Silver lining sought

I'm tired today. Lots of strange upheaval-y things around me....

Someone I know who was involved in a volunteer project with me has apparently quit, claiming they "didn't feel appreciated enough."

Uh, isn't part of being an adult putting up with not feeling appreciated a lot of the time? I mean, that's something that I've had to learn to deal with, and still a lot of the time I feel sort of underappreciated. But sometimes there are things that have to be done that are more important than any "feelings" a person might have.

***

I have a difficult student in one of my classes. I can't say much more about it here other than that I fear I'm going to come to dread this class a bit for having to deal with them.

I definitely think I'm going to have to have my "one Saturday a month (at least) just for ME" thing in force to keep myself on an even keel.

***

And this is how my luck runs: the first time in my life ever, I order something from Zappos.com. A couple days later, they experience their first-ever security breach. The good news is that apparently no credit card numbers were stolen and they suspended the passwords of all* customers. The bad news is that the hackers apparently got addresses, names, and phone numbers. I don't know if that's enough for someone to take out a credit card in a person's name** - I would think not, seeing as any online lookup-system (like White Pages) would have that information. Still, it creeps me out a little bit.

I did reset my password. Gah, another new one to try to remember.

(*Or did they? One of the headlines said "X number of passwords suspended" rather than "All")

(**That said, I have a fraud protection/identity theft assistance program through my homeowner's insurance).

The thing that irritates me a bit? Allegedly they sent e-mails to all their customers warning them. I never got that e-mail (and yes, I checked my spam folder). I don't know if it just got lost in the ether, or if because I was a new customer who "only" spent $120 with them, I didn't get the e-mail, but I'm not too happy that I only heard of the breach because I saw it on the news.


Whatever. I had my credit card number stolen some years back in a security breach at one of the online used-book places. I found out when my credit card was denied at another place...and I knew I hadn't charged that much on it. The credit card company took care of it. Some four months later I got an e-mail from the used-book company (it wasn't a mom and pop place, it was one of the big places) saying "Um, oops, your credit card may have been compromised." I've never ordered from them again.

At least in this case, the parent company seemed to do a better job of protecting credit card numbers.

***

So I'm not in the cheeriest mood ever today. Also, I had an evening meeting last night (Education Committee at church). We're going to move the youth program BACK to Wednesday nights (it was on Sunday) because of low attendance.

I hope attendance picks up. I don't know if it will. We're SO small...sometimes I wonder if in five or ten years if we'll still be in existence. It's hard not to get discouraged.

***

What I really want to do is sit and watch cartoons all day, but I can't.

Last weekend's episode of MLP:FiM involved babies. (Yeah, I'm guessing that Hasbro will soon offer those creepy "baby" pony toys again....they did "baby" ponies in the earlier go-round of MLP, and I thought they were kind of creepy).

In the show, there are three varieties (Subspecies? It's not entirely clear) of ponies: "Earth" ponies (which are non magical and cannot fly), Pegasus (can fly), Unicorn (can't fly but have magic). (And yeah, the royalty are apparently winged unicorns)

Well, two earth ponies (subsidiary characters - Mr. and Mrs. Cake, the couple who run the bakery and to whom Pinkie Pie is apparently apprenticed*) had twins.

One was a unicorn, one was a pegasus.

That sound you heard early Saturday morning? Hundreds of grown-up fans throwing the pedigree charts they'd been making to try to figure out Pony genetics in the trash.

(Yes. I am perfectly able to accept that Ponies can speak, come in pastel colors, that unicorns have magic and that unicorns and Pegasi exist in that world....but dang it, the genetics have to MAKE LOGICAL SENSE!)

Some fans apparently resorted to the "it was the mailman" hypothesis (Uh, this is a kid's show, guys?). I was willing to throw up my hands and go "Spontaneous mutation" but then I saw this. (Which I am calling "My Little Genetics: Epistasis is Magic.")

(Okay, so it's not PERFECT, it's not exactly 100% how epistasis works, I think (it's been a while)....and they use "theory" when they really mean "hypothesis." But it's better than having to accept spontaneous mutation as the explanation).

And yes, I'm embarrassed to admit how bothered I was by the wonky, illogical genetics, and how much it cheered me up to find that.

(*Or so I assume. I'm basing that on the idea that Equestria is somewhat of a feudal society, as some have argued...except I'm not so sure, it seems to me that there is some capitalism going on there; after all, Rarity has her dress shop and it's implied that there are wealthy ponies that can afford fancier things. And Applejack certainly gets a bit obsessed at times over selling apples...So maybe Pinkie is doing something like an unpaid internship, or is actually some sort of employee of the Cakes (though they don't seem to pay her for babysitting))

Then again, I probably just need to invoke the Mystery Science Theater 3000 rule on this: "I should repeat to myself, this is just a show, I should really just relax.")

***

I can tell, though, I'm in one of those moods where I can very easily start to take stuff personally, where I can very easily slip into the bad old "the whole world is conspiring against me" mood.

Part of the problem is a few people around me are in that mood right now, and it rubs off on me. I recognize what's happening but it's hard to stop. And in a case when I tried to do something helpful, it was rudely rebuffed...which then makes me wonder if there was something wrong with my being helpful, or if that person was just in too bad of a mood...

People drive me crazy.