Well, it's been a rough year, but I'm still around. I swore that I'd keep up with the blogging this year, but my life took many unexpected turns in 2014, and I got majorly sidetracked. First of all, just after my last post here, back in June, we were notified by our former landlord, the idiot that catered to the asshat immigrant neighbors next door, but yet would not come around to get the boiler in the basement working properly (I would always have to go down and reset the thing every time the power would go out, which was quite often) notified us that, because the neighbors were complaining about a smell that originated outside, and not from our house (something was living under their back porch), we would have to move out. So we had roughly a month to get everything packed, and find a place. Things got pretty stressful, as you could well imagine, and we were down to the wire, not being able to find anything suitable, until about 5 days before we were scheduled to move out of the old place. We finally found a nice, albeit smaller, apartment in New Cumberland, about 10 or so blocks from my brother's place. The next problem we faced was finding a mover. Since it was the weekend that a lot of college students were supposed to be moving, we had a hard time finding someone to move us. I finally found a group on Craigslist (big mistake, but at the last minute, I was desperate) called "The Labor Team". They showed up the afternoon of the move with 4 people, and a "supervisor" who was barely there. What was supposed to be a quick and easy 6 hour move turned out to be 11 hours, and it was all done haphazardly. They just threw stuff on the truck wherever they felt like it, and we had to make two trips instead of one (When we moved from Erie to Enola, the movers on both ends had everything loaded/unloaded in 3 hours each, with only 3 people on each end). Then the idiots, instead of taking the legs off of an old desk to get it in the apartment, left it outside in the rain, and it ended up getting trashed. A lot of Kat's stuff that was in her drawers was scattered all over the truck, an antique rocking chair that my great grandfather built was ruined, and they totally wrecked the washing machine (we'll have to invest in another rental from Aaron's eventually). Then they kept harassing us for extra payment for the extra work they did. I agreed to $600, and they were to be done in 6 hours. Due to their messing around, and constant breaks (I think all totaled, we counted about five 1/2 hour breaks), we ended up having to do a lot of the loading and unloading ourselves, and it took way longer than it should have, so they got no more, and the police agreed when I told them, after the idiots tried to get them involved. So word of warning- Do not answer ads for "professional" movers on Craigslist, unless it is from an established moving company, and NEVER answer an ad from "The Labor Team" unless you want to be scammed out of your money, and have your property carelessly handled and destroyed.
Secondly, over the summer, my dads health went into a very sudden downward spiral, and a lot of time was spent running back and forth to the nursing home where he was. He suffered a bad fall in June, while we were on vacation, and hit his head. He was supposed to be watched constantly as a fall risk, but they left him unattended in his chair and he fell. After the fall, he wasn't the same at all. He would have his good days, where he was lucid, and animated, other times he hardly knew we were there. The last few weeks in September were the hardest. I kept expecting to get that dreaded call while I was at work, and always had my cell phone on vibrate just in case the call came. He passed away on October 4, at approximately 3am. I got the call from Kat and called everyone else to let them know. There was a small memorial service for family and friends at the chapel at the cemetery. Mom's oldest friend Judy, and her sister Matilda came down from NW PA, My cousin, Laurie, and her daughter, Leslie, came down from Edinboro, and we were able to get my sister, Melanie, down from Akron for the week as well. This is going to be a rough holiday without the old man, and he will be missed. Love you, Fott, and we'll meet again on the other side.
About a month and a half later, my mom took a fall in her apartment building, and broke her femur in 3 places. She had surgery to repair it, and is recovering in therapy until at least January, so we'll be spending a part of Christmas with her in the care facility where she's staying until she recovers.
