Boy, I'm beat. Today was the day that I went in to "train" for covering the phones at my friend Rand's company next week. I got in there at 11am and left at 5pm. I had to get up at 7am however because I had to get my Love into work first. I managed to get back to sleep after getting back to the apartment, but only for another hour. So, all day I had a looming headache that took caffine and some asprin to dull it into managability so I could get through the day. (I also had a peice of cake - birthday of people there - so all that sugar, plus caffine, plus already tired and upset stomach = headache.) The good thing is that it's easy enough and that a lot of people will be out of the office next week and the only thing I have to do is answer the phone. That's it. So when the phone's not ringing, I can surf the net or read my book or play my gameboy or whatever. She predicts it will be pretty dead next week with it being not only a short week, but with so many people away from the office. At points today, there would be gaps of like half an hour where the phone wouldn't ring once. They all complimented me repeatedly ("can we keep her?") and I'm pretty much their vacation/fill-in/go-to person now and they also said that if they decide to expand the Admin staff (right now just the two of them and they both do other things; one's HR manager and the other is the exec assistant to the CEO of the company), that they know who to call. Made me feel really good to be told I was such a fast learner and how good I was with the phone manner and such. So, Monday and Tuesday of next week, I'll be there all day - 8:30am-5:30pm - and then Wednesday is a half day - 8:30am-12pm. Add that in with today and I'll have almost 22 hours which will be a real help financially.
Now I'm full on the oh-so-delicious Olive Garden Fettuccine Alfredo (including alfredo dipping sauce for the breadsticks that my wonderful Love went back to the resturant to get when they forgot to include it) and the guys are playing Quidditch: World Cup on the GameCube. I feel better now that I've gotten home and had some food and just all-around relaxed, but I can't wait to get some sleep tonight.
Oh! Before I forget...ZELDA FANS, TAKE NOTE! The GameCube system comes bundled now with a special, Zelda Classic disk that you can't buy in stores. It has the following on it:
The special disc will include:
- The Legend of Zelda, the original 1987 game originally developed for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) that introduced Link, Zelda, Ganon and the magical world of Hyrule; the game remains one of the most popular video games ever
- Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, the 1988 NES adventure that combined exploration, action, magic and weapons
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, the 1998 hit originally developed for the Nintendo 64 that let players travel through time, explore vast territories and solve puzzles, all in a 3-D environment
- The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, the 2000 sequel originally developed for the Nintendo 64 that let players don masks to transform into various characters, all while battling against the clock
- A playable demo of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, the series' 2003 debut on the Nintendo GameCube that included cartoon-shaded visuals and unique facial animation in the richest, most expansive environment yet
- Gameplay footage highlights from The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
- A short retrospective history of The Legend of Zelda series
So....needless to say, when I saw this in the store I was pissed! I already own the system - why can't I buy one? Of course, I head over to ebay to see if anyone was selling it. Many people were - but for upwards of $50! No way are these classic games worth that much. $20 for a walk down memory lane is one thing, but $50? Screw that. Some assholes were even trying to SELL INFO ON HOW TO BUY IT!. Well, I figure if someone is selling how to buy it, then obviously it must be for sale somewhere. A quick search on google and I find a message board where they give you the magic link on Nintendo: http://www.nintendo.com/zeldaclassic
HUZZAH!
So...it works like this. You can either register your system and two games of a small list of current games and get it for free, OR...you can simply subscribe to the Nintendo Power magazine for $19.95 and you get the game as the bonus item. Basically, you buy the damned game for $19.95 and get a magazine thrown in for free. Hence the post. I hate seeing people try to sell information - how slimey is that? - and I cringe when I think that people are paying $50 for a game they can just buy for $19.95. I'll be posting this info all over so people can find and see it because darnit, people shouldn't be ripping other people off. You have to hurry though - it's from November 17th - January ? and/or while supplies last.
