10.31.2004
8:49pm
Eminem - Just Lose It

*Everybody's workin' for the weekend*... or at least I did. Almost 8 hours yesterday and 7 hours today. It really makes the weekend fly by, since I generally wake up shortly before work and then bum around in the evening after work. I do actually have to stay caught up on homework, which requires a little effort here and there. As far as Best Buy goes, I'm becoming much more familiar with how things work, and am able to do more things by myself without assistance from other associates. I get my employee discount tomorrow so now it's an uphill battle to fend off optimistic friends and protect my checking account from impulse depletion. The thought of my college loans is enough to dampen any money-spending thrill. I am going to see how much a 50" Samsung DLP television would cost, since my dad wants to buy one for the home theater in their new house. One of the employee perks is that immediate family gets to take advantage of the discount as well, but immediate family does NOT include close friends unfortunately. Sorry guys, gotta pay retail price. I don't want to lose my job just to save you a couple bucks. However, I am allowed to buy stuff as gifts, so if you want to have a Christmas gift swapping we could do that. Ron can get everybody some Nike kicks, I can spread some Monster Cable cheer, and umm everybody else can find a retail job before Christmas if they want to participate.

Oh yeah, Happy Halloween everybody. I actually called my mom since it's such a special day... I'm sure she appreciated it. I didn't do anything special for today, but if anybody else did hopefully it was a lot of fun.

10.27.2004
12:29am

Well I DID have a nice long post for today, but WinSCP decided to corrupt the file save operation.
Compressed version since I don't feel like retyping everything:

Ron, Jason, Rolando, and I decided to start running three times a week to improve our cardiovascular fitness. Tonight was our first such outing, which coincided with a nice full lunar eclipse. Circuit Theory keeps getting harder particularly with homework, and this week's assignment was a real PITA. Ron and I have some Modern Physics problems due tomorrow, which I fortunately completed last night. Ron, however, will probably be asking for help before class tomorrow. I have to work tomorrow night and Saturday so I won't be able to help with the halloween cooking and preparations for student ambassadors, which is unfortunate. I got my refund today from Astro Too finally, for that faulty Sony monitor that was supposed to be used in the SA office. I also got a hair cut at Great Clips since it was getting a little too long to gel.

There was more than this, but I forgot what I wanted to say. Watch the bunny. (NSFW)

10.24.2004
11:16am

Japan gets slammed by deadliest earthquake in 9 years. Suddenly I don't feel so bad about the hurricanes that visited Florida.

I was delighted to see that Florida Today newspaper endorses John Kerry and the democratic party. Hopefully the space coast population shares a common frustration with President Bush. I was talking with the ambassadors last night about politics, and most of them support Bush. Their defense for Bush is that he is more predictable than Kerry in his policy, but I think his policy is awful whether it is consistent or not. At least Kerry is aiming for the same goals that I support.

Also in the news, San Francisco has been promised city-wide WiFi Internet access by mayor Gavin Newsom. Maybe this will set a trend for other metropolitan areas if the project does actually succeed. It does raise a few concerns about security, since free anonymous access often encourages abuse of the resource. One of the primary factors holding people back from mass spammings and virus releases is that the packets can ultimately be traced back to their originating source, in this case the ISP delivering home Internet connectivity.

10.23.2004
11:10pm

I had STC and Prob/Stat classes today, but SAT testing in Crawford disrupted our oral presentations. The Mac lab didn't have Internet access, so Gordon Patterson found us a classroom in the acad quad with a projector. Adam and Jenna gave their presentations, but the computer started acting up so nobody else had the opportunity. I have to do my presentation either Monday or Wednesday depending on how things flow.

Our Student Ambassadors Margaritaville trip today didn't work out, because we didn't have enough people to make the trip to Orlando worthwhile. Adam, Laura, Melissa, Bec, and Derek showed up but none of the new members could make it. In the end we went to Carraba's for Italian food, after waiting a solid hour for a seat. It was still a great social event, without the cost and inconvenience of driving to CityWalk. Derek vows that we will make a trip there before the end of the year, hopefully with better participation.

I washed and waxed my car Friday afternoon, and I got some Rain-X to put on the windows so my car is looking better than average. We had our usual Halo Xbox gaming party at Jason and Ron's apartment Friday night, which ran until 4am. We were fueled by adrenaline, Doritos, and Taco Bell; what can I say? Fortunately my first class Saturday was at 12pm.

