drcpunk

I Can Haz Kulture?

2009-12-11T04:59:19Z

Tuesday evening, mnemex and I went to the New York Review of Science Fiction reading at the South Street Seaport Museum, where Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman read from their stories.

And, The Klezmer Nutcracker is running until January 3.

Iterating the Hat

2009-12-11T04:42:36Z

Some years ago, pocketnaomi got me a knitted rainbow hat for winter weather. I lost it a couple of years later, but bought one like it on St. Marks.

Repeat two or three times. Heck, this last time, I don't even know how I lost it.

"Time to iterate the hat," said mnemex.

And I did this on Sunday.

It's somewhat ridiculous, all these lost hats. But, pocketnaomi notes that the original hat was also somewhat ridiculous.

Book pruning attempt

2009-12-08T02:51:53Z

I'm trying to prune down my book collection, which is difficult. There are some books I've not been able to bring myself to pull off the shelf, but which I might be able to if someone specifically wanted them for sale / barter / whatever. Is there anything anyone's looking for, primarily in the sf / f genres? If I've got it and I don't expect to read / re-read it, I'll gladly send it to a good home.

Semi-Stale Worldcon Partial Report

2009-12-07T23:33:47Z

Sat, 9am: Author Reading: Greer Gilman, Catherynne M. Valente

Josh and I made this one bright and early, not least because the con suite in the Delta had genuine bagels and cold cuts. My notes say that Catherynne Valente is working on an Arthurian novel, fully illustrated, due out at World Fantasy. I also have a note about a limited edition of The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making. I know that she and Greer Gilman mentioned a couple of other things they were working on, but I don't have notes on that.

Sat, 10 am: WSFS Business Meeting

This was actually a lot of fun. The chair did a good job of keeping things moving and making sure that the newcomers could follow what was going on and participate. He explained the rules of the debate. Each side had equal time to speak, and, I think he said that folks should not interrupt to correct factual errors.

Chair: I know how frustrating this is, but debate need not be factual.

Someone: And you may bring your own tofu if you want to.

Someone: I can lie if I want to.

That said, I don't believe anyone told deliberate untruths. The debate on the semi-prozine remained extremely civil, and I'm happy that the award will be kept. But, I'm also very glad that there's a committee working on fixing the definitions of some of the categories.

Sat, 11 am: What are the French Books We Should be Reading?
Elisabeth Vonarburg, Donald M. Hassler, Jean-Claude Dunyach, Laurent Genefort

I came in halfway through this one, and I had an additional disadvantage: I found it very hard to parse the French titles people mentioned well enough to figure out what to write down. Fortunately, a couple of people let me photograph their notes. My own are sparse.

Babylon AD
Steampunk: There's a musketeer story, the first in the chapbook we all got when we picked up a badges.
Noosfere website
Look for what's won the various awards. There are three main types of awards.
Spitz. Translated at least once in English

Elisabeth Vonarburg. In the Mother's Land

Donald Hassler seeing two themes. Territoriality. Family romance: inclusion / exclusion.

Christian Sauve. Writes in both. (I think this means both languages.)
English is an infinitely programmable language. You can make it do whatever you want.

Fortress -- Banchard

Horror writer whose name I didn't catch. Canada's Stephen King.

alire.com

Yves Meynard. I was sad that there's no English translation of most of his stuff. Ironically, he wrote Book of Knights, which I adored, in English, and only later translated it into French.

Tesseracts Q

Some question of what works best left untranslated.

Hassler said that the dominant metaphor is gastronomical.

The new [illeg]

Hitchhiker's Guide to French SF

Sat, 12:30: Inspiration, Homage or Appropriation
Ada Palmer, Lev Grossman, Kaaron Warren, Kij Johnson

LG described his novel, The Magician, as an intellectual pissing match with C. S. Lewis.

KJ has three novels, The Fox Wife, Fudoki, and Lost in the Mists of Time (Star Trek -- is it actually out yet?). She is currently working on a novel about Tashkent 1778, and one about investment banking.

The why am I here on this panel question: Maybe because people don't always make a distinction between first world alternate history and secondary worlds? She noted -- as we all were noting, silently -- that everyone on the panel was white Indo-Europeans.

Frustrated at lack of economics of fantasy worlds. Not just exchange of money, but also exchange of goods. Alternative systems picked up from other writings.

