It’s September, believe it or not.
September 3, 2004, 7:51 AM
I just can’t get over that this year is officially two-thirds over and that Halloween will be here sooner than you think. And then Christmas. Goodness.
And this month on my calendar, I have the Qwest Tower in Ballston, a neighborhood in Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington DC. In case you’re wondering, I ordered one of the “Urban Comparison” calendars from my Online Store, and keep it up on a bulletin board above the bed. So that’s this month’s image. Last month was a billboard atop a building in Roanoke, which was nice looking. I rotated between the four areas of my Urban Comparison photo set when I did this, and so as a result, it goes Washington-Richmond-Norfolk-Roanoke and cycles through that two more times. So next month is something in Richmond (what exactly that will be I’ve forgotten), and then something in Norfolk (again I don’t remember), and finally that up-the-tower look at the First Union Tower (now Wachovia Tower).
And then this weekend is Labor Day weekend. And somehow I managed to get Labor Day off. What shall I be doing on Labor Day, pray tell? Laboring. On the Web site. Maybe I can actually get something accomplished. Since, you see, even with my checklist, I’m still falling short on actual cross-it-off accomplishments, having a lot of tasks in partial completeness. I’d rather have a few tasks that are completed than a lot of partly-completed tasks. We’ll get there…
Categories: Schumin Web meta
“THIS IS THE SERVICE DESK! STEP AWAY FROM THE RETURNS AND KEEP YOUR HANDS UP!”
September 2, 2004, 11:43 PM
Yeah, when it gets slow as the night continues on, we get a tad silly. Our scanners at the Service Desk are handheld and wireless, and are somewhat gun-shaped. And when an associate held up an item so I could scan it to find out what department it was in, I kind of hammed it up a little. Took my scanner gun, held it with both hands, aimed, and fired at the item in question. Zap.
When I saw the associate was amused, I hammed it up a little more, posing and jokingly saying, “This is the Service Desk! Step away from the returns and keep your hands up!”
Yeah, we’re nutty. Good, harmless fun. And it works even better with a telxon (pronounced TEL-a-zon), since those things have a longer business-end than our scanners do.
As you can tell, I had a really good day today. I also went over to SmartStyle (in-store hair place) on my lunch break and got my ears lowered. And just to illustrate how much hair I needed to get cut off, I now have a very neat and attractive haircut (can’t keep the girls off me!). But before lunch, I was so shaggy that I could have made great money renting myself out as a mop. I was really shaggy.
Continue reading…
Categories: Schumin Web meta, Vintage business, Walmart
HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY! The remodeling is finished!
August 30, 2004, 9:29 PM
Finally! No more hammering. No more nail guns. No more polyurethane. No more getting up at an ungodly hour to vacate so that they can do the stairs. No more! It’s DONE! And I am so pleased with that.
And it looks really nice, too. I’m going to take a final round of photos tomorrow for the Web site, and then I’m going to compile a photo set about the whole remodel for Life and Times.
It’s amazing… when we moved into this house, we had an open deck out back, and light beige colored carpeting in the entire house, including up the stairs. The only areas not carpeted were the entry foyer (immediately in front of the front door), the kitchen, and all the bathrooms. And those were linoleum. We replaced the kitchen floor linoleum with ceramic tile in 1994 (it wore particularly badly), and then in 1998 replaced the downstairs hallway carpeting and entry foyer linoleum with hardwood. Now the only original carpeting left downstairs is in the hall closet. The living room was recarpeted, and the family room and dining room got new hardwood. And the stairs are finally wood, as they should have been from the get-go. So good stuff there. And the upstairs hallway is also hardwood. The bathrooms are all still original, as are all the bedrooms. Good.
Categories: New porch and floors, Schumin Web meta
Unexpected things…
August 16, 2004, 8:57 PM
First of all, I did not expect for one of the nose pads on my glasses to give out on me while I was at work. So after work I went to LensCrafters to get my glasses adjusted. That took me to Staunton Mall.
After I got my glasses worked on, I decided I wasn’t ready to leave quite yet, and so I decided to walk a lap around the mall. So I headed towards the JCPenney end of the mall. So who did I run into near Penney’s? Marie (a coworker) and her significant other (I want to say he’s her fiance, but I’m not for certain). The two of them were enjoying a massage in these automated massage chairs. $1.00 buys you three minutes. They told me that it was really good. So we got to talking while they got the massage done. Talked about the massage, and how nice it would be to have this at home. I chimed in that as nice as it would be, the really good massage chairs are pricey. At Brookstone at Pentagon City near DC, they sell the high-end models, and they cost a few thousand bucks. A little out of range.
