Angry Management: Dealing With Aggressive Managers: Annoying Spammy Referral Links

Angry Management: Dealing With Aggressive Managers: Annoying Spammy Referral Links: I don't often go off topic with this blog but feel the need to name and shame a new form of spam that seems to be on the rise: referral link...AND IF YOU SEE TRAFFIC FROM blog-zug.com or something like that out of Germany, it is a NEW REFERRER SPAMMER. NEVER click onto links on your stats page. AND PASS ALONG ANY AND ALL REFERRER SPAM INFORMATION YOU HAVE. plus, some legitimate sites from respectable companies HAVE BEEN infected by REFERRER SPAMMERS and now sometimes operate in that manner............ OK, I'm done...WHEW! Wish the big blog providers would put in some kind of a simple blocking mechanism so WE COULD ERASE THEM.......Now, if you like, PLEASE scroll down, poke around and take a look at what I write about. And if you know SIMPLE ways to handle photos and post them on sites like Twitter, Facebook and HERE, kindly leave a COMMENT and tell me in DUMMY language. I suffer from DIGITAL PICTURE BLINDNESS and HUNGER for a cure.....THANK YOU...........but I do see pretty colors...Ooooo! Look!...... 

Billy Kravitz' vampire wonderland: A PEEK INTO THE FIRST NIGHTS OF OUR TALE..as it wa...

Billy Kravitz' vampire wonderland: A PEEK INTO THE FIRST NIGHTS OF OUR TALE..as it wa...: Revisit the nights when Sarah was still mortal and her strange, little, hidden bookshop, known as PHILADELPHIA AFTER DARK, catered to 'the ...

A MESSAGE THROUGH THE ETHER FROM THE VAMPIRE KNOWN AS PAPA

The townhouse looked nice during the day. Edith 'Swiffered' the hardwood floors. She vacuumed the fine, wool area rugs, polished the furniture, played with the knick-knacks (good stuff. mostly antiques and collectibles) and Lysol-wiped the kitchen. I don't know who was gonna get sick. Vampires don't carry any germs. OK, from time to time one of her friends from the Pines came to stay for a night or two. Even Mister Edith poked his head in every so often. Pin Head Mel, the mini-skulled kid who played with Horsey Skeezix, liked the city. She took him for ice-cream, rode him around on the subway, got him new shoes. Tomas said he'd pay for a doctor. You know, to try and do something for the kid's brain and all. But Edith told him not to. Mel was happy and everyone in the Pines loved him. So what were they gonna accomplish? Hell, Horsey Skeezix (the Jersey Devil kid) thought he was a genius. Them Jersey Devil kids are real feral when they're young.  Annie played with 'em too sometimes, but once she tried to take a bite out a Pin Head's ass, so Edith told her to stay the hell away. 

Lately she has a thing for human urine. Annie, I mean. She's fascinated by it. Wants to know if it's the same as chicken soup. Loves goin' into ladies' rooms and findin' some. You know, not everybody flushes. Scoops it out into a twist-top, plastic, sippy cup she got from the dollar store. Matron says - What is wrong with you, you stringy haired, little bitch?..... But Annie just tells her to go to hell and runs out. Experiments with it back home. Kills goldfish in it...sea-monkeys in it... roses in it. Once she cut up a whole flank steak (you know Edith and her human guests gotta eat) into little cubes and simmered 'em in it. Thank God she didn't ruin the good, Rachel Ray set. Then she fed it to the night-pigeons sleepin' in the branches at Washington Square Park. But they wouldn't eat it. Well, one of 'em did, but it already had a crazy eye anyway.

Conrad went to the movies. Guy he knows, sort a like a familiar, but not really, gets him into The Ritz Five up by the old Second Bank of The United States. Beautiful building. Round. Federalist, I think. He wants a be a critic. Get his name in The City Paper and all that. Tomas doesn't think that's such a good idea, but Baylah takes up for him. Vampire gotta have other outlet than blood, you know. 'Sides, ain't like he gone on Oprah or nothin'.

Sarah givin' out little vials of her blood to poor, sick folks. Perfume sample girl from Macy's give 'em to her. She got about a whole gross of 'em, I think. Fills 'em down the cellar (where the polio, ghost boy lives). Edith don't want no mess. Polio ghost boy say - What you doin'?..... But Sarah say - Mind you business....... 'cause she gotta concentrate. Then she shut 'em up real tight, stick 'em in her pocketbook and go on her rounds..... Ding-dong! Avon calling! ..... 'Cept what she got gonna make 'em feel a whole lot better. Sick, poor folks know she somethin' special. Don't never let on what it is. I don't think they want to. They just grateful for the help.

