I updated My Sites, and it’s now current with all my places and URLs. Including my Twitter, Tumblr and newest site, A Dance In Blood Velvet
Author: intothisshadow
Xena Site Down
The Xena site has been down for a while now, have to do with the expiry of the original domain warrior-princess.net. It will be back up as soon as possible! Gertie is working on it.
Machines Breaking
Two of my machines broke down this week: first on Sunday, the pipe thingy that brings water into the washing machine and the television on Tuesday 🙁
Mom’s boyfriend was able to fix the pipe, although he had to hunt down a couple of extra parts because one of the parts that came with the new pipe didn’t fit with the faucet. The washing machine is almost 25 years old, and this is the first thing that needed fixing. Still works great, despite being so old *knocks on wood*
Then something broke in the television – there’s no picture, just a black screen and a narrow light/color line about in the middle of the screen. The audio works normally.
The television is also old, 15 years going on 16. If it can’t be fixed, I won’t have the money to buy a new one until I get a job that lasts for more than a month or two. I don’t even want to think about what to do about the television at the moment – whether to try and have it fixed or not. I also can’t get it fixed if that costs too. And I’m not even sure it’s not waste of money to get it fixed now (assuming that whatever it is that’s broken and that fixing would cost what ‘m prepared to pay to fix it)… it’s been repaired once before already and maybe having one or other thing brake soon there after. It’s starting to be that old. Might be better in the long run just write it off now, and buy a good new television the next time I have money enough to big purchases. I can’t ask Mom to buy me one as a birthday or Christmas present, considering how much she’s already helping me with my meds. And even if I could, these new LCD or whatever televisions are so different from this old generation that I’m familiar with, that I’d have to research them anyway for a couple of months just to learn what’s good and what’s not, and whether they all support full HD already (a couple of years back, I know they didn’t even though they were advertised as HD ready) because that’s going to be coming along here apparently around 2015 or so if I remember right. So for now, I think it might best to get a USB tv stick for my computer (I can get one for about 20 euros), and then take my time learning about these new fangled televisions and what’s the evolution of them is going to be in the next few years. So that I don’t buy a tv that is inadequate in couple of years when HD broadcasts start.
Hmm. Food for though. Once thing’s f0r sure – absolutely not gonna do anything about until autumn. Too hot to learn that stuff now!
I just worry that all my house hold appliances start to break down now – the washing machine is the oldest, the television the second oldest. All the others were bought when I moved here and that was 13 years ago. They don’t build them to last anymore and the next ones I have to buy; I’ll be lucky if they’ll last 5 years 🙁 I’ve lost count how many of my friends have had to replace machines when they break down about five years after purchase. It seems like they make them to last only until the warranty expires, and then within a year from that, they break down. Just like my previous laptop. The machines should last longer than that! It’s uneconomic and unenviromental to have to replace machines every few years. You’re not supposed to buy a new one every few years (if you have money to do it, which I don’t)!
On the other hand, I’m the kind of person who thinks all machines should last for a long time, the bigger and more expensive it is, the longer. Instead they all, computers, cell phones, washing machines, fridges, they all seem to break down 3-4 after purchase these days. I don’t want to buy that, that’s wasting money. And also, IMO, what you buy, you should use it as long as it works well and fills your needs; you don’t buy a new one just because this one is already 2 years old and doesn’t have all the new toys!
The only things I can see logic buying a new one are computers every few years – and that only if you use programs that new versions can’t run well on a machine that’s a few years old. All but one of my computers I bought because of that. And the one I didn’t buy because of that, I bought because the previous one broke down 2,5 five years after purchase and fixing it would’ve been almost as costly as buying a new one, especially because it had been already repaired three times under warranty. I had planned to think about a new computer at the earliers, 5 years after purchase. But say like Mom and her boyfriend? They don’t use theirs every day, never use anything but internet for e-mail and Word occasionally. They don’t use it even every week. Usage like that? The computer should last for them for the rest of their lives. It’s 3,5 years old and it better not break.
Huh, this post became something of a rant. But I just hate the thought that the next washing machine or television or whatever I need to buy, is more likely to break down soon after the warranty expired than not :<
Random Things
First off, I’m dealing better with the hot weather than I did the last three summers 😀 I guess it’s because the migraine situation is so much better now and all my energy isn’t going to withstanding it. It’s been about three weeks of hot weather now, and today is the first time I feel like I can’t deal with it… just last summer, it would’ve been the third day the latest. I still hate it, but so far I don’t seem to notice it as much as I used to. And today I notice I think because:
<rant>I’m tired – I slept only 2-3 hours last night because some neighbors of mine got up/got in at 4am and talk as loud as it had been in the middle of the day. They continued this until 7am :< I don’t get people like this: I can’t talk outside all my private stuff in voice that anyone who happens be within 50 meters hears every god damn word. Don’t they have need for privacy??????? And even if they don’t, how about being considerate? Just because it’s summer, don’t mean there ain’t people getting up early to go to work and who should be allowed to get their much needed sleep! Assholes.</end rant>
Maybe I should be grateful I’m unemployed? At least I don’t have to deal with the desire to go and strangle the assholes because they’re forcing me to go to work with whopping 3 hours of sleep.
In other news, watched the first episode of Torchwood’s season 4 today. I thought the US version was supposed to be a reboot/reimagining/whatever? But this continued where season 3 left off. Otherwise, I liked it. It was kind of weird though, Torchwood comprised of only two people. I’m happy though, to have another scifi series back on the telly. And heard Falling Skies got renewed and there’ll be season 2. Glad of that too, the shows been nothing special so far, but it’s scifi and and scifi not getting canceled (nearly) always makes me happy 🙂 I like it so much better than V (2009) when it comes to writing humans – it’s feels like it’s about all of us, even though there’s few characters focused on. This was my problem with V – the human side was supposed to be about all of us humanity, but failed spectacularly in that because they kept the focus too tightly on Erica 🙁 Falling Skies reminds me of the original V in that sense – these a few key characters, but feels like these characters are part of a community, and there are lives and stories that exist beyond the camera. I never got that feeling about the human side of V – it was all about the very few inviduals: Erica and her pals, although the subject matter required wider scope. So for that alone, Falling Skies feels more real (read: better) to me than the 2009 V ever did.
Health Update + Random Thoughts: Firefly
The 2nd and last last tooth that needed to be removed was taken out this morning. The time reserved for the procedure was one hour, and I was mentally all prepared for just as problematic and painful removal and recovery as the other tooth. And it was… easy! D:
I was in and out in only 15 minutes; the procedure itself took maybe 5 minutes. This time there wasn’t need for much local anaesthetic like last time, and I didn’t even feel it going in. And then afterward, I didn’t really notice it at all unlike last time when half of my face was numb for 5-6 hours after the procedure.
Another delightful surprise – so far there’s been no pain whatsoever 😀 Keeping fingers crossed the recovery goes well and that there’s no infection this time again.
On the migraine front, head’s been a little bit worse the last four weeks or so. Due to heat waves, Mom’s breast cancer and me being nervous about today’s tooth removal operation. Still, the head’s didn’t get anything near like it was just say, eight months ago. I’m cautiously optimistic that maybe meds are effective enough so that I won’t respond to stress anymore by the migraine going bad again. Which happened three times when there was stress comparable to the above issues in my life. Now it’s been more of a pressure in my head than an out right attack, which has been great because it means I’m notlosing my ability to function. I do not miss those night and days when just sitting and breathing made my head feel like it was going to explode. So, a definite step forward on this front too 😀
On happier news, I rewatched all of Firefly the last couple of weeks and to my utter surprise… I loved it. A Lot. Which I didn’t the first time around. I think it was because, I had just finished watching Buffy, and it being a Joss Whedon production, I think I expected (read: wanted) something totally different than what I got. Propably a cross between Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Star Trek or something. And then there was of course the issue of Nathan Fillion – I hated him in Buffy, and I hated him in a few other things that I saw him in before Buffy, and I was really sour that he was in my scifi and everytime he was on screen I was irritated. Which, considering, was pretty much all the time.
So now when I rewatched, I was all prepared to hate his guts again… and I didn’t. I actually liked him, a lot, as Mal Reynolds. And I really liked all the other characters too 😀 I was devasted we didn’t get more of Firefly. It had everything I look for in a tv series these days. Things like continuity and character development and pacing that let me get to know all the characters and the world instead of rushing by them to special effects and action scenes. TPTB were idiots when they canceled this series.
And now I wonder, have I totally misjudged Nathan Fillion?! I hated him so much after Buffy/Firefly, that if a series or a movie has him in it, I have not watched it. Is Firefly and Mal Reynolds just a fluke, or is he actually not irritating and it’s just the characters? I’d lumped him with the other actors and actress that I didn’t like no matter what role they played, but I disliked him more intensily than I did any other. But maybe it’s more like… I’ve had a few actors that a role they played really clicked with me as in I got nuts about that character, but all the other roles before and after were just… meh. Leonard Nimoy and his Spock are an example of that, and Kevin Conroy and his Captain Rusty Wallace another. So maybe this Nathan Fillion thing is a variation of that?