Stupid Customer-isms

My job, for the most part, is pretty unbareable. My manager sucks - she rarely works on the floor with us, she's late almost every day, she never has the schedule done on time, and she's constantly taking credit for all the good work done by our assistant deli manager - and the customers are hella annoying. My coworkers are fun, though, and to help each other get through the days we've started compiling a list of the funny, stupid, or just plain ridiculous things our customers say to us everyday. I'm sure I'll be adding to this, as the never-ending weeks go by:

"Can I get a vegetarian sub with turkey?"

"This ham says that it costs $8.99 a pound, but I don't need that much. Can I just get half a pound?"

Coworker: "How would you like your meat sliced?"
Customer: "On a slicer."

Customer: "Do you have any ketchup?"
Coworker: "Ma'am, there's some on the shelf there."
Customer: "That's all Heinz ketchup. Don't you have another brand?"
Coworker: "No."
Customer: "Well, I can't use that one. I don't support him."
Coworker: "Who?"
Customer: "John Kerry."

Customer: "My husband wants a turkey for dinner tonight, but I don't feel like cooking. Can I just buy one of your turkeys?"
Me: "You might be better off buying a turkey in our meat department. The turkeys we have here are for slicing, and we would have to sell it to you by the pound, which would be pretty expensive. But the meat department has pre-cooked turkeys that you can just heat up in the oven."
Customer: "Ok, I'll go check over there."
*a few minutes later, as I'm walking through the store, I see the same customer*
Me: "Did you find what you were looking for?"
Customer: [holds up a jar of peanut butter] "Yes, thank you."

More to come...

The "Automatic" Car

It's a rainy day in Georgia, and I'm sitting in my trusty neighborhood coffee shop. Well, I live in the middle of nowhere, so technically it's more of a countyhood coffee shop, but whatev. I saw a commercial last night for a new car (Mercedes? I don't pay attention to brands) that parallel parks itself! This is pretty exciting, no? Think of the possibilities...

Code Monkey recently had an opportunity to enable the GPS chip on his phone and use it for a free trial period. This actually came in handy, because we live roughly 3 hours from each other and usually end up meeting halfway, in a city that neither of us knows very well. The three places we can get to with absolutely no problem: the mall, one of the four movie theaters in the area, and a kick-ass Indian restaurant (YUM!) During our last rendezvous, we decided to see a movie but didn't like the choices at the first movie theater. So he pulled out his phone, got show times for other theaters, picked which one we wanted to see (Man of the Year, which: eh), got directions using the GPS navigation, and then his phone TALKED US TO THE LOCATION. It was beyond cool. Every time we came to an intersection, the phone (which is apparently female) would tell us which way to turn, and even how far we were from our destination. Pretty sweet.

So, if cars can park themselves for us, and we have GPS that navigates us to where ever we need to go, I'm thinking pretty soon we won't even need to drive cars anymore. Pop some sensors in those babies (so they know when they're getting too close to another vehicle, thus avoiding accidents) and I'll be more than content to let them cart me around.

Of course, we could also invest that money and research into more alternative fuel sources and public transportation, and that would be even better, but I'm doubting that'll happen before the self-driving car.

Next stop: getting those suckers to fly!

First Things First

Welcome to Casual Dread, my newest blog. I used to have a livejournal, but I met too many people and discovered friends who also had one. Once the anonymity was lost, I felt like I couldn't write what I really wanted for fear of being judged or offending someone. The title comes from my favorite Jennifer Nettles song:

Casual Dread

So I'm moving out of nothing town,
this spirit's restless inside of me.
I'm tired of working in my family's grocery.
They say there's much I've yet to see.
See my mother had the soul of a story teller.
And she passed those demons down to her daughter's head.

And it's sir I will and sir I would --
put me down for some of that casual dread.

Driving at the back of this truck for what seems like hours.
Feel I know the driver like the back of my hand.
'Cause I been making up stories of his life,
like right now what he's saying to his wife.
And his stickers say he supports the navy
and thinks love is grand.
Well I do too.
So, thoughts of you break his story to remind me of the last time you were in my bed.

