I have a new toy.

I finally downloaded Gimp and I have been learning the tricks. Lots of fun. So far I have three new icons to show for it, but I am sure that they will not be the last. I may have to start making icon posts once I get the hang of what this thing can do.

I had been seriously tempted by Photoshop, but the price is a bit much for a budget that is formed from a retail job (besides, there are beads to buy!). So, freeware it is. Those of you who are artistically inclined should give it a shot. It is a bit complicated, but the basics are pretty easy to learn. The fact that I bought a book made it a lot easier, but the only one I could find was fifty bucks; thank you, employee discount. There is information online about how to use it, plus the help menus, but I have always found books to be easier to learn from.

Look out, world. I now have a decent program for playing with pictures.

This thing beats the snot out of Paint.

In other news:

Quote from the seven-year-old kid across the aisle from me at dinner, as he was talking to (I think) grandfather, "You're fifty-three years old and you're still alive?!?!" Mom, who is still alive and in her sixties, nearly choked when she heard it.

The office politics at work continue to be interesting. M is still on the outs with just about everyone, even though everyone seems to like him on a personal level these days. Boss Lady (as I should have mentioned a while ago) left to pursue things far away from the book business and has yet to be replaced. Instead, we have been treated to a series of "rental" managers from other stores, who invariably try to take over the store and make it a clone of their own. They have all failed at that, but have been able to leave without starting any wars. We do have a new assistant manager and she is already well-liked - she is fairly easy-going and has a wicked sense of humor. B, my supervisor, will be leaving sometime in the near future, and thinks that I should try to replace him. He can keep dreaming. There is no way I'm going to try to be a manager right now. With my luck, I would end up working very closely with a bitch-on-wheels general manager. I'll keep a safe distance until I know what kind of person ends up in charge of the store, thank you very much.

I really don't see myself ever trying to be a manager there, to be honest. The chain likes to eat managers and then spit them out again. I have yet to come across anyone who has really been happy with the decision to get a set of store keys.

But I don't know what my plans are. Someday, I'll have to figure out what to do.

General politics continue to boil around here. The blogger who was wrestled out of the Omni Hotel is now being held pending possible charges of assault against some of Sen. Allen's staffers. I don't know many details, but I doubt they will be believed unless it was caught on tape. It will not help Allen's campaign, I'm sure. The Republicans are dealing with a scandal on the national level that will likely hurt them as well; a major religious figure for the Christian Right has been forced out of his job as pastor because of accusations involving male prostitution and meth use. A part of me is glad to see the neocons getting kicked in the teeth, but I'm also just so sick of them that I wish the political muck could be cleared away. Why can't these people act like the adults they appear to be? To a certain extent, that goes for both sides. I've been yelling at the attack ads from everyone's campaign lately.

Is it Tuesday yet?

This was fun.


yoinked from several other journals.

Hey stormcat, I thought you would find this amusing.

What kind of car was that again?

I've got a new cell phone. My old one was very simple, had monochrome screen, no polyphonic ringtones, etc..

Now I have a flip phone with camera.

This thing makes me feel absurdly happy.

Between the new tricorderphone and tweaking FireFox (new theme is really cool looking) I have definitely been getting my geek on the past couple of days.

My father, the engineer, just got his first cell phone. His is also a flip phone. The silly man has yet to change the ringtone or wallpaper. He clearly needs to brush up on his knowledge of how to deal with a new gadget.

We had fun looking at the things at dinner tonight (how dorky can you get? :P) and going through the manual that came with mine. There was a purpose to this - I am not sure how many pics I can send per month without making inclusion in the family plan a burden on Dad and Phyllis (I told him I would need to see the paperwork on the account, but he thought it would be in the manual).

It was a lesson on how much things have changed since I was a kid. I can't imagine having a 128 page manual with the rotary phone we had when I was small. If we had asked for one from the phone company (Ma Bell, I remember the days) we would have been justifiably laughed at. Everyone knew how to use a phone, for crying out loud.

