Where did that urge come from?

For some odd reason, I got around to making 2 blueberry pies today,
single crust version which had to be put back in for a longer bake time
so the cornstarch had a chance to set up and jell with the juices. Then
I got to finally cutting the free head of cabbage into two pieces (it
weighed 2.5 pounds) and shredded one half and used a slaw dressing
recipe we found earlier this year for a purple head of cabbage that when
it finally had a chance to do what it did, tasted like our favorite
Marzetti slaw dressing. I might use a cup of Blue Cheese salad dressing
in place of the light mayo to make that missed variant of Marzetti's
product. I had to put celery seeds and salt on separately because I
don't have celery salt. I might try shredding a couple carrots and add
them in. I used Dijon mustard instead of the standard Yellow stuff and I
think it has a nice flavor. The other half of the cabbage was also
shredded and I'll make and freeze some okonomiyaki with that.

Then for some reason I made a couple pizzas from scratch, dough in the
bread machine and all.

Things I miss are having Mom tell me she wants the expensive Pepperidge
Farm stuffing and looking for a cheap turkey, around $10, and then
making the sweet potato dish that she likes but I find inedible. These
past 3 or so years I produced nice looking roasted turkeys, cooked with
a golden brown color and roasted so long and slowly that it fell apart,
with every bit juicy and delicious. Then gathering up the juices and
making a nice smooth gravy (or grane' if you like) with a tablespoon or
two of sifted flour. No, you don't need a special Gravy Flour for this!

Then a couple of years in a row, I made delicious Shwarma sandwiches
(thanks to a dear friend for the spices) with the leftover turkey. Oh my
we all loved those!

I might get around to roasting the chicken I got last week, and making
the chicken stuffing, along with a toned-down green bean casserole once
I figure out how to french fry some onions. If French's can do it, I
should be able to as well. I still have a can of cranberry sauce sitting
in the cupboard from earlier this year. Man, the price of cream of
mushroom soup at WalMart is twice what Aldi's charges.

But every time I think about how mom would have liked those pizzas and
what I'm not doing this year, I break down and sob. I didn't even get to
say goodbye. I wasn't even invited to dinner anywhere. I don't know if I
would have gone, but it would have been nice to be invited all the same.

The holidays at this time of year used to be fun, but for some reason at
some point, I don't know when, it became a pain in the ass and
depressing. It's not Seasonal Affected Disorder. It's something else.
With mom not here, it's even more depressing.

Important Announcement

I hope to leave this up long enough for people who need to see it can
see it.

I have plans to turn this blog private, viewable by only by those who
have an invitation. This is something I can do and I should have
implemented it a long time ago, seeing as how recent events has shown
how the privilege of a publically accessable blog has been abused twice
so far.

I do not intend to see it abused any more.

If you wish to continue being able to read my blog, you probably know
one of my many email addresses already - so please drop me a note with
the email address you want the invite sent to. That way I can let my
most trusted circle of friends still read the latest and yet keep out
those who really have no business seeing what I have to say, and I can
control and track if something gets leaked to people with untowards
intentions.

I will wait long enough to gather the list, which I don't expect to be
long, and then do what I need to do. I'll confirm the sending of the
invites and hope people keep up on it.

I'm sorry, but it has to be done. The number of people I trust has
drastically been reduced as of late.

Mystery solved

People may not agree with what I post here or what I have to say, but nobody has a right to tell me what I can and can't put here. This is my blog, not yours. 1st Amendment rights. I know who was responsible for trying to hijack my blog with derogatory comments that were completely untrue. Be careful what you accuse people of being - it can be considered slander and you can get sued for it. So unless you have proof of what you're claiming, you hold your opinions to yourself. You don't know me at all, and it's your loss. You can't see past the end of your nose.

So we see someone's true colors and I see the real reason in place of what I have been told instead. Someone is obviously spreading rumors about me that are untrue, and I demand to face my accusers to find out where they got their crazy ideas about me. People are believing completely untrue lies about me without even asking me about them!! Is this fair?

