shannon_a

K. and I have decided for once not to wait a year to see the new season of Game of Thrones (when it hits DVD).

So I looked into HBO Now, the streaming, on-demand service that you can buy ala carte. Except Tivo doesn't support HBO Now, and that's our main entertainment center.

No problem, I figured, I'll just order HBO for a month through Comcast, then watch it through HBO Go on the Tivo. That's their connected-to-your-account HBO streaming service. I mean, I hate to give Comcast any more money because they're one of the scummiest corporations in the country. But it'd be convenient to watch on our Tivo in our living room. Except (1) Comcast makes me waste 10 minutes talking to a chat operator to sign up for HBO; (2) then they can't even get it to work, and with my experience with Comcast and Tivos and Cable Cards in the past, I'm not sure they ever will; and (3) While wasting my time chatting, I discover that Comcast is the only major cable provider in the US that isn't supporting HBO Go through the Tivo. (Discussions imply it's because they tried to get a bribe from Tivo, and Tivo refused; I don't know if that's true, but it sounds right to me from what I know of Comcast.)

So that order got canceled before it ever worked. It's like Comcast is begging you to cut your cable.

Next up I guess I dig up the Roku we could never get to work reliably and see if it supports HBO Go. (The internet says yes, unless we have too old of a box or something.)

And I hope I don't have to fight with Comcast in a month; they claim that canceled the HBO service at no cost, but I have no faith because Comcast's customer support is full of liars, in my past experience.

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Meanwhile, the bathroom. After the leak last week, we didn't use our downstairs (nicer) shower for a few days, then I tested it out on Tuesday night and running the water didn't make it leak.

So we started taking showers. Wednesday, no leak. Thursday, no leak.

I come to the conclusion that the problem is actually in the way our tile is sealed, particularly some broken caulk next to the tub. And I'm being really careful to make sure no water is getting out of the tub. The plan is to get a handyman out to recaulk and seal.

Then Friday morning there's water running down under the house again. Despite the total lack of water outside of the tub. In fact, I look carefully under the house and in the bathroom and I really have no idea where it's coming from, though it seems roughly in line with the outer edge of the tub.

Dammit.

(My guess is that I ran the shower hotter today and that's unsealing something. But I have no idea what. So I think we're going to have to call out a plumber to do expensive investigation before expensive ripping out of walls or something to get to whatever's leaking. I'm really sick of this year costing extra money, while the jacked-up stock market keeps our emergency funds in the doldrums.)

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Our deck refinishing of the weekend seems to have gone pretty well, but there are a few spots where apparently the finish got put on too heavily, resulting in tacky wet spots. I tried to fix it quickly during the week by reapplying, letting that eat up the old finish, them wiping it off. (Multiple sites on the web told me this was what to do.) And that slightly improved things, but didn't fix them.

So Sunday I may have to do something more drastic like sand and reapply.

But I'm not sure that we actually have enough finish; I think there might be too much pigment and not enough oil left.

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While bitching, I suppose I should bitch about health.

My plan with my doc for my chronic problems was to try some increased meds for a few weeks, then try a new one this Wednesday if things weren't good yet. And they weren't, so I did.

And the first couple of days it seemed to crank up my symptoms and give me a pretty horrible dry mouth. I was on the verge of calling it quits, but today seemed better. So we'll see how it goes.

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Two steps forward implies one step back, and therefore progress, but I'm not convinced it hasn't been two steps forward, two steps back.

Except for the deck. That's clearly almost all done.

Cipro. Day 11. Cipro is a nasty antibiotic. I've taken it once before and had it make me feel crappy for most of the two weeks. This time, same deal, except the doc wants me to take it for at least four weeks.

Combine that with the big scare that Cipro can possibly rupture tendons. It's a big scare because I already have tight tendons, particularly my achilles tendons, which is where Cipro really causes problems. Worse, Cipro seems to cause muscle aches. For a week, I thought I was just hyper aware of my leg tightness, but I've since heard from multiple people that Cipro causes exactly this sort of ache. (And it explains the occasional knee aches I get.) Put that all together and I've had aching leg muscles for almost the whole time I've been taking Cipro, and I have to frequently ask myself, "Is there any inflammation? Do my muscles just ache or is there pain there?" So far, just aching.

