CLAW CITY

WE'RE BACK!

2011-04-29T20:36:00.001-04:00

Hey out there in Blog land. It's been a while, I know. But, in the grand scheme of things, something had to go and this was the least important (plus I was sick of hearing about my own life, but I digress).

Inspired to start again, let me catch you all up on the last 6 months...

Work:

As the summer begins, the push to cut the budget is on. I've been reduced 2 1/2 hours every week. Not horrible, but hopefully it doesn't last too long. If they look to cut me further, that's when I begin looking for a new station.

We've got a ton of new people, which somehow resulted in more prime vacation spots being taken out of the bid as compared to last year. We also got a new mechanic, finally, and our trucks have never been better. Of course, the crap he inherited may be causing him health problems, and he already wants out. Don't blame him.

The Index has been renewed for two more volumes, and we've already begun banging them out. I also volunteered for an internal Index project. Basically, I copy from the PDFs of our trades as well as write up 30 of the new releases every month on an Excel spreadsheet. Time consuming in its way, but far easier than doing chronologies. Plus! Free books every month!

Iconic 2 is delayed beyond belief, and right now all I'm waiting on are four pages of inks and the intro. Once in hand, I can get the final touch-ups done and the trade dress made, and the book published. Worlds Beyond 2 is also underway, but I've been having serious delays in the editing of the stories. Didn't even have time to write one myself. CAG is trying out a new free membership program this year to offset those who cry poverty thanks to the economy. Seeing as we got more memberships when we were a pay op, we may switch to pay to join, free after format. As of January, I'm also the vice president.

Love:

I re-activated my dating site account to make a play for romance. I ended up with one pen-pal in northern New York who apparently became busy and disappeared. I had another pen-pal I went on a hangout with. We had fun, but as per the usual pattern since then contact became sparse until eventually stopping altogether. She's away from town on a job all summer, but I'm not expecting renewed contact once she returns. I've also had two or three others begin conversations with me, only to drop off as usual with no warning, explanation or clear reason. In short: it was about as effective as the last time I tried. And the more I think about it, the more I realize I don't really have time for all this romance bull. I have work to focus on for now.

Life:

Grandma finally died in February, so I'm now grandparent-less. Still not in the new apartment because everyone keeps dragging their feet. Me, I'm too busy to take initiatives on my own. Only so many hours in the day, and I spend most of them working. Me and Sis keep trying to get together for lunch after I get off work, but so far we haven't been able to make it happen due to conflicts that pop up. We'll figure it out one day...or in time for the next birthday gathering. Either way.

SURPRISES

2011-04-09T20:30:00.000-04:00

So, as I've quietly stated before, I've begun to acknowledge my birthdays. I still don't do the big fanfare thing most people do, but I've been making an effort to at least do something with those in the know.

Inspired by Tina's birthday, I decided on fulfilling a desire to check out the Liberty Science Center, having not been there since before it closed for renovations. I also found a cheapy ticket deal that'd also get us to Liberty and Ellis Island for one low price. I invited the usual three, and everything was good to go. Right?

Wrong.

First Tina had to bail because she had forgotten a class trip she had scheduled for the day. The D had to bail because he'd have his kid. Sis didn't bail, but we did reduce the outing to pool at the local pool hall, something we hadn't done since a birthday years prior, and then dinner after. However, Sis had been secretly making some calls and got the other two to show up for dinner, now possible since it was later in the day.

So we all had fun. They enjoyed the fact it was my birthday a liiiiiiiiiiittle too much. I just enjoyed them being there, something that happens far too infrequently for my liking. I decided to make a Facebook group and invited them and a couple others so that we can pitch plans to each other and possibly make them happen (which is also the name of the group). We'll see how that all works out in the coming months.

BIRTHDAY HUNT

2010-10-16T10:02:00.002-04:00

Today is a momentous day. Why? Because this is the first year Tina had EVER invited me out to a birthday gathering. Oh, sure, for a few years a while ago she'd invite me out for a pre-birthday bash hangout before she met up with all her other friends, but I've never been to the main thing before. Also got to meet her current boyfriend briefly, the first one that I didn't already know previously.

This year she decided to do a scavenger hunt at the Met. We split up into teams, ours ended up being me, her, April and Roy, and went about our way finding clues and what not. Basically it involved finding the answers within works of art. It was a lot of fun, and our team finished first. Unfortunately, we ultimately lost with a tie-breaker question.

After, we went to an Italian restaurant several blocks away. They mostly got bombed on sangria's waiting for a table. Meanwhile I was starting to pass out the later it got. Fought to stay awake waiting on the food, and then waiting on the check for us to disperse. Headed for the train and home to get some sleep.

So for those wondering how I was with the whole BF thing, I was perfectly fine. I didn't really interact with the guy so I can't really formulate an opinion of him. But, I will say that after being at a table surrounded by people either paired off or who already knew each other, I decided time had come to maybe try and do something about my own situation. We'll see how that works out.

NYCC 2010

2010-10-11T09:36:00.002-04:00

Why is it no matter how long I plan for NYCC it still ends up being a last minute scramble? I was making a list of all the creators I wanted to see and get autographs from, but ended up not being able to dig out all the books I was planning. Instead I ended up re-buying some books from some of them to have signed there. Which is fine; that's usually what I like to do anyway.

Because I had the table, I decided to drive in on Friday. That turned out to be a big mistake. For one thing, our booth somehow ended up with a table...first time ever. For another thing, all the free parking surrounding the Javitz is now commercial. I ended up having to park in a garage two blocks away. Ended up only $30 so it wasn't too bad, but still. At least I didn't have to for Sunday.

Spent Friday setting up the table and then visiting all my colleagues scattered throughout. I know I promised to lay off the discount bins, but yeah, that didn't happen. I did keep myself somewhat restrained, though. AND I had a luggage cart I bought from D&D Thursday so hauling it home wasn't so bad. That night, a bunch of us went out to dinner with the Free Lunch guys. It was intended to discuss the future of CAG, but Twins was too loud and we were all distracted by the visitation of a cockroach, so that didn't happen. We'll have to revisit that later.

Saturday I made some additional rounds and purchased some more poster artwork. Figured get that over with today so I didn't have to risk damaging them with bringing all the supplies home. Worked the table some, met some newish members, shmoozed a bit. The highlight of the day, though, was meeting one of my colleague's friends. She came to help promote his books before wandering the show with him. She was nothing short of beautiful, let me tell you. I ended up going to lunch with her and we had a great time. If I had any success at all in that area I might've tried asking her out, but as such let it ride. Had one good day, no need to mar it with a rejection.

A bunch of us went out to dinner again before some headed for home (like me) and others went off to the Indy After Party. A word about the party: for the last few years, CAG has been heading it up under Mark Mazz. Since Mazz is no longer involved, we decided to continue on with it, and somewhere along the way Mazz got himself tacked on to the reservation WE made at the location. So, it was decided to let Mazz incur the costs and we'd bow out, despite his putting us as a sponsor. I doubt I would have gone even if I wasn't already tired. Not on the list of my favorite people these days.

Sunday was more of the same. Me, Joe and James had a lunch meeting to go over the final prep for the awards show that night. Joe made a great powerpoint presentation for it, and we basically had it all worked out. The awards, given to us at the last hour of the show on the last day, an extremely pitiful timeslot, went pretty well considering half of the winners weren't in attendance, and neither was our guest of honor Andy Schmidt. But, we rolled with it and made some jokes. People came away entertained, which is good, and my faith in the awards renewed after a tumultuous ride to get there.

Fun show. I didn't get to do everything I'd hoped, but I didn't do too badly. Hopefully next year I can be a bit more prepared for the show.

...Eh, who am I kidding? Rock on!

HOMEWARD BOUND

2010-10-05T09:22:00.000-04:00

Woke up, checked my mail, had "breakfast" and packed. I left around noon and headed downtown to check out the MLK memorial. Now, this was some memorial. The memorial proper spans about two square blocks north and south. On the north side is a museum about King, a Gahndi statue, and a civil rights walk with names of proponents of the civil rights movement. South is the grave site, which is a stone coffin on an island in the middle of a giant reflecting pool. Fountains and everything. But, that's not all! They preserved his ENTIRE neighborhood, so for the next two or three blocks you have it exactly as it was in King's day. Almost every house there had some kind of historic significance. Classy. In NY the most people get is a statue, and the least is a street renamed. I could never see anything of this level, at least not since Grant's day.

After photographing all there was to see, I got back in the car and made my way to the airport. I anticipated a complicated pathway like JFK or LGA, but was surprised to find everything straightforward and easily marked. Got to the terminal a bit later, and after a quick lunch to the gate with 4 hours to spare. I ended up springing for internet service, and the laptop still wouldn't charge. Great.

While waiting the opportunity came up to upgrade to business class, so I said screw it and paid the $70. I think I'll have to do that from now on, these seats are just too damn small for me. I had LEGROOM! A comfy seat! It was great. I could definitely get used to that.

Overall, not a bad trip. Not as great as some others, but not bad.

RETRACING STEPS

2010-10-04T09:03:00.001-04:00

D had come down to GA for a medical conference a few months ago and told me how Atlanta had surprisingly little to offer. He wasn't kidding! At least where I was.

Today involved a lot of aimless wandering. I headed down to the capitol building to continue my collection of capitol pictures, then walked along to Atlanta Underground nearby. Atlanta Underground is a former railroad viaduct converted into a shopping area. It's like a virtual city under the city. Store fronts, lamp posts, sidewalks, fire hydrants, and remnants from the past...including a crap load of historical cars parked all over! It was neat, I loved it. Unfortunately I found the several souvenir shops lacking in decent souvenirs. I mean, there were one or two good items, but nothing I could take on the plane, much like at the aquarium.

Passing a few more panhandlers and some nice streets, I went back to World of Coke to see the things I missed the first time: the production line, the history of its creation, and the 4D movie to discover the secret formula (4D meaning it was 3D, the seats moved, and you got spritzed with water). Then I went back to the soda area and had a few dozen more samples of the de-lish stuff. I think I drank more soda this weekend than I have in my lifetime! Luckily my back didn't start hurting like it sometimes did when I drank a lot of soda.

I went back to the gift shop and started scouring for things to get my friends. Better selections by far, but ultimately still slim pickings in terms of personalization. There were several things I'd've loved to get, but again...airplane security. So, I made do with what I could.

Thanks to a blister I got on my expedition yesterday, I decided to end it there instead of taking two trains to get to the MLK memorial after a tour of nearby Olympic Park. Caught the nearest train back to the hotel and decided to head on up to Subway for dinner, and breakfast tomorrow. Depending how I feel, I'll probably pass by on the way to the airport.

THE HAZZARD RUN

2010-10-03T21:35:00.002-04:00

Before my trip, I had mused how funny it would be to be given a Charger as my rental car, despite the fact I probably don't fit nor could see out of the super-sloped windshield (in which case I would've taken a Challenger...). But, instead, here I am retracing the steps of the Dukes of Hazzard in what is essentially a Crown Vic clone (aka police car).

Anyway, with the oh-so-reliable GPS I had, I decided to download maps of the areas and plot down simple directions so I would only need it for emergency cases. The problem with driving around rural areas is that street signs are often non-existent, too small for the speeds posted on the roads, or involve sudden turns down blind hidden roads. Even so, I only needed the GPS a few times the whole trip.

Started off in Loganville with the Duke farm. The farmhouse was basically a shack given some extensions for the show. The main body is all that remains and is pretty much in ruins. There's a still from the episode "High Octane" in the woods near the main house on the grounds, but I wasn't about to bother people just to get some pictures. Further on down the road was a bridge and an area used for a bust in "High Octane" and "Mary Kaye's Baby" on private property, so I couldn't get to them and really didn't think was worth trying to find a back way around to. Point is, I was there and got close enough. Moving on.

Heading down highway 20 I hit a grocery used in "Mary Kaye's Baby", and right across the street Cooter's garage and junkyard from "One-Armed Bandits." The grocery looks totally different than it did back then, but the junkyard has a distinguishing feature: an old bus, seen in the episode and visible from the gate. And by visible, I mean you could make it out through the trees and brush, but couldn't get a very good clear shot of it. But, I tried anyway. One thing I forgot to take was the nearby intersection where the General jumped a truck in "High Octane."

Heading on down I found Rockdale hospital, which served as the EPA in "High Octane." A bit down the road was the police station from "One-Armed Bandits," unfortunately the building had been torn down and replaced. It was either a collective office block or a funeral home now, wasn't sure which. So, I photographed both just to be safe.

My next stop was the big one: Hazzard Town Square, aka Covington. This area was used in several movies and shows, including In the Heat of the Night as Sparta. What's more is I wandered into a delightful bonus; a classic car show! The entire square and all the surrounding streets for an entire block were full of cars from every decade. There was a '69 Charger, and someone did have a Dixie horn (heard it twice), but surprised there wasn't an actual General replica in the mix. I snapped tons of car pictures, the location pictures I needed, and even a nice creepy-looking old Sheriff's office I could use in an idea later.

Once the business was handled, I stopped in a local cafe for some grub. It was a small place ran by an old couple and a young guy. Looked like it hadn't been updated since the 50s, and that when furniture broke it was never replaced, hence the sparse furnishings. The newest thing in the joint was the cash register. And the burger wasn't so much a patty as a clump of cooked meat. But, the food was good and the atmosphere was just fine.

Next came a railroad crossing and a house used as the Sherridan's Orphans Home in "One-Armed Bandits." After that was Oxford University where the civic club scenes from "Bandits" and the jump seen at the end of the opening credits was filmed. Going further north brought me to the Boar's Nest. I missed it the first time because in other Duke explorer photos, it still looked relatively the same. When I found it, it had been completely repainted and renovated. However, the church that had been there had long since closed as it was abandoned and windows smashed in.

Next came a bridge from "Mary Kaye's Baby" next to a train trestle. The trestle itself was much cooler as it was covered in ivy and looked damned creepy. Took many shots of that. It was at this point I forgot I left my glasses on the seat and got back in the car, smushing them. Took me a bit to pop my lense back in, and not even correctly, unfortunately. I'll have to fix those later. After that was just a series of roads and bridges involved in various episodes. By the time I hit Social Circle I had just about had enough, so I hit the highway and headed on back to my hotel.

After some rest and a Cary Grant movie, I headed on up the road to this place I saw during my lost moments, Checkers. I thought it was just a one-off place, but according to Chloe it's a chain around these parts. It was also not an eat-in place, take-out only. Sure, find that out on what turned out to become a pretty nippy night. Luckily, the car came with one of those adjustable cup holders so it could hold the drink I got (a Pibb, my drink of choice in the south!).

So, I successfully made it to almost every location used in the first five episodes of the Dukes. Tomorrow, I'll explore more of Atlanta and maybe get the surrounding area to the location I got there yesterday.

