the old salt mine

i suppose fred meyer isn't quite that bad, but at least working in a salt mine would get me in shape. "work" yesterday was ridiculous. it was supposed to be our 'buddy training' day. we were given 2 hours to read the cashier guide book--only took 1 hour--then got to sit around and wait for our buddy to show up. after teaching us how to ask for time off, we were given a very brief tour of the deli, and then sent off to observe cashiers. that is, we got to stand around for the next two and a half hours. the cashiers there actually earn their keep by doing almost all of their own bagging, so we were fairly useless on that count. it was a very boring 4 hours. on the bright side, i got paid for it. and on wednesday, they're actually going to let me use a register... for about 8 hours. i really don't think they'll be that complicated... most of what i need to know could probably be learned on the fly in the deli.

i also managed to get into a political argument during my break. the tv in the back was set to cnn, and the anchors were wondering how john kerry would go about making healthcare cheaper. i commented (what, you don't talk back to the tv?) that he would do it by raising taxes. james, one of the poor confused people working for the union there at freddy's, heard what i said, and argued that bush was the one who raised taxes, and that kerry was going to lower them. i mentioned that bush had cut taxes 3 times already; he said "only if you're rich." it went downhill from there. unfortunately, time and my minimal knowledge of the tax system did not permit me to instruct him in some of it's finer points. i do know a few things, however. like, the people with incomes in the top 3% pay over 50% of the taxes in this country. if you pay more, you should get more back, right?

i'm going to stop there. if i go any farther, i'm going to start ranting, and nobody likes that. except james, of course.

FES #5

¤@Áà¤@«ÓêɨƦh ¶À¥ß¦¨&¶À¥ß¦æ¤@¸ô¯u±¡¬Û®¼ 

sweet, another one of these!  looks like it's got a built-in address too.
oh.  turns out my name is actually "µØ¯Ç½u¤W­µ¼ÖÂø»x", and this is an email from warner music.  if anybody can figure out how to pronounce my new name, let me know.

funny email subject #4

scooby snack stalactites around 141

maybe i'll turn this into a contest or something.  if you find a funny email subject line, send it to menoichius@hotmail.com.  once a week, or when i actually get some responses from the two or three people who read this, i'll post the one that i arbitrarily decide is best.  or worst, depending on how you look at it.

finally, an interesting weekend

well, i finally had a fun weekend.  unfortunately, it's probably the last one i'll have for awhile, since my job starts (finally) on tuesday.  at least i'll finally have some money.  anyways, i made a trip over to spokane for the weekend to see some friends, and hopefully have a mini-LAN party.  i got half of that done.  jake, pat and i vegged around the house most of afternoon, got some safeway pizza for dinner, and then watched ken jennings continue to kick ass on jeopardy.  it wasn't even close... he set a new record with $75,000, and the next closest person had about $1600.  no, neither of those are typos.  he won by over $70,000.  ken jennings is my new hero.  after that we put in the blue collar comedy tour... hilarious stuff, definitely worth watching.  at 10, a whole slough of whitworth folk (me, pat, jake, nate, jeremiah, toree, greg, justin, peter, ian, and probably some others i didn't know about) ended up at the bourne supremacy.  it was a good movie, but i didn't think it was as good as the first one.  and on a side note, matt damon could never pass himself off as an actual runner... he has horrible form.

saturday we sat around the whole morning, watching at various times infomercials, cooking shows, and bob ross.  when we finally finished waking up, we went over to the soccer field and tossed the frisbee, until one of the security guards told us we weren't supposed to be there.  apparently 3 guys in bare feet with a plastic disk do more damage to the lawn than 22 people wearing cleats and chasing after a soccer ball.  who knew?  but the best part was that the security guy was too lazy to get out of his truck and come to us, so he actually drove out onto the field--the one that we weren't supposed to be walking on--to inform us of our error.  at that point, pat decided he wanted to learn gaelic, so we drove up to costco to look for some language cds.  didn't find what we were looking for there, so we stopped by best buy, found it, and then went to target and got an inflatable pool for the back yard.  it wasn't quite as cool as it could've been, though; we didn't get it set up till about 6, and by that point it wasn't very hot out any more.  the water, though, was incredibly cold... my feet went numb after about a minute.  when we got bored/frozen, we headed in to watch "can't hardly wait" (a very quotable movie) and "3 ninjas" (an entertaining film, to say the least).  after that it was saturday night live, hosted by the olson twins, and then off to bed.

the whole mini-lan thing never happened, unfortunately.  nate's sister flew up for the week, so he was busy.  and then when i started setting my computer up, i realized that i forgot the power cord for my monitor... makes it a little tricky to play.  i'm good, but not that good.  spent sunday morning alternatingly trying to sleep (with little success), and either watching pat get back into freelancer, or some random movie about drugs with mel gibson, kurt russel, and michelle pfiefer.  oddly enough, it never showed the name of the movie.

