I was not entirely sure on which blog I should post this entry.  It seems like a retail horror story to me; however, it did not involve me and it concerned a wanna be singer so I guess it fits this site more (although the  genius in question could certainly have fit right in on the Blog for Genius’ site).  It seems that a young man by the name of Timothy Tackett WAS employed at a Burger King restaurant in Xenia, Ohio.  For a birthday prank (on his own birthday), he decided to take a bath in the facility’s industrial size sink and post it on his MySpace site.  Any GENIUS would realize that he probably would not be doing himself any favors by doing this.  Not only  did he get himself in trouble but the manager in charge of the shift and at least one other employee are no longer working at that particular establishment.  One can see where the young man picked up the nickname “Unstable.”  One has to wonder what other pranks he has pulled.  The worst I ever had happen while working on my birthday is being serenaded by a strange fellow from Listhwathistan over the intercom which was not a bad thing at all.

Burger King Does Not Want Its Employees To Take Baths

I’m not entirely sure if this will help the young man in his singing career but it is reported that his MySpace account has seen a large amount of visits since the incident occurred.  Good luck Mr. Unstable.

Not so fun.  Every once in a while our local movie rental place calls us up and tells us we’ve won a free rental.  It happened just this week, so we made a stop there yesterday, and since we had all the kids with us, my husband just ran in and tried to be quick.  He came out with a direct-to-video horror movie called The Fun Park.  It actually sounded pretty intriguing since it’s about some teens who were murdered by the ghost of a clown at an abandoned amusement park.  We know of an abandoned amusement park that we’ve visited, so we thought the movie would be extra scary.  But we were wrong.  It was awful – the 3.5 rating it got on imdb.com was no lie.  Free movie = boring clown.  For the first, I don’t know, about 30 minutes of the movie, they’re not even in the fun park.  The movie wastes time setting up the characters’ back stories – and who cares about that?  So finally they get to the fun park, and it’s not even scary.  The movie has no suspense.  There aren’t any chase scenes, basically the movie is the clown cutting off people’s faces.  I think.  The movie was so slow, I was dozing constantly.  But I don’t think I missed anything…  It was awful.  I would put it on my movie stinker list, but maybe it’s not fair because I wasn’t fully awake…  never mind, who cares, it was that bad.  At least it was a free rental.  And as far as my worries about being scared of clowns the next time we go to that abandoned amusement park, no problem – that movie was not scary at all.  The only thing scary about it was the idea that all the people involved in making it thought it was a good idea!

So here’s my updated stinker list of the worst movies I’ve ever seen:

The Devil’s Rejects
Doomsday
The Night Listener
The Love Guru
The Fun Park

The reason I blog is given at the top of my blog page. I use this spot to generally clear my head when I start thinking too much. Sometimes I actually write about the thoughts in my head (now for instance), other times I just write about things I think are interesting. I’m here because I want to be here. If I had no readers at all that would be enough for me (I’ve done journals the same way for the past few years, just to get things out). This is replacing any journals I’ve had. I don’t ever really write anything that I would consider inner secrets. Secrets are only kept if no one knows about them. People have been able to read my handwriting before, so a written journal is no place to keep secrets.

Now for the other reasons I write this blog, and why it replaced my journal. I know that I have friends and family that read things here, and it gives me a small way to keep in touch. Some of the friends and occasionally family will reply and let me know what they think of my blogging. Others will email me on their thoughts. Both let me know that there is some interest in what I have to write.

What I find interesting, is that I look at the stats to my blog (check the right hand column, minor stats are there) and I see a larger number of people will read my blog on occasion. Most of them never respond. So I really have no way of knowing if this blog is of any interest too them. I can tell that there are a few repeat viewers, but I don’t know who they are yet. As far as I can tell, some people are really getting to know me, while I sit in the dark about them. Oh well, some people are born to lurk….

Just was thinking about that as my visitor count went from the normal 12-15 visitors/day to a count of just over 20 in less than 5 minutes… So to you 8+ new visitors, I bid you welcome. Hope you found something useful.

