I just wanted to thank everyone for how supportive they've been. I want to list everyone individually, but it really has been everyone! It's kind of overwhelming.

I am feeling better, though I do feel like I have a lack of energy at times. I guess things will just get better over time.

I was able to take care of a few things. Bills are paid, and I managed to get a pair of hedge shears to trim the small patch of grass in the back. Finally restocked on fish food too. Might need to look into new flip-flops to replace my broken ones. Things are slowly growing less chaotic.

Also got to see Bruno today. WOW.

Last night I decided to try out a new pizza place around here called "Pizza 9", which advertises itself as being one of the few (if not only) Chicago-style pizzas around. We have a high New Yorker population here, so thin-crust pizza really rules in the area. That's fine and all, but sometimes I want deep dish!

Well, this place wasn't actually deep dish. But it WAS very good. It reminded me of Pizza Hut back in its heyday... Thick pan crust, very crispy, light buttery taste without being too oily. And the cheese and toppings were really good! I'm particularly fond of their sausage topping. I also tried one of their sandwiches, and THAT was really good as well.

But now I'm wondering if it's responsible for me waking up feeling sick this morning. I just woke up suddenly with a big cough and noticed my throat was burning. "Oh, haha, must've been those peppers on that sandwich," I thought. Then I suddenly had to run to the bathroom. I just kept retching almost nonstop, sometimes producing something and sometimes not... What little that came up was either clear or a gray browny look. I tried drinking some tap water to soothe my burning throat, but it felt like I couldn't make it stay down until I was done... So it just kept burning, I kept retching.

That little spell seems to have passed and my throat doesn't feel like burning any longer. The back of my throat still feels a little weird though, and it seems every once in a while a bubble resurfaces and pops and I get a taste of that lovely vomit again...

Bleah. Aside from those lingering things, I'm feeling okay now, though. And actually hungry. I just wonder if there was something with the food I got last night... That sandwich was SO GOOD and I only ate half of it. Usually I have no problem with peppers, but I wonder if there was something wrong with those hot peppers on the sandwich... That was the first thing I thought of when I felt that burning all the way down my insides.


Anyway... Last night I was feeling better after eating, and I dropped by my folks' to see them for a bit. I managed to backup my step-father's photos from his old laptop, and my mother wanted to show me the type of dog she was interested in getting (she's really hooked on pekingese at the moment). Started feeling down again as I left, and when I returned home to an empty house (something I'm still not really used to yet). Maybe I've just been unhappy lately due to loneliness... Dunno.

Augh. Just want this nastiness in my throat to go away.

Yesterday, since I was feeling kinda wiped out, I considered using a sick day today and just goofing off. But I woke up to find my Internet wasn't working! There goes that idea. It was my fault, since even though I paid the bill, I was a little late with it. Still, I didn't even receive a disconnect notice... ah well, it's working now, obviously.

Last night I did make it to level 80 in World of Warcraft! Whee! There are some things I still want to accomplish, and some of the daily quests are fun. I really want to do enough of the cooking quests to get that chef's hat...

Today was kind of weird without Internet for half the day. It really felt like I could do almost nothing, haha. But my step-father had an issue backing up files from his old laptop -- it's running Windows 98. It couldn't connect to his network for some reason. It doesn't have a CD writer, or an ethernet port, and any USB device you plug in requests a driver that it can't find (even thumb drives won't work!). Oh, I think it actually has a drive for a Zip Disk though, ahahaha... But the problem is finding another computer that has one.

So I took the laptop to my place and was eventually able to get it on my network. It seems like it was stuck with channel 11... once I changed my router settings, I was able to get it working! Now to back up his old photos and Quicken files...

And work called with some emergencies this afternoon. And wouldn't you know, it was RIGHT when my Internet came back. How clairvoyant! It was a simple, minor change, but it caused a really weird error that didn't make any sense. And it was discovered an older version worked just fine... Eventually I realized that the change I made today wasn't the ONLY difference between the old version and new version, isolated the source of the problem, and fix it. The thing is, it STILL didn't make sense!! Even though I know what caused the problem, there seems to be no relationship...

