Matt's weblog

work can suck pretty bad sometimes.

2004-10-05T00:00:00.000-05:00

Ever have one of those days where you go to work, and within ten minutes you get that feeling that you should probably just go home before things get ugly?

Today was most definitely one of those days.

So about half an hour into my 10-4 Starbucks shift, I'm cleaning a bunch of coffee off of the stand that holds the carafe and heats the coffee to keep it warm. Totally not thinking, I forget to wring out the rag in the sink first. Then, I'm totally not paying attention as I wipe off the flat surface underneath, and the soaking wet rag comes in contact with one of the metal prongs that runs current through the insulated carafe. Zap. So at first it was pretty okay, my arm was just numb and funny feeling, but then I got a nice blister on my hand where it was touching the rag, and every muscle in my arm turned pretty sore. So then, about an hour later, I'm getting bags of mocha powder and beverage base and stuff like that from the back room, and I cut myself on something random and sharp. I pull the bags of powders out of the box, and there's a razor blade in the box. That's cute. Probably fell out of a box cutter, because there's one upstairs with a missing blade. Either that or some dipshit thought it would be funny if someone slit their wrist at work accidentally.

Next time I get the premonition of a really sucky day at work coming on, I am heading straight for the 'out' door. Wait, we don't have a specific 'out' door. Only a door used for both 'in' and 'out' purposes. But whatever. You get what I'm saying, right?

Today wasn't completely negative though. I am now officially a certified Barista. I have been making drinks for weeks-everything from tall coffees, to triple grande half-caff two pump breve mochas with light whipped cream. Our manager though is one of those "by the book" people, and apparently there's some sort of 'test' that you have to take in order to get bar certified. It involved making a tall latte and a tall mocha. I thought it was pretty funny, since most of the customers who go to that place know those drink recipes. I was surprised, though. I have been going through life, under the assumption that the MCAS was the easiest test in the entire world. To my astonishment, though, it isn't.

Enough about work. I spend too much time at that place already; I probably shouldn't spend more time at home reflecting upon my time spent there.

I bought a few bitchin' used albums the other day. The only one of particular notariety, though, is the Clash's London Calling. I've heard their songs here and there on the radio-"Should I Stay or Should I Go", but under the advice of misterclean182, I scored a used copy of the album. Most of the time when I buy a CD, I put the car CD player on scan and listen to the beginning of each track. Gives a good overview of the album. When I put that disc in, though, I listened to track one, then track two, then track three, and song after song was ridiculously good. I checked out the back of the album, discovered that there were 19 tracks total on it, and figured that this disc would be just like any from the Ramones. The Ramones are good, don't get me wrong, but most of their albums should be cut in half. The Ramones start to sound very repetitive after a few songs. London Calling is completely absent of that certain repetitiveness that seems to be inherent in most early 'punk' music. I was pretty happy with my purchase when, reaching track 19, I realized that there were no two songs on that album that even remotely resembled each other. Though considered 'punk', there are tracks on that album that have a jazzy beat, some are on the punk side, and yet others sound straight out of 80's pop. I love it. I'm in a High Fidelity mood right now, so I'm gonna bust out a quick 'Top 5'.

Top Five Albums that You Put in Your CD Player, Play From Track 1, and Leave There Until The Album is Over.

5. Coldplay: A Rush of Blood to the Head.
4.Incubus: Morning View.
3.Boston: Boston.
2.The Clash: London Calling.
1.Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon.

Okay, so maybe my #1 choice was a total cop-out, and an obvious choice at that, but it's the only album that I have probably never skipped around on. So it gets the top spot.

Hm. 12:37, and I'm supposed to be up around 8 to finish some stuff around the house so I can go to Riverside with Matt to pick up his friend from the train. I think I had some more to write about, but it can wait. I need some sleep.

Britain's Blair Looks to Poll After Iraq Apology

2004-09-28T19:39:00.000-05:00

"BRIGHTON, England (Reuters) - Britain's Labour Party leaders are to try to shift the focus from Iraq to domestic policy on Wednesday, after Tony Blair offered a partial apology for the war.

Violence in Iraq -- where two more British soldiers died on Tuesday -- and the fate of a British hostage being held there have cast a shadow over Labour's annual conference, where Blair had hoped to concentrate on a campaign for a third term.

Labour will showcase its policies on crime, asylum and immigration on Wednesday -- all key battlegrounds for an election expected in May -- when Home Secretary David Blunkett addresses the party faithful in the seaside town of Brighton."

My question is this: why can't Bush offer the American people something of a similar nature? In case anyone hasn't heard about this, England's prime minister Tony Blair acknowledged that his case for war was based on innacurate intelligence. He didn't say the word "sorry", though. That's fine with me, however. If you read the article in the above link, he admitted that he now realizes that his reasoning for wanting to take part in the war in Iraq was largely based on false information.

