Week Ending 11/17/2013
Fear: The electrical sockets have been shorting out and sparking lately, and I live with people stupid enough to say, out loud, "If it hasn't caught fire yet, it won't."
Disgust: Several members of my family play an interesting musical instrument called the Hacking Cough Bagpipes. These are instruments grown in the pectoral area, and notes are produced by smoking, living in filth, running around outside in the snow with no shirt, and hysterical overreactions to daily events. Pitch and force are determined by size, vocal structure, and body strength. It is amazing to hear the symphony at night.
Sadness: Another year, another Christmas CD at work with no Dig that Crazy Santa Claus.
Anger: The vet. I could not get a hold of the vet for almost two weeks, and when I left a message that she didn't get for days, she told me to make sure next time to leave a message with a real person. I told her several times that I called over and over, and no one picked up, and so how was I supposed to do so? Her response was just, well, keep calling. And I was like, no, this isn't my fault. Then she told me to e-mail her, because she would definitely get that, and so I did, and she claimed she didn't see it for, like, 36 hours.
Happiness: "IT'S THE EYE OF THE TIGER / IT'S THE THRILL OF THE FIGHT / RISING UP TO THE CHALLENGE OF OUR RIVAL / AND THE LAST KNOWN SURVIVOR STALKS HIS PREY IN THE NIGHT / AND HE'S WATCHING US ALL WITH THE EYE...OF THE TIGER!" Sung as loudly as that in the car when it came on and I was able to hear the WHOLE song.
Surprise: I have outgrown skulls, horror, goth, etc. I still gravitate toward punk rock looks, but more sophisticated. I am disappointed in half of my wardrobe. I need to be more picky and yet more open-minded, because lately clothes I would have rolled my eyes at five years ago are super flattering and adorable.
Randomness: In the Zombie Apocalypse, I will be the first to go. Babies bite me whenever I pick them up, and children and even grown, random adults have told me how good I smell. I have had customers lean in to smell me, or pet me, or play with my hair. I am frequently asked what my perfume is, and when I say I'm not wearing perfume, there is a glint, a gleam, as they imagine how delicious I am.
Showing posts with label miscellaneous. Show all posts
Showing posts with label miscellaneous. Show all posts
November 18, 2013
November 4, 2013
The Short, Short Version #3
Week Ending 11/3/2013
Fear: I have a tiny chip in one of my front teeth. It is also slightly stained, so that when I look in the mirror I constantly worry it is a cavity and that, like my mother and sisters before me, I will someday be a toothless hillbilly. This week, something got caught in the chip and made it look THAT MUCH worse and I freaked out and almost started crying in the bathroom at work. Then I ran my tongue over it and it went back 'normal'.
Disgust: I don't want to see pictures of the boil on your ass, Brother.
Sadness: My father used to surprise me at work with a chicken sandwich and an orange float from Wendy's, usually on Sundays. Last Sunday, when I was kinda hungry and we were busy and I wasn't sure when I'd get to run out for lunch, I started wishing he would show up again. But...he won't. Possibly ever again. Because he's blind in one eye now and he can't drive and it's sad, the little things I never thought would come to an end.
Anger: A few years ago, my brother found a camera in the park and turned it into the police. No one claimed it and so they let my brother keep it. He found out it was worth around $2000. It was the find of a lifetime. He loved that camera. He had hundreds of pictures on it. This week, he set it down on a table in our living room and - POOF! - it was gone. Of course we can't prove who stole it, but it's obvious and frustrating and after everything he's going through right now it just broke his heart.
Happiness: We got an extra discount on ONE sweater this week and I hemmed and hawed over what sweater to buy, because I'm not much of a sweater girl. I decided to buy this long black cardigan with a long printed lapel. It is the BEST DECISION EVER. Warm, comfortable, and I feel like Janis Joplin. Now, Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz?
Surprise: I found out on Facebook that some friends of mine had a second child. Like, he's a year-and-a-half or something. Am I that dysfunctional? Maybe...I should look into some therapy for my extreme anti-social behavioral issues.
Randomness: I can't tell whether cars coming at me have their high beams on. I also can't tell whether they're flashing their lights at me. It is all so bright and every time they hit bumps it looks like the lights are flashing and I begin wondering what's wrong with my car and when I'm going to blow up.
Fear: I have a tiny chip in one of my front teeth. It is also slightly stained, so that when I look in the mirror I constantly worry it is a cavity and that, like my mother and sisters before me, I will someday be a toothless hillbilly. This week, something got caught in the chip and made it look THAT MUCH worse and I freaked out and almost started crying in the bathroom at work. Then I ran my tongue over it and it went back 'normal'.
Disgust: I don't want to see pictures of the boil on your ass, Brother.
Sadness: My father used to surprise me at work with a chicken sandwich and an orange float from Wendy's, usually on Sundays. Last Sunday, when I was kinda hungry and we were busy and I wasn't sure when I'd get to run out for lunch, I started wishing he would show up again. But...he won't. Possibly ever again. Because he's blind in one eye now and he can't drive and it's sad, the little things I never thought would come to an end.
Anger: A few years ago, my brother found a camera in the park and turned it into the police. No one claimed it and so they let my brother keep it. He found out it was worth around $2000. It was the find of a lifetime. He loved that camera. He had hundreds of pictures on it. This week, he set it down on a table in our living room and - POOF! - it was gone. Of course we can't prove who stole it, but it's obvious and frustrating and after everything he's going through right now it just broke his heart.
Happiness: We got an extra discount on ONE sweater this week and I hemmed and hawed over what sweater to buy, because I'm not much of a sweater girl. I decided to buy this long black cardigan with a long printed lapel. It is the BEST DECISION EVER. Warm, comfortable, and I feel like Janis Joplin. Now, Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz?
Surprise: I found out on Facebook that some friends of mine had a second child. Like, he's a year-and-a-half or something. Am I that dysfunctional? Maybe...I should look into some therapy for my extreme anti-social behavioral issues.
Randomness: I can't tell whether cars coming at me have their high beams on. I also can't tell whether they're flashing their lights at me. It is all so bright and every time they hit bumps it looks like the lights are flashing and I begin wondering what's wrong with my car and when I'm going to blow up.
June 6, 2012
Random Spewing
A) My sister no longer has a job. She injured her foot falling down the basement steps and now needs surgery. Her workplace will not permit her a leave of absence and will not promise to hold her job for when she returns in, tentatively, two months. Fine, she can't help any of that. It isn't her fault she fell down those stairs (I've done it twice). But it has been a week-and-a-half since she went to work and she has complained about having to do things around the house for those of us who do have jobs. Right now I work five days a week - all long shifts. The only other person who has a job is my nephew's girlfriend. Out of eight people, my parents get retirement checks but don't have to be anywhere, neither of my nephews have school because one is online-schooled and one is twenty-five, and the other girlfriend just graduated from school and for the past year only had to be at school for two hours a day. And you know what happened today? My mother told me to make sure I always washed my own dishes because my sister said she wasn't going to wash my dishes. Fuck her. She isn't in so much pain she can't do things - she's just fine when she has to go to the tobacco store to get cigarettes rolled or when she goes to spend her $400 support check on junk at Wal-Mart. I do my own laundry, take care of the phone/cable/internet bill, handle the repairs on the car and put in most of the gas, and buy food that gets eaten within twenty-four hours. Why can't she wash my, maybe, five dishes I dirty a day? I usually only eat breakfast and only two or three days a week any other meal, so it's often not even five dishes. And we have a dishwasher which I normally put my own dishes in. Why does she get to lay around doing nothing, and her children get to lay around doing nothing, leeching off of my paycheck but refusing to do anything for me? FUCK.
