Tenant Assistance Program Saved me from a Slum Lord.

After the apartment I used to live in sprayed for the second time and the bugs kept coming back, I knew I had to find a way out of there! I couldn't live in Hell any longer. Living with bed bugs is like Hell.

I did a little research to see what my rights were. This is a great website full of tenant resources. You can find your state's tenant laws here.

This was my old landlord.

I came across  The Arizona Tenants Advocates who so far have done a wonderful job of helping me out of this slum lord situation.

The way they approach things almost every time is to locate general violations or health and safety issues in the unit or the complex, as well as violations in the rental agreement itself. Of course they do this abiding by the law. They serve the management the list of issues that need to be remedied, and if the management does nothing to fix the issues within the allotted 10 days, they essentially terminate your lease in failure to remedy said health and safety violations and even general violations. 

In my case because it was a health and safety violation bedbug infestation, they had 5 days to fix the bug problem. The rest of the list allotted 10 days. They didn't even serve me the 2 day "I'm going to enter your unit" notice until the 5th day.


 So they breached the contract by failure to remedy any of the problems that had risen. Keep in mind, this was not the first time I had asked them to fix the bug problem. They sent me a letter stating that I owed them thousands of dollars, which was total bull because they did not act in good faith, nor did they remedy the issues. So their failure to remedy anything was a conscious choice, and I am no longer bound to the unit because they failed to fix the health and safety violations.

I'm not sure if the Arizona Tenants Advocates help people out of state, but all you have to do is email or call them to find out. They only have one phone line, so if they're on the phone you wont be able to leave a message.

They charged me 85% of one months rent for their services, although I had to pay for a process server several times but that was my choice. If you get help from them, and you're trying to speed up the process it does pay to use a process server, however it is expensive up front, though cheaper in the long run.

If you seek help from any Tenant Assistance programs make sure you follow their instructions to the T. There have been many cases where the tenant sabotaged their own case by neglecting to do something, or being loose lipped.

Remember, don't tell them about the Tenants Assistance, or that you intend to break your lease.

Do not verbally discuss any important matters with your landlord, always request that their concerns be submitted to you in writing.

Bedbug Hell

It's been about 2 months since I last posted. Let me explain what I've been dealing with these past few months.

After this post I will post another with how to combat the bedbug problem, and/or how I sought help to terminate my lease.

Since I moved into the studio apartment in July of 2010 (moved out now) within a week I kept waking up with bug bites. For the longest time I couldn't figure out what it was. I didn't know anybody who had bed bugs, and I know I didn't bring them with me because it was my first apartment and all my furniture was hand me downs from my parents who do not have bed bugs. My cat had kittens so I thought I was having an allergic reaction to the dander or something. I did a lot of research online about bedbugs to arm myself with knowledge.

For months we searched for bugs but found no bed bugs... Until the end of November. One night I woke up at 2 in the morning having horrible itching urge. I turned on the light and found one bug on my blanket. I knew instantly it was a bedbug. I looked under my pillow and they were all over the place!

After that I sought to get rid of the bugs myself. I rented a rug doctor, got some insecticides from a janitorial store, and used boiling hot water that I heated up on the stove. We then used the insecticide. The next day we found the bed bugs climbing up the walls! When my efforts failed to remove the problem, I went to the office for help.

They tried to make it seem like I was the one who had brought the bugs into my apartment! After some prying they admitted that the unit beneath me (who had recently been evicted) had a bug infestation. They sprayed twice and within 2 days after the spraying the bugs were back in full force.

After that I called the County to complain about the bug issue. The office had 10 business days to submit paperwork proving they were attempting to fix the infestation. When they failed to cough up the documents, they had an inspector come to the complex and ordered them to follow certain guidelines. They then sprayed the entire complex. Ha.

By that time the 5 day health and safety notice I had served them had expired, and thus they terminated (voided) the lease in failure to repair the problem. Technically because they were not registered with the County correctly in the first place, they voided any binding contract before I even signed the lease!

My next post will be all about bed bugs and then the next will be about who I sought help to terminate my lease!

Contact Juggling

I recently came across this video of this really cool Japanese dude performing contact juggling at Yoyogi park in Harajuku, Tokyo. (Using Google Chrome you can translate the whole page) I thought it was really cool so I did a little bit of research to tell you guys about it. Some of the students at my school were pretty good at it, and if I had the resources I'd totally learn how to contact juggle and go to the Renaissance Festival as a Gypsy performer and ttly wow people with my ball handling skillz (lol).

