Monday, August 31, 2009

Something really needs to be done about these flying insects

Their wings are all over my apartment.


More wings in progress, how do they look?

Sunday, August 30, 2009

I could have bought a bicycle for $10 on my way to work tonight

But I didn't have $10 cash on me and for all I know it may have been stolen. That and it was a kids bike. Aside from the fact that I am just big enough to look silly on that small of a bike, that's going to be murder on my knees after a while.

So no sale. I kept walking. 4 mile walk, BTW.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Monday, August 24, 2009

Costume changes for DragonCon

Due to time and budget issues, I will not be making the clear acrylic wings for DragonCon. They will be made for another time/event. Instead, since I have a lot of hang wire, I will be making sets of wings like the other set that I am still working on. So I'll have wire framed nylon wings in purple, neon pink, neon green, and possibly a red pair too. I'm going to do them in different shapes too.

Other than that everything is falling into place quite nicely. I have some new clothing items on the way, including a new corset. So Dragon this year should be some serious good times.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Been a little busy

Haven't really said much here. Been almost 2 weeks. I've had a bit top say, maybe I'll post it later if it remains slow at work tonight. If you notice to the left, I do now have a twitter account. I post the small stuff on that.

I've got some things on my mind.

And I'm excited about DragonCon.

And about my girlfriend moving in with me.

But I'll talk more about that later.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

You're joking, right?

This guy just called the hotel I work at. He's got a reservation for tonight, he's on his way in. At this point he should be here soon. He wanted me to send a few bottles of Berringer up to his room. We don't have Berringer or anyone to send it to his room. Just me here at the desk and the bartender at the bar. That's it.

He had a hard time believing me that room service closes at 10pm and that liqour stores close at midnight. I did tell him to either go to the bar here, which is open until 1:30am, or stop at a liqour store or a convienience store while still in Tampa. Most eveything on this side of the bay is closed or cannot legally sell alcohol, unless it's a bar, after midnight. He thought I was joking. I wish I was.

I have a feeling I'm going to get bitched at when he gets here.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

To tweet or not to tweet, that is the question

As if I really need to be more connected and more socially networked. I have this blog, MySpace, FaceBook, VampireFreaks, and My Dungeon Space. What the hell else do I need? Do I really need to become one of the millions of self important douchebags that broadcasts their every thought for the whole world to see? Maybe I can become one of these lunatics that is so addicted to tweeting that my first thoughts will be "I need to tweet this!" when I should be doing something smarter. Whouldn't that be cool?

Yes we can see I'm just a little narrow minded about it. Do I really need something else that I update regularly that people just don't pay any attention to? Really kids I'm feeling ignored here. On the other hand there are a lot of really short things that happen that I could post there an not here.

It's a thought. Should I be another twit?

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Cash for clunkers, trade in your common sense

I've been hearing a lot about the Cash for Clunkers bill lately. I don't like it. More of the government pissing away money it doesn't have in the name economic stimulus. To my understanding (please correct me if I'm wrong), the government gives you up to $4500 (that it really doesn't have) on you "old clunker" to be used toward the purchase of a newer, more fuel efficient car.

Well now that sounds pretty nice. Heck I could have used that a year ago when I was trying to buy a Smart. Oh wait, my credit is fucked. So it doesn't do me much good anyway. Really I'm not even sure if the Smart qualifies. It's only on certain cars you get the the money. The thing is, even if I would be getting $4500 out of it, would it be worth it to trade in a car that I'm not making payments on for one that I will be making payments on? And how long will the money I'm saving in gas offset that? I'm starting not to like this, but there's more.

Wouldn't this be a great excuse for manufacturers and dealers to jack up the cost of a new car? I mean if they add, say $2000, to the price of every car that qualifies, would you even notice or care if you are getting $4500? You would still be saving on the cost of a new car. Just as well they could jack up the price the full $4500. You wouldn't save anything. But you would have the illusion of savings, and probly feel good about it. Meanwhile the manufacturers are making off like bandits. And it most likely all going to the corp execs. They get richer, you get poorer and deeper in debt. Is this starting to sound like a dumb idea to you? I'm not done yet.

These "clunkers" that are being traded in are going straight to the crusher. Every one of them. Maybe it's just me, but wouldn't it make more sense to resell them at low cost? At least the ones that are still good cars? Wouldn't make sense to part out and salvage the rest? Isn't that what dealerships normally do with trade-in's? Don't they usually turn a profit off of that? Sadly, perfectly good cars are being destroyed and going straight to the crusher. Like this Volvo.



Now I'm not that big of a fan of Volvo, but watching that really pissed me off. Looks to me like that was a car that could have been resold. Looks to me like the dealers are being screwed here. Seriously. They could be selling these cars at lower cost to people that can't buy a new car. That would make a whole lot more sense. Are you pissed off about this yet?

Here's what would make more sense to me. Offer a tax break to manufacturers that offer incentives like this bill to customers. That puts the manufacturers in control of the incentive, not the government. The manufacturers would be spending money that they have, or cutting into their profits. And since they would be competing with each other, that would drive the prices down and the number of new cars being sold up. The other part of this is that the manufacturers, or better yet the dealers, decide what happens to the trade-in. Most likely that is going to mean they are resold. I know that may keep some "gas-guzzlers" on the road, but there's a tax on gas. The government gets to make some of the money back from offering a tax break. It most likely will not even out, but still, it's a better plan than what is currently in place.

Agree? Disagree? If you are reading this, let me know what you think. BTW, why is it that a common schmoe that was raised in a middle-class home and went to public school can come up with better ideas than people running this country?