ATLANTA RISING

2010-10-02T09:57:00.000-04:00

Maps are studied, so I now know where I'm going. I also discovered the train was nearby. If I was smart and had sufficient prep time, I would have reserved the car up here, took the train from the airport, used the car for what I needed and returned it, then used the train for everything else. But, I'm NOT smart, and I had no prep time, which means I ended up spending a couple hundred more than I should have. Ah well, live and learn.

I decided to start off in Atlanta, but first some food! I spotted a Burger King up the road and said what the hell. Hell is right. Place was very discombobulated, the food undercooked, and the bathroom horrendous. I was lucky I finished in there when I did, because someone flushed the urinal and the place flooded. Yeah, not eating there again.

Took the train in to Atlanta and headed to the World of Coke, which is a big Coca-Cola museum. There are giant decorated Coke bottles all over, a room full of Coke merch, a room of Coke-inspired art, a live production line, a theater for old Coke commercials, two comedic movies about Coke, and finally a room to taste all the varieties both domestic and international. I'll say this much, Asia has some nifty flavors I wish would come here, but if ever in Italy do NOT drink Berkely. Tastes like the seltzer without any added syrup.

Based on Miranda's suggestion, I hit the aquarium across the way too. Definitely a kid-friendly environment, but some every nice room decorations. Shame my camera can't capture the awesome mood lighting. After walking around for a bit, I hit the Dukes Atlanta location and headed back to my hotel to do some work. Tomorrow: road trip!

SOUTHERN DISCOMFORT

2010-10-01T09:42:00.000-04:00

Months ago I had planned to go to Georgia and do the Dukes of Hazzard location tour, and hopefully get to hang with my friends down there. Today was the day for everything to go wrong.

First, the weather all week has been horrible. Rain, rain, and more rain. Today was no exception, getting drenched as I walked to work. Luckily I had spare clothing stored and now know where to put stuff to be dried out. On top of that, the freight was gonna be late today so they were gonna try to have me do all the stuff that initially comes in for the route. Unfortunately, there was way too much for me to get done and still get home in time to finish packing and catch my car to the airport. Luckily they let me do what I could then bailed on the rest for someone else to finish.

Got home and finalized my bag over a lunch of Hot Pockets. I'd been agonizing over my choice of luggage 'cause of the carry on rules that could be in effect. I finally decided to go with my original choice and was all set. I was also determined not to work this vacation but I'd fallen way behind on my entries and had to bring the last batch of comics to do.

My car was an hour late. The original driver apparently got into an accident on the way. As a result, we were stuck in traffic most of the way and I got to the terminal with 15 minutes to spare. Then, came the realization: even though I booked my trip through Priceline by clicking on the Delta quote that came up, I somehow got placed on AirTran...TWO TERMINALS AWAY. By the time I was able to realize the error, I missed my flight (which I really didn't 'cause it boarded two hours late).

I got placed on standby since all the other flights were full and everything was weather delayed. I ended up getting on the plane after 10. Coach was a lot of fun; my knees firmly planted into the seat in front of me. The guy shot me so many dirty looks because he couldn't recline. Tough shit. If he made any comments I was in the mood to open the emergency hatch and throw him into one of the engines. I landed around midnight and then began the trek to the rental counter. Gotta say, this must be one huge airport: it's got it's own freakin' subway train!

I get to the Enterprise counter only to find nobody there at the 24-hour counter. After a few minutes of waiting, I talked to the Hertz counter and found out Enterprise was over in their stand in the garage outside. They apologized, caught in the middle of a shift change. I checked out the cars they had to offer and ended up getting a free upgrade because of my size and the inadequacy of the two cars they had left. Guess it helped that my guy was a tall dude so he probably sympathized.

So off to Doraville I went for my hotel. However, my GPS died before I got there thanks to dipshit not having the car charger where it should have been and NOT recharging the stupid thing. Having no time to study the maps like I usually do, I ended up driving around in circles in what turned out to be mere blocks from my hotel on all sides. I finally went down one street, saw the sign, and drove through the parking lot across the way to get there. This was almost 4 AM.

So, for those keeping score, I've been awake for 24 hours and my last meal was 14 hours ago. Add to that one of my goals, meeting my friends, wasn't gonna happen thanks to the other dipshits she befriended and so far this trip is off with a bang.

AUDITED

2010-09-30T08:55:00.003-04:00

Every so often, the station gets audited to ensure they're meeting all the companies standards and what not. Monday and Tuesday I came in to work, did my usual morning routine and route, then proceeded to have to go through all the trucks to make sure they had their paperwork and all the Vehicle Inspection Report books to fix any errors made. Initially I was gonna do all three months we had on file of the books, but was told Tuesday to just do August and September's. Gee, thanks for letting me waste half a day on June...

The actual audit was yesterday. I ended up having to stay off my route to man the room as the guy called out sick. The audit went pretty well and we scored high, except one truck had an outdated thing in it. Love to know how that happened since I checked each piece individually, but whatever.

SCREENWRITING

2010-09-24T09:39:00.001-04:00

My sole class this semester is screenwriting for film. It was the only one available that fit my requirements AND my schedule, which means another 4 hour class. Ugh. So far it's been pretty fun. We bring in the scripts we're assigned to write and the class is "cast" in the roles and reads them out. Despite trying to keep awake in the class, it gets pretty interesting.

Today was my day to present. When the 5-page assignment was given out the first class, I wrote the script already. Sure, the final one differed from the initial, but the idea was the same: Dracula's hatred of Twilight. The class loved it, and the only criticisms were little nitpicky bullshit. Not bad for my second attempt (the first being the short film last semester).

THE WEDDING

2010-09-19T08:25:00.002-04:00

I really want to keep up with the blog, but I think the bigger problem is that unlike Doogie Howser who wrote an obscure paragraph summing up the lessons of his day, I, as a writer, like to turn my entries into fairly detailed stories. I barely have the time to write my own comic scripts, let alone actual stories. I'm gonna try to do weekly summations from now on, just because I know you all miss me out there.

It's fitting my first post in a couple of week is this one. A lot of people criticize TV shows for their quick episode-end resolutions, citing how life has very little closure in reality. I, being the observer of the human condition that I am, have seen evidence to the contrary. Resolutions may not come by the end of the day, hell they could take weeks, months or years, but eventually a "dangling plot thread" does get wrapped up. Think about how many times something that you were involved with happened years ago, but then suddenly pops up again in a casual mention or what have you.

That was just a parallel to lead me into this: rarely do you get to see a story play out from start to finish. April & Roy is one of those stories. Roy was the first boyfriend of April's I ever met. I heard about the others long after the fact, so that was pretty much an indicator of things to come. Then I got to see it grow, from dating to moving away and living together, to moving back and now getting married. Of course that's not the END of their story by far, but it's pretty cool to've been able to see the evolution.

So, let's talk about the big day.

Firstly, I dreaded this thing for one simple reason: I have no dressy clothes. I've got my old work shirts, which ma said were "too casual," whatever the hell that means. I had my work pants, one of which was ratty and several that had some kind of stains on the legs. I also had a collection of ties I got handed, most of which no longer fit me in my current size (length AND width). So, my options were limited, meaning I had to buy something. I had ma do it, since she has experience in these matters. Unfortunately, the pants she got were too tight in the thighs, a miscommunication led her to get me a long-sleeve shirt which she KNOWS I don't wear, and the weather forecast for today rendered the jacket unwearable. So, it was back to the closet. Found a shirt I never wore, decent enough pants, and two ties that were sufficient. I also found it funny all the wedding-themed movies and programs on TV today. Odd.

D had wanted to meet up and go, so I met him at the train after I bought my card at Rite Aid. Did you know they don't make humorous wedding cards? I thought I was gonna get diabetes as I read all the cards they offered. I finished filling it out when we got off the train; unfortunately I jumped a couple words as I wrote, forcing me to off-center the rest of the card...whoops! That wasn't even the biggest whoops. As a testament to how distracted I've been lately, I didn't notice the RSVP link in April's initial E-vite that I had too fill out (she asked me them via IM), and I didn't know there was an itinerary for the wedding. It started at 3, so I figured that was when the ceremony was.

Wrong.

3 was when guests were supposed to begin ARRIVING. Well, we got there a bit after 2 to find the place still being set up. Oops. Kudos to Roy for hiding his nerves so well and keeping in charge. I could tell he was tense, but he didn't show it. Well, at least I managed to get D there on time. If we left when we should have we mighta been late, as he's known for that. We helped where we could, though. In particular waiting for the Indian food to arrive. That was interesting, as the idiots initially parked by a hydrant and had to move, and one of the guys ran past us saying something incomprehensible. I THOUGHT that's who we were looking for, but couldn't've been sure. It took the other guy 20 minutes to circle around the block and we began to unload the stuff while I had to stay with the car. By the time I got back inside, April was arriving in her limo so I rushed back upstairs.

People began to mingle and eat some appetizers while April got ready. She told me after that Tina and her mother had to help April cobble together a bouquet since the florist didn't show up. It wouldn't be a wedding unless everything went wrong. The ceremony was up on a terrace with a flower-covered archway and a nice view of the city. I found it funny how there was a church on either side and yet the wedding was in between them. April's friend Nelson served as the preacher, and the ceremony opened with a Beatles tune. Of course.

After was an intense photo session with the bride and groom. Dozens of configurations of friends and relatives. At one point Jessica gave out thick mustaches of felt on sticks, which were held up during several of the photographs. I'm thinking that was a play on the coming Indian half of the ceremony, but I need to ask what the deal was. Turns out it was Roy's idea to boot. I also have to wonder why I needed a fake mustache since I already had one. Hmmm...

April had seated all her friends together at one table for the reception. Me, D, Mary, Jessica, Maritza and her BF, Christina and her husband, and Tina (who had another wedding to attend and couldn't stay much past the first course...always double-booked, that girl!). The food was spectacular. It was like a party in my mouth, and much better than the place I went to with them months ago. Hell, I'm tempted to go out and get married just so I can have more of that food!

Back to that unknown itinerary: I was thinking that it was gonna be the ceremony, then an intermission, then the Indian ceremony. Nope. Turns out the Indian ceremony wasn't due to begin until 9! Yeah, no way I was gonna be able to do that, especially since I had to work tomorrow. After the first dance, me and D made our way up to April to have some words and give her our cards before taking our leave. D had to leave with me because apparently he'd get lost walking TWO BLOCKS to the train. Yeah...

Overall, not bad for my first attended wedding. And I'm very impressed with myself that I didn't get anything on my clothes, or that stupid tie. Seriously, who came up with neckties? Floppy damn things get into everything... But, that's a rant for another entry.

CONGRATS APRIL & ROY!

CHANGED OUT

2010-09-06T09:30:00.000-04:00

In part of the new senior's initiative to get the station running smoothly, the room I usually man in the morning is to be covered all day long. As a result, I'm being removed from the position and the night guy is taking over, while he's bringing in someone else for the night. I'll still be getting my 6 hours since I'm so valued there, and am now relegated to truck management exclusively. However, since the guy is prone to mental breakdowns, I've no doubt I'll have to do the room again quite a few times.

LABORED DAY

2010-09-03T15:41:00.000-04:00

I had planned to go upstate this weekend a long time ago, and yet somehow it still became a last minute operation. Dunno how THAT works. In any event, I wasn't able to leave as my short power nap proved insufficient and I needed a full-on, so I opted to just go early tomorrow. So, I spent the day starting to organize the new comics I got, and getting the ones I've read ready for filing when I return.

Marvel had a new task proposed towards us, so I thought I'd do a try-out to see if I could get the extra cash. Sure, it's only $2 per item, but that's $2 more than I have right now. We'll see how I did soon, hopefully. Meantime, I'm taking up my next Index assignments to read and my next Spiderfan contribution. Need to get back on that so I can put away all the Spidey books I took out planning to do.

MORE COMICS

2010-09-02T15:38:00.000-04:00

One of my colleagues, Jemir, is moving to Holland and asked me to come over to take some of his comics he can't bring with him. I didn't anticipate him having all the books he did, or so many I'd actually want/need. I tried my Big Apple Con trick of loading up two garbage bags with the books, but that didn't work out too well. And boxing all the ones I wanted was next to impossible to carry. I ended up using a car service his aunt had the number to since I couldn't get through to ma.

Well, here's a good reason why I don't use car service; the ass was on his phone for the first half of the ride, and completely missed all my directions. I said go to the BQE to the Belt towards Kennedy. What does he do? HE GOES TO KENNEDY! And I had to tell him what exit to take several times even though I clearly stated it before. And he makes it like the extra distance was MY fault.

Next time someone offers me free comics, I'm bringing the van. Screw it.

IT'S TIME

2010-08-28T15:45:00.000-04:00

I had to break down and do it. After DLing a new Spyware program to get rid of this persistent one that would NOT delete with any of the others, I was treated to the fact that it's constant update on start-up would slow my computer to a crawl for a good half hour. Now that I'm working with such graphically intense stuff and needing to perform multiple tasks at once, I finally broke down and put in for my new computer. Confused by all the technobabble in the specs, I chatted with a Dell person and had them build me a comp to suit my needs. Two grand, but at least I can write it off in taxes since I'll be using it for business a lot.

CAG BBQ 4

2010-08-14T12:51:00.002-04:00

The BBQ went off nicely. I had to swing by a Waldbaum's near the club for some buns on the way, and I had a hard time wrangling pops for materials I need, but otherwise it was fine. I had sufficent food for all those who showed up, and a good time was had. Dunno if I'm so inclined to keep these going to the point there's only TWO attendees, but we'll see what happens next year.

YOU SO STUPID!

2010-08-11T06:33:00.000-04:00

My route gets a handicap every August when the only decent freight guy they have goes on vacation for five weeks, meaning the elevator is slow as shit for the duration. Add to that the fact they decide NOW to redo the sidewalk in front of the loading dock. The last two weeks had been an adventure in trying to get through the temporary pedestrian walkway and onto the ramp (with a disappearing, reappearing lip of concrete at its foot) into the loading dock to do my job.

Well, today they finally finished the sidewalk. Sort of. The idiots forgot the DIP in front of the doorway. They made a straight curb instead, so now they're gonna hafta re-tear up the sidewalk and put it in. Greeeeeeeeat. Smart crew they got there.

SHIPPING

2010-08-10T06:55:00.000-04:00

Worlds Beyond arrived on Thursday. I spent most of Sunday scouring for appropriately sized boxes to fill all the pre-orders we got for the book. Monday I went to the FedEx Office near my station and picked up a bunch of their small boxes and some packing peanuts to finish the job. Although I intended to get them shipped that day I ran a little late. So, today was the day.

