2008 in Review

You know, I could make a nice, long, thoughtful post about the year. But, really, I have only one thing to say about the year.

NEXT!

Holiday Greets

Herpy Yiffmas, everyone! :)

I hate technology. -_-

Ghandi

Shamelessly plagarized borrowed from reddit, where it was probably borrowed from somewhere else.

Fun facts about Mahatma Gandhi:

• He used to walk barefoot everywhere, to the point that his feet became quite thick and hard.

• He was a very spiritual person; eating only enough to quell hunger, and hence was quite thin and frail.

• Due to this diet, he wound up with very bad breath.

• He was known among linguists as a super-calloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis.

Fed Funds = 0%?

So,  today, the Federal Reserve slashed the Fed Funds target rate to a range of 0 to 0.25%. The rate was effectively at that level anyway, since they couldn't even maintain their previous target of 1%, but this at least confirms that they're doing everything they can to get the economy moving. Of course, this means that foreign investment in the US is now nearly worthless; treasuries are going to pay incredibly low returns (with the possible exception of the 30-year bonds), so there's no reason at all for people to invest here when they can do so much better overseas. In other words, if this doesn't turn the domestic economy around quick, there's going to be very little foreign money coming in and the situation is just going to get worse.

@$%#*( Illegal Mexicans

Yeah, this is going to be politically incorrect. Don't like it? Go read something else.

So I pulled into a facility here in Laredo, TX, not five miles from the Mexico border. When I got here, there was nobody in the guard shack. There are no signs telling drivers where to go. There's no signs of life at all aside from the two other tractors in the facility and the occasional sound of a honking forklift. I ended up calling the place and only after a minute of conversation did the person on the other end of the line understand that they needed a guard in the guard shack.

Another three minutes of waiting, then out comes some guy who looks like he snuck across the border just earlier this afternoon. He doesn't seem to speak English well enough to understand even the most basic concepts of the language and, despite my repeated attempts to communicate with him, he kept trying to talk to me in Spanish. I don't speak Spanish. It ended up decaying into a game of charades in which neither could understand the others guesses.

I ended up parking in the row of trailers, roughly where the guy was pointing, while he presumably got the paperwork sorted out. He didn't even accept all the paperwork that I was trying to hand him; he only took one copy of the sextuplicate stack, when I was only supposed to retain one copy of the paperwork; the other copies are for the other companies that handle the load on the Mexican side of the border. Ultimately, he just said "okay" when I asked if he needed anything else; I left and I didn't care what else happened, since it is no longer my responsibility.

So, to summarize, here's a case where some dick came across the border, doesn't speak enough English, isn't doing his job, and is taking up a job that Americans would be happy to fulfill; I know several people who are looking for work as a security guard right now. And for what? So the company can save on labor by paying less than minimum wage in cash? This is a perfect example of why nobody is going to actually reform immigration law: the fear that morons like this will become even more common and take even more jobs that we have competent Americans for.

Further Confusion is a no-go

I'd been considering going to FC this year, but it was contingent on a
room situation. It turns out that the room that I'd been holding out
hope for is full. Further, though the con had previously announced that
the room block would be re-opened tomorrow, it appears that announcement
was inaccurate as the convention has since retracted the statement.

I'll /definitely /be going to FWA, though. Not sure about the other
conventions this year, though Eurofurence and Anthrocon are definitely
not on my list (can't afford either of them). MFM and MFF are the most
likely ones, though.

I have only one thing to post today:

◕ ◡ ◕

Fun with Checking

I got a "low balance e-mail" from Mint and went to transfer money to my checking account from my savings. I think that I cut it just a bit close this time though...

MFF Post-Con Update

Things are over now. I'm sitting at the Milwaukee airport waiting on my flight; it doesn't leave until nearly 5 PM tonight. After I made my last post, I went to bed. I wanted to play Lupus In Tabula, since the game is always awesome at cons, but I was too tired to even stand up straight. I was able to get one of my sketchbooks back, but I couldn't find Gideon so I'll have to e-mail him later to see about getting it mailed to me. None of the other artists I'd commissioned were able to finish anything, but it'll be well worth the wait: Daronesa, Kami Cheetah, Pegasus 316, Alchera, and Gideon are the artists from whom I will be getting stuff eventually.

I can't think of that much to write here that I haven't said about the convention already, aside from the fact it was awesome. There were a few moments of drama and a few people that I would rather not have seen, but otherwise things were incredible and this was a much-needed break. I plan on coming back next year, if at all possible, though it's too early for me to plan such things just yet.

MFF Sunday Night Update

Whee! I'm running on pretty much nothing but caffeine at this point, so I'm going to keep this short and sweet. I've had a heck of a time here at the con and plan on coming back here in the future. I was able to commission all manner of good stuff; Gideon will have to mail me my sketchbook but I Should be able to pick up my other book before I head to bed tonight. However, that head-to-bed will be happening momentarily; I want to get a full night of sleep tonight before I head home since I've gotten about eight hours of sleep total during the entire con. It's been worth every minute that I've stayed awake though. :)

MFF Update - Saturday Night

This con, so far, has kicked loads of ass. I've commissioned several things I've wanted to for a while and hope to get a few more things tomorrow, depending on who ends up in the artists' alley. I just came back from playing Lupus in Tabula for four hours, in a group that managed to use "I run the Taco Bell" as an excuse to not get lynched, among other forms of insanity. However, I'm also on the verge of passing out from exhaustion, so I'm going to get to bed and get up in time to be in line for the artists' alley in the morning. :)

MFF Saturday Update

I just finished taking pictures from the fursuit parade. Some came out really well, some not so great, but mostly I'm content with how I did. I'm not sure but I think I saw one or two people I recognized and wanted to see, but I couldn't even get up the nerve to say hi for fear of mistaken identity. I'm perched in the Den for now, but as soon as I finish writing this, I'll be wandering back out to the artists' alley and/or dealers' den, possibly heading up to the con suite for a snack or something to drink, and heading to the "You Can Draw" panel at 4 PM. After that, I'm going to get a shower and dinner, then see what happens later tonight. I'll very likely participate in the poker game at 9 PM tonight, since it's the last qualifier for the game Sunday and I haven't had my fill of the card game yet.

Also, my phone is broken. If you want to get in touch with me and meet up at the con, please e-mail me or comment on this post. Please see my previous post for the link to my calendar; that lists all the events I'm likely to go to over the next day and a half. I'll check back here in the den every so often to see what's been posted. For now, though, I scamper. :)

MFF Friday Night Update

I played in the first of the poker qualifiers ... and lost. I ended up fourth at our table, which isn't too bad, but only the winner of each table advances to the final on Sunday. I'll be a dealer for the round tomorrow morning and might try my like at the third and final qualifier tomorrow night, but I've not decided and it depends on what else is going on at the time. For now, I'm thinking of getting a shower and heading to bed; I want to be in line for the dealers' den when it opens in the morning since there's one person I need to pick up a commission from and another couple that I'd like to commission before they fill up for the day. Then, of course, dealing the poker game, then nothing until well after lunch.

Here's my plan of stuff to do for the con.

MFF Update - Friday evening

Things so far this con have gone quite well. This is my first venture down to the actual con space - we had a lot of people coming up to the room throughout the day - but I'm going to be doing a fair amount more wandering later on. I've already commissioned a badge from Fishyboner and plan on being at the dealers' den or artists' alley when they open tomorrow morning at 10 AM. What happens in the meantime is anyone's guess, but I'll most likely do the charity poker game at 9 and head to Werewolf until I'm ready to go to bed.

I'm Gonna Get Raped

I do believe that, in this case, the subject line says it all. The fursuit in question is Ripner's, if anyone's wondering. And, now, I sleep. Don't expect me to be conscious before noon. :)

At the MFF hotel

I'm staying with Kilroy tonight; we got here about an hour and a half ago. I'll be moving to Crocosaur's room when he arrives tomorrow. In the meantime, I'm going wandering downstairs. I'm wearing one of my badges now; please hug me if you see me!

Landed in Milwaukee

On the ground and the plane is taxiing to the gate.

Getting on an airplane

We're finally boarding. I'll update when the big metal bird lands.

Still trapped in Memphis

I finally overheard why the flight is delayed: there's a dent in the aircraft and the airline has to wait for the manufacturer to tell the mechanics what (if anything) needs to be done to make the plane flight worthy. Apparently they haven't gotten any word from the manufacturer yet, which is why they keep pushing it back; it shouldn't take long to enact repairs once they know what they have to do.

The airline is not doing anything for passengers, though, with regard to accommodating their travel needs. They did give us a $5 meal voucher (which isn't enough for even the cheapest combo on any menu here) but they are not rebooking passengers or otherwise ensuring that people get where they want or need to be at any specific time.