B) I'm reading The Beekeeper's Apprentice. I hope it gets better because I want to slap the narrator, Mary Russell, upside the head. She's egotistical and pretentious. I know it's because in the beginning she's a fifteen-year-old girl but that doesn't excuse her tone of voice because a fifteen-year-old girl is not narrating this story. An adult looking back is narrating. I'm hoping I'll love the book and her once it becomes more of a mystery, once the Sherlock Holmes inspiration kicks in a little. But once again, I'm disappointed in a book I've looked forward to for a long time.
C) I've made a decision based on this: now that I have to support said sister above even more than I did before, I won't have very much extra money and so I'm going to have to just rely on random books from the library. I used to go to the library with all my lists of books and try to find specific books but that's beginning to prove more frustrating because I often end up hating the books I was previously excited by. So I think I'll try random books again. I've said before, I think, that I used to pull five random books in a row (well, technically I would pull five random authors in a row) from the shelf and out of those, it would be an even bet that one would be awful, three would be mediocre, and one would be excellent. That's how I stumbled upon The Descent - a book that is so much more intelligent than that horrible movie supposedly based on it - and The Wall of the Sky, the Wall of the Eye. It's how I found Memoirs of a Geisha before it became a reknowned movie and it's how I read Tom Arnold's autobiography, which is surprisingly funny and interesting. The thing about it is that if I'm disappointed I won't have wasted money. It sounds to me like a lot of people are rediscovering the beauty of libraries for various reasons, and this is mine.
B) I'm reading The Beekeeper's Apprentice. I hope it gets better because I want to slap the narrator, Mary Russell, upside the head. She's egotistical and pretentious. I know it's because in the beginning she's a fifteen-year-old girl but that doesn't excuse her tone of voice because a fifteen-year-old girl is not narrating this story. An adult looking back is narrating. I'm hoping I'll love the book and her once it becomes more of a mystery, once the Sherlock Holmes inspiration kicks in a little. But once again, I'm disappointed in a book I've looked forward to for a long time.
C) I've made a decision based on this: now that I have to support said sister above even more than I did before, I won't have very much extra money and so I'm going to have to just rely on random books from the library. I used to go to the library with all my lists of books and try to find specific books but that's beginning to prove more frustrating because I often end up hating the books I was previously excited by. So I think I'll try random books again. I've said before, I think, that I used to pull five random books in a row (well, technically I would pull five random authors in a row) from the shelf and out of those, it would be an even bet that one would be awful, three would be mediocre, and one would be excellent. That's how I stumbled upon The Descent - a book that is so much more intelligent than that horrible movie supposedly based on it - and The Wall of the Sky, the Wall of the Eye. It's how I found Memoirs of a Geisha before it became a reknowned movie and it's how I read Tom Arnold's autobiography, which is surprisingly funny and interesting. The thing about it is that if I'm disappointed I won't have wasted money. It sounds to me like a lot of people are rediscovering the beauty of libraries for various reasons, and this is mine.
March 12, 2012
My Big Fat Opinion Piece
Which will all be about opinions on the internet. So, there's a part of me that hates the internet because I think it has bred a generation of people who think their opinions are completely entitled. Now, it's fine to have an opinion. It's even fine to express said opinion. If said opinion is expressed thusly:
"I like this show."
"I don't like this show."
...all is well and good. There can even be a bit of exposition on why or why not the show is liked by said individual. Even if the exposition turns into a rant about the qualities of the show it's okay. My problem lies with attacking someone else's opinion by calling him names or insinuating something about his intelligence because his opinion differs. I see this all the time. I experienced it myself two years ago.
I hate The Colbert Report. I can't watch it. I've never been able to watch anything Stephen Colbert has appeared on because I just can't stand him or his humor. It's something about his delivery. He rarely smiles. He was on Whose Line Is It Anyway once and I can't watch that episode because he just seems too serious throughout. I understand he's trying to stay "in character" and that a lot of improvisers find it unprofessional to even smile while "in character" but Whose Line has never been established as a serious show. I also hated him on The Daily Show because he would often do the segments I absolutely despised. Namely, he would do the mock interviews with real people who it seemed didn't know they were being mocked, and it was actually infuriating to me to watch it dawn on them that they were the butt of a national joke. The few times I've seen The Colbert Report I just can't seem to laugh even though I understand what Colbert is doing is actually mocking the very thing his "character" is supposedly supporting. I understand it's basically a mock show. I just don't like Stephen Colbert and, by proxy, don't like his show.
One day I was talking to a co-worker and he expressed his opinion on loving The Colbert Report. When I expressed the opposite opinion, the first words out of his mouth were, "Well, you obviously don't understand what he's doing." I was enraged. I mean, I've rarely been so insulted. I'm not an idiot. And my co-worker knew I wasn't an idiot. But his first inclination upon hearing an opinion opposite his own was to degrade me and make me feel inferior to his own knowledge. No. Just no.
I see this everywhere on the internet. I was just watching a British program called The Big Fat Quiz of the Year 2006, and there was a celebrity appearing on it who many people find annoying. Many people expressed this opinion in the comments. And instead of just posting their own comments saying, "Well I like him because..." a lot of responders had to attack the first people by "explaining" what it is those first people aren't "getting." No, I get it. The celebrity is "in character" as a smarmy know-it-all who can't relax and wants to win and can't take it when the game doesn't play by the rules. It's a freaking TV show - there's no prize (except a cheesy trophy), no money goes to charity, no advantage next year or "reigning champion" titles. It's just a game that's supposed to be fun and make fun of the news from the year gone by. And maybe some people find his "character" funny. I don't. I'm allowed to express that and so are the thousands of other people who feel the same way.
One of the comments was about how much this certain poster loves this celebrity, and people who don't should keep it to themselves. Well, no. When people go overboard and get violent, vitriolic, or nasty about something (particularly something as stupid as a celebrity on a game show) that's one thing. If someone were to come on and say, "I hope that guy dies in a fire because he's a fucking retard," that bothers me. That's not an opinion, that's just offensive. But nothing is universal. There is no celebrity, book, piece of art, issue, or human right that anyone can agree on. Not even the death penalty or gender equality. Do I feel there are issues I can't believe people don't agree on? Of course. Do I want to call them morons when they spout hate speech or racial slurs or other offenses? You betcha. Do I want to go off on a rant like this one when they feel themselves superior to others because they "get" the issue and others "don't"? Fuck ya. And, well, I do, to an extent. As seen here.
But what I try not to do is call them names whilst in an actual debate with them. Just now, in the comments on The Big Fat Quiz of the Year 2006, I made a comment asking people to just say "I like him" or "I don't like him" and move the fuck on. There were two other celebrities who are quite polarizing, who were actually not taking the game seriously AT ALL, and there are plenty of people who were annoyed by that. And that's fine. In the end those two (who I liked) were straining everyone's patience a bit. It's fine to not like something. It's not fine to force other's into that same opinion.
Wearing down someone's feelings in effect does force them into adopting the opposite opinion. We've all grown tired of an argument to the point we just concede to end the argument altogether. Look, I know this seems trivial, because it's a TV show and who cares? It's not a real issue. Except, for this generation their manners are being learned in this capacity, and since our abilites to deal with greater issues stem from how we handle smaller social issues as we age, my fear is the future of society is going to be even worse than it is now because the latest generation can't hold a civil debate or compromise to someone else's ideas. I never knew it was a talent to agree to disagree. Some might call it indifference, but I call it necessity. I think it's why we can't come to an agreement on how to handle certain situations.
