Long Week

For some reason it seems as though this week has been incredibly long. I'm not sure if it's the fact that the cats are keeping me from sleeping very well, the fact that I'm without Internet, or just one of those random things, but whatever it is I feel like I've been stuck in this week forever and it's only Thursday!

I don't really have anything to rant/post about today. Nothing interesting happening in the news. E Coli is still popping up all over the place from this tainted spinach, the Atlantis shuttle touched down, but other than that there's just nothing, and I don't usually feel the need to blog on the same old crap everyone else is talking about.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a more thought provoking day.

So Anyway...

As I was going to post on Monday, my mom got married this weekend. I believe it's her 6th official, legal, marriage, but this would be her first one straight and sober. The guy she married is a good guy, and they seem really happy. I'd say this one has the most potential to last.

Her wedding was an outside affair, attended by most of our family, some of his family, and a handful of friends. It was a gorgeous day, sunny and warm, and I think everyone had a good time. It was nice to see some members of my family I haven't seen in a while. There's always lots of laughs when we get together.

Since they're out of town this week, I'm babysitting their cat, Wingnut. I have three cats of my own, so the original plan was to keep Wing in my kid's bedroom so that there wouldn't be a conflict between him and my cats. You can assume if I'm referring to that as "the original plan" that things did not go as I had anticipated. Our first problem was that our cats were just fascinated with the idea of another cat living in the bedroom. They laid in front of the door, stuck their paws underneath, and tugged on the door. The result is a rather annoying banging of the door in it's frame. This went on all night Sunday & Monday night, leaving two very groggy and tired people.

It became apparent that our youngest cat, Rocket aka Rocky, really wanted to check this new fellow out. So we took Rocky into the bedroom with Wing and let him hang out for a while on Monday evening. They played, goofed off, and seemed to enjoy each other. We repeated it yesterday evening with similar results. Finally, around 8 last night, we opened the bedroom door and let the four cats greet each other to see how it would go. When there wasn't a grand display of poofy tails and hissing, I decided to let Wing wander around for a bit. Come bedtime, the four of them seemed to be getting along ok, mostly chasing each other around and playing. I figured they'd get tired of running and settle down within a couple hours.

But no......

They chased each other all...damn...night, round and round and round and round. It was better than hearing the constant door banging of the night before, but still not exactly peaceful. See, our three have come to understand that we sleep at night and they generally settle down around 11 or 12 at the latest. Wing, apparently, has never learned that nighttime is for sleeping and he wasn't about to let any of our three rest. I put him back in the bedroom while we're at work today and I'll let him out again this evening. Hopefully there will be more peace tonight, but I'm not counting on it. Four more nights until he goes home!

The danger in drug testing.

Imagine for a moment that you were given a drug test as a condition for employment at a company. You knew there was no reason to worry about it, as the last time you'd done any drugs at all was a joint you smoked 15 years prior. Imagine that drug test came back positive for cocaine and you were fired on the spot, with no option to challenge the test. What would you do? Would it change your views about the policies regarding drug testing?

My boyfriend, I'll call him D, encountered the above situation. Now, before you even think it...I am 100% sure this man doesn't do drugs, especially cocaine. He's lived with me a year and a half, and had zero money since he wasn't working until just recently. Aside from the fact that I grew up around enough druggies to recognize the signs of usage, and I know him well enough to know his stand on drugs, he simply didn't have the ability to purchase cocaine. But you believing in him isn't necessary for this hypothetical situation.

You've been drug tested via hair analysis and deemed a cocaine user. Company policy is you're fired on the spot, despite your work record, despite the fact that not one member of management believes you to be on drugs, despite the fact that you vehemently insist the test was wrong. The company provides no method of dispute, even though there is a definite measurable, and reported, "false positive" rate in all methods of drug testing. You're told simply that you can pay to have another hair analysis done and they "might" reconsider your firing.

Would you pay $70 you don't really have to spend, to "maybe" save a $7.50 an hour job? Should a company hiring someone for stocking shelves in the freezer of a bulk item grocery store even be testing for past drug use, instead of current drug use via a urine test? Shouldn't there be a law that permits you to challenge the results of a drug test and be retested at the company's expense...billed back to you if you test positive a second time? Should there be a law saying they have to take two samples, like in cycling, and have both come back positive in order to issue a "positive" result? Why is there no protection for an employee falsely accused of taking drugs?

