Money blues

In about two weeks, I'll be going back to school. I'm trying to be excited about this, but after I added up all the money it's going to cost me, it's not easy.

The cost of tuition for a full-time student is $1,213.25. I can pay half by the deadline and defer the rest until whatever date they set. But since that date is usually so ridiculously soon afterward, I'll just count the whole thing together. Of course I'll need books for all my classes, and that costs an arm and a few legs. I'm going to have to speak with my advisor to get force-added into a couple of the classes I need, but here's the tentative costs for my books:

Criminal Justice 1107 -- Used $101.50
Forensic Science 2230 -- New $118.50
Computer Science 1011 -- Used $67.50
Digital Art 2050 -- New $34.99

Now, that could have been worse, because the classes I swapped out were $84, $85.50, and $112. I actually expected the book for the Digital Art class to be much more expensive.

Add $10 (I think) for a new parking permit, and you have my school expenses. But wait, I'm not done yet. I'm also trying to schedule a doctor's appointment which won't be covered by insurance. I'm not certain of the actual cost, but the quote the nurse gave me last time was something like $175. That, and I have a loan payment due by the 20th of this month. The minimum is $137. I was hoping to pay a bit more this month, to try and get it paid off faster, but that option has pretty much flown out the window.

And that's about all the expenses I can think of for the next 30 days or so. Now then, let's add up the more-or-less final totals. *gets out a calculator for accuracy*

*drumroll*

$1,857.74

.....Can I just file for bankruptcy now? Seriously? Do I even MAKE that much?? I can answer that right now: No.

I know my parents will pay for any school stuff I can't afford, but I don't like costing them all this money. At any rate, I'm still personally responsible for the loan and the doctor appointment. So that's $312, if all my estimates are correct. AND I still have to set aside money for gas, so that's another $100....I'm gonna stop now.

There goes my money, flying away in the wind. Wait, money, where are you going? Come back! I need you! Nnoooooooooooo...... *sigh*

Until my next penniless post, I remain,

~The Coconutter~

I hear the rain a-comin'...

...let it wash away the stupid and the dramaaaa....

Yeah, I still haven't delivered that slap yet. It's long overdue. I had sorta hoped to be able to quickly get it done on my lunch break, but the origin of dumb is not in the city, and I had no intention of "making time" for him. I just happened to have a few extra minutes and thought perhaps I could get it overwith. Oh well. I'll figure it out.

Sadly, I have to get back to work for now. I'll post something more read-worthy when I have more time. :p

~The Coconutter~

Diagnosis: Stupid

Has anyone discovered a cure for stupidity yet? Anyone?....Stupidity?...A cure?...Anybody?.....No? Well shit.

Guess I'll have to deal with this one myself. -_-

Maybe it's possible to slap the stupid out of somebody. Hmm....I'd say it's worth a try.

~The Coconutter~

I believe you have my stapler.

Well would you look at that, it worked. Speaking of work, I think I'll call it a day after I finish scanning this stack of papers here. Hopefully I don't finish too quickly; I am trying to make money here, you know. :p

I have Zero Wing Rhapsody stuck in my head. I'd post a link to the YouTube video, but it's blocked, so I can't locate it. Therefore, I will now sing. *ahem* "It's you, it's you, it's you it's you, it's you/ How are you, gentlemen? All your base are belong to us/ You are on the way to deeee-structi-on!/ What you say?/ All your base/ What you say?/ All your base, your base are belong to us/ What you saaaaaaaaay?" Ok, that's enough. =P

Working two jobs is a bit taxing, but somehow satisfying. Granted, the job I'm currently at is more or less a "come in when you can" thing, but still, I feel very productive. If you're wondering, I'm working at the local School Board Office, scanning documents and shredding old files. Mundane office tasks, to be sure, but I'm always busy, so it makes the time pass quickly. That, and I have my DS when I have I task I can do sort of one-handed. (What can I say, I'm a talented little sonofagun.)

My other job is at Wal-Mart, where I'm a people greeter. I used to be a cashier at another Wal-Mart, but various circumstances prevented me from keeping that job. It's a long and at some points embarassing story (embarassing as in I feel stupid for letting it happen), so I'll just leave that alone for now. At any rate, I mostly enjoy being a people greeter. It's incredibly boring when I'm by myself, but when I'm with the other greeters, we have fun. One of the greeters is Mr. Truman, and I've started calling him "Rooster" because he always wears his Vietnam Veteran hat. Don't get the reference? It's an Alice in Chains song; look up the lyrics. Just be forewarned: the video is not for the faint of heart...or the weak of stomach.

I did something pretty funny the other day at work. I don't have a userID to log into the scanners, so when people come in with things to return, I just give them a smiley face sticker. The people at the Customer Service Desk don't like having to pull off a dozen smilies, so when the customers come in, I take one smiley and write down the number of things they have to return on the smiley, then I send them on their way. Also, if it's something that's in a box or hard plastic packaging, I can't place the sticker flat on the surface. It makes it harder to pull off, so I stick it sorta halfway on along the side or corner. But anyway.

Also I'm right-handed. Without knowing this detail, my story is not funny. For the record, my handwriting is terrible either way, but for what it's worth, I'm accustomed to writing with my right hand.

