Okay, the name has reverted despite lack of responses. I just happened to figure that it would be mean to outdate everyone's links to me, assuming there were any. Whatever.

For kicks I decided to read through the 2003 Guide to Greek Life. Now, besides the fact that the girls get comparison tables and charts and lists and rules and deadlines and the frat stuff has none fo that, there are several amusing and/or fightening (depending on how one looks at them) parts to it as well.

From the Phi Delta Theta's description (page 55) : "IF you play a lot of Quake and Dungeons and Dragons this may not be the place for you, otherwise stop by Phi Delta Theta." Good to know, I guess.

Phi Kappa Tau (63) - "We also have our annual Beach Weekend and WTF parties in the summer!" I have no idea what a WTF party is, and no, it doesn't go on to explain.

Psi Upsilon's Entry (73) - "DON'T PANIC! You probably don't know us, but that's OK because we don't know you either. We're Psi Upsilon, Georgia Tech's only co-ed social fraternity. We are a diverse group of men and women and we all manage to get along with each other pretty well, which is why we tend to throw around the slogan "individual standards, not standard individuals." Oh, and we're looking to expand our fighting force of extraordinary magnitude, so we'd love for you to come by our house during rush. Our address is 831 Techwood Drive, which is the second house on the right after you cross Ferst Drive, and our phone number is (404) 892-6398. You can probably recognize us as the ones hurling elecrical appliances to their violent crunchy deaths. We'll be looking for you." No, there aren't any typos in there that are me, it's all them. And doesn't that kinda scare you to read? What the hell is a social fraternity? Aren't they all? That slogan is too close to the 'good odds' one. If they're killing appliances I guess rush food would have to be cold cuts, no?

I've decided that the Bill and Val commentary was just too utterly replusive to post anywhere, censored and warned or not. So, instead, ya'll can have stick figure violence goodness: XiaoXiao! Makes me wish I was running Asgard because of the loading times, but I can cope with the normal computer's power.

Yay! I'm working Friday this week too, so I won't be getting pay shafted totally, what joy.

Since store 4554 has neither spare scrap paper nor internet access I find myself scribbling notes for the blog on blank adhesive labels. So there, Jeff. No register tape notes for me. Course, pen really smears badly on the label's slick surface, but that's the cost of progress I guess.

Okay, random annoyance of the day. I think that $9.37 to send a 4 pound box out to Las Vegas is a pretty good deal. I mean, we're 10% over what the UPS customer counter will offer, so at best you could nix it down to ~$8.50, not that I think the $.87 was what was bothering this lady. I'm not certain what she was expecting. I admit I don't know the rates for the post office by heart, but Priority mail runs 3.85 for one pound, 4 would be about $5.06 or slightly more I think, I'll try pricing it later, but nonetheless, that $4 represents a loss of $100 of insurance and dediacted tracking. Guess that's some people for you.

And in trying to find the Zip Code for Las Vegas, I've found a site that offers a zip code database service for a mere $20/$40/$60 per month depending on basic, premium, or gold service. Add Canada for only $100/$200 for basic or premium, no gold offered. Sounds like a great way to make money though, because I'm certain that lots of companies need a service like this, though it does seem sad when I have Zip Code books, which don't cost me a penny.

Anyways, hypothetical package to 89107. 4 lbs. Well, I made it 3 lbs and 2 ounces to be generous, still comes to $7.06. Well, hope that lady is glad for all her savings, hypothetically speaking of course. There's one package where I hope that whoever ends up shipping it also manages to lose it or destory it. Hate when customers waste my time.

I feel like a stage magician at times. Bill will hand me three 20's and tell me, "makes these into 10's", and I will. Of course, what happens is I go to the bank and get them changed out, but the effect is still the same.

Oh, and for fun I took the extra Uline catalog that came in the UPS Store's mail today, they make some interesting items. Though I don't see the need for a "Shake Well" shipping sticker, that's just me. However, I couldn't find where you could order straws or "gourmet coffee" like we have leftover from the corperate people at the store.