Went and saw Brother Bear last night, just my Love and I. It was nice. We stopped by the Ruby Tuesday's right next door to the movie theater first, had some food and then saw the movie. I liked the film, but I hated the horrible parents who didn't have a clue what parenting meant. There was only one other group in the theater - a family with mom, dad and three kids. The youngest - who couldn't have been more then two or three - literally RAN around the theater, up and down the stairs, through the isles and yelled randomly throughout the entire movie. The parents? Sat there watching the movie, not even so much as looking at the kid, let alone telling her to plant her butt in a chair and stay there. GRR. Damned people don't know how to fucking parent shouldn't have three kids!
Yesterday I was trying to post about another weblog I read when blogger ate my post. She started a series of posts where she gave her thoughts, impressions and views on the people who's journals she reads. Writing out those things that we asign to people we read but don't really know. Well, in the latest entry, she mentioned me and my blog. I thought it was a cool idea and I wanted to share what she had to say about me:
I was doing some strange web surfing one night and ran across MemoryandDream. What a complicated, delightful, complex and interesting girl! She has her picture freely available for all to see. So there is no doubt as to what she looks like. When visiting her site you catch yourself looking at her picture again and again waiting for it to wink, or speak or something! It's so alive, so real. She lives in Florida with her Love. She has a knack for detailing the mundane day in such a way that you keep going back for more...and more. Somehow it isn't so mundane when you read it. At the same time, her thoughts run deep and she throws you with an insightful comment right in the middle of a day at Disney. Her journal is for her. No one else but her, although she allows us to read it as she writes. An Imp. A wonderful little Imp that is quicker than the blink of an eye. Is she there? Was that her? There she is again! Memory and Dream....Drift into the shadows and wait as the swirling fog surrounds you, envelopes you in it's embrace and wait...wait patiently and she will appear. Don't close your eyes, the fog will pass, the darkness lift and you will be left wondering...was she real? Or was she a Memory and a Dream from a day long past from a lifetime not of your own?
An Imp? *chuckles* Alright, I'll take that. ;) It made me wonder about the way I present myself on my journal; the way that people who didn't know me would see me and the things I write about. I always feel that I'm honest to myself and my feelings on my journal, and yet, at the same time, it's just a snippit of who I am. It's only peices. And I wonder what kind of picture those peices seem to form...
I tend to read sites of people I've established relationships with; people I've come to know online, or those who I've conversed with. Some though, I find because they found me and I'm interested in someone who thought I was interesting enough to link to. Afterall, they must see something in common, or familier to warrent reading over these rambling posts. Some people I find because I followed a link of another friends and some links are purely random. But I suppose I, like everybody, does build up a picture of the person who's blog you read; an idea of who and what they are beyond the monitor. I think about those who've come and gone and ones who I wish I'd run by again. It's weird, this thing called the internet, because it has so much potential to affect our waking lives and yet, sometimes, it's all just fleeting, hollow words. I think about those I consider friends, those I am interested in their lives and those who come my way for one reason or another. There are these whole lives and worlds and realities out there - people going through everything I could imagine (and some things I can't) - and it's like there's this small glimpse into it all though words jotted down in a journal. I dunno. It just seems like it's a tip of an iceburg - so much more beneath the water you just don't see. And I feel somedays like I'm so close to seeing that full picture; understanding things which had before been seemingly impossible to know, let alone fully consider. It's like I'm so close and all these little words on screens by people are part of it. It's right there, but I can't quite grasp it. There's something more and deeper to it, but it still eludes me. It's there though, I just need to reach it.
Dammit. Fucking blogger logged me out and ate my post in the process. Don't have time to redo it now because my Love's going to bed. I'll have to try to recreate it tomorrow though by then I probably won't bother. I HATE when shit like that happens.
So, some might have noticed that several popular 80's toys are back - Care Bears, My Little Pony, and Strawberry Shortcake just to name a few. But it's the last one which always bothers me. Unlike the other toys making a comeback, the Stawberry Shortcake doll has a new look; one that quite frankly always bothers me. I got in a discussion with my friend Jef one day that she just looked different then she used to. He dismissed my comment saying it was just her clothes. I knew though that there was more to it then her "trendy" outfit, her face just looked wrong to me. So I searched the web for some good pics both old and new to prove my point that side-to-side, they really are quite different afterall.