10.21.2004
11:36pm

Tired...

This has been one long week, with three tests, 20 hours of work, and other miscellaneous commitments. Fortunately I have managed not to get behind on any homework, but this weekend will have to be productive especially in regard to the sci/tech comm research project. I already know I'm going to have two classes on Saturday, which is depressing but acceptable. At least I'll be looking forward to going to Margaritaville Saturday night with the other ambassadors, or at least those who are planning to come. Tomorrow I've only got class until 2pm and no work after that, so at least that gives me some time to work on things; probably wash my car and do laundry, etc, in between research analysis.

The class I thought would be most difficult this semester has turned out to be the most successful in terms of grades so far. My first two tests grades in modern physics have been 98 and 100. I can't complain about Circuit Theory either, since I made a 112/100 on that test. I'm still waiting to see the results of the second STC and Prob/Stat test, but I doubt they will be much different than the first. My first C++ test was chock full of errors that seemed to be unintentional on Dr. Kozaitis' part, so I'm really confused about how he plans to grade the test and how lenient he will be. We finally got to the point in C++ lab today where I'm learning something new, which is good since I'm paying who knows how much money for that "review" class. It figures my AP grade had to be a 3 instead of a 4...

10.18.2004
11:17pm

Had a Software/Hardware design test today, nothing too difficult. Two more tests on Wednesday.
Peer-reviewed presentation outlines in Sci/Tech Comm.
Watched Two Brothers again, can't wait for the DVD.
Played a quick volleyball game on the Student Ambassador intramural team.
Did some more reading.
Mulan comes to DVD October 26.
Umm yep, that's about it for today.

10.17.2004
9:38pm

Pretty boring day at work--we were busy but didn't sell that much today. At this point more and more people are delaying purchases until the holiday season, so they're basically coming in and asking questions about possible future buys. Not that it bothers me any, I have no problem talking to people for a long time without making a sale; the managers on the other hand are very concerned about selling a certain amount each day. Danny jumbled my schedule again, putting me down for 10-6 on Tuesday when I very plainly have class until 5pm. I'm going to see if I can switch with somebody on the closing shift.

In my spare time I've been watching some movies and reading some older TLK fanfiction that I'm digging up. My discovery of USENET is also at fault for some lost time reading newsgroup messages. I still find it hard to believe that I've been using the Internet since 1995 and didn't really figure out what newsgroups were until this September. They were always something I saw mentioned on various sites, but nobody seemed to explain how to access them. Roadrunner is very picky regarding their news server, so they don't allow access when I'm on campus, only when I'm connected through Brighthouse here at home. Speaking of Brighthouse, their repair job seems to have done the trick so no Internet connectivity issues.

Tonight I've got to write my sentence outline for Sci/Tech Comm, which currently has an introduction and nothing else. It's a good thing I have a lot of background knowledge about hybrid cars, so I can probably pick and choose things to talk about during the presentation. I've already come to the conclusion that 5-6 minutes isn't going to be nearly enough time to get to any in-depth discussion. This is supposed to be an informative presentation rather than persuasive, so I can't get too contentious toward all the SUV owners in the class.

10.16.2004
7:54pm

Enjoying the weather...

A cold front passed through Melbourne yesterday, leaving us with temperatures about 15 degrees lower than usual. It has therefore been very nice outside, cool enough to open the windows and turn off the A/C. Last night I went to Chili's with 9 other ambassadors: Dave, Brittany, Adam, Laura, Bec, Derek, Russ, and two of the new members. We had fun talking about politics and Bec's speeding tickets, among other things. We have a social event to Margaritaville planned for next Saturday, so if I don't have to work I will be going to that as well.

Today I got up at 10:30 since I went to bed at 3:30 in the AM. I didn't need to be in class, but I wanted to do some research at the library for my oral presentation on hybrid & alternative fuel cars. The two issues of Automotive Engineering International were very helpful, probably more in-depth than I will have an opportunity to delve. After spending a few hours there I ran into Tim at Evans and had lunch, and then went over to Crawford for Physics class. I showed up along with Ron and two other guys, but the rest of the class was missing along with our professor. Either he got confused about the schedule or didn't plan for us to come today.

