burnaby t wallace

http://www.gliffy.com

So, let’s see…what isn’t available on the internet?

technorati tags:Gliffy, visio

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You know, it feels kind of cool to have Wells back here. He’s a good pitcher.

Anyway, the Padres are still one game back–and they play the number one team for the next three games. I hope they manage to beat the Dodgers.

OK. That’s all for alpha-male talk. Back to normal Spencer.

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Yesterday was cool.

After work, I went home and played with the notion of putting MS Vista x64 on my home computer–the core of my computing when I am not at work. I already have it on my laptop, and it’s awesome. But I don’t sync my PDA with my laptop. I don’t use my laptop as a file server, nor do I use it for the games. It is where I work on websites and where my research takes place. I have thought about putting x64 Vista on it all day. I wanted to backup my computer in case the bits hit the fan.

Then I panicked. I didn’t even Ghost the drive yet and I freaked out about not being able to use my PDA. I mean, if I couldn’t sync my PDA–my life would be a mess. I am not exaggerating in the least–my brain can be used for telling me when to breathe and when my heart should beat. My PDA does the rest. So, instead of the whole Vista movement, I decided to upload my latest images (including the kick boxing pictures) up to my Picasa web account.

Afterwards, I cleaned up my guinea pig’s cage and put him in the car. He was going for a ride with me to Mission Valley. I was to meet up with my fiancée and Billy for some Wahoo food–which was not bad. A little on the pricey side, but good.

Now on to my friend Billy. My good friend Billy. He caters to my I-want-to-talk-about-technology side of my brain. I can do that with my other friends, yes, but not very many friends can I sit with and, instead of watching some cool DVD, sit back and watch the Apple keynote and clap hands and yell as if watching some type of football game. Geeky? Yes–you have a problem with that?

We also went on a mini journey through the maze that is his apartment complex to simmer in the jacuzzi and I listened to him discuss binaural sets of frequencies that the brain can use to do certain tasks. We topped the evening with some diet Pepsi with lime and some weird, 1970’s spaceship hypnotism and meditation. (*Have a confused look on your face? I guess you just had to be there.*)

It was good, clean fun. I am a nerd that enjoys insightful tidbits of useless information and hanging out with good people.

Anyhow, the reason I write this “yesterday review” is because it dawned on me at work today that my life really doesn’t begin until I clock out for the day. I am noticing the same sentiment from many of my colleagues. It’s not that the jobs are bad. It’s just that, regardless of how much school I went to to get to where I am at in my career, it doesn’t define me. I guess it’s good that way.

I am not some engineer toiling away at work even when I am at home (or should be home). I don’t want to have those types of habits, either. It’s not something I want to instill in my kids (when I have them in the future) and I don’t want it to steal time away from the people I love and the things I enjoy.

If I could guess, the majority of the people in America would state their job and position when prompted with the question, “What are you?” It could be the way our society rears us. I mean, how many kids do you suppose say that, when they grow up, they want to be loving husband/wife and a great father/mother and go to church and be able to cook really good spaghetti? You’ll usually hear, lawyer/astronaut/doctor/paleontologist. I would be amused when I hear “I don’t know. Probably fat and hating my cubicle dwelling job.”

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate my job. I am just saying that many people seem to fall into that template. My job is cool. Yes, it does suck me into the cubicle-dimension. You have your bad days. But you also do have your good days. I have also had jobs where I’ve enjoyed every moment of it. It certainly didn’t feel like work. But the career I have now pays the bills. And it’s one of those jobs that can pay larger bills (read: it pays well). So I’ll keep it for now. But there’s no way that it’s indicative of who I am.

So, what do you do and what do you want to be when you grow up?

technorati tags:weekend, career, job, apple, keynote

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AJAX and Apple keynote? http://www.macrumorslive.com/

I don’t know about you, but I am waiting for the new iPod video announcement.

Update: New iTunes 7–and it runs on x64 Vista!!! I’m running it right now. Oh, and the new iPods are cool, but Jobs…give us our huge screen video iPod already.

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When we got up, we hung out with family, went to the pond and just chilled. We also saw a movie, and I got to work on our wedding website. Afterwards, I went to church where Mass was led by arguably the coolest priest ever. During the service, he brought out his iPod, his Pocket PC, and his bluetooth headset. The most connected man of the cloth, I asked him if he would be the officiant at our wedding. Hopefully it works out.

Zooomr :: DSC06295

technorati tags:philwichkam

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Rebates.

They make me think that I am getting a cheaper price on something. They have helped persuade me on a purchase before. When I do receive the rebate, it feels like that particular chapter in my purchasing book can end. I usually expect a large load of rebates around the February through April time frame from all the holiday spending.

But I really hate the whole rebate process.

