My Grandmother's Services - last part

This happened last Thursday before Christmas, but I didn't have a chance to remember to send this to my blog until today.

Need to go see some cars???

So when the flying f*ck are people going to help me find a replacement vehicle? My older sister obviously went somewhere today and when I asked if she'd be able to take me somewhere to do some shopping, I got a summarily told No.

I need to get another bag of dog food because it seems Melody is just throwing up anything from the last half of the bag I have now, and I don't know why. I really need to get out and get some shopping done.

5th Grade Choir

For some reason while I was in Elementary school, I was pretty much pressured into (others would say I was merely "encouraged") trying out for school choir as an extra activity mainly because my older sister was in choir (I don't recall if she was in band, too, but stands to reason she was) and she enjoyed it. I don't know why, but I did. I forget which grade this started, but I know it ended by 5th grade. All the while I endured hell. I remember being made part of some PTA thingy in 4th grade if I remember right. At any reason, let me expound on the event that ended my involvement with school choir. Thankfully I was never encouraged to do anything like it ever again, not even band which as I reflect on it, I'm glad it turned out that way.

I don't remember what event it was for, but Mrs. Fugelberg (her married name at the time) decided to take a song from South Pacific and have the boys in the choir sing it, so the song then became "I'm going to wash that Girl right out of my hair." It wasn't enough just to have the boys sign it. She wanted them all to come to the edge of the stage, make hair washing motions, and then point somewhere for the next line after that first line.

I was horrified. Rehearsals were fine and dandy, but I did not sign up for this.

I was raised to respect your teachers, so I saw no alternative to not doing this. Mrs. F didn't give anyone the option to not doing it, at least right at the time this happened.

On the day this was to be performed, my stomach hurt with anxiety cramps. I don't remember anything else or what was rehearsed. Nobody really believed I was sick, but Mom let me stay home from school that day. Afterwards, Mrs. F had the nerve to chew me out over this - somehow Mom communicated how much "better" I was feeling by the end of the day. Well, duh. I got out of public humiliation over something I didn't want to do and had no other options.

Mrs. Fugelberg then tells me that if I didn't want to do something, I just had to say so! But at no time during this did she ask anyone if they didn't want to do it!!! Telling me afterwards is too late.

So for some reason, I was kicked out of 5th grade choir and I never was encouraged or pressured into anything like it ever again.

I hated school. When I was in 6th grade in town, I really disliked Mr. Swank (Junior High choir teacher) and his general attitude. He really disliked other people talking during his class, and would throw pieces of chalk at students who didn't listen while he spoke. That killed off all future consideration of choir, and the high school choir teacher I thought to be a flake.

Oh, what about Band? What if I just wanted to learn how to play an instrument and not have to deal with school concerts?

And something not exactly related, but in 3rd grade one kid invited the entire class to attend and I was the only one who didn't show up mainly because we didn't know where the kid lived nor how to find the place, in spite of my grandparents having lived in the area for some time. I remember getting flack because I was the only one who didn't show up. I didn't exactly like the kid, and as time went on, he became a real asshole anyway.

Black Friday deals I see so far

Well, once again I'm having to deal with car problems in November, but if I didn't have to worry about that, I'd be out and about going after these deals, which if I'm lucky, maybe the people I know will get some of these for me...

OFFICEMAX - 100 stack of VERBATIM +R DVD media - $19.99 per stack. I'm always needing Verbatim Media. If it's the Life Series, all the better.  If I was going out, I'd buy 2 stacks since Officemax just keeps raising the price on Verbatim media for no reason. I'll see if it's available online from them with free shipping...

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
(looks and comes back) OK NEVER MIND. Looks like the ad price is available online and with orders over $20, SHIPPING IS FREE. But if you still want to give me a 50 disk DVD+R Verbatim stack, I'm not going to stop you!

You might be wondering why I specify +R media. It's due to compatibility. -R media isn't guaranteed, while I've never had a problem with Verbatim +R. And why Verbatim? I've had consistently good results, and the only thing that would cause a bad burn would be scratches during manufacturing.

Moving on.... 

FLASH aka THUMB DRIVES. There are LOTS OF DEALS abounding almost everywhere!!

BIG LOTS has KODAK brand 16GB USB 2.0 Flash Drives for $5.88
WalMart has a SANDISK 16GB for $6.97 and is one of the brands I actually recommend.

OFFICEMAX will not be outdone as they have several offerings.
Though I recommend LEXAR devices along with SanDisk.

PNY and Dane Elec are two to completely AVOID. I bought a PNY memory card for Mom's Kodak camera and it died after only a couple of months of use!

If you don't own a few external storage devices and you use computers for lots of things, SHAME ON YOU. Burn CDs at least!!!

I did see one deal for an external USB 3.0 hard drive. I didn't look at the details much.

I do need another flat screen monitor though. I wish I had bought 2 of the Acer monitors a few years back when I had a chance, instead of the 1 I did get.

I see not too many places still offering Winx Club dolls. I guess that was a summer flash in the pan thing? However, if I could just find the Monster High werecat twins... 

Of course, aside from my car working like it's supposed to again, a trip to Japan is always high on my list. Mainly because the one thing I really want is one thing I can't get.

I guess it's time

I need all the thinking heads I can get, all the help I can get - because I've decided I have to get out from under Mom's 1998 Kia Sephia. After the repeated failures earlier this year, and the recent shifting oddities I've been experiencing for the past few days (off and on), I want to be able to drive a car that won't cause me so much anxiety about it leaving me dead on the road away from home. I can't take that stress any more.

Now, I realize the trade in value for my car may barely be $1,100 on a good day. I'd like to consider a car that's $3K if I can get that much, otherwise $2K if not.

Or if anyone can help me negotiate a better price (like $2,500 for the $3K car) please speak up about being able and wanting to help me. I will finance this with a credit card. I could use a 0% interest credit card check, but I have one card that has a rate under 9%.

I really hate having to do this, but as my computer services business is still trying to get started, I need a newer car. I think at this point, Mom would agree. It's time.

Do not hesitate to get involved with this process. I'd love to have it done within the next week. Tomorrow if things go right. I'll be looking for my title to the car and we'll have to clean it out.

I'm sick and tired of the problems and would prefer not putting any more money in the Sephia.

And I just put $16.50 of gas in it today... DAMMIT.
  

Wow, what a complete lack of CLASS, Time Warner!!

So, today I get the latest Road Runner bill via Time Warner. Instead of the customary bump in rate, which hasn't happened for about a year (well, how about that??), I see a notification that Time Warner is now going to CHARGE USERS A "LEASE FEE" OF $3.95 for the cable modem that they provided for us to be able to use Road Runner.

WHAT THE FREAKING HELL, TIME WARNER?

CHARGING US TO USE YOUR EQUIPMENT ON TOP OF THE FEE FOR THE SERVICE? A FEE THAT YOU NEVER CHARGED BEFORE???

OK, so whatever anyway. They do provide a list of devices that I could buy and use without that fee, and in the long run sounds like a good idea. I'd rather tell Time Warner to fuck themselves, but the options for high speed internet are limited. Frontier's high speed service isn't an option because 1) It's not available, 2) it's unreliable, and 3) it has no data.