BrightHouse sent out a crew to repair the cable line for our apartment complex, so it appears like the Internet is back to normal. At least I'm crossing my fingers that they repaired it 100% this time. I called Best Buy to find out my schedule, and I'm working all day tomorrow from 11-7:30.

***Personal Rant***
I've decided it's time I voiced my sincere dislike for humanity. Dislike, in the regard that the whole damn world seems to be blind to the direction our species is hurdling. We've got all these problems with pollution and food shortages and global warming, but nobody can see the forest for the trees anymore. The fact is that rampant overpopulation is straining the natural resources of Earth and threatening the collective ecosystem. The really tragic part is that life on Earth won't be wiped out this time by a huge asteroid, or an ice age, or cosmic radiation, but by the fault of mankind. Sure, life will survive in some format to see an age beyond humans, but the Eukaryotic diversity of the present world may never rebuild. Linking this to current events, it irks me to no end that George W. Bush and his administration seem hell-bent on promoting abstinence for sharply overpopulated areas in 3rd world countries. Rather than fund contraceptive programs that might actually control the population, Bush falls back on his religious "ideals" which unfortunately do not take into account that people will be people regardless of food shortages. Abstinence as a means for limiting global (or even US for that matter) population is just overly optimistic, considering that most people fail to acknowledge or accept that there is a very real problem with overpopulation. More on this later, don't want to get too angry in one sitting... [cartoon1] [cartoon2]

10.14.2004
6:19pm

"Whistle while you work..."

Since I didn't have to work this afternoon I took advantage of the free time to clean my room and mop the floors. It's amazing how these things get away from you when you are preoccupied with school and a job. I was feeling pretty good about my Modern Physics test I took today, and the Circuit Theory test yesterday was a piece of cake. It was so easy it was almost an insult to the class intelligence. Anyway, at least the physics test required a little bit of studying and comprehension. After I finished with the apartment I vacuumed my car since I had washed it earlier today. All the rain from the past week resulted in a good bit of mud in spots.

I'm dreading the recommendation report for Sci/Tech Comm, but I know I need to start reviewing some of the research soon. The whole project is due November 10th. On top of that, I have to do some research for the individual oral presentations next week. I decided to talk about Hybrid/Alternative fuel technologies since it goes along with electrical engineering and I already have decent background knowledge. Dr. Tolbert wants a full sentence outline by Monday so I need to figure out what I will talk about for 6 minutes.

Other than that, not much else is happening. I did see the new Father of the Pride episode Wednesday, since the bit torrent wasn't posted online until then. It turns out they were having a 6-episode marathon on Tuesday, but I didn't think to tune in at Best Buy. Of course the show probably isn't appropriate to be airing there anyway, with the innuendo and all. Gas hit $2.01 at the Hess down the street, which is expected with oil at $54+ per barrel.

10.12.2004
10:24pm

To study, or not to study for Circuit Theory, that is the question. One one side of the scale I have my new "The Day After Tomorrow" DVD and on the other side I have a hefty portion of my CT grade this semester. Part of me says: "Jeremy you've had a long day, you deserve a little entertainment" while the other says "if you mess up this test tomorrow it's irreversable." Questions of character are always the toughest to resolve. On top of the test tomorrow I have a proposal to turn in for Sci/Tech Comm, which fortunately was written up last night. My team members don't seem to check their email ever, so our works cited page will be missing.

I had to work again tonight from 5:30 'till close, but it was pretty slow so not a difficult night. I had one decent sale with service plans and Monster cables but that was it. I did spend a lot of time talking with people analyzing the difference between DLP and LCD projection, which is hard to explain from a quality standpoint; the two are just so close in most respects. As I keep seeing all these high-definition demos on the plasmas and projection TVs I get to liking them more and more. If only I had money to spend on one, and HD cable to go along with it.

Regarding my initial problem: maybe what I will do is read Circuit Theory while watching TDAT and pretend that it counts as real studying.

10.10.2004
10:53pm

Big news today: as it turns out, Ron got caught by the police last night for trying to steal the Florida Tech sign on US-192. It was damaged in the hurricane so he figured he could remove the remaining bolts and take it home; apparently Melboure PD didn't agree with his philosophy. He wasn't formally arrested and taken to the police station, but he has to appear for a trial sometime soon. According to Ron he saw the police circle the block several times investigating what he was doing before they finally stopped, so if he'd had a shred more sense he could have just driven off and avoided a misdemeanor.

