This post shall be two parts complaining and two parts fangirling.

Complaints? I am still out of work. I just remembered that to get holiday pay, you have to work your last scheduled day before the holiday - therefore meaning that even if they let me work Thursday, I'm getting no holiday pay.

On top of that, my foot still looks like this:



Crappy lighting is crappy. But as you can tell, it's still a little swollen and a lot bruised. Despite this, it is getting easier to walk on. I will bug them to let me work until it happens, because I know I can at least fo light stuff now.

Anyways, now that complaing is out of the way- Turtles Forever? BEST. TMNT THING. IN SOOOO LONG. I am such a happy fangirl right now. Hun was so excellent that I wasn't quite as sad as I should've been about no Bishop or Stockman. The Shredders were awesome - that said, I am so pleased that they gave us the badass NT!Shredder instead of the wannabes that kept showing up in the last few seasons. I forgot just how epic of a villain he was.

The way the turtles interacted with one another was perfect, and I loved how the NT characters reacted to their other selves. LEO. Oh, he looked so lost. XD. And Mikey slowly losing his patience with them was wonderful, too.

Mirage!turtles animated, by the way? Yes, that was made of several shades of win.

This was so freaking amazing. There will be icons, people. So many. I'm probably even making those quotes ones, because I spent an entire day doing that. XD

Oh hey life. Have you decided to make me your pinata again?

Finger still wounded. Finally stopped bleeding at least. Got the window fixed for free because my maintenance guy says I'm a good kid, so it was no trouble. Just when I think it might not be so bad?

I fall down on the way to work. And limped the rest of the way there.

I'm not entirely sure why I didn't just go home. How I expected to work when I couldn't even make it to the time clock without having twenty people ask why I was in obvious pain is beyond me, but I tried. Was told to go home, but not before the store manager bought me some bandages. And then I spent the rest of the day sulking because yeah, I really need to be working right now. I have sixty dollars until Thursday, and even then my paycheck would've just barely covered the bills. Since they told me I couldn't work today either, the whole damn paycheck will be going to those now. Hell, if they won't let me come back soon, I'm just not going to have enough money at all.

And this is where I wonder how my stepdad always manages to be right about these things. He told me not to buy a new laptop in case something were to happen. Before I did, I was even like 'Yeah, he's probably right'. But some stupid part of my brain said life couldn't possibly be that bitchy to me, right? Plus I needed a functioning computer to pay bills.

Gah. Not sure what I'm going to do here. The ankle doesn't seem much better, though the swelling's gone down. But I need to work. I don't care what they say about making sure I don't injure it more - if I don't get paid, it's not going to matter much. I'm so freaking stressed right now. Thank God for the Internet. I know it's a crutch, but I think I'd go insane if I didn't have something to distract me.

...I felt so bad today when I went down there, too. They had two trucks, and only three people working. I know even if they let me work, it might be a while before I can get back to the backroom. But still! I'm sure I could help them somehow. Get me a wheelchair- I can do picks! I can sit to do break packs (as long as their not mean and stack them too high)! Hell, I'm desperate here. Need a people greeter? Or I can shed paperwork!

I just need to work, dammit.

So I has a new laptop. This is my third in two years- man, I'm setting an awful track record thus far, yeah?

Since everyone kept yelling about how awful HP is, I picked up a Toshiba. I like it for the most part- it is running nicely, and I can view things properly again. But with every new computer comes the part I hate- customizing the screen to look just how I want it to. Because every computer just has to be so damn different, yet they always seem to come with default settings designed to piss me off. >.<

I've fixed most of it by now, but there's just one part I can't seem to figure out. And I'm not sure whether it lies with Toshiba or just Windows 7. But the screen resolution? Yeah. It sucks. No matter what changes I make to it, everything I view looks a little squished. I've trained myself to cope with it, but there's one site that it's so much more glaringly obvious in that I can't. This site would of course be livejournal. Or more specifically- the icons on livejournal.

Remember what I said about squished? This is exactly what happens to a 100x100 pixel icon. Instead of looking like a square, it's rectangular. Not drastically so, but it's obvious it's a littler taller than it is wide. As an iconmaker, I find this nightmarish. This messes with the whole damn presentation in my eyes- and while it may come out the right size to anyone else who sees it on the Internet, it effects the way I make it. Cropping is also going to take a lot of guesswork now.

So does anyone know how to fix this? I've changed about every display option I've seen, and I'm barely making an impact. At this rate I'm wondering if I should've just sent the other laptop to be fixed after all (say what you will about HP, so far that one was my favorite). I could've borrowed the old one back from my parents in the mean time.

Eh. Maybe I'll do that when I have the money to afford it. And it can't hurt having a spare, can it?

