OK, I'm in that kind of mindset today where I'm seeing nothing but good all around me everywhere I look. It's the perfect kind of day to spread that around to others! So if you'd like to know what I see and appreciate in you, leave a comment and I'll respond (^_^)

They have been acting up really really badly lately. I've gone through extended periods where they stay pretty dry, but the past few days they've been nuts. It makes me nervous when talking to people, because I'm afraid I'll have to shake hands with them, and then the nervousness makes the sweating worse, of course (>_<)

I decided to work on losing weight (and I've been doing well BTW -- 5 lbs down and 5 more to go over the next few weeks to meet my initial goal! My clothes are getting baggy on me!) not just for the sake of looking and feeling better, but also to improve my hand condition. I've noticed it's been worse over the past year or so than what I've experienced in the past, and I believe that's at least partially due to the fact that I've gained weight, which can exacerbate the condition.

So at least I'm taking steps there to hopefully help balance things out. The only other thing I can think of to do is cut back on caffeine, because that can help exacerbate things too. I'd rather not have to do it, because I'm attached to my diet soda and tea vices (although I guess I could get decaffeinated tea at least), but I could try giving up caffeine for a few weeks and see if it makes any noticeable difference. I did this once before and I didn't really notice anything, but maybe I should try it again and make sure I give it several weeks just to be sure.

Other than that, I think the only option I have is to look into getting Botox injections to stop the sweating. I really don't want to have to do that for a multitude of reasons, but I guess it's worth at least discussing with a doctor to find out whether it might be worth doing. And also to find out how much it would cost. I can't do it for another few months though 'cause money's going to be tight with the recent expenses I've had and with the holidays coming. I guess I'll have to find a doctor to talk about it with too, because my old dermatologist is pretty much no help. The last time I saw him he basically said the only thing I could do was go in for that horrible nerve clamping / clipping surgery that can cause compensatory sweating and nerve damage. It's actually illegal in some other countries (>_<) Sorry but I'm not doing some freaky-ass risky surgery that could leave me even worse off than I was before.

I caught a brief glimpse of Dr. Oz yesterday while I was at my parents' house taking a break from cleaning, and there was a segment about men with medical issues that they try to keep secret because they're too embarrassed to talk about them. One guy had prostate issues that meant he had to go to the bathroom a lot -- sometimes very suddenly and urgently, to the point where he even kept a bottle in his car in case of emergencies. His own wife had no idea because he was so embarrassed about it that he didn't tell her and tried to cover it up. All I can say is, I can relate. Having to go to the bathroom all the time isn't a life-threatening illness, and it's something that can be lived with, and there are many other people out there in the world who are dealing with much worse than that in their lives. But I get where that man was coming from with the whole feeling ashamed thing. People can be unkind about things like that, ya know?

So my older brother Johnny is coming to visit tomorrow for a few days with his girlfriend, which I think ought to be really fun because I haven't seen him since Jason (my little brother) got married last January. I don't know what all we're going to do together, but I expect some fishing trips with my parents will be in order and there'll probably be other things they'll want to do.

So I'm over at my parents' house cleaning some crap out of my old room, because yes, there is still crap in my old room. Realizing that this is in part because I'm a pack rat, I've been throwing away some stuff regardless of sentimental value. I got rid of some really old sketchbooks that I just don't need anymore and are filled with stuff I'm not going to look at again. I also got rid of a couple of photo albums' worth of pictures of me and Kelly. Yeah, not needed. I got rid of a few things Kelly gave me that I never use, and it's funny... I wasn't aware of any lingering feelings associated with those things, but I have to admit it actually felt liberating to just get rid of them. For example, I had some lotion he gave me that I never even really cared for the scent of, but I never wanted to throw it out because it seemed like a wasteful thing to do. Now it's to the point where the lotion is actually getting old, and I know I'm never gonna use it, and why should I feel like I have to use it anyway, ya know? So I chucked it, and it felt good. I also put a tank top he gave me into a bag of clothes to donate to Goodwill.

