06/12/29, 01:43
Almost New Years!

This Christmas came and passed pretty quickly, which means the easy money is almost all earned this year, but I soon get to enjoy the normal Future Shop pace.  Far from normal, but normal none the less.

I enjoyed watching the Rebels earn their over time points - that's right, point "s" - on Tuesday night (the 26th).  Mandi & I were among those who made it through the new snow to watch the game.  What is this country coming too when fans can't make a hockey game due to snow?  Don't you have a sled?  C'mon, eh!  Get out 'cher snowshoes and let's drop the puck!  But, the weather made Kootney (the visiting team) late also, so I'll let you have that one.  This time!  Oh, and thanks for leaving such wonderful seats vacant for us.  Good game, in the end.  Nice overtime goal, too!  Another one this evening! (technically lol).  I'm off!  Keep your stick on the ice.  G'night!

Oh, I almost forgot to thank Mandi's & my family for this wonderful Christmas!  Especially Lee, for the Air Soft Gun.  And both Lee & Troy, for the Air Soft pellet wounds.  It's all gravy, baby!

06/12/24, 00:21
Future Christmas

For those of you who don't know, I work at Future Shop.  You should visit me there, it's a great place to shop. :)   I really do enjoy it there.  Great staff, great money, and mostly great customers.  I know a lot of people have had there bad experiences, and a lot of people suggest that you shop elsewhere, and if you want to, that's ok, but that's not what I'm writing about right now.  I'm writing about Christmas as a Future Shop employee.  I work in the cell phone / camera department (Telecomm), and it's crazy.  I love it!  But the next 36 hours are gunna be physco.  I got off work just under an hour ago, and in 6½ hours I'll be getting up for my (I think) 23rd annual Big/Little brother Christmas Eve breakfast.  Bruce, my (former?  Na!) Big Brother (Big Brothers & Sisters) and I have been doing this since I was 6 and he was 18 (If I remember correctly).  So, must be Christmas Eve 1984.  And we haven't missed a year.  In the last few years, we've added a few to our breakfast tradition, including my family, Bruce's family, and Bruce's second little brother & his family.  We'll have breakfast, and then I'll head to work for my 09:00 shift at the 'Shop', and I'll work until 17:30 - 18:00ish.  I'll head off to one of Mandi's family Christmas's, and then try to get to bed early.  Hopefully I'll be able to sleep in on Christmas Day, but not too long as I'll be having Christmas brunch with my immediate family.  I plan on chillaxing most of the day, but I will make an early appearance at the Bollinger Farm for supper and a gift exchange, before trying to make it to bed by 18:30 - 19:00ish (yes, that's right, 6:30 - 7:00ish pm!)  to get 8 hours of sleep before getting up for the most insane day of the year for a Future Shop staff;  BOXING DAY!  I'll be up at 03:00 to be at work by 04:00 to get ready for the day.  The store opens 2 hours later (06:00) so all of you wonderful shoppers (some of you who slept in the parking lot, hmmmm.) can come in and save save save!  Just remember that almost every staff in the store was in at 04:00 in order to satisfy your shopping frenzy, and most of us will work right through until 20:00.  That's 16 hours, the day after Christmas.  Yahoo.  Really.  It'll all be over quick, and my bank account will be a bit fuller, but I'll have rushed through yet another of Christ's birthday on the raft of retail.  This will be my third. (Not in a row, though, good thing!)  So, now that the clock is rolling on past 00:45, I'm gunna go throw my work stuff in the washer, and hit the hay.  Have a great Christmas!  It's about God, not shopping.

Oh, and please remember one thing.  Everywhere you go, whether it be the church or the Future Shop, people are gunna let you down.  People are gunna mess up.  I know I do.  But in most cases, the messer-upper's don't represent the whole.  I know this is true both in Church, and in Future shop.  Merry Christmas!

