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Title: Mental Holiday
Author: smb814
Rating: T
Warnings: Zelos being Zelos (i.e. mild language, adult themes, innuendo, etc.)
Category: Character Study, Friendship/Romance
Pairing: Zelos/Sheena (a.k.a. Sheelos - if you don't like it, don't read it)
Time Frame/Spoilers: Takes place after the first game, so spoilers for everything.
Summary: "I'm sorry. The Chosen One is currently taking a mental holiday. Please leave a message and he'll get back to you in the morning."
Disclaimer: Alas, Tales of Symphonia and all its lovely characters don't belong to me. They belong to Namco-Bandai Games. I'm just borrowing them and not making any money off them, and I promise I'll return them unharmed (and probably happier than they ever were before) when I'm done playing with them.
Author's Notes: *hangs head* And yet again I prove that no matter how hard I try and no matter what fandom I write in, I just can't write anything short. I'm so ashamed. But really, it's all Zelos's fault for being such a chatterbox and for having walls stronger than the vault at Fort Knox that I had to knock down before any of this would work. My first fic for Tales of Symphonia, so hopefully the characters are at least semi-recognizable. And Zelos, I owe you a giant cookie for being so fascinating that you've done the impossible by single-handedly resurrecting my long-dormant writing muse. This is my apology for ignoring and killing you during my first playthrough of the game simply because I'd been on a Kratos kick at the time. Trust me, it's never happening again. Not betaed, so any mistakes or typos you find are entirely my fault.
Feedback: Feedback is love and fodder for future fics.
History: General plotting began July 2008; finally completed December 2008
This story is also available as a single file on FF.net here.
( Mental Holiday (1/5) )
Author: smb814
Rating: T
Warnings: Zelos being Zelos (i.e. mild language, adult themes, innuendo, etc.)
Category: Character Study, Friendship/Romance
Pairing: Zelos/Sheena (a.k.a. Sheelos - if you don't like it, don't read it)
Time Frame/Spoilers: Takes place after the first game, so spoilers for everything.
Summary: "I'm sorry. The Chosen One is currently taking a mental holiday. Please leave a message and he'll get back to you in the morning."
Disclaimer: Alas, Tales of Symphonia and all its lovely characters don't belong to me. They belong to Namco-Bandai Games. I'm just borrowing them and not making any money off them, and I promise I'll return them unharmed (and probably happier than they ever were before) when I'm done playing with them.
Author's Notes: *hangs head* And yet again I prove that no matter how hard I try and no matter what fandom I write in, I just can't write anything short. I'm so ashamed. But really, it's all Zelos's fault for being such a chatterbox and for having walls stronger than the vault at Fort Knox that I had to knock down before any of this would work. My first fic for Tales of Symphonia, so hopefully the characters are at least semi-recognizable. And Zelos, I owe you a giant cookie for being so fascinating that you've done the impossible by single-handedly resurrecting my long-dormant writing muse. This is my apology for ignoring and killing you during my first playthrough of the game simply because I'd been on a Kratos kick at the time. Trust me, it's never happening again. Not betaed, so any mistakes or typos you find are entirely my fault.
Feedback: Feedback is love and fodder for future fics.
History: General plotting began July 2008; finally completed December 2008
This story is also available as a single file on FF.net here.
( Mental Holiday (1/5) )
Quick Update
Nov. 12th, 2008 02:51 pmWow! She lives! And actually remembers to update for once!
Since this is going to be quick -- lots of packing to do yet -- I'm going with the whole 'Numbered Points' format.
1. Family is heading to Florida tomorrow for our annual Disney World retreat. Yay! I'll be back the weekend before Thanksgiving.
2. OMG, I wrote fic! 'Tis not Stargate fic (Tales of Symphonia fic, rather), but it's still fic! Of course, per my unfortunate norm, it's ridiculously long, considering the small number of scenes in it, but still, my writing muse has returned! Zelos wins the award for being one of the most fascinating, complex characters I've ever seen and for being the one to lure my muse out of its long hibernation. And to think, my first playthrough of the game I couldn't stand him and chose the Kratos route instead (wherein poor Zelos faced a rather nasty fate), and next I know he's becoming one of my all-time favorite characters, I fall madly in love with the Zelos/Sheena pairing, and I'm writing long fic about him/them. Go figure. Anyway, fic is fully written and nearly complete, but I'm hoping to do one last revision of it while I'm in Florida before posting it anywhere, so if all goes well, that should be ready sometime shortly after I get back. I'm sure no one on my f-list cares about Tales of Symphonia fic or knows enough about the game to read it, but still...I'm writing again! :D
3. Let's see, I'm, like, six months behind with updates, so...oh, right. Chicago was a blast. *waves to the gang* Can't wait until next year to see you all again!
4. I've stopped watching "Heroes." I just...stopped caring about the characters during the break between Seasons 2 & 3, I guess. Same thing goes for "Brothers and Sisters." So that leaves me with "Chuck" (one of my favoritest shows ever...if you're not watching it, you should be!), "NCIS" (which I just keep loving more and more every episode), "Pushing Daisies" (for however long that show survives, that is, considering its abysmal ratings), "Supernatural" (which is awesome in oh so many ways that others on my f-list have already elaborated upon, so I'm not going to bother trying to do so right now), and "Stargate Atlantis" (which, surprisingly enough, I almost seem to be enjoying more this year than I have the past four years, go figure...and then they go and cancel it *sigh*). That's it. I'll watch "Lost" when it starts up again, and "Eureka" when that starts up again, but other than that, my TV watching has been trimmed down to that.
5. Work is fine. Nothing exciting; nothing terrible. I will be extremely glad to be away from there for the next week and a half, though.
6. "Frozen Flame" revisions are still happening, although they've slowed to a crawl. I'm in the middle of the last few annoyingly long chapters, and I just seem to be lacking motivation to work on them lately. At least I've already reached my word count reduction goal; anything beyond this that I manage to get rid of is just a lovely bonus.
7. Um...I can't think of a 7 right now. Too much to do yet before I leave tomorrow morning.
Anyway, just wanted to wave at everyone on my f-list and say hi! I hope everyone's doing well, and I'll try to update more regularly after I get back. :D
Since this is going to be quick -- lots of packing to do yet -- I'm going with the whole 'Numbered Points' format.
1. Family is heading to Florida tomorrow for our annual Disney World retreat. Yay! I'll be back the weekend before Thanksgiving.
2. OMG, I wrote fic! 'Tis not Stargate fic (Tales of Symphonia fic, rather), but it's still fic! Of course, per my unfortunate norm, it's ridiculously long, considering the small number of scenes in it, but still, my writing muse has returned! Zelos wins the award for being one of the most fascinating, complex characters I've ever seen and for being the one to lure my muse out of its long hibernation. And to think, my first playthrough of the game I couldn't stand him and chose the Kratos route instead (wherein poor Zelos faced a rather nasty fate), and next I know he's becoming one of my all-time favorite characters, I fall madly in love with the Zelos/Sheena pairing, and I'm writing long fic about him/them. Go figure. Anyway, fic is fully written and nearly complete, but I'm hoping to do one last revision of it while I'm in Florida before posting it anywhere, so if all goes well, that should be ready sometime shortly after I get back. I'm sure no one on my f-list cares about Tales of Symphonia fic or knows enough about the game to read it, but still...I'm writing again! :D
3. Let's see, I'm, like, six months behind with updates, so...oh, right. Chicago was a blast. *waves to the gang* Can't wait until next year to see you all again!
4. I've stopped watching "Heroes." I just...stopped caring about the characters during the break between Seasons 2 & 3, I guess. Same thing goes for "Brothers and Sisters." So that leaves me with "Chuck" (one of my favoritest shows ever...if you're not watching it, you should be!), "NCIS" (which I just keep loving more and more every episode), "Pushing Daisies" (for however long that show survives, that is, considering its abysmal ratings), "Supernatural" (which is awesome in oh so many ways that others on my f-list have already elaborated upon, so I'm not going to bother trying to do so right now), and "Stargate Atlantis" (which, surprisingly enough, I almost seem to be enjoying more this year than I have the past four years, go figure...and then they go and cancel it *sigh*). That's it. I'll watch "Lost" when it starts up again, and "Eureka" when that starts up again, but other than that, my TV watching has been trimmed down to that.
5. Work is fine. Nothing exciting; nothing terrible. I will be extremely glad to be away from there for the next week and a half, though.
6. "Frozen Flame" revisions are still happening, although they've slowed to a crawl. I'm in the middle of the last few annoyingly long chapters, and I just seem to be lacking motivation to work on them lately. At least I've already reached my word count reduction goal; anything beyond this that I manage to get rid of is just a lovely bonus.
7. Um...I can't think of a 7 right now. Too much to do yet before I leave tomorrow morning.
Anyway, just wanted to wave at everyone on my f-list and say hi! I hope everyone's doing well, and I'll try to update more regularly after I get back. :D
Video Games - Master List
Oct. 8th, 2008 10:38 am( Games Owned & Won )
Total: 56
( Favorite 25 Games )
( Games Owned But Not Won/Played )
Total: 174
Oy, vey. Methinks I really need to catch up on that 170+ game backlog.
Last updated on April 3, 2010.
Total: 56
( Favorite 25 Games )
( Games Owned But Not Won/Played )
Total: 174
Oy, vey. Methinks I really need to catch up on that 170+ game backlog.
Last updated on April 3, 2010.
Video Games - Master List
Oct. 8th, 2008 10:38 am( Games Owned & Won )
Total: 56
( Favorite 25 Games )
( Games Owned But Not Won/Played )
Total: 174
Oy, vey. Methinks I really need to catch up on that 170+ game backlog.
Last updated on April 3, 2010.
Total: 56
( Favorite 25 Games )
( Games Owned But Not Won/Played )
Total: 174
Oy, vey. Methinks I really need to catch up on that 170+ game backlog.
Last updated on April 3, 2010.
Calm Before the Storm
Apr. 28th, 2008 03:21 pmUgh, I really need to start updating more regularly. Really, I do.
So, let's see. I'm still studying Japanese. I'm nowhere near being able to read even simple text yet (I have too much vocabulary left to learn before I reach that point) or understand spoken dialogue, but every day I'm learning a little more about the grammar and a few more Kanji characters. At least I have Hiragana and Katakana down pretty well now.
Oh! My family took our trip to the Disneyland resort two weeks ago and absolutely LOVED it. We've never been out there before (we've always gone to Florida since it's considerably closer to Wisconsin than California is), but we found a few great deals on airfare, ticket prices, and hotel prices and had to jump. I didn't think my parents would like it since they'd never expressed interest in going there ever before, but they loved it just as much as I did. In fact, if I were to compare the Magic Kingdom in Florida (not including EPCOT, the Studios, or Animal Kingdom) to Disneyland in California (not including the California Adventure park, just their Magic Kingdom equivalent), I almost liked Disneyland beter. Their "Pirates of the Caribbean" is two times longer, FCOL! Their Space Mountain is an absolutely awesome ride (unlike the Florida version, which is DEFINITELY showing its age in all the bumps and sheer jerkiness)! Their Autopia is actually an enjoyable drive, through a lovely park and with cars that aren't ridiculously difficult to control! They have an excellent Indiana Jones ride! They have the submarines and Nemo! They have Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin (basically a teacup on a dark ride track)! They have Mr. Toad! They have some amazing miniature displays in the Storybookland Canal! Granted, the Splash Mountain, Winnie the Pooh, and Buzz Lightyear rides in Florida put theirs to shame, their Matterhorn did nothing for me (it actually reminded me of the Space Mountain in Florida), and their castle is miniscule (we lost track of how many times we couldn't see the castle past the trees, and the first time I saw it I burst into laughter and called it "cute," which really isn't how an iconic castle like that should be described), but I still really, really enjoyed it.
