Saturday is a fun day for exploring Mood: celebratory
The call center place is at it again. They sent me home early, 2 hours early. I was sitting next to someone who was upset that they sent me home because she had asked fto be sent home. At my job they give out VTO or Voluntary Time Off, in theory this allows people to go home early that would rather be home and leave the rest of the slackers that need to stay at work. What I was issued was MTO or Mandatory Time Off. I didn't ask to be sent home I was told to go home. This has happened a lot lately but the last 2 days seemed to be picking up as far as call volume so they had not offered VTO and were not handing out MTO. Today it was slow the minute I got in and 3 hours into my shift I was handed a slip for MTO. It was irritating to realize that she had requested time off and still they had made me go home. What is new?
So I was off at 8 which through my whole days plan into disarray because nothing opens until 10 AM. I had planned to go straight from work to sell some DVD's and CD's but I had 2 hours to kill. Which is pretty hard when you are broker then broke. I headed home and wrote today's first 2 entries. Then I emailed people that probably won't email back and a few that might. FInally it was 10, so I grabbed some books I had wanted to keep and I headed downtown. I parked in the $5 maximum parking and discovered in all my brilliance that I had left my card at home so I was hoping I made at least 5 so I could drive home I had no plan B. My luck held out and I was able to buy a full tank of gas, pay the garage fee and have a beer and a burger at Henry's Tavern. The beer and the burger were not my brightest idea as far as money was concerned but I have been selling things left and right trying to pay bills and it just felt like I should at least enjoy a moment this month. So I ordered a Brewery BBQ Burger and A Deschutes Buzzsaw Brown to wash it down. The books I grabbed at the last minute paid for this indulgence the cds paid for the gas and I had 9 dollars left for the next fill up. The Brewery BBQ Burger was really really good and it was huge. It had a slice of Tillamook Cheddar, ham, the burger (obviously), an onion bun, and a great BBQ sauce. I was thrilled with it. I was irritated by the beer selection. Not because it was a bad beer selection but because it ionly had 2 of the brewery's own beers on tap. I am not sure I mentioned this Henry's Tavern is Henry Weinhard's place. There were over a 100 beers listed and the list was great. It had imports, local and not so local small breweries beers, rare and hard to find beers and a beer for every palatte. That includes the uneducated swine that only drink a steady diet of Budweiser and Bud Light for their dieting days. The beer I chose was pretty good, probably one of the better beers I have tried from Deschutes so far. Deschutes is a beer brewed in Bend, OR and no I have not been to that brewery nor have I been to Bend. Just to paint a picture of the awesomeness of the beer list I want to tell you that they had a Hoegaarden White Beer that Kevin K turned me onto when I visited him before Maryann's wedding. I have not seen nor heard of that beer since and had I seen it before I ordered that would have been the beer I chose because I think it was on tap. That is always an adventure. The decor of the place was a little disheartening. The name may say Tavern but its aim is definately for high dollar eatery. They had huge windows and big thick window drapes. Everything was black including the waiters uniforms and it had the definate feel of swank. They need to rename it Henry's Fancy Schmancy House of Other People's Beers. I was pleased with my burger, my beer was good, and the service was great. Was it a unique must have experience? NO, it was just like every other brewery that is popping up. An overdressed place to drink a beer, next time someone calls ther place a tavern I want a darkened room and shady characters in it and I want the beer to flow like waterfalls of delightful thirst quenching goodness. Would I go back again? Yes I would, in fact I am fairly certain that when I do start making money I will go back and have another go at the ginormous beer list. If I happen to be brewery jumping (if a beer drinker ever comes my way this will be something we do) Henry's will be passed over since it isn't really a brew house.