And it was sir I will and sir I would --
put me down for some of that casual dread.

And oh, you're invited to the table.
Yes, your choice tonight is famine or feast.
Well step on up to the table.
You see the wine it might be bitter,
but the sacrament's still sweet.
I've been thinking about my lives and where they've brought me.
So I asked a teacher for some living bread,
and he said, "Child the best lesson you could ever swallow,
is that this life is the one that's living,
all the other ones are dead."

Well, I've never seen a gravestone of mine,
but I hope each life was defined by an epitaph that read,
"She was sir I will and sir I would -- put her down for more of that casual dread."
I'd like a little more of that.
Some glad morning when this life is o'er.

My life right now is pretty random. I filed for bankruptcy last year, quit my crappy retail job, and moved back in with my parents. I was hoping to get a job as a teacher, but it's more difficult than I thought. My current "temporary" job is slicing meat in the Deli department of a regional grocery chain, and I hate it. Mostly because I'm a vegetarian, but also because my manager kida sucks and the uppity rich customers are pretty annoying.

More about me: I love to read (Jane Austen, Chuck Palahniuk, Neil Gaiman, Nick Hornby, Douglas Adams), play video games (my boyfriend just bought me FFVII, so there goes my free time), and sew and crochet. I'm a Girl Scout leader and I spend WAY too much time online. My new tv boyfriend is Hiro Nakamura, and I'm sorta obsessed with Veronica Mars.
Feel free to comment about anything I post on here. I love discussing/arguing with complete strangers - it reminds me of being drunk and chatty at college keggers.

Fortinbras was a Mary Sue

3 things I learned (mostly about Hamlet) from reading A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1899:
1. Hendiadys are one of my new favorite literary conventions. Literally meaning "one by means of two," it's a way of expressing a single idea by pairing two nouns linked by "and." For example: "sound and fury" or "law and order." Shakespeare used 66 hendiadys in Hamlet, over twice the 28 used in Othello, the play with the next-highest amount.
2. Shakespeare was a voracious reader, and most of the ideas for his plays were taken from other, earlier writers. Hamlet is his least original work: the only new aspect was the character of Fortinbras. Fanfic, y'all.
3. Shakespeare did invent other things: namely, new words. Or ways to use existing words in new ways. Over 2,000 words are thought to have been invented by him, and he's also attributed with creating my given name, Jessica, for The Merchant of Venice.


I've been really into reading historical stuff recently. In addition to the Shapiro novel, I read The City of Fallen Angels, by John Berendt (which really, really made me want to visit Venice), Abraham, by Bruce Feiler (which really, really made me want to visit the Middle East), and now I'm reading Trail of Tears: The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation, by John Ehle (which really, really makes me wish my grandmother were still alive, because apparently she was full-blood Cherokee and I'd really like to ask her about it).

Books Read in 2006

100 People Who Are Screwing Up America (and Al Franken is #37), Bernard Goldberg
Abraham, Bruce Feiler
Anansi Boys, Neil Gaiman
A Series of Unfortunate Events: Book the 10th - The Slippery Slope, Lemony Snicket
A Series of Unfortunate Events: Book the 11th - The Grim Grotto, Lemony Snicket
A Series of Unfortunate Events: Book the 12th - The Penultimate Peril, Lemony Snicket
As Simple As Snow, Gregory Galloway
A Dirty Job, Christopher Moore
A Long Way Down, Nick Hornby
A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599, James Shapiro
Bertie Wooster Sees it Through, P.G. Wodehouse
The Big Over Easy, Jasper Fforde
The City of Fallen Angels, John Berendt
The Debutante Divorcee, Plum Sykes
The Devil Wears Prada, Lauren Weisberger
The Fair Tax Book, Neal Boortz and John Linder
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, J.K. Rowling
The Final Solution, Michael Chabon
The Gospel of Judas
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal, J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter y la camara secreta, J.K. Rowling
Haunted, Chuck Palahniuk
Invisible Monsters, Chuck Palahniuk
Letters From Pemberley, Jane Dawkins
Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Memory Keeper's Daughter, Kim Edwards
Prep, Curtis Sittenfeld
Quidditch Through the Ages, J.K. Rowling
Remember Me, Christopher Pike
The Return of Jeeves, P.G. Wodehouse
McSweeny's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales, edited by Michael Chabon
The Second Wives Club, Jane Moore
The Secret Supper, Javier Sierra
Shopaholic Ties the Knot, Sophie Kinsella
Shopaholic and Sister, Sophie Kinsella
Something Rotten, Jasper Fforde
The Time Traveler's Wife, Audrey Niffenegger
Trail of Tears, John Ehle

