Karl Bushby!

I saw Karl Bushby just west of Minerva, OH today!

The Sylvania branded MP3 player made by Curtis

Some years ago Big Lots was selling a number of USB Flash Drive MP3 players. I bought 2, though I meant to buy more but never quite got to doing it. I bought a nice COBY 1GB model that's been very robust and a really good performer. The other model I bought was a Sylvania branded 1GB model but made by Curtis. I still have my 256MB model also made by Curtis, and maybe I've mentioned the problems with several 512MB versions that have met their functional ends in various means.

The odd thing with the Sylvania player is that instead of the usual USB connector on one end was a small USB mini plug that you plug into it, and THEN the cable goes into a USB port. And then even after that, if you don't have the right way to use it, you end up being able to use it or not able to use it. I would imagine a lot of people who didn't have my set of computer skills returned these if they had a Windows XP system. Here's why.

Most MP3 USB devices have a FAT file system on the device and it's accessed like a regular flash drive. Drag and drop files, easy peasy. But no. The Sylvania with XP connects in some odd Media Transfer Protocol method. It's not simple Drag and Drop. You have to figure out how to "sync" it with Windows Media Player and all that jazz. Too many things to jump through. This might have put a lot of people off in that they were unable to use their devices. I wonder how many got returned to Big Lots.

However, I also happen to own a Windows 98SE system. I can plug the Sylvania player into it and access it like any other 1GB USB Flash Drive! It came with a USB driver CDrom for Win98, and that's how I ended up being able to use my Sylvania / Curtis MP3 player. And surprises of all surprises, it still works. Maybe Curtis finally got around to making it right?

I still haven't been able to figure out how to get it to connect to XP and get treated like a regular removable storage device in My Computer. It's probably something I'll try to figure out at some point.

Goddamn bloody abject COLD

Winter is not my favorite season. The fact that it gets cold, icy, snowy, and downright uncomfortable doesn't help its image. It's bad enough that the cold air comes down south out of Canada, but then when Canada has more than enough, it overflows from further north out of the Arctic, and it's not done even then! Oh hell no. Coldness then comes from Siberia. Really? Russia, we don't hate you anymore. Stop figuring out new ways to send your coldness to us, OK? Sure blows out the theories of Glowball Warming. But then they'll just tell you this is one of the numerous symptoms of it. More badass storms. Yeah, yeah, whatever. I think before we humans as a species consider sending some of our useless population to another world (as has been done before), we need to figure out how to control the weather.

At any rate, I managed to make it through last night's severe, over 10 below cold. It got as low as 65 F inside here, while upstairs in my room it was no lower than 75. If only I had more room upstairs for everything.

But anywho, let's try to get away from that for a moment. Let me stipulate a set of rules for subtitle scripts.

1. ARIAL with Bold by default. Color 001FFCFF. 2 pixel outline, 2 pixel drop shadow for main default dialogue.

2. Don't confuse WAS for WERE, or WERE when you mean HAD BEEN. WAS is past tense singular, WERE is past tense plural.

3. Learn how to use ONLY. And use JUST when ONLY really doesn't work.

4. SPELL CHECK.

5. AVOID APOSTROPHE S PLURALS - in general, learn how to use the Apostrophe correctly.

6. Don't use plural verbs with singular collective nouns.

7. Shorten "all of a sudden" to just the word "Suddenly."

8. Don't use spelled out numbers when the simpler actual numbers looks better.

9. In case of Japanese names, keep honorifics, and put names Japanese order meaning Japanese family name first, given name(s) last. That's how your ear will hear them.

10. Do Not Translate Nya as "meow" and don't make puns with it, nor use stupid squid puns.

At some point, I may include examples of usage for the ones that need it.

And oh yeah, Gan-chan was evicted a few weeks ago. Some halapeno-cheese flavored crunchy cheese curls were enough to lure him out again, presumably weakened by hunger, and got stuck to one of the glue traps in the drawer. So I sandwiched that little shit with another glue trap and flung it all outside and on the other side of the train tracks. I would imagine that since then with the cold and snow, he finally succumbed.

Negi tells me the recent crop of free-range mice taste well with a Catnip Port with its fruity undertones.

