Abrams Inc. Convention - Cancelled! :(

22nd June, 2009 I received the most depressing news I've heard in a long time, which was the news of the Abrams Inc. convention being cancelled that was supposed to take place in the second weekend of August. It is a real shame and quite depressing as I was so looking forward to it, I had also forked out a lot of money on it to get the top gold pass that came with lots of privileges such as getting to meet the guests, drinking cocktails with them and autographs.

Michael Emerson whom portrays Benjamin Linus in the popular tv show 'LOST' was going to be there and I was going to use the event to aid my research and work for my dissertation question to do with fandom in my dissertation essay for third year of university, which would have made a really valuable direct primary source.

Furthermore not to mention that I could have used something really good to happen in my life this year to put towards making up for the crappy past year I've endured with the illness and passing of my Nanna which had put me (and my family) through much painfully distraught and languishingly devastating. This summer has already been depressing enough for me with lack of money and job as well as being away from uni and uni friends being brought upon me.

It's not just the fact that the con has been cancelled either that has depressed me, I also had planned tp meet my friends there too. Friends whom I befriended on the internet and have known for years now, and we were using the con as our big thing to finally meet each other in person. What was also disappointing is how ill-treated some of the customers were treated, including myself, whom felt the need to express their sorrow, and disappointment on s/m and m/e forum. I myself got banned for asking revlevant and important questions, which in the end, were ignored. After much emailing them and other forum posters on my side pointed out the absurbity and unfairness of banning me, I was unbanned.

The only positive thing coming out of the cancellation is that I will get a full refund, and I am lucky that I didn't commit to travel and accomodation expenses, so at least I''ll have more money for my final year at university. I actually got my refund days after the announced cancellation, which is the one good thing s/m and m/e have been able to scrape out of their quality of customer service,

But what has made the cancellation of the even worse is that the organisers of the event 'showmasters' have blamed the uncommited fans who had not yet/would not buy tickets for the con, which has some truth in it, but customers shouldn't be blamed, and the reason there was reluctancy from more customers were that there was only one guest announced, and there would have been more interest if more guests were announced. Not only that, there was a severe lack of advertising, I myself only found out about the event through word of mouth. It's simply outrageous for potential customers and the fans to be blamed for the lack of ticket sales.

To be fair, the man that was out of order to customer's expressed disappointment and significant and relevant questions was a man called Jason, who verbally attacked, accused and slandered customers whom expressed their valid oppinions that so much more could have been done to prevent the cancellation, such as better advertisement, better organised budgeting, gaining more announced guests etc.

I, among many other people, have publically announced that it is very unlikely that we will have enough trust in showmasters and massive events to be fully committed into purchasing for an event for a long long time.

Katharine House Hospice Midnight Walk

July the 4th I am attending the Katharine House Hospice Midnight Walk, which involves me walking 12 and a half miles starting from midnight to raise money for Katharine House Hospice.

My main reason for doing this is because sadly, my Nanna passed away end of January after enduring about 6 months of a big fatal brain tumor in the middle of her skull which was inoperable and impossible to remove.

She spent a little over three months in the care of the Katharine House Hospice, and they looked after her very well, and made her last moments liveable as well as being more then helpful to her family, they were very accomodtive.

Now it is my turn to help them as the Hospice depends on charity help to run so successfull and efficiently, which is why I am doing this sponsored walk, and why I am asking you to sponsor me!

It is really simple to donate. You just go to my sponsor page and donate at least 2 pounds - or $3-ish - or more if you like!. I am pretty sure you can sponser from abroad too anyway. Don't forget to claim gift aid!

My sponser page is http://www.justgiving.com/zoedkt

for more information on the Katharine House Hospice, http://www.katharinehouse.co.uk/

If you would like to know any more information, just let me know, if you want to ask me privately, just give me an email at zoedkt108@hotmail.co.uk (note this isn't an address I use for msn)."

Father's Day

(Written Sunday, 21st June)

It has been a tiring day. I woke up earlish - for me anyway, after recieveing a phone call from my mom (I am calling mum 'mom' now cuz I am just too used to the American phrase of it, and find myself having to stop myself from saying it, and am too tired to stop myself any longer.) letting me know her boyfriend and my good friend Duncan will be picking me up 10ish to bring me back home from my dads, whom I had spent the night at. Guilty for now after waking up late at 9am - to my dad that is late anyway, I forced myself up and went downstairs, a little annoyed with myself that I was only spending an hour with my dad on fathers day, so I made myself subconciously promise I wouldn't touch the laptop until I got home. Cyberspace could wait.