Audio Books:
Lady Chatterly's Lover, D.H. Lawrence
Naked, David Sedaris

101 Things in 1001 Days (Revised)

My (Revised) 101:
1. Come up with 101 things to do in 1001 days and post the list on the web. It sounds a LOT easier than it actually is, but at least I have one down now. (12/31/05)
2. Complete a gallery of 26 things.
3. Learn how to drive a car with manual transmission.
4. Learn how to change the oil in my car.
5. Learn how to knit.
6. Make a quilt.
7. Learn how to play at least three chords on the guitar. 'Cause that's how many you have to know to write a punk song, right? :)
8. Visit the new aquarium. Tim took me for my birthday (11/04/06)
9. Attend a Falcons game.
10. Attend a Thrashers game. (01/21/06)
11. Attend a Braves game.
12. Learn how to ice skate.
13. Make a photo collection of Atlanta graffiti. (an art project I've been thinking about for a while now)
14. Create a website for said pictures.
15. Go to at least five small art galleries in Atlanta, preferably featuring artists or periods/movements that I'm unfamiliar with.
16. Attend at least one opera.
17. See Rent live. (06/15/06)
18. Save one dollar a day for 6 months.
19. Create a website for Lizzie and the Chad's wedding.
20. Watch the top 10 movies on the AFI's top 100 list.
21. Finish my England scrapbook.
22. Watch a Spanish film without subtitles or dubbing, just to see how much I can actually pick up.
23. Get a teaching job.
24. Finish my NYC scrapbook.
25. Read at least 25 books on the ALA's 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books list.
26. Read at least 25 books on the ALA's Banned and/or Challenged Books from the Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century list.
27. Finish my Salt Lake City scrapbook.
28. Climb Stone Mountain.
29. Go tubing.
30. Take Hunter to the Yellow River Game Ranch.
31. Finish the needlepoint that I started 8 years ago.
32. Re-learn all the presidents in order of office.
33. Learn all of the state capitals.
34. Eat a fruit that I have never tried before. This is actually really easy to accomplish, considering I now work in a grocery store.
35. Test drive my dream car - if I can complete #3 and find an MGB dealership in GA.
36. Learn how to say 3 basic phrases ("Do you speak English?" "Where is the bathroom?" and "Good morning, how are you?") in 5 different languages. I can already say "I am a big duck" in 9 different languages - Spanish, French, German, Italian, Latin, Russian, Hindi, Cambodian, and of course, English.
37. Finish Violet's baby blanket.
38. Allow my sister to help me pick out an outfit that Stacy and Clinton would approve of. Potentially painful, as I'm sure pointy-toed heels will be involved. (01/07/06)
39. Get my England pictures put on CD.
40. Go through my CD collection, burn copies of everything I want to keep, and then sell them all at Warehouse Music. Mostly done. Apparently, they don't want to buy what I'm selling, but I'm working on it.
41. Take Tim to a comic book convention.
42. Volunteer. Anywhere. At least once. (I used to work with the Latino Outreach Center at GSU, and I'd really like to get involved in something like that again) I volunteered at the Eatonton Christian Outreach, which was basically a thrift store. It was...not what I was expecting. I ended up hanging and putting away clothes while the people who were actually paid to be there sat around watching soap operas. I also volunteered as a Book Buddy for the 2006-2007 school year.
43. Participate in the Peachtree Road Race with my mom.
44. Complete the Couch to 5k program.
45. Take a yoga class.
46. Take a karate class.
47. Become a Girl Scout troop leader. I've re-registered as an adult Girl Scout and help out with various service unit functions.
48. Write a short story.
