Whether or not it's official, there is some sort of Boxing Day in USA

While many countries like Canada, Australia, and the UK have Boxing Day,
the day after Christmas isn't officially called that, but there's still
the same general deep mark-down discounting going on after Christmas in
the US.

Case in point:

I bought a Hello Kitty 2009 calendar for my nieces like I do every year
since they started coming out, and will continue to do so as long as
they come out. I bought it before Christmas and got a $5 coupon from the
bookstore where I bought the calendar, but it was good only after
Christmas, beginning, you guessed it, on the 26th, a la Boxing Day.

Now, had I waited, I could have bought that calendar for 50% off the day
after Christmas. Maybe I will next year. Borders on The Strip certainly
was well-stocked with Hello Kitty 2009 calendars, as they were last
year. But therein lies the problem - who else is going to want that
calendar too at that time? The store where I got the one I gave had only
1 left. If I had waited, I wouldn't be holding that $5 coupon
beforehand.

So anywho, I waited over an hour for the Waldenbooks at the nearest mall
to open at 10 am. I'm going to remember that from now on, because I got
up early and left the house at 8 am to make sure no one was going to buy
the 2 books of manga I'd been waiting for 3 weeks to ship from Diamond
but never did (and instead ended up being cancelled for no reason).

So I grab the 2 I wanted. Oh! There's a sale on manga. Buy 1, get 1 1/2
price! Well. Can I still use my $5 coupon? The nice ladies at the cash
register say I can! So in the end, I paid $15 for 2 books - I
practically got 1 for free. $5 off the $15 book, and half off the $11
book. Woo!! So I check with Borders, and find 2 more books. 4 books, $15
off total. 30% discount the way I see it. Or the calendar paid for
itself. Whichever. And all this on Boxing Day aka December 26.

The one thing they don't say about Boxing Day is whether or not it's a
sales-tax holiday like the observance of Victoria Day in Canada.

I liked it when we were at Anime North during a Victoria Day weekend.
(niko niko)

My Coin Map is Done

Before Bill Clinton left office, he signed into law the 50 States
Commemorative Coin Program. Then, in 1999 and going until the end of
2008, 5 quarters per year, each minted for 10 weeks, would be produced
and signifying each state in the Union, and in the order the state was
admitted into the United States.

That meant over the next 10 years, these quarters would appear in our
change and would be something to collect. Canada has had similar
programs for their coins over the years, so it's exciting to see this
happen here. Even the nickel underwent a few changes during this period
to celebrate the Lewis and Clark Expedition, resulting in a Nickel with
the design on the front being a full-on portrait instead of a profile.
Rumors are in 2009 the penny will get some changes.

I just need another Hawaii and an Arizona quarter and I can finish 2
more maps.

Some interesting bits from the past 10 years:

According to one coin collecting / selling business, there was a
proposed 51st state quarter for the Washington DC area, but supposedly
this measure was "anonymously" blocked. Yeah right. I'm sure if someone
blocked that, it wouldn't be all that anonymous, and people could find
out who blocked it anyway. But hey, for about $8, they were willing to
sell you a fake quarter showing what this could have looked like.
"Proof" = fake coin, most of the time, but just generally minted and
cleaned in a special way so that it's shinier. Why call it a "Proof"? I
have no idea. Proof it exists?

A few years ago, the Discovery Channel ran some really interesting
programs showing you how the U.S. Mint worked, how they were using
really old equipment to transfer the new quarter designs to the
production dies (since there really is no better way to do this), lots
of stuff that was really interesting. I remember one bit about how the
Candian Gold Dollar (worth more than a dollar, but that's the term I can
remember now) is really pure and minted in such a way that a holographic
design is impressed into the coin during production.

I have a gold-plated Ohio quarter, because yet another rip-off
collecting / selling business was offering those 50 State Quarters gold
plated. So someone's kid must have spent that one and I ended up getting
it. The original Ohio quarter I have was a freebie from Banc One, and
while I have the little thingy it was given away on, Bank One no longer
exists. Chase bought them out.

The Tennesee quarter was another one of those deals from another rip-off
place. I got that with a free plastic container just the right size for
1 quarter, and literature about how I could spend $150 for some posh
collecting display stuff. And also at the time these state quarters were
beginning, there were commercials on the TV for $20 (and extra postage)
you could buy these maps, cardboard and numbered for "authenticity" for
your collection. I bought mine at a local store for 95 cents some time
later.

Let's not forget the rip-off deal selling the State Quarters painted "in
full color."

One of my co-workers at the LJS restaurant at one time brought in her
map to fill it back in because her brat kids kept popping the coins out
of it and spending them. She was trying to save $10 rolls of each coin
as well, but the universe was against her. But she tried anyway, and
brought her map in. But wouldn't you know it, she left it on the counter
out front, and went into the back for something. When she came back out,
some asshole LJS customer STOLE her map - just picked it up and walked
off with it and nobody saw him do it!!! LJS customers steal lots of
things, but someone's quarter map is just pretty mean. They stole paper
parrots during the Southwest Batter promotion. Early in 2004, someone
walked out with the Dale Jr standee during some stupid contest. LJS
Customers are just freaking crazy.

Some people tried to save 2 sets of quarters depending one which mint
mark they had. As long as I got 1 of each coin, the mint mark doesn't
matter to me.

I have a bunch of other notes I'd like to add for these past 10 years,
but they're rather personal, so unless I can figure out another way to
express them, they'll not be posted here because of some prying eyes.

I will add that 2008 has been one hell of a year.

0 degrees overnight

The thermometer has been showing 0 degrees since last night. Our pipes
haven't frozen up yet. I'm supposed to do a few things today, but at
this rate I don't know if that's going to happen. A few windows have ice
crystals on them - on the inside!!!

I have a feeling a few more windows will get some plastic on them and
then I'll work on my caulking skills.

I really really hate coldness

Argh... Last time I looked at the outdoor thermometer, it was 10
degrees. And windy.

I've been looking for air leaks in the basement and found some which
will require more of that spray expanding foam that I bought last time.
And one more mouse hole. Or if not a mouse hole, a hole that could be
used for the satellite cable instead of where it goes now, then plugged
up with that foam stuff.

Then I am upstairs, and it's still windy, but I feel the room trying to
get colder. I find this annoying. I determine one hole in the wall where
this coax cable comes through has to be sealed up and I manage to put
some tape on it. But I still have cold air leaks coming into the
room...!

One window that has plagued me for some time finally got some plastic on
it. I have 3 windows and one got sealed up pretty soon after we moved
in, but I never did anything about the other two.

And even after sealing up what's probably the worst of the three, I
still detect some air leaking near or around the window!!!!! GRRRRR... I
find that some of this cold leaking in comes from some of the wood
thingy at the bottom of the wall near the floor - then I get the
impression that the caulking around the window frame and this wood
border thing needs some attention because it's either not there or
there's not enough.

I noticed my thermometer for my room went from 70 to 72, while mom is
reading around 69 + or minus few degrees downstairs. Of course, I have
my electric radiator on now.

There was some temperature zone near the floor that you could feel where
the cold was, so at least if I haven't stopped the cold leaks entirely,
I have managed to slow them down in some appreciative amount.

For what I have in my room, I simply cannot have cold air near it. It's
going to be a pain in the ass to find and plug up what's left to plug
up. I wonder if plutting plastic on the outside of the window would work
better.

Anime character maker

Thanks to one image board, I found a new anime character maker and the localization app to make it run. Cute little thing. Here's a few samples. BTW: My profile photo is from this program.

No time to be selfish about things

Ok so tonight getting on the computer to do a few simple things was
stressful.

I get it turned on and booted up. I get this little box popping up
saying that the system has just recovered from a serious error. And then
it goes on to report the error to Microsoft. Then I get IE loading up a
web page to explain what might be the problem. A device driver was
installed or changed, or some piece of software recently installed might
be causing the problem. Links to possibly roll back the Dell drivers and
Windows Update were on this page.

Hmm.. But first as suggested, I tried a system restore, and the little
box about this error popped up again... Soooo... I went to Windows
Update. Needed to install the new version of Windows update aka the
install validation tool. Fine, OK. great. It does that, then shows there
are 6 high priority updates. SP3 security update, 3 other security
updates, one for IE7, and Malicious Software Removal tool for Dec 2008.
About 20 or so minutes pass by while this all gets downloaded and
installed, and the system restarts. Only just before the screen winks
out there's some notice (probably an error) and I don't get to see that
before it disappears. But hey, the system comes back up, I wait for the
7 Icons to load, and there's no notice that the system recovered from a
serious error anymore.

I was hoping Windows Update would have just located the errant driver
and fixed it, but maybe it was Windows Update that needed fixed?

I just realized that if there were these 6 updates waiting, what
happened and why didn't they install anyway? Is this the modus operandi
of XP? If there's an error, update the OS?

I have no idea. I'm trying to study for CompTIA exams. I just wanted to
type a letter. I tell mom that while it may be her computer, she's not
to install anything that would cause system instability, and remind her
that if for some reason I'm unable to complete this, I gotta pay the
money back for these classes, all the while mom just keeps telling me to
shut up. It's like she doesn't care. She'll just stick her nose in the
air and not listen. I don't need that kind of treatment, especially not
from a parent. Wouldn't she want to see me get these certifications?
Gee, consider the other people who depend on the only XP desktop we own.

Anywho, I got my letter typed and printed, and did the first class'
assignment and it's on a thumbdrive.

And no notification pop up when I shut down the desktop tonight.

At least until tomorrow.

Thing to post on the forums...

Putting it here before I forget.

Finally found the right spot on the map for the Tokyo Mew Mew RPG game
for the Playstation and had the fight with a couple big boss characters
for Day 3. First was the plant Quiche infected. It was 245 hit points.
The team defeats that and then Gateau du Locke appears. Oh crap another
fight.

