Reading Weekend

 

 I don't feel like I get days off any more.

Am running behind on the book thing--had expected to be making final decisions on the open call stuff, but have like 170 stories still to read, so I battened down the hatches and started Friday. Took me until Sunday to get through them all.

Problem is, there's 90 in the Consider folder. WAY too many. So the next step is to whittle them down to something like 30-40, then pass them on for scoring.

That's this week's problem.

I did get a break Saturday night to watch a movie with the kid. We watched the remake of Piranha. I remember seeing it in the theater in 3D--fun time. Movie's still pretty fun, and obviously the kid liked it cuz there was loads of boobs.

We got out last night to see Boy Kills World. Was pretty empty theater. Entertaining movie but nothing ground breaking. It's exactly what you think it will be from the trailer.

Up this week--think my parents want to go see Fall Guy, and I hear it's pretty fun so will probably take the whole family.

Goddamn if Frazetta wasn't the GOAT of fantasy of art. Hadn't seen this pic below in a long time.

 

 

Car Horseshit

 

I mentioned that I'd driven a nice rental to that convention, right?

So I figured hey, let me go look at some of these cars cuz I was thinking about getting one anyway, and now that my car is throwing brake issues, maybe I'd just get a new car and not mess with that.

I head over to the local dealer that just happens to be right next to where I bought the car I have now. A salesman comes out and I mention this--he tells me both places are owned by the same guy.

I test drive a different car than I drove to the con, and it's nice too. More like my usual type of car. I say let's go see what each would cost me and see how much they'd offer me for my car.

They take my car in and about 10 minutes later the guy comes back and says that they're not really interested in my car and would offer $500 for it. I laugh--it's worth like $5000-$7000 depending on condition.

I ask him why they're lowballing, and he hems and haws, then goes and gets the Carfax report. Here's where it gets nuts.

I bought the car in 2017. There were no accidents reported on the carfax that the dealer gave me back then. However, this new carfax shows an accident in 2014. I ask the guy how that could be? He seems to think maybe I didn't notice it on the carfax back then or something. 

I say, "I bet I have that carfax somewhere--what are you going to say when I find it, and there's no accident on it?" He didn't know.

FURTHER, and possibly even worse, there's records on this report that say my car had its oil changed in a place called Mechanicsville, MD about every 3 months for two years. Now, I've never been to Mechanicsville, MD--have no idea where it is. Besides, anyone who knows me know that I don't get my oil changed more than once a year.

The reason this is all a problem is that my car was serviced in my home town and showed like 85K miles, but then there's one of the Mechanisburg entries that shows THAT car only has 65K entries. Carfax then notes "Possible Odometer rollback".

Now, it's pretty obvious that it's NOT my car being serviced there, but carfax makes it extremely hard to fix. You have to try to open an investigation--which I TRIED, but after filling out all the info and hitting submit, it says "Failed to submit".

If you type "carfax mistake" or "carfax error", you'll see there's thousands of people who have had this same issue. It takes thing like Channel 2 Investigates to get them to do anything.

And until I can get this fixed, I can't buy a new car because I don't want two cars in my possession at one time.

So I'm going to try to get carfax to get this accident thing looked at because I DID find the original carfax from 2017 and there's NO accident on it. If they can get me an original carfax from 2017, and that accident IS on there, then I'll be suing the car dealer for fraud because they must have removed the accident from the report before they sold me the car.

If it's not, then I want to know where this accident report came from and how it suddenly appeared over 3 years after the alleged accident.

Fuck, man. Like I need all these hassles in my life.

 

 

 

Other Con Done

 

 I have a car story to tell, but I'll tell it next time.

Got all my stuff together and ready, and Zig came by so we headed out to the con. There was a bit of traffic on the way, but not that much. We checked in--I found out TWO DAYS before the con that they took away my Presidential Suite that I'd reserved.

See, back when they first announced the rooms, I booked it. It wasn't that expensive. I figured they'd tell me later that I couldn't have it, but I didn't expect them to wait until TWO DAYS before check-in to tell me.

