Hello all. Merry Christmas. I hope you all have a wonderful day. <3

As for how this year went in general, well, it's a mixed bag of both good and bad, though it certainly piled up on the bad stuff for this month. >.|.>

For the good part, as you can see, I'm back in the writing game! Technically, I've been writing for quite a while since the last story I posted before The Pokémon Prometheus, but it was infrequent writing for the classes I've been taking and repeating because the THIRD PART OF THAT TRILOGY OF CLASSES HASN'T BEEN OPENED FOR WHO THE HELL KNOWS HOW LONG!! It was the novel I mentioned in the last journal, though when I completed it I'll restart from the beginning so it'll be more consistent. As for why I've been writing more recently, it was because of the below point since, surprisingly, Safeway is a good nondistracting environment to write in.

Another good part is that I have another job since March. I now work at Safeway as a deli working and, while it has its ups and downs, after Amazon it's not so bad. Despite the occasional customers at times calling me an idiot since a) it's a loud environment and they didn't correct me when I repeat the order (it's why I do it, not because I'm so forgetful but because I want to make sure that I heard it right) and b) they expected me to know everything about all the deli products and relay what they wanted in an incomplete fashion (I have Autism and, whenever I'm told of something in a way I don't fully understand, my mind 'translates' it as 'blah blah blah'). Fortunately, my deli manager is very supportive of me and helps me deal with them. It helps that she doesn't take crap from anyone and she knows far more about the deli than I do. ^.|.^

Now for the bad parts and it'll be pretty lengthy.

For starters, the car I've been using since I started at Amazon has been retired from use. To explain, it was a used car that my parents brought over a decade ago and one of the problems it has is that it has a leak in the oil and it has recently gotten so bad that I was getting to the point that I was spending more on oil than gas. And before you tell me, 'well, why don't you have the oil pipe be repaired', the reason is that it'll involve removing the engine and disassembling it just to put a seal on the line. We don't have the tools to do that level of procedure and it'll cost thousands of dollars for the professional to do that level of work. So, would you rather spend thousands for repairs or spend (what was before recently) $20 for oil? Besides, because of my grandmother's death (which happened last year, BTW, so it's doesn't count as a bad thing for this year), I was allowed to use the van, which, because it was used for my grandfather in long travels (he used a wheelchair and the van itself was custom redesigned so it can have him as a passenger), it only has 60K miles on it despite being just as old as the car (both are the year 2000 models).

Kinda ironic since I have to send the van in for repairs a few weeks ago and, if you haven't checked out my Twitter post about it, it cost me $1,600 for it to repair. .-.

Another tragic thing that happened was that a couple of our pets had passed away, one of which was Winky our white cat with the mismatched eyes who's been with the family since I think 1999 or 1998. He may have been a pest at times, but he does have a golden heart when he was alive. Another was our dog Mellow who we 'inherited' when grandmother passed away not too long before that year's Megaplex. It was especially sudden for Mellow to die since, while he was panting a fair amount that day, he showed no other indication that he was dying. He just laid down and died.

This one is connected with work since, while it may not have been that rough on me (working at Amazon hardened me for hard work), a fair amount of co-workers either left, quit, resigned, or were fired since I started working there. The most surprising one and the one I was salty about happened just last week ago when a co-worker of mine, while I was taking a break, decided to quit and disappeared without telling anyone, not even the store manager nor the deli manager. He just left a note saying that he can't do this anymore when I came back to an empty deli.

Finally (and this is petty of me, I admit), the bad part about this year is that my dad and sister went to take a vacation at California to our relatives there and I'm left home alone. Of course, the reason why is because the two times they schedule for a vacation are the times where I'm required for work during those days (4th of July and Christmas Eve). It still bothers me that, while they're off having fun, I'm at home with only my thoughts. I'm hoping that the next time they do this, it'll be for Easter.

Whew. As you can see, it's been one hell of a year. I'm hoping that next year will be better. Take care, everyone!

