USB Maxtor annoyance

So last night I decided while doing things with the Maxtor USB hard
drive to copy off the Maxtor directory, but then decided to compress the
copy of that directory on the drive itself. I was using the rejuvenated
Pentium 4 tower with the slow USB ports.

After some data movings around, I suddenly got a shocking message:
"Delayed Write Failed" OH SH----!

What? What does that mean? Is my data safe? I get control of the drive
again. I check my directory - AAUGH! IT'S BLANK!

Ok, don't panic. This is a PC with Windows. I can get the data back. I
finally dig through the net on the 'puter downstairs and find a free
data recovery program.

As it turned out, I didn't need it. I was able to eject the drive and
restart it and my stuff was still there. However, I got that DWF error
again while just Preview viewing a 736K image, so either the drive now
has some sort of error, or there's something going on in addition to
just reading stuff. I ejected the drive Again, plugged it back in and my
stuff was still there.

So what causes Delayed Write Fail?

In my case, I'm blaming the USB controller in the P4 tower. I keep
getting told "This Device Can Perform Faster" and I know there are no
high speed USB 2.0 ports so I definitely need a new PCI USB controller
card. Sometimes the memory cache in the controller on board can get
corrupted which also contributes to this problem. This can happen during
large file transfers - but it happened the first time for me during a
large Write, then again from a Read. I might need to use CHKDSK or maybe
Defrag as well.

Some work arounds I found included using a filter driver to limit the
memory cache usage. This means slower transfers, but they're pretty slow
as it is.

Turning off Write Caching makes sense, but then you also have to turn
off System Restore Monitoring for the drive. Still makes me wonder what
it was writing to during a view of an image file...

Some people Disabled Power Management for their drive as in Never
Hibernate.

Still others had luck in using a shorter cable or watching where they
put it. Others recommended keeping the drive cool since most of these
external USB drives do not have cooling vents or fans. Others modified
the case to allow some air flow.

Then there was the registry tweak that worked for some but not others
(and in those cases, the drive disappeared from My Computer or was
inaccessible altogether - maybe they performed the tweak wrong?). There
was another program called Cacheset from Sysinternals (now owned by
Microsoft) that helped some people.

I'm likely going to hook my Maxtor to the 'puter downstairs and run
CHKDSK on it. Never had a single problem with that tower. I think I
should do with the data on there that I had planned to do with the other
P4 Tower and that was to burn some more Data CDrs.

Tests rescheduled

Well, I WAS hoping to get those CompTIA tests out of the way this week,
but things happened:

1. Alliance Career Center's server for the tests "crashed" and would not
be back up the rest of this week.

2. They also do not administer Pearson's tests anymore after this month.

3. So I had to reschedule them at Stark State, farther away, and on
Mondays at 10:30 am, times and days that do not work for me as well as
Tuesday and Thursday at 12:15 pm did.

So the 2nd and 3rd Mondays next month I'm supposed to be functional in
the morning. I'm usually lethargic and barely able to move at those
times.

If I fail these tests, I don't know who I could sue.

Damn.

Other life contributions from my "father"

Got to thinking and I realized that I have never gone swimming since the
summer my father ripped off my t-shirt when we were trying to go
swimming at Charles Mill Lake near Mansfield, OH. This was around 1982.

His reasoning was that I was "indulging in assholeness." (but he wrote
the book on that!) His 2nd wife Kathy yelled at him, understanding why I
would want to wear a t-shirt while swimming (if it was allowed at all),
about hasn't he ever felt embarassed about his body in public?

So, yay, thanks, "Dad." Just came over to me, grabbed ahold of the
t-shirt I had on, and just ripped it off. I was distraught. Why would a
parent do this to their kid? If it's "tough love," this was a perverted
way of showing it. I immediately left the water, changed out of what I
was trying to swim in, and sat in the car the rest of the time there
that day. His complaint afterwards was about my appearance in living
with women (my mom and sisters). Well, gee, "Dad," if you hadn't been
alcoholic, abusive, and unfaithful, my mother wouldn't have divorced you
back in 1971, while setting a pile of your porno mags on fire as we left
the house in Mount Jackson. I don't even know if that house is still
there. It might be. If I knew were it was on Google Earth.

