Netflix is Putting Me in the Poor House

Yesterday I got an e-mail from Netflix telling me that on my September billing cycle the cost of my current plan (1 disc at-a-time plus unlimited streaming) would be raising from $9.99/month to $15.99/month as they are splitting the streaming and disc rentals into two separate services and this new price would reflect that. Me, I shrugged and figured I would figure out whether it is worth it to me or not later.

See, the kids alone watch an enormous amount of streaming content on Netflix. Enormous. I so very much get my money's worth on that and will likely never have to buy a kids' dvd again so long as I have streaming content available (granted, I am so tired of them watching certain kids' shows but I digress). As for myself, I've found myself less and less interested in the movies flying in via disc (I used to be on a much larger plan and so my queue shrank significantly this year). I have maybe 30 films in it right now and with the 1 at-a-time plan I see an average of 9-10 disc movies per month while I might add a total of 3 or 4.

I understand we hate changes in the status quo, I really do. And I understand that masses of people were up in arms yesterday when they received this price hike announcement. For me, I continue to shrug. Maybe I also shake my head a little. Don't we have anything more important or significant to be irate about? If I rented 9 movies a month at a rental store it would cost me at least $20. That's 125% Netflix's new price point with ZERO streaming titles included.

I think we should find something new to shake our fist at.

Shite

On the way to pick Rael up from school today I got pulled over by a California Highway Patrol officer. He said I was pulled over because I wasn't wearing a seat belt (how he would even know that is beyond me. X-Ray vision?). When I showed him that I was, in fact, wearing my seat belt he reached into the car, loosened Tasmia's car seat's belt and cited me for that. That ticket is an $800 ticket. Yes, I know what he did was wholly illegal, but even if I fight it in court it will be his word against mine, which typically doesn't go well for the non-officer in those situations. I can't even pay my water bill on time anymore, how the fuck am I going to do this?

Start Rant

Today's plan:
8: drop kids at school
8:15: deliver Tassy, and Denise's ridiculous log book, to Denise
9: go to bank and open up account for currently accessible portion of Lash's settlement
?:??-2: take a nap and catch up on all the sleep I've missed this month.
4: go to work.

Step four is currently off because step three has been derailed by Denise's continued refusal to be cooperative. Knowing she's needed to show up and sign a signature card for Lash's account, she is nowhere to be found and refuses to answer phone calls from me (nothing new there), the bank and even her work. So now I'm home in wait mode to hear from the bank as to whether they ever get a hold of her.

End rant.

The Ice Storm

It's that time of year where we get frost settling on everything during the wee hours of the night. I both love and loathe it. I mean, I am in California, where it's sunny 360 days a year and all I have to do with myself is surf all day and be blonde and tanned. So this frost thing, it's like a novelty (and snow? Don't know it.); I enjoy skidding around on it walking through my parking lot. The loathing comes in when it also means I have to take extra precautions driving to stay safe, scrape ice off windshields, battle the feeling of being cold, etc. Ah, the trials and tribulations of it all.

I actually really dig the cold.

Day three of Operation Optimism and things go well. The usual douche bags that would get my ire at work haven't been (I mean, they do get my ire, but only in the moment, no longer lingering) and other work situations that would have me loathing the rest of my day just don't.

I was able to squeeze a little blood from the financial stone and throw a few presents Denise's way as well. This pleases me. Other things, some of which I'd been stressing over, have left me feeling more positive the past couple days: legal stuff, the phone battle of 2008, etc.

I dropped by the comic store yesterday and picked up my two-month backlog of comics: all six issues. It pleases me that I've been able to hold to my conviction to stop reading crappy books for more than a year now. No more holding on to X-Men for a decade just so I can say I have all the issues. Three comics a month (one of them entirely for the kids too) and the occasional TPB is all that gets my money. Which today made me realize I'd discovered why I'd been able to swing a bit more money towards other forms of entertainment (movies, video games, etc.) this year. And I have zero regrets for it.

Anyhow, time to cut this short; Denise is home and we need to sort presents for wrapping and start setting up the house for decorating.

Down About It

My past 24 hours (well, closer to 30):
Monday afternoon: get paid. Have meticulous figured budget in head.
Monday evening: get tattoo of Tasmia's astrological sign (Scorpio) to go with others.
Monday night: holiday shopping for Denise.
Tuesday morning: discover that despite budgetting accuracy in-head, ledger is off due to a couple debits that weren't entered when they were deducted...start fretting heavily. Heavily. Borrow a little money & return about 1/2 of Denise's gifts for refunds to cover discrepancy.
All day log: remain frustrated and feeling crappy.

How's your day been?

Good

I am so bored right this minute. It will surely pass: I have a book, disk of comics, dvd and a film on laptop all vying for my attention. Just a bit worn out from grocery shopping followed by play-with-my-kids.

So far, while I canceled the cable on Friday and turned in all the equipment, they haven't physically turned it off yet which is nice for Rael because he gets to enjoy his morning cartoons a little longer.

Speaking of morning, I just realized I've forgotten to take my daily meds. Brb.

Denise reports that she woke up from a nightmare the other morning and I was laughing in my sleep. How dare my subconscious be happy without me? I feel like it's being unfaithful.

Having reduced myself to nearly nothing comic book-wise, I'm now selling portions of my original art collection (minus the beautiful Legion page Adj got me and will have to be pried from my cold dead fingers) and a few other goodies to gear up for a bit of bill assistance and the big July HeroClix tourney schedule.

Asshattery: our Sunday edition of Brian's Deadlands game was disturbed, and ruined, by the untimely arrival of his ex-roommate (who is still technically his roommate 'til the first, even though he's already completely moved his stuff and owes them lots of money) with a crowd of his peeps to throw a drunken party in his now empty bedroom. Normally, I'd say the guy's an ass but he's still paying for the room so whatever, but since he left without paying his bills, whatever Brian and his remaining roommate ended up doing to him, I'm certain he deserved. At any rate, it drastically shortened our Sunday night nerdgaming.

Yesterday was Rael's second birthday. We did cupcakes and presents (more to show the other kids that Rael is equally important to us; Rael still isn't really of an age where he gets anything out of having a party)., as the pics in my last post attest.


And while Claire Danes' pretty bum isn't the only reason I love Shopgirl, it definitely ranks in the top five reasons. Revisiting this film shortly after coming down with a terrible bout of heat stroke at HeroClix is about all I did with my Saturday this week.

Sing My Best

Yesterday was kind of a bad day.

It started off with me in a bad mood, followed into an argument with Denise, continued into more of a bad mood, entered into a lackluster evening and ended with another argument with Denise.

The next one of my kids to drop a "tomorrow I need blank for school" bomb on me at bedtime again is going to be grounded the entire summer.

So, American Idol was pretty boring last night. A lot pretty boring. And Veronica Mars ended. It was such an unsatisfying ending too, with literally everything still left in the air, in the unknown. At the same time, it was somewhat fitting to end that way: the underdog vs. the world with no clue as to what the future holds. I miss it already.

Lost ends its season tonight. I'm praying for Charlie, as he and Hurley are the best things about the show, character-wise. But as my hopes consistently die on tv, I'll miss you Charlie.

Friday I'm disconnecting the cable and being done with it all entirely. There's so much more I should probably also be done with.

I'm thinking, a lot, of beginning to write my memoirs. Thoughts? It's not as if my impending MA in English is going to be good for anything.

I did however get an email this morning that made me very happy. But due to non disclosure agreements I can't share any of it with you. Sorry.