Belladramatics

This is actually kind of cool, not forcing myself to post 5 times a week. I feel ever so relaxed while typing this, and it’s only the second sentence.

Now, on to other things.

Way back last September, I made my decision to adopt a dog. I may have misread my initial order, though, because I sincerely don’t remember ordering “one beagle, extra clingy please.”

First of all, let me make one thing clear: This entry is NOT a complaint whatsoever. It’s merely a puzzling over animal behavior.

I have just spent a little over three days in a row with a canine backpack, of sorts. Bella gets clingy every once in a while, but it usually doesn’t last more than a few hours, or maybe a day. This time it lasted from Friday until sometime yesterday. I couldn’t shift my position on the couch without her following me, let alone venture alone into another room of the house. I’ve never seen her this badly in need of attention. Which she shouldn’t be in the first place; she gets plenty of attention, and we spend very little time apart, ever.

If I tried to have the chair to myself for a while without her on my lap, well, that just wouldn’t do. “Ok, you need to get up and let me out every 5 minutes even though I don’t have anything in particular to do outside. This is called ‘disrupting your peace and quiet because you won’t let me up with you’ time.” Not to mention her wonderful new habits in this area: 1. When I open the door to let her out, she pauses halfway in and out of the house to stretch. Usually on the very cold days. 2. Once she gets outside, she stops on the top step and looks around as though she’s forgotten why she wanted to go outside in the first place. I tell ya, nothing is more rewarding for a 41 year-old single man than to stand in the doorway yelling “Go potty! Go Potty! GO POTTY!” and then she finally “Oh yeah! That’s what I came out here for!”

I could barely get anything done in the kitchen without tripping over her several times. What is it about pets and children that they seem to need to stand in exactly the same shoes you are wearing at any given time?

I guess the main point of this is that even though after almost 5 months of her living with me, I am still not used to anybody needing to be with me this much. I’ve always been a loner. I’d have gotten a cat instead, which would have guaranteed me some alone time, but I’m allergic to cats, and dogs are WAY cooler anyway.

Bella’s clinginess, while annoying at times, is actually somewhat endearing. I honestly don’t know how she can stand ME most of the time.

Help create a US Monopoly

One of the many blogs that I frequent here on the Intarwebz is run by one of my favorite writers, named Peter David. He writes novels, comics, screenplays, etc., and I generally enjoy his work.

A post he made on February 20 brought attention to the fact that Hasbro is creating an international version of their Monopoly® game, with city names replacing the street names. The colors will remain the same, coded according to property value.

There is currently a vote going on that is open to anyone; you can vote once a day for ten cities. According to David’s post, the United States is making a horrible showing in this vote, with only two cities making an appearance. NYC is around #8, making the yellow section of the game board, and Las Vegas is #23. At least these were the counts at the time he wrote his post.

What is the Number One City for International Monopoly®?

Istanbul.

I don’t particularly care for this little fact. I’m not big on geography, so I’m asking: Is Istanbul a major tourist attraction? What do the residents have going for them that they are number one in this little vote?

At any rate, as I stated above, you can vote once per day until February 28th for ten cities. Let’s all get on there and vote in our favorite U.S. cities. Hopefully we can sway this thing.

The link to vote:

http://hasbro.com/games/kid-games/monopoly/

I believe an email address is required, so use your alternate address in case of SPAM. If you don’t have an alternate, throwaway address, click here to send me an email, and I’ll send you a Gmail invitation so you can set one up.

Thanks, everybody.

Time for a small break of sorts

I gave this a lot of thought yesterday while I was driving my route, and again after I got home. Entries like the one I posted yesterday are becoming just too frequent now. It’s a bad sign when my own writing can’t even hold my interest. I was always told, “As long as your writing is interesting to you, it’ll be interesting to others.” Well, considering how I feel about it lately, I hate to think what some of you are thinking about it.

What’s worse, is that way back when I started doing this blog, I promised it wouldn’t become a “today I had breakfast and went to the mall” kind of page, but that’s exactly what it’s become, and for a longer time now than I care to admit.

