Yup, there it goes. Marvel has been purchased by Disney.

The end is nigh.

Feeling: angry

For a good long while now I have worked at my current job. It's been three years. Last year we got bought out by a larger company and he micro managing began. After much thought and consideration I have an anger that I do not think I could possibly contain about something that has happened in this country over the last few years.

When in the hell, did quantity become more important than quality? Who nixed the idea that doing your job, and doing it right was the most important thing. Not how fast you could get it done, not how much extra you can crank out in a day. Do it, and do it right. That is the way it is supposed to be done.

When did the idea that if you aren't cranking out more work for every day you put in at a job, you are doing it wrong, become O.k.? When did it become all right that some corporate shithole has the right to lord it over you every second of every day of your entire fucking life?

You people say "you are lucky to have a job." But I say that is bullshit. 100% pure grade A bullshit.

I busted my ass for years of my life getting my college degrees. I learned how to do what I do through hard work, and now that I know this thing it is these fuckers who are lucky to have me working for them. I don't know about you people who say that we are lucky to have jobs because some people don't have them, but I personally earn my fucking paycheck each week. So NO, it isn't o.k. that some corporate slimefuck who has no idea what the fuck they are doing, but knows how to count beans says that I am not doing enough.

Do these employers realize that the stress that this idea is putting on people is the reason they snap and come into work with an automatic rifle and kill a few people? Are those people that were murdered by their idea of "productivity" just acceptable losses to doing business for them?

I think that they are, and if that doesn't piss you off I'm not sure what the hell it is going to take. Because I gotta tell you, you would have to set a gorilla on fire to make him as angry as I am about this bullshit.

It isn't even mentioning that the product that comes out of this idea of work is so inferior to what was produced when people were proud to do their jobs, and did them right, that everyone scoffs at it's lack of quality. That phrase "They don't make 'em like they used to." This is why we have that phrase.

All I can say is if we want the American Dream back again, we all need to get up off our lazy asses and call these fuckers out about their dumb-ass business practices ruining what used to be people's pride in their work.

As a side note, I hope that whoever originated this idea, be it a single person, or an entire race of people, burns in the fiery pits of Tartarus for all eternity. Because they deserve it.

That is all

~ Ace.

Feeling: angry

This is all I have to say about the movie District 9. Though I will add, that the movie is not for the squeamish. It is.... gooey I think is the word I am looking for.

Feeling: amused

I have been reading all of the Anthrocon posts saying how amazing it was, and blah blah blah. The thing is, in all honestly I can't say I have had one amazing AC experience since 2005 when I first went. I just can't make myself care about missing the convention.

Somehow because of that, it feels like I am wandering away from the furry fandom a little. I have only a couple local furry friends who I see only every so often. I can't make my schedule jive with that of the friends I have out of state so that I can visit them, and the only convention I am going to get to this year is FurFright (which is the best convention I go to every year bar none, but I managed 3 conventions last year vs. 1 this year.)

When it comes right down too it, I will always be a furry at heart. There is no changing that, my furry avatar, Ace, is a bigger part of who I am than I can truly explain to anyone in proper terms. But I have come to the realization that until my work as an author pays off, or another business venture that I have in the works comes to fruition, the 2 weeks of vacation I get per year just isn't going to cut it for visiting friends. It's like I have to choose who I want to visit the most, and that just isn't going to cut the mustard as the saying goes.

Conventions can be fantastic experiences, but they are never what I want them to be in terms of being closer to the people I actually care about in the fandom.

I guess, for the first time in a very long time, I feel like I have less control over the direction in which my life is going. The things I truly want to do with my time are dependant on the opinion of others, and sheer hard work and pure skill isn't going to get me there. I'm going to need at least a little bit of luck.

So for the first time ever in my life, I hope people can wish me a bit of that luck, and it will rub off.

I'm certainly not going to disappear, so I hope no one worries, but for a little while I think I must wander down a different path.

~ Ace.

Feeling: weird

Well I didn't go to AC this weekend, but what I did do was head out to Buffalo. While there I checked out the zoo, and found a bear:



Immediately I thought of Belic when looking at this bear. What do you think Belic? I think he grins because at night he sneaks out of his enclosure to maul the zoo staff where they sleep. Or perhaps because he is plotting to devour the little children who bounce around his enclosure all day screaming like the banshee.

Remember my friend, keep smiling!

heheheh

~ Ace.

Feeling: amused

For the first time since 2005, I will not be going to Anthrocon this year.

This decision was reached through a number of criteria. The largest of those criteria being the hotel. In 2005 when I went it was the last year it was held in Philadelphia. The convention was fantastic. I had so much fun, and I figured I would go back every year. In 2006 when it moved to Pittsburgh, I thought that was great. It was an easier drive for me. That year was the beginning of the end of me going to Anthrocon. The hotel is horrible.

That first year, we arrived in our room to find the air conditioning broken. No biggy, call the front desk, they send someone to fix it. The technician tries to fix it, three times, it is getting late into the night, and even though I have hinted at moving to a new room, there is no offer of it. I finally have to go to the front desk, and demand that it be done. This is unacceptable behavior in such a business establishment. Period.

