We don't care. We don't have to. We're the phone company.
I was wondering why my stripped-down home phone was still costing me so much per month (about $45). So I examined the bill, and realized that they've been charging me $4.75 a month for the b.s. Inside Wire Maintenance Service Plan. It was labelled as "optional" but I sure as heck don't ever remember requesting such a service. It's useless if you're only renting. Anyway, after a half an hour of navigating the byzantine BellSouth service phone menus, it's gone...

Hmmm, I thought I had cancelled my long distance carrier on my home line too. But then I see they're still charging me for MCI's PrimeTime Friends and Family plan. So I call MCI to cancel. They put me on hold for a half an hour. Finally I talk to someone, who transfers me to the automated cancellation line. (Gee, they could allow someone to go to an automated line automatically, but that would be too easy). On the automated line they ask me if I've already chosen another carrier through my residential phone service. I select "no", because I'm not switching, I'm canceling. The automated voice tells me that to cancel my long distance through MCI, I must first choose another carrier through my local service -- "Goodbye". Dial tone. Rrrrrrrr...

I call back. Another half hour wait. My ear is sweaty. Finally I tell the operator about the dilemma in their cancellation menu. This time they try to sell me on a new option -- no monthly fee, $0.35 connection plus $0.07/minute for long distance. I tell her no, just cancel the damn thing. She says okay, but you'll have to go though the cancellation menu. "Now, it's going to hang up on you if you answer 'no' to that question..." "So I should say 'yes'?" She laughs. "I can't officially counsel you to do that, but..." "Gotcha. Let's do it." I wait another minute. Instead of the cancellation menu, she comes back on, to ask me if I want to switch to their local service! No thanks, I'm fine with BellSouth. But, having had a few minutes to think, I tell her I want to go with the $0.35 connection/$0.07 per minute option. If we never use it, it costs nothing. You can bet I'll be examining next month's bill with a magnifying glass, though.

Seems like whenever a plan begins to jell, more water gets added to the mix. Our man in Singapore has been hinting that he wants to go to Spain, and has suggested that we might want to come along as well. Marjorie could teach English while he and I looked for work. Now, Marjorie and I went to Spain a few years back and loved it, but this is quite a change to grok. We are apprehensive about the language barrier, and our ability to land a job in the now-more-restrictive EU. I suspect we're still going to pursue the original plan, but this new proposition merits consideration...

FLY AWAY
I'm going to Fayetteville, AR today, without Mark, to meet my niece, Katie. She's 5 months old now, I should have met her ages ago, but between our schedule with the wedding and now the move, and my sister's initial reluctance to fly with Katie until she had her shots, this is the first opportunity I've had. I'm excited to see her and my sister and brother-in-law, but I hate to fly alone.
Mark is going to Florida this weekend to visit his parents and sister. He's flying too, which makes me doubly nervous.
For someone who enjoys traveling, and thereby flies relatively frequently, I'm a really nervous flyer. Maybe it's the loss of control, or maybe it's the thought of hurtling through the air (or towards the ground) at 1000 miles per hour that scares me. Rationally, I know anyone's chances of dying in a car crash or random accident are much greater then the probability of dying in a plane crash, but fear is often not a rational thing.
Wish us both safe flights and a safe return home.

Just came across an interesting tidbit about our city, Atlanta. While reading Matt Ridley's excellent best seller Genome, I learned that most cancer cells used in laboratories can trace their way back to a woman, Henrietta Lacks, who died in 1951 of cervical cancer. They've been keeping her cancer cells -- now commonly referred to as HeLa cells -- alive since then, and replicating them. The estimated biomass of all her cells in labs around the world comes to more than 400 times what she ever weighed during her life. Atlanta has designated October 11 to be Henrietta Lacks Day. I had never heard of it or her before. Digging around a bit, I found that there are even more interesting things about this story.

COPY CAT

This is my second attempt at this blog, the first one somehow got erased. DOH!

How can I resist the survey? Hope it's not too boring to see it twice-different responses this time though!

Name the song that.....

Reminds you of an ex-friend:
Red Red Wine -- UB40

Reminds you of your childhood:
Maxwell's Silver Hammer -- The Beatles, my sister and I used to play Abbey Road constantly when I was in elementary school.

