drcpunk

Yay Holmes Movie, Boo Critics Who Don't Read Source Material

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 17:41:55 GMT

I'd been dubious about the Holmes movie, given the trailers, but decided to see it after two things happened. First, mnemex read me the NYT review of the movie, which had me going, "But, Holmes does that in the stories! Didn't this guy read them? I've only read a few of the stories, and I know better!"

(I've read maybe half a dozen of the stories and Hound of the Baskervilles.)

The second was that osewalrus recommended it in a detailed review that I did not find too spoilerific for my tastes (YMMV), explaining that, yes, everything did have backing from the source, and that the two worst bits from the trailers, including the one I'd seen and detested, were taken completely out of context by said trailers.

Health Update

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 20:41:20 GMT

Josh is physically at work, rather than telecommuting. His throat is still hurting.
I'm either over or mostly over it, and should go back on allergy meds soon. (First sign I have of respiratory illness: My allergy meds stop working.)

My eye's a bit irritated, but my eye doctor took me as a walk in yesterday, told me to add a new set of drops to the eye care regimen for a few days, and see him on Monday, and no, my cornea does not need to be scraped again.

That last is the second best piece of news. The first is summed up as follows: Yes, come into the office as early as you can. He'll see you. Yes, see me Monday afternoon -- just walk in. And call Friday if you want to see me then.

And an answer!

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:25:16 GMT

Ah! Okay, Lee Gold explained I made two mistaken assumptions.

First, the spelling is way off. That explains a lack of results from Google, though not why Google sent me to pages that didn't have the text "Pengallen" anywhere on the page. Maybe it was the last name of the page's creator or something.

Second, my assumption about which folklore to check was off. These are from the Malay peninsula. And, it seems that they are traditionally female.

Folklore Question

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:00:22 GMT

One of the things I learned from D&D is that there's a type of vampire known as a Pengallen. This vampire feeds by detaching its head and internal organs from the body and sending them off -- the head with the organs dangling from it -- to feed.

So, I'm trying to find a source that isn't a roleplaying game for this, some indication of what the folklore is, whether there are male, as well as female, Pengallen, or whether D&D made it up out of whole cloth. I don't think it did, but I could be wrong.

Saw Doctor

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 23:09:28 GMT

Okay, we saw the doctor and were told:

There is a general absence of badness. This indicates yes, we did have a flu.
There is mucus build up, more in Josh and in me. The coughing is post nasal drip plus irritant induced, and cough medicine is permissible if desired.
We are not contagious. Yay!
That said, remaining home an extra day or two until the fever breaks is a good idea so as not to strain the system.
Yes, a lot of people believe they have the flu when they don't, but this was the genuine thing, so far as the evidence suggests.
What I had back at the beginning of November was quite possibly H1N1.
There are over a quarter of a million hospital admissions for flu each year (I forget whether the doctor was talking citywide or nationwide), and 50,000 fatalities.
A lot of folks think just plain "the flu" is no big deal, thinking "stomach flu", which is what I grew up thinking the flu was.
If it knocks you out with fever and aches, it is probably a flu, not a cold.

My Notebooks Are Taunting Me!

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 05:47:09 GMT

womzilla asked for me to transcribe my notes for a presentation he did at the 2007 Lunacon.

So, I went back to my various notebooks. But, the one that starts around August 2006 has a gap from the end of LAConIV through Arisia 2008.

I finally found a notebook that picked up in Dreamation 2007, which was January. But, from there, it jumped to Origins 2007, skipping over March 2007, when Lunacon was held.

Possibly, I didn't take notes for that Lunacon. But, I did a con report for Boskone 2007, and it looks detailed enough that I probably took at least some notes for that. Boskone was February 2007, and not in the notebook.

I don't usually jump notebooks, and I'm not sure what was going on here.

This is reminding me of a justified critique of a Call of Cthulhu scenario where, even though the PCs found the victim's diary, other diary, and secret hidden diary, they hit a dead end because they neglected to look for his dream journal! Now, I can attest that this is not actually unrealistic, but the realism is misapplied. PCs should find the blasted clues unless there's a Danged Good Reason beyond "They blew the Spot Hidden roll that would keep the session from crashing to a halt."

And my notes are laughing at me.

Doctor called back

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:30:46 GMT

Doctor thinks this is a 5-day respiratory flu that's been going around. He told Josh, more than once, not to come in if Josh doesn't need to.

We will come in, Josh assures me. Part of this is that he does still have a fever, and part is that he'd rather deal with the doctor's irritation than mine, I think.

By my count. this 5-day flu is currently in its 6th day. It clearly hasn't learned how to count.

Appointment Acheived

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:06:28 GMT

Okay, we've got a doctor's appointment for 11:15 am tomorrow. Today was booked. Apparently, "fever" is more of a magical word than "flu", although an appointment can be made either way.

Nurseline Maintenance

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 01:34:31 GMT

Just tried calling the nurseline, which couldn't find our account number. mnemex tried to tree through with stuff like, oh, his Social Security number, or talking to a representative to ask what's up, to no avail.

We checked the website. The system is undergoing weekly maintenance.

FIghting Sickness

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 01:21:59 GMT

Josh and I have been fighting off sickness all weekend. I'm well enough to go out and do stuff. Josh was coughing to the point of vomiting -- not stomach vomiting, y'understand, losing very little in the way of nutrients -- and his fever returned.

"You will go to the doctor tomorrow," I said.

"Yes," he said.

"Even if you feel better," I said.

"Yes," he said.

He took an aspirin, which helped the fever. He took cough drops, which helped the cough, and we ordered in egg drop wonton soup, which was also helpful.

But, now, Josh has decided that he will call the doctor, regardless of how he feels, only coming in if he is told to.

1. This is not what I told him. He always does this. He scares me when he is sick, promises yes, he will go to the doctor, then decides he is feeling better and doesn't. I am really sick of being told to take care of myself by the man I love when he will not reciprocate. I am sick at being given the message "I don't need to do what I say", particularly when it is a health matter.

2. Josh has shown a really bad habit in the past to leave details out. Details like vomiting.

3. The doctor and his gatekeeper apparatus are highly aggressive about the gate keeping. There is no way to reach the doctor after hours to leave a voice message except to call the emergency number which connects one to a live person who will take one -- and only one -- message. That message is: It is an emergency. Folks reading my f-locked posts have gotten an earful of my opinions on all of this based on past history.

Will he be all right? Very likely. But, I am not happy about this, and will be most unhappy if he does not get well quickly.

Mind, we could call our 24 hour nurseline. Josh does not want to do this.

I Can Haz Kulture?

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 04:59:19 GMT

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

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 04:42:36 GMT

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

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 02:51:53 GMT

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

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 23:33:47 GMT

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!

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 23:04:23 GMT

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

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 04:07:58 GMT

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

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:24:39 GMT

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

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 02:07:29 GMT

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

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 02:01:25 GMT

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

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:25:53 GMT

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

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:59:09 GMT

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

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 03:23:49 GMT

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

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 03:14:19 GMT

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

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:52:07 GMT

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

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 05:12:46 GMT

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.