Midnight: Fill in the ______

It was an unusual weekend, thought perhaps not a remarkable one.

I told you about Friday, and therefore Thursday. A shame I didn't get to party all weekend, since I rarely do that anyway. Saturday I worked from 12 to 6:30 (deliberately engineered so as to have time for coffee with Manda) and then went to have dinner at Dad's; it's was Eric's birthday, and of course, Halloween. At one point we were talking about previous costumes, and I mentioned the last time I ever went trick-or-treating I was dressed as Torgo from Manos, Hands of Fate. A discussion then ensued describing to dad exactly how awful Manos is, even compared to Plan 9.

We made our point pretty soundly without even mentioning the "shocking" ending, and then realized we had talked about it so much that we now wanted to watch it. So Eric had dad drive him home and back (as opposed to just home) to get stuff so he could stay the night. We watched Manos (me new non-party Halloween tradition) and then Lost (which is tradition anytime Eric comes over.)

I went to bed at a reasonable hour (~1:00) knowing I had to work the next morning. What I did not take into account was the end of daylight savings time, which meant I got up at 7, not 8, and did not learn of this until I got out of the shower. So then I went back to bed for a while, and worked all day.

Sunday was a good day since Alan was the only authority figure around and he left us to our own devices. I'm still struggling with being perceived as the know-nothing new guy temp, despite my general experience. It doesn't help matters that I do occasionally fuck up, or forget things, or encounter things I do not know. Matt, one of the two people I was mostly working with all day, must have a weird perception of me. I'm not as into punk and shit as he is (or at least, different punk... before opening, he turned off Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, my choice, in favour of Billy Talent. I guess he just didn't get it.) I also am still trying to relax a little in the workplace, loosen up a little.

It's actually a little hard working with Chantelle. This time last year, we were on equal footing, and now she's only been part time a few months, but it feels different, like now she's playing the part of full-time employee exasperated by my n00bness. Damn do I miss last year's staff.

TLDR: All of the other reindeer seem a tad reluctant to let me join in.

Gee Scott, maybe it's time you stopped coming back, perhaps even found a new place to work.

Well, in a few weeks, there'll hopefully be more, even less competent temps, and I'll be comparatively high in stature.

When I got home, it was another family gathering. At first I felt odd about leaving the kids to B and E, considering they tend to gravitate to me more (what can I say? Of the three of us, I'm the people person.) But Cam was ill, so it was just Ali, who obsessed over a little rib I played on her saying I was incapable of whispering.

The evening breezed by after the family left I zonked out, kinda, starting to draw something, and using as background noise the film of Twilight. It wasn't nearly as ridiculously bad as I'd hoped, just kinda one-dimensionally bad. Disappointing then in a few respects. Anyone with some writing talent could've come up with a better plot, or at least a better-structured one. I don't hold it against the screenwriter because although I haven't read the book I think it was judicious omission on the screenwriter's part that kept the movie from being over-the-top unwatchable. The actors also did commendable jobs with their one-dimensional characters, because it's easier to imply characteristics through acting than to state them organically in text.

Today was nothing special, although I spent it procrastinating, and that's my problem. I've got a lot to do and I am doing very little of it. Focus, Scotto, focus. On something. Work, work, work, work, work.

I imported a bunch of mp3s from my old (circa 2002) harddrive. I had some very esoteric tastes back then. Like now, I would download anything that really caught my ear, which covered a broad base. So there are things like HWC by Liz Phair mingling with the Vines and Degenerated (from Airheads; Brendan Fraser, Steve Buscemi and Adam Sandler.) I Only Wrote This Song For You by Johnny Thunders, Gone Away by Offspring, Crying by Roy Orbison, Zeppelin, Rush, Zack Attack, April O'Neil (as in, from the TMNT album, "April Ballad") the theme from Birds of Prey (which Kris used to obsess over when he was here, with a zeal only he was capable of) so some legitimately good songs, so quirky one-offs, and some deliberately gauche selections. Also downloaded Death of Ferdinand de Saussure by Magnetic Fields since, gosh darnit, it's the catchiest song ever written about a linguistic theorist.

A small number of these tracks have been incorporated, at least for the time being, into the iPod, and a few old standbys have been retired, or at least given leave. Having only 2 gigs means that you have to be a bit more choosy. I mean, with fewer than 500 songs, you still get a lot of mileage, but you need to rotate a bunch out every so often. I heard November Rain a few times today alone, although one of those was the radio. It's 9 minutes I can go without for a while. Some of the songs I don't expect to be permanent additions, but sometimes stuff sticks around because I'm too lazy to remember what I wanted to get rid of.

Anyway, it's probably about time I peaced.

Another song I downloaded was Amnesia by Chumbawumba. It's the song after Tubthumping on that album, also the second single, and about as far as I can ever remember listening. Somehow it caught my ear, I still think it's a pretty neat tune, although clearly not the smash its predecessor was.

Keep on rockin'
-Scotto