I thought that was the last of it, and my boss even say, "HAVE A GOOD WEEKEND TALK TO YOU MONDAY," but he called back again later! It was even past normal work hours. I was a bit aggravated, but I know my boss is working hard by staying after hours on a Friday... And luckily the fix was really easy.

There's a hierarchy of batch classes, which contain any number of document classes, and each of those holds a number of index fields. They had a setup of 9 identical batch classes (just named differently) that were copy-pasted so they each had the same identical document classes. But one index field in one document class over ALL the batch classes had an issue. The source of the problem? It was misspelled. It was "Dupicate" instead of "Duplicate". Apparently they didn't copy-paste EVERYTHING. Or at least not well.

I should feel good about fixing these major issues relatively handily but I'm just feeling "meh" somehow. Catching that misspelling was just one of those "Thank goodness we spotted it now instead of after hours of pulling our hair out" things. But still, I'm just feeling exhausted somehow. I should feel good about getting my step-father's laptop on the network so we can FINALLY backup his old files, but again... I dunno.

Well, I finally got my new bank debit card today. Maybe I need to go nuts with dinner and just really pig out on something awesome.

Just feeling generally unhappy, and not really sure why or what to do.

No longer especially full of regret or sadness over Kato, but I still miss him and it feels lonely around here without him. Not feeling really depressed, but it does feel almost like the motivation to be happy isn't there.

Also starting to really feel unhappy with work for the first time in a while. I like the work I'm doing, and I like the company itself more or less. More money would always be great, but that's not an issue either. It's just... I don't know. It's probably a combination of one trial after another lately coupled with the knowledge that looking for a new job at this point in time would be difficult to say the least. And how likely would I be to find another place where I can work remotely? I guess it's a feeling of being trapped.

World of Warcraft has been about the only form of entertainment I've been turning to lately and I've slowly plodded my way along to the current cap of level 80 (should be able to reach it today). And I HAVE been having more fun with it lately! Levels 70 through 73 really bored me to tears for whatever reason. But things started picking up and I'm really enjoying all the things I have access to now. And once I hit 80, there'll be more things to look forward to. So why would it also seem a little sad and empty?

When I was level 78 I was really gunning for 79, as that would bring me one step closer to my goal of 80, and I was really excited. And then I finally got to 79, and part of me was thrilled that I only had one level left to go, but another part felt like lying in a corner of the room and rotting. I just kept asking myself, "Why would I be unhappy about this?" And what will happen when I do hit 80?

I feed the fish every day, but my interest in that seems to have been waning lately as well. The pond went neglected for a little bit too long. And even though I had the money to cover all my bills (thanks to some help I've received lately), it was a pain working up the motivation to actually go ahead and pay them. I had to actually remind myself, "Bills need to be paid and bank account funds need to be replenished." Otherwise I would have been content to just lie around and stare at the ceiling all day...

I've been neglecting food as well. I had some leftovers in the fridge too long and they started to decay. Last week I managed to get by with my folks taking care of a lot of my meals, whether it was taking me out for dinner or heading out on a road trip. I filled in some gaps with fast food. I actually can't remember what I did for a couple of those days... Yesterday my mother made some great homemade sukiyaki and I got to take some home, which I'm working on right now. But what's after that?

I guess it's just a heavy case of "the blahs". Not really sure what to do about most things. But bills have been paid, progress is being made in WoW, and things are being kept from falling apart in general. Base life functions are being maintained. Somehow it feels like it should be about more than just holding things together, though. I know I've at least got things better than some people out there... But I wouldn't say no to a fill-up on happiness.

Life has returned to normal because I am having trouble with my bank and workplace and almost everything.

As a recap, it all started a few weeks ago when I had a pipe burst -- not from shoddy work or cheap parts, but from normal wear and tear. It was an emergency and I called a plumber who got things squared away. They charged my debit card, but then accidentally made a duplicate charge, which drained my available funds and caused me to incur some NSF fees with my bank. I was able to get the duplicate charge removed, but could not get anyone to own up and pay me back the NSF fee. I finally talked to a bank manager who, in not so many words, essentially told me that my time was less valuable than his and that this situation was a result of my poor judgement in who I do business with.

