dittrich

Heard a guy bitching at the food court today about the "Cash for Clunkers" program.

He actually said something along the lines of "If I could trade my Porsche in for a new Porsche, I'd be all for it." This was shortly after he said something along the lines of "Why would I trade my Land Rover in on a small, economy car?"

My choices were to get up & leave or turn and talk to the guy. I got up & left.

Kind of a lazy day. Deb's working & I didn't really have anything planned...beyond putting a little laundry away.

Went out to MOA around 1pm & decided to grab some Taco Bell (I know, I know, but I get the craving every-so-often). Wrong time of day for the food court. I ended up eating on a bench just outside the food court because there weren't any open tables.

Post-lunch, I wandered a bit. Didn't really find much & I got tired of the crowds in my way so I left. I almost went out to Microcenter, but decided I didn't really need anything so I wasn't going to get tempted and just came home instead.

I'm working my way through the last half season of Battlestar Galactica now that the DVDs are out. I'm only watching one or two episodes at a time instead of doing the whole thing in one sitting. Today's were a two-parter, so that worked out...

Tomorrow is up in the air. Deb has the day off, except for a 9am meeting that she's pretty unthrilled about.

"I wonder if grabbing his nuts was part of the sign?" - my beloved wife while watching a Twins game.

I laughed.

* Bought supplies to make beer tomorrow. Bought a German Alt kit from Northern Brewer. I haven't had Alt since I was in Germany, but I remember it fondly. It should be ready when Max, Janel, & Locke are in town.

* Got the nasty futon out of the guest room & into the garage. Now I need to figure out how to get rid of it permanently. I'm thinking about checking into a dumpster (we've got more than just the futon to get rid of). Other trash was also dealt with.

* Installed Ubuntu & Boxee on Deb's Old Laptop (and named it DOLT) and hooked it up to the TV. This makes two computers that I've got attached to it. This wasn't necessarily the original plan. I was just hooking it up temporarily to get it set up as a linux server so I can test out some stuff. However, I found a free iPhone App to control Boxee (it's a media player, it can do streaming video off the internet, unlike my DVR software. Think Hulu on your TV instead of your computer) and it worked so well, I'm thinking I might leave it hooked up. It can do the server stuff in the background anyway...

* Moved the recordings directory on the DVR to a different drive. It was on the OS drive & HD recordings were sometimes skipping a bit. I'm not sure if this is a fix or not. I'm tentatively planning on a bigger hard drive in the fall (don't need it now & I might be able to get a bigger drive for the same amount of money when I DO need the space) and I might just have to go with a faster one (which will cost more, I'm sure)

* Got a case for the old hard drive from Deb's Old Laptop. It's an odd size (11.2mm thick instead of 9.5mm) so finding a case has been a problem. Even the one I DID buy, I can't get the top on it. It came with a faux leather case, though, so I just shoved it in there. I want to use it for off-site backup (in other words, I'm going to take it to work & put it in a drawer), so I don't think it'll see so much use that heat will be a problem.

* I also got some smaller domestic type items done but I won't list them off.

I need to add some stuff to the list for tomorrow now too...

Happy Birthday, wifeofbudda!!!

Just figured out the mystery of why I managed to go through an entire prescription of test strips in a month (they come 100 at a time, I test twice a day...do the math). I didn't take both boxes (50 per box) out of the bag in my Inbox. Oops.

Got a refill today (co-pay was $20...cost per strip is approx $1...do more math) so I guess I'm set for a while...

I have absolutely NO need for another t-shirt. But I still kind of want a Cubicle Workers Local 1337" shirt...

If only I had $116,000 laying around...

Derek, you'd probably like this too...

Deb talked to the VisionWorld Manager from the store near ProEx AND the District Manager who also has the Rosedale store in her district.

Seems that VisionWorld changed labs for making glasses...and then their business doubled (VisionWorld's business, I think).

This explains why my glasses are late (and I'm not the only one, apparently.). It does NOT explain the complete lack of communication coming FROM VisionWorld. That's just not good customer service...

If this had been told to me earlier, I'd be a lot more understanding about it. I am a little less pissed now, though. I know all too well that shit happens, but I also know that people are less pissed off when they have some information about WHY the shit is happening.

