Cutter's Log - Stardate 9002.92.90
Current Song - Whispers (unknown artist)
I've always had another writer in mind for NISB. If I were to ever afford to these freelance writers, this is something I wouldn't mind doing.
I have plans in mind, so if you want to know what I'm thinking, let me know.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Thoughts about NISB
Cutter's Log - Stardate 9002.72.90
Current Song - Steppin Out (Joe Jackson)
There was only one time in NISB's history when I had my full concentration on it. That was from when I graduated high school in June 2005 until starting work at the BP station in August 2006; the entire 2005-06 school year.
Sauk was on the schedule too, but it didn't turn out to be as bad as I thought it would.
When I look at on the 2005-06 school year (and you can too by viewing the NISB story archive), I saw some real good teams, some real good games (Erie 80-West Carroll 78 in 2 OTs) documented the rise of some programs (Polo and Lemont football come to mind), and did Q&As on several good athletes. The next year, having squeezed work time in the mix, the stuff I wrote didn't turn out that well.
I then wrote a column, sometime after the 2007 RF Shootout, about being through with game articles. I accomplished what I could with game articles, but decided to stick to columns and feature pieces. These kind of pieces involve less travel and more time communicating via e-mail or phone.
That was January 2007. Since then I've written a bunch of non-gamer stories: Kewanee's Conference drama, "The Trial of Steve Sandholm," the IPA situation, NCIC expansion, PA prayer, and the basketball coaching wins record all come to mind. I did stick a few gamers in there when I could.
"When I can." That's the story of how I'm running NISB right now. I run it when I can. The amount of things released on the site has decreased considerably since getting a job. I left that BP station in April of 2008 and three months later found myself at the Shell station I currently work at. I was able to write the Five-part NCIC series and expand the MLB draft coverage in that small amount of time.
When I started at Shell I was named the main clerk for nights. That meant working the busy Friday and Saturday evening shifts. There went most of everything, except for writing columns on statistics on nights off. At the same time, it did help my column-writing. I feel I can crank out a column whenever I feel like it.
However, just writing columns isn't going to get me anywhere. I had a serious hours reduction at work that allowed me to fit in a few things for the site. I started writing football game articles once more. I actually got the new version of the site off the ground. The extra time was devoted toward finding out things for the Friday 5, and other bits and pieces.
One day, just this past week, I wanted to go down to Princeton to do research for a story I had in mind. The end result was the history of the Kewanee-Princeton football rivalry. I've received more kind words about that particular piece than any other one I've written for NISB. I covered the particular football game - which is kind of odd because I usually cover the top-notch games - and covering it was an interesting experience. I got to witness something historic ending, met some people that liked the site, and drove back in a thick fog.
The football game this past Friday was a tough one to cover. But it is games like these that have to be taken seriously in order to write a good gamer. I cried many tears after seeing Boylan-Guilford in last year's opener. I cried after Friday's game. I kept on thinking, this is what I want to do. This is what I want to do.
I have thought about doing this for The Review, a weekly newspaper covering SW Whiteside and Northern RI counties. I e-mailed a former editor for their parent company, and he mentioned that it won't stuff the wallet very much. I'd have to write 6-7 stories in order to make as much money as I do, on average, at Shell. That's easy, right? E-P Football, Riverdale Football, Erie VB, Riverdale VB, Erie Golf, Riverdale Golf, E-P XC, Riverdale XC, and Riverdale soccer - nothing real top notch. That's nine. However, it will take up too much space in the tiny paper, which would probably have to raise its newsstand price in order to accomodate me. I don't want that to happen.
It's going to be a backup plan, just in case something bad happens.
All of that, and the Kewanee experience, is making me lean toward coming back to writing gamers. The column well seems to have run dry. Now if I can make time for something. A non-football event would have to be on Wednesday or Thursday.
Enter in that MASH episode where everyone is dreaming. This is where the excitement ends.
Things at work have not been going so smoothly. Being down to two nights a week bites. I'm going to ask Route 30 if there's something for Wednesday and Thursday night.
Current Song - Steppin Out (Joe Jackson)
There was only one time in NISB's history when I had my full concentration on it. That was from when I graduated high school in June 2005 until starting work at the BP station in August 2006; the entire 2005-06 school year.
Sauk was on the schedule too, but it didn't turn out to be as bad as I thought it would.
