Various Updates

[soc_puppet]

1) Taking a break from The List in my previous post for a little while. All that horrible misogyny can really wear a person down.

2) So! How 'bout them new Pokémon 8Db Anyone wanna geek over 'em with me? Talk about potential teams? Discuss the cuteness merits of various shiny versions? Hopes and disappointments for things that did/did not show up? Anyone? Anything?

3) Pretty Cure! I am so loving HeartCatch, but I feel sometimes like I am the only one shipping Pink Hair and Bifauxnen. (Yes, I know their names, I'm just being deliberately obtuse.) Tell me I am not the only one, circle/f'list ;_; I've got fanfic kicking around in my brain and everything, just tell me I am not alooooone D:

(On a not entirely unrelated Pretty Cure note, I completely forgot to mention that Futari wa Pretty Cure premiered on Canal 5 de mexico today, whoops ._.a No idea what language it's in, but I still should've posted sooner. Still, maybe a few people still caught it...? [/faint hopes] I mean, the episodes are available for free (Japanese w/English subs) on both Funi's website and CrunchyRoll, but that's not quite the same as being broadcast on television, yanno? Still, if you missed the first episode and want to keep up with television releases, that could work pretty well?)

4) Speaking of fanfic, I'm about 500 words away from having the next part of Communications done. If anyone still remembers it or cares, I am still working on it! Just. Very, very slowly. At this rate, I might have it done by its eighteenth birthday, too ^^a (Yeah. I. I fail at updating this thing.)

Comments

Random question of randomness :D

[dogmatix]

So, ah, if one were thinking of phoning around and fining out if they still needed bus drivers for the school buses... would you have any tips on that? Like, what to do, what not not to do, what I'd have to have to know, what they'd teach me? *hopeful*

Re: Random question of randomness :D

[soc_puppet]

\o/ Let's see what I remember :3

These are just from the Iowa office, so I don't know if they change much from state to state or not. There's probably at least minor differences.

Up here, you need to be at least 21 years old (which, as I recall, is not a problem for you). A clean driving record (or at least mostly clean), particularly over the past three years, is very helpful. A history with interacting with kids is probably nice, but not necessary; I didn't exactly have one, and I made the cut. Certainly not absolutely loathing kids is important ;)

If they aren't hiring school bus drivers right at this minute, they may be hiring associates (who ride along with special needs kids), and may be interested in training you to be a driver when a position opens.

Training takes about two weeks, give or take. One of the first things they'll do is ask you to get a Commercial Driver's License permit. Up here, they wanted you to be covered for four categories specifically: Bus, Passengers, School Bus, and something I can't remember but I think started with a "U" ^^a They'll tell you what you need to study, though, so it shouldn't be a problem.

The Smith System was emphasized in my training, and is a pretty good system for driving safely in general, IMO. You should be able to find it online if you need to look at it more, or just want to see what it's all about. When a light changes from red to green - around here, at least - we're also encouraged to wait a second or two before entering the intersection, because we've got a lot of traffic that tries to make it through on the last second.

School buses do not turn right on red (unless there's a police officer or a construction worker waving you on or something). This can make controlled right turns a pain in the butt, IMO, but since buses in general make wide right turns, I get why it's a rule.

The actual training will probably have videos, written quizzes, and actual work with the bus. It'll usually be with the most "common" bus in the fleet, though if you finish a lot of stuff quickly, they may train you for the "rarer" bus types as well.

You won't need to know a lot of maintainence stuff, aside from knowing when things go wrong. Most of that you should eventually be able to recognize practically at a glance. IIRC, the first part of the actual driving test is the walk-around, where you point to all the different parts of the bus, name what they are and what they're supposed to do, both inside and out. The engine is included in that. All of that should be part of your training.

For actual training, they'll teach you how to go around corners without hitting the curb, what to do when crossing railroad tracks, how to back the bus, when and where to stop in relation to a traffic light, etc. My test had the name the things part, a basic driving skills part where I had to back around a corner, back the bus up to a certain point and stop there, go around a corner without hitting the curb but without being too far away, and then a short "driving on the actual road" part that will include everything they want to test you for. Where I am, there's really only the one route they take for testing, and I got to drive it a couple of times before testing.

Where I am, we didn't have a uniform to speak of, and a really pretty lenient dress code: no clothing that promotes drugs or alcohol, no swear words on what you wear, tops need to have sleeves, shoes need to have closed toes and heels, and dress up a little more for driving trips/charters, but otherwise we were pretty okay. This might vary by employer and location, though.

