OMG the great credit freeze chase!!!

All righty then.  I was prompted to do the credit freeze thing.  Here is what happened, it only took a couple hours but I am near exhaustion. 

1) Marched through the steps for Equifax the one that started all this crap and surprisingly every thing went swimmingly and I was prompted to print the confirmation number letter.  I fired up the printer which takes FOREVER to click, pop, grind and process until ready to print.  Hey, not so fast there, printer cartridges are depleted, change them or no printing.  Ugh, dug out the box, read directions, pried open printer, dug out old cartridges, fumbled other cartridges into printer, close door.  Printer resumes processing, grinding, popping and much of a muchness. Eventually printer flashed that the cartridges had previously been used and were depleted, please replace THOSE cartridges.  Shit and shinola!  So I went to Amazon and ordered new cartridges!!!! and wrote down the damn confirmation number from Equifax.  Then I turned off the printer. I didn't feel like Googling the hack for extending the printer cartridge lift for one. last. print...

2) Experian experience went well.  Put in info. Presto chango, they charged me 10 bucks.  Wheee! 

3) Transunion.  What a nightmare!!! First of all I had to select user name and password. Simple huh?  Nope, you get caught up in adding a number to the password and the user name cannot be used in the password.  Then I put my credit card in, the same one used for Experian and there was a problem.  What!?  I called credit card company and finally got a real person to speak to and they checked it and said the expiration date was different and she would change it to match my card and my card had been charged 20 bucks.  Uh thanks.  So back to Experian. I finally found the customer service number that WASN'T  A FAX NUMBER and got a very extensive menu.  I had to be very patient to listen to WHICH FECKING NUMBER to push to REFUSE the goddamn survey!!!  I was about to go to the nuclear number 0 option but I heard something that chirped that something had been placed on my account.  I am not precisely sure what that something is but at this point I shall let the fortunes go their delightful way. 

I can only hope that the criminals have to go through the equivalent of this to hack the crap that they want. May they live in interesting times. I am also a more than a little pissed that suddenly Experian and Transunion are raking in 150 million times their 10 and 20 bucks because of Equifax.  Bastards!!!

PROJECT RUNWAY

Last night's theme was for the designers to make dresses either good or bad, a modern interpretation of Descendants 2, daughters of Snow White and Malificence.  Last weeks winner got to choose who got which theme.  They had a budget of 300 dollars and two days to get 'er done.  Off to Mood for fabric.  Thank you Swatch!! And another twist the models were the customers and they got to choose which designer they wanted.  The twins went last, boo hoo. At judging there were six outfits left, highest and lowest scores. 
The three high scores included one of the size 22 models, lovely Black girl who rocked a gold and black lace thing with perfect cleavage and sassiness.  Larger Black ladies generally have better body confidence as it is a cultural thang and she rocked the runway.  If I had been her designer I would have asked her to stomp the runway, toss her head and give a finger wag at the turn.  Yeah, girl.  One designer chose a tightly textured maroon fabric made into snazzy tight pants, a jacket with peplum, long sleeves.  The cuffs were black and looked like melted vinyl records.  The front lapels were a nice flat black in a sort of controlled petal design.  The winning design was by the Zen guy with a girlfriend.  The models really like him.  Anyway his dress was very modern and forward thinking.  The top was a white crop top, long sleeves, long cuff with nicely manufactured wide flat ribbons with demure colored trim.  The body of the dress was a largish print of very subdued lines.  There was a slightly shaped cut to mid thigh in the front and the arm holes were cut to show what Heidi called peek-a-boob.  Very cute. The losing looks were the twin with hair.  She designed a very simple outfit with shorts and a gauze opaque skirt.  She was in.  Gah.  The loser was a 23 year old kid who wore dresses and long blond hair.  He had previously designed safe stuff and he designed to go all out and designed something with lots of strips of cloth strung up and down the dress, many seams were not finished, it was a hot mess.  He over designed and ran into a time management issue.  He was sent to clean out his station. Loved the show.

Oh dear

Regarding the 24 hour coverage of the hurricanes; I detect the faint tinge of exhaustion amongst the reporters.  I have heard MSNBC say "Thanks for that sporty report".  Uh okaaaaay.
Sure the coverage has been hypnotic but big bad Irma certainly took her damn time getting to the USA for gawds sakes.  Topical islands wiped out, where did all those folks go?  Where?  And just as Irma poops out to tropical storm over Orlando, here comes Jose.  Uh huh.  The right people did their job right and the citizens followed orders for the most part, and that is a good thing.  The insurance folk and Trump are happy, the hurricane whores are not.
Take heart there is still a couple months left in the season. We still have to see the results of land fall Irma during the day, so we can gawk at the wreckage.  I sincerely pray bam, bam, bam hurricanes do not become a habit.  Thanky.

