Ride Till You Puke 2009: The Reunion Tour

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That is the map of the trip Josh and I are taking in a few weeks

Here's the itinerary. We leave Albany early Sunday morning, arriving at Darien Lake around the time they open. We spend the day at that park, then we leave for Sandusky, Ohio and the fabled Cedar Point, touted as the best coaster park in the world. There, we will spend two days (as is advised by Josh's sister, who goes there every year), with an option for a third if we need it. Tuesday, whenever we finish that park, it's off to Harrisburg Pennsylvania. We'll stay in a hotel in Harrisburg Tuesday night, and Wednesday we'll spend at Hershey Park. Wednesday night we will again stay in Harrisburg. Thursday morning, we will head for home. If we feel like hitting one more park on the way home, it will be Six Flags Great Adventure, in New Jersey.

A few times before (and during?) high school, we made similar trips with Josh's dad. One time Ashley came with us. That was the first one, if I'm not mistaken. After a week with Josh and Mr R, Ashley doesn't like Josh very much. Some of you know Josh, and know exactly what I'm talking about. So does Josh. We've done all of these parks before except for Cedar Point, about which we are particular excited. Also on the list of parks we've visited on such trips: Busch Gardens VA, Dourney Park, and Six Flags Riverside. We also went to Coney Island to ride the original Comet. We always skipped Great Escape because it sucks. It's got the Steamin' Demon, and that's over in less than twenty seconds. Then you're done for the day.

So, just thought I'd let ya'll know what's going on. Thought you might be interested.

May 25th

So, I've looked at my calendar, and the current plan is that 25 May will be my final day as an employee of the Home Depot. Unless shit, as it sometimes does, happens. Specifically, if I get brought into the office one more time to "talk about my attitude" or my performance, unless I'm being promoted or otherwise rewarded, I will cease to be an employee of the Home Depot.

At this point, I'm pretty much okay with people doing things wrong because it will create more work for me later, because I don't have a later to worry about. I'm okay with people doing things that are stupid because they will affect (effect?) the store's overstock or profit numbers, because... well... that has absolutely no bearing on my job whatsoever. I'm a stock monkey. Other than putting thigns on the shelf where they belong, I have no control over how much money the store makes. So I don't really care.

As long as nobody tells me I'm doing something wrong (which I don't. And I know that sounds arrogant, but it's true. At work, I'm all business. I know what I'm supposed to do, and I do it. Always, with less than one exception in any given three-month period. And even in that uncommon circumstance, the thing I "do" wrong is to not cleanup after some other lazy bastard or to not correct someone else's mistake. If somebody thinks I'm doing it wrong, they don't know how it ought to be done. If I'm not absolutely certain I'm doing it right, I seek advice from my supervisor), I don't care what happens. But pretty much the next argument I get into with the Night Ops Manager will be the end of my career.

As much as I would like to remain here for the next couple of weeks and get paid for my two weeks vacation, it's not worth taking any more crap from incompetent superiors. Next time I say I'm looking for a job, somebody remind me that working for somebody else for a living blows. And by that I mean manual labor, not having a job. Some more interesting blogging later today after I get home from work.

Tagging Along to Buy Beer

So my buddy Earl and I, who are both obviously old enough, walk into a supermarket to buy beer. I don't have my i.d. On me, so Earl's paying. The chick behind the counter asks for my i.d. And she won't sell him the beer. Really? I mean come on. If I was 19, i'd have had my fake i.d. Because I would know that you might card me. But I haven't been carded since I WAS 19, so if I'm not buying, I don't even bring my wallet. Seriously. W. T. F?

Garage Sale

So, we made about thirty bucks off the garage sale yesterday. For thirty bucks, I would have thought a lot more junk would have walked away from our little table. Kerry's parents sold a ton of stuff, including a whole mess of power tools and stuffed animals. Her mom managed to let a fodler full of original Star Wars and Indiana Jones comic books go for a dollar. After they drove away, I told her I would be shocked if any one of them would have gone for less than a hundred dollars on EBay. I mean, the Star Trek paperbacks would probably fetch a few bucks from a collector, but comic book collectors are freakin' ravenous. Then she was sad.

So, it was a fun day of beer and tree-climbing (photos to follow).

Hilarious news (?) video

Okay. I was just gonna put this on my shared list, but it’s just too funny to gamble that you all might not see it. I found this in one of the feeds I inherited from PaulC.

The funniest bit is the end part with Hillary and the dude harmonizing with her words. I laughed so hard I cried.

