I just spent the last six hours making pizzas.
And it was, at a conservative estimate, about a hundred times better than working at Sonic, with the exception of the three people I truly miss.
I mean, the attitude was totally different. Everyone was joking around, having a good time. It reminded me of the good days at Sonic, when I had a great crew. Of course, with 10-14 people on a shift, the possibility of a few bad apples ruining it for me was a lot greater. I think at our peak yesterday, there were four people inside, which was too many. They immediately accepted me as on of their own, possibly because I already knew how to do everything - I didn't start slapping dough until everyone but Juan was gone, but I can still do that really well, as well. The night went fine, even when it was just Sergio and me; I handled just about all of the closing duties myself, and I think I'll be closing by myself next week.
Of course, there were a *few* low points of the evening. I had a bad headache most of the night, but of course, I don't really blame Domino's for that. Oh, being back in the store also brings back a lot of memories. Most of them are really good, but a few, well, are ones I don't really dwell on anymore - most notably Lilie. I mean, I'm over her. Well, as over anyone as I ever get, which is mostly.
Gwen Stefani -- Hollaback Girl
2007-08-17
Now, that this love has overcome me
So, it's been quite a while since I've done an in-depth post about what's going on in my life, so I'm going to try to provide a brief history of what I've been up to.
So, I was working at Wal-Mart, doing overnight stocking on the grocery side of the store. I really liked it, for a few reasons. First, I didn't really have to deal with any customers at all. Well, I did occasionally, but it was stuff like "Hey dude, where's the Gatorade?" "Aisle six, right side, halfway down the aisle after the Kool-Aid." Usually, two to three of those a night, more on Fridays and Saturdays. The time period was great - 10 pm to 7 (8/9/10) am, which was fantastic. Work all night, sleep all day. I loved it. Had two days off, which didn't change from week to week. I was working with Matt, which meant we never had scheduling conflicts (at least, not work-based) for playing racquetball, and it made transportation fairly simple. There was even a cute girl, Robyn, to look at from time to time.
However, there were some definite downsides. First, we were constantly understaffed. I mean, systemically and intentionally. (In a related side-note, they've recently laid off even more people, causing massive understaffing throughout the entire store. Productivity has suffered as a result.) We were often running behind due to our lack of sufficient people. Of course, management didn't see it that way - we were "slackers" and "needed to pick up our pace." Juan constantly threatened us, saying that when the remodel was over, we were going to all be replaced by the remodel workers that they hired. That kind of frustrated me. At some point, Javi called me on my cell, asking if I still wanted to work there (in desperation, while searching for a job before Wal-Mart called, I stopped by there to see if they would hire me back. Dave waffled on it, but eventually left the option up to Javi, who called me, though by the time he did, Wal-Mart had called, so I declined.). He told me that Bubba, the former GM of Buda, was now our GM, and that things were totally different. Also, Ashley (of Domino's fame) was also an assistant there now, which was really neat. I really like working with her. We talked about it briefly, and I told him I'd call him back.
As luck would have it, a few days later, we had a ton of freight come in, a few people call in, and Juan was in particularly rare form. Ambra had started working there at this point, and Mindy was gone. Well, at that point, I decided I'd had enough. I went to the bathroom, called Ashley, confirmed that they still had a place for me, and walked out. It was fun. I clocked out, went up to Juan, and handed him my discount card that had my clock in bar code on the opposite side. He was kind of caught off-guard, as a good walk-out will always catch management. It was awesome. He told me that he'd always confirmed (excused) my absences - I had like four or so - and that he certainly wasn't referring to me when he talked about how much we suck. I wasn't going to be dissuaded, though, and I left. I kind of apologized to Ambra on the way out, because she was still there with all this terrible freight to have to deal with. On the way out, I stopped to talk to Robyn, let her know I enjoyed working with her but that I was leaving, and that I thought she was fantastically cute.
The personnel lady called me a few days later about why I left. I told her about Juan, she said something like "Well, that's certainly not true." Not the point. "Well, he shouldn't have done that." Yeah, I believe I indicated I already thought as much by leaving. She asked me if I wanted to talk to Terry (our GM), I half-heartedly accepted, but never showed up.
The next day, I was talking to Javi and Bubba at Sonic. One week after that, I walked into my first day of Sonic. That was interesting, because only Javi, Ashley, Bubba, and a few people who were still there - Larry, Cruz, Pedro - knew who I was. Everyone else just saw this new guy - goofy looking - in a shirt and tie, walking around like he knew the store like the back of his hand. Which I do. Anyway. I knew it was going to suck going in to it, but I figured, hey, Javi and Ashley are there, so how bad could it really be?
