The Big Ole Labour Daybour: Work Posting 'Cause bored.

Ah classic me, working on a stat with very little to do and no reason to really care. Not that I every really have a reason to care, I'm not a guy who cares much about things. People yes, things no. I worry very little, which is a great way to save myself some stress.  

Anywho, it's the first monday in September and I've got two less brothers in the country to show for it? Brostralia is a go, and my best wishes go with them. Being a person who doesn't really "miss" people in the standard sense, I'm mostly just excited for them. Now to spend a month living with just me and Bella (a dog) in my little suite. I'm looking forward to it, even if sudden scheduling has me working...a lot. Oh well, it's good for the survival (and more than survival) fund. I may even do some rearranging of furniture that I've been contemplating... though I need a better vacuum for cleaning before I decide to cover change where things are (and therefore both covering and exposing potentially poorly cleaned carpet). I should do that when I get home... I'm gonna set an alarm... ... ... Alright, alarm set. Man, I love smartphones. Tiny little surprisingly powerful computers that we keep on your persons pretty well constantly. So neat and useful to the point of "I'm pretty sure we're dependant on them." 

Anywho, an hour and a half left and I'm still not doing things at work. I get the occasional phone call and people are surprised that I answer thinking that we wouldn't be open, literally saying "I didn't think you'd be open!" This phrasing sort of vexes me, I mean, if you didn't think we'd be open then why'd you call? A better phrase to say would be something like "Oh good, you are open," implying that you were calling to see if we were. Meh, it's not like it really matters. 

Hrmm, contemplating starting up a creative writing blog when I just post tiny made up things, possibly story continuations or maybe completely random stuff. I think it could be good brain excersize. Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoy the mental vomit that is my ramblings (I just spew it out, no real control or direction aside from into a specific container [aka: this blog] and it happens relatively infrequently...dangit I love/hate how accurate that description is), but something for a more...measured aspect of my brain could be a lot of fun. Though, to be honest, typing on this little keyboard is surpringly taxing... I may also want to get a laptop for typing purposes. Nothing major, just a little thing that handles...word processing...and...like maybe some usb audio input stuff for other projects. I'll keep an eye out for something that suits those needs. 

Unrelated: something that popped into my head just now that my family probably all knows. I'm a guy who eats to survive, yes, but that doesn't stop me from appreciating good food. I don't particularly care about what I'm eating when I'm by myself as long as it fills me up and has decent nutritional value. I don't sit down to have a meal, I just kinda grab something and go. However, I do have quite an appreciation for quality food, what with the chefdad and whatnot. I know how to tell good food from the bad (even if I'll still eat just about anything). There are some circles that call me the Garbage Cam, 'cause whatever food you'd've otherwise thrown out I will almost certainly eat. Fortunately I don't take any offense to that nickname, though I may want to be more discerning in what I eat... Meh, I keep it pretty balanced, I should be fine.

Oh, right, I was gonna get a fancy pen for drawing on my tablet...I should re-look into that. I'll add that to the label of my other alarm. Again with the "I should just be creative for a month straight to force habit" thing. I'll do that at some point, I'm just currently acquiring tools to make it easier, I'm no good at finger drawing (and drawing fingers [not 100% accurate but I'm a perfectionist]. I will say that even with my limited practice I have been doing I've noticed improvement in my linework. I need to work on EVERYTHING ELSE and I should probably do that thing where you use base shape skeletons ('cause boy howdy do I not use those, which may actually imply that I'm more creative than I think) so... yeah, practice. They say practice makes progress ('cause pobody's nerfect) so that's probably a good idea. Flip, I talk about how much I should do things that I'm not actually doing. I currently blame WoW:Legion, what with it having come out last week and me wanting to experience it and progress through it. Also the whole leadup to Brostralia involved being with family a bunch and while that's good it's rather impeding. Also also I've been working a lot and rarely want to actually do things when I'm off work. Speaking of, being at work gives me a surprising amount of motivation to do not-work things...it might be all the caffiene. I do drink a lot of tea at work when it's slow.

Alright, that's enough out of me. Happy Labour Day and whatnot, I'm out.

Cheers,

~Cam

(May) Long talk about nicknames

{Preemptive warning: Timestamps may seem out of line...'cause they are. I added some things I remembered inbetween some other things to keep the discussion about the past chronologically sound.}

[11:30am] Long weekend in May in the Okanagan and, much to no one's surprise, it's kinda dreary. Also very slow in a paint store. Almost halfway through my day and all of two people have been in the store. Ergo: time for bloggin'. I specifically brought my tablet just 'cause I knew it'd be slow, so Clever Cam strikes again!