But then getting away from you was the best thing mom did for us, for we
actually thrived. And in spite of my older sister throwing away toys and
things she thought we didn't need anymore or didn't want us to have, we
actually had stuff that wasn't broken all the time.

For some reason, I used to enjoy swimming in spite of everything. There
was the one time I got an infection of sorts from one pond I was
stupidly doing rotating flips with an innertube in and out of the water.
I still don't know how I did that. And then the one indoor swimming pool
that I did the "Nestea Plunge" as the commercials on TV at the time
showed, prompting one lifeguard (?) to ask me what the hell was I doing
and I shouldn't be doing it for some reason. I guess I didn't enjoy
pools much. Some jerk at the pool in Salem called me "88" because of the
t-shirt I had on. He had an issue with a kid my age in the kiddie wading
pool - he felt I should have to pay or something as he felt I was too
old to be in the kiddie wading pool which was free. So either pay and go
in the big pool (which I didn't want to do nor did I have the money - I
also hated the changing areas at pools) or leave, which I felt was
unfair. I mean, who the hell was he telling me what to do? I didn't know
who he was or where he came from. He was butting in someone else's
business for all I cared. (And as it turned out a lot of the crap I've
had to put up with is due to Someone Else Butting In My Business.) Could
he force the issue and remove me? Was he going to do it? In anger, I
left. Maybe I shouldn't have, I dunno.

And to think I was the same kid that on a summer afternoon with a
friend, we would wade in the creek through our small town from one end
to the other and then walk back home after the adventure of the day. I
don't do that anymore at least not without shoes on. Got a bit of a
shell fragment in one toe that eventually did come out, after a big
blister of sorts helped it out. Not fun.

Of course, the visitations weren't always pleasant. There were good
moments, some of which were on cassette tapes that my older sister
somehow filched out of my collection and made them disappear. Those in
some way were a bit treasured, but she had no right in doing things like
that to stuff that wasn't hers, an activity she still does and I wish
she would wise up and stop it before she goes too far. Hell, those 5
slide trays of images... Still makes me mad.

Anywho, early on when he was still in one apartment near that big park
in Salem, they had a swingset of sorts. It wasn't fastened down so it
tipped over too easily. If I was able to tip it over and set it back up,
a feat a kid would think pretty darn cool, for as a kid there's few big
objects you can move around like a swing set, then what was the harm in
that? So anywho, for a short while I played like that. If I swung too
hard and it fell over, I just stopped and set it back up. No harm in
that, I thought.

I don't know at what point my "father" saw this going on, but there was
one point I saw him suddenly racing around the corner of the house and
slipping his belt off his pants to beat me with it. I have NO idea what
I had done to earn that abuse - I thought I had been playing with the
swing set all this time. Surely he saw me set it back up more than once?
I wasn't doing it on purpose - knocking it down just to set it back up.
What did I do wrong? I don't remember what he said as he hit me. He
might have explained what it was he saw and the reason for the
"discipline," but he could have at least opened a window, asked me what
I was doing, and either tell me to be careful or stop doing that. But
no.

I don't remember what happened after that beating, but I do know I
didn't play with the swingset after that. Hell, I don't even know if it
was theirs. I don't remember seeing anyone in the apartment below
theirs, in that green house as I remember it.

As I would say today - Dad, WTF?

He had problems with people laughing. There was one incident my mom
tells me that they were somewhere, either had friends over or something.
They were out on a patio. He goes in the house for something. While he
was gone, the husband of the other couple (might have been family or one
of my father's brothers and his wife - not sure unless I get mom to tell
me this again if she still remembers it) tells a joke, and they all
laugh at it. My dad happens to return during the laughing, smacks my
mom. The other wife, astonished at this abusive outburst retorts at him
with "Crail, I was laughing at that joke as well. Are you going to slap
me, too?"

As if they were laughing _at him_ while he was gone. He could have asked
what was so funny and have the joke re-told. He used to like jokes. He
told some himself. I guess laughing at jokes he told was OK as long as
he knew what people were laughing at. If he told a joke we understood,
that is.

