Watching the news from afar

There is a strange sort of ironic disconnect that a 24/7 news cycle and the internet allows.  Here we are in Mont-Tremblant, Canada:

 While the news is in an all-hurricane-all-the-time frenzy.  Yes, I've lived through bad storms.  We've dealt with wind, water, and flooding (not to mention fire) in past years, so it's not like I'm blase about disasters.  It's only that the hype seems to obscure the real difficulty and danger of the event.

Ironic.  Like I said. 

We had to turn off CNN last night because it simultaneously made my anxiety ramp up and got me annoyed.  The anxiety because my in-laws live right on the water on the Chesapeake Bay.  They've already lost their home once to a bad storm surge during Hurricane Isabel.  The annoyance factor was from watching reporters in their soaked raingear reporting live and on scene when really they should have been somewhere indoors.  There's news and then there's just stupidity.

I've been following updates from my home town via social media and have found them to be less histrionic and more factual. 

Hoping all of you in harm's way are safe and dry.

What is the sound of one hand tearing out one's hair. . .

Not a zen koan.

Just a result of a frustrating phone call.

As many of you know, we had a house fire this past December.  We were able to settle with the insurance company and received the check--all good things--in addition to having the reconstruction work begin.

But if you've ever had a loss, it's not as easy as actually getting the money and having it.

No. The check is processed by the insurance company payable to the homeowner AND the mortgage company.  The mortgage company holds the money and disburses it out as the work is done on the house, typically in thirds.

The isn't a major problem EXCEPT we've already paid the contractor about 1/3 from our own savings while waiting for the check to be processed.  Okay.  Still shouldn't be a major problem, since the check came in today's mail. (Yippie!) HOWEVER, the mortgage company released the funds payable to us AND the contractor. (Crap!)

AND since we owe less on the mortgage than the settlement, not only did the mortgage company release the first 1/3, but added to that check the excess over what we owe on our mortgage.  (Yippie!) To the contractor and us, jointly. (Oh, crap!)

But wait. Yippie, you say.  More money is good, right? Shouldn't be a problem.  Have the contractor sign off on the check, deposit it into your account.

Problem.

Our bank won't handle checks that are written jointly to a company and a person.  (Crap!)

:head desk:

So I tried to explain this to the mortgage company:  IF I endorse the check and hand it over to the contractor, it will account for 80% of the job, given that I've already paid about 1/3 from our savings. We are not 80% through the construction process. It's a big mistake to pay a contractor in advance for work not yet done. If they'd only payed out 1/3, then I would have been more comfortable handing over that amount, though I would rather not pay more than the percentage that the job is complete.  But because they added so much to the check, I now have money I can't use. 

The mortgage company will bump my claim to their exceptions department, but it will take approximately a week to make a decision, then likely another week if they release any of the funds to us alone.

In the meanwhile, we will likely have more money hemorrhaging from our personal savings to pay for the work on the house.

When charity just isn't

I just got off the phone after being solicited by a charity raising money to provide pain medicine and chemotherapy for women with breast cancer who cannot afford their treatment.

We do give a number of organizations and causes money every year--it's part of what I consider my membership fee for being a member of the human race, and for the good fortune I've had in my life.

This seemed like a cause well aligned with my personal life and beliefs.

But.

But.

But I always ask what percentage of my donation goes to the charity and what goes to overhead.

The woman I was speaking with handed me off to a male supervisor who informed me it was an 80/20 split.  Well, 20% overhead is a bit high in my mind--I tend to look at Charity Navigator to look at how effective and efficient the charity is before I give money--and then my mouth dropped to the floor.

It wasn't 80% to the charity.

It was 80% to the fundraisers.

Only 20 cents of every dollar raised is used to help women pay for their medicine.


Am I crazy that I think something is seriously wrong with this picture?

It feels like there is a scam going on.  So much money flowing to fundraisers, all in the name of charity and pulling at our heartstrings. How can they justify that kind of upside down accounting? 

I just don't know.  I am appalled.

Fun with Spam

I have to wonder about all these spam emails that come to my inbox.  Especially the ones with such atrocious grammar and spelling.  Who do they think is going to act on them?

This is what my spam filter did not catch this morning.

Attn:Beneficiary,

This is to bring you notice that i have register your ATM CARD to the FEDEX COURIER SERVICE.And the card's value is $3.5 millions united state dollars,so The delivery charges has been paid but i did not pay their official keeping fees since they refused.Reasons for their refusal is because they do not know when you are going to contact them because the keeping fee is $75 dollars per a day,and i deposited it yesterday been 7TH August 2010 So that is reason why i did not pay for keeping fee and that is only what you are going to pay them,so i want you to contact urgent to avoid increase of their keeping fee.

DR.FRANK BONA ,
EMAIL(redacted in case anyone was silly enough to reply )
Telephone ::::: redacted
THE FEDEX DIRECTOR GENERAL DR.FRANK BONA,

These are the information needed for easy delivery of your CARD.1.YOUR FULL NAME_____,2.YOUR HOME ADDRESS______,3.YOUR PHONE AND CELL NUMBER____,4.A COPY OF YOUR PICTURE____,5.YOUR AGE/SEX______,6.YOUR COUNTRY_____So as soon as you recieved your card do let me know ok,
Best Regards,
John Moses

Silly me, for not responding.  Those 3.5 million US dollars in my name just languishing.  If I had a throw-away email, I might just respond for the hell of it with random information.  Let's see:  1. Frank N. Stein, 2. 123 Monster Lane, Hollywood, CA, 3. 800-555-SCAM, 5. 98/M,  5.US

photo by Derrek Tyson

A short rant about wireless and hotels

Dear (Absurdly) Expensive Resort in Mont-Tremblant, Canada,

Ten dollars a day for internet access is absurd.  Your room prices convert to at least 5 rooms at any Red Roof Inn or Motel Six.  And they offer free wireless.  And coffee in the lobby.