Now for the spinning wheel of topic picking (in my head) to choose something

...

...

Apparently "Nicknames and/or I've had/used" is what it landed on. Alrighty then.

[12:00]The first one I really remember was, embarrassingly enough, "Quick-dry Cement Butt" which came about when I was the king of that game on the schoolgrounds where you go down slides and try to stay on the bottom for as long as possible until you get knocked off. I was both great at knocking people off and staying at the bottom for the longest. The other children cried out in fear when they saw that I was up next. I ruled that playground game with a...cement butt....

I had a lot of other nicknames during my schoolhood life, but most of them didn't stick. Apparently "Cam" is an easy name to make nicknames out of because there are so many words/phrases that have "cam" in them. I definitely remember being called "camcorder" a bunch, along with "camshaft" and "Cameroon" (which was often followed by asking how my civil war was going) and "camaro" and "camel" etc. You get the picture, basically any word that starts with "cam" I got called at least once.

Following the "Everything 'cam' related" phase, we start to get into more creative nicknames. Nothing really stuck though, "Cam" is easy enough to say without needing a nickname, though I still occasionally bring up that I'm known in some circles as the "Garbage Cam" 'cause I'll finish whatever food other people can't/won't and I've got a strong constitution with regards to food. Heck, that came up on Friday when I was out having dinner with some friends and they had excess fries. I didn't even say anything, just a sly plate slide and a "Garbage Cam?" said fairly quietly. I then proceeded to help him finish the fries. A slight variation of this nickname was "Hoover" like the vacuum, also because I'd eat other people's unfinished food. What can I say? I like food.

[1:40] The highschool nickname that I've gotten the most use out of is "Camero the Artist" which came about from a couple of different sources. The "Camero" came about when it was my birthday and on my highschool's TV announcements, which they show birthdays on, my name was either cut off or just plain spelt wrong. Cutting off happens a lot, what with the 15 character last name, but that normally only happened when last names were placed first, which the birthday list wasn't. The "artist" part appeared when a gym teacher stated something along the lines of "You look like an artist with that long hair" (my hair was kind of unreasonably long, but I liked it at the time), and with that "Camero the Artist" was born. I still use that as my hotmail account, and a shortened version of it is what a lot of my random "sign up for something on the internet" accounts end up being, but I'm not really an artist, I don't spend enough time on it to really claim to be one. I can draw to an extent, I just don't do it that frequently (speaking of, I should really try to work on that...as I say almost every blog post...). So yeah, that one, the good old Camtist...which could be another derivative and I might look into that.

[1:00]There was a good chunk of time when I was actually almost literally "Captain Obvious" too because I'd make what is now considered silly and then considered overtly obvious statements about goings on and things that should be common sense. I wasn't exactly the most socially adept kid/teenager. Actually pretty close to the opposite of socially adept. Sure, I had friends and could potentially fit in anywhere, but dang was I awkward and cold and a know it all. I mustn't've been all that nice to hang around with...though I think I'm just remembering the bad awkward stuff right now and now all the positive good things, as is the brain's forte. Remember the mistakes to learn from them and never repeat them again, positive interactions leave little impact because you didn't need to take much away from it. Crap, I'm getting philosophical again, I should stop (and also I didn't know where I was headed)

[12:30] Further down the road, once out of highschool and well on my way to establishing my lack of care for what people think about me, I found myself acquiring not nicknames but unofficial titles. The two I'm most proud of are "Heart of the Dance Floor" and "Knower of Things." Becoming that which convinces the crowd to join in and wedding dance was great fun. Just going nuts and not caring a lick about what anyone might think got a ton of people more relaxed and carefree. It's a wedding! Have fun! Who cares what you look like, celebrate! (side note: this feels awfully familiar, I think I've talked about this in the past...) [1:10]"Knower of Things" came about because I have just way too much miscellaneous information tucked away in my head, about all sorts of random things. There's no reason for this vast expanse of trivial information, but it's there and it just kinda happens sometimes, so when random things pop out of my mouth and people are like "how do you know that?" I just kinda shrug and go "I just do" (which isn't exactly a helpful response, to be frank). 