When I look at on the 2005-06 school year (and you can too by viewing the NISB story archive), I saw some real good teams, some real good games (Erie 80-West Carroll 78 in 2 OTs) documented the rise of some programs (Polo and Lemont football come to mind), and did Q&As on several good athletes. The next year, having squeezed work time in the mix, the stuff I wrote didn't turn out that well.
I then wrote a column, sometime after the 2007 RF Shootout, about being through with game articles. I accomplished what I could with game articles, but decided to stick to columns and feature pieces. These kind of pieces involve less travel and more time communicating via e-mail or phone.
That was January 2007. Since then I've written a bunch of non-gamer stories: Kewanee's Conference drama, "The Trial of Steve Sandholm," the IPA situation, NCIC expansion, PA prayer, and the basketball coaching wins record all come to mind. I did stick a few gamers in there when I could.
"When I can." That's the story of how I'm running NISB right now. I run it when I can. The amount of things released on the site has decreased considerably since getting a job. I left that BP station in April of 2008 and three months later found myself at the Shell station I currently work at. I was able to write the Five-part NCIC series and expand the MLB draft coverage in that small amount of time.
When I started at Shell I was named the main clerk for nights. That meant working the busy Friday and Saturday evening shifts. There went most of everything, except for writing columns on statistics on nights off. At the same time, it did help my column-writing. I feel I can crank out a column whenever I feel like it.
However, just writing columns isn't going to get me anywhere. I had a serious hours reduction at work that allowed me to fit in a few things for the site. I started writing football game articles once more. I actually got the new version of the site off the ground. The extra time was devoted toward finding out things for the Friday 5, and other bits and pieces.
One day, just this past week, I wanted to go down to Princeton to do research for a story I had in mind. The end result was the history of the Kewanee-Princeton football rivalry. I've received more kind words about that particular piece than any other one I've written for NISB. I covered the particular football game - which is kind of odd because I usually cover the top-notch games - and covering it was an interesting experience. I got to witness something historic ending, met some people that liked the site, and drove back in a thick fog.
The football game this past Friday was a tough one to cover. But it is games like these that have to be taken seriously in order to write a good gamer. I cried many tears after seeing Boylan-Guilford in last year's opener. I cried after Friday's game. I kept on thinking, this is what I want to do. This is what I want to do.
I have thought about doing this for The Review, a weekly newspaper covering SW Whiteside and Northern RI counties. I e-mailed a former editor for their parent company, and he mentioned that it won't stuff the wallet very much. I'd have to write 6-7 stories in order to make as much money as I do, on average, at Shell. That's easy, right? E-P Football, Riverdale Football, Erie VB, Riverdale VB, Erie Golf, Riverdale Golf, E-P XC, Riverdale XC, and Riverdale soccer - nothing real top notch. That's nine. However, it will take up too much space in the tiny paper, which would probably have to raise its newsstand price in order to accomodate me. I don't want that to happen.
It's going to be a backup plan, just in case something bad happens.
All of that, and the Kewanee experience, is making me lean toward coming back to writing gamers. The column well seems to have run dry. Now if I can make time for something. A non-football event would have to be on Wednesday or Thursday.
Enter in that MASH episode where everyone is dreaming. This is where the excitement ends.
Things at work have not been going so smoothly. Being down to two nights a week bites. I'm going to ask Route 30 if there's something for Wednesday and Thursday night.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
When it comes to research ...
Cutter's Log - Stardate 9002.42.90
Current Song - Reminiscing (Little River Band)
I know what I'm doing.
This may sound strange, but I never liked doing research. It took the love of high school sports to get me to like research. I enjoyed doing research stories for the Gazette (Newman's 1985 Wrestling season, the brief history of Sauk Valley high school football, the 50th anniversary of Sterling Youth Baseball). When I left there I carried this over to NISB. Then it got me interested in Illinois High School Glory Days.
NISB began to take shape during my first years of college, where I was taking a Western Civilizations class at the time. After doing the college research papers, I began to get a feel for credible research and used it for certain NISB historical articles. My history instructor, Rich Eichman, spoke these words about research that I will never forget:
"Consider your source."
I've done quite a bit of high school sports/history research in the past few years. There are plenty of sources out there when trying to uncover when doing high school research.
Let's go into the making of my article "The History of the NCIC" -
http://www.northernillinoissportsbeat.com/2009spring/news/ncichistory.html
I wrote this piece because different newspapers were writing different histories of the conference. For example, one paper had the conference forming in 1942 (it was really 1929), another had Geneseo joining in 1947 (1942), another had Rock Falls as a charter member (1942). My article aimed to correct this information.
