CaptainPete

Blerg. I've had no energy this week at all. And I can't use caffeine like I used to, to reverse it. Getting old is for the birds. Again. I also have too much to do today, but I just want to go to bed for a week or so. As for the earlier conversation about the cakewalk stuff, we had one when I worked at Safeway, ages ago. It was rather dumb and wasn't handled well, as there were numbers on the floor that didn't match the aisles they were in and it caused no end of confusion. It was like musical chairs but... Worse.

While that's probably true, except that these ads were about the time they were born, so I have some questions. Also, my grandfather wasn't exactly a great person, so I wouldn't be surprised if he remembered the names from that and pitched them because of that. Ha. Not possible. His mother was from a tiny town in Idaho and she would have been... Maybe 18-20 when the war started, if I'm remembering correctly. Her husband, my grandfather, was born in 1920, and she had to have been younger than him. As it was the style at the time...

I ordered some prints of old photographs for a supernatural horror game I'm going to run (at some point, as soon as I settle on which system to use, and what kind of game it'll be) and got a print of an old Lucky Strikes ad. That had some pin-up drawing on them. Two of the girls, the only ones with their names fully visible, have the same names as my mom and one of her sisters. I now have questions for my deceased grandparents... I also ordered a print of a pin-up with my grandfather's plane (other side of my family), which is kind of neat. I didn't realize that she was *ahem* disrobed in the thumbnail. This makes showing it to my dad a little more awkward.

Phone bill was paid in the end. I ended up going on to the website and kept clicking links to pay my bill until I managed to bypass the 404 I got when trying to log in. Still can't use my debit card, it always says that my information is incorrect, even after entering it by hand. I might have to give them a call. Or maybe file a complaint with some government agency. I've gotten more spiteful in my "old age." In better news, my copy of the Perfect Blue soundtrack arrived and I'm listening to it now. It's kind of fun to listen to the full pop songs they only play in the background for the "band." It also arrived much faster than expected. It was originally quoted as arriving on the 20th of next month. Now, I need to wrap up those tiny Soviet troopers. And I need to look for a squad-level Weird War WWII miniatures game...

I seem to be unable to pay my phone bill using the app or the website. Of course, I could pay it in person or over the phone, but they want an extra $5 for that. The payment system has been slowly getting worse, first it stopped taking debit cards, then Gpay, and now the payment of pals. I can't even log into my account to try. I don't even know what to think... But I'm starting suspect that they're letting all this fall apart so they can make some extra money. I might be paranoid but after the last few years, I will never doubt a company's attempts to squeeze every last dime out of people.

Since I've cleaned up and set up my hobby space, I (of course) didn't start painting minis. Instead, I've started working on some old Wargames Factory WWII Soviet troops I got ages ago. It's slower going than I remember but it's fun to get back into it. Once I wrap these guys up, I might even start building some Gunpla a friend game back in... 2002? 2003?

I'm so glad for the cohesion change. I play Guard/HDF. The old rule was rough for me.

I just read an article that compared ST: TNG and ST: DS9 to Superman and Batman, respectively, in tone, and I don't know how I feel about this...

Well, young boss is on their way out the door. They've been removed from the schedule, demoted, and will be "offered" the chance to end their employment early. There's a phrase I could use, but not on here (you know the one). This week has drained me. Other boss is back from the east coast and is obsessed with finding these things called "pizza logs" in my neck of the woods. I called them a messed up egg rolls or a Hot Pocket with a delusion of grandeur and now he's ordered 100 of them from the manufacturer, to prove me wrong. Social engineering is fun and hopefully delicious.

Like, I don't know, paint minis?

I envy you so much right now... So... That boss is getting fired today. They were supposed to work last night but their fiance called out for them. If they weren't already about to get the boot, that would have been enough on its own. I almost had to work with them, the other boss had to call me and damn near beg me to come in and work with them. And then, as I was heading out, I got the call that they had called out. So long, good luck, don't let the door hit you on the way out! And things got bad last night. As all companies, we have some monitoring app on all of our phones and tablets. Ours, however, is an actual parental control program. And, last night, at a11pm, our parents put the phones and tablets into a curfew. No apps would open. No PTT, no clocking in and out, we couldn't even make a phone call. I had about a dozen people who's phones that were little more than very expensive paperweights. And we're not supposed to carry our personal phones while on the clock. We had to call the tech guy and get him to fix it. From what he said to me, the app had updated and the curfew was default. I'm wondering how much longer we're going to keep using the app. Probably a few more years.

