xdes

well, as a beginning to this so-called blog, i want to re-introduce myself. I am Brett Hicks, some just call me Brett. i randomly decide to capitolize, punktuate, and spell correctly. it’s all in laziness, or just not caring..which kind of go hand in hand, right?

For the 2 of you that happen to have this on RSS feed, you already know the information I’m about to give you. And, for all the rest, this will be new to you. My blood no longer flows the color of brown..it flows BLUE. That means i finally got out of the box I have been working in for over 5 years. That’s right, you read correctly, I quit UPS. I know it’s hard to believe, but I did it and I’m so much happier. I took a full-time position at Fastenal.

I’m still unsure if I made the right decision, but at the same time, things just got a lot easier on me, mentally, and physically. I work 7-3 mon-fri, no weekends, just 40 hours a week. It’s been a sigh of relief. I finally feel like I have time to do things, and I actually feel like doing things.

Just last week i finished my fence I’ve been dragging out for over a year now. Ruca can run and play, and hang out. Check out this: Ruca.  That’s right, i even made my pretty little Ruca a door so she can chill on the front porch, and she LOVES it! 

i just read a bulletin on myspace with the following:

”Bible warns us of Barack Obama!
The Bible has warned us that ‘A man will come from
the East that will be charismatic in nature and have proposed solutions for all our problems and his rhetoric will attract many supporters!’

The State is NOT our Savior, Christ is!!!!!!”

i guess i just forgot that Christians rule this country and all other religions are just there to take up space. if you guys have seen Stephen King’s “The Mist”, then this except will remind you of the crazy christian lady that eventually got shot in her damned head. 

so, i havnt updated in awhile and thought maybe i would do that for anyone that might stumble back upon this useless site. 

i’ve been wanting to do woodworking things for awhile now, it’s just always seemed kind of fun, and a good hobbie to get into. so, a couple of weeks ago, i bought a palm sander, and a router(this is how you make decorative corners and more on wood) to begin with. i have a circular saw, and borrowed a table saw from my brother. my first project was a cabinet to hang in the bathroom. i didn’t do anything too “decorative” to it, ,just more or less rounded some edges. it’s almost done now, i’ll throw another coat of paint on it when i get home, and maybe it will be dry enough tonight to hang up. i may hang plastic up around it and hook up my small space heater so that it will dry faster.

my second little project i made was a magazine rack to put in the bathroom, and could hold my maxims. olivia didn’t really want them in there, though, i’m not sure why. that was a quick project though, however i didn’t paint it, so it doesn’t look all that great, but i don’t really care.

my sister told me i could make a birdhouse for her birthday, so that will be a project coming up, and i have a couple more things i’d like to build, including a dvd rack. why? i don’t know..i have room in my tv stand for them. i guess it will just be something else to do. one day, i’d like to make things like rocking chairs, a bed, and some night stands. i don’t know if i’ll ever do those, but it seems like it could be fun.

oh, and i have a friend opening, if anyone wants the spot that isn’t already a friend of mine. just email me at if you are interested. please include hobbies, and such so i know for sure we have things in common, because i cannot allow myself to be friends with someone if there are no common interests involved. it just doesn’t make sense. i’m a pretty good friend, i’m there when you need me. and if you havn’t heard from me in a while, that doesn’t mean we’re no longer friends..i’m still here until you turn your back on me. thanks, have a great day. 

i’m at a loss here at work. they have some gay web blocking software. its called websense. i need a way around it. so if you guys know of a proxy site or something, lemme know. it’s not even that i want to look at dirty pictures, or d/l illegal media, go to myspace or anything like that, i just hate being blocked from a forum that would tell me how to fix my tv, or things of that nature. the software blocks out certain categories, such as forums, entertainment, general email, etc. and theres a lot of sites out there that fall into all these blocked categories. i actually tried to look up something work related once, and was unable to find the answer to my solution because it was blocked. so anyhow, you guys that have the internet at your home, or are not blocked from every freakin’ site known to man while you are at work, please do some research for me. i’ll give you one free S/S 1/4-20x1.5 HCS.

i should probably write about something more upbeat, since it seems as though i always rant, and seem pissed off about shit. but the three of you reading this know me, then you probably know i am always pissed off about something. i’m a pessimist. i’m 25 years old. still just a wee lad, really. and as i look into my future, it’s just depressing, and i’m sure i’m not the only one that gets sad thinking about the long hours of work i’ve already put forth since i was old enough to do work. i’m even counting those yards i raked, or mowed when i was 12 to 15. although it was only twice a month or so that i did it.

