Praise for Arkle

"...[B]rilliant!" Michael R. Mennenga, Farpoint Media

"I'm just enjoying the f*** out of your podcast." Jack Jaffee, author of Down The Road.

"...[L]isteners, I hope you enjoy it." J.C. Hutchins, author of the 7th Son trilogy

"I've been on [The Casting Game] and it's pretty cool." Christiana Ellis, author of Nina Kimberley the Merciless

14 August 2012

Should've posted this awhile ago.

While I'm not quite ready to get back into the podcasting game yet (and believe me, I'm itching for the opportunity), I've managed to keep my web presence up. Recently, I lent my voice to an episode of Diamanda hagan's Twatty Who Reviews. Langauge is NSFW, but I show up in the last 9 minutes or so.

Well, my voice does.

With a British accent.

Just listen for the line "Oh screw this, I'm going to the pub." :)

01 August 2012

August 1st Update on the Status of Arkle Studios

Hey loyal listeners (the few I have left). So, yeah, this has been taking a lot longer than planned. The move got delayed due first to the timing of my unemployment hearing. How did that go? Sadly, the court sided against me even after my Taco Bell managers admitted under oath that they didn't know if I knew the policy I got fired for existed, which I didn't because it was brand new and I had not been briefed on it. Seriously, they put down as the reason I was denied my UE benefits that I knowingly violated the policy. I still have the packet they sent me for my appeal, and an audio recording of the hearing exists. Robin and Teresa admit; 1: That normally they inform employees about new policies and have them sing something but "did not do so" for the new social media one. and 2: that they posted it somewhere in the office and just assumed that I had read it. They say this even though when Robin fired me, she asked me if I knew about it, and I said "No," which was true, and which she didn't deny at the hearing. So yeah, Taco Bell is evil. Don't eat there. Ever. Let them try to sue me for defamation, like I said, I have a paper trail that can back me up. This social media policy they have now has chilling First Amendment implications. If an employee there, people who bust their humps for less than a living wage, can lose their job for the mere act of venting after a rough day... Anyway, so, much as I was hoping I could be recording by now, I had to vacate my apartment a bit earlier than planned. My landlord (also named Robin, coincidentally) was aware of my situation, and apparently had wanted me out sooner than I left. My now former roommate Bryan was surprisingly generous, letting me stay all of June and half of July while I was getting no Unemployment, and no job interviews during most of that time Yeah, I stopped getting interviews before the end of May, the month I was actually fired in. Employers aren't even bothering to let me know they "Went with someone else" anymore, I'm just being ignored. Joy. Oh, right California. I forgot to mention that here. yeah, I have to go live with my grandmother in Rialto, the city I grew up in originally before moving to Colorado in '91. It's that or homelessness since, thanks in large part to my now having been fired twice in two years (the first time actually being my own fault, which is why I don't complain about it the way I do with Taco Hell). Shipping my belongings has been difficult, given the lack of income. Even selling much of the things I own that people will actually buy (sadly not much as not even my portable iPod speakers were accepted by my local pawn shops) has not given me enough to send everything. Luckily, even though my ass had to be tossed on the 18th of last month, my Aunt Wendy was kind enough to let me store what I hadn't shipped yet in her garage while I stayed at my Dad's place, where I had very little space and no real privacy to speak of. And currently I'm house sitting for Wendy while she and her husband are on vacation. That's where I'm writing this from. I'll be here until the 10th, then back at my Dad's until the 15th, when my Mom and Step-Dad will be paying for my train ticket into exile. I know that sounds insulting, but I've talked this out with them, and they're sympathetic. They live in California themselves, across the street from my grandma's to be exact, but they want to be there. They get that Colorado has been my home for 21 years; except for a few conventions, all my happiest memories are here in the Centennial state. They aren't offended by this sense of dread I feel having to go back to an area that has one of the worst public transportation systems in the country (remember Who Framed Roger Rabbit? I wish I lived in that alternate-reality SoCal. Not because of the cartoon but because in that movie, public transportation won), which sucks for a PT reliant person such as myself. The only real bright spot in all this is that my grandmother will be letting me use her computer. And that, once I'm settled in anyway, is when I can start podcasting again. Because dammit, I miss this gig. I'd be doing it these next few weeks from Wendy's place if not for the fact that having only a Guest profile on her computer means I can't download the necessary software. So that's where things are at. Thanks for sticking things out with me, the 3 fans I'm sure I have left after this latest, and by far longest unplanned hiatus I've had since I started podcasting in 2008 Hopefully I can double that number for 2013. ;) P.S. Oh, and thanks to everyone whop checked up on me when news of the theater shooting in Aurora broke. Aurora is a suburb of Denver, so some early news reports said it was Denver proper where the shooting happened, and my fans and friends know I live in Denver, but not necessarily where, and The Dark Knight Rises is the kind of movie I would go to a midnight screening of if I had the money (fact: last midnight screening I saw? Terminator Salvation). I was actually more than an hour bus ride away, and asleep when it happened, but you guys had no way of knowing that at the time. So again, thanks for the concern.