Ash Wednesday Penitence

I thought I was giving up coffee for Lent. Apparently I was mistaken and I was giving up the Internet for Lent. Well, for the first three days of Lent, anyway.

I was excited on Ash Wednesday. Not only was I going to get ashes smudged on my forehead, but my Internet package upgrade to Premier service (2meg/1meg) was going to take effect. I put the new username and password into our router settings, and prepared for blazing speed. I was underwhelmed. It was not only not blazing, but something I wouldn’t even call speed.

We gave it half a day or so, and then I called the Call Center. The Call Center can only be called from a mobile phone. It’s the local equivalent of those *-something numbers in the US. They offer a English language menu option, but unless you press 9 before they finish the sentence telling you what to press (“to continue in English, please press 9″) you get Thai. Your finger had better be on that 9 button before she starts talking. Once you successfully navigate the voice menus, they put you on hold while your mobile phone minutes tick away.

Eventually a nice Call Center lady told me a technician would call me. The technician called on Jim’s mobile instead of the land line. Jim was working on music with his headphones on, because he was not expecting a call. So we missed the technician’s phone call and he never called back. Day 1 with barely useable Internet.

The next day the service had degraded from a 10K upload speed to some unmeasurably low speed. We printed out a copy of the speed test screen and took it in to the TT&T office at The Mall. They called the Call Center and arranged for a technician to come to our house that afternoon. The technicians came. They saw the problem. They made half a dozen phone calls. Then they left, saying that the trouble was with the phone exchange and it would be fixed by 6PM. It wasn’t. I called the Call Center around 7PM, per the instructions from the technicians. They promised to have a technician call me at 10AM the next day. Day 2 with wholly unusable Internet.

Day 3 dawned with a worse download speed than before, and a still unmeasurable upload speed. When no technician had called by 11AM I called the Call Center yet again. There was a bit of confusion on the part of the nice lady, because she could not understand how it was possible that the technicians had come to my house and had not fixed the problem. She then wanted to send a technician out to my house again. What part of “the problem is not at my house” is so hard to understand? I gave up and had Jim call them.

Jim insisted that a technician be sent to the house, after humoring the nice lady by removing the power from the router for 10 minutes. She actually thought that would solve the problem. No technician ever came, but the Internet suddenly started working again. Jim got a phone call an hour after it began working, informing him that a fiber-optic cable somewhere had been repaired.

We really did go get ashes on our forehead. We went to the Thai service, as no English one was scheduled. We got to see the inside of the main church for the first time. We were both amazed by the beauty of the crucifix on the wall behind the altar. I wanted to take a picture, but it didn’t seem like the proper thing to do. It was miserably hot in the church, as it was nearly full, the end of a very warm day, and all the doors were open so the only cooling was a few fans.

I am getting tired of fried fish.

Fat Tuesday

There are certain days when I miss being in the US. Fat Tuesday is one of them. I miss being in the US because I can’t get paczki (pronounced POONCH key) here. Ground zero for paczki lovers is the Detroit suburb of Hamtramck with its old Polish bakeries. Those bakeries still produce prodigious quantities of paczki every Fat Tuesday, and the lines are still around the block at 6AM to buy them.

The lines are the same, but the people in the lines have changed. Hamtramck is no longer a Polish suburb, but is a Muslim area, like Dearborn. The Hamtramck Muslims have adopted Fat Tuesday for the sake of the paczki, and that’s who you find standing in line to buy paczki now. Paczki transcend religion because they are that good. They are like a filled doughnut, but with a richer dough that seems to melt in your mouth.

I am making do today with Dunkin’ Donuts filled doughnuts. Not the same, but the best I can do here.

Simming

My name is Rhiamom, and I’m a Sims 2 addict.

