Tuesday, February 12, 2008

It looks like money is slowly trickling back into my account. So far, a few of the stores my stolen card was used in has already credited the money back to me. About $3800 has been returned but there’s still many thousands more I’m waiting to be returned. The bank is going to call me today or tomorrow to let me know if the rest went through…I guess the “main bank” has to go through the written dispute and then it’ll be credited to me from there. Honestly, I’ll be pissed unless I get every cent back that was stolen. I’ve worked my butt off for years for my money and saved and saved and if I don’t get everything back, I’ll be upset since the bank should have shut my card off the instant it was used in Germany.

I’m trying to stay optimistic, I really am but it’s tough. I’ve been very sick all day too and I keep telling myself I’m not getting sick, dammit! I so believe sickness is mostly mental (if you think you’re getting sick, you’ll get sick) but when I’m sneezing, coughing, and congested all day with a near empty box of tissues and a red, sore nose, it’s tough to keep saying you’re not sick.XD My parents said it was probably the stress, since stress reduces your immune system. Makes me remember the good old days when “stress” to me was an upcoming test in school and/or a fight with my parents. How times have changed.XD
I went home today so my dad could fix my busted headlight and to have a car-savvy neighbor check the exhaust. He said he nearly hit a deer on the way there.>_< Good grief…the last thing I would need was to have a hurt father or a totaled car. But, I spent what little cash I had on a bouquet of flowers for Mom and Dad as an early Valentines gift. They were really pretty and my parents loved them. I petted and played with FuzzButt all night…he smacked his head on the glass coffee table when he was doing one of his ninja cat flips while chasing a feather boa. He was fine…doubt he even noticed.XD

I finished The Vampire Diaries series…totally awesome and ended wonderfully. Fans of Twilight should definitely pick up this series since I’m quite positive Stephenie Meyers, the author of Twilight got a lot of ideas from this series.
Picture of the Day is from DA artist, Sakimichan:

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Monday, February 11, 2008

Hopefully, later today I’ll know if I’ll get all my money back that was stolen out of my bank account. The lady who’s doing “my case” doesn’t think there should be problems with the big amounts because those were all done in stores in Germany and Switzerland on the same day I was making a deposit and using it in a couple stores here in NY. Can’t be in 3 countries at once now can I? I’m keeping my fingers crossed since I’m calling them later today to find out if I’ll get everything back or not…my bank account is going to be kept frozen for awhile though which is tough since I have bills to pay and I literally have zero money besides a few bucks in my wallet which I plan on using to buy Mom and Dad flowers for Valentines.

And to add to all the grandness, one of my headlights went out on my car so I need to get that fixed.>_< I have a credit card Mom and Dad pay for but only use in emergencies and they said it was fine to use for gas, the headlight and food until things get cleared up. Which hopefully, I’ll get everything back and things can go back to normal…well, sorta, I’m doing all this research on identity theft now to prevent such things from happening in the future. The stress alone is killing me and like I needed another reason to hate humanity. I love you guys and my friends and anyone else close to me but humanity as a whole…hate ‘em. I love animals though! lol! Just not people…living and working in NYC showed me the most negative side to people that I never really thought existed till I lived there. Small towns shelter you from that stuff, I suppose.

I’ve gotten sick too…been coughing, sneezing, and clogged up all day. I keep telling myself I’m not getting sick though because sickness is mostly mental…gotta keep the frame of mind that I’ll be fine and this sickness will pass shortly. I’m really hoping because my boss, one of my supervisors, and one of the cashiers I work with have gotten pneumonia in the past week! 3 people I work close to gotten pneumonia…a sickness that I rarely hear actually happening and with my luck lately…ergh, let me not think about it. We still haven’t heard about the job situation either. We still may be closing by the end of the month. I don’t want to apply till I know for sure if I’m losing my job but I got some applications. I’ve had a very very bad week.
Picture of the Day is my kitty, FuzzButt again…I took this one and the last one with my camera phone, hence the grainyness. He looked so handsome posed by those flowers and the boxes…well, until he knocked down the flowers and started attacking the boxes but still! He looks handsome in the meantime:

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Friday, February 8, 2008

Things are looking a little better for me. It appears like I should be able to get most of my money back that was stolen. It’s still not 100% guaranteed yet and I’m fidgeting non-stop waiting for my bank to call me to let me know. It looks like I’ll get most back since it seems all the transactions were done in Germany and Switzerland and obviously, I wasn’t there.

