Shadee’s Blog

Before writing this I already know it’s going to be difficult to keep it in a nutshell. But basically I’d like to ask for support in the form of words. This isn’t for me but for my brother who’s been going through a custody hell for way too long and the last time I saw him it killed me to see how it was wearing him down both physically and emotionally.

You know you’re in bad shape when someone from a government job agency which also pays for welfare and has a vested interest in finding people jobs fast actually tells you they can’t have you driving a truck in this state and offers to help you fill out forms and file for disability.

_____________________
The situation:
He was married, had two sons and a wife which wasn’t very supportive. Most of us were already gnashing our teeth at her and her BS from the start (For example: She couldn’t hold a job, which was fine but even when jobless she couldn’t even bother to go grocery shopping or make dinner. So my brother would have to do all of that too after his crazy sometimes up to around 15 hour shifts as a truck driver. She could happily dump the kids at my parents’ place and go out spending money they didn’t have on things they didn’t need though. And that’s just one of the many things we couldn’t stand about her). Eventually he ended up getting a divorce due to him finally realizing what everyone around him already had and him simply not being able to take it anymore.

They got shared custody. He agreed to take care of all of their combined debt. She in turn offered that he wouldn’t have to pay alimony while he was struggling to work that debt off. Of course that part was verbal only which was a big mistake.

Custody went fine for a while. She found a new boyfriend which was fine and then my brother found a new girlfriend which apparently wasn’t. She didn’t like her and refused to let him see the kids while he was with her. Even after a whole lot of drama and my brother finally breaking things off with the girlfriend she still refused to let him take the kids on his weekends.

Ever since then she’s been trying every single malicious angle to try and destroy him. And sadly, where he lives the mother is usually right by default according to the law. Their ex-mutual friends who have basically all dropped her and have stood by him and even the people at the local police station have voiced their support and sympathy for him but there’s very little they can do (He was told to keep going there on his weekends and to come report it at the station every time she wasn’t there or simply refused to come to the door so they could keep a record). She’s thrown backdated alimony demands at him. Then when he lost his job and couldn’t pay she had everything of value including his car impounded. Threatened to do the same to a car my mom had let him borrow so it’s obvious she’s just doing it to destroy him. If she was after the money she would let him borrow a freaking car so he could actually try and get a job (and yes, as weird as it sounds, apparently car paperwork doesn’t matter in the messed up legal system there and if he has the keys and the car is kept at his place it can be considered his and be impounded too… wth).

Meanwhile the kids have been manipulated to the point of them being terrified of him and won’t even look their grandparents (which they used to love visiting so much that they’d go there instead of home to their mom after school as often as they could) in the eyes anymore when they see them in public. It’s pathetic what she’s doing to my brother, but even more importantly, to those kids. There was no abuse, there was NOTHING major that happened besides her not liking the fact that my brother moved on too and got a girlfriend. I shudder to think that those kids will find out that that was the reason one day, and what if it’s after their grandparents pass away and they never got to see them again because of that?! She would deserve them despising her for the rest of her life but I wouldn’t wish that on the kids at all because it’s horrible.

My brother filed for a custody case and has been struggling with instant counter custody battles where worse and worse accusations get thrown at him without any proof to back them up. She’s acting like a cornered cat and the claims have become more and more ridiculous. Still those seemed to be taken more seriously than anything my brother had to say (and actually has documents and viable witnesses to back it up with) for the longest time.

But recently there’s been a glimmer of hope. Her claim for another year of “down time for the kids” (which was BS to begin with. The only reason they needed it was because of her psychological games and fear mongering) has been denied and she’s been made clear that cooperation to get the kids and dad back together is mandatory. Even people involved in government issued mediation seem to finally see through her BS and have said that if she refuses to sit around the table with my brother to work this out again (she somehow managed to get separate appointments and avoid it so far which isn’t exactly productive :/) they’ll have to write a letter to the judge saying that she refuses to cooperate.