So, I decided to change which bank I did business with. I ended up switching to Compass bank, and it seemed good to start, but it's been a bumpy road. I'm willing to write off these problems as being due to my account just being so new, but that's not to say it hasn't been a pain to deal with.


First, since I did not set up my new bank account quickly enough, I received one paycheck as a check instead of the usual direct deposit. I tried to deposit it in my new bank account, but ran into problems. I was told that, since my account was so new, there would have to be a hold placed on the funds despite the fact that it is a corporate payroll check. I thought, well, a few days without being to access it would be okay. But I was told the hold would be seven business days, which would mean it almost wouldn't clear until my NEXT paycheck arrived. That's a little too long to go without paying bills or, you know, eating.

The check said it could be cashed at any Bank of America bank, so my new bank actually told me to go cash it at Bank of America, then come back and deposit the cash. It sounded ridiculous, but I went through with it. When I told Bank of America I didn't have an account with them, they asked for my ID, my thumbprint, and THEN told me there would be a $6 fee. Even though, again, it's a corporate payroll check that even says to cash it at Bank of America.

Why do I no longer have an account with them, again?

So I was eventually able to deposit my paycheck. $6 doesn't seem like a lot, but still, it's money I should not have had to waste. I didn't expect problems like this, but then, neither could I expect my office to present such hassles updating my direct deposit information (especially considering how easy it was to set up before) or that I wouldn't be able to log in to my online banking account.

I got an e-mail with my online banking password, so that didn't seem to be a problem. I was pretty sure I had my username correct. Eventually I broke down and tried the "forgot your ID/password?" link. I entered my information, after which it told me that I would be unable to retrieve my user ID or password information. Okay... I still haven't fixed this yet. Will need to call a 1-800 number.

But other issues, I was able to take care of... When I opened my account, they somehow talked me into opening a savings account. But after going over the details, I figured it would be useless for me. The interest rate was so low (as it always is), and the risk of accidentally incurring more fees was too great. So I closed my savings account and am using just a checking account. But the teller did suggest one thing... Since the free checking account has no restrictions, I could actually open a SECOND checking account and treat it as savings. That actually doesn't seem like a bad idea...

I'm also hoping I will be able to take care of the direct deposit situation. Normally you'd think that all you would need to supply are your bank account and routing number, right? No, that's not good enough for my company's... payroll company. So they ask for a voided check, and I supplied one, but since it was just a starter check (one you get free when you open your account), without my name or address, they rejected it. So the only other options were to ORDER SOME CHECKS I WOULD NEVER USE, or ask the bank for a letter.

The bank did provide me with a form letter with all the relevant information -- it was only missing a signature from a bank employee, which my company's HR told me would be needed. I scanned it and asked our HR lady if it would be okay if I could just get it signed, and she was kind of snarky in replying. But I was able to get the bank to actually type me up a real letter (they were really hesitant to at first because, well, no one else has ever asked for so much, and it seemed weird). Hopefully that will be enough, but we will see.

Finally, I was able to update the perks on my checking account. It's actually called "Build Your Own Checking" since you select a few premium features for your account. It seemed pretty cool! You have standard things like eliminating ATM fees, or getting a $25 bonus on your account's anniversary, or getting cash back on credit purchases, etc. You can pick two premium features for free. However, when I opened my checking account, the lady never asked me what I wanted. I was even prepared for it! I wondered if I had somehow gotten the wrong type of account. But when I checked my paperwork, no, I realized the lady had simply chosen my features for me without asking.

So I was able to choose what I actually wanted. And these features are what made me think a second checking account might be a good idea... On my secondary account, I might have features like earning interest on my balance (not as much as an actual savings account, but half of almost nothing is still almost nothing) and the $25 a year bonus, and I could have spending bonuses like the cashback option and additional Visa reward points on the other account.

I'm min-maxing my bank. This is great! I've always wanted to try out dual-specs.

I dreamt I was traipsing about this place with a group of people and President Obama. It was almost like Neverland in spirit, with a kind of real-world magical feel, though not much like it in actuality.