I can always let the courts decide whether or not something harmful is happening...


PS. After talking with my older sister, what it likely is this: People see me, see how I act, and something bugs them but they can't quite figure it out what it is. So they come to an incorrect conclusion without even trying to talk to me and find out what's going on in my head at any given time. I can't control that. I don't even know what I'm doing that makes people treat me like that. If I could figure it out, I would take steps to fix it.

Maybe I will go...

but I'm not ready to commit at this time. At least they could have impersonally lied to me and said they just had too many people and they're just asking people to take a break or something. Which isn't altogether a lie, but at least partially truthful. The personal attack wasn't necessary, and I felt the points made to me were weakly supportable.

Dealers, for all intents and purposes, rarely get to see staff members taking an actual interest in what they're selling. They go to several conventions, and each convention staff has different "unwritten" rules, but it seems it's up to each individual interpretation whether it's "privilege" or "abuse" depending on whether or not they like or hate someone and how far up the echelon they are. It's not like in Canada where dealers who can be from the U.S. actually do have to wait until actual operating hours of the dealer's room, because in that case they're employing Canadians and not touching any money in the transactions.

Most dealers realize that staff members, once a convention goes into full swing, will have practically no time to visit the dealer's room because they'll be so busy dealing with what events they have going. So any time a dealer sees staff taking an active interest in what they're selling, there's no way they're going to pass up what might end up being a guaranteed $100 in the pocket, cash money in hand.

I've been to Anime North enough times to be practically on a first name basis with many dealers. Anime Pavillion used to go there until it just became an annoyance just crossing the border. When you see the same dealers often enough and buy as much as I have, they remember you, know what you want, and if you've been reliable enough, they count on that sale that makes their weekend when they bring something you will be buying, something they hold back from the Great Unwashed to make sure you get your first choice.

Once again, being a person with Asperger's, I got "bit in the ass" because of people who don't understand why I am the person I am because they don't know me at all.

Asshats need not apply

I will be moderating comments made to this blog from now on.

This post has been restored, because fuck it.

I don't need to put up with treatment like this:

Subject: Re: Colossalcon Staff Review

"The criteria for this decision is based off of several factors with the first being your going into vendor's room and shopping on Thursday night."

In my defense, I was invited by one dealer who knew me well. I was of the understanding that other staff members were also given preferential treatment. I didn't feel comfortable in there, but nobody seemed to think there was a big problem with it.

"You were scheduled to work in the video department, yet you barely spent any time in the video rooms, or really doing any sort of video/programing work all weekend."

On the contrary, I was there as needed, in fact more than others. But the thing is while I was given duties to do, other people already did them for me, which I was annoyed by. So if I was given things to do, why take my duties away? I was to do set-up, but Tim and a few others were
doing that instead. I don't know why they were doing what I was supposed to be doing. When I tried to let them know they were all like no we got it. Whatever.

"This is a repeat of a pattern of staffing behavior from the previous years you have worked at the convention,"

Apparently you do not know what I had done for Colossalcon 2008, when I had nobody else to f-ing help me the entire damn weekend. I ran all 3 video rooms practically all by my goddamn self!! In fact, the room that showed Gunbuster2 I had to sit in on, not just to change the DVDs, but to keep an eye on the equipment. Adam himself even acknowledged that the computers keep freezing up due to bad RAM. It was a nightmare that whole weekend having to keep tabs on all the video rooms because of that and I will say this again I HAD NO F-ING HELP. Everyone else that year took off and did other things.

You know what? I bet you spoke to one guy that came from Michigan, you know with dark hair and glasses? He made some curry thing that year. He doesn't like me.

"You did spend a lot of time cooking in OPs which in and of itself is a liability"

NOT TO MENTION OTHER PEOPLE IN OPS COOKED AS WELL. So it must not have been much of a liability, or did you send notes to them as well? This point in invalid.

"but you cooked with seafood, forcing several staff members to leave operations and unable to perform their jobs because of their food allergies."