Most of what was written in the papers came as a result of looking at a past issue of recent timing, before the popularity of microfilm. The problem with referring to recent information is that the possibility of it being skewed exists. Some newspaper writers are absolutely certain that what was in their paper at one point of time is really true.
Say something happened in 1958. Which is the best source? A) A 30th Anniversary Article of the event from 1998? B) An account of the event from 1958? The answer is B. You try to find information dating back to the most recent account. It is freshest this way, and is not filled with after-the-fact information. Historical accounts often have this after-the-fact information to define it's legacy. However, in newspaper writing, one is limited to the amount of space they are alotted. Therefore, namy details about the event are left out in order to give readers a recent link (interviews). In most instances of historical accounts written before the 1980s, the research isn't as easy.
Since I'm from Sterling, I started looking through Sterling-based accounts. There's the newspaper's microfilm. There's also the high school yearbooks.
Yearbooks are the most underrated source of information. They are extremely valuable. That's because the books are made for the SPECIFIC purpose of preserving the memories, events, and life in the high school. We turn to newspapers because of trust, but the purpose of newspapers and yearbooks do not match. Which has more information about the school? The yearbook does. This is why libraries attempt to keep a collection of high school yearbooks, and safeguard them extensively. The collection at Sterling and Rock Falls libraries are behind the front desk. Sterling's first yearbooks require gloves in order to touch - I'm not kidding.
When trying to find Sterling's first year in the NCIC, I sifted through yearbooks in a quick fashion. Yearbooks are quicker to go through, and I went 1970, 1960, 1950 and so on until I hit 1920. I didn't find the NCIC in the 1920 edition, so I went 1921, 1922, 1923 and so on, knowing I'd hit it sometime before 1930. I eventually found it in 1929.
After finding Sterling's first year in the NCIC I didn't say that was the first year of the NCIC. The 1928 yearbook still mentioned the Rock River Valley. From there I did fact checking through the newspaper, but noticed that a small paragraph in the 1928 book mentioned the formation of a new conference. That had to be verified, so I did the same motions at the Dixon Library.
From there, after knowing that both Sterling and Dixon were charter members of the NCIC, every yearbook was looked at up until LP joined. I was able to get information on what conference opponents were, and when the football divisions were created. After going through other school's yearbooks, I had a good idea what the history was.
--
So it's all about which source is better. When going on a research adventure for Illinois High School Glory Days, I'm always looking through the County Histories of the late 1800s. Subsequent county histories are always sourcing the previous one.
I look at all of the published county histories to see if the dates match. There could have been a recent discovery. There was an instance where two histories of the same county had different dates for a school's establishment. Which one is it? If the most recent county history cannot prove a contradiction to the earlier one, I go with the earlier history. If a contradiction is proved, then I go with the later history. Memory is fresher in the earlier histories.
--
I did a piece on the founder of the University of Illinois football, which happened to be the founder of Sterling High School football. In the process, I was able to relook at a piece of Sterling football history that I think only I knew about.
http://www.geocities.com/northernillinoissportsbeat/aa_winter08_columns_scottwilliams
First off, the name Scott Williams, to me, was known as the founder of SHS football - and there was a Scott Williams who was the founder of U of I football. Little did I know about his connections to the Fighting Illini until stumbling upon an article while doing GD research at SVCC. This particular piece linked the U of I's Williams with a newspaper position at the Gazette. It had me thinking if the two Scott Williams's were one.
The little "unknown piece of history" I had looked at was Sterling's 1898 football season consisting of just one game. It's not documented in the official SHS athletics research. But looking at the 1924 Blue and Gold, it had an article on the first and second teams. It mentioned the first team as an afterthought because the 1899 season fared much better.
So it does take a little going back-and-forth to get something right.
--
I have nothing new to share at this time. In my Kewanee-Princeton research, I was able to find evidence of a Princeton Football game taking place in 1895 against Geneseo. This was from the 1896 Princetonia yearbook. I know someone who is doing research on the history of Geneseo Football, beginning in 1912.
Current Song - Reminiscing (Little River Band)
I know what I'm doing.
This may sound strange, but I never liked doing research. It took the love of high school sports to get me to like research. I enjoyed doing research stories for the Gazette (Newman's 1985 Wrestling season, the brief history of Sauk Valley high school football, the 50th anniversary of Sterling Youth Baseball). When I left there I carried this over to NISB. Then it got me interested in Illinois High School Glory Days.
