Category: Crankypantsing

Crankypantsing

Big Brother Rant

Shelly

Please to avert your eyes, if you don’t watch the show.

Anyway! I recorded Tuesday’s show and watched it right before last night’s show. I have a few observations.

1. Joshuah is a giant asshole. From telling Amanda that she ought to commit suicide to threatening Allison (she got a restraining order against him) to calling just about every woman in the house a skank or whore at some point, the guy is just plain foul. That sort of crap is inexcusable. And the juxtaposition of him calling Natalie a whore, then wanting to hear his supposedly uplifting eviction speech was priceless.

I want to tell you all one thing. If you can learn anything from me, it’s be true to yourself. I’m proud being Joshuah Michael Welch. I’m proud of who I’ve become and I stand for what I believe in. If all of you stand-up for what you believe in, you’ll go way far in this game and in life. That’s all I can ask is just be true to yourself.

He has an awful lot to be proud of answer for.

Oh, and am I the only one who thinks his petulant smirkings are reminiscent of a certain Chimperator?

2. Natalie has issues. This will not be news to anyone who has watched any of this season’s episodes. The dirty dealings are par for the course, so I have no complaints about how she’s trying to manipulate everyone else. I do, however, have a big problem with her invoking God. According to her, the big guy has been sharing insider info with her. She’s also made comments about how Team Christ (I am not making this up!) will win because they are righteous and on the side of God, and how the folks who aren’t in the Jesus club are all evil doers. WTF?!

I’m grossed out by the fact that she uses religion in that way.

She is also a hypocrite. On the one hand, it was okay for St. Matty to lie to James, but on the other, it was not okay for James to go back on his word not to put Matt up for eviction.

Oh, and her demanding that no one laugh at James making fun of her? Yes, he was being mean (the comments about her weight were inexcusable), but at the same time, telling your competitors that you will go after them if they don’t follow your orders is kind of ridiculous.

So is thinking she can win against anyone else in the house.

3. Ryan’s comment that Adam nominating Sheila and Sharon was cowardly and spineless. I thought it was an excellent move on Adam’s part, only he didn’t take it far enough. First, as Adam said, it forced folks to actually work for a change. Second, if Adam had followed through and teamed up with James, Sharon, and Sheila, he could have yanked the rug out from under Ryan and Natalie. Because as it stands now, Adam is in serious danger of getting targeted by Natalie.

Crankypantsing, Photography

Toy Skeleton

Shelly

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I’ve photographed this little guy before. He hangs in my kitchen, from one of the cupboard door handles. He’s got a mechanism that, when you pull on him, makes his teeth chatter. He’s very cute.

Not so cute is the noise from Mr. Upstairs. He’s always loud, but the past few days, he’s been cycling into into another ubernoisy period. Last night, at 3am, I woke up to him pounding away on his keyboard. He had it set on “harpsichord,” and kept playing the same phrase over and over and over and over again. Putting a pillow over my head didn’t do any good. The noise was so loud that I could feel the vibrations from it, and I could still hear it through the pillow.

That went on for a couple of hours, and then, at about 5am, he turned on the TV. I guess the talking heads were finally awake? So I got to listen to some right-wing nonsense until I finally got up. And now, it’s 2:00 and he’s back at the keyboard. And the same little piece of music. Even two rooms away, with the door shut, I can hear it.

Oh, and did I mention that I have a headache? No? Well, I do, and the noise and the irritation are not helping it go away!

Crankypantsing

Asschapeau du Jour

Shelly

I just got back from the bathroom. When I walked in, there was a girl standing in front of the sinks, furiously texting someone on her phone. Why on earth it’s necessary to text someone from the bathroom is beyond me, but I’m just thankful she wasn’t actually talking on the damned thing. In the bathroom. Anyway, the next thing I hear is water running. She was washing her hands. After using her phone. After using the bathroom.

Crankypantsing

Instant Review: Easter

Shelly

I ran out of ink yesterday morning (yes, I have used an entire black ink cartridge since last Tuesday), so I thought I’d go buy some more. Ha! Apparently, everything closes down on Easter. Who knew?! I don’t remember Easter ever being a massive close-the-stores type of holiday, but when I got to Staples, it was closed. And then, Target was closed. Target! WTF?! Christmas, sure, and maybe Thanksgiving (though often stores like that are open in the morning), but since when did they close for Easter?

I’m gobsmacked.

Kmart was open (and packed with Target shoppers), and I looked there, but though they had a couple of Canon printers, they didn’t have Canon ink. Hrmf. Not that I was really expecting them to have my ink, but it would have been a nice surprise if they did.

But, hey, Zyrtec is now available OTC, and just in time for Spring allergies. A 30 day supply of generic is $13.99, which isn’t bad at all. I was out of Emergen-C, too, so I picked up a box of that (tangerine flavored, mmmm), some V8 juice, a filing crate, and called it a day.

And then, on my way back to my car, there was snow.

Teh Enb.

Crankypantsing

Thank You, Amazon.com!

Shelly

I got an email this morning from Amazon.com, telling me that my card had been used to open a new account, and that as they thought this was suspicious, they’d cancelled the new account. Now, not having fallen off the turnip truck yesterday, I did not “click” on the provided “link,” but went to Amazon’s website to confirm. I couldn’t find any info there, because the transaction had already been cancelled by Amazon. But, I went to my bank’s website to check my account, and there were, indeed, charges pending to Amazon, Yahoo, and iTunes.

Aieee!

