Category Archives: Life

Pardon Me While My Roo Shows

Damn Roos, Spiritual, Work

In which the Movement is moving to the center of the nation.

AmmZon told me this morning that she’d heard that the Big M had decided to build a peace palace or something in Kansas, so I immediately googled it. It’s totally fascinating! The Movement really has bought 600 acres in north-central Kansas, and they plan to build there:

‘So here in traditional Kansas, the recent purchase of land by representatives of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi to build what they’re calling a World Capital of Peace — just outside town — where meditators will send “waves of coherence” across the country — has many residents riled.

‘The group plans to spend at least $15 million to erect 12-15 buildings for a retreat, training center and residences.’
[link to article]

The nearest town to this newly-purchased property is small, aged, and dying… and it’s smack-dab in the middle of the bible belt:

‘”They say they’re not a religion. I say they’re a sect of Hinduism,” said Greg Hubbard, pastor of Smith Center’s Evangelical Free Church. “Bottom line is, I don’t buy you can be a Christian and a Hindu at the same time.”

‘Hubbard and eight other local ministers recently signed an open letter decrying the proposed new city as a threat to “the eternal souls of people.” A large Christian crusade spurred by the controversy is scheduled in Smith Center this month.’
[link to article]

He’s right: they are a sect of Hinduism, even though they’ll swear up and down that they’re not (and even went so far as to ban ownership of Hindu icons a few years ago, causing local thrift shops to fill up with abandoned deities). They celebrate Guru Purnima and Mahalakshmi, study Sanskrit and do pujas, and have their jyotish charts done. They’re totally fucking Hindu, as much as Hinduism is a religion and not merely a culture.

Hubbard’s also a closed-minded, bigoted idiot. (American Christians are FUCKING INSANE.) All religions are compatible. The rituals are different, but the underlayment is always the same. Only fundamentalists — and unfortunately, nearly all Xians are fundies — think that only their religion is the true one. THEY. ARE. ALL. THE. SAME. The differences are nearly always CULTURAL. Sheesh.

I hate all organized religion. (I already hate what will happen when my Guru leaves Her body — beaureacrats, rules, rigidity. It’s inevitable — and She hasn’t even done it yet.) I have no idea why God bothers with us, other than enlightened beings don’t appear to be much affected by suffering, so to them it’s no big deal.

Anyway.

In other news, I have an interview on Thursday morning. The job’s only part-time, but that’s better than no-time. Wish me luck!

Goblinbox Cloud

Blurbs

In which it came from here.

Allegedly, these are the words most commonly found on goblinbox.com:

cloud

The inclusion of the words “bed,” “sucks,” and “shit” is so amusing! I don’t think it scanned my archives, though, because all of these words can be found on the index page. But still, pretty funny. I totally want their Capulet vs. Montague t-shirt. (Thanks for the link, Vuboq!)

In other news, librarything is the coolest web site EVAR.

Upgrading

Blurbs

In which it worked this time!

Sorry for the brief outage.

I just upgraded to the latest version of WordPress, because mine was three versions old and, you know, security updates and such.

Now I’m off to see if all my plugins still work…

On the housing front: a reprieve

Finance, Knitting, Work

In which there’s some good news… for once.

We don’t have to move! AmmZon’s mother has offered to sell her the house, and at a remarkably reasonable price. AmmZon is considering it, and in the meanwhile: we’re not evicted! Yay! I can stay here until I get a job and an apartment!

My previous employer — the one that laid me off last June — is hiring again. I sent in my resume today. Maybe they’ll hire me back. (I think I’ll go in tomorrow and sit on the HR person’s desk… for like an hour. Or three. Maybe she’ll hire me just to get me to leave her the hell alone.)

GauntletOn the knitting front, I finished my first gray gauntlet and have started the second one. The fabric is much firmer made of the superwash wool sock yarn I used, and I really like the way this one fits and feels. The one I made out of the bamboo yarn has in barely twenty minutes of wear lost its shape and is beginning to pill up, so clearly that particular yarn is too delicate for a hard-wearing application like gloves. (I’ll probably make the second bamboo one anyway, and give them away, and use the remaining bamboo yarn for something low-impact, like a scarf.)

In other news, I’m downloading Bee Gees dance remixes from Limewire, because, um — well, for no good reason at all, really — and one thing that drives me utterly, incoherently apeshit is mislabeled tracks! Who are these fucking idiots who can’t tell the Bee Gees from Chicago? Or Rick James from Hot Chocolate? Or Hall & Oates from Player? Or Barry White from Marvin Gaye?! WHAT THE FLYING FUCK, people!

