Practical Penumbra

I owe it all to Romy and Michelle

Here I am, my one day off this week, I've got a gazillion things to do, and I just want to veg. Why on earth did I schedule the store meeting for today? Oh, it was because today was the only day someone didn't have band practice or a softball game or have to work at their other job (most all of my employees are either high school students or moonlighting. Hard to believe that no one wants to sling popcorn as a career... Even the two young men who are post high school and don't have a "day" job just work for beer money. Neither one views the theater as a step up the corporate ladder to a better life. Interestingly, they are my two best workers. Go figure.) So I have to organize my day into pre-meeting and post-meeting slices. And one of the things I need to do pre-meeting is write up an agenda.

I'm not procrastinating, honest. I've just been too busy to do more than scribble cryptic phrases on post-it notes as thoughts occur to me, and now I need to assemble the reminders into some sort of coherent presentation--if I can find all the notes.

I also have homework out the wazoo, laundry looming its repulsive visage, and a baby shower for my sister to organize. That's just what I can remember mid-coffee. I have lists somewhere. On post-it notes.

Time to assemble the paper trail....

Kids today....

What the heck is yugioh? That's what my nephew wants for his birthday--yugioh cards. I googled it, but I'm still lost. What ever happened to pokemon cards? What about matchbox cars or lego? I know what they are...

What ever happened to Teddy Ruxpin?

Piffle!

I hate IE. I'll tell you why. I posted a quiz the day before yesterday and it made my sidebar go away. But I didn't know that until a little while ago when the Music Plasma link I got from Harvey wouldn't display right in Mozilla so I pulled up my site in IE to go to Harvey's to follow the link again. And my sidebar was somewhere underneath the posts. I have no idea what's in (or not in) the quiz script to make it so it looks fine in Mozilla but fubars my site completely in IE, so I changed it back to draft until I can figure out what's up.

I don't have time for this excrement.

Oh--and it's not Mozilla at Music Plasma after all--the site doesn't have scroll bars in IE either...

UPDATE: I think I got it--I had to add and remove "center" and "end center" tags all over the place. I probably should have fixed their spelling of "ingredients" while I was at it...Oh, well....

A quiz?!? I haven't studied!

Which Extremity of the World Are You?
From the towering colossi at Rum and Monkey.

Maybe I should have said "yes" when asked if I harbour whales....

Hoisted from Harvey

How to make a Susie

Ingredients: 5 parts intelligence 5 parts ambition 3 parts leadership

Method: Layer ingredientes in a shot glass. Add a little cocktail umbrella and a dash of lustfulness

Username:

Personality cocktail
From Go-Quiz.com

After seeing that last mixing instruction, I suspect Harv actually wrote this one...

Posted by Susie at 05:23 PM | Comments (1)

Now is the time on Sprockets when we dance....

I think I'm getting bealy. I had plenty of time to blog today since I'm on 6 to midnight, but I just couldn't. The Dreaded Doldrums have me! Auuggh! Run! Run for your lives!

Still there? Guess I can't start a panic the way I used to....

Okay, click here.

Just call me the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Woman

I woke up thinking today was Thursday. I'm kind of surprised to see that it's June 25th already--that means it's summer, now, right? I've been wandering around looking for a quiz to do in lieu of posting actual content, but nothing appealed to me. I tried the "Which Office Moron Are You?" quiz, but I got "the paranoid boss" and since it's true it wasn't funny. Some days it really sucks to be the boss. Okay, yeah, I do have all this power over others, but I'm just so merciful that it's really not a lot of fun. For example, I could fire one of the clerks for not having their uniform shirt tucked in. Well, I would have to write them up once, and then fire them the second time, but still the opportunity awaits. And I really am tired of nagging those kids to tuck their shirts in. "It's not comfortable!" they whine. "I forgot!" they insist. But honestly, while it would do wonders for my reputation as an all-powerful evil capitalist oppressor to fire someone for not tucking in their shirt, it just strikes me as sort of petty. I'd rather fire someone for a meatier crime, like stealing Goobers or telling a customer to go f*** themselves. So I scheduled a store meeting. I'm the boss, I can do that! I also made the meeting mandatory, so if someone doesn't attend I can fire them. That's a little more fun than the shirt thing (but not as fun as pilfered Goobers). At the meeting I will tell them to start tucking in their shirts or else. Although I expect a smart-ass will ask "or else what?" and then I'm stuck. "Or else I will schedule another meeting!" doesn't sound like much of a threat.