NISB began to take shape during my first years of college, where I was taking a Western Civilizations class at the time. After doing the college research papers, I began to get a feel for credible research and used it for certain NISB historical articles. My history instructor, Rich Eichman, spoke these words about research that I will never forget:
"Consider your source."
I've done quite a bit of high school sports/history research in the past few years. There are plenty of sources out there when trying to uncover when doing high school research.
Let's go into the making of my article "The History of the NCIC" -
http://www.northernillinoissportsbeat.com/2009spring/news/ncichistory.html
I wrote this piece because different newspapers were writing different histories of the conference. For example, one paper had the conference forming in 1942 (it was really 1929), another had Geneseo joining in 1947 (1942), another had Rock Falls as a charter member (1942). My article aimed to correct this information.
Most of what was written in the papers came as a result of looking at a past issue of recent timing, before the popularity of microfilm. The problem with referring to recent information is that the possibility of it being skewed exists. Some newspaper writers are absolutely certain that what was in their paper at one point of time is really true.
Say something happened in 1958. Which is the best source? A) A 30th Anniversary Article of the event from 1998? B) An account of the event from 1958? The answer is B. You try to find information dating back to the most recent account. It is freshest this way, and is not filled with after-the-fact information. Historical accounts often have this after-the-fact information to define it's legacy. However, in newspaper writing, one is limited to the amount of space they are alotted. Therefore, namy details about the event are left out in order to give readers a recent link (interviews). In most instances of historical accounts written before the 1980s, the research isn't as easy.
Since I'm from Sterling, I started looking through Sterling-based accounts. There's the newspaper's microfilm. There's also the high school yearbooks.
Yearbooks are the most underrated source of information. They are extremely valuable. That's because the books are made for the SPECIFIC purpose of preserving the memories, events, and life in the high school. We turn to newspapers because of trust, but the purpose of newspapers and yearbooks do not match. Which has more information about the school? The yearbook does. This is why libraries attempt to keep a collection of high school yearbooks, and safeguard them extensively. The collection at Sterling and Rock Falls libraries are behind the front desk. Sterling's first yearbooks require gloves in order to touch - I'm not kidding.
When trying to find Sterling's first year in the NCIC, I sifted through yearbooks in a quick fashion. Yearbooks are quicker to go through, and I went 1970, 1960, 1950 and so on until I hit 1920. I didn't find the NCIC in the 1920 edition, so I went 1921, 1922, 1923 and so on, knowing I'd hit it sometime before 1930. I eventually found it in 1929.
After finding Sterling's first year in the NCIC I didn't say that was the first year of the NCIC. The 1928 yearbook still mentioned the Rock River Valley. From there I did fact checking through the newspaper, but noticed that a small paragraph in the 1928 book mentioned the formation of a new conference. That had to be verified, so I did the same motions at the Dixon Library.
From there, after knowing that both Sterling and Dixon were charter members of the NCIC, every yearbook was looked at up until LP joined. I was able to get information on what conference opponents were, and when the football divisions were created. After going through other school's yearbooks, I had a good idea what the history was.
--
So it's all about which source is better. When going on a research adventure for Illinois High School Glory Days, I'm always looking through the County Histories of the late 1800s. Subsequent county histories are always sourcing the previous one.
I look at all of the published county histories to see if the dates match. There could have been a recent discovery. There was an instance where two histories of the same county had different dates for a school's establishment. Which one is it? If the most recent county history cannot prove a contradiction to the earlier one, I go with the earlier history. If a contradiction is proved, then I go with the later history. Memory is fresher in the earlier histories.
--
I did a piece on the founder of the University of Illinois football, which happened to be the founder of Sterling High School football. In the process, I was able to relook at a piece of Sterling football history that I think only I knew about.
http://www.geocities.com/northernillinoissportsbeat/aa_winter08_columns_scottwilliams
First off, the name Scott Williams, to me, was known as the founder of SHS football - and there was a Scott Williams who was the founder of U of I football. Little did I know about his connections to the Fighting Illini until stumbling upon an article while doing GD research at SVCC. This particular piece linked the U of I's Williams with a newspaper position at the Gazette. It had me thinking if the two Scott Williams's were one.