So, as the title says, it’s time for a break. I’m not making it a total break, though; I’m going back for a while to what I did in the beginning: more of a sporadic, whenever-I-have-an-interesting-topic-to-write-about kind of blog. A bit of Crisis rationing, if you will. So you might see one post per week, or you might not see any for a few weeks. It all depends on what I can come up with. Hopefully, at some point I’ll be able to go back to my daily Monday through Friday entries, but that’s just not going to work right now.

Part of the problem is that there is just absolutely nothing exciting or interesting going on in my life right now. I’m job hunting, which isn’t really going all that well in today’s economic climate, and it’s really frustrating to me. With my current job and income, I can’t really afford any kind of a social life, so that also cuts down on topics.

Thanks for sticking with me all this time. As I said, I’m not completely going away; the writing is just going to be fewer and farther between for a while until things pick up. Just watch your RSS feeds and/or your email for updates whenever I happen to make a new post.

See you next time.

Weekend activity, or lack thereof

It was a nice quiet weekend. It went from being very cold and somewhat snowy to slightly warmer and somewhat snowy, and finally ended up being just above freezing and slightly snowy. Whoever said that Minnesota has the same weather all the time?

Bella and I stayed home all weekend as usual. She seems to enjoy the weekends; we don’t have to go out into the cold at 0200 and drive around for hours stopping and going and opening and closing the car doors all the time while she sleeps. On the weekends, she gets to sleep peacefully and undisturbed in the house.

It’s not Thanksgiving or Christmas, but I got a wild hair this weekend and threw a turkey in the oven yesterday. It came out pretty good, as usual. It was yet another excuse for Bella to try and get up on the kitchen table all the time, while it was sitting there.

Wow! This entry is so damn entertaining that even I can’t even sit still, and I'm the one who lived through all of these experiences. I’d better hold some of them back for another time when I don’t actually have anything to write about. /sarcasm off.

Have a great Monday.

Can't think of a title again

Once again, it’s time to wrap up the week and close down the Mid – Life Crisis for the weekend. Were that it was that easy in real life?

We got our 4 inches of snow night before last, as I said. It was easy enough for Victor to drive through it, but all of the highways absolutely sucked. Most of the plows didn’t get out until around 0400, and they did a really crappy job of clearing the roads. I had to drive 40 mph most of the route. It wasn’t much fun.

Now the temps have dropped to sub-zero levels again. I haven’t checked the actual temps yet, but when I let Bella out a few minutes ago, it was damn chilly. It’s supposed to warm up for the weekend, though, or so I hear.

I’m sure all of you are eager to get your weekends started. I am too, so I’m going to close and post now. This way, I can get going and get today’s route finished, and be done until Monday. Have a great weekend, and see you back here then.

Random musings

Just like ‘Random Thoughts,’ but using a different word.

We were supposedly going to get somewhere between 2 and 6 inches of snow last night. I just looked outside now, at 0059, and it looks like we got about 4. This isn’t bad. Victor has front-wheel drive, and it looks like he’ll be able to traverse the snowfall rather easily. I’m glad about that. I sure as hell didn’t plan on shoveling at this time of night, and I rather doubt that the neighbors would have looked too kindly upon me running the snowblower.

The writers voted to end the strike, and are now back at work as of yesterday. Consider this a warning, though: If you’re thinking that you’ll get new episodes of your favorite TV shows next week, think again. According to this list, which is updated hourly, the earliest you’re going to see anything new is probably about mid-March, with most shows waiting until April, or even next fall. And there you have it.

Bella survived a third day in a row of being locked in her carrier while I ran errands. The first two days she was totally insane and barking her head off as though she were being beaten with a red-hot branding iron, but yesterday she was only mildly paranoid. No barking; just a lot of drool and whimpering. Good girl.

Have a good Thursday. Only one more day until the weekend.

This is gonna SUCK

I’m talking about when I go on the route today, not this particular entry. That I leave to your judgement.

