Fastmail
I have had a fastmail.fm account for years and for most of that time it’s been excellent.
However, since the site changed, I have received spam email in previously unimaginable amounts. Incidentally, I have an old upgraded account – I paid a one time fee to upgrade. This type of upgrade no longer exist. Now, I may be paranoid but I seem to detect an ulterior motive here, on the site’s part: “Don’t upgrade to one of our current account levels and be drenched in spam!”
I used to love this email account, although it didn’t have much storage space. Now I hate it. I’m going to have to let it go, even though I once paid for an upgrade. I hate that too, but I can’t stand being treated this way.
Bye, bye Fastmail. I’m sure your current owners will be glad to see me go.
A suggestion…
Recently we learned that Sweden can only defend itself against an enemy attack for a week.
I have an idea. Let’s trick the enemy into the dreaded ‘phase 3’ (the terminus for Swedish unemployed) and humiliate them to death! ;D
Disappointing vegan group
Recently, I’ve been rather disappointed in some of my fellow vegans, or perhaps it’s better to say that I’ve been disappointed in certain (Swedish) hangouts for vegans. Most people there, especially the more vocal ones, are only interested in allergies and food sensitivities. It’s their business of course, but they can become quite aggressive when they imagine they’re being questioned.
For now, I’ve decided to leave these troublespots alone and just hang out where I feel welcome. Though I must say it’s sad that we vegans can’t stick together.
Another thing that’s been very disappointing is that so many vegans go out of their way to ‘prove’ that vegans don’t have anything in common with each other. I think we do, even if we might have different reasons for going veg.
The whole thing started out with a girl asking if anyone else would like to find a village or some other place to live close to other vegans. Everyone, except my sister and I, seemed to despise that idea and went to great lengths to put it down.
I find it all depressing and discouraging. Personally, I’d love to have more vegan friends, preferably some who share some of my other interests and living close to them would be even better.
Rain…
I went to do some shopping today and when I was about to walk outside again, it started to rain. Not just a little, it really poured down in sheets. ‘Whole water’ as we say. I had to wait until the rain stopped again (temporarily) to start walking back. By the time I got back, I was soaked through – at least my shoes and my hair. This is probably the worst/rainiest summer I’ve ever experienced. Is this part of global warming? Well, at least rain should be better than droughts.
Mediateque?
The other day I went to look at a new school building around here. Actually, it was my old school – though of course a new building. Esthetically this new building can’t be compared to the old shoebox-like one where earlier students – me included – went. Unfortunately, there are other things that are even worse than when I went there.
Sure, there were plenty of table tennis tables and a couple of game tables – tables with games painted on the tabletop. I’m sure that kids who like that sort of thing will be pleased about that. In the schoolyard there was even a swing. (For teenagers!?) The classrooms are well lighted and spacious and look as if they’ll do nicely for whatever subject will be taught in there. I saw nice looking rooms for woodwork, needlework, home economics, art and music. So far so good, right?
However, from a friend of a friend, I’ve heard that the actual teaching is poor and the so called mediateque (?) really turned out to be a disappointment. When I walked in, I expected to find a well equipped computer room/media room. What I found was a so called library with a couple of book shelves and a table with four (?) computers. There were even almost as many in the needlework room. If I’d had to go to this school, and believe me, I’m happy not to – I had a minor anxiety attack as soon as I walked through the main entrance, because of less than pleasant memories from my school days – I would have been extremely disappointed in the library/mediateque. I would most likely have gone through the books that interested me in a few months. And then – for the rest of my three years there, what then? The town library?
Not good! If that’s the way all schools at this level (roughly junior high) are, I feel sorry for the girls (and boys) who are like me. Although I probably would have anyway. But still, a well stocked library would have been some consolation.
This town…
Yesterday when I was on my way to the bank (to get an electronic ID) a couple of people positively glared at me and my sister, who was walking with me. One kid actually laughed at us. What’s wrong with this town and the people in it? That sort of thing never happens anywhere else. Not even in Stockholm, where people are said to be really snarky and rude, especially to visitors and tourists.
On the bright side, someone finally called us on our brand new cool Skype phone. It was a wrong number, but it was kind of fun anyway. (Pathetic? Probably. Sigh.)
From one phone provider to another, then back again
Phone providers, internet providers… providers of digital tv… For years now we struggled to switch away from one to another, and now suddenly, we’re going the other way. Twice in just a few months, salespeople from the provider we’re leaving, called and bullied mom, who is severely depressed, into signing up for new expensive services, that we might not even be able to use here, in my name or using my info, and her name. I’m surprised that’s even legal, quite apart from the lack of business ethics, not that people like that have morals.
So, my sister and I decided to move our phone subscriptions to the old provider. Back to them, you might say. In any case, we’re stuck with them for everything else – internet, digital tv, landline… So we thought why not move our mobile phone subscriptions to them too? When we left them they were more expensive than the ones we left them for, but now they’ve changed their prices.
I have to admit that I wanted this switch primarily to get back at the phone provider (the one we’re leaving). No one treats my mom that way, no one treats us that way and gets away with it. Besides, no matter who gets treated this way, it’s something that needs to be confronted.
Anyway, my sister called to give them a piece of her mind and fortunately, she was able to make them tear up the agreement, which probably wasn’t valid anyway.
I suppose that should make it alright, but grrr I’m so angry with them. That makes the third phone company we don’t like, for various reasons. Sigh. Maybe in a small country like ours, you can’t afford to be so picky, but at least so far, I don’t care. I’ll do as I like. (And don’t even get me started on salespeople in general…)
Warning: self-pity
Lately almost all the books I’ve read have been disappointments, at least to some extent. I can’t believe I’ve completely lost my judgment so I can only imagine that somehow the books (or their writers) or I have changed. It’s probably the latter. The me of today has changed too much. I’m sadder and more disillusioned. Maybe if I manage to pull myself together and straighten my life out, I’ll become more enthusiastic about books again. Don’t get me wrong, I still love books, I just don’t seem to feel as happy about them as I did, even three or four years ago.
I feel my life slipping away, slipping through my fingers, like in that awful biblical story I was told about in what the people who ran my daycare had instead of Sunday school (Saturday school?). It’s been haunting me ever since. You probably know it, if you’re familiar with the Bible.
A girl walks across a field. She’s to pick only the best grains, but every time she sees what she believes to be the best, she catches sight of others in the distance, that seem bigger and better. In the end, she’s walked across the field, her basket empty, and.she can’t go back.
What worries me is that even though I’m probably somewhere on the field still, knowing I need to harvest the grains, I can’t do it. There’s always something preventing me and I can’t stand still either, I keep moving ahead, in one sense, yet not moving at all, in another sense. It scares me.
I don’t know what to do and I suppose not liking the few books I can afford, is the least of my problems. It’s just that those books should be brightening my days and instead, they’re not. A waste of money, that could have been put to better use elsewhere. Oh, well. Sorry about all the self-pity.
