Dead Mermaids

I made a new sticker design! And to show it off, I’m uploading a sample of it here as well.sample If you want one, it’s only available through the sticker club for a month. The sticker club link is to your upper right. Just over there. See it? Then if I have any left they’ll get put in the etsy shop.

All is getting ready for the convention. I’m nervous but not really. Actually things look a little dicey right now as, well, Paypal’s system was hacked much like in this report here. This happened a couple of months ago.

Not always in the know as I am, I had no idea what was going on until Paypal sent me a new debit card and told me the old one would no longer work because of it. Okay, I thought. I cut the old card in half and have been using the new card ever since.

Yesterday morning about 0300 hours, it happened. Sri Lanka and some other weird country I’ve never heard of charged my Paypal a nice ripe sum of somewhere around $900. And I had only $100 in the account.

When I called Paypal, they were very nice about the matter. They told me they were going to reverse the charges, and that the account had actually been charged a good deal more than that but they blocked them. Then they explained that it happened because they’d been closing down the compromised cards “in batches”, and they just hadn’t gotten to mine yet.

Insert flat-eyed face here.

I have to hand it to Paypal, though. I had called them expecting an issue. They were friendly and forthright. Charges are being reversed, and I’m supposed to get my money back in 4 days. Of couuurrrsee… I found this out because I’d went into my account trying to find funds large enough to buy FOOD… but… I’m sure my hips aren’t going to miss anything. :-p

The issue, the real issue, is that there was only $100 in my account. That means somewhere around $800 is being forwarded as a charge to my bank. My Paypal account is a business account, after all, and has been a tool for me to keep my business funds separate from my real life (read: my husband) for years.

So we called the bank. Do you know what they said? “There’s nothing we can do.”

As a result things are looking real dicey on that matter. I don’t know how this works with Paypal; if they’ll put the money back in my bank account as well or what will happen. The bank however explained that putting a stop on it would “take too long”, so they were just going to force us to wait for the amount to bounce and then charge us a bounce fee.

Bounce fees add up.

So currently my husband and I are in limbo, wondering if we’re going to be able to make the car payment out of his paycheck when it comes in a few days… or will it be eaten up by fees that aren’t even our fault to begin with.

On the other side of my life, where I play a fictional character that puts out videos expressing unpopular views no one likes to hear, I often say “use cash, use cash, use cash”. I do my best to use cash, to keep it hidden in case it’s needed. My husband and I have slowly been weaning dependency on credit cards out of our lives for a while now.

Our resolve just hardened on the matter.

So maybe I’ll get to Arch Anime Con, maybe I won’t. I hope I get to. I’ve already begun to dye my hair purple. (Mwahahaha.) Oh the fun I hope to have.

If you like my sticker design, please drop me a note about it. It was rare inspiration! I think I’m Bravest Warrior starved. Where is Season 3… dang it….

Star morphs and the drama that comes from them.

Sort of crossposted and then edited from Deviantart.

I’m just going… wow.

Dudette puts out cool Star morphs. I follow her blog cuz they’re cool morphs. I compliment her work often.

I buy these other more streamlined morphs – not because she’d suggested anybody get them on one of his download pages (which she did), but because the artist put out a video of what the morphs could do.

Except once installed the morphs didn’t do what they said they’d do. At all.

Researched. Seems like others with DAZ Studio have had this problem with no solutions offered.

It’s a holiday but I contacted artist anyway. No response yet of course. It is a holiday.

So I contact blog dudette with a letter that essentially said, “Love your morphs. Got the other morphs you mentioned but they let me down. So I’d like to put in two requests.” It was a long email, actually, where I talked like they were a real person. I said things like “Star’s eyes are too f***g far apart” and bemoaned my fate that this morph pack, which I had bought with intentions to use with 10 Confessions, wasn’t working right.

Just got an email back.

“I DO NOT appreciate you trying to put ideas into my head. I have my goals very clear and have already planned what morphs I’ll make long ago, so I don’t need anyone else to tell me what to make. If it was your intention to brainwash me into making these morphs, then please note that any other “request” like this will be ignored. If it was not your intention, I apologize, but I’m much too tired of having people tell me what I should make, especially since I’m giving these out for FREE.”