Alright, so yesterday I went to look at Used Cars because there was a used car sale over in the Perimter Mall parking lot. Loads of cars, very few of which met my needs (read: 6'5" Driver who plays a 3/4ths size string bass (yes, my bass is only 3/4ths size)). There was a Suzuki Grand Vitara that fell into my price range and a 2002 Silver Honda CRV which was not, but is the much better choice I feel. I'd rather have gotten something nice and small, but that's not happening. There was a very nice Mazda Miata for a mere 14K, but only Ian or my mother would really come anywhere close to fitting in something like that.

We fulfilled one of my mother's dreams by going to Bahama Breeze. I hadn't heard good things, and that's just about how it went. It started out with a wait where my father, David, and I pored through the menus to see what was in there. In the end I had a Chicken Lemongrass Sandwich which was rather unimpressive. I've had plenty of better chicken. It came with Wassabi-Creme which was actually, as far as David and I can tell, merely very little wassabi and a bit of mayo, comes out tasting like light honey mustard, and "Breeze slaw" which was an eclectic combination of onion, that purple stuff school salads always have (rudebagah perhaps, if you'll forgive the spelling), mango and tomato. Our waitress did first bring us our drinks in plastic cups which she explained as the drinks had just come out of the wash and she didn't want to put cold drinks in warm glasses for fear of explosion, and yes, 2 minutes later there was the sound of glass shattering at another table, and yes, I did laugh. Anyways, the cokes were really really really weak, and that didn't help things out any. So next time I think I'll just go to Hops, I've never had an issue there.

So, speaking of my Blog (yeah, I know that's an invalid transition, but that job is done already), I did rename it, mostly cause the word amplitude is so much fun and because I was thinking of hurling rocks into the lake up where I go canoeing, but I'm calling a referendum on whether to change it again, or revert or keep. So, IM or Email or just generally touch base and give me ideas.

Currently in my head: Ayumi Hamasaki - Endless Sorrow (Agressive Mix)

Yes, gentlemen, Thomases, the memory is on it's way back to Pomona to get changed out and yes I do have the Tracking Number, however, due to the real dangers of Account fraud, I will not be posting it here, however, I can post the track results as it goes, but I'm far too lazy to do it right now.

Pirates of the Caribbean was/is a fantastic movie and I highly reccomend it to everyone. Be forewarned, there are skeletons, and Orlando Bloom's eyes aren't blue. Anyways, the musical score is fantastic, and wordless. Yeah, most movie music is wordless, but Pirates doesn't need songs with words, just exciting music to match the plot and pace. Hell yeah, I'm too tired to do this properly, so go see the movie and thank me later.

Well, I'll be trying this again. Asgard decided to pull a fucking blue screen of death out. My computer is terminal without ever having run a program sucessfully. My day just keeps getting better. On top of all the events and realizations of today I still ache, I'm still off in my sleep cycle, I've lost my appetite, I'm not working much and have nothing to do with my free time. I'm cold and sick yet burning up and I desperately feel the need to vomit. I have a piece of my half eaten dinner stuck in my teeth and flosh, tooth pick, fingers, and toothbrush have all failed to get it out.

Alright, here it goes. Jeff, you figured it out too soon. You had an inkling before the situation had even settled, and so the first denials were truth. Past that, the dissolution of the veil wasn't my idea. I didn't want anything out in the open because I don't think some of us are mature enough to deal with it. Those comments, straightforward, whispered, backhanded, the form doesn't matter that arise when Kyle and Nani or Katie and D'Oraz are together in a moment of emotion are just plain stupid. Fscking stupid. Fucking Fucking Fucking stupid. They serve no purpose. Emotion will happen and you should realize that. Those out there know who I'm talking to, and it isn't Jeff. Reality has lost focus for me recently. Let yourself not sleep and everything gets out of perspective, rest and you can only pray that things realign when everything comes back together. Yes, that's a load of meanless excuses, but I'm venting, ranting, exhausting feelings. There'll be more to this, but don't have the heart to even type any longer.

