new blog, and a nifty video

So I recently discovered how to post to my blogs from my phone by email, and now i'm writing semi-random posts for the story I've been trying to write in my head for the past 5 years or so. It's private, so only the email addresses I add can access the blog. one of the emails I was given from a guy I know at work was basically "und keine eier" and I'm like "what's that mean?" and he says "and no eggs" so i'm like "wtf" and he tells me about this song by Tool. the video here runs the song again half-way through the video, in case you want to skip the nazi imagery fake-out.

you mean living in society isn't free?

I'm moving to a 2 bedroom apartment with my friend of 7 years, known as Xeldan by some, on July 12th. it's fairly spacious for a bachelor pad and it's not far from a bus stop and a grocery store. I really ought to start throwing some stuff in boxes. I also just got a Wii, Mario Kart, an extra remote and wheel for about $70 less than retail. Some lady was returning the lot because her son said "he doesn't like it" and also the lady that sold it to her "said" that she could return all of it within 14 days. unprovable of course, But my department manager was in and approved it, I inspected the lot myself for the return and bought it all, less 10% for opened products, less 10% employee discount <3 it's fun. My friend and I made a couple Miis and played some team Mario Kart. Now I need a wireless router and more games.

and I still need to pack.

I also missed class. totally unrelated, I swear.

I'm an uncle :D [link]

edit: Ottawa citizen page removed, will replace as soon as the dad (Rob) gives me something to use

my Java teacher doesn't suck

So, I've signed up for 2 part-time courses; Business Programming and Object-Oriented Programming. I have high hopes that my teachers will be helpful and have at leastdecipherable accents. However, I've already hit one snag, however small, during the registration process, and I thought I'd share the e-mail I sent to the IT monkeys.

After selecting some part time courses and signing in with my student number, I get the page for verifying personal details and such. I usually ignore the Title field, and I know many people dislike the requirement of this field in online forms of any kind. The problem with this is that when I submitted the form without selecting a "title", the following page instructs me to use my browser's Back button (I'm using Firefox 2.0.0.6), but after selecting a title and pressing submit I get a pop-up error saying "The form has already been submitted." I had to cancel the form and start over by selecting the courses I want to take.

This error was not a major inconvenience for me, as I'm only applying for 2 part-time courses. I felt that requiring a "title" was somewhat old-fashioned and unnecessary, though it doesn't offend me personally. In any case, either the error, the requirement, or the correcting procedure needs to be fixed. I feel that the whole thing is a bit retarded, and whoever is responsible should be smacked (lightly, but firmly).

Sincerely,

DocTabasco ^_^

work work

I am employed; sports dept. started on the weekend. I'll be in electronics eventually.


so

sore

life update

SO, I passed the part-time courses from January-April:
Programming II ... A
Operating Systems (Linux) ... A
Data Communications and Networking ... C
Financial Accounting I ... C-

Not bad, if you consider how much I DIDN'T study.

Presently trying to get employed at Wal-Mart with my already-employed best friend. They've asked for a 3rd reference, but they weren't specific about whether they needed a work or character reference, so that will be dealt with today at some point.
My parent's got a puppy. It's adorable. I can't stand it!

did I mention college?

yeah, i'm taking 4 part time courses; financial accounting I, operating systems (LINUX), data communications and networking, and programming II. it's mid-term exam time. i'm actually most worried about programming and accounting. programming, because I find it hard to listen to the lectures through the instructor's medium-heavy (russian?) accent. accounting, because it's not computer-related (introductory course). eh, what can you do but pass the course at this point.

Christmas goodies

Stolen, SiN (my pc struggles a bit on this one, but it's playable), Tomb Raider: Legend, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (my friend got me this), GTA: Liberty City Stories, Elite Beat Agents (I love this game), New Super Mario Bros., Clerks & Clerks II, also Clerks: Uncensored, Firefly, MI:III, 750g Toblerone, and $50 Wal-Mart gift card Final Fantasy XII from uncle Doug and aunt Helga

rawr

lots of stuff going on here it seems...

the van is on its last legs; while still operational, the engine temperature readout is unreliable, as is the heater (kinda important for a Canadian car). We'll be getting a pre-owned Toyota RAV4 in its place, since we don't really need 7 seats anymore. It's comfy, so I don't have any problem with it.

I just switched the kinda shitty futon L-frame I had with an older but less-shitty L-frame with arms. It should work nicely with the chair I was using as an end-table for my laptop, though it won't actually fit at the end because of the arms. I just have a few more piles to clean up before I can open Okami without reprisal from my mom.

I'm going to take a cake in to work for Thursday (technically today) and ask my boss if I'm going to have a job in January. The timing is purely coincidental, I swear.

birthday (soon)

December 7th. no plans. maybe Montana's for dinner. going to take a cake to work sometime this week.

indecisive

i'm having a hard time getting myself going again. I can't decide what path to take, again. I got the idea to take Business Administration a few weeks ago, but I have yet to act on it, in much the same way I haven't acted on Game Development. I doubt my qualifications without even giving it a try. My reluctance could just be based in finances.. Work has been keeping me busy lately, but I'm having a hard time putting aside my time-wasters so I can keep up with class work. although, nothing's been particularly hard, since they're introductory courses, but I'm kinda worried about the programming test for today's class... and I'm covering a shift today for someone that quit, so I won't have any chance to study... what's probably going to screw me hardest is not going to sleep... yeah. blarg.

edit: still no sleep... going to work would be suicide...

