Matrix Refugee, 2; Bratty Kid, 0

Hysterical work story...

This woman comes through the register with two boys, a sleeping two year old and a seven-or-eight year old who's giving her grief about something; apparantly, the kid had bratted his way through the store.

Kid: "I want my Rice Krispy Treats!"

Kid's Mom: "You don't deserve a reward after you've been so naughty."

The kid's mom at this point puts the box of Rice Krispy Treats on the conveyor belt, the cashier rings it through, the box slides down the secondary belt towards me and I put it in a bag with some boxed pasta shells. Then the kid starts to reach toward me and grab the bag from me, "I'll take these!"

Instead, I close the bag, clamp down on it, look the kid in the eye and say in as emphatic a voice as I can make, "No."

"I want it!" the kid whines.

To that I reply, "Well, there's things in life that I want, but I can't have them either, but you won't hear me whine about it because no one likes to listen to whining." Whereupon, I tied the bag shut and made a move to put it in the shopping cart, but I paused and reconsidered. I set the bag on the end of the register and commence to tie all the bags shut (They were plastic bags). The kid's mom realizes what I'm doing and she starts helping me tie the bags shut. Says I, "I'm just camouflaguing the bag." Says the kid's mom, "Yeah, so he won't know which one it's in." Says I, "Heh, my mom does day care, so I learned that with some kids it's like a chess match: You have to think three moves ahead or they'll pull one on you." Says the kid's mom, "Bet that comes in handy working here!" Meanwhile, the mom's smiling like she's relieved to have someone backing her up, and the kid is having the sulking fit to end all sulking fits. Too bad!

Road destruction update

We have a sidewalk in front of our house again! A couple weeks ago, the work crew had put in the kerb-stones and graded dirt over the gravel that had been there for well over six months... At least then we'd had something passible to walk on, but walking on it was like walking on a dirt road (obviously, since it was a dirt sidewalk!): it was nice to walk on when it was sunny, but if it rained, it got muddy.

Well, as I was walking home from work today and I got across the street, I discovered the sidewalk on our street had been freshly tarred. Woot! I sent up a cheer and called out a thank you to the work crew. I doubt they heard me over the traffic and their earthmovers chugging, but it's the thought that counts, non?

((The Tolkien quote in the icon for this entry couldn't be more appropriate...))

The "Matrix" bad-fic that wasn't (and a fandom rant)

Just been browsing in the "Matrix" section over on ff.n, and I ran across what I was afraid was a badfic. To those of you familiar with those anNOYing "everyone's in high school! ::Insert character:: is a jock, ::Insert another character:: is a goth, ::Insert still another character:: is a cheerleader!" fics. I mean, does this sound promising, when one of the author's other fics featured the Twins as cute little three year olds, who are also Persephone and the Merovingian's little kids? (Yeah, I fail to see the family resemblence, too.)

TWINSFIC! In order to save them, the Twins are torn from their loving parents at an early age and are forced into a new and fearful way of life in the Merovingian’s elite boarding school.

But as always, I decided to let the story stand on it's own merit, and I read it. I was delightfully surprised. Take a look:

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2918692/1/

And I got another fic reccomendation, this one being the brain child of one of my faction buddies. The writing is a little clumsy in places, and I find the part where the Snarky Fellow turns up, to be a little less than credible, but I still like it and the guy who wrote it is one of the best RPers in the faction I'm in:

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2382811/1/

And now the rant: ( Click only if you *haven't* heard me grumble about certain MxO players... )