I loaded up both of our shopping wagons and slowly wheeled them over to the post office. I'm sure I made the ass there thrilled to have to process all those, as were all the people who had to wait on the growing line. The ass, I should clarify, is this grumpy old fart I was hoping I wouldn't get when I went. The people in that office are rude as hell, barking at a lady who just wanted to know something before she waited on line to wait on line. And they wonder why they're doing so horribly.

Anyway, after all that, I ended up realizing I forgot one person. I KNOW I printed out his reciept the other day, but I guess it got lost in the shuffle. Ah well, taking care of that tomorrow, not going back today.

BBQ SHOPPING

2010-08-07T06:46:00.002-04:00

Went to Pathmark today so ma could do some overdue shopping and I could get most of the stuff for the BBQ next week. The turnout for it is very small this year, so I'm not really splurging...especially since these people, despite assurances and confirmations, tend to NOT show up. I prboably should have just cancelled it, but at least I can give some Worlds Beyond orders to the people there.

D was on his way home from work when he called me and came by the store. He tagged along while I did my business, then gave me some souveniers from his trip to Universal Florida during his Georgia medical convention; one of those weathered Wolverine hats (which didn't fit) and a Marvel t-shirt (which probably won't, the sizes on those shirts run smaller than advertised usually). First time I seen him since Xmas. He should be coming next week, so we'll see if it works out.

HIT AND RUN

2010-08-05T06:55:00.002-04:00

This morning on the way to work, some asshat went down the wrong way under the Gowanus. He proceeded to speed in reverse to the intersection where we were sitting, smacking the front fender and then speeding off down the street. Pops was none too happy. Dude's just lucky it wasn't me at the wheel, 'cause I woulda ran his ass down and off the road. Damage is already done, couldn't hurt more, right?

So he went to the precinct (which is like 2 blocks from there, BTW) to file a report and I took the train to work. Looks like my van will be seeing some use for a while.

JULY RECAP

2010-07-31T18:06:00.001-04:00

So here's the skinny of what's been going down:

Sis is moving back to NY with her fiance next month. Her job had tried to tempt her to stay by offering her a new job title (with no extra pay). But, it just wasn't worth it to her, that coupled with the sexual harrassment she recently had to endure from one of her bosses there. It was just time to go, and the timing went perfectly. She's due to get married in September. Unlike the only other wedding I was invited to I'll be making that one.

Speaking of weddings, Facebook really lets you know how far behind in the "race of life" you are. Old friends from school and aquaintances alike have been getting hitched and having kids left and right. Me, I'm still mentally in high school and honestly haven't really be attracted to anyone in a long time. I mean, I've found women attracTIVE, but I haven't been attracTED. Hopefully that makes sense. Anyway, I digress...lotsa nuptials flying around. I probably better get working on finding a date for my high school reunion so I'll have some backup!

Alex was hospitalized for a couple of weeks, but he's out now and slowly healing up. In fact, I approached him about doing inks for a second story on Iconic now that the story he was supposed to be on is being done by its new penciler. However, getting the pages to him is turning out to be a challenge. His E-Mail keeps rejecting it. Well, there are ways around that, I just need the frame of mind to try them.

Worlds Beyond is finally done. We had a little sizing issue that the printer took care of, unfortunately the cover ended up shifting a bit to the right thanks to the measurements being slightly off on the imaging. Oh well, live and learn. It's not horrible, and the front cover can be passed as a creative choice. The killer is the CAG logo on the spine that's not centered. Also had a bit of drama with the credit card company failing to authorize payment to the printer. Took two days to convince them I authorized the payment (which was the same card I used for the down payment, by the way) and get it to go. But, going it is.

Iconic is still moving slowly, but I'm focusing on getting the pencils lettered so I can put together a dummy book to get our introduction done. Since nobody really reads this I can tell you all in blog land that we're approaching Walt Simonson for the honors. Walt is one of comicdom's more revolutionary writers, and a hell of a nice guy.

And finally, the heat is still kicking my ass and making me tired. WINTER! WHERE ARE YOU!?

NOT THERE

2010-07-17T19:08:00.002-04:00

Today's CAG meeting was a return to the Met for a revisitation of the writing workshop I did in March that was well-recieved. Unfortunately while that one was a semi-wash-out due to the deluge that decided to hit, today's perfectly sunny day yielded a WORSE turn-out. It was just me and James.

After waiting a half hour, we decided to hit the museum ourselves and work on a couple of our own projects. We had fun, but I was still pissed. Ya know, I have things to do, and going all the way up to the upper east side for nothing isn't exactly fun for me. I was also pissed I neglected to charge my camera to get some GB2 location shots while I was there. Ah well, gotta wait till it cools off for that anyway.

I decided to walk to the 59th Steet Station via Central Park. Had some fun running up the rocks and hills and such, but these damn shorts...too long! I keep feeling like I'm getting tangled when I do certain movements. If I didn't need all the pockets, I'd go to a different type of shorts. But, stuck with these till more pop up.

MEET THE NEW BOSS...

2010-07-16T19:03:00.002-04:00

About a month into the new/old regime, things have changed while staying the same. For the most part, morale is up in general. Most of the people here seem happier and more productive. We're finally moving up the various lists in the district. Some, however, didn't really care for them the first time around and aren't AS happy.

They're trying to establish the overall control of the place the last regime wanted but never achieved. But, we still have the same old problems. Trucks are horribly parked on Mondays. Keys are missing. Equipment keeps failing (we ran out of Powerpads for the second time). The trucks are still shit. Then of course we have the fun of checking the VIRs where the same people keep making the same mistakes.

To me, it still feels like 3 years ago. Nothing's really changed. The senior before Joe wasn't much of a presence so aside from being held almost an hour after punching out for conversations that hasn't changed much either. I guess ultimately we'll see how things go once the senior kicks his master plans into action.

HANDY

2010-07-04T22:07:00.001-04:00

You know you're getting old when you hurt yourself playing arcade games. I was playing the rapid-fire Metal Slug X and ended up with a store wrist. Painfully sore. Luckily Chloe is a massage therapist so I was able to get some quick healing tricks from her so I could pack up tomorrow.

I've been reading NOW's Green Hornet series, of which I got most of after watching the old 60s show again. NOW put out a decent product for its time. My only gripe would be the coloring, which always looked like it was done with crayon. Not that it was bad, just...unique compared to other books of the 80s and early 90s which used the old colored dot method. But the stories were fantastic, and very similar to what Dynamite's putting out now.

Just a shame NOW couldn't survive into the 90s. Odd what makes it and what doesn't, but such is the nature of the biz.

SMALL TOWN PARADE

2010-07-03T21:32:00.000-04:00

I really need to learn not to buy perishable items BEFORE the trailer fridge has been on for a while. Damn thing takes forever to cool off, resulting in my milk going bad by morning.

Anyway, I went into town for breakfast and for their holiday festival. It wasn't much more than a glorified flea market, but there was a pretty decent turnout. The parade shortly after was fun too. The usual small town fare with predominant presence by the FD and ambulance services, a car dressed up like a cow, and the train usually parked by the info stand. I forgot my camera and was in the middle of breakfast, so I wasn't able to take the best shots with my phone. If I'm back same time next year I'll do better.

After going to Pecks to stock up on delish burgers, I let the vacation truly begin. There was a whole lot of movie watching, writing, reading, and video gaming in the open Rec Hall. They had swapped out the Addams Family pinball game for Congo, which pretty much sucked. No Fear is addictive, though, as they let you continue with your current score but only one ball per shot. Get to keep your score but you're paying more per game than normal. Sneaky.

Two of the movies I got were Roxanne with Steve Martin and Teen Witch. Think I'm addicted to Roxanne. Not so much for the romantical comedy elements, but the FD scenes are just comedy gold. And Teen Witch was a staple of my early HBO viewing days, but is a lot cornier than I remember. Guess that's what happens when time goes on, eh?

INDEPENDENCE

2010-07-02T17:37:00.000-04:00

Finding out I was off Friday, I took the opportunity to go up to the country this weekend. I missed my second planned trip due to my battery issues immediately after my first one, so I wasn't gonna miss this. Funny...I planned for this, yet the day of it still seemed like I was scrambling to leave. Ah well.

So after my Subway lunch and proper teasing of Miranda for her birthday, I loaded up the van with the essentials (clothes, comics, bike, coolers and kitty) and filling my tires and hit the road after 3. There was already traffic in Staten Island and the cross-merge heading towards Albany was jammed up.

We had gotten to Walmart about 8 and I went in to do some quick shopping for supplies and what not. As it was approaching 9 by the time I got back on the road, I stopped by the Burger King down the hill for some food for the road. If ever you find yourself in Kiamesha, DON'T go to the BK next to Walmart. They've gotten AWFUL in the last couple years. Last time, there was barely any meat in the buns. This time, my burgers went progressively from uncooked to burnt with each bite. The fun part was trying to get their large cup in my console. You know, how it has that smaller bottom? Leaves too much room in the cup holder so it flops around. What I had to do was clear out my tape holder and stick it in there for the ride. Worked out pretty well, I must say.

Of course, after setting everything up and feeding the kitty, I went to go check my E-Mail and maybe get a few minutes of chatting with Mira only to discover the effing laptop battery was almost dead. Since the bathroom/laundry area and rec hall were closed, I had nowhere to plug in. I went back to the trailer for a night of movies and writing.

BLINKY RETURNS

2010-06-29T18:48:00.001-04:00

A new kitten has started coming around to be fed. Thing is, he looks almost exactly like Blinky except smaller. Also turns out he's a nipper instead of a licker, but damned if he don't get underfoot like Blinky did. Trying to convince them to let me fill the vacancy by taking him in.

BLINKED OUT

2010-06-26T19:00:00.000-04:00

Thursday, one of gma's cats, Blinky, wasn't acting right. Over the years he lost his teeth and became very thin, but was still very active and lovey. Not lethargic like we found him. We took him to the vet where he was diagnosed with diabetes. We then had to get him to an ER downtown. They took him for 2-5 days of treatment and observation before he was supposed to be released with a twice daily insulin treatment regiment.

Well, didn't work out that way. They found a growth in his stomach, something wrong with his brain, and he was unresponsive to treatment. Basically came the hard decision to put him through torturous treatment that had very little chance of working, or putting him down. We had to go with the latter. It wasn't an easy decision and not a pleasant experience all around.

Blinky was a good cat and a sweetheart. I'll miss him.

END OF A REGIME

2010-06-18T19:08:00.002-04:00

Today was the last day for the current management. After we had gone up in the rankings for the district, the district manager decided to pluck out our management team and spread them out to various other stations. Albeit, the majority of them ended up at one, but still. Since then, morale has been low and the station has been in a steady state of decline. Now, after 2 years of complaints, the managers are out and two of the formers are back in. I don't get the logic behind all these moves, but hopefully this is the positive change everyone thinks it is. I'm just a little worried about the new senior. If he comes and tries to make all the immediate changes he has planned they're gonna backfire right nicely in his face. He needs to sit back, observe, then go medieval on some asses. The only smart way to do it.

APPEARING EXCEPTIONAL AROUND MEDIOCRITY

2010-06-14T19:06:00.000-04:00

It's not hard to appear exceptional when surrounded by mediocrity. I came in this morning to hear horror stories about the parker's inability to handle the parking on her own. Not really surprised, especially considering I told her how to save herself a lot of effort (which she didn't do). The trucks were apparently a mess on Friday. Ah well, as long as we have such great people working here I'll never be out of a job.

ORDER IN THE COURT

2010-06-11T20:59:00.000-04:00

My time has come. Jury duty. And this was the GRAND JURY, which, as I learned, apparently meant I could be stuck from 2 weeks or up to 3 months! At least, the 3 month thing if I postponed for another time, which I contemplated given all the crap I have to do. But, I bit the bullet and threw my hat into the ring.

The result? I wasn't selected for one of the three juries they had. Instead, I was relocated across the street to Surrogates Court where I sat, except for lunch. And then dismissed! The whole room cheered when the lady in charge said all their juries were full for this round, and it'd be 8 more years!

Luckily I loaded up with plenty to do. I brought several Archie digests to read, as well as my Index work (so I could be ready for a weekend-long bang session in case I got held up with this crap). Also had internet access so I was able to talk to Miranda most of the time. So, it wasn't a totally painful experience and I did get somewhat ahead on my Index work.

Lemons and lemonade.

DIFFICULT

2010-06-09T21:11:00.000-04:00

I had two truck parkers these past few weeks. One was the one who got the job originally, the new courier who was a former employee from a year ago. The other was a handler who had just started the past couple of months. With the primary learning to do other things, the handler ended up taking 3 days of the week from her. But, he has since gone nights leaving her all by her lonesome.

Now, let me tell you about this girl. She whines and complains whenever she has to do any work. And when I complain about HER to management, I get shut down because of some kind of "woman thing." She knows her job and she knows what she has to be done.

Today was the station meeting like every Wed, and she decides she HAS to go to that one. The meeting started at 6:40, she punched in around 6:20 and had several trucks to move. She proceeded to tell me if they weren't done by the meeting they weren't getting done. I told her she shoulda started earlier then. Later, when I finish my route, I get a bit of a "lecture" from Damien about talking to the women of the station after he leaves. I don't really see how what I said was wrong, but whatever. I'm always wrong when I complain about her work, especially her spending the first 20 minutes of her shift in the bathroom.

CATCHING UP...AGAIN

2010-06-07T19:41:00.001-04:00

Who knew becoming a professional writer would mean I'd have so little time to write? So here's what's been going on:

At work, I've upgraded myself from taking just straggler stops and helping the other route to taking my stuff, giving him whatever he needs to make his numbers, and then helping whoever calls. Thanks in part to our volume going back up. We're also back to a 2-floor line-up which thankfully means I no longer have to split packages all sort. However, this has led me to being bounced around all over the place since my route isn't a "loading" route (which means someone else is supposed to load my truck). So, I do the recycle (bringing the missed packages back to the start of the belt), scanning or unloading.

As usual, the challenge comes in the trucks. All the shuttle drivers' trucks are out of service, which means they help themselves to whatever's on line. Which means I have to go frantic trying to find suitable replacements (which, for the most part, don't exist). Especially since my truck parker isn't much help.

The CAG books are proving quite the challenge. It's one thing after another, the least of which is stuff coming in late. Really, I think I'm taking a short break once they're all done. The Marvel stuff is still going strong. I have another TPB to map out (not one I wanted, but whatever). Also got my comp copies of the Iron Man collection after buying one already. Fastest I ever got my comps.

That's all for now. More to come!

OUTTER SPACE

2010-05-05T19:16:00.000-04:00

Today I had to go help the outter area courier. The outter area is the far west side of our delivery area, which is home to the looooooongest blocks in the city. It's basically a route you need to drive around to do. But me, I walked it. Took about 10 stops and luckily remembered most of the tips he quickly spouted out to me as I took each package. Unfortunately there was one stop that proved to be more of a pain in the ass than he had indicated. I had to save that one for last and go back. Now I know how he stays so thin, that route is a killer. And yet, I still stay fat. Yeesh.