He starts out with 345 or so hit points. He summons one Chimera animal
and the team beats it, so he summons a 2nd. The team beats him down to
only 61 hit points not once but Twice, because he recovers 100 hit
points each time, but the 3rd time he doesn't. The team beats him down
to 47 and then 1 hit point. During the battle, one member gets knocked
out and then revived with Miracle Nuts. Zakuro had something that
instantly revived her when she got knocked out and it disappears since
it can be used only once. Two members after one attack by Gateau fell
asleep and left Zakuro to fight for herself which she does well.

At some point during this scene, Ringo's brother appears and fires a
shot from his rifle (he a ranger in the Nature reserve park in Japan) to
protect his younger sister, Ringo, but gets injured.

Anywho, Gateau gets hit down to only 1 hit point, and then unleashes an
attack that hits the team in battle at the moment to only 1 point as
well. Then as it looks like it's the end, the Blue Knight appears.
Eventually, Gateau du Locke leaves and everyone goes back to the cottage
to end Day 3.

During this "day" of the game, I'd been looking for the battle area for
Day 3. There had been quite a few fights and leveled up my characters
nicely, which is something I recommend to anyone else stuck on Day 3.
Try to get them all levelled up to 13 or 14 if you can, use some items
to increase their hit points, yaruki, and if possible, items that reduce
the usage of yaruki to do special attacks and reduce the amount of
damage they receive. If there are items to increase the damage they
inflict or instant revival, then that's the 3rd equipment item they
need.

When you find the red waters of a spring, then that's the battle area.
It takes a while to figure it out.

Finally also figured out when you can change outfits and take pictures.
^_^

Odd stop error

OK, so today after mom gets done with Pogo for over 9000 hours this morning, I get a chance to do some shtuff. What I wanted to do right off is make a copy of an audio CD a friend burned for me because one of my CD players can't see the disk and read it. So I proceed to do something that I usually don't expect to work. After the 'puter has been on for a while, the CD burner drive usually doesn't respond - it usually requires shutting down the desktop and turning it back on. I have been of the habit to do exactly that or at least if I'm burning a CD, I'm going to do it within an hour after the desktop boots up.

I push the eject button and it surprises me by responding. Oh. whoah. Didn't expect that. I usually test the system that way. Should have restarted it anyway, but no. I load the burner software, have it read what I want off the disk, and then burn the copy. Whole new, not an exact copy, but read the old one and burn a completely new one. Then it's done in about 2 minutes.

Then I go... and put the CD back in because for some reason, I wanted to play the disk. The desktop goes and recognizes it. And then as I fiddle with some things, suddenly the screen goes black, the tower makes a little click noise, and XP tosses up a blue stop error screen. IQR is not less or equal, yadda yadda.

I'm like OH SH---- ! What the hell? So I check upstairs, the TV up there is still on. Last time there was any unusual behavior of devices was a few months ago. My TV did something, shut off and came back on, but the computer monitor went out and needed turned off and back on and it was OK. Yesterday my TV shut off at some point, I don't know when, but it was off. I had left it on, with the blue screen from the VCR lighting it up. I know the Toshiba has some dust issues. I had to fight with it last night, banging on the side to get it to decide to stay on.

I don't know if the Toshiba had one of those occurences where it affected the 'puter downstairs, or if it had to do with the CD burner being used when I should have shut off and restarted the system. OR WHAT. I don't KNOW. I hate that. We depend on this thing. It's barely 4 years old. I have a backup of the drive and the install.

I don't handle this right, and I don't want this episode to make mom think she gets a chance to buy the laptop she doesn't need.

But at any rate, when that error occurred, I pushed the power button and it shut off, then I restarted it and it came up as you can see by this post. Some sort of Kernel Error registry key popped up, so if there's a problem, some pages suggested probably a RAM error, which for all intents and purposes, could be so. I mean, I've never opened this thing up to clean out the dust - I probably should. I have this tendency to leave things alone when they work, especially when I depend on them. It's an Asperger's trait of mine, likely.

Sometimes emulators are neat

First it started with using ePSXe to run some Cardcaptor Sakura games
that wouldn't work on the actual Playstation because of stupid things on
the game disk and such.

Then I grabbed MAME and tried a few games on it. That's a nice one. ^_^

So recently I checked out the Sega Genesis emulator along with the Devil
Hunter Yohko game released for it. The DHY game isn't that great, but
still to think it exists... I found a site with several hacks of the
original, including one that gives you 30 lives. I haven't been able to
get past the boss on Level 2 yet. Infinite health would be a nice hack
for this game, people!!!

So anywho, the other day I found an 8-bit NES Emulator and the Japanese
game for what was dubbed here as Samurai Pizza Cats. Cute enough to show
my nieces, though I'd LOVE more of a FAQ, walkthrough or some other
guide for this game. It's not completely translated.

A friend of mine has an NES Lupin III game. Would be nice to see how
that turned out.

Anime video games - things you wish they had brought over then they
could have. Magic Knight Rayearth? Tenchi Muyou? Oy... the mind boggles.

Of course that's not to leave out the Atari 2600 emulator or the first
one that started the idea - the Atari 8-bit computer emulator.

Harassing Hang-Up Calls

I hate them.

Mainly because you don't know who is calling. Caller ID is nice, but
that's not always helpful. If the number is from outside your local
area, the phone company isn't guaranteed to know it. And people can
block their ID from coming through, but that's helpful because you can
put a device on your line that can detect it and reject the call for
you.

We had 4 harassing hang-up calls tonight, starting just minutes before 9
pm and seemingly repeating every 15 minutes or so until just before 10
pm tonight.

Bill collectors are not allowed to harass people on the phone and
certainly not after 8 pm local time regardless of where the call
originates.

When they hang up, it creates nervous anxiety because you don't know who
is doing it, why they are doing it, and just how much longer are they
going to interrupt my peace and quiet before they give up and stop. Of
course one good way to get them to stop is to pick up the phone and
record the call while asking them who they are, their address (if they
don't lie about it), and then send them a registered letter telling them
to stop. And if you record the call, you have court evidence that they
lied about it, which is further trouble for them.

It was sneaky for these 4 calls to arrive after 8 pm when we usually
don't expect them, but considering all the other calls we have gotten
during the election, we screen ALL calls from now on. If they hang up,
well, they should stop bothering us about their ability to remember a
string of numbers.

I mean, really, this type of behavior has to stop. I wish they would
leave some sort of message and get on with things.

We also need another verb for using the phone in regard to "calling" a
number. You can't dial very much anymore because most phones are push
button.

Hmph. Been online 20 minutes and no interruption. How about that.

Celebratory notes on the 2008 Election

President Barack Obama has a nice ring to it. I voted for him, though I
feel angry at the rest of the county who stupidly voted for McCain.
Judging from the small sampling of people who showed up to vote, any of
the old people who went to vote (one man who clearly should have voted
absentee) appeared to be people who were voting against Obama simply
because they are racist. Just my opinion, of course, I'm just saying...
I have only my point of view to go from. I could be wrong, but probably
not in this case.

Ralph Nader has successfully killed his own career after calling Obama
an "Uncle Tom" on nationwide FOX TV in front of Shephard Smith.
Hopefully someone will upload the clip to Youtube and include the 1
second of stunned silence after that remark and Shep's comment
afterwards. Nader has become insane and bitter, sorta like Steve Allen
in his later years when he went off on idiotic rants about how there's
nothing "suitable" on television anymore.

Issue 5 PASSED. People in Ohio surprised me on that one. With almost no
publicity in favor of the Yes vote on Issue 5 (Payday lending
referendum), and LOTS of lies for a No vote (like having your personal
info entered into some database every time you take out one of their
loans - which I don't have to remind you but I will ISN'T in the law
they passed in the Ohio legislature and ALSO NOT PART OF THE LAW IN THE
REFERENDUM), I would like to feel that people read this one for once and
voted accordingly. In these rough times, we don't need another loan
shark abusive industry siphoning money out of already-poor people's
pockets. No jobs will be lost and I'm certainly not going to shed tears
should payday lenders in Ohio feel they need to close up shop because
they have to make money legally.

And I'm glad that one idiot will be leaving Washington DC for his
village in Texas, while we're sending another idiot back to her village
in Alaska when she can be symbolically stoned to death for her crimes.
So to speak. I tell you we managed to get this one right for once and
have averted many tragedies that "could have been" but now won't. Less
likely Roe V Wade will be overturned now, which pisses off the religious
minority and I chuckle to myself when I think about that. Heh.
heheheheee!

I CAN beat the KFC $10 Challenge!

OK. So you see those stupid YUM! Brand Kentucky Fried Chipmunks
commercial where this "family" goes to the supermarket to see if they
can do a KFC Family meal by buying it at the grocery store.

What it consists of is Biscuits, 1 side (like baked beans), and 7 pieces
of chicken. The meal, that is. Let's not forget coleslaw. Most people
want that. Or corn. Hey, let's consider it all.

Now, right off the bat, I'm going for the cheapest route for this meal.
So let's knock off the Biscuits, pre-made, in a tube. And for the sake
of prices, we're Buying It All at Aldi's. Biscuits right now are about
$1.20 for the tube, grand buttermilk style.

Corn in a can, whole kernel, is 45 cents. or just under.

Chicken in pieces for frying. Prolly about $4.00 or so. I'll have to
check this. Remember, these are ALDI'S prices. not some rip-off major
chain like Giant Eagle. Aldi's even beats Walmart a lot of the time.
anywho, consider it a 3 pound bag, frozen.