Before you ask, I know I haven't been active in the writing department for a while. I'm an easily distractable guy, I admit. ^.|.^;;

However, the reason why I'm thinking of setting up a Patreon is that, well, I want to treat writing like it's a job. Like it's where I stake my livelihood. By having a paycheck hover over me whenever I write and having a penalty whenever I miss my deadline, I hope that I can get back to writing regularly again. After all, I want to be an author as my career.

But the real question you guys are asking is: am I still writing? Actually, yes. I'll explain my workload.

First up, for the past couple of years, I've been writing a novel that's already massive (at word count, it already surpassed Fines Malum) despite only reaching 11 chapters. It's been in the backburner for years, though I admit I doubt I'll fully post it here. Why? Because it's actually based off of a friend,  Dracondo/ DavidWaite, character and species type, Dracondo the Bimortal wolf. It was already going to be its own thing separate from his own works on the character and Bimortals (especially since I didn't know much about them and learned about how he uses Bimortals in his story notes afterward), but it has already in my mind grown massive. Like, at least two or three books of materials. He knows what I had planned for the first part of the story (though as loose notes that has been expanded greatly), but I haven't talked to him about the other plans in the story. I hope he'll find it alright, despite it turning from 'alternative earth, but with furry' to 'alternate world, but with furries).

Another I have planned is actually my first macro story with  Tails230. It takes place in a Pokémon world where there used to be macros, but they disappeared not too long after the anthro furries disappeared from the world, who brought with them macro tech and magic. It stars Faith the Vulpix in her quest to make herself grow bigger by making a wish to Jirachi with the help of Aidan the Flareon, but they encountered misadventures along the way and afterward. It's actually I hope to be a fun adventure, especially since I planned for it to end with a certain Ninetales.

Finally, there's the long, long overdue art-trade with  Midday-Mew (I'm so sorry buddy). Basically, it'll have a couple of unusual Pokémon TFs, but a certain store will be in the background in this story before appearing in the forefront. . . .

There are others planned, but those are the big ones I wanted to get done. I would like to hear from you guys about what you think about having a Patreon. Also, as a standby, if I do have it set up, I planned for it to be set up for a 'get paid only if I create stuff and update' rather than 'get paid on a monthly basis'.

I hope this is alright.

May 2018 be a good year.

Hope you guys have a Merry Christmas. Here's a video for you guys. Enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WKgNyvsNDM

Hey there, everyone. How are things going?

Anyways, I have some updates regarding my future. Mainly that, I have just been terminated from Amazon for low productivity over the past year. It’s something I’ve foreseen and tried to prevent, but I’ve been plagued with bad luck and that the PAs and PGs wouldn’t let me have an easier pick/pack path and instead kept me in the difficult ones. I could appeal for it, but I don’t think it’s worth the trouble.

How do I feel about all of this? Well, pretty mixed, to be honest. On one hand, being fired from my first job, even for stuff that’s isn’t within my control, is a blow to my sense of confidence. I would rather voluntary leave on my own terms rather than their terms. On the other hand, as you’ve seen in my previous journal, I wasn’t happy with working for Amazon anyways. In fact, I admit that I was thinking of leaving Amazon in the new year, but they moved up my schedule.

Well, it’s back to job searching for me, in a more serious sense. So far, I don’t really need monetary support at the moment, but if you guys wanted to, I can open up my PayPal for donations. Also, it gives me the free time to go into my phase two of my stream testing on Picarto. To explain, I did a secret stream back on Thursday night to see how my computer handles it and it seems to handle it well. I may do one tonight as well. If I do, please check my Twitter. For the coming future, my streams will be writing streams, where you can watch me write (and give me grammar corrections when needed, just don’t be a jerk about it) and listen to music.

I hope you guys have a good day.

I remember the day, July 23, 2013, where I got a reply from Amazon who offered me a job interview as a fulfillment associate after I sent them and other companies resumes. It was interesting times, back at 2013, where my great-uncle Dan was living with us . . . again. I was an active member of Crimson Flag also. Not to mention, dealing with college (still do). After the phone interview a few days later, I was offered to go to a direct hire on August 16, 2013.