Btw, Jeff, that knife between your ribs is regrettably mine and while I dislike the thought that holding it again will only re-enable me to cause damage again, I would like my weapon returned. The means of return however is up to you. I am equally receptive to having it handed to me hilt first or returned so the only bit of it that I can see is the hilt, the rest resting within me in a flash of deserved steel.

Yay, FASET (And yes, I do know what that means) is over. No sleep plus too little to drink and sunburns and rugburns that still hurt simply doesn't make anything much fun. They didn't brainwash enough ("What's the good word?") though.

I'm not certain what's worse. The fact that I managed to achieve a combo of 527 on History of DDR on Standard or the fact that that many notes isn't quite half the song.

And, just cause it seems to have fun effects on Katie, the lyrics to Heaven, which I'll have to send D'Oraz a Screenshot of why it's an evil song to try and dance.
CHORUS:
Baby you're all that I want
When you're lyin' here in my arms
I'm findin' it hard to believe
We're in heaven
And love is all that I need
And I found it there in your heart
It isn't too hard to see
We're in heaven

Oh, thinkin' about all our younger years
There was only you and me
We were young and wild and free
Now nothin' can take you away from me
We've been down that road before
But that's over now
You keep me comin' back for more

CHORUS

Oh, once in your life you find someone
Who will turn your world around
Bring you up when you're feelin' down
Yeah, nothin' could change what you mean to me
Oh, there's lots that I could say
But just hold me now
'Cause our love will light the way

CHORUS

I've been waitin' for so long
For somethin' to arrive
For love to come along
Now our dreams are comin' true
Through the good times and the bad
Yeah, I'll be standin' there by you

I've decided that D20 Modern's expansion: Urban Arcana, is too close to the Matrix in some ways. Hell, there's an EMP pulse spell, another which flat out kills machines, and then one that lets you teleport through phone lines or via email (also rules for casting spells through Email, but that's a different story).

I think Stepmania is a corrupting influence. Asgard's Winamp 3 playlist is currently populated only by songs gained through it. It goes something like this:
1) Heaven (DJ Sammy and Yanou)
2) Sweet Dreams (You'd better know the artist)
3) Butterfly: Upswing Mix
4) Candy: Heart
5) Volume 4: Raver's Mix
6) Dam Dariram
7) Beethoven Virus (Pump it Up)
8) Candy: Star
9) Wonderland: UKS Mix
10) Csikos Post (Pump it Up)
11) Dr. Mario's Theme (Smash Brothers Melee)
12) Going to Suzuka: Shoemaker Mix (S&K)
13) Heaven is Place on Earth: Speedo Mix (Wildside)
14) Ika Uka: E=MC2 Mix (Jenny Rom)
15) Bitches (Mindless Self Indulgence) <---hard as hell, Heavy only and if you've never heard the song the nearly random pauses will kill you.
16) 2002 (Tiger Yamato)
17) History of DDR (DJ Slash & the DDR All Stars)
18) Megaman X Theme (Ummm...duh?)

Manual Labor day is fast approaching (or, if you're trust the clock and in any time zone East of Pacific) it already is here, technically. So, what that means is this: My neighborhood is building homes, which means free top soil, and no one in my family is working tomorrow, so it's manual labor time. Warning to all, getting near my house can easily result in conscription, however, conscription does equal soda and likely pizza at the completion of the dirt moving, so approach my house at your own risk. Anyone who can arrange for themselves to have a "medical emergency" I'm long past moral qualms about that kind of lie. Now I just need to contemplate posting that pic of Heaven from Stepmania to scare people.