When I got downstairs, my dad was already awake, watching some celebrity show on one of the sky channels and playing on my sims 3 game, losing his temper a bit cuz he couldn't figure out how to type the cheats him, despite me telling him a thousand times how to do it, as well as how to build and modify the houses. I shook my head watching him, he was still unable to do it properly without making a fool of himself, so I sighed and told him to give it to me and I did what he wanted done on there for him, making sure he watched so he could carry on with the game later on in my absence.

Duncs didn't get back into town to pick me up til 20 past 10, so it was nice to have a little over an hour to spend with my dad, of course, ideally, I would have preferred to have spent more time in his company on his special occasion, but he doesn't have any helpful transport to take me home at a better time, so I have to rely on my mom or Duncs.

When I got home, of course, the first thing I did was pop on the internet to catch up with emails, rp post and internet friends as well as checking facebook, dailybooth and twitter. All was fine there, not much had changed. So I hung around the house a bit, had a shower and walked the dogs, bumping into my neighbour Julian who's wife has justa about a month ago had two twin babies, girl and boy Matthew and Charlotte. Lovely babies, so very cute and sweet. He asked me about how my job interview went, and I told him about how nervous I was in the interview, that some of the questions seemed qutie hard and I was told I wouldn't hear anything until Wednesday, Julian then excused himself as he was still organising moving stuff from one house to another, as he had been staying in the house opposite the pub while his house was being renevated and extended. I continued on with my walk and went straight back onto the net for a bit when I got back, the walk being fairly un-eventful as I only had Tarka to walk with Tabb having a bad leg.

About an hour after returning from my dog walk, the phone started to ring, and I answered, recognising the number straight away, my heart skipped a beat as I hoped I was right to who was phoning. The phone call went along these lines

"Hello?" I answered.

"Hello, this is **** from the Odeon. Is Zoe there?" A formal voice answered.

"This is Zoe." I replied, now tense.

"Hello Zoe, I'm calling to let you know that your interview was successful, and would like to offer you a position on our team." He explained.

"That's brilliant!" I replied with great and possible over enthusiasm. I really did want this job afterall, and was so sure I was too nervous in the interview and somehow mucked it up.

"Can you start Friday, 6pm?" He enquired.

"Sure! That's not a problem." I replied blissfully.

"We'll just need account information and your p45." He informed me.

"Great, I'll see you Friday." I replied.

"See you Ffriday, bye!"

I then proceeded to scream with glee and ran to my laptop, spamming all my statuses, msn convos and chat boxes with 'I GOT THE JOB!' before running downstairs, through the back garden and to my grandparents, yelling happily at my Poppa 'I got the job!' to which he congratulated me before I headed home again to call my mom and let her know, and I was greatfully happy that she told me she was happy for me - mom was away at the time with Duncan, visitng Duncan's mum, hence why I had been left with dog walking duty among other chores which by chance I hadn't completed before we went out for our meal at the Huntsman in Dunchurch, nr Rugby.

So while still in awe over the phone call, I thought I'd quickly pop down to visit Julian and tell him the good news after he was so nice into checking how my job interview had gone. I was going to be quick as I knew he still had plenty of packing and unpacking to do, however, when I knocked on the door, he invited me in to share the news with his lovely wife Emma, which was great, especially seeing the twins again. They both congratulated me too and I stayed for a bit, his father and brother and brother's partner were there too. I helped feed baby Matthew as both Charlotte and Matthew were both demanding feeds at the same time, and Julian and co, bar Emma were busy with the packing, so I offered - or rather accepted willingly and happily to help feed baby Matthew while Emma fed baby Charlotte.

It's amazing really. It's true what parents say, you really can get lost for time when staring at such a tiny yet brilliant life form, although I did manage to snap my attention back to reality to make sure I got home for latest at 5pm, plenty of time to get ready to go out for our family meal at half 6. It was lovely, seeing my aunt, uncle and cousin Rob out of the twin cousins, Rob and Jake - Jake was away on deployment for the Royal Navy, so sadly couldn't attend.

After the journey back, it dawned on me quickly how tired I was, so after some coffee at my Poppa's at which I didn't drink anyway for my dislike of coffee, I went back on the internet again for some quick little catch ups, and so here we are! And I really need to go to bed cuz I've got an early morning walk to attend to! So this is me over and out, as I am shattered too. Night night for now!

At My Dads

Well, as I write this, I am at my dads, having good old silly times and so I can see him tomorrow for father's day before I have to go off to the Huntman wiith my mum and her family for a father's day dinner.

My dad is brill. When I arrived unexpectedly, he went out and got my dinner and sweet treats, and now we are just chilling together watching Hotel Babalon and me prattling away on the computer, which he is very good about cuz I know he gets frustrated with me being on the internet constantly.

So yeah, I took some photos of my dad being silly and thought I'd put them on here for a laugh, with captions explaining the photo.