OK. So now you need to find a way to coat the chicken before you cook
it. Flour is likely in the coating. You can either use a packet of dry
Italian dressing mix or try this, which you can find on the net:

Garlic Salt (1 Tablespoon per serving)
Onion Powder (1 Tablespoon per serving)
Sugar (1 Tablespoon per serving)
Oregano (1 Tablespoon per serving)
Black Pepper (1 Tablespoon per serving)
Thyme (1 Tablespoon per serving)
Basil (1 Tablespoon per serving)
Parsley (1 Tablespoon per serving)
Celery Salt (1 Tablespoon per serving)
Salt (1 Tablespoon per serving)
Paprika (1 Tablespoon per serving)

I'm not sure what else you'd need to do to coat the chicken, but let's
say you already have those "herbs and spices" (I know we do!) and the
flour = Cost $0. Total $5.65 so far.

Now the actual secret behind cooking the chicken is to use a PRESSURE
COOKER. This keeps the juices in the meat. Even Red Barn restaurants
knew this! So let's just say you have one of these, too. And vegetable
oil. I guess you could try to pan fry the chicken, or put it in a
covered roaster in the oven.

Anywho, let's see.. if I go to Aldi's and buy the chicken and the
biscuits, perhaps a can or 2 of corn, I still have some leeway and still
be under $10 if I go to one store and get a 2 liter bottle of Coke Zero
for about $1.15 and STILL be under $10. Or if I have to change my price
on the frozen pieces of frying chicken up $2 - I'd STILL beat the KFC
Challenge. I can add coleslaw and dressing and STILL beat it. I know
where the best prices for all that are to be found.

Sorry, YUM. You lose again.

It's pathetic.

BTW: Have you ever noticed that 20 oz bottles of pop cost more than 2
liter bottles? Those have 67.63 ounces in them! Why do 20 oz bottles of
pop cost more? It doesn't make sense.

And for you idiots who hate the use of the word "pop" for "carbonated
soft drinks," you're still idiots. I don't use "Soda" because that
implies Baking Soda or other significant amount of SODIUM, and as you
can see on the side, there's very little "salt" in "pop". It's not a
redneck term, it's just what some people have learned to call the stuff.
Because when you opened a 16 oz glass bottle (and I'm old enough to have
done so) the top "pops" off the bottle, therefore the drink is "pop".
Ever heard the term "pop bottles"? You could find and return them to
grocery stores for the deposit. Some stores around here got pissy about
that and would ask if you bought it at their store. That's beside the
point. The deposit was so that the glass bottle WOULD GET RETURNED AND
REUSED. The bottling company would in turn reimburse the store for the
return of their bottles. I miss pop bottles. If you found enough of them
in the park, you could buy yourself some ice cream at Dairy Queen, which
for cheap ass people, was almost a hobby.

Finding crayfish in the stream was almost as fun.

Anywho, ask the older people around you and in various regions around
this country what they'd call it - pop or soda?

OHIO PEOPLE - VOTE YES ON ISSUE 5. KEEP THE PAYDAY LENDERS IN CHECK.
THERE ARE NO JOBS (meaning all the payday lender people) IN ANY DANGER.
All the payday lender offices have already applied for licenses to
provide other kinds of loans. Don't believe their crap. Note where all
the No on 5 signs are placed - outside of these evil loan stores and the
owners of them. YES ON 5 TO PROTECT OHIO FAMILIES FROM AN UNENDING CYCLE
OF DEBT.

DAD - PISS OFF!!

Dad, I know you read my blog, and for some reason you have twisted a recent post around to something that benefits your twisted mind. I have had it!

I hate to have to turn my blog Private and password protected, because so many other friends keep in touch with me through it. But your actions are unconscionable. (i hope the spellchecker has that right). This is your final warning to keep off my blog.

My Mother is Not Gambling. I've Never Said she was! Where did you get that idea?

picture relevant to post

How do you get rid of these guys?

For some time now, I don't know how my mom got on these creeps' mailing
list, but from time to time we get these stupid "BETUS period COM" booklets or
somesuch about sports betting.

We're not people who bet on sports.

We're not about to begin.

The people who make and mail out this crap don't exactly make it easy to
get them contacted by mail and get them to stop. I found a feedback form
on the site. I can only hope this note (edited) got through.

Oh yeah, I tried a Whois lookup. I got some addresses in California and
Panama, the country. What the fedge?

To wit:

TO WHOM THIS WILL CONCERN:

STOP SENDING YOUR LITERATURE TO THE FOLLOWING NAME AND ADDRESS. WE ARE
NOT AMUSED, WE ARE NOT INTERESTED. STOP WASTING YOUR TIME. IF YOU DO
NOT, WE WILL BE FORCED TO FIND OUT WHO YOU ARE, WHERE YOU ARE AND MAKE
SURE YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT WE ARE TRYING TO SAY.

REMOVE ME!
MAILED FROM MECHANICSBURG, PA PERMIT NUMBER 63

[address info deleted]

SINCE YOU DON'T SEEM TO PUT A MAILING ADDRESS IN YOUR LITERATURE AND
HAVE MADE IT HARD TO FIND ON YOUR SITE, WE CAN ONLY ASSUME YOU ARE
CONDUCTING ILLEGAL BETTING.

WE ARE NOT INTERESTED, HAVE NEVER BEEN INTERESTED, AND DON'T KNOW WHY OR
HOW YOU GOT THE IDEA ANYONE AT THIS ADDRESS WAS INTERESTED.

I'M ASKING NICELY NOW. I WON'T BE NICE IN THE FUTURE AND YOU SURE DON'T
WANT ME TO HIRE A LAWYER TO SUE FOR HARASSMENT WHEN I'VE ASKED NICELY TO
STOP BOTHERING US WITH MAIL WE JUST THROW AWAY.

A NICE POSTCARD ACKNOWLEDGING THE PERMANENT REMOVAL WOULD BE A NICE
GESTURE. GOOD DAY.

You think they'll listen? Do I have to go through the post office and
have them contact the post office in Pennsylvania to look up the permit
number to find out who the hell is mailing this crap out? Sounds like a
place to start.

Removing the skirt from my Ame-comi Catwoman figure

Finally found the paint I needed to finish off my modification to the
Ame-Comi Catwoman figure. Ever since I saw it advertised, I decided that
the skirt they put on her did not work at all and if I ever got my hands
on one I'd rip that thing off and modify it using filler putty and paint
to fix her up.

I had the opaque black I needed for her outfit, but for the skin tone..
Folk Art #738 Peach Cobbler proved to be an exact match for the skin
color originally used which I finally found a couple days ago! Now I can
also work on completing my 2 Shampoo resin kits.

It took a while to get that damn skirt off. They could have made it
easier. Filled in her sweetly shaped hips with filler putty and aside
from touch up painting and a little touch up with filler putty, it
practically looks like she never had a skirt at all. This is one of
those projects were you just sand carefully by hand and try to get it
exactly right, but since I did the wrist on my Dirty Pair Kei PVC kit, I
don't seem to have that amount of patience anymore. The paint revealed
what defects the sanding left.

Her head should have been left movable. Oh well. I like the
neck-to-crotch outfit design on her anyway which was a big selling point
for me. ^_^

Maybe I'll post a photo sometime.

Rescued off old tapes

Finally had a chance to get my hands on Dirty Pair TV fansubs on VHS. While I was organizing the material as I copied them to DVD, I also dug out the Ranma 1/2 episodes from off-air Japanese TV. As a result, I was able to restore about 98% of the footage from the commercials, as well as this End of Episode title card from Ranma 1/2. ^_^
I'll just put this here...

Strange things happening

About a half hour ago, I was online with the terminal writing an email
when suddenly the Toshiba TV just goes and clicks off without me
touching it, then it came back on. By some strange measure, the computer
monitor downstairs, on a different wiring circuit ALSO shuts off! Well,
it was on without a picture.

I don't know if it was some sort of static discharge (it hasn't happened
before) or what. Anywho, I did what I usually do, I shut off the monitor
to the Dell (a niece was on it playing something) and turned it back on.
The picture came back, though I noticed it wiggling around a bit before
it stopped doing that. My niece reported some sort of red line when it
went out.

It's been raining, not heavy but a sort of steady light rain off an on.
The 'puter did not shut off - it doesn't seem to be affected. And WebTV
didn't shut off nor the VCR I run it through. There might have been some
sort of hiccup in the power line - I don't know. Our other TV connected
to the satellite receiver was not affected at all! There might have been
a little dimming of the lights but to have 2 CRT screens go off like
that at the same time in different parts of the house is just spooky.
Water dripping on the power lines or something? Inside the house? Mouse
chewing on wires???

I really need to get the dust out of the Toshiba.

This reminds me of the blank DVD last week that the Maggie tried to load
but couldn't because it was blank. I got it out of the unit OK, but I
won't try using it again.

My anime collecting comes almost full circle

Years ago, when I was a bit younger (like 1989, 1991, or thereabouts), I
used to be a member of CVACC - the Cuyahoga Valley Atari Computer Club.
I was also a subscriber to the long gone Cancomm BBS. I had a festering
interest in Japanese anime all during this time (somewhat fueled by the
dubbed Robotech / Macross / etc series and dubbed Starblazers / aka
Space Cruiser Yamato). So finding GIFs ('jiffs') of anime video captures
was something that certainly added more fuel to that festering.

Especially GIFs from Compuserve's Anime forum / roundtable / whatever
they called it posted on Cancomm. Bubblegum Crisis and Dirty Pair were 2
of the titles I wanted to know more about. This was years before
Internet access. Searching for information like this was very hard if
you weren't on one of the "online services" like CompuServe (is it still
around?) or GEnie.

At some point during one CVACC picnic, fellow member (and power user!)
Ron Mullens began telling us about some of the stuff he's seen, stuff we
could get a little of from him. (He still owes me a blank tape darnit).
We bought off him a fansub tape of Project A-ko, years before CPM would
license it. That was just the tip of things.

Over the course of a couple years from that point, I managed to get Ron
Mullens to produce tapes of Bubblegum Crisis raw without subs, and then
a mix of others like Dirty Pair TV, Ranma 1/2 off Japanese TV with
commercials, and a couple of movies. I think I got about 3 or 4 tapes
total.

