Streaming Song Of The Day: Europe - The Final Countdown
Free MP3 Of The Day: Daft Punk vs Adam Freeland - Aer Obama
Ok, so, last night was a fairly interesting night. Sorry for not blogging for a while, have been having issues here (mobile hard disk dying, new project, best friends birthday celebrations) which have conflicted with my blogging.
For my regular readers, you will know that last night I was only down to work for three hours. And I did. Queen Chav turned up at 1:45am, and made herself a coffee. Much to the annoyance of The Scotsman. He walked past and said "Tea, white, one sugar". She protested that she wasn't making a drink for anyone but herself. And that set the tone for the rest of their time together. He argued that on nights, and that she was now part of nights, if someone made a drink for themselves, they made one for anyone else who wanted one, and to get and make him a tea. Amazingly, she complied.
So she decided to try and buy him off by offering him a free cigarette break. Thing is, this is a guy who does what he wants, when he wants, how he wants. This said, he didn't expect me. I have a new toy called I-Doser. It syncs brainwaves to experiences and there are a LOT of different things to try. Last night I was experimenting with pure delta waves. They are linked to focus, attention, alertness, logical thinking and concentrating on the task at hand. Things which work believe I lack. So he tried arguing with me about doing the paper returns. He hit a wall of ice.
Me: "What are you doing? You are not doing the chilled, you are doing the paper returns"
Scotsman: "I am working the chilled, get on the tills and do the paper returns"
Me: "I am running the shift, and I am not allowed to do the paper returns"
Scotsman: "Well I am not doing them!"
Me: "I am not allowed to, I am running the shift, you will do the papers"
Scotsman: "But..."
Me: "Get on the tills, I will bring you the papers, you will complete the paperwork and bundle them. Then you can work the chilled"
Scotsman: "I don't need your f*cking help. I'll get the f*cking papers"
Me: "Fine"
Scotsman: "F*cking pr*ck"
He never bows down to authority, let alone completely backs off! And he demonstrated his point with Queen Chav. She asked if she could write the rotas out for next week for an hour. He said no, that she would work the same ways he did. She argued that she wasn't going to do the rotas tomorrow, and he argued that he didn't care, and for her to get on the tills. She backed down and served me. And just as she served me, six drunks came heading towards the till, each with a basket absolutely full of stuff. I grinned at her and said "Just in time for the drunks. Have fun. See you in a week!"
So, that is work stuff done and dusted. Now for the fun! The author of My Little Place In The World (fabulous little blog) had an open invite for bloggers to be interviewed. Now, I have never been interviewed, so I thought that I would take the oppertunity to be interviewed. Now, there are rules, and I have to open this up to anyone else who wants to be interviewed. The rules are as follows:
1. leave me a comment saying you want to be interviewed.
2. I’ll email you five questions, of my determination not yours!
3. You update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.
So, anyone who wants to be interviewed, please leave a comment and I will come up with 5 fiendish questions!
And now for my 5 questions from My Little Place In The World:
1. Your blog is about things that happen while you're at work, what made you want to start a blog on this topic?
Well, my work can be interesting, frustrating, hilarious, annoying and sometimes just plain wierd, so I thought it might be interesting to write about all of these things that happen. Plus often when I told friends about the things that happened at work, they either laughed hugely, or questioned whether what I was saying actually happened - which made me think that perhaps maybe other people might like to see the other side of the counter in a store.
2. If someone was coming to your city (town) what is one thing you would recommend that they see before they leave?
Good question! My town is tiny! It is literally a mile wide, and has 18 bars in it! So, I guess I would say that they checked out the Sunday accoustic night at The Thomas Tripp. The bar is normally not quite as busy as a Friday or Saturday, and the music is either self written by the artist, or it is covers performed by local artists on an accoustic guitar. It makes for a very relaxing Sunday evening spent with a nice cool drink and chilled out music.
3. If you could land your dream job what would it be and why? Assuming that you weren't doing it for money.
Actually, I am working towards my dream job! I would love to become a full time blogger. I just love the idea of being my own boss, writing for a living, and making money from doing something I love without the hassles and pressures of having to be anywhere at a certain time, in certain clothes doing certain things. And by this I mean enough to get by on, I don't really want to become one of these mega rich bloggers who earn $100,000 a month, but maybe 2% of that would be nice!
4. I noticed that one of your videos of the day was Atlanta Thrashers highlights set to the sounds of Song 2 by Blur are you a hockey fan or you just like the song and Mats Sundin getting rocked in that video was just a little bonus?
Well first of all thank you for watching the videos of the day! It's always a worry of mine whether anyone actually watches them or not! I wouldn't say I am a hockey fan - the last time I watched it was when I was in a sports bar in Gran Canaria in November. But I do like Ice Hockey. I love the song Song 2 by Blur, and have been known to belt it out in bars - whether they have Karaoke or not!
5. If you had 5 million dollars what would you do with it?
Now you see, this is where I become boring. First of all I would give a million dollars to The Hampshire Autistic Foundation, and then I would put 2 million dollars in a high interest account which paid interest monthly and a 2 million dollars in a regular account. And then set up the monthly interest to be transferred into a third account which I would use as my day to day spending money and simply live off the interest created by the 2 million in the high interest account. And if I ever needed to make a huge purchase, that is what the 2 million in the regular account would be for. See? Boring!
And on that note - I think that is quite enough from me! Many huge thanks to My Little Place In The World for excellent questions. I had a lot of fun answering them!
Permalink
|
Tags:
The Final Countdown, 
Aer Obama, 
New Projects, 
I-Doser, 
Interviews, 
Spotify, 
One Day Contest22nd Januray 2009: Interesting Nights, Jaffa Cake Tag, Drunk Antics, Whinging Co-Workers, and SF Are Fair To Their Workers
Streaming Song Of The Day: Brian Molko - 20th Century Boy
Free MP3 Of The Day:
Krumb Snatcha - Feelin' (Not Safe For Work)
Krumb Snatcha - Hidden Scriptures (Not Safe For Work)
So, tonight has been WAY more interesting than the previous few nights. First of all, Miss C has declared that we are not working hard tonight as we deserve our last break. And so say all of us. Thing is, tonight is my last night before my night off. I was never going to bust a nut working tonight anyway. I know...not the attitude, but I work for a company that...well...I will get into that later!