Bill Havens, former Mr. Clean, motivational speaker

Back in 1985, when I first enrolled into DeVry Institute of Technology in Columbus, OH, one of the first things they provided to new students was an inspirational talk by a guy that for all intents and purposes I could remember only as being Mr. Clean for Procter & Gamble, and that his message was entitled "The Winner's Bounce." One thing that never stuck with me was his real name. He was known as Bill Havens, and this was his job. Thanks to a scan of one document dating from 1987 from North Canton, I finally found out his name.

He was based mainly in Central Ohio, but thank goodness he was hired to do a motivational speech in North Canton. Part of his talk involved 2 tennis balls, another point I remembered. He was good. I was motivated enough to finish my first term at DeVry with a 3.96. Various conditions contributed to my eventual failure in my 2nd term, and eventual withdrawal and a 2nd attempt at enrolling at another technical college in Columbus so I wouldn't have my student loans (meant for DeVry) come due right away. This wouldn't pan out as my room mates' plans also didn't come to fruition along with me, and since we ended up not being able to afford staying in Columbus (none of us had our own transportation), we moved home. I eventually enrolled in a local college and graduated with an Associate with Distinction (amazing difference of results due to a stable environment).

Thing is I never forgot his motivational speech. In fact, my experience with the world having been so limited at the time, I thought he was the only person doing motivational speeches. At any rate, time moved on from the mid 1980s. Mr. Havens went on to keep on doing his thing. Eventually in 2007 he even launched a website and a blog about his speeches. He posted a lot during 2007 and 2008, but oddly enough he doesn't have any posts after 2008. His main business website unfortunately is also gone, but still lingers in the Internet Archive. I wanted to find at least one video of this guy.

Unfortunately, I also found out he passed away October 12, 2014. I wonder what happened between then and his last blog post. Either 2014 or Oct 12 2008, the other date in time when October 12 was a Sunday, but info from a post on Facebook indicates 10/12/2014 was when he passed. He was only 79. You can find out about his other accomplishments, like being a football coach, but he did a great job as a motivational speaker. Well, at least his daughter continues his work.

First post of the new year, eh?

First post of the new year! So what's new? My computer services business is official. I have a vendor license and the name registered with the State of Ohio. So now I can charge sales tax. I have a page for my business on Facebook.

I found out I was a living heir to some gas and oil rights to a property in West Virginia via my mom's side of the family, extending past my grandfather to some "relatives" I had no idea I was related to. It's a part of the family that my grandfather never spoke about if he did know, but the lady from Chevron I spoke to said that he probably didn't know. I know quite a bit about my grandmother's family, my father's on his mom's side, and a little on my father's family on his father's side. So it may be no wonder that we knew nothing about my grandfather's family. I'm told that he was born in Southern Ohio which is very near this tract of land I located.

All I know is that if this was in Ohio, it would have been taxed on property taxes, seized for non-payment, and then sold at auction. I guess the laws in West Virginia are different in that you can sell the surface land but retain some of the oil and mineral rights in perpetuity. For once, a relative of mine managed to hold onto something and not lose it.

I also now own 24 Monster High dolls, with the Foreign Exchange Draculara in her Japan-inpsired Shi-Boo-Ya outfit.

The extreme cold these past 2 weeks was not conducive to working on computers. Some Sailor Moon Crystal chips I bought got a 2nd box sent that I was not charged for when I got on the online retailer's website to ask them to "make me feel like I got a good deal" when I commented on how much I felt cheated when I found out how much they sold in Japan vs the markup on their site. I am truly humbled in that they'd send me another box like that. They are the 2nd retailer for Things Otaku or Japan related that has earned my business. They do listen. I will shop carefully to make sure the price they're asking for is reasonable, and sometimes it is.

The spindle motor in mom's Zenith DVC2200 DVD player went bust, so I ordered an exact model replacement online. Hopefully it will survive the trip here and work. I think the coldness that invaded the house these past 2 weeks may have contributed. It was made in May 2000, so getting 14 years out of it was pretty good, but still... The Toshiba DVD player I got says it was made in 2007.

I also have a mouse in my kitchen gadgets drawer (currently empty) that I'm going to name Gan-chan, based on the rat / mouse from the Oh My Goddess Small Things are Handy TV anime. The reason for that is I was going to see if I could discourage Gan-chan from getting into my drawer by putting a few Wasabi Peas into the drawer and see what happens. I put 3 in the drawer and in the morning I found they were gone.

