Cripes, Gripes.

Well solid. I have this friend that I've known for like four years, but we don't get to see each other too much. So tomorrow, on my day orf, I'm actually driving to her house to see her for the day. S'gonna be solid. I'm looking forward to it, she's madd kuul.


-the gusto

Well now, Bob and George got back to be really fast; I got turned down. Can't say I'm surprised, although I'm still a little dissapointed. Whatever. I'll find some other hosting somewhere.

So yeah, this past week has pretty much been work and work some more. I also decided to start a sprite comic. I made ten of them, and sent the lot off to Bob and George about a half hour ago as a fancomic submission. If I get in, it'd be a sweet deal in terms of quick exposure on a high-traffic comic, free hosting, and an archival system. In all likelihood it'll get rejected, for whatever reason, and I'll have to find some other host for it. If that's the case, I'll try to get it hosted on a friend's site, and then the next step down the ladder is either buying some hosting or finding some free space. Woo? Anyways, making sprite comics is fun. In addition, it isn't particularly difficult either. Pretty much anyone can do it, even if few can do it well. We'll see where this goes. It's a better start than CHA ever got, and it's actually fun. I'm already twice as far with this as where I was with CHA anyways. Hurrah!

Is it just me, or do I get asked for directions a disproportionate amount of the time? I'd swear, I've gotten more people asking me for directions in the past two weeks than in the last 2 years combined. Maybe it's because we're starting to get more tourists in the old 'port, which kinda bugs me. Newburyport is a wicked trap, and whenever ANYTHING happens, downtown gets all clogged up like a malfunctioning commode, jammed with people from parts unknown. Tourists are annoying. Blarg.

So this is a (not rant) character description of my new boss. I have a new boss now because I got my location switched (all the dunkin donuts in newburyport are pwned by the same person). My new boss is awesome. While not as absolutely overflowingly nice as my previous boss, she is much more organized, at least it seems so far. Coincidentally, my new boss is my old boss's mom. Not only that, but she's totally reasonable. Like, today, she asked me about how I wanted to be scheduled, and if it was okay that I was on for 6 days this week. She asked because she really had nothing by which to judge how to schedule me. So I told her that while I'm perfectly fine being scheduled for six days in a week, I said that I would prefer working 4 or 5 days a week instead. No words of complaint, she simply affirmed that that was gonna be the case and that was that. Totally reasonable person. I'm pretty cool with all the people I work with.

Mini-rant: It bugs me when people are at the drive-thru speaker and they order painfully slowly. I have a hard time commiting an entire coffee configuration to memory unless I hear it in a short amount of time. So when someone orders really slow, I often lose the first part of how the coffee is by the time they finish saying the rest. I also am wikkid bug'd when I tell people "Be right with you" through the speaker, and then they just start ordering. I hate it partially because I have to feel like a rude jackass and cut them off with a "one moment please" or something. Blarg.

That game I was babbling about is gonna be done in python. So now I have to go about learning python, and getting good enough at it that I can program a two-dimensional mmorpg. Yay me? Hopefully I'll finish before I can legally drink.

So yeah, today I got this lady at drive-thru who pretty much (I think inadvertently) insulted a grand majority of my coworkers. When she came up to the window and was all "ZOMG someone who speaks English", which of course I couldn't get mad at, because it's all about being stupidly nice to the customer. That made me seethe, who the hell does she think she is? I dunno, that just made me mad.

I also need to figure out a good language for making a client-based graphical MMORPG. And then learn it. The game I'm adminning is all done in Visual basic, and is on an engine we didn't make. So eventually we as the admins want to make the game wholly our own, so we're gonna eventually create an entirely new engine and server program. While this will take a stupidly long time, in the long run it's the best thing to do, because since we'll all know what's in all the files, we'll be better about being able to fix bugs that come up and will have greater flexibility in what can be added for content.

This sucks, I haven't seen my Dad in a week and a half. I've had work every day but one in the last nine, and that one day my brother took the car so I couldn't go to my dad's. Because of the times that I normally work, it's a pain to be at my Dad's on a day I work, and as such I'm stuck at my Mom's most of the time. Since I have tomorrow off, I'm gonna see my Dad then, but I'd like to be there a more equal portion of the time.


Bah.

I like ice cream. I have forever, from what I can tell. It's really good. My favorite flavor happens to be Moose Tracks. It's vanilla ice cream, with little reese's peanut butter cups in it, with fudge blended in. Not like, fudge ice cream, I mean straight chocolate. Good chocolate. Moose Tracks is stupidly tasty. I also like frappes, due to their easier protability in comparison to a cup of ice cream, and the fact that they only use one hand to eat. I sometimes get a strawberry frappe instead of a cup of moose tracks, because they're also good. What I never knew up until today was that the ice cream place near my house makes frappes in every flavor of ice cream they have, not just chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry. I am now enjoying the best thing ever; my very first Moose Tracks frappe. I have tasted perfection, and DAMN; it is sweet.

