English: A stereotypical caricature of a villain (i.e. generic melodrama villain stock character, with handlebar moustache and black top-hat). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Hello Folks!

Welcome back for yet another rousing musing from my mind.

First, I want to send out a Happy Mother’s Day message to all the mother’s out there. I still haven’t gotten a chance to call one of my Mother’s but I hope to call her sometime today and wish her a late one myself. As for my actual Mother’s Day, I actually got to get my Blood-mother out to go see Iron Man 3 at Shelton Cinemas.

For those wondering, it was good and worth your money.

I will tell you something got me a little down yesterday when I wrote this (which is why I held off on publishing it too), so I’m not sure I’m back to full strength yet on my writing, but I’m going to try to put something good out for you to enjoy and get you thinking nonetheless.

So here is the musing of the day.

This literally just came to me today/yesterday and I thought to myself, “Hey yeah! That would be an interesting topic to discuss with my readers!“. So the musing of the day is this: We often try to put our best foot forward in life. We know that first impressions are important so we try to make them count – that is unless we don’t care. In this case you DO care.

So let’s say, you have a scenario where you tried your best to represent yourself as true to yourself as possible, trying to put that best foot forward AND – you screw up. I don’t mean blunder lightly either, I mean blunder BIG time. You blunder so badly that now someone thinks you’re a Villain and despite your apologies, admitting where you may have been wrong, trying to make up for your mistake and trying to take a step back to try to show the real you again, it doesn’t seem to make a difference.

You know that one person still thinks you’re a Villain and tells everyone they meet, including their own friends, how terrible of a person you are. You know it’s not true and if they, these friends of the other person, had half a brain to come talk to you and get your side of things, they might understand and see it’s not true or at least – that there’s more to the story and you aren’t half as bad as their friend describes you. You may not get that luxury though. But this person is spreading slander about you and you know it.

Now while it’s true we shouldn’t care what other people think – especially if it’s someone who doesn’t mean much to you, what if this person did mean something to you? Would it really be that easy for you to dismiss the hurtful things they are doing? Would you be willing and able to wear the title of “Villain” proudly or would it be a bit difficult to swallow even that? What would you want to do? What would you do in this situation if it were you?

That’s what I got for you today. Interested? If you are I’d love to see your ideas and responses on this.

The Real Life Origins:

I will tell you this is a bit based on a real-life situation that happened to me a year ago. I met someone, made friends with them, tried to put my best foot forward and WHAM! I got hit with a giant 2×4 across the face (metaphorically not literally). I wasn’t completely at fault for my actions I had help from people who had ulterior motives and were willing to throw me under the bus to make themselves look good and I didn’t know it. I felt like an idiot for placing my trust in the wrong party, but it ultimately lead to someone thinking the worst of me – along with their friends.

I hated the idea that I was being judged for something I did and these people didn’t even really have a clue about who I truly am and may never which, in a way, seems like a crime to me. They took a side before hearing BOTH sides as there is always more than ONE side to every story. They picked their “friend” (I’m using that term loosely mind you) over me and I was labelled a ‘Villain‘ ultimately despite not being the only one at fault.

I cut my ties eventually when I couldn’t take anymore and am glad I did. I don’t need ‘Drama Llamas‘ in my life. If I had known better in the beginning, I’d have not been fool enough to even befriend this person that I did that lead to so much anxiety, stress and pain. I found out recently from a friend this person was still telling lies about me and while I know it’s on THEM for choosing to use their words and credibility irresponsibly, it’s still uncouth and I can’t lie – it still hurts.

I don’t want to BE the “Villain“. It’s not who I am. So I’m struggling to figure out – how do I simply learn to accept that at least one person may always see me as just that and continue to spread lies about me, even to those I know. That’s not exactly an easy horse-pill to swallow. Even when I played City of Heroes, I’ll be honest – I didn’t have many Villains and most of my would-be Villains were individuals who toed the line between being good and evil.

If I had wanted to play a truly evil Villain I’d have had to go to an extreme to do so. Something completely the opposite of who I am in order to accomplish it and it’s not easy even still. I played mostly Heroes because it’s what felt right and what I gravitated to. This was most natural and came naturally to me (as did Rogues and Vigilantes ).

So there you go. You’ve got something to think about and even respond to if you like. Let me know your thoughts! I would really like and rather know what you’d do in your own shoes in this situation. I think it would make this a bit more interesting and even give me a new perspective to see things from. So fire away with those keyboards!

Thank you for reading and hope to see you back soon!

~Blessings, good fortune & more be yours – Namaste~

Samurai Jack (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’m slowly but surely going to try to work through some of my drafts and some of “The Daily Post” responses because I liked some of the ones I missed. So keep your eyes peeled for those. Here’s a special topic drawn up for this week as from the “Draft” section of my inventory of words. Enjoy!

One of my favorite Cartoons that used to air on Cartoon Network was Samurai Jack. Granted, I didn’t much care for the art style and at first it was difficult to get around it to watch the show and enjoy it. After a while, it was one of those shows that just ‘grew‘ on you. Art style, storyline, characters, strange alien Earth and all.

Netflix FINALLY got Season 1 in their inventory (though I’m confused about where the rest is) and I decided to re-watch some episodes for old times sake because – let’s face it – I missed the show. I was re-watching the episode “Under the Sea” and was reminded of a real-life situation where I too had experienced something like what Jack mentioned. For those who don’t know the episode very well, I can give you a link for a re-cap or you can watch the episode for a refresher.

Screenshot of the Spartan King from Samurai Jack. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Under the Sea – Samurai Jack this link works but you may need to close a pop-up or two.

And here is your general episode summary:

Samurai Jack ventures into the deep end of the ocean after hearing of a time portal can be found in Oceanis, the sunken underwater city of the Triceraquin.

If you haven’t seen the episode NOW, I will tell you there WILL be spoilers. Just a fair warning.

And Spoilers in 5…4…3…2…1

WHY ARE YOU STILL READING?!

Let me guess, you were the kid that liked to take peeks at their presents before Christmas…don’t worry – I think we’ve all been guilty of that a time or two.

