öA Week Already...
It's been so busy, I'm here posting in daylight hours.
The recruiting poster worked - within 24 hours we had two new men on the Graveyard Desk. They're very different, almost a designed study in contrasts.
Well, except that they both seem a bit short, but that's my perspective.
One is old, the other young. One bald, the other with Harry Potter-ish out of control hair. One is slow and passive of presence, the other nearly jitters out of control.
They seem interesting, and both have made it through a week of training and duties without dropping out. So they may be here for a while.
I'll introduce you to them next time, but i got a report from Holy Blood today. Frankie's coming home, he'll be sleeping here tonight.
It's not often I get to talk to one of the Order on a casual basis, but it seems Frankiestein's a good topic of conversation around Holy Blood.
So he started talking when I started asking about him.
When Frankie was brought in, the first thing they did was put him under the paddles to give him a massive quick charge. The levels of voltage cause the entire body to seize up as the electrical flow of the nerves are overridden inducing a massive muscular seizure. In any normal case, the cessation of the charge causes the recipient to spasmodically unclench, going completely limp as the muscles snap back like too tightly stretched rubber bands. It can leave them looking boneless, in a puddle on the table.
Frankiestein sat up.
He sat up, eyes wide, growling as every jumped back a step; worried he might come off the table at them.
Everyone in the chamber, he said, just held their breath and watched, frozen in place for the longest ten seconds...
And then Frankie collapsed back onto the table, and they all exhaled and made nervous jokes while trying to decide whether to continue or not.
I don't know what they finally decided, but after the session, they asked if he had any memory of the incident. They didn't expect him to. There's an interesting type of pain killer they seem to use in the sessions. It doesn't so much kill the pain, as makes you forget it was ever there. So by rights, any memory he had of sitting up in reaction to the pain should have been obliterated with the memory of the pain itself.
And for the most part, that seems to have held true.
But Frankie remembers one of the Order holding something up - something he couldn't have seen at any time except during the procedure. What it is? No clue - just something he'd never seen in waking time.
Frankie's coming home today.
And apparently some at Holy Blood are at least as glad as we are.
The recruiting poster worked - within 24 hours we had two new men on the Graveyard Desk. They're very different, almost a designed study in contrasts.
Well, except that they both seem a bit short, but that's my perspective.
One is old, the other young. One bald, the other with Harry Potter-ish out of control hair. One is slow and passive of presence, the other nearly jitters out of control.
They seem interesting, and both have made it through a week of training and duties without dropping out. So they may be here for a while.
I'll introduce you to them next time, but i got a report from Holy Blood today. Frankie's coming home, he'll be sleeping here tonight.
It's not often I get to talk to one of the Order on a casual basis, but it seems Frankiestein's a good topic of conversation around Holy Blood.
So he started talking when I started asking about him.
When Frankie was brought in, the first thing they did was put him under the paddles to give him a massive quick charge. The levels of voltage cause the entire body to seize up as the electrical flow of the nerves are overridden inducing a massive muscular seizure. In any normal case, the cessation of the charge causes the recipient to spasmodically unclench, going completely limp as the muscles snap back like too tightly stretched rubber bands. It can leave them looking boneless, in a puddle on the table.
Frankiestein sat up.
He sat up, eyes wide, growling as every jumped back a step; worried he might come off the table at them.
Everyone in the chamber, he said, just held their breath and watched, frozen in place for the longest ten seconds...
And then Frankie collapsed back onto the table, and they all exhaled and made nervous jokes while trying to decide whether to continue or not.
I don't know what they finally decided, but after the session, they asked if he had any memory of the incident. They didn't expect him to. There's an interesting type of pain killer they seem to use in the sessions. It doesn't so much kill the pain, as makes you forget it was ever there. So by rights, any memory he had of sitting up in reaction to the pain should have been obliterated with the memory of the pain itself.
And for the most part, that seems to have held true.
But Frankie remembers one of the Order holding something up - something he couldn't have seen at any time except during the procedure. What it is? No clue - just something he'd never seen in waking time.
Frankie's coming home today.
And apparently some at Holy Blood are at least as glad as we are.
öThe big move is on!
It's been a while coming, but the Graveyard Desk is moving to my personal webspace this weekend. It's currently up and running, though it may need some tweaking as I go along.