THE WORKING MAN

2010-05-03T18:57:00.000-04:00

Alright, here's what's been happening with my various jobs:

-They've decided to re-split the station back to two floors. GOOD. Having everything on one was too claustrophobic. I'll finally be getting a truck back, but I might be switching managers in the process. Not too big a deal, but what can ya do.

-Worlds Beyond is in Free Lunch's capable hands to get ready for the printer. Nothing I can do there except sit, wait, and field all the inevitable hounding questions of where it's at.

-Iconic has befallen some of the same problems the first one did. I'm having to chase down artists for their work. I've already lost one story because the artist had to pull out. Luckily, I was able to hook up another with a quick (AND GOOD) artist. He's plowing through the 15 page story in a matter of WEEKS. You need a quick artist, look up Carlos Weiser, folks!

-CAG Presents, I'm having to chase down EDITORS. My help is not being very helpful this time. I've had the stories up to be edited since before I wet to Boston, and only ONE of the four have gone over them that I can see. Not a good start to a book I'm having trouble recruiting talent for.

-Worst Case Scenario is also having some artist issues. Four of the ones we contacted, two we never heard from, one was unable to committ, and the other is looking to be paid (which we can't). So I've convinced the guys, who initially just wanted to drop the stories, to do one more open call. They tasked me with handling the writers so of course I'll be looking out for their interests, as well as the company as a whole. If we can't keep our talent happy the FIRST time out, how the hell are we gonna get additional down the road? They didn't bring me in because I half-ass these projects.

-I'm doing short tie-in webcomic scripts for one of Dark Brain's series. Basically they fill in a little backstory between the scenes of the main strip. I've already turned in three of a planned five. The last two are proving a challenge since I had designed them all in a full-circle story and my original concept was nixed due to continuity issues. Which is fine, it's their stuff and I really was just guessturing off the material I was sent. But, it does leave me without a solid conclusion. The dangers of working for someone else. But, so far, my fumbling through has met with approval so yay on that.

-Speaking of challenges...the Index. We have new distinctive classifications for each type of flashback that appears in an issue, and I'm having a bitch of a time getting the hang of them. I understand the reasoning, but when I have an issue that does a flashback, flashforward and a flash sideways, it gets to be a treat to have a straightforward story.

STRATEGY

2010-04-26T19:18:00.001-04:00

Finally fed up with the current arrangement of being the SECOND MAN on MY route, I used the fact I was the ONLY courier without a truck to leverage myself back into getting one. I said I would take some of the stops that get dropped, then meet up on my route and give whatever help is needed there. That way, I'm still shuttling around like I end up doing anyway and he's making his numbers. So, starting tomorrow, I now get a truck parked out on the street just for me. No more chasing down rides back, and no more annoying partners all the time. I mean, really, what were they saving each week that way? Nothing but 5 gallons of gas a week.

SUCK-ASS

2010-04-17T19:02:00.000-04:00

For today's CAG meeting we saw Kick-Ass. I wouldn't have even considered it if people didn't say they wanted to go. Of course, the kicker is the people who voted in the affirmative, 99% of them weren't the ones who showed! Instead we had a new guy and a couple of people who came only to the meeting.

The meeting was standard stuff, so I'll say this much: Kick-Ass sucked. It had a couple funny moments and I enjoyed the Hit-Girl scenes because those were unique, but otheriwse it was as suck-ass as the book. Big surprise. And speaking of suck-ass, avoid the Nathans on 7th Avenue. Their portions and quality have diminished, and especially for the brave souls who unfortunately tried Roy Rogers. They didn't even get past the first bite. I remember when Roy Rogers was on 86th Street. Them's was good eats. Guess ol' Roy fell of his white horse.

AFTER CON

2010-04-11T18:58:00.000-04:00

I had debated about whether or not I'd go back to the con today, since I didn't wanna stand in line for 2 hours again. But, it was warmer so after a disappointing search for the Tea Party site (which was nothing but a red-bricked waterfront) I headed over. I was pleasantly surprised at the LACK of line today. Very nice. I hung out and talked to the peeps there, and even hit a couple more discount bins before heading out for lunch and the bus.

Unfortunately, those extra comics were a mistake. All the walking I did and bumps I hit caused one of my suitcase wheels to buckle and drag. I tore the crap outta it. AND finding the places I found to eat proved impossible. All the Subways were closed and the Burger King was long gone. I ended up having to eat the pricey burgers in the bus terminal (where the genius employee quoted me the price for the double cheeseburger HAPPY MEAL rather than the burgers themselves).

The ride home wasn't as long. The internet was a lot more wonky so I attmpted to read some on the way. Not a bad trip, but if the con is at the same place again next year, I think I'm skipping it.

MURPHY'S LAW

2010-04-10T18:03:00.005-04:00

So much for my paper. Ended up passing out and not sending it in till 10 this morning. Frigging BSed the whole thing, especially to get it up to 4 pages. Dunno if I did it right, but I'd settle for a "done it" credit over anything else. I'm just not analytical, so analyzing a scene as inconsequential as I had to just didn't play to my strengths.

Also totally Geekd out over the last two episodes of Batman: Brave and the Bold. Was not aware new episodes had returned so I missed 3, caught part of one last night when I went for food. Why did I geek out? Well, not only were the episodes AWESOME as all hell, but the guest stars alone. Both eps featured Kevin Conroy as A Batman and Phantom Stranger, Dana Delany and Clancy Brown reprised a version of their Lois Lane/Lex Luthor roles, and Adam West and Julie Newmar played young Bruce Wayne's parents. And let's not forget Mark Hamil as The Spectre. SWEETNESS!

Boston Comicon was at a new venue this year. With the new venue and high-profile talent attending came another new thing: a line. Since CAG lost our table due to taking too damn long to find a convention coordinator and finalize the table, I had no badge to just slip in. Not that it would matter. Fire marshal was on hand strictly enforcing the 1800 person capacity limit. People who left the show, despite having their wrist bands, would hafta get back on line to get back in. The wait wouldn't've been so bad if I wasn't next to three annoying teenaged boys who thought everything was funny and stuck in a wind tunnel. I don't get cold easily, but by the time I got inside I was frozen throughout. Had to pay the $4 for a hotdog to try and warm up.

I walked around some. Bought some comics from venors, hit the discount bins, the usual. I was unprepared for this show since I thought it came later so I didn't have anything of my own to get autographed this time. Ah well. I did get to see the New England Ghostbusters and their cool equipment...including a full-replica Containment Unit. At the moment it just lit up, but they plan to install sound and lighting effects as per the movie. It was pretty sweet. Matt convinced me to get my picture taken with them. Guess I have a new Facebook photo. That was, unfortunately, the only picture I could take since my camera charger was missing with my DVDs.

George, our Boston coordinator, set up a little informal after-con gathering to which only those already AT the show attended (despite the 47 people on Facebook who said they'd come). Since the other convention in the hall was taking the place up we decided to hit a bar Keith Googled on his phone, appropriately named Murphy's Law. Not only because of Keither's last name, but because that's what you can apply to any CAG gathering.

Murphy's Law ended up being JUST a bar with no restaurant, so I ran ahead to find someplace else we could sit and eat. I found a bar/restaurant a couple blocks away, but we ended up being screwed over since we didn't have a reservation. Geeze, can't just walk into places no more. Tricia suggested an Italian Restaurant the next block over before bailing herself. Food was actually good, and inexpensive. So, despite the setbacks, we did have fun.

BEGINNINGS AND ENDS

2010-04-09T17:55:00.003-04:00

Happy birthday to me.

Gma's funeral was today in PA. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend since I had used Priceline's bidding option for my hotel in Boston and couldn't change or cancel it. So, instead after work I raced over to 31st Street to catch the Megabus.

Megabus had upgraded some since the last time I rode them. They're now sporting double-decker busses, which means even less headroom to go with the lack of legroom, but what can ya do. At least I was finally able to get an internet connection and figured out a way to deter my car sickness from reading to talk to Mira most of the way. Unfotunately, somehow I ended up misplacing the DVDs I spent a good half hour gatherng last night, using the DVD travel case ma got me for Xmas. Coulda sworn I put it in my schoolbag, but it wasn't there and the only time it was outta my sight was in my work locker. Had ma do a quick look around for it but to no avail. Odd.

So after a 2 hour delay in traffic, I got to the hotel in time for the deluge to hit. Good thing I mapped out places to eat, otherwise I'da never known about the Burger King 3 blocks away. So the plan is to eat, and finish up my paper so I can send it in and get my credit for it.

UNHAPPY EASTER

2010-04-04T17:52:00.002-04:00

Gma B finally gave up and died today. Pops was already in Florida when the shitheads down there said she was in the hospital. Ya know, it was expected. She's been slowly dwindling the last couple of years, and ma figures when she was unable to return to NY she just gave up. So, what can ya do?

COMIC BOOK SHUFFLE

2010-03-28T18:51:00.000-04:00

This weekend, my buddies at Free Lunch Comics had their first Comic Book Shuffle at their offices in Granby. At first, I was reluctant to go since Granby is a bit of a haul from here, but ultimately I decided and dropped my $10 entrance fee, booked my hotel, and I was set.

The Shuffle is basically an offshoot of 24-hour Comic Day, of which Matt is a frequent participant. We'd get 6 hours to do 6 pages (reduced to 5) on a randomly chosen theme. I've never done one before so I dunno what to expect.

Since we stil haven't changed my oil, I hadda take ma's car. Traffic held me up a bit and I got there a few minutes late to be paired up with the only person left. Turns out my partner was a writer who became an artist after taking one of Matt's classes. It pretty much showed in his line work, but at least he had a better mastery of the ruler than I ever did. The theme ended up being culinary arts, and I was able to recycle an Archie idea I had with some modifications.

I banged out the script in half an hour and he started working on layouts and characters in the meantime. At crunch time I ended up having to help him with the inks, and I also did the lettering. It was very old school; draw some lines, write the text. Near the end, he started inking two of the pages. I thought his pencils were rough, hoo boy... He inked as if he was sketching, allowing for two such pages amidst 3 cleaner ones. It is what it is.

We ended up the first pair finished WITHIN the original time (extended an hour by request). There was a myriad of different quality work. Some was outstanding, some was kinda meh, but it was pretty good considering the atmosphere.

After hanging out for a bit, I retired to my hotel in West Hartford (reminder: I must ask Steve or Matt for a place to crash next time or they will kill me). Lemme tell ya, this place was GREAT. It was more of a motel layout with separate buildings for the rooms, but the rooms were nice as hell. Like a mini apartment. I had a full kitchen, my bathroom had its own hallway, and a flat screen plasma TV. I coulda lived there! I did a little Index work, and also managed to catch Gran Torino finally. Good flick.

Today I went for breakfast in Hartford, nice little diner, before heading to the Plainville Comic Show for the judging. Of course, I raided the discount bins and picked up a nice batch of Archie comics. Having a car made ALL the difference as I was able to load it all in my trunk. Then came the page judging, and I lost as expected. Ah well. I'll most likely return for the shuffle next year, now that I know I'll need to bring some art supplies. I shall be prepared!

NY COMICBOOK MARKETPLACE

2010-02-27T13:38:00.000-05:00

Today was a small one-day show at the Penn Plaza Pavilion. I got a late start on the day, spending the better part of the morning digging out books to have autographed since I'd be there as a "civilian." But, some of the people I wanted to see were going to be in a panel anyways, so I took my time.

Getting there I had the unpleasant experience of running into Mark right off. I kept it short and civil, even though it made me feel sick. After that, I hit the floor and wandered around. I got autographs from Danny Fingeroth, Mark Texeira, Rich Buckler, Steve Mannion, Bob Wiacek, Sean Chen, Cliff Chiang, Chris Claremont and Larry Hama (including re-autographing two of the books that were stolen from me).

I hit a couple quarter bins, but I restrained myself. Came away with maybe 80 books or so, no boxes this time! Although, the guy didn't have any bags so I ended up with a box anyway... Oh well.

Coming home, I got the "brilliant" idea to post up all the autographs I've gotten over the years up on my Myspace and Facebook. Digging them all out, I didn't realize I had gotten SO MANY! My pile was HUGE, and not even complete as I had a couple scattered here and there. Me and my dumb ideas!

BLIZZARD '10

2010-02-26T20:57:00.000-05:00

We had a couple decent snowfalls this year with ACTUAL accumulation. Better than we have in the last couple of years, but nowhere near the levels of say '96 or '88. Although, if you listened to the media we've had the storm of the century each time.

Well, TODAY was the REAL blizzard. It snowed all through the night to the point that the unplowed streets were buried under a good 2 feet of snow. That's an example of my walk to work from the train, since pops was at work overnight 'cause of the weather.

We had a high number of sick calls, as I'm sure the whole district did, resulting in their canceling service. But, instead of sending us home, they had us collapse all the routes into several and just deliver everything in one shot. I got the route down the block from mine and was paired up with the guy who does the one across from that.

Basically the day was full of challenges. The snow kept alternating from heavy to light. As it got warmer, the snow we were parked next to started to melt forming a puddle across the underside of our truck which cars began splashing through as they passed. Had a fair number of people who didn't come in smartly because of the snow, and couldn't make one bulk delivery 'cause they closed off all access for falling ice, leaving the regular plenty of work for Monday. Basically we were out there till 3. We dropped off whatever pick-ups were made to a sweep driver and pulled in, about the same time as everyone else, it seemed.

I had managed to go 2 years without working in horrendous weather like this. Had a good run, but was bound to catch up to me. Aside from wet socks, and having to shovel right after work, it was actually kinda fun. Challenges are what keep the job interesting...when not busy making it stressful.

WRITING ARCHIE

2010-02-25T23:28:00.001-05:00

Heavy rain and snow couldn't keep me away from my third MoCCA panel, the writers of Archie Comics. It was a fun little panel, a little under-attended, but offered some good insights into the world of Archie. In recent months I've found myself reading Archie more and more lately. I used to read it all the time, especially at the store when I worked there. But actually collecting it? I've had maybe 4 issues and several digests to my credit. And while some stories are sillier than others, the warm simplicity of the book is a big draw for me. In fact, the panel sparked a couple Archie script ideas. I never wrote Archie before, but hey, may as well try.

RECAP

2010-02-15T09:40:00.004-05:00

Boy have I been busy. So busy, blogging kinda fell to the wayside. But, really, the days haven't been different enough to really warrant their own individual blogs. So, here, for those out there who stuck around and really care, is a rundown of my goings on.