Anyway, so a customer came in one night with one thing to return. I reached for a smiley with my right hand, and reached into my back pocket for my pen with my left hand. Somehow when I transfered the sticker and pen to opposite hands, I ended up holding the pen upside-down in my fist. I proceeded to try and write the number "1" on the smiley. Not surprisingly, it was difficult to write with my hand upside-down.

So what was my astoundingly intelligent solution? I switched the pen to my left hand and tried to write like that.

Yes, I am a genius, thank you.

At the time, I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. I just gave up and sent the guy on his way with a very squiggly "1" on his smiley sticker. After I realized what I had done, I said, "You know what, next time I'll try writing with my FOOT and see if I get better results." =P

Well, I'm about done here. I need to finish filling out my time sheet, and then it's back home to change clothes and leave for Wal-Mart for the 4-11 shift. I get paid by Wal-Mart on the 7th, then I get paid from here on the 11th. Two paychecks, ka-ching. ;)

~The Coconutter~

Test Post

This is a test to see whether or not I can post from work. If this works, I may or may not have a slightly more interesting post to follow it up with.

The culprit has been found!!

**Post title is a link to a Kotaku article revealing the culprit.**

*Gasp!!*

Wal-Mart, how could you? Leading us poor rock-starved gamers to believe that Microsoft had sold us short! When all along, it was YOU who robbed us of the wireless technology!! How do you people sleep at night? A plague! A plague on both your houses!!

Seriously though, I have no idea what the real deal is with this. Just be forewarned: If you own a 360 and want the wireless guitar, don't go to Wal-Mart. You won't find it there.

Many thanks to my gaming counterpart, Smokeblue, for sending me this information.

Until my next random pointless report, I remain,

The Coconutter

And so it begins...

Greetings, good citizens of Blogger-land. I am the one known as The Coconutter. I am wanted in many cities on three separate counts of Grand Theft Coconut. (Props to anybody who catches the obscure reference.) But that's not important right now. What is important is the start of this blog.

By no means is this my first attempt at blogging, nor is this a replacement to my current blog. I will be reporting various happenings and observations of no particular recurring theme. I have some delusion of becoming famous in this manner. How exactly I plan to do this is unknown at the moment. I haven't gotten that far in my planning.

Anyway, here goes my first bit of reporting, if you want to call it that.

Guitar Hero III came out earlier this week, much to the excitement of gamers everywhere. I didn't get it, yet. I figure I'd just as soon wait till Christmas, or even later than that. Not like it's going anywhere. I have plenty of other games to keep me busy until then. At any rate, I was following (not religiously by any means) news and reviews of the most recent installment in the series. What had me (and everyone else I'm sure) looking forward to it was the promise of a wireless guitar bundle on all systems, including the Xbox360. I don't own an Xbox of any kind (though I am now saving up for a 360), but I know there was a lot of bitching when Guitar Hero II came out on the 360 with a corded guitar, so I could well imagine that this bit of news gained joyous reception.

Thursday evening, I was at Wal-Mart with my father and brother. I wandered over to the electronics section to pick up a third new headset for my phone (our puppy had chewed and destroyed both previous ones). After I found the one I wanted, I wasted a bit more time wandering around in electronics. (It is my favorite department, after all.) The Guitar Hero III display caught my eye, and I went over to take a look at the bundle packs they had on the shelf. I looked at the Playstation 3 bundle pack, with wireless guitar. I looked at the Wii bundle pack, with wireless guitar. I looked at the Xbox360 bundle pack, with....

What's this? A corded guitar? Surely there must be some mistake, yes?

Nope.

Sure enough, there was the Xbox360 bundle pack with the same damn corded guitar controller from the GH2 bundle pack. I looked through all the stacks they had on display, just to make sure. Alas, the wireless guitar was not to be found.

After a moment's recollection, I thought perhaps I had misread my Game Informer article. So when we got back home, I pulled out the Dead Space issue (October, Issue 174) and flipped to the GH3 review. Sure enough, there it was, on page 108: a picture of the wireless guitar, with the words "Xbox360 model shown" in bold white print underneath.

I thought to myself, "Perhaps Wal-Mart was merely sold out of the wireless bundle pack." So I went to the Wal-Mart website, to see if it said "out of stock" or something like that. But no, I did not find such information. I did more research after that, but I'll save you some time: There was no wireless guitar bundle for the Xbox360.

I could not help but laugh at the sheer foolishness of it all. I wouldn't know who to blame, Microsoft or Harmonix/Red Octane, but somebody's gotta have their head up their ass. Even the PS2 version had a wireless bundle pack. That's just sad.

I discussed the issue with my gaming counterpart, SmokeBlue, who said that he read somewhere that a wireless guitar will be available some time in December. As for me, the tiny bit of information I found suggested that there were technical difficulties with the 360 version of the wireless guitar. At any rate, there is currently no damn wireless guitar controller available yet for the Xbox360.

Personally, I enjoy the mental image of a thousand and one angry gamers storming the Microsoft headquarters, armed with pitchforks and corded guitars, strangling the higher-ups responsible for this oversight. "Damn you corporate bastards not sharing your wireless technology!! Now die by the very same cords with which you have restrained our rockage!!!" *choke strangle die* "FREEEEEEEE BIIIIIIIRRRD!!!!!!!!!!"

*ahem*

Sorry you had to see that.

Until my next pointless report, I remain,

The Coconutter