Losing my mind at work

What the hell kind idiot lays hotel workers off just before New Years Eve? The hotel has been sold out for months.

And of all people to lay off the overnight maintenance guy?

I couldn't unclog a toilet tonight because I couldn't find a plunger. I also had to clean vomit off the floor up on the 12th floor. Took me longer to find all the things I needed to get it clean.

Had to make several runs to rooms to deliver different items that guests needed.

It's not just there that this place is shorthanded. I started at 9pm tonight. It was just me and a desk clerk from then until 11pm. 2 people to handle what was still a rather high number of check-ins and answer phones. Not to mention, every time a pizza delivery showed up, I had to call the guests that ordered and have them come down.

Having the hotel as understaffed as it currently is makes the few that are still working here look bad. Here's something that also makes us look bad-

The hotel I work for sells a VIP services package. We have had, at least during my watch, 2 guests so far come in having paid for this package and both time totally dropped the ball. Let me give you the details -
*VIP Welcome Packet at check in
What welcome packet? Seriously, I never saw one. I know they have a welcome letter for the Hilton Honors (card people) but that's about all I have seen. I did not have a welcome packet for either guest that I saw, nor was I even informed of one even after I pointed it out to one of my managers when the first guest came in with one of these.
*Complimentary upgrade upon arrival
That's if someone happens to notice your VIP reservation and we have the availability. I did have an upgrade pre-assigned for one, but not the other.
*In room amenity upon check in
What amenity? Seriously. Neither of them got it.
*10% off discount at all restaurants
They should include that in the welcome packet, just a simple card or certificate type thing. Oh wait don't have one. Never seen anything like that. Sorry.
*Complimentary high speed internet access
Only our daytime managers have access to the promotional codes that we give the Hilton Honors members. Even at that, in both cases I had to manually remove the internet charges because nobody assigned the guests with the VIP package a promotional code.
*Nightly turndown service
As told to me by the Executive Housekeeper, we no longer offer this service to anyone.

In short, you pay $50 more and are lucky if you get anything. Tonight's guest that came in on the VIP Package ended up having to be give the Ambassador Suite because we messed up so bad.

I feel like I'm back at the Holiday Inn that I used to work at. The only thing is, half the crap I put up with there I expected. It's a fucking Holiday Inn! The hotel I'm at now is an Embassy Suites. It's supposed to be a nicer hotel. I came here for a reason. It used to be pretty good here but with the recent cuts and the lack of leadership, it might as well be a Holiday Inn. Or an Econolodge for that matter.

Had the economy not been as bad as it is, I would have quit tonight. As it is when I left a 5:50am I was leaving my coworker alone for the last hour. That means if anyone needed a bellman or really anything between then and 7am, they were not getting it. And I get to come back at 9pm and do it all over again. Only this time the hotel is oversold by 15 room. That's 15 people/families that we are going to have to send to another hotel that already booked a reservation.

Never a dull moment here

My night just got a hell of a lot more interesting.

6 cop cars speeding down the street and one fire truck

sheriff's office web site tells me -

SO08-332490 9:48 PM
ARMED
S2 SUICIDAL SUBJECT ARMED

Right down the street from me!

Having a problem getting my folks ready for the DTV switch, wanna help?

So my parents are of the few people left in America that do not have cable TV, satellite TV, or whatever else is on the market. They have, as long as I've been alive, always used regular over-the-air broadcast TV. I'm trying to get them ready for the change to DTV that's coming in February. I have my father's TV in the family room working fine. Just have the converter box plugged in to it, he gets all the DTV channels. The TV in the bedroom that my mom watches has both a converter box and and a VCR/DVD recorder. The recorder has a DTV tuner built in to it, So just like she used to she can record on one channel and watch something else on another channel. The problem I'm having is that my mom's TV does not get all of the DTV channels, only about half of them. I get the same channels with either the converter box or the recorder. The only real difference I can see is that my dad's TV is connected to an outdoor antenna and my mom's TV uses an indoor antenna that said on the box it works with DTV.

Any suggestions on what to do to fix this?

I think I'm going to have to connect her's to the outdoor antenna. I'm not sure though. The old "rabbit ears" also had trouble with some stations.

