A list of things I'm annoyed about today:

1) Being at all glad that William Gay left the game due to injury. I hate when people get hurt, so I'm upset when they play so damn poorly that I'm glad they get hurt and pulled.

2) Having to spend 2+ hours on the phone with HP before they would agree to send a new HDD for my mom's warrantied computer. Within the first 5 minutes of the call, I had explained to them that the drive was broken, as well as all the things Remy and I did to verify as much (including trying to mount the HDD on a totally different computer, which didn't work). ScriptMonkey ran us through all the same damn diagnostics we already performed on our own before she would escalate to tier-2, and tier-2 guy wanted to run through the same shit again, until Remy lost his patience with him.

3) My car's spoiler came loose on one side. WTF? Great timing, just as I'm going back to work after a lengthy vacation when I would have had time to deal with it.

---

As for the good, we might be able to move to our new abode before January after all. Also, the best part of my football viewing day can be found right here.

Mortgage: Commitment letter is in the mail, at last! Part of the mortgage commitment process involves the bank sending an appraiser to the house- you know, so they can rest assured they're not ponying up six figures for a rusty tin shack. Obviously, the house appraised high enough to satisfy the bank. Once we get the commitment letter, we'll get to see how much the appraiser thought it was worth. Its location is an important factor. An appraiser from Pittsburgh might understand that, whereas an appraiser from Erie wouldn't.

Insurance: Once the commitment letter arrives, we can pay for this and get it squared away.

Closing: December 21, in Squirrel Hill. We'd thought it might be in Downtown at first, which is all kinds of fun to try to drive through on late weekday afternoons. Squill is practically across the street, so that's a positive change.

Moving: Still have to figure out when we'd like to make the big haul. The holidays make it hard to sneak out before the end of December, so we'll probably have to stay in our apartment until January. If we're dropping the rent for the full month, we can take our time with vacating. On the other hand, we'll have two sets of utilities to maintain until we vacate. We'll turn the temp way down in the house until we're in there, and we obviously wouldn't be using much electricity until we're in there either, but still. *shrug*

Early December, 2008: In the Luxor Casino in Las Vegas, we notice some Star Trek TOS-themed quarter slots. I'm not much for gambling, but I figure I should give one of these a whirl while I'm here. I throw in $20, hit a few tiny jackpots. Cash out with nearly $40.

Early December, 2009: In the Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh, we notice those same Star Trek TOS-themed quarter slots. I'm not much for gambling, but I figure I should give one of these a whirl while I'm here. I throw in $20, hit a few tiny jackpots. Cash out with $43.

So in two years, I've spent maybe a grand total of three minutes playing slots, and have enjoyed roughly 103% returns on my investments. I'm thinking this is probably atypical. Is that going to stop me from playing the next Star Trek TOS slot machine I come across? Hell no.

Big Ben, Batch, Kemoeatu, and Polamalu out? I figured the loss was inevitable, but I'm surprised it ended this close.

There are a few things to be proud about: the Steelers won the battle on turnovers, allowed no sacks while hanging 5 on Flacco, and they didn't allow anyone to run back a kick for a TD, FINALLY (Sepulveda put the pain on the one fool who got close, demonstrating to Reed what he should try doing sometime). For his first NFL start ever, Dixon didn't do that bad. Sucks that they didn't let him run the ball more.

I'm about ready to write off this season. We have some "easy" games coming up, and a rematch with the Ravens in Pittsburgh, but FFS... in a year when we beat the Vikings and lose to the Chiefs, all bets are off.

I have a few invites for Google Wave, if anyone's interested?

FML

ETA: OK, I feel better now that Cinci lost to the Ray-dahz. The whole AFC North was on its period today.

What would Earth look like if it had a Saturnian ring system? video

New York City, Köln (Cologne), and Tehran are among the cities depicted! Been to the first two, hope to get to the third one of these days.

It's fun to speculate how our understanding of the planet and solar system would have evolved if we had a giant, perpetual image of rings in our sky, whose appearance changed only as one changed latitude. It would have had a huge influence on philosophy and religion as well. I wonder how many expeditions would have been launched to find the source of the rings, sort of like trying to find the end of a rainbow?

