Woke up at 3:13am

OK, today you get a hodge-podge. Not that that is much different than what you get on any other day. I just discovered that I can take my Books Read in 2007 list on the sidebar and link it to Amazon or another source. So I went back through and did just that, and changed “HP 1, 2, 3 etc.” to the actual book titles, with links. It’s weird to realize that I have read three history-esque books this year: Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s book, Hugh Nibley’s memoir, and Elizabeth Gilbert’s memoir. I, who am pretty much The Anti-History because of all the bad teachers [i.e., junior varsity coaches; my apologies if you are one, or are married to one; the only other bad teacher I had was a (female) math teacher who disliked all the girls in our class] that I had in high school. ‘Tis a puzzlement.

I found this quote on my friend Julie’s blog. Does anybody know the source? “Never argue with an idiot. They only bring you down to their level, and then beat you with experience.” It’s good enough that it could be Mark Twain, or Will Rogers. I try to avoid thinking of my fellow humans as idiots, keeping in mind the Biblical injunction. Texas in August is as close as I ever hope to come to Hell.

I mentioned trolls and billy goats gruff and mama bears in a post last week. And the funny thing is, after I attended stake conference last weekend the trolls no longer bothered me, and I didn’t feel so much like a mama bear. I think it was all the hymns. Music has such power to influence me. I have to be really careful what I listen to.

I remember joking, years ago, that our hymn which begins, “The world has need of willing men” was the unofficial anthem of all the single women in the church. I stand by that statement. So many of the guys that I see at the singles' activities have a certain arrogance about them, stemming I suppose from the fact that about 3% of the single adult brethren in the church are what we would call “active”, or worthy and righteous and fully participating in the church. Which puts the ones who bother to show up at a premium and leads to tackiness like I experienced from a certain brother earlier this year. I still say that it would be a Very Good Thing if the dozen or more sisters that he’s treated that way, all showed up with cream pies at one of the dances as “I Will Survive” blasts in the background.

I will share with you the resolution of the first troll situation. Churchboy Dating Service; I logged on one recent Sunday night and discovered that my “lifetime membership” had been downgraded to a guest membership.

My letter to them:

When I joined Churchboy Dating Service in 2002, it was because the service with which I had a “lifetime membership” was absorbed in a merger.

I have not logged in on Churchboy Dating Service for several months, nor have I received any possible matches. Nor have I received any notification that my “lifetime membership”, which had been honored by the new company, had been downgraded to “guest membership”.

When did this happen? And why, other than your company’s desire for greater revenue?

Since I am not sure if I would be able to access my CDS inbox, please reply to my off-CDS address, which you should have in your records.

Thank you.

Their response to me:

Hi Lynn,

I am sorry for the confusion. We sent an email recently to all members that have lifetime memberships. It was simply a courtesy reminder of the Terms and Conditions agreement. We wanted to make sure that you were aware that lifetime accounts that remain inactive for two months will be downgraded.

We are so excited to have you back! Your membership has been reinstated so you should have full access to the site.

In the future, I will be unable to reactivate your one-time fee membership. You can still have full access to all the features of the site just as long as your account remains active. If you choose to delete your profile or fail to log in at least once every 60 days then you will forfeit your subscription and your account will return to guest membership status. Please see the ‘Terms of Use’ at [website]. If you have any questions, please let me know.

Again, welcome back!

I’m not sure why I still bother with them, other than the fact that I do have a lifetime membership. I rarely get matches; the most frequent is Brother Sushi, which makes us both chortle. I’m reasonably good at reading between the lines on a profile, and most of them just make me want to run screaming in the other direction. I remember several years ago, when emails with one allegedly active brother had progressed to instant messaging, and he typed “What are you wearing?” and I responded, “Chastity belt. Goodbye.”

Oye.

Books that I’d never considered reading: http://www.ldsmag.com/bestbooks/071015wwjd.html

I bought The Eagles’ new CD on the way to work yesterday. The first song is mostly a capella, with just a few guitar chords here and there. Lovely! And the second song is the one that has been getting airplay, “How Long”. Makes me want to go to the dance next weekend [sans cream pie] and grab Brother Yummy’s hand and tear into an East Coast Swing. I don’t know how anybody could listen to that song and not want to dance, or not feel happy. Here’s the video. I listened to it five or six times on the way to work, and eight to ten times last night on the drive home and while going from bookstore to bookstore looking for Knit Kimono. [Memo to self: email Angeluna and ask her to bring it to Knit Night next week so I can see if I want a copy of my own.] I can sing along just about perfectly now, and the harmonies are close enough that I have my pick of parts.

Listening to The Eagles is a lot like kissing. It doesn’t happen often enough around here, and I’m always pleasantly surprised to rediscover how much I enjoy it, and how much I’ve missed it.