Old folks had the best chairs

There has been a situation. One I've had to deal with, because it was essential to my well-being. You see, there are two positions in which I like to express my laziness. One of them is lying down, either on my back or sideways. The second one is by sitting. Of course, sitting on a bed can be nice, but without back support, you can't be comfortably lazy for more than a few hours at a time.

My point is, you need a good chair, and mine just broke.

This piece of crap I've had for a few years now, has been the support behind those long nights working on regretting the excessive procrastination. It has broken down a few times before, nothing serious until now though. It was usually the armrests, being loose to the point of falling appart. This week, the back of the chair, consisting of a large plastic piece, ended up snapping in two, right in the middle. The result isn't quite comfortable, as it hurts my back, and I can't see myself using this chair any longer. The search for a new chair is on!

First of all, I had to consider what kind of chair I wanted. Leather is out of the question, sticky in the hot summer days, ends up cracking after a few years. I'd much rather have another fabric chair! The problem is, after shopping a bit online, the only chairs I could find that were of higher quality than mine were over 200 bucks. Kind of expensive for a student budget. That's when I remembered. I love chairs with metal frames.

Wait a minute...do they even sell those anymore? Not if you don't want to pay thousands. All plastic, everywhere you look. God damn plastic. Well, there's always the used market, right? Right.

Thanks to kijiji and a very nice guy from Brossard, I present you my recent aquisition:

I must have a thing for old furniture, but this chair suits me well. I don't see it breaking for another 25 year, even if it probably is that old already. And for 20 bucks, who can complain! I love my old chair.

Nachos à la matsam

Little food experiment I tried out: I love eating nachos, but can you that as a meal? Not really, because it won't fully satisfy you, there's no meat! Well, that's where my food experiment comes in.

Ingredients

Preparation

Now this is pretty simple stuff, but I still want to get it right. Only the tostitos, the cheese and the meat need to go in the oven, the tomatoes are better fresh and cold, they'll be added after everything heats up.

The food is ready to eat!

This experiment was quite tasty, the salsa and sour creme are always good dips for nachos, especially together. The pepperoni made it more of a meal than an appetizer. Add a hint of cock sauce, along with your favorite soft drink and you've got yourself some great nachos. I give this experiment a 2 out of 2.

Lazy Job - End of the Embarrassment

The busy moments at my job are at the very beginning and at the very end of the shift. When the day starts, it doesn't really matter because everyone is still asleep, still (no wonder, they get here at 5:45am). When the shift is over, however, this is when things get wild (not really). I don't know if you even noticed, but schools are fucking scary at night, when there's nobody else in it. One of the schools I worked in (École Secondaire d'Oka) served as a set for the horror movie "Gothika", to give you an idea.

So when all the construction dudes decide it's time for them to hit the road, I have to be the last one to get out, and I need to check every window, every door, every light after they're gone. You're going to tell me it's not a big deal, but it can really turn into a complex situation, sometimes. Here are a few examples.

Yesterday, as I was getting ready to go, I closed the few last doors, as I always do. Here's the thing though, it's not very often that they have fresh paint on these doors. So what do you know, as I held the door to close it, my hands became blue. The sort of paint they use for these schools is the mean stuff. It doesn't go away with only soap and water! So I ran around the school, trying to find paint solvent to get it off my hands(painters always carry a few bottles because it's a messy job, after all), as I learned when I was painting schools last year. My hands ended up smelling horrible, but at least they were skin-colored again.

Two years ago, as I was closing up the thousands of windows in this horror movie-themed high school, a freakin' bird came inside the school! I couldn't let the thing inside, as there would have been bird shit all over the freshly waxed floors the next morning. So I spent about half an hour chasing the winged one through the corridors, progressively blocking its way deeper into the school, towards the nearest exit. That day, I learned birds didn't have a very good knowledge of what exits look like, and what they mean when a human is chasing you. Damn you, bird! Oh well, I guess I got paid overtime for dealing with that silly business.

