29 posts tagged “money”
Littering, long showers, not recycling... What's your biggest pet peeve about the way some people (mis)treat our planet?
Sponsored by One Million Acts of Green brought to you by Cisco.
Littering has always been up there, especially douchebags who drop shit on the ground mere feet from a bin.
My biggest beef, really, is the automobile. Specifically...
- People who buy cars that are larger and more fuel guzzly than they need for their day to day usage.
- People who drive short, walkable distances.
- People who drive to places that are easily reachable on public transport.
Heck, I used public transport for most of my journey to and from work when my house and office were two hours apart by car (and significantly more by public transport).
Walking is free, a bike is cheap, public transit in a big city like Chicago is cheap, reliable and likely to go pretty much anywhere you need to get most days. The impact on your pocket and health is pretty substantial if you replace car journeys with walking and biking.
Some days, I really have to laugh.
In our old place, we had RCN HD with a DVR. It was magical. We got RCN because Comcast wanted to basically tear apart a wall to install, but RCN didn't think it was necessary.
Then we moved, and the new place was wired for Comcast already (we later found out that it was Comcast or nothing - yay collusion). The guy who owned our place before us had upgraded the basic services he got as part of his assessment to get a Comcast DVR, and we wanted to do the same.
First of all, it took a month of misinformation from Comcast and chasing him to finally get his account closed so we could open our own. The day it happened, not only did his extra services get shut off, but so did our basic cable TV. A doi!
They set us back up, but on the wrong billing code. As a result, our television service went out, resulting in four individual technician visits. It took the fourth guy to put two and two together (despite the fact we had mentioned the previous owner's account closure as the starting point of the issues to everyone we talked to) and now, apparently, the problem is over.
After two months with barely two weeks of TV service, numerous phone calls, live chat sessions, emails, and snotty responses to my request for help from my building management company, I thought I would ask Comcast for some kind of compensation. Surprisingly, they agreed. Guess what they offered me? Actually, you'll be here all day, so I'll tell you.
Apparently, they raised some bogus installation fee on my account at some point over the past month (I assume for "installing" the replacement cable box when their third visiting technician thought that was the issue). They are going to refund that charge.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is my compensation.
GAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
29 is the atomic number of copper. 29 is also the age I have been since Saturday.
Eva got spayed on Thursday last week, so I took Friday off to stay home and care for her. We spent all day playing Street Fighter IV (yes, she played... maybe), cuddling and napping. It was great. Other than the scar on her stomach, which they sealed with surgical glue rather than stitches, she was in great shape from day one. Her behaviour hadn't changed a bit - she wasn't feeling sorry for herself or moping, she was just as happy and excitable as ever. This cheered me up, because I had read a ton of spaying horror stories before we took her in.
I had a great, but quiet, birthday. On top of all the cards and messages from friends and family, I was spoiled and received...
- Lots of money to spend on nice things
- Saints Row 2: Collector's Edition for Xbox 360 (it's the game, a USB stick shaped like a bullet, a money clip, a poster and an art book in an embossed tin)
- New jeans
- An awesome t-shirt: www.isteamphone.com
I felt very spoiled and very loved. Today, I came into work to find chocolate from my friends Jason and Brad, too.
Jess was very good to me. On top of my presents, I got a tasty breakfast in bed (biscuits and gravy) and she suffered Indian food with me that night. The place we went to was shockingly good, I would say the best Indian I have had in the US so far.
This week, I'm back to work. Rather than sending her to daycare, where she might over-exert herself and mess with her scar, Eva is staying with her aunty Lindsay every day. This kills two birds with one stone - Eva gets one on one care, Lindsay gets all the puppy kisses she wants. WIN!
Clothing, dinners, make-up, or gadgets... We all have things we like to splurge on. What do you think you buy too much of?
Are you kitten? I clearly spend too much money on music. I know this, but I like music, and I make sure all my bills are paid so... tough.
Would you rather be rich or famous? Why?
Submitted by Chris Vaughn.
Rich. Being famous is a giant mound of arse, judging by the increasing number of celebrity meltdowns. Who would want an army of balding twats armed with cameras following you everywhere, endangering your life and that of your friends and family?
At least with wealth, you can live the high life and do something good.
- March 2007: apply for green card.
- April 2007: biometrics (fingerprints/photos) appointment.
- ~June 2007: green card case mysteriously put into storage.
- November 2007: told at appointment that it is in permanent storage with no decision, and it will be pulled out and sent to the Chicago office to find out why.
- January 2008: told at appointment that the case was pulled out, arrived in late December, and was instantly sent back. Also told not to apply for work permit renewal as I will have my green card before then, according to the immigration lady who seemed very put out about having to "fix someone else's mess". She promises to call.
- February 2008: hear nothing. Involve local congressman's office. Now just over 90 days till work permit expires.
- March 2008: hear nothing.
- April 2008: case is in Chicago! Yay! Hear nothing more.
- May 2008: told at appointment that case had just been assigned to a supervisor (~1 month after arriving) and that we should definitely apply for work permit. Which expires in less than 30 days. Oops, LOLZ!
Total time to receive fuck all information or movement on case: 14 months
- 12 May 2008: send work permit application, including cheque for $340.
- 22 May 2008: cheque cashed.
Total time for US Immigration to snort up more money: 10 days
My being in this country is certainly a privilege and not a right, and I respect that. I also respect that there are hundreds of thousands of people going through this process at any given time... but it is not a free service. If I spent hundreds of dollars on any other service, I would have the right (and a mechanism) to complain when the service I receive is poor.
It's not made any easier when I hear via immigration communities online that people who applied in March of this year have their cards in hand already. I can't imagine my name is so common that it requires much effort to check in the FBI's computers. My relationship with my wife is legitimate, and provably so. I have made every effort to integrate, finding stable employment and paying thousands of dollars in taxes. I cannot comprehend the delay.
What really busts my balls, other than the delay incurring another $340, is that I won't even get a full green card! The card I had to apply for is a conditional permanent residence card - this offers temporary status to newlyweds. After two years of marriage, you get the full fat version. The full fat version, by the way, will cost me another $465 plus $80 for biometrics.
The less educated American's response to the illegal immigration problem is to put up a big fence around the country. Fixing this horrible system will be much more effective.
http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/03/nine-inch-nai-2.html
And this, ladies and gentlemen, is how an established musical act makes lots of money without ripping off fans or lining the pockets of clueless shareholders.
Not a financial success, but releasing their latest album for free has also gotten The Charlatans a lot of attention, too:
http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2008/03/11/free-charlatans-album-racks-60,000-downloads
If that translates into sales and gig tickets, it's done its job.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080305-reznor-makes-750000-even-when-the-music-is-free.html
I don't know what the costs of the servers were. I don't know what the cost of producing the various physical versions of the music will be when completed. I don't even know what the album cost to produce.
At the end of the day, though, Trent Reznor could feasibly come out of this entire experiment with a significant chunk of change in his pocket... despite the fact he released his album using a Creative Commons license that means just one person downloading it legally could then have made it available for free to anyone without any legal comeback.
Are you listening, recording industry? Nope? Didn't think so. Carry on with your self-destruction.
You'd think someone who has been involved in online for longer than most of its main users have been alive would be more embracing of the digital distribution of music. Oddly, for as much of a technophile I am, the idea of acquiring my music from the internet makes me retch.
But of course, I am very contrary. I dismiss the "vinyl is better" set as deluded luddites, but I cannot give up physical media because of my fetishist's love of packaging. Ruffling through a well-designed booklet is as important to me as that first listen of a new album.
Anyway, today we were bumming around outside due to the characteristic good weather and happened upon a trendy t-shirt shop. While looking at their designs, a great remix of a Thom Yorke solo song, 'Atoms For Peace', came on the store's sound system. I made a mental note to look it up when I got home.
I did a search and found out it was a remix by Fourtet, with the first link being to a site called eMusic. It turns out, eMusic is a rival service to iTunes. For $10 a month, you get to download 30 songs in unprotected MP3 format and keep them - even if you cancel your membership (there are more expensive plans and booster packs too). Additionally, during the trial period, you could download a further 50 free songs and keep them if you decided it wasn't for you.
Their catalogue is mostly made up of music from independent labels (Thom Yorke released his solo material on XL Recordings) but they have a lot of artists I like or want to listen to, so I've signed up for the trial.
While I don't think I could ever move over to iTunes - with its barely-cheaper-than-CDs pricing, restrictive DRM and their insistance on pushing the rubbish AAC format - I could easily add eMusic to my normal CD consumption for checking out bands I normally wouldn't hear about.
Link:
For the first time ever, I feel my age.
It started when I was joking around in the kitchen with a guy I work with. We were both in line to grab coffee and I made a joke like "Age before beauty." He said "I don't think I win in either category." so I asked how old he was. Yeah, he's 25, two years younger than me.
I figured he was older than me. Not just because he has one of the deepest voices I've ever heard (well, not James Earl Jones deep) but also because, well, I've always been one of the youngest at every place I've worked. I started my first job at 16, moved to my second at 19, and my work style has always been "eager newbie". Plus Jess and most of the people I hang out with are younger than me.
Then I read this article about so-called "child men". Apparently the typical guy my age is a commitmentphobic douchebag. I'm married, have a career, and am more likely to be found drooling over new places to live with a Diet Coke in my hand than drooling over some random slut in a bar with a Bud Lite in my hand. I do spend a lot of money on gadgets and video games, but I have never lived with a group of guys and spent most of my nights getting wasted.
Roll on my 28th birthday. Groan.