Disney's California Adventure I wasn't quite as enthralled with, but I still enjoyed it. Maybe it's because most of their "big" rides and attractions there are almost identical to the ones in Florida -- Tower of Terror, Soarin', Muppetvision 3D, It's Tough to Be a Bug -- or maybe it's because the whole Paradise Pier, carnival-ride type attractions do nothing for me, but we didn't spend as much time there. Of course, they have some awesome sourdough bread (at the Bourdin bakery, where we ate a LOT of lunches), California Screamin' is a great roller coaster, Mulholland Madness was fun enough, we loved both parades we saw there, the Monsters, Inc. ride was cute, and their Aladdin show is phenomenal, so it definitely wasn't a complete waste. I'm sure if I liked water rides more, I would've given Grizzly Bear Run a try, but I just don't see the appeal in walking around a park completely drenched so we avoided that one.
The weather there was amazing. After the winter we just had in Wisconsin, we needed the sun and 60-80 degrees like you wouldn't believe. Flights were great -- both were on time, we bought the signature seats so we were comfortable and had plenty of leg room for the 3 1/2-4 hour trip, and we didn't have a cloud in the sky flying out there, so we got to see everything well. Even coming back, the sky was mostly clear. Not having seen the Rocky Mountains in years, that was a real treat. Our room, too, was wonderful. We stayed at the Disneyland Hotel, which was about a ten minute walk (through Downtown Disney) from both parks. I would happily stay there again -- big rooms, comfortable beds, decent food. All in all, an excellent, much-needed trip with lots of familiar sights but plenty of new stuff and exploration as well. I definitely see myself planning another trip out there in the next few years, and seeing a different park than the one I'm used to just made me want to go to Tokyo Disney (which is supposed to be spectacular) even more than I did before.
"Frozen Flame" revisions are still crawling along -- generally about a few paragraphs a day, depending on the size of the paragraphs. Unfortunately, I also haven't felt like working on that Daniel/Vala fic on my plate lately, so I've fallen way behind on that, too -- sorry about that, Misty. :( I just haven't felt motivated to really focus on either of them at the moment (probably because I'm also working on proofreading a book on urban education struggles during my free time for someone at work), but I'm sure that will change eventually. Experience has taught me that my interests tend to be cyclical. For a few months I'll be in writing mode, then I'll switch to watching DVDs, and then I'll switch to video games, then I'll switch back to writing mode, etc. Right now I'm heavily in video game mode, and I have been since I delved into Final Fantasy XII last fall. And that's perfectly fine with me, seeing as I have roughly 100 RPGs backlisted that I haven't even touched yet. *gulps*
And speaking of RPGs...Tales of the Abyss has eaten my soul. Seriously. No, maybe it's not the greatest game ever, but it's pretty darn good, with awesome characters *points to icon and would huggle Guy except the poor guy would undoubtedly run away screaming* and even more awesome character development and interaction. And the battle system is FUN! It's even knocked Kingdom Hearts II out of my top three favorite games ever list -- and anyone who knows me knows that's saying a lot. I'm on my third playthrough already and I suspect I'm literally going to have to force myself not to start another playthrough of game so I can finally play a different game. Hopefully this time I can finish up everything I still haven't done in my previous two playthroughs (like maxing out my levels so I can beat Nebilim on Very Hard and/or Unknown mode, mastering Dragon Buster, and completing the Collector's Book) so I'm not tempted to play it yet again -- because I know I would be. It's just that much fun.
Oh, and so I can quickly find it again later -- link to my all-time favorite Guy/Natalia fic: And the Clock Struck Twelve. Not only does it make me SQUEE!!! every time I read it, but it makes me really wish I had a storyline so I could tackle writing that pairing myself. I wish the author had included a focus on Guy's struggles to overcome his gynophobia, but I can understand why she didn't for the sake of the story. But oh, how tempting it is to write a fic with more of that angle to it.... Too bad her sequel to it is solely Luke/Tear, a pairing that, while canon, I'm pretty much indifferent to. :(
Also on the video game front, this past weeked I finally caved and bought a Playstation Portable. Like I really needed to spend even more money right now. But I'm dying to play "Tales of Destiny 2" and "Tales of Rebirth" (even if they're all in Japanese), and I'm curious about what happens in Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, and, well, there are quite a few other RPGs out for that system that I'm itching to play, and the PSP was the only feasible option for being able to do so. Yes, I AM an JRPG addict and have been since I was eight, thankyouverymuch. But then -- the icing on the cake -- was when I discovered that I could take any DVD in my collection, convert it to a .mp4 file, and watch it on the PSP. That means I can take an entire season of a TV show, put it on a single memory card, and watch it while on a road trip! I've already started converting my favorite Stargate eps, and I plan on working on Farscape and X-Files next. It takes awhile to convert them (a little over an hour for each episode), but the quality still comes through beautifully. Needless to say, the PSP just became my new favorite toy. :)
In not-so-happy news, summer is coming up, and after everything that happened last summer, I'm dreading it. My neighborhood still isn't doing real well. The elderly woman who lives across the street from us had her purse stolen at the Walgreens just down the road. A drug dealer was shot at the same Walgreens. Three people were caught breaking into a gas station two blocks from our house just yesterday morning. Our neighborhood block watch is disbanding because the woman in charge doesn't want to do it anymore, and I don't have the time or leadership abilities to take a job like that upon myself. I'm guessing we have a week or two before anything starts happening (closer to when school gets out for the summer, judging from the past two years), but I wouldn't doubt that some stupid kids with nothing better to do decide to come back to our house and try to break in again. And with the economy crashing around us and gas prices so atrocious, I fully expect the state of the neighborhood to get even worse. I've already evacuated my DVD, CD, and game collections to other places so they're not sitting around inside the house in the event of another break-in, but it really is a pain dragging things I think I might want home on weekends. *sigh* Tell me again why the world is this way?
But enough of that, since I made a point last fall to be as upbeat as possible and enjoy myself during the months where I don't have to worry as much about that kind of crap. Besides, I really should get back to work...not that I have a lot to do right now when I'm still waiting for people to start turning in their course evaluations. At least I get to play on the internet while I'm waiting.
I hope everyone on my f-list is doing well!
So, let's see. I'm still studying Japanese. I'm nowhere near being able to read even simple text yet (I have too much vocabulary left to learn before I reach that point) or understand spoken dialogue, but every day I'm learning a little more about the grammar and a few more Kanji characters. At least I have Hiragana and Katakana down pretty well now.
Oh! My family took our trip to the Disneyland resort two weeks ago and absolutely LOVED it. We've never been out there before (we've always gone to Florida since it's considerably closer to Wisconsin than California is), but we found a few great deals on airfare, ticket prices, and hotel prices and had to jump. I didn't think my parents would like it since they'd never expressed interest in going there ever before, but they loved it just as much as I did. In fact, if I were to compare the Magic Kingdom in Florida (not including EPCOT, the Studios, or Animal Kingdom) to Disneyland in California (not including the California Adventure park, just their Magic Kingdom equivalent), I almost liked Disneyland beter. Their "Pirates of the Caribbean" is two times longer, FCOL! Their Space Mountain is an absolutely awesome ride (unlike the Florida version, which is DEFINITELY showing its age in all the bumps and sheer jerkiness)! Their Autopia is actually an enjoyable drive, through a lovely park and with cars that aren't ridiculously difficult to control! They have an excellent Indiana Jones ride! They have the submarines and Nemo! They have Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin (basically a teacup on a dark ride track)! They have Mr. Toad! They have some amazing miniature displays in the Storybookland Canal! Granted, the Splash Mountain, Winnie the Pooh, and Buzz Lightyear rides in Florida put theirs to shame, their Matterhorn did nothing for me (it actually reminded me of the Space Mountain in Florida), and their castle is miniscule (we lost track of how many times we couldn't see the castle past the trees, and the first time I saw it I burst into laughter and called it "cute," which really isn't how an iconic castle like that should be described), but I still really, really enjoyed it.
Disney's California Adventure I wasn't quite as enthralled with, but I still enjoyed it. Maybe it's because most of their "big" rides and attractions there are almost identical to the ones in Florida -- Tower of Terror, Soarin', Muppetvision 3D, It's Tough to Be a Bug -- or maybe it's because the whole Paradise Pier, carnival-ride type attractions do nothing for me, but we didn't spend as much time there. Of course, they have some awesome sourdough bread (at the Bourdin bakery, where we ate a LOT of lunches), California Screamin' is a great roller coaster, Mulholland Madness was fun enough, we loved both parades we saw there, the Monsters, Inc. ride was cute, and their Aladdin show is phenomenal, so it definitely wasn't a complete waste. I'm sure if I liked water rides more, I would've given Grizzly Bear Run a try, but I just don't see the appeal in walking around a park completely drenched so we avoided that one.
The weather there was amazing. After the winter we just had in Wisconsin, we needed the sun and 60-80 degrees like you wouldn't believe. Flights were great -- both were on time, we bought the signature seats so we were comfortable and had plenty of leg room for the 3 1/2-4 hour trip, and we didn't have a cloud in the sky flying out there, so we got to see everything well. Even coming back, the sky was mostly clear. Not having seen the Rocky Mountains in years, that was a real treat. Our room, too, was wonderful. We stayed at the Disneyland Hotel, which was about a ten minute walk (through Downtown Disney) from both parks. I would happily stay there again -- big rooms, comfortable beds, decent food. All in all, an excellent, much-needed trip with lots of familiar sights but plenty of new stuff and exploration as well. I definitely see myself planning another trip out there in the next few years, and seeing a different park than the one I'm used to just made me want to go to Tokyo Disney (which is supposed to be spectacular) even more than I did before.
"Frozen Flame" revisions are still crawling along -- generally about a few paragraphs a day, depending on the size of the paragraphs. Unfortunately, I also haven't felt like working on that Daniel/Vala fic on my plate lately, so I've fallen way behind on that, too -- sorry about that, Misty. :( I just haven't felt motivated to really focus on either of them at the moment (probably because I'm also working on proofreading a book on urban education struggles during my free time for someone at work), but I'm sure that will change eventually. Experience has taught me that my interests tend to be cyclical. For a few months I'll be in writing mode, then I'll switch to watching DVDs, and then I'll switch to video games, then I'll switch back to writing mode, etc. Right now I'm heavily in video game mode, and I have been since I delved into Final Fantasy XII last fall. And that's perfectly fine with me, seeing as I have roughly 100 RPGs backlisted that I haven't even touched yet. *gulps*
And speaking of RPGs...Tales of the Abyss has eaten my soul. Seriously. No, maybe it's not the greatest game ever, but it's pretty darn good, with awesome characters *points to icon and would huggle Guy except the poor guy would undoubtedly run away screaming* and even more awesome character development and interaction. And the battle system is FUN! It's even knocked Kingdom Hearts II out of my top three favorite games ever list -- and anyone who knows me knows that's saying a lot. I'm on my third playthrough already and I suspect I'm literally going to have to force myself not to start another playthrough of game so I can finally play a different game. Hopefully this time I can finish up everything I still haven't done in my previous two playthroughs (like maxing out my levels so I can beat Nebilim on Very Hard and/or Unknown mode, mastering Dragon Buster, and completing the Collector's Book) so I'm not tempted to play it yet again -- because I know I would be. It's just that much fun.
