Jobless Again - Christmas Ruined - Very Hopeless Right Now!
The Amazon job turned out to be a mixed blessing in lots of ways. It was very physically demanding and my entire body was in lots of pain the first couple of weeks with constant hardship on the feet in particular (even w/ Dr Scholls) and also reignited my bad back problems. The shifts were long (10-12 hrs) but worst of all, they always made it seem like you'd work lots of overtime, get lots of hours and get lots of extra pay but most of the time they closed early and/or cancelled overtime shifts meaning i never even worked 40 hrs except for my very first week and last week when i finally got over 50 hrs.
I thought this would also be an over 50 hr week but they laid off all the temps on Wednesday so not only was that an under-30 hr paycheck but also my last paycheck and i'm now back to not having any income and nothing but a messed up back, feet, ruined Christmas and severe depression to show for it.
They really exploited us very badly - they constantly dangled the carrot of transitioning to a permantent hire in front of us and i was so sure i would make it to that point as i demonstrated a very strong work ethic and desire to continue and many of my co-workers noticed but they basically just did that so we'd work hard and i now doubt they ever really planned on retaining anyone since i don't know of anyone they did keep.
Christmas/New Year's in totally ruined for me as i have no hope, nothing to look forward to or feel festive/thankful about, no holiday cheer and i can't even bear to listen to Annie Lennox's Christmas album or watch/listen to any Muppet Christms stuff (and THAT is a very bad sign!) I've spent most of the last two days is bed partly due to a very devastating depression and partly trying to let my body rest and heal itself (the back pain is now finally gone). I'm at the point where i've really just had it with practically everything and i've been so tempted to just take a bottle of sleeping pills, go to bed and never wake up again - however i've already done that when i was 17 and obviously that didn't work! Everything inside me is just numb, hopeless, worn out and shattered. Two weeks ago, i was seriously planning on revising Muppet Freak on Christmas. Now not only will that not be happening but i don't have any kind of hope for the future or much to hold onto - i just have had it with everything.
So - for those of you who did have a happy holiday and got some extra money via job bonuses or gifts and are looking for some post-holiday presents to spend on yourself, please feel free to bleed me dry. I need it.
STILL AVAILABLE:
PM me or email
dw_m@webtv.net if you're interested in any of the following.
(*) = new item listed in this posting
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Books:
- Street Gang hardback (SST)
- Sesame Street Unpaved
- Bert and the Broken Teapot
- Ernie Gets Lost
- Jim Henson The Works
- One Frog Can Make a Difference
- Miss Piggy's Guide to Life (no jacket)
- Rainbow Connection - Richard Hunt, Gay Muppeteer
- Jim Henson's Muppet Stories #1
- No Strings Attached - the Inside Story of Jim Henson's Creature Shop
- The Alchemy of Mirrormask
Muppet Magazine:
- Summer 1985 - Kermit Greensteen Summer in the USA
- Spring 1986 - Muppet Awards (two copies)
- Summer 1986 - Labyrinth/Jennifer Connelly
- Return to Labyrinth volumes 3 & 4
- Best Friends (Fraggle) (some ink on back cover)
- What Do Doozers Do?
- Mokey's Birthday Present
- All three issues of Archaia's Fraggle Rock comic plus the Free Comic Book Day issue
Muppet Babies Comic Books:
- #1 Haunted Nursery
- #8 The Storyland Caper
- #9 Cleopiggy (two of these)
- Harvey Classics #5 Go to Camp
- The Puppetry Journal Winter 2005 - A Master Class at Studio Roser cover story (Puppeteers of America magazine)
- Puppetry Journal Spring 2005 - Strings film cover
- Puppetry Journal Fall 2005 - Celebrating 50 Years of The Muppets cover story; includes one of Jerry Juhl's last interviews
- All issues of all Boom!'s Muppet and Farscape comic books. If anyone needs to see a list, let me know.