The old version of Strawberry Shortcake had a cute, dimpled face. The new one sports squinty, up-to-no-good eyes and doesn't have the same freckled face as she used to.
I just don't like the new Strawberry Shortcake. I think she looks evil or perhaps wicked - and not in a good way. She seems underhanded and slimy and it breaks my heart to think of this "modernizing" of toys I played with twenty years ago when they first came out is ruining what I treasure as childhood favorites. The Care Bears look almost the same - good for them - but Strawberry here just looks wrong. Her quaint little dress and hat weren't in fashion in the 80's, so why they felt the need to update her look is beyond me.
And what did they do to the ADORABLE Custard Cat??!
Look how cute she is!
Look how snobby and overdone she is!
Yes, let's teach our kids to be so shallow that even our formally cute pets need to be over groomed and in make up.
Hello Clueless Toy Companies: Toys are allowed to look different and they don't have to be "cool" or "hip" in fashion to be loved, enjoyed and played with. Toys exist in their own realities and you do us all a disservice by trying to force trendy marketing upon them. Let them be imagninary and let them have thier own world that's seperate from the corporate sponser saturated reality we have to grow up into all too quickly.
My friend Rand's company needs someone to cover for them Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of next week. The two Administrative people are going to be out of the office and they won't have anyone to answer the phones, or be the warm body up front. Well, Rand called me yesterday about it to see if I'd be interested in picking up a couple days worth of work and some extra money.
I talked to the woman there today and I'm going in on Friday at 11am to meet with them, fill out the paperwork, and generally go over the way the system works and that sort of thing. Since next week is Thanksgiving, the office is supposed to be pretty empty and they all assure me that it will be an easy week. Wednesday will be a half-day since the owner lets people out early the day before holidays. So, I'll be there a half-day Friday, 8:30am-5:30pm Monday and Tuesday and then 8:30am-? Wednesday.
*cue nervousness*
I know logically that I'll do fine. I've done the whole range of office work for years and years and it's only a few temp days. It's just that I haven't been on a schedule for over a year and a half now (being somewhere at 8:30am? *faints*) and I'm just not used to the concept. Add to that my overly tempremental stomach which can cause me random visits to the restroom over the course of the day of varrying lengths (that was the attempt at the least information on a TMI subject I could think of) and I'm nervous. I'm sure I'll do fine. I'm sure that it won't be anything I can't handle. And we can surely use a couple hundred bucks that I'll probably get for the days. But, it doesn't stop me from being a bit worried about it all nonetheless. ;)
bored. watched a weird-ass movie tonight with my Love but it left me kinda...eh. The web is boring - all the same sites, the same people and nothing new or interesting to talk about - and my Love's heading to bed in a few minutes anyway. Just one of those dull, dull days where you're utterly, mind-numblingly bored with every single program ever created (not to mention the tv itself) and the computer is one massive drudgery of crap.
I need to get out of the house more or something.
Still no word on the new apartment. Ugh. 23 days away from the date we penciled in for the move and no clue, nothing packed, no paperwork signed and no notice given to our current complex. Fauh. This whole thing stinks like spoiled milk. And each day, the continuing joys of Jerry Springer complex living grind on me that much more. The downstairs neighbor has the nerve yesterday to question me about some "tapping" noise I'm making during the day; that it's keeping the baby awake. Meanwhile, we were in Orlando when this "tapping" was going on and her baby is screaming it's bloody head off at 11:45 at night. Their doors slam, they argue and they're drinking loudly and we're the ones some how keeping the little shit awake during days we're not even in the same county.
bitter. frustrated. and fed up with the world today.