Mom said while they were in Youngstown he came back from work one night
(or something - why does a married mad need to go to bars?) and rushes
in closing blinds and turning off lights, claiming the Mafia was after
him. In total disbelief and thinking that was crazy talk (which it was),
she opens a window and yells out "He's In Here!!" which unfortunately
earned a beating from him.

It's stuff like that over the years that just builds up. He's had mental
problems, and I've received some of the abuse because of that. And he
wonders why I don't talk to him much anymore.

Maybe later I'll include the story of the fan he pushed out a window for
no reason.

I guess they were free for a reason. I can't imagine what that was.

So anywho certain varieties of Frosted Mini Wheats had this offer for
Free Movie DVDs from Fox and MGM. You collect 5 tokens you cut out and
the order form on the inside of the box, choose a movie (1 per order
form) and Kelloggs sends you a DVD. Only the choices were movies I
really didn't care for - I'd rather have a coupon for a movie from any
store or something. There were 4 sports selections (not interested) and
4 comedy / romance movies. I chose 2 of those that seemed like they
wouldn't be so bad even if I still really didn't care for them.

I sent that off back in June or July. They arrived today.

So I get them in the mail. I was expecting "oh wow" nice DVD movie cases
with inserts and all sorts of the usual. Instead I get cardstock
envelopes. With the movies inside each one. And the DVD is in an
envelope as well.

Problem here is the DVDs have suffered during their interment in the
envelopes. There was no soft protective liner for the data side so the
edges of the paper inside the envelopes upon which the disks touched
show signs of being touched. At least put the data side toward the front
or top side of the envelope where the flaps don't meet inside the packet
and can't touch the data side!

And there was some lint or dust already on the disks.

I got 'Benny and Joon' and 'A Walk in the Clouds' (with Keanu Reeves -
it can't suck that much with Keanu, can it??). I figured those were the
least suckiest movies they had to offer.

Kelloggs is nice in that they offer this sort of thing for people who
bother to do it. If I had saved all those tokens we had previously from
various sources, I might have been able to order 3 movies, but the
selection isn't that great. If I didn't see them when they were new,
what makes them think people will want to see them now if they haven't
already collected them?? A wider selection or at least something to
redeem at Best Buy would be better.

And if they must insist upon a limited selection, at least work it out
with the studios to provide not enveloped DVDs but instead a nice case
with a firm grip on the disks.

But hey, the cereal was good and with coupons and store discounts, it
was less than $1 a box. (I had that many coupons!)

Ponyo!

Took two of my nieces to see Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea.
Only 1 movie theatre is showing it in my area.
They're squinting because we just left the theatre where it's
darker in there and it was bright and sunny that day.

May end up buying another copy

I tried to get my Win98SE box to do something with that bad disk, but
the drives and the software I was using kept locking up when it
encountered those parts of the DVD. So unless there's a DVD burner that
can handle disks like that really well, and I ran into one drive that
seemed capable but I don't have access to it right now, I might as well
re-buy that disk in a single pack release...

Update: I did go back to re-buy TM GXP 18-20 and this time the copy
was just fine. I've decided to snail mail the defective disk to Fu-nimation
so they can get an idea of what got through their Quality Assurance
checkers. If they reciprocate in any way, which I don't expect, it'd make
my day.

Cheap (?) Anime at "fye"

So after a small group of us went to see the Ponyo On the Cliff By The
Sea dub (it was actually pretty good), we went over to the mall and
looked around there.

"fye" (For Your Entertainment) formerly Camelot Music, sells anime.
However, they were doing a sale but you have to actually look to find
the deals. Some (but not a whole lot) were indicated as $7.99 "on sale"
and up. Some were not. It's also a store that will buy and re-sell
previously owned Anime DVDs (among others). Buy 3 of the Orange Sticker
DVDs and get a 4th free. (Those are usually the used ones.) Geneon
titles were Half Off, but I guess nobody told them they have to compete
with online stores like Right Stuf. I laughed at the prices on ones I
bought for so much less.

Anywho, we got to looking around the store and I started seeing one
section, anime DVDs mixed in, but with $4.99 stickers on them. Kiddy
Grade, Tenchi Muyou GXP... Ah, their Bargain Bin. And so I get to
looking a bit closer. One Kiddy Grade DVD was rattling, so I made sure
not to buy that one.

