Moving The Blog

After much debate about the look, layout and functionality of the blog, we have settled on a new site to host this blog. The new site is at http://www.wretch.cc/blog/tubbytiger

It's Snowing and I have a Lemon!!!

Woke up this morning and saw it was raining. No big deal, but this rain was falling slowly. Weird.... As the day progressed, the rain got lighter and fluffier. By the time I got home, the housing complex look like a fairy land with all the lights and frosted icing everywhere.

I went to pick up the mail from our new apartment for the first time today. I found a key in the box. Apparently I had a parcel, and this key was to open the parcel locker. So I opened it up and inside was a box of cookies from the Toyota people. Not knowing what to do next, I tried to remove the key, but it wouldn't come out. After fiddling around with it for a while, I realized that I was probably supposed to leave it there for the postie to collect later.

After work, I went off to check out an Aikido dojo not far from work. Not far in the US means 15-20km. Not having the GPS, I had to rely upon a set of printed out instructions. Unfortunately, one of the key turns was at a dark obscure intersection. By the time I realized I had taken the wrong turn I was heading back the way I came. Fortunately, it was in an area I had been to recently, and the dojo was close to the junction of two interstate highways. So long as I didn't cross over either of the highways I should be able to find it. The dojo was small, neat and freezing, just like the old one back home.


The saga of the TV continues... We watched the Oscars the other night, and for the whole 3 hours, the problem didn't occur. The next day the technician came out and the problem didn't occur, typical. He ran some diagnostics and couldn't find much wrong apart from some obscure factory setting. But since we couldn't reproduce the problem he left. I get home that night and within 30 minutes the problem is back.... Grrrr... Fine, back on the phone to call up the service desk to get the tech to come back out again. Two days later, we expect his call and he doesn't call. The service desk acknowledged the tech was scheduled after 15 minutes of chasing people around, and he will be calling tomorrow.

Pearl is all ready to make use of the 30 day return policy, which is probably what the last person did when they returned it. We were going to chuck it in and make use of CostCo's very liberal return policy where there is no time limit on returns. Unfortunately they have closed this loop hole to stop people getting their "free TV upgrade". This has been reduced to a mere 90 days and you get a 2 year service plan with it as well. So, we'll see if we can't get this fixed one last time, then we'll give up and head down to CostCo in a couple of weeks when there is a special on the Sony LCDs.

View more pictures of the snow here

I am a Number and I Have a TV!!!

On Friday, I went down to the Social Security office and joined the obligatory queue, quietly waiting and watching the various people in the room. Even though I went to the office as soon as it opened, I still have to wait nearly and hour to be served. But in the end it was worth it. I was told that my social security number application was processed. Now, I can give that number to the banks and other credit institutions to start building up my credit score.

It seemed like a wonderous feeling to be known as 555-66-7777, because now I can sign up for a store card with Gap, or the telephone company and know that if I pay my bills on time that I wont have to pay an extra non-refundable deposit to get a mobile phone or satellite TV. I won't have to pay for everything in cash and have the sales agent inspect every one of my non-sequentially numbered unmarked $100 bills one by one.

Even still, we don't have a credit score right now. So even our debit cards have very low limits on them. Buying a new TV was harder than I had thought. Picking the model was the easy part, getting the one I wanted was hard, and paying for it was harder still. At Best Buy they had a whole wall full of TV's on display. Picking out the best looking picture was easy. When it came to getting one, the computer said there were two, but the sales guy couldn't any. The only one left was a "return". You would think that after the GPS fiasco I would not bother with another "return". But it was really cheap, it was 40" LCD for the price of a considerably smaller screen. I could afford their riddiculous extended warranty and still be cheaper than the original price. After some haggling we agreed on a price. Then when it came to pay, we knew we had the cash in the bank, but we discovered that there was a daily spending limit on the card about half of the value of the TV. So what were we to do? It didn't quite get to the point of us empyting out our pockets onto the table trying to find that last penny, but it was kind of close.

As per the norm, I plugged in the TV as soon as I got home to check it out. It all looked good. The cable in the apartment here is only standard def, so it looks kind of crap, but it worked ok, for about 30 minutes. Then the right hand side of the screen went into reverse video. At first I thought it was some crappy effect on the documentary that was on at the time, but it stayed no matter which channel I surfed to. Fortunately, I have BestBuy's in house service contract, so a guy is coming around tomorrow to take a look. The problem is that after watching the Oscars for three hours, I didn't see the problem once...

Anyway, if I can get it to occur and they don't fix it in three goes then I can invoke the "No Lemon" law. This is some kind of consumer protection act that stops you from having to constantly chase the manufacturer/vendor around to try and fix it. When you invoke this clause you get your money back or an equivalent item valued at the same price at the time. So hopefully it will just be fixed and we can be done with it.