I'm just too sweet to be so all-powerful.....

The police escort off the property is optional

I had another customer go psycho on me over fifty cents last night. In front of her two kids, too. Why is the 50¢ show the one that attracts the wackos? I can't remember any customers having a psychotic break over the dollar shows.....Maybe I'll start keeping little baggies of small change in the safe, and when someone wants their fifty cents back I'll give 'em a handful of pennies and nickles. Oh! I could keep it in increments of 45¢ and if they actually count it and complain I'll tell them it's the "handling charge".....

Victor's meme

Like the book one, only movies. Got it from Jennifer. The ones I've seen are in bold...

I put them in extended entry....

1. CITIZEN KANE (1941)
2. CASABLANCA (1942)
3. THE GODFATHER (1972)
4. GONE WITH THE WIND (1939)
5. LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962)
6. THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939)
7. THE GRADUATE (1967)
8. ON THE WATERFRONT (1954)
9. SCHINDLER'S LIST (1993)
10. SINGIN' IN THE RAIN (1952)
11. IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946)
12. SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950)
13. THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI (1957)
14. SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959)
15. STAR WARS (1977)
16. ALL ABOUT EVE (1950)
17. THE AFRICAN QUEEN (1951)
18. PSYCHO (1960)
19. CHINATOWN (1974)
20. ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST (1975)
21. THE GRAPES OF WRATH (1940)
22. 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968)
23. THE MALTESE FALCON (1941)
24. RAGING BULL (1980)
25. E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL (1982)
26. DR. STRANGELOVE (1964)
27. BONNIE AND CLYDE (1967)
28. APOCALYPSE NOW (1979)
29. MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (1939)
30. THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (1948)
31. ANNIE HALL (1977)
32. THE GODFATHER PART II (1974)
33. HIGH NOON (1952)
34. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (1962)
35. IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934)
36. MIDNIGHT COWBOY (1969)
37. THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (1946)
38. DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944)
39. DOCTOR ZHIVAGO (1965)
40. NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959)
41. WEST SIDE STORY (1961)
42. REAR WINDOW (1954)
43. KING KONG (1933)
44. THE BIRTH OF A NATION (1915)
45. A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (1951)
46. A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971)
47. TAXI DRIVER (1976)
48. JAWS (1975)
49. SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS (1937)
50. BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (1969)
51. THE PHILADELPHIA STORY (1940)
52. FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (1953)
53. AMADEUS (1984)
54. ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (1930)
55. THE SOUND OF MUSIC (1965)
56. M*A*S*H (1970)
57. THE THIRD MAN (1949)
58. FANTASIA (1940)
59. REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (1955)
60. RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981)
61. VERTIGO (1958)
62. TOOTSIE (1982)
63. STAGECOACH (1939)
64. CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (1977)
65. THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991)
66. NETWORK (1976)
67. THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (1962)
68. AN AMERICAN IN PARIS (1951)
69. SHANE (1953)
70. THE FRENCH CONNECTION (1971)
71. FORREST GUMP (1994)
72. BEN-HUR (1959)
73. WUTHERING HEIGHTS (1939)
74. THE GOLD RUSH (1925)
75. DANCES WITH WOLVES (1990)
76. CITY LIGHTS (1931)
77. AMERICAN GRAFFITI (1973)
78. ROCKY (1976)
79. THE DEER HUNTER (1978)
80. THE WILD BUNCH (1969)
81. MODERN TIMES (1936)
82. GIANT (1956)
83. PLATOON (1986)
84. FARGO (1996)
85. DUCK SOUP (1933)
86. MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (1935)
87. FRANKENSTEIN (1931)
88. EASY RIDER (1969)
89. PATTON (1970)
90. THE JAZZ SINGER (1927)
91. MY FAIR LADY (1964)
92. A PLACE IN THE SUN (1951)
93. THE APARTMENT (1960)
94. GOODFELLAS (1990)
95. PULP FICTION (1994)
96. THE SEARCHERS (1956)
97. BRINGING UP BABY (1938)
98. UNFORGIVEN (1992)
99. GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER (1967)
100. YANKEE DOODLE DANDY (1942)
101. THE CAINE MUTINY (1954)
102. METROPOLIS (1927)
103. PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE (1959)
104. THE JOY-LUCK CLUB (1993)
105. SHREK (2001)
106. TRAINSPOTTING (1996)
107.THE BIG LEBOWSKI (1998)
108. OFFICE SPACE (1999)
109. LILO & STITCH (2002)

