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Thursday, March 18th, 2010
(comment on this) Monday, March 15th, 2010
mizunoaoi
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4:07p
Generic Status Update
If we've learned anything about car shopping online it's that various places do not update their stock. We've already had two sell cars we asked about that were on their website one day to one full week prior.
The guy who caused the accident's insurance company got a hold of us... because they can't get a hold of their own client! We're going to give our insurance company his insurance company's info so they can work this out between themselves. He's still being an ass, though.
Father's lucky to have medicare. We'd be out tens of thousands if not.
Four years ago today I met ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) tsubomi in person. Happy anniversary my darling. I love you just as much, if not more, today than then.
Today's dreariness calls for chili I think. A good anniversary meal since it's a favorite of both of us.
Something is definitely weird though. We chanced a crappy Applebee's yesterday and... it was decent. Nay, good even! Great service, good food. The fact the Gamestop forgot our pre-order bonus balances that out, though. But we had awesome people at Starbucks, too, so all in all yesterday was pretty good. Pokémon, too.
current mood:  blank
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(comment on this) Thursday, March 11th, 2010
mizunoaoi
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12:03p
Where things stand.
Well, can't say things have gotten worse at least. Father is healing, but the nightmare with the insurance company is just beginning. Father had to sell his truck, no, that's not right. Father had to pay to get rid of his truck sounds more correct. $100 plus the truck to pay for the flip, tow, and 8 days in the impound. So we couldn't even sell it for scrap.
I didn't know the victim in an accident got sent the bill for the ambulance ride. $800 bill for going to the hospital in an ambulance.
I already complained about Michigan no fault law didn't I? Most we can get from the 27 year old moving violation is $500. IF, and that's a big if we are lucky we can get back all the expenses we've paid in as a result of this accident from the insurance company.
Because right now we're out a couple thousand. And, yes, we. I've helped out quite a bit when my Father was Mr. Mittens.
And in the middle of all of this tsubomi is sick. Don't know with what, yet. She's had nausea but hasn't thrown up. Actually, her symptoms sound a lot like the NyQuil jingle.
Me? I'm.... fine, actually. I'm not hurt, I'm not sick, and I'm not indebted. I had some friends over to show them the Monster Hunter 3 demo I picked up. It's Monster Hunter, can't say much more about it. Had them play Dante's Inferno and God of War III demos to get their opinions. Ultimately I think I'll pick up Dante's Inferno. And Darksiders, because it's a Zelda clone. Eventually anyway. This isn't a good month for that right now.
Nope, this month is Pokémon and New Moon. Already bought tsubomi an early birthday present: Little Big Planet. It's a cute game, she likes it. I like the concept of level creation myself.
thegreatoni finally, after what seems like years of abuse, quit his guild in WoW. They openly accused him of not pulling his weight, when he could slack off and still do better than half the raid. He doesn't think he wants to renew his subscription this time around either. I think he's right. When a game is no longer fun, why play it?
Got to see my Mother again, for a short time. That was nice. I should run down their way someday and visit, but I've got too much stuff to deal with up here at the moment.
But, all in all, it's not that bad, somehow.
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(4 comments | comment on this) Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
ruakh
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7:14p
Writer's Block: 420 friendly?
I agree with the legalization of marijuana, because I think the government shouldn't encroach on personal freedoms without strong reasons. I have never smoked marijuana, and I never expect to — whether or not it ever becomes legal — but if my fellow-citizens want to, I don't see why the government should try to prevent that.
That said, I don't necessarily agree with individual States' "legalizing" marijuana, because Federal law prohibits it. States with their own anti-marijuana statutes should certainly repeal them, but they shouldn't make any pretense of thereby "legalizing" it, since that leaves law enforcement (and other agents of the state) in a difficult position, and exposes citizens to prosecution that they have reason not to expect. (It's true that ignorance of the law is no excuse, but it's surely not States' job to promulgate that non-exculpatory ignorance.)
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(8 comments | comment on this) Sunday, March 7th, 2010
ruakh
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8:23a
Emma.
Yevgenia and I went to see Emma last night. I thought it was good, but there are aspects of it that I didn't like. The stage deprives us of Emma's inner monologue, and (given the time constraints) lessens the opportunity to show that, while others think very highly of her and frequently flatter her, she herself is generally quite aware of her shortcomings, and honest about them, and very much able to laugh at herself. Given that, I think a stage Emma should be somewhat less ridiculous than the Emma in the book; but instead, they make her somewhat more ridiculous, both in scripting and in acting. They then try to ( cut for some spoilers — not huge ones, but still ) That said, I wonder if some of my criticisms might stem from my having finished the book early yesterday morning. A movie adaptation can never compare to the book, and that's probably true of plays as well; so it probably would have been better to read the book a few months beforehand, and have fully digested it, and have read a few other books since then, rather than going almost directly from book-version to play-version and seeing the contrast so minutely. I did overhear one lady comment, as we were leaving, that she thought it was a wonderful adaption, so while Yevgenia (who read the book just before I did) seemed to feel much as I did, clearly not everyone else agreed.
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(12 comments | comment on this) Saturday, March 6th, 2010
ruakh
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2:20p
Gotcha?
Every so often, I get a letter from Allstate with this lede:
> Nearly 7 of 10 customers who have switched to Allstate PAID LESS.
Leaving aside the odd shift from present perfect to simple past, implying that the customers no longer pay less — given other strange turns of phrase in the letter, I'm inclined to chalk that up to poor copy-editing — this is in general a weird claim. Allow me to rephrase it a bit, to highlight its weirdness:
> More than 3 of 10 customers who have switched to Allstate PAID AT LEAST AS MUCH.
The initial claim is really only meaningful if we expect that switching insurance providers has nothing to do with cost — that those nearly-7-of-10 were just pleasantly surprised when they made the switch and found their bill was less — but the entire campaign belies that idea.
So, why did these customers switch? The letter does state that Allstate has great service, but overall, what it's really shouting about is the lower cost. Is it selling itself short? Did the customers really switch because of Allstate's great service? Or did the customers switch out of an expectation of lower costs, that did not materialize? Is this an example of "gotcha capitalism"?
(I really don't mean to besmirch Allstate: I think it's very likely that it's just a really poorly thought-through advertising campaign. After all, who really knows why those customers switched?)
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(comment on this)
mizunoaoi
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1:15p
When will the torment end?
Yesterday I took my Father to his doctor appointment. What was supposed to be a 1:45 appointment turned into a 2:15 appointment. This was a visit to get stitches removed. Long story short we went in for a 1:15 and didn't get out until after 4:00. Which made our plans all kittywampus for the day.
We tried to get in to where Father's truck was. Thankfully they had an open sign that day and we got to talk with a human. We got in and I took a lot of pictures of the wreck. The guy we were talking to was very nice and helpful, even giving us the right number to contact "Chuck" the name behind "Chuck's Towing". Chuck is a hard man to get a hold of. Perhaps for the following reason.
I took Father home and left again to run some errands for him. I return home and Father tells me he got a hold of Chuck. And that he owes some god awful amount of money! $25 per day it sits in the lot. $100 to flip the the wreck back onto it's wheels. Unknown amount for the tow. And they don't work weekends. And yes, they charge you for holding the vehicle over the weekend even though they're not open. And yes they charge you even when it wasn't your fault. Father had no choice but to give them the truck, and still owe $100 for flipping it back over onto it's wheels.
So we lost the truck, can only get a max of $500 because of Michigan's No Fault law, and OWE MONEY to some jackass even though my Father was the victim!
We have to have a chat with our insurance company about this.
Speaking of the insurance company we had to do all the footwork. They wouldn't send a claims adjuster out. So that's problem number one - we had to try to get pictures of the wreck. Took those to the insurance. Nope, have to take them to a body shop and get in writing it's totaled. And yes, we have to have THAT before they can begin to file for our piddly little $500. Which I'm sure I'll have burned half of in FUEL doing all of this running around that THEY should of been doing.
I bitched about how hard it was to get the police report before, right? Because they do it online now? Hell, we had to wait 5 days to get THAT because they weren't too quick in getting it filed and posted.
Should bill the police for that 5 day for the $25 x 5 Chuck charged us because it wasn't our fault.
I am so pissed at the situation.
current mood:  pissed off
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(3 comments | comment on this) Thursday, March 4th, 2010
mizunoaoi
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10:15p
And we're back.
Had no internet/computer for the better part of last night/today. Had to clear the area in front of most all of the downstairs windows because they were getting replaced today. Well, my cords couldn't reach very far so I just unplugged everything. tsubomi and Father had computers and internet though.
Not much to talk about. I ran away for the day. Spent it in Kalamazoo. Tired Kumo for the first time. One of the "new" sushi and hibachi places up that way. Not bad. Good sushi. Good miso. I got lucky because Thursday is $1 sushi day. I'll take $2.50 sushi for $1, sure. We didn't eat much because we were just testing the waters. So we stopped by Noodle's & Co as well. I followed my meal at Kumo with Japanese Pan Noodles at Noodles & Co.
Need to get the trimming back up on the windows. Too dark to do anything now though. I'm oddly hungry again... That's Japanese/Chinese food for you I guess.
Tomorrow I need to take my Father to another doctor appointment. We'll see what happens. Father hasn't been healing all that fast. One of his hands is swollen - but we both think it's because the bandages are too tight. Heck we had to make a couple adjustments prior to that hand before.
I've had some trouble swallowing the past few days. Best I can figure is an infection of some sort - from my broken tooth. Yeah. But I can't do anything about it until Father is more healed up.
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(comment on this)
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