Anyways, must get ready for work. Youtube Friday, guys! You know those silly iPod commercials? Well here's one that doesn't suck. Shocking, yes?

I can't begin to describe how much I hate today. Work was more awful than I expected- customers would not leave me alone and things kept on breaking. Not even kidding. I cleaned up salsa and before I could finish there, someone broke a bottle of wine fifteen feet away from me.

My pants ripped so I went home to get my only other pair. Ten minutes before it was time to go home, I was picking paint out of a bin and one of the buckets fell and hit me in the back of my neck on its way down (still hurts- kinda sucks). It broke and splattered all over the back of my pants (once again, last pair).

You'd think it'd be safe once I got home, but apparently this too was not to be. As I was getting ready for bed, I accidentally knocked over my laptop and now the screen is all messed up. I talked with a tech support guy for about two hours- he was very nice (spelling could use some work, though) and we eventually determined that it was in fact the hardware that was damaged. It would cost about $400 to fix it.

(head desk) That's money I should be saving. I'm only just now managing to save again and the thought of having to blow it so quickly frustrates me. But dealing with this for too much longer simply isn't an option- it's very difficult to view some sites including the billing ones, and seeing as none besides the water bill can be paid off the web, a new computer is required.

But... dammit. I need to save. Knowing my luck, some large catastrophe will happen to me right after I buy a new one and I won't have enough money left to take care of myself.

(too stressed) (must not think) Screw this. I'm having a drink and then I'm going to bed.

I never know whether to love or to hate my job. I think it's as bipolar as I am. Dammit, I'm so sore... again I state that they need to fix the scheduling. I am not fond of getting 2000+ piece trucks with only four people to unload them. As a matter of fact, I find it pretty annoying.

Mind you, not quite as annoying as learning that next year I'm going to be forking over twice the amount of money for insurance with half of the coverage. Nah, that's a little different. Still annoying though.

-

Moving on, it looks like I may be getting involved with the next TMNT Fanfiction Competition again. I'm not in much of a state to actually run it this year- besides real life stress, some stuff has gone on this year that has me half out of the fandom door as is. But I've rather enjoyed working on it in the past three years, so I have no problems being a staff member. Now if we could just determine who's actually the host.

(dizzy) I haven't logged onto Stealthy Stories in forever. Things are already getting... fun.

-

Bah. This kinda sucks. (gestures towards life in general) Definitely a booze night. 'Cept I have no real booze, 'cause despite what I may say, I really am still a fetus in that they won't let me buy it myself yet. I do however have Mike's Hard Lemonade. I'm told it doesn't really count, but it has alcohol in it, okay? I pretend it counts. XD

I think someone needs to teach our new manager how to effectively schedule people. >.<

This week is going to be the first really good example of it, and maybe it'll motivate him some. Kathy has been put on a leave of absence, much to my absolute glee. I could dance! Yay!

However... Jackie is going to be leaving us after tomorrow. She wasn't with us for long at all, but out of that old lady group, she was probably the best worker. And may I mention one of the few besides me who works on Sunday and Monday. DAMMIT.

Next, they messed with James' schedule for the week, for some reason. So he's probably not going to be there on Sunday.

Squire is grocery two days out of the week. As you may have guessed, this is also on Sunday and Monday.

So in a nutshell, if everyone shows up for work as they're supposed to on those two days, at most we're going to have four people. Not impressed here, Mr Manager. Especially seeing as you scheduled eight people for last night and you're making me work on Tuesday, thus giving us nine people for that truck. What the hell.

Moving on to happier things- yay One Piece! Mihawk, it's been so long but you're still so awesome.

And now it's time for Youtube Friday!

I love this song. Why do so many songs fit One Piece so well? Fate, I tell you. Fate demands that people make as many awesome AMVs about it as possible, so that we may watch them. :D

Damn, am I bored. As much as I hate having to work (ASDFGHJKL; KATHY GO DIE ALREADY. Yes, she did it AGAIN. Yes, I want to kill her >.<), at least it forces me to do something.

Whereas on my days off... I don't really do anything at all. Can't really afford to do anything interesting most of the time. And even though I'm always thinking about cleaning most of the time, procrastination is sewn right into my genes, so it never happens. I haven't done the dishes in months. Yes, I'm aware of how disgusting that is.

So... yeah. Instead, I kinda just... do nothing. It's very relaxing, doing nothing, even if it leaves me feeling very unfulfilled at the end of the day.

Anyone wanna see what I did instead? >.>

I was so sure I had discussed this elsewhere, but do to the reaction seen by some who know me in whiteadelphi's post about it, it seems that I did not. In case you haven't seen it, in a recent issue of Tales of the TMNT (by the angelic savior of TMNT comics that is Tristan Jones), Leo is seen reading One Piece.

