Something’s going around Wal-Mart…
December 11, 2004, 8:04 PM
You know, I’d expect it in a college dorm, where everyone lives in close proximity to each other and shares community facilities. But I didn’t expect to see it like this in the workplace.
What is “it”? A cold. Seriously, there’s a cold making its rounds through the associates at Wal-Mart in Waynesboro. I just think it’s interesting that so many people have it. But with having meetings and sharing phones, tills, podiums, and registers, it’s bound to happen, I guess.
I caught it myself, too. It’s not all that bad of a cold, manifesting it mostly as congestion. At its worst, I was congested all the way from the nose right on down the throat. Now I’m on what I’d consider the upswing – things are starting to get back to normal in my body. Now I only have a little throat congestion. So I feel a lot better, but I still haven’t gotten my whole voice back, and that seems to go in and out as it pleases.
It just bothers me that for right now, I can’t do all that I usually can do vocally. It will be back soon, I’m sure. Still, when I have to get on the squawk box, everyone in the store can tell that I’m trying, but still haven’t gotten my whole voice back yet.
Am I taking anything for it? Nope. Not a thing, aside from some nasal spray on a couple of occasions where I didn’t want to mess with my nose. See, cold medicine doesn’t seem to do anything for me anyway, so there you go. I save my money.
And of course this kind of thing has to hit right around Christmas, when everyone is already frazzled due to it being our big season.
Speaking of which, I finished my Christmas shopping. Did you?
Categories: Myself
Cart patrol!
December 7, 2004, 9:04 PM
Today was an interesting day at work. I didn’t run a regular register all day.
Why, you may ask?
We were short-handed, and so for the first half of the day, I was a stand-in cart pusher, or as I refer to it, “cart patrol”. I did quite a job, too, running the cart machine all around the lot, picking up the carts, and dropping them in the proper cart bays for customers to use.
It’s really like a video game. The object of the game is to clear the lot of all unattended shopping carts both in the cart corrals and just floating around loose. Meanwhile, customers will drop carts in the corrals all the time. However, if you hit a parked car, a customer, or a moving car, you’re dead.
The rest of the day, I worked the Fastlanes. In other words, the particular model of self checkouts that we have. Not bad. I like running those compared to a regular register, because I feel like I’m running my own little empire.
Categories: Walmart
Roanoke and Lynchburg…
December 5, 2004, 1:43 AM
I just have to say what a trip it was… on my off day I traveled in a big loop. Traveled from Stuarts Draft over to Charlottesville, then down to Lynchburg, across to Roanoke, and back up to Stuarts Draft.
I started out taking a bit of a back way to I-64, which meant I took Route 610 from its origin about a mile or so away from my house to Mount Torrey Road in Sherando. This took me through Lyndhurst and on into Waynesboro (where it becomes Delphine Avenue), where I met up with I-64. So I took I-64 eastbound, to Exit 118A. This took me over the mountain, and to the first Charlottesville exit, which landed me on US 29 southbound. As you can see, Charlottesville was just a hub for me. The place where I changed direction.
Actually, I went too far east to be most efficient. The most direct route would have been to get off I-64 at Exit 99, which is Afton, at the top of Afton Mountain. Travel eastbound a few miles on US 250, and then take VA 6 down the mountain into Nelson County and meet US 29 at the end of VA 6. But this was a road trip, with the drive being half the fun.
So I took US 29 from I-64 near Charlottesville. Boy, that’s a lot of undeveloped space around there going south. Very scenic, though. Rode US 29 through Albemarle County, into Nelson County, and into Amherst County. I got to experience a traffic circle in Amherst. Funny thing about the Charlottesville-to-Amherst (as in Town of Amherst) leg of the trip was that you’d have lots of empty space, then all of a sudden, boom. A store. Then more open space. Then boom, a Food Lion in a full strip mall in what seemed like the middle of nowhere.
Continue reading…Categories: Charlottesville, Driving, Lynchburg, Roanoke, Shopping, Toyota Previa
A mall trip with Katie…
December 2, 2004, 10:50 AM
It’s very amusing what happens when two friends go to the mall sometimes. Take for instance, Katie and I, who are also coworkers at Wal-Mart. We went to the Staunton Mall, and basically had a blast.
One thing we did was have our pictures taken with Santa Claus:
Categories: Katie, Shopping, Staunton Mall
Black Friday…
November 27, 2004, 11:29 PM
Let me tell you about Black Friday, that term for the day after Thanksgiving.
First of all, don’t you just love it when work changes your schedule and doesn’t tell you? I got dragged out of bed for a phone call from work at 5:30 or so, with them asking when I was intending on coming to work, because I was supposed to be there at 5:30. I’m just like, “I’m coming in at 8:00, like I’m supposed to.” They had changed me to 5:30 AM and didn’t bother to tell me. Not good. They ended up getting me at 7:00.
Otherwise, aside from that rough start, work went well. A number of us decided to take “Black Friday” literally and wore all black. I did, as did a few other cashiers, and also a few department managers. We looked so cute in our all-black, and our blue vests.
The day was hopping really early on, but then slowed down later. Still, it was good.
Categories: Walmart
Quiz results!
November 27, 2004, 9:14 PM
At the request of my sister, I took some quizzes… let’s see what I came up with:
What high school stereotype are you?
What Slashy Lady Are You?
And yes, this is the sister, before you ask…
Interesting quizzes, indeed…
Categories: Netculture
Happy Thanksgiving!
November 26, 2004, 12:32 AM
Hope that everyone’s Thanksgiving has gone well, and that everyone’s full with turkey, stuffing, and all kinds of other tasty foods. I am, that’s for sure.
On the day before Thanksgiving, however, I went to Washington DC, mainly to see the newest Metro station – New York Avenue-Florida Avenue-Gallaudet U. Nice Metro station, by the way (we’ll be revisiting this point later).
Since it was the day before Thanksgiving, I took traffic into consideration. Traffic on I-81, which I take for roughly 79 miles from Staunton to Strasburg, was heavier than usual, but not bad. Mind you, I did try to counter heavier traffic to an extent by leaving more than an hour earlier than usual. On I-66, traffic got thicker earlier than usual on the way to Washington. Usually I hit two traffic bottlenecks around Exit 43 going eastbound, before I-66 widens into four lanes each direction. This time, traffic got heavy starting in Fauquier County, which is what I consider the last county before you officially enter “Northern Virginia” – in other words, Prince William County in this case. Then I hit the usual traffic bottlenecks around Exit 43 and made it to Vienna. Along the route, I saw no police on I-81, and three police cars on I-66. One was running a speed trap on the eastbound side in Fauquier County, and then two were running a speed trap on the westbound side in Prince William County. Interestingly enough, the two doing westbound speed traps were both in the same spot. I guess they were really going in for the kill.
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
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