Just got the first four episodes. It’s a historical drama from Korea (most likely some kind of count intrigue). I love watching Korean historicals because I find them highly interesting, and I like the cast and so on. We’ll see how much I like this series.

…for Rivera. Karen reported:

Apparently, Siren wasn’t the only publisher that ex-Ocean’s Mist Press owner, Noemi Rivera lied to, about who she was. She also apparently faked her name over at Red Rose Publishing. She got found out though:

From: “Wendi”
To: redroseauthors
Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2008 03:40:50 -0000
Subject: [redroseauthors] Important Information for you all!

It has been brought to my attention the owner of Ocean’s Mist Press was at Red Rose Publishing. She was writing under the name of Maria McBean. She submitted to us and gave us that name and signed her contract as such.

When this was brought to my attention I ran her social security number and it showed that it did not belong to Maria McBean but belonged to Noemi Rivera.

I am so sorry as I have concluded that she has commited fraud as she fraudulantly signed an alias and that makes her contract null and void.

She has been removed from the authors loop plus her book has been taken down or in the process of being taken down at all the other places we are distrubted at.

She has breached her own contract and is NO LONGER WELCOME AT RED ROSE PUBLISHING! Nor would she have been welcome if she submitted as herself.

I wanted you all to know what was going on. I am so sorry as she SCREWED every one she has ever came into contact with.

Take care and have a great evening!

Wendi

Do people honestly believe that nobody’s going to find out? I wonder if it was worth the humiliation. Besides now her name is linked to all sorts of questionable and/or illegal and/or unethical behaviors. Not a great way to go.

So…

After posting my good news here, I sent my blurb, cover art sheet (hyperventilating) and author bio.

My author bio’s up. Samhain webmistress put it up so fast, I was like “Whoa!” It still feels surreal.

Of course, if you want to see the official bio on my site, you can click here. I have more stuff there, like fun facts listed below:

• Angelle fed a bunch of stingrays in a sandbar in the Caribbean. They were really quite cute, so she gave one a kiss. Her friend took a picture of that. Mmmm…guess she can never run for a political office with that incriminating photo floating around somewhere…
• Angelle swam with “sweet” and “gentle” sharks. So of course, she got bitten. No kiss for the sharks!
• Angelle spent over $2,000 on her violin, but didn’t play it for over four years. When she opened the case, her bow hair was ruined from the lack of use and nasty bugs. Thankfully they didn’t eat the violin itself.
• Angelle received a B.S. in Commerce with concentrations in finance and management information system with a minor in economics from the University of Virginia. Her crit partner Jennifer Shirk was right when she said, “Romantic-at-hearts indeed come in all shapes, sizes, and mind-numbing educations.”
• While working, Angelle flew over 5,000 miles per week, and at one point, her permanent address was a Hilton in California.
• Angelle has lived in four different countries and speaks 2.5 languages.

This is a short rant directed at English conversation school teachers in Japan.

The teachers at Berlitz are striking because they think they need to be paid more. The company made a handsome profit since 2005, and they think they are entitled to some of that pie.

Of course, they never even consider the fact that Berlitz lost money in 2004, but the company never asked the teachers to share the loss.

And the idea that they think they’re real teachers deserving some super respect is laughable.

Granted there are some really dedicated linguists and English teachers in Japan. But almost no English conversation teachers in Japan are actually qualified to teach. The vast majority of them don’t have any sort of teaching certification or license. They also do not have a degree in education, linguistics or any other related field. Some of them are so fricking illiterate and stupid that talking to them will rot your brain. Of course they want to hide this fact, so they give incorrect information to their students. (It’s painfully obvious that their “advanced” students don’t know anything about basic English grammar if you talk to them for about 10 minutes or so.)

The only requirement for getting a job as an English conversation teacher in Japan is a four-year university degree from any English-speaking country in the world. (And perhaps having a Canadian, Australian, American, Brit and/or Kiwi passport helps.) That’s it. Most schools provide about three days of “training”. *snort* Don’t tell me that makes you a REAL teacher.

