Day Two

Had to get up pretty early today; the Club Store opened up at 8AM today and I didn't want to miss out on the Sharkticons set. I was up at 7:15 and out the door about twenty minutes later.

The line was still insane. I got the Sharkies, though.

I headed back to the hotel room, dropped off the Sharkies and relaxed for a little bit, then headed to the panel rooms for a couple of panels. First up was TakaraTomy.

Yoke-san struck me as a bit sarcastic at times, which was pretty awesome. We now know why the G1 Constructicons were green (it was Hasbro's idea) and the story behind Optimus Prime (which Yoke-san asked us never to repeat, so I won't) and various other cool facts. After that was done, it was time for Mr. Bob Budiansky.

Again, very interesting. Apparently, there were two names circulating for Bumblebee: Bumblebee and Goldbug. It seems the "upgrade" name's a bit older than I thought. And it would seem that Spike Witwicky predated the name Buster when it came to the comic. Again, really interesting.

And Mr. Budiansky is officially my god. He wasn't really sure if he created Bumblebee but said he'd take the credit for it. That makes him god. ;)

After those panels were over, I headed back to the hotel room and rested for a little bit. Prime was still crashed out; he didn't come along with me for anything today because he still feels like slag. (He seems slightly better right now and I can only hope that he's up to running around tomorrow.) Our friend Shawn dropped by and asked if we still needed the KissPlay Sparkbots and we said yes, so he nabbed us a set. DA and I headed down to the dealer room at 2 for the "private experience". Prime stayed here and dozed.

The very first thing I did in the dealer room was run to the back corner and take pics of the Bumblebee statue and Camaro. It's a dealer's Camaro but I really don't care.

I got to sit in the Camaro. As in, behind the damn steering wheel.

I completely dorked and asked Bumblebee permission before I got inside. DA snapped a pic of me and when I stepped out, I thanked both DA and the car! (Got a pretty sweet pic of DA lookin' chill behind 'Bee's steering wheel. Good times, good times.)

After that, me and DA did a bit of training at the Autobot Alliance Academy. I have never dorked so much in my freaking life. Before we go in for our training, we have pictures taken and get briefed. The woman who briefed me told me I could only shoot Decepticons and no Autobots. She also noticed my shirt and asked, "Who is that on your shirt?" I replied, "Bumblebee." She warned me not to shoot him and I said I wouldn't even dream of it. She also told me not to make out with him.

Oh Primus, I turned Autobot sigil red! I guess everyone knows that I'm a flaming robosexual now! But it was a freaking blast, believe me.

I also ran into mine liege. There was laughing and hugs and other such dorky things.

I wandered around, snagged a Galaxy Force Megalo Convoy and a pair of Bumblebee tee shirts from Stylin' Online. Not a huge haul, but very satisfying.

I also took a look at the Hall of Fame display and took a few pictures. As I was snapping a shot of a rather unusual Bumblebee RPM, I read the type on the bottom front of the backer card.

HASBRO EMPLOYEE EXCLUSIVE

Oh yeah, I nearly shit my pants when I saw that. I took a couple of really good shots of the front and a nice one of the back before I wandered away to cry.

As I walked away, I saw Aaron Archer. So I figured, what the slag, I'll asked about that 'Bee.

No chance of a retail release, natch but it seems there was anywhere from 50 to 100 of these little guys produced. If you worked at Hasbro, you got one. Basically, there was a sticker on the back with the recipient's name, no bar code. Unfortunately, Mr. Archer liked his way too much to ever part with it. (I do not blame him at all. It is a royally sweet toy.) I thanked him profusely for the info and told him I can work as a slave whenever Hasbro needed. Just pay me in Bumblebees and I'm good. XD

I headed back up to the hotel about 45 minutes before the dealer room closed. I managed to show Crazy Steve and Karl Hartman the shots of Exclusive 'Bee. As I told them both, it kinda makes me wanna cry. But I'm not terribly worried. He will be mine. Oh yes, that little Exclusive RPM Bumblebee will be MINE! :cue evil laugh:

I'm just chillin' here in the hotel room right now. Prime and I have eaten and we're watching NCIS on USA. (Quick tip: If you're staying at the Walt Disney World Dolphin, your best bet for food is Picabu. They are very reasonable and the food is pretty damn good.) Tomorrow's going to be a full day: lots of panels, autographs and the Hall of Fame ceremony. I'm going to scream my head off when they induct Bumblebee. Just letting everyone know in advance.

--Weasel, "Only took 26 years before my baby got props. So yeah, I'm gonna be a little hyper..."

Day One

This was my "down" day, so to speak. Prime headed downstairs at around a little after 8 to help with today's customization class and to get the paint on our G2 'Swipe touched up a bit, while I camped out here. My job? Stay here and wait for DA.

At around 1:30, I heard a knock at the door. It was none other than DA, bearing cups of awesome. He was sporting a short purple mohawk and had gone to Starbucks. Yes, DA is freakin' awesome like that. He came in, got a bit settled, I hugged the hell out of him (I pretty much always do), he showed me some pics he got of the oil spill in the Gulf and we started chatting.

We talked for damn near two hours.

The topics ranged from the zany to the serious. We went from laughing, to waxing nostalgic to occasionally touching topics that could be considered rather deep. Most of the time we laughed, a couple of times I felt a bit like crying. It was something I really needed. You have no idea how badly I needed this. I feel so much better right now.

At four, I headed down to get into the line for the club store. DA caught up with me a bit later and I was joined by Prime a little bit later. (Prime's not feeling too great right now. I am trying not to act worried. I think I'm failing at it.)

I was the first in the number two credit card line. I got my stuff and took it all over to a nearby table to organize it. As I was organizing everything, I looked up and caught a glimpse of the back corner of the dealer room.

I saw yellow. And gold.
The gold belonged to this little guy, while the the yellow belonged to...

A Camaro.
Bumblebee is here. In both forms.

I'm surprised everyone in the room didn't hear my gasp. It was all I could do not to race behind the tables and into the dealer room just to throw my arms around the both of them. I managed to yelp out, "Honey, he's here!"

Prime: (still in line and looking confused) "Who?"

Me: "BUMBLEBEE!"

Prime's dreading tomorrow a little. There's a private dealer room experience at two o'clock tomorrow and I'll be there, snapping pics. I'll try not to throw myself at the car and hug it too tightly. XD

After Prime got his items, we headed back to the hotel, I went on a food run, went downstairs to swap out a couple of damaged items for better ones and came back to the room. Prime's crashed out right now as I'm blogging. And DA helped a little bit with my magnum opus. (Needed a word check. Gracias, DA!) It's wonderful. I wish this would never end.

This is why I love BotCon. It's not the convention, it's not the toys. It's the experience and the people that make it special. I can barely wait for tomorrow.

--Weasel, stopping her post before she gets too sappy because she totally will get sappy...

Update

DA has arrived.
The party can officially start.

--Weasel, "Let's dork it up a notch!!"

Gettin' Schooled

So today Prime and I got up nice and early to hit the customization class. Together, we built a nice, shiny new G2 Sideswipe. I sorted some of the smaller parts and acted as the gofer while Prime put everything together and did the painting. (His hands are a lot more stable than mine, trust me.)

I took pics. I'll try and post a good one.

It's actually been a pretty quiet day. Tomorrow will be ever quieter; Prime will be helping out with the customizing class tomorrow and I'll be here in the hotel room, waiting for DA to arrive. It'll probably be my only "day of rest" before the party really starts.