- My dad doing an impression of a sheep. Yeah, I know, looks nothing like a sheep! Try telling him that! I am always arguing with him about the difference between mutton and lamb too.

This is where I get my bad habit from of biting my nails! He was being silly about it too, I caught him doing it and kept on asking what he was doing cuz he was frozen in position and wouldn't answer me, then stuck out his tounge with a bit of fingernail hanging on the end! Gross! But funny pose.

lol, gay pose!

Novel Writing!

I have been a keen writer for a very long time, and writen stories for as long as I can remember. I am currently writing a novel that I've been working on since I was about thirteen, however, I keep on making changes, whether it be structure or continuously re-writing the first couple of chapters as well as getting distracted in spreading the novel over three books and making an additional book for another character and the making of the book from the project file I have on the book. I used to have a title of the book, and even illustrations, but this too has changed over the years, and now I have still yet to come up with the title.

Anyway, as I mentioned, I am keeping a project folder to keep track of my progress, and hopefully aid in me disciplining myself into finally finishing the novel. I hope by keeping newsy updates on here will help, despite no followers, lol. I don't want to give too much away in case anyone steals my idea, even though I've got the legal copyrights for it already, but I might give some hints to my plots and characters etc.

So yeah, keep a look out on here if you are remotely interested!

Updates?

I've been back home home for the summer holiday, and after all the c.v's I've given out and the possibilities of getting jobs were better than I expected, and out of all the c.v's I've handed out, I've only had one interview, to be fair, it was the one job I really wanted, but I am pretty sure the interview was at the type of level where you can tell if it went well or bad, as the conversation was really friendly, but some of the questions asked, I really struggled with, and of course came the all important speech at the end 'we have more people to interview yet, but we'll get back with you as soon as possible.' I often take that as a bad sign, and now I have to wait till at least Wednesday to hear anything back. I really would like this job - it's at the Odeon cinema chain, as it would hugely benefit my media course, as well as I love going to the cinema, and would be interesting to see how it all works behind the scenes.


So while waiting for a job, I am stuck at home, doing chores and getting really bored. I half wish I was back in Lincoln. Well, full on wish I was back in Lincoln, but lack of monies has made that impossible for this summer. It is nice being back home, seeing people I haven't seen in a while, but when you've lived away from your parents, live independently, you notice a real difference when you move back in with your mum. Rules are suddenly in place, and, well, suppose it is dependent on the mum, but I think mine sometimes forget I'm no longer a child, that she had a 20 year old living in the house, not a 16 year old.

I can't believe how long summer holidays are for university students. Beginning of May until the end of September. It's so long. I remember when college would finish at the end of June, officially, and I thought those summer holidays were a large amount as it is, being used to school at secondary and primary years not finishing until mid July, and then you would go back second week or so in September. I suppose it helps having longer holidays for college and uni students so they have more of a chance to make more money over the summer, but it does drag on...and on...and on.... I am probably finding it must frustrating because of my addiction to the internet, and my current lack of access to it, I am lucky at the moment being able to be online now, but I have so many youtube videos to upload which I can't, cuz this internet isn't reliable enough to do so, so I guess I'll have to wait until September.



Anyway, that's about it for now, with the same boring routine everyday, there isn't much interesting news to put up on here atm, so I'll return when the situation changes!


Over and out.

Oh Crap

Well, I am now back in Oxfordshire, my home shire. And I have no internet except for when I visit my dad, which probs will only happen at weekends, but as I spend majority of my time at my Mum's house, I am cut off from the internet until I get a job and can afford my own internet. Sucky sucky suck suck, but what am I going to do? Not much I can do, I guess I'll just have to pray this summer will go quickly.

I am getting into more bad cycles with being home too. Mum wakes me up at half 9, I pretend to get up, but as soon as she leaves for work, I sink back into bed for another hour. Then I get up, lazily, and watch vids on my laptop, then watch Gilmore girls. Walk the dogs, rush housework I was asked to do before mum and her bf Duncs get home, tease the birds. Mum comes home, I watch more TV, eat dinner, more tv, read, go to bed. Then the same thing the next day and the day after that.

I feel bad when I come to visit my dad too, because I spend majority of it on the internet, and I think he might secretly get upset about it, cuz it is hard to pull me away from it, but that is because I am catching up and making up for what I have missed while staying at mums. He subtley tries to get me off the computer, but I simply don't bite his bait. I'll have to find a way to make it up to him. Bless him, he does do a lot for me, and he had been looking out for oppertunities for me to get a job around my hometown.

Anyway, thats about all that has happened since I've left Lincoln, so when I next get back on here, I hope for it to be more full filling.

Chao for now!