I'm getting increasingly worried that Kilroy won't be able to pick me up since he has other obligations this afternoon and my delay could seriously screw with his plans. I shouldn't be stuck at the airport, though; Crocosaur is going to pick me up unless things get seriously screwed up. However, right now, I have no idea even if I'll be in Chicago today.

*sigh* Why can't things go well when I'm trying to enjoy myself? :(

More flight delays.

They've said we'll leave at 10 AM now but we still haven't started boarding yet, so I find that extremely unlikely. I'm going to see if I can find food after all; I'll ask at the airline's info counter.

Flight delay

Due to some sort of mechanical problem, my flight has been delayed by at least an hour. I'll post with further updates as I have new information.

Airport update from Memphis.

The plane landed about 15 minutes ago, putting me ahead of schedule. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find a fast food place and I really don't want to spend big money on a restaurant at the airport. I'll be ravenously hungry when I get to Milwaukee in about three hours.

On the way to MFF - Pensacola Airport

To describe the TSA agents here as "dicks" is putting it nicely this morning. I ended up going through extra screening, only to realize that I'd left a bottle of lube in my backpack. How that's a threat to national security I don't know; I don't think they have any clue what "security" actually entails, since they seem to believe that harassing passengers is the best way of achieving it. I ended up having to go back down to the airline counter, putting aforementioned bottle in my luggage (which, thankfully, was still down there), taking the bag through the TSA check line again, going back through security ... and getting extra screening once again. There's absolutely nothing that I had in bag that time that could have been a problem, other than lots of shiny electronics that I wouldn't trust to leave in a checked bag.

Next time I fly anywhere, I'll pick a different airport; I've never had this much trouble flying before. But they are boarding the flight now, so I'm going to hit the "send" button and hope this goes through before I take off. Otherwise, it'll be posted from Memphis, back dated.

Medical Stuff '08 - Part Two

The doctor's appointment was remarkably unsatisfying. After a wait of just over an hour, the doctor came in, asked me a few basic questions, listened to me describe one of the several things I had questions about, listened to various parts with his stethoscope, and left to let one of the nurses finish things up. I have to go for some lab work due to that one concern, but the fact I didn't even get the chance to bring up the other things I had questions about seriously bothers me. Is it normal to just have to start talking to a doctor and keep talking until you've said everything you want to say or did I just happen to visit a doctor that was more interested in going home than actually treating patients?

Medical Stuff '08 - Part One

I've been waiting about 35 minutes on the doctor to show up, so here's a quick post on what I know so far:

* I'm negative for STDs; I went to the health department earlier to get the results. That's one less thing to worry about.
* I have a doctor's appointment 25 minutes ago.

I'll make another post this evening with the details for the appointment here if the doctor feels like showing up.

Strange arguments

I've heard a lot of bizarre things, but this has to take the cake for the oddest ... well, at least for the week. How do you respond to something like this, anyway?

(13:43:21) Me: But that's something that doesn't even exist.
(13:47:27) Them: at one point they said the same thing about donuts

Meh

From Garfield Minus Garfield

MFF upcoming

I'll be arriving Thursday and staying until Monday afternoon. Who else is going? Would love to see plenty of people at the con. :)

Randomly randomified

Hermaphrodites can't have children! The kids would need Google Maps just to get out!

Random thought

Self-motile street orgy.

Fantasies Shared

Since there were a few people *cough*Kilroy*cough* who really wanted to see me write everything out, I decided to combine pretty much all of the formats by writing an outline with lots of juicy, sexy details. Honestly, the "juicy" parts could probably get posted on Yiffstar without any further editing, though I do plan on actually writing a story to this effect sometime in near future. Not necessarily before MFF, though I'll try to get it done as soon as I have the chance to do so.

Anyway, here's the document of kinky-fantasy-stuff. It's completely not safe for work; please don't say I didn't warn you.

Some assembly required

I was trying to use a new microphone on Skype tonight. It's a small one that clips onto either the headphone cable or (ideally) a shirt collar. However, the clip snapped and I can't figure out how to put these pieces back together. Anyone have any suggestions?

Edit: Another half hour of tinkering and I fixed the thing. Whee. :)

My biological clock broke

I went to bed at 2 PM after being awake 28 hours. I set an alarm for 9 PM. I woke up at 8 PM on the dot without any prompting. I'm considering going back to sleep for another couple hours, just because I can. @_@

4:04 - Sleep not found

Title says it all.

Being slutty

I made a post a couple weeks back asking if anyone would object to me writing about my various real-life sexual fantasies. Nobody objected. So, I'm now asking another question, this time complete with a poll over on the right sidebar. When I do elaborate on my various perversities, how should I do so?

• Short, descriptive bullet points
• Essay form
• Detailed paragraphs detailing specific events separately
• A story, possibly not so short, mixing it all together.

I might start this thing as early as tomorrow evening, so please respond quickly. I'm hoping to have something finished before MFF in two weeks.

Addiction

I was supposed to leave here at about noon today, perhaps a little earlier. Instead, it's now 7:15 PM and I'm still sitting in Carlisle, PA. I've blown off work for a day, putting me in a position where I have to drive all night (with a two hour nap, or less) to make a delivery. And for what? I hesitate to describe it as merely being addicted to the Internet, though it's possible that's all the problem is, but I have a different hypothesis.

I'm addicted to people.

Even before I took this job, in which my level of human contact is nearly nothing, I spent very little time with people. It proved to be impossible to get a group of furs together in Pensacola to go out and do anything or even to just come over and hang out. Online, I keep trying to find people to talk with, though since I have so little experience actually interacting with others I constantly worry about screwing something up, pissing someone off, and not even knowing what I've done wrong to make someone ignore me. Even if I'm not on a messenger (like now), I end up regularly browsing various social news and other similar sites, mostly for the various comments sections.

I only wish I could figure out some sort of productive course of action. Obviously, not getting online would be the simplest answer, but then I wouldn't have any interaction with people at all, since I have to use the web to set up even my few offline meetings with people. I'd just have my phone and the three or four people that call me once in a while. I ended up taking down the "call me" button because, out of the months it was up here, just one person used it and it was someone who'd gotten a new phone and couldn't find my old number. Another obvious solution is just spending less time online, but self-control and moderation are two things that I'm severely lacking in. I know that these are all things I should probably talk to a psychologist about - and I'll probably show one this post if I ever do see one - since I truly have no idea how to handle it.

Were it not so late, I'd probably write something a bit more eloquent, but I've taken half an hour just to type up this much. I need to get a nap in before I go driving tonight.

Music Badge

In the right column on my blog pages (linked for those on the RSS feed), I swapped out some elements to make room for a radio badge from thesixtyone. If you want to listen to some good music that you've likely never heard before, give it a try; I get extra points on the website if enough people start listening to my radio. Of course, if you want to sign up, you can go hunting for music on your own, since I'm sure my tastes aren't necessarily going to match yours; just please give Pixelpaws credit for the referral. :)

We're open 24 hours, but not between 2 and 4 AM...

If a fast-food place is open 24 hours a day, you would think that they'd keep their signature items available even if they're running a reduced menu in the late-night hours. Not Wendy's, apparently. I took the car out, attempted to order a double, and was told they didn't have any burgers because they were cleaning the grill. Considering that I wasn't about to pay $4 for an hour-old (or more) chicken sandwich, I just left. I'll just eat a slightly larger breakfast (lunch?) when I wake up to make up for it.

GOBAMA

Maybe this country has some hope after all.

It's the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November

If you're in the United States, I have only one thing to say to you today:

VOTE, GODDAMMIT

You've been hearing about this election for nearly two years now. If you haven't made up your mind about a candidate by now - whether it's Obama, McCain, or a third-party person - then spend a few minutes reading any newspaper from the last 12 months and make your choice. I'm not going to tell you who to vote for, since you're perfectly capable of making up your own mind (if you're not, please check into your local center for the mentally retarded), but I am going to insist you get off your ass and vote. Seriously, get away from your computer or stop staring at text messages on your phone, go to your polling place, and cast a ballot. It's the one useful thing you can do for this country.

For those of you who insist that your vote doesn't matter, keep in mind that Florida's official vote count in 2000 separated Bush and Gore by just 537 votes. That works out to an average of less than one vote at every precinct or just eight votes in each of the state's 67 counties. Think about that for a moment: if you went with seven friends to the poll and - in every county - someone else did the same, the election would have been a dead heat. If you don't care who becomes President because you think they're both useless, keep in mind there are other things on the ballot, such as state Constitutional Amendments like the ones to ban gay marriage (California and Florida, to name two), local political races (in which your single vote is much more valuable), and other ballot initiatives that could affect your life even more than the person who will take the White House on January 20.

