Last of Round 1!

CALLING ALL ARTISTS!!!

With Round 2 about to begin, I've had a couple of people recently ask me if they could submit fan art for this contest--and the answer? OF COURSE! I encourage it! So, fellow artists: if you want to do up some fan art for the advancing characters, send it to LLoire01@yahoo.com, subject line: "Contest Fan Art." Here are the battles for Round 2:

Midgar Division:
Joanna Dark vs. Sun Shang Xiang
Kid vs. Winry
Aerith vs. Niobe
Kitana vs. Ruby
Alex Roivas vs. Millenia
Lucia vs. Kasumi
Monica vs. Xena
Morrigan Aensland vs. Adon

Eregion Divison:
Birdo vs. Dixie Kong
Amy Rose vs. Coco Bandicoot
Kirie vs. Raine Sage
Arcia vs. Silvia
Psylocke vs. Aya Brea
Samus Aran vs. Elly
Lucca vs. Harley Quinn
Ada Wong vs. Garnet

Hyrule Division:
Jill Valentine vs. Adelide Woodvile
Ivy vs. KOS-MOS
Zelda vs. Tifa
Nina Williams vs. Peach
Reiko Nagase vs. Rose
Chun-Li vs. Sheena
Alisa vs. Mai Shiranui
BlackRose vs. Lulu

Guardia Division:
Lara Croft vs. Fia
Marle vs. Eva
Hibana vs. Aika
Red Ring Rico vs. Reiko Takato
Rayne vs. Ling Xiaoyu
Lily vs. Diao Chan
Lash vs. Eirika
Winner of Farah Oersted/Jessica vs. Winner of Mace/Mileena

And now, the last 2 battles of Round 1:

VS.

Guardia Division, Round 1, Battle 15
	Farah Oersted (Tales of Destiny 2)
	Jessica (Dragon Quest 8)
Free polls from Pollhost.com

VS.

Guardia Division, Round 1, Battle 16
	Mace (Fighting Force)
	Mileena (Mortal Kombat)
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Tomorrow, we begin Round 2, starting back at the Midgar Division: Joanna Dark (Perfect Dark) vs. Sun Shang Xiang (Dynasty Warriors); Kid (Chrono Cross) vs. Winry (Fullmetal Alchemist).

It's Wal-Mart Survivor!

And then there were eight.

I'm starting to have a strange feeling that I'm a character in Agatha Christie's murder mystery, "Ten Little Indians." Why and how?

Our second Photo associate, Todd, was fired today. Two in 5 days. Both decent workers. Both pretty well-liked and known. Both fired for the "official" reason of too many unexcused latenesses. Difference: Dana went quietly. Todd went kicking and screaming.

Really, the store is trying to save money by nailing ANYONE for ANYTHING. People are getting coached (which is the Wal-Mart politically correct term for formal bashing and having a documented ugly mark on your record) and fired for having just a minute or two of overtime--people who normally have otherwise clean slates with the company. And they're getting rid of people who already have been coached for some minor infraction.

Since the 2 associates fired were full-time associates, the store has saved 80 hours of labor a week until someone gets hired in the lab to fill those positions. I like Allison's idea--why are we getting rid of the good associates for minor things? You wanna save money? STOP HIRING NEWBIES!!! Put in place a hiring freeze until the store genuinely needs more labor--like in the warmer seasons.

So now it's 2 full-time associates and 6 part-timers in the lab.

And I'm starting to feel paranoid.