Oh, this, that and the other

Protesting the LJ Protest

I finished writing this yesterday, but put off posting until today just to protest the so-called "strike" against LJ. You don't want ads on your page? A paid account is $20 a year. $1.66 per month. Name me one other service you can get for so cheap (and newspaper home delivery doesn't count; those people can't give it away). People spend more than that a week at Starbucks, so get a grip.

So the new owners didn't clear certain changes with the users first. Name me one other company who gets approval from its clients before modifying service. My ISP suddenly added banner ads to my email page one day. I wasn't informed of this! But I got used to it, because there are far, far, very far worse things going on in the news to worry about.

"LJ doesn't appreciate the contribution of free users!" Welcome to the world, where money speaks louder than angst-ridden drivel about your latest kegger.

~*~

But the Real Reason I Don't Care is Because Our Kitchen is Shiny and New

On a brighter note: Our kitchen is now fully updated, with the exception of the faux-butcher block countertops and ceramic eggshell sink, but these are far easier to live with than this was:

Note: Not our actual stove because boneheaded me forgot to take before pics, but close enough to give you an idea

I did think to take an intermediate pic:

Just before Installation Guy put the new microwave in

There was some brou-ha-ha surrounding the cost of installation. "Kevin Murphy," our salesman, had quoted a cost of $124 for installation, which seemed reasonable to us despite the warning that if they had to put in an electrical outlet it would be an additional $65 on the day. We didn't want to mess around with electrical stuff ourselves, nor did we want to do our typical half-assed job hanging a very heavy microwave over the new glasstop stove, which we had been told would be cheaper to replace the entire appliance if the glass were to crack from something falling on it. No thanks.

Then I looked more closely at our receipt and noticed we had been charged $251 for installation. GAH. Assuming this wasn't including the electrical outlet, that meant installation cost more than the actual merchandise. The last time we paid that much for installation was when we had our ceiling fan put into our cathedral ceiling, a service we felt was worth every penny because the guy had to perch on a 15-foot ladder and rewire the whole area. This was just screwing a microwave to the wall.

I agonized over it, sweated about it all week long, until Tery suggested I call "my boyfriend" to straighten it out.

He seemed just as confused as me, and felt perfectly horrible about it; particularly in light of the fact that he had just been given a copy of my sickeningly doting feedback from the website. He thanked me for it but I was too busy being mortified to remember his exact words.

It turned out the store computer rang up charges automatically and he had no control over it, and furthermore that Lowe's had only just recently upped the price (they call it a "conversion" to justify the exorbitant cost). But since we had been quoted the lower price, he promised to make it right. He called me several times over the following day to assure me he would work on it, but he had to "find $62 somewhere" to refund me. I didn't want my sweetie getting into trouble, but neither did I want to pay $127 for what turned out to be the work of 10 minutes for the guy. THAT'S bullshit.

At any rate, here's our new grown-up kitchen:

Or at least the stove part of it.

P.S.: Getting our old microwave off the counter was the equivalent of adding an island. So much space! Ironically, we've eaten take-out almost every night since. Serves me right for being lured in with the promise of exotic gourmet meals on the new stove.

~*~

Won't someone think of the children?

One of the up- (or down-, depending on how you look at it) sides of my job is I get to see all the crazy names kids are being saddled with these days. Most of the time the names are normal enough, but with radical new spellings, dooming them to a lifetime of correcting customer service phone personnel (take it from me, this is my well-rehearsed spiel: "A-D-A-M as in Adam. C-E-W, I-C-Z as in cat zebra" which STILL doesn't guarantee against error, but I don't have all damn day). "Tiffany" spelled "Tiphanie," or "Mackenzie" with a silent "ly." Och, there's no limit to the ends parents will go to to make their offspring unique, rather than letting them accomplish it themselves with their personality the good old-fashioned way. When the spellcheck invariably rejects these names, I always murmur, "Yes, I KNOW it's a stupid spelling. Just deal with it." to my computer.

But I encountered a couple of names recently that really made my jaw drop, unbelievably on the same day. First "Timberly." Not Timothy, not Kimberly, but an unholy union of the two. Timberly. At least it was a girl, not that the name is especially gender specific (but the "berly" far outweighs the "Tim").

Then, even worse, "Drizzt." I thought it was maybe an old Norse family name or something, then decided to Google it. It turns out this is the name of an elf-like D&D character from the Forbidden Realms fantasy series. Which is far sadder than when I thought they had just pulled some Scrabble letters out of the bag at random and did the best they could with them. Drizzt. I wonder how many Legolas's were born this year?

Parents. These kids have to go to school and answer to these names, and other children can be unspeakably, unbelievably cruel. Don't give your kid such a handicap right out of the gate, unless of course you plan to homeschool them. (See my sidebar link to the page "Baby's named a bad, bad thing" for even better examples of parents that have lost all hold on reality in their desperate quest for unusual names.)

Lastly, and I'm probably risking patient confidentiality here but the whole name is necessary, "Velva Sinner." Good old Velva, (who is now 79 years old) ex-porn star, huge in the 1940's -- I'm joking, but with a name like that, what other career choices do you have?

~*~

The Very Definition of "Pay No Mind"

The other night Tery and I were watching TV on the couch together, just doing our part to erode American values like every other gay couple, when she asked me something. I was completely and single-mindedly focused on the program and heard not a word. However, since Malcolm was cavorting about in front of us, I just assumed she was pointing out he was down there and not to put my feet down. "I have no plans to move," I said distractedly. I eventually looked over to find a stricken, slightly hurt expression on her face.

"What's the matter?" I asked.

"I asked if you could hand me my slipper, which is right under your feet."

Oh. Well, I can see why my response must have seemed callous and inconsiderate.

~*~

Stardust

Finally, a quick movie review. ( ::Stardust:: )

It's a good story with some very funny lines as only Gaiman can write. Whether it succeeds in being an updated Princess Bride as Gaiman hoped remains to be seen, but there have been worse attempts made. The DVD is an anomaly in that the deleted scenes (which normally I skip; in my experience, most deleted scenes achieve that status for good reason) are funnier than what actually made it into the movie (mostly ad libbing from the hilarious seven brothers). I'm buying it mostly on the strength of a very cool fight scene at the end, not to mention the Ferrets' Revenge (can't go into more detail, hate to spoil anything). 3.5 out of 5

~*~

Finally finally (for real this time) I leave you with yet another Gay Boy moment:

How I love my Gay Boys