Monday, November 25, 2002
Tag! I'm it. The receptionist got really sick today at work so I was acting as the receptionist for the afternoon. I say "was" but I mean "am". There's nothing to do. The phones just aren't ringing. There's nothing to do. Only having worked here for two months I am unaware of little tasks that could be done and since I am trapped at this desk having to be within hearing distance of the phone I have decided that my time would be best spent playing Snood.
It's kinda a boring thing to have the phone ring only once every half hour. Luckily if I am seated at a computer with web access and nothing to do I can quickly turn that into a winning combination. What better to do with my free time than catching up on all my web reading and updating my own site?
NotMyDesk has been both humorous and insightful as of late. I found the latest few entries to be rather uplifting. The one about porn wasn't as uplifting but was funny nonetheless.
I feel the warm stale breath of Christmas on the back of my neck. This holiday just gets more an more complicated every year.
Posted by chefelf @ 02:23 PM EST [Link] [13 People Love Me!]
Sunday, November 24, 2002
For some reason November 24th is a date I always associate with Thanksgiving day. Every year I am shocked (and astonished!) that Thanksgiving falls on anything other than November 24th even though clearly it is one of those holiday's whose date is forever shifting in time.
Jen came to visit me this weekend and we had a wonderful time. We went to many different places including Neath's where I had one of the four greatest meals of my life. We also just hung around and did nothing of any great value other than watch part of the movie Homefries and go to Target. But does it really get any better than that? I bought wrapping paper so I consider that an unofficial beginning to my Christmas shopping.
I feel kinda bad that I haven't written anything in a good long while but I've been kinda busy. This whole "having a job" thing is totally putting a cramp on my ability to do web-related projects. They actually expect me to spend a minimum of seven hours a day there! Of course I'm trying to perfect a method of working on the web sites from work so that way it would be like I was getting paid. And the best part is that would be coming right out of the taxpayer's pockets!!
I should have taken Jen to meet my parents this weekend but I am a terrible son/boyfriend so I didn't. We had very little time and over the two-week "planning" phase of one of our visits we usually cram so many little silly things into our agenda that it just wasn't feasible. It is hard to do so much in a mere 48 hours. Oh the hectic agenda I keep!
My parents will soon be asking me what I want for Christmas so I will have to begin thinking. I've got a few ideas so if you are reading this, Mom and Dad, I will have a list prepared for you shortly.
Posted by chefelf @ 10:53 PM EST [Link] [10 People Love Me!]
Tuesday, November 12, 2002
I came home from work early today after all the fervor and hullabaloo. When I checked out the latest news from Tegrisome -- a lanceandeskimo.com company -- I nearly coughed up scalding hot coffee through my nose. For some reason that thing about the skunk really got me.
My roommate picked up the Star Wars: Episode II DVD for me this morning like the dutiful beast of burden that he is. Apparently it came with some lame calendar too which has a really lame mix of the most important possible characters from the two trilogies (i.e. Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi) mixed with the most inane and useless characters (i.e. Aurra Sing, Nien Nunb). I don't want it to come off that I'm being hard on Nien Nunb, mind you. He has always been one of my favorite characters, but he is useless and his impact on the movies and the Universe is less than or equal to zero. I just have a soft spot for all of the figures that I inexplicably acquired in my youth.
Even though I am so clearly mortified by the horrible left turn that the Star Wars franchise has taken that I lack the ability to boycott it. It seems that I eat it up at an even more feverish pace, unable to wait a second longer than is absolutely necessary to snatch up whatever horrible merchandise they toss my way. Just so I can hate it.
Just when you think that Star Wars can't possibly be cheapened any more, Lucasfilm pulls off something that you previously never dreamed possible. The latest is the commercial that says: "Who do man? Yoda man!"
Your reaction is as follows:
- You hear it.
- You want to die.