In the midst of all this cleaning, I found a metric ass-ton of Pokemon cards! lol I actually sat down and organized them into stacks and stuff. There are a lot of cards there, some first-edition ones apparently, and also a lot of foil cards. There's even a promo set from somewhere. I don't remember where the hell I got any of them, but they're in pretty good shape, so I'm wondering if anybody out there is actually collecting those anymore. I oughta poke around on the internet and see if they might be worth anything. lol

Well, beats me, but I guess we can kiss that month goodbye. Phew! It went by fast!!

This weekend emily_sings, megalomania79, and I are having a girls-only weekend all to ourselves! Hooray! I am seriously so excited (^_^) It's pretty rare that we can all get together, ya know? Of course I did go up to Tally last weekend so I got to see emily_sings then as well, but trust me, it's not easy for all three of us to get together seeing as how we live 400+ miles apart. It'll be really, really nice to have a weekend with the girls. We've been planning it for ages, and I'm still going despite the fact that...

...my car's A/C hasn't been running properly, so I took it in to the service center yesterday. They told me that apparently something must have bounced upward underneath my car's bumper and punctured a hole in my A/C condenser. Which means I need a whole new condenser. Which is going to cost me $1000 (>_<) And if they find out during the install that my radiator has also been damaged, I'll need a new one of those too, and that'll be another $400. Gah.

Seriously, car, what is up with you? It just cost me $400+ a couple of months ago to get you fixed when you mysteriously broke down on the side of I-95. Not to mention the not one, but TWO tires I had to replace on two recent separate occasions -- one for being out of round, and the other for having a deep slash in it. I try to take good care of you, car, I really do! Why are you doing this to meeeee? kevinsensei, take note! I know you've been thinking about buying a car!

Well, I guess what I need to do is be grateful I can afford it. It won't be pretty, but I'll be able to pay for the repair in full if I put it on my credit card now. In December I'm supposed to be paying off the brand new bed I bought back in June and was able to put on my Macy's credit card for six months without payments, too, if you will recall. I've been doing some side admin work for R and S each month, and I've been saving all that money aside expressly as a backup measure in case for some reason I wound up not having enough to pay off the bed. I had calculated out my finances when I bought it and figured that six months from now I would have saved enough from working at my dad's to pay the whole thing off, but now I'm very very glad I saved aside that other money as a backup, because I didn't know that between the time I bought that bed and the time I would have to pay it off, I would have $1500+ in expenses on my car and a $2000+ laptop stolen out of my locked apartment. I'm still a little irritated though because I was planning to take some of the money I'd finally managed to save and start reinvesting in stocks to try to recoup some of the loss I took when I had to sell some stock back in March. There are a lot of good buys now and it would be a good time to invest. Well, that's just going to have to be pushed back a little, I guess.

Anyway, yeah, I do have to be grateful. I can afford to pay for the repairs, pay off my bed next month, and still manage to go on our little weekend retreat, so life could definitely be worse. I guess I'm just concerned that my savings for the past year and a half have been at an all-time low. But I know it's only a temporary situation.

In other news, I started a really fun craft project last night. It's easy, but somewhat time-consuming. I think it's going to be really cool when it's all finished though, so I'll have to post pictures here of the finished product (^O^) I'm keeping it on the down-low till it's done though!

I am proud of myself. So far I have had two opportunities today to leap in and offer my assistance to someone whom I could see could use my help, but I did not. I know that sounds mean, but trust me, it was in the best interests of my own long-term mental well-being. If I had gotten myself involved with either opportunity, it would have led to nothing but headaches and frustration for me. Plus the people in question didn't ask me for help, and I don't need to volunteer myself when I've already got plenty on my plate as it is. So I didn't! And I feel blissfully free and happy (^_^)

The bulk of my translation is done as well -- hooray! Now all that's left to do is the polishing up and writing of translation notes, which I always leave for last.