You heard me. I know have canon proof of two of my fandoms existing in one space. Hyesssss.

What really makes me laugh is that it's Leo reading it (heehee- and as he got the comic from Mike, both of them are fans XD). I know I'm not the only person who now wants to see him trying to use Santoryuu. XD

Anyways. Seeing that issue brought up again reminded me that I was going to icon it. But dammit, it was much harder than I expected. When I color, I rely heavily on the magic wand tool, which was impossible to do with this page. As it's pure black and white and absolutely not gray, magic wand couldn't tell the difference between what I wanted to select and the rest of the image. So for the majority of it, I had to go in and select in the hard way. >.<

It took five hours to color Leo alone. I gave up after that and went ahead and made the icon (points to userpic). BUT... the problem with icons is that you lose so much of the detail when it comes down to resizing them. And after all that coloring, I used less than a tenth of the picture. ;_;

Therefore, I've slowly worked on coloring the background too. Got a little more sloppy with that, but I am pleased now. And here's the final coloring. ^_^;



And now that that's said and done... I suppose I should go and try to do some chores. >.<; Gah- I am so unmotivated to do so. It's state would by now have bothered most people to be utterly disgusted, but it's only now kinda getting to me. As I stay in my room most of the time (and I don't care that that's a mess XD), I usually don't have to see the rest of the place. So it's out of sight, out of mind, etc. But then also... I have no sense of smell. I'm SURE that something should smell by now. I was surprised to learn from my stepdad that even mold has a smell. Does that mean that water that's been sitting in the sink for weeks does too? Or what about the stuff on the floor?

Smells aside (they confuse me so ;_:), I do want to someday have a presentable home. If I ever make some physical-will-actually-want-to-come-over-to-your-house friends, I would like my place to not make them gag. And since I can't afford a maid, I need to do it myself.

...Can this last for longer than a week or two? (crosses fingers)

P.S. Nickelodeon bought TMNT? Score. Despite what some of the other members of fandoms are thinking, this is probably a good thing. Nick is actually very good to their more serious shows. Pi is pleased. :D

Last night Kathy made work a living hell. It was so bad that I was finally driven to seriously complain about her to management, but I couldn't even articulate properly. Just... RAGE. The woman needs to be fired.

( Rant, rant, rant )

(deep breath) Still kinda angry. But HA. She's not here tonight. ^_^

Ah, Youtube Friday time. Seizure warning on this one, people. But it's very pretty. :D

Okay, so remember how I mentioned that I seemed to be getting sick again but that was okay because I was used to the illnesses and would be taking precautionary measures?

THE WORLD IS CONSPIRING AGAINST ME.

The temperature drop in my town was really sudden. Last week it was still in the high seventies and now we're in the low fifties. Which you know, is just great when you forgot your jacket at your mother's and can't get it back until Tuesday. Which is also the icing on the cake when it's been raining for two days straight.

But no big, I thought. I get rides to work, and usually one of my co-workers is nice enough to give me a lift home. And my work is all indoors, so I figured I'd be fine.

Yesterday we had no truck. When they called everyone in the store to go do a cart run, we decided we could go do a few things to help. We didn't stay long, of course, because it was still raining and we had to go inside to take our break. Despite that, we were the only ones who did go out there in the first place, while everyone else chose to ignore the page.

The minute we got back from break, they called specifically for the ICS to go do a cart run. GAH, that pisses me off so much! We'd be happy to go, just don't make it sound like we're not doing anything! 

Er, and scratch out happy. No coat, remember? I love the rain, but despite that I won't willingly stay out in it for nearly two hours (at night, mind you) when it's getting cold outside.

I declare these new managers are retards. What part of 'I just got over pneumonia' translates to 'I'm totally fit to go outside without my jacket and do hard labor for you!' >.<

Grr... well after I was already pretty soaked, I got to borrow a rain slicker. Unfortunately, it did nothing for my head or my feet. By the time we got back inside I looked like I'd just taken a shower. As for my feet, my shoes have holes in them so my shoes and socks were puddles. When it finally got around to lunch time, I actually had to buy new socks. I spent nearly all of lunch sitting in the break room with my shoes off, as they felt so much better.

So anyways, by the end of the night I was already starting to cough again. My voice is hoarse this morning (will probably be getting laryngitis after all) and to top it all off, I threw up. And we have a nice big truck today with barely anyone to unload it.

If I get sick enough that I can't work again, I'm demanding paid days off this time.