Don't touch my Dragon Balls! >(

According to Wikipedia:
Contact juggling is a form of object manipulation that focuses on the movement of objects such as balls in contact with the body. 

Although often used with "toss" juggling, it typically involves the rolling of one or more balls on the hands and arms to create visual illusions without releasing the props into the air. 

Some of the manipulations, such as balancing or rolling a single ball, or Palm-spinning have been performed for centuries. Baoding Balls, also called Chinese exercise balls, Chinese meditation balls, Chinese medicine balls, and healthy balls, are a traditional product of Baoding, China, thought to have been created during the Ming dynasty (1368–1644). These balls usually have a piece of metal inside them with a cork or rubber ball that creates a soothing bell noise when in movement.  Two or more of them are rotated repetitively to orbit in the hand, an action done to improve manual dexterity and strength and said to assist in injury recovery.

So the idea of rolling some balls in your hand isn't exactly new. It wasn't until the 80s that it became more of an art form. Contact Juggling that we know today originated from a routine called "Light" developed by Michael Moschen in the 1980s. In his performance he used 75mm clear crystal balls, palm spinning up to eight balls simultaneously. He finished the act by rolling a single clear ball so that it appeared to float over his hands and arms. Michael Moschen received high regard from the international circus community for this range of innovative new techniques, and was awarded the MacArthur genius grant in 1990. 

In 1991 after "Michael Moschen: In Motion" was released on PBS's "Great Performances" series, James Ernest wrote the book Contact Juggling. James may be the originator of the term "Contact Juggling", as Moschen did not have a name for what he did. In the credits of the Labrinth film, he is credited with "crystal ball manipulation" as David Bowie's character is seen to do contact juggling throughout the film. These manipulations were actually performed by Moschen who stood behind Bowie during filming, reaching around and performing the tricks 'blind'.

By 2000, the discipline had achieved widespread recognition, and there were many resources available for contact jugglers, such as clubs, books, festivals, videos/DVDs, and balls specifically manufactured for contact juggling. They have a large community of people who are teaching, learning, and performing contact juggling all over the world.

Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt: Anime :3

Today I discovered this fairly new Anime called 'Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt'. According to Wikipedia Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt is an action-comedyanime series produced by Gainax. It began airing nationwide on October 1, 2010 on BS NTV and simulcast on Crunchyroll. It is also syndicated terrestrially in 8 markets, including a few affiliates of TXN like TVQ, and few JAITS members like Tokyo MX.



Apparently this show actually has a story:

Lol gunderwear.

Panty and Stocking are angels who were kicked out of heaven due to their bad behavior. They are sent to Daten City - a compound word of Japanese DATENSHI (堕天使, a fallen angel) and City - a place located somewhere between heaven and hell, where strange monsters called "Ghosts" start terrorizing the place. Under the watchful eye of Reverend Garterbelt, it's up to Panty and Stocking to destroy these Ghosts, and by doing so they receive Heaven Coins which will allow them back into heaven. Their weapons of choice? You guessed it, a pair of panties that turns into a ghost magnum, and stockings that turn into two angelic katanas .The anime series is animated by Gainax and directed by Hiroyuki Imaishi, began airing in Japan October 1, 2010, and is expected to have 26 episodes.

So far I l-l-l-l-love this cartoon. It's so... well, animated. It reminds me of Danny Phantom, Invader Zim, Kim Possible, and Hentai all in one! lol

Here's the first episode short :3 Hope you enjoy!



Edit: Ever notice how they put English text in there? I wonder if this'll ever make it to Adult Swim once they EngDub it. Lol!

Dentist Adventure

Ow.

So I came across this video a while back, and I swear the first time I watched this I could not stop laughing. This kid's mother recorded them being f*cked up on pain medication after the dentist.May I point out that they live unnaturally far away from their dentist? I've always lived within 5 miles of my dentist. But then again, this was oral surgery and I'm not sure if most dentists in my (ghetto) area qualify as such.

Regardless, this is really funny, and these kids are great. I swear if I ever have kids that have wisdom teeth coming in sideways, I'll record their painkiller trip. Out of love, of course. Who wouldn't want to video tape their kids acting ridiculous. Every time I watch this video I think "Thank god I was one of the lucky ones. My wisdom teeth are coming in fine"... I recently had to get my teeth cleaned which wasn't s bad except the scraping of the gums. I hate the scraping of the gums it hurts D:



At least they had a little fun with it. Has anybody else acted silly after a trip to the dentist? Or better yet, what was your best or worst experience at the dentist?