Most of what I got I later went on to buy licensed releases. I have all
of Ranma 1/2 on subtitled VHS that Viz elected to release. Castle in the
Sky I can get from a Disney release. Urusei Yatsura Movie 2: Beautiful
Dreamer I actually own as a CPM-released, Animeigo produced subtitled
movie. Friends and I would later go on to buy the other Project A-ko
videos. I still have yet to buy the original Bubblegum Crisis OVAs, but
believe me, I will, now that Animeigo says they are including the
Holiday in Bali video which is quite rare. (though I do have a raw tape
copy of - it would be nice to know what they are saying. Though it's
kind of self-serving to see them feasting in Bali because fans bought
the anime.)

I recently was finally able to locate fansub VHS tapes of Dirty Pair TV!
I'll just thank the kind person who sent them to me by first name only -
doumo arigatou gozaimasu, Chris! I think I've been after this series for
at least 20 years.

I've begun to wonder if there were more than one edition released and
how. I remember my raw episodes coming off LDs - they open with a title
screen and credits on a white background. This screen wipes off to the
right to show the promo for the upcoming episode. The middle of the show
has only 1 eyecatch.

The fansubs show 2 eyecatches in the middle. No opening white background
title screen. No introduction clip for episode 1, either. Later tapes
show 2 episodes run together, separated by a single eyecatch. So which
are from LD and which are off VHS tapes from Japan? Or were there 2
different LD releases? Did stuff just get moved around when the fansub
source was put together? I don't know.

After episode 10, there are no preview clips on the fansubs, at least as
far as I have gotten right now.

So while copying the fansubs to DVD, I managed to dig out my Ron Mullens
tapes and slip the clips I wanted off those into the DVD copy I made.

Another side benefit from this work was also recovering the Japanese TV
commercials that are among my Off-air Ranma 1/2 episodes. I was never
able to see these commercials until I ran them through my Maggie MWR10D6
recorder. I'd say only 2% of the video was not restored, but everything
else I was able to finally see nicely for the first time - ever.

I have tapes of Spanish-dubbed Cardcaptor Sakura as well as Ranma 1/2
from Mexico. I should see if the Maggie can help this video as well.

Even if my Maggie ends up not making decent DVDs at some point, the
video restoration capability will keep it useful.

Now to make good on my promise to find Bubblegum Crisis. I'd rather get
the VHS subs. ^_^

I had never seen anyone do that until I saw it in anime

And I'm still giggling about it now. When I saw this, I nearly fell off
my chair.

Episode 8 of Lucky Star - the girls are in their school's sports
festival day. Konata (the long blue-haired otaku type of the bunch) is
up for some running event, like a 100 meter dash. Her friends ask her
how she plans to win, and Konata's reply is all about visualizing it.

So as her event begins, it switches to showing something like the NES
Konami game called Hyper Olympic (according to the liner notes), and
then the funniest bit - a hand holding a controller appears on the right
side of the screen. This is one of those games that your performance
depends on how fast you press the buttons. ^_^ First a finger presses
the button (aka button mashing), then you see the same hand holding a
coin and quickly striking the button, and then what really got me
laughing was the use of a stiff ruler flicked in such a way to vibrate
it on that same button.

How clever is that? I had to watch that scene over again to make sure
that's what I saw. If I get a chance to see that with a few friends, I'm
sure it'll be the shot of the episode. We'll ALL be laughing about that
bit!

The usual Criticisms about NBC's airing of Olympic Opening Ceremony

I watched and taped the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics
tonight. I don't know why it wasn't shown letterboxed (aka converted HD
broadcast) on DirecTV like they're going to have to do soon - which I am
against. I am against digital-only TV broadcasting. At least there
should be a trigger in the signal that tells converter boxes when
something is in Standard Definition (aka current analog 720 if I
remember right) and High Def (1080i or 1080p - interlaced or progressive
scan). That way converter boxes know how to display the digital
broadcast correctly between the 2 formats of programming, and
re-broadcasters like DirecTV can program _their_ satellite receivers
accordingly. But really - aren't there other signal ranges that can be
used for what the gov't is proposing to do with analog TV spectrum?

Anywho, what did NBC's broadcast suffer from, as usual?

1. TOO MANY COMMERCIALS - At least when you break into the program to
pay the light bill, PICK UP WHERE YOU BROKE OFF.

2. IT WAS TAPE-DELAYED - I don't necessarily NEED my Opening Ceremony in
Prime Time When it can be shown LIVE earlier in the day!! Just when are
we US viewers of the Olympics not going to have to put up with tape
delayed programming any more?

3. BAD CAMERA ANGLES - Considering the Bird's Nest Stadium is so HUGE
(room for over 90,000 people), most if not all of the visuals required
an Overhead or Wide Angle Shot. Was it shown in HD? I don't know because
we didn't get a letterboxed picture at all. Sure, there were moments
when a close up was a good idea, but the director of photography didn't
seem to know what he wanted the cameras to do, nor which cameras to use.
And considering what amounted to as a huge LED screen on the field,
there should have been direct overhead shots to show that content. I
would have liked it.

4. THEY HAD 4 HOURS TO USE - and like I said, it was on tape, so they
did the best they could with the Parade of Nations with all the athletes
and other Olympic Officials from various countries, but the actual
theatrics could have been done better. We also didn't get to see how the
flame cauldron was brought into the stadium. I would have loved to see
how they made that appear!

I'm not complaining about it being 4 hours long - sometimes it could be
longer. ^_^

There were some nice aerial views of the fireworks (Tamaya!!) and that
was nice. Some shots could have at least been rehearsed. We missed some
things because nobody seemed to know what was going to happen next - at
least tell people where they should be pointing the cameras even if you
don't want to tell them what they'll be seeing!

I'd have liked more wide shots, a live broadcast earlier in the day, and
fewer commercials which also means less missed content of the Opening
Ceremonies show, especially if you pick up exactly where you left off.
This is SO easy to do, and is such a no-brainer. This was a huge chance
for NBC to show Chinese culture to a new audience who might be more or
less ignorant about it. Instead, NBC used this program as a shameless
attempt to hawk their Fall Shows. Well, Heroes really doesn't need
hawked - it's a ratings grabber without much problem, and the other new
shows? I'm probably not going to bother at all.

Work it out with your sponsors and do it with very limited commercial
interruption, much like HGTV does the Rose Bowl Parade.

And to all those cute Chinese girls who lined the edge of the inner
field where all the athletes ended up after marching around the stadium,
the pretty Chinese girls who danced and greeted them for over 2 hours,
my hats off to you, and you're all invited over to my house for an
after-opening ceremony party. BYOB. ^_-

Maji de!!!

If you hadn't been watching the "I Survived a Japanaese Gameshow" on ABC
the past few weeks, you missed a great finale tonight.

The most important thing I should stress is how they introduced Japanese
culture to "fish out of water" US citizens while in Japan. I wish they
had given these contestants some off-time to go out and see the Real
Japan, like the restaurants and shopping at Akiba between competitions.

I taped the 2 hour finale tonight. How do people sign up for these
things? If they do this again (and have it Japan again), I'd LOVE to try
getting on it. I have a passport already! I even know some Japanese. ^.^

From what I can tell, though, the game show they used as the backdrop
for this ABC series is fictional - it doesn't really exist in Japan. It
IS typical of the sort of things they would do though!

I wish it would get repeated, because I would / should have taped it. We
may never see it again - it might never be offered on DVD. For an anime
and manga / Japanese culture fan such as myself, I was completely
entertained by this show. Kudos to ABC for the thinking that went into
presenting it.

I liked the first elimination challenge they had the final four do - go
out onto the streets near Toho Studios and complete 5 tasks with people
they run into. ^_^

I might have cringed severely at the thought of having to do that.
Though it would be nice to make more Japanese friends! I'm still hoping
the woman I marry will be from Japan.

The Tokyo Mew Mew RPG game for Playstation - sugoi ne!

So anywho, I finally get my officially-made import Tokyo Mew Mew RPG
game for the Playstation. One thing that surprised me that it works in
our Playstation with Pro Action Replay without any problems so far. For
such a late release game, I expected it to give me the same problems
that the CCS Tetris game does in that it will refuse to run unless I've
modified the unit in some way and used an Activation code in the PAR
unit. But when I did the disk swap method and selected the right file
off the disk, it came right up and I was like "Yes!!! Money well spent!"
I felt it only right to get a real copy of the game rather than a
downloaded copy.

I've begun translating the instruction manual. I had a slight problem
with my Jornada last night and had to hit reset on the underside, then
reconfigure things, etc etc. Then had to go online real quick to find
out how to get the storage card folder to come back up, and once I did
that it was back in business. I should bring the PDA down so I can
translate in a more comfortable position and have it where I usually am,
most of the time anyway.

The 1G "Sylvania" USB flash drive MP3 players at Big Lots are just
another model made by... Curtis International. Dammit!!!

Colossalcon 2008 report of sorts

I got a load of goodies, ran 2 panels and sat in on the 4chan panel which lasted far into the early morning which left me sleep deprived to the point that I left early on Sunday in spite of being on staff. I had to, otherwise I might not have made it home and I was the one driving.

While I didn't get my "Autism and Anime Fandom" panel, I did get the Japanese cooking panel but it was mostly a video I had on DVD (complete with snazzy Japanese TV and anime toy commercials), and then the Collecting Anime Goodies panel after that. The DVD for the cooking panel, based on The Manga Cookbook, was also scheduled to run on the in-house hotel channel for the convention, but the computer they were using was a lousy AMD Celeron processor system that kept locking up, and nobody was keeping an eye on it.

Sailor Moon cosplayers were there well-representing our chosen anime. I had most of them pose with my Talking Luna plushie. And for an accurate and well-done Chibi-Usa wig, go to Garnet Studios.