Of course, the direct hire was in neighboring city, Phoenix, and I still haven’t got my driver license yet, and because it takes place on a weekday, my dad can’t drive me there. So, it was a heck of a trouble to get it in time, which I succeed on the day of the interview (thanks, grandma, rest in peace). The written exam I took twice (because the permit has expired, oops), and the driving and parking test was alright, though I was disappointed that the field test was literally a drive around the block.

So, I got home with my license in hand, got myself clean up in a good suit, and drove all the way to the interview, with the high school diploma, which was required. Boy, was the interview wasn’t what I expected. It was fairly informal, with all the people there getting a job (except me) were wearing casually, the diploma was taken a picture of (and months later since they somehow lost it), and it just have a group of us candidates being talked to along with a drug test. I was lightly teased about the suit thing. I was also given where I’ll be working if I pass the drug test, which was at PHX7 at night shift from Sunday to Thursday, 6:30 PM to 3:00 AM. Then I drove home and, if you were also disappointed at how easy my field test with the car went, I drove in a middle of a rush hour, which was troublesome.

After a month and a half of waiting, I was told to go to the new hire orientation on October 3, 2013 with the actual training and work the following day. The new hire orientation took a lot longer than I expected, so much so that that day counts for a paycheck. And, since dad works on days, it was a decent setup, with him using the car to go to work and back at days and me at nights. So, things were smooth there (aside from Thursday traffic, burr). I was admittedly a slow learner, but I did learn and became what I thought was a reliable worker.

My four years with Amazon, well, I admit that I don’t wish to sound completely negative, especially since it’s my first job and I have no personal reference pool to compare with. Yet it hasn’t been a positive time. My dad contributes it to my sense of fulfillment, which he says we get from work. I used to have a sense of fulfillment with work, but I've lost it due to how work has treated me.

Before I explain, I should elaborate with what type of building PHX7 is. PHX7 is an Amazon warehouse (fulfillment center) where they get in the items, stock them in the shelves or racks, pick them off of the shelves and racks, pack them in packages (or slap them with a SPOO sticker if it can go on its own), and ship them out. Given on what I see, it’s not really one where people generally gets the Amazon Prime packages from, especially since I never see any of the packages used for people with Prime being used here. I work at Outbound, the ones who take the items off of the shelves or racks, have them packed out, and shipped them.

I started out as a floor picker, which I admit hasn’t been that great for my feet. A few months later, I was trained for PIT (powered industrial trucks) as an Order Picker (OP). A few months later, I was trained for pack, where I pack out the items. The building has various pick paths and packing areas, Singles, Multis, Handtape, and BOD. Singles are just that, single items. Multis are group of items that needed to be sorted out in a rebin by a rebiner before they need to be packed out so we know which items goes with which. Handtape are for the long and/or wide and small items that doesn’t work with the Singles/Multis pack setup. BOD (or, as I like to call them, boxes of death) are the large, awkward items that even the Handtape pack setup won’t work with and needed custom boxes to go with.

Anyways, one of the major sense of lack of job fulfillment is the lack of care or empathy the higher ups (particularly the PAs and PGs) have for us associates. My biggest source of that is, back in the middle of 2014, I had surgery to have my left big toenail removed for an ingrown toenail and, when I got to work the following night, walking stick in hand, asked to have a more easier job today, specially slapping shipping labels at the Handtape packing station. They listened . . . for half an hour before they send me to a more physical work at Singles Pack and they were even considering sending me to OP. Needless to say, I didn’t stay after first break and, despite them knowing I can’t do the best I can and I’m barely trained in pack at the time, they still send me to pack where I got my first and second written warning for not reaching rate. It was very stressful at those times.