And onward to other stuff. Firstly, let's take some comments from Katie's side of the field. So, you're Helen eh? And "She's got to be 40, what is this mothers gone wild?" is the statement you're mostly likely to say? Interesting. As for posting my AP scores, I said I'd post them unless I did really well, which near straight 4's isn't. I wanted straight 5's, studied not at all and ought to be satisfied with 4's and a 3, but I know that something seems wrong about that, oh well.

Well, Pirates will have to wait for a later time, I think I'll play Stepmania until Asgard pulls another fatal exception and freezes/locks up and then I'll go to bed.

New from the front (second attempt)

Yeah, Second attempt, I hit the back button on the new mouse and even though I told Blogger to save what I had, it of course didn't.

Anyways, back to the topic at hand. Asgard now exists, though very little else. To exacerbate the issues I have with Comcast's cable service to my modem randomly not functioning Asgard has his own slew of issues. Yeah, Asgard's a he and not an it, it's easier that way. Anyways, Asgard is because He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named (perhaps it is Should) was too many characters long, which is a grand pity. So, besides all Blizzard made games crashing randomly and Asgard randomly restarting, he's doing fine, except I need to get his memory sent back, but I'm in no mood to reorder the stuff and resend it back. Too much effort involved in doing that at this time of day (which was 3 hours ago on the first attempt). I'll discuss more on Asgard as things develop.

Went and saw Pirates of the Caribbean today, definately gets a reccomendation. There'll be a deeper post later, but 1:00 AM and being on a cpu for the vast part of the day isn't conductive to posting.

The promised Random Crap

It's really sad when I have customers hurling packages at me too, but I did anyways. Okay, so I was asking for it. The place was crowded and he had a tiny drop-off package, so I just motioned for him to toss it to me, and he did. I didn't expect him to use such a high arc, but whatever, like I say, our customers are mostly cheapskates and morons.

David's back, I don't know what brought me to say that, cause if you've been paying attention to Life you'd already be aware of that fact, but I think it bears saying as well. Course, now that he's back I seem to have lost my powers of rain.

And AP scores still haven't come it. I'd say the suspense was killing me, but I'd be lying. Sure, they matter, but not enough for me to care. Now, if I didn't get straight fives my mother will have my head on a pike, but that's a worry for a later day.

Yay! We've at last stopped watching Shrek at work. Yes, I love Shrek. But nothing but Shrek for four days straight is simply a bit much. I mean, Val and I could've done all the lines from the start, by the end even Bill could, and that's kinda sad. We moved from Shrek to Bug's Life, which I feel is not nearly as good as Antz, but that's because I like Woody Allen. So, the end conclusion is that Nick should work more often, cause he brought LotR:Fellowship on Saturday. Now, sadly, I spent most of Saturday at Kyle's store instead, but that's how the cookie crumbles sometimes.

The gentleman took back his Magnetic Insoles today. Neither Bill nor I really felt the supposed "energy" or "balance" that they were supposed to bring on, but perhaps we are skeptics. I'd had them for a good 2-3 weeks, but getting odd stuff from customers doesn't happen often enough. I mean, free stuff is always cool, and it doesn't happen often enough.

For those who haven't heard the story, which really ought to be mostly everyone, back about a week or two my mother found a raccoon in our basement. So, she and my father shooed the thing out into the garage with brooms and left the garage open slightly to let it escape. Instead it lay down between the two cars and died. This of course, was a great tragedy, especially because my mother vetoed my father and my idea of giving him a Viking Funeral (putting him in a boat with the weapons of his enemies), but sadly the creek by our house leads to the Chattahooche and knowing our luck the dead guy would've made it out to the river unhindered and caused a real stir. So, instead my mother had to dig a huge hole cause the raccoon decided to spread out before rigor mortis settled in.