Makes you cry:
Dream # 9 -- John Lennon, such a beautiful song

Makes you laugh:
Eric the 1/2 a bee -- Monty Python

Makes you wanna dance:
Anything off Michael Jackson's "Off the Wall" album.

Reminds you of the one you want:
Like Mark, there are many. Two in particular are Waterloo Sunset by the Kinks & Into the sunset by Neil Finn

Reminds you of an ex-love:
Too many puppies -- Primus, reminds me of my college boyfriend, Dave.

Makes you very, very sleepy:
Moon River -- Johnny Mercer, this song always seemed like a lullaby to me.

You wish you wrote:
Hmm, tough one. How 'bout "I confess" by the English Beat. "I know I'm shouting, I like to shout" No wait, I think I changed my mind, I choose Rattlesnakes by Lloyd Cole "she says ohh it's so hard to love when love was your great disappointment" I love that line.

You wish had been written for you:
Oh my love -- John Lennon

Fills you with complete joy:
Ackee 123 -- The English Beat "it'll just get you laughing" and it does

You never want to hear again:
Anything by Led Zeppelin, The Eagles, The Doors, or any southern rock band.

You want to get married to:
Rainy Night In Soho -- The Pogues (which was one of our wedding songs)

You want played at your funeral:
I don't know. Really, no idea.

Makes you want to mosh/slam dance:
Orgasm Addict -- The Buzzcocks

Sums up your teenage years:
Not sure I understand the question, but the albums that most remind me of my teenage years are The Queen is Dead by the Smiths & Life's Rich Pageant by R.E.M.

You used to hate but now love:
Good Vibrations by the Beach Boys. I didn't get it, and then one day I really "heard" it, it was almost a life changing experience.

You like to wake up to:
Silence. And coffee.

You like out of your parents record collection:
The Beatles, Some Bob Dylan, Some Buddy Holly

Your parents like out of your collection:
I suspect my dad would approve of my Beach Boys and Beatles Cd's. My mom on the other hand, hmm, I really don't know.

You love that you wouldn't know about if it wasn't for a friend:
You know, I love the Strokes album, and I really resisted it because I thought there was too much hype around them, but my friend Karen made me listen and she was right, I love it.

You think of someone who died:
I have four friends who died in a car accident coming home from a Grateful Dead concert, and sometimes the Dead remind me of them.

You love the video more than the tune:
Hungry like the wolf -- Duran Duran

Reminds you of your first crush:
Sadly "Careless Whispers" by Wham.

You love which is from one of your favourite movies:
The valley girl soundtrack, the movie is a favourite BECAUSE of the soundtrack

Makes you think of the moon:
"How high the moon" not sure who wrote it, I know Chet Atkins recorded it.

Makes you think of sex:
Any Cocteau twins album.

Makes you think of being alone:
The Unforgettable fire by U2 is an album that (I think) is better for solitary listening.

You love to hear at clubs:
Hmm, it makes me happy to hear anything I like when I'm out.

I've been starved for new music lately, so today I treated myself to a few new treats. I came home with the Magnolia soundtrack (with Aimee Mann), All-Time Quarterback (with the frontman from Death Cab for Cutie), and the new Oasis album. Yes, I admit it, I like Oasis. Yes I know they're assholes, but it's a guilty pleasure.
I also bought two near pairs of geeky glasses. Go indie girl, go.

This is irresistible... Mi amigo Deano posted this song survey on his blog. I can't resist doing likewise...

Name the song that...

Reminds you of an ex-friend:
In A Big Country -- Big Country

Reminds you of your childhood:
Baby Elephant Walk -- ???

Makes you cry:
Closing piano theme from "The Incredible Hulk" series.

Makes you laugh:
"Czar" -- Frank Black

Makes you wanna dance:
"Beercan" -- Beck

Reminds you of the one you want:
So many... How about "Poses" -- Rufus Wainwright

Reminds you of an ex-love:
Hmmmm... Nothing comes to mind

Makes you very, very sleepy:
Nothing comes to mind here either

You wish you wrote:
"Little Palaces" -- Elvis Costello

You wish had been written for you:
"Two of Us" -- Beatles (MacCartney)

Fills you with complete joy:
"Section 2 (It's The Sun)" -- Polyphonic Spree

You never want to hear again:
"Don't You Forget About Me" -- Simple Minds
"How Soon Is Now?" -- The Smiths

You want to get married to:
"Grow Old Along With Me" -- John Lennon (hey, we DID get married to that)

You want played at your funeral:
"Anywhere I Lay My Head" -- Tom Waits. No question.