Today was another straightforward day at work; I got to wear the BBY shirt and be a real sales guy. At first I was a little hesitant about going up to customers and offering my help, but eventually I started warming up to the idea and was very friendly with them. I had one blockbuster sale today that put me in the spotlight, especially for a new employee. A military employee from Harris was building a new house and he came in looking for two televisions; a projection and a flat-panel. To make a long story short, he left with a Samsung DLP and a Philips plasma, a surround sound system, service plans on all three pieces, professional on-wall installation for the plasma, and two Monster DVI cables. $11,663.53 was his ticket price. I couldn't get him to pick up a couple Monster power conditioners, otherwise it might have been over 12k. The sad thing is that the guy didn't need any "convincing" on any of the things he bought. He had already planned to buy two TVs and a sound system so all I had to do was recommend the right ones. He didn't even need explanation on the service plans, just automatically said yes to them. So basically my manager thinks I'm an awesome retail salesperson or something when I really just got lucky with that one (rich) person. I also sold a D-ILA projection TV and a regular CRT projection TV, along with some smaller TVs and audio gear. As Danny put it: "damn good job" for the home theater department today. BTW most of this probably shouldn't be posted on the internet, but oh well.

10.9.2004
12:15am

"Three quarks for Muster Mark" - Finnigan's Wake

Work is draining the life out of me, but I have to acknoweldge that it is a lot of fun. I was given the go-ahead tonight to wear my Best Buy polo tomorrow, so I'll be acting as a salesperson from now on. People have still asked me for help these last two days, even though I didn't have the right shirt or nametag on. Today I managed to sell a Yamaha receiver, Klipsch fronts, Monster surge protector, AR cables, Monster speaker wire, Sony DVD Recorder, and 13" Toshiba TV to a lady who lost a lot of audio/video gear in the hurricane. Then I had a couple of guys that bought some outdoor Yamaha speakers, a woman that bought a 36" Sony CRT HDTV, and a guy that bought a Zenith DVD-R/VCR unit. Not too bad for a newbie who isn't supposed to be selling products yet. The one thing I don't like so far is how Best Buy is very concerned with pushing service/replacement plans and "Complete Solution" sales with a whole bunch of overpriced accessories. I know it boosts the margin on sales but most people don't want to buy that much stuff when they only came in for one or two things. Standing among the 40-65" projection and plasma displays is not quite torture but almost, since I know I won't be able to buy one ever. Even if I got a low-end DLP or LCD for ~$2k my parents would flip out, since I'm technically in debt about $32k to them for this year and last year at FIT. I might be able to get a sub system for my car once employee discount kicks in, but I'll make that decision after I get some income. Good news is that my manager Danny seems to want me to get a lot of hours, which is contrary to what I expected for training weeks. I guess they decided that since I'm so knowledgeable about Home Theater I might as well start selling normally. Oh yeah, did I mention it was a lot of fun? The guys in my deparment are all really cool; the most helpful person so far has been an eighth-grade school teacher that works at BBY part-time.

I'm going in tomorrow at 11 so I should probably go to bed soon... yeah. And maybe I'll do some studying tomorrow...

10.7.2004
11:59pm

Office hour, class, work, home. That's pretty much how my day went. I was rather delighted with my score of 98 on the first modern physics test, which Dr. Lopez handed back today. Ron didn't get so lucky this time, but the lowest grade is dropped anyway. This upcoming test next week is what worries me, since we haven't covered much at all since the first test.

My Lite-On DVD burner was delievered today by Fedex; Rolando had to sign for it since it didn't get here until 3:45pm. I got back from class with just enough time to take it out of the box, but I had to go to Best Buy for another 4-hour session of computer-based studying. I finished the eLearning modules today so the only thing left are the evaluation tests. I asked the guys in home theater when I should come in next and they said tomorrow afternoon sometime around 4pm. It didn't sound very official coming from them, but I guess I will show up anyway and see what the manager says. I got back home around 9:45 and installed the DVD drive, removing my old 8x CD-RW. Now I have 8x DVD+/-R/W, 2.4x DVD+R DL, and 40x CD-R capabilities. I don't know what the CD+RW speed spec is and it probably won't make any difference anyway. The Lite-On came with Nero 6 Express which seems to be a lot better than the Sony program I was used to. The only thing it won't do is CSS DVD to DVD copy but then again there's some legal constraint there.