Bring it on!

--Weasel, "Time to par-tay, bay-beeeee!!"

Live from Orlando

So, I finally freaking made it. I am completely exhausted, but I made it.

Yesterday was busy. Lots of last minute prep, running around to get a few items, you name it. We were so busy that Prime and I went to bed pretty late.

That was not a good idea. We kinda had to be up at 2 in the morning, so we could leave for the airport by 3. Our flight was at 6:35. The lines for security were completely dead, which was nice but Primus the layover in Atlanta was a killer. I nearly fell asleep three times waiting for our connecting flight. Ugh. (Yeah, I'll probably crash shortly. I am freaking exhausted. My eyes are stinging; they are that tired.)

Tomorrow will be very interesting. Prime and I will both be in the customization class. Basically, you put together and paint a brand new character...you even get to cut it off the sprues. I've never done this before. I cut my damn fingers with butter knives. Yeah, I know I'll be injuring myself somehow doing this slag. But it'll be an interesting way to spend the day.

Party won't really get started 'til Thursday. DA will be arriving that day, and so that's when the real fun begins.

And yes, I'll be taking pics. I'll see if I can't post a few.

--Weasel, "I'll have more fun tomorrow. If I'm awake, that is."

Counting Down the Hours

Before you ask: yes, that is the correct time. I've been up for the past hour. If you know me well, you know it's damn near impossible to get my ass out of bed at a decent time. So yeah, pretty slagging excited here!

Today's zero hour. Prime and I will be making final preps for our trip to Orlando and BotCon. I'll have to pack Prime's suitcase (I've pretty much been packed since last year!), we'll have to get Alexa ready, and we'll have to grab a few last minute items.

I can hardly wait. Even though tomorrow we'll have to deal with a three hour layover in Atlanta, I'm still excited as hell. I'll just use that lovely layover as writing time. I've got an idea for a future story that's going to have a scene in something similar to an airport, so I can just scribble a few things down for future reference. I'll just need to find an outlet so Alexa's battery doesn't run dry.

When we get to Orlando, I'll try and make a quick update... if only to tell you how frickin' bad the flight was. Wish me luck; we all know how bad I am at getting on board airplanes!

And to all my friends who will be there, consider this your warnings: you're gonna get hugged and I'm gonna scream my head off during the Hall of Fame ceremony when Bumblebee gets inducted. (Hey, I'm sure there will be people screaming for Optimus, Megatron and Starscream. I'll just be super-loud when it comes to my 'bot. It's been 26 years. He's earned this honor, IMNSHO.)

For now, I leave you with a quick "See y'all in Florida" and some awesome music. Ciao!

--Weasel, counting down the very seconds now...

BotCon Memories: On the Streets of Durham

Several years ago, I had to return to my old home state. It wasn't exactly by choice.

Back in 2001, BotCon was held in Durham, NC. Granted, I had taken many trips to the neighboring city of Raleigh, but I had never gone to Durham once.

After BotCon 2001, I could see why.

The following is a true story. I am not making this up in any way, shape or form.

As our usual, Prime and I were rooming with our friend, DA, but we also had another friend crashing with us, a guy who goes by the handle of Leemur, who is also from NC and has an accent thicker than mine.

He found a little something in the street that was the talk of our room for days. After we had all settled in our room, Leemur looked out the window. Not five seconds later, I heard him say, "Wut the hell?!"

Curious, DA and I headed over to the window and peered outside. After a few moments of silence, one of us (and I'm not entirely sure who) asked, "Uh, am I seeing what I think I'm seeing?"

In the middle of the street directly below our hotel was a faint white outline. You've probably seen something like it if you've watched Law & Order. Yeah, it was one of those outlines. It was the chalk outline of what appeared to be a dead body.

Now, I had a few theories about it. It could have been:
A) some poor schmuck who had been inadvertently hit by a passing car,
B) some poor schmuck who had decided to end it all and jumped from the roof, or
C) some poor schmuck who died via a hail of bullets or getting stabbed.


...yeah, I guess there weren't really very many possibilities. In any case, it was creepy as hell. And very ghetto, as DA said.

I don't remember much else about our stay, except I went on all of our food runs as I had no difficulty with the temperature and the guests that year were awesome. It was just too bad that the city itself sucked out loud.

--Weasel, "And people wonder just why in the hell I left..."

Friday Photoblog: "Well, I Tried" Edition

Prime's mother's attempt at decorating a decidedly non-standard cake during Thanksgiving 2009.
(Tasted okay. Prime himself has never been a MMM FROSTING kind of guy, anyway.)

Let the Frenzy Begin!

Unless you've been living under a rock (or don't like the franchise), there are two new Pokémon games coming out this fall in Japan. The States should get them in the spring of 2011. They're Pokémon White and Pokémon Black, respectively. Yesterday, some new info surfaced about the games.

Oh yeah, I'm excited as hell. And I've already started falling in love with the legendary mascot for Black: Reshiram. I'm feeling the same odd tug that I felt when I first saw Palkia. Prime can have Zekrom, I'll happily take Reshi. (I've already picked a name and it's an original one.)

--Weasel, "When do the preorders start?"

BotCon Memories: One Night in Cincy

Because we're getting so close to the 'Con, I decided I'd share a few memories of conventions past.

The following is a true story. I am not making this up in any way, shape or form.

Back in 2008, BotCon was held in the "lovely" city of Cincinnati. (I use the term loosely, trust me. Because everyone knows just how much Ohio sucks. But I digress.) Anyway, the trip to Cincy was bad enough; poor Scamper lost his front windshield thanks to construction in fucking Illinois (I swear to Primus, they are never going to finish that stretch of highway!) and Prime and I weren't really sure we were going to make it to the convention on time. But poor sweet Scamps, injured as he was, got us there.

Prime and I, along with our friend from Cali were staying at a local Ramada and not the convention hotel that year. It wasn't a huge deal for us; we had Scamps so we could drive wherever.

Later on during our stay, I started thinking that maybe we should have driven to a different damn hotel.

You see, the Ramada was across the street from a gas station that had a White Castle. It turned out that the White Castle was a pretty popular local hangout. That really didn't bother me, until one night at around one o'clock in the morning while Prime and I were trying to sleep.

Now this particular night (I believe it might have been Friday) there was an enormous group of people hanging around the White Castle. A lot of people standing around their cars, a few groups standing near the gas station talking and one guy who happened to be riding a motorcycle. We could hear a few people yelling from time to time, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Then all of a sudden, we heard it.

Pop.
Pop. Pop.

I rolled over and looked at Prime. We asked each other if we had heard what the hell we thought we heard. After several seconds, we agreed. It sounded like it might have been a drive-by shooting.

I was freaking out. I have never, in my short and rather sheltered existence, been anywhere near anything like that.

We woke up our friend DA to tell him what the hell was going on. He said we'd be fine and not to worry about it.

He then promptly went back to sleep. No joke.

Me and Prime were more than a little shocked. How the hell could he be so calm about this?! Like I said, my ass has been pretty damned sheltered.

I managed to get to sleep sometime after two in the morning. Nothing else "interesting" happened that night. The incident was also the talk of the convention center; it seems it was the guy on the motorcycle, just showing off. But, according to one 'Con goer, the police had said that drive-bys were pretty common in that area. (Wish to hell I had known that beforehand!)

