Productive Boredom (not furry)

A few items of note:

• I went home for Christmas. I was rather psyched to be back with the family, even though the house was a bit messy, a bit smelly, and bit chron infested. I didn't make off with a war chest of gifts, I received only a bath robe, but I still had a happy holiday. Most was spent playing Halo 2 with my brother. We beat the game in two days, and were greeted with a lame ending. I won't reveal any spoilers, but I will say that it's less of an ending than it is a launch point for Halo 3: The Ark.


• I sold many articles of my clothing on eBay. I ended up gaining $116.15 from the sale of 16 items.


• The Help Desk is moving! Our old office was quite small - nearly claustrophobic. The new office is spacious, and even has windows. I am psyched like whoa. I'm also beaming with pride because my boss trusted me with handling the telecom switchover from old office to new. I am winnar.

The main reason for today's update:

Today I was bored to the max. In my bored state, I realized that if I put an 'o' at the end of Minh's name, she became a minnow. I opened up Photoshop and produced this:



I soon came to realize that Minnow would be lonely without her best friend (and secret lover), and so I made her an Angela Fish:



And then I decided to make Joyce and Darcy into horses, because they like horses:



Fun Fact: Searching for "horse" in Google Image Search returns hardcore bestiality on the first page.

Next Quarter's Calendar

Yarrr, here's what my weeks are going to look like for the next two and a half months:

Happy pre-birthday to me!

Yesterday John, my Mom, Dave, and Chris came to my apartment to wish me a happy birthday a day early. I felt much love.

My Mom, Dave, and Chris drove up in the krazy Kia (with a k!) and had some troubles finding my place. It's hidden away in the trees, so I had to hang out on the edge of the road to direct them in on their second journey down Bill McDonald Parkway.

The family got me a floating, rotating globe, and an awesome squishy green pillow. John brought me back the copy of Kill Bill Volume 2 that I had loaned him months ago. A couple days earlier, I'd gotten an uber-Jesus-y card from my dad. Red state, ahoy.

Following greetings and gifts, we went to La Fiamma Wood Fire Pizza in downtown Bellingham. It's got a wicked trendiness to its atmosphere. All the chairs are made of aluminum, and the entire place is decked out in this metal/formica/tile style. Dave was pissed cause he couldn't get a Bud Light, they only served microbrews.

They served the most delicious pizza I've ever eaten. The first pizza we ordered was a Meat Lover's. It had a whole bunch of delicious meat, huge ham slices, and awesomely gooey and stretchy mozzarella cheese. We finished the first and were hungry for more, so I ordered a "Fiona." It consisted lamb sausage, rosemary, feta and mozarella cheese, peppers, tomatoes, onions, pepperoni, and the largest, richest olives I've ever seen. Fucking orgasmic pizza.

While we were dining, a group of sixteen dudes with Santa hats came into the restaurant. The staff arranged the slickly designed tables to accomodate them. Some tables had concave ends, while other tables were round. They interlocked perfectly to form a wacky large table that stretched across the restauarnt. A few minutes after being seated, they sang "White Christmas." They were really good. I wish Minh had called me, cause it could've been on the radio! Where were you, Minh!?

After dinner, we went home, had cake, hung out, and watched police videos on Spike TV (lol white trash lol). Here are photos (click 'em to embiggen 'em):


After that, my family left, and John and I went to Fred Meyer to obtain another controller for my Xbox so that we could play against eachother. The cordless controller they sold was actually $5 cheaper than the cheapest corded controller. I asked one of the guys who worked there what frequency it was on, cause I didn't want it interfering with my wireless network. He asked if I had Comcast, and I told him that I did, but that didn't matter, cause it's all one standard. He replied that Comcast's stuff is made not to be interfered with by the controller. BLECH! Fucker, it's FCC regulation that devices on the 2.4 Ghz frequency accept any unwanted interference! I still bought it, under the assumption that I'd return it if it didn't work. It worked, though.

We picked up Need For Speed:Underground 2 on the way home, and riced out the rest of the night with a blue Honda Civic. John went home around 9:30 or so (he had to work in the morning), and I continued to play until 10:30. I ended my pre-birthday by watching Man on Fire. Denzel Washington is, in my opinion, the best actor in Hollywood today. Well, either him or Tom Hanks. That movie was awesome.

The end. I'M 20 YEARS OLD NOW!

Merry X-Mas to my living space

I have done gone and decorated a little:



Merry NAMBLA Christmas, Micheal Jackson!

Praise the Lord!!!

My iBook hath returned!

Apple is the most awesomest of all awesome companies that are awesome, of which there might be only one, which is Apple (and maybe Panic).