My personal method of translating manga is to basically do a "drive-by" of the entire volume first. I go through the whole book and roughly translate everything into English. As I'm going through, if I can't figure out in that moment just how I think something ought to be phrased, I throw in a really rough (and sometimes downright horrible) English approximation in red. I also stop and make note of certain words or phrases that are going to need to be explained in supplemental translation notes. After the initial drive-by translation is done, I go back and polish up all the stuff that's in red (^_^) Then I write out the translation notes, which amounts to providing a detailed (and hopefully well-written) explanation of Japanese terms, references, and / or customs that readers will need to know. Then I e-mail them to the translation company along with my invoice, and poof! All done (^O^)

I figure I'll probably do my polishing tomorrow during the car ride (^O^) Friday I'll have time during the day to write out my translation notes (there weren't that many in this volume) and e-mail everything in to the translation company right on time (^_^)

I just got a call from the police -- they found my stolen laptop!!! Not only that, but they found at least one piece of jewelry that belongs to me -- my class ring, which in all the hubbub I hadn't even noticed was missing. They know it's mine because it has my name in it.

So the detective told me what happened was, when the laptop came up as having been pawned, he looked through the pawn shop records of the guy who pawned it. This guy has pawned other items at multiple different pawn shops -- as a matter of fact, my class ring showed up at a different pawn shop than the one the laptop is at. The detective put a hold on everything and tomorrow he's going to go around to the various pawn shops and take pictures of everything this guy sold. He's off work Friday-Sunday and I'm going away for the weekend anyway, so Monday he's going to call me and I can come down there and look at the pictures.

I am so excited! I don't know what the next step is -- I didn't itemize the jewelry that was stolen in the police report because I wasn't completely sure of everything that was stolen (hell, I didn't even realize the class ring was gone until the detective called and said it had been found!), so I don't know what kind of process I'll have to go through to get whatever's left of it back. But I figure if I can show pictures of me wearing the stuff or provide other people who can support me in claiming that it's mine, I should be able to get it back... right? I would never claim jewelry that didn't belong to me, not that the cops know that or would have any reason to believe that, but still.

I'm still in shock from this whole thing. I pretty much assumed I was never ever going to see any of that stuff again. Now if nothing else, I'll at least have my class ring and laptop back. And I'm assuming I'll get to find out the name of the person who stole my stuff, too. I really hope it's not anybody I know. That would just really be bad on a lot of levels.

I'm thinking right now about the extent to which we choose and / or create our own burdens, so to speak.

For example, I recently posted that I had become aware that I create my own burden of assuming obligation and responsibility for certain things. I can't in all honesty say that someone else makes me do that; rather, it's a situation that generally arises in one of two ways. Either I submissively accept it when someone else places responsibility or blame on my shoulders; or else I proactively assume that responsibility or blame myself. Either way, ultimately it's a burden that I wind up creating for myself, whether I'm doing it consciously or not. Ultimately I am the person who's responsible for either actively causing, or passively allowing that situation to happen.

So I'm curious. Can any of you guys say that you do something similar in your own life? Are there any circumstances you're aware of in terms of being self-created problems, or perhaps self-made prisons? I'd be interested to hear what others have to say on this subject.

cebuscapucinus answered this and I was inspired to answer as well. The answer to this question often comes into play in my own life, so I wanted to answer it.

The answer is that yes, I tend to be a grudge-holder. It's something I don't like in myself and am attempting to work on, but it's also a natural tendency for my personality type (see "Potential Problem Areas" and it's listed right there). Now on the other hand, I am usually very quick to forgive in the event of isolated, one-time-only incidents, or if I feel that the person didn't hurt or wrong me deliberately. When people apologize to me sincerely for something and I know they take it seriously and will take steps not to do it again, I have no problem forgiving them and putting the incident behind me. I tend to hold grudges when people repeatedly hurt or wrong me in the same ways over and over again, or when I feel like they are acting out of inconsideration when they should really know better -- whether they actually do know better or not. I especially tend to hold grudges when I've asked someone "Please don't treat me in this way" and they do it again anyway, even if it's not deliberate or conscious on their part.

