Idle Snippets From A Card Carrying Geek

Money Raising Post

2009-05-01T03:28:03Z

For a limited time: For $20 you can get a two question tarot card reading from me.

davensjournal@gmail.com or post here.

Okay, to update everyone in one swell foop

2009-04-04T04:05:09Z

I've been at the hospital with Mary all day. Here's the saga in order:

* Ten years ago Mary got a hernia from a botched hysterectomy
* two years ago Mary started exercising and agravated her hernia and went in to have it repaired
* they found several "conditions of concern" in her body. I'd link the relevant posts, but I'm too freaking tired now.
----> The main problem they found that concerned EVERYONE is that she had a 100% blockage in one artery on her heart, which grew its own bypass, and a 70% blockage in another area. Stent inserted, all is well.
* Mary has been seeing a cardiologist off and on for the last two years (and yes the hernia got taken care of)
* Her last Cardiac Stress test was not good. She failed it (last week)
* Scheduled her for another cardiac catheter to check.
* Passed the cath with flying colors, but because of the bypass her body did, she will ALWAYS fail stress tests.
* They found a major arterial blockage in the split coming from the heart to the legs, the junction where it splits to the two legs is really blocked. (which explains her cold feet)
* Cath doctor will talk to Cardiologist and find out about when they can do a stent for that one.

> We got up at 4:30 AM this morning to go to the doctor since they told us to be there at 6, and the transport picked us up at 5AM. I had gone to sleep at 3 AM.
> Got there, waited till the outpatient place opened at 6.
> Took Mary in and did various things to her while I sat in the waiting room.
7:30 I went back to see Mary and spend time with her.
> Technician came and did paperwork and we talked Lasagna, Spaghetti, meatballs, New York, Brooklyn, Bronx, Made Men, the Mafia, Basement wine and prohibition and the procedure for 1/2 hour.
> Informed that the doctors wouldn't even be there till at least 10:30 and there were two people in front of Mary, more critical you see.
> 10 AM took a hydrocodone to help with my feet and hips, and to give the contact high/painkill to her while we waited.
> At 2 PM they came and did the cath
> At 3:30 they were done, we have a DVD of the films they took, and Mary was admitted to the hospital.
----> The reason for the admission is easy, they didn't want her doing a lot of exercise OR taking any stairs until the entry had healed enough to take the stress. Since the bathroom is upstairs, they decided to keep her overnight.
> Got Mary settled in her room, admissions paperwork and so on done by 5 PM, I went for dinner and was disappointed since the caffeterial didn't open till 6.
> Entertained Mary as best as I could and let her have my MP3 player to distract her.
> At 5:30 Mary could finally sit up from laying down flat. Only 30 deg angle though.
> 6 limped down to the caffeteria again to get dinner for me AND Mary. Had catfish, she had an awesome salad.
> At 7 went back down to buy water for Mary so she could have something to drink over night.
> 7:30 Mary got to get up and walk to the bathroom to take a whiz. (Hey, this was important, she had been holding it since the proceedure.)
> 8 packed up to come home.
> 8:20 missed the bus. (I was sitting on the inbound track of the bus route, I saw it on the outward journey. Realized that as late as it was, the bus would NOT be coming back by me on the inward bound track. It took a whole 'nother route in.)
> 9:10, I'm freezing my ass off. Shorts and t-shirt are not good for 50 deg weather.
> 9:12, my phone dies from power issues.
> 9:25 the bus shows.
> 10 PM we pull into the depot.
> 10:20 we pull out of the depot on my way home.
> 10:40 I get off the bus and start walking to my apartment.
> 10:45 I walk through the door
> 10:45:10 my mother calls to see when I'll be home
> 11 start writing this post.
> 11:04 writing this now.

I'm at my wits end

2009-04-02T02:14:47Z

Okay, here's the deal.

