This blog has to do with keeping Ning free, no matter what those greedy corporate people who run Ning want to do. In the next three months they will take away our free services. They want to put the Ning sites on a paying basis. We pay enough for our Internet, whether it be DSL or cable, without the companies on the Internet trying to get more money out of us.
Here I change tack, addressing Ning directly. Why don’t you just get your money out of the ISPs the way they do on cable or satellite TV, or sell ad space the way the commercial cable networks do, or like you have done the last several years? It’s grossly unfair to take our free networks away from us. If you wanted to make money from it, you should have charged us from the beginning, like GoDaddy! did. Of course people wouldn’t have bought your product, but that’s the breaks of the commercial game. It’s one of the risks you take when you start a commercial enterprise. You’re acting like the drug pusher who gives away his product until people get hooked, and then you start charging them an arm and a leg for your “service”. It’s mean and grossly unfair. Many of your customers are disabled who live on very limited incomes, and just barely manage to scrape together the $25 per month for DSL service, and the Internet is their only outlet.
I wish we could sue you, Ning, for breach of contract. But I predict what will happen. You try to charge us, and people will vote with their feet, or rather, their fingers. We will walk away, and your only customers will be a bunch of greedy merchants who will blame you for taking their client base away and stop paying for sites or ads.. You will all go broke, and no one will shed a single tear over your demise as a going concern, because we’re shedding our tears now, in anger, because you’re taking our ning away.
Don’t do it, Ning, you will regret it. I was chatting with an old friend of mine, who is a Reagan Republican, about the situation, and he surprised me. I had expected him to take Rosenthal’s side, but he said that Rosenthal made a very poor business decision in taking away the free services while concentrating on the paid services. The free customers are more likely to come over to the premium services if he retains both. This way he’ll lose a lot of his premium customers, and won’t gain the new ones he expects to come over from the free side. Let’s prove my friend right, folks. Boycott the site of anyone who breaks with us, and buys his services, unless Rosenthal decides to change his mind. Boycott both Ning and anyone who buys his services. Go, Ning, go away, because we won’t pay! I was going to have you email me about the time frame in which they’ll commit this travesty, but it turns out that they’re going to be doing it during the next three months. Find out Jason Rosenthal’s address, either snailmail, or email, and pelt him with letters and emails. I do not recommend death threats, as angry as you may justifiably be at him. Just state how evil he’s being for doing this. When you find either his email, or his snailmail addy, let me know in comments on this blog. I wanna write him too...
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
We Still Need Help
This is the 3rd plea I have sent out. I hate doing this, but I must. You who know me know that I am a proud woman. I don’t mind asking my therapist and other social agencies for help, because that is their job. But I hate asking individuals for money. Yet I must. Stephen is standing over me right now dictating what to write. All right. I realize how tough it is when everyone has his hand out asking, in some cases, demanding money. But the need is dire. We need over $2000 to move, and we only have 48 days before the sheriffs come. Sixty-two and a half readings at $32 per reading would do it. Now I know many of you are just scraping by. You manage to pay your rent and your DSL, and that is about it. But others of you are better off. For $60, you get either both of us doing the reading or a reading and a class. If any of you lives in the Sacramento area, you get to get your reading/class in person. If I am not feverishly working on one of my WIPs, you’ll get 2 perspectives on the reading or class, not just one.
