This would be a sure sign of the end of the world:

You can make your own here.

This entry is a log as it happens of my night of “work”:

• 10:53 pm-Typing this as I get dressed for work. Running late as usual. Must leave by 10:55pm or I will be late.
• 10:56 pm-Leaving for work. Going to be late again. Of course if I hadn’t typed this I would have been on time.
• 10:58 pm-Actually pull out of drive way.
• 11:05 pm-Punch in at work.
• 11:14 pm-Publish this entry
• 11:22 pm-Gather the folders of the desk clerks who worked today. Tossed aside until I pull their paper work later on.
• 11:24 pm-Printed House Count Report, Cancellation/Denials Report, Credit Limit Exception Report, Daily Activity Report, and the No Show Report. All of these reports go to the Sheriff.
• 11:26 pm-Turned first only walk in away. They didn’t like the rate of 79.00 plus tax. It’s a shame I don’t haggle with these assholes.
• 11:30 pm-Started to count my cash drawer.
• 11:37 pm-Finished counting the cash drawer, one phone call interrupted me.
• 11:43 pm-Call from above some sort of crazy stalker bitch. Guest requested she be told they are taking no more calls. Usual kind of thing for the clientele of this hotel.
• 11:47 pm-Took paper work out of folders so I can start to balance the credit cards.
• 11:51 pm-Took reports printed earlier and use them to balance credit cards now that the paper work is all sorted.
• 11:53 pm-Credit cards balanced. I take all the paper work and folders and chuck them aside till later.
• 11:57 pm-Time to disconnect the shitty cendant provided isp so I can hook up the good charter provided wireless isp.
• 12:02 am-The wireless bridge finally resolves the ip address and I’m on the good net!
• 12:03 am-Boot up Trillian.
• 12:13 am-Preparing for actual audit done by computer. I print a Guest Name List and the Clean and Vacant Room List.
• 12:16 am-Room and Tax posted by the computer.
• 12:18 am-Cashier Closeout completed.
• 12:19 am-Began Close Day.
• 12:21 am-Fired up Dark Age of Camelot. Playing a Bonedancer on Midgard/Lancelot.
• 12:27 am-Gawain finally logs on to aim.
• 12:31 am-Corrected my retarded typo. It’s a Bonedancer not a Bonelord.
• 12:36 am-Close Day is complete.
• 1:27 am-Asshole Redneck Guest doesn’t understand english. Wanted his clothes which were dry cleaned. The phrase “I do not have your clothes here, please check your room” is to much for his redneck mind to handle.
• 1:42 am-Logged out of Dark Age of Camelot, for now.
• 2:05 am-Gawain logged off. No one to entertain me now.
• 4:05 am-Printed miscellaneous reports.
• 5:26 am-Transmitted the credit card batch
• 5:45 am-Took all of the reports and paperwork and tossed it in back on one of the desks like I always do.
• 5:55 am-Logged out of Trillian.
• 6:00 am-One long god damn hour to go.
• 6:11 am-Why isn’t it 7:00 am yet? This thought goes through my head until I leave the hotel.
• 6:25 am-Time to unhook the good internet and plug back in that shitty cendant provided isp.
• 6:50 am-Ten minutes to go. Here ten minutes equals an eternity
• 6:55 am-Five minutes to go. A pattern emerges?
• 6:56 am-Four minutes to go.
• 6:57 am-Three minutes to go.
• 6:58 am-Two.
• 6:59 am-One. Hurray first shift is here!
• 7:00 am-Take me home Jesus!
• 7:12 am-Home and I wonder did I punch out? Don’t really care. I’m home.

And that is my usual night.

A Politics Test. Not that I consider myself political. But it’s one of those things I wonder about. If six pages of questions can accurately tell what my political beliefs are. This is me:

You are a Social Liberal (68% permissive) and an Economic Liberal (21% permissive). You are best described as a Strong Democrat. You exhibit a very well-developed sense of Right and Wrong and believe in economic fairness.

So Strong Democrat it is. Gawain is a dirty Socialist by comparison.

Half-Life 2: Episode One came out on the 1st. I bought it finally yesterday. Another 19.95 blown on episodic content. I’m still not certain how I feel about this stuff. I do think that Half-Life and Sin are doing it better than Oblivion.

