Painful Proximity

I had an encounter with an 'odd' group of customers today at work.

Odd in that they gave off quite the 'nails on a chalk board' energy when I was in their proximity to them. Their energy was abrasive, painful. *shudders* Oh, I did not like it at all. It had my back up quite quickly.

These customers just gave off the sort of energy where...I just needed to get away from it as quickly as possible because I just wasn't comfortable around them. 

Which is difficult to do when you're in a work setting and they're asking you a ton of questions that you need to answer.

But it wasn't even talking to them. It was being near them, as they would hover too closely behind me. Feeling like a wall about to collapse on top of me. 

I tried to ignore it.
but that's rather hard to do when they just hang around. 
*shudders*
It literally caused me quite some pain too. 
Like I felt like I was jabbed hard in my right shoulder blade area. The muscles there tensed up quite tightly from having to be near these people. 

Which is so weird.
Because there aren't that many people (thankfully) around who cause quite that reaction from me.
Honestly, if I had stayed around them I probably would have ended up with a major headache.
Thankfully that didn't happen.

But note to self.
I need to stay more on guard for those sort of people with their painful energy.
Because if they catch me at the wrong moment, I would get an instant headache for sure. :S 

Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

How Did I Know?

So I have this talent of sorts.
Where I can predict plot points in shows/movies/books. 

Like you can start telling me a concept for a story in any of those formats and I'll chime in with "Oh, so does such and such happen? Is so and so going to do this?" 

And more often than not I'm right.

It happened tonight when I went out to see a movie with friends.

-I'd never seen the movie before. Didn't even know who the villain was.

But when a certain character came on screen, I just thought to myself...this guy is going to be a bad guy. 

I don't know if I would have told you the dude was THE bad guy. 
But I totally called that the guy's motives weren't as pure as they appeared to be.

And I was proven right when the reveal finally came.
Dude was the bad guy. 

And I mentioned it to my friends after the movie.
"Yah, basically when the guy came on screen I totally called they'd be the bad guy." 

"HOW?!" Was their cry. 
My friends were like. "I didn't even guess it was so and so." Or "I thought they might be towards the middle of the movie." 
"How did you know?!"

And it's honestly difficult to explain.
Instinct?
*shrugs* 
It's like...I've read a ton of books....seen a lot of shows....and have recently watched a lot of mystery shows where you take little pieces of information and create a larger picture to solve the mystery. 

It's....
Hard to explain.
How did I know the guy was a bad guy?

Well part of it was the camera focus.
How it seemed to linger on the character. 
Give them emphasis. 
I mean, if you give a character a name and more than three lines...they end up being important to the plot somehow. Will they help or hinder it though is the question?
And since the movie had already established the 'helpful' side....it was a logical step for me to assume that the person was a bad guy.
Masquerading as a good guy.

It's totally a "play both sides sort of role." 

Plus it was the person's willingness to help the good guys in an 'under the table fashion' that kind a just made me go "Huh...this seems like a trap." 

Really though... I don't know why I guessed the way I did.
Part of my thinking was "Oh hey! This actor played a good guy in this one popular movie, but they have totally a different sort of presence in this one so maybe he's the bad guy in this movie!"
lol totally a leap to a conclusion there. 

But yah.
It's hard to explain...
Sometimes you just know you know? 

Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

April 2015 General Conference -Saturday Afternoon

Dieter F. Uchtorf -The Sustaining of Church Officers

Kevin R. Jergensen -Church Auditing Department Report, 2014

Brook P. Hales -Statistical Report, 2014

• Total Membership: 15,372,337
• Full-Time Missionaries: 85,147
• Church-Service Missionaries: 30,404

David A. Bednar -Therefore They Hushed Their Fears

• Notably, one of the first effects of the Fall was for Adam and Eve to experience fear. This potent emotion is an important element of our mortal existence. 
• Knowledge of the Savior's protecting watchcare enables people to hush their own fears.
• Learn of me, and listen to my words; walk in the meekness of my Spirit, and you shall have peace in me.
• Faith and hope invite into our lives the sweet peace of conscience for which we all yearn. 
• The power of the Atonement makes repentance possible and quells the despair caused by sin; it also strengthens us to see, do, and become good in ways that we could never recognize or accomplish with our limited mortal capacity. 
• Three basic principles are central to receiving this blessing [to hush our fears] in our lives: 1. Look to Christ, 2. Build upon the foundation of Christ, and 3. Press forward with faith in Christ. 
• We can be blessed to conquer our fears and strengthen our faith as we follow the lord's instruction: "Look unto me in every thought: doubt not, fear not." 

