-People in Texas have no clue how to drive.
-Cross country roadtrips are a lot of fun.
-No matter where you go, there you are. And so is the local Walmart.
-There is no sleeping during a convention. Eating is optional, too.
-Baseball players can be tempermental. Just ask the pipes that run near the dugout in the Rangers' ballpark.
-Cowby Stadium is freaking huge.
-The best way to make a new friend is to crack a joke.
-The best way to greet an old friend is with a hug.
-Manischewitz tastes a lot better than I remember. Also...
-I can't hold my alcohol well. Total lightweight over here!
-The book depository still exists and it has a museum. I didn't go in, as the entire building had an aura of heartbreak around it. I'm not kidding. I simply walked near that building and could feel an awful wave of sadness washing over me.
-Action Figure Therapy is completely screwed up yet utterly hilarious. You are warned: it's also very NSFW!
-By the time you have your route to and from the 'Con memorized, it's time to go back home.
-Garry Chalk has seen some of his former Stargate SG-1 castmates at conventions.
-David Kaye wished that the Brewers had gone farther in the series last year, as he hates the Cardinals. David Kaye is basically awesome.
-Peter Cullen has a tendency to wear his heart on his sleeve at BotCon.
-If you're not careful, sitting in on Mr. Cullen's panel can cause watering of the eyes. I teared up quite a few times; not a joke.
-Dan Gilvezan is quite the smart aleck. That is one of the many and sundry reasons that he is freaking amazingly awesome.
-Buster Jones is quite the snazzy dresser, not to mention a very sweet soul.
-When I'm hungry, I can pack away cheesecake like there's no tomorrow.
-I am a complete failure at building an action figure, but I love cleaning up the mess that's left behind. I am basically very odd.
-In the 80s, Dan Gilvezan used to buy Bumblebees and give them to kids. He now wishes he had kept at least one of them. I wish I had been one of those lucky kids getting a Bumblebee from Bumblebee...!
-Bingo is a lot of fun. More so than gambling.
-The best conversations happen in the Dealer Room or the Autograph Line.
-All a hotel really needs is a decent bed and wi-fi and I'm happy.
-The Convention is life. No exceptions.
-It's always over too soon.
-Next year can't come soon enough.
-Washing post-convention laundry is depressing.
-But packing for the next con is tons of fun.
And lastly,
-No matter what happens, I'll be there next year. Believe it.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Friday, May 04, 2012
Convention Laundry
Current song stuck in my head: I'll Be Over You by Toto
My last load of laundry is washing: it's a load of whites. Unlike last year, I'm actually doing the laundry well in advance. Once it's done, it'll be packed and will stay in the suitcase, ready for the next convention.
It's hard to believe that the convention is over. I'm heading back to work tomorrow, which will be a huge shock.
Getting back to the real world sucks. I hate it, honestly. But what keeps me going? The fact that next year, there will be another BotCon.
It's that fact that keeps me from losing what little sanity I have left, that keeps me going through the long dark winter days and helps me keep my temper when I'm dealing with the rude and irrational holiday shoppers every year in December. It may sound crazy, but BotCon is the tonic that soothes my nerves and gives me a chance to recharge. It'll be a long wait until next year's convention, but it'll be well worth it.
See you next year.
--Weasel
My last load of laundry is washing: it's a load of whites. Unlike last year, I'm actually doing the laundry well in advance. Once it's done, it'll be packed and will stay in the suitcase, ready for the next convention.
It's hard to believe that the convention is over. I'm heading back to work tomorrow, which will be a huge shock.
Getting back to the real world sucks. I hate it, honestly. But what keeps me going? The fact that next year, there will be another BotCon.
It's that fact that keeps me from losing what little sanity I have left, that keeps me going through the long dark winter days and helps me keep my temper when I'm dealing with the rude and irrational holiday shoppers every year in December. It may sound crazy, but BotCon is the tonic that soothes my nerves and gives me a chance to recharge. It'll be a long wait until next year's convention, but it'll be well worth it.
See you next year.
--Weasel
Sunday, April 29, 2012
The BotCon 2012 Update Part 3
Current song stuck in my head: The Humbling River by Puscifer.
So today is Sunday, which means the 'Con is over. Am I sad? Yes. But it isn't as bad as it has been in previous years. I'll get to that later. Right now, it's time to sum things up.
April 28, 2012 Saturday
We got up and headed out at a time that we thought was early enough to beat some of the 'Con traffic, but it appears we were wrong. When we got to the parking lot at the Hyatt, the attendants were placing a large 'Lot Full' sign at the entrance. Thankfully, we were able to scoot in and park.
Prime, DA and I headed to the panel room to take in the first panel of the day: Dan Gilvezan and Buster Jones. You know damn well there was no way I was missing a panel with Dan. He’s just too awesome to miss.
It was a great panel and a lot of fun. Dan was hilarious as always and Buster was a good sport about everything. I think Buster was a little surprised at how much we as fans love him and his work. So if you missed the panel, you really missed out.
After that, I hit the club store to buy another BotCon convention comic and hit the line for the noon autographs. That session was for Dan, Buster and Simon Furman. Now, I’d already gotten Mr. Furman’s signature on a pair of comic books but I had a third that needed to be signed and I also wanted a sig from him along with Buster and Dan on my extra Con program. I think that may be a bit of a tradition now: grab an extra program, get a whole slagload of sigs on the cover. Hey, it’s easy to carry and isn’t expensive so why not? (^.^)
I got autographs from all three: Simon was gracious as always and Dan was just a huge sweetheart. I mean that. He is perhaps the sweetest, most charming and funniest guy you will ever meet. A true class act. As to how he puts up with crazy fangirls like me, I can’t even begin to fathom, but he does and I appreciate that. Buster was also wonderful: I thanked him for his work on Transformers as well as that on The Real Ghostbusters. He said he remembered his work on Ghostbusters and thanked me for my kindness. He was truly sweet.
After the autographs, I went back to the panel room and sat in for the Transformers Club roundtable and the Hasbro panel. Epic reveals in each, but they’re all over the net by now so there’s no point in mentioning them. Once those two panels were finished, Prime, DA and I stuck around for one of the most popular guest panels at BotCon:
Peter Cullen.
Before you ask, yes, I have met him and he is amazing. When he greeted us in the panel room, the man nearly brought me to tears: as he looked at the crowd, he said he saw so many familiar faces and we were one. We were family.
I admit it, my eyes were misting over at that point. To hear him, the voice of Optimus Prime, proclaim us as family…all I can say about it is ‘wow’. It’s truly overwhelming.
Once Mr. Cullen’s panel drew to a close, the three of us got ready for the Cocktail Reception, Dinner, Hall of Fame Ceremony and Casino night. Prime and I didn’t hit the alcohol all that much and neither one of us did so well at gambling (well, I stuck to bingo) but that wasn’t the biggest surprise of the night. No, the big surprise of the night was the fan’s choice Hall of Fame inductee. The choices were Arcee, Sky-Byte, Beast Wars Megatron, Rodimus and Wheeljack. The winner?
Wheeljack. I was more than a little surprised.
After the festivities were over (and DA, Prime and myself got tired of looking at scantily dressed girls attending a dance), we headed back to the hotel and crashed.
April 30, 2012 Sunday
The crowds weren’t as thick today; it was as if the Con’s ending was hovering like some vast, predatory bird on the fringes of the day. The three of us didn’t have to deal with the parking issue today and the lot didn’t seem quite as full. After parking, we headed to the panel rooms for the live script reading of Bee in the City 2.
If you missed it, you may be in luck—Pete Sinclair has said that it will be posted to YouTube. When it is, I will link it as you have to watch it to enjoy it. But it was a hoot!
Once that was done, I dashed to the Dealer Room to get the autographs of David Kaye and Garry Chalk. But we also had Abby Collins there as well and I got her signature too.
When I got out of the line for that, I loitered around a bit and waited for the last autograph session, another one with Dan Gilvezan and Buster Jones. You know how you’re at a function and you see that one person at the head of the line and you kinda hate them a little? Yeah, I was that person! I was first in line for that autograph session! I got Dan to sign my name badge and had him sign an ornament for a friend of mine who was volunteering at the show. (Hey, I owed her big time!) I also got Buster to sign it too. Happy? Oh yeah, I was.