but then i think back to the bilo days where i started working only 15-20 hours a week during school. once out of high school, that went up to 30-35 hours, sometimes 40 hours a week.

now i’m up to over 50 a week..with one day off. i’ve been doing this for 1.5 years now. i know one day i might have a 40 hour week..but i’m not really seeing that happen. if i stay at ups, i know i wont get 40 hours a week for along time. perhaps at fastenal i could get 40, but i don’t know. anyway you look at it, i’ll still be working for the next 30 years or whatever. i’ll be 55. some great life we have. working, paying bills, keeping up the house, making people happy. i’m tired of it. is it just me that looks at life this way? or does everyone else do it too, only not complaining as much? surely i’m not the only one thats pissed off about all the bullshit we were put here to do. maybe i’ll buy a lottery ticket and win big.

MILLION DOLLAR MADNESS, MILLION DOLLAR MADNESS, MILLION DOLLAR MADNESS, MILLION DOLLAR MADNESS! I CAN’T BELIEVE IT’S HERRRREEEE!

/end

what’s mine is mine, and yours is yours.

if i have a towel laying in the garage, it probably does not make it a grease rag. it’s probably sitting in there from where you left it outside and i just happened to leave it in the garage. the cleanliness of the still blue towel would generally mean it’s not intended for grease, seeing as it would have been black. good job.

if i say no to taking something of mine to another persons house, that generally means, i wanted it to stay at mine, because..it belongs to me. whether i was using it or not doesn’t matter.

why are people so fucking stupid?  bah. 

well, some of us think it’s soooo cool that they can grow macho beards and shit. well, i would totally participate in this too, if only i were able to. so instead, i made up my own.  it’s called “chairgromo”. i also have a picture of what my month is yielding for me. so piss off geoffrey!

beat this!

and if this other job thing works out, then i will participate in all the beard growing things next year, but this was the best i could do. sorry guys for letting you down!

i read an old blog from mays when he used to blog at chattablogs or whatever, and it got me wanting some mcdonald’s. the whole reason for this post is really because i wanted to leave a comment, but for whatever reason i couldn’t.

If you want to read it, go here:monkey’s to the rescue! It basically talks about how rude a Mcdonald’s employee was to him. Everyone knows how pissed off it can make you when you’re basically ignored by someone working in the food industry. Or when they are rude to us. I don’t understand it. I worked at Bi-Lo for a long time, and no matter how bad of a day i was having, I tried my damndest to treat the customers well, because..that was my job.

Geoff left a comment on there saying “It’s sad when the customer is more polite than the employee”, and it really is. Honestly, why should I kiss their ass when they are being assholes? I shouldn’t have to. BUT, if we’re assholes, then you have to worry about getting spit in your food, or worse. Why should we even have to worry about things like that? Why are there people in this world that would do such sick things? Regardless of all the worries, I believe I’m going to Micky D’s for some lunch today.

theres a few things i hate quiet a bit in life...one of these being phone calls not being returned. it’s ok if i didn’t leave a voice mail, because i figure you would probably call me back when you saw the missed call. ok..thats fine. but if i leave you a voicemail and you don’t call me back, thats kind of irratating. (going to fix a drink). and i’m back. it’s just irritating because of the fact that i don’t generally leave voicemails is it’s not important..depending on who you are. and there are very few people that i will do that for, because i consider them really good friends, and i feel like it’s a nice gesture to let them know i’m just calling to see whats up. which, when i get voicemails, i dont reply to them always. mainly because i forget.

but if you can’t reply to a simple text..i feel as though i am being ignored. because how hard is it to punch a small replay, even if its just saying “ok”? right, it’s not hard at all. but i guess i can understand the busy lifestyles of everyone since i usually have nothing to do. i never work. granted i do have a whopping 4 hours to do whatever needs to be done during that time...which is usually nothing since i’m a piece of shit, but i’m excusing everyone else from being a piece of shit, because not everyone wastes their time being drunk. so basically what i’m saying is: if i can take the time out of my day to reply to a message that seems to be something worthy of replying to, then i’ll do it. however, not everyone sees it that way, and thats fine, because i’m sure that they HAVE PLENTY TO FUCKING DO ON THEIR GODDAMNED OFF DAY!

i’m sorry this has been a rant, and unfortunately the person this is referring to more than likely won’t read this, but alas, i have my opinion out on this world wide web thing. i love you guys that are not assholes.