The Dingo Ate Your Baby

Blurbs

In which there’s a super groovy snow sculpture in the neighborhood!

Siberian Tiger Siberian Tiger
(Click to enlarge images.)

When I went out to extract my jeep from the snow drift I’d parked it in, Raybo hollered at me from her yard up the street: “Mush! Come down here and see what we made!”

So I started up my engine, swept off the windshield, and leaving the defrost running full-tilt, I walked right over there. I gushed all over their excellent Siberian tiger snow sculpture and immediately pulled out my cell phone to snap a few images. Isn’t it just the very most awesome snow tiger ever?!

Perhaps the dingo ate your baby, but that vicious snow kitty ate your loser Frosty the Snowman!

Knitting and Jobsearching

Blurbs

In which I keep busy indoors because it’s too fuckin’ cold to go outside!

Wristwarmers/GauntletsI started another pair of gauntlets/wristwarmers. I decided that, as much as I love knitting the bamboo yarn ’cause it’s so freakin’ gorgeous, the colorway doesn’t actually match my clothes. I might finish them and give them away.

I’ve found three jobs at iowajobs.org that I’m about to apply for. Two of them are part-time, and one I think I may have already applied for. It’s a pain because I have to call the job center to get the company contact info. I hate calling.

Truck and Bread are watching Jackass in the living room, and they’re giggling like schoolgirls.

Do you realize that people who earn $7 an hour are earning only $280 a week? Who the fuck can live on $280 a week? I mean, I can’t afford to take a job that pays less than $10 an hour — it would be better to remain jobless and go on public assistance. Jesus.

I registered at Manpower (and tried to register at Supreme Staffing) today, but neither site lists temp jobs within a 40-mile radius of Fairfield. *sigh* I applied for a month-long temp gig in Cedar Rapids through Kelly Services; if they hire me I’ll have to find someone in Iowa City to crash with.

A Job and a Place to Live

Blurbs

In which I have neither, and it’s bummin’ me out.

January is half-over. The spectre of that 1st of February deadline looms ever-nearer, and I still don’t have a job or a place to live lined up.

I have not received any response whatsoever from the last eight resumes I sent out. I do not understand why it has gone out of vogue to REPLY TO AN APPLICANT and let her know what the fuck she can expect in the way of a time frame. I don’t know if these places actually received my applications; I do not know if they have a close date; I do not know if they’ve filled the position. Feels like I’m dropping my resumes into a black hole.

Today I applied online for a job… at a gas station. (Yes, that’s what I’m looking at: trying to work swing shift in a convenience store.) The online application contained a six-minute IQ test; knowing these things to be geared at idiots I took the test slowly, and it timed out on the final question. This made me suspect that I’m an idiot.

I would have applied at Hy-Vee and EconoFoods, too, but they’re not hiring.

As for housing, my current roommates and three other friends have invited me to crash with them for a bit but I can’t decide where to stay.

I had decided not to move with AmmZon and Truck because I will (hopefully) be moving into my own apartment in the near future, and I didn’t want them to rent a place depending on me for my financial input. Also, I’m in a phase of life wherein I hate all couples: I hate listening to them bitch at each other, and I hate listening to them get along. (All couples drive me nuts lately. It’s not them, it’s me. I just hate couplehood these days.) Another couple offered me a room in their place for the few weeks I’ll need… and a few nights later they had a huge fight while I was there and I started to think, “What if they do this even more frequently than my current roommates do? Will I go totally batshit?” (In defense of my current roommates, they claim they don’t fight and that they get along great. This may mean that I’m currently incapable of properly parsing male-female interaction.)

The other places I’ve been offered are rooms in the homes of single males. I could resort to one of these options to avoid the couplehood issues, but to be utterly honest I’m not enamored of the idea of using a man’s bathroom. Even if only for a month.

The bottom line is that it seems like I really need to get my own place — like I’m finally ready to get my own place — but I don’t have that elusive job… and I wonder if I can even get utilities in my own name, considering the difficulty AmmZon’s having and my own utterly fucked up credit rating.

Please, Universe, I need a job!

Weather's Beautiful… Not

Weather

In which it’s arrived. Winter. It’s totally here.

SnowThe weather’s turned, and the town’s slick with ice and snow. It’s doing a half snow/half rain thing right now, no wind, the flakes falling straight down and hitting the ground with an eerie and surrounding shhhrrrr sound.