I'd called and bitched, so they comped me a night. I was still pretty hot about it.

We ran out to a local restaurant after we checked in. Menu cover had a civil war scene with the confederate flag on it. We laughed. Food was okay. 

Back to the con. Had a decent crowd. Saw some stuff I might buy, bought a couple of books cuz you know I need more(FML).

Friday night we sat in on the Evil Dead showing where they had three of the actors in the audience doing live commentary. It was decent but not as good as the others I'd seen at previous cons. They really needed a director in the mix, because the actors ran out of things to say a lot.

When we came back, the hotel was dead. We found out later that most of the people had gone to the next-door hotel lobby to hang out, but we just went back to the room and watched some TV, relaxed.

Saturday was pretty low-key too. Saw a buddy's movie, a horror western, that I'd wanted to see. It wasn't half bad. Some dodgy CGI, but better than he led me to believe it was. 

Then later that night we sat through a sequel to a classic 80's slasher that was shot 40 years later...and it was BAD. Like, funny bad, but bad nonetheless. 

After that we went back to the hotel and hung out with friends, chit chatting. I ended up not going to bed until like 3:30am.

Sunday was same as all con Sundays. Fairly dead, not much going on. Saying bye to people. The ride home was better, almost no traffic.

We hit a local restaurant once we got back to town for a late lunch. 

All in all, not bad but not super fun. I can see the end of me going to shows approaching. For me, it was never about seeing celebs...I go there to see and hang out with friends I don't see much any more, but more often than not they're not showing up any more.

That's life, as they say. Now I have to get back to the real shit...and read about 175 clown stories, narrow them down to the top ones, and then get them to Ken for his scores, so we can pick the final TOC.

(doesn't help that I may have two more featured authors that I'm still waiting to see if they're going to come through or not)

 

Con Going

 

Day 2 was actually Friday since we got there on Thursday. I only slept until around 11am, woke up with my back screaming at me. I went out, got my boxes of books and walked them in, put them on Malf's table.

He wasn't around yet, so I wandered. I had a sweet parking spot so didn't want to leave for lunch. I think I just ate some Nilla wafers.

You know...was gonna do a play by play, but honestly it's a little tiresome. Basically, Friday was pretty busy conwise. Lot of people, lot of sales. Busier than you usually see on Fridays. That boded well for Saturday.

After the con--which ran until 9pm--we just went to the bar and hung out and drank. Had a burger there.

Everyone again went to bed pretty early. Ended up back in the hotel room watching another couple of episodes of Fallout. Man, con nights have gotten pretty weak.

Saturday the con started at 10am, but I didn't show up until about noon. Weird part is, it was less busy than Friday. Not sure I've ever seen that. Like, it wasn't dead but certainly slower than expected.

We hit the Whaling Co restaurant with Malf, Rebecca, Brandy and company. Had a great salmon, then went back to the con and started drinking. There was a spirited pool game--funny as always cuz Malf was pretty sauced. At one point he took the sign that said to drink responsibly over to the pool table, but Ripple saw him and came over and grabbed it.

Malf was like "No, I brought that from home. That's my home sign." which had everybody laughing, even Ripple(he tried to hold it back)

The Malf called it early again--I'm gonna be giving him shit for that weekend--so I hung out with other people. Ended up at karaoke with Stewie, Brandy and crew. They've taken it out of the bar and put it in the way back room, so there was only like 10 people there.

Ended up in bed about 3am. Sunday ain't worth talking about. Packing up and saying bye, trying to get pics. The drive wasn't TOO bad, but the car made it tolerable.

Now I'm about to go to ANOTHER con tomorrow. Was supposed to have the presidential suite--I reserved it back in August of 2023. Yesterday, two days before the con, they EMAIL me to tell me it's double-booked and they've switched me to a room with one king bed.

I'm fucking livid. I call and get a manager on the phone. I read them the riot act. I'm like TWO days before the reservation is when you notice this is double booked? She wasn't sure how it happened, claims the room should never had been rentable.