It amazes me that people who don't like 4chan are on Gaia, at least according to experience from one girl in the local anime club. I mean, why pay for Gaia when 4chan is free, and it has a cool Firefox extension? What's there not to like? I have a blast on there, and find it a wealth of information. I've gotten help many times and consider it a valuable source.

Even in spite of going to Colossalcon, I still have money for a trip to Japan which for reasons I can't figure out, still hasn't happened.

Colossalcon 2008 goodies:

Magic Knight Rayearth Hikaru fashion doll - now to find her upgrade armor. I already have both Fuu and Umi and their armor.

DVDs - Kashimashi #2, Doki doki school hours (aka Sensei no ojikan) #4, Air TV #2, Scrapped Princess #4 (need #3 and any others), Banner of the Stars 1 #1.

Loads of GACHAPON figures, including a Haruhi set with a Bunny Haruhi, one of girls from Namco games like Kosmos and Telos. PGSM Venus figure, and some others (Rishu from Mamotte Shugogetten).

Ame-comi Catwoman figure that I've modified to remove the stupid skirt.

Bunny Yuki 1/6 scale figure (yum)

Manga needs filled: Ichigo 100% Though I thought I bought #4 I can't find it. All of Pretty Face that I didn't already have, Some Eiken books.

2 Futago Hime candy toys. Talking Sumomo figure (actual size - episode 18 where they clean the apartment building is suitable to show to my nieces so they know who she is).

Some small Sailor Moon magnets for the fridge. They go nicely with 2 I got from Digi Charat. ^_^

2 Kia Asamiya mini figures

I just need some place to display my gachapon figures.

Thursday: I wasn't told until I found out about it, but the Colossalcon staff in charge of getting things going decided to have a half-day Thursday night. I know Anime North did this before, so I'm not surprised to see other anime conventions doing it, too. That means, me being on the Tech Crew, that we had to schlep 3 sets of equipment down to the 3 video rooms. Computer with keyboard, mouse, power cables, projector, and screens. I'm glad to say we managed to get things up and running by the time shown on the schedule. Each computer used had to have the media updated for most of the convention. I hope Adam just gets bigger and additional drives in the systems along with good cooling fans. I basically kept an eye on the systems for most of the weekend, with me actually sitting in Video 3 to run some stuff off DVD which I wanted to see anyway like Giant Robo and Gunbuster 2: Diebuster. Awesome.

Thankfully we thought ahead and put a schedule next to each of the video room computers, so in case they get off schedule or otherwise lock up and stop playing for whatever reason, I can get them going where they're supposed to be at that time I catch it.

I managed to get into the dealers room when it first opened on Friday. This is one of my "things to do" at any anime convention. Get in there at the first opportunity lest it be gotten by someone else. I had only an hour on Friday since I was the only one who seemed to be taking their volunteer role seriously. One or 2 other guys who were supposed to be on Tech ended up doing other things. And then I had to almost fight for my staff badge because for some reason I was "left off' the list of volunteers who were supposed to get staff badges, apparently some confusion because I was doing panels as well.

They were supposed to have a simulcast of the Friday character portrayal portion of the cosplay on the in-house hotel channel, but some difficulties in dealing with the technology the hotel provided and what the con staff had turned it into a simulcast AIM chat instead, which in some ways was more interesting than seeing the actual event.

If I had known they needed my high speed USB video capture box, I would have brought it along with my SNES and the Sailor Moon S fighting cartridge I recently got off eBay. One of the guys in the gaming room thought Sailor Moon fighting games are cool. ^_^

But they had things figured out for Saturday, borrowing someone's laptop with a built in webcame for the main even Cosplay which I'm told worked rather well.

There were some events planned for outside, but the weather decided to rain and that chased in a LOT of people during Saturday. I heard from someone who heard it from Security that somehow news got to our hotel that every hotel within a 5 mile radius of Colossalcon was sold out because of the convention. Woo!

I had a generally good time. Plenty of lovely ladies in china dresses to see. I need help getting the courage to do more than just take photos of them. T.T

Turnout for my Japanese cooking panel was pretty good. It would have run on the in-house hotel channel for the convention had someone kept an eye on the computer for that. At least the con-chair and a friend of mine, Adam, did come to see my panel and left hungry. ^_^

Considering how long it is taking me to recover my energy from staying up almost all weekend 2 weeks ago, next year I will pay for my own room if I have to and do panels only. I would also like to see if there are other conventions who'd be interested in having me appear to do a cooking panel with the ability to do a live demonstration.

Hopefully I'll get one friend to finally get a usable copy of my DVD on his system and dressed up with snazzy effects and slightly better editing. I have been offering copies of what I've got now, though.

It's rewarding to volunteer to help run a convention, but get your own room and plenty of sleep. The staff managed to kill at least but probably more than 16 pizza boxes during the course of the weekend.

Oh yeah, Saturday, when waiting to get in line for the dealers room, while security was performing crowd control, they were telling people to get their badges ready. I decided as is my habit to make light of the situation and added "and your money, credit cards, dna sample" - something I considered a light hearted attempt at humor. This was not appreciated by the jerk in front of me who promptly told me to shut up.

People - don't be THAT GUY at any convention. A good rule to follow. Because I did what anyone would do when armed with video equipment - I got video of the jerk.

Don't be That Guy. Be Excellent to Each Other.

I have to refresh the firmware?

According to Curtis' website, if I use the mini CDrom that came with the player, I should be able to use that to refresh the firmware and it'll behave correctly once again.

Thing is, it shouldn't go bad in the first place. I have one of their 256MB models and it's still working great.

There are no firmware updates available on the website. I did manage to get the player to plug into the USB interface and stay on for over 8 minutes while I copied everything off the player.

I will try to use the CDrom with my Win98SE box to see if I can refresh the firmware and get it to stay on like it should.

How does the firmware get damaged in the first place?

Latest Curtis MPS533 bites the dust just about

Sent to Curtis International:

OK. So you guys there probably remember the 512MB MP3 player that
someone sent to you smashed up because it died when it should not have.

Then you replaced that (kindly) with an MPS533 model, but that got sent
back to you rather quickly because it kept shutting off and then
eventually refused to turn back on.

I sent that one back to you only to get yet another MPS533 model. That
was about one year ago.

Since then, I have kept ahold of that 2nd MPS533 model and sparingly
used it. Last night, while copying a few more MP3 files to it, nearly
filling the memory (46 MB free), then going to bed and listening to the
new files on it, it suddenly shut off for no reason. I had a fresh
alkaline battery in the unit.

While fiddling with this MPS533 in the middle of the night, I observed
it not wanting to stay on for any useful length of time. Several
attempts at making sure the battery was making proper contact resulted
in the unit not interested in staying on. Removing the battery and then
reinstalling it got the unit to switch on again each time, but it would
not remain on. The previous MPS533 had this problem before it refused to
turn on as well as not turn on when plugged into the USB port.

Fortunately I have a backup of all files I have placed onto the unit on
a burned CDrom.

I am not sending this 2nd replacement MPS533 back to you at Curtis
International because I am fed up with this model of MP3 player and will
replace it with another model from another manufacturer. I have a Coby
1G model that has a buggy USB interface, but it seems like it will hold
up, though I should buy another 1G MP3 player model with a better
inferface and a Win98 USB driver CDrom.

This model is also out of warranty period since I let it sit around
unused for most of the past year considering my previous experience with
the last MPS533. I did one experiment in using it to record and let it
sit for over 4 hours one day and it was still on when I came back, so I
thought that was a good sign. Until last night.

I think using the Hold feature on the unit might have something to do
with this, but who knows? I hadn't used the Hold switch before and for
some reason I decided it might be a good idea to use it for once, in
case it got switched on by accident - providing that even though I had
it inside a case for a VHS-C tape, it had little chance of happening.

If there is a firmware update for the MPS533, I may seek it out,
providing I can get this unit to stay on long enough while plugged into
the USB interface (which I haven't tried yet, but will considering its
current semi-functional state), which in that case I would just copy
everything off, reformat, and try the update. I mean, what's the bother
if the damn unit won't stay turned on?

My MPS257 (256MB model) still works great.

Best regards,

Some pressing issues

First off, we find that the Evil Cable Company, aka Time Warner, is
conducting what I call "business as usual" in that once you get suckered
into using their services, they start raising rates without
justification.

Our Road Runner Light service, 768kbps, was initially $14.95 a month. I
pay this for Cannet Dialup. As of August 1, 2008, Time Warner decides to
jack up the cost another $5. Let me try to understand this. They cut off
Usenet access through their network, they are not upgrading the service
to a faster speed, but yet they claim they need to bleed us for another
$5 more each month for less service at the same speed? The electricity
they use to power their equipment didn't go up in cost. I demand they
justify the increase. I'm going to contact the state attorney general,
our state rep, and the FCC about this.

In comparison, Cannet, the dialup service we've had since late _1997_
has always been $14.95 a month. That's 11 years of service that's never
gone up in price. If Cannet can keep the price the same and other DSL
providers can provide lifetime price guarantees, why can't Time Warner?
We were not told the $14.95 RR Lite was only an introductory price, nor
were we advised the rate "could" go up. No documentation stated anything
of the sort. If they insist on business as usual (which is the reason I
refuse to get cable TV again) then I demand they explain themselves
fully.

I recently bought the Coby MP300 1 Gig USB flash drive MP3 player. It
was $20 at a local Big Lots.

This is a nicely built unit. The case feels strong and sturdy. It's made
mainly to play MP3s or WMAs on its internal flash drive.

Some gripes: There's no Windows98 driver CDrom. A search on Coby USA's
website turns up nothing for my unit. I can only hope a friend with
another Coby model has the CDrom and the driver will work with my 1G
unit.

