Morbid movie nights

Over the past couple of months, every Friday is a DVD movie night for Big A and I. We alternate weeks. One week, I'll watch something of his choosing and the next week is my turn. Usually the choices come for his rather large collection of DVDs but occasionally, I'll pick one of my few chick flicks or vampire movies to watch.

Last week, when I heard that the young acter Brad Renfro had died, our choice of movies was easy since Big A only owned one movie that he was in: Apt Pupil. It was about a high school boy that learns about the holocaust in a history class and becomes fascinated with it. He traces one of Hitler's officers down to a man that lives nearby who has lived peacefully since then by changing his name (played by the always great Ian McKellan). Brad's character shows up on his doorstep, demanding to know the real story. He threatens to tell the authorities about him if he doesn't share his story, particularly what it felt like to kill all those people. As Ian's character is telling the boy about his time in Germany, both of them start getting more involved in it. Brad's character even goes so far as to buy the uniform that is similar to what the man use to wear (a humorous part in all this was when Ian's character sees the uniform and says, "Oh, I see I've been promoted"). Under the threat of having his cover blown, he puts it on and eventually through this and remembering the past in detail, he returns to the man that he was during that time. So much so that he grabs a cat and tries to stick it into the oven. Thankfully the cat was not declawed so after a bit of a tussle, it got away.

While I found Brad's character to be kind of irritating, it's a rather disturbing movie. Of all of Brad's movies that I've seen, I'd have to say this ranks kind of low. My personal favorite is the movie of his that rarely gets mentioned: The Cure.

I guess this week's movie will be something from the Heath Ledger catalog (and what a tragedy that is. Brad had many a run in with the police and drugs so anyone could have seen his demise coming although it was still sad. Heath's is an utter shock): Monster's Ball or The Patriot. Or both. Maybe this weekend will be a dead young actor double feature.


(Sidenote: Big A pointed out that things happen in threes - First Brad Renfro then Suzanne Pleshette and now Heath Ledger. My response: Suzanne Pleshette? That's more of an example of the old kids game of trying to pick out the one thing that doesn't belong in a group.)

Things that make me go "Hmmm..."

While watching the odd human being that is Lestor Holt on Saturday's "Today" show, there was a bit about a British Airways Boeing 777 that had crash-landed at Heathrow airport on Thursday. During the news snippet, the person mentioned that a possible cause was a bird strike. A 5 lb bird can take down a 803,000 lb. airplane?!? With all the new planes being built that are larger, 3 levels of seating, more leg room, a real bar, why isn't protection from a 5 lb. bird not addressed?

Something more than just bills and catalogs

Big A and I received an interesting piece of mail on Wednesday. It was a generic 'Thank You' card that you buy a box of 20 of and inside, was just a question mark (or an ear...there was a dot in the middle of the rounded section of the question mark) and a $25 gift card to Olive Garden. No return address on the envelope. No discriminating stamps from the post office since all the mail goes through Detroit. Big A thought the handwriting could be that of his 6 year old nephew. While it was really bad like a child's can be, it didn't seem to me to be from one. The first thing I thought of was it came from one of Big A's Chaldean relatives.

When we had sent out Christmas cards, we included his uncles Khalid and Jamal. In them, Big A wrote in the little Arabic that he has learned to date. Uncle Khalid sent us a Christmas card shortly after and in it was a short message written in English and then a much longer one in Arabic. Luckily I know someone that speaks it so I brought it to her for translating. It was a lovely message regarding the history of Arabic, the excitement of learning that Big A was trying to learn it and how happy he was to have heard from him and hopes that he will keep in touch with them. I use to always harp on Big A to go visit his father's relatives more often but he never does so over the years, I've given up. It was an interesting experience the one and only time I had been to Uncle Khalid's house. Somehow word spread that Big A was there so pretty soon, all of his male cousins start arriving at the house and they give him real hugs and kisses (not the usual one armed hugs that natural born American males give each other) and some how, Aunt Salma and all the wives of the arriving cousins cooked up this big feast and this was just a surprise, pop in kind of visit.

When I saw the gift card, I immediately thought of Uncle Khalid and dug out the Christmas card that he had sent that Big A kept to learn more Arabic from. There were some similarities such as the 'a's were all sort of written sloppy but the 'y's were completely different. The Christmas card had two straight lines to make the 'y' whereas on the envelope, it was more rounded and done all in the same stroke.

