jackiekjono (original) (raw)

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So where is vidder chat these days?

I recently heard part of a BBC audiodrama of a German book called "look who's Back" by Timur Vermes. It was really interesting but, thanks to an annoying rebuffering issue, I missed the last 5 minutes.

I thought I would download it from audible and it is available in audible but, when I logged in, it was not available.

I then had this conversation with the gal in support livechat:

Me:I would like to purchase the English translation of Look who's Back by Timur Vermes which, if I am not logged in, I can see is available through audible but, when I am logged in, it is not available to me.
Why?
Orane:Hello Jacqueline, thank you for contacting Audible's Live Chat Support. My name is Orane and I must say that I am truly sorry to hear of that issue you are experiencing.
For security purposes, please verify the full name and billing address on the account?
Me:listed my name and address. i live in Minneapolis
Orane:Thank you, one moment while I check into this for you.
Thanks for your patience, I have confirmed that the title is available on our site however after further reviewing this issue, Audible is not licensed by the publisher to sell "Look Who's Back" to your location at this time. Publishers specify which countries the Digital Download Rights were acquired for on any audio book.
We understand how this may come across as an inconvenience for you but as a distributor of the audio content, we need to abide by the restrictions that the Publishers have placed on the audio book. Publishers are able to purchase “world” rights for a particular download; however, publishers frequently purchase digital rights for some countries and not others.
Me:Do you know whne it will be available here?
Orane:After checking with our Content Team, I was advised that Audible is still in negotiations with the publishers of "Look Who's Back" in hopes of receiving the rights to sell this audio file to all locations. However there's no estimated time frame as yet.
Me:Thanks! It is weird though, that it is showing up here:
http://www.audible.com/pd/Fiction/Look-...(See full link)
Priced in american dollars but, an american cannot purchase it. If I cancelled my membership, could I get it free through teh one month tiral?
Orane:I encounter the same issue when trying to locate the book using my personal account as well.
If you should cancel the book will still not be added to your cart due to your billing address.
Me:So it is available in *some* places in the US but, not Minnesota?
Orane:That's correct.
Me:Well, this sounds like an angry live journal post.
Thank you so much for your help.
Orane:You are most welcome! Thanks again for contacting Audible and have yourself a pleasant day.

So - this book *is* available for Americans to download. There isn't really some arcane legal restriction with international copyright. They are just choosing to exclude people from my state from interesting new books because they choose not to market them to us at this time.

So Friday night, I went to the best concert I have ever been to - and I have been to quite a few really good concerts.

Here are the tour dates. if you get a chance, please go see them.

http://www.briansetzer.com/tour

There is no way to not love this music. If you don't really like big band, you will like this big band. If you don't like rockabilly, you will probably like this rockabilly if you hate christmas music, it's only about 15% christmas music and they are mostly mashed up with other songs to make them more interesting and new.

If you are a bandom fan who gets hot and bothered over your boys having wild crazy guitar sex on stage, you really can't miss this. I won't spoil it more than to say that sometimes size matters. While everyone else is cheering the family friendly fun, you will know what is really going on and, like me, can smile quietly to yourselves.

The whole thing cooked from the moment the opening act came out through the final curtain call when we finally got to hear "Rock this Town." Where the musicians got their energy, I have no idea. i was exhausted from bouncing in my seat.

BTW - Opening act was an Austrialian group called "Firebird Trio". Find them. They are cool.

I really haven't been paying lot of attention to Livejournal or Dreamwidth for some time. Things with my family have been really intense and work hasn't been much better and the last thing I want to do when I finally get home is deal with more people - even nice people who mostly seem to like me and don't expect me to drive them anywhere and don't complain to my supervisor if after being sick for two months, I take antibiotics which give me mild gas problems.

I'm really sorry! I love you all and miss you very much.

Right now, I have little bit of a problem and I am a little too emotional about it to be as sensible as necessary and, since I have never even been married, I don't have the first clue about how to go about it.

I thought I would throw it out there to the wisdom of my friends list because you guys know everything.