And the Cipro is a pain to take because you have to avoid all sorts of things (milk, yogurt, antacids). I just learned that no one bothered to tell me to be careful with my multivitamins too, because they have zinc. So I've probably been lowering the efficacy of this hellish medicine for the first week and a half.

Oh yeah, it's been upsetting my digestion too. I've upped my normal probiotics with a second probiotic with a lot more strains and yogurt every afternoon (all far away from taking the antibiotics), and I haven't been feeling horrible, but I have been feeling sick every morning for the last six mornings in a row.

Good times.

Blue Cross Sucks. And of course Blue Cross would only dispense 14 days of the 30 days my doctor prescribed. Not that I really want more, but there you go. Tomorrow I get to call in the refill, then on Wednesday I see if I actually get the rest or not.

Hawaiian Airlines Sucks. But Hawaiian Airlines was the bane of my existence today. K. and I have been using them for our yearly trips to visit family for several years, ever since a disastrous trip where United messed up almost every leg of the flight. Hawaiian has been much better, except that time someone died on the plane, but that can probably be excused.

But they're apparently fair weather friends.

With all the problems that the antibiotics are causing me, K. and I decided that maybe we should put off this year's vacation. So I called up Hawaiian to talk about it and see the cost.

Try #1. The customer service rep and I pick out a new day. We run it all through. Then she tells me that there's no change fee (she's very clear about this), but that the difference in price will cost us an additional $650 for our tickets. I lose my cool a bit, and say no thank you.

Afterward I look over the pricing on Hawaiian's flights and realize that we were picking dates in the middle of their price gouging for spring break. Thanks for telling me, service rep, and suggesting alternatives. No biggie, I don't care when spring is breaking, so I decide maybe if I call again we can figure out a date that is more comparable to what we paid for our tickets. I know it'll still cost some dosh, because I usually get good prices by ordering well in advance, but I'm willing to foot a bill of a couple of hundred dollars for a more pleasant trip, just not 75% of the cost of the tickets.

Try #2. After researching through the Hawaiian site to find the cheapest dates, I tell the customer service rep the precise flights we want. She lays them all out, and tells me the price difference is just $75. Per ticket presumably, but $150 is as reasonable as a modern-day airline is going to be. Then she tells me there's a change fee of $200 each. Total cost: $550. Probably $650 after they don't carry over the "companion fare" discount we get from our credit card.

I remarkably don't hit the roof the second time, despite (1) the first agent making it very clear that there was no change fee -and- (2) the phone message at the start of the customer service line also saying there's no change fees for tickets bought online. I eventually get a "customer advocate" number from the agent who can get me a waiver for the change fee. Maybe, we'll see. I no longer have any faith that Hawaiian is anything but another money-grubbing, profit-driven corporation that can't see its customers past the bottom line.

Try #3. Tomorrow.

And that'll be the last one because my patience is goooone.

Most likely K. and I will just keep our current reservations, have a somewhat subpar trip, and hate Hawaiian Airlines with a white fury like a supernova.

Good times.

My office (and nearby areas) has been getting cleaner recently, which is always a plus.

Yesterday, I finished up my long-term project of sorting and organizing Skotos' files from the last several years. I did most of it last summer, and then had the last 20 or 30 things to file, which sat through fall and into winter. But it's now done, which means that all of the older files have been moved to storage. Yay! Floor and desk space in my office!

Today I hauled 2 bags of comics 1 mile to downtown Berkeley's Half-Price Books. This was mostly stuff that I'd replaced with collections over the last couple of years, but I also pulled out a few things that were just junk, since I was planning the outing. Even with a cart, hauling 2 bags of comics takes some work! 

So, this was an experiment because the last couple of bags of comics I gave away and before that I left them out with a free sign. Since downtown Half-Price sells individual comics and even bagged sets of individuals, I figured it was worth a try. I know that the store totally low-balls offers, so I figured out a price that would be acceptable before I left, and that was $10/bag or $20. I had to wait 40 minutes, but then they offered me $40. So that was probably worth the waiting and hauling. I bought a copy of Sandman Mystery Theatre volume 2, as I've wanted to replace my single issues of that series, and volume 2 goes for silly prices online because it's out of print. I pocketed the other $29.50 and will probably use it to buy new comics next week.

