TU Cent Thoughts, 1-20-06

[greybeta]

Weekend Plans
Well, I'm getting my Level 1 Judge Certification this weekend...in Little Rock. Yep, I am making that five hour drive. Well, two hours really since I'll be staying in the Rouge's (anime Mike) apartment.

The Black Mage (lucky Andy) and the Tank (random Jameson) will be accompanying our Ft. Smith contigent to the Guildpact Prerelease. By Ft. Smith contigent I mean Mike's roomies and a couple of their friends. The calculating Black Mage gets one free flight as he finished as the runnerup in last year's States tournament in Arkansas. I fully expect our contigent to win at least a box, if not two, of Guildpact. And that doesn't count the compensation that the heretic White Mage and cunning Rouge get for judging.

I'm meeting an old friend from TU for breakfast on Saturday morning (waffles and bacon, mmmmm). Well, not really old since she's actually one year younger than me but she left early to go to pharmacy school. I have to say that's pretty strong, because they say your undergraduate years are your golden years. Then again, love knows no bounds as she's living the married life now.

Then I'm coming back early Sunday afternoon to do layout for the Opinion section. Hopefully, with more judicious planning, I will be done in less than twelve hours.

EAT ME

Come get some, Pac Man!

Swing dancing
Through certain means, I was coerced into going to a Ballroom Dance Club meeting. I should know better when I want to talk about an opinion article not to meet someone at a dance meeting, but I'm way too naive.

But you know, it wasn't half bad...

A major difference between News and Opinion
I shouldn't use "I" to interject my opinion on a news story.

On muckraking
Soon, I will become a rather unpopular student with the administration. So be it.

Or, as the Monsieur Maine would say: C'est la vie.

John Cleese Rocks!
His reading of C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters is fantastic!

Verse of the Day
"The eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are full committed to him."
~2 Chron. 16:9

Convos of the Day

LeeAnn: So, how does a coach improve their basketball team? Running laps? Shooting hoops? Teaching them to keep their center of gravity low?
D2: Steroids!

Smiles: I'm graduating this spring!
D2: Good riddance.
Smiles: Ouch! That was mean even for you, Your Most High Bitterness.
D2: Actually, Smiles and Sunshine, that was my nice side. You don't want to see my not so nice side.

D2: Hi, my name is Daniel Tu and I came here to talk to you about doing an article for the Collegian.
Natalie: Aw, you poor thing! You probably didn't want to swing dance for an hour and a half, did you?
D2: No, no, I owe Smiles quite a bit so it's just repayment of some debts.

HV: Do you know where the finals schedule for this semester is?
D2: Yeah, it's under the Academic Calendar under the Academics tab of Campus Connection.
HV: Show me.
D2: See, here's Fall 2005, then we scroll down to Spring 2006.
HV: Oh, I should have scrolled down.

Rouge: Repeat what you just said.
D2: I'm bringing a twelve foot sandwich in for lunch.
Rouge: What?!?
D2: Yeah, but I can probably only eat half of it. You can half of it.
Rouge: Dude, repeat the dimensions of this sandwich.
D2: It's twelve feet long.
Rouge: Twelve feet or twelve inches?
D2: Twelve...feet. Er, I mean inches.
Rouge: Okay, that's better.

Rouge: The secret to not doing chores is to be not very good at them.
D2: You're eventually going to have to be good at them some day.
Rouge: No, I'm only going to have to do them some day, not necessarily be good at them.


Quote of the Day
"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."
~Martin Luther King, Jr.

Link of the Day
Yahoo admits it let White House access its databases. Big Brother is watching you!

Sports Report
Steelers! Steelers! Steelers!
(NFL playoffs trump all in January)

Entertainment
Apparently, I really need to see Brokeback Mountain. Oh, wait, I hate going to see movies in the movie theater because my first job was working at a movie theater (yes, two summers and a school year at that job scarred me that badly).

Curiosity question
What was your first job?

Comments

[tessbelle.livejournal.com]

My first job was a grocery store cashier. Coupons scarred me for life.

[odclay.livejournal.com]

THat's my current job. Absolutely horrible. The only good thing is, it's a form of birth control. I shall never, ever have children. Well, if I do, at least I know how to raise them.

[tessbelle.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know...except I was previously a teacher for two years. I obviously didn't learn. :)

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

But I want to be a teacher...

[baronbrian.livejournal.com]

So is it the unabridged version of Screwtape? And if it is then I have to get it. I loved that book when I finally sat down and read it.

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

Yes. My friend said he found them online (I'd search for them myself but I'm on a time squeeze right now.)

[kmg-365.livejournal.com]

Yahoo admits it let White House access its databases. Big Brother is watching you!

I wonder if Google would be such an ardent supporter of our privacy if the request had been made by advertisers or other corporate entities ;)

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

If it was oil...yes.

[kmg-365.livejournal.com]

Oh, and my first job was working in at a local television sales and service store. I was 15 and was paid $2 per hour under the table.

[fub.livejournal.com]

I love that shirt! For Sinterklaas, my sister made me a shirt with Blinky (the red ghost) on it.

My first job that paid money was probably picking strawberries in the fields of a local farmer. My first official job with a contract was with the University of Nijmegen, as junior researcher. I even published a paper then.

