Time For An Update

Didn't realize it has been a month since I've put up a new post. There's been a lot of minor changes, all for the better (I think).

To make a real, real long story short, I've moved to a new apartment. For the last year I've lived in a small apartment above a bar. The bar hasn't been doing so well financially because the owners didn't have any clue how to run a business. It turns out that bills weren't getting paid and the bank took control of the bar from the owners and I had about a week to move. Actually 6 days to move. Luckily I saw the writing on the wall and had a backup plan in place. So when the word came down, I was able to move into a new and much bigger apartment fairly quickly.

Work has been super busy as well. It's the summertime, and there are a lot of projects that need to get done around the plant which makes our lives much more hectic. For the last month I've been able to concentrate on the basic responsibilities of my new position, but now that I'm more comfortable the little extra time consuming adminstrative stuff is starting to get assigned to me, which is sort of cramping my style, but I knew it was coming. Some simple adjustments to my time management will allow me to get the extra stuff done too.

Lately it's been hot, humid, or hot & humid which sort of sucks. You can't even really enjoy being outdoors, let alone stand in front of a blazing grill when you feel like you're going to melt and you've got the wost case of swamp ass ever.

Went on a little fishing trip today. Maybe in a day or two I'll post a few pictures.

Man, what a drug.

There is the possibility that I'll be heading to the East Coast for work in about 10 days, so I decided to do a little research on the internets.

Do you ever go to Wikipedia and just lose track of time? IMDB used to do that to me, but lately it's been Wikipedia.

I went over to the online encylopedia and did a quick search on Portsmouth, New Hampshire which is near my possible destination. I got all of the useful information I could from the entry and started poking around a little and saw that Betty Hill is a so-called famous person from Portsmouth. I decided I'd check out her page as well.

After checking out Betty Hill for a while, I was lead to another page which I cannot remember, but that in turn lead me to Project Serpo. Eventually I ended up on Serpo.org and I was hooked for the rest of the night.

If you haven't clicked on any of the links yet, I'll be upfront: It's a story about an alien encounter. I don't get all Tom Cruise about aliens, but I have a healthy amount of both skepticism as well as an open mind about things extraterrestrial. If you believe in the existence of aliens (not the ones from Mexico!) you should check it out. If you absolutely don't believe in aliens, but like a good story I'd still recommend checking it out.

I have lost about 3 hours of my life that I will never get back, thanks to Wikipedia. I'm not complaining though - it gave me something to do.

Is there anything worse?

THAN A MOSQUITO BITE ON YOUR FUCKING ELBOW?!?!?!?!

The new me? We'll see.

Yesterday I hopped on the scale and found myself to be a good 60lbs heavier than I'd like to be. It's really no suprise considering the sedentary type of work that I do. What irked me though was that I've gained another 5lbs in the last month.

So I've decided to do something about it.

I went out and bought a bicycle. I haven't owned a bike since my the last one was stolen about 3 years ago. I've mapped out a couple courses around the house that I'll try and tackle. There are plenty of hills, so it should be a good workout.

I'm a Mt. Dew junkie. If you were to see me at work, you'd almost always see a green bottle near me. I don't plan to go cold turkey, nor do I plan to cut out soda all together (at least not intially), but the new plan is to up my water intake while decreasing the soda intake.

I plan to make time for the gym also. We actually have a gym at work. It's not the newest equipment and nobody likes to spend anymore time on work property than they need to, but the reality is that I live in the sticks and I'd have to drive 30 mins in each direction to find a gym to join, so I might as well use the equipment at work. It's free and it's close.

Hopefully I'll be able to make the changes and see the results that I want to see. It's so easy to make excuses.

A little over two years ago I wrote a post about the TV movie Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas. I've since turned the comments off on that post, but if I recall correctly I was ridiculed for my taste in television movies, but I withstood it by admitting my undying love for Christina Applegate.

So today I went on a three store crusade in search of a very specific USB flash drive. Color me suprised when I made a quick detour to the DVD isle in Target and saw that I could purchase my very own copy of Suzanne's Diary. I didn't pick up a copy though, because I couldn't solve the debate that was going on inside my head. It's a good movie with good acting and a good story. I wouldn't mind watching the movie again, but its not a movie I'd watch 40 times. With that said, can you really justify spending $19.99 for a movie that you liked but would only watch one or two times, especially a tv movie? After a little research I determined that this movie was released to DVD at the end of January of this year. Conclusion: I'll wait until it hits the $9.99 rack and possibly pick it up then. The movie could be deceptively popular though. When I was in Target there were only 3 copies left, so apparently I'm not the only one who enjoyed the movie.

In other news, I received a call from work today. It appears that today is my lucky day. I was told that I placed second in the competition for one available promotion, beaten out by a solid candidate with about a year of experience more than me. Which typically isn't a good thing - unless another supervisor tenders their two week notice, opening up another spot to be filled.

I'm supposed to start supervisor training next week.

Probably my biggest fault.

In the almost 3 decades that I've inhabited the planet I've come to learn that there are things that I like to eat, things that I don't like to eat, and things that I will not eat. There really isn't much deviation to this either.

The other night I was sitting at work talking to a supervisor when I was offered a chance to try the new Doritos Blazin' Buffalo & Ranch chips. I'm not the type of person willing to take chances with food. If I'm not completely sure that I'll like something, I don't order it at a restaurant and I don't buy it at the store. Since I was off the hook I gave the chips a try and I'm happy to say that I liked them. So that's pretty cool, now I've got something new that I can say that I like. That hasn't happened in about 4 years when broccoli was added to the list.

So if you get a chance steal a chip from someone and give it a shot. If you're not like me, you could probably just out and buy your own bag.

Sitting on my hands.

This morning I tested and interviewed for the promotion I'm trying to get. I feel like I did okay, didn't do anything to hurt myself but I'm also not sure if I did anything to help myself either. Five of the six candidates tested and interviewed today, the only remaining person will interview sometime next week. Hopefully by this time next week I'll know whether or not I'm getting bumped up.

The interview was about what I expected. I was asked questions by three people. The first half was questions about my character and what I could bring to the position. The second half was scenario based questions on situations a supervisor would come across.

The test was a little different than I thought it would be. I was under the impression that there were 30-50 questions, most being multiple choice and a couple essay questions. I was a little suprised when I found it was only 10 questions - all essay type. But I feel like I did a pretty good job.

We'll see.