I read somewhere that rebates are how business make more money. Something like less than half of the people fill out rebate forms for rebates worth $100 or more. It drops to something like 15% for purchases less than $50. So customers end up paying more, thinking that they will fill out this sheet, include a photo copy of the receipt, and mail it in. Many people forget about the rebates and sometimes, it feels like the rebate companies don’t send out the check. Since the consumer forgets, there’s no expectation there.

I’m religious about filling these out. I make sure I get my money. I even list it on my PDA to expect a check around a certain time.

I have found that some stores are cool about the whole rebate thing. Staples has got to be the best, as you can fill out the rebate online, even. Believe it or not, Fry’s actually isn’t too bad about the whole rebate thing, I have found. In my experience, stores such as CompUSA and Circuit City can suck about rebates. Best Buy has made efforts to stop doing the rebate thing all together.

When you buy online, however, it’s different. Regardless of what store I buy from (Amazon, Dell, TigerDirect, CompUSA.com, Outpost.com), all my rebates seem to be processed by this administration called rebatesHQ. And rebatesHQ suck.

RebatesHQ suck hard.

The last two times I have mailed a form to them, they have been invalid–though I have successfully done my part in the rebate portion. It’s getting to be that, not only do they make money from the customers that forget to fill out the form, they make money by denying those that do send them in.

I ordered this cool 3D fish screen saver for my computer (which I never use and it doesn’t work with multiple monitors anyway). The shipping was free, and after rebate, the item would have been free as well. I dutifully sent it in. A little over a month later, I received a postcard that said I didn’t send it in on time. Lame!!! I called up the number listed on the card, spoke to this guy named Jay and was put on hold several times. It was like this (paraphrase):

Jay: We have listed that you did not submit your form in time. Let me verify this.
- Hold -
Jay: What was your name again. I need to check it in my system.
Spencer: Spencer. Isn’t it on your screen somewhere? I mean, you are looking at my issue.
Jay: Let me check.
- Hold -
Jay: It says that you have not submitted your form in time. I am going to check with our manager. Can you hold, please?
- Hold -
Jay: OK. Your rebate was invalid. But as a valued customer, I can honor your rebate. Can you spell your name?
Spencer: S P E N C E R.
Jay: OK. Hold on just a moment.
- Hold - *Sound of tapping on a keyboard in the background–but way too many characters than simply my name. More like replying to an email or chatting to someone online
Jay: OK. Your rebate was invalid. But I have changed it’s status to valid. You should receive your rebate within 4 to 6 weeks. Is there anything else I can help you with?
Spencer: No. Thanks.

I was hoping to never have to go through rebatesHQ again.

Unfortunately, this was not the case.

I bought a hard drive from TigerDirect. It was an exceptional deal (yes, indeed, too good to be true). At the time, it was a 400GB hard drive for $70. Of course, that’s after a huge rebate. This was the big one. This was the rebate that better work or I am going to bust down some buildings.

So I sent it off. This one was easy. In fact, when the hard drive came, I didn’t even need to cut out the UPC. It was on a sheet that said something like “Use this sheet for the UPC.” Again, I dutifully sent in the rebate. It was the middle of July. I checked pretty much every week, through July and August.

And then today–I checked it out. It was finally on the status page at rebatesHQ. Again, it said it was invalid.

Now buildings were about to be busted down.

I haven’t even received my postcard telling me that the rebate was invalid. I wasn’t going to wait. I looked around for a number to call. It wasn’t listed on the page. I had to go to TigerDirect.com and pretend like I was buying another drive to get access to the rebate form, which hopefully had the phone number. It did, and I called them up.

It was pretty much the same process again. But this time I found out that the reason the drive rebate was invalid was because the UPC code was invalid. That was ridiculous as the product made it completely clear which UPC sheet to submit. It was an OEM drive. There was no box or manual. The only documentation was the UPC code. This could not be any clearer which UPC to submit. How on earth can this be invalid?

So I spent another 10 minutes on the phone. Again, I just had to say that I submitted the form. I didn’t even have to prove the validity of the form. It was just explaining myself and my situation. I didn’t call with a pissed off attitude. The person I spoke to wasn’t impolite. But it felt like he was doing his job, as if he was part of a system of denied rebate handling.

The system was the following:

1. Wait for a customer to submit a rebate.
2. Mark the rebate invalid.
3. Update the rebatesHQ site indicating the unfortunate circumstance and some random reason as to why it was invalid.
4. Send out postcards for the issue.
5. Repeat for all rebates.
6. As the last obstacle between the customer and his rebate, wait until he calls–if at all.

When he calls, pretend to be typing to give the illusion of working hard on helping the customer when the truth is, the check box marked “Valid” simply needs to be clicked by the mouse. Put the customer on hold as if leaving my desk to speak with my manager. Bite into sandwich. Don’t forget to click on the “Valid” check box. Then take the customer off hold and explain that, yes, the rebate was invalid. The customer did something wrong, but you have now come and made it all good by telling them they are a valued customer and that you will hook them up.

I checked after a few more minutes. The rebate is now valid and is processing.

