That Doesn't Sound Too Good to Me

 I have mentioned problems with radio reception multiple times on this blog.  In fact, it was the subject of one of my earliest posts.  Well, things are still the same, if not worse.  Firstly, there is the store radio.  For some reason, I cannot receive a clear signal, or even a halfway decent one, most of the time on my store radio.  At least when it comes to my favorite station.  There are so many factors to consider, I am not sure where to start.  Moving the antenna sometimes works, as does adjusting the dial, but neither one can totally improve reception.  Turning of some of the store lights can help, but it also leaves the store fairly dark.  I can only do it when it also cools the store down, and when it is not too dark out.  Otherwise, I just turn off some lights when I think I hear a weather alert coming on.  The strangest help is by moving any vehicles in front of the store.  Obviously, I cannot ask others to move their cars, but I can at least make sure my car is not the one causing interference.  When all of these measures fail, I am forced to listen to either staticky songs or the bleeding in of a country music station, the one that seems to dominate the area, of some all news station, one whose signal is otherwise so weak, I cannot even tune it in many days on my car radio.  Speaking of my car radio, things have not been so well there either.  I got a new car last fall.  The radio system on it is different from the old one.  I can receive signals in some places that I couldn't get them in before.  Even the satellite radio has shorter dead spots, even when I do not have s free trial going on.  However, something unusual has occurred in the last few months.  Some stations, many of which are owned by the same company, have been getting very bad static at certain times and locations on my daily commute.  Some days, the static is so bad, I cannot even tell what station I am listening to.  Other days, the static is barely in the background, annoying but I can still tell what is on.  It occurs usually on the same stretch of road, with curves and hills causing the occasional improvement.  However, there is no way of knowing if going by later or earlier will cause any changes.  Some days, it does make a difference, maybe.  This also happens on a few other stretches of road, but since I do not travel them that often, I am not sure if the interference is connected.  This happens to a few other stations, but not as frequently.  Strangely enough, it never happens to that country station that regularly overtakes my favorite at the store, and the two stations are not even close in their frequencies.  Speaking of my favorite, I sometimes have another problem with it.  Just yesterday, the transmission started to fade.  It was like the signal was coming from a radio playing into their microphone, as opposed to being transmitted directly.  It corrected itself this morning, while an introduction to a morning show segment started.  Suddenly, the signal improved, but the conversation jumped to the middle of the first news item in the segment.  This station has a habit of having signal jumping, such as songs running too long and cutting off when it is past time to go back to a show or when it is time for a commercial.  I cannot be sure, but I think some of the problems started when the station joined a new service a few years ago, a national one.  I could be wrong, but it would explain the usual mx of older and old songs being played with newer ones, that just so happen to not necessarily be the ones that are on the top of the charts.  Especially the ones with a heavy rap presence, not that I always mind that.  But still.