Ugh. Bengals put up a great game, and deserved to win. I'm so sick of our sucktastic return coverage. WTF, Reed? All you had to do was fall down in front of the guy.

And Polamalu left the game with no fanfare, which also blows.

After this FG-heavy game, Krissy switched to the Cowboys/Packers game. We got to see both teams fail FG attempts on their opening drives. At this point, I am desperate to see someone, anyone, get a goddamn TD.

Doesn't look like this one will be a contest winner. Oh well. I had to illustrate one aspect of our world 100 years into the future, using only 350 words or less. Not exactly simple, eh? I figured everyone would go for rockets, climate change, economics, or energy crisis, so I went with what I thought might be a standout concept: cross-cultural, face-to-face human interaction. My thought process came from this Thomas Edison quote: "We will make electric light so cheap that only the rich will be able to burn candles."

Story is here, PDF format. Comments always welcome.




This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Inspection was yesterday, and that went well. The roof is the only (minor) sticky point. We know it was replaced at some time, but we don't know when; the inspector's best guess is about ten years ago. There is some evidence of water damage near a skylight, but we think it was probably from before the roof was replaced. Even so, we're going to see if the seller won't be able to get someone to certify that there are no leak problems at the present time. The seller himself showed up toward the end of the inspection- nice enough guy from what I heard- and he was adamant that he's had no trouble with the roof in the time he's owned the place. We're inclined to believe him, but we'd still like to cover our asses. Mom and Ray came over during the inspection to see the place, and they really like it. Parental approval is not absolutely required, but it is a plus.

Homeowner's insurance is squared away, at least as much as possible right now. The insurance company will be contacting the mortgage broker to carry out the remaining part of the deal.

Mortgage paperwork should be arriving shortly. Over the weekend, we gathered up the sorts of things that we'll have to turn in with it: pay stubs, W-2s, current bank statements, and such. Still waiting to hear how many pints of blood the underwriter will want after that.

As far as what's under our control, that's pretty much it for now. We paid out some hand money when our offer was accepted, and when we're done ironing out the inspection details and the inspection is "released," we'll be paying out more hand money (not everyone does it this way, but we wanted to show the seller that we meant serious biz). After that happens, and once our mortgage is approved, it'll probably be safe enough to give notice to our landlord.

Closing is slated for the end of December. We'll be pestering the hell out of our Realtor and mortgage broker to ensure that all loose ends are tied well before then. On one hand, I'm glad we've allotted so much time for everyone involved to get their ducks in a row. On the other, I'm ready to sign all the paperwork yesterday and just move in already!

We were down four starters tonight. Could anyone tell? (Carter! Holy shit!)

The offense needed a half to get going, but (pick and fumble aside) were pretty brilliant after that. Two TDs for Hines, yay!! Mendenhall got into his rhythm, and could practically move the ball at will. The D was fantastic throughout: scoring points, making INTs, and not allowing the Broncos to capitalize on our offense's mistakes.

Poor Broncos received the ol' one-two punch from the AFC North. I dare say, the AFC North is the most badass division in the League at present. I can't believe I'm saying it, but we'll have our work cut out for us next week against Cincinnasty.

SIXBURGH: How Many Yinz Got? (sign in the crowd)

Over the weekend, we saw a house that we liked, about a half-mile from our current location.

Last night, we put in an offer on said house.

Today, the offer was accepted.

...

::flails::

::pukes::

"Freaked" is the best term for my mental state at present. What most people treat as exciting life milestones, yours truly tends to chase down with a bottle of Maalox. I probably won't be able to relax until we've completely moved in, completely finish with our lease, get everything set up and transferred and whatnot, and I get through my thick skull that we'll still have a good chunk of money in the bank even after closing. I'm the veteran of five moves since 2004, two across state borders. At least I've got most of those logistics and minutiae down pat. It's the BUYING A GODDAMN HOUSE part that's new (and terrifying).

I'll post more info when it's more of a sure thing. I've seen how these things have fallen through on others, often due to completely stupid things out of their control. It isn't a done deal until the keys are in your hands.

YEEAAAAHHHH!!

