spooie_redux

seventeen days later.

2005-05-25T03:19:50Z

Like a hand reaching out of the grave, spooie_redux's live journal... shall ARISE!

Okay... let's start from the beginning.

I returned to work the following Tuesday. Went in for around 5 hours, on my day off, just to get the Meat Department straightened out again. And hot damn, did it need to get back into shape. The shelves were practically empty, and sales items were non-existent. I literally almost went into a random panic attack when I saw just how little was actually there. Not a pretty sight... not at all.

Took most of the Tuesday morning just filling the shelves with the Frozen load that had been sitting in the upstairs cooler 2 days earlier, rushing to get it there before it thawed out. Wednesday, I worked what little load was ordered. And in turn, ordered a HELL of a LOT of stuff for Friday. And hot damn... all I did friday was stock and re-organize the Deli and Frozen case. I didn't think I was going to finish, but sure enough, I did.

When I returned, I also found out that our new Meat Manager wasn't going to be the one that we were supposed to get way back when. The one we didn't get because he hurt his back, and might not be able to do the job. Instead, we got Kevin, who was filling in once a day each week. So my first day with him was back on this passed Thursday. The first thing he tells me... is that his back, which he hurt, was acting up on him.

No... I don't understand it either.

Things I've noticed from the first 3 days working with Kevin... he seems to think that John, the cutter who has been watching over the place, is his nemesis. Why? Because he's giving Kevin suggestions, and Kevin THINKS he's being a sarcastic jerk. I tried to explain... no, he's seriously being sincere. And he seems to think that our Wrapper is slow... slow, slow, slow. And unreliable. And that *I'M* the one he can depend on.

*sigh*

Somehow, in the long run, I know I'm going to get caught between employees and egos and various political clashes at the store.

Kevin decided he was going to order the load himself... something I didn't want him doing. So, of course, we got backstock and he gave this angry look, like "I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS!!!!!". Not to mention that he FORGOT to order the Frozen load this week. So we have no sales items for the week. Awesome!

Did I mention that this just happened to fall on Inventory Sunday? Which, from what I can piece together, is the first inventory he's actually be involved in. But he wanted me, who had NEVER done the inventory to completion, and had only once before CO-wrote it with the manager, do the entire Deli, Frozen Meat, Frozen Seafood, Upstairs Cooler, Downstairs Freezer, and random Meat Department sections... by myself. AND put up the Deli load.

I tried to get him to let me start writing up the Freezer info on Friday, which is what I always did for Tobey, my former boss. But he was against it. "Do it all at once! That way, you won't double count anything!". Sure... okay. I guess. And, of course, he ordered a bunch of stuff for sales that WILL NOT sell in this store, no matter what. And guess who will get stuck with it.

Oh well.

Next update... I shall talk about my thoughts on E3 and the Xbox.

But I will leave with the notice that Thurl Ravenscroft, voice of Tony Tiger and the singing version of The Grinch from "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" passed away on Sunday.

Until Next Time... EXCELSIOR! Or something.

i live.

2005-05-07T06:58:22Z

I... LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!

For the first time since this passed Sunday, I don't feel like complete crap. That's not to say that I've completely recovered, but I'm feeling the best I have since Sunday... with the exception of my body being sore when I cough or sneeze, and that twitch in my eye, and some mild sinus problems. My head has almost recovered from the stuffiness for which had consumed it. And on the plus side, it seems that I've lost about 6 pounds from the whole ordeal. And who would have thought I'd be feeling this well earlier this morning, when I was experiencing chills and sweats, and running a fever?

Though the one thing that bugs me... having called in for the 3rd straight day, I felt somewhat compelled to actually get to a doctor to at least get an acknowledgment of my sickness. But it just has to be the day that the doctor was completely booked solid. So I decided to go down to the On-Call Walk-In place. But it just happens to be the day that the only available doctor decides to leave early for the weekend, at noon. So I'm directed to another walk-in place a few streets up, only to find that it's not a walk-in and you need a 48 hour notice of appointment.

