Better By Nightfall

These days run together with little interruption and slight aberrations. Not much changes and I find myself doing much of the same work day after day. Fortunately I have been able to mix things up a little lately, but there nothing too terribly novel to report except, perhaps:

• I recently started watching Torchwood. For those of you who don't know, it is a sci-fi/fantasy series from the BBC. It's sort of like The X-Files meets Roswell (when it was good [i.e. only during Season 1]). So far I have finished the first two discs and I can't wait to see the rest of the series.
  
• I downloaded Song Summoner: The Unsung Heroes for the iPod nano. It was a well-reasoned impulse buy that I can, fortunately, afford (it was only $5). Since it was designed by Square-Enix, it naturally follows that it is a strategy-RPG similar to Final Fantasy Tactics, except it uses your music to make troops. It's highly addicting! In fact, the first night I had it, I played the game for six hours straight! I have since, of course, recomposed myself and restricted my playtime to a few hours a day.
  
• Half.com officially sucks! While I have sold about 40-50 items in the last two months, I have only received feedback from half of them. Moreover, half.com's new policy regarding feedback for buyers is completely biased. Instead of allowing the seller to have any sort of recourse or compensation, the new policy does not allow sellers to give negative or neutral feedback to buyers. Yet buyers are allowed to give whatever feedback they want and both neutral and negative feedback lower the seller's rating! It follows the maxim that "the customer is always right," when the customer may, in fact, be particularly persnickety and a complete douche bag. As you may have guessed by now, I got a neutral rating from a seller. Apparently the book didn't arrive fast enough, even though it arrived on time. Instead of talking to me, though, the buyer gave me a neutral rating which lowered my perfect score down to a 97%! What is worse is that I had already given him positive feedback, so I couldn't do anything about the situation. Well, given the new policy, it is not like I could do anything anyway. I could've abstained from leaving feedback, but that doesn't do anything.
  
• It is likely that I'll be headed out to South Dakota at the end of the month. It isn't a vacation, though. Rather, I'll be helping my family out for a few days. It will be nice to see my family again and, I suppose, hit the road. The travel time does not bode well, but I will manage.
  
• Today marks the one month mark (or close to it, anyway) until I get my loan money! Internet, you know how big a deal this is for me! Of course, I am still getting by considerably well, but I am looking forward to the arrival of funds. I have already drafted a list of the things I need to do with my money (including paying back a few people!), so I'll be set to jet once I am financially sound. Hopefully I receive the full amount I have requested for this year, otherwise there could be problems down the line. And, in re-reading that, I realize I sound like a loan-leech, but, honestly, what else can you call the majority of college students these days? Indebted dorks? Impecunious indolent individuals? Educated bums?
  

Until then, I am counting down the days, line by line, because, as Destiny's Child said so, erm, "eloquently": "I'm a survivor. I'm gonna make it. I will survive. Keep on survivin'."