Back when we bought our house, we also signed up to get a whole-house water filter. The finance company was very good to us, we had payments of $120 every month to pay it off. It should have been paid off in 4 years.

Then I lost my job.

The finance company demanded that we pay them before we paid anyone else. They wouldn't take no for an answer. They are responsible for some of the house payments being late, because once we paid them, we didn't have enough for the mortgage.

It's been 4 years now. We don't have the water filter anymore. They call us, they are now calling my wife's employer. We have bounced checks because they take money directly out of our account.

Last I checked, the $3500 that we owed to pay off the water filter, we still owe $3500 on it. The payments we have been making? Only for the interest. We can't afford this anymore.

So I want suggestions on what I can do. I'm not talking to them because I can't pay them. Every time we do pay them, we wind up in MASSIVE financial jeopardy. So any thoughts will help.

I'm opening up this post and asking for help on Twitter too, so just keep that in mind.

A plea, again

2009-01-11T19:14:33Z

A plea

I'm going to beg now. Please understand that I HATE doing
this.

I need to raise $2000 in the next three or four days. I HAVE
to have it by the 11th, so I can have the money transferred to my bank
account by the 14th.

I got an apartment for me and my family to live in. We move
in on the 14th of January. Before then I have to get my bills
paid from when we were evicted from our house, so that the power, water
and basic necessities of life get turned on. Yes, we owe
$1500 on our power bill. I have no clue how the hell that
happened, but it did.

So, I'm begging. If you have found any of my writings of use,
if you have found any of my LiveJournal and InsaneJournal entries of
use, any of the thoughts I have shared on various message boards or
columns or book reviews or anything of use, please make a donation.
Even $10 can help me. If just 100 people give $20,
that's the amount I need. I get more traffic at Daven's
Journal in a month than that. It's one meal at McDonalds or
Burger King I'm asking for.

Why can't I do this you might ask? I've been out of work for
the last 2 years. I've looked, I've applied, I've taken
classes, I've applied for assistance and everything and ALL those
resources are used up. I don't qualify for Unemployment, and
I've had day jobs in places, but that hasn't happened in the past two
months because I have no way to get to a job. I'll be able to
get to a bus line now and get back and forth to work at this point.

So Please, PLEASE, if you can spare it, give me $20. Get your
friends to do so. Get your coven to do so. Get the
people in the office to do so. All this will do is get me
back to 0 so we can start fresh.

If you include your name/ID or online handle, I'll add your name
or your family's name or whatever you want to my prayers and rituals.
Believe me, I'm doing tons of work in that area now.

Donations over $50 get a tarot reading from me once I get settled and get my cards back.

Thank you.

PS:
If you want to send me abusive email about how stupid and
irresponsible or assholish I am, or whatever, please feel free. I
deserve it.
Email me

Daven
AKA Eric Landrum

Like rats leaving a sinking ship....

2009-01-06T19:08:08Z

If you are bailing on LJ, may I suggest InsaneJournal? It's really good. Based on the exact same code, right down to the icons and that bar at the top, inexpensive permanent accounts when they go on sale (I paid $35 for mine), and a really caring staff of people who don't care what you put in your Journals. No censorship. Damned near the exact same clone of what you have here, just no stupid ads, sponsored gifts, flags, strikethrough, blackout, deleteing, censoring and so on.

Oh, and no Russian layoffs with no warning.

Writer's Block: Church and State

2009-01-04T21:32:32Z

Today in 1893 U.S. President Benjamin Harrison declared full amnesty for Mormon polygamists. Is it the government's place to define which marriages are valid and which are not?

View other answers

Marriage as it is being defined by law was nothing more than a way to determine inheritance and property merging and division in the past. The church had nothing to do with that legal contract, and the courts/government had nothing to do with the religious union of two people into one unit. It is my considered opinion that it should stay that way.

This is why a Justice of the Peace can perform a union, civil or otherwise, because all they are doing is witnessing the vows to keep the legal contract of the property correct, not joining people in holy matramony. That is the purpose of the church.

