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| Wednesday, August 12th, 2009 | | 9:47 pm |
Writer's Block: Proven by Science
It depends on how you define "everything". Science is a methodology for explaining our universe. Thus, if it's in our universe, science can address it. It doesn't mean the answer will always be right on the first go, or that we'll be able to come up with one immediately, but it does mean that there is a scientific explanation out there. The trouble comes when one starts positing things "outside" our universe. Whatever that means. In that case, science can't really have an answer, but then again, it's a rather silly assumption to make that there are such things. So as it stands, with our knowledge only being such that we know of things in our universe, the best answer is, yes, everything has a scientific explanation even if we haven't found it yet. | | Tuesday, July 28th, 2009 | | 8:29 am |
That Con survey
[ Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('<lj-cut=cut>') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.] <lj-cut=Cut for length>1. How many times have you been to a convention?
Uhhh.... 7 or 8 cons now?
2. Do you sleep at conventions?
Yes.
3. Do you eat?
Of course. Not well, mind you, but some.
4. Are you shameless at conventions?
Not really.
5. On average, how much money do you spend?
A hundred dollars or so.
6. Do you go to conventions to pick up people?
Nope.
7. Do you go to conventions to bang people?
Nope.
8. How much cellulite do you see when you go to conventions?
It seems to be pretty sparse at anime cons. At comic con, it was pretty bad.
9. Do you cosplay?
Yesses.
10. Does your cosplay show a lot of skin?
Had a bare chest on Ichigo, but Sesshy is wrapped in 3 layers.
11. Is your cosplay the epitome of badassery?
Sesshy is badass. I cosplay Sesshy. By the transitive property, yes.
12. Do you wait in line for things...i:e; hentai fest, yaoi fest, autographs, ceremonies?
Yes. There's always lines to watch or enter the cosplay competition.
13. How many friends have you met from conventions?
Eh. A few.
14. Have you ever been drunk at a convention?
I don't think so. At the dead dog party, yes.
15. Name your conventions:
Uh, that crappy one in Springfield
Naka Kon '06
San Diego Comic Con '06
Naka Kon '07
Cape Girardeau Comic Con '07
Naka Kon '08
Archon '08
Nebraskon '08
Ohayocon '09
Naka Kon '09
16. Do you go to conventions alone or with a bunch of people?
Typically by myself. More recently with a few people.
17. Get your own room or mooch off of someone?
Usually share.
18. Ever partied hard with a voice actor?
No. I don't really care about voice actors.
19. Taken a picture with Silent Bob?
Of, yes. With no.
20. Jay too?
Never seen him at a con.
21. Gotten home to find out you've lost weight from walking around so DAMN much?
No.
22. Hugged random people?
No.
23. Kissed random people?
No.
24. Stalked someone who was cosplaying your favorite bishi character?
No.
25. Gotten a g/f or b/f out of a convention?
No.
26. Hooked up with someone?
No.
27. Tell the truth now... seriously
No.
28. Had a temporary convention love that ended by Monday morning?
No.
29. Raved until you fell over?
No.
30. Flirted with a dealer to get a discount?
No.
31. Taken pictures of people?
Yes!
32. Had your picture taken?
Hell. Cosplaying Sesshy I can only make it a few feet before someone wants my picture again.
33. Gone to a photoshoot?
Never seem to be able to make it.
34. Planned a photoshoot?
Not really.
35. Been stalked?
Maybe.
36. Been annoyed by someone?
Oh god yes.
37. Done the annoying?
Probably not.
38. Had fun at a convention?
Yes.
39. Had such a miserable time you wanted to leave but didn't?
Yes.
40. Gotten in a fight?
No.
41. Tried to stage a fight?
Not at a con.
42. Success?
Again, not at a con.
43. Freaked out when you saw one of your most favorite characters?
No.
44. Someone freaked out when they saw your cosplay?
Yes. I still need to fix that armor.....
45. Hung out with random people that you'd just met?
Yes.
46. Reunited with a friend?
Yeah. I've seen people I haven't seen in as much as 8 years at a con.
47. Broken off with a friend?
No.
48. Cried at a convention?
Nope.
49. Saved trash from stuff you bought?
Ramune bottles.