Ridiculous Intolerance

You know, I was going to write about my Mom's wedding this weekend, and the fact that I'm babysitting her cat etc, but a much more important topic just sort of landed in my lap.
Here where I work there's a pre-op transsexual, I'll call her G. Anyway, G started work here as a man, and later decided to become a woman. She'd always been a rather effeminate male anyway, and was rumored to be gay or "queer" in some sense. After she started taking hormones, she let the manufacturing manager know, and the office manager, who informed all the employees. Now, I think anyone who works in manufacturing in Southwestern Ohio would be able to tell you that, well, things are very closed minded around here. G quickly found that people who'd been her friends for years suddenly wanted nothing to do with her at all. Not only that, but there was a constant buzz of conversation behind her back. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't think anyone would have expected a bunch of blue collar men to 100% accept that one of their buddies had decided to change gender, but I think G was honestly surprised that they couldn't seem to understand that G and the man they'd known and liked were the same person.
I made sure G knew I supported her decision and would be her friend regardless of what others thought of me or her. I know what it's like to be on the outside of a group, and more importantly I recognized that it would be a difficult road for G here.
What prompted me to write this today is something that happened Friday, but only came to my attention this morning. We had a little cookout here Friday, in honor of a long time employee who's moving to another state. G did all of the grilling, as she usually does. She invited T, her girlfriend, to hang out with us. In retrospect, she probably should have asked if it was ok, but G has been here a long time and didn't think there would be any problem with a friend stopping by to eat with us. We weren't inside the plant, and it was G's lunch hour anyway. It should, be noted that T is also a transsexual.
G was told on Friday afternoon, by the plant manager, that she'd ruined the whole cookout. Because of the narrow minded mental midgets who work in the plant, G got berated. It would have been ok if T was a genetic girl, or a genetic guy, but because she was a transsexual, it ruined the whole cookout? It disgusts me that people can't open their minds enough to see past their own hangups. What difference does it make whether G or T are genetic guys, genetic girls, or transsexuals? I heard some of the guys making ridiculous comments like "I need antibiotics now" and other such stupidity. I hate to break it to all the redneck morons here, but G and T are far less likely to have a disease than the rest of the hetero yahoos. I'm not going to get into the details, but keep in mind they're both pre-op and are taking female hormones....and extrapolate from there.
Anyway, the point is that people have to look past their own fears and insecurities. G and T aren't hurting anyone, so it doesn't make any sense to me that people can't just leave them alone. All you do, when you pick at people, is highlight the very things you're most scared and vulnerable about. It's clear to me, now, that most of the men here are very insecure in their sexuality. They're so worried that they might be called gay that they can't even tolerate, much less be friends with, someone who's worked here for years. It's sad, and it's a side of humanity that I wish more than anything could be changed. It's that attitude and those views that keep the queer community in the shadows.

Current Events

I know this blog runs back and forth between opinion/personal diary type content and, well, just mouthy ranting, but I thought for a moment I'd take a look at some current events and give just a brief opinion on them and the sites that report them. Why? Because I want to. So let's take a little tour of some news websites and see what they're biggest stories are, shall we?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14846353/
MSNBC.com's top story of the moment is about the pope's "offensive" remarks about Muslims and how outraged the muslim community is. Aww, are the religious people mad at each other? This reminds me of the around the clock news coverage of the previous pope's death. It's what I call sheep news, news with no real purpose but to draw a click from your average sheep. The gist of the whole story can be summed up in three sentences. The pope said something bad about muhammad. Muslims are mad. Pope's people say he didn't mean it, honest!

http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/09/15/tainted.spinach
CNN.com seems to be going for the "scare em into clicking" top news story with a report about an Ecoli outbreak from bagged spinach. I can't fault this story, though, because this is something I think SHOULD be reported and I have to give props to CNN for at least bumping it above the Pope's anti-muslim remarks!

http://www.foxnews.com/
Fox news takes a little different approach. They "feature" three news stories on their main page, complete with picture and bolded text, whereas both CNN and MSNBC go for the one main feature story. Fox's choice in stories? Well, they've got both the Ecoli and Pope story, plus an extra on the current violence in Iraq. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,213921,00.html Though I still think the pope story is nowhere near front page material, I at least give Fox credit for making him share the spotlight with Ecoli and that little war we've been fighting for a few years now.

http://abcnews.go.com/
ABC runs a rotating animation of a few top stories. They've got the Ecoli breakout, Ford cutting employee numbers http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=2447301, convicted killer Robert/Michelle Kosilek wanting the state to pay for her sex change http://abcnews.go.com/US/LegalCenter/story?id=2440310&page=1, Justin Timberlake's appearance on Good Morning America's fall concert series http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/FallConcert/, and of course the ever important question of "Should fashion designers have the ability to copyright their designs?"
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=2442802&page=1 Obviously the Timberlake story is nothing but a thinly veiled advertisement for their concert series, which doesn't suprise me considering their site has popup ads on nearly every page. Note that ABC seems to have missed the pope's remarks altogether, or they don't consider them front page material! Sadly they also seem to consider fashion designer copyright and an ad for their concert series more important "news" than the war in Iraq.

http://www.cbsnews.com/
CBS deems the pope the top story of the day, worthy of bolded headline and large picture. CBS also has a different take on how to annoy their readers with ads. First, the top half of their page is a giant ad with a "close ad" button in the top left corner. Oh! But the ad doesn't really "close" it just shrinks to a banner ad that randomly "opens" itself to cover half the page again. Even if I wanted to get my news from this site I wouldn't put up with that annoying ad long enough to bother! That's even more annoying than msnbc's cruddy "fly-out" menus along the side. At least those you can disable.

Well, that's my little tour of the news sites. Yeah, I didn't particularly say much, but oh well. It's Friday!

NANOWRIMO

We're less than two months away from this year's NANOWRIMO, aka National Novel Writing Month. During the month of November, insane writers from around the world (including me!) will attempt to write a 50 thousand word "novel" in thirty days. Last year I managed only 9 thousand words and gave up two weeks into November. This year my goal is to get at least double what I ended up with last year, though obviously I'd like to actually get to 50k.

I'm adding the NANOWRIMO link to my sidebar for anyone else who'd like to read about it/participate. Join the insanity!

Jimmie Ira Holley

Jimmie Ira Holley, a 54 year old husband, father, and grandfather, went to work at the Pentagon that fall day as he did every day. A former Army veteran of Vietnam and a survivor of quadruple bypass surgery, he was a beloved figure in the hearts and minds of his family and friends. Like 2995 other people, he never came home. I don't know anything personally about Mr. Holley, since I didn't have the courage to disturb his family with my inept inquiries. All I have read about him can not compare, I'm sure, to the reality of him. But of course, I can never get to know the reality of him, because on one fall morning 2996 people, including Jimmie Ira Holley, were taken forever in a senseless act of terrorism.

I could talk to his wife, his daughter, his son, his granddaughter, but I wouldn't want to reopen wounds that are not mine to open. I don't want to intrude on memories that belong to him and his family alone. So I will leave this memorial brief and say only this.

Jimmie Ira Holley, I remember.

Conspiracy Theories....why?

With September 11 looming in the distance, I thought I'd touch on something that I've never quite understood, conspiracy theories. Nearly every time there's a major incident resulting in the loss of life, regardless of how it occurred, someone reaches to the far depths of reality and offers forth a bizarre theory by loosely stringing together the facts of the case with pure conjecture.

We saw it with the JFK assassination, the death of Princess Diana, and of course the events of September 11, 2001. I understand that human nature is to want answers, but what is it that makes people grasp onto someone else's delusion without even checking any facts? Is it an inability to process complex information? Is it that they so desperately want to have "the answers" that they'll accept any answers regardless of how far fetched?

To give you an example. There is a video called "Loose Change" about the events of September 11, 2001. I won't link it here since I don't want to seem as though I'm in any way promoting this man's lunacy. The basic idea in this video is that the US Government was directly responsible for everything that happened that day. Oh yes. The US Government killed thousands of innocent citizens in an effort to um, hmm, what was it they were trying to do again? Oh, that's right, start a war...I guess. I watched the video and was immediately struck by some of the glaring inaccuracies and outright silly leaps in logic, but it's obvious from their forums and people commenting elsewhere that some people don't have that sort of reasoning power. People are actually believing this crap!

Now, I don't have the time nor the space here to get into a point by point rebuttal of the video, but thankfully I don't have to! It's already been done beautifully by the folks over at http://www.loosechangeguide.com/LooseChangeGuide.html If you've already googled and downloaded the video to watch, and if you're anything like me you already did, then at least put forth the extra effort to skim through the guide.

I understand that filtering this type of information takes a certain amount of reasoning ability, but if you can't manage to understand all of the information, then don't just accept whatever theory "feels" better to you! No matter what sort of pretty package they've wrapped around their well crafted pile of shit, it's still shit. Don't just eat it up! Sniff it, poke it with a stick, pick it apart and see it for what it really is. Then share your new found intelligence with the other sheep, won't you?

Internet outages suxxors

The internet was out here at work when I got here this morning so I'm making a brief lunchtime post instead of a nice leisurely morning one.

I haven't even had time to read the news sites today I've been so busy! Looking forward to filet mignon and schezuan veggies and rice for dinner tonight. It'll be the first time I've had filet mignon and I'll be damned if I know how to make it right...but I'm sure gonna try.

I'm sure some very interesting stuff has happened all over the place today, but alas the highlight of my day so far has been the boston cream pie yogurt I just had. So, um, yeah. Grats on good stuff, that sucks on the negative stuff, and hope to post more tomorrow.

Thanks D for the filet mignon and good luck on that math test!

Hero?

Wendesday mornings are pretty nice when you wake up thinking it's Tuesday. I haven't adjusted to this getting up earlier thing yet, but I'm getting there.

I'm sure everyone has read by now that crocodile hunter Steve Irwin died in a bizarre stingray incident. His death brings to mind what I've briefly touched on before, namely the tendency to brand people a hero after they've passed.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed watching Crocodile Hunter and so did my kids. I'm also aware that Steve Irwin was a conservationist, and that he worked tirelessly for the Australian Zoo and other causes. But, a hero? He was an entertainer. Granted, he was an entertainer with a cause, but he was still an entertainer. Maybe my bar for hero is set higher than the norm, or maybe I just don't see the heroism in getting paid to do something. I'm not saying Steve Irwin wasn't a good guy, devoted to his family and to the causes he believed in, but there's a pretty big leap between good guy and hero.

There is nothing inately noble about dying. We all do it eventually!

The 1213 Club

Ah wretched Tuesday after a holiday, oh how I hate ye. Why is it that getting up the day after a holiday is such a chore? You would think you'd be rejuvenated after an extra day off, but noooo. I had a difficult time falling asleep last night, and the boyfriend's new hours mean I have to get up an hour before I'm accustomed to. The result is that I feel like I'm still half asleep and ready to crawl back into bed!

I spent all day yesterday at this place called the 1213 club with my mom, who's coming up on her 2 year clean mark. It's a NA/AA hangout where those in recovery can go to, basically, learn that there's fun to be had even when you're straight and sober. It's also there to be a place where addicts in various stages of recovery can help and sponsor each other. It's an impressive place, full of friendship and support. I've never been an addict or an alcholic but I can see how a place like that would really benefit people struggling to get clean.

There was one woman there who'd relapsed friday night after four months of being clean. When she walked in the door, no one shunned her, no one told her they were disappointed in her, no one said anything but welcome back. I could tell she was struggling through the day. Her hands shook and she looked like she hadn't slept well, but she stayed, and she absorbed the support of all the people who'd been right where she was, and for yesterday she was clean.

I have to admit I was pretty proud of myself when I quit smoking, but I am more proud of my mom's accomplishments with battling drugs and alcohol. I think for a long time I thought it was just that she didn't want to be any different, but now I realize that she desperately did want to be different, she just didn't know how. The human mind is a complex and scary place sometimes. It will let us bury our pain in food, drink, drugs. It takes stepping outside of that delusion and looking at yourself in an honest, and often very painful, way to take control of your life. I'm not sure it's something I would be able to do. I'm not an alcoholic or addict, but I think I bury just as much as those who are, so I can somewhat understand just how hard it is to really see yourself and not look away.

As I looked around yesterday at the group of 50 some odd people, I could see the different stages of recovery. For some of them the pain was as raw and visible as a scab, and I couldn't help wonder how many of them would manage to make it to 6 months or beyond. I wondered what my mom had looked like those first few months of her recovery, if her eyes had held the same haunted stare. I don't see that in her now. I won't say she's recovered, because as any addict will tell you, there's no cure, but I will say that I believe she's in for the long haul. She's seen the bottom, and I don't believe she ever intends to get there again.

EI Interactive - Dude, we want to steal your money!

For those of you who don't know me, allow me to tell you a little something about myself. I'm a gamer, notably MMORPGs (Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games)

I have played many games over the years, from Everquest to World of Warcraft to Saga of Ryzom, you name it and I've probably at least run the trial. This post, however, is about a little game called Horizons and a little company called EI Interactive who insists on becoming my "arch enemy" of sorts. Please, allow me to elaborate.

On July 21, 2006 EI Interactive purchased the MMORPG Horizons. Horizons is a struggling niche game with only a few thousand subscribers. I could go into all the reasons why I love that game, but I wouldn't want others to rush to try it only to be burned by the current owners. Anyway, my original intent was to ride out the change in ownership and see how it went, but I came into a little financial trouble.

So at the end of July I began to attempt to cancel my account. Let me describe to you, my friends, how this went.

Late July 2006:

I go to the account management page on the istaria.com website and attempt to cancel in the "normal" method for this type of game. Hmm, it would seem that page does not work. I have no subscription listed, therefore nothing to cancel. The only option is to enter in a credit card number and I'm not about to do that...I'm trying to cancel, not subscribe again!

I put in a support ticket. I'd seen quite a few complaints that these weren't being answered, but what the heck, might as well give it a shot.

I go to http://www.eiinteractive.com/contact.htm and call every phone number listed. You'll note that there are no longer phone numbers listed on that page, nor is their Montana address listed. Wonder why they removed contact information? That's an odd move for a "reputable" company. All phone numbers I called led to one of two places: a circular automated system with no valid choices, or a line that rang more than 15 times before saying "all circuits are busy" and then disconnected you.

I emailed every available email address stating I wished to cancel my account. I never got any response to those emails.

I waited. At that point, there was nothing further I could do but wait and hope that they got my account cancelled. You can reasonable assume from this post that my waiting was in vain.

August 9, 2006:
I get billed for $12.95. The charge overdrafts my account! EI in one action ensures I will never play Horizons again.

I post on the forums located at community.istaria.com/forum and posted accusing them of fraud. I also emailed again every available email address, gave them all of my contact information, and accused them of fraud.

Edward Andercheck, chairman of EI Interactive and other companies, called me personally at work. Sounds good, right? Oh no, not good at all. You see, Mr. Andercheck's primary concern in calling me was to brow beat me, threaten to sue me for libel, and in general repeat over and over that it was not fraud. His attitude was absolutely atrocious. He was condescending, arrogant, abrasive, and generally very difficult to communicate with. He told me multiple times to shut up when I was trying to direct the conversation away from his lecture on the definition of fraud and back to what was important, my billing issue. He did, however, agree to refund my bank account for the money they billed me.

Just to cover my bases, I filed a complaint with both the Better Business Bureau and the Internet Crime Complaint Center and, at the advice of my bank, filed a charge dispute with my bank. I requested a complaint form from the Montana Attorney General.

EI refunded my charge. I canceled my dispute with my bank, and had my bank refund the overdraft fees associated with that charge. The complaint form from the Montana Attorney General never arrived, but I let it slide. It looked as though EI Interactive might be at least attempting to get billing straightened out since they put up links for cancelation and billing problems. Oh but wait, my story does not end there!

What did I wake up to this morning? If you said ANOTHER charge from EI Interactive, well you'd get the gold star of the day!*

I have NEVER entered into a billing agreement with EI Interactive. At no time did I click, sign, or agree to, any billing by this company. The EULA I agreed to every time I logged into the game said Tulga Games, the billing screen I signed up with originally said Tulga Games. At no time did I agree to maintain my subscription and I have in fact attempted through every available avenue to CANCEL.

Edward C. Andercheck can claim libel all he wants, this is fraud pure and simple. You can censor me on your forums EI Interactive, but you can't silence me everywhere! I'm not afraid of you, nor will I be brow beaten as I was last month.