chance a car won't see them and will pull into that stall, which can be very bad for both the person on foot and the driver. Second, if they order from the stall then move to the patio, that causes a great deal of confusion on our part, since each order is keyed to the stall it's ordered from. That situation is only compounded if a car subsequently pulls up and orders from the same stall; in rare occasions, the original food will be delivered to the customer in the car, and if they're not paying attention, they won't realize it's not their food (the carhop reviews the order, but the customers aren't always paying attention when they do so). So it's not like we refuse to allow people on foot to order from the stalls on foot for fun; there are valid reasons, including safety, why we require all customers on foot to order from the patio.
So this lady tried to order from the stall on foot last night a few times, and we asked her to order from the patio each time. Finally, she tapped on the glass trying to get assistance; Adam came up to her and explained what was going on. She complained that several of her friends had already ordered from stalls (on foot) and had been serviced, while the line at the patio was long. Adam explained that we didn't see the people on foot, and if we had, we would have asked them to move as well, then briefly explained the safety and efficiency concerns involved. She threw a bitch-fit, deducing that we must be "discriminating" against her for some reason, and that if she didn't get a coupon, she wouldn't be eating here.
Yeah, I'm laughing too.
Something similiar happened a while back, where I asked someone to move to the patio; he did so, ordered, but left before his food got there (it took less than three minutes) because he was just so angry. I think he flicked me off as he was leaving, and said something to one of the carhops about me as well. I have multiple witnesses, though, that can confirm I was nothing but polite. He called back later, and the converstaion went something like this:
[Phone]: "Ring, ring. Ring, ring."
[Me]: "Hello, thank you for calling Sonic Drive-In. How may I help you?"
[Customer]: "Yeah, remember me?"
[Me]: "No, sir?"
[Customer]: "I was there earlier. Who's your manager?"
[Me]: "Our manager is Davi-"
[Customer]: "That's not good enough!! Let me speak to him!!"
[Me}: "I'm sorry sir, he's gone for the day. Would you like to speak to an assistant manager?"
[Customer]: <Hangs up>
It was just really funny.
Still to come: Another (at least one) post about George Lucas being an ego-driven manical fool who stopped caring about his fans.
Speaking of which, today was a fun day. George called last night and said he was stuck in Austin, and ended up not coming in. Today, he didn't even call. So he's fired. Which is good, despite my previous comments. Although it did force me to work a little longer than I hoped for - Thomas was hoping to pick up extra hours, so he was going to come in at 2 for me; Rudy ended up bringing him in about noon and he stayed past five; I worked 8 - 5. Came home, mowed the lawn (front and back) and Ms. Adam's front lawn (since her lawn mower is broken right now), then showered and went and gave Freddie a ride to work. Saw Lilly again, not that that matters.
My schedule for this week is interesting -
Tue 8 - ? (Couldn't read it, though Rudy thinks it's 2 or 3)
Thu 12 - 6
Sat 8 - 5
Sun 8 - 5
Saturday and Sunday are going to be fun - back to back 10 hour (trust me, they'll stretch that far, especially Saturday) shifts. Though I do I have Friday off again; maybe I'll come up with something to do this time.
Last night, a large group pulled up - apparently, some team from Kansas City or something. We got slammed - that's why I ended up staying 'til 11:45 or so. They kept trying to order from the stalls (along with some boy scouts that pulled up today). That segues into another story from last night (this is pieced together from talking to Adam as well as my own experience last night):
Several people were trying to order from stalls on foot. We don't allow that, for various reasons. First and foremost, your safety. If a customer is standing close to the menu board, there's a chance a car won't see them and will pull into that stall, which can be very bad for both the person on foot and the driver. Second, if they order from the stall then move to the patio, that causes a great deal of confusion on our part, since each order is keyed to the stall it's ordered from. That situation is only compounded if a car subsequently pulls up and orders from the same stall; in rare occasions, the original food will be delivered to the customer in the car, and if they're not paying attention, they won't realize it's not their food (the carhop reviews the order, but the customers aren't always paying attention when they do so). So it's not like we refuse to allow people on foot to order from the stalls on foot for fun; there are valid reasons, including safety, why we require all customers on foot to order from the patio.