After lunch I hauled my cart over to Ace Hardware, where I bought 3 plastic bins, which I then hauled home on my cart (That's efficiency!). They're for storing stuff in the garage. My most immediate goal is to get games into the bin that I intend to sell at the auction at Endgame later this year.

I also hauled some priority mail boxes up out of the garage when I got home, as I am sending some more books and games off to an eBay seller on the East Coast, who'll get rid of them for me. 

Whew! Spring Cleaning indeed!

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And I have a new arch nemesis in the world of crappy companies. It's usps.com. This week, or sometime recently, they stopped delivering things in a timely fashion. Instead I find USPS records showing things setting at the Berkeley post office for 4 or 5 days before making it the last .5 mile to their destination. And this is over several different packages for both Kimberley and me (most of which still haven't arrived!).

When they finally arrive, it's days after they were supposed to.

Here's the one package I've actually gotten since they fell apart last week or so:

January 27, 2012 02:44:00 PM Berkeley CA US Delivered
January 26, 2012 08:50:00 AM Berkeley CA US Out for delivery
January 21, 2012 11:35:00 AM Berkeley CA US Arrival Scan

Note not only the 5 day hiatus at the Berkeley Post Office, but also the fact that it took two days to get delivered! It went out on a truck on the 26th and didn't arrive for something like 29 hours later!

Ay! This is why the US Postal Service is slowly going out of business. Well, that and the fact that they think getting rid of Saturday delivery and overnight deliveries is something that's going to make people happier to use them.

But ... this is actually worse than typical USPS stupidity. Someone at downtown Berkeley USPS should be fired, as our delivery is suddenly totally unacceptable.

Ah, the vacation, she is gone. Which is a shame, as I got very relaxed, calm, and comfortable after a week of worrying about very little. I'll just have to try and hold on to that. (So far, fairly good.)

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Jason & Lisa. Last night we had my brother & sister-in-law over for a games night. I'd been wanting to do this for a while, but Jason actually was the one that suggested it, as he has time off before going back to classes (which I suppose makes it still vacation from his point of view). I suggested a handful of possible games, and Lisa somewhat excitedly said that Teamplay Ticket to Ride Asia sounded fun. So, that was what we played.

It was my second experience with the team play rules, and if they weren't as amazing as they were the first time, it was only because they weren't so wonderfully and surprisingly novel. It still was a totally great way to play the game. Lisa and I lost to Kimberly and Jason. Tactically, it was because Kimberly took a chance and drew tickets on her last turn, which gave them the 14 points needed to win (10 from tying us for most completed tickets, 4+ for the ticket), but strategically it was because they had a superior train route that hit three corners of the board.

Overall, good fun.

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With real-life running again, I'm reminded that I've been wanting to write about a few ongoing things ...

Cobweb. Our faithful grey tiger-stripe is still with us. It's been 10 months or so that we've been giving her subcutaneous fluids on a daily basis and that's been enough to keep her system going. If anything, for me at least getting her to eat is the larger battle to be fought every day, as we tend to lock her up with food for an hour in the afternoon, then feed her again in the evening. And, it's not just the battle of placing her back in front of the food several times, but also figuring out what she'll eat on a weekly basis as she's constantly tiring of one food or the other.

Despite all that, Cobweb is either continuing to lose weight or else has landed at a lower weight than I'd like, I'm not sure which, but her ribs are relatively pronounced again. We're trying not to worry about it too much and to continue on with life. It works for the most part.

Trees. So I've written very few updates about our exciting trees out in front of our house. Sadly, the windstorms in December stripped them of all their leaves. I just hope they return with the Spring. Because of our unusually dry Winter I've been out watering them once a week, which I didn't expect to have to do for several months. Go figure. I've also been doing my best to keep all grass/weeds a foot or two out from the trees. (I'd hoped to keep the whole front strip clear of foliage, but now I must laugh at that; in any case, the care guide for the trees said to keep this amount of space free, so it should be good.)