Anyway, in the episode Jack is betrayed by the Triceraquins because they had made a deal with the big Baddie Aku. In short Aku said they could return to the surface (better trade there and their people could thrive better too) if they could capture Jack and present the Samurai to him. The Triceraquins were thinking about the, “Sometimes the needs of the many, outweigh the few…“. Which is true, sometimes there are simply sacrifices you must make in life that, you may not like it – but if it’s for the greater good of all and it would only cost one getting hurting, namely maybe you – might you go for it?

Jack meets the Triceraquins

What might you be willing to sacrifice? What might be worth such a sacrifice of great magnitude?

This also reminds me of when I played Fable II the decision you make towards the end of the game. NO SPOILERS FOR YOU!

After it’s found out that Aku has gone back on his word and ultimately betrayed the Triceraquins (gee no surprise there – there’s only ‘master of deceit‘ in his title) they rescue and free Jack. Jack eventually talks them into going back and letting him fight Aku, they fight AND – he wounds Aku but before anything fatal can be further dealt – surprise, surprise – he slicks off and away to heal and lick his wounds. The Triceraquins (normally a peaceful folk mind you) feel terrible about what they had done to Jack and even they felt that their actions were unforgivable.

Samurai Jack (Photo credit: alanak)

The wonderful thing though? Jack then said, “Aku’s deceit runs deep. Even a good heart can be tainted in the hands of Aku“. That is what I wanted to really focus on here. Is that even those who strive to be good and to do good in the world, they are just as susceptible to being tainted by the negativity of the world as anyone else. It goes into that whole, “Nobodys perfect” and “We all make mistakes“. Even ‘Good‘ people do. They aren’t Saints and most of them don’t want to be put on that pedestal we put them on.

It is ‘US‘ who put those ‘Good‘ people who influence our lives in a good way on those shining pedestals. It is also ‘US‘ who reject those people or are the 1st to say nasty & mean things or spread heinous rumors. These are the things we do if we are not compassionate and understanding enough to forgive our Heroes, Friends, Family or whoever they may be when they do stray from their life-path, their goals or who they truly are deep down.

Instead of kicking these good people when they are down – or adding insult to injury, we should be reminding them of who they are. Sometimes it is a simple matter of people “losing” themselves in something else OR – to someone else that’s actually far more detrimental to their psyche but they don’t know how to ‘pull-away‘. It happens. Believe me, I know – from first hand experience and stories from others I know.

We can’t always be strong, sometimes we NEED to fall a part in order for better things to fall into place. That’s just how life is. Sometimes we need to do things out of our nature or character to remind ourselves who we really are or have people remind us who we are. Sometimes it is to learn something new and those lessons are quite valuable in the long run. Regardless of Good, Bad, Neutral whatever – people make mistakes – sometimes especially when something dear to them is on the line or a piece of them is already heavily invested.

Screenshot of the Lone Wolf and Cub from Samurai Jack. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Anyone have any stories they’d like to share on this? Perhaps there was a time you were made out to be the “Bad Guy” even though you know yourself to be a pretty, to quote Bill and Ted, righteous dude/dudette? What were the circumstances? How were you involved? Can you tell us what happened? I love stories and would love to hear more from others out there willing and brave enough to share.

Thank you for reading and stop by again soon! I sure hope you do.

~Love, light, blessings & more be yours – Namaste~

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• Why I Would Back a Samurai Jack Movie Kickstarter Project (landonbloginson.wordpress.com)
• Samurai Jack (archielovescartoons.wordpress.com)
• Samurai Jack comes to Netflix. (the-amateur-professional.com)
• Hollywood! Adapt This: SAMURAI JACK (collider.com)

Dawn (Me) striking a Heroic Pose in the driver’s seat of the DeLorean (Time Machine from Back to the Future). Was my best picture I think.

Hello everyone!

Welcome back for the FanExpo of 2013 Review. It’s a week or week and a half late but oh well, better late than never I definitely say.

Did I have fun you wonder? Not as much as I usually have at say SakuraCon or possibly Emerald City ComiCon (and I’ve only been to ComiCon 1 year before mind you). It wasn’t the worst convention I’ve ever been too either, but it was one that showed it was a “Work-in-Progress“. So here are my Pros, what little there are, and Cons for FanExpo 2013 Experience.

Con 1; Ticket Lines – I got there at 5:30 in the morning hoping to beat many of the other people who would need to buy tickets at the door for the convention. Why? Well from the fact I’ve been to SakuraCon and know how long the door-line can get, it’s a wise idea, typically. However, I was also there because I had heard from a pretty reliable source that they “Oversold” tickets for the convention online.

So even if you HAD a ticket to get in, there was NO guarantee you might ACTUALLY get in after all. Which I know would have royally miffed a few Con-goers and the Con may very well be a disaster on that basis alone. However, as time went on it didn’t look quite like tickets were as much an issue as I once thought they were going to be. As they announced to us who were waiting, patient and eagar to buy our tickets in line, “We are going to start out selling 300 tickets,” and then they let slip the dogs of war. WHAT?! It was about to be a Geek-War come on!

FanExpo 2011, The Vader Family (Photo credit: Jackman Chiu)

Although, getting there early to purchase tickets, seemed like an utter waste of time. After waiting outside in the cold for 3 hrs (2 hrs more inside) only to get inside and see 4 lines for people who STILL needed to buy tickets and 2 lines for the special online ticket purchases I was like, “The hell did I get up so frackin early for?! I’m not happy about this!“. I can see what they were trying to do – but as a Con-goer who has been to previous conventions before, there is just something that seems a bit unfair about this set-up. There is no sense of “Victory” (Link is safe, it’s just for added Geek-dom ) for “Ticket Purchase Achieved!“.

So admittedly, that was an element I’d have liked that I missed. I like that sense of “Victory!” I get for buying my tickets, knowing how long the line behind me still is and being like, “MWAHAHAH! I’m in! So you on the other side suckas!” lmao! Okay, I’m not THAT mean, but it’s still an awesome feeling regardless.