Oh, and so I can quickly find it again later -- link to my all-time favorite Guy/Natalia fic: And the Clock Struck Twelve. Not only does it make me SQUEE!!! every time I read it, but it makes me really wish I had a storyline so I could tackle writing that pairing myself. I wish the author had included a focus on Guy's struggles to overcome his gynophobia, but I can understand why she didn't for the sake of the story. But oh, how tempting it is to write a fic with more of that angle to it.... Too bad her sequel to it is solely Luke/Tear, a pairing that, while canon, I'm pretty much indifferent to. :(
Also on the video game front, this past weeked I finally caved and bought a Playstation Portable. Like I really needed to spend even more money right now. But I'm dying to play "Tales of Destiny 2" and "Tales of Rebirth" (even if they're all in Japanese), and I'm curious about what happens in Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, and, well, there are quite a few other RPGs out for that system that I'm itching to play, and the PSP was the only feasible option for being able to do so. Yes, I AM an JRPG addict and have been since I was eight, thankyouverymuch. But then -- the icing on the cake -- was when I discovered that I could take any DVD in my collection, convert it to a .mp4 file, and watch it on the PSP. That means I can take an entire season of a TV show, put it on a single memory card, and watch it while on a road trip! I've already started converting my favorite Stargate eps, and I plan on working on Farscape and X-Files next. It takes awhile to convert them (a little over an hour for each episode), but the quality still comes through beautifully. Needless to say, the PSP just became my new favorite toy. :)
In not-so-happy news, summer is coming up, and after everything that happened last summer, I'm dreading it. My neighborhood still isn't doing real well. The elderly woman who lives across the street from us had her purse stolen at the Walgreens just down the road. A drug dealer was shot at the same Walgreens. Three people were caught breaking into a gas station two blocks from our house just yesterday morning. Our neighborhood block watch is disbanding because the woman in charge doesn't want to do it anymore, and I don't have the time or leadership abilities to take a job like that upon myself. I'm guessing we have a week or two before anything starts happening (closer to when school gets out for the summer, judging from the past two years), but I wouldn't doubt that some stupid kids with nothing better to do decide to come back to our house and try to break in again. And with the economy crashing around us and gas prices so atrocious, I fully expect the state of the neighborhood to get even worse. I've already evacuated my DVD, CD, and game collections to other places so they're not sitting around inside the house in the event of another break-in, but it really is a pain dragging things I think I might want home on weekends. *sigh* Tell me again why the world is this way?
But enough of that, since I made a point last fall to be as upbeat as possible and enjoy myself during the months where I don't have to worry as much about that kind of crap. Besides, I really should get back to work...not that I have a lot to do right now when I'm still waiting for people to start turning in their course evaluations. At least I get to play on the internet while I'm waiting.
I hope everyone on my f-list is doing well!
Stargate meme
Mar. 20th, 2008 09:55 amHalfway through March already, huh? Time just never slows down, does it?
Ah, well, life's been fine for me, I suppose. I've still been fighting off that darn stomach bug the past few weeks, but otherwise things are...okay. Nothing special, nothing awful. Since I'm procrastinating doing work right now (it's hard to get motivated when there are only, oh, five people on the entire floor because of spring break), I thought I'd take a stab at that Stargate meme that's been going around.
( My responses here )
In other news, I'm currently addicted to Tales of the Abyss. I can't recommend it enough to other RPG video game fans. I think it might even manage to break into my top 5 games list by the time I'm done with it. Although I was royally annoyed last night to completely lose Feres Island because I didn't go directly there and instead did a few other sidequests first -- and by the time I was done, it was nowhere to be found again. Seriously. I searched the entire ocean for an hour and never found it. I should *not* have had that much difficulty finding a moving island! Fortunately, I had an old save before doing those other sidequests, but I still had to redo over an hour of the game, including getting Luke's and Guy's ultimate weapons again from the coliseum, just so I could find it again before it drifted off to who knows where. *sighs*
Also, upon discovering that my Nintendo DS could play Japanese games without any modifications, I decided to buy two games (Xenosaga I & II DS and Tales of the Tempest, both completely in Japanese) to use as incentive for me to keep studying the language. I've always really wanted to play those two games, and neither has a chance of ever being translated into English and coming to the US otherwise, so it'll give me something to work toward. I might even have to consider getting a Sony PSP one of these days since that, too, can play any game made for any country, and there are definitely some games on the PSP that I'm interested in playing. That is one of the reasons I'm learning Japanese, after all, to play some of those games.
In Frozen Flame news, since I haven't posted anything related to that in ages, I've surpassed my word count elimination goal. Yay! Even better, I'm still not done with it (I'm currently working on chapter 49 out of 56, although I still have to completely finish cleaning up chapters 43-48 yet, too), so I'm sure I'll be getting rid of far more than that before I'm done. Double yay! One of these days I *will* actually update about that here with statistics again.
And now I suppose I should really get some work done.
Ah, well, life's been fine for me, I suppose. I've still been fighting off that darn stomach bug the past few weeks, but otherwise things are...okay. Nothing special, nothing awful. Since I'm procrastinating doing work right now (it's hard to get motivated when there are only, oh, five people on the entire floor because of spring break), I thought I'd take a stab at that Stargate meme that's been going around.
( My responses here )
In other news, I'm currently addicted to Tales of the Abyss. I can't recommend it enough to other RPG video game fans. I think it might even manage to break into my top 5 games list by the time I'm done with it. Although I was royally annoyed last night to completely lose Feres Island because I didn't go directly there and instead did a few other sidequests first -- and by the time I was done, it was nowhere to be found again. Seriously. I searched the entire ocean for an hour and never found it. I should *not* have had that much difficulty finding a moving island! Fortunately, I had an old save before doing those other sidequests, but I still had to redo over an hour of the game, including getting Luke's and Guy's ultimate weapons again from the coliseum, just so I could find it again before it drifted off to who knows where. *sighs*
Also, upon discovering that my Nintendo DS could play Japanese games without any modifications, I decided to buy two games (Xenosaga I & II DS and Tales of the Tempest, both completely in Japanese) to use as incentive for me to keep studying the language. I've always really wanted to play those two games, and neither has a chance of ever being translated into English and coming to the US otherwise, so it'll give me something to work toward. I might even have to consider getting a Sony PSP one of these days since that, too, can play any game made for any country, and there are definitely some games on the PSP that I'm interested in playing. That is one of the reasons I'm learning Japanese, after all, to play some of those games.
In Frozen Flame news, since I haven't posted anything related to that in ages, I've surpassed my word count elimination goal. Yay! Even better, I'm still not done with it (I'm currently working on chapter 49 out of 56, although I still have to completely finish cleaning up chapters 43-48 yet, too), so I'm sure I'll be getting rid of far more than that before I'm done. Double yay! One of these days I *will* actually update about that here with statistics again.
And now I suppose I should really get some work done.
December 20th, already?!
Dec. 20th, 2007 03:57 pmSo we had our university-wide luncheon today, only they served alcohol and then still expected everyone to go back to work? Granted, I didn't actually drink any alcohol, but still, what gives? Do they really think I -- or anyone else, for that matter -- feel like working after all of that?
Needless to say, no, I don't feel like doing anything work-related, so I'm probably not going to. So there. Hence why I'm filling out Stargate quizzes. :)
Gee, what a shocker. Although if I were the quiz maker, I would have proofread my results a bit better before actually publishing it for everyone.
Anyway, seeing as I don't feel like doing anything else, I guess I'm long overdue for an update, eh? Here goes, in very random fashion. ( Cut because this post is insanely long and I don't want to overwhelm anyone's friend list. Includes talk about life, work, Disney World, video games, various TV shows and DVDs, MP3 players, Japan and the Japanese language, Frozen Flame, and even a few Stargate fic recs. )
...And I think I've finally exhausted my updates for the past few months. I'm sure I'll think of something else I missed, but for now that's it.
If I don't post before leaving for Florida next week, have a great holiday season, everyone!
Needless to say, no, I don't feel like doing anything work-related, so I'm probably not going to. So there. Hence why I'm filling out Stargate quizzes. :)
| Which Stargate character are you? Your Result: Dr. Daniel Jackson You are Daniel. Though no one bilieved you or in you, you have proven yourself right and worthy. You are facinated by new cultures, the study of ancient texts and have a very complex and dramatic lovelife you are intelligent, not very athletic, feel compassion for all life and are not a fan of the chain of command. | |
| Richard Woolsey | |
| Dr. Samantha Carter | |
| Dr. Rodney McKay | |
| Teyla Emmagan | |
| Teal'c | |
| Jack O'Neill | |
| John Sheppard / Cameron Mitchel | |
| Which Stargate character are you? Make Your Own Quiz | |
Gee, what a shocker. Although if I were the quiz maker, I would have proofread my results a bit better before actually publishing it for everyone.
Anyway, seeing as I don't feel like doing anything else, I guess I'm long overdue for an update, eh? Here goes, in very random fashion. ( Cut because this post is insanely long and I don't want to overwhelm anyone's friend list. Includes talk about life, work, Disney World, video games, various TV shows and DVDs, MP3 players, Japan and the Japanese language, Frozen Flame, and even a few Stargate fic recs. )
...And I think I've finally exhausted my updates for the past few months. I'm sure I'll think of something else I missed, but for now that's it.
If I don't post before leaving for Florida next week, have a great holiday season, everyone!
Here we go again.
Aug. 15th, 2007 04:10 pmThis will never end. Or, if it does end, it won't end well. My sanity is very nearly a lost cause right now as it is.
We were hit again today. Yes, again.
Again, they didn't get anything from us. Again, we didn't catch them. Again, we have to spend hundreds of dollars to fix the damage they've caused us.
Five times total now. This time they wrecked our back door, trying to get it open. When that didn't work, they busted out our den window, both the inner window and the storm window on the outside. They neatly placed the glass pieces into the basement window well but must have been wearing gloves because the police didn't find any fingerprints.
They ran into my parents' bedroom, dumped the top drawer of their dresser, and ran back out before the security system could even alert anyone. That was all they did. They were out of the house by the time the pastors at my dad's church got there.
There was absolutely no point in it. They didn't get any money. They didn't take any valuables. They didn't even take the change that was sitting on top of the dresser. All that's left in that drawer is junk; we moved anything of value out of there weeks ago.
And it can't be the same kids. It can't. Anyone who's been in our house knows there's no reason to bust through the back door, because that only leads to the breezeway. The door between the breezeway and the house has a dead bolt. They wouldn't have been able to get in that way anyway.
And here's the kicker -- we just talked to the Alderman about all of this last night. After last week's incident, we sent him an email and then sent him a copy of that email via certified mail. His office called us back, and we (and half of the neighborhood -- 18 people total met with him, representing 12 different households) met with him last night, at our house, and described what's been going on. He was extremely impressed with how many people showed up, and he was appalled at everything that's been happening. He also promised us he would talk to the police, talk to the apartment owners where we think the problem is stemming from, and get more police patrols through our area. I walked away from it feeling very positive that something would change.
Not that he's had enough time for it to start making a difference. There's a lot of work he needs to do on his end, and I don't know that my sanity has enough time left for it to make any difference. Because these bastards just won't leave us alone.
I'm starting to think this isn't about the money for these creeps, since they're not getting anything anyway. They're breaking in to be spiteful and malicious. Maybe it's a gang initiation -- break into this house, steal something (anything), and get out. Maybe it's personal. Maybe they're bored (or, as one policeman said, maybe their parents don't trust them and won't even let them in the house anymore) and it's "fun" to terrorize us. Maybe it's all a game for them. Maybe someone bragged about it in a room full of 15 people, and now every single one of them is checking us out for themselves.
Repeat victimization is very common. They're familiar with the place, they know what we have, they know how to get in and out of the place. It's "easy" for them. They probably get off on getting away with it and causing us grief. Heck, they're probably laughing about it right now, about how they "bested" us this time.
And then we heard that a house several streets over, with a security system, was broken into. They tore the system right out of the wall. At least that time they think they got a fingerprint.
It's lovely to know that everyone in the neighborhood cares so much about us, about reclaiming this area, and about seeing justice done. But that's not helping us when no one's ever home during the day when all of this is happening.
So I ran out this afternoon and picked up Babylon 5 and season 1 of Supernatural. I needed to do something that felt normal, something that made me feel like I wasn't letting them control my life. Because Heaven knows how out of control I feel right now, about everything in my life.
I've lost too much this past year. Friends, peace of mind, a safe place of my own, self confidence, optimism, hope for the future, any remaining innocence I still possessed. I don't know what God's purpose for all of this is. I don't know if God has abandoned us altogether, or if all of this is supposed to be happening for a reason.
To top off everything else, yesterday was my birthday. I don't celebrate it, and I don't make a big deal out of it, but I do acknowledge it, it makes me feel like I matter when other people remember and acknowledge it (but don't make a big deal out of it), and I usually try to do something to treat myself. I'm just of the opinion that it really only affects three people in my life -- me and my parents -- and the last thing in the world I want to do is tell everyone about it and make them feel obligated to do something for me. And I finally realized yesterday why I took that approach to my birthday all those years ago, why I do everything in my power to avoid people on that day: because it hurts too much to be forgotten. It's happened too many times throughout my life, and so I guess my way of dealing with it is to keep that information from everyone else and avoid them. If they don't know about it, they can't forget me, and therefore they can't hurt me.