I quickly became acquainted with the new crew, which was in some ways better, some ways worse than the old crew I dealt with. Well, the old crew was probably better in most respects. I won't go too much into specifics, but there were some very constant things that really defined the new crew. Whining, for one thing. Attitude problems, for another. There were a few people I really despised, and a few people I really liked (Emily, Ashley S, Katie). Things started off pretty good. I started getting around 70 hours a week, which was nice, since it amounted to a FUCKTON of overtime, and very nice paychecks.
Then Ashley left.
That really, really, really sucked. I was really sad that she left, but I totally understand her decision to leave. She was really frustrated, since she had only wanted to be part time, and she hadn't worked less than 50 hours on any week since she started. She felt that either Bubba or upper management, whoever was responsible for it, just wasn't doing enough to get us more assistants, and Bubba kept scheduling her a ton (more on this later). That, and how frustrating and stressful of a job it is to begin with, made her leave. We didn't get another manager or anything for a quite a while, and we had a bit of a staffing crisis for a while. We got through that.
Then Javi left. That was really the beginning of the end for me, as well. Javi's last week, I worked 90 hours without a day off. Now, I was used to 70 hours a week with one day off, and that was okay. However, 90/0 wasn't really okay. Well, it would have been okay, but Bubba didn't see fit to warn me or anything. I mean, he knew about it as early as Sunday morning, possibly earlier. I wish he would have warned me or something, since he wasn't releasing the schedule for the week until Monday afternoon, which was also really frustrating. So I had to take this annoying Serv-Safe class (8 hours, 90 multiple-choice question test, test took about six and a half minutes), then go in and close afterwards. That was alright, since the early draft of the schedule had me off on Tuesday. However, I walk in around 6:30, look at the schedule, and find out I don't have a day off that week. Yeah, I was kind of upset. I mean, I know a lot of people work seven days a week, at jobs much harder than mine. I just wish Bubba would have warned me or something.
So Javi left, and it was just me, Angie, and Bubba. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Bubba took over doing the order and the schedule. We'd run out of stuff a lot more - tater tots, ranch, barbecue sauce, M&M's, spoons, bananas, sugar, you name it. That, and people would get scheduled when they weren't available, which, to be fair, stopped for the most part eventually. There were several weeks, though, where a lot of people couldn't come in when they were scheduled and it was our fault. Good times. The other fun thing about having Bubba in charge of scheduling... well, it really had nothing to do with him being in charge of scheduling, but something systemic about him managing, was that he expected every employee to be 100% devoted to the Drive-In. I'm not talking about just while they're on the clock, which I agree with, but ALL THE TIME. Every time someone called in, he'd ask people to stay late, and come in early, and come in on their only day off, and would get annoyed when they couldn't. I mean, I'm talking about people who'd already worked eight, ten hours, or had worked six days and it was their only day off. We didn't seem to be pursuing the long term solution, hiring more people so we didn't have to keep asking people to work stupid amounts of hours.
So yeah, I have a few grievances with Bubba as a GM. I think part of it might be the difference between Buda and San Marcos. Most of our crew members, at least non-cook, are college kids, who aren't looking for 40 hours a week, and will work that much if you need them to, but didn't apply for that. They're going to highly value their time outside of work, and place a greater premium on social time and interaction then on being at work, hence the frustration with always, ALWAYS being called in. Now, most of them are more than happy to help out occasionally. However, it starts to get annoying, when every other day, you're asked to stay late or come in early, when every day you "have off", you're asked to come in for a bit. There's a line between "helping out" and "being expected to be overly devoted to your job". That's one of the reasons Ashley left, as well.
So yeah, I put in my two weeks notice almost two weeks ago, on Saturday the fourth. I walked out on Friday the tenth. Almost made it. I didn't really tell anyone that I was leaving, except for Aaron, the assistant we were borrowing from Montopolis (who was a friend of Bubba's) a few days a week. That week, we finally had a new assistant start; he was an ex-GM from Round Rock or something.
Yeah, I feel pretty bad about walking out. Sort of. I mean, not really. I was really pissed off. Oh, yeah, forgot to mention, Sergio got the store, and called to offer me an MIT position. So I took that; I'll be starting there in a week. That's fun.
So that's where I am in terms of work. On to other matters.
I moved out of Les Chateaux a month or so after starting at Sonic. Moved back home instead of getting a 3-bedroom place with Ambra and David, decided to go back to school and the cheap rent offered at home would be a huge help towards that goal. I'm just now, three months later, that I'm finally starting to move in and get everything unpacked. I'm almost done there. Janelle moved out the other day, that was interesting. Not just into a dorm for the semester, but into a four bedroom apartment at University Springs with three dudes. That's cool. Spent Monday picking her up from the airport, then helping her move out. Got a decent entertainment center out of the deal, so I came out ahead.