06/12/18, 23:53
QuizYourFriends.com

06/11/20, 19:45
Some Cars Just Shouldn't Have Donuts

Okay, I had to laugh.  Not at the owner, not at anyone's expense, but just cause it looked funny.  And, I thought I'd share my experience with you.  At what point do they put a full sized spare in your trunk?  Hmm, beats me.  Anyway, Tonight I pack, tomorrow I hit the road.  If anything really exciting happens, and I have time to share, I will.  But so far I've decided not to spend as much time this trip in front of the computer.  If you followed along last trip, you'll know I stayed far behind on my updates, anyway.  So, I'll be in Saskatoon tomorrow night, I'll watch the blades play the rebels on Wednesday, and check out Great Big Sea on Thursday.  After that, I'll be heading south to go through the northern states on my way east to Nova Scotia & Newfoundland, to check out the real estate.  Feel free to contact me via email, or leave me a voice mail, or send me a text message!  Check out the contact page for ways to do all that.  So, here I go again!  I better keep packing!!!

06/11/16, 21:47
PlayStation 3 @ Future Shop, Red Deer

Wow.  But I guess I should've expected this.  2 guys and a girl in line for the new PlayStation 3 (PS3) almost 16 hours early!  Let me start from the beginning of my day.  So, Honda finally fixed my car, mostly.  For only $1249.24.  I gladly traded them back their Fit for my Civic on Monday (the 13th), but I think they forgot about my not-so-straight steering wheel / alignment.  So, they got me back in this morning at 09:00 and back out again by Noon.  I needed a new battery, as well.  Hmmm.  As much as I like my car, I still keep trying to convince myself that any domestic car would cost more in repairs & maintenance.  Getting harder and harder to do.  Whatever.  So, just before buying my every-second-year pair of shoes today from Sears for under $30.00 (see if I can walk 2 years in these cheap suckers!), I stopped at Future Shop for a quick work related visit.  Now, my first thought when I see loiterers hanging around the front door is that they're out for a cancer break.  But, what I found out a little later is, those 3 loiterers are tomorrow's customers.  Literally.  These 2 guys and a girl, (who gladly held an empty PS3 display box for a couple of photo's) are planning on spending the night here on the sidewalk in order to get their hands on a limited quantity $700 video game system.  Granted they'll most likely sell it for more on ebay, but wow.  The way I see it, I get to get into my comfy bed tonight, go into work tomorrow at 07:30 (earlier than normal, so we can open at 08:00 for our PS3 customers) and probably make in commission what they will reselling the system.  Hopefully, anyway.  But, I hope they have a fun night.  It's only supposed to get to -7 C tonight.  I'll be seeing them in the morning!

06/11/11, 23:24
Me, The People-Rights-Activist!

Ok, so, I was reading this story about a 19 year old and a 17 year old who severely beat a dog.  Everyone was so appalled, and so angry at them.  The people wanted justice.  They "... demanded reform in the Criminal Code on animal cruelty laws"  Can I  tell you what I think the problem is?  Of course I can, it's my blog!

We don't put enough effort into people anymore.  Ok, look at the problem.  All of these animal rights activists are shouting and cursing and jumping on the guys van, what do they think that'll solve?  And sure you can discipline them, that's probably what needs to be done at this point.  But what got us here in the first place?  Lack of love, lack of community, lack of prayer for each other, lack of a lot of things.  I know that people are gunna do stupid things, I really do.  But I think we need to take some responsibility for the way our society is going.

