Asymptomatic

Over the past weekend, we took the usual summer pilgrimage to Johnstown. This time, Berta's sister Therese was in the process of moving, so while they packed up some of their things, I watched the kids. This turned out not too unpleasant. During the time going out and while the kids were entertaining themselves amicably, I was able to do some more reading.

When last Pat as in town, he loaded up my Kindle with a few sample books. I started reading one by Vernor Vinge called "A Fire Upon the Deep". It was both interesting and strange. We also started listening to an audiobook prequel to the Tales of the Otori trilogy, "Heaven's Net is Wide", by Lian Hearn.

A Fire Upon the Deep is, as I said, strange. It's been a while since I've read true space sci-fi, and this certainly qualifies. It will be difficult to explain some of the many layered characteristics of this book, which set to establish axioms by which Vinge's world operates....

A few of the folks I "hang with" online are/were involved in the 9rules network. I am not a member, but I had tried to become one at one point. I've been following the recent actions of the network with some interest, and thought I would save my thoughts for later as they may be relevant for other communities in which I am involved and have influence. Some background on the current issue is probably in order.

Essentially, many people had joined the network for the purpose of being affiliated with other bloggers who created great content. Their goal was to enrich the web. These folks chose to participate in the network insofar as they posted new, quality content to their own blogs, which were syndicated specifically to the rest of the members. Although the network powers-that-be had created a site for interaction among members, these folks never saw participation in those forums as a requirement to their membership, simply their continued contribution of quality blog content.

Recently, the terms of membership changed so that you must participate in the forums to remain a member. The people who thought that their blogging contribution was enough realized (with different levels of reaction) that they would no longer qualify for membership and asked to withdraw. This accounts for more than half of the people who I relate with who are/were also 9rules members. What's bothersome to me, especially had I been a member, is the process surrounding the change of the terms of service....

The Sci-Fi channel has been re-running a bunch of shows that I used to watch before they were summarily executed by network executives who don't recognize science fiction lovers as a real demographic they can sell to.

What's interesting about these shows, and many sci-fi shows I've noticed, is that they were all cancelled without an ultimate resolution to their plotlines. I've always wondered what happened with these shows. There's a big, over-arching mystery through the entire show's run, and then... nothing?

FireFlyOk, FireFly got a movie after it was abruptly dropped from the schedule. What irks me about the movie is that although it ties up some loose ends, it seems like it was just thrown together to cap off the series. That is, you can't see the movie if you really expect the crew of Serenity to have more adventures....

Last night, an insurance broker visited our house and gave Berta and me some options for mortgage insurance. Basically, we were interested in having at least a portion of the mortgage paid in the case of our death. So we sat for his hour and a half presentation, and now I present some notes of the salient details.

Sometimes companies will offer "accidental death" insurance along with some other thing you're buying, like credit cards or bank loan or cell phone plan. These policie sound great for the money you pay, but there is a catch. They only pay out if the accident directly causes your death. So if you go to the mailbox and get hit by a car and left for dead, it pays off. But if you die in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, tough luck - that's improper medical care, not accidental death. After all, you weren't dead from the accident, right? (!)

There are a few plans to choose from, which are basically combinations of various riders. For example, you can just get a plan old policy - Pay your premium every month, if you die, the policy pays off, the end. But with a special rider, you can have all of your premiums paid back to you if you survive the term of the policy.

Essentially how this works is the insurance company holds on to your money for all that time and earns interest. They're happy just to make the interest, and give you your money back. It costs a bit more, but assume it costs $10 more a month on a $30 premium, you can either save $3600 and buy the insurance for 30 years at $30 per month, or you can spend $40 per month and get $14400 back at the end of the term. You can see how you'd never be able to turn that saved $3600 into $14400 just by investing it or putting it into a savings plan. And if you "activate the policy" - an insurance euphamism for "die" - then you get the full insured amount.

The odd fact of the matter is that only 8% of people who buy insurance ever use it. So there's a pretty good chance that we'd live out the term of the policy and get all that money back. more

Well, it seems we're done. Suckered into throwing at the buyers another $4500 plus $500 that our realtor is kicking in from her comission, we are finally parting with our house. Whether the additional $1500 was worth our piece of mind, I can't say. What I can tell you is that anything not nailed down in the house that was not mentioned in the sales agreement is not remaining in the house, I don't care if I have to give it away to the neighbors, these buyers aren't getting another red cent from me. This means when they beg for the bedroom's window air conditioner because the 2nd floor is so hot they need a new central air system, they can just bugger off. Nevermind that we don't need it in the new house, I'll sooner give it to Goodwill than leave it for these greedy buyers. Bah, so angry!

And now on to more pleasant talk, since it's been on my mind...

We went shopping for a few items for the new house. Since the new house will not have a washer and dryer, and our buyers are keeping ours, we bought a new set. The new washer and dryer are a matching pair of GE appliances. The washer is a front-loader, something I have no in-home experience with. The lady at Home Depot (who was infinitely more educated than the guy at Sears, who expected that just because Consumer Reports gives his appliances the top rating, we would fall over ourselves in quetionless stupidity to buy them) assured us that this was the brand to buy if we were mounting the washer on a wood floor, as opposed to on concrete block. ...