So christmas has come and gone once again.

It was relatively uneventful really, visited with grandmother, went out to a restaurant for dinner this year, it was pretty good, but still not as good as home made, but I’m sure my mother will disagree

I kind of overspent I think, heh, I gave out some high end stuff. I got quite a bit of DVD’age, Simpsons Season 9, Batman Beyond Season 2, and Ren&Stimpy 1+2. Also got much Futureshop gift card to put towards a LCD monitor I intend on getting. I have no idea what to look for in a monitor, so I still haven’t looked yet.

I’m also, as of this writing, sick as the proverbial dog. My grandmother was sick, but I don’t think I caught it from her since it it seems too short a gestation period. My family was sick earlier in the week but had recovered, so I think I just caught the dormant cold off stuff in the house. My throat is so sore, swallowing has become quite challenging. Also have experienced other side-effects, possibly from the medicine, intestinal distress makes me a sad panda.

Anyway, hope everyone had a tolerable solstice.

I know it’s late, but I was trying to find this christmas.. er, holiday gift for a friend.

I take a rather circuitous route home to check out one store more or less near my apartment, nope, they don’t have it. So I go home, and think of another place that would have it, a big place… so I phone them up.

“Hello, do you have X in stock?”

“Yes…”

“Do you have enough so that by the time I come down there tonight there will still be some?”

“Yes… did you phone yesterday?”

“What?… no”

“Yes, we have lots.”

“Okay, thanks, goo—”

“*click*”

Oh well, anyway, so I struggle down there, half hour later I’m standing in front of the floor walker exasperated

“What do you mean Sold Out?”

“We don’t have anymore”

“But I phoned, they said you had lots… did they lie?”

“I don’t know… let me check”

And after about half an hour of investigation where he helped other people and looked up the wrong item, he showed me the inventory screen… they have 10 X of type 1, and at least 5 of the other types. But no actual units… Lots and None At All it seems… all the units were imaginary.. apparently.

He suggested I come back later. I suggested I won’t.

Maybe everyone else out there in interwebland is familiar with this kind of screwery, but I’ve not encountered it, and it annoys me. I bet if I phoned right now they would say the same thing… lots. Because they just want me in the store, as long as I leave with any product, if additionally a scowl, they will have done their job.

My apartment is just a mess. Spent the last couple of days trying to clean, but I was strangely unmotivated. So many pizza boxes, so much increased mass. I’ve just been working recently, work and sleep for the most part. People wonder how I can work so much, work on the weekends, work during vacation time, etc… well, it really helps not to have a life, honestly. Without the distractions of a lover, or hobbies, or even TV (which I never watch short of downloading a few things), work becomes your life. Is that bad? I don’t know. If I was forced to only work from 9 to 5, Monday to Friday, I suppose I would just spend a lot of time being bored.

Meanwhile, I think I’ve physically reached the limits of what my body can tolerate in terms of mass. Walking is becoming a problem. It once was just a matter of terrible leg pains, which could occur anywhere between 5 minutes or hours, or never during that walk. Now, it’s some wicked back pain, which either causes, or is merely in addition to, general weariness and tiredness. I’m not even sure how I can exercise effectively with this kind of crap. Of course, there isn’t even an alternative, for if you reduce calories, I’m told, you just get fatter anyway because of some famine-anticipation biological imperative. Of course, I’m sure the calories I’m taking in are excessive regardless, but even if reduced to normal amounts, I’d probably still have problems for the next, oh, 20 years. I’m considering joining the gym at work, but it still requires willpower… I have very little of that. The problem is that it’s so hard to see progress, if even there is. The only progress I really see is in the other direction.. things don’t fit, I’m leaving the realm of even the largest articles of clothing available from non-specialty stores. I’m talking about places like Sears, places like The Gap never created clothes for me. I’ve often been criticized for my lack of “style”, well, fat isn’t stylish, particularly styled clothes aren’t made for us. Except in the Other kind of specialty stores, of which I have never had to go, and have always resisted, because it seems like the final defeat, and which I will soon have to patronize….

Such things I would give to be merely too tall.