Tonight we have had our share of random customers. First of all we had drunks, who are lovely because they are regulars, playing tag in the store. Well...tag with a twist. If you get hit by a packet of flying jaffa cakes OR tagged, then you are it. I am seriously considering stealing this idea and franchising it to drunks across the country. Others must be aware of jaffa cake tag.
The same drunks also did something that I found pretty amusing. They distracted the most sober member of their group, then emptied a case of creame eggs into his basket. And shook it up so they were distributed across the basket. He got so angry. And whilst he got angry, they put a bottle of cat milk in his basket. That tipped him over the edge and made him yell at them. They weren't finished. They popped a party popper in the guy's ear leading him to scream and shout "I can't f*cking hear! You've f*cking deafened me in one ear!"
Then there is Miss C herself. My god. I was not kidding when I told The Scotsman that all I would be getting tonight would be complaining whinging. All night it has been "Well he hasn't done this" or "He didn't do that well did he" To the point where she has actually just interupted my break to tell me something he didn't do. My break. My me time.
But the kicker of the night has been Queen Chav phoning me up. She wanted to know if I could work Friday. Well, unfortunately I have a party to go to on Friday. Which I told her when she phoned me. So then she asked whether or not I could work tonight. I mean...I have worked 10 days in a row. The SF equivilent of 2 weeks worth of shifts, and she asks me whether I can work one more? This is why I am looking at ways out of this place. I know all companies put demands on employees, but I felt like asking her why don't I just work another 4 days huh? Make it a fortnight without a day off. I've told her I will think about Friday and let them know tomorrow. Better be nice to me.
Permalink
|
Tags:
Brian Molko | 
Krumb Snatcha | 
Lazy Days | 
Jaffa Cakes | 
Drunks | 
Whinging | 
Unreasonable Working Conditions21st January 2009:
Streaming Song Of The Day:Reqiuem For A Dream Lux Aeterna Full Orchestral Version (No idea about you, but this song really fires me up!)
Free MP3 Of The Day: An Horse - Postcards
So, tonight I am working with The Scotsman. It's actually been a pretty decent night. I mean, he gets on with his work, he doesn't talk too much, he knows what needs to be done and does it. He is far better to work with than Miss C. Plus he is a smoker, so cigarette breaks are acceptable by his standards. And so say all of us...well...me!
But again, as with most nights lately, not a lot is happening. Although we have just had a group of kids come in and tell us that they wanted cigarettes, despite none of them looking over about 14. So they asked for matches. They didn't realise you still need to be over 16 for matches too. So they kicked up fuss until I came over and put them straight.
It's funny, I am sitting here with this week's local paper open at the job section (not intentional, it was found that way) and for the first time in a long time, I am looking through the ads to see if there is anything I could do. I don't exactly hate the job, but I do feel like maybe it's time to move on. Although this blog will always remain!
The funniest thing that happened last night was The Scotsman's constant barrage of insults and abuse towards The Troll. He is getting less and less patient about us cracking jokes about him. I don't think it will be too long before he cracks and either lashes out physically or verbally. Verbally I can deal with, because he isn't that smart. Hence the reason I think he might lash out physically. Problem for him is that there are so many cameras in store (including ones he isn't aware of) that he's bound to get caught.
Permalink
|
Tags:
Reqiuem For A Dream, 
An Horse Postcards, 
Smoking, 
New Jobs, 
Joking20th January 2009: Dull Nights, Kiwis, Cats, Lottery Machines, Days Off and Meetings
Streaming Song Of The Day: Loser by Beck (feeling somewhat down today)
Free MP3 Of The Day: On The Beat by Electrocute
Tonight is yet another dull night. Few customers, little work to do because dayshift have been scarily efficient, and Miss C is not being her talkative self. Strange things are afoot at the Circle S.
However, there was one highlight. We had a policeman we call Kiwi come in. We call him this because he has an Aussie accent but it's odd, so I think he is from New Zealand. Anyway, his normal patrol territory is Lymington and the area, and the New Forest Car Parks. Tonight he has been assigned the same, plus Ringwood and the edge of Salisbury. Those who know the area will know this is a vast area. And his car? A panda. He's not what you would call a happy bunny about the situation.
As for the cat yesterday, well, it is still up to it's tricks. Not here, but Miss C took it home, fed and watered it, then let it go. And took her kid to playgroup. When she ccame back, it was sitting on her doorstep. Eventually she took it to the vets. I told her that she should have brought it to SF and let them deal with the issues we had.
This said, tonight we have got great thing happening. The lottery machine keeps rebooting. Not really an issue for us as we're not allowed to use it. But it's going to be fun for the dayshift in the morning.
Also, I cannot wait to come back from my holiday. Because apparently I am going to be getting a four day week. Well, as long as I still get paid the same amount, I am not fussed. And as long as it isn't a permanent arrangement either. Screw having three days a week off. I may complain about my job, but my days off do become somewhat boring. Being a recluse isn't as much fun as you may believe!
Sigh...so, I had yet ANOTHER meeting with Queen Chav and Shoe. This time about Miss C and The Bombshell. I told them my side of the story (sorry, all hush hush for now) and then discovered that Queen Chav is as stupid as she appears. She tried reasoning that I needed to work tonight because otherwise I would have a 4 day week. I argued that having tonight and Thursday off made it a 5 day week. She couldn't see how that worked, and therefore had to be argued with. Hey ho, means I just need to get through tonight and tomorrow (easy) and then have almost a long weekend. Methinks I shall go shopping in Southampton Friday. Am taking myself to Southampton for a nice day out on Monday (my birthday!)
Permalink
|
Tags:
Dayshift, 
New Zealand, 
Lottery Machine, 
Holiday, 
Reclusive, 
Pointless Meeting19th January 2009: Ditched Phones, Miss C, Invading Cats, Queen Chav On Facebook, and Queen Chav Being Nice
Streaming Song Of The Day: The Bitter End - Placebo
Free MP3s Of The Day:
Maria Taylor - Time Lapse Lifeline
Maria Taylor - A Good Start
Maria Taylor - Lost Time
Tonight has been...eventful. First I have decided to ditch my INQ1, namely because it sucks. Yes it was new, yes t was somewhat expensive, however, the S2 that I had before does the job far, far better. I mean, why have an internet phone which has problems connecting to the internet? And why have a new model phone which can't get as good signal as the previous model? Bah. Three will be hearing from me soon!