Somewhere a fundie is crying

And that fundie's handle on TheologyOnline it Just Tom.

Just Tom is not just your average troll. He's kinda like Fred Phelps doing a bad impersonation of Dr. Phil. He bashes gays and justifies it with not just scripture, but his own twisted version of psychology. Mind you he has no formal training in psychology, in fact when asked when he got his degree, he responded with "When Jesus Christ saved me.."

I didn't know cosmic Jewish zombies had the authority to hand out degrees.

Any way, Just Tom and I have had several spats on TheologyOnline. Arguing with him is quite comical as he will take what ever you say and twist it to fit his needs. He will even go so far as to make things up and try to convince you and himself that he is right.

Our most recent battle ended with this -

I am done with you.. You are rightly condemned... See you on judgement day your inversion and your hate has the best of you.

I am sure you think you won.. But just like Christ just walked away from 's I have to walk away from someone so committed to their denial and the perversion that they use to calm all their emotional issues. You just love it you need to be in control of the situations. The more you can try to keep people confused and at bay the easier it is for you emotionally and the more protected you are.. Which is why you and your pervert partner got together. You both are doing the same thing to cope and you both have the same issues thus you actually believe that you are having a true relationship when all you are doing is aiding each other in your regressive state and coping mechanisms. Your bond is based on your similar coping and psychological disturbance.

Have a nice delusion.. Little boy..

I will now ignore you like your father did...

Me and my father may not get along, but he never ignored me. Not now, not ever. I don't believe I have ever said otherwise. I take that as an admission that he got owned. If you want to read the entirety of the thread, start here. Just Tom gets his faith questioned after he totally jacks a thread to insult me. He got made a fool of there too. I practically had to give my life story to do it, though. I've taken a lot of heat in my time from fundies that feel they are just doing what their Bible tells them to do, but many of them were nowhere near as brutal, offensive and flat out asinine.

I'm not one for Christmas music...

.... but this is some funny shit!

Santas Baby- Jackie Beat- a holiday treat!.mp3 -

So my birthday...

...was just another day

For the most part.

Good day though. very light night at work. A local restaurant did bring the staff a considerable amount of food. I ate more than I should have throughout the night. More to work off after the holidays are over, but I'm not complaining. It was quite the relaxing night and I don't get many of those.

Some of the good people at TheologyOnline wished me a happy birthday, that was cool.

My mother bought me something, I don't know what yet. Haven't had a chance to find out.

I'm thinking back over the last year, it wasn't the best -

• An argument with my father resulted in me moving out of my parents' house again before I was ready. I wanted to finish out my degree.
• I moved twice and that about killed my finances for a while. The last move was into the ghetto.
• There's several more people that I used to call my friends that I will never speak to again. Many of them I doubt were friends to begin with. Acquaintances at best.
• I missed out on DragonCon.
• I missed out on a Crüxshadows concert.
• I didn't do any performing.
• I bought another car, only to have it breakdown on me.
• I couldn't get financed for the car I really wanted.

But on the good side of things -

• I lost a little more weight.
• I have my own place and it's all mine.
• I think I may have grown up a little.
• I'm in great health.
• I have a girlfriend that loves me and has stayed with me through all the bad stuff. She's been so loving and supportive too.
• Through hard work I got my finances back in order.
• I've made some new friends. At least one of which was very unlikely.

So I'm not totally bitter. I'm trying not to be bitter at all. I have some plans and goals before the next birthday -

• Go back to college.
• Get my girlfriend moved in.
• Lose more weight, I'd like to drop about 60 lbs.
• Get a better job.
• Move out of the ghetto.
• Fix the Escort and either sell it or start driving it.
• Get some work done on the Beetle.
• Spend more time practicing on my violin.
• Work more with music. I'd love to record something. Or at least perform an original work.
• Try to more closely follow Stoicism.

Looks like a lot, let's see what happens in the next year.

Twas the night before my birthday

Who the fuck says "twas"?

