More days like this, please

Well, after a very disturbing evening last night - the details of which I may go into at a later date but that I am currently choosing to ignore for the short term, as I am a bit calmer this evening as time separates me from the event in question...

So, anyways, today was a day off from work. It seems, with the Black Friday weekend, that I have not had a solid day off in weeks. Damn I work a lot. However, today made up for that, a lot. I actually got to spend a full day with my woman. Damn, was it a joyous thing.

We didn't really do much "exciting".. the failed trip to Target followed by the trip to the "Super" Walmart for the typical shopping outing. Then off for some food then back home to watch Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azcasomething. A good little film, entertaining. Nothing groundbreaking, though, really. But a good evening flick. Actually, I think so far all the Harry Potter flicks are like this. Neat, fun, .. but nothing that really makes you go "wow!".

The movie was followed by just some down time. Talking, laughing, reminiscing about old times and some other things. Bottom line - it was a damn nice day and I am friggin content. It's a nice feeling.

Tomorrow, of course, back off to work where problems already await me! I had some calls in today about them, but did my best to fend them off as I did not want to ruin the day with the woman. I have Thursday off also, which I will take time to relax as well as put some final efforts into planning the dinner outing with my woman for her birthday. I owe her another present, I hope what I planned is done in time or I will have to go find her something else so she is not disappointed. The girl loves her presents! This will be my last week of two days off until after the holidays. The retail gig, ya'know. We go to ONE day off per week. Yay.

So, in one last closing note for the evening. All I can say is, it's about damn time!

The day that wasn't

Well, today was Black Friday - the busiest sales day of the year. It is a day all commission sales people dream about and stand ready for. As we were today, at 8am. Not as bad as some locations, that opened at a God forsaken 5 or 6am.

So, its closing on 8am and I am a little...concerned. No people waiting outside, not much foot traffic in the mall. I am use to throngs of people on this day. We open the store and .. nothing. I don't get our first sale until about an hour later. As the day progresses it becomes steady, but not really busy.

I call my buddy Rod at Arrowhead, see how they are doing. They are jammed pack and have 9k up by 2pm. We had around 3k. We should easily be neck and neck with these guys, as we are a the ritzy pricey mall and they are at the old fart mall. Day goes on and I just start cutting people lose. We basically got hosed today. Arrowhead kicked out 20k end of day while we barely broke 10k. Sad, sad day.

I hope the rest of the weekend is an improvement. Many more days like this are just gonna depress me into oblivion.

On the bright side though, I still get to chow down on left over turkey and pumpkin pie.

Yay for me!

Well, not a bad 24 hours overall! The day was pretty slow, which was fine, as it gave us time to prepare for Black Friday. I was also notified by Cyberscholar.com (it's a place you can go if you are in retail to get information on various vendors products and take tests and possibly win shit) that I won a Fossil Canon Watch! Pretty nifty. I was then notified that I also won, in a separate drawing, a Canon A75 Digital Camera and a Canon CP-330 Printer! Not to damn shabby! Too bad it wasn't a nice digital SLR like a Rebel (which I would have sold to buy a EOS 20D!) but hey, I am quite pleased with my multiple winnings!

Then I came home where me and my woman ordered some pizza. I log in to play some Ultima Online just in time to catch the start of a scenario. A killer defense of the city of Trinsic with like 60+ other players against an Army of Undead. Yeah, ok, so I am a geekboy. I don't care! I had a friggin blast! Plus my woman was kind enough to bring food and cool refreshing beverages too me, since I wasn't about to get out of my chair.

To top things off I was doing some checking into when the new episodes of Justice League start. Well, apparently, in the US they don't start to December! blah! But I also read that they already played these new episodes in Canada in early November! (how's that figure?). Well, hey, if they have been aired, they gotta be out there! Screw this waiting shit! Of to Bearshare and the world of illegal downloads! Sure enough, I find all three episodes and download them in about 30 minutes. So fun time video watching for me!

So hey, at least I get some good times before all hell breaks loose on Friday...

It's not my fault where you live

Ah yes, today was a good day. Work was, well, quiet. I had a few good sales, but the overall day was slow. It rained today as well, which is a fairly rare occurance for Arizona. Since the mall I work in has a lot of glass ceilings, it really added to that relaxed, kick back kinda day. Especially since it wasn't too busy. Though, the calm before the storm I am sure, with Black Friday coming up in just 3 more days.

Now I am home! I have tomorrow off, so yay for me! I am currently waiting for an Ultima Online event to start. So bonus fun!

For those of you not from around Phoenix. We have a little area around called "Fountain Hills". It was one of the many "suburbs" that most cities have. Fountain Hills is east of the city, beyond the mountain line. So, it is a bit out there from the city area itself. The mountains make it feel like it's really seperate, even though the drive to get there is not all that far.

Now, the people that live in Fountain Hills are "special". Why special? Because they *think* they are. So that makes them special in more ways than one. Now today, I had to deal with a person from Fountain Hills. The problem with this, is they all seem to have the same battle cry and I have heard it over and over again. Today, it just really got to me, so I wanted to post about it.