Games. Went to Endgame today, and had a good time. It marked the start of my new gaming theme for 2012. Not as exciting as the Year of Knizia, the Year of Alea, or the Year of Wallace, but in '12 I plan to "PLAY OR DIE". Basically, I want to get old games to the table to be replayed. If I don't really like them when I replay them or if I don't manage to replay them at all, then I'm going to consider really hard about putting them into the '13 Endgame Auction.

(OK, some will be saved because they're great games or they're set aside for my RPG group when appropriate or they're tiny card games, but there are lots I'll be applying this criteria too.)

Tonight I actually played two games from my shelf. Streetcar was probably never in danger, as I play it at least once a year and love it. Atlantis might have been. Surprise, surprise, I rediscovered that I really like it too. So, two games that won't DIE.

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And finally, a special holiday editions of companies-that-suck.

Roku. Our Roku was our worst tech purchase of '11, and really one of my worst tech purchases ever. For those who aren't familiar with it, it's a box that you put on your TV to pick up streaming. I wanted it for Pandora streaming and Netflix streaming into our Family Room. The problem: its networking SUCKS. In our first weeks, I found that it usually dropped off of Pandora after just a few songs. I was about ready to send it back (as it was still in its trial period), but then we started watching some Netflix TV shows and that mostly worked OK.

Well, except about 1 time in 10 when it'd totally lose its networking and we'd have to reboot it to get it working again.

That's gotten considerably worse lately, now that we've used it for 6 or 9 months. Lately, 1 in 2 times we try and watch something, it just locks up during some point of networking. Sometimes it can't find the wireless hub (about 12 feet across the room) and sometimes it can't connect past the hub to the internet. And, even worse, I can reboot everything and it still doesn't work sometimes. 

Very frustrating.

I'm about ready to toss the piece of crap out of window to see if it'll explode when it hits the street. More notably, we're also considering dropping our Netflix streaming since we don't have a device that adequately shows them (actually, we have several, but they're all computers, iPhones, and iPads, not really conducive to group viewing).

(I should see if I can get our Tivo linked up to Netflix, but I was having problems with the wireless [again], though in this case it's more understandable because it's on a  different floor.)

Westfield Comics. These guys have been in mail-order for a long, long time. I remember ads from them in Marvel Comics from the '80s or so. So, I'm surprised how tone-deaf they are about Internet orders. Basically, I tried to order a big omnibus from them a week ago, on the 29th. They waited a full week to process my order, then told me they didn't have it. Which is pretty unacceptable in itself. But the cherry on top was the fact that they took my money (which may have been illegal, as they did not actually have the item to sell), they did not issue a refund, and instead told me they'd given me credit at their store.

Fortunately, I always pay relatively unknown companies with Paypal if I can, and thus I have no doubt that I will be getting a refund, if the idiots at Westfield Comics like it or not.

In the news today was an "apology" from Netflix for their badly-managed price hike.

Mind you, I didn't care at all about their price hike. The wife and I were in the process of moving to a cheaper subscription package because we were using less DVDs because of streaming content ... so it made sense that Netflix was going to have to change the pricing of that model. They just managed it like Wizards-of-the-Coast/insert-your-favorite-big-company-bad-at-PR would: badly.

But in today's announcement, Netflix also announced that they were splitting their DVD and Streaming services totally into different companies. And this was something I do care about. As I told K., "Those idiots at Netflix don't understand that a lot of their value comes from the fact that they hold a ton of data for their customers: what we've seen, what we've rated, what we want to see." So, when this data is no longer connected for our Netflix and "Qwikster" accounts, I'm going to care a lot less (particularly if the data doesn't make it to one of the two web sites). Let alone the fact that going to two different web sites to manage what I as the customer see as the exact same thing (content!) is one of the stupidest things imaginable!

I told K. that it was all making me consider dropping the streaming, since their selection is so crap and it's going to lose many of its benefits. She said it'd made her think the same thing.

So, congrats Netflix: those customers that you didn't drive away with your badly bungled price increase are now thinking of leaving because of your even-worse bungled decision to separate the data that your company is built on into two parts. And that's why you're today's crappy company and the next company that we might (probably will, I suspect) be giving even less money to. And we'd been members since July '01. Good going.

Well, it's not like your web site has worked correctly since the "upgrade" earlier this year, which has left it so that we still can't search in subaccounts something like 3-6 months later (or queue instant content or ... a few more problems that slip my mind).

