:: Musings, Thoughts, Quirks, and Cats ::

:: Saturday, December 22, 2001 ::

Yesterday was pretty hectic. I got up at 11:00, to my mom telling me we were going to see Lord Of The Rings. So after getting up and doing my regular morning business, I discover there is a message for me and it's from Eric. He wanted to know if I could see Lord Of The Rings with him, Dan, and Brian.

So I called him back, and he told me that he knew I was already going with my family. And to make things a little less hectic, Dan, Brian, Eric, and Danielle all came with us. I might as well give my review of the movie here:

Leopard's Movie Review: The Lord Of The Rings: Fellowship Of The Ring

I once saw the cartoon version, and this more than surpasses it. Even though I never expressed interest in reading the books, this movie drew me straight in. Everything was believable and well portrayed.

The plot was straightforward, with no noticable gaps that are often accompanied with movies based on books. I saw no continuity errors, and the action was fast-paced, but not so that I got lost.

The characters were in-depth and understandable. Even Gandalf was an easy person to relate to. Each character seemed in part to have many things unsaid that stayed unsaid, such as that crazy blond Elf Witch Queen. The lines were delivered quite well, and you even got to see good acting by Elijah Woods!! Who knew? The casting was beyond a shadow of a doubt a great job. It had quite a few familiar faces for one. Boromir was played by the same guy who played Alec, or 006, in Goldeneye. And did you recognize the head Elf? That's right, he played Agent Smith in The Matrix.

The settings were incredible. Personally, it looked like they chose a really wide array of shooting locations. The Shire looked very much like Ireland, and the top of the mountain looked like Alaska. Actually, to be honest, the mountain top looked like the exact same shooting location for Rura Penthe in Star Trek VI. Doug thought that Legolas might just bump into Kirk at one point. But that's not a flaw, I think that's cool.

The effects were mindblowing. The costumes for the Orcs and Goblins were what I expected and more. Personally Doug and I were ecstatic with the Goblins. You see, Doug and I play Majesty, a computer game where we have to do battle with Goblins on a regular basis, so we have an appreciation with them and their capabilities. And some of the special effects were just great as well. The one I'm thinking of in particular, the Baelrog, was just spectacular and actually had my heart going (this rarely happens).

The music was original to the best of my knowledge and flowed so well with the the movie, I almost forgot it was there. The sound effects didn't sound too put on either.

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Anyway, during the movie, I was in the middle of passing Doug the pop when suddenly the worst thing that could happen to you in a theatre, apart from being sexually molested by an elderly man calling you "Reno", happened to me. The pop exploded...all over me. I had no choice but to take off my shirt and put my coat on. I got a few odd looks.

After the movie, I went home, changed my shirt then Doug and I went Christmas shopping. I got presents for everyone but Jess, given the nature of her present. Doug and I had dinner at MacDonald's and already at that point, my head was throbbing. So many people in such an enclosed place like the mall always gives me a headache. And strangely enough, I kept bumping into people I knew. First, Meghan Nakeff (or whatever) was my cashier at Chapters, then I ran into Ilia B outside of MacDonald's (although he was strangely silent), then I saw both Marja Chow and Dzemelia Caluk in MacDonald's. I only knew Marja by reputation (she was one of the slutiest dressers in BS), and Dzemelia was in my Chem 11 class. Of course, I wasn't THAT surprised. I mean, we all live in the same area.

Well, this morning, Nate and Dan invaded our rooms urging us to get out of bed so we could open our stockings. The reason why we're doing it now is because Mom and Mark are going to Edmonton for the next 5 days, and my bros and I are going to Bowen until Boxing Day.

Anyway, I got some Hot Chocolate mix, Lego galore, Hotwheels, a nifty toothbrush, some pens, a MadLibs, keychains, an ornament and some PEZ. I had a fun morning actually, I love building Lego.

"Desert Rose"
:: Steve Ferguson 1:28 PM [+] ::
...

God I hate people.

I ran into Trevor as I was getting onto work and he was getting off. "Thank you!" he practically got down on his knees and wept.

"Dude," I noted. "You look like you could go home, collapse in bed, and remain comatose for the next four months."

