Ikasucon, Shit Hits the Fan, and Down on the Farm...
Ikasucon was fun... even though I was staff with hours that made it quite impossible to leave or really even sleep in the staff crash room... I was on shift in video room one Saturday (or Friday night depending on how you see it) 4:00am to 8:00am and Sunday 4:00am to 10:00am (although I ended up staying in video room one from Midnight (helping parodies with a friend) to noon, the end of Otaku Choice which I ran even though a drowsy person came in a little around 10:15ish am to relieve me... Wow... I just realised that I was there for a full twelve hours...
The only hitch was the first night when the computer (which was used for showing some fan subbed and other things started having problems while showing Cat Soup TV (a fun and disturbing little anime...)... After Cat Soup I took over from Neil and started showing Narutaru and the sound went out as the computer overheated and crashed... The problem was not the show... I was playing it from DVD on a DVD player... The problem was the way we had sound hooked up... The cheapest and easiest way to get good 5.1 surround sound was to send it through a computer with a special system and set-up... Unfortunately the computer in video room one did not have an adequate cooling system (the room can not be blamed... It was freezing and I bundled myself up... It was really freezing... Although I ended up lending out my jacket (I brought it because most Video Rooms are cold... Part of my normal ConPack) to this girl who kept complaining about the cold)... So we ended up moving to Video room three which had been closed...
In addition to this I also did some stuff during the day with a few people including a friend I hadn't seen in over a year.
From Thursday Morning to Sunday Night I would say that I got about four hours of sleep (two hours Thursday night and two hours in the crash room) and I think that that is a liberal estimate...
When I returned Sunday Night to my parents I got the wonderful news that the Shit had hit the Fan... Talks between the UAW and Nutone had collapsed and that Nutone would institute a lock out of UAW members on the following Monday... Things had been getting bad for more than a month so this was not all too surprising...
My father works at Nutone's Madisonville Plant as an office manager... Nutone is almost a family business on my father's side... A couple generations have worked for Nutone and many family and friends work there (I mean company picnics are almost like Family Reunions)... If everything had failed for me I might have even worked there.
Nutone has also said that they will mail out the employee's pay checks and the machinery that was being repaired is now being transferred to an Illinois facility with rumours flying of a possible move of operations to the PRC.
Thanks to this things may crumble around me... or at least around my parents pulling me down with them (my father is the main provider and if the plant closes...)... as of right now it is wait and see as to what will happen... The sticking point to all this is that the company wants to make the factory worker's healthcare costs comparable to the ones the salaried employees pay (from nearly free to about 25% to 50% of the costs)... It's kinda maddening... It's like being on a plane flown by a drunk idiot... The Union has been unable to see reason and seems ready to smash everything into the ground if it cannot get its way... I will rant more on this issue in a bit...
So far the signs have not been good... Nutone will mail out the employee's last pay checks and is moving equipment... The union and the company are not meeting and refuse to budge... and it is increasingly looking like the plant is going to be shut down and that things may eventually be moved to the PRC.
Arg...
After I heard the news I went over to my grandparent's place to work and have some peace (The phone was ringing a lot... My father only taking those from fellow office staff)...
(Behind the cut is Farm Adventures...)
So I was at my grandparent's for the past few days trying desprately to keep everything from collapsing... Things seem to be going to pots... Animals roam freely eating crops with no fear (The pear trees and apple trees are a loss now... vermin have made huge heaps of gnawed fruit... The vegetables are better but not really much more so)... Several buildings that have stood for more than thirty years seem to be getting on the verge of collapsing... I even fell through a bridge (it was only a few feet...
Thank goodness I wasn't in a vehicle (it was made as a vehicle bridge over a creek)). The only thing that doesn't seem to be in disrepair is the outhouse... I can't keep up with the repairs myself... especially with the limited time available...
I'm thinking of moving over there for most of the summer and letting my parents work things out better while I work in a probably futile gesture to restore things (it would probably be easier to raze everything and rebuild from the ground up)... I have an old laptop I could possibly use up there... I think they have touch-tone now... They had rotary forever (I like rotary phones BTW) but I think it was updated to touch-tone a year ago or so...
I had an odd experience with Neko-kun (who is almost fully healed btw) while I was at my grandparent's place... I had bought a large pocket knife that I was oddly drawn towards (I also got a dagger which resembles a matchlock pistol for show) at Ikasucon's dealers' room... Anyways I sharpened it on a whetstone and went outside and tested it on a tree branch and put it away as Neko-kun started to come up to me... Then he froze and looked at me strangely then darted away howling...
