The Pirate Jiggy

Thoughts on Dragoncon

Jiggy — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 09:37:43 +0000

I was looking over the message boards(which as anyone can tell you I don’t do enough) and it made me realize something about me and my relationship with Dragoncon. I rely on the con a lot in my life. It is my main vacation every year and my main interaction with many of the people I consider friends. Many of these friends I only get to see for that one magical week. I am able to keep in contact with some of these friends through the rest of the year but my schedule makes it impossible to keep up with all of them and even some of them(whose identities will remain anonymous) that I try and stay in touch with flat ignore me. So you can see why I love this week so much. Also, it is still 7 weeks away and I am already thinking about it almost everyday.

The second thought that came to me was a slightly odd one. It finally hit home that I won’t be the guy running Harris anymore. I feel that a form of identity has been given away with this much needed break. I don’t quite know how to handle this. I love that I have an opportunity to try something new but I wonder will I be anything other than a wallflower. Like I was my first year. Running Harris gave me an identity at con. It gave me something to do. A place that I know my presence mattered.

I don’t understand this duality in my head. I can’t wait to go but I don’t really know what I will do. Even if I do nothing it will be worth it to see everyone, I just don’t know if I will feel I earned my badge. We will find out I guess.

Violence

Jiggy — Wed, 07 May 2008 08:49:54 +0000

For most of us we live with this as something seen on the news or read in a paper. That little bubble around me was suspended last night. I have seen my share of violent things happen at work. Muggings, beatings, and assaults. Customers attack other customers in theaters and out in front more frequently than I would like. It has never happened to one of the people put in my care. I can’t help but feel partly responsible for what happened. I received a call from the theater last night with a frantic message that one of my assistants had been attacked. I rushed to the theater to find him being attended to by medical personnel. Without going into specifics due to a pending police investigation, he was attacked for what seems to be little to no reason. Not robbed or threatened, just beaten. Thankfully he will be ok.

It’s been awhile

Jiggy — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 03:30:21 +0000

It has been quite awhile since my last post and I was sitting here thinking it would be a good idea to get started back up again. I have been pretty busy over the past few months with moving, Dragoncon and starting at the new theater. Now that the holidays are done and everything is slowing down again I find myself with a few more spare minutes to complete things like this. I returned for Huntsville and PHE a few days ago and it was a nice trip. I got to see my friends and get a few days away from work, but even that caused some problems anyway. There was a car accident that caused a power outage at the theater on Saturday night, which was very hard to try and deal with over the phone but we seemed to handle it the best we could.
I returned home in a somber mood to be leaving all of my friends behind. No matter where they live it is hard to leave them when the time comes each time. I hope they all know how much they mean to me and what it is to get to seem them.
People say home is where the heart is, which I guess makes me lucky because I have three homes then. A part of it never left Colorado when I moved away, another part lives in Huntsville with my friends there and lastly in Atlanta. I will close by saying I feel more at hom in those three places than I do here. This place is just for work. The count down begins till I can hold you all in my sight again.
“far away boys, far away boys, away from you now.”

A Study in Contrast

Jiggy — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 06:31:37 +0000

I have been riding a roller coaster the passed few days. Wednesday I received a visit from the president of the company and a few other higher ups. They were impressed and had nothing but good things to say about me and my staff. This sent me flying through the roof! I felt that what I have been busting my ass for over the past 10 months might be paying off, that maybe this visit would help me get the promotion I put in for. For those of you who I hadn’t gotten the time to tell, about a week and a half ago I put in for a theater the would have moved me to Fayetteville GA. I thought this visit would do nothing but help me. Well, to be honest it did but I was so far behind the other canditates that it wouldn’t have done much anyway. Of course I didn’t learn this till Thursday when the roller coaster took a sharp nose dive. I was fed the line about not having enough experience to run a location like that. Normally a rejection like that doesn’t really hurt too much because in my business you will always be turned down way more than you are accepted. As the night went on and all my work was getting done I ran into the startling fact that it looks like some who works for me is stealing. So now I am forced to look for who this person is requiring more time I have to spend at work. This would have made it a somewhat shitty night on its own but things were still going to get worse. As the weekly and up to date monthly numbers started rolling in things were looking worse and worse. All the hard work I have been putting in seems to be slipping away from me. If I ever hope to be able to move on from here I have to re-focus myself and do more. This theater has ended the careers of the two managers before me and I refuse to let the same thing happen to me. I will figure this out, and hopefully soon enough for the roller coaster to swing skyward before it runs out of momentum.

Lip Service

Jiggy — Wed, 16 May 2007 06:46:20 +0000

It’s a horrible feeling to know that someone is just paying you lip service so you don’t feel as bad. I was able to interview for the opening at another bigger theater yesterday and I was passed over. I was fed the line about making the right choice for the location. Because having knowledge of the location doesn’t help me any. So, thank you for your time Mr. Theisen but go away. I wish they would have just said that from the beginning. Now I am paying a different form of lip service, to a bottle. Its amazing how things change when you put over half a case of beer and some wine into the equation. I may not feel good but at least I don’t feel bad. Only numb. Excuse me, I hear a bottle calling me.