Being a Windows using Sims 2 addict in the US is easy. When a new expansion pack or stuff pack is released, you just run out to the store and buy it. If you are a Mac Simmer, it’s harder. You have to wait for Aspyr to port each and every expansion pack and stuff pack. The last I heard, Aspyr and EA were involved in Negotiations over the licensing of the rights to the remaining expansion packs and stuff packs. Will EA bother to license the rest of the Sims 2 series for porting to the Mac, now that The Sims 3 is coming out, as both a PC and (Intel) Mac app?

While I prefer to play the Mac version, I have both. Why? I don’t just play the Sims. I also create custom content for the game. The main tools to do this is are Windows-only applications, SimPE and HomeCrafter. So I play on the Mac side, and create on the PC side. I need to have it all twice. This drives my husband crazy.

I have more issues. Nobody will ship computer games bought online to Thailand. I have been getting my Mac games through the kindness of friends who carry them back here in their luggage when they return from a trip to the US. The solution to my Windows Simming woes is much easier. I acquire the pirate version of the game, in English. I then buy a legitimate Thai language version of the same game. I install the pirate version, using the legitimate serial number. As a bonus, I use the cracks that came with the pirate version to play without the CD in the drive and without Securom. I need to go to Bangkok and hunt down the last three expansion/stuff packs – my local shop doesn’t have the non-pirate versions – and my Windows game will be complete. My Mac game already is, as much as has been released.

The picture is one of the many Sim houses I have created. It’s sort of a white brick Italianate style Victorian. There are people out there who create much prettier and more elaborate houses than I do. While pretty, those houses usually have sacrificed game functionality for esthetics, and you can’t use them in the game. I make houses for the average Simmer to actually use in game.

 

Heroes Week

My daughter has asked that people do a blog post or twitter or something about their heroes this week. Since the week is nearly over, it’s time to get with the program.

I thought about it, and came to the conclusion that I have few heroes, and even fewer that meet the requirements she gave. Why don’t I have heroes? Am I incapable of admiring people? I had to spend quite a while pondering this. I tend to not admire famous people. I am more likely to admire somebody I actually know. I finally worked out that I do not value the accomplishments of a person, but their character. You rarely see much of the character of a famous person, so I have nothing to admire there.

For example, I’m a prime candidate to admire Hillary Clinton, but I don’t. In fact, after her run for the Democratic nomination for President I detest her. Her choices in how she campaigned showed, to me, a less than admirable character.

I do admire Jimmy Carter. Jimmy Carter wasn’t the best President we have had. I don’t think anybody would dispute me, though, if I claimed he was the most honest, upright President we have had in my lifetime. He was just too honest to run the country well. He has some serious morals and ethics, and he actually lives by them. He doesn’t just give money to a charity to help the poor, he goes out and helps build houses for poor people.

I can admire that.

Aging

I am often told that I don’t look my age. While that is flattering, I am beginning to appreciate it less and more wish I didn’t feel my age. You see, I have arthritis. It was officially diagnosed when I was only 30. I went to see the doctor confident of my diagnosis, and wanting only to know how many aspirin a day I ought to be taking. The doctor, noting the perfect symmetry of my symptoms and my youth, insisted on running a blood test to rule out rheumatoid arthritis, which was more consistent with my age and symptoms. He didn’t know the family history. So the doctor satisfied himself that I had simple osteoarthritis, which I already knew. He was quite surprised at how advanced the degeneration was then, as it was already visible on x-ray.

 

So now, 26 years later, I still have arthritis. I have it in my hands, particularly the bases of my thumbs, my knees, my neck, my hips and occasionally in my ankles. The cool season just past caused a dramatic increase in my pain level and stiffness. I was going down the stairs in the morning almost in slow motion. The hot dry season may not be my favorite, but it does help with the arthritis pain and stiffness.

 

What do I take for my arthritis? At the moment, nothing. I’ve always had a fair tolerance for pain. I am unable to take any of the fancy NSAIDs, or Cox-2 inhibitors, for reasons I won’t go into here. Just believe me that if I could take them, I would. The doctor once tried to put me on Tylenol three or four times a day for my arthritis. His office called in a panic a week or two later to have me stop taking it. I already had; I knew I couldn’t take it daily. Ever since then I have had a prescription for tramadol. About once every other week I take one at bedtime. I get a better night’s sleep than usual, plus the accumulated pain and tension, particularly in my neck, is reset. I think I will begin to take aspirin again soon, though. While the tramadol works for the pain, it doesn’t do anything about the inflammation. I can take aspirin on a daily basis, and it reduces the inflammation.