LG: Realism in fantasy panel (I think he had come from this). There is more and more requirement of the genre that fantasy worlds have internal logic. Tolkienian strain of world building from principles (Tolkien focused on language), and then build it up from that principle. Lewis strain -- just did whatever they hell they want.

[Note to self: It seems to me that there's a strain -- Lewisian or overlapping both Tolkien and Lewis -- of a moral grounding. This becomes the, or at least one of the, founding principles.]

Audience: Heard of the hard / soft fantasy division.

LG: Larry Niven's fantasy. Warlock stories, magic as a natural resource. Magic projected into the economy [something about the structure or the culture].

[Note to self: The dichotomy between the desire for Hacking / Cleverness and Emotional / Moral. These are hardly exclusive, of course.]

KJ: Grata exempla weasel people.

[Note to self: Greer Gilman's comment from an earlier panel on folklore vs myth]

AP: Studying details, give other plot threads. Manga / anime audiences don't seem to mind lack of consistency.

Audience: As opposed to transferable Star Wars [or that's what it looks like I wrote]

KW: Real cultures are proven to work in the real world. The rituals have been tested.

KJ: Hal Clement plotting. Pushing characters and alliances through [illeg] settings. Why outsider comes in.

Audience: Not stop to think about [illeg] culture.

LG: Can it be too rule dominated? Does it remove wonder? Many past rules -- to deeper locking that can't be quantified.

AP: And how is that not a rule?

Audience: Not necessary to express all rules to the reader.

KJ: Challenge of the Exception for any fantasy world.

Me: Both sets.

AP: Strictly defined [Either "Theodyssey" or "The Odyssey"]

Audience: Rules in our won world change. Galileo. Can we break the sound barrier? Now we know -- yes.

KJ: We don't know all the rules of an internal combustion engine -- or at least, we don't think about it.

Audience: Scientific world view.

[Note to self: Ah! As opposed to anime / magic]

KW: What happens when someone dies?

AP: Death customs being a great way to figure out what a culture values. [Quote from whom? Gibbon?] North Europe focuses on the first year anniversary of the dead. Corpse still [illeg].

South Europe not so much. Not the tech for [illeg].

In Japan, your spirit can haunt someone even if you are alive.

Audience: Sometimes, horror comes from the rules. "The Lottery", Shirley Jackson. "With Folded hands", Jack Williamson.

AP: Twist: You thought that the rule was X, and it turns out to be Y.

Aud: Star Trek: "For the World is Hollow, and I Have Touched the Sky".

KJ: James Gunn -- All sf is [illeg] from Mary Shelley on. True of fantasy. For years, all about Tolkien. Now, last 15 years, it's broken out.

Audience: Appropriating question.

KW: For Australian -- Aborigines. no white author will go anywhere near them. We don't want to get it wrong. But, then we don't have any aboriginal characters.

KJ: The race fail discussions. Most useful advice, from Mary Anne Mohanraj: You will get it wrong, but that doesn't mean it isn't worth doing.

Audience: Do we have a working definition of appropriation?

The chili pepper is vital to India and China, but it comes from South America.

AP: There are not cultures that [illeg] off a great deal.

LG: Context is important

Audience: Idealizations of cultures that aren't your own?

Mix and match culture ideas?

[Notes to myself: Tolkien's Rohirrim, the Tondekemon episode set in King Arthur's court]

AP: Invaluable literary tool. Challenges your own culture. E.g., first [illeg] Persian letters (all made up). Incredibly powerful tool -- it got folks wondering about the Persians.

KJ: Idealized Other gives us a safe way to explore cultures which might scare us. But had to slap down three people in writing workshop for "Our X-Skinnned brothers".

Audience: ?

AP: Make youre intention clear to the reader. E.g., "I know that X is not true, but for my purposes..."

[E.g., Nigel D. Findley's into to his Chill supplement, Voodoo, where he says up front that he's using Movieland Voodoo, not the real world religions. While I'd rather he didn't do that, I do appreciate his being very clear about what he was and wasn't doing.]

And communicate respect and intention, not disrespect.

KJ: Uncle Tom's Cabin is bone racist, but a noble attempt at communication.

Audience: Interesting afterword to Charles de Lint's Mulengro, written before cultural appropriation dialogue became so big.

Audience: Questions about author's assumptions. Assume European audience. As transgender, X books are not for you. Us Books vs Them Books.

Audience: The King and I -- the Uncle Tom play has several layers of inaccuracy. Not a very accurate portrayal of Thai culture. Anna Leonowens's own memoirs had biases too, of course. She was a suffragette, anti-slavery, and she made up a lot to sell more books.

[Cf. wikipedia reference]

E.g., the graphic novel Rose of Versailles, a Japanese manga set in Marie Antoinette's France, we laugh at the inaccuracy of French characters committing seppuku.

KJ: I read a lot of diaries from several cultures.
--Tolkien
--inside / outside

However much, you'll get something wrong. When is enough research enough?

AP: Eggs of parasites found -- everyone in Europe was in constant intestinal pain. The nobles even more so, from data from the privies.

KJ: Eleanor Arnason puts toilets in her books.

Audience: Original Star Trek show had a 5 year mission, 400 people, and no bathrooms.

AP: So toilets and [illeg -- looks like "socks"] are now political, calling attention.

All Quiet on the Western Front has the most famous toilet scene in Western Literature.

Me: Good point about appropriation. Where does one stop research?

KJ: Good question. Investment banking is all white [at the top]. If I made a Hispanic banker, it would be all about his being Hispanic, by definition. [illeg -- looks like she's saying that two of her characters pretty much have to be white] Everyone else doesn't have to be white.

How do we do it so [illeg]

Me: And so it doesn't suck [I think that's what I wrote]

KW: So it's about the story -- not these issues.

Audience: Get consultants. "I'm trying. What have I missed? What do I need?"

KJ: Caveat: No one has the duty to be our token X who we give it to to vet. It's a wonderful thing if someone will. But, it is not their duty.

Same Audience as above: If you're going for depth, it is your obligation to find someone to vet it.

--Isn't always comfortable
--Doesn't always have to be

Shogun Macbeth
Clytemnestra Japanese

KJ: Most great literature comes from discomfort.

Audience: Good idea if you can get a beta reader for X. You as a writer want a larger audience.

KJ: Highest praise from a first generation woman reading her book: "It felt Japanese". But, there is no such thing as the Japanese. The next Japanese reader in line might say I got it all wrong.

The more respectful you are, the more likely folks will be to help.

Audience: Not about not offending -- about getting the book better.

Audience: Can't not offend.

Audience: Satire wants to offend.

Audience: As opposed to not even trying.

KJ: Where do we draw lines for ourselves?

LG: First draft of The Magician, worried that he was too aggressive toward Narnia. Folks said no, it was not sufficiently aggressive. Too close to plagiarism. Anyway, Lewis is so cruel to his own creation.

KW: Lacking link in other culture, I am the other as the only western person.

KJ: Not just race / color / gener -- neighborhood <-- define. "All X are Y -- except the ones in my neighborhood".

AP: SF & F can invent a group and not offend everyone. [illeg] to make up aliens.

KW: Slights Mistification

LG: Codex

[LG had copies of a small booklet with the first chapter of The Magician, the first of that sort of item I've ever actually read. I like chapter one enough to want to read more.]

Good News from T-Mobile! Yay!

2009-11-22T23:04:23Z

The 3rd level up manager was supposed to call my this afternoon, so by 5:30 pm, I decided to give T-Mobile a call. After several very annoying minutes with their automated voice system that seemed hard of hearing today, I got through to a regular customer service / technical support person. After hearing my frustrated spiel, she said that the manager in question wasn't in the call center where she was, but she'd see what she could do. She put me in touch with someone who is apparently at least slightly higher up then said manager.

This man assured me that I was getting $100 credited to my account, and, in fact, he had given me that credit while I was on hold. I have checked my balance and confirmed that this has been done.

So, yes, T-Mobile's in the running for whatever cell phone I switch to when I switch. I like the Sidekick's keyboard, but I don't think I can stick with the Sidekick forever, and no company seems to be able to get something quite as good for me.

The G1 is close, but not as easy to hold and use. The Droid keyboard made me blanch. I've heard that T-Mobile will be coming out with cool new models, so we shall see.

I still don't actually have my original bookmarks back on the phone, but this is fairly minor. I recreated the ones I've actually needed to use.

T-Mobile Update

2009-11-22T04:07:58Z

At about 3 am today (Saturday), my original contacts came back (so I now have 2 entries for almost everything), although my bookmarks have not.

I do not know whether the manager who is due to call me back tomorrow will say, "Yes, as I promised, you will get the $100 debit card" or "No, you have your contacts back, so we do not owe you anything, never mind that you were told twice that you'd get this, never mind that it took a month from when you should have been able to download it, never mind that you've been dealing with phone issues for nearly two months."

If I do get the $100 debit card, I will actually consider having my next phone be a T-Mobile phone.

If I do not get it, my next phone will emphatically not be a T-Mobile phone.

It really is that simple.

Still Waiting on T-Mobile

2009-11-20T01:24:39Z

So, as of today, November 19, 2009, I have received neither my original contact information nor the $100 debit card for users whose data cannot be restored. At this point, I do NOT want the contacts back, as I have largely reentered them on my own, without any assistance from T-Mobile or Danger or Microsoft.

October 20 or so: My contacts data was supposed to be available, but I could not download it.

October 25 or 26: I called to ask about my contact data. I spoke to a woman who said, "Okay, our engineers will take a look and text you. Give them 72 hours."

November 1 or 2: No data. No test message from T-Mobile engineers.

I called, speaking to a man named Alex, who tried a few things with me, then said my data was lost, but I would get the hundred dollar debit card promised to those whose data is lost. It was supposed to arrive 14 days from Oct 29.

November 16: No data. No debit card. I called T-Mobile and was on the phone almost an hour, talking to three different people.

I was first told to wait 3 more days, at which point I might get my data back. I asked to be bumped up.

I talked to a supervisor named Sandy, and she said that if my data is restored, I don't get the compensation. I said that this was just not cutting it any more, especially as I have basically restored my data on my own, by hand. After a few rounds of this (I think she was trying to follow a basic script of "I can do X for you. If Y, then Z," and I kept saying, "I want A."), I asked her to bump me up.

["But the important thing is to get you your data back. That's the most important thing."

No. No, it isn't. I did that, with a lot of help from my friends, and zero help from T-Mobile. I want financial compensation, not, "We dug it up, only a month behind schedule, so we don't have to pay you anything."]

I then talked to Luis. As I told him, everyone is really polite (and they've memorized the "I understand how you feel" script), but I want compensation at this point. (NB: The initial outage started Oct 1. It was over 2 weeks before I had a functional phone -- y'know, web, text, email, as well as phone. My compensation for that? $20 for a month of free data. And 100 free minutes which I was told would be good for a year, but this isn't true -- it's only good till Jan 2.)

Luis said to me:

1. Wait until Thursday evening.
2. Sandy will call me back by then, and we will see what the data situation is.
3. Luis said that if she does not compensate me, he will do so personally, never mind that my name is not on the To Be Compensated with $100 debit card list.

I am quite sure that my name is not on that list -- Luis, Sandy, and the gentleman I first spoke to looked long and hard for that.

When I mentioned that I was hoping to use the debit towards a new T-Mobile phone, as I was hearing that some Really Cool New Phones would be coming out, Luis said that all the new phones coming out will be managed by Microsoft -- the company that lost my data and had the outage in the first place because their people were morons.

mnemex thinks Luis is wrong and that if T-Mobile ditches Android, which he says they'd have to to go Microsoft, they're morons.

19 November: As promised, Sandy called to ask if I had my data back.

No. That is, no, I did not suddenly get my old contact information restored by T-Mobile or Danger. I still have the stuff I entered myself.

She said that there is now an open ticket for Danger, and it is for Danger to resolve.

How long will that take? Well, she doesn't know.

What about what Luis promised me? Well, she doesn't know about that, and T-Mobile can't compensate me until Danger gets back to T-Mobile on whether my data can be restored. Danger has no particular time frame for this.

I said that I wanted to speak to Luis, as he promised me he would personally get me that $100 debit card.

It is, however, one of Luis's days off, although Sandy put in a follow up for Sunday. She then put me on hold to ask an available manager what could be done.

She came back and offered me this month's data free, which means $20 off this month's bill.

"And I still talk to Luis on Sunday?"

Sandy, after one of those pauses where I wonder if she is checking a script, said that the floor manager said to offer me $20. After all, she created a ticket for Danger to Look Into Things, and she was offering me $20.

I said no. $20 is a lot less that $100. I was promised $100.

After Sandy trying her best to explain "I can't do that" without ever using those words, I asked her to put me in touch with the floor manager she'd spoken to.

Gerry, the floor manager, spoke to me. I told him the whole saga above, saying that this was the second time I had been promised something and told I couldn't have it. (Well, the third if you count the 100 minutes supposedly good for a year.)

He said that all of my dates were accurate, all in the system, and the record of my conversations all there, except -- well, except neither Alex nor Luis wrote down anything about giving me a $100 debit card, and all he could do was give me the $20 off.

However, he said, there was a follow up for Luis to call me on Sunday. And, he said, T-Mobile keeps its promises. After all, Sandy called me back when she said she would.

He thinks the best thing is for me to speak to Luis, and I agree. He's supposed to call Sunday afternoon, trying the cell first, and if that doesn't work, the home phone.

Thus ended a 25 minute call.

I now need to be sure I'm not on a train or something on Sunday afternoon. A Sunday afternoon 3 days after the 3 days after the more than 14 days after the more than 3 days after the week after the nearly 3 weeks since October 1, when Microsoft-controlled Danger lost the data for T-Mobile users nationwide.

The initial screw up was Microsoft's, and I am willing to cut a certain amount of slack to T-Mobile for that. But, I am NOT willing to say, "Oh, sure, you can restore my data weeks and weeks later, and try to buy me off getting $100 by offering me $20." And, it was not Microsoft taking my calls and twice conveniently not recording the agreement to get me a $100 debit card. That screw up was purely T-Mobile's.

I am hoping that when I next post about this, I will be able to say that Luis straightened it all out on Sunday and that I got the debit card. At this point, I don't want stale contact information. I want cash on the barrel, and giving it to me as a debit card for T-Mobile is in T-Mobile's best interest.

Something New on the Subway

2009-11-15T02:07:29Z

Yesterday, I heard, as one often does, the conductor asking for everyone to either move into the train, or, if they couldn't fit, out, and, in any case, folks should please clear the door so that the train could leave the station.

And, as generally happens, this was eventually accomplished, and the train pulled out.

Then, the conductor came on the loudspeaker again, thanking the passengers for clearing the doors. That was unexpected and rather nice.

Domestic Moments

2009-11-15T02:01:25Z

mnemex and I were having a quiet night at home earlier in the week. I was listening to something on headphones. He was alternating Rock Band and something on his laptop, I think the Spy Game.

In the middle of all of this, headphones still on, I had a thought about the Strange School Play By Email game I'm running. We're at the start of the second year of the school's operation (after only 3 years of play! To be fair, we doubled our speed for the Spring semester), and a few new players have joined. I've been adding new NPCs as well.

"That's what the campus needs!" I said. "A were-octopus!"

"Of course it does," said mnemex, puzzled that it had taken me so long to figure this out. "What school doesn't need a were-octopus?"

Serendipity and String Quartets

2009-11-10T20:25:53Z

mnemex and I were wending our way home on Sunday. We were on Sixth Avenue and 33rd, in Manhattan, and I turned us north, in the mistaken belief that I was heading south. mnemex quickly pointed out my error, but it didn't really matter, as our goal was a subway station, and there was one in both directions.

So, we went into the station at 34th Street and Sixth Avenue, got through the turnstiles, and heard astonishingly good music. It was coming from a live string quartet: four women, two violins, a cello, and a viola. They were good enough to be sending cues, but not so ultra professional as to feel that they should make the cues ultra subtle. This made it a lot of fun to watch. And, they were clearly having fun as well. mnemex took pictures, as did a lot of other people.

General Update

2009-11-05T23:59:09Z

I'm busy recovering from a cold, which was likely a bit of the flu. I think I had a fever and that it broke last night or this morning.

Still job hunting.

T-Mobile has allowed as how they've probably well and truly lost my data, and I should be getting a $100 debit card by 14 days after October 29. I can live with this. I've got 90-95% of my contact info back via folks sending me what they have, and I can reconstruct most of the rest. I didn't have photos or a to do list. I had fairly few bookmarks.

I'm now dealing with, or will be dealing with, four lawyers:

1. The man who did our Wills/POAs/Living Wills/Health Proxies, as we need to update them.
2. An Estates Lawyer for my father's estate.
3. The lawyers my father used, as they've got the information that the estates lawyer needs.
4. The lawyer that the nursing home is working with to get my brother and I guardianship for our mother.

None of this is fast. It involves multiple phone calls and such, and a fair amount of travel.

I missed... um, at least 3 Halloween parties in favor of something taking definite precedence, lordess and Steve's wedding. Lovely site, lovely bride, handsome groom.

Right now, am contemplating whether to medicate, and if so, with what, and what food to eat, and generally enjoying not feeling like my skin's stretched too tightly over my face.

Sidekick Update

2009-10-22T03:23:49Z

There are instructions online about how Sidekick users can restore their contacts, bookmarks, and other lost data. Alas, I still cannot do this.

Last night, I called T-Mobile to check my best guess for why, to wit: Every other Sidekick user who'd lost data was trying to do exactly the same thing. The woman I spoke to said that I was the first person she'd spoken with who understood the problem.

I decided to double check on the 200 bonus minutes I was promised back before T-Mobile realized just how bad the situation was. Good news: Yes, I have them. Bad news: These last 3 months, not the year I'd been told. The woman I spoke to saw the note about it being for a year on the account, but had no way to make it so, as the minutes expire after 90 days and cannot be renewed. Mediume news: I find I do not care enough to make a stink. If I don't use these minutes in those 90 days, I'm likely not to need them.

That said, yes, T-Mobile should stand by what its people say, within reason. I specifically asked how long the minutes were good for when I was offered them, and if whoever told me a year and annotated my record thus had no authority or power to deliver, I really should not have been told a year.

I'm watching to see what T-Mobile's going to do when the dust settles a little more. I like the Sidekick -- but I need a phone that will function, and that includes the folks who are supposed to do the back up doing it. (Hello, Microsoft Danger!) I would prefer to stay with T-Mobile -- but I really need to know that the company's understanding of its customers' inconvenience extends to real compensation and to trust that if I am told I am being given something, I am really being given all of what is promised.

On Packing

2009-10-22T03:14:19Z

When I pack for a convention or other long trip -- or, for that matter, for a number of shorter ones, like the trip to visit my mother today -- the part that always takes longest, I think, is choosing which book to read, or which book to pack to read after the book I'm currently in the middle of.

Sidekick Update

2009-10-19T19:52:07Z

So, the much anticipated Saturday message about getting lost data back said (paraphrased):

Yes, we think we can restore your data. Stay tuned. More on Sunday.

Sunday's message said (also paraphrased):

Yep, really, we can do this. Stay tuned, and at some point, we may give you some actual information.

Sunday, my Sidekick spontaneously rebooted, as did those of jlighton and ebartley. This had me tense until I knew that I hadn't lost functionality, then mildly annoyed, as my carefully set up IM conversations were lost. Nothing critical lost, just annoyance added. mnemex theorized that this may have been a back up of the current state of Sidekicks.

Sidekick Update

2009-10-16T05:12:46Z

At the moment, I have functionality for everything I use -- web, email, instant message, phone, texting. I probably have functionality for what I don't use.

I don't have my original contacts or bookmarks, but Microsoft is thinking that maybe user data isn't utterly lost, and is apologetic, but very pleased to say the data may be restored Real Soon.

I do not think Microsoft has anything to be pleased about. Relieved, maybe.

I don't know what this does to T-Mobile's earlier statement that users who could not retrieve their date would get a $100 credit with T-Mobile, good for paying bills, buying a new phone, whatever. Given a choice between the credit and my data, I'd go for the credit, but I'm in the fortunate position of having most of what I lost sent to me by friends.

But, I'm thinking it shouldn't be a choice, really. T-Mobile might do well to give all Sidekick users that $100 credit. I know the big screw up was Microsoft's, but right now, T-Mobile is paying the price. Microsoft won't notice even a class action suit, I'm a-thinking.

Like many Sidekick users, I'm thinking of switching to a phone that has as much of the form factor I like as possible, that does the same things the Sidekick does, that's as close to the relatively low monthly price of the Sidekick as possible -- and that won't lose my data and go down for two weeks. A hundred dollar credit ups the odds of my new phone using T-Mobile's service.

Peek, in a piece of brilliant marketing, is offering Sidekick users a free Peek with a photo proving one is a Sidekick owner, offer good through this Friday. The Peek isn't up to serving my needs -- but it is a wonderful gesture, and one that ensures I'm going to remember Peek favorably.

Family Update

2009-10-13T20:02:51Z

Yep, the photocopied Hebrew document is indeed a copy of my parents' ketubah. My father's Heberw name is Baruch Alexander. We're not sure about my mother, given that whoever filled out the ketubah had lousy handwriting, but a photocopy means that we may find the original.

Still trying to straighten out getting verification of return of my father's car to his insurance company. The folks there are sympathetic, and the DMV has given me a series of things to check on to straighten this all out.

Sidekick Update

2009-10-13T19:59:49Z

As near as I understand it, the situation is this:

Sidekick user made a contract with T-Mobile. But, the Sidekick itself is handled by Danger. Danger was acquired by Microsoft, and from the time it was acquired, I noticed a drop in quality of tech support service.

Microsoft, as I understand it, started downsizing Danger, which is to say that Microsoft laid off the people who knew how things worked.

Microsoft then attempted to do a firmware upgrade during the second day of a six day back up. This meant that the old back up was blown away, as, apparently, old back ups are not saved at all, and the new back up never completed.

This meant that when the sever went down, Microsoft / Danger said to T-Mobile, "Oops. We lost your Sidekick customers' data."

Danger, meanwhile, from the beginning, locked its Sidekick down more than many companies lock their products down. A minor consequence of this is that my cell phone can't play "Hope Eyrie" any more. A major consequence is that Sidekick users could not back up their date from the web interface to their computers.

But, say the T-Mobile techs, you can back it up to your SIM card.

Well, sort of. If you don't have a lot of data. How much is a lot? Glad you asked -- 200 phone contacts is A Lot.

Currently, if T-Mobile stands by what it says, I have 200 extra phone minutes and $20 off my next bill. If they agree that losing my contacts and bookmarks constitutes genuine, no-foolin' data loss, they will give me a $100 credit towards all things T-Mobile, including bills.

My phone, text, email, and IM capabilities are working now. My web is not accessible via the Sdiekick. It has been 12 days since this thing started. A second level customer service lady, who is really good at her job -- which is to say, she made me feel very much sympathized with despite offering me nothing new -- says that I am one of the lucky ones.

The scary thing is, it's true. Sure, I lost my contacts and bookmarks. But, between about half a dozen folks doing their best to get me contact information, I've got 80-90% back on the phone via importing v-cards from email, and I can recreate the rest from various spreadsheets and backed up information. But, I am not well pleased with T-Mobile, though I do sympathize with their customer service staff, even the ones who refuse to give me a simple yes to "Okay, so you're saying you have no idea when I'll get web access back?"

And I am furious with Microsoft. This is something I doubt Microsoft cares about.

Sidekick Addendum

2009-10-11T05:18:58Z

Oh yes, if I understand correctly, T-Mobile's online interface with computer -- the one that's currently down, but we are talking about when it worked -- didn't actually let one back up data to one's computer. Or, rather, one had to pay extra for the privilege.

Organizing Parents' Home

2009-10-11T04:38:51Z

You know, a lot of clutter can pile up over 38 years. And, that's before taking a person's clutterbug habits into account.

But, we've located my father's birth certificate. And, I've got a copy of my mother's. I also have a copy of something in Hebrew, which I don't read. I'm hoping it's a ketubah.

Sidekick Update

2009-10-11T04:17:45Z

So, my contacts and bookmarks are almost certainly lost. As I understand it, this is due to Microsoft / Danger not having a back up of user data in a safe place.

Mind, when I spoke with what T-Mobile considers a tech support person -- someone who has no ability to connect anyone to Microsoft / Danger (you know, the folks who control the vertical and horizontal) and who has no up to date information -- I was told that it was the back up that went down, and that what one is supposed to do is click the menu button and copy information to the SIM card. I'm not sure what the heck that means.

I've been told by friends that T-Mobile's tech support folks don't actually know whereof they speak, and that this is NOT how the SIM card in the Sidekick actually works. What was lost was user data. There was no back up. Users are being told not to let batteries run down or get removed or to reset things because, if they have contacts, that is the ONLY place these contacts are. There is no back up.

Unfortunately, earlier in the week, on the advice of T-Mobile's tech support, I removed the battery as instructed.

At this point, 200 free phone minutes and $20 off next bill -- doesn't cut it.

It isn't the outage that gets me, although that is really bad in itself. It is the lack of a back up that gets. me.

So, folks who think it would be a good idea if I have your contact info -- email me with it?

I Want My Pocket Internet Back!

2009-10-09T22:28:19Z

I've got a Sidekick phone from Danger-now-a-subsidiary-of-Microsoft (which it wasn't when I first got a Sidekick) for T-Mobile. There has been a nationwide problem since last week. I currently do have:

Phone
Text Message
Instant Message

capabilities.

I do not have

My contacts
Web surfing
All of my email
Email Out ability
The online interface

T-Mobile has given me 200 free minutes (normally not worth my while, but at this time, potentially useful if I need to make a lot of long calls out of local area), and has given all Sidekick customers a month of free data (which translates to, I think, a $20 discount off the next bill). But, they still don't know why this happened or when it will be resolved.

And, while they are unfailingly polite, this is getting really, really old. Also, tip to the higher ups, as I doubt the phone staff would have done this without instructions: Suggesting customers pay more money to T-Mobile to upgrade their phone plans when we are currently not getting what we are paying for does not go over well.

Sought After Sorrows

2009-10-07T04:47:44Z

Miskatonic River Press's Our Ladies of Sorrow has finally reached the NYC Compleat Strategist. Been waiting for this for some months.

Home from larp

2009-10-05T04:43:46Z

Lullaby of Broadway 2: And All That Jazz ran this weekend. I think it was more draining that the first, and certainly more emotionally intense. This is not surprising given the angstfest of musicals we had. I'll see if I can do a write up of my game of it at some point soon.

Serious kudos to the players of Jekyll/Hyde and Sweeney Todd who scripted the best death scene in a game chock full of deaths!

Larps and Larp Prep

2009-09-24T16:18:46Z

I had a blast at Tales of Pendragon this past weekend. I think that I prefer Sea of Stars in some ways, but one has to realize that this means I prefer the game that built on and could not have existed without ToP. It's basically saying that larp writers are aware of the state of the art and constantly seeking to raise the bar.

Currently, mnemex and I are preparing for the second larp in ambug666's Lullaby of Broadway trilogy. We've watched Assassins, which leaves me a bit cold, but I can see what Sondheim is doing, and I find it boggling that some folks walked out on it.

We also saw Jekyll & Hyde, which seems a very uneven show to me. I liked the parts that stayed close to the nominal theme, e.g., the idea that all of us are good and evil, and that everyone tries to be something they aren't. I love the song "Facade", but it's the only one I can remember.

I found myself more impatient than usual with the love songs. There are, let's see, 5 songs that could be considered love songs. One works very well, because it is sung by Hyde, not Jekyll. Three are perfectly adequate love songs that could come from any show, which is my main issue with them.

The fifth is sung by Jekyll's fiance in a rather odd scene. At the end of the song, Jekyll says that he needs her and begs her not to abandon him. She tells him that when he needs her, if he needs her, he knows where to find her. Then she leaves, and we are, I think, to understand that she is not abandoning him.

If my reading of the scene is correct, then I am boggled. I mean, if I'd been told "I need you -- don't abandon me" by someone I don't, in fact, plan to abandon, I'd probably say something like, "What do you need me to do?" or "I'm here."

I find it fascinating that, even though the people denying Jekyll permission to experiment are shown to be hypocrites, the experiment is a) a disaster and b) has, as far as I can tell, absolutely no results that could even theoretically help with Jekyll's original goal, to help comatose patients, like his father. It is also fascinating that the humanitarian Jekyll, who protests that one should not abandon such patients or treat them like animals, agrees that, yes, he does want a human test subject that he can treat like a lab rat.

And, it's also interesting to see how much gets added to the original novella, which is very sparse on details.

Status

2009-09-16T19:13:09Z

I'm slowly starting to make a list of what needs to be done, now that the funeral is over. I want to make sure that it all gets done, but also that I'm not getting swamped by the alligators. Tomorrow night, I've got a CoC game scheduled, and we've got weekend plans as well.

The cemetery is nice. It is also very, very green.

Have I mentioned that I am allergic to grass?

It's not that I didn't expect to go through a whole bunch of tissues. After the funeral, I iced the sinuses, switched from my usual allergy meds to something a little more powerful, agreed to use the humidifier, and took mnemex's home remedy: a bowl full of sorbet with a teaspoon of his Hot Luck Party winning highly laced with capsican amaretto. It tasted good, at least during the times that the burning subsided.