my terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week

song+ Me Against the Music (feat. Madonna)- Britney Spears- In the Zone
book+ Wonder Woman: the Hiketeia
scent+ err. nothing really
quest+ getting through FF12 this weekend with 100% completion (if i can)
upper+it's the weekend and i have new clothes
downer+ i have no money due to having new clothes
attire+ pinstriped pajama pimpness xD
drink+ nothing at the moment.. likely milk later xD

so i got through the really tough week of being in charge. i even got commended for getting everything done and not screwing up. i apparently managed to keep up to a degree that no assistant ever has before, that's great! i was sick all this last week though. that's not so great.

the last week of every month is generally the heaviest workload. it's the week we get in a normal-to-large load of comics, plus previews. previews is a catalog that lists everything our distributor offers that will ship in approximately two months time. it's what we order from, and many of our customers get previews so they don't miss the next must-have item. previews week usually doubles the volume of any other week. that's referring to tuesday's workload. wednesday and thursday are a different workload, but it's also usually larger during previews week, because 9 times out of 10, previews week is the same week as international week. most weeks we ship out a few hundred post subscriptions, maybe 50 go via ups, and 10-20 get sent to the stores (via another one of my many duties). international week there's slightly less post, maybe only 120, and about 30 ups, the same volume of store pickups, and all of our international customers. 50-100 people who have huge orders because they only go out once a month so they don't have to sell their children to pay for weekly shipping.. our mail order subscriptions generally cover everything you read that we've gotten in since your last shipment, so sometimes they get huge.

the week i was in charge, i'd made a point to be a little bratty and pooint out i would totally hold a grudge if anyone was out sick.. then i got sick as soon as i wasn't in charge anymore. X.x seriously, i hadn't thrown up since sophomore year of high school, but last week i did three times, the first being midday sunday. i had to go in monday to talk to jacinda and go over what i'd gotten done while she was out. it's never okay to miss tuesday of a previews week, do that and you face a lynching, so i was there, discreetly yakking in the bathroom. wednesday i felt guilty, but hardly made it to the bathroom in the morning, so i called in. thursday i was back at work, because hey, i hadn't thrown up, so even if i didn't feel better, i must be! and friday i was there again, because friday i get paid and i needed new pants. X.x

i'm feeling a smidgen better though today. except that my ipod is still dead. it started glitching wednesday of me-being-in-charge week, and i tried every way to fix it listed on apple's website, so at this point i think i have to take/send it in for service.. or replacement.

i've been feeling the urge to colour something lately, so i digitally coloured a drawing of nico from the runaways done by the future artist of the book, Humberto Ramos. it took a while.. i forgot how much re-doing it takes for me to digitally colour anything xD next time i'll likely print something out and go at it with my markers and coloured pencils. i'm 95% sure that if you click on the image you can see it full-size, but if i'm wrong.. *shrug*

i went with a red riding hood theme because in the book, the kids have run from their super villain parents and discovered that half of them have superpowers, and they're choosing code names and nico decides to use her AIM handle, Sister Grimm xD as in grimm's fairy tales, so seeing a sketch of her in a hooded cape, i just had to go there. the other code names ended up equally lame, and they only used them for a few issues. like karolina (who it turns out is a living star) decides she'll be 'lucy in the sky' xD and molly wants to be 'princess powerful' but is instead nicknames 'bruiser' she still tries to get other people to call her princess powerful from time to time though xD

you can kinda tell where i got tired and stopped being quite so picky.. i'm really proud of how her face came out though. i spent seriously half an hour on her lips and eyes, and you can hardly see them. xD her hair came out pretty decently too. as an afterthought 'm not so sure about the pink and purple dress, but what's done is done, so i guess it's fine xD here's the original for comparison. colouring over solid blacks without losing it entirely is hard too. X.x i'm definitely thinking next time i go old school and print it out xD

my accent

song+ Overture (and All That Jazz)- Chicago
book+ the strategy guides on my shelf
scent+ chocolate
quest+ finishing some of my abandoned video games
upper+the week is half over!
downer+ the week is half over..
attire+ pajama bottoms and a white tank
drink+ milk

bonnie did this, so i figured i would too. i love taking quizzes like this. xD clicking it won't take you anywhere, as it's a screencap of the results. the bars disappeared when i posted the code it gave me. *shrug*



otherwise, today was long. i went in at 7 and things got mostly done. we'll finish up pretty easily tomorrow, so that's good.. we're not behind or anything. i think i'm gonna go pass out for about 12 hours. love ya'll!