Let's Get into Metaphysical; Let Me Hear Your Body/Mind/Spirit Talk

 First, my apologies to Olivia Newton-John.  That is really a bad pun in the title.  Anyway, on to business, quite literally.  A new store is getting ready to open in the shopping center, just down the sidewalk.  This will be the second new store opening in the last few months.  The first one is a smoothie and nutritional supplement shop.  I have yet had to opportunity to check it out.  The new store coming in, if you couldn't guess from today's title, is a metaphysical shop that will be selling a variety of stones, herbs, and other products.  My mother has been dismissively calling it a "woo-woo" shop.  This might be because they might be selling books among their other wares. She really shouldn't be so mean about putting down another person's beliefs, especially since we had been looking into the very same things a few years ago for BookNotes.  She would never get into that idea, or most of the other ideas I had to improve business, except for trying to stock some cheese dip mixes.  We barely sold any, and we still have over a dozen of them left, unsaleable, hidden away even though they probably expired years ago. She refuses to throw them away, so they are in a cardboard box in storage somewhere no one can see them.  Why she wanted to go into food, when nobody was asking for it, I can't fathom.  At least people had been asking for the metaphysical stuff.  But I have gone well off topic.  So, as I mentioned, I am into some metaphysical, or New Age or Body/Mind/Spirit as some people prefer to call it, since I was a kid.  I even did my own astrological chart back in seventh or eighth grade.  Some of the math was a little beyond me at the time, but it was fairly accurate.  I would do another one when I was in college, using a separate method.  There was only on big difference between the two, and I never did figure out which one had the mistake.  I used a book I checked out of the library for the first time, but it vanished sometime after I returned it, so I could never double check my calculations.  (Don't tell anyone, but it was also one of the first books I saw that had pictures of partially naked people in it.  Still fairly tame, for someone in grade school at the time.  Hey, I was already reading at adult levels.  No judgement.). Most of my other explorations in this field have been focuses on cryptozoology.  I just love reading about creatures that may not exist, especially from the point of view of legend, myth, and folklore.  I try to keep up with such books on "monsters" whenever I can.  I don't think you could call me an expert, but I might be close.  The same thing can be said on my love of tarot.  I got my first deck back in college, for my birthday.  It was one of the weirder themed ones, no longer published with the original art, but still available.  Alas, it was one of four decks that I lost in a flood seventeen years ago, along with most of my books on metaphysical studies.  Owning a bookstore allowed me to start a new collection, but most of the original books and decks are no longer around.   Still, many of the replacements are just as good.  One of my favorites was the Justice League art tarot that was the topic of a previous post.  Many of the points I brought up in it actually came to pass, and are still coming about. I guess I can spot some things coming, even if most of my studies are purely academic in nature as opposed to actually usage.  Don't get me wrong.  There could be something real about many of things of this nature, but I still approach them with an open mind about how real they might be.

My Fall of Discontent

 After a long time of thinking, I have decided not to take any classes this fall.  I am still second-guessing myself, but I think I am making the right decision, even with the many reasons why I should.  Money is actually a minor reason.  I could find a way to pay for it, if just barely.  A major reason is the classes themselves.  There aren't any classes I really want to take, as I am finding faults with them all.  There are five classes being offered this fall, plus a sixth one that I have already taken.  First, there is Psycholinguistics.  This class is so outside of my path that I wasn't even halfway considering to take it.  Next, there was Literary Theory.  One of the books is available from my book store's regular distributor, but it is currently out of stock.  This means that I would have to go through the college book store to purchase it, as a digital download rental.  I know about downloading books, but I have no idea how a rental would work, not to mention how much room such a book would take up on my computer.  The other book is only available in a shorter, newer edition forth same distributor, meaning going through the university for that one as well, for about the same price.  Also, one of the projects for the class is creating a website, or at least a page, dedicated to a school of literary thought.  Call me "old school," but I don't feel that is a way to learn.  At least for me.  I have floundered in similar online projects before, barely doing the minimum to get a good grade.  I have had trouble simply chatting and doing online tests.  Give me basic reports any day.  The next course is on Chaucer.  Again, most of the texts are online rentals.  While I could find similar physical books, I don't want to get lost by using a different version.  I've had that problem before.  Also, I am not too thrilled with reading Middle English, even with my flair for languages.  Then there is Eighteenth Century British Literature (not the complete title for the course, but close enough for you to know what I'm talking about). As of this morning, no materials have been listed for the class.  While I could make an educated guess about what authors and works would be covered, I would not be able to get the books before class started,  even if they were downloads, which I would not want to do.  Forgive me, but I don't want to start class that unprepared.  That left Advanced Poetry Writing.  With me included, there would be three people in the class.  I am not sure a workshop style class like this could work that well with so few people.  Again, the textbook for the class was out of stock at my distributor, meaning I would need the university store to purchase it.  Furthermore, the class is being taught by a professor I had before for fiction writing.  His hands-off style was a little off-putting for that class.  He didn't post any assignments or feedback for over a month in the middle of the term.  Many students were left wondering about what to do.  It also meant a very rushed flurry of activity to get everything done during the last few weeks of class.  Add to this the fact that poetry is not my strong suit, and everything just clicked into place.  I didn't find any classes that were working for me.  I am still doubting my decision.  If I take just one more class, I might be eligible to teach on a collegiate level, but I would have to confirm that.  The thing is, I would need to take at least two classes this fall to be eligible to take the exit exam next spring, and that is with taking an extra course in December, so I could graduate by next summer and before the possibility of going to the University of Kentucky in the fall to get the degree I have been hoping for.  I feel guilty for not doing more right now, but things aren't lining up the way I would prefer them.  I know it sounds selfish, but it is just the way I am.  I will have to take at least one course in the spring to stay enrolled, as a fallback if I don't get into UK, again.  It just feels so hopeless acknowledging it, knowing that I might be wasting so much time and money, for something I wasn't planning on doing or using.

