Maybe I Can Drive My Car

Within the next few weeks, I will hopefully have a new car.  There's still a chance that I won't, but considering the shape of my current, I hope not.  I've been seriously looking for the past few months. Okay, it is ac tally closer to a year or two.  What can I say, I have very strict standards. It only took two weeks to get my first car, but that was when I needed one almost immediately.  I had two dealerships competing to get me the exact model I wanted.  It could have ben the exact same one.  I loved that car, even with all the problems I had with it.  I had the bumper smashed by unknown means within a year or so.  One of the manual windows developed a problem, and it had to be fixed so that it could work.  I had a two-door, so the windows had to lower.  The main problem was with the computer.  All of a sudden, my car wouldn't start properly.  When they thought they had the problem fixed, I tried driving it off the lot.  The engine would die on me every few dozen yards.  I had to start it back up multiple times to get to where my mother was waiting and then find a way to get it towed back to the dealership for the problem to actually be fixed.  When I finally decided on my second car, after a month or so of looking, I was driving it to my store before picking up the new one.  About a mile or two from the store, the break failure light came on.  Fortunately, they brakes worked well enough to get to the store.  Unfortunately, my mother had to drive the car to the dealership to get it the breaks fixed, and she would up being the first one to drive my new car.  I never could feel as comfortable with that car because of that.  What's worse, we wound up paying for the repairs, instead of the man we were selling the old one too, even though he had offered to do so.  That car would have its fair share of problems too.  At least two of the power windows would tear up.  It was a four-door, so there were more windows to have problems.  I hydroplaned down a hill and into a lawn ornament, causing damage to the rear bumper, because someone was watering their lawn and it ran onto the road.  Took forever to get it fixed, as well as figuring out a way to get to work while waiting for it to be repaired.  At least it was still in working order when I finally got a new car, from a different dealership, although they were a little angry when I forgot to mention that accident.  My current car has had quite a few problems, as well.  I've kept it two years longer than my previous ones.  It's just so hard finding something I like and afford that also has the exact features I need.  Don't get me wrong, I do like my current car, even though I could never get the headrest to fit me properly.  The windshield had to be replaced, twice.  The transmission failed for no discernible reason.  The brake pads have had to be replaced more often than in my other cars.  The battery had to be replaced rather frequently.  The heating/cooling system has had multiple random failures, including having a motor whir at odd times and near constant clicking whenever certain doors are opened, for about thirty seconds.  The tire pressure monitors keep failing.  Once, a monitor said a tire was flat, even when it wasn't.  While driving to a garage to have the tire checked, the monitor went from flat to full pressure to even higher and everything in between.  During a recent opportunity for an OnStar free trial, I found out that the antenna was broken, and I would be unable to start the service. Oh, one of the windows recently had to be fixed so that it would stay up.  There is so much going wrong with my car, that I won't be able to get a new one if I have all of the current problems fixed.  I need a new car.

What Not to Read about What to Watch

It the time of year again for a new season of television shows to debut.  In concert with the new season, some entertainment magazines offer previews about said season.  Usually, this is a quite thorough affair.  However, this year, it is anything but.  First up, TV Guide offered up its preview of new series.  Unlike previous years they organized the series by genre instead of by day.  I feel that this makes it more difficult to judge if a new series should be watched, as having to keep track of when a new show is coming on without a way to compare it to times for other series is complicated.  At least they returned to having a neutral cover again, instead of focusing on one series or having a collage of multiple shows or stars.  Most new network shows were featured, with other new series were mentioned in a calendar at the end or the feature.  Unfortunately, there wasn't any program grid either to help organize network information.  Two weeks later, the mag came out with its returning show guide.  This time, the cover focused on NCIS.  As it is a top-rated scripted program, one with a cliffhanger featuring the return of a presumed dead character, it made sense.  This time around, the shows were organized by day.  This format was much easier to read and comprehend.  Still no day-to-day grid for network programming though. Some cable and streaming shows were also mentioned, even though much of the latter do not have a standardized start day.  In comparison, Entertainment Monthly, make that Weekly, also has its fall television preview issue out.  For the least few years, it had dedicated the entire issue to the new season, giving each new and returning scripted series, and a few reality series, at least a brief synopsis for a new show or a recap for a returning show.  Not this time.  Not only did the preview not take over the entire issue, but not even each show was featured.  The main cover was dedicated to the new Jennifer Anniston vehicle The Morning Show, which will debut on Apple's new streaming service later this year (Disclaimer:  As I have mentioned previously, I own a Mac.  I will probably be getting some form of this service as part of the next upgrade in OS, probably with a free trial if not more.  I have yet to watch or pay for any streaming service, and I do not intend to start anytime soon.). In fact, the start of the article focused on streaming shows, as well as the new streaming services set to debut.  The rest of the article went in the standard daily format, with one new or returning series getting top-billing and other shows following suit.  However, not even half of the network and cable shows deserved to be mentioned.  The overwhelming majority were delegated to a calendar of start dates at the end of the feature.  A few had a brief comment with them, but that was it.  Friday (and Saturday, they combined the two) only had one show, out of the nine or so featured those days on the networks.  At least each day had a show from a different network featured.  The most obvious difference between these two magazines is that the series featured on the cover of one is only given a mention in the calendar of the other.  The audience for the two mags, as well as the reporters, are so far apart that what's important to one is not so important to the interests of the other.  I would have thought that there would be some greater overlap between them, and TV Guide will probably cover The Morning Show closer to its debut, but I still feel slighted.  My own tastes in television falls somewhere between these two extremes.  I am still disgusted about EW's change in publication. Maybe it's just the me and my lack of wanting to do my watching (and reading about watching) online.  I barely know when my favorite shows will be airing this fall.  Many have new times.  I am not sure if there are any new shows that I would want to watch.  I have a little more time to decide these things, but I still am not sure about what I will do.  I will see, I mean watch.

The Emoji Television Show!

I have been a long-time reader, and solver, of what is now called Games World of Puzzles magazine.  Since grade school, in fact.  While I admit to getting the occasional other non-related puzzle magazine, Games had remained the favorite.  Mostly it is the articles.  Sure, I love the puzzles, but I usually only solve a little less than half of them.  Sure, I look at them, but I only solve those that I like.  Well, earlier this year, Games has featured a new variety of puzzle based on emojis.  Readers are given a string of emojis and have to figure out what they mean.  The two puzzles dealt with book and film titles respectively.  I admit that I am not that good at "emoji speak" yet.  I am still getting the ins and outs of such things.  However, I have come up with my own version of this puzzle based on television shows.  Below are a series of emojis.  Each one represents a television show that has had new episodes within the past year.  Your job is to figure out what each one is.  Answers appear beneath the puzzle, so don't scroll down too far until you are finished.  Good luck! 👍
(I'm sorry if the picture isn't quite right.  I worked out the puzzle in Pages and took a screenshot, before transferring it here as an image.  I wasn't sure I could get the range of emojis I needed here, and at the proper size.)

Nothing Funny about These Books

As I have mentioned many times on this blog, I am a big fan of comic books.  I have been since I was four, when I started to read.  Yes, that is a tad early, but I loved them so much, I wanted to read them whenever I wanted to on my own.  That has continued for many decades, even after two floods took out over half of my collection each time.  Most weeks, I get around four books.  Sometimes more, and sometimes less.  Recently, a small controversy erupted over some titles, and I decided to talk about them and my opinions on it.  Earlier this month, the most recent issues of Superman and Supergirl were pulled from shelves, before they could be sold.  They were already shipped out to retailers, but the issues were not to be sold.  Apparently, the fuss was over the cover trade dress.  The covers suggested that the titles were included in a company-wide promotion, but these particular issues were, in fact, not part of it.  The issues were rescheduled for release today and next month, respectively.  The basic explanation could be that the interconnected stories ran long, and the crossover material was cut out at the last moment.  This is entirely possible, as the two titles were going to be featuring the long-awaited return of the Legion of Superheroes.  However, there is some controversy with that as well.  The writer of both the Superman and Legion titles is Brian Micheal Bendis.  Early promotional artwork for the Legion series has shown very radical departures from most previous versions.  Along with a few new characters and costume designs, Bendis has also changed the racial identities of many characters.  One change, though, happened between the early solicitations and the actual title.  The character of Lightening Lad was originally shown as white, as the character has usually been portrayed, but later artwork has shown him as darker skinned.  People who had picked up copies of the Superman issue that was supposed to have been destroyed have compared it to advance looks of the replacement issue and have noticed that the Lightening Lad character has a slightly darker skin tone, as well as more pronounced African features in replacement.  Somehow, along the production line, the decision was made to change the character, but the change didn't happen as quickly or as thoroughly across all the line.  In fact, much has been said about changing this skin tones of so many of these characters, but no other reason to add some diversity to the group, even when that would mean changing so many things across the whole comic history.  What's more, the current line-up for the series does not show any of the newer characters that were of minority status.  Many of these were fairly popular, and no one can see why they weren't included instead of changing so may traditional characters for no other reason because they could.  As of now, before seeing anything more than the preview artwork, I will keep an open mind.  I have been a fan of the Legion for many years.  This will make the sixth or seventh (possibly eighth depending on how you would define it) retcon of the Legion.  Each one has had things fans have liked, as well as elements that were disliked.  So far, this time's changes are becoming a little more controversial, if only because of the interaction social media allows for fans.  However, I feel that this could lead to more problems in the long run, rather than anything positive that could have came through.  Bendis has a reputation for such radical departures from previous iterations of ideas.  Sometimes, they work. This time, I am afraid of what is going to happen.  While I have enjoyed his current work for DC (I haven't read Marvel, ever really), this time he might have gone too far.  Only "time" will tell.

Where Have All the Stores Gone

I took off this past weekend for a shopping trip.  I usually don't do such a trip in August anymore.  I prefer September when the best selection of Halloween products are out.This year, however, I went early so I could visit the last nearby Sears before it closed for good.  Unfortunately, I didn't get anything there.  Over the decades, (yes, I had been going to that location since the early 1980's once a year, but I didn't start going more than that until the mid-90s) I had bought many things from there.  Not every time, but fairly regularly.  In fact, I got some things there just my last visit this past winter. This one-last time though, I found nothing.  I was looking for fairly specific items, that I thought they would have, but they either were out or they never had them.  Strangely enough, some sections were already empty, even though the clearance sales weren't supposed to have started until that Saturday.  I have the suspicion that instead of being sold out, the items were removed because the manufacturer didn't want their products to be so highly discounted.  How else to explain that the entire men's section of Levi's were gone, save one shirt on a model?  I really didn't need another new pair of jeans, but it never hurts to look.  While there might have been something I could've have bought, I didn't really see anything that I wanted.  One of the worst parts were finding the Reeboks that I needed, only to find the section all but cleared and out of my size in the few varieties left.  That wasn't all.  Many other stores in the same mall were closing or had already left.  I am starting to worry about it.  Unless a new anchor is found, one whole end of the mall could die.  With even more closings expected, I'm not sure if the mall could last.  That mall was the first one I went to that I had clear memories of and that I actually wanted to go to.  I have dim memories of going to one or two others when I was much younger, but I didn't realize how special they were at that time.  Visiting there allowed me access to things I never got to explore around home.  Even after the selection around home grew, I was still able to find a few treasures there that I couldn't find anywhere else.  Sure, there were time where I went there and didn't buy a single thing at any of the stores.  Not a one.  But, that wasn't too often.  A few times I thought of not going so often, but I never did change my frequency.  Now, I worry.  I still go to another mall or two at other times of the year, but this weekend really hurt.  Especially with what is going on with my own store and how much longer I can keep it going.  The thing is, I have don't almost everything, but nothing is working.  I have even tried asking others for help, but few ideas are coming in.  It's almost like no one cares anymore.  Shopping out used to be the only reason I went anywhere, and now that thrill is fading away along with the reasons why.

