Guess who’s home…
November 21, 2004, 8:28 PM
Sis is home! Yay! She’s home for about a week, too. So while I toil away at Wally World, including on the infamous “Black Friday” day after Thanksgiving, she’ll be at home doing like whatever. Fun.
Meanwhile, this is a phrase that turned a few heads at Wally World: “This is why they give us guns around here.”
You’re thinking: What in the heck?
I’m referring to our handheld scanner guns, which are handy for ringing stuff up (oh, by the way, I got off the Service Desk recently, having had more than my fill of it – I’m now a cashier). Those things are handy for items that are impractical to put on the belt.
Meanwhile, speaking of Black Friday, I’ve officially promised to wear all-black on that day, like I did last year in Staunton.
And then on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, guess where I’m going. You guessed it. Washington DC. Metro’s newest in-fill station, New York Avenue-Florida Avenue-Gallaudet U opened yesterday for the first time. I’m going there, since it’s the first of what I would consider Metro’s “second generation” stations. This is quite a bit different than your typical Metro station. Four escalators (up from two), two elevators (up from one), a redesigned canopy… it’s neat.
I’m also watching CNN. There’s a thing about an NBA player going totally off in the stands. I’m just like, wow. How violent.
The end of Compy 386?
November 16, 2004, 11:24 PM
Continue reading…Categories: Homestar Runner
I’m a refrigerator?
November 15, 2004, 4:27 PM
I’m a refrigerator? So it seems. I found this survey on my friend Cassie’s LiveJournal, and I took it. And so I present to you:
You are a fridge! You can keep your cool, even when faced with a heated situation. You enjoy being the center of attention, and people come to you for advice or when they want something. People also like to stick things to the front of your body.
My friend Cassie, by the way, was a toaster. These kinds of quizzes are fun to do from time to time.
Categories: Netculture
“Let me say my magic word.”
November 14, 2004, 4:23 PM
Does anyone here remember the 1980s British cartoon series SuperTed? I so love those old cartoons. For those of you who don’t remember:
This is a story about an ordinary teddy bear.
When he was made, they found something wrong with him,
And threw him away, like a piece of rubbish, into an old, dark storeroom.
Then, from outer space, a spotty man brought him to life, with his cosmic dust.
He took him to a magic cloud, where Mother Nature gave him special powers.
That bear became… SuperTed!
Categories: Television
I’m definitely making my protest coverage far more complete than ever before…
November 13, 2004, 8:53 PM
When I do my “Day of Activism” (my title) set for Photography, and the Million Worker March set for Life and Times, let me tell you… I’m going to have it all together.
The “Day of Activism” photo set for Photography will be modeled more than anything after my wildly successful A Protest Against The War photo set from 2003. By that, I mean it will have multiple pages, and run basically in chronological order. That means it will go from Anti-War to World Bank back to Anti-War and then back to World Bank. It will also have a separate “movies” page for various movies I did of the rally at the Women’s Memorial, the counter-protesters near the Arlington Cemetery Metro station, and the closing of the World Bank vigil.
The Life and Times photo set on the Million Worker March is being loosely modeled off of the Virginia Beach vacation set that I recently released. That way I can present a complete picture of an event where I was a participant, filling in gaps in the photography with text. I also have lots of movies, which I will include directly in the photo set.
And to fully round out the coverage of these sets, I’m including graphics and PDFs of a bunch of the protest literature from all of these events. As such, this is going to be something new and innovative for me. People passed out lots of literature at all of these events, and I find it appropriate to include it here. This literature is often news on various causes, advertisements for upcoming events, lists of sponsors, and otherwise. Definitely important to provide the full picture.
I think it will definitely take my coverage of various events to a new level. And if nothing else, it will at least provide some additional historical information for potential researchers.
Until I release the photo sets, though, my Journal, in the October 2004 section, has discussion about the events.
Categories: Activism, Schumin Web meta
And all this time I thought I was drinking unleaded…
November 9, 2004, 4:26 PM
Boy, do I feel dumb. I found out today that I’m about the only person at Wal-Mart who didn’t know that Sunkist orange soda had caffeine in it. No idea. I always thought that orange soda was caffeine free. A coworker of mine pointed it out to me today on my last break, and I was just like, “You are kidding me, right?” I was just dumbfounded for a moment there. This stuff has caffeine in it! I asked a few people, “Did you know that this stuff had caffeine in it?” Everyone said they did. I was just blown away by that revelation. Especially since my last break at work has become my “orange soda break”, since I always have an orange soda on that last break of the day to “wind down” a bit, since I always figured it had no caffeine in it.
So as you can see, this is practically an earth-shattering revelation for me. My caffeine-free wind-down soda is loaded with caffeine, it turns out. That explains the amazing second wind I got after my last break, though. I was just flying over my register yesterday, and I just thought I’d hit a second wind. Turns out there was a little something called caffeine in play there, that I didn’t know about.
So now I have to figure out what orange soda has no caffeine in it. Since that’s what I was going for there.
Categories: Food and drink, Walmart
Today we found out why soda bottlers stamp an expiration date on their products
November 6, 2004, 11:41 PM
Yeah, on my way to work today, I found out why sodas carry an expiration date. I had always thought it was more of a marketing gimmick than something real.
Well, I was wrong.
When I was on my vacation to Virginia Beach, I bought a six-pack of Pepsi in the 24-ounce bottles. This was August 11 – day one of my vacation. While on that two-day vacation of mine, I enjoyed four of the six bottles. The remaining two bottles came home with me unused. I took them home and kind of placed them somewhere out of the way.
Now fast-forward to last week. I re-discovered those bottles under some stuff, and threw them in the fridge to get cold again.