Other than pondering who it was from, I thought that was a really neat idea to send someone something like that anonymously. I think I may have to try that some day.

Part-time job updates

Update #1: According to Big A just a few moments ago, the store at whose job fair I attended last Friday called and wants me to call them back because they have a couple of questions about the background check. To quote someone that I told this too, "All this for just that job?" I guess passing them a cup of warm urine wasn't enough.

Update #2: The local library is looking for part-time people to put back returned books. They will pay more than this store does! Unbelievable. Also, if I want to break into the double digit per hour pay, I can work the front desk and check out books and collect fines. Like anyone ever pays their library fines.

Quote of the Day

The majority of my work comes to me via email and occasionally someone will have a quote as part of their 'signature'. I came across this one this morning:

"Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather." -John Ruskin (1819-1900)

And I thought I was optimistic.

Oh how I wish I was young and idealistic

In my class today, this slightly quirky classmate that I had in last night's class as well came strolling in. We made a bit of small talk and then she asked me if I've voted yet. I had forgotten what day it was but this isn't something I vote in anyway so since I had a feeling where this was going, instead of replying with a no, I just replied, "Not yet". She is just shy of turning 18 (does the dread after realizing someone is half your age ever end?) and the clerk's office had accepted her early voter registration but when she went in to vote, they turned her away. She was so ticked off at that. She was really looking forward to voting for Ron Paul. Now I feel kind of bad for not having planned on voting. Perhaps I will drop by only to vote for "uncommitted" in hopes of "uncommitted" beating Hillary Clinton. That would be highly entertaining.

Job Fair Part II: The After Effects

(Or is it Affects?)

My reaction to the news that I got the job was so overwhelming that I have trouble understanding the root of it and I've been pondering it (and stressing out about it) ever since. It could be because I may be embarking on something that I've never done before or could it be something bigger like some sort of sign that I shouldn't go through with it.

I realize I am probably overthinking something that barely needs any thought at all but every part of me wants to call them up and say thanks but no thanks but yet it could be fun and I shouldn't be afraid of trying something new so I feel like I'm kind of stuck. I already bought my cool red and white shoes (gots to match with the "uniform" of red shirt (any type, doesn't matter) and khakis) so currently, I'm leaning towards at least going through the orientation next week. Like Big A says, it's not that I have to have this job to support 5 kids. I have the luxury of being able to quit at any time. Which leads me to another thing that I've been pondering...people who have to work these 7.25/hr jobs because they do have a family and perhaps little education or just the bad luck of being laid off and unable to find anything else. When I figured out what I would bring home if I worked 20 hours minus state and federal taxes, it was about $103. A semi-decent amount to have as play money (not to mention perhaps an employee discount) or just to add to the savings account for a trip to Greece one day but for a full 40 hour week, that's only about $206. And that $103 is actually part of my thinking. Do I really want to be that tired after working the mandatory 2 nights until midnight on a week day and getting back up at 5 for my full-time job for "just" $103? Shouldn't I just be happy that I was able get a minimum wage paying part-time job while others that were there probably went home disappointed?

Any thoughts from the peanut gallery?

Job Fair Part I: The Experience

Yesterday's job fair for a particular favorite store of mine was an interesting experience. It was held in the banquet area of a nearby hotel. During the quarter mile drive to it from the entrance, I was getting a bit excited thanks to all the signs that were placed every few feet, proclaiming what a great place it is to work.

I got there about 15 minutes before it officially began so I sat and watched people coming in. I was kind of glad I wore my usual business casual work attire since that seemed to be what most people were in. I did spot one guy in a suit and quite a few in jeans and Detroit Lions jackets but much like wedding receptions, that was probably to be expected. There were also quite a few in red. I'm not sure if that was premeditated or just a coincidence. I was glad I didn't go for the red though.

At 8 a.m., we lined up, signed in, grabbed a name badge and a folder of all the forms to fill out. I found a place at a table where some of the others that I kind of chit chatted with earlier were seated and began filling in the forms. Since it was a job fair, I didn't cringe much at the idea of putting my SSN on nearly every form but I wasn't completely comfortable with it. I must've been sitting at a table of people
that had done this before because after filling in the initial form with my name and SSN and the corresponding small circles were filled in, I saw that they were taking some sort of test. I finally found my test booklet and began answering the multiple choice questions. They were questions about what I would do in certain situations and how my friends and coworkers might describe me. I was honest in answering even the one asking if I was more leader than follower, slightly more leader than follower, slightly more follower than leader or more follower than a leader. I sucked it up and chose the more honest third option.

