Day of the devil

Okay, june 6th, 2006, or 6/6/06, the mark of the beast. I love that it's almost tongue in cheek to wave about the book of revelations. Ahh well...

If you're in california, you can express that most devilish of rights: voting.

If you're in the industry, you can see what promices to be a "meh" remake of a "meh" film: the Omen.

If you're a rational human being, it's Tuesday, just another Tuesday....

If your my friend Jim D, then you're turning 40 (born 6/6/66). Welcome to the club.

Banking issues, round 2

Okay, so, depite telling me that it wouldn't happen, it did. Wesom double bounced a transaction. This time, I got a really clear explanation of how things work:

You have $100 in your account (actual balance)
You charge 3 items to your account, each for $25 (3x$25=$75)
Available balance is now $25. [It takes a couple of days for some Visa transactions to hit]

Now, a $30 automatic bill payment (say, DPW or cable) hits your account.
They charge you a "courtesy pay" fee on the $30 despite having enough money to actually cover it.
The reasoning is that you have "reserved funds" set aside to pay the incoming $25 transactions.
Fine. It's reserved. Cool.

Now, One of the $25 transactions come in. And they charge you a courtesy pay fee for that too.
The theory is that there isn't enough money to cover ALL of the pending transactions ($48 left) so, the first one is the one that doesn't have enough money (they're still reserving money for the other two). And you get hit with another "courtesy pay" fee.

You see what's happening? They're charging you for having funds reserved for other transactions AND for fulfilling those transactions. This is completely dishonest. I may have to switch to a bank. These credit unions play way too shady.

Gone Mobile

Okay, so I broke down and bought a beater. I got a white 84 Cargo van (the one that's REALLY long) under the idea that if it beaks down, I still have storage space. But, I think my plans for Burningman have changed a bit. If I can get this thing ready for the trip, I may just have to cover it, inside and out, in glow fur, blacklights and xmas lights. It also has a towing package, so I have a lot more options now.

Frankly I'm just happy to be able to get groceries without calling a cab. :)

100 days...

to each man, the creator gives 100 perfect days....

100 days till the burn and I'm fully back up and running. Now I just need a car. :P

there are two bright sides to this latest ordeal. 1) I'm now back on the "same day delivery" list with my primary supplier. Apparently by moiving, I was dropped off that list. 2) I have entirely new lines from this computer to my DSL provider wihich should mean blazingly high speeds.

But now, I have 26 orders on the board, and I need to get kicking.

Incommunicado

Okay, so, Singularity went well, but my life since then has been rough. My car died before I got on the Highway. I've incurred a large number of bills involving the return to LA and will soon have repair issues to deal with.

But more than that, I got home to discover that my DSL was down, and it may continue to be a problem until this weekend. So, no internet, and because my phone is DSL based, no calls, no finances, no nothing. Because I couln't get online until today, my cell phone ran out of minutes, too.

In short, I'm hosed for a while. If you call, I probably won't have the resources to call back until after Memorial day. I'm trying to get business running, but I don't know when I'll have my ducks in a row again.

I'll post another blog when I'm back up and running.

Check you Grips day!

Okay, this wednesday is check your grips day. I found out that most people have wednesday spin jams, so we'll announce this one early.

For poi spinners, remember, leather grips can break without previous notice. If your leather grips have been "broken in" for quite a while, might be the time to replace them or at least give 'em some love. Kevlar and nylon grip users might want to go over their rigs and make sure they don't have any streaching or frayed bits.

But this day isn't just for poi spinners.... staff, sword, torch and flogger people all have some kind of grip area. Use this day to make sure they're in good condition, or re-wrap with tape, or whatever.

This is also a good day to finally sew your fire fingers into those gloves you bought (haven't bought yet? Try golf gloves...). If you've got something like fans ore palm torches that pinch, bind, or are loose, this is the day to grab some string and tape to get them fixed.

C'mon folks, Singularity this weekend, the SF fire arts expo next weekend, and let's face it, pretty much everywhere on the nothern hemisphere, the flowers are blooming. Let's make sure they don't meet a runaway wick...

An open letter to the DVD industry

Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me...

When I got my first DVD player I went out and got DVDs as soon as they came out. Then, the expanded edition with widescreen and director commentary came out, then the delux edition with the "making of and PC extras disk". THEN, eventually, the boxed set with the whole series in a convenient packaging. *sigh* And you know I got more than one of them....

Now, i've stopped. I wait until the 10 year anniversay edition (which totally backfired with the Rocky Horror DVD, should have held out for the 25 year). I won't buy a first edition DVD no matter how bad I want it (right now, I'm waiting on the Firefly-Serenity boxed edition). And based on the declining DVD sales, I 'm betting I'm no the only jaded buyer out there.

So, here's the deal... We'll start buying first run DVDs again when you stop re-releasing them with a couple of added features. First run, full comentary, dual wide/full version with making of and such, with no re-releases except for the boxed series edition (BTW, I love the Jurrasic park boxed set). One version, one set, and we'll buy all you can make. Jerk us around, and watch a whole media type fall into disuse...

While we're at it, no more mandatory previews. I'd love to watch some upcoming previews before my movie....sometimes. I HATE being forced to watch them EVERY time I insert the disk. Damnit, I paid top dollar for a DVD that costs $1, packaging for $1 and residuals that run about $2. Keep it up and you'll start seeing product retuns.

Fool me once....