Read the real life stories and experiences of freelance writer Mike Gagnon.

What is up? I thought for damn sure that the mear mention of The Evil Dead/Bruce Campbell would ensight all sorts of comments from cult fans and non-fans alike. Geez, you guys are a tough crowd this week.

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Today...

Bank - Had a meeting. Still resolving. Frustration mounting. Deposit insurance claim imminent. I may be eligiable for a temporary business loan in order to offset my loss of capital.

Close Encounter of the Political Kind - It was funny, just before I went in the bank I saw a guy walking down the street and he looked awful damn familiar. It just so happened that he came walking back in the opposite direction, right past the bank entrance by the time I came back out. I walked down the stairs and we were perfectly synchronized walking beside each other for a few seconds. I was looking at him when I came down the stairs and immediately recognized him. I think he knew it too. I nodded and said Hi as a greating, and then continued to the van in the parking lot. Guess who it was? Preston Manning - retired Canadian politician and former leader of the now defunct "Reform Party".

This may sound far fetched but you have to remember that Kincardine is a booming tourist hub in the summer. The population triples. Those people are all tourists and vacationers, summer cottagers etc. From May to September 60% of the people living here are from the US and there are many more from other provinces.

Driving Part 1 - Well almost home I realized that I had forgotten to get all the extra paper work I needed to fill out at home from the bank, so I pulled over in a parking lot and turned back around into town. About a minute later some stupid asshole coming the opposite way pulled out to pass the line of traffic so that they wouldn't make him slow down from the likely 150 km he was travelling. Then the fucker sees me coming, pulls into the gravel and then back over careening into his lane barely missing my van and cutting off someone else. And when he passes me he's looking over at me like I'm the idiot asshole. OH MY GOD! I HATE THESE PEOPLE! There is a reason guns are not as easy to get in Canada as in the U.S. Because if we had them the SANE people would be too busy to work because shooting all these assholes would be more than a full time job.

Close Encounter of the bird Kind - So after talking with another bank rep and picking up my forgotten documents I was back in the van getting ready to leave when I noticed two of the strangest birds I'd ever seen. They were 100% pure bright blood red from head to beak to tail. They weren't Cardinals because they had no other coloring but red, and it was a different red than cardinals and they were smaller too. Anyway these two birds seemed rather unfriendly. Every time another bird tried to perch in the row of bushes and hedges they were hiding in they'd fly out, gang up on it and chase it away.

Driving part 2 - On the way home again this time a guy in a little white shit box car was trying to drive right up my van's ass. He kept trying to pass but he couldn't because of oncoming traffic. Even when he pulled back in he was so close I was sure he was actually going to rear end me with his little car while moving on the highway! And I was already speeding! I was in a good long row of traffic doing about 100! Even if this guy had been able to pass there's no way his car would have been able to pass the row of traffic! He was so close I could see into his vehicle perfectly with my mirrors. He was a middle aged nearly bald guy. He also worked at the power plant because he had an employee parking sticker on his windshield. After awhile he seemed to be getting frustrated that I wasn't driving faster and he couldn't pass. Then he kept trying to speed up and pass as we were entering a residential area where treffic had to slow down to 50 km.

Really people, we all need to band together because people like this NEED to be permanently eliminated from the gene pool.

Hellboy is good - I'm about half way through my first reading of Hellboy: Seed of Destruction. This is definately a case where the book is better than the movie. Not that I'm bad mouthing the movie, it was good, but the comic is awesome. I think I may have to start getting the other collected volumes of this series.

Holy craptacualr spelling - If I was to tell you folks how long it took me to correct all the spelling errors in todays entry, you wouldn't even believe me. Not even the folks who have seen my frequent spelling errors. I think all this other crap has scrambled my brains!

The biggest littlest hobo in Canada...

Mike

Posted by: lightning at 12:33 | link | comments (6)

Catch Up Blog...

Bruce Campbell is a movie god...

Last weekend Pam and I went in to our local Zellers. They were having a huge movie blow out. They had the VHS of all 3 parts of the Evil Dead Trilogy on sale for less that $9 each! Now my frugal mind said, BUY 'EM ALL BEFORE THEY'RE GONE! Especially because there was only one copy left of both The Evil Dead and the Army of Darness. (2 copies left of Evil Dead 2) However, before I could abscond to the cashier with my trilogy of terror Pam intervened. She argued that those movies were stupid (although she's never seen them) and that they were a waste of money. (Poor, poor simple Pam) Anyway, it was apparent that I would not win, so I agreed to go look at some girly crap with her. After some time of cajolling she finally conceded to letting me go back to the movie section, where after a short debate it was agreed. I would buy the original, The Evil Dead!