Anyway, AC/DC is in town. The hotel I work at is full of people that went to the concert. The concert let out at about 10:30pm. At that point there's a shit ton of people in the lobby and calling the desk. Every last one of them looking for food. The restaurant did something I felt was beyond stupid. They stopped taking orders at 10:30. They normally close at 11pm. This becomes quite annoying for me. Part because I have people complaining to me, part because they could stand to make a considerable amount of revenue if they would have stayed open until about 1am. But what the hell do I know? They are laying off people in every department, whining about the budget, then they don't jump on an opportunity. Thankfully the local pizza deliveries were a lot smarter. So all the money the hotel's restaurant would have made went to them. Seemed like every time a delivery person was here they had 3 or 4 orders with them. And they were here more times than I can think to count.

At about midnight we had a domestic dispute. My co-worker handled that with security. Meanwhile I'm running around at the desk checking people in and taking phone calls. Just me. Total madhouse. Got bitched by one of my card people. Diamond status. He's going to complain to corporate, I hope he does.

Here's some AC/DC for ya, just seems fitting.

Highway to Hell - AC/DC

And a more fitting song by Flogging Molly

Flogging Molly

I think I'm going to get a 6 pack of Smirnoff Ice when I get off work. I need it.

So I have this shooting pain through my knee

And I can't even think of what caused it.

But it really hurts.

And I hear cracking and grinding when I move it.

Worst part about all this is I'm really hyped up on a bit of a caffeine overload right now.

I was mentioned in AngelSpit's latest Blipvert

Have a look here.

It made me feel really good to hear her answer my question. I asked "How can I be as beautiful as you?" She always looks amazing. I want to look that good, especially considering in my stage shows I've been known to work with the music of AngelSpit.

When I perform to their music (and it's been forever) I don't try to look like her. I look nothing like her and I know it. However I do try to go for about the same style. One thing I do have to say - I HATE my body. I don't find myself attractive at all. I have worn things that look good on others, but not on me. I like her advice on emphasizing one's good features and being one's self.

So when I return to the stage (after I get some things sorted out), I'm going to return with a better look. Not following trends or totally emulating those I admire but being myself. wearing clothes that actually look good on my body. As it is I'm looking to make the transition from being a typical drag queen that lip syncs and dances to being a musician that just happens to dress in drag. Think Twisted Sister gone industrial/gothic with better makeup.

And like she said at the end of the vid, check out the forum at http://krankhaus.net/forum/



Amelia, if you happen across this, thank you so much!

Take me out tonight

Well Friday night.

I'm off from work.

I really want to go out and have a good time.

I have no real means of getting out and having a good time.

I need someone to take me out.

If there's a Hell I might be going there for this

http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/gallery/featured/GAL1149767/3/56/index.htm

but I just can't help but laugh



You think he rolls on to the mat or gets thrown?

This was the first thing I thought of when I saw that picture.



If you are laughing I guess I'll see you in Hell with me. It's okay, there's no such place.

I guess it's safe

Whatever happened is not an active call on the sheriff's office website any more.

The fun of living in a bad neighborhood.

I think I just heard gunshots.

And it took me a while to get through to the sheriff's office when 911 transferred me, I guess I wasn't the only one.

I don't like the real world

I'd rather pretend I'm the filthy rich immortal captain of massive deadly spaceships.

I was just minding my business, mining asteroids. Asteroids are evil and must be destroyed.


Then a pirate came along. Dumb move on his part.



So I jammed him and sicked my drones on him. They blowed him up good and proper.



And finally I salvaged the remains.



I needed to unwind after mining. My agent had just the thing for me, blowing up a repair station and the pirates it serves.

I switched to my Thorax class, it's good at making things go boom.

RIP Bettie Page

She will be missed

1950s pin-up queen Bettie Page dies
Fri Dec 12, 2008 7:30pm
EST

By Dean Goodman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Bettie Page, one of America's most photographed pin-up girls during the 1950s, died in Los Angeles on Thursday from pneumonia, her agent said. She was 85.

Page was a ubiquitous sight during the 1950s, propelled to stardom when she posed for Playboy as Miss January 1955. Soon her image was gracing playing cards, record albums and bedroom posters across the country.