49. Spend a day at the beach and not get burned, because I actually remembered to apply sunblock and kept it on all day.
50. Go to the planetarium.
51. Get enough My Coke Rewards points to earn that Nintendo DS.
52. Re-establish contact with five people I knew at Southern. Facebook counts, right?
53. Take Hunter to the zoo.
54. Upload all my digital pictures to Picasa and organize them. Still ongoing, but I've got all my old photos grouped and (mostly) labeled.
55. Go to at least five restaurants that I've never eaten at before. Easy, when you move and are forced to find new places to eat.
56. Sell off the comics I no longer want.
57. Graduate from my Master's program with at least a 3.75. I'd really like a 4.0, but I don't want to push it.
58. Get a medical check-up. I'm healthy!
59. Have the dashboard light in my car replaced.
60. Scrape all the old bumper stickers off my car. "Stop bitching, start a revolution" can stay. They're all gone.
61. Participate in NaNoWriMo.
62. Learn how to make a cobbler.
63. Send out Christmas cards.
64. Make Christmas cards.
65. Buy an address book and put all known addresses in it.
66. Collect all 50 US statehood quarters.
67. Take a dance class. Probably swing. I took a swing class in high school and really liked it.
68. Convince a male friend to take a dance class with me.
69. Make a batch of jam.
70. Learn at least one poem by heart.
71. See Eddie Izzard (or any comedian) perform live.
72. Sew an item of clothing from scratch.
73. Research my family tree as far back as possible.
74. Learn my family tartan.
75. Attend a Hawks game.
76. See Mario Lemuiex play for the Penguins just once before he retires for real. He went and retired on me, making this impossible to complete. So sad. (01/29/06)
77. Try out a new recipe once a week for a month. Non-work related.
78. Paint a self-portrait. I did this for a high school art project, and mom still has it hanging in her house. I'd like to make an updated one.
79. Buy stock. I put in a request for some Publix stock, but I haven't heard back yet.
80. Learn my correct bra size.
81. Learn how to make hummus.
82. Go horseback riding.
83. Finish Tim's scrapbook.
84. Plant an herb garden.
85. Get at least 5 pictures matted and framed.
86. Sing at least one karaoke song by myself. Done. Blondie, eat your heart out.
87. Take a pottery class.
88. Audition for a play.
89. Audition for a TV reality/quiz show. (I'm thinking more Jeopardy! than Real World)
90. Buy a new sketchbook and draw on every single page.
91. Have a reunion weekend for my old Girl Scout troop.
92. Write a toast for Lizzie's wedding.
93. Get a manicure.
94. Beat Final Fantasy VII.
95. Learn how to water ski.
96. Get at least one watch battery replaced. I have three watches, all with dead batteries. I want to get at least one of them working again, because not having a watch is annoying.
97. Participate in bookcrossing by releasing at least 10 books into the wild. Done, and I'm still releasing...visit my bookshelf
98. Rasterbate something.
99. Teach myself to write my name left-handed.
100. Organize comic books in long boxes and upload the list to Stash my Comics or some other site. Done, although it is an on-going process - I get new comics every week, and will need to remember to add them to the database. You can see my collection here!
101. Read a book in Spanish before I read it in English.

Completed: 18
In progress: 10
To go: 73

101 Things in 1001 Days

The Mission:
Complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days.

The Criteria:
Tasks must be specific (ie. no ambiguity in the wording) with a result that is either measurable or clearly defined. Tasks must also be realistic and stretching (ie. represent some amount of work on my part).