I'm waiting for Bush to do the same. I doubt he will though. So many things bother me about him, but the one that bothers me the most is how stubborn and closed-minded he is. I've been watching State of the Union addresses since the first Bush was in office. I can't even watch W. Bush speak, because he can't give a speech without over-using words like "lord", "god", etc. What's his deal? Does he realize that we live in a country that isn't full of Born Again Christians? This ties in with his stubbornness. I really believe that he is too stubborn to accept the fact that there are different people with different values and beliefs out there.

Enough about that. What bothers me the most about any form of leadership is an inability to admit mistakes, faults, and things like that. How am I supposed to trust a guy to make decisions for me, if when he makes a mistake, he just pretends that it was the right thing to do? On television he claims that he would not have done anything differently. He can't be serious. Seriously.

What's happening recently is reminding me of so many things that have happened in Russia from 1990 to the present. A former Communist regime is reluctant to fully make the transition from the old system to Capitalism. Under Yeltsin, and Putin even, so many huge tragedies that could have been completely prevented have occured.

The Kursk. It took the Russians a full two days after loss of contact with the nuclear submarine to admit to the world that they needed help attempting to rescue the crew. By then it was too late, and everyone on board had died from carbon monoxide poisoning and hypothermia.

Russia was and is still a police state. Lately, I really can't help but wonder if America is becoming a police state as well.

productive day, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

2004-09-27T21:01:00.000-05:00

My list of things to do today. Pretty exciting stuff, huh. Well, it is for me, especially since I'm the worst procrastinator around. Making a list seems pretty lame, and I'll probably never do it again, but hey, it helped me get what I needed to get done, done. I usually don't accomplish that much in a week, let alone in a single day. I was done with all of that crap before lunch time. I even stopped along the way to take some pictures with the digital camera.

Couldn't think of what I had to mail to whom last night, when I wrote the list up, but this morning I figured out that it was most likely my insurance company, which has been bothering me to mail them some form from an appraiser.

on the way to go snag the Toadies album, Rubbernecking, I got way sidetracked and stopped at a cemetery to take some pictures of this very interesting headstone.

Another shot of the same headstone. I like the weathered texture of the stone.

There was some construction going on nearby, and the dust from stonework was blowing across the grounds of the cemetery. Cool looking, if you ask me.

On top of the regular list of stuff to do, I found an adapter at the record store to hook my mp3 player into my car stereo. Got that done in about ten minutes. I drilled a hole for the wire in the pocket underneath the CD player and fed the wire out. Simple enough.

Not only did I get that stuff done, but I also registered to vote, bought a sweet Johnny Cash poster, and I did find the elusive Toadies album after all. Not at amazon.com. Found it at Jelly's in Worcester.

I'm gonna write a little bit about Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It was the first movie I completely enjoyed in a long time. Seeing Jim Carrey play a shy, insecure, socially inept dude for a change was... a change. A good one. Usually when actors break away from their usual roles (Ashton Kutcher... cough) , things can start to suck. Don't get me wrong, Butterfly Effect was a cool concept and everything, but why Ashton Kutcher for that role?

well anyway, Jim Carrey played a completely different role than usual, one where he really didn't have a chance at all to be funny. And it was awesome. Comes out Tuesday 9/28. It's definitely worth watching.

This morning on the radio I heard the cover of "Imagine", performed by A Perfect Circle. It was creepy, disturbing, and eroded my faith in the human race further. I was left with a knot in my stomach. I liked it.

2004-09-27T19:23:00.000-05:00

Uploading this for a profile picture. Gonna update later once I figure out how to get multiple pictures posted from Hello into the same post. Too lazy to paste the HTML all together right now.

2004-09-26T00:38:00.000-05:00

the new car I've recently purchased, and the reason I spend most of my week working. Can't complain though. 2001 Subaru Impreza, 5 speed =)

decided that I'm gonna get up relatively early tomorrow morning and go hiking. Could use some exercise, and I haven't taken many pictures lately. Being outside will give me a good excuse.

hello

2004-09-26T00:12:00.000-05:00

so, my first post here. Considering the fact that I'm done with high school, I decided that maybe I'd go get myself a real weblog instead of doing the lame xanga thing. Tired of reading everybody's entries on there; they're all the same, just minor detail differences. Tired of the drama.

Also, I checked out the features of this and whatnot, and since I'm into photography, I'll appreciate having a weblog that's much easier to manipulate HTML-wise and to integrate my photos. I had to get outside hosting for Xanga, edit the HTML in their tiny Xtools editor thing, and it was a giant pain in the ass. I use Mozilla Firefox, and xanga has some issues with that browser. Trying to make a single word bold, for example, is a nightmare on that site. You end up destroying the HTML for the whole post and have to start over.

So, we'll see how this goes, I guess. I'm gonna get back to reading. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. A way good book.