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Friday, May 10

Oh my God I'm going to kill this damn woman. She's been calling my phone once a day for the past four days and asking for Charles Somethingorother. The first time I told her "I'm sorry, you have the wrong number, could you tell me what numb-" *click*.

She hung up before I had the chance to ask her what number she was actually trying to call. Which is fine, you know, if you're not planning on calling back.

Although come to think of it, the first time she hung up on me I really thought "How rude!" because she didn't even apologize for bothering me, which consisted of waking me up and making me rush to my phone without my glasses on, always a fun ride.

So I was a little pissed. But then the next time she called, I was on the bus, and she asked for Charles Whatsit again. And so I'm like "Oh, hi, you called here before. You have the wrong number. Listen, what number are you-"

"Bye."*click*

ARGH.

The people on the bus were actually amused during this.

She called yesterday when I first got to work. I always forget to turn my phone off, and usually it stays on unless it starts to ring. It's actually so loud that I can hear it ringing behind the office door from anywhere in the store.

So yesterday it rang while my hands were full at the other end of the store. So I ran to either answer it or shut it off, I wasn't sure which. She let it ring until she got to my message, at which point I grabbed the phone and recognized her number. I rolled my eyes and turned the damn thing off.

So just now? What happened? She called again. And I, like, lost it. "Listen. You've been calling here all week and I've been telling you that you have the wrong number all week. Can you PLEASE tell me what number you're trying to reach so that we can -"

*click*

AAAAAARRRRRGGGHHH!!!!!

The funny thing? I get the impression that she thinks I'm having an affair with her husband or something.

Next time, I think I'll say "Why yes, let me get him for you," or something, and then grab a whistle and blow it into the phone. Or smash the phone into a wall. Or something. I'm serious. If this woman is going to continue torturing me, I might as well have some fun.
Posted by hKath at 1:41 PM ()

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Wednesday, May 8

OK, Chuck Palahniuk is...

there are no words to describe exactly how the click was made. Suffice it to say, I was reading his book Survivor when, all of a sudden, in the middle of chapter 43 (on page 255 to be exact), he said: "I want to be chased by flesh-eating zombies."

My jaw dropped.

And as if that wasn't enough, well, chapter forty-three, page 255 is at the beginning of the book.

Just to clarify, *I* am the original want-to-be-chased-by-zombies chick. Just so there are no misunderstandings.

*swoon*

I went out and bought more of W.P. Kinsella's Silas stories after finishing Dance Me Outside. There are tons more. Tons. I had to choose between one book with maybe 12 stories in it, and another that boasted that it was "the complete collection" of the Silas stories, but had none of the ones that I had already read, and none of the ones in the smaller book, which I ended up buying first. The collection was stuff written around 1985. I'm still idling around 1975. Man, there is a lot of this stuff to go around.

So I've been thinking of Ryan Black, who played Silas in that one movie that one time. Except in the movie they changed his name to Silas Crow, when really it's supposed to be Silas Ermineskin. I wonder why they did that.

Ryan Black was phenomenal. I mean, I even thought so way back then, but now I know he was phenomenal because he really must have read these stories. Somehow he embodied all of Silas' sort of humble wisdom, and his ties to tradition that a lot of the other characters don't have. Turns out that's not a coincidence - you hear a lot more about it in the stories. How he's always doing research, how he's sort of training to be Mad Etta's assistant... I really thought that I could see all the other stories that they didn't use in the film being used by Ryan as character background. It was awesome.

I just realized I bought Dance Me Outside last year and probably left it at Dave's. Or maybe I gave it to Dave. I used to do that all the time.

Another thing that I just noticed while looking at the cast list on imdb is that they wrote out Eathen Firstrider and replaced his character with Gooch's, and I have no idea why. Because what happens to the character in the movie is exactly what happens to Eathen in the book. The only difference is that here he's called Gooch, when really he shouldn't be. Did they just like the name better? Because funnily enough, the name Gooch meant something in a language that no one in the movie even speaks.

Oh my god.

I'm turning into Fiona.

Continuity/canon geek.

Anyway, I bought the short one.

And one of my favourites, so far, is the one called "The Kid In The Stove".

The end.
Posted by hKath at 1:18 AM ()

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Monday, May 6

Dammit, don't you hate it when you miss a comment here or there and then suddenly you realize you want to answer the comment but that the person probably won't see it because it's almost off the page already?

I'm referring to the comment from somny, who asked if I was referring to Ethan Hawke's The Hottest State a few days ago.

Yes I was! Prepare yourself for some serious enthusiasm here. I've been appreciating the novel more and more after finishing it, which is a sure sign of a good book.

I loved how it felt very much unpolished, and the way he never spelled anything out for you. I'm looking forward to his next book, Ash Wednesday (which I just found out is coming in September).

Afterwards, I tried to read Thumbsucker by Walter Kirn, because everyone's been saying how funny it is, but it was way too glossy compared to The Hottest State and I quit before reaching the end. I'm sure I'll finish it later.

Right now, though, I'm reading Dance Me Outside by W.P. Kinsella and really enjoying it :)

Don't you also hate it when what would have been fine as a blog comment discussing one book turns into a big huge diatribe about me, me, me?

I do :( I wish I could have just talked about Ethan Hawke there and called it a day.
Posted by hKath at 11:48 AM ()

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I am getting the best google hits lately. I feel like such an authority on the web now. Also, Mindy, if you're reading this, someone is looking for you. I've gotten your name searched twice in the last little while. Just wanted to warn you in case, you know, it's a psycho ;)

So my alarm was set for 11:15. Which means my store manager called me at 10:45. To ask me to come in on my day off. After working six days in a row and more than 40 hours a week.

Just so you know, he was ahead of schedule a little. Today is not my day off.

Still, I told him no. There is only so much I will do to myself. It was bad enough that I pulled eleven hours and closed the store on Friday minus two people (lower back slowly pulling apart from rest of body like when Rosita died - God I'm pathetic). Of course the minus two people was probably a godsend because we were grossly overstaffed, but still, I was minus two people.

Of late, I've had to go around all shift trying to figure out what the store manager could possibly be thinking about one thing or the other. He cheats. He leave balances on his account, and not even for late fees, which would be bad, but for stuff he bought that he hasn't paid for yet.

Oh my GOD if I did that at my old store...

He does credits on employee accounts like it's nobody's business. He changes rent codes in the computer and then doesn't change the movie from red to yellow on the shelf for like days. Which is the entire POINT. How can customers see that the movie can be taken out longer and is therefore more appealing if the insert doesn't change?

Oh yes. And every single time I've come in after him, the safe has been either short or over. The first couple of times I covered it somehow (which you're actually supposed to do, to a point), but it's getting to me, I'm getting suspicious. So yesterday I was frank and wrote the actual amount that was in there. So there.

This guy is freaking retarded. All he does is bitch and whine about work that needs to be done while the rest of us are sitting there trying to find a way to do it around him. No, really. Stupid, small things too. Yesterday he started freaking out because a movie we only had five copies of was prepped with another store's inserts (they sent us two sets by mistake). The solution to this is very fucking simple. 1. Print five new inserts. 2. Insert.

So you can see why he was so upset he seemed to be vibrating. I mean, crap-on-a-rope, get a grip, guy!

And you? You don't care. So I'll shut up now :)

There are some good movies coming this week. Happenstance and Waking Life sound wonderful, but all I want to do is watch Ocean's Eleven again. Me = big lamer.
Posted by hKath at 11:31 AM ()

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