angel and the badman movie

 just before midday i went to see the movie 'angel and the badman' at the mall in Eden Prairie. this was a remake of a John Wayne western. there was just one actor in it that i recognized, it was tommy lee jones as a lawman, and Mr. jones had limited screen time in it. i liked it, but i have seen some westerns before that work for me. as a history major, it seems to tell the story of American history. in order to advance as a nation from one ocean to another, we needed to let law and order prevail. after the movie i went to the nearby food court for lunch. i had a club melt from a place called 'melts and burgers' then had a blizzard treat from the dairy queen. besides the movie itself, i was impressed with how many previews i saw that interested me. sometimes zero, sometimes one, this time three. it helped that all three were biopics. these were about Jimmy Stewart, Milton Hershey, and an NFL player known as 'Mr. irrelevant'. i had heard about the first two already. when i got back to my car i found a pro football game on the radio, bears-falcons, and when i got home i found it on TV. the bears held on to win it. the packers beat the cowboys in the Sunday night game. the open mic i was performing at wrapped up just before that game began. in the evening i did call my dad saying what movie i went to see, and as expected the title was recognized as dad likes John Wayne movies. i said i had ordered a DVD copy of the one from 1947 and it just arrived this weekend and will try to find the time to watch it soon. the disc is actually a double feature, the other one is 'the outlaw', another western from the same decade. i found the time to watch my DVD copy of 'clue', based on the board game. i was planning on seeing it in theaters as part of 'flashback cinema', a weekly event. this wasn't the first time where it was a good thing i checked what discs i already had. this meant i had the time to see two other movies that had made my list. 

backrooms movie

 in the evening i went to see the movie 'backrooms' at the discount theater in Maplewood. this was my second visit since it re-opened. it was kind of weird, but i expected it to be when it was listed as a sci-fi/fantasy/horror movie. it was starring the Norwegian actress that was in 'sentimental value'. the setting was mainly in a furniture store, and i laughed a little when the man in charge of the store was living there. although it just serves as a bridge to where the weirdest things happen, when traveling through walls in the basement. it was a decent crowd at this screening, but not as big as when i went to see 'toy story' two weeks prior. hard to say what i will see at this venue next as the movies to be screened are listed just days in advance, makes it harder to do the long-range planning. there were some posters on the wall inside of those movies likely to be there soon, i said 'too long' about one of them- odyssey. just before midday i got groceries at Aldi, then it was on to get lunch at a popeye's chicken in Eagan. the order at Aldi was smaller than usual, just six items, but i get what i need at this or any other grocery. after having chicken i went to the nearby cub foods and bought four items. one of them was a single slice of pie, which was eaten in my car. 

more about backup forms

 there were more questions about backup forms related to checks from the Marshall file. i wanted to stay ahead of my normal duties so i responded to it near the end of my workday. i said i don't know if the forms went with the checks, especially if they were overnighted. but i didn't hear if this one in particular was sent that way or regular mail. i had two requests from different people asking about the same check cop that i was unable to find. i made another visit to a Walgreen in my neighborhood in the morning before going to work and used some of the points from this week's vaccinations to lower my bill. for lunch i had some pizza. in the evening i went to Hy-Vee in Eagan, and eight items were in my order. 

one more skyway lunch

 there was a lunch in the skyway for the department to celebrate a birthday, and it also served as the final one before some of my colleagues are officially laid off. one of them is vacation replacement. the other two i don't know quite as well. this was a place we had eaten at before, but not too often. then some of these colleagues were in the shop near the end of the day and said 'bye' to me while i was wanting to stay ahead in my work. there is that question if the world will end with a bang or with a whimper. in this case, both seemed to apply, as it didn't occur to me how it might be the last day when some do work from home on Fridays. a contact from the Fargo file asked for a tracking number, because there was no email asking for it before i created it. for whatever reason, my instant messaging was turned off for a while. there was an inquiry from the Marshall office about their overnights as to if backup forms were included in the envelopes. i said i didn't know as i trusted vacation replacement to handle the overnights for that file. i saw this question after getting back from the lunch as an email said it was there. usually, this kind of notification arrives only when the message is sent after i have left for the day. 