And by all rights, if this sort of arrangement isn't in the original agreement that was signed when the service began all the way back in 2007 (I think) when Road Runner light was only $14.95 a month, then they can't just change this arrangement, right?

I need to get the service in my name, then bitch them out over this.

TIME WARNER CABLE IS JUST A BUNCH OF FUCKING THIEVES.

 
 

One says there's a mistake, the other is doing what they are told

The fingers don't know what the toes are doing. It's a saying that I made up that attempts to explain the flaws in the system.

When things go wrong, they really go F_ing WRONG

So today I decided I would get an answer to what happened to my lost $80 USPS money order.

I found a toll free number and called that. That person got me the number for the USPS General Accounting office. And here's where that person got my answer.

I filed my missing money order claim August 24. The refund was issued August 29. HOWEVER, the address on the slip WAS THE WRONG ONE. It should have been MY ADDRESS, NOT THE PERSON I TRIED TO SEND IT TO. 

AND THEN !!!!!!! IT WAS CASHED BY THAT OTHER PERSON SEPTEMBER 12. Now I TOLD her originally if that first money order ever arrived, do not cash it. DON'T CASH IT. I looked up her phone number and called it. She didn't answer, but some other guy did. I left the young woman whom I transacted with back in June (and into July) emails on one board and on Yahoo. The guy I spoke to and left a message with even says she acknowledge she got this envelope but forgot what it was about and went right ahead and cashed it!

I FIND IT DISTRESSING AND ANNOYING SHE DIDN'T RECOGNIZE THE AMOUNT OF THE REFUNDED MONEY ORDER WAS THE SAME AS THE LOST ONE.

I've left her emails giving her a chance to make things right. Either we work out a deal, or you send me Cas$h via Certified Mail.

IF I HAVE TO TAKE HER TO COURT, WHERE WOULD I FILE THIS? IN OHIO OR WHERE THIS PERSON LIVES????

So now--- The USPS is off the hook for this. They messed up, they refunded. Now I want my goddamn $80 back in some form.

And then the refilled ink cartridges that I got this week - the color one works, the black one prints with streaks...

And then I have to re-do one DVD project as it came out all messed up and the wrong audio on stuff. GRRRRRRRRRR... I still haven't cashed that $3.93 Classmates lawsuit check. I wonder how to report that?

How freaking long is it supposed to take???

This is going to be an insane rant posting.

BACK IN JUNE, I got into some online dealing with a girl in Rhode Island selling something. We came to an agreement on price. The first deal came to $80. What I was buying isn't important here. 

June 25, 2012 I bought a United States Postal Money Order for that amount and sent it off. In the envelope was a letter with details of what I was buying from her and as a bonus I included a sheet of laser etched stickers that I had no desire to keep anymore. I printed stuff on the envelope (mainly addresses) and a little square image of a character, somewhat in keeping with what I was buying from her.

2 weeks go by and she's not received the envelope. I mailed it directly from inside my local post office. It's really odd how the envelope managed to be lost by the postal people when it was mailed from inside their facilities. During that time, though, we came to an agreement on a 2nd purchase. Because of the 1st envelope's failure to arrive, I get irritated and buy a 2nd USPS money order and sent it Priority Mail with Delivery Confirmation. That arrived in 2 DAYS.

Now, let's fill in a few details. A USPS Money Order for Domestic Use is not refunded or reissused for a minimum of 60 days after purchase. I knew that and was willing to go along with that. Thank goodness I saved the purchaser's stub for this document, like I do for every money order. While I got that 2nd money order at a different post office, the clerk gave me a Money Order Trace form to help me in the process to get an idea where the 1st one is.

IN JULY, I go in to the local post office with my filled out form. Oddly, the clerk who looked at my form remarked they hadn't seen it before. I replied that I hadn't had a USPS Money Order lost before. (To the credit of the USPS, this was my 2nd ever lost envelope that I sent. I had a Free 12-pack Coke coupon not arrive for some reason a while back.) So she does a free status check by calling some phone number and entering the money order serial number. I get told there's no status on it which is good. It's not been cashed.

So I wait another month.

AUGUST 25, I go in to finally file the trace and pay the fee. I have no idea what's supposed to happen after this. 

SEPTEMBER, I finally get to thinking "Where the hell's my resolution letter or whatnot for that money order?" So I get on the USPS website, type in the money order serial number, and I get the message "Refunded." OH WELL THAT'S NICE. Thing is, I didn't have any idea this happened. I HAVE NO LETTER TELLING ME THIS. I HAVE NO REFUND. THE MONEY IS STILL NOT IN MY HANDS.

So earlier in OCTOBER, I go in to find out what's going to happen next. It must have been old info on a webpage, but I'm supposed to get some sort of Resolution Letter that tells me what happened to that lost money order. I don't even have that. So I go in to ask what's up. I want my re-issued money order. The info I found says if you don't have anything, go in to find out what's up. The website says it's been refunded, where's my refund?

I GET TOLD: They don't re-issue them at the post office. They assured me I would get something in the mail, likely a money order made out in my name.

IT'S BEEN 4 FUCKING MONTHS, AND I STILL DO NOT HAVE MY $80 BACK.

HOW LONG IS THIS SUPPOSED TO TAKE? WHERE IS MY GODDAMNED MONEY, USPS? WHO DO I HAVE TO CONTACT?

I did find the address for the USPS Consumer Advocate, and I may send off a letter about this ridiculous crap and hope to get some resolution. I feel like Michael Banks from Mary Poppins in wanting his tuppence back.

What a morning!

Woke up to 2 things I don't need. Constipated cat and the power out.

boku no ofuro

Dekimashita nyo!

aggravations

So this is the first post now that Google forced the new user interface design on everyone. I don't see the need to change anything because I could already get things done. I don't understand how this makes it better. It's much like a cat food product changing the design on the bag, which the cats eating the food won't give 2 shits about. It doesn't need to be changed.

ANYWAY...

While working on the Black Lady resin kit, she has these earrings pieces that were formed on a piece or square of resin. I do not have the skills to release parts like that off the resin as they were cast. I tried to slice one earring off only to have the blade slip and cut it into 2 pieces which were quickly lost. So with the other earring, I finally have a plan, once I found it again. I had been cleaning up trying to find it, and here it was safe all this time.

The plan of action - using sticky tape, I form walls around the edge of the resin piece the remaining earring is on. I light a candle and get some wax melted in liquid form, and once I get enough, fill up the form over the resin piece - thereby creating a wax mold!

Now, I've already tried using filler putty to fill in one mold (I can create as many as I have to), but it did the odd thing of not wanting to actually fill it in as I've already experienced. Apparently it's more for contours and not filling. So I tried some Elmer's glue and it almost worked. What I need is resin.

I'm not sure what supplies exist around here for making a resin casting such as the kind I'm trying, so I resorted to using the resin in Fix a Windshield. The only limitation is that it needs to cure in direct sunlight... But at least I'll have something!!

 ALSO: When I chose the printer and computer I wanted for my business, I forgot that I did not choose a monitor. I could use something that can do at least 1024x768, but if anyone has a spare 18.5" LCD monitor, let me know.

