Thursday This n That

The saga of Brightspeed still lives.   In case you don't remember, we kicked Brightspeed to the curb last July and have since continued to receive information from them.  I've called and called, to no avail.  I finally gave up on them in October.  I figured if they wanted to continue to waste money on me, more power to them.  Well, I gave up on the giving up.  You see, a few days ago, we started getting calls from Brightspeed, giving us updates on the service repair in our area.  After the third time of one of us running across the house to make sure it wasn't family only to see it was Brightspeed, I went to their website, found a complaint email addy, and wrote them a stern missive.  Lo and behold, yesterday afternoon, we got another call about the service repair and I was pissed.  Minutes after that, the phone rang again and it was Brightspeed again.  I picked up with every intention of shouting at the recorded message.  Needless to say, I was shocked to find an actual person on the line.  She was calling about the email I sent.  I explained everything to her, reiterating what was in my email and adding additional info.  She was nice - and American, I might add - and she vowed to get this cleared up.  Fingers crossed it actually happens this time.  No offense to her, but I've heard it before.  :shrug:

I don't know about you, but I get tired of dealing with the same shit every day.  And no, I don't want different shit.  I want a cessation of shit.  Is that too much to ask?

Speaking of dealing with shit, Facebook is intermittently preventing me from reacting to posts.  There's no rhyme or reason to it.  I just can't do it and get a snotty message when I try.  Blerg.

From the tiny acorn grows the mighty oak.  Well, yeah, but have you ever seen a sycamore seed?  Those things aren't much bigger than dandelion seeds and from those suckers grows an even mightier sycamore.  Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of oaks, but sycamores are huge.  (Says the woman who just watched her husband chainsaw a 50 ft sycamore that had fallen on our land.)  For that matter, have you ever seen an elm seed?  They look like tiny frisbees - smaller than a dime - with a lump in the center.  From those grow the majestic elm.  All I'm saying is trees are amazing.

I just started reading Leadership by Rudolph Giuliani.  The first chapter is all about 9/11.  It's a hard thing to read about, but I guess I'm finally ready to revisit that horrible day.  I never realized how close we were to losing Rudy in all that.  I wish he'd run for President in 2008 and beat what we ended up with.  He would've been an amazing President.  I wanted him to run with Connie Rice as his VP.  They would've made an awesome duo for the leadership of this country.  

Okay, well, I think that's enough out of me today.  What's up with you?

Thursday This n That

Well, there goes New York.  And Virginia.  =o(

I expect NYC will turn into the ghost town that Detroit has become, except the refugees won't be fleeing for better suburbs.  They'll be leaving for other states.  I've seen people wondering why people from shithole places move to nice places and want to change them.  That's WHY they're moving into the nice places... to change them into the shithole places they love.  

Here, there was one thing on the ballot - raise the property taxes in a nearby city so they can give it to the fire department.  It passed.  A little while back, they had the same kind of ballot item for my rural FD and it passed, too.  My FD used the money to erect a brand new, beautiful building... right next to the old building, which they then tore down.  There wasn't anything really wrong with the old building, it was just not new.  Whatever may have been wrong with it could've been fixed at a way lower cost and a dormitory could've been added on, again at a way lower cost.  But they didn't have to do that because they can just add to our property taxes instead of finding a way to be fiscally responsible.  That's the way government works these days, I guess.  Well, most people these days, I guess.  

I can't seem to muster the will to do anything these days.  Except maybe vegging out in front of the TV.  I think Bradbury warned about that.  Probably others, too.

I've made 3c so far this month.  Woot.

Finn's wandering around the house meowing.  I feel ya, little dude.

Yesterday, I did Wallyworld.  Everything is so damn expensive.  Freakin' half-dozen donuts is about $4.50.  Yeah, I bought 'em.  Cuz I needed donuts.  Custard filled with chocolate frosting.  Mmm.  I bought 'em with my own damn money, so yeah.

Yes, I am cranky, why do you ask?  I have active bitch fingers to go with my resting bitch face.

On a happier note, we're seeing bucks.  They're chasing the does and sometimes the fawns.  The other day, I happened to look out the window to see a doe run across the neighbor's yard.  Shortly after a fawn went by, trying to catch up.  Then a buck went by.  A few minutes later, another doe, then fawn, then... wait that's the same buck!  A few minutes later, the three of them went by in succession again.  They must've been running in a circle around the neighbor's house.  I got up to tell Hubs about it, so I don't know how long they continued the race.

Okay, it's time to call the mama.  Have as great a day as you can manage out there.  I'll do the same.  B'bye.

A Morning Rant

When I got close to finishing the first draft of my first novel, I began doing research on everything I would need to do to get it published.  I bought the big book of agents.  I made lists and notes and spreadsheets.  I studied how to write query letters.  I scoured the web for information.  I joined a couple of writers' groups online.  

I did the same thing when I decided to stop looking for an agent.  I went through the process of researching publishers who might accept unagented manuscripts and how to contact them.  When that didn't work, I went through the process of researching everything on how to self-publish... before I made a single step down the path.  

This morning, I saw a gal bitching because she self-published through Amazon in May and made some sales, but it's already July and she hadn't seen any money yet.  A boatload of people told her what is already obvious to anyone who's done like 2 seconds of research - Amazon pays at 60 days from the end of the month that your sales occurred in.  So, May sales get paid at the END of July. 

Even then, she questioned the truth of the answers those people gave her.  She was sure Amazon was out to screw her.  :eyeroll:  And some dude in comments egged her on because Amazon supposedly closed his account within 30 days of him publishing his book, but they didn't take it down and they're collecting all his monies.  Obviously, Amazon is ebil.  

Okay, so Amazon isn't perfect.  Generally, though, if you do your research and you follow the rules, it's easy to navigate the river.  I'm guessing dude didn't follow the rules.  

