A good year for soda nostalgia, but…
August 19, 2016, 10:38 PM
2016 has been a good year for those nostalgic for the nineties. First Coca-Cola brought out this:
Continue reading…Categories: Food and drink
In retail, it’s made abundantly clear that the employee is never right…
August 16, 2016, 8:12 PM
The recent discussion in this space about bad employee behavior made me think of a few incidents that occurred during my time at Walmart back in 2004 that defied logic. These were incidents where I got pulled into the back office and chewed out for something that I had no control over due to policies and procedures in place at the time. One of these even was handled as a “coaching”, short for “Coaching for Improvement”, which is Walmart’s term for its disciplinary process. If you ask me, it’s pretty messed up to discipline someone over something that they have no control over. It’s where you realize that as an employee, you are never right, even when you follow protocol to the letter, and you are also responsible for your managers’ mistakes.
The first incident occurred in the summer of 2004. I got into work, and my boss, the assistant manager over the front end, pulled me aside to speak with me as soon as I clocked in. His first words were, “This is your verbal warning,” i.e. this was a coaching. Lovely. I was then told that they had caught me on camera at the service desk accepting a stolen item for a return. They explained what happened, i.e. that a person had taken a vacuum cleaner off of the shelf, walked it over to the service desk, presented a receipt, and got a their money back for it from me.
While at first glance it might seem like an open-and-shut case, and therefore grounds to discipline me for accepting a stolen item for a return, if you look more deeply into it, that argument starts to fall apart. My job at the service desk was to accept and process returns. In my store, a mid-2000s Supercenter, the service desk was in the middle of the front end, in a space that I referred to as a cave, since it was a windowless room that was only open to the rest of the store on one side.
My life according to Clive and the Cowboys…
August 6, 2016, 5:12 PM
I was going through my Facebook “memories” feed today, and one in particular struck me as amusing. My sister made a post on this day in 2009, called “My Life According to Disney”. It was one of those chain posts where you fill in the blanks and then tag fifteen of your friends. Here were the directions:
Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions. Pass it on to 15 people you like and include me. You can’t use the band I used. Try not to repeat a song title. It’s a lot harder than you think! Repost as “my life according to (band name)”.
She chose Disney. Technically, “Disney” casts a very wide net, since their body of work is very large and spans multiple generations of authors, artists, composers, etc. But she made it work. She also tagged me, encouraging me to do the same. I commented thusly:
And then I gave a proper response:
Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions. Pass it on to 15 people you like and include me. You can’t use the band I used. Try not to repeat a song title. It’s a lot harder than you think! Repost as “my life according to (band name)”.
Pick your artist: Clive and the Cowboys (yeah, Today’s Special – sue me)
Are you a male or a female: “I am thunder and nothing can happen ’til I bellow and I rumble and wake everybody with my roar…” (A Visit to the Opera)
Describe yourself: “Hocus pocus alimagocus, I can bend, I can stretch, I can see…” (Family)
How do you feel: “Let go of your busy day, let it all just drift away…” (Sleep)
Describe where you currently live: “When I’m at home I just relax, put on slippers, shirt, and slacks, settle down to watch TV, and dunk a donut in my tea.” (Homes)
If you could go anywhere, where would you go: “Let’s not get carried away, Sneakamore! Still, I will admit… I’m nasty, I’m not very nice… the heart that’s inside me is as cold as ice…” (Storybooks)
Your favorite form of transportation: “All aboard, the whistle blows, a rumbling starts beneath your toes…” (Trains)
Your best friend is: “When you’re with me, I’m not afraid of anything…” (Flight)
You and your best friends are: “Who’s the one I like to play with? Who’s the one I’ll spend all day with?” (Sharing)
If your life were a TV show, what would it be called: “Today’s Special” (main theme)
What is life to you: “We’ve got a store that I explore when the customers aren’t here anymore…” (Sleep)
Your last relationship: “Just give a snap, a clap, and a chuckle any time you feel a bit dismayed…” (Storms)
Your fear: “I love the rain, I love it when it’s raining…” (Storms) coupled with “Riding along the highway, singing a song and going my way…” (Cars)
What is the best advice you can give: “Let your smile shine through in every thing you do… don’t hide that special you…” (Teeth)
How I would like to die: “Without ever leaving, I’ve been everywhere… I’ve been to those lands ’cause you’ve taken me there…” (Memories)
My soul’s present condition: “Blue! Blue! The cow was blue! She jumped high like a kangaroo!” (Dreams)
My motto: “A singin’ yo he ho, sailin’ across the ocean blue, singin’ yo he ho, I’m a comin’ home to you!” (Costumes)
For those who don’t know, “Clive and the Cowboys” is, as far as I can tell, the name of the group of musicians that played the accompaniment for the songs on Today’s Special. They were referenced in “Sleep” when Sam was talking on the radio, and also in “Records” when Jodie made the record. On that later occasion, she referred to the group as “Jodie and the Cowboys”.