This might save me time

I ran into an AVI that didn't want to render as a DVD file right as it came out looking corrupted when it wasn't, so after reprocessing in VirtualDub, I have an optimized file. The thing I'm trying is if I can process it like the rest of the original DVD (same bit rate and all), and after it's set up with its set of DVD files (IFO, BUP, etc), can I just rename it, insert it over the bad files and have a new fixed DVD without having to re-generate the entire disk. If this works, it may save me a lot of time in the future, provided I haven't created another project before playing the one I need to fix.

Additional: I found out that I should not copy the IFO or BUP files, just the VOBs. At least that's what I'll try next time.
 

Shock Me lyrics translation and explanation of bits

I'm putting this here due to drama going on elsewhere. This is practically my final say on this translation.

SHOCK ME!  

Translation and roumaji by Andrew Floyd

Shock me Shock me
Shock me Shock me

草木も 眠る 丑三つ に あいつが空を   飛んで来る
kusaki mo nemuru ushimitsu ni aitsu ga sora w(o) tonde kuru
Even as plants go to sleep at midnight, he comes flying in the sky

tonde kuru - present progressive form. the sky is the direct object. It would also be correct to say comes flying through the sky. The precise use of the sky for flying is not exact. We know things can both fly in and through the sky.
kusaki mo nemuru ushimitsu ni - mo is even, used for emphasis that even plants sleep at midnight. ushimitsu ni - at midnight, ni meaning to indicate a specific time the plants sleep. note that the verb nemuru comes before ushimitsu. It makes the first part a relative clause.


十字架なんか かまえる暇ない でしょう
juujika nanka kamaeru himanai deshou
I guess I have no time to set up any kind of cross

juujika - cross, nanka - something like (derogatory), kamaeru - to set up
hima - time, himanai - no time. deshou - I think, I guess, Probably


やさしい愛がすべてだと 誰かが言っていた けれど
yasashii ai ga subete da to dareka ga itte ita keredo
Though someone had said "a gentle love is everything,"

yasashii ai ga subete da to - this is a quote, set off by "to" and the use of the verb itte. it was said by dareka. itte ita - past tense. was said, had said. keredo - but, however, though, also indicates this line is a clause. 'to' in this context does not indicate condition.

このままいけば 純愛 なんか吹き飛ぶわ  
kono mama ikeba jun'ai nanka fukitobu wa
If things go on as they are now, something like pure love will be blown off.

kono mama - things remain as it is now, ikeba - the if or when form of iku - to go.
fukitobu - to be blown off, to blow off. wa - female sentence ending.
This sentence appears to use an adverb of time, so it's not much of stretch to give this a future tense in English.

まして相手はすご腕のドラキュラよ Tokyo だって壊すのよ
mashite aite wa sugo'ude no Dracula yo Tokyo datte kowasu no yo
Not to mention my companion is the almighty Dracula! He'll even break Tokyo!

mashite - not to mention, aite - companion, sugo'ude - almighty. kowasu - to break. datte - even, also, too.


炎 のように 燃えるまなざしで 私 を ああ 誘う
hono'o no you ni moeru manazashi de watashi w(o) aa sasou
With a look that burns like a flame, Aaah, he invites me

The present tense verb moeru before the noun manazashi makes that part the dependent clause.
hono'o - a flame or a blaze. Fire is a different kanji even if it also means a flame or a blaze.
no you ni - so as to be like, moeru - to burn. manazashi - a look. sasou - to invite, seduce, or tempt as suitable definitions. Depends on the mood you want the translation to have.

Shock me Shock me  

黒いマントに 秘められた その魔力 伊達じゃない
kuroi MANTO ni himerareta sono maryoku date ja nai
He was able to hide in a black cape so his magical charm isn't showy.

kuroi manto - a black cape, himerareta - past tense potential form of himeru - was able to hide - himerareru - can hide, date - showy or flaunted.

Shock me Shock me

できることなら これが夢だと 信じたい
dekiru koto nara kore ga yume da to shinjitai
If it's possible, I want to believe "This is a dream."

dekiru koko nara - if it can become possible. kore ga yume da to - this is a quote and a dependent clause, someone putting words to their feelings. shinjitai - I want to believe.

伝説の夜だから
densetsu no yoru dakara
Because it's a legendary night


見つめられると魔女になる あいつの罠が待っている
mitsumerareru to majo ni naru  aitsu no wana ga matte iru
He can gaze at me and turn me into a witch. His trap is waiting.

mitsumeru - to gaze at, the -rareru suffix makes it 'can gaze.' 'to' - and, linking the next thing in this part, majo ni naru. To become a witch. It's acceptable that the singer turns into a witch because Dracula is able to gaze at her and make it happen. matte iru - the present progressive of To wait, is waiting. This is also sometimes matteru. aitsu no wana - his trap.


冗談 じゃない 虜になんかならないわ
joudan ja nai  toriko ni nanka naranai wa
It's not a joke. I won't be something like a captive


だけど相手はミステリアスドラキュラよ マジックだって使うのよ
dakedo aite wa Mysterious Dracula yo Magic datte tsukau no yo
However, he is the Mysterious Dracula! He can even use magic!

妖しい ほど に なれた 手まねきで 私 を ああ 誘う
ayashii hodo ni nareta temaneki de watashi w(o) aa sasou
I became all the more suspicious as he beckons with his hand  Aaah... (and) invites me.

ayashii - suspicious, dubious. hodo ni - to be as _ as, all the more. nareta - became
This explains why the singer isn't a captive. The ever dashing Dracula is supposed to be a ladykiller (pun intended) and looks for women to be his guest for the evening. In the end, he zucks zere bluud.

Shock me Shock me

サイコロジック オールバックに まとめた 黒い髪                                                                                
psychologic All Back ni matometa kuroi kami
His black hair collected all together in the back makes me swoon.
His black hair collected in a 'psychologic' all-in-the-back style

"Psychologic" here is definitely a borrowed word from English, but it doesn't mean the same thing. It indicates that his hair style is intended to influence her emotionally. As we see by the next line, it definitely has an affect.

all back ni - this is used for a name of the "all back hair style." matometa - collected, gathered together, the paste tense of matomeru.


Shock me Shock me  

口づけたなら その腕の中 溶けてゆく
kuchizuketa nara  sono ude no naka tokete yuku
If he kissed me, I'd melt in his arms

満月の夜だから
mangetsu no yoru dakara
Because it's a full moon night

Shock me Shock me  
Shock me Shock me

Shock me Shock me
Shock me Shock me

世紀末だわ 引きさかれた バイブル 地に落ちて
seikimatsu da wa  hikisakareta Bible chi ni ochite
It's the end of the century.  A torn-apart Bible falls to the ground. 

Shock me Shock me  

もう戻れない これが運命と 感じてる
mou modorenai  kore ga sadame to kanjiteru
I can't go back again. I feel "This is fate."

伝説の夜だから
densetsu no yoru dakara
Because it's a legendary night
 
This is my work, and anyone saying otherwise is delusional and needs to get some psychologic help.

Handbrake seems to work!

