Wednesday, May 25, 2011

More Money Thinking

Cutter's Log - Supplemental

One night on an errand run, I simply made the shorter trip to Kmart rather than Wal-Mart. All it was for was Raid. I was coerced into signing up for the Rewards program. "It's free." At the spur of the moment, I decided what the heck.

Kmart's program in a nutshell: Earn 10 points for each $1 spent, 1,000 points earned is $1 toward a purchase (if desired).

As with the case with such store cards, I think to myself am I really going to use this? Should I switch from Wal-Mart to Kmart because of this card? To find out, I had to do a little price comparing with the things I usually get.

Water - I bought a case of 35 20oz. bottles at WM for $3.50. At K the special offer is 2-for-$7. I'm not even halfway through my current case of water, having bought it two weeks ago. Buying an extra case doesn't take up all that much space in my room, but it is an extra $3.50 on the shopping trip. I think the two-for deal is worth it, if it is still on special. Also meaning 70 rewards points.

Clothes/shoes - I have found that K has more clothes that fit me than WM does, and the prices are about the same as WM. Plus rewards points.

Cans of pop - A six-pack of the cheapo stuff at K is $1.49. Not sure on the WM price, but they did have a four-pack of Barqs on special for $1. Yesterday the mail brought me the County Market flyer - a six-pack of Super Chill cans of pop was only $0.88. It's taken me a day to drink it all. This isn't going to happen again, the special I mean. Then again, the pop may not even happen - don't I have water?

Other than that, most every other thing I normally get is cheaper at WM. So it's just a matter of getting things that K can't control the price of. Greeting cards, magazines, packs of baseball cards, small packs of gum, and others. The rewards add up (and rewards is something WM doesn't have), and the distance is shorter.

Another thing I did was change insurance plans. That saved half a monthly payment! Just can't get into any trouble = Extra effort to be careful.

Summer Plans

Cutter's Log - Stardate 1102.52.50
Current Song - American Boy (Kanye West/Estelle)


Dan's last day of school was a few days ago. Twenty years ago I was the first of the boys to attend school. If our family's life went by chapters, this would be the start of a new one.

As for yours truly, I find myself stuck in a muck of sorts. I'm hoping to get some sort of inspiration today. Busy day today. It's the wee hours of the morning, so I'll sleep in a little bit. Some errands, website work, and dinner with the grandparents.

Dan's graduation open house is on Sunday, and it's unfortunate that I have to work during it. But I'll visit in the couple of hours before. I'm working quite a few hours this week; 39 to be exact. I'll be around 31-32 next week, which is an improvement from the past couple of weeks. That will be good considering that the couple of weekends after this coming one will be hardball State Tournaments.

I'll need all the money I can get for the coming three weeks. After that, it'll be the end of the high school sports year. Hibernation mode for NISB? Don't count on it. I have something special planned. You'll have to wait until the State of the Site Address to find out what it is.

So during the summer I will still have some website work. That's coupled in with MLB Draft coverage, enrollment/classification coverage, and the usual publisher duties. But that's not all of my summer.

Since I won't be traveling to many places to cover games, I won't have the traditional "off days" from work that are reserved for sports (these are Tuesdays and Fridays). So I plan on working a little more often. Plus, I plan on re-restblishing the fill-in plan to some of the other stations. I put this on hold a few months ago because things were so busy.

To further armor myself for the upcoming school year, I have decided to make a couple of more changes to my usual summer stuff. Usually I will dedicate a couple of days for Illinois High School Glory Days expeditions. Won't do that this year; but it is because we're in a fine position at the moment with not a whole lot of general research to do. General research is compared to the personal research that is done by those connected to the schools, whereas I am nothing more than an outside historian. Plus, no long trips to places for fun or shopping with my own gas money. This may seem boring - but when you look at how much money you have saved after it, that is fun enough.

Can't wait for summer!

Sunday, May 15, 2011

I'll Get You Gadget ...

Cutter's Log - Stardate 1102.51.50
Current Song - read on


I seem to be in a groove as of late, involving one of my favorite cartoon shows as a kid.

What facinated me as a kid about Inspector Gadget were the weird gadgets he would use (and sometimes screw up on). I'll also admit that one of my fictional crushes as a kid was on Penny Gadget. I was between four and seven years old. Also a factor was the suspicion behind that of the enemy Dr. Claw - that deep voice and spooky setting.

The background music, which is something kids like me at the time normally wouldn't pay attention to, remained the lasting memory after Nickeoldeon stopped showing reruns. The music repeated itself like a soundtrack, and changed with the scenes.