The books are going smoothly, and yet they're not. I had to shelve the prose book while focusing on Iconic. Recruiting ultimately went fine, as did story assignments. I did have a couple of artists unfortunately drop out, one was a real asshole...waiting a MONTH before doing so when he KNEW his life was scheduled to become hectic. Dick. No professionalism. The big problem is I'm having a hard time keeping an artist on this one story. Hopefully third time's the charm. One artist already turned in his pencils for review a whopping 10 days early. I love that.

The prose book is also underway finally. I spent all of yesterday setting it up. I just need to figure out how to get it to a printer...once I pick one. The only thing holding me back is James who's doing the cover and a story image. Then I still need to run the cover over to Willie to do mock-ups on. I was hoping to get the book out this month, but I guess I need to settle for March.

Index vol. 2 has kicked off, but since I didn't have original issues and they prefer it I sat out #1. Which was fine, let me have some time to do some of my other projects. I'm back in for #2 though, but the fun part is they've completely changed up a lot of the formatting from the last volume. One issue I did had a couple of the new changes within it so I sent that along to the editors to see if I'm following correctly. Once I get feedback on that I can polish up the other 5 entries I got (out of the dozen I requested...getting shafted due to all the n00bs on the team I think) and send those in, then eagerly await bidding on entries for #3. I'm thinking maybe it's good I got only 6, those six took me an ENTIRE day. Not easy.

On the flip side, the Iron Man entries are being collected into one big trade edition in time for the movie. I did what I could on editing, but everyone seemed to miss one thing: the variant cover to vol. 3 #1 got cut out. I know I saw it in early PDFs for edits, but somewhere between the last edits and publication it got deleted. SO, it's not gonna be a COMPLETE book, but good enough. I'm also not too happy with their cover choices, as they have a montage of Iron Man #1s interrupted by the first part of the Demon in the Bottle story. I understand why they did it, but design-wise it kills the symmetry. Ah well. Otherwise, I think it looks great...so PICK IT UP!

That is all for now.

TV DEBUT

2009-12-30T12:53:00.000-05:00

Remember a few months ago I mentioned a film crew was following a package through the system and our station? Well, tonight the show aired. It's called Jobsite, and it was absolutely hilarious. First of all, a good portion of it was staged. I'm sure most of it was legit, but a lot of the actions and reactions you knew was bull. Also, the package was suddenly going to a hospital with some quickly expiring medication when in reality it was delivered to one of our clothing producing buildings. Not to mention the fleet they showed launching wasn't even ours, but the station next door's. Despite all the obvious flaws, and Damien looking like a total lost douche while delivering, it was a pretty interesting and informative show.

Also today I had to go back to 1 Penn to get the rest of the items not ready yesterday with one of our new handlers. They had two TVs on a stand and one big mother for us. The big mother came on a rolling stand that could have EASILY made it through the loading dock and up the ramp leading down to it, but the lady there was very adamant about us loading the TV onto a hand truck separately. Ya know, whatever. Wouldn'ta been all that big a deal if the TV didn't weigh a friggin' TON, and we had decided to take it OFF the hand truck back ONTO the stand before the lady put in her 2 cents. Whatever.

The next hurdle was the freight guy wouldn't let us go down without a yellow pass. That's right, you needed a goddamn pass to get OUT of the building on top of the passes you needed to get IN to the building. WTF? So it took us a good half hour to get downstairs. Luckily, someone from another station was there for their own stuff to help us some. Then there was the matter of loading the TVs onto the truck I brought, and then unloading them at the station. Interestingly enough, taking the mother off the truck and onto its stand was probably the EASIEST part of the task of the day. It just fell right into place.

CHRISTMAS RUNDOWN

2009-12-25T12:27:00.002-05:00

Time for the usual gift parade:

Not shown:
-Lined jean jacket.
-Gloves.
-Ebay gift certificate.

DE-ROUTED

2009-12-21T21:37:00.000-05:00

Remember how I said I was supposed to be taking over the routes once Rory became a swing driver? Yeah, well, turns out one of the night guys is coming to days and they gave HIM the route. So, once again, stuck with an unwanted partner. Joy.

SNOW FROLIC

2009-12-20T11:10:00.004-05:00

Last year, I got the idea too late to get the gang together to go see the Dyker Heights lights. This year, I once again almost missed it but managed to recover and secure everyone for tonight. Got D, sis, Tina and the addition of Jessica.

For those who don't know, Dyker is the area of Brooklyn lousy with mansions, and every year they REALLY do it up with the lights and Christmas displays. You non-NYers can Google it to see some examples for yourself. A fun time was had by all, except some parts by the driver who had trouble navigating past morons in the snow-covered streets. But, that was minor.

At one point, Tina had us stop by this snowman on one street so we could all take our picture by it. It was nuts; four of us would pose, one would take the picture, then we'd all swap out the photographer. What was also crazy was that the snowman had TWO faces; one towards the street and one towards the sidewalk. Although, I think that same block always does a snowman like that. I recall seeing one like that before in that area years ago when snow during winter was a NORMAL thing.

After, we hit the Vegas Diner for some dinner and chatting before heading our own ways. I dropped off Jessica and Tina, took April home, then went with D to Best Buy to pick up the last of my Xmas presents (a moment of inspiration and an Amazon order this morning took care of the rest). Those being two gift cards, one for him and one for Liz. I told him just get me the Iron Man game I pulled out of the discount bins they had set up. But, the little sneak went and got me the Where's Waldo? game for DS I got a little excited over. He said it was gonna be for his sister, but I knew he was full of it. For Xmas Eve, in lieu of opening presents we'll make up for the movie night that was missed.

The only thing that really marred today was the fact my back was killing me. Our snowblower needs to be fixed yet, so they got this little BS thing. It's decent enough, but couldn't really handle the amount of snow that hadda be dealt with. So, basically, the constant back and forth motion and the fact I needed to do some shoveling to help it along killed me. Damn old age...

SNOW PARTY

2009-12-19T11:16:00.003-05:00

I had planned to go to the CAG holiday party tonight with a full van of people. One got sick, one's wife got sick, one never wrote back, and the other bailed for fear of the impending snow. So ended up just me, Alex, Yadira and James (whose ride also bailed for the snow). Despite the GPS getting me slightly lost for the highway AGAIN (stupid Bronx overpasses) we had a fairly good ride and got there quickly.

This was the first time any of us had been to the new CT chapter meeting place, the Green Street Art Center. Nice little place, mostly for kids, though...at least the part we were in. We had fun. They did their little Yankee Swap, I caught up with some people to handle some business. I'll admit, though, that after yesterday the spread here seemed kinda...lacking. But, what can ya do.

After everyone went home, we went with Keith and the Soares to a nearby pub for a couple drinks (and a very nasty burger had by me) and some more talking. I got to play some darts, something I hadn't done since my Poughkeepsie days. We called it quits a little after 5 and headed for home.

By the time we got back to the Bronx the snow had started. My 4-wheel dream handled it perfectly. Can't say the same for the five idiots I saw in various accidents on my way home. One even got spun around all the way! Crazy how stupid people can be.

PARTY #1

2009-12-18T19:37:00.002-05:00

Today was the annual holiday party in my main building on my route. I was invited the other day, and despite all the stuff I have to do, I figured I'd make an appearance. This year, they had a bigger tree that really dwarfed the little train they had running around the base. There was the usual spread of pasta, sausage, eggplant, chicken and more, as well as cookies, cake, and the chocolate fondue fountain. Needless to say, I scarfed till I couldn't scarf no more. It was oh-so-good.

After, I got home and got to work getting the van ready for the trek tomorrow for CAG's holiday party. I swung by Rite Aid to pick up some soda, an item Sue mentioned we were short on, as well as some Martinellis FINALLY. I checked the engine and fluids, filled the tires, and tried to wipe off some of the mud leftover from my last jaunt upstate.

I was already bringing Alex and his wife and Rob up and bringing James home, but last week we added our new member Rhyan and Erick to the mix. However, Rhyan had to bail because he got sick, Rob because his wife was sick, and Erick so he could prepare for the pending storm. With such a reduced line-up, I called Alex and told him he was getting door-to-door service. No sense in meeting up at a meeting location for only one pick-up.

FINAL

2009-12-16T12:15:00.001-05:00

About the dumbest thing I did today was order the variant covers for the Ghostbusters books that came out these last two weeks. Had I exhibited a little patience and waited till I passed by Jim Hanley's tonight, I woulda been able to get all the ones I needed for half the cost. But, I got nervous by Graham Crackers listing a couple of them as SOLD OUT. Oh wells.

Last week we were all given the option of taking the final on Monday or today. I opted for today as I'd have no time over the weekend to even remotely study. I didn't know the test was cumulative and only studied the newer material. But, the older stuff was stuff I was better versed in so hopefully that made some difference.

After, I swung by the comic shop and then went over to Macy's for the first time. I'm so lost for Christmas gift ideas that I was hoping wandering around a store would present some. It didn't. Macy's was four floors of women's products, one floor of Men's, and two floors of miscellaneous junk. The cool part was riding up the original wooden escalators. Other than that, I can now say I've been to Macy's and move on. And I still have no gift ideas. Really trying to avoid just gift carding.

GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME A COLD!

2009-12-13T21:22:00.004-05:00

Sis wanted to go to the Statute of Liberty today. Well, as usual, the stupid MTA had me running late. I tried to take a shortcut to get there but ended up screwing myself by not taking a train I didn't think went to where I needed to be. Twice. I made it with minutes to spare and ran, through the pouring rain, mind you, to the terminal. Unfortunately, I got held up AGAIN because I forgot I had a pair of handcuffs in the schoolbag I took. Without my old ID and convincing them I wasn't a terrorist, I had to wait for the next ferry since I missed the one I was SUPPOSED to take.

Eventually got to the island and met sis in the giftshop area. She had gotten me a burger and soda from this deli which was cold by the time I got it, but good (needed ketchup!). So we hit the statue. Looked around the base museum (and our fully-charged cameras were both dyning after the 10th picture!), then climbed the stairs to the top of the pedestal. Now, lemme tell ya, I went to Liberty once years ago as a kid, and the climb didn't seem as quick or effortless then as it did this time. Dunno what the difference was, but there it is. They also cleaned up the statue real nice, seeing all the shiny chrome up through the observation glass. We walked around the outside of the pedestal briefly but that was quick due to all the blustery winds and rain.

We walked around the base for a bit before catching the ferry to Ellis Island. There she wanted to do some research for a novel she's writing, which involves immigrants back in the day. We had gone to Ellis then as well, but I didn't remember it was well as I did the statue. Odd.

Thoroughly soaked by then, we headed back to the city and had dinner at the Burger King next to Ground Zero. We had a fun time aside from the winds and rain and the fact we had to stop by a Duane Reade so she could get a pair of socks to change into. I'll be seeing her again next week for our Christmas light frolic!

And yes, I made the Ghostbusters 2 joke. What do you take me for?

SANTA CON

2009-12-12T12:09:00.002-05:00

Today was our delayed MoCCA meeting, which ended up SEVERELY under-attended when compared to last month. I guess the tease of the last time mixed with the holidays took its toll. Well, that worked out fine. We had a quick meeting and were able to get on over to the museum to enjoy the Archie exhibit; which was pretty cool. Basically you followed Archie's evolution through the decades, got to see some of the merchandise that came out, and they even had episodes of the old cartoon playing. The cartoons, by the way, kinda sucked. I know it was the 60s and I recognized most of the voice actors from the numerous other cartoons, but geeze, they coulda done SOME better casting. Veronica isn't southern!

Welson met us at the museum just as we were ready to leave. We all went over to St. Mark's again to hang and browse while I picked up a variant cover to a Ghostbusters one-shot that came out this week.

One odd note for today was the discovery of Santa Con. Apparently, there's a group of people who dress up as Santa in everything from traditional to the totally bizarre and walk around the Village. We saw Santas, female Santas, elves, reindeer...the works. That was rather...unique.

TURKEY DAY

2009-11-26T11:48:00.004-05:00

How far has the family unit fallen? Well, let's put it this way: I spent 10 hours today reorganizing my TO READ comic boxes; something that desperately needed to be done. However, doing it for 10 hours straight was rather stupid. In the end, I ended up with 15 long boxes almost full. Oy!

Today was a bit special because Tina had to come by to pick up a couple of the pudding pies I made her. I had sent her a text the other day to do so, but she probably didn't check them until today. Anyway, we stood and talked for a bit outside (which wasn't too bad at all in terms of temperature...though you wouldn't know it the way she was all bundled). That was a nice little exchange. And a least I'm seeing her more than ONCE this year!

The worst part of the day was the apple cider. Hardly ANY Martinellis on sale around us this year. Pops went and found a cheap knock-off brand. It tasted like apple-flavored wine. Accept no substitute, folks!

INDIAN DISCO

2009-11-18T21:13:00.000-05:00

Sis was gonna be in Brooklyn so she wanted to get together for a little dinner. We ended up at the Taj Mahal, Indian joint in the 'hood. We tried to get Tina to come, but she was busy. So was just me, sis, Roy and eventually D when he got off work. Food was good, and someone there had a birthday so they dimmed the lights and had a couple colored light balls sinning around the place. I could equate it to the Lego Batman game, where when you solve a couple of floor puzzles it turns the scene into a disco with a disco-fied version of the Batman theme.

D finally spilled the beans so guess I don't hafta hide it here no more since no doubt I'll be referencing it here and there: he's gonna be a pops. Yup. I already lectured him so I'll save it here.

KEY HOLED

2009-11-10T19:06:00.001-05:00

At work, we've got this computerized magnetically locked drawer that we use to scan IDs in order to give out the truck keys. The company broke ties with the company that manufactured it and the tags, so the system, which has been messed up for a while now, will be chucked when it finally dies in favor of a universal peg-board system.

Well, today, it died. We've gotten to the point where we had to bang it or pry it with a tire iron the boss provided in order to open it sometimes, but none of the tricks or rebooting worked this time. So, we ripped the front off of it to get at the keys.

I had to go help out inside the Empire State Building. I didn't have many stops, but it may as well have been a ton. I got stranded by the freight elevators...TWICE. FOUR freights, it took me 25 minutes to get off one floor and 15 to get off another. I did what I could through the front elevators, but with all the different banks it didn't make much difference. I also tried the stairs, but again, the access points I needed were unavailable. I ended up with four lates as a result, and by the time I got out of the building my rides back were already gone. Yeah, fun day.

GATHERING

2009-11-07T18:32:00.000-05:00

Sis and Roy are back in town for a bit before returning to their lives in Texas. As usual, she organized a gathering of friends for lunch. There was me, Tina, Maritza, Jessica and Jessica's BF whom most of us met for the first time. She gave us all souveniers from overseas, I gave them the crap I got them from Boston. I got a translated Superman comic and some art I'll hafta find wall space for.