"You don't know the half of it." Trevor almost fell onto our work table. And he told me of his morning. Apparantly, a nice couple had come in and selected a beautiful tree. Trevor tied it all up for them, sawed off the bottom, and moved it into the reserved area. The couple then went into Save-On to pay for it. Trevor noticed an elderly man come in and the man handed Trevor his receipt, which Trevor deftly marked off. The old guy noticed the tree in the reserved area and said "This one's perfect."
"That one's taken, but there are more for you to choose from." Trevor told him.
At this point Trevor is distracted by another customer. The elderly gentleman wastes no time and cuts all the string Trevor just tied the reserved tree with off. He then picks it up and moves over a few steps. Trevor turn and sees the old guy. "Excuse me sir, that tree is for someone else."
The elderly guy then LIES to him. "No, it's a different tree."
Trevor had just wrapped this tree, he saw the cut string on the ground, and he knew what the tree looked like. "Sir, that tree is for SOMEONE ELSE."
Just then, the couple walk in. The man sees his tree in the old guy's arms and points it out. "That's my tree!!"
The old guy snarls at him. "Well tough, because I paid for it and that is that!!!" And the old guy runs off with the tree.

Trevor sighed and as soon as he was off he practically laughed geefully. Apparently, he'd had a lot more than that happen to him.

It wasn't until after my break that business went nuts. And I mean crazy. Five parties came in at the same time, all demanding me to saw, tie, untie, measure, and carry their trees. And they kept on coming, more and more at a time for three hours straight. Then, just as suddenly, they stopped streaming in.

There were a few people around, one of them being a lecturer from Douglas College that was a guest in my HUM 101 class, but foremost was a couple looking around intently at the last 20 or so trees. "Are these Noble Firs?" the lady asked.

I was hoping to maybe get a laugh and make myself feel a bit better, so I quipped. "No, they're Douglas Fir. But I can knight them if you want."

They didn't get it.

It was 9:55 and no one was around. I was sweeping up the kilograms of pine needles and talking to the trees. Scarily enough, those trees tend to have more intelligent conversation. Then this Chinese couple walk in. "Sorry, we're closed." I say.

"Oh, we can pay here?" the lady asks me.

"Uh, no we're closed. You can pay inside now if you want, but you can pick up your tree tomorrow."

"Can we get now?" the lady asks me.

"No, we're closed."

"We get now really quick."

"But we're closed."

They left, or so I thought, and I continued cleaning up. I had just finished putting the stereo away, when I saw the Chinese couple shaking trees and sawing trees all over the NEWLY SWEPT FLOOR. I was very VERY angry.

I let them take their tree. But I was PISSED. Somedays, I just hate people.

"Love, Liberty, Disco"
:: Steve Ferguson 10:58 PM [+] ::
...

I'm off work tomorrow, thankfully. I'm working 40 hours this week, and I'm rather pleased to have this income. Unfortunately, this means spending all of tomorrow working on my research paper...you know, the one I failed. The last one I did took my 9 hours in total, and was quite a burden to plow through. So I'm setting aside the whole day for this event. Ugh. Then I have to find someway to get it into my English teacher before I work the next afternoon. Not easy.

Urp. This means I have to do all my Christmas shopping on the 21st, my other day off. That's also a Friday, so I'll have been paid. I'm going to be in the rush though, and it's going to be Hell. Mind you, I've been shopping for presents before on Christmas EVE and I don't think it gets worse than that.

I've got a lot of presents to buy.

Meghan and Liz have both dropped in on me at work which was rather nice. What's too bad is that they came while I was busy, and I couldn't really talk to them at that point. So they just left. I was happy to see them though. The monotonous flow of strangers all demanding perfect trees that need to be sawed, measured, bound, carried, tied down, and rolled is so wearing down on me it's nice to see a face that I recognize as friendly.

Speaking of which, I saw Arianna at one point. Problem was, I couldn't even acknoweldge her presence at the time. There were two of us on, I think it was me and Trevor, and 10 parties came in at once. I was trying to handly three different parties, all giving me orders at the same time, and Trevor was doing about the same. It was TOUGH. I couldn't even wave to her.

She looked well though. It brings back memories of Physics class and The Comedy of Errors...ah, simpler times. I remember at the time, I would have chewed off my right arm to go out with Ari. She is a beautiful and intelligent girl. Not to be though . I've heard...interesting things about her from Greg. I'm not going to judge her though, we all do stupid stuff.

But anyway, that's long over, I don't have feelings anymore for Ari, just Jess. It was just a pleasant reminder of what life was like a year ago.

"Running like a fox to keep up with me..."
:: Steve Ferguson 5:36 PM [+] ::
...

