Harry Potter Grows Up

Check out this article about Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe and his new role. I have a few questions though. He is 17 and appearing nude on stage. Does that violate some sort of law or something. I know the play is in the U.K., are their laws a little bit different? Also, would you let your 17 year old kid appear in a play where he is A)nude and B) in "love" with a horse? Granted it may appear in a school syllabus like he is quoted as saying but there is a huge difference between reading about it and acting in it. I dunno, I just have to think "not such a smart move there Harry."

Cafe Conversations

The cafe opens up an hour earlier than the rest of the store in my location. We have a separate door and a sign stating that the cafe opens at 8 a.m. Occasionally the opening store manager will leave the front door open so employees can get in or whatnot. The other day I was setting up and it was probably 7:40 or 7:50. This woman comes barging in and asks, quite loudly, "are you open?" in that really snotty way that actually means you better be open or I'm going to raise some hell.
I was actually in a decent mood that morning so I said "The cafe opens at 8, but if you give me one second I can help you out."
At that point she gave me a really confused look and I couldn't figure out what was up until she said "Well the sign says nine, but your door is open."

Okay. . .if the sign says 9 and it is 7:50 then all I could think of was WHY THE HELL ARE YOU TRYING THE DOOR THEN? Odds are if the sign says nine (which the sign by the door she came in at said) then the store probably won't be open. I don't know, call me crazy but it is that whole "reading to comprehend" thing.

Oh The Drama

I remember being in elementary school and running home after the final bell to make it in time to watch General Hospital. This was in the grand old days of Luke and Laura, remember them? Well, Luke is coming back to the show and you can find out who else by visiting the General Hospital site. It has a lot of info about the show along with news like General Hospital being nominated for a GLAAD award. Huh, soaps sure have come a long way when you have hottie pants guys coming out on them. There are other news stories too as well as message boards, daily updates, spoilers, pictures, and polls. The site is a little cluttered but overall it is easy to get the info that you need to keep up with the action in Port Charles.
Sponsored Post

Frustrated

I'm back from another fruitless day of class. I am taking a Java programming class that is just ticking me off. To be specific, the instructor is ticking me off. He really doesn't actually teach so much as read power point presentations. The kicker of it is that he can't even do that correctly! He makes mistakes reading the stupid slides. I swear he is probably drunk. The issue I am debating is should I stick with it and try to teach myself from the book and experimenting, just drop it and lose my money altogether, contact the dean, or a combo of those. ARGH!

It's A Laugh A Minute

As you know I have a Youtube addiction but sometimes it is a pain wading through that whole teenage angst video blog bull to get to the good stuff. By good stuff I meant the stuff that is going to make me laugh. You can get just the funny videos at Jokeroo.com. Don't waste the time with the video blogs that are more boring than your own life when you can get the videos that you really want to see and quick!

This Is Why I Don't Shoot Weddings Anymore

Future Ex Husband Friday

A few weeks ago I got sucked into watching the season 6 marathon of America's Next Top Model. It is an oddly compelling show. I have to say, though, one of the highlights was watching judge Nigel Barker. Wow, is that man freaking gorgeous or what? And that accent. . .hot, hot, hot! Unfortunately he is straight, and married, and just had a new kid. I mean good for him but bad for the rest of us.

Please Give Me Some Feedback

I had to design a little personal site for my class. We were restricted to using just html and had very specific objectives (like only using a .gif image on the home page, a jpeg on the second page, and a table on the third page). Keeping that in mind I would like some input on what you think. For example do all the pages have a visual relation to each other, is the navigation intuitive, and does it load quickly?

http://www.geocities.com/riggolet

Say You Love Them. ..

