User:	beingme89
	Date:	2009-12-07 20:18
	Subject:
	Security:	Public

Last night was really quiet. I watched a couple more episodes of The Wire on DVD. It's kind of strange in a way that even though I have seen every episode of that show when it was on over the spring and summer I've still been really enjoying the DVDs, more so, perhaps, than I did when I first saw them. It's a very complex and involved show and it is very confusing until you really get into it. When you watch it again it's easier to get all the references and links to earlier and later episodes. The Wire has been described as a novel for television and it really is, with every episode being another chapter in the ongoing story. Later on I was watching a documentary called The Man Behind the Masquerade which was about the English artist Kit Williams who published an illustrated children's book in 1979 called Masquerade, which contained cryptic clues in it's illustrations which revealed the location of a jewelled golden hare which Williams had buried. The book was a huge sensation, but Williams eventually got sick of all the attention and retired from public view to work on his art in peace.

I was in work today and it was pretty busy so there was plenty to do. It's really hard for me to believe that I've been there for seven and a half years now. I got home at quarter to six.

My life is not wildly exciting.

	User:	wolfsilveroak
	Date:	2009-12-06 17:30
	Subject:	Ranty-McRanty, aka my response to an unfair suspension.
	Security:	Public
	Mood:	aggravated

Backstory- I play 'Mafia Wars' on Facebook. It's put out by 'Zynga'.

Last week, a player named 'Terry Tibbs', suddenly started hitlisting me, repeatedly, 6-7+ times a day, over the course of 3 days. Naturally, I retaliated. Mind you, I have a [now] 233 health, and a [now] 400 defense, as well as a 38 Stamina. That means, I can sit here and beat your ass repeatedly, 15-20 times in a row before I need to heal myself. Which is what I did, as well as getting my own Mafia after him.

For THREE DAYS. He'd hitlist me, I'd retaliate.

5 days ago, my account was suspended for several hours. It took FIVE DAYS to get a response.

"Customer (Wolf SilverOak) 12/01/2009 07:47 PM
I just went to my Mafia wars page to see if my energy had regenerated so I could work on some jobs and found this-

"Attention
Your account has been suspended for a violation of the Mafia Wars Terms of Service.
You have 3 hours remaining in your suspension.
Please contact Zynga customer support for further information."

I would like to know what in the world is going on. To the best of my knowledge, I have not violated any ToS whatsoever.

So I would appreciate information into this matter, as I am not happy with your service, and quite frankly, feel like quitting the game. "


"Customer (Wolf SilverOak) 12/02/2009 08:33 AM
I am still waiting for a response on this matter.

I would appreciate a prompt reply. "

"Customer (Wolf SilverOak) 12/04/2009 03:35 PM
3 days now. Still no response from you. This is extremely poor customer service on your part. "

FINALLY I get a resonse-

"Response (Zynga Customer Support) 12/06/2009 01:57 PM
Hi Wolf,

Thank you for contacting Zynga Customer Support.

We have instituted a detection for bots and illegal automated cheats or hacks that flood our servers and give the user an unfair advantage. By disrupting the bots and cheats any player that attempts to use one will see that it will no longer give them the unfair advantage they are trying for.

We recently suspended your account for a brief period because it was showing kind of play that fits the profile of a bot or illegal cheat or hack.

We apologize if you feel that you were caught unfairly.

Because the suspension is for cause, and for a limited time, we will not be compensating any player who has been suspended for any loss incurred during or because of the suspension.

You may avoid future suspensions by not repeatedly fighting with the same player, hit-listing the same player over and over or attempting to run a bot or other automated cheat.

Our goal is to make the game fairer and more fun for all Mafia Wars players.

You may read the Terms of Service for Zynga games here:
http://www.zynga.com/legal/terms_of_service.php

Best,
Zynga Customer Support "

OH HELL NO.

You just accused me of using a cheat in the course of defending myself. The ONLY game I have EVER used a cheat on was and is The Sims2.

This was my response back-

""You may avoid future suspensions by not repeatedly fighting with the same player, hit-listing the same player over and over or attempting to run a bot or other automated cheat."

So what you are telling me is that despite the fact that at the time of the suspension, *I* had been repeatedly hitlist, for 3 days straight, by the same person with no prior attacks, etc on this person, who decided to hitlist me 6-7+ times a DAY, for THREE DAYS straight, that when I retaliated by attacking him in return, and repeatedly asking my Mafia to attack, and that because I have a high Health and high stamina, it appears that I was using a 'bot' program.

