A Long Day for Someone with Nothing to Talk About

Ah good old "gotta be open on sundays because BOGO" blogging. Seriously, these days aren't worth it for the company, I've been open for half of my alloted time and all that's happened is someone came and put a deposit on a fandeck, so it's not even a permanent sale. Bah, whatever, I don't work for commission so I'm not really bothered by it, it's just boring is all.

Anywho, what should I ramble on today? These are the questions I ask myself and get no response to. Heck, I barely know what I'm typing right now, just starting off blankly into the...wall...and hoping I'm hitting all the right letters. Actually, I'm pretty god with my blind typing, I did a lot of that in highschool and I'm on computers so much that I'm very comfortable with not looking at what's happening on screen. Oh! That's a fun ramble topic: Useless (or close to it) Talents!

Alright, list of useless talents... 

-The aforementioend no-look typing, which most of these last sentences have been. FYI, my blogger app doesn't have an autocorrect, just sayin'. 

-Shaking my eyes, though I haven't really done it in ages and I'm pretty sure it's bad for me

-Being able to force my cheek to twitch on command

-the "incredulous eyebrow raise" (which is one step down from the eyebrow-wave)

-I'm pretty good at sudoku which is something some people struggle with

-Surprisingly flexible for a guy my size

-Unintentionally sneaky/silent, I've been known to unwittingly sneak up on people and startle them

-able to recite a surprising amount of cartoon intros off the top of my head...I like cartoons.

...that's all I can think of for the time being. I'm not gonna go into "useful" talents 'cause, well, frankly I don't want to and no amount of peer pressure will get me to change my mind. Only convincing and factually accurate arguments can do that, not yelling being beligerent. I don't respond well to that anymore, if anything it makes me more stubborn 'cause I lose respect for people who do that. Show me that yoiu can reason and be reasoned with and I'll actually listen to what you have to say as opposed to immediately ignoring everything you say because you're trying to shove it down people's throats. 

That tangent aside, what to ramble on next? Hrmmmmmmmmm... I'm thinking... Oh, right, fun new broject (which is a bro project, or conversely a bro reject, but definitely the former in this case). Jordo and I are building a computer for him! Yay! I love building computers! (I'm secretly also thinking of building a new one for myself, there've been a lot of technological advances since I built mine, though I do love my current PC quite thoroughly) It's actually mostly him, I'm just technical support/information guide. He's very technically inclined and I'm sure he'll have no issues, and the build-making site we use has compatibility filters to make sure everything works together and all the pieces will fit so even less chance of there being an issue. Gotta make sure that the MOBO matches the CPU chip set and fits in the case. Those are really the big ones for compatibility, most everything else have industry standards to fit all the ports and connections. So yeah, building a new broputer at some point, s'gonna be fun.

Unrelate, whilst typing up that last paragraph a SECOND PERSON showed up and also just put a deposit on a fan deck! WHOA, CRAZY. See that lack of exclamation point paired with the allcaps? That implies that it's not actually crazy and I'm being snarky. Super boring day, yup, as expected. I brought several things to alleviate the boredom, including but not limited to this tablet I'm typing at, a Get Fuzzy treasure I recently got, and my 3DS just incase. Watch, now that I've said all that I'm gonna get crazy busy. Murphy's Law at its finest. Though, for whatever reason, calling Murphy out about his laws tend to deter them to a degree, probably because it doesn't actually exist and we, as human beings, mostly remember when things don't work out as planned because remembering negative experiences is a key survival strategy. Get sick eating something? You probably won't eat that again to prevent any chance that you could get sick a second time. Someone kicks you in the shin intentionally? You'll probably avoid that person and others who look similar to avoid more shin-kicking experiences.