::runs through brick wall::

Steelers dealt the Vikings their first loss this season. Toward the end, it seemed like all hope was lost, when Fox picked off Favre and ran it back for a TD. That was after Woodley did (almost) the same thing to end a Vikings red-zone drive. Always a nail-biter with the Black and Gold, but they make their own luck sometimes.

I hope that referee that got clocked is OK!

Bye Week To-Do List
- Cast Cure Moderate Wounds on Smith, Timmons, et al
- Build wristbands for Mendenhall that secrete Superglue
- Put a boot up Reed's ass for that pussy fucking "tackle." I'm 5'6", 109 lbs soaking wet, and I seriously could've done better. If that jackass had felt like trying, that would've kept seven points off the board.

ETA: Woodley's run needed some Benny Hillification.

I actually called Polamalu's 1st quarter INT a few plays before it happened. Cleveland was getting deep into Steelers territory, and I told Remy, "This is when Polamalu puts on his cape and makes the interception that stops the drive." Sure enough...

Far from a perfect game, but we'll take it. We held together pretty well in the 4th quarter for once, but sheesh, what was up with FumbleFest 2009 in the 3rd? Both teams combined for five fumbles in five consecutive possessions.

We got to watch the last 2:00 of the MIN/BAL game, and the Dirty Birds' late rally actually had me pulling for them. That's really too bad that their kicker missed the game-winning field goal. We get to play the Vikes in Pittsburgh next week. I'm nervous about our chances, but just as the Steelers can be counted on to play down to shitty opposition, they can shine against tough teams.

CBS is showing TEN/NE right now. That's a scary amount of snow. In contrast, it's clear and sunny here in Pittsburgh for the first time in nearly a week.

* I've had the past several days off work. It's been glorious. Drawing, writing, housework, all kinds of things I want to do are getting done. Still also playing Muramasa on the Wii. I beat the game once through with Momohime, now I'm working through Kisuke's arc. My one complaint is that the encounters can get repetitive. Okay, two: there aren't enough flaming swords. Otherwise, it's a lot of fun, and very pretty to look at.

* Updated my artwork gallery to include only the stuff I've done recently or semi-recently. It is here. I'll keep posting stuff there as I draw it, but I probably won't be making OOH GO LOOKIT posts to go along with each new scan.

* Went to the doctor today for a check-up. All is well, but he wants me to get a bone density scan. He thinks I may be at risk for osteoporosis- I guess because I'm a tiny little thing; I'm not sure.

* I have a few big original writing projects going at the moment. I won't know how big until I can actually force them out of my skull. It's annoying, though, because my attitude toward them constantly alternates between "Woot!" and "Holy shit, I'm embarrassed by how horrible this is." When stuck in the latter state, it's hard to force myself to keep going. That's what I usually do anymore- I force myself to work on them, even when I'm not really feeling it. Oftentimes, I'll find my missing inspiration once I've spent a few paragraphs warming up. Besides, whatever gets written is going to have to be shredded and rewritten anyway. It's a lot easier for me to work with something than with nothing.

I did recently submit a piece of short fiction (very short- under 350 words) to a contest. I'll wait to post it until its fate is known. I also finished a third installment of At the Retirement Home, but I don't like it as much as the first two, so I'll work on hammering that out before posting it.

Remy has been an invaluable beta reader for everything, which I really appreciate.

Hells no, I'm not doing NaNoWriMo. When it comes to creative activity, deadlines and I do not get along. Besides, I already wrote a Java program for completing NaNo whenever the fuck I want. I could churn out a full novel every day that month, if I felt like it. That might actually be fun to try, see what sort of barely coherent messes are generated. Again, no one said quality was a goal of NaNo.

* While I'm on programming, I also wrote a simple but useful mouse-jiggling app- something to keep my laptop from falling asleep when I'm watching movies. It also comes in handy if you need to stay logged into a machine that's set to lock you out after X minutes of inactivity. My program moves your mouse cursor to a different position on the screen every few minutes, which is enough to prevent screen savers, power-save modes, and other "idle" processes from activating. You can find such programs easily for Mac OS, but not so much for Windows. If anyone wants my program, let me know. It should run on any OS as long as you have a JRE (Java Runtime Environment), which you probably already have installed.