So basically, in the course of PLAYING YOUR GAME, I was falsely accused of using a bot.

I call bull.

What you are essentially saying/claiming is that I can be repeatedly hitlist by someone I've never seen before, and when I stick up for myself, *I* will be punished for it.

Got it.

I'll keep that in mind and the next time I get hitlist 6-7+ times a damn day, I will flood your damn support box with reports on him. Otherwise, when I retaliate, I might just get accused of using a damn bot program again. "

Complete and utter bullshit on Zynga's part. I KNEW when I got suspended that it had to have been that asshole who kept hitlisting me. I KNEW it. Well, fine, next time an asshole repeatedly hitlists me out of nowhere, I will file a harrassment report against them.

After all, according to Zynga, they MUST be cheating.


I know it's just a game, and a free one at that, however, I was accused of cheating and that, I take exception to.

Edit 12-7-09

Well, they replied-

"Hi Wolf,

Thank you for contacting Zynga Customer Support.

Unfortunately, your account was caught for illegal play by use of a hack, cheat or bot.

Because the suspension is for cause, and for a limited time, we will not be compensating any player who has been suspended for any loss incurred during or because of the suspension.

We have explained this to you on more than one occasion. Any further contact with Zynga regarding this issue will be set to ‘answered’ without further communication to you.

You may read the Terms of Service for Zynga games here:
http://www.zynga.com/legal/terms_of_service.php

Best,
Zynga Customer Support "

To which, I directly emailed them and replied-


"You are full of shit.

I do not use cheats, I do not use Bots, I do not use hacks.

I know damn well I was falsely accused of any of the above, or possibly of harassment.

And as I stated in my last comment on this ‘question’ that you blatantly refuse to answer properly, I will now flood your damn support box with harassment reports when I am hitlisted repeatedly, over and over again, by the same person. Because otherwise, if I retaliate, *I* will again get accused of cheating.

And you can be sure that everyone in my Mafia will hear of this."

It will not surprise me to find my Mafia Wars account completely shut down after this.

	User:	beingme89
	Date:	2009-12-06 16:11
	Subject:
	Security:	Public

Last night I was watching a bunch of TV programmes about the writer Alan Bennett. It started off with a documentary about a hotel called Dinner at Noon, then a play called An Englishman Abroad based on a true story when the actress Coral Browne (who played herself in the show) met the British spy Guy Burgess (played by Alan Bates,) who defected to the Soviet Union in the 1950s, in Moscow. Then there were a couple of Bennett's Talking Heads shows, which were kind of half-hour monologues, basically one actor playing a character talking to the camera for half an hour. Lastly there was a documentary about Bennett. After that I watched a few episodes of The Wire on DVD.

Today I decided to stay in. It's really cold outside, and to be honest I don't really feel like braving the crowds, until I know exactly what I want to get people for their Christmas presents. I've got something for Dad already, so that's okay, but my Mum and my brother are a different matter.

I'm listenign to the second part of the radio adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, based on the John le Carre novel. It's been pretty good. I've read the book and seen the 1970s TV version so I know the story very well.

	User:	beingme89
	Date:	2009-12-04 19:47
	Subject:
	Security:	Public

Last night was really quiet again. I was watching an episode of Pennies From Heaven, one of the first episodes of Doctor Who from 1963 in which the first Doctor (played by William Hartnell) travels back to the Stone Age, and an episode of the original Twilight Zone series in which an ageing movie actress tries to enter the world depicted in her old films.

It was another very quiet day at work, even for a Friday. I think the next couple of Fridays will be pretty much deserted at work due to office Christmas parties and so on.

	User:	beingme89
	Date:	2009-12-03 20:33
	Subject:
	Security:	Public

Last night I was watching the third episode of Pennies From Heaven, which was pretty good. It's a pretty interesting show, and really dark, in which the characters escape from their depressing lives in 1930s Britain through their imaginations fired by the popular songs of the period. The characters lip-syncing the songs rather than actually singing works pretty well for the show, and adds a really surreal fantasy element to it. Following that I saw the latest episode of True Blood, that is a really fun show, which I really enjoy a lot.

Today was another dull day at work. All the Christmas decorations are going up at work now. I've got my days off work booked up for Christmas. I'm off work for pretty much two weeks from the 21st, but I do have to go in to work for one day on Tuesday the 29th.

