Bob’s Blog

I suppose I owe you all some entertaining stories, no? It has been a while. Truth be told, things haven’t been all that interesting. Ever since the announcing of the sale, business has just about died. More often than not, it seems like it’s just the employees in the store and no actual customers. Depressing. But, onto the stories:

Late Night Sessions

Someone on 3rd shift must be getting some ass. Because, just last week, there was a used condom in one our end caps. When I came in that morning and opened up the department, I initially ignored it because I thought it was just a green bag (well, I guess – technically it is. But, still.) So I ignored it, because we have green bags in produce and I just figured that was it and no big deal.

I start filling the eggs and this elderly woman comes up to me and says, “Come here.” I come over and she points into the case and says, “I think that’s a used condom…” I take a look, and by Great Ceaser’s Ghost, it is a used condom. I give her a frown.

She says, “I accidently touched it….”

I frowned again.

I wanted to nail it on my store manager’s door, but that might’ve been too much.

Sk8r Bois

If I have to hear another Avril Lavigne song, it will be too fucking soon. At work, we normally play Top 40 music. The playlist consists of the following artists, and are pretty much in order:

Michael Bolton, Celine Dion, Gwen Stefani, U2, Dave Matthews Band, Rob Thomas, some crappy R&B, and of course, Avril Lavigne. Of course, if we’re lucky – we occasionally get a Staind, Weezer, Green Day, or even 311 song. They’re all ballads, but it sure as hell beats anything by Michael Bolton or Celine Dion.

Now, take this list and rinse and repeat until ad nauseum. It’s gotten to the point where I can predict who the next artist will come on next and what song they will play.

However, for some reason, we play A LOT of Avril Lavigne. It’s actually kind of disturbing, now thinking about it. I once counted her being played 3 times in one hour. Twice in a span of 20 minutes. Repeat this for 9 hours a day, every day. It’s annoying and I can’t stand it. I’ve even found myself singing along with some of the songs because I know them all by heart now.

I hate Avril Lavigne with all my heart and soul.

The Great Flood

A few days ago, we had some major storms hit NE Ohio. What resulted? about 4 feet of flooding.

That picture you see at the top was taken right near my work. And, as you can see…there was a lot of rain.

We had 4 feet of water in our parking lot. Absolutely ridiculous. There was a car stranded in the middle of the parking lot, and the water was above the windows. The water had gotten into the store, and flooded up into the aisles. It was a complete disaster. Fortunately, not many products got ruined, so we got lucky.

However, water leaked into the bakery freezer. We had about an inch and a half of solid frozen ice on the floor. It was absolutely insane.

We all had a good chuckle over that one.

There was a news report going around that some of the fine people of Eastlake pulled out some canoes and sailed into Wal-Mart and tried to get in.

Wal-Mart wouldn’t confirm that one.

We were still open despite the flooding and water everywhere; people were still shopping and trying to get in. It was so odd and so irritating at the same time. Could you not wait a little while before we got things cleaned up and situated? It’s ok – we’re not going anywhere.

My store manager was walking around without socks most of the day. He kept saying how they got wet as soon as he came in and he couldn’t wear them anymore. He was going nuts over how wet his pants and clothes were.

We told him to go across the parking lot to Wal-mart and buy a new pair of socks. We all laughed. He later then asked if we sold socks in our own store. To his complete and utter amazement, he found out we did. He yells across the store, “No way! Throw me over a pair!”

It seems to me we spend more time worrying about what celebrities are doing in their lives than what we ourselves are doing in our own. We as a society place high standards and high expectations on celebrities and give millions to them every year. While people such as teachers, social workers, and others who are the foundation of this society, nay – this world, are left behind.

This is not to say there isn’t a time and place for everything, there surely is. But I suppose we need to know what Paris Hilton’s sex life is like on an hourly basis, right? Right. Who is she dating? Why is Jessica Simpson dating so soon after her divorce? Why is Nick with that chick from TRL? Jennifer Aniston is a tramp. Brad Pitt did what? Lindasy Lohan really isn’t a coke addict, is she?

It’s all dire to know.

I suppose I can’t knock on the likes of Paris Hilton too much, now thinking about it. I wish I could mooch off daddy’s millions, make sex tapes, party day in and day out, be as smart as a bucket of paint, be as shallow as a puddle of water on a rainy day, and put food on the table for some creepy stalker with a camera simply by striking a pose.

Yeah, now really thinking about it, that doesn’t sound too bad of a life. I’ve got it all wrong.

Courtesy of MG.org:

I gave the store my two weeks notice yesterday. Well, two and a half weeks I suppose. As of August 11th, I’ll be done working there. Will I come back at the end of the fall semester? I hope not – but living isn’t cheap, and if I need the money. I’ll have to work. Sigh.