3 consoles + 2 TVs = great kid's party

i took my stuff over to my 2nd cousin's birthday party, and a good time was had by all. super smash bros. melee saw a lot of play time, as did lego star wars (though its gameplay is somewhat complicated). my cousin tried many times to catch up to me in NFSMW, but hasn't had nearly enough experience with racing games.

I also bought Dead Rising today.

digging up the past

I did a google search for "doctabasco"

http://www.xanga.com/DocTabasco - postings from my troubled youth... mostly angst, but there's some good stuff in there... i think...

I found some that seem to be a yahoo! sports message board with some guy using my OLD email that I abandoned in a desparate attempt to evade spam. it's definitely not me.

recap

reading over my old blog entries makes me sad, because of all the opportunities I've passed up. it seems like I was held back by money issues... I have never tried to spend more money than I have or know for certain I will have. I've also spent more money than I should have on entertainment over the years. If my life is a building, it feels like the building is getting too tall to be stable, and the support structures are weakening. not enough budget to reinforce the foundation... or something.

My mind is healthy, my body is poorly kept but functional, but it feels like my soul has been sorely neglected for the longest time.

I never seem to act on my dreams. I love music, games, and writing, but I almost never try to create my own... I can never seem to focus on a single task, instead looking for things to occupy myself with, unrelated to my long-term goals.

Every time I try to write something for the novel I keep thinking of, I can never get myself to just write Something... I have a grand total of 1 page that I did several months ago, as a first page. I'm very skilled at singing, but it's not something I really planned on pursuing. Going solo, I'd worry about my body too much, and I've always been very self-conscious about my body, thanks to the constant harassment in grade school. As for games, I don't have the program skills to be useful in development, at least not yet, but then I'm not even sure I want to do that.

Video games are my favorite time-sink, and if I make anything out of my life, I'd want it to be a long, challenging, story-driven, and musically magnificent video game.

new job is good

so, I'm working at Michaels at the south keys plaza, in the framing department. The department manager is cool, as is the store manager. I may be working around the store as well as framing. It's my.. second week there, and it's good to be working.

what's going on, eh

so, for about the last 3 weeks I've been helping the nearby Michaels remodel. It was the first Canadian location to get this remodel, as it is an American store chain. Whole aisles torn down and replaced in a new arrangement for the first 2 weeks, and final touches on the third. a crew of ~18 people working 10-12 hour nights, 5 days a week. It was a relly great experience. I haven't lost weight, since I was eating a lot of fried food at denny's, but I presume I've gained at least some muscle. The store manager's gonna call me sometime with details on a part-time job.

i have the best parents ever

while i was at work, they went into my room and picked up all the crap and cleaned the floor. they said it was part christmas present and part disease prevention. mom saw how much i'd been working (read: how much i'd been whining after work) and knew i'd never get it done by christmas. now everything is on my desk and cabinets and stuff, but at least the floor's clean! it's traversable without risk of dust monkey attack.

it's been a while again. time to post.

so i got fired from the security job. the situation surrounding that is partly understandable and partly stupid. one of my shifts involved escourting a painter through newly occupied condos to do touch-ups. this particular shift i was only doing because whoever was supposed to do it couldn't and i was begged to do it the night before, and i didn't get much sleep because of that. in any case, at one point, in a lapse of judgement, i laid back on a bedin one of these units for a few minutes. then, one of the construction company's workers comes in to check on the painter's progress and obviously saw me on the bed. at the time, they didn't say anything to me, so i din't think much of it. that was about 3 MONTHS ago. around early december, they call me and say that they're doing layoffs and this incident has put me fairly low on their keep list. I had no idea that there was a problem in the first place, and 3 months is a pretty long time to sit on a complaint without telling the guard involved.

anyway, i wouldn't have wanted to work for them much longer anyway. they suck. i would like to know when i'm working AT LEAST 24 hours in advance.

So i'm working at Zellers for the rest of december. they said they don't normally hire in december, but stuff happened and they needed people. I had experience at Radio Shack (now called "the Source", how cheesy is that?) and it's just for december anyway.

I had cancelled a bunch of subscriptions to mmorpgs and stuff when i got fired, because i was also a bit late on a few credit card payments and i had about $60 left in the bank after that, but that was before my last payment from my previous employer.

i think i'll call them "that damn security company" from now on. i can't believe they're still in business.

Inside of gaming:

why the fuck isn't CoV out yet? fucking bastards

I have uncertain feelings about Anarchy Online. the game system is crap, but such is the case with any game i've played that actually focuses on role-playing. i think funcom made The Longest Journey too. graphics were crap, but the story was great.

I can't find my MxO discs, but who the fuck cares.

World of Warcraft is all there is for my friend Xeldan. Finally got into the guild he's in: The Mighty Oxen.

Outside of gaming:

I'm seriously considering this program. I'm also considering aiming for a career as a teacher. also also, I've been trying to help my friend Chad sing again, but a) he gets quite busy and b) he sucks, but that's ok. his rhymes are hot though.

and work still sucks.