Let's talk, incredibly briefly, about gay rights. I'm totally for complete rights for homosexuals. However, I'd be willing to compromise on the issue of gay marriage by saying that if each state would legalize gay marriage (recognizing it as equal to heterosexual marriage in the eyes of the law) it could also be mandated that individual churches would have jurisdiction over whether they would allow gay marriage ceremonies to be held on their premises. There are plenty of churches that have begun to accept homosexuals. If a church declares that within its culture homosexual marriage isn't accepted, so be it. Those churches and their parishioners can continue to practice their religion as they choose fit. Just keep it out of the government and out of my chosen culture/religion. There are, of course, many other issues surrounding gay marriage, but I said "briefly."
The reason I can compromise is because I'm indifferent to others opinions or practices as long as it doesn't hurt me or another human being. It may seem like I've leapt from something stupid to something serious but, well, yeah. And I can because I've learned how to debate from the social situations I've been put in previously. I used to play with a little girl who wanted her way, all the time, and if she didn't get it she didn't want to play anymore. Well, after a while, no one wanted to play with her and she was lonely and she learned to take turns. But it took a long time and several experiences of her friends going home or telling her they didn't want to come over at all before she came to her revelation of compromising. On the internet, where a good deal of kids spend their lives interacting these days, everyone is anonymous or easily replaced. If a kid can't compromise she just clicks off that tab or changes her screenname or moves to a different chat room. She doesn't have to compromise. She doesn't have to learn.
This worries me.
"I like this show."
"I don't like this show."
...all is well and good. There can even be a bit of exposition on why or why not the show is liked by said individual. Even if the exposition turns into a rant about the qualities of the show it's okay. My problem lies with attacking someone else's opinion by calling him names or insinuating something about his intelligence because his opinion differs. I see this all the time. I experienced it myself two years ago.
I hate The Colbert Report. I can't watch it. I've never been able to watch anything Stephen Colbert has appeared on because I just can't stand him or his humor. It's something about his delivery. He rarely smiles. He was on Whose Line Is It Anyway once and I can't watch that episode because he just seems too serious throughout. I understand he's trying to stay "in character" and that a lot of improvisers find it unprofessional to even smile while "in character" but Whose Line has never been established as a serious show. I also hated him on The Daily Show because he would often do the segments I absolutely despised. Namely, he would do the mock interviews with real people who it seemed didn't know they were being mocked, and it was actually infuriating to me to watch it dawn on them that they were the butt of a national joke. The few times I've seen The Colbert Report I just can't seem to laugh even though I understand what Colbert is doing is actually mocking the very thing his "character" is supposedly supporting. I understand it's basically a mock show. I just don't like Stephen Colbert and, by proxy, don't like his show.
One day I was talking to a co-worker and he expressed his opinion on loving The Colbert Report. When I expressed the opposite opinion, the first words out of his mouth were, "Well, you obviously don't understand what he's doing." I was enraged. I mean, I've rarely been so insulted. I'm not an idiot. And my co-worker knew I wasn't an idiot. But his first inclination upon hearing an opinion opposite his own was to degrade me and make me feel inferior to his own knowledge. No. Just no.
I see this everywhere on the internet. I was just watching a British program called The Big Fat Quiz of the Year 2006, and there was a celebrity appearing on it who many people find annoying. Many people expressed this opinion in the comments. And instead of just posting their own comments saying, "Well I like him because..." a lot of responders had to attack the first people by "explaining" what it is those first people aren't "getting." No, I get it. The celebrity is "in character" as a smarmy know-it-all who can't relax and wants to win and can't take it when the game doesn't play by the rules. It's a freaking TV show - there's no prize (except a cheesy trophy), no money goes to charity, no advantage next year or "reigning champion" titles. It's just a game that's supposed to be fun and make fun of the news from the year gone by. And maybe some people find his "character" funny. I don't. I'm allowed to express that and so are the thousands of other people who feel the same way.
One of the comments was about how much this certain poster loves this celebrity, and people who don't should keep it to themselves. Well, no. When people go overboard and get violent, vitriolic, or nasty about something (particularly something as stupid as a celebrity on a game show) that's one thing. If someone were to come on and say, "I hope that guy dies in a fire because he's a fucking retard," that bothers me. That's not an opinion, that's just offensive. But nothing is universal. There is no celebrity, book, piece of art, issue, or human right that anyone can agree on. Not even the death penalty or gender equality. Do I feel there are issues I can't believe people don't agree on? Of course. Do I want to call them morons when they spout hate speech or racial slurs or other offenses? You betcha. Do I want to go off on a rant like this one when they feel themselves superior to others because they "get" the issue and others "don't"? Fuck ya. And, well, I do, to an extent. As seen here.
But what I try not to do is call them names whilst in an actual debate with them. Just now, in the comments on The Big Fat Quiz of the Year 2006, I made a comment asking people to just say "I like him" or "I don't like him" and move the fuck on. There were two other celebrities who are quite polarizing, who were actually not taking the game seriously AT ALL, and there are plenty of people who were annoyed by that. And that's fine. In the end those two (who I liked) were straining everyone's patience a bit. It's fine to not like something. It's not fine to force other's into that same opinion.
Wearing down someone's feelings in effect does force them into adopting the opposite opinion. We've all grown tired of an argument to the point we just concede to end the argument altogether. Look, I know this seems trivial, because it's a TV show and who cares? It's not a real issue. Except, for this generation their manners are being learned in this capacity, and since our abilites to deal with greater issues stem from how we handle smaller social issues as we age, my fear is the future of society is going to be even worse than it is now because the latest generation can't hold a civil debate or compromise to someone else's ideas. I never knew it was a talent to agree to disagree. Some might call it indifference, but I call it necessity. I think it's why we can't come to an agreement on how to handle certain situations.
Let's talk, incredibly briefly, about gay rights. I'm totally for complete rights for homosexuals. However, I'd be willing to compromise on the issue of gay marriage by saying that if each state would legalize gay marriage (recognizing it as equal to heterosexual marriage in the eyes of the law) it could also be mandated that individual churches would have jurisdiction over whether they would allow gay marriage ceremonies to be held on their premises. There are plenty of churches that have begun to accept homosexuals. If a church declares that within its culture homosexual marriage isn't accepted, so be it. Those churches and their parishioners can continue to practice their religion as they choose fit. Just keep it out of the government and out of my chosen culture/religion. There are, of course, many other issues surrounding gay marriage, but I said "briefly."
The reason I can compromise is because I'm indifferent to others opinions or practices as long as it doesn't hurt me or another human being. It may seem like I've leapt from something stupid to something serious but, well, yeah. And I can because I've learned how to debate from the social situations I've been put in previously. I used to play with a little girl who wanted her way, all the time, and if she didn't get it she didn't want to play anymore. Well, after a while, no one wanted to play with her and she was lonely and she learned to take turns. But it took a long time and several experiences of her friends going home or telling her they didn't want to come over at all before she came to her revelation of compromising. On the internet, where a good deal of kids spend their lives interacting these days, everyone is anonymous or easily replaced. If a kid can't compromise she just clicks off that tab or changes her screenname or moves to a different chat room. She doesn't have to compromise. She doesn't have to learn.
This worries me.