I cannot be blamed for not knowing who is allergic to what. This is not my fault and I refuse to allow you to blame me for something I had no prior knowledge of. It is not fair and you know it! Everyone there did their best to make sure there wouldn't even be an odor left over. When
we were all informed of this after the fact, we knew how well we had to clean up the area and how soon it all had to end. I had a friend in grade school who couldn't even attend on days the hot lunch was fish and he was quite allergic.

This is something I did out of the kindness of my heart, I paid for it all, and I did not ask for anything in return. Nobody told me there would be any problem with that. If you have a problem with that, I'm sorry you feel that way. But it's unfair to go lump this all together and use it against me in this way. It was not an unsanctioned panel either.

"Again, this shows a level of disrespect to fellow staffers,"

What about the amount of disrespect I had to put up with? I wasn't sure I felt like helping out this year because of 2008. I got really shit on that year.

"This decision is based off of feedback from the various department heads, the convention chair and myself, the vice convention chair."

I'll bet it's based off the opinion of 3 people, the way it sounds like to me. A lot of those people don't even know what I did. A few people don't like me, and I guess that's all it takes, doesn't it?

"That is an attendee, which you are more then welcome to be, and we hope you enjoy yourself as one."

I took my responsibilities at Colossalcon very seriously. I had nothing but the best intentions of the convention.

I have to laugh at this whole thing. I got fired again. Just because someone didn't like me. It sounds [like] much of this is personal issues though.


comments:
Didn't you get a vibe that Chibi Jae had some kind of problem with you anyway?
I say go ahead and go to CC, but don't staff, don't volunteer, don't do any panels. Don't lift a finger to help. Just go as an attendee and to hell with trying to help out if they don't like the way you do things and won't communicate with you in order to help you understand what's "OK" and what's "not OK".

Blogger Mrshoujo said...

Not only Jae, but Tim, and one guy from Michigan. I have a shot of him on tape so I can grab it and show people. Adam called me just now, and we discussed the points and problems. I wouldn't mind it if I did panels. There's at least 3 I can think of wanting to do. Much of this seems to be to be a point of view. Certain people do it, it's "staff privilege" but other people do it and they don't like them, then it's "abuse" and "inappropriate." Doesn't that theme sound familiar?

11:16 PM

"Not only Jae, but Tim, and one guy from Michigan."

And that one woman, the one who I think was in charge of the Masquerade a couple of years. I got the vibe she wasn't too fond of you, either.

"Adam called me just now, and we discussed the points and problems."

I'm curious about his take on the situation. Adam knows you a little better than the others, and he outranks everyone except Donnell at the con, IIRC.

"Certain people do it, it's "staff privilege" but other people do it and they don't like them, then it's "abuse" and "inappropriate." Doesn't that theme sound familiar?"

IE: Let's get rid of the "creepy weird guy".

11:28 PM
Delete
Blogger Mrshoujo said...

The lady in charge of the masquerade in past years doesn't like most people in general. If they do their job, she's got no beef. I never dealt with her at all. As far as Adam's take on things, you'd have to discuss it with him next time you see it. He has to sort of back them up on this, but his take was we had way too many people on staff, so if I didn't get the hours I was supposed to, there isn't much to be done about it. I didn't know who was in charge of setting up the video rooms anyway.

11:33 PM

Finally, an answer

So I called tonight to DirecTV to find out why I'm not getting local
channels, Cleveland or otherwise.

It's because the technician who came out to replace the dish didn't
replace my box, which will be HD Capable, but will still work with my
analog TV. The nice lady looked further into my problem and figured out
my receiver box was not the right one.

Still it amazes me they couldn't adjust the signal from their end or at
the box so I wouldn't need a new receiver.

It helps to laugh at corporate "wisdom"

So anywho, DirecTV was so desperate to have me take an upgrade to my
equipment because there was going to be some sort of change in the way I
was going to be receiving my local channels.

OK so I get the dish upgrade, my receiver stayed the same.

What they failed to mention until later was that for some F-ed up
reason, there was some stupid 2004 law or FCC rule, what have you, that
required satellite TV providers to carry local channels based on ZIP
code. What's more picayune is thanks to Nielson Media Research, they
narrow it down even further to where you live in your ZIP code.

