My sister...

I don't know what got into my older sister, but the other night...

she called my mom to ask her to book her a hotel room using her credit
card through a site that listed hotels where she is that allow people to
bring their pets.

OK.. Why? Well, she's at a campground, and she's sick. Not only that,
the older of her 2 dogs is also sick, with an inflamed intestine. OK...
That was from her giving her dogs chicken bones... Her tent is wet
because it's been raining while she's been there, and also got sick
after eating the fried chicken.

She's camping out, sick, fed her dogs chicken bones (you don't do that),
and to top it all off, had mom use her credit card to book 2 nights in a
hotel. After she had already gotten a loan to pay off her credit cards,
car loan, and an amount to settle my mother's bankruptcy (a very long
story as to why my older sister has to get a loan to pay off my mom's
bankruptcy filing...), because she was having problems paying her own
credit cards... And to top it off, a vet bill for her stupid dog.

Who's also not handling their money well??

test

Testing ^_^

Heh...

(2nd straight send and bounce that I have to re-send...)

Been trying like crazy to find a file I need to download on my mother's
'puter, but keep running into stuff that's not necessarily wanted. Good
thing we installed Ad Aware to keep it cleaned out. I have no idea what
went on yesterday morning. Any attempt to find this little ZIP file runs
into malware that puts crap and what not on her HD. I had to run Ad
Aware 3 times before it cleaned everything out, and I even had to delete
folders that didn't get removed.

Still fighting this sinus thing. (sknnnxxx!!) Got a new metal zipper
(for some reason, the proper length zipper I needed, Walmart had only
polyester 12 inch zippers - and that's the reason why I need to replace
it!! The polyester zipper failed!!), and I have one half of it pinned in
place. This should prove to be an interesting challenge. If it was easy,
would it be worth doing? I had to buy an 18 inch zipper and I'll end up
cutting it off to make it fit.
Yesterday went well at work, more or less. I found out 2 things about
one cashier that I've been meaning to try finding out. The one lady just
explained outright why the one girl wouldn't be there yesterday, so...
And then mentioned something else I didn't know. O.O

My nieces were over last night, and boy.. Chaos is not fun. The youngest
screams and says "NO!" well, the middle one had some toads in a plastic
ziplock bag, toads she caught at her other grandmother's house and I had
a hard time telling her it wasn't good for the toads to be kept in a
plastic bag like that. The oldest pretty much helped me do a little
"Market research" with dubbed and subbed Panyo Pando Digi Charat. After
showing her 2 stories and demonstrating the differences (and boy is the
dub badly different), she preferred the Japanese audio.

Gotta love em.

Stuff

Well, I've had a cold for the past week or so, and I've used my usual
remedies to get rid of it. I make a nice bowl of onion and garlic soup
then go to bed. But for some reason, recent colds and I've had 3 since
we moved out to my grandfather's house after Citicorp forclosed on my
mom's house (they could have suspended it... I'm still mad about that).
These recent colds have been nasty. Copious amounts of sinus fluids,
stuffed up noses that are filled to capacity. Sometimes the
pseudophedrine doesn't always work, but the onion soup usually makes a
big difference. Gotta get some pineapple juice or something.

Except the cold didn't start out as a cold. I woke up several mornings
with a bit of dry scratchy throat, and I had some throat spray for that.
It's the persistent stuffed up nose that really bugs me, and the sinus
drip coughing. I should shake it off completely soon, as I usually do.
Sometimes the coughing is so persistent I'll wake up with pain in my
stomach, the muscles being so sore... at least with previous colds,
anyway. I think I keep catching things from my nieces, and then they
don't know enough to not trade their germs. But I've started with my
oldest niece, and told her some time ago when any of them are sick to
not use each other's cups.

Was going to get a boneless pork shoulder roast yesterday for mom's
crockpot recipe she wanted to try, but just as I got off work and was
driving to Walmart to get it, I noticed the cheap ass zipper on my pants
had split open (again)... So I tried to reclose it like I've done so
many times since wearing that pair, and... it breaks. (expletives
deleted) I ended up driving home... I'll replace that zipper because
those are a good pair of pants. I replaced the zipper in my jacket, so
this should be easy.

My grandfather passed away June 24th... And you know, not even in death
can one escape spam. We received this odd letter from "Valerie Scott."
Apparently, this person took it upon themselves to read my grandfather's
death notice in the paper (his services were PRIVATE), then hunted down
my mom's mailing address (old info since we don't live there for now),
then proceeded with this letter:

(it's a handwritten note in pen, btw)

Postmark date on the envelope is July 13.

"In the newspaper today..."

Today? Delayed reading of the paper?

"I read about a funeral service for your father, Walter...."

The letter was addressed to my mom, but, Yeah, so what?

"When I lost my grandfather, and others who were close to me,"

Don't even try to compare the two situations...

"I found much comfort from..."

Guess what she said next, and the first 2 don't count.

Anywho, the rest of the letter went on about stuff I won't mention. I
mean, the services were PRIVATE for a reason, and so shall our dealing
with my grandfather's death. And this ... this person comes along and
just sends this. I checked the mailing address, and it's of a Jehovah's
Witnesses building on Route 30. This was the same group that got kicked
out of East Rochester. Now someone from this group has the nerve to
interject some religious stuff we didn't ask for. Now, I can get along
with people who are JWs as long as they don't try to "force" their
beliefs on me. I know some Canadians who are JWs and they're some of the
coolest anime fans I know. I appreciate their keeping most of their
religious beliefs to themselves. But when someone comes along and does
this, seeming to think we "needed" it in some time of despair, is
nothing more than a slap to the face. I take offense at something like
this.

I'd like to respond to it. Perhaps by sending them an issue of Kaitou
Saint Tail and a note saying "You should read other books" or some such.

