My Best Friend Was Initially Named "Jack..."

 

...Have you ever been to the grocery store and noticed that their pallet jack equipment has some type of graffiti on it?  

"Good Lord, I'm shopping at a hoodlum store!" you might think ...but, I assure you, that's not exactly the case!  xD 

"...Well, ok, then why is that?" you might wonder.

In short, it's a strategic trick of the trade that also shows off a bit of pride...  

See, pallet jacks are extremely expensive.  A good one is about $2k and can pull about 5,500 pounds (not counting it running over a tiny little piece of wood chip debris that's guaranteed to immediately stop any jack dead in its tracks)!  xD

Now, if the store you're shopping at is a high-volume store (meaning they are constantly stocking freight because everybody's buying a lot, non-stop), the jack may last anywhere from 6 months to 5 years ...It varies on many factors, but anything can happen to a jack... Someone could be pulling "the leaning tower of Pisa" juice pallet float off a truck, which could inevitably collapse, fall onto the jack, and take it completely out of circulation!  Or it could be the cheapest band-aid, most unwanted piece of shit jack in all of the store (because pulling a pallet with it is like dragging a dead elephant around), so it would therefore last longer, LOL!  ...If their maintenance team is very savvy, sometimes jacks can be salvaged and utilized a little bit longer (or it's also possible that the store is contracted with a repair company), but more often than not, that is the lifespan of a jack.

A high-volume store may have anywhere from 15-30 jacks at any given time.  For the most part, stores will order a plethora of jacks at once, so quite a few of them will all start out looking the same.  Circumstances vary, depending on profit, which is themed around whatever time of year it is ...A myriad of triaged things can eat into the budget for jacks, including other major equipment repairs or replacements, associate/customer accidents, inventory shrink/theft, the boss's coffee cup, and some other dumb bullshit... This all affects how many jacks a store will have at any given time (versus how many they actually need).  :p  

That all being said...  When the store isn't running high on the hog with jacks, and say, a vendor or the next shift comes in and steals a jack that an employee may not immediately look as tho they're using, well, it's a very frustrating situation!  All options include time being wasted, such as moving freight piece by piece with some other less desirable/useful equipment, or even by hand!  ...Which sucks because every minute counts when you're on a time-crunch deadline and need that freight on the shelf yesterday!

So... The main reason why a jack will have some sort of writing on it is that if they're marked, they are easier to locate and take back from said lazy jack[ass] thief!  ...Granted, this also takes time away from the job needing to get done, but the employee weighs their options, and in the end, it's very satisfying to gain control back over an otherwise shitty situation.

Now, the pride factor... It's a personal thing.  It depends on the employee who finds the virgin jack and gets to initiate it, honestly.  The writing is usually done in permanent marker (as those handy pens are also company equipment) and it can be found on the head of the jack or on the sides ...but you will never find it on the fork part that goes into a pallet (as that will uselessly rub off too quickly + cannot be seen under the robber's pallet).  ...I have seen jacks brilliantly named "Excalibur," "The Reefer," "Dirty Girl," "Greased Lightning," or even simply with band stickers mod podged onto them.  Some other jacks I have seen, have been very lamely knee-jerk dubbed things like "Produce," "Garden," "Mine," and "Doesn't Work" ...but hey, whatever gets the job done, right?  As long as it's not offensive and it can be gotten away with, a jack should be honored for their service with a proper name or symbol.

This jack, in particular, has "Yer Mom" written on it ...I guess this employee thought they were absolutely hilarious... I mean, can you imagine them taking it back from someone who jacked their jack, and if there was any protest, they could simply retort, "Well, I'm not done with 'Yer Mom' yet, dude!"  xD  \m/  

^ Don't ever do this in RL, it's not safe!  ...This is just a cute pose for SL  ;)  ♥

Some other cool little tidbits and trivia about pallet jacks...

• Jacks should never be left out on the floor (where customers are shopping) without being used, as it's a safety hazard... You can stack jacks on top of one another to pull at least 3 (depending on how thick they are and how high up they can go) to the back room at a time!  \m/
• A jack can pull a pallet from any side (you can even get away with moving a stupidly placed pallet diagonally, if you had to).  The best spot to use is ~3-foot side.  Sometimes you have no choice, however, and need to pull a pullet from the ~4-foot side.  The wood will break if you jam the jack all the way in, because of the way a pallet is designed ...But if you leave about a foot of your jack out/not under the ~4-foot side of the pallet, it won't... and barring any obstacles within your ~4-foot wide wake, you can pull it safely to wherever it needs to go!  \m/
• There are a couple of ways to stop, even if you're really moving (yes, inertia can be cockblocked), especially in emergency situations (like a kid darting out in front of you, or turning a blind corner into a near collision)... First and foremost, you can drop the pallet from the jack handle.  Done deal.  However, this is usually why shrink wrap should gradually be taken down as you work the pallet (keeps the freight from flying off in these types of situations)!  ...But another way to stop a pallet's momentum is to turn the handle of the jack in opposite directions, super quickly (also known as the "swish-swish" method).  This takes some practice and skill.  Maintaining control requires you to never let go of the jack handle while doing this.  The pallet may skid a bit, but it will come to a halt.  \m/
• A pallet is about 3 feet by 4 feet and can be stacked a little under 8 feet tall (hopefully, with shrink wrap, tho)! ...A freight truck attaches to the cargo bay at a decline (so theoretically, that minimizes any trouble pulling pallets out)... Now, in order to pull pallets from an ice truck (frozen food, usually) without slipping and killing yourself or others, you will guide the pallet into the wall/sides of the truck with your jack, and then be able to successfully descend at a safe pace against it!  \m/

---> I can't fucking read this!