For a while, people have been touting one piece of software or another for converting MKV video files to other formats more compatible over all. Up to now, I had been using MKVToolsnix to figure out the streams in the file, MediaCoder to tell me the stats of the audio and video streams, making an AVI, then go back extracting the subtitle data, and using AVIRecomp to make a hard subbed AVI.

However, I can use hard subbed MP4 video as well for my purposes. And until I tried Handbrake, I would have stuck to my AVI process.

Here's how to get compatible hard subbed MP4 video.

1. Install VLC 1.1.8 - at least this version for some reason. One guide recommended it.
2. Get Handbrake's install for Windows.
3. Install .NET Framework 4 for Windows (it works on XP). This takes a while but once you have it, you're done.
4. Minimum video resolution for your display for Handbrake to work is 1024x620, otherwise it will complain.
 5. Get a damn MKV. It can even be the 10-bit crap floating around. It's best not to have OGG audio, because it doesn't always convert right. AAC and MP3 work just fine.

Now, you'll have to tell Handbrake to automatically rename the new file with the new extension and where to put them. This is under something like Tools - Options.

Once you have an MKV file opened in Handbrake, here's what I've found works very well for me:

Source Title 1. Length change to Seconds, 0 to (end). The end number will always be the maximum length of the file in seconds. You do not want Chapters.

No need to check Large File or Web Optimized (which is for the h264 profile anyway), but if you need it Web Optimized which allows for progressive download and play, go ahead and check it. I have not checked this, but I do have files like this.

OK, now into the bottom box for things.

Video - Size 720x400. Keep Aspect Ratio. Anamorphic: Custom. Modulus: 16 (It's 16 by default anyway).
Display Width 720. You can't change the rest of this column. Cropping - Custom, but set all to 0, which is the default value.

Filters - none. You may need these at some point, but in general I haven't needed them yet.

Next tab is on compression. 
Video - MPEG4 (ffmpeg). You can choose other profiles though for other purposes.
You want Constant Frame Rate here - Same As Source.
Quality - set to Average Bitrate, 1500, 2-pass. This should be high enough for 720x400 video and have it without being crappy. I have no need at the moment for 1280x720 or anything like that.

Audio - Source - Japanese. You can try passing the AAC through from the source. There's some nice Dolby and Surround options for that, but in general I stick to output in MP3 (LaMe encoder), Stereo, 48K, 128 kbps. If the source is known to be Ogg audio, you may have to pull the stream out and convert it properly with Audacity. I have found this works very well.

Subtitles - yes, even though the stream is in the MKV, if the stream data is there you still have to add it in. Otherwise you can produce a raw for other purposes.
- Track - get it to show the English track, then Add it.
Click on the track in the list now so it's highlighted, and change Forced to Yes, Burn In to Yes, and Default to Yes. Ignore the rest of the settings here.

Chapters and Advanced - change nothing, add nothing at the moment. Maybe later on you'll find tips for what to put here, but I don't mess with them.

You'll need to add the file to the Queue. Now, you can add other files and process them all, but you need to set each one up to those same settings. If your video source is not larger than 720x400, you can encode only to the file's maximum size (like 640x368 which I had one file like that). Handbrake prematurely closed when I tried to edit items in the queue, so I recommend doing one file at a time, which presented no problem.

Click Start, and let Handbrake make a compatible 8-bit MP4 or 8-bit h264 MP4 video file which everyone can play. I realize that Handbrake encodes MP4 video for various crApple devices, but that's not why I use it - it's to convert MKV to MP4. I can take MP4 and turn it into AVI if I am not happy with how the sub stream appears in Handbrake (which can handle stylized subs). In which case I would not resize the source.

I had planned to bring down a multi-sync monitor to use on the computer I installed all this on after Handbrake complained about the monitor resolution (800x600 - it came off a Windows ME system), so I grabbed the one off my P4 tower and in the process jostled the video card on the P4 loose (which set off a lot of anxiety as I had thought I screwed it up - I turned it on and no video and it wasn't proceeding with booting up). I found out the problem by looking at the POST LEDs on the back and the code said there was a problem with the video controller. So I had to re-seat the card. It worked after I did that.

An extra bonus was finding the driver install CD for my USB video capture box!! I cleaned things up in needing to move the P4 tower and there it was. Now to get a replacement CD drive for Mom's Dell since the one I put in there got messed up with me trying to rip tracks off a CD I found on the ground last week or so. I did manage to get some data off it, but the drive didn't fare so well later.

Clubhouses

As a kid, I sometimes wondered about wanting to have a clubhouse. Something in the back yard that was a place I could go and just do clubhouse type things. Of course, that never worked out, but still. 

I mean, isn't that what some kids back in the 1970s wanted? A place you could go when your mom wanted you out of the house (and out of her way), and you didn't really want to go do anything. Depending on the size and what was in there, you could go in there with a few best friends, play games or something. Study or talk about anything. Hide. A place you could go and keep people out just because you wanted to that day. Hopefully keep out of trouble.

I remember seeing that sort of thing on TV and thought wow. A Clubhouse. nothing like a Treehouse, though I'm sure I probably wanted to make one of those, too but never did. It seemed like the greatest thing a kid could ask for and get. A club house to clubhousey stuff.

Of course, what would happen with me is that I would get one and not know what to do with it. "I got one! Now what?" I imagine myself saying. I could end up being (eventually) sitting around with nothing, doing nothing. Never mind that IMAGINATION stuff. Maybe 1 friend who wanted to hang out in there. (Too cold in the winter, mind you.) Spiders to watch out for. It would be fun during summer vacation from school. Maybe. With my luck, I'd go there to read a book and mom would go crazy not being able to find me, call the police and they end up finding me in there.

And it would be fine and dandy until the one kid in the neighborhood who was spoiled beyond belief would somehow end up with his father's cigarette lighter and burn that sucker down because HE wasn't the first one in the area to get a clubhouse.

It's always something.

Not quite what I was expecting

Recent figure kits I've worked on

Cardcaptor Sakura kit - I found the image that inspired this kit.

This is the 2nd Sailor Saturn kit I've worked on, but the first that I got to keep.

I had to mix a custom color for Saturn's bows since in the source images for her, they appear to be a muted reddish brown. There is purple on her eyes for the iris, but you can't see them because of the bright highlights.

Sakura got some pearlized white on the outside of the wings to give them a certain look when photographed. I hope to see if I can put a little LED light in the lamp post.

Coming Soon

Hated "shop class" in Junior High

Every now and then, my thoughts drift back to Shop Class of junior high, grades 7 and 8. I didn't sign up for it, I didn't particularly care for it. I got a wallet and a lamp out of it, but little else.

First, how about I discuss the teacher? His name was Gene Hudson, aka Mr. Hudson. Most of the boys in the class (it was a boys only class for what it's worth) didn't really like him. However, if you were of one of the "well to do" families and you talked about things he liked, like Golf, with Mr. Hudson, you tended to do well. I later found out he helped out during school athletics like score keeper and things.