Oh well. I could have went a few cities over, but I didn't feel well enough to be out as it is. Still head a fever and all, and sinus pressure. So I went home and continued taking medicine, such as the generic over the counter stuff that I took about 20 minutes ago when I got out of the shower. So... now I'm off to sleep. Thankfully, I have tomorrow... or, today really... off of work. I can only imagine the storm I'm going to walk into on Sunday though. =\

More Than Meets the Eye, it's Rhino's Sunbow Demise!

2005-05-04T23:38:01Z

I read earlier that Rhino Home Entertainment has officially lost the VHS and DVD licensing rights for Sunbow Entertainment's cartoon properties when the expiration date was reached and neither could come to terms on a renewal. You may recall that Sunbow was responsible for practically all of the Hasbro-based cartoons from the 80s, including, but not limited, to G.I.Joe, Jem and the Holograms, and Transformers.

What this means is, even though the Generation One Transformers shows and movie have been released in their entirety, the remainder of G.I.Joe and the final half-season of Jem and the Holograms remain in limbo for time being. This sucks for me, because I have been collecting the DVD sets that Rhino has been releasing over the last couple years.

However... there is still hope, as, apparently, Sony Entertainment has acquired the rights to the properties and, down the line, may decide to re-release the episodes and continue releasing the episodes that have not been available on DVD yet. What their strategy is, is not known yet. But we can all hope it doesn't involve having to re-buy a ton of episodes already out on DVD, just to complete the sets.

Sony, mind you, recently released the entire series run of the new Astroboy series on DVD not too long ago. I don't even think the series had completely aired, but Sony seemed to rush it off to the market, at what appeared to be a pretty decent price to boot. Hopefully they can give the same care to the Sunbow library if it happens.

Of course, I'm still waiting for Sony to get off their collective butts and release the series collection of Big Guy and Rusty, the Boy Robot. But something tells me that I probably shouldn't hold my breath.

The rights to the new Transformers: Energon series remain with Paramount's custody. The rights to Transformers: Robots in Disguise remain with Buena Vista, after Disney acquired the rights from the buyout of Saban's assets, when the series was in a mid-air state. Unfortunately, I'm not really sure where the Transformers Armada and Beast Machines rights fall right now.

On a side note... the evil plague that is currently infecting my body has shifted. The "Sneeze Factor" has been amped, and the "Runny Nose Factor" has been attained. Headaches, Stuffy Head and Sweat Gladisms are gradually moving up stream. Sore throat, however, seems to be declining. But it could just be the end of the day decline. By morning, it will probably be sore again, as always seems to be the case at this point.

Get up, Come on, Get Down with the Sickness!

2005-05-04T22:11:01Z

You know that feeling you get when your body doesn't have any energy? Your arms and legs feel weak. Your eyes begin to shutter some, and your head becomes weary? You want to just sleep the day away, but at the time time, you want to force yourself to stay up? Because you NEED to stay up, or your sleeping pattern is going to be shot to hell? Only... you can't?

That's how I feel right now. Even though I took a Tylenol Sinus pill instead of the NyQuil and generic pharmacy Night Time drowsy formula we have in the house, I still managed to succumb to a state of slumber that reached beyond my control. One for which I just awoke from not more than a few moments ago.

Let us jump back a some hours.

Last night, I went to sleep with the hope that, by the time I awoke, my sore throat would have been gone, or, at least that it would have died down a good deal, so that my day at work wouldn't be so taxing on my body. When you work in a freezer for 1/4 of the day, and a fridge for the other 3/4 of the day, being sick is not how you want to be.

But, alas, I did not sleep much at all last night. And at around 4:30am on the east coast, I decided to finally give in to my own failing white blood cells and call in sick. What had only a few hours prior been simply a sore throat, had not mutated and manifested into a stuff nose and an attack on various sinus pressure points. My health was becoming worse, and the bulk of my sickness was setting in.

So I called the store. 6 times. Nearly 50 rings. Finally, at around 5am, I got the new Night Manager. He claimed that when he was working in the aisles, he couldn't hear the phone and that's why it took so long to respond. Being that I used to work on the night crew, I gave him the benefit of the doubt on that, though I never had much problem with hearing the phone myself.

I informed him that I had been sick since Sunday, and that I wouldn't be able to come in today. And that I'm giving him advance notice right now, because more than likely, the Deli load for the meat department was still sitting in the cooler in it's entirety since the previous day, and because two different loads had to be ordered today. The Deli load for Friday, and the Frozen load for Thursday.