So, we used our seasonal passes again yesterday and hit Epcot and the Magic Kingdom. We got to the park a little late (it was about 12:30 by the time we got to the parking lot) and spent the first couple hours wandering around Epcot. (We always just go straight to Magic Kingdom and we realized we should hit the other ones sometimes too. Knowing this, we also knew we'd have to do the other park first, or we'd never leave the Magick Kingdom!) We got to ride the Test Track ride (which we didn't get to the last time we were in Epcot back in, er...August, because we rode Mission: Space first that day and it made my Love ill to the point of puking. Didn't think that another "action" ride was really a good idea. Well, I'm glad we got to do it this time because it was a lot of fun. The beginning is sort of boring - you go over bumpy roads and such - but the accleration is REALLY smooth and really fast and of course, the best part is the end. You do like 67mph around a major slanted curve and it's FUN. It's a big oval and you take it REALLY fast and REALLY angled. A lot of fun press-you-to-the-seat G-force. See, the thing with me is that I HATE heights and I DESPISE normal rollar coasters because I hate the stomach-lurching-up-into-your-throat feeling (and I therefore won't do drops of any kind). Ugh. It's so unpleasant and it makes me sick. But, I love speed and I love the press-against-your-chest sensation and you get ALL of the latter and NONE of the former in the Test Track ride. It's also why I love the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at Magic Kingdom - it's all the fast, around curves type ride.
After that, we wandered around Epcot's World Showcase a bit before heading over to the Magic Kingdom. We managed to see Philharmagic again - excellent! - and Hautned Mansion (a favorite) and Pirates of the Caribbean (another favorite) plus we got to see the Wishes fireworks from in FRONT of the Castle - these are SPECTACULAR - and we shopped around for a friend from Norway who wanted some things for her family for Christmas. I bought myself a couple pins (I now have four *lol*) - a Haunted Mansion one, a Figment one (I live Figment), and a passholder exclusive one. I didn't see what I wanted for my friend so I planned to hold out and check the Disney Store today (Sunday). Glad I did!
We had some errands to run and so when we went to the Disney Store it was on the hope that I could not only find what I wanted, but that perhaps I could find a sale that would make it a better deal. HOLY COW, WHAT A SALE! She wanted a Stitch plush - found him for $7.99 rather then the normal $16 it was at WDW. I ALSO found an exclusive Stitch in a christmas sweater on sale for $13. THEN there's a buy 1 get 1 free sale so I'm going to get her an Eeyore dressed up as a reindeer for $10 (I originally got her a little Eeorye in a sweater, but I realized I should get the other one since it's twice as big and then I can go halves on the cost and get one too - so for $10 I can get her a third plush.) ON TOP of everything else, they had 20% extra off everything! So for like $25 I got her THREE plushes! That's so excellent. For like the cost of ONE normally, she's getting way more then I ever thought I could get her. I'm so happy that I didn't get the plush at WDW. It's the same one, just half the price. She's going to be so psyched. I still have enough left over for shipping too which is great.
Today I had the worst migraine. I laid down this afternoon after we got back but it didn't help. I woke up a couple hours later, feverish and sweating. It went on for hours and I made myself some Cream of Wheat just to put something in my stomach. We watched Carnival and I wasn't sure for most of it that I was going to be able to stay and finish watching it. The last hour or so though, it's finally breaking. The worst has receeded and I can think, breath and move again without monumental pain. I'm still getting afterimages from light sources but it's not painful the way the full-on migraine attack is, so that's good. Though I'm in that panicked state where I don't want to do anything wrong; I worry that it could come back with a vengence when it's in this receeding stage, so I'm trying to take it easy, stay relaxed and not move around too much. (Staying still when I have one helps very slightly - but even very slightly is a lot when in mid-attack - to keep some of the worst pain down.)
Anyway, that was my weekend. Tomorrow we start anew trying to get in touch with the damned collection company that has my old apartment account and see where we can go from here. It just sucks because there's no damned way they're going to eat the money they paid to buy the account; so it won't be an easy battle to get this thing off my damned report. (they're going to want to "settle" for at least a portion of it and fuck that; I'm not paying ANYTHING towards a bill that's not mine) Ugh. Hopefully, we can get the new place to let us there despite it - perhaps by the sheer act of fighting it, we'll show that it's wrong and that we're committed to cleaning the record. *sigh* One can only hope. If not, I'll definately need to get in touch with something like the "on your side" news channel thing because after almost three years, it's only NOW showing up on my record, meaning I'll be dealing with this problem for the next seven from NOW - not three years ago. (And I can't just not have housing for the next seven years and places won't rent to you if you have this kind of shit on your record.)
Well, I'm out. Love's going to bed soon so I'll leave the bedroom to him.
