OUR COMPLAINT HAS BEEN ACCEPTED

Thank you for filing your complaint with the National Do Not Call Registry.

Do not call complaints will be entered into a secure online database available to civil and criminal law enforcement agencies. While the FTC does not resolve individual consumer problems, your complaint will help the agency investigate the company, and could lead to law enforcement action.

(Yes, they are calling again.)

Hey, take a look at what's gone down lately in my hood.

From The Seattle Times: Feared Seattle property manager is arrested; dozens of guns seized

". . .They say that since the early 1990s, Gilbert, a convicted felon and outspoken member of the Aryan Nations who once spent time in prison for plotting to kill Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., had intimidated, threatened and sued neighbors so often that his presence became "a total cancer. . ."

I guess I should consider myself lucky that our landlord is not an arms-bearing, convicted felon who threatens and intimidates us day in and day out.

The word of the day today is 'pseudocyesis'.

Ooh, I just realized - no call from Cingular today!

Maybe they fixed the problem. Or maybe they don't do automated calls on Fridays.

Adults don't often have it all figured out.

Rarely, even.

I am just now starting to break this myth that has colored my childhood and all of my adult life so far; that adults are grounded, all-knowing, and always certain, and so will we be too, when we are grown up.

Except now that I'm looking more closely, paying more attention, I see more adults who struggle for clarity, for direction, for meaning. My peers. My co-workers. My elder family. Dancers, professors, computer programmers, journalists. Americans, Europeans, Middle-Easterners. Their lives are so much more complex than I would have ever thought.

I'm always amazed at the people who find my blog. Like the time, down in Eugene, when I thought I was meeting this couple for the first time, except that as we were introduced, they said, "Oh, you're the girl with the web journal." Or when I got in trouble with my employer for work-related content; good times, those. This forum is not as anonymous as it can get to feeling sometimes.

I'm still getting Cingular's daily pre-recorded auto-messages.

As noted below, I took additional steps today and filed a formal complaint with the FCC. I got the idea from the FCC Consumer Facts page on Unwanted Telephone Marketing Calls; a lovely little reference. (This may be the first time I have really appreciated the existance of the FCC - I take issue with the FCC for a number of things, such as the commercialization of radio.)

Filing for: Kathryn A Krueger has been received by the FCC

Thanks for your information.
When inquiring about your complaint, be sure to reference the following confirmation number:

FORM475: 10253235

Additionally, be sure to mention that you filed this complaint over the internet.
Finally, the carrier will have 30-45 days to respond to this complaint.

Thank You!

In Direct Contrast

Traffic today on I-5 was pretty bad.

Turns out someone jumped off the ship-canal bridge. I heard this on the radio just as I was driving past the exact spot. They had shut down the right-most lane, and a number of troopers were on the spot, investigating.

According to the radio, the person jumping hadn't landed in the water, but on pavement. So things were shut down below the bridge, as well, and even more investigators down there, and troopers cleaning up.

It all seemed so close, hearing this as I was driving past the exact spot. Too close.

I cried.

It seems so wrong, living in a world where people can feel destitute enough to end their life in such a way.

Now I feel mostly numb. For a while I was connecting with it on a personal level; now I'm back into "normal"-mode, where I might read about something like this in the paper, nod, and think to myself, "it's sad," but not necessarily feel sad. Not that I'm happy. Just numb.

I was inexplicably happy all of yesterday, and drew this picture as a
means of expressing my joyous mood:





This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

I JUST ROLLED AN 'R' FOR THE FIRST TIME, EVER, IN MY LIFE.

What a momentous experience!

I was in my car, listening to tango music -- more specifically, to Canaro's "No Hay Tierra Como la Mia". And I was trying to mimic and sing the words, with more (or less) success.

I was thinking about the rolling of 'r's... "If babies can learn to do it, and everyone in the Spanish-speaking world can do it, then physically, I must be able to do it too," I thought to myself.

So I was making noise after noise.

Most were far too gutteral. (I've never had a problem making more gutteral German-ish sort of noises.)

I experimented with closing my teeth, opening my teeth, using the back of my tongue, the front, using more or less lip...

...and then...

...suddenly...

...I was doing it! Rolling my 'r's! I was an 'r'-rolling demon!

It was so exciting. I had to call and tell half my friends, roll my 'r's for them, gush and gush.

And I still am! An 'r'-rolling demon, that is. I think it's like learning to ride a bike. Once you do it, it's always with you.

So r-r-r-really, life will never-r-r be the same again.

Update:

I called someone at a local Cingular store, and he said he couldn't help me. He advised me to call the automated lines again and just randomly enter a long series of numbers, which he thought would eventually hook me through to an actual customer service representative. I tried this, and was eventually put through to a real person.

She thought that perhaps Cingular might have my number incorrectly listed on someone else's account as a home number, but they are not able to look up accounts based on home numbers so she was unable to help me resolve the issue in any way.

I asked if there was an IT department it could be escallated to, or anyone who could help me, and she said the best she could do would be to write up a ticket for my problem. She did so at my request. We'll see what/if I hear back from them.

In the meanwhile, to temporarily soothe my rage at my helplessness in this situation, I've filed a complaint with The Better Business Bureau. I've also attempted to file a complaint with the Do Not Call registry, with whom I listed my cellphone several months ago, but keep getting a message indicating that the site is down.

I keep getting a pre-recorded message from Cingular & AT&T on my cellphone asking me to "call customer service" about my number.

Problem is -- I am not WITH Cingular or AT&T. I use Sprint.

Getting this message -- either listening to it real time, or listening to the message -- eats up my cellphone minutes.

When I've talked to Sprint, they've been unable to help me -- they are not Cingular. They throw me around from this person to that person, but nobody is actually able to help me. They say the best they could do would be to change my wireless number. I think that's a stupid / cruddy solution.

When I attempt to speak TO Cingular, I can't get through to anybody, as I do not actually have a Cingular number to speak to them about. The people at the local Cingular Stores tell me that the best they can suggest is to talk to Customer Service, only I can't, because it's all automated and doesn't actually let you through to talk to anyone unless you have a Cingular/AT&T number to enter.

Any ideas on what I can do to stop this? It's really annoying, and I'm frustrated / annoyed / pissed off that I can't get it to stop.

I've already spent 30 minutes of my time sitting around talking to Sprint Customer Service people or sitting on automated lines trying to get ahold of real Cingular people. Not to mention the cellphone minutes I'm getting charged for each and every time they call me with that @#$@#% automated message. Not cool.

See my new toy?



Half a gig! The size of a pocket knife! Will wonders never cease to amaze?

I'm on hold with the Internal Revenue Service. How exciting! I've never spoken to the IRS before. Trying to figure out if cost basis of ESPP shares should be calculated using Purchase Price or Purchase FMV.

Other than this one last question, I am done filing my taxes. Done done done! And it is only February the 4th.

My mother always advised to "do" one's taxes as early as possible, and then to actually file earlier or later based on whether one owed to the IRS or was owed by the IRS. She didn't want the IRS collecting interest on her money any longer than they had to. Since I am owed this year, the advice sits well with me.

So I've been a student enrolled "at least half-time" since last September. This means I qualify for a credit on my tax return.

Here's what I don't understand -

I'm filing my return in TurboTax, which calculates your expected rebate (or payment) real-time as you go. The student tuition payments were one of the last things I entered, and when I entered them...my expected rebate was cut in half. That's right, the IRS will give me back less of my tax money due to my tuition "credit".

What's up with that?

Really, I'd be okay without credits like that.

On Drinking and Test Taking

This probably wouldn't help me any, eh?

I mean, unless I drink while I study. The way the nervous system works, the mind is more easily able to recall information in an environment similar to that in which it learned the information, so it's to your advantage to recreate your study environment as best you can when taking tests. That way your system will more easily access the information you want.

...so if I drink this weekend while I'm studying...

...and then drink next Wednesday right before the big Anatomy & Physiology exam...

...I'll actually be doing myself a favor, right?

Right.

On Test Taking

I am not looking forward to upcoming tests. I bet they would be easier if I had spent more time these last several months working on paying attention.

On Paying Attention

I suck at paying attention.

On Drinking

"Not only red wine but also white wine, beer and hard liquor
appear to protect against mental decline in older women, two new
studies have found," or so says the New York Times. Interesting.