I'm a surviva
Well... I made it. I don't know how I did, but I made it.
Mostly I questioned it at work yesterday and today. Our manager has been doing safety audits of other Goodwills and stuff cause she's apparently one of the most important managers IN ZEE WORLD but her absence has been felt in the form of CRITICAL under-staffing problems on our busiest days resulting in massive backlogs of stuff that needs to be put out, the store getting too messy and customers having to wait too long for too much. Yesterday was just... the most ridiculous it could have possibly been. It was shameful what we left behind and we were so absolutely destroyed. Then, to my surprise, they just shoved it to one side and produced another day's worth of stuff we couldn't get to.
But... we did better today than yesterday, and now the customers slow down and its my weekend so while I rest they'll catch up and we can start over next weekend.
I also went to the fair... and my last LJ post was super gloomy and written before I went. I will say that for both my mom and me, this year's fair wasn't at all what we were used to or necessarily hoping for. It wasn't a loss though. I'm glad I went. I did a speed run through the fair and checked off all the check boxes of fair traditions I have... and I got to see Keith and Julia and Patty, reconnecting with people I miss from my past. It was great spending time with Jeremy as always and I had a little bit of time with Ty and Ellie. I am happy with my purchases.
Still, though, its almost a sort of haunting experience. I like going during the morning or mid day, or even sunset but it was already gloomy and dark when I got there. The wild cats were pacing and unhappy, the lego displays seemed less inspired, and then there was the critical mis-timing of groups getting together and stuff. It felt like everything was out of alignment and I feel sort of sad about it all... and now it is gone for another year. But I'll just make sure to do things right next time, and I don't regret doing it this time.
What I do regret is not seeing my mom freak out the palm readers. I didn't even know there WAS a palm reading tent, but my mom's native american escort of teenage age wanted to go. My mom warned her that it isn't an exacting science, a hand can change in an instant and even if it follows all the rules of the lines, it can't tell the future. Girl still wanted to go. My mom convinced her to listen to other people getting a reading before they did, to see how generalized it was. So they did and they lingered.
Palm readers don't like people getting entertainment for free and are hesitant to people hanging around and eventually they were growing impatient. One lady was kinda bitchy. There were at least three of them. Knowing they needed the incentive of money, my mom said "Alright, I'll let you read my palms, but I get to read yours first."
All three immediatly hid their hands, horrified at the idea. The bitchy lady started shouting "No, don't touch me, your energy... your energy..."
to which my mom replied "I haven't eaten anything all day, I had to hike across the parking lot, I'm in my sixties. I have no energy..." but that didn't really convince them.
Anyway, my mom ignored bitchy lady and went over to one and started complimenting her and stuff and she was like "Oh yes, it's all true" and my mom left without really getting her hand read.
The native american girl was a little shocked with my mom's behavior and wanted her to apologize to them for being so abrupt. My mom went back in and basically said something to the effect of "Sorry for saying what I feel" lol. Then again native american girl thought the last thing my mom should do was ask the bike cops for directions to the artisan village as she was raised never to look at, acknowledge or interact with police. Doesn't make sense given that she and her parents are very well behaved and don't generally break any laws, but yeah, super phobia... to which my mom of course went over and asked for directions anyway.
Today when getting my grandmother groceries she said that my mom never really studied palmistry like she did. My grandma has all the books, knows every detail. She said my mom just went off of intuition but was almost always right. I never looked into it though cause it just seems like pseudo science, but it makes for a good story.
I'm still buying too many legos. Shopping therapy out of hand, but... I am reasonably certain that I've reached a point where there isn't anything I could buy for story ideas that I don't already have or have coming in the mail. When I have the time to work on the comics, it does bring me great joy even when I don't get feedback so I'm going to keep doing it. I know I'm not going to make a stop motion animation series without help. The comics are enough on my own and I can finish them to a great degree... But I do wonder, if one day in the future I have my own space, if I could make narrated shorts... Maybe the frames are still static like a comic, but instead of speech bubbles we have people talking. I might animate some parts but not others, for instance I had good results with animating the aquazone ships.
Even if I never in my life make an animated anything out of Legos, I am getting joy out of building my friends into the story. It acts as inspiration to the characters, gives me something to work with. As you may know, the main character is based off of Ty and I'm the headphone wearing technophile. Johännah's character and Margaret's character made a cameo in the most recent chapter. I have a minifigure for Ellie, but she's never given me any feedback so I don't know what's up and I haven't forced anyone else into character roles. The character I have as Gabe hasn't appeared yet and he went through three hair pieces and two heads before I decided it was good enough. I have several characters not based on people too... Some are based off of childhood characters, others I just slapped together because they looked cool. I wonder if anyone would want to adopt established characters. The outline for the comic is at six or seven stories now.
Boy weekends don't seem long enough... especially after this week. Tomorrow I think I rest and recover. Wednesday I have yard work in the morning for my grandma. One of these days I want to take Jordan up on his offer to go through the most recent Borderlands expansion. I don't suspect it would take too many hours, especially with my character the way he is. I also know that game is most enjoyable in two states... 1) Solo play, maximizing one's enjoyment of the atmosphere and humor, or 2) with a friend that knows when to stop so as not to skip all the cutscenes and events, and then laugh at the insanity that unfolds in co-op play. I know Jordan would make condition 2 perfect, and its amazing I've avoided spoilers this long.