The little "unknown piece of history" I had looked at was Sterling's 1898 football season consisting of just one game. It's not documented in the official SHS athletics research. But looking at the 1924 Blue and Gold, it had an article on the first and second teams. It mentioned the first team as an afterthought because the 1899 season fared much better.
So it does take a little going back-and-forth to get something right.
--
I have nothing new to share at this time. In my Kewanee-Princeton research, I was able to find evidence of a Princeton Football game taking place in 1895 against Geneseo. This was from the 1896 Princetonia yearbook. I know someone who is doing research on the history of Geneseo Football, beginning in 1912.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Let's Move Forward, Shall We?
Cutter's Log - Stardate 9002.22.90
Current Song - Mammagamma (Alan Parsons Project)
The last entry was kind of overreacting a bit. Thankfully I have five days off to try to relax. This relaxation comes in the form of going to class, seeing Friday night football, and trying to write two articles for NISB. Usually I do one: The Friday 5. I'm also trying to get a Guest Picker in line for this week's football pick'em.
I will be going to the Kewanee-Princeton game on Friday night. It'll be the last time these two get together due to the Boilermakers' departure to the Big Rivers next year. I want to try to write a historical article on the rivalry.
Class seems to be going okay at the moment. I get my first Math test back tonight.
The bike will see some much-needed riding this week, too.
Current Song - Mammagamma (Alan Parsons Project)
The last entry was kind of overreacting a bit. Thankfully I have five days off to try to relax. This relaxation comes in the form of going to class, seeing Friday night football, and trying to write two articles for NISB. Usually I do one: The Friday 5. I'm also trying to get a Guest Picker in line for this week's football pick'em.
I will be going to the Kewanee-Princeton game on Friday night. It'll be the last time these two get together due to the Boilermakers' departure to the Big Rivers next year. I want to try to write a historical article on the rivalry.
Class seems to be going okay at the moment. I get my first Math test back tonight.
The bike will see some much-needed riding this week, too.
Friday, September 18, 2009
The Search Begins
Cutter's Log - Stardate 9002.91.90
Current Song - Early Autumn (Stan Getz)
This is what happens after you faint when you get the kicked the crap out of.
It's hard for me to write this.
I love my customers at the gas station. Aside from my classmates from school, these are the friends I talk to these days. I come to work each night to service them. I want to be here for them. My customers are the reason why I work at the Shell station. I come in early because of them. I stay there late because of them. I skip some of my chores because of them. They bring in the dough, but I don't think of it as that. My concentration should be on them, because they take the time to come in the store to get their things. For most customers it has become THE go-to place for things.
These particular customers, for whom East End Shell is a go-to place for, I know by name. They're the ones who stay a minute or two to chat. For someone who has deep trouble communicating with people, this is something I cherish.
Working at a gas station is not what I want to do. That honor goes to sportswriting.
There have been many times where I thought about quitting. But there are a few people who somehow manage to make me stay behind the counter. Indeed, the relations I have with the customers is what makes me want to stay at Shell.
That can only go so far, however.
While customers make me happy, it is the inner workings of the workplace that fusturate me. I hate it when I get pushed around by my co-workers. They out-perform me, and now I am slow. These are the same people that work there for a paycheck. It's nothing more than a job to them. For me, being at work is the only time I can put forth a Social life. A social life is something I always wanted to regain from childhood.
When work, and co-workers, take away my mission to obtain something I always wanted, I feel even more depressed. I keep getting kicked around, and any form of retailiation just can't work because it goes too over the edge.
It's come to that point when the inner workings have become just too much for me, having overshadowed my customer relations.
I want to quit.
I don't know if I'll be able to right away, but I do know time is going to run out. I put in everything I can, but it's still not enough. I have a talent and I want that to be the thing that makes me successful.
I want to write again.
I'm eyeing a weekly newspaper out of Erie that covers Erie and Riverdale high schools. I bought their paper a couple of days ago and noticed they didn't have a sports section. I wonder if they would like one? I can most certainly do that - I did it for two college newspapers and won awards for it.
The Review would give me a chance to cover just two schools; two schools that don't necessairly stand out in anything. It's more community-based, aside from my power-based NISB.
I talked to a friend of mine who is working at a weekly in the Washington panhandle. He says he's making good money there, and is nearly double of what I make in a month. I want to take a guess and say working there would be just like getting paid at Shell, and just like commuting to and from Highland.
I took a look at a few other weeklies from around here, and they all have good sports coverage. I don't think I'm fit for a daily just yet. Working at a daily requires full attention, which is something I can't obtain until at least June 2010.
