Calibration Frustration

i love when things don't go according to plan.

a little while back i bought a kick ass HD TV. i bought it at best buy and took advantage of their no interest yadda yadda.

with the TV i bought a couple games and got a deal on the TV calibration. for those not in the know (including my self until they told me what it was), the calibration is where they send Geek Squad out to adjust your TV so it doesn't use up too much power. it also turns down the "show room brightness" or something like that (when they manufacture TVs they try to make them look so awesome that they out shine all the other TVs). but i digress...

so the kid comes out and upon gazing upon my vast movie collection makes an immediate connection with me. now i say kid, but really he was about ten or fifteen years older than me, but anybody who's that into anime is still a kid. but i digress again...

so he's there calibrating the TV, which entails attaching a weird suction cup thing to the middle of the screen. he works, he chats, he regales me with stories of his anime club in high school. (for once i wasn't the biggest nerd in my house, yay!)

unfortunately, as he was wrapping things up he pulled the "sucker" off the screen and the TV "blinked." as soon as it popped off i noticed a something that wasn't there before...

no not the quickly fading ring of fading dark ring left by the suckers, but a odd red vertical line, about a pixel wide, running vertically across the screen. at this point the kid looked like he saw a ghost, he ensured me that he had be doing this for a year and this had never happened before. (not much reassurance).

after a few frantic calls, i have an appointment with Geek Squad on Monday for them to assess the situation and repair or possibly replace it.

so what should have been a quick one hour visit turned into three hours, a broken tv, another chuck of lost time on Monday, and another future calibration...


On A Positive Note:
last night, (after the calibration thing) i went to my friend's house and while i sucked on the drums and singing, i rocked the guitar in Guitar Hero World Tour. also, i trounced everyone playing Buzz!

it's a little victory, but I'll take it

Exile

A Slight Distraction

Well, for someone who didn't have work i sure was busy. here are the events that followed the humping condoms post:

-I did yard work at my parents house on Thursday, it was the earliest I've woken up in weeks and i spent the whole day trimming trees, bushes, and palm trees with four inch needles. (i hate those things). To top it off it kept raining on and off, not enough to stop working, but enough to make the ladder very slippery.

-Friday i woke up with a severe respiratory infection, ever since i got back from the ER with grandma i was feeling sickish, and it finally took hold. "luckily" because i had the week off of work i took care of things real quick like. got into the urgent care, got my meds, picked up my prescriptions, and got back on the road to healthy. (i put luckily in quotes because that's the only positive thing i can get out of missing a week's worth of f'n pay.

-On my way home from the urgent care i stopped by Petco (a pet store chain) to use up a store credit on some expendable fish. here's what happened after twenty minutes of waiting for service:
Employee- Can i help you?
Exile- yeah, i would like to buy some fish
Employee- Is your tank already established?
Exile- Of course (this is a novice question, it means has the tank been running long enough to support fish)
Employee- did you have fish in there before?
Exile- yeah, they didn't last, i'm hoping these one will.
Employee- they didn't last? what did you have in there with them?
Exile- a few Barbs (a type of fish) and a turtle (a type of turtle.)
Employee- and you're trying to put fish in with a turtle?
Exile- well, sometimes you can get fish and turtles to live together.
Employee- No you can't.
Exile- actually...
Employee- (interrupts) NO YOU CAN'T.
Exile- What? I've...
Employee- (interrupts a story of my boy hood about turtle/fish cohabitation) No sir.
Exile- You're not going to sell me a fish?
Employee- No. (with contempt) The only fish i would sell you is a feeder goldfish.

With that she walked away... So i just went down the street to the next Petco and bought the fish i wanted.

-Saturday and Sunday were spent doing some gaming and hanging out with the girl from the bowling alley (we both have insomnia). while the things with the girl went alright, the gaming put me only 12 trophies behind Gary! And that just happens to be the amount of trophies in the new Penny Arcade Adventures Game. (Exile is closing in).

-On Monday i showed up bright eyed and bushy tailed ready to put in some major work at work (my job is redundant and so is the description) only to find out that they're cutting all over time. now, seeing as though my survival is based solely on the extra cash from overtime (i get about six hours worth a week). So with short week before, the week off last week, and now not getting overtime... i'm pretty screwed.

