With Ruthless Inefficiency
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Below are the 10 most recent journal entries recorded in the "With Ruthless Inefficiency" journal:[<< Previous 10 entries]
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11:49 am
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Yesterday was AWESOME!
My phone apparently doesn't like to make Facebook posts anymore. I posted something last night that I thought was a cool thing to post, but it's not here, and I feel like I lost the moment to post it. No big deal, really, I'm not going to go crawl into a hole and cry my heart out, just thought it would have been an interesting post.
Yesterday was a very nice day. I had a lot of fun with Lindsay and Logan, plus a lot of Lindsay's family! We went to an elimination dinner, and didn't get eliminated! We won a few dollars, not enough to need to report, but it will be very helpful with a few endeavors. Then we watched Dark Shadows-- we liked it a lot-- then a late night snack at Applebee's, where the weirdest thing happened.
Our server was nice, but didn't do a great job. That wasn't the end of the world or anything, but when he brought us our check, he brought up how tonight had been a light night for him and he needed to make $100 to go see his mom today. Having worked for tips for several years, I know he just broke the cardinal rule: never talk about tips. I was torn because I was already going to tip him less than I normally would (I'm usually a little above average). That move on his part revoked his right to receive a tip in my opinion*. But I've done that maybe two times in my life. It's just not something I do. It was a very tough decision to make, but I didn't tip him. That's a rule you just can't break.
If you're reading this, and I'm your manager, know that I would seriously chew you out if someone spoke to me about you breaking that rule. If you think I've chewed you out before (I haven't), multiply that by ten. Thousand.
Overall, it was a really great day, and we had a lot of fun. I needed a day like this. Haven't had one in a while. Not that my days have been bad, but this one was especially awesome!
*No need to get into whether tipping is a privilege or a right. If you don't agree, you don't agree, and that's the way it is. Also,
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01:03 am
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And now for something completely different
I'm always calculating how I'm going to make Live Journal posts. How lame. That doesn't tell you about me, except that it tells you that I only want you to see what I want you to see. And of course that's accurate, but it makes for a downright awful blog. I decided I want to make a post this morning, and I don't care if it makes sense, and I don't care if you read it, and I don't care if you like it, and I don't care if I make gammaritval errors. Okay, maybe I do care about grammatical errors, but still.
Today is Lindsay's birthday. She is 24. At 24, I was working at Pizza Hit and married to someone else. And I took that year off from Kappa Kappa Psi, too. What a dumb idea that was. Speaking of Kappa Kappa Psi, if you didn't see it on Facebook, I posted a picture of my induction certificate. It's dated for April 7, 2002. That means I've spent nearly a third of my life as a brother of Kappa Kappa Psi. It's weird though, like I didn't find my stride until I didn't need to anymore. And now I'm awesome and I have most of the answers, but I don't get asked the questions. I hit the sweet spot in he 2006-7 year, the year I met and ultimately fell for Lindsay. Speaking of her...
I may not have done the best job of advertising for her party (I thought I did fine), but hardly anyone showed up. What a crock! There were things I had to do that I decided to leave out because it was like a damn ghost town! Way to be there for your friend on her birthday. I bet all those Facebook posts on her wall are going to make up for the fact that you weren't there Saturday. Oh, wai--
And you know what? You didn't just snub her, you snubbed me too. Know why? Because SHE'S MY WIFE! Well, that and because I'm the one that put the party together. I made all the damn food, and I set up the decorations. Dave Allen helped me out a ton with preparations and I really appreciate that, and I appreciate him. We're kind of kindred spirits, I think, in that "do what needs done" is hardwired into us... it's not something to bitch and moan about, It needs done, fucking DO IT!
Sorry if this is a little incoherent. Actually I'm not. I have to keep typing or I'm going to flame out and be all like "I shouldn't post this..." but I'm going to tonight. I'm not going to get all drama queen on you and be like "well if you were real friends, you'd have been at the party," because that's bullshit. But would it have killed you to say "sorry I can't make it. I hope everyone has a good time!:)"? Having that thought led me to wonder if I had done that with a Facebook event. To my recollection I haven't. If I can't go to something that the invitee actually has cause to think I will go to, I post that I can't be there, even if I don't say why. Because why you can't be there doesn't matter, just like why you weren't at Lindsay's party doesn't matter. You still weren't there. And yeah, I know there could be extenuating circumstances, but most people have an EXTREMELY lax idea of what those situations could be compared to me. BOO HOO I don't feel good. Suck it up. Do you have any idea how many times I haven't felt good but I was still there for you? Reciprocity. I don't forget.
