Let’s talk hat hair here…
< 1 minute read
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
eBay auction: Quite amusing
< 1 minute read
December 17, 2003, 8:07 PM
Just look at the link below… it’s amusing as hell.
Categories: Netculture
It took me an hour to get home!
< 1 minute read
December 14, 2003, 2:16 AM
Yay for snow AND sleet. I didn’t run off the road this time (thank God), but still, it took me a full bloody hour to get home from work today. Normally, this is a quick 20-minute drive to get from my house in Stuarts Draft to Wal-Mart in Staunton, going at least 55 most of the way.
Change that to snowy weather, and my top speed was 25, and I’m taking a different route than I usually do. Normally, when I go to and from work, I take Route 608 to I-64 to I-81 to US 250 to Wal-Mart. This is basically the direct route to Staunton via Fishersville from Stuarts Draft.
Tonight, you could say I took a more scenic route home, going from Wal-Mart taking US 250 to Waynesboro, using Lew Dewitt Boulevard to cut across to US 340, and then taking 340 to Stuarts Draft, picking up 608 at its intersection with 340. Why the different route? This different route has practically no curves, and is primary roads almost the entire way. No interstates (which make me nervous in the snow due to truck traffic), and no back roads. Sure it’s much longer, but in the snow, curves are the enemy, and could cause me to slide off the road into God-knows-what. Quite unpleasant either way.
But, hey, I made it. And I get to do it again going back to work again tomorrow, though I may very well see if I can get out of driving it and get Dad to take me. After all, when I parked, I blocked in Dad’s VW Golf, leaving a clear path for the truck to get out, and the truck has four-wheel-drive, and I don’t believe that the Golf has that.
Categories: Driving, Winter weather
I got new shoes!
3 minute read
December 13, 2003, 12:07 AM
So I finally got new shoes, and after you see what the old ones look like (I took pictures, as promised), you’ll see that these were badly needed. The new shoes are Airwalks, and are black with white laces and accents. Cute shoes. The style is called “Ricco”. Take a look:
Continue reading…Newest D-Hall security device that would be amusing to see: Iron Maidens
< 1 minute read
December 12, 2003, 6:43 PM
While I was talking to the D-Hall cashier today, we had two people try to sneak in without paying (they were tracked down and made to pay). That led to two discussions…
First of all, we discussed how silly it was to try to avoid paying in D-Hall, since you pay with a punch, which is already paid for with tuition.
However, the second part was amusing. How do we keep people from, shall we say, “jumping the turnstile”? It came up that turnstiles would help, with people swiping their JAC cards like New Yorkers swipe their Metrocards. Metrocards, for those of you who don’t know, replaced the fabled subway token for good in 2003.
So you swipe your JAC, it’s verified, and the turnstile opens. Go eat. But you want to really be secure about it, and prevent people from simply going out the in? Install what is known as an “iron maiden” at the entrances and exits. An iron maiden is a big wheel with bars radiating out from it that only turns one way, and only lets you go one way on it. New York’s used them for entrances and exits on the subway for years. Swipe your JAC on a reader, the inbound iron maiden unlocks and lets you in, and then on the way out you use the outbound iron maiden. In the event of an emergency, people can still exit through the iron maidens. And like I said, New York’s been using them for years in the subway.
I think it would be quite amusing to see an iron maiden-style turnstile installed in D-Hall, and is HIGHLY unlikely to ever happen, but you must admit that an iron maiden would be effective…
Categories: JMU
In a few minutes, I shall be off…
< 1 minute read
December 12, 2003, 11:11 AM
Today, before work, take two in trying to get new shoes. I went to The Shoe Department at the mall in Harrisonburg yesterday, and they were out of Airwalks. So I’m going to go to Staunton Mall before work today and check out their branch of The Shoe Department and see if they have some Airwalks. And if not there, I’ll go to Super Shoes across the street from the mall.
And let me tell you… the shoes I have now could easily be described like this: “Did you just come from church? (No, why?) Then why are your shoes so holey?” Yeah. I have a big hole in the bottom of my left shoe, a tear in the top, and a hole developing in the toe of the right shoe. All from regular wear, not abuse, or even any few strenuous uses.
That’s what happens when you wear shoes every day day in and day out for a year. They really get some use. And I’d say that I got my money’s worth out of them. That and then some more.
I will be taking pictures of these shoes once I get a new pair to show you exactly how hard I wore these shoes. It’s amazing, trust me.