Haven't talked to Lilie in, oh, probably two months now. I was going up to Austin every day off to play DDR and/or ITG2, and I'd usually call her before or during to see if she was around to see if she'd like to meet up, say hi, that kind of thing. The first time, I actually got a hold of her, and she didn't really seem very enthusiastic or anything. Every subsequent time, no answer whatsoever. A few weeks of that, and no reply whatsoever to any IMs/phone calls/emails, and I got the hint.
So yeah, I've already put in my application at SWT. I got re-accepted as well, so that's neat. I just have to go in for an academic advising appointment, then I'll be good to go. I'm starting in the Spring, and I'm pretty sure of what classes I'd like to take - Discrete I, Data Structures, Chem I, whatever CS course is next in my progression, and possibly Probability, depending on scheduling.
Oh, I sold my WoW account to David. Just didn't have the time working 70 hours a week, usually in 12-14 hour days. That, and the internet connection here SUCKED. It's getting better; we've upgraded our connection, and are on our third modem. So, we'll see. I'm contemplating buying it back, but I want to see how things go at Domino's first. Oh, Gina marked me down as non-rehireable, so that's fun. Eileen let Sergio rehire me anyway, so that's cool.
I think that's a sufficient return to blogging. More to come as updates warrant.
DJ Smooth -- DUI 091406
So, I was working at Wal-Mart, doing overnight stocking on the grocery side of the store. I really liked it, for a few reasons. First, I didn't really have to deal with any customers at all. Well, I did occasionally, but it was stuff like "Hey dude, where's the Gatorade?" "Aisle six, right side, halfway down the aisle after the Kool-Aid." Usually, two to three of those a night, more on Fridays and Saturdays. The time period was great - 10 pm to 7 (8/9/10) am, which was fantastic. Work all night, sleep all day. I loved it. Had two days off, which didn't change from week to week. I was working with Matt, which meant we never had scheduling conflicts (at least, not work-based) for playing racquetball, and it made transportation fairly simple. There was even a cute girl, Robyn, to look at from time to time.
However, there were some definite downsides. First, we were constantly understaffed. I mean, systemically and intentionally. (In a related side-note, they've recently laid off even more people, causing massive understaffing throughout the entire store. Productivity has suffered as a result.) We were often running behind due to our lack of sufficient people. Of course, management didn't see it that way - we were "slackers" and "needed to pick up our pace." Juan constantly threatened us, saying that when the remodel was over, we were going to all be replaced by the remodel workers that they hired. That kind of frustrated me. At some point, Javi called me on my cell, asking if I still wanted to work there (in desperation, while searching for a job before Wal-Mart called, I stopped by there to see if they would hire me back. Dave waffled on it, but eventually left the option up to Javi, who called me, though by the time he did, Wal-Mart had called, so I declined.). He told me that Bubba, the former GM of Buda, was now our GM, and that things were totally different. Also, Ashley (of Domino's fame) was also an assistant there now, which was really neat. I really like working with her. We talked about it briefly, and I told him I'd call him back.
As luck would have it, a few days later, we had a ton of freight come in, a few people call in, and Juan was in particularly rare form. Ambra had started working there at this point, and Mindy was gone. Well, at that point, I decided I'd had enough. I went to the bathroom, called Ashley, confirmed that they still had a place for me, and walked out. It was fun. I clocked out, went up to Juan, and handed him my discount card that had my clock in bar code on the opposite side. He was kind of caught off-guard, as a good walk-out will always catch management. It was awesome. He told me that he'd always confirmed (excused) my absences - I had like four or so - and that he certainly wasn't referring to me when he talked about how much we suck. I wasn't going to be dissuaded, though, and I left. I kind of apologized to Ambra on the way out, because she was still there with all this terrible freight to have to deal with. On the way out, I stopped to talk to Robyn, let her know I enjoyed working with her but that I was leaving, and that I thought she was fantastically cute.
The personnel lady called me a few days later about why I left. I told her about Juan, she said something like "Well, that's certainly not true." Not the point. "Well, he shouldn't have done that." Yeah, I believe I indicated I already thought as much by leaving. She asked me if I wanted to talk to Terry (our GM), I half-heartedly accepted, but never showed up.
The next day, I was talking to Javi and Bubba at Sonic. One week after that, I walked into my first day of Sonic. That was interesting, because only Javi, Ashley, Bubba, and a few people who were still there - Larry, Cruz, Pedro - knew who I was. Everyone else just saw this new guy - goofy looking - in a shirt and tie, walking around like he knew the store like the back of his hand. Which I do. Anyway. I knew it was going to suck going in to it, but I figured, hey, Javi and Ashley are there, so how bad could it really be?