So this lady tried to order from the stall on foot last night a few times, and we asked her to order from the patio each time. Finally, she tapped on the glass trying to get assistance; Adam came up to her and explained what was going on. She complained that several of her friends had already ordered from stalls (on foot) and had been serviced, while the line at the patio was long. Adam explained that we didn't see the people on foot, and if we had, we would have asked them to move as well, then briefly explained the safety and efficiency concerns involved. She threw a bitch-fit, deducing that we must be "discriminating" against her for some reason, and that if she didn't get a coupon, she wouldn't be eating here.
Yeah, I'm laughing too.
Something similiar happened a while back, where I asked someone to move to the patio; he did so, ordered, but left before his food got there (it took less than three minutes) because he was just so angry. I think he flicked me off as he was leaving, and said something to one of the carhops about me as well. I have multiple witnesses, though, that can confirm I was nothing but polite. He called back later, and the converstaion went something like this:
[Phone]: "Ring, ring. Ring, ring."
[Me]: "Hello, thank you for calling Sonic Drive-In. How may I help you?"
[Customer]: "Yeah, remember me?"
[Me]: "No, sir?"
[Customer]: "I was there earlier. Who's your manager?"
[Me]: "Our manager is Davi-"
[Customer]: "That's not good enough!! Let me speak to him!!"
[Me}: "I'm sorry sir, he's gone for the day. Would you like to speak to an assistant manager?"
[Customer]: <Hangs up>
It was just really funny.
Still to come: Another (at least one) post about George Lucas being an ego-driven manical fool who stopped caring about his fans.
2004-09-26
Could you be the kind lady that I'm seeking
After all this time could it be true love?
Went to a barbacue at Freddie's last night. It was fun. Katie was there, and her and I were the only ones not drinking, so we spent a good amount of the evening together. Got my ass whooped at dominoes, and learned how to play Texas Hold 'Em (or something like that). Before that, I was at Dragon's Lair, playing D&D Mini's with Brett and Michael. Got beaten mercilessly in both a 1v1 with Brett and a 3 way free for all with both of them.
Today, I didn't do much. That is, until I went in to work 3 - 11. The remainder of the day shift was fairly uneventful. Saw the new carhop, Chelsea. Yeah. That's good. It's not like I have any... issues with that name or anything. Bruce was there as well, annoying as always. I hate him. Not nearly as much as Mark or Dave, but a lot, in his own way. Rudy did tell me that George had called, and that he was stuck in Austin without a ride home and wouldn't be able to come in tonight (how convenient?).
The evening shift was a lot more fun. Javi managed, after returning from a five day vacation. Freddie and Dennis were cooking as well, and we had a new cook start - Frank, Dora's boyfriend. Freddie and I started showing him how to work the grill, which seems to be where we start all of the new cooks. No real issues in the kitchen; Freddie and I cooked, then had Dennis start onion rings when he came in at 8; after he finished, I started breaking down and doing dishes. I had to come up and help some when we got a major rush, but completed dishes and stocking up by 11:30 and go out of there. Katie was fountaining, and we talked a little, which was nice. I enjoy talking to her a lot. Ashley was carhopping, and I think I freaked her out - when I was looking at her, it looked like her eyebrows were penciled on (completely), so I was trying to catch a profile view of her so I could see the hair sticking out from her skin and confirm that they were, in fact, real hair. It kind of freaked her out (I didn't tell her why I was trying to see her from the side). I did catch a glimpse, though, during one of the rushes, though, and later explained it to her as I was leaving. I'm not sure if that made things better or worse, though.