If you read the blog before then that, then you know that it’s about the cats, or as Stephen calls them, the putties. If a putty has ever owned you, you know intimately what they do for you. They lower the stress level with their comical antics, and there’s nothing quite like the feeling you get when you have one on your lap, purring. It’s gotten so that my moments of deep contentment take place when Bailee is in my lap, I am watching a Netflix movie, and doing my embroidery. Studies have shown that when a human is stroking a cat, and the cat purrs, the purring lowers the human’s blood pressure. I have an unproven theory that the deep buzzing also puts the human mind into an alpha state. Maybe it’s my ignorance, but I don’t know of a study that proves this. If you know of any please let me know. I’d like to find out. That’s why I pity those who are allergic to cats. They don’t know what they’re missing. Back before Doc died, when we’d go visit our friends and fellow coven members, I’d have what I call “fried brain syndrome” often I’d have been working on a manuscript, getting it ready either for publication, or for submission. When I do this, I get kind of a tunnel vision, where I barely acknowledged the existence of anyone else. I acknowledged Doc, of course, but he was only home in the evenings, and when he had a lodge meeting, he wasn’t home even then. So it was just me and my computer, totally focused on getting my book finished. I’d turn it in to my editor, pack, and wait until Doc got home, packed and we’d take off. When we arrived, the kids would pile kittens on me. They’re the best treatment for FBS. Their simplicity and sweetness soothed me. At this time, I didn’t have any cats of my own, since they’d all died on us. There’s nothing like having 3 or 4 several month-old kittens piled on you. It’s a sensation that’s difficult for even a wordsmith like me to describe. Imagine your lap being occupied by 3 or 4 small squirming furry bodies. You stroke their fur and a low buzz starts. When they’re all purring, it’s either in a 3 or 4 part counterpoint, or in unison. You scritch and scratch behind their ears and the purring gets louder. At times you raise them up to do the “Tooty Dance”. Back to the present. Our putties have learned certain tricks such as opening doors. Fortunately, they haven’t been able to open the sliding door to the back porch room.
If you live in the area, and need a cat, we have 5 available. I would have said before “free to a good home,” but a friend very wisely told me this past weekend that we should charge something because that will demonstrate that you have the income necessary to take care of a pet. So I am going to charge the nominal fee of $5 per cat.
So call for your reading today. I don’t have my webcam or headset hooked up yet, so for a multimedia reading where you can see the cards, call Stephen at 916-455-2267. You can have your multimedia reading on Yahoo IM, Windows Msgr, AIM AOL Instant Messenger), or Skype. I can do phone readings at 916-457-7476. $32 for a reading or class, $60 for both a reading and a class. For an extra $5, I’ll throw in a copy of one of my 5 books, for $20 I’ll email you all 5.
I have decided to pursue the mundane sources that are available to me, and use the Secret. It’s hard not to think poor when the evidence is all around me, but I have to, or I’ll never get anywhere. Here’s a riddle for you: What is the opposite of faith? The answer is not disbelief, but despair. Think about it.
If you read the blog before then that, then you know that it’s about the cats, or as Stephen calls them, the putties. If a putty has ever owned you, you know intimately what they do for you. They lower the stress level with their comical antics, and there’s nothing quite like the feeling you get when you have one on your lap, purring. It’s gotten so that my moments of deep contentment take place when Bailee is in my lap, I am watching a Netflix movie, and doing my embroidery. Studies have shown that when a human is stroking a cat, and the cat purrs, the purring lowers the human’s blood pressure. I have an unproven theory that the deep buzzing also puts the human mind into an alpha state. Maybe it’s my ignorance, but I don’t know of a study that proves this. If you know of any please let me know. I’d like to find out. That’s why I pity those who are allergic to cats. They don’t know what they’re missing. Back before Doc died, when we’d go visit our friends and fellow coven members, I’d have what I call “fried brain syndrome” often I’d have been working on a manuscript, getting it ready either for publication, or for submission. When I do this, I get kind of a tunnel vision, where I barely acknowledged the existence of anyone else. I acknowledged Doc, of course, but he was only home in the evenings, and when he had a lodge meeting, he wasn’t home even then. So it was just me and my computer, totally focused on getting my book finished. I’d turn it in to my editor, pack, and wait until Doc got home, packed and we’d take off. When we arrived, the kids would pile kittens on me. They’re the best treatment for FBS. Their simplicity and sweetness soothed me. At this time, I didn’t have any cats of my own, since they’d all died on us. There’s nothing like having 3 or 4 several month-old kittens piled on you. It’s a sensation that’s difficult for even a wordsmith like me to describe. Imagine your lap being occupied by 3 or 4 small squirming furry bodies. You stroke their fur and a low buzz starts. When they’re all purring, it’s either in a 3 or 4 part counterpoint, or in unison. You scritch and scratch behind their ears and the purring gets louder. At times you raise them up to do the “Tooty Dance”. Back to the present. Our putties have learned certain tricks such as opening doors. Fortunately, they haven’t been able to open the sliding door to the back porch room.
