Pips

Quote!

2006-11-16T06:26:41Z

[20:06] Pips Fetid: (And what does she do that she claims to be 'talented' - suck [him] off, make his dinner, and comb her hair all while teaching an elephant how to polka?)

(We now return you to your regularly scheduled silence...)

Ugh...

2006-10-11T14:12:34Z

I think I'm going to be rebuilding my computer. Or at least getting a new motherboard. Or something. Not sure what I'm going to do yet, but I sure as hell am not going to just let this sit.
There was a power outage last night. Went out for less than 30 seconds. No big deal, right?
Woke up this morning, went to turn on my computer... CMOS error. Ok, I know the battery on this motherboard is dead/dying. No big deal, right?
Well, I did what I thought would fix it, went to boot into windows... Nope.
Messed with a few things, tried again. Nope.
So, after 2 hours of fiddling with things and doing web searches on my parents' computer and trying to deal with SL so I could contact people somehow (Yahoo wasn't working on that computer for some reason) I finally figured out the problem - it was trying to boot from my old hard drive instead of the SATA setup that Ben has going. So, I disconnected that for now - nothing there that I REALLY need - and it's working ok now. Having problems with my computer freezing up now, though, but that could have been because I was in a really laggy and crowded sim on SL, or that I was ignoring the add/remove hardware things that kept popping up (no new hardware, either.)
So... At least need a new battery for the motherboard, going to look into that, probably the cheapest way to go right now. And I need to hunt Ben down and find out what I need to do next time this happens - though I think I have a pretty good idea now.
And I didn't even have someone helping me - I did have people trying to help, but the solution was something that I found out by myself. I'm proud of that. :)

Edit: Duh, I was supposed to disable those devices that popped up in the BIOS before I booted the computer. That's what was causing the crashes.
All better. :)

Edit II: Ok, not fixed. Still crashing, don't know what's wrong now. Grr.

More drama

2006-09-21T19:30:39Z

In case anyone's interested, my SL accounts are currently 'on hold'. I found out the other night, when I tried to log in after Cheyenne went to bed to help me unwind for a bit. I never did manage to unwind...

Basically, Ben had some charge backs to his account from some L$ he tried buying back in August. Because his account is linked to mine (was signed up as an alt account because I thought that was what we had to do at the time), my accounts were put on hold right along with his. Then I find out that they think that the charges came from MY paypal account, which they didn't - my account is in perfect standing with PayPal, and has been for the 6+ years I have had it. So I have to get that taken care of before I can even think of paying the charges.

I've been on the phone for the past two days trying to get this taken care of. I'm stressed, I'm tired, and all I want to do is get my accounts back, and get them separated from Ben's. That way, if this happens again, it's either his fault and on his shoulders, and it won't affect me, or it's my fault and I need to deal with it.

And if you know me RL, you know that I hate calling people like this. I've never been good at calling companies for any reason. Yet I've spent probably about 4-5 hours on the phone between Linden Labs and PayPal in the past 2 days trying to get this straightened out. That's a big step for me.

But, yeah. I just sent an email off to the billing manager to see if she can help me figure out what to do. And if I don't hear back by tomorrow, I'm calling her direct line. Again. And I was told she's always in the office on Fridays, so... *crosses fingers*

And now I'm going to go lie down for the 1/2 hour I have left before Cheyenne gets up from her nap. Whee.

Life

2006-09-21T04:39:19Z

It's been a while since I've made a public entry. Close to a month, in fact. So much has been going on, I haven't really bothered to say much here, but I figured anyone who still cares deserves an update, so here goes.

For those of you who haven't heard, Ben and I are getting a divorce. The relationship has been going downhill for months. Well, ok, I think it's been going downhill since we started, but it finally go to the point where it just wasn't working. It's not his fault, it's not my fault, it just happened. Between his problems finding and keeping a job, and my just not wanting to be around him anymore, it just isn't working. So, it's over.

He's down in Indiana, finally getting the training for his CDL so he can start driving trucks. He'll have a one-year contract with PAM, then be free to do whatever he wants to do - and it looks like he'll be paid pretty well, too - $400/week once he starts driving on his own (after about 1 1/2 months of driving with someone.) I've moved in with my mom, and am working on getting the apartment finished while he's out of state - packing, storing, and cleaning up the mess.