I quickly became acquainted with the new crew, which was in some ways better, some ways worse than the old crew I dealt with. Well, the old crew was probably better in most respects. I won't go too much into specifics, but there were some very constant things that really defined the new crew. Whining, for one thing. Attitude problems, for another. There were a few people I really despised, and a few people I really liked (Emily, Ashley S, Katie). Things started off pretty good. I started getting around 70 hours a week, which was nice, since it amounted to a FUCKTON of overtime, and very nice paychecks.
Then Ashley left.
That really, really, really sucked. I was really sad that she left, but I totally understand her decision to leave. She was really frustrated, since she had only wanted to be part time, and she hadn't worked less than 50 hours on any week since she started. She felt that either Bubba or upper management, whoever was responsible for it, just wasn't doing enough to get us more assistants, and Bubba kept scheduling her a ton (more on this later). That, and how frustrating and stressful of a job it is to begin with, made her leave. We didn't get another manager or anything for a quite a while, and we had a bit of a staffing crisis for a while. We got through that.
Then Javi left. That was really the beginning of the end for me, as well. Javi's last week, I worked 90 hours without a day off. Now, I was used to 70 hours a week with one day off, and that was okay. However, 90/0 wasn't really okay. Well, it would have been okay, but Bubba didn't see fit to warn me or anything. I mean, he knew about it as early as Sunday morning, possibly earlier. I wish he would have warned me or something, since he wasn't releasing the schedule for the week until Monday afternoon, which was also really frustrating. So I had to take this annoying Serv-Safe class (8 hours, 90 multiple-choice question test, test took about six and a half minutes), then go in and close afterwards. That was alright, since the early draft of the schedule had me off on Tuesday. However, I walk in around 6:30, look at the schedule, and find out I don't have a day off that week. Yeah, I was kind of upset. I mean, I know a lot of people work seven days a week, at jobs much harder than mine. I just wish Bubba would have warned me or something.
So Javi left, and it was just me, Angie, and Bubba. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Bubba took over doing the order and the schedule. We'd run out of stuff a lot more - tater tots, ranch, barbecue sauce, M&M's, spoons, bananas, sugar, you name it. That, and people would get scheduled when they weren't available, which, to be fair, stopped for the most part eventually. There were several weeks, though, where a lot of people couldn't come in when they were scheduled and it was our fault. Good times. The other fun thing about having Bubba in charge of scheduling... well, it really had nothing to do with him being in charge of scheduling, but something systemic about him managing, was that he expected every employee to be 100% devoted to the Drive-In. I'm not talking about just while they're on the clock, which I agree with, but ALL THE TIME. Every time someone called in, he'd ask people to stay late, and come in early, and come in on their only day off, and would get annoyed when they couldn't. I mean, I'm talking about people who'd already worked eight, ten hours, or had worked six days and it was their only day off. We didn't seem to be pursuing the long term solution, hiring more people so we didn't have to keep asking people to work stupid amounts of hours.
So yeah, I have a few grievances with Bubba as a GM. I think part of it might be the difference between Buda and San Marcos. Most of our crew members, at least non-cook, are college kids, who aren't looking for 40 hours a week, and will work that much if you need them to, but didn't apply for that. They're going to highly value their time outside of work, and place a greater premium on social time and interaction then on being at work, hence the frustration with always, ALWAYS being called in. Now, most of them are more than happy to help out occasionally. However, it starts to get annoying, when every other day, you're asked to stay late or come in early, when every day you "have off", you're asked to come in for a bit. There's a line between "helping out" and "being expected to be overly devoted to your job". That's one of the reasons Ashley left, as well.
So yeah, I put in my two weeks notice almost two weeks ago, on Saturday the fourth. I walked out on Friday the tenth. Almost made it. I didn't really tell anyone that I was leaving, except for Aaron, the assistant we were borrowing from Montopolis (who was a friend of Bubba's) a few days a week. That week, we finally had a new assistant start; he was an ex-GM from Round Rock or something.
Yeah, I feel pretty bad about walking out. Sort of. I mean, not really. I was really pissed off. Oh, yeah, forgot to mention, Sergio got the store, and called to offer me an MIT position. So I took that; I'll be starting there in a week. That's fun.
So that's where I am in terms of work. On to other matters.
I moved out of Les Chateaux a month or so after starting at Sonic. Moved back home instead of getting a 3-bedroom place with Ambra and David, decided to go back to school and the cheap rent offered at home would be a huge help towards that goal. I'm just now, three months later, that I'm finally starting to move in and get everything unpacked. I'm almost done there. Janelle moved out the other day, that was interesting. Not just into a dorm for the semester, but into a four bedroom apartment at University Springs with three dudes. That's cool. Spent Monday picking her up from the airport, then helping her move out. Got a decent entertainment center out of the deal, so I came out ahead.
