What is "Second Life"?

Is your life as great as Dwight's?

"Eyewitnessing" the media part 2

Throughout Tuesday I had many more encounters with the media. I was watching the news for half the time that I had been watching television. The rain (though good for us) was a bit of a horror because of how much there was, the flash flood warnings, and even some tornado warnings in counties near Spartanburg. What I got from the people who cover these things is that we should not take our local news and weather crews for granted. They are hard-working and sometimes have to work long, hard hours at the radio or television stations. They are letting us know that they are examining the weather situations so that we do not have to examine them. Some will go to great lengths to let us know of severe weather. They go to these great lengths when they probably risk angering a lot of people by cutting into their favorite programs with 10-15 minute long weather alerts, they may work around-the-clock (double-shift, anyone?) at the station (day until night), and those who are outside get completely soaked, have to risk driving in the huge storm, and sometimes even get nearly blown away from where they are standing.

I did not have a lot of other media encounters, but I did watch a couple of reruns of two television shows, "Two and a half Men" and "The Office." If you read my first part of this blog (or watch the show), you will understand that "Two and a half Men" characters Charlie Harper and Alan Harper both have trouble relating with women. The episode I watched last night was about Charlie dating a woman who seemed to be exactly like him (playing hard-to-get, having a phobia of commitment). The other part of the show was about Alan having to talk his son, Jake Harper (Angus T. Jones), into doing his homework early on the weekends (and generally doing homework). Jake reminds me of a lot of other people that I knew when I was his age. They will lie to get out of anything, put everything off until the last minute, and I guess you could say their saying was "Fun first, work last." (Hey I was kind of like that, too!) The episode I watched of "The Office" was kind of a battle between the white-collar man and the blue-collar man. Both the office and the warehouse workers (at Dunder-Mifflin, a paper plant) were holding safety seminars. Here comes Dunder-Mifflin regional manager Michael Scott (Steve Carell) who tries to find ways to prove that working in an office can be just as "dangerous" as working in a warehouse (where, because of the machinery and physical work, more serious accidents could happen-including one caused by Michael in an earlier episode). When the office workers had their safety seminar, human resources representative Toby Flenderson (Paul Lieberstein) was naming things that someone working in an office should do to stay healthier (take a walk for ten minutes, leave the computer screen for two minutes, wearing something long-sleeved to stay warm in a cool environment). Michael tries to counter by using Internet statistics that say that working in an office can cause depression. Depression is known to lead to suicide. Obviously the dangers of working in an office are more subtle and not as visual as those of working in a warehouse. Michael tries to prove his point with the help of Assistant (to the) Regional Manager Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) by faking a jump off the top of the building (with a trampoline and a jumping castle on the ground). It is a pretty funny episode; for those of you who have not watched this episode, I will not give you anymore details. I will be bringing you my media encounters for Wednesday later this evening or Thursday morning.

Total Randomness

Hey friends, yesterday I was thinking of some random thoughts while I was spending time with my mom and hanging out at Olive Garden and downtown on Thursday. Here are those thoughts:

I am now officially a computer solitaire addict! Anytime I'm on here to use the Internet or to blog (like I am now), I always play at least 5-10 games of solitaire. It is addictive as playing with paint, any kind of photoshop-type applications, just typing random things (DWIGHT DWIGHT DWIGHT DWIGHT), or when I manage Web pages. I told my mom about this and she said that her boyfriend started out as a solitaire addict and now he is an online/computer poker addict. Could I be heading down that road?? Well...like I said to her, there are worse things to which I could be addicted.

I mentioned in my previous blog that I read two articles in the Link (one about a film school, the other about speed dating) and the one about speed dating was one where the reporter said she would try anything once. Well I like to think I usually have that mentality, too (at least unless it's drugs or something)...I tried swing dancing the other night (and almost didn't), and I loved it. I've thought about taking some film classes (because I love making videos/cinematography). I tried racquetball for the first time this summer and am going to try shagging on Sunday evening (God willing). The Link's speed dating article made me think more about how I approach and interact with other people.

I also was thinking about some of the random things that can happen to you while you are at work. Because of the new Star Wars movie being in theaters, there were some people who voluntarily dressed as Star Wars characters. A guy (or a woman with a deep voice) dressed as Darth Vader stood by me while I tore tickets. I introduced a couple of customers to "my friend, Darth Vader" and introduced him to "my customers". Also, work can be very interesting. My co-worker Jamie and I experienced a couple of "amazing" customers the other day (Tuesday). One of them was this man (whose name escapes me) and he supposedly really got into his emotions when he forgot his "Regal Crown Club Card or something" and then he introduced himself to me (and Jamie..."JD"), shook our hands, and had a grin a mile-wide on his face that I think mine extended to two miles! Another group of four came up there from Greenville (because apparently they didn't want to be "seen" around their town) and were they a "scene" in this one! They were very nice, yet crazy, people. Also, work can be as boring as it is interesting. Fortunately, Jamie and I have two best friends at work...their names are Paper Clips and Bubble Wrap. Jamie and I would sneak and pop bubble wrap bubbles when there were no main managers around/no people who were prone to strokes/heart attacks/annurisms/seizures. Jamie also made everyone necklaces (with 3-D pyramids as the stones) out of paper clips. That was such a fun, random day!

Well thanks pals for tuning in...I'm now signing off and will resume my "blogcast" day sometime tomorrow afternoon or evening. Until then, have a pleasant good night...and good morning.