Lunch was fun. We broke up around 3 and all went to do our own things. After being home for a few, I eventually decided to go back to the Starbucks where Tina was going to grade some papers. Well, she said the only way she gets to hang with people is if they come to Starbucks...so I did. Figured I only see her once a year may as well make additional times count. I brought the laptop and worked on some scripts and my prose story while she graded. We talked some, and made me smile when she got so happy when one of her kids did well. And hey, I was actually productive! Told her if she ever wanted company to let me know when she's at the 'bucks and I'd come on by. I don't expect a call.

I've decided this year to go back to the holiday baking. I'll probably do my usual pie and some brownies. Told Tina I'd make something for her family this year. So we'll see what happens. At least I'm guaranteed to see her two more times because of that!

Funniest part of the day though was I got a call from Alex asking me where the diner we'll be having our meeting at was. I was kind of expecting someone to call like that because of the odd weekend last week. I almost thought the same thing myself a couple times, that this was the second weekend. But, nope, it's next week. Sorry, Alex! Read the E-Mails carefully!

WHAT HAPPENED TO HALLOWEEN?

2009-10-31T18:50:00.000-04:00

My Halloween plans ended up fairly scrubbed. I was gonna have Jackie from my old store come over to watch Ghostbusters for the first time, but I couldn't muster the energy to get the apartment cleaned in time. Sis wanted to do a Halloween party at her house, but everyone but me was busy. Her sis ended up throwing one yesterday, but I needed a nap more than I needed a hangout. Danielle was also gonna do a Rocky Horror dress-up viewing thing for her birthday which I declined to attend in light of my plans, but which ended up postponed anyway. So I ended up just giving out candy today.

That was a waste of time. We didn't get much chance to decorate which ma thinks is why so many people passed by the house, even with a sign I put up on the door saying to ring the bells. But, the fact was, the kids were all reportedly out on the avenues as practically no one came up or down the block. Even when I stood out there for an hour in last year's costume I barely got any "customers." Disappointing.

It was also hot as hell! What is with Halloween ALWAYS being warm lately? I was practically dripping under my mask! I remember when Halloween used to be so chilly I'd need a jacket over my costume most of the time. But, at least the gloomy day was the perfect accent. I think next year I might participate in the Halloween Parade. Seems to only get bigger as Halloween gets smaller.

FILM DUD

2009-10-29T19:04:00.000-04:00

In class today I saw the results of our semi-finished movie. Partner added the puppet scene we didn't get to film, but that was about it. Somehow, the cuts we made and reviewed several time the week before ended up too quick and not in the same places we had done them. Dunno how that happened, but happened it did. I managed to insert the ending and credits while the prof was showing other people's projects, but ours ended up not converting to the right format. So, we'll have to show it next week after we fix the error on it.

ALL'S WELL

2009-10-27T22:44:00.000-04:00

My online friend stopped being emo and came to her senses, so all is good.

CON AWAY!

2009-10-25T22:51:00.000-04:00

So the answer to the question of why my rolling suitcase kept flopping to one side on Thursday is that one of the wheels ripped off of the fabric and can't sustain weight. And weight is definitely what I had after loading my comics into the thing. After cabbing it to the con, I opted to take Rob up on his offer to drive me home with Michele. So since I was now getting door-to-door service, I decided to raid the 25 cent bins I found for the second time to pick up some books I put back. Boy, am I glad I did. Last night I had talked to Walt Simonson about never being able to find the Frog-Thor issues, and what do I find? ALL THREE BOOKS! I grabbed them and the duplicates and went over to Walt's table to have them signed. I just thought that was wicked cool. I LOVE DISCOUNT BINS!

Of course the adventure began after we left the show. We had stopped off just north of Hartford at a rest stop, and Rob left his keys in the car. So we were there waiting until he signed up as part of his wife's AAA plan so they would send out a truck to pry it open. Truck got there pretty quick after the fact, considering, and after some finagling he got us back in. But, thanks to that, we were running real late what with some traffic slow-downs. Michele's house took forever to find and by the time I got home it was midnight. Keep in mind I still needed to eat and I had to be up at 4 for work.

At the end of it all, that rolling bag had to be thrown out. I apparently ripped a hole in it dragging it around town. Oops.

CON-ING AROUND

2009-10-24T22:20:00.000-04:00

First day of the con. I decided to get my buying out of the way early and hit the discount bins. I tried to keep my haul small for the trip and succeeded for the most part. I met Craig Rousselau and bought a Marvel Adventures book for him to sign, saw Mark McKenna whom I met last week, Jim Calafiore who apparently remembers me after all the cons I've seen him at and Khoi Pham who remembered my being short a dollar at New York Comiccon and having to get change to pay him. At least I'm not forgettable. I just wish I had time to go through all my books like I wanted, 'cause Herb Trimpe was there and I coulda got any of my first Wolverine appearance reprints signed. Ah well.

The big meet of the day, though, was Walt and Louise Simonson. We invited them to the after-party we were throwing at a nearby pub and they came! Some of us chatted up Walt while others talked to Louise, and we asked him about doing the foreword for Iconic 2. The fact he said he'll even consider it was huge.

The party went pretty good. We had some people turn out besides the group, and it was a nice place. Only problem was the invites had an address on them that DIDN'T exist. So I had a little trouble finding it until I saw Everett through a window on the cross street.

At lunch time, me, Keith, his high school friend and a new member all went to eat at Cheers. It was much more crowded than the other one yesterday, probably because we came right in the middle of the lunch rush. The funny part was we were touring the place while waiting for a table, and after going downstairs when the pager thingy they gave us went off to find out where we were sitting, we had to go BACK upstairs to the "replica bar," as they call it. Ah well...it's an adventure. So we laughed, we talked, I got a new artist for Iconic, and was correct that the portions are MUCH bigger there than at the other one. Definitely worth the money that time.

After I went back to the North Church to get one more souvenier. I had gotten something for Tina and thought of a way to package it when I was already back at the hotel. Always get good ideas too late. Unfortunately, that turned out to be a big mistake 'cause Boston's streets aren't a grid so much as a swirling vortex that sends you every which way, and after all the walking I did yesterday this extra little bit just killed my legs and feet. So yeah, the rest of the day was pretty painful.

TOURISM

2009-10-23T22:34:00.002-04:00

Today I decided to finish up the Freedom Trail that I started last year. I opted to catch the subway (similar to Philly's but a hell of a lot cleaner) to the end of the line and start backwards since I already covered everything in the area I'm staying.

I started out at the Bunker Hill museum and monument. Nothing like climbing a 221 foot structure to make you realize how out of shape you are. By step #100 (marked) I was gasping. But I did it, and I got some pictures. I can basically describe it like climbing through the stairwell of a castle tower.

Next was the U.S.S. Constitution and its museum. Boy, I thought the Intrepid was short...I was almost crawling by the third deck. Then it was over the Charleston Bridge to Copp's Hill Cemetery, the Old North Church, and then on to the Paul Revere House.

Walking through the house I couldn't help but think how funny it was. I mean, here you have all of us who live somewhere, but a good percentage of our houses and stuff will never be saved or toured. Wonder if Paul ever thought his junk would be on display in a house he only lived in for a decade or two? Not everything in the house was originally his, though, but a good few pieces were.

I ended up back in Quincy Market to have lunch/dinner at Sam's Cafe. That was a bit of a mistake. Paid $11 for a burger and fries that were much smaller portions than Cheers proper. I was also gonna look for an ice cream parlor, but ended up finding one down the way from the cafe. Lucky break there.

I ended up dropping a lot of coin on souvenirs for people. I think I bought too many, gonna need to lay 'em all out and go through them. Decide who to give what. People might get multiple this time.

The only real bad part of the day was when I went on that online game I mentioned. The friend I made on there just got dumped by another friend she made because her boyfriend didn't like how close they were getting. So, in response, she went all emo and decided to withdraw entirely and keep things on the public forum, rather than us two just talking independently. Hoping she'll come to her senses in time, but at least THIS one wasn't my fault!

I also kinda hate my new jacket. The chest pockets are slightly higher and tighter than my old one. Man, I miss it. It was just so...me. I guess I hafta get used to it, eh?

Tomorrow: The Con!

BOSTON BOUND

2009-10-22T22:24:00.002-04:00

Megabus never sent me my tickets and I couldn't get through to their customer service number, so I ended up booking with Bolt Bus instead. Means I have to come home 2 hours earlier than planned, but small price. I stayed up till almost 2 packing my bag, and still had to pack more in the morning...the stuff I needed to charge or use before work. Ran pretty good all day for just 2 hours of sleep, maybe less.

After work I caught my bus and got a nice surprise of wi-fi access on board. Unfortunately, my inability to read in a moving vehicle also extends to the online stuff, so when I started to feel sick I started to watch the movies I brought along. I'll say this much; Megabus has MUCH better seating for bus napping.

Got to my hotel without incident, checked in, dropped off my crap, and set out to find the Subway I saw nearby for some dinner. Ended up finding an awesomely massive church along the way I'll grab a picture of tomorrow.

I got the unpleasant discover of NO complimentary internet at the damn hotel. Ending up having to pay $10 a night to use it. Dammmit. Oh well, tax write-off! My room is also pretty small compared to the one I had at the Sheraton in CT, but it seems like it was made just for me. Why? When I put the radio on for when I went to bed, it was already tuned to a CBS-esque station. Perfect! No radio searching.

Tomorrow: tourism!

1.21 JIGAWATTS!

2009-10-21T23:52:00.000-04:00

After work today I headed to my local Staples to pick up the last of the plastics so I could finish the badges for Boston. I was treated to a pleasant surprise when I passed the parking lot to find a DeLorean parked there. I've never seen one outside of a car show before. So that was pretty cool. Took some pics with my phone for posterity.

I also passed by a place on 86th to finally get myself a new jacket.

ON ROUTE?

2009-10-20T22:29:00.000-04:00

Some changes coming down at the job. Leslie put in for a swing position, which means his route is gonna be open as well as the truck parking job. His suitable replacement for the latter, Ken, also put in for a night position and got it. That leaves the new old girl, Crystal, as the last ditch solution to that problem. Carmine is out since he got flustered having to only park TWO trucks one day. And then there's Rory, who on the DL put in for a swing position as well. What that means is they're gonna collapse our two priority routes together into mine, and give the other packages to the other two in the area. If I can swing it on my own I will, if I need help and it's available they'll give it. So I'm back to having to hustle...hope I still have it in me.

MIDTERM SCREWED

2009-10-19T22:14:00.002-04:00

So I didn't keep up with my school schedule and missed my midterm was today. And sincce I had the con over the weekend I didn't have time to make my study sheet OR study. I banged it out last night and studied as much as I could, but of course the question phrasing made it impossible for me to apply what I know accurately. That and I missed two sections of information so yeah, not expecting too well a grade on this one. What can I say? I've got no time to work AND go to school.

In happier news, Sis finally got engaged to her BF. It's about damn time.

BIG APPLE CON IN SUMMATION

2009-10-18T21:53:00.002-04:00

This weekend was the first Big Apple Con since Wizard took it over. Having only been to one Wizard show, I could tell ya it definitely felt like a Wizard show. Basically they held it in a long pier building and had celebrities and non-comic stuff up front. The middle section was dealers and retailers, and in the back were us comic people. I met a couple new creators and chatted with some old ones, but for the most part I was all over the place.

The early part of my day was spent running to the Staples on 57th and 6th to get the name tags I had made printed up and cut into size. Unfortunately, they didn't even cut them till I got there so I was waiting a good hour and a half till they did. And they didn't even cut them all that well. To top it off, I bought 150 plastics for them, and ended up with ONLY 110. Bastards.

The first night, I met John Schnieder and Tom Wopat, got autographed pictures. Tom was a lot more approachable than John, and even gave me a free copy of his upcoming CD with the date for a show he's doing in December here. Think I may just go to that. I tried to meet Adam West but got snubbed. And, of course, I raided the discount bins. I thought two garbage bags woulda been sufficient to carry them, but I shoulda brought the rolling suitcase like I wanted to. I found some treasures in a lot of good books, but the best came in finding a Dynamic Forces certified autographed book and two other hand autographed books. I love it!

Day 2, I got my picture taken inside the Batmobile replica that was there and raided a 10 cent bin. We all went to eat at a Greek restaurant where I ended up with these nasty-ass chip things, and then some of us went back to the pier to check out the Taylor Dane concert for networking opportunities. However, that turned out to be a bust. Everyone came and left leaving a sparse crowd, and Taylor Dane only performed four songs and one encore.

Third day I got there pretty late, but got some GWP business out of the way. I'm hoping to get our books started in December so this way we can have both out over the course of next year. I also got to fix up the Hell's Blood script like Hector wants so we can get it over to Liam so he can get his name in the book at least.

The only bad part of the show was I didn't get to hang with Liz, like, at all. I miss talking to her and our hanging at cons. But now she works the cons and she's too busy to chat or text so whatever. What can I do, right? At least she lasted longer than most of my new friends before they went MIA.

LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION!

2009-10-08T21:25:00.002-04:00

Film day! The prof let us come in the period earlier so we would have time to film and then get on to editing during our regular period. Things didn't go as smoothly as I hoped.

First, I had trouble finding my costume from last year, but finally made good late into last night. Then I ended up getting to the school 10 minutes later than I planned, so there went that time there. Plus, my partner didn't have the gumption to go and get the camera so we could be ready to roll. Then they both took up a little time on their cell phones when we were ready to go on with a scene. So that took some precious minutes.

But in the end, we managed to get everything. My attempt at creating a dolly with his skateboard and some flat FedEx tubes came out a little shakier than I'd've liked, so I just free-styled it and they came out pretty good. I also had Amaryllis film one scene but being in such a rush I didn't adequately explain what she should do so the shot came out horrible. Basically we got in everything but one segment which he said he could film at home and splice in. So hopefully he does.

In editing period I picked and chose all our good shots and got them organized so we could just get on to editing next week. This project ended up more involved than I thought, but then what project do I do that doesn't?

RETURN

2009-10-05T22:29:00.000-04:00

Today I came back. Yay. Traffic was light, and my load was easy to carry. The funny thing though is my bad knee was fine all weekend, but as soon as I headed upstairs it went back to being bothered. Now, keep in mind yesterday I jumped all around a mountain with no problems. Bad omen, eh?

Didn't accomplish as much as I wanted to. Only read some of my comics, did some script work and got part of my prose story done. I did get the edits on the prose finished so that's a plus. And tonight I put up the first two Iconic scripts on Google Docs so my editors could gleam them and do their things.

Not really looking forward to work tomorrow, but then, who is?

HIKE!

2009-10-04T20:49:00.004-04:00

Woke up this morning to discover the power was out, including the water. If it got fixed or not would decide when I'd be returning, but fortunately it was all fixed by the time I got back from breakfast in town. So one more day for me! Yay!