The second year, this was a small incident but it was still exceedingly rude. I call to ask the front desk for an extra blanket. I'm told it will be sent right up. Some friends and I are in the room for a couple of hours. No blanket, no nothing. Call the front desk back, and am told that there are no more blankets available. I get no apology for the fact that it would have taken a 5 second phone call to tell me, and I am rudely informed that if I need extra blankets I should call earlier in the day before they are all gone. Then they screwed up my bill and double charged me, putting $500+ extra on my credit card, and then told me several times they were not going to fix it because I had rented a second room before I got someone from management to fix it. 'Nuff said.

Last year, we arrive, go to the check in desk. We are early, so I am unsurprised when they tell me our room is not ready. It's no big deal. It's like noon and check in time is 3pm. 3pm comes, and goes, and we are told that our room is not ready yet. They say that they were very busy the last few days. And it will be ready very soon. 4 pm, we find out that the Yankees were staying in the hotel, and gawd forbid that they have to get out of their rooms on time to make way for anyone else. They are obviously far above other men, yeah, what the fuck ever. One of my room mates rolls in from Alabama absolutely exhausted do to the need for a last minute house move before the con. I have to tell him that he cannot get into the room to take a nap because the Yankees are too busy tossing salad to get the FUCK out of our damn room. 5pm comes and goes, and finally at 6:15 pm we are able to check into our room.

Believe it or not, this was not the final straw. The final straw of annoyance came some months after the convention had ended. When we were told, that because some people had trashed their rooms, everyone would have to get out of bed, preferably by 10am, if not no later than noon. So that the cleaning staff can inspect the room and make sure we aren't wrecking the place. Instead of being a damn business and charging the people who wrecked shit, no we are going to punish everyone.

Welcome to fucking kindergarten.

No, don't bother trying to argue ANY point over this with me. The fact that those in charge of the hotel are assholes for treating ALL of us like delinquents because a portion of us are is not negotiable. The hotel can kiss my ass for something like this. Period, end of story. They can mark a space on their calendar for it, because I got a big ass, and it will be an all day job.

I'm going to this place on vacation, I don't wreck my room (as a matter of fact I clean my room quite thoroughly every single day I am in a hotel so that the cleaning staff can almost skip over it, I ask only that the trash is emptied the towels replenished, and the beds made. There is never enough of a mess in the room to clean up when I leave it.) and if I want to stay up until the wee hours of the morning and get up at 1pm after UNINTERRUPTED SLEEP, guess what, that's what I'm damn well going to do. If I can't do that, then they cannot have my money. Anthrocon can also, not have my money, since they chose this hotel as their venue. Not particularly their fault, I know, but it doesn't change the fact that the hotel has diminished the convention as a whole.

So I will not be going to Anthrocon this year. I hope that everyone who does has a ton of fun, and if anyone was hoping to see me there, I apologize that I will not be among you. But sometimes things like this cannot be let go.

That is all,

~ Ace.

Ever have one of those. Where you are like "EUREKA!" and everything falls into place?

Well I did, tonight. And I felt like fucking Batman afterward.

I go out and walk the creek near my house with my camera. It's good exercise, sometimes I get some cool pictures. So tonight when I got about a half mile down the creek I realized I still had my glasses on, so I took them off and put them in my bag cause I don't want to chance them getting messed up when I'm ramming around in the woods.

I get done with my walking, and my picture taking, and I return home. Open my bag, and find it lacking 1 pair of $400 Titanium Steel Frame eye glasses. I fly back to the creek in a fury, because DAMMIT ALL STRAIGHT TO THE FIERY PITS OF TARTARUS I PUT THEM IN MY BAG SO I WOULDN'T LOOSE OR DESTROY THEM!

After a bit of searching, I deduced (yes, I get to use this phrase because my damn synapses were firing in a true flash of batman-like detective brilliance) that they could only have fallen out the first time I took my camera out of the bag, as then they would have been on top of the camera strap which would have yanked them out of the bag. It couldn't have been any other time because, One, the camera strap would not have been on top of them and it would have been very unlikely to catch them if it was not on top of them. Two, every time I swung the bag in any sort of motion that could have possibly rattled the glasses out it was zipped shut to protect my D300.

Because I was trying to capture a picture of a mallard on the water, I didn't notice the like 4 oz of extra weight on the strap. Went to the spot where I took the camera out... blammo, glasses.

Oh yeah, I'm Batman baby. It was seriously an epiphany in every sense of the word. Like a Drill Sergeant was in my head screaming at my synapses. "All right you grunts! FALL IN! WE NEED A STRAIGHT SHOT TO THE FRONTAL LOBE!" *kaboom*

That is all.

~ Ace.

Feeling: Oh yeah, I'm good.

This is the title for the twelfth and final book in the late Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. The book has proven to be so long, that it will be split into three volumes.

It has been announced that the first of the three volumes. Titled The Gathering Storm will hit the shelves November the Third.

