I mentioned below that I game from time to time. Well, I decided to put some time in on World of Warcraft today, but I did so outside of the game.

Approximately 20 minutes of poking and prodding, and I've come up with this:

So the other day at work, Boss Lady made a comment about how I need a girlfriend. What spurred this comment was my explanation of what my screensaver on my laptop did (Visit http://www.grid.org/ to find out for yourself).

Since then, I've been doing a lot of thinking. I have come to absolutely no conclusion, but I did verify some thoughts that I had in my head.

1.) Time Time is of a premium for me. I mean, yeah, I do play video games almost every day, and I do watch some TV, but all-in-all I have virtually no time to do anything. I work upwards of 50 hours a week (albeit infrequently these days, which may change any time soon), and I have a handful of web projects that I'm trying to juggle and get done. While I would like to have a "special someone" to spend time with, I'm afraid I don't have that time right now.

2.) Money Anyone who says money isn't necessary in a relationship is absolutely full of crap. Yes, some relationships can make it by without those material things, but think about communication costs, travel costs (which today is nearing $0.15 per mile, where it was only $0.09 per mile not much more than 10 years ago), and the other costs involved with "doing things".

3.) Reliability In terms of "being there" for someone, I think I do a relatively good job at it. The only issue is my extremely dynamic schedule. I usually get one day off during the week, work a half day on Saturday, and have Sunday off. The time I'm not at work, I'm usually either keeping up on my projects or sleeping. I've had my day off pulled from me at the last minute before, which is part of being a manager, and I've had to work different shifts than normal. On the flip side, I've also been given days off at the last minute, so it's really hard to plan anything. Planning and scheduling is my life, and not being able to do so makes it nearly impossible to do anything.

4.) Distance I live in the middle of nowhere. I'm sure there's many single girls here that I would hit it off great with, but the chances of finding them (or them finding me) are next to impossible. Traveling to an area with a higher population is out of the question, not only for the money and time issues, but for the lack of a vehicle trustworthy for long distances. The last long trip I took with my truck was a 3 hour drive, and it made me realize a lot of issues I had been overlooking for a long time. Without the finances for a new vehicle and such, I don't think I'll be going very far out of town very often.

Something a lot of people don't understand is how I can live single at the age of 24. Heck, even when I was 19 people had a hard time understanding it. It's all about self control though. I can't explain it. Don't get me wrong, I would like to have a girlfriend very much, but things just don't seem to be in order for me to have one right now.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'd much rather keep "doing my thing" and not let this kind of thing bother me. If something does happen to come along and work into what I'm doing now, then I will absolutely go with it.

The site was down for probably a good portion of Friday. I apologize for that. There's been some reconfiguration taking place on the server here, and some things were broken in the process. Some of those things have been fixed, while others have been disabled.

For example, you'll notice the "Recent Music" is showing "None" all the time. It's actually incorrect, but that's because it's been disabled. The method used to generate and display that list was dependant on certain technologies which have been changed on the server here.

Hopefully the server will be back up to snuff soon, and those useless features can be re-enabled.

Active blogging night for rants...

Have you seen those TV commercials? The ones that are basically saying, "Windows sucks and is the bane of all computing, whereas the Mac OS is utterly flawless in any way imaginable"? If not, you should probably see this.

Anyhow... I would like to state that neither operating system is flawless, and if it were used as much as Windows, Mac OS would be just as much of a headache as its counterpart.

Sorry, macguy. You know it's true too... Admit it.

Okay, so in the last few months, there's been a lot of talk about blogs, and how kids in schools, university students, etc., are all being repromanded for the content found in their blogs. Recently, a school student was suspended because he blogged about how he felt his school was bullying him.

While I personally belive that a blog should be a means of simply expressing your beliefs, feelings, or random thoughts, all without censorship or intervention from other sources, I do feel that it can also rightfully be used to identify individuals as hazardous, mentally or emotibally unstable, or just flat out insane. What I don't agree with, however, is this whole idea of suspending, firing, or incarcerating an individual, just because they make remarks about other individuals, businesses, organizations, or objects that may seem less than positive.

What's a good example? How about this:

DISCLAIMER: The following two blocks are illustrations and have absolutely NO relation to my life whatsoever.

Posted by Blogger-A I am so frustrated with my job. The guy in the cubicle next to me is CONSTANTLY shifting the responsibility for his work to me, even where I have my own workload to worry about. What's more, my boss is a total jerk for siding with the other guy. I think they should both be dragged into the alley and beaten to a pulp, because written citations and suspension haven't seemed to do any good. I hate my job.

Posted by Blogger-B Some lady looked at me funny in the grocery store today. I want to kill everyone who looks at me funny. I think they should all just die.

Both examples instill a bit of fear, sure, but can you see which blogger would be considered a threat and should possibly be monitored? Do you think that either one should have their blogging right taken away? Do you think others should be barred from reading their opinions?

I personally feel as though both bloggers should be allowed to continue, and that neither should be bothered with the possibility of losing their job, losing their driver's license, or being kicked out of school.

Blogger-A expressed a bit of a violent thought, but really did no more than say the same thing anyone else in his position would think. Granted, it's a bit of a far-fetched situation, overall, it still makes the point.

Blogger-B is indeed a potential threat, but he is simply expressing his right to free speech. If the blogging host has rules in place to forbid such content, he is bound by those rules. However, there is absolutely no law that would stop him from expressing his opinion.

Okay, when you think of hot sauce, what first comes to mind? If you're like most people, you think of fire trucks racing towards your mouth, directly after consuming the stuff. Well, this hot sauce is different.

A few weeks ago, I felt the urge to buy a bottle of "Frank's RedHot Original Cayenne Pepper Sauce". I figured it would be the right thing to give pizza, hamburgers, etc., that extra "kick" it needed. Turns out, I was wrong.

