Where did that urge come from?

For some odd reason, I got around to making 2 blueberry pies today,
single crust version which had to be put back in for a longer bake time
so the cornstarch had a chance to set up and jell with the juices. Then
I got to finally cutting the free head of cabbage into two pieces (it
weighed 2.5 pounds) and shredded one half and used a slaw dressing
recipe we found earlier this year for a purple head of cabbage that when
it finally had a chance to do what it did, tasted like our favorite
Marzetti slaw dressing. I might use a cup of Blue Cheese salad dressing
in place of the light mayo to make that missed variant of Marzetti's
product. I had to put celery seeds and salt on separately because I
don't have celery salt. I might try shredding a couple carrots and add
them in. I used Dijon mustard instead of the standard Yellow stuff and I
think it has a nice flavor. The other half of the cabbage was also
shredded and I'll make and freeze some okonomiyaki with that.

Then for some reason I made a couple pizzas from scratch, dough in the
bread machine and all.

Things I miss are having Mom tell me she wants the expensive Pepperidge
Farm stuffing and looking for a cheap turkey, around $10, and then
making the sweet potato dish that she likes but I find inedible. These
past 3 or so years I produced nice looking roasted turkeys, cooked with
a golden brown color and roasted so long and slowly that it fell apart,
with every bit juicy and delicious. Then gathering up the juices and
making a nice smooth gravy (or grane' if you like) with a tablespoon or
two of sifted flour. No, you don't need a special Gravy Flour for this!

Then a couple of years in a row, I made delicious Shwarma sandwiches
(thanks to a dear friend for the spices) with the leftover turkey. Oh my
we all loved those!

I might get around to roasting the chicken I got last week, and making
the chicken stuffing, along with a toned-down green bean casserole once
I figure out how to french fry some onions. If French's can do it, I
should be able to as well. I still have a can of cranberry sauce sitting
in the cupboard from earlier this year. Man, the price of cream of
mushroom soup at WalMart is twice what Aldi's charges.

But every time I think about how mom would have liked those pizzas and
what I'm not doing this year, I break down and sob. I didn't even get to
say goodbye. I wasn't even invited to dinner anywhere. I don't know if I
would have gone, but it would have been nice to be invited all the same.

The holidays at this time of year used to be fun, but for some reason at
some point, I don't know when, it became a pain in the ass and
depressing. It's not Seasonal Affected Disorder. It's something else.
With mom not here, it's even more depressing.

Important Announcement

I hope to leave this up long enough for people who need to see it can
see it.

I have plans to turn this blog private, viewable by only by those who
have an invitation. This is something I can do and I should have
implemented it a long time ago, seeing as how recent events has shown
how the privilege of a publically accessable blog has been abused twice
so far.

I do not intend to see it abused any more.

If you wish to continue being able to read my blog, you probably know
one of my many email addresses already - so please drop me a note with
the email address you want the invite sent to. That way I can let my
most trusted circle of friends still read the latest and yet keep out
those who really have no business seeing what I have to say, and I can
control and track if something gets leaked to people with untowards
intentions.

I will wait long enough to gather the list, which I don't expect to be
long, and then do what I need to do. I'll confirm the sending of the
invites and hope people keep up on it.

I'm sorry, but it has to be done. The number of people I trust has
drastically been reduced as of late.

Mystery solved

People may not agree with what I post here or what I have to say, but nobody has a right to tell me what I can and can't put here. This is my blog, not yours. 1st Amendment rights. I know who was responsible for trying to hijack my blog with derogatory comments that were completely untrue. Be careful what you accuse people of being - it can be considered slander and you can get sued for it. So unless you have proof of what you're claiming, you hold your opinions to yourself. You don't know me at all, and it's your loss. You can't see past the end of your nose.

So we see someone's true colors and I see the real reason in place of what I have been told instead. Someone is obviously spreading rumors about me that are untrue, and I demand to face my accusers to find out where they got their crazy ideas about me. People are believing completely untrue lies about me without even asking me about them!! Is this fair?

I can always let the courts decide whether or not something harmful is happening...