After that, we were lead into Interview #1. I had a cute girl named Crystal who looked all of 25 and fresh from the sorority in her pearls. It was a pretty basic interview, I think. From there, I was lead to Interview #2 with Stephanie. Her questions were typical interview questions but a bit more in depth. Questions like tell of a time where I changed a policy. That's a tough question when your job is the bottom rung in a business that loves it's hierarchical structure. I blathered out an answer.

From there, I was lead to the 'relaxation room' which featured a television blaring this company's commercials and two more 25 years olds trying to entertain the crowd of people that were on average, older than them. I waited about 10 minutes before a lady called my name. Thinking this was finally done, I was looking forward to getting out of there but no. I had forgotten to sign one of the many forms and she also pointed out that I didn't fill out some sort of voluntary tax form that was included in my packet. I signed the one sheet and told her that I didn't fill out that form because it was voluntary. "So the only reason you didn't fill this out was because it was voluntary?", she asked. Correct, I replied. I then went back and sat down, knowing for sure that my folder had just been red flagged.

About another 10 minutes passed before another lady came out and called my name. As I was following her to yet another small room, I noticed that what was once a red folder, had turned into a green one. She sat down and said that they would love to hire me as a cashier/guest service person. I had a weird moment as she was saying that and it's something that I'm still trying to understand the reason for. After she said that, every part of me suddenly did not want the job. I didn't say anything though, I gave the usual 'Oh, that's great!' response. I signed up for my orientation at a nearby store on the afternoon of the 22nd (the one that I was hired for is still being built), forgetting entirely that it was Big A's birthday and instead, inwardly lamenting about having to use vacation time (I'm hoping I and just switch the weekday I normally have off now).

At this point, it was now 9:42 a.m. I had only been at this for about an hour and 42 minutes but I was exhausted. The next and last step was the drug test. I knew I had nothing to fear since I don't like poppy seed muffins (a Seinfeld reference) or drugs of any kind but thanks to Aunt Flo visiting this week, I was really praying for a blood draw rather than urinating in a bottle. Yet another form is filled out that required our SSN and this lovely lady that must've been the official overseer gave me and another lady our wide mouthed bottles and our instructions: fill it up to just past a label that was on the bottle and don't flush the toilet. While I was deeply grateful for container with a wide mouth on it (I've yet to master the talent of proper first placement so the wider the opening, the better the chance I have), my urge to ask about Aunt Flo's visit became to much and I quietly asked if her visitation was ok. It was but I think the lady felt for me and my discomfort because when I gave her the bottle and the test strips on it said that I wasn't on drugs, she told me that I was o.k. and called me sweetie. I won't go into more detail but it was not fun, I cringe just remembering it and I'm very thankful that my stone colored khakis that I had on came out of this adventure just fine.

Coming up...Job Fair Part II: The After Effects

Thursdays Thoughts

* I just received an invite for an at work baby shower for a coworker. This will be her second child. Her first was a boy born about 2 years ago. This one is scheduled to be a girl. I'm not sure it's proper etiquette to have a second baby shower for someone despite the baby being a different sex. Your thoughts?

* Big A heard yesterday that he is one of the lucky recipients of Michigan's No Worker Left Behind program. At the informational class he went to last month, they were told that of the 20 or so people in the room, only 1 or 2 would be chosen for the program. He will get his tuition, fees and even books covered for a two year program or training school. He's going towards the associate's degree and then probably taking that and transferring into a university for a bachelor's of some type. He's been reading up on what fields are popular currently and trying to find one that will need him and I keep reminding him that it should also be something he likes doing. If he can combine graphic design with computer programming and security, he could go anywhere and do anything.

