This one is a doozy—not too bad, if you want to hibernate like a bear for 3 days. And maybe a little worse if you have neuropathy from chemotherapy. My hands and feet reacted somewhat painfully, but that was ok, it only lasted while I was too sleepy to function. All better this morning. Who knows? Maybe it will help it, eh?
Had a barely discernible headache. And general stupidity.
Which still lingers. Feeling very much better today, I tackled making coffee. Now, granted this new coffeepot requires filling the carafe as a measure, which I’m not used to (I’ve had a measuring pitcher), but then sticking the carafe full of water into the receiving bay of the ‘maker, pushing the button and dimly thinking ‘is there some kind of siphon by which it gets the water out of the carafe?’ is abysmally dim. (I hastily retrieved the carafe, POURED the water into the top, as with any of that sort of maker, and was rewarded with good coffee.) On the other hand there is hope, since I realized that the weak coffee I had yesterday might (doh!) be due to the fact this is a fourteen cup instead of a twelve cup pot.
And then I followed that mixed performance by taking out the garbage, carefully gathering the recyclables—then putting them into the non-recyclable bin.
It’s that kind of day. I got the shot Thursday night. I Had misplaced my glasses, and became aware of it Friday night. I looked in all the usual places. Saturday night, as I began to come out of the fog, I abruptly remembering taking them off (they’re reading glasses, half-sies, which are kind of like the bottom half of bifocals, but a nuisance when I’m not reading) at the clinic, and putting them in my purse. And there they were.
Followed by my performance this morning with the coffee pot and the garbage. I do not think I should do much editing today.
I have contacted Audible (aka Amazon) with my ‘complaints’ but I just get a reply that they are working to make as many titles as possible available to everyone. It’s not a good financial model to directly limit your ‘buyers’ so I don’t get this region restriction business on audio books. Also, a recording is unique, so there couldn’t be a question of ‘infringement’ when making it available internationally. I don’t understand why such a thing would even be under discussion.
Where I live there is a service for the blind and people with other disabilities that make it hard to read physical books. I’ve even managed to get a few books in English recorded (only four, and that over a time period of 4 years) even though English isn’t the first language here.
Some of the companies that do the recording for the ‘government funded’ service are pretty lax in their quality checks and it’s been reported recently that there have been some really odd things in some books. For instance, one reader suddenly went to sleep while recording, then woke up a minute later and continued the recording. Another reader, who recorded mainly reference books, made personal comments about the content of the books. Terrible quality control.
I haven’t contacted Tantor yet, so I may do that. I have tried to buy their books from several sites but all of them reject my payment because I don’t have an American address and credit card.
Yes, the region restrictions just don’t make good sense from the customer’s point of view. Whether it’s video (DVD and Blu-Ray) or ebooks or audiobooks, customers are world-wide and want to buy books, audio, video, so really, it hurts the publishers and studios, who limit their own sales by not arranging for world-wide distribution now. The publishers probably argue that there are restrictions on international competition with other local publishers in those regions or countries. OK, so why don’t they partner with those other national / local publishers, share a portion of the profits, and everyone, especially the customers, who _want_ to buy, are happy. Publishers with international offices, such as USA, CAN, UK, EU, and so on, could readily arrange for distribution publishing rights in their regions, and yet it doesn’t seem to happen much. This can affect American readers who want international books in English or other languages.
I agree, I don’t understand why publishers still limit things like this. — I know in the many years I’ve visited CJ’s blog, readers have often asked about international availability of her ebooks and audiobooks, for Continental Europe, the UK, Australia and New Zealand, and elsewhere, essentially all over the globe.
I wonder if CJ’s publisher posted a poll on their website, asking about international distribution, for English or other language titles, for printed books, ebooks, and audiobooks, and asked about sighted, impaired, and blind readers, if they (the publisher) could get a better idea of the market demand, the customers they are missing out on. Likewise for Amazon and Audible. I have a feeling there is a massive potential out there, as every few months, someone asks here about any progress, or laments that they can’t get CJ’s books and want them, in any format, and so they are lucky if they can work around it by getting a print copy from the USA and Canada. Except for many of us, that doesn’t work; we need ebooks and audiobooks, because we can’t see, which has nothing to do with how old we are (or aren’t). (I’ve always been legally blind, for instance.)
There must be some way to work things out so all sides benefit. — Independent publishing of ebooks or audiobooks for international markets, for instance, ought to be doable.
The audiobooks are not perfect, but they are good. I notice pronunciation differences for English words and for alien words alike. The way the narrators or voice actors read the dialogue does not always fit how I have heard the books in my head, reading for myself. But thes can give another perspective, and generally, they are good quality. I’d certainly rather have them available than not. — I would think that the audio publisher could take the existing files, re-wrap them, either to remove region restrictions, or to give versions for any given region needed. (Personally, I’d prefer region-free, which seems easier and smarter in the long run.)
Just an idea, but can an international (i.e., non-USA) listener use an audiobook from a USA source? In other words, for example, I’ve bought all or nearly all of CJ’s audiobooks. If I were to loan a copy to a European listener, could he (or she) then open the audiobook in their audiobook player and have it play without a problem? What about ebooks? Personally, I would see this as loaning a copy of a book to another reader who can’t get the book where they are. But we’d need to know if the files could be opened and played in Europe. I wouldn’t think there would be a problem, but I know video discs will object if anyone tries to play them in a different region. — I wouldn’t have a problem loaning audiobooks to a European fan, for instance.
(And as I’ve said before when this issue comes up, I am totally OK with CJ showing what I’ve said to her publishers, if it would help get her books into more (international) fans’ hands, feet, pseudopods, tentacles, appendages, tails…. Heh.)
N.B. — I still need to get my website domains transferred back to the old hosting company and re-uploaded and configured. I hope to get this done in March. Once it’s done, I have samples of my audio work available on my website, with credits for those podcasts or audio dramas. — I don’t know what Audible’s current process is for selecting readers. Again, I’d be glad to read for audiobooks or for voice work for fan or original SF&F audio dramas and podcasts.)
Side Note: I recently found, again on Audible for the USA, that Andre Norton’s Solar Queen books, Plague Ship and Voodoo Planet, are available in audiobooks now, but not Sargasso of Space yet, oddly. The two later books with Sherwood Smith, A Mind for Trade and Derelict for Trade, are also available in audiobook form. I think there may be a fourth or fifth old Solar Queen title, but I can’t recall for sure, and no longer have those books in print, much missed.
I’m not sue which of the Liaden books are available in audio, but I listened to two of those and enjoyed them. As far as I know, Gordon R. Dickson’s two books involving the ursinoids, one being The Right to Arm Bears, and I think the first was called Spacial Delivery (I’m no longer sure) are not yet in audio form. I keep hoping for more of Andre Norton’s titles, as her books were favorites growing up.
Well if you ever want to do some testing… I’m British and uk resident. Let me know…
Hopefully, a week on, all side effects now gone? Wishing you well.
I finally got an Uber ride and got my cats to the vet. Uber has changed their app again, and after a lot of fiddling around, nearly giving up, I was able to get it to choose my apt. as the pickup point. This _might_ work better in the future; at least now I know it’s doable. Whether it will really pick up from my apt. door, I’m still not sure of, as the cabbie didn’t say what he got.
Good news for both cats: Brindle (girl kitten, about 6 months old) has her first vaccinations and is due on her next checkup, or else in a month, when she’s now scheduled to be spayed (neutered). No parasites, but we’re treating for them just in case, and overall, she’s in good health. Very happy about this.
Goober (elderly male neutered kitty) is, hmm, yes, having gastrointestinal trouble, but the full battery of tests is pricey (about $290) to check for cancer, hyper-/hypothyroid, or pancreatitis, or other problems. So the vet recommended trying a special diet to see if that helps, then a checkup in two weeks, to bring them both in for a follow-up on the deworming and to check Goober’s health. He is down nearly two pounds from when he was last in, so he’s now very underweight at 7.3 lbs. The kitten weighs 7.2 lbs and is half-grown but chunky, while Goober has always been long and thin, but is now way too thin.
We discussed symptoms, which didn’t rule anything out, but which at least gives the vet a better idea of what’s been going on with him. — So he has a reprieve, I’m not giving up on him yet and he still has good will to live. He’s negative for worms, but as a precaution, he got a dewormer, so they’re both safeguarded. — After his checkup in 2 weeks, I hope we’ll know more. I may opt for the tests, but ouch, at the cost.
Nuts, I asked about the fee for spaying, but I’ve forgotten what it was.