What is really funny about this is that I've nver seen the first one! I've seen the other 2 movies, but to be honest I don't know if I've ever seen all of Army of Darkness from beginning to end. Anyway, Pam continued to bad mouth my movie and call it a crappy waste of money and that it would just be stupid and not scary at all.

Then finally on Tuesday night, we watched it. The first 15 - 20 minutes was a little cheesy, and I was almost forced to tell Pam that she had been right. Then the shit really started to happen. I think things really take off right about the scene where the girls a playing with the deck of cards, trying to guess what the other is holding. That's when all hell breaks loose and some crazy demonic possession goes on!

Things got down right friggin scary and Pam was left flinching, screaming, and digging her nails into my legs. Ah, the magic of the horror movie. After the circulation in my legs returned I was easily able to get Pam to concede that yes, this was an amazing, good, scary ass movie, and that I indeed should have bought the trilogy.

Thank you Sam Raimi & Bruce Campbell!

Work, work work work...

Well here is how things have been going at work. Good, but.........there's a couple of people there that irritate the shit out of me. No big deal though. No problems...yet. Although Steelback is a fun place to work and it's nice to have a good paying job, even the folks there admit that it isn't the most organized or well managed place on Earth. I guess we'll all have to try and tolerate it for now though, considering the company isn't even a year old and everyone, even the bosses, are still learning.

Thanks to this lack of planning I ended up working a lot of extra hours this week. I Worked 13 hours on Monday and 12 hours on Tuesday, essentially taking up too much time to do this blog. Then Wednesday was training day catching up on most of the training that we were supposed to do before starting, but were unable to because the company needed to fill orders that they were behind on. Now we're all trained up...mostly. We actually got off early, so I came home around 3 pm, took Scooter for a walk, and then went right to bed untill after Pam was already home.

Today however I have lots of time for my work and blog. See we've been given Thursday and Friday off because the company is installing and tweaking new conveyor belts on the bottling line, so it's a 4 day weekend for me! However we do have to work this coming holiday Monday, but we get double time. Yeehaw!

Banks make the vein in my head bulge painfully...

Well I thought TD was the only inept bank on earth, but it turns out that now I have problems with my business account at another bank. It seems that somewhere there's been a major clerical error and my account balance is very, very much lower than it should be. I've talked with several reps and was damn near told I was lying by one of them. I've had to prove my case several times by showing that the transactions on their records don't even show up to the right total or match the balance in their own records. Now I have to go in tommorow with all of my transaction records and deposit reciepts to prove that I have more money in there then they say I do. Good god! I may as well just keep all my money in cash under my mattrress or start my own friggin' bank! AAAAAAARRRRGGGG!!!!

Off to the library...

After almost a friggin' year of living here I finally went into the library and actually signed up to get a legitimate membership. It's about damn time. Now I can sign out books instead of buying them. I'm going to go back later because they're selling off books from their collection for 50 cents and there's some good ones. Today I already signed out a book about professional writing, and a book about the history of vampires in literature and folklore. I saw a few other interesting reads I'll return for.

The coolest thing is that the library is run and operated county wide! Back when I worked at the Meaford Library you could only use the library in Meaford, if you lived elsewhere you had to go to a library that only served your area. That's the way the library system works in Grey county, all seperate and independent. But Tiverton my friends is in Bruce County and in Bruce County all library locations all over the county are run by the same municpal corporation with one board of directors! What is cool about this it that it means I can go to any library in Bruce County; ie Tiverton, Kincardine, Port Elgin, Southhampton, Tara, Allenford, etc., etc. Sign out books, have full priveleges, and return to any location!

What is also cool? I can go to their newfangled hi-tech website, search the collection of each library, find a book at any location, have them send it to the local branch here in Tiverton, and be notified when it has arrived for me to pick it up. That is so cool!

Now I'm going to go catch up on my work and reading...(more business ruminitions tommorow)

Mike

Posted by: lightning at 18:20 | link | comments

Weekend Blog...

Well after work on Friday Pam and I talked and decided to go over to mom and dad's.At the last minute Pam decided she didn't feel well enopugh to go, but said I should go. I kept trying to convince her to come while I was getting ready, but she wouldn't budge. I was almost going to stay home with her when she picked up the phone, called my mom, and told her that I'd be leaving for their place soon and that she was staying home because she was sick. SO I ran up to my work, got some beers from the Steelback store, and drove out to mom and dad's. When I go tthere I discovered that Pam hadn't even called them! The whole phone call thing was fake just to mess with my head and Pam was hoping I'd come back after I went to the beer store. DEVIOUS!

