Friday, October 28, 2005

I Am a Sales God

Today was a fun day at work. It was extremely busy and frantic and I had probably my best sales day to date this year. By the end of my eight hour shift I moved almost $11,000 worth of stuff out the door. Computers, plasma tvs, jewelery, you name it, I sold it to someone today.

The fun part about this was that out of all of the people in the department today, I was the one that had been around the longest and was schooling the younger guys in salesmanship. It was funny, a couple of them were literally in awe that I was pointing out customers and telling them ahead of time what I was going to sell to each person and then going and doing it. It is a weird kind of power trip to be able to convince people they need random things.

The fun part about Costco, is people are already half-cocked to buy something the second they step into the store; I just have to hold their hand a little. I think before I quit, I am going to have a day where I try to talk everyone I help out of buying whatever it is that they want. There is a true test that I think I can pass. The key to selling or not selling something is to act confident about whatever it is that you are talking about. If you don't know an answer to a question take a guess or BS it but make sure that you do not hesitate when doing so. People want to talk to people that sound authoritative in whatever it is that they are talking about. If you can do this, you have the sale. Easy.

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Things That Will Be Missed

As Japan looms ever closer, thought of things that I will miss have began creeping into my mind. Sure, there are the usual things that will be missed like friends and family but the stuff I am talking about is much more mundane.

I was walking outside the other day and I could smell a fireplace burning. There is something about Boise in the winter that I love and the smell of burning wood is one of them. Of course, with that smell comes the dreaded inversion but that doesn't bother me so much.

Food is also one of those things that I have been thinking about. There are so many eateries around town that I enjoy frequenting and have fond memories of. I will miss the following restaurants:

Twin Dragon: TPLConjecture's family owns this place and I have eaten then more often than I can count. The fried rice kicks ass and the people are friendly. For one reason or another, the water there is also very cold and more refreshing than otehr waters. Maybe I am just weird.

Din Fung: This place is my favorite Chinese buffet. Nuff' said, it will be missed.

Bittercreek Alehouse: Most of my other friends tend to think the place is for yuppies but I like it there. The food is really good and their Lemon Drop martini can't be beat.

Lastly, Cottonwood. Again, my friends also think this is a yuppy establishment and I have to agree with them there. When I NEED a New York Strip this is the place I go. It is also a place a take women to in an effort to impress them on a more shallow note. :) Nonetheless, the food is damned good.

One of the more obscure things that I am pretty sure will be absent from my new life will be vanity plates on cars. I love reading vanity plates, some are clever, others stupid but I have never seen a picture of a car in Japan having them. It will be odd not to see the occasional car with one.

Anywho, as I notice things I will probably post them on here. These are just some of the items that have struck me over the past day or two. I am also starting to compile a list of things that I want to do one more time before I leave for a bit. As I have said before, I am not planning on permanently coming back to Boise so some of the things on the list I may end up doing for the last time ever. More on the list later however because it is in its infancy and will be weeded out over the coming weeks and month or so.

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

I Won At Poker

Finally, I can say that I have actually won a game of poker! I played with my family and my aunt and uncle tonight and I schooled them. I feel kind of bad because I was a lot more aggressive than most of them were used to and I think I may have come of as being kind of a jackass toward the end. My brother knew what was coming, as did my dad, but my aunt and uncle don't usually play for money and I think my bro and I's competitive streak scared them a tad.

I didn't win a lot, eight bucks, but that something. My brother and I do not treat poker like a "game",we see it as a way to make money, when you come across people like us and you are a person that just sees the whole thing as an amusing card game, I can see how it may not be as much fun. Either way, I took their money. :)

I have definitely learned from my past poker mistakes and am much more calculating than I used to be. I do not take the risks that I used to when I first started. Lately, this has meant that I am in the game for a lot longer. I like that.

Anywho, I won and I needed to brag. Good night.

Saturday, October 22, 2005

Wierd Dream

I just woke up from this funky dream a few seconds ago. I was in a huge cave complex and I mean huge, the ceiling was non-existant, and the walls were nowhere to be seen but there was no sunlight. I had a sniper rifle and a pistol and was fighting my way through all sorts of stuff. At one point I had to shoot buffalo or elephants that were not letting me cross a bridge. I then came upon a big group of teenagers that were camping and unaware of the danger that they were in. I had to save one of them from this guy that looked like a messed up version of Apocalypse from the X-Men. The Apocalypse dude was going to use this one male teenager for sex before I freed him. Unfortunately, after I got the guy out and went back to take out the scary gay guy, I was trapped on a ledge without enough room to swing my rifle around to take him out and he was running toward me so instead of being killed by him, I jumped head first from this ledge and broke my neck on the ground a few stories below.