Haven't talked to Lilie in, oh, probably two months now. I was going up to Austin every day off to play DDR and/or ITG2, and I'd usually call her before or during to see if she was around to see if she'd like to meet up, say hi, that kind of thing. The first time, I actually got a hold of her, and she didn't really seem very enthusiastic or anything. Every subsequent time, no answer whatsoever. A few weeks of that, and no reply whatsoever to any IMs/phone calls/emails, and I got the hint.
So yeah, I've already put in my application at SWT. I got re-accepted as well, so that's neat. I just have to go in for an academic advising appointment, then I'll be good to go. I'm starting in the Spring, and I'm pretty sure of what classes I'd like to take - Discrete I, Data Structures, Chem I, whatever CS course is next in my progression, and possibly Probability, depending on scheduling.
Oh, I sold my WoW account to David. Just didn't have the time working 70 hours a week, usually in 12-14 hour days. That, and the internet connection here SUCKED. It's getting better; we've upgraded our connection, and are on our third modem. So, we'll see. I'm contemplating buying it back, but I want to see how things go at Domino's first. Oh, Gina marked me down as non-rehireable, so that's fun. Eileen let Sergio rehire me anyway, so that's cool.
I think that's a sufficient return to blogging. More to come as updates warrant.
DJ Smooth -- DUI 091406
2007-08-11
2007-05-25
Not dead yet
Working 65-70 hours a week, quit playing WoW, going nuts living at home. Haven't unpacked much (anything except my computer), need to get on that. It's really messy in here.
2007-04-16
2007-03-01
2007-02-22
Sometimes, the feeling is right
So Ambra got fired from her job about a week ago. Came home in tears Friday afternoon, was really frustrated, and understandably so. I'm not really certain on the specifics, but the main that stood out is she felt she had been very wrongfully terminated. Nothing like discrimination, just that the reason they gave her was bullshit.
I don't know.
But she needed a new job pretty much right away, being in a similar financial situation as myself. I found out Saturday she was leaving Sunday to go home for a week, to work for her dad at his shop; she had worked there a lot when she was younger and lived at home. She called yesterday (?) or the day before and told me she was staying another week or so, I think she's coming back a week from tomorrow.
Scrap all that. I just got her voice mail, and I was kind of tired when I listened to it, but I think it said she's coming in tomorrow. I guess I misunderstood her second phone call, which I originally thought was her saying that she was going to be coming in the Friday after this Sunday, but maybe she was saying this Friday? I don't know. I just have trouble believing I misunderstood her that completely. Well, I guess that absolves me of the need to make a post about how I feel about her being gone for another week.
Aqua -- Dr. Jones
I don't know.
But she needed a new job pretty much right away, being in a similar financial situation as myself. I found out Saturday she was leaving Sunday to go home for a week, to work for her dad at his shop; she had worked there a lot when she was younger and lived at home. She called yesterday (?) or the day before and told me she was staying another week or so, I think she's coming back a week from tomorrow.
Scrap all that. I just got her voice mail, and I was kind of tired when I listened to it, but I think it said she's coming in tomorrow. I guess I misunderstood her second phone call, which I originally thought was her saying that she was going to be coming in the Friday after this Sunday, but maybe she was saying this Friday? I don't know. I just have trouble believing I misunderstood her that completely. Well, I guess that absolves me of the need to make a post about how I feel about her being gone for another week.
Aqua -- Dr. Jones
2007-02-21
Gonna make you, make you, make you, make you notice
Questing on Brooms still healing spec'ed, which, while slow, boring, and annoying, is good for blogging due to the constant water breaks.
So, Irving.
David and I drove up there in Mom's car, with all our gear stashed away in the trunk and back seat. I was driving first, and because I was really tired and knew I would fall asleep if I wasn't driving, planned on driving the whole way there. We ended up trading off in Waco, and I promptly fell asleep soon thereafter, awakening much later, once we entered Dallas. It was dark and rainy, so we had fun getting there. Traffic was pretty heavy, but not quite stop-and-go. We ended up taking a wrong turn - well, not really - the highway split, and we weren't ready for it, and ended up on the wrong side. Took about an extra hour or so to get there, but we finally did. Andy met us in the parking lot. He looks like a little kid. Kinda like a slightly older version of the Man Show Boy. Kyle's big and red-haired; Will has the porn star mustache, Ricky wears the trench coat. We had just about every nerd stereotype represented between the group of us. My throat was hurting slightly after I woke up, which would blossom into a weird throat thing over the coarse of the weekend - my voice ended up being an octave or two higher than normal, would crack occasionally, and had a lot of trouble getting it loud. It lasted after I got back, and I ended up calling into work that Tuesday as well. Overall, the weekend was a lot of fun. I speced full prot, which wasn't as bad as I thought. Even soloed as it for a bit - spam Devastate, not so bad. We were all on different schedules, so the mass instances didn't happen quite as well as we had anticipated; though, by the end of the third day, we were all more or less in sync, and were ripping stuff apart.
