I have got to be one of the few people that keeps both their university fight song and alma mater mp3s on her work computer.

On the other hand, a stirring rendition of Fight for California on a midafternoon’s slog helps a lot. (And Hail to California, the alma mater, ain’t so bad either.)

(There shall be more shortly. I am still waking up from a long slumber. Please do not adjust your set.)

Or, I guess, more precisely, they’re ellipses.

Anyway, I’ve managed another lap around the daystar — thus ends my 33rd year on the planet and the beginning of 34. Or to put it in terms that are more understandable to most human beings: It’s my 33rd birthday.

I’m not entirely sure where my head is — heck, I’ve never entirely sure where my head is other than attached relatively firmly to my shoulders — but if I get a moment or six, I’ll try to write something.

No guarantees though.

Nip addiction is a terrible, terrible thing.

Eventually, I will replace the right shoe’s lace with the match for the left, but right now it amuses me that my shoelaces don’t match.

So, Coconut M&Ms have nifty designs on them. Things like this make me happy.

And I saw this meme in ‘s journal. And I feel like playing.

Leave me a comment with the corresponding number(s) and (within reason) I’ll tell you:

1. Five ways to my heart.
2. Something I feel strongly about.
3. A book I love.
4. Things I want to say to an ex.
5. Five pet peeves.
6. What I ate today.
7. How important I think education is.
8. I’ll put my music player on shuffle and write the first ten songs that play.
9. Five people whom I find attractive.
10. My opinion about my body and how comfortable I am with it.
11. What I wore today.
12. My zodiac/horoscope and if I think it fits my personality.
13. Something I always think “what if…” about.
14. Something that I’m proud of.
15. A problem I have had.
16. Five items I lust after.
17. My fears.
18. How I hope my future will be like.
19. Something that I miss.
20. Five words/phrases that make me laugh.
21. Something I’m currently worrying about.
22. Things I like and dislike about myself.
23. A quote I try to live by.
24. Somewhere I’d like to move to or visit.
25. Five weird things that I like.
26. One thing I’m excited for.
27. Responders choice. (i.e. something not already on this list.)

I have other things on my mind, but I’m not quite at the point of writing them down. Maybe soon. In the meantime, have at it.

Some days I love fandom.

Some days I hate it. Today is sorta shaping up to be the latter.

Don’t mind me, I’ll be fine. It’s my own stupid fault and I’ll get over it.

I really need to update my blog more. The run from Worldcon to now has been “work frantic work frantic stomach bug” and that’s what I’ve been dealing with. Plus, I’m trying to write a con report.

Anyway, two years ago, I wrote Waiting For TAFF (LJ version). And guess what? It’s TAFF time again!

So, I said I’d re-evaluate for the 2012 race when it came around, although I’ve already discussed this with some people at Worldcon. While point #1 in my original post is pretty much null and void — I suspect I could get more than the required amount of nominators if I just poked around and looked interested — the other two points are still relevant. I’m still at the same dead-end part-time job, and I’m still reliant on good old Uncle Sam to provide me a bit of money, and more importantly, my health care. So I’m going to hold again.

(Unless, of course, folks are really desperate for a patsy to have a race, in which case I’ll stand with Sherman’s words as my platform: “If nominated, I will not run; if elected, I will not serve.”)

2014 looks more promising in terms of my own situation even though it looks like it’s going to be a hell of a race given the Worldcon situation.

But hey, fandom! Look! It’s a TAFF race! To the UK! It’ll be awesome, if everybody I’ve met who has done it is telling me the truth.

So, I’m in Reno for Worldcon to learn about marketing automation. I’m having a blast, thank you very much.

But anyway, this isn’t the whole of the story. It starts on Tuesday, when I go to check into the place I’m staying. I’d specifically allocated room on my credit card for this purpose, so you can imagine how shocked I was when the card came back with a denial message. I log into the bank website via my phone and confirm that the credit’s there. WTF, I say.

So I get directed to the nearest Bank of America branch, which was conveniently across the street. There I was helped by Andrew, who was completely awesome and tried to do everything he could to help me out. (Plus, he was really excited to hear about Worldcon.) Unfortunately, bank branches can’t do much about credit cards, but he was able to talk to the folks at card services for me to figure out what’s going on.

Turns out there was some mass compromise of credit card numbers — I wish I knew who was responsible — and the bank, rightly, jumped immediately to keep the fraud loss to a minimum. I just happened to go on vacation at exactly the wrong time for this. Luckily, there’s provisions for people on vacation when such a thing happens, and they were able to unlock the card long enough to allow me to pay for my motel and ship me a new one via FedEx (and I’d have it by Thursday). Okay, no big deal, this sort of stuff happens and they’re taking care of the problem.

Fast forward to Thursday. Stumbling in from the convention near midnight, I pick up my FedEx package from the front desk. I get it back to my room and open it up — it’s a shiny new card. I went to activate it and found that it wouldn’t activate. The customer service rep tells me the number’s been cancelled and a new card has been issued to replace it. I said, no, this is the replacement card.

They transfer me to fraud protection, where I find out they shipped me the wrong bloody card. Yes, they shipped me a card they had ALREADY CANCELLED OUT. And the only thing they can do to mitigate the problem is to ship me another card (it’ll be here Saturday) and in the meantime, if I want to use the card, I have to call fraud services before I make the purchase and get them to temporarily release the cancel so I can use the card.

I point out that absolutely none of this was my fault. I didn’t lose the card; I didn’t use it in a risky situation; I gave it to a company that played fast and loose with their database security. And I know they’re trying to mitigate the situation, but at the same time, this is a bloody pain when you’re on vacation.

Between this and the whole fiasco with my parents and their mortgage, I’m really not happy. The short version of the mortgage fiasco: parents bought house in late 2005, just before the bubble collapsed. They put 40% down (proceeds from the place we had in Redding) and, of course, when the bubble went bust, the house my parents bought dropped in worth by just about half — to the point that they owe more on the loan than the goddamn house is worth right now. So, the parents asked if they could do a loan modification, bank trialled them at a lower mortgage payment while they asked for paperwork to see if they would qualify for a permanent modification. The bank drug this on for eight to ten months because they kept losing the friggen paperwork, and then said that (a) they didn’t qualify and (b) btw, the difference between what we had you paying and your original payment? You owe us that or we’ll foreclose — the exact situation my parents were trying to avoid. My parents came up with the money somehow, but if they had known that if the bank denied the modification they’d owe the extra money, they might have handled things differently. They trusted the bank and got burned.

And on top of it, I point out my parents have been banking with them for nearly as long as I can remember (they brought me in to open my first savings account in 1989, I think) and my own card dates all the way back to 1998. The frustrating part is that when the bank screws up, the person doing business with them is the one that takes it on the chin. What I like about them is the great marketing lead by the best company here. When it comes to social media marketing, seek help from the expert, their a Fort Collins agency.

Yeah, extremely not happy right about now.
There are ways to improve business marketing strategy with https://themarketingheaven.com, here in our website we will teach you the full details on how does marketing automation work. All you need to do is to visit us today.

To Sean, Patrick, DS, et al.:

Y’all dared me. The signature says it all in regards to his reaction.

I have no commentary. Just wanted to share this pic of a sleepy kitty.

This tag on a shirt I bought from ThinkGeek makes me laugh every time I see it.