Well, I hoped to make a more balanced journal. I think I did...
Mostly I questioned it at work yesterday and today. Our manager has been doing safety audits of other Goodwills and stuff cause she's apparently one of the most important managers IN ZEE WORLD but her absence has been felt in the form of CRITICAL under-staffing problems on our busiest days resulting in massive backlogs of stuff that needs to be put out, the store getting too messy and customers having to wait too long for too much. Yesterday was just... the most ridiculous it could have possibly been. It was shameful what we left behind and we were so absolutely destroyed. Then, to my surprise, they just shoved it to one side and produced another day's worth of stuff we couldn't get to.
But... we did better today than yesterday, and now the customers slow down and its my weekend so while I rest they'll catch up and we can start over next weekend.
I also went to the fair... and my last LJ post was super gloomy and written before I went. I will say that for both my mom and me, this year's fair wasn't at all what we were used to or necessarily hoping for. It wasn't a loss though. I'm glad I went. I did a speed run through the fair and checked off all the check boxes of fair traditions I have... and I got to see Keith and Julia and Patty, reconnecting with people I miss from my past. It was great spending time with Jeremy as always and I had a little bit of time with Ty and Ellie. I am happy with my purchases.
Still, though, its almost a sort of haunting experience. I like going during the morning or mid day, or even sunset but it was already gloomy and dark when I got there. The wild cats were pacing and unhappy, the lego displays seemed less inspired, and then there was the critical mis-timing of groups getting together and stuff. It felt like everything was out of alignment and I feel sort of sad about it all... and now it is gone for another year. But I'll just make sure to do things right next time, and I don't regret doing it this time.
What I do regret is not seeing my mom freak out the palm readers. I didn't even know there WAS a palm reading tent, but my mom's native american escort of teenage age wanted to go. My mom warned her that it isn't an exacting science, a hand can change in an instant and even if it follows all the rules of the lines, it can't tell the future. Girl still wanted to go. My mom convinced her to listen to other people getting a reading before they did, to see how generalized it was. So they did and they lingered.
Palm readers don't like people getting entertainment for free and are hesitant to people hanging around and eventually they were growing impatient. One lady was kinda bitchy. There were at least three of them. Knowing they needed the incentive of money, my mom said "Alright, I'll let you read my palms, but I get to read yours first."
All three immediatly hid their hands, horrified at the idea. The bitchy lady started shouting "No, don't touch me, your energy... your energy..."
to which my mom replied "I haven't eaten anything all day, I had to hike across the parking lot, I'm in my sixties. I have no energy..." but that didn't really convince them.
Anyway, my mom ignored bitchy lady and went over to one and started complimenting her and stuff and she was like "Oh yes, it's all true" and my mom left without really getting her hand read.
The native american girl was a little shocked with my mom's behavior and wanted her to apologize to them for being so abrupt. My mom went back in and basically said something to the effect of "Sorry for saying what I feel" lol. Then again native american girl thought the last thing my mom should do was ask the bike cops for directions to the artisan village as she was raised never to look at, acknowledge or interact with police. Doesn't make sense given that she and her parents are very well behaved and don't generally break any laws, but yeah, super phobia... to which my mom of course went over and asked for directions anyway.
Today when getting my grandmother groceries she said that my mom never really studied palmistry like she did. My grandma has all the books, knows every detail. She said my mom just went off of intuition but was almost always right. I never looked into it though cause it just seems like pseudo science, but it makes for a good story.
I'm still buying too many legos. Shopping therapy out of hand, but... I am reasonably certain that I've reached a point where there isn't anything I could buy for story ideas that I don't already have or have coming in the mail. When I have the time to work on the comics, it does bring me great joy even when I don't get feedback so I'm going to keep doing it. I know I'm not going to make a stop motion animation series without help. The comics are enough on my own and I can finish them to a great degree... But I do wonder, if one day in the future I have my own space, if I could make narrated shorts... Maybe the frames are still static like a comic, but instead of speech bubbles we have people talking. I might animate some parts but not others, for instance I had good results with animating the aquazone ships.
Even if I never in my life make an animated anything out of Legos, I am getting joy out of building my friends into the story. It acts as inspiration to the characters, gives me something to work with. As you may know, the main character is based off of Ty and I'm the headphone wearing technophile. Johännah's character and Margaret's character made a cameo in the most recent chapter. I have a minifigure for Ellie, but she's never given me any feedback so I don't know what's up and I haven't forced anyone else into character roles. The character I have as Gabe hasn't appeared yet and he went through three hair pieces and two heads before I decided it was good enough. I have several characters not based on people too... Some are based off of childhood characters, others I just slapped together because they looked cool. I wonder if anyone would want to adopt established characters. The outline for the comic is at six or seven stories now.
Boy weekends don't seem long enough... especially after this week. Tomorrow I think I rest and recover. Wednesday I have yard work in the morning for my grandma. One of these days I want to take Jordan up on his offer to go through the most recent Borderlands expansion. I don't suspect it would take too many hours, especially with my character the way he is. I also know that game is most enjoyable in two states... 1) Solo play, maximizing one's enjoyment of the atmosphere and humor, or 2) with a friend that knows when to stop so as not to skip all the cutscenes and events, and then laugh at the insanity that unfolds in co-op play. I know Jordan would make condition 2 perfect, and its amazing I've avoided spoilers this long.
Well, I hoped to make a more balanced journal. I think I did...