Overall, I love BC. I hate the new LFG system, and would much rather have the old system back. Some people say it's great, once you learn how to use it and don't mind putting in a little extra work; those people are idiots. I have 3 high level characters, a mid-high level characters, two mid-low level characters, and two very low-level characters. I can't look for groups for all of them at the same time, since the list you can access is based of your current character's level. That, and because it's now active on your part, you can't watch groups forming and jump in. And you can't really see a group forming and think "Hey, I'd like to do that!". You have to actively mark yourself as looking for a group. Also, it's now apparently okay to just invite someone with that instance marked. I mean, it kind of makes sense, but that's a major pet peeve for me, and I don't like it. Oh, and people who say "Just /join lookingforgroup" are also idiots. Since a tiny portion of the server is now going to be in the channel, it's worthless.
Been playing racquetball with Matt for a while now; finally beat him a little while ago. The game was like 15-8. I jumped at to a huge early lead, 11-2, but he fought his way back to prevent a slaughter. That's the only win I have in forty-something games, though I almost had another one yesterday (getting to that.) It's definitely helping my fitness, though the weight loss has been slower than I would hope, most likely because my atrocious eating habits haven't changed yet - working on that. I sprained my ankle a few weeks ago, that really hurt. The ball was coming back to me, I started to lean to the right to get it, then it did a weird bounce, and I had to shift to my left - this is completely lateral movement, no forward or back. I don't know why, but I fell. Hard. I fell directly on my left arm, since I fell straight to the left, and couldn't roll or use my hands or anything to brace myself. So my ankle hurt, and I didn't have a very good range of motion on my left arm, either. That was on Wednesday, went back to work Friday night. Nolan was, of course, completely unsympathetic to my injuries - "I don't want to hear about it. I don't have time for this." Annoying, but whatever. I've had it wrapped up since, and we finally started playing again recently. Yesterday, I was playing my heart out, and was up 14-6, his serve. Another good volley, then his shot rebounds off the wall, then hits the side, right in the corner. I was running hard to get it, but because of the weird bounce, wasn't able to. I ended up hitting the wall, which isn't anything bad, it happens all the time in a game. But as I rebounded off the wall, I fell over my ankle. It HURT. I mean, much, much worse than the first time did, probably since I was re-injuring it. Also, it's the same ankle I ripped up that time with Mindy. I was rolling around on the ground, screaming, for a bit. Like I said, it hurt. I finally managed to crawl off the court, people came running. Some old guy was like "There's a guy down on the courts", they weren't sure what was going on. Hell, the lifeguard, with her little first aid kit, even came. But there wasn't much they could do, though they did end up getting me an ice pack. It became apparent I wasn't going to get out of there under my own power, so Mom went home to get me some crutches. Gave me some painkillers, taken one so far, about to take another. And yeah, it started to swell something fierce - it was HUGE. I've slept, and twenty-four hours later, it's a little swollen, but not very bad. Very, very, very stiff - can barely move it, and can't put any pressure on it whatsoever. I can stand, but I'm standing on my right leg entirely, and my left foot is just kind of resting on the ground, not offering any help, besides a little balance. So that's fun.
Things I still want to write about:
The Pretenders -- Brass in Pocket
So, Irving.
David and I drove up there in Mom's car, with all our gear stashed away in the trunk and back seat. I was driving first, and because I was really tired and knew I would fall asleep if I wasn't driving, planned on driving the whole way there. We ended up trading off in Waco, and I promptly fell asleep soon thereafter, awakening much later, once we entered Dallas. It was dark and rainy, so we had fun getting there. Traffic was pretty heavy, but not quite stop-and-go. We ended up taking a wrong turn - well, not really - the highway split, and we weren't ready for it, and ended up on the wrong side. Took about an extra hour or so to get there, but we finally did. Andy met us in the parking lot. He looks like a little kid. Kinda like a slightly older version of the Man Show Boy. Kyle's big and red-haired; Will has the porn star mustache, Ricky wears the trench coat. We had just about every nerd stereotype represented between the group of us. My throat was hurting slightly after I woke up, which would blossom into a weird throat thing over the coarse of the weekend - my voice ended up being an octave or two higher than normal, would crack occasionally, and had a lot of trouble getting it loud. It lasted after I got back, and I ended up calling into work that Tuesday as well. Overall, the weekend was a lot of fun. I speced full prot, which wasn't as bad as I thought. Even soloed as it for a bit - spam Devastate, not so bad. We were all on different schedules, so the mass instances didn't happen quite as well as we had anticipated; though, by the end of the third day, we were all more or less in sync, and were ripping stuff apart.