My day began at about midnight this morning.

I had only been able to register for two classes a couple weeks ago, and felt bummed at that. Then Sandi told me of a little trick. You see, at 4:30 am on December 13th, the Douglas College Server bumps students who are taking courses that they don't have pre-requisites OUT of the courses, freeing up a lot of seats. So I set my alarm for 4:15 am and went to bed at 11:30. Problem was, my brain was paranoid I'd sleep through the alarm.

So it woke me op every 20 minutes. I didn't get much sleep. But at 4:30 I was downstairs, logging on. Ben, Sandi, and even Carissa were online as well. Ben got into Math, but I wasn't able to. I managed to snag an English course (Canadian Lit) and a Psych course though. That was good. Carissa was having problems logging on, so I saved a class for her. She owes me...again...

Anyway, I went back to bed at 5:15 am and tossed and turned, thinking I wouldn't be able to get to sleep. But I did luckily. I got up and wanted to fix up my Fido bill and Voice Messaging.

You see, Fido charged me an extra $20 I wasn't happy about. But that guy George from a previous Blogger entry (the guy who set up my phone) was to blame. He didn't explain how the plan I wanted was set up. It works on credit and stuff. I also tried to access my voice mail, but my access code wasn't working. I debated with one lady, as to how it wasn't working, for some time, but in the end she convinced me to try it one more time. I did...and it still didn't work. So I called AGAIN and a different lady said she'd reset it for me and to try again in a couple hours. I did just that, and as I was setting up the voice mail, my batteries died. ARG. I have to do it tomorrow now.

Jess had wanted for me to come over to her place today, but I needed to pay my fees for the courses I had just registered for, and wasn't able to make it. She was upset I couldn't come, really upset. I felt awful...but what could I do?

I went to the college and paid the cashier the couple hundred bucks. Outside, Sandi, Ben, and Rebecca were all there. They were going to the Bookstore, and I figured I'd join them. I spent some time going through books I'd need for my next semester, and bought most of them. I'm saving the $130 Psych text for later though. B-|

I also bought a cool hat!

I got home, and talked to Jess a bit more. She still wasn't happy, but understood the situation more. But that was cut short too, because I had to go to work. Trevor was there, and I had a four hour shift. Trevor and I invented an unusual shuffleboard type game to occupy our time, involving sawed off tree trunks and brooms. After that shift, I came home and organized my notes from the last semester, wondering how I was going to redo my English research paper.

I came online and Jess told me Gina had sent a suicide e-mail to her...again. I got sick of reading through it. Gina is in this horridly stupid self-destructive pity trip, so I responded to Gina, telling her to smarten up, and how there are people DYING in the world, people NEEDING things like water, and how shallow it seems to be wrapped up in a depression brought on by a boyfriend who cheated on you.

Gah. It sickens me.

So here I am again, going around all my forums, looking for something interesting to post. And then I notice Project X is gone again....

"Don't forget to save some for the shoe-shine boy."
:: Steve Ferguson 11:53 PM [+] ::
...

"Sorry Steve.
This paper is interesting but it isn't in any way about Miller's play, and I can't accept it as a literary analysis.
It doesn't fulfill the requirements of the assignment or of the English department. If you redo the assignment, I'll accept it up to Dec. 19."

F
:: Steve Ferguson 9:01 PM [+] ::
...

Today was my first 8 hour shift, and boy what a killer. I will NEVER complain about a four hour shift again. It wouldn't have been so bad if I had any business. I started at 8:00 am and I had to get up at 7:00. Man, I forgot how dark it is in the morning. I wasn't too pleased, but I NEED money. So I sat on my duff, freezing and shivering in the cold for TWO HOURS before someone even poked their head in.

Time went by slowly...I listened to the two supplied Christmas Pop CDs (yes, the ones I mentioned in the last entry) four times each, and still no one came in. Someone poked their head in at about 11:30 and got a tree from me. I had my lunch break, with some cheap cola and great deli fries, and sat down for ANOTHER hour waiting for people to show up.

Instead of freezing and doing nothing, I decided to organize ALL the trees so that they were straight and even, as opposed to be sloped and scattered. Hey, I was bored all right? So for the next hour, I organized between 400 - 500 trees, until the whole place was all spic and span.
In the whole 8 hours I worked today, I got 7 customers. ARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!

The last half hour, I was helping some lady load a tree into her car trunk, when I hear a shout.

"STOP HIM!!!!!"