I heard from Rolando that team OASIS is not going to be in the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge. I feel bad for not being able to help them out, but it seemed like a lost cause anyway with these hurricane delays and Saturday classes. That and a major lack of funding.

10.6.2004
3:30pm

Sitting in Software/Hardware Design, half-listening to Dr. Kozaitis talk about the difference between pass by value and pass by reference. If this class wasn't a complete review of my senior high school C++ class, I might be tempted to pay more attention.

This morning I got to campus at 8am to help out with the Florida Tech career fair. Of course it was raining, which complicated matters for the people bringing in supplies out of their cars. Brittany and Derek were there until 10am with me, and Dave stopped by briefly at the beginning. They had about 40 companies signed up to attend the fair, ranging from Microsoft and Harris to Enterprise Rent-a-Car and Brevard Job Link. After we helped set up I had breakfast at Evans and then went to Circuit Theory. As it turns out the homework isn't due until Friday so I get a grace period to re-write my solutions. Instead of having Sci/Tech Comm class today we met in the library to talk about research sources available online. For our team projects we are going to have to find newspaper articles and professional journals as background research.

10.5.2004
12:20am

I got myself out of bed early this morning to take a trip over to Wal-Mart. I bought the new-release DVD of Aladdin and The Shawshank Redemption, $16 and $20 respectively. I got back to the apartment with enough time to watch some of the special features of Aladdin before class started. I had to rush home after Modern Physics today to change clothes and head back out to Best Buy. Today they had my number so I spent the four hours taking computerized training modules, which consisted of an interactive teaching part along with a quiz at the end. I managed to get ten of them done today, so there's only six more test modules left when I go in on Thursday. When I got back to the apartment at 9:45 I made a quick dinner and watched Aladdin. Rolando wasn't interested in joining me, as he was engrossed in some computer game that didn't warrant disruption. I can understand; a 12 year old animated Disney movie isn't at the top of everybody's to-do list, but I bet retailers sold a bunch of copies today nonetheless. The Aladdin Platinum DVD was very well-mastered with vibrantly restored frames and a new 5.1 Disney Enhanced Home Theater Mix like the one found on The Lion King platinum edition. The disc also had three music videos from the film, with the original performances along with new renditions by Clay Aiken, Jessica Simpson, etc. I watched the Clay Aiken video of "Proud of Your Boy," one of the deleted songs from the movie, and I'm convinced that guy can sing anything and make it sound perfect. American Idols aside, the original music videos were also very good.

10.4.2004
3:03pm

SpaceShipOne claims X-Prize; sets altitute record at 70 miles and wins $10 million. This is certainly an exciting achievement... after a few more decades it might be tolerably affordable to take a trip into space, even if it is only for a minute. In the meantime celebrities and other super-rich patrons will be able to experience the thrill of space.

At work today my new employee number hadn't yet been processed by Best Buy Corporate, so they had me shadow in the home theater department rather than go home. I got to meet a few of the regular guys and saw some real-life examples of sales situations. They probably sold five big-screen televisions and at least that many regular CRT televisions while I was there from 5:30 until close, which is just absurd for a Monday night. I can't imagine how many they sell on a Saturday, it must be a lot though.

10.3.2004
8:43pm
QOTD: Stewie: "Yes, but no sprinkles! For every sprinkle I find, I shall KILL you!"

Beep Beep Beep (6:45am). Dragged myself out of bed into the shower this morning because I had to be at Best Buy by 7:45. The session today lasted until 11:15; we had a round-robin training thing where we went to different stations learning about product protection plans, customer service, the phone system, time clock, computer training, etc.

After work I had brunch at Evans and headed back to the apartment. I read chapter 9 and 10 for the Sci/Tech Comm quiz tomorrow, which hopefully will be an easy one. I looked around for a new UPS online and decided to get an Energizer one from Staples for $40. This new one was able to power my computer AND monitor which is definitely better than the last one. I put the old Energizer one in the living room as a backup for the TV and surround sound system. It's pretty shocking that my Athlon 2400+ computer uses more energy than the TV, DVD player, and receiver put together.