The same year, I was unlocking the elevator for some construction dude, since he had to get his equipment up a few floors. Usually, to call the elevator, you need to insert the key, turn it, and press the button (so that regular students can't mess with it), then, to lock the doors open, you have to turn the key in the lock inside the elevator. For some reason, when I turned the key inside the elevator to lock the doors open, they closed as I got out to ask the construction dude if he needed anything else, locking my keys inside the elevator. Of course, there was no way to call it back, since I needed that key to do so... So I started freaking out, desperately trying to find another key set. No luck. I then told the construction dudes I had no way to get their stock back down at the end of the day, as I locked the keys inside the elevator. One of the guys said he might be able to help me. He got his tools and opened the button plate. Turns out he was able to rig the wires to make the setup think I just turned the key. The elevator arrived and I got my keys back. These construction guys are awesome.

Last year, I was doing late night shifts in another high school. As I was turning on the alarm systems, I suddenly felt like the floor was moving a little under my feet. Fuck. I was walking on fleshly installed tiles! Of course, they moved a lot, and I knew they would have to start over if the cement hardened like that. I had to lie down and meticulously replace each tile, which is crazy hard to do, especially when you have no experience (hello!). All I have to say is, I must have done a pretty good job, as they never noticed the following morning.

I seem to screw up a lot, even with an incredibly easy job, but it's never anything really bad, thank Robotsk!

Lazy Job Dream

For the first time in a while, I remembered my dream last night. It was nothing special, mind you, but I'm just glad I recall what my brain created during my beauty sleep. I was doing my thing, just being a cooldude, hanging out with friends. Everything was perfectly normal, until I noticed one of my legs was noticeably longer than the other. I also observed I was walking around with an awkward posture for a while, compensating the fact one leg was longer by bending the knee. Of course, in my dream, it seemed perfectly normal for everyone, until I acknowledged it myself. Suddenly, people started asking me why one of my legs was shorter than the other, and every time someone asked me, the other leg seemed to grow a bit more. I think I was about a foot taller, standing on my long leg. I had to tell everyone that's how I was and they couldn't do anything about it. Except the more I was questioned about it, the more I had to demonstrate how I dealt with it, the more it ended up hurting. Flexing my knees makes them ache (that's a real life problem I have), and my consistently bending it, I ended up resenting my condition.

It surprised me how easily I was able to lie to people about the problem being normal for me. I mean, I knew my two legs were suppose to be the same length, but I kinda convinced myself I was wrong. As a matter of fact, I convinced everyone around me, which is not very hard to achieve in real life.

That raised a few questions as soon as I woke up. Why are people so naif and unquestioning once they've been fed a decent explanation? Are we raised to be so gullible? Aren't we taught to always use our critical thinking skills? Or maybe it's just easier to take the first thing that resembles to common sense and make it your own truth. Maybe that's how rumors can flourish in such an impressive way these days (I guess the mass-media exposure and the the internet helps).

I guess it's just weird that today's society is a mix of ignorance and obsessive knowledge. The advent of specialization, I would think. Not that it's always a bad thing; I do think it actually helps to have the possibility to learn about anything at any given time. It's a double-edged sword though. How much time I've sunk into useless bullshit, I lost count a long time ago. For me, it's a way of retiring into my own little space, taking a bit of my time to escape to another world, where the wonders of knowledge aren't restricted with grades and final exams.

Dream on.

The Fifth Element

Sunday, I went for a car ride, I was going to get my birthday present. A present partially from my parents, partially from me. That's what happens when you ask for expensive gifts. Parents sometimes prefer to spend money on floor-heating systems or pool-cleaning robots instead. But they offered me a good deal, one that I could not refuse. So we went to FutureShop to get one of these Xbox 360 bundles. After a lot of research, I noticed they had newer hardware revisions that consumes less energy and has a better chance of surviving more than a few months (I'm sure most of you are familiar with the scourge of the Red Ring of Death).

Unfortunately, it seems all the cheaper models had older chipsets, being at a higher risk from the get-go. I found out that some higher-end models had the new ones, the mythical "Jasper" units. FutureShop had a special on everything in store over 50 bucks, shaving 10 bucks off. Well, it's better than nothing, right? But they didn't have any in stock. They had up to 10 units in all the other locations of the province, but not where I went. Dammit.

I decided to try my luck at BestBuy, giving up on the 10 bucks I wanted to save. I looked in the Xbox section, didn't see the bundle I was looking for...dammit. I asked the clerk if he had any left, and after about 15 minutes of "intense" research, I saw two units on the very top shelf in another section of the store.