I think I should have bolded the ones I haven't seen....

I wish I had a hot rod Lincoln...

Yesterday I had one of those days that cause people to seriously contemplate suicide are somewhat stressful. When the owner dropped by (with his creepy son) on Sunday he rattled off a list of things he wanted me to take care of. Since most of them involved contacting businesses that keep "normal" hours, I couldn't do any of it Monday since I was on 6 to midnight. Tuesday I usually go in at noon during the summer, but yesterday I had to be there at 10:30 am to let in the projector repairman. There'd been a brain-wrap Saturday night and again Sunday afternoon, so I'd yanked that brain out of the platter and thrown it with all of my might to the opposite corner of the projection booth set it aside so we didn't accidentally use it again until it was repaired. The projector tech (who reminds me of Smokey from The Big Lebowski) also had to make some adjustments to the piece of crap used projector "new" projector (from which sundry parts had been falling with gleeful abandon ever since it was installed a few weeks ago).

So I went into work an hour and a half early, and things went downhill from there.

Phone tag. Non-answers. Call backs. Employee drama. Salesmen dropping in. To-do list getting longer rather than shorter. A splice breaking on the header of a movie just as I started it. The next showing starting backwards because my hurried splicing in the dark had resulted in my attaching it wrong-sides-together, meaning I had to stop the movie and re-thread the projector by twisting the film the other way through the gates and re-start the movie before a riot broke out. Pepsi calling for our order while I was starting a movie. Please call back in five minutes. Pepsi calling back in ten minutes, just as I was heading upstairs again to start the next movie, so I sent one of the clerks to do it so I could make sure we get our soda delivery. The movie stopping as soon as he'd started it--but he waited until I was done on the phone to tell me that the patrons had been sitting in the dark for five minutes. My running up the two flight of stairs for the umpteenth time to get that movie going (he'd pushed the wrong button). More phone tag. Trying to do next week's work schedule between crises. Another employee drama. I want my mommy!!!!!!

This job may drive me to drinkin'...

Self-censoring leaves tooth marks in my tongue

Things I've wanted to say this week but didn't:

To my classmates: Our discussion this week would've gone a lot better if the rest of you had read the freakin' chapter!

To the theater owner: This piece of crap projector wouldn't keep breaking down if you'd ponied up for a model built since the Second World War! Oh, and your son creeps me out. Keep him away from here.

To my teacher: Your "Course Content" chapters are a week behind--buy the same text edition you made us buy!

To a customer on the phone: It's obvious you have our newspaper ad in front of you--why are you asking me to verify the movie schedule item by item?

To my Assistant Manager: You are either incredibly stupid or trying your hand at sabotage. And I don't think you're stupid.

So, I'm sure I'm not the only one who has refrained from saying something rude because I was too well brought-up to speak to my mind. Anybody else want to get it off their chest? That's what the comments are for....

Now I just have to remember to buy tickets

I don't know if it was operator error (mine) or equipment failure but we had a brain wrap last night and I had to give passes to 57 people. Then it took me until 1:15 am to get it all sorted out. Splicing the melted frame was a couple-minute job. Winding the movie by hand onto the takeup platter in the 95° projection booth took close to two hours...

Today I'm on noon to midnight. If I win the lottery I'm quitting...

Today's Chuckle

In an email from a friend:

Bill Clinton is getting $12 million for his memoirs. His wife Hillary got $8 million for hers. That's $20 million for memories from two people who for eight years repeatedly testified, under oath, that they couldn't remember anything.