Anyway I called Dana and Jeremy and then mom, dad, and I watched TV and chatted. Dana and Jeremy came out and Jeremy showed me some logos that he designed that are for his new business that he just registered this week. I helped Jer pick out which logos looked best and showed them the various beers from Steelback. Jeremy and I also consumed several  of those beers. Then I gave Dana and Jeremy their belated anniversary gift from Pam and I. We gave 'em a custom photo card, Dana got a big cinnamon spice candle in a jar, and I got Jeremy the new Jeff Grdon NASCAR figure from McFarlane toys. I wrapped the Jeff Gordon in 2 pairs of dollar store pantyhose. It's an inside joke with our family. I started a thing where we always tell Jer that Jeff Gordon is a sissy and wears pantyhose because he is Jeremy's favorite racer. Jeremy and I then pulled the pantyhose over our heads so that every one else could laugh at how distorted our faces were. Then Jer slid a pair on over his clothes and moonwalked across the living room floor.

Dana and Jeremy left all too soon, but I had also called jon, who ended up coming out for a visit shortly after Dana and Jer left. We talked chatted, caught up. I told him about Steelback, he told me about his work and his new truck etc. After Jon left I watched some TV and hit the sack. The next morning I left bright and early because Pam needed the van for her cousin's bridal shower.

I am one great big ball of Ouch!...

When I got home there was a message on the machine from work. For some reason they wanted me to come in for the overtime shift on Saturday. Pam and I talked and since she didn't feel well still she skipped the bridal shower and I took the van to work. When I got there it turned out that a lot of the people who said they would come in for the weekend shift didn't bother showing up, so they were desperate for people to come in to keep the line running. So I worked untill about 3:30 and went home. I was already stiff from work when I came in. I was dead tired and sore all day when I was there. I definately should have stayed home, but oh, well, I can't complain about the money. Now I've got at least a day of rest, and back on the bottling line tommorow. Luckily this week we'll be in class training on Tuesday and Wednesday, and we may even get Friday off!

Later!...

Mike

 

Posted by: lightning at 10:18 | link | comments (2)

YAY! Weekend!

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My back hurts and I am tired, but I'm still keeping the faith. We had a short shift again today, the crew got staggerd into 2 shifts again and Josie, Charlie, Amy, Joel, and I all started at 7 am and finished at 3. That was cool. I'm getting to use this extra daytime to make business calls and get work done. This is good. Chris, the supervisor, said that we can come in for an overtime shift tommorow too if we want. I haven't decided if I will yet because I don't know what we're doing this weekend. I almost bought some of the beer I bottle today after work, just in case we go to mom and dad's but I decided not to. I'll get some later tonight or tommorow. YEEhaw! Although it was only for the first two days that I worked at Steelback I got my first pay today! Soon as I'm done this I'm takin' a shower.

I've decided that there is only one approach I can take in order to make sure that everything around here gets done right and properly. Although I have several projects on the go I have to take each project in order of priority and just focus on that project, seeing it through from beginning to end.

So my first project to hit is Dreams in Texture, though it's been in previews and is ready I do need to re-do some layout on the computer, so I'll focus on that this weekend. After that I'm going to run down my list and do each project the best I can.

Anyway, sorry that my life isn't more interesting right now......DAMN THE MAN!

Mike

Posted by: lightning at 17:31 | link | comments (2)

So today we showed up at 10. On the way to work with some other co-workers that I car pooled with I found out that they decided to split up todays work into 2 short shifts. All us folks who didn't go to the game would work from 10 to 3:30 all those who did go to the game would work from 3 - 8:30. So I personally liked that because it was a short day and I have been able to really use the extra time this after noon for some needed business work at home.

I took Scooter out for a play when I got home and then took a shower. It is another scorcher again today. I'm not doing anything but sitting here in fornof the computer and I'm sweating buckets.

I can't chat anymore, I have some important Cap. Canuck business...

Mike

Posted by: lightning at 18:24 | link | comments

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Penance Blog...

Another gap in the blog., This has gotta stop. Anyway, I slept in on Wednesday and then spent the rest of the day working on business matters and writing scripts. Steelback decided to give everyone on the bottling line the day off, so that was good. Also any employee who wanted to join in could get free tickets, beer, and transportation to a Toronto Argo's game on the Steelback bus that was leaving at 3 pm. I almost went, but decided to stay home and work instead.

It was really friggin hot here.

Because half the employees went to the game and the bus wouldn't get back untill 1 or 2 am they told is not to come in the next morning untill 10 am.