The longest I can remember staying angry at someone was over a period of at least three to four years. I was enormously angry at that person and even felt that I hated them at times, because I felt that they had betrayed me and betrayed my trust. I also felt sullied somehow for a long time after our interactions with each other had ended, and I blamed them for making me feel like some part of me had been ruined or spoiled. I felt like I would never be the same person again. Even though I tried consciously to forgive them many times and put it behind me once and for all, my anger would always flare up again sooner or later -- I'd have a dream about them, or something would remind me of them, and that sick feeling would come over me again. It was bad. What finally enabled me to get over it was acquiring some tools to help me better process my own negative emotions. Also I became aware that my own hatred and anger was playing out in this person's own life, and that they couldn't forgive themselves for the "bad" things they had done in their own life either. It really horrified me to see them feeling so badly about themselves, and realizing that part of that was my own doing for holding old grudges in place. So I took responsibility for my own part in what happened between us, and I was finally able to truly forgive that person. I think now we're both much happier people as a result. cebuscapucinus is exactly right when she says that holding a grudge ultimately hurts you the most, and does the work of the other person for you as you're eating yourself up by holding on to your own miserable feelings.

As far as winning back my friendship and trust... it is possible, but sadly, most people (IMO) don't even make an attempt to do what it would take to restore my friendship and trust once it has been lost. My standards for friendship and trust are high, but yet also very simple: I have to be able to trust you and depend on you. If I can't, I have no use for you as a friend or as a person in my life. There is nothing I need or even want in my life that I would have to turn to a liar, a cheat, someone mean-spirited, or an otherwise untrustworthy person in order to get. If someone breaks my trust or lets me down by dropping the ball, thereby losing my friendship, the only way to get it back is to take responsibility for what they have done and make a conscious effort to redeem themselves. If I don't trust you, I may tolerate your presence, but you will never be my friend or someone that I entrust with anything important. If that's harsh, then it's harsh. But know that I hold myself to the same standards, and when you have my friendship, you have a person that will do their utmost to fulfill the promises they make and to otherwise deserve the trust you place in them.

I love to go back to this website every now and again and read about the different Myers-Briggs personality types. It's just really really interesting for me to read about all the different potential ways in which people can operate and relate to the world.

I know my own personality type's characteristics pretty well by this point, but I like to read the others, particularly when I know somebody who has a certain type. I feel like reading about their type helps give me insights into how they function in their own lives.

If anybody knows their type and would like to share it in the LJ comments, I promise to follow up on it and read about it (^_^)

( Some thoughts about my own personality type vs. the personality type of my ex )

Someone gave me a Starbucks gift card for my birthday, so last night I went to the Starbucks in downtown Lake Worth and treated myself. I haven't had Starbucks in a while, and I've been trying not to indulge in snacks and sweet stuff and things like that, so I wasn't sure what to get. I wound up deciding to have a hot green ginger tea -- not a latte, just plain tea -- and it was really, really good. I never sweetened my green tea when I lived in Japan, 'cause that's just not how people roll there, but I dumped a Splenda in the green ginger tea and it made it taste amazing -- almost kinda lemonade-y or something. It was really good! I think I'm gonna hunt me down some of that tea to have at home.

So I got to the office today and Kelli started telling me a story about one of my dad's tenants.

Apparently this guy was evicted on Monday and owes almost $3K in back rent. He sounds like a bit of a scumbag -- I won't go into the details of what he did as a tenant, but when he moved out he left a big mess behind. He deliberately didn't clean out the refrigerator, which was full of meat which of course went rotten. He left a pile of feces in the closet which Kelli thinks belonged to a pet python she just found out he had. He did take the python with him when he left, but apparently he left his other pet, a cat, behind. Kelli just found out yesterday that the poor cat has been wandering around the property with its collar removed, so she thinks the guy left it behind on purpose.

So Kelli texted him and said, "Hey, what about your cat? If you don't want it anymore, let me know so I can try to find a home for it." The guy left on Monday, remember, and she was texting him on Wednesday, so that's two whole days his cat has been left behind and he hasn't come looking for it. He texts back and says something to the tune of, "That's an expensive cat and if you have it I want it back." Like Kelli kidnapped his cat or something! Not just that, but how can you seriously have the balls to complain about someone else possibly having your "expensive cat" when you owe that person almost $3K anyway???

So Kelli's telling me this and then she says that the cat is a really sweet and cute cat. Then she says the cat has been declawed. Now that was really the last straw. It already boggles my mind how somebody could just leave a pet behind, but leaving a cat that's been declawed and is totally defenseless out there in the world?? That's just terrible. It really upset me to hear that.