PS. After talking with my older sister, what it likely is this: People see me, see how I act, and something bugs them but they can't quite figure it out what it is. So they come to an incorrect conclusion without even trying to talk to me and find out what's going on in my head at any given time. I can't control that. I don't even know what I'm doing that makes people treat me like that. If I could figure it out, I would take steps to fix it.

Maybe I will go...

but I'm not ready to commit at this time. At least they could have impersonally lied to me and said they just had too many people and they're just asking people to take a break or something. Which isn't altogether a lie, but at least partially truthful. The personal attack wasn't necessary, and I felt the points made to me were weakly supportable.

Dealers, for all intents and purposes, rarely get to see staff members taking an actual interest in what they're selling. They go to several conventions, and each convention staff has different "unwritten" rules, but it seems it's up to each individual interpretation whether it's "privilege" or "abuse" depending on whether or not they like or hate someone and how far up the echelon they are. It's not like in Canada where dealers who can be from the U.S. actually do have to wait until actual operating hours of the dealer's room, because in that case they're employing Canadians and not touching any money in the transactions.

Most dealers realize that staff members, once a convention goes into full swing, will have practically no time to visit the dealer's room because they'll be so busy dealing with what events they have going. So any time a dealer sees staff taking an active interest in what they're selling, there's no way they're going to pass up what might end up being a guaranteed $100 in the pocket, cash money in hand.

I've been to Anime North enough times to be practically on a first name basis with many dealers. Anime Pavillion used to go there until it just became an annoyance just crossing the border. When you see the same dealers often enough and buy as much as I have, they remember you, know what you want, and if you've been reliable enough, they count on that sale that makes their weekend when they bring something you will be buying, something they hold back from the Great Unwashed to make sure you get your first choice.

Once again, being a person with Asperger's, I got "bit in the ass" because of people who don't understand why I am the person I am because they don't know me at all.

Asshats need not apply

I will be moderating comments made to this blog from now on.

This post has been restored, because fuck it.

I don't need to put up with treatment like this:

Subject: Re: Colossalcon Staff Review

"The criteria for this decision is based off of several factors with the first being your going into vendor's room and shopping on Thursday night."

In my defense, I was invited by one dealer who knew me well. I was of the understanding that other staff members were also given preferential treatment. I didn't feel comfortable in there, but nobody seemed to think there was a big problem with it.

"You were scheduled to work in the video department, yet you barely spent any time in the video rooms, or really doing any sort of video/programing work all weekend."

On the contrary, I was there as needed, in fact more than others. But the thing is while I was given duties to do, other people already did them for me, which I was annoyed by. So if I was given things to do, why take my duties away? I was to do set-up, but Tim and a few others were
doing that instead. I don't know why they were doing what I was supposed to be doing. When I tried to let them know they were all like no we got it. Whatever.

"This is a repeat of a pattern of staffing behavior from the previous years you have worked at the convention,"

Apparently you do not know what I had done for Colossalcon 2008, when I had nobody else to f-ing help me the entire damn weekend. I ran all 3 video rooms practically all by my goddamn self!! In fact, the room that showed Gunbuster2 I had to sit in on, not just to change the DVDs, but to keep an eye on the equipment. Adam himself even acknowledged that the computers keep freezing up due to bad RAM. It was a nightmare that whole weekend having to keep tabs on all the video rooms because of that and I will say this again I HAD NO F-ING HELP. Everyone else that year took off and did other things.

You know what? I bet you spoke to one guy that came from Michigan, you know with dark hair and glasses? He made some curry thing that year. He doesn't like me.

"You did spend a lot of time cooking in OPs which in and of itself is a liability"

NOT TO MENTION OTHER PEOPLE IN OPS COOKED AS WELL. So it must not have been much of a liability, or did you send notes to them as well? This point in invalid.

"but you cooked with seafood, forcing several staff members to leave operations and unable to perform their jobs because of their food allergies."

I cannot be blamed for not knowing who is allergic to what. This is not my fault and I refuse to allow you to blame me for something I had no prior knowledge of. It is not fair and you know it! Everyone there did their best to make sure there wouldn't even be an odor left over. When
we were all informed of this after the fact, we knew how well we had to clean up the area and how soon it all had to end. I had a friend in grade school who couldn't even attend on days the hot lunch was fish and he was quite allergic.