By the way, I don't want any replies to this post talking about why you weren't at the party. Message Lindsay if you're that worried about saving face. Point being, don't come onto my page and try to defend yourself when I've already said you have no defense. I'm not naming names, and if you want to talk PRIVATELY or in person, I will be glad to. Holy crap, look at the wall of text I've typed...
I think I want to own my own pizza shop. I have ideas all the time that I think are good ones. I watch Kitchen Nightmares and Restaurant Impossible, and Restaurant Stakeout. FRESH FOOD, GOOD FOOD. There are certain things you cannot do as a licensed affiliate of Fox's Pizza Den, and that's ok. Those guys made their fortune doing things their way, and I don't have a problem with following their rules while I'm working for a franchisee. That said, I feel like they could do some things differently to allow franchises to be more competitive and profitable. The way we have to buy our sauce and our dough really hurts us. I suppose it wouldn't matter if our owners had a few Fox's stores, and maybe that's what corporate wants. Also, who knew boxes were so fricken expensive? WOW! It's just cardboard!
I could complain about money, but the reality is that Lindsay and I are "haves" not "have nots." Yeah, that includes debt up to our ears, and maybe corporations aren't really amking it easier for me to get out of debt, but I got there myself in the first place. I overextended to get the shit that I wanted, and now I have it. I'm not poor, I have too many bills, and I racked them up myself. I have to deal with that like an adult and get myself out of some of that debt. Well, that or we could rent for the rest of our lives. Seems legit.
I know I'm intelligent, but I need to be smart. I've proclaimed myself to be the jack of all asses before, which is an obvious play on a colloquialism. But I should be a jack of all trades. It sucks when you have to pay other people to do stuff you could do yourself with a little more knowledge, like working on your car. I don't want to be a mechanic, but I ought to both know how to do more stuff and be willing to do it. It's ridiculously easy to change your own oil, but I don't do it. I need new brakes, rotors, and bearings because I drive like a maniac. I bought the brakes and rotors already, but I need to put them on! Quit being lazy, quit playing Skyrim all the time (actually, I haven't been doing that much lately), do something CONSTRUCTIVE! That's the one lesson I learned from Dori's dad that I remember clearly:
We were in Alabama for the summer. Jay was in the National Guard at Fort Rucker, and mom was getting ready to have Dori. Since I wasn't in school, we flew down to Alabama
so Jay could be around when Dori was born (plus I think it was free, military base and all). Anyway I was playing with some kids at a day care, and as he came to get me from it, I toppled over some other kid's block creation. Instead of beating my ass and locking me in the cupboard (as an example, that never happened), he explained to me that that action was destructive, and that I should strive for my actions to be constructive. I bet he doesn't remember that. That's how perspective goes.
Speaking of perspective, maybe it's because I have a pretty good memory (when I want to), but I notice that I tend to glorify my interactions with people, and that no one I know has as fond a memory of me as I do of them, or that their fondest memories are ones I don't remember at all! Or that for some reason, Jeff seems to think of how I bombed his best man speech differently than I do. If I were him, I probably wouldn't talk to me anymore. I thought it was that bad. But he remembers what happened at my first wedding differently than how I remember it. Actually, with the exception of bringing it up to give him shit, I don't even care about it. It wasn't the smartest thing to do, but whatever. I guess I have a lot more things about that day to remember that are worse.
Just for reference, this is what half a bottle of Manischewitz blackberry wine will do to you ;) I'm off tomorrow, and I have big plans for me and Lindsay! She really is awesome, the best, MY BEST! I love you Lindsay, happy birthday!!!
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12:29 pm
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My tweets
Tags: twitter
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04:04 am
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I was reading over some old LJ posts tonight.
I do that a lot, especially when I should be sleeping. Anyway, here's a snippet from just over five years ago:
"Now, where was I? Oh yeah. The people, places and things that allow me to maintain my reality (as I've established, it's not really an illusion). Monday night I delivered pizza to Roger at his dorm room. He's a KKY brother. My little brother Sam came down to say hi with his girlfriend. Then came Lindsay and finally Roger. I was practically ecstatic to see them! Especially Lindsay. Aside from Dori's, her friendship is probably the one I value the most out of all my brothers. She is like a second sister to me. Then there's my trumpet. When I walked into Joe Retton Arena tonight to play in the pep band, I knew. That is what I love to do, even more than playing Magic. After playing the National Anthem, I could feel it. Then we played the fight song. It gives me such an incredible rush! Basketball games are even better than football games because there's no marching involved, just playing stand tunes. I sounded really good tonight and for the mos tpart I picked up right where I'd left off a month ago. I need a little work on stamina, but who doesn't?"