So I told Kelli that if she finds the cat when she goes out there later today... I'll take him. I've been thinking about getting a pet for a while now anyway, and if the cat is really as cute and sweet as Kelli says he is, that would be the kind of cat I would like, I think. Plus he's declawed. I don't think I would ever want to actually have a cat declawed, because I hear it's really painful and I feel sorry to think of a poor cat without its claws, but if this cat's already been declawed, at least I know he won't scratch anything up, ya know? So... yeah. If he turns up I'm gonna take him. Kelli called the maintenance folks who live out there and take care of the property and told them that if they find the cat, she has a home for it. So I'm really hoping he shows up.

OK I am posting this EVERYWHERE, it made me laugh my ass off. If you don't get it at first, just keep watching!

So I'm kinda jealous of some of the folks out there who are going back to school!

My brother called me last night. He's back at UGA taking the handful of classes he had left to complete before he got drafted by the Mets, so he can get his degree. He's taking some kind of sociology class right now and they're discussing education in different countries and how people from different cultures may have different skills and why that is. So he called me and asked me to compare and contrast the Japanese and American educational systems. He also asked me what I thought the reasons were for the stereotype that Asians do well in math and science, and if the school system in Japan placed more of an emphasis on those subjects than the American system. Now that was a really fun thing to think about and give my opinions about! I answered his questions and he wants me to send him an e-mail in the next couple of days with any more thoughts I might have. (kevinsensei, since you're actually more of an expert on Japanese vs. American education than I am, if you have anything you'd like to say in the LJ comments I'd be happy to pass that on to my brother as well.)

Also lately empressmiaka has been posting some really interesting entries in her LJ about classes she's taking in her master's program. Some of the topics she's studying in her classes that I've been really interested to read about are leadership, behavior, motivation, and innovative thinking. Today she posted some excerpts from her class about intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivations and what types of outside influences can mold a child into being more intrinsically or more extrinsically motivated. Really interesting stuff, at least as far as I'm concerned!

So yeah, I'm kinda envious of all the edumacation that's going on around me! I would love to go back to school, but until I feel like there's a career out there that I'm ready to commit to, I figure it's best to wait. I did do some poking around from another link empressmiaka shared a while back about the "best" 50 jobs in the US -- I think they were rated based on factors like maximum potential for growth and earnings, reported job satisfaction, and estimated job security. Anyway, I found a lot of jobs in there that sounded really interesting and fun, and I wrote them all down to keep in mind. At this point I want to finish up working on the documentary project -- which despite it taking more time than I think most of us anticipated, is nevertheless progressing steadily along -- and start thinking about what I want to do next. It's been a fun experience, but I think I want the next job title I take on to be something that involves me and me alone working towards my own success. Being on a team is really fun and can be rewarding in many ways, but it can be pretty challenging too. I think I'd like the next thing I do to be something that involves being responsible for my own work and reaping the rewards of my own efforts.

This is an interesting question, and actually, I could see it being applicable because one of my best friends has been trying to get pregnant for a while now and it just hasn't been happening. In her case, I wouldn't have any doubts about her good intentions or possible problems arising in our friendship as a result. And I have a lot of admiration for surrogate moms and other folks who make it possible for people who can't conceive to have a baby. So for my own best friend, I would probably help her because I would want to. However, my sister has often joked with me that I should have a baby for her and her husband because she doesn't want to go through the hassle of being pregnant... um, yeah. I don't think that that would be a good reason to have a kid for somebody eyeroll

1) We had a documentary meeting today, but J and R and I had to go to the recording studio first for a meeting there. I therefore told our fourth team member, the photographer, to meet us at R's house at 1:30 instead of at noon when we usually meet. I also told J and R that I had told the photographer to meet us at that time to start the meeting.

2) We finish our meeting at the studio around 1:00. J and R decide they're going to have lunch at some barbecue place they passed on the way to the studio. I say, "But what about the photographer? I told him to be at R's house by 1:30." They tell me to call him and tell him about the decision to go to lunch, so he can meet us at the restaurant. I point out that I don't know where the restaurant is and ask J to call him instead so J can tell him how to get to the restaurant. J agrees.