Categories: Food and drink
Speechless…
November 3, 2004, 11:09 PM
You’ve seen my hundreds of WMATA photos on my Transit Center site before. This is one photo that had me somewhat speechless for a bit when I saw it:
Photo from The Washington Post
Categories: WMATA
I voted… did you?
November 2, 2004, 3:44 PM
After work, I went over to Stuarts Draft Rescue Squad, and voted. And as a result, I got this:
As you probably expected, I voted for John Kerry for President.
Categories: National politics, Television
Recall: “This is where it gets a little bizarre for a while.”
October 31, 2004, 2:59 AM
It’s WAY past when I should be in bed, and I’m still researching protest photos. Do you remember, from the journal entry I did about the Million Worker March, where I said, “This is where it gets a little bizarre for a while”?
Well, that was because for a while, I, along with “Teapot” and her group, went chasing after a group allegedly wearing a hot dog suit. We then learned that there was also a guy dressed up as the Hamburglar, and a chicken. After the march, back here at the computer, I wrote this about our unsuccessful hunt:
…where we could get a good look over the whole general area for the hot dog guy. No hot dog guy. So we headed back to where we were, in the shade north of the Lincoln Memorial, wondering if such costumed characters actually did exist…
Well, they did exist, as confirmed by posters on DC Indymedia. And now, in hunting around, I landed on sootoday.com (a newspaper in Sault Ste. Marie). On their Web site, I found this:
Categories: Activism
I’m just like, “Oh, my gawd…”
October 31, 2004, 1:40 AM
This evening, after unveiling a beautiful new Online Store, I did a little photo research online. I went looking for photos that other people took of various protests that I’ve been to.
The first one I looked for is the Million Worker March. I found a few groups of photos. I even found one photo with me in it. I was just like, “Oh, my gawd…” Even though I was a participant in a feeder march, the main rally, and the breakaway march to the hotel, I still find it interesting to find myself in a photo of the group. Especially since I usually never find myself in these photos. In another photo off of an Indymedia site (not DC’s, and I can’t remember which one), I was just barely missed. The people next to me were photographed, but I somehow ended up behind a banner. But in this one photo at the hotel, I found myself, and I was in the process of taking a movie with Big Mavica. I checked the movie that I was taking (I’m probably going to use it), and the photographer came into frame and took the image. Cool!
Categories: Activism, Schumin Web meta
Take a look at this, and see what the problem is:
October 28, 2004, 11:38 PM
Categories: Amusing
I need to be re-Googled so badly…
October 26, 2004, 9:57 PM
As of right now, most of my search results are bad. Specifically, at this time, it affects all pages in the Life and Times, Major Areas, Odds and Ends, and Photography sections. That’s because all my pages now end in .asp and not .htm, since the new menus require the new extension. And the aforementioned sections are the ones where the redesign has been completed. Journal, being a new section, is different because there are no old results. It just needs to be crawled for the first time.
So as a result, I can expect to see some of my site traffic dip until Google finds me again. I’ve done my part, though, and resubmitted the home pages for the changed sections, where all the links live.
Otherwise, I got out of the house for a little bit today. I actually went to Staunton Mall to get my glasses adjusted, and then went to the Staunton Wal-Mart to do a little shopping. In this case, Staunton Wal-Mart is crucial here. I don’t shop in the Waynesboro Wal-Mart on my off-days. Feels too much like going to work. So I went to Staunton. I hadn’t seen them in a while, and so that was nice. Staunton has now turned their Garden Center patio into a full-scale greenhouse like we have in Waynesboro, which I thought was cool. It definitely beats the heck out of the open-air patio that it used to be.
Categories: Family, Myself, Schumin Web meta, Shopping
Every so often I go visit…
October 26, 2004, 9:54 AM
You know where to go if you need to get some serious laughing? Homestarrunner.com, of course. I looked at Strong Bad’s three most recent Emails – The Facts, Time Capsule, and Extra Plug.
“The Facts” is about why Strong Mad should not have a cartoon of his own. “Time Capsule” is where Strong Bad sets up a time capsule with a cassette tape and dry ice in it (the dry ice so it will go “froosh” when someone opens it), which Stinko Man from 20X6 (pronounced “twenty-extee-six”) then proceeds to eat. That one also has a song about Grumblecakes as an easter egg.
The one that really had me laughing, though, was “Extra Plug”. Strong Bad was asked what he could use the extra plug under his desk for. Turns out he had bought some light-up shoes, which he believed could attract women to him solely on the basis of his shoes. He managed to flip a breaker, since the power went out. Seems those things really do suck up the juice. They’re also really loud. They finished the Email, however, in an unusual way. And they ended up also sucking up all the juice at Club Technochocolate. They ended up powering the shoes from the King of Town’s place. Fun.
Now what I’m going to have stuck in my head all day is that Grumblecakes song. It’s definitely an interesting song, being quite catchy. And my dirty, filthy, sordid little mind has read two interpretations into to that song.
World’s worst pickup line: “Hey, baby, want to share those Grumblecakes?”
Categories: Homestar Runner
I hope I’m not coming down with something…
October 26, 2004, 9:01 AM
I really hope I’m not coming down with something, because this would be a heck of a time to come down with something. Though it would serve me right, since I’ve overextended myself lately, going eight days without a break on a number of occasions recently. Most recently, I had the Million Worker March followed by seven straight days at the Service Desk. That’s a recipe for fatigue.
And so today and yesterday, my nose has been stuffed up. I don’t know what to tell you on that one. I hope I’m not getting sick. Since that would just be unpleasant. The last time I was truly sick, as in feeling bad enough that I actually had to miss something was back in 2002. Usually when I catch something, it manifests itself as a sore throat and then goes away on its own. No big deal.
So we’ll see.
Categories: Myself, Schumin Web meta