I was surprised at the cost of the special diet food: almost $60 for an 8.8 lb. bag of dry. But we can get an Rx to give to Petco to get wet or dry prescription food for him there, yay. I’m to move him fairly quickly to the new food and feed them separately, because the kitten needs the nutrition of a full kitten diet, not the special diet for Goober. — Royal Canin Gastro-Intestinal Moderate Calorie dry food for cats. — Also got an Rx for him, liquid med., oral dosage 2x a day, Metronidazole. He won’t be thrilled, but I can do this fine with him.
So, fingers and toes crossed for him. I won’t be surprised if he needs to be tested and treatment tailored for him. If it’s readily treatable, then good. I’m guessing he’s not too far down yet, that he has a while left, as the doctor didn’t bring that up, though I had said I knew it might be, but that his will to live is still strong.
SO overall, I’m hopeful for him. We’ll see how it goes. If he can gain some weight, that would be ideal. If we can reduce or stop the g.i. trouble, so he’s pooping more normally, then good. If he can get the nutrition he needs from his food, without it running right through him, then he has a better chance. He’s been surviving, but with good care, he may have a decent chance at better quality of life and live a while longer. I’m glad I did not have to make that decision today to say goodbye. He’s been with me so long and so faithfully, I want him to have whatever chance he can, and have a good life, however long he has. I don’t want him to be miserable or hurting or where he doesn’t want to live anymore. So he has a while longer and we’re working on finding out what’s wrong. I’ll know more in two weeks.
The vet who’d first seen Goober and another cat, probably Curry, was finally back after a long sabbatical / other leave. It was good to see her. (All the vets at this clinic are women and almost all the staff are. There’s one or two men on staff at intervals.)
Very, very glad I was able to get a cab today. If the new system will work for me without so many failed, cancelled pickups, that would sure make my life less stressful and problematic when I need a cab ride! Much better experience today.
Hah, the new clothes rack is due in another day to five days, and sure will be glad to get it. I will be ordering groceries towards the end of the week or start of next. — My local store is still catch as catch can on availability of many things, but the order a few weeks ago, after the storm when things were finally going through again, did mostly OK. I have a backlog from what friends here sent, and I’ve used up some things, so will need to order.
Hoping to get some personal stuff done the rest of the week, to move my websites and get one or two things in process, if possible. — I will finish looking over the Audible voice actors / narrators / readers info from Sweetbo’s link, and will get to record some new audition material soon, so that can start in process. (It looks like it’s a possibility. I expect I may need to make some technical adjustments in order to be able to record with better quality and consistency, but I have a good microphone.)
So, all in all, things are looking a bit better!
Oh — the electrician was finally by, with his young son helping, for the inspection the apt. complex had announced last week. He said it’s just him for the whole complex, that they are having trouble keeping people, due to problems with the workers dealing with tenants behaving badly, as well as fluency and social skills for maintenance staff, who have mostly been Spanish primary language, with often less English fluency than my Spanish fluency level, which is not nearly fluent enough in vocabulary and needs further work on grammar, i.e., the range of other tenses and moods, irregular verb forms, some oddities of prepositions between the two languages, and again, lots of vocabulary learning. My old Spanish textbook is still good, but very, very hard for me to read now. An ebook is more feasible, but I haven’t found one to suit me yet, and ebook textbooks can be as pricey as the physical printed books, whew, very expensive, some of them. So — I need to make myself stick to a schedule on this and other things, to force myself to do things I’ve been slacking on. I want and need to become fluent in Spanish. More and more here in town, it’s needed, not just for where I live, but urgently so for here, to talk with my neighbors and the maintenance workers. And, dang it, I’m talented with languages. I seem to be dragging my feet on this when I think I should’ve been diving in with both feet, hungry for it. I don’t get why I haven’t been. I know I’m unhappy at having so much trouble now with reading printed books, papers, etc., but…I want and need to be fluent. Spanish is a wonderful language. It’s beautiful. I need to practice my French too; I miss it, and when I”ve reviewed, I’m frustrated at what I’ve forgotten or never had learned. I really enjoyed it. So I must get to this. (And my interest in Dutch and Hawaiian and others shows I still love and want to learn languages. I know I have a talent for it, but it needs exercise, practice, work, to get back what I’ve lost and build on that. — I would be thrilled to get back to the level of fluency I had in high school and college, with both French and Spanish. I see from living here, though, how much vocabulary and experience there is different from classroom learning and textbook reading, versus real immersion and interaction, actually having conversations where I don’t know and need to learn vocabulary. — I think I need to put in time to read a few words a day from my Spanish dictionary, for instance, to memorize those, to build out to a decent fluency. Once I have the grammar back in mind, I should be good. Spanish and French grammar are largely similar, so they reinforce each other. So..much to do.
Heh, the non-working porch light is supposed to get reported again, this time by the electrician, to be repaired, as he’s still going through all the apts. to do inspections per city regs. So it might actually get FIXED for real. Maybe…. Heh.
We had our cat, Tango Foxtrot, to the vet a few weeks ago because he wasn’t eating or pooping much (this from a cat who loves his grub). Our vet also recommended the Royal Canin “Digestive” (in this case) formula, saying that they had found it more effective for constipation than the medicine they used to prescribe and now only recommend it for kitty constipation. I’m glad to say that Tango is back eating… etc. He —and our other cat who gets a few as a snack —loves the new, dry crunchies. Hopefully this bodes well for Goober too.
Got my first Covid19 shot yesterday. It was very efficiently done with many helpers, all spaced with masks. The shot itself was less painful than the flu shot. My arm is a little stiff this morning and I woke up with a headache which is due to the shot or allergies.
It was 46ºF. at seven o’clock this morning. I am looking forward to a day of sun, being outside doing yard clean-up and inside doing studio clean up. I should be able to get back in next week.
It’s amazing what a few days of sun and temps above fifty can do for my spirits.
HI all. I’ve had another big problem hit, and I’m hoping to find out more and get that straightened out today if possible. A new asst. mgr. is at the apt. complex. Yesterday, she came by with a bill demanding full payment on back rent. I explained who at their office had been helping me, that he had paperwork on that, that I didn’t know how much was or was not covered by govt. assistance programs, but that he had the documentation on that, because my cell phone and internet had been off for months, and just recently back on. She didn’t want to hear it and said she and he would be by today to talk with me. I’ve called this morning to their office to leave a msg, to try to get a heads-up to the man there, and asked the woman to get with him, so they might resolve things before talking to me. I can pay a little, but not the full amount all at once, for sure, and basically, I want to know what’s going on with the govt. help I thought had gone through, to know how much that will cover versus what I might owe. I don’t want to obligate myself as if agreeing to the full amount if I don’t actually owe all of it. I want to pay just what I do owe.
But also, if there has been a policy change and the apartments are going to demand it, then I won’t have any real option but to ask relatives to come get me and move in with them temporarily, and pay off what I ower the apt. complex when possible.
I think this is miscommunmication and a crusading new person thinkng she can play hardball and get a lot done, not realizing the reality of the situatin for myself and at least 43 other tenants, according to the man who’s been helping me and them. I really hope this can be resolved.
It’s well after the office should be open, but I had leave a message, couldn’t reach the man I’ve been working with, or anyone else. Great. I’m hoping to get him and her to talk, maybe to resolve this. Otherwise, I’m in big trouble in a big hurry. (And so are at least 43 other tenants.) I have no idea at present what my status is with govt. assistance on the two or more programs, one federal, one state. My understanding was, I was fine on the one, not to worry, and the other had been submitted just the other day, was not yet processed by the state office handling that, and again, I should be covered, that I wasn’t in danger, so not to worry. So…now the new lady comes along and I’m worried. If it’s the amount she presented, if nothing has gone through on assistance, then I owe a lot more than previously, for the months in between. Ugh. So I want it resolved, and I want the woman tounderstand I want to work with them, but not to come at me, push me verbally, and expect that I won’t be both shocked and worried and thereby emotional about it. I’m not likely to lose my temper unless pushed the wrong way very hard. I’m far more likely to be overwhelmed and not think well, and hopefully keep from crying or some other emotional thing. I used to be more patient, more able to weather crisis. I could be strong when caring for my grandmother. But after she’s been gone, reaction set in, and I get upset, shaken up, too easily now, plus, I’m now in a position where my well-being, myself and my home base and my cats and belongings are threatened, with no good way out. So it’s way more of a big deal for me now.
I talked to my uncle by phone last night to let him know some of it, and didn’t reach my cousin. I wanted to let them know, in case I have to move out, but also that I’d had another big crisis and I hope it can be resolved. At least talking with my uncle helped, as well as to reassure me that my intended approach in talking it over with the new manager is on the right track, if I can keep with it.
