Month: January 2006

I’ve been working in the pricing department as the pricing manager in my store now since June of last year. The old pricing system was a DOS based system running on an old computer that was running Windows 95 even though it wasn’t advanced enough to be running Windows 3.1. Well, my system that I use is running on Windows XP Professional and my pricing program is a Windows based operation. I’ve been working on Windows since it started back in the days so I’m very familiar with it. My first Windows based PC had 3.1 on it and I remember upgrading it to 95, then the next computer I bought had 95 on it and I upgraded that to 98 and the next computer had 98 on it and I upgraded it to Me… which in hindsight was the biggest fucking mistake I ever made. I upgraded that computer again to Windows XP because I was sick of getting a fucking kernel error every time I tried to do something complicated; like move the mouse. Anyway, what I’m getting at here is that I’m familiar with my computers and with this pricing program. In fact I’m so familiar with it that ever since it has started I have kind of become the pet project store for the corporate office.

Whenever there is something new that they want to try they just install it on my computer and then give me a call the next day and ask me how it worked. It usually goes like this:
“Hey Dave, yesterday after you left we dialed in and installed a fix that will allow you to export a batch quicker than normal; how’s that working?”
“Um, its working fine I guess, although if I had known something had been updated I would have actually paid attention earlier when I was using that function.”

This has been going on since roughly a month after I took the pricing manager job. Now the real fun begins because I was recently asked to do some training for the new stores that will be going to this program from the old one. I will be tapped to do four training sessions between April and November and I may even get to go as far as Rapid City South Dakota (which is one of my favorite places anyway) and even Omaha Nebraska which I’ve never been and probably will never want to again from what I’ve heard. I will get set up with a laptop computer and a cell phone from the office so I can be on call and I will be able to dial into other people’s computers and work on them from wherever I’m at. Hopefully they won’t call my ass at home.

Hey, let’s get away from my job and talk about my old job there. I did HBC for over 10 years at that store and although I didn’t think it would bother me too much to see how much the department has gone to hell, it does. Some of the Christmas stuff wasn’t put out until about a week before Christmas. When I left the department all they did is put one of the cashiers into there. I was in full swing with pricing so my ability to train was zilch. I still get asked to do some shit and I’ve made mention that I have my own responsibilities and this is no longer my concern or responsibility. Most of my days are booked so I don’t have time to baby-sit my old department at all. I do see it while I’m out hanging tags and I hate seeing all of the holes on the shelves and the way some of the shit looks but what can I do? I think enough of the department to be concerned but not enough to do anything about it anymore; it has been 8 months since I stopped doing it for Christ’s sake. Oh the tales I could tell.

Hey, it’s finally time for taxes. About half the population likes that and the other half dread it. I am one of those that get a refund back so I’m more than happy for tax time to roll around so I can get a lump of money directly deposited into my checking account. This year between state and federal I’m getting close to $1,300 back and I’m happy. I’m not sure exactly why I’m so happy considering that I’m not winning the lottery or some jackpot but only getting money back that was mine in the first place that if I had put into a savings instead of “loaning” to the government at least I would have made some interest on.

I guess I’m just happy that even though they felt the need to take that money from me, they at least are giving some of it back… you don’t get that from most thieves. Now of course the important question gets asked… what am I going to do with all of that money? Gee, am I going to buy a new 2005 convertible Mustang? Will I get myself a brand spanking new computer, a new I Pod, perhaps a mail order bride? Well actually it will be none of the above, well with the exception of the I Pod. I am seriously thinking of getting some mega MP3 player although I’m not sure which one I want to go with yet. I like the ones that can also hold and show your pictures and your videos but also cost close to 300 or 400 bucks and then I think why not just spend another 300 and get a fucking laptop computer?

I am also entertaining the idea of getting a couple things for my computer, one is another hard drive so I can get into video editing and not fill up my current drive and the other is a shitload more memory. However, as far as the rest of the money goes, it will all go into savings because that just happens to be the mode that I’m in lately. I want money and that’s all I want. I have a lot of material shit currently and although I don’t really ever plan on selling myself short on stuff, I’m also a hell of a lot more frugal when I’m making my choices. You do realize that the old me would have had a new MP3 player by now, not to mention a digital camera that is around 8 megapixels and perhaps a camcorder as well. I don’t have any of those things though. I still have my digital camera which I believe is somewhere in the area of 2.2 megapixels and I don’t own a camcorder and the MP3 player I do own is not even 1GB.

Maybe if I feel like it I’ll do another blog tomorrow and talk about some work stuff that is going on… maybe; don’t get your hopes up or anything.

Come on everyone and check out this shit. This is the concept for the new Chevrolet Camaro that is most likely going to be released. With the exception of that humungous Chevy emblem on the grill I have to say I really like it. It is very reminiscent of the 1969 Camaro to me.

This makes me wonder why is it that as a culture we are renewing everything that was once old. Just think about it, all of our old TV shows are now on DVD. Sure, you can go buy Sex & the City or Family Guy on DVD, but you can also go out and buy I Love Lucy or any other various show you may have watched when you were younger on DVD now. Then you go to the movies and realize that most of the stuff that is being put out by the theaters has already been put out in the past and you are watching a remake.

When I first thought of this, I was in the mindset that people don’t have any more new or good ideas and we are just rehashing old shit because we can’t think of anything new… but now I have a new twist on this. Maybe it just plain sucks these days, and we just want to remember the good old days of yesteryear when life was simpler. Yeah, that’s it… that’s the ticket.

Why are people so superstitious these days? For Christ’s sake people, it’s 2006 despite what I’m still writing on my checks. Just because it’s Friday the 13th, people seem to think that horrible things are going to happen, like another shitty horror movie being released. Nothing bad is going to happen to you on this day and if it does it’s because you did something stupid, not because of what the day on the calendar says. Get a grip people and shut the fuck up. Then we factor in the fact that there is a full moon and people get all weirded out. Oh my god a full moon on Friday the 13th… surely we’ll all parish now. This is almost as annoying as the people that have to say “see ya next year” on December 31st; yeah, they annoy me too.