skwirl's Diaries
Print Story Hope is the most valuable thing I own
Help!
By Skwirl (Tue Oct 17, 2006 at 04:28:03 PM EST) cats, hope, kitty, emergency, vet, jobs (all tags)
September and October were a greyscale fog, highlighted only by crystal pink moments of playing my Goodwill Dreamcast and googooing at our calico white, orange and black-spotted kitty. Occasionally pierced red by heartrending anxiety about her post-August recovery from kitty pneumonia.

She came with the name: Hope.


(1 comment, 1103 words in story) Full Story

Print Story Hey Seattle! If I wanted to sleep on a mattress on the floor, I coulda stayed home
Diary
By Skwirl (Sat Jul 22, 2006 at 05:50:10 PM EST) (all tags)
Well, I had to take my vacation this week or I'd risk losing it. I had a free ride to Seattle available. It also turned out that the dirtiest, hippiest hostel up here will give you cheap rent if you agree to work 2.25 hours a day.

So, knowing full well that the savings from the work would add up to the equivelent of $5.22 an hour wage, I set out to leave my hot, hot girlfriend behind for Seattle.

Why on God's Earth would I do something so stupid? Why? Why?

Ennui.


(13 comments, 565 words in story) Full Story

Print Story Second Life, First Impressions
Diary
By Skwirl (Tue Mar 14, 2006 at 04:20:50 PM EST) (all tags)
Or: Welcome to the hypercapitalist police state!

(2 comments, 1188 words in story) Full Story

Print Story Heartbroken about my friends in the military
Diary
By Skwirl (Fri Feb 24, 2006 at 03:51:02 PM EST) (all tags)
It's been one of those shit hitting the fan kind of months. I had a ton of bureucratic and landlord issues spring up at once and I'm fending them off slowly one at a time. There's a big work deadline that I haven't been diligent with, but I think we'll make it. My step-mom (Dad's wife) is due to have brain surgery at OHSU on Tuesday. I was catching up on two of my friends' blogs and they both had recent posts about impending deployment to Afghanistan.

(5 comments, 586 words in story) Full Story

Print Story New favorite ______!
Diary
By Skwirl (Tue Nov 15, 2005 at 12:55:20 PM EST) (all tags)
New favorite web site;new favorite gadget;new favorite candy; new favorite ...

(4 comments, 210 words in story) Full Story

Print Story Free money!
Diary
By Skwirl (Thu Nov 03, 2005 at 11:46:32 AM EST) (all tags)
Uh, so I got an Emigrant Direct savings account today and I'm thinking, since we're in that grey area of momentum where interest rates are doing better but credit card companies are still trying to hook stupid people with 0% APR, why wouldn't a smart person get one of those 0% cards, max it out if the 0% works for cash (usually not, but once upon a time my bank sent me some 0% APR cheques) or at least live off it long enough to put mucho smackers into a high-yield savings account for the duration of the 0% APR?

(4 comments, 111 words in story) Full Story

Print Story I still believe that people are really good at heart... Of course, Anne Frank never worked retail
Diary
By Skwirl (Mon Aug 01, 2005 at 06:58:29 PM EST) (all tags)
This is probably one of those entries that people will look back on six months from now and go, "Wow, things were going really good for him, it's too bad he got hit by that cement truck."

  • New job!
  • No more old job!!
  • New bike!
  • Takin' a month off!!!
  • Going to Utah!!!!

(3 comments, 511 words in story) Full Story

Print Story Dick Cheney gave me his pen
Diary
By Skwirl (Wed Jun 08, 2005 at 10:23:00 PM EST) (all tags)
Honest. To. Fucking. God. Sure, it was actually one of his minions who gave it to me and, sure, she was one of my nicest customers at the copy shop all week and, sure, I actually gave her kick-ass customer service, but, GAAAAAHGHGHGHGHGH. The only reason I'm keeping it is because I'm trying to think of a sufficiently cathartic disposal for the thing. I'm thinking Fourth of July kablooey would be nice. Ooo, maybe then mail it back to the bugger.

Did I mention how much I hate my job? No. Really.  I do.


(5 comments, 710 words in story) Full Story

Print Story I hate, hate, HATE the spineless media
Diary
By Skwirl (Wed Mar 23, 2005 at 05:19:49 PM EST) (all tags)
OoooOoooo, Terry Schiavo. That's NEWS. Hyup. Because it's not like people don't die every freaking day and it's not like people don't have their fucking feeding tubes removed every fucking day because their legal guardian said so. Hello? HELLO? Every fucking day. Thousands. It's probably how most of us First Worlders will die, assuming that civilization doesn't collapse or that the Fundamentalist Right doesn't revert medical science back to leeches and demon-removing head drills. Scary but true and, more importantly NOT NEWS.

Michael Jackson. NOT NEWS. Mmmm 'kay?

And for flying fuck's sake, don't fucking apologize to the fucking outrage talking-point ditto machine because you posted a picture of some musk ox, mmm'kay?

Mmm, yes, yes, we're all five years old and we can't determine opinion from fact.


(2 comments, 198 words in story) Full Story

Print Story Resume resumé
Diary
By Skwirl (Sat Feb 05, 2005 at 03:12:58 PM EST) (all tags)
I actually found my coworkers' livejournals the other day. Pretty tame stuff, actually. I've had waaaaay worse customers, but I almost always turn them around by the end of the encounter, which is why I'm so goldarned pissed off. At the copy shop, I'm constantly saving the butts of complete morons who make waaaaaaay more money than me. By even conservative accounts I'm not being paid what I'm worth. In fact, I pretty much make as much as your average unskilled grocery bagger. So yeah, I'm retouching my resumé.

Wah. Why'd this inept culture have to fill my childhood head with the lies of meritocracy? I'd be so much happier (and therefore more complacent to society) if they hadn't.


(9 comments, 685 words in story) Full Story

Next 10 >>