—–
But then this morning or overnight, my senior cat, whom I’d taken in for treatemnt, had an accident on the carpet in my bedroom, serious. I’ve cleaned it up, but it will need another pass, and ultimately, I’ll need to steam clean the carpet. (I have a steamer.)
So Goober is not doing as well as I’d thought, since his vet trip earlier this week. He’s worse, and this accident was bad, and not something he has done much habitually. (He almost always has gone right outside the litterbox. The times recently he hasn’t have been a serious departure from his usual good habits, which says how severe this is getting to him.) The accident overnight means he’s not improving like I had thought he was.
It’s severe enough that I am facing again that I may have to decide he’s reached the end of what I can do for him, that his quality of life will go down too far too fast, and so I amay have to decide this afternoon or in the next couple of days to take him to the vet for euthanasia. He has been so loving and faithful for so long, this really gets to me.
but I’ve known for months it might happen any day, natural causes or some outside event or I might have to decide for him. Still, it’s a hard thing to have to decide. I am struggling with it and hasn’t made up my mind yet. In any case, until I know something about the rent, I can’t get Goober taken care of. So he has a while, but I am afraid I already know what I have to do, and I don’t like it.
I couldn’t get ahold of the vet’s office either, and will have to try again.
Also for my apt., after the electrical inspection, hot water and hot water pressure has been off, but cold water is fine. This didn’t fix itself, and I’d thought maybe it was maintenance for the surrounding apartments, not just me. So that plus the ongoing issue withthe porch light are to report, and if those get done, I’ll put in another request for the dryer vent line, and sign (again!) a release form on that.
Plus, I will hope I can stay, that this will work out, that I won’t suddenly owe far more than I’d thought I would. I really hope I don’t have to move in with those relatives, l suddenly. My cousin lives in a small town hours away, and I will still need eye care and dental care upcoming, plus vet appt.s soon for the new kitten again. I therefore don’t want to have to move out of town, further disrupting getting back on my feet, chasing everything I’d just changed and items still to do. My uncle and aunt live in a truly tiny town in Virginia in the mountains. Not necessarily good for me as a legally blind guy, and the climate, brrr! They are older, nearly in their 80’s now. It is not a very good idea for me to move there, as much as I love them.
SO right now, I don’t know what’s going to happen for those or other things I need to get done, and once again, every time I think I’ve got one thing solved, something else happens, plus it’s taking far longer to get any one thing done. That on top of my own personal weaknesses, and it’s a mess. I am trying, but it’s rough. And I’ve let slip a few things I didn’t have to get, and have told myself no more f that for a long while, if ever. I’m trying to be good about this and do it right, but I am bumbling along with it.
SO..;I will give an update when I can. I’ve emailed the folks here who’ve been helping me, but thesis too big for them. Small help, bits and pieces, they can do. This one’s mine to handle.
Good thoughts and prayers would really help. My back’s to the wall and I am going to do my best to be reasonable, so I hope they will be. I feel ike this is a new asst. mgr. trying to prove herself without knowing what’s been going on, and clearly, she hasn’t talked to the man who has been shepherding things so conscientiously, and who has therefore been a welcome relief for me and surely others. It the two can work things out, then it has a chance of working out OK for me. If it’s going to be a sudden complete reversal and they’re going with the new manager’s choices, then I don’t think I can stay and will have to move out soon, and pay whatever balance when I can get to it. But I hope it can be resolved better than that. There are lots of other tenants in similar situations to mine here. If the landlord and mgmt. will work with the tenants, then they have a better chance to get paid what’s owed. If they push, then people will move out, some will pay and some won’t. I really want this to work out OK. I’m completely broadsided by it. The man helping me had been by just the day before, with no hint of anything wrong. So I hope they can work it out and with me, so I can haveenough time to get things solved. Otherwise, I’m in deep trouble very fast.
Thoughts and prayers appreciated; I’m upset about both things, and everything is too shaky, too unknown yet.
Thoughts and prayers absolutely for you, Ben! Yes, she is playing hardball. There still is a national, eviction moratorium in effect. Unfortunately, enforcement is up to the state and locale. I wish Texas were Massachusetts, where I know the resources and the protections for housing situations like this. Pats to Goober and fingers crossed.
The timing looks suspicious to me. She’s playing bad cop to see how much the owners can get before the stimulus bill passed. I agree that management is much more likely to get money back by working with the tenants rather than making them do a “runner.” With the number of people affected by the economic downturn, management is less likely to get apartments rented out to “responsible” tenants, and much less likely to incur extra expenses if they keep current tenants in place.
Update: No news is either good news, or a very large shoe about to drop. I got very little sleep the night before last, between worry over the rent and Goober, and general anxieties over my situation. I spent most of yesterday waiting around, not wanting to get into anything I couldn’t set down without a problem, and not wanting to leave the apt., except that I checked my P.O. Box, here on the grounds.
I left a phone message, and couldn’t get to a Real Live Person. I take it this means they are short-handed or in transition of some kind. I hope Mr. Patel remains with them, as he’s been so understanding and helpful. I’d be glad to keep in contact if he leaves, but I doubt I’d be that lucky. No reply yesterday. However, late yesterday, water pressure was on again for the hot water, and sometime later, hot water was back, oh, thank heavens.
So far, I haven’t seen either Mr. Patel or the new asst. mgr. today, but I might see them between 4:30 and 6:00pm still. So I don’t know if the two conferred and got on the same page, or if the new lady is now swamped or discovering quite what she’s gotten herself into, as well as the restrictions still in place.
I talked with my uncle in VA last night, which was good. But I haven’t yet heard back from my cousin, who’s in Texas, about a 2-3 hour drive from the small town where he and his wife live. My cousin’s having trouble despite having had a going business before he pandemic. He was expecting the freeze would mean more than he could handle, but even so, it has not been as much as he needs. Also, he was hacked at some point and is still getting over that. So they can’t do a lot to help me right now. If I end up having to move, I may have to move in with them or something. I hope not. I’m hoping we can avoid that happening.
I’ve waited today. I slept better last night. But I don’t intend to wait around Monday and during the next week. I need to get in gear, doing things. Everything takes longer than I expect, and I am not as great at every step as I would like to think I am. I have weak spots and tend to act as if I didn’t.
Goober hasn’t had an accident since yesterday, but he hasn’t eaten as much as usual, he’s picking at the new food, wants the old food or treats, and I’m being lenient on that. I’d mixed in the new with the old, as suggested. I’m not sure if he’s used the litterbox more than once today. However, he surprised me by showing up to ask for attention or food, and so I was glad to spend some time with him, plus I had brought him in to be with me a while earlier. He’s let Brindle take over, the poor non-assertive sweetheart. And she is a sassy, pushy little half-grown, teenage kitten. Anyway, I’m still concerned about him, but I wanted to stay here today, so he’s had a reprieve, and we’ll see how he does over the weekend. I still may be facing a final decision by Monday. But I am glad to hae the additional time with him, and I wish he could get stable and improve or get well. I may be just wishing. Brindle is thriving, and meowing often to want out and ant attention. She is odd and doesn’t come when called, though. Her hearing and sight appear to be OK; I thought to check before.
So…things are rocking along, inconclusive and frustrating, but I’m better day, just still over-tired.
I’m going to choose something to do a couple of test recordings for audio. I’m still looking at the Audible page Sweetbo kindly sent the link to. It looks like this could be doable. I’ll be doing tests, then auditions, and it’ll be a while before I know anything more. They outline the process that a prospective audio voice actor goes through to get and complete a recording contract. So it will be a while, but I’m encouraged it’s something I can audition for and might get a paying gig doing.
I would be so pleased if I could et a paying gig doing that. I am still looking into it and need to do test recordings before I do any audtions, to see how I do at sample texts. I’ve done voice recordings of amateur shorts before, and I’ve done fan audio, small parts and one larger part, and really enjoyed that.
(If you can find old Hidden Frontier audio episodes, I played a Klingon guard fora few lines in one episode, and a Cardassian Gul for another few lines in another episode. I had a major part in an uncompleted Star Trek fan drama that had two episodes published, in which I played Mirror Chekov. And I’ve been in one or two bit parts in Star Trek: Excelsior, a redshirt and an alien assistant. I’ve auditioned a couple of times for Star Trek: Outpost. When I can get my websites back online, the full credits will be there, and I’ll be posting new items once the sites are back.)
