You done seen me, now I gotta get 'cha!

LONDO IS COMING BACK!!!

Not to mention the DC guest list is at 400. Thats the highest I've ever seen it.

Overtime has started up again. I have been going in a half hour earlier than the rest of the crew to do cycle counts. (inventory) Which means I would go in at 7:30 am. Now the crew comes in at 7:00 which means I'm in at 6:30 am. I need the OT to catch up on the bills but I'm starting to get tired out. Off to bed.

Just a thought on all those people waving Mexican flags at the recent rallys around the country.


"In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the man's becoming in very fact an American, and nothing but an American...

There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag, and this excludes the red flag, which symbolizes all wars against liberty and civilization, just as much as it excludes any foreign flag of a nation to which we are hostile...We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."

--Theodore Roosevelt, 1919

"And where does the time go." -Lochley to Sheridan.
"Out there." -Sheridan to Lochley.

Been busy as all get up the last couple of weeks. We've had some really big orders come through at work and I mean huge. Michael's stores is rolling out our new products in their spring line up. 504 stores to ship to. That order alone took us four days.

Feburary 25th: My friend Amy has taken over the White-Wolf Camarilla game for the Ann Arbor chapter and I'm revamping (no pun intended) an old character to play in it.

Lindsay also left for Ma-zit-lan (excuse my spelling) Mexico for spring break.

March 1st: With the amount of orders we now have at work our hours have been extended. We're now working 10 hour days Monday through Friday and a partial day on Saturday. The money will be good and much needed as I'm still getting caught up on the bills from when I was unemployed. Also paid off one credit card. One down, two to go.

March 3rd: For the past few days a group of Anti-Abortionist have been protesting on Michigan Avenue in downtown Ypsilanti (Ip-sa-lantee.) Apparently there's a planned parenthood center going in somewhere and they're out in force holding really big signs that said, "Choice is... Abortion." Now I don't mind people exeicising their freedom of speech and all that, but what took up the majority of the signs were pictures of late term abortions. Really disgusting.

March 4th: Turned 42 today. Worked today. Got a birthday card from Sally with pictures. It really made my day. I really miss her. My friend (and supervisor) Kevin took me out to Aubrey's for drinks to celebrate. Had a good time drinking Black and Tan's and shooting pool. Got home around 11ish feeling really buzzed, Kevin drove by the way, after about 15 minutes I received a call from Lindsay telling me she was home. Interesting evening.

Other than that, just been working.

Had a doctor's appointment Monday morning before work. Since my doctor is in Canton it is easier for me to go there first then to work as apposed to getting off work at 4:30 pm and dealing with the traffic trying to get back. It was a follow up appointment on a prescription change. My insurance wanted me to switch to a generic.

Other than that, the last three days have been rather uneventful.

Went to Lindsay's house this evening for dinner and a movie. Conan the Barbarian.

Still feeling the pit in my stomach for my absense in Sally's life. She's going through a really rotten time. I think now in hindsight all that I should have done. A phone call, a card or even an email. Worlds number 1 jerk right here. I am so undeserving of her friendship. My best friend.

Sitting here listening to Night Call on WRIF radio. As usual Lindsay came over and spent the weekend with me. Things really seem to be working out with us. Saturday afternoon we went to Joshua's to continue our Deadlands tabletop game. That went till about 2 am. After talking awhile we got back to my house after 3 am and went right to bed. We also borrowed from Joshua his copy of the "Shield" season 4 on DVD. I've managed to get Lindsay hooked on the show. Sunday when we got up we watched a copy of episodes of the Shield then we went to lunch at Red Robin. After that I ran a copy of errands then went home. Lidsay stayed here with me talking and knocking back a few more episodes then left alittle after 11 pm. These weekends go by too quickly.

Been getting new (management potential) responsibilties at work which I'm really liking but requires more attention and time devoted to the job. And now that I have a girlfriend most of my free time is gone. No, I'm not complaining. However, I've neglected the hell out of my dearest of friends at a time when a friend needs a friend. I feel like shit about it. My absense wasn't intentional it just......happened. It's still no excuse. Damn I feel sick.

Just got back to the house. Was out with my girlfriend Lindsay to hang out with her friend Jessica who's an RA at EMU (Eastern Michigan University.) I fell asleep on the futon. Really tired. Off to bed. More later today.

42 years ago today, Doctor Who premired.