Oh the name "Valerie Scott"? I couldn't turn up anything in assocation
with the mailing address or my locality. Either she doesn't exist or has
an unlisted number. ^_-

Anime industry rant time

Recent post made to one ML I get...


"May I ask why you simple don't start ignoring official releases?"

Ah... That's a good idea. I don't know why I haven't done that. I guess
I care too much to ignore them.

"Why do you even follow them if you hate all of them?"

Well, it's not all of the US releases I hate. Just releases of anime I
used to be passionate about. But I keep abreast of the info because
there'll be those fans who buy those releases that I'll eventually come
into contact with (case in point: Ranma 1/2 "dubbies") that I have to
set straight.

"I don't remember a single post of you saying you liked an official
relase (and I remember many, many posts of you saying how much you hate
them, usually before even buying the item)."

Let's see...

I liked Grappler Baki, $9 from CPM, after being exposed to the manga in
the now lamented Raijin Comics.

I got Cleopatra DC ($9 from AnimeWorks), because she wears a bunnygirl
outfit in the first part. The mastering of the original footage isn't
all that great, and AnimeWorks just pressed their subtitled master to
disc, but hey, it's got babes and a great story. Reminds me of Dirty
Pair.

I bought Mouse V.1 while at Anime North, and the equivalent price was
$15 US, while I had seen it in Previews for $19.99. Only 90 minutes of
video, so $15 seems OK. It's like Lupin III with lots of T&A. Not that I
mind.

I got Hirameki International's release of "Idol Fighter Su-Chi-Pai",
only for bunnygirl footage and some nice DVD-ROM extras. They sliced off
the obscene bits (according to what they put on the DVD), so I feel
cheated for paying $24.95. I wanted footage of Milky Pai so I bit the
bullet, but not again.

I got ADV's release of Miyuki-chan in Wonderland some time ago, only
because the $15 DVD was cheaper than Right Stuf's price of $27 for the
subtitled VHS edition they were offering at the time. Nice Adobe Acrobat
2.0 compatible DVDrom extra on it, too.

The Animatrix was $15. Nuff said.

I own only 2 Ranma 1/2 DVDs. Forever V.6 for the Miss Beachside episode,
and V.8 because it's the last release and has 4 episodes. What fan would
I be if I didn't have both the first and last episodes? Viz, in my
opinion, had a license to print money with Ranma 1/2 VHS subs.

I have all 5 Hyper Police DVDs by Image Entertainment. $19 each. I also
have the entire series fansubbed.

I bought Shamanic Princess ($19 CPM) because it was $19, and I had seen
a promo for it a while ago on a _fansub tape_ I got. A friend of mine
already had it and liked the artwork on the insert I had (CPM has done 2
editions of it), so we switched insert cards, since I like the artwork
his copy had. It turned out to be something that put me to sleep, even
though I was able to watch 5 episodes in one sitting.

I own 3 Anime Test Drive DVDs ($7.99 each, CPM) of Ping Pong Club (so I
could understand some people's fascination with it), Legend of Himiko
(while the opening animation and Pure Snow are excellent, the TV series
falls a bit...), and World of Narue (could have been more than just 1
episode). Watch out for ADV's Anime Minis. They may be cheap but they're
dub only.

I've been trying like crazy to get the one Sakura Taisen disc that's $9,
some Sumire thing that's only 30 minutes long. Funimation had it, now
it's been relisted this month in Previews... Come to think of it,
Tokyopop was offering a manga called "Doll", and now Viz says they have
it. Has there been more than a few cases of one company saying they've
got a manga title and another buying the license out from under them???

and finally, I have Iczer Reborn, 6 episodes, $19.99, only because I
have the original Iczer-3 anime on tape. But there's a bunch of Iczer
stuff I haven't seen...

"Why worry about the quality of something you won't buy?"

Because I'd feel bad that others aren't getting what they should for
what they're paying. If they're paying $10, $20, or $30 for an anime
DVD, they should get their money's worth, from someone who put forth
their absolute best efforts to produce something. Read Ayn Rand's Atlas
Shrugged. A friend loaned that to me and it's changed a lot of how I
view things. If I were to produce a translated manga edition, I'd want
people to have the absolute best version I could produce, simply because
someone would go out and earn money to buy it. They'd be using money to
trade their best efforts for mine, and they deserve nothing less. We all
give our best to do things, don't we? You expect a good value for your
money, you shop around for a price you're willing to pay. You deserve
nothing less than that.

"If things are really this way, stop ignoring completely what is coming
officially and your stress level will be smaller."

I'd rather try contacting the companies and tell them what they're doing
wrong and what they could do to improve. Most of the time they don't
listen, but you have to keep trying. I actually got responses from
people at Tokyopop in the past. Granted, they're not perfect, but not as
bad as they used to be. About the only publisher of translated manga I
don't gripe about is Ironcat. Steve's had his share of troubles, but I
feel they do honest translations. Hanaukyo Maids is one of their current
titles I absolutely eat up eagerly. ^.^

"Your approach of "give me absolute perfection or I'll hate it" it's a
litte bit too much for me."

gomen nasai.. I know absolute perfection isn't possible, but they should
at least consult some fans who love the series as to how some things
should be done, someone outside of the company who can "proofread" what
they've done, someone who has a different view on their work. The
company people sit at these things day in and day out and they can
sometimes lose the focus of what they're doing.

They could help by lowering prices, too. ^_- I don't see these DVDs
competing with VHS editions for your dollars, so the methods used today
are silly.

New thingy!

Well, for a while there I thought I wasn't going to be able to use a
blog site. Here, Blogger has an email to blog publish feature. This
should prove to be WebTV friendly.

This is a test. If it was an actual emergency, there'd be lots of
screaming involved.