—- Just saying Hi to all the lurkers again—-

No, not really, this is a post about lying on résumés. Or other funny things I’ve seen on résumés in the past. I saw the news story on CNN, and just had to look and see if the lies were as good as the ones I’ve seen in an earlier job. I don’t thing I saw the ten reasons listed, but then again I saw a few good ones.

1 claimed to have been working on a specific computer for a longer period of time than the computer was actually in existence. Since they did not list the Computer Mfg as one of their past employers, I actually had them in for an interview to explain this. It was fun to see the redness creep into their face. Can I be mean or what?

Another claimed to work with a proprietary software language, but they never worked on the machines where this language was used. Hmm, they turned down the interview. (Could they have heard about the other interviewee?)

Graduated from my College, the same year as me with a BS in Computer Science. Small school, and I never heard of this person. No BS in Computer Science was offered when I graduated either. Some joke. He accepted the interview date, but never showed up when I said in passing it would be good to see a fellow alum.

I’ve also seen résumés written in crayon for a data entry position (come on folks, if you’re going for a computer job, you should never hand write your résumé). Pictures, from a “fashion” shoot, attached to the résumé. Stained résumés, usually coffee, but some were unidentifiable stains. There were many more, but these stand out in my memories. This doesn’t even include the multiple misspellings on them. Like do you know how to spell your own name? Yes, one résumé had the name spelled differently on the cover letter and résumé.

Then there are the interviews. My favorite is one told around the site of my current employment. Seems a guy’s pants fell down as he was leaving the interview. His last words were, “I guess that blows any chances I had of getting this job.” I’m not sure how the rest of the interview went, but that last line was priceless.

So much fun with résumés. I’m now wondering what kind of stories people tell about me, when I was on the other side of the interview desk.

I don’t know how this memory came about, but recently I was thinking about how acceptable smoking used to be in our society.  You were allowed to smoke anywhere and everywhere – airplanes, restaurants, bowling alleys, and grocery stores, to name a few places.  Yes, I said grocery stores.  I have distinct memories of being a kid and playing with the floor at the grocery store.  I was playing with the floor because it had colored tiles on it that resembled a maze, and grocery shopping is so boring for a kid that there really isn’t anything else to do but look at the floor and play with it.  While navigating my maze on the floor, I distinctly remember seeing – and stepping around – cigarette butts.  People used to smoke cigarettes while shopping for food – ew.  So does that mean that all the food that was brought home had packaging that reeked of cigarette smoke?  It’s hard to imagine, especially given society’s view on smoking today.  But I remember it, and I’m really thankful that we’ve come such a long way.  I can no longer stand the smell of cigarette smoke, and if I had to smell it while shopping at Walmart, it would make the place that much more unbearable.

And while we’re on the topic of inappropriate places to smoke, that reminds me of something I forgot to mention in my Mummy movie review post.  While watching the movie, we kept smelling cigarette smoke; 2 or 3 times.  Someone was definitely smoking in the theater, but my question is, who would do something like that?  Was their addiction so out of control that they honestly couldn’t make it through an entire movie?  And we’re not talking about The Dark Knight, a movie that runs 2 ½ hours.  The new Mummy movie was not even over 2 hours, and someone couldn’t make it that long without a cigarette (or two or three)?  That sounds like a problem they should get help for.  At the very least, they should have stayed home then, where they could smoke all they wanted without bothering anyone else.  I was really irritated.  Not just because I hate the smell and wasn’t expecting to have to deal with it at a movie theater, but mostly because I had our new baby with me and I didn’t want his innocent lungs poisoned with cigarette smoke.  I never saw who was doing it, but I suspected maybe it was some rebellious teenagers doing it because they could get away with it.  But I didn’t see any teenagers leaving the theater.  I tried to smell everyone that walked by, but I came up with no suspects.  Oh, well…  if it happens again, I think I’ll report it; I just didn’t feel like missing the movie.  And I really didn’t think that after the first cigarette they’d go ahead and light another…  How utterly rude and completely thoughtless.  I hope the culprit saw the baby on the way out and felt guilty…  but I’m sure that someone with the nerve to smoke in a movie theater wouldn’t care enough to regret it.