The Ticket Line! (Photo credit: Originalrocket) Not actually taken at FanExpo 2013

Con 2; Understaffed & Uninformed – I’m combining 2 of my Cons because I felt they went a little “Hand-in-hand“. When you are running an convention you want to ensure you have enough Staff on hand to handle how ever big the venue might be & make sure they know as much as they should. From another reliable source I heard the previous FanExpo had been held in a slightly smaller venue. The logic to moving into a bigger venue is – Hire more Staff and if you aren’t sure how many you might need, hire more – just to be safe. I never feel you can go wrong with having enough “Helpful” staff on hand.

Notice I mentioned the word “Helpful” in there? Well as I said, there were some issues with them being understaffed and that was, not enough of the actual staff seemed to know what was going on. Those with Staff badges, most of which were VENDORS, didn’t know the events or what was even going on & we were lucky if we found someone who DID know what was going on. It was just overall very frustrating and confusing, not just as a Con-goer but even apparently being among the Staff. That’s kind of sad. The thing they should have done was made individual “Vendor” badges for the Vendors. Would have made more sense & that way even the Con-goers could avoid asking them unnecessary questions.

So that being said, they needed to hire more Staff, make sure the Staff were well-briefed/informed and for GODS SAKE, give the Vendors a Program or give them a tour of the convention center so they can be helpful and know what’s going on too! Oai! I don’t remember it being THAT hard to find something out when I was attending SakuraCon! Although with all the panels, workshops and events sometimes it was difficult to decide on what to attend! O.O;

Amanda Tapping joins the main cast for season four. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Con 3; Not Enough Fun Fan Workshops - There was only 1, count’m 1 workshop that I wanted to attend that I decided I couldn’t because I was too exhausted from working off of fumes and trying to force myself to try to stick it out as long as I could in ‘heels‘. Yes; I was wearing heels around the Con. Now while I know some fans are uber-excited in sitting down for the celebrity Q&A panels – I’m not one of those gals. I’d have liked to have seen some more Workshops like the “Voice Acting” workshop they had at FanExpo this year.

There just wasn’t enough to do to keep me entertained as a fan and for me to feel like the Con brought me a lot of joy – other than showing off my costume and posing for pictures. WHAT?! My favorite part of a Con is getting pictures of my costume taken! I can’t help it! lmao! I’m a picture wh**e! Also if it hadn’t cost so bloody much I’d have wanted some signatures from Amanda Tapping, Stan Lee and a few other celebrities but I was very limited on my budget. Which leads me to another flaw.

Con 4; No Rough List Price for Celebrity Signatures – On the Emerald City ComiCon website they actually had a rough guesstimate or list of prices for each celebrity, with the exception of a few who did not disclose their fee, signature. With the economy the way that its been, if you want to be a Smart and Frugal Con-Goer, it’s nice to know these things, am I right? So that was something I was not very thrilled that the FanExpo website did not offer ahead of time. I think myself and others could have been better prepared otherwise.

English: Dave Kellett at the 2010 Emerald City Comicon in the Halfpixel.com booth (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Overall, as a friend who went with me put it, “I found it okay, but not really much more than that. Like a large Garage Sale with higher prices and a chance to get celebrity autographs.” While it’s true no matter the convention that you DO attend that it will have element of this nature, what the Convention Provides overall as far as “Fun Factor” and how they handle the smooth operation of the Convention, will make a HUGE difference in a Con-Goers experience.

So I’ve spoken enough about the Cons, what about the Pros? At this year’s FanExpo - there weren’t many Pros to be honest (save for me getting pictures taken <–shameless I know). However, I did ask some of the other Con-Goers about previous years of FanExpo and how they felt about those years they went prior to this years. The overall feeling and resounding statement was, “Last year’s was so much better!“. So it’s obvious the committee for the convention messed up somewhere. Maybe it’s the drawbacks I mentioned, it could also be something else entirely.

Whatever it may be, they should take this years experience, that of the previous years experience’s, the Fan’s and LEARN from them. Don’t kill FanExpo before it’s able to gain some steam. Give it a chance! All conventions have their good years and their bad years. That is just the way of things. So, I definitely encourage Vancouver, B.C. to keep FanExpo up and running. Learn from your mistakes and build on them! Make the next year a convention to remember, because the next year that I go – I want to write the most awesome review – EV-AH for it!

Emerald City ComiCon 2008 4 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So get back on the horse and try again.

I did enjoy myself a bit. Meeting other fans and Con-goers is fun/making new friends, along with the pictures and hugging favorite characters (I got to hug a DMC 3 Dante! *Insert girlish squeal here*). Like I said, wasn’t bad – but could use some work.

That’s it for my review on FanExpo 2013. For more pictures from the convention, I’ll be providing links to 2 different photographers web-pages who snapped pictures of me and other people from FanExpo and other conventions as well! Also, both of these guys haven’t gotten ALL their pics up yet – so if you check back later and find my pics of me dressed as ‘Dawn‘ – please let me know. I’d be greatly appreciative. The pictures are my mementos.

Also if you’d like your link to your gallery or whatever added because you also took pictures at FanExpo 2013, please let me know in a comment and I’ll look over your link. However the comment may end-up in my spam folder. Don’t worry, I DO inspect my spam comments before I delete them. Just be sure to make sure you don’t sound like a robot is all I ask.

I’ll be checking these sites too off/on but the extra hand in looking for my photos would be helpful and much appreciated. I’m posting one extra photo of me from the convention I managed to have my friend ‘snag‘ with my phone at the end as a special treat. I didn’t get to snap many photos because the convention center hated my phone and I forgot my digi-cam at home. @_@ At least you can see more pics from these awesome Photographers who handed me their cards! Yay!

Thanks for reading! Ab-ed ab-ed, ab-ed – That’s all folks!

“In brightest day,

In darkest night,

no evil shall escape my sight,

let those who worship evils might,

beware my power!

Green Lanterns light!”