50. Eaten ramen and drunk ramune like they were air?
Not really.
51. Slept in the same bed as someone you've only known a few hours?
No.
52. Made any money?
Net loss, but I've made a few bucks here and there.
53. Made someone else money?
Does making the con money as staff count?
54. Sick of this survey?
Beh.
55. Okay...last question. Favorite convention you've ever been to?
Naka '09 for the Cosplay intermission and hosting my panel.
SD Comic Con '06 for sheer awe.</lj-cut> | | Thursday, July 23rd, 2009 | | 9:22 pm |
| | Friday, July 3rd, 2009 | | 5:13 pm |
Man I'm pissed right now.
For Naka Kon this past year, I spent nearly 100 hours preparing my "Science of Anime" panel. From brainstorming ideas, to research, to the math involved, to the custom animations, to finding appropriate clips to illustrate the idea. The panel went over really well. So well, I've even had people that didn't go to the con telling me they heard about it. Fast forward to this morning, I was poking around the website of a small St Louis convention I was thinking of going to, to see if I could volunteer or take my panel. And what do I find in their forums? A thread of someone trying to create a panel with the exact same title as mine. I look at some of the other posts by the same user and find out they were at Naka Kon. Given that I've been going to cons for 6 years and have never heard of a comparable panel, I wonder where this person got the idea.... In some regards, I'm somewhat flattered they want to take my idea. But at the same time I'm pretty pissed. They attempt to recreate my panel without me when Naka's a con in the same region without even contacting me to see if I'd be able to do it? General con etiquette doesn't prohibit us from having the same guest as another convention, but we don't do it so that we don't put ourselves in direct competition. The same should apply for panels. Aside from panels that are always in high demand (ex. Cosplay 101) you shouldn't put the same panels at cons in the same regions. But here I find another con's staff doing just that!? Another reason I don't particularly want people trying to do panels too similar to mine is that it's a quality control issue. When people come to my panel, I want them to know it's a good one. I don't want people skipping it because they saw a shitty one somewhere else by someone that doesn't really know anything about science besides what they read on wikipedia. I don't want people thinking they're the dime a dozen panel out there and mine's just another one of those lame ones. I posted something to the effect of saying "I don't much appreciate your knock off", only to get a response that pissed me off even more: I would like to stress the importance of polite posting conduct. This is the kind of crap I get all the time. People can't handle direct criticism. Even if it's perfectly nice, without personal attacks, without being overly aggressive, they change the subject and complain about how the criticism is delivered. I'm being "mean". I'm not being "polite". It's the coward's excuse not to address the issue and it plagues discourse today. I see it all the time in dealing with Creationists. Even people that might otherwise be sympathetic, get all upset because I call a spade a spade. I was also told that I should take my objections to a private forum. I refuse to do this either. They are staff of a public con, posting on public forums. My objection will be public as well. Ultimately, I can't do anything to stop people from ripping off my ideas and doing my panels elsewhere, but it still pisses me off. | | Tuesday, May 26th, 2009 | | 1:54 pm |
Hello St Louis
So, uh. I'm back in St. Louis. I wasn't planning on being back for another three weeks or so, but last night was... interesting. Sarah came in town to visit me Friday and has been hanging around. Since I was going to be moving in with her when I came back to StL, She was going to take some of my boxes of stuff I didn't need (costuming, SCA, etc...) back with her and make my moving back in a few weeks easier. Sunday, we packed up most of the stuff I was going to send with her in her car, but left the bike in the living room because (1) it was supposed to rain and (2) there's no lock on her bike rack. My room mate came home and asked why the bike was in the living room. I told her and she proceeded to bitch about how Sarah was using utilities she paid for and how I need to pay her. So I offered to pay her the few bucks worth of utilities Sarah would have used during her 3 day stay. Instead of taking it, she started bitching that I owe her "like $40". I ask her why and she says that during the winter when she moved in with her ex, she wasn't using any utilities so she shouldn't have to pay. I tell her I don't give a shit and that's not my problem. We agreed to pay half and it wasn't contingent upon whether or not she disappeared for months at a time. And since the psycho bitch has no fuse, she starts telling me I should move out now, and proceeds to attempt throw my remaining objects out the door. In the process of doing so, she put two holes in the wall at which point I had Sarah call the police. After of the police trying to find a way to resolve the