Sci-fi prequels tend to suck, no?

Check out this post from i09.com listing ten prequels “ranked by crapiness.” While I agree with a lot of it, I completely disagree with the inclusion of the new Dune novels as crappy.

I get that people are upset with Andersen (I hate that guy) and Frank jr. cashing in on his father’s legacy. But, having read a couple of them, I think they’re great. They explain things like why we don’t like robots, how we found Arrakis, and just what was this “Butlerian Jihad” business?

Like I said, I see why people are upset with the writers, but give the books a chance. They add a lot of good backstory that you don’t get from the originals. Paul of Dune, on the other hand, is an exception. I haven’t read it, and I,m not going to. Apparently, it focuses on Paul’s exploits pre-Arrakis, including his command of on army somewhere that isn’t Caladan. One of the most critical facts on which the plot of the first book hinges is that Paul has never left Caladan.

Everybody knows the Star Wars prequels were a poor attempt at a money grab. They made money, but imagine how much they would have made if Lucas had gotten the old writing team back together. Granted, he’s dead, but anything would have been better than writing it himself.

Prelude To Foundation made the list, and that was a good one, albeit completely different than the rest of the series. The rest were very philosophical and mysterious, whereas Prelude was all action and intrigue.

And apparently, Temple of Doom was a prequel. Who knew? I still don’t get what people don’t like about it. It’s a damn sight better than Kingdom of Cashing In On An Old Idea.

Cable TV and Internet

Okay. So we're moving in June, and I'm excited. No more Albany, no more New York, and no more vindictive mailman who only occassionally puts my mail in my box.

But one thing worries me. What am I going to do for internet? I've never been anything but satisfied with Time Warner, but I've yet to hear anything good about Comcast. So my choice is "or death?" Who knows something about DSL or (shudder) sattelite internet that can give me some hope? I'll even take a positive Comcast story.

A question for the ages

Law 1: A robot must never harm a Human Being or, by inaction, allow a Human Being to come to harm.
Law2: A robot must obey any order given by a Human Being, unless following such an order would violate the first law.
Law 3: A robot must act to protect its own well-being, excet where doing so would violate one or both of the first two laws.

So what happens if a robot observes two Humans fighting? If it intercedes, one of the Humans will inevitably be harmed by the robot's action. If the robot does not intercede, one or both of the Humans will inevitably be harmed. What's a robot to do?

Quitting my job

So before I get a hundred e-mails asking me what I mean by "unemployed soon," here it is. I'm quitting my job next month, mostly because I don't like working for a racist black dude with a Napolean complex.

Things at the Home Despot have been up and down for the past year or so, but only since the recent changes in the command structure have I really hated going to work every day. And now they've changed my schedule so I'm working Sunday through Thursday. F*@# that, says I. Initially, I was just going to keep showing up Monday through Friday until they either took the hint or fired me. Then I decided to try and use up my vacation.

So I put in for two weeks in the middle of May. If I get them, cool. Those will be my last two weeks. I've already told my supervisor I'm leaving, and everybody else there can pretty much eat pooh. If I don't get them, I'm going to cash out my vacation on May 20, and those will still be my last two weeks. If they won't let me cash out, and my vacation doesn't get approved, then I'll get fired on or about May 20 and then by law they have to pay me for it (I'm not real sure of that).

So that's pretty much the plan as of now. Have fun. Drink safe.

And so it begins

Soon, I will be officially unemployed, and I'm going to have... I don't want to say a lot... of free time on my hands. So I figured I should start a blog. I'm always noticing things that I want to tell people about, and since nobody uses flickr, this seems the best way to keep people informed about everything they need to know. Welcome to BlogMart. If we don't have it, you don't need to know about it.

I'll try to refrain from political blogging, but no promises. While I try really hard not to care about politics on any level, I meet with very little success. So, if I don't have anything else to blog about on a given day, politics will make the cut. If you don't like it, don't read it.

This is my blog, so my rules. I'll try o keep my posts relatively free of profanity, but again I make no promises. I use the word best suited to convey the idea. If I mean to say "f#*@ that guy," I'm not going to say "I don't much care for that gentleman." This goes against my grain, but I want people to read my blog, and certain moms take issue with my frequent use of profanity, and I don't want them to shun my blog because they'r afraid they might read something they don't like.

That being said, I will say things you don't like. But I'll try to use words you can swallow.

Now that I've gotten all that introduction out of the way, everybody put your eyephones on and press your cell phone's play button. On with the blog.