At the time, it really wasn't funny, but now that I look back on it I can't help but break into giggles. It doesn't matter where I am when I'm thinking of it either; I've started snickering over it while I've been standing at my register, taking people's credit card payments. The story's been told quite a few times to my friends at work and it never fails to get laughs. Especially when I tell everyone "Yeah, my friend just went back to sleep like nothing was happening!" (That's the point where I break into a fit of hysterical laughter.)

Hell, I can't stop laughing right now. It kinda hurts to breathe a little. Here's hoping this BotCon won't be so "eventful".

--Weasel, "Never a dull moment, I tell ya."

Friday Photoblog: "Even More Cuteness" Edition

A Bumblebee sketch that I was so graciously given at BotCon 2008
(That's Transformers: Animated 'Bee. There are at least four, soon to be five different versions of the character. And I adore them all, so don't ask me to pick a fave, all right? I'm pathetic, I know.)

I Quit Humanity.

This is why.

Yep, BP don't want y'all to see what's going on down there. But, don't worry; it ain't so bad. (Better have a strong stomach if you click that link. It'll make you sick. Trust me)

Somebody get me the hell off this damned planet. I'm done. I have no faith in the freaking lifeforms that are running the place. I swear to Primus, nothing can fuck things up like a human.

--Weasel, "Somebody get me off Planet Dirt. Now."

Akirameru*

Yes, it's been a while. No, work hasn't gotten a slagging bit better. In fact, it's gotten a slagload worse.

In the past couple of weeks, we've had a shitload of people get canned. Most of them were cashiers. One that I heard about yesterday worked at the service desk and I have no damned idea why in the hell she'd get termed. That same damned head who loves riding my ass has been riding it still, but not quite as much. But a lot of other people at the front end are having problems with her. I finally found out why: she wants to move up in the company, so she's acting like a total bitch to impress management. I have no idea if Bitch Convoy (that's what I'm calling her from now on) has attracted the attention of the higher ups; I'm praying to Primus that she hasn't. But the real kicker came about a week and a half ago.

One of the good head cashiers got reamed out by management. He was told he needed to make better decisions and be more responsible. This shit was said to him after he stopped a jackass customer from ripping off the goddamn store. Awesome job, idiots. You think he's going to try and bust his ass to help that miserable hellhole now? Of course the fuck not. Primus, I'd love to slam my head into a fucking wall right about now.

Oh, and I'm getting two days off... but not in a row. To say I'm exhausted would be putting it gently.

Oh well. In 12 more days, I'll be on a jet heading to sunny Florida and BotCon. I can hardly wait until I get there. I can see (and hug the living hell out of) my friends again. (Consider that your warning, DA!)

--Weasel, "At least life won't suck while I'm there."

* means: to give up; to abandon; to resign oneself to.

Thanks for the Memories

It is with a heavy heart that I post this: Robert O. Smith, the voice of Soundwave from Transformers: Cybertron, has passed away. To some, he will be the master DJ from Planet X, but to me he will always be known as Genma Saotome from Ranma 1/2.

Ranma was a huge part of my teenage/young adult years. There are a lot of memories attached to that series; it was one of my first hardcore forays into anime. Hearing this news is a bit like hearing I've lost a family member. I never got the chance to tell him how much I enjoyed his voice work and how many fond memories of Ranma I have. I wish I could have at least told him 'thank you'.

Since I didn't have the chance anywhere else, I'll say it here: Thank you, Mr. Smith. For everything. I just wish I could have told you that when it really counted. I'll miss you.

Sunday Photoblog: "I Was REALLY Busy Friday" Edition

An original (they think) Monopoly game set, seen during the tour of Hasbro during BotCon 2007.
(Covered this one previously, but it's a more expansive photo, this time. BTW, hopefully I'll be able to tear myself away from my writing to, well, do some writing here on Monday.)

Friday Photoblog: "What Are YOU Lookin' At?" Edition

The Bumblebee statue at BotCon 2009. He knows he's cute, trust me.
(He is so adorable. I would have taken him home and spoiled him rotten!)

Friday Photoblog: "Tourista" Edition

A scene from the streets of Providence, RI. From BotCon 2007.
(The wait for this year's 'Con is killing me!)

FINALLY!

The BotCon pre-reg forms went up today. Prime took care of us both. Apparently, I've been "volunteered" to attend the customization class on Wednesday.

This'll be interesting. I'm the same person who slices her fingers open with a butter knife. This ain't gonna be a freaking cakewalk. (To my friend Shawn: Sorry ya gotta put up with me. Blame Prime.)

Bring on June! I can't wait for the 'Con!!

--Weasel, "BotCon, here I come!"

Friday Photoblog: "Your Number's Up" Edition

Scoreboard/attendance at a 2007 Brewers game.
(A bad day at Miller Park is better than a good day at work, trust me.)

Friday Photoblog: "Dogpile" Edition

The dogs-in-law: Bella, Tinker, Leo and Sonic.
(These are the little twerps that try to suffocate me. They're cute, so I let 'em get away with it.)

Pain Redefined

(Click the title bar if you don't get the song ref.)
The last few days have not been great.

Well, last Friday didn't suck, Prime and I headed to the local movie theatre and caught Iron Man 2. It was awesome. Shit blew up. Tony Stark is the freaking man. And I think I'm slightly crushing on Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD. I want to see it again. But life went straight to hell not long after that.

On Saturday that blasted problem with my left foot, that stupid damned tendon started acting up again. I was limping through most of my day at work. A couple of times while I was standing at the front lanes I wanted to simply start crying, the pain was getting that bad. (And here I thought I was getting better! Shows what the hell I know...) So I had to start sucking down the ibuprofen again to keep the pain at bay. Then came Sunday.

Sunday was just as bad if not worse. The pain came back with a vengeance. I was hobbling around again. Even worse, one of the heads had a stick up her ass and proceeded to ride every one's ass about it. (The reason? She got busted for not doing her damn job, so she took it out on all of us.) I won't name names (though you have no idea how damned tempted I am) but suffice to say she was being a royal bitch to damn near everyone. In my case, it's pretty much standard operating procedure; for whatever reason this chick does not like me at all. She's constantly on my ass about stupid bullshit.

But I noticed something that day: the pain in my foot got worse every time she was around me. It was the exact same story on Monday. The moment she opened her mouth to bitch me out, the tendon in my left foot started acting up.

When she left for the day, or I had a few minutes to write, there was no pain. None.

As of right now, I'm in no pain. My tendon is fine for the moment. And I'm about to hit 80,000 words on my magnum opus. But I have to head back to work tomorrow. I'm looking forward to that about as much as I'd look forward to a root canal.

I really hope I can sell a couple of books. I'd love to give those turds my two weeks notice. Or better yet, not show the hell up for a week. Nothing would make me happier.

--Weasel, "A girl can dream..."

Are You Fucking Shitting Me?!

Really, Shakesville? This is what gets your fucking knickers in a twist? You're serious about this?

Grip: Get one. Seriously. And the "concern trolls" are absolutely right. But you won't read any of their words on the blog page; you have to hit DISQUS to read everything. Gotta love censorship.

janestclair84 · 1 day ago
Oh, for Chrissake.

The man was making a hokey joke about his pre-teen daughters squeeing over a band of pop stars, coincidentally a band that creates an uncomfortable dichotomy between their squeaky clean promise ring image and the none-too-subtle sexualization of their act and persona (foam cannons, really?) If anything, it's you are insisting on essentializing them as pawns of sexual politics, rather than the human father and daughters they in fact are.

I read here occasionally for a "wow, I never thought of that" sense of awareness about race and gender in society, but really- not everything is a battlefront on which your oh so enlightened worldview is assaulted. Get off the high horse, and get a grip on your ego and sense of self-righteousness.