June 21, 2011
Insurance
Today, at about 2:30 p.m., I tooled around the web looking at medical insurance quotes following a conversation about priorities. I wanted to see if I could find a plan I could afford and which gave me the best deductible, coverage, etc. for a price I could afford monthly (answer = no plan exists). Most sites wanted my contact information before they would give me a quote, and since it is important I went ahead and put in my cell phone number and email, thinking I would probably get a few calls over the next few days or weeks from companies that had seen my inquiry.
Over the next few hours, I was called - wait for it - fourteen times. The poor first guy, who called from a local number, seemed kind enough, but the truth is I had been surfing those sites while communicating on my house phone to a tow truck company because my father had a flat tire somewhere near Columbus. (My father, being the old man he is, WOULD NOT go inside and get the actual adress of the gas station. He insisted on describing his whereabouts because he doesn't understand the drivers want to type an address into their GPSs and go. My mother had to go in and get the address when my mother arrived in my brother's van.)
Well, I answered the first guy's call because it was a local number, and my cell phone doesn't give names or businesses if it's a strange number, so I answered it hoping my mother hadn't gotten a flat or something on her way to help my father. The guy says, "Hi, this is Steve from _______ _________ Insurance, how are you?" And the poor guy, because I was just floored that he had called within five minutes of me looking at the website, now has no head because I shrieked, "This is a really bad time!" He seemed really apologetic and I didn't get to explain (because I didn't have time) but I just repeated that it was a bad time and said bye. I feel really bad for Steve because I'm sure his company makes him call people.
But maybe now, though I feel a little twinge of guilt, I don't feel so bad for Steve. Because thirteen calls later (which I gave up answering after the first few) I'm fuming. Fuming. I know, I know, I shouldn't have given them my phone number but I didn't expect fourteen calls within five or six hours. I only visited two websites, but they were the kind that compare quotes between companies so they probably gave my information to every one of those companies. One company, during the time I was on the phone to my mom because of the flat, called, I didn't pick up, the phone stopped ringing, then ten seconds later that same company called again. I couldn't pick up and I was so, so, so pissed.
I keep wondering: How many times do these customer service people go through this, where they call someone immediately after receiving information that the person has visited the website and had said person tell them they were, like, the tenth call in an hour? Why wouldn't they give the person a few days or a week or so? When I was venting to my dad, he reminded me they were trying to secure my business before any other company was able to. Yes, I'm aware, but trust me, harrassing me is sooooo not the way to do it.
Over the next few hours, I was called - wait for it - fourteen times. The poor first guy, who called from a local number, seemed kind enough, but the truth is I had been surfing those sites while communicating on my house phone to a tow truck company because my father had a flat tire somewhere near Columbus. (My father, being the old man he is, WOULD NOT go inside and get the actual adress of the gas station. He insisted on describing his whereabouts because he doesn't understand the drivers want to type an address into their GPSs and go. My mother had to go in and get the address when my mother arrived in my brother's van.)
Well, I answered the first guy's call because it was a local number, and my cell phone doesn't give names or businesses if it's a strange number, so I answered it hoping my mother hadn't gotten a flat or something on her way to help my father. The guy says, "Hi, this is Steve from _______ _________ Insurance, how are you?" And the poor guy, because I was just floored that he had called within five minutes of me looking at the website, now has no head because I shrieked, "This is a really bad time!" He seemed really apologetic and I didn't get to explain (because I didn't have time) but I just repeated that it was a bad time and said bye. I feel really bad for Steve because I'm sure his company makes him call people.
But maybe now, though I feel a little twinge of guilt, I don't feel so bad for Steve. Because thirteen calls later (which I gave up answering after the first few) I'm fuming. Fuming. I know, I know, I shouldn't have given them my phone number but I didn't expect fourteen calls within five or six hours. I only visited two websites, but they were the kind that compare quotes between companies so they probably gave my information to every one of those companies. One company, during the time I was on the phone to my mom because of the flat, called, I didn't pick up, the phone stopped ringing, then ten seconds later that same company called again. I couldn't pick up and I was so, so, so pissed.
I keep wondering: How many times do these customer service people go through this, where they call someone immediately after receiving information that the person has visited the website and had said person tell them they were, like, the tenth call in an hour? Why wouldn't they give the person a few days or a week or so? When I was venting to my dad, he reminded me they were trying to secure my business before any other company was able to. Yes, I'm aware, but trust me, harrassing me is sooooo not the way to do it.
June 2, 2011
Debt
Not too long ago my mother received a letter telling her she owed money to a credit card company. Let me make this clear: my mother has never had a credit card. Ever. She hasn't had credit good enough to be approved since she filed for bankruptcy in 1986 following my sister's motorcycle accident. My mother has so many bounced checks from the late 80s and early 90s she can't even get a checking account. Furthermore, the letter claimed she lived at an address in 2002 that she hadn't lived in since 1997. My mother called these people. I happened to walk into the house from work while she was on the phone with them and heard her arguing with them.
Me: "Hang up the phone, right now."
Her, to them: "I've never heard of this credit card."
Me: "You can't reason with them. You're just giving them what they want. Hang up."
Her: I didn't even live there in 2002."
Me: "Hang up. Now."
Anyway, eventually she hung up. BUT, not before confirming her social security number to them. Horrified, I tried to explain to her that they were probably fishing for information so they could use her social security number. At this point she blows up at me, telling me she's tired of having to deal with these stupid companies. She thought it was terrible OF ME to interrupt her on the phone. I took the letter from her and searched for the "collection agency" on the internet and found out they had received an "F" from the Better Business Bureau (BBB). I told her this information and told her to call her attorney. She sent them a copy of the letter and we're still waiting to hear back from them.
Since that day, my parents have begun to receive a slew of fraudulent letters. A few days ago my father was sent a $1900 check because he had been chosen to be a secret shopper. Sensing something dodgy, I decided to look this company up on the BBB as well. No listing. I looked for a webpage about them. Nothing. I put directions to the address on their letterhead into mapquest and the address doesn't exist. I told my father that and told him he should report this letter to someone, such as the BBB. I told him he should ask them what to do with the check and he said he didn't have time to worry about it and he would just throw it away. When I asked him if he had applied to be a secret shopper (the letter thanked him for his application), he said no, he hadn't applied for anything. He had no idea where they had found his name.
We're getting phone calls now from a lot of anonymous, private, or "unknown name, unknown numbers" who call ten times a day and who claim to be collecting debts my mother has never heard of. She wants me to just get a different phone number (the number is in my name), but that's not going to stop this. Now, I'm not going to pretend I don't have a few debts (not as many as I once did - I paid off all of my credit cards but one and now I'm working on some medical bills and that credit card). But I can't make my mother see that when we begin getting letters from fraudulent companies, running from it isn't a viable option (it's never a viable option). She needs to report these phone numbers and these letters to someone - such as her attorney.
Sometimes it's hard to know what to do. The one credit card I still have a debt to gave me a pretty bad run around and outright lied to me. The worst part was I would get phone calls from two completely separate companies about the same account. When I would say, "You just called me yesterday and I've already made my payment," the caller would say, "We didn't call you yesterday." When I would argue or when I would offer the phone number that had called me the previous day they would just say it wasn't their problem. I would ask if it showed that I had made a payment and they would say "Yes, but we don't know anything about a phone call." I would read the phone number to them and they would claim they had never heard of that phone number. I began to distrust this company. One month when I had gone over the limit I called them to ask how much I would need to pay to get my account under the limit and not have to make another payment until the next month. They gave me an amount. I asked, again, if that was the amount I needed to get under the limit and not have to make another payment until the next month and was told, oh, no you'll have to make another payment after this one because you'll just go over the limit again. I became so angry they sent me to a supervisor, who told me they had closed my account the month before. When I spoke to a third person, they told me they had actually closed my account in April - even though I hadn't missed a payment. I had been over the limit for two months (even though every month I would pay more than the minimum payment). They closed my account even though I was always paying more than the minimum. When I called them out on this they told me they can actually close my account for any purpose without warning. Which is certainly what they did to me, because they closed my account in April and I wasn't aware of it until July.
