A Look Inside

Its starting to get warm outside again. That is a good sign. It means I will be able to get outdoors really soon.

I had dinner with Kristin yesterday.  Things were going good until I steered the conversation towards us.  In the end, the choice was to break up but remain friends.

 I care for her deeply and vise versa.

We both have flaws. We are only human after all.

When you work in retail and are kept busy. 

Around the time of my last journal,  my general manager and the training supervisor left the company. The general manager went on to greener pastures while the training supervisor went on (and is still on) a life changing trip. We were already short one supervisor before that happened also. Needless to say, I have been busy.

Asthma and allergies suck. More on that at a later date. It's time to start getting ready for work

That means summer is mostly over. Very soon it will start to get colder.  Have a said i hate the cold?

They (meaning my superiors) decided to get the back office air conditioning fixed while I was on vacation.  I walk into the back office on my first day back and say out loud 'Holy s___t, its cold back here". All happy thoughts drain out of me as though a dementor is around.  I was, to say the least, pissed off for the rest of my shift. The next day the air conditioning was still working and I complained loudly to anyone.  The other (glorious) day though it seems the air conditioning broke down again. I am happy again.

BTW, David Webber is an awesome author. Off Armegeddon Reef is an awesome book. 

I just finished HP7. It took me about 12 hours to read it which has to be a record for me. The book is 759 pages long.

My three favorite quotes (and I will not tell you who said them) are:

1) The world is not split between good people and death eaters

2) Crookshanks....Are you a wizard, or what?

3) Of course its happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?

The HP7 event was amazing. the store was packed. The cafe did over $1.5k in sales. I got myself a coffee before heading home and starting to read. The book rocks so far.

Its 5am and back to reading....cya

Yes its been a while. Life has been somewhat busy for me. I finished all but HP7 (which comes out Saturday). I have seen all the HP movies (saw the 5th 2 times with the girl). Was even able to do a spontaneous get together of some of my friends (with the girls help).

The end of summer is nearing. I know this because my college bound cafe workers are starting to talk about 'next semester'. Another clue is that the days are starting to get shorter. Mind you, not by much...but enough that I notice.

In other news, the girl is taking me to the airport. Which reminds me to ask my dentist later today about implants and metal detectors. The image of trying to explain why their hand held metal detector goes haywire around my jaw area while my flight calls out final boarding comes to mind.

And in geek news, I might have a contact that might help me get into a beta that I have been wanting to play since February. Knowing my luck, the invite will come the day before I go to Florida for 4 days.

I have also discovered a new addiction: carbonated flavored water. While it is better for me than soda, it is carbonated and will eventually have to go.

I went into work the other day and was looking at the request off calendar. I managed to snag most of the last week of July off.  I double checked it with my boss and GM and they both ok'd it. Off to Florida I go!

I booked my flights through Southwest. I have flown with them in the past and find it good.

I am really looking forwards towards my trip. It has been a few years since I have seen my grand-mother. Also she is having surgery on her knees a few days before I go down. I told my mother not to tell her i was coming.

My next quest is to find myself an audiologist.

I have off today.

I will spent it playing an MMO (or two), reading, and doing a CVS run (one of the few food places opened today).

I also have to drop by work to see if anyone is on vacation from august 27- sept 1. I figure i can slip down to Florida for a bit, then come back and be with the girl for a bit. I  would really love to go down to Florida this month, but with harry Potter that is unlikely to happen.

I also need to get air in my bicycles tires. Then I can get outside a bit more.

"Book" Smart You are what people might call 'book smart.' What's meant by this is that you have a high degree of learned, theoretical intelligence. Pretty much, you've acquired your smarts through education, and you work best with theoretical or conceptual thought. 0% applied intelligence 80% learned intelligence

Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

Kristin and I went to Atlantis today. She went for the penguins....I went for the sharks.

While there I noticed. this Shark dive!!!!

Let me be the first to be honest. I talk a lot about doing certain things (going hiking in the summer, getting my bike fixed, etc) but never actually do it.  But this...this is something I honestly might do. Ever since I watched a shark week 15 years ago it has interested me. I think the hardest part for me would actually getting on the scuba equipment without hacking up a lung ( Taurus's are know for having sensitive throats...i am no exception).

Being able to swim with sharks and turtles is actually what got me interested in possibly being a marine biologist. A trip to Gumbo Limbo when I was at college helped also. The trip to Atlantis today rekindled some thought along that line. I am good with animals and do have patience...I would just have to get past the whole possibility of seeing injured mammals.

HP update: I am almost halfway through the 4th book now. I keep up this pace and i should be just finishing Half Blood Prince when the new one comes out. I should put in a reserve for it.....

I ended up reading...