Then when they finished, I parked myself in one of the chairs and gave it a whirl. It was a pretty good massage. Not the best I’ve had, but pretty good. It uses vibration, heat, and something that goes up and down your back in a few different motions. Pretty good massage. The only downside to it was when the back massager got down low on its track. There instead of working my back it was working my hip-bone. And that massager rubbing against bone is not comfortable. But usually on its first cycle, once you figure out where the uncomfortable zone is, you can adjust to avoid it.
Still, it did feel good as it vibrated and heated, and as the back thing pressed, kneaded, and pulsated. And it’s surprisingly addictive. I got the three-minute massage, and then the 15-minute massage. The 15-minute massage was SO good… so relaxing that I actually fell asleep in the chair! That was an odd experience, to wake up in the middle of Staunton Mall. I hope no one saw me napping in the mall…
Categories: Driving, Schumin Web meta, Shopping, Staunton, Staunton Mall
“Are your kids well-behaved, or do they need like a few light slams every now and then?”
July 18, 2004, 12:47 AM
I do enjoy watching Mrs. Doubtfire. I’m watching a tape of it right now. It’s amusing, to say the least. It’s got a great story, and some great lines. It’s got its fair share of big names, like Robin Williams, Sally Field, and Harvey Fierstein, but it’s also not what I would describe as a “celebrity clearinghouse”.
A “celebrity clearinghouse”, as I call it, is one of those productions where there is a larger-than-normal amount of big-name celebrities in the movie, usually making little cameo appearances. The Rocky and Bullwinkle movie was like that. Not a bad movie, mind you, but a high amount of celebrities.
Anyway, though, I enjoy Mrs. Doubtfire. One of my favorite lines was where after the bus driver saw Mrs. Doubtfire’s hairy knee (because she’s actually a he). He said, “I like that Mediterranean look in women. Natural. Just the way God made you.” If only he knew…
Otherwise, today has been one of those days where I’ve been giving Schumin Web some much-needed attention. Still working on the uploads for the new College Life site, though I’m almost done with that one. Also cleaned the remains of Almond Street’s storefront out of my Online Store, and so now that’s 100% Schumin Web inside of there. I still have to clean out all the images left over from Almond Street’s storefront (I have all the images saved somewhere, so it’s not like I’m losing anything). I also designed a new line of products for my Online Store around that expression of mine which I learned recently was original: Never underestimate the power and speed of stupid. That will turn up on the Web site before too long.
Categories: Movies, Schumin Web meta
Wild weather!
July 2, 2004, 1:21 AM
Boy, did we have some wild weather today! A tremendous thunderstorm came up out of nowhere around 5 PM (literally out of nowhere – it was sunny when I left for work at 1:30). This thunderstorm was amazing. Winds like mad (so I’m told – no windows at Wal-Mart), really heavy rains – enough to hear it on the salesfloor over the din of the customers, lightning like crazy, incredibly loud thunder (one round of thunder was a BOOM like an explosion rather than a rumble), and even hail, which you could hear on the roof.
And then, as one of our CSMs was handing me a flashlight for “just in case the power went off”, no sooner did she say it than the lights went out. Then they came back on. Then they went out for good. Let me say that the many skylights we have came in really handy, as the only parts of our store that were actually dark were the Service Desk and the other various “caves” in the store, like Layaway, the Vision Center, the Portrait Studio, etc. Those areas were dark, but we still had emergency lighting, which helped. But the bulk of the store was still very well lit by natural light.
Since we couldn’t do much at the Service Desk, since our scanners were out of service over there, they pulled me to the registers, where we hurried to get all the customers checked out despite having no belts due to no power (I told customers that I have no belt and that they should put their items at the end of the belt), and the fact that the customers had to be checked out before our backup power went out. We made it, thank goodness.
Categories: Schumin Web meta, Walmart, Weather
Finally, an off-day!
June 29, 2004, 11:42 PM
Yes, after six straight days, where I worked all four different Service Desk shifts at least once, I finally have gotten another off-day. This Wednesday, I will be going nowhere near my own Wal-Mart. Other people’s Wal-Marts, on the other hand, are a completely different story, as most other Wal-Marts don’t look at all like Waynesboro’s. Most Wal-Marts are gray, red, and blue. Our store is beige and forest green. Our store has black signage and faux-wood floors. Most stores have some sort of blue signage and carpeting.