I went to the grocery store with AmmZon earlier, and it took a long time to de-ice her car. The parking lot at the grocery store was slushy and slippery when we walked across it.

I’ve got the jeep running right now. It’ll probably take ten minutes or more before it’s de-iced enough for me to drive up to the bar so I can have a few smokes inside, where it’s warm. I’ll take a book, of course, and drunk people will give me shit about it, saying clever things like, “What’re ya doin’?!” and “I can’t believe you can read in here!”

I think I should get props for not replying, “It’s called reading, you imbecile,” or “It would be much easier if you’d shut the fuck up and leave me alone.”

Sometimes drunk people want me to tell them what the book I’m reading is about. Once in awhile, I actually do, and because I tend to read hard sci-fi I launch immediately into descriptions of particle physics and watch their eyes glaze over. That teaches ’em. Heh.

Things I've Done Today

Finance, Recipes, Work

In which I present you with a list of my recent accomplishments! Yay!

Gauntlet #11. I finished knitting the first gauntlet.

2. I applied for a job at Cambridge.

3. I wrote a letter to Brumbaugh & Quandahl, PC, LLO, Rat Bastards about the levy on my checking account, inviting them to either provide evidence that they were legally able to attach my account or to kindly get their fucking garnishment off my account and refund my NSF fees toute suite else be hearing from my lawyer.

4. I made coffee and drank it with Silk brand French Vanilla Creamer in it.

5. I read several chapters of Hyperion, and OMG it’s sooooooo good.

6. I added additional items to my Wishlist because God knows I don’t want to be at a loss when I get a job and need to start spending money again.

[Possible 7.] I’m thinking of going to the store to buy ingredients for chole (aka chana masala) (aka kabuli chana) (aka chickpea curry) because the recipe over at Dykewife’s looks freakin’ delicious.

In other news, the weather ’round here is expected to turn reeeeeeally shitty tomorrow.

CholeUpdate: I made the chole after all, and served it with rice, papadums, cottage cheese, and green chili chutney.

Instead of following a specific recipe I combined both of the linked recipes above, adding some of the pre-mixed chana masala powder I found, in the surprisingly awesome International section at Easter’s, for less than two dollars.

It was so good! I had seconds. Truck had seconds too. When AmmZon gets home, I bet she’ll also have seconds. That’s how good it is.

I just don't get this shit.

Finance

In which I discuss the fascinating and perplexing details of poverty.

I had had a credit card through Capital One for many years. (Yes, yes, I know that’s a bad idea because their interest rates are astronomical, but whatever.) When my household’s income dropped drastically for over a year, I was forced to make executive decisions about bill paying. I basically quit paying the bill for this card.

The account went into in-house collections. I make token payments of $5 or $25 at random intervals, to show willingness to pay. Eventually the account went to an outside agency which was aggressive as hell and harassed me constantly. I had to tell the chick handling my account never to call me again because she was such a horrifyingly stone-cold cunt.

Via fax (because the agency wouldn’t use email and I couldn’t speak to my agent over the phone without wanting to kill myself), I made payment arrangements. I didn’t keep to them — because of the whole let’s-go-to-Indy-and-make-money fiasco — so the collections firm levied my checking account to the tune of almost three thousand dollars.

Today I logged into my online banking portal for the first time in months. Mysteriously, my account balance is -485.69.

*blink*

Now, WTF? Where did the garnishment go? I looked through all my statements since last July: no levy. It’s gone, like it never happened… except all of my NSF fees due to the garnishment are still there.

Oh, but wait. On January 3rd of this year, there are two transactions: a $50 “GARNISHMENT FEE” and then another charge, “PAYMENT OF GARNISHMENT SCSC016413,” for $238.47. How did the garnishment amount drop from three grand to $238.47? Why is there no record of the account-killing garnishment in the first place? I mean, I owe my bank hundreds and hundreds of dollars in NSFs because of the fucker, and now it’s gone? And what the fuck is this $238.47 number?

They garnished me, fucked up my account, then ungarnished me. And now they’re garnishing me again. People, if you haven’t lived without a checking account since you were fifteen, let me tell you: it’s nearly impossible to live without one. You can’t cash checks. You can’t use a debit card. You can’t do shit. Garnishing someone’s checking account is the very best way to marginalize them entirely. Without a checking account, one can barely function in the world at all.

$238.47 and a $50 fee?!?!! Clearly I need to send some faxes.

Update: My friend informs me a garnishment without authorization is illegal. I’m gonna send a bitchy fax, demanding the garnishment be removed and all my fees paid. Oh yeah.