the terrifying reign of the Dictator for a Week

song+ When It Rains- Paramore- Riot
book+ so many.. Birds of Prey was especially good this week though
scent+ tired. tired is totally a scent
quest+ not overdrawing this week. whoo!
upper+i'm home!
downer+ i have to go to work at 7 tomorrow
attire+ pajama bottoms and a white tank
drink+ milk

mom did this scattergories thing. i thought it looked like fun, so here's mine. i couldn't answer everything, but i followed the rules. go me!

SCATTERGORIES ... and it’s harder than it looks! Here are the rules:

* Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the questions.
* They MUST be real places, names, things ... NOTHING made up!
* If you can’t think of anything, skip it.
* You CAN’T use your name for the boy/girl name question.
* If your name happens to start with the same letter as mine, sorry, but you can’t use my answers!

My name: faythe

1. Famous Singer/Band: flyleaf
2. Four letter word: ..four xD
3. Street: ?
4. Color: fuschia
5. Gifts/Presents: flowers
6. Vehicle: ferrari
7. Things in a Souvenir Shop: frames (like for photos)
8. Boy Name: frank
9. Girl Name: fiona
10. Movie Title: ferris bueller's day off
11. Drink: fruit punch
12. Occupation: firefighter
13. Celebrity: faith hill is all i can think of
14. Magazine: ?
15. U.S. City: fredericksburg
16. Pro Sports Teams: falcons
17. Fruit: fig
18. Reason for Being Late for Work: fight
19. Something You Throw Away: freezer burnt food
20. Things You Shout: falling! falling! (i have no balance to speak of)
21. Cartoon Character: foghorn leghorn

other than that, jacinda's off this week to spend spring break with her kids, rude on her. xD anyway, today was day two of my oppressive regime. mwahahahaha! it went relatively well, it was a smallish week, but due to poor timing on a few things, we didn't wrap up until 7.. and i still didn't get through all the tuesday things. that means i get to go in two hours early tomorrow, so i'll be ready when everyone else comes in one hour early. X.x seriously though, if mike tries anything this week, ya'll night just see me on the news: "comic shop massacre! several gravely injured in violent meltdown by manager-for-a-week faythe".

it likely won't be that bad, but i'm still not really looking forward to it. if i don't turn up on the news, congratulate me. xD and on an unrelated note, i heard on the traffic report around 5 that a church was hit by lightning. at the same time seriously everyone in my department said "does anyone else find that funny?" xD we are all horrible people. tiff and i started going *smite! smite!* at each other too.

worst.. nap.. ever..

song+ Roll With It- Oasis- (What's the Story) Morning Glory?
book+ imaginary ones! ugh
scent+ my olfactory senses quit on me
quest+ venting about the worst nap ever
upper+i am no longer stuck in that endless hell of a dream. loud tv to the rescue!
downer+ i can still recall every boring moment of it
attire+ pajamas. anyone surprised?
drink+ milk

so i've been feeling a little sick, and therefore tired, for a few days now. i got home from work and took a nap for a few hours. maybe four. it was the least restful nap ever. time passed in my dream like it did in real life, and i dreamt i was trying to reconcile our inventory with what we needed.. for four hours. i was stuck on about three items in the letter 'w' that would just not even out and i kept forgetting what i'd done. the ridiculous thing is, in my dream the inventory system was entirely different from the one we use! and the items? they totally don't really exist! trust me, they probably never will.

having this horrendously un-restful nap has totally reaffirmed my assertion that i need a vacation. time in which no one is depending on me and i don't have to touch a comic if i don't want to. no crisis to worry over or try to avert. like today? 357 short on Mighty Avengers, but it's okay! we got 351 extra Nova! 30-something of which were damaged and un-sellable! but that's totally fine.. being 21 short on Countdown to Mystery is also fine.. our distributor is too retarded to send the right stuff half the time, and sometimes we get things meant for comic shops in houston, or mexico (that happened today too!)