This is something I did out of the kindness of my heart, I paid for it all, and I did not ask for anything in return. Nobody told me there would be any problem with that. If you have a problem with that, I'm sorry you feel that way. But it's unfair to go lump this all together and use it against me in this way. It was not an unsanctioned panel either.

"Again, this shows a level of disrespect to fellow staffers,"

What about the amount of disrespect I had to put up with? I wasn't sure I felt like helping out this year because of 2008. I got really shit on that year.

"This decision is based off of feedback from the various department heads, the convention chair and myself, the vice convention chair."

I'll bet it's based off the opinion of 3 people, the way it sounds like to me. A lot of those people don't even know what I did. A few people don't like me, and I guess that's all it takes, doesn't it?

"That is an attendee, which you are more then welcome to be, and we hope you enjoy yourself as one."

I took my responsibilities at Colossalcon very seriously. I had nothing but the best intentions of the convention.

I have to laugh at this whole thing. I got fired again. Just because someone didn't like me. It sounds [like] much of this is personal issues though.


comments:
Didn't you get a vibe that Chibi Jae had some kind of problem with you anyway?
I say go ahead and go to CC, but don't staff, don't volunteer, don't do any panels. Don't lift a finger to help. Just go as an attendee and to hell with trying to help out if they don't like the way you do things and won't communicate with you in order to help you understand what's "OK" and what's "not OK".

Blogger Mrshoujo said...

Not only Jae, but Tim, and one guy from Michigan. I have a shot of him on tape so I can grab it and show people. Adam called me just now, and we discussed the points and problems. I wouldn't mind it if I did panels. There's at least 3 I can think of wanting to do. Much of this seems to be to be a point of view. Certain people do it, it's "staff privilege" but other people do it and they don't like them, then it's "abuse" and "inappropriate." Doesn't that theme sound familiar?

11:16 PM

"Not only Jae, but Tim, and one guy from Michigan."

And that one woman, the one who I think was in charge of the Masquerade a couple of years. I got the vibe she wasn't too fond of you, either.

"Adam called me just now, and we discussed the points and problems."

I'm curious about his take on the situation. Adam knows you a little better than the others, and he outranks everyone except Donnell at the con, IIRC.

"Certain people do it, it's "staff privilege" but other people do it and they don't like them, then it's "abuse" and "inappropriate." Doesn't that theme sound familiar?"

IE: Let's get rid of the "creepy weird guy".

11:28 PM
Delete
Blogger Mrshoujo said...

The lady in charge of the masquerade in past years doesn't like most people in general. If they do their job, she's got no beef. I never dealt with her at all. As far as Adam's take on things, you'd have to discuss it with him next time you see it. He has to sort of back them up on this, but his take was we had way too many people on staff, so if I didn't get the hours I was supposed to, there isn't much to be done about it. I didn't know who was in charge of setting up the video rooms anyway.

11:33 PM

Finally, an answer

So I called tonight to DirecTV to find out why I'm not getting local
channels, Cleveland or otherwise.

It's because the technician who came out to replace the dish didn't
replace my box, which will be HD Capable, but will still work with my
analog TV. The nice lady looked further into my problem and figured out
my receiver box was not the right one.

Still it amazes me they couldn't adjust the signal from their end or at
the box so I wouldn't need a new receiver.

It helps to laugh at corporate "wisdom"

So anywho, DirecTV was so desperate to have me take an upgrade to my
equipment because there was going to be some sort of change in the way I
was going to be receiving my local channels.

OK so I get the dish upgrade, my receiver stayed the same.

What they failed to mention until later was that for some F-ed up
reason, there was some stupid 2004 law or FCC rule, what have you, that
required satellite TV providers to carry local channels based on ZIP
code. What's more picayune is thanks to Nielson Media Research, they
narrow it down even further to where you live in your ZIP code.

OK, Who the Hell Made Nielsen the f-ing god mother of all media crap
that allows them to say which local channels people get?

In my case, for all of my life that I've lived in my ZIP code, Cleveland
has been our market for "local' channels. Nielsen for some reason seems
to think we should be getting Youngstown stations. OK, I'll go with that
AS LONG AS THE REST OF THE ZIP CODE PEOPLE IN OTHER COUNTIES ALSO HAVE
TO CHANGE AS WELL!! Screw you, Nielsen Media Research. Your Data Is In
Serious Error.