world without cows

 back at a movie theater in the evening for another documentary, this one was called 'world without cows' and in Oakdale. hadn't been to that theater in a while. as expected, it did say the main problem the world has is pollution from fossil fuels and that cows are an asset to the food chain. it was the only screening of this movie in the area, which may have explained a pretty decent crowd there. as usual, i sat near the front. i had a quick evening meal at a gas station before heading to the venue and wanted more to eat after the movie. i looked at the menu and ordered the waffle fries. sometimes it is the little things that impresses me, and in this case, it was the cardboard holding the order spoke of a 'movie tavern'. i did not go to this tavern, though. but i like the word whenever i hear it, and old school term for a bar. after i was done eating the fries i went home. at work there were more questions from vacation replacement about updating the binder. this time i was asked about a name i don't hear that often but knew it was the name attached to the overall UPS account. it must have been the address for its specific cost center. around mid-morning an I.T. rep arrived in the shop to help with more check shop training. 

reboot for call

 back at work, and my boss spoke of having to reboot his computer to do a call through the instant messaging system. there was more check shop training done in the afternoon, spearheaded by vacation replacement. a colleague i don't know well was the one being trained. i was asked to save two files, a small file from st. louis that is sent interoffice as well as a file of government agency checks. it also meant sticking to just one file for check printing, the one near the main door, so training could happen on the other one. the special order of the check stock and the envelopes arrived in the morning. 

last picture shows

 an active day even though it was a bank holiday. i capped it with seeing another movie in Columbia Heights, it was called 'last picture shows'. it was a documentary about movie theaters in small towns in the American west. it does sound a lot like a movie i had heard of before, 'last picture show', with a setting in Texas, and this is one of the movies that we see clips of in this doc. a little disappointed that none of the theaters profiled were in the Midwest, but ten states were covered. the filmmaker was present and there was a q and a after the screening. notable was about one man who tried to hijack the session, but the filmmaker finally asked what his question was. the man was going on and on about theaters in his hometown in Sheboygan, Wisc, if i am not mistaken. before that it was a day of two appointments. first was an oil change for my car. then i stopped at a target and found a replacement for my oven mitt and potholder. i found some Charlie Brown-themed deodorant as well. then it was on to mall of America for lunch, where i ate at the A and W. after this i left the mall and went to get two vaccinations at a Walgreen. i was asked about a third one but i think two at a time is enough. then i went home and watched 'jeopardy'. 

digger movie

 just after midday i went to see the movie 'digger', at Southdale mall in Edina. i got a hot dog and some bottled water as well as i was running a little late and didn't have lunch at home. john goodman was why i saw this one, who is in it as the president. there was some social commentary in it, most notably when tom cruise's character gives a speech to the assembly. early on i said his character was an 'inept, tone-deaf idiot'. later on, when it was revealed, there was a 'story within the story' more terms i had been using were heard in the movie- farce, and satire. this was a weird movie to say the least, but i kind of expected it to be when my research before heading to the venue said it was a 'black comedy'. it was called a 'flop' on the opening weekend so i knew i couldn't wait much longer to see it. i can think of two reasons why it was a flop. one, it was expensive to make, even before marketing costs. it is hard to understand why so many movies lately have exceeded $100M in production costs. this makes it harder to make a profit. two, people tend to prefer a 'feel-good' movie. a satire can do well, but not if the message or the jokes are hard to follow. after the movie i went to a grocery store inside the mall, Kowalski's. i knew i could eat a little more for lunch than what i had at the movie. i bought cheese curds, a slice of classic spam, and some pumpkin bars. then i went to another mall, Rosedale in Roseville, to use a coupon that was sent to me in the mail by JC Penney. i bought two Charlie Brown items, a star-shaped pillow and a 'claw clip', snoopy was on both. the latter i can use as a 'chip clip'. in the evening i watched some of the baseball playoffs, dodgers-brewers, game one of the league championship series. the brewers won it. i also watched a DVD, 'eight men out', about the black sox scandal, in the morning. the movie itself wasn't all that long, but i watched some of the special features and this led to me having virtually no time for lunch at home if i wanted to be on time for the movie in Edina. 

