I haven't updated this in a while

I've been busy... kind of.

Our office has officially moved to Waltham. It's a very nice building but the downside (which we all knew it would be) is the commute. I leave the house at 5:30am to get in at 6:30... assuming there are no major accidents shutting down both sides of 128 (like there was yesterday. twice.). There are now two other people in my dept close to my age (meaning they're not old enough to be my father) so that's nice. I don't feel like it's me vs the old men anymore when it comes to brining them into the 21st century with updated software programs.

I got a new motorcycle! A Honda Shadow Spirit (750cc). It's so much nicer than the Honda Rebel (250cc) I had before. So. much. nicer.

But... it's been raining. A LOT. There are usually around 8 days of rain in the month of June for New England. This year I think we had (no joke) 25 days with rain. [[This article confirms the ridiculous amount of rain]]

And July hasn't started off too well either. Today's downpours/heavy thunderstorms are flooding a lot of roads and causing a lot of power outages.

All this rain means I haven't been able to ride my new motorcycle. :(

hmm... what else...

I'm making a circus jacket thing for QueenVanna. :) It'll be red and sparkly.

aaaaand I've been trying to go to the gym and get back in shape. No change on the scale so far, but the muscles in my left leg are finally starting to return, so I'll count that as progress.

Perma-muted from the Etsy forums

Good fucking riddance, Etsy. I'll be moving my measly little shop to another venue as soon as I can choose which one I should be giving my money to instead.

The reason behind the perma-mute? 

background if you haven't seen this: http://youthoughtwewouldntnotice.com/blog3/?p=1631

edmdesigns ( http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5000224 ) had the balls to put this in her shop profile: (mind you, this is definitely not the first time she violated Etsy's ToS by trying to air personal disputes in her shop announcement)

edmdesigns's Shop Announcement

♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ Due to the fact that a FORMER SELLER "RIVKASMOM" has illegally tampered with my account and has been shut down on ETSY, she is ONCE AGAIN (a total of THREE TIMES Today) creating bogus accounts and buying out all my listed items without a stop. THERE IS A MAJOR LAWSUIT IN PLACE AGAINST HER FOR NUMEROUS OFFENSES OVER THE PAST MONTHS AND SHE WILL HAVE TO DEAL WITH WHATS COMING HER WAY...IT WILL BE VERY COSTLY TO HER & I WILL SURELY WIN THIS AS I HAVE ALL THE EVIDENCE AND TESTIMONIES FROM HER FORMER FRIENDS WHO ARE DISGUSTED BY WHAT LENGTHS THIS UNSTABLE WOMAN HAS DONE. SHE IS STILL OUT THERE AND CAPABLE OF DOING THIS TO ANYONE SHE WANTS TO - BE CAREFUL !! But meanwhile, My shop "may appear empty" as long as she is out there able to do this. So far, she has "purchased" everything in my store - over 235 items - and then some to the tune of OVER $15,000.00. This is after purchasing some $13,000.00 and cleaning out my store just a few weeks ago. Please Check The Categories to The Right For ALL STEAMPUNK JEWELRY ------- >>> **** Special Thank Yous and hugs to all that have written to me to hang in and the caring support... It means a lot to see a tight knit community working together... A special hug to EB and she knows why... It's my honor to be amongst your talents and kind hearts **** Please don't be shy - feel free to write if there is something on your mind or if you have any questions. Thank you for your trust in my work. edmdesigns ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥ ~ ♥

This seller is all kinds of crazy - she thinks that by saying there's a lawsuit against Rivkasmom that one will magically appear.

So, the threads that were started last night in defense of Rivkasmom:

http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5928806

http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5928826

http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5928838

http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5928843

http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5928842

There were a few more threads that didn't really reference the situation at all that HeyMichelle ran around closing for some odd reason. I think they were just getting paranoid at that point when they kept seeing the same people try to start a conversation in the forums.

So... let's recap, shall we? 

• Rivkasmom accuses edmdesigns of copying her.
• Rivkasmom gets her shop shut down by Etsy.
  
• edmdesigns violates Etsy's ToS on more than one occasion in her shop announcement, gets nothing more than a minor slap on the hand. Plus spots on the front page and in a gift guide to make her feel better.
  
• I publicly point out that edm is violating the ToS AGAIN and get perma-muted for it.
  
• edm still sits fat, dumb, and happy while continuing to kiss Emily's (an Admin member) ass.
  

I was kind of surprised that I got my "you violated community policies on Etsy so we're muting you indefinitely" email rather quickly - as in, no more than 15 minutes after the whole thing went down.

My response? (Which still hasn't been answered yet - I doubt they'll even attempt to respond.)

Well, that was awful fast. Isn't there typically some discussion behind the scenes about this? And who is officially administering this muting? There are no Admin names signed to this email - usually there are.

You can't play favorites forever, you know.

So as a warning against anyone else who points out Etsy's flaws and wrongdoings - they'll just mute you and then eventually shut down your shop. Move to another online venue now.

Muted for a month.

Hello,

Your recent post here is considered in violation of Etsy Forum rules:

http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5794265&post_id=27880746
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5794270&post_id=27880880
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5794277&post_id=27881063

Please review our Forum Guidelines here: http://www.etsy.com/dosdonts.php#community

You can find our complete rules in the Help section of the site.

This is not the first time we've needed to remind you of our community rules. Therefore, we are temporarily suspending your Forum privileges for one month, effective immediately. During this time, you will not be able to post in the Forums or change your avatar. During this time, you will not be able to post in the Forums or change your avatar. Please note that if we need to contact you again about violating Forum rules, you may indefinitely lose your community privileges. This impacts all of your accounts on Etsy.

Thank you for taking the time to review our rules before posting in the Forums again.

Kind regards,

Mary Andrews
Etsy Admin

Rob White
Etsy Admin

I still don't think it counts as "calling out" if you're pointing everyone else to blatant resellers. they should be happy we're finding all these accounts for them - it makes the whole site look bad if at the top of the front page it says "Your place to buy & sell all things handmade" and then you scroll down and see plasma tvs for sale.

Back to work already? :(

This (extra long) weekend was nice.

It was nice to do almost nothing besides eat and sleep. And laugh.

And possibly the worst sound combination to go along with wanting to still be on vacation has to be this:
2 highly annoying co-workers yakking about some topic that does not need a 2-hour discussion + another co-worker clipping his fingernails at his desk



Can I go home now, please?

Did you know that Massachusetts prints nicknames on drivers licenses?

Well, Wal-Mart employees seem to think so.

I had to order something through Wal-Mart's website since it wasn't in stock in the store. I went to pick it up this afternoon. The clerk asked for my license and starting entering my information. She typed in "Katherine"... so I said, "That's not my name."

She kind of looked at me funny.

"It's right on my license." (Duh! You have it in your hand!)

She deleted it and typed my name in.

HEY WPI

I don't have any fucking money to be just throwing away right now. So stop with the phone calls and weekly letters, mm k?

Cause... you know... I'm still paying off the $45,000 that I have left in student loans.

And that's a low amount compared to how much some of my classmates still owe.

So go screw yourself - I wasn't one of those kids at school that had mommy and daddy pay for everything.

PS - my parents don't have any money to throw away either, so don't bother calling them. My dad will just laugh at the person on the other end and hang up.