So, after 3.5 years, i'm graduating college...If anyone is in town, graduation is saturday at 2pm...

So, should I honestly feel guilty about being promoted at work because they didn't post it and other people feel as though they deserved a chance.  But if the decision was already made on who to promote, what does it matter if they go through the formalities? Everyone knew it would happen.  I'm sorry, but the corporate world is survival of the fittest and i have learned that the hard way because i am always walked on at work...in fact i took the promotion with no pay raise. it is only to help out...no one complained when i was moved to the dairy dept without that position being posted...sometimes i think people should just leave well enough alone.  I'm sorry that I have open availablity (i.e. i'm willing to work 24/7) and the person who is upset is only willing to work a maximum of 25 hours a week.  but honestly, is being passed up for a promotion that you don't deserve worth crying about? ok, now i'm ranting so i'm done.

Life is depressing in that you realize that you are about to graduate college and the only job you have lined up is something anyone can do.

The day after thanksgiving, most infamously known as "black friday."  Got to love working in retail at that time of year.  Well, after hours of negotiations with 1 supervisor and 2 managers, my schedule was set.  Maybe I should back up...schedules get posted 3 weeks in advance so that we can all make plans accordingly.  Well, i was scheduled to close the service desk (4p-11p). This is after all the sales and we slow down...no problem there.  Well, management wanted me to work blitz (the huge sale that starts at 5am) and who can blame them, when you can scan 700+ items per hour (company average is 400).  So I agreed to work 5a-2p a lovely 8 hour shift with a friday night off which never happens.  Enter the problem. there is no longer anyone to close the service desk. Now we have had 3 weeks to work this out.  Let's fast forward to the day before thanksgiving.  Supervisor comes to me saying that there was no one to close the service desk (apparently i'm the only one out of 300 employees who can close a service desk) so I said that i would work that shift, but management still wants me to work blitz, so i agree to that. Enter problem 2...overtime. Since i'm crazy and poor I have now agreed to work 5-2 and then 4-11.  Then the day of comes and what do i do?  I clock in at 4:30a and take a total of 1.5 hour lunch breaks and get off at 11p (16hours of work, 10 hours of overtime) needless to say, Daniel is very happy about his paycheck coming on thursday...still recovering though.

I sat here and wrote you a letter,
One that I will never send.
The feelings that we onced shared,
Had to come to a bitter end.

I gave you my heart,
Something that I can never take back.
In the end I'm left with a broken heart and a broken dream

You said that I was the type of guy you always wanted,
But fear of me hurting you pushed you away.
You always knew that I loved you,
But I knew you would never stay

I shared with you my dreams,
Hoping that one day they would come true.
But, in the end I'm only left with a broken heart and broken dreams.

You blamed the night on alcohol,
A simple way to hide from the emotions you felt.
Everything you said was a lie,

I gave you my heart,
And told you my dreams.
In the end, everything laid broken,
Both my heart and my dreams.

I know that it has been a while since i've posted something here.  not much has been going on to report on unless you consider that i saw Harry Potter on saturday night, it was pretty good, but i need to reread the book to discover how disappointed i was.  still looking for a job for post graduation (less than 1 month away) but like i said there hasnt been much, but come friday i will probably have funny stories from wal-mart blitz (5am-2pm)