I caught up with DA afterward and we talked; eventually we ran into Prime and we made our way to the Activision booth to see a demo of Transformers: Fall of Cybertron. The game looks amazing, but pardon me a moment, for I must rant.
mini rant
Alright people, signs are posted for a damn good reason. I don’t care if you think your kid hanging off a statue isn’t going to hurt the statue--if it says don’t touch, then your kid shouldn’t be climbing on it. Seriously, do you let your kid play in the middle of the damned street thinking, "Hey, little junior dumbass is smart enough to get outta all them there cars’s way. Kid’ll be fine."? Sure he will…then the little dipshit gets hurt and YOU feel the need to sue someone because YOU are a fucking moron. If you are that damned stupid, do us all a favor and adopt a damn goldfish. Or better yet, raise a Chia plant. If either one of those get hurt or die because of your own idiocy, you’ve got no one to blame but yourself. And for the love of Primus, remain a shut-in and stay out of the public eye. We’re tired of dealing with you.
/end mini rant
Aaaaaaaaaaaaah, better.
Anyway, after that, we all got posters. A raffle or two later and the Dealer Room was shutting down, as was the Con. Prime, DA and I wandered around, found Asuza-san’s table and took a look. Asuza let me have a Bumblebee toy for free and we bought a pair of Japanese Happy Meal toys from him. Awesome!
After chatting with some of our friends, the three of us headed outside and to my shock there’s Dan Gilvezan just outside the hotel. So I took the opportunity to hug both him and his wonderful wife and tell them goodbye. He said we’d see each other again, as I’m not getting rid of him that easily. Oh, yeah, huge grin on my face!
We got back to the hotel, chatted and around 7:15, took DA to the airport. We said our farewells, I hugged him good-bye and it looked as though some tears may fall. Well, until Prime yelled, "Stop crying!" We all had a good laugh at that one.
I’ve had dinner and now I’m going to bed. Yeah, I am sad that the Con is over, but not as badly as I have been in past years. As of right now, I’m wondering where our next reunion will be held. I can’t wait to see the rest of the family again.
--Weasel
So today is Sunday, which means the 'Con is over. Am I sad? Yes. But it isn't as bad as it has been in previous years. I'll get to that later. Right now, it's time to sum things up.
April 28, 2012 Saturday
We got up and headed out at a time that we thought was early enough to beat some of the 'Con traffic, but it appears we were wrong. When we got to the parking lot at the Hyatt, the attendants were placing a large 'Lot Full' sign at the entrance. Thankfully, we were able to scoot in and park.
Prime, DA and I headed to the panel room to take in the first panel of the day: Dan Gilvezan and Buster Jones. You know damn well there was no way I was missing a panel with Dan. He’s just too awesome to miss.
It was a great panel and a lot of fun. Dan was hilarious as always and Buster was a good sport about everything. I think Buster was a little surprised at how much we as fans love him and his work. So if you missed the panel, you really missed out.
After that, I hit the club store to buy another BotCon convention comic and hit the line for the noon autographs. That session was for Dan, Buster and Simon Furman. Now, I’d already gotten Mr. Furman’s signature on a pair of comic books but I had a third that needed to be signed and I also wanted a sig from him along with Buster and Dan on my extra Con program. I think that may be a bit of a tradition now: grab an extra program, get a whole slagload of sigs on the cover. Hey, it’s easy to carry and isn’t expensive so why not? (^.^)
I got autographs from all three: Simon was gracious as always and Dan was just a huge sweetheart. I mean that. He is perhaps the sweetest, most charming and funniest guy you will ever meet. A true class act. As to how he puts up with crazy fangirls like me, I can’t even begin to fathom, but he does and I appreciate that. Buster was also wonderful: I thanked him for his work on Transformers as well as that on The Real Ghostbusters. He said he remembered his work on Ghostbusters and thanked me for my kindness. He was truly sweet.
After the autographs, I went back to the panel room and sat in for the Transformers Club roundtable and the Hasbro panel. Epic reveals in each, but they’re all over the net by now so there’s no point in mentioning them. Once those two panels were finished, Prime, DA and I stuck around for one of the most popular guest panels at BotCon:
Peter Cullen.
Before you ask, yes, I have met him and he is amazing. When he greeted us in the panel room, the man nearly brought me to tears: as he looked at the crowd, he said he saw so many familiar faces and we were one. We were family.
I admit it, my eyes were misting over at that point. To hear him, the voice of Optimus Prime, proclaim us as family…all I can say about it is ‘wow’. It’s truly overwhelming.
Once Mr. Cullen’s panel drew to a close, the three of us got ready for the Cocktail Reception, Dinner, Hall of Fame Ceremony and Casino night. Prime and I didn’t hit the alcohol all that much and neither one of us did so well at gambling (well, I stuck to bingo) but that wasn’t the biggest surprise of the night. No, the big surprise of the night was the fan’s choice Hall of Fame inductee. The choices were Arcee, Sky-Byte, Beast Wars Megatron, Rodimus and Wheeljack. The winner?
Wheeljack. I was more than a little surprised.
After the festivities were over (and DA, Prime and myself got tired of looking at scantily dressed girls attending a dance), we headed back to the hotel and crashed.
April 30, 2012 Sunday
The crowds weren’t as thick today; it was as if the Con’s ending was hovering like some vast, predatory bird on the fringes of the day. The three of us didn’t have to deal with the parking issue today and the lot didn’t seem quite as full. After parking, we headed to the panel rooms for the live script reading of Bee in the City 2.
If you missed it, you may be in luck—Pete Sinclair has said that it will be posted to YouTube. When it is, I will link it as you have to watch it to enjoy it. But it was a hoot!
Once that was done, I dashed to the Dealer Room to get the autographs of David Kaye and Garry Chalk. But we also had Abby Collins there as well and I got her signature too.
When I got out of the line for that, I loitered around a bit and waited for the last autograph session, another one with Dan Gilvezan and Buster Jones. You know how you’re at a function and you see that one person at the head of the line and you kinda hate them a little? Yeah, I was that person! I was first in line for that autograph session! I got Dan to sign my name badge and had him sign an ornament for a friend of mine who was volunteering at the show. (Hey, I owed her big time!) I also got Buster to sign it too. Happy? Oh yeah, I was.
I caught up with DA afterward and we talked; eventually we ran into Prime and we made our way to the Activision booth to see a demo of Transformers: Fall of Cybertron. The game looks amazing, but pardon me a moment, for I must rant.
mini rant
Alright people, signs are posted for a damn good reason. I don’t care if you think your kid hanging off a statue isn’t going to hurt the statue--if it says don’t touch, then your kid shouldn’t be climbing on it. Seriously, do you let your kid play in the middle of the damned street thinking, "Hey, little junior dumbass is smart enough to get outta all them there cars’s way. Kid’ll be fine."? Sure he will…then the little dipshit gets hurt and YOU feel the need to sue someone because YOU are a fucking moron. If you are that damned stupid, do us all a favor and adopt a damn goldfish. Or better yet, raise a Chia plant. If either one of those get hurt or die because of your own idiocy, you’ve got no one to blame but yourself. And for the love of Primus, remain a shut-in and stay out of the public eye. We’re tired of dealing with you.
/end mini rant
Aaaaaaaaaaaaah, better.
Anyway, after that, we all got posters. A raffle or two later and the Dealer Room was shutting down, as was the Con. Prime, DA and I wandered around, found Asuza-san’s table and took a look. Asuza let me have a Bumblebee toy for free and we bought a pair of Japanese Happy Meal toys from him. Awesome!
After chatting with some of our friends, the three of us headed outside and to my shock there’s Dan Gilvezan just outside the hotel. So I took the opportunity to hug both him and his wonderful wife and tell them goodbye. He said we’d see each other again, as I’m not getting rid of him that easily. Oh, yeah, huge grin on my face!
We got back to the hotel, chatted and around 7:15, took DA to the airport. We said our farewells, I hugged him good-bye and it looked as though some tears may fall. Well, until Prime yelled, "Stop crying!" We all had a good laugh at that one.
I’ve had dinner and now I’m going to bed. Yeah, I am sad that the Con is over, but not as badly as I have been in past years. As of right now, I’m wondering where our next reunion will be held. I can’t wait to see the rest of the family again.
--Weasel
Saturday, April 28, 2012
The BotCon 2012 Update Part 2
So here we are again, with a second day of action at BotCon 2012!