Round 1, I used the stuff on several pieces of "Thin Crust Supreme" from Pizza Hut. About half a pizza later, I had 3/4 of a bottle of hot sauce, no "hot" sensation in my mouth, and just this weird aftertaste.

Round 2, I used the stuff on some hamburgers that were cooked on the grill... WHERE THE HECK IS THE FLAVOR AND SPICYNESS?!

The stuff, by itself, has a decent flavor, but it's just not spicy. If the "spicy" control could be cranked up about 2 points while maintaining the same flavor, I would be a happy camper. For now, I'm going to rip the lid off the bottle and drink it like beer.

As I am in a pretty grumpy and exhausted mood from this headache, I feel the need to be rather blunt for a minute:

Anyone who claims that "the laws written in the Bible do not apply today, and you're free to go about fornicating and such, because that book was written in a male-dominated world a really long time ago..." is a complete idiot.

If you associate the Bible with being right and being a guide for life, then you have no right at all to suggest that any portion of it (it == the law) does not apply today.

I'm not even going to start preaching beyond that right now. I don't claim to follow the book 100% without flaw, but I also don't claim that it doesn't apply today.

So yeah, believe what you wish, but don't be so f'ing hypocritical about it.

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I remember back when I was in college, in my "Introduction to Business" class, we had to do a group project. In that project, we had to profile a local company, explain their method of operation, and suggest areas of improvment.

When it was my turn to speak in front of the class about the business, I spoke of the company's customer relations, and how customer satisfaction was the cornerstone of maintaining a successful business. When I was done, the instructor basically yelled at me in front of the class and lectured me about how happy customers aren't really that important to a business, and that there are other more important factors.

Well, Mrs. Hale, here's proving you wrong:

At the seminar I went to last week, the key topic was customer satisfaction and happiness. In a nutshell, the speaker stated that if a customer is satisfied and happy with how you have treated them, they will be likely to return. If they return multiple times and receive the same quality of service, they will begin to trust you. And on down the line, if the customer trusts you, you will have more leverage when it comes time to sell them items or offer services. This means that you will be able to easier push products and services, with a much higher chance of the customer accepting them, thus, giving you the opportunity to make a bigger sale, which in turn will drive the gross profits higher.

In the latest issue of a magazine we get at the shop, National Oil and Lube News, there is an article about a manager of a quick lube. This manager was able to earn the trust and respect of enough customers (about 110 a day) in the first year to maintain a $95-$100 ticket average, pushing total sales to over $700,000!

Since the customers at the shop where I work are now experiencing a much friendlier and eager-to-help staff than they had in the past, I have a feeling we may be able to see such a change within the next year or so. The trick is maintaining the positive atmosphere and serving the customer's needs.

I think that in the next few weeks or so I will be suggesting something to the Boss Lady and Boss Dude. That something will be a sort of "customer response card", only in an online form. Using this form, I hope to see what the customers actually think of the service we give them.

You can read the article on NOLN's website at http://www.noln.net/columns/2006/5-06/features/savage.htm

Well, I have read through the comments posted on Slashdot in reply to my submission. All I can say is people suck!

First off, let me tell you that what was posted has been edited from what I submitted. What I did post is that it was valid until the end of the year, and that it was just a promotion in the United States and Canada. The Slashdot editors found it necessary to remove that and replace it with other content, such as "SkypeIn costs $38 a year".

So... In light of the negative responses about how "the author should have mentioned that", I feel that the responses were completely out of line.

Also, I suppose you would like to know what version of mscomm32.ocx I'm using? Too bad. Skype is a very cool service that works well "out of the box". They also have a support staff. Albeit, I've never used their support, I imagine they would be very helpful.

So there. You people that didn't like what I said can go screw yourselves. I'm not the messiah of Skype, so don't expect me to answer all your questions before you ask them.

Blathering about SkypeOut being free

I want a bumper sticker that says, "BAM BA LAM!" on it.

And not because he wasted away at his desk.

Take a look.

Top Gear::Ariel Atom -- The flick that got me started on this car.

Okay, so everyone is wondering what I did, so I will tell you.

One of our suppliers, Paulson Oil Company, A.K.A. "POCO", hooked up with Heartland to provide a seminar. The seminar consisted of talking, more talking, and more talking, and... Oh, sorry... More talking... The subject? Higher sales averages.

Basically, what they told us is that we have to form a trusting relationship with our customers, we have to make sure the customer is happy, and we have to suggest these products as the customer needs them. Of course, big corporations think that the end user needs everything, right down to a premium-service lobotomy, but that's just where you have to use a little bit of ethical decision making and problem solving to suit the customer's needs.

At the end of the seminar, they fed us, and they fed us well. The seminar was held at the William Tell restaurant at the Holiday Inn in Countryside, Illinois. For dinner, they gave us a buffet of what appeared to be Dandelion salad, cooked veggies (Brocolli, Cauliflower, Carrots, and Green Beans), baked potatoes with all the fixin's, Alaskan Crab legs (I think it was Red Crab), Prime Rib, and assorted cakes for dessert (including a delicious Carrot cake!).

"Boss Dude", who took "Friend Dude" and myself with him to this convention, as we are both management staff, said that if we had never had crab legs before, we would be spoiled from these. The legs were pre-split, very meaty, and huge. The meat was very tender and sweet.

The Prime Rib was okay, but it was a tad-bit underdone for my liking. I don't want my beef to be mooing at me while I'm eating it.

So yeah. That's what I did. The seminar ran from like 2:00PM to 6:00PM, I had no lunch that day, and I ate like a King for supper. I didn't really learn anything new from the talks, but I did learn that I like crab! :D