Why 1001 Days?
Many people have created lists in the past - frequently simple goals such as new year's resolutions. The key to beating procrastination is to set a deadline that is realistic. 1001 Days (about 2.75 years) is a better period of time than a year, because it allows you several seasons to complete the tasks, which is better for organising and timing some tasks such as overseas trips or outdoor activities.

~ borrowed from triplux

My 101:
1. Come up with 101 things to do in 1001 days and post the list on the web. It sounds a LOT easier than it actually is, but at least I have one down now. (12/31/05)
2. Complete a gallery of 26 things.
3. Learn how to drive a car with manual transmission.
4. Learn how to change the oil in my car.
5. Learn how to knit.
6. Make a quilt.
7. Learn how to play guitar. Or at least one song on the guitar. And retain the knowledge, for the love of Pete! Ryan taught me how to play "Blister in the Sun" back in high school, but that's been lost to the ages.
8. Visit the new aquarium. Tim took me for my birthday (11/04/06)
9. Attend a Falcons game.
10. Attend a Thrashers game. (hey! I need at least one easy one) (01/21/06)
11. Attend a Braves game. (ok...make that two easy ones)
12. Learn how to ice skate.
13. Borrow Sis's digital camera and take pictures of Atlanta graffiti. (an art project I've been thinking about for a while now)
14. Create a website for said pictures.
15. Go to at least five small art galleries in Atlanta, preferably featuring artists or periods/movements that I'm unfamiliar with.
16. Attend at least one opera.
17. See Rent live. (06/15/06)
18. Save one dollar a day for 6 months.
19. Try at least five new cocktails, and learn how to make them at home. My goal is to find my own signature drink. It'll probably be a dirty martini, but I have to be fair and give others a chance.
20. Watch every movie on AFI's top 100 list. (not all at once, mind you)
21. Finally finish my scrapbooks from England, New York, Texas, and Salt Lake City.
22. Watch a Spanish film without subtitles or dubbing, just to see how much I can actually pick up.
23. Get a teaching job.
24. Work in New Orleans for the summer.
25. Read every book on the ALA's 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books list. (not too difficult, as many are children's or ya lit)
26. Read every book on the ALA's Banned and/or Challenged Books from the Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century list. (slightly harder, as these are not children's or ya lit)
27. Travel to a Spanish-speaking country.
28. Climb Stone Mountain.
29. Go tubing.
30. Take Hunter to the Yellow River Game Ranch.
31. Finish the needlepoint that I started 6 years ago, and finish Matt's afghan.
32. Re-learn all the presidents in order of office.
33. Learn all of the state capitals. (is it sad that I don't know them?)
34. Eat a fruit that I have never tried before. This is actually really easy to accomplish, considering I now work in a grocery store.
35. Test drive my dream car - if I can complete #3 and find an MGB dealership in GA.
36. I can already say "I am a big duck" in 9 different languages - Spanish, French, German, Italian, Latin, Russian, Hindi, Cambodian, and of course, English. I should probably lean how to say something I bit more useful, like, "Do you speak English?" Or learn "I am a big duck" in five more languages.
37. Learn enough French to understand the Circle bonus show. I think it's just Eddie performing his English show in French, but it would be cool to watch and understand anyway.
38. Allow my sister to help me pick out an outfit that Stacy and Clinton would approve of. Potentially painful, as I'm sure pointy-toed heels will be involved. (01/07/06)
39. Travel to at least five new states. One down, four to go... (03/09/06)
40. Go through my cd collection, burn copies of everything I want to keep, and then sell them all at Warehouse Music. Mostly done. Apparently, they don't want to buy what I'm selling, but I'm working on it.
41. Go to Wizard World Atlanta.
42. Volunteer. Anywhere. At least once. (I used to work with the Latino Outreach Center at GSU, and I'd really like to get involved in something like that again) I volunteered at the Eatonton Christian Outreach, which was basically a thrift store. It was...not what I was expecting. I ended up hanging and putting away clothes while the people who were actually paid to be there sat around watching soap operas.