Okay, we got up at 7:30 or so, got dressed and ready and were out the hotel by 9:20. After fueling up, we got to the Hyatt and hit the MSTF panel. Although we were only able to catch the end of the panel, it was still pretty fun. Afterwards, we stayed for the Transformers Filmfest, which had some pretty good entries. We all voted and in the end, the winning entry was one called "Starting Them Young". It was super-cute, trust me. After that, I decided to go ahead and head to the Autograph line. Prime thought I was slightly cracked, but I thought it was a good idea.
Turned out I was right. The line for the Autograph session was combined with the line for the private Dealer Room experience. By the time I got there, it was pretty blasted long. But I hung out, DA dropped by bearing Starbucks (Mocha Frappuccino!) and we chatted while watching bits and pieces of Transformers: Dark of the Moon on his iPad. Prime caught up to us and the fun began a little bit later: the doors to the Dealer Room were opened!
Prime completed our door prize forms and I went directly to the Autograph line. It wasn't a long wait and I got two comics signed by Simon Furman. I didn't get Garry Chalk or David Kaye's autographs yet, but there's still time. Afterwards, I wandered the Dealer room and spotted a table were none other than Dan Gilvezan was seated; he was selling signed copies of his book Bumblebee and Me. Did I buy one? You bet! Did I chat with him? Better believe it! Did I giggle like a crazed fan girl? Well, it's me. Of course I did! XD
After that, I walked around the Dealer room with Prime and we bought little plastic robots and other awesome things. So much fun it hurt. But at five o'clock, the Dealer room closed so Prime, DA, Stogie and I headed out, met up with Shawn and spent the rest of the evening hanging out until we broke it up around 10.
It's been fun. A lot of fun. And this is why I come to the convention every year--it's not about the toys, it's about the people. Seeing my friends and hanging out with them makes it worth it.
Don't expect an update tomorrow night. We have a truly long day ahead and I probably won't be getting back here until about 1 or so in the morning. There will be an update on Sunday, though.
Until then, this has been
--Weasel, signing off for now.
Okay, we got up at 7:30 or so, got dressed and ready and were out the hotel by 9:20. After fueling up, we got to the Hyatt and hit the MSTF panel. Although we were only able to catch the end of the panel, it was still pretty fun. Afterwards, we stayed for the Transformers Filmfest, which had some pretty good entries. We all voted and in the end, the winning entry was one called "Starting Them Young". It was super-cute, trust me. After that, I decided to go ahead and head to the Autograph line. Prime thought I was slightly cracked, but I thought it was a good idea.
Turned out I was right. The line for the Autograph session was combined with the line for the private Dealer Room experience. By the time I got there, it was pretty blasted long. But I hung out, DA dropped by bearing Starbucks (Mocha Frappuccino!) and we chatted while watching bits and pieces of Transformers: Dark of the Moon on his iPad. Prime caught up to us and the fun began a little bit later: the doors to the Dealer Room were opened!
Prime completed our door prize forms and I went directly to the Autograph line. It wasn't a long wait and I got two comics signed by Simon Furman. I didn't get Garry Chalk or David Kaye's autographs yet, but there's still time. Afterwards, I wandered the Dealer room and spotted a table were none other than Dan Gilvezan was seated; he was selling signed copies of his book Bumblebee and Me. Did I buy one? You bet! Did I chat with him? Better believe it! Did I giggle like a crazed fan girl? Well, it's me. Of course I did! XD
After that, I walked around the Dealer room with Prime and we bought little plastic robots and other awesome things. So much fun it hurt. But at five o'clock, the Dealer room closed so Prime, DA, Stogie and I headed out, met up with Shawn and spent the rest of the evening hanging out until we broke it up around 10.
It's been fun. A lot of fun. And this is why I come to the convention every year--it's not about the toys, it's about the people. Seeing my friends and hanging out with them makes it worth it.
Don't expect an update tomorrow night. We have a truly long day ahead and I probably won't be getting back here until about 1 or so in the morning. There will be an update on Sunday, though.
Until then, this has been
--Weasel, signing off for now.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
The BotCon 2012 Update
(Bear with me, as I am completely exhausted. It's been a tiring few days. But it's also been loads of fun!)
I'm now currently in the great state of Texas, on vacation and ready to party at BotCon 2012. It's been quite an interesting few days, as you will see.
April 22, 2012 Sunday
Prime and I left a bit later than we would have liked; we had some last-minute packing (that I still unintentionally screwed up, in the end) and got a bit held up. But once we had that squared away, we loaded up Scamper and were on our way.
The drive itself was uneventful--we spent most of it listening to the Brewers game on 620 WTMJ-AM, the Brewers Radio Network flagship. They have a great signal, too. It wasn't until we were driving through the southern region of Illinois that the signal got bad enough to make us listen to something else, and by that time, we had already listened to the Crew lose to the Rockies (DAMMIT!) and heard Brewers Extra Innings in its entirety. Not fun, the losing part, but what are you going to do?
The rest of the trip again, was completely uneventful--although when we hit Saint Louis, the exit we took ran right next to Busch Stadium, home of the Cardinals, whom I do not like. At all. But the rest of the drive through Missouri was pretty decent and we got to our halfway point--Eureka--without incident. Prime and I checked into our hotel, hit a Walmart for the heck of it then came back to our room, ate and after buying tickets to the Texas Rangers game in Arlington, crashed. All in all, not a bad first day for a two-day road trip.
April 23, 2012 Monday
Prime had decided the night before that if we really wanted to hit the Rangers game, we'd have to leave a bit early. So we were packed, out the door and checked out of the hotel by 7:25. We got sidetracked and had to stop at another Walmart to grab a few things (mainly the dry goods foods, which somehow I had ALSO forgotten; Prime, however, had veered off to toys and returned with a couple of new electronic Bumblebee greeting cards, the Transformers Bot Shots series 2 Super-Bot, Bumblebee, and a Transformers Prime Arcee, then found a Bumblebee T-shirt I didn't already have, on clearance--he certainly can work a store), then get back on the road proper.
This time the drive was a bit more difficult--when we hit Oklahoma we were stuck on a US highway and not an interstate. So we'd cruise along at decent speed, have to drop down to 35 or 40 miles per hour when coming upon a town, and then ramp back up once past the town line. Just kind of annoying. Once we arrived in Texas, we could actually use an interstate highway, but that may not have been such a great thing.
People in Texas drive like idiots. I mean that. If they don't try and sideswipe you while merging into traffic, they will try and tailgate you. Or worse. I have never seen such Primus-awful behavior before. So if you ever come down to Texas, do not drive if you can help it. I do not kid.
After going through the traffic from hell, Prime and I arrived at our hotel and tried to check-in. Notice how I said "tried".
We were left standing at the front desk for about twenty minutes. There was no one there. There was absolutely no one in the lobby. Prime was getting irritated, I was getting irritated, it was not a pretty situation in the least. But finally someone came up and checked us in. Prime then asked where the hotel's business center was located, as we had to print off the tickets to the Rangers game.
This hotel doesn't have one. The blasted website wasn't truthful, it would seem.
Thankfully, the man running the desk had a printer and printed them off for us, so we grabbed them and dove back into the wonderful world of Texas road apathy.
We finally got to the ballpark at Arlington, but between the accepted horrible ballpark day-of-event traffic jam and their parking situation, we didn't get to our seats until the fourth inning. Once we grabbed some food and found our section, we headed to our seats. I had no problem sitting down, while Prime ran into a snag.
Someone was sitting in his chair. So Prime asked the guy to move. Here's where it gets ridiculous: the guy refused. He didn't want to get up and wanted to stay sitting in Prime's seat. Prime pointed out that he had the ticket to that seat and the guy still wouldn't move. But Prime was persistent and finally got to sit down.
I'm still in shock over this little incident: we've had people at Miller Park sit in other seats, but when the occupant returns/arrives, they will get up and go to their assigned seat. How difficult is this for someone to grasp? News flash: it isn't. So, yes, by now I have figured that Texas may have an abnormally high population of impolite jerks.
As for the game, it certainly was different--this was an American League game so we had a Designated Hitter for both teams. Also, they'll sing "Deep In the Heart of Texas" between the fifth and sixth inning and have an Ozarka Water "Dot race". Um, Arlington? Milwaukee does it waaaaaaaay better. The Sausages in the Miller Park Sausage Race can actually run and not shuffle. Just sayin'.