The stark raving fanboy in me rages in protest at the date. November?! November. HOOOOOOW CAN I WAIT THAT LONG?! YYYYYYEARS I have been waiting for this, ALL of my adult life at least, but NOOOOOOO we have to create media hype and cater to book stores and blah blah blah blah. ARGH! I hate EVERYONE who works for Barnes and Noble. HHHHHATTTTEEE. SEETHING, RAGING, HATE. All right. I feel better.

The author in me knows that this process takes TONS of time. Especially with a novel so enormous as this one. The sheer volume of printing that needs to be done is horrendous, and there is copy editing, proof reading, and a LAUNDRY list of other things that need to get done for this to come out to something that would be worthy of this epic fantasy series.

Oh well, at least they have a date set!

That is all!

~ Ace.

Wow, can't believe how long I am going between posts here. Everyone in the LJ universe must think I am dead by now!

Well I am not, I'm still around, and still pretty much working on the same projects that I was the last time. My book has progressed quite a bit, and I will continue to work on it until it is done, which should be later this month.

In nerdy news however, after much searching I finally decided on a laptop. After some consideration of my bag situation I have separated my equipment into two different packs that I have rigged so that they can be carried simultaneously if necessary, but separate for most every day stuff. This has greatly increased the acceptable weight for a laptop for me, and I finally choose this one here:

Asus F6Ve-X1

There are only a couple of small things about it that I would like to be different, however one of those can be rectified with another small purchase.

1.) The keyboard has quite a bit of flex in it. It is not a hindrance, but I would like to see a stiffer backing in my keyboards.

2.) This is one of those silly scented models that Asus came up with. I would prefer that left out, but thankfully the scent that it gives off (coming from the video card fan vent) is only really noticeable if you stick your nose right down by the laptop.

3.) Solid State Drive. This one can be rectified quite easily with a simple purchase from Newegg, which I will probably make sometime in the near future.

Other than that, it has absolutely every feature I wanted in a laptop, small, relatively light on weight, fast processor, dedicated video card, led backlit display, the list goes on and on. Even face recognition software. I sit down in front of my laptop and it automatically logs me in. How cool is that?

Anyways, right now, life is good enough for me.

That is all.

~ Ace =^o^=

I hate, absolutely fucking hate, with a burning passion that can only be described by the guttural noises of vicious animals tearing apart screaming human beings. The fact that these stupid corporations are allowed to announce the release of a product months before it is available just to drum up hype about it. You fuckers should all be stabbed right in the throat for this.

How did this happen you might ask? What could have made me so viciously angry?

Well it's actually rather simple honestly, and I will admit that I may be a little over angry, but this is just one of the times on a long list of times that this has happened to me. You may call me impatient if you wish, but people who truly know me, know that this is the only sort of impatience that I have.

I have been searching for some time for a laptop computer that meets my needs. One that is very light, very thin, and fully featured.

The Macbook Air first came to mind when I started searching for this, and was immediately shunned for a number of reasons. First I have had nothing but trouble hardware wise with Mac's. Their software is awesome. The corresponding hardware seems to suck shit. Every mac I have ever owned(and yes I have owned Intel ones for all of you who may wish to jump out and say "But the new ones are so much better!") has been sent back to the factory or to a repair center numerous times for various hardware issues that I never have with PC laptops. Second it is not fully featured. It doesn't matter what people say, 1 USB Port, 1 Video Out, 1 Power Connector, and Audio is NOT fully featured. By virtue of the lack of ports alone this computer does not meet my needs.

The second one to grace my eyes, was the Dell Inspiron Mini 12. It met the criteria for thinness and weight. But again, the feature set was so dismal that I could only express it by puking into a burlap sack, and mailing that to Dell to express to them my revulsion at their horrid choices of hardware (1GB of RAM non-upgradable, seriously?)

I tried a netbook for a while, an HP Mini, and a third criteria had to be added to the list. Never again will I work with a screen that is less than 1200 x 800 resolution unless I am forced too it by necessity.

So finally, after numerous searches, and reading a great deal of reviews I found the HP Pavilion DV2. Announced at CES in January, it won Best New Notebook, and after checking out the feature set, I could see why. The price tag was more than acceptable, the weight, and thickness factor well within tolerance. And the feature set was beautiful. The first notebook to use the AMD Neo processor, which is exceedingly fast by direct comparison to the Intel Atom (hey every once in a while AMD has to come out with something that doesn't suck). So I happily attempt to find it to order on the HP website, where I am promptly brought to page telling me that it is not ready for release yet but that I can pre-order one for when it is released. It doesn't say when, but everyone seems to speculate... April.

APIRL? Really? Are you fucking serious? It takes them 4 months (It was the first weekend of January after all) after announcing the damn thing to have it ready to sell? Frustrated by my discovery I call up HP to get on the pre-order list, to be told that the release date is more likely the end of February, which eases only some of my killing rage. I hate being without the gear I would like to get the job done.

GRRRRR. I hate when waiting for my gear holds me up.

- That is all

~ Ace.

P.S. - It has been since October since I have posted, if you are wondering why, the answer is work. Obnoxious, annoying, work.