This puzzled me... He had never acted like this before... I kept walking towards him and questioning him but he kept on retreating... keeping at least seven feet away at all times... he also kept uttering a haunting cry like he was wounded or scared and was calling for help.... He was very frightened... He didn't even acknowledge my commands (He knows come, stay, and a few others)... I finally stopped approaching him at the edge of the garden as he tried hiding in the tomatoes while staring at me and uttering his cry... I was getting angry at him... I walked away and finally something hit me... Something about that knife... So I came back and retrieved it from my pocket as Neko-kun started backing up, and I yelled over at him "Is this it? Is this what you are afraid of?... Well it is gone now!"... I then took the knife and tossed it away with all my might... As soon as it had left my hand Neko-kun came running up to me purring and started nuzzling up to me... I consoled and pet him for a bit before going over to pick the knife back up...
When I tried to pick it up, Neko-kun tried to push my hand out of the way and tried to keep me away from the knife... I told him that I was going to get rid of it and I picked it up, walked off, and put it in a box... I'm still debating of what to do with it... Looking back at my actions while the knife was in my possession I would say that I was unusually aggressive... I especially noticed this myself while driving... I thought at the time it was just due to my body's tiredness maybe it was something more...
Whatever it is Neko-kun does not like that pocket knife... and I trust him... Let me explain before you start looking at me funny for saying that I trust a cat... I have always been in charge of the cats at my grandparents... so I have always worked with them and cared for them... I have also trained them to do things which is better than or at least as good as my Grandfather did with dogs and other creatures... Neko-kun I have raised since kittenhood, (he is of a different line from the other cats... we had a line and they all died out...) I can say of all the cats I have worked with that Neko-kun is the most obedient, intelligent, and trusting (even compared to Misty, another male which I trained to retrieve birds... he was the last of the previously mentioned line))... I build up trust by working with the cats... I have even accompanied and helped them on their hunts...
Neko-kun's hunting skills are not that great, but he has excelled in all other fields and we have a good deal of trust built up between us... It is somewhat like a junior partnership... One of his main faults is that he likes to lick me a lot... It took me a while to get him to understand that I did not particularly like it when he licked my face (after jumping in my lap).
Trust between me and Neko-kun is so great that he has never risen his paws in anger against me (Misty scratched me on a few occasions)... I don't know exactly why Neko-kun is so trusting... I can't really understand it but he seems to read what I am saying and my feelings as well or better as I can do with his... Maybe it's a testament to the training and raising that I have given him coupled with his intelligence... Although he is very good at sensing things though...
Oh well, I have rambled on enough...
The only hitch was the first night when the computer (which was used for showing some fan subbed and other things started having problems while showing Cat Soup TV (a fun and disturbing little anime...)... After Cat Soup I took over from Neil and started showing Narutaru and the sound went out as the computer overheated and crashed... The problem was not the show... I was playing it from DVD on a DVD player... The problem was the way we had sound hooked up... The cheapest and easiest way to get good 5.1 surround sound was to send it through a computer with a special system and set-up... Unfortunately the computer in video room one did not have an adequate cooling system (the room can not be blamed... It was freezing and I bundled myself up... It was really freezing... Although I ended up lending out my jacket (I brought it because most Video Rooms are cold... Part of my normal ConPack) to this girl who kept complaining about the cold)... So we ended up moving to Video room three which had been closed...
In addition to this I also did some stuff during the day with a few people including a friend I hadn't seen in over a year.
From Thursday Morning to Sunday Night I would say that I got about four hours of sleep (two hours Thursday night and two hours in the crash room) and I think that that is a liberal estimate...
When I returned Sunday Night to my parents I got the wonderful news that the Shit had hit the Fan... Talks between the UAW and Nutone had collapsed and that Nutone would institute a lock out of UAW members on the following Monday... Things had been getting bad for more than a month so this was not all too surprising...
My father works at Nutone's Madisonville Plant as an office manager... Nutone is almost a family business on my father's side... A couple generations have worked for Nutone and many family and friends work there (I mean company picnics are almost like Family Reunions)... If everything had failed for me I might have even worked there.
Nutone has also said that they will mail out the employee's pay checks and the machinery that was being repaired is now being transferred to an Illinois facility with rumours flying of a possible move of operations to the PRC.
Thanks to this things may crumble around me... or at least around my parents pulling me down with them (my father is the main provider and if the plant closes...)... as of right now it is wait and see as to what will happen... The sticking point to all this is that the company wants to make the factory worker's healthcare costs comparable to the ones the salaried employees pay (from nearly free to about 25% to 50% of the costs)... It's kinda maddening... It's like being on a plane flown by a drunk idiot... The Union has been unable to see reason and seems ready to smash everything into the ground if it cannot get its way... I will rant more on this issue in a bit...
