From one Annoyance to Another

GRRR... I submitted my Ohio HEAP application a couple of months ago. Today I get a letter to remind me to re-verify for PIPP +. So I call the 800 number, it says it doesn't know if they've received my application. The website for checking on the application's status is down. I sent a note via their website form page asking about this. It'll be a headache to re-submit another copy and run around copying everything it wants. This isn't the first time an envelope of mine was lost, but this was very important.

I might have to go to the Community Action Agency to make sure this is taken care of.

(the following is censored.)

UPDATE: I called the proper people and found out they do indeed have my information. I don't know why that letter had to be sent out if they had it. I should be able to know more soon.

UPDATE 2: I got a letter indicating my application was processed and approved.

Painful back spasms

I don't know what happened, but I managed to wake up Sunday with my back in lots of pain if I moved the wrong way. Ibuprofen helps with some of the pain, but in general, standing up was not fun. I managed to get some sleep and woke up with less pain but still annoying. I've tried to twist my back and see if anything would pop into place, but it was stubborn. This is all quite odd because I haven't had this happen to me in quite some time. At some point I will get angry enough to really give my back a decent therapeutic twist and get it to where it's supposed to be.

Thankfully, while I was in college I got a helpful tidbit from one instructor - a finger to the ear. There's an accupressure point in the ear which helps back pain and I had to use it to relax enough to get some sleep but still ended up sleeping in.

I really hate back pain. I can only begin to image Mom being in pain all the time from her injury.

Suite PreCure musical at "poruto youroppa"

I'm always searching for videos when it comes to things like Heartcatch Prettycure or this year's Suite Prettycure. Sometimes I find interesting bits like toy commercials. Japanese TV commercials are my favorite because they're so creative for the short amount of time they get.

And it seems for quite some time, there are these "kigurumi" shows for the various Pretty Cure series. They really stepped it up for Heartcatch. Maybe they've been good all along and this was the first one that really got coverage. This would be on some level with the Sailor Moon musicals which ran for some time after the end of the series.

I've found several shows for the Heartcatch girls. I see that they change throughout the year, based on which characters are in the anime that month. They also change a bit between venues, and sometimes they're the same.

I've been able to find these shows for the Suite Precure series, and finally got to see one that the poster labelled with the word (among others) "poruto youroppa." It had some elements I saw in a short Heartcatch musical clip. This one was in 3 pieces and runs about 50 minutes. What I was surprised to discover is that it really doesn't seem that long because a lot is always happening at any one moment, and I was also able to follow most of the story.

Hibki, Kanade, and Ellen were just about to enjoy a picture book that Kanade brought with her, but Trio the Minor turned it evil with a Negatone and captured Hummy. The girls get sucked into the story book. Hibiki finds herself in the story of Momotarou, Kanade is in Snow White, and Ellen finds herself in Peter and The Wolf (or perhaps The Boy Who Cried Wolf?). They befriend the various characters and manage to find the exit out of the book. The Oni in Momotarou is defeated but becomes Momotarou's friend, the wicked witch in Snow White is shown how to make delicious apple desserts instead of sour apples, and Peter apologizes for lying about the Wolf. Interspersed through the story are some musical dance numbers, any one of them not all that long, and the action bits have some neat wire tricks and some special effects, if you want to call them that.

Best part is near the end when the Prettycure girls and some of the characters go into the audience and dance. The Heartcatch musical had this, too, and I'm sure it's moments like these that leave an indelible memory with the younger fans. And at one point I was thinking that it would be awesome if Cure Muse shows up - and then she DOES.

Thankfully, the software I have was able to massage the 3 pieces into 1 coherent whole and no out of sync audio.

 

Persistent annoyances

I keep getting hang-up calls. They don't hang up when I answer - they hang up when they get the outgoing message from the answering machine. Tonight was unusual in that I got 2 of these in a row, withing seconds of each other. If you can't leave a message, stop calling here and wasting your time.

Important next few days

Well, maybe not really that important. It's just that time of year in October where I remember what happened 2 years ago. I may not be crying as much, but the depression is still there.

I might end up staying up for 3 days straight like I did then. The absence makes things painful to deal with. I'm tired a lot. I'm not even sure if I get enough sleep. It's just being here and have this big empty part of my life just sitting there and reminding me of what happened.

The general overall happiness that used to be here just isn't here anymore. At times, I find it hard to get motivated to do things I need to do. A good dose of ibuprofen helps a lot. I guess this part of the year will always be hard for me to get through.

 

Soon To Be Books a Million

What happened to me this past month?

I would really like to know what happened to me this past month. I got to talking to the counselor today and when asked how I was doing, I had the observation of how this month started out really crappy and depressing, but for some reason I got around to feeling not as bad as compared to a few months ago. What the hell happened?

Did my nieces staying over for a few nights next door do something? My sister giving away my mom's expensive adjustable bed? (Compared to what she claimed she got for it and the Craigslist ad I found, she practically gave it away. It wasn't costing anyone anything to just keep it around or put it upstairs. It wasn't hers to sell and I never got offered any money from the proceeds which were pitiful at best.) Working on my business plan? Making pizza twice in one week? I really have no idea what happened. August ended up being an odd month for me.