Most of you won’t care about this, or maybe none of you will.  I’ve always been a fan of Enlightenment(window manager for X windows(linux)), and have been checking in on the upcoming version for sometime, which is Enlightenment DR 0.17. The current stable release is 0.16.8.10 or something to that effect. I’ve seen screen shots of it, and it’s just pretty. DR17 will be a little different than previous versions..before it was a window manager, which is basically something that sits on top of a shell(n0ia, correct me if i am wrong please). Well, DR17 is going to act as a shell, and will handle things that gnome would have done underneath Enlightenment in the previous versions.

A while back I attempted to install from CVS, which I didn’t really know what I was doing, so needless to say I didn’t ever get it to work. Not only because I didn’t know what I was doing, but also the whole this needed this dependency, and that needed another dependency, or things just didn’t compile right.

I did a random check up on it yesterday, and was reading up on it as well.  I happened to read that there are a few unofficial packages for a few different platforms. One of those being Fedora(which is the flava that i run). So, I followed the link and kind of read up on it while I was at work, sent the link in an email so I wouldn’t forget about it.

I got home and followed the few directions needed to executed to download and install it. It’s so nice when you don’t get a bunch of errors about dependencies or compilation problems. And that means, i had no problems and everything was installed smoothly.  I booted up into it, and was in awe at the eye candy. Just little things were neat. The way the icons bounced on the icon bar, and the way the menu item glimmered like light was shined on it when the cursor moves over it.  Basically, I was thoroughly impressed with it, and have had no glitches yet. Even though this version isn’t quiet considered “stable” yet..it seems pretty damned stable. So, if any of you *nix nerds out there wanna check out some eye candy, I recommend going to this site:enlightenment.  Scroll down to the “Download Enlightenment DR17 and the EFL”, and click on which ever link suits your platform. 

so after reading about amy’s camping trip, i thought i would write about the camping trip i’m going on this weekend. there will be fire(s), because nothing says camping like burning whatever you can find. there will also be tents, in which we will sleep in..on the ground, because its more fun to be rugged than to be comfortable for whatever reason. we will kill our own food, because thats manly. ok, i’m not killing anything, but the “hunters” that are going think they will. if they do, great, we can have deer stew. or squirrel stew..whichever they kill. theres a stream next to us, which is where we will catch fish with our “bear” hands(raawwrrrr). sorry. oh, and we will poop and pee in the woods, and not shower at all, because this is camping..right?

http://view.break.com/392109 - Watch more free videos

well, a friend posted this on myspace, so i was bored and figured what the hell, i’ll watch it. so now i thought i would share it with you guy(s).

Dear Alcohol,

First & foremost, let me tell you that I’m a huge fan of yours.
As my friend, you always seem to be there when needed.
The perfect post-work cocktail, a beer at the game, and you’re even when I know for a fact they do not want to
hear from me during the day, let alone all hours of the night?

2. Eating: Now, you know I love a good meal, but why do you suggest that I eat a kebab, a butter chicken curry along with a sausage with cheese,onion and mustard (washed down with WINE & topped off with a Kit kat after a few sweet chilli and sour cream old dutch chips)? I’m an eclectic eater, but I think you went too far this time.

3. Clumsiness: Unless you’re subtly trying to tell me that I need to do more yoga to improve my balance, I see NO need to hammer the issue home by causing me to fall down. It’s completely unnecessary, and the black & blue marks that appear on my body mysteriously the next day are beyond me. Similarly, it should never take me more than 45 seconds to
get the front door key into the lock.

4. Furthermore: The hangovers have GOT to stop.
This is getting ridiculous. I know a little penance for our previous evening’s debauchery may be in order, but the 3pm hangover immobility is completely unacceptable. My entire day is shot. I ask that, if the proper precautions are taken ie water, vitamin B, bread products, aspirin prior to going to sleep/passing out face down on the kitchen floor the hangover should be minimal & in no way interfere with my daily activities.

Alcohol, I have enjoyed our friendship for some years now & would like to ensure that we remain on good terms. You’ve been the invoker of great stories, the provocation for much laughter, and the needed companion when I just don’t know what to do with the extra money in my pockets.

In order to continue this friendship, I ask that you carefully review my grievances above & address them immediately. I will look for an answer no later than Thursday 3pm (pre-happy hour) on your possible solutions & hopefully we can continue this fruitful partnership.

Thank you,
Your biggest fan

P.S.