Wow. So I tried again with 5 Wasabi Peas but I sprinkled some Morton Hot Salt around them this morning. A few hours later THEY were gone, too! So Gan-chan loves Wasabi Peas, eh? So I put 2 more, but still in the area of the Hot Salt to see if it was coming back. I'm sure by this time Gan-chan has some of the cayenne pepper dusting that's in Hot Salt all over his body and right now is having an unpleasant experience licking that off itself.

So if these recent 2 peas also disappear, I'm going to make him take on the Cinnamon Challenge, and dust the entire bottom of the drawer and see what happens.

I own 23 Monster High Dolls by accident

It's not as if I wanted to own 23 Monster High dolls for any particular reason, but after the first few, you start collecting them. It started innocently enough with a Draculara I got at Aldi's for about $8. Maybe it was $9. I had no idea what was about at the time. Just that the dolls were cute, different, certainly not common Barbie fodder. Then there was the Skulltimate Roller Maze Frankie Stein. Then perhaps I understood better when they showed some of the animated specials on Nickelodeon.

The gist behind Monster High is that all of the teen student body at the school are modern-day children of classic horror film monsters. And an underlying theme is that we should accept each other and ourselves, flaws and all. Sort of an anti-bullying idea there.

Then I saw the cat-girls, I mean Were Cats. I'll stick with "cat girls." And there's plenty of them. Somehow I managed to get Persephone and Meowlody (twins) at We B Toys when they still had them, but getting the 3 pack Fearleading set would prove impossible, as I refuse to pay extortion for them.

Next was a Venus McFlytrap in a swimsuit from an early set of those, hers being the best of the ones I saw. Only later I find out there's 2 versions of her according to the eyeshadow. One is pink, the other is green - being more desirable for collectors as it matches the on-box illustration. How do people find things like this out? (The McFly part of her name is a nod to the Back to the Future films.)

Out of the sets produced so far, I have 3 from the Scaris collection, with Clawdeen, Catrine DeMew (A Walmart exclusive and yes, a cat-girl), and Jinafire Long, daughter of the Chinese Dragon.

There's been some from other releases I kinda wanted, but I waited for sales and then they ended up selling out. Oh well.

The Wolf family has the most representation among the dolls produced, with 3 sisters and 1 brother, and mind you the boy dolls from Monster High are super hard to find most of the time. Of those I have Dance Class Howleen (younger sister), and Clawdia, the older sister. She wears glasses! I've been thinking of getting another Howleen at some point.

I have 2 Catty Noirs, one in her singing idol outfit and one in her Scaremester outfit. For that matter I have Jinafire in a Scaremester variety, too. I feel the creators of the CG animated specials missed out on a great opportunity to tell Catty Noir's story and show her in concert. Maybe I'm used to idol anime to think that. Oh well.

I have 3 Toralei dolls. Those include Field Trip, Coffin Bean, and Ghoul Sports (she plays soccer). Toralei was one of the earliest dolls produced, so Toralei in the original outfit fetches high prices anymore. There's also fashion packs for the dolls but I've not seen one lately. There's a fashion pack for her appearance in Scaris, which has yet to be released on DVD along with its 15 minute short feature. I had tried to get the Power Ghoul version of her at Target, but due to how Target stocks the shelves (or so I've read) she was always sold out. And if you went online, you'd see them there at rip-off prices. But the ones I have now, I have a short hair, pony tail, and long hair Toralei.

For Freaky Fusion, I have the Cleolei variant. There's one other of Toralei and Scara Screams but I prefer the one I have.

Elissabat is from the same set as Clawdia, the "Frights Camera Action!" special. She was another Aldi's markdown.

There's the Kmart exclusive 2 set, Rochelle Goyle and Catrine DeMew.

There's the Sweet Screams Frankie, the only Target Exclusive I managed to get on sale. She was the cutest of the bunch, so I'm glad with that.

And finally, a rarity I found at Big Lots - Draculara in what looks like a 60s inspired fashion for "Aren't these shoes just a Scream?" Cleo de Nile completes the pair, but to find either one at this point is kinda special.

