Partner of the Month

Last night, I walked in to work and discovered that I was made partner of the month by my coworkers. (I had never heard of this phenomenon until I moved to Cowcity and thought that it may be only my story until ~o posted the story about a balloon. I saw it and thought maybe it was a joke of some sort, but the shift assured me it wasn't and encouraged me to open the card, which contained a gift thingee for Jamba Juice. Yum.

Here's what the sign thing says:

Congratulations to our
Partner of the Month

Josh

Josh your time with us this far has
been amazing. We are son thankful to
have you as part of our team. Your
hard work and dedication to the
company really shines through! Thank
You!

I decide a response was necessary, but instead of just asking, "Why the hell did you pick me? Is it because I'm new? Are you just sick of the other people you've worked with for so long?" I wrote an acceptance speech. Here it is:

A note from Josh written Saturday 28 February 2004

'Tis the season for long winded, insincerely modest, and boring thank you speeches (what with the Oscars tomorrow night). So, I thought I'd do one too. Here we go...

"Oh... My... Goodness! This is SUCH a surprise!

"I'd like to start by giving my thanks to everyone who voted for me. I never thought that sophisticated city folk could be so nice to a silly country boy.

"I'd like to thank The Company for taking a chance on an out-of-work school boy, employing him, and teaching him more about coffee than he ever wanted to know.

"I'd like to thank my first three managers for not firing me, even though I am often annoying and a know-it-all.

"I'd like to thank Annie for personally taking a chance on this wide-eyed stranger who still gets lost driving home from work and school.

"And lastly, I'd like to thank the big man, the father and son, Homer Simpson (seasons two through eight). You are a true inspiration to us all.

"Thank you all and Good Night!"

Annie is my manager, by the way.

Okay, I'm off to work again. Maybe there'll be some reaction. I can only hope.

and it's old and it's over it's over now

It was a good weekend, and a, hopefully, lasting repercussion of it is that my first brother is blogging as Altered Ego, but under one of his comic character's names. Let's hope this lasts everone. He doesn't have comments yet, but we all know that blogging is more fun if there are comments, don't we?

I don't want to go into long winded detail of the weekend because I'm lazy. It was fun. I liked APE a lot. Listened to two panels (one with people who do daily/weekly comic strips and one about self publishing). Met Matt and Stesha's new puppy. Rode in Mom's new car. Had good pizza. Went to Jack London Square. Had lunch with Mojo and Michelle. Saw Otis's work, after visiting the two fake Starbucks in the same shopping center. Played Puerto Rico at Andrew's with Josh and Michelle and (surprise, surprise) Andrew, didn't meet the wife, though. Drove back to Sac in the late afternoon/early evening time. It rained off and on.

The ties-for-the-longest work week ever has come to an end.

Josh is tired and needs to make a phone call or two. Let us hope everything works out in the end.

Oh, and for the ad at the top, Finding Nemo.

Thanks.

Day 10 of the ties-for-the-longest work week ever has come to an end.

That means it's almost over. Tomorrow is the last. I think that toward the end of my shift today my coworkers thought I was a little bit drunk. I was wobbley, giddy, flushed, and talking to myself. Maybe they thought I was spiking my hot chocolate with something. Who knows? Who cares? I'm off this weekend and they can all kiss my ass.

Here are some things that I'd like to do in my life, a short list of goals I suppose, oh and the order isn't how it has to happen, but the most likely way:

• Write a novel.


• Achieve critical success.


• Quit Starbucks.


• Appear on Fresh Air with Terry Gross.


• Be picked as an Oprah Book Club book (or whatever woman takes her place as queen of the talk shows).


• Make lots of money.


• Quit Starbucks.


• Get my Master's and maybe PhD.


• Write the first issue to my Max Kurtz Chronicles comic.


• Get a good artist.


• Quit Starbucks.


• Submit and get accepted by Image Comics (since I don't have the patience for self publishing).


• Publish the first miniseries on time.


• Quit Starbucks.


• Go to a comic book convention as a speaker instead of a paying geek.


• Write and, perhaps, draw my MOONBILL$ comic strip.


• Quit Starbucks

Thats for tonight, more tomorrow then I'm off to the Bay on Saturday.

I wish I didn't have to wait.

Brunching

The Brunching Shuttlecocks keep making me laugh.

Day 9 of the ties-for-the-longest work week ever has come to an end.

And I don't think I was surly, just tired. Very, very tired. I think I'll be asleep before nine tonight. That's how tired I am.

So, I'm sure you've heard, Dean is no longer "actively seeeking" the nomination, but he won't be taking his name off the ballot. I was never sure that I wanted this guy to be the president, and I never actually thought that he could win againt Bush, but I think, considering the Democratic ballot, I would have voted for him in March. Now, I'm not sure. I'm not throwing my vote toward Kerry, I don't like him. He's too slick and polished. Too trickey. And I feel the same way about Edwards. Maybe I'll throw my vote toward Kucinich, even though he won't be getting the nomination. He seems to speak more toward my way of thinking than those other two. Honestly, if I didn't think it was important to vote, I don't think I'd vote for anyone for the nomination. Sure, I'll be voting against Bush during the Presidential election, but at this moment I don't like the Democratic party, and I don't see that changing in the near future.

