Cody

muahahahahaha!!! The double edged sword eh? Nothing was swifter, nothing more deadly, yet nothing so misunderstood. Many armies approached the Greeks and laughed at the short weak looking sword that most of their infantry wielded, but when they got the crap kicked out of them many began to understand the painful truth that such a small, simple tool could be designed so well that it would conquer most anything. As you may have guessed this is one of my many ramblings of historical events related to modern times events… well you guessed wrong. I don’t really know what I was thinking with the first couple of sentences here. The only correlation between the short sword and what I have to say is that you’re getting a two for!!! I’m taking this opportunity of such a precise title to spread my message into two different arenas, one that I’ve been wanting to say for some time, the other into an unvisited territory brought to my attention by Danielle.

We’ll start with the gloomy side of things, for fun. Have you ever had one of those moments where the only set of words that come to mind are “Don’t touch me…” doesn’t matter if the person is actually touching you or not that’s the only thing that will appear in your mind. In fact my story is of someone I don’t remember ever meeting, which is another interesting story but that would ruin the surprise. You ever have those people who just drive you nuts? No matter how rude you are they won’t go away… They pass you on the street and from three blocks away they spot you to call out “Hey Insert your name here How’s it going?” where the only response that can even come to your mind is “Don’t touch me, don’t act like you’re going to touch me, don’t think about touching me, DON’T TOUCH ME!” When in all honesty the only thing they’ve done is violated your personal bubble, which happens to grow to the size of Manhattan when they’re around. Personally I don’t know anyone like that. Anyone I’ve ever met pretty well knows the bubble rule and keeps to themselves, completely capable of sensing when they’re annoying me and instantly giving me my space *caugh*liar*caugh* I was just wondering if you guys knew anyone like that… And I definitely don’t attract these people like hicks to a tractor pull.

Part two of the story is the happy side to the tale. At church tonight I went about my usual two till completion round… which I may desire to explain… When I go to church on Wednesday nights I don’t go to my usual church, instead I go to a place that I first started going to the summer before my Freshman year. In attendance there I have two people that I must get a hug from before the night is complete, one of which being Danielle. She is one of only a handful of people that I absolutely love giving hugs to. Which actually kind of brings back memories of another “don’t touch me” moment in life. You all should know that I love hugging Phil, he’s just plain awesome! Anyways my advanced acting class… er… that wasn’t really even my acting class I was just there. There happened to be a certain someone in the class (we won’t get into specifics) who was not on the list of people I love to hug. The class was full of people that I loved hugging though I’d come into class and Kate would scream “CODY!!!!!!!” throw her arms around me and give me an amazing huggles! Then this unnamed person comes up and is like “hey cody” then opening their arms walking towards me… “well… you know I’d love to give you a hug but it appears that I’ve fresh run out, I think someone got into my backpack earlier today when I wasn’t around and stole all my hugs. Kate got my last one.” At which point Phil enters the room to talk with Jeff or return something to him instantly spotting me “CODY!!!” runs up and jumps in my arms as I pick him up and spin him around. “Woops… well looks like I had one left after all… musta crept up from nowhere.” This whole time I’m moving around the room keeping at least a table or a chair in between me and this certain person that is most definitely uninvited. After a little bit Jeff comes to class and gives me that I’m coming for you grin and eye lock. “Sorry Jeff I ran out of hugs earlier today, you’re going to have to settle for a hearty hand shake.” “Oh you kidder! Get over here and give me some love.” Then he throws his arms around me and rubs his scratchy face against mine. The whole time I’m going “well… so much for the I ran out of hugs excuse” haha, ok that was fun… now back to the story at hand. When I saw Danielle she was sitting down so I only got half a hug, but she looks at me and say’s “I’m always in such a better mood just being around you.” I playfully respond “I have that affect on people…” it’s kind of funny though. Even though I was just kidding around I get that all the time, and I don’t see why… I’m a pretty apathetic, quiet, just plain boring person… yet people always say things about me like I’m always in a good mood, and they like being around me because I put them in a good mood… I never really notice it though, most the time I talk to people I’m complaining about something. I guess what people latch onto is that NOTHING, and I mean nothing deters me… I’ve been through some of the toughest storms anyone could ever face so if you want to kill me you’d better try harder than that. Any there is a challenge I’ll be the first to volunteer for the battle, what’s the worst that could happen right?

I finally went jewelry shopping yesterday, more of a price comparison you might say.  I was at the mall w/ my mom and sister because we had just ate out and obviously I wasn’t going to go all the way home so they could shop.  While I was there I started browsing the jewelry stores, something I’ve not done in quite some time (several years in fact).  As most of you know I’ve kept the prices on my jewelry the same throughout the years just because I’ve had no reason to increase price.  No new equipment to speak of, no new employees, no change in sales, no major price increases in supplies, etc.  The way that I’ve been raising prices is introducing new, more complex bracelets and necklaces that naturally start at higher prices.  My silver bracelets used to be competitive with most silver charm bracelets without any charms, as they are the most similar to what I sell.  This time while looking around I figured charm bracelets have probably lost some of their momentum as they are not nearly as popular as they used to be when I first got this business going.  Amazingly enough I was wrong… dead wrong… My once competitive price of $75 for silver bracelets is now obsolete.  These jewelry stores in the malls were selling blank charm bracelets for $200 and up.  In other words they were selling bracelets for more than I am selling most necklaces for!