-Oath of the Green Lantern Corps

~Blessings and Namaste~

Reference Links for FanExpo 2013 Pics and others:

Geoectomy Photography (geoectomy.deviantart.com) has a Tumblr & Facebook

Cosplay Collector (cosplaycollector.com) On Facebook “DavidDTJAAAAMNgo” & Twitter “DTJAAAAM”

Videodrones (vhsvideodrones.com) also have a Facebook Fan-page and is on Instagram.

Black-cat & Dawn (me), random blur person, unknown.

It’s FINALLY me again and I’m sorry it’s been pretty much 2 weeks, maybe over that without so much as a, “Hey! How you all doing? I’m okay! I got back home from my trip just fine and this is how FanExpo was!” but I have been busy. Not long after I came home I had to prep for house-sitting. Then while house-sitting, I know I’d have been blogging if I could, but I decided to help out around the house with some extra cleaning that I know would be appreciated by the family once they got back.

I did make it to FanExpo (2013) in Vancouver, B.C. and honestly? It wasn’t that impressive to me, but I have another blog I’d like to dedicate to it for a full detailed review as to why I wasn’t that thrilled with it. I will say putting my make-up on for my costume was totally worth it because I got recognized by a handful of people and THAT was fun. For those unaware, I went as ‘Dawn’ from the ‘Cry for Dawn‘ comics and ‘Dawn Trilogy‘. I just threw something together that looked Dawn-esque and went from there. The Make-up and accents are what really made it.

My man reminded me he missed my blogging which told me, I REALLY should try to make some time for updating my blog. I told myself I was going to, especially when I was house-sitting, but that didn’t work out so well. So here I am today, trying to do just that.

For those wondering about my ‘Donation Pool’ thing I’m trying to do, I have good news and bad news. Bad news is – I still have some kinks to work out of the 1st plan I had. The Good news? I may have yet another GREAT contingency plan that would work out far better than the 1st. Just all depends on YOU and the amount of traffic I bring in to my blog. I’ll tell you more as the plan truly unfolds and if I hit another ‘snag‘ I’ll tell you about it. Don’t worry.

Bright side? Some of the stuff on my ‘Project List‘ I want to see done, is slowly happening for some parts of the town. Houses that I wanted to help paint are getting painted, whether or not they are getting inspected too for health and safety though, is another story. Still, someone said, “Maybe it’s all your positive energy you are putting toward it that’s helping make it happen? And maybe it’s Spirit’s way of saying, You should save & spend your money on other projects – I got this one.” would be kind of cool.

Hard to say though. Any who, I need to update the info in the project page and hopefully type up some other posts today like a ‘Mad-woman’. I hope all of you out there are well and are experiencing blog success in your own way or whatever kind of success you’d like to be having right now. Until next time – thank you for reading!

~Blessings & good fortune, Namaste~

English: Don Mueang Airport domestic terminal, near Bangkok, Thailand – Thai Airways customer service counters. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A dear friend of mine I met through SecondLife and I were sharing a conversation yesterday about our experiences in Retail. Especially those terribly “negative” experiences we have had in the retail environment. For those unfamiliar with the Retail market, it can be pretty cut-throat, unforgiving, unfair and sometimes – very unrewarding (especially sometimes with how the CUSTOMERS treat you). Course, it depends on the type of Retailer you are.

I tend to find Small Retail Businesses (Mom and Pop Stores) are better, friendlier, care about their employees (more often than not), appreciate them, believe in what they are selling and more. Course this isn’t true for EVERYONE I’m sure, but that’s been my experience.

However, during the conversation it sparked the idea for a possible Psychological aspect of Retail that goes unconsidered. Big Retailers often do specific things with their inventory (ex: Move sh*t around on you) that may annoy or irritate you, but the ploy that they are aiming for is to get you to spend more time than you’d like and tempt you to buy more than what you actually NEED. Some of you are probably going, “Well Duh!“, humor me – for those who don’t know. Thank you.

As I was saying, now while they have Psychological ploys like this to boost sales, my question is – are they thinking about some of the “Negative Reinforcement” they are helping to promote when it comes to society/their customer base?

What is this Negative Reinforcement I feel Major Retailers are promoting? Drum roll please…*imaginary drum-roll*…The Customer is ALWAYS right! Aye; you read that right. Fact of the matter is, the Customer is NOT always right. In fact, sometimes the customer is unruly, obnoxious, RUDE and can be trying to make the employees have a BAD day because they are having one and they don’t want to be alone in their “Black Hole” of a mood. They want to drag down as many people as they can with them.

There are a number of ways the Customer can be VERY wrong in their actions of how they treat the employees based upon this rule:

• Returning something they should have DEFINITELY seen the POSTED return policy for or asked an Employee about what the Return Policy was on a specific item (mattress pads, sheets, air mattresses, tents, etc) BUT – they STILL try to return it anyway, often throwing a tantrum, making a scene until they get what they WANT – namely their money back.
• Getting a discount on an item that obviously the employee or even the Manager says they can’t GIVE them a discount on.
• Expired coupons (Yep; I’ve seen some of THESE Tantrums at times).
• The obvious Tantrum over, “But THIS store has it priced at THIS, but I have no proof to prove that it’s at that price I’m telling you, but you should still give me that price because I SAY SO!“. I’m sure some people have heard this one.

Okay, we have four really great examples. If you can think of more to add to this list, feel free to add your input in the comments section! While there is MORE than just this issue alone when it comes to Retail, we are going to strictly focus on this one today. I also have a VERY good story to tell regarding that first example. If you want the story, ask me in the comments.

When I was working in Major Retailer, more often than not, despite the corporate policies clearly in place above or within the Customer Service Desk area, Employees or Management should be able to tell you – they would CAVE to the customers throwing these sorts of Tantrums. Now, sometimes I understand why people get upset over some things, but in most cases that I’ve seen – they aren’t the correct circumstances in which the Customer Service should “Give-in“.