Over the many years I have been employed in retail, I have had several horror stories. Today, I had one involving a vendor and our restroom. The person who regularly brings in our daily supply of nation wide chain donuts had to use of facilities. Shortly after he returned, our assistant manager had to visit the lavatory. Minutes later, I was called to the front and was advised to go and look in the bathroom. I had my suspicions and said… that is ok, I can use my imagination. Shortly thereafter, I was informed that our delivery man must have had a weak bladder as there was a rather sizable puddle covering much of our rather small bathroom floor. To make matters worse, the sink was totally dry, no indication that he had washed after he missed the stool. The female cashier and I had a short debate concerning male and female bathroom practices. The result of the incident resulted in a phone call to the donut distributor. I wonder if this particular driver will be making any deliveries anytime soon or if he does, will he be able to look at the store in the same light. I feel sorry for the next stop on his route.  One thing is for sure, I will definitely not be eating any of their donuts for quite a while. Kind of reminiscent of a creamed chicken sandwich incident at a wedding reception. This deliveryman must qualify for a real genius.

This post is titled after a line from my favorite movie, The Wizard of Oz.  In case you live in a hole or you’re Amish, the movie is about a girl named Dorothy who runs away and gets swept into a mystical land.  Of course, if you’re Amish, I don’t know why you’re reading my blog, but I’m glad you are.  But the reason I’m writing this is that it’s happened – we’ve had our first threat of running away from a kid.  For those of you who know our family, you get only one guess as to who it was.  Got your guess?  Ok, it was Samantha – SURPRISE!  It’s funny because my husband and I were just discussing this a few days ago.  We talked about how seemingly every little kid plans to run away at one time or another.  We also talked about how if any of our kids were going to run away, we both thought it would be Samantha (she’s 4, by the way, if you don’t know us, and she’s always been a firecracker, even as far back as her womb-dwelling days).  And now here we are, mere days later, and she brings it up.  She didn’t attempt it or say it out of anger; what happened is this:  She was bouncing on our bouncing zebra toy, which actually belongs to her little sister, Disney.  Since Disney is almost 2, seeing Samantha on the bouncing zebra made her suddenly decide that she wanted to play on it, of course.  So I asked Sammie to give Disney a turn, and she refused.  I started threatening things like making her take a nap, time-out, and taking toys away, and for each punishment, she had an answer.

“I’m going to have to make you take a nap then.” was met with  “I won’t sleep.”

“Then I’ll have to take away one of your toys.” was followed by “Then I’ll run away.”

Well, the situation was resolved when Disney asked for a popsicle.  I was more than happy to give her one because she is being SO good today; polar opposite of the hellish day she made for me yesterday.  The new popsicles I bought today weren’t frozen yet, and all we had was some random soccer ball popsicle I found in the freezer.  I gave it to her, totally over-emphasizing what a good girl she’s been today so hopefully she’ll get the message and stay this way.  But I gave it to her knowing we might have a problem when I didn’t have any for the other kids, which is a golden rule of parenting that must not be broken:  if you have 2 kids, obtain things and give them out in twos.  If you have 3 kids, you must always have 3 treats, toys, what have you.  Whatever it is, there always has to be one per kid – I call this the ‘separate but equal law of parenting’.  So today I broke the separate but equal law, and guess what I got in return?  A tantrum, of course.  I explained to Sammie that Disney got the popsicle because she was being good, and that Sammie was not being good.  She said, “But I’m being good now!”  And I agreed, but I also explained that I had said she would be punished for not doing as I said by sharing with her sister and so this was her punishment.  She threw a tantrum, but got over it rather quickly.  I think she might have actually learned a lesson.

But back to the running away.  I think every kid tries it or at least thinks about it.  But of course, since they’re kids, the plans are never very well thought out.  Like everyone, I tried it to, and my plan was packing a can of spaghettios in a suitcase.  I was thinking ahead about being hungry, but of course I hadn’t planned where I would be going or even how I was going to open that can of spaghettios.  I don’t even remember what prompted my decision to run away, which says something about how insignificant my parents’ wronging me really was.  One time when my sister wanted to run away, she went so far as to call our aunt to come pick her up – luckily my aunt called my mom to double-check, but at least my sister had a plan.  Most kids who think about running away don’t have a good solid plan, and many of them realize this before they actually leave the house.  Let’s hope we are lucky enough to have that happen with Samantha if she decides to follow through on her threat.

