Happy Halloween everyone. Enjoy this Halloween safety video from 1977 while I party down.

Oh hell no...

Do you realize how far away that Target is to my job? Spoiler alert: it's a five minute train ride. This is like the time I missed seeing Andy Richter eating lunch at a nearby restaurant when I was in high school.

I have plenty of things to say about the Britney concert last night, but I don't feel like doing a write up right now. I will say that the show was beyond my expectations. It was just fantastic.

Hi! I haven't forgotten about you lurkers. I've just been real busy adjusting to my new job. Still love it although I'm pass the honeymoon stage now.

( Aww... :( )

When I heard that The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien was showing a remote of Andy and him doing voice overs for an anime, in this case Ghost in the Shell, I immediately turned on my television set.

Admittedly, any form of anime mockery is something I enjoy, not because I hate anime, but because it's easy to do. Every once in awhile when I'm bored, I watch an anime film and I like some; it isn't something I go hardcore over.

But anyway, let the mocking begin:

Some scenes of note that made me LMAO:

1. The looks on both Conan and Andy's face when the guy at Bang Zoom! asked them if they watched anime.

2. Them zoning out when same guy described the plot of Ghost in the Shell.

3. Conan and Andy reciting the Manga Company logo (hmmm, I've been pronouncing "manga" wrong this whole time. Why didn't someone tell me?)

4. Conan freaking out over a male character looking like a girl (I can only imagine the reaction he would have if he were playing MMX and seeing Zero for the first time.)

5. The best part: Their improvisation routine of a scene from Ghost in the Shell.

Conan needs to consider a second career in voice acting. He's damn good at it.

I haven't seen this remote since sophomore year of high school. So many memories of me barricading myself in my room watching Late Night.

Hey, tigediane, I hear you have a twitter account. Is this true?

Why, yes : http://twitter.com/tigediane.

Follow me if you want. My twitter account is as boring as this journal. I will try and write more, I swear!

http://www.fanhistory.com/wiki/Tigediane

What the hell is this?

I've never participated in these fandoms. Just because I lurk in those communities, doesn't mean I'm involved in them. I'm surprised that MMX isn't on that list considering I was writing Zero/X fanfics for our tiny fandom over at GJ and IJ.

While you're at it, check out the new and improved (i.e botanical) UABM, my fanfic site I haven't updated in a year. That will soon change once I get adjusted into my new job.

What? You haven't heard?

Yes, I got a new job! I started this past Wednesday, and things are looking super. I'm doing data entry in the HR department for a commercial real estate company. Whether you want to say this is a upgrade or a downgrade from being an Assistant Manager is up to you, but I feel it's a massive upgrade. My new boss is light years ahead my former one; my co-workers are awesome. I'm working Downtown in the Arts District so easy accessibility anywhere. Good opportunity to advance, and I'm working for an excellent company. It's all I've wanted in a job and more. I just feel better and more confident.

And what's wrong with that?

Please come over for gay sex is actually a good mnemonic.

A person e-mailed our store e-mail account about wanting to return a textbook he ordered from us. Besides the traditional in-store sales, we also conduct online sales via Amazon and Half basically books that the school isn't using. Our sales are good, but sometimes there's the occasional return.

So, today I was reading this one person's e-mail, and immediately my head throbbed:

It's ok my son have already bought the book that he wants frm the ebay. So I need to sent this book back to you. Can you pls tell me how can I do that to get back my refund.Sorry for odering the wrong book frm you.

As the grammar robot from The Simpsons would say: ERROR....

I get that people write differently online. I mean, I do, but IMO there's is no excuse for bad spelling (that's why spell check was invented.) And this e-mail was supposedly written by a parent---holy shit. Whenever I read something like this, I taste bile. Maybe I grew up differently, but online or not, is that really how you want to present yourself by showing people you can't write basic sentences, that you can't spell basic words? I don't know...I think it's just me.

I've made it no secret that I want to move on from my current job, but being that the economy is in the toilet, it's taking longer than expected.

Let's see, I've been applying to jobs since November with zero success. Well, an e-mail exchange between me and a HR person who apparently didn't do any research before contacting me doesn't count. June marks the one year anniversary of working at the bookstore, and I really want to find a new job by August, before the fall rush season begins.

As you can imagine, getting an interview is no easy feat; it seems that the only way to get one is through divine intervention. So, I was somewhat shocked when I checked my inbox this morning to find a response to an e-mail I sent inquiring about an associate editor position. Awesome, finally. However, it's a part time position (not a problem), it pays a dollar less than what I get paid now (as if my salary wasn't miserable enough), and I'll be editing a free publication i.e a community newspaper. I'm trying to weigh the pros and cons of this. If I get this job, I can add professional editing/writing experience to my resume which I desperately need. But again, I don't want to latch on to the first available job. I made that mistake before, and I don't want it to happen again.

I don't know. Worth a try.