43. Participate in the Peachtree Road Race with my mom. I didn't say place, I just said participate. And it's something she really wants to do, apparently.
44. Train myself to run a mile. Or at least jog it. I'm so out of shape.
45. Take a yoga class.
46. Take a karate class.
47. Become a Girl Scout troop leader. I attended a leader's meeting with my mom and have re-registered for Girl Scouts, so I'm getting there.
48. Write a short story.
49. Spend a day at the beach and not get burned, because I actually remembered to apply sunblock and kept it on all day.
50. Go to the planetarium.
51. Have a star named after someone. Don't know who right now. Probably my mom. Or sister.
52. Re-establish contact with five people I knew at Southern. I really should e-mail Dr. Griffin anyway, and writing it down ensures that I will do it. So far, I've gotten back in touch with Heather and Dr. Paige. Two down, three to go... Facebook counts, right?
53. Take Hunter to the zoo.
54. Go backpacking for a weekend by myself.
55. Go to at least five restaurants that I've never eaten at before. Easy, when you move and are forced to find new places to eat.
56. Go scuba diving.
57. Go back to Scotland and climb Arthur's Seat again.
58. Get a medical check-up. I'm healthy!
59. Have the dashboard light in my car replaced.
60. Scrape all the old bumper stickers off my car. "Stop bitching, start a revolution" can stay.
61. Participate in NaNoWriMo.
62. Learn how to make a cobbler. Stella says every Southern woman should do this.
63. Send out Christmas cards.
64. Make Christmas cards.
65. Buy an address book and put all known addresses in it.
66. Collect all 50 US statehood quarters.
67. Take a dance class. Probably swing. I took a swing class in high school and really liked it.
68. Convince a male friend to take a dance class with me.
69. Make a batch of jam.
70. Learn at least one poem by heart.
71. See Eddie Izzard perform live.
72. Sew an item of clothing from scratch.
73. Research my family tree as far back as possible.
74. While completing #57, get a kilt made or buy a kilt in my family tartan.
75. Attend a Hawks game.
76. See Mario Lemuiex play for the Penguins just once before he retires for real. He went and retired on, making this impossible to complete. So sad. (01/29/06)
77. Visit Philadelphia.
78. Paint a self-portrait. I did this for a high school art project, and mom still has it hanging in her house. I'd like to make an updated one.
79. Swim with dolphins again.
80. Go to a casino.
81. Drive Route 66. (if this is still possible, and gas prices go down)
82. Go horseback riding.
83. Own a sea anemone and clown fish, just because their symbiotic relationship fascinates me. And they're pretty.
84. Plant an herb garden.
85. Get at least 5 pictures professionally matted and framed.
86. Sing at least one karaoke song by myself. Karaoke Revolution, while fun, does not count. Done. Blondie, eat your heart out.
87. Take a pottery class.
88. Audition for a play.
89. Audition for a TV reality/quiz show. (I'm thinking more Jeopardy! than Real World)
90. Buy a new sketchbook and draw on every single page.
91. Have a reunion weekend for my old Girl Scout troop.
92. Visit Canada.
93. Get a manicure.
94. Own a Michael Turner sketch. Preferably of Nightcrawler, but I'm really not picky.
95. Learn how to water ski. (shouldn't be difficult, as my parents live on a lake and I have attempted to learn in the past)
96. I have three watches, all with dead batteries. I want to get at least one of them working again, because not having a watch is annoying.
97. Participate in bookcrossing by releasing at least 10 books into the wild. In progress...visit my bookshelf
98. Rasterbate something.
99. Teach myself to write (well) left-handed.
100. Organize comic books in long boxes and upload the list to Stash my Comics or some other site. Done, although it is an on-going process - I get new comics every week, and will need to remember to add them to the database. You can see my collection here!
101. Read a book in Spanish before I read it in English.

