*sweeps the dust*

*cough*

Okay…I’ve been away for way too long.

If you can read this, my computer has been fixed…new processor and it works like new and is faster now. Seriously, LOOK at this thing.

I’m doing good. GNT stuff, writing wise, has been coming along really well. NOW I can start back on drawing GNT stuff again. Been doing some more design work for Absence of Ink.

The Red Wings are testing the limits of my patience.

Tigers came so close but fell short…but if they get rid of some dead weight (I’m looking at  a bunch of people but mostly at you, Brandon Inge), they could very well take it next year.

My brother came to visit, but that will have to be a separate post.

It’s coming up on winter time…which means hoodie weather again.

I had a birthday (will have to be a separate post)

Star Wars: The Old Republic launches on December, 20th. I’m officially stoked.

And…that’s it for now. Will post more later.

That being said…

A lot of bloggers have posted a recap of 2010, what they liked, what they hated, what movies/songs were the best, etc. I’d rather not to do that, I’d rather look forward, so I’m posting a summary of 2010 for me and my plans for 2011.

2010 in a nutshell:

Have now officially spent one year in Michigan.

Have now officially spent one year co-habitating with Aimee.

Found new music to geek out over.

Have cooked many an epic meal.

Meant one of my BFFs in person.

Came up with a dish known as epic noodles.

Got even better at photoshop than I was previously.

Quit WoW.

Heard about Star Wars: The Old Republic and am now eagerly awaiting it’s release.

Found out that Aimee and I, along with Aimee’s mother, Aimee’s sister and her family, are going on a cruise in 2011, and squee’d with the girlfriend about that for almost a whole month.

Finally read a John Green book. If you haven’t read Looking for Alaska, DO IT!

Came up with a concept for a webcomic.

Am developing said webcomic.

Played some games.

Got Aimee into Katherine Hepburn, and more British Comedy.

Watched an epic hockey game between the womens’ Team Canada and Team USA. Came out of it amazed and with a new girl crush. Somebody in the NHL (except the Pittsburgh Penguins. Ew.) needs to sign Shannon Szabados as their goalie.

In retrospect, 2010 was a good year overall. I’m hoping to keep the good vibes I got from it going into 2011, like my artistic inspiration, and do even more good things with it.

So in 2011, instead of resolutions I most likely won’t keep (because 98.9% of people never keep their resolutions), I’m making actual, tangible goals for myself. I’m going to be better at posting here instead of posting on Facebook. I’m going to continue to develop my webcomic. I’m hoping to unveil it sometime in 2011, but I don’t really know when exactly. I’ll say tentatively 2011 and keep developing it. Keep watching this space, I’ll be posting updates about it as I go.

So long 2010, you made up for the utter suck that was most of ’09.

Hello 2011, let’s make some dreams come true.

At the moment, I’m on an insanity inducing quest.

I’ve taken it upon myself to get better at doing computer art, for a variety of reasons that I can’t get into with one post…and there are times when I can almost feel my brain begin to break.

When I first tried my hand at using my computer to draw, it took me a good couple of months before I was finally able to create things that didn’t utterly suck. (Bear in mind, I’m a perfectionist when it comes to creating.)

These days, I feel confident to move beyond what I’ve done so far. I think I’ve outgrown Photoshop 6 and am ready to play with the big toys.

However, recently I downloaded Inkscape to try. I own Adobe Illustrator 10 but I can’t get it to work with Windows 7, and the latest version of Illustrator is…exorbitant to say the least. I’d heard about Inkscape, read reviews…allegedly it’s “intuitive and easy to figure out”. So I was sold…

/headdesk

3 days since then and figuring out how to make things eludes me. Is it just vector art that does this to my brain? I remember having a hard time learning how to use AI10, and didn’t use it that much because at the time I felt I needed to learn photoshop first and it would somehow make AI easier to use.

Is it me? Am I being stupid?? Or is it that Inkscape isn’t as “awesome” as it’s been made out to be?