issue, it's clear that she still feels wronged, even though there's no explicable reason she could (except perhaps being butthurt that I didn't tell her that I was leaving in 3 weeks anyway, but so long as I'm paying my rent and the bills, it's not her business anyway). I'm not looking to deal with any more of her crap, so I head to work, check with my boss to see if she can find someone to cover the rest of my shifts, packed up my car, and drove to St Louis. This morning, she leaves two voicemails (1) bitching that "I stole the internet" when I just took my router and (2) that I took kitchen stuff and that she "didn't even know what I took" and that "I stole her stuff". Two mutually exclusive statements in two sentences. Then to top it off, she tells me "I hope you die." Seriously? As if temper tantrums aren't immature enough, she pulls that crap? So I'm not dealing with her anymore. In two weekends, Sarah has another 2 days off, we're going to head back, rent a U-Haul trailer, grab the rest of my stuff and I'm done. I'm sorely tempted to cancel the gas and internet on her just to be spiteful, but we'll see. | | Wednesday, March 18th, 2009 | | 10:12 pm |
Naka Kon 09
Naka Kon 2009 was this past weekend. I'm still recovering. Overall the weekend was damn good. Thursday was frustrating. I get there with a car full of stuff, want to unload it in the game room and make my second trip, but am told that I won't be able to put anything in that room until Friday because the group that booked the hotel wasn't finished with it. This meant that everything had to be hauled up to the 36th floor. Not the end of the world, but damn annoying that the bellhops insisted that they help and we weren't allowed to use the luggage carts. This meant that we had to tip them for every trip which was frankly a waste of con money since we were just moving things up so we could move them down the next day. By the time we got everything up there, it was close to 10, but Patrick and I made our second trip to get the rest of my stuff and got back around midnight. That load we left in the car and Pat and I discussed costuming until 1:30. At 8:00 am Friday, William (my director) called and told me the game room was available. So on about 5 hours of sleep, it was time to start hauling stuff around again and setting up. Fortunately, a few volunteers helped considerably (and one didn't help at all) and things went along pretty smoothly. By the time that registration started and people started coming in, all the TVs were set up, but there were still a few issues getting the TVs set to the right input channel. It was all taken care of pretty quickly, so that was good. The Duck Hunt tournament was well received but somewhat underwhelming. Not nearly as many people signed up as I was expecting (largely due to long registration lines preventing people from getting there probably) and there were no real marksmen. The highest anyone made it to was lvl 13. In testing out the Zapper, I'd made it to lvl 22, so poo on them. The We <3 Katamari tournament was similarly underwhelming. Only 5-6 people showed up, so we canceled the head to head round and the final round too. A few of the players apparently had never even played before, so it didn't go too well. But again, I think this may have had something to do with not enough people being there yet. Sarah got there shortly after that and within 10 minutes was helping check out games, switch systems, and was generally wonderful. We ran out to get dinner with Val and I let someone else handle the Mario Kart Tourney. I didn't catch how it went, but the numbers seemed to be better by then and from what I heard, people were happy. Friday night I was in bed well before midnight and slept till 8 the next morning when I had to get up to put on Sesshy for Saturday. This is a ~2 hour process, mostly consisting of the makeup and prosthetic ears. By 10:00 I was back down in the game room and I was directing a DDR freestyles tournament with 5 people who had never even heard of freestyles. The highest score I gave anyone was a 2/10. It was sad. I'll just drop this next year. The DDR technical tournament went a bit better. The biggest problem was that the TV we were using (the giant plasma TV) had about a 1/2 second lag that just destroyed people. We switched out after the first round, but using soft pads still sucked majorly. The top players looked like they could probably handle some 10ft songs, but stuck to 8-9 foots. Boo. Note to self for next year: Use con budget for real pads or at the very least some plywood to make them not move like crazy. The next tournament was the Guitar Hero tournament and that was run by Christine. She was great. Stayed around a really good amount of time and just got stuff done. I was very happy to have her as part of the staff. I had to run out shortly after it started because I was told that Erica needed me for cosplay sooner rather than later. Sarah told me to go, so I ran off. When I got there, I discovered I'd left my cell, so I ran back to the game room to get it. When I got there, Will was leaving, Sarah was gone, Mano had disappeared and Christine was the only one there and she was busy running a tournament. Fortunately, Mano