Category Archives: Work

Panel Discussion

Work

About a week ago I was invited to speak in a panel about critique groups’ values, pitfalls, and experiences. Having run a writers’ group for 8 years, I’d say it was a perfect fit! This panel was a joint venture between the Citrus Crime Writers and Florida Gulf Coast Crime Writers groups. The other two panelists were Harold Emanuel and Liz Milliron.

Moderated by my good friend and CCW President Martha Gaeney and CCW Secretary/Treasurer Ruth Owen, we spoke for about an hour on Zoom. I haven’t done a panel or speaking engagement in a while and it was fun to get back into the groove of talking about what I love to do. Questions covered topics like Size and Genres of Critique Groups, Nature of Critique Group Feedback, How Critiques Can Motivate Authors, and The Value of an Effective Group Moderator.

It was a well-organized meeting and we covered a lot of ground. There were around 14 people in attendance and the Zoom was recorded for future viewing. We received a few great questions from the audience and that added a good amount of interaction that kept things interesting.

I’m looking forward to doing more of these in the future.

Buffy is on the injured reserve list

Family, Work

So I got home late last night, I’m tired and not feeling well so I pretty much went straight to bed. Not long after that Mom went downstairs for something (it’s like 3 am) and for some retarded reason the dog followed her.

Except she busted her ass down the stairs. She’s done it before, but she kinda slides down the last 6 steps or so and hits the bottom running. This time it sounded like she ate it. A loud thump at the end. She ended up splitting the bottom of her left paw open and mom had to take her to the vet because it wouldn’t stop bleeding. So blood on the carpet that looks like Dad got all of it out but now she has her foot bandaged. She looks pretty sad about it and I think she’s embarassed too. So she kinda hobbles around now and when mom sat down to talk to her today buffy picked up her bum foot and held it out for mom to hold. Yeah she’s retarded, but she’s cute too. I’m going to take a picture when the battery is done charging.

In brighter news, a fellow at work that should have been fired months ago for being a general ass and a complete waste of space was fired this week. Happened on my day off but he was on his last warning, made the wrong move on blowing up at like the WORST person in the department and was gone 2 hours later. My entire department’s morale is up!

Since I changed my schedule to Wed-Sat I’ve been a sort of nomad when it comes to where I sit on certain days because of lack of space. But now with the Waste of Space gone, I get his desk. Work ruled this week.

You know what grinds my gears?

Work

Awful laughs. The kind that makes you physically cringe when you hear it molest the air around you. This one lady at work laughs like a female Barney Rubble. And she’s loud as hell too. Everytime she blurts that shit out I want to take my shoe off and throw it at her. “AH HYUCK HYUCK UH HYUCK UHHHH HYUCK AHYUCK.” She even has a stupid fucking catch phrase. Good lord.

Health Care

Work

Insurance companies are the worst companies on the face of the planet. If this “Explaination of Benefit Payments” sheet is saying they are only paying $58 of the $450 of the physical I had earlier this month, I am going to flip the fuck out. Then I’m going to drop this absolute joke of a benefits program from work like an A bomb on Hiroshima. I’m so annoyed right now I can’t even describe it.