Crash!

Sorry I haven't blogged lately. My Comcast internet has been down the past four days. It started just now and I'm unsure how long it will be up. But I hope that all finds you well. I'm doing pretty good. Work is going well. Yesterday was crazy busy. And that's odd, normally Mondays are very quiet. I think it is because we had a catalog just come out in home.


Anyway, if the internet stays up, I'll write some good posts. :)

Bigredhammer

How I Love Transformers!

Not a good weekend

So I was working on Saturday. The day was going pretty good. There weren't any returns (which I hate). I had only eaten a bowl of cereal before work and I was very hungry. My hands were actually shaking. And as you guys know, when I get hungry I get really cranky. I was really cranky. But my roommate Aaron had brought pork chops he had made the day before. So I told my co-workers that I was going in the back to eat.

I put the pork chops in the microwave and went to the bathroom. When I came out Ryan (my co-worker) was in the back. Someone had a return. I'm the only one who can do returns. I knew something would interrupt my eating. Well, I went out and and helped the woman. Luckily, she was easy to work with. I got it taken care of pretty quick.

So I went in the back again and tested the temperature of the pork chop. It wasn't hot. So I put it in again. When the microwave pinged I pulled it out and looked for our plastic forks. They were all gone. Grrrr. I didn't want to eat the pork chop with just my fingers... it was in apple sauce and it would have been very messy.

Well, the day before our manager had bought us a big thing of hot pockets, burritos and ice creams because we had done very well on a Secret Shop. Everyone was really excited about it. So I figured I'd just eat a hot pocket and save the pork chops for dinner. I microwaved the hot pocket and then had to help a customer. When I came back, the hot pocket was cold... but the microwave didn't have power. I plugged it in again and nothing.

By this point I was really really hungry and also very very grouchy. "Is someone just trying to mess me up here!?" I was frustrated. So I decided to go upstairs to the chocolate factory and buy one of their croissant sandwiches. When I was up there, I saw plastic forks. But my pork chop was cold by now anyway. So I got my croissant and I actually got to eat it too. Yeah!

I thought my hard times were over. Well, I found out today that I popped the circuit breaker with the microwave.... and the refrigerator too. Yep, all of our frozen food was destroyed. The ice cream is melted. The hot pockets and burritos are completely thawed. Ugh. We lost it all.

So I had Aaron take me to Costco and I bought us some hot pockets and some ice cream sandwiches. Ugh. When it rains it pours. So hopefully that'll make up for it a little bit. *sigh*

Something New

I did something yesterday that I've never done before. I was burning some CDs for friends of new music that I really enjoy. I really wanted a certain song but was unable to find it on Limewire. So I asked a friend where I could purchase music legally online. I hate Apple and iTunes, so I ruled that out. My other options were Napster and Walmart music. I picked Walmart music. So I actually downloaded a song legally. I think it cost me $0.96 for the song.

*shudder*

So I have now purchased music online legally. It was easy. I had the music within two minutes. It was cheap. I think I'd do it again if I was unable to find the song I want illegally quickly.

I hope my morals aren't slipping.

Arrrrrgh... Yep, I'm still a pirate. Afterall, I burned that song to multiple CDs and gave them away free. lol

What is my Daemon?

Star Trek XI

So every once in a while I check out the status of the new Star Trek XI. As of yet there isn't much to say about the film. J.J. Abrams has been chosen as the producer and director of the new movie. He is also one of the writers. I think this puts an awful amount of the load just on one person. Let's hope that he is trek enough to take a movie on. You might recognize his name as the executive producer for both the Lost and Alias series. He was also the director of Mission Impossible 3. I wasn't terribly impressed by that movie. But he may just breathe new life into the Trek franchise. So all of this is old news.

"If there's something I'm dying to see, it's the brilliance and optimism of Roddenberry's world brought back to the big screen...I am honored and excited to be part of this next chapter of Star Trek."

Star Trek XI is set to begin shooting in Fall 2007 for a Christmas 2008 release.

Let's keep our fingers crossed that he can achieve the equally large tasks of staying true to Trek and breathing in new life to the franchise.

My Accent

What American accent do you have?
Created by Xavier on Memegen.net

Western. Like Midland, Western is another accent that people consider neutral. So, you might not actually be from the Western half of the country, but you definitely sound like it.