As for the game, the stupid Yankees won. And Mariano Rivera got another save, which I had no desire to see. (Trevor Hoffman is the all-time saves leader in my book!)
Once the game was over, Prime and I headed back to Scamper, hit a gas station to refuel and came back to the hotel where we crashed. All in all, a pretty decent day.
April 24, 2012 Tuesday
I slept until 11:30, I was that exhausted. But once I was up, I ate breakfast while Prime worked around online a bit. Prime got up with our friends Shawn (he likes fried chicken) and Stogie, and we headed out to shoot the slag with them for a while. We got to the Hyatt, met Ravyn, hung out for a while and then headed up to the room set aside for the Customization Class to help set it all up. After we got everything ready, we hung out with Shawn for a little longer--I got a bit tipsy on some Manischewitz Shawn brought--then we all broke it up for the night and went to our respective hotel rooms.
April 25, 2012 Wednesday
Here's where Prime and I split ways, so to speak: he's help with the Customization Class this year; I had a tour to take. While Prime helped people put together their toy--Shattered Glass Longarm, or, with a little bit of custom part addition, Classics Shockwave--I was wandering through Rangers Ballpark and seeing the immense Cowboys Stadium. I tried not to go too overboard on the souvenirs, but I ended up spending $33 on pins! Four came from the Ballpark at Arlington: a Texas Rangers logo pin, a 40th anniversary pin, a Nolan Ryan pin and a series pin for the Yankees/Rangers games. At Cowboys Stadium, I simply grabbed a Cowboys logo pin, which was clearance priced for $2. Talk about fun.
When I got back to the Hyatt, Prime was still helping out with the class. It seems that things were going a bit slower than everyone had thought, so I hung around with Prime and tried to be helpful. Once 7PM rolled around, Prime suggested I head down to pick up our pre-registration items, so I headed downstairs, hung out and got in line.
The wait was longer than the pick up. Usually, the pre-reg pick up starts pretty late but this time it was ahead of schedule and I was done pretty quickly. Prime came downstairs alongside the other class staffers to chat with me and we saw Karl Hartman. We chatted, I hugged Karl and had fun, as always.
Once I had our stuff, we all headed back to the classroom, helped clean up and set up for tomorrow, then went out for a quick bite of dinner. While we were out, DA called and said he was on his way. He met up with us, I hugged him, and we all sat around talking and goofing off until midnight. But all good things come to an end, so we headed back to our rooms and turned in for the night.
April 26, 2012 Thursday (Today)
Since there was nothing on my schedule, I had a chance to actually sleep in again, which I did. I got up around 11:30, got dressed and called Prime about an hour or so later. Seems he was on a food run for the class staff, so I asked if he could pick me up and drag my tail to the hotel. Today was the first day of sales at the Club Store and I didn't want anything to sell out before Prime had finished with today's project. You don't want to recommend getting between Stogie and his food (he's not himself when he's hungry, and Snickers doesn't satisfy like everyone thinks it does), but I wore him down on it, so I was taken to the Hyatt. We met up with DA and I spent a long time chatting with him, blowing time until I would have to stand in line again.
At around 4PM, I ran upstairs to the classroom, got a list from Prime and the necessary cash, then went downstairs to get in line for the store. I made pretty good time and was the fourth person in the cash line so I thought that things would go off without a hitch tonight.
Not so.
About thirty minutes before the doors opened, I got to take a glance at the sales sheet. It seems that the sales of the Souvenir sets were limited to one per person. That was a problem, as we needed a second one of the sets for a friend in the UK. So I called Prime, told him about it and he said he'd be down to help. At around 5:55 he showed up, we chatted, he filled out my sheet and I tried to hunt down another order form to no avail. It didn't really matter, though. We didn't get into the store until around 6:25. Once inside, Prime got an order form and filled it out while we waited to be helped.
Getting the toys didn't take too long and we were done in about ten minutes. Once that was finished, we headed back to the classroom, I helped clean and pick up any useful items and we broke it up for the night.
Tomorrow the convention actually starts and I can barely wait. I'll be getting autographs, buying toys, acting like a fool, hanging with my friends, you name it. It'll be great, as always. So until tomorrow's post, good morning, good afternoon, good evening and good night!
--Weasel, having too much fun as it is
I'm now currently in the great state of Texas, on vacation and ready to party at BotCon 2012. It's been quite an interesting few days, as you will see.
April 22, 2012 Sunday
Prime and I left a bit later than we would have liked; we had some last-minute packing (that I still unintentionally screwed up, in the end) and got a bit held up. But once we had that squared away, we loaded up Scamper and were on our way.
The drive itself was uneventful--we spent most of it listening to the Brewers game on 620 WTMJ-AM, the Brewers Radio Network flagship. They have a great signal, too. It wasn't until we were driving through the southern region of Illinois that the signal got bad enough to make us listen to something else, and by that time, we had already listened to the Crew lose to the Rockies (DAMMIT!) and heard Brewers Extra Innings in its entirety. Not fun, the losing part, but what are you going to do?
The rest of the trip again, was completely uneventful--although when we hit Saint Louis, the exit we took ran right next to Busch Stadium, home of the Cardinals, whom I do not like. At all. But the rest of the drive through Missouri was pretty decent and we got to our halfway point--Eureka--without incident. Prime and I checked into our hotel, hit a Walmart for the heck of it then came back to our room, ate and after buying tickets to the Texas Rangers game in Arlington, crashed. All in all, not a bad first day for a two-day road trip.
April 23, 2012 Monday
Prime had decided the night before that if we really wanted to hit the Rangers game, we'd have to leave a bit early. So we were packed, out the door and checked out of the hotel by 7:25. We got sidetracked and had to stop at another Walmart to grab a few things (mainly the dry goods foods, which somehow I had ALSO forgotten; Prime, however, had veered off to toys and returned with a couple of new electronic Bumblebee greeting cards, the Transformers Bot Shots series 2 Super-Bot, Bumblebee, and a Transformers Prime Arcee, then found a Bumblebee T-shirt I didn't already have, on clearance--he certainly can work a store), then get back on the road proper.
This time the drive was a bit more difficult--when we hit Oklahoma we were stuck on a US highway and not an interstate. So we'd cruise along at decent speed, have to drop down to 35 or 40 miles per hour when coming upon a town, and then ramp back up once past the town line. Just kind of annoying. Once we arrived in Texas, we could actually use an interstate highway, but that may not have been such a great thing.
People in Texas drive like idiots. I mean that. If they don't try and sideswipe you while merging into traffic, they will try and tailgate you. Or worse. I have never seen such Primus-awful behavior before. So if you ever come down to Texas, do not drive if you can help it. I do not kid.
After going through the traffic from hell, Prime and I arrived at our hotel and tried to check-in. Notice how I said "tried".
We were left standing at the front desk for about twenty minutes. There was no one there. There was absolutely no one in the lobby. Prime was getting irritated, I was getting irritated, it was not a pretty situation in the least. But finally someone came up and checked us in. Prime then asked where the hotel's business center was located, as we had to print off the tickets to the Rangers game.
This hotel doesn't have one. The blasted website wasn't truthful, it would seem.
Thankfully, the man running the desk had a printer and printed them off for us, so we grabbed them and dove back into the wonderful world of Texas road apathy.
We finally got to the ballpark at Arlington, but between the accepted horrible ballpark day-of-event traffic jam and their parking situation, we didn't get to our seats until the fourth inning. Once we grabbed some food and found our section, we headed to our seats. I had no problem sitting down, while Prime ran into a snag.
Someone was sitting in his chair. So Prime asked the guy to move. Here's where it gets ridiculous: the guy refused. He didn't want to get up and wanted to stay sitting in Prime's seat. Prime pointed out that he had the ticket to that seat and the guy still wouldn't move. But Prime was persistent and finally got to sit down.
I'm still in shock over this little incident: we've had people at Miller Park sit in other seats, but when the occupant returns/arrives, they will get up and go to their assigned seat. How difficult is this for someone to grasp? News flash: it isn't. So, yes, by now I have figured that Texas may have an abnormally high population of impolite jerks.