3) We all get to the restaurant. I ask J if the photographer is coming. J says the photographer didn't answer his phone but he left him a message letting him know where we were so that he could join us when he got the message.

4) We eat lunch, an hour goes by, and nobody hears from the photographer.

5) We head back to the house and there is the photographer, waiting for us. I can see that he's peeved. He tells me he didn't know where we were and tried to call me, but apparently my phone doesn't work. Oooh, sarcasm! Sarcasm that is unintentionally hilarious coming from someone who regularly uses excuses like "my phone turned itself off" or "I ran out of minutes on my phone" for reasons why he couldn't be reached.

6) I point out to him that J left him a voicemail letting him know about the change in lunch plans. His response? "Well, my cell phone turned itself off." This would be a good point at which to review my last sentence in Section #5 above re: unintentional hilarity. Also, anybody else notice the hypocrisy in how it's OK for his phone to "turn itself off", but it's not OK for me to miss his calls during the times his phone is miraculously turned on?

Let's review the main facts of the case.

1) The guys, quite self-interestedly, decided to make lunch plans that suited their own convenience. They knew we were supposed to be meeting the photographer at 1:30; they apparently just didn't care.

2) I was the only person who stopped and said, "Hey, what about the photographer who's waiting for us? We ought to let him know we're changing the plans."

3) A voicemail was left for the photographer, which he didn't get for a really pathetic and lame reason that we've all heard plenty of times before.

4) Somehow I still apparently have some blame in the fact that he missed out on lunch, because he tried to call me and I didn't get the call. Yep. Obviously my fault. Never mind the fact that I didn't plan the lunch, or that I'm the only person who gave any consideration to the fact that we ought to let him know where we were.

5) (and this is a biggie in my book) The photographer had the nerve to complain to ME about being ditched for lunch, when he has regularly ditched ME personally, and the entire team at large, with no explanations and no apologies.

I think I'm just going to excuse myself from taking any responsibility for certain things for a while. In all seriousness, I think I set myself up for this shit repeatedly because I allow certain things to fall into my lap or actively take steps to make myself responsible for stuff. For example, did I really need to remind J and R that the photographer would be waiting for us at 1:30? I did it because I thought notifying the photographer would be the responsible and courteous thing to do, but they knew just as well as I did that somebody was waiting for us... and they decided they wanted lunch and apparently had no intention of bothering to convey that to the photographer. So why should I then feel like it's my responsibility to make sure he gets notified on their behalf? Let them call him or not call him and accept the consequences of either action accordingly.

This is how I wind up feeling like the "mommy" sometimes -- because I let it happen. I do things like send out little reminders to people and remember names and phone numbers and all that shit. Well, maybe I should drop the babysitter mentality and start letting people remember things -- and figure out other things -- on their own for a change.

After many failed and mishandled attempts at learning this lesson, I think I'm finally starting to get it that often, our interactions with other people are a reflection of where those other people are at in their lives more so than they are a reflection of something about us.

People just do whatever comes to them naturally, and the truth is, those actions are rarely about the other people they affect. They are about whatever beliefs and feelings are going on inside the mind of the doer. The times we take things that other people do personally, are the times that it's about our own mental process and where we're at. If I didn't have weak points in my own armor, so to speak, then other people's statements and actions wouldn't bother me or create some kind of negative response in me.

That's not to say that there's something wrong with getting upset or taking things personally, or that we should try never to do things like that. It just seems to me that by keeping this realization in mind, it'll help me stay more aware of my own mental process and help me to be more deliberate than reactive in my responses to things.

Ohhh boy... and right as I finished typing this, Kelli came back in the office from going to the doctor's and they told her she tested positive for swine flu. I've been feeling kinda weird myself for the past couple of days, so now I wonder if I might have it too...? They told her the symptoms have been varying a lot from person to person -- Kelli just thought she had a sinus infection, because she hasn't had the typical symptoms. Hmm. Well, I'm not really sure what I should do -- I never go to the doctor for anything, not even when I'm really sick, so... I gotta sit here and figure this out.