So much progress, but now we have studying to do before we can even call someone. Even before we get the phone, we have to decide on the phone company, the phone plan, and the phone model. All before we can even call someone. I, for one, would not want to go back to the days of the monopoly, and for about a thousand reasons.

I have emailed several people already to tell them what my new number is. If you did not get the message but would like to know it, just reply here. I'll be screening the comments.

I can connect directly to LiveJournal again! No more proxies! I can comment again!

Thank you LJ support!

Enough with the exclamation points.

A couple of things I really wanted to comment on before:

punkgeezer - now you know why I've ranted about Ann Coulter in the past. The woman really is nuts. We'll cheerfully ship her across the pond if you let us.

oceanica asked a TMI type question a couple of days ago - if you ever figure out what causes that, let me know. I have the same issue.

Some work stuff that needs to be blogged about:


In all of my time at that store, I have not seen another mess that can come close to matching what I saw in the cafe that night.

Hey guys.

I have been having issues accessing LiveJournal the past few days. I have been reading everything, but I can't post any responses. Very frustrating.

I hope to have this mess sorted out soon. In the meantime I think email sent to thisdaydreamer at livejournal will get through in case anyone wants to reach me.

*watching nervously* I wonder if I will ever again watch a shuttle launch without my stomach being in knots.

update: All seems well for now. I think I will be nervous again in thirteen days when the shuttle is scheduled to land. There have been too many disasters for me to relax.

I believe whole-heartedly that we must continue to explore and learn about space, but it scares me sometimes.

Well, my leg is healing nicely, and by healing nicely I mean it hasn't fallen off yet. My entire right shin is purple and hurts enough to keep me from sleeping. I have discovered the joy of AdvilPM, however - wonderful stuff. Maybe I won't be so damn exhausted tomorrow when I go back to work that I burst into tears over nothing; that was the state I was in on Sunday and I stayed home all day on Monday. And I now have a nice collection of reusable ice packs, which feel like heaven during this hellish time of year. Showing off the damage is rather amusing. The sheer size of the bruise is enough to elicit gasps.

One of my coworkers has a bruise he can't show off, but everyone can see he's in pain and that one thigh and buttock are significantly larger than the other side. Schadenfreude, anyone? This is the guy who always gives me the most hell, too. Hehe.

The drama over thebookseller has now blown over. The issue that shut down the community was, of all things, the default userpic. LiveJournal suspended a community because there was a corporate logo in the icon. Ye gods. It sounds like B&N didn't have anything to do with the mess which does reassure me. I have little doubt that someone in Corporate is watching the communites and forums, but I don't worry so much about a crackdown. The company has always made a big deal about Freedom of Speech....

Meanwhile, bn_booksellers is thriving. Like the dork that I am, I keep checking to see if there are more members or posts yet. 18 members so far! *grin* I'm having a little bit of a power trip in designing the look of the community and deciding on the rules and what I want the thing to be like. Working in my own journal is one thing; running a community means I get to impose my rules on others. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. I am so looking forward to banning my first troll.

Fuck it.

bn_booksellers

I've been Metaquoted!

Yes, the "tyop" was deliberate. I was being silly. *grin*

I wish I could say the same of some of the other things I have put out into the internet lately. I really need to proofread more carefully.

In other news, I like closing shifts except for the fact that I am doomed to be up too late afterwards. I really should get my sore feet and silly head into a horizontal position soon. I really should have done so about two hours ago, actually. I did get a lot done at work today/yesterday, considering the fact that it was a closing shift on a Saturday. Now if only we could have straightened the store a little bit more quickly.

Officer J teased me about the piles of reshelves at information soon before we closed. I am beginning to remember what he was like to work with. At least he takes as easily as he gives. Manager B was a more sympathetic figure when she sat on the floor and pretended to sob while she tried to reduce the chaos in the magazine section.

Anyone who complains about the state of the store tomorrow morning will pay a hefty price.

Well, I'm off. I have to be at work at 11:00 in the morning, and I don't want to sleep through my alarm....