Weather was nice enough I got some hiking in. Tried my best, but still managed to kill another pair of sneakers. Maybe next year I'll try some waders and just follow the brook from the INSIDE. I could only get to the smaller waterfall because of heavy erosion in the area. But, I did get some nifty pics and even used my phone to record some of my expedition. Gonna hafta see how I can upload it from the phone when I get back.

It was an adventure, though. Scaling the mountainside, swinging from the trees, knocking over dead ones that I used to stabilize myself. At one point I even had to use some fallen trees as a guide-rail over this one spur of the brook. For fun I also followed some of the pre-marked trail the conservancy had set up there, thinking via the sign they had posted it'd take me back to the main road, but that turned out to be bunk. Got some cool pics from there, though. It was quite the adventure. Too bad nobody was around to see/experience it with me. Then again, not sure if anyone I know coulda kept up. I didn't get tired till I got on the foot trail and discovered it was taking me up the mountain in the WRONG direction. Then again, at that point I had been hiking for over 2 hours so yeah.

PAR-TAY!

2009-10-03T20:24:00.001-04:00

Nothing much of note today. Did some writing, did some reading. I intended to go hiking but the weather hasn't been too kind. But tonight, there was a birthday/halloween party I wish I knew about sooner. I headed down to check it out. There was a lot of dancing (thanks to all the drinking) and DJ music. I hung by the wall mostly, picking at the food. I don't know anyone here any more, which is the downfall of this place. If only I could get friends up here then it'd be PERFECT. I'd love to take my friends with me and then I can transplant up here guilt-free.

Anyways, I did talk to the owner and the groundskeeper some, but otherwise just enjoyed the show. And more great timing, I slipped on one of the Ghostbusters shirts I bought yesterday. Best I could do for the theme at least.

I'm resolving to get back on the silm-out train. I'm kinda sick of my pants being one-size too big. I can't wear anything smaller and bigger, sheeyeah not. So, when I get back I'm gonna make my follow-up doc appointment and get the bike fixed at the same time finally. I didn't get to do it much this year thanks to that botched repair job. I probably coulda made time to bike, but not schlep all the way to the 90s to get a patch job.

Oh, and in case you didn't guess, she nor D showed up.

WALLY WORLDING AGAIN

2009-10-02T19:55:00.000-04:00

Ended up going to Walmart today because I left some food stuffs back home. Ma had me bring some stuff from home so I wouldn't go out to eat all weekend. I thought it was a good idea. As much as I like living on burgers, probably not a good idea in practice. So I got Mac & Cheese, but forgot the butter. Got some chicken breast, but forgot the bagged salad. Also needed to get some tomatoes for said salad.

I decided to try out the McDonald's inside the store after my disappointment with Burger King last time. I know, I know...I just said no living on burgers, but I haven't sufficiently explored Monticello yet, and it's like there! Same prices as back at home, that was a pleasant surprise. Finished up and picked up a couple DVDs, some t-shirts, some underthings, a new hat, a tire gague, and some art supplies along with those groceries I mentioned. I plan to do something with that comic strip I have in mind. Dunno how much of a something, but something. I passed by Peck's for the burgers, buns and milk, and swung by town for a little fudge for myself. It's damn good fudge.

Now dumb me, I cleaned myself out of quarters. Dumb because the new regime doesn't keep the Rec Hall open like it used to be. Only on holiday weekends really, not dead weekends like this on here. Crap. So I have my ashtray full of quarters (which needed to be refilled anyways) and one cup holder. Ah well. I got enough to do up the trailer anyway.

Scripts have already started coming in for Iconic. Surprised at the turnaround for that. I guess my threats of "on time or expultion" worked. Won't start looking at them till I land a couple more editors to back me up. This damn prose project ended up being a semi-albatross 'cause of one editor ditching the group with no explanation.

BACATION!

2009-10-01T19:48:00.001-04:00

Pretty standard work week. Monday was a Jewish holiday which meant extra freight on Tuesday. I ended up having to go out with 10 of the WORST stops Rory coulda stuck me with given the time I was leaving. Yeah, I had lates, but whatever. They should know better. Wednesday I got held in and caught up on some station stuff, and today was standard all around.

Except for the fact I'm going upstate! Booyah! However, I didn't get much time to pack and needing to use the bathroom forced me to leave a tad late. I ate dinner at the rest stop and stupidly took one of my Lyme pills which made me nice and drowsy almost halfway there. But don't worry, folks! I made it in once piece through a LOT of struggling. Fortunately, I'm experienced in operating under extreme drowsiness. I did have to pull over for a couple of minutes to collect myself with the cold air, but that was about it. Don't take those while driving!!! So much crap for a theoretical disease I'm SURE I don't even have.

I unloaded the truck, got everything set up, and just set down to do some writing and watch a movie. I had gotten Brisco County, Jr. and My Name is Bruce yesterday days ago, so I got to enjoy those. Nice timing! My Name is Bruce is a total fan-service movie, and is just awesomely bad. I mean it's not great filmmaking by any stretch, but goddamn if I didn't laugh my ass off the whole way. Hafta get D's view on it when I get around to showing him.

Speaking of D, both he and Tina are invited to come up for the weekend. D's got some crap going on he could use some time from, and from what little I gleam from Tina's Facebook she could as well. I don't expect either to show, though. 1) It's a "hangout" I instigated and 2) I just know my friends.

Oh well, more quiet for me. Though it seems kind of a waste all the trouble I went through to get an extra heater for them. See, the thermostat took a dump so until that's replaced, space heaters is all we got for the cold nights. Oh wells.

COMIC THOUGHTS

2009-09-25T22:47:00.000-04:00

Working on the Index forces me to revisit comics I haven't read since their release, for the most part. I may not remember every story in high detail, but there were always bits and pieces that stuck with me. And, reading the new books at almost the same time kinda highlights those things in a new light. Now, by no means to I intend to imply stuff from the late 90s-early 00s were da bomb, in fact a lot of the stories sucked thanks to editorial incompetence, but they had elements I wish were able to be explored fruther.

-Juggernaut as a hero. Regardless of what people say about Chuck Austen, his evolution of Cain was superbly done. You could believe the change. Another good one was Sandman's redemption, but, of course, both were kiboshed and reversed. At least Juggy lasted a while.

-The NEW new X-Men. Marrow, Cecelia Reyes and Maggott had a lot of potential, especially the prior two. Having revisited Stacy X some, I could see she was just a Marrow replacement, as both had a similar attitude and development when they joined the team. I think both could've kept on the team and kept things interesting. Cecelia, I think, evolved perfectly. She was never gonna be an X-Man, so I liked when she went to private practice. And, at least she had some guest appearances after that fact. But, she coulda been a viable X-supporting character like Stevie Hunter was back in the day.

-Speaking of medics, Nurse Annie (don't even ask me to spell her last name). Sure, she came on board just because she fell in love with a comatose Havok, but it made sense for a school to have a medical presence. Wish she coulda stuck around too.

-Badass Cyclops. After recovering from Apocalypse's possession, Cyke got a darker costume (two, actually, both awesome) and a new attitude. This was dropped and he became his usual douchey self again before becoming the militant douche he is now. But, I liked Cyke in that particular time period. He was almost cool.

More thoughts to come as they come to me.

CHATTING

2009-09-23T18:53:00.000-04:00

I have been playing this game for the last month called Evony. Basically, you build up a city and raid other cities and valleys and what not. It's simple yet slighty addictive, although I rarely spent more than an hour at a time on it. Usually long enough to build a few things, build something that will take a while, then leave. The last few days, though, I've started chatting with the co-leader of my alliance and it's been fun. Despite the fact my system doesn't handle it too well, I've been leaving the game on just to talk. Think I found my next year or so conversationalist.

Once she left, I found myself bored until Liz reappeared after an exile to get her book finished for Big Apple. Of course the conversation was brief, all about her work and a little about my film project. I'm sure if anyone else saw her online they were chatting her up so it wasn't worth me trying to vye for a position in that mix. She and Shawnti apparently conversed during that time and decided to replace lolz with lulz...which is annoying.

I decided to IM Jackie through Facebook. Next thing I know I've got Steve IMing me and then an old classmate from BMCC. So, yeah, my cup runneth over as it so rarely does. At least it was a nice complement while I sat there drawing my storyboards.

By the way, my drawing? RUSTY. Haven't done it in so long and now it's suffering for it. It's getting better as I go, but the damage is done. Oh well, as long as they do the job.

PUT THE LYME IN THE COCONUT

2009-09-21T19:07:00.000-04:00

Lyme disease is the topic for today. On Saturday, one of the bug bites I have developed the target rash associated with a tick bite. So, naturally, the 'rents are worried about the Lyme. I went to the doc today and he told me that it was still too early to tell. I'll have to go back in another 4 weeks or so for some bloodwork, but in the meantime he gave me a prescription for an antibiotic that will treat it. So we'll see if I was just bitten by an unseen tick or if I'm now diseased. I'm not really worried. It just sucks that I can no longer go into the woods unprotected and still be unmolested. Damn getting older.

I had planned to go to school after the doc's, but I didn't get out till almost 4 and by the time I got there the class woulda been almost over. Sure, in reality, there would still be enough time to merit me going, but not enough to merit my puttng up with the 6 train. So I went home to get some work done. Better time spent rather than spending 2 hours on a train for 25 minutes of class.

ADIOS & GOODBYE

2009-09-18T18:51:00.003-04:00

Two of my allies transferred out to fill up the large employment gap in a Brooklyn station. One started there this week after he had a week vacation, and the other was supposed to head off in October but they decided to send him off early. Shame to see them go, but can't blame 'em. Things ain't like they were and there's no real sign of improvement. Why do I stay? Simple. I don't feel like spending 6 months being treated like a rookie at a new location, and I like my route. When I transfer, if I'm still here, it's gonna be when I got my house upstate and am leaving this shithole behind.

TWICE BITTEN

2009-09-17T19:15:00.000-04:00

With the start of a rash on my arm and numerous marks appearing on my body, I decided to head to the doc to get them checked out along with my knee. The popular theory is I was barraged by bugs and maybe rubbed something in the woods. So now I've got this topical cream for the bites and I have to down 9 Ibuprofens a day for 10 days. Fun times. I also need to go for an X-Ray on my knee to see if there's anything visibly wrong, or if I'm gonna hafta go to the orthopedic doc again to get an MRI. I really hope not...I can't fit in those effing machines.

For class, I got paired up with this guy and we hafta do a 3-5 minute film for the purpose of editing. Now, I'm gonna be gone the fi;m day, so we had to arrange it so that we could film it the class before ours on editing day. We had come up with two possibles, one in case we couldn't get the third person we needed. But, luckily, I was able to get Amaryllis who has a break right when we're gonna film. Now all I hafta do is bang out the script and the storyboards by next Thursday. Outside of the formatting, the script shouldn't be too hard. Then again I never wrote one before, so we'll see.

SWINGING AGAIN

2009-09-16T23:29:00.001-04:00

Had to fill in an empty route these last two days. Ordinarily it's full time, but they absorbed the later freight and let me just do the priorities. Never done the whole route before, so naturally there was that learning curve. Now, I think I exposed the driver 'cause he always seems to end up blown out, and yet I only had 9 and 16 stops. We're thinking he purposely front-loads in order to look heavier than he is. Bastard.

BOOK FAIR

2009-09-13T18:58:00.000-04:00

NY Comiccon sent out an E-Mail about their presence at the Brooklyn Book Fair. We originally wanted to be there as well, but Keith decided we should investigate first. So, I went. I walked around some, and there was a big crowd, comic professionals, panels, concerts and even Wallace Shawn of Princess Bride fame. Not many book books I'd be interested in, but then there were always comics. Someone selling some books for $1. Yeah, I partook. Also entered a drawing for a chance to get $100 of free comics from this massive warehouse collection. One of our members, Ouchman, had a table and raved about the show, so I'm thinking I should recommend we be there next year. Also wish I knew what pros were doing signings so I coulda brought some books.

Ouch also filled me in on a free archery class at a nearby school, so he's gonna send me the info about it. Mayhaps I'll finally get some lessons in?

FASHION FAUX-PAS

2009-09-12T18:54:00.001-04:00

Our last Bryant Park meeting was more successful than the pier one, so I opted to try for a repeat this month. Unfortunately, stupid me, forgot all about Fashion week and that the Fashionistas take over the whole park...including our meeting spot. We all stood on the stairs at 41st for about an hour to make sure anyone who showed would find us before relocating to the local PAX. Apparently, some would end up bypassing us entirely, but ah well.

The meeting was small, many scared off by the rain I'm sure. We got a couple new faces, including ones me and James recruited at the panel last month in the park. The setting wasn't ideal but the meeting went fairly smooth. Hopefully we have a place to meet by next month, or at least it's still warm enough for another outdoor meeting.

15 MINUTES

2009-09-10T18:50:00.000-04:00

Today our station was the subject of a documentary filming. This crew was following a package all the way from China going to one of our buildings. Surprisingly in the days leading up to it, management didn't go crazy trying to make the joint look "respectable" like they do when the inspection teams come down. Most they asked for was full, clean uniforms (which some didn't do).

The crew got stuck in traffic so we ended up extending the sort till they could get there and film some of it, including the box going down. This caused some problems later with service as we all didn't leave till almost 9. Damien decided to take the package and several other stops himself in the training truck so as not to interfere with the service of the courier and the film crew followed him.

Where do I fall into all this? Well, they filmed me on the split. However, they got mostly my rear (probably my best side). Depending how they cut it, that may be all anyone sees unless they leave in the bit where I checked the belt and looked the camera man's way.

THE TRIP IN SUMMATION

2009-09-07T16:26:00.001-04:00

Day 2, my customary Walmart trip. Got some movies, some drinks, some snacks. Y'know, the usual. Took my customary trip to Burger King right after. I only have one thing to say about that:

That's pretty much how my Whopper Jr.s looked. Sad and disappointing. After that I proceeded to Peck's for more of their awesome chop meat and then back to the campgrounds. Unfortunately, I ended up behind on my entries for Index 11 thanks to the chronologies, so I had to do some work on that. But, being I needed the internet I did go down to the Rec Hall where I got to enjoy the festivities they had planned that weekend, such as Bingo and Karaoke again. Bingo I cleaned up, winning three times before the game was through. Karaoke, I didn't much pay attention this time.

Outside of that stuff, I pretty much spent the weekend working, cleaning and reading. I did try a fire one night, and had a bit more success than last time which meant the air WAS too damp last time. Although, that fire was quickly killed by the soft ground under the great choking all the air. Ah well. On the last day, after almost finishing packing up, I headed up to the water wheel to take a pic of the bricks off of it to show someone. I ended up on a spontaneous trip following the path of the water bed that led to it. I already knew where it went, but eh...adventure!