-tomorrow i'm going to have to square off with my Chiropractor about money she owes me. Remember me talking about running fliers and such? yeah, well, she owes me for $170 for the work i did in September and October. all through November and December i've called all three phone lines, mailed invoices, and slipped them under the door, and delivered them in person to the receptionist. it's been too long to assume she's simply "forgotten" to call me back, so now i have to go down there and demand payment. And with my money situation, i can't walk out of there without it.



On A Positive Note:
I played Buzz: Quiz TV (a PS3 game) and managed to get over 5000 points on the single player match by answering 20 questions correctly each one under a second. (ba ba BOOM!)


and now, a happy song.



Exile

Bowl'n Again

I bowled tonight.
it's been over a month since the last time i bowled and it felt good. with the change of schedual i couldn't join the leauge, but with this impromptu vacation i had the chance to bowl tonight, and i have to say, it was fun.

i bowled a 159 average, not too shabby for being out of the game for so long.

one thing that didn't go to well was a guy that joined my Dads team in my place got a bit too drunk (hammered), and got into a thing with his friend that he brought. (a cute little chicky name Patty). the long and the short is that when he left he took her keys and threw them into another parking lot.

i stayed behind and helped her look for them with the security guys, we (they) found them, but the drunk guy took her truck key so she was able to get into the truck but wasn't able to drive. (what a dick, right?) so i talked her into letting me take her home after searching for her keys.



On A Positive Note:
while we drove we talked and it turns out we have a lot in common, both rainy day weather people, enjoy the same movies, and so on. it was nice to connect with some, if only for a little bit.


And now for something completely random:



Exile

On A Positive Note

Last night i had Doug and his wife, Pam, over for dinner and boredom alleviation. we played scene it and while I've only played it once before i whooped ass! (there wasn't a question i didn't get).

btw, turns out Doug's a lightweight, we went toe to toe drink wise and, well, according to Pam, he had to be carried into the house. heheheh



Exile

What’s New In ‘09

What’s New In ‘09

With the new year starting out I’ve decided to catch everyone up (all five of you) on the things that’s are caught up in the maelstrom that Exile’s life. And as a true nerd does, I’m doing it all with “bullet points” in Microsoft Word.

· Slow Goings- the company I work for is heavily immersed in the automotive industry. In fact, the majority of our products we produce is for cars. (air bag sensors and stuff). Well, for those of you following the news, the three major car companies in America are struggling, and as they struggle the people making their parts suffer. “What does this mean,” you ask? Well, if they’re not making cars, they don’t need the parts to make the cars. Ipso facto, our company has nothing to do. And if we have nothing to do, well, we don’t need stay open. Yep, if you compare the number of employees we had in January of 08 to January of 09 we’re down to 1/5 of our staff and dropping… to quote the owner of the company “Even at our best in 2009, we won’t come near the worst in 2008.” In other words, the best we can hope for is the worst we’ve done.

· The Big Number Two- my department at work (which was ten people last year) now consists of three people. In order to accommodate our diminished ranks I have been moved to second shift. Well, more like second/third shift. So now, my hours are 4pm to 2am Monday through Friday. So now I have no chance at a social life during the week… ok, I didn’t have much of a chance before, but now I have something to blame for it. On an upside, because I just came back from three weeks off I’m kinda used to going to bed at 3am and waking up at noon.

· Technological Emersion- I’ve decided to be spontaneous and try waving my hands around while hang’n on by my finger nails. Exploiting a deal over at Best Buy I bought a 42” 1080P LCD HD TV (on the QT) and a couple games. The deal was on the “no interest for 18 months” which means I get to keep the behemoth without paying interest so long as I pay at least Sixty bucks a month on it all.

· Those Fucking Fuckers Fucked Me!- (this was originally it’s own post, thus it’s out of the bullet format… please stand by.)
Bastards!

Fucking Bastards!

Betrayer!

Judas!

I trusted you, you cock-snot!

who am i talking about? American Express


Check this shit out.

