Tag Archives: USPS

Skook Words (and Pictures) #33

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Give me a Y!
Give me an A!
Give me a D!
Give me an I!
Give me an R!
Give me an F!

What does that spell?

YADIRF!

What does that mean?

Time for another fabulous newsletter!

These Days …

Tomorrow the Seattle Post Office is moving the start time for all its carriers from 7 am to 7:30. The Union has filed a grievance and hopefully we’ll get our start times moved back again. We had that new Seattle Postmaster drop by our station on Wednesday to introduce himself and one of the questions a carrier asked was why he was moving the start times. His answer didn’t make a lot of sense to me. It seemed to be that, because we were handing less mail now than in previous years, we …

That’s where his explanation stopped making sense. He talked about route adjustments and how when he was a carrier he used to have so much mail he’d have to leave some of it undelivered on a regular basis. We have less mail but we’re allowed an hour in the office to set up our route and if it takes longer than an hour we’re supposed to use “street time” and …

If we have less mail it seems like we could actually start earlier? Like at 6:30? We started at 6:30 ten years ago when I started working for the Post Office.

The fellow emphasized that we carriers need to do our job safely so we can come home to our loved ones. Yet by moving our start times he’s making it more likely that, especially once Daylight Savings is inflicted on us, we’ll be delivering mail in the dark. Often on unfamiliar routes because we’re being mandated to work overtime.

Tellingly, during his speech, the Postmaster said something like, “We all love the Post Office, don’t we?” This was clearly a prompt for us to applaud, cheer and huzzah. He got resounding silence. I will give him credit. He didn’t pause his speech for us to react after that. He soldiered on, saying that we loved to be able to provide for our families and give service to our community.

I was neither impressed nor especially disappointed by him. He came across as a guy who thought that the current rules were good and that they should be followed. Questions weren’t encouraged. I have some sympathy for management at the PO. They’ve been tasked with making the USPS, an organization that is not and should never have been designed a business, into a profitable business without being given the resources and autonomy to do so. Those above them demand that they make the carriers and their stations hit a set of numbers that are based on a fantasy of an efficient organization that has all the resources it needs to do its job. We, the carriers and the clerks, have contempt for management because we know that the number they want us to hit are bullshit.

I’ll save further complaints for another day.

Cats!

I’ve just about finished my illustrations for the update of Cathulhu. Since I’m waiting to show those off until Sixtystone Press makes it available, this morning I’m showcasing some more of my illustrations from Tails of Valor, Golden Goblin Press’s scenario book follow up to Cathulhu. These are from the adventure –

Triumphus Felis Ferae (set in 41 C.E. Rome) by Jeffrey Moeller
First the vermin became scarce, and then kittens and cats began wandering off, never to be seen again. Later, people began acting strangely, disobeying the Praetorian Guards and attempting to enter the Imperial Palace. Then the Emperor Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (known to later history as Caligula) himself vanishes, leaving the city teetering on the edge of utter chaos. Can a band of brave and proud Roman street cats solve this mystery, and restore order to the Empire? Triumphus Felis Ferae is Latin for “the triumph (all march) of the wild cat” or more simply, Stray Cat Strut.


All of the illustrations in Tails of Valor were published in black and white. Oscar Rios, the publisher, commissioned me to color one of the illustrations as a present for Jeffrey Moeller.

It’s a Mad Mad Mouse (Process GIF)

The art I do is for amusement. My own. Hopefully yours. Hopefully people I’ve never met.

A lot of the art I’ve created in the last couple of years I did with a thought toward putting it on something – a mug, a t-shirt, a poster – and making it available for sale. The image below was made with that in mind. Sooner or later, when I have my own POD shop, I will put it on something, if only for a short time.

Until then, it’s only getting posted as fan art. Because one does not rattle the doors of the House of Mouse. Next year, in 2024, the version of Mickey Mouse as depicted in the silent cartoon “Steamboat Willie”, will enter public domain. Mickey Mouse will continue to be a character trademarked by the Disney Corporation. Copyright is limited. Trademark can be forever. I could argue that the design below is a parody and therefore this depiction is fair use. I could argue that, as long as I don’t market the thing as a version of Mickey, I’m not trying to infringe on Disney’s trademark.

But, honestly? I did this for the fun of it, not to throw rocks at the windows of the Mouse’s fortress.

M! I! C! K! E! Y!

M-O-U-S-E!

