A Quick Phantom Update

I hate to preface my HeroesCon preview with personal business, but it also seems appropriate given my impending two week hiatus.

That’s right, folks – Needless Things will be on autopilot for the next two weeks while I attend HeroesCon and visit my parents in North Carolina. It’s the longest break I will have taken from the site, but I am leaving it in capable hands. Over the next couple of weeks you’ll still have toy reviews, opinion pieces, and who knows what else. As I write this I already have posts from Beau Brown and a new Q&A with Kill, Baby… Kill!

            I’m pleased that the Q&A is coming back. I was going to abandon it once I started the Podcast, but I realized that it is still a viable outlet for exposing you guys to artists, musicians, and performers (wrestlers) that you might not have otherwise heard about. I hope to have one from Merry Pranxter up during the hiatus, as well. Long time readers will remember her as the artist responsible for some Dalek gift wrap I featured a few years ago.

Side Note: This next bit was somewhat invalidated several hours after I wrote it. But the emotions I had while writing it were very real and I am not one to throw out 250 perfectly good words. I’ll explain the situation after the relevant material.

And then there’s my work situation. It is with a heavy heart that I say this, but I am no longer going to be able to be the host/ring announcer for Monstrosity Championship Wrestling. My job has eliminated all forms of swapping and schedule adjustment, so I can’t do anything to get days off other than use vacation and I need my vacation too much to use it for MCW. We can’t even swap days and nights anymore, so there’s just no way around it.

I’ve already had to miss more MCW shows than I would like. I was too busy the weekend of my birthday to make it to the Art-B-Q and I had to work yesterday during the Monster Bash. And just when I had thought I had October figured out so that I could work the Six Flags shows, this new rule came along and undid all of that. So here’s where I am – I hate missing shows and thinking about somebody else doing my job. I hate feeling like I am unreliable and the thought of Jonathan and Shane ever having to work around my schedule. I don’t want to be that guy.

I’m not gonna lie – I’m pretty devastated. I just found out about all of this a couple of hours ago and it hasn’t really sunk in yet. Performing at MCW is one of the best things I have ever had the opportunity to do, but there is simply no way around my job situation. Bills have to be paid.

Side Note: So after thrashing about in despair and writing poetry on black paper with black ink and deciding that maybe the Goth lifestyle was the one for me; and also after sending the COO of MCW a message saying that I wouldn’t be there on July 5^th and might NOT EVER, EVER BE THERE AGAIN BECAUSE LIFE IS CRUEL AND UNFAIR, WOE IS ME – I had a talk with my manager. While the e-mail my work group received was perfectly clear that all swaps were ended and undone, I thought it was worth checking to make sure this applied to the 5^th and that there was no way around it. And there is probably a way around it. Thankfully I am on very good terms with my manager and he is one of the few that is aware of my life outside of that dreary place. So we had our talk and can probably figure something out, not only for July 5^th, but for the Six Flags shows in October as well. So that’s great. Really great.

As for The Trainee – he is still busy ruining my life. I had to be extremely stern with him the other day. Like, R. Lee Ermey in Full Metal Jacket stern. And I had carte blanche to do so. His fate is now essentially in my hands. He is very slightly more competent at the job but still a tremendously annoying human being. I would prefer to never see him again, ever.

On a brighter note, there is great news about the Needless Things Podcast.

Thanks to Mrs. Troublemaker, we will now be recording the podcast live from Odin’s Cosmic Bookshelf in Lilburn, GA once a month. Like, in front of an audience and stuff. Yes, folks – it’s a blatant ripoff of the Nerdist model. And while I do not expect it to work as well for me as it has for Chris Hardwick and his crew, it should be an awful lot of fun. I spent some time chatting with Needless Things Podcast co-host Mr. Beau Brown the other night and we already have our first two shows planned out. I’m not going to say exactly what is going on yet, but I will tell you that if you can make it to Odin’s on July 13^th or August 17^th you should. It’s going to be a good time.

Okay, well – I’ll go ahead and say that the one in August is going to be about Dragon*Con.

Speaking of Dragon*Con, there are some exciting things going on there that I can’t get into just yet. Suffice it to say that I am very excited about how different my experience is shaping up to be this year. I may not be getting shitfaced drunk every night, but I have to say I think it is going to be much more rewarding overall.

Well, I am breaking my own 1000+ word rule here, but I’ve decided this is its own post. I want the HeroesCon preview to be its own thing since there’s a chance folks will just stumble across it from Googling or whatever. So check back tomorrow for that one. I’m stoked to be returning after missing last year!

-Phantom