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Videotapes:
- Saturday Night Live episode #1
- Muppet Classic Theatre
- It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie
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DVDs:
- Muppets From Space
- Muppets Take Manhattan
- Best of TMS: Alice Cooper/Vincent Price (includes song cut from TMS Season 1)/Marty Feldman
- Kermit's Swamp Years
- Nick & Jessica Variety Hour
- The Muppet Movie (Columbia with camera test and Muppetisms extras)
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Miscellaneous:
- Valerie Harper and James Coburn Muppet Show scripts
- Muppet Babies pilot Noisy Neighbors script (missing last page) autographed by Jeffrey Scott
- TMS Harvey Korman script/transcript
- TMS Vincent Price script/transcript
- TMS Valerie Harper script/transcript
- TMS Kaye Ballard script/transcript
- Labyrinth script
- Empire Strikes Back script
- Fearing Mind Episode 1 script
- Large video collection of Henson/Muppet items (url to tape trade page available upon request)
- the original Muppet Monopoly (slight water damage to the bottom of the box from when my apartment was flooded)
- huge plush Cookie Monster
- small Kermit plush - don't know manufacturer since tag is removed, but it was the one they were giving out as trivia prizes at MuppetFest
- a personally autographed photo of Farscape's Virginia Hay (Zhaan)
- Jim Henson's Fantastic World exhibit program
- Jim Henson's Fantastic World Mesa AZ oversized-postcard-style flyer personally autographed by Fran Brill (and Zoe), Dave Goelz (and Gonzo), and Karen Falk
- Letter from Jeff Marx and Bobby Lopez (before they were famous via Avenue Q) dated 7-15-99 describing their unsuccessful attempts to sell their script for Kermit, Prince of Denmark and asking for my critique/feedback. Second page is an outline of KPoD story and song list. Autographed (i.e. signed by) Jeff Marx
- The "cream of the crop" of my collection is a sheet of Muppet stationary (unofficial fan art border by Chris Smigliano) chockful of autographs from a whole slew of Muppeteers and crew members from the set of Muppets From Space (including Brian Henson and Frank Oz). This was given to me as a special gift so due to both the inherent value and the sentimental value, i will only sell it for a high price. (Yes, i'm that desperate to get rid of the #1 thing i never thought i'd sell if the asking price is right!)
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Calandars:
- Muppet Parody 1997
- Muppet Movie Parodies 1998
- TMS Official Calendar 2004
- SST 2005
- Muppets 2006
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Palisades/Action Figures:
- Kermit (camera accessory is broken in half due to fall of shelf)
- Miss Piggy
- Dr. Teeth
- Dr. Bunsen Honeydew (glasses are broken off - they stay in place for me fine displayed on my shelf but you may wish to fix with glue)
- Muppet Labs Playset with Beaker
- Koozebane Kermit
- Stuntman Gonzo
- Floyd Pepper
- Crazy Harry
- Electric Mayhem Playset with Animal
- Rowlf
- Scooter
- Swedish Kitchen Playset with the Swedish Chef
- Sam Arrow (bottom half broke off due to fall off shelf, snaps back together and stays in place for shelf display but you may wish to glue together)
- Rizzo
- Link Hogthrob
- Julius Strangepork
- Gonzo
- Pepe
- Newsman
- Clifford
- Patrol Bear Fozzie
- Statler
- Waldorf
- Swinetrek Playset with First Mate Piggy
- Captain Smollett
- Frog Scout Robin
- Johnny Fiama
- Beauregard
- Usher Scooter
- Sam the Eagle
- Phil Van Neuter
- Marvin Suggs
Pvc sets:
- Sam the Eagle with book / Mahna Mahna /Thog with flower
- Kermit as Bob Cratchit with Robin the Frog as Tiny Tim / Statler as Jacob Marley / Two ice skating Penguins
- Fozzie Bear as Fozziwig / Waldorf as Robert Marley / Ghost of Christmas Present
Also:
- Jack in the Box kids meal figures: Kermit, Piggy, Fozzie, Gonzo, Animal, Pepe, Chef
- Kermit on a log playing banjo with banner saying "50th anniversary" with button that plays Rainbow Connection when pressed. Can be used as either a stand alone shelf display item or has a small hook to hang as Christmas tree ornament
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Records (all with sleeves):
- The Muppet Show (UK version with gatefold sleeve, different back cover and extra tracks)
- Mahna Mahna/Halfway Down the Stairs 7"
(Sesame Street
- Sing-Along! (with paper inner sleeve with lyrics slightly torn)
- Big Bird Presents Hans Christian Andersen (gatefold sleeve)
- The Sesame Street Record (pen marks on front cover, paper peels on back cover)
- 10th Anniversary Album (marker marks on front cover)
- Bert & Ernie Sing-Along
- Monsters!
- The People In Your Neighborhood
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CD's:
-Kermit Unpigged
-Great Muppet Caper soundtrack
-Muppet Christmas Carol soundtrack
-Muppet Treasue Island soundtrack
-Muppet Hits Take 2 (crack on underside which doesn't affect playability or sound quality and cover personally autographed by Jerry Juhl)
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..and as a reminder as per non Muppet/Henson stuff includes a large collection of Simpsons Comic Books, Alpha Flight comics (from volumes 1, 2, and 3) though many of these were water damaged from the SECOND(!) time my apartment was flooded, a large collection of old issues of The Advocate, Out, Genre, and Echo Magazines, not-as-old but still not all that recent issues of The Nation, The Progressive, Mother Jones, and The American Prospect, most issues of Wrapped In Plastic (a Twin Peaks/David Lynch fanzine which also included quite a bit of X-Files content because of David Duchovny's involvement), lots of Archie comics (comic books and digests), several Doonesbury books, a huge collection of One Life to Live episodes (mostly from 2003-present but also some older stuff), and a large collection of mostly 80s cds and vinyl albums, 7" and 12" singles (including pretty much anything/everything Pet Shop Boys and Eurythmics/Annie Lennox/Dave Stewart related), various collection books of comic strips.
Since it wasn't mentioned anywhere above, i also have a humongous Muppet/Henson video collection.