I've been cleaning up a lot of messes since he's left, it seems. Bills to figure out, apartment to take care of (which could easily have been taken care of a month ago if we had gotten off of our asses), and all sorts of fun stuff. Oh, and a huge mess on SL that's left my accounts disabled, but I'll write about that once it's all sorted out. Which will hopefully be tomorrow, but I'm not crossing my fingers. :\

Once I get the messes cleaned up, I'm going to work on moving on with my life. I'm going back to school. I'm going to get a degree, and try to get a good job so I can take care of myself and Cheyenne. I want to do this right this time, and that means pushing past my fears and just doing things. It's going to be tough - I have a lot of big fears to deal with. But I'm going to do this, and it's going to work out. And I'm not going to be alone - I have family and friends who care about me and who want to help me through this. And I can do it.

No more running. :)

Ooh, yay.

2006-08-22T17:02:52Z

We're moving.
More later, once I've eaten something and gotten some work done.

Helpless

2006-08-08T03:03:47Z

Three of my best friends are really hurting right now, and there's nothing I can do to fix it.
Sometimes I just feel so helpless.

Braaaaaaaaaaains!!

2006-07-26T19:38:03Z

2 1/2 hours of sleep is not enough.
Though it does make for some interesting thought... line... things.

Cryptic message of the day...

2006-07-10T08:41:39Z

Tonight, I played with fire.
I like fire.

Can't forget this one...

2006-06-27T00:33:43Z

Happy birthday, cobryn!
Call me if you get a few minutes, k?

thesqueak @ 2006-06-16T00:00:00

2006-06-16T04:00:33Z

Happy birthday, elissafox!

Mini-Update

2006-06-06T22:57:27Z

Got a call from my mom just now. They've pinpointed the area of my dad's brain that's causing the seizures. Unfortunately, it's also the part that manages his short-term memory. They're going to do one more test to see if the other half of his brain will be able to compensate, but if it can't, they won't be doing anything but removing the probes - with no short-term memory, we wouldn't be able to leave my dad alone at all, and that'd be worse than his having epilepsy.
We'll know tomorrow whether or not they're going to remove that part of his brain, or just take out the probes. Either way, he probably won't be home until next week.

Mini-Update

2006-05-31T16:56:04Z

Since SL is down, I can actually sit down and write about stuff.

Been spending a lot of time on SL lately at a new place (well, it's new for me at least). Got talked into going to a goth club a few weeks ago, dragged Dai along, and he fell in love. He went back the next day talking about moving there, so I went to talk him out of it, and winded up getting sucked in myself. Now I find myself there more than he is, and I'm making fast friends with the people there. They're the types that I like to hang out with anyways, and the fact that they're all in one really awesome-looking place doesn't hurt, either.
Getting to know a few of them really well - Fangs (the owner), Nigel (who came in a week after me), My (a builder & artist), Rhal (general shy-guy, but really cool once he starts to feel comfortable around you)... Bunch more, too. It's a lot like O&E was before we started getting huge crowds, except with vampires. (No, not all vampires, but I'd say about 40-50%)
Finished a big project last night. Didn't get nearly as much for it as I wanted, but it's going to be nice to have my name on a few main parts of a big sim. The grand opening is tomorrow night, and I can't wait to see how it turns out.

My parents are in Cleveland right now. My dad's having brain surgery today to see if they can't find the source of his seizures. He's had epilepsy for most of his life, and nothing they've tried has helped, so they're finally going in and trying to find what's causing it, and if they can, they're likely going to remove it. I probably should be a lot more concerned than I am, really. I mean, this is brain surgery we're talking about, but I don't know.
Ben still doesn't have a job, and I"m not sure what we're going to do about rent next week, but I'm trying not to worry about it. We've survived so far, I'm sure we'll figure out a way to make it work. If nothing else, I guess we can beg his dad again.
Had the past weekend to myself, and I loved it. Didn't get much done, but being able to relax was nice.