- Daniel

Tuesday I turned 22.  Have I really been around that long? I read these things on the internet about memories people have about being a child of the 80s and tv shows from the early 90s.  I feel old now that Full House and Roseanne can be shown on Nick at Nite (that was always reserved for those boring tv shows from the 50s that gave the idealistic view of the world during the time it was shown to distract from the turmoil around society at the time - I was a smart kid).  Yet, I read something today that was so true and it makes me pity the kids of today.  I had a Super Nintendo and a Commodore 64, so video games were at my disposal, there were always 2 tvs and vcrs in the house, so i could watch "Scooby Doo," "Hey Dude," and "Salute Your Shorts" (against mom's approval).  Yet, I still begged to go outside, the world ended at my friend's house (across the street and over 1 house). Anything outside of that was an adventure.  The front yard was a baseball field and the neighbor's driveway was a full lenght basketball court.  The "woods" behind the house held many mysteries and a great place to take discarded wood and fallen trees to make a fort.  It was a privilege to get to ride my bike around the block.  Playing baseball, there was no stealing, hitting a ball over the house was a foul, if the ball went in the road, the game was stopped to keep the ball out of the drain.  Hit the ball over the tree that was second base was a homerun (note, that was over the tree, not through the tree into the neighbor's yard).  On a rainy day, you had a city in your room made of legos, and you controlled everything...there was no violence, no war, maybe a car crash into a building because it was fun to break what you built just to build it again.  You sat around with your friends with a tape recorder making radio shows and mix tapes of your favorite music.  Sometimes you would sit by your radio for hours waiting for that song to play on the radio so you could record it from there (and now I will probably have the RIAA after me).  Your mom gave you the remaining checks from the account she closed so you could learn how to write them for when you get older and gave you a new game to play.  (of course, now your brother made you write a check for everything you borrowed).  You had chicken pox with your best friend.  To meet the girl you had a crush on in elementry school you ran into at the skating rink (roller skating that is).  When your grandfather dies in his 70s when you are 7 you can accept that he was old and his time to go, but when your grandmother dies in her 70s 13 years later, you think she died so young.  I remember that if you didn't have something, you just pretended you did, or changed the rules to exclude it.  There was no excluding anyone from playing.  All problems could be fixed with kool-aid and popsicles.  Staying up until midnight was the most awesome thing you and your friends did, and seeing that pg-13 movie was the best movie you ever saw (even though you didn't understand half of it).  I remember when i was able to walk outside with my friends and be gone for 6 hours walking through the neighborhood and nobody had to worry...we would come back, or someone would return us after 30 minutes.  The feeling of taking your bike down that hill going super fast was the closest thing to drugs you would ever know about.  Smoking and alcohol were never an issue, that was something grown ups did. 

That is enough rambling for right now...if you remember things different from now and growing up, share.

-Daniel

So, as I was driving to work yesterday I had a deep thought...Have you ever noticed that you never have to think about your turn signal, if you have to push the lever up or down...i mean, i know that up means right and down means left, but I never consciously think about it when I'm driving...it's like breathing, it just happens.  So, because of this observation, I had to spend the next 5 minutes trying to figure out why this was...and then it hit me. If you are driving with your hands in the proper position (2 and 10, or 3 and 9, whatever they are saying today) your left hand goes down for a left hand turn, thus it makes since that the turn signal lever goes down and vise-versa for going right...am i a genius or what.  Oh yeah, i guess i could tell the world that it's my birthday, but that is overrated anyways....

- Daniel

Well, over the past couple of days events have happened that have broken the promise I made to myself.  Following the last relationship which I did not have time for, I decided to jump on the single train for a while with no stops planned...Well, the train didn't stop, but was it ever derailed.  The details are irrelevant, but I must say that going to the movies at 10pm when you know you have be up at 630am is not a smart idea, but it was worth it.

Note: Many people who know me know that I have a negative view on relationships (sometimes with good reason) but this is just something I have noticed....Names omitted to protect whoever is involved.

So, I realized that there is always that one person who you continually tell yourself that you would never date, it would never work out, that you are just better off friends.  Yet, people on the outside keep telling you that you should go for it.  Well, it seems that this person is the one that you always turn back around to everything something goes wrong.  You quit talking to them, but they are there to take you out when you have been screwed by someone else, and the same works in reverse.  No matter how many bad relationships you have, it seems like you always know when to call this person, or they just call you because things don't seem right.  You can never be mad at this person for a long time, but at the same time, you never want to read too much in to the things that go on between you, because chances are that you have over analyzed it and you are just driving down that road where you think things are great, so, clinging to a false hope, you end up breaking your own heart and then blaming that person, yet you will eventually go back to them again and again and you don't know why...for once this is not the negative going back but it is positive.  You look at yourself and say maybe this is the person, but you have been hurt too many times and the things that were said to you by that person and what you said were influenced by an outside source and you just don't want to ruin what you got, you are simply complacent with what you have, maybe you don't want to move forward, you are afraid of what will happen.  Yet, life is all about taking chances, many times you will get hurt, but there is that one time where it works out and you can scream to the world that you have finally found the person you didn't know you were looking for.  That is my view, and chances are, I am wrong....