The interface to Windows XP over the USB connection has a minor bug. It
connects in MSC mode, but it should be MTP mode, I think. Anywho, the
first time after the initial plug-in and copying of files onto the unit
resulted in My Computer displaying only 8 files. I have way more than
that already on there by now! After a few tries plugging the thing in
and disconnecting (and My Computer freezing up) I eventually just went
ahead a copied a new file to the unit. Immediately the file list in the
window for the unit expanded and all my files appeared! I mean, What the
heck!? But trying to immediately copy a 2nd new file resulted in Windows
saying the directory was corrupted and unreadable. Oh great. Unplug,
replug, copy a 2nd file, but not a 3rd. Eventually, through some
plugging and unplugging I got 4 more files on there. But at some point I
got the unit to respond properly and was able to just copy a bunch of
MP3s at once.

Subsequent attaching the unit to the USB port also made
shorter-than-I-know-should-be-on-there directory lists until I copied a
new file onto the drive.

None of my other units, including USB flash drives, do this at all.

I apologize for not putting up the Colosalcon 2008 report just yet, but
I should get to it soon. It's up on Genvid. ^_^

FCC punishes Comcast for blocking bitorrent

So Comcast has been outed for knowingly and illegally interfering with
people using file sharing applications like Bittorrent for no reason,
other than they claim it is "network management," but in fact it's just
one company being a bunch of assholes. The FCC is punishing Comcast for
illegally interfering in its "open access" policy for denying users
their use of Comcast's DSL network.

BY ALL RIGHTS The FCC should also look into the illegal blocking of
Usenet access on Verizon's and Time Warner's Road Runner networks, which
happened partly due to the caving in of these wimpy companies and
pressure and demands from the New York State Attorney General. Last time
I read about this, only the Federal level may force companies to do
this. If any State Attorney General wants to block this, they should get
FCC clearance if they can do so - AND ONLY IN THEIR OWN STATE.

The Use of Newsgroups via Usenet servers is included in one's Internet
Service, and blocking access to them because of one state attorney
general's demands that, ooooh, someone might be doing something
"illegal" on them while perfectly legal things are going on at the same
time, ALSO falls under this same policy and blocking them Violates the
FCC's Policy on Open Access to Internet.

The New York State Attorney General should be told to go mind his own
business by the FCC. And upon that, over turn and force Verizon and Time
Warner to restore service to Usenet newsgroups through its own network.
They cannot claim there was low usage - they know perfectly well it was
being used and with considerable volume. They're just trying to use a
lie as an excuse because we know what they're really doing. And just
because one state attorney general pressured the company into illegally
blocking Usenet newsgroup access in in that state, they had no
jurisdiction to force the company to shut off access in Other States as
well.

If you have become a victim of Verizon's or Time Warner's illegal
violation of Open Access to the Internet as it concerns access to Usenet
Newsgroups, then I encourage you to write a letter about this issue to:

Federal Communication Comission
445 12th Street SW
Washington, DC 20554

I feel the New York State Attorney General overstepped his bounds and
stepped on what is essentially a Federal issue and not one for the
states. If the FCC can punish Comcast for interfering with bittorrent,
among other uses for their network, then they must look into this issue
as well and restore access to Usenet through Verizon and Time Warner
Road Runner also!!

I believe this is a valid point and it must be heard!

Microwave burned out, George Carlin, Doug Henning?

Well, it happened.

Our Emerson microwave made August 1988, died today in a blaze of glory.
Not really, but still it died. Using Hitachi parts, it worked
beautifully. 1.4 cubic feet at 1450 watts (microwave frequency was 2450
Mhz). Lasted nearly 20 years. They don't make them like that anymore. It
was serviced once - for a blown fuse. When that blew again, I bought a
more substantial one and never blew it again. The only other thing that
we had trouble with was the servo motor that turned the glass table
inside. That stopped working a few months ago.

I still can't believe George Carlin passed away. Last I heard, he knew
he had heart problems a few years ago but had been working on that. Not
only was he a genius messenger for comedy and made complete sense, he
was a masterful and most eloquent pundit. He reminded us of the asburd
thing(s) that went on around us and made sure we stuck a finger in its
eye.

By the way, all of Carlin's HBO Specials are available on DVD (something
I hope to acquire), but why is the only thing I can find of Doug Henning
on DVD is his Broadway show? He did 8 TV specials and none of them are
on DVD?? I have a tape of one he did in the early 1980s. Where can I get
tapes of his other shows?? It's not right we can't see all of Henning's
shows again.

Two people who helped make me what I am today are no longer here, and I
will be one who will not forget what they did.

Firefox 3!

I participated in the Firefox 3 Download Day World Record Attempt today.
As I type this, there have been, according to one webite, well over 3
MILLION downloads at about the halfway point for their 24 hour period to
set the record.

The developers are expecting for just over 1 million downloads, but
hoping for 5 million. They may get there in winning fashion.

Of course, I'm going to wait before I install FF3. I want my extensions
that work under Firefox 2 to import effortlessly into Version 3, as well
as all my Ad Block Plus blocking rules. I spent a lot of time figuring
out what to block to stop stupid things happening on pages and I intend
to keep those rules if I want to use Firefox 3.

Extensions I currently use: 4chan's plug in, Video Downloader, Ad Block
Plus, Flash Block, RefControl, and Download Manager Tweak. I also want
my other cookie and image blocking preferences also kept and imported
into FF3, as well as all my bookmarked favorites.

I grabbed a copy of the Firefox 3 installer just before 3 pm EST. Some
comments posted by people about nitpicky crybaby points about the time
of executing the download and stuff just show the stupidity of
themselves. I was able to figure out how to get the thing and when -
certainly other people can figure that out, too?

Anywho, congrats to the launch of Firefox 3. NOW GET MY EXTENSIONS TO
WORK!!!

Got up out of the wrong bed...

This morning, the universe decided to make my bed fall apart without my
permission. And so subtly, without me knowing it was going to do so. At
first, the one piece of metal (let's call it a bed rail) that had been
bent since the first moment I used the bed years ago (instead of my
sturdy twin bed I had used for so many years without trouble) that had
also been propped up with a stack of books and a piece of wood was
becoming more bent in spite of my best efforts to prop it up and attempt
to keep it more or less unbent. Then the foot of the bed, the part of
the frame that sees your feet most often, well it had been in a state of
disrepair (ie it was continually trying to fall apart even though I
managed to drive a few good drywall screws into it) and continued to do
so to the point where those little fingers that go into the frame to
grab metal pins imbedded in the wood by some skillful craftsman at one
point don't grab. They don't even line up because they're BENT.

After some examination and moving of mattress stuff which is hard
because I have no room to move mattress stuff, I find that the two
pieces of hooked wire that had been used to keep the 2 side rails
together (I don't know why they made this bed frame like that, it
doesn't make sense), well one of those 2 pieces of wire had one hook end
snap off completely. This action rendered the 2 side rails more useless
than they had already been.

I was able to locate the foot end of another bed frame which I wish we
had kept the entire thing because it was made of much sturdier metal and
shaped in such a way that we had no trouble at all from it in the years
we had it at previous addresses.

I still have the frame of my twin-size bed, and I'm like 1 inch away
from throwing this other frame out the window and digging out the twin
frame and setting it up. At least the bottom of that is more than 2
pieces of metal tied by a wire.

I've noticed that my grandparents could have things for years and years
and for some reason never have any trouble with them. We get ahold of
the same items and they go to pot rather quickly. It's like their
possessions hate us.

Colossalcon Cooking Show in Post Production

In a bout of compromises, as I have yet to get to an anime convention in
the US that allows for actual cooking at a Japanese Cooking panel, a
friend and I did the production shooting for a "virtual" panel as a
video, a show about an hour long, 2 days ago. Yesterday I did the rough
edit down to around an hour or less, with room for commercials.
Commercials I culled from a bunch of off-air Japanese TV videotapes I've
managed to collect. Video that my Maggie DVD recorder restored to
viewing near-perfection. I retrieved a couple Marumiya Sailor Moon
commercials, Magic Knight Rayearth toy commercials, some Kaitou Saint
Tail toy commercials, a few Akazukin Chacha toy commercials. And an
assortment of Japanese food commercials which I find most entertaining.
I want to try some of the stuff they advertise! Plus a commercial for
Shabon American style coin laundry - complete with bunnygirls. ^_^

The ending credits feature the ending theme and animation from Tokyo Mew
Mew, a reasonably good quality clean no-credit version found on Youtube.

I handed off the copy of the raw video to be massaged off to a friend of
ours who's got the software to do the job. ^_^

I was pleasantly suprised by my friend's videography of what we were
doing. Really nice shots and very little of me.

I might have gotten it just in time?

I probably mentioned I got the external backup HD for the Dell system.
This morning my nieces come over and the oldest turns on the desktop. It
freezes at some point during bootup on that little animated progress bar
screen. So in a panic like I always do when something acts up other than
expected behavior, I take the seat and figure out what to do. Which was
hold the power button in and force it to shut off. Then I get that
screen that XP brings up when the last start up wasn't completed and I
tell it to start normally. It comes up this time.

It was the first ever time the 'puter did anything like that. It's
always started fine. It could be that with Road Runner light and the
computer being on for longer periods that it's affecting the system in
some way. Some research turned up that it's possible a cable to the HD
might be a little loose. If the startup freeze happens again, I will
certainly check that. I should check it for dust anyway about now.

I did make sure it wasn't anything else, and a couple warm restarts and
one cold start showed it does work like it should. So I'll say shrug and
wait until it happens again. I think the drive in there now is a Western
Digital drive. The designation in the hardware specs show WD so it could
be one. I'll make sure to replace it with something else. Maybe a Maxtor
or Seagate anyway.

I'll have to find our Dell reinstall CDs to make sure I can make a
complete system reinstall when I need to. I did it for a bro in law.
(Except he didn't like me putting one piece of software on there that
would NOT have affected the use of Kodak's bloatware. Sheesh, some
people.)