So I thought my coughing and other various symptoms were going away. The past three days or so had nothing more serious than a runny nose and easy bruising (which is still weirding me out... what the hell did I do to my hand?). I haven't been as sore, and I've been able to work hard enough to help get the job done. Which is saying something, since on Saturday three people called in leaving just me and Aaron at one point.

When I was still coughing, Glenn (the guy who used to be ICS but left us for electronics) was convinced that I had swine flu instead of bronchitis. He wouldn't take any frieght I brought to him, just in case. As annoying as that was, it did make me consider it. Not that I think I have swine flu at all, because the possibility seems rather out there to me. But until then I didn't even know swine flu was still a big deal. I get my news these days from magazines left in the break room, and hadn't read anything about it for a while. A quick Internet search revealed though that apparently it is still an issue, and there are even some cases in Idaho now.

I still wouldn't care, but I do work in a grocery store. Specifically in the place where nearly everything we sell has been through before being put onto the shelves. I must touch at least half of the freight, and I also work a lot with the equipment that the rest of the associates who work out on the floor also use. So I fugured maybe it would only be responsible of me to go and see, just in case.

...And then I stopped being so sick and went for a badly needed grocery run. So bad, in fact, that it cost me over a hundred dollars, which is the most I've spent in one shot on them for a year. My fridge has never looked so full, but my bank account is depressingly more echoey now.
That said, I feared how much worse it might appear if I went to see a doctor. And it didn't seem worth it now that I was feeling better.

Naturally, now I'm coughing again. Oh body, how I hate you.

As much as I love making them, icons are frustating work guys. Yesterday I spent six hours coloring one image. Blood is, by the way, more difficult than you'd think to color properly when there is an excess of it. I spent another two hours today working on that alone, sending the image to Angel (who really needs to get an LJ) for approval.

Once we'd both determine that it was in fact good enough to be iconned, I ended up cropping out two thirds of it all. Including said bloody area which I'd spent said two hours perfecting. WHAT THE HELL.

Adding the finishing touches is taking longer than I planned. The text doesn't want to work with me. >.<

Anyways. I guess it's something to pass the time. I'm still coughing up a lung, much to my irritation. I do all right until I have to work, naturally. But it gets kinda annoying when management, hell-bent on this new system, insists that if we don't have things done by a certain time there will be serious consequences.

...I don't think they realize just how dangerous our job was to begin with. I don't care if other stores have less people and somehow are able to get the job done faster- I'm sure there are other variables thrown in there that work to their favor that we don't have. Besides maybe the cart pushers, our job is the most physically demanding. I've seen other associates freak out when we lift things like grills or bookshelves by ourselves. They're supposed to get assistance with those items, whereas if you can't do that by yourself in the back room quickly, you're a waste of space.

I guess I just don't understand what they're expecting of us. And a part of me thinks it's really unfair that we're treated this way. I mean, on Monday the garden center guy (James) was made officially ICS. His first day back there, we got told that if we weren't done with the truck at the time given that we would all be coached. It makes my brain hurt. They keep this up, and people are going to quit. I think I'm currently the only one there who actually needs this job.

RARGH. On the plus side though, some people are understanding. I've decided I need to get sick more often (Just not for so long- COUGH. Go away NOW), if I get this much special treatment. My first day back I felt like shit and was told I looked as much. Everyone but me had hours of overtime they needed to kill and when they were told to do so at lunch, Aaron basically told them they could shove that idea where the sun don't shine, seeing as that would leave me to pull the entire backroom by myself for two hours.

When I noticed that the four hours I'd requested off for a wedding were in the second half of my sift instead of the first, I asked a support manager (the awesome one, not the asshole) if he could change it for me. He gave me the whole day off because he said I looked like I needed it (te wedding was nice, by the way).

Donald bought me some more Mike's Hard Lemonade without me even bothering to ask.

Billy stopped by my house to give me a ride to work on Friday even though he's out of work for the week.

And astonishingly, Kathy, of all people, offered to give me a ride home two days in a row. The world is... a very strange place.

So in the mean time, I sleep. And hope my cough goes away soon because otherwise I may actually have to see a doctor. My wallet will be very displeased with me if this occurs.

...I'm attempting self-medication with reading lots of fanfic, but this has backfired. I found out earlier that fantasyfan17updated her One Piece/Naruto crossover (FF.net has nearly fifty of these... and hers is pretty much the only good one) yet again and have been dying of laughter.

Because I totally need to pimp out more fic to people, I may as well start with this one. The first chapter actually features Zoro and Shikamaru- and I didn't even suggest the idea. As a matter of fact, I didn't even know she was writing the thing until an hour or so before she posted the first chapter. On top of that, I don't even think she knew I'm a Shikamaru fan. Which made it both a surprise and amazingly perfect. (gushes)

The second chapter has too much win for words. Franky and Rock Lee. I die. XD

And this latest chapter I actually did suggest, but she did it wonderfully. Ah, it's a very good thing these characters will probably never actually meet. Because Nami would so do this.