I often see people complaining about things that are so easy to figure out with a little effort.  But effort is a four-letter word for some people, even when it's little and not really effort.  Here... I'll help... Go to your freakin' search engine, type in what you're looking for, scroll through the answers it spits out.  Voila.  And it helps to not just read the first answer.  Read several until you find the right answer and understand it thoroughly.  

Okay, so that is effort for some people, I guess.  Researching shit ought to be fun because like, you know, we're WRITERS.  :shrug:  But no, they'd rather bitch in a Facebook group.  It probably took more time for the bitching than they would've expended on the research, but hey...

Anyway, long story short... I blocked the chick.  And the dude.  I don't need that kind of negativity and willful ignorance in my life.  The moral of the story?  Don't run around social media screaming at people to chew your food for you and then whine when you choke.

Screwed by the Liberals Again

In case you missed it, the liberal government passed some new health insurance laws again last year that went into effect this year.  (https://help.ihealthagents.com/hc/en-us/articles/20207003806871-New-Short-Term-Health-Insurance-Law-Rules-for-2025) 

Let me set you the stage for how this effects me (and possibly you)...

For the last several years, I've been using short term health insurance.  It bypasses the Obamacare mandate, which makes it way cheaper.  I can't afford health insurance any other way, so there I am.  It's not great, but it's better than nothing.  Every 6 months, I would have to sign up for a new policy.  When I got the email saying my insurance was expiring, it seemed like it was the wrong month to renew, but I shrugged and got on with signing up.  That's when I noticed that all the new policies were 3 month with a 1 month extension.  I guess when I signed up in March for my new policy, I missed that fact.  Okay, fine, whatever.

I went into the site, did my thing, found my policy, and went through the process of getting my new policy.  5 days went by while I waited for my acceptance.  Instead, I got an email saying my application for new insurance had been 'withdrawn'.  Unfortunately, I got the email right before I went to bed, so there wasn't anything I could do about it (which didn't stop me from obsessing over it all night).  And time was ticking because my current policy would run out on the 30th.  

The next day, I contacted the company that manages this crap - ehealth, I think it's called - via chat message on their site.  The gal told me she couldn't help me and I would have to call.  So, I called.  I got a really nice lady who calmly explained to me that the law had changed last September and, in addition to the policies only being for 4 months each, they cannot be from the same provider twice in the same year.  They withdrew my application from United Health because I can't have them again this year. 

The only other companies offering short term insurance in my state... because, ya know, Obama fixed it so we can only have certain companies offering insurance in our states... are unheard of to me.  And either of them only offer indemnity policies instead of regular policies (PPO or EPO).  

I picked one and submitted a new application, because what choice do I have?  Even if I could afford to get a regular policy, you can't sign up for one of those outside the month of November.  (Obama again... although in all fairness, it's not just him. It's him and his cronies.  And Biden and his handlers.)  

So, as long as my application got accepted, I would have insurance.  Until 10/31.  (It was accepted, btw. So yay, I guess.) Then I'll have to go with the other unknown indemnity company for 4 months before I can go back to UH.  Lather, rinse, repeat.  On the upside, the new policy is cheaper with better coverage... except for the indemnity thing where we'll have to pay out of pocket and get reimbursed by the insurance afterward.  

While I was doing this, I accidentally ended up in the section for regular insurance quotes, and discovered that the cheapest of those was $750-ish a month.  Almost twice what I was paying UH and more than 3 times what I'll be paying the new company.  That's like half our monthly income.  

Yes, I know some of this is my own damn fault, right?  I could crawl to Obamacare and beg for alms, but my hypocrisy only goes so far.  Come November, I might have to debase myself and do that or choose to go insurance-less.  

I'm a healthy gal.  I can go without insurance, right?  (Don't worry, I'm not that stupid.  Bad things have a way of happening, especially when you temp fate by going without insurance.)

Sheer Stupidity

As you probably all already know, there's a winter storm headed this way. We knew about this in advance, so I did all my shopping yesterday to make sure we were stocked up.  I had thought to see if Wallyworld had snow shovels - just to have a backup or if we wanted to double-up and work together to move the impending tonnage.  Wallyworld, in their infinite wisdom, has filled the area where they kept all the winter tools with summer stuff.  No snow shovels, but you can buy a lawn mower.  No salt but you can buy hoses.  

I asked a worker if they still had shovels in the back.  The kid blinked his eyes several times, looked at me as though I was speaking another language, and repeated that they don't have any snow shovels.  Did they ship all the snow shovels back to some unknown warehouse?  I don't know.  Apparently so.  I went farther into the store to continue my shopping and ran into another worker.  This one was older and seasoned.  I asked him about the snow shovels.  He gave me a wry grin and said they didn't have any.  He then pointed to an aisle behind him and said they got rid of the space heaters, too.  The aisle he pointed to was filled with fans and AC units.  The only heaters they currently have at my local store are propane camping heaters.  Sure, pick one of those up and asphyxiate yourself.  Woot.

At the time, they were predicting a winter storm that would drop 6-9 inches on us and drop the temps to below freezing.  (The snowfall has since been upgraded to 8-12 inches.)  The people around here are NOT prepared for winter, but the sheer stupidity of the higher-ups at Wallyworld decided February would be the perfect time to shift to summer stock.  

I didn't check the clothing, but I wouldn't have been surprised to find swimsuits and shorts where there ought to be coats and sweaters.

Right now, Wallyworld could be selling the hell out of their cold-weather gear and make huge profits.  Instead, they're pissing people off with items no one in their right minds would buy right now.  No wonder they're losing the battle to places like Amazon where you can find snow shovels in August and bathing suits in December.  

We all joke about them having Halloween stuff out in August and Christmas crap up before the bats and witches are put away for the season, but this is ridiculous.  Don't get me wrong. 90% of the time, I love Walmart, but this stupidity is mindblowing.  