And that is what I fear will ultimately cause a big problem for me. I

'm not worried so much about calling in sick for a second time in less than a month. Hey, when I'm under the weather, there is nothing I can do. I'm part time and I basically got screwed out of health insurance because Human Resources screwed up my benefits, and even though I worked previously for the company and they claim I'm a rehire, refuse to acknowledge that when it comes to my pay, vacation time and insurance.

No, what it worrying me are the loads we're either going to get in, or we aren't going to get in. John, the cutter, is a nice guy and all, but he doesn't really know the Deli or Freezer section of the store well. He works between two stores, and until recently, this store wasn't his main concern. I, basically, am the only one that knows how to order for the deli and the freezer, ever since the Meat Manager was transfered out about 3 weeks ago.

Not to mention that, because neither John, nor myself, were scheduled for last saturday, the order was written by me in advance on Friday and then scanned into the order gun by someone who normally does not write the order. Now, I'm not the kind of person that likes to put blame on other people. BUT... every time I write down the order and someone else scans it in, I never seem to get what I wrote down.

This particular time... I got a lot of what I DIDN'T order, and little of what I did.

Like 4 cases of Tyson Chicken Nuggets. Now, I had written 1 case for backup for a sale that we didn't really even need. SOMEHOW we got 4 cases in. I had written a large 28oz. Quaker Maid Steak Sandwhich case to come in for sales. We got the 12.5oz ones instead. I had written 1 of Barber's Family Pack Chicked with Stuffed Broccoli for sale, as well as a double pack of the Stuffed Chicken with Lobster and Scallops for another sale. We got the mini Potato Breaded Chicken Sticks.

So this big, empty freezer wall that I had proudly worked down to almost nothing over the last couple weeks, is not filled to the brim with random items that will probably be stuck down there for a long, long time. And the worse part is, I have no idea what's coming in tomorrow. But whatever it is, I'm sure that most of it is going right back down there as well.

I shouldn't have to feel guilty about being out sick, yet, I find that I always do anyway. Regardless, we'll see if I'm feeling up to going in tomorrow. I'm sure, whatever I do, something is going to come back to haunt me.

A Short, Short Time Ago in a DVD Player Just 2 Feet Away...

2005-05-04T01:34:30Z

I finally finished watching the "Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope" Special Edition DVD that I borrowed from my aunt back a few weeks after it was released and subsequently "misplaced" until I found it cleaning through random junk in my room. Needless to say, it was... okay... but I don't really see the fascination with it that other people have. Then again, I don't get "Low Carb Diets" either, so maybe I'm just wacky.

Perhaps I shall listen to the commentary track... or perhaps I shan't.

We shall see... We shall see...

Now that's a little hard to swallow...

2005-05-03T12:15:48Z

It was bound to happen. After my mother had found herself getting sick earlier last week, and the both of us going to my cousin's Confirmation party on Saturday, I was sure that our contact with one another in the car would lead to something bad on this end of the passenger's seat.

Sunday I woke up with a minor "itch" in my throat. Yesterday, I woke up with a complete and total dry scratchy spot on the back left side of my throat. Today... it feels about 10 times worse and hurts just swallowing. But, again, only on that side of the throat.

Yesterday, I took a couple *cups* of NyQuil, as that's currently the only medication we have in the house, and damn did I sleep a whole lot yesterday. Also been sucking back on lots of Honey, as, for those that don't know, honey is a soothing agent that coats your throat when you have a sore throat. Only, unlike the last two days, where it prolonged comfort for a few minutes, the feeling is over in just seconds afterwards now.

What I really want to get are N'ICE Lozenges, which did a kick ass job at completely eradicating my cold one year when I went to Wildwood, NJ for vacation, and took about 6 of them in a 1 hour span. Instead we've got Halls, which are decent, but nothing spectacular, and Luden, which is basically candy.

In an unrelated note, the 4th Karate Kid movie, "The Next Karate Kid" just came on one of the Cinemax channels. I saw about 20 minutes of it a week or two back. The characters are all in high school but have that quasi-90210 "we're in our 30s" feel to them. But It's got Michael Ironside, and Hillary Swank as the next Karate Kid, and she won a couple academy awards and golden globes and stuff, so it's gotta be good... right? ...right?