came back shortly thereafter. I headed back to the cosplay area and they were beginning to open up seating. I called Sarah and something was obviously wrong. Really freaked me out and frustrated me that I couldn't do anything about it right then. Geoff and I worked out a quick script for the cosplay contest intro and shortly thereafter we got started. It was a ton of fun hosting. I just wish I had shoes with better padding. My feet were killing me afterwords. After the entries went on, there was the judging intermission which was way too long (yes, Erica. I know there's little that could be done about this). A Japanese dance group from KSU did a performance and I was told that when they finished, the judges would be back. They finished up and Pat came up to tell me that there was no word from the judges and all the directors and other people in charge had disappeared with them. Awesome. Geoff and I stall for a bit and then we're told that it's going to be at least another 30 minutes. And Lear saved the day. During the cosplay competition, a random assortment of music was playing and one of the entrants just started dancing to the song. Lear played the song again and had him come back out and do the full thing. After that, he played Carmeldansen for the audience and they started dancing. The guy that had done the spontaneous dancing ran out and started doing that. Then suddenly I turn around and all of the cosplayers are out on stage doing it. The intermission turned into an awesome and spontaneous dance party. Moe (the Security director) was helping to hold up speakers next to me and I asked her to run over to Lear and have him queue up a slow song a bit later. I told the audience that the Kon steals our souls and was taking my time away from Sarah so I was requesting a slow song to give her a minute to be together. The fan girls went squee and it was cute and something I'll never forget. Finally, the judges came back, we handed out awards. I went back to the game room to check and make sure everything was ok and then passed the hell out. The next morning, we tried to host the last 2 tournaments and they flopped, largely due to one of the games not making it there and the schedule having to be rearranged with little in the way of letting people know. So it was pretty much just a day of open gaming. At 11, I ran my panel. What can I say besides it was freaking EPIC. I was originally supposed to have the largest room since the thread I'd created to see if there was any interest in it was one of the largest ones for panels. But I got downgraded to the smallest room for whatever reason. As a result, there were barely any seats and a LOT of people standing. I had numerous people tell me it was the best panel they've ever been to. There's some improvements I want to make (like holding off on some of the final figures until I finished deriving them to keep the surprise and/or not ruin the punch-line). I'll also probably drop the entire segment on "how far would Naruto fall and how big of a crater would he make?" since it was really underwhelming. But all in all, an awesome panel and it went over really well. Matt recorded it for me on Sarah's camera (and she's editing it as I type this). I'll be putting it up on Youtube once she's done. I was also going to send it to Mythbusters and see if they'd give me a job, but Sarah says the quality isn't that great so probably not worth it. At 5:30 it finally died out and we were taking things down. There was some major confusion on who the TVs belonged to (there were three that didn't have names). Apparently some people also grabbed the wrong ones and I'm still not sure who got what. :-\ Overall, things that are lost are 1 wii-mote, maybe a gamecube controller, and maybe a TV (but it's probably just with the wrong person). Given the horror stories I've heard about losing things in the game room, I think that's pretty damn good. Next year, we'll have a bigger room, I'll have some better idea of what's going on, and hopefully things will run much smoother. And hopefully I can delegate more. After all, they're making me a director. :) | | Tuesday, February 17th, 2009 | | 11:57 am |
The past few weeks
So I made it to Ohayocon. I ended up not taking any pictures due to a lack of memory card for my camera. Sarah took a few, but none at the con because she was so busy carrying around the emergency fix Sesshy kit and the laptop (although I don't know why since we didn't need it past the judging). Val didn't take any that I know of either. I didn't think this would be a problem since I was getting stopped every 10 ft and asked for pictures. There should be lots on the intarwebs, right? Eh. I found 3. Only one of them is decent resolution:  Overall the costume went over amazingly. I was squee'd at constantly and glomped enough to break the costume. Only 3 of the 8 spikes on the costume made it through intact. Who'd have known that Gorilla Glue can't handle a glomp? Didn't win a prize. There were still some flaws with the costume, most notably the blue bits on the bow not staying down because the iron on transfer just wasn't working and I didn't have time to hand stitch it. Overall the con was fun, and as soon as I got back it was time to think about Florida. Six days there was a nice break, but I was quite happy to be done with family by the time I left. Pictures were taken there (since I got a new memory card) but I have no way to get them off the SD card currently. Blah. Next up, finish preparing the game room for Naka, and put together my Science of Anime panel (which I think I should have named Anime Mythbusters). | | Monday, January 19th, 2009 | | 12:13 pm |