I am very glad that more mainstream churches are recognizing same sex unions. The law should not have anything to do with it. It is a shame that so few people who are screaming the loudest can affect the marriages of so many others.

Put it this way, I married a woman 16 years my senior, if the law is changed to make same sex unions illegal because there can be no children from that, then my marriage is in jeopardy too.

But that aside, it is monstrously unfair that one group can tell another how they can love, and live, with another.

Flash Drive Express

2008-12-30T23:39:21Z

Please repost this to everyone you can. I'm opening this up on my LJ to let everyone repost and link to it.

Several days ago, I was surfing around the Internet and I found a place called "Flash Drive Express".

While surfing on their site, I went to the page listing their Portable Hard Drives with a Leather Case. I looked at the prices and saw a price listing for their 500 GB HDDs that I couldn't believe.

50 pieces: 5.10 each
100 Pieces: 4.80 each
250 Pieces: 4.10 each
500 Pieces: 3.60 each
1000 pieces: 2.90 each

This was with my logo printed on the drive casing, a promotional product. I couldn't believe it, since the CASING was more than that. I clicked on the big button that said "Live Support".

I talked to a lady named Krista. I pointed her to the page in question and asked her if those were accurate prices. She said that it was a HUGE typo and that she would let the people know and it would be fixed. I teased her a bit about the typo and suggested that if she wanted to reward my honesty for this and send me one or two, I wouldn't object.

She told me that she and her company would honor that price if I placed an order. I was stunned.

I started working my backside off to raise funds to pay for many of these. I made promises to my family, to my uncle. I took the money from my daughter for her Christmas so I could finance the purchase of as many of these 500 GB drives as possible, since I could always sell them at a flea market if I had to. This was a financial windfall of EPIC proportions.

I managed to get 4 pre-sales and get the money for them and I had 21 others sold to various people once I had them to give out. I had two people who were willing to invest once I got a sample to show them of these drives.

Today, I went to actually purchase 50 of these and I contacted Krista again. I reminded her about her promise to honor this price when I placed an order. I started the process to place the order.

I get an email back saying that their distributor didn't have the 500 GB drives, but they could send me the 320 GB drives instead.

I asked her if it would be for the same price, the $5 each. I figured I could still sell these, even if it wasn't what the customers I had ordered.

She said that because of the mix up on the website, she could give me the 320 GB drives for a 10% discount, at 86 or so dollars EACH.

This would have been a hell of a deal if I had the money, but since I had been told that the 5 deal would be honored, I was a bit shocked. I told her to talk to her supervisors and to figure out if this was the correct course of action for the customer service to take.

I finally wrote back and stated in no uncertain terms that I either wanted the 500 GB drives for 5 each, all 50 of them and I would pay for them, or I wanted 75 of the 320 GB drives for the same price, namely 5 for 50 (basically they would throw in 25 to make up the difference in drive size) or 10 of the 320 for free to me or I would tell everyone I knew about this Bait and Switch operation.

They just closed. So, having not heard from them, I"m now making a viral post that I encourage everyone to link to, repost and comment on and share with delico, facebook, twitter and so on.

PLEASE repost this to everyone. This is not customer service. They said they would honor a price, and then they snatched that price away. It is not my fault that they made a mistake in their database, they agreed to give me the 500 GB drives at the price they had listed. It doesn't matter that their manufacturer didn't have them to ship, they should have gone out and bought the drives from a computer store to honor their promise.

I understand they would have been taking a bath on these. But if that is the problem, THEY SHOULD HAVE NOT PROMISED TO HONOR THAT PRICE WITH AN ORDER. That virtually guaranteed that I would order from them AT THAT PRICE. When they don't follow through, that makes them liars and a bad company.

So, that's the story. Do as you feel you must. I would suggest spreading this story around and I would also suggest writing their customer service group and complaining.

