Draginon

I GOT THE CALL!!!! I have to be at Universal on Monday to do the fingerprint and I9 appointments before going to day 1 orientation on the following Wednesday. It’s only part time work but I don’t care about, I’ll come in whenever they are short staffed, even if it’s my day off. Its going to be nice to be working of my own volition and for someplace I like.

Definitely one of the hardest books I had to read. I’ve read King novels so I’m no stranger to hard books but this book got to me. The only other one I would even consider hard to get through was WOK when it focused on the torturous bridge runs Kaladin went through but when it was the sections switching between Kaladin and Dalinar’s stories it made it worse but when it was Kaladin and Shallan it felt more bearable but even then it’s a stretch calling it hard to read. By the end I felt like this book wasn’t Venli’s story but actually Navani’s which I loved since Navani is definitely a queen and one of my favorites. The epilogue with Hoid is a little terrifying when you consider Odium interfering with Endowment’s investiture like that. I really hope he realizes his Breaths are smaller during Stormlight 5 otherwise he’s not as clever as he makes himself out to be.

I finally finished reading Rhythm of War. I had a bit of a hard time with this book because of having depression around the time the book released and reading Kaladin’s sections really didn’t help matters. Even after I got through my depression episode reading the beginning of the book still wasn’t easy because of Kaladin’s depression and the war stuff so I had to put the book down at several points because it was too much for me. The only parts that didn’t turn me off were Navani and the Honorspren expedition stories. I eventually came to like what happened to Kaladin in the end but storms was it a grind to get there. I did try to keep myself blind the whole time I was reading this book to avoid the whole Odium twist, Sibling bonding and other endgame stuff being spoiled for me. Now I’m very curious to see how Stormlight 5 will resolve everything in 10 days, assuming there isn’t a small time jump of a couple days. That book can’t be written faster Sanderbot 9000? No book currently planned as my next read right now since I’m in a moving process and have all my books packed away, was waiting to finish this before putting the final book box away, so it might be a while before I read something for now.

Thank you! I’m waiting on that call right now saying to come in and the house is about 90% packed when not counting the furniture. It’s not a job I want to do forever, my parents think I’m doing it to have as my forever job, but it’s going to be my day job until I can get my YouTube channel off the ground and make a living with it. I mostly want to do reviews on this channel but I’m open to doing other stuff when I’m in a lull or something is taking longer than normal.

Almost completely packed. All that remains are my games, should be one box on that, plus furniture and clothes. Also sent in my resignation letter yesterday with Friday being my last day. If things go well and I get the job in Florida then I just need to finalize getting a place and I should be able to get working either by the end of the month or next month.

Packing the books now. Got the leatherbound ones in a couple tubs and sorted out the give away books from the keep books. Going to try keeping my TBR books separate from the keepers. My mother couldn’t believe how many I’m keeping which shows she’s not a reader at all. Still got some in storage I need to look at but since the majority are from my childhood there most likely won’t be many keepers. One thing I know is stored away I am keeping are my grandma’s Little House books since it’s a sentimental thing for me.

Slowly getting packed up to be ready to move to Orlando. So far I’ve got about 90-95% of my knick knack stuff packed with the stuff still to go being what little kitchen stuff I have (got a bit as Christmas presents like knives and Pyrex containers), my books, my movies, my gaming stuff (I’m including puzzles and Lego here) and finally furniture and clothes. The books I have a plan of attack where I want to keep certain ones together, like my leatherbound books together, and have my TBR books separated from my already read books. Movies I want to keep a little organized, like my Disney films together, so I’m not having to reorganize when unpacking. Going to be interesting how long this’ll actually take and how many boxes and tubs I’ll have in the end. The one thing I’m trying to figure out how to pack carefully are my built Lego sets since a few are big sets that would take a while to undo and then rebuild.

I was helping my mother take the decorations off the year round Christmas trees we have and on the first one she had me bring the small table we had the tree on over to where we were undoing the trees and as she sets the tree on the table she bonks her head on the tree but decided to claim I set the table on her toe. Instead of being the bigger person and realizing her mistake she wanted me to once again give her a no hearted apology that I’m storming tired of giving so she turned the lights off and started watching tv while I took all the decorations off, packed the ones to keep and undid another tree all in the dark. She refused to even help sort through the decorations and see what she wanted to keep and help pack until I give her that no hearted apology which I won’t do. The craziest thing about apologies with her is when I give a genuine, heart felt apology she doesn’t accept but when I give half hearted and no hearted she does and wonders why I ‘never’ apologize for anything. When you only want crem apologies why should I oblige at that point?

