Today, on the suggestion of [url=http://www.intrevio.com]Seth Lopez[/url], I implemented RSS into this site.

If you’re using Firefox you should see a little orange feed symbol in your address bar which looks like:
[img]img/other/rss/url.jpg[/img]

When you click it it takes you to another page which will allow you to subscribe to my site’s feed.

Further yet, if you want to get updates through Thunderbird that’s also possible.

1. Open Thunderbird.
2. Go to Tools -> Account Settings.
3. Click Add Account.
4. Click the “RSS News & Blogs” radio button, then click Next.
5. Type whatever name you want for your feeds. Click next and then finish.
6. Now in the left window of the “Account Settings” screen you will see an option with the name you specified in #5. Click that.
7. Click the “Manage Subscriptions…” button on the right side of that window.
8. A new window should pop-up. Click the Add button.
9. Type in “http://www.frozenplague.net/rss” into the Feed URL box.
10. You should now see a folder icon with the title “The Life of a Radar”. Opening up this folder presents you with a satellite dish with the title “The Life of a Radar” again. Close that window.
11. Above your regular email you should now see your RSS News & Blogs account, with the name you wrote in #5.
12. In that folder will be “The Life of a Radar”, in bold and with a number in brackets.
13. Clicking it will bring up a list, similar looking to the email list you’re familiar with, of blog posts on this site.
14. Clicking a blog post will bring it up.

Welcome to RSS.

P.S. My cold has ran away, if you find it, please DO NOT RETURN IT TO ME UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. Keep it as a reward.

The Friday just gone (well, 4 days ago), was my last day working at Coles. A customer with her kid came through my register, and the kid was coughing up BOTH lungs and sounding not all that good about it.

I joked about it, “Wouldn’t it be funny if I got sick on my last day?”

It happened. I now have a cold which I think I’m smack-bang in the middle of. It’s wrapped itself around my vocal chords and my voice cracks whenever I try to speak, even saying something simple like “Bye” comes out all distorted.

I hope that this thing goes away before Monday. Wouldn’t that be horrible? Turning up to a new job and being sick on the first day.

My energy’s completely shot by about 6′oclock every night and I haven’t been able to have a good sleep-in because my throat’s been feeling like crap.

If anyone wants my cold, they may take it, $4.95 + Postage & Handling.

[img]/img/funny/colds-rock.jpg[/img]

[img]/img/funny/clothes-go-here.jpg[/img]

My brother seems to not know where they go, so I made that little sign so that he knows.

In other news, tomorrow is my last day at [s]Hell[/s] Coles, and it’s casual day! I hope everything goes smoothly and I’ll see you on the other side.

Oh, and about Monday Night, it starts at 6:30, at my house. If you don’t know where that is you know how to contact me. Bring $5 for pizza.

A lady approached my checkout today with a large trolley with green bags hung over one of the loops on the baby seat.
“Are you open?” she asked, innocently.
“Well, that depends.”
“What on?”
“Well, if today is Monday and the time is between 7am and 11am, during which time I am required by penalty of death or loss of my dearly-beloved job to work, then the answer is yes. Also if the little red sign, similar to one of these,” I say, grabbing the close sign from under my register and holding it up, “is *not* placed at the end of my register then yes, I am open. Also, if I have a look on my face that closely resembles boredom the answer is still most probably yes.”
“So are you open?”

It’s hard to soar like an eagle when you’re surrounded by turkeys.

——–

Today was one of the very, very few days of the year that I actually get mail. It was a small package with a slight bulge in it, and I assumed either it was a nice lump of cash or something from my future employer.

I opened it and read the first page:

“Dear Ryan,
This letter is to confirm our verbal offer of employment and acceptance to the position of Web Developer - for a six month contract.”

Awesome.

Valhalla is a non-profit LAN party ran by a group of volunteers every 6-8 weeks at the St. Clair’s Recreation Centre in Woodville. This LAN party was slightly different due to the fact it was held on Court four instead of the main three courts in the Recreation Centre. This meant that the LAN had only a capacity of 180 people, but had a very nice atmosphere.