More in a few minutes...

Mike

Posted by: lightning at 18:17 | link | comments

Today...

Last night I started to get stuffy again, now my throat is getting sore again. So I'm not quite well yet.

We showed up for work this morning and the sanitizer still isn't fixed. Bad clutch or something. SO we were all sent home and told to come back for 3pm and we'd work till 11 oclick tonight. I tried to get a little more sleep, but Pam and the dog made it difficult.

I've been using the extra time to get some other chores done, comic stuff etc. I almost hope they can't fix it in time and today gets scratched off, but if we do go in it's also good for the money.

Oh, well, I'll keep you updated.

Mike

Posted by: lightning at 13:20 | link | comments

Penance Blog...

Well I was still feeling a little sick yesterday morning, but went to work anyway. The bottling line wasn't ready to go when we got there, but when it did get up and running it ran pretty good. After awhile I switched places with someone else on the line, and moved to the packing end. Things were going so fast and it was so hot that I literally sweat out my cold. By lunch time I felt fine.

Just before lunch the conveyor belt broke. They fixed it over our break, and installed a new motor in the sanitizer machine that has been needed for awhile. We tried to start the line up again, but the sanitizer wouldn't work. We spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning, trying to get the sanitizer to work, and pulling bottles off of the line and putting them back into boxes.

When I got home last niht I finished reading my novel "Cerulean Sins" the latest in the ANita Blake series of novels by Laurell K. Hamilton. Good series. I'd say the earlier ones are better, but the entire series is still good.

POIT!

Mike

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Posted by: lightning at 13:16 | link | comments

Weekend blog...

I've been sick with the flu all weekend.

I got half my Take 5 deliveries done.

When I finally started feeling a little better we went to the zoo. A sudden storm hit and we got drenched in freezing rain.

More tommorow.

Mike

Posted by: lightning at 23:16 | link | comments

Brewing problems...

There was a problem with the brew today to instead of bottling we spent the entire day cleaning the factory and disposing of reject bottles. We were done this afternoon so our supervisor Steve let us all go at 3:30. Yeeha! However now that we're backed up we'll have to start early on Monday. I tried to buy some beer after work in the store located at the brewery when I realized that Pam still has my debit card. Dammit! SO I'll have to go back up after Pam gets home from work.  

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I'm getting sick...

The flu like virus that Pam has had for over a week is finally catching to me. My throat is sore and scratchy and swollen. I am going to kill her.

On a happier note...

Things are supper hush hush but I've been working on a another project involving SMASH! Comics licensing a very prominent character that would be launched a few months after Captain Canuck. The company called me this afternoon and we'll be talking again shortly. I should know if everything is going ahead for certain 100% within a couple of weeks. BOOYA!

Splat!...

Mike

Posted by: lightning at 17:09 | link | comments (2)

Penance Blog...

Lab coats suck...

Well yesterday was my first day in the Steelback Beer factory. We all have to wear hair nets, rubber gloves and coveralls on the line. However we have to be measured for coveralls next week so until then we wear lab coats. Lab coats suck because the have stupid sleeves that won't roll up and they get snagged on the nuts and bolts along the side of the bottling line. Other than that my first day was good. Everyone there is pretty good. I get along with all the guys. We have fun. I spent most of the day making sure that the empty sterilized bottles stayed standing upright and flowing on the conveyor belt before entering the filling machine.

Squish...

Mike

Posted by: lightning at 17:03 | link | comments

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I am going to be on the bottling line!

Yesterday I had my second interview at Steelback Beer. They told me that I am hired! I will be working the bottling line int he factory! I'll be loading bottles into the machine, rinsing bottles, stacking cases, etc. ANd low and behold they want me to start at 8 am tommorow morning!

Steelback is a local micro brewry currently operationg thier own retail store in TIverton. and available in bars all over Southern, Ontario. Business is booming. They've hired a ton of new people. Although I start tommorow most newbies will start on Monday. They currently produce 12,000 cases of beer a week there. By the end of summer to mid-fall they plan on reaching 30,000 cases per week.

This is so cool. I can't wait to find out what the employee discount on beer is there. I do need steel toed work boots by tommorow moring though, or I'll probably get fired. You're not allowed in the factory without work boots. So we may have to go to Owen Sound as soon as Pam is done work tonight.

They are doing all kinds of hiring here in all departments. DO you know what this means? All my comic industry friends in Ontario should move to the Tiverton area (after applying, and getting hired at steelback). We can work for the beer company by day, and produce kick ass comics by night!

Later...

Mike

Posted by: lightning at 15:21 | link | comments