I appreciate the job security, but geez...

The "honeymoon" portion of my employment has officially ended, and just in time to get my benefits! I'm sick of ten-hour days, and I'm sick of working Sundays. And so far this month, I've only had one Saturday off. I haven't even gotten to go to a Midnight Movie at my favorite theater since November, specifically the day after my birthday. As I mentioned in my previous entry, I don't have much time on my regular work days to do anything but work and sleep. The only good thing about them is that I get three-day weekends. Having to work an extra day for overtime fucks up my entire week, and I have to cram three days worth of weekend into two days. While I guess that can still be considered rest from work, it can still be pretty stressful. I appreciate the job security, but a little more time for myself would be nice. Here's some good reading: Why we have to go back to a 40-hour work week to keep our sanity. Note that they mean 40 hours split into five 8-hour days, because working more than 8 hours in a day is counterproductive.

The only good things I can say about this week are that I got to see and meet Henry Rollins again, and I'm getting to go see Jane's Addiction for the first time tonight. In other concert news, I found out that The Psychedelic Furs will be playing in Louisville on April 4th, and the Danzig Legacy tour will play in Indianapolis on June 1st. My overtime day in June is Friday, so I'll have to remind myself to try to get a vacation day for May 30th so I can get out of working that day if OT is called, and to get a four-day weekend. I actually have a blog entry idea brewing in my head that involves both Jane's Addiction and The Psychedelic Furs, I hope I'll actually have the time sometime soon to actually write it.

Brief update, March 10, 2012

Having a regular income is nice, but I really miss having time to write my blog, or read blogs that I follow. Working ten hours a day kinda sucks. After work, I only have time to eat dinner and take a shower, then I might have an hour or so to fool around online or watch TV, then it's off to bed. I feel like I do have quite a bit that I want to say these days, but don't have the time to type it down. When I do get the rare chance to write in here, I usually find myself too exhausted mentally to write, so I just quit and go watch some stuff on the DVR instead.

In February 2011, I wrote What have I gotten myself into?, where I decided to buy a Lifetime Membership into Louisville Mojo. These days, that place is so dead that I would delete my profile if I didn't feel compelled to keep it due to my lifetime membership. Back in 2004, Mojo was so entertaining that it replaced TV as my choice of prime time entertainment. That's definitely not the case now.

I'm trying to make some lifestyle changes, and the first one has been to try to wean myself off of sodas, in this case I'm referring to both regular and diet sodas. I'm not necessarily eliminating them from my life altogether, just trying to get to where I don't drink them at home or work. I grew up drinking sodas like most people probably drink water, and it's been one of the hardest things I've ever tried to give up. Reducing my soda intake has been easier this time around, probably because I seem to be getting tired of them anyway. The time I find it hardest to not drink a soda is when I sit down to type up a blog entry, or do some other task online that's going to take up a lot of time, like doing taxes or filling out an application. I am happy to say that I have no drink beside me at the moment.

2012 so far...

Sorry for the lack of entries lately. Starting up entries has been easier than finishing them. Other than the tooth (more on that in a minute) and the wild weather, I haven't had much to complain about. It hasn't been real eventful either, since I'm mostly either working or hanging out with my favorite girl. Sometimes, no news is good news. :)

I spent the first few hours of the year with my favorite girl, and I couldn't think of a better way to start it. I can't say that the rest of the day was all that great, since I had to be in at work at 9:00 a.m., and then later on while eating dinner, part of a filling broke off. The tooth it came from was the one that should have just been pulled instead of filled back in. The tooth really bothered me the first few days, but doesn't bother me now. I've been trying to decide whether to take care of it soon, or in two months when I'll actually have insurance.

Work has slowed down quite a bit. I've had no overtime this year, and I got to leave early every day this past week. Next week's check is going to suck, but I'm trying to enjoy the time off that I get, especially after having worked 44-55 hours a week for over a month. One thing I like about working day shift is that I actually get to see the sun when I get off from work early. Before too long, I'll get to see it every day when I get off at my regular time.

One of the perks of having a steady full time day job is getting to go to concerts. I get to see Anthrax pretty soon. This will be my fifth time seeing them, but only my first with Joey Belladonna on lead vocals. And in March I'll get to see a Henry Rollins spoken word show AND Jane's Addiction in the same week! This is the first time I know of that Jane's Addiction has ever played Louisville. Van Halen is playing in February, and I'm debating on whether to go see them.

One of the few brick-and-mortar Blockbuster Videos that I know of is going out of business. Like Borders and Ear X-tacy, I'm kinda sad to see it go. But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't enjoying the sale.

