11/04/06

23/12/2004: 6:19pm

I was only half an hour late leaving work today! Tomorrow is day 6 of 6, and then the Christmas rush is over for another year...

Notable out of stocks: Ironing Board Covers (delivered tomorrow).

What will run out tomorrow: Glad Roasting Pans and Cadbury Continental 500g (on coupon). Hopefully that's all!

Does anyone else think Basmati Rice is nice? IT IS!!! Buy some today!

Official Christmas Carol of 2004: Click here to listen/download (wait about 1 minute into the song...then it gets good)

Today's Random Picture: A Frozen Minted Baby Pea! (cooked)

Ok first off I was wrong yesterday about the cloves, people put them on Hams for some reason not into cakes!!! Also Cerebos Greggs was out of stock of the Whole Cloves so we ran out AGAIN!!! I called up the distribution centre and asked them to add 60 units of Whole Cloves to our order. And then everyone tells me that won't be enough. ARGGGG!!!!!!!1111

I found out an amazing feature on our microwave last week. To start cooking Instantly, all you have to do is press the "Instant Cook" button, and it wil start cooking for 1 minute at full power! To do 2 minutes you just press the button twice! AMAZING!

2 more days of work until my little 1 and a bit weeks holiday...today was day 4 of 6. I did a 58 hour week last week.

Holy shit it is windy here today! And it rains every few minutes. And I need to get my laundry out of the washing machine...

Today's Random Picture: A free chocolate from Checkout!!!

Work continues as normal....

Notable out of stocks: Gregg's Whole Cloves. How the hell was I supposed to know that people bake cakes and put 4 packets of whole cloves into them? Whole Cloves are normally a product which sell less than 3 packets a week! Anyway it was only out of stock for half the day so NO WORRIES.

I "modded" my car. Now I can cruise around the streets picking up hot chicks while listening to The Captain Picard Song blasting out of my 1337 Alpine CD Player and Speakers with the windows down...

Last night I watched the final episode of Star Trek Voyager: Season 4. It was a good episode, and the Quantum Slipstream drive was awesome. Now I can start watching Deep Space 9: Season 2 again, which I have actually started to enjoy after "claiming" that I hated it...(the same thing happened to Voyager as well...)

Today's Random Picture: A D-Link 56k Serial External Modem I bought today (Model: DFM-562E)

The Cajun Chicken on the Breville HealthSmart Grill was a complete success! Most tastiest and juiciest chicken I have ever had! You can find the recipe here.

Meanwhile tonight I will be watching the final episode of Star Trek Voyager: Season 4...

Today's Random Picture: A furry cat!

The Breville HealthSmart Grill goes well comrades. Last night I cooked crumbed fish on it, and today I cooked Sirloin Steak and a Tomato on it. It cooked in about 5 minutes, and tastes very nice!

Tomorrow I will be trying Lemon and Cajun Chicken. Marinated overnight, and then grilled....an intriguing experiment...

Today I read something which I found to be a hilarious coincidence. You may or may not have seen the 1337 Pictures, but here is one I found today.

This picture was taken from an article in The New Zealand Herald about the Sapphire Princess, the largest ship ever to visit Auckland, New Zealand. (18/12/2004) 1337 Cabins? Sounds like my kind of ship! w00t!!! w00t!!!

Does anyone ever actually read the crap I write? If so, make a post on the forums...you don't even need to register!

Today's Random Picture: A motherboard and CPU, 10 speed Network Card, 33.6 ISA Modem and a 56k PCI modem...

I just got back from picking up my Breville HealthSmart Grill, basically a George Foreman Grill rip-off. I got it for free using FlyBuys. I'll post a review of it later.

I also had McDonald's on the way back: Hotcakes and 2 Hash Browns. I used my own Heinz Tomato Ketchup (the only sauce to use) and my own 100% Maple Syrup.

Why my own Maple Syrup? Because McDonald's "Hot Cake Syrup" is shit in a jar. Check the ingredient listing below:

What do we have here? Corn Syrup, Sugar, Water, Artificial Maple Flavour, Potassium Sorbate and Caramel Colour.

Essentially we have Corn Syrup with artificial Maple Syrup flavouring. Yummy!!! Comapre that to the ingredients list on my Maple Syrup: 100% Maple Syrup. Do you think it is sad that I chose to use my own Maple Syrup rather than McDonald's cheap imitation? Today I ate this at home. 6 months ago I took my own Maple Syrup INTO A MCDONALD'S RESTAURANT!

Today's Random Picture: My Mouse:

Working on your days off is fun!!!

Added two new pictures of the Silk Tree(s)

Disturbing news today on Gameplanet...

"People participating in the survey classified themselves as 'average' and 'frequent' gamers with an average age of 21. One of the findings, consistent with previous research, was that when gamers play games they do this mainly during the prime time television slot (8pm to 10pm) and do this as much in a social context as individually at a ratio of 54% to 45%. This is almost an exact match with recent US figures. Media that suffers the most from the increase in time spent playing games are radio and print, according to the people surveyed. Next to gaming, the internet is the preferred medium for respondents, followed by television.

Music scored very highly as the preferred (other) hobby amongst gamers. This was reflected in the answers towards their attitudes on in-game advertising. "One thing is for sure, gamers are a very vocal and opinionated group of consumers", says Maarten Brands, Creative Director DUIA. "We tested several in-game concepts with this audience, and the feedback was overwhelming. Their own suggestions reinforced our belief that in-game advertising is much more than just sticking billboards in, but is as much about music, product placement, sponsorship and providing special offers."