So, from the customer who fills out the rebate, it seems that the new process is the following:

1. Buy product.
2. Fill out the rebate form.
3. Cut out the UPC code from the box or include the UPC sheet.
4. Make a copy of the receipt.
5. Make a photocopy of the entire package.
6. Put inside envelope and apply a stamp. Place in mailbox for the mailman to pick up.
7. Wait for the postcard in the mail telling the customer why the rebate is invalid.
8. Call up phone number on postcard.
9. Explain that you did everything you were supposed to do.
10. Get rebate validated.

Isn’t that lame? Let’s hope that we don’t have to add an additional step about the rebate check being lost in the mail and calling up rebatesHQ again and explaining everything again.

technorati tags:rebates, rebatesHQ, tigerdirect

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Now that I have survived the weekend and am at least slightly more coherent, let’s do a recap.

- Told everyone (those we wanted to know, but haven’t told yet) about the engagement.
- Won free tickets to an excellent concert in October.
- It was my girlfriend’s Birthday yesterday.
- I had (am still having) a nasty bout with tennis elbow–on both elbows.
- Experienced increased leg pain

Alright. Now for some further detail.

We told many people this past weekend about the engagement. The reaction? It was like they already knew. Many in fact, did already know. But some people seemed keen on that element already. Still, it was nice for people to actually see the pictures and the engagement ring.

I got an email from the INO Records street team administrator that said I won two tickets to MercyMe’s concert in Anaheim in October. That’s sweet! I already bought some upgraded seats anyway, but now this means that more people get to go. It’s going to be awesome.

My fiancée and I had dinner at Humphrey’s By The Bay yesterday and had two salmon specials. It was good, could use a little more salt, though. We celebrated her birthday together watching the sunset over the hill just past the private yacht dock. We also sort of celebrated her birthday in small episodes throughout the weekend, from the tiramisu at the british pub, small MySpace blurbs, and phone calls from friends and family. Again, if one day late in the ol”blog, Happy Birthday my shnookums. :)

So now we are over a week after the LAN party madness that was August 25-27, I am sitting, typing, with a Futuro Sport tennis elbow strap around one of my arms. Yes, I got tennis elbow in perhaps the least honorable way–not by actually participating in some agressive-good-for-you-sport, but by fragging away the whole weekend. Yep, and I got it bad. I couldn’t put on or take off a shirt. I remember actually hunching over and sort of crying at Bible study last week. It was bad. Vicodin was barely doing its job.

Then, as the pain of the elbow began to very-slowly subside, I noticed some rapidly increasing stiffness in the knee. Then, to add to a weekend of walking in some flat sandals, swelling of the ankles. Am I beginning to become one of thoe obese motorized wheelchair bound 60-something’s? I hope not.

Now…what did I forget while writing the original blog?

- Vault Zero goodness.

Yes, we discovered that Ralphs has a coupon for the Coke, Dr. Pepper, and various-not-interested-in-it brands. What I jokinly fantacized about with my fiancée, however, was, as my favorite soda–Vault Zero–was a Coke brand, wouldn’t it be nice if Vault was included in the sale. Well, sure enough, it was. As we are finding that California seems to be in a Vault drought (making it that much harder to find the rarest of the rare, Vault Zero), we had to go to several Ralph’s locations to acquire this magical elixir of flavor and energy–all for 5 calories per serving.

- Over 500 hours of recording Media Center space

In my life as a college student, I was not known to watch TV. Aside from the X-Files episodes (which I just bought several more seasons, thanks to Fry’s), TV was simply a large, dark rectangular device which sat downstairs collecting dust. In recent years, however, thanks to a trusty laptop and Windows Media Center, I have been known to spend days watching Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and getting my fill of reality shows (which I still loathe, but cannot seem to stop watching). Well, I recently upgraded my system with a larger hard drive. I can now record the entire set of fall shows while I travel and see the world. Do some winter hibernating, then get up in the spring to begin watching all the shows I’ve missed (not to mention the shows that I begin to like, only to see them get canceled, ahem-NBC-ahem). Space is good.

- Taiko Drum Master

This game is SICK! Sick, in a good way. You essentially sit with a drum, hit it to the beat shown on screen, and the better you drum, the higher your score. Think Dance Dance Revolution meets drums. While my tennis elbow has forced me to refrain from going overboard with the whole thing, it proved itself to be remarkably addicting and allowed me to bounce around like I was in the band, Leeland. I totally looked like I could be a drummer. Unfortunately, I was holding the drumstick like it was a pen, and now have a blister on my middle finger covered in a Hello Kitty band-aid. Yes, I need to buy some more band-aids.

So that’s about all the weekend recaps I can do for now. That’s a ton of typing. I need to rest my little elbow.

Take care, folks.

technorati tags:weekend, engagement, taikodrummaster, vaultzero, mediacenter, tenniselbow, birthday, mercyme, anaheim, concert

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