She stopped modeling in 1957, retreated from the public spotlight and turned to religion. She enjoyed a renaissance of sorts in the 1980s, as a new generation of fans became obsessed with her legacy.

Her agent, Mark Roesler, said Page was admitted to a Los Angeles-area hospital four weeks ago. She never regained consciousness after suffering a heart attack earlier this month.

With her dark bangs, alluring blue-gray eyes and wide smile, Page cultivated an innocent girl-next-door persona. The one-time school teacher was nice, but clearly also naughty. Some of her photos featured spanking and bondage.

"Bettie Page embodied the stereotypical wholesomeness of the Fifties and the hidden sexuality straining beneath the surface," authors Karen Essex and James L. Swanson wrote in their 1996 book "Bettie Page: The Life of a Pin-Up Legend."

Page professed to be mystified by all the attention, saying she never felt particularly attractive and had to wear a lot of makeup to cover up her large pores. After she found God, she was initially ashamed of having posed nude.

"(B)ut now most of the money I've got is because I posed in the nude," she told Playboy last year. "So I'm not ashamed of it now, but I still don't understand it."
Bettie Mae Page was born on April 22, 1923, in Nashville, one of six children. She and two sisters were sent to an orphanage after her father went to jail and her mother could not cope on her own. Page later described her father as "a sex fiend" who started sexually molesting her when she was 13.

Page, armed with an arts degree with Peabody College in Nashville, did her first modeling work in the 1940s after moving to San Francisco with the first of her three husbands. After they divorced in 1947, she pursued modeling in New York. Photos from a shoot with Miami photographer Bunny Yeager ended up in the pages of Playboy.
The layout featured Page winking at the camera wearing only a Santa hat as she decorated a Christmas tree. Playboy founder Hugh Hefner described it as "a milestone in the history of the magazine," which he had founded less than two years earlier.
Later in life, Page was furious that Yeager made a fortune from the photos and never
compensated her.

Some American lawmakers were not as impressed with her modeling abilities. Page was served with a subpoena to appear before U.S. Senate investigators trying to discover a link between juvenile delinquency and pornography. Page never appeared. Soon after, she completely disappeared from the scene.

After two other brief marriages failed, Page battled acute schizophrenia beginning in the early 1970s. Her comeback gathered momentum with the 1991 movie "The Rocketeer," based on a comic book where the hero's girlfriend was Page. Fan clubs and websites proliferated, and Page made a good living signing memorabilia at conventions. On the rare occasions that she gave interviews, she insisted that she not be photographed.
Page had no children.

There was no immediate information about funeral plans.

Public Service Announcement

8 days from today, December 22, 2008 is my birthday.

It is at this time that I would like to point out that I have an Amazon.com wish list.

There's a link to it in my profile

Buy me stuff.

So I got to see Iron Man, and taxpayers paid me to do it.

First let me thank TheologyOnline's own Lighthouse for being the only comic book geek introverted enough to correct me on it being 2 words instead of 1.

Moving on, the viewing of Iron Man was on the agenda given to me by the teacher I was covering for yesterday. I was pretty much babysitting the students that didn't go on the field trip scheduled. Pretty easy day for me. I will say this, I could have done with out watching the first 50 minutes of it 6 times. But I did stay after school to watch the end. Don't worry, I'm not paid by the hour.

I have to say, great movie. I'm not one for movies that are loaded with CGI and effects, but this one had plenty of action and a plot. I was also pleased to see that, though it was modernized, they did stay very true to the comic book. It's a thing with me, I get rather annoyed when filmmakers don't stay true to what ever they are basing the movie off of.

I'm not sure if it was the most appropriate movie. More entertaining then something educational, but this is a school they are supposed to be educated, not entertained. Unless both can be pulled off at the same time.

I work with at least one really disgusting person

As usual tonight I went into the locker room at my work before my shift started to freshen up and make it look like I work there. There's a bathroom in there, at the very least I use it check myself in the mirror. Make sure I look presentable. Well tonight when I stepped into the bathroom it reeked of urine. The toilet had not been flushed in who knows how long and someone pissed all over the seat and floor. there was toilet paper all over too. This is the kind of thing I expect to see at a sleazy bar or truck stop. Actually I think this was worse. I shudder to think what the individual that left it that way lived like.