Ok, I have a story.  Come on one of my side roads for a minute.  Before July of this year, for 2 years, I was employed by the Salvation Army in Red Deer as a Youth Director.  Basically, a youth pastor.  For many years before that, I voluntarily ran most of the youth programs the church offered.  See, I am and always will be a serious believer in God.  In the saving love of Jesus and the life moving power of the Holy Spirit.  And I know that the church, like any other group of humans, will let me down throughout my whole life.  But this is where I'm going.  Apparently (and in many cases I believe it) I am loved, cared for, and prayed for by the people of the Salvation Army Church in Red Deer.  In June, I gave my resignation to the church because of some stress I am going through in my life.  Pretty serious stuff, in my opinion.  My Mom, who also is a member of the church, has shown a lot of care to me, but other than that, no one from the church has tried to contact me that I know of other than the pastor to ask me about the location of a remote control.  He did tell me I am welcome back to the church, but I'm not sure I believe it right now.  Ok, so I know that it's hard to approach someone who is struggling.  I know it's a lot easier to just run with the rumors.  But that's the problem.  I'm not trying to beat up the congregation, because I know that... at least a couple of them are genuinely concerned for me.  But there is a problem.  I feel in many ways I failed at my position of ministry in the church, but if no one contacted the "loved and much appreciated Youth Director" in a time of need, then what about the rest of the church that comes and doesn't say a thing?  Now, I want you to understand that I'm really only whining a little bit here, because although it would've been nice to know they cared enough, I know I have God through all of this.  But my issue is, if things are like this for me, they are probably like this for almost everyone else.  And THAT scares me.  And I'm not trying to pick on the Salvation Army.  I know this is a normal thing amongst churches.  But if when you fall, the church, which is suppose to be a major source of support, does nothing except gossip about you, what about the people who don't have a church?  What about everyone who tries to go it on their own?  What about when they're hurting?  The problem is this, I think;  we are told by society to "go it alone, to be tough, to walk it off.  Independence is the key to personal joy.  Do it yourself, and you'll feel better about it."  Of all the things wrong with that, the biggest I can see is what happens when you fall.  Of course we (not just the youth!) are gunna want control over something.  We feel helpless, abandoned.  We want to know we have strength and control, because that's what society tells us we should have.  That's what I think the problem is.  And while you're trying to make sense of that, think of this; 

When a guy gets bit by a dog, it's because he provoked it, or because someone raised it wrong.  When someone hits a moose on the highway, it's because he was driving too fast, or not paying attention.  But what about the person?  How are they doing?  What support do they have?  Lets take a look at our priorities, and ask ourselves, in a time when we have so many animal rights activists, who's taking care of the people?  And that's all I'm gunna say about that!

06/11/11, 02:12
I Want my car back!!!  :(

Honda Red Deer informed me that my car needed costly repairs to the transmission (and by costly I mean over a grand).  So, I took it into them first thing Tuesday morning (the 7th) and drove away in one of their loaner cars, a Honda Fit.  Wow.  If you're trying to decide between a Civic and a Fit, I'll make it easy for you.  GET THE CIVIC!!!  I miss my Civic.  Anyway, enough from me, I'm tired and going to bed.  Up, up and away!

06/11/07, 18:55
Finally get to watch one of my new movies!

Ok, since Sept.1, I've purchased 12 movies.  Of them, I was able to watch one from start to finish.  It was a 15 minute devotional DVD by Rob Bell called "NOOMA Rich | 013".  Tonight, I'm taking "Poseidon" & "MI3" over to Travis's, and hopefully get through one of them.  The list of my 12 latest movies is:

1. Adventures of Ford Fairlane
2. Jackass The Movie
3. Mission Impossible
4. Mission Impossible 2
5. Mission Impossible 3
6. Motorcycle Diaries
7. NOOMA Rich | 013
8. Poseidon
9. Strange Brew
10. X-Men
11. X-2 | X-Men United
12. X-3 | The Last Stand

06.11.07, 02:30
The prognosis of the wrist sensation mystery (And my first blogg!)

After weeks of feeling discomfort in my left wrist, and often a tingling sensation in my left hand, I think I figured it out!  I've got Typer's-Tingle!  (I made that up just now!)  This stems from the odd set up of most laptop keyboards, how they are set so darn far back in the frame.  Because I'm right handed, and most of my computer use doesn't involve a lot of typing (web design, photo editing etc.), my right hand sits most often on my ergonomically correct mouse.  My left wrist, however, rests oh so uncomfortably on the front left corner of my laptop frame, and just tonight I felt the sore wrist feeling and the tingly hand sensation and just naturally moved my arm and oh - there it hit me.  That seems to be the cause of the pain.  So smart, yet so stupid.  Ya.  Now, just need to figure out a way to readjust my typing posture...   Hmm.  I'll keep you posted.

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