Anyway, we were just wandering along. We were up someplace high, and we came to a set of invisible stairs. Two of the people we were with just sort of skipped down the stairs together. I watched them, but was a little unsure. That's when Obama reached his hand out to me and said something to the effect of, "Come on, we'll go down the stairs together!" I still wasn't quite sure about those invisible stairs, but I took his hand and started skipping down them anyway.

Along the way I just thought, "Wow! I can't believe it!", and once we reached the bottom we just continued hopping along to who-knows-where.

This afternoon, I was invited to a movie by monti and Antoine. They were even nice enough to get my ticket for me and give me some delicious homemade cupcakes! We went to see Public Enemies, and the whole outing was fun. Thanks for everything, guys! It's really appreciated!

Afterwards, I met my folks for dinner, as today happens to be my mother's birthday. We ate at Cracker Barrel and it was great!


( Some WoW blabber )

So, today was a very fun day with a number of pleasant surprises. It was certainly a nice break from the rest of this week!

Anyway, thanks to everyone for the support lately. Sorry I haven't replied to everyone. Like I said, things are slowly getting better. Just haven't felt like doing a whole lot this week.

It's been a terrible, awful couple of weeks. There's just been so much chaos lately, with celebrity deaths, missing senators, and questionable elections (aside from our own). Work has been very un-fun, and then there was Kato getting sick and ultimately dying. Today is Friday, I believe, but it feels like so much has been happening lately that I don't really feel like I have an anchor. I'm sort of just floating around and not really sure when and where I am in the universe at the moment.

( MJ )

( Work )

( What happened with Kato, what I did this week, and long, rambling thoughts on Kato )

And now Kato is dead. I found him in the bathroom this morning. He died while I was sleeping...

It seemed like, yesterday, my folks could tell how worn out I was. Today they dropped by to hand me some Church's chicken, and it was pretty good. I called them up later to thank them for it, and then all of a sudden my mother starts going on about how I NEED to go and buy new curtains.

I kept trying to tell her, I have a lot of other things to deal with right now, and I don't really have the spare money for this right now, so it's not really a priority. But she kept going on about it like it was imperative I elevate myself above the crappy curtains I have right now. I just lost it. Who is she to tell me how to spend my money? I'm sure it pains her that I'm not living in an immaculate mansion with golden curtains and a 20-foot waterfall with fish that sing Heigh Ho. But if you have ideas for what OTHER people should do, either front your own damn money for it or SHUT THE HELL UP.

I just can't take more of this. They know I'm tight with money. They know I have a lot of crap to deal with right now. I had to deal with the pump in the pond breaking, then a water pipe burst and I had to call a plumber. The plumber accidentally overcharged me, and the bank charged me fees I didn't deserve, and so I had to close my account and I'm currently looking to open a new one. I ended up not doing that this weekend like I planned because Kato seems to keep getting SICKER and I spent over $130 on his medication which I CANNOT GET HIM TO TAKE.

And this was after my boss sprung a surprise urgent project on me that I had to pull an all-nighter on, staying up until 5 AM and getting 2 hours of sleep that night. I've neglected everything like bills and tickets for the trip later this year and FOOD and clothes without holes and MY MOTHER IS TELLING ME TO BUY GODDAMN CURTAINS SO THAT SHE WILL FEEL BETTER WHEN SHE'S HERE FOR HER USUAL 30-SECOND VISITS EVERY COUPLE OF MONTHS.

Everything is falling apart and I feel like I'm losing my mind. Giving up on trying to please or humor people. Giving up on just anything but trying to rest and recuperate. Giving up on putting up with BULL that I have neither the time nor patience for right now.

Just taking a break from everything and getting away from everyone. If anyone needs to reach me, well, they can't. Any more crap and I might just really lose it for real. Just everyone, please, leave me alone. Even if you mean well it may just end up inadvertently making things worse. Nothing I can really do but wait things out. So tired of everything.