I'm supposed to work 8 - 5 tomorrow, but Thomas wants to pick up some extra hours, so he's going to come in at 2 and work 'til 7 (having Freddie not come in until 7 instead of 5). That'll be nice. What won't be nice is next week, though. I'm off Friday again, which is cool, but work 8 - ? Tuesday (it's a bad copier, and that part is blacked out), 12 - 6 Thursday, and 8 - 5 both Saturday and Sunday. I think it was Freddie who suggested that Dave was testing me to make sure I could handle repeated long shifts. That's bullshit, though - I've certainly already proved it when I worked back-to-back 14 hour shifts, or when I worked a 15 hour shift, spent two days helping Rose and Katie move, then worked another 15 hour shift. Or that week when I worked 8 - 7, 8 - 5, 8 - 2, 6:30 - 2 on Monday - Thursday.
Today, I didn't do much. That is, until I went in to work 3 - 11. The remainder of the day shift was fairly uneventful. Saw the new carhop, Chelsea. Yeah. That's good. It's not like I have any... issues with that name or anything. Bruce was there as well, annoying as always. I hate him. Not nearly as much as Mark or Dave, but a lot, in his own way. Rudy did tell me that George had called, and that he was stuck in Austin without a ride home and wouldn't be able to come in tonight (how convenient?).
The evening shift was a lot more fun. Javi managed, after returning from a five day vacation. Freddie and Dennis were cooking as well, and we had a new cook start - Frank, Dora's boyfriend. Freddie and I started showing him how to work the grill, which seems to be where we start all of the new cooks. No real issues in the kitchen; Freddie and I cooked, then had Dennis start onion rings when he came in at 8; after he finished, I started breaking down and doing dishes. I had to come up and help some when we got a major rush, but completed dishes and stocking up by 11:30 and go out of there. Katie was fountaining, and we talked a little, which was nice. I enjoy talking to her a lot. Ashley was carhopping, and I think I freaked her out - when I was looking at her, it looked like her eyebrows were penciled on (completely), so I was trying to catch a profile view of her so I could see the hair sticking out from her skin and confirm that they were, in fact, real hair. It kind of freaked her out (I didn't tell her why I was trying to see her from the side). I did catch a glimpse, though, during one of the rushes, though, and later explained it to her as I was leaving. I'm not sure if that made things better or worse, though.
I'm supposed to work 8 - 5 tomorrow, but Thomas wants to pick up some extra hours, so he's going to come in at 2 and work 'til 7 (having Freddie not come in until 7 instead of 5). That'll be nice. What won't be nice is next week, though. I'm off Friday again, which is cool, but work 8 - ? Tuesday (it's a bad copier, and that part is blacked out), 12 - 6 Thursday, and 8 - 5 both Saturday and Sunday. I think it was Freddie who suggested that Dave was testing me to make sure I could handle repeated long shifts. That's bullshit, though - I've certainly already proved it when I worked back-to-back 14 hour shifts, or when I worked a 15 hour shift, spent two days helping Rose and Katie move, then worked another 15 hour shift. Or that week when I worked 8 - 7, 8 - 5, 8 - 2, 6:30 - 2 on Monday - Thursday.
2004-09-15
Do you believe in magic, in a young girl's heart?
I can't believe it's taken me until Wednesday morning to do these posts (and I'm not entirely sure I'll get to them right now either; I'll just get through what I can.)
Went in to work Sunday morning. It was actually kind of fun. I was cooking, Kristen was fountaining, and Lilie was carhopping. Apparently, she hadn't quite abandoned the idea of us hooking up yet - she asked her a few questions ("Have you played DDR?") and just generally helped foment conversation between us. Interestingly enough, though, it took place without her prodding - somehow, I got on the topic of the new release of the Star Wars Trilogy (that's another post coming up), and got really worked up about that and Episodes I and II, and she made a few comments as well. She even said, and I quote, "At least you're not a Star Wars book nerd." My response? "I am." It was just a fun shift.
