Now...is it me, or...is this the sort of thing you're not allowed to take on an aeroplane these days?
I just don't get the message behind this one. The terrorists have boxcutters; get a nice, patriotic boxcutter to defend yourself with.
I'm surrounded by idiots.
On which note, there's a bit more news on all this now.
We're moving. We're moving on the sixteenth. Which somehow means that nothing has to be fixed before then, and I have to pay rent on this dismal place for the two weeks that I'm still in it this month. The other half of rent, of course, applies to the new place, which I haven't even seen yet. I'm assuming, for the moment, that the new place is perfect. Because, if it's not, I'm done playing games here.
The rules are simple. I pay rent to live somewhere. I can fully expect everything promised along with the place to work just fine. For example: the basketball courts--while I don't really bother with basketball much personally--consist of large concrete rectangles with basketball poles on each end. No basketball backboards or basketball hoops; but we have poles we could throw basketballs at and score according to whether we hit them, I suppose. Those, I must assume will be fixed instantly if these morons want me paying rent.
Same for the parking situation. I'm not paying rent on a place, which includes a parking spot, if a bunch of illiterate morons are going to park in my spot. This is not negotiable.
The problem here--ironically--is the new company. This place was run by idiots who allowed it to get this bad, and was then bought out by a new company two days after I'd moved in. The new company is actually interested in fixing these things; unfortunately, the new company is also interested in charging me for what they haven't fixed yet.
The management on site are cool enough: they find the whole thing as perplexing and stoopid as I do. But they can't control whether Corporate are going to expect rent from me for fulfilling half the lease.
So the situation is simple: the local manager is cool; the corporation running this place from afar suck. Which makes the corporation my enemy. Which means I'll be causing them a little more financial damage by exposing them than I would by not paying for what I'm not getting here.
More on that once I have all the necessary details to write a full report.
In other upsetting news: the DVRom on my laptop is clearly not coming back from the dead on its own. I blanked the whole machine and reinstalled the OS, and it still doesn't read DVDs. Which means I get to take it in to CircuitCity to have it fixed.
Of course, I bought it at CircuitCity because I got the last one at SoundTrack, who refused to fix the last one [they did, however, steal it for four months without bothering to fix it, and, after giving it back, unfixed, refused to fix it further because, by having it fixed the first time, I'd voided the warranty] and I didn't see a need to play that game again.
So I had the basic options of CircuitCity or CompUSA or BestBuy. The guy at CircuitCity talked me into buying this there because they, unlike CompUSA and BestBuy, keep receipts in file; you don't have to have one to bring the computer in to be repaired.
I still have the receipt here, incidentally.
The other thing was that, like BestBuy and CompUSA, I could just bring the laptop in and have it fixed or replaced instantly. I like that. I don't want to have to wait for the thing to get fixed in some other state to have a computer.
I went into CircuitCity the other night. Apparently, in order to have this thing so much as looked at, I have to call 800-555-4615 and troubleshoot it, prove over the phone that it's troubleshot to hell, and ask for a box to be mailed to me so I can put the laptop in the box and mail it to Dallas to be troubleshot and/or fixed or replaced. Which is precisely what I wanted to avoid.
Still, it appears to be the only option now. Unless you count the alternative they suggested: buy a CD Cleaning Kit from them and see if it--unlike the one I have at home--fixes the problem for me.
So I'm going back to CircuitCity tomorrow with the laptop and giving it to them to mail to Dallas. Once [if] I get it back, I'll have a News of the Stoopid about the whole thing.
The NotS regarding the corporation failing to adhere to the terms of my lease will probably follow within a few minutes.
People really need to learn: never fuck with a novelist....
So that's the news, if you can call it that: I'm still surrounded by idiots.
More later....
--Gremlin