I’m only maybe into the game ten minutes or so. Right off the bat you notice that the game is a little more polished than Half-Life 2. The characters act better. Or seem more life like. Not sure yet. Features included in this episode:

• An all-new episode for one of the best-selling action games of all time.
• Discover what’s become of City 17, Dr. Breen, and the G-Man.
• Incredibly advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI (Artificial intelligence)).
• Highly detailed environments, featuring High Dynamic Range lighting, provide amazing gameplay settings.
• Digital Actors: The most sophisticated in-game characters ever witnessed.
• Physical Gameplay: Objects obey the laws of gravity, friction, and buoyancy.
• Design Team Commentary Mode.
• Also includes two multiplayer games: Half-Life 2 Deathmatch and Half-Life Deathmatch: SourceTM.
• Half-Life 2 not required to play.

For only being ten minutes into it I think the game is worth it. Which even after finishing Sin Episode 1, I still can’t say that. If you liked Half-Life 2 grab this first in a series of episodes. I wonder though about this episodic delivery of content.

Sin was a game I played back in the old days. It was a fps that reminded me of Duke Nukem. Now there is a sequel of sorts. Using Valve’s Steam to release Sin Episodes. The first episode is called Emergence and it will cost you 19.95. On the plus side you get the original Sin 1 and Sin 1 Multiplayer. The down side is the games length.

Content wise I still haven’t decided if this is worth the 19.95. It was fun. A single male is of course going to enjoy boobs and bullets. Which are in abundance. Other than that the other feature worth mentioning is the games Personal Challenge System:

Driven by one of the most elaborate statistics systems ever created, SiN Episodes will constantly adapt to your playing style and offers a challenge that is custom-tailored to your skill level.

Prior to a patch on May 17th this Personal Challenge System had a habit of raping the hell out of a player that happened to do better than the game thought you should. The patch does fix this. My long term enjoyment of this episodic content will be determined by the cost of the future episodes.

I can’t believe the fucking bus is still an issue. Check this out:

June 1, 2006

All Front Desk Agents

For the time being, we will be providing shuttle service to and from the BP/McDonald’s area where the Van Galder is now running. I don’t expect you to do it, but please notify engineering, management, or the MOD and they can help the guest. I will need to get an answer on what do if someone needs transportation early in the morning when no one is available.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks,

The Sheriff
Director of Operations
Ramada Inn-South Beloit

Let me get this right. The bus no longer stops here and we are going to waste time and money to ferry these assholes to and from the new bus stop? Did I read that right? Let me read it again. Well fuck me I did read it right. The hotel I think is officially the poster child for throwing money down the toilet.

Let’s clarify for a second. The memo mentions helping “the guest” in the second sentence. What is a guest is the issue then for me. Answers.com says a guest is:

One who pays for meals or accommodations at a restaurant, hotel, or other establishment; a patron.

Until these assholes step foot on hotel property and spend money they are not guests. Why provide a shuttle for these few (very few) that may take the bus that will stay at this hotel. It’s like admitting that the hotel fucked it all up by losing the bus. At this point it’s not really wise to make yourselves look any stupider than you already are by doing this. Save some face blame it on the bus.

Now I don’t want to appear to be totally negative to the needs of these assholes on the bus. I have an answer for this:

I will need to get an answer on what do if someone needs transportation early in the morning when no one is available.

It’s so simple really that you may laugh. I see two options here.

1. They can walk
2. They can call a taxi

When I work those are the options. End of story. I don’t care how many goddamn memos come out telling me different. I frankly don’t even acknowledge the buses existence any longer. Not that I get that many inquiries on the bus. But the lucky few that do call or come in asking gets no help from me other than the bus no longer stops here. It’s so satisfying.

Gawain sent me this link which outputs a website’s html as a graph. It’s fascinating just to watch this thing render a website in this way. Of course my site is a mess. Below is the thumb to the full picture, which includes a key to the colors.

This graph just shows how ass backwards my site design is. Tables are on the way out. Everything should be divs and css. Oh well. For those interested (or bored) here is the link to see my site rendered in real time as a graph.