Thursday thought

On June 23, 2016 By Luther M. SilerIn Uncategorized6 Comments

I think I’ll have an entire frozen pizza for dinner.

How was your day?

Wednesday whatevs

On June 22, 2016June 22, 2016 By Luther M. SilerIn Work1 Comment

I read t fc,220x200,lemon.jpg wo full books at work today.

Reading books as part of your training at a new job is kind of weird, right? There’s a break room, but it’s kind of desolate and way too hot– when I was up there yesterday going over some stuff I found myself dangerously close to falling asleep after about half an hour, and that is not what we want– so the best solution is to find a place on the floor where I’m mostly out of the way when there’s printed material of some kind that they want me to go over.

(I should point this out: the books are interesting! I actually ordered one from Amazon today because I’m reading a store copy and want my own.)

The problem, of course, is that from the way I’m dressed and, well, the name tag, it’s painfully obvious that I’m an employee. And the place is understaffed– there’s a reason they were hiring– and so frequently when a customer walks in there’s no one to welcome them in right away. And I know nothing, and have no access to anything, so I’m not super helpful– but the customers don’t actually know that. So I’ve been in this weird position for the last couple of days where my options are one of the following:

To walk up to a customer and say Hi, I’m Luther, and I work here, but I don’t know anything yet and can’t really help you or sell you anything, but I’ll be happy to find someone who CAN help you if you have a question, except that chances are the reason that person isn’t here right now is because they’re already with someone else in the first place so you’ll probably have to wait. But hi!
Or, like, sit there in my chair, reading my book, running the serious risk that a customer who actually needs something is going to leave a Yelp review or some shit like that saying one employee literally was sitting and reading a book instead of helping customers. Which is bad for a whole host of reasons. It ain’t like I have TRAINEE on my hat or anything. Hell, I’m not even wearing a hat. Maybe that would help.

But yeah. I really am looking forward to getting started with, like, actually doing stuff, if for no better reason than it would give me something to talk about when I get home at the end of the day beyond I watched training videos and read three hundred pages of stuff. The job’s going to be fun! And I’m going to be good at it! But there’s going to be another, like, week and a half of oh god, training is going to kill me before that happens. I just hope I don’t lose every reader I have before then. 🙂

Speaking of: I feel like not enough of you have bought The Benevolence Archives, Vol. 1 lately. It’s 99 cents! You can find that in your couch. Spend your couch money and buy my book! It’s more entertaining than my blog.

Tuesday… Tiscellany

On June 21, 2016 By Luther M. SilerIn Stories1 Comment

So this week is just gonna be thin, content-wise, and that’s really all there is to it. I could probably go to bed right now and be asleep in seconds. The new job isn’t exactly strenuous, but right now the training is focusing more on “learn policies and procedures” and not so much “interact with people,” and as a result oh my god am I bored. I’ll like the work, I’m convinced of that, but I’d like to start doing it, and I’m not even halfway through the training yet.

So. Yeah. Normally at this point is where I’d post a music video, but I feel like something different today, so instead have a Steve Harvey clip.

Monday miscellany

On June 20, 2016 By Luther M. SilerIn GeekLeave a comment

36004771 I spent a few minutes looking for a meme pic or a GIF or even a YouTube clip of Marlon Wayans doing the “Got me a G-O-B” bit from Don’t Be a Menace to Society while Drinking Your Juice in the Hood, but was both unsuccessful and powerfully reminded that that movie is even less funny than I remember. So: South Park reference.

At any rate, however you spell it, I’ve got me one. My first day was only notable in being almost entirely unworthy of discussion; there was some paperwork, some training videos, and that was about it. They actually even let me go a bit early, time I used to wander around the sales floor and try to get used to the vast amount of inventory I’m expected to know stuff about.

And then the skies exploded, and we had perhaps an hour of some of the hardest fucking rain I’ve ever seen– rain so hard that I was unwilling to cross the parking lot to get to my car, because I would have been completely soaked in the five seconds it would have taken to get across the lot. So I wandered the sales floor some more.

There is… uh… quite a lot to know.

IndyPopCon is officially the first convention that I came back from saying yes, I will definitely do that again next year. Miracle of miracles: I actually made a profit! Friday kind of sucked, but Saturday and Sunday were excellent. I ran out of bookmarks Sunday morning and resorted to putting a plate of Oreos on the table in front of me. The deal: you get a free Oreo, but only if you point at a book and say “Tell me about this one!”

More Oreos for greater enthusiasm. $12 worth of Oreos probably made me over $150 in sales. I’ll use that trick again. My only real complaint about the con was the parking situation; my car was obnoxiously far from the convention center, and I’m not certain that the small amount I saved on parking that far away was remotely worth it. I will investigate other options next time.

That said, my next convention has to be some sort of literary convention/book fair sort of thing. I made money at this one, yes, but not exactly a lot of money, and I want to go somewhere where people are explicitly looking for books. I know Gen Con does something like that, but Gen Con is expensive as hell and a pain in the ass to get into, and I’m not super interested in even trying with them. There’s got to be something else somewhere nearby, though.

I feel like I’m forgetting something I wanted to talk about. I’ll update if I remember what it was.

Home.

On June 19, 2016 By Luther M. SilerIn Photography1 Comment

Just four pictures today, on account of I had seen most of the good cosplayers before and I was selling books. More details tomorrow, but not until after I get home from my first day at my new job!

And also assuming that I am not dead.

Which is not impossible to imagine.

STATION IDENTIFICATION: Infinitefreetime.com

On June 19, 2016 By Luther M. SilerIn WritingLeave a comment

I’m Luther Siler. I’m a writer and an editor. Welcome to my blog, infinitefreetime.com.

I’m the author of Skylights, available for $4.95 from Amazon, and The Benevolence Archives. Benevolence Archives, Vol. 1 is 99 cents from Amazon. Volume 2, The Sanctum of the Sphere, is $4.95. All three books are available in print as well, and the print edition of Sanctum includes BA 1 as a bonus! My newest book is a nonfiction memoir about teaching called Searching for Malumba: Why Teaching is Terrible, and Why We Do It Anyway. The ebook is $4.95 and the print edition is $15.95.

Autographed books can be ordered straight from me as well.

Here’s where to find Luther Siler on the interwebtron:

You can follow me on Twitter, @nfinitefreetime, here or just click the “follow” button on the right side of the page. I am on Twitter pretty frequently; I use it for liveblogging TV, whining about anything that strikes me as whine-worthy, and for short, Facebook-style posts. I generally follow back if I can tell you’re a human being.
Sign up for my mailing list here.
My author page on Goodreads is here. I accept any and all friend requests.
I have a Tumblr! I don’t actually know what Tumblr is, because I’m old, but I’ve got one.
My official Author page on Amazon is located here.
Feel free to Like the (sadly underutilized) Luther Siler Facebook page here. It’s mostly used as a reblogger for posts.
And, of course, you’re already at infinitefreetime.com, my blog. You can click here to be taken to a random post.

Thanks for reading!

IndyPopCon Photos, Day 2

On June 18, 2016 By Luther M. SilerIn Geek5 Comments

Hooooooly crap were there a lot of people out there today. Yesterday was not a great day for sales– not a wipeout, but not good at all. Today more than made up for that.

IndyPopCon photos, Day 1

On June 17, 2016June 17, 2016 By Luther M. SilerIn Geek, Photography4 Comments

I didn’t take a ton of pictures today, but here they are. The Daft Punk folks absolutely won the day. Oh, and the Dalek. There’s a dude in there. With a voice modulator. And absolutely no visibility. He was amazing.