THINGS THAT ARE DIFFICULT TO SAY WHEN DRUNK:
1. Innovative
2. Preliminary
3. Proliferation
4. Cinnamon

THINGS THAT ARE VERY DIFFICULT TO SAY WHEN DRUNK:
1. Specificity
2. British Constitution
3. Passive-aggressive disorder

THINGS THAT ARE DOWNRIGHT IMPOSSIBLE TO SAY
WHEN DRUNK:
1. Thanks, but I don’t want to have sex.
2. Nope, no more beer for me.
3. Sorry, but you’re not really my type.
4. Good evening, officer. Isn’t it lovely out tonight?
5. Oh, I couldn’t. No one wants to hear me sing

i’m sure you guys have them too. but theres a co-worker at my second job that ...well..he just doesn’t do his job well at all. well, he does it ok i guess..but when it comes to watching after people like me...boy is he dumb. a non-account(i think) customer called today to see if i could quote him on random standard/metric hex cap screws, washers, nuts, and some electrical terminals.  i asked dax what i should do, and he told me i should just quote him on a kit(the kit comes with a 72 hole bin, and like 2500 assorted washers, nuts, bolts. i told that idiot i didn’t want to do it that way, that i was just going to do random ones like the customer(nash eleven(again protecting the name of the customer)) had asked me to do. so me being not so familiar with the POS, yes thats the name of our computer software we use at work..i think it means something like part ordering system..which is probably way off from what it means, but really its a Piece of Shit. so anyway, i’m not too familiar with it since i mainly play like a delivery boy. i asked dexter if i could just pull up a quote for them on the POS, and print it out, and he said no or something. so i looked up a bunch of parts and wrote them all down, while doing a quote on the computer so i could see the price to write down on my notepad, which would then be faxed to nash eleven.i fill this damned page up, and i show it to dexter to see if it looks alright, because i don’t do quotes and all that jazz much..and you know what the moron said?? “why didn’t you just print the quote out from the computer?” it took everything i had not to hit that mother fucker! my knees started shaking, my heart was racing, the vein on my head was throbbing, my hands balled up into fists so tight that the circulation was cut off. wanna know what i did? i picked up the already broken chair up that i had been sitting in, and launched it over the counter into the display bin and said “how the fuck is that for fucking ‘printing off the computer’, asshole!?!” he took off running like a little pussy into the back and cried. i was too furious to stay any longer in that place with him..so i fucking left and went and got a 12 pack so i could come write about it for you guys..cause i know how you like excitement. dexter is such a dumbshit.i think i’m going to write to our regional VP and tell him i don’t want him working at MY store anymore.

i had a packed weekend, the first in a while. and it was fun too.

friday, after work, i drank 3 beers while i waited on olivia to get off work and go home to get dressed and whatever so we could go on our first ‘real date’ i guess. i thought i would be nice like that. we went to carrabas(best food ever) and ate. then after that, we headed to b hayes house for a halloween party(even though halloween is over). it was supposed to be a costume party, but me or olivia didn’t dress up since we’d just left from eating. they had a keg, so i was happy..and some liqour, which made me even happier. i didn’t get trashed for once, but none the less it was fun watching B being drunk. if you dont know brandon..then you don’t know how he is..just funny. he ended up making out hardcore with an older lady, probably in her 40’s, from his workplace..grabbing her ass and all. just funny. we left there and went back to my house and drank some more and had a wrestling match, in which she “won”.

the next day we went to her bank to pay a bill or something, then cooked breakfast, and then i left for work. work wasn’t bad, i got off at 8(which is early considering all the driving and crap i have to do). after that, met up with joseph and holly, olives cousin and his friend, and then my friend out at chilis for some grub, then we went on back to my house after that sans joseph and holly. hung out and went to sleep.

sunday, woke up and went to lowes to pick up some stuff(doorbell, pop-out valve that needs to be replaced on the water heater), then rented office space(olive had not seen that!) and saw 3, since we were going to see saw 4 later on in the day w/ jo and holly.  we watched office space, and i laughed just like i always do because its freaking great, and then watched saw3. i don’t know everyone elses takes on the saw movies, but i like them..they do a good job with the twists and whatnot. however, its a little gory. just a little though, heh.

saw 4 was as good as the first 3..explains some things for you, and leaves you expecting another one. which i would go see.

i saw some previews for movies that i’m definatly going to watch..one being Hitman. it just looks plain bad ass. the other would be Beowulf. i read the other day about it in Maxim, and wanted to see it, but the preview looked decent. i just think it would be a good movie...and angelina is in it