Daniiiiiii! Have I told you how awesome you are lately? :3

While I was using my old laptop to find information to help me fix the new one, it died on me. I was highly frustrated, as I've never gotten around to backing that one up, and it's the one with all my music and TMNT episodes on it. Maybe if I fiddle around with it some more I can get it into safe mode and save some of it...

As for this laptop, yes it is working again. I gathered enough information to figure out how to restore it to factory settings, so now it's at least running again. However, now I have to get all of the other programs I had installed once more, which is of course a pain. The bigger pain though is the appearance- I remember when I first got this laptop, I didn't really like the original screen resolution and had toggled around with it until I got one I approved of. I must have pulled some other trick to get that though, because none of my other attempts are producing the result I want. Plus text looks really weird everywhere I go- way too small. Even when I change the DPI.

Ah well. At least I can use it again.

Huge truck last night. We practically killed ourselves only to be told 'Good job, now learn how to do it like this with two less people'. >.<

But we did do a good job. As big as it was, it's a miracle we were done before eight. After a little complaining from me, I even got two extra hands to help me do break packs (which now have to be done after the rest of the truck much to my irritation). Billy and Gary pulled pallets while Patrick, Aaron, and I sorted.

Oh yeah, did I mention Gary? He's an older guy that used to work grocery. He started working our shift a few weeks ago, but in a separate department. Sometimes he would help us, and he's a good worker.

Yesterday he was notified upon coming in to the store that he's no longer grocery and is now ICS.

...Yeah. Much as I appreciate the help? I'm not okay with that. One day he was grocery, the next he's unloading trucks. WTF, management?

Oh, who wants to hear some other exciting news? Corporate has eliminated the need for an ICS Lead on our shift. 'Cause you know... we're totally organized without one. >.< Instead, the assistant manager over us will function as a lead, despite the fact that he'll have a million other things to do and won't be in the backroom as much as a lead should be. The rest of us just kinda differ to each other...

Translated, unless some schedule changes take place, there will be no relief for me on Sundays and Mondays. (cries)

Despite all the suck, there have been some improvements. The assistant manager still irritates me in what he thinks is feasible at this point and what I call reality (he and Patrick refer to this as pessimism, but everyone else seems to agree with me). Nevertheless... we did things his way last night and we did get more done. I got to picks after break, which hasn't happened in two weeks, even. I think this also has a lot to do with people though- four of us know how to hustle and we were all there on the same day. Come Monday, you switch three of those people out with three who will not bust their asses and we have a whole different story.

Nevertheless, I'm being respectful and giving it a shot. He proved me wrong last night, after all. Plus it's only fair after he listened to me. That's another thing I like about him- the first time we did this was epic failure and I wrote out a long list of the flaws of it and some suggestions I had that might make it work better. To my surprise he agreed with all but one of them and put them in effect last night. Yayness. ^_^

...But like I said. Worn out. Twice the work does mean twice the effort, and I don't think he gets how taxing the original format of our job was on us to begin with. I thought I was getting over my being sick but noooo, I was sure proved wrong. Stupid coughing.

There are times I wish one could just quit being [insert personality flaw here] like one quits an addiction. While I imagine people can change things about them for the better though, I don't think they can actually just stop being that was all together...

Alas. Quite sucky. In the mean time, I must learn to get over it and keep it from effecting any other activities, like work, etc. Our new manager both irritates and pleases me, but I'm hoping this will change once he's been here longer. The new system is going to take getting used to. It would work better with more people. I really, really want there to be more people again. I recall a time when there were fewer than there is now, but I also remember that back then not as much was expected of us. Translation: this is the worst that it's been back there so far, in my opinion. Everyone with good leadership qualities is gone, so there's no order or anything. And we're worn out every night. The other day my jeans had rubbed my skin so raw that I was bleeding a little.

On that subject, my body seems to hate me. Tonight I found six new bruises on my left leg, two on my right, and one on an elbow. WHAT THE HELL BODY. I don't even remember hurting myself in any of those places.

Rargh. Moving on to cheerier things.

I seem to have finally abandoned most of my TMNT writing endeavors, much to my shame. I do still plan on finishing Cork... someday. But at the moment, I've started a lot of One Piece projects, as well as dabble in Avatar fic if a prompt so inspires me at avatar_contest.