Lot of truth in that statement. So much so that Liss couldn't handle it.

That's it. I'm done. I'm turning in my feminist card. I refuse to get tied up with that sort of bullshit anymore. I've got better ways to waste my time.

--Weasel, "I'm leaning more towards being a humanist anyways..."

Friday Photoblog: "Just a Bit Outside" Edition

A few of the famous names at Miller Park, including the one and only Bob Uecker.
(Get well soon, Mr. Baseball. We love ya.)

Random Slag

Because I haven't updated in a while!

* We are having cache problems on the PC. That's why I haven't been posting comments on blogs. It's pissing me the hell off and I hope that Prime can fix this crap.

* My thoughts are with Bob Uecker, since he'll be undergoing heart surgery this Friday. He'll be out of the booth for a while. I wish him a speedy recovering because a Brewers game just ain't the same without him. (If I thought I could give you half of mine to help ya out, Bob I would. Believe me. I'll miss you like crazy.)

* Me and Prime both ended up with colds this past week. It sucked ass.

* My job is pissing me off, but I'll go into that later.

* I've hit 70,000 words on my great work. I don't want to stop now!

* Fun Pub still has not put the frickin' BotCon pre-reg forms up. I am feeling much nerdrage at this moment.

And that's about it. I'll have more slag later.

--Weasel, still waiting for those frickin' forms...

Friday Photoblog: "Permission to Speak" Edition

Ultimate Bumblebee at BotCon 2007
(So... darned... CUTE!)

Fielder Finally Got One

Home sick today, but listening to the three-and-a-half-hour-long bloodbath on the radio made it a fair bit more bearable. The Earth Day Massacre, some are calling it. Brewers 20, Pirates 0.

Damn, I love this game. Can we get some scoring like that against Chicago tomorrow? And the next day, and the day after that?

--Weasel, "I hated the Cubs before I loved the Brewers..."

Friday Photoblog: "Dreaming of Summer" Edition

Beach shot from the whale watching tour at BotCon 2007
(Boy, does that ever look relaxing...)

And We're Live!

We are live at DairyCon right this nanosecond! Good times are being had. That is all.

Oh, right. Prime and I were in the same Jumpstarter race heat...my Twin Twist drove off the table and took his with it. He was...not pleased. Possibly because it was the second year in a row that had happened. I, uh, think he's going to wait to submit my 2011 preregistration so we don't end up in the same heat again.

--Weasel, "Wheelin' and dealin', baby. Wheelin' and de--CRRAASSHHH."

...oh dear effing primus...

So apparently I had to perform at a little something called DairyCon Idol.

I sang.
What. The. EFF?!

I never sing. Prime has begged me to sing for him and I won't. I can't stand the way I sound. My voice sucks ass. But here I am in front of people singing Gravity, of all things.

I'm surprised I didn't shatter a freaking window. Thankfully, I didn't move on in the competition. (I don't think I can handle that kind of stress.)

I'm gonna go freak out now. Don't ask me how I used to deal with this slag back in high school; I was a drama nerd, after all.

--Weasel, "I'm supposed to relax on this mini-vacation, not spaz out!"

Live From Wisconsin!

It's DairyCon 2010!

Today was the big tour; we hit a Christmas shoppe. Honestly, I didn't think I'd be spending all that much there. I mean, it's a place filled with frickin' Christmas ornaments. I really don't care about Christmas ornaments.

Yeah.
I kinda spent $200.

They had Disney collectibles. Normally, I could give a shit but one of the caught my eye. It was a rabbit. Sporting a shock of red hair.

I'm looking at a 20th anniversary Roger Rabbit porcelain figure with base. It's literally been years since I've seen anything Roger Rabbit. So yeah, I had to take him home. So if you hear anything about a fugitive Toon rabbit hiding out in Wisconsin, you'll know what's going on. (I just couldn't stop myself. Honest.)

Right now the rest of the crew is upstairs either setting up their dealer tables or playing games. I've been hitting my DS like crazy. (I'm making good progress on SoulSilver. Finally beat Whitney, HA!) So yeah, fun is being had by all.

I can hardly wait until tomorrow. Let's see how badly I fail at the Jumpstarter rally.

--Weasel, "Cause I know I'll totally blow at it. I always do."

Friday Photoblog: "I Only Have Eyes For You" Edition

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen display at a local Wal-Mart
(Too bad I couldn't keep that sign. He would have been adorable on my wall...)

Micro Vacation!

I'm on a bit of a vacation right now; by the time you read this, I'll be screaming my head off at a Milwaukee Brewers game. It'll be a full week: two Brewers games and DairyCon, too. With everything that's going on, I might need a vacation from the vacation!

--Weasel, "Time away from work is an awesome thing."

Friday Photoblog: "How I Waste My Time" Edition

An ad for the TF Collectors Club at BotCon 2007.
(Yes, I'm a member and so is Prime. I have no life...)

Heard Around the House

The Scene: Our den, right in front of Alexa-1.
The Time: Last night, during King of the Hill.

Prime: (Sitting in front of Alexa-1) Hmmmm...
Me: Are you thinking again?
Prime: (irritated) I'm always thinking!
Me: (pressing my luck) Is that such a great idea?
Prime: (sighs loudly)

Isn't That a Little Impossible?

So I just watched (and actually paid attention to) the trailer for that new Tom Cruise film Knight and Day. Looks like your typical action flick and it might be semi-interesting, if it weren't for the couch-jumping midget. But did anyone else notice that when Tom Cruise is kidnapping Cameron Diaz he says that he'll kill himself, then her?

Uh. Huh.

That's gotta be one helluva trick. I'd pay money to see that. It would probably be more entertaining than the stupid movie.

--Weasel, "If that were in the flick, it would be majorly awesome."

Memory Rosary

"When you're up high, all the stuff that looks confusing and messed up... suddenly becomes crystal clear."--Senna
Bleach: Memories of Nobody

It has been said that if you write, your characters will "speak" to you.

Whoever said that I'd like to punch in the face. Trust me, your characters don't just speak to you, they show nearly every detail of their lives. Some things are beautiful, other things are terrifying. It's like having four different people tell you about their childhoods, their hopes and dreams, their worst fears and all of their personal preferences at the exact same time. But they don't simply tell you about it. They show you everything. You can see inside their homes, what clothes they are wearing and how they had styled their hair when something, good or bad, happened to them.

It's like having multiple personalities shouting for your attention all at once. And trust me, they don't like taking no for an answer.

So I keep a pair of notebooks in my knapsack at all times. Anything that they tell me, I write down when I have a chance. It could be anything from what someone's favorite food could be or as to why they fear the dark. But if it's relevant to a character, I scrawl a few sentences about it.

Ever since I started writing, I began to grasp some of the things Senna went through. It's like being a memory rosary: I'm seeing memories that don't belong to me. They're so tangible, so realistic but I know that they, and the "people" who experienced them, don't really exist. But everything I see in my mind looks very real. I can see the sunlight bouncing off the flat roof of a building. I can hear the wind rustling through the trees. I can hear people chattering and laughing as they walk to their destinations. It's wonderful, it's eerie and I really don't want it to end.

For a few moments, I can walk away from this world and slip into another. It's a nice feeling. It isn't a perfect world, but it is a nice escape. It's certainly more pleasant than standing behind a cash register and prattling on about Brad and Angelina or Brett Favre while I total up someone's order of seven different pizzas, a box of cereal and a tube of KY Warming jelly.