I really, really hope things will continue to progress, and I don’t have some severe problem with the rent issue. I can begin to pay on it again, but that will make a severe dent in the money I got, and I want to know first how much I actually owe beyond what is covered by govt.assistance. I also want very much to know if there was some problem or if that did go through fine, as I had thought, based on reassurances. And I hope the two can get their heads together, so I don’t have one story from one, another form the other, to cause a mess and needless (or needful) anxiety on my end.
I have too much stuff in my apt. and too much in the storage space. I need the new locks my cousin was supposed to get to me, and I need time spent there going through things. Eegad, how I wish I could get everything done and have a calmer, simpler life. And ah, yes, a livable income, a steadily paying job.
I’m off to find something to record for a few audio tests.
Ben, President Biden has extended the Eviction Moritorium through to September 6th… and the new, American Rescue Plan he just signed into law has $21.5 billion to pump into Eviction prevention/rental payment programs. There is help out there. I know that you had been talking with a social services agency—get back in contact with them! Don’t go this alone. There is federal help and skilled agencies who know how to negotiate the systems.
I intend to restart on that during the week, and also hope Mr. Patel can help with any new federal assistance on the rent. I have to call my eye doctor with the Lighthouse in Houston and get (again) proof of my condition for Soc. Sec., then onward to them and state help, which means a LOT of time on hold and interviews over the phone or in person. (Or FaceTime; I’m not familiar with Zoom, haven’t used it before.) — Hoping this time, I can get it further through and be done.
Meanwhile, I’m going to see about doing audio and continue with font development if I can, and keep on about writing. (If I can break through whatever the block or plateau is on writing, I’ll be OK, but it’s lower priority on my chances right now.
I don’t know what to expect, given how I’m lacking some info I thought would be in order by now. That’s still to do, but at least I can get restarted in the process towards help. I need to save what vision I still have, or get it back to my former level, if possible, and I need dental care too. I need a livable income, from govt. assistance and from my own work. I feel so unequal to the task, but I’ve got to get through it.
I’ll keep folks updated on my progress. Raesean, thanks so much for keeping at me and for caring and cheerleading. My previous experiences with state level were less than impressive: lots of waiting, an agent suffering bad burnout who didn’t want to listen, and after getting through the process, being misdirected twice across town and back. The man with me, from the subdivision from my former house, was even more put out about it than I was. Then a trip to the state agency for blind and impaired folks was about half and half, but hinged on federal (SSA) help. The Lighthouse counselor was new, and there was a little help in suggestions there, but it referred back to federal and state, as they’re not monetary help. (Still good.) The eye doctor was helpful, but the referral I need requires health insurance and ability to pay beyond that, so needed SSA status there too. So, I’ve still got a long road ahead, and I still feel completely new and inadequate at it, but will keep trying. The processs is really discouraging, daunting, and it’s designed that way, whatever state one lives in.
Texas had merged the former Texas Commission for the Blind into the Texas Workforce Commission, with the stated goal of getting every Texan working. (The slogan was even worse.) Whereas the SSA wants you to be entirely dependent and destitute in order to get fullest help, and almost so in order to get SSI or partial help. So at least in my state, the federal and state goals are diametrically opposed. I have the makings of a college degree, besides that old associate’s degree, but I felt truly baffled by the process, last time I’d started through.
Now I have to pick up from scratch, because I don’t know at what point I was with the SSA before the pandemic hit, and the documentation I had is packed up or lost; I still haven’t found it. So I’m resolved to wing it and attempt to get to whatever point it was before, and start from there, and I hope not to have to start completely from scratch, but if so, well, OK.
It’s the middle of the night. I ordered my grocery delivery for before noon, and should be OK on that, at least.
Goober’s doing so-so, and if the, ah, evidence was his, then the medicine has helped his g-i trouble, at least for now. He ate and had come to me again for attention, which was a very good sign; his spirits were up a little, enough to want food and attention. So I was glad. Still not out of the woods yet, and I still don’t know ultimately what to decide, but it looks like he might be stable and improving, for today at least.
I slept, and needed it, rather than finding what to record for audio tests. I got up to take care of the cats, but I’m still sleepy and my eyes are too tired, so I’m likely going back to bed in a minute.
I am very glad the new administration has gotten its collective posterior together and done something positive to help people. I hope they do the right thing, and I hope somehow, we and they can get our priorities straight on how to manage what people need for health care, insurance, education, minimum wage and jobs, and balance that with trade and security concerns and the need for a workable budget. I’m no wizard anymore at this, clearly, but nearly everyone has been hit unless they are wealthy. I am glad for the change to the new administration and hopeful that we’ll all benefit.
Basically, I’m still floundering, and being so far down, relying so completely on others, with too few resources of my own…very hard. There’s a million things to do that all need doing right now, and just one of me, and I get overwhelmed and physically and mentally, emotionally tired from it. Plus, there are those “poor tax” costs of being so far down, which no one seems to acknowledge. I suspect that if our Congress and Senate and Presidency had to live for a month or a year on the average citizen’s income, or at the level they set for federal help, which is unlivable, that they’d be truly shocked and might have to change heir thinking.
Meanwhile, I keep fighting old habits, and I have too much stuff in my apt. and in the storage space, and have to winnow it all down. — The clothes rack arrived, but I haven’t got it put together yet. This, in order to hang clothes to dry, since the dryer vent line is still unprepared and I will need a new dryer, but can’t afford it. (The new kitten is probably the cause of the demise of the old clothes rack, but I can’t really blame her, it’s too laughable and major to blame a curious, exploring teenage kitten. The thing bent, deformed, when it fell, so as to be unusable, irreparable.)
Hmm…vocabulary; ability to think reasonably well, and yet, whether because of my vision or whatever other personality weak spots, I’m stuck in this position. Meeting my cousin again reminded me of the gaps in his thinking or ability to think through things fast and in a crisis. But he’s from a small town and didn’t go to college. I’ve known plenty of people who didn’t either, but were highly capable. Yet he’s had a going business until the pandemic, and they have their own home and mortgage payments, now hampered because of the pandemic affecting his business and her lost job. So I’m not sure if a comparison is fair, but geez, my cousin, in some ways, does better than I do at getting through life and work/job issues.
I really hope I can somehow get back to productive life, to something more livable and less constantly filled with stress and problems popping up. I know I’m not the only one, I’m just so isolated that it’s getting to me too much.
Thanks to the blog at large for bearing with me. — I’m going to try to minimize my posting, with things at least a little better, shaky though they are. Ì›’m a bundle of stress with not enough outlet, this whole week, and it’s going to be a long time until I’m back to something more manageable, livable.
I was shocked when I saw the newest Last week tonight with John Oliver, about unemployment insurance. He said the *aim* in the US is to reach only 50% of those *eligible* for those programs (instead of the near 100% that a state that cares for its citizens should try to reach, in my opinion – if people are eligible for help, they should be able to get that help!), and that in practice only 9%-28% of those that are objectively eligible for unemployment benefits end up getting them. That is awful!
That means at least two-thirds, and in some states 9 out of 10 of the people who lose their jobs and can’t find a new one through no fault of their own, and really need help, do not get that help.
I understand BCS needs income support from a different program, disability income instead of unemployment insurance, but the way those programs are set up does not appear to be all that different: some states really want to support as few of their citizens-in-need as they can get away with, and a lot appear to be in a race to the bottom of that ranking, with mostly Republican politicians talking as if that is something to be proud of.
That is dreadful for those people and their kids, dreadful for those around them who try to support them, and terrible for the economy – people who don’t have any income cannot buy things like food and gas, and the US economy is consumer-based: if people don’t buy things the economy nose-dives.
Making people literally hungry and threatened with homelessness is a way to create a powerless class of peons/serfs/wage-slaves that have to take whatever the companies that might employ them are willing to give, but it definitely also limits the income-potential for those companies: if no-one has the disposable income to spend on your products, you can price them really low by paying your workers almost nothing, and you still won’t sell your products…
How can these US politicians be so focused on punishing poor people for being poor, and preventing them from getting ahead, that they are willing to ruin not only those poor people’s lives but also condemn any middle-class voters who suffer a setback to fall into that poverty trap, AND ruin the whole economy that even the rich depend on? It seems very short-sighted to me.
And some states are making a law that allows new company towns to be created, where the company is the local government and makes the local bylaws. How much freedom will those workers have, when the company owns the houses and sets the rents, owns at least part of the businesses and sets or influences the prices, owns the jobs and sets the wages, and can decide that pollution is OK and clean drinking water is not something they are going to provide; and your healthcare and housing is totally dependent on your employer? A return to serfdom in practice, it looks like to me…
@BCS, I e-mailed you some links to help you get started on the audiobook recording.
Initial pay isn’t very good, it works out to around minimum wage per hour, but it can work up to a livable income if you get a good reputation and steady work from it.
