- Working on my day off and watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. #
- Sushi-coma time. #
- To all the vets who have given their lives to make our way of life possible: Thank you. #
- RT @jeffrosecfp: While you're grilling out tomorrow, REMEMBER what the day is really for http://bit.ly/abE4ms #neverforget #
- Once again, taps and guns keep me from staying dry-eyed. #
- RT @bargainr: Live in an urban area & still use a Back Porch Compost Tumbler to fertilize your garden (via @diyNatural) http://bit.ly/9sQFCC #
- RT @Matt_SF: RT @thegoodhuman President Obama quietly lifted a brief ban on drilling in shallow water last week. http://bit.ly/caDELy #
- Thundercats is coming back! #
- In real life, vampires only sparkle when they are on fire. -Larry Correia #
- Wife found a kitten abandoned in a taped-shut box. Welcome Cat #5 #
My Favorite Present
My favorite Christmas present this year was the one I gave to my 13 year old son.
Allow me to walk you through his evening….
First, he opened one of his presents. It was just a small box, about 3 inches by 4. A Japanese puzzle box. Inside the box was a note that read:
Closed off in the smallest room you will find a clue to bring you closer to your prize.
When he checked the cabinet below the sink in our basement bathroom, he found another note that sent him to my business website one a page with a url that contained “the square of my children”. When he eventually figured out that I meant their ages, not their quantity, he found a clue on my website.
This lead him to a section of his Minecraft server. It’s effectively a no-man’s land because he and his friends set off a nuke and turned it into a giant pit. They fall down and die there. Inside the pit was a cave. Inside the cave was a clue. The clue read:
Grandma and Grandpa love you.
What do you do when someone says they love you? You either get scared of the commitment and end a perfectly good relationship, or you say “I love you, too”. When the kid finally called his grandparents to tell them he loves them, they told him to give his parents a kiss.
I’m a jerk.
He came over and gave me a hug and a kiss. I handed him a piece of paper. When he looked at it, he asked if it was supposed to be torn in half. I reminded him that he has two parents, so Mom got a hug and a kiss, too. The resulting clue read:
The Answer to the Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything
Naturally, this points to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, but the boy hadn’t read far enough into the book to understand the reference, so he had to hit google. After spending time looking for chapter 42, he finally thought to look at page 42, which had this clue:
My Little Pegasus
Two steps to the right
Two steps forward
Two steps up
This clue started at the My Little Pony I set next to a Pegasus in my daughters’ room. The boy was in dense mode because he had to ask his sister what a Pegasus was. She also had to suggest he open the closet door when one step forward made him bump his nose on it.
For all of that work, he got the Ticket to Ride game. He laughed the entire way through the treasure hunt, then decided he hated the whole process. However, for two nights running, he’s stopped the video games to play his new game with his family.
It’s a present he’ll remember forever.
The Story of Sammy: Complete
This is the complete collection of the Story of Sammy. Sammy is a guy I met after my mother-in-law died in the spring of 2012. My wife and I decided to help him launch a….
Read the stories. It’s better that way.
Part 1, in which we meet Sammy, learn of his dreams and offer to help.
Part 2, in which Sammy jumps into business with both feet, teaching teenagers the value of work.
Part 3, in which Sammy shows us what crackheads and the homeless can accomplish if given the chance.
Part 3.5, in which…holy drama, Sammy!
Part 4, in which I am disappointed.
Link Roundup
Doctor appointments, speeding tickets and too much work. That’s what this week has been made of.
Finance links:
Why do the non-politician folks who want taxes raised think a fund for voluntarily paying extra is stupid? If they were sincere, they’d be contributing to that from the start. As it is, it’s just a demonstration of either hypocrisy or a looting spirit.
Paying off your Visa by charging it on…your other Visa doesn’t accomplish anything for you or for Visa. Even if you are GM and Visa is the federal government.
My wife and I are thinking of starting a potluck/boardgame night. Boardgames are a cheap way to spend a fun evening.
Misc links:
The iFixit Blog. Dedicated to teaching you how to fix your own gadgets.
I am not only a geek, I am a Halloween geek. The Stationery of Horror is full of want.
The Pareto Principle works. Even at work. I get 80% of my value from the time I spend writing blog posts. Err. Nevermind.
30 Day Project – January
This month, I have two 30 Day Projects.
My first project is to start waking up at 5am. This will add an extra 90 minutes to my day, which will give me time to manage all of my other 30 day projects. I’ll be able to wake up to a quiet house, walk the dog, eat breakfast and not start every day in a rush to get out of the house. Today was my exception. After watching 2010 arrive, I didn’t get up early.
The second project is to start reading to my children every night before bed. We read to the kids often, but not every day. That’s going to change. We are also working on breaking the girls of the family bed. If I can read them to sleep each night, it will help. Good, educational family time that makes it easier to sleep every night.
These are both habits I want to keep long after the month is up.
Fighting Evil by Phone
A few years ago, I was under the control of the Local Worthless Telephone Company(LWTC), and forced to use their long-distance provider, Evil Telephones & Thieves (ET&T). There was never a month that didn’t involve calling LWTC to get our bill corrected. Every month, something was wrong.
One month, we got a bill for $800 more than expected. Another month, another mistake. I called LWTC to get it corrected. This wasn’t a big deal, just another screwup in long list. They refused. They had never refused before. They informed me that the charge came from ET&T, not their system, preventing them from doing anything about it. There went an hour of hold time I’ll never get back.
I called the Evil Mother of All Telcos, The Malevolent Bastard Offspring of a Government-Shattered Monopoly, the Unholy Source of All Communications-Related Errors and Communicable Social Diseases. Hold. Hold for soul-rending abuse. Do you sense a pattern? Evil abounds. The inspiration for Wolfram & Hart. Employee meetings open with ritual sacrifice and close with the desecration of the holy symbols of obscure religions from distant corners of the globe.
When the customer service rep came on the line, I asked for an explanation of the charge. I was informed that I had made a 30 minute call to Niue Island. I politely reminded them that I had long-distance blocking on my phone. They couldn’t explain how the call went through, but it had, so I was obviously responsible. They refused to consider doing anything about the charge. The next day, I called back. I explained the situation to a new rep, one who hadn’t yet been trained in the art of stealing the souls of the living. She recognized the logical impossibility of international calls through the block and reversed the charge. She was swell.
Ten minutes later, her supervisor called to explain that the good witch didn’t have the authority to reverse those charges. I was responsible for paying the bill, even though she couldn’t explain how I was responsible for making the call. I explained the situation, again. I begged. I pleaded. Nothing. I was informed that I had to pay the bill. If I didn’t, they would take me to court to make me pay. She swore their computer system was solid enough to pass as evidence in court. She was angry, rude and snotty. She told me there was nothing I could do.
That wasn’t going to work for me.
I started gathering papers. The next day, a certified letter was sent to both ET&T and the Evil Para-Monopoly Telco. The contents of this letter were golden.
I sent:
- A dispute letter crafted using every bit of my experience in one of the largest collection agencies in the world.
- A copy of the problem bill, with the impossible charge and the long-distance blocking highlighted.
- A copy of a Minnesota Attorney General complaint.
- A copy of a Minnesota Public Utilities Commission complaint.
- A copy of an FCC complaint.
That was the end of it. There was no follow-up call, no collections notice, no court notice. There was nothing. The following month, there was no mention of the unpaid balance. The bill disappeared. Victory! I had conquered evil, driven a righteous stake through its beating, dust-filled heart, and poured garlic salt in the wound. I never even had to submit the complaints to their respective agencies.
That was the month we dropped our home phone line to eliminate that headache. At the time, the cell phone with the best family plan gave us $300 shared minutes for $75. It was worth it to get away from the Abomination That was the Union of LWTC and ET&T. A year later, when a business telephone provider decided to expand into the residential market in our area, we had our home phone reinstated. In the nine years since, we’ve never had to dispute a bill with McLeod USA.
Lesson learned: When you are battling evil, go big or go home. It’s better to swat a mosquito with a sledgehammer than to poke a dragon with a safety pin.