Didn't do much Sunday night, other than my chemistry homework. Woke up Monday and went to class. I left at about 8:30 to grab a parking spot, but of course, they were already full (I'll be leaving about 8 today for my attempt). Drove back quickly and hoofed it, though I did grab the bus about halfway. Went to chem, did Matt's PrC while waiting for it to start. The person in the seat on the other side showed up - another cute girl. Go me. Nothing of note happened during Chem, really, except I learned that the two girls on my left aren't... terribly smart.
Went to Intro Fine Arts. Our first critique is due Monday; our first test is today. I'm prepared for it - I went through his flash review on Blackboard and got everything right, so I think I'll be fine. He has a very aggressive testing schedule, as well as having four midterms and a final (though we get to drop one, I think; that, or have the final replace it).
Didn't go to Prob. or CS after that, for various reasons. Since I had the afternoon off, I went and played some DDR. I passed Healing Vision (Angelic Mix) and Exotic Ethnic (pictured below), both on Singles/Heavy. Went and played D&D with the guys (pictures to come); almost quit the campaign, but decided against it. I haven't completely ruled out another hiatus, though. They're playing Matt's campaign next Monday, so that'll give me a small break. We even squeezed in a few Halo matches before and in the middle of the game. Jarrod dominated, as usual, but I did manage a strong second in the first match. We talked about having a Halo event - we have the X-Boxes, the TVs, and the router.
Worked yesterday 12 - 5, short shift. I got to fountain again finally, mainly due to the influx of new cooks. Not only did I get to fountain, but I got to fountain with Tracy, which is awesome. Ashley was carhopping, and she's finally started coming out of her shell. It's always fun to watch someone who's been fairly quiet start to open up and talk with us. I vaguely remember going through the same thing myself, though I doubt most of the current employees would believe it. Dennis and George were cooking, and they didn't get along at all - apparently, George took issue at Dennis's repeated commands. Hopefully, he'll leave. That'd be great.
Came home and hung around. Played a little Warcraft 3, took a shower, and then crashed out. I had a very nice nap, but woke up groggy. I talked to Freddie after that, and it sounds like he's going to be getting a blue shirt as well. Possibly. Jarrod message'd me to ask about me quitting the campaign, and was very glad when I told him that I wouldn't be any time soon. Rose also called; she's going to be in town this evening and would dearly like a ride home, which I'll be providing. I'll also be giving Laurin a ride home sometime later this week - I hate Freddie *so* much.
In general news:
*) It seems like my internet connection is finally, truly stable. I sent Grande an email, but without any account or identifying information. However, it does seem to be working now, so I'm happy.
*) My loan went through, finally. I checked my account balance, and it was all paid off. I'll be getting my check at some point, which will be great. I'll be saving most of it, though, to accrue for later expenses, tuition, and what-not.
*) I haven't been able to play a game of B5 in a while now. It's fairly depressing. Engine participation has dropped off severely lately, though that's no surprise, given WotC's pulling of 9 games, most of which were popular and actually drew people in. I'll say it again - most of the licensed games suck. And even the ones that don't aren't sufficient to bring people in and have them pay to play them. I know V:TES might be the exception to that, but we'll see how that goes. A lot of games (non-licensed) that don't suck have a lot of anticipation but fail to follow through. Novelty also commented on that trend, and it's fairly disheartening to some PLs.
*) I finally got to talk to Carrie online again. I really miss her. I hope against all odds that we'll get to see each other again some time.
*) Played some Star Ocean 3, and finally rescued Nel. The boss fight was... pathetic - I pulled off two battle trophies during the fight - Beat with 1 minute and Beat with No Damage. I got lost in the mansion prior to that fight and leveled up significantly higher than I should be right now, which usually happens to me at one point or another in most RPGs. I've also been considering getting Phantom Brave, an sRPG from Ichon Nippi (I might be making that name up; I know it's something like that), the makers of Disgaea (which I love) and La Pucelle (which I don't care for). I might even pull something really weird and rent it first.