Eventually as reruns stopped in the U.S., the memory of Inspector Gadget would be buried in the back of my head. Small reminders would pop up at times, but nothing major to warrant a full rehash. The most notable Inspector Gadget connection I would make through the years was my Dr. Claw impersonation. When I was in school, I found out that I could try to talk like other people. So I tried as many as possible. Your voice changes throughout adolsecence. A lot of voices I did then I can't do now. But one constant, and that which I consider my best, is that of Dr. Claw. The villan is voiced in the series by the master of voices Frank Welker.

As my recent influx of conversation continues to grow, this Dr. Claw impersonation seems to come up more often. I catch myself doing it at times. One day I felt like I wasn't getting the "next" right in "I'll get you Gadget, next time!" So for a voice reference, I searched YouTube.

YouTune can be addicting, especially when it brings back childhood memories. This trip up the Dr. Claw voice search turned out to be a session of watching full episodes, remixes and foreign language versions. That turned into searching for Dr. Claw's face (existant only on an action figure).

I didn't laugh as much this time (because I'm 25), but there were stil some odd scenes that caught my attention. I also researched the series, to be dissapointed that there was no true ending to the series (it was canceled).

My favorite episode was the "Clockmaker" one, where Gadget tries to find stolen gold. The swiss clockmaker was assigned to harden the gold into gears for the clock, and then send them to Dr. Claw. The clockmaker also gave Gadget a watch that set off his gadgets at random times. This was a bit difficult for Gadget to overcome. Penny was captured and put under a giant hammer that was supposed to strike at 5:00. This was probably the hardest Gadget adventure I remember seeing - and it ended up being a critical goof on the clockmaker's part that led to his own demise (and not Penny saving the day).

I also didn't care much for Corporal Capeman.

The more episodes I re-visited, I took notice of the background music. All of these music appreciation classes kind of pay off here. There is one of Dr. Claw's that I liked. Dr. Claw had two themes, and the one I'm refering to is his darkest - the one with the drum-tapping and synthesizer effects. I can't find the tune stand-alone.

That particular tune would go well with the kind of inside "office hours" work I do with the website. I'll end it here.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Awful Couple of Days

Cutter's Log - Stardate 1102.01.50
Current Song - Look Out (guess the TV show)


When I got back from Minnesota, I had a very good string of days. I knew sometime it had to come to an end.

On Saturday night, I had an odd relevation about a website matter. So that kind of bogged me down. I was working that night, and had to work again on Sunday morning at 10.

I woke up late because I accidentally set my alarm to "radio" instead of "alarm." The radio was turned down, but yet the set time had passed. What woke me up was the call from work. Then I got to my car. My glove compartment was open, my middle compartment was too. My visors were too. I had left my car unlocked, and my checkbook in it.

May whoever did this dispicable act have their insides rot to fine dust.

So after getting things straight once more, I am feeling alright at the moment. However, it is very hot outside. Usually the first hot day of the year is one I can't bear. Luckilly there was nothing NISB-worthy to cover, so I had a day off.

Breakfast with the grandparents on Wednesday morning, followed by work later in the day. Galena (River Ridge) Track Sectional on Thursday. Rock Falls at Morrison Baseball on Friday, and Amboy at Polo/Forreston Softball on Saturday afternoon.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

How 9/11 Changed My Life

Cutter's Log - Stardate 1102.30.50
Current Song - Love Is (Herb Alpert)


Current event thoughts, from the abnormal brain:

Like most Americans, I remember where I was when I heard the news of the attacks on 9/11/01.

Technically, the planes hit during my freshman Humanities block. While I was in my English class part of it, the plans hit, but the class didn't know about it at the time. When we moved to our World History part of the block, Mr. Walton already had the radio on ABC News. There I was, three seats from the first row in Room 225.

Mr. Walton had the radio play all class, and thus the normal curriculum was put on hold. The same thing for Mr. Brown's health class the next period. During that class, an announcement was made that our Auditorium would be open for showing of news coverage until a certain time.

I didn't have any stunned looks on my face. My first reaction to hearing that the attacks were of a terrorist nature was a simple "whoa." I didn't cry, wave a flag, or anything like that. My thought process was: now the US is going to find the guys responsible, and have something similar to the Nuremberg Trials. A war may happen, too.

When I made my way to the auditorium, I noticed others were also going down. I wasn't doing well in health class, or next period's Spanish class also. The news reports kind of made it sound like the prelude to the Spanish-American War. Okay, we're going to have another Spanish-American War, but with the country that did this.

To those who have read all of this so far, it may seem as if I have no soul. I'm simply recalling my thoughts of the day. The reason I didn't get sad or anything was because it didn't effect Cody Cutter personally. So after sitting through all of the reactions, I began to wonder for a minute why my reactions were not the same as those persons on television.