And then my mom forgot all about it yesterday morning. And it nearly killed my already-devastated psyche and resurrected all those emotions I've been fighting the past year or so of feeling invisible and insignificant and like no one cares whether or not I exist. I felt sick. I felt sub-human. I felt like the world had rejected me.
Happy birthday to me.
I honestly don't know how much more of this I can take. Bits and pieces of my sanity and humanity are flickering away every day. And underneath it all, I'm finding that, above everything else, I am a f*cked up mess with more issues than Time magazine. And I don't know how to fix 'me' anymore. I'm going to the doctor on Friday to get a check-up and make sure there's nothing physically wrong with me, exacerbating this trauma even further and making it that much worse, but then I'm thinking I need to see a psychiatrist, preferably before I'm a basket case and self-destruct any further than I already have.
I'm losing touch with 'me,' and I'm not liking what's left. And I don't have a clue what to do about it anymore.
But that's far more than enough whining for now. Sorry about that, everyone. Now I have to go help my parents fix yet another window.
We were hit again today. Yes, again.
Again, they didn't get anything from us. Again, we didn't catch them. Again, we have to spend hundreds of dollars to fix the damage they've caused us.
Five times total now. This time they wrecked our back door, trying to get it open. When that didn't work, they busted out our den window, both the inner window and the storm window on the outside. They neatly placed the glass pieces into the basement window well but must have been wearing gloves because the police didn't find any fingerprints.
They ran into my parents' bedroom, dumped the top drawer of their dresser, and ran back out before the security system could even alert anyone. That was all they did. They were out of the house by the time the pastors at my dad's church got there.
There was absolutely no point in it. They didn't get any money. They didn't take any valuables. They didn't even take the change that was sitting on top of the dresser. All that's left in that drawer is junk; we moved anything of value out of there weeks ago.
And it can't be the same kids. It can't. Anyone who's been in our house knows there's no reason to bust through the back door, because that only leads to the breezeway. The door between the breezeway and the house has a dead bolt. They wouldn't have been able to get in that way anyway.
And here's the kicker -- we just talked to the Alderman about all of this last night. After last week's incident, we sent him an email and then sent him a copy of that email via certified mail. His office called us back, and we (and half of the neighborhood -- 18 people total met with him, representing 12 different households) met with him last night, at our house, and described what's been going on. He was extremely impressed with how many people showed up, and he was appalled at everything that's been happening. He also promised us he would talk to the police, talk to the apartment owners where we think the problem is stemming from, and get more police patrols through our area. I walked away from it feeling very positive that something would change.
Not that he's had enough time for it to start making a difference. There's a lot of work he needs to do on his end, and I don't know that my sanity has enough time left for it to make any difference. Because these bastards just won't leave us alone.
I'm starting to think this isn't about the money for these creeps, since they're not getting anything anyway. They're breaking in to be spiteful and malicious. Maybe it's a gang initiation -- break into this house, steal something (anything), and get out. Maybe it's personal. Maybe they're bored (or, as one policeman said, maybe their parents don't trust them and won't even let them in the house anymore) and it's "fun" to terrorize us. Maybe it's all a game for them. Maybe someone bragged about it in a room full of 15 people, and now every single one of them is checking us out for themselves.
Repeat victimization is very common. They're familiar with the place, they know what we have, they know how to get in and out of the place. It's "easy" for them. They probably get off on getting away with it and causing us grief. Heck, they're probably laughing about it right now, about how they "bested" us this time.
And then we heard that a house several streets over, with a security system, was broken into. They tore the system right out of the wall. At least that time they think they got a fingerprint.
It's lovely to know that everyone in the neighborhood cares so much about us, about reclaiming this area, and about seeing justice done. But that's not helping us when no one's ever home during the day when all of this is happening.
So I ran out this afternoon and picked up Babylon 5 and season 1 of Supernatural. I needed to do something that felt normal, something that made me feel like I wasn't letting them control my life. Because Heaven knows how out of control I feel right now, about everything in my life.
I've lost too much this past year. Friends, peace of mind, a safe place of my own, self confidence, optimism, hope for the future, any remaining innocence I still possessed. I don't know what God's purpose for all of this is. I don't know if God has abandoned us altogether, or if all of this is supposed to be happening for a reason.
To top off everything else, yesterday was my birthday. I don't celebrate it, and I don't make a big deal out of it, but I do acknowledge it, it makes me feel like I matter when other people remember and acknowledge it (but don't make a big deal out of it), and I usually try to do something to treat myself. I'm just of the opinion that it really only affects three people in my life -- me and my parents -- and the last thing in the world I want to do is tell everyone about it and make them feel obligated to do something for me. And I finally realized yesterday why I took that approach to my birthday all those years ago, why I do everything in my power to avoid people on that day: because it hurts too much to be forgotten. It's happened too many times throughout my life, and so I guess my way of dealing with it is to keep that information from everyone else and avoid them. If they don't know about it, they can't forget me, and therefore they can't hurt me.
And then my mom forgot all about it yesterday morning. And it nearly killed my already-devastated psyche and resurrected all those emotions I've been fighting the past year or so of feeling invisible and insignificant and like no one cares whether or not I exist. I felt sick. I felt sub-human. I felt like the world had rejected me.
Happy birthday to me.
I honestly don't know how much more of this I can take. Bits and pieces of my sanity and humanity are flickering away every day. And underneath it all, I'm finding that, above everything else, I am a f*cked up mess with more issues than Time magazine. And I don't know how to fix 'me' anymore. I'm going to the doctor on Friday to get a check-up and make sure there's nothing physically wrong with me, exacerbating this trauma even further and making it that much worse, but then I'm thinking I need to see a psychiatrist, preferably before I'm a basket case and self-destruct any further than I already have.
I'm losing touch with 'me,' and I'm not liking what's left. And I don't have a clue what to do about it anymore.
But that's far more than enough whining for now. Sorry about that, everyone. Now I have to go help my parents fix yet another window.
LEAVE US ALONE ALREADY!!!
Aug. 7th, 2007 04:35 pmTwo weeks since the last incident. Just like clockwork.
So, my mom had surgery yesterday for skin cancer on her face. They removed the spot, and then she had plastic surgery to patch up the quarter-sized hole left behind. She took off of work today and had an appointment at 11:30 to check to make sure everything was all right. I decided to take the afternoon off to take her to the doctor's and then spend time with her because she's, unsurprisingly, feeling rather self-conscious what with the massive work that was done on her face, leaving behind blood, brusing, stitches, the whole works.
So it's about 2:15 in the afternoon, we're about to start watching a movie, when the front doorbell rings. Twice. We know better than to answer the front door (since everyone who knows us uses the side door, not the front door), so we didn't. My mom looked, and it was an African-American kid, 15 or 16 years old (IMO), with a brown wool hat on, blue T-shirt, and a black backpack. Next we know, we see him walking past the den window, looking in the windows. A minute later, he's walking past the kitchen windows, looking around. After that he vanishes.
We got in my car and drove around the area, but we didn't see anyone looking like him. We go back home, I call the next door neighbor's just to let her know to keep her eyes open for anyone suspicious in the area matching that description, and hang up. Less than a minute later, we see a backpack walking past our kitchen windows again -- the kid had ducked down to avoid anyone seeing him. I call the neighbor back, and he gets on his bike and follows the kid, and a woman with a kid saw him go into one of the nearby apartment buildings.
The policeman comes, gets the description, and goes with the next door neighbor to see the apartment building. Doesn't find anyone matching that description, although he does pass it along to squad cars to keep their eyes open. If they had found him, all they could have charged him with was prowling.
*bangs head against desk*
Why? Why, why, why, why, WHY won't they just leave us alone?! We have enough other stuff to worry about right now with my mom; we do NOT want to deal with mentally deranged, obsessed, harassing kids with nothing better to do with their time than terrorize innocent neighbors right now! My mom is going to be home again tomorrow, alone...I'm tempted to take off of work, just to be with her in case this kid (or his buddies) comes back!
What alarms me most is that this time it was only one kid, as opposed to the two kids who broke in the last time. So was the one here today one of the two kids here the last time, or was he somebody different, someone working alone? Does a gang have us pegged for an initiation rite? If you want in, steal something from this house? How many kids in the area really ARE responsible for what's been going on to us?
This is absolutely nuts. Five incidents now in a little over two months, and six in a little over a year. Every two weeks, they seem to try something new. What do they do, mark it on their calendars that it's time to break into our house again?
I can't live here anymore. And moving is too long, involved of a process to just get up and move tomorrow.
Somebody help me. Please. I can't take much more of this.
*breaks down sobbing*
So, my mom had surgery yesterday for skin cancer on her face. They removed the spot, and then she had plastic surgery to patch up the quarter-sized hole left behind. She took off of work today and had an appointment at 11:30 to check to make sure everything was all right. I decided to take the afternoon off to take her to the doctor's and then spend time with her because she's, unsurprisingly, feeling rather self-conscious what with the massive work that was done on her face, leaving behind blood, brusing, stitches, the whole works.
So it's about 2:15 in the afternoon, we're about to start watching a movie, when the front doorbell rings. Twice. We know better than to answer the front door (since everyone who knows us uses the side door, not the front door), so we didn't. My mom looked, and it was an African-American kid, 15 or 16 years old (IMO), with a brown wool hat on, blue T-shirt, and a black backpack. Next we know, we see him walking past the den window, looking in the windows. A minute later, he's walking past the kitchen windows, looking around. After that he vanishes.
We got in my car and drove around the area, but we didn't see anyone looking like him. We go back home, I call the next door neighbor's just to let her know to keep her eyes open for anyone suspicious in the area matching that description, and hang up. Less than a minute later, we see a backpack walking past our kitchen windows again -- the kid had ducked down to avoid anyone seeing him. I call the neighbor back, and he gets on his bike and follows the kid, and a woman with a kid saw him go into one of the nearby apartment buildings.
The policeman comes, gets the description, and goes with the next door neighbor to see the apartment building. Doesn't find anyone matching that description, although he does pass it along to squad cars to keep their eyes open. If they had found him, all they could have charged him with was prowling.
*bangs head against desk*
Why? Why, why, why, why, WHY won't they just leave us alone?! We have enough other stuff to worry about right now with my mom; we do NOT want to deal with mentally deranged, obsessed, harassing kids with nothing better to do with their time than terrorize innocent neighbors right now! My mom is going to be home again tomorrow, alone...I'm tempted to take off of work, just to be with her in case this kid (or his buddies) comes back!
What alarms me most is that this time it was only one kid, as opposed to the two kids who broke in the last time. So was the one here today one of the two kids here the last time, or was he somebody different, someone working alone? Does a gang have us pegged for an initiation rite? If you want in, steal something from this house? How many kids in the area really ARE responsible for what's been going on to us?
This is absolutely nuts. Five incidents now in a little over two months, and six in a little over a year. Every two weeks, they seem to try something new. What do they do, mark it on their calendars that it's time to break into our house again?
I can't live here anymore. And moving is too long, involved of a process to just get up and move tomorrow.
Somebody help me. Please. I can't take much more of this.
*breaks down sobbing*
And the saga continues...
Jul. 25th, 2007 12:03 pmSo, apparently the news I posted last time about our resident burglar getting shot in the head during a burglary attempt turned out to be an overzealous story. Not necessarily by our neighbor -- he wouldn't make that up -- but by whoever told him that story.
I've now heard four different versions of what happened two blocks away from our house a few weeks ago. One was the story I posted last time. Another is that a kid was shot in the butt walking down the street by someone he knew, but while he knew the person who shot him, he had no idea *why* that person shot him. A third story is that a kid was shot in the butt while trying to steal computer equipment. A fourth just said it was a "family dispute."
Cops aren't talking about what happened, so we have no idea what really happened. All we know is that there were four squad cars, a handful of detectives there, and some yellow tape marking off the area. Oh, and we know whatever really happened, it wasn't our burglar(s) who were shot.