I had a great time this weekend in New York. My girlfriend is pretty damn cool. We spent a great deal of time lying around watching star Trek and Brazilian game shows. So far out of all of the visits I have made to New York to visit her we have managed to avoid doing anything related to New York. I'm just happy to feel well in her presence rather than sick like the first month or so that we were "going out". I also had my first fully alert and awake drive home where I wasn't seized with the uncontrollable urge to nap while driving. Generally we make "small plans" like watching a particular movie together or going out to eat a certain place and about 50% of the time we accomplish these plans. This weekend we were supposed to go to a chocolate factory but for some reason we just never accomplished this. Instead we bought a "Fudgie the Whale" cake for her roommate. It's kinda the same. If you think about it.
I am going to allow comments on this post just for the hell of it. It's like a test of sorts.
Okay, that totally didn't work at all. Never mind.
Posted by chefelf @ 04:54 PM EST [Link] [26 People Love Me!]
Thursday, November 7, 2002
I really don't like arguing about anything political with people. I do have my opinions but I reserve arguing about politics with only my closest of friends. These discussions are usually limited to shouting matches at 3:00 in the morning over Hitler's true intentions in Europe with a frazzled Rory and generally never include current events. Sometimes Paul and I will just share a: "Yeah, that Bush sure sucks, huh?" "Yeah."
I was helping out one of the older gentlemen at work today and we started talking. He told me that Bush was going to reinstitute the draft. This reminded me of some hogwash that my friend Paul (not the Paul of lanceandeskimo.com fame) was spouting shortly after September 11th--the first September 11th, not this most recent one. He was telling me how he was going to get drafted and all of this garbage. I assured him that he wouldn't but the more I tried to comfort him by telling him that he wouldn't be drafted, the more angry he became about being drafted.
Here were the reasons I presented him for not getting drafted:
- At 25, Paul was simply too old to be drafted. When there were plenty of men in America from 18-22, I can imagine it would be some time before they had to begin drafting 25 year olds. Short of a full scale invasion of China I could scarcely imagine a scenario where America would take that kind of casualties.
- He was married.
- He had a kid. I don't think that America makes a practice of turning kids fatherless and mothers into widows.
- Most importantly... there wasn't going to be a draft. Period.
I thought that those points were quite valid and that his argument of "I'm telling you, kid!" was just a little weak.
So fast forward to this afternoon and I'm having this argument again, this time with a man in his sixties/seventies. Now he was telling me that I was going to get drafted. For some reason people telling me that I'm going to get drafted just pisses me off and I feel compelled to argue with them.
So I gave my standard argument. "I don't think I'm going to get drafted."
"You don't think so."
"No. I really don't think so."
"You shouldn't be so sure."
"Oh, I'm sure."
"Well we'll see."
"Yes, sir. We will see."
"What makes you think you won't get drafted?"
"I'm too old."
"How old are you?"
"25."
"Oh, you're not too old."
"I'm pretty much at the end of the drafting spectrum."
"Well if you're healthy you'll go."
"In the event that there is a draft, which there isn't going to be, and I am healthy enough to go, then I'll also be healthy enough to run to Canada."
"You would go to Canada?"
"You're damn right I'll go to Canada!"
"God, when I was your age I'd already been in and out of the military."
"Excellent."
Canada would be excellent! I would totally live in Canada indefinitely rather than have to fight in a war. There's no question! I like cold weather, I'm French-Canadian, how bad could that be?
O Canada! Terre de nos aïeux,
Ton front est ceint de fleurons glorieux!
Car ton bras sait porter l'épée
Il sait porter la croix!
Ton histoire est une épopée
Des plus brillants exploits
Et ta valeur, de foi trempée
Protégera nos foyers et nos droits,
Protégera nos foyers et nos droits.
Posted by chefelf @ 08:05 PM EST [Link]
Wednesday, November 6, 2002
Work was kinda fun the other day. We are in the process of sending out a MASSIVE shipment of a new product. I spent 17 hours talking on the phone to customers and counting order forms. It's a pretty interesting process to examine from the inside but I am reminded that my days are numbered and my quest for permanent employment continues.
I spent the day today thinking that I'm an idiot for thinking that was fun.
I just talked to my girlfriend and found out that there is a 50%* chance I might be able to go to NY this weekend to visit her. That would be fun. It would turn an otherwise kinda boring long weekend into a metropolitan adventure!
* Figures according to Chefelf's calculations... not his girlfriend's.
Posted by chefelf @ 07:05 PM EST [Link]