I was reading back on some old LJ entries from a while back, and stumbled across this:

...And just as I was about to wax all deep and profound with my little soliloquy up there, Kenta showed me a picture he had taken of my sister's butt with the caption "If you see this ass, call 911 immediately" that he added in using his cell phone.

I laughed out loud. God I miss that kid sometimes.

A couple of weekends ago I told a certain friend of mine that he acted like he had sand in his vagina sometimes. For some reason that seemed to really disturb him, so I told him from now I was going to call him "Sandy" every time he got into a pissy mood with me.

I mention this because I find it amusing. Also because I am formulating a strong intention that he will no longer be finding it as easy and comfortable to project his pissy moods onto me. I have other discouragement strategies in mind that I intend to implement over the next few times that I see him.

In general, I have decided that since polite requests for mutual respect don't always seem to work, I'm just going to make it more trouble and misery than it's worth for people to try to dump on me. Will this approach be more effective? Only time will tell. But at the very least, it's bound to be a whole lot more fun.

I think this is worth posting about. I'm sure I will find this funny someday. Right now the best I can muster up is gratitude that nothing irredeemably horrible has happened and that everything will shortly be restored back to the way it was two days ago.

My brand-new MacBook Pro -- bought around two weeks ago to replace the one that was stolen, if you will recall -- mysteriously died on me yesterday morning. One minute I was using it and everything was fine. The next minute an ominous gray curtain descended over the screen and I got a message saying I needed to restart the computer.

I did. The same message popped up telling me to restart it.

I did. The computer turned on -- or should I say, the power indicator turned on -- but the screen stayed black.

I called Apple's support line. After getting me to try several different ways of turning on the computer with no success (all the computer would do was sit there and beep at me), the tech support guy referred me to the Apple Store where I had bought the replacement computer. The earliest appointment time they had open was 1:45 today, so he booked it for me and I left work to go down to the mall and get somebody to look at it.

Well, I just got back from my appointment. Long story short: the motherboard is blown and they have to replace the laptop. According to the Genius guy, it probably happened because of a faulty RAM chip, and apparently the beeping noises my computer was making are Morse code for "SOS" -- or, more colloquially, "I am fried. I just became the world's most expensive paperweight." He said the hard drive appears to be undamaged and he was able to get it out of the old laptop, so they're in the process of transferring my data onto the replacement laptop now and I can just go and pick up the new new laptop after work.

The Genius guy also commented, "Wow! This almost never happens. It's pretty rare for the whole computer to blow like that."

Well, you know what else is rare, Genius guy? How about having your first laptop computer stolen out of your locked apartment? Then how about having your replacement laptop die two weeks later under ridiculously unusual circumstances? Yeah. The word "rare" doesn't really impress me much these days, buddy. At this point I'm considering myself lucky that the faulty RAM chip didn't explode in my face and then set my apartment on fire for good measure (@_@)

Oh, and I also have another Comcast story, but that's just going to have to wait. I don't have any more time or energy to spend on resolving problems today. Suffice to say, this time it's their billing that's completely FUBAR, but I got on the phone with a supervisor and made them credit me back the second half of the nearly $50 they tried to overcharge me this month (@_@) (I got the first half back on Saturday)

Now... time to get back to work and get some stuff done around here in the next hour and a half!!

I had another situation to sort out with Comcast today -- lovely!! -- so that kinda got me thinking... how much do I really need, or want, to keep my cable TV? There are only a couple of shows that I watch regularly, and I can always watch those on hulu.com for free the day after they air. I do like the idea of being able to turn the TV on and channel-surf for something interesting to watch if I feel like it, but in actuality I don't really do that too often.

I dunno. I've done without cable TV for years, really, and never really missed it much. But now that I have it, part of me is kinda reluctant to give it up. It's definitely nice to have the DVR feature, but again, if I were to just watch stuff on hulu.com I wouldn't need to have a DVR anyway. I guess the bottom line here is, is having cable and DVR worth $40 a month? 'Cause that's what the cable package is currently costing me. Actually, make that $55, 'cause I think the DVR price is $15 per month or something like that.

What do you guys think? Any opinions?