Kato seemed like he was getting better, but this morning he seemed sicker than before. I tried to make an appointment with vets but most of them were fully booked for a while. I managed to find ONE that had openings today, and I was kinda worried so I took it, even though it cost $20 more for an appointment than any other place and it had some shady reviews on Google Maps.

They said he has pneumonia. They had some meds to help him feel better, but ultimately he just has to recover on his own after time. It's rather difficult because he still wants to go out on walks, but once he's out he just sits in one place for hours. And he doesn't have an appetite, which makes it that much harder to get him to take his pills... even the old tricks like just holding his mouth and rubbing his throat don't work. This is one stubborn dog!

I told my folks about it and my mother said she was sick too. Then she said, "You brought the dog over here! I must've gotten sick from him!" I told her how rare it would be for something to pass from animal to person but she said "THAT'S WHAT THEY SAY." So I told her I would be more likely to get sick since I'm here all the time, but hey, maybe I shouldn't go see them anymore because I might get sick.


Ever since the spring, when the fish in the pond started getting more active, the water has been extremely cloudy. Normally cloudiness can be attributed to algae floating in the water, but I've taken care of it to the point I'm seeing almost no new algae growth. I've tried researching all the possible causes but haven't found any great solutions -- it's gotten a little better, but still very cloudy. As for the cause, I still had some ideas... but one of them became clearly evident today.

I saw something big and black was caught in the filter. What could it be? It turned out to be an empty planting pot. A year ago, it used to have underwater plants and CLAY in it. NOW, the plants are scattered about the surface of the pond and the clay is floating around in the water.

They say koi are mischievous, yeah. They are fond of playing around in the bottom of a pond, and rooting around in plant pots until everything is destroyed. The bigger plants, like the water lilies, seem fine. But now I remember, the other plants were in much thinner, smaller pots that could easily get knocked around by strong fish.

Sigh... Now I know the problem. What's the solution? I can't even see down there anymore...


And then I ran into people who are just... unable to associate with others on a human level. You point out mistakes they made and they go, "LOL I WAS JUST JOKING." They are just stubborn and unyielding like a mountain range and will use any use any ruse to disguise their fallacies or ignorance. Even when it comes to something as simple as understanding a foreign point of view, even if they don't necessarily need to agree with it, they are unable to give up an inch.

Usually they just try to play it off with a joke, but other times they attack you regardless of how compromising you attempt to be. I've lost all patience I have for bull like this for the day. I don't feel like I'm always right, so it's frustrating to run into people who think they can't be anything BUT right.


I thought I'd recovered but maybe I am still suffering from the effects of lack of sleep earlier in the week. I just really don't want to deal with any more crap today. And I've still yet to find a new bank! It has just been such a stressful week, but even on the weekend I feel like I'm being pushed on from all sides. Running low on money, Kato's getting sicker, and folks are being weird and demanding. About all I have for stress relief these days is getting back into WoW. The current holiday event has given me a lot of interesting things to do, and a lot of experience, while I've started getting into a new low-level character now that dasie is playing again.

Maybe I just need more sleep... At least sleep is free.

Wow, yesterday could not have been any more suck.

My boss called me up first thing in the morning to give me a new project to work on. I just finished up a rather large project, and this one didn't seem any simpler, but whatever. However, my boss didn't immediately make clear the urgency for this project. It wasn't until he called back multiple times, asking somewhat anxiously, "So, how ya doin'???" that I got him to spell things out for me.

So, in a nutshell, we have a complex project. When I told my boss it would take a while, he said, "Oh, that's okay, I'll be here tomorrow too."

Apparently he had flown to New York and was at the client site and needed it done in one day before he returned home. OKAY.

He didn't give me any kind of warning or heads-up or maybe I could've prepared. But it was just so stressful yesterday and I struggled to stay concentrated on it because I just kept trying to plug away at it the entire day. In the evening I started falling asleep, and yet I somehow managed to push on. I honestly felt like a Sim and some unreasonable power kept denying my wishes to sleep and kept me on-task with this project. I don't know HOW I managed it.

I ended up wrapping up around 5AM and slept for a few brief hours. And amazingly enough, it worked on the first try and didn't need modifications. But geez, I was such a wreck, and even now I'm still feeling ill effects from this.