Anyway, I feel overwhelmed because I'm trying really hard to pay my legitimate debts. I can't pay them all at once, so I'm working on each one as much as I can. It means I do have to ignore some while I work on others. I hate admitting that. Right now, I'm focusing on the medical bills mainly because they're fairly small and I think I can get them out of the way quickly. I worry about what others think about me. I know a majority of Americans have some kind of debt and I know I'm not alone, but when you talk to collection agencies they tend to treat you like you're the scum of the Earth because you owe money and can't just pay it all at once. I had one tell me that if I had a job I had the money to pay the debt. When I disputed that idea, reminding her that a part-time job isn't much money, she said paying this debt (the medical bill) should be my first priority, and that it was just as important as rent or food. I laughed out loud and said, no, it isn't. I'm sorry, but it just isn't. I offered to pay $10 a month just so I could be paying something and she said that wasn't acceptable. I told her that was all I had and she asked me if that meant I was refusing to pay this debt, and I had no option but to say, "If that's the way you want to look at it."
Now that a lot of my other debt has gone away, I can focus on paying more than $10 a month to that medical bill. My biggest worry right now is how to weed out the legit companies from the fraudulent ones. I now have two companies, yet again, calling me about the credit card from the extremely long paragraph earlier in this post. I have to wonder if I'll be paying that debt twice. Neither company has sent me a letter (and under the Fair Debt Collections Act they are required to do so). They just call, ten times a day, and I've started to ignore them because I don't know who to talk to. I've gone through a consolidation company once, so I've begun looking into another one, this time one that will sit down to counselling sessions and actually help me. I feel frustrated and also like some kind of failure or some kind of rat hiding in some kind of sewer. Am I a horrible person because I'm trying to do what I can with what I have? I know I created this problem. I try to convince myself that at least I'm doing something to fix it.
Me: "Hang up the phone, right now."
Her, to them: "I've never heard of this credit card."
Me: "You can't reason with them. You're just giving them what they want. Hang up."
Her: I didn't even live there in 2002."
Me: "Hang up. Now."
Anyway, eventually she hung up. BUT, not before confirming her social security number to them. Horrified, I tried to explain to her that they were probably fishing for information so they could use her social security number. At this point she blows up at me, telling me she's tired of having to deal with these stupid companies. She thought it was terrible OF ME to interrupt her on the phone. I took the letter from her and searched for the "collection agency" on the internet and found out they had received an "F" from the Better Business Bureau (BBB). I told her this information and told her to call her attorney. She sent them a copy of the letter and we're still waiting to hear back from them.
Since that day, my parents have begun to receive a slew of fraudulent letters. A few days ago my father was sent a $1900 check because he had been chosen to be a secret shopper. Sensing something dodgy, I decided to look this company up on the BBB as well. No listing. I looked for a webpage about them. Nothing. I put directions to the address on their letterhead into mapquest and the address doesn't exist. I told my father that and told him he should report this letter to someone, such as the BBB. I told him he should ask them what to do with the check and he said he didn't have time to worry about it and he would just throw it away. When I asked him if he had applied to be a secret shopper (the letter thanked him for his application), he said no, he hadn't applied for anything. He had no idea where they had found his name.
We're getting phone calls now from a lot of anonymous, private, or "unknown name, unknown numbers" who call ten times a day and who claim to be collecting debts my mother has never heard of. She wants me to just get a different phone number (the number is in my name), but that's not going to stop this. Now, I'm not going to pretend I don't have a few debts (not as many as I once did - I paid off all of my credit cards but one and now I'm working on some medical bills and that credit card). But I can't make my mother see that when we begin getting letters from fraudulent companies, running from it isn't a viable option (it's never a viable option). She needs to report these phone numbers and these letters to someone - such as her attorney.
Sometimes it's hard to know what to do. The one credit card I still have a debt to gave me a pretty bad run around and outright lied to me. The worst part was I would get phone calls from two completely separate companies about the same account. When I would say, "You just called me yesterday and I've already made my payment," the caller would say, "We didn't call you yesterday." When I would argue or when I would offer the phone number that had called me the previous day they would just say it wasn't their problem. I would ask if it showed that I had made a payment and they would say "Yes, but we don't know anything about a phone call." I would read the phone number to them and they would claim they had never heard of that phone number. I began to distrust this company. One month when I had gone over the limit I called them to ask how much I would need to pay to get my account under the limit and not have to make another payment until the next month. They gave me an amount. I asked, again, if that was the amount I needed to get under the limit and not have to make another payment until the next month and was told, oh, no you'll have to make another payment after this one because you'll just go over the limit again. I became so angry they sent me to a supervisor, who told me they had closed my account the month before. When I spoke to a third person, they told me they had actually closed my account in April - even though I hadn't missed a payment. I had been over the limit for two months (even though every month I would pay more than the minimum payment). They closed my account even though I was always paying more than the minimum. When I called them out on this they told me they can actually close my account for any purpose without warning. Which is certainly what they did to me, because they closed my account in April and I wasn't aware of it until July.
Anyway, I feel overwhelmed because I'm trying really hard to pay my legitimate debts. I can't pay them all at once, so I'm working on each one as much as I can. It means I do have to ignore some while I work on others. I hate admitting that. Right now, I'm focusing on the medical bills mainly because they're fairly small and I think I can get them out of the way quickly. I worry about what others think about me. I know a majority of Americans have some kind of debt and I know I'm not alone, but when you talk to collection agencies they tend to treat you like you're the scum of the Earth because you owe money and can't just pay it all at once. I had one tell me that if I had a job I had the money to pay the debt. When I disputed that idea, reminding her that a part-time job isn't much money, she said paying this debt (the medical bill) should be my first priority, and that it was just as important as rent or food. I laughed out loud and said, no, it isn't. I'm sorry, but it just isn't. I offered to pay $10 a month just so I could be paying something and she said that wasn't acceptable. I told her that was all I had and she asked me if that meant I was refusing to pay this debt, and I had no option but to say, "If that's the way you want to look at it."
Now that a lot of my other debt has gone away, I can focus on paying more than $10 a month to that medical bill. My biggest worry right now is how to weed out the legit companies from the fraudulent ones. I now have two companies, yet again, calling me about the credit card from the extremely long paragraph earlier in this post. I have to wonder if I'll be paying that debt twice. Neither company has sent me a letter (and under the Fair Debt Collections Act they are required to do so). They just call, ten times a day, and I've started to ignore them because I don't know who to talk to. I've gone through a consolidation company once, so I've begun looking into another one, this time one that will sit down to counselling sessions and actually help me. I feel frustrated and also like some kind of failure or some kind of rat hiding in some kind of sewer. Am I a horrible person because I'm trying to do what I can with what I have? I know I created this problem. I try to convince myself that at least I'm doing something to fix it.