Lets talk about music

I grew up in a baby boomer household.  The kind of music we heard on the radio was very old school country music such as The Letter Edged in Black and Old Shep, genuine tear jerkers.  The other music was Glenn Miller big band type of stuff.  I learned how to dance at sock hops at noon in the gym at school and Glenn Miller featured highly. 

TV music was mostly The Hit Parade, the regular singers had to figure out how to produce the current hit in a different way each week.  They sang "This Old Man" and other popular songs from movies we didn't see until well into our adulthood.  Of course we watched The Lawrence Welk show and learned how to dance the polka.  I remember one particular live show where a lady from the audience danced so energetically with Lawrence Welk that her wig bounced off.  Pretty sure that would have gone viral if the internet had existed in the 60's.

Elvis Presley did not feature much in our household.  Mom deemed his music too provocative.  I didn't care each way.  I watched the Beatles debut on The Ed Sullivan show and could only hear teenaged screaming and I only knew their early music from top 40 radio stations. 

The next three or four decades blurred together.  I like driving music because I loved driving.  When I lived and worked in California it was nothing to hop in anyone's car to drive to the San Francisco airport just to watch the jets land and ride on the walkways.  Oy!

I learned what little I know about classical music courtesy of Carla.  She mentioned how much she liked Handel's Water Music.  I bought the album, the tape,the CD and enjoyed it in various reincarnations over the years.  Opera was a different kettle of fish. I grew to love Nessun Dorma and other bits and pieces.  An entire opera?  Um please pass the hard stuff.  Burp.

Sister Ellen always enthused about American Idol and I never got into that.  Later on I began watching The Voice.  I really liked the blind auditions and learned to love songs I had never heard of.  I even Googled the original songs and found that in some instances I enjoyed the second hand version even better. 

As a miscellaneous category and in no particular order I have come to enjoy the following modern pieces; Say Something, Listen, Gravity, I'm a Creep, Hallelujah, Defying Gravity, Alabaster Box, Fix Me Jesus and The Four Seasons.  And I love just about any version of Tennessee Whiskey. 

I have noted on various international versions of The Voice there are a few songs that will guarantee a four chair turn; It's a Man's World, Natural Woman, Highway to Hell, Who's Loving You.  Yeppers that does turn the chairs. 

I accidentally discovered Hailey Reinhart on Google.  She was on American Idol when she was 18 and got to the semi finals.  Her voice has improved so much over the intervening years.  She does a terrific set in All About the Bass. 

So having exposed my vast ignorance I shall go catch up on morning news and when I get bored I will watch Britain's Got Talent on my Kindle.  Happy Labor Day!!!

PROJECT RUNWAY

The show premiered last night on Lifetime TV.  Sixteenth season and the usual nutty mix of designers are all on board.  This season all of the lady models range from size two to twenty two.  Yay!!!

The challenge was to design a runway outfit for the runway of their choice, 300 dollars to spend at Mood and the usual prizes.  There is an identical set of twins one has her head shaved so we can tell them apart and it looks like their design esthetic is not so twinish.  Tim Gunn and Heidi Klum are hosts and the judges are the usual with a guest or two here and there.  Get ready, get set, sew!!!

They had one day to crank out something and the results were wide ranging.  The gentleman voted off was a young fatuous Japanese, I think, man who dressed a bit like Hello Kitty.  His clowny outfit with extreme ruffles did not go over well. 

The winner was a young black man who designed an off the shoulder large print, well draped outfit for his rather Michelle Obama look a like model, fabulous! One of the designers who is male dresses in er um dresses and has designed only men's wear.  Another young man with a man bun designed a very nice gown for his plus size model and he did it very well. 

I love this season already.  Maybe there aren't any flakes on the set but you never know who will crack under the pressure.  Ooh ooh!!

BOOK REPORT" NEXT DOOR TO HEAVEN" Dean Koontz, many spoilers

I am now reading
Next Door to Heaven.

Four or five story lines, I am 72% done and it looks like FINALLY the story lines are lumbering together. By lumbering I mean the rate at which I am reading feels lumbering.