So I have yet to figure out what tomorrow looks like. Probably not going to go out, but rather I will probably take the opportunity to do some serious work on the Web site. I really need to work on it, since right now I’m behind on a few different projects, including spinning College Life off into its own subsidiary site, working on “The Lights of the Night” group of photo sets, and my “Memories” College Life set.
Otherwise, the phrase “Are your gas bills so high they make you want to cry?” is just perfect for me. To fill up the Previa costs almost $30 with these astronomical gas prices. And my car isn’t even one of those gas-guzzling SUVs.
Now sport-utility vehicles aren’t helping the price of gas, either. If people would all get small, fuel-efficient cars, maybe we could all get more for our money as far as gas goes. I know that when I eventually replace the Previa, I will be getting a small car, preferably a station wagon.
Categories: Driving, Family, Food and drink, Schumin Web meta, Toyota Previa, Walmart
It’s been a little while since we spoke…
June 22, 2004, 12:57 PM
It’s been just a touch more than a week since last we spoke, and it’s because I’ve been hurrying to finish a massive update to my Transit Center site. There’s LOTS more WMATA on there now, in the Washington DC Rail section. And today, I’m actually writing you from the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library in Charlottesville, because I’m over here for two reasons. First off, I returned some pants to Casual Male earlier, because trust me… these pants were WAY too big. Made me feel skinny. The pants were that big.
I’m also bus-sighting over here, so I can add Charlottesville’s CTS system to my Transit Center Web site. I’ve actually gotten 42 photos today so far, plus one movie, though I highly doubt I will use everything. Still, look for Charlottesville to join the likes of Metrobus, Dash About, CUE, and Harrisonburg Transit at a Schumin Web Transit Center near you.
And then tomorrow I’m going to DC! I’m meeting two fellow posters from SubTalk, and we’re going to do some serious railfanning. I’m meeting up with Oren H., as well as Jersey Mike. I’ve railfanned with Oren before, but never Mike. This ought to be fun!
Categories: Schumin Web meta, Transit
It is official: I have ordered two Strong Bad tees!
June 2, 2004, 10:39 PM
Yes, my birthday present is now officially on order: two Strong Bad tees. If only it worked like this, though…
Hey Strong Bad,
Get Bubs to give out free luncch (sic) specials and I’ll show you a hot girl.
Sincerly (sic),
Someone
Maybe if I can get Bubs to say his name backwards minus the first B, legend has it we can get a free lunch special, and maybe a free T-shirt if we’re really lucky.
Now if we can only get him to make another appearance on H*R as the Thnikkaman, and life will be perfect.
Though I should let you know that the current plan for the June cover photo (and by extension an explanation why one is not up yet) is that I am planning on dressing up as the Thnikkaman for the cover photo. A little tribute to one of my favorite Homestar Runner characters.
Still, I can’t wait to get my Strong Bad T-shirts. It will go quite well with my sister’s Teen Girl Squad T-shirt.
Categories: Birthdays, Homestar Runner, Schumin Web meta, Shopping
We’re Wal-Mart. We have TAPE!
May 2, 2004, 8:36 PM
I admit it – we at the Service Desk have tape. And tape really does hold the world together. How does one prove this? Just watch me some time. The item is busted, and obviously unfit for sale. The package is a mess, or it won’t go back in right. How do you close it up? Tape! Good old tape. Fixes things right up.
A customer today said forget the happy face, we’ve got some serious tape going on.
Otherwise, though, I had Bill Cosby’s “Little Ole Man” song in my head today. That’s the one where Bill Cosby talks about the little old man sitting on the step, with the tear kinda trickling down his cheek. He says, “What’s the matter?” and the man says, “A train just ran over me!” He says, “Mmm. How often does this happen?” And the man says, “Every day, about this time.” And Cos says, “Well, why do you just sit out here, then?” And the man says, “Because I cannot believe that it’s happening.” So Bill Cosby says, “Reach out! Take my hand! You’ll understand!” and then the chorus says, “Everything is all right, up tight, out of sight!”
And now I’m going to do some much needed Web site work. New store stuff, hopefully a new quote, and some other miscellaneous stuff.
Categories: Schumin Web meta, Walmart
Good morning!
April 12, 2004, 4:33 AM
My goodness, I hate mornings! But that’s what my day’s going to be today, as I have to work the 7 AM to 4 PM shift at the Service Desk. I don’t know what it is about me, but I’ve never been able to handle the mornings like I do the afternoons and evenings. I so can’t stand mornings. I’m no good before at least 10:00. Those 11 AM to 8 PM shifts on the Service Desk have spoiled me. Thankfully, though, I don’t get these early shifts that often.