Anyways, this gal comes in to pick up photographs. What I am told is that she is a regular customer, that always takes photographs of plays and similar events for her school or some shit. So, shes in and she takes a look at her photos and says "wow, these are dark". Well, I'm looking at them and they look great. I'm thinking to myself, "yeah lady, thats called contrast and saturation." But hey, some people have some messed up ideas of the way photographs should look.

So, I of course I tell her that we would be more than happy to redo them for her. That's when I get that tried and true Fountain Hills line: "Well, I live in Fountain Hills."

Yep, there it is. "I live in Fountain Hills." Which basically means, I live farther than anyone else, so why should I be troubled to have to drive all they way back here?

Well, guess what folks? It's not my GOD DAMN problem that you choose to live on the other side of a friggin mountain from the rest of civilization! Also not my problem that there is nothing in Fountain Hills but a gas station, a McDonalds, and a Giant Ass Fountain!

Good Hands my Ass

As you may already know, I recently purchased a new car. When I called my insurance company to switch over the policy, they told me that the new car would run me $96.00 dollars or so for the policy period of six months. So hey, not too bad, that ends up like $16.00 extra per month. Good deal.

I get my bill today and it's like $50.00 more! What the hell. So I call them and try to find out what's going on. It was like pulling teeth to get this chick to give me the deal in English. Finally, to my amazement, it comes down to this. Since I only had two months left in my current policy run, they divide the $96.00 by those two remaining months!

What.. The.. Fuck..?

I was like, but uuummm, aren't you just screwing me here since normally that's over 6 months and you are lumping all that cash on me for just those two months?! I tried make my point that the $96.00 is for a run of six months because it's per month at $16.00. I only have the car TWO months, so I should only pay $32.00. But no, apparently it's a "whatever the fuck is due, is due in whatever time frame you have left". I was like, you bastards are screwing me. Even told them that was sneaky and sly shit.

So, tonight's big FUCK YOU, goes out to the good people at Allsate Insurance. You're in good hands as long as you don't mind them wrapped tight around your nuts.

A spark of the eye

I remember when I was younger, 19 to be exact. It was sometime in 1985 and my mother had taken me, yet again, to our family dentist. I swear, this guy found any excuse to dig holes in my teeth and fill them with silver. Anyways, I digress.. I remember sitting in the tiny waiting room for my impending doom, trying to find something of interest to occupy my time.

Well, the only things of interest was the typical pile of magazines that were stacked haphazardly on a small table. I scoured through them looking for something interesting. Then I saw it and it stopped me cold. It was a National Geographic magazine. On it's cover was the most stunning image I had ever seen. I was transfixed by it, I just could not tear my eyes away from it. It was an image of a young girl. An Afghan girl, to be precise. Her eyes were simply stunning. Her gaze, unescapable. I stared at and studied that image for minutes.

The image itself was taken right before the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, or there abouts. It was of an Afghan girl in a refuge camp. The girl was nameless and lost to time after the photograph was taken. Many people have inquired about this girl over the years. But no one knew anything. How could they? It was war torn Afghanistan, at a refuge camp, in a brief moment in time.

This image has gone down in history as one of the best photographs of all time. It was also the reason for my early interest in Photography. I thought, that if a photograph can be so powerful and convey such emotion, that I wanted to learn how to do that. I wanted the power to convey such emotion through imagery.

With the recent fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan. National Geographic went on a hunt for this girl. Talk about a needle in a haystack. The chances of her being dead were likely. If she was alive, the chances of finding her were slim to none.

But the bastards did it. They found her.

She was 13'ish when the original image was taken. Now she is in her early thirties. Apparently no one is sure of her exact age, not even her. It is obvious that she has had one hell of a hard and difficult life. But, if you look close, her eyes still hold some of that fire from her youth.

Then and Now

A cornucopia of things

Wow, I am looking at my posts over the past few days. I must have been tired. And grumpy. Damn. Ah well, moving right along...

On the work front, that lady with the newborn that was giving me shit came in again yesterday. She asked if all was well with the machines, it was. While she was loading up her pictures I heard her on the phone talking with someone saying "God, I have been such a bitch lately, I don't know what it is!". I was ready to chime up, "yeah, you sure have been!" but held my tongue. At least I was right though, she was a bitch. To make the day even more amusing, after she uploaded a crap load of images, the whole server dies! Yep, no pictures for her. (had to call her back and do the manager "im sorry" thing). But overall, dead server is bad. It means NO digital work, no money, sales stymied until it is replaced. It will be interesting to see how fast or inept this procedure will turn out to be.

Saw the Incredibles today with the woman! It was great! I highly recommend it. I am glad to see America is finally catching on that animation can be for adults. Grant it, this one is for the kids too. But good violence, including some deaths and adult themes. Good stuff.

Whiners, Psychos, & Cowards, oh my!

Alright, the drugs are kicking in hardcore. I am feeling.. GOOD. Yes, still tired, but I am starting to feel fine. Yay. Plus, I have tomorrow off, so recuperation is assured!