I could get used to this. I just hope I can get lucky enough to get paid to do wander though such memories and places for a living.

Are You Shitting Me?!

I did not just read this: Obama plan expands offshore oil drilling.

Awesome. Just fucking awesome. I've been down this road before--twenty years ago when I was living in NC. I fought like hell to make sure this bullshit wouldn't happen. We were able to dodge the bullet for a while but not anymore, it would seem.

They'll be drilling in Virginia. How long will it be before the Outer Banks are ruined? What are the chances Wrightsville Beach will end up spoiled? We all know spills have a tendency to spread out; like it or not this will affect NC. To hell with Michael Bay, this rapes my childhoods. I could absolutely cry.

Stop the world, I wanna get the fuck off. NOW.

Primus, am I ever glad I voted third party.


EDIT @ 1:08PM: CNN just showed us a nice big fat map of areas approved for offshore drilling. Guess who's on there? If you said the coast of North Carolina, you'd be right. (I just screamed at the television in abject rage when I saw that.) Godmotherfuckingdammit. Now I am going to go cry.

GAH!

That's pretty much what I said about twenty minutes ago. Only it was louder and a lot angrier.

As you may or may not know, I've been on the world's biggest writing tear as of late. I'm doing my damnedest to write what looks to be a novel (which is why I've been slacking in the blog department... gotta work on that...) and it's been coming along pretty decently. So twenty minutes ago I opened up my file on Alexa, preparing for another fruitful day of writing.

That's when I noticed that the word count was off by nearly 2,500 words. Oh and seven pages had simply vanished.

What. The. FUCK?!

Where the hell did my work go?! Sure, it doesn't seem like a whole helluva lot, but it's a shit-ton of blood, sweat and tears for me. And here it had simply disappeared into the freaking ether or something. About a third of a chapter was gone, along with a bunch of edits I had made to some of my previous stuff. It wasn't there. It was as if I had closed the file without saving any changes at all. And yes, that is completely impossible because I hit CTRL+S about three times before I closed the file late yesterday. I always make sure I save my stuff. Always.

Yeah, I kinda wanted to cry at that point. And trudge back upstairs to get my notebook so I could re-transcribe everything I had written yesterday. Not an awesome prospect, I tell ya.

That's when I remembered that I had always backed up my file on a 40 gig drive that Prime had purchased from a coworker a couple of months ago. Earlier this month, I told him I didn't exactly want just one lone copy of what I was working on; bad things could happen and if the file was accidentally deleted, I'd be in a shitload of trouble. So he suggested I save a back up on the 40 gig. It sounded like a good idea, so I did. So I opened up the external drive and prayed that the same thing hadn't happened to my secondary file.

The back up was fine. Everything was there. So that external hard drive just paid for itself by saving my sorry ass. (Thank you, Prime. I seriously owe you for this!)

So what did we learn, class? "Always back your shit up!" Very good! Trust me, it's a lesson I ain't gonna forget.

--Weasel, "Now if my damned heart rate would come the hell down and my hands would quit shaking, I'd be fine...!"

Friday Photoblog: "Where's the Beef?" Edition

The most awesome cow statue in the universe, spotted at Miller Park. From 2008.
(I like to milk baseball season for all it's worth...)

Friday Photoblog: "Bottoms Up" Edition

Wedding gifts Prime and I received during the dinner. September 21, 2009.
(No, we haven't popped the cork on either bottle, if you're wondering.)

It Will Smell Like Axle Grease and Awesome

Yes, you are reading that right: Transformers Cologne by Hasbro. (Link was originally found here.)

I need this. Badly. I don't care if it's for guys. I wanna smell like Bumblebee!

--Weasel, "I'll bet Bumblebee smells totally yummy..."

...and nothing of value was lost...

Today was not a good day.

To be perfectly blunt, I should be writing a five page rant here, screaming and yelling about just how screwed up my job really is and just how much I fucking hate it.

But I won't. I feel absolutely no need.

So what happened today? Oh, nothing much--I found out that I had inadvertently taken several fraudulent coupons. (What should have pissed me off about that? They all scanned and it has been drilled into our heads that if they scan, we can take them. Guess not.) On top of that, one of the heads proceeded to bitch me out because she swore that I came back from my last break late. (Why should that have pissed me off? I got to the break room at three minutes past four. I got back to the front at 4:19. That's 16 minutes, not twenty-two. Somebody fails at math. Hard.)

Three days ago, I'd be pissed off beyond all words in the known English language. But as I type this right now, I feel nothing. No anger, no frustration, no nothing. Why? Because I figure it doesn't really matter anymore. I can't force myself to give a royal shit about that job. It's nothing. All it does is provide a paycheck that helps pay my bills. It is nothing to me. It holds no meaning, save for the money.

What I truly live for, what I truly do, what actually holds meaning to me, I do at home.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to put on some mood music (Joe Hisaishi, natch) and add a few more words to that story of mine. Even if all I do is a quick edit, I'll actually accomplish something worthwhile today... unlike the eight hours I spent behind a register doing absolutely nothing of consequence.

--Weasel, "I've gone from hating my job to total apathy. I don't know if that's awesome or not."

A Quick Reminder

Happy Daylight Savings Time and pleasant dreams.

Friday Photoblog: "Building Bridges" Edition

Lincoln Logs, as displayed at Hasbro. BotCon 2007.
(I knew they had been around for a while but damn...!)

Friday Photoblog: "A Sign of Welcome" Edition

Sign spotted at Hasbro during the first leg of our tour. From BotCon 2007.
("Welcome" to Hasbro? Man, I never wanted to leave...)

Heard Around the House

The scene: Our bathroom.
The time: Monday night

Prime walks in; he's rotating his arm.

Me: What's the matter? Were you leaning on your arm?
Prime: (nodding and grumbling)
Me: Is your arm asleep?
Prime: (more nodding and grumbling)
Me: (bending close to his arm) Here, let me help. (yelling at his arm) WAKE THE FUCK UP!!
Prime: (after slapping me on the ass for a few seconds) Jackass.

Trouser-Shattering.

Wreck and Rule, bee-yotch!

Friday Photoblog: "Dare to be Awesome" Edition

Weird Al. At the Paramount Party. Total awesome. BotCon 2009.
(I totally dorked out when I met him earlier and called him Mr. Yankovic. I am a pathetic nerd...)

FUCK YEAH!!!

TF 3 will be filming in Chicago.
I need times, dates and locations because I am so fucking there!

--Weasel, "Just one glimpse of my sweetie-bot. That's all I ask of you, Primus."

Taking Risks

"Risk"
And then the day came,
when the risk
to remain tight
in a bud
was more painful
than the risk
it took
to blossom.
-Anias Nin

I have never been the type to take risks. One of the biggest risks I have ever taken was going out with my ex-boyfriend.

I spent well over five years with him. It didn't end well.

After that, I pretty much swore off taking anymore risks. It wasn't worth it. I decided that I should stick with the safest path possible. Nothing bad would happen to me if I did.

Then came July 1999. I decided to take another risk. This was a huge one. I hopped on a plane and went to St Paul, Minnesota to attend BotCon and meet Prime. I wasn't sure how this would turn out; I had played it safe for two years. I wasn't sure if I was truly ready for another risky undertaking. I had no idea how this would turn out.

A week later, I told Prime I loved him.

It was a risk well worth taking--Prime and I have been together for over a decade. He's the light of my life and pain in my ass and life couldn't be better.