Last Sunday night, we were doing a Gap at one the malls here. Gap is usually a royal pain in the ass because the people that are employed there, particularly at this store are jerks. They think of themselves as elite, especially the ones who are higher up on the food chain. I’m not sure if it’s company policy or what but these people go into an absolute frenzy over the status of the clothes…most especially the folded stuff. You know, all those tables with 5,000 folded shirts that would only fit Barbie or Paris Hilton if she didn’t eat for a year (but then she probably never eats anyway…) and matching shorts/pants/etc. They get this way about the jeans as well, so much to the point where if you have to count the jeans, they give you an annoying 18 year old babysitter who blows bubblegum while talking and says things like, ” ‘k!”, “…like, is this going to take forEVER?” “Do you guys, like, do this for a living?” (No dipshit, this is a hobby. We like staying out LATE and putting up with morons like you, counting shitty clothing for free!). The babysitter is absolutely useless when you have to get a SKU check on whatever you’re counting as well. Every time I’ve ever had a babysitter and I have a problem, the following exchange always occurs:

(Me, back sore, feet aching, scanning tags…all of a sudden, the machine either does not scan the tag or it makes a rude noise…)

Me: It’s not taking the SKU.

Babysitter: *pops a bubble with his/her gum* Huh?

Me: It did not take the SKU.

Babysitter: The what?

Me: The SKU…you know, the barcode on the tag.

Babysitter: Oh, that thing! Why not?

Me: *trying to keep from rolling my eyes* I don’t know why…perhaps it’s invalid?

Babysitter: Inwhat??

Me: *trying to decide whether to hit my head or the babysitter’s against the wall* Invalid…i-n-v-a-l-i-d…means it’s wrong.

Babysitter: Why would it be wrong?

Me: *trying to decide whether it would be worth it to whap the babysitter upside the head with my machine* I don’t know why…perhaps you should go look it up.

Babysitter: Oh…okay…um…*babysitter proceeds to wander off with a hazy, lost look on his/her face*

Me: *standing by the wall of jeans, staring at the ceiling, asking myself is it really worth all this*

(Generally around the time, I’m usually spotted by a crew manager and asked why am I not doing anything, to which I reply I’m waiting on a SKU check…the manager then wanders off with a similar look the babysitter had)

Babysitter: *returns eventually, usually after 10-15 minutes after the whole SKU invalid debacle* Okay…um… Okay…they said to read the UPC code and size code off to you and if that doesn’t work…they’ll look it up. *smiles*

Me: *attempting to be civil* Fine…read it off to me.

Babysitter: *reads numbers off at lightening speed, impossible to decipher what was said*

Me: …could you repeat that a little slower, please?

Babysitter: *reads it off again, same speed as previously*

Me: *royally pissed at this point* Give me the tag…*trying not to go into a killing frenzy but finding it difficult at best*

Babysitter: *sees look on my face, hands me the tag*

Me: *types code in, hands tag back to babysitter, scanning resumes once more…*

Luckily, the last two Gaps I’ve done, I haven’t had to do the jean wall. Since the last time I did, I learned how to find the UPC and size codes for myself so I no longer have to ask for a SKU check.

However…the tables with the ungodly amount of folded t-shirts…I’m cursed with. As I said, they get rather pissy about these too, because they expect you to follow a procedure. This procedure involved taking a stack of folded shirts, turning the stack upside down, gently and carefully taking one shirt off the stack, flipping it over, putting back on the table (or shelf, or folding table if they’re feeling generous and allowing you to use one), scanning it, then repeating all the steps til you’re down with the stack. And there could be as little as 4 stacks of folded clothes in your section to as many 50 or more and you’re expected to do this with every single one.

They also tell you that all the tags are pulled out so you won’t have to go digging for it, thus ruining the ever so perfect fold that they put so much time and effort in. If this was true, it would a huge time saver for us, but alas, they lie. Every single time we go there, they tells us this and it’s never true. Even when we are absolutely careful and put things back as meticulously as we found them…they go back, and re-fold and re-stack everything we do! So why get all bent out of shape about how we do things because they’re just going to go back and fix it anyway, regardless of whether we were neat or not? Last I knew, they were getting paid to fold clothes.

However…during this particular inventory…I witnessed something brand-new.

To explain, there is a woman that works with us, has been with us for over a year now and her name is Melody. Melody is…shall I say “special”? By her own admission, she is bi-polar (don’t have a problem with people who are bi-polar, one of my best friends in high school was diagnosed as such…couldn’t care less) and is on medication for it. Regardless, I firmly believe that having that disorder is not the only thing wrong with her. She talks incessantly, to everyone…sometimes no one at all. Every time we go on a van trip, she either sings along with the radio or along to whatever she’s listening to on her walkman. This wouldn’t be so bad if she could actually sing or come close to something remotely sounding like singing. But alas, she couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket even if instructions were printed on the bucket.