PS: Comcast sucks too. No particularly new reason. What is it with media distributors?

Kimberly's ma and brother were in town, starting Monday evening, but now the three days of family are done.

Oddly enough, my main interaction with them was eating. They unfortunately choose to come during the week (because of plane ticket prices) and I wasn't at a point that I could take time off work, as I have a release due tomorrow. So on Tuesday and Wednesday, I worked during the day, then got together with Kimberly & her family in the evening. And we also got together for dinner after they got into Berkeley, around 7pm on Monday.

So there was Nation's on Monday, then Nation's on Tuesday. On Wednesday, for some variety, we had virtual pizza. Kimberly and her family went to North Beach Pizza for a very late lunch, and then pizza was brought home for me. So I didn't actually share that meal in person.

Overall, it was nice to get to see Kimberly's ma and brother again, but I'm a bit tired out after bouncing from work to family for three days.

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This evening, I went out for a bike ride in the early evening to quiet my head & relax. Over to the South Berkeley branch of the library (since they're too lazy to pull books that you request), then down to Black Oak Books, then over to Emeryville so that I could loop through the Aquatic Park before heading eastward toward home.

Nice ride. Bright and sunny, but a bit windy.

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Tonight I finished getting our Tivo integrated with Comcast. We even successfully watched a show off the TiVo. Kimberly is now going to discontinue our Directv service tomorrow, just a week or two after the expiration of our two-year contract.

In the end, Directv didn't offer up a single reliable piece of hardware. The way-too-fragile satellite dishette had gotten flaky again, resulting in the recording quality of our programs getting so bad again that some were unwatchable. The remote control had long ago stopped working well for fast forwarding (and pretty much only for that). The DVR always sucked. And that's pretty much why we'd leave them behind and go back to Comcast despite them being one of the worst companies in the universe.

After Kimberly gets the Directv crap hauled out of our house, we just need to watch our Comcast bills with eagle eyes for the first month or two, to make sure that they don't try and slip in more charges we didn't agree to ('cause, you know, it's happened more than once before). Then our transition will be over.

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Everyone should say comcast comcast comcast comcast in all their posts to give the little Comcast spies on LJ like comcastcares5 hives.

Comcast cares .... ABOUT THEIR PROFITS.

I've been feeling fatigued for at least the last couple of days: just generally worn down all day long.

I'm sure it's largely Cobweb-related stress. The worst part is that we continue to have to torture her three times a day: two pills (which have gotten better with the pill shooter) and one subcutaneous fluiding.

We have to continue to pill her twice a day because our vets office continues to be a COMPLETE fuck-up. It's now been 11 days since we placed our most recent order for Cobweb's chews. When they're not screwing around, it takes 4 days from order to delivery. Now ... well the last we heard was yesterday when they said they'd absolutely be here today. Today: not only are they not there, but the incompetent employee at the vet's office who deals with these medicated chews didn't bother to call us. (Who knows: maybe they're there and their part-time-chew person didn't bother to come in.)

Once upon a time Berkeley Cat & Dog was a good vet. I don't know what's absolutely destroyed them in the last four months, but at least for the ways we interact with them--which has been chews and test results lately--their performance has decreased from great to unacceptable. A to D-, if you prefer.

So, very, very tired and frustrated and sad and annoyed.

Cobweb at least has started eating again. She's increasingly scrawny, and we're still waiting for word on her current tests, so that they can hopefully find the right antibiotic for her, but at least she's not losing weight at a huge rate.

And at least I don't have that book still ongoing. When I need to veg--and I do need to veg--I can veg.

Also on the bright side, my current Skotos project, Modern Art: The Card Game is sufficiently far on that I have very clear goals to meet. So it's been relatively easy to keep going and making progress during my daytime hours, before nighttime collapse.

Agh.

The Turkey Day. After heading over to Andronico's in the morning to get the rest of our Thanksgiving fixings, Kimberly and I decided that it was such a beautiful (if cold) day that we'd bike down to Point Isabel to watch the dogs. So, we did, and there were fewer dogs than usual, but that gave Kimberly and me more time to voice the inner thoughts of the dogs and their owners--cracking up as we did--without anyone being close enough to be offended.