the sad thing is, even with all that crap today, my department kicked butt and we were done by 4:30. did anyone notice and say "good job, ya'll you rock, and hey Faythe even came in sick! go her!" no. they sure didn't. we got the same crap we always get. "man, sub never does anything" "gee, if ya'll were done by 4:30 today, why does it sometimes take you until 7? you should really step it up" "why do you all come in at 8 on wednesday and go home at 5? couldn't you just work from 9 to 6 like everyone else?" aaaaah! *pencil through the eye of the next offensive person* i'll tell you, you nosy pretentious jerkface if you can pull your head out of your butt long enough to listen to me! we do work! not the same things you do, but that's because we're not the same department, no matter what you think. we were done early today in spite of the egregious errors because we were fortunate enough to have a small volume this week comics-wise. on a week with twice as much volume, it's gonna take longer to get done! and we have to stay until it's finished, unlike you who can go home at 6 and pick it up again the next day. we come in early on wednesday because our setup process takes considerably longer than yours, but we still have to get our post done by four and our ups by five. and again, we don't have the luxury of saying "ah, one more day won't kill them" and finishing the next day.

this is directed not at any of you, but at a particular annoyance at work: having worked in your cesspool of a department, i can honestly tell you. i work hard. harder here in sub than i ever did in the mailroom, because more is expected of me here, and i respect my boss. i don't respect you because you mock and belittle and put others down constantly to make yourself feel better. it never occurred to you that maybe that's why you can't hold on to an employee? you're no better than a bully and those you keep around you are only there because they've looked for better and can't find it with their experience or attitude, or in a few cases, i'd even venture to say appearance. the only real exception would be james, who has really only lasted because he's such a strong person, and he's dealt with worse. do you honestly think that what you do is right? no one deserves to be treated like you treat people. and in case you didn't know, everyone knows you talk about them behind their back. or loudly when they're in the room to undermine their authority. everyone also knows you do it because you're insecure and want to make yourself look better. it doesn't work. you've hit the bottom. good luck ever finding genuine respect, because i've met your daughter, and you don't even get that from her, and i think that's sad.

sorry to everyone for venting like this, but that's what a blog is for, and if i actually tried to say any of this, i'd lose my job. xD i want a vacation, but i'd like a paid one, with the capacity to pay the bills.. and that's totally not the same thing as being fired. especially since my raise kicks in this week. next week my boss is on vacation and i'm supreme dictator of sub for a week. i'd rather just boss everyone around and not have the responsibility pinned on me. xD being a grownup sucks sometimes. on the upside, tiffany is totally awesome and has offered to come in and work half-days (on her days off) if i need her help getting things done. as i think she said, she's willing to be me while i'm jacinda for the week. although she would only be doing a fraction of my workload, it's greatly appreciated. having someone else going "gee.. so much to do!" has a greatly calming effect on me. it's nice not to be the only one freaking out. xD anyhow, i suppose i should try to go to bed again. try for some rem-cycle sleep. although if you're trying to achieve it, it's not all that restful now is it?

one word meme

song+ Kissing a Fool- Michael Buble
book+ Fables 1001 Nights of Snowfall
scent+ puppy smells and chinese. bad combo X.x
quest+ finding something to amuse myself
upper+i have tons of music on my ipod now
downer+ i have to re-download about 4 albums that deleted themselves
attire+ pajama pants and a grey tank
drink+ nothing currently

mom did this one word meme, so i'm doing it now. if i leave out the space does it count as one word? xD i'm gonna go with yes, because that's totally what i did for a few of these.

1. Where is your mobile phone? desk
2. Your significant other? kyu
3. Your hair? black
4. Your mother? lynn
5. Your father? hunsdon
6. Favorite thing? reading
7. Dream last night? possibly
8. Favorite drink? milk
9. Your dream/goal? success
10. Room you’re in? bedroom
11. Your ex? unimportant
12. Your fear? failure
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? happy
14. Where were you last night? home
15. What you’re not? mundane
16. Muffins? mom's!
17. One of your wish list items? sewingmachine
18. Where you grew up? texas
19. The last thing you did? work
20. What are you wearing? jammies
21. Your TV? decent
22. Your pet? multiple
23. Your computer? new!
24. Your life? fine
25. Your mood? restless
26. Missing someone? turtle
27. Your car? imaginary xD
28. Something you’re not wearing? shoes
29. Favorite store? craftstore!
30. Your summer? warm
31. Like someone? indeed
32. Your favorite color? green
33. When is the last time you laughed? lunchtime

so i started playing lego star wars anyways, even though kyu doesn't have his weight set yet.. i'm a horribly selfish girlfriend. xD it's in the top 5 funniest games i've ever played. not the single funniest, but probably number four. absolutely no dialogue, so it's all pantomime, slightly tweaked for laughs. even dramatic things brought on a laugh.