XP desktop backed up

Well, I hope this is how things work in stuff like this. I finally got that external hard drive, a small 120G Seagate model on clearance. After about 2 hours, I managed to make a backup of everything not in use by the system and therefore allowed to be copied. I even exported a copy of the current registry. I may go back for the other cheap Seagate drive for use with the Win98SE system if I can find drivers for it.

I hope that all I need to do with the backing up the desktop is to copy everything off, and when time comes for re-installing the system on a new hard drive, just copy everything back on and import the registry. (shrug) We'll see.

Sometimes life is sweet

Today while doing some errands, I ran into one of the people I used to
work with while at the restaurant. She was one of the few I miss working
with because she is nice.

I found out my former boss from there retired.

I'll bet he felt lucky he didn't get fired because of my webpage about
stupid customers. I might have brought that back by now. Heh. I never
really deleted it; if anything I just set to non-public. I can do that
to pages on WebTV without deleting them.

I would just like more of the story behind how corporate YUM found my
page, who that was, and how that communication filtered down. I never
promoted that page except among my friends and it was my personal way to
blow off steam from a job I was burning out doing. It was done on my own
time using my own resources. I feel it was just an excuse they wanted to
use and could because of it being non-union for a reason why I shouldn't
work there anymore. Then they had the nerve to violate my privacy and
start going through my blog. I have a disclaimer on it about that now.

William Gibson, may you rest and wonder.

Funny how he's got the same name as the famous author.

A shame I never learned of Gordon Ramsey until long after I departed
that place.

Sailor Moon DVDs from Pioneer

I bought my first Sailor Moon DVD from Pioneer that covers 6 episodes
(yeah!) from SuperS. It was pretty clear at the time these were being
released that Pioneer wanted fans to buy the DVDs since the VHS releases
were 3 episodes each, as I recall.

They also seemed to want fans to watch the uncut dub more than the uncut
sub. Why is the sound on these for the Japanese audio so muddy? I
realize it's probably due to the original being mono, but the same music
for the dub is crystal clear. I'm pretty sure the audio was better on
the LDs of the same material.

I bought this DVD at flea market for $4, and might have to find a DVD
polish kit to clean it up a little but it's not bad as it is now. Or I
should look into replacing the Cyberhome player because it's been
getting pretty lousy playing pressed and burned disks. It might need
cleaned, I dunno.

I think it's time Sailor Moon fans start searching thrift stores and
flea market for Sailor Moon video releases and save them from being in
those places. I bought the edited dub of the SuperS movie at a Goodwill
for about $3, and one edited S VHS tape at a flea market for 50 cents.
And now this DVD which covers material I didn't already have. I'll
probably end up piecing together a Sailor Moon DVD set sometime.

I felt it necessary to buy it because Anime North is going on this
weekend. While I do miss it a lot, I realize nothing could be done about
it. I finally got my checks this week, a bit late. I also have a
replacement refridgerator in the works.

The home page of WebTV was saying something about rushing to save the
memories of WWII vets. Among the things my grandparents left and I ended
up with were the letters my grandfather got and sent when he was
drafted. Dec 14, 1942 was when he got his notice. He wrote back to his
wife (both my mom's parents) Dec 22 1942 on the back of the other sheet
of his draft notice:

Dear ---,

I am sending you these papers. I didn't need the marriage license. I
kept one pair of underwear and hankies and the towels and wash cloths. I
guess these dam fools have got me. I had 2 shots in the arms today,
pretty sore right now. Every dam thing you do hear you have to run.
Don't write to me here as I may be shipped out anytime. Don't know
whether I will be home for Christmas or not. I don't know whether I'll
get what I wanted or not. I sent my clothes in a box, the handbag I sent
by express. I don't like it at all but guess I will have to stay for the
duration. I have my uniform now. Well, honey, this is all I have time
for. Take care of yourself now. With lots of love, your hubby ----
xxxxxx.

----

And to think he wanted me to enlist in the services when he didn't like
it himself? Hypocrite. I don't have any other later letters that say
anything if he eventually liked what he ended up doing, but I'm pretty
sure he didn't see combat action. I was told he ended up with some desk
job in the Army-Air Force while in England. He could have ended up with
a similar job when he got out (with decent pay), but ended up working at
the wax paper company in town. It wasn't a bad job, as I'm sure he was
paid OK, but not as much as the desk job would have been. His retirement
pay was very nice, having been born at the time just before they changed
the pay rules at Social Security.

I also have somewhere his medals in a display thingy, and I managed to
work out what he got from extensive net searching. I have a bunch of the
German military script he managed to collect and some other currency
that might be worth something for all I know.

He never really talked much about his time in the service and we don't
know why. One friend's father used to talk alot about his time in the
Navy during WWII, so perhaps he had a better experience.

Grr Grr and Double GRRRR

ARGH!!! I'm trying to convert a bunch of FLV files to something I can
put on a DVD. FLVExtract is missing a DLL file. AVI2DVD refuses to work
with an AVI file I have now - a 330MB monster which is a converted
Playstation STReam Video file which plays at 15 fps. BBMpeg or whatever
it is doesn't convert it right. SuperC won't even play the FLV files in
spite of having Flash Player installed, but methinks I don't exactly
have it installed right and I don't know how to get it to install right
and work as a browser or system plugin. (Super(c) that I'm working with
is a July 2007 version but I can get my hands on an earlier version). I
can't get Super(c) to play the AVI either with or without Direct Show
checked.

I'm hoping putting VLC on there will enable my Win98SE box to do
SOMETHING with these files.

I also tried MediaCoder, but it turned its snob nose up at me, expecting
a newer OS.

AVISynth I also can't get to work with that one AVI, complaining that
Interface was not supported. Doesn't exactly explain the problem, maybe
the 15 fps file is the problem. I can't help that.

Then I tried to copy one DVD a friend burned for me, and it's like
fighting the system. However, a different brand DVD he burned for me
read nice like I expect a disk to read, so who knows.

GRRRRR... Really making me mad.

Oh geez...

So today I get another SocSec letter still in regard to SSI. I thought
this was finally done with the one guy I spoke to and sending in a copy
of a letter he needed to see. This time it's some other guy. This time
they want me in person in their local office in 2 days, 10 am. They want
me to bring the letter I got today along with some folder I don't have.
Then there was supposed to be a list of documents they wanted, but
there's no list. I have NO idea what they want, and I called the guy's
extension and left a message to that effect that I didn't have any
folder. I go back through remembering all the documentation I've
received from SocSec, and I'm pretty sure this folder they want is
something I don't have. I've not received any benefits at all so far.

I'm getting annoyed by all this irregular stuff.

Days when you get stepped on, others when it falls on you

OK. So anywho, I finally get a #1 6 inch philips screwdriver and get
inside the Right Speaker of the Cambridge SoundWorks speakers we got. I
had to reattach the sound input as well as fix the bad power switch. I
ended up wiring in a bypass power switch and it works again. Most people
would say why not buy a new pair? I don't have the money and I don't
believe in disposable technology. These speakers also sound pretty good,
good enough to fix and keep them.

OK so back in March or thereabouts, I signed up for help through the BVR
office. They supposedly sent out forms for Dr. Z and the counselor I was
seeing there as well as the guy I see now, but it seems none of them
have sent anything back. I owe money to Dr. Z so they may not even
respond to that. So I get a call today from a guy at BVR still telling
me they've not received replies from anyone. So I call Dr. Z's office
and the lady sees that my file was closed in February because I owed
them so much and I've been trying to pay them whatever I can. She also
doesn't see any BVR forms so they either didn't get them or they got
them but threw them away. I dunno. I don't understand why the guy I see
now hasn't replied already.

I have my disability award, and I got this Ticket to Work thingy. But if
it's going to be a big freaking hassle all around to get BVR help, I
might as well not even bother trying to work!! It's not worth it!!!!! I
should pursue studies at Kent State, which seems less a hassle but still
annoying.

How to use a Bravetti deep fryer with success

After my dinky Europro deep fryer I got at Big Lots proved too small for our recent upswing in the use of deep frying thanks to Angel Food Ministries orders, we decided a bigger model was necessary. Mom found one on eBay, but bid on it before doing research on it. Lots of consumers of similar Bravetti models (a lot of them Canadian owners) had the misfortune to run into these fryers and lots of people reported bad things happening. But there were some who reported good things and nothing but praise.

So far, a model we got with electronic temperature control has worked fine in the 4 times so far we have used it, and from my extensive 10.5 year experience around deep fryers, I have some things to offer other owners or future owners of Bravetti deep fryers. (Ours is a 3 liter model.)

When using the fryer, do not use the timer! You're trying to get this thing to heat up, and you don't need it on a timer when you're getting it up to speed. I don't use the timer anyway.

When you first turn it on, set it DOWN to the lowest temp it will go. It will heat up, but it will get there and not put a strain on your electric box. From my past experience, the huge commercial deep fryers would gently heat the shortening in small short bursts instead of just going all the way through. You should do the same. Get it up to that minimum temperature (about 150 degrees F), then step it up 10 to 20 degrees (when the green light goes out). If you have trippy weak breakers (like we do) we put the fryer on a low-use circuit and try not to blow a breaker. I've been able to step the Bravetti up to 350 degrees successfully without tripping a breaker in about 30 minutes or less.

One thing to look out for before using it for the first time is the position of the temperature probe. I think the most trouble people got from the Bravetti is due to the placement of the probe. Again, from my EXTENSIVE experience, you should not have any temperature probes near your heating elements! When we got this out of the box, I noticed the probe was snack up against the heating element! Bad! I noticed that the metal bracket that held the probe extended across the heating elements and had a spot in the middle with nothing in it. So before I turned this unit on for the first time for cooking, I worked the probe out of the bracket it came in and put it in the middle between and away from all heating elements. So instead of detecting the heat of the elements, it would be able to tell the true temperature of the actual oil.

