Glad, Impatient, and Frustrated
Started Friday the 19th, continued Sunday the 21st, completed Monday the 22nd.
1. Glad
Well, I certainly was warmed to see the responses affirming that my writing here is not going for naught. And I must say that I'm not surprised at the people who did respond as such. Thank you. And thanks for the answer--That'll be most helpful as I try to enjoy this Chinese movie without subtitles. Or I might even be able to get it out of a library with subtitles. Novel idea. That just might work, now that I know what it actually is.
2. Impatient
Subject: VoIP
So, I need some papers from a fuckface in Japan. His general method of dealing with demands from his first wife demanding necessary paperwork for their biological offspring by certain deadlines is to wait several months and then either give in or procrastinate some more, often with a nasty email or two thrown into the mix.
I need some papers from him. I hate the need, but he is biologically and legally bound to me, no matter what either of us might like to do about it. So I need these papers from him (from his employers, actually), and I need them NOW. I really, really don't want to wait months and months for this. I can't keep putting my life on hold every time he decides to be incompetent.
My mother contacts him via email. Once he accidentally called her from a VoIP phone, so she got his number. But according to her, it's ridiculously expensive to call it, thereby negating the possibility of its usefulness as a faster means of reaching him.
The number is 011-815-055395524.
(Yes, I'm posting this in a completely public entry. I know, I know. Yes, I know. This is an educated decision.)
I have Skype. I also have Pidgin. I can play with them and find a way to contact him gratis, but at the moment I have had it up to my eyeballs in troubleshooting playing with computer problems, and I just frickin' don't feel like it.
(In my next entry some further computer updates. More frustration, but also excitement. Still could use help on the VoIP though.)
3. Frustrated
a) Xubuntu & DVDs
One of the laptops that I thought was broken (based on someone else's statements) turned out not to be. Yea! Well, not completely. Boo. The fan is wonky. As in, unpredictable. Sometimes it works fine, sometimes it just won't go. When I went to visit the computer guy, it acted like a naughty child and ran perfectly in the presence of a stranger.
Anywho, I installed Xubuntu on it. (It has ridiculously little RAM.) And here's the frustrating part: I can't get DVD's to play. I've downloaded various plug-ins and codecs, but no success. I checked out the ubuntu help page, and their suggestions didn't work.
ARG!!!
I really like being able to play DVD's on a computer. It drives me UP THE WALL that I have to go through all this effort, still without success, just because the OS is OS as opposed to proprietary!
(And yes, the optical drive can handle DVD's. It ran a DVD just before I installed Xubuntu on it.)
Any help in this area would be exceedingly appreciated.
b) Party drunks
The other day, when I began writing this entry--Friday, I think--it was really nice weather out so I decided to take a walk. Some neighbors were hanging out with friends on their front porch, and I crashed their little gathering. Little did I know that I actually was crashing a party, one of Drexel students to celebrate the end of finals.
At first it was cool. The hanging out was fun, except for the cigarette smoke, and the fact that they were having beers and I wasn't seemed to be no issue. We had relatively intelligent conversation. It was nice to hang out with people about my age on a nice day.
More and more came. It continued to be nice. One of the guys went to my high school, and we chatted about that. I met a couple of nerds, and talking with them was fun.
And then they started to get drunk.
Now this isn't something I really recognized until after leaving. Just somehow it became less and less enjoyable. I left around 23:30, when a group started playing flip-cup on the back porch. I can see almost absolutely no appeal to that game. I suppose if you're tipsy or drunk it becomes funny, but I found no amusement or entertainment in watching people take shots of beer and then turn cups upside-down. It seemed utterly pointless.
On other occasions I have felt left out by the fact that I don't drink any kind of alcohol. That evening I didn't. It was just how it was. I did find some small, unexpected feeling of being left out by the fact that I've never even tried weed. While they were still decently sober, one pointed out that I shouldn't put down marajuana or the use thereof without ever having tried it (though I at that point hadn't, in fact, done any such thing). But kung-fu has put me in touch with a lot of mind-body, spiritual-type connections, and put me in touch with people who know what it is to be desperately trying to quit because it has fucked up their lives. I have seen the effects, albeit on a small scale, but even that small scale is quite significant. In general I figure people can do what they like with their own bodies, so long as it isn't hurting others, but seeing my good friend(s) so addicted and terrified for his/her/their life/lives . . . It does put things in perspective.
Also, Master Phan has a strong policy in terms of drugs--of any sort. The most I've seen him do is a few sips of tea. He keeps his body clean, and he is truly a Master, at several arts. A humble, down-to-earth man, and a true Master. (Not a term I use lightly.) And he holds keeping the body pure in such high regard, that my opposition to any legal or illegal drug (prescription ones mostly excluded) has amped up radically.
But I'm beside the point. I don't drink, I don't do drugs, and I don't want to. I didn't feel left out, or envious; I just felt a lack of fun. Looking at Indian movies--Dhoom, Dhoom 2, Bend It Like Beckham--they know how to have a super time without getting drunk. Why can't we??
It's just frustrating and annoying. And give me a general feeling of a lower mood; the words that come to mind are "mi dispiace." Even if they have to drink, can't they just do a little, so they can keep up a semi-intelligent conversation??
Geez.
---------------------
Next Entry: Much more happy stuff! Computers, OS's, and hubs! Oh my! Squealing, and grinning, and screaming like a banshee at things that don't work and things that aren't there and things that take way way too long!
