Well, not just cakes are stored in these; sometimes rolls, cookies, or rotisserie chickens. Also the joke is that we care it’s loud because then we have announced that we are eating late at night. Sometimes this wakes people, and sometimes you just want to snack and not have a conversation, or at the very least be polite to people sleeping. Same with the microwave beeping three times loudly when you heated something up.
Also, “big cakes in the fridge?” implies that cakes are sold and stored by the slice. They are, but they also come in wedged shaped boxes made from this plastic. Also it is usually leftovers, like there was a whole cake, but now it’s a third of a cake left on some weird slippery cardboard tray. You had a party, most of the cake was eaten by others, but you didn’t want to waste the last bit. It takes up a lot of room, is fragile, and spoils quickly. But your significant other is on the couch sleeping off a hangover, so being quiet is considerate.
In high school, we had a science fiction club. I was vice president in my senior year. A year after I graduated, I was hanging out with some fellow graduates and one of them said, “How come you hated Christine so much?”
“Who?”
“Christine Smith. The blonde girl?”
“The blond girl who wore all those surfer shirts?”
“Yeah. Whats so bad about her?”
“Nothing. She was always so quiet. I barely remember her.”
“Yeah, well she practically threw herself at you, and you treated her like she didn’t exist.”
“She did?”
“Yeah. We even tried to make it easy. We set her up at parties to talk to you, and you just acted like she wasn’t even there. You were so rude.”
“I literally had no idea. I totally would have dated her.”
“Yeah, well, too late. She got so depressed after you graduated, that she ended up dropping out of everything and tried to kill herself. Shes been hospitalized and her parents moved away to be with her. Like, couldn’t you gave even said hi? Just because you made vice president of the club didn’t mean you were better than her or something.”
I lack that enzyme genetically. I am allergic to alcohol, and so when my stomach can’t digest beans corn, or even eggs, they sit in my intestines, start to ferment, and I am in a world of hurt.
Worked a job where I had to be a Linux admin for a variety of VMs. To access them, I needed an VPN that only worked inside the company LAN, and blocked internet access. it was a 30 day trial license on day 700somthing, so it had a max 5 simultaneous connection limit. Access was from my heavily locked down laptop. Windows 7 with 5 minutes locking Screensaver. The ssh software was an unknown brand, “ssh.exe” which only allowed one connection at a time in a 80 x 24 console window with no ability to copy and paste. This went to a bastion host, an HPUx box on an old csh shell with no write access to your home directory due to a 1.4mb disk quota per user. Only one login per user, ten login max, and the bastion host was the only way to connect to the Linux VMs. Default 5 minute logout for inactivity. No ssh keys allowed. No scripting allowed, was like typing over 9600 baud.
I quit that job. When asked why, I told them I was a Linux administrator and the job was not allowing me to administrate. I was told “a poor carpenter always blames his tools.” Yeah, fuck you.
It really depends. Autographs can seem very tangible, but photos are a better option IMHO, because I can show them off as “See, I was there, I didn’t buy this off eBay,” or something. But it really depends on what you want. IMHO? Neither appeal to me. Now, it may be because I used to run these things, and have met celebrities on and off the show floor. I see them as people in a weird profession, and feel a little… skeevy? Like I don’t name drop until it’s vital to the story, because I feel like I am using them. I have friends among these ranks to this day, and sometimes we hang out and shoot the shit, because they know I won’t ask them for anything. And they know I won’t spread gossip. Now, some people have wanted to take photos with ME, as “omg, that’s the president of Katsucon Entertainment” when I was that, but it was rare. I think celebs did it more than my attendees. Maybe as a scrapbook thing for them. So there are photos out there with some of the Power Rangers, for example, that I don’t have a copy of, but one of the actors has in his or her personal collection.
Embarrassment: I am in some of these people’s photo albums, and I don’t know who the fuck they were. Just a selfie in the green room. Because when I am at the con, I am working, not schmoozing. So the photos are probably pretty bad: just sweaty old me with a confused “uh, okay” stare in the photo.
I know with Stan Lee, and I name drop him because of the controversy of people taking advantage of him in his later years, I saw him at a Comic Con, practically being dragged to imbalance by a staff that was churning through attendees like an assembly line. This was about 4 years before his passing. He looked so old, tired, and frail. I was not working that con, I was working my table, but I just… felt so bad for him. And they were so strict about the rules. They actually walled him of with pipe and drape over 6 feet high so people couldn’t snap a pic of him while in line. You got something like 15 seconds with him, he was allowed to sign one thing, one snapshot, and answer one question. Then ZAP you were ushered out of the area. I recall it was something $210 for those 15 seconds.
One guest I worked with said the Marvel booth was terrible about how long she could spend with attendees. That’s why she often had her own table, to sit and chat with her fans. And some celebrities, like Mark Hamill or Patrick Stewart, are fucking pros at this. I never worked with them, but I have seen Mark, sleep deprived and exhausted, be as kind to the first person in line as the last. I feel like despite it all, he’s GRATEFUL of the opportunity. I can’t imagine the crazy either of them has to put up with. I saw a video where Patrick hugged an abuse survivor, and while that is amazing and kind, I bet con security just cringed in anticipation.
So whatever you pick, I guess my point is, be kind to them. They work hard, and they put up with a lot. It’s such a weird and surreal experience for a human to endure as a job.