. . .with portable storage. These personalized, laser engraved flash drives are a perfect Valentine's Day gift for that special geek in your life. I'll tell you what, I would much rather have a 2GB flash drive than a box of chocolates any day. Call me crazy, but I can think of that special someone every time I need to store some music or transport files to and from school. Besides, who doesn't need one of these? Not only is it practical, but you can make it say you care in any way you want. Right now they have Current online specials of 512MB Thumb Drive (any color) for $14.99 with FREE laser engraving. A 1GB Thumb Drive (any color) for $18.99 with FREE laser engraving. A 2GB Thumb Drive (any color) for $37.99 with FREE laser engraving. Even a 4GB Thumb Drive (any color) for $69.99 with FREE laser engraving.

Cafe Conversations

I know, it is a day late. . .sorry, but I have been a bit busy. Anyway I am glad I waited because I am working the cash register today and this woman comes in obviously straight from the gym. She orders her drink then pulls her money right out of her bra. That damn 5 dollar bill must have been there the entire time she was working out because it was WET! Can you say nasty? I must have made a face when she handed it to me and I felt it all soggy and stuff because she seemed to get a bit huffy and say "It's just a little sweat."

Right.

I so wanted to say "Well how do you feel about a little bit of my sweat in your freaking latte?" I mean come on? Put your freaking money in your locker or something but don't expect somebody to take your nasty, sweaty bra money and NOT make a face.

Horrified and Entranced

I don't know which one I feel more. . .

A Site for Everyone

Wow, there really is a dating site out there for everyone! There is even one for Millionaire Dating. Just think, Anna Nicole had to actually go out and pound the pavement to find her millionaire, but all you have to do is create a Web profile. Now D., I know you HATE the idea of online dating but I think this is perfect for you. You are a smart, gorgeous, witty young woman so I think you deserve a millionaire, make that a straight millionaire. Shoot, if I hadn't of found C-Fresh you know I would give it a go. I am sure Millionaires are lonely people too because they are out there spending most of their time making money so why not a site for them to find love too? Best of luck everyone!

How In The Heck. . .

. . .do people get into classes without taking the prerequisites? If I tried to do that I would be keelhauled and then tarred and feathered and yet these retards are allowed to take a Java programming class without taking ANY other classes. These idiots don't even know what the command line interface is let alone how to use it. They are asking all these dumb ass questions that were covered in the FIVE other classes that were required before this one. The thing that irritates me is that the instructor says nothing. Not "hey, you tard, you are wasting everybody's time with these questions," or "You need to drop this class now and go take the prereq courses." The worst part is they are wasting the time of the rest of the people in class throwing the class at least a week behind schedule and in two weeks they are going to drop the class anyhow when we get into some actual difficult stuff beyond the "What is Java?" b.s.

ARGH!

Thank you for letting me vent.

I Wonder. . .

. . .if this is how D. feels?

Review Me!

Oh man, I must be really getting the gadget bug now because I really want this Employee Evaluation Software. I know that I can just do it myself and go through my logs when doing reviews, but it would be so much nicer to have it all just right in the computer ready to be spat back at me. Okay, the reason I really want it is because I hate doing employee reviews and anything at all that makes it easier would be a like manna from heaven.
I wonder if they also make software to fire people? Now that would be a best seller that I would snap up in a heartbeat!

Leave the Kid Alone

Geez Louise! I could strangle the parents of Shawn Hornbek. You get your kid back after 4 or 5 years and what do you do? Humiliate him! Like a 15 year old kid wants the whole world to know that he may have been sexually abused. Like anybody really wants the whole world to know that they have been sexually abused. First of all, if he was it is his right to tell everybody or nobody about it. His parents need to shut the hell up, get off of T.V., stop working on whatever movie of the month deals they are probably working up and get that kid into counseling. Sure they have done some good stuff finding other people's kids but right now I believe that they are just messing this poor kid up even more by spouting off their speculations all over Oprah. Oprah, of all people, should know better too. Wasn't she just quoted as feeling like she was kicked in the gut by a family member's betrayal of her secret teenage pregnancy? What the hell is wrong with these people? Like I said, get the kid in counseling and if he wants to talk about it later then let him but if he wants to just try to lead a normal life and have some sort of normalcy then we should all just put butt out and let him.