Take this quiz now - it's easy!

We're going to start with "cot" and "caught." When you say those words do they sound the same or different?

Different Same, no wait I mean different, maybe, a little bit different... Same

My Latino Heritage

I just have to share this little circumstance that happened last week. We had a woman call us about a problem she had with a clock she had bought from us a little while ago. Apparently its night light wasn't as bright as she needed it. She talked to my co-worker and friend Ryan. Apparently she was very pushy and she really frustrated Ryan. Finally he told her that we would replace the battery for her if she brought it in. When he got off the phone he told me about the conversation because he would be leaving soon and I would probably have to deal with the woman. I told him that we couldn't just open up a pack of batteries for her, but if she wanted to buy them, she was more than welcome.

Well, the next day she did come in. She was a very very talkative person, making it seem like all sorts of drama and difficulty for her. She got to the part about being promised a battery. That's when I interrupted and said that "Yes, Ryan told me what was happening. And I told him that he was wrong." At this point her jaw clicked shut. I laughed inside.

In the end I replaced the clock with a new one according to our replacement policy. She was upset about it because she only wanted the free battery. (Nevermind I was giving her a free clock!)

Well, the next day I came in and my manager John asked me about the woman. I told her what had happened. And everything was cool. He told me that he had called and talked to him earlier. She had said, "Well, I've worked with uppity Latinos before. I've lived in Florida and had to deal with them all the time." It took me a minute. Latino? She meant me!

I've never been racially discriminated against. And especially for the wrong race! My boss was kind of upset about it. He doesn't tolerate any kind of -ism at our work, not even from customers. If I were the sue happy type, I could make a big deal out of this. Even though she totally got my ethnicity wrong. I'm Canadian and English on one side and Danish on the other. I'm probably whiter than she is.

Illegal Music Outnumbers Legal Downloads 20-to-1

You all know how I like to track the movements of the music industry especially concerning illegal downloads. This article was pretty short, but it was interesting to see what a disparity there is. Of course, illegal downloads take place the world over and legal ones probably only take place in the United States. So I would guess comparing statistically, 20-to-1 are pretty good odds. lol Way to go RIAA!

"That’s right, 20-to-1. It took iTunes 5 years to sell 2-billion songs. But there are a billion illegal downloads every month. That’s not what the music industry wants to hear... that it may be too late to change this tune."

The only way I can see the music industry changing this trend is to make competitive prices. But how do you make competitive prices when something is free? Make it close to free. Instead of 95-cents per song... follow BMG's scheme, 95-cents for 8 songs. And when it comes to iTunes, get rid of the proprietary requirements. That's just ridiculous. Even I would pay 95-cents if I got the whole CD. Afterall, it'd come with all the mp3 info filled out. That'd save me a lot of time!

Original

As you may know, I love music videos. They're fun, they're interesting, and just outright cool. Here's one that had some popularity recently.

Simpsons: The Movie

And on a lighter note:

Trolley Square

I think it's important for me to write down my experience with the shooting at Trolley Square. First of all, I want to say that I am healthy both physically and mentally. So many things could have gone wrong for those of us in Sharper Image and none of them did. I didn't see the gunman, I didn't see any dead or injured bodies. I didn't even see any blood. I feel thankful that I don't have any traumatic images in my head. But I will tell what happened.

Monday isn't a very busy day for Trolley Square or us at Sharper Image. I remember just waiting around for customers. Around dinner time we had a lot of browsers from Spaghetti Factory in the store. People have to wait to get in, so they browse around our store. I was helping my co-worker get a product for a customer and couldn't find it in our store room. I came back and told her I couldn't find and maybe she'd have better luck. So she went to the storeroom.

I started to help the next customer with her return. After I'd exited the back and was helping the woman, we could noises from somewhere. I thought they sounded like illegal fireworks. Our store is below a restaurant and we hear a lot of what goes on up there. When they break a glass it sounds like something is breaking in our store. I remember looking up and saying to the customer, "I wonder what they're doing." There were at least a dozen of those sounds.