I've never watched Youngstown stations for important stuff, except for
Browns games that were blacked out in Cleveland when they were on our
cable TV system.

So anywho, today was supposed to be the big switch. Cleveland stations
disappeared from my channel line up. I waited all day, and no other
locals have appeared on my service. No Youngstown, nothing.

If things were just left alone, I'd still have my Cleveland stations and
I wouldn't be complaining. As it is, I called DirecTV, and the nice man
on the other end tried a few things, but my channel guide still goes
from 1 to 71, 74, 77... No Local Stations. At ALL.

Now, I hate Cable. The continual rate increases (what mom would call
their Yearly Christmas Gift because that's when it happens) really left
a lot to be desired, plus being charged "regulatory" and the illegal
local kickback "franchise" fees really pissed me off. And yet I can get
local cable and they'd STILL have Cleveland stations. Due to stupid FCC
rules, however, they can't carry stations like WPGH in Pittsburgh even
though everyone around here with an antenna could, nor WTRF in Wheeling
though it and Channel 9 in Steubenville were practically like a way to
test your TV because they came in without much of an antenna at all.

I'm going to look into what I need to set up a way to receive those
digital TV broadcasts. I've been told the reach of these signals are
twice what analog was, so it should be interesting to see what I get
here, in spite of predictions by that government website.

In short, I'll probably be dropping DirecTV in March like a lead balloon
because of this crap. I really should make an effort, though, in seeing
what free over-the-air digital signals I can get.

I just have to laugh.

Figure kit photo set on Flickr

At the request of a Sailor Moon forum post, here's some pictures of my recently completed figure kits. I finally finished all those outstanding kits. I wish my mom could have seen them now.

Long John Silver's in Alliance, OH is OUTTA HERE!!

All you selfish people in Alliance - You will have No More Free Food from LJS. They apparently and finally got wise to your scamming ways. Much of my existence, from the time the store had opened until the time I was fired is chronicled earlier on this blog and here. 10 and a half years to the day, literally, I suffered at the hands of customers, and management from time to time as well. Some of the people I worked with were decent people and worked as hard as I did, but to my credit, I worked harder than most. This was a job that at times was kind to me (easy enough to get time off for going to Anime North), and at times was cruel (was still making under $6 an hour after all that time and no paid vacations!) as well as the stupid customers that we all had to deal with. It was that page that for some reason I still don't know how, but corporate LJS found and decided to filter a communication of sorts down to the franchise and the very store and they demanded I be fired, never mind that they didn't sign my paychecks! It shouldn't have been up to them at all - my manager at the time knew how hard I worked and how many times we scored 100% on quality because I was the day time chef. I want to take credit that I was ahead of the times - I was the first person I know of who was fired for having a page (before there were blogs even!) griping about the crap at work.

If I had known how Gordon Ramsey had handled complaining customers, I'd have had more pride in my work, but seeing as how I have Asperger's, it's amazing I had that job as long as I did. I had nothing else. I couldn't think of doing anything else even though I have a good background in computers, now qualified with my CompTIA A+ certification.

	In this first image a friend sent me, you can see how all the signage and any outside decoration has been removed. At one point, while I was there, they had been offering Rax sandwiches. Soon after I left, they dropped it. I wonder why. Also I had a friend who still worked there, and they drummed up some bunch of bullshit lies and used it as their excuse to fire her. She was fired because they didn't like her. Plain and simple.
	As the image caption shows, the drive through sign has been cut off and removed. Please see my page of stories about how that drive through lane was the bane of the store.
	The drive through window and related signage has been removed. The store had undergone some remodelling a while back. The ceiling was painted black, and a self serve pop machine had been installed.
	And finally, the road sign has been reduced to a stump. I think this is a sure sign the store ain't open anymore.

Congrats everyone. I'm not sorry the store's gone. I feel sorry if anyone lost their jobs though. Kinda interesting that the store closed 5 years after I was fired from there. I think the lease ran out and Performance Foods, the owner of the franchise store, didn't want to renew it.