:endrant:

This Damn Internet Thing

It seems like the entirety of my brain power has been allocated to thinking about this damn internet thing.  We're having a speedy morning with Brightspeed pulling a .33 rather than its usual .1 to .18 (it's supposed to be like at 10 and yes, those are decimal points in our actual speed).  

This makes Starlink extremely necessary.  Hubs works online and if he can't pull his materials, he can't make any monies.  I work online, too, but people buy my books whether I'm around to see it or not.  The only time this slow stuff would harsh my day is when I'm trying to upload manuscripts and covers, so not right now.  

So, we have Starlink... Well, we have the equipment anyway.  In order to install the equipment, you have to use an app on a smartphone.  So, I went out and bought a smartphone from Tracfone as well as a 1G/30 day card for data.  We tried the app.  It isn't getting us past 2% completion.  Either the app is crap or the phone is.  And since everyone else is getting their apps to work, I suspect it's the phone.  It could also be the fact that, like the internet, cell phone signal sucks here and it's not actually connecting to anything long enough to be successful.

Hubs has been climbing all over the roof.  He's also been watching every video our current internet allows him to watch (with frequent pauses and clocking and stuttering... I'm surprised he hasn't gone insane).  We even reached out to someone in the hopes that they could help us, but in the end, we opted to keep forging ahead on our own.  It's out problem and we will solve it.  Or we won't and we'll ship all the Starlink stuff back.

Part of me is afraid the only way any of this will work is if we cut the tops off all our trees, but everything we've read and watched and heard says we have enough clear sky to make this work at least a little bit.  Perhaps not as great as someone with no trees, but still better than Brightspeed.

If this doesn't work, I'm not sure what we'll do.  I guess it's all part of living in the sticks, this not having good or reliable internet.  I thought about HughesNet.  Then I spoke to a gal not far from me who has it and she says it sucks.  I thought about getting a mobile hotspot, but the ones I've looked at are problematic for what we require.  It's all a huge pain in the ass.  I guess what I'm saying is that if this doesn't work, we'll muddle through as best we can with what we already have.  =o\

Don't mind me.  I'm just venting.  I'm looking forward to being done with this so I can focus on writing and editing again.  At least that's the hope.  For all I know, this is just the latest distraction my brain has latched onto to rationalize not working.  Or maybe it more like... "Why am I depressed?  Because the internet sucks... definitely not because I'm wondering if I suck."

Warning: Rant Ahead

Life really shouldn't be this damn hard, ya know?  This is the year 2024 for petesakes.  We should have flying cars by now.  I can't even get my freakin' phone to work and my internet is so slow I feel like I'm in 1998, using AOL and dial-up.  All I'm trying to do today is post some damn marketing stuff to Facebook and the damn site won't load half the time, and the other half the time, it only loads partially, so I have to refresh and hope it loads the next time.  

Most days, I can't comment on other people's blogs because I can't get the comment thing to load without refreshing a half-dozen times, and I just give up.  (So, if I don't comment, it's not that I'm ignoring you or have something better to do.)  Hell, I can't even comment on my own blog without logging in as a guest.  

Yes, I realize that this is partly my fault.  I live in the back of beyond and I exist on a shoestring budget.  Services here are not what one would expect to find in, say, a city.  And although we do have access to something like Starlink, the cost is prohibitive.  C'est la vie.  Or suck it up, buttercup.  As for the phone, the tech supervisor told me it could be like this for 2-3 MONTHS.  Yeah, I have a cell phone, but talking on it for more than a few minutes makes my hand cramp, and if I'm not holding it JUST RIGHT, my mom has a tough time hearing me.  

Don't mind me.  I'm just ranting.  

I really need to win the lottery.  If I had all the monies, these little issues wouldn't be so dramatic.  I'd pay Elon his money and pay some other person to install the equipment, and life would be better.  I'd also not have to worry about how much groceries and gas cost either.  (Except I probably still would because it's all just ludicrous.)

Sometimes, I just want to give up and walk away.  I do in little instances, from time to time.  I could walk away right now from this whole idea of marketing.  But I'm in the middle of a sale and if I walk away now, I won't get any additional sales...

Which reminds me, what the hell is wrong with Amazon's ranking system??  WIOH is still showing in the paid sales rankings and that's over a million.  It should be in the free sales rankings and way higher than it is now.  Don't they know they're hamstringing me.  Do they not want books to sell???? Turds.  BLERG.

:end rant:  Thank you for stopping by.  I'll try to be more positive and upbeat tomorrow.  Have a nice day.

The Brightspeed Saga

If you haven't been following along on Facebook, or don't actually use Facebook, I'm currently having issues with Brightspeed - the phone company in these here parts.  It's reaching 'epic saga' proportions at this point.  (Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration, but hey, I'm a writer. We exaggerate stuff.)  

Let's see... a week ago yesterday, we woke up to no dial tone.  Nothing.  But we still had internet - which travels along the same lines as the phone, so go figger.  I was not in the mood to call the phone company, and I assumed someone else would do it.  It's never just us when these things happen.  I called in the afternoon and learned NO ONE had called.  :shrug:  I was unsurprised.  They gave me an appointment time of Thursday between 8am and 5pm.  Woohoo.  

Wednesday afternoon, I picked up the phone to see if it miraculously healed itself and the phone read-out said 1 missed call.  Well, if we're missing calls, then we have phone.  Yep, dial tone.  But we couldn't figure out how we could've missed a call because we didn't hear it ring.  Shrugging, we figured we must've been out in the smoking room at the time and went merrily on with our day.  That night, we're watching TV and see the phone light up like it's getting a call, but it's not ringing.  Okay, well sometimes it does that when the satellite is reaching out for data.  Except the answering machine picks up and starts giving the standard greeting.  So it WAS a phone call.  It happened two more times that night.  Hubs and I used our cell phones to call the landline, and it's not ringing.  