...A Rose By Any Other Name...

It's heEeeEere ---> yup, you can finally change your account name in SL!!!

...And on 14APR20, I changed my name from ℳαʝɨҟᐺɨӽڠɳ (BlueVioletVixen.Lorefield) to ℳαʝɨҟᐺɨӽڠɳ (MajikVixen.Lorefield)...

This venture now coincides very similarly to the RL experience of changing your name...  In the US, before 9/11, you could change your name by association (which would be to just start writing your name the way you wanted it to be, when creating a responsible/adult paper trail), despite whatever was written on your birth certificate.  Since then, you now have to go before a judge to change your name (if you are not someone who chooses to have it changed by your marriage).  The judge will do this for you as long as you're not doing something shitty like evading the law, you announce it to the world for records (via a newspaper in your county), and pay the court fees.  Court fees can be waived if you are considered low income (admirably nice for a system to put the mental health needs of the ppl before money).  You will get notarized documentation of your legal name change ... and then you will finally be free of all the ties that bind you and the baggage that weighs you down!  ♥

Alright... so when I first made my SL account about 12 years ago, I did not know how "un/real" the experience would be.  My normal internet handle has always been "MajikVixen" since the earlier part of this century.  I feared repercussions of not being a bit more anonymous, all across the board.  I don't want to state the obvious here to give you any ideas, but yes, ppl are fucking shitty sometimes and they warrant you protecting yourself.

After I came back to SL from a 5-year hiatus, in about 2013, I became comfortable enough to want to be recognized as "MajikVixen."  However, when I decided to change my name, I was very disappointed to discover that the "name change" was actually only for something called a "display name" ...And the fact that a lot of ppl still kept referring to me as "Blue" (in important group chats or other business relationships) since they didn't acknowledge display names --because, I mean, why would you expect your display name to be taken seriously when one has the option to change it every week?  + prolly for that reason, they purposefully opted to only be able to see "legacy names" from their viewer-- it all made me kinda strain my eyes from rolling them so damned much!  :p

Forget creating an alternate account with the name you actually wanted, because everybody and their mother had defaulted into getting the very predictable last name of "Resident."  And at that point, the lessor of all evils was for me to stick with the same ol' icky name; at least that way I could show a legacy (guess that's why they, therefore, call it a legacy name)... As genuinely, someone with a legacy name is more likely to have been around the block a few times, therefore less likely to be disrespected (as others think twice as hard before taking advantage of them), plus they get to show/honor their dedication/loyalty to the platform by having a name as proof.

/me shrugs and says, "Okay, Unconverted Darigan Aisha."

That's about the time I decided to say, "fuck it," and use unicode lettering in my display name ...Because, yup, if a lot of ppl aren't going to take it seriously, then there's really no fucking point in caring about it being legible for those who aren't 1337 (more and more things started revealing themselves to me as to why SL can be so very narcissistic too - although, A LOT has changed and we have come very far).  ...But this shows me who all the idiots are, too, who don't take the time to read profiles!  :p

Now, when I bought/created Zamargad, I created a private group for our home called "Ardours of Zamargad" to which I gave myself the role/title of "Lilith," and ppl started calling me that for either 2 reasons... They respected what I had done and who I am in SL, or they very simply couldn't figure out what I wanted to be called and just wanted to be polite.  ...I like to think it's the first reason and ignore any contradiction.

I have so many names, you might as well jump on the bandwagon of everybody saying to me, "Just don't call me late for dinner, right?"  ...LOL, fuck.

"Majik," "Maj," "Vixen," "MajikVixen," or, "Lilith," are all acceptable at this point.  I'm done with "Blue."  I need to be unique/creative, but still comfortably and respectfully recognized.  Blue-violet is my favorite color (a purple that's confused for blue, and is sometimes referred to as indigo), but nobody ever seemed to care enough to be that specific/detailed in understanding.  ...There's really no wrong way to screw up a painting if you put a little Majik in it, but there is definitely a difference between using Blue or BlueViolet paint (especially if your intention is to reference chakras & auras).  "How do you feel today, Blue?" becomes more like, "Feeling Blue?" when I've done everything to not feel sad.  Therefore, the name/reminder became an unintentional curse of making me feel uncomfortable and incomplete.

Thus, I'm very happy that I've been able to change my SL name wholly and completely, to honor who I actually am.  ...So that not only can I start taking myself more seriously (since that is the way others will respectfully address/treat me), but that deductively, ppl of SL will start taking SL more seriously, as well!  :)  So thank you, LL, for making SL that much more realistic and an extension of [my] RL.  ♥

...Oh yeah, and then I had a bit of a minor social crisis...  I wondered if I needed to reach out to all my friends and explain to them that I had changed my name ...so that they didn't think I was hiding from them, and that they wouldn't feel "butt-hurt" that their online friend list might be a little jumbled when they possibly couldn't find me, all without seeming full of myself or braggy.  But, it's all been working out alright.  We've all kinda reached out to the other at this point, said hi, kibitzed, and it was a very casual & light-hearted thing.  Seems pretty seamless, TBH.  Only "issue" was that one friend wanted to reference what we had talked about before, and that text file is going to be saved under my old name.  No big deal.  Ppl change their names all the time in SL now, don't you know?  ;)

---> I can't fucking read this!