Then I woke up.

Odd.

Friday, October 21, 2005

Opportunity Keeps Knocking

The past couple of days have been really weird. It started the other day when I got an email from Micron asking me if I was still interested in a position as an employee training specialist. It was kind of a form mail and I am not going to respond to it because I already have anotehr job lined up and I am kind of pissed at them for taking as long as they did to get back to me. I applied to that job two friggin' months ago; not exactly what I would call a prompt reply. Hey Micron, people will feel a tad more compelled to work for you if you sound a tad more compelled to hire them!!

Then today, I checked my email and I had a message from my boss at the Idaho State Historical Society, besically telling me that there would be a position coming open really soon and though it was part-time and he knew I was going to Japan, he thought he would give me a heads up. I always liked Troy and replied back to his message telling him that I was staying the course for now and going to Japan. I thank him and told him I would keep in touch with him, which I do plan on doing because I really did like working there and I liked the fact that I was furthering a cause by doing so. It was a good experience.

I have decided that when/if I come back from Japan, I will probably start work on my Masters and maybe look into getting two of them. I am torn between a specific degree in Japanese historical studies using first hand sources (meaning I would be reading Japanese) or an Applied History degree that would let me do more archival work. I really did like archival work. I guess I will figure that out when the time comes and some of it will depend on how well I can read Japanese. I found another historical group I would like to work for but they require at least a Masters to even think about applying. They are basically a historical think tank based in North Carolina and Virginia. Anywho, that is another option I can explore later. It is so nice being able to look at my future from a career standpoint and see something positive. That makes me happy.

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

An Update For A Rather Uneventful Weekend

The title says it all, folks. This weekend, yesterday, and today were pretty friggin' uneventful. The highlight to it all was going to Cottonwood with Demonator, Phyrry, her mom, Vixen, and myself. That was fun and tasty to boot. After dinner we all watch The Life Aquatic and came away rather pleased by that movie. The humor and acting are extremely deadpan but I liked it. If you like Wes Anderson movies, the lastest installment will not disappoint.

Today, I picked up The Warriors for the Xbox and have enjoyed it so far. I think I will get sick of it shortly but I like how close it is to the movie and the fact that it only cost me $6. I have also been playing a lot of Space Empires IV. That game is so small but gives you so much to do; it is a micro-managers paradise.

I work for the rest of the week and am a tad glad to do so. I haven't done much this weekend so at the very least I will get paid to leave the house. I am looking forward to Saturday when we will have a few people over that night to watch some kung-fu movie with a drinking game built into it. I don't know too much more than that but Jake, Vixen, and a couple of others are coming over. It should be fun and I am curious about this movie. Anywho, I will try to post more later this week but nothing has been happening and I hate to post filler with no good news or point. I do these updates just so no one thinks that I have died. :)

Laterz!

Friday, October 14, 2005

Tension...High Tension

I just finished watching High Tension and I must say that it satisfied my craving for a good slasher flick. The movie was indeed suspenseful and dark, something I have been in the mood for lately.

The movie is French, which I thought was kind of funny because France is not known for their horror films...in fact, I can't think of another French horror film. If you like horror movies and you are in your mid-twenties, think back to all of the fun gore fests we had in the 80's, update them a tad, and you have High Tension. The directors of the film one-upped most American slashers by actually thinking about camera effects and lighting. This is not to say that American slashers are all cheesy but most of them put the gore and blood in the forefront and the camerawork on the backburner, this movie is the opposite. Some of the shots with lighting behind the actors and whatnot looked really good, I was impressed.

Anywho, watch High Tension if you want to see some blood and hears some screams. Its not a very creepy movie but it is a very suspenseful one, good for a violence fix.

Thursday, October 13, 2005

A Pretty Worthless Day

It used to be, when I would call in sick to work there was a good reason for it...you, like playing some well deserved video games. And I have done a lot of that today. But I just feel kind of like I wasted the day. I meant to go work out, I didn't. I just sat around, watched movies, and played video games.

I did go shopping with Phyrry earlier and that at least got me out of the house. Dinner was also goo, Phyrry made tacos. But other than that it has been a day devoid of anything really productive. Tomorrow, I legitimately have the day off and am going to go get my hair cut. I am also going to really force myself to go to the gym. The thing about working out, is when you are in the rhythm it is easy. Once you get out of that rhythm it is hard to get back into. Here's to trying.

Saturday should be fun though. It is Phyrry's birthday and she, Demonator, Vixen, and I are going to Cottonwood Grill. That will rock. I am so in the mood for a New York strip right now I can taste its medium wellness as I type. Ahhh.....anywho, to recap, it was a pretty worthless day. :)

Sunday, October 09, 2005

A Good Night For Poker

After going out with Vixen, I headed over to my parents' house where my brother was holding another poker tournament. I actually did pretty good tonight.