I settled on a 2-disk TM GXP offering. But when it scans, the price is
suddenly $2.97. What the heck? Well, I wish there was extra signage or
something to let me know that was the real price. I'd have bought a few
more.

So moments later I'm opening up the package, and one disk like pops
right out. Oh. The Funimation promo booklet sorta kept it from moving
around a whole lot, so there's a few scuffs but nothing major.

I get them home, and playing them just before getting to post this, the
loose disk plays just fine. The other disk...

Well, my Maggie recorder played it fine up until 6 or 7 minutes before
the end of the disk, then it began jumping over bits. I should have
realized something might be wrong because there's a Profiles thingy
under Extras, and all it does is load pictures with text to read. The
other disk these loaded fine, but they wouldn't with this disk. I eject
the disk, no hairs, try to play, it screws up in the same place. Hmm..

I get it out, and look closely. I see 3 little areas where the plastic
didn't quite get a perfect seal when it was stamped out. 3 little air
bubbles or something formed during manufacture. You can see the ridges
of these areas. The reflective coating went on, and here we are.

My Toshiba DVD player was able to load the Profiles section, but there
was obvious data errors as it tried to load one page of graphics. It
wasn't able to play much of the preview trailers (The Kiddy Grade
trailer especially, but it was the only one I tested), and I got to see
up to just under 5 minutes left of the 3rd episode before the player
jumped to 1:45 before the end of the episode. I just ejected it and
might try making a backup with the computer. It might not read the disk
any better, but here's hoping. At worst, I just buy another single copy
of the disk with episodes 18 to 20 on it, since they also had single
disk volumes of TM GXP, one that also had the some of the same episodes
as the 2-disk offering I bought. (Though I wonder if Funi just
repackaged their single disks into this 2-disk set and maybe their other
copies might also be defective? It's happened before...)

It turned out to be a crap shoot. One disk I thought would be bad was
good, and one disk that should have been good was bad, near the end
anyway.

Though I haven't tried that disk in my Cyberhome recorder, Cyberhome
player, Mickey Mouse DVD player (useless anyway), nor the Zenith player
which usually plays anything it recognizes (though there's a couple bits
in the Charile and the Chocolate Factory DVD it has problems with which
used to play fine I thought). Already tried in my Apex, and I need to
tighten the data cable as it connects to the laser assembly.

KikiWai in Toronto closed

Saw a mention of it in rec.arts.anime.misc...

When someone said Kikiwai had closed, I was shocked, but a little not
surprised. Some of their stuff was overpriced.

http://kumai.wordpress.com/2009/01/17/kikiwai-toronto-closed-because-of-rodents/
http://i42.tinypic.com/11jps0w.jpg

This page discusses this and the photo illustrates what they're talking
about, linked from that page.

I shopped at that store during our Anime North stays from 1997 to 2006,
when we went to Chinatown in Toronto, and Chinatown Centre as well as
Dragon City. Though in those later years, Pacific Mall was really the
place to go. I bought quite a few nice anime goodies from Kikiwai, one
item bought from them over eBay.

But to move the store to Hong Kong and not Pacific Mall at least??

Kikiwai is where I got this photo of a stainless steel reproduction "lunch kit" of Shampoo's Nekohanten takeout box from Ranma 1/2. They wanted $120 Canadian for it. I resisted taking out a credit card that year, and I still regret not buying it.

And I've not seen another like it! T.T

UPDATE Nov 16, 2011: I finally landed on a Japanese Ranma 1/2 fan's blog and discovered this item is an "OKAMOCHI" or a Traditional Japanese food delivery box. As it turns out, this was a special release with a CD single, 5 tracks on it.  So now this is known as the Nekohanten Okamochi. It's not stainless steel - there's balsa wood on the inside, and only thin aluminum on the outside. It's 30 cm H x 22 cm W x 25 cm deep.

Josie & the Pussycats DVD review

I keep wondering where Big Lots keeps getting these blowout priced DVD
sets. I was in a local store yesterday to see (and grab) the Original
complete Josie and the Pussycats series on DVD.