I think my reactions were missing because I didn't want to feel weak at the moment. I wanted to keep my head up and move on to justice. Sure, I acknowledged the horrors and the losses, but I didn't want that to change my life. I didn't want any outside force to change my life.

When we saw the video glimpse of a man with a turban and long beard (at the news reports in the Auditorium), "Is that the guy that did it?" was heard. No, I'm not going to let that guy throw me off-balance.

While everyone else was thrown off-balance with the news, I clung on to my axis and didn't move.

I wanted to remain strong, and still be able to think "oh my goodness" a little bit. With the news of Osama Bin Laden's death, and seeing the throngs of crowds everywhere, I began to think back at my inital reaction to 9/11. I didn't feel a thing then, and I didn't feel a thing on Sunday night.

But as the recent news events went on, it made me wonder about who I was and why I am who I am.

Since I didn't have a reaction to 9/11, my mindset from that Tuesday morning on remained a pre-9/11 mindset. My current mindset is still pre-9/11. I was wondering why all these people were acting the way they were. I began to become more curious about why people think and act the way they do. At first I thought this was a growing-up process, but the more I think about it perhaps 9/11 made me think more psychologically about people.

Because I had no reaction to 9/11, people looked at me real differently (moreso than usual). Here I am, looking from the outside into the post-9/11 mindset that is around all of you.

A crime? With this mental "condition" of mine, am I guilty?

Monday, May 2, 2011

So What Have I Been Doing Since MN?

Cutter's Log - Stardate 1102.20.50
Current Song - That Girl (Stevie Wonder)


Since coming back from Minnesota, I had a lot of things happen to me. But I wanted to write about my trip before writing about these other things. Many "blog drafts" were written when I got back, and even in-between writing about the Trip.

Unable to write more, and find the time to do it, I condensed things and put them here.

***

My friend Dorothy was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease while I was gone. Her and husband Bill are nightly regulars at the Shell station; playing their lotto, drinking coffee and visiting with either me, Billy or the other pair of regulars Joe and Brenda. So things really don't feel all that well while working nights.

I have a new lotto ticket theory. Play the oldest games. I'm not fond of this new "Cash for Life" deal that's going on. Sure, you may win on more spaces, but for a $2 ticket, you could have two winning spaces of $1 each. This never used to happen with past $2 tickets. They only want you to play more. Mind you, the lottery is run by the State.

Knothing but Knick-Knacks Rummage Sale: Friday, May 6 and Saturday, May 7. Times are 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

I had a planned column for the overuse of baseball statistics, and the over-emphasis on the scoring process for its games. Baseball and softball are simple games with no need for abundant stats. The offense tries to hit the ball with a bat and try to run around a diamond-shape path. The defense tries to prevent the ball from being hit, and prevent the diamond-circuit from closing. That is hardball. I could care less about "6-2-4 putout," "defensive indifference," "RISP, GIDP, K/9, etc." It's like some people rely on the Elias Sports Bureau to create a leaderboard so that any joe or jane can top it. Oooohh, that's looks good for a college scholarship! Bull.

On my first soccer game back from the trip, I got a little sunburn. Actually, no, I got windburn. Standing outside for two hours in a soccer match with 25 mile-per-hour wind can do this to you, apparently. So for the next week I had to put up with customers wondering "oh, my God," and try to mechanically figure out in their heads how this happened (staring). Not putting on sunscreen has been a bad habit of mine. So I wrote a note that I taped to my rear-view mirror, "Did you remember sunscreen?!?!"

In trying to save money on things, one night I went to Wal-Mart to shop for things. On this list was a gas can for my trunk, envelopes, mints, AAA batteries, a spare phone charger, and a couple of rummage sale signs. I ended up just getting the batteries and a piece of large posterboard. The gas can was eliminated after thinking about it for a few seconds (I really don't need it), the envelopes and mints were on sale somewhere else, the phone charger (which was going to be used for travel) was eliminated because I could just use the one I have, and the rummage sale signs were axed in favor of the posterboard.

This will be the first of what will be many for the years to come, all six of our family members came together for dinner at Candlelight Inn in Sterling. Here's to more of these.

I turned 25 on April 28, quietly. No work, no games, nothing. Presents, of course.

April showers bring May flowers, and real angry sportswriters.

An addend to my vacation week came on the Sunday after I got home. My mom, her mom and sister and I visited the Titanic exhibit at the Putnam Museum. I had seen it once before, about 12 years ago at the Museum of Science and Industry. It was good to see all of it once more, because I had forgotten. But my mom, who's a big Titanic fanatic, remembered every bit of it.

I had a weird feeling that if I saw more weddings, I would know more about true love. So I watched the entire wedding of Prince William and Princess Catherine.