Firstly, over the last few decades I’ve come to mistrust commentators, justifiably as it’s not uncommon to see speeches “fact checked”, e.g. Biden’s just delivered. Everybody’s got an agenda, media caters to click-bait. objectivity be damned. Take everything with a “pinch” of salt.
Beyond that, self-reliance, not to mention a presumption that one is capable of self-reliance, has always been part of American culture, that “Can-Do Spirit”. (It’s probably exaggerated in Texas. Worst state in the country I’d want to be disabled in!)
Add to that, in the past 40 years, the post-Reagan era, corporate and “Wall Street” influence has grown progressively stronger, and greedier. It led (not so) finally to the 2008 Financial Collapse. Such reforms as were instituted were of a highly technical nature, fundamental reforms ignored as unimplementable. So profits are privatized, risks publically shared.
It didn’t have to be this way! Our economic advisors were “captured” by the Chicago School proselytizing it’s version of “Neoliberalism”, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism), the operative bit being the “Neo” part. As with “Neoclassicism”, what it means is sharing the apparent trappings, but fundamentally nothing like.
It’s now engrained in capital-c Conservative culture, and we’ve become extremophiles. Compromise has become a four-letter word! (Have I mentioned lately that Aspies by and large are NOT joiners of “movements”, of which several are now prominent in America?)
It’s not going to get any better for Ben. The best thing he could do (“for himself” as the common American expression goes, illustrating the cultural point I’m making) is get out of Texas!
p.s. I think it’s hilarious that for all their bitching about high taxes (any at all, actually) Conservatives have no explanation at all why Scandanavians, for example, want to live in their “high tax countries”, and aren’t swarming to America.
p.p.s. Conservatives, capital-c, are anything but! Never accept THAT “malarkey”! Their idol, Reagan, was a Utopian, dreaming of his “shining city on the hill”. These days most of them, e.g. “strict constructionists”, are all too ready to change everything drastically, overnight, into something they imagine was our historical past, but never actually existed. A true Conservative abhors radical change, not even to a(n imagined glorious) past.
Paul, thank you. As much as I love my home state, it has its flaws, and has gotten more extreme in those during my lifetime, much like you said the whole country has. America, in my opinion, has gone from more moderate to ultra-conservative, which hasn’t been good for us. We’re also not the only place or people n the planet, fortunately, but too often, Americans think that; partly because too few Americans have any idea of other languages or countries and the people there. I grew up conservative, but I’ve changed over the years. I suspect the fans here are a broad mix of liberal and conservative. We’re fortunate to have international fans, and to have the chance for good dialogue without too much rancor.
That’s it in a nutshell, Hanneke. Americans in general have a strange dichotomy between our charitable instincts and our Protestant/Catholic (etc.) work ethic, and our notions of class, race, and work versus need. Add to this that most Americans were able to advance in the years following World War 2, so that it seemed, for a generation or more, that the American maxim, that as long as you worked hard and lived a good / righteous / virtuous life, that you would advance socially / class-wise, from poor to middle to upper-class, the American Dream. My parents came from poor to lower middle class backgrounds, worked themselves through college, and rose to upper middle class by the time I was in high school and college in the 80’s, so that I grew up with a mild case of yuppie-itis, which I still find myself having to outgrow. I don’t think I was as bad about it as others in my generation, until taking care of my grandmother threw me into overdrive or sometimes panic-mode or hoarding mode in some ways. I find myself still having to fight against those tendejcies, whereas in college, I was very careful and did well, but didn’t have income then either.
(This is complicated by the fact that my parents, however well-meaning, didn’t pay me directly for my work for them, and claimed me as a dependent, and did not sign me up then for SSI. In their defense, both then and now, there are income restrictions, a quite low threshold, so they may have been following the law to the best of their ability then. But they were wrong, legally and morally, not to have paid me directly and let me manage my own pay, income, and learn from that. A family friend, when he learned this, was appalled and said both that he wished he hadn’t known they’d done that, and he wished I’d spoken to someone back then, to resolve it. It was, during my other troubles in college, a point I had a big argument with my parents about, and if I’d had enough savings for rent, I would’ve moved out. I thought then that no one I knew (friends of mine or family friends or relatives) would help me out if I did. In retrospect, I was naive and not ready, by far, but if I had spoken up and asked for help then, it might have been a great boon for me.) Anyway, it meant that I went into adulthood not ever having managed ordinary living expenses on housing, groceries, etc., other than what little I’d done in college and since. So when they passed away and I began taking care of myself and then my grandmother, it was like being thrown into the deep end. I managed, but I also made mistakes driven by being scared into things or over- or underestimating. The income and savings I had for a while meant I did fine, but didn’t realize the weak spots there. Then instead of the good advice I got when begging to care more for my grandmother, I thought I could manage OK on my own. Mistake. Big mistake, as I was soon so deep in that, I couldn’t get out of it.
Note: During her illness, I’d tried to get further support for her. I was shocked that the restrictions said she could have no more than, at the time, $1250 in income of any kind, no income from investments or mineral rights or other such things, no help from relatives or friends such as myself, and that amount included any check from Social Security. Basically, she would have to be entirely without a penny in order to get help. Ah, the amount has increased only a bit since then. It’s preposterous. The SSA agent, over the phone, insisted she had to come in to the office. I countered hat she was physically unable to do so, in the hospital in ICU at the time, and they had her SSN and could confirm it so, that she was no longer mentally competent either, and that if they wanted, they could (ahem) send an agent to meet us there and see for themselves. I have never been so righteously upset with any clerk or official, even since. If I could’ve jumped through the phone, I would’ve given a loud, long, verbal objection to the agent. It was an example of how our system is rigged. My opinion hasn’t much improved since then, and these days, I’m on my own with trying to help myself, and I’m not always good about following through, but I’m trying. (I am obviously very writing-oriented, but not nearly so voluble in person, unless I feel comfortable or get going good. Heh.)
We Americans in general have this strange Puritanical idea, without real thought or experience, that people should help themselves, do for themselves, work hard, and if they are somehow not as moral or hard-working, then they must be immoral and lazy and no good and not really trying to help themselves, and therefore less worthy of help, charity, government or non-profit assistance. Never mind that people also know that’s not really true; it’s what we tend to do without thinking, in attitudes, both in daily living and in voting. It’s the dark side to the more generous and caring and egalitarian side that Americans also have. We seem to have the idea that if one rises in the social and economic and educational ladder, then one is hard-working and virtuous, and therefore does not need help; and the converse means somehow either that one is poor but honest and hard-working (noble savage?) or else lazy and no-good. Even middle class and working class people, who should know better, fall into this mental trap, without analyzing it, I think. Also, America does have a white (European-American) centered bias, even to the extent of not counting Hispanics / Latinos and some others from just as European a background, as “white.” (I can say that as a white guy who was born just before the Civil Rights Act, and grew up when minority kids were still bussed to schools, even if the school district had a mix of white and minority kids, as mine did.) I’m from Houston, an increasingly mixed city for every ethnic background, American-born and international immigrants. My city is not free of prejudices, but most of us manage to get along, most of the time, maybe. (Or I’d like to think so.)
In other words, bluntly, we have white bias against minorities, and that even affects people born into minority groups, or folks who are from blended backgrounds, in both good and bad ways. We all are subject to some lifelong, in-built assumptions about class and race which are mostly, well, baloney. And yes, it means people who need help often don’t get it, and people (like the folks here who’ve been helping me lately) are stressed financially and in other ways, to support folks who need help, which brings down the entire group and the economy, just like you said.
So our political system and our social welfare and health care, insurance, and education and work systems, all reflect this very dual dark-and-light / good-and-bad nature of the American psyche.
I had written a few starts of stories with some dystopian present or futures, including where corporations had taken over from governments, and where there was literal corporate slavery and corruption from it. I had set those aside, thinking those were way too dark and improbable, and who would believe that or want to read it? And then our real world started doing worse than what I’d written as hyperbolic what-if SF. I began to wonder if we were headed for riots or civil war, the political situation was getting so crazy. And during the time I was offline, it looks like we very narrowly avoided that.