A good reason to check your child's homework

(read the explanation below the picture too.)

OK, so they told me my glasses MIGHT be late when I called them on Thursday. They claimed they'd called on Wed to tell me that. No message on the machine & Deb assured me that they hadn't talked to her. I still figured they'd call me on Saturday with an update.

Yeah, not so much.

I was told that Saturday shipments didn't come in until 3-4pm, so I waited. Finally called them while I was driving to pick Deb up (the plan was I'd pick her up then we'd go get the glasses & maybe wander Rosedale for a little bit). That's when I found out that the new glasses "hadn't passed inspection" and "would be in sometime next week."

Two weeks in an old prescription has not been a ton of fun. Adding to the fun are the large number of scratches on the lenses, part of the reason I replaced the damn things to begin with.

I'm kind of pissed off about this whole thing. I can understand "not passing inspection," I CAN'T understand why this should happen in a time frame that keeps them from fixing the problem & still getting them to me in time. When I ordered them, they told me it would be two weeks and gave me a "Promise Date" of 31 Jan. Seems like, if you call it a "Promise Date," you should maybe do your damndest to meet that deadline. Or call it something else.

The other big issue I've got is that THEY NEVER CALLED ME. They claimed they did, but I sure didn't get any sort of message or anything. Then, they didn't call me AGAIN (despite me giving them my cell number, just to be sure they had a good number) when they KNEW the damn things were going to be late.

It remains to be seen when "sometime next week" will be & whether or not I'll get a call then. My guess is Thursday & I will AGAIN have to call them, despite the big note on the paperwork telling them to call me when they come in.

In case you're wondering, this is the Vision World in Rosedale. I'm pretty sure this'll be my last time going there.

Mailboxmap

Seems handy...even if it doesn't have the box closest to my house. If I knew pickup times, I'd be a nice guy & submit it to them...

"Jesus Christ is now following you on Twitter!"

I'd follow back but most of his posts are responses to other people, which is fine in moderation but not so much for the majority of a persons tweets...

I had a second eye exam yesterday. No poof of air this time, they did the blue/purple light test for glaucoma, which is equally freaky because they get the light really, really, really close to your eye.

Dilation ensued & many bright lights and magnifying lenses were used to look around in both eyes. It was determined that all this was "a little to-do about nothing." Dr. called it a CHIRPE, but damned if I can find it on the net anywhere. Basically, it's just a bit of dark pigmentation at the back of my eye. Similar to a freckle or a mole. It's completely normal & not an issue. It was mentioned that it was near a blood vessel, which may have been what caused the Dr. at Vision World to want me to have it checked out.

I DID learn that, while dilated, I can see things close up...if I take my glasses off. That seems a little counter-intuitive, but I can't argue results...

So, I'm finally starting in on entering our DVDs and books into my computer. I've got a program (2, really) that can read barcodes via the built-in camera. I got about 80-85% success with the DVDs...and, maybe 25% with books. So, I've done a bit of barcode typing too. To the point where I borrowed a USB keyboard (none of my extra ones are USB & the Mac doesn't have a PS2 port) from work today so I can use the 10-key portion to type ISBNs.

I think I got all the DVDs yesterday & maybe 20% of the books today. Another annoying thing about the books is that the authors name gets entered (the program pulls data from Amazon based on the ISBN) as "First Last" not "Last, First" making alphabetizing an issue. I'll probably mass-edit things once I've got 'em all entered...

I managed to break my glasses tonight (which, by the way, I haven't even had for two years yet!). Not while I was at home, that would've been too easy. Luckily, I had a spare pair in the car...although they WERE 2 prescriptions back...

I'm now in my most recent old pair. I also managed to get an appointment for an exam (my doctor had bugged me about getting one...it's been a two years PLUS the whole diabetes thing...) tomorrow morning. Downside is that Vision World takes about a week to make glasses.

Oh, and the VisionWorld website? Yeah, thanks for having a link for frames that only lists brands & doesn't actually SHOW ME ANY FRAMES!

BTW, the old glasses are close enough in prescription that BSG in HD was quite clear. The scratches on the lenses (which is why I got new ones two years ago) detracted a little.