The reason the route is going to suck is because I didn’t get a whole heck of a lot of sleep tonight. I tried; I really did. I went to bed a little extra early so that I could watch a smidge of TV before falling asleep, but things didn’t really work out from there. I drifted in and out of sleep for a few hours with the TV on, and the programs that were playing managed to work their way into some of my dreams, which was a bit surreal. Then at one point I fell asleep again and I managed to hit the ‘slow-motion’ button on the TiVo, so my recorded program played that way while I slept. I woke up, looked at the TV screen, where everything was in slow motion, and wondered if I had been injected with some kind of hallucinogen while I slept. To make matters even more fun, I lost the remote somewhere in the blankets, so I couldn’t adjust the slow-motion, nor could I even shut off the TV until I found it. I ended up almost stripping the entire bed before I was able to correct matters. By this time, it was time to get up. I’m not happy.

I wasn’t online much yesterday, nor did I watch any TV, so I have no updates or news on the WGA strike at this time.

Here’s some big news that will knock your socks off: Ready? Hold on to your shorts: Later on today, I’m getting a HAIRCUT! It’ll match my partially clean-shaven face! All I have to do is make it to the shop on time, and that means I can’t fall asleep this afternoon. This is going to be a chore.

I’m going to knock off now, post it, and go to work. May as well try and get this workday finished, so I can catch some kind of a catnap.

Have a nice day.

Not a good enough reason

As of this writing, I don’t know yet how the WGA vote is going to go. Of course, that is probably because it doesn’t happen until later today or tomorrow. In effect, the strike is still on right now.

As I’ve stated previously, I’ve been all for the writers during this particular strike. Not only because I hope to be a writer one day (just one day, not a bunch of days) but because I think what they were asking was totally fair.

What pisses me off about this sudden reach of an agreement, is that not only is it not going to get our shows back on the air in a reasonable amount of time (a minor point) but the fact that it seems to have happened “just in the nick of time” for the damn Oscar® ceremony to go forward as planned.

I’m not like a great deal of the people in this country. I don’t give Damn One about the Oscars®. I never watch it, and the thought of caring about who wins what simply for making a movie is beyond my limited powers of comprehension.

I read a lot during the strike about how people were worried that the ceremony was going to be adversely affected by the picket lines. It was either going to be canceled, or cut WAY down in length and flash. Now, it seems that the show must go on.

As happy as I am that both sides of the strike reached an agreement, the mere speculation that it was done in a hurry for this reason really cheapens the whole thing in my view.

A bit more

According to an article I saw in the newspaper today, the strike may be over, but new episodes are still a long way off.

Once the strike ends, and all of the contracts are signed, etc., it’s estimated that the writing of new scripts will take several days, shooting of new episodes at least a week, and then, depending on the shows themselves, there could be up to a month or so of post-production.

So, best case scenario, we’ll see new episodes of our shows around April. Worst case, we’ll be waiting until fall for most of them to return.

Looks like I’ll be sticking to DVDs for the foreseeable future. I refuse to watch the glut of new ‘reality’ shows that have been taking the place of my shows.

Strike III, perhaps?

Apparently the writer’s strike is over. I’ve been reading a lot about it on the Internet over the weekend, and now it seems to be confirmed with the release of this letter to Writer’s Guild members from Writer’s Guild West President Patric Verrone:

Dear Fellow Members,

I am are pleased to inform you that this morning the WGA Negotiating Committee unanimously and unconditionally recommended the terms of the proposed 2008 MBA to the WGAW Board and WGAE Council. The Board and Council then voted unanimously to recommend the contract, and to submit it to the joint membership of WGAW and WGAE for ratification. The ratification vote will take place over the next few weeks by mail ballot and at a special membership meeting. You will receive ballot materials and a notice of informational meetings during the next week.

There is, however, another issue to address: whether to lift the restraining order, and end the strike, during the ratification process. We are asking the members to decide this issue. A vote will take place on Tuesday, February 12, 2008.A yes vote means you are voting to end the strike immediately; a no vote means you are voting to continue the strike during the ratification process.