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

Dinosaurs must have been roaming the earth when you published that paper. ;)

[visgoth.livejournal.com]

My first job was also my first business. I was 11 when I started it. I did oil changes and topped up washer, radiator, and power steering fluid as necessary on neighborhood cars. I later used it as a front for my business selling girlie magazines to guys from school. It was profitable in both incarnations.

My first job working for someone else was assisting the groundskeeper at the base golf course. I was 12 when I got it. I got that job as punishment for shoplifting from the Base Exchange. When I was done with my community service, the groundskeeper asked me to stay on. I had to quit because it was taking time away from my more profitable underground magazine selling business.

My first job that I applied, interviewed, and was hired for was as a bar-backer at the VFW in Steinwenden, Germany. I was 14. I often made as much as $300 a night because the bartenders gave me part of their tips. Otherwise I would have made about $40 a night.

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

You did oil changes when you were 11? I still don't know how to do oil changes...

[visgoth.livejournal.com]

It was a tough sell at first. People don't trust an 11-year old to change their oil right off the bat. I started with the guy next door. He was complaining that he didn't want to get all dirty changing his oil, and the oil-change place charged too much. I told him I would do it for the cost of the oil and filter, plus $5. He sort of laughed at me, which pissed me off, because dad had taught me how. So I told him if he bought the oil and filter, I'd do it for free (the first time), and if I messed it up, I'd pay twice the cost for anything he needed to do to fix it by mowing his yard and giving him any money I got hold of until I paid it off. He took me up on it, and hovered over me to make sure I did it right. He was pretty surprised when he didn't need to correct me on anything, and he told the story to some of the other guys in the neighborhood, and it spread that way. It was a word-of-mouth thing, I don't remember ever going to anybody and offering.

[eyelashpeekie.livejournal.com]

My first job was serving food at a retirement apartment complex. I was 15 and actually really liked it. The people were nice for the most part, except for the inevitable curmudgeons.

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

Ah, those cantankerous curmudgeons...

[odclay.livejournal.com]

I was a cartpusher at this big home improvement store. Got to walk around the parking lot all day, returning carts, keeping the front of the store clean, and occasionally helping customers carry their stuff to their vehicles. For $6.00/hour, $8.50 on the weekends. No complaints.

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

Not a bad first job, Jacob-kohai.

[tu-oboe-girl.livejournal.com]

When I was 14 I was hired at CiCi's Pizza, my first job. It was the only place in town that would hire a 14 year old, and for some reason, I was dying to have a job. I guess I thought it would be cool.

Anyway, the first night the boss had me bus tables. I hated it, but I worked really hard. Before the night was over, the boss called me back over and told me that he loved my work ethic. He said after 10 minutes out there, the tables were clean and shining. (I guess he was comparing me to the other couple of yahoos who were supposed to be doing it, too, but spent as much time in the kitchen drinking cokes as they did cleaning.)

Anyway, he said with a work ethic like I had and my intelligence *puffs out chest in pride*, he was promoting me instantly to cashier. So, I learned the ropes of cashiering, and I think I was pretty good at it. Overall, it was an ok job. Ultimately, it ended badly and I quit, but most of the time it was fine.

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

Your parents taught you right, Marie.

[stella-x3x3.livejournal.com]

Target...WOOOOOOOOO!?!?!

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

:)

[cathawk.livejournal.com]

First job? Besides babysitting, my first job was working as a waitress at Friendly Ice Cream. I always wanted to work in a movie theater.

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

You wouldn't want to work in a movie theater. Trust me.

[cathawk.livejournal.com]

**Grin** Okay, I'll trust you on that.

[purplkat.livejournal.com]

My first job was a summer job at my father's lobbying firm when I was about 11. I would go in with him at ohmygod! in the morning (which is the time of the morning when you look at the clock and go 'oh my god.') and mostly file copies of bills all day. Sometimes, I'd have to shift the files over to make more space, which would be an all-day project that would cause me to fall behind on filing the new bills, and it was all very exciting and way busy. I also did a little bit of low-grade secretarial work such as sorting and delivering the mail, preparing mail to go out, and phones when the secretary was at lunch. ("Geyer and Associates, this is Michelle. How can I help you?")

Then, at the end of the day, my father would take me to the cafeteria in the capitol building, the secret one that's almost impossible to find where the food is actually good (unlike the public one), the prices are more reasonable, and the bigshots come to eat. We'd have dinner and then, if there was some late end-of-session stuff going on (there always was), we'd make the rounds together. I got to meet and talk to a lot of pretty important people during that summer.

We'd come home really late and I'd fall into bed exhausted, only to do the same thing all over again the next day. I loved it. I wished that summer would never end, and I was really sad when we left around midnight after going to like three pizza parties on the last day of the session.

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

Caf food that is good and reasonably priced? It's like the wildest dreams of your average college student have come true! ;)

[purplkat.livejournal.com]

You have to remember that this is where the Senators and Congressmen genrally ate if they couldn't get out to have a meal at a good restaurant somewhere. So there were some pretty important people around to make sure that the food was good and they weren't paying too much for it ;)

The public cafeteria downstairs was crap, though. Really gross.

[sleepybluekitty.livejournal.com]

John Cleese Rocks!
His reading of C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters is fantastic!

I'll have to try that, I've been wanting to read that book again, but hearing it is just as good.

[sleepybluekitty.livejournal.com]

oh yeah, my frist job was a janitor. I loved it, no people to deal with and good pay.

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

Yeah, janitors get good pay because very few people want to pick up the trash.