* As an update to an earlier post, I did get my $362.50 refunded by Paypal for my botched sales transaction from Hell. I escalated the case, and the seller never responded within the 10 days Paypal gave him. Like Purrsia said, the guy was guilty of bad customer service at the very least.

The D didn't completely self-destruct in the fourth quarter! Seven sacks on the day, first INT since Game 1, Wallace redeemed his early mistake, no special teams goofs. Big Ben just has to stop giving away pick-sixes.

We had some friends over for this game, so I was admittedly more intent on my guests and food than on the play-by-play. I made crockpot chili, cornbread, and dark chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting, all from scratch. Much beer was consumed, including pumpkin beer. It seemed to go over well, which is a personal triumph. If you told me a year ago that I'd host a football party, serving a full meal that I made, and every dish was a hit, I never would have believed it.

Also, Baltimore losing to Cincy makes me feel better about the Steelers losing to Cincy. Hard to believe the Bungles are 4-1, though, and would've been 5-0 if not for one miracle play by Denver.

Back on August 20, I ordered a $362 item, and was told that it would ship in 14 days. 14 days later, nothing had shipped, and there was no communication from the seller.

So I emailed the seller to ask about it. He said it would ship in 3-4 days.

Nothing for a week. I emailed him again. The response was that the item is ready to ship, I'd get tracking info soon.

Nothing for another week. I emailed again for a status update. The response is a song-and-dance about parts that were delayed, recalled, etc. Things had to be rebuilt, upgraded, whatever. No update on when the damn thing will actually ship, though.

Another week passed with no further word, so I emailed again. Please note, at all times I've being completely polite, saying "please" and "thank you" and not being a bitch at all. I was told that the item will ship at the end of the week.

Guess what... ANOTHER week went by with no further update. I emailed him again, and when I received no response, I decided I had better file a dispute with Paypal, because the 45-day limit for such things was almost up.

Yeah, that got him talking.

"I've sent you emails. ... Orders are shipping this weekend."

Then, a second, shortly after the first:

"im expected to recieve the final part this friday so ill be shipping the tricorders on monday. I wish you contacted me via phone if you had any concerns before you went to paypal. they now have a hold on the payment and I need it to be removed before I can ship on monday."

Playing my tiny violin now. Oh, but it gets better. In the Paypal dispute, he posts that he's going to ship the item on October 8, which is decidedly not this weekend or Monday or whatever. That's three conflicting statements from the same guy. WTF.

I decided that I would not answer his two emails, and I was sure as fuck not going to call him. I posted the following response to the Paypal dispute:

Hello [seller],

First, let me note that this is not personal. If I waited until after the 45-day mark and did not receive anything, I would have had no recourse with Paypal. Note that in our chain of dialogue since September 4- two weeks after the item was supposed to ship- I was told three times that the item would ship within the next few days. I have the emails to show this. You can therefore understand why I have been nervous about never receiving the item.

Second, let me note that I work in customer service, and I know what it is to have things get delayed that are out of my control. However, if I know that there is going to be a delay, I email my customer proactively to inform them of the problem, and I keep them updated without them having to prompt me. If you go back and check, I was the one who initiated all our conversations about updates, delays, shipping, etc., and I think I have been quite patient in this process. For your future business, I recommend that if you run into these sorts of problems, please take the initiative to let your customers know, and make a reasonable effort to keep them updated without them having to constantly ask for new information.

Third, at no point in any of the prior emails did you invite me to call and speak to you regarding the delays.

You have indicated October 8 as the ship date, so I will wait until October 9 before deliberating any further action on this dispute.

Thanks!

The dispute will stay open until October 21. Before that time, I may escalate it and have Paypal decide the outcome, which I am definitely going to do if this jerk doesn't produce by the end of next week. I don't think I've been rude or unreasonable here.

Blargh. That'll learn me to splurge on expensive doohickeys.

Next week's game recap will be late, as Remy and I have tickets for the game! 48 yard line, 19 rows up from the Steelers bench, and we only had to pay face value for them.

Remy has never been to a Steelers game. The last time I got to see one, we played the Houston Oilers at Three Rivers Stadium, and Mike Tomczak got in a fight at the end. Sunday is gonna be AWESOME. But also a very late night, as kickoff is not until 8:20 PM.