From there I headed to the streetcar and hopped on for a ride around. I was inside fairless square which meant I didn't have to pay to ride and I knew no matter what my parking bill would still be $5 dollars so I decided to get a free tour of the Pearl District. I caught it going South so actually all I saw was the Downtown. I rode it to the end in the downtown area and hopped back on when it cruised back by to take us back North. When I got near Portland State University I hopped off and checked out the farmer's market. Then I hoofed it North past the detestable Art Museum that I just discovered is at least 2 buildings which explains how we got lost in it and how come we never saw the Egyptian items they kept talking about. I kept walking until I was near the area where the library was. I had never been to a library in Multnomah County and I had been meaning to check out the Central Library so I walked in and was marveling at the beauty of the place when I discovered an exhibit on the 3rd floor. It was the opening of an exhibit showcasing some books from the rare books room the library has. Some books were from the 1400's , one was an original Beatrix Potter book and they also had an excellent and beautiful copy of the Audobon book with the wonderfully colored illustrations. As luck would have it this was the opening day so I was treated to my dinner and a three part orchestra from the Oregon Baroque Orchestra. It was really neat to see the old books and munch on free food while being entertained by professional musicians. I found two books as the music was playing and I signed up for a library card and then performed a Waltz as I left the building and headed across the street to wait for the streetar to take me back to the Pearl district. As I waited I took in the beauty of the Library's surroundings. THe youth shelter behind me, the kids hanging around the door way until someone from the shelter told them to stop milling about. The half naked bums that kept talking to me about the weather, at least it wasn't about how much money I should spare for them. Might not be a bad idea to spare that dime next time and find out where a good spot is so when I get tossed out on my ear for paying rent late I would have a heads up. Hehe. Anyways it was strange to see that amazing division of people just by walking out of the library.
After all that excitement my feet were killing me and I decided to head home and relax.
My New Bed Mood: on fire Topic: Reader of the Week
Well this is a combined award. I was in Seattle munching on one of Dick's tasty burgers. Not the chicken Tasty just the descriptive term tasty. Anyway I was midbite when I reciefed a call from my mom. She was letting me know that she was heading up my way July 9th. I was glad to hear it since I really like having visitors. She let me know she would be accompanied by Auntie (AKA: Maryellen, her sister). They were going to drive a super single mattress to me and stay for a few days. So I have half of a bed now! Woohoo no more air mattresses. Now I just need to get a frame to get me off the ground and a box spring or something to add support!
I have no idea what we will do while they are here but I bet Multnomah Falls is one thing.
Anyway Becky, Mom and Auntie are my latest Readers of the Week!
You can still contribute to the bed fund by going to the main page and clicking on the 'Get Mike a Bed' button. Maybe one day I will get it up off the ground!
The Horse and the Chickens Mood: mischievious
Who knew that publically mocking someone would result in a rapid response from that person? I made fun of my dad for not getting pictures for me of the chickens and the next day I recieved theose pictures. I love when bad behavior gets rewarded.
The chickens:
Apparently there are four chickens so I have named them Tasty, Soup, Barbie & Q. Of course all we see is 3 of them so I think Tasty must be off somewhere else.
As a bonus I also got a picture of Maryjo and the Horse.
I still haven't seen pictures from Italy but that is probably because they actually didn't go.... hehe
Washington..... it looks just like Oregon.... Mood: spacey Topic: One Ramblin' Ranter!
I transversed Washington today. We started at 8 AM and I just arrived home 10 minutes ago at 10 PM. We started out by heading North and West to Aberdeen. It is the home of the Star Wars Store. Somebody in Aberdeen has a store that only sells Star Wars related items. They had posted hours of 4 PM to 7 PM and a piece of paper at the top left side of the sign that said "Hours for this week". So apparently it can change depending on the shop owner's mood. In the bottom left corner another piece of paper was attached that said "Out of town guests can call him if they find the store unopened during their visit" and his number appeared there. After that bit of excitement it was on to the exciting town of Shelton. There is nothing in Shelton as far as I could tell it was the town consisted of a couple shops along the freeway that were real hard to get to. From there we headed further North to Port Orchard. Nothing to report about Port Orchard either....