Then there is work. You see, I am working with Miss C, and trying not to chat. In her mind, this means I am in a mood with her. Actually it's just me trying to do my job! And yet she still keeps interupting me with inane questions.
But the worst one was the fact that she called me out to attend to a "situation". Said situation was a cat. Yes, as in the domestic feline variety. It wandered it and was adamant about staying the night. We were less enthused. So a customer offered to take it home. Except she did, it escaped, and came back. So I threw it over an embankment (not a steep one, it fell maybe a foot and landed safely). It followed me back to the store. It is now in Miss C's boyfriend's van, with a bowl of food. Now you see, I love cats, however, Miss C apparently loves them more as she took an HOUR to deal with the cat problem. I've now left her grumpily facing up, having not been able to blog on my first break due to dealing with the cat.
And right now, I am sitting in the canteen, trying to find Queen Chav on Facebook so I can add her as a friend! Mad? Perhaps... Unfortunately, I couldn't find her, and full fat Facebook broke my mobile. Shame. Perhaps tomorrow morning!
And then there was the very, very strange incident in the morning. Queen Chav was...nice to me. More than nice actually...she made a joke. With me. Her hated nemesis. We have been trying to antagonise and wind each other up for 5 years, and she finally makes a joke with me. Wierd when everything is going to hell at the store.
Permalink
|
Tags:
INQ1, 
Skype s2, 
Stray Cats, 
Facebook18th January 2009: Boring Nights, Cliques, Setting Up Your Supervisor - HOWTO, and Meetings Of Strangeness...
Streaming Song Of The Day: New Shoes - Paolo Nuttini
Free MP3 Of The Day: Living Things - Let In Rain
So tonight is being yet another boring night. I'm working with Miss C and Slaphead, and trying my best to do my work, except it's hard when people won't stop badgering with with questions they should know the answer to (like can a customer use our phone) and stupid little things like why they haven't got their car with them.
I'm also having to put up with their clique, which since The Scotsman attacked Miss C, and she had an attack of the dizzies and the waterworks, has become even more cliquey. Yay me. So far I've been told that I wouldn't be missed if I left, and that they both dislike me. Discreet huh?
The best part is that Slaphead told me that he was sick of the issues between The Scotsman and Miss C and The Bombshell and Miss C. Does he not see a common element here? Can he not see that she stirs up more trouble than anyone else in the store? I guess it must be down to the fact that he protects her to such an extent, that he can't see the woods for the trees.
However, Miss C and I do have a rather fun little plan for him. We're going to send him to get the empty cages. Thing is - I piled as many cages as I could into the covered area. Well, it rained, and we're not allowed wet cardboard. But the covered area at night is really spooky. So much so that he refuses to go in. Hell, I refuse to go in. Should be fun to see his reaction when he sees what we have set up for him!
But perhaps one of the wierdest things that happened last night was Miss C had to see Shoe and Queen Chav at 6am in a secrety secret meeting. Now, when she came out her face was very red - literally. Not sure if she had been crying or getting angry, but she was very red faced. Curiouser and curiouser. The other odd thing is that Queen Chav didn't mention that the rota had been changed this week. Which is strange since we haven't been told that The Bombshell is back this week, and unless he is, The Scotsman will be on his own on Tuesday...
Permalink
|
17th January 2009: Working With Miss C, Dead Night, The Troll, Random Customers and Yes, Of Course I Can Steal Your Identity - Would You Like A Bag With That?
Streaming Song Of The Day: The Script - We Cry (with lyrics!)
Free MP3s Of The Day:
Royce Da 5'9" - Part Of Me (not safe for work)
Royce Da 5'9" - Shake This (not safe for work)
So, tonight Miss C and I are working together. Alone. Not good. She never shuts up! And encourages me to talk. Anyway, tonight she has been bugging me over the location of this blog. She wants to know the goss while she is away on materinity leave. I've told her no. Thing is, I love writing this thing anonymously. As I said to her, I could write "...and I hate them all, I hope they all fall over on broken glass in the car park in the morning" and there is no way to trace it back to me. Far less when we are Co-op. More stores, more scenarios, more probability that similar things could happen in similar stores.
As for the night. It has been dead. Properly dead. We've had maybe 20 customers and it's now 1am. Right now I am sitting in the canteen, almost through my first packet of 50p Jaffa Cakes (brand name, not own brand!) and have gloriously not done a vast amount. I'll make it up tomorrow as I am now, inevitably, going to miss my Linux meeting (damnit).
We also had problems with The Troll. This guy just has no concept of...well...anything! He keeps wandering around, claiming that his partner is a director of the co-op. Shame that apparently she seems to know nothing about anything. He claims she said that the sale has already happened. Wrong. He claims that the other stores have been sold. Wrong. As I said to The Old Man, it's not hard to see that his partner's position at Co-op is actually BS.
Plus we had the usual Friday random customers. Like a kid who thought that dressing in a nice shirt, nice trousers and very nice jacket could be finished off with...a hoodie. The hoodie was under the shirt, and the hood was pulled up. He looked like some kind of dapper monk.
Then there was a guy who asked Miss C if, whilst serving him, whether she could check the balance on his debit card. Yes, of course we can do that. I mean, we already steal your details and PIN numbers, why not check your balance too? Some people's understandings of just what access we have over bank stuff astounds me. As I said to Miss C, my reply would have been "No, but...wow...damn...we can see how many times you've been overdrawn this month. Ouch."
Permalink
|
16th January 2009: Arguments, The Scotsman and Stocktake Day!
Streaming Song Of The Day: Sympathy For The Devil - The Rolling Stones
Free MP3s Of The Day:
Dntel - To A Fault
Dntel - Dumb Luck
So, when I arrived this evening, The Scotsman and The Tall Pole were having a slanging match. The Scotsman was shouting about how terrible dayshift are, and The Tall Pole was attempting to defend himself. So I told The Scotsman it was none of his business and that The Bombshell would be getting the business end of things. Turns out, The Bombshell has been suspended over what happened between himself and Miss C. Curioser and curiouser, especially since Pedro stated that he felt both were as wrong as each other in the matter.