As for the game, it certainly was different--this was an American League game so we had a Designated Hitter for both teams. Also, they'll sing "Deep In the Heart of Texas" between the fifth and sixth inning and have an Ozarka Water "Dot race". Um, Arlington? Milwaukee does it waaaaaaaay better. The Sausages in the Miller Park Sausage Race can actually run and not shuffle. Just sayin'.
As for the game, the stupid Yankees won. And Mariano Rivera got another save, which I had no desire to see. (Trevor Hoffman is the all-time saves leader in my book!)
Once the game was over, Prime and I headed back to Scamper, hit a gas station to refuel and came back to the hotel where we crashed. All in all, a pretty decent day.
April 24, 2012 Tuesday
I slept until 11:30, I was that exhausted. But once I was up, I ate breakfast while Prime worked around online a bit. Prime got up with our friends Shawn (he likes fried chicken) and Stogie, and we headed out to shoot the slag with them for a while. We got to the Hyatt, met Ravyn, hung out for a while and then headed up to the room set aside for the Customization Class to help set it all up. After we got everything ready, we hung out with Shawn for a little longer--I got a bit tipsy on some Manischewitz Shawn brought--then we all broke it up for the night and went to our respective hotel rooms.
April 25, 2012 Wednesday
Here's where Prime and I split ways, so to speak: he's help with the Customization Class this year; I had a tour to take. While Prime helped people put together their toy--Shattered Glass Longarm, or, with a little bit of custom part addition, Classics Shockwave--I was wandering through Rangers Ballpark and seeing the immense Cowboys Stadium. I tried not to go too overboard on the souvenirs, but I ended up spending $33 on pins! Four came from the Ballpark at Arlington: a Texas Rangers logo pin, a 40th anniversary pin, a Nolan Ryan pin and a series pin for the Yankees/Rangers games. At Cowboys Stadium, I simply grabbed a Cowboys logo pin, which was clearance priced for $2. Talk about fun.
When I got back to the Hyatt, Prime was still helping out with the class. It seems that things were going a bit slower than everyone had thought, so I hung around with Prime and tried to be helpful. Once 7PM rolled around, Prime suggested I head down to pick up our pre-registration items, so I headed downstairs, hung out and got in line.
The wait was longer than the pick up. Usually, the pre-reg pick up starts pretty late but this time it was ahead of schedule and I was done pretty quickly. Prime came downstairs alongside the other class staffers to chat with me and we saw Karl Hartman. We chatted, I hugged Karl and had fun, as always.
Once I had our stuff, we all headed back to the classroom, helped clean up and set up for tomorrow, then went out for a quick bite of dinner. While we were out, DA called and said he was on his way. He met up with us, I hugged him, and we all sat around talking and goofing off until midnight. But all good things come to an end, so we headed back to our rooms and turned in for the night.
April 26, 2012 Thursday (Today)
Since there was nothing on my schedule, I had a chance to actually sleep in again, which I did. I got up around 11:30, got dressed and called Prime about an hour or so later. Seems he was on a food run for the class staff, so I asked if he could pick me up and drag my tail to the hotel. Today was the first day of sales at the Club Store and I didn't want anything to sell out before Prime had finished with today's project. You don't want to recommend getting between Stogie and his food (he's not himself when he's hungry, and Snickers doesn't satisfy like everyone thinks it does), but I wore him down on it, so I was taken to the Hyatt. We met up with DA and I spent a long time chatting with him, blowing time until I would have to stand in line again.
At around 4PM, I ran upstairs to the classroom, got a list from Prime and the necessary cash, then went downstairs to get in line for the store. I made pretty good time and was the fourth person in the cash line so I thought that things would go off without a hitch tonight.
Not so.
About thirty minutes before the doors opened, I got to take a glance at the sales sheet. It seems that the sales of the Souvenir sets were limited to one per person. That was a problem, as we needed a second one of the sets for a friend in the UK. So I called Prime, told him about it and he said he'd be down to help. At around 5:55 he showed up, we chatted, he filled out my sheet and I tried to hunt down another order form to no avail. It didn't really matter, though. We didn't get into the store until around 6:25. Once inside, Prime got an order form and filled it out while we waited to be helped.
Getting the toys didn't take too long and we were done in about ten minutes. Once that was finished, we headed back to the classroom, I helped clean and pick up any useful items and we broke it up for the night.
Tomorrow the convention actually starts and I can barely wait. I'll be getting autographs, buying toys, acting like a fool, hanging with my friends, you name it. It'll be great, as always. So until tomorrow's post, good morning, good afternoon, good evening and good night!
--Weasel, having too much fun as it is
Saturday, April 07, 2012
BLOG POST OF ULTIMATE BOASTING!
(Don't worry: the title is a joke. Even though what happened on Thursday was pretty slagging epic.)
Thursday morning I head into work about a half an hour early--Prime had to go in early, which meant I had extra time to spend in the breakroom. So what do I do in my spare time? The same thing I do every time I stuck in the breakroom--I start hatching Golett eggs. Since I'm hovering at 2,780 hatched, I decide to do a run of twenty and call it for a day. That'll even everything out to 2,800 until I pick up the game again. Besides, I think, if I do a shorter run I'll have time to go through and do some EV training via the Elite Four. So I gather my eggs and begin the process of hatching.
It takes a bit, but it's nearly 10:15 and I've hatched 19 out of twenty. So when I hear the shell cracking on number twenty, I grab my pen and scribble down a few numbers in my memo book. I'm not really paying attention to the game; the sounds of the Golett's cry and the fanfare that plays afterwards barely catches my attention. I'm too busy writing down my brand new hatch total: 2,800. Once I'm done, I turn to my DS and take a look at the brand new hatching. What I see causes my jaw to drop in shock.
Eyes: yellowish-green, not light yellow. Body: grey and black, not two differing shades of blue. This Golett is oddly colored.
A shiny. I finally hatched my shiny. So much for taking the Elite Four challenge that morning.
I managed to tap out the chosen name for my brand new shiny--Guardian--then promptly hit save. Once my game is saved, I take a look at Guardian's stats. I'm quite pleased at what I see.
Nature: Brave
Ability: Iron Fist
I couldn't have asked for a better shiny, really. The little guy is perfect. Or at the very least, he is to me. So after four months and 2,800 eggs, I've finally gotten my "baby", if you will.
I'm taking a slight break from the hunt right now. I've been hatching eggs for so long that yeah, I need the time off. But I have a Japanese Sawk and an Adamant Natured Japanese Ditto in Day Care; I'll be starting the hunt for a shiny Sawk in May. The rest of April will simply be too busy for me, with BotCon and all. But once the 'con is done, I'll start hatching more eggs. Why? A shiny hunter's job is never done--there's always another shiny Pokémon to hunt, either by resetting or breeding. Yes, I'm insane, I know. Wish me luck anyway.
--Weasel, "It's a wonderful madness, truly. Nothing I enjoy more than a shiny hunt."
Thursday morning I head into work about a half an hour early--Prime had to go in early, which meant I had extra time to spend in the breakroom. So what do I do in my spare time? The same thing I do every time I stuck in the breakroom--I start hatching Golett eggs. Since I'm hovering at 2,780 hatched, I decide to do a run of twenty and call it for a day. That'll even everything out to 2,800 until I pick up the game again. Besides, I think, if I do a shorter run I'll have time to go through and do some EV training via the Elite Four. So I gather my eggs and begin the process of hatching.
It takes a bit, but it's nearly 10:15 and I've hatched 19 out of twenty. So when I hear the shell cracking on number twenty, I grab my pen and scribble down a few numbers in my memo book. I'm not really paying attention to the game; the sounds of the Golett's cry and the fanfare that plays afterwards barely catches my attention. I'm too busy writing down my brand new hatch total: 2,800. Once I'm done, I turn to my DS and take a look at the brand new hatching. What I see causes my jaw to drop in shock.
Eyes: yellowish-green, not light yellow. Body: grey and black, not two differing shades of blue. This Golett is oddly colored.
A shiny. I finally hatched my shiny. So much for taking the Elite Four challenge that morning.
I managed to tap out the chosen name for my brand new shiny--Guardian--then promptly hit save. Once my game is saved, I take a look at Guardian's stats. I'm quite pleased at what I see.
Nature: Brave
Ability: Iron Fist
I couldn't have asked for a better shiny, really. The little guy is perfect. Or at the very least, he is to me. So after four months and 2,800 eggs, I've finally gotten my "baby", if you will.