Now, I know there were more than just 16 episodes, and a search turned
up a mention of the JATP in Outer Space, which is the series I probably
remember. Sadly, there doesn't seem to be any plans to bring this to DVD
just yet. I hope it does happen, however...

This original series set is on 2 DVDs. One is Dual Layered, while the
other is Double Sided. This was to make sure they could include an extra
about Dan DeCarlo, the artist who drew Josie and related characters.

I don't exactly think much of double sided DVDs. I'd rather have an
extra single sided disk so we get nice silkscreen printed artwork on the
back. They could have done 3 disks, 6+5+5, and put extras on all the
disks!

As far as the mastering goes, I feel this was a rush job. When you load
the main menu, the music you hear that begins playing sounds like they
forgot to speed correct the content. In fact, you hear this problem
throughout the episodes, like someone had a really bad copy or the
playback equipment wasn't working right. It's a shame they didn't work
from restored film prints (must have been broadcast masters), because
there were bits of dirt and scratches as well. They must not have wanted
to spend the time and money to digitally remove these defects. A shame,
really.

And from what I read, there was an actual band they came up with for
JATP, and some records were released. So in addition to restoring the
video, the parts where the band's music was featured could have been
restored or remixed to include a stereo soundtrack. The whole thing is
in mono, which is a shame if they didn't keep all the original studio
voice recording.

The extra about Dan DeCarlo was very good, though the volume was lower
than the rest of the content.

$3 was a very fair price for this 2-disk set. Now if only the JATP in
Outer Space would get a nice restoration and release, I'd be happy.

Trailers on the 2nd disk included those for Popeye Vol.1 which does look
like they did some cleanup restoration. As a kid, I remember these
animated shorts being on local TV stations on cable, and after being run
so many times really showed their age. And another promo that caught my
eye was Tom and Jerry Vol.3. An exciting note is that while the promo
was not widescreen, they say the cartoons are presented in their
original letterboxed widescreen Cinemascope aspect. This is very
exciting to me because I've wondered for years what we were missing.
When they were on Cartoon Network, Tom & Jerry got a widescreen
letterboxed presentation for credits, but then they "descoped" it for
the actual cartoon. Seeing them letterboxed as they were first shown in
theaters would be a real treat. That promo really should have shown us
the difference to really appeal to fans.

Though I wonder if the Droopy animated shorts got a letterboxed
release...

As for criticisms on the Josie stories, I'll leave that up to others.
Yeah, I know they pale in comparison to the comic books or perhaps
anything you see in anime. It's the "retro" idea that shows like this
are being put on DVD at all! There are some we may never see again
unless they are run on TV for various legal reasons (artist compensation
and the full gamut of that stuff). ALF, for example, was released on DVD
but only by using a lot of the edited syndicated tapes. For some reason,
something happened to the original NBC broadcast masters. I'm glad I
have tapes of that. ^_^

Fraud alert: Ideal Savings Voice Mail

We opened our phone bill this month to find it oddly over $50 which is
rare for that to happen. On one page for 3rd Party Billing was a listing
for $14.95 from Ideal Savings VM Monthly Fee, added July 4th. We do not
recall signing up for this service. So far in all our time this is only
the 2nd time some company tried to illegally slam charges on our phone
bill.

So I called the toll free number associated with Ideal Savings Voice
Mail and got some guy, probably from India (or in India) and spoke to
him. He tried to make it sound like we contacted them or accessed their
service in some way and signed up. I denied that. If we had signed up
for their service, how come we don't have any letters or documentation
explaining things? Or a number to call our so called voice mail service
and how to use it?

He tried to sell me on other services, I just cut him off by saying
we're not interested in anything, we're offended this happened. He
promised to cancel the service and gave me a confirmation code, and said
the refund would appear "in 1 or 2 billing cycles."

As soon as I got off the phone with him, I called our phone company and
put a 3rd Party Billing Block on our account. Seeing as they handle our
long distance as well, that solves that other problem. As long as the
refund from Ideal Savings comes through, they have done their job.

Examine your phone bill closely every month!

Obentou deshi

Shrimp teriyaki bentou at A1 Steakhouse was very good!

Surprise added bonus was shrimp off the teppanyaki grill, which I didn't order.

There was some discussion between the cook and the waitress who took our orders as to what she actually wrote compared to what we ordered and that he couldn't read her writing. ^_^

See you on TV!