The Calm before the Storm

Jiggy — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 06:38:55 +0000

You wouldn’t know it by looking out the window of my apartment but everything in my life here has hit that erie state of clam right before a storm. We have hit the three week countdown to the first of the big summer movies. This means everything is strangely calm at the theater but it hides a frenetic drive to get things done. Once May 4th rolls around and spiderman 3 hits theaters the time to fix and prepare will be done. It will then be the time to see if I have prepared my theater and my people for the onslaught that will hit. I am very nervous as to how my building will hold up to the damage. I want to believe that what I have done will make a difference, that people will notice and acknowledge that what I have done has helped. What I don’t know, is if that will happen. Time to wait and see how I can pass this storm like so many others in the past. None of them have ever made me this nervous.

Worst Fucking Day of the Year

Jiggy — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 06:49:24 +0000

Since hitting adulthood, I have never been a big fan of my birthday. For the most part I don’t like any day where who I am to my friends and family gets replaced with a number. That maybe over simplifying things a little bit but on your birthday all people see is your age. As if that wasn’t enough of a reason to dislike this day, going to work made it even worse.

I arrived at work to find that the slightly damaged popcorn popper we had stopped working completely. When our electrician arrived to look at it, he couldn’t tell what the problem was, but got the popper to a limping point of putting out one batch every 15 minutes. So I called my boss to see what could be done, all the while having little popcorn to sell. by the end of the night we were able to set up getting a temporary one brought down from vegas tomorrow morning. That was the best news I heard all day. I then got chewed out by a customer who one of my employees told her how much he dislikes her son. Not to mention all the other customers yelling at me for not having popcorn for them or having to wait 15-30 minutes to get it. All of this by 5 o’clock. After the 7:45 showing of Epic Movie I find that one of the teenage punks who visit my theater broke off one side of a seat back and twisted it around the arm rest so the seat was sitting in the aisle. While in the process of removing and replacing both the back and arm rest of the seat I get an employee running in to tell me that there is a fire in the womens restroom. We were able to contain it before it became a big problem but half my building still smells like smoke. Keep in mind while fixing the chair and putting out the fire I am still having to take breaks to go get yelled at by more customers.

By the time I was done I had made a new goal. I want to spend every birthday from here on out locked in my room sleeping. I think if I could do that, then maybe February 24th will no longer be my worst day of the year.

Tick, Tock.

Jiggy — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 06:22:51 +0000

As I sit here now watching the minutes tick down to the start of 2007 I can’t help but look back at the past 365 days and wonder how I got from point A to point B. My life has taken many winding roads over the past year. Some, very happy memories that I will cherish forever. Others slightly on the darker side and even though painful I don’t know if I would go back and change them. They have helped lead me to, well, me. This year has taught me two very important lessons. One: I have the greatest friends in the world. All of you reading this please believe me when I say I love you all and you keep me going through whatever set backs come my way. I don’t think I tell all of you that enough and I wanted to say it. Two: The world turns completely around in moments. I personally felt that twice this year. Both moments took everything I thought I knew and through them in a blender and hit puree.

What does 2007 hold for me? I don’t have the slightest idea right now. I hope it continues to lead me in the direction I have been heading. I just hope the light at the end of the tunnel isn’t a train coming to run me down.

Happy new year to you all! I wish you nothing but the best and I hope you get all the rewards you so richly deserve!

All I want for Christmas

Jiggy — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 08:45:17 +0000

I was asked today by one of the members of my staff if I got what I wanted for Christmas. Which made me realize I hadn’t really thought about what I wanted this year. So in no particular order….Dear Budda bring me a pony and a rocket ship…. sorry. Had a Mal kinda moment there but seriously the list
Transporter technology (so even though I am far away I could be near my friends and family)

A white Christmas (colorado, can you send a few inches down here?)

Christmas day off of work (four in a row can’t take a day off now!)

Someone special to share the holidays with (Kinda liked having one last year, I figure why not have one again)

Most of all, the happiness, health, and safety of all of my friends and family.

I hope the Holidays find all of you well and enjoying all that life has given you. Merry Christmas!

My World.

Jiggy — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 05:56:26 +0000

I have spent the last few weeks getting setup here in Kingman. It has been many days of long work hours little sleep and a growing sense of lonliness. I don’t know how to deal with this feeling, it keeps growing and morphing its shape. Somedays its lonliness, others depression and others still anger. I just want to be happy. I want to feel that this move didn’t let people down. Feel that my life has some greater meaning than just running this theater. I often lie awake at night wondering who/what I am. I don’t really know any more. All my friends told me doing this was the right thing but I still am not sure. I miss what I have left behind and almost as much I miss the things that have left me behind. I work hard when I am at work, very hard. But for what? I used to work hard for my friends and co-workers. They are long gone, moved on with their lives. Something I wish I knew how to do. I wish it was last year, granted I wasn’t in a full Manager position then but I felt happy and accomplished with myself. Now all I am is my job. I have raised up my friends and family to throw them aside to move myself to this position. I can’t shake the feeling that what I have gained is worth less than what I have given up to get here. The ghosts of my life seem to visit much more often now then they ever have before, I would give this up to get back what I had. The money and the title mean nothing without people to share it with. I would give up my promotion to have my life back. I need a hug.