Thursday morning, I reach out to the Brightspeed technician - cuz I was smart enough to take down his number from one of the many other times we've needed service.  I tell him that we have phone but that it's not ringing, so we still need a service call.  He comes out.  He works on it off and on Thursday.  He works on it off and on Friday.  Late Friday afternoon, he tells me that he can't finish fixing it that day, but they'll be out on Monday.  If time allows.  He also kinda hints that his supervisor is telling him he's already spent too much time on this issue, so it seems like anyone getting out here is iffy.

Monday... I get a notice that a technician will be here between 1:45 and 5:45.  A totally different tech than before shows up at 1:45 and he's out messing with the box on the outside of our house.  He's got his supervisor on the phone with him and they're bouncing ideas, I guess.  Then I get a call from the supervisor telling me that the tech's butt-set is ringing outside, so the problem has to be inside the house.  (Inside the house problems are the responsibility of the customer, and cost like $99.)  Whatever.  The tech comes in and starts messing around with our jacks and wiring inside the house.  Still, no ringy-dingy.  Then he decides that it has to be the other jack in the house that's causing a problem with the jack our phone is plugged into, so he's in the office now messing with that jack and wiring.  Still no ringy-dingy.  He leaves to go check the big box at the beginning of our neighborhood.  When he returns, he lets us know that the problem ISN'T just us after all.  Several other houses in our neighborhood have the same problem.  Which he can't fix that day.  His supervisor will be out personally on Tuesday to fix this.

Today... As I was typing this, I got an email and a text message that they are very sorry but a technician cannot come out today.  The appointment has been rescheduled for tomorrow.

We have some of the oldest equipment on the Brightspeed lines and they're having a tough time finding parts to fix it.  Seems to me the answer would be to replace the old equipment - which might be pricey at the start, but it wouldn't certainly cost less in the long run when compared with the amount they're paying in labor.  Short-sighted turds.

Anyway, if you've read this far, thanks for letting me vent.  There's really nothing we can do but ride it out and continue to demand the service we're paying for.  Unfortunately, crappy service seems to be the norm rather than the exception these days - across the board and not specific just to Brightspeed.  They're just a symptom of the larger disease.  =o\

ETA: Final Update... fingers crossed... I got a call and the phone rang.  It was the tech letting me know it was fixed.  When I sat down at my computer, I had an email that the tech was working on it and another one sent two minutes later that it was fixed.  I guess whatever it was, it was quick fix.  Thank you, Brightspeed techs for working the problem until you resolved it.  Now, if only you can fix the internet so it's not so damn slow.  

Thursday This n That

When your job requires a great deal of typing and mousing and other hand work, it's probably best to watch that you don't hurt your wrists.  Eh, my wrists were screwed years ago.  They wanna hurt?  Well, fuck 'em.  I've got shit to do.  So there. =op  Like the job I had where I had to be on my feet all day, but my legs are screwed.  Did I hurt?  Hell, yeah.  Did I do my job anyway?  Well, of course I did.  I'm not independently wealthy for pitysakes.  I think even if I was, I'd still be doing something.  Like writing, which lord knows is not easy on the wrists.  Can I get a what-what?

Why yes, I am full of vinegar this morning.  Why do you ask?

If you type FUCK or F*CK, it's the same thing.  You're not fooling anyone.  People don't think you're meaning FACK or FICK.  They know there's a U there.  Yeah, it's not a nice word.  That's the point.  Derp.  Fly and be free.

I try not to swear at work.  It's unprofessional.  So, I try to be creative.  Son of a motherless monkey is my favorite.  When I rack my knee on the edge of my desk... SON OF A MOTHERLESS MONKEY.  Although, I still catch myself saying 'shit' under my breath when something goes wrong.  It's sounds more like ssht but anyone within hearing distance knows what I'm saying.  

I got home from work to 4 spreadsheets that needed doing and today is payday at the side job, so if I wanted to get a check, I needed to get them done before the office opens at 7 (my time) this morning.  I did three last night.  Another one came in while I was doing those, so I finished the last of that and the new one this morning.  Yes, I am a working machine.  Got my timesheet in on time. Yay.

One good thing about the job is that although I am super busy, so is everyone else.  It would royally piss me off if I was this busy and someone was sitting around playing Candy Crush.  I've been in jobs like that.  I'd be there busting my hump while Little Miss Entitlement sat on her ass, doing her nails.  Know what effect that has?  Eventually, I stopped busting my ass.  Then I felt guilty.  Then I found a job where everyone was busting their asses, like they were supposed to, and the previous employer was stuck with no one busting their ass.  Good luck with all that.

Okay, it's getting close to time to get ready for work.  Have to make my lunch, and get dressed, and sundry other pre-work things.  Have a great day.  And feel free to drop your comments.  I'll approve them when I get home.  

Have a great day!

Minor Rant

 I tried to cancel a service today.  I mean, it's not like I use it anymore and their policies have become decidedly questionable.  To the point where I do not want them having access to my information anymore. But every time I click the Close Account button, it gives me a message that I still have money in my account and therefore I can't close the account until I do something with the money, so I click the link and it takes me to a broken link page.  I try to do a go-around, but I don't see any money anywhere.  I think the fuckers just don't want another person to cancel their account after the recent mass exodus.  I did remove my CC info, but it won't let me delete my bank info without putting another account in there to replace it.  (Which they then have to verify, of course.)  

If there's money in there, it ain't mine.  They put it in there due to some promotion or other, so they can have it back.  

Eh, I'll mess with it when I have more time.  And the patience to deal with 'customer service'.  Blerg.

(If you can guess which service it is, keep it to yourself.  I'm trying to fly under the radar here.)

Chaos Diaries

It's been a long time since I did a Chaos Diaries post, but I figured this fit.