So, today was an interesting day. Our digital printing setup at work was malfunctioning. That's the part where people can come in and pop their memory cards into this little system up front, pick the images they want, it sends em to the lab in back, and our guys print em. Well, today, it kept crashing the system. Over, and over, and over again. Not a good thing.

Honestly though, our systems are so awfully outdated it's not surprising. They buy the highest end printing machine then back it up with fucking 5 year old computers and 20 year old point of sales machines. Morons.

So, anyways... this one gal comes in, looking a bit haggard, and whips out her memory card ready to get some prints. Well, I figure I'll tell her not to waste her time picking all the images, cuz the damn thing just ain't working right today. She responds like I just pissed in her Cherioes.

"I came all this way just to print these! I just had a baby and have not slept! I was just able to get a baby sitter and I came her to print these!"

I swear, it took all the my conscious will to not spit out "Well, exactly WHO chose to have a baby? Don't take your life mistakes out on me!" GRRR.. some people. Please, wake up and die right.

Something I have noticed over so many years of watching shit go down in the Middle East. I have narrowed it down to two types of Arabs .. yeah yeah, "Uh oh, here he goes again". Be quiet! Seriously. We only hear about two types of Arabs in the news.

The first, of course, is that asshole terrorist or insurgent. These are defined as the psychotic and/or stupid people who fight tanks with rifles or blow themselves up in a myriad of ways for their "cause". The second type seem to be the every day joes, but when faced with danger, they surrender or run away.

Case in point on the last type. During the first Gulf War, the majority of the Iraqi army surrenders! They were surrendering to helicopters for Gods sake. For a more modern example, we are trying to train a new Iraqi army (what a joke that is). But as soon as these guys get sent into action, they all scatter and take off! Absolutely amazing.

So, my warped conclusion is that Arabs are either terrorist nutjobs or cowardly bastards.

*puts on flame retardant suit*

Drugs of Wellness

Well, I didn't screw around this time. I went right into the doctor first thing yesterday. Same doc I saw for my walking pneumonia. Said it was a smart move on my part, since the pneumonia apparently sticks with you for quite some time and mangles your lungs and immune system. Peachy for me. But he gave me some antibiotics and cough suppressant. So, at least I know I don't have to deal with a long, dragged out cold from hell. God it sucks. I am feeling better already, but not perfect. For some reason tonight I am either too hot or too cold, don't have a fever though. Odd shit.

Nice to have my loving woman here to take care of me as well! Nothing that really makes you feel warm and fuzzy more than someone there to help you when you are down.

Ah, and this has been a long time coming. It looks like that PIG, Yasser Arafat, is gonna buy the big ole tent in the sky. Worthless, Palestinian terrorist pig. Good riddens. The Israelis reported days ago that he was dead. Though the Palestinians and the French say he is not "clinically" dead. Umm, whaa? Yeah, you know what the means? They are keeping him on life support until he can tell them where he stashed all those millions he ripped off from the Palestinian people.

Alright, damn. I'd rant some more, but I am gettnig sleepy. Another long day tomorrow, gotta keep my strength up.

Damnit

Well shit, here I am, sick again. Jesus Christ. I hate being sick. It just SO FUCKING SUCKS!! I hate the feeling, utterly. Some damn head cold this time. Oddly enough, I talked with two other people I know who said they got sick this week as well. Apparently some bug going around. Shitty timing. I have a friggin meeting tomorrow, gonna last like six hours. I hope I feel better by then. Nothing worse than having to sit through some worthless meeting AND feel like shit. Don't think I can back out on it - it's a meeting for all the managers - but have to see how I feel in the morning. GAH!

I rue Konica Minolta

Damn, so this week has been insanely busy. Not only do I have all these damn work related meetings over the next two weeks, but I had one of my crew out sick today. So I had to come in and cover on my only day off this week. With an open to close tomorrow to boot.. *looks at time*.. er, today, it seems. As it is after midnight. Ah well, hopefully a busy day so I can suck up all the sales! Since I will be ALONE!

I have a Ballooning Magazine photo contest coming up at the end of the month. Ballooning has always been good to me. They were the first magazine I was ever published in, not to mention my first cover shot. So, I like these guys! Anyways, they are having a photo contest - I must enter! So, I gear up my dreaded Konica Minolta Dimage IV Scanner to scan some slides in so I can get them printed out and submitted.

I say dreaded because when I first purchased it, the damn thing would scan everything dark as midnight. Took huge color corrections to get a good image out of it. Major pain in the ass. After a few months, Minolta realized it sucked and released a new software version. So, my whole webpage was done with the old software (that sucked) so I have not had a chance to try the new software much until now. The scans are finally scanned at the correct color and density, but now the damn thing likes to wig out and start scanning color images in greyscale! God, I rue this piece of shit scanner! That will teach me to go with a Minolta product. I should have gone with the Nikon Coolscan V. The Nikon is like $250.00 more than the Minolta. That will teach me for going cheap. My battle plan is to rid myself of this trash heap Minolta scanner via Ebay and buy the Nikon over the holidays. But talk about a buying decision I regret to my core.