Last and not least, we have the cool stuff, or fun stuff (I got this idea from my friend Tom Keyes- whose name rhymes with "eyes" and not "keys"[Hi Tom] who started a video blog of his own, while dealing with some pretty serious health issues.) In my free time, I've gotten pretty active in an online game called "Neverwinter", which is based on the newest edition of Dungeons and Dragons. Since starting up again in August, I have gotten four characters to level 60 (the current level cap) and have about seven more that I am working on. I joined a pretty cool guild called "the Neverwinter Nine" as well, which reminds me a lot of the old pre-endgame madness "Eternity Matters" guild that I belonged to when I played WoW. If I need help with a specific quest or boss, usually one or more of the members usually jumps in to assist. The plus is that I got Kat active as well. She only has five characters, not quite as many as Altoholic me, but she enjoys the game.
Well, that's about it for this long-delayed post. Hopefully, I'll be able to be more active in 2015. Happy Holidays, everyone!
Listen Up! In cooperation with my friends Dara and Anna Korra'ti, promoting the release of the new Bone Walker Book and CD, I am going to be giving away a bundle consisting of SIGNED copies of Anna's books, Faerie Blood and Bone Walker, as well as the accompanying Bone Walker CD by Crime and the Forces of Evil. What is this contest, and what does one have to do to enter to win this wonderful bundle, you may ask? It's pretty simple, really. Just leave a comment here, on this post, stating WHY you would like to win this bundle. Creativity counts, so simple responses such as 'just because I want it' will not be weighted as much as more creative responses that go into more detail. Please note, I am not asking for a 100page thesis or a dissertation, just something nice and meaningful. (Hint, support of independent artists will go over REALLY big, as well as an insatiable love of anything in the fantasy genre.) This contest is open as of the completion of this post, and will end at Midnight, March 8, 2015. So, get those creative commenting juices flowing, and go! The winner will be picked at random at the end of the contest. (Note: Anonymous entries will be disqualified, for obvious reasons.) 
Well, today we started cross-training for taking calls for our (Fedloan Servicing's) Title IV/Commercial servicer counterpart, American Education Services (AES). We spent 4 hours going over all the different procedures and policies that are different from the ones we're used to, and discussing the increase in responsibilities that we'll be getting, having to work between the two PHEAA organizations. Apparently my team is just a pilot (test) team to see how the transition works, and then eventually everyone else will get trained to take AES calls as well. While it adds more to my already "hefty" plate of customer service splits (I already take general calls, Graduate program split, and military split calls) it adds nothing more to my paycheck (bummer). Hopefully, it will increase my likelihood for possible future advancement, since it's extra training. Right now, however, it's just added headaches as we have to learn the differences in processing, and differences in submitting requests for the borrowers, and have to be careful not to give out information that we normally give out at FLS that AES cannot. I guess I'll get used to it.
I was recently given the opportunity to preview the Soundtrack to "Bone Walker: Book II of the Free Court of Seattle", by my friend Angela Korra'ti. While I personally haven't read book II yet, if it's anywhere near as good as book I (Faerie Blood), I'm in for a real treat. The soundtrack is expertly performed by Crime and the Forces of Evil (which, by no coincidence, is headed by Ms. Korra'ti's equally talented mate, Dara Korra'ti) and various guest performers such as Alexander James Adams, and Sunnie Larsen of Bone Poets Orchestra, Sarah Kellington of Pinniped, Ellen Eades, Klopfenpop, and Leannan Sidhe . The music, which consists of a combination of folkish pop and instrumentals, is enchanting and uplifting, taking one into another world with an brilliant combination of Irish bouzouki, fiddle, bodhran, and various other percussion instruments. Interwoven with the music are teasers to Ms. Korra'ti's novels, Faerie Blood (in which we hear her read excerpts from chapters one and twenty-three) and Bone Walker (in which we hear excerpts from chapters seven and twenty-two). The combination of talents that went into producing this masterpiece is phenomenal. The soundtrack will be available for purchase on CD for $15US on February 04, 2015, and the digital copy for $10US which is available NOW (thanks for the correction, Dara). Both purchases include unlimited free streaming through via the Bandcamp app. Preorder both here.
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