deviantART: by:Toshi21 http://search.deviantart.com/?q=by:Toshi21&section=today deviantART RSS for by:Toshi21 en-us Copyright 2009, deviantART.com Tue, 29 Dec 2009 01:35:54 PST deviantART.com http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://s.deviantart.com/minish/widgets/apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png Did Christmas really come and go? http://Toshi21.deviantart.com/journal/29207202/ http://Toshi21.deviantart.com/journal/29207202/ Sat, 26 Dec 2009 03:13:49 PST Do you see this text here? YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO, now refresh.

Yesterday was a wonderful day. It was nothing too special, but there was nothing to point faults at, except for one minor thing. It went by too quickly. The day went like this; 7am, I was woken up by my Step-Dad shaking me frantically saying "WAKE UP IT'S CHRISSYMAS", and all I could do was groan and roll back over. Still, I woke up 30 minutes later, and decided to head down.

The unwrapping of presents festival began. The two dogs, Star and Bracken (This is Bracken's first Christmas in the family) got to open a couple of their presents first. Their tails were wagging faster than I'd ever seen them wag before, and why not? You can never go wrong with wrapping up a few toys and treats for them both, they adore them so much. The rest of us just slowly picked at the presents under the tree as time passed, but we didn't open every single one. It's been a tradition ever since my parents had divorced that we would leave half of the gifts for when my Dad made it here, in which we would open the rest with him in our presence. We do it every year, it wouldn't feel right if we didn't.

Once all the presents were opened, I did my usual thing of getting into any new clothes I acquired from opening presents, and then my Grandma turned up with my Auntie Sheena and her partner, Gary. Grandma was staying for Christmas Dinner, sadly my Auntie and her partner only stopped for a short while, just to greet us a Merry Christmas as well as give us some presents to open too.

It soon turned 1pm, and the feast was ready. Turkey, Pork, Yorkshire Puddings, Roast and Mashed Potatoes, Parsnips, Brussel Sprouts, Carrots, Peas, Turnip, Cauliflower, Sage & Onion Stuffing, Apple, Chestnut & Pork Stuffing, and my two favourites, Roast & Chestnut Stuffing and, what I like to call them, Angels on Horseback (basically Sausages wrapped in Bacon). As always, my mother puts on a wonderful dinner, she's a fantastic cook who never fails to please at meal times. The Turkey was very special, since it's purchased from Marks & Spencers. It's one of those where you place your order early for next Christmas, and they breed the Turkeys, free range, on a farm somewhere. About a week before Christmas (an inside gag is coming up), it is slaughtered and brought to our local store to pick up. You may pay that little bit more, but you're sure to get quality every time (inside gag finished. If you want to know more about the origin of this gag, poke me on MSN).

The dinner was divine, and our bellies sure were fat and full at the end, but wait, there's more! Who can forget the Christmas Pudding? Well. I could, since I don't particularly enjoy the stuff, so I ended up with my own Chocolate version instead. Still, delicious, and I could of eaten the whole thing.

Once dinner was over for definite, my Brother's Girlfriend, Melissa, paid a visit, and more present opening ensued for them both. For an 18 year old, she gets very excitable, and she was squealing at some of the things she had opened, especially the latest Harry Potter DVD that I got her for Christmas. Still, seemed like she loved every minute of it.

Sadly, they had to both leave once they had opened the rest of their gifts, but at around 4:30pm (it was dark out too), it was time for Grandma to leave. I took her back home in my car along with my Dad. She only lives about 9 miles away, so it wasn't much trouble, besides, I wanted to test out my new Satellite Navigation system that my Dad got me for Christmas. I know where my Grandma lived, but I just wanted to give it a whirl. It worked a treat, that's a given. Made sure she got in her house safely, gave her a kiss and a hug, and left her to enjoy Christmas in the comfort of her home.

Got back, and it was my Dad's turn to leave. Gave him a handshake, a hug, and he headed off on his own (since he drives). That left us with myself, Mum and Step-Dad. I spent the rest of the night fiddling with my Satellite Navigation system preferences and updates, as well as built my new computer chair. Once that was done, I did my usual thing, sat at the computer for the night, and spent the time with friends.

