Anchat

Customer Disservice

2009-12-11T03:19:26Z

Working graveyard shifts at a gas station gives you an interesting – and not very flattering – view of the general public. Recently I’ve found that I tend to nurture a quiet hatred of people working the night shift. Not the seething, raging hatred that makes me want to lay about random passersby with a thick lead pipe, more like a judgmental arrogance for the kind of people who need to visit a gas station at three in the morning. After working night shifts a few times, it seems the truly annoying ones fall into several distinct groups. Just because I need to vent a bit, let’s go through the more interesting ones, shall we?

Lotto Lady: Mildly less annoying than many of the other types, this person is quite sad in my humble opinion. Usually arriving during a busy time, they come in holding a fistful of lottery tickets they want checked. I have to scan each ticket in turn and see maybe half of them spit out a five dollar winner. This money is used to purchase more scratch and win tickets, which she scratches on the spot and gets scanned for more winners, which go into my tickets… this goes on for a half hour most times. Can’t you have something better to do at three in the morning? Honestly!

Zombie Smoker: These people make me want to grab the baseball bat behind the counter and be ready for a mournful groan before they bare their rotted teeth and make a grab for my brains. If I wasn’t against smoking before, I am now after seeing these wrecks. A prime example of this group was in last night. Short, overweight to the point of actually stopping people from walking around him in the aisle, he half waddled, half limped towards the counter with every breath from his open mouth sounding as if he’d just run a marathon. His face was a blotchy mess of pale skin, large distended bags under his sunken bloodshot eyes and smoker’s breath wheezing over his rotted teeth. What remained of them anyways. As he fumbled about for his wallet he asked for two entire cartons of smokes in a voice that sounded like he’d gargled with a cheese grater. I felt like I was contributing to his demise by selling him his smokes.

Drunks and Strippers: My station is located a short distance from the local strip club, so during graveyards we have a few of these folks come in. Never at the same time, of course. The first wave consists of the occasional drunk who is generally loud, laughing, and gives too much information. Like the one fellow who boasted he had to get home soon, or else his girlfriend would be mad at him for going to the strip club while she stayed at home. Sometime after them, we get the occasional stripper. They never seem to dress for cold weather, and I’m guessing the drinks are stiff and the lightning subdued at the strip club. Seeing these ladies close up and in good light make me think I’m not missing much…

Tossers: Overall I like these people. I’m just mentioning them because they are a prominent group on the midnight shift, and because it shows not all my customer experiences are bad. Tossers fill up in record time, come in and want only gas. Instead of having to give the usual speech about specials and wanting a lotto ticket, they come in, toss the money on the counter and leave. I like them for that fact. In, out, no talking. The perfect customer.

Talkers: I hate these people most of all. I mean truly despise them. I don’t mind a little conversation with a customer. That’s part and parcel with the territory. People generally are in a rush though, so it’s maybe talk about how nasty the weather is or about the robbery last week. Talkers don’t have a life though, so they’re quite content to yak your ear off. And about the most inane subjects. One fellow gabbed about what he had for breakfast that morning, how his shower went, for about ten minutes, then went out to his car. I thought he was leaving cause he had paid for his gas and smokes and such. But no, he comes back inside and talks about how he tried to call the radio for a song request. He had no other reason for being there except to talk my ear off about his life… and I really don’t know how to say hearing about his eggs not being cooked right really just isn’t grabbing my attention. Some people should not be allowed to have discourse with tired gas pump jockeys.

Why am I doing this?

2009-12-08T02:29:00Z

Really, why? I mean, I’m working a job that’s well below my abilities and normal pay scale. It’s not a social position where I can chat with my fellow employees. I’m dealing constantly with an anxious and sometimes irritated public, run off my feet in dull, annoying cleaning and stocking chores and never really feel like I’m accomplishing much. And what’s worse… This job is dangerous.

Last Saturday the store was robbed during the graveyard shift. The same shift I work twice a week there.

When I came in today to work, I was already not in the best work mood. My mind was on my girlfriend at home with a bad head cold, and the increasing pain in my arms from two flu shots. Then I come in and am told I have to watch a robbery in progress on the security cams from Saturday. But before then I have to take a security test on the computer. I’m told it’ll help me know what to do in a worst case scenario. I like this idea, since I felt my training was rather rushed and didn’t cover a few important details.

I was in for a rude surprise. The computer program - designed to train full grown adults – was a talking program with an animated character named “Driver Dan” who would show me how to be the best darn gas pump jockey ever! Honestly, I felt like I was in third grade with a basic math computer program. Still, it looked like it would cover the basics in some odd, condescending way.

But I didn’t get to see what to do. I was rushed right into the test. It’s a very sink or swim training method. I’d only get to watch the training program if I failed the test. Imagine my joy. Anyway, I did the test… And joy of joys, I would see my little race car advance one spot for each correct answer I got! I really, really felt like this was a very condescending test…

I got three questions wrong, not bad considering the fact I was going in blind. Then I had to watch the video of the robbery. It wasn’t pleasant viewing. It wasn’t comforting at all to know I’d be working graveyards for the next two days. Not at all a good feeling.

So, why do I do this? Why do I go to a gas jockey job that has my scraping greasy gunk out of shelves for two hundred dollars less than I would get on EI? I guess I know the answer, logically speaking. I need the money as EI has run out for me, I can’t just sit at home without going nuts, and I need cash for the last of my Christmas shopping. During all of this, my girlfriend has been very supportive and says she’s proud of me for taking a crap job just to pay my half of the bills. And I can console myself with the fact I’m taking a course in Maya to get into a better position later on.

But until then, I’ll be going in for graveyards this week with a lot more wariness than before…

Important news!

2009-05-07T18:20:29Z

Been awhile since I’ve posted in LJ, but I wanted to wait until I had something very impressive to say. I didn’t want to just write something like “Cleaned my apartment today.” And think I was being profound or interesting.

Something has happened now I feel I must share. It was a long, long time in coming, but it finally happened. And I do acknowledge it was just a baby step really, but it is a step in the right direction. As some of you may remember from my earlier posts, I’ve been trying to break into writing for a living. I’ve already has some success in that respect, with three of my scripts snapped up. Not done on spec, they actually handed over three checks to me. That’s what really made me think that I had some talent. You do not fork out money to a relative stranger for hack writing and then make some films based on those scripts just for fun. No, someone thought my writing was good enough to take hard earned cash and pay me for it.

But since those three scripts, not a single one has been sold. Granted, I haven’t pitched my ideas to studios beyond that one (I’m hoping to rectify that soon) and I realize the studio was going through some rough financial waters at the time, but I was heartened to know that the director, the head writer and two other writers all loved my stuff and thought they should make it. Unfortunately, the man who controlled the budget was lacking a sense of humour, or was willing to risk money on my story ideas. After a couple of years of writing script pitches, reading all I could about the art of scriptwriting and getting nowhere… it gets a bit disheartening.

Curious to see if my selling those scripts was a fluke or not, I decided to do something a bit more daring: try to get published. Now, I don’t mean I wanted my letter to the editor to appear in the paper, nor do I mean getting self published. Sure, if I scraped together enough cash I could pay some publisher to print my stories, put them up on Amazon and someone, somewhere would buy a couple of copies. Self publishing can be a great start for a struggling writer, but it is not at all indicative of good writing by any stretch of the imagination. I wanted to know if my writing actually had some real worth.

I spent a few months writing a couple of articles for a RPG magazine. I didn’t want to jump in head first with a novel, a few articles would be perfect. It was an unsolicited piece of writing, something that would likely end up on a pile with a ton of other dusty works of fiction that they would get to reading… sometime. If they were having a slow day. Maybe. It was a test really, to see if I could grab their attention and maybe get published. Even a rejection letter might be something. But I wanted to try it, to see if I could grab someone’s attention. Specifically the attention of an editor that sees a ton of writing in a given week, and out of that has to choose something that he thinks will help sell the magazine.

It took a lot longer than I thought. Ten months passed before I heard anything about it. After a couple of months, I shrugged and figured I wasn’t a very good writer – at least gaming articles - it got shelved or put in that round garbage bin by the desk. But ten months later, after I’d pretty much forgotten about it, I get an e-mail:

“Hi, Mark.

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you regarding your submissions to The Rifter.

I am interested in using both of the Chaos Earth files you sent in an upcoming issue of The Rifter. Please send me your current mailing address and other contact information, and we'll get contracts sent out to you shortly.

Thanks.
Wayne Smith
Palladium Books”

I think my exact response to this e-mail was a very loud “WHAT?!?” or something along those lines. I just know it was loud and shocking enough of an outburst it made my girlfriend jump. Even though I got this e-mail in March, I didn’t post this news on LJ. After ten months of hearing nothing, I was still a bit slightly doubtful about when it would be published. After all, an upcoming issue could be the next one or eight months down the road. Who’s to say when it would be published?

Well, two days ago, I got a package in the mail. Inside were my copies of the Rifter with my one article in it (my second article must be being saved for later) So, now I can finally announce it: I am officially published, my work was good enough to have a complete stranger say he will pay me for it. I have the proof right in my hands. I’m keeping in mind it’s just one article, I’m not going overboard with glee or ego. But I can say that I am a writer now, both in scripts and magazine articles.

I’ve not been idle since I got the e-mail either. Upon finding out my writing was worth their time, I’ve begun a second article. This one is much more ambitious, far longer and will have illustrations done by me. I hope that my previous good writing and illustrations will move me to the front of articles for selection for the next couple of issues. I do hope I’m right about that.

In the meantime, if anyone wants to see an example of my work head on down to your local gaming store. Rifter #46, in stores now!

The Long Awaited Pennsic Report!

2008-09-20T02:44:12Z

This is a bit of a long one folks, so to read the long report of my trip to Pennsic

Pennsic Report!

Alrighty, I’m feeling in a much better mood today so let’s dive into that Pennsic report before I let it slide anymore. This again will be a long one folks, I’m usually quite verbose. Strap in and grab your munchies, here we go!

The trip down to Pennsic was taken in two stages. First was down to my parent’s home to spend the night before making the final run to Slippery Rock. My mother snapped a few photos of us pre-Pennsic, then we settled in for a pizza dinner. We also picked up Oliver, who became our official chainmail clad teddy bear/travel gnome substitute. I’m half considering repainting his shield to match my own coat of arms.

The next morning we left during dusk and hit the Timmies and then made a dash for the border. Getting across the peace bridge was easy enough, and we had only minimal hassle from the border guard. Hint: Tell them you’re going camping, not going to Pennsic. Saves you a lot of hassle. After that was a long, boring drive to Pennsic apart from when a bumper fell off a truck in front of us. Luckily, sunfire’s have excellent brakes and power steering. Oh, and we saw three deer on the side of the highway as we were driving down as well.

First day of Pennsic was loads of fun, especially for me. I got to point eagerly to the tents as far as the eye could see as you pass by Pennsic on the highway. Getting through Troll was easy as well. I’m rather proud to say I did not lose my medallion (unlike our king) Our kingdom’s tradition campsite was down in the shade around the lake, which is something I appreciate. I know a lot of fighter’s prefer the Serengeti as there’s no hill and it’s closer to the action on the battlefield, but I like the shade and cool breeze off the lake. Not to mention our camp was quite civilized this year. In addition to our kitchen (with fridges, sink, BBQ, etc.) and our hot water shower we had a slushie machine and were right by flush toilets, complete with sinks and mirror. Hardly camping at all really.

The first day was spent setting up and parking the car, then doing a little tour of Pennsic. I must admit I felt like the wise, experienced SCA member when I led Amanda through the food court, the A&S tents, the merchants, etc. The gods of arrogance were watching me however and gave me a twisted ankle as we walking back to camp. I had to skip fighting for the next couple of days. It was only really bad the evening of the next day, but walking up and down the hill was taking my life in my hands for a bit.

Saturday is when things really started for us, which consisted of mainly classes and shopping. My first class was one on bookbinding and making girdle books, which was very hands on, very crowded and very informative. I know how to make such a book now, I just have to get the materials together, and the time of course. It was very fortunate there was a class on hand and foot massage, Amanda was able to help my twisted ankle a great deal during the class. I think I actually learned a great deal about massage in general as well, which no doubt will come in handy some day. I missed the novice tourney, but oh well… I’ll still be a novice for next year. Saturday night Amanda and I made a quick tour of the camps around the lake. Sadly, for people who don’t drink, it’s not really for us. We saw the beginning of Vlad’s Slave Auction, and saw a couple more smaller parties around the lake. But otherwise not much to write about. Oh, except on our way out of the slave auction, a few wild Picts nearly attacked us. Apparently they were fascinated by our lantern.

Sunday was fairly disappointing at first, then turned interesting. I was really looking forward to my first class, a lesson on ‘low magic’ of the middle ages. Low magic was essentially the magic used by peasants and the middle class, as opposed to witchcraft or the magic of the courts and scholars. I was looking forward to a great lesson on how the lower classes had to make do with what they had, I love all the history of such obscure things.

The class was a colossal disappointment… At first it was very promising. The lady explained she was not teaching about witchcraft, as that was most definitely the province of the ‘bad guys’ of the middle ages. She also didn’t believe any of the neo-pagans who said they were ‘reclaiming the title witch back to it’s pagan origins’ had a leg to stand on. In the middle ages witch meant evil, not pagan. I thought this would be great, an actual history lesson on the few remaining pieces of journals describing the various things people did to make low magic and why they did it.

Then things went bad… the teacher described low magic as what people today would call psychic powers – oh, and those really exist you know! She had experienced them before, and knows people can control the weather, find things without looking, and she knows of a report from a neurosurgery/neuroscan place that shows a scan of the energy field all people have that blah, blah, blah… I just stared at this lady thinking “You gotta be kidding me…” But she was serious, even going so far as to demonstrate how to do the ‘evil eye’ on someone. I won’t go into details, but suffice to say I couldn’t believe how she was tricking herself into thinking she was actually doing something psychic or mystical. She touched on a few historical bits about low magic, but overall it was essentially an hour long pitch of her trying to convince us we can do all kinds of stuff just by willing it. She even ended with a serious warning about not trying love spells. Oh, nothing ever good comes of it… No, none at all! Beware the awesome power of yourself!!!

Moving on, later that day I went to the warriors of history battle. This was a battle where the fighters all had very period armour and equipment (as period as one could get while still staying within SCA safety limits) They actually refuse fighters who have historical inaccuracies in their armour, such as wrong shield for the culture, wrong helmet for their time period, etc. The idea is your gear should look completely authentic from a spear’s throw away. The gear on some of these fighters was incredible. I snapped picture after picture, and then chatted with one of the fighters about his gear. He gave me some good advice about using a cloth tabard. Apparently that can cover up a host of errors.

Later that evening Amanda and I went to a tour of Hedeby without ever leaving Pennsic. Hedeby is a museum and recreation Viking village in Germany. It was nice, basically a slideshow of someone’s trip to Hedeby. It was interesting, but I would have liked to go myself. Guess I’ll have to learn german. Still, I managed to get most of the tour from the photos, and had them sent to my inbox for later reference.

That brings us to Monday. This is when we saw our first major battle, the Gates of Rome just in front of the castle. A huge resurrection battle, it was just a huge melee. We managed to get fairly close to the battle even though combat archery was allowed in it. Watching the battle was a good way to pass the time while waiting for our noon class. One of the fighters was going to instruct us on how to properly use a quarter staff, both for combat and for show. It was a very fun lesson as we learned how to do a fancy move (useless in combat, but looks cool) and then a combat move (doesn’t look fancy, but can hurt you bad) It was a very fun class and Amanda really got into it. Even wanted to buy a staff from the fellow. I had to remind her she was driving a very full Sunfire home. The one bad thing about the class was I had to ditch my sunhat to swing the staff around and burned the top of my head. Not pleasant at all.

After that was a class on tent making, which was rather dull and frankly over our heads. It was more for advanced sewers I think. So the rest of the day was mainly spent shopping and resting. We were not diehard Pennsic partygoers.

Tuesday was a promising day that didn’t really turn out so well. I had a class in Cuirboulli (the art of hardening leather for armour) but the teacher never showed up. Worse, we had bad rain pour down on us for a lot of the day. Not a huge problem, but I was keenly aware we have a river running through our camp if it gets really rainy. Still, it was better than last year. Apparently it rained for the entire two weeks!

Wednesday had me getting up quite early for a class on making an S hook. I did a similar class my first Pennsic where I made a steak turner. This class would have me making something much more period, so I was looking forward to it. I have to admit, when I got there the first impression was not good. Both of the instructors were still waking up, and their forge was a propane tank attached to a gutted ammo box. Still, I’d come this far, and there were only a couple of people there for the class so it wouldn’t be crowded. Despite being a bit unorthodox, the blacksmiths knew what they were doing and the ammo box forge actually worked rather well. I managed to shape my S hook just fine, and got to take it home with me. Now all I need is a Norse tripod and a hanging dutch over to use my S hook.

The rest of the day was spent shopping and such. And I think this was also the day I got my kit checked over by the marshals. While Amanda was having a nap, I geared up in my armour, grabbed my helm and shield and slowly marched up the hill to the inspection tent. The marshals there were hilarious. It was a slow time for them so they were all sitting around joking and such. The one fellow who inspected me was amused by my helmet (which passed fine, the bars were wide at the top but the helm itself came down enough to make up for it) and was impressed by the make of my shield. After I got my helm stamped I tromped back down the hill and had a long shower to wash away the sweat. I could only imagine how much I’d be sweating in a real fight!

Thursday was more of a slow day for me. Amanda had a ton of classes, so I spent my morning wandering the merchant area, sometimes snapping pics of any interesting tents and such. My first class in the afternoon covered basic pouch and shoe making, and the instructor did know what he was talking about. He had samples of turn shoes, sandals and special pouches of a design I was not aware of. Both Amanda and I attended and I made sure to take notes. I had another class as well, which was only of six people as I recall. It was exactly what I wanted in a class though. A practical and historical talk on the sketchbooks used by Albrect Durer when he traveled. She even had an example of a book made to the measurements of the sketchbook used by Durer, and told us how to make bone white for use in silverpoint sketching. I thoroughly enjoyed it and hope to make such a book someday. I’d have to raid someone’s chicken dinner to make bone white though.

It was Friday I was most nervous and excited about. I was determined to be in a field battle, ready to defend the crown. And oh… was it exciting! I was worried there wouldn’t be much of a battle since the East Kingdom had surrendered the very first day but we got a fair turnout I think. Amanda helped me lug my gear to the top of the hill, and carried my water and M&Ms for me (hey, sugar rush good while fighting!) I’d never been in a real field battle before, so I was eager to see how I’d do, but had prepared myself for the likely possibility I would be meat inside of two seconds.

I was very seer like in my predictions.

There were a total of five field battles. The first was simple. We’re red, you kill any blues that come towards you. It was a nice, simple plan. Sadly, no one counted on our little group being outnumbered three to one by the opposing force! I’d like to say we fought bravely to the last man, but really… we were a speed bump. We just waited for the hammer to fall and I got two hits in the helm with a polearm. Thud, I’m run past and the marshal sends me off to the side. I actually managed to hook up with Amanda while on the hay bales, don’t know how she found me in the crowd. But apparently she was there and since the second fight would have basically the same plan (albeit with more men on our side) she stuck around there to get a good film of the battle.

The second fight we had another kingdom backing us up, so we were better prepared to meet the onslaught. Sadly, the enemy anticipated this and we were now outnumbered four to one, despite the reinforcements! Again, we were the speed bump. I forget how I died in that one, it all happened so fast. I just remember the front line dying before me, a flash of spears… and then I was on the sidelines again. No, I was not doing well at all.

Third battle things changed. Instead of red versus blue, we split into three armies. Taking a fair number of both kingdoms (ours included) we formed the Allied army, who were given a slap of yellow duct tape to identify them. I was a bit sad to cover up my $2 red dragon I had on my helm, but orders are orders. The battle was very simple really. Each army had a king who had a banner. Kill the king, and that army would have to retire from the field. Our plan was simple: when the cannon sounds, we pull back to the corner of the field. If the red and blue armies fight, we’ll let them fight and pounce on the winner. If either comes towards us, we can have a strong defensive position so whoever attacks as will be jumped by the other army and whittled down. I’m feeling good about this plan, and am in the second line of defense protecting the king.

Cannon sounds and the unexpected happened. Both the red AND blue armies completely ignored each other and walked side by side against us. And now we were boxed in! It was one of those “fight to the last man” moments. I have to say our front line fought very well, and after they died, I managed to avoid getting killed until the hold was called. Now, I should explain for those who don’t know. When a hold is called, everyone stops where they are and stops fighting. This lets the marshals get everyone who is dead off the field, and is essential during field battles as in a huge melee where everyone is toe to toe, there are people actually buried in a sea of legs.

During a hold is a good time to assess your situation (if you’re not dead that is) I take a look around me to see how bad things are. And they look pretty bad. In front of me is a sea of red helmed fighters, including one on my direct right. When the melee resumes, I’m in a very target rich environment. I can swing just about anywhere and hit *someone*, but then again, everyone in arm’s length is gonna be able to hit me. But, I can’t let the king down! So I take a casual glance back to see if I have any yellow spearmen who can help me out.

No spearmen there. In fact… no yellow fights at all! During the first melee, I’d stepped too far forward and the red army had swept past me and now I was surrounded by them! This was no longer a target rich environment, this was one of those “Well crap… lost the initiative roll.” moments. The fellow to my right actually apologized for what he was about to do. As the one minute till melee signal was called, I knew I was gonna die the second the fight restarted. But I hoped to take at least one guy down with me, as so far I hadn’t killed a single person yet. I counted down the seconds…

There was the signal and at least four sword cracked down on my head. I didn’t fall down after being hit, I was pushed down! And now I was in the middle of a very determined army, pushing towards the king, as I’m on the ground in a sea of legs. I slap my shield on top of me and hope I’ll be okay. My helm was kicked around so much the chin strap was riding up hard, and at one point a fighter’s leg caught my leg armour and was slowly dragging me around in a circle as he pushed on. All I could see were legs and heard nothing but shouts and cracks of rattan on bodies. But I didn’t feel any pain, my armour was well designed and protected me from any kicks and hits I got while on the ground.

Eventually another hold was called and I got moved to the hay bales again. I know I had lost, but I felt absolutely incredible! It was such a huge rush to just be in such a wild melee for the battle and then on the ground while it’s still going on around me. I can’t really describe it except to say I think I surprised a few of the people who knew me from camp with how enthusiastically I related my experience in the sea of reds. We had a long break as the rest of the battle winded down, and I managed to get some water and such. There was Gatorade and pickle juice available as well, but I stuck with the water. Some of it was even cold water!

Fourth battle, still part of the Allied army. This one would be different as combat archery and siege machines would be allowed. That meant I’d have to look for enemy fighters and flying missiles! Second line of defense, we advanced upon the enemy. This would be more the standard smash everyone fight, but with three armies your attention can get split between two of them. That’s certainly what happened to me. One moment I’m in a nice, organized line. The next, everyone to the left of my heads left, and everyone to the right of me heads right! I’m out in the open not sure where to go, and by the time I decide to go one way, both sides are pretty dead! And the red and blue armies have moved on to other targets, leaving me alone. I’m a lone yellow warrior wandering the battlefield for someone to kill.

One of the blues finds me and gives a small salute with his sword to let me know he’s seen me and wants to fight. I give him a similar signal and we close for melee. I manage to hold him off for about two blows, then he snakes one shot under my shield, right in the rib cage. I fall down, he leaves, I get up and leave the field. Well, at least I survived the initial charge.

Fifth battle, the big one. This time, we are going on the offensive, a running flanking run straight into the side of the enemy. I’m looking forward to something besides waiting for the enemy, or walking slowly forward towards them. I start psyching myself up, knowing this is the last battle… I’m really enjoying myself! The one minute signal is given and as thirty seconds goes by, it starts to rain. Not good to have slick grass while running, but I figure I’m okay. Ten seconds before the signal goes, I glance down. One of my boots is untied. I can’t tie it up with my sword and shield strapped in hand. So I just leave it. If I fall, I fall. I’m gonna go kill me something!

We march along, not going to charge until we’re within range. No good getting tired before the fight. We move along, changing direction to make sure we can hit them on the side. Then someone yells and we start running! I have to say it was thrilling, the momentum built up and you feel like you’re just going to slam through their line and take them all down! And when the first of our people hit, it seems to be just that! I face off against a spearman, and I know if I can get in close, get past his first thrust, I can take him. I know I can. He’s got no shield, he’s backing up, he’s spooked and I’ve got the initiative.

He thrusts his spear and I have my shield all lined up. I can feel the speartip smack into my shield and sadly, my shield was at a very bad angle. The spear hit the shield, then simply skipped along it straight up and smacked into my helm. And… down I go… crud. Oh well, still had a ton of fun! There were some fun matches after that, smaller field battles and such but… I was pretty well done for the day. I was hot, sweaty, panting hard from running in armour, and I was sure I had some bruises that would make themselves known to me once the adrenaline had worn off. So I called it a day.

The rest of Pennsic was pretty much shopping and packing. Let’s see, what did I get for myself? Well, got a new helmet for myself, a few books, some piles of leather for various projects, a roman style display helm, a mail shirt and a mail hood, a lot of books, a nice set of clamshell gauntlets, and a Pompeian style gladius. A leather jack, a leather book, leather book cover, a leather mask (there’s a lot of leather at Pennsic) a medieval style padlock, and a black felt sunhat. My best deals were the gauntlets and the gladius. The gauntlets were from the midnight madness sale, $60 for the pair! The thumbs need to be adjusted, but that’s okay. Unless it’s custom made, armour always needs adjusting. The gladius was a real find. It was unmarked in a bin with other assorted junk, and the fellow who knew the price wasn’t there, so I had to come back. When I got there, he looked the sword over and said “Hmm… well, when brand new, this was about $120. So… would you pay $30 for it?” I said I could do thirty… especially since every other gladius I had seen was at least $120, the average price being $195!

The food at Pennsic was great, and I survived on a wealth of lemonade. There were burgers of course, the King John burger and fry special. I only got the burger though, the fries weren’t all that good. Pretty bad really. The sweet potato fries were actually quite good, but I couldn’t finish them. Way way too sweet. I was getting a sugar rush off them! I probably worked off a couple of pounds just going up and down the hill of death every day, but got it back from burgers and milkshakes. Still, over all was a most pleasant eating experience.

Magic mail, the Pennsic internet experience, was rather interesting. The service was great, so I could check my e-mail and web comics while I was there. I think I managed to introduce a couple of strangers to Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic. The tent where all the computers were was a two story affair, the lower level being the business and the upper level being sleeping and living quarters. Now that’s camping in style!

The trip home was fairly relaxing. We were a tad worried about how busy the peace bridge would be, but there was nothing! We just sailed across the bridge, spent maybe five minutes at the border, got asked a couple of questions and then gone. Very good end to the trip from the states! Of course we had to drive the rest of the way home, but still. Not bad…

So, that was Pennsic. I have a ton of pics from the event, but it's unfeasible to post them all here. But here's a couple of nice ones when I can.

Time for a change?

2008-08-13T00:42:52Z

It’s been over a year since I posted to Livejournal, so I’m not sure anyone reads this anymore. I never did try to gather hordes of friends to hang on my every word. But whether anyone reads this or not, I have a couple of posts that I feel need to be up here. One is a rather extensive post about my time at Pennsic this year. That will come later when I’m in a better mood.

This post will be about my day at work today, and will be a bit of venting so please bear with me.

This morning marked my return from vacation, and I couldn’t imagine being in a better mood. I had just got back from the Pennsic War, I had bought several nice gifts for friends and family, spent a lot of quality time with my girlfriend, and bought some nice things for myself as well. I had fought in five field battles, went to some interesting classes, and generally recharged my batteries which were in dire need of it. Now I had my new helm, a Pennsic DVD, and a nice pair of gauntlets to bring into work. I almost skipped to work, and was looking forward to seeing everyone again. That’s a feeling I haven’t had in awhile, wanting to come into work and see everyone. I enjoyed it.

When I got into work, things started to go sour almost at once. While my helm and gauntlets went over well with those I showed them too, I was told I needed to have a chat with the supervisor about my work. Specifically, about my work from the last show. Here I must explain I finished up the last show - and was working on the next show - before I left on vacation. I knew my work wasn’t as fast as it should be as I had only just started the show, but was feeling confident about the quality. The supervisor had approved most of my roughs with high compliments, and I could see them getting stronger in the style of the show as the days passed. I thought I needed a few tweaks and such and then could dive into what I had left on this show.

I couldn’t have been more wrong. My good mood took a nose dive as my supervisor put example after example of where my style was so far off the mark it looked like another show. Where I had made basic, amateur mistakes in my trace offs. Where my style of cleanup was extremely poor, so much that the supervisor had approved my stuff just so he could do it himself so it would be done correctly. As each example was set down, my hands began to shake slightly. I was ashamed of the quality of my art, blindsided by the slap down after the comments on my work before, and downright worried I’d not be able to do this work. The show I’m on has a very unforgiving, almost punishing work schedule. It’s expected that the artists work late and weekends to get the work done. Working just a Saturday for a few hours isn’t enough. Drawing till seven each weeknight and working full days on the weekend is what’s needed to get this show out on time, and as good as they want it. All of it unpaid overtime. I was led to believe switching to backgrounds would lighten the workload I had in animation. It seems it will be about the same, or more likely worse.

The thing that made me most ashamed was he was right about my work. When I compared it to the rest of the show, it was pathetic. What I hated most was after that chat, my confidence in my artistic ability was very low. I was second guessing myself almost at once, wondering if this was good enough, checking for what I could have missed, looking for errors before the clean-up was even done. It was upsetting enough my hands shook a bit, which made me wonder if I could even draw this morning.

Still, I persevered and managed to draw a bit before lunch. At lunch I decided I needed some comfort food and wandered over to a restaurant I have enjoyed many nice meals in the past. I used to go there so often the waitresses knew my order and had it punched in before I even sat down. But in trying to save money and eat healthier, I had not been there in some time. The place sadly did little to calm me down. The waitress got my order wrong, the prices had gone up for the food, and a hyper four year old boy was bouncing in the aisle beside me. I finished my meal and shuffled back to work, feeling a bit less hungry and calm enough my hands were not shaking anymore. I hoped to make a good effort in the afternoon.

The afternoon was more productive, but had other stresses. The receptionist came by at one point to talk about my toys. I should explain over the years working at this studio, I’ve acquired a number of old G.I. Joe toys, mainly the vehicles and a few figures. I have them scattered about my desk, which while not very functional do make me feel like I’m at home in that spot and have a unique character. But with the recent influx of employees we’ve had, some have come by who have severe allergies to dust. My little plastic vehicles are prime dust collectors and since I am situated directly below the ventilation intake for the air conditioning, my little dust collectors have to go. I may keep a couple of my favourites, but the rest are to be shipped back to my apartment. I can fully understand the reasons behind this, but it didn’t help my mood any.

Still, I couldn’t let a bad mood ruin my productivity and I soldiered on. Normally I enjoy some kind of music or noise as I’m working, so I tried to put on something funny to cheer me up. I found an MST3K vid on youtube and hoped it would help. It did actually, a few of the jokes made me smile, and into the sixty minute mark, I actually laughed at a couple of jokes. My mood was starting to lift a little.

Then the penny dropped. While I had been on vacation, the IT fellow in our office had forbidden the use of streaming video on our now strained internet connection. So, I had unknowingly been using youtube when it wasn’t allowed anymore. I was told to shut it down, and the reasons why, so I apologized and explained I had not heard of this. He didn’t seem very convinced, just told me to shut it down over and over. So… I had a very silent last few hours at work. I hate dead silence.

What does this all make me think? A few things really. First, I’m convinced that I have gone as far as I can with an artistic career. I’ve enjoyed some success with animation and for that I’m grateful, but the way my work isn’t meeting the quality of a truly grueling schedule makes me think I’m burnt out on it. Not just the show I had been working on before this, but on animation in general. I just don’t think it’s for me anymore. I want to try writing. Writing scripts is one thing I was praised extremely highly for my work, even with no formal training. I’ve been told repeatedly from many people my writing is top notch and I should pursue it. Now, I fully intend to.

I just think if I want to write, I can’t do it at this studio. I have done a great deal of writing for them, some of it paid for but most of it not. All on my own time, with only some feedback. My ideas for shows and series are not considered for production by the big boss, but I’m always encouraged to keep writing – on my own time, with my own resources. Only recently, I completely overhauled and rewrote a one hundred page script for the studio. I had no pay for this work, and have yet to hear anything back from them, though in the studio’s defense, they have been busy with this current show’s scripts. I did send a note to the head writer and the big boss about that script today, underlining I want to switch to writing. I don’t expect to hear from them for at least two weeks or more, but it felt good to send out that e-mail.

If I was single, I think I would be searching around for other studios hiring writers long before now, but I’m not single anymore. I have a girlfriend who I’ve been going out for nearly a year now. There’s been talk of getting a house together, and she has a very good, stable job here in the city. I can’t just up and leave as I could before. But more and more, I feel less valued by this studio. I don’t feel like it’s mindful of how much work we have to do to put out the stuff they want produced. The schedules are very harsh, and the strain on the internet leads me to believe they cut corners and are pushing to do the most they can for the least amount of cash. I am certain if they actually had to pay us overtime, the work schedule would be extended to a more reasonable length of time. The removal of my toys, while admittedly for a good reason and quite a minor thing really, just makes me feel like more of a drone.

It’s been a long time in coming, but I think this studio isn’t where I want to be. But this city and the people I know here are. As I dust off my resume, I find myself questioning how I can remain here and not work for the studio. There’s quite a long list of tasks and shows I’ve done for this studio to be added to my cover letter, and my resume is already fairly extensive as is.

But is it enough to let me write for a living?

MEME stuff

2007-11-19T03:53:24Z

Don't normally like these, but hey... A deal's a deal. So, reply to this in the commenst and I'll do the following:

1. Tell you why I friended you.
2. Associate you with something - fandom, a song, a colour, a photo, etc.
3. Tell you something I like about you.
4. Tell you a memory I have of you.
5. Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.
6. Tell you my favorite user pic of yours.
7. In return, you must post this in your LJ.

Old friends...

2007-06-16T23:30:41Z

Looks like I just missed the thunderstorm that’s been looming over us all day. Good, I hate getting caught in the rain. Just spent my entire Saturday shopping and relaxing since tomorrow I have to work. Ah well, can’t work next weekend, I won’t be here.

Last weekend I wasn’t here either but it was for a good cause. An old friend of mine from college (which means I’ve known him for more years than I care to count right now…) had come up from California to Toronto. First time I’d have a chance to see him since my college days, though sadly it wasn’t a vacation.

Recently his mother had become quite ill and without going into details, she had taken a grave turn for the worse. When my friend arrived the entire family was present when she saw them one last time before dying. I sadly could not come down for the memorial but I could make it down for the last weekend he’d be in Toronto.

I admit to being a little nervous, I am not the most people oriented person and wasn’t sure how to help someone who had a recent loss. But fortunately the memorial had helped and he had a week of out fishing with his father to help work out his emotions, so his greeting to me was running up behind me and pretending to punch me in the back. Everything went swimmingly from then on.

Hooking up with another friend from college who lives in Toronto, we went shopping for gaming books and comics, then to HMV for DVDs where I stunned my friends but expressing wonder at finding the movie “Cannibal Women of the Avocado Jungle of Death” and not only being glad to have found it but also said the title without cracking up. I also picked up a ton of bad movies like Night of the Lepus, Galaxina, Starcrash and others. I just love ‘em! Oh, and if anyone knows where I can get a copy of “The Warrior and the Sorceress” let me know!

From there we had dinner and spent it going through each other’s sketchbooks, handing out gifts and just talking about good times back in college. Wondering how the people back in college are doing now, talking about those few we had contact with, and verbally bashing the morons we knew. Maybe we bashed an ex-girlfriend or two, I don’t know the night was a blur… We talked about our families, new friends we made, our jobs, relationships, talked about how we’d changed since college and how we’re aging (not very gracefully) about working out, just a ton of fun stuff.

After dinner we got ice cream and milkshakes and took a long walk down to a quiet pub for even more chatting about old times and new. It’s not like I haven’t talked with these guys daily about things, we see each other regularly on MSN and Yahoo. But actually sitting down to talk with them is great, you just can’t substitute that with online messaging. I wished I could have spent a lot more time with them, just talking about stuff until we were out of old jokes and people to gab about. Sadly, six hours was all the time we had to spend together. Maybe I should be more proactive about this, take some money and actually fly down to California for a change of pace and visit. Might be something to plan for later on.

News of the week

2007-05-21T03:05:17Z

*whew*

Long trips are rough on me, especially when you’ve driven eight hours… Or was it nine? Well, a lot of hours in a car in one day. It was worth it, but I’m getting a bit ahead of myself. Lemme rewind to my birthday celebrations.

Wednesday four people came over to attend the birthday party. It wasn’t going to be a large affair since I wanted to watch Mystery Science Theater 3000 for my birthday. That stopped a bunch of people from coming since I’ve tried to show them my taste for bad movies before. Those that survived without major brain damage declined my invitation.

Still, we had a fun time. Watched two classic MST3K’s, we had chips and oreo cookies, and I got presents! That was a major surprise really. First there was a present from Alaska, a nice fleece scarf. I admit I wasn’t expecting that, but it’ll come in handy during the winter. You can use all the scarves you can get then! Then there was a small balloon, the nice foil kind. And a couple packages of M&Ms. Chocolate is always welcome in this house!

A few more packages arrived over the next couple of days. My brother sent me three manga novels, very much appreciated. And a couple DVDs of Clutch Cargo arrived, gifts to myself. They’re about as lousy a cartoon series as you can imagine, as campy as you can get! That’s why I love ‘em! And another present to myself arrived before the party, another B movie, this time a female Conan rip-off. I should be getting a couple more things later, and of course some birthday sketches will be delivered later. With luck, I'll have maybe four or five new pics for the wall!

There’s no real news on the writing front of late, but I am getting together a proper package for my show. Scripts and write ups for the show are actually fairly easy for me. I can whip off a fairly good script and some write ups in half a day, it’s much easier than sketching for me. And I keep a growing list of show ideas and gags to use in the show. I really feel I’ve got a winner on my hands here! If only the boss can be convinced…

Now, about all that driving. It seems an old friend who had to move out west was visiting, and of late had been feeling a bit down. So all of us who could planned a road trip and drove all the way to Peterborough to meet him. It was an ainteresting trip, we saw a black bear by the side of the road and got dive bombed by an eagle on the way! We talked and cheered him up for a few hours, gave gifts and all. Then we drove him to Toronto for his plane.

We gabbed and talked more at the airport, then started the long drive back. The trip was fun, but it really screwed up my eating and sleeping routine, and man did I crash hard after devouring a huge dinner! Slept to almost one in the afternoon, but I feel terrific now!

Oh, one last thing. It’s been awhile since I added another chapter to the Weird People of Sudbury. Since I don’t want to make this too long, I’ll put this chapter behind a cut:

Me, sitting alone at home around 11 PM, when there’s a knock at my door. Curious, I get up to see who it is. At the door is a bald, stocky man wearing a jacket and leather work gloves.

Bald Guy: Hey, is Martin in?

Me: No, I live alone. You have to the wrong apartment.

Bald Guy: Martin’s a tall guy, young. Can you just see if he’s in?

Me: I live alone. You could try next door, I know he has roommates.

Bald Guy: So he’s not in?

Me: He doesn’t live here, I live alone. I don’t have any roommates.

Bald Guy: So… no one in this building can have roommates?

Me: You can have roommates if you want.

Bald Guy: So is Martin in? He’s a tall young guy, he’s got wavy hair.

Me: I. Live. Alone. Try next door, I know that fellow has roommates.

Bald Guy: Oh, next door maybe?

Me: YES!

Bald Guy: Thanks dude.

May 16th

2007-05-17T02:53:10Z

Happy birthday to me. :D

Five days to go

2007-05-11T21:38:08Z

Some good points I just had to post about. First off, five days till my birthday. So far it looks like I’ll get a few sketches for the Wall, and on my actual birthday I’ll be having an MST3K night with half the gang. The other half can’t stand MST3K and will be boycotting the event in the interests for preserving brain matter from bad movies. That just means more birthday wishes stretched out over the course of the month. Being born in May seems to mean you don’t get all the gifts and well wishes in one shot, they’re sort of spread over a couple of weeks. Fine by me really, just means more to look forward too.

There’s no real word on the writing meeting (which hasn’t happened yet) except to say the bigwigs in the studio are trying to plan a time to get together in June. In a way that’s good since I’ll be able to get more write ups, character designs and script ideas done so I can have a neat little package for everyone to see.

I did hear from the head writer again though, wanting to talk about the show idea a bit more. In his e-mail he said some of my ideas for gags were brilliant (yes, he actually used that word) and wanted to see any scripts or more stuff for the show as soon as it was done. He also said he wants to sit in on this meeting and give the show idea his support. That is really unexpected since he is out of town and doesn’t get out here much (I think he’s been here like three times in four years) Of course I suppose he could have meant he’d sit in with a conference call, but still… I’m getting support!

Speaking of show ideas, a script I had written way back has finally been made into a show! I’m on the web baby! I’m broadcast! Okay, it’s a three minute short cartoon but it’s something I wrote for the studio, was paid for and now YOU can vote to give the show a good rating! Hmmm… too much of a shameless plug?

Actually, I would really appreciate any feedback on the short. It’s the first of my scripts to actually get made into a full cartoon, I’d love to know what people think of it. All I did for this was the script, none of the animation. You can find the short here:

http://www.ilaugh.com/shows/series.php?series=18

To celebrate the upcoming birthday and my first script made into a show, I decided to pick up one of those nice Sara Lee cakes at the grocery store. Sadly, they didn’t carry those. So I opted for vanilla ice cream. But they were out.

Well, whip cream is just as good. And there’s something decadent about just eating is with a spoon while watching a bad movie. Hey, only comes round once a year, why not?

News of writing

2007-04-29T15:45:21Z

Ugh… I *despise* having to work on a weekend. It couldn’t be helped though, even though it wasn’t my fault. The show is on a two week schedule (tight!) and I only got half my work at the start. The other half got lost and had to be located in the second week, so Saturday I was there for nine hours plugging away at my scenes and then my redos, and the doing a scene for another person who was behind… Never let it be said I didn’t do my fair share of work!

Despite the rough weeks, some good news did come out of all this. It has to do with my writing of course. Remember last month how I said I had this really neat idea for a show that everyone loved, but the boss said I should do on my own? Mainly because no money was in the budget. Well anyway, I had sent this idea to the director here long before the boss got wind of it. The director is one heck of a busy guy, so he didn’t get around to reading it until this week, weeks after the boss had said no to helping produce the show. But when he did get around to reading it, this is what he said:

“Sorry it took so long to get back to you on this. I just finished going over it and I love it, I think we should see where this can go. I'll send it to the boss to have a look at too. He'll be back down in about another week so hopefully we can meet and discuss when he's around.”

At this point I had to let the director know the boss had seen it, and said no to helping with it but I hadn’t given up yet. I was going to see about doing a very short film about it with some help with others from the studio. In our spare time, so it would take a long time to produce, but we can try it anyway.

He comes back with “You, I and the boss are going to sit down about this next week and try to work it in somewhere.”

So, the director of the studio is behind me on this it seems. He’s actually trying to set up a meeting for us so we can all chat about it. Gotta admit, I didn’t expect that.

But wait, it gets better!

After my chat with the boss about my show idea, he suggested I hack down the script to a 30 second slot. While I’m doing that I figure I might as well send it to the other writer we have in the studio. Again, it takes him forever to get back to me on it, but when he finally does get around to it he actually comes over to my desk to chat with me about it.

Basically he says the idea of gold and is so freaking tight a concept it should really take off with a number of different audience groups. It’s funny without being in your face or offensive, it’s witty, visually it should be interesting, and overall sounds like a great show. We hash out ideas for the show for a bit, then I ask him if he’d like to sit in on this meeting with the director and me. He says he’d love to. So that’s two in my corner pushing for my show.

Ah, but we ain’t done yet ladies and gentlemen!
This week I get a surprise e-mail from the head writer. I say surprise because while this guy is a brilliant writer with tons of advice, he’s also so freaking busy he never gets back to me about any inquiries I have about writing in general or show ideas. So when I sent everyone my show idea I neglected to send it to him. I didn’t know if it was a good idea yet, so I figured I wouldn’t bother until I knew the idea was tight.

Turns out the director sent the head writer a copy of my show idea to get his opinion of it. Here’s what he had to say about it:

“I saw the script you did and I really liked it. You're good at animation, but if what you really want to do is write, you've got a real shot at making the switch. What other writing have you been working on lately? What's in the hopper?”

I have to admit, this floored me! I was not expecting a note from the head writer, doubly not expecting the show idea to be this well received and doubly that not expecting to be told if I wanna switch to writing (and I do! I really do!) that he thinks I have a real shot at it! So, I have the director, the studio’s writer here and the head writer all liking my show plus the head writer thinks I can be a writer professionally now. I sent him an e-mail telling him about other writing I was working on at the moment, and other ideas I’d had since we last talked. No reply as yet, but that’s fairly typical.

The meeting is this week sometime. I’m not holding my breath on any of this since I have no idea what the odds are of my show getting produced. But… Well, with this much support behind me, I’m hoping the show will at least be considered. And I’m *really* hoping I am asked if I want to switch to writing!

Wish me luck!

MUHAHAHAHAHA!!!

2007-03-31T00:58:25Z

Ooooo... Okay, not my first choice, but I have to admit I could probably be an awesome villian.

Your results:
You are Dr. Doom

Dr. Doom		47%
Apocalypse		39%
Dark Phoenix		39%
Lex Luthor		36%
Juggernaut		36%
Mr. Freeze		36%
Magneto		34%
The Joker		28%
Riddler		28%
Kingpin		28%
Venom		27%
Mystique		24%
Green Goblin		24%
Poison Ivy		21%
Catwoman		17%
Two-Face		8%

Blessed with smarts and power but burdened by vanity.

Click here to take the Supervillain Personality Quiz

Let's see what kind of hero I would be.

Your results:
You are Superman

Superman		70%
The Flash		70%
Robin		62%
Spider-Man		60%
Supergirl		57%
Green Lantern		55%
Hulk		45%
Iron Man		45%
Wonder Woman		42%
Batman		35%
Catwoman		35%

You are mild-mannered, good,
strong and you love to help others.

Click here to take the "Which Superhero are you?" quiz...

Okay, it says I'm Superman but I'm tied with being the Flash. I'd like to be considered the Flash, despite the picture. Thank you.

Writing problems

2007-03-09T03:21:06Z

I have no idea how to break into writing, even though I’d been told I’m immensely talented at it. I had no idea I could write, I really never gave it any thought. I liked to roleplay with play by e-mail games and sometimes my posts were considered very good. And I played IM chat games with other people. But sitting down to write for a living? Nah… That’s just crazy talk!

Then a couple of years ago I was asked to give some input on new show idea. The director took me and a fellow SCAer aside and wanted to discuss a medieval style show. Just take the basic concepts and turn it on it’s ear. So we hashed about ideas for a couple of hours, hammered out a plot, and sent it off to the big boss. He loved the concept, asked for a few details to be tweaked here and there, and then it was sent to a writer to turn into a script.

Well, big mistake there. The writer totally butchered our idea. What was an amusing story idea became boring, bland, generic, and most of the characters totally changed personality. The big boss and director looked at it and were not pleased. The boss was so disappointed in it he was about to cancel the whole idea. The director felt it still had potential if they had the right script though.

I stepped up to plate then. I asked for a weekend to take the script and rewrite it into something workable. It wouldn’t be good, but at least a real writer could see what the characters and scenario were supposed to be, and make it better. The director said I could try, and sent me off. All I had was a copy of the bad script and our original show idea. I’d never cracked a book on script writing, or even read a script. No script writing program, no training at all, just going at it blindly.

Monday morning the director had a script. I warned him it wouldn’t be all that great, but felt it would be something to show the boss. After dropping it off, I went back to work. That afternoon I was called into the director’s office. He’d read my script and had sent it off to the big boss and his staff. Now he wanted to know how many scripts I had written before, because this was the best script he’d written all year!

I thought he was joking, but apparently he wasn’t. He felt I had done a superb job. My timing was excellent, my dialogue incredible and my characters real. Further confirmation of my talent came later that week. Upon getting the new script, the boss set it aside, still thinking it was a lousy idea. The stigma of the bad script was lingering. Meanwhile, other people in the studio got a hold of the script and started reading it. Monday the boss had effectively shelved the script. Friday he took it out to read because everyone in the studio was asking who the new hot writer was on staff!

So, my first realization that I had writing talent. A great deal of it! And… nothing came of the show. It was shelved, and I went off to do animating again.

Later I was asked to help come up with ideas for a new short series. Little five minute shows. The director had come up with the concept, I was to provide scenarios for the episodes. Myself and another writer were working on it. I banged out double the amount of ideas requested, figuring a couple would be worthy of keeping. I was a newbie after all, the other guy was an on staff writer.

Turns out when I submitted my ideas in, he had only one done. Other commitments and all had put him behind schedule for this. They looked over my ideas and decided enough were good they didn’t need anymore. Except for one episode in that series, the other ideas are mine. And three of the scripts from them are mine as well, since I finally got to write on this. My first time actually being PAID to write! And let me tell you, a script writer can make a lot of money if he’s fast and good at writing!

After that, back to animation. I wanted to switch to writing now, but nothing was opening up. Shows were on the go, but they were all happening in Toronto. I was very much out of the writing loop up here. But, I kept plugging away, trying to get notes on how to improve my writing from the other writers by way of e-mail.

This weekend I was inspired, I had a great new show idea! I banged out the idea in a couple of hours and submitted it on Monday. The response was overwhelming. The director and two others in the studio here loved it! I was told it was a very strong, funny premise that sounded like it would be a smash hit!

Then the boss called me, he wanted to talk with me about my show idea. I thought yes, finally a show idea I came up with would get done. And I’d get a “created by” credit! The boss said again, my idea was extremely strong, sounded like a smash hit. He could tell it was a fun project for me to do, and sounded great! What’s more, he’s impressed I keep getting better at my writing and despite not actually being a writer I am plugging away to get into writing. Yep, he thought my writing for this show would be great!

Would it get done? Nope… Not a chance. No money in the budget for it and besides, they have a similar show concept already in the works. Seems I have good ideas, I just have them too late!

How am I ever going to break into writing scripts?

Interviews

2007-01-31T01:03:46Z

1: What would be your dream job?
Something with writing I think, but I’d want to be on salary not freelance as is typically done. Script writing ideally, for half hour shows and such. I get too bored with longer projects.

2: Describe the ultimate RPG you could ever play in.
That’s a toughie. I really don’t have an RPG I’m dying to play, but I have so many I’d like to try. I wouldn’t mind trying a character in Mechwarrior, Champions, Star Wars, Rifts… Basically any game I’m currently not playing in.

3: Describe the ultimate RPG you could ever run.
If I had time to prepare, I could make an awesome D&D city based campaign. All in my head is the entire world, the city, it’s factions, it’s guilds, the monsters in the surrounding area, everything. However, getting it all down on paper and getting players to read it all would be a problem. Right now I’m running a version of it that’s roughly mapped out, so in a way I’m already running my ultimate RPG.

4: If you could write and direct a movie, live action, animated, whatever, what would it be?
If I could, I’d do a live action serial. You know, those twelve part cliffhanger ones that are stretched out over several weeks, forcing you to go back to the theaters every week or so. I’ve recently acquired several of them and they’re just so cheesy they’re marvelous fun! Just the titles make me laugh.

Thrill to “Zombies of the Stratosphere!”

Shudder at “Captain Marvel versus the Scorpion!”

And watch the heroic exploits of “The Canadian Mounties versus The Atomic Invaders!” (So help me, that’s a real serial from the days of B&W)

I’d write mine with less glaring plot holes and make my villains more realistic. It’s amazing how many villains either don’t have a very clear motivation for being the villain, or just don’t seem to understand elaborate death traps should be monitored.

5: Is there a woman in your life? One you've got your eye on? Tell us about her!
No woman in my life, and no prospects at all. So… nothing really to tell. Valentine’s for me means cheap chocolate the next day.

-----------------------------
THE RULES:
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better!
3. You WILL update your LJ with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

--------------------------

What Christmas feels like for me...

2006-12-25T02:41:56Z

Christmas Eve at home. All in all, it’s going pretty well. A little better in fact. I had a bit of a shaky start getting to the train to get me home for the holidays. It took forever to get a cab to drive me to the train station (I have to take a cab since there’s no buses going out to it, and it’s way out in the boonies) and the cab I did get had a fellow who just wasn’t in any rush… I *barely* made it onto the train, but once on board we sailed through arriving early in Toronto. That’s pretty rare! A late train yes, but never early.

In Toronto I hooked up with Miguel and we talked for a half hour and exchanged gifts. That really wasn’t a great deal of time to catch up, I wish we had time for dinner. But it was not to be, and after a bit my father arrived and drove me back home. Again, no delays… It was unexpected to have the roads so clear this close to Christmas.

At home my parents showed me all the improvements they made to the house. Two redone bathrooms, new rugs, they’ve really done a bunch of work on the place. It’s pretty impressive, but is a few steps from what I remember my room from being. Not quite home anymore…

But it feels home in other ways. I ate at Wendys again (oh sweet luscious grease…) and the presents are under the tree, awaiting Christmas morning. Well, Christmas late afternoon since that’s when my brother and his GF will be here. Also had a chance to go shopping and picked up a ton of DVDs. And the mall wasn’t all that busy the day before Christmas Eve! My father and I were shocked to see empty parking places and no traffic snarls in the mall parking lot. It was like stepping into the Twilight Zone.

What I’ve mainly been doing here is watching cable TV, a privilege I have done without most of my life. Avoiding the Christmas specials, I’ve stuck to the history and discovery channels, watching interesting shows of criminal masterminds, and a great show on battles of old. A relaxing time really, which is what a good vacation should be.

The bit that really made it feel like Christmas for me though is a story my father told me. My father is usually quite quiet, doesn’t like to tell too many stories but during the holidays if you catch him just right, he will start telling you an interesting tale that you never would have even guessed he knew. Short stories and legends of interest at Christmas. That’s what I enjoy.

This year’s story was a legend about our family. I knew that on my mother’s side, my family is connected tenuously to the Black Donnelly’s. It seems my father’s side has a legend from the middle ages though, involving William the Conqueror.

William was fighting a battle near one of the villages under his control, and during the battle he was unhorsed. As he struggled to stand during the furious melee, one of the peasants from the village rushed in and helped William to his feet and got him off the field. A short time later, the peasant was able to get another horse from the battlefield and brought it to the king. And off William rode into battle, and later, victory.

After the battle, William found the peasant who helped him and asked him what village he was from. The peasant said he was a resident of the village of Vernon, so the king made him the Duke of Vernon right then and there. According to the legend, my father’s side is descended from that line. But being the descendant of a second or third son somewhere along the way, no title inheritance was passed along.

I’m not laying odds on how true this legend is, but I like to think my family is connected to it in some way. Certainly, my family can trace it’s ancestry back to England and France for a considerable amount of our history.

Makes me wonder what other stories my dad has to share yet.

Just because I was bored...

2006-12-01T22:41:40Z

You are The Hermit

Prudence, Caution, Deliberation.

The Hermit points to all things hidden, such as knowledge and inspiration,hidden enemies. The illumination is from within, and retirement from participation in current events.

The Hermit is a card of introspection, analysis and, well, virginity. You do not desire to socialize; the card indicates, instead, a desire for peace and solitude. You prefer to take the time to think, organize, ruminate, take stock. There may be feelings of frustration and discontent but these feelings eventually lead to enlightenment, illumination, clarity.

The Hermit represents a wise, inspirational person, friend, teacher, therapist. This a person who can shine a light on things that were previously mysterious and confusing.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Just cause I haven't done one of these in awhile...

2006-11-24T21:37:55Z

The Slow Dancer
Deliberate Gentle Love Dreamer (DGLDm)

Steady, reliable, and cradling her tenderly. Take a deep breath, and let it out real easy...you are The Slow Dancer.

Your focus is love, not sex, and for your age, you have average experience. But you're a great, thoughtful guy, and your love life improves every year. There's also a powerful elimination process working in your favor: most Playboy types get stuck raising unwanted kids before you even begin settling down. The women left over will be hot and yours. Your ideal woman is someone intimate, intelligent, and very supportive.

Your exact opposite:
The Hornivore

Random Brutal Sex Master

While you're not exactly the life of the party, you do thrive in small groups of smart people. Your circle of friends is extra tight and it's HIGHLY likely they're just like you. You appreciate symmetry in relationships.

ALWAYS AVOID: The Battleaxe

CONSIDER: The Maid of Honor or The Sonnet

Link: The 32-Type Dating Test by OkCupid - Free Online Dating.

My love life improves every year eh? Hmmm... Seems to me I am not doing much social wise. Does that mean no news is good news?

Finally an update

2006-11-20T21:50:25Z

Well, good news and bad news, and the bad news had an unexpected twist to it. On the good side, my blood pressure is dropping over all and I’m getting to the gym for my workouts. It’s hard to get back into the gym again. Sometimes I just really do not want to go. But, I go anyway. Even if I don’t feel I can do the whole routine, I have a secondary program for my cardio and I can at least get that done.

Also work is starting up again. It’s not going to be full time with benefits like I’d prefer (wouldn’t we all like that?) but at least it’s got vacation pay and they take the taxes out of it so I won’t get slammed at tax time. I’ll be starting next week and the production should go till June. Then right onto another one. So it looks like my worries about being on the poverty zone are null for the moment.

Bad news is today I went in to see the big boss about my show idea. This was my first real idea I came up with on my own. Something I could officially put my stamp on and say ‘that’s mine’. Well, turns out the boss liked it, thought it was pretty funny. But they aren’t going to take it. Why you ask? Well, here’s the unexpected twist to the whole thing.

Anyone who has met me in person, gone to school with me, worked with me, etc. knows that I’m fairly straight laced. Once when I was in an ambulance being interviewed by the paramedics, the one fellow said this was kind of embarrassing to ask but they had to: Had I ever used drugs? The friend who had brought me to the ambulance (*waves to Bear*) had to laugh. The idea of me doing any sort of drugs, booze, etc. was ludicrous!

So… imagine my surprise when I was told my show idea was good, but *way* too controversial to put on the internet. Let me say that again: Too controversial for the internet. I guess beneath this calm, cool, professional exterior lurks the pounding heart of a maniacal troublemaker.

I like that idea.

ARGH!!!

2006-11-11T17:05:20Z

Yesterday was plus four, dry, nice day out. I relaxed, went to the gym for my workout (which seems to be working, the weight is staying off and my blood pressure is down) and generally had a nice time.

Today I wake up and someone dumped a full FOOT of white gunk all over the place and it's still coming down! I want my summer back dammit!!! *sighs* Fine, fine... I'll dig out my long underwear again. At least I know my apartment is nice and warm. Didn't even feel the temperature drop in here. Radiators, gotta love 'em.

On a brighter note, I have finally got around to uploading pictures from my trip. You can see them here: http://community.webshots.com/user/anchat

There's six galleries up right now, and nine more to upload. When they're all up I'll post the link again, but right now there's enough pics to keep you busy.

Work woes

2006-10-22T03:16:22Z

Things are starting to get a bit rough here. I thought after the trip there'd be a period of readjustment, and there was. But things are starting to take a bit of a sour turn at work.

When I got back from my vacation I went right into making content for our ilaugh.com site. Just let me pitch that here, everyone visit http://www.ilaugh.com It's our new website and will have some of the shows I wrote up there. If you could pop by and take a look it would be great.

Anyway, I'm plugging away at my work, all freelance work. I hate freelance. It's good money, but you are paid check by check, and no tax taken out. It really isn't a steady job and I like the stability of a regular paycheck and not having to worry about extra taxes later. Later on, there was a meeting with the public relations person who went to the biggest animation business convention. Apparently our booth was the busiest at the place, our shows were loved by one and all, one is nominated for an Emmy, we've sold almost all of our shows to various broadcasters, etc. and oh money is still a bit tight. No regular salaries or benefits for a bit yet.

Friday I was told that the show I was going to be working on next month has been delayed for a solid month, so I won't be getting ANY cash for that month. While it's not a real burden on me as yet, I don't want this to be a habit. I want to save my savings, not have freelance work eat into them!

I didn't take this news lying down. I wrote the director and the personel supervisor to ask about my chances for writing that month, then I submitted a new show idea to the director for him to look over and make suggestions. He seemed enthused with the idea, but it remains to be seen if it ever gets off the ground. I have no idea how much is paid if they like your idea so much they do a show of it, but I'm hoping it's enough for rent! I've also got another show idea I'm tweaking up and hope to submit next week.

I did get one reply from the folks in Toronto who got a forward of my request to do some more writing. They're winding down their script writing but still accepting new ideas for shows. If I have any ideas to pitch I'm to send them on in for sure. She also wrote if something comes up she'll keep me in mind. Apparently they think I did a great job with my last set of scripts.

All in all, looks like a month off. Maybe it's for the best. I need to get on my diet and workout more, my blood pressure has been getting high (gee, wonder why THAT could be...) One other fun thing at work, I got trapped inside the elevator for forty minutes. I had to pound on the door to get help because there was no phone in that little emergency box. Yeah, that was fun.

Day 13 and the trip home

2006-10-14T22:25:42Z

Last entry here, my last day in England and then the trip home.

Sept. 24th – 3:30 PM

Packing and repacking, trying to get everything into one bag. Well, it’s all in and ready for tomorrow. Can’t wait to get home!

The drive to Carlisle from Bowness was alright. We only got caught behind one herd of cows, and I got a brief history lesson of the roman armory that was excavated in Carlisle near Carlisle castle and then was promptly reburied. Some of the finds from it were unique, never seen before. They were transported to a warehouse, and subsequently disappeared. Dammit! I so wanted to see some lorica segmata, authentic or replica. To actually touch a sample… Buy a set for myself even. I couldn’t find any of it anywhere. We also drove by the graveyard where William the Conqueror was buried. Apparently his last wish wasn’t fulfilled. He wanted his body to be boiled and his bones to be carried before his army as they marched onto Scotland.

The train ride to Newcastle was fair, not very comfortable though. There was an old 19th century café at the Carlisle train station which sadly was closed on Sunday. Still, it looked really impressive through the windows. Old leather booths, brass banister bar. Lunch was at the Newcastle train station, then I was back at the Dene Hotel again.

I managed to find an internet café to check in on my mail quick, then came back to the hotel to do a ton of reshuffling of my luggage contents. I think I have it fairly evened out now, and ready for the trip. Tomorrow at two, I’m off home!

Sept. 25th – Um… whenever…

Ugh… What a trip. The first plane ride was okay. Just an hour long flight, no biggie. Even had a seat empty beside me. The second flight though…. A complete nightmare!

My seat seemed okay. I was at the very front of coach class, so there’s no chair in front of me. Just a partition well in front of me, so I can stretch out my legs. I was thinking this will be a great ride until the terrible trio shows up. Three babies, two sitting on either side of me, and one a bit further down my aisle.

The child furthest from me was the Crier. Crying, crying, and crying… the mother’s response was to constantly stuff a pacifier in the baby’s mouth. It wasn’t an effective strategy. The child to my right was the Fussy one. Couldn’t sit still, didn’t want to lie down, just wanted to move. A lot.

And by far the worse was the one just to my left, a child I dubbed the Screecher. Not a newborn, this baby was of the age he discovered he had a voice. And if he wanted to, he can make a really loud, high pitched, ear shattering screech. Not that he was upset. It’s just he’d be quietly playing and then remember he can screech, so he does, then goes back to playing.

Could it get any worse? Oh yes.

“Ladies and gentleman, this is your captain speaking. We’re having a bunch of rain outside, so we’re going to be delayed for about for an hour or two on the runway.”

And no one can shoot me to end my misery cause they’ve searched everyone for guns before we boarded! ARGH!!!

Day twelve of Hadrian's Wall

2006-10-09T23:01:36Z

Sept. 23rd – 4:00 PM

Well, the walk is done! The walk/bus ride is done anyway. I decided not to walk the last 14 miles despite the fact I probably could have done it fairly easily. Taking the bus today let me see the medieval weekend happening in Carlisle.

Let’s see… After breakfast I mailed back the cell phone the tour company sent me first thing. I didn’t want to accidentally leave it and get charged extra. After that I checked out the shopping/pedestrian section at Carlisle. It’s the section which was the town center for the old medieval Carlisle so is packed with museums and tourist attractions along with ships and pubs and such.

One section of the shopping concourse was interesting. It’s normally all open air streets and lanes, but turn down one lane and the cobblestone street suddenly has a roof, lights, and slowly turns into a modern mall. I can see how this would be very popular during any rainstorms.

When the tourist information center opened I checked in to see which buses went to Bowness on Solway, and picked up a book or two. Thin books, since my luggage is already stretched to the limit. Then a quick trip to the internet café for a check of my mail.

Now for the fun part! Tullie House, the really good museum here, was hosting a huge medieval weekend with interactive events going on throughout the day. Pressed for time, I couldn’t see everything they had available. But the entrance fee was waived and I got to see some interesting well researched events.

There was a medieval alchemist plying his trade to those who wanted to know more about changing lead into gold. Some peasants were on hand to show how to form clay vessels, make wool, and feed baby chickens. Cute little critters, peeping for all they were worth.

I rather liked the staff the rat catcher had. It was a wooden cage at the top of a seven foot pole, with dead, stuffed rats hanging from it. The medieval cooking seemed to be drawing a crowd of interested hungry people at lunch. But by far my favourite display was the one on falconry.

Off to one side of the garden was an area devoted to some truly magnificent birds. There were a few falcons to be sure, but also hawks, owls, and for no reason I could see, a huge raven. All of them were tied about the legs with leather thongs and there were tied to a sturdy rope. The gloves worn by the falconers were interesting too. Besides being thick leather of course, they had a large brass ring sewn to the bottom of the glove so the rope could be tied to it. The bird couldn’t fly away until released like that.

The wingspans of the birds was very impressive. The owl was the smallest one there! I would have loved to try holding a bird on the arm, but most of these displays were for the kids and they wouldn’t dare let another person touch the birds. The only bird brought close to the kids was the owl. Sadly no books or pamphlets about falconry were available, but apparently they were part of a falconry club based just outside of Carlisle.

Then came the bus ride to Bowness on Solway. It’s very flat ground, I could have walked it very easily but I’d have missed the falcons then. Oh, and I visited Carlisle Castle again, found some great books at a fair price.

Bowness is a small town. One pub, right beside the church, and beside that is the B&B, the old rectory. My room is huge, with a big double bed. The bathroom is a bit odd though. There’s no partition for the shower. It’s just stuck on the wall. The whole bathroom, toilet and sink and all is the shower!

The pub was the last stamping point on my Hadrian passport. In addition to the last stamp, I got a nice certificate saying I’d completed the walk, bought a baseball cap saying I’d walked Hadrian’s Wall (well, most of it) and signed a huge book with notes from all the people who’d ended the walk at Bowness. Oh, and made reservations for dinner. Being the only pub in town, it fills up fast. No fast food places about!

One other nasty surprise today. The row of flowers beside the cemetery on the way to the B&B here is filled with bees. They have their hive in there somewhere I think. I walked close by to the flowers on the way to my accommodations and made them a bit angry! Luckily, I backed off before they got really nasty and I avoided any stings.

Sept. 23rd – 8:50 PM

Back from the pub and had a shower, now lying in bed and relaxing as I’m writing in the journal. There’s nothing good on the telly. All they’re got on is golf and crummy reality TV shows. The wife swapping show seems popular here, why I don’t know.

As it’s my last meal before heading back I grabbed a big celebratory dinner. The steak was… bland. Not the best I’ve had while here. The mushrooms and chips were quite good though. Tomorrow I’ll be back at the Dene Hotel and will see if I can have a good pizza at that nice Italian pizzeria.

You know, even if the shows on TV aren’t to my liking, the commercials are good. Just saw one for pot noodle “The fuel of Britain” Apparently trained noodle finding sheep are used to find pure veins of noodle in the mines of Wales. Even on the telly I can’t escape the sheep! Then there was a commercial with Daniel Radcliffe in a TV show between Harry Potter films. Looks like he’s playing a 14 year old boy with a crush on a teacher.

I’m rather torn about going back home. I do want to get home and see my friends again, get back into my routine and all. Not in a hurry to get back to work of course. I’ve got some presents to give out, looking forward to that. And I really do miss spending a night at home, relaxing and then sleeping in my own bed.

On the other hand, I want to see more of the UK. York perhaps, or come back and walk the sections of Hadrian’s Wall I missed this time around. I’m disappointed I couldn’t get anymore info on the Ermine Street guard, and that no one was selling a lorica segmata. Helmets, swords and daggers yes, but no armour!

Hadrian's Wall and Wall O' Posters

2006-10-09T02:48:28Z

Well, it took forever to get it organized and up on the bedroom wall, but my entire Wall O' Posters is up finally! Now it's finally feeling like my apartment again. Over a decade of hand drawn pictures is up and ready to be viewed.

Best part about having over 230 pictures on my bedroom walls? I can use the line "Would you like to come up and see my etchings?" and mean it.

Sept 22nd – 10:00 PM

Carlisle is a great city. Rome, medieval, Bonnie Prince Charlie, they have it all here! And I feel so GOOD! I really motored through today’s walk.

Breakfast was good, nice homemade sausage and lovely toast. Since I had over 11 miles today, I wanted to get a good start on the day. Leaving at 8:30, I soldiered on through field after field. The cows and sheep were content to just stare and get out of the way, but while crossing a kissing bridge I was stopped by a donkey who wanted a treat and to be petted. I literally had to squeeze around the persistent beast to get back on the trail.

I made really good time and paused at another excellent honour system self serve snack shack. This one was really well set up. With a large fridge for drinks and cold snacks, a freezer for choc ices and small tubs of farm made ice cream, a table and chairs, and a small basket to leave your cash. I gave more money than I took in food. This was an excellent place to stop for a rest, rain or shine. I wish they had these places all over the trail.