Earlier this evening, my brother's wife (the brother who is still relatively healthy for those of you keeping score) announced that she is moving out tomorrow and taking the kids and the bedroom set my mom bought them and leaving him with the house (that is worth less than the mortgage) and all of the unpaid bills she ran up.

He also gets to keep the overdrawn bank account.

He can't afford to hire an attorney and is in too much shock** to think about it right now but, his little sister has been working like a dog and has had precious little time to blow money on crap so she *can* afford to hire one.

I know that some of you have been through this. Do you have any ideas about what to look for? What to avoid?

Let me know.

**He really shouldn't be. We could all see this coming for miles. And told him so. And told him to hire a lawyer that we would pay for.

Hey, folks! It's that time again!

OTW needs your help.

I have really gone a while without looking at Journals and there are a few things I need to post about and read about. Now that I am blocked from it at work, I've lost track of the habit of checking because I get so distracted at home. I need to get back to doing that.

A complex, unusual and philosophically fascinating premise. Check.

Subtle but sensitive and heartbreaking performances. Jason Isaacs is brilliant. Check.

Interweaving plot lines that do not get fouled up with blindingly obvious continuity errors. Check.

No matter how little screen time a character has, they are all well thought out and clearly have complex motivations - even if we don't know what they are. Check.

Dialogue. It has that dialogue where the characters never really say what they mean and dance around it but you can see everything they are not saying. It is so hard to get that right and they have it right. Check.

Every episode better than the last. tonight's just about killed me. Check.

I have not been this invested in finding out how a show comes out since the first few episodes of the British version of "Life on Mars." (And let me tell you, so far - it is Life On Mars good.)

Why then. Why?!?!?!? Am I telling you not to watch this show?

It's on fucking fox.

It's too late for me. I managed to catch a few random seconds of the third ep and was forced to go back and watch the whole thing. I know the pain and misery I will face. I have lived it before.

Heed this lesson my children. Don't follow me into the abyss. I love you too much to let that happen.

Well, as of last Friday, my brother, Carl is out of the hospital. His biopsy was negative so no cancer. The odd tissue around his cyst did turn out to be a type of fast growing tumor tissue so they decided to put a shunt in his head and he is a bit lumpy now.

I suspect he will be wearing a lot of hats in the forseeable future. Still, my aunt has a friend who had to have a shunt put in 30 years ago to drain spinal fluid from her head and she had to have a really smelly bag attached to her wheelchair at all times. All in all, I would say a lumpy head is an improvement in the technology.

They sent him home with a large bag of medications that he will probably be on forever - though it is not impossible that his pituitary gland could heal up and they could take him off some of them eventually.

The most serious health problem he is facing right now is that his pituitary gland is no longer producing the hormone that tells you to stop peeing so that you don't become horribly dehydrated and die. It's funny how we take that sort of thing for granted. He has a nasal spray that he uses once a day that replaces that hormone. We have to watch him carefully to make sure his eyes aren't sinking back into his head and keep lots of Gatorade around.

My brother Pete has to take Gatorade with his MS medication, too. My mother feels like she is drowning in Gatorade.

I posted the other day about my brother Carl.

http://jackiekjono.livejournal.com/90933.html#comments

I just wanted to give an update.

Carl is still in the ICU and will stay there until at least Tuesday. He's stable but, he can't really get up without injuring himself and sometimes forgets that so he has to be very closely supervised. They have an aide in the room with him at all times and they have not resorted to tying him down which is nice because the hospital that our friend Kay was in while she was being treated for a brain tumor did keep her tied down and Carl was really upset by that at the time.

He seems less loopy now than he has been but talking hurts so it's hard to tell if there has been any brain damage. They haven't said anything about the likeliness of brain damage so it's probably okay on that front but, hard to tell from behavior at this point.

The tumor/cyst/whateverthehell is blocking spinal fluid from being able to drain. He has a shunt in his head now to drain off the excess. They did an MRI but, it was inconclusive. On Tuesday they will do exploratory surgery to biopsy it and see if they can get a clearer idea of what it is. I think at that time, they will also put in a more permanent shunt that will allow it to drain without lots of external tubes and wires.

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