After the Port Orchard stop the day was essentially done except for the drive home. We were across the bay from Seattle and Jason knew of a great burger joint. We were famished because it had been since breakfast since the three compadres had eaten. We had two choices we could drive down to Tacoma and back up to Seattle or we could hop a car ferry to Seattle. We chose the latter. It was 14 bucks to take your car from the town of Bremmerton to Seattle and when we got there we had an hour to kill. We decided to take a walk around the town of Bremmerton which seems to be all garages and empty buildings. I think there was like 20 stores in an area filled with empty office buildings. It was bizarre. They also had the Puget Sound Naval Ship yards there so maybe one day I will go back and tour some of those ships. I think that is something you can do in Bremmerton. The only thing from what I could tell. Finally it was time to board the Ferry and that was entertaining. I never knew those ferries could hold so many vehicles. I spent most of the trip in the car because I did not have a jacket to break the bitingly cold wind. I did get out and head up top and decided that the ferry ride was something I would love to do again with the right type of clothes. I was a little disappointed that no movie moments happened like the overboard horse in the Ring or the last minute motorcycle jump as the ferry pulls away from every single movie that has a ferry in it ever made.
Seattle was a little different then what I think of when I think North West. They had all the grungy weird people and the punkers but the city looked like it was trying to emulate a bigger city from the East. It couldn't pull it off with all the people strolling around in sandals. The parking situation was awful. I thought downtown Portland was abhorrent but Seattle seemed worse. We needed to hit the bank for our burger joint and we found both banks kitty cornered at one light. We spent 10 minutes looking for a spot neither place had bank customer parking and all the streets had either a no parking sign or they were full. We finally found a spot and then we headed off to the burger joint. The place is called Dick's drive in. They have good prices and great burgers. I was told to get 2 of Dick's deluxes (2 patty cheeseburger with the fixings) but I decided one was fine and ended up having to wait in line twice. Then I decided I wanted a shake and got back in line a third time. It was great and I recommend hitting that place up if you ever find yourself wondering about in Seattle. This place was on Broadway and it actually had lots of customer parking unlike the bank. The thing I found most interesting was the bags they gave you were employment ads for Dick's. It was amazing to read the bag to tell you the truth. They were geared at recent high school graduates promising that if they worked full time during summer and part time (at least 20 hours) during the school year that Dick's would help pay tuition to the college of their choice. The first year they would pay up to $2500 per semester and I think the next year of employment they would pay 5k per semester. All they had to do was be a graduate from the 2006 class with proof of graduation, apply for the program and get hired before July, work full time the whole summer and part time during the school year and they would pay that. On top of that Dick's pays 8.75 per hour starting plus 1005 of benefits as long as you work 24 hours minimum a week. This was an amazing offer and all three of us were floored. We are talking about a fast food burger joint here! My recommendation is to move here if you have kids before their senior year and force them to work at Dick's when they graduate high school. Am I the only one amazed by that?
Then we headed home and hit delay after delay. I am so glad to be home. I am saying good night because the call center starts at 5 AM.
A Day of Telephonic Blitz Mood: special Topic: One Ramblin' Ranter!
Today I went to Vancouver and I set up shop making calls to people and trying to get them to allow me in their office. I had about a 10% success rate which was better then my walk in success rate which is like 2%. I called people and tried to hang out on the phone as long as possible with the goal of being able to stop in and say hi. I ended up going to both places I had a favorable response from, gave them some information and left with a promise to darken their doorway again in the future. Time for an evil laugh MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!
I stupidly called a place in Newburg which is way South and West of where I live and ended up adding about 90 miles to my mileage totals for the year. Time for a cry of distress BOOHOOHOOHOO!!
Anyways tomorrow I am headed into the uncharted country of Washington and I will witness a few employee presentations first hand. I am also filing my Washington license along the way.
In the other insurance world known as Action Insurance I just got a writing number with the second of the 5 insurers. I also recieved word that several leads will be headed my way next week.
Things are starting to slowly roll forward. In the meantime I am selling cds, dvds, and books in hopes of making some bills get paid this month. Damn the lack of work at the call center! Wish me luck!
The world gone mad..... Mood: sharp Topic: One Ramblin' Ranter!
I recently wrote about my dad and Maryjo in an email newsletter I sent out to you all. I talked about the two crazy kids and their new acquisition the chickens.... I even demanded a picture from them. It was to no avail of course. The problem is that I was asking old people to do things that railed against their ancient natures! First I asked them to remember to take a picture. I mean come on they can't even remember where they parked the car when they are at home! Then I actually expected them to be able to use their 200 dollar digital camera.... the same one they took all the great shots with in Italy that noone has ever seen..... Then I asked them to email me the pictures.... it was an impossible task and one that I have a slim hope of ever seeing realized unless I go there and do it myself but with the price of gas and my current lack of fundage I will not be making that trip anytime soon. SO the picture of the chickens will go unfulfilled and the old people will live their life feeding chickens, Stewey and the horse.