Makes you want to mosh/slam dance:
"Knock Me Down" -- Red Hot Chili Peppers

Sums up your teenage years:
"Roadhouse Blues" -- The Doors (doesn't really sum them up, but is strongly associated)

You used to hate but now love:
Any Beastie Boys song

You like to wake up to:
Nothing familiar -- anything new helps get me going

You like out of your parents record collection:
Hmmm, Ricky Lee Jones?

Your parents like out of your collection:
Maybe Chet Baker?

You love that you wouldn't know about if it wasn't for a friend:
"The Warmest Room" -- Billy Bragg

You think of someone who died:
"In A Flash" -- Ron Sexsmith (think about Jeff Buckley)

You love the video more than the tune:
Video? What's a video?

Reminds you of your first crush:
"Beat It" -- Michael Jackson

You love which is from one of your favourite movies:
Sheee, the whole Rushmore soundtrack

Makes you think of the moon:
"Man on the Moon" -- REM

Makes you think of sex:
"Give It To Me Baby" -- Rick James

Makes you think of being alone:
Aztec Camera, several songs on "High Land Hard Rain"

You love to hear at clubs:
Any Soul Coughing


In other music news, a friend brought a bootleg copy of the forthcoming Peter Gabriel album to cards last night. It sounds like a true return to form. I suspect we'll be hearing his name a lot in the coming months.

It seems to be de rigueur to include a list of other blogs you frequent, so I've added ours on the left column under "Blogosphere neighbors". Enjoy...

I was trying to convince a friend tonight, while playing euchre, that blogging is the wave of the future, and she couldn't understand wanting to read a stranger's blog-which on some level I understand, but in many respects reading a stranger's blog is like reading a comic strip or a book, you don't need to personally know the characters to find them amusing. So, hopefully you (the reader) are entertained by our blog, and if not, keep looking, there are lots of amusing people out there. Finding a blog you relate to is probably like finding someone you want to befriend, or someone you want to date. Not everyone will fit. Yadda yadda yadda. I've had a few drinks and now I'm just babbling.

SYMPATICO
Strangely enough, I was going to say something rather similar to Mark's entry regarding blogging and the joys of computers (and the internet in general). It's so bizarre that people are reading this thing. Even people we DONT KNOW! I myself have become a blog voyeur for many other people's blogs whom I have never met.

On blogging
I love working in the computer industry, if only for the "gosh-wow" you experience every couple of years, when you come across a new trend or technology that is going to impact your life in some way. I can distinctly remember the joy I experienced the first time I encountered and realized the impact of each of these:

MP3 trading (2000)
Designing web pages (1995)
Search engines (1995)
Web surfing (1994)
Usenet (1991)
Email (1990)
Programming (1979)
Video games (1978)
Computers themselves! (1977?)

Blogs, like the one you're reading now, have to be considered the first real major web trend of the 2000's -- I just did a Google search for a particular band and seemingly half the matches it found were from people's blogs. I even saw a book in the bookstore the other day, containing a bunch of essays from people extolling the wonders and philosophical implications of blogging.

And yet, blogging as a whole seems to me to be a wholly dissatisfying trend, as far as "gosh-wow" is concerned. There'd have to be some new technology involved for me to want to include it on the above list. It's a rehash of old ideas, and is ultimately a selfish and exhibitionist endeavor. As such, it will fade out, much in the way personal web pages did. Remember when almost everyone on the net had a web page containing nothing but information about themselves? (Myself included, of course.) Would blogging even be that big a trend if someone hadn't decided that shortening "weblog" to "blog" would be a cute thing to call it?

Still, I'm enjoying (co-)creating this page, and am glad you are reading. I hope I can ride out the trend.

Tonight I bid good riddance to Grokster, in favor of the much nicer KaZaa Lite, to do my music swapping. It was quite a relief to exorcise the Grokster demon. Grokster is probably the fourth worst piece of software I've used, behind:

3. Windows 98
2. Netscape Application Server
1. Lotus Notes

We use Lotus Notes at work -- words fail me when trying to sum it up, but here is a good start.

I miss AudioGalaxy with a purple passion.