We know that because they broke into our house. Again. Yesterday morning.
Around ten in the morning, the alarm system went off. ADT called my dad's cell phone; he immediately called my mom (who works five minutes away from our home); she grabbed two tough guys from where she worked; they went to the house. The kids were still inside the house when they got there. The three of them walked around the house, looking for the entry point, but they couldn't find it, although one of the men saw someone in a white shirt inside. While they were in the back yard, the kids made a break for it out the front yard -- it turns out they had kicked in the siding on the air conditioner again and put the board back up, so naturally, on a quick exam, no one noticed that there was anything wrong with it. They got back out again the way they got in -- the only other way out would have been to break a window, because our front door has a dead bolt on it.
Our next door neighbor saw the two kids running down the street and gave a description to the police. A man outside a few blocks away saw the same two kids walking down the street a little later (and he'd seen them go up the street before). He came and talked to the police and told them what direction the kids went. He also said it didn't look like they were carrying anything and their pockets appeared to be empty. As far as we can tell, they didn't get anything this time except ten seconds away from being caught because, duh, we don't keep any money anywhere anyone can easily access it anymore.
*buries head in hands*
It's two black kids, apparently between 12 and 15 years of age. Two bored little adrenaline-addicted, game-playing brats have been the ones repeatedly terrorizing our home. Why am I not surprised when kids are breaking into Target stores with sledgehammers and breaking open video game display cases so they can steal the games? When 11 year old kids are holding up a local George Webb restaurant? When kids are going to county fairs and scratching up hundreds of cars with keys? This is what the city of Milwaukee has been reduced to, because no one is allowed to punish these kids anymore, claiming it's all "child abuse."
Parents and schools aren't teaching their students responsibility. Parents and schools aren't teaching their children right from wrong. Parents are, instead, crying bloody murder anytime anyone tries to tell them that their child did anything wrong. And it's innocent, law-abiding, hardworking citizens who are paying the price for it.
This society is going down the tubes, and all we can do is watch. The historian in me predicts that the country will eventually cave in on itself, as Rome did, because these kids are our future. It's a future that terrifies me. This isn't a world I want to live in.
These kids probably thought we were bluffing with the ADT sign. That, or they figured Milwaukee's police would take a half hour to respond, and they'd be long out of there before that, because OF COURSE they knew where we kept all our money! *rolls eyes*
I'd like to say the nightmare is all over and they won't be back again now that they've had such a close call and didn't get anything, but the truth is, these arrogant little bastards (please excuse my language) are way too bold NOT to try it again. We've been leaving cars out in the driveway so it looks like someone's home; that didn't stop them this time. We've been leaving lights on and the air conditioning on inside the house; that didn't stop them, either. They didn't care that the alarms were all going off; they stayed in the house. They don't care if someone's home; they're just going to barge in and take what they want. And I'm afraid next time they're going to either retaliate by vandalizing or destroying our house or cars, bring guns with them, or come with a bigger group of kids who can beat the crap out of anyone who tries to stop them. I'd say I'm being paranoid, but it happened in another neighborhood not too far from ours just two nights ago.
At least the alarm system has already paid for itself -- I can't imagine what our house would have looked like this time if we hadn't stopped them from spending a half hour inside the house like it appears they did last time. We don't HAVE anything left in the house of value for them to steal (and I would've thought they'd have figured that out the last time when they scoured the place), so they would've had to tear apart EVERYTHING just to find something, and if they hadn't found something, they would've gotten frustrated and started demolishing things.
Oh, and the small window alarms we'd put all over the window with the air conditioning apparently at least pissed them off and frustrated them. My dad had glued them on (because these kids had turned them off the last time), and the only way they could get to shut them up was to flush them down the toilet. Granted, we had to get the plumber to come in this morning because the alarms got stuck in the toilet and were continuously chirping (yes, that's right, the alarms kept going even after being submerged in water), but I can't help smirking knowing it at least wasted some of their precious time inside the house.
I just worry, too, that even if these kids are finally scared off from our house for good, they'll just start it up with someone else's house. They've made too much money off of this string of robberies (and probably had too much fun) to give up this life of crime. At least now we have general descriptions of who we're looking for, and half the neighborhood is keeping their eyes open for them.
Moving is now definitely on the agenda for the next year or two. Even if these kids are caught and punished (i.e. not just given a slap on the wrist), we can't stay in a house where we've been violated this repeatedly. It doesn't feel like a safe haven anymore, and it never will again. We just don't know where we want to go or what kind of house to look for.
*sighs* This has, without a doubt, been the Year From Hell. Can it please, please, please be over now?
I've now heard four different versions of what happened two blocks away from our house a few weeks ago. One was the story I posted last time. Another is that a kid was shot in the butt walking down the street by someone he knew, but while he knew the person who shot him, he had no idea *why* that person shot him. A third story is that a kid was shot in the butt while trying to steal computer equipment. A fourth just said it was a "family dispute."
Cops aren't talking about what happened, so we have no idea what really happened. All we know is that there were four squad cars, a handful of detectives there, and some yellow tape marking off the area. Oh, and we know whatever really happened, it wasn't our burglar(s) who were shot.
We know that because they broke into our house. Again. Yesterday morning.
Around ten in the morning, the alarm system went off. ADT called my dad's cell phone; he immediately called my mom (who works five minutes away from our home); she grabbed two tough guys from where she worked; they went to the house. The kids were still inside the house when they got there. The three of them walked around the house, looking for the entry point, but they couldn't find it, although one of the men saw someone in a white shirt inside. While they were in the back yard, the kids made a break for it out the front yard -- it turns out they had kicked in the siding on the air conditioner again and put the board back up, so naturally, on a quick exam, no one noticed that there was anything wrong with it. They got back out again the way they got in -- the only other way out would have been to break a window, because our front door has a dead bolt on it.
Our next door neighbor saw the two kids running down the street and gave a description to the police. A man outside a few blocks away saw the same two kids walking down the street a little later (and he'd seen them go up the street before). He came and talked to the police and told them what direction the kids went. He also said it didn't look like they were carrying anything and their pockets appeared to be empty. As far as we can tell, they didn't get anything this time except ten seconds away from being caught because, duh, we don't keep any money anywhere anyone can easily access it anymore.
*buries head in hands*
It's two black kids, apparently between 12 and 15 years of age. Two bored little adrenaline-addicted, game-playing brats have been the ones repeatedly terrorizing our home. Why am I not surprised when kids are breaking into Target stores with sledgehammers and breaking open video game display cases so they can steal the games? When 11 year old kids are holding up a local George Webb restaurant? When kids are going to county fairs and scratching up hundreds of cars with keys? This is what the city of Milwaukee has been reduced to, because no one is allowed to punish these kids anymore, claiming it's all "child abuse."
Parents and schools aren't teaching their students responsibility. Parents and schools aren't teaching their children right from wrong. Parents are, instead, crying bloody murder anytime anyone tries to tell them that their child did anything wrong. And it's innocent, law-abiding, hardworking citizens who are paying the price for it.
This society is going down the tubes, and all we can do is watch. The historian in me predicts that the country will eventually cave in on itself, as Rome did, because these kids are our future. It's a future that terrifies me. This isn't a world I want to live in.
These kids probably thought we were bluffing with the ADT sign. That, or they figured Milwaukee's police would take a half hour to respond, and they'd be long out of there before that, because OF COURSE they knew where we kept all our money! *rolls eyes*
I'd like to say the nightmare is all over and they won't be back again now that they've had such a close call and didn't get anything, but the truth is, these arrogant little bastards (please excuse my language) are way too bold NOT to try it again. We've been leaving cars out in the driveway so it looks like someone's home; that didn't stop them this time. We've been leaving lights on and the air conditioning on inside the house; that didn't stop them, either. They didn't care that the alarms were all going off; they stayed in the house. They don't care if someone's home; they're just going to barge in and take what they want. And I'm afraid next time they're going to either retaliate by vandalizing or destroying our house or cars, bring guns with them, or come with a bigger group of kids who can beat the crap out of anyone who tries to stop them. I'd say I'm being paranoid, but it happened in another neighborhood not too far from ours just two nights ago.
At least the alarm system has already paid for itself -- I can't imagine what our house would have looked like this time if we hadn't stopped them from spending a half hour inside the house like it appears they did last time. We don't HAVE anything left in the house of value for them to steal (and I would've thought they'd have figured that out the last time when they scoured the place), so they would've had to tear apart EVERYTHING just to find something, and if they hadn't found something, they would've gotten frustrated and started demolishing things.
Oh, and the small window alarms we'd put all over the window with the air conditioning apparently at least pissed them off and frustrated them. My dad had glued them on (because these kids had turned them off the last time), and the only way they could get to shut them up was to flush them down the toilet. Granted, we had to get the plumber to come in this morning because the alarms got stuck in the toilet and were continuously chirping (yes, that's right, the alarms kept going even after being submerged in water), but I can't help smirking knowing it at least wasted some of their precious time inside the house.
I just worry, too, that even if these kids are finally scared off from our house for good, they'll just start it up with someone else's house. They've made too much money off of this string of robberies (and probably had too much fun) to give up this life of crime. At least now we have general descriptions of who we're looking for, and half the neighborhood is keeping their eyes open for them.
Moving is now definitely on the agenda for the next year or two. Even if these kids are caught and punished (i.e. not just given a slap on the wrist), we can't stay in a house where we've been violated this repeatedly. It doesn't feel like a safe haven anymore, and it never will again. We just don't know where we want to go or what kind of house to look for.
*sighs* This has, without a doubt, been the Year From Hell. Can it please, please, please be over now?
Huh. In a sense, I expected this. In another, it's a complete surprise.
As anyone who's been following this ongoing saga on my LJ knows, my neighborhood's resident burglar has been hitting the neighborhood roughly once a week. It's entirely possible it's been more than that, but we haven't heard about any other instances because, well, we don't know everyone in the neighborhood yet. We're working on changing that, but at the moment, that's what we know.
So, today's burglary involved a townhouse about four blocks from our house. The kid broke in and stole a lady's computer equipment.
Let me clarify: he was trying to steal a lady's computer. The difference this time was that the lady came home while he was still there, pulled out her gun, and shot the kid in the head. According to the neighbor who just told us about it, he's dead.
Police have swarmed the area. Finally, they're doing something about it. And you know what? If they had followed our other neighbor's tip two weeks ago about where the thief was taking all the stolen goods, this particular death could have potentially been avoided. I'm afraid to hear how it's going to affect that woman's life, because right now I don't trust our legal system to not try to punish her for defending herself.
A part of me hates seeing anyone die like this; after all, he was someone's son. The other part of me is deeply relieved and saying, "Good! That's what you get for making a living out of terrorizing people and stealing other people's hard-worked earnings!" I really, really hate feeling like that about someone's violent death, but after all the crap we've been through the past few weeks, a little piece of justice like this goes a long, long way to restoring my faith in the world.
Granted, we're not entirely sure the kid who was killed is the same one who broke into our house all those times, but gee, stealing computer equipment and following that weekly timeframe? Sounds a little too coincidental, if you ask me. It would be interesting to hear if the neighbor who got that good look at the kid two weeks ago could ID him.
I'm sure this kid wasn't working alone and there's other creeps out there, too close to home, but maybe there will be a police investigation this time. Maybe they'll find more stolen goods (or, heh, our missing ADT sign, because exactly who would he be able to sell that thing to?). Maybe this kid's fellow creeps will give it a rest for fear of the same thing happening to them. Maybe there will be an effort to clean up that part of the neighborhood. Maybe we'll even have some peace of mind again in our own home, at least for awhile, until they start getting cocky and start the cycle up again.
If anyone's interested, let me know and I'll keep you guys informed of the fallout from this. And can I just say, again, how grateful I am for everyone on my friend list who provided their input, support, encouragement, and suggestions through the emotional turmoil of the past few weeks? Thank you all so, so much. Maybe this insanity is finally coming to an end!