The biggest problems have to do with moving the comments. There may be some loss of older comments in the process, but I don't think so. (Though not all are transferred yet - so don't panic if you don't see yours)
The "Recent Comments" display may seem out of whack for now. It seems that instead of sorting by the date listed in the comment data, it sorts by the order I transferred. Not knowing this, I had started at the most recent and was working backwards. I'll fix it if I can, but if not, the problem will be self correcting as new comments enter the database.
The new location is www.artof3.com/graveyarddesk/
And here's another bit of overdue business - finally Tpapa Fred's portrait:
I'll continue to post the blog to both locations for a bit, and I'll announce the final post at the old site when it happens, with the forwarder to the new location.
The biggest problems have to do with moving the comments. There may be some loss of older comments in the process, but I don't think so. (Though not all are transferred yet - so don't panic if you don't see yours)
The "Recent Comments" display may seem out of whack for now. It seems that instead of sorting by the date listed in the comment data, it sorts by the order I transferred. Not knowing this, I had started at the most recent and was working backwards. I'll fix it if I can, but if not, the problem will be self correcting as new comments enter the database.
The new location is www.artof3.com/graveyarddesk/
And here's another bit of overdue business - finally Tpapa Fred's portrait:
I'll continue to post the blog to both locations for a bit, and I'll announce the final post at the old site when it happens, with the forwarder to the new location.
öFrankiestein Gets A Recharge
You've no doubt guessed it's been a very busy time lately, as indicated by the lack of postings.
Just before Frank The Palm was carted away (never to be seen again?), Frankie The Dago was taken back to Holy Blood. Instead of the slow charge he's been taking, he got a few sessions of high intensity voltage applied by direct paddles. While the effect of this is apparently a good thing in the long run, it was quite debilitating for the short term. So Frankie has been gone for a week, and it's been just the Blackbird and myself again.
To help fix this situation, one of the Paladins, Michael, asked me to design a new recruiting poster for Graveyard Deskmen.
Here's the flyer I created for him:
It had better help bring in new recruits. When Frankie returns, we're going to lose him. He'll be joining the order of Programmers, and will be shifting to daytime duty on the desk. While this makes good sense given his physical state in recent times, it leaves us severely undermanned on the Graveyard Desk. Not to mention losing my senior man on the desk. He might not be able to handle anything physical currently, but he was fully trained for dealing with all the communications and information processing.
Blackbird has been picking things up well, but there really hasn't been much time to train him on all the little details. Without anyone else here to handle the security, bagpulls, box rotations and the rest, he's had to handle most of those things while I'm dealing with the information side of our duties. So while he knows the basics, there's a lot of things he's only partially equipped to handle.
As soon as we get in some new bodies, we'll rectify that.
In the meantime, the vines seemed to have stopped spreading - currently infesting dorms 1, 3 & 4, while dorm 2 still remains unaffected.
The Thing has faded into the background, almost never seen or smelled in the last few weeks.
The weather is cold and getting colder - more and more seek shelter with us lately. Soon we may have to turn them away for simple lack of space.
That is something I've never had to do before. Frankly, I find the possibility most disturbing. We're here to help, but our resources are very finite. We'll stretch them as far as we can, but I don't think it's going to be enough.
May Heaven help those whom we are unable to.
Just before Frank The Palm was carted away (never to be seen again?), Frankie The Dago was taken back to Holy Blood. Instead of the slow charge he's been taking, he got a few sessions of high intensity voltage applied by direct paddles. While the effect of this is apparently a good thing in the long run, it was quite debilitating for the short term. So Frankie has been gone for a week, and it's been just the Blackbird and myself again.
To help fix this situation, one of the Paladins, Michael, asked me to design a new recruiting poster for Graveyard Deskmen.
Here's the flyer I created for him:
It had better help bring in new recruits. When Frankie returns, we're going to lose him. He'll be joining the order of Programmers, and will be shifting to daytime duty on the desk. While this makes good sense given his physical state in recent times, it leaves us severely undermanned on the Graveyard Desk. Not to mention losing my senior man on the desk. He might not be able to handle anything physical currently, but he was fully trained for dealing with all the communications and information processing.
Blackbird has been picking things up well, but there really hasn't been much time to train him on all the little details. Without anyone else here to handle the security, bagpulls, box rotations and the rest, he's had to handle most of those things while I'm dealing with the information side of our duties. So while he knows the basics, there's a lot of things he's only partially equipped to handle.