So tonight I am working with The Scotsman on our own. The interesting thing is that he is complying with what I ask him to do. Normally he does not. And there not not a vast amount to do tonight. The worst thing is reverse facing up. This is where you get one of the products at the front of the shelf and everything else at the back. It is purely for stocktake purposes, but still a royal pain in the backside.
The upshot of it is though that we will only have to work the chilled, meat and produce, which totals about 120 tops. And woith both of us working our backsides off, it should be a reaally easy shift. I cannot wait for it to turn up, and then to end almost as quickly.
That is about it for today. Short, sweet, and without incident so far.
Permalink
|
15th January 2009: The Hero In Charge!, Electrocution Of Supervisors, PJs, The Fight With English Continues, and Much Chocolate!
Streaming Song Of The Day: Sneaker Pimps - 6 Underground (Don't think cos I understand, I care. Don't think cos I'm talking, we're friends...)
Free MP3s Of The Day:
Deerhunter - Little Kids
Deerhunter - Nothing Ever Happened
Deerhunter - Spring Hall Convert
So, I came into work tonight and found The Hero was in charge. Hurrah. Not. However, he did get his staff to face up the store, which is always a bonus. Anyway, then he told me that The Bombshell was working for 7 days in a row in 2 weeks time and that I wasn't supposed to be in. Turns out, even as a supervisor, he can't read the new rotas. It was actually me and The Bombshell working. I mean, seriously, if supervisors can't read the rotas, which neither The Hero nor The Bombshell can, what hope do the rest of us have?
Plus there was already a funny incident. The Bombshell took his fleece off, and I heard it crackling like a tiny thunderstorm with static electricity. I knew what was about to happen, you know what was about to happen, but, unfortunately, it would appear they don't have static electricity in Poland. He grabbed the metal gate of the tills and yelped "Ouch! That is hurt!" I laughed and said "I knew that was going to happen. Didn't you wonder why I kept away from you when I got my coffee?"
We just had a girl come in who was wearing just her pyjamas. Now, the thing is, this was at 1:45am. And she was accompanied by her mother. Seriously...I mean, who thinks "Going to the shops with mum, at night, I'll wear my PJs". And she acted like it was the most natural thing in the world, like everyone does it. Ok then...
And, as always, The Bombshell's continued fight against the English language is hilarious. Today he treated me to "I am in warehouse!" "I am outside!" Both time whilst standing a few feet away from me on the shop floor. The last comment prompted me to say "No, you are INSIDE!"
And I cannot wait for Shoe to come in this morning. She always does a canteen security check, to discover what belongs to whom. So, this morning she will discover a bag with six large bars of chocolate in. I have been mass buying chocolate for my girlfriend, who sadly, due to living in a dire, dire country, does not have easy access to Cadbury's chocolate. And certainly not access in any way to the different flavours. I have stepped in to remedy this for her, and her family. Because I am nice like that. And I also have to buy fudge, and mint humbugs!
Permalink
|
14th January 2009: New Toys, Bad Service and Linux Distributions
Streaming Video Of The Day: When You Were Young - The Killers (with Lyrics)
Free MP3s Of The Day:
Bon Iver - Blood Bank
Bon Iver - Skinny Love
So, today is a good day. I had a good night at work, and I am currently sitting in Pret-A-Manger in Southampton after having just bought a new 80gb external USB hard disk for the eee. Goodbye corrupted USB drive issues! Plus the additional factor is that I can do a complete MacPup install to the device. That means rather than just using 1.25gb of a 2 or 4gb USB stick, I can use the full 80gb of the mobile hard disk. That should give me something to do whilst I am off enpire building on Animal Crossing. Ok, so, technically empire building isn't quite possible in Animal Crossing, but I can build a vast orchard of non native fruits! And I know just the place!
On a slightly down note, I recieved my first ever bad service in Pret-A-Manger. Shame, because where the service standards are normally so high, I feel obliged to complain. This guy called Sammy was chatting to his friend, and had to be told by the cashier to get me a coffee. He turned and said "No, you get it" and then told her to get me a white coffee. I told him that I actually wanted a black coffee, and he shrugged and said "Same price innit?" Now, normally this wouldn't bother me because I feel for retail bods. However, thing is, Pret-A-Manger normally have exceptionally great service. It would be like going to Harrods and being served by a chav. It just wound me up a little that the guy couldn't be bothered to give decent service.
So, now I have my cheapy cheap USB hard disk, I am going to go home, get a taxi from the station to my place as I found £70 in my jacket, which I have no idea how it got there! Mystery money is good. I was tempted to put it towards a PS3, however, I have a seperate fund for that! I cannot wait to try Fedora 10 or 11 on a PS3. For those not in the know, Fedora is a cutting edge Linux distro sponsored by Red Hat, and created by a community of voulenteers. Reminds me, must get working on my own distro. I want to make it small, light, fast and to have .deb compatibility. It's going to be a Linux for Windows users. You see, I feel that if it has speed, smallness but a good feature set and .deb compatibility (Ubuntu uses .deb files for installing) then I might be able to convince Windows users that Linux IS a real alternative.
Permalink
|
13th January 2009: Return Of The Scotsman, Shopping Trips, Secret Santa - The Return and Practical Jokes
Streaming Video Of The Day: Walkman Project Music Video
Free MP3s Of The Day:
Honey Claws - Ghostfaceland (mashup) (Not Safe For Work)
Honey Claws - Shout Out
SPECIAL FREEBIE!
Ok, this is going to require a tiny little explaination, however, I do believe it is quite fantastic. So, on last week's QI, Stephen Fry was explaining the maximum number of times you can fold a piece of paper, and the girl who found that the maximum was 12. However, what you need are length and thickness. Alan Davies pounced on this and said it was going to be a ringtone. Stephen Fry's reply was "Damn you all!" Alan Davies replied that this would be the text tone. For those doubting Thomases amongst us, the clip is here:
So how does this lead to a freebie? Well, I can, thanks to the people at qiringtone.webs.com, offer you the ringtone and text tone! Not quite sure about having "What you need, are length and thickness" as a ringtone, but "Damn you all!" as a text tone? For sure!
So, the ringtone is here: http://qiringtone.webs.com/Length_and_Thickness.m4a
And the text tone is here: http://qiringtone.webs.com/Damn_You_All.m4a
Get them before, as Stephen Fry recently said on Twitter "The BBC get all pissy about content which belongs to them."
