I took this picture last night (4/29). Just wanted to share!
Laura
Archives for April, 2008
I have to revamp my blog before I take off. I messed something up inside the theme I had!! Sometimes wordpress can be really frustrating. Two weeks and I’m OFF! I’m really really excited. Sean and I are going to get to spend a few days in Ireland. 
Daylight : 6:04 a.m. - 9:51 p.m.
Wednesday night, after news reports of rice limitations and shortages. I went to a local wholesale type grocery store, and bought some. 70lbs to be exact. What am I going to do with all that rice??!?? Eat it. It’s a great grain to have in case of some natural disaster, but it’s also a basic staple, and something that I incorporate into my diet regularly. Food in general is already expensive enough here in Alaska. The cheap white rice in a 50# bag was $20 and $24 respectively for two different brands. Both were enriched. So I passed them up for a favorite of mine… Basmati. Yeah they’re more expensive. But I figure if I’m stuck eating rice, it’s going to taste good and have nutritional value. I also bought black beans, dried lentils, and canned tomatoes.
I was actually surprised while I was deciding on my rice, to come across one woman, and one couple, there to stock up too. One woman had a flat bed cart full of all kinds of baking items and supplies.
As I was rounding the corner to head to the checkout, a tiny framed man, covered in dirty and tattered clothes walked past me. I assumed he was from the “shanty town”, just down the hill from the store next to the train tracks. I don’t think I was wrong. As he passed by, he turned and said to me, “I see you’re getting your rice too. Do you accept Jesus into your life?”.
I didn’t understand him the first time, so by the third repeat, he had walked back towards me, and was standing right next to me. I heard him loud and clear. “Yes I do,” I replied. Satisfied, he turns and starts walking back towards the rice aisle and says, “Has he been talking to you about these things that are happening?” Me: “yes he has.”
At this point he has grabbed his two bags of rice, which possibly weigh more than him, and slung them on his shoulders, and is walking back towards me again. Noticing the black beans, he comments “Rice, beans and Jesus.” I said, “Rice beans and Jesus in my cart, what more do I need?!?”
We both smiled. He jetted to the registers and paid for his rice, and disappeared out of the front doors.
Again, something hits me that I’ve always known, or known for a long time. Having money, a *fancy* place to live, and lots of trivial shit, doesn’t make your life happier or fuller. This skinny dirty, but happy man, reminded me of that once again. It also hits me, that even though he seems underprivileged, this in no way made him less informed of what was going on around him. He received his message through Jesus. Me, through Sean.
I wish things were back to a basic level. Everyday I wake up, and I’m making less money. It costs me more to get to and from work. It costs more for basic necessities (food toilet paper soap). I’m certainly not unique, and I wonder how long this can go on, before people actually CAN’T afford to drive to work. Can’t afford to carpool. Can’t walk or ride a bike there. Can’t buy basic food supplies. I think it’s going to happen sooner than we think.
It’s finally starting to hit me that I’m going to Copenhagen. Sean doesn’t think it’s a big deal, but I do. It will just be nice to say I’ve been out of the United States. The only thing I would like to get before I go is a certain lens for my 20D. I’m kind of bummed, because I don’t think I’m going to be able to get it before I go… but we’ll see. Maybe something will happen, and I’ll be able to pull it off. It’s the Tamron 11-18, Canon mount, which is a wide angle zoom specifically designed for cropped sensor cameras. I think it would be an excellent addition, and great for landscape photography. Cross your fingers!
Just a post, to let everyone interested know, that only ONE of the three Orbitz charges have dropped off my account, the other two after FOUR DAYS, are still pending. STILL PENDING. This is a soft hold?!?
You may have recently heard about various airlines filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy (Frontier on 4/10/2008) and this is why…. Credit Card processors get very nervous when there chargebacks, which is exactly what I had to do. Trying to resolve it through Orbitz didn’t work, so I had to call my bank and dispute the charges.