So why did I collect these? Well, if Sailor Moon items or other anime figures were decently priced like they used to be, I'd have more of that instead. It's just that these dolls are freaky and cool at the same time. Sometimes you can't explain why you like something. And if you want to make fun of an adult toy collector, well then you have problems. My bills are paid and screw you for hating for no reason other than you're trying to make yourself feel superior when you're actually just jealous of other people being happy. Find the thing you like and collect it, just leave me alone. It's not like it's hurting you any.

The Worst Day of My Life - 5 years later

5 Years ago was the worst day of my life. It was the day my mom passed away after getting sick from something I caught from a visit to the anime club I used to go to. She had been waiting for her flu shot that year and hadn't gotten it yet. I probably wasn't the only avenue for what she caught, though her Caring Hands ladies were required to be vaccinated, so I'm willing to rule them out.

A strain of Swine Flu had been going around, and somehow I came down with it. I spent the weekend on the couch downstairs, working my way through 2 bouts of fever. I  was unable to do the things Mom needed me to do without her ladies there to help her.

Actually I don't know for sure what it was I got sick from, but there's not much left to guess what it was.

Where my Mom was, there's a big hole from her absence. Her empty bed is gone - not my choice. It's a choice I wish people hadn't forced on me. It wasn't costing me any money to keep her bed where it was. It wasn't bothering me to keep it. Even my younger sister said something along the lines of not wanting to come into the house and see the empty bed there, and then ended up not visiting a whole lot after all that anyway.

And then there's the emptiness in my life and in my heart with her gone. Part of my self-confidence also died that day. I don't know how I came through it. Those first 9 to 10 months was a very dark time for me. I spent nearly all the time crying, watching a lot of TV. I wasn't actively engaging in the things I did - I was just numbly going through the motions. I was ready to give up.

My social life also pretty much imploded about a month later, right on schedule. An accident and misunderstanding on Facebook led to some malicious cyber bullying which ended up imploding the anime club due to a selfish group of brats who had nothing better to do. It was "funny" to them. There's nothing funny in calling people something a name they aren't. And they wanted to blame me for that. No, that's all on you. Almost on cue a month later was also the email that closed the opportunity of just being "allowed" to attend one anime convention. It just amazed me how unprofessional some people can be when it comes to negative criticism.

I still have no answers to what happened this day, 5 years ago. Why hadn't we made better choices the day before and gotten Mom to a hospital? When did she actually pass away? I had seen her alive just before 1 p.m. and found her in bed and unresponsive around 3 p.m. I was upstairs messing around with a computer I was given and gotten running again. I don't even remember why I had decided to shut it down and go do some errands for Mom when I did. 

I would love to have some closure and some answers. And in some ways, I still have some shock, disbelief, and guilt from it. And I'm sure other people blame me, but Mom made the choices she did. I don't even know if I had been able to get her into a hospital would her life had been saved. Some people would say it's not good to dwell on what could have been, but it's been hard to get it out of my mind.

There's a lot of things from 2009 I would love to do over again and change. Maybe 5 years is long enough to have grieved over Mom. I feel angry at times thinking that my sisters might not have grieved long enough. I certainly haven't seen how they dealt with it a whole lot. I mean, it's not a freaking pet - this was our mother. People are born and die every day, but still you get only 1 set of parents.

Some people said I was in "bereavement" but I know there was some pretty deep depression in there. There were lots of moments I wished to get sick and have it kill me. That's not a good way to go. I have no idea how I got through it. Or perhaps I haven't yet. I haven't yet decided.

A year later my grandfather's cat, Griz, died. And just last year Mom's companion dog, Melody, barely managed to finish out 2013. Mom must have needed Melody more than I did. And odd to notice, but Ariel, the dog we had for some time before Melody came along, died 10 years ago in January.

But at the same time, Marmalade, a cat who found us in the middle of a snow storm in December 2003, has been with us for as long. 7 years ago, an evicted renter left us Negi, a cat that I took in and saved his life. And last year, while Melody's liver was failing, my older sister managed to catch and tame a kitten that a feral cat had given birth to on the property and raised before she and the other kittens were ultimately trapped and removed. She still has the kitty, and is perhaps the first life that was born here since we've been here.