That got rambly...as was the goal? Oh, unrelated, the word "gaol" is a fun old timey word that is literally what "jail" used to be spelt like. It took me a bit to figure that out, I kept pronouncing it with a...hard "g"? Whatever that's called that make the sound at the start of words like "gate" and "goose" and "grate" and "great" and "gopher" and "go for" and "guild" and "gilde" and "glide" and "glade"...that's too many examples, but I'm sure you got it. The "g" in "gaol" should be pronounced like a "j", as in "geoff" and "general" and "jeff" and "General" and "gee-whizz" and "gentleman" and "gentile" and "giant" and "gigantic" and "genuine" and "geography" and "geology" and "genius"....again, too many examples but now it's a theme. So ya, "gaol" = "jail" just substantially more oldtimey and probably more likely to be used in crosswords....I've found it in several crosswords recently. 

Speaking of, I've gotten substantially more into crosswords lately, possibly due to boredome, and they have in turn gotten more into me... mentally. I'm getting better at thinking about words/phrases in multiple directions and interpretations, which is fun and pretty much the only way to properly solve a well crafted crossword. Either that or a ridiculous knowledge of crossword clues and answers, which I'm sure some people have developed because people are crazy. Heck, I'm at least mildly crazy, though you could probably tell that by the everything about me, and I'm a people. At least, I think I am, I have yet to confirm or deny it to myself. Who knows? Maybe I'm just a figment of everyone else's imagination! What if I'm just a leftover dream that made its way into the real world and then did nothing exciting with its newfound life? 

Psst, I don't actually think that, just spouting nonsense to kill time. 

Only two hours left, I can do this... I think I'm gonna read some more Get Fuzzy, so talk to y'all later!

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

Rand-dumb Post: Again maybe?

So here comes the winter, and as Pete says just about daily, it's gonna be a slow winter... in a paint store... in a summer town... like it always is. *sigh* As such, typing again, rando stuff, yes "rando" is now a word and not just a typo...*shifty eyes*

Ready go!

I'm casually improving my ability to crossword, as I've got plenty of downtime at work and a few crosswords here and there, so I just kinda do them. I did two already today, both went pretty smoothly and I figured everything out, more or less. Yay me! So that's a thing.

I'm not sure if I said anything about it before ('cause as if I'm gonna re-read my old posts while I'm typing) but this little bluetooth keyboard I got for my tablet is pretty swell. It feels good, like laptop keys (and as such probably scissor switches), isn't loud, and my hands fit surprisingly well on it considering how small it is. One minor thing is that I find the apostrophy/quote key too small and end up hitting return more frequently than I'd like, especially considering how often I hit that key. It's already proven itself a minor annoyance whilst typing this up. Ah, well, nothing I can do but get a better feel for it, muscle memory is like 95% of typing, or so the statistic I made up just now says.

Speaking of keyboards, I really like my big one at home. It's all sorts of good, mechanical switches, excellent heft so it won't move without being intentionally moved, not nearly as clicky as other mechanical switch keys (intentionally so, I got...I wanna say MX Cherry Browns, maybe Blacks) but still audible to the point of people being able to tell I'm typing up a storm. Also different levels of blue LED intensity, which is fun... this is ringing all sorts of bells, have I talked about this in a much older post? Seems likely. Eh, c'est la vie.

Unrelated to anything prior, I've noticed lately that my dreams are much more intense and vivid whilst napping as opposed to my nightly sleep. Not that I can remember any of them clearly, 'cause I'm super not in the habit of writing them down, but they stick with me longer after rousing from slumber than the "transitioning from night to morning" sleeps/dreams. The last few were action packed, though I couldn't tell you what sort of action it was, they just...were. 

So hey, December rolled around again, yeah? That's fun. Christmas and Mom/Lil'Bro Birthdays, N-Y Cheesefest 2015, present shopping, snow, cold and therefore scarves and other stylish accessories. Good times. I still need to figure out what I'm getting the parents, but I've mostly got the siblings figured out. Not that I'm gonna say what, 'cause I know at least 3 of them read these posts and I'm entirely for keeping presents a surprise and good at keeping secrets.

Alright, that was a fun hour and a half of actually doing things for work, people showing up or phoning or whatever, I've got some stuff ready for tomorrow and other stuff ready to be worked on tomorrow (natural light is a better comparative light source than these freakin' tube-bulb things, it's got a much wider spectrum of light that it emits), so that'll keep my day from being just absolutely the most boring thing ever tomorrow, but we may still get a ramblepost in, we'll see. Aside from that, I'm in the home-stretch for work tonight, so I should probably sign off and go about my business.