Many people don’t know the difference between a credit card and a debit card. A credit card is when you charge things and at the end of the month, you get one bill. A debit card (which is what mine was) is a card that you can use just like a credit card, except the money comes directly out of your bank account so you don’t get one big bill at the end of the month. So, these people who got my debit card number, got access to my bank account, hence why they completely wiped me out of all my money I had been saving all these years.
People also asked how did the thieves get my debit card number in the first place? Well, there are thousands of ways and you hear of a new way these guys can get your numbers daily. They can get it off the internet, from computers in stores and restaurants, they can even get them from ATM’s. Nothing is safe. Mostly what these people do is they get card numbers and they sell them to multiple people. That’s how my card was being done by many people in two countries at once.
I’m a bit angry at my bank for not shutting off my card PRIOR to my entire savings being wiped out for 2 main reasons. 1)The first transaction done on my card by these thieves was for over $3,300!!! That alone should shoot off warning bells and then $1000’s more soon after. Reason 2) This transaction was done in GERMANY!!! Freakin’ Hell-O!!! The moment a card is done in another country should make it automatically be shut off and do you guys know why the ONLY reason my card was shut off? Because a store owner in Switzerland was suspicious when one of these thieves tried to use my numbers and he called up the bank to get my information. It’s only because of that store owner that my card was frozen but by then, my money was already gone. So it wasn’t even my bank seeing my savings was wiped out, it was a suspicious store owner.

And to add insult to injury I found out yesterday the casino I work at may be closing by the end of the month. It has to do with a bill they’ve been trying to get passed to give tax-relief to our casino and things aren’t looking good. So, I may not have a job which is just wonderful (heavy sarcasm). I’ve had a bad week. I’ll probably be back on commenting on people’s sites this weekend. I need something to keep my mind off all this crap.
Picture of the Day is my kitty, FuzzButt who snuggled with me while I was miserable and sad. He’s a bad boy but he knows when someone needs a good fuzzy cuddle:

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Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Well, the thing that no one will think will happen happened to me today. My debit card number was stolen and my bank account was wiped out. Everything I have been working for and saving for the past 3 years…is gone. All gone. I got a call from my bank saying they shut off my debit card when they saw that someone from Switzerland was trying to order something with my card. I then asked them what transactions were done in the past few days….$3000 here, $1800 there, $1500 somewhere else, $100’s of dollars more, $1000 dollars again…all my hard work…ALL my hours and years of work gone in the matter of a couple days. To say the least, I was hysterical. I called my parents and they came and picked me up. I was in such hysterics…I was ready to do things that I’d never consider doing in my life. They brought me home to keep an eye on me. My dad called the manager of the bank and he told my dad to tell me to try and cheer up…they’d help me in every way possible to fix things. I’m meeting with him tomorrow morning to see if my money can be returned to me. It seems like it’s a possibility and we know he will help us as much as he can because he is friends with my parents (one of the advantages of living in a small town) and he’d try and make things right again. Either way, it will still cost me money but hopefully, I can get most of my money back.

I’m still in shock. I really am. I feel like I’m in a dream…I have nothing right now. I just moved to a new apartment to try and start a new life and then to find some sleazebags stole everything I’ve worked for for all these years…is so un-real. I no longer can pay my rent, my bills, even money to fill my gas tank to get to work. Thank goodness for my parents who are here for me. Although we’ve had problems, they are here to help and I truly appreciate that. So, I may not be able to comment on people’s sites for awhile but I’ll try to keep my spirits up and keep you guys informed.
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Monday, February 4, 2008

Mmmmm…Legolas.
Well, the Giants won the Superbowl which made quite a few people at my casino happy…heard all the hoops and hollers from the sports bar and then guys wearing Giant jersey’s were running around yelling, bumping chests…all that macho testosterone stuff. 3 of the girls I was working with that night were Giants fans so they were all yelling too. I laughed with them but as you guys know, I don’t like football so it really didn’t matter to me.XD

