hi journal.

i haven't forgotten about you.

things is bad.

Apparently, going higher up the chain of command, because you can get nothing done using the resources available to you, is frowned on at my work. Doing this resulted in a 10min phone call where the general manager of my store essentially screamed at me for writing an email regarding the a) lack of customer service, b) lack of straight answers, and c) lack of true management at work. I tried to point out that, naturally, much of the situation at hand occurred before he was even put in the store as new GM, and that he also was part of the problem by failing to call me back or obviously speak with the other supervisors, but he cut me off and -- well, yelled at me that if I have a problem with him, I need to take it up with him.

I don't have a problem with you, dude. I have a problem with the shoddy way you're running your "multi-million dollar store," which is funny, because you don't have the payroll to support your employees, we're all getting paid for beans, and the store is being monitored by corporate because of poor sales? We're a Project Phoenix store. I have ears. I overhear these things. I'm not stupid, though you (and everyone else) might think otherwise.

I'm sorry, but when was literally yelling at your employees for using what resources they have available professional behavior? Questioning everything I'm saying [while one of the supervisors is in the room with you, also listening in] is not good business practice. I wasn't aware that I'd be interrogated, and not given a chance to put a word in edgewise. I was so surprised and taken aback by his nasty tone that I just sat there and said little to nothing. I had high hopes for this dude when I met him a couple of weeks ago, but they're now gone.

When I mentioned that I'd be out of town next week, he asked me if I'd put that in writing. When I told him that I'd filled out a request sheet on APRIL 6TH, over a month ago, he kind of huffed and went, "Well I don't see one." Yes. I know. The office was in a shambles back then, and it still is now, but I showed it to both supervisors and the one other day I requested was granted. Both supes know about it. Sorry, dude, I'm not cancelling my trip because you doubt the authenticity of my statements. I offered to give him the conformation number to my tickets, even.

I suppose I've been lucky in my jobs prior to working here, and maybe I have been, but I have never experienced this sort of management fail before. If there was a problem, my manager would speak to me directly and in a timely fashion. That's the only real beef I have here. If someone would have called me back and explained to me why I was taken off the schedule for three weeks, sometime during that three weeks -- or even if I hadn't been endlessly relegated to phone tag and leaving messages -- that'd have been fine. But I did all I could, and now I get chewed out over it? Fuck that.

I really just don't feel like I get paid enough, or have committed a transgression major enough, to be faced with this sort of treatment. I'm going to be looking for another job when I get back from New York.

Be aggressive, B-E aggressive.
Be aggressive, B-E aggressive.

Just one girlie at the tourney and it's kill or be killed.
The Dungeon Master is the bastard known as Pliny the Ill
but I, I could feel it coming through the air that night.
Oh Lord, my sword's out. Jesus, just avert Your eyes.

Took me years to develop these skills.
I'm untouchable thanks to these pills.
The way's paved with knaves that I've horribly slain.
See me coming, better run for those hills. Listen up now.

You got me killing, uh.
You got me blind to feelings.
I crush your face, I take your jewels, you have no way of dealing.

Be aggressive, B-E aggressive.
Be aggressive, B-E aggressive.

"Mirror mirror, uh, up on the wall, uh,
who's the baddest motherfucker of them all, uh?
Just like Columbus, uh, he get the bloodlust, uh.
Just like Columbus he get murderous on purpose."

You got me hurting, uh.
You got me pulling curtains.
You sucking chili dogs while I go on my crazed berserking.

Be aggressive, B-E aggressive.
Be aggressive, B-E aggressive.

10s and 20s, what's so funny, fucking 20 10?
Sweet Jesus, please just get me through this. Take me home again.
But I'm all up in the Deathworld, snap.
Rub a bump in the Deathworld, shit.
I'm all heavy with the winnings not to mention all the sinning and I lost it in the Deathworld, crap.

In the Valley of the Shadow a Boobery attacked.
He was the hitman of the girlie, who survived to the last.
She was the cutest necromancer that I ever did see.
I almost wished myself to die so she could win the whole thing, but

Be aggressive, B-E aggressive.
Be aggressive, B-E aggressive.

In the space of about twenty minutes, and while I was trying to clean the house for Mother's Day, I have:

1) Bent my left thumbnail back hard enough that there is a bit of blood trapped underneath the nail. Not sure if it's worth it to try and burn a hole through the nail to let it out.

2) Broken one of the mirrored, sliding-glass doors on the medicine cabinet. When it fell, it also took out half of one of the soap dish tiles.

3) The dog peed on my bedroom rug, to add insult to injury. I guess she's just pissed I gave her a bath.

FML.

[crossposted from dreamwidth]

Because I'm a follower, and especially since I'm going to (eventually) ditch my livejournal and come over here, I figured I'd write an 'all about me' post. So here we go. :D
( all about moi! )

It's 88 degrees outside, with a heat index of 90. It's MAY. I should not be surprised at how hot New Orleans gets [since I've lived here since '96], but in May? Seriously? I know that when we get into the depths of August I'll be wishing it was 90 degrees, but c'mon, man. I suppose at that point I'll have free reign to go jump in perfectcherry's pool, but enough is enough.

10 days 'til I leave for NYC!


crossposted to dragonslayer.dreamwidth.org

Monday night is the night that my friends and I game -- not cards, not video-gaming, not LARPing, but the standard old tabletop roleplaying that's been going on ever since the 1970s, when Gary Gygax had his greatest idea and created D&D. We don't play D&D [though we have before]; instead, we play a game called Rifts, set in the Palladium universe. Rifts takes place in a darkish sort of future, on an Earth that is post-apocalyptic and open to magic -- it combines elements of cyberpunk, fantasy, the western/cowboy genre, science-fiction and a lot of horror. It has everything in it from mecha [think Gundam Wing and Evangelion] to fairies, from post-apocalyptic, crumbling New York City to the treacherous swamps of the dinosaur-infested Everglades. It's not for newbie roleplayers, but it's one of my favorite systems just because it's open to so much. Your game and your storyline is limited only by the imaginations of your GM and the players. In short, I love it.

I should add here we've been playing for damn near 8-9 years now. My earliest drawings of my characters [then from a game called Exalted, which you've invariably heard about] date from 2003. And I know we were playing before that.

Anyway, tonight was one of the best roleplaying sessions I've had in a long time. We began around 7:30pm, and we gamed until 1:30am. I think we would have continued had it not gotten so late. Germaine [our GM] set up two different story arcs for Rifts, and we've been playing with our second set of characters -- the non-magical ones. This especially effects me, since my main character is a seven-inch-tall fairy warrior basically made out of magic; I switch to playing a cyberknight, which is basically a paladin with psychic powers and some bitchin' cybernetic implants.

I really, really enjoy roleplaying with this group. I enjoy Germaine's dark future GMing, and the way he gets into character [complete with accents and posture for his NPCs]; I enjoy Jackie's cool social abilities and her philosophy of "He who hesitates is boned," I enjoy Dave's smarmy charm, and I enjoy Rachael's completely off-the-wall, out-of-the-box methods of thinking. I can only hope that I provide my fellow party members the same sort of experience. It always takes me awhile to be able to fully feel my character -- it takes at least a few sessions before I can say I truly like them, and I think this session kind of catapulted my cyberknight into the realm of like. I realized that I was running with the wrong concept; Rallin's much younger than I pictured him being, and playing what's essentially a lawful good paladin in a city run by a militant, pro-human, corrupt world power isn't exactly easy. But I've adapted while somehow managing to hang onto my lawful good nature. There's been a lotta bloodshed.

I'm always a little paranoid that I'm not a good roleplayer; I get flustered and I think my real talent lies in the realm of text roleplay -- because I'm an English major and I can paint with words, tell stories and fantastic things with words -- but then nights like these make me feel as though I've, well, gained a level. (:

I'm going to stop here since I think I'm rambling -- it is, after all, almost 3am. But I honestly wish that more people would give roleplaying a try. It's very, very dear to my heart. At Dragon*Con a few years back, in one of the gaming rooms, I met a group of guys well into their 50s who had been playing D&D for 17 years. As nerdy as that may sound, I can say with some confidence that I'll be one of those people in the future -- I'd consider myself blessed to have done something creative and fun with my friends for that long.

In other news, this week is finals week. Then NYC. I'm also calling Borders [and Borders Corporate] later today, if I have to.

crossposted to dragonslayer.dreamwidth.org

Sometimes, truth is stranger than fiction. Thanks, Blizzard.*

Also, this is maybe the most hilarious -- or hilariously disturbing -- video in the history of YouTube. THANKS DAVE.

In other news, I went all the way to work today [took the bus both ways, which was 2hrs. worth of travel] to be told that I am not on the schedule for this week or next week because I called out on Saturday of last week. This is the first time I've called out. This is not normal. I am prepared to take this shit to corporate if I must. It'll be straightened out tomorrow when I talk to the scheduling manager, or it had better be.







*Yes. Finoria is masked against swine flu. What? She can't cleanse disease.

Three weeks 'til NYC! :D

Because my keyboard's getting kinda old and I've begun to notice the keys spazzing out. I think I can swing $20 for a replacement if I ever need one...


I had my first actual stint as a resto druid today, healing a 10m Obsidian Sanctum and then 10m Vault of Archavon. Since the new patch there's a new boss in the instance and my guild decided to try it. If you were to ask me the mechanics of the fight, or even the boss's name, I couldn't tell you. I was quite literally pounding my keyboard trying to keep Dellrias from dying. I didn't even have the right gear on; I had my boomkin t7 chest on instead of the resto chest, but I rocked [what felt to me] an insane amount of haste. My Healing Touches were a .6-second cast, down from 1.5. I can really see why healers enjoy haste. I think I could come to enjoy healing as a druid, when I have more time to prepare for it. I literally had 10 minutes to respec and grab my resto gear out of the bank before I was summoned away.

Lumizent is still 79, but I'm slowly working on getting her to level. Spending an hour camping Loque'nahak and/or Gondria didn't help, either. I'll probably never find the former, because Sholazar is crammed full of people all the time. I have a couple of pieces of gear for her to equip once she hits 80.


I'm going to NYC next month, on the 19th of May. :D and_be_blue and I [and her friend Steve] will be going to see Avenue Q on Broadway. I am endlessly excited. :D :D :D The last time I was in New York at all was in '02, and that was only for two days -- I'd gone up to the northeast to visit my dad in Providence and took the train up to visit MacKay. I'll be going up for a whole week this time, and I'll probably get to spend more time in the actual city. My experience with NYC as a city was spent walking down 5th Avenue during the St. Patrick's Day parade, and then a couple of hours spent fooling around in the Met.

School's out in ... about two weeks. Another semester over already!