Ballots can be cast at the Guild Theater from 2:00 pm to 6:00 pm. If you aren’t able to cast a ballot in person, proxy ballots can be downloaded at http://www.wga.org/contract_07/proxy-2008.pdf and faxed. Proxy ballots and voting instructions are at wga.org. Until the votes are counted, we are still on strike. We will announce the vote count on Tuesday night.

There will be no picketing Monday or Tuesday: all pickets are suspended until the WGA membership votes to either end or continue the strike.

Thank you for your solidarity and support. We are all in this together.

Best,

Patric M. Verrone
President, WGAW

So, while the strike appears to have reached the finish line, there is still a little bit more to do. It’s going to be a while yet before you get to see any new episodes of your favorite TV shows.

Gotta love Fridays

Well, you don’t “gotta,” but I can’t think of anybody who doesn’t.

I’m gonna try to make quick work of the route again today so Bella and I can get back home here and barricade ourselves in once again. I don’t know for sure if it’s going to happen or not, but I’m told that the weekend is supposed to get damn cold again. Oh well, it’s February, traditionally the coldest month of the season. Which is odd, considering that the 14th is supposed to be so incredibly heartwarming.

Maybe I should write a book about winter, and the cold. Maybe I should do a lot of things, but I probably won’t. Of all the things I could write about, winter and cold are just not on my list of “want to do” topics.

Remember my shaving accident a week ago Wednesday? One of the things I don’t like about being a blonde is that it takes forever for me to grow facial hair. Yesterday I finally had enough to shave a pattern to start bringing the goatee back. I just don’t like the way I look when I’m completely clean-shaven. This past week was the first time I had been completely clean-shaven since the summer of 2000. As it stands right now, unless you stand very close to me and squint, you still can barely tell that I’ve started growing it again.

Right now, I’ve got Victor warming up outside, and Bella pacing around because I’ve already put her harness on her, and we don’t seem to be leaving yet. She loves her harness, because she knows that the leash isn’t far behind, and the leash means that we get to go somewhere, either for a walk or a ride. I’m just not quite ready to leave yet because I’m busy downloading a podcast on the other computer, and I have to wait for it to finish before I can load it into my iPod. I want to listen to it while driving the route. My podcasts are a great way to pass time quickly on the long drive every morning.

If you’re curious about podcasts in general, and which ones I listen to in particular, I did a couple of entries about them back on June 6 and June 7 of last year. One of these days I should think about doing an updated entry about them, as I’ve added some new ones, and dropped one or two. That’s a darn good idea, and I’ll do it right away. Think about doing a new entry about them, I mean.

Anyway, this has been a fun little entry. Nothing too serious, and several topics all in one with which to close out your work week. Have a great weekend, weather permitting, and see you back here on Monday.

Strike II, ball 2

Good old February.

It’s the time of winter when it really starts to hit home that there is just absolutely nothing to do these days. At least for me. I’m not a snowmobiler, or a skier, or ice skater, or anything like that.

I’m just an ordinary guy who likes taking it easy.

Bear in mind, I’m not actually complaining about the fact that there’s nothing to do. I’ve been keeping busy on my job hunt, and things of that nature. I’ve also been keeping up with my DVD watching, thanks to the ongoing Writer’s Guild of America strike. Don’t get me wrong. I’m still in 100 percent support of the writers, as I’ve stated previously. I’m just tired of the dearth of new shows as a result. February is supposed to be a sweeps month, I believe. Well, at the rate it’s going, TV execs are going to be ‘sweeping’ a metric buttload or so of high-grade suckage into their trash bins as far as ratings are concerned.

I don’t know if it’s true, and I don’t know any details, but I have read a rumor or two that the strike may be close to the finish line. I doubt it myself, but if it is true, I hope it ends for the better.

At any rate, the newspaper writers aren’t on strike, so I need to get to work. Have a good day.