Some of these responses are obvious, and some not so much. With the passage of time, I couldn’t tell you why, for the “male or female” question, I quoted Thunder from “The Rainmakers”, other than that Thunder was a male actor. The “If you could go anywhere” question, I assume I meant the “Land of Make Believe”, because that’s a song that the two villains sung together explaining how evil they were. “Your last relationship”, I don’t recall why I chose “Snap, Clap, and Chuckle” for it. I suppose that 2009 me had a rationale for it, but it’s lost on 2016 me. And then I also apparently didn’t like driving through storms in 2009. Still not the most fun, especially since larger vehicles slide surprisingly easily in the rain. You wouldn’t think that a vehicle the size of a bus would slide more than a much smaller car, but they most definitely do. I also can’t explain what the Blue Cow song has to do with my soul’s present condition. Maybe I was in a silly mood, and that’s certainly a silly song.
And then there was my sister’s comment on the post, in response to my original comment on hers:
In any case, though, this was a fun exercise, both in writing it at the time, as well as revisiting it now. Facebook memories can be so much fun to go through. Unlike a photo album, Facebook memories are like going through an album of our thoughts. Facebook, without a character limit for posts, allows the space for more explanation of one’s thoughts, and therefore the ability to express the entire idea. What we were thinking at the time often helps give perspective to what we’re thinking now. After all, we may not realize it at the time, but we all are constantly growing and changing. What was important a few years ago is laughable today. What was considered a dream years ago is now reality. You know.
Categories: Family, Social media, Today's Special
I always thought that an important rule of retail was not to get into arguments with your customers…
August 2, 2016, 12:32 PM
Do you ever have those days where some people’s behaviors defy logic? Such is what happened to me at the Giant Food store in Leisure World yesterday. Generally speaking, if someone is handing you money, it’s generally not a good idea to start arguing with them over something minor to the point of losing the sale. It was one of those occasions where I was bothered enough by the treatment to write the company about it. This is what I wrote:
While I was shopping at the Leisure World Giant store, I was very surprised about the treatment that I received from an employee wearing a purple shirt named Ken. I was buying a single item, and, after seeing an older woman go through the Solution Center for checkout with a single item, I followed suit. I was very surprised to hear Ken absolutely refuse to check me out for my one item, citing a policy, for which I was unable to locate signage anywhere in the store, that you can’t check out at the solution center. Ken then proceeded to argue with me over this alleged policy, when it would have taken less time to not argue and just complete the sale. The store ultimately lost the sale on account of Ken, as the item was not worth getting into an argument over. Even more surprising was that, with the checkout lines backed up into the aisle, the solution center does not help relieve the pressure on the regular checkouts when they are backed up, such as was the case today. I have always praised Giant in the past for its level of good customer service, which is generally higher than its peers in the market. I hope that this sort of behavior, with employees who get into arguments with customers over extremely minor things, is not a “new normal” for Giant.
Categories: Giant Food, Shopping, Some people
Nobody can rope a wheel like I can…
July 30, 2016, 10:52 AM
This past Thursday, Elyse and I went up to Harrisburg with another friend to help test drive a bus. My friend had been searching for a bus to convert into an RV, and located a school bus as a potential candidate. I was there because I had a CDL, and therefore could legally drive the bus, and knew what I was talking about when it came to looking the bus over and getting a feel for how it drove. Considering that my work as of late has had me around rail vehicles rather than buses, I was excited, because I hadn’t driven a bus since April.
The bus was a 2007 Thomas Built HDX. For those not familiar, that is a transit-style school bus, i.e. the kind with a flat front. I definitely knew how to drive those, because transit buses have flat fronts, plus I first learned how to drive a bus on a Thomas Built MVP, which is an older version of this bus. Only thing I did have to get used to with this bus was that the turn signal control was on the steering column, whereas on a transit bus, the turn signals are on the floor. School buses should have them on the floor as well, for the same reason that they’re on the floor for transit: it allows you to keep both hands on the wheel at all times. Clearly, whoever placed the stalk for the turn signals had never operated a bus before, because it did feel like something of an awkward reach to operate the turn signal.
I was worried that I might have lost some of my bus-handling skill in the three months that had passed since the last time I had operated a bus, but once I got a feel for the bus, no problem. As I discovered after being out for six weeks for that broken foot, it’s just like riding a bike. However, I did have to get used to the pedals on this bus. Unlike every other bus that I had driven, where the accelerator and the brake pedals are attached to the floor, these were hung from above, like a car. Go figure. But once I got over that, no problem.