Then a dark guy races past me, carrying a box in his arms. About two seconds behind him were three Future Shop Employees. He makes a mad dash underneath the exit ramp of the Save-On Parkade, and two Future Ship Employees back track to cut him off. The theif must have realized this and turns around, running towards that Oriental or East Indian (don't know which) restaurant with the two elephants on the banner. He then makes a sudden right, racing towards Red Robin. Some guy walking by Starbucks sees this transpire and lunges at the thief. The thief skids to a halt, hangs a left and starts running for me.

I can see it playing out in my head.... He runs to pass me and I execute a perfect Rugby tackle, nailing him to the ground. He struggles free and lunges at me. I grab his arm and deck him in the jaw. He hits the ground clueless, and everyone is astounded by my bravery.

But some other guy tackles him to the ground before he gets close to me. A dogpile ensues, and there is a lot of scuffling. I shrug and wonder why someone expects to escape in a crowded parking lot.

"Everybody wants to be a cat!"
:: Steve Ferguson 10:54 PM [+] ::
...

So FINALLY yesterday was my first real day at work. On Nov. 30th, I had helped unload the Christmas trees at Save-On, but I haven't actually worked there yet. Yesterday was my "breaking in" to the job, and boy, was I bored.
But first off, I'll let you know that my job is Christmas tree assistance. A customer goes into Save-On, buys themselves a Christmas tree from a cashier, then comes outside the store to select one. That's my job right there. I help the customer pick out which tree they'd like, tie it up, saw off the bottom if they so request, then help them load it to their car. It's good pay, about $8.30/hour, and I need it for Christmas and school.

But one thing I wasn't prepared for was how slow it would be. I had the closing shift, from 5:00 - 9:00 and had maybe six or seven customers in FOUR HOURS. I could only listen to Pop Christmas Carols by boy bands and teen sensations for so long, before my sanity began to crack. I had to busy myself by sweeping up and arranging the trees so they were more orderly. You would not BELIEVE the state of that holding area. The trees were scattered about, all in disarray, so I spent the next half an hour rearranging them.

Yeah...only half an hour. And as I was sweeping up some pine needles, I began humming a tune that was playing from the stereo. This was my exact reaction:

"Hmmmm, hmmm, hmmmmmm, hmm....OH MY GOD I'M HUMMING TO N'SYNC!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!" I quickly shut myself up, but luckily no one had noticed my outburst. Steeling myself down, I wasn't about to let THAT happen again.

Well, the time came to lock up. I took the stereo inside to the customer service desk and went to sign out in the floral department. The floral department was closed...and when I went in, I couldn't find the sign in/out book. Mind you, I'd signed everything that might need signing when I signed in, but quite honestly, I have NO idea how that book works. So I'm going to ask if I did it right today.

Well, I was pretty hungry by this point, but didn't want to spend a lot of cash. So I went to the MacDonald's there and looked at the menu they had there. The double cheeseburger extra value meal was under $5. So I ordered that. The guy came back with only one cheeseburger.

"Uh, where's the second one?"
"Huh?" he asked me.
"The second cheeseburger." That's why I had ordered it. Cheeseburgers are rather small, so two cheeseburgers, fries, and a Coke under $5 came out just about right.
"It's a double cheeseburger." he looked at me.
"Right..." I sat down a bit away. I wasn't in the mood to put up with this, so whatever. $4.87 for ONE cheeseburger, fries, and a Coke. Rip off. I don't know HOW that extra paper-thin pattie adds up to the extra dollar, but that's obviously what these people think.

"Hanging On The Telephone"
:: Steve Ferguson 1:27 PM [+] ::
...

It was a dark and windy night...much like this one...

**Dun dun duuuuuuuuuun!**

He sat alone at his computer, typing away on ICQ.
He had no idea that the person he was chatting to...was actually behind him...using a laptop. But no, he couldn't see him in the shadows...yet...

**Heartbeat**

Soon...though...he would STRIKE!

**Girl screams as heartbeat quickens**

From the Producers of "One Day I'll Actually Get Over What Happened Last Summer", "I'm Paranoid About The Circumstances Revolving Around My Trauma Over What Happened Last Summer", and "The Jennifer Love Hewitt Hour" comes...

**Guy screams NOOOOOOOOOO!**

Revenge Of The Nerds VII: ICQ Means I Hate You

"Rio"
:: Steve Ferguson 5:10 PM [+] ::
...