As anyone who's been following this ongoing saga on my LJ knows, my neighborhood's resident burglar has been hitting the neighborhood roughly once a week. It's entirely possible it's been more than that, but we haven't heard about any other instances because, well, we don't know everyone in the neighborhood yet. We're working on changing that, but at the moment, that's what we know.
So, today's burglary involved a townhouse about four blocks from our house. The kid broke in and stole a lady's computer equipment.
Let me clarify: he was trying to steal a lady's computer. The difference this time was that the lady came home while he was still there, pulled out her gun, and shot the kid in the head. According to the neighbor who just told us about it, he's dead.
Police have swarmed the area. Finally, they're doing something about it. And you know what? If they had followed our other neighbor's tip two weeks ago about where the thief was taking all the stolen goods, this particular death could have potentially been avoided. I'm afraid to hear how it's going to affect that woman's life, because right now I don't trust our legal system to not try to punish her for defending herself.
A part of me hates seeing anyone die like this; after all, he was someone's son. The other part of me is deeply relieved and saying, "Good! That's what you get for making a living out of terrorizing people and stealing other people's hard-worked earnings!" I really, really hate feeling like that about someone's violent death, but after all the crap we've been through the past few weeks, a little piece of justice like this goes a long, long way to restoring my faith in the world.
Granted, we're not entirely sure the kid who was killed is the same one who broke into our house all those times, but gee, stealing computer equipment and following that weekly timeframe? Sounds a little too coincidental, if you ask me. It would be interesting to hear if the neighbor who got that good look at the kid two weeks ago could ID him.
I'm sure this kid wasn't working alone and there's other creeps out there, too close to home, but maybe there will be a police investigation this time. Maybe they'll find more stolen goods (or, heh, our missing ADT sign, because exactly who would he be able to sell that thing to?). Maybe this kid's fellow creeps will give it a rest for fear of the same thing happening to them. Maybe there will be an effort to clean up that part of the neighborhood. Maybe we'll even have some peace of mind again in our own home, at least for awhile, until they start getting cocky and start the cycle up again.
If anyone's interested, let me know and I'll keep you guys informed of the fallout from this. And can I just say, again, how grateful I am for everyone on my friend list who provided their input, support, encouragement, and suggestions through the emotional turmoil of the past few weeks? Thank you all so, so much. Maybe this insanity is finally coming to an end!
[SG1 Fic] The Geeky Anthropologist
Jun. 30th, 2007 12:20 pmTitle: The Geeky Anthropologist (As told by Jack O'Neill)
Author: smb814
Rating: FR-C (equivalent of the old G rating)
Category: Humor
Time Frame/Spoilers: Written during Season 2. There are a lot of little references to first and second season episodes, but nothing major.
Summary: This story is a modern retelling of the fairy tale "The Ugly Duckling."
Obligatory Disclaimer Stuff: As much as I wish I did, I don't own Stargate SG-1 or any of its characters. They're the property of Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. This story is written only for entertainment purposes and no money has exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations, and story belong to me. Not to be archived without my permission.
Author's Notes: This is the second story in my Stargate Fairy Tales series. Beck just had to issue a challenge for this story right when I had a ton of homework to do. Since I was looking for a reason to procrastinate, I took it. But next time, Beck, please pick a fairy tale that's a little, um, easier to work with, 'kay? :) Paralleling "The Ugly Duckling" to "Stargate SG-1" isn't the easiest task in the world. Oh, and the dog in the story is a tribute to the part I played in my kindergarten class play based on "The Ugly Duckling." Just thought I'd share that little worthless tidbit. :) Enjoy!
( The Geeky Anthropologist )
Author: smb814
Rating: FR-C (equivalent of the old G rating)
Category: Humor
Time Frame/Spoilers: Written during Season 2. There are a lot of little references to first and second season episodes, but nothing major.
Summary: This story is a modern retelling of the fairy tale "The Ugly Duckling."
Obligatory Disclaimer Stuff: As much as I wish I did, I don't own Stargate SG-1 or any of its characters. They're the property of Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. This story is written only for entertainment purposes and no money has exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations, and story belong to me. Not to be archived without my permission.
Author's Notes: This is the second story in my Stargate Fairy Tales series. Beck just had to issue a challenge for this story right when I had a ton of homework to do. Since I was looking for a reason to procrastinate, I took it. But next time, Beck, please pick a fairy tale that's a little, um, easier to work with, 'kay? :) Paralleling "The Ugly Duckling" to "Stargate SG-1" isn't the easiest task in the world. Oh, and the dog in the story is a tribute to the part I played in my kindergarten class play based on "The Ugly Duckling." Just thought I'd share that little worthless tidbit. :) Enjoy!
( The Geeky Anthropologist )
[SG1 Fic] Jack O'Nella
Jun. 30th, 2007 12:14 pmTitle: Jack O'Nella (As told by Daniel Jackson)
Author: smb814
Rating: FR-C (equivalent of the old G)
Category: Humor
Time Frame/Spoilers: Written during Season 2. There are a lot of little references to first and second season episodes, but nothing major.
Summary: A modern retelling of the fairy tale "Cinderella."
Obligatory Disclaimer Stuff: As much as I wish I did, I don't own Stargate SG-1 or any of its characters. They're the property of Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. This story is written only for entertainment purposes and no money has exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations, and story belong to me. Not to be archived without my permission.
Author's Notes: This is my first non-serious fanfic, and hopefully the first in a Fairy Tales series. If you're looking for something serious, you'd better read a different story because this is not it. Feedback is always welcome.
( Jack O'Nella )
Author: smb814
Rating: FR-C (equivalent of the old G)
Category: Humor
Time Frame/Spoilers: Written during Season 2. There are a lot of little references to first and second season episodes, but nothing major.
Summary: A modern retelling of the fairy tale "Cinderella."
Obligatory Disclaimer Stuff: As much as I wish I did, I don't own Stargate SG-1 or any of its characters. They're the property of Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. This story is written only for entertainment purposes and no money has exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations, and story belong to me. Not to be archived without my permission.
Author's Notes: This is my first non-serious fanfic, and hopefully the first in a Fairy Tales series. If you're looking for something serious, you'd better read a different story because this is not it. Feedback is always welcome.
( Jack O'Nella )
This is ridiculous.
Jun. 27th, 2007 12:05 pmSo, an update on the ongoing saga/insanity at home with the robberies and, now, harassment.
Our house wasn't hit last week, but a neighbor's was. They broke in through a side window, stole the family's laptop computer, and walked out the back door. The neighbors had seen someone walking up and down the street three times (gee, not suspicious AT ALL) and gave a description. The guy who was robbed drove around and around the neighborhood, looking for someone, and -- get this -- actually SAW the kid, with his computer in his hands, outside an apartment building near their house. He started going after the guy, but the guy ran into the apartment, and then three or four other guys came out of the apartment. Needless to say, he backed off.
The Milwaukee police took FOUR HOURS to respond to his call. I guess our 1 1/2 hour response time was great compared to what it could have been. By then, though, of course, there wouldn't be any evidence left. I'm sure that computer was sold immediately after that. But the guy did see this kid's face, good.
The next day, our next door neighbor noticed someone on the street who looked suspicious. She slowed her car down, and the guy hid his face under his hood. Gee, also not suspicious. Nope. Not in the least.
We got a security system last week (ADT). Expensive, but ultimately we didn't have a choice in the matter anymore. This creep/these creeps just refuse to leave our neighborhood -- and us -- alone.
So things have been quiet for a week...until last night, when they decided to steal the ADT sign outside our house. Didn't take anyone else's security signs, but they took ours. Basically, that's the equivalent of giving us the finger. We're guessing they came back to steal our cars with the keys they took from us this last time, but got pissed at us for changing the locks. Idiots. Because, you know, I was going to HAPPILY hand over my car to you. *rolls eyes*
I bought a lock for my computer and monitor, so at least it'll take them awhile to find a way to take it with them. And the longer it takes them to get anything valuable inside the house, the more likely they'll be to get noticed and caught. But I have a hunch next time they hit us (because obviously they're not bored of "playing" this "game" with us yet), it won't be to steal anything. It'll be to destroy things, maybe even the house itself. I could see this turning into someone throwing a pipe bomb through the window and running off, laughing hysterically at the "power" they have over us. Hey, it's happened elsewhere in the city, and within the past few days, at that.
So I moved even more stuff out of the house. Everything on my computer (which is home again) is backed up in case they destroy the thing or steal the hard drive. Everything extremely important is on me at all times.
This is no way to live, though. I'm getting so, so tired of all of it, living out of other people's houses and sitting with a baseball bat consantly beside me and having to run to the window any time I see movement outside. These kids (probably late teens/early twenties, judging from the few descriptions we've had) are nothing short of terrorists. Money and possessions mean nothing to us, but the loss of your peace of mind and feeling of safety and security and being able to function like a human being without being paranoid about everyone around you is irreplaceable. And why? Because these idiots are hooked on drugs, or bored, or "practicing making trouble" or just that miserable with life that they decide to make everyone else miserable, too.
We did nothing to them but try to protect our own possessions. We put in glass block windows; they decided to trash our house to "get even" with us for trying to take away something they apparently now see as theirs. We get a security system; they give us the finger. I'm sure they're planning something else. Heck, they probably just think we put the sign outside to scare them off and don't really have a system. I'm scared. I want to move out of the area -- out of the city -- but where do we go? Because we didn't WANT to move, it's not like we have a destination in mind, other than somewhere that we get a better police response time than 4 hours. You can't just drop everything and move, either; moving takes time, especially since we've been in this house for nearly 35 years, have a ton of stuff to go through, and have lots of upkeep to do to it yet, just so we can try selling it for a reasonable price.
And you know what's the worst part of all this? Coming to the realization that, if I was home alone the next time these creeps hit, I have the capability in me to beat them to a bloody pulp and potentially kill them. I never, ever wanted to come to that realization about myself, because it's not pretty. But it's realistic. Out of self-defense, I could kill a person. Especially knowing that, even if they're caught, they'll probably either get off scot-free on a technicality or will only be sentenced to a month or two in prison, because laws are just that lax nowadays. And they certainly won't feel bad for everything they've done.
I can't understand this mindset that people nowadays have, the lack of caring and the "entitlement" attitude people seem to have. "If I can't have it, you can't either." I don't want to understand it, because the mind of a monster is an ugly, ugly place. How did life get to be this messed up? How do we fix it? Is it even possible anymore?
What else can my family do? We reported the incident this morning to the police, and I just looked up a whole mess of phone numbers/email addresses for our alderman and police department and other assorted things. But this isn't going to stop until these kids are caught or get so bored that they move on to someone else to target. And as much as I want my life back, I wouldn't wish what we've been going through on anyone else.
Does anyone on my flist have ANY idea what else we could do to stop this continued harassment? Any idea whatsoever?
Our house wasn't hit last week, but a neighbor's was. They broke in through a side window, stole the family's laptop computer, and walked out the back door. The neighbors had seen someone walking up and down the street three times (gee, not suspicious AT ALL) and gave a description. The guy who was robbed drove around and around the neighborhood, looking for someone, and -- get this -- actually SAW the kid, with his computer in his hands, outside an apartment building near their house. He started going after the guy, but the guy ran into the apartment, and then three or four other guys came out of the apartment. Needless to say, he backed off.
The Milwaukee police took FOUR HOURS to respond to his call. I guess our 1 1/2 hour response time was great compared to what it could have been. By then, though, of course, there wouldn't be any evidence left. I'm sure that computer was sold immediately after that. But the guy did see this kid's face, good.
The next day, our next door neighbor noticed someone on the street who looked suspicious. She slowed her car down, and the guy hid his face under his hood. Gee, also not suspicious. Nope. Not in the least.
We got a security system last week (ADT). Expensive, but ultimately we didn't have a choice in the matter anymore. This creep/these creeps just refuse to leave our neighborhood -- and us -- alone.