For Sale:

2008-12-27T21:04:26Z

http://nashville.craigslist.org/sys/971333735.html

I just came into possession of several 500 Gigabyte External Portable Hard Drives. These are the features:

Name: 2.5 Inch Portable Hard Drive with Leather Cover
Description: Small and easily portable hard drive.

Key Features:
•Leather cover
•Powered by USB
•USB 2.0 Interface
•LED Status Indicator
•2.5" SATA HDD
•Transmission 480 Mbps
•Buffer memory 8MB
•Running Speed 5400 RPM

Price Includes:
•User's Manual
•USB Cable

I'm selling these at the insane price of $50 each. If you look in most catalogs you will see that a HDD of this size and quality is usually $150 or more. This is a limited time offer, and when this group of HDDs are gone, that's it.

Please contact me with your name, your mailing address (to ship this to) and PayPal me the money at daven@davensjournal.com. Please allow 2-3 weeks for shipping as I have to get to the post office to ship these.

Found it....

2008-12-25T07:53:40Z

I found the large version I was looking for. Thanks for everyone who was helping and who looked as well.

There are a lot of good pictures at this gallery, but I warn you they are TRIGGERY. Cutting, razor blades and so on. Go with caution.

Help

2008-12-23T20:35:13Z

Anyone have a big copy of this pic?

CAT HELP

2008-11-27T17:26:41Z

Does ANYONE on my flist know someone or know someone who knows someone who would be willing to take Boots and Tigger for about four months while we get permanent place to live?

Nashville Area. We are willing to pay $100 per month for the boarding. They are good cats and really affectionate. They don't bite or claw and we can provide their cat tree to let them claw to death.

This is becoming critical. We have to have a home for them by Monday.

Taken care of. Thanks Becky! This is a hell of a worry off my mind.

Christmas Wish List

2008-11-16T17:18:12Z

STEP ONE
- Make a post to your LJ locked or otherwise. The post should contain your list of 10 holiday wishes. The wishes can be anything at all, from simple and fandom-related ("I'd love a Snape/Hermione icon that's just for me") to medium ("I wish for Such and such on DVD") to really big ("All I want for Christmas/Yule/Kwanzaa/Channukah is a new car/computer/house/TV.") The important thing is, make sure these wishes are things you really, truly want.

- If you wish for real life things (not fics or icons), make sure you include some sort of contact info in your post, whether it's your address or just your email address where Santa (or one of his elves) could get in touch with you. [Note: Your home address is not required!]

- Also, make sure you post some version of these guidelines in your LJ so that the holiday joy will spread.

STEP TWO
-Surf around your friends list (or friend's friend's, or just random journals) to see who has posted their list. And now here's the important part:

- If you see a wish you can grant, and it's in your heart to do so, make someone's wish come true. Sometimes someone's trash is another's treasure, and if you have a leather jacket you don't want or a gift certificate you won't use--or even know where you could get someone's dream pure bred Basset Hound for free--do it.

You needn't spend money on these wishes unless you want to. The point isn't to put people out, it's to provide everyone a chance to be someone else's holiday elf--to spread the joy. Gifts can be made anonymously or not--it's your call. There are no guarantees with this project, and no strings attached. Just... wish, and it might come true. Give, and you might receive.

And you'll have the joy of knowing you made someone's holiday special.

( Given that I'm losing my house, items will have to be somehow given later. )

~~1. The Special Edition DVD of Kung Fu Panda~~
2. Gaia Cash (from Gaia Online)
3. A good corset or two
4. Cash for the move/relocation
5. 4-10 GB Flash Drive
6. 8 GB SanDisk MicroSD chip
7. USB>Phone cable for Samsung A737 phone with drivers
~~8. 80-100GB Laptop harddrive (doesn't have to be new, just working)~~
9. Donation to no kill shelters
10. Gift Certificate to get a decent set of makeup

No, I'm not expecting anything since my friends are in just as bad a position as I am. Just a wish list of things that I've wanted or thought "I'd like to have those" in recent days.