	User:	beingme89
	Date:	2009-12-02 20:10
	Subject:
	Security:	Public

Last night I saw the second epsiode of Pennies From Heaven on DVD, which was really good. Later on I was watching a movie called Piranha Part Two: The Spawning, which was James Cameron's first movie as a director. The movie is a sequel to the 1978 horror movie Piranha which was a lot of fun. In this movie the US Navy have been experimenting with biological weapons and accidentally dump a canister full of mutated piranha eggs in a sunken ships. Before long the ship is swarming with vicious mutant piranhas which can fly. By coincidence, a waterside holiday camp is near the sunken vessel and it's not long before campers are being turned into fish food. The movie is famously bad with terrible acting, and bad special effects with monsters that look like wind-up toys. James Cameron has all but disowned the film. Although for Cameron fans there are a lot of hints towards his future career in particular Aliens (in one scene a piranha hides inside a victim's chest and bursts out to attack a nurse like the Alien chestburster, and Lance Henricksen - who stars as a cop - is described in one scene as a "robot", and of course he played a robot in Aliens). It is really only for hard-core James Cameron fans and fans of really bad monster movies.

Today I went to work. Luckily because of yesterday's screw-up the place was totally snowed under with work so there was enough to keep busy all day.

	User:	beingme89
	Date:	2009-12-01 20:01
	Subject:
	Security:	Public

Last night I was watching the first episode of Pennies from Heaven on DVD. It was a British TV series written by Dennis Potter and first shown in 1978, and set in England during the 1930s. The show stars Bob Hoskins as a travelling sheet music salesman, frustrated by his marriage and the daily grind, but finds escape by indulging in surreal musical fantasies. It was the first of several Dennis Potter plays in which the characters mime along to recordings of popular songs.

Today was a really dull day at work. The computer syystems went down in the early afternoon which was really annoying because it meant there was nothing to do.

	User:	wolfsilveroak
	Date:	2009-11-30 14:54
	Subject:	It's that time of year again...
	Security:	Public

Time for me to start that maniacal holiday baking that I swear to myself I won't go overboard on, every year, and yet, still manage to.

I was going to do 3 different cookies and one candy this year. That's it.

Then the SiL saw a bread in the latest Food Network magazine and it looked nearly the same as Povitica, which I KNOW I made her a mini loaf of last year, but apparently she doesn't remember it. So I said I'd make her one with just chocolate filling in it. Except the recipe makes THREE full sized loaves, which means, she gets one, we get one and I guess I can send one to my parents...

And thus it begins.

That spiral down into overboardness.

So what's on the list, you ask?

Well...

My mom's Capt Crunch Candy, of course, that's a yearly MUST.

Gingerbread cookies- another yearly MUST, for both my dad and the FiL.

Pizzelles- ANOTHER yearly MUST for my mom and the MiL. And only them. Sorry peeps. They take way too long, especially since they get made two at a time.

Hamantaschen cookies- I made 3 flavors last year for the first time. They went over very well, 4 flavors planned this year.

Sugar cookies.

And THAT was it, I swear.

But then I came across these two cookie recipes in weekly King Arthur Flour emails, and well, yeah... now I'm up to 5 cookies and one candy.

Linzer cookies- I actually have cookie cutters for these too! Thinking doing just a chocolate filling though. In my defense, I have wanted to make these for awhile now. So there.

Double-Shot Mocha Chunk cookies- they just SOUND delicious.


So...

5 different cookies with 5 different fillings between them, 1 candy and a bread that makes 3 loaves. Is it any wonder I get started early?

Did I mention that there's 30 people/families on my list that are getting boxes this year? Yeah. Luckily, half won't need mailing.}:P

	User:	beingme89
	Date:	2009-11-30 17:34
	Subject:
	Security:	Public

Last night I watched the first two episodes of Cold Lazarus, which was the last work by the writer Dennis Potter before his death of cancer in 1994. The show was broadcast in 1996 immediately after Karaoke, and the two shows kind of follow on from each other. In the 1990s writer Daniel Feeld (played by Arthur Finney, reprising his role from Karaoke) dies of cancer but, over 370 years later his cryogenically frozen head is reactivated by a team of scientists who want to study his memories. The future is depicted as a grim and violent world where Britain no longer exists as a country in it's own right and where the world is controlled by vast Virtual Reality entertainment companies who want to buy Feeld's memories to sell on their networks. However the scientists notice that Feeld seems to be attempting to edit and control the memories they can access, which makes them suspect that more of his brain than his memories have been accessed. It's a very dark and genuinely disturbing science-fiction piece but it does have plenty of wildly funny elements.