Oh well.

The first has been on Showtime as of late as well. Good movie. It's actually better than I rememered it being as a kid. Although, unlike what Roger Ebert's 4-star review of the movie will tell you, it is not, in fact, rated R.

Space Angels and Go, Green Machines!

2005-05-02T23:36:53Z

This passed saturday, my cousin had a party for making her Confirmation. We, my mother, brother and myself, we up at around 3pm to bask in the festivities. After arriving, I asked my other cousin, her brother, if he wouldn't mind if I tried out his Xbox for a bit, since I'm planning to buy one and he is the only person I know, locally, that has an Xbox.

Everyone else either has a Playstation 2 or a Gamecube. Sad, isn't it?

Regardless, it turned out that his Xbox wasn't set up and that he had, over the last year or so, dropped interest in playing videogames. In fact, the only system he still had readily available in his room, was his Super Nintendo.

I told him of my interest in buying one, and he offered to pawn his off on me. Sure, I might have considered getting it as a backup system or something, but I'm the kind of guy that doesn't believe in selling game systems. So I asked if I could simply borrow it. He said sure, since he's going to college in 3 months anyway and has little to no use for it now.

So, I nabbed the system and took his 5 games with me to try it out. They consisted of Dead or Alive 3, Halo, Project Gotham Racing and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2x and 4. Along with the three $10 games I already bought for my soon to be system, Brute Force, Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne and Voodoo Vince, I figured I was set.

When I returned home, I hooked up the system, even though I don't really have the room to put it anywhere yet. Tried out Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4, which was inadvertently left in the system when he packed it away. My thoughts... it was... okay, I guess. I couldn't really get into it, but then again, I'm not really into skating games. But it seemed like something I'd never buy, but wasn't exceedingly bad.

Then, just to find out what all the hype was about, I put in Halo.

And my life changed.

I must confess.

After nearly a decade of playing first person shooters on and off, and not really liking a single one of them, with the exception of Jumping Flash! and it's sequel on the original Playstation, I tried out Halo just for the hell of it, and you know what? I actually liked it. I liked it so much that I may just have to go out and buy the damned thing when I get my Xbox.

Rarely, and I mean almost never, can I play a first person shooter for more than say, 10 minutes, without loosing interest, or without wanting to gouge my eyes out with a spoon. And any game that uses two control sticks to move in one direction is usually a pain for me to play. I hate games like that, especially 3rd person platformers created like that.

But, for some crazy reason... not this. Strange... I... I dunno... it just seems... fun.

The controls are so great in this game, which makes no sense. My biggest gripe in FPS games are the controls, and I swear that I've never played smoother controls on a FPS game than these. They do everything that I find wrong with other controls, but pull it off perfectly here. The sensor moves at the right pace, the controls move at the right pace, and heaven forbid, I can actually hit what I'm aiming at.

I'm astounded.

Of all the games I've tried so far, this is the one I keep coming back to. As of last night, I've made it to the point where you free your captain from the floating Covenant ship thing. And I can't wait to get back and play some more. Truly awesome experience I'm having with this game, and I'm really surprised at how much I'm liking it.

Games, Games, Games, I played... for the PS2!

2005-04-27T02:08:57Z

So, since Sunday... I have opened these games for Playstation 2: Activision Anthologies, Adventures of Cookie and Cream, Amplitude, Castlevania: Lament of Innocence, Gradius V, Ico, Katamari Damacy, Maximo Vs. Army of Zin, MegaMan X7, MegaMan X8, Nightshade, Onimusha, Onimusha 2, Rachet and Clank, Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando, Street Fighter EX3, War of the Monsters and Whiplash.

Kind of like the Massive Gamecube and GBA "opening" I did for those systems and their games a few weeks back. Only this time, I swear, I've come across something like 7 broken PS2 game cases. And I'll be damned if I can't find a single place to buy replacement Keep Cases for PS2 games. I mean, I could put them in generic DVD cases, but then the Instruction booklet plastic holders would be weird and the memory card slot would be missing.

I emailed Sony about it to find out if there was any way to get a replacement case or forty. They sent me an email saying that they'd send me an actual response in 48 hours or so. It's going on something like 36 hours right now. Guess I'll have to wait and see tomorrow after work.