* This week is my first of working four 10 hour days. I had to switch due to a class this semester that happens to be on a Tuesday and Thursday in the middle of the day. My employer allows for a 3 hour educational leave a week so that covered Tuesday so I had to figure out a way to accommodate the Thursday class and this was the only one without using vacation time. This week, my day off is tomorrow for a special reason: a particular favorite store of mine which is being built near me is ready to hire people for it and is hosting a job fair at a local hotel. My boss got a flier in her bag last week while shopping there so she brought it to me. She remembered my failed attempt at working there from last year and I had mentioned that story along with this new store being built once or twice since then. I'm still confused by the information on the flier thought...a job fair just to work there? And not to mention that all I really want or can do currently is 20 hours a week or so but I'm going to put on my usual work clothes (a tad bit overdressed for the their workers I've seen but it's either that or jeans. Better be safe and go khaki) and go anyway. I'm not sure what to expect tomorrow morning other than maybe free beverages and perhaps a bagel or muffin. I'll revise my resume to focus more on my customer service stuff and bring a few, just for laughs. If I'm asked why I want to work there, other than telling them that I love their store, I will also point out that their return desks are very unorganized and not something that gives customers a good impression since they are usually positioned right by the front doors and I excel at "putting things away". I think I will also mention that they shouldn't require a social security number on their computerized job applications. Or maybe I will just sit there and smile and keep the changes that need to be made to myself until I get in. What do you think?

Going from one escape from reality to another

With Big A's "little pewter army men" game playing friends either busy with their adult lives or no longer in the area, he is thinking about selling all of his men that he has had for years (their market value is between $1,500 - $3,000) and get a hobby that perhaps I could take part in too - model trains. I don't necessarily like trains on their own but I do enjoy a nice elaborate set up with a working train. During the many trips into hobby stores that are dedicated to armies of bygone era (model kits you create, books, already painted miniatures selling for $300, etc) over the past 8.5 years, one hobby store in particular has one tiny section of the cluttered, jam packed store that has a little village scene that isn't related to warfare at all which I usually kill time at while Big A is browsing in the other parts of the store. My uncle has a really elaborate village that he sets up over Christmas which has a train running through it and I've enjoyed that as well. My younger brother shares this fascination with little people and little villages too although so far, his wife has been able to curb any beginnings of a Christmas village.

Over the past week, Big A has shared with me what he has found online and I must admit, I'm interested especially after he said that he would like to recreate a miniature version of our Depot Town. Thankfully, it seems all the premade items are along the 1800's era. Our first decision was HO scale verses N scale. Just a week ago, I had no idea what that meant but thanks to Saturday's trip south to a hobby shop, now I do. At least somewhat. I don't know what HO or N stand for but I know that HO is larger than N but smaller than Lionel trains. It was a tough decision. I liked the trains of the N scale but I liked the size of the people in the HO scale. Since we had limited room on the table we are going to build it, we stuck with N scale since we could do more things with it than the larger ones. In the quest to have it resemble Depot Town, there will be some liberties taken since the track will be an oval and the railroad in reality does not circle around town but we hope to find buildings that resemble what is there, Big A will paint them to look more like the real ones as well as change any signs that come on it to reflect the restaurants and stores that can be found in Depot Town. We plan on even including the clock in the middle of town as well as the (according to people who haven't spent all their life looking at it) phallic looking water tower that can be seen clearly thanks to being built at the highest elevation in the city.

Murf talks football and politics

With the Iowa thing done and Hillary not doing as well as she and her team had planned, I'm starting to get interested in all that goings on again. On Saturday night, Big A and I were flipping between Ben Roethlisberger's interceptions and sacks (and Big A's repeated sayings that he's not going to watch NFL football ever again which he says every year the Steelers don't win the Super Bowl) and the Republican debate in New Hampshire. The tag teaming of Rudy and John and their snipes against Mitt and his record for changing his mind on topics was a bit juvenile I thought. I'm all for passive aggressive comments but I'm not running for President. There's a different set of rules for people who dare to do that. I watched Mitt on Meet The Press a couple of weeks ago and I have no idea why anyone would want to run for President. It just reaffirms what I believe: anyone that does, has a screw loose.
I was sitting there listening to Mitt explain his beliefs from years ago. Same with John McCain on today's Meet The Press. Tim Russert asked him about something that happened in 2001 and 2003. I vaguely remember anything that I did in 2001 much less anything that I said. These candidates must be emotionally and physically exhausted after such interviews. I know I was after watching Mitt's one hour interview.