I don't know quite what happened next, but I remember a woman screaming and everyone in the store hitting the ground and ducking. Someone must have said that there was a gun or shots or something. I was behind the register and grabbed the phone there. The woman I was helping crawled behind the register too. I first dialed mall security but the line was busy. Then I dialed 911. I couldn't get through to them either. I tried twice. I remember looking up from the floor to at the man close to me. He wasn't on the ground. I thought, "Why aren't you on the floor?"

A few moments later, my co-worker crept around the side from the back room and asked what was going on. Afterwards I found out that a customer had come back there and told her about the gunman. She asked me if we should get everyone in the back. I said that we should. So we yelled for all of our customers to come to the back. Our emergency exit is right next to our storage room door too. One couple went out that door outside. I remember thinking, "They may be going to their death. Maybe the guy is out there."

We got all of the customers into the back room. The door is a swinging door. It only swings inward, but it has no lock. We pushed in the little orange door jambs, but then decided to push our safe in front of the door. So my co-worker and I pulled it out and put it in the way.

Our back room is narrow at first and then opens up wider with the shelves. We had everyone move back so if he looked in the little window, he wouldn't be able to see us. We had about 17 people back there. There were two mothers, one with three children and the other with two. The Hispanic mother was very scared and crying. There was also a young Hispanic woman who was crying and scared too. People were on their cell phones calling loved ones or police or whoever. I texted my roommate and told him I was okay and did the same for our assistant manager. Then I called my mom.

The conversation went something like this:
"Hey mom. This is Scott."
"Hi Scott, how're you doing?"
"Not so good. There's been a shooting here but I'm safe. Turn on the news and watch. The phone is ringing I need to go. I love you."

And then I hung up. Our telephone in the back room was ringing. I didn't know if it was the police or security or what. So I slunk up to the front by the door and grabbed the phone. It was another of our co-workers. He was finding out if we were okay. I asked him if it was still going on and what was happening. He said that the news didn't really know. But that there might be two gunmen. I asked him if it was on a radio station and he gave me one. I went back to everyone else and turned on the radio. Everyone quieted down to listen. Our phone rang again and I went up again. It was another co-worker. I told him we were okay.

When I went back again I called 911 on my cell phone and got through. That was at 6:56. The dispatch asked me where we were. I told him that we were in the back of the Sharper Image. He asked how many people we had. I asked the people to count. As they were counting, he kinda asked harder, "How many people are there?" Seventeen was the last number I heard so I told him that. I asked if we could come out yet. He said no. We needed to stay back there until the police came to get us. He asked for my name and phone number. I gave it to him. Then we ended the call.

After that a man wanted to borrow my cell phone, so I lent it to him. Our desk phone rang again so I crept up there to answer. This time it was one of the news stations. They wanted to know if we were in the mall. I told them yes and that we were barricaded in. He asked if I would do a live interview. I paused, I didn't know what to think. He said to just hold on the line and he would transfer me. The phone started ringing and then it went dead. I hung up and went to the back. The phone rang again so I went up and answered again. It was the news guy again. I told him no and then hung up. Then I unplugged the phone. I could hear the radio station we were listening to on the conversation with the guy. I didn't want the people in the back with us hearing me. That was stupid and dangerous.

I went back to the rest of the people. I remember that my co-worker seemed a little scared so put my arm around her. I don't know how much longer it was. But someone pounded hard on the back room door. We jumped and everyone ducked. We thought it was the killer. My co-worker and I peeked around the corner. I could see police and guns through the little window. They yelled out, "Police! Put your hands in the air!" I put them like about shoulder high. They yelled to put them higher. I put them all the way up. They told me to walk slowly forward. I walked to the door and told them that we had a safe in front of the door and that I needed to do it. Then I opened the door. They asked how many people we had back there. I told them. They told us to go up the front of the store. I yelled back to everyone that it was the police and we needed to go out.

We all filed out single file behind the registers. We all had to keep our hands up. I was at the front of the line and my co-worker was at the back. She made sure everyone came from the back. Some were plainclothes policemen with bullet vests and some were in uniform. Some of them had machine gun looking things too. They filed us out to the front entrance of the store. One policeman who seemed to be in charge had two other policemen go to the entrance to the mall and make sure it was safe. Then they moved us out to the handicapped parking lot. We all had to put our hands on the wall and assume the position to be frisked. As I waited to be frisked, there was an older woman next to me. She said, "I'm used to being frisked. Every time I go to the airport they have to frisk me because of my two metal hips." I laughed.