What? Wait you didn't know they got a horse? That was so last weekend! Where have you been? Anyways they got a horse.... back to the chickens.
I am not even sure what the chickens Barbie and Q look like... I have never seen a picture of them.
What is it with you and the horse? Yes they got a horse! I am trying to pontificate on chickens!
Ok fine. Last weekend they got a horse. The horse is older and apparently used to be a show pony.... No wild mustang like they originally had plans to get. This horse is trained and is still in good riding shape. It goes by the name of Starlight and I believe whenever I get a picture of Barbie & Q I will get a picture of the horsey. Unfortunately the same facts I discussed earlier about them being to old to operate the camera and remember to take the picture still apply. You might have to fly out here to see this horse and the chickens. It probably would be faster to do that then to wait for me to get some cash flow or for my dad to remember the pictures.
Happy Father's Day Mood: lazy Topic: One Ramblin' Ranter!
Hello all I hope you have done something for your pops because without him and your mom getting jiggy you would not be you. Now that that slightly offensive reminder is out of the way I want to drop a quick note.
Yesterday I had a wonderful visit with Aunt Wanda and Uncle Don. After work we got together and hit the mall, Olive garden and Mervyns where they bought me some awesome flip flops!
I haven't been able to stop putting them on the minute I get home. They are nice and cushy I highly recommend these flip flops to everyone! Anyways they are doing well and it was fun getting caught back up. We talked about grandpa and his wheelchair's wheel replacement that according to the repair shop was supposedly no longer available. Within 5 minutes of looking on the internet Uncle Don found a place in Bend, Oregon. Apparently about that time the shop decided to actually look and found one in Florida as well. For a tire that is no longer made it sure does seem awfully available. Someone must have had a scheme going....
Hey Sun! Go down already! Mood: smelly Topic: One Ramblin' Ranter!
One of the things I have noticed about the NorthWest is that the sun never goes down.... ok that's an exaggeration it goes down but it is so late! Right now it is 9:23 PM at night and it is still working on setting! I am trying to go to bed and the sun is in my eyes! What is up!? I mean who would ever have thought that my bedtime would be before the neighbors' kids? Seriously they are out there right now running around and laughing! In fact they knocked on my door and made fun of me for being a big stupid baby head. I of course replied by exclaiming "nuh-uh!" and they said "nuh-huh!" and I called them a dumb dodo poop face and ran away crying.
Marketing sucks! Mood: d'oh Topic: One Ramblin' Ranter!
At the current moment my chosen career hinges on one important detail and that is marketing. All of it is cold marketing meaning I introduce myself and try to get them to listen long enough to set another appointment. There are various methods to this form of marketing the face to face intro and the phone marketing. The face to face has several approaches: the direct approach in which your whole goal is to talk to the person in charge and set an appointment, the corporate drop where you go buy drop off information and if you can meet the head person cool if not thats fine you get a name and a number and call them the next day. The phone is basically a bucking bronco you try to get in and hang on long enough to get permission to bring information by. I have not done any phone marketing as of yet but I think I am ready to try it. In my travels I have found the face to face go great for me if I have a partner but the minute I try by myself I tend to allow myself to skip places and when I fail too often I allow myself to call it a day. I need to figure out how to overcome that and one of the ways I am thinking about trying is by making calls asking if I can drop by the next day while I am in the area. I figure this will help me stop feeling like I am not invited which is one of my hang ups. I figured with as much sales experience under my belt this would be something I could overcome but I have found it is not so. I allow the newness of face to face interaction to discourage me before I even begin. I have tried pep talks but it's not really working.
