I'm still here

...but I've been tired and grumpy lately, which doesn't make for good blog posts.

A while ago, I thought about stockpiling some draft posts for exactly this kind of situation, but I got through just one of them before I gave up the idea. (This isn't it, by the way.) It was just...blah. Actually more boring than this post.

Been working the day shift at work this week...it's so weird seeing daylight when I'm leaving for the day.

Having finished my St. Olaf Choir home concert tape conversion project...I need a new hobby-type diversion. Preferably something that doesn't cost anything...

Random St. Olaf Choir memory

SCENE: After choir rehearsal, some time during my senior year at St. Olaf

Rob: (Walks up to Dr. Armstrong) Dr. A, can I ask you a stupid question?

Dr. Armstrong: Oh, come on, Rob. There's no such thing as a stupid question.

Rob: Would you like to play Lieutenant Worf at a "Star Trek How to Host a Mystery" party?

Dr. A: (Grabs Rob by his jacket and shakes) It REALLY IS a stupid question!

Dr. A: (pauses)

Dr. A: ...Yes.

And he did. And fun was had by all. Me, Erik, Andrea, Joy, Chris, and Dr. A. Dr. A later commented that one of the weirder things about the evening was being in Mellby Hall, which during his student years at St. Olaf was a women-only dorm.

Progress

Okay, I've managed to record all of my St. Olaf Choir home concert tapes to (rather large) files on the computer. Next: Dig up all my old concert programs, so as to name the new MP3 files correctly.

Since they're somewhere in the basement, this will be an order of magnitude more difficult than actually transferring the tapes in the first place.

I keep on finding things which I had forgotten that I owned. A lot of Neon Genesis Evangelion collectibles -- I bought a lot of them until the last two episodes bent my brain. Star Wars toys bought but never opened -- I can only assume that I had thought they would go up in value, but I don't recall actually thinking that, ever. Lots of bargain CDs, which I have never listened to. (Some of them were purchased from musicians who played at Barnes & Noble, back when I worked there and helped host the Saturday evening music events. They don't do those anymore.)

I'd set up an eBay account, but I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't get jack for most of this stuff.

In which there is not much of substance at all

A few months ago, I had planned out in my head an entry or a series of entries about the history of the Valkyrie/Veritech/Jetfire toy, and had even taken pictures for it. However, I realized in a timely fashion that even I didn't wanna read something like that...

The only thing one would learn from those non-existant entries would be that I bought waaaay too many of these toys.

(Note: Of the three toys pictured, two were sold off before I came home from Japan. Guess which one I kept?)

Uh oh.

I've noticed a small but growing tendency to start conversations at work with phrases such as "Back in MY day..." This is not a good thing. Luckily, when I abruptly stop after saying something like that, everyone else thinks I was making a joke. Or they're just humoring me. Either way, I can deal with that.

Coming up on two years since I put that map thingy on the left side of the page. This year's hit count is more than double last year's count. Thanks to all for reading...

One good thing about a full-time-ish retail job

One good thing about working at a largish retail job for 30-40 hours a week is that it leaves me too tired to go out and spend lots of money on things I don't really need. Even today (Monday), my day off, I was out shopping...and didn't buy anything.

(I'd better get off the internet before I find something I want--too late...)

Random retail complaining

So, when did it become acceptable to open any and all packages in the store, then just leave them there for others to not buy? I know I've been away for the larger part of a decade, but really -- is this all right now?

The more polite people ask me if it's okay to open up something to look at it, but are genuinely surprised when I tell them no. (Some people proceed to open it anyway.)

However, the normal kind of person who does this just rips open things. The more evil kind of people rip open one, then take another still-sealed one.

Lately I've been seeing people unscrew the lotion and hand soap pumps, then pulling the pump entirely out of the bottle to sniff the contents. Sometimes they don't bother tightening the cap again after they decide not to get it, which leads to spillage and entire shelves of product rendered unsellable.

The only other running complaint I've got right now is that people who decide they don't want something after all often not just dump it wherever they are, but also hide it behind whatever's there, as if they were ashamed for doing it. Hey, if you're embarrassed, don't do it! But, I've seen that behavior since my first retail job over 20 years ago, so whatever.

Random thoughts

Just had a mild earthquake here a half-hour ago. Around 3 on the Japanese scale. It felt like a truck passing by, but a few seconds longer, so I decided to check on the Japan Meteorological Agency website (they have a pretty good English page), and saw it there.

Gasoline has dropped to at or below what it cost back when I started driving in Japan two or three years back. ¥118 per liter. However, that's still US$4.66 a gallon...

Japanese TV often has shows where "tarento" (basically, people who are famous for being on these shows) go out into some seldom-visited part of Japan and do...interesting things. Today's show has four or five of them off in Hokkaido, participating in farming activities and traditional Japanese inns.

Oftentimes, these shows use stock music from a variety of sources. I've heard a lot of incidental music from various anime in these shows, plus the occasional pop song, either Japanese or western. (Don't ask me how I recognize the anime music...as if you couldn't figure it out on your own.)

During a segment on cows, milk, and yogurt, they used a song which I recognized immediately -- Innerst i sjelen, by Sissel Kyrkjebø. I thought it odd that a Japanese variety show would use a Norwegian pop ballad for background music, but I guess Sissel is fairly popular here.

I recognized the song because I picked up this album in Northfield back in 1993, prior to traveling to Norway as a member of the St. Olaf Choir. One of our performances was at an outdoor concert in Bergen where she performed as well.