Capcom is en route to becoming my mortal enemy once more...

2005-04-25T17:47:59Z

Started playing Onimusha last night. An actual attempt to play through the entire game, that is. Was doing okay... even though I died on BOTH the "floor" and "water chamber" puzzles. Then I got to the door with the crest insignias on them. You know, they're on the 4th floor of that castle there. Yeah, those ones.

Well, it seems that the door requires 2 halves of the crest to open. The right crest, and, you guessed it, the left crest. Well, I've got the right crest handy, so I might as well use it. Perfect! Now I just need to locate that left crest. So I go in search, and I look for it. Searchy, looky, searchy, looky. 90 minutes pass and NOTHING.

I break down and deice to go to Gamefaqs and look up some walkthroughs to find out what I'm doing wrong. Then if hits me... I'm not doing anything wrong, it is the game that is wrong. I already acquired the crest earlier in the game, but it never showed up in my inventory. So now, I'm basically screwed because I already overwrote the save file.

Sure, I could always re-play it... I've only been playing for 3 or 4 hours, but I had already built up my orbs and swords to their max and had a ton of other junk I was building up. And I'm going to lose it all now. Not as annoying as that accursed balloon in the Spider-Man: The Movie videogame... but annoying nonetheless.

I did a search on google and found that inventory problems popped up from time to time on the Xbox version of the game. So I'm curious to know whether or not this is a common problem for the PS2 version as well. Being that I own the greatest hits version, I'd assume something like this would be fixed.

Money, Money, Money, Money... Money!

2005-04-24T02:53:19Z

Welp, pulled out the old "Jar or Quarters" and counted to see how much I had saved up over the last... I dunno, 8 months maybe. See, every day I buy something, I put my change off to the side. And then at the end of the week, I divide them between bottles (pennies, nickels and dimes) and the jar (quarters). Today I decided to count the Quarters.

Grand Total Value of the Quarter Jar IS... $145.25.

That's right... $145.25, or 726 quarters for you mathematically suppressed. And the jar itself isn't even 1/10 full. Bless you old, giant pickle jar for your wisdom shall bring me riches. On a side note, I didn't win the $206 Mega Millions Lotto Jackpot last night. Oh, poo.

Onimusha and Cleaning out the Computer...

2005-04-23T22:00:06Z

It was bound to happen sooner or later.

I decided to finally pop in the Onimusha: Warlords game I picked up for 9.99 New on eBay around Christmas 2003, and crack open the Onimusha 2 game I nabbed at TRU some time late last year during their 50%-off Green Label sale that was going on. I must say, from what I've played, which was about an hour and a half total, I think I'm going to like these 2 games a lot more than I assumed I would. And I wonder if I should splurge and grab the 3rd one while it's still $14.99 new in select stores.

Of course, the first 2 games in the series are a little "different" than one might expect from a modern-era 3D game. Having come from Capcom, creators of the Resident Evil series, the Onimusha camera system and controls reflect very similar actions. Like a pre-Nintendo 64 era game, the analogs serve virtually no purpose, as the D-Pad controls all the action. The 3rd one, from what I've read and have seen, has both a revamped controller setup and camera scheme. In addition, the storyline is set partly in modern day Paris, along with the Samurai era of Japan.

Guess I'll have to look forward to playing through it all when I get a few days off of work and aren't entirely busy.

And speaking of having days off of work and being busy, for the last 7 hours or so, I've painstakingly been deleting incriminating evidence, like those GQ Jessica Alba pictures, and burning even more useless junk to CDs. Sometimes I wonder why I keep files, like an avi for "The first ten minutes of XIII" or "The first ten minutes of Metal Slug 3" or mid-90s Japanese SNES and GEN commercials. But, what can I say, I'm crazy like that. I will however say that when I started today, of my 40 gig hard drive, I had around 4.32 gigs remaining. Currently, I have 21.56 gigs remaining.

Let the good times roll!

Now... I just need to organize those Shane Satterfield Gamespot Live video reviews, and my plan will unfold perfectly. Yes...

I guess I had better get the ball rollin'...

2005-04-19T22:55:31Z

Hello. Welcome to the world of madness that is spooie's realm.