So things have been quiet for a week...until last night, when they decided to steal the ADT sign outside our house. Didn't take anyone else's security signs, but they took ours. Basically, that's the equivalent of giving us the finger. We're guessing they came back to steal our cars with the keys they took from us this last time, but got pissed at us for changing the locks. Idiots. Because, you know, I was going to HAPPILY hand over my car to you. *rolls eyes*
I bought a lock for my computer and monitor, so at least it'll take them awhile to find a way to take it with them. And the longer it takes them to get anything valuable inside the house, the more likely they'll be to get noticed and caught. But I have a hunch next time they hit us (because obviously they're not bored of "playing" this "game" with us yet), it won't be to steal anything. It'll be to destroy things, maybe even the house itself. I could see this turning into someone throwing a pipe bomb through the window and running off, laughing hysterically at the "power" they have over us. Hey, it's happened elsewhere in the city, and within the past few days, at that.
So I moved even more stuff out of the house. Everything on my computer (which is home again) is backed up in case they destroy the thing or steal the hard drive. Everything extremely important is on me at all times.
This is no way to live, though. I'm getting so, so tired of all of it, living out of other people's houses and sitting with a baseball bat consantly beside me and having to run to the window any time I see movement outside. These kids (probably late teens/early twenties, judging from the few descriptions we've had) are nothing short of terrorists. Money and possessions mean nothing to us, but the loss of your peace of mind and feeling of safety and security and being able to function like a human being without being paranoid about everyone around you is irreplaceable. And why? Because these idiots are hooked on drugs, or bored, or "practicing making trouble" or just that miserable with life that they decide to make everyone else miserable, too.
We did nothing to them but try to protect our own possessions. We put in glass block windows; they decided to trash our house to "get even" with us for trying to take away something they apparently now see as theirs. We get a security system; they give us the finger. I'm sure they're planning something else. Heck, they probably just think we put the sign outside to scare them off and don't really have a system. I'm scared. I want to move out of the area -- out of the city -- but where do we go? Because we didn't WANT to move, it's not like we have a destination in mind, other than somewhere that we get a better police response time than 4 hours. You can't just drop everything and move, either; moving takes time, especially since we've been in this house for nearly 35 years, have a ton of stuff to go through, and have lots of upkeep to do to it yet, just so we can try selling it for a reasonable price.
And you know what's the worst part of all this? Coming to the realization that, if I was home alone the next time these creeps hit, I have the capability in me to beat them to a bloody pulp and potentially kill them. I never, ever wanted to come to that realization about myself, because it's not pretty. But it's realistic. Out of self-defense, I could kill a person. Especially knowing that, even if they're caught, they'll probably either get off scot-free on a technicality or will only be sentenced to a month or two in prison, because laws are just that lax nowadays. And they certainly won't feel bad for everything they've done.
I can't understand this mindset that people nowadays have, the lack of caring and the "entitlement" attitude people seem to have. "If I can't have it, you can't either." I don't want to understand it, because the mind of a monster is an ugly, ugly place. How did life get to be this messed up? How do we fix it? Is it even possible anymore?
What else can my family do? We reported the incident this morning to the police, and I just looked up a whole mess of phone numbers/email addresses for our alderman and police department and other assorted things. But this isn't going to stop until these kids are caught or get so bored that they move on to someone else to target. And as much as I want my life back, I wouldn't wish what we've been going through on anyone else.
Does anyone on my flist have ANY idea what else we could do to stop this continued harassment? Any idea whatsoever?
(no subject)
Jun. 12th, 2007 10:02 pmOh, my lovely Flist...I love you all, so, so much. Thank you for your kind thoughts and support right now. Words can't tell you how much I appreciate it.
I would reply to each of you personally (and I still might eventually, if I'm lucky), but we're swamped with taking care of things around the house today (every other time I've been on the internet today I've been looking security stuff up) and I'm exhausted because I barely slept last night, so I'm going to make this quick and then try to get to bed.
So, the day's progress.
1) We got new locks installed on all the doors, and we added a lock to the door at the base of the steps coming upstairs (where my room is). We pretty much had to do all of that when we found that a partial set of house keys had vanished along with our car keys during the break-in yesterday.
2) We moved my parents' air conditioner to a window facing the street so it's not quite as easy to break into. We still have to trim the shrubs around that new window, but it's a start, especially when there's only so many hours in the day.
3) We cleaned stuff up that had been royally messed up yesterday.
4) We started going through tons of paperwork that's been sitting around for eons and dumping things.
5) We called the electric company and started finding out what we need to do to remove a few troublesome trees that have electrical wires running really, really close to them. They're contacting the Forestry department and we should hear back from them within the next 10 days or so.
Not too bad. It's amazing how much you can get done in a single day when you put your mind to it.
In addition to the money, computer monitor, and the keyboard, they also took our computer mouse. Go figure. All we can theorize is that they're planning to come back soon for the rest of the computer. Needless to say, tomorrow we're moving it to a location completely outside of the house. It's not like it'll work without a monitor, keyboard, or mouse anyway. *sighs* And, of course, this is assuming they didn't completely wreck the computer itself and it still works.
We're also planning, this coming weekend, on moving my computer to an alternate, safer location until this whole thing has (hopefully) passed. The last thing we need is to lose our one remaining, functioning computer because they decide they want this one, too. It'll be awful being without internet access at home, but right now it's not a chance I want to take. Besides, I don't need any further distractions right now. I need to focus on my novel and on cleaning up so we can start thinking about moving.
Also on the agenda for tomorrow is cutting down some more tree branches, getting the cars re- keyed (and hope and pray that they don't decide to take their frustration about that out in an act of vandalism against any of the poor cars themselves), going through more stuff around the house, moving even more stuff down to my dad's church, and doing some in-depth research about security systems. Oh, and trying (again) to get some information about the best response to possible identity theft that a woman at work was supposed to get me...only I think she forgot.
As for the security system do any of you have a security system on your own house? If so, what brand? Do you like it? Is it, in your opinion, worth the money? Is it reliable? Is it quick to install and activate? Does it have a quick response time? We've looked at a few brands but none are standing out so far, so we're definitely seeking personal recommendations.
I suppose I'd better get to bed and try to sleep now.
I would reply to each of you personally (and I still might eventually, if I'm lucky), but we're swamped with taking care of things around the house today (every other time I've been on the internet today I've been looking security stuff up) and I'm exhausted because I barely slept last night, so I'm going to make this quick and then try to get to bed.
So, the day's progress.
1) We got new locks installed on all the doors, and we added a lock to the door at the base of the steps coming upstairs (where my room is). We pretty much had to do all of that when we found that a partial set of house keys had vanished along with our car keys during the break-in yesterday.
2) We moved my parents' air conditioner to a window facing the street so it's not quite as easy to break into. We still have to trim the shrubs around that new window, but it's a start, especially when there's only so many hours in the day.
3) We cleaned stuff up that had been royally messed up yesterday.
4) We started going through tons of paperwork that's been sitting around for eons and dumping things.
5) We called the electric company and started finding out what we need to do to remove a few troublesome trees that have electrical wires running really, really close to them. They're contacting the Forestry department and we should hear back from them within the next 10 days or so.
Not too bad. It's amazing how much you can get done in a single day when you put your mind to it.
In addition to the money, computer monitor, and the keyboard, they also took our computer mouse. Go figure. All we can theorize is that they're planning to come back soon for the rest of the computer. Needless to say, tomorrow we're moving it to a location completely outside of the house. It's not like it'll work without a monitor, keyboard, or mouse anyway. *sighs* And, of course, this is assuming they didn't completely wreck the computer itself and it still works.
We're also planning, this coming weekend, on moving my computer to an alternate, safer location until this whole thing has (hopefully) passed. The last thing we need is to lose our one remaining, functioning computer because they decide they want this one, too. It'll be awful being without internet access at home, but right now it's not a chance I want to take. Besides, I don't need any further distractions right now. I need to focus on my novel and on cleaning up so we can start thinking about moving.
Also on the agenda for tomorrow is cutting down some more tree branches, getting the cars re- keyed (and hope and pray that they don't decide to take their frustration about that out in an act of vandalism against any of the poor cars themselves), going through more stuff around the house, moving even more stuff down to my dad's church, and doing some in-depth research about security systems. Oh, and trying (again) to get some information about the best response to possible identity theft that a woman at work was supposed to get me...only I think she forgot.
As for the security system do any of you have a security system on your own house? If so, what brand? Do you like it? Is it, in your opinion, worth the money? Is it reliable? Is it quick to install and activate? Does it have a quick response time? We've looked at a few brands but none are standing out so far, so we're definitely seeking personal recommendations.
I suppose I'd better get to bed and try to sleep now.
(no subject)
Jun. 11th, 2007 11:41 pmIt's well after 11 p.m., Joy already knows I'm not going in to work tomorrow, and I'm positive it's going to take me forever to fall asleep tonight, so here I am writing in my LJ because I need some semblance of catharsis.
Last week we put in glass block windows in our basement windows. Over the weekend we also started cutting down the lower branches of the trees along the culprit side of the house so it opened up the area and made it more visible. We also bought window alarms so that if a window ever moved, an alarm would sound.
Instead of breaking in the downstairs window, they busted in the siding on my parents' air conditioner (this person is small, because very few people would be able to fit through a window of that size). They disabled the alarm on the window. They then tore apart my parents' room, the den (with my parents' computer), the bathroom, the kitchen, and the living room, looking for money. When they only found about $200 (that we know of), they decided to take my parents' flatscreen computer monitor and keyboard. The monitor would fetch a pretty penny; the keyboard makes no sense. They also took three sets of car keys, one for each of our cars. Once again, I got off lucky that they never bothered going upstairs.
The police found absolutely nothing except a single set of bike tracks leading from our window to the cul-de-sac behind our house. No one in the area saw or heard anything...and people were actually home. Some were even out in their yards. They left no fingerprints (at least not that the police could find) or blood samples or anything else we can use to find out who did it. We have no way of finding the person who did this.
I packed up all my video game stuff and DVD sets and sent it off to a friend's house, not just so this person doesn't take any of it, but so it's not damaged when my room becomes their next target. If this burglar took car keys, he/she is planning on coming back when they're in a pinch and trying to swipe our cars. Next time this person is here (because I have absolutely no doubt that this person will be back), I'm sure they'll go upstairs this time and take whatever they can find. I'm sure my computer monitor will be next because it's identical to the one they took from my parents. I was also lucky in that I backed up my entire hard drive only yesterday (bought an external one on sale from Best Buy and backed everything up) and I've now sent that off for safekeeping, too, so multiple copies of my novel exist in various places. I can live without a lot of things, but it would kill me to lose all of the work on that novel permanently. We took our money and other valuables down to my father's church.
Milwaukee's police force is horrible. It took them well over an hour and a half just to get here, both of these times, and when we ask what else we can do to prevent this from happening, they don't have any suggestions. And they're so understaffed that they don't patrol the area, looking for suspicious activity. They don't even recommend getting an alarm system because they know they're not able to respond to it in a timely fashion.
The one thing I've been able to glean about this person is that they're physically small (maybe even a kid), they're desperate for money (maybe even druggies needing their "fix"), they're obsessed with our house (probably because they got that $1,000 last year and now think we're THE place to hit), and they know they're not going to get caught so they just keep coming back, getting bolder, and taking whatever they want. And if they can't get it, they get angry and are now obviously moving on to destroying things. Personally, I think they're pissed that we blocked their "perfect" entry route by putting in the glass block windows. And angry, desperate, obsessed, and determined is a bad combination...as far as I'm concerned, it leads to one terrifying place: murder, if necessary, and massive destruction (maybe even arson) if they can't get what they want. Human beings are capable of a lot of horrible things, and in this city, where people get killed at gas stations just for their shoes, clearly no one is safe from it anymore. I would put nothing past this person anymore, not if they came back twice in a week and a half. And that makes me fear not only for my own life, but for my parent's lives.
I don't know what to do. I don't want to live in a world this ****ed up anymore. Life isn't supposed to be like this. Everything about Earth (and humanity) is falling apart at the seams, even the weather. I have no idea why God is letting this happen, without exacting justice from this creep. I'm not suicidal, but I'm also having a hard time seeing the good in anything anymore, the point to it. And to think that I'm only 28 and am supposed to have a nice, long life ahead of me. What's the point of it when there's no world worth living in anymore? Every day it's getting worse, and nothing's happening to change it. I'm afraid it's going to take something catastropic for people to realize this way of life isn't working and actually do something to change it, to fix everything that's gone wrong.
There is so much wrong with everything nowadays. People have lost the ability to be human. All we want to do is earn a decent living for ourselves by working hard. How do we escape this insanity and evil? I don't know. I feel completely helpless. I feel defeated. I feel lost. I feel exhausted. I feel devastated. I'm scared. I have a lot of vacation days left this summer that I need to take off, and I'm afraid to take any of them and be at home alone because I don't know how to defend myself if worst came to worst.
The last time this happened, it hit me hard. It took until the middle of last week before I started recovering from it. This time, though...I just don't know how I'm going to manage even that. It hasn't even sunk in yet. Even last time I was beginning to question my sanity and my ability to handle bad things that happened...and now this happens. Again. And I'm becoming even more paranoid than before.
What is the purpose my being alive? I wouldn't exist unless there was a reason, right? What am I supposed to do? Am I doing something wrong and being punished? Is the Universe/God trying to tell me something? Do I need to change something? Am I supposed to be doing something else and this is a sign to be doing it? But what? We're working on moving as fast as we can, but there's a lot of work here that needs to be done yet before we can do that.
Is there any place in the world that hasn't been touched by the United States' pure selfishness, corruptness, and obsession with monetary and physical goods? Where a human life is maybe still valued, where other people's possessions aren't yours for the taking? Because I really, really want to move there, even if it means becoming a hermit for the rest of my life. How about Canada? How good/bad are things there? Or England? Seriously. Right now I'll consider anything.
I guess I'd better start focusing solely on that novel and forget everything else until it's done. I need to have it in workable condition and off to someone I can trust soon so that, in the event that I don't live long enough to finish what started all those years ago, maybe someone else can at least make sure that whatever is supposed to happen with it can happen. Because right now, that's the only "legacy" I'm afraid I may ever be able to leave.
And please, dear friends, if you believe in a higher being, please say a prayer for my family and our safety. I'm trying desperately not to lose faith, but I tell you, senseless things like this make it easy to see how people can question the existence of God.
Last week we put in glass block windows in our basement windows. Over the weekend we also started cutting down the lower branches of the trees along the culprit side of the house so it opened up the area and made it more visible. We also bought window alarms so that if a window ever moved, an alarm would sound.
Instead of breaking in the downstairs window, they busted in the siding on my parents' air conditioner (this person is small, because very few people would be able to fit through a window of that size). They disabled the alarm on the window. They then tore apart my parents' room, the den (with my parents' computer), the bathroom, the kitchen, and the living room, looking for money. When they only found about $200 (that we know of), they decided to take my parents' flatscreen computer monitor and keyboard. The monitor would fetch a pretty penny; the keyboard makes no sense. They also took three sets of car keys, one for each of our cars. Once again, I got off lucky that they never bothered going upstairs.
The police found absolutely nothing except a single set of bike tracks leading from our window to the cul-de-sac behind our house. No one in the area saw or heard anything...and people were actually home. Some were even out in their yards. They left no fingerprints (at least not that the police could find) or blood samples or anything else we can use to find out who did it. We have no way of finding the person who did this.
I packed up all my video game stuff and DVD sets and sent it off to a friend's house, not just so this person doesn't take any of it, but so it's not damaged when my room becomes their next target. If this burglar took car keys, he/she is planning on coming back when they're in a pinch and trying to swipe our cars. Next time this person is here (because I have absolutely no doubt that this person will be back), I'm sure they'll go upstairs this time and take whatever they can find. I'm sure my computer monitor will be next because it's identical to the one they took from my parents. I was also lucky in that I backed up my entire hard drive only yesterday (bought an external one on sale from Best Buy and backed everything up) and I've now sent that off for safekeeping, too, so multiple copies of my novel exist in various places. I can live without a lot of things, but it would kill me to lose all of the work on that novel permanently. We took our money and other valuables down to my father's church.
Milwaukee's police force is horrible. It took them well over an hour and a half just to get here, both of these times, and when we ask what else we can do to prevent this from happening, they don't have any suggestions. And they're so understaffed that they don't patrol the area, looking for suspicious activity. They don't even recommend getting an alarm system because they know they're not able to respond to it in a timely fashion.
The one thing I've been able to glean about this person is that they're physically small (maybe even a kid), they're desperate for money (maybe even druggies needing their "fix"), they're obsessed with our house (probably because they got that $1,000 last year and now think we're THE place to hit), and they know they're not going to get caught so they just keep coming back, getting bolder, and taking whatever they want. And if they can't get it, they get angry and are now obviously moving on to destroying things. Personally, I think they're pissed that we blocked their "perfect" entry route by putting in the glass block windows. And angry, desperate, obsessed, and determined is a bad combination...as far as I'm concerned, it leads to one terrifying place: murder, if necessary, and massive destruction (maybe even arson) if they can't get what they want. Human beings are capable of a lot of horrible things, and in this city, where people get killed at gas stations just for their shoes, clearly no one is safe from it anymore. I would put nothing past this person anymore, not if they came back twice in a week and a half. And that makes me fear not only for my own life, but for my parent's lives.
I don't know what to do. I don't want to live in a world this ****ed up anymore. Life isn't supposed to be like this. Everything about Earth (and humanity) is falling apart at the seams, even the weather. I have no idea why God is letting this happen, without exacting justice from this creep. I'm not suicidal, but I'm also having a hard time seeing the good in anything anymore, the point to it. And to think that I'm only 28 and am supposed to have a nice, long life ahead of me. What's the point of it when there's no world worth living in anymore? Every day it's getting worse, and nothing's happening to change it. I'm afraid it's going to take something catastropic for people to realize this way of life isn't working and actually do something to change it, to fix everything that's gone wrong.
There is so much wrong with everything nowadays. People have lost the ability to be human. All we want to do is earn a decent living for ourselves by working hard. How do we escape this insanity and evil? I don't know. I feel completely helpless. I feel defeated. I feel lost. I feel exhausted. I feel devastated. I'm scared. I have a lot of vacation days left this summer that I need to take off, and I'm afraid to take any of them and be at home alone because I don't know how to defend myself if worst came to worst.
The last time this happened, it hit me hard. It took until the middle of last week before I started recovering from it. This time, though...I just don't know how I'm going to manage even that. It hasn't even sunk in yet. Even last time I was beginning to question my sanity and my ability to handle bad things that happened...and now this happens. Again. And I'm becoming even more paranoid than before.
What is the purpose my being alive? I wouldn't exist unless there was a reason, right? What am I supposed to do? Am I doing something wrong and being punished? Is the Universe/God trying to tell me something? Do I need to change something? Am I supposed to be doing something else and this is a sign to be doing it? But what? We're working on moving as fast as we can, but there's a lot of work here that needs to be done yet before we can do that.
Is there any place in the world that hasn't been touched by the United States' pure selfishness, corruptness, and obsession with monetary and physical goods? Where a human life is maybe still valued, where other people's possessions aren't yours for the taking? Because I really, really want to move there, even if it means becoming a hermit for the rest of my life. How about Canada? How good/bad are things there? Or England? Seriously. Right now I'll consider anything.
I guess I'd better start focusing solely on that novel and forget everything else until it's done. I need to have it in workable condition and off to someone I can trust soon so that, in the event that I don't live long enough to finish what started all those years ago, maybe someone else can at least make sure that whatever is supposed to happen with it can happen. Because right now, that's the only "legacy" I'm afraid I may ever be able to leave.
And please, dear friends, if you believe in a higher being, please say a prayer for my family and our safety. I'm trying desperately not to lose faith, but I tell you, senseless things like this make it easy to see how people can question the existence of God.
(no subject)
Jun. 11th, 2007 06:45 pmSo, our house was broken into today. Again. Second time in less than two weeks. Only this time, they trashed the place.
I am utterly terrified.
I am utterly terrified.
Life Sucks.
May. 30th, 2007 08:19 pmSo, on top of an already absolutely awful semester, wherein work has been insane, I've struggled on and off for months with depression and self-doubts and general feelings of worthlessness, and life has just generally sucked, big time (e.g. my dad being in a car accident two weeks ago with a school bus...no one was hurt, the car is still drivable, and we're getting a nice amount of money from the bus company, but it still sucked), today our house was broken into. Again. By the exact same Friendly Neighborhood Thief (FNT) as the one who broke in last year.
They used the same method (of course, this time they had to completely unscrew the plexiglass on the window before they could get in, which must have taken, oh, a rather extensive amount of time unless they had a power drill). They left no tracks or prints. They stole the exact same thing (although this time, they only got about $200 worth of cash and maybe two credit cards that we've already reported stolen as opposed to the $1,000 worth of cash they got last year -- ha!). They didn't touch anything else.
So, yeah. Deja vu in the worst possible way. Nice feelings of rage and violation and helplessness and frustration at how messed up life and people nowadays are abound.
On the bright side, we finally got to meet some of our neighbors tonight. They really are quite nice. On the down side, we're thinking the only way to stop any future thefts by our FNT, now that our house is apparently marked as an "easy target," is to either get a really big dog or move. The cops said there's nothing else we can do. Hopefully our FNT was disappointed with the amount he/she got this time compared to last time and won't bother coming back, but I'm not holding my breath.
And here I'd been on such a nice, Pirates of the Caribbean high since seeing #3 on Sunday. *sighs*
They used the same method (of course, this time they had to completely unscrew the plexiglass on the window before they could get in, which must have taken, oh, a rather extensive amount of time unless they had a power drill). They left no tracks or prints. They stole the exact same thing (although this time, they only got about $200 worth of cash and maybe two credit cards that we've already reported stolen as opposed to the $1,000 worth of cash they got last year -- ha!). They didn't touch anything else.
So, yeah. Deja vu in the worst possible way. Nice feelings of rage and violation and helplessness and frustration at how messed up life and people nowadays are abound.
On the bright side, we finally got to meet some of our neighbors tonight. They really are quite nice. On the down side, we're thinking the only way to stop any future thefts by our FNT, now that our house is apparently marked as an "easy target," is to either get a really big dog or move. The cops said there's nothing else we can do. Hopefully our FNT was disappointed with the amount he/she got this time compared to last time and won't bother coming back, but I'm not holding my breath.
And here I'd been on such a nice, Pirates of the Caribbean high since seeing #3 on Sunday. *sighs*
[SG1 Fic] Bitter Pills
Apr. 9th, 2007 09:45 amContinuing in my quest to repost some of my older, shorter fics on LJ, here's one that was written way back in 2001. :) This one never generated much of a response, but then, in my experience, missing scenes/epilogues never seem to anyway, so.... *shrugs*
Title: Bitter Pills
Author: smb814
Rating: FR-C+ (equivalent of the old PG)
Warnings: Mild language, adult themes
Category: Missing Scene/Epilogue, Friendship
Spoilers: "Threshold." Blink-and-you'll-miss-it references to Family, Out of Mind, and Jolinar's Memories.
Season Info: Epilogue to "Threshold."
Summary: "I will follow that method of treatment which, according to my ability and judgment, I consider for the benefit of my patient and abstain from whatever is harmful or mischievous." ~Hippocratic oath, modern version
Word Count: 2,771
Prompt: Doctor (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
100_situations Table 5 #083)
( Bitter Pills )
Title: Bitter Pills
Author: smb814
Rating: FR-C+ (equivalent of the old PG)
Warnings: Mild language, adult themes
Category: Missing Scene/Epilogue, Friendship
Spoilers: "Threshold." Blink-and-you'll-miss-it references to Family, Out of Mind, and Jolinar's Memories.
Season Info: Epilogue to "Threshold."
Summary: "I will follow that method of treatment which, according to my ability and judgment, I consider for the benefit of my patient and abstain from whatever is harmful or mischievous." ~Hippocratic oath, modern version
Word Count: 2,771
Prompt: Doctor (
100_situations Table 5 #083)( Bitter Pills )
