A Quickie

A late return home last night combined with morning appointments will mean that today’s blog shall be brief.

Sometimes You Win, Most Times You Don’t
I knew that my shot last night was not a winner. Thankfully, it wasn’t skewered by the critic — who I must say had a good, even-handed approach with his critiques. Compared to the other shots mine was a quality snapshot of a guy swinging a baseball bat.

The bizarre thing about Roswell Photographic Society is the way they categorize the submitted works:

  • black and white prints
  • colored prints
  • “altered” prints
  • digital (all, regardless of treatment)

Each category is judged separately; each has its own set of “winners.” Seriously? What year is this again? Are you meaning to tell me that the photos which are printed were not taken digitally, nor have they been altered in any way? And why not have categories for digital color / digital black and white? Really, I believe there should be two categories:

  1. color
  2. black and white

from which winners are selected.

Given the constituency of RPS I doubt that changes will be made any time soon.

ITP Flickr Pic
You know I’m struggling photographically when I keep reaching into my archives to produce my “daily” photo.
Happy Motoring
Ugh, I need to shoot.

Whatever Happened To Customer Service?
I am routinely disappointed to come home and find that the door to my mailbox is wide open. Seriously, how hard is it to close the door all the way so that the plastic latch engages?

Inside the mailbox, whose door was wide open, last night was a box of checks from my bank. Since I’ve been out of checks for about a week I was thrilled to see them in the mailbox, as well to know that they were not stolen. My joy was immediately crushed when I opened the box of checks to find out that my bank completely ignored my two requests for my checks:

  1. I didn’t want “carbon” checks
  2. I didn’t want the checks to start at #100, especially since the last check I wrote was numbered somewhere in the 1800’s

I’m now faced with a dilemma. Do I take the box of checks back to my bank and require them to fix their fuck up at their cost? Or, since I write about two checks a month, do I just say “Oh fuck it!” and go on to other matters? Keep in mind that because it took me so long to reorder checks, I currently have none and would be in a lurch if I returned the box of checks and needed to write one soon.

This would all be a non-issue if people would just do their jobs correctly.

Chrome For Blogging. Firefox For Most Else
My LastPass experiment is quickly becoming a fail — $12 wasted. When compared to 1Password LastPass is a less-polished piece of software. It appears that I’ll soon be coughing over more money to 1Password to purchase their iPad application. Does anyone know if it sinks to a Dropbox directory? (Speaking of Dropbox, they just updated their iPhone/iPad app. Also, did you know that you can recover deleted files? I found out on Sunday and was over-the-moon.)

Since there is still no “official” release of the 1Password Chrome Extension I was about to make a complete jump back to Firefox too, that was until I started writing this blog today and my TextExpander snippets were not expanding (again) in that browser. Ugh.

I guess I either just need 1Password to release a “1.0” for their Chrome Extension (if they’d reduce the price of their iPad application that’d be great too). Or, I need to go back to using passwords that I can remember and eliminate the need for a secure password manager.

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – ticked off
Current Music – silence
Website Of The DayLastPass may not be working for me, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a valuable application for others.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – nothing
Morning Weigh-In – 202 pounds
Pages Of 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Read – 77

Monthly
Foot Mileage – ~4 miles, Wheel Mileage – 0 miles
Pushups – 0, Situps – 0
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 18 (18)
Vegetarian Days – 0, Carnivorous Days – 17
Marta Rides – 0

May Goals
– Not to get sick for the entire month
– Not get fired from my job
– Ride my bicycle no fewer than 100 miles
– Get the Sharpened Stone, LLC moving further

2010 Goals
– Reduce my weight to 185 pounds (starting weight was 198 pounds)
– Completely read the book 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die
РEarn at least $150 through photography sales in order to cover the cost for the renewal of the Jalape̱o Beach SmugMug account.
– Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
– Attend at least one professional photography workshop
– Enter no fewer than three photographic competitions / gallery showings
– Get the Black Sheep stats out of Excel and online
– Ride in no fewer than two 50 mile or 50K bike rides
– Complete my Taco Mac Passport requirement of 125 beers

The Unmeasurable
– Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
– Become a proficient programmer in PHP and CSS Objective-C
– Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

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15 Responses to A Quickie

  1. bob says:

    I say go back to the bank and make them fix their mistake at their expense. If you need to send a check before you receive the new box make the back draft one for you.
    my 2 cents

  2. Paulie [eatl/ga] says:

    Bob, are you biking to work during “Bike to Work” week? I *may* try tomorrow, though I’m losing work hours today bringing the Jackmobile in for an oil change.

  3. Vic says:

    I had the same type of customer service fail with my bank this past week.

    Friday, I went to Einstein’s and tried to use my debit card. It was rejected. I thought that a bit strange but paid cash and went on my way. That afternoon at Target, I thought I’d give it another shot. Again, rejected.

    Saturday I went to the BOA in Decatur to get a new card, because I assumed the mag stripe was worn and that was what was causing the card to get rejected.

    I was told that there was some activity(they couldn’t say what) that looked suspicious on my card, so they canceled it. Without telling me. Did I mention that they didn’t TELL ME that they had CANCELED my card???