Yes, your rooms are lovely, but really, a bed's a bed.

If we had had other lodging options, we would have taken them, so maybe that's the point.  Captive audience, and all that.

So yes, you got me for the ten spot, but really, was it worth the cost of the good will?  And a future stay?

Sincerely,
Once in a  Blue Muse

Rolling with the Unexpected

Life is rarely neat and predictable. And often, it is interesting in ways you really could not have anticipated.
 

From Car

This is my car.

Yesterday afternoon, it took an unattended and unintended joy ride down the driveway and into the creek in front of my house.

Fortunately, no one was hurt, and it didn't hit anything on its way.

And I got to entertain a whole lot of our town's finest--police and firefighters who came screaming to the rescue. Of my poor car.

Just for the record, I wouldn't say no to some uneventful, utterly boring days right around now.

A Mystery. . .

Today, someone from the school office handed my 11th grader an envelope with my name and address on it.

Inside, was $5.38.

And no note, no return address, no name.

I have absolutely no idea who sent me the money and why.  It's such a specific amount, it must be reimbursement for *something*.  Only I have no idea what.

LOL.

So a mystery.  One that made me $5.38 richer today.

After watching "Torchwood: Children of Earth"

Spoiler Alert if you haven't seen all 5 episodes.







After years of refusing to get cable TV, I finally succumbed to family pressure this year. Quite honestly, what I like best is being able to watch Red Sox games, as I am a rabid baseball fan.

But my guilty pleasure has become several shows from BBC America and the SyFy channel. One of which is "Torchwood". It's a spinoff from "Doctor Who", a show I began to watch in my childhood and still have a soft spot for, but it's edgier and grittier and goes places "Doctor Who" has not. I haven't seen more than a handful of episodes, but got hooked watching the recently aired "Children of Earth" miniseries.

I suspect other writers have this problem, but now that I've wrestled a bit with issues of plot and characterization, it's hard for me to watch something (or read anything for that matter) without at least part of my brain attending to craft issues.

I found the "Torchwood" miniseries utterly compelling. Where I noticed a plot 'niggle' was in episode 4, where Captain Jack and Ionto confront the aliens, making a moral stand against their plan. That part of the scene was quite intense and emotionally resonant. But when the aliens are nonplussed, Jack and Ionto decide to take out their handguns and shoot the heavily reinforced glass containment structure to fight the alien.

That was a 'WTF' moment for me as a viewer. Surely the immortal and experienced Captain Jack would have thought of something more "Torchwood" than that. Come on, this guy's like MacGuyver on steroids.

It would have set up the sacrifice of the final episode had they decided to open the airlock to vent the alien atmosphere in the room. Yes, it would have killed Ionto and not Jack, but that would have been a more believable plot point. I could even believe Ionto making the decision to sacrifice himself after the aliens locked the doors and distributed the virus. After all, he figures he's going to die anyway--at least he could take the aliens with him.

Then the story could have gone in one of two ways--either they managed to kill the alien in the tank, and the ones in orbit would continue to be a threat, or they would fail to take out the alien in the tank and they would be the continuing threat.

I was also disappointed by the final 5 minutes of the show and the 'goodbye' between Jack and Gwen. It just didn't seem to carry the emotional heft that it might have had.

All in all, I did love "Children of Earth" and hope that "Torchwood" comes back.

Utterly bewildering. . . clue gun, anyone?

I attend an in-person writing group at a local library. It's a supportive environment with a small group of writers in various places in their development, writing different genres.

This morning, our free write time was interrupted by a gentleman wanting to ask us some questions. We invited him in, thinking he might have been interested in joining the group.

Nope.

He wanted to know if any of us would be interested in posting our work on his website to garner feedback and eventual publication.

It was a perfect "WTF" moment.

He didn't make any slick pitch. He didn't even offer his name, his 'company', or the URL to his website. He walked in wearing casual slacks and a t shirt, holding a post-it note with the name of the writing group's coordinator on it and started asking his questions.

When I asked him how he intended to make money on this venture, he said he would charge $10/month to writers to host their work.

Oookay. My scam meter went into the red zone.

I said I wasn't much interested in self publishing. He said it wasn't self publishing, he would do the publishing.

Alert, alert, danger Will Robinson.

I asked him who would provide editorial oversight.

No real answer.

I told him that posting work freely on the net essentially means the author has given away first serial rights and makes eventual publication difficult. He didn't seem to know that, nor understand much of anything about publication.

He said he would function like Amazon and have books for sale.

The rest of the group members told him we weren't interested. He thanked us and left, leaving all of us shaking our heads.

He returned a minute or so later, asking if we'd be interested in posting our work *after* it had been published.

I asked him why anyone would do that when any author can host his/her own site and offer his/her own work as promotional downloads.

He said that he would get more traffic.

Riiight.

The sad thing is, he'll probably make some money off this. There are always people who want to buy into a promise and a dream and $10 a months seems *such* a small price to pay for that dream.

There are so many options on the net for giving and receiving peer feedback. Many of them are free. There are conferences and workshops that would be a better use of one's time and money.

Don't be swindled, folks.

Be careful out there.