Stumbling In

I've decided (after my two days training) that I'm not a fan of 7-11 graveyard shift. On top of helping customers and keeping fresh food up and cleaning the store, there's an entire (pretty lengthy) page of graveyard shift chores - anywhere from four to ten per hour, as it's split up on the page by each hour of the eight hour shift. The person training me said that I definitely won't be able to do everything every night, so it's comforting to know that I don't HAVE to, although I'll still try. I might learn to like graveyard shift more in time, but ideally, I'll be back on days eventually.

And that's pretty much consumed the last couple of days. If you've never worked graveyard shift, it's kind of a pain. More tiring than days are, even for the same amount of hours, which is all about the circadian rhythm. Pain in the ass, is what it is. Working graveyard shift pretty much amounts to work, sleep, rinse, repeat. I'm going to try and find something to do in the mornings before sleeping, and in the late afternoons after waking and before work, so we'll see how that goes. I'll probably go for a morning jog to make it so that I really pass the hell out.

Some recent good news, that I don't think I've blogged yet: an end to my (current) debt is in sight!

After the (not-so-mysterious-anymore) Random Mystery Deposit from my old work, that enabled me to pay my cell phone bill and keep my checking account from closure, I found out that I'm caught up on rent -- with another few paychecks between now and then, which means more than enough to cover it. And the collection agency that has been on my ass about the (ridiculous) medical bills from my trip to the ER last summer for wisdom tooth pain has lowered my payments, the last one having been returned as "Insufficient Funds". I told them back in January that I didn't have the money, so now they believe me, and at the current rate, it should be paid off by March or April.

After spending the last couple years being broke, due to trying to support myself and my mom on (barely above) minimum wage, the idea of being able to save up money again is pretty exciting. Now if only I could manage to get myself into the "good credit" range...

And if you've finished this boring and (probably) too-personal post, I thank you. You readers have saved me tons of money on therapy -- which, to be honest, I could probably use. I'll try to be more interesting for the next one. Maybe a "tales from graveyard shift" post, if anything weird happens!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

In brightest day...

I'd planned on going for a hike around Lions Park, but less-than-great weather this morning (and less than four hours sleep last night) put the kibosh on that idea. To make up for the promised pictures, I'm going to go on the next nice day that I have off.

Other than that, today was good. And a little bit weird, in one spot. If I haven't made it abundantly clear, I am incredibly broke. A few weeks ago, I'd been told that, since my bank account had been overdrawn for over a month, it would shut down and go to collections soon. Unfortunate as it is, that's what happens when a debt collector takes money that you tell them you don't have. I decided that since I was so deep anyway, I'd check to see if my account was still open, and if it was then I'd dig myself a little deeper by paying my cell phone bill.

Aaaand there's the weird part. I don't know WHY (and I'm not going to ask), but there was a deposit from my old work that not only got me out of the red, but gave me enough to pay my cell phone bill and go see Green Lantern. It could be some back-due vacation pay or something else, but I'm not going to ask. It has saved my bank account and my ability to keep in touch with the outside world, so I'm just going to be happy with that.

Speaking of Green Lantern, it was fantastic. I've got part of a video review recorded already for Random Ramblings TV, but here's the gist of it: It was fun as both a Green Lantern fan and a casual moviegoer. My doubts about some of the casting (Blake Lively) and some story elements (like Parallax) were cleared up very quickly, and some things actually improved on the comics (mainly, Parallax's origin). Also, the suit looks a million times better than the version that was shown on the cover of Entertainment Weekly, a looooong time ago.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Nothing like a fresh start

There’s nothing like a fresh start, so I’m working on giving myself a clean slate. I’ve done a(nother) factory restore on my computer, I’ve got a “To Do” list that I’m working on for self-improvement, and tomorrow’s plans are to do a lot of cleaning and then go for a small “hike” in an area that I used to love as a kid. I promise, I’ll take a picture or three. :)

 

I’m also going to be having work change, as well. After one more “cover” shift on Sunday, I’ll be starting on graveyard shift at work Monday through Thursday – which is as far as I know so far, since my work’s schedules run Friday through Thursday. It should be interesting, being back on a “I’ll rarely see what little sun we get” schedule, having been predominantly on days and such since December or January.