Finally, best she can do is get me a double queen bed room and comp me a night. Fucking Wyndham.

But hey, got a CRAZY story for you when I get back, about my actual car...just MORE reason to kill people...

 

 

Con 1 Done - Day Zero

 

But first...the car sitch.

Took the car to my mechanic--he tried to fix what he thought could be the problem, replacing a part on one of the wheels but it didn't work. So he said "Okay, just gonna charge you for the part, not labor since it didn't work, but you're gonna have to take it to the dealer--they've got the only machine that can tell you exactly what the problem is."

And you know what that has me thinking? New car.

I'd been thinking about it anyway, and that leads nicely to the next thing...

I'm like, can't take this car on a long trip. Gotta rent a car. So I scheduled one for pickup Wednesday evening. I go in to get it, and they give me a Hyundai.

I have never driven a Hyundai. My only knowledge of that car is that at one time it was a joke of a car. 

After driving this one, I'd say that's not accurate any more. It's a T.U.S.C.O.N. and it's loaded. Has a media center I can plug a USB drive into and listen to all my music. I made a USB stick with like 50 hours of my favorite songs, and it's glorious.

It doesn't say it's a self-driving car but it pretty much is. Steers between the lines for you, accelerates and decelerates if it's on cruise control to keep you a safe distance behind any vehicles in front of you. If you take your hands off the wheel for more than 60 seconds though, it prompts you to put your hands back on.

The seats are heated and air conditioned--no more sweaty back in the summer...

So now I'm looking at maybe buying one of these. They're not cheap, roughly double the price of my old car. Monthly payment would be sizeable, but nothing I can't swing.

 Only thing I didn't really like is just HOW many lights and buttons and stuff there are. Not sure how long it would take to get familiar with it all, but I'm guessing the over-under is 2.5 years.

---

So Thursday afternoon, off to the con. The ride down wasn't bad--a little bit of traffic so it took me almost 4 hours down, but with my endless great tunes on the radio I almost wish it took longer...

Got there and checked in, got my junk into the room. My suitcase weighed about 100 pounds with the liquor and mixers in it.

Ate a burger at the bar and hung out and chatted with people. It was pretty quiet in general but since the con didn't start until the next day, wasn't unexpected.

The con was set to start the next day, so people went to bed early. Weak sauce, but whatever. I went back to the room, had an edible and watched the first two episodes of Fallout.

To be continued...

 

 

April Has a Big Dick And It's Looking To Fuck

 

Got the first big con of the year coming up, so what happens? My car pops a problem--ding ding ding. ABS and Stabilitrak warning about my brake system. 

I mean, I just got my brakes done about a month ago. But now I gotta try to get this fixed before I drive down to the con, though at this point I'll probably just take a rental car so I don't have to sweat it.

Next...I gotta get my taxes done. I sat down yesterday to do that. I didn't figure to owe much, because I have them pulling an extra couple thousand per year out of my paycheck for taxes to compensate for my freelance stuff that doesn't get taxed.

And then on top, I spent around $15K on the book I put out plus another $10K on windows for the house.

Yet somehow on the first pass through the taxes, they think I owe them another $8K. It's fucking nuts.

So I'm gonna file an extension, and then go see a tax specialist about what exactly this is all about. I haven't wanted to start any new businesses for each separate thing I do, because that means a lot more tax things to do, but if it's gonna be the difference between me paying an extra $8K then I'll do it...

Fuuuuuuck

---

Also, can you believe I have ANOTHER shitty movie story?

That new Liam Neeson movie has a high RT score so I figure I'll go see it. It's not in a big theater, but it's not selling a ton of seats. I see if my brother wants to go--he says, "If there's a problem, I'm just fucking leaving...and it'll be the last time I go to that theater."

I monitor the situation. I've also bought a couple of seats behind and in front of me, figuring I'll refund them right before the movie starts. Dickish, but I don't care.

The theater's pretty empty. They've only sold like 5 other seats when we get to the theater, ten minutes before the start time of the movie.

