Teanah's Xanga

Tuesday, January 20, 2004

Tue, 20 Jan 2004 18:09:10 GMT

You are a black cat, stubborn yet friendly, you
stick to your values and preferences, and no
one can convince you otherwise! You are the
legendary cat of mystery.

What color of cat are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

'Fudged in the Head'

What Type of Lunatic are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Tuesday, June 03, 2003

Tue, 03 Jun 2003 18:14:05 GMT

Heya.. just to let anyone who cares at all know that I have not died and passed beyond the need for keyboards to get my point across. I'm actually working on an update of my own personal website that will include front page area for this type of blogging. And then I will move my daily/weekly blogging to there so that I'm updating my own domain/webpage and not someone elses. :)

Wednesday, April 30, 2003

Wed, 30 Apr 2003 21:46:40 GMT

There was an article in the paper about a satellite that fell to earth...

Satellite crashes back to Earth,
after seven years

Debris falls near
Galapagos Islands

LOS ANGELES, April 30 — Everything that goes up must come down, including a 3,086-pound Dutch-Italian satellite that splashed into the Pacific Ocean seven years after being sent into space. (more...)

Point is, did anyone notice? In the late 70's the infamous Skylab fell to earth. The world watched it for days as it made it's way to it's final end on our small blue planet. My friends and I all went out and bought toy yellow hard hats and put labels on them that read, "I'm Ready for Skylab." We wore them to school and work for the week before it hit the ground. It finally landed in the outback of Australia, or at least what was left of it after the burn off. Although with as much as it says is falling to earth all the time it's probably good that we don't know every time something is coming our way. But it's amazing how desensitized we become about such things.

Monday, April 21, 2003

Mon, 21 Apr 2003 00:21:31 GMT

Happy Easter!

My son insists there's an Easter Monkey at work here. However, our survailence cameras caught this dogbunny red handed, or is that pawed?

For those who are unfamiliar with the holiday, my Wiccan friend explained it beautifully. It's the day when Jesus comes out of the ground and sees his shadow and theres another 3 weeks till Spring. LOL

Hope everyone has a wonderful Easter.

Thursday, April 17, 2003

Thu, 17 Apr 2003 21:34:20 GMT

This week my big fight has been with my car. Monday I went to my Fencing class and on the way home the car tried to stall out. Tuesday I got up and got in it to go to work and it stalled dead three times just trying to turn around in the culdesac where I live. I called AAA and had them come tow it to the shop. I called the shop and told them that there was a vacum issue with the car and could they fix it.

At 6PM Tuesday I called the shop to see what was up since I had not heard from them. They said, they hadn't looked at it yet that they just pulled it into the bay. Sheesh!

At 10AM the next morning I called them to see what was up. They did not know and would get back to me.

At 3PM I called again. They said it was a vacum issue and that they would replace two hoses and fix the idle timing.

At 5PM they called me to tell my my car was done and ready.

At 6PM I picked up the car. I live three blocks away from the shop and the stupid car stalled dead three times (every stop sign and the curb). I went in the house and called them to complain that they had not fixed my problem. They said to bring it back in and they'd fix it and it wouldn't cost me anything. So far it was $80 diagnostic labor and $115 parts and labor. Over $200 with tax.

I dropped it off this morning at 9:30AM. I called them at 5:30PM to see what was going on. Oh it's something wrong with the Throttle valve and they're trying to find the part. Probably won't be till tomorrow (which is now Friday) that they can find out where to get the part.

Oh and two other things with this issue... Their customer service SUCKS! Whatever happened to customer service?

When I got home last night the right wiper blade looked weird. On inspection I found that they had shut a pair of heavy duty plyers in the engine hood at the top near the wiper blades. If it had been a new car they would have damaged the hood hinge in that area. Also I noticed that I had a ton of light inside the engine but none outside of the car. Some how when replacing the hoses they managed to get the bulb socket out of the headlight and didn't put it back so the bulb was happlily illuminating the inside of my engine but not the road ahead of me. What was the response when I handed them back their tool and mentioned it? "Oh that must be a consulation prize." Oh if I had a newer car I'd have given them a throttle right up their consulation prize.

We'll see if they can fix it tomorrow and how much they're going to try to sock me for this time. What a bunch of crap!

Don't ever take your car to Merchant's Auto in Alexandria. I already stopped getting gas there because the gas guys are lewd and crude about trying to get me to go in the back room with them! I've got to find a different place to take my car. Either that or go find some Automechanics classes so I can do it myself. Just makes my nails break and get so dirty though.

Saturday, April 12, 2003

Sat, 12 Apr 2003 01:47:43 GMT

So I've been fighting with Verizon lately. Seems they've decided to institute a new policy in their billing. Which is causing me to try to find alternatives to the home phone. I have a cell phone but the kids would do nothing with something like that except lose it.

Verizon has decided that for those people who do not pay their full bill every time they will charge an extra $62. That is payable within 30 days and if not paid in 30 days they will send it to Collections exactly the morning of the 31st day. How I found out about this is that I got a bill for $62. Before I paid it, I got another bill for -$62. So I figured they'd either made a mistake or it was some kind of adjustment. I ignored it. Then I got another bill for $62 and the next day I got a letter from a collection agency for $62. When I called Verizon to ask them what was going on they said they listed it in the regular bill on the back of the statement. That every time you don't pay the whole bill in full they will charge an extra $62. Now I have to pay the gas bill $50 a month for the $400 I owe over the last couple winter months and $250 to Verizon instead of the $150 I paid to each. I was only like $30 behind in my Verizon bills to begin with. Now after a month of trying to figure out what's going on I'm now over $100 in to them and half of that is already in collections screwing up my credit rating.

Can I hate them now? Not only do they charge outrageous prices for the garbage the provide but now they're penalizing people who pay as much as they can even though it's not all of it all the time. Sheesh. That usual financier mentality of if they can't pay the bill then charge them more so they really sink quickly. Dorks.

I hate Verizon.

Friday, April 04, 2003

Fri, 04 Apr 2003 02:18:32 GMT

Tonight we went to see my daughter in her supporting role as a servant in the Junior High production of Annie. It was fantastic. Hard to imagine that when sitting there waiting to pick her up from practices and watching the teacher have a near nuclear meltdown trying to get 50 kids all moving in the same direction but the play was fantastic!

You can see pictures of it and one from the CPR class at http://www.teasdream.com/temp/Annie/

Thursday, April 03, 2003

Thu, 03 Apr 2003 01:48:39 GMT

I was reminded to blog today. LOL I haven't because I've been busy with being sick and hanging with my friend Ed and his roommate. The party we had on Sunday was fun even with snow and rain. They still did some rat pucking outside. We sang some songs, enjoyed each other's company and had some good food. Also the band that I was in before decided to get back together. We're going to try to meet in a more central location since we live in a two hour radius of one another. I can't wait it was so much fun when we were singing before. I'll let you all know what is going on when we get further along. Landlock'd is back, a humorous pirate band.

I took a state of the nation survey tonight on MSN and just as always it looks like I'm strange and don't think like the rest of America. I wonder sometimes what the rest of America is thinking and when I find out that it's not what I'm thinking I wonder if I'm supposed to be here. Seems the majority of the population thinks that Busch is doing a wonderful job as president. And that this war is a good thing. They were evenly split on their opinion about if War protests in the U.S. are anti-American. Whether someone agrees or not they are American since we supposedly have freedom of speech and the opportunity to disagree with our government. Although you might want to ask some of those news reporters in Iraq about that. At least we all agree that life in America has changed and never again will be as safe as we had considered it as being. Do you all have your emergency kits ready? We do. I keep one in the car, one in the hall closet where we have decided to 'shelter in place' in case it is called for, and one at work. We also completed a Red Cross CPR course last Saturday. I'm so proud of my 10 year old for doing it and successfully learning the material.

Now if I can just breathe! I've had a low grade cold or something like that since last Wednesday. I'm off to play on Dark Age of Camelot, which has been seeing a lot of my attention lately. Just got my Warden up to level 12, woooowhooo!!!

Wednesday, March 26, 2003

Wed, 26 Mar 2003 16:26:58 GMT

Besides the war abroad I have several friends who have been having a rough time of things lately, so I've been working on a party I'm hosting this weekend (of course you're all invited - just email me for directions) that will help everyone forget about life for a couple hours. Every year I hold my re-enactment group's Feast of Fools. It's sort of like our version of Mardi Gras. We play games and share food and companionship. Or favorite game is Rat Pucking. It's an actual game, you can find the rules and history on the Internet. You have to take your pucking stick and hit a pucking rat around the pucking course to win the game essentially. As you can tell it's a bit more fun to brag about than it is to play some times. LOL Also this year I'm going to have them play the baby shower clothes pin game. Everyone will be issued clothes pins and anyone caught talking about the war or their lack of a job will have to take a pin. That way by the end of the day the people who look more like porcupines will be the loosers. It's usually played the opposite way at baby showers but in this case we want to notice those who can't leave their mundane life at the door for just a few hours of fun and merriment.

On another note I was reading an article about music and the kind of songs that are popular now as opposed to when us ancient folks were young and keeping in mind the kind of garbage my teenager listens to and here's a perfect example:

"The Fifth Dimension sang about love, there was a great story to go with it. Take "Wedding Bell Blues," written by Laura Nyro. Marilyn McCoo was dating Billy Davis Jr. and wanted to marry him, but he wasn't in a hurry. (Some things never change.)

Bones Howe, the group's producer, told McCoo about the song and she recorded it as a semi-joke. The lyrics say: "I was the one who came runnin' when you were lonely. I haven't lived one day not lovin' you only. But kisses and love won't carry me til you marry me Bill."

It was an understandable plea from a woman who loved a man and wanted him to come to his senses. The 2003 plea goes something like:

I'd like to get to know ya, so I can show ya
Put the (BLANK) on ya, like I told ya
Gimme all your numbers so I can phone ya
Your girl acting stank than call me ov-ah
Not on the bed, lay me on your sofa
Call before you come, I need to shave my (BLANK)
You do or you don't or you will or you won't cha.

This poetry in motion comes courtesy of the slimmed-down Missy Elliott, from her obviously titled single, "Work It." Sure, it rhymes, but 'ov-ah' is not a word."

I think that if someone came up and rapped me a love poem like that I'd never talk to them again. What kind of garbage is that? That's no profession of love but an ordering of take out! I am begining to believe that today's lyrics are working to make our kids stupid and willing to settle for less than human.

Then again that is probably what our parents thought about the Fifth Dimension too.

Friday, March 21, 2003

Fri, 21 Mar 2003 17:58:09 GMT

I had this huge rant going about the superior attude of America and how truly spoiled we are etc. It was going along really well and didn't sound all uppity and venomous. Actually sounded quite intelligent. Then my IE crashed and I lost it. You'd think by now I'd remember it does that at the most inopportune times and worked in notepad first. But since only like four people ever read this blog anyway I figured I'd just put the link here for the article that set me off and leave it at that.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/885222.asp?0cb=-b1b133692

I did not vote for Bush. The majority of America did not vote for Bush. He is ruining all the work that has gone on in the past by many dedicated and more globally aware presidents. I still question his motivations for this war and I can honestly say that in my opinion it is not for the welfare of the American people or the global security. It is for very selfish reasons and that is not a good quality in a president.

As Americans we are spoiled. We might think the grass is always greener on the other side but it's not. Until 9-11 we didn't even really like ourselves much, patriotism was a bad word prior to that. This is definately a turning point in the world an how it has functioned in the past. The global politics will now be keeping a closer eye on the US. What if our government decides someone else is not behaving in a way or fast enough to make the US happy? Will we target them too? Is the anti-christ phenomenon really only a person and not a nation? Have we stepped out of bounds and colored out of the lines of global cooperation?

This is not a civil, independence, or revolution war that the people are behind 100%. This is a war between governments. Too many people do not realize that. I'm glad that my global friends do. My friend in Serbia understood that even while our American forces were bombing out the bridges along the Rhine next to his home. But there are too many who do not think that way. My daughter got it hard last night in a chat room she frequents. She could not understand why the kids were condeming Americans overall when as far as she understood it from the consensus at school and online was that none of them were for the war either but could do nothing to stop our government from moving on their own path.

Government... moving on it's own path... hmmmmm. I think that maybe the US needs to take a look at it's own "democratic" illusion. Somehow we are not doing it effectively since presidents are elected that no one seemed to vote for (I know, overgeneralization) and our government does things in our name without even considering how we might be behind it or not. The given is; the gov does and the people support. Period, whether you are appoving of it or not. I don't remember that being the definition of a democracy. But that is another rant for another time.

Okay Dread... you can tear me apart now. :P