Article here.

A Big Thanks. . .

. . .to one of my employees, Suzanne, for drawing me up the cool little line drawing that I have as my profile pic. Now all I have to do is to get it into a banner to post up top here and I'll be all set.

A Game for all Seasons

A few buddies of mine are completely bummed about the whole "no online gambling" legislations. It isn't like they were hard core gamblers or anything but as one of them like to put it "I just like to be able to play poker at home anytime of the day or night in my underwear." Well, that was just a bit more information than I really wanted, but I pretty much got the point.
Being the good friend that I am (and liking to have people in my debt) I recommended PokerDIY - A free service to find LIVE poker games to him. On it you can set up poker games and invite internal (your friends) or external players. They reply electronically and the game is on. every two weeks they have the PokerDIY Freeroll for members with real prize money and a place on the PokerDIY League scoreboard and it is the largest poker community of its kind. Maybe he'll be able to find other people who want to sit around and play poker in their underwear in the middle of the night but that isn't a sight anyone would want to behold so instead I'll leave you with this funny advert for the site I found on YouTube. I love it when people can have a sense of humor about themselves.

Future Ex Husband Friday

For FEHF I picked Tom Welling this week. Why Tom Welling? Well I am pretty darn shallow and have you seen him? Nuff said!

I Love. . .

. . .to eat. Especially since I quit smoking and can actually taste my food now. The problem is finding good restaurants. I hate to eat at national chain restaurants. I much prefer the Mom and Pop's or the independently owned restaurants. The food just seems so much better at those types of places. The whole problem is finding the gems among the clutter. Ever since D. defected to California my main source of good recommendations is gone (it was thanks to her that I discovered the joy of Vietnamese food and #1 Pho).
I did just join friendsEAT to find some great new gems not just here but also down in Columbus. It is sort of like a myspace but for people who love food. I'm hoping some more Ohioans will join so I can glean their minds for some good Columbus restaurants. Can anyone recommend a good vegetarian place? I would also LOVE to find the most authentic Mexican restaurant in Columbus.

Do You Believe. . .

. . .in ghosts?

I Hate. . .

. . .those cutesy spellings of words on signs. C-Fresh and I were at Sofa Express & More on Sunday and they had a section called Cimply Cinema. ARGH! We then end up with people putting any random spelling of stuff up and just making stuff up.

To see more misspelled signs check out this site.

Cafe Conversations

There is a bit of confusion in the cafe I work at because we serve Starbucks coffee and display the Starbucks logo. People believe that they can use their Starbucks' Gift Cards with us which is an understandable thought. We politely tell them "No, I'm sorry we can't accept the Starbucks Gift Card but you can use any of the B&N Gift cards or membership cards here." Most people are quite gracious and understand. Of course there is always that one dipsh*t who wants to argue.
"But it says Starbucks right there on your apron!"
TO which we reply "Well sir, it says B & N cafe serving Starbucks coffee. We are a part of the bookstore, not Starbucks."
Naturally someone will always want to argue this further as happened to me yesterday. We had already gone through the whole spiel and he kept saying "But it says Starbucks right there!" pointing to one of the half naked mermaids. Finally I got to the point where I just put on a smile and replied back "Yes sir, we serve Starbucks Coffee, but we are the Barnes & Noble cafe we can accept any Barnes & Noble gift card, but unfortunately we are unable to accept the Starbucks card."

Man: "But it says Starbucks right there!"
Me: "Yes sir, we serve Starbucks Coffee, but we are the Barnes & Noble cafe we can accept any Barnes & Noble gift card, but unfortunately we are unable to accept the Starbucks card."

Man:"But it says Starbucks right there!"
Me: "Yes sir, we serve Starbucks Coffee, but we are the Barnes & Noble cafe we can accept any Barnes & Noble gift card, but unfortunately we are unable to accept the Starbucks card."

