Tyrannical Tess

Oi! Any of ye's picked up Abney Park's new CD, Aether Shanties? Wicked good! Particularly like the song "Under the Radar"

LOVED IT!! Lots of things to do and people to see! Sterling organization! Sad to leave....now waiting for info for next year...getting my tickets ASAP!

Arghhh, Ransom, and undoubtedly showing much better sense as well. I’m a relative newcomer here and my priority should be to play nice with my mates rather than start kicking up the proverbial dirt. As you have probably gathered by now, this subject still gets my back up ….but I’ll go slap the wind out of my sails and knock back a stiff one for the common peace…

Oh Oh Oh! This is lovely! If you will permit me, I have ways that you can cure EVERY ONE of these bad habits one person at a time! These methods have been tried and tested true! The first is quite easy and kind of self explanatory, if you have good timing and don't mind a little minor right front end damage to your car. But believe me when I say, the next guy that does that to you will NEVER throw his door open in traffic again (so you can consider yourself an educator as well)! The grim truth - taking a door off because someone swung it open in your path is not your fault....sideswiping the car next you while trying to AVOID an open door IS. How messed up is that? The second is rather fun. Just act as clueless as they are by waving a hand frantically and calling out YOO HOO (the shriller, the better) EXCUUUUUUUSE ME! Keep a stupid grin on your face and the blocker will usually nudge a couple of inches off to the side. Then when struggling to get through the very minor hole they have made for you, slam a corner of their cart with your own. This will usually catapult the front of their cart into the safety stripping on the aisle shelving and remove them completely from your path. Then apologize profusely for the run-in and emphasize your apology with a few personal-space-invading pats on the arm of the blocker. If you follow these directions to the letter, the blocker will be far more alarmed by your bizarre behavior than angry (nobody says YOOHOO anymore, or apologizes either), and you have not only gotten past them, but have done your public service for the day as well...not to mention being able to release that pent up stress you've built up while creeping behind the chucklehead to begin with. The third is similar to the second, only this time excuse yourself while reaching past them as though to take a DVD off of the shelf ,(choose a DVD that is high enough on the shelf so that the elbow on your upraised arm is level with their head) then give them a solid nudge with your elbow (the force of the nudge to be determined by how badly they have annoyed you). Follow the same instructions for post-impact as for those in number two, only this time (if you are able) grab their head with both of your hands and vigorously rub the spot that you have just struck with your elbow while you are apologizing. When you eventually release them, they will leave your immediate area post-haste and will not block your view again as long as you remain in the store - in fact, they will probably stay as far away from you as possible, if not leave the store entirely. Again, your public service requirements for the day have been fulfilled, and you are free to shop the store unhindered. Trust me, THESE WORK! You also get the added benefit of chuckling to yourself on the way home instead of talking to yourself under your breath about how *^#%* stupid and rude people are while gesturing at nothing and basically looking like a crazy person.

Hear hear, Hurricane, and God bless yer head. There is no doubt - at least in my mind - that Andre has cut a very wide swath and left a lot of grief behind him, even before he went into the “convention“ business. I often wonder if some of us had spoken up and not just cut our losses and kept our mouths shut, if this Con business would ever have gotten this ridiculous. I’ll go so far as to say that we might have actually saved a few from the same fate. Pirahna has been soooo harshly criticized for her version of dealing with Andre, but at least she spoke up, dammit. Then she held her own when the fallout started and refused to be cowed or swayed. It took a lot of guts and I’ve got nothing but admiration for her. That’s a heck of lot more than I can say about the masses of the rest of us - oh yeah, myself included - and she makes me feel ashamed of myself. That she continues to be slammed about it just gives me REALLY tight jaws.

"Rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated" ~ Mark Twain

Oh dear….yes indeed, I must concede (with feeling) that some testimonials of being a Con partner would have benefited profoundly and taken much more seriously if time had been taken to CALM DOWN and take a deep breath before slamming it down and throwing it into public forums without even stopping long enough to proof-read it - not to mention how much of this unedited testimonial the public would even be able to understand and take in before giving up in disgust. It is difficult to feel empathy for a person’s plight after you have long gone glassy-eyed from attempting to follow a single train of thought to it’s completion…and failing. But, people tend to have very strong opinions about a subject after they’ve been taken for the proverbial hard ride - this, of course, being a perfect case in point. This does not, however, make them biased (indicating little or no basis for their opinion, view, and/or anger) or make their complaints (no matter how annoying they are to read about) unfounded or untrue. And certainly in partner number 1’s case, it appears his complaints and charges could in fact be substantiated and proven after all, doesn‘t it? Personally, I think it is tragic that partner number 2 has more or less shot herself in the foot due to her method of communicating her story, as in many circles it’s been thrown out whole as so much tiresome trash. And partner number 3 has burned so many bridges and alienated so many simply by defending Andre so ferociously with complete disregard for her own back, that many simply don’t care about her sacrifices or the (alleged) significant price she has had to pay for the privilege of being the latest partner-cum- volunteer. Now, how pathetically ironic is that? By the way….whatever happened to the original creator of the Con? This event seems to have broken out of the gate with a nefarious past built in from the beginning. But as the saying goes, there are two sides to every story and somewhere in the middle is the truth. If that is the case, and even half of what has been relayed to the public from all partners is true….well. Damn. At the very least it certainly explains why so many events promised on any of the Con’s itineraries don’t make it to realization. Oh, and never mentioned again, or as you yourself have pointed out as a paying guest, not even an apology offered up for it’s absence. AND the redundant disorganization. Delivering a good Con just doesn’t seem to be a top priority to it‘s organizers - honestly, how can it be? That so much damage is alleged to be happening to individuals in the name of the Con….that is disturbing and worrisome, and I feel that you don’t have to be intimately involved with the specifics for that to be your business as a potential customer. And also just stepping back and taking a look objectively - any partnership that can turn a normally good-hearted and strong-minded person into an incoherent hysteric….or making it a priority to state in a reputable magazine just how much Andre sucks BEFORE promoting his own event….well, that’s just really bad mojo, my friend. But here‘s the real question for you , my dear “I don’t want to hear about this crap” friend - if the head honcho can repeatedly treat his own co-promoters with such blatant disregard (giving him an enormous benefit of the doubt, as this would just indicate a passive, rather than an active or directed hostile intent), just how concerned do you think he’s going to be about you as a faceless guest getting the most for your buck at his convention? What has REALLY improved over the course of the three Cons - um, besides the speed and efficiency of demoting and removing the partner-du-jour? 　 　 　

Didn’t intend to offend you, Bilge, but the reason it’s still being batted about is because of it’s continued and annually renewed relevancy. Admittedly the link is a bit juvenile, and not strictly on topic, so I’ll accept the slap the on the back of the head for that and consider it deserved. But in actuality, determinations on court cases are a matter of public record, which is just how it should be. How else are we to know that justice is being served? Discussions about the pros and cons of attending PyrateCon are just a vague and polite step away from “this crap”, but it’s “this crap” and yet more and more “crap” of it’s ilk that continue to pile up every year that began the discussions in the first place - and keep 'em going. Frankly, I believe that it’s “crap” such as this that is pertinent and should be known before anyone decides to give this event further patronage.

Fans of ol' Red Eye have GOT to check this out! http://host-d.oddcast.com/php/application_UI/doorId=237/clientId=86/?mId=30211010.2

As one who quietly views corsets and bodices as neccessary evils that are not-so-secret torture devices in pretty cloth covers, I can wholeheartedly recommend Michelle's bodices of Damsel in this Dress (damseldress.com). When I read her claim that her bodices are comfortable, I actually snorted (as I'm sure a few of you out there are doing right now - PULEEEZ a comfortable bodice?), BUT her styles are so cute I decided to risk it and get one - her prices are really quite reasonable as well. The most comfortable bodice I've ever had - correction, the ONLY comfortable bodice I've ever had. I now have three and have determined that if she doesn't build it, I ain't wearin' it. You can actually take one of these off at the end of the day and NOT have to weep with relief after getting your first deep breath in your lungs for hours, and your boobs are screaming threats to drop to your knees immediately if you strap them under your chin ONE MORE TIME. AND they hold their shape. I swear under oath that after multiple wearings, these things are the same shape they were in when I bought them. Impossible you say? It's true, honest. She's got a complete description on how she builds them and with what on her website, so I won't go into detail on that here. Okay, now for the important part. Of course I've been singing her praises since I purchased one of her bodices, but a friend of mine - with a long history of back problems - purchased one and now pretty much feels the same way I do. She says that it supports her back throughout the day much better than wearing nothing, and she can walk for much longer periods of time when wearing it. She had a lumbar spinal fusion a few years back and still has a lower bulging disc, so it's a spinal problem, not just a disc / back muscle problem...if that helps....

Sounds to me from this article that Wikipeidia isn't the problem, it's JOURNALISTS you can't trust....but, gee, big surprise there. I've only been quoted in three newpaper articles in my life, but I was MIS-quoted all three times! So I learned early on it's not the actual truth that's of primary importance in a news story, but more how the story SOUNDS that's important - everything else is a throw-away, and apparently the stuff that sounds good isn't even worth double checking.