The only memorial we could do for Mom was cremation and and loose collective of some friends and family the Friday of the week after. I had spent the next 3 days without sleep dealing with her online stuff. I managed to cancel 5 book orders she hadn't gotten yet and weren't shipped. I found out she had nearly maxed out a credit card she wasn't supposed to have. I saw her irresponsible and erratic payments she was almost making on it. I sent out a lot of letters telling people to sod off and they weren't getting anything.  In the meantime, I'm still waiting for something paranormal caused by Mom. So far, I haven't anything to report.

I wanted to mark this day with family, getting together and remembering Mom, but it seems like I'm the only one who wants to do it. So I typed up this blog entry. 5 years ago, everything changed, and I still miss Mom.

Be the curator of your things

I recently cleaned out the top drawer of my dresser looking for my Suzumiya Haruhi solar-powered Flash Plates that I bought at an anime convention some time ago. The problem with them (and why I stopped using them) was the way the Mikuru Flash Plate had come off the little soft-metal hook connecting it to the keyring. It had dropped off and cracked a corner which I had fixed with super glue at some point, but it was off its keyring.

Also going through the drawer, I found my $50 Canadian bill miniature replica in plastic, a souvenir I bought and used on my keyring, also broken due to use. I promised myself I would fix that, but I hadn't yet.

I also found I collect pens and batteries. Not intentionally. It just happens. Good thing I have a digital voltmeter. I tested all the ones I found and threw away the weak ones. A number of them were still good strong batteries so I kept them. I tested the pens I found and tossed the ones that wouldn't write easily. I have no idea how I ended up with them.

But getting back to being curator of your things. This means make sure your collection of things (or collections) are in a presentable shape. Not broken. Useable if you so wish. I took up the task of seeing to it that my mini replica Canadian money keychain thingy would at least have a way to be attached to a keyring should I choose to use it that way again, and the Mikuru Flash Plate was attached to its keyring as well. (The sorting of pens and batteries is also a part of this.) The keyrings for the Flash Plates had these additional little spring rings that I could use to attach things to them, so the remainder of the spring loaded but easily broken hook was clipped off and the little ring used. It looks good.

I found a Sailor Venus decorated battery powered travel alarm clock that lost its adjustment knobs on the back and leaked battery corrosion residue on the battery terminals, which explains a lot why I haven't used it in years. I would take it with me when we went to Anime North. It was set to go off at 7 am, because you shouldn't sleep in late while in Canada. I cleaned off the corrosion and it works again, but I still need to figure out how to replace the time set and alarm set knobs.

Realizing my Gekota mascot strap also used that same annoying hook thing, I used an extra mini spring ring on that, too. I had already used super glue on the pin that screwed into it. I had lost a number of Sailor Moon mascot keychain figures because these little attachments would slip out. I lost 2 Super Sailor Jupiter mascot figures because of this.

Make sure your collection or set of something is complete. Fix what can't be easily replaced right away. Restore what can be repaired. And replace what can be inexpensively replaced.

I also made sure my collection of Tamago-chi toys did not have batteries still inside them. One of them I bought while in Canada one year (2006) and the Ura-Tama came direct from Japan. That really impressed a few people when they saw how more sophisticated its program was.

Some of the objects I dug out of my top dresser drawer might not have been touched in a while, but it's not hurting me or costing me anything to keep them. But that doesn't mean I should let them look like crap.

The Internet Data Bill of Rights

Something I thought up:

The Internet Data Bill of Rights

1. All Data Is Created Equal.
2. All Users Have a Right To Equal Access to All Data
3. No single ISP may decide who gets access, nor control the speed, nor the limit to that data.
4. Thou Shall Provide Free Native Network Access to Usenet Newsgroup Servers.
5. Thou ISP shall provide reasonably priced access to unlimited high speed data.
6. Thy ISP is not allowed to invade the privacy of its users IP Addresses, nor throttle the data by use of any software from a user's device connected to the network.
7. Thy ISP shall not decide on a whim to use alternate Domain Name Servers in an attempt to thwart access to websites any entity finds objectionable.
8. All Users have the right to fair market ISP competition; no single ISP may pay illegal kickbacks to local governments to block out competition.
9. When such conditions are unable to be met, be it through equipment breakdown, sabotage or damage, or an act of nature, the ISP owes it to its users to explain the problem, offer credit on bills for inadvertent denial of use of the service, and attempt to correct the problem as quickly as humanly possible.
10. All ISPs must maintain the maximum speed and data capacity of their networks, and also prove their claims of both, and must continually find ways to exceed those requirements without continual unjustified rate increases without also finding ways to reduce rates.