My first or earliest experience in the class that started the whole thing was we were to sit at these desks, much like a drafting table I guess, and he thought he was explaining what we would be doing in the class. And what I figured out years later was some sort of technical drawing. We had to buy special mechanical pencils and erasers for this activity which to me seemed to take up the entire year, the first year anyway. You get your sheet of paper. You were supposed to draw a frame on the paper so much in from the edges. At the bottom was another line and a series of boxes. This was for you to put your name, date, whatever the hell the assignment was about.

He'd hand out these sheets of things we were supposed to copy off the paper. He tried explaining the size of arrows, the weight of lines that are drawn. I thought that last part, weight of the lines, was either understood well enough or graded arbitrarily by Mr. Hudson.

I would do my best to copy something off the handout. When it was done, we brought it up to him. He would look at it, circle a few things (usually he would circle something, more often than not things got circled), and offer a grade on the assignment. There never was any helpful explanation what I did wrong or right. Never any explanations - nothing clear, just some scribbles of what he thought was an explanation but I never did learn anything from the scribbles. I think we were all scared of him, but hate was more like it. We put up with the class as best we could. All Mr. Hudson seemed to care was that we were quiet and he could pick earwax out of his ears with his car keys. I guess as long as he got to do that or talk about Golf, he was happy.

I got only 1 A on those drawings. I usually got Cs or Ds for no reason at all. If you don't explain what I needed to do better, how am I supposed to learn? How do I get the right weight on the lines? Why did this even matter? It could be the experience in the 2 years of Mr. Hudson's class as the reason I never pursued anything similar in later work. Of course, I could have had the associated stigma that my older sister did so well and I was doomed to not be allowed to have similar scholastic success, and Mr. Hudson played his part. If I could ask for those 2 years of grades from those classes struck from my school district transcript, I would have it done in no time.

The 2nd year of Mr. Hudson was a bit more productive. I ended up with a wallet I used for some time, and a lamp I still have and use. I doubt anyone else from that class still uses the lamp they made.

There were a fair share of bumps along that year. My mom had a friend who wrote a check to help pay for the kit for the wallet I wanted to make. A paltry $6.50. However, Mr. Hudson had a problem with bounced checks. I didn't know the person who wrote it would have a problem. I seem to recall Mr. Hudson giving me a hard time about a bounced check. Either way, the whole thing was resolved, he got his money, and I got to make the wallet.

The other bit was during the making of the lamp. I think this was the only technical drawing I did in the class that got an A. It was basically redwood and white pine, in alternating slices. A base, and an electric lamp socket. I guess it turned out a bit less than I was hoping. I couldn't do the entire thing as one unit, but instead 3 blocks of 4 alternating woods, since the drill press in shop class couldn't drill through the entire stack of wood. At least it got glued and sanded well enough. It's never come apart since it was glued. And me being a kid and never worked with wood, I didn't know you can't buy blocks of wood and the slice it (well maybe you could), but instead you had board feet to deal with and you just cut the boards. The choice of wood was to reflect the school colors.

Joe Eltringham at the time was a dick and the bump I had here with the lamp was that for some reason I was forced to share a storage locker in shop class with him and he stole the electrical cord for my lamp kit. He'd deny it even today, but I knew. The way he'd act today was as if I was a friend of his from way back, but as I recall, he was never a friend. Not even a good one.

I was not aware there were options for making lamps. As I recall, we were just asked to design a lamp, so much wide, so much tall, and that's it. Other kids got these lamps with a hollow box and optional sockets for blinking Christmas tree lights and a semi-clear plastic insert for it. I still liked my design anyway. And I'll bet nobody else in those classes that year still have their lamps.

I think also another point of the year was due to my glasses always having problems with other people breaking them for me in some way, and I eventually ended up using an electronic alligator clip to hold them together. While that worked in holding my glasses together at one hinge point, it ended up getting me the dubious nickname of Roach Clip for a while. It got to be disconcerting and eventually someone got around to asking Mr. Hudson if there wasn't something he could figure out for me. I think it ended up with him coming up with some sort of adhesive for that problem and pretty much held my glasses together until I got a new pair. Probably the only time I saw Mr. Hudson be somewhat nice as he worked on my problem.

Of course, that's why I have wire-frame glasses today. All those damn plastic frame glasses and the assholes throwing basketballs at my face sure didn't help things.

The grades I received on the lamp? Even though it was mostly as I intended, with varnish and all, he barely managed to give me these 4 grades, and I don't know why it was 4 but I still remembered what he wrote in the gradebook in order: D, D, C, D. *sigh* Screw you, Mr. Hudson.

Something got changed, but nobody told me

After digging down in Frontier's website for online bill pay, there appears to be a check for "I agree to stop paper bills" or somesuch. Mom did that, but I did NOT agree to that. After today, as soon as I find out my credit card payment cleared, I'm going to uncheck that and cancel online bill pay. What's REALLY AGGRAVATING about the whole thing is that old customer info was applied to the new account. Mom had online pay set up during Verizon, but I always had the paper bills coming. I have nothing but ANGER and CONTEMPT for Frontier for changing something without ANY INPUT from me!!

It's this sort of shit that makes me see Magic Jack as a viable alternative to Frontier, now that I no longer use a land line for WebTV, though inDirecTV's box uses it.
 

Absolutely LIVID

Absolutely LIVID right now. It's probably too early to say that someone at the local post office is messing with my mail, but that's how I operate. An envelope sent June 23rd never arrived (so far), and my payment for my phone bill from June appears to never have arrived, plus my phone bill to PAY for July never got to me! I had a $48 phone bill (2 months) to settle online with a credit card.

I never signed up for online pay with no paper bills sent to me. I had been getting paper bills in the mail since I got the number. I can even locate my bills and payments for April and May of this year - both of which they kindly showed to me online that they got them.

As it turned out, when the number was with Verizon, Mom had signed up for online payments from her checking account. Somehow that information got transferred to Frontier as still being signed up with online payment even though the name had changed.

I'm going to have to call them up and make it clear I do not intend to use online payment as the primary method to get their money to them. I don't want this sort of thing happening again!!!

Preliminary search seems to indicate that I never got Frontier's June 2012 bill. Still I have this memory of paying Frontier by money order - as I have done since I got the number, and since the start of this year. I am not that irresponsible that I would not open a bill nor leave it where I would lose it. I have my places to put Opened Bills That Need Paying, and a place to put Paper That Has Been Dealt With (and kept should I get pissed off like I am now).

The only envelope I got this month from Frontier was some sort of re-verification for LifeLine. I copied that piece of paper and mailed that envelope from another post office.

And then I saw some sort of URL on the PDF phone bill I grabbed that was marked as Free on my bill, but I'm also going to get that removed. I do not want ANYTHING on my bill that I don't want on it.

Well, I thought the plan was done...

It's been a month or so since I thought the business plan was finished, and I was under the impression that my advisor for writing the plan was going to call the people needed and I was to be at the presentation for the plan. So far I've heard nothing about any meeting. I'm not sure who to contact or if I should just wait until I hear something.
 

Both drawers work now

After the success in getting one drawer working again and having it properly installed, I decided to repeat that success on the other drawer. The old flimsy and bent (not to forget shimmed with vintage square nuts) drawer slides were replaced with new slides. It's also surprising that I was able to find usable replacements at Lowe's this time. I was hoping to find 26 inch slides, but settled for 24 inch slides which oddly turned out to be the right ones that were needed!