It headed towards midnight, in which I began to wonder.. Christmas felt different this year. Why? Well, it was a lot quieter than usual so that may have made it different, but we didn't have the family for dinner, which is what we usually did, but stopped that because there was always a fight whenever they were invited over, and with a recent event which shook the whole family up, it was a big no for inviting them over. Though that wasn't the only reason why it seemed strange. I realised that everything I've done and written up above was definitely done in 24hrs, but.. those 24hrs flew by so quickly. It... ]]> =Toshi21 OH SHIT IT'S THAT TIME ALREADY? http://Toshi21.deviantart.com/journal/29167498/ http://Toshi21.deviantart.com/journal/29167498/ Thu, 24 Dec 2009 16:18:42 PST Do you see this text here? YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO, now refresh.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, YOU FAGS.

Now seriously, hope you all have a brilliant day and that you get everything you want and more. Be sure to stuff your faces with Turkey and Christmas Pudding, and don't get too drunk either.

All in all, I hope Christmas 2009 will be a magical time for you all. Make the best of it.

*~Toshi~*

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]]> =Toshi21 My Apologies http://Toshi21.deviantart.com/journal/28712046/ http://Toshi21.deviantart.com/journal/28712046/ Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:04:52 PST Do you see this text here? YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO, now refresh.

I feel like I should apologise for lack of activity, mostly because I have some wonderful people being very patient with me regarding their free sketches. Why the delay? It's rather simple.

About five years ago, I got a Printer/Scanner for my 17th Birthday. I was happy knowing I could use this to scan anything I draw and upload onto the internet, but I struck a problem about a week ago. It was finally laid to rest. So it renders me without a Scanner for a while, probably just until after Christmas I guess, so if you're waiting on your sketches, please just wait a while longer.

I've not been around as much either. My days have been filled with new work times that now suck. It's not really that bad, but being used to starting at 9am, and heading out right away to deliver and be home for 1:30pm pretty much affects it. I now start at 8:30am to prepare the delivery, not leaving the office until around 10am, but due to this I don't finish until as late as 3pm on bad days. I don't mind, of course, since Christmas is around the corner and I need the overtime (since I'm a 24hr contract doing a 30hr duty now), but a longer day makes a more tired Yoshi, so any leisure time I have is now spent being a lazy sod, playing Rock Band 2, or Team Fortress 2, unless I'm at the Gym in which I'm not being so lazy.

Social life has been a bit of a shitter too. Ended up arguing with a local friend of mine over how he thinks I can't hold an actual conversation with him (of course, he also thinks the world revolves around him too), and in the end lost contact with him over it (aka, was blocked via MSN). Not sure if he did it to cool off, or it's actually permanent, but it's been over a week now, and whatever his intentions were, I'll be seeing him Sunday as it's the December furmeet to hopefully patch it back up, have a hug and get on with life. I just hope nothing sparks because of it though (even though the argument was very, very petty.. I love that word).

Anywhoo, I've bored you enough with my ramblings, until next time, expect very little to nothing from me. Take care.

*~Toshi~*

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]]> =Toshi21 Ten Free Sketches, read bolded text. (Check Edit) http://Toshi21.deviantart.com/journal/28285548/ http://Toshi21.deviantart.com/journal/28285548/ Sat, 14 Nov 2009 12:13:02 PST Do you see this text here? YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO, now refresh.

That's right. Yoshi characters only please. I'll do them when I can, I need to start drawing again after all.

YOU MUST RESPOND WITH A LINK/DESCRIPTION OF YOUR YOSHI CHARACTER, FAILURE TO DO SO WILL COST YOU YOUR SPOT (THERE WILL BE EXCEPTIONS TO SOME). IF I FEEL YOU DO NOT FALL UNDER MY FREE SKETCH REQUIREMENTS, YOU WON'T RECEIVE ONE EITHER!

The sketches will be done in order of people who have actually followed the above.