So tonight has been, well, interesting. The Bombshell is hyperactive for some reason, The Scotsman is back and as whingey as ever. And is giving me his usual brand of "I spoke therefore I am right" philosophy. Prime example was on poker. Now, I feel that having won £200 and £250 respectively on the last two sessions I played, that my strategy is sound. Apparently, according to him, it is flawed. He said to me that I should raise every hand, because I would win more pots. Perhaps, but then I would also lose more money in the long run. His view is distorted as his only experience is televised poker.
He has also been slating Miss C. So far his names for her have been Fatty, Fatty Boom Booms, Fat B*tch, The Thing, That Woman, and, quite astoundingly - F*cking Pregnant Fat F*cking B*tch Wh*re. And then he wonders why people label him as being ignorant. I cannot begin to imagine why that would be.
And then tomorrow I am also going to Southampton again. The idea of getting a PS3 has gone out the window, as despite having 8 3ghz processors, apparently Linux runs very slowly on it. Shame, because that was one reason I wanted it. However, I might see if they still have their £190 eee PC or I might go for a £80 PSP. I am slightly more tempted by the PSP, as installing Linux is a challange, makes for a unique device to show off at the group, and makes for an extremely portable hacking/development/internet/poker platform.
We also have a winner for our "Who Sent Slaphead A Sexy Card?" investigation. I say winner, the culprit confessed. It was The Scotsman! For those not in the know, Slaphead got a card with "Merry Christmas sexy, from you know who" as part of his Secret Santa present. His wife went ballistic and didn't speak to him for the whole of Christmas.
But this is par for the course for night shift. You see, we are fond of practical jokes. For example, The Bombshell asked for a cup of tea, so I made him one. With 10 slugs of lemon juice in it. About twice as lemony as he likes his. Well, it is winter. He needs to keep his vitamin C levels topped up.
Permalink
|
12th January 2009:
Video Of The Day: Lust For Life - Iggy Pop
Free MP3s Of The Day:
Cut Off Your Hands - Turn Cold
Cut Off Your Hands - You & I
Yesterday was a lot more relaxed than Saturday. I called up my friend when I woke up, and asked him if he wanted to go to the pub in the evening, and then played Animal Crossing for a couple of hours.
And then when I got to the bar, I found out that there was no live music until February. A case of Johnny, the owner being a bit of a misery. He has been becoming more and more miserable of late. To make matters worse, after an hour my friend decided to go home and couldn't be persuaded to stick around.
So I went back to my place and did a little more work on my poker bot. Or rather I did a little research, tried to figure out more about position, and did a little more reading to see if there was anything else I could add to the program's code. Then I played poker with it. $250 within 15 hands. And that was with a somewhat flaky undestanding of position.
OK, that's it. Sorry it's short but I need to go do things in Animal Crossing!
Permalink
|
11th January 2009: Time Delayed Posting, Crazy Days, Forgotten USB Drives, New Distros, How Retail SHOULD Work, Ringtones and Poker
Video Of The Day: Poison - Talk Dirty To Me
Free MP3 Of The Day: The Bodies Obtained - Hear & Believe
Ok, so, if we're being technical about dates, this entry is technically being written just before the 12th January, but I am trying to be consistent with my blogging this year. Or at least more consistent than I have been in the past.
Yesterday was crazy. I mean, really, properly crazy. Regulars will know that my Linux thing was cancelled, so, I decided to do my own thing and go to the local library for a few hours and study and listen to podcasts. Have enhanced battery and two laptops, will travel. Anyway, The Big Man Upstairs decided that I wasn't, and a quick search for the library opening times showed me that it was closed due to frozen pipes. So, I decided to go to Southampton anyway.
Big Man was still having none of it. I bought my train tickets, and then discovered on the platform, to my horror, that my USB key which boots my eee (security device) was still at home sitting in my main laptop. So I had an eee which basically wouldn't function and no realistic way of getting the key. My beautiful new INQ1 from Three came to the rescue! Ok, it kind of actually just gave me a solution!
So, I went to Maplin, home of geeky electronics, bought a 4gb USB key, went to The Bargates Internet Cafe, downloaded Unetbootin (stunning app, please try it and support it) and downloaded a new image of MacPup. The new MacPup is stunning. MacPup Foxy blew me away, but MacPup 411...wow. If you have a spare 512mb USB key laying around, I urge you to try this distro. It is amazing. And yes, 512mb IS enough. And you'd get 256mb storage for files easily...
And after leaving the cybercafe hastily (may have broken their computer, not sure, one risky Unetbootin install broke the eee...) and headed for Pret-A-Manger which is far and away my favourite cafe in the world. I mean, where else has armchairs, free wifi, 99p coffee which tastes good AND is organic AND FairTrade, and has staff who encourage you to jump the queue if people are being arses. The people in front were debating over Coke or Oasis, and therefore, according to the manager, lost their place in line. Their protests were silenced with a "You lost your place, I am now serving this gentleman, wait your turn." My friend, I bow.
Then I came back to my place, watched the extended QI repeat (I WILL have the "Damn You All!" text tone and "What You Need Is Width And Length" ringtone) and laughed myself silly, and then did a little coding on my new pet project nicknamed Despot. Now the only problem is that the program outshines me on poke knowledge, but the program is semi automatic and needs me to update it on position, which is a concept I seriously do not understand. I think a few days training myself via PartyPoker's Poker Trainer will assist me greatly! Plus I want to make it do a little trick. Something a few professional poker players do, and I want to replicate. I want it to play without knowing which cards it has. And yes, I do know how to do it, but my brain is mush after a heavy coding session yesterday.
Permalink
|
10th January 2009: Delayed Courses, Working With Grown Up Children, Ice, Not Sleeping Next Week, and Epic Arguments Between Titan Supervisors!
Video Of The Day: Final Fantasy - That's When The Audience Died
Free MP3 Of The Day: SoulStice - Crash The Party (Not Safe For Work)
So, I come into work, after discovering that the university course tomorrow has been moved to next week (joy, not) and get bragged at by The Hero. And since my real New Year Resolution is to be a little nicer, I didn't shoot him down. Apparently he bought £10 worth of scratchcards, won £26 so, then spent £11 of that on more cards, and won £40. I didn't want to mention that after writing a fairly simple program whilst also on the phone to my girlfriend, I won £200 playing poker. I thought that would constitute "nasty".