While the Steelers finally went ahead of Jacksonville during the second half, the Democrats came out for their Q and A. I think John Edwards did an impressive job. His agenda item that he seems to focus on more than the other are lobbyists and I think they are a rather important topic. I don't think a lot of regular ol'Americans understand lobbyists and how pervasive and powerful they are. I thought he hit the nail on the head when he said that lobbyists were getting in the way of democracy. When discussing certain possibilities over who the final two might be and who might be their running mates such as an Obama-Edwards ticket or an even stranger match up, Huckabee-Paul, Big A hesitates at the former because from his experience with people from that region, he has doubts the Middle East would listen to a black man. I think he would have a better chance than any woman might (and now with the tragic death of Benezir Bhutto, the number of women involved is zippo)...but then again, I don't think they're really listening to anyone.

Steelers went on to allow Jacksonville to get in field goal range and ended up losing.

The lion and the lamb

Ever since Hooch has been introduced to the two cats Big A has owned since we met him, he has tried his darnedest to befriend them only to be antagonized by the first one and generally ignored and when pushed, hissed and swatted at by the current one.

Recently while on the computer, I looked over at the futon and saw this:


The Cat's look on his face as he stared at Hooch for invading his fleece was priceless:


Later on, I was able to capture just how close they eventually came before I left the room:
Separated by just a few inches of fleece. Just another example of how fleece and other soft surfaces can bring warring factions together. One day, someone will smarten up and have all of the Middle East lay on a soft surface (I would strongly recommend a Simmons Olympic Queen pillow top mattress) and I betcha they will come to a resolution.

I realized that I haven't posted many pictures of the 25 pound cat nor told many stories since we got him back in May. I'm not sure if you can tell that he's rather large from this picture but since this is his usual position, I thought I would post it:
Yes, he likes to be held like a baby. Once he assumed that position, he was out like a light meanwhile I was trying to breathe out of one nostril (I'm slightly allergic to cats) and hoping my right leg didn't fall asleep.

A lunchtime observation and a tale

* Eating crunchy shelled tacos during lunch in cubicleworld is rather loud (and a piece of shredded cheese just fell down inside my keyboard). I knew I picked the wrong leftovers to bring and should've had reheated steak instead.
(Sidenote: I learned this week that there isn't a better way to prepare steak than grilling (over propane, of course). I recently had it broiled and it was all right, just not as good. )

* College athletes aren't suppose to get gifts of any sort so why did U of M's football team get a $400 gift card to Best Buy just for appearing in the Capital One bowl?

* I was debating telling this tale but then got to thinking, who doesn't like a good bathroom story? No one! So I walk into the women's bathroom at work. It's a three seater. The first seat has this door that self-closes so it's rarely used because people think that it's occupied so they go to one of the other two. I walked in and saw the door was open on the first stall so I decided to use that one for a change. As I turned right and headed in, the first thing I saw was that the toilet seat was up. usually the custodians leave it up after they've cleaned it. It was rather late in the morning for this to still be up so I thought it was odd. Then I noticed "skid marks" and then I got confused. Did someone just poop with the seat up? If so, who does that sort of thing? Could it be a really considerate squatter who lifted it to prevent any splashes while they went? Perhaps but the splash marks would be underneath the seat anyway. If you can make it splash onto the top of the seat, I would suggest to this person to lay off the fiber. Could it be someone to actually prefers to sit on the cold, narrow rim of the bowl? It's a shame I was a few minutes late. I wish I had seen the shoes of this person for later identification

The curse of the gift card

I received a gift card to a bookstore 7 months ago for my birthday and felt an urge to use it all of a sudden. Despite yesterday being my first day back to work since December 21st, I must still be in vacation mode. I decided to live it up last night and went to the bookstore at 7 p.m. Usually I like to do everything on my way home from work. I hate coming home and then turning around to head back out but last night, I was in the mood for some nightlife.

I meander around the bookstore and find the 50% off 2008 calendar that I wanted for the kitchen. Last year it was a calendar on lighthouses which Big A and I both enjoyed. This year was my year to pick so I went retro - Strawberry Shortcake. I continue to meander around the store to find a book special enough to use the $25 gift card on. I hate it when I do this and I do it often when using a gift card. I have no qualms about dropping 10 bucks on a book I never heard of when shopping at the airport magazine stand or spending 20 bucks on a Sage-recommended book through Amazon but I don't dare try out something new when a gift card is being used. The lone book I really wanted I received for Christmas. I browsed through most of the store trying to find a gift card worthy item other than the calendar. I toured the magazines, new releases, cookbooks, computers and even fiction/literature. Nothing that I found I deemed worthy of the gift card. Here's hoping an $18 book that is really, really good is released soon.