So, I've been playing State of Emergency because Ian's little friend left it over here. Let me repeat, my 10 year old brother's 10 year old friend rented a Mature rated game and left it at my house. The basic storyline goes as follows: You're a member of a Revolution against the Corporation. Those could be in quotes, but I'm lazy. There are 3 stages: a mall, China Town, and Eastside. So, basically you can either do "Revolution" which is mission based, or "Khaos" which is more or less one big objective with a point score to beat. David's been playing "Revolution" mode, which I find rather stupid, so instead I messed around with "Khaos" and found what I think is perhaps the sickest of all modes: Last Clone Standing. To get into this, you need to know the weapons:
Pistol, Uzi, Handaxe, Nightstick, Sword, Minigun, Shotgun, Grenade Launcher, Rocket Launcher, Flame Thrower, AK-47, M-16, Grenade, Motlov, Pepper Spray (non-fatal), and Tazer (quite fatal, though very short ranged). So, the way last clone standing works, is that you're in the stage, with fast respawning weapons (4x normal ammo of all but the 1 use weapons) and you're up against 200 enemies who all do nothing but run around...and die. So, it's sickening how my thought I could put into planning what to do (get the Rocket Launcher first? Or go for the minigun?). But yeah, it's fun with sickening slaughter (too bad the little ones turned off gore, cause it would have been amusing).

Apparently Pink jello/pudding and cats don't mix. I have pink cat vomit on the kitchen floor right now. Festive, but disgusting nonetheless.

Karmatic Blogging

Hey, Nice new Title Field options. That said, time to make up for my 4-5 day absence (depending on how you want to count it) from blogging. So, on to the Karma:

Out with the Bad

We'll start off the Bad with last Thursday cause it's as good a place as any to start. Last Thursday I was up at 8:00 because I was told I had a 9:00 hair appointment and then Joe wanted me at work by 10:00 so I could go with him to retrieve a hand-built table from someone's house for the store to ship out. Well, I arrive at the hair salon at, viola, 9:00, and there's no Marlene (she's the lady who I had the appointment with). So, I hang around for 50 minutes, read through 3 magazines, and decide that I really need to be leaving since I know I'm going to be late to work as is. So, I start going and my wonderful window (which I've now gotten fixed) decides to slide down a good 4 inches from the top, which wouldn't be a horrible thing by itself, but then, as ya'll may recall, the sky decided to open up and rain poured down. So, I drove to work, getting soaked, 1 hand holding the window about 2 inches from the top (which was the best I could do since you cannot lift a window without a force on both sides, it just doesn't work, the window will push against a side otherwise and stop moving upwards) and sitting as far to the right on the seat (or off it for a good part of my body) so as to avoid the water streaming in. At least Thursday didn't stay crappy, but it sure started that way.

Number 2, It really irks me to see idiots win. The proverb, the squeaky wheel gets the grease was proved to me this week and last, and it's bad that I let something like this bother me so much, but it does. So, here's how the story goes. Bill goes out of town on a business trip, so it's Cathy, Val, and me in the store and this lady walks in complaining about how her 2 day air didn't get to her friend until 3 days. Cathy asks her if she tracked it and she says yes, so we tell her we'll have our manager give her a call when he gets in town on Monday. That's too slow for her, so we tell her we'll talk to the owner and have him give her a call, she seems satisfied and leaves. Val hops on the computer and inputs the tracking number, and lo-and-behold, the package went out of a Friday and got there on a Tuesday (wow, 2 business days on a 2 day air, who would've thought). So, we speculate that since it was going to a business it must've arrived in 2 days and then internal delivery within the company, something UPS has no part/control of, took the extra day, so Val calls Joe, tells him all this and we leave it in his hands. Friday comes around (yeah, this happened a week before the Thursday above) and I ask Joe how it went. Apparently when he called this lady to explain she interrupted him to state, quite loudly I'm told, that UPS had already approved her claim and that Joe needed to just work on getting her money. Joe tried again to explain why he was calling, she again cut him off and then hung up, so Joe's instructions were that we were not to call her when the refund came in, if she wanted it, she'd have to come ask for it herself, unfortunately, she did. Now, the way we, as a small business, handle refunds on UPS claims is the only way we can in terms of finance. If a customer is getting a refund, they don't get a penny until UPS refunds our account, we not going in the red just so some customer can be repaid for UPS f*cking up. So, this lady comes in on Monday (Bill got back late due to storms and had only been in a few hours) at about 2 and demanded her refund. Bill explained our refund policy (IE, sorry Ma'am, but I can't give you your money back yet) and she went ballistic and bitchy, loudly proclaiming that she didn't care if we didn't have our refund back, she couldn't understand why we couldn't give her her money (yes, a whopping $11.88 I believe it was). So Bill does exactly as I would and say, the Owner is across the street, this is his policy, go speak to him. So she heads off and Bill dashes into the back and calls Joe to give him the warning that she's on her way. She comes back in 5 minutes and says that Joe okayed giving her the money, so we do and she leaves. I hope she never comes back, but that's just me.