[1:15] This brings me to the point where self-appointed nicknames became a thing for me. They're mostly due to online gaming where you probably don't want to share your real name so you make one up. My current longest running "in-game-name" (IGN) or "handle" or whatever the kids these days call them is "Vantox" which is the name of most of my first characters in any new game I try. I'm also the kind of guy who sticks with his first character for long periods of time, so I've been known as Vantox online since 2007ish. It's pretty regularly shortened to "Tox" and not "Van" (because who'd want to be know as Van, like the automobile, and also there were like 3 other Van-somethings in my first WoW guild and as I gained rank I wanted to distinguish myself from them, leading to my first truely self imposed nickname), and I do tend to use that as a basis for alternate rarely used characters (for example: Toxhoof the cowman, Toxblin the goblin and several other uncreative names) so my current online "nickname" would be Tox.

[1:35] On the great wide interwebs, when I'm not going by either of Cam or Tox (or camerodart, a derivative of camero the artist) I tend to combine the two into a shocking new name: Camtox. Yes. Super shocking, I know. You can pick your jaw up from the floor now. Who would've thought that I could take two words and put them together to make another word? No one, that's who. Sarcasm aside, I like how it sounds and it's the amalgam of both worlds I reside in, so as my worlds have been merging together my names have followed suit. People can still call me either of my most prevalent names (Cam and Tox) and still be totally accurate. I may end up changing my whole online presence to represent it, too. I dunno yet, I haven't gotten around to actually doing things online that people might want to see, though plans/projects are slowly in the works. I just work so much better when I'm by myself and not expecting anyone to show up, so I may have to find a place to record where I can just do my thing and not worry about anyone barging in. Also practice some voices and learn how to not destroy my throat, 'cause that sounds useful.

[2:05] So yeah, that's what people have called me over the years that I remember clearly (and not including parent given nicknames because dangit El Tigre's weird with his nicknames.{El Tigre is my dad, I get it from him}). I think that's about all I've got to say on the topic, maybe next time I'll get into weird nicknames I've given people, that could be fun. Unrelated: I'm getting pretty hungry, good thing there's only less than an hour 'til close. Speaking of, my work computers/systems have been super crazy today. Sure I've only seen like 4 people but it's been doing really really weird things, which is gonna be all corporate shenanigans and I'm pretty sure someone's gonna get fired over what it's been doing, but it won't be me, 'cause it's NOT my fault in the slightest. It'll probably be fixed by tomorrow though, so w/e. On my end, not a big issue, what with the being slow and nobody being here and me being able to type all this out with little regard for what's going on in the outside world. Oh well, nothing I can do about it. 

[2:20] Alright, I should probably take my leave and actually check to see if things need doing around here (prediction: probably no), so I shall bid thee a fond farewell.

Cheers!

~Cam(Tox)

Saturday? More like "Slow-today!"

[12:16] In reference to the title, it's been pretty not-busy in paint-store front today so far. That could change, possibly at the drop of a hat, but until it does I've got all the time in the 'verse (short for "universe," entirely stolen from Firefly). [1:06] Then little curveballs are thrown at you and you've gotta cope with them, shift some paradigms, revolutionize outside the box. Ugh, sleepycam quotes Futurama, ahoy. Also yawning. It's not like I didn't sleep or nothin', (so many negatives in that sentence...) I guess I was just up too late again, like most days. Definiitely turned into a night owl as I got older. Also also, sentence structure just goes to crap when I just type straight from the brain. I guess that means it's coffee time. Es la hora de café. Woo bad spanish!

Okay, so, uh, things, I guess. Oh man, this song, "My Type" by Saint Motel, rather amusing. First verse ends with the line I'm a man who has very specific taste* which is immediately followed by the lines You know you're just my type / You are alive and you are breathing*.  I chuckle about that one almost every time I hear it, which is a lot on this stingray station I listen to on the TV at work (Rock Alternative, for those wondering). That's one of the more popular ones that shows up. I'm sure there's others, but I can never seem to recall their names. Heck, the only reason I knew the previously mentioned one was due to it being played at the time I brought it up. 