I went to Wallyworld yesterday.  It was a fuckin' zoo.  And the price of damn near everything had jumped since my last visit.

Furnace filters... the kind I usually buy at $8+ are now $11+.  (I got a lesser filter for $4+.)

Burger...  90% lean is up to about $5.60 a pound.  

TP... a 12 pack of the Great Value is over $11.

Printer cartridges... the smallest single black is over $21 now.

Suet... the 8-pack of good stuff is almost $10, up from just under $7  (I bought 4 cheap singles at $1.22 each - they used to be 98c.)

To ameliorate the cost of those more expensive things I HAD to buy, I went cheap on some other stuff, but man.  I still walked out with less and paid more.

Going cheap, I bought chicken thighs instead of breasts.  And a whole chicken to roast.  I found pork roast on sale!  Got a huge one that I can cut into easily 5 meals.  They were out of pork burger, which I've been buying because beef is so damn expensive.  I need to buy a meat grinder, I guess.

They were also out of a lot of stuff.  The antacids I usually buy?  Nope.  Picked up a big jug of a different flavor.  (And the price of THAT was up.)  The tissues were almost gone.  I'm buying the cheap stuff because the name brand is pricey, and I got two of the last four boxes.  So many empty spots on the shelves that the cashier said a friend had remarked 'the grocery stores need to go to a grocery store'.

On the upside, I was nice to an assistant manager who was looking particularly harried and she opened a lane just for me.  Another gal checked me out and then went on her merry way.  Sometimes it's the little things.

So, I leave the Big W and go to the feed store.  They're out of whole corn.  Again.  Still $2 higher than I was buying it a year ago.  I ended up getting chopped corn for $9.55 a bag.  (10c more than whole.)  I also bought a bag of birdseed.  The 25 lb bag of cheap seed was nearly as much as a 50 lb bag of sunflower seeds used to be.  

I'm sure you're all facing the same stuff.  I'm just venting.  Or commiserating.  And I'm longing for a couple years ago before the Chaos started, before we got our new feckless leader, when things were looking up and the price of everything was going down.  

Which reminds me... gas was $3.06 a gallon yesterday.  Up from $2.99 last week.  Up Up Up from the $1.78 I was paying prior to inauguration day last year.  Hubs just said it's gonna keep going up for a while here yet.  So hang onto your asses.

But it's not President Sniffy's fault.

Thursday This n That

 A while back Amazon decided that when they send you a confirmation email after you order a book, it would make the subject some kind of code - which matches neither the ISBN or the ASIN - instead of the book title.  And to see the actual title, you have to click a link in the email.  And then it asks you for your password.  Like this is some kind of state secret.  Blerg.  Are there people out there for whom having the title in the email subject is a real problem?  Are they all like 'OMG, I couldn't bear it if someone saw I'd ordered The Duchess and the Rapacious Rake.'?  Not having the title in the subject, as you might've guessed, is exceptionally irritating to me, since I use those emails to track where I'm at reading the books I've ordered.  Just now, I implemented a new step that fixes it.  I forward the email back to myself and change the subject to the damn book title.  It's an extra step, but it stops messing with my system.  Last year, I ordered 113 books from Amazon.  Try juggling those.  (And yes, I have a spreadsheet with the titles, but that's not the point.)

Why can't people just leave things alone?  Newer isn't always better.  And change isn't always necessary.  Sheesh.

Guess what?  2022 is the year DOOM happens.  (It's a videogame and a movie.  Love the movie, never played the game.)  Since we haven't discovered the gateway thingie yet, I think we're safe from that.  SOYLENT GREEN is also set in 2022.  Not sure we're in a place where we'll be turning the elderly into food, but what do I know?  For the record, I haven't seen this movie, but it's enough of a cultural icon, I pretty much know what's going on.

I heard today that our feckless leader doesn't even know what year it is.  I am unsurprised.  Remember when they hammered Reagan for making small mistakes like that?  Pepperidge Farms remembers.  But Creepy Joe gets a pass.  Feh.

I also read a newstory from the 3rd about New Hampshire and Vermont law enforcement getting called to a report of a dog running loose on a bridge.  They get there and the German Shepherd leads them to where a truck had gone through the guardrail and rolled down an embankment, throwing both occupants out into the snow.  They were seriously injured and hypothermic, but alive.  One of them was the dog's owner.  The dog was unharmed.  Dog saves man.  Again.  Yay.

My new coffee maker has a 'strong' setting.  Hallelujah.  I'm playing with the idea of being able to use less coffee grounds by making it on 'strong'.  We'll see.

I'm running one day off this week.  Yesterday, I thought it was Thursday.  I thought Tuesday was Wednesday.  You get the gist.  Thankfully, I've stopped myself before doing anything stupid.  Part of this is probably my check arriving a day late.  Throws everything off.  Derp.

And that's it for me.  Anything on your this-n-that radar today?

Thursday This and That

Oops, sorry.  I woke up late and I've been dragging ever since, so I'm late doing this.  

I want a dog.  Not just any dog, but this... Crap, I went to get the link for her and she was gone.  I should've figured she wouldn't last long.  She was an awesome 7mo old that looked like a mix of lab and Leonberger. :sniffle:  Both of my favorite kittens got adopted, too.  That's good, though, right?  They got homes and I don't have to be sitting here wanting to go get them anymore.  

Well, that reprieve from wanting a particular dog didn't last long.  I found this one.  Okay, admittedly this one has been there a while and I'd seen it before, but the original pictures didn't do it justice.  The new pics make it look totally awesome.  It has two siblings there, too, but the pics of them are also not good and no new ones have been uploaded yet.  Not that I could take all three.  Gah.

Ahem...