I actually hadn’t heard much about this movie before I saw it, but it happened to be playing at the time we needed in order to be able to see a movie that day.  Having 4 kids = a hectic life.  Our weekly date night has become a date day (still weekly though, YAY!), partly because my husband is in a show and we have rehearsal or meetings most nights, and partly because the baby still has his days and nights mixed up, thus guaranteeing that he sleeps during the date if it’s during the day.  But anyway, back to the Pineapple Express.  The movie is all about marijuana.  I did read the plot synopsis before I went, but I didn’t realize exactly how much drug content there would be – the characters smoke pot constantly!  It tells the tale of a stoner (Seth Rogen – does he smoke pot in every movie he’s in?) who witnesses a murder committed by a cop.  The whole movie has him fleeing the bad guys – while smoking marijuana, of course – with his drug dealer, who he didn’t know all that well before they fled together.  Seth Rogen wrote the screenplay for this film, and I like his natural way of delivering lines.  He’s not a very diverse actor, but his characters seem like real people because of the way he delivers his dialogue.

The movie entertained me; some parts were funny; although it did get pretty violent.  I missed some of the violence though because I fell asleep…  just tired, I wouldn’t call the movie terrible or anything like that.  It’s not one of my favorites, though, and I’m not sure if it even has replay value.  But if you read my blog regularly, you’ll know that my husband and I see LOTS of movies, so this was just another theater experience, and those are always fun!

One of the first truly interactive movies to hit theatres is being remade. My experience with The Rocky Horror Picture Show began while I was in college. Every weekend the Cla-Zel theatre in Bowling Green, OH had a midnight showing of the 1975 cult classic. I went once or twice a year ALWAYS on Halloween which was always a sell out.. For those of you who have experienced the phenomenon, you know all about the craziness, the kits handed out as you enter the theatre, the costumed audience members who look like they stepped out of some freaky side-show. For those of you who have never experienced it, mere words nor watching the DVD at home cannot do it justice. However, the movie was initially a stage production that began in 1973 and was incidentally staged a few years ago by our local community theatre. The original movie starred Tim Curry, future Oscar winner Susan Sarandon, and rock star Meat Loaf.

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Well the summer is winding down and the Big blockbuster movies are just about done. This week the Olympics are in full force. And we will be getting to the US political conventions very soon.

I can’t think of thing there that I want to put in my blog. I may review a movie or two, but I don’t see any coming out that warrant a review. I’m not at all sure about the animated Star Wars film. I think Star Wars is a but played out. I have a daughter who is really into Star Wars, so I’ll let her handle that review if she wants to.

The movies I’ve seen that may get a future review are few. I had fun in the 3rd Mummy movie, as long as I kept it in my head that it wasn’t the first two. There were some funny parts, but I don’t think of it as a continuation of the series.

Politics… Not in this blog thank you very much. The only political statement I’ll make is that we are subject to a campaign season that is way too long.

Olympics — Well Tiger Woods isn’t in it so it can’t be worth watching.. No wait that’s the PGA.. Anyway, no blogs on the Olympics either.

My favorite team looks to be done for the season, so I won’t be blogging about baseball much. There are some bigger fans of teams that are doing well, so I won’t have to.

NFL — Nah, don’t see it,unless it is the Bears game at C and L’s.. Great fun watching games there.

Maybe as the mosquitoes die off, I can get my telescopes out again. Way to many bugs in the evening to have much fun watching stars. When they can bite through the mosquito suit, there are too many of them.

Oh well, I’ll just watch for strange and unusual news, that may be enough to keep this going. And School is starting and my youngest will be in her High School’s show choir. That should be fun. I’m going to let my daughter blog about her own wedding plans, unless it affects me to a greater degree.

Maybe I will have things to write about. We will see, what we will see.