Smoke ’em if you’ve got ’em.

And that’s it for this week.

May the next seven days treat you well. May you get the rest you need and may you have some fun and experience some joy.

Cheers!

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Skook WiP #54

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Hello and welcome to the first issue of the Skook Works-in-Progress newsletter for this year!

This is the seventh day of 2022.  I didn’t make any New Year’s resolutions. I haven’t done that in years. If I’m going to take on new habits I prefer to just take them on rather than wait for a specific date. I do plan projects based on dates and time frames. This newsletter, for instance, should run weekly throughout this year. I’ve found that having to post on a weekly basis inspires me to have something to post about – specifically to have some new illustrations or images to show off.

I’ve been running a couple of online stores since the end of 2020. I spent 2021 adding designs to both stores.Many of the designs were reworks of illustrations from my portfolio. Many more were original illustrations done specifically for the stores. As I added designs I started designing specifically for the products that were available. A design tends to work best if it is created with a specific product in mind. What works on a t-shirt may fit poorly on a phone case.

Mugshots

My favorite object to design for is a coffee mug. My big project this year is to create 52 new mug designs. And, because I think it’s fun to make and share process gifs (and because this is the Skook Works in Progress newsletter) I’ll be posting a process gif of new design in each issue here.

This week’s design is an abstract. Because … what the hell.

It’s available on mugs in my Zazzle Store. My chosen version is below. If that particular mug isn’t to your liking you have the option to move the design to other mugs or objects. If you have difficulty doing that just email me and I’ll be happy to help out.

This design is also available on a variety of schtuff in my Redbubble store.

These Days ..

I’m working at the post office again after a month off due to injury. I’m currently scheduled to work half days – that is four hour shifts. Before the injury I was working ten to twelve to thirteen hour days.

I had to look up the history of my knee problem in order to justify my downtime to workman’s comp and I was reminded that I first injured this leg back in June of last year. It’s gotten better and then worse again.

When I sit it feels fine. When I stand and walk it complains. The longer I stand and walk the more it complains. The x-rays have been inconclusive as to a cause. My orthopedist has requested an MRI. That will need to be approved by the insurance company. Hopefully they will decide they don’t need quite as much profit this quarter and they will give the okay.

Ten-Four Good Buddies

That’s it for this week. I’ll be working on other art and illustrations in additon to the mug designs. The mugs will be my regular feature. Other work, designed for other products and purposes, will get sprinkled in as I have time.

Take care of yourself. Be kind when you can. Punch a Nazi if you have the chance.

See you next week!

 

 

Tuesday Night Party Club #28

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Gallery – 2019 Daily Sketches 61-90

Here are another thirty of the sketches that I posted on a daily schedule last year, now in a convenient gallery so you don’t have to scroll through posts day by day.

Story Seed #47
Music of Mystery

A couple has purchased a big house. It had previously been a rental with multiple tenants. Not all the tenants took their stuff with them when they moved out so the couple is having to clear out the abandoned belongings as they move in. They find a box with a couple dozen cassette tapes. The cases are labeled with a list of the songs on each tape. The couple doesn’t recognize any of the songs. Out of curiosity they decide to play the tapes to find out what the music sounds like.

From there the story can go many directions –

  1. The tapes are filled with amazing songs and the couple are compelled to track down the original albums that the music came from.
  2. The songs listed aren’t actually songs. They’re weird interviews that reveal secrets that the couple wishes that did not now know.
  3. The songs alter the couples thoughts and moods, slowly driving thiem insane and/or sparking epiphanies that lead them to enlightenment.
  4. The music on the tapes is strange and obscure. The couple is inspired to track down the original albums and, in the process, they discover hidden worlds and forgotten histories.
  5. Every time one of the tapes is played, something changes in the house. Sometimes for the better. Sometimes for worse. Sometimes simply for strange.
  6. ????

Recommendation

My brother, Glenn, used to blog regularly. Him starting a blog is what inspired me to start blogging. He’s got two blogs: Lovesettlement and Dare I Read? In recent years he’s left them quiet. Until the coronapocalypse and the California Lockdown. What’s been bad for “normal life” has sparked him to do more posting. He uses Lovesettlement to post about his poetry. Dare I Read? is where he posts a wider range of thoughts.

He’s been called back to work so the blogs have been quiet again but there’s enough interesting stuff up that visting is worthwhile.