that's about it, really.  time to settle back into boredom.  later all.

funny email subject #3

midwife impresarios inside 648

where the heck do they come up with these things? 

funny email subject #2

bullfrog 37 waifs

and the contents of the email?  they are:

Still write a love letter to her from defined by grand piano, go deep sea fishing with her blithe spirit around with food stamp related to cashier.When from insurance agent ceases to exist, gypsy related to gets stinking drunk.Now and then, espadrille about toothache assimilate sandwich from insurance agent.A few gonads, and cargo bay defined by) to arrive at a state of cigarIf debutante about give lectures on morality to behind umbrella, then beyond fire hydrant dies.Sometimes football team over ruminates, but clock near always play pinochle with debutante living with!quasicontinuous trod california friction beaujolais.

the picture said it was about refinancing, but i'm not entirely sure.  maybe 37 waifs filed a suit against a bullfrog, and he needs money fast?

funny email subject, 22 July 2004

¡uµØ¯Ç·s¶Õ¤O¡v®L¤éºt°Û·730¼ö¾xµn³õ!

my guess is its either about porn, making my penis bigger, or refinancing the car that i don't have.

he passes, with gliding colors

not quite flying colors.  but then again, the person who designed the test obviously wasn't aiming very high.  today, at about 14:30, i got my food workers card.  yay!  except that means i'm just one step closer to working for the union.  i may or may not have mentioned it already, but i really don't like unions; i think they're pointless, and bad for business.  but i need to put my principles on hold, or else i won't be able to buy books for classes this fall.  which would be kinda bad.

so if you're ever really bored and have $10 to blow, go get your food worker card.  the test is ridiculously easy... i could've passed it even without the instructional video.  as long as you're not drunk or dead, or some combination thereof, you should be able to too.

finally

well, i finally got a job, starts next week.  can we say "yay" for the fred meyer deli?  i didn't think so.  and it is, unfortunately, a union job.  that means i'll make more per hour, but with union dues or whatever it'll come out to less.  i hate unions.  but i have to put my principles on hold, otherwise i won't be able to afford books this fall.
 
on a side note, i think i'm going to start an (x amount of time) weird email subject line post thing.  or something like that.  to post all those weird subject lines, like "poke commit sidewalk" and stuff like that.  if nothing else, it'll give me a reason to log on, maybe i'll think of something else interesting to write.  and now, before i become totally incomprehensable, i'm done.

The Heart of Yorkshire.

Looking east from the crossing tower of York Minster.

Me, inside a 13th/14th century limestone coffin in the undercroft of York Minster.

Ruins of a Catholic abbey in York, destroyed by Henry VIII's troops. Also featured: Alyssa and Corliss.

Looking west from the crossing tower at York Minster.

He may have it right.

well, i found another blog i like: From the Lunatic Left. i think the guy is a conservative democrat (they do, apparantly, exist), though i'm not entirely sure... so far, his political posts seem to be pretty balanced.

that's about it, really. just wanted to let the 3.5 people who actually read this in on another pretty cool blog. i'll probably put up a few more pics from my trip, but i guess you'll see those first if i do. did that make sense to anyone besides me?

More changing of the guard. Unfortunately, my camera focused on the heads in front of me instead of the soldiers.

Changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace

The White Tower, also from the Thames

Big Ben and the houses of Parliament, from the Thames

i may have been wrong, but kerry still sucks

wow... could've sworn i put up some stuff saying what's wrong w/ kerry's plans for our country, but i guess not. in the meantime, a friend has pointed out that two of my arguments are inaccurate, and, in an effort at fairness, i'll include his counterpoints.

1) kerry is complaining about outsourcing american jobs, yet he wants to raise the minimum wage. employers, not wanting to take a cut in profits, will either: A) fire employees to save money; B) raise the cost of goods and services to save money; or C) outsource jobs to save money.

--counterpoint: forrest totally shot down point C by saying that minimum wage jobs are pretty hard to outsource. i hadn't actually thought of that, but it makes sense. burger king would have a pretty hard time doing any thing if all its burger-flippers were in some small third-world country, like cambodia, haiti, or southern california.

2) john kerry has no idea what he's talking about when it comes to the economy. he says that he will create 10 million new jobs in his first four years; but according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were only 8.2 million unemployed people as of june 2004. is he planning on unemployment going up by 2 million in those 4 years?

--counterpoint: yeah, he kinda shot this one down too. i can't believe i hadn't thought of it, but he said the population would probably have increased by then. i checked into that, and the US Census Bureau projects that by 2010, there will be an increase of what i would consider the working age (20-64) population, to the tune of about 19 million people.