Overall, I love BC. I hate the new LFG system, and would much rather have the old system back. Some people say it's great, once you learn how to use it and don't mind putting in a little extra work; those people are idiots. I have 3 high level characters, a mid-high level characters, two mid-low level characters, and two very low-level characters. I can't look for groups for all of them at the same time, since the list you can access is based of your current character's level. That, and because it's now active on your part, you can't watch groups forming and jump in. And you can't really see a group forming and think "Hey, I'd like to do that!". You have to actively mark yourself as looking for a group. Also, it's now apparently okay to just invite someone with that instance marked. I mean, it kind of makes sense, but that's a major pet peeve for me, and I don't like it. Oh, and people who say "Just /join lookingforgroup" are also idiots. Since a tiny portion of the server is now going to be in the channel, it's worthless.
Been playing racquetball with Matt for a while now; finally beat him a little while ago. The game was like 15-8. I jumped at to a huge early lead, 11-2, but he fought his way back to prevent a slaughter. That's the only win I have in forty-something games, though I almost had another one yesterday (getting to that.) It's definitely helping my fitness, though the weight loss has been slower than I would hope, most likely because my atrocious eating habits haven't changed yet - working on that. I sprained my ankle a few weeks ago, that really hurt. The ball was coming back to me, I started to lean to the right to get it, then it did a weird bounce, and I had to shift to my left - this is completely lateral movement, no forward or back. I don't know why, but I fell. Hard. I fell directly on my left arm, since I fell straight to the left, and couldn't roll or use my hands or anything to brace myself. So my ankle hurt, and I didn't have a very good range of motion on my left arm, either. That was on Wednesday, went back to work Friday night. Nolan was, of course, completely unsympathetic to my injuries - "I don't want to hear about it. I don't have time for this." Annoying, but whatever. I've had it wrapped up since, and we finally started playing again recently. Yesterday, I was playing my heart out, and was up 14-6, his serve. Another good volley, then his shot rebounds off the wall, then hits the side, right in the corner. I was running hard to get it, but because of the weird bounce, wasn't able to. I ended up hitting the wall, which isn't anything bad, it happens all the time in a game. But as I rebounded off the wall, I fell over my ankle. It HURT. I mean, much, much worse than the first time did, probably since I was re-injuring it. Also, it's the same ankle I ripped up that time with Mindy. I was rolling around on the ground, screaming, for a bit. Like I said, it hurt. I finally managed to crawl off the court, people came running. Some old guy was like "There's a guy down on the courts", they weren't sure what was going on. Hell, the lifeguard, with her little first aid kit, even came. But there wasn't much they could do, though they did end up getting me an ice pack. It became apparent I wasn't going to get out of there under my own power, so Mom went home to get me some crutches. Gave me some painkillers, taken one so far, about to take another. And yeah, it started to swell something fierce - it was HUGE. I've slept, and twenty-four hours later, it's a little swollen, but not very bad. Very, very, very stiff - can barely move it, and can't put any pressure on it whatsoever. I can stand, but I'm standing on my right leg entirely, and my left foot is just kind of resting on the ground, not offering any help, besides a little balance. So that's fun.
Things I still want to write about:
- Mindy
- Lilie
- I fail at life
The Pretenders -- Brass in Pocket
2007-02-09
Right before my eyes
So, it's been a while since I've had a substantial update, especially now that I've moved my blog and no one knows its new location - I told Lilie I deleted it. As I've previously stated, work's not nearly as interesting, so there's another thing to not blog about. That, and the spare time gives me a lot of opportunities to work out issues I usually just purge by placing them here.
That being said...
First topic: New Year's.
Yeah, almost a month and a half late on this one. Whatever. Nothing special about this New Year's - spent it working, as usual. Of course, with my new hours, I was in at 10 pm, and didn't leave until early morning - 7ish? I don't recall anything being noteworthy about the shift in and of itself. I think the worst New Year's in recent memory was the year I was working at Sonic and hadn't had any sleep for like the two day before New Year's, so I told Mom I was going to sleep, and NOT to wake me up. Of course, she did. I remember being in tears, I just wanted to sleep so bad. So yeah.