And just one final point: If you don't vote, I'm holding you personally responsible for every single thing that goes wrong with the government for the next four years regardless of who is in power. If you can't even be bothered to spend a couple hours at a polling station once every four years to ensure our government doesn't suck, then you're at fault when it sucks so hard it's a violation of your human rights.

Toilet trouble

You know something's not right when you're sitting on the commode long enough for both legs to fall asleep at the thigh. Ow.

For those of you considering Christmas Cheer

Sometimes, Google's Headlines aren't the best...

Anxiety

One thing that I really, really dislike doing is interacting in real-life with people I don't know. Why? Because even in the simplest of situations, I can't seem to figure out how to not piss people off. Take, for example, checking in at the warehouse here. This place requires drivers to check in on the CB radio. I hate using the radio. It took me five minutes just to get up the nerve to try paging the guard once, then I never got a response. Several other drivers checked in after that without a problem. I tried again, didn't get a response, then repeated myself as other drivers had, only to get a snappy "Hold on a minute" instead of the polite responses that the other drivers had received when they did the same thing. At this point, I was shaking in the seat; I really, really do not handle that sort of thing well.

I'm checked in now, but I'm still twitching as I type this, ten minutes later. -_-

Lunchtime posts

Just a few random things I thought of while eating:

* Mozilla Minefield kicks ass. That's the code name for Firefox 3 and beta 2 is available for download. Make sure you read the disclaimer before you install, especially the part about your computer catching fire.

* I have Sunday off and might get to see Matthais again. We went to Gettysburg last time I was in town; I'll upload some of those pictures eventually. If we meet up tomorrow we'll likely find somewhere to watch football. Not much else to do on a Sunday.

* I seem to find it impossible to sleep before midnight. Not good when you need to be up by 6 AM.

Anyway, I have a couple posts typed on my laptop that will auto-post when I hop online this evening. See everyone in about eight hours.

Friendships, relationships, etc.

I was having a conversation with someone earlier this evening when he had to go to dinner. I said "see you later, hon" and it turned into a ten minute conversation about the oddity of me saying such a thing. Two comments by this other person stood out:

• why do you use that, though? It's usually something a wife reserves for a husband or vice versa.
• just wondering why someone so against mateship would say things like that :)

So I figured I'd take a few moments to type up an answer since, for reasons that I don't think even the gods could explain, it's 12:30 AM and I'm still not tired enough to get to sleep.

Why do I use such terms of endearment? Well, the individual in question is one of my closer friends and someone I've known for a rather long time. I don't see any chance of a "relationship" working out between us, though I definitely am hopeful we can remain good friends for a rather long time. But he, as well as a few of my other friends, are very close to me, much as one might regard their boyfriend/mate/husband/whatever. There are several people that I feel extremely close to (though, admittedly, not as many as I have in the past) and, while I can't say there's anyone that has expressed an interest in being anything more than friends lately, I certainly am content with having those few good friends. And, far as I can tell, they seem to be similarly happy with the situation as well.

As for the second statement, it's not so much that I'm against mateship as that I'm against the way most people act when they have a significant other of some form. It ends up, probably 95% of the time, changing the person's personality significantly for the worse. The majority of relationships people get into outside the fandom are unhealthy enough, and when you account for the decidedly high instance of mental illness among furs (e.g. I have mild depression, while others have such severe emotional dysfunction they get social security for it), it just seems the the odds of any given relationship being healthy are so low as to be practically negligible. I can name perhaps two or three relationships that I'd describe as healthy out of the two or three hundred that I've encountered. Yes, I would go so far as to say that 99% of mateships in the fandom are unhealthy for at least one of the parties involved, if not both, or all three (or four, or seven, or twelve...) if you want to start allowing for love polygons. :p

I definitely don't like the idea of a constrictive relationship, that is, one in which the partners simply tell one another "Don't do this, that, or those" instead of trying to compromise and trust one another's judgment. As simple as that statement is, compromise and trust seem to be two things that are sorely lacking in almost all of those relationships that I'm complaining about. It seems like the worst offenders are the ones who constantly cling to one another instead of simply allowing one another to go off and enjoy the company of others, whether it be for "naughty things" or even something as simple as a card game. The couples that insist on constantly being in the closest possible contact with one another are the most obnoxious. If you don't want to let go of your partner for any longer than it takes to come up for air and can't finish a sentence without telling everyone how wonderful your lover is, why do you even bother coming out of your bedroom?

All of that being said, if someone I've known for a while approached me and expressed an interest in being mates, I can't say I'd immediately reject the idea. I would at least consider it after having a nice, long chat. There probably are only a couple of such eligible bachelors out there - and I daren't even approach them on the subject for fear of screwing up some of my closest friendships - but I would at least be willing to talk to them about it if they brought it up.

Just to put one more thing out there to stop this problem in advance. If I haven't talked to you in the last month, you're definitely not one of those people, so don't even ask; I've had more than enough drama from people insisting that they'd be perfect for me when, in reality, they just think my genitals are a perfect fit for theirs. I'm also pretty sure that half to most of this is going to be incoherent, but at least it's out here now. Whee. *thud, snore*

Obvious news is obvious

Who are the 15 percent who say U.S. is on right track? I think that's a good question, but the article in linked to the left certainly provides the answer most of us expected: old, stupid, bible-thumping republican conservatives who have had way too much of John McCain's Kool-Aid.

"Of those in the poll taking an optimistic view, 52 percent are age 50 and up; 51 percent have no more than a high school diploma; and 43 percent attend religious services once or more each week. ... Six in 10 right-track people are Republican and slightly more than that are conservatives, both far exceeding the national average. Likely voters in the poll saying the country is moving the right way prefer McCain over Democrat Barack Obama by 73 percent to 25 percent."

A perverse question

Since I've no idea who actually is reading this these days (though that lovely little counter on the right says there are at least ten of you), I figured I'd ask opinion before just posting and getting responses along the lines of "Eww, gross." So, here goes. *ahem*

If I were to make a rather lengthy, detailed post about things I would like, both sexual and otherwise, would anyone want to read it?

Anthrocon puts the "con" back in convention.

I was linked to Anthrocon's policy on hotel reservations. Apparently, this year, you can't cancel your reservation without losing your deposit regardless of how much notice you give, you can't transfer your reservation for any reason, the hotel will not give out extra keys for any reason, and you are required to let housekeeping staff into your room for a daily inspection whether or not you want service. So, basically, even if you have a medical emergency or simply have to change your plans, you're still out at least $150; some people have complained they were being billed for more than just the first night and, as such, are out quite a bit more.

While I can kind of understand the "no refunds" policy, as it keeps people from taking up rooms they can't fill, preventing people from transferring the rooms is patently absurd. It's just another way the con has found to completely screw over the people who want to attend. If something happens, people should at least be able to transfer the room to someone else who can make the event. The "no spare keys" policy is also ridiculous; while issuing a dozen keys for a "one-person" room is definitely suspect, there are times when having a spare key is valuable. Also, if I don't want housekeeping in my room, I don't want housekeeping in my room. I don't care what corporate says: "do not disturb" is a very, very simple request. And while I've been fortunate enough to never have anything stolen, I know plenty of people who have had expensive electronics and the like simply disappear from their rooms. One person, who had the only key to his room and no roommates who could have gone through his stuff, had a $900 camera "vanish" after the room was made.

I'm just waiting for people to finally realize that Anthrocon is the most overrated event in the entire fandom, run by a bunch of elitist pricks who don't give a rat's ass about anything except their inflate egos.The only reason at all to attend are the people, all of whom have been duped into spending vast sums of money for an event that isn't even worth the cost of a plane ticket. Seriously, if you're even thinking about going, don't. Find a smaller convention or just visit your friends directly. It'll be cheaper and you'll enjoy it far more. If enough people decide not to go to Anthrcon, maybe we'll be lucky enough to have the con implode and either change its policies completely or - even better - simply cease to exist.

Stop... that... damn... song

There is a crane game behind me with the most annoying "happy" music, running on a twenty second loop. There's nowhere to sit here that isn't within earshot of that infernal machine. As much as I dislike country music, I'd much prefer listening to that instead of the loop coming from that thing. If I weren't waiting on a shower I'd just leave. >_<

Eagleheart

This song has been stuck in my head for a rather long time now. I'm not going to pull the usual "paste the whole song's lyrics" but I am going to at least put the chorus down here. Go watch the video (so you can listen to the song) if you've not heard it before.

