Blogging from Work, sorta

Writing this (well, transcribing now) entry manually at work to evade the snoops that might monitor my account for unauthorizzed surfing or blogging for that matter.

Anywho, work is boring as ever. Nothing is going out of shipping due to some authorization issues, so a lot of folks are doing housekeeping. many trying to look or stay busy, and word is tomorrow we'll be getting 7 or 8 more new contractors.

Been entertaining finding another job, except it gets tough trying to look for jobs while working. Something inevitably gets ignored. But there's just too many slow days here, and not enough conversation to keep me engaged.

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My uncle is visiting from Woodstock, Canada, doing a road trip across Canada and the US. They stopped over to celebrate my nephew's first birthday, and is spending today with my Mom doing the Seattle thing. Space Needle, Duck Tours, that sort of thing. My uncle and aunt are pretty nice folk, and it's my first real impression of them, especially him. I knew him when I was younger of course, but at that age uncles are just your father's borther who gives out red packets during the holiday and not much else.

But getting to know him was kinda nice - he has a lifelong love of photography, so the conversation's easy. He has some interest in video as well, though I think my quick attempt to sway him to Apple was fruitless. It did get me thinking about how my life would've been different if my father was around to help coach, encourage, or even just been around to listen to me. Spending time with my uncle certainly gave me a little preview.

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Back at home. Boy, work certainly has it's fair share of characters. So the new guy has the kind of attitude that he wants to save some work for tomorrow, even though there's an hour of work left on the shift. I ignore him and continue working anyway, and I think out of guilt or whatever motivated him, he brought over the other receivers to help. I didn't really need the help, because with every project, there's always the possibility that too much help can actually be counter productive. And did they put that to the test.

One of the guys proceeded to form a human chain, from the pallet of freight to the shelf. It is literally a step or two from the pallet to the board, and there was going to be a four man team working on it. I broke the chain and said something smart alecky, and just stepped back. It's just ridiculous. What topped it was that guy who wanted to quit an hour early then talked about how lazy other people were. I am close to tearing my freakin' hair out. I might just be job hunting. Lower pay doesn't seem as bad as bad company.

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I'm a proud Daddy! My wife started training Zoe on the potty today and she hasn't gone the whole day while wearing underwear. She sat on the potty and played some Nintendogs. Then a few minutes later, she went again. Then a few minutes later, I asked her because she was being touchy, and sure enough, she went on the potty. Yay for her.

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So yesterday was my wife's birthday, and we spent a majority of the day at my brothers because it was my nephew's first birthday. But then my wife and I went to see "The Simpsons Movie" and it was exactly what I wanted. It was like a super-sized episode, except it was actually more cohesive than the usual episode. The plot was actually quite coherent, and like a fine-tuned Pixar movie, every line, sight gag, and joke is carefully timed, well-placed, and never disappointing. The crowd enjoyed it as much as I did, and the PG-13 rating is perfect for the movie. It never felt like they were just trying to skew it older just for the movie - the jokes that probably bumped up the rating was well deserved.

I actually thought of Dave because there's a whole chunk devoted to Alaska, so that was fun too. I won't disclose any jokes - they are just great to discover on your own. The only thing I'd advise is that there are indeed a little bit of stuff after the credits, though having seen the after credit sequences, it's nothing major you'd be missing if you end right after the movie.

One more thing, the movie actually is pretty touching in one spot.

The Coolest Job

My Mom seriously has the coolest job. Well, not for her, but more for me. See, she is in charge of the lost and found, and when an item comes in and none of the hotel staff had reserved it, my mom will claim her name on it. After three months and if no guests claim it, then it's hers. So the last big claim she's gotten was the 20 gig iPod, so that was pretty cool.

Yesterday she came downstairs, and with the same indifferent nonchalance, she handed me a case and asked me if it was useful to me. I opened it and just about flipped out - it was a Nintendo DS game case with 8 DS games and one dubious "Elf" GBA game. Although there were a couple duplicate games I already had or have, and a couple of weird card based kiddy games, the rest are actually top shelf games. New Super Mario, Star Wars Lego 2, Viewtiful Joe, and Mario 64. And since I've been unable to actually play these games because Alex is using them for potty training, I did what any rational person would do. I took the duplicates and lesser liked games and traded them in, and got a used DS at EB Games for around 58 bucks. So now I actually have two DS-es, and I reclaimed my red DS which has, so far, no scratches yet on the touch screen. The used one has some barely visible ones. Not too bad though.

Anyway, now I can actually have my DS again, which is kinda nice. I stopped playing it because it was always in the bathroom.

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My uncle and aunt are going to visit from Canada - they moved out to Canada about a year before I did, and though I do have three younger cousins, they opted out of the trip so I won't be seeing them. I don't know how to really feel about it, since my uncle was always one of them uncles who would not really talk to their nephews, just give them money once in a while for their birthdays. I'm less of a nephew and more of my father's son, I suppose. My aunt has left a bit more of an impression on me, but not much more. They're pretty nice as far as I remember them. When we first moved to the States, we did go visit them for about a week or so. That was 17 years ago. Of my three cousins, one of them I haven't even met yet since he wasn't born yet.

Oh well, better get some work done.

Oh yeah, I think I'm still gunning for the PSP. At least for now.