I got a kick out of the part I hyphenated. I also got a kick out of talking about pep band, and it reminded me that I could mention that Lindsay and I are doing pep band again this year. We haven't done it every year, though. At the last one, we played an arrangement of <Gonna Fly Now" that has a really high solo trumpet part. For some reason, I was able to hit and sustain the top note, which is a double E, and was previously considered by me to be out of my range. I know how I did it, too. Apparently, it is possible to sacrifice volume for range, something I'd not considered previously. I've always been the guy who's out there on the first day of band camp trying to "save the world" with my horn. In fact, I specifically remember playing "Soul Man" at a pep band gig years ago. My recollection is that I couldn't hear anyone else playing. As in it sounded like I was playing by myself to me, but I wasn't. After it was over, I mentioned that it sounded weird to me. I asked Doc if I was really playing that loud and she acknowledged that I played over the entire band, including the trap set. Don't ask me how because I wasn't trying to do that.
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07:26 pm
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Мои твиты
Tags: twitter
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05:57 pm
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Math Alert
I guess I can ramble a bit about some math stuff. A couple of weeks ago at the card shop, a friend of mine was talking about a couple math problems he was given as part of a phone interview. The first was about the hands of a clock. How many times do the hour and minute hand overlap in the course of a day on a 12 hour clock? We talked about it, and I tried to get all technical on it. I wanted to graph the sine curves for each hand, and the second hand, too, for shits a giggles. I don't remember equations (or technical terms) very well. The graph would be of time in minutes. The second hand's period is 1 minute (y=sin (pi/30)x), the minute hand's period is 60 minutes (y=sin (pi/1800)x), and the hour hand's is 720 minutes (y=sin(pi/43200)x). They all start from zero obviously. Anyway, I was going to look at this graph and see where the hands intersected, and that would give me my answers. The equations I gave in parenthesis are what I think these graphs would be, based on a cursory inspection of sine waves on wikipedia. I'm trying to fins an online graphing tool which will show you what I'm talking about, but it's going slowly. I'll reply to this with it if I find one.
Unfortunately for me and all the time I spent on this, the question isn't nearly as difficult as that. Think about it: where do the two hands intersect? Well, at 12, 1:05ish, 2:10ish, etc. If you look at them, you'll realize that the hands do not meet in the 11 hour, so they intersect 22 times a day, at an exact 12/11 hours, which is something like 65.4 minutes. Leave it to me to waaaaaay overthink this.
A second question was to consider every prime pair. These are prime numbers separated by one number, such as 11 and 13. Can you prove that the number in between is divisible by six? This one didn't take nearly as long, but I still had to think about it because I'm really rusty with this sort of thing. First off, we know the number in between is even, which makes it divisible by two. We also know that every third number is divisible by three, and that the two numbers around the middle one aren't. That means the middle number is compelled to be divisible by 3. If a number is divisible by two and by three, guess what it's divisible by? BAM!
Another geeky math thing I discovered a couple weeks back is how to hand calculate square roots. To my recollection, I never learned to do this. Yes, I know that's what a calculator is for. But when shit hits the fan, and you don't have a calculator, and the fate of the world rests of you calculating the square root of 67, you'd damn well better know how to etch your work onto your stone tablet! I found this tutorial on it, and I'm wondering why it doesn't look familiar to me at all. I must have been taught this at some point in my life, right?
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01:33 am
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What have I been up to?
Skyrim
Sorting cards in the man cave
Doing my thing at Fox's
Spending time with Lindsay
Did I mention Skyrim?
LiveJournal can't post to Facebook anymore.
I'm hungry.
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03:22 pm
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Chad Kroeger Goes Broke
Chad Kroeger, if you are unaware, is the lead singer for Nickelback. Sometime in the future, there will be a huge falling out between Nickelback fans and members. There is a new web comic dedicated to chronicling these hard times for Chad Kroeger:
Chad Kroeger Goes Broke
Philosophically speaking, I find that watching a formerly rich man trying to get through the same daily hardships us common folk go through is theraputic. Not really, I just made that sentence up. I'm writing the comic, and I think you should check it out if you haven't already.
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02:12 am
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Мои твиты
Tags: twitter
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09:49 pm
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Мои твиты
Tags: twitter
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