 

In essence, I’m relaunching myself, like DC Comics is doing – I’ll have a video on that topic up, soon – and hopefully, it will lead to an improved, rejuvenated Justin. I’ll keep you updated, and I’m sorry it took me three weeks to blog. :P

 

One thing you can check out (although, for you early birds who happen to be online and see this before I finish it) is my new “101 in 1001” page, linked up at the top. There’s some explanation in there, or will be, when it’s finished. :)

My blade thirsts for blood!

So, I kind of put my box knife through my thumb at work today. We all carry box knives at 7-11, because we've got a lot of foods that we unbox when they come out of the freezers.

My box knife hasn't been cutting very well lately, until I took it apart and really cleaned the whole thing piece by piece. The last few days since then, it's been cutting though like there's nothing there. And even though I keep my not-holding-a-knife hand well out of the blade's path, apparently that's not enough.

You can check the pic (which will probably be at the bottom - I'm not sure with email-blogging), but it doesn't show very well that it's a little deeper than it looks. The knife curved off the path, sliced up through the lid, and into my thumb. Let me tell you something, in case you've never cut your thumb a little deep: there's an artery there. If you cut your thumb well enough, that little bastard will bleed pretty quickly. I had to change the bandage within two minutes because it had bled through.

The good news? I was almost off work anyway. The better news? It didn't bleed that much longer. Direct pressure and a fairly-tight bandage stopped it up, until I got home to clean it out and take this picture. I also got a few good pics of the area near my house, but I'll wait until I'm actually on a computer to put those up. Same with the pic-spam of my east coast trip, now that I've put some up on Facebook.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Fire in downtown Aberdeen

Last night, I tweeted about a fire in Aberdeen when I rode past it, shortly before midnight. I was unsure of the cause at the time, but thanks to an article in The Daily World (the local newspaper), I've not only found out the reason, I've lost some of my hope for the world. Yes, the cause is that stupid.

In what I assume was an effort to save money and circumvent an electricity bill, the woman who lived there was using a gas generator for electricity. As the story went in the paper, she was filling the generator, spilled some gas onto the floor, and USED A LIGHTER to check how bad the gas spill was.

There are not words for how much this level of stupidity irks me. It's reckless, and almost makes you wonder how she was smart enough to make it this far in life. I'm just glad that she only received minor burns, though, and everyone got out mostly safe. Good job on the part of the Aberdeen Fire Department on keeping it from spreading to the houses nearby, especially in an area where the houses aren't that far apart.

Other than that, today was a pretty good day. I have tomorrow off with a lot of things to do, but they're all things that I enjoy doing. And I'll have the house to myself in the evening, so let's see what shenanigans I can get involved with.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Blargh!

I mentioned yesterday that I've become a 7-11 wage-slave, and I don't actually mean that negatively, because I like my job. There is one thing I don't like about it, though: it gives me fuck-all for time (and energy) to do a lot of things.

That's the main reason that I'm not blogging as much as before -- when I'm done running around that store for 8-10 hours (and probably a couple miles worth of running around), I have no desire to walk a half-mile to the nearest place I could get online, which is my grandma's. But I don't have much of an excuse, since I have a smartphone and can just email a post (like this one). So I'm going to keep that in mind, and try to be better at that whole "remembering" thing.

Today was pretty uneventful. Pretty much all I did was wake up, get ready for work, take a bus to work, and... you guessed it, I worked. I was still in a pretty good mood from last night's Canucks win, though. And I have Friday off, so I just need to make it through tomorrow (easy enough). Speaking of the Canucks' win, there was a story on the news last night about a group in Seattle that's interested in bringing the NHL to Washington. It's an exciting possibility, but still some time off; to comply with various requirements, they'd probably need a new arena, and I don't see that happening soon.

Alright, there's lots of cops going across the bridge in front of my house, and I'm going to work on my alibi. I mean.........

I'm going to write. That's what I'll do. No need for an alibi beyond that, right? :D
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry