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Con Season!

We made it through FWA (Furry Weekend Atlanta) and we’ve got MomoCon next week. I hope we both get over this head cold completely this week.

FWA was SO much fun! It is a very queer friendly con, with tons of representation across the board for all LGBTQIA+ folx. We weren’t expecting that! You do NOT need to be a furry with a suit or any of that to have a great time at this con. They are so nice and so accepting of EVERYONE! I squeed all weekend! The nose boops, pets and scritches given to various fursonas was amazingly fun. We HIGHLY RECOMMEND this convention!

Having a room to escape to also made a HUGE difference for us. Despite Marriott’s bullshit (WOW they really need to get their shit together!! They truly SUCKED.), the room was helpful AF. I wouldn’t be happy if I paid for it, but I didn’t, so whatever.

I look forward to Momo as well, it’s always fun to do that con, despite the very long hours and no room to escape to.

Once Momo is over, then we’ll switch gears to house stuff until Southern Fried Gaming Expo in July, where we hope to sell off a ton of games parts as well as vintage Mac stuff. The Vintage Mac yardsale is now in conjunction with SFGE, so it’s two birds w/ one stone. The overall goal is to be rid of the storage space this summer. That will save us $125/mo.

We hope to see everyone at Momo and/or SFGE!

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Inspiration comes from many places…

and this post is inspired by Wil Wheaton’s book Still Just A Geek, which I just started.

This book is a annotated and updated version of his first book Just A Geek, written in the early aughts – about 20 years ago.

He has three intros to this book: the original, one by Neil Gaiman (for the original) and one for this version of the book. In the third one, he goes on quite extensively about what I different person he is now and how his original words (from his blog and the book) are NOT representative of him now, and he’s horrified and embarrassed by them now.

Well, I want to make a post about this blog and its longevity, and how I, too, have grown as a person and don’t think like I did in 1999. I do not feel the need to vomit apologies and regret (sorry, Wil), but I will say that if you deep dive into this blog, you’ll probably come across some questionable content of various stripes. I’m OK with that.

I will say this: 1999 was a long time ago. I was prone to calling out bullshit here, regardless of who it might involve. I also wrote about many opinions I had at the time that I no longer have. It was a badge of honour to be called out on my blog! LOL

ALSO: I will not apologize for holding various people and/or companies accountable for their actions. There’s a difference between blaming and holding accountable. For instance, that major asshole Realtor™ who fucked us over on the pub lease. That guy refused to look at the lease AT ALL, did not come to the closing and whined about how mean we were to him afterwards. That guy is a fucking rich (working for father in law’s company) fucking asshole who’s had $$ and privilege handed to him. He saw no fault for not doing a goddam thing he was supposed to do as our Realtor™. I still despise him to this day and will spit in his face if I ever run into him. We take 100% of the blame for the pub debacle, but there were definitely people involved who did NOT do their jobs they were paid to do. I have no problem calling out jackasses when they need it. No regrets about that.

So if you are here, trolling or just looking for proof that I’m a terrible person, you just might find it. I can’t change who I’ve been or who I am. But I strive to be better all the time.

I am a human. I am a work in progress. Just like everyone else.

I think the beauty of having a longterm blog is seeing the changes and growth that people have. I am not ashamed – but I am also glad that I’ve grown up and gotten past much of the bigotry, biases and other bullshit. It’s what it means to be a person. Change is the only constant.

So, trollers or others who are just here looking for my bullshit: go for it. It’s probably here and I own it. I am a VERY VERY different person I was in 1999. I was 34 then and 56 now! That’s a LOT of growth. And that is why I leave everything up on this blog – that is now way past drinking age. It’s the story of my personal growth and it’s MINE. Love it or don’t. :)

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Never Trust a Realtor™

I just had an altercation with a Realtor™ on FB. I’d posted about our experience being fucked over by the mortgage industry and ESPECIALLY fucking Realtors™ in both residential and commercial. (We all remember the asshole Realtor™ who went leaf peeping rather than help us with the pub lease. When called out for abandoning us, he got pissy and I told him to go fuck himself. RIGHTLY SO.)

This FB person then proceeds to post a list of all the nice things they have done as proof that THEY are not to blame for the real estate mess and neither are their Realtor™ friends. Because my hatred of the real estate and mortgage industry is CLEARLY a personal attack. ??

So your Realtor™ and mortgage industry friends aren’t to blame? ORLY?

Who made the crash happen in 08/09? Mortgage companies and the stock market.
Who happily sold every starter home (and other abandoned homes) for pennies on the dollar to corporate rental/investment groups? Realtors™.
Who happily BOUGHT a significant number of these defaulted properties to start their own little landlord fiefdom? Realtors™.
Who locked down the home lending so that only the very rich or the very desperate (read: poor) will go for the shit loans offered? The mortgage industry.
Who benefitted the most from the mass mortgage defaults and buying up properties for rental? THE SAME MOTHERFUCKERS LISTED ABOVE.

SO, tell me again why you and your ilk are NOT to blame for this bullshit? This is called monetization of basic housing and the US is being decimated by it. Here is a NYT article about trailer parks and manufactured housing!! Yes, trailer parks are ALSO being bought up and “monetized” by the rich! THIS IS REAL!!

They also insist that THEY can get loans for anyone! They got a loan for someone with a 560 credit score!! (Credit scores are another bit of bullshit that I’ll rant about another time.) Oh? How about someone with TWO bankruptcies? Hmm? Can you magically coerce a mortgage company to finance US? Answer: NO. NO, they cannot. Because they don’t have any idea about LOSING everything and being dumped into a low paying entry level job. They can’t do a fucking thing for us, but got totally in a knot when I challenged that belief.

I just love how well off people will get defensive when called on their bullshit. This person shills real estate and who knows what their spouse does, but I’ll betcha THEY have a fat retirement fund and NO WORRIES. (This is a guess, but by the overall demeanor of this person, I sense that they are doing just fine and don’t understand what all the fuss is about. I have no proof of their status, but they are reacting like typical well off folks – with defensiveness.) It’s awesome to be written off as “just an angry person” by someone with life set to EASY MODE. WE ARE SICK OF IT. If you think that it’s just US – you are DELUSIONAL. There are FAR MORE people just barely hanging on than there are with two homes and a fat IRA. I PROMISE.

If you really believe that the housing industry and the overall economy is fine, you need to educate yourself in a bad way.

We have gambled and lost. We gambled on the Maplehurst house: lost. We gambled BIG on the pub: lost. Now we are struggling to pay the bills with Nick’s shitty $19/hr job (with 25+ years experience!!).

Unless YOU have experienced this kind of LOSS at the age of 50+, then please do NOT lecture me about how great and fair the system is. IT IS NOT.

Especially now!! It is run by rich real estate companies and richer mortgage companies. And let’s not forget the private mortgage insurance companies, who are now making bank thanks to every single loan requiring PMI.

With our current bankruptcy due to the pub, we won’t “qualify” for a mortgage loan for another 8 years or so. I WILL BE IN MY 60s!!! Nevermind that we manage to pay $1600/mo RENT and have decent credit scores. Oh, that doesn’t matter, we are clearly assholes who can’t afford a mortgage that is significantly less than rent. OH NO. We are not good enough because we got FUCKED and continue to get fucked by the very people who hold all the cards. It wouldn’t matter if our credit scores were PERFECT! We would NOT “qualify” for a loan with a bankruptcy, period. How do I know? I HAVE TRIED IT ALREADY.

So, YEAH Realtor™ person. Yes, I guess we ARE angry. And TIRED. And sick of having no foreseeable future other than working shitty jobs and barely paying the bills. We are stuck in this untenable situation and just have to make it work.

I am NOT SORRY for feeling the way I feel. This is our reality. We have to deal with it every goddam day. I am also NOT SORRY for calling out delusional people who think all’s well. IT IS NOT.

Sorry for another bummer post. I’ll try to find something positive to write about, I promise! If people would just stop being so fucking idiotic and pissing me off… Well, if I wait for that, hell will be frozen, so I promise next post will be something good. Maybe some lovely food. How about that?

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Bummer, dude!

I hate to keep writing bummer posts, but dammit, it’s all I got these days. The tale of the washing machine is below the money whining if you want to skip to that cautionary tale.

The last few weeks have been pretty terrible. It’s like every expensive to fix item has decided to shit itself. These are the things that have broken and had to be repaired or replaced:
coffee maker: $60 new unit
Ranger: $1500 front end repairs and tires
stereo head unit: $110 new unit + preamp for turntable
washing machine: $400 (being disputed) and $980 for a new one
grandfather clock: no cost yet, but it has also stopped working; $150 for service call

So that is $2650 (plus the $400 disputed: $3050) run up on credit cards in less than a month. Can we pay this off? NOPE.

Nick’s shitty job keeps us at break even – perhaps a little under our normal bills. We are frugal motherfuckers, too. But with inflation, his $19/hr pay (that is taxed 30%, of course) is stretched as far as it will go. My p/t admin job is very p/t and I should be looking for another p/t job, but the problem is my restrictions. I will only work specific days, only one weekend day and I need off for various conventions. That is a hard sell to any employer who uses p/t people to fill in all the shitty shifts that f/t workers don’t want. I’ve toyed with trying for a prep job somewhere, but I feel that the effort will not yield results. Plus, my anxiety and depression has been gangbusters recently – for the above reasons.

This is no way to live, yet this is the American norm. Shitty jobs, low pay, taxed out the ass and work until we die. That is what’s left of the American Dream. Oh, but let’s divert attention from the real issues with political bullshit. Sure.

We added up all our game “assets” and even if we got top dollar for every one, let’s just say $40k to be very optimistic, it would not do a damn bit of good in the long run. That is not enough to buy a Minuteman franchise ($35k plus location and equipment, more like about $150k all in) and it is damn sure not enough to retire on, even with the rest of our investments. We’ve got less than $100k across our IRA and investments, even adding $40k to that is not nearly enough to retire on.

We will work until we die.

And there ain’t SHIT we can do about it. Neither of us is marketable: Nick is a prepress GOD – too bad prepress is now relegated to shitty print shop jobs; I do restaurant admin – too bad that independent restaurants can’t afford to pay an admin for anything. We are virtually unemployable – a fact that we’ve known for years and is why we were so desperate to have our own company. While I’m glad we did not end up in hospitality, that leaves us where we are: underemployed and drowning in debt. Like the rest of America. No insurance, $2k savings and the investment account that can be liquidated (unlike the IRA which involves penalties if you liquidate) is where we are. If we didn’t have the credit cards we have, we’d already be FUCKED. It takes a LOT of self control not to sell games or pull money from the investments, but we have vowed to not do that. Fuck the banks. We’ll just run up the credit like everyone else does. FUCK IT.

And I’d also like to tell you about the washer repair story. We evaluated the cost of a new machine vs repairs and decided to give Sears Home Services a go. That’s our first mistake. So I book them and some dude shows up to diagnose. He swears it’s the water pump. This part and labour is $414, about half of a new unit. So we [foolishly] go with repair. The part shows up and the following week I’m booked for the repair. So on the day of the repair, I’m booked 1-4pm. 4:30 rolls around, so I hit the chat to ask what’s up. Dude is hung up at the previous appt, he’ll be there. Fine. I wait. An hour later, without so much as a text, he rolls up. He is bitching about having to work late, blah, blah. I was not impressed with his attitude. I hand him the part and he looks at it like it’s an artifact. He looks into the machine (where the part is easily accessible) and then says, “It has two screws! I can’t get them loose with my fingers! What do I do?” I SHIT YOU NOT. At that point, I’m horrified and OVER IT. I said “well, how about getting a wrench to loosen them?” He looks at me blankly, then says “I don’t have the tools for that.” !!!!! WTF? Then he proceeds to call someone else to ask them how to loosen two screws and take off two pressure clamps on the hoses. Not looking good, Peggy Hill. Here is the part, installed:

In the meantime, I’m calling Sears to get this shit halted and get him out of here. Of course I get India or some shit and this guy can do absolutely nothing. I should’ve checked the part more carefully before going for their idiot techs! It was dead simple to replace. When I return, he’s got the top off the machine and is about to take the whole thing apart. I asked “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” and he mumbles something about having to get to the part, which, if you recall, is easily accessible from the back, nothing blocking it, SIMPLE. I tell him to stop what he’s doing and to pack up. So now he’s VERY pissed off and slams the top back on, but does not put any screws back or anything. I see him trotting down the driveway with the pump in the box that has my screws in it, so I yell at him to bring it back. He’s mumbling about having to take the part with him (that I’ve already paid for), so I grab the box, give a big shrug and close the door.

I go to look at the machine and he’s fucked up the plastic control panel, so now the top doesn’t sit flush. GREAT.


OH and he also flooded my laundry room when he took one of the hoses off. Stupid motherfucker.

Nick gets home, and swapping the part took less than 20 minutes. Sadly, it did not fix the machine, so we’ve paid Sears $414 for absolutely nothing other than a broken control panel and flooded laundry room. EXCELLENT.

Now I am in dispute with Sears over this bullshit. I initially was willing to pay for the part, but not the labour, but since the part didn’t work, they can have it back. I ONCE AGAIN call them for an RMA, and I get this story about how they must pick up the part in person, because REASONS. Then I ask for an appointment and they can’t do that. UM. If there’s no appointment, then how do they propose to pick up the part? No answer, just hemming and hawing. Welp, it’s logged that I called to return the part. I see no resolution with these assholes, so I will put in a credit card dispute. Then, for good measure, I will also file a BBB complaint.

UPDATE: I finally got an email that worked for parts return! They sent me an RMA and I’ll drop the part off at UPS next week. I did file a CC dispute, including the bill and the photos from this post. I’ve also filed a BBB Online complaint, but I’ve not heard back from them, so I’m not sure it’s being processed or not. In any case, I’m pretty hopeful that I’ll get the $414 back and be done with Sears for good. [I DID get the full refund from Sears, but it took some doing. In addition, they sent me a check for the part after they’d refunded my CC, and I am not sorry for that. I consider it pay for all the work I did to get my fucking money back. Assholes. -A 5.16.22]

Go ahead and fuck with me you fucking jerks. I do this shit for a LIVING. I WILL NOT ACQUIESCE. I will do everything in my power to get my money back, because I can’t afford ANY of this shit and it’s MY money. Sears does not deserve a cent. And that tech will likely be fired, which is fucking fine with me. He was a moron with a bad attitude.

So that’s how MY March has been. I am beyond tired. I am beyond over it. I am beyond giving a fuck about anything. The Universe has beaten the shit out of us. We cry UNCLE. Yep, it’s a bummer that has been going on for over 2 years now. Some days I just want to give up and sell every single thing we own and go live in a fucking yurt in the desert. Not so hot on Europe, what with WWIII right around the corner. This is a fucked up time to be middle aged and underemployed. There is not one good thing about it.

Sorry for the bummer, dude.

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The Unattainable American Dream

This subject covers LOTS of aspects of what has been fed to us Americans over the generations. We’ve all been told:

“Buy a house! It is the American Dream! It’s the key to a secure future!”

Well, I’m here to tell you that this is a LIE. A bald-faced, full of shit LIE.

We did that. We bought a house in 2004. The market was hot, it was great for buyers and sellers. So we did it. We got a zero down loan (unheard of now) and moved in. We quickly started FIXING all the shit that needed fixing and took out an equity loan as well. Realtors and mortgage weasels will NOT tell you all the shit you’ll have to pay for when you buy a house. Like PMI (Private Mortgage Insurance). We had PMI, but refinanced after a few years and got rid of it. You can’t do that any more – more on that later. Anyway, we bought our tiny little 912sqft house in the ‘hood and we were happy as pigs in shit. We paid too much, but it was still affordable for us, our mortgage payment was $700-800/mo. Even then, rent was almost twice that.

SO, we got our little house, fixed it up and we loved it mightily.

Then the 2009 real estate crash happened. Our little house lost more than 60% of its value. We asked Wells Fargo to help us out with it, of course they told us to go fuck ourselves. (They were VERY rude, not saying GFY precisely, but RUDE. Wells Fargo can go fuck themselves!)

We were drowning in debt, the house was 60% under water and we’d had enough. So we opted to bankrupt out of all of it. We did the bankruptcy in 2010-11. We were trying to decide what to do: stay in ATL, move away, ???. So we kept paying the mortgage every month. Wells Fargo did nothing. The bankruptcy was discharged, so we were legally off the hook, but since the mortgage was cheap, we just kept paying.

So 2014 rolls around, and we decide that Maplehurst is not going to work with our side hustle, which is arcade games. I find this place in Tucker and we move. Our landlord didn’t mind the bankruptcy since our credit had recovered. Just TRY renting w/out perfect credit now. There are so few individual rental home owners now, it’s difficult to even rent a place to live due to corporate ownership and credit checks.

I read this article about housing and that is the impetus for this post. We got fucked by the real estate crash and it’s worse now that it was then. There are no zero down loans. PMI is PERMANENT (cannot be refinanced or dropped when equity is reached). Housing prices are up 30% and you better have that fat down payment if you want to buy an overpriced house. FHA loans are terrible to get and worse to pay – their PMI is the highest and permanent, which adds tens of thousands of dollars to your loan over time. So you NEVER get equity and only banks make wealth. The whole point of real estate is WEALTH. Can’t have the hoi polloi amassing wealth, now can we? OH NO.

For years, banks and ultra-elites (bankrolled by years of money-printing, corporate socialism, and bailouts) have been using their wealth to take control of the world and rent it back to us.
Apple did it with music.
Netflix did it with movies.
Nestle did it with water.
Uber did it with cars.
Airbnb hosts and landlords did it with houses.
The lecherous gig economy did it with employment.

Instead of buying and owning products, now we’re all just renting “services.” – Jared A. Brock

This right here. THIS IS WHAT I RAIL AGAINST DAILY. I’d also like to add Adobe did it with software and Microsoft and others followed suit. You don’t even buy SOFTWARE anymore!! That is fucked up, people.

It all started with real estate and this rental economy has spread across our whole economy. This is very, very bad. We are being reduced to serfs who exist at the whim of our corporate overlords. We rely on the rich corporations for housing, entertainment, food, software, EVERYTHING.

Young people (Ys, Zs, Zoomers) don’t even realise what’s happened. They are growing up in a rental economy, so they know nothing else. It’s fine with them to rent software and everything they need to live. They will likely never know the difference. In many ways, I am jealous of their ignorance.

America is in trouble. We’ve allowed the rich and corporations to literally buy our government. We allow them to erode our ability to have wealth of any sort, to go to school, to get healthcare, to RETIRE. We will NEVER retire. We will work until we’re dead.

What also chaps my ass is people who fail and have zero consequences. They are usually RICH.

For instance, a restaurant near here has failed and the investment group closed it and went bust. But no worries, the main guy got another investment group together real quick and they’ll be refurbing the space and reopening a new concept in a couple of months. NO CONSEQUENCES.

Wow, where were these motherfuckers when WE were trying with literally everything we had to open our dream? Hmm? WHERE? Oh, we aren’t a part of that elite group of rich fucking restauranteurs, so FUCK US.

This scenario is going on everywhere in America, right now, in myriad ways. The rich are telling us to go fuck ourselves for wanting to rise above our rank.

I fear that it’s gone too far in the US to reverse. We may have to move elsewhere just to get healthcare as we age. As it stands, we are treading water. Our jobs pay the bills, but that’s it. We can’t afford to sock away cash in the investments or IRA, so it’s all stagnant. And with the market crash that is coming, we’ll lose more of that small wealth. We’ve already lost about 30% of our investments over the last year or so (2021). We’ll lose more before it’s done. I’m here to tell you that you cannot “retire” on $100k. You cannot.

I don’t know what we’ll do, but I can tell you that we’ve let go of “The American Dream” and pretty much any dream of being independent – as in, working for ourselves. We just don’t have the cash to do it. Meanwhile, the rich fail, lose a million $ and just keep going. IT IS MADDENING.

This is certainly not how I’d planned to live out my old age. Not at all. So think about this when you vote. Yes, the Democrats are pretty spineless and mealy mouthed, but it’s better than fascism. All we can hope for is stopping fascism and at least being able to stay here and not go through the extreme stress of moving overseas. But I just don’t know. And THAT is what eats at me every day.