Heart of an eagle
He flies through the rainbow
Into a new world and finds the sun
Spreading his wings above all the sorrows
The glory of Eagleheart

Happy Meme thing

Stolen from various people over on LameJournal: Post 10 things that are going right in your life right now. I don’t care how small. You’re happy with your cup of coffee. You saw a flock of geese flying over. ANYTHING. Things that make you happy. Things that make you smile.

1. I got to go to the best pizza place in Pensacola last night with two of the local furs.
2. I have a work assignment that, for once, actually leaves me a reasonable amount of time to deliver. Added bonus: it's just short enough that I get a bonus for it being a crappy run.
3. I finally broke another big milestone in my savings account.
4. There's a nearly full moon tonight and, with the clouds positioned as they are, it looks simply haunting in the sky. I only wish I could get a decent photo of it to share.
5. For the first time in ... I can't remember how long, I actually get to sleep in as long as I want tomorrow. As such, I'm fully expecting to get at least 12 hours of unconsciousness in. :)
6. Pandora radio. Particularly this station that I've been training.
7. The simple fact that, in less than one hundred days, Bush will be something you find in a garden and not the White House.
8. Sex. ... Do I really need to explain that one to anybody?
9. MFF is coming up in a little over a month. I have a room arranged, plane tickets bought, and registration paid for.
10. I have no debt. None.

The one depressing thing? It took me nearly three hours to come up with even the above ten. -_-

Pricing Problem

1 GB SD card - $14 (clearance price)
2 GB SD card - $11.88
Confusing Wal-mart employees - priceless

Nervous, no wreck

I'm stressed to the point that all I can do is whimper and shake uncontrollably. Even standing up is hard. I really don't know how much more I can do...

Taking a break

Been spending too much time online lately and been enjoying too little of it. I'm not going to get on any messenger services for a while. If you need to get a hold of me, e-mail or call me.

More odd business names

While riding back to the operating center, I saw a sign for "Club Gastronomico." With a name like that, it's not hard to come up with vorish possibilities.

Gas prices go boom

When I drove into Texas Friday evening, it was $2.99 a gallon. When I parked that night, unleaded was $2.89. Saturday afternoon, I passed a few stations at $2.79. However, I didn't expect that trend to continue and $2.39 to hit by Monday. I passed the sign above just a few minutes ago down here in Laredo. They were $2.75 Saturday night; apparently pricews crashed another 36 cents in as many hours.

Link between emotional dysfunction and creativity

Well, this certainly explains furries, who are both generally creative and generally fucked in the head. :p

"There have been more than 20 studies that suggest an increased rate of bipolar and depressive illnesses in highly creative people . . ."

Vending Machine Fail

One thing I can't do in the truck...

100 mph. 'nuff said.

Today's shocker

My parents disclosed something today that I'd suspected for a rather long time: I'm adopted. Can't say it makes any difference in how I feel about them. I still like mom and... Uh... Tolerate dad. I'm never going to know my biological parents so it's not like this makes a bit of difference. *shrug*

STD Testing

I figured that, as a sexually active gay male, it would probably be a good idea to get myself tested. I doubt I have anything but "doubt" isn't a very good antibiotic or treatment plan if I do. So I called the insurance company to find out if it's covered (it is, but only under the general medical services part) and find out who to talk to. They suggested a primary care physician. I called a couple of such physicians and they all referred me to the health department; none of them do such screenings in their office (and none of them had any openings for two weeks anyway). The health department said it would take three to four weeks to get results and - and here is the one huge problem - I would have to come back to the office in person to get the test results.

Why is coming back a problem? Quite simply, there's no guarantee that I'll be able to come back to get the results at all. I'm only going to be getting home Wednesday evening before MFF and have to leave for work Tuesday morning; unless they get me home exceptionally early on Wednesday or let me have an extra day off, there's no time at all for me to even go in and get my results. The next time I come home wouldn't be until around Christmas and their offices will probably be closed for the holiday, if I'm home on a weekday at all. This means I couldn't get any results for more than three months, at which point the information is damn near useless; I could have just as easily gotten something at MFF or (worse) have something already and simply have no way of knowing it because nobody will give me my test results.

Apparently it's a legal requirement that information about HIV/AIDS status never be given over the phone: both clinics and the insurance company said that after I spent more than half an hour on the phone trying to find out what I can do. So what can I do? Absolutely nothing, it seems. The Santa Rosa County health department requires appointments and didn't have any openings today, while the Escambia County health department does walk-in appointments but only takes 12 people each morning and each afternoon; the afternoon session started at 12:30 and they probably have too many people in line by now anyway since they fill up rather quickly. No other organization or doctor in the area provides testing services to the general public; I looked.

I just wish I knew what to do now.

Hey, America1 Register to vote! NOW!

I'm not going to harp about politics here, since I've pretty much made up my mind about the election and I imagine that most of the people reading this have as well. However, I would like to take a moment to remind you to register to vote if you have not done so already. If you have registered in the past, verify that you are still registered. Both take just a couple minutes and could make the difference in November. The deadlines in most states are approaching quickly - in some states today is the deadline - and if you miss out, you have nobody to blame but yourself. Don't spend the next four years wishing you'd voted.

F1 Predictions

Since Ferrari have sucked wonderfully in the last two rounds, scoring nothing in Singapore and just three points in Italy, Merecdes-McLaren have the lead in the constructors' championship. I made a couple predictions a month ago on this and both have proven to be quite profitable. Though I will concede that I don't actually think BMW Sauber have a chance of winning the title, a 2,300% return on that wager is awfully nice and it's quite tempting to just cash it in now.

qmwztlxb3

Which Team will win the 2008 Grand Prix Constructors Championship

I predicted Mclaren   on 11th Sep 08

what is this?

The World's News Forecaster

qmwztlxb3

Which Team will win the 2008 Grand Prix Constructors Championship

I predicted BMW Sauber   on 11th Sep 08

what is this?

The World's News Forecaster

New written smut

Over on my porn-centric blog, I posted a story I wrote while feeling both horny and creative. Read, comment, rate, etc.

Interesting fact about Sprint (tech support sucks still).

After spending an hour and a half on the phone with support, I found out this little gem: if you have a signal strength on the phone of less than three (out of five) bars, they claim that isn't sufficient to keep a data connection going. Never mind that it was working just fine for six hours as I drove from Beckley, WV to Bumfuck, KY and, for a chunk of that trip, I had a signal strength of zero showing. Never mind that my connection works flawlessly on my phone and only dies the moment I actually use it on my computer because the phone won't let me keep it set up as a modem. Never mind that it's been sporadically acting up since I bought this overpriced piece of crap and have continued to pay an exorbitant amount of money every month to get service that I can't even use properly. Never mind that it's actually showing as being unplugged from my computer and being plugged back in as a Windows Mobile device. It's that I don't have three bars showing on the phone that's the problem. At least they agreed to have a senior tech support person call me back, though I'm convinced at this point that the problem lies with the hardware being defective by design.

Is there any chance that I can simply nail these guys for breach of contract because they're failing so spectacularly at providing the service I'm paying for? Their network coverage is poor and I frequently have dropped calls even when I have a supposedly good signal. Their data plans apparently work perfectly fine unless you're trying to actually use them for more than one thing at a time. And the single most expensive add on I have - $40 a month for phone as modem service - only works about 70% of the time. I'm going to make my case for that when (read: if) they call me tomorrow and, if nothing else, ask to downgrade my equipment to whatever cheap piece-of-shit phone they have on special and trade in what I have now for a USB air card like device. At least then I won't have a problem with the "smart" phone being retarded.

MFF is GO!

After a brief talk with work - including saying "pretty please" - I was able to get off November 20-24 for the convention. I haven't bought plane tickets yet, but I have gotten a room worked out thanks to someone who canceled on a friend not an hour before I told him I was able to go. Thanks for good timing, right? However, I still need to get a ride to the hotel since the cheapest flight there is into Milwaukee; it's a mere $190 to fly there, as opposed to $323 for a comparable flight into O'Hare. Is there anyone in that area who happens to be going my way and/or would be otherwise willing to pick me up Thursday and take me back there on Monday? The trip I really want arrives at Milwaukee at 10:26 AM Thursday and departs the airport Monday afternoon at 4:50 PM; I want to spend as much time out there hanging out and doing all the fun stuff that furries get to do. ;)

Any information on a ride would be much appreciated, since the sooner I know I can get from the airport to the hotel, the sooner I can buy the tickets and register for the con.

I wanna write

I'm probably not going to do any driving-related work today, for various reasons, not the least of which is I want a chance to just stop worrying about work for a reason other than the truck breaking. :)

So, in light of that, anyone want to do anything online today? Massive cyber-orgies aside, there's always the option of playing poker or some other game, or simply trying to catch up with folks I've not seen in a while. If anyone wants to call me, I'll have my phone, though the operating center here seems to be in a bit of a dead zone; I have an okay signal out in the truck but nothing at all inside the building. I'm going to try write stuff today, too, if I can just finally get my muse to cooperate.