The Wal-Mart Power Ranger
< 1 minute read
December 11, 2003, 10:59 AM
I can come up with the strangest ways of describing things sometimes. Here’s the latest gem that I’ve come up with…
When I went to clock in after lunch on Wednesday, I casually made the comment “It’s morphin time” just before I swiped my badge. I described it to say that clocking in is like putting on the Power Ranger suit (though note that the Waynesboro associates don’t have vests yet). And with the mighty register zord, my arsenal is complete to take on the customers.
My only disclaimer: I don’t look good in tights.
Still, there you go. Wal-Mart Power Ranger. What will I think of next?
Categories: Walmart
The scary part about finals is…
2 minute read
December 11, 2003, 9:41 AM
The scary part about finals is when you finish the final exam and turn it in, and know that you have completed all the work for the course, and you now have a final grade, and it’s just a matter of finding it.
It’s downright scary, too. You’ve finished your final exam in a course. So now, you have a grade, and there’s nothing you can do about it. And you don’t know what the grade is, for that matter, until some time next week.
So now is what we call the waiting game. La dee da dee doo… waiting, waiting, waiting. Nerve-racking is what it is. But anyway, on another topic…
I was waiting for the elevator at Taylor Down Under and talking to the desk attendant, and the fire alarm went off. Since I was in TDU, I went out through the main door, past the annunciator. It said that the alarm originated from a second-floor duct detector (a smoke detector in an air duct). Don’t know what caused the alarm, though. But it was cool to hear, plus see the strobes, needless to say.
Categories: Fire alarms, JMU, Transit
We had an earthquake yesterday? Why didn’t anyone tell me?
< 1 minute read
December 10, 2003, 7:55 PM
Yeah, we supposedly had an earthquake that registered a 4.5 on the Richter Scale on Tuesday around 4 PM. According to news reports, the epicenter was 28 miles west of Richmond, and could be felt into Maryland and North Carolina.
In Harrisonburg and Staunton (roughtly 80 miles from the epicenter) it was very hit-and-miss. Some people felt some shaking. Other people didn’t feel anything.
Me, I was in Harrisonburg about to take a final when the earthquake came, and didn’t know that there was an earthquake until later that night, when a friend IMed me and told me that we had one. I didn’t feel a thing. Likewise, talking to my coworkers at Wal-Mart, no one who was working in the Staunton store at the time felt anything.
I know when I found out, it was like, “We had an earthquake? You’re kidding. Seriously? Hmmm. Must have skipped me or something. I didn’t feel anything.”
Interesting when you have those intra-plate earthquakes, though, since Virginia’s nowhere near a plate boundary, with the nearest plate boundary being quite far away.
Categories: Nature
Today I was Mr. People Greeter…
< 1 minute read
December 7, 2003, 10:17 PM
That’s right, today I was the People Greeter on the General Merchandise side of the store. My job today was to pass out carts, say hello to people, and various other tasks as needed.
In a word, doing the People Greeter’s job this time of year is COLD. I started out without a jacket, and boy, did I regret it. See, you have the big automatic doors that open and let drafts in from outside, plus the door for the carts (Staunton is an older Supercenter), despite all the blowers, still lets a good amount of cold air in.
I took my winter coat with me to work and left my lighter coat in the car. Realizing that my winter coat would first of all be too heavy of a coat, and also be too bulky, I asked and was allowed to go out to the car after my first break to get my other coat. The lighter coat worked out just fine.
So all in all, being a people greeter was interesting. It was a nice change of pace from the registers, and an interesting job nonetheless.
Heartwarming moment: After I said “Good evening” to one customer, he commented to me that I was the first one to greet him like that. That made me feel good. Lets me know that I’m making the customers happy.
Categories: Walmart
It’s interesting way up here!
2 minute read
December 7, 2003, 2:54 AM
Well, my new chair was good, had no rips, was assembled, and my big can is sitting in it.
So how is it? It’s good! It’s firmer than my old chair, and arms that are shiny metal in places and padded in other places. The old chair had arms that were all wood (real wood, mind you). This one also has an all-metal wheel setup, whereas the old one had all the structure made of metal, and wood covers (again real wood). The wood covers were only glued on, though, and were known to come loose from time to time and had to be kicked down. It also raises up higher than my old chair, which is rather interesting, since I can actually dangle my feet in this chair, which I couldn’t do before due to not being able to elevate that high.