t: -10days for Sesshy
10 days till con and there's still a lot of work to do: - 4 yards of fake fur: DONE!  Needs more stuffing I think, but looking damn good. - Wig: DONE: Well, I have it, but I need to print out some pictures and give it to the stylist ladies I made friends with at work so they can make it pretty. - Claws: ORDERED! - Fangs: ORDERED! - Makeup: Uh... Need someone that knows more about it than I do to go on a shopping trip... - Shoes: Workin on it.... - Sword: On the list of things to do. I still have a bit more work to do on the armor. The black bits are pretty much finished except that I need to put some eyelets in it so I can have it attach properly. I made my first attempt at the shoulder bit and way underestimated the size (by like, 50%). Oops. Time to redo that one. | | Monday, January 12th, 2009 | | 11:50 am |
It's time for another good idea, bad idea
Good idea: Using an old pair of pants that fits you to use as a pattern for a costume. Bad idea: Forgetting to leave enough extra fabric for hems. Oh well. These pants are huge enough anyway. | | Wednesday, January 7th, 2009 | | 3:43 pm |
| | 1:39 am |
Sesshy update
Getting to where Sesshy is starting to look like something! The kimono is completely finished. The body armor is 80% finished. Just need to do the back and do the lacing to make it connect up. I have the material for the shoulder armor as well as the pants, so that's on my to do list. Still to buy: - 4 yards of fake fur >.< - Wig - Claws - Fangs - Makeup - Shoes - Sword But for now... Piccies!   | | Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008 | | 10:07 am |
More Sesshy
I'm getting pretty close to being done with the kimono now. After 24 hours of work, I probably only have another 5-6 to go:  The red sleeve ends are attached. It's a super pain the way I did it. I wanted the sleeves to have some weight at the bottoms so they'd drape and hang right, so I first made the sleeves completely white and then attached the red part over the white. The white's still underneath as you can see. However, they're only actually attached around the edges. That means that for the most part, the upper red layer, can shift with respect to the lower white layer. I managed to get it on straight, but sewing the hexagons on with both layers aligned perfectly was hard. And I managed to screw it up once. That was a fun hour of taking out stitches since I'm using the smallest stitch my machine can do to hide the stitches. >.< So all that's left on the kimono is to make and put the hexagons on the other sleeve, close up the sleeve ends 3/4 the way, and then do a few more hems. I'll be glad to be done with that. Meanwhile, I started on the armor last night as well. So far, I've got the cardboard base for all of it finished and its looking pretty nice. All that remains now is to cover it with the vinyl. However, since the armor has a 3D shape, it's tricky to get the vinyl on right without it folding. Vinyl stretches pretty easily and well, so it's a matter of getting it stretched to conform to the under layer, but it's still being difficult for the chest piece. I did get one of the hip pieces finished and it's looking nice too:  More to go on that though. | | Monday, November 24th, 2008 | | 6:52 pm |
Sesshy
I've put about 15 hours into my Sesshomaru costume so far and it's starting to look pretty decent. I've already noticed a few things that aren't quite right however. The first is that I made the kimono a bit too much like the bleach one. The panels in it were larger, and as such, the border forms a collar that sticks up more than it should. However, due to my abnormally long neck, I'm not sure I care too much. Perhaps this can help hide that oddity about myself. The second is that, due to inconsistencies in the drawing of Sesshy, I do or do not have the number of petals on the flowers in the hexagons wrong. The clearest reference picture I had showed each one having five, which is what I went with, but now that I look more closely at the ones that aren't as clear, I can tell that almost all of them have six petals. Again, I'm not sure I'm going to change this because there's something that's mathematically beautiful about having the 5 pronged figure (a star) inside the hexagon. So far, I've finished the main body of the kimono, but now I need to attach the red ends to the sleeves. On top of that will be 6 more of the hexagon patterns. These are probably the worst part of this costume. The two I've made so far have each taken over an hour to make. So that's at least 12 more hours of work just for that. >.< Where I stand:  Things still to do: - Hakama - Shoes - Armor - Wig - Facepaint - Fangs - Claws - Sword | | Thursday, November 13th, 2008 | | 9:21 pm |
WTF Blizzard....
