Random ramblings of a technology junkie
Yesterday was a first for me. I went out to breakfast… by myself. I always thought going out to eat by myself would be weird. Going out to eat is always regarded as a social experience with two or more people. But I gotta say going out by myself was kind of fun. I didn’t have to socialize, I didn’t have to hurry, and I got to people watch as much as I wanted.
Next weekend I might even try going to a movie, in a theater, by myself. That should be an interesting experience.
Hard to believe facebook is ten today, feels like I just joined yesterday. For their ten year anniversary they created “look back” videos for everyone. The video is pretty simple, shows your first moments, most liked posts, and photos you’ve shared. While simple they are very cool, I especially enjoy seeing my friend’s videos. Brings back a lot of memories. Some happy, some sad, some funny.
View your own video at: http://www.facebook.com/lookback
Inspired by my friend Jacqui I’ve decided to try and pick this thing up again. She taught me through her own blog that it doesn’t matter what you write, as long as you write something.
Whether it’s short, sweet, and to the point, or long and drawn out. Just write something. There’s no need to feel bad if you don’t post every day, this isn’t a place to be judged. This is for me, and no one else.
I just left a dollar tip on a thirty dollar bill and I don’t feel bad about it. The waitress started ignoring us because we were taking a break and hadn’t ordered anything in a bit. I thought about ordering something else, but you took so long to come back over that I just asked for my check.
After asking for my check you took almost ten minutes to come back with it. You then took another ten minutes to collect my check and credit card even though I had it ready when you came by the first time. After you took my check you took almost another ten minutes to come back with my credit card.
I am not a bad tipper, and I almost always tip twenty percent or more. But if you choose to ignore me because I haven’t ordered anything in a little while, or take forever to bring my check, take my card, and bring it back; your tip starts to decrease very quickly.
I realize waitresses do not make very much, usually around $2.65 per hour, but it’s not my obligation to make up for your wage with a mandatory tip. A tip is there to let you know how satisfied I am with your service, and if I’m not satisfied you’re not going to get a good tip.
I actually take a different approach than most people with my tipping as well. Say the kitchen screwed up my order, or the bar tender messed up my drink. I’m going to tell you what was screwed up, but I’m not going to take it out on your tip. That is as long as you apologize and make it right, because let’s be honest the bar tender or cook isn’t going to come apologize for themselves.
Like I said I tip to let you know if I’m satisified or unsatisfied with your service. Generally I do not have a problem and I tip twenty percent or more. However, if I’m unsatisfied with your service you’re probably going to get a dollar, maybe even less. I do this because I want you to do better next time. If you’re bad at your job it should be reflected in your tip, plain and simple. This is actually a pretty nice approach, considering I didn’t tell the manager you did a bad job. If I’m bad at my job I either get talked to, written up, or possibly even fired depending on the severity.
So remember this the next time you choose to ignore a table because they haven’t ordered anything in a while.
As the title indicates you can now put your computer to work for you. My co-worker told me about these two new services Gomez Peer and IPUS, both of these services pay you money in order to access your computer’s idle processing time. For people like myself who leave their computers on all the time you could stand to make some quick money. The more computers with the software, the more they do, and the more you get paid!
IPUS (doesn’t go live until September 1st)
So as anyone with a calendar knows, today is Sunday. My boss does not work Sundays, he works Monday thru Friday. Perks of being the boss right?
My boss called work today to see how everything was going, he was bored as no one in his house was awake yet. I let him know that everything was going fine, and that we were having a typical Sunday, Sundays are almost always slow. He asked what he should do today, and I jokingly told him that he should bring us breakfast. His reply was “Sure, I’ll bring you guys breakfast. What do you want?” I quickly queried the room to see if anyone else wanted breakfast, and what they would like to eat. We decided breakfast burritos were quick and easy.
So roughly 20 minutes later, the boss walks in with a bag from McDonald’s. Inside the bag were several sausage breakfast burritos, and hash browns. I appreciated this very much, as I was quite hungry. Also, it’s always those nice little things that remind you that you’re still an appreciated employee.
Almost two weeks ago I ordered a refurbished PS3 from the Sony store. The estimated ship date was July 5th, as of July 10th the PS3 still had not shipped and showed out of stock on the Sony webiste. I decided to cancel my order with Sony and order from CowBoom, I had forgotten about CowBoom even though I bought my iPhone 4 through them.