And we did that another three times. That's right, we went through that 5 times. There comes a point where there is nothing more you can do so I thought "screw it, I can do this ALL DAY LONG with a fake smile plastered to my face. Eventually I did win out and he pulled out a credit card and couldn't even bitch because I was unfailingly polite.

I Can Totally Relate

found at Post Secret

Future Ex Husband Friday

At the urging of C-Fresh I rented The Covenant. It wasn't a horrible movie. The acting was tolerable, the special effects were pretty cool, and the script was somewhat interesting. What really kept my attention was the young man who played Caleb. WOW! Out of all the hotties they had in that movie he REALLY stuck out.

I Love This Song. . .

By Fall Out Boy. I was driving back from Columbus when it came on one of the random radio stations out in the middle of all that farmland. I'm just glad my car has that radio that tells you what's playing so I could find this again.

Cafe Conversations

Wow, what a weekend. At five o'clock on Friday afternoon my coffee brewer took a major nose dive and was spraying coffee EVERYWHERE! We then had to wait for a part to be rush shipped to us. You can imagine when it got there, Monday morning. That left us with an entire weekend of no regular old plain coffee. Here are some of the insightful comments and observations we received.



Customer: "I don't understand why you don't have any coffee?"
Me: "Well, the machine is broke. We can't brew any coffee with it until it gets fixed."
Customer: "Who broke it?" (In a very confrontational hostile tone)
Me: (as patiently as possible with a line forming behind Ms. Maniac) "Nobody broke it, it just broke from being used so much."
Customer: "I don't understand" (still in a hostile tone) "You should be ashamed of yourselves, not having any coffee."
At this point she stomps off. And yes, angry customers in my part of town do have a habit of telling just about everyone that they should be ashamed of themselves. I'm really not sure why, maybe it is a cultural thing.

Next up is this brainiac. Keep in mind that I had FOUR signs posted informing people that we had no regular coffee. One on the top of the pastry case that people stood in line in front of before ordering, one on the menu board, one on the coffee brewer and one on the cafe door entrance.
Man: "Give me a large coffee." (please not the absence of both the proper Starbucks terminology and also the lack of the word please).
Barista: "I'm sorry, we don't have any regular coffee. The machine is busted" (and she said this so sweetly even though it was like the millionth time she said it).
Man: "Well you should put up a sign then," he said snarkily before stomping off. Hmmm, maybe he just needed glasses.

Another genius had this bit of advice to give us on Saturday after the machine being broken for 24 hours and going through the whole how can you not have coffee b.s.
"Someone should call and get it fixed then, shouldn't they?" he said bitchily before stomping off yet again. I felt like running after him and proclaiming "Sir, you are a GENIUS! We all thought it would just fix itself. Not one of us EVER thought about actually CALLING someone to get it fixed!"
WTF?

Happy Birthday. . .

. . .Elvis!

Hmmm,. . .Kinda, I Guess

You Are Surrealism

Dreamy and idealistic, you've created a world that is all your own. It's very likely that you've either dabbled in drugs or are naturally trippy. You are always trying to push beyond the boundaries of your culture and society. You believe that art, love, and freedom can change the world.

What Art Movement Are You?

Birthday Week

I'm back from Columbus and I am continuing my birthday week today by just vegging out at home. It was actually a great birthday (Thank you C-Fresh!). We went out to dinner at this cute little Vietnamese restaurant in downtown Columbus (I think it was called the Saigon Palace. . .good food, small menu) and then we went to see Casino Royale. WOW! I freaking loved it. Not only was Daniel Craig by far the hottest Bond EVER, but he was also the best. It was really nice to see a masculine Bond who you believed could kick some ass. I thought it was the best Bond EVER (despite wanting it to end so I could empty my bladder). This is definitely a movie that I am going to buy when it comes out (especially so I can replay the scenes of him coming out of the water in that hot swim suit, DAMN!)

Future Ex Husband Friday

Dear Justin Timberlake,

I am sorry to hear about your break up with Cameron Diaz. If you are in need of comforting I can make that sacrifice because who knew you would go from such a geeky kid with an afro into Future Ex Husband Friday Material?