*) After an hour or so of messing around, I managed to finally delete my 'My Documents' folder this morning at about 2. Unfortunately, that caused my Wallpaper Randomizer program to seriuosly malfunction, so I un- and re-installed it, and it recreated the "My Documents" folder. I guess I'll have to learn to live with it for the time being. I did, however, learn how to change what it adds to the title bar in my IE windows; for example, this window says "Enter the Jackalope :: Create New Post" - Crystalline Shard". Normally, it would say "- Internet Explorer" at the end.
I need a life.
Went in to work Sunday morning. It was actually kind of fun. I was cooking, Kristen was fountaining, and Lilie was carhopping. Apparently, she hadn't quite abandoned the idea of us hooking up yet - she asked her a few questions ("Have you played DDR?") and just generally helped foment conversation between us. Interestingly enough, though, it took place without her prodding - somehow, I got on the topic of the new release of the Star Wars Trilogy (that's another post coming up), and got really worked up about that and Episodes I and II, and she made a few comments as well. She even said, and I quote, "At least you're not a Star Wars book nerd." My response? "I am." It was just a fun shift.
Didn't do much Sunday night, other than my chemistry homework. Woke up Monday and went to class. I left at about 8:30 to grab a parking spot, but of course, they were already full (I'll be leaving about 8 today for my attempt). Drove back quickly and hoofed it, though I did grab the bus about halfway. Went to chem, did Matt's PrC while waiting for it to start. The person in the seat on the other side showed up - another cute girl. Go me. Nothing of note happened during Chem, really, except I learned that the two girls on my left aren't... terribly smart.
Went to Intro Fine Arts. Our first critique is due Monday; our first test is today. I'm prepared for it - I went through his flash review on Blackboard and got everything right, so I think I'll be fine. He has a very aggressive testing schedule, as well as having four midterms and a final (though we get to drop one, I think; that, or have the final replace it).
Didn't go to Prob. or CS after that, for various reasons. Since I had the afternoon off, I went and played some DDR. I passed Healing Vision (Angelic Mix) and Exotic Ethnic (pictured below), both on Singles/Heavy. Went and played D&D with the guys (pictures to come); almost quit the campaign, but decided against it. I haven't completely ruled out another hiatus, though. They're playing Matt's campaign next Monday, so that'll give me a small break. We even squeezed in a few Halo matches before and in the middle of the game. Jarrod dominated, as usual, but I did manage a strong second in the first match. We talked about having a Halo event - we have the X-Boxes, the TVs, and the router.
Worked yesterday 12 - 5, short shift. I got to fountain again finally, mainly due to the influx of new cooks. Not only did I get to fountain, but I got to fountain with Tracy, which is awesome. Ashley was carhopping, and she's finally started coming out of her shell. It's always fun to watch someone who's been fairly quiet start to open up and talk with us. I vaguely remember going through the same thing myself, though I doubt most of the current employees would believe it. Dennis and George were cooking, and they didn't get along at all - apparently, George took issue at Dennis's repeated commands. Hopefully, he'll leave. That'd be great.
Came home and hung around. Played a little Warcraft 3, took a shower, and then crashed out. I had a very nice nap, but woke up groggy. I talked to Freddie after that, and it sounds like he's going to be getting a blue shirt as well. Possibly. Jarrod message'd me to ask about me quitting the campaign, and was very glad when I told him that I wouldn't be any time soon. Rose also called; she's going to be in town this evening and would dearly like a ride home, which I'll be providing. I'll also be giving Laurin a ride home sometime later this week - I hate Freddie *so* much.
In general news:
*) It seems like my internet connection is finally, truly stable. I sent Grande an email, but without any account or identifying information. However, it does seem to be working now, so I'm happy.