I'm iconning just about all of my fandoms though. I should have a multi-fandom post sometime in the future, though I can't guarantee when. I tend to take hours on some icons, such as the one I made for op_ic (a One Piece icontest) this week. Coloring manga is a lot of fun, but making a really good one requires much patience. And naturally I was stupid and tried to color an image of Brook facing away from the viewer. Basically I had no guidelines except for certain parts of his body.

...Though he has no body, being all bones. SKULL JOKE. XD

...Yes, I'm aware that maybe three people on my f-list get that joke/know what I'm talking about. And that they're all rolling their eyes at the stupid skull joke while the rest WTF. Sorry. >.>;

But yeah. Icons! Said Brook icon won the Mod's Choice this time around, and I am blushing like a fool because of it. I'm not showing it off at the moment because I'm making corrections on it right now (which I didn't even notice until looking at it again), but if anyone's curious just go to op_ic and take a peek.

And since I'm still wanting to get some more coloring experience in, if anyone reading this has a scene from either the One Piece or Naruto manga they would like to see colored and iconned, say the word. :D

Today's truck was less than a 100o pieces and we had help. Feet, you aren't allowed to hurt me as much as you are over something like that. Save it for tomorrow with it's 2600 piece truck, okay?

...Seriously. How hard can it be to split a truck up? They could've put about six hundred pieces onto today's truck to even out tomorrow's load, you know?

Ah well. At least today was easy, though it seems we're permanently down to six ICS team members. I guess Paul returned while I was gone only to get hurt again. They have him people greeting right now (I'm surprised he hasn't killed any customers yet, actually), but it's very unlikely he'll be returning to us. ;_;

Better yet, Billy's officially on his new three-days-a-week schedule. He's told management that if they make him lead, he'll be able to quit his other job and work full time here, but they seem fairly content with just having him in charge without the actual title.

To get to the point- this means that unless this changes, I am permanently in charge of our team on Sundays and Wednesdays. ...Yay responsibility? What am I saying- responsibility freaking sucks when you can't get anything done. >.<

Er, despite my complaining, again I state that today was a good day. Because inventory happened a few days ago, picks have been really high, so the lady who works in softlines (I usually do her picks) was estatic to see me- so much so that she even hugged me. The assistant manager was also happy to see me back and called me the 'Pick All-Star' in front of several people.

I should not beam like an idiot for being the best at a relatively simple task. It's basically a combination of a treasure hunt and matching game, only a level up. Once you learn how to work the devices we use and get used to how the bins work, it's really easy.

Heheh... okay. So perhaps I make it an art form. (let's praise go to head)

Topic change ahoy!

I come home from work to find my net problem has worsened. This is irritating because the past few days it was actually getting better. Now, however, I am having a lot of difficulty simply opening Internet Explorer. It took me thirty minutes this time!

I did start running a full scan on my computer courtesy of Microsoft, but it's taking a really long time. I'm at fifteen percent and it's been running for three hours. I was thinking about leaving my computer on to let it finish, but I don't know what good it will do. I searched a little more and wound up stumbling upon a forum where a guy has what appears to be the exact same problem. The only difference I can see actually is that he has XP and I have Vista.

Thing is, he's an IT guy. And the person trying to help him seems to really know their computer stuff. Therefore the following conversation they have makes no sense whatsoever to me. Worse yet, despite all of this the problem doesn't seem to have been resolved yet either.

I think someone should make a magic fix everything button.

Gah. This whole last week has just sucked. Even when something good would happen, it sucked.

Friday: Sup. You no longer have any money whatsoever besides the ten dollars in your wallet. And there ain't nothing you can do about it until the bank opens.

Pi: ;_;

Once the bank did open, I went right down there. For the millionth time I must insist on just how much I love my bank. They had already suspected it was a fradulent charge (hence why they'd tried to call me), so all they'd needed to confirm it was me coming in looking like I was about ready to have a nervous breakdown.

They had me fill out a dispute form and explained everything that would happen. The dispute form would go to the higher up people who would look into the matter. While doing so, my money is temporarily creditted back into my account until they can officially solve the matter. I was told it shouldn't take much longer than one business day or two.

They're also not sure yet if this is actually identity theft or not. I have been warned though to be aware of the possibility.

After handing over my debit card, I went home to sleep. I think I got a half an hour before work.

Upon arriving at work, I was greeted with a tiny one thousand piece truck. Truly a rare thing, you see. We had six people, and for some odd reason, got two other people to help out.

Paul: I get a feeling of impending doom.
Pi: I concur.
Patrick: Wow, you guys are really gloomy. I think this is going to be a great day!
Pi and Paul: We laugh at your optimism.