I'm taking a slight break from the hunt right now. I've been hatching eggs for so long that yeah, I need the time off. But I have a Japanese Sawk and an Adamant Natured Japanese Ditto in Day Care; I'll be starting the hunt for a shiny Sawk in May. The rest of April will simply be too busy for me, with BotCon and all. But once the 'con is done, I'll start hatching more eggs. Why? A shiny hunter's job is never done--there's always another shiny Pokémon to hunt, either by resetting or breeding. Yes, I'm insane, I know. Wish me luck anyway.
--Weasel, "It's a wonderful madness, truly. Nothing I enjoy more than a shiny hunt."
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
...this makes my brain hurt...
So apparently, there's going to be a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. Okay, looks interesting but the Turtles will be aliens.
Now, the fans have been told to "chill the fuck out", but I'm still scratching my head. Aliens? Really? I'm trying to wrap my brain around it all, but I'm failing miserably over here.
Now, the fans have been told to "chill the fuck out", but I'm still scratching my head. Aliens? Really? I'm trying to wrap my brain around it all, but I'm failing miserably over here.
Thursday, March 08, 2012
Epic YES!!
So guess who's coming back to BotCon? C'mon, take a guess!
Okay, give up? Dan! He's coming back! :insert girlish giggle here: I can't wait to get to Texas this April!
--Weasel, jumping up and down in joy.
Okay, give up? Dan! He's coming back! :insert girlish giggle here: I can't wait to get to Texas this April!
--Weasel, jumping up and down in joy.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
What Is This I Don't Even
Try wrapping your head around this one: The Secret World of Arrietty, a Studio Ghibli film about four-inch people who “borrow” what they need from normal-sized humans, encourages class envy and redistribution of wealth, according to Lou Dobbs.
The real kicker to all this? A direct quote from Dobbs: "The president's liberal friends in Hollywood targeting a younger demographic using animated movies to sell their agenda to children."
Um, excuse me, good sir? Hollywood has nothing to do with this! Let me spell this out for you--Arrietty is based on The Borrowers, which was a book published in 1952. Second of all, this was made by Studio Ghibli, which is based in Japan. Yes, Disney dubbed it and released it here in the US, but the film is Japanese in origin. So yeah, stop howling about Obama and the Hollywood liberals, please.
You know, I'm rather tempted to go and see Arrietty again, just to irritate people like this. Because I'm just that type.
--Weasel, "And people wonder why I'm so cynical. Well, here's just one example..."
The real kicker to all this? A direct quote from Dobbs: "The president's liberal friends in Hollywood targeting a younger demographic using animated movies to sell their agenda to children."
Um, excuse me, good sir? Hollywood has nothing to do with this! Let me spell this out for you--Arrietty is based on The Borrowers, which was a book published in 1952. Second of all, this was made by Studio Ghibli, which is based in Japan. Yes, Disney dubbed it and released it here in the US, but the film is Japanese in origin. So yeah, stop howling about Obama and the Hollywood liberals, please.
You know, I'm rather tempted to go and see Arrietty again, just to irritate people like this. Because I'm just that type.
--Weasel, "And people wonder why I'm so cynical. Well, here's just one example..."
Monday, February 27, 2012
Color Me Excited
Current song stuck in my head: Praise You by Fatboy Slim
I am one excited Weasel. Very excited. Excited like you wouldn't believe. Why? Because of this: Pokémon Black 2 and Pokémon White 2. And according to Serebii.net, they'll be hitting the US in autumn of this year.
*insert girlish giggle*
The forums are going nuts and the speculation is amazing. Me, I'm trying not to giggle and squeal too much. Two new games means extra box room for me! I'm a GTS addict, if you will. Put up some poor, pathetic, lonely little Golett and I'll probably trade you. Well, within reason, of course.
Now all I need to do is get my shiny Golett, catch Kyurem and prep my shinies for the trip to the next game. (I have 66 of them. They are all Automatons. Oh yeah, every one is either a Golett or a Golurk! They're cute, they're adorable and I'll take them in a heartbeat.) And then I have to get Riser ready...
For those of you who don't know, Riser is my level 100 Golurk. "He" is the first Pokémon that I ever EV trained and I'll send him to every future Pokémon game. The big guy earned his nickname because he rose through the ranks and became the team leader--he got the win for me when I needed it most. I put him through a lot and he always came through. For a bunch of pixels, he's pretty spoiled.
This will probably be the first time in a very long time that I can say I'm looking forward to fall. Who would have thought?
--Weasel, "Man, it's going to be a long summer."
I am one excited Weasel. Very excited. Excited like you wouldn't believe. Why? Because of this: Pokémon Black 2 and Pokémon White 2. And according to Serebii.net, they'll be hitting the US in autumn of this year.
*insert girlish giggle*
The forums are going nuts and the speculation is amazing. Me, I'm trying not to giggle and squeal too much. Two new games means extra box room for me! I'm a GTS addict, if you will. Put up some poor, pathetic, lonely little Golett and I'll probably trade you. Well, within reason, of course.
Now all I need to do is get my shiny Golett, catch Kyurem and prep my shinies for the trip to the next game. (I have 66 of them. They are all Automatons. Oh yeah, every one is either a Golett or a Golurk! They're cute, they're adorable and I'll take them in a heartbeat.) And then I have to get Riser ready...
For those of you who don't know, Riser is my level 100 Golurk. "He" is the first Pokémon that I ever EV trained and I'll send him to every future Pokémon game. The big guy earned his nickname because he rose through the ranks and became the team leader--he got the win for me when I needed it most. I put him through a lot and he always came through. For a bunch of pixels, he's pretty spoiled.
This will probably be the first time in a very long time that I can say I'm looking forward to fall. Who would have thought?
--Weasel, "Man, it's going to be a long summer."
Thursday, February 23, 2012
There are no words to describe the awesome
This is the coolest ring in the history of jewelry. I want one, but in Autobot. I'd also like it delivered in a yellow VW Bug or a yellow Camaro that sports black racing stripes. For that would be epic and all kinds of awesome.
--Weasel, "But how do you end the ceremony? 'Til all are one'? Eh, that might work..."
--Weasel, "But how do you end the ceremony? 'Til all are one'? Eh, that might work..."
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
It Just Keeps Getting Better...Or Not
Current song stuck in my head: Only by Nine Inch Nails (Warning: NSFW)
So a few more details came out about the current management situation at my local place of employment. It's--ah--interesting, to say the least.
It seems the manager who was fired was let go because manager Jessie was gunning for his position and now she's taking it over. She's also running roughshod over pretty much the entire store and alienating everyone within sight. They can't stand her new attitude and a lot of people have lost a boatload of respect for her. The co-worker who gave me the heads up about this insane melodrama is now working what she refers to as the "shit shift" which is 3PM to midnight. Oh, and she has no real help in her area, either. But she's expected to do all of her tasks and clean up after everyone else. Oh and the overnight grocery position that just opened up? She's not allowed to go for it. And if she does, she won't get the extra money that the position promises and she'll be stuck in the canned food aisle, zoning that area.
But it gets better. Another of my co-workers is being shoved into an unwanted grocery position: she was working the cosmetics department but her hours have been slashed and she's now a part-timer. So if she wants full time hours and pay, she's going to be working in the freezer all day, whether she likes it or not.
The drama is spilling out all over; seems one of my other co-workers got a text from someone who works in a different store. The text read, "What's up with your management?" Sweetening the deal is the fact that rumor has it that human resources will be paying our store a visit.
It doesn't rain, it pours. I just wasn't expecting this much of a deluge, though.
It's always darkest before the dawn, or so they say. Well, right now it's looking pitch black and I'm not seeing any light in sight. Primus, get me through this slag with my sanity intact, I beg of you.
So a few more details came out about the current management situation at my local place of employment. It's--ah--interesting, to say the least.
It seems the manager who was fired was let go because manager Jessie was gunning for his position and now she's taking it over. She's also running roughshod over pretty much the entire store and alienating everyone within sight. They can't stand her new attitude and a lot of people have lost a boatload of respect for her. The co-worker who gave me the heads up about this insane melodrama is now working what she refers to as the "shit shift" which is 3PM to midnight. Oh, and she has no real help in her area, either. But she's expected to do all of her tasks and clean up after everyone else. Oh and the overnight grocery position that just opened up? She's not allowed to go for it. And if she does, she won't get the extra money that the position promises and she'll be stuck in the canned food aisle, zoning that area.