Getting close to finalizing my move. Went apartment hunting while on vacation last week and found a couple potential ones. However I’m debating whether to go the ‘temporary apartment then get a forever home’ route or go straight to ‘get a forever home’ route because of apartments in Orlando averaging $1600 a month while a home mortgage wouldn’t be that much more, especially a townhouse in the 400,000 range. I also will have to finalize the job side as well since it won’t be worth moving if I’m not able to pay the bills.

Went on a cruise and didn’t want to haul ROW so I brought a couple smaller books to read. Finished Cold Hearted and it was an interesting look at Lady Tremaine, Cinderella’s stepmother, and what would drive a woman to become a wicked stepmother. It did introduce some timeline issues with previous books since the Beast’s book mentioned Cinderella marrying the prince as a recent event before the curse happened but here his story is done by the time Tremaine marries Cinderella’s father. The other book I started was Fool Moon but I didn’t finish that. I’ll get back to it after finishing ROW which I’m almost done with. This is taking longer than normal for me but it mostly had to do with the Kaladin chapters being very depressing to read and me having gone through that stuff at the same time. Also the war stuff was a pain to read.

I’ll be so glad to leave this place in January. I only have two weeks left after this week ends but technically it’s two months because of how vacation time worked out. Anyway what’s got me bothered now is this free crem pilot program these two storming people ordered and have no idea what they ordered and didn’t bother telling us how much is coming. We’re on the third or fourth shipment of this stuff and the company making this has no idea how to pack stuff up. A pallet could have 30 boxes but when it’s all unloaded it could’ve been 5-10 boxes instead. What they do is put five pamphlet booklets in a box that could fit 10 college textbooks snuggly and fill the rest with brown packing paper. So much is sent that it fills up the dumpster we have, which is a problem when it’s filled on Monday but trash isn’t picked up until Thursday. In other news getting ready for vacation and my mother hasn’t even started packing yet. I’ve got about half the clothes I’m going to wear picked out but she hasn’t even started picking her clothes. She claimed to want to do that the weekend before so she wasn’t up til 3/4AM the night before like last time but instead of doing any packing she instead decided it was very important I get sandals from Skechers. I don’t even wear that brand because I don’t find it very comfortable and the sizes run small but because she loves that brand she’s determined to have me get stuff from there as well. I just know she’ll wait until the night before again because last night she just sat and watched her shows instead of getting something picked out.

Vacation coming up next month and things are getting weird. We had booked activities on our cruise and now they’re canceling some for some reason. A couple are drink seminars and one was restaurant related but they’ve got the restaurant and bar crew so it can’t be a staffing issue and it can’t be a capacity issue since they only cancel if there’s too few but that only happens once you’re on board. Going to call tomorrow to see what the deal is since this was stuff we booked only because we had $4000 worth of credit and this is going to make it harder to use all that credit by the end.

Got the final 3 MCU films I hadn’t seen yet (Black Panther, Antman 2 and Captain Marvel) so now I can be fully caught up with the Infinity Saga. Now I need to figure out how to catch up with Phase 4 without getting Disney+.

Got an exciting callback. Universal Studios Orlando called and almost hired me. If I was already over in Orlando I probably would’ve gotten it and their quarterly hiring didn’t work for my ETA for moving, the earliest I could arrive and move in would be over the holidays through the new year which is past their current hiring period of Halloween thru Christmas. Even my mother is now trying to help me with apartment hunting which could happen while on vacation, since we’ll be in the area, but I’m currently checking apartments.com to get ideas for single and roommate configurations, one coworker friend of my mother is thinking of telling her son about the job to see if he wants to go and room with me there. I’m not into rooming with someone but I’ll grin and bear it if I have to.