Oh, and I wonder what that Nihilo thinks about Dean now. I don't know him/her, but with that truebeliverism he/she had, I hope that he/she isn't too upset about his/her candidate dropping the election. Sorry about this Nihilo, I hope you can find another candidate worth putting your energy toward.

Day 8 of the ties-for-the-longest work week ever has come to an end.

Work was okay. I started out tired, and in the end was giddy. The last time I had a work week this long I became very surly on Day 9, hopefully that won't happen tomorrow. Hopefully, I'll be about the same as I was today, it worked out okay. My coworkers didn't seem to care, of course they're paid to care about coffee, not people.

After work, 3PM, I got some crummy Chinese food. It tasted great, probably because I hadn't eaten since 1PM the day before. Sure, I had a hot chocolate at work, but is that really food?

After work I talked to people about the coming weekend, the wheres and the whens and the whos for Saturday. I'm still working on what may happen on Sunday, we'll see. E-mails have been sent. I await your responses. I hope something good can happen.

Day 7 of the ties-for-the-longest work week ever has come to an end.

Work was early, instead of late and I saw The Triplets of Belleville. It was beautiful, fantastic, and bizarre. I recommend it to everyone who has the chance. For those of you in Sonora, watch the Alternative Film Series stuff, it may show up there (and there seems to be some very interesting stuff coming up).

Heels posted an update, and it was at my request, not Slackbastard's. I asked for the update because it's not often you get to read a sentence that ends with "and get woken up at 2:30 in the morning by his screaming, but I love the little fucker" and know that it's actually meant by the person. Heels should write more often, she's way better than she gives herself credit for. As for what I was wearing, smellin' like coffee work clothes. Ahh. Wait. Did you want me to say that I was wearing those lacy underpants I took when I was visiting you guy up North all those years ago. They're baby blue, with white trim, and the name John is in the label. Damn, I guess I'll have to ajust all my fantasies based on those.

And I've heard news that someone may not be going to APE even after making a snarky comment about the attendence of others.

I'll be back tomorrow for another unvigerating trial from the ties-for-the-longest work week ever.

Day 6 of the ties-for-the-longest work week ever has come to an end.

It ended 15 minutes early too, which was good. It started with a customer throwing a cup sleeve and some sugar packets at me because I put the sleeve on his venti cup even though he asked me not to. I told him I had to put it on because it company policy. He told me I did not. I told him that I got in trouble with a district manager once for not doing it. His face turned red. I put his cup on the counter, with a sleeve. He threw the sleeve at me. I caught it. He grabbed several sugar packets and threw them at me then hurried for the door. The rest of the evening was better. At one point I was changing the garbage by the front door and noticed a couple (maybe a year or two younger than me) snogging on the couch. I stared out the window over their heads as I let the airy bag rise out of its can and felt like I was being watched. It was the snogging couple, glaring at me with watery, unfocused eyes in the middle of bright red faces. Apparently they didn't want to be watched, which was why they were in Starbucks tonight. I turned away from them so they could get it on in peace and thought it could be worse. They could be going down on eachother in the bathroom or having sex there and those always makes such messes.

Sleep

The long day has come to an end. It is now time for sleep.

But first:

'Slack Bastard' is on the AP and featured at the SF Gate and the New York Times:

Josh Grahek of Sonora stood upwind at a distance, close enough that the smoke from his cigar still wafted over the anti-tobacco activists. He carried a cardboard sign reading, "You have too much free time."

He was also on the 11 o'clock news, not interviewed, but his sign could be read.

This just keeps getting more and more funny as time goes by (or maybe it's the sleepieness, I don't know).

Work

It's early. I'm working at a store that isn't officially the one I work for. I think I'm filling in for someone. I get to open. I start at 5:15. It ends at noon.

Later tonight, I'm closing at my regular store. I start at 7:45. If we do the work just right (or do a half-assed job) we're supposed to get out at 11:45.

Why did I do this to myself?

I think there will be much napping at about 1 o'clock today.

Horrible Truth

I realized, at work today, that if I had a black friend I'd be worried that I'd say something like: "Did you know that according to the Constitution one fifth of you is a person and property? Isn't that weird?"

Gilmore Girls and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Return

Disclaimer

****I wrote most of this Tuesday night while waiting for Scrubs to come on, so I was in an odd frame of mind forcing myself to sit through Will & Grace, at least Karen made me laugh (Bartlet's Old Secretary: "Get your gun." Karen: "We don't have time for this, use mine.").****

End Disclaimer

I hate Jess.

I hate how he's a James Dean ripoff. I hate the way he has so little to say. I hate the way the little he says is so useless. I hat how I laugh harder at Luke when Jess is around (Luke: "We need to find a solution." Jess: "Birth control was the solution, but, well...").

Most of all, I hate the way he keeps breaking Rory's heart.