Then, 'fore she come home, always stop in some hotel lobby coffee shop for  vodka on the rocks. Bars is closed by then. But you can booze it up real good in hotel coffee shop. She a big tipper too. Keeps a little ledger with all the names a people she help..... what she give and when they get it. Don't know what she gonna do with it, but she do it just the same. Vampires can be very obsessive. Look how Tomas get wit' them black, leather bootkins. What kind a word is 'bootkins'? That how you know he from back in the day. 

Edith say Papa tellin her stuff. Say a thousand legger run out from behind the sofa. Say it go - psst! psst! (which must be difficult, seein' as how no thousand legger got a human tongue) She say- What you want?...... Thousand legger smile (also difficult)  and go - Woo! Woo! Woo! I can see you, but you can't see me......... Edith go - What are you, crazy? I lookin' right at you........ Thousand legger say - No, you ain't. Alls you see is a bug, but you don't see me...... Then she recognize the voice. Little bit tinny, considerin' the size and all, but it Papa. She know. It Papa. He tell her he riddin' 'round what look like heaven, but only the cheap part, wit' the Chinese lady. She say - Yeah? What it like?....... But 'fore he can answer, bug go 'guhk' and curl up dead. Guess them 'sterminator fellas sprayed too much bug juice last week. Sarah don't like no creepy-crawlies in wit' her while she sleepin'. This is the city, after all.

And I Mister Never-You-Mind, your obedient, ole, New Orleans, dead guy (kind a look like Leon Redbone while I 'live) signin' off.

Edith do try talkin' to a spider she see later out back. But it don't tell her nothin'...

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THE OLD YEAR PREPARES TO DISSIPATE... A VAMPIRE PONDERS ETERNAL TRUTHS

The roof of the townhouse was peaked. But not side to side... front to back. Three dormer windows faced the street (small and truncated as it is). The rear looked down on a tiny, urban yard. It was private and dark. City crickets (acrobatic, dancing cousins to their roachy kin) sang never-ending odes to the night. Few windows peeked out on this scene. The next street was commercial and a solid brick wall blocked out almost everything.

Tomas and Sarah lay out on the cool, grey slates, contemplating the heavens.  He said - It is written in the Biblical Commentaries that every soul is represented by a star. Saints have bright ones. Sinners, the most dim...... But even those countless suns must die. I wonder if they knew? The commentators, I mean. Perhaps The Milky Way is a great procession, arcing 'cross the firmament from First Times to the Last? 

And what of other fires? What of other hearths? - said Sarah. Do they have souls with minds as big as ours? I know about Europa now and all who live and swim there. What other worlds await? Do their vampires drink another kind of blood? Is their night dark as ours?

Tomas passed her the pipe, an old, finely tooled, Ottoman antique. She took it, inhaled deeply, gave it back and sighed......

Vampires can tolerate alcohol and certain other, shall we say, more exotic intoxicants as well. Tomas gets a special blend from a 'familiar' in University City. I know not the herb, nor how it is fashioned. But the life-eaters like it. Baylah calls it catnip. 

The year dies tomorrow, but the next night is born. Fifty seven, seventy three. - said the trim, 'young' vampirino. 'And I shall make in you a new heart and a new soul, that ye be inscribed in The Book of Life once more.' - whispered Tomas. My one thousand and twenty third year. Or perhaps it's only been nine hundred and sixty? Decades are so easily misplaced. At least as far as I can tell. I do lose count. - said the romantic Andalucian. But you know what bothers me?....... Sarah listened to his heartbeat. What? - she said......... I shall have no grave. I shall leave no bones. Oh, maybe a few unburnt shards will remain, but nothing identifiable. When a vampire dies.... And we do die..... the 'cool' blue flame destroys us all.... 'Immortality,' what a joke. Seen any dinosaur vampires lately?... Well, that's what I mean...... He reached over and touched her..... You are still so new...still so human. What does time taste like to you?