For right now my contact info is this:

email: davensjournal@gmail.com
phone: (615) 336-5361
Address: (till Dec 1)
Daven (aka Eric Landrum)
931 Warren St
Nashville, TN 37208

Just for my information

2008-11-05T20:32:47Z

View Poll: Short survey

Please answer honestly. I'm the only one who can see the answers, and I'm just checking to see who out there believes this way.

"I'm John McCain, and I approve this message"

2008-09-12T12:49:19Z

Russian Troll

2008-08-28T19:12:00Z

Just got a stupid email from some Russian bint who was trying to convince me she was named "Brianna". Not even. I don't think that is a Russian name. Svetlana, Lucinda, Natallia, yeah. Brianna, not even.

As for the whole situation with Georgia, it's totally stupid. They are acting just like they did when the old USSR was in charge. They need to stop invading others before the rest of the world gets pissed and nukes the assholes to death.

Present Post

2008-08-05T22:41:13Z

Just so that I can refer people here, if anyone wants to get me a random present, this in Blue:

http://www.ebags.com/case_logic/canvas_messenger_bag/product_detail/index.cfm?modelid=96836

Insert title here

2008-06-03T20:04:47Z

Her hands danced over me as she moved to get a better angle of attack. I loved those hands. Sometimes hard and firm, demanding, authoritative, impossible to resist, and sometimes they were gentle, caressing, floating over me like a sensual hovercraft. She had a talent for guiding me where she needed me to be.

She rarely messed up, but there were some times when something happened and she lost me for a bit. But she always found her way back, touching and stroking.

Her demands were my order. She suggested by the slightest pressure HERE that I needed to move, and I responded as fast as I could. She was a master of control.

She never moved me simply to waste energy. There was always a purpose. It might be a purpose unknown to me, one that I couldn't divine, but when her plans were revealed it was always a master stroke and I surged with joy when I became her instrument.

Oh, I was in love with her.

I couldn't wait until she paid attention to me. Even when we weren't sweating and cursing, putting forth energy and effort, panting and moaning I still loved her touches. There were times when she would hold me, cradle me in her arms, use that oil I loved so much, warmed to just the right temperature, and she would massage it into me. I could feel her love when she did that.

I craved her attention. It didn't matter if she was using me to practice on, or if she was using me to actually gain a goal she had in mind, but her touch burned in my body like very few thing I could name.

I was shattered the day it all ended.

Inconsolable. Desolate. Broken past all repair. I couldn't understand what happened. One moment, the thrills were going joyously up and down my shaft like normal, the next, darkness. I knew there was something wrong when I heard the first creaking of a sound, the first hint of more to come.

I prayed that the sound meant it wouldn't end, and I worked hard to keep myself together enough to serve her once more.

But in the end, it was too much. One too many strikes in the wrong place, and I was torn up.

To be so fair to her, she knew the instant I broke that something was really wrong. She had counted on me to tell her and to make sure that I didn't give under any but the most extreme pressure, but in the end, I failed her.

Lying on the ground, pieces of my heart scattered about, I knew the abject humiliation of failing to protect her, and failing to let her know when I was near my end. All that was left was to get the broom and sweep my splinters up, and toss me in the bin.

I prayed that her next bo would be as strong as I was and would love her as much as I did. I prayed that in my final collapse, I didn't leave any shard of myself behind to injure her further. She didn't deserve that. Her opponent had already given her a concussion by accident because of my failure.

If a staff could weep, I was surely crying now. I wish I still had sap to excrete like I used to. But I had a good life.

Please tell me what you think.

davensjournal @ 2008-05-07T15:13:00

2008-05-07T20:14:35Z

LiveJournal Advisory Board Elections

I support squeaky19 to be my representative on the Advisory Board.