Let me recap: Mickey and her Aunt Gen. Micky visits Gen and meets Leilani Klonk who lives in the next parking space over.

Leilani Klonk, 9 y/o disabled mutant girl, brilliant, raised wild and unregistered. Her mother Sensimilla is a drugged out hippy who is dangerous when not pathologically stoned. The step father is Dr. Doom who is an intelligent serial killer and plans to kill Leilani on her 10 birthday.

Ethan is a burned out private detective hired by Mickey to trace Dr. Doom.

Curtis Hammond, an orphaned boy who, as it turns out, really is an alien.

The Selkenfelter twins help Curtis in a shootout with evil aliens who can track him until he truly become Curtis Hammond.

Old Yeller, a dog who gained some basic intelligence after bonding with Curtis.

The characterizations and plot have built in depth and complexity. It wasn't until chapter 33 that I at last comprehended why everyone but the dog was after the kid. I love the Koonzt nod to smart puppies. I truly fear for my ladies. I fear Dr. Doom won't meet his end and if he does will he comprehend his depth of failure with appropriate horror and loathing. I sort of feel like he will glance around trying to figure a way out. I really want a true transformation for Ms. Klonk not to mention liberation. I fear for everyone. As for measuring this book against Odd Thomas, well it compares solidly in favor. Mrs. Brownfield, my fifth grade teacher, would be proud of me, I found the reference to the book title. I have also noted that I usually learn a new word from the not overly erudite Mr. Koontz, can't remember it now; started with an O, definition final stage of butterfly pupa, I think. Also, loided, there was no Wikipedia entry and used in a sentence meaning voided closure. Kinda

I never take this long to read a book unless it as a bad one. I decided to wait to finish reading the last few chapters because I was so fearful of things not going right.

So the denouement came along so very, very late. Dr. Doom had killed the farmer in his house in Nun's Lake (Think Priest Lake, far north Idaho). He caught Mickey and tied her up in the farmers house. He went back to the motor home and snatched Leilani. Everyone else took off in what seemed to be unsuccessful pursuit. Dr. Doom set the house on fire. As it turned out the detective crashed into the house, rescued Leilani and Mickey. Curtis transformed and confronted Dr. Doom who thought he was hallucinating due to the smoke. Dr. Doom did not express remorse, merely confusion that he could not find his way out. Oh yes, when they got back to the motor homes, an ambulance was taking away a very demented Sensimilla, None of them said anything to the authorities.

I will leave you to read the very satisfactory epilogue, very satisfactory.  There was redemption after all. 

Book, BOOK, BOOK report!!!!

I am going to talk about three books by Charlaine Harris.  She is more famous for her Sookie Stackhouse books.  These books are set in the same "neighborhood" only in that Manfred Bernardo is acquainted with Sookie.The books are titled, Midnight, Day Shift and Night Shift. 

Midnight is the name of a town in Texas, it is small, dusty and inhabited by mostly supernatural beings to whom we are introduced over the course of the books. 

Bernardo is a professional psychic and he is good and occasionally has a true vision.  He moved to Midnight from Tennessee I think.  His neighbors help him unload boxes. Bernardo has many tattoos, body piercings and spiked white hair, he is also short and slight.

One of his neighbors is a young woman named Fiji who is a witch and who has a familiar who is a talking cat.  His speaks mostly in a bitter, snarky voice. 

Bebo is a handsome blond who runs the pawn shop and Fiji is crushing on.  Bebo is oblivious.

Lemuel is the vampire who mostly minds his business unless he needs a refreshing sip of either blood or personality essence. 

Olivia is his human wife who was sexually abused by her stepmother as a child.  Her daddy did not believe her.  Olivia became a professional assassin and makes a fairly decent wage and step mom is no longer a problem. 

Rev is a very spiritual man who offers burial services for both humans and pets.  He is a tiger shifter.  We meet two more tiger shifters a bit later. 

There is a lovely gay couple, Chuy and dammit, Ican'trememberhisname.  They have a Peke who yaps and they are fallen angels and rarely manifest their wings. 

The only other normal couple in town are Madonna, Teacher and Grady their baby.  They are African American.  Madonna cooks at the local diner, Teacher can fix anything.

Over all a swell bunch, first book is getting acquainted and some adventure.  I think you may thoroughly enjoy the books.  As for the NBC series I will reserve judgement as the series has already departed from characters and plot.  Meh....