For now, I stashed the old chair in Sis’s room (she’s at Tech, so it’s not like I’m inconveniencing her or anything), along with the box, since I don’t feel like taking the box out right now (it is nearly 4 AM), and someone might want the old chair.
I remember when I bought the old chair and retired my two-chairs-ago chair, Kevin Carlton and Chris Derusha, my next-door neighbors in McGraw-Long, gladly took it, removed the base from it, and lashed it onto one of the JMU-issued chairs.
Chair replacement, take two.
< 1 minute read
December 7, 2003, 2:06 AM
Okay… I’ve been to work and back, and returned the old chair and bought another one, and let’s hope that this one won’t have a rip in it. That rip was quite a disappointment, as well as a pain in the butt, as I had to box it all back up, load it up, bring it back to Wal-Mart, return it at the Service Desk, and then buy another one after work. (Note that having the employee discount at Wal-Mart is a VERY good thing with big purchases)
So hopefully this chair will be a good one. I’ll let you know.
Categories: Retail
As if it being a large, heavy box wasn’t enough…
< 1 minute read
December 6, 2003, 12:19 AM
Well, I bought that new office chair that I had my eye on after work today. So I came home, carried this big, bulky box from the car upstairs to my room, unwrapped it all, started putting it together, and found…
A rip in the side of the cushion. I’m thinking, “Ah, CRAP!” Because now this means that I have to return this chair and get another one, one that HOPEFULLY won’t have a rip in it. Thankfully, though, I work at the place where I got it, and I kept the receipt, and so it’s not like I’m making a special trip or anything.
Still, this means I have to tape it all up, take it back down the stairs, load it up in the car again, and load it up into a cart again, take it to the service desk, and return it. Not what I want to have to do tomorrow.
But at least I work at the place where I bought it. I figure I’ll probably return it before work, and then get another one after work.
Still, it feels so weird being a customer at Wal-Mart and being waited on right after eight hours being on the other side of the counter, waiting on paying customers. Oh, and at the register I had just vacated like 20 minutes earlier. It’s slightly amusing.
Karaoke is definitely something else…
3 minute read
December 4, 2003, 5:50 PM
D-Hall had their “Breakfast for dinner and Karaoke” night this evening, and it definitely was fun. And I didn’t know about it coming into it, but it still was fun.
After eating dinner, I decided to look through the catalog for songs that I knew well enough to try and sing. Then I thought, Why don’t I try my hand at it? So I really went hunting.
Now all my really favorite songs are oddball songs that most people haven’t heard of, but I do enjoy some mainstream songs. I originally wanted to sing something by Valdy or Bruce Cockburn, but they didn’t have it in their catalog. So back hunting I go. They didn’t have Five O’Clock World by The Vogues in there, and so I finally found two I felt really confident in singing, and went to choose.
I had narrowed it down to the Macarena and Macarthur Park. Both songs I knew quite well. I ended up choosing Macarthur Park, because of what version Macarena was. It was the Bayside Boys Mix, and besides the fact that it wasn’t my favorite version of the song (preferring the all-Spanish versions of the song), the English lyrics were definitely written for a female. I think people would start to talk if they heard me sing:
Yay for snow…
2 minute read
December 4, 2003, 1:37 PM
Yippity-hoo. It’s snowing. And as such, I slid right into a ditch on my way up to Harrisonburg today on I-64. I was not hurt, and neither was the car, but still, it’s an excellent example of why you need to drive carefully. And if that’s not enough, seeing a huge semi with a big chunk out of it jackknifed in the median of I-81 (thankfully not blocking traffic) should convince you to take it, as gangsters on The Flintstones would say, “Nice and slow.”
But yes, it is indeed snowing outside. Augusta County schools were closed today. So were Harrisonburg City schools, Rockingham County Schools, Blue Ridge Community College, and a host of others. JMU was in session.
Meanwhile, a brief discussion of the rules of the parking lot: there are none. See, some JMU students are some seriously spoiled brats. Now due to landing in the ditch on my way up, I was late for class. So I had to seriously hunt for parking. I first went to the gravel lot, which was full. So I went to J-Lot, my usual lot, which was also full. There was this one girl in her little yuppie SUV sitting smack in the middle of the end of one of the (wide) lanes in the lot. Turns out that sitting and impeding traffic was her way of hunting for parking. But we’ll get to that later.
Categories: Driving, JMU, Weather, Winter weather