Thoughts about music

Someone seemed very surprised when I told them I like Dragonforce. Why do I like them, though, when I dislike many other similar bands? Melodies. Dragonforce has a melodic sound, as opposed to a lot of heavy metal where they're loud simply for the sake of being loud. I dislike rap for the same reason: it lacks a distinct melody.

So, that said, can anyone recommend any groups similar to Dragonforce? That is, fast-paced, melodic, rock/metal like bands? :)

Apathy

Did you ever have one of those days where you felt like doing nothing at all was still too much work? That's about how I've felt most of this month.

Bored bored bored

Been at the hotel all day. Not a lot going on online. Nothing within a 20 minute walk of the hotel. None of the folks I know here want to hang out. Now what? O.o

Found the camera

Since I had plenty of downtime today due to work sucking, I did some looking around and found my camera. Yay. Now I just need stuff to take pictures of. Any suggestions? ;)

Lost my digital camera :(

I brought it in to an operating center to pull photos off the memory card, but since then I can't find it. If I left it inside, someone walked off with it; the camera is not in the lost and found. If it's in the truck, it's not in any of the places I normally keep things; I spent half an hour to confirm that. I'll do an even more thorough search tonight, after I park, but it's really not promising. *sigh* Why do I have such a horrible way with electronics?

Oprah really, really does not understand Internet memes

I literally fell over laughing at this. The tone in which she delivers the lulz is truly priceless.

Photo meme

Since this is going around LJ, why the hell not.



Take a picture of yourself right now.
Don't change your clothes, don't fix your hair - just take a picture.
Post that picture with NO editing.
Post these instructions with the picture.

I'll admit that I cheated slightly; I cropped the picture to edit out a slightly creepy guy in the background. o_o

Waxing Philosophical

* I have lost ten pairs of socks in a month. I blame anyone reading this who has a foot fetish. Especially you.

* The quantity of channels available on a given medium (TV, radio, etc.) is inversely proportional to the quality of their content.

* There are reddits for bacon and pre_bacon. Why isn't there a post_bacon reddit? Wait. Eww.

* Why does seeing the headline "SquirrelFish Extreme" make me wonder if Doug Winger is still doing art?

* Why the hell am I typing all this when I should be working? ;)

Collaborative creative furry blog of some sort?

While I was in the shower, I was thinking about ways of potentially reviving my effectively dead writing projects. One thought that came to mind is setting up a blog here and having multiple posters, all of whom are working on a similar theme. I'm not sure about how such a thing could be laid out - the first idea that comes to mind is creating "news" like posts - nor am I entirely sure what the theme could be. Obviously, I'd be partial to the things I'm most interested in, such as macro/micro scalies doing various perverse things to one another, such as playing chess. Anyone else intrigued by the thought?

Who the heck pays for bad amateur porn?

I found out this evening that an old acquaintance (and that's putting it nicely) is now selling short clips of himself for $10 and up. Now, if these were any good, I might have some respect for it, but I can find better stuff on YouTube and, frankly, could probably do just as good myself if I lost a couple more pounds and had anything even remotely resembling a dominant streak. I never thought I'd be this disturbed by it, but something doesn't sit well with me at all. Maybe it's the fact that he's simply ripping off the people who are desperate enough to pay for it. Maybe it's that I know he could get a decent job but, instead, he just wants to be a typical furry and not do a damn thing with his life. Maybe it's simply that he's charging so much for something of, frankly, mediocre quality. All I know is that I've lost the last shred of respect I've had for the person. *shakes hir head in disgust*

A color test

If you have about ten to fifteen minutes to spare, here's an interesting test of your color vision. It's quite simple: arrange the colored tiles in order of hue. It's quite a bit easier than it sounds since things that are wrong tend to stand out. I scored a 12, mostly by screwing up on the shades of blue.

Losing weight

Wii Fit is one of those things that proves to be much, much more effective than I ever thought possible. How do I figure? I've lost more than six pounds since I started playing it two weeks ago, despite only minor changes to my diet. I'm planning on continuing to play it for 30 minutes a day at least five times a week, though I only used it to check my weight this evening since it's much later than I'd like. I'm going to start trying to better my diet as well, such as by drinking water or - at worst - diet beverages whenever possible, though I'll make an occasional exception for sugar-sweetened tea. Likewise, I'll be trying to eat smaller portions and try to consume more fruit and vegetables; though fruit is hard to come by on the road, I could probably find a salad-like item a couple of times a week.

My ultimate goal is to be back down to about 150 pounds and fit in the size 32 pants that I've broken the buttons off of. I'm going to try lose about a pound a week on average; I suspect the weight I've lost so far is just a temporary fluke or that the scale somehow underestimated my weight by about four pounds this evening. Here's hoping I can make some more significant and lasting improvements!

Possibly attending MFM

I'm not sure if I'll be able to go since the con is so close to Thanksgiving, but I'd really like to try if I can get the time off. However, I'll be in need of a ride to the con (since I'll most likely park the truck at Indianapolis or Gary) and a room to share with someone else. Anyone have any leads on those or should I just make my own arrangements through the official ride and room share boards?

English, motherfuckers.

Remember: when you are writing a post on the Internet, text is the only means by which you can communicate. Therefore, proper spelling and grammar are vitally important. If you can't take the time to even make the distinction between "your" and "you're" or "their," "there," and "they're," I'm not going to take the time to read a thing you have to say. That sort of writing makes you come across as an ignorant, uneducated dolt who flunked out of middle school. I'm not expecting perfection - I know my own writing isn't perfect - but I do expect people to write on at least a third grade level. Don't waste my bandwidth if you can't even meet that trivially low standard.

Bible Quote of the Day

That's right, even I have an appreciation for fine religious text like this. "There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses." - Ezekiel 23:20 (New International Version)

Just to completely screw with everyone, I'm going to have to work that line into a story on Yiffstar, complete with attribution, in the hopes that it gets bumped high enough in search rankings to horrify "innocent" Christians. ;)

The LHC and You

Yes, tomorrow, the Large Hadron Collider will turn on. There's no need to worry about it as there's only a very, very small chance that it will bring about the end of the human race. And if it does, there's a very, very high chance that we won't even know what happened.

Sleep well, kids! >:)

Taco Wait

I stopped at a Taco Bell for lunch on my way home. It seemed like things were moving smoothly; I walked right to the counter and ordered. The catch? I'm order 225 and they were only on 210 when I walked in. Five minutes later, they're on 215. This is rather amusing, really.

Heading home from MFM

I'll type a full con report later since we're running short on time to
get out of the room right now. Because of Gustav, I'm going to take I-65
to get home instead of cutting through on back roads; it adds 40 miles
but I should avoid most of the rain that way except for some of the
outer bands. Not sure when I'll be getting home at this point, but
hopefully it'll be before it gets too late in the evening since I only
got four hours of sleep last night. >_>;

Enjoying the con

Still having a good time here, but I need picture ideas for things to commission! Any suggestions?

Helping "friends" out

You know, I'm quite sick of trying to help people and getting bitched at for doing so. If you want my help, don't get pissed off at me when I offer it. Better still, don't ask me at all if you're going to have an attitude about it. It seems like no good deed goes unpunished on the Internet.

*yawns*

Ever notice that, on days that you do absolutely nothing, you often end up more tired than if you'd worked your ass off all day? I did less than one hour's worth of work and yet I'm more tired now than I was after driving nine hours straight yesterday.

Advertising on blogs

In case anyone hasn't noticed yet, I'm running ads on my truckin' around (trucking work-related) blog. So far, it's not amounted to a whole lot of money; at the rate I'm going, it'll be about 2015 before I actually earn enough from those ads to get Google to pay anything out at all. However, since it's my account, I don't even see the ads and I have no idea how annoying (or benign) they actually are. I'm fairly sure I've specified text ads only and configured them to be unobtrusive as possible, but I can't verify it. :)

Also, would anyone be horribly offended or irritated if I started running similar things on this blog and/or added them to the RSS feeds? Obviously, my porn blog isn't going to run them since it's way outside the terms of service for AdSense (and, frankly, pushes the limits for Blogger itself), but this one is tame enough for me to at least contemplate it.

Please leave your comments so I can get an opinion on the subject. Or just use the star ratings: one star if you hate the idea, five if you love it, and in-between ratings for in-between opinions.