At the May Event, competitions ranged from Call of Duty 2 (5v5) to CounterStrike:Source, both on the PC, to Tekken 5 on the PS3, (pictured below).
[img]/img/other/valhalla/tv.jpg[/img]

One of these competitions was the Adrenalin Challenge. The Adrenalin Challenge is a challenge held by sponsors of the event and it can be for any game on any map. This event, it was for Medal of Honor:Allied Assault. The Adrenalin team chose the Nazi side and their job was to defend the cannons on top of the bunkers from the Allies, the lanners, who’s job it was to destroy those cannons. It was tough, and lots of people complained (even me a few hundred times) and rage-quitted, but it was eventually won by Hell Rok, [s]a cheating scumbag[/s], a very lucky person who picked himself up a new 8600GT.

[img]/img/other/valhalla/hell-rok.jpg[/img]

All in all, good times were had, and I’m looking forward to the next event.

Also, RadarLAN is on the Queen’s Birthday weekend (whenever that is), it’s on a Friday or Saturday night, and more details will be put up once Coles actually answers their damn phones.

Sometimes I don’t know why I do it. I turn on my computer before going off to do other things. Then when I inevitably return, there’s a few messages of people screaming bloody murder because my site has an error, or they want to look at a piece of code. The last thing I want to do when I get home is to “help” people. That’s what I do all day at work. Give me time to sit down, eat dinner, get out of my work clothes, read a comic or three and then I’ll jump straight back into working on fixing whatever bugs you may find. I’ll even be nice.

You may realise by now that there isn’t a blog post before this one. This is because some idiot (me) forgot to backup his MySQL database, I had everything else backed up except that. It only had one blog post in it anyway, and I wish to re-write it. The blog post was titled “Goodbye, Good Luck and Get Out of my Store” and here’s how I want to write it today:

Dear Customers,
I have been working at Coles for 2 years, 2 months and 6 days now. It’s time for me to leave, I have found another job somewhere else, that pays more and has better working conditions (including chairs). You may know me as the “spiky-haired guy” or the “one-with-the-grumpy-face”, but that’s only some of the time. I can be nice, but sometimes it takes a little incentive. That’s just how I am. I would like to address you in groups.

[b]The Elderly[/b]
I don’t know how you do it, but every day you manage to bring in those green bags of yours. Equally repetitive is your famous catch-cry of “Hold on, Dear! I have green bags.” as I start scanning them items you put up before your green bags.

Yes, you can be slow, and lets face it, I’m an impatient bastard, but you do eventually give me a friendly smile and say goodbye. This makes you unique, in a special way. You can give me the correct change most of the time also, which is sometimes a good thing.

[b]The Asians[/b]
If it wasn’t for your consistent buying of discounted items our bins would be over-flowing with out of date stock. You are reliable, efficient and smart. You stare at the monitor looking for mistakes, and if there’s one you kindly remind me. Sometimes I’ll miss one, but you can just go up to the Service Desk and get your 18c refund.

[b]The People Who Talk On Mobile Phones Whilst Being Served[/b]
I find you funny, most of the time. Other times you’re tolerable, but I would prefer it if you put your mother on hold for the < 2 minutes it takes me to serve you. You don't need to shout "HELLO?!" down the phone. We don't get signal in the building. Don't ignore me when I tell you that we don't, believe me, I've tried.

In short: Hang up, at least say "hello" to me, get served, get out, and then call them back when you're not inside.

[b]The Parents With Screaming Kids[/b]
This is Coles. Last I know, Coles is not a kindergarten, creché, or any other child-care facility. I respect the fact that you don't want to leave your kids home alone, or in the car, but please, keep them under control when you're in the store. Occasionally I'm tempted to call security because your children are being absolute ferals. Control your kids.

Aside: Apparently I used to be one of those kids too. Thankfully, they grow up.

[b]FlyBuys users[/b]
Lets point out a few points that you should know during the transactional process:
1. Before handing me the cash, it is wise to hand me the flybuys card. You may also do this during the process, but not after. I have very quick fingers that like to hit the Cash -> Enter button. My job is to scan your items and get you out of the store.
2. You can not use your FlyBuys on the $1.00 bread you bought. It only works for amounts of $5 and over.
3. You get 2 points / $5. Get a life, seriously.
4. If I “forget” to ask you, it’s not my fault. Would you be sick of asking for FlyBuys for every customer?

For this point let’s elaborate some. Say, on average, it takes me 1 minute to serve customers (on express). Over a 9 hour day I take 1 1/2 hours for lunch & tea breaks. So that’s 7.5 hours, or 450 minutes. So that’s 450 times I have to ask for FlyBuys. Not going to happen.

That is, unless someone can provide me with a YakBak. Those things were cool back in the day.