Game Over! Please deposit 2 coins to continue

Countdown = 1 (for the mathematically challenged, that means I work the bar tonight and tonight only)

Eff George Carlin. The big news today is all about my final night at the bar. I’m totally excited, and just a little bit nervous too. That’s been MY BAR for the past 10.5 years. I’m worried that somebody will screw it up after I leave and I won’t want to drink there anymore. (Remember when GDays Corporate forced us to remove all the memorabilia that had been donated by guests and family thru the years? Genius.)

I’ve gone thru 6 GMs over the years, worked with dozens of other tarbenders, and tolerated literally thousands of tards who were accidentally hired. I’ve met many good people, and made quite a few friends there. There are a few I won’t miss so much, either. (Josh nails it here.)

It’ll be a big change to have a sanctioned beer on the good side of the bar on a Friday night, ya know?

A quick vacation recap: Kings Dominion is improving; you can tell that Cedar Point is having an effect on the park. Dominator, was EXCELLENT, even though it was transferred from a different park. HersheyPark has REALLY improved. They’ve got 11 coasters now, Fahrenheit is great (90 degrees upwards, followed by 97 degrees on the first hill) and a kick-a55 water park that we’re going to make a return trip for sometime. Luray Caverns was / is touristy. Family pics on the mall in DC went really well; and we did some tasty BBQ grilling w/ some good people over the weekend. I really don't like being back to work.

FamStuff – All the kids are out of trouble now. Cell phones, car keys, and videogames have all been returned. Report cards arrived over the past couple of days, and all three of the younger rats nailed all As and Bs in every class. I think they knew I’d be on their tail over the summer if they finished with any bad scores. They were right. Now I don’t have anybody to be mad at.

Kid3 is out in CA this week attending a computer programming camp. They develop video games all day, then hang out at the pool and stuff in the evening. I’m TOTALLY jealous.

Back to George Carlin for a minute… that guy was awesome. I’ve stolen a lot of bar jokes from him over the years, and I got another couple from this vid. It’s kinda cool to hear his thoughts about death after he’s actually passed away.

Grandma's baking pies without an oven: My introduction to Carlin, way too many years ago. Seven little words:

I’m off to break my last set of glassware. I’m aiming for the pitchers tonight.

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A simple little game / waster. You’ll hate spending so much time on nothing. http://www.neave.com/bounce/

Cool! It’s just like being a real life interrogator! http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/439144

Kinda neat, maybe a little too simple. http://static.onemorelevel.com/games3/arachnophilia.swf

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Maybe I’m guilty of some of these violations. Maybe you’re just as guilty. Maybe YOU are the reason I’m including this link today. You never know, and I’d never say anything directly to you. I’ll just chatter behind your back like a good friend should do.

Article: http://email.about.com/od/emailnetiquette/tp/core_netiquette.htm

Here’s the quiz to test some of what you learned: http://netforbeginners.about.com/od/netiquetteonlineculture/l/blnquiz2005.htm

Don't always believe what you see. Especially on the internets. The shadow knows the truth. (The original was taken offline sometime this week.) http://photoshopdisasters.blogspot.com/2008/06/zoo-shadow-of-doubt.html

Jimmy ends the week with the funniest video I’ve seen in a long while… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3RCYnG8Pe4

better late than never, but not by much

Link: http://tinyurl.com/6brwo8 Countdown: 2 Days til I have to go back from vaca: 4 I've been on vaca since the beginning of the week. Riding coasters on Tues; fun times & good people. It's fun to get away from responsibilities for a day ... never seems to happen often enough. Wed I took my final (nailed an A) then picked up the kiddies to hang for the rest of vaca time. Thu we got up way too early and trekked up to PA to HersheyPark. I hadn't been there in 10+ years, and it's TOTALLY changed. There's still 100,000 little kids whining & crying, but they've added a bunch of new stuff for bigger kids. They've got 11 coasters now, and the newest, Fahrenheit, holds the record for steepest drop in the world (97 degree negative drop on the first hill). The lines were next to nothing, and the day was really cool. Plus, there was chocolate all over the place. :P Today we got up way too early again, especially after getting home last night at 130am. We headed down to Luray to do the caverns with my sis & her kid. Another good day, but the kids are definitely tired. And cranky. Shoot, maybe I'm tired & cranky too, but I'm still going to blame it all on the rats. We got back a short while ago, I'm catching up on emails, and getting ready to head into GDays. Two shifts left. I'm excited, but actually a bit pensive about it too. We've got a few things on tap for this weekend, including a day in DC tomorrow. Sorry I don't have any wasters for you today. I've been totally out of the loop this week. I'll be back to 'normal' next friday, honest. Til then, try this: http://tinyurl.com/6xg7on Oh, yeah, remember: Countdown = 2.

