I might not have been able to go to DC, but I did get something accomplished…
3 minute read
February 24, 2005, 11:18 PM
I did actually get something accomplished today! Inspired by the umpteenth Email about pictures not working, or the odd state of multimedia on the site, I finally pulled out all my Webmaster’s tools and went to work hammering out that long-deferred new design for the Today’s Special site. In order to keep things neat, there will be a strong influence from the current version of The Schumin Web. To keep its Today’s Special character, the color scheme and a number of other stylings will remain from the existing site.
So let’s compare old to new:
This is the old site. It’s got a classic layout and look, but it definitely needs an update. But it is indisputably Today’s Special. Note the inclusion of details from the Children’s Department on the show along the top of the screen.
Continue reading…Categories: Schumin Web meta, Today's Special
No high-speed Internet yet…
< 1 minute read
January 26, 2005, 8:43 PM
Nope. No high-speed Internet. More 56K. Oh, boy.
Well, not yet. We have to get the cable guy over to make a house call to get it started because they say that something is wrong hardware-wise somewhere along the line. So they’re coming on Sunday to fix it and hopefully get it going.
Still, I did buy $300 worth of stuff at Wal-Mart to hook everyone up with it. About half of that equipment is opened and scattered around my room. Some of it’s hooked up. Some of it is halfway hooked up. I had to stop when we found out that a house call was needed.
All I have to say is that I’m pleased and upset all at the same time. I’m pleased because I know that it’s not a mistake on my part, and that I most likely did it correctly. But then I’m upset because I have to wait for my high-speed Internet, which I’d be hoping to write this Journal entry on this evening.
Somehow, we’ll get it all straight in the end, I’m sure.
Categories: Internet, Power Rangers
I don’t know what it is about this time of year that makes me want to start a project at home
2 minute read
January 13, 2005, 7:44 PM
Yeah, Sis is going back to school on Sunday, and I’m again going to use her room as swing space. This time, I’m attacking the problem spots in my room. Mainly those spots where junk accumulates.
Let me put it to you this way: I still have the tubs of junk from my Potomac Hall room in the middle of my floor, nearly two years later. I moved them out when I redecorated last year, and then moved them back in afterwards. This time, I’m officially attacking those tubs. And the closet. And whatever other corners and spots have become junk repositories.
Here’s the battle plan. Sis’s floor will be divided up into four sections. One area will be “keep”. One will be “sell”, which I intend to list on eBay. A third will be “trash”. And a fourth will be “Goodwill”. Now that we have a new Goodwill store in Waynesboro right next to Wal-Mart, I’m most likely going to donate a boatload of stuff from this adventure to Goodwill. Still, I intend to make this room more livable than it is right now. Besides, I’d have to do this anyway after I find a job in Washington and move out. So I might as well just do it now.
Categories: House, Today's Special
“…he was from New Jersey! I went to my senior prom with a YANKEE!”
2 minute read
January 13, 2005, 7:22 PM
That line of Blanche’s from The Golden Girls just cracks me up. Since, you see, I am originally from New Jersey, and still consider myself northern, even though I’ve lived in Virginia for more than half my life.
This is why I love it when people say that I sound northern, like one person told me today. Shows I haven’t lost it. And let me tell you – the word “y’all” is not in my vocabulary. And if ever you hear me say “y’all”, slap me.
Meanwhile, I’m going to the doctor’s office tomorrow for pain. Where? Wrists! Over Christmas, I managed to get a repetitive stress injury in both wrists from scanning items for customers. Now it’s painful to scan stuff. I had this happen in 2003 in my right wrist only, and then it went away after a while on the Service Desk. This time it’s both wrists, and I am so done with the Service Desk, so that’s not an escape again. I’m hoping to get some “feel-good medicine” to make me feel good (thus “feel-good medicine”) and make the pain go away. Usually I do so well, and nothing ever ails me. Then within the last month or so, I got two colds in a row in December, and then this. Yuck.
Categories: Activism, Fire drills, Personal health, Television
“Zordon? You know Zordon?”
3 minute read
December 15, 2004, 1:39 AM
This evening I finally appointed moderators for The Schumin Web Community, which is the name for my discussion forum section. However, I didn’t publish guidelines for my moderators just yet. So they are without guidance for now. Basically, imagine a Power Rangers scenario. I’ve given them Morphers, and I’ve given them Zords. But I’ve not shown them how to use either one yet.
Power Rangers was the first thing to come to mind for me. It also reminded me of the funniest thing that I’d seen in Power Rangers. First of all, do you know who this guy is in the tube?
Categories: Power Rangers
“Let me say my magic word.”
2 minute read
November 14, 2004, 4:23 PM
Does anyone here remember the 1980s British cartoon series SuperTed? I so love those old cartoons. For those of you who don’t remember:
This is a story about an ordinary teddy bear.
When he was made, they found something wrong with him,
And threw him away, like a piece of rubbish, into an old, dark storeroom.
Then, from outer space, a spotty man brought him to life, with his cosmic dust.
He took him to a magic cloud, where Mother Nature gave him special powers.
That bear became… SuperTed!
Categories: Television
I voted… did you?
3 minute read
November 2, 2004, 3:44 PM
After work, I went over to Stuarts Draft Rescue Squad, and voted. And as a result, I got this:
As you probably expected, I voted for John Kerry for President.
Categories: National politics, Television
Good morning, world!
2 minute read
October 17, 2004, 2:06 AM
Yeah, fan-bloody-tastic. It’s early. Just the right time to bust a move to Washington DC, too.
As soon as I finish this journal entry, I’m hopping into the shower to make myself all fresh as a daisy. Then I’m getting dressed, getting gathered up, and then… I’m going out!
It kind of reminds me of what Jeff Hyslop sang in Today’s Special’s episode “Live on Stage” about going out. It went like this:
Categories: DC trips, Today's Special
And for you doubters, I can sing, though how well is left to the opinion of innocent bystanders…
2 minute read
September 20, 2004, 1:58 AM
This is my third journal entry in the same evening! I must have a lot to talk about.
Anyway, though, in the Garden Center at work, which is rapidly going from garden stuff to Christmas stuff, there is a small display in the center of the open space. There are four mechanical dancing Santas. For the most part. One is Santa Claus himself. One is a bear in a Santa suit. One is the Grinch in a Santa suit. And the last one is a snowman. These things are about a head shorter than me, and swing their hips, move their arms, turn their heads, and the Santa and the snowman move their mouths. They sing canned songs, but then they also have a jack for a microphone on them, where you can sing into the mic, which causes the heads to turn and the mouth to move.
After clocking out at work, I headed over to the Garden Center to check it out, and discovered the display, and noticed that it was plugged in, and a microphone was sitting there.
See where this is going?
Categories: Today's Special, Walmart
“Too big! Too small!”
< 1 minute read
September 16, 2004, 11:15 PM
I saw a commercial for Wilkins Shoe Center on CNN this evening, and it starts out with someone trying on shoes, appropriately enough.
They say, “Too large!” showing someone with a shoe that is obviously too large on their foot. Then they show one saying, “Too small!” with someone with their foot halfway in an obviously-too-small shoe. Then the announcer says, “Just right!” and shoes a person with a properly fitting shoe.
It reminds me of something I saw on Today’s Special’s “Shoes” episode. It was a scene with Jodie walking past a row of shoes, essentially gesturing with her feet at each one, before putting the last pair on. It goes like this:
Too big!
Too small!
Not right… at all! (These shoes were flippers)
Too loose!
Oh, too tight!
Ahhh… these feel just right! (Puts these shoes on)
Thus every time I see the commercial, I expect after “Too small!” to hear “Not right… at all!” Interesting, indeed.
Categories: Today's Special
With all the rain we’ve been having…
4 minute read
September 9, 2004, 2:06 AM
I’m going to Washington DC today, and it’s probably going to be a soggy day, based on the looks of things.
Doesn’t bother me. Means I’ll get to see a lot of Mode 2 operation (Mode 2 is manual with speed protection).
Mom was concerned about all the rain. So I cited that strange dream I had back in February (according to this journal, February 19, entitled “Your assignment: Figure out where this dream came from”). It’s the one where I went Metro kayaking. I still think that’s one darn strange dream, and if I recall, at the time the people on SubTalk thought it was off-the-wall, too. And in that dream, if I recall, paddling a Breda down the water was for the less-experienced while rafting with a Rohr was the more challenging.
What’s odd, though, is how much that matches the actual trains. According to a few train operators I’ve spoken with, the Rohrs have some really weird quirks that make them more challenging to operate. Bredas are much less quirky.
Ah, well.
Categories: Television, Walmart, WMATA
“I don’t want to feel like a fish with no water!”
2 minute read
August 26, 2004, 8:04 AM
At work yesterday, we were actually discussing those public service ads that run on cable TV. Like the one where the fish tank slowly loses water talking about asthma, or the one where the guy walks into the store to buy a wallet and he gets a really tiny wallet for the really tiny money he’ll be making as a high school dropout.