And that’s not all! She claims to be 33, looks more like 48-50ish, is missing a very noticeable amount of teeth, on a good day, smells like a cigar factory. On most days, especially if we’re working back to back days, she smells like a cigar factory built next door to a men’s lockeroom. She’s also one of the slowest people we have, despite her constant bragging that she’s improving. This and the fact that she’s stupid as hell frustrates all of us (well, those of us of who are relatively sane) to no end.

Some time during the fall of last year, she met some guy and a week into dating him, announced at work one day that they were engaged. Also that she wasn’t making the same mistake as she did before (apparently she’d been married before) and was waiting til they were married to sleep with him. Also…she told ALL of us this AT work. Repeatedly.

From then til around the end of October/beginning of November, all we heard about was her fiance and everything they did together, from the most minute details of their dates…to what they were planning on doing once they were married. At work, during break, to/from work…it got beyond annoying.

She got married on New Year’s Eve…now all we hear about is how wonderful her husband is, their life at home (certain details I could have lived my whole life without knowing), etc. Now we come to Sunday night…

Apparently, her and her oh so wonderful husband have decided recently to have children (the world is doomed if this happens). Also, in her words, “…been tryin’ for the past 3 days…night after night. If we do it tonight and get it done right, that outta make it happen.” Not only did I hear her say this…but so did everyone else. All of my fellow bean counters and a few Gap employees as well. She also kept going on and on about having to leave at 9pm so that she could go home and get pregnant, claiming that she had told the crew manager this 8 days prior.

So 9 o’clock comes and she goes into a frenzy of ‘I gotta leave now! I gotta leave now! I gotta go home and get pregnant!”

The kicker…they LET her go!

So yeah, they’re all insane. I’ll be so glad when I leave them for good.

And yes, I will be posting more often.

Oh and please kick Katy Perry’s butt if you see her for me please.

Today, I’m gonna complain because I feel like it.

Now I’m no stranger to change, I’m no stranger to the internet, however…

It irks me to no end when a favorite, nay BELOVED website I frequent *cough* “updates” the site. Now, I’m not bagging on changing any website layout. I’m not complaining against change, per se, either. I’m complaining against BAD changes, where you’re spending more time trying to figure out how to navigate than you are reading or playing things of an awesome nature.

You’d think people would test these things out before making the change…making sure links lead to where they say they lead to, site blogs are easy to find (and easy to read, hello bad coding run-on paragraph from hell!), etc. But no…people go “Wow, that looks cool, let’s change the whole she-bang to look like that right now! Coding? Schmoding, make it work!!”

However, during this period I tend to shy away from the now tainted favorite sites and go looking for ones that are less likely to make my eyes bleed. I also usually wind up finding a few, adding to my ever extending bookmark folder…until one of two wind up doing…an “update”… *cue spooky music”

That being said…I need to change this blog. I’ve grown tired of the background and the header that wasn’t made by me. I keep looking at Tumblr but I don’t know anyone personally who has a Tumblr blog, so I have no way of getting a relatively objective opinion as to whether a move to Tumblr would be worth it. So in the meantime, I’ll have to peruse what layouts are available here at WordPress. Also, I promise to make sure my own site “update” doesn’t suck.

/thumbs up

I apologize for this and shall strive to be better at posting instead of turning to Facebook so much for posting snippets of what’s on my mind. In my defense, at least I can say I’m not an utter Twit like…all of Hollywood lately. *shudder*

So…let’s see…

1) Aimee and I moved. We now have our own digs, complete with gamer cave 2.0, big-ish kitchen, and sadly one bathroom. Luckily we don’t share a bladder so waiting to use said bathroom doesn’t happen very often.

2) Our west coast BFF came for a visit last week and we all had a blast. Oh and Lake Michigan now has official West Coast Approval to be classified as an inland ocean.

3) I came up with an asian dish that had both girlfriend and visiting BFF going ga-ga.

4) I’ve been making myself learn stuff about Photoshop. Not that learning how to use the software itself is a chore, or that I don’t like it…I love it, actually. However, I’m trying to do stuff at least daily that teaches me how to do things, or at least start things and finish them later (some projects are HUGE in file size). What I intend to do with what I’ve learned…I dunno. Well actually, I’m hoping this leads to working in a field where I can use what I’m learning…also hoping to do my own freakin’ webcomic with said knowledge as well instead of bugging people about talking about making my own like I have been entirely too long.