This post keeps disappearing when I send it to SpatulAnime ML

This had better get through. I'm trying to prove a point. My 2nd post on
this subject did make it through first. Odd, ain't it?
Posted by: "zshadez"
"From everything I can see the series is called Mai Otome, typing
something into google and getting results does not equal proof."
You're not looking hard enough. and Um, yes it does, because if there
were no info to find, Google would not find it.
Proof follows. (re: said Google results)
Mai Oto-hime Zwei
2 min 26 sec - Dec 17, 2006 -
Mai Oto-hime OVA:Mai Oto-hime Zwei ??Hime OVA?Arika Opening
www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHl-W-OGzek
Mai-OtoHiME
List of Japanese animated television programs, Mai-OtoHiME.
www.animated-divots.com/mai-hime2.html - Cached - Similar
Mai OtoHime pictures by Hamaniel - Photobucket Search for. images videos
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mai-otohime :: 36.jpg picture by Aki_925 - Photobucket Photobucket
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pictures and photos or upload your own with Photobucket free image and
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s71.photobucket.com/albums/i143/.../mai-otohime/?...
I think that's pretty overwhelming proof.
Purists from the Japanese edition use Mai Oto Hime, even if it gets
incorrectly romanized at Mai Otome.
Do I need moar proof? (I had this same exchange with Gary Brown of the
Rep over the spelling and subsequent non-issuance of a correction of the
spelling of the name of 'Yuki Onna'.)
The kanji for this series has with romanized letters for Hime.
But I digress.
The Mai kanji has a Spahn Hadamitzy look up of 0a15.1 and means "dance"
or "flutter about."
The kanji for "oto" means "sound" but that's not the kanji used here.
It's "otsu" - 0a1.5. This means "second (in a series)" or in another way
"B".
Combine "otsu" with the kanji for "woman" and you get "maiden" (the 2nd
woman) or "otome." It Also combines with Hime to read "Otohime" which
means "younger princess."
So you have Mai-hime and Mai-Oto-Hime, and there's Mai Oto Hime Z.

Though, Bandai has been known to make errors in translating titles.
"tenshi no shippo" means "Angel's Tail" but they mangled it when they
brought it here as "Angel Tales" which it is not.

The evil sister is gone... for now.

She finally left. It took her 3 weeks to do what she said would have
been done in one.

The ceiling has wallboard on it, but the molding that goes around isn't
finished, nor moved up to the new height of the ceiling. There's
painting that also needs to be done, and if my other sister who said
she'd do it doesn't come out soon enough, I'll do it in spite of
protestations that my mom doesn't want me to do it because she doesn't
think I'll do as good a job.

I paint figure models. Nuff said.

The ceiling fan is mostly up. There are a few missing screws for the
wings of the fan, so right now there's only 2 on it (balanced so it can
at least be used - I'm not stupid). I'll have to find replacements at a
hardware store. I'll need to shim one more side of it so that it won't
wobble anymore as the fan operates.

Mom said there were discussions between the kitties all night and Negi
is hiding at the moment.

I slept well for once last night but I still have this overall body
pain. I hope some ibuprofen will help.

I'm also trying but having problems trying to register and use an
account on Pearson Vue's website in order to buy testing vouchers and
schedule the tests. The main problem is getting the account. They don't
let you set your own password right off the bat. Last Monday (before the
end of July) I began to create and register an account. When I got done,
I was told I would have to wait "one business day" for the email I was
supposed to get with my password or some such link to begin using my
account and schedule my CompTIA tests.

I waited until Wednesday to check my email on the address I gave them
for this. No email from Pearson Vue. Checked Friday. Still no note. So I
tried to access my account, and for some reason their system keeps
thinking I want to change something. No.. I want to access my account
for which you never sent me the email about the password! Oh but I did
get 2 emails in regard to changing something in my profile with them,
but I wasn't trying to change anything! And to top it off, I still can't
get past that page about logging in and telling me my password is
wrong!!!