Two seasons ago, Jess came into the show to shake things up, to offer an alternative to that dick Tristan and boring Dean, and to put a young person on the show who has an IQ near Rory's, but doesn't have her ambition. He was kinda fun for that romantic tension between Rory and Dean and him (especially since he was compared to Tristan, who was more boring than Dean). As soon as he started dating Rory, though, he was only a jerk because there was no new tension in the show. He ignored her. He didn't do the things that she wanted to do, but always seemed to expect her to do what he wanted. The one thing she asked him to do for her (the Stars Hollow High prom) he didn't do (sure, it's because he flunked out of school, but if he really liked Rory, he would have made sure to go to school long enough to get those tickets). He lied about his job. And he left town without a word. (And then he made pathetic phone calls where he didn't say anything. This is not cute, it's creepy.)

Yes, all of that stuff was very much within character for Jess and that rebel-without-a-cause bullshit, but that doesn't help. I wanted him gone and even though he left in a jerkish manner I was glad he was gone and hoped that his spinoff would run so he'd stay away. I thought he was gone. Gone for good and for the better.

Anyone who watches the show knows he came back last week.

He came back, but fortunately didn't see Rory. I knew that he would appear in this weeks episode. You can't have him in town and not have him fuck with Rory and Luke and all the rest. I liked that he kept running away from Rory. It was like he actually had some remorse for what he did, like he was too embarrassed to face her. At least that's what I thought, but I was wrong, of course. He really screwed it up by telling Rory that he loves her.

He... Loves... Rory...

Then he ran away again. The chicken fucker.

Now Rory's broken again and it looks like she's turning to boring/married Dean for some fixin'. I was hoping he was gone for good too, but no.

So Jess is gone and I hate him more than ever. I hope he's gone for good, but I doubt it, not with the ending the show had the other night. I don't care if there are some people out there who are convinced that Jess just need the right girl to change him and now that he's admitted his love for Rory maybe she'll do it. To those of you who believe that I say stop smoking dope and get a view of real life. He won't change. He'll always be a selfish bastard (literally and figuratively).

The show is, over all, still very enjoyable, though.

Here's to hoping Doyle and Rory will go out on a date that will go horribly wrong.

Test!

I'm a Vampire, discover your ALcoHoLiC personality!

ICQ

Well, I've rejoined the ICQ community and could only find one of you people. My number is 4166098, what's yours? Is everyone using some other instant messaging system?

Critic

I remember, when I was living in Davis, getting to watch new episodes of The Critic, and I've found them again! Hooray! Now, if only I could scrape together the cash to buy the DVDs of this show.

Bits

I'm seriously considering getting a BitPass. I'll admit that it's mostly so I can read Scott McCloud's The Right Number, but there's more. There are more comics that require a BitPass and some animation/films, that I'm extremely interested in. I remember Scott Kurtz praising The Makeshift Miracle and it's only $.99 for 172 pages.

Maybe I could find all of these things for free, but there seems to be a good reason to pay these people. I want to support their work and prove that this micropayment thing can be useful, but I don't know.

So, what do you think about me getting a BitPass? Is it a good or bad idea?

Comments Back

New comments up. I hope they stick around longer.

Bush On Your Ass

I think I'd be too afraid to use this stuff, but the image sure is funny.

List 'o Movies

I want to go to the movies. I really do, but there doesn't seem to be much goodness out there. So, here's a list of the movies I want to see that either aren't out yet, or haven't been to this cowcity.

The Triplets of Belleville. Otis has seen it, and I'm jealous.

King Arthur. I'll admit that the movie looks hokey, but I'm a huge fan of the mythology of Arthur. Besides, it has to be better than First Knight, right? However, if you want good, probable versions of the legends read The Mists of Avalon. It was a good book, but a mediocre movie.

Kill Bill vol. 2. Never much liked a Tarantino film until vol. 1. Hope to enjoy this one as well, even if Lucy Liu is dead.

The Passion of Christ. Even though they put the nails through his palms, I'm very curious about how this movie will play out.

Jersey Girl. I'm a sucker for anything by Kevin Smith.

The Incredibles. Pixar's worst film was A Bug's Life, and that was a good film. Plus, this one's about superheroes.

Shrek 2. I wasn't sure about this one until I saw the trailer, now I'm ready for it. And Eddie Murphy's Donkey is always brilliant.

The SpongeBob Squarepants Movie. I'm a sucker, okay?

Spider-Man 2. See the entry above.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. It's the best book of the bunch. I've read it five times and listened to the unabridged cassettes eight. I have great hopes for this film, even with a new Dumbledore. Oh, and I still think that the main theme to these films is the best work John Williams has ever done (although the opening theme to Catch Me If You Can comes close).

The Polar Express. I love the book and hope that the movie is just as magical.

The Ladykillers. Who can possibly pass up a new Coen brothers' movie?

Troy. This is sort of like the second entry because I want to see it because I love the mythology that inspired the movie. I've read the entire The Illiad once, but have read about the war with Troy in several different ways. Even thought I prefer The Odyssey, I want to see how this legend is brought to the screen.