February 19, 2011
Acne
Whenever a teenage girl talks about having a pimple on her chin or forehead, I want to kick her in the taco (to quote Glee). I'm going-on thirty-two years old and I still have acne and it ain't one or two little ones. My acne is more like multiple puss-engorged, painful boils prominently featured like unicorn horns or like a hemorrhoid on my butt-chin. My breakouts are also like some kind of diaspora - the acne migrates, sometimes spending a month spread across my neck to spending a few weeks across my cheeks. Moving my face hurts.
Well, actually, that's all changing.
I began using three Neutrogena products a few weeks ago and the difference so far is actually astounding. First I wash my face in a cream-based acne wash with microbeads that moisturizes, then I wash with a gel-base that foams (which dries), then I moisturize again with a special lotion. Right now, there is no acne on my forehead or my chin, and there are only a few little tiny spots on my cheeks and some non-pussy bumps on my neck. They look more like knots than pimples. I can actually touch my face and not a) feel greasy or b) wince in pain or c) come away bleeding. The washes are also soft enough so I can use them three times a day without feeling like my face is on fire.
This was the problem with Proactive, Arbonne, Mary Kay, a special spa formula a friend who works at a spa gave me, and an old Neutrogena regimen that was split into night a day. When I was using the Arbonne, I had a customer at my job tell me that my eyebrows were bleeding. I had scratched them raw. Others asked me if I had a sunburn. Everyone told me that meant the medicine was working. You know that old commercial for aftershave where the grandfather says to his grandson, "The burn says it's working!" and then he realizes his new improved aftershave doesn't burn and THEN he realizes it never should have? Yeah.
Because I have acne scars and red spots, people (my mother especially) still try to suggest medicines. I tell them I have used antibiotic creams prescribed by dermatologists that only made my acne worse. I wish they would leave me alone. I've tried starting a routine like the one I have now for years but it kept getting interrupted by people giving me samples of what worked for them or whatever they're selling. I would tell them every time that Neutrogena works for me and is usually gentle enough so I could use it daily. They would look at my face (which of course I had only been able to use it for a limited time so it hadn't started working yet) and say I should try their products.
I understood they thought they were helping, but it often came off as incredibly rude. A little girl shopping with her mother once asked me what happened to my face. Her mother was horrified, of course, but I brushed it off as a little girl who didn't understand acne because she had never encountered it (this happened when I was walking down the street once, too). Adults who come up to me and basically say, "I noticed something is wrong with your face," is rude. It puts me in the position of either having to politely agree to test their suggestions or to politely defend myself (which makes them feel like I like being dirty - I'm obviously not interested in trying, you know?). It's frustrating and you know what? It makes me want to cry.
Anyway, hopefully those days are over.
Well, actually, that's all changing.
I began using three Neutrogena products a few weeks ago and the difference so far is actually astounding. First I wash my face in a cream-based acne wash with microbeads that moisturizes, then I wash with a gel-base that foams (which dries), then I moisturize again with a special lotion. Right now, there is no acne on my forehead or my chin, and there are only a few little tiny spots on my cheeks and some non-pussy bumps on my neck. They look more like knots than pimples. I can actually touch my face and not a) feel greasy or b) wince in pain or c) come away bleeding. The washes are also soft enough so I can use them three times a day without feeling like my face is on fire.
This was the problem with Proactive, Arbonne, Mary Kay, a special spa formula a friend who works at a spa gave me, and an old Neutrogena regimen that was split into night a day. When I was using the Arbonne, I had a customer at my job tell me that my eyebrows were bleeding. I had scratched them raw. Others asked me if I had a sunburn. Everyone told me that meant the medicine was working. You know that old commercial for aftershave where the grandfather says to his grandson, "The burn says it's working!" and then he realizes his new improved aftershave doesn't burn and THEN he realizes it never should have? Yeah.
Because I have acne scars and red spots, people (my mother especially) still try to suggest medicines. I tell them I have used antibiotic creams prescribed by dermatologists that only made my acne worse. I wish they would leave me alone. I've tried starting a routine like the one I have now for years but it kept getting interrupted by people giving me samples of what worked for them or whatever they're selling. I would tell them every time that Neutrogena works for me and is usually gentle enough so I could use it daily. They would look at my face (which of course I had only been able to use it for a limited time so it hadn't started working yet) and say I should try their products.
I understood they thought they were helping, but it often came off as incredibly rude. A little girl shopping with her mother once asked me what happened to my face. Her mother was horrified, of course, but I brushed it off as a little girl who didn't understand acne because she had never encountered it (this happened when I was walking down the street once, too). Adults who come up to me and basically say, "I noticed something is wrong with your face," is rude. It puts me in the position of either having to politely agree to test their suggestions or to politely defend myself (which makes them feel like I like being dirty - I'm obviously not interested in trying, you know?). It's frustrating and you know what? It makes me want to cry.
Anyway, hopefully those days are over.
December 14, 2010
Student Loans
This year, I requested that my student loans be income contingent. The Direct Loan Center lowered my bills to a doable amount and I was happy. Suddenly this month, my payment quadrupled. Quadrupled.
I called to ask them why. They told me that the IRS sent them my 2009 tax information and since I made a little more money than I did the previous year, they raised my payment. I explained to them that I had already gone through this with them and was at that time told to send in a letter and a current paystub so they could see what my current pay was trending toward. I did so and that was when they lowered the bill to the good amount.
I asked them why:
a) it took so long to get my 2009 tax information
b) why I had to resubmit the paystub when I had already done so
They said that because I made $3500 extra last year (working a temporary job) they had recalculated my payment. I, again, explained that I had already been through this and that it was already on record that my income was less for 2010. They said it didn't matter and I would have to resubmit the forms and go through the whole process again.
I still don't understand, though, why the extra $3500 made them quadruple the payment.
I called to ask them why. They told me that the IRS sent them my 2009 tax information and since I made a little more money than I did the previous year, they raised my payment. I explained to them that I had already gone through this with them and was at that time told to send in a letter and a current paystub so they could see what my current pay was trending toward. I did so and that was when they lowered the bill to the good amount.
I asked them why:
a) it took so long to get my 2009 tax information
b) why I had to resubmit the paystub when I had already done so
They said that because I made $3500 extra last year (working a temporary job) they had recalculated my payment. I, again, explained that I had already been through this and that it was already on record that my income was less for 2010. They said it didn't matter and I would have to resubmit the forms and go through the whole process again.
I still don't understand, though, why the extra $3500 made them quadruple the payment.
November 13, 2010
"By"
I wish when people did translations/put out editions/wrote forwards for books, places like Amazon wouldn't list the book by the translator's/editor's/forwarder's name. I went to purchase The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann, and the first book is listed as "By H.T. Lowe-Porter, Thomas Mann, and John E. Woods." I don't know who Lowe-Porter is in the book, but John Woods is the dude who translated from German to English. You know, mad props to him because that's an endeavor, but it still doesn't mean that he wrote it. It should just be by Thomas Mann, with special thanks somewhere else on the Amazon page and somewhere in the beginning of he book (on the title page?) for the other guys. This is really, really confusing to kids who have no idea how to do a bibliography and who have no idea who really wrote this book.
This also applies to the date a certain edition was published. I bought The Water-Babies: A Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby by Charles Kingsley and my edition (elsewhere in the house and I'm not getting it right now) has a copyright of, like, 1956 or something. Now, I know, because I know, that the book was written around 1834. But what if someone didn't know that? I just went to make sure I was getting the title right and the edition I saw said 2008. It just makes me insane. And sometimes, the copyright page does not have the original date on it. Trust me, my edition of The Water-Babies doesn't.