So I talked to my mentor and he said he will try to come up with some more clearly defined rules or plans to follow for me to get started and get comfortable doing this for the rest of my life. He also said we would set a day to do a 3 - 4 hour blitz of phone calls so I can see how he does that. In the meantime I am doing online courses to better familiarize myself with the products I offer because that is essential to building my confidence. I need to know how to respond if I get a question adn until I started doing the online courses I was a little lost the brochures they had out are hard for me to pay attention to. Knowing I will be tested helps me learn better and also helps me identify key areas to know a little better. Things are starting to get better in that part of my life, now all I need is for the call center to hang onto me a bit longer. At least long enough to start making sales witht he insurance side.
I had a bit of good news the Oregon department of insurance finally made my affiliation with Action Insurance official and I will be getting my own logins soon for the 4 insurers I do not have yet. If you reside in Oregon you maybe getting a call about a quote and hopefully I can save you some money. To all the Phoenicians it will be a little bit before I can afford my AZ license and when I do I will be giving you a ring as well.
A review of Peter Jackson's King Kong Mood: happy Topic: A Rambling Review
It seems that all Hollywood can do is remakes these days. The movie doesn't even have to be a good one originally to warrant a remake. Hollywood is all out of ideas and way too afraid to take risks so they keep schlepping half-witted movies at us to see if they can make a buck. Peter Jackson decided he would actually try to present us with a good remake. So he assembled his cast loaded onto a ship and went to skull isl.... wait that is where they go in the movie. Peter Jackson takes the movie back to hobbitville better known as New Zealand. He takes the ideas from the original groundbreaker film of the same title sans the 'Peter Jackson's' part and tries to flush out the story a bit. I figure he felt that the 1933 version was a little light on the whys and he felt today's modern audience would need to know some whys. Actually I think it's just because he has no clue how to make a short feature since all his blockbusters clock in at 3 hours or more. After watching The Brown Bunny I was ready for a good movie and good ol' Petey did not disappoint.... well for the most part. Here is my review of PETER JACKSON'S KING KONG!!!!!!!!!!
The movie starts in depression era New York and Peter Jackson spends the entire opening credits making sure we get that. We are introduced to Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts) an impoverished Vaudeville stage actress with big dreams and a reality that is about to go bust. The playhouse she performs in closes the doors and she is out of a job and hungry. Her old manager tells her to pursue her dreams of the big stage and she tries to but she is shut down by the talent scout and handed an address of a place that is hiring. He recommends she work there and then get out of this crummy town.... We head across town as Carl Denham (Jack Black) watches the film he has shot with the investors who of course hate it. When they decide to turn it into stock footage to get their money back he runs off with the film and decides to set sail that evening for 'Singapore'. At that point his naive assistant lets him know that his actress has dropped out and he sets off to find a new girl to fit her dresses. Ann shows up at the place she was sent to only to find that it is a burlesque show and with her dreams fading she takes off. Carl happens to see her before he is about to go into the burlesque show to search for his star. He somehow convinces her to go to 'Singapore' and they head to the boat. Where we have a reluctant captain that takes a check to set sail that night from a man he already knows is broke. He traps the reluctant author of his screenplay Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody) on his boat so that he can get a completed screenplay. So Carl is a real winner a liar, cheat, con-artist and kidnapper. As they leave the docks the cops show up to late to arrest carl for stealing the footage he had shot, which makes him a fugitive as well. On the boat he reveals to Jack the real destination is Skull Island. The crew and captain freak out but this unlikable guy that Jack Black brings to life convinces them to follow his plan anyhow. Then the first mate and captain discover Carl is a wanted man and they are ordered to turn around just as a strange fog settles down and they crunch right into the big rock skull on Skull island.
At this point I was ready to call it a day. I was bored to tears and was afraid the movie would continue like this and that Mr. Jackson would totally 'Godzilla' this film. I had been reading the paper and doodling through the whole part and only stopped occasionally to wonder how Carl could convince people of his plans when no one seemed to like him. He was not all that compelling and his ambition was outright ugly to see. I know that there wouldn't be a movie if they didn't but what type of excuse is that? I like Jack Black but I did not like him in this movie and perhaps that was what he wanted to do with the character. Either way I had a hard time believing the crew of the ship wouldn't have knifed him a few times and dumped him overboard. The captain who seemed to deal in poaching and smuggling animals was a more likeable character. I almost stopped watching the movie when they were about to turn around because Carl was a fugitive. I couldn't buy that the entire crew had missed New York's finest send off at the beginning of the voyage. It almost derailed the film for me. It definitely made me stop and start doing other things. I washed dishes, made my bed, read email, went for a walk, bought groceries, talked to my grandfather, ate some grapefruit, cooked dinner, watched some tv, watched a made for tv movie, and took a nap. Then knowing that I had to finish it for the sake of the review at least I sat back down and started from where I paused it.