You Say It's Your Birthay. . .

. . .well it's my birthday too! Since it isn't divisible by five this one isn't so depressing but we'll wait and see how next year's birthday goes.

Cafe Conversations

Yesterday I had a repairman out to look at my coffee brewer. On Saturday the thing freaked out on me. I was in the middle of doing 4 things at the same time when out of nowhere I felt steaming hot water hit me on my back (luckily where my shirt was and no I wasn't burned or horribly disfigured). I turned to see the coffee machine doing it's best Poltergeist impression as it randomly sprayed hot water in all directions. After getting a brew basket on the machine and a bucket to catch the random spurtings I called our phone number to get a work order in. After explaining my issue the girl said "Okay, that is a priority three and someone will be out by close of the next business day." Okay, the next business day would have been yesterday so that was 3 days away.
"Can't I get it priority?" I asked stupidly.
"NO, it isn't that bad," she told me. I felt like asking her to stand in front of the machine so she could be scalded by hot water but bit my lip and said nothing.
After awhile the coffee machine calmed down and we made it to yesterday when Chatterbox the repairman came in to look at it. During our morning rush Chatterbox the genius decides to turn off the water and NOT TELL ME. Meanwhile I am happily whipping up 1/2 caff, soy, sugar free vanilla lattes when the espresso machine takes a poop on me and stops working.
Momentary panic until it flashes the NO WATER signal at me.
"Um," I said to Chatterbox the repairman. "Did you turn off the water?"
"Yup," he said as he stared at the coffee machine.
"OH," I said trying not to get angry. "Could you have told me you were going to do that?" I asked
"Why?"
Oh my God. I know more about this man from his incessant chatter than I really want to know but he can't tell me that he is turning off the water in a cafe. Did he think that that was something I didn't need to know? What a dipshit!
Anyway after much ass kissing and ten minutes of him staring blankly we finally got the water back on and he still had no idea what was wrong with the damn machine.

Resolutions

My NY resolution is to finally edit the novel I wrote last July into something that is readable. As it starts to come together I'll post snippets here if anyone is interested in them.

My New Years. ..

. . .Ah the fun of New Years. D. asked me what I did for New Years and it wasn't all that exciting. I worked til 6:00 p.m., went to Target, did some crosswords and was in bed by 11:00. A very nice NY eve in my book especially considering the exhausting days before it. On Friday I was in Columbus (I actually got there on Thursday so C-Fresh and I could celebrate our first Christmas together) and C-Fresh and I had a little holiday get together. I was mixing up the dirty martini's and it was a fun night all around. By twelve C-Fresh was passed out and most of the people were gone. That was when I realized that two people were missing. Turns my friend J. was up in the bathroom puking his brains out. No big deal I thought until A-Bomb came and told me just how bad it was. So at 2 a.m. off to the hospital we went (and no, my car upholstery is still fine, no puke up in that yo!) where we waited until 3:30 for him to get a bed. I was then called at 5:45 to come pick him up and had to wait until 7 a.m until they released him. That gave me about 4 hours to get some sleep to make the 2 1/2 hour drive back to Cleveland and work my 9 hour shift then go home and be back at work by 9 a.m. on NY eve. So as you can tell I was so not up for any partying on NY eve. But hey, at least we know our holiday party was a hit because it is no fun until someone has to go to the hospital!

BTW: A huge thank you goes out to A-bomb, his b.f. Rusty, and his brother Jarred for the helping hand.

Can I. . .

. . .say that I don't watch TV still if I watch it online? I am loving that I can watch Ugly Betty online! That is such a great idea and I hope that ABC keeps it up because I absolutely LOVE that show.

Happy New Year

Sorry I missed the last couple of days, but I was down in Columbus with C-Fresh celebrating our Christmas. I have to say that I think we both did well with gifts for each other. I just wanted to show the pic of these awesome Buddha heads he found for me. How awesome are fluorescent Buddha heads?