This also applies to the date a certain edition was published. I bought The Water-Babies: A Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby by Charles Kingsley and my edition (elsewhere in the house and I'm not getting it right now) has a copyright of, like, 1956 or something. Now, I know, because I know, that the book was written around 1834. But what if someone didn't know that? I just went to make sure I was getting the title right and the edition I saw said 2008. It just makes me insane. And sometimes, the copyright page does not have the original date on it. Trust me, my edition of The Water-Babies doesn't.
September 5, 2010
Google Search
Earlier today I went to use google and one of the words I typed was "loose." When I got back my results, not only was the word "loose" in bold letters, but also the word "lose." I did not type in the word "lose." Why has Google decided to find instances where closely spelled words are accepted? Is it because too many people misspell words and Google has decided that anything close will do? I also did a search where I used the word "kook" (don't ask) and Google kept also finding webpages with the word "cook." It brought up thousands more entries than I needed, some of them not ever containing the original word I typed. It was really frustrating. Well, maybe just more perplexing.
August 18, 2010
Stung By a Bee
So, Saturday night as I was coming into my house, I was stung by a bee. I'm not sure it was a bee, but from the little bump that stayed after the horrible allergic reaction, my family and I can only gather that something either stung me or bit me, and most likely it was a bee. Anyway, I walked in and began itching under my bra. At first, we thought this was a reaction to some new detergent or just from sweat. Well, then it spread up my shoulders, up my neck, down my stomach, began itching on my feet and hands. And it wasn't just hives - it was red, shiny, and looked like I had second-degree burns. All of this happened in a span of about ten minutes.
Did we go to the hospital? Of course not, because I wasn't gasping or swelling.
What we did do was go buy Benadryl, use some antibiotic acne medication that I had on hand, and follow that up with some itching lotion. The next morning it had gone away everywhere but my hands, which were stiff and shiny and with bumps all over my wrists. I sat through most of the day with my hands in my lap (when I was awake - I also had some generic Prednisone left over from a previous inflammation on my legs and spent most of Sunday sleeping heavily).
Everything is fine now. During parts of Sunday and Monday I had stabbing pains in the side right where that little original bump still is, but even those have passed. I'd still like to know what the hell it was that stung me, though, so I can avoid it in the future.
Meanwhile, I'd also like to declare that my divorce from a certain recapping website is now final. I've tried to stick to a recap here, a forum read there [I refuse to post ever again after the terrible (but also hilariously victorious) Jay Leno Show debacle]. But even the recaps are really, really boring. Or wrong. Or just there for the recapper to psychoanalyze himself or tell us how he loved Billy Crudup in Eat, Pray, Love. NGS used to say she found they had developed a mean bite that she didn't like, but I still found the meanness funny. But after having given it one more go, venturing in the latest recap of Project Runway, I just don't think I can take it anymore.
First of all the recapper seemed lazy, barely describing anything at all and only glossing over each event without nary a witty remark. Second, he seems like he doesn't even like this show anymore. I remember when recappers used to be in-the-know about everything that went on behind-the-scenes. Not anymore. Tim Gunn was laughing 'til he almost cried and told a designer to turn that lump of coal up her ass into a diamond. Now, it used to be we'd get the scoop on how Tim Gunn had had a petit mal seizure a few nights before, cut his face and bruised himself badly by falling on a bunch of folding chairs, and was probably on a hefty dose of pain meds during filming. Did we get said info (which is all true, by the way)? Did we get any questions about why the ambulance at the end of the episode was placed at the end of this episode when it was really at the end of the previous challenge that THREE ambulance were called (one for Tim Gunn, one for an out designer for unknown reasons, and the shown third for a designer named Ivy)? No questions.
I just thought the whole recap, and a lot of the recaps on other shows, was just boring and uninteresting, which I suppose are the same thing but also I suppose it needed repeating.
Plus, I have divorced other readers. A good number of them are stuck up their own asses. I'm really tired of the attitude that this website is where real intellectuals go, and how seriously PC it seems to be getting. And by PC, I mean people who have to point out how disrespectful every remark made BY someone TO someone is. Or just how overanalyzed every reaction is. Casanova (a Spanish designer) did a cartwheel when he wasn't voted off? That means he didn't respect the judges' collective descision that he is worth another shot. It can't mean he was HAPPY TO NOT BE OFF THE SHOW. Oh, no, it was really a big fuck-you. This is being debated right now. Also being debated? Whether one designer, who kept interrupting another designer, should have been asked to stop talking over designer #2. Shouldn't we give #1 a pass because she's socially awkward and just thinks she's being encouraging even though it comes off as rude? Should it matter if she's always talking over people if she's doing it with intellectual insights into fashion/technique/analysis? The other desgingers asked #1 to stop talking and somehow, that was rude OF THEM.
I will not even begin the story of the Jay Leno Show argument.
I have more examples. The House thread and all the people who point out every little medical (or plotline) implausibility. People who pick apart Hugh Laurie's American accent because he pronounced one word un-New-Jersian. People who pick apart Tim Gunn because he uses a word pseudo-incorrectly (he said "Tin Woodsman" instead of "Tin Woodman" - isn't he smarter than that? I'm so disappointed in his supposed intellect. Really? REALLY? Get a life! - No, that's not what I want to say - Fuck off!). It is not intellectual to nitpick. Not to the point of having to find a flaw just so you can say you found it. It's your pet peeve when people say "Woodsman?" FUCK OFF!
Oh, and because I will never again log in I will never type the post I've been dying to for a while: To the person who said "cacaphonous" is a sound word but Tim Gunn used it as a sight word, I give you synesthesia. Scroll down to the bottom for the best definition. It was totally appropriate that he would see cacaphony when looking at a garment, used in the poetic sense. Fuck off!
(I've been watching Project Runway the most recently, so that's why most of my examples are from there.)
Anyway, that was a way long post. Thanks for reading it, you one, faithful reader you. I hope it doesn't annoy you when people say "Woodsman."
Did we go to the hospital? Of course not, because I wasn't gasping or swelling.
What we did do was go buy Benadryl, use some antibiotic acne medication that I had on hand, and follow that up with some itching lotion. The next morning it had gone away everywhere but my hands, which were stiff and shiny and with bumps all over my wrists. I sat through most of the day with my hands in my lap (when I was awake - I also had some generic Prednisone left over from a previous inflammation on my legs and spent most of Sunday sleeping heavily).
Everything is fine now. During parts of Sunday and Monday I had stabbing pains in the side right where that little original bump still is, but even those have passed. I'd still like to know what the hell it was that stung me, though, so I can avoid it in the future.
Meanwhile, I'd also like to declare that my divorce from a certain recapping website is now final. I've tried to stick to a recap here, a forum read there [I refuse to post ever again after the terrible (but also hilariously victorious) Jay Leno Show debacle]. But even the recaps are really, really boring. Or wrong. Or just there for the recapper to psychoanalyze himself or tell us how he loved Billy Crudup in Eat, Pray, Love. NGS used to say she found they had developed a mean bite that she didn't like, but I still found the meanness funny. But after having given it one more go, venturing in the latest recap of Project Runway, I just don't think I can take it anymore.