Number 3. My computer. I've got most of it right now, the key part is that I have most of it. I don't have the Harddrive, the CD-Drive, the Mouse, and the Keyboard (Which are all on a ground shipment from California, due in on the 15th) or my Memory which is due to, as of yesterday, ship in 2-3 days and is going ground, but they say allow 2-3 weeks for delivery. So, essentially, I'll have all of my computer by Tuesday except my memory, so I say damn, and Kyle says "f-ing assholes". I mean, if they'd asked me I'd have said test or don't, whichever's faster and send it to me by FedEx Ground if you're east of the Rockies or a FedEx Express Saver (Cause 3 day FedEx's go really fast, I only got one sent to me, but it got here in 2 days from way out in CA, gotta love FedEx, at least I do).

This isn't really a Bad persay, but it's not something I like to associate with. Lauren Mikan was in the store on Thursday (I think), she was with her boyfriend (couldn't tell you what #, but I'm fairly certain it was only middle double digits), who was spending his food money for the week sending out something UPS overnight
And, thankfully, I guess that's just about all the major evils this week, though I have an edit button should I have forgotten something.

In with the Good

So, I'm sitting there, looking up a few paragraphs, and then down at the memory chips in my hand, and I figure that's a pretty good place to start with the Good.

Hell, I think about it, and the Good really boils down to the Bad not lasting very long.

Lulu came by the store, and that was good, cause friendly faces among the standard riff-raff are nice, and D'Oraz swings by every now and then to spend lunch break or off work time.

Sorry the Good was so short, but lack of sleep is on my mind right now, and that brings us to:
Random Crap.

Stuff happens, life goes on, and I'll get around to it later.

Wow. I'm again opening the store, since apparently Bill got stuck in Kansas. I don't think I'll ever have a definate schedule, but that's a good thing, cause it's always me getting asked in early, so more hours, equals more cash.

Lunch/Brunch, whatever we've taken to calling a meal at 1:20-ish, was very good. A traditional club on toasted rye followed up by Chocolate Mousse. Excellent.

So now Jiaz and Cal have experienced the umm, experience, that is my driving. If I'd had a better of where I was going I think it would not have been quite so , exciting, and yeah, only one or two slightly overdone turns and one near collision (damn blind spot and the other car moving too fast (cause I know he wasn't there earlier, cause I did look).

Since I don't have anything better to do. I'll post some of the better Life of Riley comics, cause it's a long read, it has a few snags along the way, but that being said, it'll be a good burn of a bit of time.

Math Fun

Death Death Revolution Guidelines

Great Narration Style

I brought my lunch box to work today. That caused a bit of a stir. I'm not certain what I'm going to do at college without it.

That being said, my Daewoo TV is very nice...albiet large and cumbersome.

I visited the allergist this morning. Basically wasted an hour and a half and $15 to schedule a 2 hour appointment. It was pretty dysfunctional.