Happy August to You!

Well, it's been awhile...

Good news: Time Warner came out Saturday and fixed our cable and Internet woes...for the time being.

Bad news (for Time Warner): I still hate you.

I had been unable to post here at home for roughly two weeks, and I was out of town for about half a week, attending an interpreting conference, hence the dry spell.

Not having Internet and cable basically means that I read about fifteen books in the last two weeks. I've already surpassed my book totals for 2006 and 2007, and I'm two away from equaling my total books read for 2005 (a nice even 60). The downside to all this reading is that sometimes I will pick up a book that I've read even just a year or two ago and find that I've no idea what happened as far as plot and characters go. Although, if the book was any good, I usually have a good idea of the plotline, even years later. Well, maybe I shouldn't say if the book was any good, because there are some pretty lousy books that have been seared into my memory. Funny how that works, I can't remember a blessed thing from Wuthering Heights, but I do remember parts of Brave New World, and I can't say that I liked either book.

Memory is funny...the whole reason I started writing down all the books I've read is because of something my brother said to me once. We were talking about all of the Agatha Christie mysteries I'd read and he wanted to know exactly how many I'd read (or something like that) and I told him that I wasn't sure because sometimes the titles are different for the British editions than they are for the American ones, or newer editions sometimes have different titles, etc. Also, I'd read so many of them that sometimes I would pick one up and start reading it, only to find that I had already read it. He suggested writing down all of the ones I'd read (he's a clever one!) and thus the lists of books I've read was born. Usually, though, if I've already read such and such Agatha Christie, I can go ahead and read it again, because I've forgotten whodunit. Plus, I find that I appreciate her books more now that I'm older (I started reading her books in fifth grade and a lot of that British stuff just went over my head). I remember how a few of them turn out, but for the most part I can still enjoy the story.

Time Warner Cable: I Hate You!

We're still having issues with our cable and Internet provider, the aforementioned Time-Warner. We received our bill yesterday, and, not surprisingly, we did not receive the proper credit for the 14 days we were without service (see previous post: "Hooray! I'm back online!"). Well, I called Time-Warner and talked to "Danny" who was not overly helpful. I questioned Time-Warner's math skills by asking how much one day of DVR, two cable hook-ups, plus Internet, costs, and "Danny" was unable to properly tell me. I then said that if I'm paying $97 for roughly 30 days of service, having no service for 14 days should warrant more than a $12 credit. "Danny" then said that we were credited for ten days, not fourteen. He, rather snidely, asked why we waited so long before contacting Time-Warner to inform them of the outage. So, I replied, "Our cable and Internet services goes out everyday, multiple times per day, so we were waiting to see if it was going to come back on on its own." "Danny" eventually gave me a $32 credit, which is still not correct and then, at the end of the call he said, "You know, I could actually lower your Internet bill to $14 per month, if you would like to add digital phone to your service." I, rather snarkily, replied, "No, I don't think we're interested in doing that right now. In fact, I believe that my husband and I will be canceling our service with Time-Warner because we aren't actually receiving the services we pay for." (Our Internet continues to run slowly, if at all, and we only get picture and sound on about twenty of the hundred or so channels we are supposed to be able to watch.) "Danny's" reply: "Have a nice day."

This is what gets me about Time-Warner: their complete lack of concern for the customers. When we called back on June 15, they said that the soonest they could have someone come out to fix things was June 25. JUNE 25!! And last night I told the man on the phone that we were looking into other cable and Internet servers, that we were still having problems with our Time-Warner service, and that we were seriously considering canceling our service. And "Danny" didn't even have the wherewithal to say, "I'm sorry, how can we help?" Or, "I'm sorry that you are unsatisfied, what can we do to make it better?" We were out with some friends over the weekend and we mentioned our cable problems and our friends made the point that Time-Warner doesn't have to care, they own a monopoly on cable in our area. This is true, and I agree with that, but I made the point that Time-Warner may be the only CABLE providers, but they are not the only Internet providers, and they are not the only TELEVISION service providers. There are other options, and if Time-Warner were smart, they would wake up to that and start treating their current and future customers with a little bit more respect and empathy.

Ah, yes, I should add that I am currently typing this post in the computer lab at the public library.

It's a movie marathon!