Categories: Driving, Elyse, Friends, Harrisburg, Walmart
Had never traveled a business Interstate before…
July 24, 2016, 8:55 PM
…and now I have. Elyse and I made an impromptu road trip to York, Pennsylvania on Thursday, July 14. We got together in Ellicott City, but didn’t know quite what we wanted to do, and so we ended up doing that.
However, our first stop was a completely unplanned one, in Catonsville. There, the McDonald’s in 40 West Plaza recently closed, and was in the process of being vacated. At the time that we came by, they had started roofing over the McDonald’s-style mansard, and removed the signage, and were packing stuff up inside.
Categories: Baltimore County, Elyse, Fire alarms, Roads, York
A look back on an old photo shoot…
July 7, 2016, 11:06 AM
July 7, 2001 was something of a milestone date for me. It was my first full-on photo shoot in DC. The result of that photo shoot was a Photography set called “The Schumin Web Salutes America”. I pulled the set during the WordPress conversion in 2012 because it was somewhat low quality, but you can still find it in the Internet Archive. Looking back on the set, it was clear that I didn’t know what I was doing, both in the photography itself as well as the post-production, but it was a start.
The set really embodied the way the Photography set started out, which was more like the modern Life and Times, but more subject-based. Photography didn’t take on its current form until 2008. In that, it started out showing my coming up to the area, traveling in on the Metro, it showed the things that I observed on that trip, and also showed a few landmarks in between.
Looking back on this day, fifteen years ago today, it’s funny to see how much has changed since this set was made. I was 20 years old. The camera was a Sony Mavica FD-73 – that means that I was toting a box of 3½” floppy disks around DC to save my photos. Buildings are now here that weren’t in 2001. Some buildings are gone now. This was also my first time riding past Smithsonian on the Blue and Orange Line, and my first time transferring to the Yellow Line, at L’Enfant Plaza, and going over the bridge. So here we go…
Categories: Arlington, Fire alarms, Photography, Schumin Web meta, Washington DC, WMATA
Good to see our old house looking better than it has in quite some time…
June 30, 2016, 6:15 PM
Back on June 9, Elyse and I took a one-day road trip to Philadelphia. From the outset, this was to be something of a transit adventure, with a visit to the SEPTA gift shop as one of the main priorities. On the way up, Elyse even got annoyed with me for a few restroom stops (hey, when nature calls…) because she didn’t want to miss the SEPTA store. But then as we were heading up I-295 towards Lindenwold station to get PATCO, I commented as we were approaching the exit for US 322 that this was the exit that you would take to go see my old house in Glassboro. Her response was an enthusiastic “Let’s go!” Looks like someone just gave up their right to complain about the time.
That said, we went over to Glassboro, and over to 304 Cornell Road. I was surprised to see how nice the place looked:
A trip through Schumin Web’s “attic”…
June 28, 2016, 5:06 PM
First of all, for those of you who were not aware, Schumin Web recently moved to a more robust hosting plan with the same hosting company, after it had become painfully obvious that I had outgrown my existing hosting plan. This new arrangement will provide higher page load speeds for you, and more growth potential for me.
With that, I thought it would be interesting to look at what I’ll call “past futures”. I recently went digging around the folder where I keep a bunch of old graphics and such that I made for the website at some point or other, and was thoroughly amused by them. Some of this stuff actually did make it to the website but is now long gone, some of it was seriously intended for production use but wasn’t used, and some of it was more exploratory in nature with no real intent of actual use.
I currently have an online licensing portfolio through Pixels.com. That was not my first foray into photo licensing. In 2003, I made efforts to license my photo work for third-party usage as well, but with far less success. In that instance, I tried to go it alone, operating an independent stock photography website. I called that effort “Almond Street”. If I recall correctly, the name came from a thought back to the streets that I remembered from our time in Rogers, Arkansas. Many streets in Rogers were named for trees, so I thought of tree types that might sound nice as a brand name, and decided that “almond” sounded the best. What’s amusing in hindsight, however, is the logo:
Categories: Schumin Web meta
A principal has egg on her face…
June 14, 2016, 6:10 AM
As someone who was on the receiving end of some pretty unfair punishments in school, and having witnessed school officials blatantly flout the rules on a number of occasions, it’s good to see someone get called out for a punishment that’s out of step with policy. This was the culmination of a controversy regarding several students’ drinking alcohol on prom night at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School‘s senior prom, and the reversal of a decision that would have prevented them from attending their high school graduation.