I tried to register an account yesterday with a different username, and
used the same email address. It still would not let me do anything. I've
sent off 2 emails to their customer service detailing the problems I'm
having and expressing frustration. I never got their email about the
password and can't do anything past the log in screen and being told my
password is wrong and I'm not trying to change anything. I just want to
log in to see about scheduling my tests and try ordering the testing
vouchers I need.

I don't know what the problem is.

Negi is safely back home

I had been annoyed by Negi's behavior all day since he went into the
over grown field across the railroad tracks after last night. And in
spite of my pleas to come home, he just refused to have anything to do
with me.

At least until tonight. During an episode of Anthony Bourdain, after I
finally finished cooking supper, I decided to try luring him out of the
field and back over here with a can of catfood I bought earlier today.
Negi decided to appear at the edge of the field, somewhat interested in
possibly coming closer, but threatening to disappear into the over
growth if I got "too close" for some odd reason. Even though this is the
cat in our household who visits me on the toilet in the bathroom in the
morning and insists on me grooming him with the comb I got for him to
reduce his shedding elsewhere in the house.

So, exasperated that he was doing that, I decided to just leave the open
can of food on the stairs on the back porch, and went inside.

A few minutes later, I decide to go check on things and there he is.
Negi has decided he's hungry and is eating the food. Though after trying
to creep up on him to possibly grab him (he ran back under the damn
porch again when I did), I noticed he hadn't eaten a whole lot. He just
got there before I checked on things.

But this time, it was different. I came prepared with his shedding comb
in hand, because I know he loves this. So I sit there on the steps, call
to him, and make noises with the spring mechanism on the comb.

It takes a while, but he comes out. Negi decides he wants to be groomed.
^_^ After getting him relaxed, I get him close enough and I'm able to
get a hand under him and he doesn't struggle to get away. I grab the can
of food and we go inside.

Some time not much after that, Negi resumes occupying his roost on the
couch and tries to fall asleep.

And just to show this temporary jaunt outside hasn't changed things, I
heard the cats have a "discussion" while I was typing this. So, no,
Marmalade and Negi still aren't the best of friends.

hhhnnnnggg.... T.T

So anywho I get told that Negi was heard from across the railroad tracks
this morning. So he's not under the porch anymore. WTF is wrong with
cats when they get out of the house? They suck up to you inside, but
outside act as if they don't know you at all.

He'd better damn well come back.

Got ahold of one

Sitting out on the back porch steps and clapping my hands got Marmalade
to come out of hiding under the porch, but Negi... I don't know what's
wrong with that cat once he gets outside. I do know the longer he's out
there, the harder it will be to get him to come back in. I tried opening
a can of food, and even a small bowl with milk in it, but if I were to
try to position myself to attempt to grab him, he moves away, even if I
just brush an ear with a fingertip, and he's fast. Rage.

He better be there in the morning ready to come in.

And I'm still pissed.

You can't imagine how mad I am right now

So my sister has been working on the ceiling and as is her habit, she's
left the door open to the kitchen a lot today.

A while ago, after having to prop open a window with a plastic container
because we don't have screens in the kitchen, I discovered Negi had
gotten out, but for some reason the stupid cat wouldn't just run into an
open door.

Then after getting upset and pissed about that, I noticed I can't find
Marmalade either.

Work on the ceiling is getting done

Anywho, my older sister is still being bitchy.

Mom is bitchy for no reason. A harmless comment about our dog going out
to the kitchen to see if I dropped anything after I got my breakfast got
an undeserved reaction and I had to exasperately tell her to knock it
off, you weren't listening, etc. Not everything I say is a complaint
about something.

I found out this morning the paper towel holder I spent money on got
broke yesterday, and nobody bothered to say anything or replace it
(yet).

Side benefit for stripping the ceiling in the kitchen is that it goes up
about 3 inches when it's done. 3 inches thick of various layers of
ceiling material.

And so in addition to having to pay property taxes next month, I have to
contribute to the $130 to $140 of insulation that was bought for the
project.

I'm not going to have that money for a couple of months with having to
pay property taxes, which I feel are a crock and a ripoff. You buy a
building, you pay taxes on the sale. And as long as that property sits
somewhere, you continue to pay taxes on it. However, if you're
delinquent for long enough, they can take it away from you to pay for
the taxes. You don't ever own anything of that type of property that's
entirely "yours."