I'm currently pissed at the USPS.  The paycheck my office mailed on 12/2 never arrived.  So last week, they cut me a new check.  Actually, they cut me a check for last week's pay and mailed it Thursday.  Then the replacement check went out Friday.  I got the Thursday check on Monday.  The replacement check still hasn't arrived.  AGAIN.  Then yesterday, we got two Christmas cards mailed to us from other states.  Both of them had stickers on them... 'unable to forward'.  WTF?!  One took 11 days to get here and the other took 9 days - from CO and VA.  WTF?!  So I called the local post office.  Poor dude sounded harried.  He had no clue what happened other than to intimate that somehow some letters are getting put through as forwards when there's no forward order.  Ostensibly so whoever is sorting that mail won't have to deal with it that day.  Off it goes and good luck with all that.  GAH!  Since the problem is from several different states, I'm laying the blame on the Springfield, MO postal sorting location.  I have half a mind to drive up there and slap the crap out of someone.  Paychecks, people.  You're messing with paychecks.  Fuckers.

Ahem...

We had another stormy thing blow through last night.  Lots of wind.  A little hail.  No big deal.  Once again, we're fine.  Not sure what the hell is up with the weather these days.  It is NOT, no matter what our feckless leaders says, due to manmade climate change.  What a dork.

Ahem...

I can't seem to drop a this or a that without wanting to go on and on or rant about it, so I'll leave you here.  Have a great day and stay safe wherever you are.  :hugs:

In Limbo and Definitely Not Ranting... Umm...

These days I really only have two things to talk about - my friend moving and the state of the world.  I'm sure you're getting bored with the former and the latter is probably something I should stay away from or I'll be ranting until my fingers fall off.

Never have I ever seen, nor would ever imagine, such rampant stupidity.  So much so that I accidentally invented a new word when trying to describe it.  Hellfuck.  As in 'What the hellfuck is going on?'  It popped out when my brain got so befuddled by stupid news that it couldn't decide whether to say WTH or WTF, so it merged them together into WTHF.  (Not to be confused with my novel WHTF, which stands for Wish Hits The Fan.)  I like it.  It fits with the world right now.

Anyway, I said I wouldn't rant, so I won't.  

I should hear shortly whether it's back to work today or whether I'll have the day off.  There's some sort of kerfluffle with the buyer's loan and the appraisal/home inspection.  Suffice it to say, I am thankful every day they go through this that we didn't have to deal with loans and crap buying this place.  If hell ever freezes over and we sell this place, we will not accept any FHA offers, that's for damn sure.

Ahem, I guess that's a kind of rant, too.  Sorry about that.

Needless to say, I'm in limbo right now.  How are things where you're at?

Blink Blink

This morning I was awakened at too-damn-early by a strange alarm.  Apparently, my new phone is tied not only to the weather alerts, but the whole damn WEA - Wireless Emergency Alert system.  It was an Amber Alert - which is cool, except it was an alert for St. Louis County... specifically St. Louis the city... which is 300-ish miles from here.  If that dude who took the kid was looking to hide, there is no way in hell he would head here.  He'd stick out like an infected toe.  

You know, they really need to work on some rational method of releasing alerts.  I get alerts for St. Louis, but not for the cities in Arkansas which are way closer and far more likely for me to be able to do anything about them.  Take a weather alert.  I get alerts and sure, they're all for my county, but I'm in the extreme corner of the county and most of the alerts are for locations 30-45 minutes away from here.  But I don't get alerts for the counties to the southwest or south of here because those are in a different state.  Unfortunately, more often than not, the weather is coming from that direction and headed our way.  

I know I'm asking a lot when I ask for rational methods and reasonable ways to address things.  Especially when the government is involved.  But this really shouldn't be that difficult.  The damn phone system sends an alert from the towers.  It can't be based on phone number, because my cell phone number is still CO and I don't get alerts for CO.  Maybe if they sent an alert out only through those towers most likely to be in the area of the actual problem...  Then I would be more likely to receive all the alerts I actually need rather than alerts for places I have no damn connection to.

Of course, all this seems to be handled by FEMA and we all know what a good job they do.  :eyeroll:  These days anything that has 'federal' in its name is a crapshoot.  Oh, who am I kidding?  Any government or governing acronym is iffy.  

Anyway, I'm tired and I'm cranky.  At least I don't have it as bad as a local friend of mine who, after being awakened by the same alert, shut her phone off and then ended up oversleeping, giving her 10 minutes to get her kids ready for school before the bus arrived.  

Oh, and the reason for the Amber Alert was found safe with family members twenty minutes after the alert woke us up.  I feel so much better about being awakened for that alert now.  Not.

March the First Random Rantings

The new wall calendar I bought for 2021 kinda sucks.  By some stroke of genius at the company that prints the calendar, all the numbers and holidays are printed in light gray.  Light gray, people.  Can't read the freakin' thing from more than a foot away and even then, I need my glasses.  It's a WALL calendar.  I should be able to read it while it's hanging on the wall three feet away, for pitysakes.  So, in order to be able to read it, I have to go over the dates with a pen before I hang the damn thing on the wall each month.  (Yes, I could sit here and do the whole damn calendar all at once, but I'm lazy.)  (And yes, I could go buy a new calendar, but I already paid for this one and I'm a tightwad.  Also, I wrote on it, so I can't return it.)

The bird of the day is a parrot.  I have mentioned before... I hate parrots.  No, seriously.  I do love birds, and I'd be fine with parrots in the wild if I hadn't lived with a parrot for 3 years... and if the parrot hadn't been owned by a mentally abusive asshole.  I can't even look at an African Gray without the anger that relationship caused bubbling up.  And I left that dude in 1998.  The parrot has become a mental symbol of abuse for me.  I probably should see someone about that.  :shrug:  It's not harshing my ability to live, so I probably won't bother.

Tangentially, the bird's name was Maurice - after the Steve Miller Band song lyric.  Can't listen to that song either anymore.  Thanks, asshole.  You win.  I'm still thinking about you twenty-three years later.  Thinking nasty thoughts, but still there you are.  It will be happy day when I read your obituary*.