OK, Who the Hell Made Nielsen the f-ing god mother of all media crap
that allows them to say which local channels people get?

In my case, for all of my life that I've lived in my ZIP code, Cleveland
has been our market for "local' channels. Nielsen for some reason seems
to think we should be getting Youngstown stations. OK, I'll go with that
AS LONG AS THE REST OF THE ZIP CODE PEOPLE IN OTHER COUNTIES ALSO HAVE
TO CHANGE AS WELL!! Screw you, Nielsen Media Research. Your Data Is In
Serious Error.

I've never watched Youngstown stations for important stuff, except for
Browns games that were blacked out in Cleveland when they were on our
cable TV system.

So anywho, today was supposed to be the big switch. Cleveland stations
disappeared from my channel line up. I waited all day, and no other
locals have appeared on my service. No Youngstown, nothing.

If things were just left alone, I'd still have my Cleveland stations and
I wouldn't be complaining. As it is, I called DirecTV, and the nice man
on the other end tried a few things, but my channel guide still goes
from 1 to 71, 74, 77... No Local Stations. At ALL.

Now, I hate Cable. The continual rate increases (what mom would call
their Yearly Christmas Gift because that's when it happens) really left
a lot to be desired, plus being charged "regulatory" and the illegal
local kickback "franchise" fees really pissed me off. And yet I can get
local cable and they'd STILL have Cleveland stations. Due to stupid FCC
rules, however, they can't carry stations like WPGH in Pittsburgh even
though everyone around here with an antenna could, nor WTRF in Wheeling
though it and Channel 9 in Steubenville were practically like a way to
test your TV because they came in without much of an antenna at all.

I'm going to look into what I need to set up a way to receive those
digital TV broadcasts. I've been told the reach of these signals are
twice what analog was, so it should be interesting to see what I get
here, in spite of predictions by that government website.

In short, I'll probably be dropping DirecTV in March like a lead balloon
because of this crap. I really should make an effort, though, in seeing
what free over-the-air digital signals I can get.

I just have to laugh.

Figure kit photo set on Flickr

At the request of a Sailor Moon forum post, here's some pictures of my recently completed figure kits. I finally finished all those outstanding kits. I wish my mom could have seen them now.

Long John Silver's in Alliance, OH is OUTTA HERE!!

All you selfish people in Alliance - You will have No More Free Food from LJS. They apparently and finally got wise to your scamming ways. Much of my existence, from the time the store had opened until the time I was fired is chronicled earlier on this blog and here. 10 and a half years to the day, literally, I suffered at the hands of customers, and management from time to time as well. Some of the people I worked with were decent people and worked as hard as I did, but to my credit, I worked harder than most. This was a job that at times was kind to me (easy enough to get time off for going to Anime North), and at times was cruel (was still making under $6 an hour after all that time and no paid vacations!) as well as the stupid customers that we all had to deal with. It was that page that for some reason I still don't know how, but corporate LJS found and decided to filter a communication of sorts down to the franchise and the very store and they demanded I be fired, never mind that they didn't sign my paychecks! It shouldn't have been up to them at all - my manager at the time knew how hard I worked and how many times we scored 100% on quality because I was the day time chef. I want to take credit that I was ahead of the times - I was the first person I know of who was fired for having a page (before there were blogs even!) griping about the crap at work.

If I had known how Gordon Ramsey had handled complaining customers, I'd have had more pride in my work, but seeing as how I have Asperger's, it's amazing I had that job as long as I did. I had nothing else. I couldn't think of doing anything else even though I have a good background in computers, now qualified with my CompTIA A+ certification.