That’s the better side of Americans: We may be a contentious, contrary lot; we may have both dark and light sides to our national psyche, but we do have that generous caring side. (I was floored that folks here would really help me in real, tangible ways. I still am, and I wouldn’t have made it so far without them. Thanks again.) But also, we Americans will argue about what we see wrong with our own country’s or people’s problems. We criticize our own government and do argue about how best we think things should be done. But we are not always good about follow-through and accountability, of getting our own government and the people we elect, to make the changes that are needed. We all have very different ideas on what needs to be done and how to do it. That can be healthy, but if, as lately, there is only hot air and no compromise or willingness to try ideas out until something works, and keep on trying, to improve things by working togeteher for the common good…. Oh, nuts, I’m too much of a dreamer, too naive ben now, to affect things. We’ve proven lately that a lot of our system is out of touch, not working together, not listening, not working to solve real people’s problems, and too often serving the whims of the rich and powerful or the big corporations, to the detriment of ordinary people. And worse, we’ve proven lately that people with seriouss corruption and prejudice problems can get in power and almost stay there. Very fortunately, I think we have not lost that American contentiousness that won’t put up with that for too long. We did (narrowly) squeak by with the change to the new administration. We very nearly had a very real crisis boil over into unlawfulness from those corruptt people and their supporters.
So we can do better. We can change and outgrow the mistakes we make as a nation, if we can just get back to that old-fashioned idea of working together despite party/faction, to keep trying potential solutions until something works, and to build on it to solve things. I guess you could call that government by empirical scientific experimentation, except that’s dignifying it with more scientific method than actually happens, haha. Also, “empirical” might be a very double-edged pun there, yes.
Which I suppose all goes to show that I’m still very much an idealist and disappointed in our current system. Much of what we have going now is flawed, it doesn’t work, it must change, and meanwhile, innocent, decent, hard-working people, as we as those who can’t work as normally as others, (our seniors, handicapped, youth, and so on) go without the help they need, which yes, puts strain on the people who support them. Or else people fall through the cracks and become lost on the streets and in shelters. Those folks need help badly too. America is supposed to be rich, technologically advanced, educated. Why are we not doing better in so many areas?
The problems we had before the last election and change in administration haven’t gone away. They’re still very much there and need to be addressed. If we don’t, we’re going to have more people fall thorough the cracks, more faults in the economy, and growing unrest about it among ordinary people. So we need things to get better.
America seems to have made itself the poster child for this, although other nations aren’t so far behind in this unenviable downward-spiral turn.
Note too, I didn’t really intend to get so political. I hope it’s something most people can say is a real need, wherever we may fall on ideas about how to solve the problems. As someone in need of help, I’m obviously no expert. I just wish we as a country and as a species would do better. I was horrified, seeing how far down we were going and how close we were to losing our country and our ideals to a small group of corrupt people. I’m lad that they were opposed and mostly run out of office. But we still have problems to solve.
We can be better than this. We should be. Our best selves want to be better. I hope we can reach that.
I am still amazed and grateful that people here have helped me. I still have a very long way to go to get to a better place in life. I hope I can make it, and pay it forward, and pay back the friends who have helped me out.
Huh, the new asst. mgr. was just by and — ah, she’s a bit more moderate and willing to hear me out today. A welcome improvement there. — She did have a little chance to talk to Mr. Patel, but that’s ongoing, she’s still familiarizing herself with what’s going on. Good, that. — It seems the Texas rental assistance program has opened up a second time, and we may have to reapply me. That’s fine. She said OK, that they’ll need to see about where Mr. Patel applied for me for the Baker Ripley program. But if we can show that, then I’m still likely good there. — The catch is that these didn’t take care of utility payments, only rent, so I definitely owe fees for that to the apt. complex. She said she can accept partial or full payment, and that if someone discovers they can’t do as much as they’d thought, to level with the mgmt. and arrange for it, just to be honest and deal with them. That’s good too. (Not so good if some tenant has no idea how they can ever pay things off, of course.) I said I could pay that, but I do want to know how much will be covered and how much I will end up owing, that my funds are way too limited and I’m still working on that, that I’m getting help from friends and relatives, but that is, well, not going to last forever either. I also said I want to work with them, and I’d much rather stay and not have to move out suddenly. I didn’t get to add that that would be bad for them and for me. — Anyway, we had a partial meeting of the minds, I think. At least she was more up front and listening, willing to hear me out and work with me. And maybe she has a better impression now of me than she did at first. Or I hope so. I feel so hapless in this, so unprepared and so without options or ways to pay it off.
So Monday, I’ll need to call the office and remind them that I need a walk over to the office, or a visit here, to work things out. I can make a payment by check or card or money order. But a trip out to get a money order means extra time and expense, so it’s likely to be the former.
The upshot is, it looks like I still have a chance to get through this, but will have at least the monthly utilities fees to pay off to keep up. Approval install pending on at least the one, and needs to be proven on the other. At least it’s a chance.
She said too that she had been unemployed prior to this and had her own rent issues going on, plus help for her mom, so she understood where people were coming from. (Oh, if she would’ve been so understanding the first time, that would’ve sure helped more.) She was going around to everyone affected to let them know the info they had just gotten in this weekend, about the state program reopening or changing, so that people needed to reapply. She said it’s now over 60 families / tenants who’ve had to ask for assistance. So both a lot of tenants and the apartment complex and landlord’s firm are hurting from the situation. That is a lot of income for the landlord / investor’s firm to be out, for multiple months. I hope they will continue to work with people and not turn harsh and predatory again.
Meanwhile, I really hope I can catch up and get assistance plus my own income. This is maddening in the original crazy-making sense and the angering, frustrating sense. I was raised that people should work to support themselves. I hate being so dependent, and the change in my vision has me spooked besides. Stable, my previous level, I was used to. I hadn’t ever expected it to decrease, and the physical reality of it, the trouble adjusting to it in daily living in every tiny detail, things I’d never thought of and no normally-sighed person would have thought of, it’s just…it’s overwhelming and sure hurts self-confidence. I’ve been fooling myself for a long while, and am racing to catch up, and unsure if I’ll make it. But I’ve got to. Officials and ordinary people don’t get that, the lack of experience, the worry and fear that come from such instability about such a basic thing in one’s life, and the trouble that lack of income causes on top of the physical issues. (And yes, I can write plenty, but getting things done is not at all easy and takes way more time and effort than I ever would have thought. I’m pretty stubborn. I’m mostly used to my former level of sight. But this is challenging me in ways I’m not sure I’m up to. I hope I can get it all done and get past my own weak spots long enough to get it done.
I want a good life again, dang it. I don’t have a roommate or significant other / partner / spouse. If I had to move in with someone, or they moved in with me, hah, I have too much stuff, and I have to reduce that somehow. I also have to get truly organized, because it’s causing me delays and frustrations all the time, in a practical sense. But I also don’t want to be so isolated. Very practically, it’s not a good idea with my vision level. And dang, I wish meh apartment had better lighting; that would help.
I am surely not the one one facing such problems. I don’ hae much outlet, even now, to talk things over with others or just to vent, or people to help out locally, besides not having a roommate.
So my apologies to others here. I am trying to get through this, and it’s getting to me.
I was relieved that the new asst. manager was more willing to talk and to understand my side, rather than to strong-arm like her first approach. At least maybe I still have a chance to get through this. — I still haven’t heard back from my cousin, which makes me wonder if he’s had trouble with his phone or other matters. He and his wife may be in worse difficulties than I thought. Not good if they can’t help either.
I hope to get things better resolved Monday. Looks like I won’t get more than that done, so other to-do items will be pushed forward again. When people et so far down, how do they ever get back up again? I can’t imagine how it must be to be in worse need than I am. What about all those folks, seniors, veterans, young adults, teens, kids, single moms and dads, whoever, who have to go to shelters or who are out on the streets? How do they ever get a chance at a good life again?
I hope I can make some real progress on things and get to a better point in life. — And if my parents were still alive, they’d be 88 and 91 soon. Even if I had reached all my wildest dreams at college age, and made a good income all these years, I might still have ended up in a place near to this, because I would’ve had to support them, even if they had been able to support my grandmother until she had passed on. It’s strange to think that my life could’ve been like that, and I might still have ended up like this, or close to it. — Or there must be some alternate reality where things went much better. But I’m here, and I don’t have some handy machine to get to anywhere but where this here-and-now leads.
I hope you all are doing OK. At least I do have a chance to go forward.
Comment – Ok so I’ve been absent from these pages for a few days, well over a week anyway. While trying to catch up I saw the link VEHEmence poster for strengthofthehills web page (no that wasn’t a link) and wondered if it was yours or just one you came across. The dialogue in the opening page just says `Me` and the about me link while interesting, didn’t actually make that any clearer. Fear not, upon clicking the link about E-Books, I did actually find your name there. And while I found it initially confusing I didn’t put my email in the assigned spot as I can’t at yet stretch to online shopping. I will eventually goto Amazon and get CJs Book, there is in fact a list of books (not actually written down) that I intend to get, when financial circumstances allow.