His auburn haired consort thought for a moment and said - It still feels the same. Two years. My God, it's only been two years. College takes longer than that. Ask me when the moon drifts deeper into space. You know it's doing that. They say every year it drifts further and further away. Imagine, 'Papa' remembers a bigger moon than that. Do you think he'll be back?..... But her mate just shrugged. Although they both supposed that he would.... eventually. 

Doctor Franklin used to attend New Year services at Mikveh Israel. He prayed with the Christians too. That was his way. Tomas used to see him there. Looked almost exactly like an old Quaker meeting house. In fact, synagogue means 'meeting house.' One of the pews still has a tiny brass plaque inscribed with the name 'Tomas de Macabea.' New people sit there now. But they still polish up all the history. 

Sarah was hungry. She gave up a meal last night. Now she'd have to wait til after The Service of Atonement. Not that the tradition was hers, but she loved Tomas and did it for him.

He felt her sacrifice, opened a vein, offered his wrist and gave her sustenance. She took it. 

And  up in the sky a certain star seemed to brighten for a moment, before settling back into a clear, gold, warm, pure light.

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SARAH GOES 'VAMPIRE CRAZY'

Sarah usually fed with Tomas. Not always on the same night. But he often accompanied her. Their cycles weren't congruent. She was a full moon feeder. He was occasionally, yet his cycle tended to migrate. Some periods ran twenty eight days and some thirty. And then there were the rare times he sipped a little blood between meals.

But this one was special. The victim, I mean. Sarah hated him. She had the dream. She had the vision, so that part was all right. Trouble was, Annie wanted to go. The juvenile vampirina liked to watch.  Got all excited. Made her giggle. Made her giddy. She loved it. Papa let her do it when he was around (no telling how long he'd be off with that MADAM SHANG person, or whatever she was). Tomas never thought it was right. Didn't feel it was proper. You know how he loves all that religious stuff? When he tries to 'convert' her, Annie says - Eww! Get off me, you Jew! I don't do that! I don't do no Jewy crap!.... And she lays down and kicks him with her feet. Vampires, even skinny, little vampire, snot nosed girls, can kick hard. But he just bats her away and says prayers. One day she'll learn. 

Sarah's trying to sneak out. Can't sublimate, 'cause she's got to save her power for the kill. You know some confrontations can be messy. So Edith has Annie in the kitchen. Made her a hot toddy... some kind a rum and some kind a flavored butter.  Got a little apple schnapps in there too. Serves it like a soup. Not every vampire can tolerate all the additives. Most only take in alcohol... besides blood, I mean. But Annie can and she likes it. 'Soup' is a big favorite with her. Says it makes her feel like one a them kids on the Brady Bunch, or like Leave It To Beaver, if Leave It To Beaver was a girl. Bet she eats the whole pot. It's not a huge pot. It's a sauce pan... from the Rachel Ray set. Tomas bought it. He likes the way it looks...but still.

So Sarah did manage to get out of the house. Walked down the little, narrow thoroughfare. Guy didn't live too far, just over in Old City. You gotta love these Philly neighborhoods. Dickens' London never had none better. He was a big boss man. Ran some company. Wrote evaluations. Fired folks for fun. Came on to the young girls. Belittled the young guys. Drove one or two to suicide, but they covered that up. Still, Sarah knew. She had the dream. It was his time. 

But this one was ready for her. This one knew she was comin'. Some human beans can do that, read minds, I mean. So when she sublimated through the door, he was waiting. Just stood there, all naked, peein' in a glass (good one from williams-sonoma, or someplace like that). Then he held it up, smiled and drank it..... Ain't no vampire gonna drink piss-blood. They can't stand it. He goes - And that was the third one..... Then he hiccuped and laughed. 

You could see from her eyes that she was gonna do something. She was hungry too. So she take a step toward him. Naked fella back up. She go closer, til he press tight against the wall. He belch right in her face. She gag. He giggle. But then she pinch a nipple real, real hard. Naked fella start goin' - Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!..... Then he go - No! No! No!.... Finally he just cry. She twist him 'round real fast and grab him by the arms. You know, the way wrestlers does? Then she whisper in his ear. She say - Oh, you still gonna die. I ain't gonna eat you. But you still gonna die....... Then she radiate out all her hoo-doo (naked fella gotta be in it too) and sublimate right up through the bedroom, the roof and everything. Fly him back to the townhouse and smack him right down on the granite island in the kitchen. Edith almost had a hearty-tack. But Annie get real happy. She start clappin' her hands and dancin' 'round. Reach out to touch parts a him too. But Sarah yell - No! Little gal don't do that!..... So she don't.... But maybe 'bout six heartbeat later she go - Whew! Why he stink so bad?...... Then she run over and throw up all the hot toddy right down the sink. Lucky it all liquid.  Annie know Sarah not gonna drink him all up. That instinct. Vampire know that kind a crap. And seein' that he do deserve to go 'guhk' Sarah ruminatin' some other plan. 