We were allowed to bring music on the bus (some buses even had FM radios built in, in addition to the "communicate with base" radios), but no ear buds/headphones, and no cell phone use; the latter would result in instant termination where I work :|

If you get the job, bus driving has a pretty fantastic work environment - at least in my experience, and my friends who work for other bus companies agree. In general, everyone gets along really well and is really nice.

For actual driving/routes, you need to get to work and check in at least ten minutes early to finish your walk-around before you leave. Route direction sheets may not have the best information/the most accurate times, but do the best you can, and leave a little early if you have to; if you can get to your first stop on time, then base can pretty much explain away anything else. If you end up consistently late for long enough, base may send someone "official" with you for at least one circuit to do a time trial, see if what's on the directions sheet is accurate. Around here, we're allowed to be up to ten minutes late to a school and it'll still count as "on time"; any longer than that, and it's a good idea to radio in to base to let them know that you're running down. (On the first day of school, everyone is usually running down, so they usually change it to fifteen minutes.)

The thing I found that made the most impact on timing for me was rate of acceleration. Speeding is an absolute no-no (in fact, we were encouraged to drive a few miles under the speed limit if possible), so it can be easy to lose time and/or hard to catch up when you're running down. Safety is more important that speed, though, so if it makes you late to do something safely, pick being late; they'll probably arrange for the time trials if you're late enough for long enough, and it'll almost certainly go your way if it's for safety.

DO NOT BACK THE BUS UNLESS YOU HAVE TO. Where I worked, we did back our buses into our spots, but for the first year I was there or so we had people directing our backing; they stopped doing that the second year, but still sent people out the first few days after school started, just in case. Backing is one of the more dangerous things you can do with a bus, even with the half-window available on a lot of school buses.

When you've finished your route, ALWAYS check for sleeping children; walk to the back of the bus, look between and under every seat. School buses are typically set up with an alarm that goes off if you used the stop arm (the stop sign that swings out); switch your bus to "accessory", do your check, and at the back of the bus, open the emergency exit; an alarm will go off and the lights will flash, and if there's any kids sleeping that you missed while walking back, the idea is this'll help them wake up. If you forget to do this, an even louder and more obvious alarm will go off when you try to leave the bus. There's some variation depending on what type of bus it is, but that's the important part. If you do find a sleeping child, report that to base immediately.


That's all I can remember at the moment ^^a (Woo, essay!) Good luck :Db

[redsixwing]

Oh! Let us geek about the new Pokemon! \o/ Oddly enough, a lot of them remind me of Heartless.

My (and Spouse's) copies of Black and White arrived yesterday - we are attempting them in Japanese, which I can read and Spouse cannot - and they are So. Cute. He started with Mijumaru and I started with Tsutaaja. No love for the fire pig.

Chillami especially is just... bawwww. (I do not understand why people put an arbitrary R in there, turning it into Chillarmy, when it's written - Chi - rra - mi. Did I miss where Nintendo did that, or something? Wevs.)

I am looking forward to catching my very own Mamapato. My current pet bird is a dove, and besides, a new pigeon Pokemon is something I always look forward to. (Starly was nice, too.)

Did you catch that the legendaries have their colors coded into their names? Take off the first and last syllables and you end up with "shira" (white, would be "shiro" if not conjugated to accept ending) and "kuro" (black) respectively.

And now that you've linked the shiny list, I am wanting a shiny Tsutaaja like nobody's business. Cuter than an adorable grass snake? An adorable teal grass snake. And Shikijika's evolution, and Choroneko's evolution.. *flailsquee*

Due to the intensity of con season, I haven't gotten to watch any Pretty Cure yet. Hoping to get there in the next month or so, but I don't give good odds of it happening any faster. *s*

[soc_puppet]

Let us do geek about the new Pokémon! \o/ I'm right there with you on the Heartless thing, especially agirudaa; I can so see someone photoshopping a Heartless (or Nobody) mark on its hood where that bit is.

Ahhhh, so envious ;^; I will be waiting until they come out in English, alas(?). Hahaha, I feel you on the "no love for firepig" part X3 I admit, a good part of it's because it's the third gen in a row where the fire starter ends up part fighting. And not once have we had a water starter end up part ice! I feel cheated. (Not that I'm not going to pull my "Buy two copies and trade over one of the starters so I have one of each" thing again, the way I did with HG/SS...)

It's so cute! Its attacks are all horribly inaccurate, which means it probably won't be on my team(s), but that depletes not from its cuteness. (I don't remember Nintendo doing that, either; I can't say I care for the "army" in there, though I can understand how some insecure people out there might feel the need to 'toughen up' an adorable chinchilla-mon.)