The problem comes in the question “should I follow the trends?”  The thing is it cost me no more than $15 per bracelet (when silver is high) to make… then of course comes 3-4 hours of work, blades, pliers, and other supplies.  Most of these are a drop in the bucket especially with things such as pliers since they last for several hundred bracelets/necklaces so the $30 a pair really doesn’t mean that much.   Anyways, my point is with the prices I’m selling at I feel everyone is getting a fair deal, and it still allows me to give my friends a little price break since several of them like my stuff a lot.  If I raised the prices enough to be competitive again sales may increase, as people have something to grasp onto that shows them there is something of value about the pieces.  Price changes come at a great risk though… such price changes would put my very popular japanese pieces over the $300 mark for bracelets… so I may have to concieve of a new approach to this problem.

Those of you who have kept up in the life and business of myself know that I’ve not made a single sale since I left my “real” job. Obviously I’ve been somewhat discouraged from this and thanks to car insurance, and a small amount of credit card debt I’ve accumulated in the efforts of getting this business going (purchasing the site script, paying for advertisements, paying for a copywriter, etc.) if I don’t make $250 a month (also partially thanks to going to school now I’ve gotta have gas to get there every week) to merely survive. This amount of money also provides for a few small commodities, but I’ve only got enough money in the bank to “survive” for 2 months. So in order to keep alive I’ve been thinking about getting another “real” job and using it to pay everything off while I wait for my business to grow… well God has said to me “naw, not yet you don’t.” With the gift of a couple small boys I’ve been allowed to stay jobless for a little longer. My mom’s supervisor Angie Henry has a couple of small boys, one of which I used to babysit all the time before he went to Kaliphornia to life with his papa. Him and his brother are here for the next 2 weeks though for vacation. Last night I went to visit them, and there mom asked me to babysit for a while later that night so she could go to the casino… alright that’s cool I like the little punks anyways. She also asked me to babysit them for the next 2 weeks while she goes to work… even better this way I accumulate a little survival money!

This leads me to part 2 of my story… The night of babysitting. I went and picked up both Zach, and Chance to bring them over here for a little while since Zach always loved playing computer games I let them play online for a while. They’re deprived little children and only have console games usually so if they want to visit the world of HL2 and online play they’ve gotta come visit me since I’m the only person they know who’s got a good computer and what not. Later on the night we’re back at their place and after swimming for several hours they’re kind of hungry… expected kuz so am I. So after doing a quick scan of the house for food we decide it’d be best to pay the good old double arches a visit…. uh… except for some reason the McDonalds off of North Oak in Gladstone is closed… and I don’t really want to drive all the way over to my house just for McDonalds so Plan B comes into affect (there was never a plan B but it came to me in the vision of a red sign bearing the QT symbol). Heading into Quick Trip for some taquitos and drinks some old woman is staring at me as we hop out of my car… kind of strange but whatever… I’m grabbing the taquitos and they’re getting their drinks… well this woman comes inside and asks me if I have ID “yes” I say with a very indignant tone “how old are you?” she asks before I even have the chance to fully respond “20, thanks.” I’m getting rather annoyed at this point pulling out my wallet to please this psychotic woman “You’re 20?” as if it was something completely unbelievable. Right about now I’ve handed her my ID and I’m looking around utterly annoyed and wishing this woman would just leave when I look past her to Zach who’s frozen at the counter with the lids looking rather frightened… Now if you had been there you would of been able to see a fire well up in my eyes that could sear the armour from a mounted knight… Zach’s fear passes to me as I realize that this woman is between my boys and me, I begin thinking all kinds of crazy thoughts since I’d just watched Running Scared a few days ago. I turn my body sideways and instantly start a body type analysis of this woman to see the fastest most effective way to drop her, half of me is saying “dude, she’s a woman in her mid 40’s if she does anything how hard is it going to be for you to stop her” and the other side of me is saying “those are your friends, boys that you love dearly, if she tries in some vigilant attempt to save them by taking them from you, you’ve gotta be ready to lay down your life for them but not before laying down hers.” Had she actually touched either one of those boys I would have killed her without any remorse. It amazes me how far instinct goes… I’ve always been a protective person if I love you I would do anything for you… and if you’re in trouble or there is the potential of danger you can always count on me to be in defense mode ready to destroy all who oppose you. Luckily she just hands back my ID and say’s very indignantly “It’s a school night you know” to which I respond still in my attack stance “yeah, they live in Kaliphornia, and I don’t think you have to worry about them going to school tomorrow.” Afterwards she walks off in a huff. I tried to hide my emotions as much as possible and not let the boys know that I was still scared, worried, and ready to kill… but it didn’t come naturally as I was the most afraid that I have been in a long time at that moment. Those young boys became my kin, my blood at that moment and I would of done anything to of kept them safe.

Ok, so I’ve never had a real hang-over so I wouldn’t know what it’s like… but I’m sure it can’t be much worse than this! This weekend I was at a LAN party for 18 hours. The only thing I drank while I was there were highly caffeinated beverages (8 red bulls and countless Mountain Dews). After all that needless to say I was freakin dehydrated, so for the last 3 days now I’ve been drinking gallons of water, countless Ibuprofen, sinus medicine (anything to relieve pressure) and doing everything I can to get rid of this crappy headache… nothing is helping. For the first time in 3 days I woke up this morning without a pounding headache, well that went away soon, and it was back. This coming from a guy who rarely ever drinks anything with caffeine my body was just not ready for it…

So the lesson is DON’T DRINK!

If any of you have seen me on caffeine before… you might want to come to a LAN party with me sometime… It’s a lot of fun.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the LOTR series, and I’m glad that Newline Cinema took on the project that almost bankrupted them.  Recently they’ve released a “special edition” of the LOTR series including never before seen “making of” scenes.  It also contains both extended and cinema versions of the movie, so I went ahead and got them.  Mostly because I never did get the extended versions of the movies… so I guess I’m just a sucker and their ploy to make some extra money in economic hard times worked.