Local News

A good way to start thinking of all the ways I might be screwing up at my job is to have the boss say as she walks by my case,  “Come see me in the office before you leave today”. That happened to me on Wednesday. And I spent a bunch of time trying to think of what I might have done wrong. Too many u-turns? Too much office time? My delivery time isn’t matching the metrics that corporate thinks it should?

Nah.

Turns out she wanted to give a me a certificate of appreciation for the extra work I do beyond delivering my own route. With mail volumes down I often have undertime available and I volunteer to carry parts of other routes in that undertime. It was a pleasant surprise to get acknowledged for that.

On Thursday the boss gave out small gift certificates to those carriers who had scanned 100% of their packages in the last month and slightly smaller certificates to those who had managed 99% scans. I’m a 99%er.

On Saturday we were given new procedures for how and when we’re supposed to sort our mail and parcels. I’m not going to try to explain the details. Mostly it’s an attempt by management to get the carriers to do our “office time” work during a designated “office time” and everything else during “street time”. I have to compliment our stations managers for actually taking carrier complaints into account and restructuring the way the clerks sort parcels to try to accomodate the new mandates. Past managers have have heard the same complaints and just shrugged.

On Sunday I finished the last illustration for the Lovecraft Country Holiday Collection. Now the clock is ticking until the Growing Up / Overnight Kickstarter launches on August 1st. I will have more to say about that as the date approaches.

Today is my day off. I made a batch of bacon bits – 1 pound pork bacon plus 2 pounds turkey bacon, chopped and baked for a couple hours at 375 degrees. I’ll use those as a garnish for the next couple weeks. I also made a huge lasagna. Five layers of noodles and homemade sauce and five types of cheese. That’s lunch for the next ten days.

And that’s another week gone. I hope yours had more high points than low ones. And I hope that the coming week looks bright. There’s a lot of nonsense happening in the world right now but there’s also a lot of beauty and brilliance. We’re all in this together and when we remember that, we thrive.

Faithful Delivery – Colors

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There’s a movie called The Postman. It’s based on a novel by David Brin. The story, in both the book and the movie, is about how a guy accidentally restarts civilization by delivering the mail. The actual plot is more complicated than that. The movie is sentimental and obvious and heavy handed. The novel takes some side tours into intelligent computers and supersoldiers that are pretty basic for a science fiction story but might seem a little weird if one had seen the film first.

I enjoy both versions of the story. But I really hope I never have to deliver mail in a radioactive wasteland. On a horse.

Faithful Delivery – Inks

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Once upon a time, I was an active correspondent. I wrote a lot of letters. I’d write letters during my breaks at work. I’d write letters to friends of friends. I made minicomics and traded them through the mail.

And then came email and the internet and, specifically, Facebook. I still communicate with a lot of people but mostly via a sentence or two.  I don’t write physical letters anymore. I occasionally get cards, mostly from my big sister and a friend in Colorado. I can’t tell you how much I love seeing those in my mailbox. I can’t tell you how much I enjoy delivering cards and, especially, letters to my customers. I treat that mail like gold.

Faithful Delivery – Pencils

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In August, 2013 I took a job as a City Carrier Assistant with the United States Postal Service. My training was minimal and, according to one of my trainers, insufficient. He said as much during the training, saying that management had reduced our training days from five to two. I certainly felt insufficiently trained for months. I was given new routes to deliver each day and expected to deliver said routes in a time comparable to a seasoned carrier. I worked ten and twelve (and sometimes more) hour days and didn’t have a regular day off. I lost about 50 pounds in the first six months and my body was regularly in some sort of pain. I didn’t have time to draw. It was difficult to have a social life because I couldn’t make plans. I didn’t know when I would have a day off or when I would get off work.

But I persevered. In the last week of December, 2014 I made “career” and became a City Carrier. Within a couple of months I had my own route, near the station and near home. I still worked long hours because I put myself on the Overtime Desired List but at least now I knew where I would be delivering for most of the day and I knew what days I would have off. And I had benefits as part of my compensation that, as a CCA, I’d either not had or had to pay for out of pocket.

I work with good people who bust their asses to get the mail where it’s supposed to go in a timely manner. On most days it’s a satisfying job. Sometimes it’s even fun. I laugh at the dogs who go nuts when I put in an appearance. Human folks are generally friendly. Kids get irrationally excited to see me. And everybody loves to get a package.