in spite of the fun i'm having with that, i feel anxious. i want to be doing something else and i can't quite think of what that thing is.. i hate feeling like i've missed something that should have been right in front of me. i've been looking around and trying to see what there could possibly be for me, but i haven't found it yet. i know i want to sew and do something crafty, but i still need a new sewing machine.. i know that's not what i feel i'm missing though. it's not really anything i can easily explain.. which is an incredibly frustrating feeling.

i suppose it could be most easily generalized as a feeling of wanting more, but not quite. i've been bored mindless at home completely out of nowhere off and on for a while now. i don't feel like i want to do any of the things i can do, but at the same time, i feel like i really need a vacation from work. not a stay home and get paid for it vacation, but a real one like the trip kyu and i took to florida last year. the only problem with that is that i totally can't afford to go anywhere. i really can't justify taking time off from work at all, because i feel guilty knowing someone else will have to do my job while i'm gone.. and my job involves a lot of tedious crap that it didn't involve back when it was parker's job. there's extensive directions for most of it in my schedule, but that doesn't lessen the feeling of knowing someone has to take on all the additional work i do.

i just think i need a few days where i don't have to think about who's depending on me, or who i'm letting down. i just want some time to feel unfettered and free.. i was frustrated and discontent for other reasons when i was unemployed, and in a lot of ways it was worse, but i do miss that independent selfish feeling of knowing that taking half an hour for myself wouldn't screw up anyone's day at all. i also miss sleeping in until noon after staying up all night reading. i really loved doing that.. i never have as much time as i'd like to read anymore. that's alright i guess since i don't have anything to read.

mood swings, only not really

song+ Defying Gravity- Wicked
book+ so many to choose from.. xD
scent+ nothing outstanding
quest+ trying to finish some of the video games i've abandoned
upper+i still love my new computer!
downer+ kyu won't let me play lego star wars yet..
attire+ pinstriped pajamas. i'm big pimpin
drink+ milk

tuesday is the longest day of the week for me. X.x it's when we get in all the new comics and pull orders and stuff.. we were actually done relatively early today, but i had to train tiffany to do some of my job. i would have been done and out by 6 (for the first tuesday in about a month), but due to the training we actually didn't clock out until closer to 6:45. X.x so i'm a bit tired. i get to look forward to going in an hour early tomorrow to set up for the mail order subs too. yay.

anyway, tuesday after work is my mindless "don't want to think" time, so i played around on the doll maker again. xD i couldn't decide on what outfit to use, so i took several and animated them together.. and by several i totally mean 38. -.-; i call it 'mood swing' ..i think its rather appropriate. hopefully it'll load. *knocks on wood* oh yay! it works! xD it's a little hypnotic though. i find myself staring at it for minutes on end.

so in things unrelated to wasting hours dolling, i bought lego star wars (the complete saga) for the xbox360, but kyu confiscated it. 1) because he can't stand the game and 2) because he wants his weight set. he's holding it hostage until i buy the set for him. that's okay because i still have several other games i never beat. i have a really bad habit of getting to the end of a game then walking away for several months. that way i have time to decompress and i'm never disappointed with the ending of the game. i played through tomb raider in a weekend and when i beat it i was like "that's it? you're serious??" so while i'm waiting out the saving period that LSW is being held hostage, i can still work on beating Persona3, Final Fantasy 12, Blue Dragon, Trauma Center, Super Mario Galaxy, Super Paper Mario, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Chrono Cross, Chrono Trigger, and like 4 different Pokemon games.. xD i am such a flaky gamer.. to be fair though, all of those are spread across about four different consoles.. so it's not quite so bad, i think. the only games i definitely beat straight away are Zelda games. i've got four or five of those that i beat in a day or two each.