Now I'm taking another risk of sorts. I'm writing. I have no idea how this risk will pan out, whether or not it will be successful but by Primus I'm doing it.

Because not doing it would be too painful. And I'm sick of living a normal, safe life. I just want to take the plunge for once and see how things go.

Hopefully, everything will go well. But even if they don't I'll know that I tried.

100 Words

Yesterday had to be one of the stupidest days I have ever suffered through. I won't go into details about, for if I did this post would crack 10,000 words easily. Most of those words would be expletives. Suffice to say, it was a miserable day.

Things changed a bit when I got home.

Prime let me hop on Alexa for a bit. I spent a few minutes rifling through various and sundry sites that would put me in a slightly better mood, hit my YouTube account, picked some really good music and began to spot edit my project.

I spent about 45 minutes on it. I added a grand total of one hundred words. My current count is well over 17,000. One hundred words is a mere nothing.

It was only 45 minutes and a hundred words. Compare that to the eight hours I spent in hell. Again, what I did was a trifle.

But in that 45 minutes I actually felt like I accomplished something. It felt worthwhile.

I never have that feeling when I'm at my "work". All I feel while I'm on the clock at my job is a sense of frustration. I feel as if I'm wasting time, like I'm doing nothing.

I never feel that way when I write. When I write, I feel like I've actually done something. I enjoy that.

It's a good feeling. It's one that I could certainly get used to.

Friday Photoblog: "What a Cute Little Bastard!" Edition

BotCon exclusive Bug Bite. From BotCon 2007.
(Cutest little evil bastard evar!)

The Bullshit Report

I've been meaning to make a post about this, but I haven't had the time or energy until today.

My current locale is becoming exactly like the old hellhole. Even down to the backstabbing and lying.

We've had at least four people fired in the last couple of weeks. One was the lone overnight cashier who was supposed to be terminated at the beginning of her shift, but management waited until she was nearly done for the night to finally walk her out the store. (The truly idiotic thing? They waited for her to say something they didn't like so they could let her go for that. I just love working around spies and backstabbers, don't you?) One of the cashiers who works around the same hours I do has a second job. He's told people he has a second job. Three days ago he was marched into the office by management and chewed out for "trying to recruit people to his new job". No, that wasn't the case but management doesn't give a flying fuck. As for myself, I've somehow injured my left foot so walking is complete torture for me. I don't know exactly what I've done, but the area near my heel is swollen. I've been using a myriad of different muscle rubs and pain relievers to help take the edge off but to no avail. There have been days that I've left the building about to cry, the pain is so bad.

There's really nothing I can do about it. I have to hope to Primus it heals on its own.

I'm just a cog in the machine, easy to replace.

Like I said, my job is little more than a time waster. I want to write. I don't want to stand behind a goddamn cash register and stare at the unwashed masses all day. Every second I'm at that hellhole is one less second I can write. And it frustrates me to no end.

The one thing that keeps me from losing my mind? The fact that I can come home to Prime and hop on Alexa for even a few moments. When my fingers touch the keyboard, I become so relaxed and...dare I say it? I'm happy. Listening to some really good music helps, too.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have some more writing to do. I have to make the best of my days off, you know.

Downward Spiral

I'm frustrated, tired and fed the hell up.

Work has gotten worse. A helluva lot worse. It's getting to the point that I don't even want to walk into the goddamn building. (Technically in my case, it's more like limp into the building but I digress.) There's been a shitload more backstabbing and bullshit than I want to go into.

I'm fucking tired of it.

I don't want to be there anymore. I don't even want to walk into the building. I just want to stay home and write. That's all I want to do. I can't help it--if I'm not writing, I feel like I'm wasting my time. And that job is the biggest time waster of all.

I really don't know if I can make it to June at this rate. Primus knows, I'm burned out as it is.

--Weasel, "I'm gonna go scream now."

Friday Photoblog: "Cupid in Disguise" Edition

2010 Camaro, spotted outside a Holiday Inn Express in Raleigh, NC. September 20, 2009.
(How do you know if your marriage is blessed? Primus sends you an angel. Or Cupid. Or in this case, both.)

IT'S OVER 9000!

(Don't get the joke? Click the title.)

Been writing a lot lately. I've already passed 9,000 words and I'm closing in on 10,000. And I don't want to stop, not until I'm done. I've had the idea in my head since 2007; I want to tell the tale, however long it takes. (I'm thinking it's going to end up being a novel. And possibly part of a small series. Quite possibly a trilogy.)

Oh and Prime? You doing a bit of clean-up here and there? Cause I've noticed little changes. They're helping the flow a bit. Keep it up. Just don't let me catch you at it, 'kay? ;)

--Weasel, "May Primus bless me on this venture. I'm gonna need it."

WHO DAT!

Congrats to the Saints, for winning their first ever Super Bowl. I'm happy as hell for you guys!

--Weasel, "Yeah, I was pullin' for ya."

Exhaustion

If you've been wondering why I haven't been updating as frequently, it's really due to my job. As of late, all my days off have been split which has been hell on me and the blog alike. (I never feel rested when my days are split. It's as if I never leave the building.)

And you don't want to know just how bad the job has been lately. The sheer amount of stupid there has been driving me closer to the edge. The front end has gone downhill, in more ways than one. The shit that has happened could literally fill volumes.

But I'm tired of dealing with the shit. Very, very tired of dealing with the stupidity and bullshit that is my pathetic job.

What's helped me cope? Prime. And the fact that I'm writing. (Funny story--it seems Prime inadvertently read some of my writing. He liked it. Now I'm a bit torn: Should I take that as a compliment or should I smack him for reading my stuff without permission? Like I said, kinda torn on this one.) At the end of the day, those are a couple of the things that help me keep it together. Well, that and looking forward to BotCon.

I'm just so sick of it all.

--Weasel, "I swear to Primus, I just can't give a fuck anymore."

Friday Photoblog: "I Can't Deal With That Now!" Edition

Robert Stack's Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. From the Hollywood tour, BotCon 2009.
(And yes, I could deal with taking that picture right now! ...er, then. Whatever.)

Repercussions

The net seems to be working fine... for now. But just to make sure I won't miss one, I've done two months worth of Friday Photoblogs. I'm good until the first of April.

It's weird--I could live without the phone and if the TV had gone out, I think I would have been okay... but life without the net sucked. Hard.

--Weasel, "Guess I'm addicted..."

Internet Problems

Well, we've had some... ah, interesting problems that have developed over the last several days.

Don't ask me how (I'm thinking the January thaw had something to do with this shit) but we lost the phone for a few days, followed by the internet.

So yeah, no 'net on my day off. I was one unhappy little Weasel.

Everything seems to be working again, 'net wise. The phone is more or less working; it does cut in and out but at least the damned thing can ring and get a freaking dial tone! *headdesk*

This has not been an awesome week. Not in the least. All this bullshit was just a few more nails in the coffin.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go slam my head into the wall until I frigging pass out. See ya.

--Weasel, "The fireplace'll be perfect; it's made of stone. Not like it gets any other use..."

Friday Photoblog: "Your Ship has Come In" Edition

A whale watching boat, watching our whale watching boat. From BotCon 2007.
(I wonder if we looked the same to them...?)

Friday Photoblog: "You Ought to be in Pictures" Edition

Billboard advertising Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Spotted on our way to the Paramount party. From BotCon 2009.
(Maybe I should have asked the driver to pull over so I could steal me that sign...)