If you live in the area, and need a cat, we have 5 available. I would have said before “free to a good home,” but a friend very wisely told me this past weekend that we should charge something because that will demonstrate that you have the income necessary to take care of a pet. So I am going to charge the nominal fee of $5 per cat.
So call for your reading today. I don’t have my webcam or headset hooked up yet, so for a multimedia reading where you can see the cards, call Stephen at 916-455-2267. You can have your multimedia reading on Yahoo IM, Windows Msgr, AIM AOL Instant Messenger), or Skype. I can do phone readings at 916-457-7476. $32 for a reading or class, $60 for both a reading and a class. For an extra $5, I’ll throw in a copy of one of my 5 books, for $20 I’ll email you all 5.
I have decided to pursue the mundane sources that are available to me, and use the Secret. It’s hard not to think poor when the evidence is all around me, but I have to, or I’ll never get anywhere. Here’s a riddle for you: What is the opposite of faith? The answer is not disbelief, but despair. Think about it.
Friday, April 2, 2010
We Are Effectively Being Evicted
We are effectively being evicted. That greedy Buddhist bitch our landlady wants to charge us $200 for each cat. Why do landlords think their tenants have all this money?
My landlady at the place in Cupertino was the same way. She demanded $3200 from me for breaking the lease. If I had as much money as our landladies think we have, I’d never be evicted because I’d own my own home free and clear. Is this something they tell themselves to justify to themselves gouging their tenants for all they have? If one of you is a rental property owner or manager, please explain it to me because I want to know. I moved from Cupertino to Sacramento because I couldn’t afford to party $1630 a month in rent. If I couldn’t cough that up, how was I supposed to cough up $3200 for breaking the lease? The logic is just beyond me. If I could’ve stayed in the Cupertino/San Jose area, I would have. I knew my way around. I have friends down there. I miss that place terribly. But I guess landlords and landladies are pretty much the same no matter where you go; gougers, people whose sole mission in life is to milk their tenants for all that they have, and still not be satisfied, demanding more, more, more all the time, like blackmailers. It’s kind of a jesoid thought, but right now I’m wondering which circle of the Inferno Dante Alighieri assigned to landlords.
I thought of hurting myself last night. I couldn’t find my therapist’s card, and I sat there with my picture of Doc, a knife in my hand, and tears running down my face, wishing I could be with him in the Summerland. I’m serious you guys. What’s it gonna take to knock you guys out of your smug complacency? Am I gonna hafta go all Oral Roberts on you and say that the Goddess is calling me home? If that’s what it takes, so be it. If we got 6 million, that would take care of the problem. The way the housing market is right now, we could get a nice house for part of it, and live rather well on the rest. Then neither of us would need SSI. We could tell them to go screw themselves.
Want to help? Can you? It’s gotten to the point, as it always does, where those who want to help can’t, those who could help won’t, because they’re rich Republicans, who believe in social Darwinism. For them, you don’t exist unless you’re making at least a quarter million per year. Well, why don’t you just line us all against a wall, and shoot us then? It would be far more merciful than what you are doing; permitting this huge underclass of misfits and degenerates to live, just because you lack the courage of your convictions. Of course everyone knows that unless you own your own home, have at least 3.5 cars, a TV in every room, and a cabin on Lake Tahoe, you’re not really a person at all. Why do people gouge the poor? Is it because we’re here and vulnerable? Do you enjoy squeezing blood from a stone? When a government needs to make budget cuts, what are the first cuts they make? 2 places: services to the poor and education. The poor don’t count as people, and kids can’t vote. They’re only useful as political pawns. When a government wants to start a witch-hunt, “it’s for the sake of the children.” But when it comes to providing quality education for them, they’re strangely quiet. Oh yeah, and don’t suggest we sign up for any social services either. People have tried to help us with that, and there’s no help available. California is broke. The city and county of Sacramento are broke. So save your breath. It won’t do any good.