God Bless America!

Next stop: the volcano

I'm having one of those mornings* where the coffee just isn't making any inroads on the daily brain re-inflation program. My thoughts are all fuzzy and I didn't even have any beer last night. At least when you have a hang-over you know you probably had a good time the night before. I can usually blog on auto-pilot while the blessed caffeine is saturating my dessicated brain cells, but it took one and a half cups to get me to that--uh, this?--point today.

I just mentally composed a paragraph. Didn't type it as I thought it. Don't remember it now. There is a serious disconnect here. Of course, I think much faster than I type, even when those thoughts are aswim in layers of thick fluffy cotton wool, but usually I remember to at least start typing when I start thinking...either the typing eventually catches up, or a new direction finishes the forgotten original concluding words.

Need more coffee.

The latest issue of We-Hate-Business Week has an article on blogging. Something about Microsoft encouraging its employees to blog on company time. I forget why I brought that up.

Do you ever worry that you had a stroke but didn't realize it at the time? Although I suppose that were my brain difficulties attributable to such a cause there would be physical impairment clues. Since all my limbs seem to be in normal (such as it is) working order, that's probably not why I'm having trouble concentrating.

Yesterday for lunch I had a McDonald's Happy Meal with apple slices instead of french fries and milk instead of pop. I ordered it for the toy. And for research, since I think I'm going to do my final paper (the 14 page one) analyzing McD's new Healthier Menu strategy. But mostly for the toy. I've been playing Neopets for three years now and they are giving out Neopets toys.

Yes, my guilty secret is finally revealed--no, not the fonts photo, the fact that a grown woman spends some of her precious spare time feeding and clothing and housing virtual critters...

*when you work for a movie theater, anything after noon but before 6pm is still morning.

I need new shoes

I want to be witty and amusing so my readers will be glad they stopped by to see what I'm up to, but I have CLA (cerebral literary arrest). It's actually not as bad as the dreaded beal, but some medical professionals have identified its symptoms as a precursor to beal in certain cases. Other medical professionals have determined that beal is actually an early warning sign of CLA, while yet another group has stated conclusively "We don't care."

Apathy. Another symptom of beal.

Strategic Mismanagement

I hate this class. It is the worst class with the worst text I have suffered through so far in my quest for the Holy Grail my Master's degree. As icing, all my free time is taken up with these stupid 4 page papers that are due every two weeks. They are agonizing to write because there is nothing of substance about them--four pages of double-spaced, 12 point Times New Roman bull excrement. And the more redundant my prose, the higher grade I get. To wit:

Microsoft needs to seriously address its security flaws issue. Grade: "C"

Microsoft has security flaws. These security flaws cause problems. These problems are a result of Microsoft's security flaws. Microsoft needs to fix their secuirty flaws so they won't have problems. Grade: "B"

I fear I will never be able to master the fifth grade prose style necessary to achieve an "A" in this class unless I get my eleven-year-old niece to write my papers for me.

I have one more page of double-talk to compose for this week's exercise in futility, and then the class will be half over, thank God! Those who can't do, teach. Those who can't teach, teach Graduate Business...

Terrorist Olympic Events

That's this week's Alliance Assignment. I took time away from my busy day off (homework mostly--blech!) to outline a few of the events in the track and field venue...

Mens 4x100m relay: a live grenade is passed instead of a baton. The team that makes it to the second hundred meters wins.

Shot Put: a ball of C-4 is used. Merriment ensues.

Long Jump: whoever jumps the farthest before their shoe bomb goes off wins the gold.

50 yard blindfolded hostage dash: For entertainment purposes only.

All medals are awarded posthumously.

Rant part one

I think I mentioned before that my textbook for the current class came with a thirteen issue subscription to Business Week. I think I also mentioned that I have noticed a "slight" liberal bias in this periodical's prose. The latest issue has a "tribute" to Ronald Reagan, and they don't even attempt to disguise their trashing of his legacy. I can sum up the entire article for you: Reagan did some stuff, but Clinton was better. I kid you not. Reagan cut taxes, but Clinton raised them and that was better. Reagan reduced the number of families living in poverty, but Clinton did it better.