It has been a while since I posted anything so I decided I should give people a look into the deep thoughts I have driving back and forth from Nashville...You hear a song on the radio and you realize that is how your life seems to be.  We live in a fast paced world where nobody has time for anyone else (yep...I'm guilty of that).  Yet, as I drive down the interstate I look around me and there are hundreds of cars stuck in the same traffic I am in, yet I am all alone.  I have secluded myself from the world by rolling up the windows and allowing myself to drown in a sea of music.  I have decided that my life can best be summerized as being a stranger among friends.  This is evident in two ways.  The first is when you go back home and all your high school friends are talking about people and events that you have no clue about.  The second is that you come to realize that you no longer have the connection you once felt with your friends.  It seems that no matter how often you spend with your friends you feel like an outsider and completely out of place.  So as I walk on campus today, I will look and see the groups of people deep (or shallowly) in conversation I will will walk on...traveling alone...moving to the next venture in my life.

Well, here I sit again on another Tuesday here at the office of RLM Mission Management.  So far, I have ran a few errands and that about sums it up. Not too much is going on in life other than work, which I complain enough about here.  So just to give the benefit of the doubt, I decided to give a positive point of Wal-Mart...note, this took some time to think up and execute, but it worked. 

I will start by giving the moral of the story: "When the system continually screws you, it will eventually screw itself."

Let's think way back to May of this year...ok, now that we have gone back 5 months, this is the time they decided that I would better serve the company in dairy. Now, at that time, I was a level 4 employee moving to a level 3 position (in turn = pay cut).  Well, they promised me no pay cut, which was fine until 2 months into the deal, when they told me they "had" to change my job code because I did not work 50% of my hours up front at the service desk anymore. I of course said no to a pay cut.  Well, this went on for a few weeks, when it was discoved that my pay class had changed, but the pay cut never went into effect.  This is where I started thinking, if the pay grade changed and didn't cut, could I go up in pay class and get the raise? (Note: this is $0.20 we are talking about which is $8/week, so I'm not breaking the company). So after another month of negotiations and talks of moving back up front because being one of the fastest cashiers (no ego here, just fact, if you want proof, the company average for items per hour is roughly 400-450, I typically end an 8 hour day between 750-900 items per hour) would definately serve the company better during Christmas with our short staff.  Well to conclude this never ending story, they moved me up front, and I signed off on the changes, and lo and behold, Daniel finally got a raise and is closer to making what he thinks he deserves.

In other news...no that's it... time to go to school...thank you my 5 loyal readers more to come, and maybe next time I will have a humorous ancedote (hopefully that is the right word) to share ...

As I drove home from work today I was listening to my XM radio and who should I hear but Faith Hill.  The song was "Someone Else's Dream" and there was a line in it that may me realize my position in life is...

"All my life I've been pleasing everyone but me, living someone else's dream."

It isn't really all that bad being the guy that people fall back on when a relationship goes south, or when they simply need help, but sometimes I wonder when will it be my turn.  It seems as though the people that come to me eventually become happy because I was there to listen, there to take them out, there to do random stuff for them when they felt alone or simply needed stuff.  I have reached out and given money that I didn't have, time I needed for other stuff, and sometimes I just wonder when will someone do that for me. Now don't take this as me complaining because I normally offer to do these things. I just want people to be happy, but does it always have to be at my expense.  Right now, I am holding a dog for someone until she gets some stuff together, and finds a new place to live, but I don't know how long I will be keeping him, and everyone keeps asking what's in it for you...money, a date...but the truth is that I don't want anything,
Well, I sound really whining right now, so I'm off to bed for the night.

- Daniel

Well, it is finally fall break, so i decided that i went and got some sleep.  I don't understand why i fell asleep at 930 but getting up at 10am is great. Any how, I went and saw "A History of Violence" (minus 2 inappropriate scenes, it definately gave me my fill of violence for the week). The only thing that I thought about was that the movie definately demonstrated that no matter what happens or circumstances occur, we cannot escape the past in which we used to live.  You can't run and hide because there is always someone there to remind you who you once were.  No matter how hard you try, you cannot kill the person you used to be.  Well, with that being said, it is time to shower and prepare to give my soul back to the corporate devil (aka wal-mart).