kiki's delivery service

 i made it to a morning screening of a movie in Columbia Heights, starting just before midday. it was 'Kiki's delivery service', a Japanese animated film dubbed in English. it was part of the month's 'witch series' that its sister theater, the Trylon cinema, is doing. Phil Hartman voicing the cat made the movie for me, but i know Janeane Garofalo was voicing a character in this movie as well. i went to Aldi for groceries before the movie, shortly after the store opened for the day. when i picked up orders at the post office, it meant going to the counter when it is too big for my box. this led to me seeing some 'freedom 250' items. i bought three of these. two were stickers or decals, and the third was a magnet. then it was on to the movie. after it i picked up a lunch at a nearby gas station. it included a ham Swiss and rye sandwich as well as a Smucker's Un-crustable. it meant my customary visit for a sandwich at Jersey Mike's was moved to the evening. also, that evening i watched a DVD at home. it was a French movie called 'le chignon d' Olga'. i did google translate and found out it meant 'bun' or 'top knot'. although the Olga character didn't have much screen time in the movie, mostly early on as a bookstore employee. 

leave a check to print

 vacation replacement is still doing more of the check shop training, and i was asked to leave a check to print from the Cincinnati file. i like doing that file as i don't have to create the overnight labels as the business line sends them to us. i still had to print another file that i was asked to leave for training, though. it was related to checks for government agencies. eventually i know all check files need to be printed if it is late enough in the day as checks need to be sent out. i did the customary visit to Walgreen in the morning, sticking with a recent change to go to one close to home before i get on the light rail. it still works to get the paper there along with some tea. in the evening it was the trip to the Hy-Vee in Eagan. i bought another bag of those star-shaped tater tots from Ore-Ida, with the america-250 logo on the bag. it was one of the items that generated points in my 'fuel saver' account with this store, once i run my loyalty card there. the other was a small bottle of skim milk. when i got home i found a football game on local TV, a rare Friday game for the Iowa Hawkeyes. Iowa beat Washington on the road. 

test pages printing

 one of the check shop trainees asked me if a test page printed on one of the printers in the shop, i said two of them did. it was on the one closest to the office that the boss uses. there was another chat script about check shop training, and the team lead said she couldn't hear anyone. it seemed to be related to selecting a printer, and of course there are two check printers in the shop. there were nine checks set aside for the tax specialist, i was told to hold them until Tuesday of next week, after the upcoming bank holiday. there were more questions from vacation replacement about specific files i print. in this case it was a mortgage file where all checks are overnighted. i said we don't save those emails because no one has asked me to. i do send out all tracking numbers to the requestor on the original email once available, though. 

check shop training on chat

 at work i found it odd how there was a chat script about check shop training. i figured it was all going to be in person. at the same time, i was not that involved with it even though i am the primary for this function. vacation replacement is holding much of it for two colleagues, one of them being the team lead. the other i don't know all that well. two of those involved in the chat were from I.T., and it said, 'i can hear you'. one of them later spoke of having to drop due to having another meeting to attend. this was just before midday. the check stock order for the spike in volume arrived, more quickly than expected, a day earlier than the supplier had informed us about it. when i get one shipment and don't have the other, i knew i needed to start asking about it. there was a dial-in meeting with the Fargo team about the spike in volume, and the claim was that we were told to expect it by email. i had arrived just a day prior, on a day that my boss was out of the office. 

wine infused salame

 i went to the convenience store near me at work and got a snack around midday. it was called wine infused Salame. i am used to it being spelled 'salami'. i got a bottle of Dunkin donuts coffee as well. there were four tax checks set aside for our tax specialist. the spike in volume happened as expected for the two Fargo files. it was thirteen thousand checks. i was asked to send samples/scanned copies of seven checks in particular and waited for the green light to send out more. for this reason, i wasn't able to send out as many as i would have liked on the same day. the envelopes ordered for the spike in volume arrived. 