I got WotLK today. I installed it (after freeing up some disc space). I upgrade my account and try to log in. Oh, I need a patch. I spend 20 minutes downloading the patch. It begins to install. It displays the patch notes. It's patch 3.0.3. I downloaded and installed this patch almost 2 weeks ago. Why did I need to do all this again? Lame Blizzard. Srsly. Lame. | | Wednesday, October 8th, 2008 | | 4:24 pm |
Seriously?
As some of you know, I'm working on getting a job at a place called Western Air Maps and I have to go through a government security clearance. It asks a trillion and a half questions like, "list every address you've lived at in the past 7 years and three people that knew you well at each one including dorms." Pain in the ass shit like that. It took me a long ass time to pull all that together. Then, I find out that I need fingerprints done too. Then I find out that I need to sign these other three forms.... The list of annoying shit like that just goes on and on. And yesterday I turned in what I thought should be the last of it. But today I get an Email saying that I need to go back and make some changes because I didn't list WAM as my current employer (because they're not) and I need to do that. Additionally, I need to list my Selective Service info (as if I actually knew it). Then, I need to print and sign yet another three forms.... Does this shit ever end? Seriously? | | Tuesday, October 7th, 2008 | | 12:28 am |
A couple notes:
1) Archon was fun. Needed more costumes in the halls, but not bad. I'll post pictures once Erica gives them to me and I can sort them. 2) Omaha is one of the ugliest, crappiest cities in existence. | | Wednesday, September 17th, 2008 | | 2:09 pm |
Fuck the Panda Garden
I'm sick of the Panda Garden. The work isn't too bad, but the managers have been pissing me off to no end recently. The major source of annoyance is the owner, Lucy. She's the type of person that shoots her mouth off before even bothering to look around and see what's going on. She tells everyone else how to do their jobs, but can't even begin to get things right herself. She can't remember to write down where she sat tables. She can't remember to get tables that she sat the extra pitcher of water. She yells at people to do something when they're obviously busy with something else. But the past few weeks, her nonsense has gone from simply annoying to outright insulting. Last night is a perfect example. A Chinese table came in (actual Chinese people get a different menu that's authentic Chinese cuisine instead of the Americanized stuff) and one of our hostesses sat them with the appropriate menu. Lucy walks up, says "Do they [the Chinese table] have menus? Why no one did get them menus?" I say, "Lucy, they have menus. Ricky got them the Chinese menus." And without even bothering to look, Lucy says, "No. They don't have menus. Besides, they're Japanese. You don't know what's going on." I grab some extra menus, walk over to the table and guess what! There's Chinese menus right in front of them, and they're some of our regular customers who are (you guessed it) Chinese. The irony in Lucy telling me that I didn't know what was going on is that Lucy herself frequently makes the mistake of assuming any Asian walking through the door is Chinese and immediately greets them in Chinese. Regardless, the Chinese table was mine. As a rule, I don't take Chinese tables. In general, they're extremely difficult because they will never tell you what they want at one time, but instead, will tell you one thing, wait for you to get it, come back, then will ask for something else, wait for you to get it, come back, and then go on with that for 10 minutes. And that's even if they tell you at all. Half the time, they'll say they don't need anything, wait for you to leave, then come hunt you down and ask for something they just said they didn't need. Oh, and Chinese people are shitty tippers. More than twice the work for less than half the tip. And that's only the problem with the customers on Chinese tables. Since the Chinese menu is in Chinese and I can't read it, they order by number. Then, I have to take the ticket with the numbers to someone that speaks and writes Chinese to have them write it so the kitchen will know. But quite frequently, they get it wrong, the kitchen gets it wrong, the customer ordered the wrong thing.... So the wrong dish comes out and because I don't speak Chinese, I'll never know until I bring it to the customers and they sit there and stare at me because they don't know enough English to tell me what's wrong. So I don't take Chinese tables unless I have to. I just let the people that actually speak the language handle it since they have far less trouble. Meanwhile, last night, Lucy told