But it gets better. Another of my co-workers is being shoved into an unwanted grocery position: she was working the cosmetics department but her hours have been slashed and she's now a part-timer. So if she wants full time hours and pay, she's going to be working in the freezer all day, whether she likes it or not.
The drama is spilling out all over; seems one of my other co-workers got a text from someone who works in a different store. The text read, "What's up with your management?" Sweetening the deal is the fact that rumor has it that human resources will be paying our store a visit.
It doesn't rain, it pours. I just wasn't expecting this much of a deluge, though.
It's always darkest before the dawn, or so they say. Well, right now it's looking pitch black and I'm not seeing any light in sight. Primus, get me through this slag with my sanity intact, I beg of you.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
On Borrowed Time
So while sitting in the breakroom at work this morning, I see one of my co-workers talking to one of the cashiers. They're both talking in whispers, so I can tell that whatever they're saying is pretty sensitive. Me, I just keep eating my breakfast and pretend not to be interested until the cashier leaves and the co-worker sits down next to me. A few moments later, she tells me what's going on.
One of the managers got fired on Tuesday. She honestly thinks that it may have something to do with her--this manager would change the schedule in her area to make sure she had enough coverage so that her work got done. No one else did this sort of thing for her; this newly fired manager was the only one.
The real probably is the manager who is taking over my co-worker's department. This manager--who I'll call "Jessie"--doesn't like said co-worker. Jessie's looked this woman in the face and said outright, "I hate you." My co-worker said that the way management is now, if they don't like you, they will set you up to fail and fire you. I transferred from my old hellhole to get away from that sort of crap. Apparently, that didn't work so well because it's now happening here.
Great. Just slagging great.
And people wonder why I'm ready for the robot apocalypse. The robots can't screw up worse than the humans already have.
--Weasel, "If you'll excuse me, I'll be on Cybertron...or in Unova...where things actually make sense!"
One of the managers got fired on Tuesday. She honestly thinks that it may have something to do with her--this manager would change the schedule in her area to make sure she had enough coverage so that her work got done. No one else did this sort of thing for her; this newly fired manager was the only one.
The real probably is the manager who is taking over my co-worker's department. This manager--who I'll call "Jessie"--doesn't like said co-worker. Jessie's looked this woman in the face and said outright, "I hate you." My co-worker said that the way management is now, if they don't like you, they will set you up to fail and fire you. I transferred from my old hellhole to get away from that sort of crap. Apparently, that didn't work so well because it's now happening here.
Great. Just slagging great.
And people wonder why I'm ready for the robot apocalypse. The robots can't screw up worse than the humans already have.
--Weasel, "If you'll excuse me, I'll be on Cybertron...or in Unova...where things actually make sense!"
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Round Four
Mark your calendars for June 29, 2014. Why? That's when we'll get Transformers 4. Yes, Michael Bay is back and yes, it looks like a reboot of sorts.
As long as they keep Bumblebee, I'm good. That's all I'm sayin' right now.
--Weasel, "It's about 18 months too early to put in for the day off, though. Slag..."
As long as they keep Bumblebee, I'm good. That's all I'm sayin' right now.
--Weasel, "It's about 18 months too early to put in for the day off, though. Slag..."
Tuesday, February 07, 2012
Super Bowl (After) Party
Current song stuck in my head: The Voice by Every Little Thing from Pokémon Movie 14-Victini and the White Hero Reshiram
So if you missed the game, you really didn't miss much, honestly. The Giants won. The commercials could only be ranked as a solid "meh", meaning they weren't all that great. The halftime show, however, was awesome.
It was Madonna. And she was amazing. Yes, I know; she was lip synching (as required by the NFL) but, honestly, who cares? She did a great job. On top of that, she was totally rocking the She-Ra look. So even though the game was boring as all get-out until the last quarter, the halftime show was more than worth it.
Prime summed things up pretty well--the team that beats our local team is the one that goes on to take the championship. That really doesn't seem fair, you know? (Yes, I'm still very bitter about the World Series. I will probably remain that way for a while! Stinking Cardinals....!)
In other news, it's about two weeks until the start of spring training and around two months until Opening Day at beautiful Miller Park. The long, cold, dark winter is coming to an end and I am very glad. The end kind-of-sort-of began Sunday before last, really, when Prime and I attended Brewers On Deck, their annual fanfest--SOOO MUUUCH BREWWWERS EVERYTHING gleeeeeee--held at the Frontier Airlines Center in Milwaukee. It's hard not to spend the supermajority of time in autograph lines, but we did less of that this year than last. Still got sixteen autographs, and Prime bought back a little of his childhood when near the very end of the event, doing one last walkaround, he spied some items on the floor in front of a vendor in the midst of packing up--some old 13-baseball card collage frames, two of which he immediately bought for $10. To use his own description, he was 'moronically happy'. That was a sight to behold--I don't get to see it very often.
--Weasel, "So long, football. Hello, all that is baseball and awesome."
So if you missed the game, you really didn't miss much, honestly. The Giants won. The commercials could only be ranked as a solid "meh", meaning they weren't all that great. The halftime show, however, was awesome.
It was Madonna. And she was amazing. Yes, I know; she was lip synching (as required by the NFL) but, honestly, who cares? She did a great job. On top of that, she was totally rocking the She-Ra look. So even though the game was boring as all get-out until the last quarter, the halftime show was more than worth it.
Prime summed things up pretty well--the team that beats our local team is the one that goes on to take the championship. That really doesn't seem fair, you know? (Yes, I'm still very bitter about the World Series. I will probably remain that way for a while! Stinking Cardinals....!)
In other news, it's about two weeks until the start of spring training and around two months until Opening Day at beautiful Miller Park. The long, cold, dark winter is coming to an end and I am very glad. The end kind-of-sort-of began Sunday before last, really, when Prime and I attended Brewers On Deck, their annual fanfest--SOOO MUUUCH BREWWWERS EVERYTHING gleeeeeee--held at the Frontier Airlines Center in Milwaukee. It's hard not to spend the supermajority of time in autograph lines, but we did less of that this year than last. Still got sixteen autographs, and Prime bought back a little of his childhood when near the very end of the event, doing one last walkaround, he spied some items on the floor in front of a vendor in the midst of packing up--some old 13-baseball card collage frames, two of which he immediately bought for $10. To use his own description, he was 'moronically happy'. That was a sight to behold--I don't get to see it very often.
--Weasel, "So long, football. Hello, all that is baseball and awesome."
Friday, February 03, 2012
Color Me Surprised
It seems I have Super Bowl Sunday off this year. I can stay home and watch the commercials!
--Weasel, "The football game will probably bore me to tears, though."
--Weasel, "The football game will probably bore me to tears, though."
Friday, January 27, 2012
What We Have Here is a Failure to Communicate
Current song stuck in my head: Fake Wings from .hack//Sign
Today was busy. And frustrating. But mostly frustrating. Here's why.
For the first two hours, I ran from register to register, taking over for other cashiers when they took their breaks. No big deal, at least not until this afternoon. At one o'clock, I was sent to register 5.
*Insert groan here*
Register 5 is the busiest register in the store. It's the first full-service check-out past the self-checks. Since so many people hate the self-checks, they walk straight to five. So I had a line all day long. Making matter worse? I didn't have functional equipment. My PIN pad wasn't working; it wouldn't read any credit or debit cards. So the customers would run their cards multiple times, get frustrated and I'd have to slide the card through the magnetic reader on my side of the register. A transaction that should have been completed in under a minute took at least three and a half minutes. It doesn't sound like a long time but to a waiting customer it's an eternity. It felt even longer to me.
Yeah, I was frustrated, to put it mildly. But it gets even better.
The CSMs know that our PIN pad is faulty on register 5. Our store manager does not. Why? The CSMs haven't told him.
There is a total lack of communication in my store and it is now affecting my job. Register 5 needs to be fixed immediately but our manager doesn't have a clue about it. No one's told him. I'm also willing to bet that he doesn't know about the other malfunctioning registers in the store, like number 16 which doesn't have a working stylus. I'm frustrated, the customers get angry and nothing is being done about it.