- Daniel 

So, another week, another post. Actually i'm sitting outside my internship because of course i am again early. so i have a little bit of time on my hands and it is either post to phusebox, or do homework...let's see what won out. I mean i did choose to scrub a toilet on monday night instead of studying for a mid-term...but you don't need to know about that. So the title of the post. i figure that if i keep telling myself over and over again, that i love my job (as in wal-mart) i will eventually convince myself that it is true. Let's see, i decided to take saturday off as a day of rest...which was great, until you i decided to let management talk me into working from 6am - 10pm on sunday...then on monday, i learned that management doesn't care about profits because they don't see fit to keep unstaffed areas stocked (i.e. the milk) therefore, caring about making some serious money (like that will ever happen) i wasted (i stress the word) my last break and glimpse of sanity to restock the milk, now if i can put out 82 cases of milk (multiplied by 4 gives you the # of gallons) in under 15 minutes, why can't someone else take 5 minutes out of there sitting around doing nothing 3 times to insure that it is still there...unfortunately this put me in a bad mood and the person working service desk had to get the bad end of the stick. but i'm making it up to her, i'm taking her out next thursday (suck up points i know) but as soon as i graduate and find a real job (i.e. anything not wal-mart) my life will be better. well that is all for now...

- Daniel

P.S. have you ever had someone put a message on your wall on facebook that you supposedly went to high school with but can't find a picture of them because all their profile pictures are groups and they remembered a nickname you had in 9th grade but can't for the life of you remember who that person was?

Inspired by the following quote for Tommy Boy:

"Let me tell you why I suck as a sales man. Let's say I go into some guy's office and let's say he's even remotely interested in buying something. Well then I get all excited I'm like Jojo the idiot circus boy with a pretty new pet. The pet is my possible sale. Oh , my pretty little pet, I love you. So I stoke it, and I pet it, and I massage it, hehe I love it, I love my little naughty pet, you're naughty. Then I take my naughty pet and I go [makes ripping noises as he tears apart the roll] Uuuuuuh. I killed it. I killed my sale. That's when I blow it. That's when people like us gotta forge ahead, Helen, am I right?"

I decided to talk about why i suck as a person. Now before everyone (my 2 readers) get offended, i must explain. I don't honestly think that I suck as a person, it's the unique ability i have to be the perfect doormat for the world. I am giving up my day of sanity and relaxation to babysit a 2 year old (who is probably the most awesome 2 year old i know) but i don't know when i will get to leave. so assuming i leave roughly at 11 pm that does not help with me going to work on sunday morning at 6am, because they are short in dairy in the morning, so now instead of working from 1pm-10pm on sunday i am now working 6am-10pm...sounds like a fair trade off to me. and on top of that, i really need to be working on my online course, i'm looking for a job, i've got a midterm on tuesday that i don't know when i will get to study for. why can't i just have a 72 hour day and then i can get everything under the sun done.

enough ranting...

-Daniel

photo from darnett5878

Well, this was e-mailed to me today by my brother. That is my new niece or nephew, will find out soon.

So my brother calls me yesterday to tell me that him and his wife are going to have a baby in April (Due Date: April 20) although after some information from me, he doesnt want the baby born on that day....why wouldn't anyone want their child to share a birthday with Hitler? Anyways, he is suppose to call me back in about 4 weeks to tell me the sex of the baby. Wow, I really can't see myself being called Uncle Daniel, but I guess I will just have to get used to it, I mean I'm still not use to the fact that he is actually married. Well, if the baby is born on 4/20 then I guess I just have to take a toke for the new arrival.

Have you ever just realized that you have taken on way too much and that life is just crashing around you. You find that you have to schedule outings with your friends roughly 3 weeks in advance and there is only one night a week that you have open, so you end up disappointing people because you can't fit them in until sometime in Novemeber. But not to fear, as of right now, my 2006 calendar is wide open, but i can only fill it in in pencil as I do not know where i will be come january. Anyways, lack of sleep, food and a whole bunch of crap that i'm dealing with leads me to my sarcastically happy life.

- Daniel

So I know it has been a long, long time since I last made a post, so everyone (like the 3 people who may or may not actually read this) is just dying to know what has been going on with me...in one word, nothing. All I have been doing is work, school, internship, work at the library and filling in my few hours of free time weeks in advance. Somewhere in there I had a girlfriend, but that only lasted a month (sidenote: it was me who ended it). In other news, I went to the rascal flatts concert on the 24th, and it was a good show. If there is anything else you want to know, just ask, and i'll try to get back to you within the week.

- Daniel