One of the cool things when you are resting in the downtown Kyoto is the nocturnal and morning activities of temple. Kyoto being the city of temples, the Buddhist sects are acting and appealing as to what is expected from them. They pray, they chant, they play instruments, that sort of thing.
Yesterday, one of the temples nearby the hotel I was staying in went fullthrottle on that front at 5AM: chanting, pouring ice-cold water buckets over themselves and all.
I only captured the sound. You may notice in the last few seconds the modern entitled Japanese asshole yelling “could you please keep it down” (in a much less gentle phrasing), to which the monks react promptly by lowering their voices and then withdrawing. sigh
Don’t get wasted in Kyoto.
I’ve found authors to be really approachable and responsive online. I can only assume that it’s habit (many old school authors used to reply to fan mail by hand), or just that they’re probably not as inundated with messages as, say, a band that sells orders of magnitude more records than an author sells books.
There are a few who I message every time I finish their latest, and they always reply.
Yeah, I think most authors are not so high profile that they get slammed with mail and of course maintaining a responsive online presence helps with engagement and thus book sales. I know that when I met Joel Rosenberg (deceased SF/fantasy author, NOT to be confused with Joel C. Rosenberg, ultra-right-wing conspiracy author) at a gaming party, I had not heard of his books but I went right out and got my hands on them afterwards. (I didn’t get the chance to tell him I enjoyed them, alas, but I did.)
Not much there but… It seems like a cartoonish video of the book. Maybe anime? Not sure really. But I’m all over it. The graphics are great. It will easily scratch my Watts itch.
Got my yearly prescription for contacts/glasses and found out my vision is now so bad that scrips are ‘medically necessary’!? My vision is horrible without contacts and has been for years so the line between unnecessary and necessary laughably too far towards being just totally blind. Anyway, the good news is my contacts are now free. Bad news is the new scrip makes my reading vision even worse. Piss off old(ish) age!
I missed an exit a few months ago and got off at the next exit to turn around. Turns out it was a toll road, but no guard, no gate, and no way to turn around. I was trapped on their road.
Yesterday I parked my car in a public parking garage. Got back and it’s gone.
Turns out this private toll company has a relationship with the state to invalidate your registration if you don’t pay them. Guess how much to get my car back from the tow yard?
$400 for the toll
$250 to the police
$500 to the tow yard
So that’s $1150 to get my car back because this private company “The Toll Roads” says I turned around on their property. And it’s not online of course, it’s gonna take me an entire day and probably $100 in Ubers becauae everyone needs to be paid in person.
Fuck that, fuck them, and fuck the state of California. Fucking thieves.
Jesus. Condolences, man.
We don’t have any toll roads in our state, so I had no idea how that stuff works. I’ll make sure and vote against them if they try to come here though!
That sucks, Guap. I’m curious—can you provide more details? Your validation got invalidated some time between then and now and the cops towed it for that, rather than issuing you a ticket? Did the toll road operator (or the state) ever send you any letters?
If it is that crazy, I’d honestly find a way to fight it. That just seems like some crazy third-world extortion. Also, please let us know what exit this is so that we can stay the hell away. I’m unaware of any sort of crazy toll roads like this in Northern California.
They claimed they sent something, I never got it. They must have sent it to some old address they tracked down because obviously I never agreed to heir terms. I actually paid my registration already, it was $180. They cashed that check then put a hold on the renewal until I pay the toll company. I suppose it’s my fault I didn’t notice the registration sticker never came, but to be honest I assumed I paid, I was good.
I’d love to fight it. Just paying it off is costing me an entire work day. To fight it I have to fight the DMV, the police, and the tow yard. I mapped it all out and it would be dozens more hours to fight it. I already called the toll company and they won’t budge because they have me over a barrel with the state backing them up. They also require me to enroll as a customer and keep my CC on file just to pay it.
I really want to fight it, but it’s third world bullshit. Every day I fight it tacks on a $50 storage fee to the tow yard.
Another fun thing. The soonest appointment to speak to a supervisor as the DMV and plead my case is past the point where the tow company will auction off my car.
Yep, agree. Especially terrible is the relationship between the DMV and the private toll company.
It gets worse! After a 6 hour wait at the DMV they came out and everyone they couldnt see them today, or any day in the forseeable future. The only way to get service by the CA DMV is to make an appointment. The next available appointment is past the date my car will by sold at auction, after deducting a $2000 fee.
So my car is held hostage to pay for a service I didn’t agree to, and which there is no way to pay. You can’t pay online or over the phone.
Already called my state senator to complain bit there is no way this is resolved before they sell my car.