Halfway through unloading, a grocery truck arrived. Lots of water bottles. Usually when we get water bottles, they come in packages of 12-24 bottles and are wrapped. On top of that, the pallets are wrapped (water pallets can be unstable). These ones came in packs of six, with flimsy trays and no wrapping. One pallet wasn't even shrink wrapped, and on top of that, a heavy pallet of food had been stacked on top.

Paul pulled this pallet off of the truck. As he went over the ramp, the entire thing came down. Paul just barely got out of the way and had I been two feet closer, I would've been smashed by the top pallet. Water went everywhere and despite getting out of the way, Paul still managed to get hurt (we've been told he sprained a tendon or something) and had to go home. He hasn't been back to work since.

Saturday: Yo. Today ain't gonna be much better kid. Turns out there's a lot of disputes going through the system. Your bank alone has two other similar cases. So I'm afraid it's going to be another day without money.

Pi: >.<

There was, thankfully, no truck that day. And Billy bought me M&M's for break and the lady at Subway practically gave me a free meal (I promised to pay up when I had money again, but technically until that point it really was free).

And it still managed to suck. We were given a million things to do and seeing as how there were just five of us (and with Patrick kinda being useless and Donald new, only really three people used to these tasks), it was a long day.

Since Paul was gone, Billy was in charge. He thankfully gave me my favorite of the three tasks (stocking pop and water), but that took me about four hours because that aisle was such a damn mess.

On top of that, the night shift managers didn't give us much respect. They don't like Billy much, so it was a bit of a fight the whole time. I was very happy to go home.

Also- learned that Patrick's roommate (who is very nice) lost about six hundred dollars from his bank account to weight loss drugs that he never paid for. Different banks.

Sunday: Guess what? I don't really count as a business day, so you're still broke. Also? Truck today is 2400 pieces, and you lost all of your hardworking people either to days off, cut hours, or injury. Enjoy.

Pi: T_T

...As said. Only people working that day were Jen, Patrick, Kathy (GRR), Donald, and me. The truck did not get done for a long time. Towards the end, Kathy would go inside the truck to help Patrick throw without permission and without telling anyone, leaving lots of the items she was supposed to take care of filling the line before anyone noticed.

We were all quite tired that night. I used my last two dollars buying myself ramen noodles and goldfish crackers for lunch. But Donald bought me Mike's Hard Lemonade when we got off work, so it was slightly better.

Speaking of Donald? Three hundred dollars vanished from his bank account. He goes to a different bank than me.

Monday: By some stroke of luck, money has been creditted to your account. Jen said last night that there isn't supposed to be a truck tonight either, but don't worry- we'll make sure the shit hits the fan.

Pi: O_o;

Billy gave me a ride to work. He'd just gone to his bank and found a thousand dollars missing.

As you might have guessed, we were beginning to find this very odd. So far all of the people I'm hearing these stories from work at Wal*Mart (Patrick's roommate is a cart pusher). We tried to think of something that had changed recently and thought of something interesting.

You might recall the incident in which Billy could not clock in without his badge because management can't seem to do that anymore. Recently, we all had to make new badges for some reason or another. We're not even allowed to make duplicates if we lose one (and getting them to help make another is a pain in the ass).

Here's the thing about our badges. They each have their own little barcode used for when we swipe in that tells the system that we are (insert name) and that we're reporting for duty at (insert department). One of the other little pieces of information these badges have and which the bar codes directly reflect are our social security numbers.

I... am sensing a connection. But I really hope I'm wrong.

Anyways. We get to work. Billy's new schedule of only working three days a week takes effect now and thus he is sent home. No Paul. And Jen had to take her husband to the doctor.

Just as the four ICS crew members that remain are about to start some little tasks, we discover that tomorrow's truck showed up a day early. And management thought it'd be just dandy if we did it a day ahead of time.

Management: Yes yes- 1800 pieces? Four people? Why, that shouldn't be a problem.
Pi: ...You just sent Billy home. Besides being the strong guy, he's also the only other back-up lead we have.
Management: Really? Well, let's see who's left. My, it seems that by this group, you're next in line as far as hierarchy goes!
Pi: ...I am?
Management: Yup. Here's a walkie. You're in charge.
Pi: O_O;

Yeah. It didn't get done on time either. But really, it shouldn't have been expected. My team consisted of a very slow and often confused Patrick, a very hard to work with and equally slow Kathy, and a super fast but still kinda new Donald. And me. At best I am mediocre, so when I'm the most able person on the crew, you know you have problems.

We did manage to get out of there before nine though, so I take comfort in that.

Kathy made my night a living hell though. She refuses to accept the fact that anyone other than Paul or Jen be placed in charge over her, so she naturally did the exact opposite of everything I asked. And if we were in agreement over her doing something, she took every opportunity to let me know she would've done it even if I had told her not to.