I am ridiculously fond of pigeons, I will not lie! They never make it onto my team - I always prefer to mix my flying with something other than normal - but they are quite cute, and I adore this latest one.

XD I'd missed that (I blame having previously used Serebii for everything, and they anglicize all the names needlessly), but I sure see it now! Mostly I'd noticed how Fujin and Raijin decided to show up in the forms of Torunerosu and Borutorosu. (I'm still trying to figure out who Randorosu is, and having little success; I seem to recall there being a third god to roll up in the cloud level of We ♥ Katamari, but I don't have it on my save, so I can't check there :/ Any thoughts? Apparently you get him at a fertility shrine or something, if that helps at all.) Also, new fighting dudes are totally the red and blue oni :D Relatedly, what's with the weird numbering in the legendaries and stuff! I keep thinking that they should be grouped by design, but they're all... scattered. It bothers me a little :/

I like how Munna's alternate color is so drastically different. And Jadoora's shiny sprite is so elegantly colored! Ditto to the gold on Reshiramu's shiny. So pretty *_* And may I also say that it is so great to finally have a cat that is dark-type rather than normal-type? SO great.


Yeah, I can totes understand that ¦3 I will mostly patiently await the end of con season for potential mutual squeeing, then.

[redsixwing]

Hee. Totally. X3
If you ever want to arrange trade via Wi-Fi, we should exchange friend codes! (Uh.. once I figure out how to get 'em in the Japanese games. But I can give you my one for Pearl, which is my main 4th-gen game with all the breeding projects on it. Wish!Eevee (with other random Wishing byblows, such as Snubbul), Ice Beam!Piplup, Ice Beam!Feebas, and Frisking Thief!Shuppet are my major projects.)

I'm not sure what's the deal with starter typing. I was hoping, when they started giving them dual types, that they'd get a little more creative with it. Where IS the water/ice? How about some rock/grass? Or maybe a fire/electric?

Hee! I did not catch Fujin and Raijin until you pointed it out. That's very cool. Not sure who Randorosu is. Huh.

The new fighting dudes are totally the red and blue oni. And Hihidaruma is a Daruma, at least when it's not got all its legs out.

Not sure what the deal is with scattered legendaries. There's a whole bunch of them again, too. Maybe we'll get them piecemeal, instead of all loaded at the end, this time?

Ahh! Choroneko/Reparudasu don't get Trick. X( With that Unburden ability (and a few Flame/Toxic orbs on hand) I'd think that would be a natural. Boo.

Also, it's now possible to make an all-cats team of six, with no repeats! Mew, Mewtwo, Victini, Persian, Purugly, and Reparudasu. I don't know that it's much of a convincing team, but psychic/dark is fun, and there's finally enough to do it. :3

They seem to have played a bit with shiny colorations and type combinations in this set, and that just makes me happy. Sure, we've got plenty of grass/bug, bug/poison, flying/normal, but... bug/fire? Ground/flying? (!!) And how about all the love for the Ghost type? =D

[soc_puppet]

I would be 100% on board with friend code sharing! Mine I keep over here, as well as things I am possibly offering: Rare-ish berries, temp trades of my rares for Pokédex/general completion, and the possibility of being infected with the Pokérus :Db (I am such a collector of stuff ^^a)

I know, right? Nintendo's been pretty fab with the new type combos this round, except for starters. Couldn't they maybe save a fight/fire type for a standard Poké, and then a different combo for the starter? Grah! Fourth gen would've been the perfect opportunity for water/ice, too, IMO; it'd complete the counter-type opposite-direction super effective thing the three seemed to have started (ground > fire, fight > steel, steel ~ grass/ground VS ground > fire, fight > ice, ice > grass), and would've made more sense with a penguin than steel to boot. [/entitled/opinionated fan]

Hrm; I'll have to dig through GameFAQs. I'm sure they've got an item list there somewhere, and that should give us a foot in the door.

I'm totally glad they waited to give us at least something Daruma-ish until after the Elite Four with Hihidaruma. It's symbolic of our completion of the main gym/E4 challenge, like coloring in the other eye :3

Jeez, that would be such a perfect match, too! Though I'd be inclined to match flame and toxic orbs to 'mons with Flash Fire and some variation of Poison Heal, respectively. Sticky Barbs, on the other hand...

Huh; guess I never thought of Victini as a "cat" before, though I guess I can see it. I'll bet it's more useful than Delcatty, too.

Ground/flying they did with Gligar, but that's about it. Now, ground/electric...! And Ghost is my favorite type (at the moment), so I'm loving all over the new stuff they've done with it ♥ I'm loving over the new type combos in general, in fact!