So, I'm on summer vacation. And I love it! I've borrowed roughly 85 books from the library (okay, that includes the 614 books that I borrowed for the summer reading program) and about 25 movies. I highly recommend borrowing movies from the library. It's totally free and one can keep them for about the same length of time that one can borrow movies from Blockbuster. In the last two months I've seen the following: Blades of Glory, Knocked Up, The Darjeeling Limited, A History of Violence (eh, so-so), The Fountain (not recommended, it was pretty stupid), Love Story (a totally old movie that I'd never seen before and when I told my interpreting colleagues about it on our road trip down to Columbus for an interpreting workshop, they all waxed poetic about seeing it in the the theatre and crying over it, etc.), Match Point (another disappointing waste of time), Pride and Prejudice (the Keira Knightley version, not bad), Memoirs of a Geisha (pretty good, but did not do the book justice), The Invisible (really bad and nowhere near as intriguing as the book--translated from the Swedish!), There Will Be Blood (good, but a bit of a bizarre ending), To Catch a Thief (tres bien!), Gone Baby Gone (amazing, Casey Affleck's character was incredible and dealt very interestingly and compellingly with two dilemmas), Emma (the Gwyneth Paltrow version), and today 27 Dresses.

Anyone have some recommendations?

Pardon Me, If I'm Sentimental

I've heard that people fall into two categories: Beatles fans or Elvis fans. For some reason, most people prefer one to the other. I, for one, cannot decide between the two. If I were asked, my first and immediate response would be to say the Beatles. I have more of their albums, I have a Beatles tee shirt, I have a Beatles calendar, I've seen their movies. Heck, I've even been to their Cirque show in Vegas.

But then I'll hear an Elvis song on the radio and it's all, "Dagnab it, Elvis! I dig your music!!" And then I'll think of all the Elvis songs that I totally love and I decide that it's not possible to like the Beatles more than him. Elvis's songs were all over the place in terms of genre. He was gospel, country, rock, R&B, pop.

But then I'll think about the hilarious movie Help! ("Say no more." "I can say no more.") But then I'll think about "the rain in my shoe," and totally crack up. How can I pick between the two? I think I must be one of the few people that likes them equally as well.

I don't know if my dad reads this blog or not, but he's a huge Elvis fan. I think most of my friends are probably more Beatles fans than Elvis fans. For some reason, I think their music appeals more to the younger generation than does Elvis's. Anyway, no matter who you prefer, for the new poll, you have to pick your favorite Elvis song from the list.

Newbie

There's a newbie in the blog world. One of my best friends from home has started her own blog. She's written some very kind things about my sister and me and how we've influenced her a little bit over the years. She also referenced some totally crazy things we used to do when we were little and used to ride the bus together. In fact, the title of her blog, Super Sonic Seat 9, is a reference to what was our seat on the bus her mother drove and we rode for many years. My friend is now a Marine and has served in Iraq, most recently for a year in 2007. She's one of the strongest people I know and she's a terrific Marine and a wonderful friend.

Reading Program

Today we started the reading program and it went well. The little boy I'm working with is pretty fun. He's a total chatterbox, so the whole communication thing was nothing to worry about. I only need to try to steer the conversation more towards the book we are reading and less to his own random first-grade stories. Of course, it's good that he's talkative and wants to communicate and participate in the program, but we're also supposed to be doing some reading. And I got some totally awesome books from the libraries. Kids' books are really great. If you haven't picked up a picture book lately, I highly recommend it.

We are in the LIBRARY! For Pete's Sake!

So, tomorrow I start the summer reading program and I will be working with a little boy who probably cannot read well, if at all. Today I went to the library to pick out some picture books and I was totally stymied. I don't know if the library professionals who read my blog have different experiences in their libraries, but my local library's children section was a MADHOUSE today. A complete cacophony of chaotic children. I didn't even see that it was storytime or anything. These children were just running around like cuckoos. I couldn't hardly take it. I was not surprised to see that the mother of some of the children was wearing an orange sports bra with NO over-shirt. Even if it were appropriate to go out in public wearing only a sports bra and no shirt, which it is MOST CERTAINLY NOT APPROPRIATE, this was one of the last women on Earth who should have been going about town dressed like that. If one's mother goes out in public clad only in underwear, is it a surprise that her children will run around the library like idiots? It wasn't only this woman's children, though. I was perturbed to see that several other children were running around, shrieking. I don't care if it is the children's section and that we are on a separate floor from the rest of the library, WE ARE IN A LIBRARY! FOR PETE'S SAKE!! Shut up and act with some decorum.

My other beef with the children's section? The complete lack of order in the bookshelves. That is to say, the picture books, which is what I was browsing, searching for materials, were a disaster. Supposedly, they are shelved alphabetically according to the author's last name, but within each letter the books were a mess. There were several that the card catalog said were on the shelf, but I could not locate. WE ARE IN A LIBRARY! FOR PETE'S SAKE!! Let's get some order to these books!