Negociation time. This is where I try to seal a deal. I start by showing off the coupon from the other store, telling the clerk I need a better source of motivation to buy the bundle at his store. I says he's not sure he can do anything. Dammit. Suddenly, I remember they have an offer on the Pro models, which nets you 3 free games when you buy the hardware system. Unfortunately, this deal was only available for the Arcade or Pro units, and the one I had in my hands was an Elite unit. The thing is, the Elite model costs a hundred bucks more than a Pro unit and two hundred bucks more than an Arcade unit. Supposing they don't really make huge profits on the sales of video game hardware, I don't see why they don't apply the promotion on the higher-end model.

After a long discussion, not knowing what to do with an insisting guy with too much hair, the two clerks nervously called up a floor manager. He asked if they still had Pro models in stock, looks like they didn't have any more of those, so he said the promo would work on the model I wanted. The power of the manager. It barely took him 5 seconds to decide that. Immediately, a huge grin showed up on my face. I was getting 2 games inside the bundle, and 3 more games with the promo. I think that's a decent deal. I was satisfied and decided to seal the deal. It only took about 20 minutes to find all the games included in the promo, their fault for being disorganized. I didn't mind, because I was getting the best deal, in my opinion. My mom, on the other hand, was not quite happy, as I was ruining her plans for the day.

I ended up buying the console + 5 games for the price of the console. Surely, I would have been too excited about it to do anything else but open it and try all the games, right? Wrong. I spent a splendid night with my girlfriend. We tried a new sushi place and went to see a movie. Lovely, isn't it?

When I got back, with the help of public transportation, I noticed I didn't have my home key and that nobody was home. Dammit. I tried to bang on the doors, in case someone was sleeping or something. No luck. I decided to check at the back, and found an opened window, by which I entered the house. Lucky me! Seting up the beast wasn't very hard, until I tried to connect it to the internet. You see, it doesn't have wireless capabilities, and the only official way to connect it that way is to buy a $100 dongle from Microsoft. No thanks. People told me "Why don't you just run a cable between the router and the Xbox?" Well, it at the other side of the house and crosses a bunch of rooms, it wouldn't be practical at all. I read about another solution which would allow my laptop to serve as a network bridge, taking the wireless signal received by my laptop to transfer it through the ethernet cable from the laptop to the Xbox. Sounds simple, right? I wish.

The problem is that people make instructional videos for everything today, but for whatever is computer related, the videos are only showing ways to get around with the most commonly used OS. So I found instructions on how to make the network bridge with Windows XP, Windows Vista and even Mac OS, but what do you know, I'm using the RC version of Windows 7! It's not much of a difference with Vista, but once you try to mess with control pannel settings, a tiny name change can screw you up. I basically spent all night trying to figure this out, until I read about a related problem someone had on a weird forum. All the official Windows and Xbox boards were no help. You have to dig deep into the dark realms of the internet to find the most simple answers. I ended up making it work, allowing the 360 to update to the NXE interface and allowing me to download the games and themes my Xbox came with. Because, of course, why add a game disc when you can download the damn thing into your humongous hard drive? I'll miss physical media formats. The end seems near, but until then, I'll listen to my newest cd. Arctic Monkeys' debut album: "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not".

I just like to touch.

Lazy job 2009 – day 1

Another summer, another school, it’s lazy job time again! This year, the school is close enough for me to use my bike, but, you know, it’s still the same old. So here’s how my first day went:

I wake up at about 5:45, as I’ve been told to get there at 6:30. I get there at 6:25, but what do you know...people are already in the school...and the freaking alarm system has gone off. So I get in there, try to figure out what’s going on. I’m greeted coldly by a group of painters. They’ve been given access to the school, they have a full set of keys, but they didn’t know how to disarm the alarm system... Well here’s a chance to do something, right? Way to be lazy, matsam. I called the security place, told them it was a false alarm (that had gone for half an hour before it was reported!), but they already called the school director to inform her that something was wrong. I had to explain that when she arrived at the school, but she wasn’t surprised about the painters being there, but me...! It seems she wasn’t expecting a school guardian this year. Plus, I was told the job in this school was an electricity job, so much for communication between the school and the head office. Anyways, since all the janitors are still here, there’s really not much for me to do here. I offered help to the janitors, since the painters don’t really need anything after all the doors are unlocked. So I ended up spending most of the day talking with the janitors, small talk, but it sure is more interesting than spending 8 hours alone doing nothing. Plus, I couldn’t really help them; they were mopping the floors with super duty detergents and cleaners. My shoes probably would’ve melted if I stepped on it, and you know how much I love my shoes!