The situation, as I understand it based on a Bethesda Magazine article and a Washington Post article, began with a policy set at the school level regarding consequences for students’ showing up for prom while impaired by alcohol or other various substances, or becoming impaired by the same over the course of the evening, encompassing the prom itself as well as the official after-prom party. The school’s policy was that anyone who either was caught drinking at prom-related activities, or showed up to same already drunk, would not be allowed to walk at the school’s June 1 graduation at DAR Constitution Hall. This is supported by a prom guest application document from the school’s website, where the relevant section, near the bottom of the second page, reads:
Students and/or guests who are suspected of being under the influence of alcohol, inhalants, illegal drugs or controlled substances will not be admitted to Prom or After Prom. Students attending Prom or After Prom who show signs of being under the influence of such substances, or who are found to be in possession of such substances during either event, will be subjected to the consequences set forth in the B-CC Student Handbook, and their parents will be notified. If the student is part of an athletic team or other school-sponsored activity, the coach/sponsor will be notified as well. Note that any senior who is determined to be under the influence or in possession of such substances when arriving at or during the course of Prom or After Prom will not participate in the on-stage distribution of diplomas at B-CC’s graduation ceremony.
Categories: DC area local news, Events, Montgomery County, School
Nobody knows how to tweak you like your mother…
May 31, 2016, 9:32 PM
So yesterday was my 35th birthday. And sometimes people really get one on you. Case in point with my mother this year. We were talking on the phone on my way home from work on Saturday (a nice long ride, as I’m working out of a facility in Alexandria this week), and amongst discussions of Hefty bags (don’t ask, but I was laughing so hard that I was in tears), my mother asked if I’d seen the birthday card from her yet. I hadn’t. My mother insisted that I check the mailbox to fish the card out while we were on the phone. I was thinking, it can’t be that exciting, now, and then I saw it:
New couch!
May 29, 2016, 6:30 PM
Sometimes, you just have to go out with the old. After fifteen years, I finally got rid of my old futon from college. In other words, this:
“Wait, isn’t that…?”
May 12, 2016, 1:01 PM
Imagine my surprise to sit down at my computer this morning to check Facebook, and be greeted by this image from ABC affiliate WJLA:
Categories: Copyright infringement, Weather, Wikipedia
Time to redefine my look…
May 11, 2016, 8:59 PM
…and by that, I mean it’s time for new glasses. I’ve worn glasses since January 2001, and I’ve had four pairs of glasses since then. The first pair, which I had from 2001 to 2005, had wire frames and more or less round lenses. Then the second pair, from 2005 to 2008, had squarer lenses with really round corners. I had my next pair for only two years, 2008 to 2010. Those continued the squaring trend, with corners less round than before, but still a bit of curve in them. My current pair, since 2010, is another evolution in the same vein, with fewer curves and more squareness, plus more definition on the sides. It’s funny, though – with that last pair, I picked the antique finish on the frames. However, after almost six years of use, I think it’s now closer to a silver finish than antique. So even though my prescription barely changed, it was time for new glasses.
I had actually been looking forward to my eye exam last week for quite some time, because I was tired of my existing glasses. Therefore, I had taken plenty of time to think about what I wanted to do on my next pair. I figured that if I didn’t do something significantly different, then I would probably do another evolution on what I was doing now. However, the latter would essentially be an admission of defeat for a new style, and I didn’t want to do that. So with a new prescription in hand, I went and tried out a bunch of different glasses to see what I liked.
My first stop was Lenscrafters, and my first test was this pair:
Categories: Glasses
A few more thoughts about “Scott’s House”…
April 24, 2016, 8:05 PM
Today, I released the “Scott’s House” set in Photography, which covers the visit that Elyse and I made to the former home of Scott Alan Bauer back in March. While the photo set gave a somewhat dry presentation of what Elyse and I found in the house, the preparation of that set raised a lot of questions that I will likely never get answers to, mostly revolving around the mystery of what exactly happened to this family.
From what I could tell, the house, in its final form, was home to only one person: Scott Bauer himself. Only the master bedroom contained a bed, one bedroom had no furniture in it to speak of, and the third bedroom had clearly been converted to an office at some point. In the bedroom-turned-office, some of the paperwork made me think that this home, leading up to its abandonment in late 2002, was not as happy as it once was. One of the documents was a statement from Howard County social services regarding past due child support. So it would appear that a divorce had occurred, and things had not been going well since. Likewise, on an MVA notice, Bauer had insurance and emissions violations regarding his truck. Makes me wonder if he had major financial problems in his final years at the house.
In any case, what caused Bauer to ultimately abandon the house and all of his belongings, as well as what happened to him afterward, remains a mystery.
Categories: Howard County, Photography, Urban exploration