The funniest was a marmalade cocker spaniel who lunged at each of Kimberly and me at different times, growling fiercely, for no reason. Later its owner tried to wash it and she was sorta dumb, 'cause when it kept twisting and turning and retreating whenever it got wet, she didn't grab it by the collar. So by the time she was done, K. and I decided that she'd washed its feet.

Afterward we catsat I's cat Caruso a bit, reading him a chapter of Harry Dresden as we did. He was freaking out a lot, and we finally figured it was because he was locked inside (him usually being an indoor-outdoor feline), but we didn't find out until we got home that I. thought he was OK going out again. So, he had to suffer staying indoor overnight, and apparently he mainly crossed his little kitty legs 'cause he didn't like using the indoor catbox for somereason.

Finally, when we got home we cooked up a ham and then had that and much Andronico's fixing (mashed potato, gravy, green beans, cranberry + crescent rolls which were not Andronico's fixing) before calling it a day.

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Today. Our builders were back out going at the garage this morning. They've been told by our architect about what to do for new foundation work (and will be charging us a ridiculously small amount to do so). During the morning they were going at tree roots. I don't know how much further they got, because K. and I headed out at around 12.30. So, we'll be surprised to see what's happened to our garage in the morning.

Our first stop was more catsitting for Caruso. We chatted with him a bit, then opened his door for him to get out and poof he was gone. We read Dresden in solitude for about twenty minutes more. Then it was into The City.

The main purpose of the trip was to see the Van Gogh, Cezanne, and Gauguin exhibit at the De Young. It's the second of two special exhibits that the De Young is having in from the Museum of Orsay. There were lots of beautiful pieces. The most stunning was Van Gogh's Starry Night Over the Rhone which K. and I gazed at for long moments. I was somewhat disappointed that there was less than a full room of Van Gogh, but I happily devoured everything they had.

The rest of the exhibit was very nice. There were several other artists that I quite liked, but so many names went by that I lost them. What I found very intriguing was how many art styles quickly came out of impressionism in the late 1800s and early 1900s: pointillism, divisionism, cubism, synthetism, symbolism. Whew. It was really cool to see the evolution of these styles. Between the previous "birth of impressionism" exhibit and this "post-impressionism" exhibit, I really feel like we've gotten a wonderful course on the rapidly changing art forms of about a century ago.

Funniest art of the day was this Gauguin, which was labeled "Self Portrait with Yellow Christ". We decided that if they were being so literal, maybe it should be "Self Portrait with Yellow Christ and Red Sheep". Then we went to the next next piece and were amused to read that critics thought the red dog it contained was confusing. So, lots of red. Coloring was actually an important part of Gauguin's synthetism, which simplified color to evoke emotion, but though I liked some Gauguin, the more it got simplified, the less I liked it.

And that was it for the day. Well, you know, we got home after that.

(And I was just very disappointed to learn that ACT is greedily using their upcoming "Tales of the City" musical to drive subscription sales without making it available to the general public. Bad capitalists! No San Francisco cookie! Maybe we'll remember to try and get tickets next year when they choose to make them available to us churls.)

But nonetheless, a good day in San Francisco. And a good two days of holiday. Now back to work! There are adventures to prep and history articles to edit!

Building. There's been a constant drumbeat of hammering, sawing, and powernailing from next door for the last couple of days. Our neighbor, M., is getting the place reshingled and doing some other outside work as well. Fortunately, the workers are either lazy or else M. specifically asked them not to start early, because they never seem to be going until 10am or so, well after I'm awake ... which is a nice change from years past when other neighborly construction led to 8am cement mixing--which I can't fault them for, but was still unpleasant.

I hear an occasional smattering of Russian from next door. That's also a nice change from when our previous neighbor, J., got work done 3 or 4 years ago, and I'd hear an occasional smattering of either Rush Limbaugh or Bill O'Reilly, I forget which now. J. was just mortified when I told her that her workers were blasting hate speech to the whole neighborhood--mortified by the hate speech, not the blasting.

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Caulking. Speaking of working I finished up my caulking of our dining room window earlier in the week, but not in a good way. I was trying to fill a vertical gap between the window and the sill and it turns out that caulk (or at least the caulk we got) just doesn't have the strength to stand up vertically like that. I tried for a while. I decided I might not even be using the correct substance. Even aside that problem, I discovered it was very hard to caulk evenly. I got caulk all over and I finally decided that I didn't know what I was doing. The caulk got mostly cleaned up.

And then I added it to our list of things to get a handyman to do. Fortunately, the next 2 or 3 things I want to repaint won't have this issue.

There is painter's tape back over the gap now, to avoid rainy problems until a handyman happens.

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Cobweb. I haven't written about Cobweb in months. It's still very clear that eating makes her sick sometimes, and as a result she has to be particularly tempted to eat. She stopped eating her wet food ages ago, then she stopped eating her new dry food. So most recently we got some kitten food which is both tastier and more fattening (and fortunately all of our cats are pretty slim, since they're all eating the kitten food).

Given extreme variety, Cobweb is mostly eating most of the time. Whenever she begs for wet food, she gets it, and she usually eats a decent amount. I now have regular food and kitten food sitting in bowls next to each other. Cobweb prefers the regular food, but will often go back and forth between it and the kitten food.

Whatever keeps her eating. But I'm now certain this will be a continuous problem for as long as she's around.

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Traveller. My Traveller campaign ended a week and a half ago. Last night I finally finished my Traveller AP which reported the whole 20-session saga.

I'm still working on reading the Pathfinder rulebook for the next campaign. I hadn't realized quite how hefty it was!

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Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam. These weeks leading up the elections have definitely increased the amount of political spam I've been getting. It appears that the couple of political groups I'd given my name to had passed it on to a couple more and all of them started sending a mail a day or so. So, I've removed my name from all the lists but one. Good going, guys. That ain't the way to retain mailing info.

In other spam, I've started to get "Christian" spam from Christian stores who think that the way to reach believers and get them to purchase crap is by email spam. I took the time to tell the last one (and their IP providers who might actually put a stop to their hypocritical bullshit) that spammers were beholden to Mammon.

Let's face it. Right now, it certainly looks like the corporations are well on their way to takeover of this country. Most politicians are so in their pockets that they put their good above our own, and because they're hanging on the corporate teat, those same corrupted politicians--from both parties, I should note--get elected again and again.

This year, the similarly corrupt Supreme Court (c.f., Bush v. Gore, 2000) made an absolutely horrendous decision that again pushed the dangerous idea that corporations are people, deserving of all inalienable rights, by saying that the law could not restrict their spending in elections. (And I'd complain about the idea that "money = free speech", and it's surely stupid too, but nothing compared to the belief that corporations are deserving of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, so help us god.)

And year by year Congress has been increasing copyrights to keep Mickey Mouse protected, which is simultaneously ensuring that corporations can extend their creative monopolies for many, many decades, giving them the power and clout they need to corrupt the next generation of law makers and Supreme Court justices.

Nowhere is this creation of a corporatocracy as evident as in California, where our severely broken proposition system is this year being turned against the people of the United States of America by the companies. We have not one, but two propositions on the ballot that were created for corporations, paid for by corporations, and are solely intended to benefit those same corporations.

Prop 16 makes it very difficult for communities to create civic power utilities that would compete with PG&E.

Prop 17 is some insurance bullshit funded by an insurance company, which really says it all.

In some ways it's a replay of 2008 when we had the Mormon Corporation, Inc., come into California and flood millions of dollars into passing prop 8. I think other companies saw that terrible precedent and realized that they could have their way with the state too.

Meanwhile, we have the flipside in California. Little prop 15 is intended to start pushing our elections back to public funding. It's probably too little, too late, given the $41+M that PG&E has spent on prop 16 (99% of the total funding) and the $15+M that Mercury Insurance has spent on prop 17 (98% of the total funding). But it's still worth voting for.

Are Californians really stupid enough to fall for this type of crap? The final polls before the election say yes: props 16 + 17 were up by a hair while prop 15 was barely failing.

Unless we're very lucky today, from 20 years in the future SkyNet may mark today as the day that the Rise of the Coporations truly took hold.

So, y'know, if you're in California, get out and vote. We really need to send a big "FUCK YOU" to PG&E and MERCURY INSURANCE, else next time there will be four corporate propositions, the year after that eight, and a bit after that we'll just give up and let them do the governing ... officially.