Hurrah!
1. Glad
Well, I certainly was warmed to see the responses affirming that my writing here is not going for naught. And I must say that I'm not surprised at the people who did respond as such. Thank you. And thanks for the answer--That'll be most helpful as I try to enjoy this Chinese movie without subtitles. Or I might even be able to get it out of a library with subtitles. Novel idea. That just might work, now that I know what it actually is.
2. Impatient
Subject: VoIP
So, I need some papers from a fuckface in Japan. His general method of dealing with demands from his first wife demanding necessary paperwork for their biological offspring by certain deadlines is to wait several months and then either give in or procrastinate some more, often with a nasty email or two thrown into the mix.
I need some papers from him. I hate the need, but he is biologically and legally bound to me, no matter what either of us might like to do about it. So I need these papers from him (from his employers, actually), and I need them NOW. I really, really don't want to wait months and months for this. I can't keep putting my life on hold every time he decides to be incompetent.
My mother contacts him via email. Once he accidentally called her from a VoIP phone, so she got his number. But according to her, it's ridiculously expensive to call it, thereby negating the possibility of its usefulness as a faster means of reaching him.
The number is 011-815-055395524.
(Yes, I'm posting this in a completely public entry. I know, I know. Yes, I know. This is an educated decision.)
I have Skype. I also have Pidgin. I can play with them and find a way to contact him gratis, but at the moment I have had it up to my eyeballs in troubleshooting playing with computer problems, and I just frickin' don't feel like it.
(In my next entry some further computer updates. More frustration, but also excitement. Still could use help on the VoIP though.)
3. Frustrated
a) Xubuntu & DVDs
One of the laptops that I thought was broken (based on someone else's statements) turned out not to be. Yea! Well, not completely. Boo. The fan is wonky. As in, unpredictable. Sometimes it works fine, sometimes it just won't go. When I went to visit the computer guy, it acted like a naughty child and ran perfectly in the presence of a stranger.
Anywho, I installed Xubuntu on it. (It has ridiculously little RAM.) And here's the frustrating part: I can't get DVD's to play. I've downloaded various plug-ins and codecs, but no success. I checked out the ubuntu help page, and their suggestions didn't work.
ARG!!!
I really like being able to play DVD's on a computer. It drives me UP THE WALL that I have to go through all this effort, still without success, just because the OS is OS as opposed to proprietary!
(And yes, the optical drive can handle DVD's. It ran a DVD just before I installed Xubuntu on it.)
Any help in this area would be exceedingly appreciated.
b) Party drunks
The other day, when I began writing this entry--Friday, I think--it was really nice weather out so I decided to take a walk. Some neighbors were hanging out with friends on their front porch, and I crashed their little gathering. Little did I know that I actually was crashing a party, one of Drexel students to celebrate the end of finals.
At first it was cool. The hanging out was fun, except for the cigarette smoke, and the fact that they were having beers and I wasn't seemed to be no issue. We had relatively intelligent conversation. It was nice to hang out with people about my age on a nice day.
More and more came. It continued to be nice. One of the guys went to my high school, and we chatted about that. I met a couple of nerds, and talking with them was fun.
And then they started to get drunk.
Now this isn't something I really recognized until after leaving. Just somehow it became less and less enjoyable. I left around 23:30, when a group started playing flip-cup on the back porch. I can see almost absolutely no appeal to that game. I suppose if you're tipsy or drunk it becomes funny, but I found no amusement or entertainment in watching people take shots of beer and then turn cups upside-down. It seemed utterly pointless.
On other occasions I have felt left out by the fact that I don't drink any kind of alcohol. That evening I didn't. It was just how it was. I did find some small, unexpected feeling of being left out by the fact that I've never even tried weed. While they were still decently sober, one pointed out that I shouldn't put down marajuana or the use thereof without ever having tried it (though I at that point hadn't, in fact, done any such thing). But kung-fu has put me in touch with a lot of mind-body, spiritual-type connections, and put me in touch with people who know what it is to be desperately trying to quit because it has fucked up their lives. I have seen the effects, albeit on a small scale, but even that small scale is quite significant. In general I figure people can do what they like with their own bodies, so long as it isn't hurting others, but seeing my good friend(s) so addicted and terrified for his/her/their life/lives . . . It does put things in perspective.
Also, Master Phan has a strong policy in terms of drugs--of any sort. The most I've seen him do is a few sips of tea. He keeps his body clean, and he is truly a Master, at several arts. A humble, down-to-earth man, and a true Master. (Not a term I use lightly.) And he holds keeping the body pure in such high regard, that my opposition to any legal or illegal drug (prescription ones mostly excluded) has amped up radically.
But I'm beside the point. I don't drink, I don't do drugs, and I don't want to. I didn't feel left out, or envious; I just felt a lack of fun. Looking at Indian movies--Dhoom, Dhoom 2, Bend It Like Beckham--they know how to have a super time without getting drunk. Why can't we??
It's just frustrating and annoying. And give me a general feeling of a lower mood; the words that come to mind are "mi dispiace." Even if they have to drink, can't they just do a little, so they can keep up a semi-intelligent conversation??
Geez.
---------------------
Next Entry: Much more happy stuff! Computers, OS's, and hubs! Oh my! Squealing, and grinning, and screaming like a banshee at things that don't work and things that aren't there and things that take way way too long!
Hurrah!