Nothing at all The Saga Continues

I’m sorry. It’s either the hour, or my state of mind, or both. I am just drawing a complete blank today. I won’t even send out update notices on this one.

See you tomorrow, maybe

Monday recaps

Apparently my USAs got delivered, no sweat. Nothing was said to me about it when I got to work yesterday. The only thing that ticks me off about it is that since they were delivered on Saturday instead of Friday, which gave them one less day on the stands, and that made for even fewer sales than usual. Victor’s backseat was filled with returns.

We finished nice and early though, and got back home to be able to spend the day kicking back and watching the snow fall. It got a bit heavy for a while, but then it quit, which surprised me because I was under the impression that we were supposed to get a lot of it.

I found two great jobs in the ads yesterday morning, to which I promptly sent copies of my resume. One would be totally awesome, and the other, while not quite “awesome” would be one that I think I could enjoy.

I also found out yesterday that I’m not supposed to have the phone service that I have. I don’t have a long distance carrier. I’ve always been able to dial anywhere within my area code though. Yesterday morning I tried to make a call within the area code, and I wasn’t allowed to do so. When I called my phone carrier, I was told that without long distance, I wasn’t even supposed to have been able to dial many of the places I had been calling, such as my families’ houses in Crosby, 14 miles away. So, I had to tell them to give me long distance. I just hope they don’t back-charge me for all the calls I’ve been making so far.

Bonus aftermath

And here we go with another brand new week. Not much has changed from previous weeks. People are still arguing pointlessly about the upcoming election. Bella is still neurotic when it comes to being left alone. I am still looking for a different job.

It was a nice peaceful weekend though. I posted the bonus entry on Friday that told about how I had a short day on the route due to no USA Todays being delivered to me. I went to breakfast later that day with my dad. Dad ran this route before I did, until he got tired of it and I took over. We sat and joked about how I would go home from breakfast to find a message on the machine telling me that the USAs were in, and ready to be delivered.

I went home from breakfast, and there was a message on my machine. One of the people in the circulation department had called to inform me that the USAs had arrived, and would I be able to deliver them on Saturday when I delivered my Sunday Brainerd Dispatches?

No matter how many times I have told this person that I do not deliver papers on weekends, and I have nothing to do with Sunday papers except to pick up the returns on Monday, she still thinks I have a weekend route. I’m tired of trying to explain it to her, so I didn’t even bother returning the call. Let them figure out what to do with the USAs. I’ll find out once I go to work in a few minutes to find out what actually happened to them.

That’s about all I have for now. See you tomorrow.

Bonuses come in many forms

I had a bonus this morning. Not in monetary form, but in the form of Time. I had just posted today’s earlier entry when I got a call from work. It turns out that there were some kind of satellite problems that prevented the USA Today from being printed and distributed up here in my neck of the woods, so I didn’t have to deliver any.

This merely left 63 copies of the Dispatch divided betwixt 8 stops. I was home at just a little past 0500. This makes for a Friday that Bill likes.

Since I got the bonus of time today, I thought I’d take some of yours away by making you read a second entry today. See ya on Monday.

Freaked-up Friday

One of my esteemed colleagues seems to have taken offense to the fact that I spent the past two posts talking about weather. He offers his opinion here.

Thing is, people have been talking about weather for as long as weather has been invented. Before there was weather, all people had to talk about was “Wow, sure is a big void today.” “Yeah, same as yesterday, and the day before.” “Wonder what tomorrow’ll be like?” “Prob’ly a lotta nothin’.” Void forecasters had the easiest jobs of anybody. How hard could it be to predict “For the next week, a whole big bag o’ squat.”

Anyway, since the weather seems to have now gone up a few degrees, I’ll refrain from discussing it today.

To be honest, I don’t really have anything to discuss, except that after the route I’m going out for breakfast with my dad. That’ll be fun. I haven’t had a good breakfast in a while, and it’s been a couple of weeks since he and I got together. So there you have it.

Screw it. I’m closing early today. See you on Monday. Have a great weekend.