Those of you who know me, which, considering the 6 billion plus people out there in this crazy world, probably isn't many of you, may recall my previous Live Journal account. It was kind of like this Live Journal account, but without the "redux" and the underscore. Hopefully this one isn't as cranky as that one was.

Regardless... I ended up just letting it die. I created it without a purpose, other than to have one, with the hopes that it would help me become a better writer.

Sadly, it did not.

Instead it sat there... and sat there... and sat there. And eventually, I forgot about it.

Then one day I came back to Live Journal and re-read my entries. I didn't much care for what I had written, so I created this account as a back-up account. That was many months ago, over the summer of 2004. And although I had the account ready and willing to go, I never bothered with it.

That is... not until tonight.

So I present to you the new and hopefully improved, revised form of the spooie LiveJournal, now known as... the spooie_redux LiveJournal. Ain't I clever?

To start things off, here is a little satire about an all-too-familiar Television network merger that I'm sure most of the people who know who I am, are familiar with. It was announced yesterday that Gamestop had just bought out Electronic Boutique. This is what I wrote about it...

My crazy prediction...

Gamestop Co. will release a press statement talking about how Gamestop and EBGames are the two ideal videogame store chains in the world, and it only makes sense that they merge, because now the combined store will be available in XXX amount of cities, as opposed to YYY from before. Consumers will benefit from the resources of both Gamestop and EBGames as the new chain will be split down the middle.

However, once the deal is finalized, Gamestop Co. and the new owners of EBGames will fire all of the employees at EBGames, and announce that the combined chain will launch around May 28th 2005 as "EBGamestop". Of course, about 25% or so will have the opportunity to rejoin "EBGamestop", assuming that they are willing to move to the destination where the new stores will be opening, and give up their former lives.

To accommodate the consumers who are loyal to EBGames, and just want to buy quality used games at their local chain, Gamestop Co. will announce that they will be moving over all of the EBGames policies, and will back-up their game collections with older system titles such as NES, GEN, SNES and SATURN. However, as the merger commenses, we will find that Gamestop Co. never really wanted to bring over all the old game systems, and it was just a ruse to trick people into walking through their doors.

Fans of EBGames will be forced to adapt to Gamestop's videogame store policies and tactics, regardless of any sort of warranty of EBGames Buyers Cards or pre-orders they have. Eventually, the calmer, cool-minded EBGames consumers will have to deal with walking into their new stores and being one-upped by "l337 hardcore game buyers" from Gamestop. This will drive most of EBGames' consumers away from the new merged chain.

Over time, various sub-stores in the EBGames chain, like EBX, EBKids, EBWorld, will be placed in strange, remote areas where they can't be found anymore, before they slowly start to vanish from across the country. The owners of Gamestop will announce that due to low sale and the need to reach a broader audience, the stores will be closed and all the employees that moved will have been fired anyway, so that Gamestop can create a series of new, better, hipper and cooler videogame stores will replace them.

Around this time, EBGamestop will announce a re-launch of the videogame chain, returning back to it's roots, dropping the "EB" prefix from the store chain name. The only stores of all the Electronics Boutique outlets that will survive the merger will be "EBGames", which will become the flagship store for the entire chain, and "Electronic Boutique".

After a few months, all of the friendly people like Raph and Toad will be fired from Electronic Boutique because they're too old or too techy for the electronics chain. Gamestop Co. Will bring in new electronic items, and push the games to the side, for special deals on iPods and Digital Camera, and DVDs. Eventually "Electronic Boutique" will be renamed and completely revamped into something like "Gamestop Strikes Back!" where the "l33tness" will continue to commense.

Shortly thereafter, a bunch of new stores such as "Gamestop X-Treme", "Girls Gone Gamestop" and "Gamestop Fury" will open around the country with ad campaigns of women shaking their boobs to make videogame characters go crazy. One boob shake = micro mario. Two boob shakes = super mario. Three boob shakes = star mario. They'll offer the games you want, and the systems you can't have and make some kind of sponsorship deal, where if you buy a 6-pack of Coke or Sprite, you can get a third game for lesser value free, after buying two!

Yeah... so I'm a jerk. But I'm an honest jerk, and that's all that really matters to me. :P