 

I honestly can’t remember what it is like to be totally pain-free.

iPhone

I’ve had my iPhone for two and a half weeks now. I already can’t imagine not having it. It’s everything my various past PDAs have tried and failed to be: calendar, contacts, maps, entertainment while on the go, and, yes, phone. I use it to time the laundry so I get it from the washer to the dryer before it starts to mildew.* I use it to make critically timed attacks in Travian** when I am away from my computer. On rare occasions, I even use it make or receive a phone call.

I would really be thrilled to be using it for my grocery shopping list, but I can’t. I have a couple of free, “lite” game versions that I would like to upgrade to the full version, but I can’t do that, either. I can look over a vista of commercial apps for my iPhone, but I can’t buy any of them.

You see, the iTunes Store and my bank have a disagreement about zipcodes. The iTunes store insists that a zipcode has 5 digits and only 5 digits. If you enter a “zip plus four” zipcode on the billing address for your iTunes account it rejects it. Contrarily, my bank insists that a zipcode has 9 digits. If you enter a 5 digit zipcode on their address change form, it automagically adds the other 4 digits. Hence, whenever I try to use my bank card to buy an iPhone app, I get a failed authorization due to a zipcode mismatch.

I have had the bank manually change my address, but the extra digits reappeared.

I have emailed Apple support about this issue, too. They suggested some other ways to pay -all of which required using a credit card, which will then be rejected for a zipcode mismatch. The only viable option was Paypal, and I am not interested in hooking that up to my main bank account.

As Borg of America does their routine issuing of new debit cards when the old ones expire, complete with 9 digit addresses, more iTunes users will fall into this little catch-22. It makes no sense whatever for Apple to resist the addressing system of one of the largest banks in the country.

But until Apple relents I am stuck with free apps only, and no grocery list.

* Please note that my wash cycle is from 1¼ to 2½ hours long. It’s easy to get involved in something else and forget the laundry.

** Do not click this link. If you do, be prepared to give up large chunks of your life to this addictive, real-time, year-long game.

Fish on Friday

We’re not really practicing Catholics, but we do try to avoid eating meat on Friday, year round. During Lent, it’s an obligation. It was easy when we lived in metro Detroit. Metro Detroit is historically a predominantly Catholic area, with a Catholic church every 8 or 10 blocks in the suburbs. It seemed like every other one of them had a fish fry, too, every Friday of Lent! It was fun, it was cheap, and it was an easy way to avoid meat.

Let’s just say that the Catholic population here isn’t even close to the 50% mark it is in the Detroit area.

Apparently God works in mysterious ways, because we have discovered an even easier way to eat fish for dinner on Friday than going to a parish fish fry. We have placed a standing order at the clubhouse restaurant (I’ve mentioned it before) for fish and chips at 7PM every Friday. Delivered to our home. At a total cost of just under $8.

Lent begins in 18 days, and we are ready.

Schefflera

If you have ever had houseplants you probably had a schefflera, commonly called an umbrella plant. I remember being quite proud of one I had that reached about 4 feet in both height and diameter. Imagine my shock when I first saw this:

This is a couple of houses down from our house. It’s a very badly pruned Umbrella tree. Note the distinct umbrella shape, and the lovely shade it provides, too. I never knew it was supposed to be a tree. But it’s definitely a tree, and quite a common one, too.

How Do You Know Easter is Coming?

You see this in the local doughnut shops:

Aren’t they just too cute for words? I don’t think I could bring myself to actually consume one.  I just couldn’t destroy such cuteness. 

But what do you expect in a country where women pushing 40 still wear Hello Kitty barrettes?