D. Todd Christofferson -Why Marriage, Why Family

• Marriage is more than your love for each other. ... In your love you see only your two selves in the world, but in marriage you are a link in the chain of the generations. 
• In your love you see only the heaven of your own happiness, but in marriage you are placed at a post of responsibility towards the world and mankind. 
• Just as it is the crown, and not merely the will to rule, that makes the king, so it is marriage, and not merely your love for each other, that joins you together in the sight of God and man. 
• So love comes from you, but marriage from above, from God. 
• Many things are good, many are important, but only a few are essential. 
• Everyone has gifts; everyone has talents; everyone can contribute to the unfolding of the divine plan in each generation. 

Wilford W. Andersen -The Music of the Gospel

• It is hard to dance without music. Dancing without music is awkward and unfulfilling--even embarrassing. 
• We learn the dance steps with our minds, but we hear the music with our hearts. 
• The dance steps of the gospel are things we do; the music of the gospel is the joyful spiritual feeling that comes from the Holy Ghost.  It brings a change of heart and is the source of all righteous desires. The dance steps require discipline, but the joy of the dance will be experienced only when we come to hear the music. 
• Our children's happiness depends on their ability to hear and love the beautiful music of the gospel. 
• If our lives are out of tune with the music of the gospel, we need to tune them up. 
• We must ponder the path of our feet.
• Dissonance in the home is like darkness in a room. It does little good to scold the darkness. We must displace the darkness by introducing light. 
• If you're not hearing the music of the gospel in your home, please remember these two words: keep practicing. 
• Even when performed well, the music will not solve all of our problems. There will still be crescendos and decrescendos in our lives, staccatos and legatos. Such is the nature of life on planet earth. 

Dale G. Renlund -Latter-day Saints Keep on Trying

• A saint is a sinner who keeps on trying.
• God cares a lot more about who we are and who we are becoming than about who we once were. He cares that we keep on trying.
• One of God's greatest gifts to us is the joy of trying again, for no failure ever need be final. 
• Just as God rejoices when we persevere, He is disappointed if we do not recognize that others are trying too. 
• The Church is like a big hospital, and we are all sick in our own way. We come to church to be helped. 
• We must not only be tolerant while others work on their individual illnesses; we must also be kind, patient, supportive, and understanding. 
• As God encourages us to keep on trying, He expects us to also allow others the space to do the same, at their own pace.

Michael T. Ringwood -Truly Good and without Guile

• Over the years, I have come to the realization that I am far more impressed by those wonderful and blessed souls who are truly good and without guile. 
• Great women and men are always more anxious to serve than to have dominion. 

Quentin L. Cook -The Lord Is My Light

• When we follow the Savior of the world, the Son of God, we flourish and become glorious despite the many terrible circumstances that surround us. 
• So much in life is extraneous, [but] ... the family is the real thing, the substantial thing, the eternal thing; the thing to watch over an care for and be loyal to. 

Until you next read these words;

I'll be watching the leaves.

Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Mindful Contradictions

My brain works in interesting ways when it comes to writing.

I mean, it's well known that I'm best able to write when I have a visual stimulation happening nearby where I can look at it for a bit then get back to writing.
Like sitting at Wendy's and looking out the windows.
Or putting on a show/movie that I've seen a million times as background so I can write then.

But that's not always the case.
There are days where I can write to silence.
Or write to music.

And today was one of those music days.

Mostly because I wasn't feeling the greatest, I hung out in my comfy chair in my bedroom, listening to church music and writing.

