Party in my bansoo...
OK, powerbook seller guy is seriously pissing me off. After skimming over yesterday's rant, I'm loathe to give this subject any more airtime, but this guy is serioulsy imbecilic. I send him the full amount plus my half of his whiny little $13 service charge, via a PayPal credit card payment, and the moron DECLINES THE PAYMENT. He then writes me this completely maddening e-mail basically explaining that he thought he could accept the one payment with the service charge, and not convert to a business account and basically he's an idiot (not in so many words,) and that he's terribly sorry, blah blah blah. Great. So I write him back explaining that ideally, he should keep his personal account and open a business account, since once you convert to a business account, PayPal takes a percentage of everything you bill (don't get me started on that shyster practice), and going forward, only use the business account for items that will surpass the $500/mo limitation of the personal account. That way, he can keep selling higher-dollar items, without having to give up a slice of every pie that goes through. Here's to hoping that the little light comes on in his head before the burning insulation smell hits...
This is all further proof of that universal maxim that no good deed goes unpunished. We'll see how this turns out...either way, it'll all be over in a matter of days. On the plus side though, while shopping for potential backup Laura/Hazel units, I might have come across a sweet little deal for myself: an 867MHz Ti PowerBook with a dodgy LCD screen. Exactly the problem outlined in this technical service bulletin/recall notice. The upshot? Potential for last-generation Ti PowerBook on the cheap, with Apple footing the bill for a brand-new LCD screen...generally, if you schmooze the tech guy, they'll take the opportunity to tune-up the unit at the same time; go through it and shore up/replace questionable components, etc. while they're under the hood on the company dime. Downside is that unlike cars, the mechanic can't just look at any random solid-state electrical component and say "yep, that bad boy's about to give up the ghost" like they would with a timing belt or something like that. It would also give me the opportunity to scope all the hotties I've been hearing that frequent the Genuis Bar at the Apple Store in SouthPark Mall. Hell, maybe I could even time it with one of Skip's thrice-weekly problem du jour visits, heh. Latest tech at bargain-basement prices, with new OEM hardware to boot...just the kind of deal I like. (Which will come in handy, as I just hopelessly broke the AC adapter for my girly iBook today.) Wish me luck...gotta set the alarm to work the eleventh-hour bidding magic...I've got it down to a science, but it only works if I'm awake...go figure.
Gah. Nearly 5am, and I have to say that I very much don't feel like writing.
Had a lovely chat with my beloved Rosie tonight, haven't talked to her in far too long. She's living out in LA now, doing the nursing thing. It's probably been over a year since I've seen her, maybe as many as three since we've really hung out and partied...she's a riot to go to strip clubs with, I regret not having done more of it back in the day! Ahh, the days of getting lap dances from Ivanka at All-Stars, eh? *sigh* Fond memories. Well, in honour of the occasion, I'll be linking to her blog, rosieyatch.com (Hey, I didn't pick the name!) but consider this fair warning, her blog is peppered with Korean, and is not for the faint-of-heart; sometimes it even makes me cringe, but she's cute, and it's funny, so what the heck? I've been working on getting her to head on down here for a weekend to meet the gang, I think she'd fit right in with these partygoers. She says she's shy though...one more reason to get those flight benefits back!
OK, just made myself a sandwich...I so should not be snacking at 5:30am...esp if I'm going to get to bed before sunrise...ah well.
While on the subject of blogs and co-linking, y'all may have noticed that I've added a "links" section to the right. My hope is to keep a running list of sites that offer changing/updated content, and thus enticement for re-visitation, as a value-added feature for my reader(s). If you've any suggestions, let me know...my thought is that I'll add them gradually, as I talk about them here.
Growing up in Chicago, one of my favorite things about the city was our superior alternative paper, The Chicago Reader. This is not a conglomo chain like the 'loaf, which is another good alternative paper, but I haven't read it enough to comment on it. Whenever I'm not living in Chicago, I miss being able to get the Reader every Thursday. Here are just some of the things that we as readers (of the Reader) had to look forward to:
-The Straight Dope - A Chicago original, this is a weekly column penned by the self-proclaimed "smartest person in the world", Cecil Adams. Readers write in with all manner of questions, ranging from the asinine to the unfathomable, and they then have their questions answered in a suitably irreverent and occasionaly abusive manner. Funny stuff. It's even enlightening most of the time. They've been around since 1973, so there's a lot of information there. The page I'll be linking to is the columns page, where the weekly column will be listed, but beware...the most current column is counterintuitively placed in the middle of the page, go figure.
-Life in Hell - Prior to stardom as the creator of The Simpsons, Matt "rhymes-with-staining-not-stoning" Groening penned a little comic called "Life is Hell". Clever in a Simpsons kind of way, back when Homer, Marge, Maggie and Lisa were Groenings, and not Simpsons (yet).
-Savage Love - Dan Savage is my hero. Not becasue he's gay, but for making a living insulting his fan base. Possibly the funniest weekly columnist writing today, I someday hope to abuse my readers as thoroughly.
-News of the Weird - Chuck Shepherd's culling of all manner of weirdness in the world was making regular peoples' screwy lives seem normal by comparison long before that poser Jerry Springer came along. (Maybe not, but it sounded good.) There's also a list on that page of the long-standing (and proven beyond a doubt, in my opinion, as well as very very creepy) theory that bearing the middle name "Wayne" is a very good indicator that someone is a murderer.
-Reader Matches - Easily the weirdest people in Chicago (possibly even the country) looking for love in all the wrong places. I may or may not have placed an ad or two in my day, but I assure you, it was strictly for research and/or amusement purposes. Although I DID meet this one girl who was a dead ringer for Claire Forlani. Rowr. Too bad she stopped returning my calls (Suzanne, not Claire). Hrm. In the course of looking at the site to see if it had changed any, it appears they've split off into two sides, "normal", and "deviant" (my labels). I'm far too tired today to try and look through both, but I am curious to see if they've ditched the whole very pathetic air of desperation and freakishness that once surrounded the site which gave the whole experience it's endearing uniqueness. Updates to follow.
Another thing I miss about Chicago is Wild Chicago, a weekly local program airing on our PBS affiliate, WTTW channel 11. I could do pages and pages on this program, but that might be a story for another day. For now, suffice it to say that it was a half-hour local people/points-of-interest show with an offbeat, Safari Joe type host and "wild correspondents" covering various "stories" around and about town. My favorite was the absolute goddess Tava Smiley. I think she later moved to LA to pursue an acting career, going on to appear on programs such as ABC's General Hospital and TLC's Clean Sweep
Hrm, maybe I could pitch an idea for a show like that to be done in and around the greater Charlotte area...wonder if any of the local stations would bite...is there even a PBS affiliate here? I should research that some more. A show like that would be fairly cheap and easy to produce, and I think I've seen enough episodes to be able to throw it together...hrm...
This is all further proof of that universal maxim that no good deed goes unpunished. We'll see how this turns out...either way, it'll all be over in a matter of days. On the plus side though, while shopping for potential backup Laura/Hazel units, I might have come across a sweet little deal for myself: an 867MHz Ti PowerBook with a dodgy LCD screen. Exactly the problem outlined in this technical service bulletin/recall notice. The upshot? Potential for last-generation Ti PowerBook on the cheap, with Apple footing the bill for a brand-new LCD screen...generally, if you schmooze the tech guy, they'll take the opportunity to tune-up the unit at the same time; go through it and shore up/replace questionable components, etc. while they're under the hood on the company dime. Downside is that unlike cars, the mechanic can't just look at any random solid-state electrical component and say "yep, that bad boy's about to give up the ghost" like they would with a timing belt or something like that. It would also give me the opportunity to scope all the hotties I've been hearing that frequent the Genuis Bar at the Apple Store in SouthPark Mall. Hell, maybe I could even time it with one of Skip's thrice-weekly problem du jour visits, heh. Latest tech at bargain-basement prices, with new OEM hardware to boot...just the kind of deal I like. (Which will come in handy, as I just hopelessly broke the AC adapter for my girly iBook today.) Wish me luck...gotta set the alarm to work the eleventh-hour bidding magic...I've got it down to a science, but it only works if I'm awake...go figure.
Gah. Nearly 5am, and I have to say that I very much don't feel like writing.
Had a lovely chat with my beloved Rosie tonight, haven't talked to her in far too long. She's living out in LA now, doing the nursing thing. It's probably been over a year since I've seen her, maybe as many as three since we've really hung out and partied...she's a riot to go to strip clubs with, I regret not having done more of it back in the day! Ahh, the days of getting lap dances from Ivanka at All-Stars, eh? *sigh* Fond memories. Well, in honour of the occasion, I'll be linking to her blog, rosieyatch.com (Hey, I didn't pick the name!) but consider this fair warning, her blog is peppered with Korean, and is not for the faint-of-heart; sometimes it even makes me cringe, but she's cute, and it's funny, so what the heck? I've been working on getting her to head on down here for a weekend to meet the gang, I think she'd fit right in with these partygoers. She says she's shy though...one more reason to get those flight benefits back!
OK, just made myself a sandwich...I so should not be snacking at 5:30am...esp if I'm going to get to bed before sunrise...ah well.
While on the subject of blogs and co-linking, y'all may have noticed that I've added a "links" section to the right. My hope is to keep a running list of sites that offer changing/updated content, and thus enticement for re-visitation, as a value-added feature for my reader(s). If you've any suggestions, let me know...my thought is that I'll add them gradually, as I talk about them here.
Growing up in Chicago, one of my favorite things about the city was our superior alternative paper, The Chicago Reader. This is not a conglomo chain like the 'loaf, which is another good alternative paper, but I haven't read it enough to comment on it. Whenever I'm not living in Chicago, I miss being able to get the Reader every Thursday. Here are just some of the things that we as readers (of the Reader) had to look forward to:
-The Straight Dope - A Chicago original, this is a weekly column penned by the self-proclaimed "smartest person in the world", Cecil Adams. Readers write in with all manner of questions, ranging from the asinine to the unfathomable, and they then have their questions answered in a suitably irreverent and occasionaly abusive manner. Funny stuff. It's even enlightening most of the time. They've been around since 1973, so there's a lot of information there. The page I'll be linking to is the columns page, where the weekly column will be listed, but beware...the most current column is counterintuitively placed in the middle of the page, go figure.
-Life in Hell - Prior to stardom as the creator of The Simpsons, Matt "rhymes-with-staining-not-stoning" Groening penned a little comic called "Life is Hell". Clever in a Simpsons kind of way, back when Homer, Marge, Maggie and Lisa were Groenings, and not Simpsons (yet).
-Savage Love - Dan Savage is my hero. Not becasue he's gay, but for making a living insulting his fan base. Possibly the funniest weekly columnist writing today, I someday hope to abuse my readers as thoroughly.
-News of the Weird - Chuck Shepherd's culling of all manner of weirdness in the world was making regular peoples' screwy lives seem normal by comparison long before that poser Jerry Springer came along. (Maybe not, but it sounded good.) There's also a list on that page of the long-standing (and proven beyond a doubt, in my opinion, as well as very very creepy) theory that bearing the middle name "Wayne" is a very good indicator that someone is a murderer.
-Reader Matches - Easily the weirdest people in Chicago (possibly even the country) looking for love in all the wrong places. I may or may not have placed an ad or two in my day, but I assure you, it was strictly for research and/or amusement purposes. Although I DID meet this one girl who was a dead ringer for Claire Forlani. Rowr. Too bad she stopped returning my calls (Suzanne, not Claire). Hrm. In the course of looking at the site to see if it had changed any, it appears they've split off into two sides, "normal", and "deviant" (my labels). I'm far too tired today to try and look through both, but I am curious to see if they've ditched the whole very pathetic air of desperation and freakishness that once surrounded the site which gave the whole experience it's endearing uniqueness. Updates to follow.
Another thing I miss about Chicago is Wild Chicago, a weekly local program airing on our PBS affiliate, WTTW channel 11. I could do pages and pages on this program, but that might be a story for another day. For now, suffice it to say that it was a half-hour local people/points-of-interest show with an offbeat, Safari Joe type host and "wild correspondents" covering various "stories" around and about town. My favorite was the absolute goddess Tava Smiley. I think she later moved to LA to pursue an acting career, going on to appear on programs such as ABC's General Hospital and TLC's Clean Sweep
Hrm, maybe I could pitch an idea for a show like that to be done in and around the greater Charlotte area...wonder if any of the local stations would bite...is there even a PBS affiliate here? I should research that some more. A show like that would be fairly cheap and easy to produce, and I think I've seen enough episodes to be able to throw it together...hrm...
posted by Gene at 8:33 AM
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