The rest of the walk was quick and pleasant, though sometimes confusing as to where to go next. Not as clearly marked as usual. Pausing by a large field, there was a squat medieval style three story tower sitting smack dab in the middle of it. I found out later it was made by a man called George Head Head (he must have been teased mercilessly at school) in the 19th century. He just said “I want to build a tower” and was rich enough to just do it. I want to be that rich someday.

I was closer to Carlisle then I thought, arriving at 1:00 PM. That’s a new record! I don’t think I broke any actual speed records, but I call that a personal best. I held off checking into my accomadations and hit the cybercafé, then lunch at Tullie House again, then off to Carlisle Castle.

Carlisle is built over an old Roman fort, and the city center of Carlisle is what remains of the outline of an old medieval town. It’s quite disorderly in some ways, but the castle itself is quite interesting.

I don’t know is the castle has any ghosts but the dungeon with it’s wetting stones is creepy enough. Wetting stones are stones of the dungeon walls where prisoners would lick the moisture from. Apparently the bread and water prisoner menu was optional at Carlisle Castle. In addition to the medieval sections of the castle, there’s an excellent military museum for modern warfare. And always careful, the castle’s two remaining cannons are still pointed towards Scotland.

After a short guided tour of the castle, I went to the B&B here, passing through the city center along the way. One thing I didn’t expect to see here was a native American group in full buckskin and headdresses singing and dancing for the crowd.

The B&B here is nice so far. Private little fireplace beside the bed (filled with pinecones for decoration) and a sturdy handle on the toilet so you can really crank it down. You have to do that a lot in England I’ve found. A couple of toilets here I really had to put my full body weight on the all at once to get to flush. It’s like trying to start a lawnmower but pushing down on it instead of pulling a cord.

Oh, almost forgot! Stopped by the antique/collectable store again today. Picked up a medieval seal from the 14th century, very nice gift to myself.

Tomorrow is the very last leg of the journey, the walk to Bowness on Solway. I’ll see how I feel about walking it tomorrow. I think I pushed it a bit hard today, my left heel is a bit sore. Hmmm… only three more days before I head home.

Day ten of Hadrian's Wall

2006-10-08T01:56:17Z

Sept. 21st – 3:30 PM

I made remarkably good time today, all things considered. Arrived at the Centurion Inn at 1:45 PM, and that’s after backtracking quite a bit on the trail.

I realize now I didn’t do the Howard House justice so let me back up a moment. The farm house is a very large Victorian style place, and the bedroom was huge. The bed was a big double bed with a partial canopy over the head of the bed. There was antique furniture around the room, a full wardrobe, dressing table, desk, and several chairs. All in all, a very good place to stay.

After a good breakfast I set off to the trail. It was a nice sunny day, quite hot really but very windy. Perfect for walking but I had hoped it was slightly cooler. I hit the trail and explored the remains of a turret first, then the remains of a very well preserved mile castle. The mile castle even had some stairs preserved in it. Unfortunately, somewhere along the way I’d actually taken a wrong turn and was heading the wrong way! Oops!

No problem, just turn around and ignite the half hour I’d lost and saw the mile castle and turret again. I marched along the wall all the way to Walton. It was actually a great with a nice section of the Wall here and there. There were a few surprises along the way too.

I stopped by Birdoswald fort for a brief drink, relaxing in the nice café. Then after that was a great deal of rolling fields and beautiful scenery. Couldn’t enjoy it much since my eyes were on the ground to see I wasn’t stepping into a cowslop.

One field was full of cows who eyed my suspiciously as I walked by. Upon leaving the field I saw a sign neatly tacked up for anyone entering the field I had just left: “Warning! Bull in Field!” Gee, maybe they should have a similar sign like that posted on the other end of the field? I paused at a spot called Hare Hill which had a bit of reconstructed Wall that was done in the 19th century. It’s called Hare Hill cause of… yeah, rabbits. Apparently they damaged a good section of wall thanks to their burrowing. The reconstruction was great though, even had a stone marked by a roman centurion after it was built.

The best surprise was on a small side bit of the trail. After coming down a small hill and through a kissing gate there was a small sign directing hikers to refreshments. I decided to stop for a drink, but it was a most unusual rest stop. The snack bar was a tiny wooden shack with two small fridges full of drinks and chocolate bars, some chip bags, and an honesty box. It was a self serve refreshment spot! On an honour system yet! They had a plug in kettle for tea even!

There was also a note pad and pen so you could unite a comment and put it up on the walls of the shed. It was an interesting read as I enjoyed my drink. The best note was one from a Norwegian sword enthusiasts group who said you could fit ten people into this tiny little shed to get out of the rain. I paid for my chocolate bar and pop, plus a bit extra for the novelty of an honour system stop over.

Shortly after I arrived at the Centurion Inn at Walton. Much earlier then I ever anticipated. I mean, I had that reversal at the start of the trail, stopped three times for breaks and looking at interesting sections of the Wall and I still arrive at 1:45 PM? That’s pretty impressive in my book!

The Centurion Inn is a traditional English pub that would be in place in any medieval village. Dark grey flagstone floors, a real stone fireplace (the chimney snakes up one of the walls of my room!) pine woods doors with old fashioned clunky key locks.

When I stepped into the pub, ducking down to enter the place since the door was very low, the place was pretty much empty. Not many people were in for their drinks yet, so I got a drink from one of the two bar maids and settled in to savour my quick walk victory. As I was drinking, an older fellow shuffled into the bar. I’d say older gentleman, but he was nothing of the sort.

As he walked by a table where one of the barmaids was reading a paper, he started at her for a moment. “Thought ye were a man!” he croaked to her, to which she coldly replied “Oh really?” Later, he noticed the same barmaid was washing up the floors and had gone barefoot to avoid slipping. “Bare feet eh? Yer tough as an old badger!” he chuckled to her. I’m thinking next pint her orders will have spit in it.

Hmm, getting a bit hungry now. Perhaps I’ll head down and see what’s for dinner. I should eat up, tomorrow’s over eleven miles to Carlisle. But if I made as good time as I did today, I might be there for three!

Sept. 21st – 9:15 PM

Mmmm… Good home cooked food! Here they make the food per order. It’s very good food. That low door hurts people. I’ve seen two people smack their head on it already. The dining room here is pretty good too. Both pub and dining room have the exposed rafters, very good for the ambiance.

I’m in my room now, and there’s a special on ancient Rome on the telly, but sadly it’s all about Nero. I find Nero to be pretty boring. Yes yes, he went nuts, slaughtered tons etc. Can’t we hear more about the emperors that actually did something GOOD for the Empire?

Sometime during my walk I must have brushed my hand against a thistle or something. The back of my hand is itchy with raised white bumps. Hopefully it will clear up soon.

Day Nine of Hadrian's Wall

2006-10-07T01:18:38Z

Sept. 20th – 8:30 PM

Interesting day today, with a ton of running around, even if most of it was on the bus. Well, more like I used the bus to get to places to run around.

After a hearty breakfast at Saughy Rigg, I got a ride to Once Brewed. A very slow ride since a very slow, stupid sheep had escaped the dry stone wall and refused to get out of our way. The road was way too narrow to go around it either. The sheep was so slow… Wolves must have it easy chasing them down for dinner.

At Once Brewed I got some quick e-mails off, the grabbed the bus to Carlisle. I was in to the city to find the only place that sells actual roman artifacts and it’s only hours of operation were 11 to 3, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. Finding it was an adventure though. It was listed as being across from Tullie House, a premiere museum and art gallery here. But the store was actually half a block up from the Tullie House and down an alleyway, then through a small low wooden door.

Honestly, it was like a miniature Diagon Alley. The door opened into a small outdoor area, only about five feet wide, a scattered about on tables and shelves and hanging over head were antiques and artifacts of various eras and cultures. Old maps, roman coins, medieval keys, pottery and other curios. Down some stone steps led to the store proper.

The shop was scarcely bigger than the outside area. I looked around the store till I find the roman coins and was promptly shown fours cases full of them by the owner. They were separated by era, metal used to make them, and emperors stamped on them. I selected two, then looked at a couple of other roman artifacts available. I found a small nasty looking arrowhead made by the romans in the first to third century! Yeah, that was definitely to my liking. I would have liked a ring or a lamp as well, or an incredible glass vial they had. I mean it was just made for storing poison in, it looked like that kind of vial. But I doubted anything that fragile and old would survive the trip home. Oh well.

After that, I took a tour of Tullie House. It was a great museum, again no photography allowed. Not specifically roman though, it covered a great deal of history in Carlilse, both before and after Rome was in Britain. The medieval exhibits and roman exhibits were great, very informative.

I had lunch in the museum, they had an rather good restaurant there. Like a cross between a fast food place and a quiet tea room. I can’t explain it any more clearly than that. Then off to the bus station. Next stop was Landercost Priory. It’s not roman, but is medieval and built with stones from the Wall. I wasn’t sure what to expect there, but was pleasantly surprised to find that it was a very interesting site. There was an audio tour for the priory, which was mostly concerned with the ruins. There was a church that is still in use, but most of the place is a huge gothic ruin.

It rained a bit during the tour of the priory, which only helped to add to the atmosphere of the ruins. Better still, the tour actually told you exactly where to look to see roman stones on the ruins. There was one with a centurions name on it, and the smashed remains of a statue. There was also a couple of games scratched onto some stones by the servants of the priory. All in all, a very gothic and impressive site. Even if the sheep in the front courtyard seemed a bit out of place. No really, those sheep are everywhere!!!

After a lot of pictures I moved on to the Howard House B&B. A stately farmhouse with a ton of biblical passages on the walls, pictures of angels and such staring down on you, and a herd of sheep in the fields. Sheep… always sheep.

The door to my room is really quite interesting. It’s an old oak farm door with a big clunky key, like the big thick medieval style for the lock that opens with a satisfying ‘thunk’ when you turn the key. Tomorrow will be a challenge. Climbing through the farms beside the Wall to Walton, and it’s supposed to be rainy and windy all day. There’s no bus service to Walton, I have to hoof it. Still, I shouldn’t be too bad if I start out early. I’m just concerned I won’t see Carlisle Castle properly. I saw it from Tullie House. It looks large enough to be worth at least three hours of my time.