bookish dreamer

I don't know if any of you are into alternative modes of transportation that have arisen in the last couple of years, but if you live in LA like me, they pretty much have transformed the landscape. ( It used to be if I wanted to use a cab )

( So yay for Uber and Lyft! )

( So yay for Uber and Lyft!? )

I wrote all that so I could get to this.

Here's a horror story of someone who, because she refuses to accept technology, got completely shafted. Here's a horror story that I don't quite know the moral lesson to.

My ex-housemate from Japan (remember her? I'll try to tag this post appropriately if you don't) is someone who eschews mobile technologies. She's very frugal so I think she doesn't have a smart phone so that she can save money. She also pretty much refuses to text people. It's been a source of irritation for others of our friends just because that is an easy way to communicate that's pretty ubiquitous. I haven't talked to her about it, but I'm pretty sure she doesn't have a texting plan.

So she went to a conference on the east coast a couple of weeks ago, and she had to get a ride back to the airport. Apparently the public transit system was on the fritz due to a storm. The taxi line was really long. An Uber guy pulled up alongside the taxi stand and she decided to take it.

However, because she doesn't have the app on her phone, she gave her credit card to the driver, who said he could input her card into his phone - it would charge her for the amount they drove.

What was supposed to be a $50 charge (long drive to the airport) turned into a $300 charge.

That's right - $300.

And because she gave her card to the driver, she didn't even get a receipt for the transaction (all of these apps email you receipts in-app). Her bank won't let her fight it, because she can't show a receipt. She's probably going to be out $300 because she didn't use the service in the way it was intended. And because she took a risk going with a driver who then bilked her out of money (oh, and the charge to her card is UberBlack - their limo service... so she may have gotten ripped off because that WAS the charge for the service, not the $50 the driver told her).

Crazypants huh? I think so too.

(hey, you try having a good day when yours starts out with the child in the house next to you screaming at the top of their lungs for half an hour first thing in the morning)

I have read two fics in the last two days in the TeenWolf Fandom clearly written by British-English speakers and each time they use phrases that are simply NOT IN California dialect AT ALL when writing a fic from Stiles' perspective. It drives me crazy.

I want to write them a note -- the word "whilst" is NOT in the California speaking vocabulary. The idioms "sitting down to tea" (or variations thereof) are not part of California teen-speech. The tough part is that it's not simply single words, it's phrasing, sentence structure, and tone. (and whoever said you can't understand tone on the internet was wrong. Sure, tone can be misconstrued, but we've been writing tone into our sentences since we first put sentences together into books -- it's there in fiction writing and it's there on the internet and it will be there whenever we write words down).

And sure, I haven't been a CA teen for a while, but trust me, I know what they sound like.

for example, this sentence:

That point is by-the-by.

great sentence. don't get me wrong. but NOT A SENTENCE STILES WOULD EVER EVER THINK. because Stiles? Does not know how to properly use by-the-by. It is not part of his lexicon. And there is a specific California dialect. I promise. I've lived in it.

These authors clearly put time into their work, which is why i'm ranting here, not at them. at the same time, why not ask someone to help with these things, if you're putting that much time into it? Maybe they don't know? Since they got a lot of other slang right, maybe they know and don't care? I tried once to talk to someone about how their Xander didn't just sound a bit British, he sounded like he was just about ready to grab his torch to head out to the shops for a bag of chips (and Bob's your uncle!) and they told me since they had someone in New York telling them their fic was fine, my opinion and objections weren't something they had time to listen to. Which is sad since NY vernacular doesn't sound like CA at all. I had to stop reading their fic, because i'd get kicked out of it every other paragraph. And the same thing is happening now.

/rant. sorry for cluttering up your day with this, but omg. it's been one thing after another. had to get it out.

( ok, and while i'm ranting, another example of me being as petty as i want in my own journal - OMG HOUSEMATE!!! )

I spent a wonderful week at my Dad's, though it was a bit more of a marathon than a relaxing week (since apparently my idea of relaxing does not necessarily include getting up at 7:30 am to make an 8:30 am water aerobics class - but I did, every week day I was there!). I had a ton of fun, and for the first time in a while both my parents there were in really good spaces and so we had the kind of talks I've come to treasure deeply where we don't shy away from the scary stuff. These conversations are good, like lancing a boil or something, even though a little painful having to admit things hurt or things weren't fun, or whatever, still feeling better after working through it. Oh dear gods, sorry, hopefully that was slightly articulate. Anyway, I got to have those one on one conversations with both my dad and my stepmom at different times, but on the back porch of the house in the quiet when voices go a little meditative. My stepmom and I are pretty emotionally similar in a lot of ways, and really this time for me the best part was getting to tell her that I was worried when I went to visit earlier in the summer about her not being particularly happy, and that I was relieved that essential spark that so delights me about her was back (she's gone vegan and done some other things and she's feeling a thousand times better, and it shows with both her and my dad). And I never want to forget being out on that same porch in the evening having a much shorter (but no less meaningful) conversation with my father, who in his own way was telling me he's proud of me. He talked about how what I'm doing is something no one else in our family really has - the getting of the phd - and that mentioning of the difference is his way of pointing out that i'm doing something good in his eyes. Made me happy.

Also me and my stepmom managed to do our part for the failing american economy (or, as gray_ghost put it, 'they probably took pity on you since you don't have any money') and i was taking new clothes shopping, to get my hair cut, and my toes and nails done. I put on one of my new dresses the next day and my dad grunted (such is his way) that he liked this new one. When I asked how he knew it was new, he pointed out with a sardonic laugh that he'd seen all my other clothes so many times he could recognize what was in my closet and what had just been added to it.

So, after that, normally I'd drive back to LA and turn into a closeted pumpkin for a couple of days - reading old fanfic, watching some bad tv, and taking the dog on a walk, but not much else.

Instead, though, a friend of mine was in town doing some consulting work on a site and so she came to visit the same night I got back! We went to dinner that first night, then came back home and caught up with the first couple of episodes of True Blood. Friday she was back out at her work site, while I ran errands and got some of the tasks on my mental to do list finished; we saw Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter (which was its own brand of hilarious) that night. And then yesterday spent the day watching the first season of Spartacus while preparing for a party since some of my friends who were out of town when I ABD'd wanted to celebrate since they were back. Thus, well, Saturday night = party. Today we went to the Getty and wandered around the gardens and a couple of wings, and now, well, frankly, I'm pooped.

We were talking about going up to Griffith Park tonight to do the planetarium (because planetariums are awesome, hello!) but since she's taking a nap right now I may suggest postponing that until tomorrow night.

Oh gods, tomorrow. Tomorrow I start summer school and oh dear gods i really wish i didn't have to. but, i do, so today is my last day for having to moan about *having to go* (i make no promises about not moaning about things like the damn workload, because it's not going to be light). It's a rotten schedule since it takes about an hour to get across town, i'm going to be carpooling with co-student, and i have to talk to her at 7:45 am.

I. am. not. good. with. mornings.

Actually, the truth is I'm great with mornings as long as I don't have to talk to people until at least an hour after I wake up. If I can get up, get some coffee, go outside, check email, get in the car, listen to the radio on my way to school, then I am GREAT after all that. But most of the summer, since the time I naturally tend to wake up is about 9 am, I'm going to be forcing myself to wake, but I will inevitably snooze until the last minute, and I will then be jamming what should be an hour's worth of waking up into something like 20 minutes of time, and be carpooling with this woman so we can save money and have to *blerg* talk to her *blerg*. I would be displeased if I was doing this with anyone, frankly. Even my mom learned not to talk to me in the mornings during highschool (and the lesson still hasn't worn off 20 years later).

school. oh well.

Grumble grumble grumble grr grr grrr

Ok, so I forgot to take my Chinese herb zen pill today, and I don't know if it's that or lack of sleep or whatever but I am finding all kinds of things to grr at today.

First, I went ahead and upgraded to firefox 4.0 on the rec of gray_ghost and lost all of the extensions that I find actually useful on firefox (which, admittedly, is only two, because I don't actually use firefox much anymore) AND it turns out firefox is pretty much imitating chrome but doesn't look as pretty. NOT what I consider an upgrade. I will uninstall and reinstall the older version when I get done snarling.

That also means, though, that I don't get to use the lj update client I actually like to use to update. GRR.

Second (or third, take your pick) ( is that I actually did bite the head off of co-student today because her repressive silence in class did bug me )

/ rant. So yeah, didn't say all that out loud. And I had been more charitable about this stuff in earlier weeks, but I snapped today.