Cheers folks, it's been fun!

~Cam (who just learnt that his "~" is far more contrived on his tiny keyboard than on his standard one.)

Bored and More Bored, aka: Work Is Slow Again

Ahh, November, the time of the year when painting ceases to be something people want to think about doing and instead begin their hibernation rituals to prepare for the coming winter. The start of November is the harbinger of the slow season here at "Cam works at a paint store" town, so there may very well be more BloPos (Blog Posts [taken from NaBloPoMo, which I'm pretty sure is a thing]) especially if the pace of sales today is any indicator...

I am currently reclined in the office typing on my phone which decided to turn on magically after many hours of being plugged in but showing no signs of life. That was a weird phenomenon, it was working fine for years (literally) then it just up and bricked itself for hours. First thing I did was plug it in and see if anything happens, which normally does even if it's just a screen indicating that it's charging, but there was just blackness this time. It only came back after I had already placed an order for a new phone (which was immediately canceled after I got ole phoney back) an put a Facebook post up about how I was phoneless for a while. The real kicker is that my friend Lish said commented "get your phone fixed!" And then within minutes it turned back on. Freaking magic, I now think she's a technomage, and have told her as much. Regardless, I don't need a new phone quite yet, and good old Cphone Sr. Is still truckin' along nicely. 

Now down to brass tacks... Not really. I just wanted to say that, it's a fun turn of phrase. Speaking of turning, daylight savings did something over the weekend and now my internal clock has been mildly screwed up, and closing time will be even darker than it was already. Pretty sure that's the same for most people nowadays, but this is my blog so I'll talk about what I want to talk about. I've also got to change a few clocks yet, mostly the ones I don't use, so it's not a big deal, but they should still be accurate...I've also got to figure out how to change the time displayed on the phones in the store, they're all off because the guy who knew how to change them left. As the store techy, it falls to me to figure it out... later, after blog post, 'cause I've still got 2+ hours to kill. Yaaaaaaaay.....

Okay, next topic. Let's see here... dum de dum... thumbing through the topic wheel in my mind... Ah! This'll do nicely. Ahem, the topic of this next ramble is... Hair!

So it's that time of the year when my hair is long enough to be both fluffy and frustrating. I already trimmed off most of my beard (and need to clean it up again), and next comes the mane. It's a little unruly and curly and floof, which can be nice, but I like the "buzzed short enough to be toque Velcro" hair for exactly that purpose. Seeing as I only wear toques in the fall and winter months, this is the ideal time to take it all off. The only issue is: where and/or how? I could go to that old timey barber shop place that opened on 31st ave and see what the deal is... and I may do that this week. Actually, yeah, I should do that. I promise nothing, but it might happen. Regardless, I've gotta figure out how to get rid of all this hair I've got on top of my head. Hopefully I feel motivated enough to do that this week. 

Secondary issue: Motivation. I still need to find a source of motivation for myself. Being easily content has its drawbacks I guess. I like who I am, I do my job well, I've got friends and stuff, I'm still alive, I haven't fallen in with any bad crowds. Seems like I'm doing pretty alright, and I tend to agree with that. I don't see any personal need to do things too differently. Whatever, I don't want to get too deep into repeated introspection when all I'm doing is trying to kill time. So I won't. What do we say to introspection? Not today! 

I should really do some laundry, it's a little in the piled high side right now. I'll make an alarm for it for tomorrow at a time when I'll probably be awake. Then because I've started cleaning it's just gonna spiral into other things and my room'll end up rearranged and all the recycling will be processed (it's kinda out of control right now). Alright, tomorrow goals set, now to execute them and be a productive member of my living quarters!

Okay, that's enough out of me today. Gotta keep something in the stores for when I'm bored on other days of work, which is very likely to happen...possibly a lot.

Cheers!

~Cam