Not that I need one but…

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“I’m not even supposed to be here today!” — Dante Hicks, “Clerks”

I really didn’t want to come in to work today. I actually wanted to call in sick, but that would have left poor Gretchen in the dumper for covering for me. Plus, I really missed my co-workers over here. I felt really detached when I came back in.

For those of you keeping score… I’ve been in sort of a work-based limbo for the past 2 months. I’ve been promised promotions and transfers; a couple of departmental level managers have asked me if I’ve been interested in joining their group. My immediate superior’s been really helpful in talking with me about career options with Walmart.com, but nothing’s really materialized except moving from one shift to another, which was awesome, because for the first time in a decade, working grave has been slowly killing me. I must be getting old.

I got back into work today to find out that I’ve been named as a manager for a project that I know really well. I’m hoping my success with this project will give my manager enough of a basis to consider me for movement out of the operations center and into a project management role. All I can say is, “wow.”

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I’ve been reading quite a few livejournals out there where JTAF was concerned. I’ll be the first to admit it wasn’t the best show, but it wasn’t the worst show, either. Slinging mud at the people who gave up a significant portion of their free time to put it together, especially when a majority of those same people also staff the other bay area conventions, is really bad form and gives the ‘offending’ convention a really bad name. If you don’t like the show, don’t go, but don’t bash the same work force you use for choosing to support us. Don’t call them Fanimecon rejects, don’t call them retards, don’t call them worthless. They will find out, and they will react accordingly.

Anyone… anyone who tries to score points with their friends by belittling the tremendous, selfless, and amazing efforts of others, shall sacrifice my respect for them. It’s interesting to see the true colors of those I previously considered friends.

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I’m finally home.

There’s a buffer beyond running a convention that should be observed, though I’ve found in my experiences, that too much of a buffer when you have to run the next year’s convention can destroy it. Following the first year, I took a six month break; I had come on board with JTAF1 six weeks prior and ended up burning myself out so much that I just unplugged from everyone and everything. Also, being laid off from eBay probably had a lot to do with it. I got my layoff notification two days before JTAF1 started, and I didn’t have time to properly be depressed.

JTAF2 was so much better than the first. I have to hand it to the staff, all the way; they put on one hell of a show in spite of the odds and some of the obstacles placed in their way. I especially liked how Logistics kicked some serious ass all weekend long and even into the breakdown period afterward. Those guys went home on Sunday night utterly exhausted, so I hope when we do the party this coming Sunday, they’ll be shown how much we truly appreciated their efforts.

Yes, the dance sucked. That was all my fault; the hotel’s contracts should have been looked at much closer and it was my name on the signature line. Yes, for those who asked, I did tender my resignation. Ray rejected it. Why did I tender? I wince at those who need to ask why. I’m the deputy chief director and I take my responsibilities very seriously. Ray depends on me to run his show and run it without difficulty. The dance’s failure cost serious money, serious enough for me to offer my resignation. It’s called being accountable for making a mistake to the tune of thousands of dollars, then turning around and letting my boss know that I stood ready to be dismissed if he wanted it. If there was any head going to roll, it would be mine. Sure, the hotel really screwed us, but it was my job to prevent that. Ray did not feel that way, obviously, and we discussed the matter amongst ourselves and with the hotel staff to prevent this next year. I’ll be back for next year, no doubt about that. There will be some serious changes in the way we do things, and I’m looking forward to seeing how well those changes work for us.

The bottom line is that I had a lot of fun over the weekend. I got to meet Randy Milholland, for shit’s sake. For those of you who don’t know who he is, please go and check out http://www.somethingpositive.net and read his comic. If you share my sense of humor, you will love it. Randy’s a great person to talk with and he made a lot of friends with the JTAF staff this year. In fact, I interviewed him, Aeire, and Poe for Japan-A-Radio (an interview that will contain massive amounts of censoring), and it was fucking amazing. Speaking of Aeire… wow. I’ve only really known her through her art (which isn’t to say I know her at all or anything) and the limited emails passed in planning her arrival, but meeting and talking with her was pretty damn cool. My only gripe was not being able to spend more time with Randy, Aeire, and Poe over the weekend. I know they had a lot of fun hanging out with each other, and I was so glad they enjoyed visiting San Francisco.

As for Poe… I just really hoped he had a good time with us.

On Tuesday, though, I took Brett Weaver and EK along the Pacific Coast Highway so they could make their flight to San Jose International. Those two are way cool people to talk to, too. Brett’s a direct person and doesn’t mince words, which is really refreshing, and EK is not only a great listener but her demeanor set me at ease whenever I talked with her. I found both of them to be very engaging and I hope they come back soon.

Sami Harte slayed me. SLAYED. She is such a character. I so want her back next year! She and her boyfriend, Dominic, even brought ConOps a bunch of See’s candies (boxed and bars), which was very awesome. The staff loved her to death.
Lindsay Cibos stayed with us through the breakdown. Her flight got delayed/cancelled due to the hurricane, as she lives near Orlando. She’s trying to get a flight out tonight, and I hope she makes it home all right.

I’ll write more when my eyelids stop fighting me on staying open.

Let’s go Geki-JTAF 3!

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