Getting Crushed by Candy

I play a lot of the Candy Crush games on Facebook, at least the first three saga games as the fourth one doesn't seem to be on that platform as of yet.  Unfortunately, I have not been doing too well.  Don't get me wrong, when I get on a roll, I am scoring major points and clearing levels left and right.  The last two weeks or so, I have had problems.  My efforts on Candy Crush Jelly are about the same, but that is my least favorite of the games and the one I have had the least advancement on as well.  It can take me a few days to pass a tougher level, usually only when I get the right daily bonus set up.  Candy Crush Soda hasn't been too fair for me either.  Ever since the game stopped giving out winning streak bonuses, I have had problems.  Sure, I do well enough when I get a candy box team bonus, but I never seem to have a really great teamwork bonus with my current crew, the Violet Puppies.  I didn't choose the name or the crew.  I think I got randomly picked for both.  I have also had problems with level races.  I rarely even get third place, as it takes me days to win just one game, that others I'm competing against can win five or six in the same time period.  My worst problems stem from the original Candy Crush Saga.  Just last week, I was in first place for the weekly weekend challenge.  I was planning on padding my lead, but I forgot to do so before I went to work.  I got delayed, and I wound up getting online after the game had ended.  Because of some unusual programming glitch, certain game functions only work when I use a certain browser to access the game, such as the daily login bonus.  And the prize for the weekend contest as well. So, last Tuesday, I logged in, as usual, around three so I could get the maximum use of the prize as I could, six hours of three different starting bonus pieces each game, as well as a few one-time one ups for the stockpile.  Unfortunately, I came in second as someone overtook my by less than one hundred points.  Maybe they sniped me just enough to take the lead, but I still could have won if I had just remembered to play one last game on one of the levels to rack up extra points.  Meanwhile, I was burning though bonus pieces just to try and get through some tough levels, just waiting for the weekend challenge.  Well, there wasn't a challenge this weekend.  Instead, there was the first in a series of special challenges.  This one was getting through levels on your first try, not a strong suit of mine.  I wound up finishing around ninth, winning a paltry consolation prize.  The second challenge started this morning, where one has to beat levels to score points.  I think I might be able to replay early, easy levels, but I haven't tried that out yet.  Instead, I got an hour long team bonus, just as the time limit for us was drawing near its end and I will get on a new team later on tonight.  I also got to relive a thirty minute music box bonus that I had actually finished last night, a glitch from switching browsers between then and this morning.  I got through a few levels this way, but I had to burn a bunch of tools doing so, all of the regular ones, anyway.  I still have a huge stockpile of starting bonuses in reserve, but even they will go out if I overuse them, even if I have hundreds from the various glitches I spread out over browsers.  I don't know why my gameplay has been suffering these past few weeks.  Yes, many of the levels seems to be a tad harder than usual, but I still should be able to fly by them a little easier than it has been.  Maybe they will get easy again when the game updates.  I replay a few levels for various reasons, and I know that some levels have changed, sometimes greatly, and not always easier.  But what can I do?  Just keep crushing I guess.