FUNNY
I talked to my father today to report that I am again employed (yea!), and he asked about the character Mark's chosen as his blog emblem. I told him it was a cuttlefish to which he replied that he'd "never seen one with its clothes on before". Apparently, those white things they put in bird cages are cuttlefish bones which the birds use to sharpen their beaks. I'd never made that association before. Anyway for anyone interested you can find out more about cuttlefish here http://www.windspeed.net.au/~jenny/cuttlefish/
This is the image Mark (Red Panda) had chosen as his emblem before the cuttlefish- Mark's not quite this cute in real life, close though.

IT'S SO GOOD TO BE WANTED!!

I called my old boss today to ask if she could write me a recommendation letter. She asked about the move, to which I responded that we still didn't know anything, so she offered me my old job back as an hourly, rather than full-time position. How could I say no? So, starting next week, I'm employed again. Yea!!

I'm feeling loquacious today
I heard recently that when you go to Hollywood, the first celebrity you see becomes your "patron celebrity", and your life has rises and falls in direct correlation to the ups and downs of that celebrity's career. If that's true, mine is Michael McKean ("Squiggy" from "Happy Days", and later of "This is Spinal Tap" and "Saturday Night Live" fame). He sat in front of me at an Elvis Costello concert at the John Anson Ford Theater. That bodes well, I guess -- I still seem to see him a lot on the telly.

Marjorie and I have never been to Hollywood together, but we saw our first celebrity together in London. Walking by a Starbucks, we looked up, and who should be sitting in the window but Henry Rollins. To this day we regret not giving him the British two-finger salute, and running off. Just because he's Henry Rollins. And because he was in a Starbucks.

About six months ago we saw REM bass player Mike Mills in a local watering hole. I regret not complimenting him on his rendition of the national anthem at a Braves game I saw a few years back. (I also recently saw Michael Stipe outside an Indian restaurant in Athens, pacing the sidewalk while listening to headphones. I think he was probably composing a vocal part or something. REM sightings are common in these parts. My friend Mike, who used to live in Athens, could regale you for hours.)

Who is your patron celebrity?

Music
I'm in love with a new album. It's "The Beginning Stages Of..." by The Polyphonic Spree. Categorically, it can only be described as "symphonic pop". The band consists of 26 people -- 15 instruments and a 11-person chorus. Why has no one thought of this before? Probably because the logistics make touring a nightmare. Anyway, I challenge anyone to listen to the song "Section 2" and not feel uplifted by the end. "Section6"/"Section 7", "Section 8", and "Section 3" are my next favorites (as you can see, they aren't big into giving their songs descriptive names). Hie thee to Kazaa and download some, then aroint and buy the record. (Mike, your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to go see them at the CMJ music festival and give me a report.)

There's two new Frank Black albums out. That makes me happy.

Closure? What closure?
The closure we had hoped for didn't come -- instead, the company whose contract we're vying in S'pore for sloughed off the decision for another two weeks. It sucks having to hold out hope for even longer, but good that we haven't been eliminated altogether.

Our friend there is tired of not working, and may run off somewhere if nothing happens in two weeks. This is tough, as he is not only a business contact and place to stay in S'pore, but also our only friend there. However, if he can find us something wherever he runs off to, that would be cool. I think we're willing to go wherever at this point. He mentioned Australia, where we're already in the process of applying, and Europe, which we haven't discussed much, but I doubt we'd take much convincing...

YOU DID WHAT?!
I registered today for a TEFL (teaching English as a foreign language) class in Phuket, Thailand. Then I told Mark. Probably not the coolest move on my part, but we'd briefly discussed the benefits of my taking such a class before, and I'm so tired of standing still (metaphorically). Besides, there's no commitment, I didn't send them any money. The class I applied for is from 14 October to 8 November, but there's another class offered 18 November -13 December that might be better for me. Having the TEFL certificate will be useful wherever we end up living, and if we go ahead with Plan B, I could, in theory, take the class while Mark looks for work in S'pore.

In the mailbox today: nothing. I think we're only anticipating closure at this point, but we want to know. It's difficult communicating halfway around the world. (Exactly halfway -- when it's 1:17 pm here, it's 1:17 am -- the next day -- in S'pore). I'm sure we'll get word late tonight, when it's morning there.

New picture
Now I am the mighty cuttlefish. Fear my wrath!