	In this first image a friend sent me, you can see how all the signage and any outside decoration has been removed. At one point, while I was there, they had been offering Rax sandwiches. Soon after I left, they dropped it. I wonder why. Also I had a friend who still worked there, and they drummed up some bunch of bullshit lies and used it as their excuse to fire her. She was fired because they didn't like her. Plain and simple.
	As the image caption shows, the drive through sign has been cut off and removed. Please see my page of stories about how that drive through lane was the bane of the store.
	The drive through window and related signage has been removed. The store had undergone some remodelling a while back. The ceiling was painted black, and a self serve pop machine had been installed.
	And finally, the road sign has been reduced to a stump. I think this is a sure sign the store ain't open anymore.

Congrats everyone. I'm not sorry the store's gone. I feel sorry if anyone lost their jobs though. Kinda interesting that the store closed 5 years after I was fired from there. I think the lease ran out and Performance Foods, the owner of the franchise store, didn't want to renew it.

Tendou noren from Ranma 1/2

As I thought, about 7 minutes into Ranma 1/2 episode 9 are a couple shots of the noren used in the Tendou house to the kitchen. This is the noren I want to make. It has a simple geometric design with squares. It should be easy to make.

One Stop

Currently over at One Stop waiting for my BVR appointment and decided to post something since I got good network reception here.

An Eureka Moment

I will be able to finish my 2nd Bunny Makoto figure kit after all. She's supposed to get these fishnet stockings on her legs and the kit came with some material for making these. Only thing is I don't know how to make them without a pattern, and I don't know how to do that in general.

So I decided to check the dolls I've collected over the years and sure enough, I found a doll with fishnet stockings that work on my kit's legs! In case you're wondering, it's the Schoolgirl Britney Spears doll. I may replace those with the customary Loose Socks at some point, but I don't typically have a doll like that on display, and the fishnets look better on a work of art.

My problems on using them include painting the parts and coating with a clear coat so when I put the stockings on, the paint isn't rubbed off. Then figuring out what to drill to add pins to hold the shoes on her feet, and finally how to keep the stockings on around the hip of each leg as they get superglued on the rest of the body.

I don't have to wait anymore. I was kinda hoping to find a doll sewing pattern for making these things, but all I managed to turn up from a short search were places selling pantyhose accessories for 12 inch fashion dolls.


Re: The Car dropping dead

Even after tightening the bolts for the wires, I still had the episode of the car dropping dead when trying to start it today when I went to get the Sunday paper. Only this time it came back to life a few times (still refused to start though) before I went and popped the hood to check the battery and all and only then did it start. My brother in law thinks it could be a loose wire to the starter or a dirty connection somehow somewhere. After I looked at things again, it could be the positive terminal shorting by touching the inside of the front hood as well. The red rubber cover for the positive terminal has cracked. I don't know when this happened. So I'm going to see about insulating that terminal better tomorrow. I did try his suggested cleaning of the wires and terminals with water and baking soda though. If it's a loose wire, I hope it won't cost much to have it tended to.

At least I have AAA Gold membership.

Noren

What is a Noren?

In Japan, this is a divided curtain hung to divide a room, cover a doorway. It's usually used outside restaurants to show they are open for business. In a Japanese home, though, a decorative noren is hung at the top of the doorway to the kitchen.

Why am I bringing this up? I'd like to get one or at least make one. I was able to find a shot of the one used in the Tendou house in Ranma 1/2, if I remember right it's about 7 minutes in during Episode 9, first season. Something like that. I can check to make sure.

Right now we use a clear shower curtain in the doorway so as to keep cold air from coming in here from the kitchen. I've even found an image of a Ranma 1/2 decorated noren, though I'm sure those are impossible to find if you want to buy it. I could play with the image I have and enlarge it...

Some noren are long, like down to the floor from the top of the doorway. Some are short. I prefer a short one. It's been something I've been wanting to figure out. First part was getting the word of what it was I wanted.

It's very easy to sew one though. Might end up making one or at least having someone who can use a sewing machine make it. I think I have the pattern I found. Wait, it was a webpage. I should be able to find it again.


Tomorrow will be one month since mom passed away. Damn, time passed too quickly.

Things this week

Having a few of those solar-power charged LEDs, I notice that when it's been a sunny day, my lights are nice and bright like they got a nice charge. Not only that, but I notice all around when other people's lights also got a nice charge and are nice and bright. I see them all around, even in one cemetary nearby, especially when they're nice and bright.