    Then, I was told that they had already mailed out a new card. To an address where I haven’t lived for almost 2 years! This was done, I was told, because that was the address on my “card’s profile”. Never mind, that my account’s address is different and up-to-date.

    When I tried to suggest that maybe this was a bad policy that should probably be corrected, I was summarily brushed off with “Yes, that’s the way they do it” not the “I’ll notify management and try to get that changed” that I was hoping for.

    It makes me rethink the whole “change to a smaller bank” idea.

    Thanks for the opportunity to vent. I think I’ll cut-and-paste this in my letter to the bank manager.

  4. Paulie [eatl/ga] says:

    No problem, Vic. I nearly chose a new online bank about which I read yesterday as today’s “Website of the Day.” However, this bank’s website has yet to launch, so I did not. Perhaps tomorrow…

    Oil change nearly complete. Sounds like new tires and brakes are in my immediate future. I better hustle off to work so that I keep the job that pays the bills.

  5. Martha says:

    if the wrong checks didn’t cost you extra, then I’d just say f’it…not worth the hassle in my option. Again, I actually ‘write’ about 2 checks a year, almost everything is done via on-line banking. For my ING Direct, I couldn’t write a check even if I wanted to, the bank wouldn’t accept it.

    I had a Captians’ meeting at Holly Taco last night for the EABF, I still have the willies after one of the girls found a roach floating in her margarita…blech!! I was a little surprise with the waitress’ response, she just took the glass and brought out another drink, didn’t really say anything.

    The BF has been moved to Brownwood Park this year, I think its going to be the best year yet. Get your tickets now, only about 200 are left. I think this is my fifth (or maybe sixth) year as a volunteer, I didn’t tell anyone that, lest they want my to start helping out more. Wish we would see you there again Paulie.

  6. I think getting the check problem “fixed” will cost me more time than I’m willing to part with for this.

    Huh, I’m always bugged by insect incidents at restaurants. I’ve been back to many places at which they’ve occurred, but I always remember…

    Wow, I hadn’t heard that the beer festival had moved into the park. That’ll be great (except for those whose houses border the park), especially since people will be able to get some shade. I just hope that there is no problem with people trying to sneak in. If I had more time I’d volunteer again, but admittedly that is very low on my priority list these days. And my days of paying to get drunk at a beer festival are over.

  7. bob says:

    Yes, I am biking to work this week. I am going to try to ride more often too, the bike with the motor is making me lazy 🙂

    Are you planning on doing the Ride of Silence tomorrow? I’ll be riding then hitting George’s afterwards.

  8. Andrew says:

    I don’t believe that 1password mobile syncs with anything but a Mac. I don’t use it very often so maybe there’s something I haven’t seen. I purchased the app when it was on sale and don’t think it’s worth what they’re asking. A newer version of the Chrome extension has been released, this time with hot key support.

  9. I will be riding the RoS tomorrow. This means that it’s going to be a very late night if I go to the Braves game tonight and then head home to get my bike ready for tomorrow’s ride. I’ll have to ride the road bike because it’s the only one with pedals currently.

    Andrew, I don’t know what to do any longer. I’m currently flip-flopping between paying $7 for the 1Password iPad app, $15 for the 1Password Universal iPhone/iPad app, or throwing my hands up and giving up. In reality none of the password managers will give me the same experience as I get on my MacBook. My only concern is that I’ll need one of my crazy-hard passwords when I have no internet connectivity and won’t be able to get it.

  10. Martha says:

    If I was really good, I would just bike to Marta after the gym, it takes about an hour to get to the office from this side of town via Marta/bike (no good way to get from here to there on a bike alone)…but I might be too gross, even for Marta.

    That being said, I really would like to get back out on the bike sometime this year. This weekend is a wash but maybe next weekend, if anyone if up for it.

    They are putting up a six foot security fence around the BF area and all the streets immedatly around the park will be closed to car traffic. We are working second shift, I doubt I’ll get as drunk as last year, just can’t seem to do it anymore. Plus Warrior Dash is the next day.

    Looks like the hash got Hazmat call out again…this time on Peachtree Road.

  11. Roustem says:

    Paulie,

    We are working on adding direct sync with Dropbox to 1Password for iPhone and iPad.

    Also, if you already purchased the 1Password for iPhone then there is no need to purchase the Pro edition, you can simply get 1Password for iPad.

    Best regards, Roustem
    Co-author of 1Password

  12. Roustem, thanks for commenting and clarifying.

  13. Michelle says:

    I think I’ll be doing Ride of Silence as well, barring any unforeseen work problems…

  14. Steve says:

    Depending on the realtors schedule, I may be able to make it for RoS after all. As far as HazMat on Peachtree Road, no help from Service, since he’s out of town.

    And as soon as I clear out an apartment, there WILL be a ride and pool time at JEFDSDR.

    -FP

  15. Jenka says:

    Martha, I was at Holy Taco last night, too! Hubby was off doing something else, so I sat at the bar, read my book and had cheese dip. Chatted with HFranks but didn’t see anyone else.

    In other news, I hate checks.

Comments are closed.