Considering how well this fryer has cooked and produced not-greasy results, this was the right modification to make.

Ours has a black reset button in the back, and other people who reported problems noted that even after utilizing this button, their units stopped working completely. Another owner noted that there's a thermal fuse inside the control panel as well. I will keep that in mind should our unit fail to heat up.

The manual recommends not using solid vegetable shortening, but if you really want to, melt it ahead of time before putting it in the fryer. Not a bad idea, but I think we'll stick to liquid vegetable oil.

So there you have it, some helpful tips for you in case you want to consider a Bravetti fryer.

Fun with photography

	Someone give me a Lolcat for this.
	First time trying to put more than one picture in one post. Across the street, the people got some sort of notice and they kinda disappeared in January or February. Last month, the owner finally came around to see a mountain of garbage left outside. This past week, it finally got cleaned up.
	Does this look like Jimmy Hendricks? If the locals have this kind of talent and skill, I'd like to see more creative things. ^_^

ePSXe - free Playstation Emulator

I'm going to recommend this for people who like to play their original
Playstation games on not a PS2 but their Windows PC. When you manage to
gather together the pieces you need, it runs rather well, amazingly.
There are specific plugins for various graphics cards, but for ours I
had to use one of the generic plugins. I finally got the right audio
plug in and the Cardcaptor Sakura Tetris game I got some years ago
finally works on something we have. If you wanted to run this on a
regular PSX not from Japan, you needed a chip or other modification,
which I do not yet have. (We have 2 PSXs around here, the 2nd needs a
new spindle motor... Hmm...) Kagero Deception 2 doesn't work right on
our actual PSX but is playable (with the right controller) on the
emulator. I use ePSXe with the GUI front end.

Today in the mail I got my imported Sabre Marionette J Battle Sabers
Playstation game from Japan - and not just the game, but the limited
edition with all the goodies! There's the 3 mini figures to slip onto
the controller cord and the collection of 20 pieces of original art made
for this game. It's an actual pressed copy, people!

That makes me wonder - why don't video games based on anime that comes
out here get brought over and translated? Very few games arrive (DBZ),
but then there's the tons that don't. Magic Knight Rayearth, Ranma 1/2
(we got one but not the really good one), Sailor Moon, Tenchi Muyou...
Of course, lots of these games are for older systems, so I can see why
some of these things don't get licensed. At the time these anime were
big in Japan, systems like the Famicom, Super Famicom, and Sega systems
as well as other unusual names like PC Engine and the like, were popular
in Japan. At the same time, we'd have our version of the Super Famicom
and Sega's systems, and not to forget Atari's 64-bit Jaguar... (Why was
Tramiel so down on the Japanese? They could have made killer games for
it, but no, he looked towards Europe, where Atari was big, like in
Germany, but I digress)

Years later here, we'd have Playstation, Nintendo's later systems
(though their Wii should be able to play all these games if someone
would ever take the time to figure it out), and Xbox. Some systems we'd
never see (What was the Japanese equivalent of Turbo Grafx?). The game
we'd want to play are for unsupported systems, and nobody's going to
bother with unsupported systems. We have to go the import route.

Still, there's a lot of Playstation games that Could have come out here
while the licensed anime and manga were initially being produced. Sabre
Marionette J is one of them.

But man, Dreamcast games on Gigabit disks. You need a Dreamcast and
other hardware to copy these things, and a lot a fiddling with them that
the average person will never bother with. I wouldn't even bother
because that'd mean having to buy hardware I don't really care about.
Sony was smart with their game CDs. Heh.

Tip: to play an import Super Famicom game on your SNES, get needle nosed
pliers and break off the tabs in your cartridge slot carefully. That's
about all there is to Region Coding that Nintendo did with that system.
Do Sega games have region coding? I know PSX games do, but there's ways
to work with that. Original Gameboy games don't!! I should look into
import anime-based Gameboy games and put them in my Super Gameboy
accessory for the SNES. Did this come out in Japan?

I wonder how Japanese fans of Mach Go Go Go are feeling about the Speed
Racer movie coming out here.

Someone on the net does understand

While perusing Usenet, I found this post...

"... Asperger's just means you don't instinctively [comprehend] social
protocols the way the rest of humanity does subconsciously. It means you
don't read nonverbal communication in the way that most people do
without being able to explain how."

True.

"It means you tend to overfocus on a handful of interests and relate
everything back to those interests, thereby being a frustrating person
with whom to converse."

OMG. With me, it's also that I can't talk to people unless it's about
anime or one of my interests. I can't get interested in stuff that I
don't care about. It's important to other people, but I can't be made to
care.

"It means if someone wants something from you, they have to actually say
what it is instead of dancing around it and assuming you'll guess."

OMG YES! Ladies, if you want something from me, and it's the same thing
I want from you, then you go ahead and tell me outright. You'll be happy
and surprised at what comes after. I promise.

So in the end or is it?

So in the end, I ran out of time. I could not find free legal help that
would file the appeal. The local community legal aid office said they
couldn't get involved because they hadn't been involved earlier. Well,
f---! I didn't NEED legal help until now! What the hell use is free
legal help if they're not there when you need them!

I spoke to one lawyer, details of which I think I already posted. I
ended up not calling the pro bono guy, but might see if he can do it for
a wrongful termination lawsuit against the store. I mean, if one
unemployment review commission officer found in My Favor... You see
where this is going? Emotional distress, Humiliation... My pain and
suffering should be worth something and they should pay and be punished
for their crimes against me.

As for "paying back" the money I got... I dunno. I can get a really good
0% deal from my credit card, but I'll need to call them up about this
unusual transaction so they'll clear it. I also wonder if the state
would ruin my credit rating or what else they could do to me in attempts
to collect the money. I have at least 2 phone calls to make. If I go the
credit card route, I want that sent Registered Mail.

I want to keep up the fight but part of me wants it over. The store won
a hollow victory against an unarmed opponent. I don't know how Rick
Seigal can sleep at night. He better keep looking over his shoulder
though. You never know what will come after him.

This whole thing was nothing more than a personal grudge to get rid of
someone they didn't like. EMPLOYEES OF GIANT EAGLE STORES: DO NOT BUY
ANYTHING IN THE STORE WHILE EMPLOYED THERE. YOU WILL BE FIRED.

I have a few personal policies:

1. Don't Trust Management.

2. Don't Date Co-Workers.

3. Don't Shop Where You Work.

4. Don't Talk to Customers.

5. Customers May Not Always Be Right, But They Are Frequently Stupid,
Arrogant, and Self-Righteous.

You can't fix Stupid.

Trying to get ahold of that guy

It's been a week since I got that letter about SSI (as well as the phone
call) and I still haven't been able to get him on the extension nor has
he returned my call. I've left 4 messages none returned.

I may have to physically appear at the office which I don't want to have
to do.

What's it mean for me to have Aspergers. I think I should look at that.
The job I had at the restaurant was because I was the right person at
the right time. It had nothing to do with experience or skills, they
just needed a warm body. I was there for 10.5 years and I had the same
schedule and the same days. I got no benefits like a paid vacation, so
taking time off for Anime North was actually painful in that I wouldn't
get paid for it, and they pretty much came up with excuses why they
wouldn't offer paid vacations to any of their hourly employees. I kept a
blog (before there were blogs) of annoying and stupid customers which I
shared among my friends. It was our private joke and my way to blow off
the frustration in a job which the general public affected how much work
I had to do. By the time the corporate people found it, I was beginning
to burn out at the job anyway. I had not promoted the page, nor did
anyone get mentioned by name, but there was no negotiation. They
couldn't have gotten rid of me for quality of work, so they used
whatever they wanted and they could - it was not a union shop.

Giant Eagle in Louisville, OH run by J&J Foods, and by Rick Seigal, was
even worse. I took whatever just to get my foot in the door with hopeful
quick transfer back to hot foods. But that never happened. I was around
the general public. Rick claimed he had "issues" with me but was never
willing to come directly to me to see if they could be resolved.
Register training was batted about but I kept getting lies why I wasn't
given the opportunity right away. Eventually I did get it, and showed
them why I should have gotten it sooner, but still got denied in a
transfer back to the kitchen. Eventually when some little unusual thing
I did came along, they concocted a story and used lies again (they lied
to me and they lied to the state unemployment compensation people) to
fire me. They brought no evidence, the people who called it what they
did were not even direct witnesses to the incident, which is
frustrating. I was there, everyone else who called it what they did was
not.

I had problem dealing with the general public and in turn people I found
distasteful, disgusting, annoying, and stupid. People I did not want to
be around or have to deal with. I fail to understand why they didn't get
someone like me away from the general public and into a position like
hot foods where I would NOT be around customers. I have 10.5 years
experience in that regard. I was denied a transfer when they moved one
girl out of there to the front end, claiming there was no position open.
Wait a minute - you just created an opening moving a girl out of there,
why can't I get that opening? LIES, you see. When Management doesn't
like you, you get crapped on.

Rick Seigal is an uncaring asshole. He fears people smarter than him.

So the last 2 jobs I lost because of Aspergers - people find excuses
unrelated to the quality of my work to get rid of me. I also have
problems finding work and getting past the interview which I hate doing.
I got a job with the Soil Conservation Service mainly because I was able
to demonstrate what they wanted done and there was no interview. What do
you want done? Here's how I would do it and presto I got the job when I
could demonstrate exactly that I understood what they wanted and they
saw I could do it. I have never had an interview like that since and
those kinds of interviews are rare. Let me show you what I can do before
you trash my application or resume.

anywho, I cannot fight the unemployment compensation people because I
lack the resources and haven't been able to find a lawyer to pro bono my
case. pRick won against an unarmed opponent. I also don't have the money
to "pay back" compensation I originally won, but then got screwed out
of. I don't know how that jerk can sleep at night.