Instead, most Customer Service “Gives-in” or CAVES at the first sign of a potential “Customer Tantrum“. I know there will be parents reading this and most of you probably know, it’s NOT a good idea to “Cave-in” to your child’s demands. That’s unfortunately what these adults are acting like and by Customer Service and Corporate giving IN to these sorts of “demands” they are promoting a very NEGATIVE Psychological mind-set. Which people will keep EXPLOITING until they put a STOP to it!

Essentially, they are telling Customer’s it’s “Okay” to act like a petulant child to get THEIR way or what THEY want. If they don’t listen to them at the store, they threaten to tell ALL their friends and people who will hear them about your stores, “Oh so horrible,” Customer Service experience at that specific store. They may even threaten to go all the way to Corporate. Some Corporations even FINE or Punish their Stores for the number of customer complaints they get over the store. If anything, I think that means an investigation should be done FIRST before the store is punished as a whole.

Believe me, I have had some bad Customer Service Experiences before, but that was because the Employee was rude – not the other way around.

If Corporations had ENOUGH sense they’d send people to visit those stores who get Customer complaints and observe for a specified time period in areas where it counts, like the Customer Service Desk (A Day in the Life at the Customer Service Desk) space or even wandering the floor to see whether Customer’s are being helped at all in a timely fashion. Taking into account whether or not the store is dreadfully understaffed or not. These are the kinds of things that would help IMPROVE Customer satisfaction and efficiency.

You LOSE a lot more money, in my book, by caving in and giving Customer’s their money back when they know the rules but pretend to play DUMB or pull the “Tantrum” Card. If this kind of Customer behavior isn’t stopped soon, it will continue to help perpetuate this false ideology of “Entitlement” among other negative Psychological notions.

I do feel VERY strongly that Businesses and Corporations should stand pretty firm, without fear, behind their policies. They are there for a reason. Most of all, your employees don’t deserve the threats or disrespect they often get from Customers who use, abuse and exploit this obvious “chink” in the armor of their store’s policies that they should be able to stand firmly behind, again, without FEAR.

So PLEASE stop caving! For the sake of your employees and other customers, throw those unruly, rude people out! They don’t deserve their money back if they aren’t going to be civil and try to ACT like an adult about the situation. What are you paying security for? Aside from protecting the merchandise?! What about the Peace? Come on! Get yourselves some Bouncers or something! Grow a back-bone and show these people there are consequences to their actions!

And that is my musing for the day folks! I hope it was interesting for you as it was rather interesting for me. Thank you for reading!

~Merry part & Merry meet again, blessings – Namaste~

P.S. The Donation Pool for now has been put on hold until I can get a chance to call the IRS to confirm some information for me and until I’m done worrying about getting ready for FanExpo as it is this month. Thank you for your patience. I’m very sorry also for the lack of postings!

~Love and light~ <3

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Do you feel like you “get” social media, or do you just use it because that’s where all your friends and family are?

Hey all you readers and bloggers out there!

I know it’s been a while since my last blog. I apologize. I’ve started to get those “Pre-Convention Panic” Jitters, because FanExpo (the convention in Canada, going with my Man and his male best-friend) is this month and I need to finish my DAWN Head-Dress soon. It’s almost there. I can’t tell you how much I wish I had the proper Power Tools to do some “Subtractive” sculpting, but alas, I must work with what I got. So I’ve been focused on that, doing Readings in SL, Gardening and trying to get some errands done.

So I’ve been a very busy wee Hummingbird. :3

I had a couple new things I wanted to write about, but going to type those up at “Human hours” vs. my normal “Vampire Hours“. and NO this Vampire/Night Owl does NOT Sparkle…unless I want to. hehe So here’s a little something for fun.

When they ask do I “Get” Social media I have to wonder what they mean. Do I understand how it works? Can I see the functionality of Social Media? Do I think Social Media can be useful? Or useless? I guess the answer to nearly all of those is a resounding, “Yes”. Albeit, I do feel some of the Social Media services out there are rather redundant and unnecessary. I think Social Media is a VERY powerful tool and to that I would also like to add, “With great power comes great responsibility“. Yes; that’s right. I just used a Comic Book quote.

People have used Social Media for the right reasons and for absolutely WRONG reasons. Or they choose to use it at the worst of times when they should refrain or should restrain from using Social Media, often painting a rather poor picture of themselves. You might just know what I’m talking about. Granted, I suppose that adds an element of “Their human too!” but still.

I also find Social Media to be rather “annoying” at best. It’s like each year or every 5 years to a decade they have to come out with some new form of Social Media or – for instance. Not long after Twitter, I started to see other things like Tumblr, Pinterest, LinkedIn and other things that are considered Social Media outlets. Now I haven’t done enough research to know if these other Social Media groups were established WELL before Twitter or not. What I do know is that they became more emphasized AFTER Twitter. So hence, why I’m a bit annoyed.

We are always trying to keep up with what’s the “New thing“. At least some of us are and I find that – again – rather annoying. If you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m NOT a trend-setting socialite. No; I follow life to the beat of my own drum and some people love the beat so much they stick around and join my drum circle and we have a blast instead.

Now while I say all this, it may seem contradictory on a few points as I am ON Twitter. I’m on Twitter for a logical reason though and I try not to update it everyday or too often…although some days I have my, “Tweet! Tweet! I’m going to share with everyone my overly abundant loving energy today! Tweet! Tweet!” Of course, overtime, I have found Twitter to not BE so bad. Like any form of Social Media though, we all should take such things in small doses and not allow them to take up too much of our lives in general.

Twitter 6×6 (Photo credit: Steve Woolf)

I’ll tell you it took me the longest time before I finally joined Facebook from Myspace. Aye; you remember Myspace don’t you? I still have a profile there active. I haven’t shut it down. I figured I’d leave it active for Friends or Family to find me if they wanted too. Most of my friends, family that counts and Spirit Family have moved over to Facebook though. So I’m on Facebook for Social reasons. To keep in touch with people I don’t have to send out 100 e-mails a day to (not to a single person mind you, I mean 1 for each person and then replying?! Oopdie oh boy! @_@).