Comment – Blue Dragon said “The Right to Bear Arms” , and I looked it up. I see its available in the UK ( on Kindle ) for just under £5 so that’s getting added to my to buy list, love the description for it. Actually sounds a bit like Decision at Doona by Anne McCaffrey, but who knows ( no spoilers please ) I certainly don’t as I haven’t read it, the Bear books I mean, Doona I have, loved it.
Anyway, I loved the play on words there because it got me thinking about a different book. The Millennium Series of books by Stieg Larsson and continued after his death by David Lagercrantz. The series starts with the book `The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo`, and the reason your Bear book registered so sharply was because whilst between books One day in a trip to Waterstones in Glasgow, I came across a book called `The Dragon with the Girl Tattoo` by Adam Roberts. A deliberate and spoof book with dragons as the Main Civilization on Earth, and a storyline that while clearly different, did certainly mirror the Millennium book. Bought that, loved it. Those books available on Kindle too.
Hey, Deesha! 🙂 To explain — Those “strengthofthehills” pages are not mine; they are by HRHspence here, who is a language teacher. Na Spence has, as you saw, worked on both hani and Ragi, and a little on kifish. Yes, CJ gave her official nod to his work, and he has those ebooks on hani and Ragi available, neat resources for Cherryh fans and language geeks. I’ve always been into languages, and when I get my website back online, there are some fan pages there for the Chanur Saga and the Foreigner series. I’ll be expanding my notes on the alien words in the Chanur books, which I knew would be of interest to na Spence. (The HRH bit is from the Society for Creative Anachronism, I think, or other fannish interests. The SCA are into Renaissance Fair and medieval period and other fun stuff.)
Ah, “The Right to Arm Bears,” by Gordon R. Dickson, is a sequel to his book, “Spacial Delivery.” Yes, Spacial, not a typo. 🙂 The Dilbians are a bear-like (ursinoid) species, and the books are planet-based adventures, serious science fiction with some humor mixed in. I’m not sure if there were more than the two books for that. I haven’t found Spacial Delivery in ebook form. You may be able to find both as used books from, IIRC, the late 70’s or early 80’s. He wrote a lot of SF on a number of subjects, varied and always good reads. He had at least two long series, one on the Dorsal, another on “The Dragon and the _____” series. The latter were poking fun at time travel, in which a university student gets sent back to medieval England, Scotland, and Wales, and encounters dragons and other such beasties, fights for his girlfriend, who also ended up back there, and generally runs amok through trying to live there, dealing with the people, creatures, and events. Most of his other books were more serious, but even these have their serious side with the parody and comic relief stemming from a modern person ending up in medical times.
Comment – I was Shocked to hear of your encounter with a `KAREN`, and although your later encounter she appeared more sympathetic, I urge you not to believe it for a second. She showed her true colours the first time you met, and now she’s just trying to sucker you in. Am I paranoid, yes probably. Still, watch your guard with her.
The book by G, R, Dickson, The Right to Bear Arms, is as I said available on Kindle for just under Five Pounds Sterling in the UK. It lists with the following message
Publisher’s Note: The Right to Arm Bears has previously appeared in parts as Spacial Delivery, Spacepaw, and “The Law-Twister Shorty.” This is the first unitary edition, and those are the bear facts.
Regarding the Dorsai ? there’s some great Filk Music on that on U-Tube.
The Dragon Books? Interested? yes I am. They too are available on Kindle. But as I said, I’m on a budget right now, so no new books just yet
Aha, I hadn’t realized that was an omnibus of the several books, that’s great. I remember those as a good adventure yarn, plus humor and some thought to them. I sure do understand about budget needs. I hope things get better for you, Deesha.
@Deesha, I’ve got both Dickson’s bear books and the dragon series in paperback.
I’m shifting over to e-books for some of my library, so if you e-mail me with your address I can ship them to you.
I’ll disguise it a bit, in case a bot should wander by 🙂
h. nieuwen-huijzen– monkey’s tail— heer hugo waard. —nl—
Leave out *all* the spaces and minus-signs, and a monkey’s tail is Dutch for an at- sign.
Deesha, you were looking at my site, and HRH is from my days as a Micronationalist, not SCA.
CJ and I had a long correspondence with regard to my proposal to expand her Hani and Kiffish tongues. They are not for sale on amazon. Ben did do some interaction with me when I did the Ragi language which is why he remembers this.
Thought I’d share this from Sharon Lee’s website:
https://rolanni.dreamwidth.org/1277398.html?view=8526806#cmt8526806
Congrats on the award, CJ! Let us know how you and Jane are doing. Hope healing is happening all over the place!
I got my first vaccs on Saturday. It still feels vaguely as though one of my brothers has recently punched me in the arm. I hope that that does not bode ill for my second on the 10th of April.
My week’s continuing to be weird and wacky. Brindle got out twice yesterday afternoon when I answered the door, into the fenced privacy area for my apt. facing the courtyard inside. The second time, she jumped the fence and was making a fine game of it, avoiding me. Luckily, some of the pesky neighbor kids were around, and a little girl picked up Brindle and brought her to me. I thanked the kids. That’s the second time someone else, a girl, has had good luck picking up Brindle while Brindle has played keep-away or tag and chase with me. Sigh. Little cat has no idea what she’d be in for if she got separated, lost, around the complex. — I still have not seen Mystic around, but have heard, ah, a cat romance, shall we say? The calico is around, and some tomcat, at least. Brindle does not appear to be coming into heat, thankfully. She’s due in for a follow-up and then to be spayed on April 6th, 3 weeks from now.
Construction yesterday afternoon and all this morning, so I can’t try to record audio, even for tests. Also can’t bother taking things to the dumpster, which is likely to be full from construction debris and other usual stuff.
I need to be doing cleanup and sorting and moving, reducing down boxes, whatever to get things neater. I was up later last night than I realized (up until dawn, totally surprised me). So I’m very tired again today and have checked and replied to emails.
No news on the apt. rent assistance since talking to the woman yesterday. I don’t see any way to make a payment that goes _only_ toward utility fees and not the rent itself, so if I paid, it would likely not cover all the non-rent fees and would get some part of the rent. No one’s been by to get my card number or a check to apply to that, and the asst. mgr. was going to use the info they had from my previous paperwork to prep the new assistance application, to minimize needing to get me over there. I know she had about 60 applications including mine, so no surprise I haven’t heard anything.
Everything feels off-kilter and I feel behind and overly tired. I will get on things to do. I need to read the French excerpt before doing the test audio for it. I might be able to find the excerpt from within an ebook edition of Descartes’ works, which might be easier than reading from my old printed textbook. But in any case, it’ll be a good real-world test for audio. Tonight after the construction work is stopped for the day should be a good time to record.
@HRHSpence – when I have the French passage recorded, I am not sure if it will be small enough to send via email attachment to you or CJ or other French speakers to double-check. I believe my command of liaison and Ellison should still be close to correct, and pronunciation overall, my French accent is good. But a check from another speaker would be.a good idea, even though this is just a sample, a test. Once I have my websites back online, I’ll have the files posted there, which would eliminate the need for attaching and sending via email, so as not to clog anyone’s inbox. But this would also give you all an idea of my French accent and reading ability. I am sure my conversational ability and vocabulary and a few things on grammar are rusty, but they should still be there. I never felt I had any grounding in the passé simple or much in the other archaic literary tenses. But my French ws OK in the classroom setting, enough for that French Lit survey course from a Frenchwoman prof. — My high school French teacher is probably still around somewhere, possibly even still in town. She’d be not quite 70 by now. I hope she’s doing great. — Just realized: this time 40 years ago, I would have been a skinny 15 year old freshman in Spanish II, taking French I the next year. I would’ve been shaving for the first time. Lots of water under the bridge since then. Not mentioning the unrequited crushes or three times when I was foolhardy and outspoken enough, shrimpy as I was, to speak up for other boys who were getting harassed for (allegedly) being gay. (I went to public schools, co-ed, plenty of girls too.) Discrimination was not supposed to be tolerated, but words like gay did not appear at all in the school handbook; way too early for that to be accepted. (It wasn’t until sometime after 2000 or so.) — Funny, I think in some ways, I was better adjusted back then, while in other ways, I was so sheltered and inexperienced. I think if I could’ve come out in college on my first go-round, I might’ve had a much different life and might have graduated that first time around. Yet even if I’d met all my dreams and goals I had in college for my life’s direction and plans, hah, I still wold’ve run into my parents’ health and my grandmother’s, either at the times they happened in this reality or sometime ahead, between then and now. I would likely have ended up near the place I am now , or nearly so, even in the best outcome, unless I’m mis-guessing. Strange how life goes. I still ended up using my English and language skills more than I would’ve thought, but not the ways I had intended. Do wish I’d been better about coming out and that part of my life, but I think I’m not unusual for my generation in that.