There was a bit of drama while I was talking with the janitors. A professor came up to them, to ask for some help, but she didn’t know they were using dangerous products, probably, so she stepped right into it, while the janitor was mopping and her shoes got splashed. She said it didn’t matter at the time, but then she told the other janitor she wanted to punch the other one in the face because she thought he did it on purpose or something. It ended up to the director’s ears, and then she had to try to resolve everything between the two mainly concerned.

It’s silly, when you think about it. When you work with other people, you just have to try to get along, no? Some of us can’t get a grasp of that concept, it seems. We get highly offended with little things and go cry to our syndicate. I get it when it’s about sexual harassment or violence, but little accidents, hiccups you could forget two seconds after they happen? Individualism at its finest, people, that’s the problem. Although...the concept of self-reliance isn’t well shown here. It seems hard to stand for ourselves these days. Every time something bad happens, you have to report to the authority, and people who will stand up for themselves will be schooled because they didn’t follow the protocol. But hey, we have to be politically correct at all times these days.

Anyway, I ended up surviving the day, got home, went to BestBuy to seal some deals, and went to my girlfriend’s place to help her put all her stuff in a bunch of boxes. She’s moving out in a few days, after all! I decided to use my bike once more to get there. It’s not that far, really, 15-20 minutes tops. The only think I didn’t think of was the weather. The day had been hot and sunny, why would you worry about a perfectly normal summer day? The crazy storm had something to say about that. Halfway there, it started raining a little bit. But I thought I’d have enough time to get there before I got soaked. Wrong. It was raining so damn hard I was having trouble seeing where I was heading. I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t feel so great when I get somewhere and I’m soaked from rain. I was lucky enough to be at my girlfriend’s, as she gave me dry clothes, for my personal comfort. I ended up dozing off while watching a movie, so I decided I should go to sleep early. I was probably sleeping at 11pm, which is crazy early for me, as most of those who know me should know. The next morning would start at 5am.

Musical emotions and other thoughts

There's something about music...it can make you experience a variety of emotions. It's a common technique used in movies. Then again, music can make you insensible to pretty much everything around you. It's not hard to notice these days: everyone has a pair of headphones plugged right into their ears if they're not expecting to engage in any social act of communication. I am part of the phenomenon myself, as I have trouble reading on the bus or in the metro, I'll often decide to take out my mp3 player and put on my headphones. Times passes more quickly, public transportation becomes less awkward. In an attempt to indulge yourself in the comfort of loneliness, are you not insulting our progress as a society and a community? Perhaps are we just preventing ourselves from getting involved with stupid people. They seem to be a common breed in public transportation.

In other news, I've seen live footage of E3, and I have to say Nintendo, as a company, has found the secret route to success, even in this economic crisis we seem to be stuck in. Funny thing is, this year, both Sony and Microsoft decided to copy Nintendo. Every major player in the gaming industry is now into this motion-control business. Funny how the stereotype of a gamer is usually the lazy teenager who just sits around all day, yet the most popular console encourages you to get your ass up and movin'. From my point of view, it started with music-oriented games such as Guitar Hero. Then came Rock Band, with the now iconic drum set. That got many lifeless arms and legs moving again. I don't know if it's a healthy situation for three major companies to be heading in the same direction, although I must admit I'm intrigued with what they'll come up with.

*Warning: Shoe lovers. This part of my post if for you. Shoe haters, carry on.
Have you ever had two or three pairs of new shoes at the same time? If so, how do you decide to manage them? One at a time, until they fall apart, one by one? Separate the amount of time you wear each one so they individually last trice as long? I didn't figure out the best option yet. I feel that I want to keep them new as long as possible, but then, I'll end up scarifying one pair and not wearing the other pairs! This is a terrible dilemma. I might spend endless nights thinking about it.

As I finish typing this, my laptop's music player keeps pumping out good music. Oh yes. Life is good. Rock on people, rock on.