Cuttlefish are simply the coolest creature living. And highly intelligent. Last time I was in an aquarium I stood transfixed by the cuttlefish tank as they demonstrated about ten different social behaviors in five minutes, communicating with each other through body language and color changes.

Last year on a snorkeling trip off Tioman Island we witnessed a school of squid (close cuttlefish relatives) that neatly lined up for us in the open water -- I think it was 22 of them in a row, evenly spaced a meter apart. I have no idea why they did this. It was amazing though...

Nothing much to report. Woke up more sore this morning than I was all yesterday, but it passed, and now I feel almost back to normal.

Tomorrow we find out for sure on the Singapore contract, but we're already assuming it's a "no go". We looked a little more into emigrating to Australia -- turns out that to get approved, it's both more money than we expected (about $1000 US) and more time (6-12 months -- faster if we find a job that's willing to sponsor either one of us to move there, but that's not so easy). There's some other weird rules too -- we may need to submit fingerprints, chest x-rays, and a personality profile. This sounds a bit extreme for a country where there used to be one entry requirement: "You are a hardened criminal."

England and New Zealand won't even have us -- both have a system where you add up points based on your age (the younger the better), work experience, education, and personal finances, and we come up short in both countries. Feh.

PLAN B
We still don't have the official word regarding the job in S'pore one way or the other, but we're bracing ourselves for the worst. So, Plan B is currently being conceptualized. My thinking is that we should just go ahead and start the migration paperwork for Australia, get all the medical inspections and paperwork out of the way now. Migrating to Australia is at least a 4-6 month project. If we start now, we still probably won't have approval until January/February. So in theory, we could still move to S'pore in November, and give ourselves a one-month window to find work there. If Mark or I find a job in S'pore, we'll stay until the job finishes or until we receive approval from Australia to go there. If we don't find work after a month of looking in S'pore, we could just travel throughout the cheaper regions of southeast Asia (Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Laos, Thailand) for the months of December and January, carefully budgeting our money, until approval or disapproval from Australia comes through. If we're rejected by Australia, then I suppose we'll come home, tails tucked between our legs, and earnestly start looking for work in the States (Northern California, New York City, or maybe Hawaii). If we receive approval then we'll head to Melbourne or Sydney and begin looking for work there. Really, we don't lose either way. And we've got to be proactive, or nothing is going to happen, and that would be worse than any obstacles we'll face by going.
In the meantime, we're going to be hitting the job sites every day, sending our resumes to any job in S'pore, Hong Kong, or Australia that we think either of us qualify for. Wish us luck!

NUTTY
So, Mark and I are officially not having children. That's cool. His reasons (already posted) are good, but honestly they're not the same reasons I cite for wanting to remain childless. As, I've briefly mentioned before, I work (or worked as it may be now) with special needs children and babies. It's truly difficult to work with this population and not realize what a huge job parenting is, and it's a thankless job for the most part as well. I love kids, I enjoy working with them, and I'm thrilled to have a new niece as well as Mark's nieces and nephews. I'm just not excited about taking on the 24 hour job of parenting. Someday, however, I look forward to raising a puppy.

New and improved
Our blog now allows comments! Feel free to leave us feedback. Thanks go out to the Klink family.

Also, a shout out to Kate and her blog, a hard know to think. Kate and her husband, whose name is Marc, were recently married, and had a frustrating time trying to move to Singapore. Sound familiar? Even more scary, I just realized that her husband's blog is named "shmegegie", which is a login name I've used on various sites before (it's a Yiddish word for crazy). Curiouser and curiouser. They say that if you're one in a million, there's seven of you in New York. I think we just found one of the seven...

Fertile no more
Had my little medical procedure done yesterday. It really was relatively quick and easy -- there were some uncomfortable moments but nothing I could really describe as "pain". Took about twenty-five minutes. I am a little tender today, but not bad.

With regards to not having children, a lot of people asked us "Are you sure?" We're old enough to know what we want. And should we change our mind, we have no aversion to adopting.

The human population of this planet doubles every forty years. That means that by the time I'm 76, you'd have to essentially take every city on the planet and build a like-size copy of it, say, right next to it. Every New York, every Paris, every Kathmandu, every Podunk, Illinois. With the doubling of population also goes a doubling of pollution, a doubling of natural resource use, and a massively increased risk of the spread of disease.

Are we sure? Yes, we're sure.