Discovered Money, that’s a bad thing

Yesterday I discovered money in paypay from a few months ago I had forgotten to transfer to my bank. It was a time of rejoicing. But it foreshadowed an impending Murphy’s law.

That afternoon, I started my car (a manual Mitsu Lancer 2002), and tried putting it in reverse. The stick wouldn’t go. Tried first, still wouldn’t shift into gear. I gave it a minute and tried again, and shoved it into gear.
That night, it would go into gear, but just not as smoothly. And the clutch felt different.

This morning, it was fine. This afternoon, it stuck. And then finally, after work, it just was a pain. It would refuse to go into each gear. But I didn’t have a choice, a bit of nudging (not too much, just enough as it did get easier after a while), and I brought it to a mechanic. Explained the problem, pleaded they test it an hour prior to their closing.

And of course, everything they could test was okay. The brake and clutch fluids were fine. Transmission fluid was fine, etc., etc. Except, that means they only had two more places two check for this kind of problem. A bearing inside the clutch. Or the clutch plates. It’s likely the latter. As much as I wished the mechanic was wrong, I had always figured this car (at 100k miles, exactly, probably on the original clutch) would need clutch work done first.

This is after spending the last month moving houses, starting a new life, paying new deposits, figuring out that after a month of roughing it, I’d actually be able to survive with cash to spare after all was said and done.

This doesn’t change that much. But it puts a serious dent in it. And really, really ruins a day. A week. A month.

I never intended to have so many personal posts on this blog, as I wanted it to be more writing based. But this is one of those things that affects it all. The past month has all been the rigors of life, the stresses of life, the changes and all else.

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A new lease

On life, that is.

Today is moving day. Been spending the last week getting everything packed and ready to move. Rather insane around here.

But it’s great. The place me and my sister are moving into is smaller, sure, but it was smaller in our memories than in actuality. We checked it out yesterday, and were surprised at what we saw. The carpets were brand new. The property management company went above and beyond to make sure everything was as close to perfect as possible. The lease terms were… well, they are lease terms after all, but there was nothing we really had to worry about stepping over. No pets, water beds, or cooking meth in the bathroom. Check, check, and check.

In a few minutes we’ll have some help getting the big stuff that we don’t need sent to the dump, and afterwards there are just a few large items to move over, as most of our stuff fit in boxes and has already been moved.

Won’t have internet on our computers for a few days, but it’s fine since my phone is a pretty good replacement for the short while we won’t have it.

With all the things going on, it makes you appreciate the times we have that are calm and settled. And independence.

I’m looking forward to it. I wonder how it’ll help my writing.

236 words I could have used in a novel.

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Wild moving stuff

Been completely encompassed by the developments at home lately. My parent’s are living the dream and going to go nomadic, check them out at the site.

So I’ve been thrust into a whirlwind of new phone services to get off their plan (and went with Verizon and the Droid X, best early termination fee cost I’ve ever spent, the difference is night and day compared to AT&T’s spotty coverage), moving plans, deposits, new job duties, a move at the workplace as well, and a million more things.

I’ve pretty much put my writing on hold for the last 6 weeks due to a complete lack of inspiration and creativity, though I have no doubt it’ll eventually pick up. This book is taking longer than expected, and now that I think about it I started writing it around 13 or 14 months ago, writing 1/3 of it 2 months at a time and then taking a few off while doing other stuff. That’s how it goes in life.

Nevertheless, got to keep going, get settled, and finally, for the first time, live without parents in the house. Another step on the road.

193 words I could have used in a novel.

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Don’t blame shipping times on the guy in China

Words to live by: Haters are gonna hate.

I’ve only seen a few hateful reviews in my life that were deserved. The ones that were deserved ended with a statement saying the book/movie/etc. was so bad, you have to see it for entertainment value. But otherwise, the vast majority of bad reviews are worse dribble than whatever they are reviewing. They aren’t worth listening to or reading.

For example, I bought something on ebay that was to be shipped from China, with only $4 in shipping costs. That means it would take 2-3 weeks to get here. The seller sent an email asking to not give him 1 star for shipping times, as it’s being transported halfway across the world. Obviously, he’s had a problem with people doing that to him, and for obvious reasons, he was already shipping as fast as possible.

On my shiny phone, there are some fun and useful applications. There are a ton with 4.5 star overall averages in their reviews. All the people who use them give it 5 stars. And the only people who give it 1 star say one of two things: didn’t work on my phone, or, doesn’t do what I wanted it to do. They say this even knowing that their version isn’t supported, and details in the description for exactly what the app does. They ignore it, find out they don’t need it, and give a bad review since they didn’t really use it.

And I used to think they were rare… but enough perusing of Goodreads and Amazon has proven that idea false: people who review books they didn’t finish. Especially when they think they have the ending figured out based on the title and first chapter alone. And of course, there are the people who hate the book from the very first line, but read it all the way through to say they did, and then give a scathing review complaining about how much time they wasted, when they were under no obligation to finish the book.

To end, bad reviews that are worth the lines they take up are rare. Of course, many people’s first reaction is to read the worst review of an item to see what exactly could be wrong or end up disappointing a possible user/reader. When well-written, they provide a valuable resource to make an objective judgement. And it seems like the well-written bad review has been overwhelmed by the sludge pile of uneducated comments. So just don’t care about them.

420 words I could have used in a novel.

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Punches and the strength of tank shells

I don’t often ask for realism in stuff I watch, because usually the anime or TV show just tries explaining it away with nonsensical sci-fi or magic. Which is okay, because then we have an explanation that isn’t real, but acceptable. But then there is crazy stuff like: an alien has armor that’s immune to bullets. Okay. It’s also not penetrated by tank shells or damaged by them. Also okay. I don’t need any explanation for why the armor is so strong. But then a robot a bit larger than a human is able to punch through their armor in a single blow. That’s where I call foul!

When mixing realism with fantasy, remember that there still has to be some laws in place, or specific items that break those laws. Saying a robot’s punch is stronger than a tank blast from a robot that isn’t large enough to produce that kind of force without any explanation is a hard swallow. Get the difference?

171 words I could have used in a novel.

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