I, like every one else, carry a balance on my Amex. on average it's about a third of my credit limit. Nothing too bad. In the past couple months I’ve gone through some financial hardships and have had to lean on the card a bit. (That is what credit cards are for, right?)

well, I’ve had this card for years, and I’ve always, and i mean always, paid well over the minimum amount. Well, i guess, that's just not good enough.

turns out they reviewed my account and decided that I’m just not paying them enough and cut my limit down to exactly what i have in my account.

now, in order to survive the financial quagmire that is my life i use my amex to juggle the books, so to speak. I make all the purchases I can on the card, then, when it's due I pay off (nearly) everything I’ve bought. for the most part it works, but last month I had to made a few big purchases, mainly truck work and X-mas presents. What I didn't expect was for Amex to fuck me for this.

they decided, in some dark council no doubt, that while I was paying well over my minimum due, it wasn't enough for them. so, with a fiendish grin and a bit of foam upon chapped lips they smiled and decreed that they would adjust my Limit.

wait, allow me to rephrase, they anal-ly raped my limit, rough, and dry like.

they "adjusted" my limit (raped it) down to sixty dollars above how much i owed. SIXTY DOLLARS! are you fucking kidding me?

sweet dead baby Jesus, they left me no breathing room. groceries, gas, pornography, I have no money for any of it.

and I found out about this, not through a phone call, not a letter, not a carrier pigeon. no, I find out when I’m at the mechanic trying to get my truck out of hock and they tell me my card is declined. I call and they say "yeah, we lowered your limit, and you can suck our balls."

so sitting in the mechanic's office with a worthless credit card, a three hundred dollar debt, and a debit card that you have to put in a plastic back to make it work. (Yeah, this... this is where I am now.)

so now I’m directly drawing out of my checking account to pay off the bill I planned on putting on my amex to pay later.

· Trophy Whore-As some of you may recall I’m in a bit of a “Trophy Competition” with some of the guys at work on the PS3. I’ve jumped from 100 Trophies behind to only 40 behind. This means that I’m spending most of my free time (12pm to 3pm) playing games to pick up extra trophies. This is my life, and it’s ending one trophy at a time

· What The Truck?- After all the work I had done on my truck: replacing the catalytic converter to pass smog, and replacing an O2 sensor with the oil change my check engine light is back on AGAIN! I’m ignoring it because, frankly, I don’t have the money to fix it. But that’s ok, the sound of the “door chime” and cab light staying on for at least fifteen min after I start driving is taking my mind off it.

· Being Poor Bites- I have the time, but not the money, to fix my tooth from the Full Contact Guitar Hero.

· Better Living Through Chemistry- A while back I realized I could combat depression from being so alone with love. At the time I thought this was not only a full solution to the problem, but far more reliable than drugs. I now see that I was wrong. The fact is that love is far too fickle to count on as anything closely resembling reliable. Ironically, love has been like a bad relationship, I’m putting so much of my self into it and getting so little, that I just have nothing left. With any luck I’ll find the right little pill that will make me ok with being what I am, because I know see that I will never find the same result in a person.

· Apparently I Have A Girlfriend- this is one that caught me off guard. A while back I wrote a post about a girl I asked out laughing in my face. Well, the moron that I am had asked her out again months later and she said yes. I was completely shocked, but not nearly as shocked as I was when she stood me up for that date. Making my only smart move in areas of this nature, I deleted her number and considered the case closed. Of course, coming back from the three-week vacation a guy at work (her ex-boyfriend) asks me why I didn’t tell him I was dating said girl. When I told him I wasn’t he informed me that she’s been telling him that we’ve been dating for weeks at that I took her out to a restaurant on new years eve. Moral of the story: it’s better to pretend to date me that it is to actually do so.

· No More Wetness- after dealing with it for over two years I finally fixed my fridge so it will stop leaking water into the bottom of it (where I keep my lunch meats and stuff). Here’s what happened (please refrain from eating): when I bought my condo the people who lived in it before weren’t happy to leave. In fact during the conversion from apartments to condos a lot of people did unique things to fuck up the condos. In mine, they heathens decided to leave a gallon of ice cream in the freezer. Well, during a typical Elsinore summer it gets hotter than hell, and when you shut down the power to the unit the freezer doesn’t do much to keep ice cream as ice cream. (the ice melts and the cream turns to a kind of cheese). So in these months while the fridge sat idle somehow flies got into the freezer and not only formed a colony but raised many generations of young in there. So when I came in to buy the condo they “cleaned out the freezer” by wiping down the sides and removing the ice cream (which technically had more of a right to live there than I did at this point.) but what they didn’t do was remove all the maggot casings. (See, maggots enter a chrysalis stage leaving a tiny little husk behind when they emerge.) Well, you get a summer’s worth of these things left behind and they tend to clog up tiny little tubes, most importantly the ones that let moisture escape from the freezer. With nowhere to go the water froze (in a freezer, go figure) and began exacerbating the problem until it was raining in the back of my fridge. To make a long story short (too late) my dad came over and we melted through the iced over tube and grossness until it emptied. So no more water in the fridge… now I’m kinda grossed out by keeping my food in there…