3) kerry has no confidence in his chosen VP candidate.
--"In the Senate four years -- and that is the full extent of public life; no international experience, no military experience, you can imagine what the advertising is going to be next year.... When I came back from Vietnam in 1969, I don't know if John Edwards was out of diapers then." --John Kerry, January 2004
--"John Edwards is ready for this job. He is ready for this job." --John Kerry, following the Edwards announcement

i didn't actually argue that one with forrest, but i'm sure he would've had some complaint about it. oh well. he may be a confused individual, but he's still a pretty cool guy.

i think thats about enough complaining for now... assuming i still know how to do it, i'm gonna put up a few more random pics from my trip, and then go attempt to have some fun.

And I thought I was just being sarcastic when I said it was probably on the other side of the island...

Tropical Medicine?

there we go

so i got the whole picture thing figured out again... kind of. turns out i just wasn't adding a caption like it wanted me to. but i still can't figure out how to make them all part of the same post, which could get really annyoing.

This was actually part of a lotion ad, but I thought it was pretty funny.

A funny sign from York.

d'oh

or maybe not. that program isn't working as well as it did the first time, so i might have to wait before more pictures go up.

random pics from england/scotland

well, i'm still figuring out this whole picture thing, so hopefully this will work right. if not, they'll appear in the next post. oh well.

The Abridged Silmarilion

i found this over at thinkgeek the other day, and thought it was pretty funny. and it actually fits the book fairly well.

The Silmarillion - in 1,000 words
Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age

ELVES: Wonder what's going on over the ocean. This crafting deal is pretty sweet, though!
DWARVES: Yeah, seriously.
ANNATAR: Hi, elves! Wanna learn some cool stuff?
ELVES: Okay!
SAURON: They fell for it.
SEVEN DWARVES: Thanks for the rings! . . oooh, GOLD! MUST HAVE GOLD!
NINE MEN: Neat rings. . . Hey, didn't Mom die like six hundred years ago?
CELEBRIMBOR: Okay, how about we do three more and call it a wrap?
SAURON: How about I do one more and claim them ALL?
ELVES: AUGH!
SAURON: Bwa ha ha!
LAST ALLIANCE OF ELVES AND MEN: Push off.
SAURON: Make me.
ISILDUR: Whack.
SAURON: Ow.
ELROND: Hey, you got his ring. Let's ditch it.
ISILDUR: No.
ELROND: This sucks.
ISILDUR: Tell me about it. *dies*
GONDORIANS: *change calendar*
CIRDAN: Hi, wizards! You in the grey, catch!
SAURON: Okay, that's long enough. Movin' into Dol Guldur.
SARUMAN: It's not him. Also the ring's lost at sea.
RING: No I'm not.
THE WISE: Augh.
THE WEAK: Bad ring! Volcano for you!
RING: *melts*
SAURON: AUGH!
MORDOR: BOOM.
GONDORIANS: *change calendar*
ELROND, GALADRIEL: Road trip!
GANDALF: Hi Cirdan! Still got your ring!
CIRDAN: Cool. Let's go to Valinor!

there were, of course, some very key moments left out. but what did you expect for 1000 words?

Damn the PC Police

the title says it all. hopefully. i'm still figuring out how to make it work. so if it doesn't show up, i'm complaining about the PC (politically correct) police, people who go around changing things to make them PC. in this case, they got ahold of the song "proud to be an American"... it's a rather cheesy song, but still a good one. you all know the line "and i won't forget the men who died, who gave that right to me." but "men" is, of course, way too strong of a term. it now reads (at least in the version i heard at the wenatchee fireworks show last night) "and i won't forget the ones who died...." i realize that women have also died for our country, but changing a song so we don't leave them out is just ridiculous. if the PC police really cared, they would write a new song about patriotism that reflects the growing role women have in our society. it's just like the democrats... hammering the republicans for anything that goes wrong, but never offering a solution of their own.

Cool. Just figured out the picture thing, so here's one of me and some friends.

--me: "hey mom. kate-lynne left some clothes in the back of my car, so i'm gonna go drop those off now."
--mom: "is this something i want to know about?"

--me: "i think these belong to you."
--kate-lynne: "thank you."

--elaine (her mom): "when did you get here danner?"
--me: "just a minute ago. kate-lynne left some clothes in the back of my car last night, so i just came to drop them off."
--elaine: "that sounds really bad. did you want to rephrase it?"
--me: "umm... nope. that's pretty much what happened."

i thought that was a fairly humorous series of conversations, worth recording for posterity. or at least as long as i continue to write in this blog. though the situation does sound pretty bad, it was actually perfectly innocent. we were both working at the 4-h booth during the demolition derby last yesterday. it gets pretty hot during the afternoons, but it's almost always windy and chilly by the time it gets over; so, she came in shorts and a tank-top, and brought along jeans and a long sleeved shirt to change into later. which she did. but when we went back to her house afterwards (to watch saturday night live, you pervert), she forgot them in the car. other than explaining it to both moms, that was the end of the story. it was actually kind of boring. but i'm really bored right now, so you can either put up with it or leave.

on another note, today is our nation's 228th anniversary/birthday. congratulations America. happy Independence Day.