School's out for Autumn, Well Not in Anyway

It might seem like a mistake, especially after all the fuss I made about getting in, but I decided not to take any graduate school classes this semester.  I know, it feels wrong on some level. Yet I have my reasons.  First, I don't really have any classes that I want to take.  Morehead is offering five classes this fall.  One of them I have already taken, albeit under a different subtitle.  Two others are well outside my focus, namely classes on proposal writing (which I actually dropped last year after a week as it was not currently pertinent to me) and the psychology of language.  I'm sorry, but I want to write fiction, not boring proposals or studies on the mind.  The two final classes are on literary criticism, African-American literature and the British novel.  The former is not that interesting sounding to me ant the latter is too similar to the Modern British lit class I took last year, down to having one of the same books on threading list.  While I could take the last class, just taking one just doesn't seem prudent.  Second, I need to focus on my main goal, getting into the University of Kentucky.  When, not if, I transfer, I will only be allowed to have nine credit hours count towards my degree.  I have already exceeded that number.  Any more classes I take, the hours will be wasted, unless I somehow get a degree at Morehead, at which time, the classes would no longer be transferable.  I feel it would be better to stop taking classes at this time.  While I might take a course in the spring, just to keep my eligibility up and hedge my bets on not getting in immediately, I just don't see the worth in doing any work at this time.  Finally, I am having major difficulties in my personal and professional life.  My store might close at the end of the month unless some drastic measures are taken.  With so many problems in my life, the financial responsibilities of going back to school right now will be just too much for me.  I don't even know why I am even writing this down.  No one but me will ever see this. Sure, it is posted so anyone can find it, but no one ever comments.  No one ever offers the advice I am craving.  These posts are just out there, alone, just like me.  I mention my problems, my takes on issues, but it is like no one cares.  I DON'T KNOW WHY I SHOULD EVEN BE DOING THIS!  It is a waste of time, of my already wasted life.   I don't deserve this.  I don't deserve to write.  I don't want to , I don't know what I am doing.  If just once some one would just let me know what's going on, what I should do.  Maybe.  I can't think anymore.  Next time.

I've Got to Get Disconnected

When I first tried to get online this morning, I faced a huge problem.  While my computer was getting a wi-fi signal, I had no internet access.  Everything was taking forever, if at all, which it wasn't.  After calling my internet provider, the problem was easily diagnosed.  It turned out that the router had a battery that died, even though one shouldn't have been provided in the first place.  All that was needed was to remove the battery and have the router reset itself, and service would return.  The battery probably died after the two five-plus hour power failures over the past few weeks.  Although, I am pretty sure I checked for service, and there wasn't any.  Anyway, I barely had five minutes to check on things before I had to start something else.  I then had a few more minutes just before I had to leave for my store.  After getting the store open, I was ready to get online and write today's post.  Just as I was getting ready to start, the power went off in the shopping center.  The wi-fi, already very tenuous at the store, went out as well for about twenty minutes.  By the time the they both came back on, my window for writing this post had passed.  I had to wait until fairly late, for me, to write this.  My main problem with all of this is simple.  I had messaged someone last night an urgent question about something connected to my plans for graduate school.  They hadn't gotten back to me when I had checked this morning.  In fact, at the time of writing this, they still hadn't contacted me.  This is happening a lot to me, and I am not sure what to make of it.  I don't know if I am not sending the message correctly, or they aren't receiving it properly, or whatever.  I really need some help here.  My future plans for grad school are up in the air, and I need answers quickly.  In a few weeks, my store could very well be closed, and I will be unemployed.  I have no idea what I could do to prevent my store's closing.  I have been asking for help, but nothing seems to be working.  It's like no one is paying attention to me.  I ask for help, but no one seems to realize exactly what I'm asking for.  I need feedback, but nothing ever comes.  Few comments, even when I plead for them.  Why does it seem that no one can help, that no one is willing to help?  The entire day just seems to be a little off, in everything I do.  I feel so disconnected from the world, from my work, from myself.  One bad piece of luck, magnifying itself throughout the day, causing a cascade of mistakes and delays.   So, I am going to cut this post short this week.  I don't really have the opportunity or the time to write much more, so I'll see you next week.