So far the signs have not been good... Nutone will mail out the employee's last pay checks and is moving equipment... The union and the company are not meeting and refuse to budge... and it is increasingly looking like the plant is going to be shut down and that things may eventually be moved to the PRC.
Arg...
After I heard the news I went over to my grandparent's place to work and have some peace (The phone was ringing a lot... My father only taking those from fellow office staff)...
(Behind the cut is Farm Adventures...)
So I was at my grandparent's for the past few days trying desprately to keep everything from collapsing... Things seem to be going to pots... Animals roam freely eating crops with no fear (The pear trees and apple trees are a loss now... vermin have made huge heaps of gnawed fruit... The vegetables are better but not really much more so)... Several buildings that have stood for more than thirty years seem to be getting on the verge of collapsing... I even fell through a bridge (it was only a few feet...
Thank goodness I wasn't in a vehicle (it was made as a vehicle bridge over a creek)). The only thing that doesn't seem to be in disrepair is the outhouse... I can't keep up with the repairs myself... especially with the limited time available...
I'm thinking of moving over there for most of the summer and letting my parents work things out better while I work in a probably futile gesture to restore things (it would probably be easier to raze everything and rebuild from the ground up)... I have an old laptop I could possibly use up there... I think they have touch-tone now... They had rotary forever (I like rotary phones BTW) but I think it was updated to touch-tone a year ago or so...
I had an odd experience with Neko-kun (who is almost fully healed btw) while I was at my grandparent's place... I had bought a large pocket knife that I was oddly drawn towards (I also got a dagger which resembles a matchlock pistol for show) at Ikasucon's dealers' room... Anyways I sharpened it on a whetstone and went outside and tested it on a tree branch and put it away as Neko-kun started to come up to me... Then he froze and looked at me strangely then darted away howling...
This puzzled me... He had never acted like this before... I kept walking towards him and questioning him but he kept on retreating... keeping at least seven feet away at all times... he also kept uttering a haunting cry like he was wounded or scared and was calling for help.... He was very frightened... He didn't even acknowledge my commands (He knows come, stay, and a few others)... I finally stopped approaching him at the edge of the garden as he tried hiding in the tomatoes while staring at me and uttering his cry... I was getting angry at him... I walked away and finally something hit me... Something about that knife... So I came back and retrieved it from my pocket as Neko-kun started backing up, and I yelled over at him "Is this it? Is this what you are afraid of?... Well it is gone now!"... I then took the knife and tossed it away with all my might... As soon as it had left my hand Neko-kun came running up to me purring and started nuzzling up to me... I consoled and pet him for a bit before going over to pick the knife back up...
When I tried to pick it up, Neko-kun tried to push my hand out of the way and tried to keep me away from the knife... I told him that I was going to get rid of it and I picked it up, walked off, and put it in a box... I'm still debating of what to do with it... Looking back at my actions while the knife was in my possession I would say that I was unusually aggressive... I especially noticed this myself while driving... I thought at the time it was just due to my body's tiredness maybe it was something more...
Whatever it is Neko-kun does not like that pocket knife... and I trust him... Let me explain before you start looking at me funny for saying that I trust a cat... I have always been in charge of the cats at my grandparents... so I have always worked with them and cared for them... I have also trained them to do things which is better than or at least as good as my Grandfather did with dogs and other creatures... Neko-kun I have raised since kittenhood, (he is of a different line from the other cats... we had a line and they all died out...) I can say of all the cats I have worked with that Neko-kun is the most obedient, intelligent, and trusting (even compared to Misty, another male which I trained to retrieve birds... he was the last of the previously mentioned line))... I build up trust by working with the cats... I have even accompanied and helped them on their hunts...
Neko-kun's hunting skills are not that great, but he has excelled in all other fields and we have a good deal of trust built up between us... It is somewhat like a junior partnership... One of his main faults is that he likes to lick me a lot... It took me a while to get him to understand that I did not particularly like it when he licked my face (after jumping in my lap).
Trust between me and Neko-kun is so great that he has never risen his paws in anger against me (Misty scratched me on a few occasions)... I don't know exactly why Neko-kun is so trusting... I can't really understand it but he seems to read what I am saying and my feelings as well or better as I can do with his... Maybe it's a testament to the training and raising that I have given him coupled with his intelligence... Although he is very good at sensing things though...
Oh well, I have rambled on enough...