I had one prospective job search that looked like it would go through and it didn’t. I went during a job fair and was the only person who showed up in job interview clothes. Got called in for a follow up and they were very impressed with me during the interview and praised me for figuring out the coinage in the cashier ‘math’ test which meant I was a shoe in for the job. Then I got a generic rejection email a couple days later. You know that generic one where they just can’t think of any reason not to hire you? That’s the one I got. This was the only one I got where I actually got to go in person, everything else has been either email, their career website system or phone interview. It’s kind of annoying getting all these rejections but every time I go to a store just as a customer hearing employees complaining about there not being enough people hired or they’re desperate for new hires or a few people quit that week putting more strain on them.

Got some bootleg DVDs at the FanExpo convention. I don’t normally support bootlegs but in this case I had no choice. It was for 5 seasons of Super Sentai and it was seasons that don’t have official copies thanks to Hasbro saying no more releases until further notice. I know these are going to look like crem, especially the one that says it’s 2 discs with 50 episodes + movie, but it’s better than nothing. If official releases restart I know I’ll definitely upgrade.

Got 4 new books for my TBR pile. Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik. This sounded interesting since it sounds like an evil witch/Queen origin type story. The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski I Am a Cat by Sōseki Natsume. Funnily I was looking for a different book, 101 Dalmatians, and found this one. I knew of it thanks to the game The Great Ace Attorney since Sōseki was one of the recurring characters in the game so I was curious. Funny how I went looking for a dog book and came away with a cat book.

In other news my dad is a moron. He’s only letting the people at his job that we have a cruise in November. He’s had since January to tell them that we’ve got one and he keeps putting it off. His excuse? “What if they cancel it because of COVID spikes?” Now he’s going to have to figure out if they’ll assign him to be in the Orlando area so we can pick him up otherwise it’s going to be $314 to fly him round trip from O’Hare to Orlando. The final option is them not allowing this this ‘last minute’ vacation be approved meaning we’ll have to cancel his fare. My question now is when the bloody storms was he planning on telling them? He’s had the whole year to tell them and now they’ll be wondering what kind of flake he is for ghosting them on this endeavor.

I’m not wording it that way when they ask for the reason you want to leave. I’m wording it simply as ‘Looking for better opportunities’ since that is a very neutral way to say it without getting into the topic of the place I’m trying to leave being toxic and practically a cult. Most places just have HR contact you and I’ve only had one phone call and didn’t get a follow up to schedule an interview. I also can’t do it through email since individual stores don’t tend to have an email and only list a corporate/head office email. I’m just doing the strategy right now of applying for all positions within an hour’s drive from me just on the off chance they want me.

That is kind of my problem, most job positions require work experience in the field you’re seeking, anywhere from 1-5 years, so I’m having to do the entry level jobs just to get the experience but I keep getting rejected, one rejected me in less than 24 hours with no explanation, or they are stuck in received limbo. I also have the problem of having the skills necessary for the job because of my current job, the problem being it wasn’t in the field I’m trying to move to and the only skills I need are being able to use a register and dealing with customers. The part I’m worried is ‘wrong’ is the demographics. In the US so many companies prefer diversity at the expense of finding a good candidate, IE getting someone who is toxic or lazy just because they happen to be POC or disabled, to the point that they reject you because you’re too white, too male and not disabled enough to look diverse. It’s technically discrimination but it’s extremely hard to prove they rejected based on your demo. One thing I’ve read that makes it hard to switch jobs is when you go from admin to working class. I’m in a grey area where that is concerned since my current job is at the admin office but it’s not an admin job and I’m trying to get into bookseller retail because my current job isn’t something I’ve ever been comfortable doing and the pace kills me so I’m trying for something I like and feel comfortable being at.

Feeling really discouraged job hunting. I’ve been applying since May and I either get rejected or get no contact at all. I’ve only had the one call back a month ago and no follow up to set an interview date at all. It’s really getting me to the point that I’m trying to figure out what I’m doing wrong and why no one wants to hire me even though I meet their qualifications and for ones that require experience I apply for the entry level and still getting rejected. I’m at the point where it might be better to look for jobs in other states and move. I’m even thinking of the Provo area if Dragonsteel is hiring.