And of course, other factors didn't help. The news about Michael Jackson just made it even harder to concentrate and work and trudge on through. I didn't get to play much WoW like I have been earlier this week, so there was frustration from that as well. It was just an all-around unhappy, stressful, soul-breaking day.

I am still feeling pretty out of it...

Had a bad, long day at work. Kato's coughing seemed to be getting worse. And then, once I got back home after taking him to the park, I turned on the TV and saw the news that Michael Jackson had died.

Ed MacMahon? Sad. Farrah Fawcett? TRAGIC and sad. But Michael Jackson? It's hard to even put into words how devastating this is. To call him an iconic figure is an understatement. And whatever you thought of his personal life, he was just an amazing artist.

My mother grew up in Thailand. I grew up in America. Some people say, "My parents and I are best friends!", and it's something that's difficult for me to comprehend because I feel like I don't have a lot connecting me to my parents aside from spending a bunch of years living together. But three things my mother and I had in common? Coca-cola. Mickey Mouse. Michael Jackson.

Augh. Just thinking about Thriller... Moonwalker... CAPTAIN E-O. This news just came out of nowhere. I just... I'm still having trouble letting it sink in.

Ugh. Just got a major project dumped in my lap this morning. Fun facts:

-Done this kind of thing before, typically takes DAYS or WEEKS due to inherent complexity
-Client wants to add ADDITIONAL complexity
-I don't have the software we normally use for this (I will get it next week)
-They initially failed to mention they need this from me by TOMORROW
-Had no warning ahead of time

WHY do I have a few hours to do what normally takes at least a week, except is more complex than what we normally do, and they didn't even try to give me a heads-up ahead of time? This after I just saved them by fixing some other big project yesterday...

This is also while the head programmer is out of the office so he can't help at all.

ARRRGH WHY

So the bank account is finally closed! Ugh, they kept delaying it, and tried to delay it again today, but I finally got it closed. I don't know if they were just being jerks or what... but maybe they could've handled this earlier if they REALLY wanted to. But the whole reason I'm leaving is because they don't REALLY want to do things in the customer's best interest, it seems.

Now I need to open a new bank account soon... Can't waffle too much but this is kind of a distracting week. Work is still going to be a little hairy, carrying over from last week.


Also, WoW! Right now there's the Midsummer Fire Festival holiday in Warcraft, which I guess corresponds to the real life summer solstice, except much more exciting. So like Halloween last year, I'm obsessed with trying to earn all the achievements before the event goes away for another year. I'm actually making good progress, and it's pretty fun!

Part of it involves sneaking into the capital cities of the opposing faction. Since you're in enemy territory, you're able to get attacked by enemy players even if you wouldn't normally (because hey, you're in THEIR house). Getting killed isn't such a HUGE drawback here, but it still adds that level of excitement somehow, huh?


Last night I tried making some beef sukiyaki. I was surprised by how easy it was and how well it turned out! I just had a pre-made bottle of sauce, a little meat (less than the recipe on the bottle asked for) and some veggies. What was nice was the ingredients were pretty cheap (and maybe I could've saved more if I made the sauce myself, which seems like little more than soy sauce and sugar). Apparently there's some running Japanese joke that even cheap ingredients can make a decent sukiyaki. I don't know if that's actually the case, but I wouldn't be surprised!


Also, Kato seems to be doing better. It really could be just a bug like I thought... He's still not totally well, but he looks a lot better than before. I'm relieved it wasn't something more serious!

Couldn't close the bank account today because some transactions are still going through. Should be able to do it Monday though, I think.

After all this hassle and BOTH sides refusing to pay me back, I tried the plumbers again and this time they actually did agree to reimburse me for the bank fee, after I told them just how much trouble the bank was giving me. Did they feel bad for me? In any case, although they're the ones that caused everything with this mistake of theirs, they are winning a lot more points in my book with how they've handled cleaning up the mess.


