The bulk of the parts for my new computer came in today. *dances*

So far, I’m reading through the assorted manuals to make sure I have everything in order. You couldn’t get much more OEM the way the hard drive and optical drive came wrapped together in anti-static baggies and bubble wrap. Kind of wishing I’d gone retail for the hard drive so I had the manual and disks, but it’s a little late for that.

The video card… eh, the manual leaves a little to be desired. :-P The instructions are basically: “Remove your old card, put in new card. Restart system, let Windows recognize it, then install the included driver disk.”

Kind of thinking of skipping the job fair. :-/ According to the newspaper section dedicated to the job fair, there’s not much in the way of potential employers that are going to be there that I’ll be interested in. There’s assorted military recruiters, construction, manufacturing, health care, and then several staffing places. There’s only a few employers that I might be interested in and it almost doesn’t make sense to go for three or four specific places. (And I don’t even see them on the web site for the job fair now.)

Right now, mom’s talking really highly about going out and getting the new monitor and then going clothes shopping. I might do that and just go hit the staffing places either online or on my own.

So far, my summer seems to be going well. I’m partipating in the eFiction Project actively for the first time in a long while, though probably not as much as I could be. (Actually, I’m probably being downright annoying.)

One of the large sites must have pissed people off again, my site has had a massive surge in visits and new authors. I keep checking my stats, but I can’t tell what site is referring them. I’m actually very glad I brought in all those extra moderators. I’m used to the sudden hush the RL/AR used to get; all this activity is a tab unnerving. ^^;

eFiction 3.0 is going to be very very cool, but I’m dreading switching us over. I’ve added so many extras there is going no easy way to upgrade. ^^;; But… ooh, it is awesome. There’s just so many new things in this release, it’s just going to be pure awesomeness. (Is that even a word??)

My Kiwi layout has hit a bump, since I don’t remember what I wanted to do with it anymore. I can’t find my original design sketch either, so I can check my plan. XD I might just trash it and work on Green tea instead.

While I’m thinking about it, I need up re-do my blog. I’ve begun posting my eFiction junk to it, which is kind of cluttering it. I also want it to have a more professional look, since I’m going to put a portfolio and my resume on it. (I probably should clean up the language too *grimace, laugh*)

For the first time in years, we have a garden. It’s nothing special, just some tomatos, strawberries, and some flowering plants that I’ve planted in pots so if I need to move again they can come with me.

Local news has me feeling a little more optimistic:

Google to bring 1000 jobs to Michigan

LANSING — High tech - and high-tech jobs — hits Michigan with Tuesday’s announcement that Google will open a facility in Ann Arbor.

At a morning press conference, Governor Granholm officially unveiled the project that will add 1,000 jobs to Michigan’s workforce.

The new facility involves Google’s AdWords unit, which handles “pay-per-click” advertising to Google’s users. To sweeten the deal, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation gave Google a high-tech business tax credit worth more than $38 million over 20 years. (more…)

I sincerely don’t want to move to Ann Arbor, that’s way too close to one of my mom’s aunts… who is just way too much like Sheba for my tastes. BUT if it means I can get a good job doing what I enjoy doing, then by the Gods of warfare — I’ll do it! (What Karla doesn’t know won’t hurt her me.)

Other than that, we’re holding on. Mom blew a tire last night on her way to work and had to get a ride from our neighbor, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. The local tire shop quoted her about $80 for a new tire plus installation, but then the owner decuded ti only charge her $50. ^___^

DTE Energy keeps calling, demanding their money. Maryann still wants her $600 back, plus we keep getting letters from collection agencies for some of the bills we incured trying to get out of Alpine Medows… so we’re not out of the woods yet. The pressure has just been let up a bit.

I’m trying to work with a lady who bought one of my books off from Amazon.com. There were 4 audio chapter review CDs that came with the book and I said they were included in my post. I remember putting them in the envelope with the book and so does mom and Jasson, but apparently the CDs didn’t make it there. The envelope was apparently intact, so they didn’t fall out. *sighs* Being good, I retraced my steps to see if I lost them on the way to the post office. Nothing in lost and found. I called the publisher and distribution center to see if could buy new copies, they’re only part of a bundle deal.

I’m more than a little dubious about the whole thing. First of all, she waited a month to e-mail me and is now taking anywhere from 5 days to weeks to write me back each time. She says she absolutely has to have those CDs for her class. I’ll admit that they were helpful in allowing me to study during the eviction and while moving, but they weren’t that helpful nor essential. I have no idea what’s going on. I finally offered her a refund and it’s going on about two weeks since I last heard from her.

Mom has come right out and wondered if she isn’t trying to weasel copies of the CDs out of me so she can have two. She’s also wondered if they CDs aren’t/weren’t in the bottom of the envelope. *shrugs* Her guess is as good as mine.

I swear, if I sell anything else on Amazon — they only thing I’m writing is the book’s condition. No information on infotrac or anything extra that comes with it. And then I’m going to mummify the damned thing so nothing falls out.

Anyroad, that’s my summer so far. Much love to everyone.

To start this off, I have to stress that it’s not a case of us being completely innocent victims. I hate that idea of people passing themselves off as completely innocent of any wrongdoing; Alpine Meadows has been pulling that with us for the past few weeks. So I’m not going to try that myself. We were in the wrong. We didn’t pay our rent and didn’t have the courage to ask for help when it could have been easily given.

And we were evicted because of it.

That being said, I feel that our treatment at the hands of Alpine Meadows, the courts, and the realtors at First Choice Mobile Home Sales was completely deplorable. We’re not criminals, we’re not trash. We’re people who just happen to be poor.

This entry is kind of rambling and VERY long (9 pages, 3873 words). I broke it up into pages to keep it straight. (Lj cuts if you’re reading it there.) I’ll include dates and times so we can stay clear about the timeline, since I do tend to jump around a little bit.

Mom just lost her job.

Please, God…. make the freefall stop!