Seriously, what the hell is wrong with people?  Women for putting up with crap like that.  And the significant others who can't seem to stop abusing the people they are supposed to love.  Over the years, I've talked to many women who've been abused.  I don't seek them out, but it seems like once we become friends, the stories come leaking out.  It's a LARGE pool of people, folks.  Way larger than I think the statistics reflect.  Way too large considering that we're all supposed to be nice to each other, now more than ever.  Feh.  

Okay, well, that last part could turn into a full-blown, hours long rant, so I'll stop.  

What's pissing you off today?

*Yes, from time to time, I put his name into the search engines.  Part of me feels safer knowing where he's at - even after all these years.  And part of me is, in fact, waiting for the happy day when I learn he's been hit by a bus.  I cheered when I learned his mom died.  What a piece of work that chick was.  The world is a better place with her gone.

Be Warned: I'm Cranky

Late last month, we cancelled our trash service with Republic because they'd jacked up our rates again.  For the umpteenth time since they took over our service a couple years ago.  During my cancellation phone call, the gal informed me they were charging us $30 to come pick up their container.  I was suitably pissed and told her no.  When they took over our service after buying out our previous trash company, they never said anything about anything to us.  We had no contract with the old service and no contract with the new company.  They're the ones who stopped by and removed our old container and replaced it with one of theirs.  After much wrangling, I finally agreed to $15 just to be done with it.  They said they'd pick up the container on the 7th.  Hubs put it out to the road on the night of the 6th, just in case they came early.  No one showed.  Hubs called again and was told someone had stopped by but we didn't have our container out.  Umm... whoever said that was a lazy, no good, lying sack of crap who most likely didn't want to drive all the way out here for one container.  Mom was the office manager for a trash company for 13 years, so I know how some of those guys can be.  Anyway, they set up a new pickup time and actually came.  Friday, the bill for my container pickup fee arrives and they've tacked on a $5 fine for not having the container out.  GAH!  I'll be calling them today.  :flexes claws and bears fangs:

We were awakened in the middle of the night by a particularly large and loud crack of thunder.  It's been booming and raining ever since.  Pouring rain.  Deluge rain.  It's January for pitysakes.  

I'm ditching my PO box, so if any of you have that address, shitcan it.  I got a PO box because the newsletter services all require you to put an address at the end of your newsletter for some lame ass reason, and I didn't want the world at large to have my home address.  I haven't sent out a newsletter in forever and the only stuff I get in my box is junk mail and the two local papers, which we also get here at home.  At this point, having a PO box is just a waste of money.  

Since I haven't been sleeping, last night I figured why go to bed?  I played a little poker and then opened my manuscript to begin rewriting the beginning.  On a non-cranky note, it went well.  Duke is sounding more like Duke now.  Of course, it would've helped if I'd had a firm idea of who the MC was when I wrote the beginning.  :shrug:  The words come when they come and we fix them later.

I did eventually go to bed.  I was tired.  And then I laid in bed for an hour or so before I fell asleep.  The story of my life right now.  I broke down and bought some ZzzQuil, but I haven't tried it yet.  Stuff like that messes me up for days afterward.  I don't have time to be messed up for days right now.  When the not-sleeping makes me more messed up than I would be if I took the stuff, then I'll probably break down and take it.  For now, I'm still functional.  Just tired and cranky.

Don't Care. Write Me a Good Story.

A blog I used to follow by a prolific reader who shall remain nameless posted their yearly reading wrap-up for 2020 and one of the first things they decided to point out was how many books they'd read by 'persons of color'.  

Umm, yeah.

I have no clue what the skin color is of the author I'm reading.  And I don't care.  Give me a good read and you could be purple with green spots.  You could have antennae sticking out the top of your head.  You could have three eyes and an arm in the middle of your forehead.  Wouldn't care.  

Shouldn't care.

I recently posted my 2020 reading wrap-up.  If I were tasked to list the various check-box attributes of the authors listed there, I'd be at a loss.  Because I just don't care enough to find out.

Black, brown, white, cream, olive, yellow, pink, peach, burnt umber?  Don't care.  Write me a good story.

Are you an innie or an outie?  XX or YY?  Want to be something else?  Don't care.  Write me a good story.

Straight or one of the alphabet soup categories?  Don't care.  Write me a good story.

Wear men's clothes or women's clothes or no clothes?  Don't care.  Write me a good story. 

Old or young?  Don't care.  Write me a good story.

Is that your real name or are you a pseudonym?  Don't care.  Write me a good story.

Christian, Jewish, Atheist, Agnostic, worship a fern named Ferdinand?  Don't care.  Write me a good story.

US or other country?  Don't care.  Write me a good story. (With the caveat that the writing has to be in English, because I don't know any other language.)

I'm a chick who likes dudes - and I've been married to the same one for 16 years.  My skin is a pale peachy-pink with slight tan overtones depending on how much sun I get.  I'm 50 years old.  None of those things should matter a whit as long as I'm writing a good story.  And if those things do matter when it comes to choosing whether to read or not read my books, then shame on you.  

If the story is good, you shouldn't notice the writer behind it.  The writer should fade away in the telling of the story.  It's what good storytellers do.  Good storytellers don't jump in front of the story shrieking 'look at me, look at me'.  Be the man behind the curtain and hope no one pays attention to you.

If I'm reading a story and the author is getting in the way of it by shouting about all the things they are and all the checkboxes they fit, I DNF the book.  I might've read your books and enjoyed them, but then you start shrieking about your otherness, at which point I stop reading your books - not because I care what you are or what you believe you are, but because suddenly YOU have become more important than your stories and when I try to read your work, all I can think about is you.  I can think of at least three authors I once loved who've done this to me and I hate them for it.  Don't be that author.  I beg you.