Which one? Eh. It'll all work out in the end. Thanks.

Last night was a beast. Young boss called out, one boss is on vacation, the boss that was working when I came in doesn't have their own vehicle and was almost told that they weren't going to be getting home, and then... This one is a wild one. I see that someone isn't clocked in and call them. The conversation went something like this: Me: Hey, I see that you're supposed to be in about 15 minutes ago, what's up? Them: Did they tell you? I'm in Orlando. Me: What the... You're in Orlando?!? You called? Yeah, I've got nothing on that. Them: Yeah, I called and told them earlier. Me: (other phone ringing, someone else in the background freaking out after hearing the conversation) Okay, yeah, I'll get you out of the shift tonight. No one else mentioned speaking with this person and they're reliable, while this person isn't. And we can go through the phone records to find out if they actually called or not. I had to shift around the few people I had to get that covered, which is why the boss who was there almost had to sleep in the office, and then start dealing with other issues. It was just a hot mess. And then, the one person who was doing stuff, dropped a few bombshells about the young boss (who's already quitting) and now I'm very mad. I had to send an email to one of the big bosses that ended with "I don't feel comfortable working with (young boss) going forward." If I get called about it today, which I probably will, I'm going to just flat out say "only one of us is going to work tonight, you choose, I don't mind having the night off right now." I don't think I'd be able to keep my mouth shut about it, so it would be better than we don't cross paths until they're gone. Oh, and the icing on the cake? Someone called a little over an hour before the boss came in and told me her grandfather died. We knew it was coming but she was trying not to cry on the phone and I was just trying not to cry, too. It took me right back to when my grandfather died. I said something like "okay, so you're taking the day off. I'll get you pulled and we'll take care of it, don't worry." I didn't even ask, just "this is what we're doing" about the whole thing.

Counterpoint: YES!

She shouldn't be able to. Especially since I just started a new lease, effective on the first of this month. It's really odd that she either screwed this up or tried to sneak it in.

Well, I got tossed in the jail of a popular mirco-blogging site for telling a bad person to "go jump in a lake." Apparently, that's a threat of violence. I was going over the paperwork the apartment manager dropped off, to update the mailbox number for the records, and it looks like she tried to sneak a $15 rent increase into it. I don't even know what to make of it. It could be a mistake, but I don't trust her at all anymore. I might just say I lost it, if she asks, and have her bring me a new one. If it's in there again, then I get to contact a lawyer. As for my cleaning project, I'm almost ready to set up for painting. I had to take my old computer and try to get it to do a factory reset, so I can give it to my dad, but it had other ideas. It's been off for months, so it HAD to update things. It was rather annoying. At least it's done. I'm really looking forward to painting again. I've been trying to find time for it for months, but I kept finding other things I had to do. Now, I think I've got a good plan worked out to get things done. Maybe. Hopefully.

I laughed out loud at this one. Clearly, whoever said this never had a sibling or played in the woods with friends. Ugh. I can't tell if my allergies are really bad or if I'm sick. I woke up coughing and felt sick, but now that I'm sitting up and have blown my nose, I don't feel sick. I just don't know. I think I'm going to take it easy tonight and see what happens. Oh, I do have some news. I got the mailbox key yesterday and called the post office, because the manager and I don't speak to each other, and found out that they'll be putting our mail in our new box, including the stuff we're missing. And I got a call that the young boss, that's been pissing people off, put in their two weeks' notice tonight. It'll suck to have the gap in coverage, but I'd rather have that then what we have now.