On to the next book tomorrow!

I hope so.

I have been reading the Harry Potter series these days. I am throughly enjoying it. I will openly admit it that Kristin was right. Even now, I can see her 'I told you so look".

Rush and Bon Jovi came out with new albums recently. I fearfully listened to the Bon Jovi one. Their past three albums have been one hit wonders mostly. This new album 'Lost Highway' is actually pretty good.  I feel it will grow on me in time...similar to the way i felt about Beyond Beautiful by Aerosmith.

The Rush cd I have not listened to yet. Sometime soon I shall listen to it.

The girl and I are going to an aquarium on Monday. They have penguins and sharks among other marine life. A good time shall be had by all.

The doctor said my rash was minor and not to worry too much about it. Oral surgeon was happy with the implants. The sun was shining today! All three of those facts plus that I had lunch with the girl makes me a happy camper.

Time to read or play Planetside. Laters!

When Wensday rolls around, I will have worked  6 days in a row. That does not bother me...except for the fact of an annoying rash that reminds me of that its there every time I move. I shall call my doctor later today (its 1:30am here) and try to get an appointment or an urgent appointment for Tuesday/Wensday.

I have this feeling that the doctor visit won't be fun.  For a fact, I know there will be a throat culture. Actually my doctor wanted me to see him again last week for another culture, but i had forgotten about it. I know I screwed with my medications a bit (I had/possibly still have strep throat and was on an inhaler due to allergies) because of an accidental inhaler overdose at the end of may. Lets just say I make damn sure to have at least 10 hours in between dosages now.


Despite it being extremely busy this weekend, i got most of the things done I wanted to get done. I will survive this week as long as the rash does not drive me insane. I have to train my team for an event, go over certain basic protocols with them, ride their butts to increase sales, and a cafe audit to conduct. Its gonna be busy.

On the bright side, the girl and I are hanging out Saturday as we both have the day off. Her family is having a garage sale so there is the possibility I will be out in the sun. Must get to Goblet of Fire by then!

P.S.: Central air sucks

and I have work in less than 12 hours. Normally I would be asleep but i got addicted to a series of books. I am currently on the second one of the series. At the rate i am reading them at, I will be on the 4th one by the middle of next week.

I made myself stop reading for the night. There comes a certain point where tiredness wins.

I also abhor spoilers, especially for books. Movies you maybe plunk down 4 hours of your life and $10. A book can take me upwards of 30 hours to read, which is worth a lot more than $10 and 4 hours of my life.

Yesterday was busy at home. The store was busy; the cafe was hopping (yes I just dated myself); and I was extremely busy. I had my DM visit which made me go to lunch 30 minutes late. That in turn made the other cafe worker take her break 30 minutes late. That threw a wrench into our closing plans. Also a representative from our new cleaning supplier stopped by to install new dispensers and stuff. He also wanted to train me on how to use them, but the cafe got extra busy and I did not have time. Luckily my boss was unoffcially there and got the 'guided tour'.

And as a final statement, I would like to say i prefer 'Wrong Way' over Quiznos. First, Quiznos does not allow you to build the sandwich the way you want. Second, I would have to cross the road, and walk 1/4th of a mile. I compare the road (Jericho Turnpike) to playing a game of Freeway or Frogger (I just dated myself again). One day I should dig up my Atari 2600 and play those games again for their pure simplistic pleasure.

It's now 4:09am. Time for bed.....or maybe I should stay up and watch the sun rise.

or BEA for short.

I had gone to the BEA website 3 times before the expo. Once was just to bookmark it because it was 2am and I needed to sleep. The other 2 times I looked over the autograph signings closely and only found one that interested me.

I got there about 12pm on Saturday. Best part about getting there at that time....no lines at the registration counter. Worst parts about getting there at that time...missed a few signings and no directories.

Until recently, my job was special orders. That means I was in phone contact with a good amount of publishers/distributors.  At BEA I would be walking down an isle and recognize most of the publishers. I made it a point to stop at a few of them and inquire as to certain policies they have. I picked up a few business cards with direct contact information to help the current special orders clerk fulfill more orders.

BEA reminded me that there is another side to my store that is not the cafe. A world I used to be completely engrossed in. What I need to do is start reading some dust cover flaps of new books. I do look at the tables and see what is there,  but sometimes people don't know the title or author. But first, I need to become a coffee expert, get my assignment templates down, and increase sales in my cafe.

The next book I read shall be Chamber of Secrets since I promised Kristin I would read it. Assuming I don't get addicted, I need to finish up the Ramma series next. After that, I will read some of the ARCs I got at book expo.