· Slum Lord- well, the guy renting my garage has given me notice that he’s going to move his stuff out at the beginning of February, while this does suck, it means that I can move the girl who’s renting my spare room for storage (yeah), down to the garage and possibly take on a roommate. Roommates are slim pick’ns, but my friends brother and girlfriend are looking for a place, so I might be renting the room to a couple (with two people living in there at least one of them has to have rent, right?)

· “Go Get Vinnie”- it’s been two and a half months since the last time that I ran fliers for the chiropractor and she hasn’t returned any calls regarding the money she owes me (about $170). With my schedule changed I now have the ability to visit during prime business hours and make sure she gets the invoice. (I’ve slid one under the door after hours; I’ve mailed one, now I have to go in person… sigh). I hope this doesn’t get messy, but then again, you don’t get between an Italian and his money.

· Cash Only- not that Amex has cut the legs from under me I’ve had to go back to a cash only financial strategy. Unfortunately, I was using the card because I couldn’t do cash only, so I don’t know how the hell I’m going to pull this off… Mental note: buy Ramen Noodles.

· Heavy Balls- my dad was very sad when I had to tell him that I couldn’t join the bowling league this year. But honestly, I’m sadder. I liked bowling with the league (even though I was a sub) and the free practice card I got for joining made it so I had something to do when I had free time that didn’t cost me anything. *sigh* Oh well, I at least I don’t have to see the girl at the alley that shot me down. (Because then I’d have to try and act like it didn’t bother me.)

· Light Weight- No money equals no food. No food means no weight gain, so I’m still hanging around at about 170lbs. Not too shabby, but seeing as though no one is seeing me naked it really doesn’t matter how much I weigh.

· Les-Bo-Love- my little pet lesbian is all squishy over some new girl, and the new girl feels the same way about her. It’s been so long since either Elena or I have been with someone worthwhile that it’s just nice to see it can happen. If I can say I’m actually happy about something, it would be that I’m happy for her. Oh, and if this girl breaks her heart they’ll never find the body… I’m a bit protective, you see.

· An Optimistic Pessimist?- I had a long talk with my friend Jenni the other day about everything that’s been going on with me. One subject we touched on was that I need to distance my self from the people that are looking for me to help them because they’re bringing me down. I told her that it’s not that I’m intentionally looking to be around these people but we seem to just gravitate towards each other. (I have a really bad hero’s complex, so I always want to rush in and save everyone. That’s probably why I play as a medic in Resistance 2 hehehe). But pointed out that I’m giving up too much of my self to help these people (which I already knew) and that a lot of these people don’t really want to be helped, but rather they just want to make me feel like shit. (she didn’t actually say shit, I don’t think she could. Jenni’s the kind of girl that would rather say poo…) it was she said this that I had a realization, every time I talk to her I’m always a downer, I’m this little dark cloud that grazes through her life. It made me sick to my stomach to think that with everything bringing me down that I’m what brings her down. (there’s no way she gets off the phone with me and feels good about the conversation.) with that I realized there are only two possible things I can do change this 1) I could stop being her friend to protect her from the plague of depression that I am, or 2) I could try and be more positive, if for no other reason than for her. When I told her this she said she would love to hear me tell her something positive “even if it’s about a really pretty cloud you saw that day.” (sometimes she’s so sweet she could give you a cavity.) So with that I’ve decided that I’m going to try and leave “A Positive Note” on my blog every day. Even if it’s just a txt from my cell. Chances are it will be mostly about video games, but you never know, I might see a pretty cloud sometime.


On A Positive Note- for a while now I’ve been neglecting my blog because while I love to write I need to feel it to write it. It felt good to write this all out and I think I’m ready to start writing again.




Exile