After a few weeks, yesterday I came to realize that Mom was pretty much bored being house-bound here. I don't know why we didn't like ask my younger sister to borrow her van and once a week or something and take my mother out with her power chair thingy and do something like eat out or go to a movie, at least before she had to be on oxygen all the time. I'm sad to realize now that it's a lost opportunity.

Which explains why mom spent so much time online with Pogo and her email. She read a lot because you can watch TV only so much before you realize that after seeing programs you kinda like, there's not much else on.

I've also come to realize and understand that in some anime episodes where there are people working on their own cars (Miyuki in Taihou shichauzo, for example) almost all the time. They're making sure the right bolts are tight and that it's always ready to go.

That's because last night I went to visit a friend (he treated me to dinner) and I brought over my DVD of The Rockafire Explosion documentary. Only after I helped him with a tricky printer part I went out to start up the car and it just dropped dead. No lights or anything, even when I had my Open Door light lit up. So I popped the hood, jostled the battery, and it started right up. I was uneasy for the rest of the evening, barely enjoying the latest Ghost Adventures on Travel Channel. I would have to wait until morning to find out what was going on, but from experience, it would involve some connection to the battery.

As I checked the battery after it got suitably warm enough, I see that the bolts to the positive terminal that hold the wires on are loose! So I get my wrachet handle and socket and tighten all the bolts on both terminals that hold the wires. This could explain the recent cold morning starts, but I don't excuse the battery entirely. It still doesn't like winter temps. But the car started no problem, and after losing power, my check engine light is out again. (niko niko)

The fruits of my labors

I've been busy.

Just one more piece

Officemax advertised this week they were selling SanDisk 16G thumbdrives
for a mere $39. Compared to other makes, this was $50 off list price. I
could not pass this up, so I went out today to get one, as well as
getting pet food. All I need now for my P4 tower is a suitable IDE DVD
burner and I'm good to go to make more DVDs from my video files.

I treated myself to a couple $1 burgers from Burnit King on the way
back.

Also I really should post a video rant on Youtube about Coke's latest
attempt to rip off people. What this entails is their new "100 ounce"
packaging. This is 2 50-ounce bottles which sells for about $2.50 to
$2.80, depending on where you buy it.

Consider that a 2 liter bottle is about 67.6 (rounded up to 68) ounces
which are frequently sold for a $1 a bottle, you end up just over 32
ounces ahead and save about a dollar on average if you buy 2 2-liters.

100 ounces for $2.80? or 136 ounces for $2?

The only time I will buy something like this is when there's a coupon
being offered, which I saw at Marc's. Buy One Two-pack, Get One Free.
Wow!!! 200 ounces for $2.50! It's about 62 cents a bottle that way.

Really, though. This dual-bottle thing should not be priced more than
$1.75. I don't understand stores that charge $1.89 for a 2liter bottle,
$1.25 for the 20 ounce bottle, but then have pop machines outside that
could have cans for 50 to 75 cents a pop or the 20 ounce bottles for the
customary ripoff $1.25, which if you're going that route would be best
to go because - ta da! - you don't have to pay sales tax on a vending
machine pop purchase!!

I've seen 20 ounce bottles even go as high as $1.35, but then in THE
SAME STORE (Dollar General for example) sell 2 liters for less than
that. If you're going to undersell the 2liter bottles, why not lower the
price on the small bottles as well to something around 75 cents? I've
seen places offer the 16 ounce bottle for 99 cents. Well, gee, the 2
liter is one more penny!

And I tend to drink Coke Zero, and for some reason the product in the 2
liter bottles tastes better than the stuff being put into the 50
ouncers. I don't know what's going on with that.

Coke, wise up or your 100 ounce packaging option will die like New Coke
did. Lower the price to what would be sanely considered a reasonable
value. If I can get 136 ounces for $2, then 100 ounces shouldn't be more
than $1.75. Maybe the extra $$$ is in there because of the extra shrink
wrap and tape used in the packaging to keep the bottles together? It's
just stupid anyway.