{*note: music lyrics may not be exact, I haven't actually looked them up.}

[1:46] Speaking of music, I've been listening to a lot of Mother Mother lately. I listened to them like 6 years ago for the first time and loved their music, and then life and forgetfulness happened which led to me forgetting them. I rediscovered them and 3 additional albums they had put out, all of them good in their own way but each more different from the last. Quality stuff, man. Hard to describe, too, and the "genre" changes from one song to the next, thereby transcending genres. I guess they'd be labeled as "Alternative" but by golly does that labeling annoy me. It's just way to flippin' broad for its own good and vagueness, though a huge part of what and who I am, annoys me if used improperly and/or for classification purposes. Vagueness can be utilized to great effect leading to interest and intrigue, but not when you're trying to define something very specifically as it leads to confusion and deterrence. It seems to check the "Things that Irk me" box moreso in music than anything else, for no good reason and I have no idea why...

...

...

Sorry about that, Rhinestone Eyes by Gorillaz came on, it was super distracting and now I want to listen to that album again. Gosh dang I love them. I'm sure I've professed my love of their music before, but it's (apparently) just as strong as ever. 

Unrelated, I haven't managed to get my hair cut yet, worked more than scheduled, which is not a bad thing for me, not so great for the sick coworker I was covering. [2:34] She'll be fine though, she's a tough cookie. That's a peculiar phrase, "tough cookie," does it come from the way-to-high-energy foodstuff or the ship cook's nickname? I'm thinking the latter, as the former seems like it'd be a seriously negative thing. Granted, that's only if you don't like your cookies tough (like me, I prefer 'em soft.) A tough ship cook is undeniably good though, being able to put up with all sorts of sailor's shenanigans and rough seas whilst still cooking, gotta be a tough cookie for that sort of gig. 

Seriously need to get his mop chop-shopped, added benefits include:

-not having to deal with it

-no long hairs places

-less shampoo needed for cleanliness purposes

-if short enough, toque velcro

-beard longer than hair (won't actually happen, I trimmed it pretty recently so it's on the short side)

-feels awesome

-impossible to make look messy (also if short enough)

These are... actually probably most of the benefits. Still, that's a sizable list of things that cutting [3:10] off my hair will improve. I loves me some toque velcro sized hair. So fuzzy and fun to run my hands over, though I do enjoy running my hands through my long hair like mid-afternoon on a day that I shower in the morning, feels nice.

Okay, sub two hours left of work, you can do this Camson (like Samson with a "C", also the last name of viking children that I father, but that's not a modern concern) Now focus, what are you gonna do in this last stretch of the day? That's right, closing stuff. Check colourant levels, garbages, make sure everything's ready for the week ahead. First though, bathroom. BRB. 

[3:39] Back, had a customer, apparently I'm overly hungry, not that I'm Hangry (hungry-angry), my hands/mouth/face aren't working well together right now. Thankfully I keep snacks hidden in the break room, so I grabbed some before I came back to the pseudo-laptop. 

Hold on, stop. What the? How in the world did I change my align-left to centered? I'm pretty sure I don't know the command for that, so I either mashed a button combination that does it (which I don't think I did, but maybe?) or it just magically did it on its own. Neither of them seem likely, and frankly it doesn't really matter in the long run, I'm just not a fan of multi-format anything, you shouldn't change format unless there's a break or something intentionally very different, and even then you should probably keep your alignment consistent. The biggest issue with this is that I have no idea how to change it back (without looking it up, and who has time for that when I'm typing up a blog? Not me, that's for certain. Too busy complaining about it in the blog to figure out how to fix it, plus it's decent filler content... not really, it's not actually a good topic. I'm just bored and rambling, with an indescernible flair to it (blog name drop, ooooooooh! {man, I'm so lame}). 

Whelp, looks like I've run out of things to talk about. I guess that means that I'm signing off.

Cheers,

~Cam

P.S. Not aligned left sign off is dumb.

Saturday Afternoon Ramblings

(timestamp - 2:00pm)

Welcome back to another edition of Saturday Afternoon Ramblings (from work). I'm your host, C-Train, and today we'll be discussing numerous topics that I will decide upon as I go. 3 Hours left at work and tons of time to talk, slow day in the paint business, as usual on a saturday in winter. Fun Fact: I managed to watch the entirety of Lawrence of Arabia on a Saturday last January. I can only remember snippets of it now, but it was pretty good. 