We get out stuff and go in--I should mention, my wife ended up going. The trailers and commercials go--that's 25 minutes of bullshit after the start time of the movie. The movie starts. Ten minutes into the movie, four douchebags walk in talking very loudy.

They sit behind us, and keep talking. My brother shushes them. They keep talking. He turns to look at them, so I also turn to look at them. One of them smiles back and me, and they keep talking.

My brother gets up and says "Fuck it dude, I'm out of here." I tell him to let the manager know on his way out.

The people behind us stop talking. The manager comes in five minutes later, so I go over to him and tell him the issue. To his credit, he walks over and stands right in front of them, staring them down. They don't talk.

He walks to the front of the theater and stays there for like 5-10 minutes watching, then leaves. I can say that those asshats didn't talk at all during the movie, but when it was over one of them stopped on his way out, way down at the bottom of the rows, and he did some hyena laugh and stared at me smiling.

Not sure what he thought he was getting out of that. But at this point, my brother's out of going to that theater, which will impact how often I go.

Hell, it already did. The theater near my brother is a different company, so I signed up for their monthly plan, and we went to see The First Omen, which was pretty good. We didn't have any issues there. 

However, that theater is like 15 minutes farther from me and even with the "discount" plan, tickets are expensive as shit, and the concessions is nearly double the price at the other place.

Man...this world needs to lose a lot of the trash people in it. People better be careful because I'm closer to killing someone than I've ever been, and that's saying something since I was a fucking sociopath in high school and college...

 

 

The Big AI Issue

 

Yeah, it's all the talk. I even got taken to task for using an AI Image I found online to ask for submissions to our anthology.

Thing is, creatives are fucking TERRIFIED. And they should be. AI is going to take their jobs--it's not an IF situation, it's a WHEN situation. They can fight all they want, and understand, I'm one of them but I've sort of transitioned out of a lot of it so it won't affect me as much.

But I can always see the trees for the forest.

The argument always boils down to basically "AI can't come up with stuff like we do" and "People don't want AI stuff!"

Problem being that's really only true of creatives--they're the only ones freaking right now. Joe Schmoe(JS) is over there making pretty pictures and sharing them with friends. JS also can't tell the difference between a good AI narrator and a live narrator on a book or movie. JS also won't care when AI starts getting stuck into movies, cuz JS isn't exactly a purveyor of fine art.

Did that movie or book distract JS from his hum drum life? Then good enough...

And to look at specifics...let's take books. Artists are wigging out when a dude self-publishing his book that will sell 10 copies decides to make an AI cover.

He was NEVER going to pay someone to do it. Worse come to worse, he'd make a terrible one himself in photoshop and slap it on. The AI one at least looks semi professional.

So freaking out at this guy...waste of time. Nobody's mind is getting changed--it's how the world has always worked. If people can get something done cheaper, they're going to do it.

Same thing on audiobooks. Audio narrators want thousands of dollars to narrate a book. Sure, you can work with some of them on a split-profits basis but when you can get an audio narrator to do it for free? Some people are gonna go that direction, especially those people who don't sell many books. They're not gonna spend $3K for a narrator when they're only gonna make $100 in sales.

And technology is always making stuff obsolete. Remember when you had to actually learn how a camera worked to be a photographer? Now you can buy a camera, put it on Auto and you're a photographer. Hell, save your money, use your phone as your camera.

I remember when I would put together these elaborate slideshows to music--would take a LOT of time, resizing pics, dragging them into After Effects, zooming in or out, panning here and there as they dissolved by.

Now there's programs that will do that for you. 

So I think it's basically another case of horse-and-carriage operators raging at how people aren't going to want cars...they're going to want the authentic smells of being driven in a horse-and-buggy...and how many horse and buggies do you see today?

I'm not happy about it, but I think people need to start thinking realistically or their lives are going to be miserable.

The only bright spot I can see is that AI is likely to wipe out humanity in the next 10 years so it won't be much of a problem after that...