rare file, no overnights

 at work i was asked about a rare file, i think vacation replacement i still updating the binders. it is based in the Kansas City area, i did say right away after seeing the name that it is 'few and far between'. and no, we don't overnight any of those when we do get them. when i went to dashboard it said just eight checks so far this year. there was a facility manager dial-in meeting as well, as usual it didn't last all that long. there was a check for the manager that likes karaoke, but she and her team lead were not in the office so i am fine with keeping it in the shop for one more day. 

the shining movie

 in the afternoon i went to see the movie 'the shining' in Eagan as part of the 'flashback cinema' series. i used a loyalty reward to lower the price on a small tub of popcorn, which looked big to me. i had seen this movie before, but it was years ago and i didn't recall much besides the scene where Nicholson uses an ax and says 'here's johnny!' i know it was parodied on 'the Simpsons' and it was the movie being shown at a drive-in when a tornado shows up in the movie 'twister'. there were some things i noticed about it that not everybody would have. the young son's room early in the movie has Snoopy and Woodstock on the door. the other thing was the baseball bat that Shelley Duvall had, it was a Carl Yastrzemski signature model. pretty good hitter, reached the 3000-hit club and i have the postcard of his white house visit with president carter after reaching that plateau. in the morning i did laundry and had some coffee at a nearby caribou. before the movie i had a dairy queen blizzard, pumpkin pie. after the movie it was the evening meal at Taco John's. while there i liked hearing a song, it was 'beaches' by Beabadoobee. lyrics like 'I'm sure now' and 'giving me a peace of mind' were good. first heard it on 89.3 the current, a local nonprofit radio station. 

toy story 5 movie

 in the evening i went to see the movie 'toy story 5' at the discount theater in Maplewood. this was the first visit since it re-opened in the past month after being closed for six-plus years due to the pandemic. as i recall, i hadn't seen any of the previous four films in the franchise but this one was pretty good. i saw it as a 'message movie' as i struggled to make friends when i was young, much like the main character did. at the same time, it pointed out how most end up figuring out who the 'right' and 'wrong' friends are. this theater is two screens, and four movies each weekend. another movie being screened at this venue was 'young Washington' but i had already seen it in July. i stopped at the Hy-Vee in the same town after the movie and used some of my points to lower the per-gallon price on gas. i also went inside and got an ice cream treat and some juice. i made another early visit to Aldi, shortly after opening in the morning. then i went to the credit union in Roseville and dumped some change into my savings account, just over nine dollars. i had lunch at Hardee's and made it to the post office just before closing and picked up three orders. before the movie i got some pizza at a speedway gas station. in the afternoon i watched some college football as Iowa was playing oho state in Iowa City on CBS. Iowa lost, after trailing 17-6 at halftime. 

something fabulous

 vacation replacement was onsite and informed me the reject fax was handled so i didn't have to go that floor to pick it up. i said it was fine with me. the boss was in the shop, and it was noisy at times due to construction nearby. it was funny to me when i looked at my email account and it said there was nothing in drafts, 'start writing something fabulous'. there was the typical visit to Walgreen in the morning, but to a location closer to home. and i made it back to Hy-Vee in Eagan after i had skipped a week. i bought many of the typical grocery items there but also a TV guide puzzle magazine with a 'Simpsons' theme. 

micr line questions

 i am still fielding questions about an issue with the MICR line on PDF checks and had to say that it was reported and corrected a week prior. vacation replacement asked me to scan and send a page which had a list of business lines on it as he's updating the binder that i rarely look at. i also sent a scan of a Marshall envelope as there was a question about what it says. there isn't much on it, gives a street address, city state and zip code. it does not give a business name, a plain white envelope with black lettering. for lunch i got a slice of pizza, i make it to that place every so often since moving to this building nearly two years ago.