Again, I attached the drawer box parts first and managed to figure out where the drawer slides go in the cabinet, having already attached and installed the side support where they should have been. And I had to get a metal right angle brace for the left side (also filling the missing gap with the last bits of whatever wood thing I got at Goodwill) since it wasn't cut long enough and the glue failed to work. A friend of mine noted I could have used wooden dowels, something which I never considered. He's worked with wood enough to realize it could have worked. Sometimes he makes complete sense, and that was one of those times. Yes, he's right.

As it turned out, the old drawer slides were never installed right nor were they level for this drawer. When you see this one in action now, there's no rubbing on the bottom of the drawer opening and a paper thin gap at the top on the right side of the drawer. It now glides in and out without touching anything. The only left over problem is that the right side of the drawer box doesn't completely rest right up against the cabinet front, but I'm willing to accept it since the drawer works now.

And the slides I bought this time work with #6 screws (It came with what I correctly figured out were #5 screws), so no needing to buy the longer screws since I already had them.

It's just so odd that these drawers never worked right when we moved in, and now they do. I had the wood needed for side support around here for a couple years at least. My plan took a long time to happen, but when it was necessary to do something about it, it worked as I had envisioned it in my head. I measured nothing in regard to placement of slides. I just wish Mom could see these drawers work.

Now I need strong door latches for 3 cabinet doors so I can keep the cats out. They like to patrol for mice in there.

I managed to install a drawer

About 6 weeks or so ago, before my car began its period of repeatedly needing fixed, one of the drawer slides in one of the kitchen drawers decides to break. Now, keep in mind that these drawers were never installed right to behind with.

The original idiot who put in these drawers didn't use pieces of wood to support the drawer slides, so the cheap slides that were put in would bend and allow the drawer box to fall out of the slides. Plus the drawer box wasn't wide enough for the opening, so there were these square nuts used to try to fill that space, shim it up in place as one way to put it.

So when the one side slide broke, I took it as a chance not only to replace the slides but to properly install the drawer once and for all. That meant (as I had planned some time ago) getting pieces of wood measured and cut to support the sides in the cabinet. At the time (I forget when) I had cut the pieces of wood, I was going to just figure out a way to put them in and support the slides from inside the cabinet. When the opportunity came to actually do something about it because it was exceedingly necessary, I just glued the tight fitting pieces of wood in place which worked just as well. I was going to use nails and screws instead.

Also was the opportunity to replace the flimsy metal slides with something newer. This took a while. Lowe's didn't have the 26 inch / 610 mm aka 61 cm slides I needed. Plus their section on drawer slides was disorganized. I ended up at a Home Depot and found a pair of side mount slides for $7.95, which I thought was more than reasonable. They had what I needed and the section for these things was organized.

I chose to mount the drawer based on the right side of the box which showed me that I needed to make up about a 1/2 inch to a 9/16ths of an inch gap for the left side drawer slide. If I had found a proper piece of solid wood, I wouldn't have needed to find replacement screws that had to be 1.5 inches in length. The screws that come with the drawer must be a size 5, since I found #4 screws to have screw heads that are too small, yet #6 screws are just slightly too big. And the screws with the slides were not long enough!

At any rate, after buying a new electric drill at Harbor Freight Tools for $13, I managed to install the cabinet slide parts. I determined where they needed to be (after gluing in the 1/2 inch thick filler) by putting the cabinet slides on the drawer box and putting that in the cabinet, shimmed from the bottom using matchbooks, and using a china marker to show me where the slides would end up.

I began attaching the cabinet slide parts with a screw in the front, then a screw in the middle so I could adjust for making it level, then tight screws all around. I was worried that the screw heads would protrude above the surface of the slide and knock against the bearing wheel, but ended up having some amount of leeway and wasn't a problem.

So now I have one drawer properly installed and it moves in and out so gracefully. In spite of the packaging for the parts I bought telling me all these things that needed to be measured, etc, etc, I ended up just doing a practical eyeballing of the task and just put it where it should go.

Now to work on the other drawer.

I also noticed the green electric weed trimmer appears to be missing. Aside from the duct tape on the body of it, it worked just fine. I paid $20 brand new for it.

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF part 2

So I got the old dashboard back, but yet again I see "this will be removed in about a month." 
NO, DON'T REMOVE IT. GRRR. It wasn't broken, don't fix.
 

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

Well, I was going to post something else, but after logging into the backside of my blog, I see Google has crammed the "new look" down my throat without asking me if I really wanted it. Which I don't.

So instead of a post about my long ordeal with my car repeatedly breaking down, it will be this short rant.

I got hung up by a Telephone survey person!

I don't usually answer the phone anymore due to telemarketers (even though we're on the No Call list), or the usual idiot trying to sell me a credit card I didn't ask for, and lately about the only calls I'd get are political crap or a survey.

At about 3:19 pm, the phone rings and I answer it. Some guy who obviously speaks as though English isn't his native language introduces himself as some person representing some marketing research group, and he's conducting a survey about fast food. Well, it happens to be one of my favorite subjects, and I tell him that. Pretty much. Apparently, he's not prepared for that sort of answer and says something like "What?" and I say "let's do it." meaning Let's do this survey. I don't know if he understood my response, but I got summarily hung up on. Usually it's me doing that!!

Well, if you didn't want to do the survey, why did you call me?? I'm going to keep an eye on my phone bill in case this ends up being a scam.

Verb Noun Agreement

What is with people recently in that they can't get the verb-noun agreement correct anymore? What sort of thing am I talking about?

OK, the thing that annoys me is when people write the name of a company, or a plural but singular noun, and then use the wrong number verb with it.

For example, I saw in the paper the phrase "The media get blamed...." GET, not GETS, but the incorrect GET. The MEDIA GETS BLAMED. Blamed for what? That's not important here. MEDIA is a singular plural, therefore it gets the singular verb. If you can replace your noun with "IT" and then read the sentence, does it sound awkward? It does. and if you can't see that, then I need to boot you in the head.

Another example - using a company name with a plural verb. "Company XYZ have licensed..." Umm, how about wrong? The company is a singular entity. IT HAS LICENSED,  THEY HAVE LICENSED, but we're not talking about a bunch of people, we're talking about 1 singular company. And it HAS licensed. Company XYZ HAS licensed. Corporations are taxed as a singular entity, and are singular nouns. Just because there's a bunch of people working there doesn't mean the company name is a plural entity.

I have you have it has - Singular
We have you have they have. - Plural
 
Get it? A company has licensed, it has licensed. They have licensed. The people behind the company have licensed. "People" is a plural noun and plural in every way. "Person" is a singular noun. People have,  a Person has. Try the replacement, which sounds correct? It have, or it has? You see what I mean, Vern?

The media gets blamed, they get blamed, it gets blamed.

IN SHORT: STOP USING PLURAL VERBS FOR SINGULAR NOUNS SUCH AS COMPANY NAMES OR PLURAL NOUNS THAT ARE SINGULAR IN NATURE.

 

Sorta good news?