Fixing my Kuroneko Figma

For some reason, a week or so ago I was inspired to buy a Kuroneko Figma I found on the Chinese shopping site DHGate for only $16.90 and free shipping. Figma figures are very detailed and have lots of articulation. They're also rather easy to break as the plastic joints aren't always made of sturdy plastic. Also they tend to run $30 and up, but in general they're not exactly high price expensive. A comparison brand to Figma would be Revoltech. I have 2 of these and they run about $20 or so.

At any rate, the packet for my Kuroneko Figma finally gets here and I tear open the package. Hmm... the box shows some scuffs and wear. It's used. I don't exactly remember seeing this important piece of info on the DHGate page, but whatever. Then I get to finding out why Kuroneko was so cheap.

The pieces for the neck joint keep popping apart. The left elbow joint proceeds to crumble apart into 4 pieces as it was stuck together, presumably with glue, and didn't move freely. The left leg fell off due to the hip socket crumbling apart. And the right hand refused to stay on the wrist joint due to manufacturing irregularities.

Now, there IS a burgeoning market for replacement Figma joints. You can get on eBay and find random assortments of varying sizes and prices. But being the person I am and having the skills I have from my years of building figure kits, I decided I would fix Kuroneko's problems myself.

Examining the neck joint, I see one part has a bit of a crack on one hub piece. I tried using Testor's plastic model cement on it, but this plastic doesn't respond to that well. So I tried another trick - heating a straight pin tip and entrenching the tip in the pin of the other piece, then trying to bend it at a right angle. This way the wire of the pin would act as a retainer and prevent the joint from popping apart.

I managed to get this to work and reassembled Kuroneko's head. The pin later fell off to my annoyment, but the joint remains together. Apparently, the pin of one joint piece that goes through the hub of the other is spread apart enough to hold it together. It moves freely, too.

The left elbow joint was more of a problem. The insert pins ripped off the rotating joint parts and I had to dig them out of the arm pieces to which the joint belongs to. So I had to fix each piece before putting the joint back together.

Again, Testor's plastic model cement was not working, and super glue would work but it would not be strong enough on its own. So I decided a figure kit technique would work - use wire to support it internally. Wire thin enough to work came from bread wrapper twist ties. I got out a candle, heated a wire tip and worked it into the pins. I had to use a straight pin to help with the process of burying the end in the plastic. And I had to do this for both ends of each bit of wire I was using with super glue. Both insert pins eventually got reattached to the joint part it went with.

Then there's the issue of making sure the joint is going to rotate freely which required some fine grit sanding. After all, if the joint isn't going to move freely, it will rip itself apart again. Then came the task of not only putting the rotating joint together, but keeping it together. Again, I used a bit of heated wire tip bent at just under a right angle, and managing with needle nosed pliers to entrench the tip in the plastic. If I could avoid super glue at this point (and screwing up the joint), I was doing just fine.

The left hip was the most difficult to figure out. I tried a piece of pen tip barrel plastic from a spent ball point pen, but it ended up crumbling when I tried one way to attach it to the part I also had to pull out of the upper leg piece so I could work on it. My 2nd attempt was to sand down a little piece so when it was super glued to the insert thingy (no idea what Figma parts are called), it would fit. Also sanded out the inner diameter with my rotary tool so the ball from the joint would go in this repaired piece and cut a slot in the top like the old part had.

Seeing the ball go into the repaired socket for the hip and then stay inside it was worth the work (over an hour or 2) taken to make these fixes. The right wrist will get some wire work as soon as I can find out where the little wrist joint piece flew off to when it flipped out of my fingers. The little bugger of plastic shouldn't be that hard to find... but it's a tiny piece of plastic.

Having a rotary tool to custom prototype repairs like this is both handy and fun. You just have to not give up until you get the results you want. Maybe I'll get a photo of one repair up here.