So I use Social Media to keep in touch with friends, Family, Spirit Family, to meet SOME new folks, to find like-minded people, to find out about new things, to keep relatively updated & in the loop about media/news AND – promote myself and my blog shamelessly. Really? Can you blame me? It sure will come in handy for promoting my Book when it’s finally published and in print for people to buy. I know some of you out there are into or using Social Media for some of the SAME reasons so don’t you get all high and mighty with me! Psh!

Overall, that’s how I feel about Social Media and what I use it for. What do you use it for? Care to share?

Thanks for reading. Till next time – stay thirsty my friends. *giggles*

Comments, questions or topic suggestion ideas? Leave a comment in the comments section!

~Bright and Dark blessings, Namaste~

Ugh, I wanted to move the money little by little into the different sub-accounts I made to keep tabs and track of it all! They are ruining my organization! *Shakes fist in the air*

Now I do have a possible plausible way of still getting it to work, but that hinges on something else being legal, true and holding up to both those words I just mentioned. I’d like to say what, but – I can’t for various reasons so I need to, sadly, be cryptic and vague. Ugh! @_@ I AM working on getting this thing to work. Sadly, the worst case scenario, I have to make a subscription button or something like that instead.

It won’t give me the same kind of flexibility I’d like or I’m sure anyone else would like, but it’d be something at least. Ugh!

If you have any ideas, please feel free to share. Would love to hear them.

Oh and just out of curiosity, if I HAD to make a fixed amount for any reason, what would be reasonable to you? I know that depends if your making a “One-time payment” or a “Subscription Fee” so specify that too if you can.

Thanks for reading as always!

Comments, questions, topic suggestions? Find that reply button and let me know!

~Love, light, blessings & more – Namaste~

Woman applying make-up. Canon 5D Mark II Sigma 150mm f/2.8 Macro Whitelightning X1600 (2) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Every woman likes to look her best. Often that means we like to hide the impurities and other embarrassing things that are visible on our skin, especially the most important skin we feel really helps us get our foot in the door at a job interview, a date or otherwise (no it’s not your cleavage or your legs!) – our face. It’s probably a pretty good guess that most women use the regular commercial stuff that has the fillers, preservatives and other stuff in it which can feel like “cake” on your face.

Hell, I use this stuff! So I’m speaking from experience and NOT out of my posterior.

In the last decade or so there has been a BIG emphasis on the, “Getting back to basics” and trying or using “Mineral Make-up“. The question is – does it really live up to the hype? Let’s clarify a few things first before we go over the differences, pros and cons of Traditional Make-up vs. Mineral Make-up.

As long as human beings have been alive and started to take a personal interest in how to hide their flaws, imperfections, appear younger or convey a certain sort of appearance at all, they have been hard at work on developing the make-up they felt was best with the tools they had of the era. Sometimes their make-up was various animal feces like bird or gator (I’m serious – ewww!). Sometimes it was something they were simply using as “dye” to change the color that was something we – today – would find quite nasty.

They also experimented with regular good old-fashioned minerals. The experimentation with minerals of the Earth, really isn’t news. It’s OLD news, much like the 13th Zodiac sign they got all excited about not that long ago which appeared back also in 1985 or round about when I was born. Again – nothing new here!

Note: That’s kind of a pet-peeve of mine, when they take something that is completely OLD news and regurgitate it as if it’s new. I usually –> *face-palm & shakes head*

Woman Applying Powder by Hashiguchi Goyō, 1918 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Your Traditional Commercial Make-up:

So how is regular old commercial Make-up different from the Mineral Make-up they hype? Well I mentioned a few of the differences already. They do contain minerals that are good for your skin. However, they also contain preservatives, fillers and maybe even certain dye components to give it a specific color. Aside from that, I mentioned the feel of “Cakey-ness” or heavy-like quality of traditional make-up.

One of the great things about this kind of make-up though, it lasts HOURS! So long as you don’t rub your face a lot, scratch it or get it wet (it can get a little wet). They even make special make-up specifically for “Working-out” or to that effect.

Mineral Make-up:

Mineral Make-up is largely made just using minerals. It shouldn’t have any preservatives, fillers or otherwise in it. Not even dyes. Just the natural wholesome stuff. A little concealer, brush dipped into foundation and lightly dusted over your face and flaws disappear at the flick of a wrist; least that’s how easy they seem to make it.

Pros and Cons – Mineral vs. Commercial Traditional – FIGHT!

Traditional Commercial Make-up Pros:

• Lasts for hours when applied correctly.
• They have this kind of make-up for those who have to “Work-out” so there is versatility.

Traditional Commercial Make-up Cons:

• It’s recommended to wash your face immediately after the days use of make-up, otherwise you risk blocking pores that will, most likely, get clogged and turn into blemishes.
• It’s heavier.
• Takes often longer to apply than Mineral Make-up.

Mineral Make-up Pros:

• Goes on relatively easily.
• Takes less time to apply.
• The minerals without the extra stuff that most commercially produced make-up has, is better for your skin, so much so there is a possibility of being able to sleep with your make-up on over-night. However, it’s also not recommended by most.

Mineral Make-up Cons:

• This kind of make-up will NOT last you for hours. You may need to touch-up throughout the day depending.
• While you can sleep in it – again – with any make-up, to avoid pore clog-age, wash your face from the days use.

Regardless, you will and still should – WASH – YOUR – FACE – with either that you use. That’s the big consensus.

Cosmetics (Photo credit: My Sight, as You See.)

Which kind of make-up should you be using? That’s not up for me to decide, that’s more of a “case by case” basis and you need to try each for yourself and find what works for you. I haven’t had the chance to try mineral make-up yet, but if I did – I’d like to maybe try BareMinerals or Natural Look. Do you know what it’s really going to come right down for you to choose which one works for you, aside from everyday or not so every-day use? PRICE!

When it comes to women’s preservation of beauty, one stereotype that often has a pretty good footing and seems to hold true – is we like to look our best and appear youthful, so often – we aren’t thinking of the price. However, when push comes to shove and it’s NOT within your budget, it will be a deciding factor. That’s my case. I can’t afford to try Mineral Make-up now unless it’s a “Free Trial” based thing or something at least of that nature. That’s it.