That still doesn’t undo all the psychological damage she’s done though. And I have no idea how a meeting between him and the kids would end up going. The youngest one still visited him for a short while after the other refused but ended up not going anymore either because (according to him, and he just mentioned this out of the blue one day) his brother and mother were abusing him and calling him a traitor for going. So for all I know they might be either clammed up in fear or actually believe all of it after having been told it so many times and genuinely despise him based on lies.

_____________________

So what I’m asking?
If any of this pushes your buttons as much as it has done everyone involved and in support of my brother I would love for you to either write a letter or even just a few words of support and encouragement. Living a continent away from him makes it hard for me to do as much for him as I’d like to so I’m just looking to put something nice together for him to cheer him up. I’m hoping that having a whole bunch of people from all over the world show him genuine support in this might lift his spirits a little.

If you’d like to contribute please send your words of encouragement to shadee@shadeewolf.com and I’ll make sure it gets to him. I’ve refrained from posting names since I wouldn’t put a limit on what this person is capable of so just use “Shadee’s brother” if you would like to refer to him in the header of your message.

Thanks a bunch for your time, I really really appreciate it.

-Dee.

At the diner:

*The D&D cartoon came up for some reason*

Dee: Yeah I remember watching that in the 80’s
Mord: I remember watching that… 30 years ago.
Dee: Was that even on 30 years ago?
Mord: The 80’s WAS 30 years ago.
Dee: …
Dee: No it wasn’t… :<

yes the rest of the week went a lot better lol. So no more Baaawing. Stiill not 100% over the flu but I’m feelin much better than I have. Playing Star Trek Online has been a fun distraction too

-Dee.

So this week has sucked so far.

Monday: It was pretty stormy and I woke up all mucusy with a sore throat so I started the day slow. I was sitting at my desk playing WoW when I suddenly heard this loud cracking sound. My first thought was that it might be either a tree snapping or possibly lightning. About a second later the power went out. So I got up, looked outside and saw that one of the electrical poles across the street had snapped in two. Figured I’d call the electric company until I started seeing smoke… and weird flashing colors. Turns out the wire was still live, hanging low over the road and setting the neighbors’ bushes on fire. Or trying to anyway, it was pouring down pretty hard but the sparks didn’t stop and neither did the smoke.

So since I couldn’t see much in the dark I figured: “Screw finding the power company’s number” and I called 911 instead. I didn’t want people driving their cars into that live wire on their way out to work or the neighbor’s house catching fire. Turns out someone had already called it in and both the electric co. and a fire truck were already on their way. Unfortunately it took them all freaking day to get the power back on. They had to replace the pole and were doing work down the street too so I guess a lot got blown out. So yeah, the day was spent with a fire going and me trying to keep myself entertained with candles, a blanket, my camera and my DS. I’ve changed my mind about electric stoves being handy after that day No microwave, no stove and no heat made for a very lousy tea and soup-less Flu day.

Tuesday: I’d forgotten about our dentist appointment. So meh, after the day before I so wasn’t in the mood but decided to go anyway and get it over with. Ended up with half my face numb. We decided to at least have a nice lunch after. I got my fav. at the sushi place nearby, Beef Negimaki (what can I say, I’m not much of a raw fish person :P). Unfortunately with half my face numb it was a huge pain to actually manage to eat and then I ended up swallowing a crunchy piece of beef which I thought I’d chewed properly but hadn’t so it felt like a little razor blade sliding down my throat. Had trouble eating and even just swallowing in general for the rest of the day. That combined with my flu not getting any better = +100 points on my “Oh boy aren’t we having fun today!”-meter.

So anyway, today’s Wednesday and even though the flu is still going I’m hoping the day will be nice and uneventful.

Wish me luck

-Dee.