I just don't get why anyone anyone would leave such a mess. Or how any guy old enough to work could have that much of a lack of control of his own schlong.

Atheist Butterfly

Have you been touched by his noodly appendage?




RAMEN

Sometimes I think it was wrong of me to go to a job fair

I went Tuesday morning. I think in this economy, I should be thankful to have not one, but 2 jobs. But I'm not happy with one of them and looking for something closer to home. Job fairs I have been to in the past made me feel at least somewhat optimistic. Lots of employers and not very crowded. This one was different. Severely crowded. Not many businesses there either. 3 schools more interested in recruiting students. Army, Navy and FBI recruiters were present. There was only 4 businesses looking to hire. I overheard a lot of people talking about how they haven't worked in months. I almost feel as if I would be taking a job away from somebody that needs one if I were hired on. As it is, one of the schools did seem interested in me. Then again, if I was hired by one of those places there, that would make my position at the hotel available.

So was it wrong of me to go there? Should I just be content with what I have?

I'm rather pissed at the moment

I had a fun weekend with my girlfriend planned. We were going to see the Cruxshadows in West Palm Beach. That was the plan.

Then someone stole money from her wallet. In her own house! She wasn't able to get down here.

So I decided to head down and see the concert with out her. No sense canceling reservations, right? I'll still have a good time, just by myself. Or so I thought.

I went to pick up the rental car this morning. They ran a check on my lisence. It came back invalid. I have not driven in months, what could possibly be wrong with my lisence? I stopped at my mom's on the way, looked it up online. My lisence is suspended. SUSPENDED!!!!!!!!! Apparently it got that way when I took my car off the insurance and stopped driving it. I was going to sell it then, but decided to fix it first. I haven't driven in months though and had I known my lisence was going to be suspended I would have done something about it. The DMV gave me no notice what so ever.

So it looks like I get to battle with the DMV tomorrow. I don't expect to get anywhere and I get a feeling that I'm going to have to pay the $150 fee to get my lisence back.

In all this I will say that I have the best girlfriend I could ever ask for. She pointed me to a few Jeff Dunham videos on youtube that made me laugh and cheer me up.








Kathy, if you are reading this, I love you.

Spelling and math ain't important no more.

In the last day I've received some news that rather annoyed me. From one of the math teachers that I work with I have been told that basic operations with real numbers has been removed from the curriculum as an essential learning. In all reality, they should know this by high school, but it should definitely still be required, especially in the lower level classes. I had students last year that could not multiply 2 single digit numbers without a calculator. Besides if they can't do basic functions with numbers (of any kind), how are they supposed to work with an abstract. Or understand more advanced concepts?

I had more distressing news last night. While I was spending time with some of my neighbors last night, one of them was also helping her daughter with her homework. We got to talking about the schools and I came to find out that spelling is no longer being taught. At least not on the middle school level. Like the wiseguy I am I said "well they have spell check on the computer so why bother?" But seriously, no spelling requirement in English? That's messed up at best. She was also telling me that when doing math homework she has to make her daughter work it out on her own instead of using the calculator like she learned in school.

I don't understand how schools these days are to prepare kids for anything other than flipping burgers and digging ditches. If it gets any worse, they may not be qualified to do that. I said it before and I'll say it again, if I had kids, I would homeschool them. The teacher mentioned above does homeschool her children. My neighbor is having me assist in her daughters education.

----------------
Now playing: Decoded Feedback - Night's Calling
via FoxyTunes

Yeah, I guess I should set a proper example for the kids.

Walked into school today still wearing balaclava and listening to my Zen. I did have the balaclava rolled up, it's not like I walked in looking like a ninja. I was imediately yelled at by an administrator.

"You need to take that off! And put that away!"
"Yeah, I guess I should set a proper example for the kids."
"WHAT?!?!"
*removing balaclava and headphones*"I said I should be setting an example"
"You're staff?"
"Substitute teacher."
"Oh I'm sorry"
"Don't be, and thank you for mistaking me for someone half my age."