They took the candy I'd bought for the OtakuHELL show.

Not all of it. But, yeah. They took the candy.

I've been Grinched, but I don't expect my shit to come back down from the top of Mt. Crumpit. Ever.

I'm hurtin' really bad over this one, kids. I'm sorry.

Unless Ed stayed home from work there's nobody at the house right now. And I'm getting all itchy about it. I don't wanna go home and find the doors kicked in again.

I really don't like this feeling.

I keep finding new things missing.

I had this Gigantor tin type toy replica that used to be on top of the TV. It was one of those things I picked up at a con on a Sunday afternoon. I don't remember which con or which dealer. But they had a box full of them and nobody was buying so they'd marked 'em down to next to nothing. I never opened the box, either. Not because I'm one of those Mint-In-Box type of people. But because the box also replicated the old tin type toy packaging. So it had these cool Yokoyama illos all over it with that post-war era water colouring they did.

They took that.

I had a couple of old CD ROMs I'd bought over the internet back in the 90s from the UK, and a bunch of Kamen Rider Black RX VCDs from Malaysia stacked between the Averatec and the Asus.

They helped themselves to those.

I had my Tapwave Zodiac PDA on it's charging cradle on the desk behind the Asus.

They took that.

I found the cap for the ATI HDTV Wonder USB that I'd just got from Woot last week in a corner under the desk. I got it because they'd broadcast Jack And The Witch on one of the DTV sub channels on Halloween and I wanted to record it the next time it aired.

They took that, too.

They'd tossed everything to the floor. They'd walked over my Atom Kids CD to get to the Asus. They'd shattered the CD case.

I couldn't sleep last night. I finally got tired of staring at the ceiling around 4:30 AM and got up and made coffee. Then I walked around my room finding new things that were missing. Small, little valueless things. The Asus was a $200 netbook. The Averatec was refurbished when I bought it 5 years ago.

The Averatec makes me the angriest. I had spent hours, days, putting together video clips for the Hell show this Saturday. Editing sound and video. Drawing cel after cel of Santas and elves and Krampuses and Hell Nurse Katies. On the Averatec hard drive.

All that work. All that. All gone.

At some point last night I was thinking, no problem. I can sit down and draw that animation all over again. But then I realized I can't. The Averatec was a Tablet PC. I'd bought it because I can't seem to get my brain and my drawing hand to work together with a Wacom Tablet. With the Averatec I could draw directly on the sceen. And it worked for me. But they took that away from me. I've lost a valuable tool. And I don't have the money to replace it. I can't sit down and draw that animation all over again. I can't animate cartoons. All the money and time I've invested in that set up is gone. And it makes me angry. Very angry.

They took that.

Only 4 days away from doing a show at YuleCon. This happens. Only 8 days from my birthday.

Some things can be replaced. Most things can't. The most important things are most likely lost forever.

I walked around the room before I left for work doing a mental inventory. But then I thought, what's the point? What does it matter?

UPDATE: They also took one of the old portable DVD players that I used for the OtakuHELL shows that burnt out. The DVD drive only worked sometimes, but the 7 inch screen had a bypass switch so I was using it as a video monitor. It's got one of my vinyl AnimeHELL stickers on the back of the screen. The older Audiovox portable DVD player that had been sitting under that I'd put a masking tape label over the top reading, "Don't use, doesn't work," so I wouldn't take it to HELLshows. I found it tossed underneath my desk. Maybe I need to put similar labels on all my shit?

What does "Thanksgiving" sound like?

I can evoke X-Mas with a looping "Jingle Bell" sample. But what the heck can I use for Thanksgiving???

Dug out all the files and DVDs I made for last year's YuleCon show and sat down to re-edit and add new clips to the mix. Look for new X-Mas clips AND a few Thanksgiving clips in the show. Ok, there's really not a lot of Thanksgiving clips out there. But I grabbed what I could find. Does Thanksgiving get shorted because we're too busy eating and watching football? Or is it because we're no longer a primarily agricultural society and the harvest has lost it's meaning in the 21st century? Or is Thanksgiving really some pagan winter solstice ritual thing? Of course I could be overlooking what Thanksgiving has really come to be these days: the day before BLACK FRIDAY.

YuleCon is next weekend. And we're confirmed for a Otaku Hell show on Saturday night. Which screws me up, because I'm no where near ready for it. So, this should be interesting.

In addition to being our last show of the year, it's just a couple days before my birthday, too. Woot!

Update: Just picked up a couple bags of "Fun Size" Halloween candy they have on sale at the Kroger. So, that's one thing I don't have to worry about. Next on the list: prizes. Anybody seen Katie? She's the one who usually finds the HELLprizes.

http://www.enp-news.org/

My home state is wonderfully messed up.

After spending a night in the box Chico wasn't too happy when I got in to the office this morning. Throwing caution to the wind I decided to let him out of the cat kennel.

...And the crazy cat from last week had been magically switched with a cat that wanted pettings and attention and treats. Chico is now wandering around the new office and occasionally coming up to me for more pettings. So, maybe he's finally got it. Which would be a load off my mind. 'Cause this cat is giving me ulcers. I swear.

I just paid for two more years of http://www.hellnurse.com and http://www.hellnursekatie.com

Now I just need to spend more time and energy putting stuff on the Hell Nurse blog/site.

Chico, the office cat who doesn't want to move to the new office, hid under the cars in the parking lot for a few hours on Friday and then came back to the old office door. So, they let him in to the old office and set up a food bowl and the litter box for him and even brought over Tibbs to keep him company. The plan was that they'd catch Chico on Sunday and put him in a cat kennel and bring him to the new office.

Well, that didn't happen.

This morning I come in and find Chico is still over at the old office.

So, I went over to the old office and found Chico. Chico wasn't too nervous. So I tried to pet him. Chico was ok with the petting. He's one of those cats that likes to be brushed. So, I sat and talked to him and gave Chico pettings...and then I tried to pick him up. Now, Chico isn't a pick me up cat or a lap cat. It's just too much for him. But I'd been trying to get him used to it by picking him up and petting him every morning. And now that I had him picked up I quickly turned around and put him in the cat kennel.

The last time I'd tried to put Chico in a cat carrier I got scratched up pretty bad. This time, nothing.

So, right now, Chico is in mundeemo's office and crying. But at least we've got him in the new office. And I didn't get ripped to bits by kitty claws. A small Monday morning victory.

Tonight on TCM, The Blood Waters of Dr. Z AKA ZAAT! Reel from the horror of a 7 foot tall walking catfish!

Chico the office cat had been hiding underneath a heavy cabinet for the last couple days, refusing to come out. Well, just now, they moved that cabinet out of the office.

And Chico ran out the door.

And the city is busy drilling holes in the parking lot.

I don't think we'll ever see Chico again.

We're moving from one office to another this week. It's just next door. But we've got 2 office cats. Sgt. Tibbs and Chico. Right now Sgt. Tibbs is sleeping on his kitty kondo in the new office. Meanwhile, Chico is walking around the old office crying.

We tried to get him to come in to the new office this morning. We set treats down by the door. There was coaxing and petting. And he wouldn't have anything to do with it. Chico sat on the walk halfway between the open doors of the offices and cried.

*sigh*

Looks like somebody moved in to Mordor.