Random topic change, go! My sense of taste seems unusually heightened right now. I'm not entirely sure why...my nose is just as plugged as always (it's almost never not plugged to some degree) and the only real difference from what I've been doing recently is that I am currently drinking a Green Tea w/ Ginseng and Honey AriZona (As per the font on the can) Iced Tea. Maybe it's clearing up my cluttered mouth flavour receptors or something, but holy cow have I noticed tastes. Like, a banana, which I commonly enjoy, is suddenly so much more flavourful than I thought it was. It's tough to describe, really, though I guess it's mostly just an intensifying of flavours. All the flavours I expect are still there, they're just making themselves known, or rather, they've improved their stage presence. 

Speaking of presence, that's something I've thought about a decent amount but haven't made any posts on. It's something that everyone notices whether they are aware of it or not, and as its root implies, it's all about how one presents themselves. Some time ago I was casually discussing this topic (in the middle of a rush) with a coworker who was having some, mostly mental, issues with giving orders to those who worked under her. She kept saying how she was trying to be intimidating as motivation but, because of both her stature and general disposition, it wasn't exactly working as intended. Sure, being intimidating can be a motivator for others but some people, if only myself, consider intimidation to be a negative attribute. Yes, you can get others to do what you want but at what cost? More often than not they'll end up anywhere from disliking to pure-straight-hating you. So instead of an intimidating presence as a source of motivation, I suggest trying to have an inspiring presence. Keep things positive, be a source of encouragement and advice, make them want to be like you, inspire them to greatness, demand respect through your actions and work ethic.

...I lost the wind in that sail, I have no idea where I was going from there. So new topic because I'm apparently incapable of staying on one for more than a paragraph.

So I really need a haircut. It's getting kinda out of control...and by that I mean it's long enough that I can actively see it without using a mirror. So sometime this week I'm gonna march my way over to some barber shoppe and say something along the lines of "Do you take walk ins? 'Cause all my hair needs to be chopped off." Definitely, most definitely, gonna do that, yeah, motivation. Daily alarm reminder for that? I think yes! 

2-3 minutes later: Okay done. I've got a daily reminder at 11:00am every day forever until I get a haircut. Cool. Also beard trim, because I've been putting that off too, need to get meself a new-old look. I should actually just do that tonight...BRB, setting alarm. Okay, alarm set. Horay for technology! So many alarms, so few that I use daily but none I want to get rid of.  

Otay, new topic. So...stairs are crazy, huh? Little changes in elevation to aid in the ascention of what would otherwise be a steep slope. Probably invented/discovered by people who were trying to get places and realizing it was easier to clamber over rocks for leverage than just go straight at the slope. Related if I lived closer to them, I'd probably be more motivated to walk the "stairway to heaven" on Mission Hill, it'd be some solid excercise, I know 'cause they've nearly killed me before in highschool, and they (timestamp - 3:40) are an excellent example of how solid, horizontal surfaces with consistent height increments can help one ascend what would otherwise be a very steep slope. Gosh dang that stairway was discouraging to look up.

Alright, back to task now that the naturally occuring "ohcrapeveryoneshowedupatonce" panic rush is done. Sittin' back in the office, chillin' on my tablet, sippin' coffee 'cause that's how I roll on a saturday afternoon (and mildly tweaking out because CAFFEINE). Realizing that I still double-space after a period even though it was basically proven that it's pointless by xkcd, but will probably continue to do it forever because that's a habit I'll probably never break. Also realizing that when I blank for a second or two I tend to type "Face!"...which is odd, but possibly explainable though I'm not sure how/when it started. I'm not really gonna delve deep with this one, I just know that it happens. Also, why don't I do these blogs when I'm *not* at work. It probably has something to do with how I've got a bunch of stuff to occupy my time at home but much less so at work when it's slow. We'll go with that, seems most logical. Ah, logic, my old friend, how I love thee. 

(timestamp - 4:42) 

And with that, I guess I should be taking off to finish up my actual job. Crazy how time flies when you've got customers who you're familiar with that are friendly and chatty.

Cheers!

~Cam

Ramblings Beckon from Whence Snow Came

The hardest part of this blogging thing is figuring out a post title. Seriously. I'm at wits end for no good reason. Gah. Something about snow and work and rambling maybe? Let's see...uh...how about..."Ramblings: Work & Snow Mk.II" or maybe "Ramblings Beckon from Whence Snow Came" because it's effectively nonsense. Yeah, I like my nonsensical titles, especially for nonsensical blogrambles. That seems reasonable. BRB, entering title.

Mkay, done. Now down to business. Or buisness, 'cause that's fun to say. Buisness. Like, bweesness, the "W" sound makes it more fun.  Regardless, let's do this. That is to say, ramble.