But what I find particularly amusing about listening to church music, which is like this soothing inspirational happy feel good sort of music....
Was that I was in the middle of writing out a battle scene. You know...lives on the line. Fighting, injuries, etc etc.
Which seems so contradictory.
I mean writing violence to church music? 
Who does that?

Me apparently.

Because that's how my brain likes to work. lol. 

Honestly, I think writing to the church music today has helped because it's soothing enough to keep me from getting hyper distracted with things, but upbeat enough that I have the energy to focus on the words I want to craft on the page. 

In any case.
It's been fun because I've been writing!! :D yay!

Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

The Golden Twenty

So a couple of days ago, we had a 'bad' day at work.
Not that it was actually bad.
It was just well...
It was a bad day for our fish actually.
Our feeder goldfish to be specific. 

As we usually get them shipped in separately than the rest of our fish shipment. 

And in that box...
Is anywhere from 300-2000 goldfish of various sizes from 1 inch to 3 inches. 

Now with any shipment it's not odd to have some fish die.
It's expected.

However, this particular shipment. 
:S Didn't end up...well....alive.

It's something that happens occasionally to them, especially with the changing of the seasons from cool to hot. 
Where somewhere, at some point in time....
Someone messed up.

Left the box somewhere where they shouldn't have....
Like on a dock.
In the blazing sun.
On a hot day.
For a couple of hours or so. 

So there are some shipments where you open them and a lot of the fish have died. 

But this day.
This day was a doozy.

My manager opened up the box.
and promptly had a bit of a freak out.

Because almost ALL the fish were dead.
And in this shipment...we had 1100 fish we were expecting in. 

My manager had thought that it was our fault, that we'd left the box sitting there, ignored, for who knows how long and we'd killed all the fish.

It wasn't.
I'd seen the fish delivered by the delivery guy. And my manager had opened the box only a couple of hours later.
A delay of opening the box a couple of hours isn't going to kill the fish. 
I mean....who knows how long they're in the box in the first place before they end up at our store. 

So I was quick to reassure the manager that all those dead fish weren't because of us.
But because they'd probably been left in an in ACed truck, or on a dock where they got too hot.

However, despite those conditions.
Some of the fish had made it.
Though with all the dead in the bags...it was hard to tell exactly how many goldfish had survived.

One bag was completely dead unfortunately.
But the second bag, we could see movement within.
So I pulled out a bucket.
Dumped the fish into it.
and set to work scooping out the dead to find the live ones.

Which isn't as easy as it sounds because some of those fish were playing zombie.
Where you think they're dead, toss them into the dead pile, only for ten seconds later for them to start twitching. *shakes head*

It took a bit of time.
And while I was sorting, my manager was like  "I bet only six survived." 
And I was like. "Nah I'm thinking it's more like 20." 

Which considering we were getting in 1100 fish....that's really really bad odds. :S 

When all was said and done with the sorting, 
We had 30-40 fish that were still alive.
At that point in time.
Due to the conditions they were in, it was quite possible that the survivors wouldn't survive at all. 

So we made the decision to not put the survivors on the floor to sell them,
Instead we moved them into a tank we had already set up in the back.
To keep an eye on them and see how many made it. 

My manager was still betting only six would live.
While I stuck with my twenty. 

We let a day pass. (since I had the day off yesterday) just to give them time to settle down and relax.

And when I was at work today,
I fished all the goldfish out of the tank to move them back onto the floor.

How many survived?

23. 

XD lol. I won the quiet bet between my manager and I. lol.
My manager was quite impressed with my guessing skills, stating that I know everything lol. 

In any case.
The feeder goldfish?
Yah, I didn't put them in the feeder tanks.
Since they'd survived dying in the mini fishpocolypse, I decided to give them a better chance at a longer life. 
So I placed one goldfish in each of our other fish tanks holding the fish we sell for pets.
Because we can do that since goldfish help us get rid of the pest snails in our tanks by eating them. 