So now I'm gonna talk about my boss. This is kinda half rant, half praise.

I like my boss a lot. She's really nice, and she's never really pushy or anything. She is, however, not particularly organized. Whether this is because she simply leads an extremely hectic life, or she just isn't great at keeping on top of everything, I don't know. So while I like having her as a boss because of how nice she is, it can get frustrating when she tells you stuff you should know in advance just barely soon enough for you to act on it. For example, last week I didn't work at the same location twice. out of the four days I worked, I only knew where I was working the following day on one occasion. And this week, so far, I have been called in on a day off without advance notice to work an afternoon, and was asked to work an extra hour today, which I declined. I like working for the four days I'm scheduled, I can handle that, except today will be the seventh day in a row that I've worked. Tomorrow I have a day off. Then I work, then another day off, then a day of work. Although I'm starting to think that maybe I shouldn't be surprised if I get called in on one of those days off anyways.

See, the point I'm making is, it's nice to be informed before hand, instead of being kept unsure of what's going to happen and whether your schedule that gets posted at the beginning of the week is gonna look anything like the schedule you will have worked at the end.


That was a big sentence. HUGHLGHUHGUHG

Haha solid. I had forgotten about the SAT 2's...And I got them back apparently. I just checked the college board site on a whim, and apparently the scores are back...Woo. I did well too, so that's a plus.

I took bio-m and math II, and I got a 700 and a 720 on them, respectively. I'm pretty sure it's out of 800. It is understatement to say that I'm relatively pleased with them. Yay me.

Alright, So I have the final archetype of customers I don't like. I've only gotten one so far, and that's what made me realize this archtype was around. The other ones aren't really so bad, and you can't be too mad at the people, that's just kinda how it is. This is bad though, this is actively being bad.


number...how ever many this is now. "Can you do this for me?" "n-" "'kay thanks."


People who will ask something and then blatantly ignore the answer you give. Just plain ignore.

This lady came through the drive-thru today. She ordered an iced coffee. I made it, and one of the other people working was at the window, so they handled it. This lady asks if we can throw some of her trash away! She starts to hand it in the window, while my coworker clearly states that 1. we can't take garbage in the window (by LAW, which she didn't say but I found out after) and 2. that there was a trash can about 20 feet past the window that she coulod deposit her trash into. This lady merely ignored her, and set the trash on the window. She promptly began to drive away (without her coffee). Seeing as my coworker had just been blatantly ignored and was simply rolled over with this lady's stupidity, she pushes the trash back out the window onto the lady's big SUV (revenge was probably sweet). The lady didn;t notice, but I bet it was a nice release to spill whatever was in that cup she put in the window all over the side of her car.



What I'm still trying to figure out is why she didn't notice the trash can, and if she did, why she still thought that we were her garbage collection service. We serve food through that window! Why did she think that it would be a good idea to hand us trash and expect us to deal with it for her? I think I'm gonna really start wanting to bring a sawed-off to work for dealing with this kind of person(not actually serious, I'm no murderer).


On the plus side of the day, several people I know from school came through; one of them was an english teacher, the rest were other people I knew. Cool stuff.

Okay, now that I've worked at a Dunkin donuts for a week, for real, I now have a few standard "bad customer" archetypes, in addition to a couple things that bother me overall.


number one. "The Mumbler".

Person that either orders very quietly or doesn't order clearly, hence is mumbling. This is difficult because you have to feel like a moron getting them to repeat the order 5 times so you can hear it.

number two. "Soccer Mom".

Not necessarily always a woman, and it isn't even the person themself. It's any person who brings in like 2-5 loud obnoxious children into the store, who constantly interrupt their parent's order with the usual "I want this!" and "I want this other thing!"

number three. "Belgian Waffle".

That one person who, after waiting in line for ten minutes, STILL can't manage to decide what the hell they want to order. I mean the kind of person who WILL waste all their time in line, and not even glance at the menu and figure their order out. I don't get many of these, forunately.

number four. "Ask first, read later".

The person who will ask if you have something that you will obviously have, because they didn't take the 30 seconds to glance at the menu. I had a person ask if we had iced coffee today. My store also has a baskin robbins, and I had at least a few people asking whether we had certain flavors instead of going and LOOKING AT THE ICE CREAM COOLER for themselves. Bah.

number five. "Give me a sign...".

People that try to order at the baskin robbins counter, when there's a big fat sign taped to the front of it that says "place baskin robbins orders at the dunkin donuts counter." Then, there's also the people that order at the dunkin counter, but then don't quite get it that it gets rung up on the registers at the dunkin donuts counter too.

number six. "Jingle Pockets".

People that pay all in change. 'nuff said.




I have one sort of "general" thing that seems wierd to me. Has anyone ever noticed that there's decaf espresso beans? Correct me if I'm wrong...but isn't the whole POINT of espresso to be stronger than normal coffee? Aye, I believe it is! So what's the point of having a decaf version of something that's specifically designed to be stronger? If you're too much of a wuss to take the caffeine in a latte, just get a coffee! Or even a decaf coffee! BAH.


And then one funny thing...I got this one guy, I think it was last week, he ordered a bagel and said, and I'm quoting as direct as I can remember, "I want the cream...the cheese...that you put on it." I'm pretty sure those were his exact words. Did this guy simply forget what exactly cream cheese was? Had he never had it before? I will never know.


I also hate it when people call the glazed donuts "honey-dipped". Y'know why? That isn't honey on them. It's a sugary glaze/frosting. Not honey. I also hate it when people pronounce "espresso" as though there were a "c" there, i.e. "exspresso". One last, f'real final thing, I will shoot the next customer that asks me if I play basketball.

Hey now!

I work at a Dunkin Donuts!

Y'know what that means?


CYNICISM!

I work at a national-chain donut shop, serving many many people food and beverages that they would most likely be much better off without. I make many many people able to be obese, overcaffienated crazy people. I must do this with enthusiasm and as genuine a smile as I can manage. My uniform includes a visor. I feel like a tool when I wear a visor.

After all that, really my job isn't too bad so far.

My coworkers are crazy cool (even if I'm the only one who doesn't speak both portuguese and english). Making coffee and food at Dunkin Donuts isn't really that hard, and pretty much after the first hour I worked I was running the counter primarily on my own (I mean a vertical learning curve). There's always something to do, whether it's interesting or not, but it usually is. The time goes fast too. You can also eat whatever you want on breaks, although as yet I haven't.

This is a personal gripe I have with the MMORPG genre. There is not a single one that I've found that has any kind of active gameplay. All you do is treadmill up your character with a passive combat system and micromanage him with skills and healing so he doesn't die. THAT'S IT. If I could have an RPG with an active battle system, in which aim is manual (somewhat like a irst-person shooter with swords), I'd be quite happy. Unfortunately, none are like this. Who thought it was a good idea to make games in which all the player does is play God for their character? You start a battle, let your character auto-attack, and use healing items. WOO!


This is why I still play FPS's, and don't bitch about them. I get bored with most MMORPG's within the first week of playing them.

Okay, so my computer is functional again.

The problem was exactly what my entire family concluded, and nothing else was broken, so I went to staples, dropped 60 bucks, installed the new power supply. My computer works fine. Hooray minor computer failure!

Okay, so this is a multiple-topic post.

Seeing as I haven't been doing a lot of updating recently, I've decided to brush some cobwebs. Plus, I have nothing better to do right now. I type this from my parents' computer, which is from the late cretaceous, and is rather slow. It actually isn't nearly as bad as it was running windows 98, but still it's rather sluggish. The reason I'm using it at all is because apparently my power supply is busted, and at some point I'll get a new one. I suppose that's the ideal thing to fail, because it is one of the least of a pain in the ass things to replace, and nothing ultimately gets lost, assuming it doesn't damage other stuff when it goes down. So ultimately this just renders me bored for a couple days until I can get my lazy ass to staples to get a new power supply. 50 bucks, no big deal.

Second topic only takes one sentence. I am on fucking summer vacation, all you bitches.

So does the third: My little project in social engineering ended a long time ago, merely because I was too lazy to keep at it. Woulda been cool though. I'mna go finish making dinner, I hunger.


-Gusto

And now I'm not. I'm dissappointed, but it isn't too terberil. I'm probably gonna hang out with the person at some point soon anywaigs.

Woah, so apparently now I'm going to a prom in a couple weeks. Cool stuff. The girl I'm going with is a really close friend of mine...There isn't anything particularly romantic between us right now, we really are just friends, but if that changed because of this...I wouldn't really mind. In fact I bet it'd be kinda cool.


-Gusto

HOLY. FUCKIN'. SHIT.


So. Awards thing happened today for those north shore music theater award thingies.



We fucking WON one of them. WE FUCKING WON!


We were nomm'd for best scenic design and best lighting design. Scenic design was won by adult designers for a high school, not really surprising. But WE FUCKING WON LIGHTING DESIGN!


Ki and I were the best damned lighting designers out of the schools involved in this damn thing!

Considering there were adults that won things for high schools, like scenic design, I wouldn't be surprised if we were up against a few for the lighting design. That means that a couple high school students, neither of which had done lighting design before, managed to put together the best damn show, light-wise, and beat out some adults! With some creativity and a shitload of hard work, we probably beat out adults, with like, degrees in this shit!



needless to say, I'm pretty psyched.


If I sound braggy, I apologize again. I'm really super excited about this.



-Gusto!