The Workiest of Posts: Satur-dull edition

Welcome back! Or "Hello" for the first time. Today, in this work edition blog post, we'll be discussing assorted topics that I'm not sure what they are yet. Let's begin.

To kick things off, a bit of clarification: we can absolutely discuss the topics that come up, but that'll mostly be after the fact as I'm not currently talking to anyone. That being said, I'm (almost) always willing to talk 'bout stuff and things or whatever. 

Disclaimer over; Real talk, go!

I'm a big fan of sharing excitement and experiences. To be a part of someone jumping into a new adventure and watching them see things that I've become disenchanted with fills me with vigor and vicarious excitement. This past week has had a decent amount of that for me. I've recently gotten a friend to join me in a game I've been playing for almost two years now, and he's almost entirely brand new to it. It's great to see how excited he gets for all these things that I know so well, being able to share in his excitement is a wonderful things. Actually, the same thing happened with him and a show I adore (called Steven Universe, it's possibly the best cartoon I've seen, and just a genuinely good show), and he now adores it too so we can get excited about it together, which is splendid. He and I really are two peas in a pod. 

Speaking of Steven Universe, I freakin' love that show. It's clever, and charming, gets you invested in the characters, shows the characters growing beautifully at an appropriate pace, heart warming, eventually becomes heart wrenching because you've become so invested in the characters, surprisingly poignant, funny with great one-liners and puns (e.g. Steven, holding a plate of stacked waffles: "It's not exactly healthy, but it's in a stack, so I guess you could call it, a balanced breakfast!"[the delivery of that line in the show is so on point]), takes itself both seriously and not seriously simultaneously, has great musical numbers and tone-setting background music. All in all, it's a marvellously crafted work of entertainment that I have found little to no flaw in since its debut. It's one of the, like, three things I could wax poetic about but will avoid so as to not get anymore crazy. Rest assured, I could go on for pages about it, but I won't.

Now let's talk music. Lately I've been listening to Mother Mother and Modest Mouse almost exclusively. Why? I dunno, but that's what's been happening. Probably because I'm subjected to 70s music at work all the time, so I need something different and more modern during the brief windows of time when I'm walking around and listening to music. I don't tend to listen to music at home, I've often get YouTube videos or Netflix playing whilst on my computer. I like music, I really do, but I like a lot of other things too. I'm also not that explorative when it comes to finding new music (though I have been enjoying some Mystery Skulls a bit recently, which was entirely a YouTube find [apparently my phone autocorrects the "Y" and "T" in YouTube to be capitalized...] ), I'm just a guy who doesn't like change so my music in my phone doesn't change that frequently. Meh, I enjoy it, that's all I can really ask for. If I find or am introduced to new stuff I like I'll probably add it to my phone's repertoire.

Let's see... what else to talk about... um... I think I might be spent for topics for the time being. Well, that's to be expected, work posts are rarely that exciting. Fun fact, all of 1 person has showed up at the store since I started typing this and all he wanted to know was where to dispose of old paint (the answer is Chaser's Bottle Depot, for those in Vernon looking to get rid of old/bad paint.) so that was exciting. 

Sign off time. I'll catch y'all on the flip side.

Cheers

~Cam

Revenge of the Workpost III: Another One

Well, here we are again. As predicted, very little activity on this thanksgiving Sunday that the store is dumbly open for. Granted, there's been a couple customers, but that's just 'cause it's the last day of the big sale. They didn't even want any of the paint coloured.  At least I've got some Earl Grey to keep me company in the desolate wastes known as "a paint store." Now, without further delay, let the rambling commence!

Firstly, I'm in a better mental state than last week, far more relaxed and easy going, less antsy and bored. That's good, 'cause I'm pretty sure I lost some of my mind last week, it's probably around here somewhere... Regardless, I'm gonna attribute the sanity to the rather enjoyable tea that I'm casually sipping on. I should really go pick up some Earl Grey for home, I forgot how much more I like it than English Breakfast. It's got a lot more personality than your classic EBs, and paired with some vanilla and cream it's just a very pleasant experience. Mmmmm.

Hmm, I seem to be drawing a blank as to what to talk about. This is why I don't blog regularly, it takes a while for me to accumulate anything interesting to talk about...shoot, I just remembered that next month is NaBloPoMo or whatever the blogging equivalent of the novel writing month is. Post daily? I'll try but I have yet to succeed at that, though never having really committed to it is probably reason enough for me. I'm pretty good at talking myself out of stuff. 

Speaking of, I really should record some stuff on my computer, maybe with facecam? That would require getting a webcam though, and I hate looking at myself...though I could also potentially stream stuff on twitch...so many possibilities. Too many possibilities, I need to settle on an idea and stick with it. I'm currently leaning towards recording on consoles with either live voice or post-recording dubbing/voiceover. Plus that'd help with video editing practice, and layering and learning and what have you. Now to set a rock solid time to do this. Setting my alarm for Wednesday morning ~8:00am with reminders every fifteen minutes for basically the whole day. That should be annoying enough to get me doing something about it. I think I'll start with Ico or Shadow of the Collossus, I haven't played either of those, and apparently they're masterpieces. Should be fun.

