The Manic Mechanic

Well, it's snowing rather briskly outside now, and I say let it go right ahead. After taking Mom to the Xmas luncheon held at her former employer (Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, where she is a retiree), the afternoon/evening was spent modding Mini Coopers in the cold. It is here that I am thankful for my Russian genes, as I am able to work outside in the cold with little difficulty while others stand around shivering. I prepared for the snow this weekend, stocking the house up with firewood, getting things ready, and, sadly, staying home here in MD and away from my honey in PA. Up there is supposed to get hit even harder. Jeff used the time free from my pawing all over him to get homework and studying done plus get ready for his finals. So, let it snow (x 3).

The phones are finally fixed here at Casa Greatbear! One thing I have learned over the years is to get in good with those actually doing the work even if I fly off the handle with those that I have to schedule said work through. Case in point, the technician working on the phone line was an outgoing, rather cute little blonde woman. She was busting her tiny little butt trying to make sense out of the ancient, tattered lines up and down the roads here as well as problems that were all the way at the C.O.. She came by a couple times giving me updates while I did what I could to help. We even talked shop. In the end, she gave us her direct number to call the next time we might encounter the same problem in the rain and cannot wait to have an appointment scheduled several days after the problem occurs. Both of us know the only way to fix the problem is immediately, that save both me and the techs time and effort. Another problem licked (hopefully, and if not, it's better prepared to be fixed if needed).

In more frustrating news, I am probably going to abandon my profile and presence at Bear411.com. Much like gay.com, the owners are restricting the features given to us cheapskates who use the free features. Specifically, they are limiting the number of people one can have on their pal list. In the broken Engrish found on the site:

NEW CONTACT LIST RULE: To keep good servers speed and to avoid abuse, since december 10th 2005, the maximum number of people allowed in contact list will be:
# For PRIORITY ACCESS MEMBERS: 300
# For NON-PRIORITY ACCESS MEMBERS: 50

If your contact list is upper this maximum limit, thank you to clean it.

While I dont think I have 50 people on my list, or if I do, it's not much over (I didnt bother to count), I am tired of seeing everything monetized to death, especially by increasing limitations more and more. This ruined gay.com years ago. It's different if the site is of extraordinary value to begin with (LJ). The guys at bigmuscle/bigmusclebears/normalgay (ugh, I so dislike that name) seem to have no problems giving the non-paying members quite a nice feature set, plus everyone has chat access (though the chat there is inane at best). Sad part is, Bear411 is where most of my friends went after the collapse of the gay.com bear's den chat. I'll be still around on Yahoo (greatbearmd), AIM (greatbear1md), Google Talk (greatbear), and ICQ (380056) though.

EDIT: I counted 97 on my pal list, far more than I expected to see. Granted, many of those I no longer interact with and could be removed, but, hey, it's the principle of things, ya know?