MY LIFE - APRIL 1999

April 2, 1999

Before I say anything else in here, let me begin by explaining why it took me so long to finally adapt to the current format for My Life. You see, back when I wasn't really updating this site often or when I really didn't feel like writing much, I would just throw two months' worth of entries together and hope that it didn't take up too much space. That was all fine and dandy until February when I finally realized that it would work ten times better if I gave each day that I wrote its own page and just set up a link to that page.

This uncomplicated the set-up immensely, even though I'd be doing more work with the coding. I feel it worthwhile because now people can just view the entries they want to, rather than fighting a whole bunch of bullshit until they found the entry they were looking for, me included. I also did it because this was becoming more and more like an online journal, and to keep it simple I wanted to give people more flexibility with what they read. So I gave them two options at the end, to go on or to go backwards. This month I've decided to throw "Index" into the mix. It'll just be the index of that month; to view February/March you'd still have to go to that individual page from the "My Life" menu, but it's still an improvement.

So why all this change all of a sudden? It's simple. I do things on the matter of convenience, and to throw everything together was convenient, but stupid. This way, you can just pick and choose what you read with a slower loading time. It's also a set-up that I find easier to use and much easier on your surfing habits. My Life isn't perfect yet, but it's getting closer.

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My site finally made it to 1000 visitors. Actually, from all accounts, it appears that the counter blew past 1000 as it was up near 1010 when I checked last. It's a major accomplishment for this site, especially at the rate that the counter climbed in reaching it. I've had a slow, but steady increase in the number of visitors each day since I reached 900 a few weeks ago. The fastcounter stats have been showing overall increases in visitors now for the last few weeks and my geoguide stats are through the roof. It's from several things. I've been getting more repeat visitors, people who saw my site once and have decided to come back repeatedly. I've been getting new visitors from my mom's site it seems, as the counter's really jumped since her site when up and she started spreading it around the internet. Thirdly, it seems that my visiting and signing others' guestbooks is paying off in people either e-mailing me thanking me or by them going to my site then e-mailing me about it.

There's also the possibility that people are spreading the word of this site, but I'm not certain on that one. I just know that people are coming, and it's not just a one-time thing. Jennifer, girl I love to death right now, has been coming just about every time she's been online and she was visitor number 1000. How about that one. It's people who are doing what she's doing though that are making this site even more worthwhile. People are actually coming back to my site to see what's new with me and how I look at things. It's amazing.

No one's still really signing the guestbook though. Jennifer herself accounts for 3 of the five people who've signed.

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Why are people such hotheads in addition to being such dumbasses? I ask this after two things that happened tonight, one while at work right before we closed and one while I was waiting at a stop sign trying to turn left onto Boston Rd. The first was much more annoying while the second one was a bit more stupid.

This woman was in earlier in the night inquiring about some popcorn tins and about some glasses that she was interested in that she claimed should be on more than just a $4 sale. She said she'd be back later to pick the stuff up and asked when we closed. My manager, who she was talking with, said 10pm but she apparently misheard him. At 9:57, three minutes before we closed, she saunters into the store as if we closed much later. My manager approached her and said that we were about to close. She threw a fit.

Apparently she thought she heard Lenny (my manager) say we closed at 10:30, so she figured she had about half an hour to shop for a bunch of bullshit. She adamently refused to hurry up what she was doing, grabbed a cart, and slowly worked her way over to aisle six to look at some nail stuff. I turned the store lights out and came out just in time to hear her arguing with Lenny, that because he said we closed at "10:30" that she was not going to pick up the pace and that she was entitled to all the time she wanted. She also said she wasn't leaving until her husband showed up with money.

She finally went up to the counter after Lenny continued to hound her where she promptly started slamming her stuff on the counter, bitching the whole way. Lenny let Mike (our ringer) leave, while I stayed to see what happened. The lady went outside to get her money where she returned with her husband, who wisely said nothing. She continued to bitch about us in general and then started to whine about the glasses again. Lenny had removed the incorrect signing earlier, and she wanted to know where it was. She not only wanted the sale price of $9.99-14.99, but she also wanted to use a $6 off coupon. Lenny refused and she gave it up after a few minutes. By around 10:08 they were rung out and they left, as well as the other person who had snuck in. I locked the front entrance, clocked out, and left. It was 10:10pm by now.

The other incident occured while stopped. I was waiting at a stop sign on Howe Rd where it dead-ended at Boston Rd. I came to a stop right about where the white line was, then crept up a bit so that I could see the crossing traffic. At this point I was still a good 3 or 4 feet short of Boston Road itself, which made the actions of the guy turning onto Howe Road completely stupid. He was obviously intent on taking the left sharply, but since I was there, he couldn't. This intensely displeased him and he had some words for me as he turned awfully close to the front end of my car. There was about a foot between my front end and his truck as he continued to scream at me about something. Apparently turning the wheel a little more hurt him, but I responded by turning my music up higher, which displeased him even more. I couldn't hear him, but he could hear my music, which was enough for me.

Thankfully, he didn't stop and try to make a scene out of his stupid ass attitude. Tell me, would it have hurt to turn the wheel a bit more so that the truck didn't come so close? He almost took out my fucking front end and he's yelling at me. It's things like that that drive me through a wall.

A dumb bitch and a cranky middle-aged guy in an old pick-up truck. How was your day?

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I haven't had much to say on the whole Kosovo crisis lately, and in case some of you are wondering, it's on purpose. I'm really not up to writing a whole lot on a crisis that's already raising controversy. Truth be said, I'm not much for pushing any buttons, which is what will happen because it'll eventually lead to a long-winded writing on religion and its role, something I'm trying to avoid right now because of the sensivity of the whole subject as it is. It's just not the time to be raising questions about one culture's beliefs against another's, and it's not my place to say who's right and who's wrong at this point in time.

I guess I'm just trying to avoid stepping on anyone's toes because of what I believe right now. When the time's right, you'll all hear what I have to say. The time's just not right at this point in time.