If you understood little of that, don't worry about it, I was just thinking to myself about a hobby that I want to start. Feel free to ignore it, it's probably not gonna be that interesting, 'cause I'm not entirely sure if I'm funny or entertaining by myself in the flesh. I tend to play off other people, which is great fun in groups and helps with the "everyone likes Cam for no good reason" thing, and when typing things out I can think an rethink ideas and phrases to give the illusion of being hilarious. Ergo, there is a gap between being in groups and typing things up where I'm by myself In which I have yet to receive feedback as to whether or not I'm capable of being entertaining. Personally, I think I'm rather dull on my own, but that could largely be due to me having lived with myself for my entire life and being so used to my shenanigans that I can't tell. Oh, plus I mostly talk to myself in my head, so I'm not sure how well it translates to the verbal aspect of human interaction. I mean, sure, I understand myself rather well, but I've got pretty solid evidence supporting the "Cam's at least a little bit crazy" theory, though that eventually devolves into the "do crazy people know that they're crazy" logic loop (which is a rabbit hole I'm not going to go down right now).

Anywho, tldr; I may not be funny solo IRL, regardless of how funny I am in groups and online.

So every now and again I like to re-read some of my older stuff. It's a nice trip down memory lane, and I get to remember how funny I think I am. I think I'm hilarious, FYI. I guess it really doesn't matter what other people think, but I would prefer it if they have positive opinions of me.  Oh, right, I just remembered what I wa actually gonna talk about after that last ramble.

So I have a group of people I game with, we call ourselves a guild. I've bee with this most of the same group of people since probably 2007-8. Well, it was larger then, but a lot of them left for life reasons, regardless, the core group has known each other for quite a while. In that time, we have come up with ridiculous stories about each other, a good chunk of which revolve around the exploits I never actually endeavoured on. They are actually ridiculous too, not even close to being able to happen. For instance, one summer the crickets were almost always super loud and my mic would pick them up on the voice chat. The first time it happened everyone was curious as to what in the world it was. I casually explained the situation and everyone understood and we went on with our lives, only occasionally bringing it back up. Then school started up that fall and I had to let the gaming take a back seat. During this time, rumours of my absence began circulating. Theses rumours consisted of how I had been kidnapped by these (now racist, for whatever reason) crickets. It eventually built into a story of how I had escaped them but they were now after me with suicide bomber crickets that explode when stepped on (there was some sort of loud bang on my end when we were chatting which, according to them, was caused by racist suicide bomber crickets). Why? No freaking idea, it's just where their minds went, and try kept adding to it to make it more crazy. I'm sure there was more to it, but it was at least 5 years back at this point so the exact memory is a little hazy. All in all, good fun and fond memories, but that does little to detract from how ridiculous these people are, as I wouldn't have it any other way.

Well, I've been thumb typing for probably too long, so I'm thinking I should probably end here. Only 1.5h left to work, I should be able to occupy that time with non-blog things.

Cheers, (and Happy Thanksgiving)

~Cam

Random Thoughts: The Reckoning.

Hello. It's Sunday, I'm at work, and I have yet to see a customer. Why? Because we, like many other paint stores, aren't usually open on Sunday. As such, I'm bored out of my flippin' gourd. So here's random crap that comes out of my head when I'm this bored.

I really don't understand the appeal of savoury beverages. Apparently I'm of the opinion that savoury flavours are meant to be food (or soup, so meals in general, I guess). Sure, there are probably exceptions to this, but I have yet to experience a savoury beverage that I really enjoyed. Vegetable juices are tolerable, but I rarely go out of my way to drink them. 

Even without having practiced my drawing for a while, I seem to have retained my relatively newfound knowledge of eye composition. That's good, 'cause I kinda want to get back into it, but I'll be darned if motivation isn't hard to come by. Whatever, it's be a personal goal for the most part, I'm not exactly seeking an audience or the spotlight. 

I realized like 5 minutes before starting this post that I had forgotten what a handwritten letter "capital I" looked like, I kept making lowercase "B" and "L" instead, I had to actually look up what it was to make sure I was even on the right track. I guess hand writing is becoming a lost art...not that anyone could read my chicken scratch to begin with, but still, I spent a lot of time in school learning how to do all that, I should still try to keep it... I guess.

It has recent come to my attention once again that simple to me is NOT simple to everyone else. I like having proper, concise terminology for what I'm talking about, but that doesn't mean anyone will understand what he crap I'm talking about. As such, I have to explain myself more often than not. Prime example: working at a paint store, I say things like "sheen" and "colourant saturation point."

To me, sheen is plain as day, but people tend to not understand it, so the quick explanation of "how shiny something is" is usually followed after saying "sheen."

Admittedly, "colourant saturation point" seems more convoluted, but it's simple the point at which we can't add any more colourant to paint because it won't mix properly. Heck, some people don't realize that I mean "stuff that makes colours" when I say "colourant." It can be rather frustrating, but it's something I've more or less come to terms with due to dealing  with it pretty much daily. The "simple to me but not everyone" concept applies to other aspects of life too, but I'm almost a shut-in when I'm not at work, mostly by choice.

The time is now 12:20, only 2h40m left to work today. This is going so freaking slow, it's ridiculous. I've had two teas and a coffee, because there is literally nothing else to do. At least last weekend I had stock to put away. Oh, and I'll be here, same shift, next week, thanksgiving Sunday. There's no freakin' chance that it'll be busier next week, what the crap, company? Why are you forcing us to do this? It's monetarily unjustified, you're losing money by having is be open just because you have to pay me, not to mention additional electricity costs and all the water I use (not actually that much, but still some that would otherwise go unused). Screw it, I'm gonna draw some more and listen to whatever's on the Stingray Alternative channel.

So, there you have it. Rambling achieved.

Cheers folks,

~Cam.