Czardas. I really like this performance.

Well, I was talking with two my CPs — Jennifer & DD — about my blog. My main complaint was that I usually don’t have anything to say, so I wanted to shut down my blog.

Jennifer in particular thought I should write about what it’s like to live in Japan. I told her it’s not all that exciting, but she said I only thought that because I actually live here.

Mmmm.

Maybe I’ll blog about Japan…

Myanmar says aid and rescue workers aren’t needed, but they’d like stuff and money:

Myanmar will accept foreign aid but distribute relief itself, an official newspaper said on Friday, after a disaster rescue team from Qatar that arrived in Yangon on an aid flight was turned back.

“Myanmar is not in a position to receive rescue and information teams from foreign countries at the moment,” the government-run Myanma Ahlin newspaper said in a report on the aid operation slowly building up for survivors of Cyclone Nargis.

“But at present Myanmar is giving priority to receiving relief aid and distributing them to the storm-hit regions with its own resources,” the newspaper said.

So other countries are supposed to think that the military dictator and generals will do the right thing? I’m very skeptical. Once aid (either in goods or money) is given, the junta can do whatever they want with it, and nobody will be able to check on them to ensure that the victims received shelter, food, water and so on. Completely insane, I tell you. I can totally understand why some donors are very hesitant because they’re worried that their donation may be diverted for things other than helping the cyclone victims.

This picture sums it up really well.

People act like it’s a big deal or humanitarian to boycott the Olympic Games. But they continue to buy things made in China, buy investment products based on the Chinese financial market (meaning Chinese funds), etc.

The entire thing of course is self-serving. If they truly 100% cared about Tibet, then they would also boycott all Chinese products, all companies doing business / investing in China, all Chinese funds, all Chinese movies and music, etc. But it would be too difficult or troublesome. So most people opt to take the moment away from the athletes who trained for years for this once in a lifetime chance.

I changed my site layout today. What do you think?

I just got a letter from my U.S. bank, informing me that they froze my HELOC last week and that if I wrote a check against that line, well…f* you.

Looks like I’m not the only one who got such a notice:

The latest example of this is in the mass freezing of home equity lines of credit going on across the country. Reeling from losses on their wretched loan decisions of recent years, lenders are preventing borrowers with pristine credit and significant equity in their homes from tapping into credit lines that they paid dearly to secure.

…

Banks have the right, of course, to rescind these credit lines at any time under the terms of the contracts they struck with borrowers. And as home prices have tumbled in many parts of the country, banks are undoubtedly trying to protect themselves from exposure to additional losses.

But these actions are being taken even in areas where property prices are rising, Mr. Kratzer said. What’s worse, the letters provide no explanation for how the lenders determined that the property values underlying the equity lines had fallen.(emphasis mine)

Here’s what just annoys me about the situation.

I’ve been with my bank for…I don’t know…over six years? The U.S. checking account is necessary for me because I have to be able to pay some of my bills in USD. I’ve never bounced a check. My credit is … well, pristine. I’ve never missed a payment on my credit cards or mortgage. No liens, no judgment, no bankruptcy, nothing. I’ve had two HELOCs and paid off the first one before I opened the second one. The HELOC rep from the bank even told me that my credit was excellent and that everything was no problem. And nothing has changed since then.

Yet…they’re sending me a note telling me to get lost since they feel jittery over the subprime mess that they created out of greed and sheer stupidity. Obviously giving money to people with no income and/or substandard credit is just dandy, but extending credit to people with good credit is so…passe now. And my bank’s action is going to cost me $35-40 per month extra, plus an hour of my time. Now you see why I’m totally annoyed?

Some people have claimed that the only people who are gonna get hurt by this are the banks and the subprime borrowers. I told them they were wrong because it’s going to hurt the good, responsible people too.

Now I’m proven right.

P.S. In case anyone’s wondering my bank is E*Trade. I plan to close the account the next time I go home and open one with another one. The more loyal you are, the more they seem to screw you over.