Skull Island. Carl steals a life boat and takes the film crew, the writer and the actor and actress to the island and they start filming on the 'deserted island'. It is really creepy and then all of a sudden the natives spring forth and start attacking leaving several in the party dead. The captain shows up and saves the day. Once again I was not real clear on why. They all go back to the boat and are getting ready to leave when Ann is taken off the boat by a pole vaulting native. The pole vaulting was rad by the way. Jack who has fallen in love with her by now realizes she was missing and sounds the bell as the captain is about to take off. The men, every one of them outstanding people that want to restore Ann to the boat for pure virtue, amass a rescue mission. They come in guns blazing only to miss the arrival of King Kong as he takes his snack back to his lair. Carl of course sees him and keeps it to himself and they all run out into the jungle to save her. Carl apparently figures that KK just wants to be a star and tags along with his camera. This is where it finally gets good. King Kong flings Ann around all over the place and you wonder how she would survive. I am betting she could have had a major whiplash case against KK had she pursued it. The boys run into a huge bunch of stampeding brontosaurus's for a spectacular scene where several men and brontosaurus's lose their lives as they run from what appears to be velociraptors. The remaining group of rescuers have a few people give up including the dashing actor who always plays the hero in his movies but is not so heroic in real life. The remaining group head further into the forest. Meanwhile Ann puts on a vaudeville act until KK gets a little rough and she is forced to put her foot down. KK has a major tantrum and when it doesn't work he runs away and so does Ann. She runs off through a jungle with the largest gorilla anyone has ever seen and does so with out thinking "Where the devil am I going?" King Kong terrorizes the rescuers as they are crossing a ravine and sends them all plummeting. Ann sees this and ends up running the other way. She of course gets in trouble with a few large lizards and then bigger trouble with a few large Tyrannosauruses. King Kong shows up from nowhere and takes on the T-Rexes. There are three of them in this version and this scene trumps the great brontosaurus scene. Flashback to the intrepid rescuers, a few survive the fall only to be assaulted by ginormous (pronounced like gigantic and enormous had a baby) bug and scorpion. They are saved by the actor and the captain and as they all decide she is dead Jack decided to continue searching on his own. Carl and the captain decide to hatch another money making scheme and try to capture KK as he follows Jack and Ann back to the boat. Jack rescues Ann, KK follows and somehow gets captured and then we are in New York.
It appears to be months later and Carl is promoting his show of the 8th wonder of the world. Jack is watching his play he wrote for Ann to star in be performed by another actress and Ann is elsewhere. Plug in the old story. KK sits chained in iron, Carl says he is harmless they have a show and camera flashes infuriate KK and he goes ballistic and starts smashing wintery New York. Trying to help out Jack shows his face to lead KK away from a trolley and KK remembering the jerk that took his special lady friend takes off after him. Ann arrives in time to save jack and to hang out with KK and just before they get married the army starts firing missiles at them. KK climbs up the empire state building to get away and once again just before the marriage the military spoils his fun. Airplanes shoot at him even though all he wants to do is smash up town and maybe eat a few people or so. She tries to save him but cant and he dies and falls off the Empire State building to make it complete.
Hope I didn't spoil the ending.... if I did do yourself a favor and see the original version too. I do recommend this movie just be ready for the stupidly long beginning. I enjoyed it even if it made me start thinking: How would the insurance companies respond to claims from large ape damage?
Oh yeah and: Do you think anyone was unlucky enough to have a 20 foot gorilla fall on them? Could you imagine telling that to your family? Hehe.
celebratory
on fire
mischievious
spacey
special
sharp
lazy
smelly
d'oh
happy