Pricing on pop is just crazy anymore. It's also sad when you can buy it
cheaper than water.

Hope to post a photo of my completed Bunny Makoto #1 kit as well as
Bubba's Princess Tutu, painted as interpreted by me. I just need a good
accurate color guide for Chibi Urd in her one-piece strapless swimsuit
and I'm good to go with my new "0000" size liner paint brush. I had to
replace the fine liner one I bought some time ago because the hairs fell
out when I tried to clean it. It didn't have a size designation number
on it, something I discovered when looking for a new brush. The 4 zeroes
indicate how fine the tip is, and it looks like it will work out. I
wanted a 100% real sable hair brush, but I had to settle for a blend
with synthetic materials instead. I wish mom could have seen it
completed, but she did see the pictures of the original figure I found
one day on 4chan which prompted me to order it from e2046. I need to
find a way to heavily weight down the base so she won't fall over.

Watched House tonight, then got to thinking how mom's missing it, as
well as the last of the Harry Potter movies she was looking forward to.
Oh man... I keep telling Melody that mommy's in the hospital and keep
waiting for her to come home. I don't know if or when she'll show signs
of grieving. Some animals do.

Yesterday I burned some of the waste wood that came out of the kitchen
ceiling project. Damn near filled the burn barrel and let it smolder
overnight. Went out this morning to see the barrel practically empty. At
least that waste wood pile is about half gone. Had to move it away from
the fence post so it won't catch on fire again. (oops)

Still trying to get by

Dammit. Got my CompTIA A+ Certificate in the mail yesterday. Why could
have this arrived sooner??!!?

Still have no idea what is going to be done with the utilities and all.
At some point something will have to be done. I've done all the
notifying to the lady at J&FS about stuff and looks like I will be able
to reverse my hasty decision about Medicare Part B.

I'm still in shock mode. I find it hard to feel emotions, like some of
the positive ones I used to feel a few weeks ago. Both Melody and I are
still "waiting for mom to come home from the hospital." It certainly
still feels like that.

After watching for what must have been the 3rd time of Sam The Cooking
Guy "Just cook this!" in Hong Kong, I finally got motivated to do his
basic Fried Rice thingy he showed.

Basically, heat a wok on Medium high (I used the nice non-stick skillet
I bought last year, it's sorta wok shaped and all, but at least it works
on an electric stove), and then get your vegies ready.

Julienne (cut into small short strips) vegies like carrots so you can
put them in first. The more hardy of your ingredients should be put in
first, and carrots fit the bill there. Heat for a while, put in a little
oil, canola or peanut, whatever you like, and let that begin to sizzle.

I put in some green pepper strips, cut up some celery that way as well,
and put in some Taco seasoned pre-cooked beef crumbles. Sam put in some
bacon, but I didn't have bacon on hand. I bought a pouch of that beef
stuff when we visited the local "rescued food" stores around here and
saw that and it wasn't too much.

Then I chopped up an onion, and eventually remembered the mushrooms. Sam
used fresh mushrooms which I don't doubt would have been awesome, but I
had a small can of sliced mushrooms anyway.

Now, the trick to fried rice is to use day or 2 old cold cooked rice.
But before you put any of that in, get 2 eggs ready by cracking them and
stirring in some soy sauce (light soy is fine) and a few drops of sesame
oil. Sam advised not to use too much as it is overpowering.

Put your cold rice in and then pour in the egg mixture and just stir for
a while until you can judge that the eggs have cooked. Used in this
manner, the eggs moisten the mixture in your wok or what have you and
produce a really nice aroma.

In fact, any time you have to cook some rice, make some extra for fried
rice the next day or so after that. I had some in my rice cooker insert
from the last time... I cooked sweet and sour pork for mom earlier in
October...

I had the fried rice with one of those larger noodle soup cups, shrimp
with tomato and garlic flavor. It was a nice meal. Mom would have liked
the rice.

stuff and today

Finally cooked that kick-ass macaroni and cheese I had planned to do a couple of weeks ago. Had some of the New York White Cheddar that Aldi's has been offering lately and put some in.