I called in with my problem on Tuesday. I received a package on Wednesday with which to send my iBook back. I sent it back, and Apple received it on Thursday. They fixed it, and overnighted it back to me on the same day that they received it, all with no cost to myself. I got my iBook back today, hooray!

The process was not without problem, however the problems I had were no fault of Apple.

I checked the tracking page on DHL this morning at work and saw that my package was scheduled to be delivered today. Apple had opted for DHL's "Next Day AM" service which guaranteed delivery by 10:30 a.m. of the following business day. Awesome!

I went to my acccounting class, which runs from 10:00-11:20, and returned to the Help Desk (I had it shipped to my work instead of to my home) expecting to see a brown box with my name on it. No such luck. That's excusable though, I thought, as Apple did send the package out the night before at around 9:00 p.m. The page still said that my package would arrive today, so I didn't worry.

I headed to my history class, which ran from 11:30-1:00, returned to the Help Desk, and found that my package had still not waited. Around 4:00 I got worried and called DHL.

The guy I spoke with informed me that my package would not be delivered today, but that I could pick it up today before 5:30 p.m. It'd be a race, I thought, since I get off work at 5:00, but I really wanted me iBook. I asked him where to pick it up from, and he told me that he'd give me a call back with that information.

Okay, cool.

Twenty five minutes later, I haven't gotten a call back. I call up DHL again. This time I talk to a woman. I ask her what's up with not getting a call back, and she informs me that they have an hour to call me back. AN HOUR!!! That's bullshit, I have to pickup this package by 5:30, I need this address now! She then puts me on hold for about eight minutes or so. When she comes back, she tells me that my package is en route, that'd it be delivered within a half hour, and she didn't know why that guy had told me otherwise.

Okay, cool, again.

A few minutes before five o'clock I call again, because my package has still not arrived. This time I get a much more helpful and courteous girl on the phone, Judy (I've started taking names at this point), who sympathized with my plight of being without a computer before finals because she too had finals next week.

While on the phone with Judy, I get my call back from the original call I had made. Shawn, a woman in Bothell, informs me that my package is not going to be delivered today, and that if I'm picking it up, I have to go to Burlington. There's no way I can get to Burlington before 5:30 at this point. I was pissed. I tell her, "Next Day was paid for, what can you do to get this package to me today?" She puts me on hold, and I go back to chatting with Judy.

Oh yeah, I had Judy on one headset, and Shawn on the other. Judy on my right, and Shawn on my left. I've got two earphones and two boom mics on my head. I am some kind of MECHA-PHONE-TALKING BRANDON!

Shawn comes back, and tells me that they have it in Burlington, and that she can get them to deliver it tomorrow. I had been told by the first radical asshat before that if I didn't pick it up it'd be delivered on Monday, so I guess she thought this would be a cool compromise or something.

"No, bitch, Next Day was paid for, I want my package." I didn't say that, but I emoted it without the profanity. She tells me that she doesn't have direct control over the DHL office in Burlington, since she's in Bothell. I ask for Burlington's number, get it, and call it.

Some woman picks up the phone, asks my name, and then asks me to repeat my name, since she couldn't hear over the loud, care-free laughter in the background. When I'm concerned about something, and it seems that no one else cares, nearly nothing grates my nerves more than loud, care-free laughter. I tell her my plight, and she took off to see what was up and put me on hold before I could get her name.

A few minutes later, a different woman picks up the phone, unaware that the first woman was already helping me. This second woman is Yolanda. Yolanda also tries to tell me that it'll either be delivered tomorrow or it can be picked it up, but I tell her that that's not acceptable, for reasons I've told other people before. I asked her why my package wasn't delivered today, and she told me that the driver tried to deliver it, but couldn't find it.

WHAT THE FUCK?

DHL makes deliveries at least once a week to our office, I've signed for plenty of the deliveries myself while our delivery-handling-person was out to lunch. How do they not know where this place is? It's a big three story building connected to a six story building with a sky bridge, a building which is filled with signs directing people to the ATUS Help Desk to resolve their computer issues. Jesus fucking chode titties, I should go terrorist on their asses.

After a bit of wrangling, I get to send someone out with package.

Awesome!

She asks for my address, and I give it to her. Why would she need my address, its printed on the goddamn package? I make sure to give her our phone number as well, just in case their drivers are smoking weed, masturbating, and sticking syringes in their eyes while they drive.

I tell Judy, thank her for staying on the line while I worked things out, and say goodbye. Judy rocks. Having an ally in the system was definitely helpful, if only psychologically.

