Wednesday, July 21, 2004

You Take the Good; You Take the Bad

My life seems to be made up of good parts and bad parts these days.  Of course, most of the bad is just me being immature and selfish, I know, but it's still frustrating.

The Good:
Lots of booksignings.  Saturday was a signing for Laura Levine's new book, Killer Blonde.  I think there were only two of us who showed up, and one got her books and left right away.  I, on the other hand, stayed visited for a while.  Really nice to get to know her a little more.  And she's a very nice author.

Then last night I headed down to the UCLA area and Mystery Bookstore for a signing with Sarah Stewart Taylor, author of O' Artful Death and recent read Mansions of the Dead.  Again, very few of us showed up.  One other person, two family members, and me.  She knew me right away from my reviews at Amazon.  Really nice getting to know her a little better.  Honestly, I'm beginning to think I need to meet authors to fully enjoy their work.

And Saturday night, I had fun at my friend's party.

The Bad:

I'm just frustrated with stuff right now.

Our guest is still at the condo.  Now I agree that it was good he had a place to go.  But for how long?  And, since I had never met him before he moved it, it does kinda worry me.  What if his step-dad shows up?  Furthermore, the guy who knows him has been studying like crazy, so it's fallen on the rest of us to play host.  And with a condo our size, there really isn't much you can do if you need to get away.

Of course, two of the guys are supposed to be housesitting for the next week.  And I'd think this guy would go with him.

I think part of the problem is the guy kinda moved in.  There was no explaining to us what was going on or why or how or anything.  When I asked questions (making me feel like an evil person), I was told it was just going to be for a night or two.  It's now been four with no explanation.  I have no idea what's going on and what's being done to arrange something permanent.

Yes, I'm willing to help, but I like to know what's going on.  And since it effects me, I really don't think I'm asking for that much.

In other news, last night was my ultimate game for the week.  (As well as the signing.)  We lost again.  Frankly, we were playing pretty poorly.  Were down by 6 at one point.  Lost by 4 when the lights went out.  But the most frustrating thing about the game was that the other team kept making bogus calls.  It's never fun to play when the other side is winning and still trying to cheat.

Amazon is making some major changes to their system.  As always, this means major bugs.  (Maybe they need to learn about upgrades from blogger.)  And going to the discussion board to try to get a little information only makes it worse.  Honestly, the people there just drive me crazy, still.  Their attitude is "Amazon should have run this by us first and should have worked out all bugs before it went on line."  Now I will admit to being frustrated, but I've learned that things will work themselves out.  They always do.  So we need to be patient.  There is one new feature that needs to be seriously reevaluated pronto, and people effected have a right to be upset about that one, but Amazon owes us nothing unless we've ordered from them.

Speaking of which, my order from last week still hasn't shipped even though everything shipped within 24 hours.  Now poor customer service?  That's something to complain about.  Poor launch and poor design of new features they don't have to give us in the first place?  Cry me a river.

Finally, I'm really getting fed up with the major news media who promote a story for months, but when it turns out they were misled, they bury that part in the middle of the paper.  Or spin a scary story about a former national security advisor so that his crimes suddenly aren't the issue.

Of course, part of my problem might be lack of sleep.  I went out last night after the game and didn't get home until 1.  Tonight, I go to bed early no matter what.

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