The first game, I came in second and got my money back. That is the best I have ever done; I would have won but the kid I was up against started being a supreme bully and started "all-inning" me every single hand. I was sick of letting have little chunks of money from my horde so I called him on a relatively mediocre hand, Queen-Seven off-suit. I lost by one friggin' chip. Oh well, at least I got my money back.

The second game I came in third. Still not too bad for my usual luck. I should have been out the second hand but I got lucky and my brother gave me all of his chips. It was not a willing gift but a gift nonetheless. :) I have definitely improved my playing since I first started. Another cool thing, I got pocket aces on one hand, YAY!

Vixen and I went to see Corpsebride tonight and while the date itself was fun, the movie was merely okay. Nightmare Before Christmas was much much better.

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Sensing The Changing

I think it is starting to sink in just how much my life is going to be changing in the next few months. I am making arrangements for people to buy up my stuff as if my worldly possessions were marbles in a Hungry Hungry Hippo game and my friends and family were those little plastic hippos. In a sense, I feel like I am about ready to die or something...and in a way I am dying. The old me as I know him is disappearing more and more each day and I can't say that I horribly miss him.

I am cleaning my room right now and I think that is what brought this feeling on. I kind of like it but at the same time, it kind of creeps me out. All of my various wires and computer bits are being set aside for a day in the near future when I will let Demonator, Phyrry, and whoever else wants stuff ravage the stack and take what they want. The rest will be thrown away. My books are the things that I am most concerned about. I am making arrangements with my parents to let me add a bookself to their guest bedroom. I do not want my first editions and old books going into an attic. They need to be kept at room temperature in a nice temperate place. For those that are looking to getting into collecting books and are trying to find a place to put them all keep this one rule in mind: Books like to live where people live. They do not like damp place or extremely dry places. They are not fond of extreme heat or cold. They are very much like people in that sense. I am most worried for my first edition, first printing of "Old Man and The Sea" by Ernest Hemingway. The book is in pretty good shape for its age and what it has been through (I found it at the dump) and I am very fond of it. The dust jacket has minimal wear and there is no damage to its pages. It is probably worth about $1,500 but that is not why I keep it around. I keep it because I rescued it and if it were not for me, the book would have been buried and that isn't right. It will be okay, I will make sure of it.

My computer and all of its peripherals are going to Demonator. He will make good use of it all and there is no way I can take it with me. I don't know what will happen to my bed but hey, I won't need it either. I just wish I could take its comfiness with me.

All in all, I am pretty glad that most of this stuff that I am surrounded by will go away soon. I don't need it anymore. The only thing I worry about is what I am going to do when I come back to where ever I will be coming back to when I am done in Japan. I am going to have to buy a ton of stuff in order to make an operational home once again. I figure I will worry about that when the time comes. Part of me wants my life to stay the way I am going to make it, all I care about is either with my family or in a series of suitcases and backpacks. Mobile...ready to roam...never static. I don't want my life to be static anymore. Part of me also wants to find a place to live for a while, find someone to be happy with, make a family, and a career for myself. I am kind of sick of moving and packing and unpacking. Oh well, the next place I will live will hold me for at least a year, if not longer. It makes me chuckle to think that in the past year and a half I will have moved four times and the one place that I will be for longer than any of them will finally end up being somewhere in Japan. Odd how stuff works out sometimes.

Stuff is definitely changing and I think for the better. Mushi once said to me while we were in the process of seperating and divorcing that the one thing that was certain was when her and I decided to make changes in our lives we did so drastically. Everything as of late would be another good example of that.

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

A Valu Day

Demonator and I just got back from a minor grocery shopping quest. While on the quest we stumbled across these Valu Snack Pies. We were trying to find a snack pie that would remind us of the very tasty Ninja Turtle Snack Pies of our younger years and these were as close as we got. Demonator said that they dropped the "E" in Value in order to pass the savings on to the consumer; I can't argue with that logic. The pies were ok tasting but for less than a quarter what do you expect?

In other news, my passport came on Saturday so I finished all of my paperwork for my Work Visa and sent it off. Japan here I come! In order to help prepare my family for Japan when they visit, I took my mom and brother to Zutto last night. That was funny; halfway through the meal my brother gave up on chopsticks and started to use his hands. He has such bad ass hand-eye coordination you would think he would pick chopsticks up in a snap but such is not the case. Alas, I come from a family of Saltines. My mom faired much better and even tried the sushi I ordered...AND SHE LIKED IT! Maybe there is hope for her yet, my brother, on the other hand did not like the sushi and said we were both wierd for eatting it. Where was my dad in all of this, he was out of town or else we could have never eaten at Zutto in the first place. My dad does not like rice or eggs. I have my doubts about his eatting when they come to visit me but he insists that as long as they have either a Starbucks or Moxie Java that he will survive. Japan does indeed have both franchises, my dad looked it up to be sure.