The order with CowBoom was placed on the 10th, and my PS3 was shipped out by the 12th. My shipment left California at 02:00am Saturday morning, the tracking hasn’t been updated since then. I highly doubt UPS is driving directly from California to Michigan, you think there would be a stop or two between there.
I complained about the tracking not updating on Twitter, and UPS just told me to keep checking the website. You think their internal systems would give a little more detail as to where the package is. I thought about writing a snarky email back, but decided I have better things to do with my time.
Hopefully my shipment comes tomorrow like the tracking says it’s supposed. Otherwise I’ll have delayed my weekend in Grand Rapids for no reason.
So readers, what games should I pick up when my PS3 arrives?
Blog post number two, yay!
Yesterday I helped celebrate my friend Phil’s 26th birthday. It was also a celebration of Phil moving to the Grand Rapids area. Kind of weird that Phil moved to the Grand Rapids area, since I moved away from the Grand Rapids area a few years ago. I’ve been thinking about moving back, I do miss it.
We kicked off the night at HopCat, Rachel and Phil had the loft area reserved. I had two double tall Sailor Jerry’s and Coke. Sailor Jerry because HopCat doesn’t carry Captain Morgan, I think that’s a Barfly ventures thing because Stella’s doesn’t carry Captain Morgan either. I also had a delicious burger with pepper jack cheese on it.
Rachel also brought cake and cupcakes, the cupcakes were chocolate Guinness. I’m not sure what flavor the cake was. The cupcakes were amazing though.
After HopCat we headed across the street to Buffalo Wild Wings, and asked for a table for 20. They told us the wait was a half hour, so we decided to get a drink at the bar. Brian bought my drink at the bar, I definitely owe him one now.
We finally got seated and I ordered another drink plus two shots of goldschlager. One shot for me and another for the birthday boy. I love goldschlager, something about the heat just helps set off everything else you’ve drank. However, Buffalo Wild Wings doesn’t really know how to mix a drink so there wasn’t much to set off. I finished out the night by ordering a long island iced tea, I figure that’s all alcohol they can’t really mess that up.
After finishing up at Buffalo Wild Wings we went back across the street to Grand Rapids Brewing Company. I just ordered water since I had already told my ride to come pick me up. Partly because I was tired and partly because Rachel and Phil were the only ones left out that I knew. I don’t do well partying with people I don’t know. I’m always worried that I’m going to embarrass myself somehow. Even though I’ll probably never see these people again.
After I got home I played around on the Internet and passed out. I woke up this morning around 11am and grabbed some food. I watched a couple episodes of Fringe and then decided it was time to head home.
After getting home I decided it was time to finally clean my apartment. I stopped at Kroger to grab a couple of cleaning supplies. It took me a couple of hours, but I managed to clean every room except for my bedroom. I plan to clean the bedroom tomorrow, but that might not happen.
After cleaning, I realized I was starving. I didn’t really know what to eat so I just grabbed McDonald’s. The only thing I knew I really wanted was a fountain Coke. I love fountain soda it just tastes so much better than canned or bottled soda.
After finishing dinner I went back to watching Fringe and relaxing. Tomorrow is my first day back to work after having five days off. At this point I kind of don’t want to go back, at least it’s another short week.
Every few months I decide I need to try this blog thing again. I decided on blogspot this time since it’s something I don’t need to actively maintain, or keep software updated.
I think the main reason I keep failing is because I cannot ever think what to write about. So once again I am going to try and make this a habit. This means blogging everyday, which means the posts may be random.
Lately I have been watching Fringe on Netflix, the first two seasons were pretty good but the third season is definitely lacking. I don’t want to say much more for fear of spoiling it. Even though the third season has been pretty mediocre I am still watching, hoping the fourth season is better.
I almost decided to buy a record player today. I’ve always like the idea of a record player and listening to music on vinyl. My interest was peaked even more today during my brief visit to Vertigo records. I’ve been to Vertigo previously, the familiar smell of the musty building and the friendly people brought back several fond memories.
I found a decent record player on Craiglist for a good price. However, I decided I need to get better sounding speakers before I do anything else.