So, yeah, I stopped following that blog.  Kind of makes me sad.  But now I would question every book the person reviewed and wonder whether she wrote them a good review because they checked a special box or if the book was actually good.  I don't have that kind of time and I don't want to waste any more mental real estate on trying to figure it out.  

Write me a good story.  I don't care about anything else.

A Morning Rant

Just because something is natural doesn't mean it isn't also disgusting.  

Case in point, I saw a commercial the other day.  Part of it shows a woman lying on her back in bed.  Then she rolls onto her side and you can see a bloody splotch on the back of her sleep shorts and a corresponding splotch on the bed beneath her.  I assume the product was feminine napkins, but... gross.  Yeah, periods are natural, but no one wants to see that.  I was eating at the time, you sick freaks.  And that which has been seen cannot be unseen.  In my brain forever, assholes.  Thanks for that.

I don't want to see people throwing up either.  Or eliminating their waste.  Or fucking.  All natural functions, but come ON, let's have a bit of decorum here.

Seriously, in what fucked up world is any of this okay to show on TV?  Or even in the movies for that matter?

Sure, the scene in Revenge of the Nerds where Ogre is pissing and it takes forever is kinda funny, but you don't actually see it - you see the back of him and hear it.  And it's that kind of movie.  There's a dude named Booger in the movie, for pitysakes.  You know pretty early on, it's going to be that kind of movie.  The scene in Pitch Perfect where the gal mega-barfs?  Not so much.  And gross.  And even then, they had to kick the grossness up a notch by having the one gal making snow angels in it. 

And if you want to see fucking, there's a whole series of channels for that.  Go for it.  But don't put it where the unsuspecting can stumble across it.  (Looking at you Direct TV with your porn channel listings that just suddenly showed up one day between Sundance and the outdoor sports channels.  The titles alone make me want to gouge out my eyes.)  

I'm old school.  Natural stuff happens, but there are more elegant ways to convey that.  Close the door, go behind a bush, use sound off camera.  Hint at it and the majority will figure it out.  People aren't stupid (well, they didn't used to be) and can figure out what toilet paper is for without being shown someone wiping their ass.  And any female over the age of puberty knows what happens when her pad isn't fitting right.  Do we really need to see it, too?

Jus' sayin'.

And another thing... what's up with the poop background choice there Facebook?  Is that really necessary to the existence of your users?  Come on.

The Chaos Diaries - A New Wave

And when I say 'new wave', I'm not talking about around new round of 'rona.  I'm talking about the insanity surrounding the 'rona.

So, Wallyworld has mandated masks nationwide with people who'll be standing outside to enforce the rule.  Why?  Because there are like loads of places in the nation already with mask rules, so why not make all the stores in the non-totalitarian places enforce those rules, too?  Umm.  Yah. 

Today, all Dollar General stores follow in Walmart's locksteps.  Because it's what they do, I guess. 

Okay, here's the thing.  Yesterday, I tried the mask thing.  I had heard the USPS was enforcing a mask rule, so before I went into the post office to mail bills and pay for my PO Box, I put on a mask.  I walked from my car which was parked in front of the door, to the outgoing mail slot which is about 8 feet inside the store and by the time I dropped my mail into the slot I was hyperventilating and sliding into a panic attack.  I walked the few steps to the postal jail and slid my money for the PO Box through the tiny slot to the mail chick.  When I tried to talk to her, all that came out was croaking, so I ripped the damn mask off.  She looked at me kind of weird and I apologized saying "I'm sorry but I just can't wear it' and explaining how I'd heard it was mandatory masks in there.  She said she hadn't heard it was mandatory there yet. 

I'd also heard that masks were already mandatory at DG, so I girded my loins and went off to DG, telling myself it was something I was going to have to do if I wanted food, so I just needed to get over it.  I put the mask in my purse and headed for the doors.  No signs of any kind saying I had to put on a mask, so I didn't, but I was prepared to do it if someone said something.  No one inside was wearing masks, so my stress level went way down and I shopped, thinking perhaps my info was wrong.  When I was done, I talked to the cashier who told me the mask rule would go into effect the next day.  The guy behind me overheard us talking and was all like 'what?', so I explained it to him.  And he WENT OFF.  Can't say I disagreed with anything he said, although I might've said it quieter and with fewer expletives. 

The manager, upon hearing him, came out loaded for bear and totally on the defensive. With me.  I talked her down and the dude left, muttering additional worthy comments about America, freedom, and communism.  After she'd calmed down, because I assured her I was on her side and didn't have any intentions of taking my own righteous anger out on her or her staff, she told me that DG's new rules are to be enforced, no questions asked and no room for dissent.  Employees don't comply or enforce the rule, they're fired.  Period.  Then she told me she has the same phobia I have about things over my mouth and nose.  And she has to suck it up or lose her livelihood. 

That's where we're at in America, folks.  Follow the rules to avoid the chance you might catch a disease that, at the worst projections, is only slightly deadlier than the flu, or lose your job, be unable to shop for necessities, potentially face jail time...  The original guidelines were to stay 6 feet away, wash your hands, and stop touching your face.  I haven't heard anything that says 'those didn't work, so we have to wear masks now'.  We just have to.  No logic.  No rational.  Nothing.   

As I've said before, I have no problem with people choosing to wear masks.  If you feel like you're in the risk group, and you feel safer wearing a mask, go for it.  It's the difference between choice and force, folks.  And the underlying goal behind it?  Control. If they can get you to wear a mask by scaring the hell out of you, they can get you to do anything.

I have to go out again later this week.  While I was at DG, I bought a big handkerchief which I hope will be easier to deal with than the mask I had.  The new masks I ordered arrive sometime this week.  We'll see what happens.  If I totally spazz out inside a store because of the mask thing, I'll have Hubs drop a line here while I'm in jail.  (Not seriously concerned about that.  Well, maybe a little.)