First of all the recapper seemed lazy, barely describing anything at all and only glossing over each event without nary a witty remark. Second, he seems like he doesn't even like this show anymore. I remember when recappers used to be in-the-know about everything that went on behind-the-scenes. Not anymore. Tim Gunn was laughing 'til he almost cried and told a designer to turn that lump of coal up her ass into a diamond. Now, it used to be we'd get the scoop on how Tim Gunn had had a petit mal seizure a few nights before, cut his face and bruised himself badly by falling on a bunch of folding chairs, and was probably on a hefty dose of pain meds during filming. Did we get said info (which is all true, by the way)? Did we get any questions about why the ambulance at the end of the episode was placed at the end of this episode when it was really at the end of the previous challenge that THREE ambulance were called (one for Tim Gunn, one for an out designer for unknown reasons, and the shown third for a designer named Ivy)? No questions.
I just thought the whole recap, and a lot of the recaps on other shows, was just boring and uninteresting, which I suppose are the same thing but also I suppose it needed repeating.
Plus, I have divorced other readers. A good number of them are stuck up their own asses. I'm really tired of the attitude that this website is where real intellectuals go, and how seriously PC it seems to be getting. And by PC, I mean people who have to point out how disrespectful every remark made BY someone TO someone is. Or just how overanalyzed every reaction is. Casanova (a Spanish designer) did a cartwheel when he wasn't voted off? That means he didn't respect the judges' collective descision that he is worth another shot. It can't mean he was HAPPY TO NOT BE OFF THE SHOW. Oh, no, it was really a big fuck-you. This is being debated right now. Also being debated? Whether one designer, who kept interrupting another designer, should have been asked to stop talking over designer #2. Shouldn't we give #1 a pass because she's socially awkward and just thinks she's being encouraging even though it comes off as rude? Should it matter if she's always talking over people if she's doing it with intellectual insights into fashion/technique/analysis? The other desgingers asked #1 to stop talking and somehow, that was rude OF THEM.
I will not even begin the story of the Jay Leno Show argument.
I have more examples. The House thread and all the people who point out every little medical (or plotline) implausibility. People who pick apart Hugh Laurie's American accent because he pronounced one word un-New-Jersian. People who pick apart Tim Gunn because he uses a word pseudo-incorrectly (he said "Tin Woodsman" instead of "Tin Woodman" - isn't he smarter than that? I'm so disappointed in his supposed intellect. Really? REALLY? Get a life! - No, that's not what I want to say - Fuck off!). It is not intellectual to nitpick. Not to the point of having to find a flaw just so you can say you found it. It's your pet peeve when people say "Woodsman?" FUCK OFF!
Oh, and because I will never again log in I will never type the post I've been dying to for a while: To the person who said "cacaphonous" is a sound word but Tim Gunn used it as a sight word, I give you synesthesia. Scroll down to the bottom for the best definition. It was totally appropriate that he would see cacaphony when looking at a garment, used in the poetic sense. Fuck off!
(I've been watching Project Runway the most recently, so that's why most of my examples are from there.)
Anyway, that was a way long post. Thanks for reading it, you one, faithful reader you. I hope it doesn't annoy you when people say "Woodsman."
August 9, 2010
Mark's Costco Chicken Crisis
So, I follow two or three blogs and I introduced you to one of them a while back in the whole late-night mess. It's written by a guy named Mark Evanier and it's pretty entertaining. The other day, he wrote about an incident at Costco where a few guys hogged every rotisserie chicken that particular Costco had at the moment. You can read the original post here and a follow-up here. A lady was so upset that she would have to wait forty minutes for her chicken she threw a massive temper tantrum to the point of using foul language, insulting employees, and making other customers uncomfortable.
One of the things Mr. Evanier says is that the employees had to take it. That is Costco's problem for making it a policy to accept that behavior. I work at a clothing store, and at the first cuss word or insult hurled at one of our employees the customer would be asked to leave. If the tantrum continued they would be banned from the store. To an extent we have to try to be patient, but it's all about the customer's behavior. This lady's was way out of line and unnacceptable.
My biggest beef with this story, though, is the reaction of the other customers, including Mr. Evanier, who you should know I have a lot of respect for. But, none of them spoke up or countered this lady. I'm sorry, but as soon as someone declares she speaks on behalf of everyone I'm going to interject. Furthermore, other customers should have pointed out how they understood the situation and knew it wouldn't be the norm. OTHER CUSTOMERS should have done something. Is it their job? No. Is it the right thing to do? Yes.
But what does this lady think will be the overall outcome of this experience? Costco can't change their routine for these chickens, really, because they can't make excess chickens for the reason they stated and also for the reason that if they didn't have the two-hour rule this lady would probably constantly get old chickens. She wants a fresh chicken but doesn't want to wait while someone else does the work for her? You can't always have fresh and immediate. You just can't, lady.
P.S. I think the word "chicken" should be plural like "fish" and "sheep."
One of the things Mr. Evanier says is that the employees had to take it. That is Costco's problem for making it a policy to accept that behavior. I work at a clothing store, and at the first cuss word or insult hurled at one of our employees the customer would be asked to leave. If the tantrum continued they would be banned from the store. To an extent we have to try to be patient, but it's all about the customer's behavior. This lady's was way out of line and unnacceptable.
My biggest beef with this story, though, is the reaction of the other customers, including Mr. Evanier, who you should know I have a lot of respect for. But, none of them spoke up or countered this lady. I'm sorry, but as soon as someone declares she speaks on behalf of everyone I'm going to interject. Furthermore, other customers should have pointed out how they understood the situation and knew it wouldn't be the norm. OTHER CUSTOMERS should have done something. Is it their job? No. Is it the right thing to do? Yes.
But what does this lady think will be the overall outcome of this experience? Costco can't change their routine for these chickens, really, because they can't make excess chickens for the reason they stated and also for the reason that if they didn't have the two-hour rule this lady would probably constantly get old chickens. She wants a fresh chicken but doesn't want to wait while someone else does the work for her? You can't always have fresh and immediate. You just can't, lady.
P.S. I think the word "chicken" should be plural like "fish" and "sheep."
August 4, 2010
The Reincarnation of the Netbook
After an automatic update earlier this morning, the netbook died. It was stuck in a loop of telling me that Windows couldn't start normally, so when I would try the thousand things the internet told me to do (I got on my father's computer) it would just loop back to the same screen over and over again. Thankfully, our local rent-to-own shoppe - which my mother has a serious relationship with - told me that there was a secret way to recover the system.
So I lost everything I had stored on here. Luckily, I have learned the hard way to back up anything I fear losing on a flash drive, so I didn't lose much. I did lose the Kindle, and even though I got it back later, I lost all of my notes and marks. Small price to pay to have one of my prized possessions back.
The sucky part was that right after the computer recovered a storm hit and we lost power. I hadn't downloaded the Kindle yet at that point, so I had to read a book - a real book - by flashlight to pass the time. It was kind of hilarious. This is another pro in my long-standing debate on whether to shell out the money for an actual Kindle: it would have, most likely, been able to sustain power to read through that two-hour period. But here's another con: we could have been without power for a long time, and a regular book needs nothing other than a source of light. There's always candlelight.
So I lost everything I had stored on here. Luckily, I have learned the hard way to back up anything I fear losing on a flash drive, so I didn't lose much. I did lose the Kindle, and even though I got it back later, I lost all of my notes and marks. Small price to pay to have one of my prized possessions back.
The sucky part was that right after the computer recovered a storm hit and we lost power. I hadn't downloaded the Kindle yet at that point, so I had to read a book - a real book - by flashlight to pass the time. It was kind of hilarious. This is another pro in my long-standing debate on whether to shell out the money for an actual Kindle: it would have, most likely, been able to sustain power to read through that two-hour period. But here's another con: we could have been without power for a long time, and a regular book needs nothing other than a source of light. There's always candlelight.
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