And I have been working with Miss C and The Bombshell. Always fun. Gotta love the way the two ignore each other. I really hate it. I mean, she is 32, and he is 27, why can't one of them act like adults instead of 2 and 3 year olds. And the way she refuses to find anything he does funny. Like when he went "nerrrrrrrrr!" to Queen Chav yesterday, all I got from Miss C was an "Oh, right." To put it into Poglish (the hybrid of POlish and English that relatively fluent Polish visitors speak) "They are noise me!"
But easily the best part of the night has been the coldness. Yes, we are now into double figures. -10. And I am loving every second of it. You see, despite going to Gran Canaria, I am not a sun worshipper. I prefer to sit in the shade, look at the stunning views and sip on a coffee. I've never been anywhere cold, but I fully plan to this year! Switzerland isn't far, and I should be able to find somewhere reasonable. But more importantly, it will be cold! I am sure that a few layers and a nice warm jacket along with nice warm gloves and thermal socks will be sufficient to brave those elements!
Now, as I said earlier, my course has been cancelled today, which is a blessing and a curse. Good thing is that I will get more than 4 hours sleep today. Bad thing is...well...I am not sure if I will be able to make next week. I will need to study the rota relatively carefully. Perhaps Slaphead will be willing to work my Saturday for me. If not, four hours of sleep and a big day, followed by work. Yippie.
But the classic part of the night last night was The Bombshell and Mrs DJ going at each other in the canteen. She wanted a coffee because she hadn't slept. He wanted her to do the store walk because he wanted to go home. In the end, she won out and got her coffee, drinking it as she did the store walk. The thing is, the length of their argument was epic. Considering it was such a small thing, they argued about this for 10 minutes. Such are SF supervisors...
Permalink
|
9th January 2009: Problems With Blogging!
Sorry for the lack of a blog posts lately, but I am having problems with the Linux distribution which I use to store this blog on. And before Linux haters crawl out and and mock - it's down to USB drive fragility rather than Linux problems.
And for technically minded people, the problem is that the drive is corrupting, slowly but surely. And this means that data is intermittently not saving. This is actually the fourth time I've attempted to write this post!
Permalink
|
6th January 2009: Math Makes My Head Hurt, Annoying The Bombshell, The Bombshell Won't Play Poker With Me, I Rock, and Is Queen Chav Really Human?
Video Of The Day: Placebo - The Bitter End
Free MP3s Of The Day:
Nada Surf - No Quick Fix
Nada Surf - See These Bones
Nada Surf - Blankest Year
Nada Surf - Do It Again
What a lot of people don't know about me is that I am a bit of a poker fiend. Added to this, I love programming. It's one of the reasons I got into blogging, because I could fiddle with HTML code on a daily basis. Anyway, I have an account at PartyPoker, and I play there every now and again. So I have been working on a poker bot lately. No, not one of those "evil" poker bots that steals everyone's money, but a semi automatic poker bot that makes decisions, bluffs, and never goes on tilt, but never interacts with the site's software either. For me, this is the future of poker bots, cold machine logic fused with human interaction. Anyway, I am currently improving it to play position as well as cards, and I have discovered something. Analysing statistics makes my head hurt! You see, my bot plays based on the expected value of cards, and the expected value of cards based on its position. Soon it will also understand bet sizes. But for now, I am going to let the headache subside!
Then at work I decided that I was going to be focused. It's something I am really good at as long as my sugar levels aren't too high. This really annoyed The Bombshell because I was super efficient and outclassing him at every level. He even came over to me and said "You know, I am not your enemy". I smiled and said that I wasn't his either, nor was I in a bad mood, I was just focused. He said that I could be focused and talk. I told him that it wasn't efficient and continued working in silence. Then I annoyed him after our small delivery by calling him Sparky The Wonder Horse for an entire hour. To the point where he stormed up to me and said "This is not my name! My name is... Not Sparky The Wonder Horse!" I smiled sweetly and said "Sure, whatever Sparky." He snorted and said "You are stand on tills. And not call no-one Sparky!"
But before the delivery, we were both really bored. We had like an hour before the delivery turned up, and we were both bored rigid. So, having earlier told The Bombshell about my win at PartyPoker, I offered to play poker against him. Seems that my little program has a lot of people scared, because he said he would play poker against me as long as I left my laptop in the canteen. Now, where is the fun in that? As I constantly tell people, I don't see why you would play poker for fun if you're not winning...
Now, despite being too hyperactive for my own good during the delivery, I did try to focus as much as I could. In the end, I managed to do it. I worked most of the chilled stock on my own, and then the majority of the ambient stock I worked too. The Bombshell seemed relatively pleased by this. Normally he gets annoyed if I work more stock than he does, but seemingly either he has cooled down over this, or he's realised that if the stock is worked, it gives him more time to chat with his beloved Vampire Queen.
But the most shocking thing last night was that Queen Chav was in a good mood when she arrived. No idea why, but she seemed in a good mood even with me. The Bombshell asked why I was still there despite it being past 7am. I told him that I was waiting for Queen Chav, just as she came past the tills. She asked what I had said, and I repeated myself. She smiled and said "Nice, sorry I'm late, had to defrost the car windscreen with my SF card". I told her that mum does that too, and then she laughed and said "I could be a while trying to swipe in, not sure how frost affects these things!" It swiped on the first attempt, which made her decide they were ice proof. She didn't even have an issue with me leaving during the store walk with The Bombshell. Strange things are afoot at the Circle K...
Permalink
|
5th January 2009: Paramore Decode
So, Google/YouTube decided to pull the very video I picked as Video Of The Day - Decode by Paramore. Well, long time readers of my blog, and my previous blog will know that I don't take things like this very well. So I have found another version, posted it, and used the HD link. Youtube - so you can pay your users, but you can't pay copyright holders? Explain how that works again?
Permalink
|
5th January 2009: Infamy! Infamy! They've All Got It Infamy!, The Bombshell Redefines The Word "One", SF Are Now Selling Ceesestrings, My Co-Workers Are Romantics, Where There Be Petrol There Be Ghosts, Troll Vs Slaphead - Who Will Win? and Weekend Missions!