News on my car: My mechanic located a used Kia 98 Sephia transmission with 80K miles on it for about $600. Thing is the place he's getting it from won't be able to remove it until Monday and it won't get to him until Thursday.

So it's easier to deal with a used transmission rather than a rebuilt. And probably faster than getting an overhaul kit which I guess in my case wouldn't do enough. I don't know if he knows about transmission overhaul kits.

He found a used one with a better price and better mileage than anything I found online.

Well.... sh__.

It's 2 and half weeks into March 2012, and I've driven my car for only 3.5 days of it. Half a day today because it basically leaked transmission fluid all the way to where I ended up today. The first 2 weeks were spent at my mechanic, working on the starter that died the last Monday of February. Today wasn't great. The guy who towed it seems to think it might be a broken axle, because when he got it down off his hauler, it sat in Park. Well, it was sitting in park when he picked it up. Either way, the transmission could be toasted. I did find out that I have options - a used one, a rebuilt one, or an overhaul kit. As my options go, and I hope my mechanic knows about it, would be the overhaul kit.

However, if it's a broken axle, that's like a $150 part.

The starter work he did was beautiful. It didn't sound like my car. I did mention the extra loud exhaust sound that it has now.

As an interesting aside, the tow truck driver has his own Mater, aka Tomater, sitting in his yard, and lets people take pictures with it.


I worry how much _THIS_ repair will be. I wish for help paying for it... I hope nothing else happens because I can't take my car breaking down again.

Car

Might have seen evidence of the leak my mechanic mentioned. Thought smoke coming from car was steam but smell says possibly oil. So that's the leak? anxiety Over this car will be the death of me.

So the starter dies in the Kia...

Ok so the starter on the Kia hasn't been well lately. I think it started going bad on Saturday. It was a difficult start in the cold weather, because for some stupid reason, I just had to go out and get some things that day, even though Sunday I'd be right out again anyway getting the local paper. 

I had noticed there was some rough spots in the starter working on Sunday, and even today. In fact, I had problems getting it to do something in the first parking lot I was in, and some problems but not as much in the 2nd parking lot. It wasn't until I wanted to leave the Post Office and go home that the starter finally died. Well, not so much as died as it was still spinning, but nothing was happening with the engine.

So in some sort of panic, I located a phone. It was a good thing that I remembered the pay phone in front of the old GTE phone building, because my damn Motorola Tracfone wasn't getting a network signal.

I called family, then attempted to call a wrong number and left a message for my mechanic - which I kinda knew even though the annoyed guy called my number back at home and told me I got the wrong number. $1 in quarters on 2 calls. (They give your money back when you get the phone company's recording for a non-working number.) Thankfully, the toll free number for Triple-A (aka AAA) didn't require any money.

So I get the guy and he collects my particulars. Asks if I'll be riding along to the mechanic and I thought he also asked if I need dropped off at home. Which I do ask for. I have Gold+ membership after all, but even then I get only 1 call due to mechanical breakdown. But at least the towing up to 100 miles is free. I'm probably less than 2 miles away from my mechanic, and likely home as well.

So we get to the mechanic, and I tell him that he's probably sick of me being here so much. I explain the situation and all, and it might be 2 days or so (no problem actually) before he can get to it. I hope the estimate isn't too high. He explains hearing something spinning in there is possibly a good thing.

I go back to the truck and I tell the guy about dropping me off at home, and he tells me they're really not supposed to do that.... Um, what? That's not the impression I got from talking to the AAA guy earlier.

So I try my phone again - no network. But at least I leave it on and proceed to walk down the driveway, back out onto the road, and towards the next main road. Thankfully at some point, my phone makes a noise and that tells me it's got a network. It's a Tracfone spam. Well, they are useful for something after all. I call my younger sister's number and thankfully my brother in law was home by then and my 2nd niece who answered it - well, they heard me leaving the message - finally got someone to help me get home. Otherwise, I'd have walked all the way back (not that I didn't need the exercise - but I would have likely ended up collapsing due to the pain).

At any rate, I asked him to see if there's a way to check for shorts that would cause battery drains, asked him about the coughing the car would do going uphill at 40 mph with less than half a tank of gas, and an estimate on getting the emergency brake working.

So now I'm waiting on what it'll cost for the starter. I hope I don't have to go back into debt too deeply to fix this. It's not going to be a decent couple of days coming up...
 

Ran into my first bad Verbatim disk

Today while watching the video I put on a Verbatim DVD+R, the playback started messing up at one point late in the disk. At first, maybe the source was messed up, or maybe the DVD player was being marginal at the spot it was reading the disk. So I got the disk out and looked at it.

There was a surface scratch that affected media burning, so in the spot on the media behind the scratch are blank unburned spots. I had to search the rest of the stack (not much of a coincidence that I'm at the bottom of this media stack) and found several others with scratches near the edge, and a couple with a scratch in the middle which renders them unusable.

I found a couple others with no flaws, reburned the disk, and finished watching what I had on the other, now garbaged, disk.

I used to run into bad media at the bottom of some orange-backed HP media stacks. But this is the first time I ran into any with Verbatim. And they had the nerve to raise the price on their media last time I was at the store. I'll still buy Verbatim, but now I'll check the surface for scratches incurred during manufacturing.

What's interesting is I found a few more disks with scratches similar to the one I found today, in that if I didn't have content that ran into that area, the rest of the disk would be just fine. I might use them for small projects.
 

I finally identified that design

After all these years, I finally identified the dishes I remember my mom having when I was but a child. The dishes she had that through use got broken, destroyed, and eventually thrown out. I forget the last time I saw any of them. Then, after a chance visit to a store that's gone now, I found 2 pieces of the design, and the same dishes I remember Mom having.

The store was called Village Discount, but it's gone now. Finding these for 75 cents each was like the best coincidence or a small miracle. 

So that's all find and dandy, but what is it? As it turns out, it's made by the Indiana Glass Company and it came out during the 1950s to the 1960s. It's Milk Glass, and the design is called Colony Harvest. All this time I thought it was china and it wasn't. I thought mom had gotten it as a set of wedding china, because she had it ever since I could remember. This was mainly available through the S&H Green Stamp catalog. I don't remember how much she had of it, but I do remember some of these Snack Plates as pictured, and some tea cups (or whatever they were) that went with them. If there was more, I don't remember. Thankfully, there are places on the web that have this design and I could practically collect a set for a service for 4 if I wanted to. It's sad that these were lost through the years due to people not taking the greatest care of them.

A couple of things

I expect to finally be done with my business plan very soon. I courageously made a phone call for info, and when it turned up something more that I looked up (which seemed to be a hassle when I looked at it), I should be able to finally do what I need to finish it.

Also I finally GOT MY OWN DREMEL. Well, it's not that brand, but it does the same thing. On Sunday I was going through the ads in the Sunday paper and Harbor Freight Tools, home of the $3 digital voltmeter and the free LED flashlight, had an advertisement insert with a coupon for a $7 "Rotary Tool" set. Well, shoot, I know what that is, and $7 is a hell of a deal!! Even though the Superbowl was going to begin, I took some Ibuprofen so I could function, and then zipped up to grab one of those rotary tool sets.

