Archive for the ‘Life’ Category

Normally you would start a post such as this with the title “it’s been a while.” Which it has on my scale but on the scale of a normal person it has only been 4 days (well 5 given it pasted midnight as I wrote). I’ve been packing in the hours at work though. I pulled an extra 11-7 shift today as they wanted extra staff for the Robbie Williams concert which turned into a 11-9 shift as I worked the end of Tom’s too. I’m doing some more stuff next week too.

Yesterday I went into town, starting my adventures on campus. I went to the ARC to find they had lost the film making society’s block booking form then I went to get a new society petition form finally I went to the accommodation office to confirm some stuff about my room next year. They told me to go to the Ellerslie office and one thing led to another and I ended up having a quick look round my room. It’s pretty cool, far bigger than my Bodington one and I’m getting a double bed.

Then that evening I met up with Claire and eventually John, Lunn, Prostitute Chris and Sophie which will explored a few bars – namely Nu, Sports Cafe, Flares and finally Bar Above. Flares was interesting, full of old people. Sports Cafe was cool, the top floor has loads of pool tables and we ended up bulk buying shots.

So yeah, so far everything is pretty cool. Got a pay packet today which was almost £300 (will be over once I ger my tax back) for the past two weeks and I have this week and next week which I will be working plenty of hours. Money is good.

It’s over! My 5 day marathon is over. Ok, working 5 days in a row doesn’t sound that bad given that most people do that in a normal working week but the last 3 days have been closes which are well long shifts and I’m not getting home till this sort of time. In fact this was a good night, we were out at like 2:15, I’ve done closes when we’ve still been working at this time.

So yeah, glad to get that over with. Plenty of hours means plenty of money of course too. I have tomorrow off and quite a bit of the week too so I don’t have many hours this week coming. And most of the hours I do have are from closes on Saturday and Sunday of next weekend.

Still, it’s weird, I’m enjoying my job. With sucks as it means I don’t really want to go back to uni. I’m at somewhat of a cross roads though I think the direction I will pick will be slightly more boring and inevitable than the one a certain Mr. Leery choose.

So certain information came to light today that was unfavourable to the situation aforementioned in this and this post. I’m a little unsure of what to think at the moment. I think I need a little time to think it over. I haven’t really had a chance yet which is probably a good thing for the moment. I’m going to stop blogging now before this turns into an emo whine.

I’ve just got home from the first of three closes in a row. Not too bad, it was before 3 when we finished although we were well on track before that. By 11 or something I had most of the pre-close dive done and Rich had the kitchen down but it didn’t pan out nearly as early as we had hoped. It was a really good close though, like everything got done. I mean, I’ve never actually seen us dive the production bin shelves before.

But yeah, another two closes to go. I finally have a day off on Monday although most of that will be lost to sleep and then a day shift on Tuesday. After that I’m back to closes. Though the amount of closes I will be doing will probably be finite if I am still working at Colton Mill as I will need to bus it home unless I crash which I don’t really want to do. I can’t really win though as I don’t want to leave Colton Mill.

I really love The Onion. Mainly the opinions or American Voices as I think it’s called.

Regarding the Vatican condeming the new stem cell research which doesn’t destroy the embryos (so called ehtical stem cell research) one of the resonses was…

“I wish, time and time again, that the Vatican were not composed of the foremost scientists on embryonic research in the world. This makes it very difficult for anyone to argue a case against them, and we are repeatedly left at an impasse.”

Regarding the congresswoman who said the seperation of church and state is “a lie”…

“What kind of lie is ‘separation of church and state?’ A ‘the check is in the mail’ kind of lie, or a ‘the world was created in seven days and dinosaurs never existed’ kind of lie?”

On the new series of Survivor that is going to feature racially segregated islands…

“This is an affront to a civilized society. I mean, another damn season of Survivor?”

Anyway I’m going to stop quoting now and let you have your own read. It’s well worth a click.

Save Your Space is a petition to block legislation in the Us that would block social networking sites in US schools and libraries. The idea is to stop sexual preditors. Though they aren’t really stopping sexual preditors from accessing the sites if they are blocking it in schools. They are just stopping the kids. Furthermore, it’s censorship. Some people’s only access to the internet may be a public library even if not, they might want to access the internet while there even if they have it at home and find it censored. China anyone?