Now to the point behind my post: a lesson to learn. Let’s analyze this. They open with how they don’t appreciate me trying to put ideas into their head, as if I’ve got some sort of mental ray gun aimed in their general direction. They have their goals very clear and have planned what they’re already going to do. Good for them, they have ambition. They don’t need anyone else to tell them what to make…

It was just a suggestion? In fact I even said, “If you make Star’s eyebrows more manly for your (male Star morph character), I wouldn’t complain.” I’m not sure how that equates to, “DO THIS OR I’M GOING TO KILL YOUR PUPPIES!!!”

To analyze further: If it was my intention to “brainwash” them into making those morphs, I should note that any other ‘request’ will be ignored.

… I wonder if it’s brainwashing when a professor says, “I suggest you get your papers in by Friday.” Or when your mother says, “Don’t forget clean underwear.” Is it brainwashing if someone says, “I suggest you bring an umbrella today. It might rain.”?

It was just a request you crazy f***. Hell I would have considered trying to find a way to pay if I had the money. Dayum.

To go further, they add that if such things weren’t their intention they apologize. BUT. BUT! See, it was the but that killed the apology. Anyone who says something like, “I’m sorry I knocked over your sandcastle, but it was blocking the sun” isn’t really apologizing. They’re handing you some empty words and *an excuse*.

I also have this rule in life. If you ever ever EVER accuse me of manipulation and brainwashing, I take that as a red flag. A really big red flag, that you’re cuckoo and need to go away.

And here I was telling my husband this morning that 3D artists didn’t have the ‘tude problems of some hackers I’ve met. Boy was I just showed wrong!!!!

I dislike being talked to that way, as anyone should. I sent a rather irritated reply I thought it was over. I wasn’t nice in my reply. I had just been accused, not once but at least twice, of being manipulative by a perfect stranger because I admired their work. They got told to go away and get back on their meds. Oh and not to worry, I was going to unfollow their blog. (Seemed the thing to do, considering I clearly wasn’t welcome.) I’d do it again, too.

And this is where my red flag warning I told you about proved to be pretty damn accurate. They didn’t go away. No no no, they emailed me back. Apparently they were now a little butthurt that I’d insulted them first (wuuut???) and didn’t want mean people following their blog anyway. At this point I’m starting to think I’m bantering with a 12 year old.

I thought about it and decided to at least give them a chance to learn something. I copy and pasted their first insults. Didn’t change a word. Then I said, again, for them to go away and if they emailed me back I was going to report their email as spam. Which, at that point, it is.

They emailed me… again. Told me to go ahead. AAAAND apparently they’re worried I’m going to blog everything, and if I am blogging it to make sure I’m getting the information correct so it won’t clash with *their* blog.

You can’t argue with a raging troll brat. So I’m not. I’m logging into my business account now to block and report them. And good riddance.

Point here is… I don’t care to see their blog. I don’t care to see another email from them. I care enough to talk about it here cuz it’s an event worth pondering for a bit. But if I’m unfollowing their blog and have told them three times now to stop emailing me, chances are I couldn’t care if they live or die anymore. I just want them and their negative energy to go away.

I used to put up with it when people accused me of manipulative tactics, but every time I have put up with it I’ve been burned. I even ended a ten plus year long relationship a few weeks ago because of that sort of disrespect and paranoia, as my long time readers may recall. I honestly don’t have time for it.

Ain’t nobody got time for that. =^-^=

So I guess take a lesson from this entry if you will. If their blog is filled with all sorts of vitriol about how I insulted them first and was trying to control their mind from afar, whatever. They won’t be the first to point fingers like that. The important lesson to it here is… unless they manage to get close to me again it will be the last they do it bravely from behind the great internet shield.

It’s something to blog about I guess. And to take notes from. No one writes villains like this. Maybe I should.

Ain’t nobody got time for that. 😉