Edit @ 11 PM: I spent some time testing out my settings on both this and my work blog and set a few things up. There's now one link unit near the top of the page, an ad at the bottom of the right sidebar, and a search box above my posts. The last one actually is useful and I can actually use that to allow people to search my smut if they're so inclined. ;)

Sprint Overbilling

I've bitched plenty of times about the crappy tech support, lousy cell phone reception, and shady business practices of Sprint before, but when I checked my bill tonight, I got yet another surprise. I'd been given a $20 credit to compensate me for receiving defective hardware and having to wait three hours on hold just to get told that it's something I'll have to go into a store to get fixed. Obviously, being a truck driver, this is impossible, but they somehow thought that $20 was adequate compensation for having a phone with bluetooth that crashes randomly. They didn't even tell me they I'd been given a credit the first time; I only found out on a subsequent call for another problem the following week.

The problem is this: I was then charged for an extra pro-rated month of service. They double-billed me for part of my data plan, which ended up negating the credit added another $2 to my bill. I tried calling their customer service center, only to find out that I have to call during "regular business hours" to get someone to answer the phone. At least they have limited hours on the weekend and I'll have the time to call them tomorrow before they charge me twice for service that barely works anyway. If they still bill me for anything over $141.85, I'm going to dispute the entire charge with Mastercard and cross-post this to the Consumerist, if not drop a full-blown executive e-mail carpet bomb.

Here's the bill in question, showing the double billing right at the top; these clowns aren't even trying to hide the fact they're cheating me out of money now.

FA is down again...

So anyone who guessed "one week" in the poll I posted is correct. According to their forum, anyway, the site went up on August 6 and had to first be taken offline on August 12. It's been going down more frequently and for longer periods of time as well.

Might I take this opportunity to remind everyone of far better sites like Furry Art Pile or Yiffstar? ;)

Sexual Preference

This is probably a surprise to nobody reading this journal, but I am a submissive and a bottom. Yeah, I know, shocking, isn't it? But what amazes me is how hard it is for other people to understand that. Mounting someone, with few exceptions, doesn't do much for me. If I'm rather emotionally close to the person (and if you even have to ask, no, I'm not referring to you) then I can do it and enjoy it, but it's one of the few things that I need that sort of attachment to do. Yet, somehow, I have at least two people whining at me that I won't mount them the moment the opportunity presents itself. Even dismissing the fact that I much prefer being a bottom, whining at me is about the fastest way to turn me off. Seriously, it's right up there with babyfur scat threads on fchan.

The truly amazing part is, even after I explain this, people are still fucking whining. Is the mere concept of a guy who doesn't want to put his dick up your ass truly that hard for people to comprehend? Am I speaking in too many multisyllabic words for these ass-clowns? Do these people somehow think they're the only furs in the entire fandom who want a hot dick up their ass to shoot an endless fountain of spooge into their intestines? What the fuck makes people think that whining and complaining is the best way to get what they want? It's all I can do to stop from screaming FUCK YOU when I keep getting whined at, but I'm really tired of being polite to people who simply need to get bitchslapped with a horse dick.

So, ranting aside, how the hell do I get these people to stop hounding me without being so rude that it only creates more drama? This is seriously starting to make me dread going to MFM; I don't want to have to spend the con explaining to people that I would prefer to keep my penis and their anus separated by several feet. I really want to just be able to enjoy myself at the con, sexually and otherwise.

MFM Upcoming

Barring any disasters with work, I should be at MFM over Labor Day weekend. I've requested the time off, arranged for a hotel room, paid for registration, and keep all my convention-going stuff with me in the truck. I'm rather looking forward to it, particularly with as busy as work has been keeping me; it's not often that I have to take a day off because I legally can't work any more in a week. I'm thinking of volunteering to help with a few things, if not suggesting a few panels outright. Specifically, I have two ideas: a warm-up game of Texas Hold 'Em that could serve as a tutorial for new players before the charity tournament and a time in the LAN room for open-source and freeware games so people without a massive PC budget can still enjoy some gaming. I think there might already be such a card game set up, but I strongly doubt there's anything like that in the computer room; I'll have to check on the website sometime before the con.

Anyone else going to be there? Anyone else wish they were going to be there? :)

FA Downtime Poll

I set up a poll over on Google to ask when FA's servers are going to blow up again. Place your bets!

Taking a couple days off from the web

After pretty much confirming my hopeless addiction to the web, I'm going to try and not get online for the next two or three days unless I have some extra time to kill while waiting on something. In other words, I'm not going to be online before or after work. About the only exception will be checking my e-mail via cell phone. I just need to try and break this bad habit.

Wal-Mart Lines

I'm in line at Wal Mart. Apparently, so is half of Dallas. They have four registers open and a line six deep at each one. Why can't they have a self checkout line open? I could have been out of here by now.

Mood Swings

It seems like just about every thing I want to do lately has been falling apart. I wanted to hang out with some people at the last several stops and it fell apart due to reason after reason. I worked on coloring something and thought it looked good, only to have people either not notice that I'd even tried to color it or link me to something that made my stuff look like crap. I'm up way too late again as, even now, I find myself unable to turn the computer off and get to bed. I keep trying to do nice things for people and either screwing it up somehow or just not even getting thanked for it.

I'm seriously starting to wonder why I even try any more. It makes it seem like there's nothing I can do that will get most people to even give me the time of day. I'm a nobody and nobody is ever going to give a damn about me or anything I do.

DNS Problems

I've been having some issues with DNS while using my phone to connect to the Internet. Specifically, it works fine for about 60 seconds, then stops working entirely until I reconnect. Anyone know what could be causing it and/or have a work around?

Sproing

In other, random goodness, I just felt like posting something quick here while I'm awake. Why? Because I can, of course.

Though, really, it seems like things are just kinda going nowhere. I feel like I'm slowly, steadily drifting away from practically everyone and I don't know why. I don't get to talk to people nearly as often as I used to, even when compared to the first couple months I held this job. I wish I knew why that was the case, or could shake the feeling, but neither seems to be happening. I also just seem to lack energy in general; there are plenty of writing projects I have in various stages of completion, as well as a few that I've not even started, but I find it impossible to bring myself to work on any of them. I still generally enjoy my job, or at least I'm trying to convince myself of that; it has been a somewhat frustrating week. It doesn't help that I have a tendency to just focus on the negative aspects of things.

I know things are going to get better. They always do. I just hope I can actually see them improve when they do.

*grrf*

I hate being addicted to the Internet. For that matter, I hate being addicted to technology in general. :/

Mew...

Why does every electronic device I own hate me? ;_;

Sprint Tech Support Sucks

I've had to call them several times this week and they've yet to actually fix a problem while I was on the phone with them. I spent three hours on the phone while in Huntsville to try and get my phone fixed after an issue rendered me unable to use my data plan; by the time I got off the phone, I couldn't even check my voice mail. After I threatened to cancel, it miraculously fixed itself while I was on the way to Startide's.

Then, as an ongoing issue, the Bluetooth services on my phone don't get along with my computer. I've tried several other devices and everything appears to work fine, but for some unknown reason my phone's data connection to my computer is incredibly buggy. Specifically, bluetooth gets turned off at the phone for no apparent reason. They want me to go to a store to have someone look at it, though I explained that it just isn't possible for me to do that. If I end up in a place where I can, I will, but I'm fed up with having to run around to get defective equipment replaced.

For my trouble, I apparently got a $20 service credit without even being told until a supervisor explained to me that it was already on the account. And this after i was explicitly told that I wasn't going to get any kind of credit at all for any of the problems I've had. At this point, I wouldn't recommend Sprint to anyone, nor would I recommend any device by HTC. Neither Sprint's network or HTC's phone wants to work as it should. Don't use either if you can avoid it.

TABLET GET

I have a graphics tablet for my computer now. Why did I get such a thing even though I completely lack the ability to draw? Well, I'd like to try my paw at it again and Woot had a decent one on sale for under $40. So, even if I prove completely incapable of drawing stick figures, I can probably sell it and get my money back. And yes, I really am that bad; my stick figures usually have one arm bigger than the other, look to have broken hips, or otherwise are severely malformed.

So, anyone have any advice for someone who wants to draw but completely lacks talent? :)

In Huntsville

I'll be up here with Startide for a few days. Don't worry, there will
be pictures. ;)

Internet Weirdness GO!

I'm not sure if it looks more like a 1995 Geocities page or a modern MySpace page...

Anger Mis-management

Out of frustration with a very lengthy series of things going wrong, I threw my phone rather violently against the truck's passenger side door. It's not visibly damaged, aside from a button that snapped off, but it won't turn on. I've already filed for a replacement (thank goodness for insurance) and it should be at my parents' house before I get home, but that does mean that I am without a cell phone for the immediate future. Anyone can still call and leave a message on my GrandCentral account (the number starting with 6), and I'll still try to check my e-mail and such at any operating center I come to, but don't expect to see me online at all or update this again for about a week. I really need to talk to a psychologist about that..