Another area where I don’t have a job fulfillment sense is, whenever I get very good at one area, they slowly dropped me from working there. For example, I was once one of the very best floor pickers in the building. The last major time I worked on the floor, I was at 100 items picked per hour when the rate of it is 55 and picked out around 900 items that night. Despite that, they don’t send me to that area at much again. Another example is packing Hazmat/small items (Handtape was rearranged so Hazmats and later small items aren’t mixed up with the long and/or wide items) where, at my peak, I can pack out 100 items an hour when the rate is 70. Like, why can’t I be where I am good?

Next, they did some rearrangement to the buildings, with the floor picks being 90% removed for very narrow aisles (VNA) in the middle of the building during 2015, which took a hit at my motivations. Then they did some massive rearrangements for the pack areas, from ending Handtape by moving them to Singles, to changing how the pack stations look and work. When I first started at pack Singles, they were basically three-man teams in a single pack station (as in, three people per single conveyer belt), two doing the packings and one stuffing them with ranpaks and taping them with a machine. Now, it has expanded to stations up eight people who are doing the packing and two people doing the stuffing them with ranpaks and taping per conveyer belt, though those are rarely filled with ten people. More often than not, it’s four or six people doing the packing and one person doing the ranpaking and taping. For something that’s supposed to make it easier and faster to get the packages out to the customers, it felt like they slowed it down massively.

Finally, there’s a great lack of safety in the building, especially with people working with PITs. To explain, in this building, there’s supposed to be a balance for these three things; rate, safety, and quality. One should have a steady and good rate, should always be safe, and be sure the items are in good quality. Yet, associates are only penalized here if their rate aren’t good. We only get lectured if we made a safety violation or if the item is actually damaged or got damaged. As a result, I regularly see associates break at least one safety violation throughout the day. Hell, I saw one guy who turned his OP in the drop zone for pick to be taken for pack the wrong side and spun it around so that the cage connected to his OP slammed into the other cages. And this guy, given on what type of vest he was wearing, works for Safety. If even they will break safety violations, why shouldn’t the regular associates break them?

There’s a whole lot more, but I think you get the point by now. So, what can I do? I hoped going to day shift in 2015 (I was given the car by dad since grandma is in no shape to drive thanks to her Alzheimer’s disease and got her car), but it hasn’t worked out. Then I lowered myself to part-time in hoped that they’ll get the message that I’m getting unhappy with how I’ve been treated, but it may have gotten worse. Before you ask, I doubt I can get myself promoted here. So, what can I do now?

Well, perhaps find a new job, one that’s a lot less stressful and more fulfilling to work in. Perhaps start my career in writing. In the end, I don’t wish to work there anymore.

I just got back from Megaplex 2017. I greatly enjoyed it. Hope to be back next year.

Anyways, here are the photos I took while at Megaplex. https://twitter.com/foxgamer01/stat.....78139050680320
It also includes a few IRL pictures of me, one of which I'll post here on FA.

I hope you like looking at the pictures. <3

Gobble gobble. :|

Here are a few accounts I got outside of FA in the case that FA gets even more broken.

DeviantArt: http://foxgamer01.deviantart.com/
Weasyl: https://www.weasyl.com/~foxgamer01
Twitter: https://twitter.com/foxgamer01
FN: https://beta.furrynetwork.com/foxgamer01/

Don't take it as a 'I'm leaving FA!' stuff. Just showing my backups just in case.

Merry Christmas everyone. I hope you all have a great day. ^.|.^

Welp, it's been, um, two years since I posted a journal.

. . . Yeah. A lot has happened since that time. >.|.>;

To summarized it in a few words, it's this. I got a full time job.

To explain, I'm an Amazon Associate in one of their Fulfillment warehouses. Until back at August, I was working at night shift. As a result, my drive to write has been drained. But now that I'm on day shift, I'm slowly getting back to writing. In fact, thanks to writing class, I'm writing another novel (no, it's not a sequel to Fur Trade. Sorry).

Though I won't be talking much from now on until Christmas due to having to work 55 hours shift for the holiday season. v.|.v;;

Anyways, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Here's a video that I made for you all that has some of my personal favorite artwork. Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/iJ2Yg-e3Pug

A very funny Pokemon picture.

http://i.imgur.com/tI2ENvN.png

. . . of one of the cutest picture I've ever seen. https://www.furaffinity.net/view/10520530/

[Random journal is random. This pic needs more love.]