However, would I pay monthly to have make-up shipped to me? Probably not. I don’t wear make-up everyday or often enough for that. I do believe to some extent we should embrace our natural beauty, flaws and all. That being said, if you’re going to take pictures of me or I am going on camera, sadly, I am going to put make-up on because I DO, like most women, enjoy looking my best. If my skin were flawless – might be a different story.

As a Goth though (believe it or not as you will), when I go out clubbing or otherwise, I do like to convey often a very different appearance from “The Norm“. So normal make-up works very well for me for the average use that I use it for and general wear and tear. Though, sometimes I wish the cakey-ness was less and that it didn’t emphasis minute crinkles or wrinkles. I try to blend well though, I do a pretty good job, but application takes me a sometime. I often feel like I’m painting a picture, except – it’s my face.

So that’s my case, what’s yours? Which do you prefer or use? Do these Pros and Cons of either hold up for you? Or are some a bit off? Let us know your thoughts from your experience!

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed the alternative topic from my normal bits and pieces of postings, as this was something I was also very curious and rather interested in.

Got something to say? Questions, topic suggestion? Find the reply button and make yourself heard!

~Dark & Bright blessings & more be yours – Namaste~

References:

BareMinerals Infomercials

Sheer Cover Infomercials

The Benefits of Mineral Make-up (Webmd.com)

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English: One of William Blake’s watercolour illustrations for Robert Blair’s poem The Grave. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Today I was sitting in on a discussion in SecondLife. It was not in my original plans of the day to do this, but I saw the notification for it from one of the groups I am in and I decided to “Join In“. There were some diversity on the understanding of what “Fairness” meant to different people participating in the group. Some people equated “Fairness” with “Equality“. Of course, that’s not what it means to me at all. Before I go further into this about my thoughts on it, allow me to share what was shared with those of us at the class.

I don’t recall if this is taken specifically from someone’s website or what have you. What I am citing for you is NOT my own words but the work of someone else I’d love to give credit to if I knew who it was. There is at least 2 definite citation in this at least though for a specific passage or 2 so at least someone gets credit. If you know who it is, please leave a comment letting me know so I can give proper credit for the information I have. Thank you!

What is fair ?
___________________
What is fair pay ? ( lets say for bankers and nurses )
What is fair treatment ?
What is a fair judgment? What is a fair opinion ?
What is a fair share ?
And . . .What are fair chances ?

Since fair decisions and fair judgements matter for all kind of opinions lets have a look at fair decisions:
Well, here are some good points and criteria for making fair decisions from Michael Josephson. You can find them all at Josephsoninstitute.org.

Suppose you have good reason to assume, but are not sure, that a close friend lied to you. That your boyfriend / girlfriend cheated on you or that your colleague came to work drunk. Can we deal with these matters in a fair way? And how can we do so?

1. Fair Notice.
You should determine whether the person accused had a fair notice that the conduct was wrong.

2. Impartiality.
You should be sure you are a fair and impartial judge. This means you are willing to suspend judgment until all the information is in. It also means you have to set aside any conclusions you may have made and clear your mind of prejudice (prejudging) or predispositions about the person or issues involved.

3. Gather Facts.
You must make reasonable efforts to gather facts. What do you actually know? Are there ambiguities that can be clarified? If you are making comparisons do you have enough information on each candidate for each case concerning the factors you think are most important?

4. Fair Hearing.
Fourth, in an accusatory setting you should allow the person accused an opportunity to tell his or her side of the story. This means confronting the accused with your suspicions and the facts or inferences you have to back them up.

5. Evaluation.
You need to carefully weigh and evaluate all the information you have, separating facts from opinions and opinions from speculation. Before you reach a judgment you have to take up the issue of burden of proof.

Some principles:
Treat all people equitably based on their merits and abilities and handle all essentially similar situations similarly and with consistency.
Make all decisions on proper criteria, without undue favoritism or improper prejudice.
Fully consider the rights, interests, and perspectives of all stakeholders, approach judgments with open-minded impartiality.

And before we start our discussion lets have a brief look at a very famous fairness principle: The so-called Veil of Ignorance. Thought up by John Rawls.

Pretty much everyone has a sense of self-interest. No matter who you are or what you do, it is natural that you want to help yourself. This makes producing justice a bit difficult – if everyone inherently skews the system in their own favor, unless all the skews balance out you’re just left with a very messy system.

Imagine the kind of system that a bunch of spirits might agree to before they were born. They do not know what talents or handicaps they will be born into or with. Are they gifted craftsman or poets or a math genius. Are they strong or weak ? Are they healthy or suffering diseases in life ? They just don’t know while they agree on the system. This is their veil ! But they know that these talents and handicaps exist. What kind of system would they come up with?

When it comes to myself I always try to be a relatively “Fair” individual. Even before I might speak to a stranger and I might make mild judgements (I know we all do this, so don’t even deny it. Mild or no) based on the feel of their aura, how they carry themselves, to how they dress – if I approach them or they approach me, I still give them the benefit of the doubt to prove those mild judgements incorrect or completely on the ball. Most of the time, I’m 100% on the ball. I do this though because I feel it is only “Fair” and in a way it is a common-courtesy for me and for them.

Even in situations people ask me for advice or to mediate on, I try to be fair and withhold judgement completely until I have a pretty good picture of what exactly is going on, have some idea of perhaps what is going on with the other party involved, to the person who’s asking for the advice or mediation. I then deliberate all that I have gathered within myself, perhaps with some experience of my own that I can lend + my intuition and give my viewpoint or advice based on the conclusion I reach.

Because as I know – no story is EVER one-sided. There is always at least 3 sides to every story. Your truth, the other person’s truth and the Universal truth of what’s really going on or should be done. There are people out there who would rather have things THEIR way and that THEY are in the right to feel hurt (The Victim) or persecuted when often sometimes, they are the problem or what is the cause of the issue in the first place. Hence why there is a side to every story.