When it came time to do picks, I told her I'd do crafts once I got a cart. Came back with one and was informed that she was going to do them.

By this point, I was fairly pissed off and nearly bit her head off when I told her to do another department. She in turn acted like a petulant child and told me I wasn't the boss.

Pi: Woman, for tonight you are to treat me as if I am.
Kathy: Ha. You aren't a bright one.
Pi: Know what? Go ahead. But if you do crafts, you're doing stationery too.
Kathy: I will no-
Pi: (gets on walkie) Assistant Manager? I got my team on picks now. Donald's doing chemicals, Kathy has stationery and crafts, and I'm doing hardware.
Kathy: ...that's not fair.
Pi: Suck it.

I was pretty damn proud to have gotten the upper hand in that one. That woman is over fifty and makes me feel like I'm dealing with a five-year-old. In all honesty, I was about ready to physically strike her. I have a very short temper, and when people I respect aren't around to stabilize my personality, I have an even shorter fuse. That there was my last ditch effort.

Heheh... I also didn't tell her when we were leaving. Oh well. I know she got the message.

...I have a vivid imaginiation and inclinations towards violent thought. Pumpkin time needs to come sooner on nights like that.

And that was the sucky week. It was accompanied by a fairly bland weekend, in which the icing was put on the suckitude cake when my paid account expired. Gah. I was hoping to have my new debit card in time to buy another year. You get so used to a paid account, you know? The ads are back and everything now. ;_;

Ugh. Some new (and cheap!) Deadpool comics have showed up. I have bills due. And I can't freaking do anything until I get my new debit card to pay for them all. >.<

I don't wanna go to work in the morning... ;_;

.

It would seem the word is determined to be a living hell for me this week.

( Work related bullshit )

( Significantly more important identity theft related bullshit )
(deep breaths)

Oh yeah, it's Youtube Friday. Here's a neat One Piece AMV with the Supernovas. The person seems to have just made this for fun, but I really enjoyed it. Cuts off kinda suddenly and there's a small mistake with Zoro's bounty, but other than that it's all good. (goes to find the song used

The living room is clear of all objects. Everything tiny has been vaccuumed up. The garbage is out and dishes are soaking in the sink for me to watch.

It is now nearly half past the hour, and still no carpet cleaners.

If they don't show up before my mom comes to get me, I am going to be pissed.

EDIT: Quarter 'til, but he's here now. Yay for the house finally getting clean!

I seem only capable of babbling lately. (facepalm)

Quick love for the new One Piece chapter: ASDFGHJKL; Oda has this insane ability to make each and every one of his characters memorable and wonderful. The villains that I hate I love. So naturally, the already proven awesomeness of a certain secondary character had to be doubled.

Now I just have to remind myself that no one dies in One Piece. 'Cause they don't. Theydon'ttheydon'ttheydon't.

Ahem. Anyways.

Passed my driving test. Translation? I get to sleep again as of next week! Oh yes, I love this. :3

Considering that currently my sleep schedule is very whacked. Er, as in for me- not you sleep-when-the-sun-is-down people. Like yesterday, I didn't wake up until 9:30 PM. SHEESH. Even when I sleep in, it's usually only until five or six! 

Made it very hard for me to get any rest last night. Didn't find myself tired until around eleven in the afternoon... at which point I had to get Shen ready to be picked up, and thus didn't really get to sleep until noon. So two hours. Work's gonna be a lot of fun tonight.

On top of all of that... I'm feeling pretty damn bad about Shen. I failed to find her a good home. Hell- couldn't even find her a bad home (not that I would do that, mind). I couldn't find anyone who wanted her! I was just going to let her go, but my grandmother insisted that she'd starve or something and made me think of the rain so with a sigh I gave and agreed to take her to the Humane Society.

My thinking was she'd have some sort of chance of finding a home after being taken in by them. But they're overflowing, so now I'm very unsure. Especially as you have to pay like forty bucks to get a cat from them (granted they're fixed, etc.).

It was really awful, putting her in my grandma's car. She was very frightened, and I couldn't stop petting her through the little carrier door. Only made it worse that my grandma and her friend (whom I'm very uncomfortable around) were there, talking about how it would've been better if I'd never gotten her at all (grandma said that, her friend just agreed). I just love how she's been making it sound to everyone she gossips to that I had to get rid of my cat because I couldn't take care of her. Versus because my landlord said she had to go.

Yes, there are a lot of things I regret that I didn't do right by Shen. I wish I would've been able to give her more attention, for instance. But I did love her, didn't I? And I did give her as good of a home as I could while I had her, right? I did the best I could.

...Didn't I? 

I wish I knew she'd find a good home.