Seeing ex-boyfriends kinda sucks

Josh, my college boyfriend, is in town this week, doing a training thing for work. Although we agreed to stay friends after the break-up (doesn't everyone say that?), we only kinda sorta kept in touch (talking on aim every once in a while, exchanging emails once or twice a year) and it had been awhile since we'd actually seen each other. When he told me he was coming to Atl, I immediately asked if we could get together, fully expecting a no, since that's been his standard answer for the past few years. But this time, he agreed. He called me on Sunday after he checked into his hotel, and we went to dinner and then out for a few drinks. It was fun, talking to him and catching up. A little awkward at first, but not too bad. We went out again tonight, and talked about all our friends from college that we don't don't really keep in touch with anymore. Seeing him these past couple of days made me remember why I fell for him in the first place - although I'm sure some people *coughErincough* are probably still scratching their heads at that one. :) I'm actually amazed we were able to stay together for two and half years, given how different our personalities and interests are.

I'm pretty cynical when it comes to relationships, but I'm a big believer in love. I'm of the opinion that if you really love someone, that love you feel never goes away. It may change (from romantic to platonic, or vice-versa), but it'll always be there. I'm not still in love with Josh, but I do care about him and want him to be happy. When he dropped me off at the house tonight, he told me that he was going to a Braves game tomorrow, doing a work presentation Thursday evening, and then leaving on Friday, so we wouldn't be able to go out again this week. We hugged, and said our goodbyes, and that was that. I'm a little depressed right now, but also glad that I got to talk to him. I almost feel like this is the sort of closure I've been waiting for for the past 3 years. He lives in Iowa now, and is talking about transferring to South America in the next few years, so there's no telling when (or if) we'll ever see each other again. Probably never, but you never know.

So...yeah. I'm gonna go read comics or something now to cheer myself up.

The verdict

We were listening to the radio at work today when the verdict was announced. One of the perks of working retail - we have to keep our display TV, radio, and DVD players running all the time. I was kind of torn when I heard "not guilty" on each charge. On one hand, Michael Jackson's pretty messed up (read: "borderline insane"), and I'm not convinced he didn't do it. But on the other hand, if the evidence was circumstantial, then you can't really have a conviction. Yay! for our wonderful justice system. If anything, I really thought he would've been found guilty of giving alcohol to minors, but I guess if you call it "Jesus juice," it makes it ok. Maybe now the whole media circus will calm down, and we can get to work punishing the REAL guilty parties - the parents who suspected Jackson of wrongdoing, but allowed their child to be alone with him anyway.

The Cheese Danish

Matt and I ended upleaving the con early to go to a production of Hamlet at Matt's theater in Princeton. OMFG, that campus is amazing. It looks like a castle just plopped down in the middle (ok, south) of NJ or something.


The McCarter Theater


"The Arch"


Statue of St. George slaying the dragon


Cute statues of Princeton's mascot, the tiger

The play itself was rather...interesting. I was expecting a lot worse, to be honest. There were a lot of people who left during intermission, and even in the middle of scenes, which I thought was incredibly rude. The director definitely had an interesting take on it. Things I liked:

* Polonius standing between the audience and the half-drawn curtain as he listens in on Hamlet and Gertrude. This was really cool, because we saw the scene from Polonius's point of view. And when Hamlet shot him through the curtain, we could see the blood appear on the back of his white robe, which I thought was an awesome visual.
* The same actor playing Claudius and the ghost. This was a bit confusing at first, and I'm sure it drove first-time Hamlet-viewers crazy, but it turned out really well.

Things I didn't like:

* Hamlet didn't die at the end. You knew he was going to, but at curtain he was still alive. Also? HE SHOT HORATIO! That really pissed me off. Apparently, the director wanted everyone dead, so "the audience would be the only witness to the tragedy" or whatever, but still.
* The implied incest between Ophelia and Laertes. WTF? The Ophelia character had a lot of flaws, actually, but doing this cheapened her relationship with Hamlet and undermined her madness, imo. Plus, it was kinda gross and unnecessary.
There were other things, but I can't think of them right now. For the most part, it was just a really strange retelling. Not bad, but not fabulous, either.