Sure will be nice when the construction noises (electric sawing, banging, hammering, etc.) are done. Hard to hear oneself think, much less do much.
Going to review what René had to say about a fly crawling across the ceiling, and how that gas him the idea for a coordinate system. Why this has always struck me as a good science and science fiction and literature crossover piece, I’m not sure, but it struck my fancy back in college and has stayed with me since.
@Ben I would be happy to listen to your file and to offer you a few suggestions. Thanks for asking.
Thanks, Spence! — Whew, I am glad I gave that a trial run from a cold start, without recent practice, and read aloud. That gave me quite a workout, and I didn’t get all the way through the excerpt yet. I see a few things: My reading comprehension is a bit better than I would’ve expected, but I will need to look up a few words to be sure I understood their meaning after all; perhaps more than I realized just now. But I got nearly all of it, and his prose is a high reading level. My pronunciation is good, but ideally, reading from that small print is creating a little lull in what should be a normal reading speed. Trying it got my mouth used to speaking French again, all those vowels and the few differences in consonants. I think my points of liaison and Ellison are good, but I see I’m unsure at times about those. I suspect with a little more practice, the grammar points that I’ve become fuzzy on will come back to me, but I need to review the grammar, specifically the verb system, avoir versus être and agreement with same, and prepositions. Probably, I need review on when to use the subjunctive. I think I’mstill good on noun and adjective declensions. I see I’m unclear now where I wasn’t while in school, on m/f for some nouns. Overall, that was pretty good, but needs a read-through, some dictionary lookups, before I do my test audio. (Hmm, and I was not always happy with o-ouvert, short oh, which felt lax sometimes. close and open Å“, I need to watch. French u, I think I was doing pretty well on. My nasal vowels usually sounded good, but I need to watch those too. So overall, better than I’d thought I’d do on a first run, cold. — But I doubt if I were to try conversation that I’d be as fluent, which I have noticed so much about Spanish. I suspect my French is still a bit better, since I had gone further with it in college.
Hah, in the abridged passage, I did not come across the bit about the fly, which did get mentioned in the intro to Descartes from the textbook. I need to see if I have an ebook in French of his works, which might be easier to read from.
What I’m using:
Bishop, Morris, ed. Cornell U.
Survey of French Literature, A. Vol. 1 & 2.
(C) 1965, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
LOC# 65-14282
Ibid. — Vol. 1, pp. 123–131.
Descartes, René. Discours de la méthode (Abridged)
I have a note on the front end-paper: French 302, Spring 1985, so this was my 2nd semester of college and may have been a one semester, rather than a two semester survey course. I had tested out of some classwork because I’d been in French I–III in high school, and had French IV in college in Fall ’84, my first semester, then went on to the French Lit. course. My prof was Dr. Hunting, a Frenchwoman who’d married a British or American man. I no longer recall her given name.
Oh, my, that was so long ago now! In hindsight, I think if I’d listened to her (and my high school French teacher, Miss Seegar) and gone for a foreign language or linguistics major, I likely would’ve done better. But my main problem back then was (not) dealing with (not) coming out. If I had settled that, even if only privately, internally, I might have been settled enough to succeed on the first run through university. — I began as an English major and tried, midway through, to switch to computer science. There was no such thing as a web development or computer publishing or game design degree back then, haha. (I missed a guest lecture by the IEEE-CS on this thing called “hypertext.”) But that wasn’t yet a thing either. 😀
I will need to unearth my Larousse dictionary to do some lookups, but I’m happy with the start. I think my French grammar summary is there too, or I may have to buy one again. I have a copy of my old Spanish textbook, but wow, is it hard to read now, and I have a copy of the (ridiculously thick) “pocket” Spanish dictionary I had back then, not the one from then. Somewhere here, I should have my American Heritage Dictionary, but I may not have the one from when I was a kid, a college-level version, red cover, which had this very strange tree chart of “Proto-Indo-European Languages” and a whole foreword section on that by someone named Watkins. I’d had my first foreign language course in 7th grade by the time I got that dictionary, and had that dense, geeky article. That first course was 12 weeks each of Spanish, French, and German. I was hooked and took Spanish I in 8th grade, Spanish II in 9th, and then switched to French. Hah. Fortunately, my parents both loved reading and history and must have noticed I liked words and the alphabet (they’d been feeding that since grade school). So their suggestion to try the language course was a very good one. (My junior high foreign language teacher was Miss McAdams.)
I remember being so impressed and glad when I’d learned that CJ had been a language and antiquities teacher and professor. I’d wondered, since Downbelow Station and then the Pride of Chanur and Chanur’s Venture, seemed so grounded in an understanding of language and culture and history, what it really meant to be alien or human from some other time and place. I’m very glad a friend from my roommate and our dorm at the time was a science fiction fan, and loaned me those first two books by CJ Cherryh, when I needed something besides schoolwork to read. My mom had Chanur’s Venture at home, but hadn’t realized it was a sequel. I then started reading nearly every Cherryh book I cold find, but I was already hooked on science fiction from when I was a kid.
It’s funny how things ripple down through time. It’s often rough, but some things ae wonderful.
BCS, before you got your Internet back, when you said you’ld like something new to listen to, I sent you an USB drive with some reading aloud my dad has been doing for us, and some music he recorded from the radio when he and mom were courting, in the 1950-60s.
Mom was a French teacher and she loved French songs (chansons), and there was a radio program in the early 1960s in the Netherlands full of those songs that she loved. Dad liked playing with radios and tape recorders, and recorded all her favorites for her.
When I was in highschool I’d listen to those tapes while doing my homework, and just hearing that French so much helped a lot with getting a feel for the language. We didn’t get all of them digitised in time, but we did manage to save quite a lot.
I don’t think sharing these old recordings with you breaks copyright rules – part of the costs of cassette tapes was shared with the music industry copyrights fund, expressly because people would use them to record radio programs; but please don’t put them on the Internet nor share them on.
You might want to have a look at what’s on the drive and see if you might enjoy listening to some of those chansons, to get your French back to sounding fluent.
Oh, c’est là ! — I will definitely be looking (listening) for those. I’ve found music, French and Spanish, is a very different kind of skill than regular speech. That’s something we don’t get much as foreign language students, a look at music and TV and film, the mass media that native speakers and immersion settings take for granted. (Heh, my parents were married in the early 60’s.) Hee in town, there are good chances for Spanish students to get Spanish-language popular music, radio and TV shows, commercials, news, and other everyday things, but of course you have to seek those out. — There used to be a Zydeco show on one of the indie radio channels here; I should check for it again. (Cajun and créoles being very different than either Parisian or Canadian French, of course.) That sounds exciting! I’ll check the USB drives.
— It’s finally quiet enough to record, but later than I thought.
I’m so out of sync with everything: I hadn’t realized we (ahem) sprang forward for daylight savings time on Sunday. I have been (oops) still “behind” by an hour all week! I finally noticed when my watch said 6:47 and my computer said 7:477. LOL. Duh. So, ah, then I checked to make sure when Easter is. Yeah, I feel silly. (I didn’t get a paper calendar for the year. Unintended side effects happening.) :: laughs ::
(I got an ebook version of Descartes’ complete works, in French. I have not gotten any others, such as Voltaire or Rousseau. I do have a French-language ebook of Le Petit Prince, which is / was used as a learning text for us in high school.) I also have at least one version of Rimbaud’s works, but those may be in English translation, as they were an ebook impulse buy a few years ago. — I see I need to make time for reading some classic lit. — I generally enjoyed that in school, but didn’t keep it up enough afterward. (At high school and college age, I especially liked the /romantics and Naturalists and Romantic Realistcs from the 1800’s.)
If you like some of them, you can generally find the lyrics if you search online for the chanson title and singer’s name, which are noted on the USB drive, maybe combine those with “verbes” to get the words instead of lots of references to the music.
Then you can read along to the singing 🙂
One down, one to go, April 6th. Of course, I was “authorized” by state scheduling rules three, maybe four weeks ago. The first week no vaccines were leaving Tennessee! Wouldn’t’ve done much good if there hadn’t been a blizzard. The state hasn’t had its act together–with a year to prepare. What were they THINKING would eventually happen? “We can afford to wait until there are vaccines ready to think about how we’ll vaccinate everyone in the state”? It seems to be working now, using a lot of people in fatigue uniforms. 😉