This sort of stuff really annoys me. I don't want to play games riddled with marketing crap because a game company got paid to put that shit in there.

The NFS underground music example? THAT MUSIC WAS TERRIBLE COMMERCIAL CRAP!!!! (so was the game, actually )

Today I read a thread on message board that said Star Trek: Insurrection was bad. The following is my response:

I loved Insurrection!

Sure, there's a couple of plot holes/flaws but I loved the humor!!!!! AWESOME! Picard dancing was hilarious, as is Data for the most part in the movie.

So is Worf: "I have the odd craving for the blood of a <Klingon animal> beast"

Star Trek: Nemesis on the other hand...they should have called it Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: The Next Generation. Why?

Data > B4 = Spock > McCoy Mind meld
B4 singing at the end = Spock's photon torpedo at the end
Shinzon = Khan (except Khan was better)
Data = Spock (dying in the end)


1) We can't beam down because there's an ion storm!!!!

2) Data Dies

3) The shields suck ass, what happened to the spherical shields?

4) Why fly through a nebula that prevents you from sending communications when you know you're being followed by someone who wants to kill you!!!

5) Bad humor from everyone. Especially Worf.

6) The bottomless fucking pit, on the lowest desk on the Enterprise!!!!
 

7) We never get to see the USS Titan

However, having said all that, the battle is amazing, and I loved the shots of the Enterprise, especially when it leaves orbit and goes to warp after beaming Picard back on board. I also enjoyed Data singing.

 

Here is a quote from someone else on that message board, I find it hillarious:

hay guyse how do i install this internets do you buy it in stores or whut

i tried to put a cd-rim in my disk drive but it didn't want to go in

i have a tandy is that okay for interweb

-Blidd

Today's Random Picture: A Video Capture Card!!!

I finally finished Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault last week. My god, it was bad. The last mission was nearly ok, but mostly it was just bad. Avoid.

In other news, Star Trek: Voyager, Season 4, Episode "Message in a Bottle". One of the funniest Star Trek Episodes I have seen. The two EMH's trying to pilot the USS Prometheus was funny as hell. If you haven't seen this episode, I highly recommend that you do.

Added new photos of the Silk Tree.

Added new Sunset photos.

My Day at work today:

6 am: Arrived. I began by clocking in, putting my wallet/phone etc into my locker, and then started to take out all the confectionery (which I order) into the shop and put it on the shelf. This enables me to see what stock we have and how much I need to order.

8 am: Begin my daily walk of the shop. This takes about half an hour, during which time I check for out of stocks, and stock which is low that I think I need to reorder.

8:40 am: I begin my order. It is all done on the computer. First, I update any relevant counts (out of stocks etc), and then run the reorder report. The computer makes a "suggested order". Then I go through the whole order, and add or delete items that I think are necessary.

10:30am: I take my half an hour break. Usually I have a banana and a muesli bar.

11am: I return from my break and do misc tasks such as ordering more stock, checking stock counts, filling the shelf, and the Coke order, before taking my half an hour lunch break. Normally I have an apple, 2 sandwiches (Jam, or Ham + Chow Chow) and either V8 Vegetable juice or some Carrot Juice.

After lunch I do more misc tasks until it is time to leave, between 3-5pm.

This would have been more detailed but I lost interest in writing it a few seconds after I began :P

Today's Random Picture: Some Beer

Welcome to December, 2004! Have a Merry Christmas at your favourite Retail Outlet today!

This week I got promoted to "Acting Variety Manager" at the supermarket where I work! Example: Yesterday I ordered 3 tea towels for the variety section (aisle 5). Today, I folded them up and put them on the shelf. I came back about 15 minutes later and ALL THREE WERE GONE!!! They just FLEW right off the shelf! Tomorrow I am going to order 5. I have overstocked on light bulbs by quite a lot....lol.....and I guess we also have too many of the wrong kind of serviettes and I ordered too many plastic cups and plates. I also order all the Coke as well. Example: Last week we ran out of 600ml Schweppes Indian Tonic Water, Lemonade and Ginger Ale (at least, the shelf only had one row of those products so it looked tragic). I had to go to another supermarket and borrow some. So the next day I ordered a lot. We won't be running out again!

LAN PARTY THIS FRIDAY!!! w00t w00t!

Star Trek Voyager Season 4 arrived last week, and I have been watching it a lot. "Year of Hell" was an excellent 2 part episode, and the others are up to the usual Voyager standard: excellent! Seven of Nine is hilarious with her "...is irrelevant" comments.

I finally finished Baldur's Gate and Tales of the Sword Coast. The game was an experience, and I look foward to Baldur's Gate 2.

Here is how my character progressed from the start of the game to the end of the game:

I purchased a Logitech MX1000 Laser Mouse. And sold it the next day. Why? When you lift the mouse up slightly to reposition it (e.g., performing a long turn in an FPS game, i.e. Counter-Strike: Source), the laser turns itself off to prevent you from using it as a weapon (like a phaser...) and it takes about half a second to turn itself back on again! Meaning if you use the MX1000 mouse, it will be impossible to play an FPS game. Gamers: DO NOT BUY THE LOGITECH MX1000 LASER MOUSE! On the plus side, the wireless technology worked very well, with little to no noticeable input lag.

Today's Random Picture: The Logitech MX1000 Laser Mouse: