Famous R.E.M. Song

I'm keeping a word processing document open in case I want to write something. I guess it worked because here I am typing.

It's the end of the world. Well, at least according to some folks. People can believe anything they want about most things. In terms of faith, things get blurry and subjective. How one woman approaches how she sees the Catholic God, is different from how a Jewish man sees Yahweh. That doesn't mean both people are necessarily wrong in their aspect of faith, just that their faith is different. I'm fairly certain, most people that are full of their faith think they are good people.

Anyway, that's a crazy philosophy I may delve into at some point. My head needs to work it out more. If I go off on it now, especially in a public forum (read: blog) it could come to bite me in the ass. That may not matter though because the Rapture is occurring this Saturday. No time for repercussions.

If you have been in any major population center chances are you've seen the signs. I don't mean omens. I literally mean signs on billboards, buses, and on people's person sandwich board style. The world is ending May 21^st, 2011.

Harold Camping is a man with a message. That message is that there are signs taken from the Bible that led him to believe that the rapture will occur on Saturday. The rapture is supposedly the time when God raises those deemed worthy to his side, while the rest are left behind (yes, a pun) for the coming apocalypse. There have been plenty of Biblical experts claiming the world will end or whatever on various dates throughout time. There have been plenty of experts in various fields claiming to know when the world will end. It hasn't ended yet though.

For me, my biggest problem with Camping's message, is that it's presented a absolute truth. He doesn't make claims that this is his opinion, or what he believes, it is what it is. Maybe it's just me, but absolute truth also stated that the world was flat and that we were also on the back of a giant turtle. (I like the turtles.)

Using numerology, Camping said he extrapolated the date for the rapture from various passages in the Bible. The most focused on is the Second letter of Peter (2 Peter 3:8) “"With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day". Couple that with Genesis 7:4 "Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth" and a math problem starts to form. 1 day = 1 thousand years; 7 days = 7 thousand years

There is a lot more to it. Frankly, while I find it semi-interesting, I don't really want to learn everything about it. Here's the wikipedia link for people that took the time to attempt to explain it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_end_times_prediction.

I don't think God would have us base our faith on math puzzles. I don't care what religion you are, if your deity of choice said math can solve all... that's science. I didn't think science and faith walked hand in hand. At least it doesn't for renowned physicist, Stephen Hawking.

Sure, people like the Buddha gave his followers logic puzzles and similar brain teasers, but that was in an effort to reach enlightenment. It's to get you to think. The Christian God seemed to present in the New Testament a more direct approach, like turn the other cheek. I would like to think God would like his message clearly known. If the message is more cryptic, who is to say things haven't been altered in the the translations of the Bible in that past almost 2000 years?

In the end, will the world end on Saturday? I have no idea. It might, but I doubt it. The world could end on Friday. It could end Sunday. It could also end thousands of years from now. As much as things always seem to get predicted about the end times, we aren't going to know until it happens.

Even then, we probably won't believe it.

At work on a Thursday night

One of my problems with consistently writing is timing.

When the idea first appears to when I can actually jot it down vary dramatically. Most of the time, ideas spring forth at work. This is typical. When I should be focusing on the task at hand, be it inventory, shipments, or other tasks, I seem to have part of my head gravitating towards creation.

At the moment, I am at work. Normally, I would be doing something productive for the betterment of the store. I am not doing such things because I lack my tools. See, I tend to leave Thursday nights for inventory preparation. I have binders with the titles and amounts of most of the comics that come into the store. I say most because, I don't cover everything. I probably should, but that would mean a ton more work for very little pay off on my end. Still, my binders are missing. Well, I know where they are. They just aren't where I want them.

Once a month, new orders for comics get placed with our distributor. We place the orders for comics on average two months before they are on sale. My boss takes the binders with the inventory numbers home to work on the monthly comic order. Unfortunately, they wind up staying longer then they should. It's mainly a case of importance. Since the order is done, the binders serve an importance no longer for my boss. They just get ignored. They get forgotten wherever they fell.

I hate that I have to remind my boss that I need them. He understands their importance, but usually doesn't suspect the time when they are used. Since I normally do inventory on Mondays, I will need them on Monday. Unfortunately, since he took them home last Monday, I haven't had them to do the inventory this week, let alone prepare for next week. So, I write this instead.

Back to timing. Well, I guess I filled some time. Most of my ideas come at work, but I can't remember them when I get home. Or, since I now carry a notepad with me, I usually don't feel the original inspiration to expand on an idea from work when I am home. At least I wrote something this time, right?

I don't want to know who you are.

Why is it that when I finally take the initiative to write something here, all escapes me?

I guess that's just what happens. I usually want to do things precisely when I can't actually do them. It's all about timing.

I started carrying a note pad in my back pocket for when ideas strike me. For the moment, it has things I have to remember for work and a couple movies and bands I need to check out. Sure, I wrote a few ideas or quotes or something too, but the inspiration to expound on them is devoid of my presence.

One of the things in it so far, is that I hate when people have "See ID" on their credit card's signature line. It's a minor thing, but probably about 80% of the people I deal with have it. They expect me to always check IDs. Guess what? I personally don't give a shit. As long as the card works, I'm fine with it.

In actuality, the card is technically not valid if it isn't signed. I doubt most people go by the name "See ID". It would be amazing if someone just signed the receipt with See ID.

I can always tell the annoying ones. They usually have their ID almost at the ready to be checked. When I flip the card over, I am not looking for a signed line, I'm figuring out where the magnetic strip is for the machine to read it correctly.

There was one time a guy had "See ID" in his card, but he also signed it. I was fine with checking that one. Also, I'm usually fine with checking cute girl's IDs. That usually just to be creepy and to make it more creepy, to see if they're legal. For the record I have never hit on any customer. I know I'm a creepy guy in a comic book store. I don't need to reinforce more creepy stereotypes.

Anyway, if your card is actually stolen, you can report it. Most of the time, form what I've heard< the credit company can eliminate those transactions. People are just paranoid.

Also, do you really want me looking at your terrible license photo?

Writing Subject

Something interesting happened today.

My co-worker is currently pursuing a masters degree in English. Most of his classes are either at night, on the weekends, or some kind of thesis thing. Occasionally, I get to work with him and talk about how annoying people are that come into the store. Sometimes discussions come in the for as to how he's a pescatarian and only eats fish meat. Apparently, it's more eco-friendly than eating real, grade-A American beef. He does miss bacon though.

Anyway, he told me today that he needed my help with something. For one of his classes, he has to write a paper on someone who is a writer. I thought it was funny. He said he didn't really know anyone who really writes. even knowing me, he still doesn't. In any case he is going to do it on me. He just has to figure out the questions or something to interview me about.

So, I guess I have to be the subject of new media journalism. That's a fancy term for people who write blogs and other internet ramblings. It's like saying "executive assistant" instead of "secretary".

There's the whole process of my writings. When I write. The space where I write. Topics. Style. Influences... what have you. Granted, I don't think I could be the subject of an accurate, 8-10 page paper. I am most assured that I can fake it.

Well, I thought it was interesting.

What have I been up to?

What have I been up to lately?

Not all that much really. Or, at the very least, not all that much that I would consider interesting. Well, I don't think it would be interesting enough for people to actually care about it.

First and foremost, I play World of Warcraft. It gives me something to do. I live a boring life and many of the people I know, that are near or around my age, have families or significant others at the the very lest. I have a computer.

Also, I haven't really been drinking much for 2 reasons. Well, there are probably more than 2 reasons, but I'll stick with that for now. One reason is that I have gout. Gout can get aggravated by alcohol and yeast (read: beer). Since, I know what the pain of gout can feel like, I want to avoid feeling it if I can help it. Two is that there is a lack of reason to drink. I don't drink alone, and typically only do it socially. Since, I have lacked in the whole social thing as of late, drinking has been reduced. A positive out of the situation is less money being spent, so more potentially saved.

What dips into the wallet is car problems. Now, I love my car. It has been better to me than it really needs to. It is just lately, there have been some I say "costly" repairs. Granted, hey are not the expensive repairs some people have to deal with like transmission or something going. Thousands of dollars are not leaving my bank account for this purpose. Still, I don't make a lot of coin, so when hundreds of dollars leave at once, it gets significant.

I work a lot too. If I am not doing that, I tend to be sleeping. Next week has me pulling a few days worth of working from open till close. My boss and one of the major coworkers are heading to a convention over the weekend, so I get to fill in the time. Being in a mall, my store has no chance of closing for even a little while. I will have some back up, but they cant be there all the time either.

On the entertainment front, I am trying to watch Angel when I can. It took me forever to finish up he first season. It was just losing me. Thankfully, it picked up at he end and made me want to watch the second season. I have all of the seasons from various sales over a few years. I still should finish Buffy as well.... and the fourth season of Dexter.

I will probably go into more depth with these topics at a later time, as well as the reasons I make up as to why I don't write. Well, that's all I got for now.