me that we had a party of 40 people that was supposed to come at noon today and we needed to set up the night before. Forty people do not fit well in that room (they don't fit well anywhere that we have to be fair) and there's not parking for that many either. So such big parties are a nightmare logistically. Especially when they all hop up and rape our buffet at once. Regardless, parties are wonderful because we automatically charge a 15% gratuity so you're guaranteed a good chunk of money. And since I have seniority and am one of the best waiters there, I always get to work the parties. So this morning, I get there at 10:30 and at 11:00, people start walking in. I tell them we're not open until 11:30 and the buffet's not ready, but Joe, the desk manager said that the party was at 11:00 and Lucy was just wrong (surprise!). Incase you can't do the math, 11:00 is thirty minutes before we open. Why on earth our managers would take reservations when we're not open is beyond me. But whatever. We get the kitchen started cooking the buffet and start getting the party set up. The person in charge says everyone is going to want to pay separately so to make things quick, I total up what the buffet would be with (a) Just water, (b) tea, and (c) soda. I add in the 15% gratuity and the buffet with just water comes to $8.65. Joe says that's too much and says we will only charge $8.50. Effectively, he unilaterally decides that we don't get to charge the gratuity we're owed. Not a gigantic change (13% instead of 15%) but this is the same manager that always says that if we don't get a proper tip, it's an insult. Thus, by him shafting us on what should be our tip, he's directly insulting us. Thus, I'm taking the night off. I'm supposed to be working tonight, but I'm just too fed up with the crap from everyone there. I had no intention of working 50-60 hours a week, but have been doing so anyway in order to help out since they were short staffed. Now, they've hired a bunch of new people, and I'm almost finished getting the job at Western Air Maps. I've got a girlfriend that I really don't get to do much with because our schedules conflict so much. I figure it's about time we went out without me having to plan things weeks ahead of time and still possibly not getting the night off. So as far as I'm concerned, the Panda Garden can go fuck itself. | | Saturday, September 13th, 2008 | | 10:34 am |
Frack Room Mates
Seriously, room mates are a pain in the ass. My current one seemed pretty cool, but for the past week or so has been throwing some serious temper tantrums. When we first moved in last month, we quickly discovered that the daycare next door was a major annoyance in the morning but she informed me that she wasn't ultimately that concerned because at her last apartment (near 6th and Iowa) trucks would be just as loud in the morning and she'd taken to wearing earplugs. Then, a week and a half ago, I have my girlfriend and we're hanging out in my room (next to my room mate's) talking. Talking. Not even in an especially loud voice. In fact, in very quiet voices. But Kara asks us to chat in the living room. Instead of going to a room where there's nothing except a futon and a coffee table, we just tone it down even more. But she decides to throw a hissy fit anyway and bitch. Hm. So much for the earplugs. The night before my sake party which I'd scheduled a month earlier, Kara tells me she wants me to end it early. I figure 1-2 is pretty early for a Friday night, so I offer to bump quits up till then. She says she'd prefer midnight and I tell her I'll see what I can do. So I change the entire time of the party by three hours for her and start winding things down at midnight. One o'clock rolls around and a few people are left. My room mate still hasn't shown. Two o'clock. Two other people left, but no room mate. Two thirty, there's some unrelated drunks outside, but not my room mate. So after moving my entire party time just for her she doesn't even bother showing up till nearly 3 am. Rather disrespectful. A few days after that, she yells at me in the morning for not having put the seat down on the toilet. I mentioned this to Melody and she laughed and pointed out that I put the seat down more than any guy she'd ever met. Kara also bitched that I got out of the shower with wet feet and got the shower mats wet (God forbid. That's what they were there for I thought!). So she asked I dry my feet before getting out of the shower. To top it all off, last night, Mallory's spending the night again and I made eggs Benedict for dinner. Part of this involves hollendaise in a blender. The leftovers become quite hard to remove from the blender since the blades tend to get in the way, so the general method for removing it is