I went back to the gym today and found that my body is going to have to be eased back into the work after almost a month off. My arms are shakey still and I know they will be sore tomorrow but my mental outlook is so much better after working out that it is worth it.

Anywho, I just figured I would post an update before dinner and dinner is done so I must be going. Later!

Saturday, October 01, 2005

To My Friends....You All Know Who You Are

Linguist Jake made an excellent point in one of his previous comments that I have been mulling over for a bit now. I would like to respond more elaborately.

In the whole world, all six billion some odd people, there are about five people that are not related to me....and even then, there are only eight, that I would trust with my life. That I would trust with damned near anything. I have other friends as well, but I have a core that I consider my best friends. All of you whom I have known for at least six or seven years. And I might add, if I had the chance to choose other people to substitute you guys with, I would rather be alone.

Almost everyone I know was upset and taken aback when Mushi and I split up. I kind of was too. But part of the big reason for the surprise was because I never really told anyone that stuff in Mushi and I's marriage was haywire. It isn't that I was hiding things or trying to keep anything from you all because I didn't trust you, it is because I feel like my burdens are my own to carry and deal with and not other peoples'. My problems are my problems, they are not Linguist Jake's problems or Mr. Blue/Phear's or TPLConjecture's or Demonator's. They are mine.

Some people will spill the beans to anyone that will listen when it comes to life's curves and jabs. Not me. It is not that I don't trust you as friends or think that you wouldn't be able to handle the stuff I would tell you, it is because I don't think you should have to. It isn't that friends should not try to help each other out or be there for moral support or any of the other mushy stuff, its just that when I am around all of you, I want to have fun. And I might add, when we are all together we do have fun 99.999% of the time. For the most part, that is what I expect out of my friends, we should be able to go out and have a good time and relax and enjoy each others' company. I don't like drama and I don't like sharing my drama because everyone has enough of their own....and usually it is of a higher more important caliber than mine.

I know the way I deal with my issue's can make you guys feel like I don't confide in you but that is me. This is the way I have always been. Though I enjoy a good hug now and again, I am not a touchy feely person and I just plain don't like talking about my problems with other people directly. Right or wrong, I choose this blog sometimes to voice my problems and refrain from calling you are meeting with some of you personally like I probably should sometimes. This has more to do with the fact that I think I can express what I am feeling more clearly through writing rather than talking. Sometimes when I talk, my mouth moves and words come out but they are not the ones that I wanted and I can't take them back once they have escaped. This way, those of you who read this get my message after I have considered it carefully. I feel that this is best for all because if we were to speak and I were to be cryptic, that is not fair to you. I like clear messages and they come through much more so on this blog than with words.

Also keep in mind, while anyone may stumble upon this website, there are only a few people that I know that I tell the URL to. If I told you how to get here, it is because I trust you and don't mind you hearing about my problems or triumphs. The strangers that read this blog really only get about a third of what I am actually all about. Those that know me can use this blog as a footnote to better clarify and understand the story and life that is Mogwai. To the strangers that come here, they are looking for basically entertainment or a story. It is similar to the reason people watch reality TV. If you are friend of mine, you are here because I want you to better understand who I am and why I do the things I do.

Lastly, maybe I should call each of you and or tell each of you this stuff in person. I for one, and I know at least one other that reads this thing feels the same way, do not like talking on the phone for extended periods of time. And for a couple of you, the mileage between us makes meeting in person a tad of a chore, though a fun one when we get to. Without sounding overly sappy, the handful of you are like family to me. I love you all like I love my own family...this is obvious or else we wouldn't have lasted as friends as long as we have. I tend to get sick of most people pretty quickly but for one reason or another, you four in particular have stuck around. I repsect and trust each of you above almost everyone I know or could possibly fathom meeting. You are the best friends a guy could hope for and I hope that I have been as good of a friend to you as you all have to me.

Don't feel like I am holding back by not talking to you about all of this stuff personally. It just isn't my style. I do know however, that with you guys, if I ever did want to actually talk out my problems with you, I could do so and expect good sound advice from each of you. Though I probably don't let you guys know this enough, you really are my best friends and I wouldn't change that for the world. I appreciate all of you for what you have done for me big and small.

I am done being sappy now. :)