In a normal credit card/bank card situation, you authorize the charge, let’s say on Monday, and Wednesday of that week it’s usually deposited in the bank account of the company you made the purchase from. 2-3% of your transaction will go to credit card processing fees. That 2-3% (possibly more for high risk businesses) get divided between the issuing bank, VISA/MASTERCARD, the processor, and if it’s a co-branded card, that company gets a little slice of the pie too.
Now if you own a high-risk business, or one with a lot of chargebacks, you may find that your credit card processor will hold those funds for X number of days, so that they’re protected from losing money. ALL smaller Credit Card Processors, are working with and underwritten by a bank. So essentially, they are middle men. Making a small percentage off every transaction processed.
Depending on the setup, fees are deducted DAILY or MONTHLY. So for example, for simplicity, you buy a moon pie for $1 and use your credit card. DAILY merchants would have .97 deposited in their account. MONTHLY merchants would have $1 deposited into their account, and at the end of the month, .03 would be withdrawn for the fees. Daily is preferred by the processing companies, because there is less of a risk for them. They get their cut right off the top. If they collect the fees from the merchant monthly, it’s a higher risk for the processor, because potentially, the business could accept a bunch of credit card payments, and then shut their doors, and their checking account. So when the processor tries to withdraw the total fees at the end of the month, no go! The middle man processor still has to pay these fees, so it’s a loss to them.
Now, many people don’t realize, merchants pay the 2-3% for charges AND CREDITS given to customers. So you get home, moon pie is moldy, you return it and want a refund. The merchant can run a CREDIT for $1, and you guessed it, still gets charged .03!! So now the merchant has a moldy moon pie, and he’s out .06 total. Mind boggling isn’t it?
Why am I droning on and on about this? Back to the Chapter 11 airline stories.
So what’s happening, is the credit card processors for the airlines, are basically saying “Look, we’re going to hold your money for 10 days instead of depositing it straight into your account after 2 days, because you have a lot of chargebacks and refunds.”
This really messes up the cash flow for a business, especially for businesses that rely almost SOLELY on credit card processing to get paid from customers. The banks and processors are holding up their money. Just apply this theory in your own life, if you get paid on the 1st, but there’s a 10 day hold before it can access the money, how would that affect you?
Here is the story on Frontier from msnbc.com http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24061790/.
I’m on the fence about this issue actually. In one sense, I’m rooting for the credit card processing companies… However, I’m not happy that banks can just decide to do whatever they want, and cripple the airlines in the process. Unfortunately, the airlines are suffering, and it’s partly due to unfair business practices of these online con artists, SOFT holding the consumers money for products (tickets) never confirmed.
I will mention, I’ve never had any problems when dealing and purchasing tickets from airlines directly. But in today’s modern world, it’s more convenient to search one site, as opposed to 15 different airlines sites for tickets. :::sigh:::
I’ll let you know when they finally release the money!! I do want to write Orbitz credit card processing company a letter… if anyone knows the name of that company… let me know!
Laura
Daylight : 6:34 a.m. - 9:25 p.m.
Are there any real travel agents left??
I guess I’ll be finding out. Online travel sites suck ass, if you’re trying to book anything other than a straight round-trip ticket, flying overseas, or actually need customer service.
I jump through all the hoops, pick my multi-city flight segment by segment, *confirm* the flight and book it. After entering all the payment information, I’m expecting a confirmation number, I get a message that there is a problem with the third segment of my flight, which is a domestic leg. ”Choose another flight below”, so I do. Same message. At this point I check my bank account. Yep, you guessed it. TWO PENDING TICKET CHARGES. I’m livid. Although the charges are pending, and aren’t subtracted from the balance (yet), I knew that they would be if I didn’t address it immediately.
I call Orbitz customer service. The guy tells me that it wasn’t the last segment of my trip that was the problem, but the middle segment, which is to and from Copenhagen on SAS. The SAS flights for some reason could not be confirmed. This actually happened before when Sean’s ticket was booked, but through another site. I called SAS direct, and booked through them. So I ask the guy, in a not happy tone, why they are selling flights from an airline, when they cannot confirm the tickets??! So we walk through the reservation again, he tries to book it, and GUESS WHAT. CHARGE #3, and he still can’t confirm the ticket. He tries to put another flight together, using United instead of SAS for $400 MORE. I said, “Uhhh yeah, and what’s the duration of that flight?” Guy: “22 hours”.
I don’t think so. I ask him about the three charges. He can’t access that information. Do I want to speak to customer service? Uhhhh yeah. A woman gets on the line, she’s as worthless at the first guy. It’s 4:30am, and I am not amused. She tries to call my banks customer service, to have the charges reversed I’m assuming, since amazingly she can’t access that information either. Bank isn’t open yet (even though it’s 7:30am in Ohio where she’s supposedly calling). She states that it’s a “soft” hold, and will drop off IN A FEW DAYS. I told her that was UN-acceptable. She took the phone number for my local bank branch, and told me she would take care of it. I wake up, and the money was deducted from the account!!!!
I called my bank, and had the charges reversed.
I’m obviously really pissed about this. How can they charge you FULL ticket price, before confirming the tickets with the airlines? I can totally understand doing a test transaction for $1, or whatever, to confirm that the account is valid. But I cannot understand, charging you full price for a ticket that is never confirmed. And not only doing it once, but three times. WHO IS THEIR CREDIT CARD PROCESSING COMPANY??
My rant for the day. Remember, if you use your credit or debit card with a Visa/Mastercard symbol, and something like this happens to you. CHARGE IT BACK. Dispute it. A company with a lot of chargebacks is looked upon negatively by credit card processors.
So is it worth saving $40 for a do-it-yourself online ticket? And potentially spending hours on the phone, transferred to horrible *customer service* agents? Having your bank account CLEANED OUT with duplicate “soft holds” for a few DAYS? I don’t think so.
I have to give credit to HP. Monday I Fedex’d my computer (at their expense via a packing box they FedEx’d me) to the HP repair center in Tennessee.
I’ll have to admit I was nervous about it. It arrived at the repair center on Tuesday, and Wednesday it was shipped back to me overnight, and I had it Thursday.
When I bought my computer, it had a one year warranty on it. But because of an issue with this particular series of notebooks, HP issued a service bulletin, and an extended one year warranty. I had been dreading sending it in. I’m not sure why. I of course, backed everything up before shipping it off. And when I turned it back on, it’s a good thing because they re-imaged my hard drive. I guess it’s good to start fresh every once in a while! It is annoying though, to have to reload all the programs I had, and any email I had, was lost. Honestly, I guess I really didn’t need it, or I would’ve backed it up!
I just wanted to compliment HP on their excellent service. I was really impressed, and I would highly recommend them.
Yesterday I posted a blog, and at the bottom I put some links to some newspaper articles in the Anchorage Daily News. Apparently Wordpress didn’t like those links, because it screwed up my whole blog. So after deleting a ton of widgets, de-activating plugins etc, I figure out it was simply those links. UGH! So annoying.
So for now, it’s fixed! :)
Thanks to Marcus at http://www.hochstadt.com/ for alerting me!
Daylight : 6:59 a.m. - 9:04 p.m.
RIP Charlton Heston
I’m mourning the temporary loss of my laptop, I FedEx’d it off to be repaired today.
Don’t jog if you don’t want to be ACUTELY aware, of every area of fat on your body. Gross. I was not amused this morning on the treadmill. Also, trying to “tighten your core” while jogging, to lessen the fat jiggle, doesn’t really work. Especially if you have a flabby core.
Someone apparently made off with a co-exercisers fancy pair of new shoes from my gym. There are cubby’s to leave your gym shoes, for those of us that are too lazy to carry them back and forth (like myself). It would really suck to show up, and not be able to run because your shoes were gone! I guess my theory is, if someone needs my used smelly shoes that badly, they can have them. However, if I had invested a chunk of money for some nice running shoes, I would be pissed too. Hopefully someone will return them when they realize the shoes aren’t theirs.
I meant to post this earlier. Tonight wholewheatradio.org is hosting a Larry Zarella House Concert. You can listen to it live via the web.