Video Of The Day: Paramore - Decode (love their lead singer!)
Free MP3s Of The Day: (I am especially proud of today's entry, as I am a fan of Death Cab For Cutie and have been since hearing them on Yahoo Launch a few years back!)
Death Cab For Cutie - Title And Registration
Death Cab For Cutie - A Movie Script Ending
Death Cab For Cutie - For What Reason
So, Slaphead and Miss C are conspiring against me. I know this because individually they have both said as much to me. Miss C is more trecherous than Slaphead, because I think Slaphead, deep down, is an OK person. The thing is, Miss C is going to be off soon because of her maternity leave, and Slaphead without her is nowhere near as powerful. Plus he's getting annoyed at Miss C for not even attempting to resolve the conflict between herself and The Bombshell. Even Queen Chav has said to her that she really needs to sort it out for herself rather than just keep going "Sir!" to management.
Regular readers of the blog will know how messed up our rotas are. They are practically unreadable, and asking management for help is as useful as asking for a kick in the head. Although they are less willing to assist with helping read the rotas. Fixed days off are so last century. Anyway, so I asked The Bombshell which days he was working. He told me that he only had Wednesday off. I asked why, and he said he had no idea, and that I should ask Queen Chav. I figured that perhaps he only had one day off after not showing up last week. Then he turned to me and said "And Saturday, I am not work Saturday either." There are times when I worry about that boy...
Now, as with any supermarket, we have an offer on. Actually, we have several, but there is one particularly special offer this week. Ceesestrings. No, I haven't mistyped that. We have Ceesestrings on offer. I believe they meant Cheesestrings, which are god awful things. They are mozzerella with chemicals added and all the flavour removed. However, as Miss C pointed out, since we are selling sex toys ("Massagers with gel filled pads for comfort! Small but powerful action!") perhaps we are now selling some SF kind of G-String called C-Strings. As an innocent, I wouldn't know about such things.
As any other good petrol station, we stock a wide range of cards. And because we had nothing else to do, Miss C was reading through a lot of the cards and giggling at them. Until she saw and read a sentimental card. She asked me what kind of wife would send a slushy card to her husband. I told her that I thought my girlfriend would send that kind of card to me, considering how romantic we are when we're together. She told me that we were naive and sickeningly romantic. I laughed and told her she hadn't seen anything, that we were romantics online, and we're worse when we're together.
A few of my die hard readers will be aware that our store is haunted. There is a noise outside from the forest which sounds like a girl yelling "help me!" which we have all heard. Then there are the figures. We often see someone walking through our bakery, but when we go investigate, no-one is in there. Added to this is the mysterious sound of keys being tapped in the office when no-one is in there. But last night we heard a loud bang, like a tray being thrown on the ground. Miss C and I completed a thorough check of the store, and we were the only ones there. Even creepier was that nothing in the entire store was disturbed...
Now, a few of you might realise that our inside cleaner hates the outside cleaner. The othe day he called the outside cleaner a C word. Very very bad, especially considering the outside cleaner fought in world war two. We all feel he deserves a little respect. Anyway, so after that incident, Slaphead, Miss C and I all went to Queen Chav and reported the incident. Queen Chav agreed with us, and she called his supervisor. Now he is facing what he calls "Aspension". I think what he really meant was Suspension. I told him that his behaviour was uncalled for, he just snorted and said "I know it was Slaphead who grassed me up, and if I get aspended, I am going to come down and knock his block off!" Oh, I would dearly love to see that! You see, Slaphead, despite being a nice-ish chap, looks like he could handle himself. He has tattoos up both arms, has piercings, and generally, from initial apparances, looks quite tough. He also lives in a tough area and has for 12 years. I really hope The Troll gets aspended.
Lastly, I checked that I had the weekend off with Queen Chav. Turns out that I don't, which means that Saturday is going to be a blast! A non sleep filled blast, but a blast none the less. I am going to get home from work at 7am, sleep for four hours, shower, shave and then rush to the train station to go to my Linux User Group meeting and hopefully arrive in time to get to see the Ubuntu Developer Conference report. That is the real reason I want to go, because I am considering working on a distribution of my very own. All I will say at the moment is that I love Ubuntu's complexity, and I love Puppy's speed, and I see a gaping niche...
Permalink
|
2nd January 2009: Is Crackbaby Training For The Contender?, Is Crackbaby's Mouth Too Big This Time?, Working With The Firm Of Backstabber And Backstabber, Spiked Drinks, Jabba The Hutt Comparison For Queen Chav By An Outsider and Free Advertising!
Video Of The Day: Mercy Drive - Burn In My Light (with lyrics)
Song Of The Day: Gregorian Sense (MANY free downloads!)
Well, believe it or not, Crackbaby has managed to do it again. Twice. Apparently, yesterday he hit a guy when he was out on a New Year's Eve party. And had an even worse reason than last time. Apparently this guy was giving his girlfriend the eye. Good, sensible reason to hit someone. Then today, because he managed to get in for work, a woman was arrested at the store. His reaction when she came back to buy phone credit? "Did they put you in a cell yeah? You get locked up? You should! They should f'ing throw you in a cell love!" Ironicly, we believe HE is the one ending up in a cell, and not just a holding cell either.
Then there is the fact that I am working with the firm of Backstabber and Backstabber today. The Bombshell and Slaphead. Slaphead's mood is changing almost hourly on how he is with me. Sometimes he is cracking jokes, then sometimes he is down on me like a ton of bricks and not laughing at my jokes, just replying with a soul destroying "Oh". Prime example was earlier I said that I didn't enjoy working here anymore, and he said "Well, you don't work when you're here". I glared at him and he shrugged and said "What? You don't".
This said, I have had fun working with the pair of them. It all kicked off when The Bombshell came into the canteen with an evil grin and made us all coffee. Mine was fine, but he gave Slaphead half a dozen drops of lemon in his coffee. Slaphead has his coffee with milk. And for good measure, The Bombshell added lemon before and after. The Bombshell let him finish the coffee, then told him. He was very nearly sick when he discovered.