Snow's pretty, but it's been literally snowing all day. This could make for a tricky walk home. Good thing I've got solid waterproof hiking boots for wintertown travel. I've had 'em for years and they've served me well. If/when they ever get to a point of unrecoverable ruin I fully intend to buy a new pair as close to them as I can. Semi-related, I need new runners/walkers/non-winters. My current ones laste me a good two years, which is a lot for me and shoes, but they're past the point of no return. I should check sporting goods stores, this seems like the time of year when they'd have runners on sale, what with the "only crazy people be running in this snow" situation. Mayhaps next week, but I'll probably forget, 'cause I totally forget these things. Heck, I barely remember what happened earlier in the paragraph.

Speaking of coherence when writing, I'm pretty sure that the previously stated "what did I just write?" syndrome I'm subject to is at least partially to blame for my "little to no structure" writing.  Also the occasional "Oh crap a customer" leading to a "what was I saying?" moment. Good thing I refer to these as ramblings, eh? Though I wouldn't mind trying my hand at some creative writing, but I tend to need something to trigger the inspiration. I've got a handful of entirely not-fleshed out tales in my head, but the fleshing out will take some doing. I should work on that...I say that about a lot of things, huh? Whelp, that's what I get for being a jack-of-all-trades.

*Yawn*...Whoa, just got hit with a wave of sleepitude. I guess I didn't get that much sleep last night, so it sort of makes sense. It was still a pretty intense wave of tired. Good thing I've only got ~3 hours left. Random note: I had a minor panic when my tilde button was NOT where I'm used to it being. I like using the tilde! It makes me look sophisticated or some such nonsense. I actually just find it aesthetically pleasing and like using it to say "approximately" though I'm not sure if that's the proper usage of it...I should look that up. BRB.

Okay back, apparently I use the tilde in the common informal way, which is widely accepted and understood. Good, I'm not just crazy. I mean, I'm definitely crazy but there's backing for my usage of the tilde. I feel justified. 

Unrelated topic, go! So I was recently reminiscing about times spent with the guild (Woo, I'm a geek!) and I came to the sudden but innevitable realization that I CAN reminisce about my guild. I've been playing World of Warcraft with the same people since at least 2008, possibly earlier. It's now 2016. That's a long time. Granted, we haven't played consistently throughout the years due to content droughts and burning out on virtual walls (mostly in the form of bosses we can't seem to beat), but there's a good 7-15 of us who have stuck together with little to no drama and being reasonable to each other. At this point we're probably just actually friends who get together through virtual means. I'm actually one of the younger members too, but I'm not sure how much that comes into play (answer: probably none). I'm also the token Canadian, because apparently that's a thing. Also I was the straight man of the guild, though I'm not sure how well I really pulled that role off (I'm not super confident in my comedic talents). I think I've mentioned in the past that we have crazy stories about each other that just compound into more ridiculous stories, and that still holds true, though they've been less prevalent as of late. Still there and fondly remembered, but we don't need the medium ton convey affection. Also a lot of those stories revolved around the drama makers, most of which we've weeded out by now, so there's just less to work with.

Dang, now I feel like writing on my gaming blog. I should also do that...maybe later, maybe right after this. Good thing my blogs are all tied to this one email, I can switch between them at will. Semi-related, after thinking about it, if/when talking to someone who shared my interests I'd probably have a lot more to respond to the "what's new" question everyone asks (my normal response is "not much, I'm not that exciting" or some such ilk). I could go on and on about these new things I've done and challenges accomplished and what I was working on finishing, and what actually happened when I tried these things, all of which happen in a virtual world (of warcraft, more often than not). This does happen occasionally when I'm with the right group of friends, though I'm probably the biggest MMO gamer of the group, so I'm still a little at odds with them (though the margin is much much slimmer than most other people).

ANYWHO, geekiness aside (though that encapsulates a lot of what I am currently and probably forever) I should probably try to avoid alienating my audience (HA! Audience...like more than a handful of people read this stuff) but unfortunately I've gotta end it there as I now only have 20 minutes left before the store's supposed to be closed (I've already done a bunch of the closing stuff, but you can't tell 'cause there's no timestamps in this thing...maybe I should do timestamps...I'll think about it.) So with that I bid thee farewell. Until next time!

Cheers

~Cam

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.