Also, I had an interesting thing happen to me last night. I was investigating a troublemaker on the forums, and was zapping some rather obscene posts that this individual posted. All of a sudden, the posts reappeared, plus the forum went out of maintenance mode (which basically turns off the boards temporarily), which I put it in while Entangled Web moved me to a new server.
Turns out that while I was working, the DNS change, which usually takes a couple of days to propagate across the Internet, reached me while I was working on the forums. Thus I went from my site on the old server to my site on the new server. And in an area that made it through just fine.
The forums weathered the move just fine, but you know one thing that didn’t? The main site. Now before the DNS change reached me, I had made a small change to the splash page on only the new site (changing the © date to 2004, which I’d been meaning to do for a while) so I would know that it had cut over. Turns out I didn’t need to. The site looks like a bomb hit it! Basically what happened is when they moved my site, they didn’t get it all over there in all the right places. So now I have to fix it all up and get it running right again.
Categories: Schumin Web meta, Television, Walmart
All I ever needed to know about life, I learned on The Schumin Web
March 2, 2004, 12:32 AM
I could make a book with that as the slogan. A friend of mine mentioned it to me, and I think it would be pretty amusing, don’t you think? And you think about it – my site is loaded when it comes to information. I have all sorts of stuff, in the quotes, the journal, the photo areas, all that. Lots of observations about modern life.
Meanwhile, as my site approaches eight years old (no bull!), it would be interesting to have.
But yeah, March 23 is my site’s eighth birthday. Wow… eight years. I was fourteen years old when I started my site. Now I’m 22. I was a freshman in high school back then, with a zit or two here and there (I never had a completely-broken-out face full of zits during puberty). Now I am – say it with me – an adult, doing things that adults do, like going to work every day, paying bills, etc. etc. etc.
Still, eight years. Wow. Doesn’t feel like that long ago.
Categories: Schumin Web meta
No one said in orientation that Wal-Mart was a full contact sport!
December 22, 2003, 12:38 AM
Yeah, Wal-Mart is a full-contact sport, it seems. Of course, the day after Thanksgiving, known as “Black Friday” (a day where I wore all black to be silly) is very much full-contact, with the customers practically killing each other for great deals.
Then there’s me – I’ve managed to hit myself in the face a few times with oddly-shaped-but-light items. Mostly wrapping paper. I’m trying to manage the wrapping paper, getting it from the belt to the bag, and in the process manage to hit myself in the head. Really smooth. There was another time when I accidentally hit the checkout light (you know, the red thing with the number on it) with a roll of wrapping paper. A small flurry of dust fell off of the number and onto me.
All in all, though, I like my job, and so that’s always a good thing.
Categories: Food and drink, Schumin Web meta, Walmart
Let’s talk hat hair here…
December 20, 2003, 12:37 AM
Ladies and gentlemen, I have severe hat hair! This is what happens when you wear a Santa hat for nine hours straight. We’ve been wearing these little Santa hats on the registers, and I have a big head, and so my hair gets crushed. So say hello to hat hair. I figure it must be Wal-Mart’s method of getting us to wear the hats all day. Once you wear the hat for a little bit, there goes your good hair day. So you keep the hat on all day and only remove it once you’re safely out of the store and somewhere where people won’t comment on your hat hair.
Meanwhile, I’ve finished sorting images for The Schumin Web Transit Center, my new transit-oriented site, and now I’m combing through those images, and prepping images for the site. Basically, I’m clearing out obviously bad images (blurry, not properly framed, etc.), and bringing out the good qualities in the ones that are left. Most of them are of DC Metro (as in Metrorail), and so be prepared to see a lot of trains…
Categories: Christmas, Schumin Web meta, Walmart
And one last thing
November 28, 2003, 2:30 AM
It is up to my sister to come up with a better picture than my November 2003 picture for the splash page. She said, upon seeing it, “What are you doing to that poor dresser?” I will admit – after being told what it looks like, it does look like I’m humping the dresser, but I swear it was totally innocent. Ask Kathleen from LPCM, who took the picture, and she’ll tell you that it was innocent, too.
So my sister is in charge of December’s picture. She needs a little coaching on what I want in a picture. She wants to find a premade image of a buff guy totally naked except for a Santa hat covering his you-know-what, and photoshop my head onto it. I rejected it out of hand. No way on that one.
She still has to come up with something, and it had better be better than that last idea. I’m interested to see, myself…
Categories: Family, LPCM, Schumin Web meta