Yeah, it's complicated and tough and I have very mixed feelings about the whole situation. My big bosses are currently pushing the DA to go up to Assault II, but they argued that a walking stick "isn't really a weapon." The victim (a boss) responded that it's probably the second oldest weapon. The first one is a rock. I have no idea if he got charged for the damage to the vehicle, but I did hear that he was arraigned. We'll see what happens from this point on. In another, and hopefully final, update on the mailbox issue, we have a new mailbox! It only took *checks notes* ten days! Of course, the boxes are just numbered, not with unit numbers, there's no notice of what's going on, and we haven't been given keys yet. So, effectively useless right now! I am not surprised. Now, I need to spend time getting things moved around because I really, really want to have my painting space set up this weekend.

I hate all the voice speech things. I hate them all. Hate. And most shift premiums are per hour, not per diem. Good luck getting the police to pop those kids. I've got a fun story below... I find Ross to be the best place to find things like this. They're usually the exact same you find it hobby shops and tool shops, but about a third of the price. You just might have to go hunting and stop by regularly. Now, for a story about the police and failure. Okay. I don't know if I wrote about this back when it happened, but back in July, one of our guys was hit in the head with a stick while trying to move a guy off of a building. One of the (outgoing) bosses was there, helping out, and maced the dude. He's popped up here and there since then, and we've called the police, but there's been no arrests. We once called and waited 12 hours to get them to come out and arrest him, but by the time they designed to grace us with their presence, he had woken up and left. Tonight, one of my bosses (the one who recently started getting into minis, I wrote about him yesterday, I think?) went out to remove someone from another building. And it was him. Since we didn't have a good shot of the guy, and it was a different spot in the same area, it didn't click that it was him right away. Plus, he's been hiding from us for a few weeks now. Anyway, boss rolls up, asks the guy to leave and... This guy was not having it. But you know what he did have? A strong walking stick. My boss got clipped in the elbow and absolutely smacked in the leg. The bruise was the size of his knee, no joke. He also busted the truck's front windshield. And you know what he got charged with? Assault IV. The lowest level of assault, a misdemeanor. And, do you want to know the best part? He's back out on the streets. Supposed be monitored by the Sheriff's Office while out on the streets but that program was overloaded before the pandemic. Basically, he got away with it. Even if we can catch him again, they'll just let him go again. I can't wait to see this guy on the news because he's done something very bad...

I have no drama to update today. At least, I hope not. I did discover that the city's non-emergency line is now an automated nightmare and I hate it. I am dealing with a serious issue, I don't need to "speak clearly" and have to figure out how to re-phrase things so the Soon-To-Become-Skynet thing can get me the help I need. I swear... In better news, one of bosses got some minis from a KS he backed a while back. Since his partner is a professional art restorer, she's going to paint them up for him. So, we've been having his running conversation and text chain about getting her started on the road down of painting. I've recommended the LTPK from here to get started and using Gesso as a primer, as they also live in an apartment and I'm pretty sure she's familiar with it. Now, to keep trying to make my apartment habitable. It's like playing Jenga but with more breakable items and something I can actually do...

So far, the manager hasn't tried to ding me for the sign. I'll let sleeping dogs lie (lay?) for now. In work drama, oh boy, we got some stuff. Someone is getting fired for something I can't even talk about, but let's just say there's no way we could keep him around after what happened. I will say that it was nothing violent but it's BAD. And one of our best workers put in their notice. She puts in something near 60 hours a week. But they couldn't afford to give her a raise. So, I wonder why she's leaving? Beyond that, we've got a new person that's in my position and she's not doing some stuff and then randomly changing things for no reason I can figure out. It's like, why are you coming into a place and just doing random things without asking anyone? And not even the stuff that doesn't make sense? There's always a method for the madness, I assure you. Then, we had someone that quit, but just came back. And she's just as lazy as she was the first time. I don't want to complain to the bosses about it but I'll probably just find a job somewhere else, rather than try to fix the problems. It's not my job to solve all the problems, if they wanted me to, they could pay me what I'm worth. Now, I have an apartment that's been torn apart and I need to put it back together again. When that is finished, I have promised myself that I'm going to sit down and paint some minis... Or die trying.

Just remember what Ron White says...