By this time, my shift has been over about twelve minutes or so. I tell my two supervisors, Rick and Teri, that I'll have to keep the Help Desk open for awhile, but not to worry, I won't help anyone (hawhaw). I make a sign with "DHL" in bright red letters telling the delivery guy to deliver to Haggard Hall 145 at the ATUS Help Desk, and place it Haggard's little foyer/lobby by the map of Haggard Hall. They best be able to find the place, dammit.

I wait, and after awhile, I receive a phone call from the delivery dude. He's just gotten off of I-5, and is asking me for directions. Now, first, why the fuck is this guy asking me for directions from I-5 to WWU? Finding places and delivering packages is his job, and WWU is a rather large and conspicuous place, as is Haggard Hall. Second, I'm really glad that I gave them a phone number to call.

Ten minutes later, I hear this coming from the hallway:

"See, dude, I told you I could find my way around this college shit. I used to go to UT."

It wasn't just one delivery guy, it was two. Thank God they'd put two brains on this problem.

I signed for my iBook, tore the package open, and enjoyed the happiness that my shiny white computer brought. I booted it up and noticed that Apple hadn't fixed the screen. Oh well, it was my fault, I imagine they figured that out. The computer worked flawlessly, though. It was a little slow, as Apple had advised me to take out the extra memory I'd added before I'd sent it in, but at least it was fully functional.

I closed the lid, put it in my backpack, put all the packing materials in the box, shut down the Help Desk computers, and ran (yes, ran, I was late) to the bus stop. I got home, whipped out my iBook, shouted "PRAISE THE LORD!!!!" at a bunch of people on Adium, shut my computer down, installed the memory, and typed this up.

Crazy ol' day

Yesterday was incredibly crazy.

First, my computer broke. I went to my 8 a.m. class, get out my computer, played around on the web for a bit, and then put it sleep and put it in my bag. An hour later, after class, I went to the library, opened my bag, got my computer out, and opened it up. It was off. That was strange, cause when I put it in my bag, it was sleeping. I powered it on, but instead of acting like a computer, it acted like a jet engine. All it did was spin its fan as fast as it could, making this loud whooshing noise. So, I'm sitting in the skybridge, laptop on my lap, with nothing on the screen, and making a very a loud noise. Yay.

I went to the Help Desk and tried everything I could do to find out what was wrong, but I just couldn't get it to work. I called up Apple, they checked some stuff out, couldn't figure out was wrong either. They're sending me a box overnight (it'll arrive today) to my office, which I can then send overnight back to them with my iBook in it.

So, with that problem closed, I decided I'd compensate for the loss of my iBook by taking some of the holiday cash I'd received and buy myself an Xbox. After work, which ended at four, I took the bus back to my place, hopped in my Jeep, and took off for Best Buy, which as at the far end of Meridian (where Bellis Fair is). I got off at the exit, and found that traffic was nearly backed up to the point where it'd be blocking I-5. After fifteen minutes of crawling towards Best Buy, I happend upon dark traffic lights. There were cops directing traffic. I got stopped as the cop moved to allow other cars through, and I was enormously afraid that he was going to come knock on my window and ask for proof of insurance, which I do not have. I also have a bumper that is askew, making me suspicious.

He didn't talk to me though, and I was relieved. Five more minutes of crawling and I came to another stoplight without power. This time, there were no cops directing traffic. I nearly got hit. As I was nearly to Best Buy I came upon yet ANOTHER dead traffic light. I called 911 just to be sure that someone had reported the last two lights, and apparently they knew about the problem. The girl on the phone told me the power was out.

I looked across the way to Best Buy, and I did not see a big yellow tag plastered across a blue storefront. No, I only saw darkness. Dammit.

I made my way back through the gauntlet of crazy drivers and failed traffic control devices to Circuit City, which is near the off-ramp to Meridian. They were all out of Xboxes.

By this point it was nearly six o'clock, I hadn't eaten lunch, and I was hungry. I went to Burger King, got a chicken sandwich, and considered my options. I decided to brave the traffic again and I go to Bellis Fair.

I checked EbGames, and they were all out.

I checked Target, and they had what I was looking for! Xbox bundled with two games for $149.99! Huzzah! I purchased my Xbox, and also twelve pairs of socks from Champs sports (mine were getting full of holes), made my way to my Jeep, and took off for home.

I got back on I-5, and found that Southbound traffic was moving at less than FIVE MILES PER FUCKING HOUR!!!

I sat in that traffic for about forty minutes before I got to the WWU exit. Someone had gotten in an accident just a mile before my exit, and one lane was blocked.

I went to Blockbuster, picked up "Fable", and headed home. My mission was complete. I played Fable for awhile, but it wasn't all that great. I popped in one of the bundled games, Top Spin, and it was much more entertaining. I created a hilariously and grotesquely ugly tennis player for myself, and named him Simian, cause he looked like an ape.

Hooray.