Show your support at lj_election_en.

I think that someone who looks out for the posters should be on the board.

Vote for Squeaky

2008-05-06T23:11:35Z

Vote for the owner of Insane Journal, who uses the LiveJournal Open Source code for IJ, to be a member of the LiveJournal Advisory Board.

My worries and reason for moving to InsaneJournal

2007-12-05T17:01:21Z

Okay, I'm seeing a lot of stuff on both LJ and IJ about the move from here to IJ. My reason for moving is very simple really.

I don't care that they sold LJ to a Russian company. My concern is that with that sale, American privacy laws no longer apply. Russian privacy laws apply. They can strip our journals of everything in the contents and sell it if they want to, repost it, move it. Thinking that Strikethrough '07 was bad, the Russian Moral Standard is worse. I'm not willing to put up with that.

The other reason is this: If they did this once (or actually five times now), ignoring users, putting controls on what we can do and what can be posted, acting arbitrarily and so on, they will do it over and over and over. They will continue to do so, without regard for the very people that support them. It's MY money that paid for their soda, their salary, their computer and software package. I'm not willing to keep saying with my money that it's okay to screw me without lube.

When employees can put up posts that directly mock the people that they are supposed to be serving, it's time to vote with the feet. I'm tired of the attitude that we, the users, are money machines designed to cough up cash on demand while they do anything they want.

I hate any censorship. Russian censorship would be worse. I'll miss my friends on LJ, but I don't want my inner emotional turmoil exposed to the masses. Heck, with as baddly as I was fucked by Direct Insurance, it's possible and conceivable that some American company can be doing background checks on a potential employee, discover they have a locked journal on LJ, contact the owners and slip them some money under the table and have a printout delivered containing EVERY post they ever made, which could result in the job being refused to a highly qualified candidate.

Given that Putin is in power again and that apparently most Russians don't like democracy, then that's exactly what could happen. And that's not even the nightmare scenario. Patriot Act taken off the books here in the US, and by law they can continue to search LJ for information if they grandfather that into the repeal. Or simply strike a deal with Russia for them to continue to provide open text posts for everyone using their service, say info for wheat, and the monitoring can continue completely unchecked. Thoughtcrime becomes real.

So that's why I moved.

( reposted from my account on Insane Journal. http://davensjournal.insanejournal.com if you want to come with me. And this post is going to be open to all, reply at your own risk. )

Filters explained

2007-04-02T02:36:44Z

Okay, I just put up one post on each of the filters I have currently. If you can read the posts, those are the filters you are on. I always put [filter name] in the subject.

TMI-Adult This is for posts that explicitly sexual in nature, or which not everyone wants to see.

Whine This is for me being a whiny baby, mostly to get it off my chest.

LeatherPriest This is for me to explore options in trying to combine BDSM and Priesthood issues

NotLocal This is for those who are not physically near me, as of right now, it's mostly everyone I know with a few exceptions.

Work This is for me to put up issues about my job. Going to be unused right now

Therian For me to explore my animal side

Magick This is by invitation only, you can request, but since it deals with some really esoteric and personal/private subjects, unless I really know you and trust you, you won't be on it. Highly slective.

Bunnyhunt for posting on things dealing with getting rid of the fluff in the world and online paganism.

Jobhunt This is for stuff relating to finding employment

Don't feel bad or upset if you aren't on a filter you think you shoudl be on. it is either because i don't think it's for you or I didn't think you would be interested. If you want on one specifically, just post and request.

Conversely, if you want off one, just post requesting that too.

Friends only

2005-06-08T23:04:39Z

This journal is entirely private now. I have shifted everything to InsaneJournal.

http://davensjournal.insanejournal.com

Thanks for reading.

I made this shift because one of the people on my "Friend's List" decided that they wanted to kick me when I was already down. So I just locked all these entries. I also don't update here anymore, that's in protest to SA and LJ's constant disregard of their users.