Money Troubles? Pshhh

Call the waaaambulance!

OK, so I know I haven't been posting for a couple weeks, and I feel pretty weird about it. This is kind of like a anti-boredom thing for me, because I usually go all out with my posts. I capitalize, I spell check as I go, correct my grammar, even add pictures.

I try and make my blog interesting and not just about my own whining. Of course, there are the few  posts where I just can't help myself but whine whine whine into the internet. :) But at least my wine comes with cheese.

Recently while surfing failblog at work, I came across two videos. Now the first one I thought was exceptionally beautiful. It reminded me so much of a bunch of things/feelings that I actually got a tear to my eye.



Ahhhh, art. The wonderful world of art has made me come out of my shell once again. That's why I love art so much. Heck, I went to an arts school. This one to be exact. Metro-Arts. If you're in my area, this is a great school. It's so laid back. Ever seen the movie Fame? It's kind of like that except not as dramatic.






Anyway, I'm now a graduate of Metro Arts, and I am reallllly missing High School about now. This is the second video that I saw that was awe inspiring. A lot of students from my school went to college for animation such as this :).

Now that I've given you the cheese, now have some whine ;3.

This looks delicious.

So the reason I've titled this money problems is because while my boyfriend was in Texas, I went a little overboard with my spending. I spent the money I usually put away to pay rent (BAD IDEA) thinking that my next check would cover it (which it normally does).

The only problem is, I called in sick one of those days because I woke up puking, and lost money. I also was scheduled a short shift another day which intern, I lost some money.

SO TRUE

Now, let me put it in perspective. This apartment costs $550 a month, plus around $40 for water. Not to mention I have to pay Cox $46, and Allstate $25 around the same due date as rent. When I got my paycheck I almost died, because I only made about $525. Then, Chase decided to charge me their annual fee of $25 Y_Y. SO I ended up borrowing $175 dollars from my mother. I didn't want to borrow more money than what I owed.

And I get paid on the 7th, so I'll be paying my mother back. After putting money away for rent, and paying my other monthly expenses, I'll have $90 left to buy food and toiletries. o-o Normally I have double that and then a little bit more left over. Keep in mind, I haven't bought food since the paycheck before last. That's a whole freaking month. So I'm down to ramen, rice, no butter, no milk, no bread, maybe a can of vegetables, and two pieces of chicken. I'm living with my roommate.

So I'm basically going hungry. It really sucks being poor. And I won't be back to normal until my paycheck after this next one! D: God, talk about when it rains it pours.

Hope you enjoyed the story my woes :3. Good thing after it pours the sun comes out, I'll be okay.

~Ta

EDIT:
These are some other awesome videos. :)

So awesome.



I gotta get me some Sunny-D and Rum ;)

Trololololol-ololol-ololol

So Ronery

My boyfriend is leaving for Texas tomorrow, and will arrive over there on Wednesday. He'll be gone until the 20th.

I live in a studio apartment with him, so I don't have any room mates that can keep me company for that long and all my good friends live out of walking distance (and of course neither of us have a car). So it's not like they'd be able to hang out with me the whole time.

I hate that he gets to go without me. I should've been able to go, but his dad was paying for the tickets, and he works overseas and can't just go to the post office to send a money order or anything. We had to rely on his stepmother. His step mother gets $7000 a month from his dad. She was supposed to send us $300 so that both of us could go.

She procrastinated for the longest time and kept bringing up how 'oh this and that is broke, and this and that needs fixing before I can give you money'. Half of which was total bullshit because now that his dad is back in the states for a month, he's going to fix all the shit thats broken for cheap anyway.

Either way it ended up to where she only sent us like $160. And the tickets before that had been $166. She sent us the money too late, and the tickets went up in price to $240. So then his real mother had to send us money so that he could go. So we ended up spending twice as much for one ticket because his step mother was being an idiot. But I digress.

My point is, I'm going to be lonely for a whole week working with no one to fill the dead air but my cat. How am I going to deal with it? I already have a short attention span, so video games won't tide me over. The internet only occupies me for so long. ;A; guh I hate it he gets to go on vacation and I can't.

/my whining. Here's some weird pictures.

Wat

Basically.

I love alt art. :3

Link finally snapped.