But I digress. If you are both willing and able to help, here are the numbers to call for readings and classes: Me: 916-457-7476 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. I can give you readings over the phone. I don’t have my webcam and headset set up yet, so can’t give you a multimedia reading or class as Stephen can. His number is 916-455-2267.24/7. He doesn’t have a bedtime. He just kind of takes catnaps all through the day. Plays havoc with his health, let me tell you, but he won’t change. $32 for a reading or a class. If you live here in Sacramento, you can come by the house for a reading or class in person. Since we’re leaving, I’m not going to advertise for a housemate. All donations/fees to go to our Paypal accounts: tezra.reitan@gmail.com or abbottsinn@gmail.com. For a donation of $5, I will throw in one of my 5 ebooks.
. .
My landlady at the place in Cupertino was the same way. She demanded $3200 from me for breaking the lease. If I had as much money as our landladies think we have, I’d never be evicted because I’d own my own home free and clear. Is this something they tell themselves to justify to themselves gouging their tenants for all they have? If one of you is a rental property owner or manager, please explain it to me because I want to know. I moved from Cupertino to Sacramento because I couldn’t afford to party $1630 a month in rent. If I couldn’t cough that up, how was I supposed to cough up $3200 for breaking the lease? The logic is just beyond me. If I could’ve stayed in the Cupertino/San Jose area, I would have. I knew my way around. I have friends down there. I miss that place terribly. But I guess landlords and landladies are pretty much the same no matter where you go; gougers, people whose sole mission in life is to milk their tenants for all that they have, and still not be satisfied, demanding more, more, more all the time, like blackmailers. It’s kind of a jesoid thought, but right now I’m wondering which circle of the Inferno Dante Alighieri assigned to landlords.
I thought of hurting myself last night. I couldn’t find my therapist’s card, and I sat there with my picture of Doc, a knife in my hand, and tears running down my face, wishing I could be with him in the Summerland. I’m serious you guys. What’s it gonna take to knock you guys out of your smug complacency? Am I gonna hafta go all Oral Roberts on you and say that the Goddess is calling me home? If that’s what it takes, so be it. If we got 6 million, that would take care of the problem. The way the housing market is right now, we could get a nice house for part of it, and live rather well on the rest. Then neither of us would need SSI. We could tell them to go screw themselves.
Want to help? Can you? It’s gotten to the point, as it always does, where those who want to help can’t, those who could help won’t, because they’re rich Republicans, who believe in social Darwinism. For them, you don’t exist unless you’re making at least a quarter million per year. Well, why don’t you just line us all against a wall, and shoot us then? It would be far more merciful than what you are doing; permitting this huge underclass of misfits and degenerates to live, just because you lack the courage of your convictions. Of course everyone knows that unless you own your own home, have at least 3.5 cars, a TV in every room, and a cabin on Lake Tahoe, you’re not really a person at all. Why do people gouge the poor? Is it because we’re here and vulnerable? Do you enjoy squeezing blood from a stone? When a government needs to make budget cuts, what are the first cuts they make? 2 places: services to the poor and education. The poor don’t count as people, and kids can’t vote. They’re only useful as political pawns. When a government wants to start a witch-hunt, “it’s for the sake of the children.” But when it comes to providing quality education for them, they’re strangely quiet. Oh yeah, and don’t suggest we sign up for any social services either. People have tried to help us with that, and there’s no help available. California is broke. The city and county of Sacramento are broke. So save your breath. It won’t do any good.
But I digress. If you are both willing and able to help, here are the numbers to call for readings and classes: Me: 916-457-7476 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. I can give you readings over the phone. I don’t have my webcam and headset set up yet, so can’t give you a multimedia reading or class as Stephen can. His number is 916-455-2267.24/7. He doesn’t have a bedtime. He just kind of takes catnaps all through the day. Plays havoc with his health, let me tell you, but he won’t change. $32 for a reading or a class. If you live here in Sacramento, you can come by the house for a reading or class in person. Since we’re leaving, I’m not going to advertise for a housemate. All donations/fees to go to our Paypal accounts: tezra.reitan@gmail.com or abbottsinn@gmail.com. For a donation of $5, I will throw in one of my 5 ebooks.
. .
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