Strikethrough

Haven't blogged in forever, and I'm only blogging now because I don't feel like working on my computer projects. Is there gonna be a transit strike tomorrow? It sure looks that way. And thus I stand to lose two dollars to Tom -- I made two bets, and I've already lost out on one in that Tower Video did let us come in and browse around with our Tall Chai Lattes. The times they are a-changin'. My job has a "contigency plan" in place so that we'll all be able to work from home, but you know what that amounts to? SNOW DAY! For those who aren't blessed to live in New York, the Metropolitan Transit Authority is one of the most grotesquely mismanaged bureaucracies in... well, in New York City; on the other hand, the strike we're looking at is basically going to cripple the city. I mean, literally, there will be no public transportation tomorrow, and everybody rides public transportation here. So. And then the next two weeks I have off. Anyone wanna take me on a trip with you? I'm rich and I love "fun."

I finished Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, and while it was beautiful in many ways, I still have the same complaint about it that I did at the outset -- that is, that the narrator is so goddamn affectless and, I don't know, fucking blase that it totally spoils the impact of you know, the cosmic horror. I think their design problems began when they named the guy "Jack Walters." Clearly he's gonna be a boring guy. And, I mean, you'd think he'd have a bit more of an internal monologue having been diagnosed as an "acute schizophrenic"

I bought Christmas presents for practically all of my friends this year, which is pretty rare for me, Fagin. Got a lot of the shit on eBay, and I actually ran into a bit of a sticky situation -- I bid on an auction before looking at the seller's feedback rating, and when a conscientious eBay user notified me, it turned out the seller's rating was 0 -- equal positive and negative feedback, which is extremely rare for eBay, which is basically a big cuddle-fest around the clock. Well, I read up on the rules on bid retraction, and it turned out I didn't have much recourse except to watch in terror as the seller's rating dropped to -2 and I got two more e-mails from other eBay members claiming to have been "scammed" by the seller. Well, the auction ended, and I won the item, but by the grace of the eBay fraud prevention team, the seller's account was suspended, releasing me from the contract I'd entered when I placed the bid. The seller responded a few days later to the panicky e-mails I'd sent her with an e-mail that includes the following excerpt (sic):

I know that this is a inconvience to you, but imagine my situation, I am having to close down all my checkings and savings accounts even the accounts I have for my boys college funds even though they have just been started due to they are only 2 and 4, but it pays to start early on things like this for the kids now a days with the economy and the world in the shape that it is in... I am sending the item out that day, that is if it is before 12:00, because at noon is when we take the packages up,. the boys lay down for their nap and we have my niece to babysit them while we run to the post office

Well, cry me a river, sister.

Congratulations to Tom on getting a line in on the episode of The Colbert Report introducing Bob Costas! Really... really proud of you, I guess.

So who wants to see King Kong with me? Who wants to see The Gay Cowboy Movie with me? Merry Christmas!