Buddy the "dirt surfer'...damn I miss you

This is the first Summer without my shadow, Buddy The Cat. He became sick last Winter and, after a few vet visits and exploratory surgery, it became obvious he would not recover. I wanted Buddy to come home from the vet, for selfish reasons, but decided the vet should not let him wake from his surgery. Buddy adopted me not long after I moved into my St Johns bungalow. He was underfed and dirty but became my best friend. We had six years of good times and I'm thankful. Without a doubt, Summer was Buddy's favorite season; he would camp out in the backyard and sun himself while watching the birds. In the Winter, Buddy loved curling up on his fleece blanket, then he'd jump onto the bed and purr in the morning. When I left for work, Buddy would sometimes stand at the open door and feel the cold air...then u-turn back to the living room. I'd scoop him up to put him on the comfy chair on the back porch...even then, he'd rub his cheek on my nose.

Gone but never to be forgotten

What do you say when such an influential musician leaves us? Talk about a diverse artist...I mean playing crazy funk with Zappa, or jamming with Standley Clarke. George, you're freaking amazing and we'll all miss you. Rest in Peace.

in seach of...

...fulfillment.

i don't consider myself a huge risk-taker, by any means. however, the last 6 years contained a number of moves which wouldn't have happened with the "old steve".

prior to moving to portland, I worked at a bank's printing plant for 9 years and a top-tier commercial printer for 15 years. yep, 2 jobs over 24 years...stable, safe and somewhat boring.

and now, since moving to portland in july 2006, i've had 4 jobs. all moves were made by my choice and in pursuit of fulfilling employment at a progressive and growing print-related organization.

graphics have been a part of my life since mr. scott's screen and photo class back in 1978. i've held just about every position in a litho-print shop, many of which are ancient history; the last 20 years were dedicated to estimating and job-planning, and i am still passionate about the trade.

my latest job change, about a month ago, brought me back to taylor corporation in the same building i working 5 years ago (with many of the same great people, too)...and i am truly excited about this opportunity. there's something exciting about creating visual media but i can't explain it. years ago, i thought the smell of ink and the sight of millions of printed brochures was exciting...but now, a few sharp, vibrant retail graphics makes me smile.

call me weird...it's probably just the chemicals.

New York Times Home Delivery...hah!

In January, I signed up for NY Times home delivery, at their special rate of $5 per week for the Fri-Sun editions. Sounded like a good deal. Occasionally, the paper would not show up, so I'd let them know via the website. Rather than refund the full amount, NYT would put a $.77 credit on my account.

Well, at the end of March, I received Friday's paper (this edition I read the least) then nothing for the remainder of the weekend. The papers would usually arrive around 5:30, so at 8:30am Sunday I called their circulation department. They offered to credit my account and let the carrier know the paper was missed (again) but did not offer to re-deliver the paper. Then, a few hours later, I received a call from a local number...it was our local NYT delivery rep saying they'd try to get the paper to me by 2pm. Well, they didn't try hard enough and the next day I canceled my subscription.

The New York Times had a pretty good deal there...Charge $5 a week for a newspapers then fail to deliver and refund one-third of the customer's money. Didn't Bernie Madoff do something like that...and where's old Bernie today? Exactly.

Really? No, Sirius-ly??

So, back in March 2011, I was supposed to get a 6-month "FREE*" trial of Sirius Satellite Radio with my VW Golf. Unfortunately, some Bozo activated the receiver while it sat on the car lot...by the time I bought the car, the subscription was expired.

After contacting Sirius XM about this, they finally offered to give me a 3-month "FREE*" trial. After getting that concession from Sirius, I contacted the car dealer and asked they shell out some dough to cover another 3 months...which they did in the form of a $55 Sirius Gift Card.

Shortly after the Gift Card arrived, I attempted to redeem the card via the Sirius website; seemed simple enough but Sirius couldn't handle simple apparently. So I call the "Customer Care" number and speak with someone with a very thick accent. After explaining the whole situation, I finally get through to him and he applies the card. At that time, the monthly fee was $14.95 which gave me 3 months with some extra leftover. By my math, that gave me signal until October. I purposely asked for the monthly plan so the gift card would cover just over 3-months.

Anyway, once that was sorted out I parsed through the bazillion radio channels and programmed 12 into the car-radio presets (and it took a long time to fill 12 presets). Basically, I added NPR, BBC News, a few rock channels, a sports channel and I can't remember the others.