Got some great news today. Got called into the conference room this afternoon with my supervisor, our operations mngr. and his boss. In other words, my bosses, bosses, boss. I received several compliments on how I was performing the job. I mean they flattered the hell out of me. If they kept it up I'd probably have started crying. Really. Anyways they hired me permnanently as of July 1st. I have benefits again. Got a raise. etc. Now to start counting down to DragonCon. 199 guests to date.

Well once again it seems I've been lacking with the LJ thing.

I have to back up a bit here.

April 5th I started my new job at GiddyUp. Two and a half weeks into the job I was driving the forklift and had to get the "bucket" (caged unit that a forklift picks up and secures to the forks so a person can be lifted to change lightbulbs or whatever.) The bucket was on top of the third restroom which is this room in the center of the storage area at the main facility. I lifted the forks, went into/under the bucket, lifted ever so gently and got sprayed with grimey water. When the bucket was last returned it was placed too far in and was against the water main pipe. As soon as I lifted, the pipe seperated and I, the fork truck, the pallets in the immeadiate area and the floor were soaked. It caused quite a commotion. I thought sure as shit I was going to be fired. Nope. They were more concerned with my safety and how I was rather than the product which wasn't damaged. We had to repack some of the items and I spent the better part of the rest of the day mopping. I got some "Aquaman" ribbing for a little while but that was the worst of it. The Operations Manager told me the story of the really bad things that he and my supervisor have done in the past on the forklift and told me not to worry about it.

Not much of anything happened in May other than Sally's birthday. I can't wait for DragonCon (or as I've been calling it lately, SallyCon) so I can see her again. I really miss her.

The first part of this month I decided to buy myself a new mountain bike. My old one is six years old and a little too small for me. What I didn't know then but I know now is that the bike frames come in different lenghts. The store where I bought my Diamondback never checked my size to the frame. The store where I bought the new one at is called Two Wheel Tango. I ended up going with a Trek 4500 series with a 21 inch frame. It has a shock asorber in the forks which is something the old bike didn't have. The shock makes riding the dirt roads around me MUCH more comfortable.

The 16th of this month I paid my car off. Now I can focus on my last credit card. I should have it (knock on wood) close to paid by the time of DragonCon so I can run it up abit again.

"One day I shall come back, yes I shall come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs and prove to me that I'm not mistaken in mine."

~William Hartnell as the Doctor


Backtrack here a bit.
March 29th I received an email in answer to my resume I sent to a company called Giddy Up asking me to contact them. I called them the following day and an interview was set up for Thursday the 31st. The interview went very well and lasted for an hour and a half.

April 4th I received a call from Giddy Up informing me that their warehouse/truck driver person just up and quit over the weekend and with my background in both they offered me the job and I accepted the offer.

April 5th I started at 8 am. The first time in my life that my previous job experince has come into play. Alot of the product is different (toys instead of auto parts) but alot of the procedures are the same. Later the same evening, one of my favorite all time science fiction TV series returns after a 16 year absence. The Doctor is back! Doctor Who made it's North American debut on the same day as the new job. I'll take that as a good sign.

April 8th After three days on the job I've started suggesting ideas for inventory control and they've listened. I've started doing cycle counts.

April 18th Our Operations Mngr. and yours truly performed an audit of the warehouse.

I'm really liking the job. The people are alot of fun. It has a laid back atmoshpere. My hours are 8 am to 4:30 pm Monday through Friday. At this point I'm trying to assimilate as quickly as possibe. So far so good. The only thing about it that I wish was a little better is the starting salary. I'm at 2/3's what I used to make, but I'm not complaining. Michigan's unemployment is through the roof at 7.5 percent. I'm happy to have a job. More later.


".....Mostly though, I think it gave us hope that there can always be new beginnings. Even for people like us."

~Claudia Christian as Susan Ivanova
Final scenes, Sleeping in the Light.

Vlad Tepes: Feast among the Impaled, this day in 1459.

Polidori's "The Vampire" first published in 1819.

Turned 41 last friday. Damn! 41. Seems like I was just 18 a couple of years ago. I'm still having fun though. Bought the new (vampire) Masquerade: Bloodlines PC game as a birthday present to myself. However I found that I needed a new video card for the computer.

Received notice from Eaton Corporation a couple of days ago. As of March 1st I'm offically uninsured. They offered me the standard Cobra package but I'm going to have to turn that down. $342.00 a month. The stress level is up a bit.