Birthday Bot

OR:
The Problems of the Far Flung Future of 2007 Can Be Solved by the Ancient Technology of the Year 2007

Transformers may not be as smart as we'd all like to think. There's even a G1 episode that illustrates this fact--Daniel wants to throw Ultra Magnus a surprise "creation day" party, yet no one knows exactly when he came on line. Hell, even Magnus himself didn't know!

Leave it to human ingenuity to solve such a thorny problem.

Several days ago, I was crashed out in bed, snuggling with my much loved Slumblebee. (How loved is this little stuffed robot? A lot. He's been to two BotCons and will probably hop aboard a plane with me to head to Orlando in June. I'm also thinking of taking him to Dairycon this year. Stop snickering... I know I'm pathetic.) I had to get up and go to work, but I really didn't want to move. As Prime tried to kick my lazy skidplate out of bed, he noticed something on my Slumblebee's tush tag. Apparently, the tag had a date code stamp on it which Prime deciphered for the hell of it.

It would seem my much loved little bot's "spark day" is January 16, 2007. So today, he turns three, if you will. (Think I should get him a cake?)

All this makes me wonder: Why in the hell didn't Cybertron have date code stampings on all its residents? The whole damn debacle of Daniel and Wheelie stealing a ship and getting kidnapped by Cyclonus could have been prevented if someone could have looked at Ultra Magnus's ass and said, "It says here October 23. I didn't know you were a Scorpio."

--Weasel, "It's food for thought."

Every Little Bit Helps

We all know what happened in Haiti. Here's a list of organizations that can help. If you can, donate. Every little bit helps.

You can also send donations to UNICEF and the American Red Cross.

Thank you.

Friday Photoblog: "Go Directly to Jail" Edition

An original Monopoly "board", on display at Hasbro. From BC 2007.
(It's not really a board, per se. It's actually a tablecloth.)

Friday Photoblog: "A Bowl of Cherries" Edition

Freshly picked cherries from our cherry tree. From summer 2009.

(I believe these are sour and not bing... at least they tasted pretty sour to me!)

Your (Semi) Annual Random Thoughts

Just for shits and giggles, it's that time again!

* Whoever is scheduling the breaks at my store must be stupid. I wish I were joking. We've had more and more instances of people being sent late because there is no one to cover for them. We're supposed to have four head cashiers to help take care of this crap, but I think that all they are doing is getting in each other's way. Or socializing. Your choice.

* People are still bringing their cell phones and portable gaming systems on the sales floor. Looks like everyone is ignoring that wonderful little rule. I figured as much.

* Since Ca$hma$ is now officially over, we're trying to clear out our holiday crap at my store. Normally, I don't do the 'buy it cause it's cheap' thing, but I found myself suckered into spending this year. I grabbed a few discounted stickers (Shut it, Prime!) and bought as much of the ROTF gift stuff as possible. I now have Bumblebee gift tags coming out of my ears. I couldn't be happier.

* This past Saturday, BBC America aired the second part of Doctor Who: The End of Time. I watched. I bawled like a baby. 'Nuff said. [/lie] Mister Tennant, we didn't want you to go, either. You will always be 'my' Doctor.

* I have gathered all my convention clothes together and later today, the packing will begin. Woo hoo.

* I've had a particular piece of music stuck in my head for the last few days. It's been driving me a bit crazy, even though the music is rather soothing.

* We're getting a Leader class Bumblebee. Fear it. FEAR IT!

That's all until next time. Tune in next time for even more boring crap!

This has been--

--Weasel, getting set to pack her bags.

Friday Photoblog: A New Year Breaks Edition

A humpback whale, spotted during the whalewatching tour at BC 2007.
(I kinda felt like I was in Star Trek IV--"Admiral, there be whales here!")

I'm Doomed! OMG!!111eleventymillion11!!

At least according to this article.

For those of you who don't want to click over to the fail, here's a rundown of some of the "gems" on the list:
Don't be smarter than your mate.
Don't have an "immature" hobby. (Action figures? Comic books? Video games? Oh no!)
Don't take a dump in front of each other. (Gotta maintain the "mystery", whatever the hell that means.)
Don't take separate vacays.
Don't have kids.
Don't have a big bed. (You totally need a cramped little twin sized bed so you can like cuddle and make out and stuff!)
Don't have a TV in the bedroom.
Don't change your appearance. At all. Ever.

Prime and I collect Transformers. Our hobby is the reason why we met. We had a big TV in our bedroom at one point... and used it to play video games. I dyed my hair red a few years ago. We sleep in a huge-ass king sized bed. And we just got married this year, after being together for damn near a decade. Yeah, we're seriously doomed. /sarcasm

--Weasel, "This just in, CNN fails. Film at whenthefuckever."

And It Starts Again...

Yesterday, I cleaned out my suitcase and washed my laundry. All of it. Anything that I hadn't worn in a few days got pitched in the washer.

The suitcase is empty, for now. But I'll probably be ready to pack up by the end of next week.

I know, I know... why in the hell would I want to get ready this soon? I've got damn near six months to wait.

Well, there's a saying: a man begins to enjoy his vacation the moment he arrives while a woman begins to enjoy hers the moment she starts to pack. It goes without saying that I want to enjoy every last second of BotCon. So I start as early as possible.

It's also one of the few things that helps to perk me up during winter. Knowing that I can grab my already packed suitcase and simply GO at the drop of a hat brings a smile to my face. It doesn't seem like much, but it means a lot to me. And considering the length of most Wisconsin winters, I'll steal whatever joy I can get.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to work on getting my toiletries done....

--Weasel, wishing for summer already.

Friday Photoblog: What I Really Want for Christmas Edition

Hardcopy of the unreleased 6 inch Transformers Titanium Series War Within Bumblebee. From BotCon 2007.
(I would sell an internal organ or three to have him. He would be so loved. Many tears were shed over "what might have been" that day.)

White Christmas

It was twenty years ago when I experienced my first white Christmas.

I was living in North Carolina, right along the coast. The coast of NC rarely gets snow, if at all. Our winters were simply too warm. Any and all precipitation we would receive was in the form of rain. If we ever got any frozen forms, they were sleet or the ubiquitous freezing rain.

None of those are fun if you're a kid. When you're young, you want snow. That's just how it is. Especially around Christmas.

So in 1989, the Christmas week weather forecast called for rain with cold temps. But don't worry, the meteorologists all reassured, there was simply no way we would get snow. It was impossible.

But the impossible happened.

Saturday night, I was holed up in my bedroom, blaring Solid Gold Saturday Night from my stereo. Out of the blue, my dad called for me. So I trotted down the hallway and into the living room.

Dad had the curtains open and the floodlights on. There was something swirling in front of the bulbs. It didn't look like rain. Because it wasn't.

It was snow. We were getting snow. The impossible had happened.

The next day I awoke to a land covered in white and still more was falling. I was dressed and out the door before my parents could even blink.

I spent the better part of the day in the snow, cavorting like there was no tomorrow. I had never had such fun; we rarely got snow in that area of the country. But all good things must come to an end--eventually, the flakes stopped falling. But by that time (mid-afternoon), the ground was covered in a thick blanket. We had gotten eighteen inches.

The snow lasted for a week. The entire city was practically shut down, since most southerners had no idea how to drive in the frozen stuff. For weeks after the event we had letter after letter in the local paper complaining about it.

But for me, it was perfect. And it was the best Christmas present I could receive as a young teen--a once-in-a-lifetime event that I will never forget.