the beginning of the end

Shamelessness: http://fridaywaster.blogspot.com Countdown: 3 Anniversary: 4 This is a long one, with lots of info and a couple of chapters even. Read carefully, pay attention, and don't jump ahead just to find out how it ends. Chapter 1 - She's still not OLD My sister's birthday is tomorrow. I think she may be officially older than me now. She's got a two day celebration planned at the Brogue on Fri and Sat nights. The Pocket is playing (www.thepocketband.com) which makes everyone happy. Tonight is DrunkTam night, tomorrow is GroggyTam night. Early Sunday, the ladies are all heading out of town on a Caribbean vacation for a week or so to reiterate the fact that spawning has been harmful to my vacation plans. Chapter 2 - Now it's MY turn I'm working day time and night time today. Monday I'll be in the office. Tuesday starts MY vacation. Gonna hit a couple roller coasters with and without the kids. Tues @ Kings Dominion, Wed is the kids' last day of school, Thu I'm making a run to HersheyPark with the kids. (No, you cannot make Hershey Highway jokes while I'm road tripping w/ the kids.) I'm really really really REALLY hoping that their new one is open by Thu. http://www.rcdb.com/id4049.htm You may or may not get much of a Friday waster next week. I'm less apt to waste my own time than time I'm billing the gubmint. Chapter 3 - I can't explain it Yesterday was our 4 year wedding anniversary. We've actually been together around about 11 years, total. I don't have a clue why she's kept me around for this long. I couldn't put up with me like that. No way. I'm afflicted with every acronym you can think of; OCD ADD ADHD and MSH. But I'm also lethargic, apathetic, inattentive, and hyperfocused. I drink too much, smoke too much, flirt too much, go to bed too late, wake up too early; I'm just generally a real pain in the tail to live with. I figure she must be angel. Chapter 4 - The beginning of the end (sing these lyrics while you read this chapter: http://tinyurl.com/62suv3 ) Lots of people have asked about that "Countdown" line over the past couple of weeks. Here's the skinny... I'm putting my bottle opener on the shelf. After 15 years of tarbending, over a decade of spilling beer at the Hole, it's time to break my last glass. What a long strange trip it's been. The cannons don't thunder, there's nothing to plunder. (I'm still a long way from 40 though). The loudmouth in the corner's getting to me, talkin' bout my earrings and my hair. Beer-thirty's over, got to take it on home. But I love this bar. The countdown is how many bar shifts I've got left. Notice that it's at 3: tonight, June 20th, and June 27th. Why? Why not? Nothing happened to trigger the decision (I don't deal with that drama anyway). The new guy GM did not "win" (you know better than that). I didn't get canned (surprise to many of you). I may have exceeded the maximum amount of breakage, and I didn't get caught in the beer cooler with that hostess (besides, she told me she was 18). I've been mulling the idea for a while; wondering when the right time would come. When to start spending my Fridays on the other side of the bar. Planning my summer scheds, I was going to take off July 4th (holiday), July 11th (vacation), and July 18th (vacation). So I'm taking those days off, and just not coming back. So you have three chances to make me bring you drinks. After that you effers can bring ME drinks for a change. :) ============================== Sorry I wasted all your time talking about me. Here's your game: "Shift" was one of a small selection of games that successfully wasted time AND made you work your brain a little bit. It's back, and this sequel doesn't suck like so many other sequels do. (Really... who thought dumb and dumberer would work without BOTH of the idiots from the first movie?) http://armorgames.com/play/964/shift-2 ============================== Prepped? http://abcnews.go.com/Health/SkinCare/story?id=4966867 Advertising exec? Fail. http://listoftheday.blogspot.com/2008/06/rejected-advertising-slogans-of-day.html Rockin' grandmas: http://www.holytaco.com/2008/06/10/6-aging-rockers-who-look-a-lot-like-grandmas/ http://www.hornyoyster.com/?p=291 Jess has weird friends. Most normal people just eat 'em. http://flickr.com/photos/extremecraft/sets/72157605431249252/ Or maybe this was the end I was actually referring to.... ummmmm, yeah. http://www.youvebeenleftbehind.com/ (funny, because it's for REAL) More snarkiness http://disbeliefnet.com/ (also funny, also real) Sometimes, I do write about some things that are actually important http://www.savebudweiser.com

i paid that bill, honest!

So I'm trying to get back to 'normal' today, but I'm having a hard time doing it...

I spent the day on Wednesday off-site, so my workload slipped just a little bit. No worries, just needed to catch up on Thurs. We had some kicking T-storms on Wed afternoon, and didn't have any power when I got back to the house.

I took a little nap, and still didn't have power. Went out to dinner w/ the fam (Boston Market still sucks), ran some errands, did a little shopping, still no power. Early Thurs morning, it's still out. We had to really focus on managing the situation now. The cell phones were nearly out of battery, the freezers are thawing, and the house is getting warm. I stayed home from work to perform various tasks related to purchasing a whole assload of ice and managing things around the house.

Finally power came back around 4pm Thu afternoon, right around the 24 hour mark. The house was just starting to cool off by the time we got home from my brother’s birthday dinner at Malibu Grill

(they TOTALLY don't suck)

(well, maybe just a little bit - I found out after dinner that their house specialty is supposed to be Brazilian chicken hearts, and there weren't any available).

So anyway, I'm just a little behind scheds today....

Kid1 started this week at Logan's Roadhouse, Kid2 is helping me install a new muffler on her car tomorrow morning, Kid3 has baseball playoffs starting tonight, and Kid4 is spending part of the weekend at an overnight birthday party.

Countdown = 4

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games n other wasters....

Make your own digital kaleidoscope http://www.zefrank.com/byokal/kal2.html

Musicatch http://www.reflexive.com/index.php?PAGE=WebGamePlay&WGID=94

This is just kinda gross to me: http://www.toxel.com/inspiration/2008/05/26/pink-chewing-gum-sculptures/

And for the most part, this little mailer stays relatively on the clean side of things. It's a challenge sometimes, b/c many corners of my brain are NOT on the clean side of things. This link satisfies one of those corners: http://tinyurl.com/6ae9fe