I want to give them a call and discuss my plans with them. I don't even know if it will be sucessful. But I want to give it a try.
I want to be able to do what I like doing.
Current Song - Early Autumn (Stan Getz)
This is what happens after you faint when you get the kicked the crap out of.
It's hard for me to write this.
I love my customers at the gas station. Aside from my classmates from school, these are the friends I talk to these days. I come to work each night to service them. I want to be here for them. My customers are the reason why I work at the Shell station. I come in early because of them. I stay there late because of them. I skip some of my chores because of them. They bring in the dough, but I don't think of it as that. My concentration should be on them, because they take the time to come in the store to get their things. For most customers it has become THE go-to place for things.
These particular customers, for whom East End Shell is a go-to place for, I know by name. They're the ones who stay a minute or two to chat. For someone who has deep trouble communicating with people, this is something I cherish.
Working at a gas station is not what I want to do. That honor goes to sportswriting.
There have been many times where I thought about quitting. But there are a few people who somehow manage to make me stay behind the counter. Indeed, the relations I have with the customers is what makes me want to stay at Shell.
That can only go so far, however.
While customers make me happy, it is the inner workings of the workplace that fusturate me. I hate it when I get pushed around by my co-workers. They out-perform me, and now I am slow. These are the same people that work there for a paycheck. It's nothing more than a job to them. For me, being at work is the only time I can put forth a Social life. A social life is something I always wanted to regain from childhood.
When work, and co-workers, take away my mission to obtain something I always wanted, I feel even more depressed. I keep getting kicked around, and any form of retailiation just can't work because it goes too over the edge.
It's come to that point when the inner workings have become just too much for me, having overshadowed my customer relations.
I want to quit.
I don't know if I'll be able to right away, but I do know time is going to run out. I put in everything I can, but it's still not enough. I have a talent and I want that to be the thing that makes me successful.
I want to write again.
I'm eyeing a weekly newspaper out of Erie that covers Erie and Riverdale high schools. I bought their paper a couple of days ago and noticed they didn't have a sports section. I wonder if they would like one? I can most certainly do that - I did it for two college newspapers and won awards for it.
The Review would give me a chance to cover just two schools; two schools that don't necessairly stand out in anything. It's more community-based, aside from my power-based NISB.
I talked to a friend of mine who is working at a weekly in the Washington panhandle. He says he's making good money there, and is nearly double of what I make in a month. I want to take a guess and say working there would be just like getting paid at Shell, and just like commuting to and from Highland.
I took a look at a few other weeklies from around here, and they all have good sports coverage. I don't think I'm fit for a daily just yet. Working at a daily requires full attention, which is something I can't obtain until at least June 2010.
I want to give them a call and discuss my plans with them. I don't even know if it will be sucessful. But I want to give it a try.
I want to be able to do what I like doing.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Chore adjustments
Cutter's Log - Stardate 9002.31.90
Current Song - I saw the light (Todd Rundgren)
For some reason I felt tired all day today, until I got home from work. I did site work when I got home, so maybe that made me awake.
While I'm getting more hours at work, my mind is killing me. I don't know how many times I had to repeat totals to customers. Or how many times I had to ask Dorothy to repeat herself. It was yet another horrible night at work. Customers were in-and-out for most of the early session, and Stan stayed for a while. Then when it died down, Bill and Dorothy showed up. Then Joe and Kay. They're pretty much taking my time until 11:00. I can get around these four, but I have to be absolutely perfect in the beginning of my shift in order to have a good night. I didn't have it.
About three months ago I made adjustments to my chorework. I had always made a list of things to do. This time I had made personal deadlines for each chore. That started out well, but began to falter.
I think I'm going to make some adjustments in chorework. I start the day making a list of cigs to stock. Since this is mostly a front job, I think I'll move it to during chit-chat time.
Clock in by 4:45. Inside trash right away. It'll push cappuchino rinsing to be done by 5:30. Fountain ice by 6:00. 5 bags of ice by 6:30. Lot or another five bags by 7:00. Rugs done by 7:30. Cigs done by 8:00.
Cooler count from 8:00 until the gang begins to arrive.
Lotto numbers entirely printed out by 9:30 (I would only do three for the gang, but didn't really print the ten for the customers). Papers stripped AND restrooms by 10:00.
Cooler, sweep and mop from 10 to 12. Lotto will be moved from 11 to 12, but still stop selling at 11.