The Worst Christmas Ever

Once upon a time, back in the 1990s I dated a jackass. I do not kid about this fact.

It was around Christmas time, many years ago when said jackass wanted to know what I'd like. I told him--G2 Dreadwing. This was the only item I wanted for Christmas that year: I didn't want jewelry, I didn't want clothes, I just wanted that Transformer.

The days passed. I bought my gifts for my jackass boyfiend and my other friends. Then one day, the jackass tells me that he's done his shopping and he got an extra special, completely awesome gift for me. He swears I'll love it.

My heart jumps. Oh God, I think. He got me Dreadwing! I can barely wait until I get my gift.

When we have our party, I'm practically dancing with delight. I can barely wait to rip the wrapping paper off my brand new TF.

We go through the usual stuff, we trade gifts, rip them open, thank each other. I'm impatiently waiting to get my "special" gift; the jackass has been swearing for days that I will absolutely adore it.

Then the moment comes. My jackass boyfiend and one of my other friends comes out, dragging a large box. They then launch into a song: "The 12 Days of Yaksmas".

A Ren and Stimpy song.

Did I mention that I hated Ren and Stimpy? And that my jackass bf loved to exploit that?

The special gift was little more than a damned joke. I was pissed.

I spent the rest of the party outside, so pissed I couldn't see straight. It was not a good night.

Thankfully, the jackass wised up a little and realized that he had hurt my feelings. So to smooth things over, he bought Dreadwing for me that night. At least that didn't suck.

As for the crap in the giant box--most of it got pitched. The only thing I kept were the socks.

They lasted longer than my ex. They also were a lot more useful.

I'm Going to Disney World!

And it's not to see that stupid rat, either!

BotCon 2010: Walt Disney World Dolphin Hotel and Convention Center, Florida June 24-27

Thank Primus I was off today: I was able to reserve our hotel room. If I hadn't been here it would be another waking nightmare like this year.

And I'm gonna have to fly. Again. Gods, how I hate flying. (But if Mark Ryan comes back as a proper guest, I'll be more than happy to board the plane. But I digress.)

--Weasel, "Screw Ca$hma$--BotCon is the most wonderful time of the year!"

Friday Photoblog: "Here's Your Sign" Edition

Sign at Universal Studios Hollywood. BotCon 2009
(I didn't climb it, but I did want to hang my head over and spit. Just for shits and giggles.)

Ten Years

He looks in the mirror and sees
a thousand things he'd like to change
like his hair
because it sticks out too much and
doesn't do what he wants it to
or his nose
'cause he doesn't like the shape and
the way it looks
or his deep barrel chest
because he thinks it's too big
and so many other things about himself that
just don't seem to measure up.

But I see things differently.

I see tousled hair that reminds me of
pleasant dreams and
lying next to the one I love or
a large chest that is perfect to
lean against when I am upset or lonely or
broad shoulders that I can lean on after
a hard day at work or
soft hands to hold onto when I am groping
in the darkness, alone.

In my eyes, I see perfection
no matter what others may say.

He sees a thousand things
he'd love to change about himself,
but I would never
change a thing.

I love you, Prime. Now, forever and always.

Friday Photoblog: Under Strain Edition

Plankton net at Wood's Hole.
(Random fact: When you swallow seawater, you're not just getting a dose of saline but protein as well! :gag:)

Aftermath

So, the storm's gone. We actually have some sunny weather for once. Cold, but sunny.

I called my parents last night, so they would know that we're not forced to build igloos in order to survive. Talked to my mother and since there's no delicate way of putting this, I'll just come out and say it.

She's been diagnosed with breast cancer.

Yeah, it hit me like twelve tons of bricks, too.

It's stage zero and the cure rate is 99% which is damn good. But still. This is one of those things that's supposed to happen to someone else. But when you think about it, you're "someone else" to somebody else.

I'm surprised I'm even up and blogging about this: my first reaction this morning was to roll over and sleep the rest of the damned day. The only reason I'm doing this is if I don't keep my mind occupied, I'll just crawl back into bed, yank the blankets over my head, grab Slumblebee and start sobbing. Which of course, serves no real purpose. It might make me feel better, though.

This also means I now have a family history of cancer. Again, if there were some actual functioning and affordable robot upgrades, I'd trade in this meatsack in a nanosecond. Who's with me?

Suddenly those damned pink ribbons and that Pinktober stuff doesn't look so frigging ridiculous.

....fuck.

[snow] Blow Me. [/snow]

As promised--or perhaps threatened--10-14 inches of snow in our area, wind blasting it around like a bitch.

Boy, does our city suck when it comes to plowing the streets. Especially our street. It really seems that way, anyway, I mean--how the hell do you plow one way, then the other, back-and-forthing at the corners, and still leave gigantic rows and ruts in the road? The driver had to have positioned the plow six inches above the road surface to 'accomplish' the piss-poor job I saw. Completely tossed off the street at the end opposite of ours--just pushed it into high pack there, except for the path left where the truck initially turned in. That's some high-horsepower FAIL, right there. I hope that's not supposed to be S.O.P. for some reason--it seems damned stupid.

Hilariously, a couple of these dipsticks will, now and again, call into the local talk radio station and complain about people who blow the snow from their walks into the street and how tired they are because that (somehow) rrrrreally increases their workload. Uh, yeah, it's sure tough to half-assedly drive that big ol' truck; it just makes you do most of the work--how inconsiderate of that big ol' machine! Give me a break--if homeowners are doing it after the road's been made clear, that's one thing, I suppose. But if a plow truck hasn't been by yet? Bite our collective asses. Stupid local laws...

Prime got up sometime after six to get the blower going to clear our driveway. He test-started it last night and it revved right up on his first try. Naturally, it fought him this morning. John Deere = stubborn ol' cuss. Maybe I'll see about getting him a flamethrower for the holidaze...and tell him to use it on that yellow-and-green jerkwad machine first.

In any case, he finished the driveway and two-thirds of our sidewalk before having to stop so he'd have time to shower and get ready for work. He had to go over all the concrete we have when we got home, as it was still falling and blowing at a good clip. I'll point out that he is not one of those who blows the snow into the street, regardless of when a truck's been by--as he puts it, he has better things to do than pay an idiot fine because some dickwad neighbor takes personal offense and gives the city a call.

I made it into work fine; Prime was about ten minutes late. Not bad, considering the state of the streets/roads/etc. out there. He passed a truck on his way to work that was trying mightily to pull another pickup with a plow attachment outta the ditch, with a single chain. That really says...something, I don't know what.

By the way...chances are high that your local Walmart was/is still open, too, and waiting with bated breath for your business--be sure to waltz on in there sometime today and tell management that you're just tickled pink that they're ready to satisfy all your shopping needs, because you just don't know what you woulda done if you hadn't been able to pick up that 24-pack of Mountain Dew and that holiday sausage gift box you needed so badly.

--Weasel, "This momentary and pathetic attempt to brighten your day with a bemused smirk was brought to you by the letters S, N, O, W...A, another A, R, G, and H."

Snow Day

It must officially be winter here; we have a winter storm dumping a crapload of snow on us. At least we'll have snow on the holidays. I guess that's kinda awesome.

--Weasel, "Now the idiots on the roadways are a totally different matter."

Friday Photoblog: Get a Grip Edition

Sign For Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen at BotCon 2009.
(At least he's not flipping us off, thank Primus...)

I <3 Patrick Stewart

Just read this and you'll understand why.

(And I admit it, I cried while reading it.)

--Weasel, "Captain Picard FTW."