My folks were going to have me out to their house last sunday for dinner, but my Mom had that damn flu thats been going around and had to cancel. It's been moved to this sunday. I'll get to see my niece and nephew again.

Had dinner at Mark's Midtown with the gang again this evening. Rob, Brook and Katie, Phil C., Eric, Greg, Ben, Drew and Joshua. The usual conversation. Larp, politics, job hunting. We stayed to close again.

Next tuesday I'm hosting a "The Shield" party for the season premire. Really looking forward to it.

Found out a little piece of scifi information last night. The new Doctor Who series premires on the 26th in England and on April 5th in Canada. And we have the CBC on our basic cable here and I'm REALLY looking forward to it.

Saturday saw the start of the new larp. Metamorphses: St. Louis. http://home.earthlink.net/~esasmor/stlouis/ New games are always a little rough at first having to get use to everyone playing new characters. Especially every time I hear someone mention the Seneschal and I start to react then remember thats not me anymore. I'm playing a Toreador this time around. This character is a complete opposite of the previous one. A socialite. I'll enjoy playing this one as I'll be able to put alot of me into the PC. And for the third time in a row, Rodney's PC is in the same clan as mine. Both PC's have money and are/were in the music business. My PC was a rocker from the '70s and Rodney's PC is in a goth band called Feral Whispers. Got to hand it to him, he gets all decked out for the character. That includes makeup. I need to take him down to City Club sometime. Everytime I come into a new game I like to play a clan that I haven't done yet. I still the Tremere, the Gangrel and the Malkavians left to do. Before the game started on Saturday, those of us arriving a little early gathered downstairs in the food court. Chatted with Jay and Jennifer and Matt L. a bit. Then talked with clan Gandalf (our out of character unoffical name for clan Tremere.) It's nice to see some old faces again. Greg and Mark whom I've gamed with in the past but really never got to know. I hope to change that. And Aaron A.! Who started the first (or one of) larp(s) in Ann Arbor. I've heard alot of him over the years. It's finally good to put a face with the name. Anyways a good start to the game.

Looks like its time for me to find a new knife company. Spyderco is advertising its made in China line.

Yes Sally, I know it's about damn time.

I've got alot to cover this time.

Oct. 29th 2004
Received a call from my friend Amy at Eaton that they were hiring temps to help with the moving of equipment out of our plant and moving it either to our former warehouse for storage, to the Southfield (MI) facility, the Ann Arbor (MI) facility or (this part I wasn't involved in) to Reynousa, Mexico. I ended up having to go through Kelly Services. Kinda freaky coming back to the company I used to work for after two and a half months unemployed to do basically the same (sort of) job I used to do. Freaky isn't the right word now that I think about it. It was really damn hard walking back in there seeing what was left of our operation. It was supposed to be a eight week assignment with better pay than what I was making when I was a regular employee. I started back on Nov. 1st.

Dec. 11th 2004
Chicago Reborn. Our LARP played in Ann Arbor ended on Saturday after 33 sessions. Two years and nines months. Good run. Great larp. The Prince (Jenny,) the Seneschal (yours truly,) the Tremere Primogen all died in our first scene. Chicago fell to the Sabbat. Announcement made for a new larp which will take place in St. Louis, MO.

Dec. 16th 2004
Eaton lied again. My so-called eight week assignment at Eaton only went six weeks. Well that cut down considerably my Christmas shopping. I wait until after the new year to refile for unemployment.

Dec. 27th 2004
Received a phone call from Federal Express want me to come in for testing. They have courier positions opening in their Novi (MI) facility.

Dec. 29th 2004
Went to the Federal Express Recruitment Center for testing at noon. Everything took about three hours. There were only five of us there. Interview set up for 3:30 pm Jan. 6th. Easy date to remember. It's both my Father's and Grandmother's birthdays.

Dec. 31st 2004
New Year's Eve. Went to my friend (and fellow larper) Ben's townhouse for a party. The theme was a pajama party. Just one thing. I don't own any pajamas. Eariler in the day I had a phone conversation with Rodney and he suggested I go to the party in the buff. I don't think so. Besides Ben, the other larpers there were Joshua and Laura, Jennifer, Greg (the Greg at DC Sally) and Nicole. I brought a bottle of Southern Comfort with me with a Renn-Faire drinking mug. It's all about style. Anyways, good times! The record for people getting sick was apprantly tied at eight. I didn't know anyone kept track of that sort of thing. At one point I had to take my bottle away from some teenyboppers who zeroed in on the SoCo. Get your own bottle.