Power washed part of the driveway on Saturday and now I’m sunburned on the back of my neck, upper back and calves with a little on my forearms and feet. The sun wasn’t out much but it was enough. The burns on my legs were bad enough it stung badly when I had any pant leg on so I tried rolling up my pjs but it got annoying being all bunched up so I ended up just lounging in underwear since I had nothing else short to wear as loungewear.

I finished the bonus case in Ace Attorney Spirit of Justice late last night. It was interesting and the point of the case was people being stuck in the past and being unable to move forward, one being stuck because he has short term memory loss meaning he can’t remember anything after the fateful day and another being unable to move on because of a grudge stemming from the same event. It’s also a meta commentary on fans wanting their beloved franchises to stay the same and not evolve at all since in this series fans didn’t like the changes made in the fourth game but can apply to any fandom like Star Wars. Though an interesting case it was bogged down being a fan service story where everyone acts like they did in the original trilogy of games. Even the main character, Phoenix, is a jerk to his employee Athena because she promised to help his daughter in her magic act but doesn’t care that Athena is saying “your daughter is trying to kill me with knives and fire!” especially at the one point where the daughter says “pour this gasoline on yourself and I’ll set you on fire, but it’s okay it’s a magic trick so you won’t burn” and it didn’t phase him enough to interject. This is jarring since one case prior to this he mentioned having to reign her in since he has noticed how her tricks have started becoming dangerous. Oh well I’m done and have moved on to The Great Ace Attorney which takes place during Meiji Japan/Victorian England and follows Ryunosuke Naruhodo as he starts his lawyer career and meets up with the legendary... Herlock Sholmes!? Yes copyright has struck since those stories aren’t going to be 100% public domain until 2023 and because there are references to the ones still under copyright they have to go neutral on the character.

Not quite bad but I’m getting worried a bit about my job hunting. I’ve only gotten one call back, Barnes & Noble in Arlington, about 3 weeks back and haven’t heard back regarding coming in for an interview. Everything else is in the ‘we got it but haven’t reviewed it yet’ stage. I really want to have a safe and transferable job so that when I move I can look for a location near where I want to live. In regards to this my mother keeps bugging me to do ones I’m either not interested in or not comfortable doing. Ones she keeps suggesting are warehouse jobs, school related and even Walmart. She even ‘suggested’ today that if I do get something that I should enroll in some online classes, something involving computers and coding which isn’t my thing at all, to get a BA but I’m just not interested in getting a bachelors degree nor do I want to waste 4 years of my life or get myself into student debt just to get a slightly better paycheck. There was even one suggestion she gave me a couple weeks back that just sounded like pure torture: work at a school Monday through Friday and do Barnes & Noble on the weekends. I can’t do a 7 day work week without breaks! 5 days is too much for me so a 4/3 split is much better than the 5/2 split in the long run unless the job is enjoyable enough to do a 5/2 split.

More an “are fracking kidding me!!” than anything. At my crem job for the upcoming week they are requiring everyone to wear certain colors for ‘solidarity’. The first one, pink, doesn’t apply to me but the one I have to go to requires yellow. Not just yellow but a collared yellow shirt. I don’t own yellow anything unless it’s part of a picture, graphic, design or pattern on the shirt because I don’t like yellow. I don’t mind yellow but I don’t like wearing it at all. Same goes for red. I only needed it for one hour so I wasn’t going to spend a lot on a throwaway shirt. I spent the better part of my day looking for a damnation cheap yellow shirt with a collar and everyone was selling them for $40,$50,$60 but had regular yellow shirts for $5-$10. I was getting so frustrated I was at the point of wanting to do malicious compliance by getting a horrid mustard yellow shirt for $32 but I tried JC Penny’s last and they had a pastel yellow collared shirt for $10 and finally got that done. Seriously, why do businesses where it doesn’t matter what you wear for your job try to put its employees in unsuitable outfits? My current line of work involves doing dirty things so jeans and a nothing shirt would do but no I have to wear business clothing, slacks and collared shirts, because the superintendent and her husband are so controlling and don’t want anyone to appear ‘lazy’ or ‘sloven’ looking if a parent happens to be near and I’m rarely in contact with areas where parents and when I am it’s in out of the way areas or after the schools are out but heaven forbid I cross paths with a parent in the parking lot wearing jeans and a tee.