PS. Workmen and vehicles in the dark + camera + shaky flu arms makes for pretty abstract photo art

For anyone I hadn’t sent this to yet. Here you go: http://www.facebook.com/shadeewolf
and http://twitter.com/Shadeewolf

Haven’t blogged much. Not really much point to it when you can share your stool status on twitter every hour or so.
I’ll be back here when something major happens. Unless of course it’s too major.

-Dee.

I think the person who did the second version was just about dead on when it comes to what the cat was thinking lol

Got this amazing game for the DS. It’s called Scribblenauts. It’s a 2D Puzzle game and when I first read the description I simply didn’t believe it. I just didn’t believe that they could’ve managed to put such a concept together. Normally in puzzle games you have to solve certain problems to get to the end of the level. You usually either find items to solve these puzzles with in the level itself or you’re given a set number of items at the start of each level.

Ok…

Now in Scribblenauts that’s not how it works.

You get to type (or write) the name of the item you want to use to solve the puzzle with. No… it’s not something pre-determined which you have to guess right or else it won’t give it to you. You literally get to type whatever you can come up with, and chances are very good that the game will give it to you.

Example:

I was faced with a soccer puzzle. I had to score a goal. The first couple of times the goalie caught the ball before it went in. And there was this other chick on the field who kept cheering. So I got annoyed. I typed “Hooligan” just for laughs and guess what? I got a soccer hooligan. And he proceeded to beat the shit out of everyone just like I wanted! Granted, he beat the crap out of me too and I still failed the level but it was SO worth it!

So as I’m sure you can imagine, lots of time in that game is wasted just summoning absurd items and watching the train wreck happen. There’s even a blank level screen where you can do just that without dying.

Chupacabra is in there. He does chase and kill goats if you summon them.
The headless horseman attacks you until you give yourself a pumpkin, then he becomes intrigued. You can send vampires running with cloves of garlic. Summon a nuclear bomb to just obliterate everything. Ride horses, pegasus, pterodactyls, you name it and it’s probably available.

So long story short, it’s an amazing little game with a huge library of items with their own interactions. Of course it doesn’t have “eeeverything”, no brand names or vulgarity, and there’s some things missing, but I really had to try very hard to find something it didn’t have.

So if this is the type of game that sounds interesting to you I would definitely recommend checking it out. I can see myself playing this game for quite a long time. Even going back to old levels to try different methods just to see how creative I can get

-Dee(Essing)

Brand new Syfy (eww) show, “Warehouse 13″:
“Secret Service agents Myka Bering and Peter Lattimer are assigned to the government’s Warehouse 13, which houses supernatural objects. They are tasked to retrieve missing objects and investigate reports of new ones.”

Old 80’s series called “Friday the 13th”:
“The series follows Micki Foster and Ryan Dallion as they hunt down the cursed antiques, which are usually in the possession of people who have discovered their evil powers and are reluctant to give them up. Since the cursed antiques are completely indestructible, the ones that the group acquires are locked away in a vault beneath “Curious Goods,” the rechristened antique store.”

Seriously?

I mean come on… if you’re so obviously going to rip off an idea yet pretend you’re not, at least don’t copy stuff from the title too ya tards!

As for the Sci-fi to Syfy name change, if you’re re-branding because you want to expand beyond just the Sci-fi genre and don’t want non geeks to shy away from watching then do a proper rename! What, you think all non geeks are retards who won’t realize that Syfy still sounds like Sci-fi? Even though it now looks like an abbreviation of a venereal disease (I’m never going to stop pronouncing it “Siffee” as in Syphilis :P)

I noticed that they now changed their reasons in the new FAQ. Now it’s because when they go global there might be other channels with Sci-fi in their names or when people search for Sci-fi on hulu and such they don’t want the results to be a mix of sci-fi channel programs and sci-fi genre programs. Which is utter BS lol. Places like that let you filter by source already

So far the only person I’ve seen with a positive response to this re-branding is the person who came up with it and is desperately trying to defend it (and his job probably) while everyone else is mocking it furiously.

-Dyy.

yeah…

At least I now know the knife’s nice and sharp

-Dee