1. ~YoshiMax (Done)
2. ~SDragon01 (Done)
3. ~Newtyoshi (Done)
4. =bowser166 (Done)
5. ~deathiinc
6. ~ABYAY
7. *BlooperKoopa19
8. ~Lazoshi
9. ~LionSharkAlligator
10. ~Little-Puppie

That's it, slots full. I'll start when I can.

EDIT: I've started, but I won't be uploading any until all the sketches are done, though I shall keep updating this journal to let you know whose I've done so far.

*~Toshi~*

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]]> =Toshi21 Royal Mail: Strike Action http://Toshi21.deviantart.com/journal/27891218/ http://Toshi21.deviantart.com/journal/27891218/ Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:22:09 PDT Do you see this text here? YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO, now refresh.

So Royal Mail are going on strike, starting Thursday for just two days. A lot of people are getting on their high horses pointing the finger at the Postal Worker, where they don't even know the half of it. Thankfully, I found this incredible, yet painstakingly long response to an article regarding our decision to strike. This will take you a good 15 minutes, but if you're curious about the strikes, please read, this will clear up some things.

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We think it's fair to say that you, our customers, are not interested in why we are once again striking. It is also fair to say that some of the problems we are going through does not affect you either. What you are interested in is you getting your mail, and whatever mail you send, getting there within the allotted time depending on what service was paid for. But we do think that it is fair to inform you of part of the reason as to why we are striking as it affects you in a big way.

Before we go on let's get one thing out first, it's not about a pay rise, far from it, a pay rise if we are to be truthful is in the mix but is not as a high priority as other concerns we have.

Please just take a minute to see what we have to say.


What's affecting you then?

In 2007 we signed an agreement with Royal Mail called the Pay & Modernisation deal, in that deal there are, amongst other things, a new working practice called 'absorption'. This is one of YOUR biggest problems, whether you are a domestic or business customer!

Before the deal any postal workers rounds that weren't covered due to staff sickness, holidays, or general shortage would be covered by other postal workers on overtime. There would be no shortage of posties willing to do this, so there was never a major problem getting the mail delivered. But now we have 'absorption', what this now means is that any rounds now that does not have a postal worker allocated to it is now absorbed by the rest of the postal workers in the office. With Royal Mail insisting that mail volumes are falling they are under the impression that we now have a lot of spare time in which to absorb other posties work.

This is not the case, not only have we lost 60,000 staff in the business in the last few years (our CEO Adam Crozier has publicly admitted this) but we now have a large proportion of part-time workers which affects the way the mail pipeline works.

Mail is being delayed regularly and in vast amounts around the country in the name of absorption, so managers can report that absorption has happened and the savings have been made, some posties have to leave part of their round in the office, they also are being forced to 'cut off' or stop their deliveries as they have run out of time. Royal Mail drivers have been taken off their packet routes to help absorption, hence packets are left undelivered for days.

This is a mass abuse of the deal we signed in 2007, and posties are being bullied and threatened with taken off pay if they either refuse to do this or happen to cut off.


Later deliveries.

A few years back, Royal Mail ceased the second delivery and you now only get one, but the truth is Royal Mail did not stop the second delivery, they cancelled the first. We now start our rounds at the time that we started the second delivery years ago and now, Royal Mail want even later start times. So while today, if you're one of the lucky ones, you might meet your postman before you go to lunch, you will soon be meeting him just before dinner. We are aware that this causes big problems for businesses all over the UK more especially those that work from home. But that does not seem to matter to Royal Mail, later start times and later deliveries are all down to modernisation, or in other words, new sorting machines being brought in which, would you believe, take even longer to sort the mail. This will also affect our own work/life balance and there are childcare issues, and school run problems, already rising because of it.

You may also be aware before we went to Single Daily Delivery, you could pick up any packets or signed for letters left in the morning around two hours or so later at your local office. That, as some of you may be aware has changed, some places you have to wait 24hrs, most 48 but there are some where you can't get the packet for nearly 72hrs. That's if your office is local instead of on some industrial estate somewhere, and of course if it does not close before lunch.

This is Royal Mail modernisation.


"If you don't like your job, then leave!"

This is what we read about all the time... ]]> =Toshi21