On the first few long drives to the coast, I listened to several of the channels and frankly wasn't impressed with either the audio quality or the reception. I was losing signal frequently throughout the coast range near Alsea and Waldport. Eventually, I stopped using the service.

In late September, while stuck in traffic on the I-205, I pressed the satellite radio button only to find out my presets were gone and I was only receiving the "Preview Channel" (just like when I bought the car)...naturally I thought "Oh, my Gift Card ran out". Yes and No. Apparently, Sirius automatically renews their plans, however, since I did not give them a credit card number (GO ME!) they just shut my receiver off...BUT, they still renewed my plan AND sent me a past due notice.

I wonder what the overseas "Customer Service" representative didn't understand about my request when I redeemed the card, and shouldn't he have informed me that plan may auto-renew? From what I've read, this isn't the first time this has happened, in fact Sirius XM got in trouble for this in Florida. If you've stumbled upon this blog while searching for feedback on Sirius XM, please consider the M.O. of Sirius before subscribing.

Zippadeedoodaa...

Zippadeeyay My oh my what a wonderful day.

This was the sight I saw after riding the MAX home from work on Monday. A spectacular day in many ways.

Perhaps now I can get a good night of sleep

Today was my last day at WGD, after over 4 years in the "stored value" industry, I have moved back into commercial print. Leaving my co-workers was incredibly tough to do, as I felt a family-like bond with them. True, they'll be just across town and I do plan to stay in contact with many of them...but, the daily interactions are gone. Throughout my working life, I've been blessed with opportunities to work at top-notch companies; I can honestly say my years at WGD have been the best.

Now, a new chapter begins and I'm excited for the journey and challenges ahead. I visited my new workplace briefly today, and I'm feeling it'll be a very good fit. The people, the ideals and vibes are all good.

Is it Monday yet?

ch-ch-changes

coming soon...new job
closer to home
less hours
less stress
more free-time
more happiness
creativity
yippee!

Hiding in plain sight

A few times this week, my brain has proved that I only see what I (or my brain) wants to see. So funny to experience but also scary. Being receptive to all we see and hear seems to be key to recognizing or accepting all of our possibilities. Simple to say , but apparently not so simple to do...at least not without some shift in thinking. I am working to "see" more...how about you?

5 day weekend - Day One

Not starting out so well. Boarded the plane at 6:30 and thought it might get off the ground a few minutes early...nooooo. Instead, the plane's mechanics apparently forgot to fix something. 90 minutes later, still at the gate. On the bright side, I do have a comfy 1st class seat...now if they'd just serve some drinks.

The guy in front of me is getting angry and won't shut up. Dude, letting the flight crew know about your anger wont get you anywhere, so shut the fuck up.

Toot - TOOOOOT!

My new stress-relief mechanism: The Bullshit Barge. Now leaving Portland...pile on your crap!

Balmy weather

Just a couple of days ago, we had a sNOwpacolypse in PDX. A hyped up storm which never materialized. Sure, it was c-c-cold; high 20's and blustery, however not the 5" of snow and ice originally forecast.

And today was Springlike; 57 degrees and showery. Climate change - get used to it.

eMusic? Well not quite....

...the Better Business Bureau of New York thinks they're fmusic. In fact, there's a lot of complaints against these jokers. Click on this post's title to see the BBB's report.

Folks, stay away from eMusic. They're all about "bait n switch", just to get more money. You'd think they'd be concerned about integrity, not bucks. But they're not.

I signed up for a one-year membership with eMusic in May. They were offering 35 tracks per month for $151.99, which I thought was a good deal. Well, a few weeks ago, eMusic decided they weren't making enough money, so their plans changed. The "per track credit" system was becoming currency based instead. That means the track price is going up, but your credit (in my a case $12.67 per month) would stay the same. Okay, to be fair, they gave me a $5 per month "BONUS".

new geeky toys

So I finally cut Sprint loose in August. They served me well in SD but nearly every call at my PDX home was dropped or had drop-outs. When the new iPhone came out, I knew it would satisfy my geekyness and provide more reliable phone service.

Anyway, I am so freakin' excited to find apps for FTP and HTML editing. The iPhone takes decent pics so now I can bore y'all even if I don't have my PC handy! Neat, huh?

I had a feeling...

...the weather forecast shouldn't be trusted today.

No rain until after the pm commute, eh? It is gusty and rainy; I am glad to have ridden MAX today, instead of cycling. And, glad to have an extra raincoat in my office.