Not only will this affect sites like MySpace and Facebook but it will affect YouTube (which I am currently living on) and also blogging platforms like Blogger, Xanga and presumly WordPress.com. So kids can’t blog now! Why don’t we just ban under 18’s from using the internet? It’s not a good situation and so SaveYourSpace.org has launched a petition aiming to get a million signatures. The deadline is in like a week so they aren’t going to make it. But they can try. I signed it. You should too. I’m even going to include one of their graphic dealies.

I’ve spent a bit of time researching how I can turn my computer into a multi-region player as my DVD player is playing up. My optical drives aren’t region locked but Windows is (what a suprise, it’s a Windows problem) and it looks like the only solution is to shell out for something like AnyDVD.

It’s stupid really. I realise why they implemented regions but they didn’t think it through – anything software controlled could easily be hacked and it unfairly affects legitimate users. I have a lot of region 1 DVDs simply because they were never realised on region 2. Absolute film classics such as Logan’s Run and The Breakfast Club and fantastic non-Hollywood films like Paradise Lost I have on region 1 because the only way to get hold of them was to import them from America. Legitimate real paid for versions that I bought off Amazon. That I can’t currently watch.

Hmm, ok, well, don’t have much to blog about at the moment. I’m working tomorrow. And Thursday. And Friday. And Saturday. And Sunday. Maybe Monday too, I don’t have my schedule for then yet. Have a load of other work to do as well, it seems as much as I do nothing ever gets done.

I’m not feeling great about going back to uni. I had a think what I’m going to do regarding work and stuff and I’m probably going to transfer away from Colton which sucks as I’m going to miss all my friends. I know I’ve only just met them but they are really cool people. I don’t know if I’m doing the right thing. I mean, I’m doing the logical thing. But is that the right thing? Do I even want to go back to uni?

I’m running into other issues too. My digital camera is broken as is my DVD player. I’ve lost all motivation for getting projects done. Plus one of my friends is going through some major issues right now. So all in all it’s not the best situation. Though I have been doing some comfort shopping on eBay and have a few electronics (and now DVDs) scheduled to arrive this week. That is if I actually get any time to use them.

Yesterday I finally got round to sorting my phone out. I’m going on contract because it should work out the same cost plus I have about twice the amount of minutes and texts I usually use and I get a new phone as the joystick on my current phone is really iffy. Plus the new phone I’m getting is a k800i featuring a 3.2 megapixel digital camera which is as powerful as my actual digital camera.

I’ll miss Virgin, for pay as you go deals they are great. Vodaphone’s contract prices can’t match them – £0.12 a text on Vodaphone whereas Virgin are £0.10. Same for landline calls and calls to people on the same network. Plus Virgin’s service is great stuff like free voicemail, free PAC codes (though I don’t know how uncommon this is), itemised billing (I have this on contract but for pay as you go I would have thought that is pretty sorted). I would highly recommend Virgin they just have two issues. One is the pay monthly details aren’t great.

The second is my next point – I’m off T-Mobile’s network! Vodaphone has the most reliable network in the UK (that’s official) and the best coverage as well I think. I should hopefully be able to get a signal around campus which was a touch and go issue on T-Mobile.

Ok, well I have time for one more post before sleep I guess. I should probably provide some background reading for regular readers of my blog as to my last post and talk about work as I haven’t really blogged about it, nor indeed blogged about anything recently. I will go into work later but I’ll mention a few of the people now.

Jenny is a good starting point. She was at the same orientation thing as me so we started at the same time though she is part of “the other side” (she works front counter ;)). She has also just got her exam results and a place at Leeds College of Art and Design. Plus she’s a mosher which makes a change from the the dance music listening crowd that tend to work there.

Don’t get me wrong, they are great people, they aren’t chavs. But anyway back on topic, JT is the shift running manager who is responsible for training me. He’s a man of Michelle’s heart being a massive Placebo fan, I’m under orders to fill my MP3 player with Placebo for tomorrow’s close.

Rich is a guy on the training squad that did quite a bit of my grill training and he’s cool. Ash is a really good laugh, as is Craig. Danny is a good guy too, he knows his stuff and Danny Atkin who is one of the floor managers is a cool guy who seems to have similar music tastes, he normally goes to Leeds Fest.

Kayleigh is one of the floor managers who I did my first close with, she is nice and friendly. As are pretty much all of the managers. Johnny is a cool guy as he is really chilled out and doesn’t let the pressure get to him. Tom is a nice guy and always talks to you as does Harris.

There are loads of other cool people too like Liz, Zoe, Stu and so forth but I’m tired and need sleep. If you want to be mentioned then bribes will be accepted :p.