GM crash

GM is at a 53 year low; it hasn't been s cheap since 1955. It's just 1/9 the size of McDonald's at its current market capitalization. Nearly everyone has a strong sell rating on the stock. Is the US auto industry really that bad? Discuss.

Furry Audio Books?

Assuming a group of people took works of furry fiction - adult and otherwise - and recorded them into audio files, would you be willing to purchase them? If so, what would you be willing to pay? Please vote in the poll in the right column on the website.

Racing and Religion

I took the day off today to just relax on a weekend. Since I haven't gotten to follow the Formula One season at all, I woke up exceptionally early (6:45AM) just to try and catch the race only to find out that the Grand Prix had been preempted by some TV evangelist, to be followed by Fox "News" Sunday. Why the fuck are they doing this, particularly in such a large television market? I've half a mind to call the station and ask what they think they're trying to do, particularly as the same program is shown on two different cable channels at the same time and two other broadcast networks have religious programming.

See, folks, this is the kind of crap that gets me to hate religion. I have no problem with it until it interferes with my way of life. This is a fairly big interference. Also, as Fox (technically, Speed, which is owned by Fox) is the main broadcaster in the US, that means that nobody at all in the area gets to watch. So whether or not we have any interest in religion, we don't get to watch the race. *grumbles*

Edit (11:45AM): Apparently Fox is going to air the race... at noon, five hours late. I understand it's better for ratings, but why not air it live as they do in every other country that gets it?

Anyone in St. Louis?

For the second weekend in a row, I'm taking a day off in Edwardsville, IL. I don't have any plans tomorrow, so might anyone want to meet up? Going to be a bored dragon otherwise. :)

Internet trouble

For some reason, my phone refuses to allow me to stay connected to the Internet for more than about two minutes at a time and it's really, really getting on my nerves. Anyone have any experience in trying to get Windows Mobile 6 and Windows Vista to play nice together? Or would I just be better off getting an air card of some sort and installing Linux?

Microsoft spam

I made the mistake of using my primary e-mail address as my login for MSN messenger. I've recently started getting "valuable offers" from Microsoft's various partners even though I never opted in to these things. So I went to the website, logged in, and unchecked all the various "communication preferences" they list, only to find that it would not save the page in Firefox. So I e-mailed them to complain about the incompatibility. I wasn't expecting a useful response, but I instead got a form letter asking me reply with the exact same information I'd provided on their website's form.

I then get another response, saying this:

Thank you for writing back to Windows Live Technical Support. My name is Riza and based on your message, you are unable to unsubscribe from any communications with Microsoft. I value the importance of your concern and I am here to assist you. Shira, for us to further investigate your issue, please write back with the sample of the e-mail you have received from Microsoft with the full headers of the source's e-mail, which is usually in a form similar to abuse@[implicated domain].com.

Now, how hard is it to unsubscribe someone from a mailing list that they never signed up for? Getting out of spam normally isn't even this hard, since it's a simple matter of marking a couple messages as spam to ensure that I never have to see them again. Of course, the suggestion that I respond to abuse@microsoft.com is rather absurd on its own; I'm already using the forms they provide on their website to complain about this. So, instead of forwarding any messages, I replied with this:

Or you can just unsubscribe me from your mailings and leave it at that. I've already deleted all the unsolicited e-mail I've received; why would I save something I never wanted in the first place? You are making it unreasonably difficult to unsubscribe.

They responded immediately to that! With this fantastically unhelpful message:

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification

Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:

LV_ID.WNLV.WW.00.EN.SYK.MNL.TS.T01.SPT.00.EM@css.one.microsoft.com

Technical details of permanent failure:

PERM_FAILURE: Google tried to deliver your message, but it was rejected by the
recipient domain. We recommend contacting the other email provider for further
information about the cause of this error. The error that the other server returned
was: 550 550 5.7.1 <Your e-mail was rejected by an anti-spam content filter on
gateway (205.248.106.32). Reasons for rejection may be: obscene language, graphics,
or spam-like characteristics. Removing these may let the e-mail through the filter.>
(state 18).

So not only do they refuse to allow you to unsubscribe without jumping through hoops (or, more likely, using Internet explorer), they don't even allow incoming mail when someone has a complaint. It's no wonder that a large number people simply hate Microsoft; I'm quickly becoming one of them. I was able to make the unsubscribe page work in Opera, so this shouldn't be a problem again; if I get any more "partner offers" from Microsoft, I'll be closing my MSN account and telling anyone who contacts me there to use something that doesn't suck.

Depression

I spent all day looking forward to making it to where I've stopped tonight, in the hopes that I'd get to stay in a nice, cool hotel room for the evening, have a couple hours to get a shower and watch TV before a friend came over, spend some time enjoying his company, sleep, wake up, then hang out a bit more before the hotel's check out time. Instead, the hotel we have here is full for the night. And instead of trying to figure something else out, I end up too depressed to even care if I get to do any of the above. I spent 11 hours driving, nearly non-stop, spent all day looking forward to it... then one thing goes wrong, which sets off a chain reaction that makes me wonder why I even bothered. I haven't made a hotel reservation, don't have a shower, and didn't even bother ordering dinner.

If he calls and the phone wakes me up, there are a couple of other places that aren't entirely out of the question, though they're of the crappy Motel 6 variety and cost at least $15 more. If he doesn't call or the phone doesn't wake me up... well, it'll just validate how I'm feeling right now. I'm not entirely sure if I care. I know I should care but I just can't be bothered to. I just know that, regardless of where and how long I get to sleep, I'm going to wake up feeling like shit.

I have one and only one thing to say

TraitorPants™

Entirely bored

Wanted to at least leave a post here before bed. I'm now going to snore for about seven hours before getting up too-damn-early and getting a shower before driving off to the north.


Which OS are You?

*sigh*

Ever want something and feel like everyone can have it except you?

Obama's fist bump

Headline News just ran a four minute story attempting to explain the significance of the above. How is this news at all? Why are they airing this crap?

XML Styles?

I have some XML files (MSN messenger log files, to be exact) that I want to play with, but I don't have a style sheet to go with them. How can I write a sheet that would allow me to display the messages roughly as they would from a standard HTML log? I am fairly familiar with CSS, though I haven't worked with XML files before.

Welcome to Great Wall Mart.

Infuriating

In case I haven't said it enough yet: I hate Windows. Right now my phone and laptop refuse to communicate even though they're both plugged in and it was working five minutes ago. -_-

Shaving

There aren't many things that feel as good as putting on clean clothes after shaving everything you've got. :)

Nuts in the News

I heard about this story on the radio earlier, but seeing the video is just hilarious. Seriously, why can't Saturday Night Live come up with stuff that's this good? If you just want the laughs, fast forward to about 1:15. The video is embedded below.

New writing thing

It's (shockingly) not porn, so I thought it appropriate to cross-post here. I don't know why, but I was struck by inspiration from somewhere and pretty much had to write what I did. I only hope it conveys how I suddenly feel about writing: as if it's a gift to be shared, a way of creating an entire universe, using naught but language.

Anyway, enough dramatics. Have a link: http://pixelpaws.blogspot.com/2008/05/symphony-of-words-or-symphony-in.html

Exhaustion

You know you're tired when the simple act of getting naked before bed feels like work.

Home

Just getting to the terminal now. Hope I can at least get five good hours of sleep tonight.

RMFC Rundown

I typed up a nice, long post on the plane, but my computer decided to eat it, so here's the short version.

Thursday: Arrived late afternoon, helped set up the con, got dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, went to bed around 2AM.

Friday: Got registered, helped out during the morning, attended a reptile meet-and-greet in the afternoon. Went to Anthony's Pizza with a few people, then hung out with Kouga in the room until we both decided we were too tired to do anything other than sleep.

Saturday: Overslept (or thought I did) and missed the fursuit parade. I can't remember doing anything until a room party in the evening, which was quite fun. Two folks from that party stayed and spent the night in my room.

Sunday: Not much happened except for the Free Can Cook panel. Met a couple of nice folks, spent the rest of the evening hanging out with one.

Today: Slept in until 11AM, checked out at noon, and got a ride from Ivan and Kahuki to the airport. Flight out of DIA was on time; flight out of DFW to VPS looks to be 40 minutes late.

Tomorrow I get to be at the truck, ready to work, by 8AM. I'm just glad that I had enough time to sleep last night, though there was a party I'd have loved to be at. There weren't many artists at the con; I only commissioned one badge and one picture for after the convention. Even so, I had fun and plan on being back in Denver next year.

Thunderbird crash landing

I was just finishing a nice, long post about the convention when I hit the button combination for sleep (instead of the battery). Now, even though I have three draft copies of the message saved on the computer, it's saying that they're not available since it didn't download them from Gmail. Why the hell is it trying to download a message that it never uploaded in the first place?

Heading home

I'm in the airport now; boarding for the first of my two flights home should start within ten minutes. The con was (as a whole) very cool; I enjoyed myself at RMFC more than any con I've gone to within the last year. I'll write up a full post-con report later this week.

Two quick things.

1. I just went to Walgreen's to get a couple items I forgot and there was quite a line. Most interesting, however, was what happened when the guy working the photo center said he could help people in line that weren't buying tobacco. Every black person in line moved over there, including one person in front of me. Meanwhile, all the white people were standing in the front counter line. I don't fully understand the psychological reasoning behind it, but it seemed strangely reminiscent of what separate-but-equal might have looked like in the first half of the 20th century, assuming the races were even allowed to shop in the same stores.

2. Upon returning to the room, it looked like housekeeping had just come in here, as they were just starting on the rooms across the hall. However, I then realized I had a lot of items out on the bed I didn't sleep on, including two bottles of lube and a collar with its leash attached. I can only imagine what he might have been thinking upon seeing those items on the bed. :)

Con hotel

You know, for being such a fancy hotel, this place seems to love giving you the pleasure of paying extra for every little thing. The wired Internet here is $10/day; the wireless is a T-mobile hotspot (at roughly the same price). They offer bottled water... at $6 each. And the TV controls are locked down to the point that I can't actually plug in video games, though there are plenty of options to buy more things from the hotel. While the rooms are nice, I can't say I appreciate being given the pleasure of paying for things that many lower-end hotels offer for free, such as wi-fi and a TV that you can plug something into.

Anyway, registration should be open now, so I'll probably head down in a few moments to take care of that. I'm in room 1049, if anyone wants to visit at some point during the weekend.

American Airlines = OOS

I was at the gate, ready to get on the plane... then they made an announcement saying the plane had just gone out of service. They didn't say why and I didn't feel like asking, but this does mean that I'll not likely be out of here before 10:30; the plane they're going to put us has just landed. It's still going to be a two hour flight, so this puts me in Denver around 11:30 local time. I'll make another post once I land to let everyone know I've arrived. If you want to get a hold of me, please call me or e-mail; I may or may not be on IM services later.

McWin?

As a follow up to my complaint to McDonald's corporate, I just received a phone call from someone (presumably the store's district manager) telling me that he already had planned to go out to that store. My complaint was just one of several he intended on discussing with the employees and management. He made it sound like a few people were likely to be out of a job. I'm impressed that he took the time to call and explain what he was going to do about it. Hopefully, if I go through there again, I'll be able to get a burger in under half an hour.

Getting on a plane

I'm through security and now just waiting for boarding to start. Seeing as the flight leaves in 25 minutes, I can't imagine it will be much longer. It's then a two hour hop to Dallas, an hour layover, then two more hours to Denver. I have bus information for when I get there, phone numbers for several people in the area, and double-checked everything in my luggage to ensure that the toothbrush really was the only thing that I'd misplaced. I'm very much looking forward to this. :)

RMFC - leaving in the morning

At 6:30AM, I'll be leaving for Denver to enjoy the convention. I've packed just about everything; the only thing I've misplaced is my toothbrush, of all random items to lose. Hopefully we'll have time to stop by the store in the morning; it's already going to be a little tight getting to the airport. I'll have to take down the information on the bus routes to the hotel, but that's the only other thing that I need to do before bed. This means I might get a whopping six hours of sleep; a welcome reprieve after being awake for nearly 36 hours. @_@

On a billboard...

Formerly we suffered from crime. Today we suffer from laws.

McFail

Since I was in a hurry to get where I needed to go this evening, I decided to stop at a McDonald's in the Stroud, OK travel plaza. It seemed quiet enough when I walked inside, but after I went to the bathroom, it seemed like at least one full bus had pulled in, if not two. However, I would have figured that the staff would have been able to handle it, having been on the other side of the counter. Only... not. At first, there were three cashiers up front, but two of the three simply walked away from the registers without warning or explanation; they each simply left half a dozen customers standing in line when they abandoned the position. As such, it took me 35 minutes just to place an order. I wish I could say I was exaggerating, but it was just before 8 o'clock when I got there and my receipt shows 8:32PM.

During this time, there was only one person up front. There were at least three people working the drive through even though it had fewer orders; none of these people came over to help. There were also plenty of people in the grill area making sandwiches; because they were working so quickly in the back, food was getting cold before the front counter customers received their orders. Heck, there were two people making french fries. But through all this, nobody came over to help out up front. The manager was nowhere to be seen, except for one instance where another customer demanded to speak to her; the manager simply gave a terse apology and went back to doing apparently nothing.

When I got to the counter, the cashier seemed clueless. I asked for a large #3 with mayonnaise to go; I wasn't in the mood to try and order anything more complicated and I no longer had the time to sit down and eat. This simple order, however, left the cashier unable to actually ring it up. I have no idea what the problem was, but she had to get help from another employee just to enter my order. Even once I ordered, however, it took another several minutes for me to get my food. There were ten orders on the front counter screen (eight displayed, plus two pending), which left it impossible for anyone behind the counter to figure out who needed what.

Even once I finally received my food, about five minutes later, things still weren't right. I found I'd been given a medium order of fries and a medium drink instead of the large I'd ordered. I told another employee about this and she simply snapped at me to tell me to wait a moment. When she returned about fifteen seconds later, I explained the problem; the employee told the still-confused cashier to fix it and walked off. Every person I dealt with in the store was exceptionally rude. I'd add names, but conveniently, nobody was wearing name tags. Behind the counter, the floor was a mess; fries, cups, and stray sandwich wrappers littered the ground. The order of fries I received was cold and unsalted, the drink was watered down, and my sandwich had condiments oozing off the side before I'd even opened the box.

In short, my experience at this location could have been a training video on how not to manage a McDonald's. Nearly everything that could have been done wrong was done wrong. Every person in the store on that shift needs to be retrained, particularly the front counter order taker and the manager on duty.

I'm going to pass this along to McDonald's corporate, in a slightly abridged form. I'm willing to bet that I won't even get a response, but it's at least worth a try.

You know...

There are few things that make me shiver like putting on clothing after I just finished shaving everything, from top to bottom. It took me perhaps an hour to shave it all, as I actually used my regular hand razor to do a better job, but now I've wonderfully smooth skin all over. Now I just need to maintain that until RMFC next weekend and I'll be good. *purrs*

I'm still alive

Just kinda have been hanging out with various people whenever I got the chance, so I haven't thought to update this a whole lot. Just last night, I was hanging out with Zordrak (Zakram on LJ) and we spent most of the evening playing various games on the Wii. I can't think of many other things to report on, aside from the fact I'm rather excited about RMFC next weekend. I'll probably write a longer post about that some other time.

On technology...

Don't you just "love" it when you're trying to do something simple with the computer and the computer fails to do it, citing a hardware problem with something you've attached? Specifically, I tried plugging my cell phone in to get online and the computer said it couldn't recognize it due to a malfunction. However, it couldn't use the wi-fi either and, frankly, Vista has the worst networking support I've ever had to tolerate, so I'm thinking that "malfunction" has more to do with Windows simply being user-unfriendly as usual...

RSS & You

I've mentioned a few times that you can subscribe to this blog (as well as my others) via RSS, but that assumes that you know what it is. So I thought I'd take a little bit of time to explain it a bit. First, allow me to post a video that sums it all up and I'll add a bit more information below.

So if you're using Firefox, there should be a big orange button in your address bar to subscribe. In any browser, you can click my "readers" graphic in the right column to be taken to FeedBurner, where you'll be presented with a list of subscription options. Though the above video shows off Google Reader (which I highly recommend), you can use similar steps for any other feed reader, whether online or offline. Thus, you can keep up with a whole bunch of websites - including this blog - without having to check them yourself. :)

Raindrops keep fallin' on my head

I woke up about ten minutes ago, started getting stuff together so I could get a shower here before I left... and then it promptly began raining. I don't have an umbrella (I really need to fix that) and I'm a good quarter-mile from the front door of the operating center. While I could probably go without a shower, if I had to, this thunderstorm isn't going to make it easy to get dinner either. And if I'm going inside for one, I may as well get both, assuming the cafeteria's still open.

By the way, does anyone near Knoxville, TN or Harrisburg, PA want to hang out? I'll likely be stopping in those cities tomorrow and Monday morning, respectively.

Mew...

Why is it that, the more you want to have someone to talk to about a bad night, the less likely you are to actually have any luck getting a hold of someone? :(