Today I took the day off work to celebrate finishing NaNoWriMo. In the morning I went off to the cinema and saw the movie Paranormal Activity, directed by Oren Peli. The film revolves around a young San Diego couple who seem to be plagued by unexplained phenomena, and so the guy, Micah (Micah Sloat), buys a video camera to record the events and, as with The Blair Witch Project, it's their home video footage that, allegedly, makes up the film. It's actually really quite scary, with most of the scares coming from strange noises and shadows in the dead of night.

After the movie I went out and did some shopping. I got the DVD of the TV serial Pennies From Heaven, which is another one of the Dennis Potter shows, and a book called The Wire: Truth Be Told by Rafael Alvarez, which is like a guidebook to The Wire TV series containing episode guides, interviews, behind the scenes pieces and essays.

	User:	beingme89
	Date:	2009-11-28 16:51
	Subject:
	Security:	Public

Last night I got to 48,130 words in my NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) novel Vampire City. The total has to be at least 50,00 words by Monday. I am hoping that it will be finished today. I was also watching an interesting documentary about the concerts that Johnny Cash gave in Folsom Prison. Later on I watched the sixth and final epsiode of The Singing Detective. Later on I watched the first couple of episodes of a TV serial from 1996 called Karaoke. Along with the show's companion serial Cold Lazarus, it was the final seires written by Dennis Potter before his death in 1994. The series revolves around a seriously ill screenwriter, played by Albert Finney, who notices that random people he sees on the street are reciting lines from his scripts and appear to be living out the plot from his latest play, a gangster thriller called "Karaoke". I haven't seen it since it was first on in Summer 1996, and yet I could still remember it really well.

Today I just went out to get my groceries for the week.

	User:	beingme89
	Date:	2009-11-27 19:31
	Subject:
	Security:	Public

Last night I got to 46,107 words in my NaNoWriMo story. I've not really been eating much recently, because I haven't had much time. I usually have my dinner at around ten or eleven at night these days when I've finished my writing. Pretty much that and a sandwich at work is pretty much what I've been eating for the past two weeks. I do love food, if it's good, but I do find that I can eat very little and very infrequently and I don't get hungry at all. I was watching the fifth episode of The Singing Detective on DVD. It is a really great series.

Today I was at work and it was another very dull and quiet day. As usual for a Friday the placewas really quiet and pretty empty.

	User:	wolfsilveroak
	Date:	2009-11-27 12:36
	Subject:	Daring Bakers Nov Challenge- Cannoli
	Security:	Public

The Daring Bakers November 2009 Challenge hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone, as ingredient/direction guides. She added her own modifications/changes, so the recipe is not 100% verbatim from either book.

	User:	beingme89
	Date:	2009-11-26 19:34
	Subject:
	Security:	Public

Last night I got to 44,094 words in the NaNoWriMo novel, Vampire City. I am on target to make the total of 50,000 words by Saturday. After I had finished I watched the latest episode of True Blood and the fourth episode of The Singing Detective on DVD. I haven't had much to write about on here recently because pretty much all I've been doing for the last couple of weeks is write, watch TV and go to work.

It was another very quiet and fairly uneventful day at work. I am looking forward to the weekend.

I do find it a lot easier to write about what I really think and feel about things when I'm writing fiction, because I tend to censor myself a lot on here, often without even realising I'm doing it. I do think it would be good to be a more open and stuff on-line, so people could get to know me a little better should they want to, but it's not really something that comes naturally to me.

	User:	beingme89
	Date:	2009-11-25 19:18
	Subject:
	Security:	Public

Last night I got to 42,062 words on my NaNoWriMo novel. Now the story is starting to move towards the conclusion. It'll soon be time to start thinking about what to do once it's finished. Later on last night I was watching the third episode of The Singing Detective on DVD.

It was another very dull day at work, which is pretty much the same as usual. This morning we had a meeting about new some new procedures that they are starting in a few months. It wasn't particularly exciting.

	User:	beingme89
	Date:	2009-11-24 19:41
	Subject:
	Security:	Public

Last night I got to 40,055 words in my NaNoWriMo novel, Vampire City, I'm hoping that it should be finished on Saturday. I know it's not finished yet, but I really didn't think I would finish NaNoWriMo this year, and there was a point when I seriously considered abandoning it, but I don't really like to be beaten and so I decided to keep on with it. Last night I watched the sixth and final episode of Lipstick on Your Collar, which I thought was a really great show.

It was another very dull day at work today.