Hundredth Post.

I'm typing this on a pretty nice iMac. sub-pixel smoothing is a little known trick, though, which can make any LED-lit display look nice. Anyway, I digress.

I wanted to use this space to talk for a second about a quasi-lame experience I'm having with Geek Squad/Best Buy. I've been reading a lot of reviews of these services, and it's been alarming, to put it mildly. Some people have hellish-looking times trying to get their cell phones fixed, which is what I've been waiting on.

It looked like my phone had randomly decided to become water-laden overnight. No more touch screen for me. Having the Geek Squad "Insurance" plan (it's apparently not really insurance, but a service that, by your paying into it, allows you to get repairs on your expensive device. weird?) I thought, "ok, I'll just take this in and get it fixed."

Upon getting there, they told me I was eligible for upgrade, but I was not really willing to pay more money for a phone just slightly more behind the curve than my current one. And I elected to go for service on the phone. They said "do you have your old phone?" and I said "yeah," which is good, because for some reason, there's a $150 deposit on a loaner phone. Which wouldn't be so bad if they loaned me an EVO. But they don't even loan you a smartphone, apparently. This is colossal cheapness, which Best Buy, with no competition, does NOT need to employ.

Since it was the middle of the day, I was helped out relatively quickly, unlike a lot of the wait-times that people report. But like many others, they told me that my repair would be "expedited" and that the repair center often has parts for the more popular devices in stock. So I said "what, then, about a week if it's expedited?" and the guy was like "yeah." So I left, with the order number to track my repair. "Cool," i thought, "back to normal next week."

Nope.

See, this repair center is in Texas, and this Best Buy is in Delaware. The phone (thankfully stripped of anything that could be stolen off of it, which is all in my possession) probably was shipped out of the store promptly. But the order tracking on Geek Squad (the separate Best Buy business responsible for already-bought electronic repairs) didn't accurately reflect this. It just said it was "awaiting shipment" for about six days.

I should note, of the three or four calls I made to Best Buy, I only really felt okay about the first one. The guy sounded nice and helpful. The next day, I called once in the morning and asked about the status, and about 4 hours later called again, but the same (middle-aged-sounding) woman answered both times. The second time, she gave me a lot of lip about how I was wasting my time by calling more than once a day asking about the status, since they don't have much more information than what I can see. Which prompts me to think, "then what good ARE you doing?"

Long story short, at the moment, my phone's repair status is making progress. On the weekly, it seems. Lots of the complaints people post about on the Best Buy forums are probably legitimate, since Best Buy absolutely makes it sound they'll just open up a box in the back to hand you a new phone if your Best-Buy-bought-and-insured one breaks for any old reason. I definitely wasn't expecting to have to use my old phone for any more than a week.

But really, the problem seems to be, that people don't have very much patience. I mean, yes, getting notified of your email on-the-go is great, and for many, helps them perform their livelihoods (and really, work in general) efficiently and quickly. But these people who have smartphones, which fail, then refuse to accept the consequences of it, are really just over-dependent on these devices. And that, despite what anyone may say, is in their own hands to control.

Now

I'm listening to the new Iron & Wine album (and about 60 other songs) as I finish this Nutrition homework.

Or write a blog post. Ya know.

I find I write/work better with this full-sized monitor/keyboard/mouse that I have. I've been planning on dumping a few hundred dollars into getting a speedy and trusty proper computer to connect to all this stuff. But now I'm struggling to decide on that VS. buying a car with a more substantial amount of money (which I pretty much don't have right now to begin with.)

I guess sitting here writing about it won't solve anything. Whereas, doing my Nutrition project will accomplish itself in me getting good grades/a college degree. So, here goes that. Meanwhile... pray that I come into the very worthwhile acquisition of either an automobile or computer.

Sincerely,

A Scrawled Signature

oh.

Well, hey there, blog. I abandoned you. Whoops.

Just so you folks know, i'm liable to retire this blog if and when i buy a domain name. I might do so soon, and i think i'd be interested in using a free platform for the content like Blogger, but i might give Wordpress a try, too. we'll see.

On Loss

on loss.

Not loss in the sense of death. If that were the case, this wouldn't be slightly entertaining.

But in a way, loss, recently, has come and gone for me. I'm always "losing" money. I make money, too, yes, but i lose it just as efficiently.

last week, my dad was away in New Jersey on business, and it was weird not having him around, probably because he does so much. All the rest of my family was around for that week. Yesterday, Labor Day 2010, my mom and i took my brother to school at Baltimore International College, where he'll be spending a lot of his time for the next year and a half. It's so close that he can come back home infrequently, but it's as though, til next week, we've just traded my dad for my brother.

Probably a loss that, more generally, you can relate to, i lost (for the moment) the higher-paying of my two part-time jobs. I hope they call me again for Christmas and New Years; that's really the big perk to having that job. But i do feel robbed, since i know they weren't going to call me (or the other people at the store with the same plight) to tell them they'd been suspended/let go/"separated".

and it's all very frustrating, but we can learn to trust God's grace more through offensive losses such as these.

Gojira

So, for the past four or five weeks, i've been working, and a lot. I was working during the school year, but this past semester, that only ever added up to 5 hours a week at some times; this month, i had two consecutive 35-hour weeks. Obviously this is entirely normal, but by contrast, it's clearly far above what i've been used to.

I really enjoyed getting a paycheck that completely covered my rent, though. And still, just because i got paid a lot, once, i need to get myself out of the frame of mind of "oh i can afford all this." because i DO have financial responsibilites that i can't neglect. siigh.

anyway, that's really the sum total of what's been going on in my life; i'm trying to save money for a various number of things, etc.

oh. but i will be doing some work on my car this Memorial Day. and I plan on taking plenty of before and after pictures of the work. I'll probably put them here and on facebook.
that is, if I'm successful.... hah.

nard-dog

hah.
yeah, i'm sitting here in front of our dvds of the American version of The Office

I've had a sore throat for about... two days now. well, by the end of today, it'll be two. haha. either way, it's good perspective for me. That is, to be on the other side of the "i'm coming down with something" conversation.
maybe it just feels like it's been a while.

I'm thinking of joining the church where i've been going while at school. I really like everyone, and even if i don't stay in the area after I'm done my degree, it will have probably been a good way for me to serve God in everything I do around here.

sakes alive

well, i missed january.

but it doesn't look like anyone's gonna hemhorrage over THAT.

anyway, i'm looking forward to what God's surely doing in my life.
just so you know.