I've returned from my break. That is all.

*hugs all*

Well, it’s time for me to take a break from the internet. If anyone got anything to say to me, say it now because after midnight I won’t be responding to any messages for who knows how long.

Here's you last chance to get icon(s) from Tod!

http://djinni.livejournal.com/482759.html

Remember: YOU DO NOT NEED PAYPAL TO DONATE!! Credit or Debit Cards can work too.

http://djinni.livejournal.com/482759.html

Get them now.

And, if you tipped, you can get bonuses, like inked and colored icon, extra icons, and streams where you can watch your icons getting drawn!

Get your icon before Thursday!

Warning: No fan characters nor fan art allow.

Oh, and as a final note: YOU DO NOT NEED PAYPAL TO DONATE! It can accept debit or credit.

They updated it so that there's a commission's tab. You can see it on my page.

So I updated it with the type of commissions I want, the prices, the slots, etc.

Otherwise, nothing new, aside from getting the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity game last Monday and completing it Saturday. My opinion? I love it. May be a guilty pleasure to some, dislike by some, and good by others, but I love it. <3

You really made this person happy, especially with all the cakes I got from you guys. o.|.o

Anyways, here's what I got for my birthday aside from the cakes.

*Babylon 5 The Complete 3rd season
*Babylon 5 Movie Collection Set
*The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia
*Wolf plush
*$30 gift card for Amazon

Yup. I'm happy. ^.|.^

It's my birthday today, March 16th.

So wish me a happy birthday if you can. ^.|.^

Well, here's a story written by a friend of mine,  Dracondo. Why am I showing you this? 3 reasons.

First reason is that he's a great friend and, while I don't consider it canon in my own series (but it may be in canon in his own), he's a good writer in his own right and would like to have the publicity.

Second reason is because it can't be posted to dA nor FA. That's because it's a Choose Your Own Adventure and he used HTML to make it. So he can't really post it the normal way. If you know how to program it so it's in flash format and can be posted here, please tell him how or help him make it so.

Third reason is because I'm a nice guy and he asked me to share it.

Anyways, here's the link and enjoy. https://www.dropbox.com/s/7a2gnal0q.....%20Errand.html

Warning: It does not contain my usual forte, transformation, which is why I choose him to write it (that and I'm a nice guy and he asked for money). It contains inflation and before you ask, yes, I did made the plot. I'm a weird fox. XD

And no, my own works will not nor will it ever in the foreseen future contain inflation, so you won't have to worry if you aren't into that stuff. And if you are, sorry. ^.|.^;

Here's a basic update on life so far.

1) I decided to scrap what I've written for Jackal TF and rewrite it on my notebook. The one with papers, not digitals. And I'm nearly done with what I've written so far. So expect a story in the next week or so. =)

2) College life is meh.

3) Still looking for a job. XD

4) Sorry for not replying to comments like I should have. But I'll reply to what needed to be replied to soon.

5) Been playing some fun games, including Alan Wake. Which is a surprise since I don't like the horror genre. I don't hate it. It's just not for me. But then, it's not so must as horror as it is suspenseful and I love that. Also I got a WiiU. Well, I got it months ago, but whatever. XD

6) I got a Weasly account now. Here's my profile and enjoy. https://www.weasyl.com/profile/foxgamer01

Right here.

>> http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/4302782/ <<

Free icons! From the talented djinni (Tod) over in Live Journal. LJ account not needed just follow the link below! =D

http://djinni.livejournal.com/469000.html

Haven't done this in a long time.

Anyways:

Leave a comment and I'll....

1. Tell you something I learned about by looking at your FA page for 13 seconds

2. Tell you a color you remind me of

3. Tell you my first memory of you

4. Ask you a question

5. Tell you something I like about you

6. Give you a nickname

7. Tell you the object that is to the left of me

8. Dare you to do this yourself in your journal