While Reagan can't be blamed for globalization or other big economic shifts, he did little to ease the transition for workers.

Oh no! There was something that Reagan couldn't be blamed for! What are we going to do??? Well, let's make up a new roll for government--easing worker transition! Why, everyone knows that the government creates jobs, so the fact that Reagan didn't bother to make some new cushy union jobs for displaced workers just proves he was evil!

It's as if there is a law requiring every journalistic mention of any Republican to be cast in as derogatory as possible a light. Every good statement about a Republican must have a qualifying opposite, no matter how far-fetched. Every good statement about a Democrat is already "balanced" and therefore does not require qualifying....

Must go to work. To be continued....

Susie van Winkle

I have a little rant that I want to vent, but just about the time my coffee had reinflated my brain sufficiently to warrant usage of that organ, another wave of violent thunderstorms hit [we had a dilly of a series of storms yesterday while I was at work--the lights even flickered a few times and some streets flooded] and I had to turn off the computer. Naturally, I went back to bed so I could listen to the rain battering against the windows and the thunder rumbling like the world's biggest bowling tournament while I snuggled under the covers. Now that the storm has passed and the sun reasserted itself, I have to go to work. So be patient--it'll be worth the wait!

The media have no agenda!

I have to leave for work in 15 minutes, but I just had to point out this post of Blackjack's--the U.N. admitted Iraq had WMDs at the time of our invasion. Huh. Wonder why it's not all over the CBS evening news?

Off to the saltmines

I took my car over to get the muffler fixed, and the reason it suddenly got so loud yesterday was the tailpipe fell off. I hope no cars behind me got into an accident swerving to avoid it. Of course, it was probably so rusty they could drive over it and it would collapse into dust.

I'm on 6 to midnight today, and noon to midnight tomorrow, so if I don't blog, don't start worrying about me until Tuesday....

Friday Night Horror Fest

I had one of those horrible days where a hundred little irritations just piled up until I wanted to scream. This included, but was not limited to, one of the exit doors being unopenable because someone (it was "not me" as far as I was able to determine) turned the little bent wrench thingee we use to lock the doors too far, causing the latch to stay stuck even when you press on the "panic bar;" the rope we use to tie off one of the theaters when we clean was stolen, and this time whoever took it went so far as to unscrew the hook in the wall it was tied to and take that, too; we ran out of receipt paper for the registers, and on the way back from Office Depot my muffler decided to cease functioning; and the usual morons and idiots called and stopped by to try my patience, including a marketing rep who wanted to do a cross-promotion involving ice cream. When I whacked my head on an open projector door, I locked myself in the restroom in the projection booth and had a good cry (while holding a wet paper towel to my head).

I definitely need a vacation.

I need a vacation

I've been neglecting my blogging and giving short shift to my blog reading lately, but I don't think it's beal--I think it's time pressures; since I can only blog from home, and I'm spending less time here due to the summer movie schedule, and I have to spend some of my limited at-home time attending my internet class and doing homework, blogging and keeping up with my blogroll are suffering. And with the new theater and the fact that we can now show three movies at the same time instead of two, even my down-time at work has been reduced. Unfortunately, the more time I have to spend upstairs threading projectors, the less time I have to spend downstairs supervising the plague of 16-year-old boys God smote me with. Yesterday I came down from threading three shows and discovered them playing ball in the lobby with a two-by-four (left over from the construction) and a haki-sak. No candy was injured, fortunately. Rather than offering to umpire I made them sweep and stock.

Screeching "Work!" at them constantly is turning me into a harpy....

For your reading pleasure

The Bard of Munu presents the Carnival of the Vanities where he praises the prose-proud with his pleasing poetry.

Call me Beatrice

Well, my day off flew by, and my work week starts again in less than 12 hours. There is a reason they call the summer "the grind" in the theater biz....

Everybody's taking the Dante's Inferno test again (which I took over a year ago and scored Purgatory, but was on bogsplot at the time and couldn't post pics) so I will, too...