What you gonna do!? What you gonna do!? - yell Annie...... Sarah say - Watch...... Then she go out to the vestabule by the fancy-talkin'-room (what folks up here calls 'the living room') and press the button for the elevator. I tell you, this place got everything. When the door open she reach in and send it up to the attic (which here is like a studio). Does somethin' else so door don't close. then she stomp in a kitchen, crack both thigh bones (not hers. the naked guy's), scoop him up (he all whimperin' and all), carry him out and throw him down the empty shaft...two floors til the bottom. He go 'oof' when he hit the cement. Some other part a his body break too, but I do not know exactly what. Then Sarah go - Annie! Get out here. You wanna hear this, don't you?...... Two heartbeat later she right behind her. Annie go - I wanna press it! I wanna press it!..... At first Sarah not gonna let her. But Edith, the human bean, Piney-witchy-woman, 'housekeeper' go - Let her do it. She good. She help me clean the kitchen while you out... So Sarah lean off to the side, gesture toward the button and say - Well, in that case, be my guest. 

Annie clap her hands, go 'goody-goody,' stretch herself over and push it. They could hear the guy mumblin' down below. 

Now house elevators ain't fast like office buildin's or condominiums. They slow. They quiet. When it come by the vestabule Sarah and the little vampire gal jump in. She gigglin'. She so happy. Soon-to-be-dead guy go - No! No! No!.....like he did when his nipples gettin' pinched, only this time a little bit sadder.

Soon only got 'bout two feet a go. He cryin'. He bangin' on the bottom a the car.... But it jus' keep movin'. 

Annie say she count each and every snap, smash and pop. After, when they look, he more like guacamole (from stomach bile) or crunchy peanut butter than human bean. Maybe little bit like hummus too. 

Edith say she call 'familiar' cleanin' service to scoop him out in the mornin'. They like two foreign-talkin' European umpa-lumpas. But they all right. Conrad and Tomas not know what happen, 'cause they still out.

So Sarah and Annie go upstairs to play with them whorey lookin' Barbies til vampire gal wanna go to sleep.

Sarah like spendin' time with her..... That how they bond...

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SOME NIGHTS SARAH PLAYS 'MOTHER"

Annie liked when Sarah fixed her hair. She wanted braids, but she couldn't get 'em to go right. You know, the old fashioned nineteen forties kind like Natalie Wood had in Miracle on Thirty Fourth Street. Don't know where Annie got the idea, but that's what she wanted. Could be she once bit the toes off an old lady who once had 'em. She 'takes in' a lot a stuff that way. 

Sarah made her take a nice bath. Little vampirinas don't sweat much, but she still gotta look nice. And warm water does bring the blood up to the skin a little. Not that they're exceptionally pale. You wouldn't spot 'em on the street. Still, a fresh, pink, blush does look so much better. 

Annie wanted to go snoopin' 'round some fancy hotel. Maybe The Mandarin, or The Royal Penn (he did reign as LORD PROTECTOR, you know). She liked sublimating through locked doors. Sometimes she drank up all them cute little bottles a Jim Beam. Sometimes she watched dirty movies. Sometimes she killed people. But don't think she did that all the time, for a vampirina can't take in that much blood. Maybe like twice a year. That's  all.

Sarah said - How about if I go with you tonight? How about we go see a movie, or maybe if there's a show you like, we can go see that. Annie liked musicals.  She could sing It's A Hard Knock Life til it made you sick. Tomas wanted to go too, but Sarah said - No, don't push it. Just me. Don't want to make a big thing out of it. Got to wean her off little by little. It's my thing and I gotta do it. She liked playing 'mama,' especially after that service. Tomas is Sephardic, you know. That means Rite of Spain, Jewish Orthodox. Don't think Fiddler On The Roof. Think Man Of La Mancha, if you want to know what it's like. So she was still all juiced up with The First Forgiveness liturgy from two nights ago. Advent of the Biblical New Year, you know. 