to overturn it into a bowl and let gravity take its course on the semi-solid sauce. Kara eventually comes home and throws a gigantic tantrum, growling and slamming doors as she unbiddingly cleans up my "filth". Note that the extent of the dishes were a non-stick skillet which had no remaining food on it, but had not been washed, and the blender in the bowl. I go out to see if she's ok, and she rips into me for never cleaning and disrespecting her via her dishes because I take food to my room and leave dishes (sometimes hers) there. However, there's a few key points she overlooked here: 1. Upon stating my intent to look for a room mate, I'd done so on Craigslist with a long essay describing how I operated. I specifically stated that I do not always do dishes within 24 hours, but do make sure they're done before anything can start growing in them. Thus, me leaving dishes in the sink for a day should not be considered unexpected or disrespectful. The only major exception to this was a pizza pan which sat in the sink for a week (she seems to think it was a month but the majority of that month was when she put it there after I'd cleaned it, rinsed it, and set it to dry and she mistook it for dirty) with barely even crumbs on it. Again, not something that would start growing mold or flies, so nothing that would be especially high on the priority list. 2. She was warned I collect dishes in my room. It's my room, if they smell funny there, that's my issue and not hers. But she goes looking for them anyway because they're "her" dishes. I, of course, have my own, but due to the small amount of space in the kitchen, we chose not to put most of them out. Thus, it's no wonder that I must use her dishes. 3. Despite me having clearly stated that the smell of marijuana gives me pretty serious migraines, she decides to clean her pipes in my pyrex measuring cup and leave it in the kitchen for nearly a week. This of course makes the entire kitchen smell like weed and ends up getting residue that has not come off in the dishwasher nor yielded to some rather stern scrubbing. 4. She's fallen in the toilet twice because I haven't put the seat down. Apparently she inspects it closely enough to notice "filth" but can't notice if the seat is up or down. 5. For something to be "clean" it need not be "spotless". I clean tables every day at work. It does not require scrubbing. It does not require harsh disinfectants. It does not require anything besides taking a soapy, wet rag unless there is something especially wrong. As the saying goes, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." Yet to Kara, overly preemptive cleaning to an excessive degree is where it's at. So anyway, frack room mates. I wish I didn't need them, but they are kinda half the rent. In happy news, I'm seeing Les Mis on Monday. | | Friday, July 27th, 2007 | | 11:30 am |
Sir Thomas was a brave young knight. He stood upon the field. Standing there for all to see. His weapon he did wield. Sir Thomas was afraid of none. He was always brave and bold. But he only stood to a man's waist, Because he was five years old. Always off on another brave quest, To keep the world free of crime. But Sir Thomas always made very sure, To be home by supper time. Sir Thomas never shirked his duties, Even when it was cold. But his mommy made sure he was warm, Because he was five years old. Sir Thomas always knew where he was. He never needed a map. He was comfortable sleeping anywhere, In case he needed a nap. Sir Thomas was the strongest among men, Stronger than any by ten fold. No enemy dared to ever cross him, Although he was five years old. Wherever he went, the enemy'd surrender, And always call a truce. Then Sir Thomas would meet with their leader, And they'd drink some apple juice. Fearless in the face of danger, He'd take the dragon's gold. Not even afraid of the Boogey Monster, Although he was five years old. Always ready to join the fight, Unafraid of any fray, But when the battle was finally over, He would go home to play. Sir Thomas would venture to any place, Even the enemy's hold. But he would always bring his teddy bear, Because he was five years old. He was dauntless in the face of the enemy. He'd withstand any attack. But once the victory was finally won, He'd run home for a snack. Sir Thomas had a sturdy mine. He could never be cajoled. Always courageous and chivalrous, Although he was five years old. Always going about his knightly duties, Until the day was done. Then once there was no more to do, He could have some fun. Sir Thomas was the greatest of knights, Whose tale I now have told. So remember the tale of Sir Thomas, Although he was five years old. | | Wednesday, July 25th, 2007 | | 5:13 pm |
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