Hopefully this will work out. There are a lot of things in the first half that may have already been done during mid.
Current Song - I saw the light (Todd Rundgren)
For some reason I felt tired all day today, until I got home from work. I did site work when I got home, so maybe that made me awake.
While I'm getting more hours at work, my mind is killing me. I don't know how many times I had to repeat totals to customers. Or how many times I had to ask Dorothy to repeat herself. It was yet another horrible night at work. Customers were in-and-out for most of the early session, and Stan stayed for a while. Then when it died down, Bill and Dorothy showed up. Then Joe and Kay. They're pretty much taking my time until 11:00. I can get around these four, but I have to be absolutely perfect in the beginning of my shift in order to have a good night. I didn't have it.
About three months ago I made adjustments to my chorework. I had always made a list of things to do. This time I had made personal deadlines for each chore. That started out well, but began to falter.
I think I'm going to make some adjustments in chorework. I start the day making a list of cigs to stock. Since this is mostly a front job, I think I'll move it to during chit-chat time.
Clock in by 4:45. Inside trash right away. It'll push cappuchino rinsing to be done by 5:30. Fountain ice by 6:00. 5 bags of ice by 6:30. Lot or another five bags by 7:00. Rugs done by 7:30. Cigs done by 8:00.
Cooler count from 8:00 until the gang begins to arrive.
Lotto numbers entirely printed out by 9:30 (I would only do three for the gang, but didn't really print the ten for the customers). Papers stripped AND restrooms by 10:00.
Cooler, sweep and mop from 10 to 12. Lotto will be moved from 11 to 12, but still stop selling at 11.
Hopefully this will work out. There are a lot of things in the first half that may have already been done during mid.
Friday, September 11, 2009
WSN - It's been a while
Cutter's Log - Stardate 9002.11.90
Current Song - Gimme Shelter (The Rolling Stones)
I'm not laying around the house anymore, really.
WORK - Our assistant manager got transfered to Route 30, where she was promoted to manager. I really want the one I mentioned "in-waiting" in the previous entry to be the new second-in-command. I don't want to do it. So now we're down to a staff of five, which means I will be getting more hours at work.
I am available for work Wednesday mid or night, Thursday mid or night, Friday mid, Saturday night and Sunday night.
The Friday mids are going to be a bit painful. I wonder how far I can drive when I walk out the door at 5:30 p.m.?
I work today from 11:00 to 5:00. I'm headed for Amboy afterward. I also work Saturday and Sunday close. Next week I'm working Wednesday close, Friday mid and weekend close.
We are remodeling our countertops in the store. There was a lot of glue throughout the place, and I worked throughout the night like I was high. I think I said a cuss word to a customer. I had a real bad run at work in January. This was due to experiencing a broken jug of nail polish in a building at Highland. My mind was full of crap, and things didn't taste right.
SCHOOL - I totally dropped the ball on a math group project. I'm real shy when it comes to groups. I was the last one to sign up for a presentation. The one I chose was Paradoxes. It was a group created by someone a couple of seats next to me as the signup sheet was being passed toward me on Tuesday. We had another girl get moved to it later.
Anyway, I had set up a meeting time for Thursday morning in the library. I was feeling very ill after work on Wednesday that i had to rest for the day. It wasn't until later in the day, when I finally felt better, that I realized I had missed the meeting.
I only know one person in the group, and I didn't have a means of contact for him. I wound up using the SVCC Student E-mail system. I needed a middle inital for it to work. The address is something like "cody.c.cutter" so I ended up typing the person's first and last name like "cody.a.cutter" "cody.b.cutter" "cody.f.cutter" and so on. Hopefully he gets it.
I got a sneak peek at the Spring schedules for 2010. I need a speech class and I will also be taking an Intro to PE class (a gen ed). The PE class will be from 9:30 to 10:45 a.m. on Tuesday and Thursday morning. I would like the 2:00-3:15 speech class these same days. This makes me unavailable for Tuesday/Thursday mid and available for everything else. This may also give me some likeable days/times off.
NISB - I finally felt good enough to travel to Sycamore to take pics of a soccer match. It was on the way there I realized I had missed the Math group meeting. The Sycamore-Dixon pics are up on the website. I also found time to write the Friday 5 in quick enough time (it was posted at 12:05 a.m.).