They frisked us all and then had us get paper and pens and write down our information. We needed to write down our name, address, phone number and birth date. They said after that, we could leave. There were some policemen on the balcony above us. We could hear them trying to do something up there. Then we heard gunshots and the muzzle flashes. We all hit the ground and the cop next to us yelled in his walkie-talkie, "Shots fired upstairs!" The cops up there, yelled down, "No, no! We're just opening the door!" That scared us so much!

It was freezing outside and most of us didn't have jackets. We were all huddled together as we waited to write down our information. Eventually small groups of us left and went across the street. We waited around at the corner unsure what to do. I was thinking of the store being open and that people could loot or steal stuff. We moved kittycorner and then asked a cop if they were going to keep the mall secure or what. He didn't know how long it would be or if they mall would be secure. Not long after we met up with my roommate and our assistant manager. We got in the car and got warmed up. I asked if we had blankets because we had some customers out there who couldn't get to their cars and didn't have anything warm. So we brought them blankets.

Eventually they brought buses and we got on them to keep warm. I gave my name and info again to a policeman and told him to write that I was the manager on duty and to call me when we could shut the store. It wasn't too long after that we got to leave.

I'm going to write more of what happened after all this in another post. The Sharper Image company has been so good to my co-worker and I. They have really taken care of us since the event. But I just want to say how thankful and lucky I feel. Heavenly Father was looking over us in our store. Everything that could have gone wrong for us didn't. We were able to keep ourselves and all of our customers safe. I am so thankful.

Doing well

I really love my job. I feel really lucky that I found one that fits me so well. I like what I do, I like coming into work, and I like all my co-workers. They're my friends. The icing on the cake is that I actually do *well* at this job. Last week, we had our new employee of the month sign put up. It was me! I don't know if there are qualifications outside of how much you sell, but I did the best with somewhere around $47,000 in sales for December. Yeah, even I was surprised.

For January I sold the most PWPs. (I don't know what the acronym stands for.) PWPs are the items that are half off with purchase for the month. We have to tell each customer that as they check out. I had a really good percentage.

For the past several weeks, I've been doing superb too. John, our manager is excellent at sales. It is almost always impossible to beat him. Our assistant manager is awesome too. But lately I've been selling more than the two of them combined. :D

Okay, one last toot on my horn. For February there is a nationwide contest amongst the stores as to who can sell the most of a certain product. I didn't realize this until a few days ago when we received an e-mail with the current standings. On the district, store, and associate level, we are number two. But that was the day before I sold $1500 of that product. I'm pretty sure I'm number one now. And if I can keep that up... 1st prize is $500!

All of this puts me in such a good mood. It isn't because I'm winning, but because I'm loving what I'm doing. I think my numbers are good because of that. You're good at what you like, and you like what you're good at.

An inspiring video

A quick little video, but very inspiring.

Do I even dare?

Okay, fine I will. A short mention that Illuminati: Bavarian Fire Drill is scheduled to come out in March. Like that will happen! lol

To the moon young man!

The picture was taken from Berlin this week. Though an optical illusion, I can't wait for the day when flights to the moon become regular. President Bush has a plan to have a permanent habitat on the moon. I wonder if it will ever become reality.

Besides being a serious sci-fi fan, I think expansion beyond earth is important. It will spur technology and research further and it will give (some of) mankind a dream and a goal to fulfill. With an ongoing Iraq war and I'm sure future wars without planned ends, I think it's good to have achievable, if not difficult goals to fulfill. I think things on earth will get more difficult as time passes. Space exploration will become less and less of a priority. I don't want to see it disappear from our goals and capacity.

Welcome to WarCrack!

So I've done it... I've had my first taste. And it was good. And I want more. I've joined the 7.5 million users of World of Warcraft. It is lots of fun! I am currently a lvl 12 Warrior. The game has been really interesting. It's obvious that the creators worked hard to differentiate the game from others. I also had a hard time finding a name for my character. All the Book of Mormon names I wanted were already taken... even Romanian spellings of them. So I ended up with Lemuel. lol So I highly recommend the game.