At 5pm I had to go to the library for a group meeting with my Sci/Tech Comm partners. We had to make up a proposal for our team report about health communication pertaining to ocean water quality. It was a painful 2 hours but we somehow came up with a coherent proposal.

10.2.2004
8:54pm

First day of Best Buy new employee orientation, starting at 11am. There were about twenty new hires at the NET session, ranging from 18 years old to a guy who looked to be late 40s. The general manager Steve was acting as DJ while people were filtering in, and they had a surround Yamaha system set up in their "Hub" breakroom with a 60" Mitsubishi projection TV. We met Brian and Jacob who were the managers in charge of running the training session, and they seemed to be pretty nice guys. Steve seemed like the kind of guy that is really laid back one minute and can be very serious the next, but being GM requires that sort of personality.

Over the course of the 4-hour session we did some icebreaking activities, watched some training videos, talked about Best Buy logistics, and filled out paperwork. To keep everyone engaged in the conversation they had a raffle of $5 gift cards, with tickets that could be earned by answering questions or contributing to discussions. We got our employee handbooks today but we aren't allowed to read them off-the-clock, as per Florida law. Seems really strange to me, but I guess they want us getting paid for any sort of learning/training activity.

Steve talked about the advantages of the employee discount program that kicks in 30 days after today, or November 1st. Employees only have to pay cost + 5%, which can be substantially lower than retail for certain items like car stereos. However, Steve was very clear about not tolerating abuse of the program. We aren't allowed to buy items for friends in exchange for cash, which helps Best Buy protect their profits. Sorry to any of my friends that might have expected me to get discounts for them, not a possibility. Steve was sure to point out that they fire 2x more people for abusing their discount than for any other reason, and they flag every purchase an employee makes to ensure that they aren't purchasing things for other people. I'm sure if somebody tried to buy three plasma TVs within a few weeks there would be some arrests involved. They also have a goal-sharing program with loss prevention, so fewer mistakes and thefts means bigger bonus checks for all employees.

Overall I'm feeling pretty excited about working there. I know these first few weeks will be rough, as the managers emphasized, but after I get accustomed it should be better. If today was any indication, most of the people there are very friendly and fun to be around.

We had our member selection meeting for Student Ambassadors, and we accepted 5 out of 6 of the applicants. I can't post who didn't make it, since it's classified until Monday.

10.1.2004

After class today I went to see Dreamworks Animation SKG's new movie called Shark Tale, starring Will Smith, Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Robert DeNiro, Renee Zellweger, and Martin Scorsese. I'm a big fan of animation in general, and with so many famous actors voicing the parts I was expecting a Shrek-class movie. Unfortunately it didn't come anywhere near to Shrek in terms of entertainment or comedy. The great white sharks as mobsters didn't really fit into the movie, and the plot wasn't engaging at all. Will Smith provided some Will Smith humor which is usually lame at best, and most of his punchlines didn't get much response from the audience in my theater. The several parts where I laughed were mostly subtle jokes that none of the kids would have gotten--like the mentally challenged hermit crab watching the Benny Hill show in his shell. The romance between Oscar and Angie seems hastily assembled just to add another dimension to the thin plot. The high point of the movie was probably the "Car Wash" scene near the beginning of the movie, and even then just because it's a cool song. Oh, and the little shrimp that Lenny saves is voiced by Pinocchio from Shrek which was neat. The movie wasn't a waste of $4.50 for 90 minutes of animation, but it left no lasting impression and I won't be buying it on DVD when it comes out. Overall I was pretty depressed, thinking that Dreamworks was moving upward toward the likes of Pixar.

Oaks lost a popularity point with me today because the movie was out of focus and they cut the sound off a full 5 minutes early, ruining the bonus scene after the credits. I would have told their manager except the lobby was packed full of little kids leaving the theater. Maybe they will redeem themselves next time I visit.

As a side note, a trailer for Dreamworks' upcoming animated feature called Madagascar was the antithesis of funny. Not a single one of the "jokes"--if they can be called that--was funny; the kids in the audience sounded excited but probably just because it's another animated movie with furry zoo animals. I hope they release an updated trailer that portrays the movie in a better light, because as it stands right now I wouldn't even pay $1 to see it.