I will be covering BV-Amboy (as mentioned) on Friday night. I will also try to test out my camera at the Newman-St. Bede game on Saturday afternoon. Hopefully the glue won't bother me.
The Guest Picker idea for the pick'em seems to be working, but it worrys me a bit.
Current Song - Gimme Shelter (The Rolling Stones)
I'm not laying around the house anymore, really.
WORK - Our assistant manager got transfered to Route 30, where she was promoted to manager. I really want the one I mentioned "in-waiting" in the previous entry to be the new second-in-command. I don't want to do it. So now we're down to a staff of five, which means I will be getting more hours at work.
I am available for work Wednesday mid or night, Thursday mid or night, Friday mid, Saturday night and Sunday night.
The Friday mids are going to be a bit painful. I wonder how far I can drive when I walk out the door at 5:30 p.m.?
I work today from 11:00 to 5:00. I'm headed for Amboy afterward. I also work Saturday and Sunday close. Next week I'm working Wednesday close, Friday mid and weekend close.
We are remodeling our countertops in the store. There was a lot of glue throughout the place, and I worked throughout the night like I was high. I think I said a cuss word to a customer. I had a real bad run at work in January. This was due to experiencing a broken jug of nail polish in a building at Highland. My mind was full of crap, and things didn't taste right.
SCHOOL - I totally dropped the ball on a math group project. I'm real shy when it comes to groups. I was the last one to sign up for a presentation. The one I chose was Paradoxes. It was a group created by someone a couple of seats next to me as the signup sheet was being passed toward me on Tuesday. We had another girl get moved to it later.
Anyway, I had set up a meeting time for Thursday morning in the library. I was feeling very ill after work on Wednesday that i had to rest for the day. It wasn't until later in the day, when I finally felt better, that I realized I had missed the meeting.
I only know one person in the group, and I didn't have a means of contact for him. I wound up using the SVCC Student E-mail system. I needed a middle inital for it to work. The address is something like "cody.c.cutter" so I ended up typing the person's first and last name like "cody.a.cutter" "cody.b.cutter" "cody.f.cutter" and so on. Hopefully he gets it.
I got a sneak peek at the Spring schedules for 2010. I need a speech class and I will also be taking an Intro to PE class (a gen ed). The PE class will be from 9:30 to 10:45 a.m. on Tuesday and Thursday morning. I would like the 2:00-3:15 speech class these same days. This makes me unavailable for Tuesday/Thursday mid and available for everything else. This may also give me some likeable days/times off.
NISB - I finally felt good enough to travel to Sycamore to take pics of a soccer match. It was on the way there I realized I had missed the Math group meeting. The Sycamore-Dixon pics are up on the website. I also found time to write the Friday 5 in quick enough time (it was posted at 12:05 a.m.).
I will be covering BV-Amboy (as mentioned) on Friday night. I will also try to test out my camera at the Newman-St. Bede game on Saturday afternoon. Hopefully the glue won't bother me.
The Guest Picker idea for the pick'em seems to be working, but it worrys me a bit.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Hey, Wait a minute!
Cutter's Log - Stardate 9002.70.90
Current Song - Too Close (Next)
I get a note as I walk into work.
It starts out by saying "Day before Labor Day Cleaning!"
The girl who worked before my shift started got the same note. She did an aisle. I do an aisle. There are a few aisles, the storefront, the restrooms, the cooler, and behind the counter left to do. Apparently only these two aisles were a part of "Day before Labor Day Cleaning."
Then I get another note.
An important part of the store was not locked (there are several of these, including the store itself). I went and locked it the night before, basically because it is supposed to be locked. This note tells me to leave it as it is, unlocked.
Believe me, this thing is better off locked than unlocked. The extra time it takes to monkey around with it is worth it.
All told, never take orders from an heir-apparent to the management.
Current Song - Too Close (Next)
I get a note as I walk into work.
It starts out by saying "Day before Labor Day Cleaning!"
The girl who worked before my shift started got the same note. She did an aisle. I do an aisle. There are a few aisles, the storefront, the restrooms, the cooler, and behind the counter left to do. Apparently only these two aisles were a part of "Day before Labor Day Cleaning."
Then I get another note.
An important part of the store was not locked (there are several of these, including the store itself). I went and locked it the night before, basically because it is supposed to be locked. This note tells me to leave it as it is, unlocked.
Believe me, this thing is better off locked than unlocked. The extra time it takes to monkey around with it is worth it.
All told, never take orders from an heir-apparent to the management.
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