I’m pretty careful about computer security, so I was wracking my brain, trying to figure out how someone could have gotten my card number. And then I remembered that I’d had to do some computer troubleshooting over the weekend. My printer had stopped working, and I suspected that my firewall may have started blocking my USB ports again. I couldn’t get it to play nicely, so I turned it off long enough to make certain that that was, indeed, the problem.

In the couple of minutes it took me to test my theory, some jackass must have accessed my computer.

In all, there were five transactions: one to Amazon.com for $1, one to the Apple iTunes store for $1, and three to Yahoo Voice totaling $11.42. None of those are large amounts. Hackers usually test out a card by charging small amounts, to see if it’s live. If I hadn’t noticed there was a problem (and with small initial charges, many people wouldn’t!), I’m sure Mr. Jackass would’ve soon hit me with a large charge. With my luck, it would’ve happened on Friday, when my car loan, insurance, and student loan payments are due to be automagically taken out of my account.

Thankfully, since Amazon emailed me, and I was able to report it promptly, my bank said that I won’t be accountable for any of the charges, even if they cause overdrafts.

No serious harm done, considering what can happen to folks who get hacked, but that’s really not how I wanted to spend my morning. And to top it off, when I tried to go back to work, I couldn’t find a parking spot. Meaning, I’m getting another unintentional afternoon off, but also meaning I’ll have to work Friday to make up time.

Grrr.

Oh, and it’s pouring down rain. Just to make things even more bettererererer.

Alsotoo, I won’t have a replacement card until next week. I’m glad I bought gas a few days ago, because otherwise, Id have to go to the bank and withdraw cash the old fashioned way, then I’d have to pay ahead at the gas station, which I hate doing.

On the bright side, I stopped on my way home for a little retail therapy. I needed a new black printer cartridge, so after looking online, I realized that OMG, there’s a Staples and a Barnes & Noble right by my house. Duh. I don’t know why I don’t pay attention to these things. I only drive past them every single damned day.

Anyway, I stopped at Staples and got my printer cartridge plus some spiffy new pens (Uniball Signo retractables with pigment based ink). I killerated a couple of my favorite Sarasa gel pens last weekend (I did a lot of writing), so I felt justified to indulge my pen fetish. The pigment based ink means that the ink enters the paper instead of sitting on top. It dries fast, so it’s good for doodling. I gave them a quick test, and they seem to write very smoothly.

Crankypantsing, Photography

Spring

Shelly

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Raspberry leaves unfurling

I’ve got two cat sitting jobs this weekend. At one of the houses, the pussy willows are budding. I’m going to try to remember to take my camera tomorrow. Then, when I took the dog out for her afternoon walk, I noticed that the leaves on the black raspberries are starting to unfurl.

An unfortunate byproduct of Spring is that one of my neighbors has been leaving their little Chihuahua outdoors for long periods of time. The dog shrieks non-stop, and it’s about to make my ears bleed. I feel sorry for the dog, and I’d like to kick the owners in the shins.

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Cemeteries, Crankypantsing, Genealogy, Photography

Fragments

Shelly

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Fragment of Grave Marker
Covenanter Cemetery, Bloomington, Indiana

This was taken last weekend. It’s cheating, but since I didn’t post a photo yesterday and didn’t even touch my camera today, I’m not going to feel guilty about it. Heck, I very nearly didn’t post at all today. Damned DST[1]. It’s past my bedtime already!

Where did this day go, anyway? It seems like I didn’t get a thing done, because I wasted it chasing my tail trying to solve a couple of genealogical puzzles. A fragment here and a fragment there. I did manage to figure out that I could merge two individuals–yay! I also found my great-great aunt Margaret’s husband in the US census records for 1910 and 1920. I guess that’s progress of a sort, right?

And now I have to go figure out what to make for lunch tomorrow. I have a feeling it’s going to involve broccoli and rice and maybe some granny smith apples. But not all together. That would be disgusting.

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1. Every day during DST, when my alarm goes off at the unholy hour of 3:30 am Indiana time, I’m going to be reminded of what a sadistic fucking bastard Mitch Daniels is. Note to Mitch: You are henceforth and forevermore stricken from my Christmas Holiday card list!

Crankypantsing

Comcast Part Deux

Shelly

So I finally got a bill from Comcast. Due on receipt. Fuckers. But that’s not the mind-boggling part.

First, the number on the bill is not actually the number for paying bills. If you call the number on the bill, you are directed to hang up and call another number. WTF?!

Second, if you try to pay via the web, you are asked for a PIN. Comcast will send you the pin. Via snail mail. Why? My bank allows me to set up an account online, without doing any fancy-schmancy postal mail BS. EFS (or whatever it’s called now) let me set up an electronic notification and loan payment account entirely online. I can make a car payment without a PIN. But nooooo, Comcast requires a PIN, and they will only send it to you via snail mail. WTF?!

Third, when I called the second number, I was given three payment options: #1 cable, #2 phone, or #3 internet service. I have all three, so can I just pick any of them? When I chose option #1, my call timed out and I was dropped. When I chose option #2, my call timed out and I was dropped. When I tried option #3, it didn’t drop me, but I was on hold for almost an hour. An hour wherein I had to listen to a loop of some jazzy elevator interpretation of some 80s song I don’t recall the name of. There should be a law against that.

Fourth, I still had a fucking headache, and the annoyance factor and the elevator music did not help!

I’ll say it again: Comcast, do not make it difficult for me to give you money!