Act vs. Overreact

This from the Denver Post:

This text is from a county emergency manager out in the central part of Colorado after today's snowstorm.

WEATHER BULLETIN

Up here, in the Northern Plains, we just recovered from a Historic event -- may I even say a "Weather Event" of "Biblical proportions" -- with a historic blizzard of up to 44" inches of snow and winds to 90 MPH that broke trees in half, knocked down utility poles, stranded hundreds of motorists in lethal snow banks, closed ALL roads, isolated scores of communities and cut power to 10's of thousands.

FYI:

George Bush did not come.

FEMA did nothing.

No one howled for the government.

No one blamed the government.

No one even uttered an expletive on TV .

Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton did not visit.

Our Mayor did not blame Bush or anyone else.

Our Governor did not blame Bush or anyone else, either.

CNN, ABC, CBS, FOX or NBC did not visit - or report on this category 5 snowstorm.

Nobody demanded $2,000 debit cards.

No one asked for a FEMA Trailer House.

No one looted.

Nobody - I mean Nobody demanded the government do something.

Nobody expected the government to do anything, either.

No Larry King, No Bill O'Rielly, No Oprah, No Chris Mathews and No Geraldo Rivera.

No Sean Penn, No Barbara Striesand, No Hollywood types to be found.

Nope, we just melted the snow for water.

Sent out caravans of SUV's to pluck people out of snow engulfed cars.

The truck drivers pulled people out of snow banks and didn't ask for a penny.

Local restaurants made food and the police and fire departments delivered it to the snowbound families.

Families took in the stranded people - total strangers.

We fired up wood stoves, broke out coal oil lanterns or Coleman lanterns.

We put on extra layers of clothes because up here it is "Work or Die".

We did not wait for some affirmative action government to get us out of a mess created by being immobilized by a welfare program that trades votes for 'sittin at home' checks.

Even though a Category "5" blizzard of this scale has never fallen this early, we know it can happen and how to deal with it ourselves.

"In my many travels, I have noticed that once one gets north of about 48 degrees North Latitude, 90% of the world's social problems evaporate"

It does seem that way, at least to me.

I hope this gets passed on. Maybe SOME people will get the message. The world does NOT owe you a living.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

2006 ends in 13 hours from now. It really doesn't seem possible. But I have to say that this year has been a great one. I'd even say one of my best since my mission. I've made a lot of good changes this year. But enough reminiscing. I hope that each of you had a great Christmas with your friends or family. I was only home for two and a half days, but they were all great. Saturday we had our extended family reunion. It went really well and was a no stress event! (For once!) Having Christmas eve on a Sunday was wonderful as well. It gave us time to think about the spiritual side of Christmas... the most important part. I'm very thankful that the Savior came to earth and even in the form of a helpless baby.

Christmas day was wonderful as well. My parents and I woke up and opened gifts. We all received and gave great gifts. A little later, my sister and brother-in-law and nephews came over. We had our traditional Christmas breakfast and then opened each others' gifts. My nephews *loved* the gifts I gave them. I'll say on my part that the Roboraptor was an awesome idea. After they left, my parents and I headed up to Logan to visit my brother and his family. We ate our traditional Christmas dinner there. Mmm... spiral cut ham and homemade mashed potatoes. Then we opened gifts. They loved their gifts as well. Family really is what makes Christmas important and fulfilling.

I hope that all of you had positive and eventful years. I do count myself lucky to have you as friends.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

Wow! Can you believe it?

(AXcess News) Washington - The world's oldest person dies at 116. Elizabeth Bolden, who was reported to be the world's oldest person, died Monday of age related illness. Bolden lived at nursing home in Memphis, Tennessee and according to media quotes of her grandson, she lived a 'remarkable life'.

Elizabeth Bolden was born Aug. 15, 1890 to a freed slave family. She married in 1908 and was the mother of 7 children, 40 grandchildren, 75 great-grandchildren, 150 great-great-grandchildren, 220 great-great-great-grandchildren and 75 great-great-great-great-grandchildren.

Bolden celebrated her 116th birthday in August, making her the world's oldest living person. Since suffering a stroke in 2004, Bolden was unable to speak, though at the time of her birthday she was alert and enjoyed eating ice cream while surrounded by members of her family.

No other member of Bolden's family has lived past the age of 100.