The Dante's Inferno Test has sent you to Purgatory!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	High
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	High
Level 2 (Lustful)	Moderate
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Moderate
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Low
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very Low
Level 7 (Violent)	Moderate
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Moderate
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Very Low

Take the Dante Inferno Hell Test

I think they've changed the questions since I last took it, though--I had to lie on a couple of 'em....

about those TPS reports....

Just in case anyone gets a trackback to a year-old post of mine, it wasn't stuck in the email sorter and then stepped on by the email delivery gnomes' hobnailed boots before they sent it to reconfiguration camp until such time as it was reintroduced to the delivery system--at least, I don't think that's what happened. I am closing the comments on some of my old posts that get repeatedly spammed, and MT is repinging the trackbacks that didn't go through (or in some cases it thought didn't go through) the first time. Of course, it could really just be another VRWC....muhahahah....

I hope he knows how to stop that thing...

Via The Cheesemistress, as usual....

be sorted @ nimbo.net

And as long as I'm in the mood:

you are SHREK! you're a bit antisocial, but once
you get close to someone, they find out you're
a big sweetie!

what shrek character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

The post title is a movie quote, so imagine Maggie Smith (as Dora Charleston) saying it...

Spam, sausage, bacon and spam

Dear 220.65.103.124 and 200.30.101.5,

Get a life!

Sincerely,

Susie

Timeless

Noon to midnight today. IV coffee, stat!

I speak whale

Apparently there is an intermittant problem with my blog--sometimes if you stop by via the url shortcut [http://pp.mu.nu] the topmost post is from February 20, rather than the currentest one. Because I am completely non-geekly, and I have never had this happen to my own self (even though my Mozilla homepage is that exact addy), I don't know what to tell you except to stop being lazy and type in the whole http://practicalpenumbra.mu.nu.

In other news, the current Bestofme Symphony is up, as is the Bonfire, and Pixy is taking submissions for the Carnival of the Living Dead Vanities at carnival@pixymisa.com.

Don't look, Ethel!

I tried to watch Starsky & Hutch. I felt like someone who had gone to see The Passion and stumbled into Life of Brian instead. The clothes and setting looked right, but the film just didn't quite seem as if the authors had read any of the original source material... I walked out about halfway. If you have any affection at all for the old TV series, avoid this movie at all costs.

Today is the 60th Anniversary of D-Day. When I mentioned that fact at work, one of the clerks asked "What's D-Day?" Before I could bemoan the sad failings of our educational system, one of the others said "He's a character in Animal House." Thank god there's some semblance of cultural literacy among today's youth!

I didn't find out that President Reagan had passed away until I got home from work after midnight last night. There are some fine tributes around the blogosphere. The news stories are getting shriller, though--today most of the AP stories are about how much the Libyans and Syrians and "Palestinians" hate him. Just goes to show, you can judge the worth of a man by who his enemies are--and President Ronald Reagan was one of the greatest men and Presidents our country and the world has ever seen.

My age is showing today--pretend you didn't notice...

I also hate liver and onions

Stupid Blogger. Blackjack is writing great stuff, but bogsplot's "comments" won't let me stalk him congratulate him on his insight and praise his articulate prose. I hate them. I hate them very much.

That lawn's not going to mow itself

The good news is, all theaters are up and (basically) running. The bad news is, I have to leave for work in a few minutes, and will be there 'til midnight.

These Bonfire entries just seem to write themselves....

More proof God hates me

Today was one of those days you want to call do-over on:
* the construction still isn't done, and we're supposed to be showing our first movie in the new theater at 1:30 tomorrow
* somebody locked the door to the "kitchen" (it had to have been a construction worker or one of the cleaners because the employees know better) where we keep our ice machine, pop syrup, etc. and because the lock is broken the only way to get in there was to have a volunteer climb through the ceiling tiles in my office and climb over and down through the ceiling in the kitchen to unlock the door from the inside (I called our locksmith as a first resort, but they couldn't get to us until tomorrow and we needed ice)
* I was supposed to go to a mall managers' meeting, but the electrician couldn't figure out how to separate the wiring for what are now two theaters that need to have lights that operate independently, and so I spent a lot of time throwing switches and saying "Did that do anything?" instead
* the company I hired to hang the burlap wall coverings decided to tell me today that they don't want to do it.

