Sold!

I needed to get rid of my old car, the ‘98 Taurus. Everyone that knows me knows that I hate selling vehicles. That last time I had to sell a car it took me almost a month. I wasted money on want ads because I ended up selling it to someone that saw the “For Sale” sign in the window.

This time was different because I used craigslist. I didn’t think about craigslist at first but a friend said, “Why not try it?”. That was the best decision I could have made. Here is the timeline:

• Day 1: Post ad.
• Day 2: Receive email from potential buyer.
• Day 4: Receive second email and a phone call from potential buyer.
• Day 5: Receive second call from buyer. He wants the car so he stops by later that day with cash!

I’ll definitely list my next car on craigslist.

Man is the only creature that refuses to be what he is. - Albert Camus

16.Nov.07 General Comments (0)

My new BlackBerry

Talk about a nice, end-of-the-work-week surprise. So long crappy 7100i, hello sleek and beautiful 8830 World Edition.

It doesn’t have Sprint’s Ready Link, what Nextel calls Direct Connect but so what! I had no problems giving up the Nextel phone for this one. This is one sweet phone that is packed with features. It took a little while to get used to the track ball (white ball under the screen). The phone works a lot faster than the 7100i did.

As long as this phone doesn’t give me the troubles the 7100i did, I will be keeping this one for a long time. Or until they approve buying a newer model. Whichever happens to occur first.

Individual commitment to a group effort - that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work. - Vince Lombardi

03.Nov.07 General Comments (5)

The marathon took a break

As posted yesterday, I went to a Saw marathon (I - IV) last night. Everything was running smooth until midnight. Twelve a.m. came and went but Saw IV didn’t start. What the…..

I wondered why it wasn’t starting since all the other movies started every 2 hours on the dot (6,8 & 10 p.m.). When I looked into the projector room, I noticed that there were no lights and no film on the loading reel. There is usually a loading light on when they are switching reels but it was pure dark. I decided to go see what was up at 12:10 a.m.

I asked the first theater employee I could find why Saw IV wasn’t started. He didn’t have a clue so he asked a manager that was nearby. The manager looked at me and asked, “It’s not running?”. If it were, would I have come out to ask why it wasn’t? The manager pulled out his walkie talkie and called another employee.

The manager asked employee 2 (female) if Saw IV was set up in theater 10 and she said “No, only theater 11 has a midnight show.” WHAT!?!?! The look on the managers face was priceless. He told her that the Saw marathon was in 10 so it also had to run in there. After a short “Oh crap, I screwed up” pause, she came back on and said she would have it up in about 5 minutes.

The movie finally started about 12:30 a.m. The movie was great! It was well worth only getting about 2 hours of sleep before having to go to work. The way it ties in with Saw III is awesome.

26.Oct.07 General Comments (0)

I came, I Saw IV, I conquered

Saw IV is being released tomorrow (10/26). Tonight, a local IMAX theater is doing a Saw marathon starting at 6 p.m (Saw IV plays at 12 a.m.). I’m going up there with a friend in a little while. I purchased the tickets earlier today. I got the student discount ($7.50 vs. $9) for no reason except a nice ticket cashier. The price covers all 4 shows and the concession prices aren’t too bad. They’ll probably temporarily cancel the “Free Refills” policy during the marathon.

Tomorrow will be a long day since I won’t get to bed until about 3 a.m. and be at work at 7:30 a.m. It’s worth it.

25.Oct.07 General Comments (3)

New camera & Circuit City’s pricing

My old Gateway DC-T50 was starting to bite the dust so it was time for a new digital camera. Nothing too fancy; just something that would give me decent prints and have a good optical zoom. I looked at various digital camera review sites for two weeks in order to find a camera that’s a good choice for around $200. The Kodak EasyShare Z712 looked to be the best choice so I picked one up last Friday.

So far, I am really happy with the camera. It has a 12x optical zoom, optical (not digital) image stabilization, 7.1 MP and a 2.5″ LCD screen. Kodak sells the camera direct for $249 and Amazon has it for $219. I didn’t want to wait for the camera to ship so I looked it up on Best Buy and Circuit City’s web sites. Circuit City was showing the price as $219 ($249 now) after a $50 and $30 instant savings. I checked availability at the local store and it was showing as being in stock.

I went to the local CC to buy the camera but the price tag was showing $299. I asked the sales associate why it was $80 more than what the web site was showing. He said that CC gives lower prices for online purchases on a lot of items. I asked if he could match the price, since they are the same company, and he said they couldn’t. The sales manager said the same thing. For $80, I drove back to my office that’s 20 minutes away, purchased the camera online and picked it up at the store 30 minutes later.

Why do some companies do that? I know that there are “web only” specials but that wasn’t the case here. There wasn’t anything on the CC site stating that the price was for web purchases only. This practice is a bad idea because it takes the sale away from the sales associate. The price should be the same or the sales associate should be able to give the same discounts when an online price is not designated as being web only.

Getting back to the camera; I didn’t have to purchase a memory card for it. I already have a couple of SanDisk Ultra II SD 2GB memory cards from a previous project that are no longer being used. The SD card supports a minimum 10MB/s read and 9MB/s write speed. With the Z712 set at 6.3 MP, the optimal high resolution for 4×6 prints, one card can hold a little over 1,000 pictures or 30 minutes of video at 640×480 (MOV format). Two 2GB cards should be enough storage to take a few pictures on the next family vacation.

If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere. - Frank A. Clark

01.Oct.07 General Comments (0)