Conducted some business of paying a few bills today after cashing my check. I couldn't figure out how to log into the account for the electric bill so I just sent something along with a note so they can send paper bills in the mail again.

Also left the computer running during a download that would take a while after I started it with the plans to be back just as it would finish. As it turned out, I got back just in time to see the computer finish reloading after restarting for some reason. My file finished downloading, but I have no idea why the computer would restart about 7 minutes later. I found one page that 'credited' the use of Firefox for this phenomena, but I'm not so sure. I hope the RAM isn't going bad, but then I've had it on for hours without a problem, so I have no idea what to check and find out what's going on. I certainly hope it's not the power supply. I can replace it, but having to buy one is going to be a bitch.

I don't have a download manager or accelerator in use that would contribute to XP restarting, and all other bits I found to check do not indicate there was an error that required a system restart. There's likely something else I've not checked yet, if only I knew what to check. Firefox dutifully restored my tabs when I asked it to come back into memory. (shrug)

Edit: I found out around 3 pm today that it was the wind blowing the power lines around that caused a hiccup in the electricity, as I saw a light flicker and the answering machine beep right then and the computer rebooted. So after the computer came back up, I shut it down and waited for the winds to stop. I had another hiccup around 3:50 pm, so I was glad I shut things down and waited. I checked the hard drive for errors and all seems well.

Mom is back home, sort of

My younger sister finally brought back mom's ashes today. We picked out a nice green marble urn for her. I just anticipate paranormal things happening, since it's been documented before that such things can happen. If so, I want mom to try to get in touch with me because I'm sure there's more stuff she needs to tell me that's important.

I got to thinking how there's going to be one less person at the dinner table for Thanksgiving. It's going to be noticeable. I don't know if I'm going to be able to handle that.

I see the BVR people next week. Hopefully we can get something going.

In a pit

Sunday I finally did some things around here that needed done. The cat
pan got cleaned out and new sand put in. The Tidy Cat in the red lid
really controls odor, I've noticed. Also did dishes since I was running
out of cereal bowls and spoons.

Finally made the lemon and blueberry thingy Mom wanted 2 weeks ago as
the week's dessert but I wasn't able to make it because I was sick. It
turned out well. Mom won't get to taste any of it, though.

I noticed there are quite a few things around here I'm going to have to
pay for now. All the more reason to seek out a roommate as soon as
possible. I don't know how I'm going to deal with the electric or the
phone.

Nov. 12 (I hope) I meet up with the BVR people and hopefully they'll
have more of an idea of what I'm going to be doing than I do.

I've got stuff to fax and a letter to write. I hope after that I'll go
up to see This Is It at Tinseltown in time for their first showing of
the day.

Had a problem on Facebook. Someone in the feed posted how they hated
their house. So I responded in a manner I felt was OK. Then I get
someone going ape sh!t over me about it, saying oh how dare I say that,
this is my 15 year old daughter, yadda yadda. OOOh.. Kay. I had no idea
what age she was, in fact I don't generally check the age of people in
my feed. Having Asperger's, I am bad at understanding the ages of
people, generally. Anywho, she apparently was this girl's mother, and
now I understand why the girl originally posted that they hated their
house. I mean, without more to go on as to the source of the hate, I can
just guess it's because of her mother. This b!tch of a mom even went so
far as to leave me a note in my Inbox. I reported it as spam, got back
on the original bit in my feed and said so, then removed the girl from
my friends list - I "unfriended" her. Rather than put up with more of
that abuse, I removed her from my contacts on Facebook.

I generally feel that if you're allowed to Friend people on Facebook,
you're of the right age to be on Facebook to begin with. Just keep
family members off your feed. I mean, this b!tch had no business butting
in like that. So to the girl whose over possessive and over reacting mom
got on her Facebook feed, I feel your pain. I feel I said nothing wrong,
it was spur of the moment, and yet again I was misconstrued. I refuse to
take any blame.