Never Help Unappreciative Friends

On By Michel McDonaldIn Computer, Friends and Family, TechLeave a comment

I have a friend who used to live next door to us.  She was, as we gay’s called them, my “fag hag“.  That is until she moved away and then I didn’t see her again for many years.

All of a sudden, out of nowhere she calls me a couple of weeks ago begging me for my help.  She broke her sisters computer and knowing that I used to build computers for a (semi) living, she begged me to come over to her sister’s house to help her.

I didn’t want to because I’m a hermit.  I don’t leave the house unless it’s to go to the store, doctors appointments or to take the dog out.  I have a huge case of Body dysmorphic disorder so I just don’t like being around people out of fear they are constantly judging me.  Not just my face, skin and hair but also because I have facial ticks.

But what could I do?  She was talking so loud and so fast on the phone, I could barely understand what she was saying so to get her to stop begging and to shut up I said ok, come get me.

Her sister pulls up to our front door in a few minutes and she brings me to her house.  She drops me off and I go upstairs, look at the computer but I can’t do anything about it, the hard drive has crashed.  I was there for a couple of hours switching hard drives since they had 3 of them but none of them worked.  They all started to load a different version of Windows but always went to blue screen which was a clear indication that the hard drive had crashed.

Her sister finally takes me home and I think that’s the end of it.

About a week ago the sister calls me to tell me she’s at the computer store I told her to go to and asks me what kind of hard drive to buy.  Naturally I told her she needs to have her crashed hard drive with her so she gets the right one.  It has to have the same configuration as her old one otherwise a new hard drive (that fits todays standards) may not work in her (I don’t know how old) motherboard.

That happened to me once, I bought a brand new 320gb hard drive in 2007 for the computer I built in 2002 and it wouldn’t work.  I ended up having to buy all new parts to build a new computer around that hard drive.

So she gets the hard drive and calls me asking if I’ll install it for her.  I begrudgingly said I’d do it.  My former BFF called to tell me that she has the mouse at work so I’ll have to bring my own.  Well, that doesn’t work because mine is wireless, it won’t work with the Windows installation.

Anyway, long story short (too late?) I’m there for 6 hours, we cleared the CMOS because it had a password that nobody knew and I had to access it to get the job done.  I install Windows and helped get her started with the windows updates.

The sister takes me home and she offers to pay me but, what do you say when someone offers to pay you money?  I’m sure most people would be like oh sure that’ll be $60 (@$10/hr) please.  I’m too embarrassed by money.  We were broke and starving and we could’ve used the money, even $10 to get us some food but I said no thanks.  She offered to buy me a pumpkin for Halloween or a Turkey for Thanksgiving.  I’m not gonna go grocery shopping with her lol.  Just take me home lol.

The next morning at 7am, the sister calls me accusing me of stealing her neighbors mouse.  Excuse me?  Are you kidding me?  She knew I had a wireless mouse and she saw me grab MY mouse.  I even watched her hand her neighbors mouse to her.  I get paid $0 for 6 hours of work and I get accused of stealing.  Uncool!

Well, it has been over a week and my so-called “fag hag” has not once called or emailed me via Facebook to thank me for getting her sisters computer working.  If anything, she owes me the money because she is the one who messed up her sisters computer in the first place.  But not even a simple “thank you” from her.

I will NEVER help another person who is not a permanent fixture in my life who I know is ungrateful and will not even thank me.  I believe in Karma and I know that my karma is in very good standing.

Update 2011-01-23:  She called me a few weeks later acting as if nothing happened and I told her I was pissed off.  I told her what her sister did and she said she knew and she thought I was pissed off at her sister but I said no, I’m pissed off at you.  She asked why and I told her because this is the first I’m hearing from her and I still haven’t heard a thank you for helping your sister out.

Then I told her that I removed her as Facebook friends but not because of this but because I am better friends with her ex who demanded that I remove her from my Facebook friends.  She understood why I removed her and we haven’t spoken since.