Kinda makes me wonder what folks like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, and Thomas Paine would say about this if they were alive today.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Dullards

That's the term I'm going to start using to describe stupid, hateful, bigoted people from here on out. The idea came to me when I was watching To Wong Foo. Dullard was the name of the rather stupid and bigoted sheriff they encountered. He got pwned pretty easily by the main characters too. BTW, if you have not seen To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar, you should.

Let's see what the Urban Dictionary has to say about dullards -


1. dullard
A stupid or annoyingly ignorant person.
The dullard would not stop his incessant ranting on the subject until I outwardly corrected him on his incorrect data.
2. dullard
Boring, annoying and frequently idiotic omnipresent being that has at least
one of its species in every institution. Usually parasitic and tries to attach
itself to your leg and will lap up anything which sounds like praise that you
toss at it. Master of inane conversations, highly sensitive. Usually has a need
to prove its self-worth.
The dullard tried to prove her coolness by wearing the same clothes as everyone else, then became upset when met with a "meh".
3. dullard
one step up from being a piece of shit.
james t lemaster is a total dullard, one step up from being a piece of shit.


All those sound about accurate to me. The guys that run this blog are fine examples of dullards, though I'm sure at least one of them will blame it on the fact that he failed at public school.

A little Eve Online humor

Courtesy of my girlfriend.


If You're Happy And You Know It
Pod Amarr
If you cannot find Caldari,
Pod Amarr
If the Minnie are too frisky
Gallentes are looking shifty
Jovians are too risky,
Pod Amarr.

BTW, I love watching Amarr ships pop. For those of you who don't play Eve Online, the Amarr are kinda like Fundies in space. I've encountered many Amarr players that in the real world are total bible thumping dullards, so podding them is totally worth it.

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Hotel stories - You are an idiot and so is your kid edition

I just had a feeling it was going to be a bad night, and that was before I left my apartment.

I hate it when I'm right.

The first thing I was greeted with tonight was a note for the management and an incident report. A guest's 12 year old child was in the hotel's fitness center, unsupervised, and hurt them self on the treadmill. Somehow this is the hotel's fault because we don't have any warning signs in the fitness center.

Then I had to deal with a room that was being a noise problem. Sure enough, party room. Sure enough, they have a pretty girl answer the door. Doesn't make any difference, she still gets told the diplomatic version of shut the fuck up or get the fuck out. I've not had any complaints yet. Bummer, I wouldn't mind an eviction.

And most recently I had a lady at the desk looking for a room. We don't have much left tonight. what few rooms we do have are smoking rooms and despite that they seem to be going quick. While she was at the desk, my co-worker was selling 2 rooms to another guest. I quoted her the lowest rate I had for the types of rooms I had. She tried to get me to cut her a deal. Can't do it. I think anyone that's taken a basic course in economic can understand why. That and I really can't change the rates anyway. She asked me about other hotels. I told her which ones had availability and where they were. She left.

Then about 15 minutes later she comes back with her boyfriend. In the mean time I had sold another room. At this point I have 2 left, gave him the rates for each. Both were smoking rooms. He proceeded to ask me if I was sure. Yes. Then if I was serious. Yes. Then if I could cut him a break because it's midnight. No. Then if I could cut him a break because they are smoking rooms. No, non-smoking is the same price. He asks me if there's anything I can do about the rate. No, lowest rate I have, it's actually less than the AAA rate. He again asks me if I'm sure. Yes. And if I'm serious. Yes. Then he decides he doesn't want to talk to me anymore and wants a manager. I am a manager. So he wants my business card and tells me that he's never been treated so poorly. I don't have one of my own, but I did give him a plain hotel business card and wrote my first name only on it. He wants my last name too because according to him I don't know who I just messed with. Not getting it. I don't give it out, ever. Especially to someone who just made that remark at me. He keeps thrown a fit about how badly he thinks he's being treated. I guess I should have been kissing his ass or something. He leaves telling me that he will be calling to complain.

But wait! There's more! He comes back in like a few seconds later all pissed off and asking me if I gave "his girl"attitude like I gave him. I didn't give either of them attitude. He goes on to tell me that I don't know who I messed with, again. Even my co-worker stepped in and said I didn't give either of them attitude. Again he said he was going to call and complain. And that I really don't know who I messed with. I wished him a good night.

Whateva.

All nice and quiet now. And those 2 rooms I had left? Sold!

Moral of tonight's stories - Don't be an idiot, keep an eye on your kid, don't be a cheapskate.

New work shirts and other things.

I have new uniform shirts for my job at the hotel. They gave me a choice of either a light yellow or blue. The blue was the less visually repulsive. It looks worse on me than it did in the catalog. I like the black shirts we had better. I think it's supposed to make me more cheerful, it's having quite the opposite effect. This shade of blue is so not my color.

At least it's not a suit.

While I have been off from work I managed bring a lawn mower back to life. Just needed to have the carb cleaned an rebuilt. Runs like a champ now. And if it can stop raining long enough, I might be able to mow my parents' lawn.

I also framed out my first set of fairy wings. I'm using hanging wire from the hardware store. it holds it's shape pretty well. It's also in 6' lengths which means it's pretty easy to bend 2 wings together. Also, one piece of wire is just enough for one wing. Just "skinning," painting and decorating at this point.

Since I stopped smoking this last time and also started working out on a regular basis, I've had a nearly permanent case of the munchies. Really annoying when you are trying to lose weight and all you want to do is eat.