I always encourage people to try to get as much as you can from both sides of the story before you come to your own conclusions about what to do or say.

Getting back to the word “Fairness” – as I mentioned, some people in the discussion equated Fairness with Equality, but to me those two words are NOT synonymous for one another at ALL. Fairness does not always equate to Equality and Equality does not always equate Fairness.

Fairness to me is very different than it might be for some people out there and that is because we all view the world through our own personal “Filters” of sorts. Those Filters often are developed from our personal experiences to what we have been raised and brought up to believe. I have always had a rather Altruistic nature at heart. So for me Fairness isn’t about Equality but rather, “If I have the means to help out my fellow-man because I have the wealth, power or influence, I should use that to give back to my community to help enrich it in some way”.

Some discussion participants mentioned things that fell into what some consider, “The Golden Rule” like, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” and that does go with Fairness to a certain extent, but again – not everyone may see it that way. It’s a bit of a blurred line there.

So let me share somethings as examples but with my opinion on said example of how I feel it is either “Fair” or “Unfair” based on my personal experience and/or Filter. This example may or may not step on some people’s toes, so you’ve been warned. You don’t have to agree with me – this is just how I feel.

I think Senators should be paid LESS for what they do because I do not feel they spend it wisely.  Some of these people take the enormous paychecks they get, buy a really nice luxury house, a luxury high-end vehicle and other possessions they may not necessarily need. Now the home seems like a necessity for some people to want or have, but when you consider the price of “Prime Choice Housing” it’s kind of a different story.

Even the luxury car like a Bentley or whatever is considered a luxury vehicle, they don’t need that luxury vehicle, they could have gone with something LESS pricy that thieves might be less inclined to try to steal/break into.

Now I’m not saying it’s bad to want or have nice things, if you have the proper means to sustain them, but you consider this – the government wants to make cuts to important funding projects vs. to the Congressman or Senator’s paychecks. To me – that just seems unfair. I don’t LIKE that these people can set the amount of their paychecks either. I sometimes think that should be voted on by the people, as many of them don’t seem to remember – they – WORK – FOR – THE – PEOPLE – and haven’t always worked well in getting what we want – done or made the kind of positive changes we would like to see made.

It’s also bad when you hear some of them complain, “We don’t make enough!” and I’m thinking, “You make more than I do in a whole year! You have a luxury house, a luxury car and other luxuries I can’t even afford with a years worth normal salary. Why should I feel sympathy for you?“

Example number 2 I can give is Sports Players. I don’t think they should make near as much as they should. They should maybe make enough for their travel expenses, a small bit from the seats at sporting events and the merchandise with their faces plastered all over it, but they shouldn’t get paid more than say – someone in the military who puts their life on the line on a daily basis for MY freedoms. That just seems messed up to me as it points, in a way, to our priorities being misaligned.

Contrary to popular belief, not all military make equal or adequate pay for their service in the military. Sports players make more than them. I do feel though that the Solider contributes far more good and well-being to the society (contrary to OTHER rumors as well about ALL Soldiers *big eye-roll*) as a whole, than the Sports Player.

So there are some of my examples and how I feel about “Fairness“. What do you think about “Fairness“? Can you think of any examples that you feel are “Fair” or extremely “Unfair“? Would love to see what people share and how they feel about this.

Thank you for reading as always! Tune in next Monday, Wednesday and Friday for the next additions. Same Fae-tyme. *giggle* Same Fae-channel!

Comments, questions or got a topic suggestion? Find the reply button and let me read it!

~Love, light, blessings and more, Namaste~ _/\_

Related articles

• John Rawls And The Veil Of Ignorance (hammeringshield.wordpress.com)
• Vulnerable groups and the right to a fair trial (seanchristopherbrisk.wordpress.com)
• Fairness and a World That Works (goldenageofgaia.com)
• Justice with Michael Sandel – BBC: Fairy Pay? (youtube.com)

“…Anyone who says differently is selling something.” – Westly dressed as “The Man in Black” or “Dread Pirate Roberts“.

While I had something different in mind for today’s post (as I have several topics awaiting in my Drafts Folder and The Shelton Oracle I should sorely update), I saw The Daily Posts posting of the day and it said, “Take a quote from your favorite movie — there’s the title of your post. Now, write!” Now I could have taken ANY number of quotes from the movie, as it is my all-time favorite – but this was the first that came to mind and lends for interesting discussion.

I already, honestly, wanted to take this quote and expand on it – so Daily Post gave me an excuse and motivation to do that today over anything else for my regular blog.

Consider the quote, sans the Highness comment, “Life is PAIN – anyone who says differently is selling something!“.

This quote seems very negative and even pessimistic. One could argue, “He’s just being a realist“. I hate to break it to you but I USED to be like this! So I know how negative, bleak and hopeless this outlook is. It’s like giving up the power to be a Co-Creator in your life by surrendering yourself and your personal power to the mercy of the world. That doesn’t sound like a lot of fun, does it? I sure don’t think it does.

It’s a thing of certainty that “Pain” does exist in our world – emotional, mental, physical. Just how we DEAL with that pain comes right down to US. What will we take from that experience of pain and how we use it in our lives is what counts. Do we use it to our advantage? Or do we succumb, give up and surrender to that pain believing nothing can be done or that we won’t or can’t do anything?

There is always something we can do to help ourselves when it comes to Pain. There is something more behind the pain we experience.

This quote, as I said, is rather negative and leaves out the possibility for anything else. Life is MORE than just Pain. Yes; we may occasionally hurt those we love and care about sometimes – whether intentionally or no, we do what we can then with the tools that we have, but again – life is more than just about Pain. It’s about Life, Love, Joy, Laughter, Community, togetherness, those we share our experiences with and so much more!

Yes; Life does have some Pain – but it’s not all that it is. However, that being said – there are some lessons that pain can only teach.

What do you think?

Thank you for reading and may you be blessed.

Comments, questions or got a topic suggestion? Find that reply button and lay it on me!

~Merry part and merry meet again – Namaste~

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