And unfortunately, unlike so many others who work in my store, I actually give a damn. I want things to get better, or at least be somewhat bearable in the building. I'm sick of it, sick of the utter lack of communication, sick of the faulty PIN pads, sick of management being so clueless about how bad things really are there. I come home from work so irritated that I have to spend an hour upstairs with the cat on my lap to calm myself down. It shouldn't be this way, but until a few other employees actually start caring, things won't change.
And that honestly depresses the hell out of me. But it doesn't surprise me in the least.
--Weasel, "I'm tired, frustrated and trying not to slam my head into a wall. Wish me luck."
Today was busy. And frustrating. But mostly frustrating. Here's why.
For the first two hours, I ran from register to register, taking over for other cashiers when they took their breaks. No big deal, at least not until this afternoon. At one o'clock, I was sent to register 5.
*Insert groan here*
Register 5 is the busiest register in the store. It's the first full-service check-out past the self-checks. Since so many people hate the self-checks, they walk straight to five. So I had a line all day long. Making matter worse? I didn't have functional equipment. My PIN pad wasn't working; it wouldn't read any credit or debit cards. So the customers would run their cards multiple times, get frustrated and I'd have to slide the card through the magnetic reader on my side of the register. A transaction that should have been completed in under a minute took at least three and a half minutes. It doesn't sound like a long time but to a waiting customer it's an eternity. It felt even longer to me.
Yeah, I was frustrated, to put it mildly. But it gets even better.
The CSMs know that our PIN pad is faulty on register 5. Our store manager does not. Why? The CSMs haven't told him.
There is a total lack of communication in my store and it is now affecting my job. Register 5 needs to be fixed immediately but our manager doesn't have a clue about it. No one's told him. I'm also willing to bet that he doesn't know about the other malfunctioning registers in the store, like number 16 which doesn't have a working stylus. I'm frustrated, the customers get angry and nothing is being done about it.
And unfortunately, unlike so many others who work in my store, I actually give a damn. I want things to get better, or at least be somewhat bearable in the building. I'm sick of it, sick of the utter lack of communication, sick of the faulty PIN pads, sick of management being so clueless about how bad things really are there. I come home from work so irritated that I have to spend an hour upstairs with the cat on my lap to calm myself down. It shouldn't be this way, but until a few other employees actually start caring, things won't change.
And that honestly depresses the hell out of me. But it doesn't surprise me in the least.
--Weasel, "I'm tired, frustrated and trying not to slam my head into a wall. Wish me luck."
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
...and I just died a little inside...
Current song stuck in my head: Key of the Twilight from .hack//Sign
Yes, you're reading that correctly, if you clicked the link in the title: Prince Fielder has signed with the Tigers.
I could cry. Seriously. Not even joking. I really wanted Prince to stay.
Ah well, those are the breaks. Good luck, Prince. It was fun seeing you hit for the Crew. Best of luck with your new team.
--Weasel, "Not going to cry, not going to cry, not going to... too late."
Yes, you're reading that correctly, if you clicked the link in the title: Prince Fielder has signed with the Tigers.
I could cry. Seriously. Not even joking. I really wanted Prince to stay.
Ah well, those are the breaks. Good luck, Prince. It was fun seeing you hit for the Crew. Best of luck with your new team.
--Weasel, "Not going to cry, not going to cry, not going to... too late."
Tuesday, January 03, 2012
Son of the Return of the Revenge of the Dark of the Random Thoughts
Been a while since I've done one of these guys; I may be a little rusty so bear with me.
Current song stuck in my head: In Between by Linkin Park
* The holidays are over. No more crowds. Now all we have to worry about is the Super Bowl. If Green Bay makes it, my store will be a ghost town.
* So the locale for BotCon 2012 was announced and we're going back to Texas. I can hear Prime booing and hissing in the background as I type this, but I seriously wanted to go back to California. It's nice there. Ah well, maybe next year.
* I'm still trying to Masuda Method myself a shiny Golett and I am failing massively. I've hatched 725 eggs and haven't seen my little Guardian. Yes, I have the name picked out for "him"; do not ask. Before you ask just what I'm doing with all the hatchlings, uh... I kinda don't keep them. I turn off the power so I'm not forced to release any of them. Yes, I'm a total wuss but I refuse to abandon something so cute! (I can't help it; the the little bugger is adorable.) Even worse? I'll have to restart the whole process again as I want a shiny Golurk and Guardian will not be evolving. Oh no, I'm completely not insane over here...
* We've had a grand total of maybe an inch and a half of snow this season. Either we're not going to get a whole lot, or we're going to get slammed with three blizzards in a freaking row in the middle of February. But no, no real white Christmas over here. Not awesome.
* On the 29th, Prime and I will be heading to Brewers on Deck. To say I'm excited would be an understatement. (Autographs and players and swag and all things baseball!)
* I have an extra day off this week. Seems the home office said we couldn't go over forty hours and our holiday pay counted as part of our scheduled time so I got myself a third day off. Not complaining about it, believe me.
* Prime, being the awesome wonderful guy he is, got me Bubble Power™ She-Ra® and Swiftwind™ for Christmas. I haven't squealed so much in a very long time. (The eight-year-old in me was very happy, trust me.)
* We have a Ninja blender in our kitchen now. So we can make smoothies and milkshakes and mixed drinks galore. Now I need to figure out just how to make a Mocha Frap like Starbucks and life will be officially awesome.
And that's about it. Tune in next time when I decide to root around the wrinkles of my brain stem and slap together more random crap like this. Until then, this has been...
--Weasel, "Over and out."
Current song stuck in my head: In Between by Linkin Park
* The holidays are over. No more crowds. Now all we have to worry about is the Super Bowl. If Green Bay makes it, my store will be a ghost town.
* So the locale for BotCon 2012 was announced and we're going back to Texas. I can hear Prime booing and hissing in the background as I type this, but I seriously wanted to go back to California. It's nice there. Ah well, maybe next year.
* I'm still trying to Masuda Method myself a shiny Golett and I am failing massively. I've hatched 725 eggs and haven't seen my little Guardian. Yes, I have the name picked out for "him"; do not ask. Before you ask just what I'm doing with all the hatchlings, uh... I kinda don't keep them. I turn off the power so I'm not forced to release any of them. Yes, I'm a total wuss but I refuse to abandon something so cute! (I can't help it; the the little bugger is adorable.) Even worse? I'll have to restart the whole process again as I want a shiny Golurk and Guardian will not be evolving. Oh no, I'm completely not insane over here...
* We've had a grand total of maybe an inch and a half of snow this season. Either we're not going to get a whole lot, or we're going to get slammed with three blizzards in a freaking row in the middle of February. But no, no real white Christmas over here. Not awesome.
* On the 29th, Prime and I will be heading to Brewers on Deck. To say I'm excited would be an understatement. (Autographs and players and swag and all things baseball!)
* I have an extra day off this week. Seems the home office said we couldn't go over forty hours and our holiday pay counted as part of our scheduled time so I got myself a third day off. Not complaining about it, believe me.
* Prime, being the awesome wonderful guy he is, got me Bubble Power™ She-Ra® and Swiftwind™ for Christmas. I haven't squealed so much in a very long time. (The eight-year-old in me was very happy, trust me.)
* We have a Ninja blender in our kitchen now. So we can make smoothies and milkshakes and mixed drinks galore. Now I need to figure out just how to make a Mocha Frap like Starbucks and life will be officially awesome.
And that's about it. Tune in next time when I decide to root around the wrinkles of my brain stem and slap together more random crap like this. Until then, this has been...
--Weasel, "Over and out."
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Prime's Going to Kill Me...
...but I don't care.
Um, I need this like I need oxygen. Seriously, the awesome overwhelms. That Golurk, oh that Golurk... it's gorgeous! I must have it. :swoon:
Like I said, Prime's going to kill me. Why? Because I'll beg and plead until I get my hands on that bit of epicness. Oh well, sucks to be him, I guess.
--Weasel, "I told you Golurk was epic."
Um, I need this like I need oxygen. Seriously, the awesome overwhelms. That Golurk, oh that Golurk... it's gorgeous! I must have it. :swoon:
Like I said, Prime's going to kill me. Why? Because I'll beg and plead until I get my hands on that bit of epicness. Oh well, sucks to be him, I guess.
--Weasel, "I told you Golurk was epic."
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