Breaking news: I'm having the worst writer's block ever. I can't seem to write anything, not even journal entries. You should see my desk. Piles of rough drafts filled with one to three starting paragraphs waiting to be finished. I have this story (okay, fine. It's a PW fanfic story. Don't look at me like that. I finished 4-1 last week, and I'm dying to write something about it.)  in my little brain waiting to come to life, but somehow the mental images doesn't translate to words on paper. It hasn't been this bad.

 
Okay, PBS, if you're going to remake any show from the Sesame Workshop (or as I like to call it Children's Television Workshop. I don't know why they changed the name.) library, please remake 3-2-1 Contact or Square One TV because the reason why the new version of The Electric Company exists is due to kids getting dumber. Last I heard, math and science isn't doing so hot either. The least you can do is put those shows on DVD. You put The Electric Company and Sesame Street on DVD. Why not 3-2-1 Contact?

BTW, I don't hate this version, and I know some people do because it's not the show they remember from the 70's. When will people learn that any remake will never be the same as the original? Granted, I didn't grow up watching this show, although my parents claim otherwise, so my opinion may be invalid for some. I maybe caught reruns, but I don't have any recollection of being OMG excited because the Electric Company was on. I was more excited at 3-2-1 Contact being on (Square One TV not so much because it involved math, and math was my sole enemy in elementary school.)

Whatever you do, PBS, please don't remake or put on DVD 3-2-1 Classroom Contact aka the bastardized version of 3-2-1 Contact. I remember getting so pissed whenever Classroom Contact came on because it wasn't the real deal.

God, I hate Youtube's widescreen embedding. It looks ugly. OIC, it only looks terrible in the preview.  

Tonight is the last episode of Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

I'm still in the denial stage. I still think tonight's episode isn't the last, and that there's a new episode next week. I know it's the last episode (and I know he's leaving to much better pastures in LA), but it hasn't hit me.

I started watching this show when I was a freshman/sophomore in high school back in 1998 (wow ten years). My first impressions were that it was an  entertaining show. Then it ballooned into something of an obsession. Every night at 11:30 (I live in the central time zone so I watched it an hour early. I always LOL when Conan refers to it as a "12:30" show in interviews) I put the tape in my VCR and taped every episode just like I did with the Simpsons before the advent of DVD. If you look at my video tape collection, there are numerous tapes with the labels "Late Night 1", "Late Night 2" and so on. I don't have the heart to tape over those episodes (plus my VCR doesn't work anyway so I can rest easy knowing no one will.) The show represented high school for me. It's cliche to say, but the show really did get me through some tough times. It taught me to laugh at myself, and I always knew if I had a bad day, the show would soothe my pain.

Some people have asked me why I wanted to be a writer. I always give them the backstory of "Well, I loved reading as a kid...whenever we had story writing assignments, I like writing them... I guess it's in my genes because members of my family writes..." True, but the real reason, the true motivator, why I wanted to be a writer was because of show. When I found out Conan was a comedy writer before he became a host, I thought if that's what it takes to how have a show like that, then I need to be a writer. So, sorry family, I wanted to be a writer because of Conan. Since then I've written a lot. Some failures and some successes. I've written short stories, poetry, TV pilots, and essays. In fact, if it wasn't for this show, I probably would be slaving away at the medical school library studying for the big USMLE exam.

I haven't watched the show on television in years. I've been watching periodically on hulu, but I've never forced myself into watching the show five days a week. But I'm watching tonight. I have work tomorrow, but I wouldn't miss this for anything. I'm going to feel like I'm back in high school. I'm not going to cry because coming June 1 he'll take over the Tonight Show, but I'm really going to miss the show. I know The Tonight Show is not going to be the same as Late Night, nor do I want it to. Evolution is a good thing.

As a parting note, I present my favorite remote EVER. I had a huge economics project due in which I had to do a presentation to elementary school kids about jobs in entertainment. This remote was on the night before the presentation, and it cracked me up. I had to be careful because I was laughing so hard that I thought I was going to wake my parents.

The branch hitting Mr. T gets me every time.

When someone comes in to sell a book, it's the store policy to ask for a driver's license or a student ID. So...

ME: May I see your driver's license?

SOME GUY: I have a passport? Is that okay?

ME: Yeah.

Guy goes to his car, gets passport. I type in his identification number.

SOME GUY: Sorry about that. My license was taken away from me. Its a wonder what a little DUI can do.

ME: *remains calm, resiting the urge not to yell at the person* okay...

It's amazing how many people drive up to the store and not have their driver's license. Scary.

This New Years holiday has been both joyous and depressing. I worked on New Years Eve, but I still managed to stay up and party although I was falling asleep in some instances.  I can't believe this decade is almost over, but here's to a much better 2009.

2008 has been a lukewarm year for me. It's the year I got a new job. I lucked out because I got it before the current economic crisis. I'm thankful I have a job, but I'm unhappy. My creative output has been in an all time low. I wrote two stories in 2008. Two. What the hell? I need to get back on my writing track. I know I can balance work and writing.

I don't make resolutions because I never keep them, but here are some that I want to stick to:

1. Get a new job. I can't stress how important this is. I'm tolerating it more, but I want to leave ASAP. Time to move on to greener pastures.