Dirty Text Message

On By Michel McDonaldIn Cell Phone, Joke, TechLeave a comment

Darrin was at work the other day and his phone gave him that text message ring.  It’s 1 little ring with a vibrate so it doesn’t say “answer me” just that “you got a text”.  Unfortunately, he got it while he was helping a customer and since he is new to having a cell phone, he doesn’t know the difference in the rings.

He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and saw the message on the screen and pushed the appropriate button and downloaded the text.  This is what he saw:

FWD:FW: Fw: New Message

“Ricky has broken his leg and his buddy Mick comes over to see him. Mick says, “How you doin?” “Ricky says, “Okay, but do me a favor mate, run upstairs and get me slippers, me feet are freezing.” Mick goes upstairs and sees Ricky’s gorgeous 19-year-old twin daughters lying on the bed naked. He says, “Your dad sent me up here to have sex with both of you.” They say, “Prove it.” Mick shouts downstairs, “Ricky, both of em?” Ricky shouts back, “Of course both of em, What’s the point of f***in one?”

First of all, Darrin barely has a sense of humor and second, he just bought the phone so his phone number is brand new so he can kind of understand that people are going to be getting the wrong number but wouldn’t you think you would have your friends correct phone number in your contact list?

Darrin called that phone number up and when the voice mail picked up he starts screaming into the phone saying (I’m not quoting him) that this sexual lesbian pornographic text message was sent to his 10-year-old daughter blah blah blah.

The point he was trying to make was that this message could have gone to a child instead of an adult.  Basically saying, get the right number from now on or you’re gonna be in big trouble.  He threatened to call the cops but that was just to put the fear of god into them.

My point for blogging about this is that if you are going to send text messages to people, whether they are clean or not, make sure you got the right number because you could end up sending nude pictures to the wrong person, next time it could go to a FBI agent or a child.  Either way, you could end up going to jail because it is illegal to send nude images in emails and I’m sure, in text emails over the phone, especially to children.

Note that I blurred out the certain body parts and faces of the women in the image above and I cleaned up the “f-word” so it doesn’t offend.

Dreamland Crocotta by Karl Pfeiffer

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, eBook, Kindle, TechLeave a comment

If you are a fan of Ghost Hunters and Ghost Hunters Academy, then you are familiar with GHA season 1 winner Karl Pfeiffer.  He’s not just a famous TV personality but he’s also a writer.  He has written this short story called Dreamland Crocotta.

I didn’t know that he was a writer until he mentioned it on Twitter.  I found his book in the Nook store by searching for his name and he confirmed that this was his book.  It was only $1.99 but well worth the price for the 19 pages that it has.  It seems to only be in e-book format but sold on many different websites.

He used Smashbook to publish it but it’s sold on the Barnes & Noble website (through the Nook or the website), Kobo books (for the Kobo Reader) as well as the Diesel eBooks website.  If you have a Kindle, you might be out of luck as far as buying it through the Kindle store but you might be able to convert it to Kindle format in Calibre.

Synopsis:

“A short story. Overcome by insomnia and depression, Mitch Haloa passes his days alone in his neglected home until he begins speaking to a mysterious voice that creeps within the forest behind his house; A voice that soon haunts his every thought, that prods at the cracks in his already fragile reality; that calls for Mitch to lose himself, to leave one darkness in favor of another…”

It is listed in these categories: creature, dark, horror, insomnia, paranormal, psychological

It is pretty dark but as you read it more you will begin to understand Mitch’s plight, why he is so depressed and why he is hearing voices in the forest behind his house.  You will start to understand a little better why his life has turned in this dark direction.  It may be a short story but it is worth the read.  I applaud Karl on his efforts and look forward to more of his short (or long) stories.

(y) (y)

On a side note, Karl is who got me into wanting to learn how to make those Hemp beaded chokers.  When I first saw him on Ghost Hunters Academy I saw his choker and thought it was so cool.  It wasn’t until he was on Ghost Hunters International that I remembered his chocker.  That night I got on Google and started researching them; what they are called and where to buy them.

I found out that they were hemp and macramé so I started researching that too.  I went to several different websites with macramé patterns until I found a similar necklace.  Then we went to Michael’s where I spent nearly a fortune on hemp and beads trying to recreate his.  Although, it was nearly impossible since I had already forgotten what his looked like, I ended up making my own design.  I also learned how to make the rings and bracelets.  Pretty soon I started looking like a hippy with all my hemp jewelry on.  What I was missing was my tie dye t-shirt and my bald man hippy long hair in the back.

Anyway, I want to thank Karl for broadening my [craft] horizons by wearing his choker on Ghost Hunters lol.  If it wasn’t for him, I probably would’ve never had an interest in adding Macramé to my list of crafts that I do.

The Vampire’s Assistant

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, MoviesLeave a comment

I watched The Vampire’s Assistant last night.  This movie was very strange.  Instead of being for 1 book it seems like it was for all of them†.  It just seemed like they were jumping around too fast, the movie didn’t explain anything.  I mean, it summarized a lot of stuff and even changed things around.  Although, I only say that because of how and where Steve was bit by Madam Octa and when he found out that Darren was still alive.

I do know for sure that I am definitely going to continue reading the books now because I feel like I have to find out what really happened in the storyline.  The movie was good visually but not so good at explaining things.  It was too fast.

I rented it from the Red Box but I think what I want to do is buy the DVD.  Better yet, I’d like to eventually get a Blu-Ray player and who knows, Santa might have his little elves building one for me right now as we speak.  I’d love to get it on Blu-Ray because I know the Blu-Ray has better extras to watch.  Once I’ve finished reading all 12 books I might go back to the movie and watch it again.

Madam Octa was cool in this movie, she was blue and red, just like Spiderman hehe.  I love the books but the movie for me was just a tease.  Also, is it just me or was John C. Reilly hot in this movie or what?  It’s true, being a vampire makes you hotter.  I never even gave him a thought until now.

†I was wrong about this.  I have read the first 3 books and only the first book was in the movie, the 2nd and 3rd were not even anywhere close to being a part of the movie.  I assumed only because they seemed to be rushing through all of these stories.  I will continue to read the entire series to get more out of it.

New Cell Phone from NET10

On By Michel McDonaldIn Cell Phone, Products I Like, TechLeave a comment

I was about to start watching Cirque Du Freak earlier today and before I could hit play on the DVD remote control, Darrin told me that he had to go to Sears to pay his Sears card.  While we were there he said “I wonder if they sell cell phones” because he has a job interview tomorrow (he finally got a call back) and if he gets the job then he will need a new cell phone.  My old 2002 Nokia 3390 cell phone isn’t working out anymore.  The battery never keeps it’s charge anymore and it’s just too old for him to look professional.

So we get there and see a display for Verizon with prepaid cell phones and their phone cards.  The phone itself was only $20 but it was only 1 style of phone.  We went downstairs to the electronics department where they have many different wireless providers.  We were looking at the pamphlets for Verizon and the plan was too confusing.  Next to it was Virgin Mobile but they only had expensive phones.  One was a Kyocera Loft and the other was an LG Rumor Touch.  I don’t remember what it was, I do remember how expensive it was though.

Darrin went and got a sales clerk to get the Virgin Kyocera Loft phone out so he could buy it but thought to ask which company was better.  The sales clerk pointed out that each phone call was .25¢ per minute.  That’s a bit much and it was a good thing that he found that because Darrin was about to buy it.

He asked which one has the least cost per minute and the sales clerk pointed out the NET10 display.

It was a good thing that he showed us the Net10 phones because number 1 they were cheaper.  Darrin almost spent $70 on the Virgin Kyocera Loft and he almost spent $100 on minutes for it.

The phone that he did buy was the Samsung T401G which has a slide out QWERTY keyboard.  It was on sale for $59 (normally $79) and he also bought a $60 phone card which is 600 minutes.  He got a bonus of 170 minutes as well when I activated it.

For some reason it didn’t have a memory card so he’ll have to buy that extra if he wants to take pictures.  He just needs it for making/receiving calls at work, he doesn’t need games.  He connected to AOL from his phone already but it used minutes so that’s not a good idea for him.  If he had a monthly plan with unlimited web then that’s one thing but he chose pre-paid.

Text messaging is only 3¢ per text which is ok.  I don’t know who he’s gonna text though since I don’t have a cell phone lol.

I hope that he gets the job, keep your fingers crossed.

Update: He did get the job and he is very happy there.

Noisy Neighbors

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

UGH! My neighbor has been cutting all the branches off of his tree right outside my bedroom window which makes it 100% impossible for me to concentrate on anything today. He’s been at it for the last 2 hours and he’s only maybe halfway done, he has 2 trees and one of them so far is just a stub now lol. It only has a few branches on it and it looks so funny. Darrin says that your supposed to do that to that type of tree this time of year. So far 1 down 1 to go.

So since I can’t read I thought maybe I might watch a movie, I rented Cirque du Freak from the Red Box at the grocery store so I’ll be enjoying that for now. I wanted to wait until I’ve readall the books first but since I can’t read right now and I kind of want my fix, I’m going to watch it.

I think watching it will help me put a voice to all the names in the book because when I first started reading the first book yesterday, when it came to the vampire, I had a typical Transylvanian Dracula voice in my head complete with accent. As if all vampires talk like him. I remembered who played that role so then I pictured him as the vampire but I kind of forgot his voice so I made one up to what I think I remember how he sounds.

Anyway, he’s starting his machine up again so I’m going to start mine… my DVD machine that is.  Volume cranked all the way up to drown out his noise.

Cirque du Freak

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, Movies, NookLeave a comment

(This is not a book review)

I have wanted to see this movie since it was first released in theaters but since one us in the house doesn’t like horror, the other (me) never gets to see it until it’s either on DVD, HBO or Showtime. Although, I still have yet to rent it from the Red Box at the grocery store. I seriously don’t know why I haven’t seen it yet. But right now at this very moment as I sit here typing this out, I’m glad I haven’t seen it yet.

This morning I wanted to start reading a book and I had chosen to start reading the 2nd book of the Belgariad but then I decided it wasn’t going to fit with the theme of this very day, Halloween. I mean sure it has witches and lots of magic but is it Halloween worthy? I think not. I have a queue of books that I want to buy and read and so I searched through the queue and remembered Cirque du Freak.

I got on the Nook store and found the first book for $1.99 for the e-book version. Perfect! I don’t have that much money in the bank for another few days but I have just enough that if I could buy a few of these volumes at $2 each. But I only bought the first one which is called Living Nightmare.

I started reading it after breakfast. It has fewer pages than the paperback version does as mostly all ebooks do but it also had way less than my regular books do. I can usually read 50 pages of a book which probably equals out to 75-100 regular paper back book pages and since this one was 149 pages, I thought, this is going to take 3 days, no problem. If I read half of it then I can shorten it to 2 days no biggy. But, after the live Ghost Hunters investigation was over I figured I’d at least give it a shot and see if I couldn’t just finish this book. And you know what? I did.

The story reeled me in, hook line and sinker. Whatever that means, some fishing term I don’t know. Anyway I was immediately hooked.

Here I am typing this out so late at night after spending so many hours reading, my eyes are tired and blurry and I’m having to squint to read, closing one eye making it easier lol. But I want to make my point before I go to bed and forget about it in the morning.

It was the most awesome $2 book I have ever taken a full day to read. Actually, it’s the first book that has taken me a full day to read. I love it and I can’t wait for the next one.

I wonder though, should I just go ahead and rent the movie or read the next book tomorrow and can I read the whole thing tomorrow like I read today? And is this a new trend for me? Reading these books one a day? How many are there? Do I need to read the entire series before seeing the movie?

Ok I’m too tired for all these questions since it’s 1:30am. I need to rest my eyes. I just wanted to let it be known that my dyslexia, ADD and learning disability didn’t prevent me from getting through this book, well, it was touch and go but other than that it was pretty easy to read and that is the kind of book I like.

I will start with part 2 tomorrow and hopefully the DVD will either be at the red box tomorrow or I can go into the HBO or Showtime on Demand and find it. I like to watch the movie first, it makes voices in my head for each characters easier so I cam impersonate their accents easier.

To be continued…

Happy Halloween

On By Michel McDonaldIn HolidaysLeave a comment

Halloween is one of my favorite times of year.  Not just because you have a legit excuse to eat candy but because it’s a day that you can pretend to be something you aren’t.

I loved Halloween as a kid but my mother was poor, she couldn’t always buy me a costume.  One year she put an old sheet over me with holes in it for the eyes.  It wasn’t a great costume since it was a pink flowered sheet.  I don’t think anyone was convinced I was a ghost lol.

Sometimes she would get her make-up out and dress me up as a hobo.  I would wear my oldest clothes that had holes in them and she would get them dirty and make the holes bigger.  She would put a 5-o’clock shadow on my face and then she would find a stick and tie a bandanna on one end and it would have socks in it to make it look like it had stuff in there.

Some years when she had the money she would buy a costume but I was never given a choice in the matter.  Here is an example:

This is a pretty lame costume but it’s the only Halloween photo I have.  I was the easter bunny for Halloween lol.

The costumes weren’t always this lame though.  Some years I was dressed up as a clown with the clown hair, some years a cowboy and since my parents loved country music, we all had cowboy hats so that costume didn’t cost a dime.  One year my parents bought fatigues for everyone and we were army people.

No matter how good or bad our costumes were, it was fun to go out and be someone else for a few hours.

When we were old enough, when I was 9, we were sent out on our own.  My sister was 11 and she usually baby sat me anyway and it was a bunch of us, my 3 cousins, my sister and I, we would go around the neighborhood trick or treating in the neighboring apartment buildings.

My parents never took our candy away from us and mixed them together, although they did go through them to make sure there were no razor blades and they would toss out all the fruit.  But then we were given the rest in our bag and allowed to eat that as we wanted to, which was usually until we ended up too sick to eat any more.  Then of course when our tummies felt better we would eat more until eventually the candy was gone.  The bags usually lasted a few days.

Just because I’m all grown up doesn’t mean I don’t still enjoy the holiday.  I started carving pumpkins around 1997 with those cool pattern books with the saws and I would carve a few patterns every year.  The last year I carved a pumpkin was in 2007, that’s because Darrin joined a church that doesn’t allow their members to enjoy Halloween and he wouldn’t let me put my pumpkins outside anymore out of fear that he would get kicked out of his church.

My fun was stamped on but I still enjoy Halloween and I will never stop because I feel that my body may be getting old, my mind is still that little child in that bunny costume.

Happy Halloween everyone!  I hope it’s a great one and I hope you don’t get too many cavities from all the candy you are about to consume.

Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear

On By Michel McDonaldIn Celebrities, Comics, Humor, TVLeave a comment

I woke up late (which is normal since I’m up till 3am most nights) and went into the living room and saw that Darrin was watching this rally in Washington D.C. on CSPAN. I thought, oh great, another Glenn Beck rally? No thanks. Then I saw it was Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. Darrin was complaining about how stupid he thought it was but that didn’t prevent him from watching it all the way through.

I sat and watched it for about an hour with him then went in my room and turned the TV on and it was also on Comedy Central. I looked at the guide and it said Scrubs was supposed to be on. I wanted to see how much longer it was supposed to be on but since it said Scrubs I had no clue. Didn’t TV Guide know this was supposed to be on? I sat and watched the rest of it until it was over and it was pretty good. It was completely commercial free which is unusual for Comedy Central to do without some kind of brand recognition.

Darrin didn’t think it was funny, he complained about how Jon and Stephen kept interrupting the 2 singers who were singing about a train, he said it was completely uncoordinated. I had to remind him that it was part of a skit they were doing. It was obvious and I’m sure they rehearsed it.

There were quite a few singers and it looked like a fun rally that I wouldn’t have minded going to had I been in D.C., awake and knew about it beforehand lol. Then again, it’s a lot of standing, no thanks. I can barely stand long enough to do the dishes let alone stand in a crowd not being able to move an inch for 2 hours.

I actually don’t know for sure that it was 2 hours long and I’m sure those people had to wait several hours before it started. All I knew was that at 12 it was time to change the channel and put on Elvira’s Movie Macabre. I have my priorities you know.

In case you missed it, you can check in with Jon in the Rally to Restore Sanity or with Stephen to Keep Fear Alive. It was pretty entertaining and I appreciated what Jon said at the very end about tolerance and hate. Bravo Jon Stewart.

Finished One Book, Onto The Next

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, eBook, NookLeave a comment

Well I finished reading the 9th Xanth novel today “Golem in the Gears” and that was the final Xanth novel that was sent to me a few years ago. My friend Alyce who sent them to me didn’t ask for them back, otherwise I probably would’ve put more of a rush into reading them. I’m not going to sell them on Yardsellr though because I don’t know that she won’t want them back eventually.

I have a lot of choices for my next book since I’ve been getting tons of free e-books from Barnes & Noble through the Nook store. Every Friday I go into “The Daily” on my Nook and see their “Free Fridays” from the Unbound Nook and BN EReader blog. I think that I have gotten 3 free e-books so far from the Free Fridays. And actually, you can get tons of free e-books as you are browsing for whatever subject. I can’t count how many free e-books I have gotten that way. This Nook sure has paid for itself with all the free e-books I got out of it.

I have a lot of choices for my next novel to start reading tomorrow and I think it will be the 2nd book in the Belgariad which is “Queen of Sorcery” by David Eddings. I read the first one last month and I think that it’s only right that I read the 2nd one this month and then one every month until I have finished the series. I’ve had these books since 2007 and haven’t even touched them.

I have until next week to finish it so I can buy the 3rd Sookie Stackhouse novel which I plan to read 1 every month until the next season of True Blood starts. I figure it would give me a better insight into the show and the characters. Although, the show is a not even the same as the books. They changed so much for the show by adding or deleting characters and story lines. Even if I do read all the books I’m always going to be surprised in the new plot so the show is actually more of an alternate reality from the books.

You know, ever since I bought this Nook I have been reading every single day. I actually skipped 1 day and it was torture to skip it too, I really genuinely wanted to read lol. It’s so unusual for me to read this much but I guess I figured since I spent so much money on all these books and the Nook I might as well read them.

A friend says she is proud of me for reading so much but is that really something to be proud of someone for? I mean, it’s just reading. Well, I guess her reason for it is more because I refused to read for the first 35 years of my life then all of a sudden I decide I wanted to start reading and now look at me, I’m a book-worm. I know it’s not much but in the last few years I have finished reading 32 books, 10 of them in the last couple months since I bought my Nook. I think it’s pretty good since it takes me 4-5 days to read a 200-300 page novel.

Next month after I read the 3rd Sookie Stackhouse novel I’m going to start to re-read the final Harry Potter novel before I go see it in theaters. That should take longer than 4-5 days unless I spend 8 hours a day reading it just like I did back in 2007 when I read it originally. Although, I’m pretty sure I remember everything that I read the first time so who knows if I really will read it again. I’m not much into repeating the same book.

My aunt says that her daughter-in-law re-reads books all the time, sometimes about 5 times because she always misses stuff the first time. I personally think that if you pay enough attention to the details and not try to read it so dang fast, you might not miss anything. That’s the trouble with reading so fast, you are in such a hurry to read it that you miss a ton of stuff. If you read at a normal pace which takes longer then you will get more out of it. The time it took to read it 5 times, she could’ve just read it at a normal pace one time and gotten more out of the experience of the story she’s reading.

It’s not a race. Who are you trying to impress? Because I’m not impressed when a person tells me that they read an entire book in a few hours because I know they missed a ton of stuff that is important to the story line. If you’re going to be a book-worm then be passionate about what you are reading, not about how fast you read.

Wow, I feel like an after school special.