But, let’s not dwell on that. In two weeks, I’ll be done. This will also be my last full weekened at the store. Hooray! I almost debated to work until the 14th, but no – after the BS with them after this past weekend, I’m not dealing with them anymore than I absolutely have to.

We’re standing on the edge of summer, and I couldn’t be happier.

I saw Clerks II tonight with a friend, and let me just state that it was absolutely hysterical. The scenes regarding Lord Of The Rings, Jay/Silence Of The Lambs, and Wanda Sykes are all classic.

Although I was a bit leary heading into the movie, I think it ranks with the original, Dogma, and Chasing Amy. It’s a classic Kevin Smith movie and is highly recommended. The fact that movie critic Joel Siegal walked out on it speaks volumes for itself.

Enjoy.

I don’t get this whole stem cell research thing. I don’t really have an opinion on the matter because, quite frankly, I don’t understand it fully (and neither do most people in this country, from what I gather). But, here’s two things I’m getting out of this whole thing today, and if I’m wrong on something – someone be kind enough to correct me:

1. The veto doesn’t outlaw or ban the studying and research of stem cells. Therefore, private companies can continue to work on them. It’s just that the federal government will not spend federal money on research for stem cells. On this point, I don’t find it to be a big deal at all if the federal government doesn’t spend money on such a thing.

However, Bush’s reasoning is a religious one. I don’t like that. It’d be much easier politically for Bush to just say he doesn’t support federal funding of such a thing. But, instead, he has to pander to the Jerry Fallwell’s of this country.

2. From what I understand, the stem cells being used are going to be thrown out, or disregarded anyways. They’re essentially “left overs”. So…I don’t get the issue of morality here that Bush and the religious right are waiving around here . If they’re not going to be used and going to be disregarded but have the potential to help someone…then why not use them?

That’s what I’m not getting here.

Everytime I look at this picture, I get just as creeped out as the first time I saw it.  It’s so bizarre, and I have no idea what’s going on – but I keep looking at it.

Here you have the oldest civilization(s) in the world – the birth of the world as we know it, once the greatest, advanced and powerful region in the world. And yet the people in that region still cannot get along. And still fight and kill each other.

Over what?

Some land? A god? Because textbooks and parents continue to pass hate through each generation? Because personal faith and religion is twisted?

It seems like it’s a never ending cycle over there. And I pray that the US does not get involved and this whole thing does not escalate any further than it already has.

I don’t buy CD’s very often anymore. In fact, up until yesterday – it had been well over 6 months since I had bought any new music. I’ve never been real big on downloading music, either. I just simply lost interest in seeking and buying new music and would much rather spend my money on other things.

Up until about 3 months ago, I was an album purist. Have to have the actual cd, the booklet, the case, everything. Then I got my iPod and that all changed, and quite frankly – that stuff no longer appeals to me, at least not as much as it used to anyways. I’ve got everything at my fingertips and can play anything, at anytime, in any order that I choose.

Yesterday at Best Buy, I walked out with a new album. It wasn’t planned, but I saw it and said, “What the hell?”. I come home, pop it into my computer and low and behold, it doesn’t play at all. It wouldn’t let me rip, and it certainly wouldn’t even let me play it. And when I tried to, it wouldn’t or it would skip. I spent a good half hour trying to play it and fiddling around and no luck.

It’ll play in everything else, BUT my computer.

And so, I’ve decided that will be the last CD I’ll buy for quite sometime, if not for ever. The fact that I spend $15 and can’t even play it on my computer is absolutely absurd.  Sure, there are ways around it – that is without question. But the bottom line is this: If I have to shell out hard earned money for an album, I’d better be able to play it without having any types of hassels and shouldn’t have to go through any types of troubles to actually play it. I should be able to play it on my computer, I paid for it. It’s mine.

I’ve been a loyal customer to labels. I’ve got well over 250+ albums, paid for. I’ve paid the outrageous $20 tag at times for albums. Dealing with all the stupid and unnecessary enhanced content on CD’s (with some actually exposing your computer to viruses). Put up with many half assed albums where I only end up liking 1 or 2 songs. Putting up with only 25-30 minute albums. And I’ve stood by through the downloading debacle the past 6 years regularly buying albums, despite having low income and all these other issues.

But, quite frankly. Enough’s enough. Major labels and the RIAA have not only screwed over the actual artists, but they’ve also screwed over the customers. And I, as a pretty loyal customer, should be treated better this way.

When the music industry fully collapses within the next 5 years because of downloading, there will be no pity from this guy. They’ve only brought it on themselves.