i went a little overboard..

song+ Phantom of the Opera- Phantom of the Opera
book+ last week's people magazine?
scent+ general puppyish smells
quest+ loading all moose's music into iTunes
upper+my music is all uploaded!
downer+ i'm a little bored..
attire+ black pajamas with pink and red pinstripes
drink+ milk

so i was bored today, and i went a little crazy with the candybar dollmaker. it's just so fun! and really easy to use. it's how i made all the dolls for my banner. today i decided to make a few outfits for everyone. xD i limited myself to four each. the first is something casual-dressy, followed by supercasual, then church-appropriate. the last outfit on everyone is something they would probably never really wear, but they're things i thought suited their personalities. xD i'd love to know what you all think of what i think of you. there's only one body type, so no nitpicking that you don't look like that.. (i'm thinking of you, mom) anyhow, here they are ordered by age to cut out any favoritism.. xD

this is mom. she wears a lot of classic pieces in bright colours, specifically red and purple. the ballgown is because she saw it in the banner and liked it. the only time i've seen mom dolled up even remotely princess-like is in her wedding photos.

jenni has enough style to wear trendy pieces and not look like a mindless fashion zombie. i do think that sometimes she could stand to throw the rules out the window and just have fun with her clothes.. i've never seen her in anything like the last outfit, but i think it would suit her perfectly.

bonnie has a very classy style, even when she's in jeans. i think that sometimes she might forget how young she still is though, so i tried to show off her fun side here. i wouldn't expect her to actually wear the arm-warmers, they were part of the top. i think a bracelet or two would be perfect instead. i love the clunky belt for her though.

roro has alwyas dressed as far from girly as possible, and that's fine, that's who she is. generally when she has to dress up, she'll come to me for advice. she ends up looking great, but feeling out of her comfort zone. i picked the last outfit because i think that you don't need frills and lace and acres of pink to be cute. it can be as simple as showing off your killer legs. (not necessarily in a skirt, all the shorts options were booty shorts, which is not what i'm suggesting here)

this is james. my choices here are more likely to be off base than anywhere else. xD i've only seen him dressed up twice and none of the options i had reflected the choices he made then.. so these are mostly casual choices. i picked the last one because all of his clothes are big on him, and if i were playing dressup, i'd put him in something smaller. nothing scandalous, just tailored to fit.

this is naku-chan. she wears lots of earth tones in kinda hippy-ish styles, and they look great on her, but if i got to play barbie, i'd throw her in white with a splash of colour.. something a little floofy and girly to represent her spazzy side.

this is my kyu. he's been asking my opinion on his clothes for a while now, so there's not much to say, he already dresses mostly like i want him to. xD i do wish that he would wear brighter colours and dressier shirts a little more often.. i love a dress shirt with jeans and sneakers!

finally, this is my moose! she looks really good in semi-preppy girly clothes. she does dress a little older than her age though. there's nothing wrong with dressing maturely, but i think every so often, she should embrace being a teenager. i think she'd look adorable in this white outfit with the yellow and purple star accents. i think i'd look pretty awesome in ti too, for that matter. xD

new computer dance!

song+ the theme song to Batman: the Animated Series
book+ err, the instructions to put together my computer desk? xD
scent+ chef salad
quest+ loading all my music into iTunes
upper+ the computer is here!
downer+ i have to upload all of my music to iTunes again
attire+ jeans and a red and blue stripey polo tee
drink+ nothing at the moment *gasp* milk in a while

i got my computer! yay! xD the first thing i did was install fireworks, the second: iTunes. then it occurred to me that i have no music on here, and uploading it will take a while. i'm understandably procrastinating the uploading process.. this morning i bought an ethernet cord, so yay my own internet! i no longer have to fight for dibs on the laptop!

i spent some time making a banner.. i know it's huge, but it fits on my monitor, and i like big banners. let me know if it's so big it causes page stretching, i can resize it then.. even though i don't want to. xD when i make a new banner in a little while i'll try to male it smaller.. even though empty space next to a banner drives me crazy. X.x

roro called to talk to me for a while, it was good talking to her, and i can't wait until she comes back to texas! yay for that! err.. i think that's all.. now that i have my own computer, i'm able to post whenever i want! huzzah! xD