I did pretty good considering my bum knee, although I learned the painful lesson not to attempt a far high jump with a digital camera in your pocket. I tried to get from a rock cluster in the middle of the brook to the bank across the way. I shorted it and ended up with my foot in the water. At that point it was a lost cause so I waded up to an incline and climbed out.

I ended up on the old access road for the first time since the flooding. Man, was it a mess. I mean, it stopped being paved just past the campground, but it was still passable on wheels. What was left was just a mess. Ditches, rocks, new paths for the brook, fallen trees...no wonder the county chose to just close it off rather than fix it up. I got to the firing range, a good 3.something miles out, and went a little farther opting to finish the adventure my next weekend up. I went back, changed my shoes, socks and pants (this is why I pack extra clothes) and finished the clean-up.

Getting home wasn't too bad. Getting to the Goethals was slow and Staten Island was it's usual parking lot, but otherwise pretty decent for as late as I went back on a Monday. One month until my next trip...can't wait!

LABORING AWAY

2009-09-04T23:45:00.000-04:00

The 'rents decided not to go up for Labor Day, which means the trailer is ALLLLL mine. The bad thing about these last-minute plans is it's a bitch to organize everything I might need what with the tight schedules I'm already keeping.

First, work had me earn the weekend. I had to go on road without a secondary key 'cause the last idiot who used it forgot to turn it in. So THAT was interesting. Then I had to go help Slo Mo McGee on the next block and ended up with several lates 'cause one of his buildings' frieght operators was a douche.

I got home and decided to take a quick power nap, which worked out pretty well as I was nice and rested for the drive. Finished packing my suitcase, grabbed some DVDs, CDs and comics, and was on the road by 4:30. Later than I wanted, but meh.

Found four dead mice in the traps when I opened up. Correction, three in the traps, and one somehow got himself caught between the cabinet door under the oven. How, I have no idea. The stench was quite lovely when I moved them. Some mildew also got into the shower, and because it was sitting the high sulfur content of the country water built up and I had to run it for a few hours to get it out. Another lovely smell, by the way. I decided to play it safe and brush with the bottled water I brought up, and finish the de-stinkafying in the morning.

BOSTON BBQ

2009-09-01T10:12:00.001-04:00

Nothing kills a BBQ like a tropical storm. Hurricane season was in effect and we're getting the aftershocks here. As a result, Keith was forced to postpone his BBQ until next weekend. Unfortunately, neither I nor Alex and Yadira, whom I was taking this weekend, will be in attendance. The 'rents'll be away so I hafta feed 4 sets of kitties. And Moodus ain't exactly no quick jaunt.

Jess introduced me to the wonder that is Priceline this week. I was looking for a deal on a hotel in Boston for the show so I could go up, take in the sights, then focus on the show. Last time, going up and coming back the same day was killer. This time, i wanted to take my time. Unfortunately, all the decently-priced hotels were all just outside of the range or walking distance of the subways. And since I'm unfamiliar with the parking sitch I really didn't wanna hafta drive between points. Or, at all.

But, thanks to name my own price, I got a good hotel only 15 minutes from the con AND next to a subway for only $100 a night. That's a lot closer to the cheapies than I woulda settled with! Woot! Now, to book my bus and figure out how I can indulge myself without killing myself on the way home...

MONDAYS SUCK

2009-08-31T10:21:00.000-04:00

I only had 15 stops and a nice early start. Sounds like an easy day, right? Unfortunately, 3 of those stops were left behind for other areas and I was asked to deliver.

Okay, one stop I couldn't do because they wouldn't open till 10, so that was an easy one. Supposedly. I did one of the stops along the way, which was on the other end of this long-ass block from where I could park, and then went looking for the stop only to discover they told me the WRONG cross-street! It was actually up by where my last stop had to go. D'oh!

By the time I got to my route and found parking, it was after 9:30. I had trouble gettng ahold of my first stop, and when I finally did the douchebag who came out to recieve not only intitially didn't bring his goddamn cart, but when I went to bring the stuff back he disappeared on me even after I told him to wait. So, yeah, I ended up with one late and I ended up not scanning one of his packages. D'oh again! Why would you leave your cart somewhere else when you KNEW you were coming to get stuff? Idiot!

Today was the first day of class for me. Same shit I had last time, although this class was EMPTY. Not as many people as last time. I also had to actually sit through it 'cause for some reason I couldn't get the laptop to connect to the school's Wifi. Damn thing is effed up.

And in other news, looks like I now work for Mickey Mouse. Disney bought out Marvel. Found out from a text from Tommy, but I heard something about this a year ago. Tommy heard about this happening but it never materialized. Guess this is a delayed reaction, huh?

EXPANDING FAMILY

2009-08-26T10:17:00.000-04:00

Ma joined this network of rescuers and now she's fostering 4 kittens to get them sociable enough to be adopted. One looks like Friskie, named Houdini 'cause he's a tricky one, the two girls are mostly gray with white, named Sissy ('cause she was) and Cleo (formerly Hissy 'cause she's a bitch), and the other boy is the black version of the girls, named Gizmo 'cause he reminded ma of the Gramlin. Well, we're gonna end up keeping Gizmo 'cause ma liked him that much. And he is a cutie. I love it when the kitties are so small, I wish they'd stay that size forever. But no, they grow up and become ornery. So I have my fun with Gizzy while I can.

In other news, one of our strays had her litter of SEVEN kittens. So, yeah, we're basically taking care of all of them now. And they too are CUTE! But their ma is a small little shit and she's not handling their constant need to be fed well. Ma is considering options.

WEEK IN THE LEAD

2009-08-21T04:00:00.001-04:00

It figures. The freaking parker calls out the day the trucks need some serious parking. Apparently, the night parker called out and, instead of arranging for it to be done, the night manager just let it go. So, upon finding out the idiot called out Damien had me and one of the handlers do what we can. We didn't finish before the sort started, but at least we got it done quick.

Other than that it was a pretty good week, what with me being senior man on the route for the last few days and all. We pretty much did everything my way, and we made service with no problems. Today, though, I was a little off my game; forgetting to deliver two packages and missing a scan on one. Dunno how or why, but yeesh. Working with Jose, and even Sean, was a lot better than Rory. Hell, even working with Dale yesterday. These guys, yeah, I had to teach them from scratch and hold their hands some, but they actually moved their butts and worked. Rory is like one of the old-timers. He does as much as he needs to and I usually get dragged down to his pace. He does his job, but I can't do mine how I like it. But, whatever.

Another guy got fired. Not sure over what, but I'm hearing he got sandbagged. And another guy is transferring out soon. You know, I hate to see certain people go, especially how they go, but I'll admit there's a silver lining for me. The more people who leave above me, the more likely I can get time off in the summer. I may even try to get out to San Diego Comiccon and see what the big fuss is. Speaking of time off, I put in for the first weekend of October so I can make use of the trailer before we have to close it, and kinda hoping the 'rents don't go up Labor day so I can use it then too. We'll see.

In other news, my damn knee finally healed. It's been bugging me since Philly. Dunno how or why, but now I can move and climb stairs with some comfort again.

COMMUNICATION

2009-08-20T03:51:00.001-04:00

With sis overseas, we've actually gotten to chat some on the G-mail. My days are her nights, so there's some slight intersect...mostly 'cause she gets up too early there while her body adjusts. She's been posting pics in private online albums and keeping a private blog about the trip. She's having fun as far as I can tell. She likes to expand her horizons like that.

Liz was actually on four days in a row. Felt almost like old times. You know, I've missed talking to her every day. We had a good run. When we weren't chatting we were texting. I enjoyed it. But, to all good things... However, in my efforts to figure her out, I think I've landed on one thing: the tells on when she'll be MIA from chatting again. Just the way that particular convo ends that is the indicator. Not that I did anything wrong...at least I don't think I did...just it doesn't end like normal. About as best as I can describe it. BUT, the good news is I think she'll be going to Keith's BBQ so I'll actually get to see her before October! Always a pleasure.

Speaking of comics, I've been trying to find a room in Boston for the con there. So far, the options are very slim. Slim as in I'll be spending a fortune. I've been trying to find the cheapest hotels I could, but most of them only hit cheap when you get a few miles away from where I need to be. So I ran some parameters. Tried looking at places walking distance from the subways, checked out places with free parking in case I'd have to drive back and forth, and then found the hotel where the con will be is offering a special rate for attendees. And thus, I get slim pickings.

I'll say this much; I know the NYC subway can look confusing as hell, but at least you can get almost anywhere by train. Anywhere else, it gets you halfway and if you don't have a car, oh well, out of luck. Damn bootleg crap...

NOTHING BUT COMICS...

2009-08-19T03:40:00.002-04:00

Something tells me I forgot to post about this when it happened. So, may as well do it now on new comic day.

A few years ago, someone went through my comic boxes in the basement and walked off with about 2 dozen books. Two of them were my Larry Hama autographed Wolverines, a few special covers, and (one I couldn't figure out WHY) Spider-Man the Manga #1. I suspected my neighbor or one of his friends; more so when he caught me going through my box with a list and suddenly every other book that was missing (save the aforementioned ones) were returned the next day in a pile. But, no proof means I couldn't pursue the lead.

Anyway, I was able to reclaim all my books in replacements except for two; both covers of Amazing Spider-Man vol. 2 #25. These eluded me, partly to lack of availability, partly to the insane asking prices for both. Well, my diligence paid off and I was finally able to land both covers for semi-reasonable prices (that damn shipping). But, while it was the best deal I could secure, I still ended up paying over 400% what I originally paid...WITH a discount! Little bonus; in reclaiming one book, I was actually able to upgrade for a reasonable price; X-Men #100 signed by Chris Claremont from Dynamic Forces. Got it on Ebay cheaper than I should have.

But, it's nice to be whole again. I learned some lessons that I've implemented since then. All my special covers and autographs are up here with me in their own box and my downstairs boxes are now blocked by a pile of junk laid out in a way that I'd know if something was moved. Shame when you can't even feel secure in your own home.

In other news, my shop decided last week to start charging for their complimentary bag and boards for new comic purchases, citing losing money on shipping alone. But, so far, I've gone these two weeks without paying a cent for them. Pays to have clout.

I also went to a lecture after work in Bryant Park. Danny Fingeroth hosted a panel with Joe Quesada, Chip Kidd, and two others I didn't know about why comics were accepted nowadays. I didn't hear most of it 'cause the city noise drowned them out some, and I had more fun making fun of some things with James, also in attendance. We also talked to some perspective CAG members, so we'll see if they show up the next meeting. We told them when and where, the rest is up to them.

Dave & Busters was having another pre-Comiccon party tonight, but I was too tired to go. Working in the heat and humidity drains the batteries big-time.

SIDESWIPE

2009-08-18T03:37:00.001-04:00

And yet another traffic accident this week. This truck was on the block and was moving right when some lady decided to pull out her mini-van. So, the truck whacked her and ripped off a headlight. I was eating lunch when it happened so I only heard the yelling. Funnily enough, two of the same responding officers from the other day showed up. Guess this is their beat.

Crazy around here, yo!

STICHED UP

2009-08-17T11:25:00.000-04:00

My cat Stitch has been sick the past week; barely eating and spitting up what she does. Finally got to the point where ma wanted her to go to the vet. We took her in Friday, got some tests done, then had to put her in a pet hospital in the city on Saturday based on the results. After being there for two days, she was reportedly doing much better and was able to come home today. Yup, the food whore is back. She's looking to eat and pestering everyone...AND keeping it down. But, the damage was done. She's so bony now. Kinda gross to pet her.

Still waiting on urinalysis results from Texas of all places.

PLOWED

2009-08-16T03:35:00.002-04:00

Been a busy time in the old 'hood. The latest today is someone got hit on the corner by a car. Went flying a few feet in the air, pops said. I didn't see it 'cause I was just coming out of the shower when it happened. Dude seemed awfully calm despite hitting someone. One of the responding officers was also a real bitch to the bystanders. There's telling people to move along, then there's being a dick about it. She was the latter.

TEAM-UP

2009-08-14T12:45:00.000-04:00

After Tuesday, Rory kinda disappeared so a night guy's been put on the route. And since he's not too familiar with the new incarnation of it, having last been on it when it was separate and helping me when I first started, I had to go out with him.

Wednesday, we had a lot of handicaps. The truck's rear bumper was falling off (I think due to its constantly hitting the sidewalk when we pull out of the building...unavoidable) so the stuff had to be transferred to a new truck. Then I had to reorganize the truck because he didn't know where anything went. Then we left at 9 with 31 stops, and our big help was lackadaisical Phil. I admit I screwed up by not giving him ALL our outside side-street stops, resulting in our having one late on my end, but what can ya do. Considering all we had to deal with, 1 was damn good.

Thursday ran a lot better, but Friday was another screwed up day thanks to some bulky stops. We did our best, but with my shit falling off the handtruck on my way around the corner repeatedly I ended up delayed long enough to get 5 lates.

Next week Rory's on vacation so I'll be teamed with a guy I've known since we started. We've never worked together, though, so this'll be a first.

CAG BBQ 3: CAG HARDER

2009-08-08T12:13:00.001-04:00

Wednesday was another "fun" trip to Costco and Pathmark in order to pick up the food stuffs needed for today, the 3rd CAG BBQ.

This year we had it at pops' boat club, his suggestion after hearing last year's fiasco in Morningside. There were the usual headaches associated with doing things with your parents, but overall it went fairly smoothly. Almost everyone showed up nice and early, although quite a few who RSVPed and never canceled didn't show, and people didn't each much, so I was stuck with a LOT of extra food. I'll be eating burgers, dogs and chicken for another couple of months again. It also doesn't help ma had loaded up gma's fridge with stuff for the club's next party, so space was at an all-time low. I'm gonna hafta go on a Pepsi bender since most of the stuff are the cans of soda pops foolishly opened. He doesn't understand my trickle supply methods.

But, overall, it was fun. Tiring, but fun. Seems everyone likes the club enough to wanna do it there next year. I took some pics and even got a special request to give Alex some hair. I'll Photoshop that when I get ready to upload them to Facebook and the like.

SEND-OFF

2009-08-07T18:54:00.000-04:00

Today was sis' farewell party. She's heading overseas with the BF to live with his family for a few months. Unfortunately, some of her guest list couldn't make it. It's been a while since I've been to her house; forgot how long a walk it was from the bus to there, but meh. The night was pretty much marked by snack platters, pizza and karaoke. Oh, the karaoke. If there was a decent singer amongst them they kept quiet. Think one of the highlights was when sis laughed while drinking and spat over an entire pie. So, yeah, the dinner portion was over, but the pie would be salvaged by being given to her ma's BF. I'm so proud at how evil she's become. *Sniff*

I left early 'cause I had to get some work done. Finish stuff for the Index, get ready for the BBQ, that kinda stuff. I also edited one of the prose submissions while on the bus. Multi-tasking, baby!