2. Send some stories or at least revise the old ones from college. I read one two days ago, and I was amazed by how awesome it was. With a little revision, it can go a long way.

3. Start eating healthier. I used to, but because of numerous problems, I ate the wrong foods. Also, I need more exercise. Walking and picking up merchandise is not working out.

4. Finally, updating this journal more. Last month, I had one entry. My life is so boring that I often wonder if people will even read about my mundane lifestyle. I'll try to become more social. I miss the days when I talked to people on LJ.

Huh, so those tour dates were real:


Looks like I'll be coming to work late on April 1st. I don't know who's going with me though. I may go alone, but that's no fun. :(

Saw the Britney documentary yesterday. I really liked it, and I will admit it got me teary eyed at the end.

Finally, after days of procrastinating, I finished updating my resume. I'm ready to GTFO of my job. I know finding a job is much harder now than it was months ago, but anything is better than the hellhole I'm in now. I hate working retail and I hate my boss. He's an unfunny version of Michael Scott from The Office.

I'm going back to pursuing my dream of getting a professional writing job. I came close several times---you may remember the auction house saga earlier this year, or the medical editing job I interviewed for a year ago (God, has it been that long?). How about the Hotels.com travel writer job? I don't know if I talked about that one, but it came to the same conclusion.

I also don't mind having a side job writing for a blog where I'm constantly under deadlines. Gives me much needed motivation. I also need to write more sample material as I've been lacking in that department. My writing journal hasn't been updated since I started the job.  My sucky job keeps me busy. It's funny because when I'm at work, I'm bored because I'm finished with my work quickly. I try making up little projects that keep me busy. Plus if the boss sees that I'm lingering around the store, He'll get on my back. I hate when he does that.

I'm ready to move on.  I don't think I can handle another month of the job.

I miss TGIF. Someday I'll make it my life's mission to convince the ABC brass to reinstate it.

I haven't updated my other journal (my writing...okay fanfiction journal) lately because I haven't had the inspiration to do so. Since I got my job, I've been terribly behind with my writing. Not that it was good to start with, but any writing is good practice.

Over the weekend, I re-read my one and only Edgeworth/Phoenix fic "Early Morning". God, if you really, really want to read it then here. LOL. I don't know what I was on when I wrote it, but reading it makes me want to revise it. It's not that bad. Could be better. I got one more Phoenix Wright story left in me, and when I have the time, I'll post it.  I can't give an estimated time because my job makes my life difficult.

And what became of the Youtube channel I created?

No progress. I haven't been able to get the equipment to transfer the stuff from VHS to the computer. I got the gist of how to do it, but again time is an issue. I'll dedicate one weekend to do it. I want to get at least one video on it by the end of this year.

*Looking at mood theme* Crap, I missed the season premiere. Time to watch it at hulu.com.

I hate having a job in retail. I had to work today. On Labor Day...

Before that, I had to work a week straight because it was the fall rush season. I get in at 8 and leave at 9. The place barely had the AC on so I was sweating my ass off working the registers.  Plus, you have customers complaining about the prices of books, and for some god unknown reason, old ladies hate me. I've had two ladies over the age of 50 get upset at me over refunds or buybacks.

Help me.

Wow, I had one post in the month of August. Shows you how much this job has taken over my life.

I've written so many negative posts about my job. So, how about mentioning a positive, a perk if you will, about my job. Sounds great, no?

Last week, a timid man entered the store carrying a box. I was too frazzled with buybacks (it's that time of the summer when students try to sell their textbooks in hopes of a bountiful cash reward) so I didn't notice him quietly tip-toeing his way to the register.

"Hi," he said, "I'm from across the street. Please have some donuts on us."

The man owns a donut shop near by the store. He gave me a box filled with all kinds of donuts and his card. Free donuts. Awesome.

And this past Wednesday, a man came into the store carrying a large box filled with sandwiches. I got a free sandwich. It was a small sandwich, but a decent and delicious small sandwich. Free lunch. Also awesome.

As you may guess, one of the perks is free samples of food. It's actually the only perk I can think of. I don't think the newly acquired low self-esteem counts as a positive.

I had a bad day at work yesterday. I don't feel like getting into the details of it, but let's just say things went horribly wrong. I'm almost a month into this job. You'd think I'd be used to it by now, but no. Thankfully, my co-workers support me. It's good to have people to talk to when I'm feeling down.

To ease my disappointment, I went with my cousins to not one, but three different bookstores---Half-Price Books, Barnes and Noble, and Borders. A dream come true. It wasn't my idea, though. My cousin had to buy some books for summer reading.

My cousin has to read Cyrano de Bergerac and Siddhartha for summer reading. Cyrano I've read before in Theater I, but Siddhartha I had never heard of before. I like to think of myself as being knowledgeable in all types of literature, both global and domestic, but I was clueless of the works of Hermann Hesse. Since my cousin bought two copies of Siddhartha (don't ask why), she gave me a copy. I'll read it as soon as I finish reading Fight Club, which is a fantastic book.