And then there’s one ad that, among the people in our group, that kind of creeped us all out a little bit:
Nobody likes me. Nobody. Maybe it’s because I like to attack people. Men. Women. Kids. I can leave them as stammering, confused, scared imitations of their former selves. If they don’t stop me, I just might leave them that way for life. I am a stroke.
A little creepy, because he looks like a pretty rough character there, with the wrinkled face in the shadow. But still, it’s a very memorable way to get the message across. I think we’ll all understand the seriousness of a stroke now if we didn’t before.
Categories: Greta, Television, WMATA
I don’t know what happened, but it definitely looked unpleasant
4 minute read
June 12, 2004, 11:59 PM
On my way back from Charlottesville, where I spent the day today (somehow I got a Saturday off without asking for it – go figure), on US 340 right before the intersection of 340 and 608, I had to slow down considerably. It was the only smart thing to do considering that there were northbound cars traveling in the left southbound lane. I’m like, what in the heck and slowed down and got in the right lane. Once I got closer, it all made some sense. First thing I saw was lots of shattered glass strewn across four of the five lanes of US 340 right where Stuart Avenue meets 340. I looked left, and I see two cars in some poor innocent person’s front yard at a weird angle. Looks like they didn’t go there on purpose. Some other cars were parked nearby. Then there was a guy putting out flares. I don’t know any details other than what I saw, and don’t know how bad the damage was or whether anyone was hurt or not. But I can tell you this. It definitely doesn’t look pleasant.
Otherwise, I had fun in Charlottesville. First, though, I got the Previa’s front end aligned at Eavers Tire in Stuarts Draft. That was related to the blowout I had two weeks ago. While I was waiting, I worked on my phone some, downloading a new version of Mobile IM (remember that my AIM screen name on my phone is Schumin Wireless), plus downloaded Tetris and Ms. Pac Man onto my phone.
Categories: Blue Ridge Parkway, Charlottesville, Driving, Today's Special, Toyota Previa
“Arlington Cemetery station is closed! Please get back onto the train and go to the next station!”
9 minute read
May 31, 2004, 9:36 PM
Well… my birthday trip to Washington DC that I took a day early (my birthday is the 30th, and I went on the 29th) went very well. A friend of mine actually put it this way…
Um, do you realize what is going on in DC this weekend? I’d leave Transit Deprived Town in the Middle of Nowhere, VA now if you want parking at Vienna come Saturday morning.
I do not take offense to “Transit Deprived Town in Middle of Nowhere, VA”. I am both transit-deprived locally, and also in the middle of nowhere. And Staunton’s trolley-bus system, the closest thing to transit around here, doesn’t even follow a schedule, but rather, they just say that they run a 20-minute loop, and so a trolley-bus should be there about every 20 minutes or so when service is running. They do call their two services “Green Line” and “Red Line”, which amuses me, though.
But anyway, though, the main concern in the comment was that DC was supposed to be swamped with tourists for the World War II Memorial dedication, which I was already aware about. The concern, of course, was that I would not be able to get parking at Vienna. Hadn’t planned for that, but after thinking about it, I determined that if I didn’t get parking at Vienna, I would head over to Franconia-Springfield on the Blue Line and park over there.
Categories: DC trips, Television, Toyota Previa, Walmart, Washington DC
“When the water fills the clouds, then they call on lightning! When the rain needs to pour, then they call on me! And I crackle, and I flash… people think I’m frightening… when I dance through the clouds and send the rain free!”
2 minute read
May 21, 2004, 11:04 PM
You know the story. Thunder blows its giant trumpet, and then…
“I must dance my dance… at last I am set free! It’s my chance to dance (to dance his dance!) where the whole world can see me! I can flash through the sky… and light up the heavens…”
Yes, it rained today. Specifically, we had some mighty thunderstorms. It’s not often that you can see lightning through the skylights at Wal-Mart. It’s also not often that you can hear the rain on the roof from the salesfloor at Wal-Mart. Usually you can hear the rain on the roof in the back room, since it’s usually quiet back there. But to hear it over the din of the customers is is something else. You know that it’s got to be raining hard for that to happen. And it was LOUD on the roof, too! And to hear thunder loud and clear in the store is another thing.
And the ride home was just fun. Raining and all that all the way home, with lightning flashing all over the sky, really lighting up the sky. If only I had Big Mavica and a tripod with me to get a long-exposure shot of it all. And watch me get zapped in the process. It would be a heck of a way to go, though.
Categories: Food and drink, Myself, Today's Special, Walmart, Weather