That's just a random sampling of my day. I'm pretty sure there are a few occurances for which I have suppressed the memories in order to retain my sanity.

I just had a flashback to the little old lady who kept me on the phone for 20 minutes explaining why she had to know immediately whether the theater would be ready for the 1:30 showing of The Passion on Friday. I should have told her that it depends--if God wants her to see it, the construction will be finished in time.

Evil Glenn's T Shirt Babe

Really, it's obvious:

I'm not inarticulate, I'm just drawn that way

I have to be at work in an hour, and I'm cruising the blogosphere looking for a topic I can bogart, but except for a few quizzes everything I've been reading calls for more time and insight to comment on than I have available at the moment.

Go read this guy. I found him via Frank.

This post is thought-provoking.

Speaking of Frank (whose birthday is tomorrow), he has breaking news for the Alliance....

Off to the salt mines....

The "R" word rears its ugly head--again

I can tell it's summer--babysitting season has started again.

This week our last show starts at 9:50 pm, and gets out at 11:30pm. We had thirteen hardly souls who made a late night of it. The last two arrivals bought their tickets just as the box office was preparing to close at 10:05. They were two women who had debated coming to see the show because theirs was the only car in the parking lot, and they were concerned at being the only patrons at a show that late. They neglected to take into account the eleven children under the age of thirteen whose parents dropped them off in front of the theater beginning at nine pm or who had ridden their bikes to the theater.

I don't get it. Maybe it's because I'm not a parent myself. Maybe if I had a winsome blond, blue eyed eight year-old son I would have no qualms about abandoning him with his friend in a public place where the only requirement for admission is a dollar bill. Maybe it wouldn't bother me at all to let my ten year old daughter ride her bike home from the theater at close to midnight. Maybe I would just shrug off the very real possibility that child molestors and abductors might like to see movies that appeal to kids, or could be driving around quiet neighborhoods at night on the lookout for young bicyclists.

I'm reminded of the incident last summer, when a mother picking up her little darlings after midnight complained that some young men had made suggestive remarks to her eight and ten year old daughters during a show. What did she reasonably expect me to do? Sit next to every set of unattended children? Refuse to sell tickets to teenage boys on the grounds they are male, and thus might hit on preteen girls? Refuse to sell tickets to her daughters after she had already dropped them off in front of the theater and driven away, because some teenage boys had already purchased tickets?

I've joked with my employees about instituting a "babysitting surcharge." Maybe that's what I'm going to have to do--charge $11 for every unattended child, and use the money to pay an employee to sit next to them for two hours...maybe if it came out of their pockets, parents would realize they need to take responsibility for their children. I'd have to hire a lot more employees, though...

A Picture's worth...

notGeorge Tiger has done a fantastic job with this week's Carnival of the Vanities. It may take me until the next one to read all that's on offer, but it will be worth it...

The Passion of the Movie Patron

Well, most of the customers were understanding and forgiving when we explained that construction delays had precluded our showing the movie they came to see. They accepted that we had to put our newspaper ad in a week ahead of time, and once we knew that the construction was delayed it was too late to pull it. A few responses stand out, however. One obviously irate man pounded on the box office glass when he learned we weren't going to show The Passion of the Christ; he kept asking what we were going to do for him since he'd come all this way to see a movie we didn't have. We're going to pray for you, sir. Another customer pointed to the sign we had put up--apologizing for the construction problems and stating that Starsky & Hutch would be our only movie--and suggested we put up a sign saying that we weren't showing The Passion. I guess some people are more interesed in what we aren't showing than what we are...My favorite suggestion came from a woman who wanted to know why we hadn't announced on the radio that we weren't going to be showing The Passion this week. My cashier patiently explained to her that the cost of buying air time on every radio station in the city was prohibitive, and even if we had, how could we have known when she would be listening? Interestingly, the patrons arriving for the other two movies we weren't showing didn't make a ruckus. I'll have to remember that what we're not showing matters more to some movie goers than others....