As soon as we get in some new bodies, we'll rectify that.
In the meantime, the vines seemed to have stopped spreading - currently infesting dorms 1, 3 & 4, while dorm 2 still remains unaffected.
The Thing has faded into the background, almost never seen or smelled in the last few weeks.
The weather is cold and getting colder - more and more seek shelter with us lately. Soon we may have to turn them away for simple lack of space.
That is something I've never had to do before. Frankly, I find the possibility most disturbing. We're here to help, but our resources are very finite. We'll stretch them as far as we can, but I don't think it's going to be enough.
May Heaven help those whom we are unable to.
öWhat A Week!
As some of you know, this past weekend was 24 Hour Comics Day. I was quite bound up preparing for, and then participating in, the challenge. And so there've been no posts here.
If you're curious, the results can be seen at the Art Of -3- website.
Meanwhile, Frank The Palm brought us a bit of comedy in his short tenure on the Graveyard Desk. At our regular monday meeting of deskmen, he brought up a point he was curious about.
How do we handle it if the Praetorians come to arrest someone in our care?
The procedure was explained to him. We try as much as possible not to disturb the guests. The Praetorians are left to wait by the main gate and we gather their perp and bring him down with minimal fuss. We keep everything low profile to help maintain the safe atmosphere.
The Palm nodded almost sagely, absorbing the information with a quiet smile.
So I guess we really should have expected it when the Praetorians showed up the next day asking for him...
Should have, but no one did.
We were all caught by surprise at the time. But it seemed stereotypically obvious after the fact. All his declarations of being Sicilian, not Italian, have a strong taste of dark comedy to them now.
Ah, well. His time on the desk was short, but at least he was somewhat entertaining.
If you're curious, the results can be seen at the Art Of -3- website.
Meanwhile, Frank The Palm brought us a bit of comedy in his short tenure on the Graveyard Desk. At our regular monday meeting of deskmen, he brought up a point he was curious about.
How do we handle it if the Praetorians come to arrest someone in our care?
The procedure was explained to him. We try as much as possible not to disturb the guests. The Praetorians are left to wait by the main gate and we gather their perp and bring him down with minimal fuss. We keep everything low profile to help maintain the safe atmosphere.
The Palm nodded almost sagely, absorbing the information with a quiet smile.
So I guess we really should have expected it when the Praetorians showed up the next day asking for him...
Should have, but no one did.
We were all caught by surprise at the time. But it seemed stereotypically obvious after the fact. All his declarations of being Sicilian, not Italian, have a strong taste of dark comedy to them now.
Ah, well. His time on the desk was short, but at least he was somewhat entertaining.
öA New Record...
One day is all the longer the Rod lasted this time. A new record, most certain.
I wasn't there, but the stories the others tell are a direct repeat of his last disappearance. Except they say it was a different white whale this time.
As if my brain didn't hurt enough the first time.
The major difference this time is the lack of shock at the happening. Everyone just accepted it, and most just nodded and waved goodbye.
Some were glad to see him go.
As far as the graveyard desk is concerned, we won't be missing him. Blackbird is working out fine, and we have a new man - a Sicilian called Frank The Palm.
For some strange reason, he makes some folks nervous. Probably just stereotyping. Or maybe those of us who've worked the graveyard desk for a while are inured to such vibes.
We'll see.
Keeping things short this time since there's been so much work to do lately. I'm heading off to try to catch up on some long lost sleep. Definitely more next time, and another deskman portrait.
I wasn't there, but the stories the others tell are a direct repeat of his last disappearance. Except they say it was a different white whale this time.
As if my brain didn't hurt enough the first time.
The major difference this time is the lack of shock at the happening. Everyone just accepted it, and most just nodded and waved goodbye.
Some were glad to see him go.
As far as the graveyard desk is concerned, we won't be missing him. Blackbird is working out fine, and we have a new man - a Sicilian called Frank The Palm.
For some strange reason, he makes some folks nervous. Probably just stereotyping. Or maybe those of us who've worked the graveyard desk for a while are inured to such vibes.
We'll see.
Keeping things short this time since there's been so much work to do lately. I'm heading off to try to catch up on some long lost sleep. Definitely more next time, and another deskman portrait.