A lot of vampires take faith very seriously. They don't pray to Lillith, or any a that lurid 'fang, 't' & 'a'' kind a stuff. This isn't fiction. OK, I know we pretend that it is. But that's just a bunch of shit and you know it. What, every culture on Earth independently created the same, exact mythos? Indians up by The Great Lakes and Sumerian mystics BOTH stumbled on such congruent manifestations? 'Human' pleeeze. Quit makin' out like you don't see what you know you see. I know we had this talk before, but we got newcomers here tonight and they gotta learn. 

So Sarah went with the mean, little, vampirina bastid. Bought her story books from a hotel gift shop. Let her sublimate into the dark, cavernous Lord & Taylor store and boost a few 'cute little tops.' Annie liked cute little tops. Look, 'least she wasn't molestin' nobody. And then they shared an ice cold 'pony' bottle a Grey Goose. Not sure where they got it. But that's what they did. In case you're one a the new ones, vampires can drink alcohol, 'cause like it's a chemical and not a food. Guess they can drink Windex too if they want. That's a chemical. I don't know.

But the important thing is Annie didn't do no wrong...at least by life-eater standards. And that made Sarah feel good.

Maybe like an hour 'fore dawn they stroll back to the townhouse.... a nice, young, Susan Sarandon lookin' mama and her all braided up little girl. Little girl look like she maybe a bitsy drunk. But you gotta remember, this is reality. Perfection we don't get....OK?

'Case you one a the new ones, bienvenido al mundo vampirismo..... That Spanish talk. Tomas like Spanish talk. After one thousand year he still like that talk. Old habits die hard. 

So tomorrow night, somebody gonna get theyselves all good and killed...

And who am I?  I one a your favorite disembodied spirits. This Mister Never-You-Mind..... and it time for me to sign off...........

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MADAM SHANG TELLS OF FIRST FACTS BEFORE LATER FACTS

Come, oh best beloveds, or those I deem to call by that name. Attend to me and hear what I say. Turn away from the 'evil cloud' that passes among you. The truth of it may come as a surprise. Drift with me, as I enlighten you. I speak especially to the mortals of the New World and share first truths, which were twisted into new lies.

Know this. I was already Jiang-Shi, or Kyuuketsuki < old Chinese terms for 'vampire'>  long before these times...and a demi-goddess too. But I never relinquished an interest in my people. An many a royal ear felt the breath of my whisper. If only they had listened. 

There came a master, sent to us by The Divinities of Heaven, named Zhu-Di, known to the ages as The Great Yong Le Emperor. Your puny peninsula of Europe was greatly weakened at this time, having recently weathered The Plague. But China was strong, rich with the treasures of Persia and Araby, Angor Wat and Ethiopia. And our Most Perfect Benefactor , the emperor, desired more. 

So in the year known to you as only 1400 or so, he decreed ships to be built. Great ships. Vast ships. Unseen in your world til  the age of steam. Six hundred feet long they were and one hundred ninety feet wide. They carried men and cattle and weapons and eunuchs. They carried intricate brass, navigational devices, gun powder and gold. And they ventured out beyond the islands of our little brother, The Empire of Nippon. 

But, lo, The Jade Emperor was in a playful mood. And He Who rules The Heavens birthed a great storm, confounding the fleet and scattering it far to the east, before finding rest in another enchanted realm, known to the world as Tiuantinsuyu, The Empire of The Four Ways..... north, south, east and west. I believe your mandarins style it 'The Inca Empire.' From that noble anchorage they set out to see more, exploring far, far up the coastline to a vast natural harbor, which is at this time known as the Golden Gate, in the place you call California.

Strange beasts, armadillos, condors and miniature camels called llamas appeared in the noble menageries of The Middle Kingdom. Courtiers petitioned He Who Holds The Mandate of Heaven to return to the east, so that these lands might be civilized and brought under our beneficent tutelage. But the cost of such endeavors was dear and the Great Yong Le said - No.

We retreated to our pleasure domes, allowing lesser kings to gnaw at the carcass of these novel lands. But we learned and we hoped and we suffered and we waited. 

Now I am here. And the one you call 'Papa' is with me. True, the quest is not his. But he will help.  And The Golden Gate shall welcome back the Yong Le fleet once more.

Be gone!! I have breathed on you enough! I go to take my pleasure with my new Cro-Magnon prince.....

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