How can I keep this going, my counselor asked me. I noticed that I must have just kept from thinking about things, had things to do. I still haven't seen a doctor for a physical like my younger sister wants me to do. I figure she's mad at me in regard to what happened to mom. It's always been if something went wrong and I was nearby, it's my fault. I probably should see a doctor about a physical checkup, but I'd like to know how my younger sister dealt with things in regard to mom.

Just feeling better without a reason isn't a good thing. I don't do things like that. In a way, it's more or less denial in my opinion.

Borders clearance makes me sad

Well, I held off going to Borders until I saw that they increased the amount of the clearance discount a bit, up from 20% off. For a store that's going out of business (when it could have been saved in my opinion), the parking lot was packed. That also meant the inside of the store was not just packed as well, but the air conditioning wasn't able to keep up.

I managed to find where the manga books were, and ended up finding 4 books. Bunny Drop 1 and 2 because of seeing the anime airing in Japan. Omamori Himari V.1 because I missed ordering it and I've kept up on the series. And Inukami V.3 (not ominbus edition) because I had V.2 Ominbus edition which has books 4 to 6, completing the series.

What I had hoped to find was books of Love Hina by Tokyopop that I don't have, missed ordering due to not paying attention to them for some reason. Kodansha is reprinting the popular series in omnibus format, but I'd like to avoid rebuying material I already have. Also hoping to finally complete my own set of "I"s manga, but like Love Hina, they didn't stock stuff that old. *sigh* I might also try to find books of Eiken that I don't have.

I made the mistake of taking only 3 ibuprofen for pain, and barely managed to walk through the store. I had hoped to find books by Anthony Bourdain, but it seems they sold out already or they just got moved somewhere. Also hoped to find Wandering Son Book 1 after finding out it was available by Fantagraphics, another title I saw the anime based on the original manga. It's hardcover, which may also add to explain why I've not kept up on it.

What was odd was seeing all those candle and fragrance and perfume products on some shelves. These weren't there before the clearance, were they? I mean, nothing says clearance more than selling that sort of stuff, does it? Most shocking was seeing all the clearance signs hanging up everywhere. I guess if you're going out of business, you might as well blow the budget on signs. I kinda wish I could afford to buy some store fixtures, like a table or shelving unit, but the prices are too high for a casual purchase.

I finally made it up to make my modest purchase after sweating like crazy in the waiting line, and made the comment to the cashier that I guess my Borders card won't be good for much, and the lady says "We're not Borders." Excuse me? The name Borders is on the receipt (along with All Sales Are Final / No Returns, I might add), and Borders is on the bag, which I'll consider collectible. Hopefully talks with Books a Million will resume for that location, or some other bookstore chain (Hey, Barnes & Noble!!) moves in.

500 posts!

Finally got to 500 posts so far!
At any rate, I had a rough night last night. I went up to go to bed, and I had been dealing with some wetness on the floor upstairs in front of the air conditioner.  Tonight I found out where it was coming from. I had used an old LJS work shirt as a means to plug the gap beneath the unit to keep out bugs, but somehow water was finding its way to the shirt, and then the shirt wicked it down to the floor.
So I pull the front off the unit and find out why. It's supposed to drain water away from the cooling coils and drain outside, but some gooey smeary kind of gunk had formed in the water (I had been running it nearly continuously during this past month). So something like wild yeasty snot formed in the thing. Great.

Lacking any handy drain cleaner to drip into the water tray, I tried some distilled vinegar and some enzyme cleaner I use for urine spots. I saw all this crap and wondered just how far inside the air conditioner it went, and I don't know what I was going to accomplish by trying to put my fingers in the air output vent while it was still on, but it's enough to say that getting a small chunk of skin from a fingertip sliced off was enough to make me wake up (I was rather sleepy or about to be asleep at this time) and my back was yelling at me for the prior manipulation of the unit to encourage whatever water was in the thing to drain out in some manner.

After panicking for a few minutes, finding a usable band aid, and dealing with that emergency, I manage to get the vinegar (to work on the plugged up stuff) and the enzyme cleaner (also to work on stuff), and put the unit into a fan only mode for the night.

I woke up uncomfortable, saw the temp was 77 in my room, and checked the unit to see mostly clean cooling coils and such. I now have the unit at a more pronounced angle to make sure water drains out, and plugged up the gap at the bottom again.

It also took me a few hours to deal with my lingering sleep deprived pain and after some ibuprofen and Coke Zero (the caffeine helped), I recovered enough to be functional.

And cut a latex glove finger for my injury.

On other notes, the dialup ISP sent me a letter thanking me for the letter I sent them. I managed to print that before the ink cartridges in the Dell A920 decided they were going to go empty. I had one color cartridge hanging around for this event, but the yellow wasn't working and the magenta was too dark. The black cartridge had been sitting around and when it went in, it prints not a consistent stream of ink but some odd randomized spritz of ink. So I was able to get a refund for the color cartridge, and I ordered another pair off Amazon. I noted the proper Lexmark cartridge numbers for this printer since they're supposed to be the same thing, and at one point I thought Lexmark ink was supposed to be cheaper. Maybe it was the Kodak printers that were supposed to have less expensive ink.

A work in progress