I've recently decided to give up watching "Star Wars:Clone Wars". When watching a show starts to feel like a chore, then it's time to stop watching. I never was a huge fan, but it did seem to get more interesting at some point. This season is supposed to have some good shit, but it's mostly been a dud so far. You especially know it sucks when Gungans are featured in two or three episodes in a row. But anyway, I'm really glad that I was recently able to get both volumes of Genndy Tartakovsky's Clone Wars micro series that aired between Star Wars Episodes 2 and 3. It's not only the definitive Clone Wars series for me, but it's also better than the prequel trilogy.

Good riddance, 2011!

I've been hella busy between working and spending time with people. I was extremely unhappy about having to work these past two Fridays, but glad that I didn't have to work 11-hour days this week. On the upside, I found out that I'll be getting hired on Full Time in January!

I had the best Christmas ever this year. It's a shame that I don't feel at liberty to talk about most of it here. :D

I'll probably be gone most of the day on Saturday, so this will likely be my last post of the year. 2011 was a terrible fucking year, and I'm glad to see it end. 2012 is already looking pretty okay, as long as I can survive the freaking campaign season.

Whoa, not so fast!

Today was supposed to be the last of the 11-hour days, but at the start-up meeting they announced that we will have 11-hour days through the end of the year! FML What wasn't really announced, but I heard through the grapevine, was that we'll be working our overtime days too, meaning I'll probably have to work this Friday. It should be noted that not a lot happens on the two days before Christmas Day. I guess I should be happy that I get to work at least through the end of the year, but I'm fucking pissed. Any good feeling I might have had left over from this past weekend has gone out the window. I really hope I don't have to work on the 30th. My brother will only be in town from the 26th through the 31st, and it would be nice to get two whole days with him instead of just one.

I was really looking forward to getting up after 5:00 a.m., rather than before.

I don't see how anyone who has worked in retail around Christmastime, whether it's a big box store or an online retailer, can not be jaded when it comes to Christmas. I'm sure I've said it before, but I'll be glad when it's over.

(Edited to add that a video for the Fear song "Fuck Christmas" used to be here. The video has been pulled from YouTube.)

A light at the end of the tunnel?

Wednesday didn't exactly start off good. My brain was fried from already working three 11-hour days in a row. I could barely read the numbers on my RF gun right. It's like, my RF gun would say to go to location 333 in a certain aisle, but I would end up going to 033 instead, look for the product, not find it, and then I'd look at my gun again and realize I was at the wrong spot the entire time. Ugh. However, I did get two bits of good news towards the end of the day which made it all worthwhile. The first was that I didn't have to work on Friday, but I still had to work 11 hours on Sunday. The second was that my assignment was being extended! I feel really bad for the people who weren't so lucky.

This was my first real weekend since my birthday weekend, not counting the weekend between jobs since I didn't do anything. My car got worked on, so I spent the first half of my weekend waiting to get it back. But later on on Friday, I hung out with a friend for a good while. I had to do some shopping on my way home, and since I'm boycotting Walmart, I decided to try Meijer. It was a pretty nice visit, and I kind of wonder now why I even bothered shopping at Walmart in recent years.

I've got lots going on today, but I shouldn't be out too terribly late since I have to go in to work at 6:00am.

I was talking to someone recently about how odd the past three years have been for me, and how it would be nice to get back to some sense of normality. She then asked, "What's normal?". I told her that I didn't really know, but that things just have really really not been right in my life since I got laid off and my sister died. Other than the car situation, this weekend has made me feel like I could possibly get back to some sense of normalcy.

Got no time for livin'...

Let's get this out of the way first, especially if you're one of those company stooges who goes looking for dirt:

I like my new-old job!

But geez Louise, I feel like I spend way too much time there! My typical work day is ten hours, 10.5 if you include lunch. There are so damn many people there that I have to get there way early for a decent parking spot, and it takes so long to get out on a normal day due to the amount of people that I've given up trying to get out ASAP, and just hang out for 30 to 45 minutes. In all, there are about twelve and a half hours between the time I leave for work and the time I get home. I get out of bed about 45 minutes before I leave for work, so that adds up to 13 hours 15 minutes. Subtract that from 24 hours, and that leaves you with 10 hours 45 minutes. I try to get about 7 to 8 hours of sleep, so that leaves me with just under two to three hours open. That's not a whole lot of time. I especially haven't had time for blogging.

On those days where I have to work 11 hours, I feel like there's hardly any point in leaving. I'm really not happy that the 11th through the 18th of this month are all supposed to be 11-hour days, but I felt a little less bad after realizing that the week of the 18th is the last week before Christmas. I find it funny that they're making us work 11-hour days since the guy who has been the overall Fulfillment manager since late 2005 got rid of the 12-hour weekend shifts years ago, claiming that people lose productivity after ten hours.

I haven't gotten out much since my birthday weekend because I've been too busy working. While it sucks that I'll have no life due to the holidays, I'm actually way less miserable than I was at Mega Lo Mart!