My Comcast bills have always been weird. When I've had changes in my service, the next several months were all totally different on the bills.

One of my friends has talked me into learning to play Magic: the Gathering. Which means I'm going to the game store tomorrow to get a starter set. Any tips for asking for what I want without sounding like a doofus?

Tell them you want a Starter deck. Magic is happy to make it easy for beginners to get hooked.

And I realized that there might have been a package stolen. I have a mail box that's in an industrial style mail set up - everyone has skinny slots. And there are larger lockers. This past winter they put notices in everyone's mailbox saying they wouldn't be using the lockers any more because of theft issues.

I don't check my mail every day because it's usually just junk mail, but when I checked -there was a key to a locker. Which was empty. Actually all of them were open and empty. I didn't order anything and no one has notified that they sent me anything, so now I'm going to take the key to the post office and ask if they can figure it out. Or at least return it.

My parents usually let me know when they are going to send me something and use either UPS or FedEx so they don't have to deal wtih the lines at the post office.

Connie is right - just tell them you want a starter deck and the shop will get you hooked up. Once you try it and see if you like it you can go for booster packs and ask advice for getting those.

Happy Birthday, Trudy!

And just in case your Mom happens to be lurking about to see this, Happy Birthday, Kara!

Not really here. Working very hard. No, really.

Ugh. Just got hit with some antisemitism in a part of the internet where I didn't know I had to have my guard up. I'm going to be in my "I hate people" bubble for a while now.

Oh, yuck, Hil. Sorry. I've just been spatting with a friend (whom I've never met) of a (long ago high school) friend on FB, and I'm finding people pretty odious and avoidworthy right now too. But that's much more just annoying, and much less personal and gutpunchy than antisemitism. Vent if you need to, or just hide here and avoid.

It was (TRIGGER WARNING) in an I Fucking Love Science post. The post was about a new study done on the DNA of Ashkenazic Jews. The comments almost immediately went to "Hitler was right" and a bunch of cartoons of rabbis with big noses grabbing at money.

People seem more tetchy than usual all over FB. Although I might just be wading into discussions I usually avoid. (And MAN, people hate Common Core math, even when they don't understand what it is!)

t edit Wow, that is SO MUCH WORSE than the people who reflexively hate Common Core Math because it's new and scary and therefore must be burned.

The comments also pretty quickly went to "See, Ashkenazic Jews are really just European! That means they've got no right to Israel at all!" Which wasn't even what the study said, and is stupid anyway.

Aw, hell, that's completely vile. Were they regular commenters letting their masks slip, or invaders? I've definitely noticed, in related discussions on other boards, that most of the conversations are smart and civil but every now and then apparently some kind of Stormfront rabid bat-signal goes up and for a couple of days the whole place is swarming with horrifying trolls.