Burning Crusade recently launched (another reason I haven't been updating very often). Frankly, I love it. Outlands is AWESOME, and the first batch of quests make sure your gear is sufficient to handle the new challenges being thrown at you. You get new ranks of abilities every level, instead of only on even levels, and most classes get new abilities every even level - those that don't received a new ability at a lower level. Warriors, for example, don't get a new ability at 66, because they receive a passive ability much earlier now that allows them to retain 10 rage while switching stances (Stance Mastery is now a 3 point 1st tier Prot talent that lets you retain 5/10/15 rage, giving you the same benefit with 3 talent points). I've got Femaledwarf to 66, Gnometastic to 62, and rolled a draenei shaman, Serialcrushr, that's 12, and a draenei huntress that's 10 - Simplecomplx (in both cases, I have to omit the final 'e' for space). Actually had like five days off in a row immediately after the launch, which was awesome - was able to keep pace, and at times, get ahead of, everyone else.
The actual launch was kinda funny. It was at the beginning of the ice storm. We were releasing it at midnight, just like everyone else. I had been saying that there was going to be a big crowd, but nobody believed me - Matt was like "Yeah, Billy thinks the entire world is going to be here." I was right. Kinda. They were originally just going to roll the pdq out and let us have at it, but the size of the crowd and the decision to go 1 per customer led to them setting up a register - manned by Manuel, no less - to sell them. I got to leave for break a few minutes early, got over there to get in line. I was... something like fortieth in line. It was kind of scary. I knew they had 55 copies, but there was a huge clump, so it was hard to get an accurate count. Conner walked by a few times and yelled "NERD!". I thought it was pretty funny, given that he HAS THE AUTOBOT LOGO TATOOED ON HIS NECK. That, and he's desperate for a Wii. At one point, I was just downstacking a palette, and he was all "So what? You got your game now, and now you're all happy?" I was like, "Um... yeah?" Later, it was "So, what's the first thing you're going to do when you get home?" "Um, install BC?" "Haha, yeah, that's what I thought. Nerd!" As though I had waited in line for it, then wasn't going to install it? I countered by asking him what he was going to do when he got home with the Wii - get it working? "No, because I have to get an RCA converter first." Nice evasion.
More later.
Southside Hunters - Right Before My Eyes
That being said...
First topic: New Year's.
Yeah, almost a month and a half late on this one. Whatever. Nothing special about this New Year's - spent it working, as usual. Of course, with my new hours, I was in at 10 pm, and didn't leave until early morning - 7ish? I don't recall anything being noteworthy about the shift in and of itself. I think the worst New Year's in recent memory was the year I was working at Sonic and hadn't had any sleep for like the two day before New Year's, so I told Mom I was going to sleep, and NOT to wake me up. Of course, she did. I remember being in tears, I just wanted to sleep so bad. So yeah.
Burning Crusade recently launched (another reason I haven't been updating very often). Frankly, I love it. Outlands is AWESOME, and the first batch of quests make sure your gear is sufficient to handle the new challenges being thrown at you. You get new ranks of abilities every level, instead of only on even levels, and most classes get new abilities every even level - those that don't received a new ability at a lower level. Warriors, for example, don't get a new ability at 66, because they receive a passive ability much earlier now that allows them to retain 10 rage while switching stances (Stance Mastery is now a 3 point 1st tier Prot talent that lets you retain 5/10/15 rage, giving you the same benefit with 3 talent points). I've got Femaledwarf to 66, Gnometastic to 62, and rolled a draenei shaman, Serialcrushr, that's 12, and a draenei huntress that's 10 - Simplecomplx (in both cases, I have to omit the final 'e' for space). Actually had like five days off in a row immediately after the launch, which was awesome - was able to keep pace, and at times, get ahead of, everyone else.
The actual launch was kinda funny. It was at the beginning of the ice storm. We were releasing it at midnight, just like everyone else. I had been saying that there was going to be a big crowd, but nobody believed me - Matt was like "Yeah, Billy thinks the entire world is going to be here." I was right. Kinda. They were originally just going to roll the pdq out and let us have at it, but the size of the crowd and the decision to go 1 per customer led to them setting up a register - manned by Manuel, no less - to sell them. I got to leave for break a few minutes early, got over there to get in line. I was... something like fortieth in line. It was kind of scary. I knew they had 55 copies, but there was a huge clump, so it was hard to get an accurate count. Conner walked by a few times and yelled "NERD!". I thought it was pretty funny, given that he HAS THE AUTOBOT LOGO TATOOED ON HIS NECK. That, and he's desperate for a Wii. At one point, I was just downstacking a palette, and he was all "So what? You got your game now, and now you're all happy?" I was like, "Um... yeah?" Later, it was "So, what's the first thing you're going to do when you get home?" "Um, install BC?" "Haha, yeah, that's what I thought. Nerd!" As though I had waited in line for it, then wasn't going to install it? I countered by asking him what he was going to do when he got home with the Wii - get it working? "No, because I have to get an RCA converter first." Nice evasion.
More later.
Southside Hunters - Right Before My Eyes