So, since my father is out of action for a while, and they both worry about my safety, my mother is picking me up from work for the forseeable future. Anyway, mum wanted to pick a few bits and pieces up, and as we drove in, so did Queen Chav. The outcome was hilarious. Mum sat in the car and watched Queen Chav prise herself out of her car. Mum's reaction when she finally saw Queen Chav? "My god, what a state! Talk about Jabba The Hutt. If I let myself get into that state, I'd shoot myself." These are comments from someone who fully admits she is less than a size zero herself. However, it does have to be said, these comments absolutely made my day!
Lastly, I have what I think is an amazing contest. It's a little bit of fun, but the prize is fairly decent I think. I am offering one of my 125x125 advertising spaces for free. No catches, if you win, your blog or site or whatever gets 100% free advertising for six months - a package worth $60. So, what do you have to do? That's up to you. What would you do for free advertising for six months? E-mail me with ideas, proposals, photos, whatever you feel, and the best/funniest/most novel entry I get by 31st January will win. There will be another contest next week, and that will be for one week only!
Pemalink
|
1st January 2009: Can Queen Chav Make It On No Sleep?, Will I Live To Be 100?, How To Pass 8 Hours Very Slowly, The Good And Bad Sides Of Alcohol and Car Crashes Can Lead To Shoplifting!
Video Of The Day: Atlanta Thrashers featuring Song 2 by Blur and We're Gonna Win by Bryan Adams
Song Of The Day:
So, a happy new year to all my regular readers, and a big, huge welcome to any new readers I might have picked up today! And with a new year comes a new look. And a determination to make this blog a bigger success than it's predecesor. Now, before anyone asks, no, I haven't switched to Wordpress. This blog is still hand coded by me, because I like to keep everything under my control. That way if it breaks, I probably know how to fix it, since I made it!
I actually felt sorry for Queen Chav today. Rare, but it can happen at times. She worked a 3pm-11pm shift yesterday, and is doing a 7am-3pm shift today. And I know she suffers from insomnia. I used to suffer from it, and figured out my own cure. Problem is now I fall asleep everywhere! Well, apart from work! My girlfriend will testify that my powers of falling asleep are quite incredible! I can even fall asleep mid sentence. I am often tempted to tell Queen Chav how to fall asleep in seconds, but then I get flashbacks of the way she has treated me over the last 5 years and smile at the thought of her inability to sleep, when she only has 8 hours between shifts.
Now, as we all know (or at least I hope we know!), yesterday was New Year's Eve. And I was working with The Bombshell. And I had a really good time actually. He's quite a nice guy when he's not stropping around being arrogant. We celebrated New Year with a glass of chilled sparkling white grape juice, since we couldn't drink alcohol (bah). Anyway, we toasted the new year and he gave me a really nice toast. "100 years life to you!" How sweet was that? Apparently it is a thing they do in Poland, they give each other a nice wish when they toast. I suppose it is similar to our toasts, but I've never heard anyone toast someone else 100 years life.
And the night itself was pretty dull. We had no delivery, which meant that we had to stretch our work out. We managed until 5:30am, then realised there really wasn't anything else left to do, so we had to mess around. But our fun was extended when The Troll came in. The guy is so dumb as rocks stupid that we can mess around with him and he just shrugs it off. Great example is that he will not shut up about how his girlfriend has been made secretary of "the club", which he goes to. He keeps going "Yeah! So! What she says is final! Heh heh!" Wow...impressive. Thing is, no-one from the store actually goes to his stupid little club, so it doesn't make a jot of difference to us anyway! But then this is a guy who knows I know about computers, and paid PC World £150 to set up his girlfriend's laptop. I mean, he could have paid me £75 and I would have made it not only beautiful, but run quickly and be an all round amazing machine. MacPuppy would have done the job. Instead, he plumped for Vista, on a £450 machine. I feel his pain...
We also had our share of drunks. To be expected I guess on New Year's Eve. But we had a fair mix of nasty and nice drunks. One guy came in, demanded to know if his pizzas cost £4.50 for 2 because he was black (he was white). And then got really angry and called me a sanctamonius little sh1t for telling him that it was because he was black. Apparently he also went outside and told The Bombshell to go back to Poland and then told him to fight him. Amazingly, The Bombshell backed down! Another drunk literally stamped his foot when he heard that I couldn't cash in his lottery ticket. He stamped his foot, tottered, and then said "Oh! You are going to pay for this!" I smiled and said "Not until after 6am sir". He stormed out. But we had nice drunks too! One girl told me that she thought I was as cute as a button. One girl told me that she loved my "pretty purple fleece" and several drunks suggested we closed the shop, turned up the music and dimmed the lights and had a party in the store.
But there is one drunk who needs particular and exceptional mention. According to what he told his dad, his brother drove his car into a tree. And the car caught alight. They got away, and fled the scene. Nice. So then they came to SF, and proceeded to rob the place. This was after they used our phone to call their dad. Problem was, they had an eagle eyed cashier behind the till who could read their number plate from across the forecourt and read it to The Bombshell who was on the phone to the police. They fled, which really confused their dad when he came to pick them up about 20 minutes later. Now, I normally have nothing but praise for the police, but tonight, they let themselves down. Or rather, one of their always rude operators did. She called and complained to ME that The Bombshell wasn't answering his mobile, and then ranted that he was wasting police time and hadn't given her the store number. Might have helped if she had asked for it... Then she ranted at me that they were being hammered with calls. Well, I get that, but to be fair, they do still need to investigate. Apparently it might be the weekend before they do. Oh, and she also complained that the number plate wasn't correct. Well, sorry, but you try reading a number plate in the dark from 50ft and getting every letter spot on. Grrrrr! Especially when the last two letters are NH, which I think I was pretty spectacular to just get in the wrong order. The rest of the number plate I got perfectly. Bah.
Well, that is the first post of 2009. Can't wait for the rest of it. To quote Torchwood - "It's when everything changes, and we are ready".
Permalink
|
Click here and sign up and we'll send you a copy of John Chow's book on how to create a successful blog!
Big News!
For 26th January 2009 only, Supermarket Soap will be giving away passes to Spotify. If you want one, you will have to be here between sometime after Midnight 26th January 2009 and Midnight 27th January 2009. There are 30 passes up for grabs and unless you win one tomorrow, they are currently only available to people who know members.
Rice Donated To Date: 2740 grains
Visitors To Date:
Sponsors
Click here to find out how to get your advert here for FREE
Recent Comments
Your Advert Could Be Here!
Recent Tweets From TSM: