News from the Weirdo
And welcome back to Unfiltered Journal, with your host, Darren Blake! (Hold for applause.)
Okay, in all seriousness, the only public entry I have done in over a month was yesterday's birthday greeting to the wonderful, marvelous, fantastic, and all-around good person, Tanya. We lubs her.
(The closest to public I did before that was a friend-locked ego moment. Everything else has been filtered, in one form or another.)
NaNoWriMo was last month. (National Novel Writing Month -- but you knew that.) I won -- barely -- with 51,933 words. I also finished the story. I was very glad that I won, since my morale this year took a few massive hits. Long Beach is not Austin. The ML was fantastic, of course. She's the reason I did manage to win. Still, I missed the hopping forum and constantly pestering the people I already knew and loved. I had to (*shudder*) meet new people.
And then there was the fact that I had no television.
(Nice segue, huh?)
The theft drama is over. It did not conclude to my satisfaction, but I am choosing not to pursue it. Before I had even finished my "itemized list" homework from the October 28th entry, I got a letter in the mail from Mobile Mini -- in fact, signed by the last person I talked to on the phone -- denying my "claim." I put "claim" in quotes, because I never formally submitted any kind of claim. Everything to that point had been verbal, via telephone.
The letter made me mad for a brief time. This was the same person who, when I had vocalized my theory of how it was likely an inside job, agreed with me. In fact, all of the people I had talked to during this entire charade of an "investigation" seemed to indicate that I would be compensated in some form for my loss. I feel like this particular person lied to my face, and that wasn't cool.
Ultimately, however, I reached the conclusion that I can't prove any of it. If I could, I would already have a lawyer working on it. I decided that I had to choose whether to put my energy into a battle I can't win or into the struggle I think I can. (That struggle being Operation: Crazy Idea... you know, the whole reason this move happened in the first place.) This is my third month in Long Beach, and I haven't even attempted any strides toward that goal. That, too, is not cool.
(My sister thinks I should still send a strongly-worded letter, but since that will fall on blind eyes, that is also a waste of energy.)
What I decided to do, since I have managed to not spend quite as much as budgeted, was take $1,000 from the "living here" fund and replace the TV and Playstation 3. (I had already gotten a 3D Blu-Ray player from Woot for cheap.) My intent was to do that next month.
Then Black Friday happened.
I am not the kind of person to go out at omigod in the morning and risk bodily injury for a Black Friday deal. I am, however, the kind of person who will be influenced during a Skype call with someone who is doing her Black Friday shopping online to do the same. I found a 40" 3D TV; a Playstation 3 bundled with Uncharted, Uncharted 2, Infamous, and Infamous 2; the Spider-Man trilogy (Blu-Ray); the Lord of the Rings Extended trilogy (Blu-Ray); a Playstation Move, bundled with LittleBigPlanet 2; The Amazing Spider-Man PS3 game; The Lorax 3D (Blu-Ray); Firefly (DVD); and ALL FIVE SEASONS of The Big Bang Theory (DVD) for the $1,000 I was planning to spend on just the TV and Playstation.
And then I went through a brief-but-dangerous phase of, "Oh, that's cheap. I'll buy it." One thing I had not intended to replace right away, since it's on Netflix to stream, was Heroes. And then Wal-Mart had the Blu-Ray seasons for $10 each. How do you pass that up? The whole series for the price that a single season usually is on a lesser format? Then I was looking up two "must-replace-eventually" series at Amazon (to put in a tracking wish list) and found that Will & Grace was less than $10 per season. (You can see why this was a dangerous phase, right? $10 here and $10 there are easy to justify -- and it fast becomes $120. Do that enough times, and you start to breeze right past any semblance of budget you once had.)
I also have to admit to two other "sprees," for the sake of full disclosure. Disney Movie Club was offering Finding Nemo in 3D as their featured selection. As a bonus, there was also a discount on the choice of Up in 3D or Toy Story 3 in 3D. (I chose Up. I'm planning to get the Toy Story trilogy in 3D at some point in the future.) And then 60% off any other movie selections. As a result of this deal, I have 5 more 3D movies -- The two from the featured bundle, Tangled (which was a replacement), The Lion King, and The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Then there was a jaunt to GameStop (I live TOO close to one) with the intent to get Uncharted 3 and LittleBigPlanet. The only variance I made there was a game that was $3... so I don't feel bad about that one.
There have been other temptations, too, but I have overridden that part of my brain thus far. (It was hard to do even when I had a full-time job!) I'm doing my best to stay away from Amazon for the time being, and when I go to Wal-Mart, I make a point of sticking to the grocery-related aisles. (Admittedly, I have strayed back to the entertainment area a few times... just to look.)
Of these shopping sprees, the only items not yet in my possession are the Will & Grace DVDs. This is prolly a good thing, because I don't need to watch them at the moment.
On to other news.
A couple nights ago, I got to have hot chocolate with someone I haven't seen in more than two years. You remember those murder mysteries I had a love-hate relationship with? One of the actors from that (I called him "Milo" here, which was his character's name) happened to be in town over the weekend. You see, Milo is filmmaker Paul Bright, who has been in this biz a long time. (I had no idea! I knew he made independent films, but it turns out he actually grew up in the Los Angeles area and has been an actor since he was a teenager!) My true intent with seeing him was just to see him. I've missed the gang. However, as discussion moved from what's been up with him to what's been up with me, I had to confess Operation: Crazy Idea. And guess who just made his first "connection" in Tinseltown? He intends to help me realize my dream any way he can.
What this means (from my perspective) is that I now have to actually come up with some kind of plan. Decide exactly where I want to end up, and formulate a plan on how to get there. Paul gave me some great suggestions, too. (He also gave me a lead on another "work from home" income stream. I've been looking into that.) It was wonderful just to see him again, but it's great to feel like I have someone in my corner.
This week: Work on formulating this plan. (And finish filling out the application/questionnaire/test for the transcription work.)