As for Kato, I've been pretty worried this week, but I did some research today and think it's possible he may not be so bad. His symptoms, as bad as they seem, sound dead-on with an extremely common illness with dogs. And since he recently went to the groomer's and visited the puppy park, it's entirely possible he caught something so very contagious... And as bad as the symptoms seem, apparently it's no more dangerous than a cold in humans.

Still, I will try to take Kato to a vet this weekend to get a professional opinion. Plus if he gets some pills, it may help him recover sooner and keep from getting sicker. But I'm a lot more hopeful now that it may not be anything too serious.

Thanks for the support, guys. I should have enough to take Kato for a vet visit soon, and can see where to go from there. Now to just figure out a place to go... There's one vet near here where they're pretty cool, but also ass-expensive. There's also the place that took care of his cherry eye when my folks first moved here with him -- they were cheap but apparently did a good job.


Health care in America kinda sucks. Of course health insurance isn't common for animals (I heard rumors about it existing somewhere), so it's always tough dealing with health issues with them. It feels like Obama has too much on his plate to ask him for something like that, too. We need to take care of human health care first!

And that's just ridiculous. We've got people crying out about his health plan like it's going to be the end of the world. I can't say I'm 100% with him on all his policies, but I've yet to understand WHY people are so fervently against his health care plan. I mean, from their violent reactions you'd think someone made a joke about having sex with their teenage daughter.

I don't know if his health plan is foolproof or that it'll change America for the better, but people are trying to kill it before it gets out the door. I just don't get that, especially with the lack of convincing arguments that it'll be bad for our country. It's like trying to argue with your parents that doing your homework is bad -- sure, aliens might come and abduct you and feed you to a dinosaur for doing your homework, but is it really that likely to happen?


It's kind of ridiculous that we're in this state where not everybody has health care, yet if you drive a car you're required to have car insurance. Do we really love our cars that much, people? I admit I love a good road trip as much as anyone else, but this is just silly that we seem to care more about our cars than our own bodies -- what you might call our first vehicles in this world.

And even when I HAD health care, it was terrible. My doctor felt like some stranger who really didn't give a crap about understanding me. I felt like a urinal he just kept tossing pills and shit at just to make more money. People say they don't want bureaucrats to come between patients and their doctors? What the hell do they think is in the way now?? It's worse than a bureaucrat! Much as it pains me, we are no longer living in the days of the Saturday Evening Post.


Er... I kinda got off on a rant tangent there. A rangent? Anyway, hopefully I can figure out what's up with Kato this weekend.

Feeling a little better about the bank and work. Still going through with closing my bank account and have some ideas for new banks to look at. Work is... just work.

Once again, the downsides of having my personal phone the same as my work phone... Some client called me in the afternoon after I'd already stopped working for the day. He knew what time zone I was in, which is why he called me instead of anyone back in the main office... But it's like he assumed I was in a satellite office or something. Except for the fact he called about the time that, if I WERE in a normal office, I'd already be heading home...

My boss offered to reimburse me $40 a month for my phone, because of this issue of my personal phone being the same as my work phone. Except he hasn't followed up on this. I keep submitting expense reports and getting jack squat back. I don't know if I really want to push this... Most likely it's just him being scatterbrained and feeling this is low-priority and thus forgetting about it unintentionally. I feel like they're not purposefully trying to gyp me on this, but... It's annoying, but I don't feel it's a huge deal, although it WOULD be almost $500 a year...


Anyway... The one thing still bugging me is Kato. He just doesn't seem the same as he was just two or so weeks ago. I'm really starting to get worried... I won't have a ton of money this week, but I may have to see if I can squeeze out enough money at least for a clinic visit. But how depressing would it be if I find out what needs to be done, only to be unable to afford it? Even my parents don't have any money to spare.

One day at a time, I suppose...

Kato is doing mostly okay but I'm still worried. There are times he is peppy and active as normal, but there are times like this morning when he just seems to have no energy or interest in anything at all. He is getting kinda old -- I think we had him in high school so he's a little over 10 years old by now. These days I find myself preoccupied with wondering what I would do if he died.

( Work: Unintelligible; Blame game; The case of the missing .JAR; Fun with batch files )

( Bank woes: How the game is played )

So... Anyone recommend a good bank?