*) My loan went through, finally. I checked my account balance, and it was all paid off. I'll be getting my check at some point, which will be great. I'll be saving most of it, though, to accrue for later expenses, tuition, and what-not.
*) I haven't been able to play a game of B5 in a while now. It's fairly depressing. Engine participation has dropped off severely lately, though that's no surprise, given WotC's pulling of 9 games, most of which were popular and actually drew people in. I'll say it again - most of the licensed games suck. And even the ones that don't aren't sufficient to bring people in and have them pay to play them. I know V:TES might be the exception to that, but we'll see how that goes. A lot of games (non-licensed) that don't suck have a lot of anticipation but fail to follow through. Novelty also commented on that trend, and it's fairly disheartening to some PLs.
*) I finally got to talk to Carrie online again. I really miss her. I hope against all odds that we'll get to see each other again some time.
*) Played some Star Ocean 3, and finally rescued Nel. The boss fight was... pathetic - I pulled off two battle trophies during the fight - Beat with 1 minute and Beat with No Damage. I got lost in the mansion prior to that fight and leveled up significantly higher than I should be right now, which usually happens to me at one point or another in most RPGs. I've also been considering getting Phantom Brave, an sRPG from Ichon Nippi (I might be making that name up; I know it's something like that), the makers of Disgaea (which I love) and La Pucelle (which I don't care for). I might even pull something really weird and rent it first.
*) After an hour or so of messing around, I managed to finally delete my 'My Documents' folder this morning at about 2. Unfortunately, that caused my Wallpaper Randomizer program to seriuosly malfunction, so I un- and re-installed it, and it recreated the "My Documents" folder. I guess I'll have to learn to live with it for the time being. I did, however, learn how to change what it adds to the title bar in my IE windows; for example, this window says "Enter the Jackalope :: Create New Post" - Crystalline Shard". Normally, it would say "- Internet Explorer" at the end.
I need a life.
2004-09-09
Picture dump - D&D, Heather, and stuff
 |  |
| The night line as I'm driving to Austin. | Heather, sitting in my truck. |
 |  |
| Heather again, as we're leaving. | Laurin, Freddie's chick, in her apartment as I was dropping him off. |
 |  |
| Her cat liked me. | Laurin again, this time, looking at me. |
 |  |
| Laurin and Freddie looking the other way. | Jarrod, as we're getting ready to play. |
 |  |
| Matt. | Luke. I like his shirt. |
 |  |
| Michael. | The guys. |
 |  |
| I'm trying to remember what happened. I think this is them... fighting some orcs or something like that. | Nice face. |
 |  |
| My DM table. | Sideways. |
 |  |
| Luke got some cool sticky notes. | The kitchen. |
 |  |
| The couch and living room. | The side door to the balcony. |
 |  |
| Luke's bedroom. | The clock and front door. |
 |  |
| No idea. | A cup. I think. |
 |  |
| The party sleeping, and Matt comes back with a dead body? No idea. | Still none. |
 |  |
| Michael. | Whoa!! Crazy!! |
 |  |
| And again. | Brett waited for us at Burger King for like ten minutes. |
 |  |
| Matt getting his soda. | Luke. I like his shirt. |
 |  |
| The caravan, as Lorm tries to sneak in the princess's carriage. He tried to break the door down, but somehow faild. | I don't trust them. |
 |  |
| Or him. I don't even know what he's doing. | Again with the door. |
 |  |
| Zhao Xi and his super-horse hovered above the carriage and she asked the princess what was going on. | They prepared to attack the caravan. |
 |  |
| They just jumped out and started it up. | The soldiers turned the wagon and carriage and used them as cover. |
 |  |
| Lorm triple-critted the leader, taking him out, then found himself surrounded by archers. | But started going through them like miniature kobolds. |
 | |
| Cullen in action at the smoothie place. My first SWT picture. | |