And SL is still down. Hurry up, damnit! :(
At least I've had time to catch up on some surveys... Should have about $40 coming to me to cover my SL fees. :)

thesqueak @ 2006-05-28T00:00:00

2006-05-28T04:00:54Z

Happy birthday, kat_merle!

Woohoo! (SL Stuff)

2006-05-20T07:15:19Z

Staff Auction at O&E was tonight. Went really well. We averaged about 60 people on the sim, the raffle pot got over L$17,000 ($52 US), and our highest bid was L$20,000 (Which comes out to over $60 USD! For one hour with a person!)
From what I heard, everyone had a great time, even if they didn't have money to bid. My only regret is that I didn't have more money to spend - I really wouldn't have minded an hour with Tashie or Wags (though all I have to do for an hour with Tashie is stay up real late.) ;)
So, it was a huge success, and we'll definitely be having one again. :)

thesqueak @ 2006-05-18T10:11:00

2006-05-18T14:11:43Z

Happy birthday, Vix! :)

Just had to...

2006-05-08T04:52:41Z

I wasn't going to post my score, but...

Maybe my mind isn't totally dead after all.

Whee!

2006-05-06T04:00:48Z

Happy birthday, gryphe! Miss ya! :P

Bah

2006-05-04T04:05:32Z

Ben beat me to it.... But happy birthday, silverdark.

Argh...

2006-04-29T20:29:16Z

The piece of land I own on SL is probably the single worst decision I've made. It looked great before I bought it - nice and quiet, along a little stream, with a neighborthat I knew.
Well, then I found out that there was only water on the property because the ground was lowered all the way. And then my neighbor sold his land, and the new owner raised it up all the way so there was a huge ledge at the side of my land. And now, someone bought the land on the other side of my property, got rid of the water, and then put up a huge rock wall around the edge of it. So, I'm surrounded by ledges on two sides, and a club on the other (complete with slingo board right next to my property.) I'd sell, but I doubt I'd get nearly as much for it as I paid.
Between that, and a problem I had with a friend last night, this is not a good day. x.x

I give up

2006-04-25T00:10:28Z

For the longest time, I've been holding onto the possibility of a semi-normal relationship.
At first, I just wanted to date someone. Never happened.
Then, when Ben and I found out I was pregnant, I was looking forward to him proposing. We had already decided to get married, but he hadn't proposed yet... I won't go into what happened, but that didn't work out very well.
Then, I was looking forward to the wedding ceremony, even after we were legally married. And we all know what happened to that.
Then, the reception... Nope.

So, I'm giving up. I'm never going to go on a real date, I'm never going to have a real proposal, I'm never going to have a real wedding or reception. It's not going to happen, and it sucks, but I need to get over it.

That being said, Justin sent me his copy of Black & White 2, and it's calling my name, so I think I'm going to log off of SL and go try it out. I'll probably be back in a couple of days...

Grr...

2006-04-22T19:52:35Z

I requested a book on paperbackswap.com yesterday. Within an hour it was marked as mailed, which was a little fishy considering it was late at night, but I figured they had just put some stamps on it and dropped it in the mail.
Well, today I get a message from the person. It seems they don't actually have the book - they sent it to someone else. And, of course, since they marked it as sent, I can't just cancel the request and get my credit back. And they don't want me to mark it as recieved so they can refund my credit, so I'm stuck waiting a month for the system to declare the book "missing" and refund my credit.
I'm sorry, but you mark books as sent once you've mailed them out, not as soon as you get the request. That way, if there are any problems (like this one), you can contact the member and say "Hey, I can't send it" and then cancel the transaction.
Though, honestly, this is the first problem I've had with this website since August, so it's not really a bad track record.

And I think I might have sunburn on my nose - or else I'm close to getting it.

Edit: Ok, the PBS staff is great. They cancelled the transaction and gave me my credit back, then told me that the person who was supposed to send the book should have contacted them instead of leaving it for me to do.

Badgers!

2006-04-18T02:16:19Z

I made the mistake of showing Cheyenne the 'Badgers' cartoon.
Now she keeps coming up to my computer and saying "Badger, badger?" Then proceeds to sit on my lap for 15 minutes just watchint the badgers, and telling me how they're friends, and they're dancing, and there's 5 of them! (She can count, but she doesn't understand that each one gets its own number, and only one number... Oh well.)
Silly baby.

Slightly Better...

2006-04-13T23:10:20Z

Well, we're calling the reception off - for now. There's talk of doing something in my mom's backyard eventually, but for now I'm not worrying about it. Who knows, maybe I can have my moonlit thing after all - we'll see.
The good news is, Ben's dad is giving us $1000 for our honeymoon, and Ben's mom has promised us some money towards it, too. So, at least we'll be able to go to New Orleans - and maybe we'll even be able to fly down and stay a whole week. That'd be really nice. It may be a couple of months later than we had planned, but we'll see how it turns out.
I'm not upset anymore. I was really angry last night, and I think I needed to be angry. I got a lot of my frustrations from the past week out, and I'm feeling a lot better. Not nearly as depressed as I was, even before last night - and that's definitely a good thing.

Though I am a little disappointed that I haven't gotten any new books so far this week. I had to go and buy one last night - $2 for "Fat White Vampire Blues." Not the greatest book I've ever read, but it had its moments.
The good news is, there's a waiting list for it on paperbackswap.com, so for a couple more bucks I can get a better book. Not a bad deal, considering it's a $14 book that I was ready to pay $6 for. (The guy marked it down to $2 because the title page is wrinkled. Thank goodness for Bargain Books!)

Oh, and I got my 'inheiritance' from my grandfather last night. Twenty bucks. And, honestly, I'm not complaining - it's $20 more than I expected. He wasn't rich, at least not financially. But judging by the 30+ car procession to the cemetary, he was rich where it counted. I've decided not to say much more about the funeral. At least, not right now.
And the $20 covered the (blank) address labels I bought last night that I'm probably going to end up returning (they were for the invitations), and the books I got for Cheyenne and I. At least the latter was worth it.

I knew it...

2006-04-13T01:36:45Z

Well, we may be cancelling the reception, too, now. Ben's insisting that we aren't going to, but he's not very realistic...
His sister, Dawn, had her baby today - over a month early. They had to do an emergency c-section due to preeclampsyia. Dianne's heading down there on Monday, and wont' be back until the 15th of May - 2 days after the reception. And she's not going to be able to pay for the reception like she promised she would.

So... Bad thing #3. Hopefully this means this is the end of this particular streak... Hopefully. I kinda knew something was going to happen. Not to mention I had a feeling that somehow we'd end up having to foot the bill ourselves - and we just can't afford to do that, especially since Ben lost his job.

I'd feel bad about not feeling bad about Dawn, but she's fine and the baby is fine - what's there to feel bad about?

I need a good movie, and someone to cuddle up with that isn't Ben. Somehow cuddling with him just isn't as comforting as it should be. :\

Yay, Walmart!

2006-04-12T22:43:05Z

Ok, I'm not a big Walmart fan except for one thing - their portrait studio. Particularly the one down by the Rivertown Crossings mall. There's a guy that's worked there since before Cheyenne was born, and he's just awesome.
I didn't like what my mom got at Olan Mills (way too expensive for the quantity, the lady taking the pictures wasn't all that great, and the quality sucked from what I saw). So, we decided to take Cheyenne to Walmart like we had planned to originally.
And I'm glad we did. We got in within 10 minutes of when our appointment was supposed to start, and breezed right through. The photographer got Cheyenne to grin really big 7 times, took 7 pictures, and we kept every one. Didn't have to redo a single shot.
And Cheyenne had fun, too! At Olan Mills, she was getting fussy, and didn't want to sit how the lady positioned her (mostly because it was a long walk between Cheyenne and the camera, and she didn't have one of those handy-dandy 'remote' things. At Walmart she liked having her pictures taken, and was very good at staying still - except for when he wanted her arms & legs crossed at the same time. He'd cross one, and she'd uncross the other. But even that was fun.
So, next time we're going back to WalMart.

(Didn't we say that last year?)

Edit: Yes, we did. But it wasn't my idea this time!!!