Be prepared for Elves is going to talk politics! Dun Dun Dun…I’ve been seeing a few Otaku people saying which candidates they like and majority of them said, Obama. To start off, I hate Oprah with a deified passion. People think she’s such a god but I see little things she does that proves she’s just a power hungry woman who wants lots of praise and money for all her good deeds. When I saw Oprah backing up Obama that made me...well, dislike Obama! lol! But I saw this special on the news where a news team went to S.Carolina University and asked people which candidate they were going to vote for. Majority of them said Obama and when asked why, and to start, I’m NOT a racist person but…most of the students said they were going to vote for Obama because he was black. Wait…HUH? What?! What does *that* have to do with the kind of goals Obama has if he’s president?! Then, it was that same news team that had these people do a test in which they were asked what kind of things they look for in a president and when the results were given back to the students, it was about 72% of them, matched more with Hilary Clinton! To say the least, they were really surprised but that just proves that you can’t always judge a person by their outside! If you’re going to vote for our PRESIDENT…do the research!! Don’t just go by what everyone else says, really think about it. I know I will when I vote! (and to state, I still haven’t decided who I’m voting for. lol!)

Sorry for the long post! I’m shuttin’ up.
Picture of the Day is a Fruits Basket fan art done by artist, ElaineX on DA…I love the way she kept her own style. Yuki looks scrumptious:

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Sunday, February 3, 2008

I�m still cranky today�I think a part of it is this non-stop cloudy/crappy weather. That�s always a downer when every day has that dark horror movie gloom.

I went shopping today which I thought would help�it was really crowded though so that irritated me more.XD I bought 3 new books at B&N. I got the 2nd set of The Vampire Diaries as well as another book of a series I love and another book I�ve never heard of but it�s going to be made into a movie soon and it sounded really really interesting. There was some school speech thingy-mahoogy going on at B&N so it was packed. I wanted to check out the manga section but there were too many free-loaders hogging the aisle�you know, the people who plop themselves in the way and read mangas without buying them. I used to hate those kids when I worked at B&N in NYC. They wouldn�t move for anything�especially not for people who may actually, you know want to BUY the mangas. And another reason why I prefer to order my mangas then buy them off the shelves�most have already been touched and ruined by kids with greasy little fingers.
And then a couple girls, like maybe 13 or 14 nearly got themselves run over when they almost ran in front of my car without looking both ways in the parking lot. One girl was pulled back by the other and she screamed bloody murder when she saw she almost walked out in front of me. Freakin� idiot. She needs to pay attention�glad her friend was though.>_<

I�m watching Coyote Ugly on BRAVO�never have seen it before and it�s actually pretty decent.
Picture of the Day comes from Tsubasa Chronicles:

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Saturday, February 2, 2008

For the many who asked about the Trinity Blood picture I had in my last post�that wasn�t a fan art. That�s an official art done by the manga-ka. A couple people called it creepy�I stared at it trying to figure out why they would call it creepy�the idea of eating food in front of a fountain a recipe for horror that I wasn�t aware of? *scratches head*

And for those who said pretty much all vampire books were the same�hm, not really�those people are usually the ones who haven�t read any themselves.XD I didn�t start reading vampire books till last year. Twilight was my start and since then I�d read 9 books that dealt with vampires in some way and in every one of them, the vampires differed. Why I said Twilight seemed like a rip-off of The Vampire Diaries was because those 2 really are similar. Both deal with a new person coming to school, drop-dead gorgeous guy, turns out he�s a vampire, the main girl in the story falls in love with him, there�s the struggle of �dating a vampire�, there�s a love feud, the vampires aren�t effected by sunlight, garlic, crosses or any of that stuff that makes up a classic vampire, etc. etc. etc. So yeah, they really are very similar but they do differ enough that I still enjoyed reading both of them.^_^

I�ve been in a pretty crabby mood today�just one of those days and had to deal with a lot of head-achey things that I don�t want to get started with. I tried working on a drawing and that made me more cranky. Otaku made me cranky, NeoPets�made me feel a little better.XD But then I exercised while watching American Idol I had taped a few days ago and that cheered me up. Don�t ask, I don�t understand myself sometimes either.
And speaking of vampires, Picture of the Day comes from Vampire Knight�to those who asked about that a few posts ago, right now, it�s only a manga but the anime is in production. WOOT!!!

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Friday, February 1, 2008

I forgot to mention in my last post something else my kitty, FuzzButt did while visiting my parents:
At one point, we didn�t know where he went so I was by the couch and started calling for him, just �FuzzButt! FuzzButt!! Where�d you go?!� Suddenly, I feel this *twak twak twak* on my foot and it scared the crap out of me! I look down, and there�s a little white paw sticking out from under the couch trying to bat at me some more. That little stinker! Hiding under the couch knowing I was looking for him. Feh!
And speaking of cats, one of my supervisors sent me an email with a hilarious cat video in it. I found it on youtube and you should all watch it. I was in tears I was laughing so hard�especially the ending.XD XD But if you�ve ever had a cat, you can totally relate and if not, well, it�s funny anyway!:

So, I�m reading a book called, The Vampire Diaries and as I�m reading it I�m just thinking, �man, this is SUCH a rip-off of the Twilight series!� Later that evening, one of my supervisors sees what I�m reading and she goes, �Oh wow! I remember reading those books when I was in early high school!� She�s a little older then me�like maybe 27 or 28 and I said, �This book? Are you sure?� Because I had just bought it at B&N a few weeks ago and she says, �oh yes, I loved that series�just check the copyright date.� So I look and sure enough, this book had originally been printed in 1991!! I guess they re-released it seeing how popular vampire books are getting lately. So yeah, I originally thought The Vampire Diaries was a rip-off of Twilight but now I�m thinking Twilight is a rip-off of these books! lol!

Picture of the Day comes from Trinity Blood�I love it�s style and I think they use traditional medium too! It looks like they used guash paints:

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Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Heehee!
Thanks again to those who commented on my drawing! It�s appreciated!
And to clarify in my last post about the irate guard who didn�t like the answer I gave him when it came to fave football team�he wasn�t like, yelling at me or anything. I think people got the idea that we got in a big fight but no, that wasn�t the case. It was like�a sarcastic upset if that makes sense but still, he shouldn�t have gotten any negative reaction after I had already clearly told him I don�t like football in general. And to that person�yes you, the sexist one�you know who you are.:P Virtually every girl that works at my casino are football fans. As in, they wear jerseys from their fave teams on football Sunday but yes, I suppose statistically speaking, majority of women don�t enjoy watching dudes slap helmets on their heads and run into each other. I sure don�t.XP The girls at our casino are the exception.

So, my parents made dinner and asked me if I wanted to come visit and join them, so I did. It was nice and I was happy to see my kitty, FuzzButt again. FuzzButt has this toy that�s basically a feather boa on a string and he goes bonkers with it. I was playing with him and swooshing the boa through the air and FuzzButt was like, Ninja Cat! Just leaping and doing backflips. My mom got some of it on tape�he tends to not entertain as soon as the camera is brought out. Feh!
Oh, and also with my NeoPets drawing, I did enter it into their contest. Many mentioned that I should enter it but I already did. I don�t know how long it takes to see if you make it into their gallery but it looks like 1-2 weeks if you make it in.

Picture of the Day comes from Vampire Knight:

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Monday, January 28, 2008

If you haven�t seen my newest drawing, I�d appreciate it ever-so much if you could take a look and comment^_^...and thanks to those who already did! I got quite a few comments on this one! I guess cuteness wins, neh?XD:

I need to rant�today, one of the security guards that I work with asked me who my favorite football team was. I told him that I don�t watch football and therefore, don�t have a favorite team. He seemed amazed that I don�t like football�I really reeeeeeeally can�t stand that sport. I try to watch it and find myself bored to tears. It�s so much milling around and hey, let�s line up, tackle someone, line up again, oh wait, have to take another time-out, line up, fumble, line-up, commercial, line-up, oh my let�s watch that play again for 5 minutes. Argh! Not to mention�and I know I�ll probably offend some people so I apologize in advance�it seems like a lot of boneheads play football. It reminds me of that Simpsons episode where Lisa was worried that stupidity runs in the family and as she�s looking out her bedroom door, you see Homer and Bart with 2 pots on their heads run at each other, knock themselves down, and then giggle like lunatics. Football reminds me of that. Just watching dudes ram into each other�lol! That sounds so dirty!XD XD
But anyway, back to my original story, I tell the guard I don�t have a fave team and he says, well, name one anyway. So I just throw out Miami Dolphins�the only team I sorta kinda know since that team was in AceVentura: Pet Detective and after I said that, he got all offended saying he couldn�t believe I�d favor the dolphins and I�m like�okay, what part of I.Don�t.Like.Football.Nor.Watch.It did you not understand? I hate when people ask a question then get all upset when you don�t answer what they wanted to hear. I think he�s a Patriots fan and was expecting me to say them. Feh! That�s like me asking someone who their favorite artist is and they would say they don�t know art but I�d tell them to name someone off anyway and then getting upset that they didn�t choose my fave artist. It just doesn�t make sense!! *bonks forehead*

Picture of the Day comes from Inuyasha:

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