Which means they will be able to help us out....until a customer sees them and wants to buy them as a pet. :) 

So hopefully these guys get a better chance at life than their other feeder buddies. :S 

Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

A School Lunch Craving

So, the other day I had a craving for some bread and ranch. 

Because when I was younger, in high school and possibly even in Jr. High one of the meals that we could get for our lunch was breadsticks and ranch.

You could grab a 'pack' of three breadsticks that were like an inch and a half wide, two inches tall and like a foot long. Okay, possibly more like 8 inches.

I'd say for size comparison they were about the size of Little Cesare's Breadsticks.

It would come with a side of ranch.

And you'd dip the breadsticks in the ranch and eat it.

And that would be your lunch.

It was great for those days when I wasn't feeling particularly hungry, or didn't want the chicken sandwich that I would get instead of the breadsticks, or if the meal of the day was totally nasty and I didn't want to eat it.  

Though in retrospect it probably wasn't the best thing to eat.... *shrugs* At least it was food, I got energy, and was able to still focus in school I suppose. lol. 

In any case.
It was a delicious thing to eat!!

But apparently it was only common in like...my hometown?
Because people from elsewhere....don't seem to do that.
And think it's weird that I think dipping bread into ranch is actually good.

-They do agree it's good once I convince them to try it. lol.

So it must have just been a quirk of my school or something.

Anywho.

I haven't really thought about the breadstick lunch meal....in forever really, not since halfway through college at least, if not longer. 

But when I went grocery shopping the other day.
And saw bottles of ranch for sell.

I totally got a craving for that.
For the school breadsticks (which were like herby breadsticks not quite garlic but close) and ranch to dip them in.

Since I couldn't just go visit my high school and request them for lunch 
-Because a) I'm not in high school b) high school is out for the summer and c) who knows if they eve serve it anymore. 

I had to figure out my own method.

Which involved browsing the store's bread section. 
-Where you find the rolls, croissants, garlic bread loafs and other bready concoctions. 

And came across a French herb loaf that I thought could work.

Well.
Today I tried it.
Grabbed a chunk off of that loaf, poured out some ranch and....

Ah.
Memories.

It tasted just like the school's lunch I used to have.
And Ah!
It was delicious. ^^ 
So glad I remembered that school lunch, and found a way to recreate it.

....Now if only I could find my high school's amazing enchilada sauce....that would be amazing! 
(High School Enchilada sauce on their enchiladas, but dip French fries in the sauce? So. Good.) 

Until you next see these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Faith to Try Again

Those who bear the Aaronic Priesthood should be given opportunity to magnify their callings in that priesthood.

One Sunday two years ago I was attending sacrament meeting in my ward.

That's a rarity.

There were three priests at the sacrament table, with the young man in the center being somewhat handicapped in movement but particularly so in speech.

He tried twice to bless the bread but stumbled badly each time, no doubt embarrassed by his inability to give the prayer perfectly.

One of the other priests then took over and gave the blessing on the bread.

During the passing of the bread, I thought to myself, "I just can't let that young man experience failure at the sacrament table."

I had a strong feeling that if I didn't doubt, he would be able to bless the water effectively.

Inasmuch as I was on the stand near the sacrament table, I leaned over and said to the priest, closest to me, pointing to the young man who had experienced the difficulty, "Let him bless the water; it's a shorter prayer."

And then I prayed.

I didn't want a double failure.

I love that passage of scripture which tells us that we should not doubt but believe.

When it was time to bless the water, that young man knelt again and gave the prayer, perhaps somewhat halting but without missing a word.

I rejoiced silently.

While the deacons were passing the trays, I looked over at the boy and gave him a thumbs-up.

He gave me a broad smile.

When the young men were excused to sit with their families, he sat on the row between his mother and father.

What a joy it was to see his mother give him a big smile and a warm hug, while his father congratulated him and put his arm around his shoulder.

All three of them looked in my direction, and I gave them all a thumbs-up.

I could see the mother and father wiping tears from their eyes.

I felt impressed that this young man would do just fine in the future.

-Thomas S. Monson -Our Sacred Priesthood Trust -April 2006 General Conference

Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi