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Tuesday, July 14th, 2009
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6:29 pm - Well, today sucked
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You pay $40 to file a motion with the court. Tack on another $60 to have the guy served. What do you get for your $100? A judge and a courtroom? Maybe some assistance? No, you get to have the paper-pushing clerk behind the desk swear the guy in, and then she directs you to sit together on a bench in the lobby to discuss the details yourselves. I'd have gotten a better deal using the money at a casino. So yeah, dumbass is apparently so broke that his bank statements are in the negative for at least 2 months. Overdraft fees and such piling on. He claims to own no assets or property of any kind. The whole "blood from a stone" reference comes to mind at this point. On top of that, when I asked him why he hadn't paid me yet, he actually had the balls to tell me, "My attorney said I don't owe it."
...WTF?!?!? So the judge that said otherwise and the associated paperwork is just a detailed delusion of mine or something? So, yeah, don't just pick battles you can win, also pick the ones actually worth the expenditure to win them.
This lovely experience was immediately followed by a trip to the mechanic to fix whatever was causing me to lose about a gallon of coolant in less than a week and nearly fry my whole engine on the way home yesterday from severe overheating. The diagnosis: Cracked radiator, burned out thermostat, blown power steering pump (hence the slow leak I've had for a while), and a new radiator cap just for good measure. A little over a grand and 4 hours later, my car is working again, and I am nicely and deeply in debt.
At least my job doesn't suck.
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| Friday, July 10th, 2009
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2:40 pm - It's not about fear. It's about having a choice.
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" I’m actually not mainly driven by a desire to live a long time. I accept that when I’m even a hundred years old, let alone older, I may have less enthusiasm for life than I have today. Therefore, what drives me is to put myself (with luck) and others (lots and lots of others) in a position to make that choice, rather than having the choice progressively ripped away from me or them by declining health. Whether the choice to live longer is actually made is not the point for me." -Aubrey de Grey
I like that. It's not about living "forever". It's not about fear of death. It's about making life, death, and health a matter of choice. Thanks to farming and food processing, we eat what and when we choose. The timing and menu isn't forced on us by random luck during hunting/gathering. We should be able to choose life, until we choose not to live. Whether that's 20 years or 20 millennia should be up to the individual and their own desires.
Choices can be overwhelming, and some options are unwise or have unpleasant consequences, but it's important that we have those choices, that we make them, and that we accept the world we create with those choices.
current mood:  contemplative
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| Tuesday, July 7th, 2009
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10:43 pm - Confustipation
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I'll never understand why people should be treated with more attention, respect, forgiveness, and love after their death than they were in their life. If they actually deserve it, give them the love and attention while they're doing it right. Encourage them to keep up the good work. If they're not worth your time and obsession while they were alive, they should not be worth any of it after they die, either. The only exception to this is people like Hitler, Bush, Sadam, etc where the best contribution they could ever give was dying. Even then, you're celebrating their death, not their life.
People are stupid.
current mood:  annoyed
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| Sunday, June 28th, 2009
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1:52 pm - Weekend of food heaven
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Thanks to Pete's good advice, I satisfied my fish cravings in style. I can now add a Sashimi Salad With Ginger Dressing to my personal cookbook, and damn was it good!
And those who were busy with other plans or didn't respond to our text invites last night missed out on the most heavenly lamb I've had in a very long time. The Girl did good! We had a pleasant and relaxing evening with Sage and Allison, who added some Godiva chocolates to our food orgy. There was also chiropracting and massage shared among us as well. Not a bad way to spend an evening.
current mood:  satisfied
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| Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
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5:55 pm - That was fast
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So, I'm back in the ranks of the employed as of tomorrow. Good timing, as my car is really not doing well lately. I think she needs a major overhaul. Pay will suck for the first 60 days, then I get a raise to acceptable, with a 6 month review/raise that will depend on how good I'm doing and how well the company is profiting. I can live with that.
Now I just have to figure out a way to get all of my classes in around my work schedule while I clean up the important projects, pay off my expenses, and then start saving up toward a more full-time school later.
current mood:  surprised
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| Monday, June 22nd, 2009
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2:23 pm - No more waiting.
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If you wait until you're "Ready" to do something, you'll never do anything. This is especially true of life changes. So no more waiting. I just signed up and paid for my first 2 classes for the Summer semester (they start in 2 weeks). Then in Fall, I'll be starting my grueling slog through the math gauntlet, plus as many other classes as I can manage around whatever work schedule I end up with. I'll just have to get "Ready" somewhere along the way.
Also had a promising interview this morning. I should know how well that went by next week.
Now if I could only make it cool enough to work on Lilith, I'd really be getting somewhere. :P
current mood:  determined
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| Friday, June 12th, 2009
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1:45 pm - Theives and Liars
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I get a call on Wed. for an interview. FINALLY! My first interview after so many applications. How ridiculous. I'm a little confused, though, that she couldn't give me the name of the person I'm interviewing with, or any detail about the job. Just rushed through setting the appointment and said she'd email me with all the details. The "Details" turn out to be the company address and a reminder of the time. No job name, no description, no name of anyone to ask for. So I look them up on the web based on the email address. Insurance company. OK, I vaguely remember applying to a programming job at one, so it must be that, right? Um, no. How about bait and switch. For a fucking sales job! Here's my response to the email they had the nerve to send me today:
As I explained to the man I interviewed with, I have no interest in sales positions of any kind. That is why I have never applied to any, and I resent having my time and money wasted on a misleading interview. You owe me an hour of my life back, $12 for parking, and 20 miles worth of gas money. Anyone who looked at my resume would see that there is absolutely no indication of any kind of sales experience or interest whatsoever. Your dishonest and misleading attempt to take advantage of people looking for valid employment is not appreciated and helps no one. NEVER contact me again.
If you ever come across Colonial Life don't give them your time or money for any reason.
current mood:  pissed off
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| Monday, June 8th, 2009
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6:57 pm - Need a DVR for my dreams
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What's with my dreams lately? I've been having the most incredible, vivid, and adventurous dreams lately. The underground, post-humanity clockwork robot city of recycled junk was beautiful, but the one last night was just too fantastic to relate in a simple post. Think body swap with fae meets through the looking glass meets the troll market from Hellboy meets Spiderwick.
I took down some notes on both so I wouldn't lose it all, but if this keeps up, I may feel required to start writing either novels or screen plays on the side. It just seems like such a waste to let such creations fade into oblivion.
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| Sunday, June 7th, 2009
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11:17 pm
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Thanks to Jill, I picked up some more contract work at her office this last week. That's been a big help with paying my bills so far. It's also been a huge mood booster for me as well. Being useful to other people is a very large part of my self-worth, and that took a painful blow in being fired and sitting around not working. I'm in a much better mood now.
Still no luck on the job hunt, but one vague possibility in the nearish future. We'll see if anything comes out of that. I'm leaning more and more towards just going back to school now and only looking for low-stress temp or part time work. Being poor would suck, but I'm really about done with the IT industry.
I've started reading one of the intro books for my Bioengineering degree to try to get a better feel for what it will actually entail. So far I've learned exactly what makes a heart beat, and it's rather interesting, actually. Plus an interesting bit about how cells generate electric charges. So far, I'm liking it, which is encouraging.
If I can finish packing stuff in the attic tomorrow, I can finally get some work done on Lilith again. That's way overdue.
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| Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009
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1:29 pm - The In-Justice System
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So some asshole does something both unethical and illegal to you. The law says that you're not allowed to threaten him or damage him or his property. You're not allowed to personally confiscate any of his property as compensation. You're completely dependant on him following the Social Contract of his own free will, which he is obviously already ignoring.
The only thing you're legally allowed to do to about it is to take him to court. You pay the court system a fee so that a judge can look over the case and say that your opinion of the situation is correct. Yes, he does owe you for what he did. You may even be lucky enough to have that fee added to his debt. Yay, you win. And that's about all you accomplished with your time and money. You got a judge to write their opinion on a piece of paper. The money they owe you? That's your problem. You're still stuck hoping they'll follow the Social Contract and voluntarily pay you what they owe. Essentially, you've paid out of pocket to waste your time and effort for some stranger to offer a meaningless agreement. Now you have to take them to court again (Don't forget the fee!) in order to force them to show you all of their accounts and assets, so they can say whether or not they're ABLE to pay you what they owe. IF you can prove they have the money, or can come up with it, then you can file yet another motion with the court (Don't forget another out of pocket fee!) requesting them to take the Original Amount out of his assets and give it to you. You don't get any reimbursement for the fees incurred. You don't get reimbursement for having to hire a process server to hand deliver the paperwork to the asshole each and every time you file another motion with the court (More fees!). After all this, you MIGHT get some money. Assuming he has enough liquid assets to cover his debt, and assuming he doesn't just delcare bankruptcy to get out of paying you at all.
Let me make sure I've got this right. Someone takes money from you, so someone else takes money from you to supposedly put it right (Justice), however he's not liable for any of the costs involved in forcing him to do what he should have done on his own in the first place, and there's only a slim chance you'll ever get back even some of the money he took?
I fail to see where the incentive is to follow the law here.
In fact, if we're examining positive and negative reinforcement, it costs you less to do nothing about it, and provides a profit with small to no cost for the person who broke the law in the first place. WTF
current mood: cynical
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| Friday, May 29th, 2009
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3:30 am - Insomnia sucks
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Wow, did this hit hard. Got up around noonish on Wednesday. Went to bed at a reasonable hour...and just could not fall asleep. Barely manage to drag my ass to Jill's office for some temp work there, survive the day on energy drinks, and make it home before 6PM. I figure I survived the ordeal and can crash and burn now. 2 hours later, my ass is awake again. That was 8PM. Now it's creeping up on 4AM and I still can't get back to sleep. What the fuck? :(
current mood:  tired
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| Monday, May 18th, 2009
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7:16 pm - Pendilum swing?
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So, no luck with the job hunt so far, not even a nibble, unless you count phishing scams and sales job offers. Only one nibble from friends that want my company (do I smell bad or something?). Shan's calling in a favor to help him move back into the house he was in before he left AZ (talk about right back where you started!). Minimal household stuff accomplished, unless you count sleeping and playing Medieval Total War 2. I finally managed to get the flooring in the garage attic installed. Having a heat stroke after 2 or 3 sheets of plywood each time made for slow going and not a lot of incentive to climb back into the 100+ degree heat up there. It's not pretty, but it's functional and it's finished. Now I can start loading all the long-term storage crap up there and make enough room to get Lilith finished up.
I've had a few things brewing on the back burner of my subconscious during all this, and I think some are finally ready to digest. It feels like my mood is finally starting to swing the other way. Hopefully, I'll be able to ride it toward something productive and useful.
current mood: awake
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| Monday, May 11th, 2009
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1:12 pm - Home again
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Since Pele was the only one to respond to my offer of company, I took her up on it. I just spent the last week in Rochester, NY, enjoying the cooler weather, the real trees, and being shown the sights. Despite a completely unexpected visitor, she did a wonderful job keeping me entertained. I was dragged to a huge park with waterfalls and trees everywhere. 7 miles of hiking later, I was quite ready to sit down and die, but I enjoyed every minute of it. I even brought some moss home as a souvenir.
There was a trip to the beaches on Lake Ontario, another hike in the woods nearby. A trip to the "Art Fag" section of town that was way too much like downtown Mill St. in Tempe. A visit to a winery for a round of tasting (I was good and only bought 3 bottles). I got my head painted. I played Destroy All Humans 2 in my down time. I got to visit Niagara Falls on the Canadian side, which has turned into a weird cross between Vegas and Orlando since I was last there in grade school. I also got to attend a cartoon-themed costume party in a barn with surprisingly good live bands. Oh and did I mention that it was in the 60's and cloudy almost the entire time? Bliss!
Not a bad vacation at all. My thanks to Pele for taking such good care of me on no notice whatsoever. I'm so sorry you got sick right before I left. Feel better soon, love!
Now I'm back in the land of the baked, hiding from 100 degree weather, and it's time to organize my return to the gainfully productive section of society. Cleaning the house should probably be in there somewhere, too.
current mood:  content
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| Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009
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5:24 pm - How has it been 3 weeks since my last post?!?
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Yes, I'm still alive. Not sure why I've had nothing to say on here for so long. Since the party, we replaced the washer, switched out the dishwasher, replaced the cutoff valves for the washer and the main cutoff for the house, started moving the front yard rocks so we could put plastic down under them, put up plywood in the garage attic area, um...and a bunch of other little things all over the place. Shan finally dragged me to the Tempe Rock Gym a couple times. Another few months of that and I may START to feel like I'm in better shape. Sheesh! Jill and I both joined the Cult of Google and have been playing with our G1 phones incessantly ever since.
Sadly, that's really about it. Nobody has come over since the party. I haven't seen much of anyone except for Loki's birthday party.
Now that we're on the inhabited side of town, feel free to come over to visit or invite us over if you're bored.
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| Wednesday, April 1st, 2009
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8:06 pm - The morning after the morning after
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So the house has been very well warmed. My thanks to all who attended, I had a wonderful, if blurry, time. We just squeezed to the finish line in time for the party. Unfortunately, our best efforts against the Great Strongbow Keg weren't enough to finish it off. I've got gallons of the stuff left.
What I thought was a mere hangover has turned out to be more of a lingering cold. Apparently, something's going around that got several of us at the party. Great. :P
Eva's visit was worth everything it took to get her out here, and we were all satisfied with her choice of boi. He's a damn good cook in addition to his other geeky qualifications.
So, now it's time to recover, clean, organize, and reassess. To update all of my plans and to-do lists. The party was the last hard-set date I was living around. It will be nice to spend a bit of time just doing things "as I get around to it". There's still plenty to do in so many directions, I'm not worried about getting bored any time soon.
current mood:  exhausted
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| Saturday, March 21st, 2009
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8:22 pm - I'm not dead yet! I don't want to go on the cart!
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So we survived the ordeal of moving while rennovating and working full-time. Barely. We'll probably take a hit on the security depost for not getting the carpets professionally cleaned, and I've no idea how picky they will be about the yard. At this point, I don't even care anymore. I'm just glad for it to be over.
Of course, we've got 2 packrat's worth of junk scattered all over our house we still have to find a place for by next weekend. But we don't have to move any of it more than a room or two over.
We went shopping for Ethernet jacks and curtians for my room and the living room. Over a grand later, we had neither. We DO, however, have our own household NAS with 4 Terabytes of storage, now. And a Nerf gun. and a few other odds and ends for the house that we needed. But no curtians. Heh. That's what we get for going to Frys Electronics.
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| Friday, March 13th, 2009
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9:47 pm - Last post from the old house.
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Moving day is tomorrow. We're mostly packed. All the big stuff will be moved tomorrow, and we'll just have to get the stragglers over the next couple days. I didn't really get to touch the junk in the garage, so that will probably have to go in the later trips after I free up a few boxes. No biggie. We've got till next Friday before we turn in the keys.
My uncle came in from California to assist with some of the house projects. He's already replaced the valves under the kitchen sink, cut and installed all the baseboards, replaced most of the outlets and switches, and even repaired the bottom of the kitchen cabinet that had some water damage. Guess the handyman genes run on both sides of the family. :)
The ordeal is almost over. Soon we can relax and celebrate. Or better yet, recover, celebrate, then recover from the celebration. ;)
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| Tuesday, March 10th, 2009
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5:37 pm
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Paint: Everything but the kitchen, den, and ceilings is done! Kitchen and den are in white primer until we remodel, celilings are the same until we can tear down the popcorn (one room at a time over probably a couple years).
Floors: New carpet was installed today. I haven't seen it in person yet, but Jill said it looks and feels great. Kitchen and bathrooms will wait for remodel. Until then, they're very colorfully painted over by overspray. *shrug*
Baseboards are painted and will be cut and installed now that the carpet is in. Electrical is partially done. New outlets and switches in part of the living area. The kitchen light works again, as does the doorbell and lights for the address numbers outside. Still need to fix the 240v for the dryer, but I've got a very good idea what needs to be done for that now.
Official move in with the big truck will be this Saturday. Until then, it's packing and cleaning at the old place. Lawnwork is finishing up as I type, carpet cleaning will have to wait until Sunday or so after everything's out of the way.
Lilith made the trip to the new house without incident, unless you count all the whiplash from people gawking. ;) Even dirty and unfinished, she still gets people's attention. I can't wait to finish getting her fully driveable and actually take her out on the town!
( Oh, and as promised, a few house pics. Sadly, the quality sucks, but they're all we've had time for so far: )
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| Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009
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5:35 pm - Still alive
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So, we survived the ordeal of the new home. So far at least. Everything but the kitchen and Jill's bathroom door is painted now, those are at least in white primer, so we don't have to look at any of the old colors. Baseboards are painted and waiting for the new carpet to go in before we put them back. I'll be fixing up a couple electrical issues tonight and taking some pics finally so I can post stuff. The new colors are sooooo much nicer on the eyes.
We are completely wiped out. So much so that we asked the rental co. if we could push our move out date back a week. I just don't have it in me to pack and move everything we own this weekend. This way, we can work at a more sane pace, and not have to worry about shifting stuff around the carpet install. I will be driving Lilith to her new home on Saturday, though. Cross your fingers for me!
current mood:  accomplished
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| Sunday, February 22nd, 2009
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7:26 pm - Wagner can kiss my ass
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We broke down and rented an industrial paint sprayer at Home Despot. Holy shit, I wish we'd done that first! We'd be finished with the house already. In 5 hours, I went through about 12 gallons of primer, and gave every room but the kitchen and Jill's bathroom at least one coat, if not 2. That includes the ceilings, too. Unfortunately, I got a bit carried away, and the list of painted things also includes just about every tool in the house, my phone, my keys, my boots, several light bulbs, and the thermostat. I need to be a bit more careful about the overspray next time. Doh!
Mandy came to our rescue today to help us paint, only to end up sitting and chatting with Jill or running errands with her most of the time, as there was so little for them to do with me zipping through each room. If you ever have a large area to paint, it is soooooo worth every penny to rent that beast. You stick one end of it in a 5 gallon bucket and just go to town. The hose is so long that I never even had to relocate it.
We'll prep for color during the week, and rent it again next weekend. We should be done with all the base colors and ready for carpet with no trouble at all now.
The bad news is that the popcorn patches in the ceiling don't even remotely blend with the existing stuff. We've decided that there's just no saving it, so we're going to end up stripping it all off eventually. It's not going to happen right away, but we're definitely going to get rid of the stuff. Probably one room at a time as we get around to it over the next year or so. It's not as important as other things, it's just ugly and it bugs me.
Also had a very nice time at Carson and Phaidra's wedding. It was short, sweet, and pretty. I'm glad we were able to go. His friends and family are all good people.
current mood: productive
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