Now, one thing about HFT is that the item you want usually isn't where you expect to find it. I had to ask an associate and found them up by the registers, hanging on a peg thing. There were 3 of these things left. They had 2 different brand names, but still it was the same tool.

The guy ahead of me for some reason was making a purchase but his credit card wasn't clearing. ARGH. I have only so many minutes of functionality. Let's move on.

I had one of those laughs when I got my purchase in the car. Oddly enough, the first useful thing I did with it was to use an actual Dremel attachment for cutting and opened up the AC Adaptor for our cordless drill's battery charger which stopped working one day last week. So I'll have to figure out if the transformer burned out or the rectifying bridge on it had a silicon diode burn out. WHICH IS ONE MORE REASON WHY I HATE CORDLESS DRILLS. If it was an electric drill, which is what I should have bought in the first place, I'd have no lousy rechargeable batteries to go bad. I have the worst time with rechargeable batteries.

I also noticed that a store in the same plaza with Harbor Freight Tools, something that called itself Village Discount which was a resale shop of almost anything, had gone out of business since the last time I was there almost 2 years ago. That was where I found 2 pieces of china that is exactly like dishes my mom had. I'll have to take a photo and see if Tineye can find something like it so I'll know what the name of the design is.

Geez, I didn't know Time Warner was THAT much higher...

So Time Warner finally included a list of services and prices with the latest bill. Let's see...

I pay about $10 LESS than their "Standard Service" because of DirecTV. If you consider their Digital Tier and then DVR, then I pay $30 less. I can't miss features I don't have. I can only wonder how much I'd be saving with Dish Network.

Digital Phone from them is $50 a month for unlimited nationwide. I pay HALF that with my land-line phone. I also don't pay for long distance I don't use because I'd probably use the Tracphone for that, but I rarely call long distance out of state. So far, my savings is about $50 according to the rates on this card. I can do without certain features in order to save $50 a month, $600 a year.

However, it might be worth paying an extra $13 for a faster Road Runner. That is until the Evil Cable Company decides to arbitrarily raise rates again because a yacht payment is coming up..

I had no idea Time Warner was that much more than DirecTV  + traditional landline phone. Geez. It doesn't make sense to get it to me. I also think that's why people get things like Vonage instread of Time Warner digital phone service. I'd want my services on separate bills, but I don't like having all my serviced dependent on a single wire. TV, Phone, and Road Runner right now are on separate wires, and that redundancy is preferable.

EXPLAIN THIS.

Sometimes I see a commercial I don't understand. It's a recent McDonald's commercial. Guys sitting around some bench, likely on their lunch break, playing poker and eating. One guy says he's got to pick someone for shipping supervisor (or something). One guy surveys his lunch (from McDonald's), sees his hand has 4 Queens and some other card, thinks a few things, and then folds, saying "I got nothing." What just happened? I don't understand this commercial at all. What am I supposed to get from this commercial?

Is he folding because he wants to eat his lunch? Does he not want the supervisor position? I really don't know. Have I seen the short version of this? Maybe they have a longer version that explains it.

I also should gather together more stupid commercials that really bother me. Such as: MaxTall shoe inserts that are supposed to make you look taller for some reason. That Gyrobowl commercial where you see some kid flip his hand around wildly. Why does he do that? And then you see some other kid trying to skateboard while holding that bowl in one hand. Isn't that dangerous? And then that thing claiming a familiar style of cheap amber lensed sunglasses is "HD". No, SunGlasses Are Not HD You Stupid People. Why do you keep trying to sell them? And why does Breathe Right need to say that their product that sticks to most people's noses is "drug free"? I don't get it. They don't advertise "Band-Aids" as drug free and they could be stuck on your nose. They do have a variety that has something on the pad, but they don't draw attention to the ones that don't have anything on them.

I say it sticks to most people's noses because I'm sure it won't stick to mine. Draw whatever conclusions you want from that.

Some commercials annoy because of the music they use. Usually it annoys me when it plays too many times during the day.

Grammar ignorance that annoys me

There's a number of grammar ignorance errors that I see on the web that really annoys me. Let me offer some examples:

1. "should of" - OK, what you are saying actually is the contraction of "should have" and that's "should've". You are NOT saying "should of", you are saying "should've".

2. Take and Bring - These verbs are used wrong A LOT. You take medicine, you take things with you, but you bring it when you when someone asks you to bring it. You don't bring back it to the store, you're taking it back to the store. When you're away going somewhere else, other people ask you to bring something with you. While you're doing that, you're taking it with you.

3. Than and Then - 3 Is More Than 1. Then you'd write it 3>1.

4. How to Use Only.

5. Apostrophe S - It's sad when people get this one wrong. Plurals don't need an apostrophe. People even get the possessive "its" confused for the contraction "it's" which means "it is." I really hate seeing plurals that use an apostrophe.
 
6. Using "revital" (which isn't a word) when they mean Rejuvenate or Renew.

7. "Even know" when you mean "Even Though."

8. Your and You're - It's just 2 more characters. Type Them. One means "You are". The other is 2nd person possessive.


The other thing that annoys me, aside from grammar ignorance, is people who don't know where to pull up at a traffic light. There's a white painted bar on the road that shows you where to stop at the red light. You do not stop behind the vehicle detector loop, but instead on top of it at least. But get that front bumper (or even your front tires) on that white bar. And a green light during a left turn (this is known as an unguarded left turn) means progress into the intersection and wait until it's clear. If this means waiting until the light turns red again for traffic to clear, so be it.

It never fails

Ok, so Cooking Channel is running Anthony Bourdain's first travelling chef TV show, A Cook's Tour again, and now once again they promise they're going to air his first episode, A Taste of Tokyo. I waited for Dining with Geishas last time I noticed they were running his first foray into food TV (he later went on to No Reservations, a much better show) and Cooking Channel didn't even run it. I think I got on their case, asking when my TV provider and they would be getting on the same page. Last night it finally happened. I've been waiting to get Bourdain's 2 Japan episodes of A Cook's Tour on tape when I found out about that show.

However, I've had mom's VCR sitting atop the TV on a couple stacks of DVDs since I had it recording The Playboy Club (all 3 aired episodes of it) and was trying to remember to get the new Winx Club episodes Nickelodeon was running.


I hadn't used the VCR in a while, so it really increased my anxiety level when I dump a tape in it and it's making an odd noise. I get the cover off and there's something about the spinning video head on the underside hitting something when it's spinning. I make an analysis and determine the way I had it sitting on the DVD stacks somehow pushed on the wrong spot and flexed it just enough to make the VCR now sound like a film projector when the video head is in action.

It doesn't seem to be affecting recording or playback much if at all, but it's annoying to know this noise is going to be heard when it's playing or recording a tape. I've tried removing the bottom metal plate but I can't find the last screw to get it off. The best I can hope for is to wedge things between that plate and the plastic casing and hope it unflexes back the way it's supposed to be.

It's a decent Panasonic model VCR. If I had to replace it, I'd want the same exact model.

Oh - I did tape that episode in spite of the annoying noise. I did some tinkering and got it to abate somewhat, so this condition appears to be temporary.