I recently got addicted to the show Top Chef on Bravo. I never thought I would be draw into the whole reality television. What drew me in is that the prizes are extremely useful for that line of work....$100,000 to start your own business, a write up in Food & Wine magazine, and a state of the art kitchen.

I think I will buy season 1 and send it to my mother. She never could make anything plain while I was growing up except on Sunday nights. Sunday nights we used to get together with my grandparents and have pasta. My grandfather, bless his heart, never let my mother try anything other than tomato sauce or oil and vinegar. Maybe by sending her season 1 of Top Chef she will use my step father as a guinea pig

Which reminds me, it is time to buckle down and become a coffee expert. In these past 2 weeks I have had a DM visit, a 'suprise' cafe inventory, and Book Expo America. Now that all three of them are done, its time to get my butt back on track.



Below is part of a journal I have been trying to post for the past 2 weeks. LJ did not like me for some reason.

And in other girl news, my girl rocks. For my birthday present, she took me to the Cradle of Aviation Museum here on Long Island. The museum followed the history of flight with an emphasis on Long Islands part in it. Besides from one school tour, there was hardly anyone there. That meant the museum curators constantly kept speaking to me. Kristin picked up on this after the first one and walked at a brisk pace and went off on her own. Do to my slow reading speak and dimished hearing, I was the sacrificial lamb. I did not mind talking to most of them, but a few tried my patience.

The museum was 3 hangar bays wide. The center hangar was the entrance and an I-MAX theatre. We had just finished one hangar and was walking over to the other hangar. Kristin and I were talking about something which instantly stopped the second I saw what was greeting me in the other hangar.  I swear I must have stood there for a few minutes because the next thing I can remember is Kristin telling me I look so cute.

There greeting me inside this hangar was my favorite aircraft of all time...the A-10 Thunderbolt. Why is this aircraft my favorite? It has an unusual design. It is the safest military aircraft to be flying, and it has an extremely versatile weapons load-out. When I wanted to be a pilot, the A-10 was the aircraft I wanted to fly. The curator for this particular area knew a lot about the aircraft. Needless to say he and I had a 30 minute discussion. All the time I am getting the look from the girlfriend thats says 'Your so cute'.
The most important part was that the curator says the pilot sometimes works at the museum. This caught me off guard  as I had assumed the A-10 was a replica. He assured me it was a real A-10 that had seen military action!!!!

When we got outside of the museum I was severely tempted to kiss my girl for the awesome present. The I remembered her hatred of summer and decided not to.

i wonder if this works

I made a rule for myself that I would never buy another video game system until there are at least 5 games out for said system I would play.  Xbox 360 is approaching that goal. Gears of War, Lost Planet, Project Sylpheed,  Huxley, and Halo3. Yes that meets my critera. The release date for halo3 was pushed up to 9/25 instead of holiday season.

I have been trying to get myself out of the video game market for a while now. When I was growing up, video gamers were seen as oddballs. It floors me now to see it is mainstream. I am always shocked when i meet a woman who plays video games. I need to peek my head out of my shell more often

On that note, I also need to pay more attention to current events. I used to watch the news every night, but then I noticed it was depressing me. I like local news and i need to watch it more often.

Now that i am 30, I should set some goals. Eventually Peg, Jenielle, and Kristen will retire and I don;t want to out last them all. With that in mind, here are a few in no particular order:

1) Take (and pass) the A+ test
2) Become a coffee expert at  home
3) Start looking at colleges
4) Move out
5) Visit grandmother and mother in Florida
6) Get girlfriend addicted to an MMO
7) Get resume together

#6 scares me a little. I have NO DOUBT I can get her addicted to an MMO. The scary part is she will know more about that game in 1 week then I will.  She multi-tasks better than I do so I can just picture her getting a book stand right next to her monitor.

P.S. Shrek and Shrek2 rock. Its time to set a date and go see the third one with the girl. PotC At Worlds End gets my vote for the week though

I had this nice long journal entry about how my girlfriend and her family kick ass. I go to check on some options in LJ and it uses the same broswer window instead of making a new one. I hit the back button and it offers to restore from last draft. I click yes only to see a draft that was 2 sentences long.

so bummed

anyway, off to supervise and stuff

omg, omg, omg

Kunark...my favorite expansion in Everquest...is the next expansion of eq2. Now I had sworn off eq2 a while ago but now I am severely rethinking it.

Burning Woods...Chardok....Dreadlands....Karnors Castle...the list goes one and on

If that wasn't enough to get me to at least make a cameo...you can play as a Saranak!!!!!!!!!!!

Link to interview for all those interested

http://eq2.allakhazam.com/news/sdetail9504.html?story=9504

I have not read the full article yet, but i would guess Sony would try to have this out in Q4 of this year.

Still, KUNARK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!