Slingerdoo

WOW! Look how long it's been.

Ok, so I've been crazy busy meeting new people, working, and traveling a bit. To a certain someone in the great white north somewhere in the Madison area.....HI! I'm alive. Got your message, been busy will call this weekend. PROMISE!!!

Quick recap:
Quit the coffee shop job
Started a real job
Bought a new car - Toyota FJ Cruiser
Forgot how my camera works
Started listening to HAM radio stuff - not talking yet
Went to Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Indiana, Jekyll Island, Washington D.C., and N. Georgia mountains (not in that order)
Bought new camping gear, broke some old camping gear (not in that order)
Bought new bedroom furniture from a BIG flat pack store with the letters AEKI (letters not in that order)
Got a new girlfriend...she's 4, so we'll have to wait. In the mean time, Katie is still my one and only!
Made lots of new friend with the FJ Cruiser folks
Started minor renovations on my house, still can't take a shower though. (I stink, except for the times when I shower at Katie's place)
My old shoes/boots stunk really bad, so I bought new ones
With the future of combining households growing nearer, I've started thinning my wardrobe. (Yeah, the 8th grade t-shirts and "vented" underwear had to go!)
Flat, folding green stuff is currently being exchanged for round, shiny stuff
Shadow got his ass wore out at Jekyll Island! (Who knew a dog could run 10 miles while tied to a bicycle?)
He's fine, just need to sleep for three days to recuperate
Katie and I started CERT training with DeKalb County. We've learned first aid, disaster preparedness, and we've put out fires!  Next up is Light Search and Rescue and then Communications. It's been a neat experience
I've cut back on drinking alcohol. I haven't found a replacement yet, so 12 Cokes a day will have to do until then
Not much else going on. Just been generally....busy.

On Vox: Relaxing Rain and Ribs

April 1st was a nice lazy day. Slept in. Played on the computer. Looked at stuff. Listened to the rain. Ate ribs from Maddy's. Going to bed early.

April started off nicely.

Originally posted on phillipm.vox.com

On Vox: ING Marathon

Signs

Atlanta had it's first marathon race today. It was sponsored by ING. The route effectively circled by house, which made traffic a nightmare. I walked up the nearest water station and waited. As the runners neared I snapped a couple of pics. It's not my cup of tea anymore to photograph runners. I only took about 581 pics this time. It would have been 582, but my camera was on manual focus for the first picture, so I deleted it.

On the walk home, I noticed all the signs on my street. Next time I'll work on composition.

Originally posted on phillipm.vox.com

On Vox: Weekend Warriors

Before and After

With my new found time I've turned my attention to long over due yard work. The above "before" picture was taken Friday. This morning, Katie and I cut down lots of overgrown bushes and "stuff" that had gotten out of hand. The "after" picture was taken this afternoon.

Now that we can see the area we have to work with we can figure out what to do with it.

Originally posted on phillipm.vox.com

Update - February 2, 2007

Still not much heard from Buy.com.

I received this message from "Customer Service" yesterday:

I apologize for the inconvenience.  We have initiated a claim on your
behalf with our fulfillment vendor and will be checking status
frequently.

We will update you with the results of the claim investigation as soon
as it has been completed.  Again I apologize and thank you for your
patience and understanding.

Customer Care

So, I guess they sent a not to the vendor indicating I filed a claim. We'll see where that gets us.

This morning a US Postal Inspector called me. He listened to my story. When I was done, he explained that they are a "middle man". As for shipping packages, they only track city, state, and zip codes. Not addresses. There was no way to confirm the specific address of the rouge tracking number. (Sounded like a line to me.)  He explained that my issue is between the vendor and me, and there is nothing the US Postal Service could do. No fraud so far.  I thanked him and moved on to my day.

The letters I mailed to Buy.com executives should have arrived either yeserday or today. I'll sit tight and see what happens.

WARNING! Beware when using Buy.com

Ok, I'm upset with Buy.com. Well, more like...disappointed.

See, they had a really good deal on a particular hard drive I wanted. Such a good deal in fact that I ordered 2 of them. Well, those of you who know me also know that I get giddy over gadgets, so I paid over $20 to have the hard drives sent to me overnight.

I ordered them on a Wednesday night, so realistically I was expecting them on Friday. I received a tracking number really quickly from Buy.com saying FedEx had the package and I could now track it from there. Only problem was FedEx had only been notified to "pick up" a package from Buy.com. No package was ever "shipped" from Buy.com, FedEx was only "notified" of a possible package.

Well, I gave it a day or two more then called FedEx to inquire as to where my package was. FedEx looked into it and called me back saying that the tracking number was only notification that Buy.com had the intent to ship a package with FedEx. Once FedEx received the package they would send me an email with detailed delivery estimates. Cool! All I had to do was wait for Buy.com to ship the package that should have gone out the week before!!!

So, I started the email process with Buy.com Customer Support. I got the "ok, we've opened a claim, please allow 3-5 business days..." yada-yada-yada. That window quickly came and went. So, I indicated to Buy.com that I still wanted the products when they became available/found, but I wanted the $20 refund of the shipping costs.

Buy.com indicated they opted to give me a full refund!  Only problem is, no refund. No electronic deposit, no credit back, no check in the mailbox, no store credit, NOTHING!!

So, I escalated my claim buy going to Paypal and Fidelity Bank. Both institutions are now looking into the matter and trying to get me the $227.18 returned.

Paypal is arbitrating the claim and I got a response from Buy.com that they have resolved the issue and provided me with a tracking number with the USPS. However, the same as with FedEx, the USPS has been notified of a package ready to ship, but has not received the package. They will email me as soon as it is received.

My next step is to contact the USPS to see if this case is worthy of fraud. I don't know, but it's worth an inquiry with the USPS.

THIS IS WHAT I WANT TO TELL YOU - Please use extreme caution if you decide to order ANYTHING from Buy.com. Please DO NOT pay for overnight shipping. As it turns out, many of my friends whom I talked to about this have indicated great response times with "Standard Shipping.

Personally, I have resolved myself to NEVER use Buy.com again. Of all the on-line retailers I have used, they have been the worst in my opinion.

Here are other retailers that I have had EXCELLENT results with:

amazon.com
ebay.com - that's like...everyone!
buydig.com
adorama.com
bhphotovideo.com
bn.com
borders.com
compusa.com
staples.com
officedepot.com
officemax.com

That's just to name a few. So, please be aware of my experience if you decide to use Buy.com.

Cold in January

Actually, it's  been quite warm for most of the month. Last week we had a cold snap and today it was about 40F for the high. It rained most of the day, but I didn't leave the house. Just worked on photos, cleaned and watched tv. Ooh fun.

Cleaning out old emails.

My personal Gmail account had over 3,500 message in it that I neglected to clean out. So, I started going through them. Searching and destroying all the old Amazon, Buy.com, e-bay and other crap was pretty boring. But then I came across emails from old friends who I've lost touch with.

One interesting one I found was from a friend in 2004 who was a HUGE Boston Red Socks fan. I was in Iowa and she had invited me to watch the playoff game with friends. You know the typical "We're going to X bar at X time to watch the game, come drink with us!" After all this time, what I found unusual was my reply:

Yeah I got your message, but I was in Iowa. Both my flights from Iowa
and Minneapolis were delayed due to the Vice President being in town.
So, I didn't get home until midnight last night. But I did get to see
the fighters that escorted the VP and his motorcade at the airport.

Good luck in the world series!

That was dated 10/22/04. I traveled so much while I was with my prior employer that this type of response was typical. I was out of town, or my flight was delayed, or....something.  Now, I'm pretty local, with weekend trips being the norm.

Another common occurrence was Trivia nights a Mellow Mushroom on LaVista. Every Wednesday a group of us would meet under the team name "Ill Tempered Sea Bass". We were pretty good, but not because of me. I was there for the social aspects. But during December of 2004, I emailed a friend to announce I would not be there and they could give up my seat that night. I was going to dinner with a girl I was seeing at the time. My friend responded:

maggiano's vs. mushroom..............ed vs. girlfriend.................
i think you made the right choice.

Looking back, I wish I had gone to Trivia.

From January 2005 to June 2005, Netflix was my life. Movies I watched included:
Far&Away, Ocean's Eleven, You Can Count on Me, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, Heathers, Pushing Tin, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Dodgeball, 50 First Dates, Napoleon Dynamite, The Butterfly Effect, Pay it Forward, Rushmore, Chasing Amy, Fahrenheit 9/11, Ghost World, The Girl Next Door, The Lost Battalion, The Blue Max, House of Fools, Veronica Guerin, 13 Going on 30, The Notebook, Love Actually, The Motorcycle Diaries, Starsky & Hutch, Malibu's Most Wanted, Bagdad Cafe, Super Size Me, Pecker, The Terminal, Sideways, The Duellists, Dogville, American Gun, Blazing Saddles, The Gift, The Scorpion King....
The list goes on and on.

On January 31, 2005 I received the last email from my mom. It was a typical "mom" email:

Hi Phillip,

Dad said he spoke to you and that all is well with the cable installations. I can’t wait to see how that new baby runs!
He said you got a new computer!

Next time you come by there is dog food here, plenty for my granddog! (also the Sentinal)
I find his toys scattered about the house and I miss him sometimes. I know Miss Coyote does cause sometimes I can get a little boring!

When I went looking under my kitchen sink for some dog stuff Cat wanted I found the bottle of BATHROOM TILE GROUT CLEANER that I had been looking for, weeks now I think! Anyhow, it will do nicely to clean your bathroom floor but when you use it you need to have clear weather so you can open the window and put the fan on I think. It says to use gloves and goggles so you don’t get it on your skin or in your eyes. You brush it on with a scrub brush, let it sit a few minutes and then just wipe it off with a big sponge.
I want to try it on my bathroom floor too but I haven’t had a chance.

Keith is supposed to come in to Atlanta sometime tomorrow or Wednesday.  I spent the day with Julie but she hadn’t had a definite time frame yet.

I drove around some today and saw all the trees down and wires etc. No wonder we had lost power for so long. There are two trees down on Superior and lots of limbs and trees down on Densley.

Have a great week! Enjoy your new toys.

Love, Mom

That was my Mom, always looking out for her doggies and making sure I kept up with the cleaning. If she were around now, she'd probably have a fit if she saw my house. Mom's...

So, I'm getting rid of the auto response emails, like from Netflix, Amazon, etc., and trying to figure the best way to save the old one. But do I really need to keep the "Hey, I'm going to be late for Trivia. Save me a seat", or the "Who wants to go out Friday" and the 20 responses that debated on place and time?

Happy New Year!

My first post of 2007 is lame.

Holiday's that make you cry.

Most holiday's are just busy. Cooking, family, friends, parties, shopping malls, wrapping, coordinating and eating. Many of the gifts are store bought and are from a wishlist of "I wants".  But the ones that mean the most are the personalized, heartfelt gifts that can't be bought in a store or over the internet.

This year my Dad nailed the gifts to my sister and I. As we opened our gifts Christmas morning, he kept two gifts off to the side. "These we'll open last." After we opened gifts of camcorders, books and gadgets, Dad gave Catherine and I the final gifts. When we opened them, we each got a DVD with a sticky note that had our name on it. Dad said we needed to watch them and he got the DVD remote.

For Catherine, he had taken scanned in pcitures from her childhood, trips she's taken across the country, and accomplishment's from her life. All the pictures were set perfectly to one of Cat's favorite songs. The gesture was very emotional and I was fighting to keep the lump in my throat. Then it was my turn.

Dad had done the same thing for me. He included photos of my mom, their marriage, my childhood and accomplishments I've made in my life. The song he chose perfectly described our family and my feelings toward my dad. My emotions took over and with tears streaming down my face I hugged my Dad.

This marks the second Christmas without Mom, but we still remember her and honor her. Mom was such a rock in our family and we've had to learn how to set anchors and steady our family. Dad has really showed us so much and proven that "things" are things, but love is everlasting.