Jan. 1st 2005
Woke up with a slight hangover. One thing I've been good about is knowing to say when. I stopped drinking about two hours before leaving the party. Decided to be a bit of a bum today. I sat around and watched Crusade dvds all day. Later I started the background information on the new character for the St. Louis larp.

Jan. 3rd 2005
Been on the phone all damn day trying to get through to the unemployment office to refile. No luck.

Jan. 4th 2005
Same as above. Called my rep. at Michigan Works to see if theer was another number I could call. No luck there either.

Jan. 5th 2005
Received a call from Federal Express. It seems I didn't pass the test so no interview. Wonderful. They will call me back in six months so I can take their test again. Still no luck with unemployment office. Had to go to the credit union to transfer funds to cover bills.

Jan. 6th 2005
My Dad's 69th birthday and my Grandmother's 82nd. Gave them both phone calls to wish them both. Met friends at the coney island. Good food. Laughs. Larp talk. The usual. Submitted background information to the storytellers. They like the concept. The concept: Baseing the PC on the character of Russell Hammond (actor Billy Crudrup) from the movie Almost Famous. A former '70's rocker turned vampire after his love interest returns from Morocco and puts the bite on him. That was the short version.

Jan. 7th 2005
Finally got through to the office late in the afternoon. However I was put on hold for so long I ended up getting disconnected. Try again on Monday.
Looking forward to the character creation party tomorrow. Same place and time as the larp would be normally. The first session is next Saturday the 15th.

~Ta

November 23rd, 1963 Doctor Who premiered. It was canceled in 1987. Now, 41 years later, it's coming back.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/doctorwho/

I hope it's going to be shown on this side of the pond.

Got a call friday afternoon (Oct. 29th) from Amy our former HR secertary at Eaton. She informed me of a temopary job opening at the plant helping the tear down crew moving equipment over to the warehouse where I used to work. I then called Annie, my rep over at Michigan Works to see if this would interfere with my unemployment benefits and she said it wouldn't. I then called Amy back and told her I was in. I then had to drive to Kelly Engineering Servives which is in Troy. Filled out the necessary paperwork. Then I got caught in the I-696 traffic coming home. 50 minutes there and an hour and a half to get back. I started Monday (Nov. 8th.) It was really hard for me walking back into the plant. I looked around a bit at first. Damn near broke into tears when I saw what little was left to the place. The day however brightened when the remaining "old" people that I know started coming up to me to say hi. General chat and grumblings. It's been ten weeks since the shut down. Ten weeks of unemployment. And i realized just how much I missed the old building. Kinda like the elderly John Sheridan visiting the station for the last time. Anyways the job is a cakewalk. VERY laid back. Eight hours a day. Have to get use to a five day week again. This is suppose to last until the end of the year, maybe longer. And they're paying me more per hour than I use to make when I was still a regular employee. Go figure.

I had an amazing weekend. I helped out Jeff Lewis (Lewis Creek Instruments) at the Sugarloaf Art Fair. It was a three day event. I was there all three days. It was very uplifting hanging and talking with all the artists. I met an artist named Rex who's from Belleville Michigan where I grew up. Traci who runs (I forget the name) one of the pewter shops at the Michigan Renassiance Festival and right across from her was Allen (L.A. Williams) whom I've bought prints from at both Renn-Faire and DragonCon. Allen borrowed me a couple of times on Friday and once on Saturday to handle his booth when he needed a break. At one point on Friday while he was on break, Traci needed one to so I was walking back and forth minding both booths. Allen gave me one of his prints (a dragon) for minding the booth for him and he personalized for me. Katie was there for Saturday and Sunday too. Jeff has also joined our LARP which he has jumped into head first.

Saturday evening after day two of the fair I went to my buddy Ben's Halloween party. The priest shirt that I ordered hadn't arrived as yet so I donned the Renn-Faire attire again. Alot of the people there had some really amazing costumes. Laura wore her PVC Nuns outfit. Goddamn she looks great in it! Joshua was doing the Crow. Danny and Lizzie were there as well. Once again I was Captain Oblivious. Joshua told before I left that at least five ladies there were asking about me. Great start to the Halloween festivities.